Boku No hero Academia I: because it deserves a thread.

[Coidzor]

Geez, I'm reminded of Korra... Not having a quirk doesn't mean you don't have a normal life, not being a hero even less so. He's a healthy human boy, he can totally live a normal life (what was the number of quirkless people? 20%? That's a lot) See above in regards to not getting to live your dreams but not living a normal life is even more untrue.

When everyone is super, not having a power is like being born without one of the five sense.

And unlike a blind person, society feels free to abuse and discriminate against the Quirkless for being different. And probably not just because this is set in Japan.

[lord_khaine]

When everyone is super, not having a power is like being born without one of the five sense.

And unlike a blind person, society feels free to abuse and discriminate against the Quirkless for being different. And probably not just because this is set in Japan.

I do kinda think part of it is either from it being set in Japan, or else Deku being unlucky and going in a horibble school with incompetent teachers.

Because as such, he is not that big of a minority, it seemed some 20 % of the population were born without a Quirk.
And of those 80 % who does have one, then it also seems like a lot of them have fairly minor ones, like Dekus parents who can levitate little things or breathe fire. Things i doubt are very relevant for their jobs.

[Kato]

I do kinda think part of it is either from it being set in Japan, or else Deku being unlucky and going in a horibble school with incompetent teachers.

Because as such, he is not that big of a minority, it seemed some 20 % of the population were born without a Quirk.
And of those 80 % who does have one, then it also seems like a lot of them have fairly minor ones, like Dekus parents who can levitate little things or breathe fire. Things i doubt are very relevant for their jobs.

Thank you. The same goes for Korra (not to bring that up as a huge argument but just shortly...) Many/most people aren't benders. I can see how losing your bending would be a heavy blow but, surprise, you're just like other people now. Don't pretend your inferior to them now.
The same for quirkless. Sure, you can discriminate against 20% of the population but if 30% of the rest also have pointless quirk, that's more than unfair.

Er, meant to clarify "that he FEELS" that way. He isn't actually, as we can SEE from those notebooks. He just feels that way. Sorry!

Sorry, I know what you meant. But still... yes, it's been nagging at him, and sadly we learn very little of the time in between but would he have a dedictaed journal like that if he felt entirely worthless? It seems to me he might have kind of given up on his dream until he met AM but I don't think he didn't get used to the idea to the degree where he could have led a decent life. Then again, he was still convinced to join UA, so.....

[lord_khaine]

Thank you. The same goes for Korra (not to bring that up as a huge argument but just shortly...) Many/most people aren't benders. I can see how losing your bending would be a heavy blow but, surprise, you're just like other people now. Don't pretend your inferior to them now.
The same for quirkless. Sure, you can discriminate against 20% of the population but if 30% of the rest also have pointless quirk, that's more than unfair.

Your welcome, i actually think that those 30 % is putting it extremely low. The majority of people we have seen is from a elite class, picked in large part for their actual quicks. They most likely represent the best 0.something % of their year.
And we saw how they more or less crushed a group of random adult with only generally useful quirks.

Hmm.. now.. where were i going.. it seems i lost my point somewhere.. anyway.. moving on

Sorry, I know what you meant. But still... yes, it's been nagging at him, and sadly we learn very little of the time in between but would he have a dedictaed journal like that if he felt entirely worthless? It seems to me he might have kind of given up on his dream until he met AM but I don't think he didn't get used to the idea to the degree where he could have led a decent life. Then again, he was still convinced to join UA, so.....

What i kinda think is a little funny, is that with his mind he might very well have made a name for himself in law enforcement, or as a support staff member for one of the larger hero groups.

[LaZodiac]

What i kinda think is a little funny, is that with his mind he might very well have made a name for himself in law enforcement, or as a support staff member for one of the larger hero groups.

Deku would of made a very good support staff. He has notebooks of strategies against heroes. He'd be awesome through analysis.

I kinda want to see an alt universe where he does that, as well as the whole "he gets powers from his parents that mix to be orbiting fireballs"

[Kitten Champion]

I didn't really sense much Quirk-less discrimination. Sure Bakugou was cruel with his whole contemptuous scorn and middle-school flunkies as back-up, but that's not really indicative of how normal people act as it was made clear that Bakugou's vitriolic tendencies upon entering high school earned him nothing much beyond general disdain. He simply lived a life where he was a big fish in a small pond and everyone around catered to him, which happens in real life... as does persistent and sometimes terrifying bullying.

If anything the general sentiment expressed by the setting is liberal acceptance of their unimaginable diversity.

[Coidzor]

Thank you. The same goes for Korra (not to bring that up as a huge argument but just shortly...) Many/most people aren't benders. I can see how losing your bending would be a heavy blow but, surprise, you're just like other people now. Don't pretend your inferior to them now.
The same for quirkless. Sure, you can discriminate against 20% of the population but if 30% of the rest also have pointless quirk, that's more than unfair.

