#bnha analysis

SAME SMILE SAME SMILE!!!!!

These two rlly mimic each other during battle... it's the same brave, self-confident smile as Katsuki gets into the heat of the fight w All for One and Deku insists on Tomura's humanity.

When Deku yells in battle, he seems a bit more like Katsuki than himself. I bet when he yells he thinks of Katsuki and the thought alone gives him strength. It gives him the bravery and confidence he needs to keep going.

Likewise, thinking of Deku and how hard he must be fighting gave Katsuki the strength to finish his own fight even tho he'd come back to life just minutes before!

Him being almost terrified of All Might and Izuku being left alone together during the Rogue Deku Arc because they're the same breed of self-sacrificial idiots — because All Might's already gone and given everything to the world, and Izuku is following in his steps? That there's no one to stop them from going too far?

Him racing as fast as he can, confronting Tomura first during the MLA arc with the single-minded drive to kill him because otherwise Izuku would have to, and everyone knows the damn nerd would never do that? Because even on the verge of death, beaten down and bruised, Izuku always looks for the best in people? Because Izuku already did that with Katsuki, with Shoto, so what's to say he wouldn't with Shigaraki? And if he got bullied for ten years with Katsuki, broke all his limbs with Shoto — then how far would he go for Tenko?

Him knowing full well that if Izuku ever had to kill Tomura, then it would kill him to do so? So instead of subjecting Izuku to that, he'd rather rush in and kill the man himself? So that the nerd's 'golden heart' never gets tainted the same way Katsuki's is?

It's the horror story at the surface of the event.

But on this watch I noticed how sheltered, dependent and oblivious Tomura was at the time.

He's technically an adult but everything about him screams "grooming victim deliberately kept isolated from the rest of the world".

Don't get me wrong, Tomura is highly intelligent, competent and has clear combat experience. He also gawks at how cool Eraserhead and how powerful the kids are. He's surprised at All Might saving Katsuki like he's never seen Japan's number one celebrity in action before.

And when All Might defeats Nomu, he's genuinely distraught like it's the first time since he was five that he loses a pet. Although he's 20 years old now, he needs Kurogiri's help to emotionally regulate after their original plan fails.

And sure, he wants to kill All Might but later, in his mall conversation with Izuku, he seems like he's still working out the why. At the USJ, he spouts things about government oppression and heroes and villains being the same. Both are valid criticisms of hero society but he never brings them up again. When USJ!Shiggy is called out on it by All Might, he even admits that he doesn't actually care about what he's saying and only looks forward to the violence of it.

He hates All Might but clearly doesn't know that he was the one who crippled and almost killed his beloved master.

The whole situation is odd because usually a new villain's appearance should make them look scary and give us a good first idea of their motivations. But Tomura's reasons for killing All Might seem jumbled together and incongruent because they are.

AFO wanted Tomura to become a good vessel instead of an independent successor: The USJ was likely supposed to get rid of All Might for him (wouldn't want to take the risk of involving himself) and introduce his new body to the world.

In this context, what Tomura says and wants in this arc conventiely overlaps with the things AFO needs him to say and want.

Tomura's named reasons for killing All Might are vague because AFO intentionally left him in the dark about his century long feud with the users of OFA. All Might, for example, is weakening but Tomura has no clue that it's because of the injury his master gave him 6 years ago.

The scene after Tomu and Kurogiri flee the USJ is most emblematic of this: As soon as Tomura tells him about the annoying kid with a power similar to All Might's, AFO understands that OFA has changed it's holder. Tomura just keeps bleeding out on the floor.

I'm certain that afterwards, AFO subtly encouraged his grudge on the brat that kept him from killing All Might.

And sure enough, by the time season 2 and 3 roll around, Tomura's developed a full-blown obsession with Izuku and has him on his personal kill list. Killing All Might, on the other hand, has been deprioritized in favor of causing general societal destabilization.

Until now, I never realized just how deep AFOs manipulation runs. I think more people need to add him on Bnha's list of 'Abusers whose abuse was never properly recognized by anyone least of all their victims'.

I'll be having a good day and then remember Spinner's backstory/plotline and how no one takes him seriously & just sees him as a background character for the League.

