Fem Fantasy Bkdk

i just read the last chapter of mha

the izuku in me might make a post of all the thoughts i have (good and bad)

somehow i’m not as disappointed as i thought i would be

He is too hypnotized to listen

please let me write a ‘crack treated seriously’ fic out of this T-T

dabi: why are you a hero?

touya: spite. why are you a villain?

dabi: spite.

touya: nice.

it has so much angst potential too though (like dabi realizing that, yes, he could have been a hero. it wasn’t impossible. he could have made it even without his father’s support)

I love the idea of Dabi and au Hero!Touya meeting, like, it would be so???? I can't even comprehend what it would be like.

The L.O.V - What Family Means to Misfits

All visuals from the MHA manga // Sue Zhao // Mikko Harvey // Lidia Yuknavitch - The Chronology of Water // David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas // Trista Mateer

Dabipool

The park flashback/scene where Tenko plays with Mikkun and Tomo-chan in Chapter 418 first takes place in early afternoon, as evidenced by the clock reading almost 2:00 PM.

The art in the scene confirms this: clear bright skies, and the shadows under the children are short.

However, the time in the scene changes after Mikkun and Tomo-chan tells Tenko he should be All Might (the moment Tenko decides he wants to be a Hero, as he tells his mom in Chapter 235). Suddenly it's evening: the clock shows 6:13 PM, and the sky darkening because it's nearing sunset.

When Shigaraki/Tenko thinks of the League, he and the League (and Deku) all have long shadows, the kind you see when the sun is low in the sky.

＊

The context:

Sunset is the time to go home. Children who have been playing outside, in playgrounds, at the park, are supposed to go home, to get back in time for dinner, back to their families.

In Japan, many cities and towns have a bell/chime/song that plays from public loudspeakers at around 5:00 PM. It's a daily test of an emergency broadcast system, but it has also come to be seen as the evening bell, a 'go home' signal, especially for children, telling them to go home before it gets dark.

In manga and anime, all these elements have become common imagery and symbolism, associated with each other: red-orangey colors, sunset, long shadows, the chime, children saying goodbye to their playmates for the day, the idea of home and return.

(from Mushishi)

＊

Putting it all together:

When the park scene first shows up, it's Tenko memory of playing with Mikkun and Tomo-chan, likely exactly how it had occurred in real life: it's early afternoon, the sun is shining bright, their shadows are short, they're at the park, they're playing Heroes, and when the kids tell Tenko that he should be All Might, Tenko is overjoyed.

But this isn't the scene 15-16 years ago; this is a memory. Tenko is also Shigaraki here. He has just had his core pried open by Deku, and given relief. The Crying Child has been symbolically saved, but the past, the massacre, the Walk still all happened.

So it's suddenly 6:13 PM, it's sunset now, because it's way past proper time (5:00 PM) to go home - because Shigaraki/Tenko can't go home to the Shimura house. It's too late. It's been long over.

Shigaraki/Tenko then looks away from Mikkun and Tomo-chan, to the side, and say, 'Nah' to their suggestion, because besides it being late, he also no longer wants to be All Might. He's deciding he's a Villain, he still holds malice and he still destroys.

So, the scene changes again to contains the League now, all six of them (plus Deku). They exist in this sunset time, hence their long shadows. They exist with current Shigaraki/Tenko, they exist in the now - and arguably, the League would be the home he would return to at sunset.

-

Up to interpretation, of course, but the sunset/going home context is real.

Japanese tweets about it (translated):

[When Tenko got the words he wanted, his eyes lit up, but it was past time to go home so I'm guessing that means "it's too late."]

[It is just heartening that the League members are the place where Tomura would return to when it was "time to go home." I'm sobbing]

[In the scene where Tenko is at the park, the clock is already past 6:00 PM, the time when good kids go home, so if he had met Deku a little earlier, Deku might have been able to stop him, but this seems to show that they're past that stage now, which is good.]

Mr. Compress, defending the league: “Never speak to me or my mentally ill children ever again.”

Okay, but imagine the LoV watching the news and some segment on Endeavor comes up and then Mr. Compress out of nowhere says in the most offhand tone, "You know, a year or so before all this started, I dated that guy's daughter for a couple weeks."

And Dabi has to sit there with his eye twitching and all, Wtf, wtf, wtf, wtf...wait, why do I even care? I don't care. Fuck it. Fuyumi can do what she wants. Touya is dead and Dabi does not care if some second-rate sideshow act wannabe-- "...did...you break her heart?"

"What? No, we weren't really all that compatible, we both agreed the age gap was a little much, I found out who her father was and that terrified me because what sane person wants that for an in-law, she was starting to question whether or not she was even heterosexual at all, so we broke it off like amicable adults and haven't spoken since. Really, young man, what do you take me for?"

Completely oblivious to the small world bs that's happening and the bullet he just dodged.

Bakugou makes the claim that he's a bigger All Might fan than Deku is, and this really pisses Deku off. He starts listing every single piece of merch he has, and sure, a lot of it Katsuki has as well, but he stopped collecting merch years ago while Izuku is still going strong! But the entire time Katsuki just sits there with an infuriating smirk, nodding along, the entire time claiming he's still the bigger fan.

Finally Izuku just throws up his hands and demands to know what makes him the bigger fan.

"I have a one of a kind piece of All Might merch no one else in the world has, worth a shit ton more than your crappy collection."

And Izuku's brain just starts trying to figure out what piece Katsuki could have, how much it's worth, where he got it -

Katsuki leans forward and gives him a long, hard kiss, shutting down his brain like always.

"I've got his heir."

A few seconds of stunned silence while his brain tries to reboot before

"KACCHAN!"

touya is a drama queen (/pos), you can’t just fit him in a tiny case

if he had been there he would have stolen the show (as he should). you know that time he made a dramatic bow during the final fight? that.

the only thing that could’ve fit in the epilogue would’ve been seeing him eat soba with shouto and/or reading spinner’s book. but anything related to the Todoroki Family Drama™ would’ve required so much more information. you can’t tell me touya wouldn’t have spent an entire chapter roasting endeavor if he had been given the opportunity

my hot take is the reason we never saw anything of Touya in the epilogue is because anything with Touya would require several pages of explanation, you can't stuff it into a tiny frame.

him dying in the thingamabob? would need room to show the family's reactions and especially Shouto's who if this were the case would have failed to save his brother, Rei's about saving her son's life from being killed by Endeavor only for him to still die, and Natsuo, who was the closest to Touya and hasn't interacted with him at all since learning he had survived the fire.

Touya recovering and outliving yet another pessimistic prognosis for his life expectancy? what would he even do with his life, after the people who were his friends were slaughtered and captured by the oppressors they had fought against, and lost? the only reason he didn't share their fates is his relation to Enji.

him cutting off Endeavor? took Natsuo three pages to do, no way to fit it into a brief montage.

Touya escaping with the League? that's a whole another manga of its own.