Losing a limb suddenly makes your worse off than those who have always lived without it, emotionally, in terms of coping as well as performing in every aspect of life that having that limb affected, from social situations to mobility. If you don't want to bring it up, don't mention it in the first place or retcon edit your posts to remove it.

Of course discrimination is unfair. Is this some kind of language barrier issue or something?

I didn't really sense much Quirk-less discrimination. Sure Bakugou was cruel with his whole contemptuous scorn and middle-school flunkies as back-up, but that's not really indicative of how normal people act as it was made clear that Bakugou's vitriolic tendencies upon entering high school earned him nothing much beyond general disdain. He simply lived a life where he was a big fish in a small pond and everyone around catered to him, which happens in real life... as does persistent and sometimes terrifying bullying.

If anything the general sentiment expressed by the setting is liberal acceptance of their unimaginable diversity.

It was more than Bakugou and his two toadies.

Of supers. The new normal that have largely supplanted baseline humanity.

[lord_khaine]

It was more than Bakugou and his two toadies.

Of supers. The new normal that have largely supplanted baseline humanity.

Yes, it was all of Bakugou's lesser flunkies as well, not only his two main ones. It is a kinda small sample though, so we cant see if it were just a bad class he were in.

That reminds me though, we have seen that All for one seems to have stolen Ragdolls observation quirk. With that he might not be nearly as impaired by his lack of vision as he leads on.
Or do people have other theories as to what went on with that?

[Haruspex_Pariah]

As far as I can recall it was just Bakugou and his goon squad picking on Deku. Deku's anguish was specifically because Heroes need Quirks and being a Hero was his childhood dream, not because he became a second-class citizen. The Hero industry discriminates against Quirkless, but the rest of society? That's not been shown. Other than being bullied by a kid with severe ego problems Deku seems to have led an okay life.

[Kitten Champion]

The implication I got from the first chapter, where this is the only place where it comes up, was that Midoriya was being heckled and derided because of his desire to go to U.A - which was impossible even in the mind of All Might - and because Bakugou was egging people on.

The severity of this was exaggerated in the art (the class and Bakugou taking on a suffocating, demonic visage) to represent Midoriya's mentality when faced with the increasing likelihood of seeing his dreams crushed officially with the end of middle school, and his general anxiety with Bakugou in particularly who stakes his massive sense of superiority in part on constantly diminishing Deku's self-worth for years now.

[Crafty Cultist]

I feel like the prejudice against Deku for being Quirkless is mainly just insecure teenage jerks being insecure teenage jerks. We never see any adults disparaging him, and when he's accepted into UA, the teachers reaction is just as more congratulatory than surprised.

[Kato]

Losing a limb suddenly makes your worse off than those who have always lived without it, emotionally, in terms of coping as well as performing in every aspect of life that having that limb affected, from social situations to mobility. If you don't want to bring it up, don't mention it in the first place or retcon edit your posts to remove it.

Of course discrimination is unfair. Is this some kind of language barrier issue or something?

I was about to type out a lengthy response but decided against it...
Apart from the fact that I said "more than unfair" (while being aware this is still poorly phrased) so I don't quite see the need for such a reply...

I feel like the prejudice against Deku for being Quirkless is mainly just insecure teenage jerks being insecure teenage jerks. We never see any adults disparaging him, and when he's accepted into UA, the teachers reaction is just as more congratulatory than surprised.

I was about to say the teacher laughed at Deku too in the first chapter but I misremembered (in the manga, not checking the anime but I likely misremembered).


I feel we know too little about Deku's youth. He seems to have been rather good friends with Katsuki for quite a while from the flashbacks. But we don't meet any other friends. So we really can't say... I'm reminded of Naruto who either was a total loner and had no friends or once in a while was shown being friends with some of the other young ninjas... I wonder if we'll ever get more flashbacks of Deku but I doubt it.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

I feel we know too little about Deku's youth. He seems to have been rather good friends with Katsuki for quite a while from the flashbacks. But we don't meet any other friends. So we really can't say... I'm reminded of Naruto who either was a total loner and had no friends or once in a while was shown being friends with some of the other young ninjas... I wonder if we'll ever get more flashbacks of Deku but I doubt it.

Yeah, expanding on Deku's childhood, in the time between his Quirkless diagnosis and receiving One For All, doesn't seem likely based on the way the story's headed. Unless there's going to be a plot twist involving someone he knew in childhood but hasn't been introduced to the readers yet. The biggest elephant in the room is Deku's father; we don't know anything about that guy other than his Quirk (is he even alive?), but his reaction to learning that his son is Quirkless would make a significant difference to the story.

RE: lord_khaine - I wondered about that too. If it was his plan all along to get caught and wait in jail while Shigaraki evolves, then it seems a waste of time to have taken Ragdoll's quirk. He may have passed it on to someone else, or he's planning to use it later. I have suspicions about the doctor who was seen with him earlier but hasn't been since.

[lord_khaine]

I was about to say the teacher laughed at Deku too in the first chapter but I misremembered (in the manga, not checking the anime but I likely misremembered).

Well.. at the same time the teacher did not do anything to reign the class in either though, could be he were just a horrible failure at his job.

RE: lord_khaine - I wondered about that too. If it was his plan all along to get caught and wait in jail while Shigaraki evolves, then it seems a waste of time to have taken Ragdoll's quirk. He may have passed it on to someone else, or he's planning to use it later. I have suspicions about the doctor who was seen with him earlier but hasn't been since.

Oh yes, we do not know the full extend of his plans, and we have most likely not found his main base, the one where the nomura came from.
Im just thinking its very easy for him to hold a power in reserve, that would let him escape his bonds.

[Drascin]

When everyone is super, not having a power is like being born without one of the five sense.

And unlike a blind person, society feels free to abuse and discriminate against the Quirkless for being different. And probably not just because this is set in Japan.

Being Japan doesn't help, I'll wager. There's something of an endemic attitude in the Japanese school system about bullying.

But I'm pretty sure Deku would have gotten **** at most schools. He's weird and unusual, as well as weedy and insecure. Weird kids, generally, get treated like crap, because kids are total jerks.

[Zalabim]

RE: lord_khaine - I wondered about that too. If it was his plan all along to get caught and wait in jail while Shigaraki evolves, then it seems a waste of time to have taken Ragdoll's quirk. He may have passed it on to someone else, or he's planning to use it later. I have suspicions about the doctor who was seen with him earlier but hasn't been since.

I was thinking it could have been Ragdoll's quirk that he was using to see in the fight against All Might at all.

[Coidzor]

Yes, it was all of Bakugou's lesser flunkies as well, not only his two main ones. It is a kinda small sample though, so we cant see if it were just a bad class he were in.

Deku's entire class and teacher were not all Bakugou's flunkies. How would you even get that idea?

We have no reason to believe that Deku's class was anything out of the norm or even a particularly bad school given the way Deku and Bakugou did on the written portion.

[Scowling Dragon]

The longer the series goes on with Katsuki going without any recourse, the more I feel my enthusiasm slip. At least have somebody acknowledge his psychotic tendencies and have somebody say something like:

"Why do we have this Psycho Around?"
"Because we need everybody we can in this war against villains even if it means we have to keep the worst ones. Your quirk is all that matters"

It feels just like a Vegeta character. And it just feels ridiculous.

Like the sentiment of powers vs people of the first 6 chapters has been dropped completely now that Deku has his superpowers.

[lord_khaine]

Deku's entire class and teacher were not all Bakugou's flunkies. How would you even get that idea?

From the way they were all fawning over him despite his rotten attitude of course. They were more or less acting like he were a rock star.

We have no reason to believe that Deku's class was anything out of the norm or even a particularly bad school given the way Deku and Bakugou did on the written portion.

It can still be a bad class even if the education level of the place is high. How the teacher more or less let the laws of the jungle rule it certainly point at it being a bad place. A competent teacher would have reigned Baku in, not created a situation where he could casually vandalise Deku's propety.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

From the way they were all fawning over him despite his rotten attitude of course. They were more or less acting like he were a rock star.



It can still be a bad class even if the education level of the place is high. How the teacher more or less let the laws of the jungle rule it certainly point at it being a bad place. A competent teacher would have reigned Baku in, not created a situation where he could casually vandalise Deku's propety.

Eh, Bakugou's introduction to the manga has him antagonise his classmates by saying they have weak quirks. And him openly calling them secondary characters, when they respond angrily. They're not exactly his loyal servants.

I think his open bullying of Deku on school premises is more a case of the school staff not wanting to bother their star pupil. In RL terms imagine a potential basketball star or academic prodigy getting free reign in a small town school. This is obviously wrong, but hey it's an imperfect world.

[lord_khaine]

Eh, Bakugou's introduction to the manga has him antagonise his classmates by saying they have weak quirks. And him openly calling them secondary characters, when they respond angrily. They're not exactly his loyal servants.

Well.. they also seem to instantly follow in whenever the mood turns against Deku though. They might not directly be servants, but they behave more like groupies than anything else.

I think his open bullying of Deku on school premises is more a case of the school staff not wanting to bother their star pupil. In RL terms imagine a potential basketball star or academic prodigy getting free reign in a small town school. This is obviously wrong, but hey it's an imperfect world.

