I also love the whole Shie Hassaikai group!
Overhaul is already my 2nd favorite villain and objectively the best one in the series, and the Hassaikai isn't less interesting as his boss.
I love how so many scenarios can be created around them, not as found family, but as chaotic co workers and nobody there is sane but they make it work somehow.
I got instantly interested on the C.H leader because his appearance and quirk made him stand among the other villains. We don't really have badass water quirk users outside of him (unless you put ice in the same category as water).
Some Mustard fans actually got upset because Cider got better trait than gas boy lol. Ideally both should have came back at some moment, Mustard is really a cool concept for a villain.
So chapter 1 is already beta, and now my beta reader is helping me with chapter 2. This weekend will post the fic
I have a question...What you think Cinder does when he´s on, hum, let´s say off days?
Cool, I'm excited to read the final version.
So about Cider hobbies, I did mention some times that he's a surfer but that doesn't limit to the sea. After all he uses his quirk to surf in land as well.
Can we call his activity urban surfing? Pretty sure he's one of the few people who can pull off such sport lol.
I can imagine him going with his friends or solo to a derelic industrial complex or a scenario like that, a place with a lot of obstacles were practice his style for fun and training at the same time.
He's also a very good graffiti artist who likes to leave his own mark in a lot of places. Very standar for a gang to do so, but Cider likes a bit more of personality for his own graffiti.
He probably has an artistic side even if he doesn't realize that. And most likely Cider is the kind of guy who consume mangas more because of the pretty art than the story itself lol.
Midoriya probably was surprised they share a common interest on some geek stuff. I can see them having lazy days of just chill and cuddling, both reading mangas of different genres with some music in the background and making comments here and there about the story and characters.
Hi, I saw some rewriting idea about Nine saving Shig and yeah it's cool. I also not a fan of the whole "Izu wants to save Baby Tenko" HE NEVER EVEN MEET TENKO OR SAW HIM AS A BABY.
So I want the whole Izu saves Shig still but their relationship would have to be work...and comes an idea.
What if Shig wanted Izu to join his side? He saw how Izu is mistreated by everyone and he wants to save Izu. For once, Shig wants to reach for someone.
Nine is in this equation and we can say ...he wants shig to not be used by afo.
How about that?
An au where Shig wants to make Izu join his side. Shig is making an effort for one hero and later said hero retribute the action.
That could shake Nine's beliefs...or not?
I actually want character development for Nine in the sense he realizes most of his beliefs are not entirely what he actually wants, but more the way being born in extreme conditions molded him to think only the power and strenght matter in a cruel world where people aren't treated equally.
After all, like I said in other of my post I think Nine internally has an unconscious desire to protect the weaks using the strength he possess. And his supposed distaste for weak people is more like a defense mechanism created due experience a hard life marked by the way society puts him down despite his rightfully called divine powers.
Because when you think about it, how did he even knew his friends are all that powerful before know them? He just saw them in such low life conditions and was like "I need to save them".
In my rewrite version of the story Nine does indeed have the heart of a hero, but due his life experiences he knows more drastic actions need to be made in order to improve something. He would be like a middle point between Deku who is pro status quo without realize, and Shigaraki who also shares a similar view but don't view ahead of destroy.
Speaking of which I guess the dynamic of Shigaraki trying to be a hero on his own way for Deku would result of him being scared at first. Because let's admit it, even if Shigaraki has good intentions for Midoriya I think his methods would be far to extreme to Deku accepting his offer, at least at first.
And that's where Nine would act a as a middle point between them.
I talked a lot of why I think Deku and Nine are perfect foils for each other, but his rivalry could find a neutral spot when both of them try to save Shigaraki from the influence of AFO.
Except in this case Nine would be the one to call out Deku for having a very surface level desire of save Shigaraki, a person Midoriya never knew or understand. Deku just want to be a hero because he had a preconceived idea of what is good for criminals, but never look the big picture or care about what happen to them after being arrested (like he does in canon duh).
Nine desire to save Shigaraki in this version of the story (following my previous post) would came from the fact he found Tenko as a child after the Shimura house incident, and they grow to together since they were childs, practically rising him as his little brother. So he knew Tenko better than any other person and also knows how bad AFO influence can be.
Oh I forgot to mention but in this version we skip the body snatching plot point for Shigaraki, as I have other ideas in mind for what AFO would do in this version on the part of getting a perfect vessel.