He was born with a massive societal disadvantage from the get-go with being a mutant/heteromorph. The heteromorphic oppression in MHA definitely parallels racism with how certain heteromorphs are treated better or worse based on their mutation and place of residence.

Shoji brought this up during the riot episodes in season seven, how mutants like Tokoyami and Kota were "city kids" and living in a more urban area so they faced less open oppression and discrimination compared to himself and Spinner, who grew up in suburban locations.

Heteromorphs with certain mutations were also treated differently compared to other heteromorphs - with Spinner having a reptile mutation, a species that humans already don't like - I'd see that as a parallel to how dark-skinned POC tend to be treated worse than light-skinned/mixed POC.

Another parallel is the fact that there's an organization called the "Creature Rejection Clan" (taken down by the LOV), a religious cult-like group that goes out of their way to deny the acceptance of others with physical abnormalities such as heteromorphs/individuals with mutations - going as far to hunt them down and eliminate them. The word "Clan" in there, even spelled with a "C" instead of a "K," is enough to draw that connection.

So, for Spinner, we don't know much about how he grew up. We don't know if he finished middle/high school, but we know that by 20 years old, he was living alone. He was never taught how to drive properly, but he is the only League member who actually KNOWS how to drive. It was later confirmed by Horikoshi that Spinner learned to drive from playing GTA.

During his time living alone, he had become somewhat of a shut-in due to an experience where he was just "walking, living, out in the daylight," and hateful individuals sprayed him with insecticide (poison) just for the way that he looked.

I truly feel like this made him lose all motivation for and any concept of his future. He realized that no matter what, there would always be people out there who would limit his capabilities and oppress him. If he couldn't even go for a walk outside without being attacked for something he couldn't control, then what COULD he do with his life?

This was when he turned to Stain's ideology. He realized that if he couldn't hold his own ambitions or find his own motivation, he would make himself useful by devoting himself to someone elses cause - and Stain's ideology was something he truly believed in - a reformation of the hero society through purging the corrupt heroes who tainted it.

Shortly after Stain's arrest, however, Spinner started to devote himself to Shigaraki instead.

"For years I had nothing. I was...hollow inside."

Spinner was the only person genuinely concerned for him as Shigaraki was undergoing hell.

During Shigaraki's trial with Gigantomachia, Spinner was there - watching and asking questions.

During Shigaraki's fight with ReDestro, Spinner was there, watching Shigaraki's rebirth.

During Shigaraki's battle with Class 1-A on top of Gigantomachia, when he became unconscious, Spinner was the one trying to shake him awake, explaining how the League NEEDED him.

When Spinner started noticing the changes in Shigaraki - All for One taking over his consciousness - Spinner's concern was not only rooted in losing a leader - he was losing a friend, someone he trusted and looked up to - someone he had a common ground with.

Spinner even went as far as to allow All for One to give him an excruciatingly painful quirk, just to be able to aid and protect Shigaraki during the war.

"I never imagined I would amount to anything, but then I figured - if I followed you, I could be somebody. Shigaraki! Do you see me? Are you watching?"

"I did think about it - and all I wanted - was to keep following him. To lift him up, and...stand by him."

Imagine you've lived your entire life at an immediate disadvantage to the extent of losing all concepts of your own future, to where you only find value in yourself if you're helping another person's dream. Then, you find that one person who you share an actual common ground with, an actual shared goal and concept of the future - someone you're willing to sacrifice everything for - and you have to watch that person slowly descend into madness and internal turmoil at the hands of someone truly evil - to where neither of you can prevent it.

So you do everything that you can to still protect this person, allowing your mind and body to fall to destruction - only for them to end up getting killed in the end, with you left as one of the sole survivors.

Your team - that person - most if not all of them are gone, and you're left to ponder that. You're right back where you started with no motivations, no ambitions, but you still want the world to know what you saw in the people you considered to be your found family. So, you write a book to spread that message.

Then it's over - there's nothing left - and you're alone again. With nothing except for survivors guilt.

God I wish people gave Iguchi more credit where credit is due. He's not just some random lizard background character with no significance. He's given an actual, tragic plotline. I mean, fuck, we don't know shit about Compress, and for some reason he's still a fandom favorite over Spinner.

