Aizawas Toxic Traits

Hi! About that post of aizawa having toxic traits, can you explain please? Im an anime only but i absolutely don't mind spoilers. I couldnt find any explenation online either :((

Hello! This took way to long to post, so i'm really sorry for that Anon. But hopefully this explains why Aizawa is who he is and why I emphasized him having toxic traits.

I wanted to write it all out properly and hopefully make sense to my previous post. There is a lot going on here and because of the image limit i couldn't post more manga panels showing important moments, but this should explain some of the basic points.

I will be using the Vigilantes manga, My Hero Academia manga, and the My Hero Academia anime as evidence/support since these are the ones that canon.

Aizawas Toxic Traits

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

Lets start off by determining a few things:

Just because you have trauma, doesn't make you immune to the consequences of your own actions.

Just because you have a mental illness doesn't mean you can't be a shit human being to others.

Just because you're a victim doesn't mean you can't be an abuser.

You can't project onto others. It's not a healthy way of coping and you're harming other people.

You're expectations can be to high.

Anyone, no matter what, can be a bad person.

Now that we have those things out of the way, lots move onto the supporting evidence.

In Vigilantes, Aizawa suffered from the tragic loss of his best friend Shirakumo Oboro. This caused him to become very focused on his training while neglecting himself and the relationships he had around him. But let's first address why Aizawa is so attached and affected by Shirakumo's death.

Aizawa in his younger years lacked the confidence he thought he should have when it came to his quirk. His quirk wasn't a physical one so he felt like he wasn't deserving of even pursuing the hero career. He couldn't commit to helping someone without overthinking or seeing himself as lesser then. He hesitated instead of acting. He still cared about how he was being perceived.

This is where Shirakumo would come in. He was everything that Aizawa wasn't. He was loud and likable, people had high hopes for him, and worst of all his quirk was physical. He had people in his life that he would cherish and wouldn't hesitate helping anyone out.

This is why the incident with the cat, which is the first time we see young Aizawa and his then mindset, is important.

Aizawa hesitated to help the kitten while Shirakumo just picked it up and took it to school with him. Another difference was on the actions they took with the kitten. Aizawa gave his umbrella to the kitten so it wouldn't get wet. This resulted in him getting drenched and showing up to class looking upset with himself. Shirakumo showed up wet as well, but he also had Aizawa's umbrella in tow. He saw Aizawa hesitate and give the kitten his umbrella yet he didn't confront him nor did he mention it. He knows Aizawa even when Aizawa didn't pay him any attention. Shirakumo gave Aizawa his umbrella back and presented the class with the kitten which lead to everyone praising him while Aizawa silently watched him do something he couldn't do. Aizawa did, and very literally, do the bear minimum. Shirakumo did more then that by not only providing comfort, but also safety and other basic necessities.

Shirakumo would also stop Yamada from teasing Aizawa when he was being self deprecating. He prevented others from teasing him and overall, he acted as some sort of guardian for Aizawa even when the teasing came from his own "friends". He provided Aizawa with safety when there was no real need for it. Aizawa wasn't looking for comfort nor a closer relationship, yet he went back for more because Shirakumo gave more.

I think this is where we see why Shirakumo was more likable in Aizawa's mind and memory. All of these scenes are from Vigilantes and are from Aizawa's perspective. Meaning that all of these scenes were Shirakumo is basked in light and looking so...i guess for a lack of a better word, beautiful, is Aizawa seeing him as more then just his classmate and friend. He doesn't do this with Yamada or Kayama, only with Shirakumo. I'm not saying that Aizawa had a crush on him (i'm keeping this as far way from ships to just look at the points but it has been hinted at that Aizawa may have had stronger feelings for Shirakumo.) Aizawa loved Shirakumo, thats why he was so attached.

Love isn't something that can come only from wanting to spend the rest of forever with someone. It's not something you have to feel romantically, it could also be platonic (AnD tHeY WeRe RoOmAtEs.) In this case i take it more as Aizawa had Shirakumo be his anchor, to act as a stopper for all of his negative thoughts. He became close to him and opened up to him more than he ever could with Yamada because he was not only charming but forward with him. Let's keep in mind that Aizawa, Yamada, and Shirakumo have been "friends" since the start of their first year.