People can get very serious and defensive over this fanon fatherly/motherly dynamics they came up with. And you better not dare to contradict them.
A.M/Deku is just one of the few examples in MHA, but personally I find the "Dadzawa" stans to be much worse and even less justified with their imaginary dynamics.
Something similar happens in JJK with Gojo and Megumi, which people always takes as "father and son" just because is the legal guardian of Megumi but they never acted like more than student and teacher.
You know? I think the whole "All Might is Midoriya father figure" is almost entirely made up by the fandom rather than what the actual story tell us, and that is speaking of the main manga or what Horikoshi writes himself not spinoff and derived canon media.
Because is there a single time in which All Might and Deku show the kind of intimacy and love a father should have for his son and vice versa?
I can't think of something like that outside maybe the dark deku arc when A.M gives him the bento boxes, and even that count as the bare minumum considering most people are obssesed with the idea of A.M being a father figure.
Also they really don't interact that much (or at all) outside anything related to OFA or hero stuff. At least to me they should have some kind of casual interaction as Izuku and Yagi rather than just A.M and Deku.
Combine all this with the fact Midoriya never in the whole series express any feeling about the lack of a father figure in his life and how awkward A.M is for interact with him, it's difficult to take seriously the idea of "Dad Might".
Hi @nyc3
You hit the nail here, have you noticed how regardless of the story the fans will designated characters to be the mom or dad of the group? And it's sad people create this fanon where AM is big dad for Izu when...in canon...if we haven't got his thoughts we wouldn't even believe he likes Izu.
I do think thanks to what canon shows...Izu got the quirk by a mix of AM being too stubborn (and stupid, sorry am fans this man IS stupid) and nighteye's creepiness. There's nothing that justify why give a quirk to Izu...and I say this as someone who likes Izu and hate the bashing he gets.
Izu has no real relationship, none whatsover and we aren't meant to see that nor really care. His pain is a gag.
The whole AM and Gran relationship is a gag and it hurts the characters. "What you mean?" Think this way, am has a big quirk ans gave to this QUIRKLESS boy who has no support and his quirk HURT him majorly ...am knows someone else who can help Izu...his response? Be silent until Izu has no internship offer and then you mentioned your mentor...you mention your mentor as this cruel monster who will torture you for lols.
Gran torino is not like that (not saying he is perfect, but we didn't see anything that would justify AM be afraid of him. "Could have change" possible, but this also make AM look bad, Gran changed and is willing to help Izu...what has AM done?)
We also don't know how Gran trainer AM, keep in mind how the man was also sent to the US.
Am has little relationship, he has one with Naomasa but it's funny as he suggested Izu to be a cop and sort, unitentally, talk trash about the job. Which makes me wonder if AM sees Naomasa's job as less....maybe not intentionally.
Izu knows nothing about the man. He knows his name thanks to Gran....keep in mind he was trained with AM to gain muscles for 10 months! (I have issues with that training montage. I can now say how it represent how Izu will be treated in this story. He cleans a beach, no one gives a fuck- he see fans being all over am and no one cares about the teen cleaning the beach- and gets no reward...the whole "heroes don't do things to get reward IS bull and rich coming from a man that is mega famous and rich as AM)
At times, I get the am bashing (but loathe as they chose to make Aizawa or afo better. Like AM is just an idiot...Aizawa and Afo are malicious)
I find sad bc Izu really has no one. His mother is.....Inko. His father is dead and Mia for all we know, friends? Hahahahajahahahaaha not in canon. shig? Never even attempt to know smth about Izu...
Hori shows to you...Izu is a loser, later makes him saying that. And we aren't meant to conclude Hori hates his own mc ? (Don't worry, hori hates Shig too)
If you show this to someone who doesn't read MHA or don't have much context about the story, would they guess these are two separate characters?
Lol, it would be a fun experiment.
The resemblance between Yoichi and Nine is uncanny.
A lot of AFO backstory and motivations seem to be an after thought to be honest.
Hell I firmly believe he and Yoichi being twins is a retcon. Because these two clearly were originally written to be oldest and little sibling, AFO clearly looking way more old than Yoichi in terms of overall look and aptitude.
