i've been trying to figure out the reason for the very hollow feeling after last chapter and i think it's like -
before anyone gets on my ass, again, i think the past few chaps divorced from everything else were very well done, more so than many of the previous chaps. but in the grand scheme of the entire story i'm kinda like,
what am i even rooting for the villains' survival for?
i mean in a different sense than my pessimism about them either dying or ending up in prison, like, even if they got the best ending possible and escaped somewhere. because at this point jin IS dead and IF himiko is also dead (and possibly dabi idk) it's like,
why do i even WANT anyone to survive at this point
they've lost so much. the only things they had were each other to begin with. and now they don't even have that either.
i'm not trying to rail against people moving on and living a fulfilling life after losing loved ones, but these are characters, who aren't going to get that story, for one. for two, these are characters who had major parts of their growth and belonging hinge on one another, who emphasized feeling acceptance and camaraderie, often for the first time, when they came together. take that all away and it just feels so -
lonely.
why would i want the rest to survive to just be the Only One(s) left?
super quickly sketch
- Did you have a shitty childhood? Bad parents? - No! I had a good family. Two brothers and one sister, and wonderful parents. And we all lived happily in a beautiful house. - And what happened? - I’m.
no but srsly what are we hoping for here. like, okay, so we assume the villains don’t die and get “saved,” but aoyama, who: 1. was blackmailed into helping afo, 2. literally did not kill anyone, and 3. immediately and sincerely regretted his actions, still gets locked up and told to repay his debt to society, literally WHAT are we hoping will happen to people who willingly joined the villain cause and killed people for their own deeply-held values. at this point i hope they die i hope everyone dies!!
Reading articles about MrBeast's dominance of YouTube is fucking bizarre because, from my perspective, the dude isn't even on YouTube. I've never watched one of his videos. YouTube has, to the best of my knowledge, never recommended one of his videos to me. Every thumbnail screenshot of his looks like something you could tell me was a photoshopped parody of YouTube culture, and I'd believe you. No one I follow on YouTube ever mentions him, even negatively or in passing. The first time I ever heard his name was in regards to the quality of his ghost kitchens. The only way I know he isn't a mass, shared hallucination is that I've witnessed the thoroughly mid-looking chocolate bars he sells at Walmart for some reason
cw salt, but the fact that Shouto lets Rei say this:
without explaining the circumstances to Hawks doesn’t sit right with me, especially when we have a previous in-text reference for how Shouto feels about his burns and the real person who’s to blame for it:
and idk, call me pedantic, biased or whatever, but the framing of the scene makes it feel as though the further the story goes on, the more the characters aren’t allowed to have complex and sometimes contradicting emotions towards the abuse they experienced. It’s just as Fuyumi said, “it’s not like I don’t feel the same way Natsu does, but we finally have this chance, you know?”
and that was perfectly fine when it was just Fuyumi’s chosen way to deal with her own feelings. Like, when it was still a decision motivated by a character’s agency. Fuyumi wants a second chance at a normal family. What she wants is not presented as an authorial statement on what everyone else should want. In fact, Shouto and Natsuo want something else entirely. And that was fine.
Until now.
With the shift the story took now, with the whole Todoroki family coming together to stop Dabi,
and with the emphasis on extending a hand to Enji while doing so, it feels less like this is an organic choice that makes sense with the characters’ personal journey of acceptance and of healing, and more like the narrative is forcing them to reconcile because it’s what the story needs in order to keep moving forward down the “saving Touya” path. Like, even admitting that there was good faith on hori’s part, even conceding that they might’ve just called a truce for the time being because they realized they have a second shot at getting their brother back from death…
That good faith falls short of the actual framing.
Cause Hawks asks Shouto that question right after acknowledging that Enji was indeed an abuser. Past tense. As if shedding a few tears suddenly cancels that out. It’s all good now.
And… idk… For it to be a “truce” the narrative still needs to hold him accountable. But it doesn’t. The second Enji vowed to do better, the story declared he was better. Hori can say that the victims don’t have to forgive him all he wants, the truth still stands that the story has already forgiven him