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antiquity1111 · 1 year

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{English vs. Japanese Translation Comparison for Spinner’s Speech to Toga (288) w/ Commentary}

Lately I’ve been revisiting League of Villains scenes from past chapters and translating them to distract myself from life being chaotic and emotionally abusive. Below, you’ll find the product of one of my many sleepless nights.

「トガ俺たちゃ偶々寄せ集まっただけのはぐれ者たちだが.........」

= “Toga, we are stray people who only met / came together / assembled by chance.........”

はぐれ / 逸れる (romaji: hagureru) means “to become separated from (e.g., one’s companions); to lose sight of; to go astray (as in off course); to wander; to become lost; to veer away; to deviate.” Essentially, it describes the situation of finding oneself alone and disconnected from self or others.

Are you familiar with the Parable of the Lost Sheep? I grew up reflecting on it, even though I’m not Christian and was not raised in a Christian household (the same allegory exists in other Abrahamic traditions as well). This next bit of exposition will borrow heavily from the analogy of the lost sheep, shepherd, and flock of ninety nine WITHOUT the religious overtones. For reference, I have included a screenshot of the Parable of the Lost Sheep as it appears in the Gospel of Luke.

Spinner is likening each of the League of Villains members to the one sheep that strays from the flock and then must contend with the harsh reality that on its own it is not likely to survive for long before it is discovered by hungry predators, suffers an injury, starves, or falls ill and dies. And yet, it cannot be assured that the shepherd, upon realizing one of his sheep has gone astray, will break from the flock (“All”), leaving the ninety nine, for the sake of searching for the wayward sheep (“One”).

This is an example of utilitarianism versus deontology in action. A utilitarian, like Hawks, would favor abandoning the missing sheep (“One”), effectively sacrificing its life, so that the shepherd remains with the flock (“All”), prioritizing the greatest *number* of sheep over the welfare of each *individual* sheep. Utilitarianism and its proponents measure the “rightness” or “wrongness” of an action by the “sum of utilities” (i.e., usefulness, results) produced rather than by considerations of beneficence, fairness, and justice. To a utilitarian, sacrificing one to save many is the “morally correct” thing to do—and therefore the “right” choice—because it would seem to benefit the *most* people (99 > 1), even if and when actions taken do direct or indirect harm to *some* people (the one sheep that had become separated from the flock and, under utilitarianism, would be abandoned by the shepherd to die). To a deontologist like Jin, however, abandoning the one for the purported sake of the many would be unthinkable, immoral, and unethical. Who is Hawks to decide for the missing sheep that its life has less value and importance than the lives of the remaining ninety nine sheep, who, unlike the one, have the benefit of the flock’s protection, even in absence of the shepherd? It would be harder for a predator to isolate and take down an integrated member of the flock than it would be to kill and devour the already isolated and defenseless sheep that strayed. A deontologist like Jin would argue that if it would be wrong to abandon the ninety nine, then it also would be wrong to abandon the one, because abandoning anyone is wrong. Wrong is wrong is wrong, regardless of circumstances. A utilitarian like Hawks would argue that it would not be cost effective to risk harm coming to the ninety nine for the sake of the one. A single sheep lost is a loss (in a similar vein to how being rained out of a highly anticipated football game is a loss), but it is a negligible one compared to the loss of five, ten, or ninety nine, which would cripple the shepherd’s profits and could cost him his livelihood. (Jin would sucker-punch Hawks in the jaw for running a cost-benefit analysis on LIVES). Where do you think that old adage “do unto others as you would have others do unto you” would fall between these two ethical perspectives? If you guessed deontology, you were right. “Treat others as you would like to be treated” is a deontological principle.

Circling back to Spinner comparing the main members of the League of Villains to sheep without a flock, he follows up his description of himself and the others as “stray people” by implying that they became for one another that which they had lost (or never had): a flock to return to, share experiences with, and find comfort, protection, and companionship in. When they first became estranged from their respective flocks, assuming they had ever had such a thing (I’m not convinced Spinner had ever had a “flock” before the League of Villains), they had no way of knowing they would ever belong to another (flock, that is, not person; people don’t own people). They could not have known they would not always be alone and wandering, hoping to avoid predators, struggling to survive without material resources or supports of any kind. After all, their assembling as the League of Villains when and how they did was random. They each had their reasons for joining the group and a few (Magne, Jin) might have even had “friendship, belonging” as one of their motivations for joining, but others (Tomura, Touya, Himiko, Spinner, Atsuhiro) were certainly not expecting to bond and develop close friendships with their comrades in arms turned found family.