Beside is funny how based on his look at the moment of his death Yoichi must have been a middle age man, because AFO looks like his middle age self in the flashbacks. But Yoichi clearly look, sound and acts like a young man in his 20s or something. A lot of thing doesn't make sense if you put the twins idea in context.
And yes, KudoIchi and Kudo in general are just bait for the bkdk shippers. Notice how the character has nothing outside that ship content.
Which is ironic because out of all the vestiges which are plain and boring af, Kudo at least had an interesting base for a character but he ended with zero personality and being a dick to other characters no named Yoichi for no reason. And his fans only like him for being discount Bakugou.
At least got me laughing with that omake of Nine and Cider.
Also Shoto and Giyuu don't share VA, in japanese Shoto shares VA with Sabito aka Giyuu's best friend.
But fun trivia: Giyuu and Nine got the same dub VA in english.
Canon possum is a joke but one thing I never forget is how decay IS powerful, sure a powerful quirk with an idiot is not a good thing in many fronts but...
Cinder (I'm loving him already) has to know a guy who can decay stuff with one touch even if he is an idiot.
Would cinder be worried about the quirk ?
Again, shig is an idiot and a bad leader and all that but one thing we can't deny is he knows how to fight.
So I think cinder would make a point to avoid him like the plague.
In canon Cider is the kind of person who knows he shouldn't bite off more than he can chew, since after all his plan during his debut was to steal during a very specific moment in which heroes aren't present, so is more reward without having to fight and less risk.
It was just a coincidence that A.M was there with Bakugou and Todoroki.
I guess his mentality also applies to fight dangerous villains, and the lov had some big names attached them. Their reputation probably was enough for Cider to not have his gang involved with such group of psychos.
But... I disagree on Shigaraki being a good fighter.
Maybe before all the bs power ups given by the doctor he at least knew how do surprise attacks and such, but Decay being such a one-dimensional quirk also means the user doesn't require a lot of skill to put it in use. It is basically just run towards the enemy and touch for instakill.
Which became even more braindead post awakening. Like even Overhaul has more room to be creative and need skill to put in use.
Decay is just a broken and boring quirk that requieres nothing to be effective. Crusty asshole somehow manages to be more plain than he already was at first, is like he evolves in reverse.
Fellas, it is weird to find collarbones to be extremely attractive?
Cause I do like them...
I wish I have more collarbone pics of Nine...
And not from MHA but Eren certainly has some sexy looking collarbones:
My mind goes crazy right now.
Idk how the actual comparison was, and I remember it from some years ago.
But I can imagine Nine and Mewtwo are kind of similar on being created as bioweapons by some evil scientist dude and their more cartoony evil boss, yet both Nine and Mewtwo reveal themselves and want to persue their own ideals.
And the aesthetic similarities in their armor and powers based on purple lightning:
Note: The only version of Mewtwo I know is the one from the movie.
Lowkey think that Mewtwo and Nine would be friends if their meet, but they also would fight to see who is the strongest.
Any crossover between MHA and other franchise you like?
Hi @nyc3 funny you ask me this bc I was thinking about an au where Izumi is in a pokemon world. Srsly!
Izumi is a poke trainer, she has eevees and eeveelutions (I think it fits here. One Eevee can be anything just like Izumi)
And well Cinder menages to steal a gym becaming a gym leader (people like him better lol) and well, things happen.
On a broad side, I don't have much crossovers for mha. They work fine as they are...they just need a good writing.
One thing that is now unfair to ask is...what is Nine's name? Look hori treated him as an afterthought but his lack of origins works better than the comical twnko's origins.
Yes his family was all killed thanks to him but ...I can't help to think that scene was too ridiculous.
We never saw anyone mentioned them again, not even shig. (He remembers them in MVA and we do see the disgusting human puppet hori flay around) But that's it.
So Nine...
Im not one of those people who think a new character needs to be related to a pre stabelished one. Nine doesn't need to be a Todoroki, Shimura or hell even a lost Midoriya (hahahahahahaha as if hori would care for this family)
But ....imagine if Nine was related to Oboro, somehow, wouldn't that be interesting?
Maybe, maybe not.
Oboro's character became a thing to turns Aizawa into a better character...and fails. Kuro was sacrificed for nothing.
The thing about Shigaraki/Tenko backstory is that it feels... a bit overdramatic?
Well we can say that about his whole character, but the part of his backstory in particular when he kills his family is so exagerated for the sake of shock value that it kinda feels comical.