Sighhh...( ཀ ʖ̯ ཀ)

[Alt title: Overanalyzing Tenya Iida because I can lol part 1 out of unknown]

At first I didn't. I was going to tag hori as a bad writer because Iida's RIGHT arm is the one that gets really beat up (he gets it kicked by Stain, he takes two knives to it, it's the one that remains at his side when he cries and has to wipe away his tears)

But I thought about it, and Iida gets his left arm/brachial plexus stabbed when he's fighting Stain alone. Not only does it go in DEEP, but he was alone, at his lowest [literally, emotionally, and morally] and alone.

His right arm is the one he uses to protect Todoroki (took two knives despite being seriously injured).

I think the attack pattern kind of corresponds to his emotions during the arc. The first kick is the call from his mom about Tensei. The stab is the desire for vengeance--they both brought him down.

Iida keeps his hand damaged as a reminder to stay on the right path. His ideal is to save people. He used his right hand to save Todoroki. Thematically, it wouldn't make sense for the hand used to PROTECT to be the one injured. It makes sense for his left to be permanently damaged.

While I do think that the Greek left = evil does play into it a little bit (manus dextra et manus sinistra--I know this is Latin but the translation actually depends on the augur and that's a whole other thing), I do think his left hand was injured due to the above.

!!!!!

let’s see two sets of scenes for example one, his reaction when he sees someone he can help crying. Uraraka in mha 428, on the ledge crying about toga. Izuku comforts her, telling her the whole class is there for her and taking her hand.

Aoyama during the traitor arc, crying as he was restrained to a chair, ashamed and broken, Izuku reaches out his hand, tells him that he can still be a hero, that the class wants him there.

the second set of scenes, shigaraki and izuku in the final battle, and of course most obviously mha 424. The only one I’m including a panel for because you just need to see… izuku’s reactions in this chapter… they’re almost diluted, numb. he’s trying to smile but it’s so detached

Another factor to this equation is that generally to me it seems that Izuku is uncomfortable with Katsuki specifically displaying emotions “unlike him.” He looks almost desperate to cut him off, horrified because this isn’t how it goes! (But that’s for another time…..)

Either due to the fact they’ve been familiar their whole lives, or that as he himself said, Katsuki is his symbol of victory—on a higher level than Allmight himself. And Allmight doesn’t cry, he smiles.

I don’t remember in which chapter, Izuku makes what sounds like a throwaway comment at first, where Izuku considers all of katsuki’s frankly terrifying grimaces… smiles.

Now, it starts feeling like izuku’s biggest heroes are always smiling. So, who is he if not a man built upon them? He copies them, he decides to smile and help and always always win.

and when he sees somebody who needs help, and HE can’t save them — he is overcome by guilt. I think nobody understands him better than Katsuki, because it’s as he said. although he never thinks about himself He somehow simultaneously doesn’t realize that he is not the only hero in the world. Not the only one who that burden falls on.

And when he does realize this?

Their best defense is that they lost stuff on the way. Endeavor his arm, Caitlyn her mother and an eye. But those loses weren't because of that redemption.

At the end of their stories, Caitlyn kept being a privileged enforcer who still abuses zaunites, and Endeavor has the woman he bought and abused for decades as his caretaker and is rich. None of them really faced the consequences of their actions.

Even if they were called out at some point (Caitlyn by Vi and Ekko, Endeavor by Natsuo and Shouto), they're painted as if they have higher moral ground. Midoriya encourages Shouto to forgive his abuser. Vi stays with her even if they never talked about what happened, Ekko is literally forgotten.

One could say they had a bigger enemy to face and needed all the support they could have, but afterwards, they're still privileged.

Endeavor forces his way to see his dying son, all under the excuse of atonement. The fact this man isn't arrested nor given the non-grata status is simply sad.

Caitlyn becomes a dictator and abuses Zaun citizens under the excuse of grieving her mother. Meanwhile zaunites lose family and friends on a daily basis and they're the bad guys for fighting back.

The thing here is that none of them actually suffered consequences, they were called out once or twice but it was shrugged off. And then people go praising them for their "wonderful redemptions". That wasn't redemption, that was glamorisation.

I really liked Caitlyn's personality in the first season and what could've been. I love Endeavor's name, quirk and design. But those two are terrible people in-universe and never got redeemed. Those are facts.

I'll also add Bakugo to this list: