#hideout raid arc

Only when Midoriya and Todoroki appeared to defend him did he start showing real panic and fear.

Tenya Iida was not scared for his own life or safety. He was scared for his friends.

He realized that his blind rage put his friends in danger, and his mistake almost cost them their lives

Iida realized his mistake long, LONG before the talk at Hosu City, and his face SHOWS just how messed up he is from that and how guilty he feels (another reminder that Iida didn’t really “smile” at ALL in the hospital besides trying to reassure Midoriya about his hand/Todoroki’s joke, which we don’t even see his face during)

He tries to fix his mistakes and doesn’t want a repeat of them. He knows the consequences, he made a promise, and he KNOWS the possibility of someone getting hurt or even killed is very real.

No wonder he got so mad at Todoroki and Midoriya. The very lesson they’d helped him learn was being undone, they were already hurt, and they were facing someone far worse than Stain.

“Midoriya, you and your friends—”

They’d be your friends too, if you’d just let them, Izuku thought at the speed of light. We all—

“—aren’t the type to stay idle. Where are you?”

“I’m—” Izuku’s eyes darted frantically from Todoroki to Kirishima and Yaoyorozu and Iida. All in a row. Their entire class already knew, and Gekkō just wanted answers, so Izuku made a decision. He hoped none of them would regret it more than they already knew they would if they just sat back and let the pro heroes do whatever. “I’m on a train to Kamino right now. We’re going after Kacchan.”

“Got it. I’ll meet you there.” 

“Gekkō—” 

Click. 

Y'all he even has a dad bod - well.. kinda

But fr tho,, look at that dadness

(And the nose squish,, it looks cute)

Okay, can I talk about how much I love this panel right here.

1) It’s so fucking funny.

Like, Katsuki has been kidnapped by these very scary people who almost killed his teachers once. He’s been held hostage by them for two days, and then they ask him to join their villain group. He’s surrounded by 7 adults + 1 murderous teenager, all fairly high level villains.

What’s his big threat/response?

“My teacher said I was allowed to fight back”

Like, legally speaking he already has grounds to fight back, but the implication that, if Aizawa had told them not to, he wouldn’t fight back against the villains is so fucking funny.

With rare exceptions, Katsuki is the most rule-following of these hell children and I feel like that’s too often forgotten. He’s the living, breathing definition of “malicious compliance“ and this panel illustrates that perfectly. 

2) Holy shit, this is fucking badass.

8 high-ranked villains around him, who Katsuki knows the quirks of for the most part, all of whom were taking on his classmates individually. And he’s still 100% ready to throw down. Part of this is because he’s smart enough to know they won’t kill him, and part of this is because Katsuki knows just how fucking strong he is.

He’s someone who knows his own limits and knows them well, and he still estimates that he can take down two or three of these guys before escaping. Now, he doesn’t know about All for One so that throws a wrench in things, but in the next scene he’s holding his own against 6 high ranked villains (everyone but Dabi and Kurogiri who got knocked out) with no help. So if he’d been forced to go toe to toe with all of them, I honestly think there’s a decent chance he’d escape anyways based on his own strength and wit.

I also want to point out that in this scene Katsuki has no idea that there’s a rescue team about to bust in. For all he knows, he’s entirely on his own in this fight. We see his thought process here and not once does the prospect of being rescued cross his mind. He’s not trying to stall for the rescue team or get help.