Horikoshi tried a bit too hard on make MVA feel like the edgier and "different" arc of the series, but the contrast in so big that I can't take it seriously.
Especially when Hori already nailed a dark tone without being super explicit or over the top.
Take the simplicity of Eri's backstory for example:
No blood, no unnecessary violence, just two panels giving a basic idea of what happened to Eri's father and yet the image of those clothes lying on the floor is much more haunting and eerie than the enterity of Shigaraki backstory.
Why Horikoshi stop being subtle with his storytelling?
...
Anyway going back to Nine real name, or the lack of one, I think it's interesting how that aspect of his character adds to the underlying theme of how AFO and Garaki dehumanize people, especially the ones that are part of their experiments.
We know very well how AFO doesn't view other human being as persons but rather objects that belong to him. This starts with his very own twin brother, which name Yoichi means something like "my first possesion".
And just like Nine, number 6 from Vigilantes was a child which whole life was modeled by AFO. They both are just numbers without a real name.
In this case the idea is presented even more explicitly because Six was a child who suffered some kind of amnesia and couldn't even view himself as a normal human with a face.
He even died as a monster without ever know if he had an identity outside being the number 6.
It's funny how you mention the idea of Nine and Shirakumo being connected somehow, as isn't the first time I've hear that.
It's interesting notice how they share this common theme about sky and clouds as part of who they are (Nine's name also is supposedly a reference to the term "cloud nine") both Nine and Oboro are individuals willing to sacrifice their own lifes for others, and ironically both of them ended being experimented by Dr Garaki.
I even have the headcanon of Kurogiri being the "Number 7" in this line of experiments were Nine and Six belong, as sort of missing link between Six and the sentient nomus.
I probably should make a post later explaining better this idea.
And yes for Horikoshi, Shirakumo was just a diposable character to make Aizawa look cooler and more edgy.
While the author of Vigilantes clearly invested a lot of effort on making Oboro a real and memorable character which complements Aizawa rather than just being an accesory. But that topic deserves it's own post as well.
P.S: I have an idea of what real name we could give to Nine, but I keep it for me at least for the moment.
Have you ever been too attached to a nameless character which signature color is blue and they appear in like 1-2 episodes of their respective series?
It happened to me twice...
Cider House leader and the demon slayer who was partner of Rengoku during the prequel to mugen train.
Pretty blue eyes and cool outfit with matching blue tones. Plus if blue haori slayer uses water breathing then both characters are themed around water, isn't that amazing?
I shouldn't like nameless characters with so little content and screen time but I can't help myself either.
Looking at the characters pages in the Volume Rising extras, I notice an interesting detail about Slice's background.
Now I'm aware this is a rough translation by google, but it's interesting that Horikoshi explicitly describes Slice as being used by "men".
Which could also connect with this panel from Nine's origin backstory, in which Slice is seen lying on the floor of a destroyed apartment looking totally defeated and helpless.
As far I know this is the only time a female character (and a villain for that mattter) in the series is written with an explicit background about being used and possible exploited by mens, implying a context of misoginia.
Which also makes me wish we had more context about Slice relationship with Nine and the rest of the crew.
How she pass from not trust anyone to be fully concerned about her team? (All being mens).
There's a lot of potential to developed their relationship there.
But an important note: I don't see Slice devotion to Nine and his ideals as romantic, not at all like much people like to interpret just because she's a woman. I feel that kinda goes against her characterization, considering Nine probably was the first man she ever trust but unlike others he wasn’t a lover or anything, but a savior and a true friend/family.
Horikoshi also says on Slice character page that Nine asked her about her quirk first and he values the name of it over actual names (which btw adds to Nine's own characterization considering he doesn't have a real name). I like to think it might be one of the reasons of why Slice trust so much on Nine's vision for the world, as he probably give a new meaning to her life other than being a pretty face and help her to value her own power.
Fun trivia: In the character page for Nine in the Volume Rising, we can see in Horikoshi sketches that the palms of his hands were supposed to have the little holes that allow an AFO user to physically steal quirks.
Same holes All For One and Shigaraki have:
Yet, in the movie itself the holes are totally absent from Nine's hands despite his gloves are clearly designed with that specific function in mind.
I guess the production just totally missed that detail in the translation from Hori sketches?