Yes, this is a good reading of the situation. It does not change the verdict on the teachers competence level though, their job is to be there for all the student, not just the strongest.

[Sliver]

Yes, this is a good reading of the situation. It does not change the verdict on the teachers competence level though, their job is to be there for all the student, not just the strongest.

But think of the bragging rights they have! Everybody would be jealous of the school when they hear that the crazy hero kid that already got snatched by villains twice already went to their school!

He is more worthwhile than that quirkless kid that is keeps sacrificing himself to save others. That kid will probably die sooner rather than later, so it's bothersome to tell the bully to stop.

[lord_khaine]

But think of the bragging rights they have! Everybody would be jealous of the school when they hear that the crazy hero kid that already got snatched by villains twice already went to their school!

He is more worthwhile than that quirkless kid that is keeps sacrificing himself to save others. That kid will probably die sooner rather than later, so it's bothersome to tell the bully to stop.

That still dont make said teacher less of a disgrace though, his job is not to brag, its to take care of all his students.

[Coidzor]

Well.. they also seem to instantly follow in whenever the mood turns against Deku though. They might not directly be servants, but they behave more like groupies than anything else.

Or they just dislike Deku personally because he's pathetic and an easy target below them in the pecking order of society and the school.

Or they just dislike Deku as an uppity secondclass quirkless.

There's a lot more options than them just going along with it because it was Bakugou instigating it.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Or they just dislike Deku personally because he's pathetic and an easy target below them in the pecking order of society and the school.

Or they just dislike Deku as an uppity secondclass quirkless.

There's a lot more options than them just going along with it because it was Bakugou instigating it.

Deku's on-screen interactions with his classmates, other than Bakugou and his posse, are limited to:

1. Them mocking him for trying to get into UA. Which is a prestigious school giving rise to the greatest heroes of their time. Him, the weird kid with no friends who is considered a hero otaku by the standards of a society that looks up to heroes.

2. Them making fun of him for mumbling in class.

Frankly I think you are overblowing the importance of Deku's quirklessness as a factor in people's treatment of him. And also exaggerating the severity of the grief he receives from people not named Bakugou. Not to mention headcanon-ing a society-wide discrimination against Quirkless.

Yeah I'm waiting for the (flashback) scene where he comes home to find his front door vandalised by Quirkless-haters or the one where he's forced to ride a different train than the people with Quirks.

[lord_khaine]

There's a lot more options than them just going along with it because it was Bakugou instigating it.

Indeed, there are always more options, even if some are more farfetched than others (doubt alien mind control is involved).
But i do think that Bakugo is a driving point, without him i find it more likely that he would be ignored than anything else.

Deku's on-screen interactions with his classmates, other than Bakugou and his posse, are limited to:

We are not shown anything better though, no signs of him having friends or people he talks to.

Anyway, on to another topic that recently struct me. Is Deku going to develop a powered form like All Might did?
We have seen a drastic shift in his apperance from before he got One for All, and afterwards.
Besides that, just being mortally wounded were enough to make him lose the ability to stay in that shape for more than a few hours each day, even before he had passed his power on to Deku.

[Spacewolf]

Seems likely gran torino said that Deku might just transform soon after all.

[Kato]

Anyway, on to another topic that recently struct me. Is Deku going to develop a powered form like All Might did?
We have seen a drastic shift in his apperance from before he got One for All, and afterwards.
Besides that, just being mortally wounded were enough to make him lose the ability to stay in that shape for more than a few hours each day, even before he had passed his power on to Deku.

*grumbles about passing on powers should not deplete them again*
Anyway: Yeah, I've been wondering that, too. Also, had Toshinori's senpai such a shape? Or was that his original quirk?

Seems likely gran torino said that Deku might just transform soon after all.

He did?


Also, anime season one is over. It was fun while it lasted. I hope we won't have to wait long until the net season which will likely be the Stain and sports festival arcs? (Those were next, right?)

[LaZodiac]

*grumbles about passing on powers should not deplete them again*
Anyway: Yeah, I've been wondering that, too. Also, had Toshinori's senpai such a shape? Or was that his original quirk?

Also, anime season one is over. It was fun while it lasted. I hope we won't have to wait long until the net season which will likely be the Stain and sports festival arcs? (Those were next, right?)

Yeah, Stain and the Sports Festival are next.

Think of it like this. All Might has a battery within himself. He gave the battery to Deku. He still has the energy that battery made within him, but once that runs out he's out of electricity. Also Toshinori was quirkless as well, if I recall.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

I do like how the anime expanded on the action scenes for the other students and teachers.

Related, have we been told/shown what Snipe's Quirk actually is?