My Hero Academia 2: I will endeavor to become a thread you can be proud of

[Kato]

I guess it does. It just seems weird this would happen to the grandson of a famous hero. Who had close friends like Toshinori and GT. But I guess if AfO just waited for it to happen.. Fine.

Also, we're at the part of Naruto where we follow Sasuke around for a year now, huh? Okay..

[LaZodiac]

I guess it does. It just seems weird this would happen to the grandson of a famous hero. Who had close friends like Toshinori and GT. But I guess if AfO just waited for it to happen.. Fine.

Also, we're at the part of Naruto where we follow Sasuke around for a year now, huh? Okay..

I mean he "wasn't" the grandson of a famous hero. Nana's son was literally separated from her to protect him, so they probably grew up as potentially wealthy, but otherwise unknown people.

I feel like the villain time is over and we'll dive back into good guy territory tomorrow, don't worry

[Frozen_Feet]

My thoughts on Vigilantes:

Spoiler

Show

Nooooooo don't die C. C.! You have to go back to the States to take care of your baby and be a henpecked husband to your angry wife!

...

Actually, death doesn't look too bad.

[Ramza00]

I mean, the reason why no one helped Shigaraki is because...these things happen. His family was decently large, but intentionally kept hidden so as not to be connected to Shimura Nana. Given the family was also abusive, the kids likely didn't have any contact with much people.

Who Shigaraki's family is does not matter to Shigaraki's take, even if it matters for All Might / All for One / One for All's tale it is an asymetric relation, a relationship without symmetry.

Unless All for One killed Shigaraki's parents secretly (instead of killing just his grandma) , Shigaraki's tale applies to any child that can have a freak random mutation quirk and can kill their family and society is indifferent to it.

This is a society where 4 year olds get magical powers without the cognition to use these magical powers for the kids are 4. Sometimes the quirk is bigger that an individual family is able to handle that is why there is an elementary school system that has quirk counseling and so on.

Yet these kids get no relationship to external society prior to school, prior to quirk counseling etc. Aka there is a liminal space, a place between two areas, between two thresholds that there is ambiguity and full of potential loss for you are all on your own in this place between spaces place.

What happens from 0 to 5 is not up to the child's active choice where they make good decisions for the child is too young to make decisions, and sometimes you get bad parents in general or parents who can not handle random quirks, it is an illustration of the absurdity of life for society is generally good for it handles many situations but it does not see many of it's holes, or how in places it can be gilded and so on.

That is why Shigaraki is angry, except it is not purely anger but anger plus disqust and when you mix these two primal emotions you get a new emotion much like blue plus yellow yields green. Anger plus disqust yields contempt and while anger may be hot, contempt is much more cold (with bursts of animating heat), contempt is a form of pain that is unbearable it is dysphoric, beyond the ability for one to handle.

----

What is the line from Disney's Hunchback?

"We Found You Totally Innocent, Which Is The Worst Crime Of All."

[Claudius Maximus]

This is a society where 4 year olds get magical powers without the cognition to use these magical powers for the kids are 4. It is a burger that an individual family is often unable to handle that is why there is an elementary school system that has quirk counseling and so on.

I support the idea of giant burgers as a "big problem to approach" expression. Really, I just want a giant burger now.

In other news I was chilling at Izumo Taisha the other day and a cool old lady taught me about Yaoyorozu, which gave me insight into yet another super on-the-nose name in MHA, in that Yaoyorozu can make any number of possible implements.

[John Cribati]

At least it's better than "Electricity Lightning" or "IronIron IronIron"

[Frozen_Feet]

I'm not sure if Peachy Lotsastuff is actually better.

[John Cribati]

I still place the bar at Electricity Lightning. Tetsu⁴ is at least part of the running gag about him being a copy of Kirishima. And technically his name uses 4 different Kanji so there's probably something I'm missing because I don't speak Japanese.

[Traab]

With the 4 year olds get magical powers thing, at least we have seen they tend to be magnitudes weaker. Bakugo was sparkler boy for example. Admittedly I dont know if thats how it always is, or just usually.

[LaZodiac]

Who Shigaraki's family is does not matter to Shigaraki's take, even if it matters for All Might / All for One / One for All's tale it is an asymetric relation, a relationship without symmetry.

