How the hero Miruko is a Blood Knight (Part 1)
The new vigilantes (which I again remind everyone is canon) gives some really interesting Miruko characterization that also really kind of fits a pattern, but one most fanon depictions of her ignore?
She’s always been super quick to fight first, ask questions later, but the darker aspects of this were kind pushed aside as “yes! spunky hot girl! She’s kind of like Katsuki.”
And yet I always felt this comparison was a bit.. lacking. Katsuki likes to fight, yes, and his conception of heroism has to do with victory, but there’s not there sheer need for violence for the thrill of it. And until the last vigilantes chapter we had scant characterization for Miruko that hinted it might be that for her, but nothing concrete.
That’s changed. The fact she’s being introduced in Vigilantes at the same time we see a flashback of Rappa, years ago, is pretty spot on to what now seems to be crucial to her personality.
This is Miruko as a high school student in a trip to Osaka. She’s wearing a touristy type of hat, but it’s her. Her friends in high school apparently call her ‘Ruko’.
Anyway, notice the way she specifically says ‘scent’. It’s portrayed as animalistic, almost, her love of fighting. Which is line with how Horikoshi often makes her seem in the main manga.
In this scene Miruko, by scent, has tracked down an underground illegal fight ring simply by her quirk. Mind you, she’s still a hero student on a trip. She might have a provisional license but this is definitely something the 1A kids would have been scolded for.
Miruko’s excitement, though, centers around the possibility of fighting. It’s fun to her, and she recognizes that through actual blood and sweat. Let’s look at the main manga for a moment; she was relieved, happy even that she could crush the noumus. That it was okay to kill since she didn’t have to hold back like she did for normal villains.
Team Up gave us a very clear repeat of this: Miruko’s praising Katsuki’s violent approach (and Deku and Ochako of course are a little perplexed by this), and her gung-ho attitude to fighting first, not asking questions. In line with her thinking that teaming up is cowardly, and that she stated her intent has always been to ‘beating up villains who scheme’, one wonders what her motivation is to be a hero.
We’ve come across lots of different heroes motivated by many different things. Some out of a need for glory and a feel that they are the best (Endeavor), some out of wanting to be a symbol to a broken society (Toshinori), some out of a need for fame (Uwabami, even Mt. Lady). We’re told glory and money are often the motivations in a conversation between Hawks and the Hunter Commission.
Let’s get back to Vigilantes. The most recent chapter as of writing this has a flashback to several years in the storyline, and given Rumi is around twenty six or twenty seven in the manga, and is also of the birth month group where she would have likely been the youngest in her class, it’s safe to say this was likely ten years ago as of the current manga storyline.
Rumi is shown on a school trip to Osaka with her classmates from a hero school in Hiroshima.
At the same time we see Knuckleduster, still a hero and undercover, going head to head with Rappa in an illegal underground quirk ring. Rappa as everyone will recall was all about fighting. That’s his motivation; the fight itself. He wants to go head to head, he’s all about fist to fist and even gets a little put out about Knuckleduster using a knife.
He is what we call a Blood Knight character:
Fighting is everything to the Blood Knight. He lives for it. It’s not winning or losing, morality, the motives of his allies, or even the glory that drives this guy so much as it is the opportunity for a good fight. (Tv tropes)
Why does this matter? Characters are rarely introduced without some sort of narrative in mind. Vigilantes is a prequel manga that has given us the backstories of heroes before (Aizawa, Mic, and Midnight’s, or All Might’s being the main examples, or even Ingenium Sr.) so it’s clearly Miruko’s turn. And setting in a minor detail in canon (remember Rappa talks about illegal quirk fighting rings to Fat Gum) means that there needs to be a connection.
It’s too early to tell since Vigilantes has just started this arc with Miruko, but I think what’s happening is that we’re going to see just what Miruko stands for. And there’s a likelihood that she’s being pitted against Rappa (narratively for now) because she is very much like Rappa.
We’ve been told constantly that heroes and villains are part of the same coin. So, what is the difference between Miruko’s need to fight and Rappa’s? What’s the difference between two people who seem to live for the thrill of fighting first and foremost, with no need for allies and such?
Maybe it’s just that Miruko got labeled a hero and Rappa a villain.
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