The Entire Thing Is The Fucking Case Study In Wasted Potential - Blog Posts

I’ve been trapped in an endless cycle of BNHA thoughts since writing Hand to Heart, but like…why did the Stain arc have to end so abruptly? Why didn’t the effects of it carry further into canon? Why did Horikoshi bring up a villain motivated entirely by the flaws in the hero system and then just drop him instead of having him escape? That was like…the best possible world-building opportunity and he just threw it out the window???? Stain was SO INTERESTING. He was acknowledged as being charismatic and influential, someone who had been around for awhile, who was strong enough to operate in and around the LoV without directly involving himself with them UNTIL their goals lined up. He’s really quality (S-ranked!!!) villain material. The fact that he paralyzed one of the main character’s siblings is HUGE - why’d we have to wrap that up so fast? Nobody else in the story thus far had been so close to real extreme injury gained in the line of duty. No other hero in the story went as full-throttle homicidal as Iida did - many of them likely wouldn’t have actually. And that’s interesting! That’s pointing out a newfound FUNDAMENTAL difference between Iida and his classmates in both their experiences and their response to engaging with villains! That was AMAZING fodder for Iida’s character development in ‘what it means to be a hero’ - Stain even directly challenges Iida’s self-worth! He also was pretty much acknowledged as not ////really//// trying to kill Iida, Todo, and Izuku, which must’ve done an absolute number on them. Especially Iida! Argh! 

It would’ve been so easy to continue the arc into something substantial even if it still ended with Stain’s arrest. I’m sure he had a list somewhere of potential victims and his reasoning behind them (can you imagine a hero scandal arc? Because I sure can), I’m sure the fact that he singled out ALL-MIGHT and DEKU (through saving him publicly, but also MAN in one of the first translations of that chapter Stain said the only heroes who could kill him are All-Might AND Deku and honestly??? Quality content) as heroes he would recognize made waves in the hero community, and that should’ve drawn attention to Izuku. The whole cover up was so lame and poorly reasoned out??? The whole bit with Stain rescuing Hero Deku when NO ONE ELSE did was HUGE and it wasn’t even televised? Lame! He could’ve escaped easily but instead he chose to go after Izuku even with massive injuries!!! The fact that this didn’t give Endeavour an even more targeted hang-up on Izuku (and the fact that he didn’t get roasted for moving to attack despite Izuku being in the line of fire)? LAME! It had NO EFFECT at all despite being HUGE - an insanely interesting villain specifically drew parallels of worth between Izuku and All-Might, not based on Quirks, but based entirely in his attitude towards heroism and its absolute rarity in the hero community! 

He didn’t say this about Todoroki or Iida!!! AAAH!!!! The Hero Killer was SO OVER THE TOP. Look at him!!! Why let this arc die so quickly!?!? He even CALLS OUT ENDEAVOUR! NO ONE ELSE EVER CALLS OUT ENDEAVOUR ARGH!>!???!?! Also, listen, if the Hero Killer WASN’T caught? Can you imagine?? Him low-key stalking the child heroes who took him down and defending them? How badly do you think that would mess them up - how thoroughly alarmed would Izuku be (”has he caught on to my secret? Oh god he has, hasn’t he?? I bet he wants me to kill him oh my god I can’t DO that!??!?!”)?? How incredibly furious would Iida be? How much motivation would it be for Shigaraki to go after Izuku more aggressively? What kind of impact would that have had on UA and the teachers? How straight up horrible would it make the students (or Endeavour) look if Stain got away and began to hover around them!? How many UA students he would likely target!?!??! Could the LoV try to coax Iida out using revenge against Stain as bait or simply getting him to stop as bait?  Stain was a better villain than Overhaul (similar motivations, but Stain’s was easily understood and RIGHT in the heroes faces) and honestly his arc should’ve had more impact, leading to the Overhaul arc being more meaningful and ultimately having more impact on the story than it actually did.  (Also a very slight pinch of salt, but why later on in the manga does Izuku seem to struggle so much with ever accepting anyone’s help with anything when he so easily/immediately calls for Todoroki in this situation and leans heavily on both his and Iida’s assistance? Izuku post-Stain arc would have just tried to lure Stain out of the alley and set himself up to die in Iida’s place lmao. I miss Stain-arc Izuku. He was a smart guy)