Unless All for One killed Shigaraki's parents secretly (instead of killing just his grandma) , Shigaraki's tale applies to any child that can have a freak random mutation quirk and can kill their family and society is indifferent to it.

This is a society where 4 year olds get magical powers without the cognition to use these magical powers for the kids are 4. Sometimes the quirk is bigger that an individual family is able to handle that is why there is an elementary school system that has quirk counseling and so on.

Yet these kids get no relationship to external society prior to school, prior to quirk counseling etc. Aka there is a liminal space, a place between two areas, between two thresholds that there is ambiguity and full of potential loss for you are all on your own in this place between spaces place.

What happens from 0 to 5 is not up to the child's active choice where they make good decisions for the child is too young to make decisions, and sometimes you get bad parents in general or parents who can not handle random quirks, it is an illustration of the absurdity of life for society is generally good for it handles many situations but it does not see many of it's holes, or how in places it can be gilded and so on.

That is why Shigaraki is angry, except it is not purely anger but anger plus disqust and when you mix these two primal emotions you get a new emotion much like blue plus yellow yields green. Anger plus disqust yields contempt and while anger may be hot, contempt is much more cold (with bursts of animating heat), contempt is a form of pain that is unbearable it is dysphoric, beyond the ability for one to handle.

----

What is the line from Disney's Hunchback?

"We Found You Totally Innocent, Which Is The Worst Crime Of All."

Ramza I love you like a really, really weird uncle, but that is not Kato's problem with Shigaraki's background. Kato's problem is that no one from the system noticed this child murdered his entire family with his power and saved him from his destitution and sadness. Not one person, it seems, went "hey I haven't seen *Shigi-Dad* in a couple months, let's see how he's doing" and walked in to the probably still very bloodstained home they lived in.

[Ramza00]

Ramza I love you like a really, really weird uncle, but that is not Kato's problem with Shigaraki's background. Kato's problem is that no one from the system noticed this child murdered his entire family with his power and saved him from his destitution and sadness. Not one person, it seems, went "hey I haven't seen *Shigi-Dad* in a couple months, let's see how he's doing" and walked in to the probably still very bloodstained home they lived in.

That is my point, I find this believable in a fictional society. Shigaraki isn't special. These things happen, horrible things happen.

[LaZodiac]

That is my point, I find this believable in a fictional society. Shigaraki isn't special. These things happen, horrible things happen.

That is also what I said though! I just was explaining how his high profile family would be obscured from the world view.

[John Cribati]

With the 4 year olds get magical powers thing, at least we have seen they tend to be magnitudes weaker. Bakugo was sparkler boy for example. Admittedly I dont know if thats how it always is, or just usually.

Tend is probably the operative word here. Like, Momo's creation was probably limited by her 4-year-old mind and body, and Kirishima could only harden his skin "a little bit" as late as his final year of Junior high.

On the flip side, Eri reversed her father into a zygote almost immediately.

[LaZodiac]

Tend is probably the operative word here. Like, Momo's creation was probably limited by her 4-year-old mind and body, and Kirishima could only harden his skin "a little bit" as late as his final year of Junior high.

On the flip side, Eri reversed her father into a zygote almost immediately.

No probably needed on that one chief, Momo's power explicitly needs her to understand it's atomic structure and Kirishima's forehead scar came from rubbing his forehead when his quirk turned on for the first time.

But yeah there's also...that. Quirk's are dangerous!

[Ramza00]

Sidenote I saw the Two Heroes movie, I will have more thoughts later.

But ... All Might is definitely Gay for Dave and that is precious 😍

[lord_khaine]

That is my point, I find this believable in a fictional society. Shigaraki isn't special. These things happen, horrible things happen.

And whats even more important is, that it was All for Ones desire that this specific horrible thing was going to happen.
All for One wanted Shigaraki as his heir, because that was his personal revenge on All Might.

There might have been people who would have done something in a normal situation, but in this case they would have been in the way,
so likely All for One removed them with money or threats.

