Boy, the heroes of MHA sure do find their questionable actions needing defences like “but it’s a war” or “AFO/Shigaraki/Twice is/was so dangerous though” or “well the villains are committing war crimes too” lately. You don’t really see other media’s heroes needing those excuses; at least not the ones going for MHA’s optimistic tone. I’d like to talk about why for a bit, as well as why MHA changing that script doesn’t really work for the heroes.
You see; while we on Tumblr like to make fun of how villains in media are always trying to fix something but kick a puppy so you know we’re supposed to side with the people not trying to fix things: the way it’s supposed to be is that villains, at least the well-(enough-)intentioned extremist types like the League & most of the PLF, try to better the world but go *dramatic voice* too far in the process. Meanwhile the heroes harden their resolve and take them down by the book through ingenuity and determination; and although they are protecting the status quo, in the process of this victory the heroes prove that whatever problems initially sparked the conflict can be solved in *dramatic voice* a better way.
But if the heroes also go *dramatic voice* too far in their efforts to protect the status quo, as they do in BNHA, well that kind of undercuts their platform. I mean what’s the message there? That there actually isn’t a better way because underhanded & sketchy tactics are the only way to get things done? That message sucks and so do these heroes.
I can see why the manga keep trying to ignore or brush aside the heroes’ moral darkening, clumsily hand-waving Machia’s brainwashing or framing Hawks as still a good guy ‘cause he’s so optimistic and the like. It makes it really hard for them to be inspiring with all their ‘light of hope’ talk if you don’t forget all that. I know because I make a point not to forget this stuff and I don’t find these heroes inspiring at all.
when i was a teen i was the only one out of my sisters to have a part-time job which gave me a lot of sway in the household as the one who could help mom with money and also buy my sisters treats (nevermind all the money they stole from me and my insane complexes about having to buy love). point is that i was the one who paid for like 90% of the music on my and my middle sister's shared iTunes account and also paid for stuff when we walked downtown together.
anyways one day me and my sisters are walking downtown and me and my middle sister are arguing about the lyrics of rem's orange crush. things get heated, maybe i pushed her onto the road, there were no cars that she couldn't safely escape. whatever. in any case when we got home later that day i looked up the lyrics we were arguing about, realised i was in the wrong, and promptly deleted the song off my iPod and our iTunes account.
all of this is a long-winded way to say that i think yoichi and all for one could have this exact same scenario except that all for one would try to find a way to kill rem entirely from existence.
It’s interesting that Hk chose a women to directly criticize the heroes’ attempts at easing the public.
Despite having multiple men in the audience, Hk uses a female reporter to question Endeavor’s atonement and integrity. She brings up valid concerns, but she’s portrayed as emotional and almost irrational, which is in contrast not only to the heroes, but also her male colleagues (who are shown behind her, obviously uneasy with her outburst).
Once again, although the men in the story are primarily at fault for the current disaster, Hk created a woman to represent the sector that are working against heroes and their attempt to save society. This wouldn’t be an issue if it was an isolated event, but it’s disappointing considering Horikoshi’s tendency to use women to portray toxic and regressive mindsets while refusing to give his female characters actual development.
it’s very cute natsuo and touya shared a room. clearly they had so much space, and money, it’s pretty much a decision that they really wanted to share. They sleep side by side with their futons, and the picture with Touya at his computer desk showed another computer desk littered with toys younger children would play with, like a mech, so I’m guessing that’s Natsuo’s. It’s just very cute.
Something I also want to point out - Touya has books on his desk. Likely because he’s in middle school and probably studying to get into a good high school. But also given we’ve been privy to the fact he does in fact write randomly poetic stuff (the whole ‘his light invites darkness’ thing) and Smash telling us he writes in a refined way and signs his name like an artist, it also shows us:
notice it’s Touya who has a lamp on his side of their futons? I’m sure this is showing us that Touya also likes reading before bed. Of the two brothers, at least when Natsuo was that young, Touya is probably very bookish. Just an interesting characterization.
In pinterest I found a photo with kids sailor dresses and thought about Todoroki children.
this is actually like redraw of my old fanart from 2021, when I had just started watching the anime (haven't read the manga) when I drew them. So I didn't know their age gap, that touya in this age allready had white hair and of course didn't know about their height difference