Aizawa held no real liking to Yamada or Kayama, even though he did spend time with them (he's a tsundere so he acts like he has no real friends.) The only times we ever see him truly smile or seem happy is when its with Shirakumo. (I can sense the ship war incoming.)

He consistently compared himself to others, rejected the notion of being friends with people who showed him genuine affection. Everything after a certain point began to revolve around Shirakumo and Aizawa's dependency on him to make things better in his life, to help him find himself. Many would think that being close to someone isn't bad, which it isn't, but to the extent Aizawa found himself being close to Shirakumo and the neglect he showed to the others didn't help improve his independency either.

(Take note that in almost every shot of Aizawa, Shirakumo and Yamada hanging out with each other, Shirakumo is always in the middle. Again, Yamada teases Aizawa a lot and Aizawa clearly takes no joy from it.) Even here, Shirakumo is always depicted as being by his side. Yamada eventually replaces him but prior to that Aizawa kept Yamada at a distance. Again, i don't think Aizawa hated Yamada or Kayama, but what i'm trying to explain is that he didn't want the same closeness he had with Shirakumo with them. He was already close to Shirakumo and to him, that was enough.

Let's also look at this scene. Aizawa and Shirakumo are having a casual conversation about how Aizawa feels like a failure and doesn't understand why he has to be something he's not. Shirakumo doesn't invalidate him, he instead agrees with him and asked him to try it out at least. Key word is "try".

The thing that we can also point out in this scene is that Kayama perfectly knows how Aizawa is feeling and knows that pictures of Sushi (the cat that Aizawa and Shirakumo saved) would make him happy. She could have taken him to see Sushi or even followed/waited for the both of them to speak after the failed mission. Instead, Kayama gave Shirakumo the oppurtunity to help ease Aizawa's emotions down. Kayama is fully aware that Aizawa wouldn't listen to her, wouldn't bother to take what she had to say about the mission into considerations so she left that job to Shirakumo.

So How Would This Translate to Any Toxic Traits?

If you go and read Vigilantes and also the MHA/BNHA manga and anime with this new context of Aizawa's character, you'll be able to pick out why he's so harsh on his students off the bat.

Aizawa once was dependent on someone to keep him on track. When he lost that person he isolated himself from his own friends. Neglected his own wellbeing and proceeded to treat his students the same way. He didn't see children figuring out what they want to do with their lives, he saw adults and treated them like adults. Just like he was treated after Shirakumo's death. The damning thing here is in the relationship he holds with everyone from his past. Not only does he not address his "friends" by their first name while they address him by his, he also has this distance to him and Yamada.

Aizawa does care about Yamada and Kayama, i'm not undermining that. What i do want to point out is that he treats them like work colleagues. You'd think after knowing someone for over a decade, spending extensive amounts of time with them, seeing them grow with you, improve themselves, move forward after suffering a tragic loss of a loved one, you would speak to them like the were family or just someone close to you. You would call them by their name. Not in this case.

Aizawa is not only a great manipulator, which we can see in the way he consistently deceives them into thinking a certain way/thing, he's also great at lying to himself. Toxic traits are seen as things that are harmful and damaging to the individual or individuals around someone. In Aizawa's case we have self deprecation, a constant impulse to place themselves in danger (yes he's a hero, but he sometimes doesn't stop to think that others can take care of themselves), and we also see him project a lot onto other people. Such as his students and most importantly Shinsou.