[Frozen_Feet]

Regarding "how common is it for four-year-olds to have dangerous Quirks?" :

It's a minor but noteworthy plotpoint that Quirks are becoming stronger by generation. This was called the "Quirk Singularity", a direct parallel to "technological singularity" , the concept that at some point rapid advancements in technology make societal changes unpredictable, creating an "event horizon" beyond which no-one can tell what could happen.

One for All's vestiges also talked about "singularity". This could be a quirk of translation, or entirely unrelated conceptually. But if they do refer to the same phenomenom... It's possible people like Eri and Shigaraki are heralds of a great societal shift caused by way too strong Quirks manifesting way too early. And Deku is, somehow, meant to combat it.

[Reddish Mage]

No probably needed on that one chief, Momo's power explicitly needs her to understand it's atomic structure and Kirishima's forehead scar came from rubbing his forehead when his quirk turned on for the first time.

But yeah there's also...that. Quirk's are dangerous!

Here and there they show some signs that quirks are dangerous but I’m not sure its anymore often than X-men show the consequences of untrained powers. On the balance the MHA characters have absurd levels of durability and luck when it comes to using their powers regularly to do stunts that are too dangerous for professional stunt people, and with results that are physically impossible. Look at how Midoriya used ORDINARY MINES to provide thrust to finish first in the qualifiers. Bakugo can use his explosions to push himself for super jump and jets, and both cases involve characters that don’t have super strength (at least Midoriya didn’t yet). This is despite the fact that healing abilities are rare and don’t work to heal completely without drawbacks.

[Lurkmoar]

Didn't the commentators specificially say the the mines were designed to only stun, not cause injury?

[Ramza00]

Didn't the commentators specificially say the the mines were designed to only stun, not cause injury?

Yes but that is *handwave physics,* much like how Eraserhead who got his head really beat down in the pavement would have both eye injuries and brain damage. Any form of land mine that could stun will also risk serious bodily injuries if it can deploy enough concussive force to stun. Such a land mine can also turn the ground into shrapnel being launched at explosive speeds, shrapnel that could main maybe not all the time but significantly enough of the time to be a risk to the students on a probability field.

But as a storyteller you can handwave this away with diegetic narration, and the reader hears you and turns off their suspension of disbelief for the narrator told you to turn it off.

MHA plays loose and fast with physics, news at 11. It is okay just enjoy the flow of the story.

[John Cribati]

Standard Anime Resilience probably factors into things as well.

[LaZodiac]

New chapter!

Spoiler

Show

we get some cool stuff from the Villain League, and then we get, dun dun duuuun, the call from Redestro and his Revived Liberation Army...of 11 000 people. Jesus. That's uh...bad.

We also get to see all of his leaders and one of them is from a parody of Shueisha, Shonen Jump's publisher, and that rules. That's funny as hell. But yeah holy **** Redestro is horrifying. I'm excited for where this'll go!

Rip in piss Giren by the way you're almost certainly dead by the end of this.

[Kato]

Wow. Shigaraki has a smart plan... If Toga wasn't right next to him I'd ask if it's her, but she's also not that smart.
No, I'm stoked about this. Let's see how it goes.

[GloatingSwine]

Spoiler: 224

Show

Given that the same hero who encountered Bakugou and Todoroki is now confirmed to be in the liberation army, what do we reckon the chances of those two being drawn in to all this are?

As two of the highest power cast members they form the best contrast for what's being offered by Redestro.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler: 224

Show

Given that the same hero who encountered Bakugou and Todoroki is now confirmed to be in the liberation army, what do we reckon the chances of those two being drawn in to all this are?

As two of the highest power cast members they form the best contrast for what's being offered by Redestro.

Spoiler

Show

Yeah, that would be quite interesting.

Anyway yeah this chapter ruled. Shigaraki did uh...kind of ruthlessly kill two people as part of the villainous infighting. To be expected of course. And I'm liking the set up of Toga fighting a head reporter type lady who can explode things. Basically this is a really fun situation.

[LaZodiac]

New chapter!

Spoiler

Show

A nice touch: the descriptions for the Meta-Human Liberation Front Revival don't call them quirks, but call them meta-abilities. That's pretty cool bit of in universe flavor.

Also, Toga continues to be my favorite character in the series, and as much as I do love Curious and her entourage and the fact that she's literally ****ing Killer Queen, I cannot wait for Toga to slice her open because it's going to rule.

[Kato]

Spoiler

Show

I'm a bit on the fence about their reasoning why there are no Nomus... Using Dabi's statement as reasoning feels more than far fetched. But oh well.. I guess he's supposedly smart, so he's right. Until Giganto shows up.

I'm still slightly confused about the Army's motive... so are they angry because the League is competition in being a big bad organization or because they give quirk users a bad rep?

And I'm not sure how I feel about Curious being basically the love child of Gambit and Deidara. Especially considering her blowing up blood feels like it should be a lethal move, like Mushroom Girls suffocation attacks. I guess people in this universe are just super resilient.

I guess Toga will win by sheer willpower? I mean, she's got the experience and skills, of course, but she's also getting blasted repeatedly.
I'm not sure how I feel about her backtory... "I didn't want to be normal'?

[lord_khaine]

I dont think his reasoning has been that bad.
There were a sharp drop in Nomu activity after All For One were caught.
So i think it is quite logical that the production had stopped.

All the same, then it is fault not to assume there is some sort of backup stockpile held in reserve for an emergency.

As for Toga's backstory. Well she is a sociopath. Or a Psychopath. And more than a little mad.
Just like all the other members of the leageu of villains.

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler

Show

I'm a bit on the fence about their reasoning why there are no Nomus... Using Dabi's statement as reasoning feels more than far fetched. But oh well.. I guess he's supposedly smart, so he's right. Until Giganto shows up.

I'm still slightly confused about the Army's motive... so are they angry because the League is competition in being a big bad organization or because they give quirk users a bad rep?

And I'm not sure how I feel about Curious being basically the love child of Gambit and Deidara. Especially considering her blowing up blood feels like it should be a lethal move, like Mushroom Girls suffocation attacks. I guess people in this universe are just super resilient.

I guess Toga will win by sheer willpower? I mean, she's got the experience and skills, of course, but she's also getting blasted repeatedly.
I'm not sure how I feel about her backtory... "I didn't want to be normal'?

Spoiler

Show

Redestro's logic is pretty valid, honestly. Like Khaine said, the Noumu have basically stopped appearing. There has to be a reason for that.

The Army's motive is that they believe they are fighting to improve society. They seeing the League of Villain's as being an impediment to that goal, due to them wanting to destroy society's pillars of hope and support. The Liberation Army does not want to bring society to it's knees, they just want to make it clear that meta-abilities are free to be used however they wish.

Keep in mind, it didn't blow up Toga's blood. The blood blew up as it went inside of her. Since Curious's quirk is Landmine, we can assume that it didn't get fully into her system yet since it probably touched somewhere inside her mouth, so it wasn't able to cause AS bad as an explosion as it could. It also seems like certain things explode with a different sort of lethality (or she can control it, which makes sense. Even if her minions become living bombs for her making them actually be full on suicide bombers isn't something the Liberation Army would do just yet).

That's not what I get from Toga's backstory at all. Toga wore a proverbial mask in her "normal" life, trying to pretend to be a good little girl who everyone could trust and be friends with. But under that mask she is actually a legitimate, actually insane psychopath. It's honestly emblematic of what the Liberation Army has against the LOV in general. Even though Curious is clearly deranged, she's able to live in society. She's not a crazy person, and she can control her impulses. Someone like Toga could never fit in their Army since she is unable to control her murderous desires.

And because she's a teenager who hasn't received the mental health counseling that would help with this (and it's arguable if it would stick given her personality) she's embraced that chaotic, wild side of her. For her, being a murderous psychopath is her normal. She follows her own rules and logic.

[Kato]

Oh, I can totally agree with 'you haven't used a lot of Nomu recently' being an argument, but Dabi taking back only the special one? What about that tells you they won't bring it (or others) to the fight here?

I guess something blowing up in your mouth is less lethal than in your arteries - no idea what I was thinking - but it still seems like something that should be more than just a little painful.

But I guess I misread the bits about her Toga's background, yes. Though, because it seems to be Deku's fault she's herself now... That's just a pretty effed up dynamic.