(Don't get me started on the fact that Yamada is forcing himself to process his friends death via humor while Kayama is crying and trying to stop.) His students are the greatest examples of Aizawa being reminded of Shirakumo, specifically Midoriya. Aizawa is always on his ass about him being self sacrificing, ironic since Aizawa himself is also self sacrificing but in a different more degrading way. Aizawa would tell Midoriya to "tone it down" and "think before he acts". Shirakumo was also all action with the main priority being to help others instead of himself. He was able to befriend nearly everyone with no problem. His students are eager to learn and as we soon learn (couldn't add the manga panel) Aizawa purposefully suspends or outright kicks out his own students from UA. He calls it "A Death". Just like he himself had to suffer threw when Shirakumo died. But there's a difference, he didn't get the emotional, mental, and physical preparation to cope with his best friends death. He felt like it was ridiculous not to teach the concept of being "heroic vs suicidal". In his eyes, Shirakumo was "suicidal" because he gave up his own life for his instead. We also learn later on that Aizawa suffers from intense 'Survivors Guilt' and feels that getting the chance to live a long life in comparison to Shirakumo was unfair. In the War Arc he ends up screaming that he couldn't allow himself to die because of the sacrifices that those around him, Shirakumo and another pro hero, made for him. So he isn't living because he wants to, he's living because he feels like he has to.

He consistently projecting onto others and attempts to justify his cold demeanor towards his own friends and students with the lenses of "preparing" them or "guiding" them. Yamada clearly knows why Aizawa is the way he is and so does Kayama, they all suffered Shirakumo's death. But while Kayama copes by taking care of Shirakumo's cat, Yamada is left to pick Aizawa up while being discarded by him. Aizawa clearly cares for others but he prefers the idea of holding "light bonds" so that when he dies or the other person dies it won't hurt as much.

(Erasermic shippers you can join the chat for this.) Yamada neglects his own emotional health to support Aizawa and in return he suffers for it. He can read him like a book and knows that the relationship that they both have with each other isn't healthy, but he stays. Part of it is because he cares and the other being that Aizawa is as dependent of him as he is of Aizawa. Yamada reminds Aizawa of Shirakumo because of there demeanor but he isn't fully him so Aizawa doesn't relax around him and still keeps his walls up to create that disconnection. We can also see how Aizawa sees All Might as Shirakumo. Remember that Aizawa not only "hates" people who are loud and obnoxious but also holds a great disinterest on quirks that are physical and the attention they catch. This isn't a Shinsou case were the guy hates physical quirks because it prevented him from being who he want to be, this is about how Shirakumo who held a physical quirk would always use it to make a grim situation bright just like All Might who would juggling pillows and throwing people around like nothing to entertain (Look at Vigilantes to understand this). Both All Might, Yamada, and Shirakumo share these traits and since Aizawa didn't want to take the time and wasn't given the time to grief properly, he essentially closed himself off and never fully processed everything.

Am i saying that EraserMic is a toxic ship?

No....not necessarily. I'm not saying any of this to shame anyone for there ships, i personally don't have a preference and just support them all (as long as it's adult/adult and minor/minor.) Aizawa and Yamada in MHA aren't the perfect example of a couple and we only truly see them be on the same page during the War Arc since they both discovered a bunch of truths regarding Shirakumo and his fate.

Yamada personally holds a lot of guilt because he contributed to Shirakumo's death (again look at Vigilantes for the entire context as well as the main manga.) The most damning thing is when he finds out where Shirakumo is now. Kurogiri is made from Shirakumo's body as well as the dna of other people, essentially making him a Nomu. Aizawa and Yamada find out during their interrogation with Kurogiri after Grand Torino tells them. Yamada during the big battle has a scene with one of the villains (trying not to spoil more then necessary) and is told that the whole reason for the villain attack that ended in Shirakumo's death was actually intended to kill Aizawa and take his quirk to than use his body for Kurogiri's.

The reason why this relationship is toxic could be based on the fact that it's co-dependent. Yamada relies on Aizawa and is practically attached to him because he has abandonment issues, while Aizawa only stays around him because he reminds him of his best friend who had the same personality type. Yamada is Aizawa's enabler because he doesn't know what else to do. He doesn't want Aizawa to leave him because the guilt of his "wrong doings" would eat at him. With Shirakumo, he would have had Aizawa focus on the right track again while still being nice to him and Aizawa would have taken that advice and followed threw with it. Yamada is offering a lack lustered replacement while Aizawa only gives back the bear minimum because he's emotionally incapable of giving more.