“You’re not the only one devastated by Twice being killed.”

やられて means (romaji: yara rete) “to hit; to harm; to injure; to kill.” This is the action done to the sentence subject (トゥワイス : Twice). 悔しい (romaji: kuyashii) has several potential meanings, including “frustrated (over a failure, humiliation, or injustice); annoyed; chagrined; (bitterly) disappointed; bitter; vexed; regretful; sorrowful.” I tried to brainstorm for an English word that could carry the nuance of all or most of these definitions. I settled for “devastated.” To devastate is to “destroy or ruin (something)” or “cause (someone) severe and overwhelming shock or grief.” I’d say that description fits, particularly for Dabi and Toga, who had extreme negative reactions to Twice’s murder and were shown to still be grappling with the traumatic loss almost 100 chapters later in No.341.

“You’re not the only one devastated by Twice being killed” became “you’re not the only one feeling messed up... over Twice” in the official English translation, which not only greatly understates the intensity of the League of Villains' feelings about their friend’s (and Himiko's older brother's) death but also conveniently omits that Spinner was explicit about Twice’s fate. He was murdered, and Spinner did not tiptoe around that fact. Spinner's ability to verbalize what happened to Twice suggests that he is not in denial about it but that it is weighing heavily on his mind and heart, enough to have prompted him to call out to Toga when he saw her preparing to run off in pursuit of Heroes, Heroes like the Hero who killed Twice.

「敵連合はあいつにとって唯一の居場所で」

= “For him (Twice), the League of Villains was the only place he belonged / fit in / could be himself” or “As far as he (Twice) was concerned, the League of Villains was the only place he belonged / fit in / could be himself.”

The difference between the official English translation and direct Japanese to English translation might seem superficial at first glance, but at least in my mind, there is an important distinction to be made between them. Caleb had Spinner say that Twice “FELT” he “COULD” belong with the League of Villains, but “could” implies potential more than it does reality. Twice “COULD” belong with the League of Villains, or he *COULD NOT* belong with them. It “COULD” rain on Sunday, but it also *COULD NOT* rain on Sunday.

In Japanese Spinner doesn’t say “Twice FELT he COULD belong”; he says “Twice DID belong / fit in / could be himself.” For Twice, reality was that he had found in the League of Villains the unconditional acceptance, positive regard, and camaraderie he had searched for, empty-handed and broken-hearted, his entire life. The sole “condition” for Twice to “belong” and “fit in” with the League of Villains was simply for him to be himself. He didn’t even have to be “useful” to be accepted. Originally, Twice refused to use Double to its full capability because he was afraid of himself, afraid of losing control, afraid of disappearing, afraid of dying. Even though he had joined a fledgling crime syndicate and then plainly stated he was unwilling to contribute his “material” best to their cause, Twice was not shamed for it. He was not faulted for it. His feelings, his needs, and his boundaries were immediately and unequivocally respected by everyone. HIS best was enough for them even when it was not THE best. Who he naturally was was enough for the League of Villains. That’s what Hawks refused to hear (literally, he wasn’t listening) and failed to understand. He used Twice to gather intelligence on the League of Villains while undercover at the PLF mansion but never saw any of them for the complex, deeply wounded, but not unfeeling or compassionless individuals Twice knew them to be. Hawks saw “two-bit criminals” at best and “evil, demonic, abnormally depraved, subhuman” monsters at worst. He does not and will not or is unable to recognize the humanity in them that Twice saw.

At the end of the day, Hawks has proven that it is easier for him to ruthlessly mock and murder criminals than it is for him to listen to understand and actually help them. He’s quicker to kill than to empathize. Recognizing and respecting the humanity of others requires one to recognize and respect their own. Hawks’ actions demonstrate that he would kill adult “Keigo” before he would extend a hand to help him. Only a person willing to kill the humanity inside of themselves could have killed Jin, whose narrative purpose, as flagged by Horikoshi’s choice of his name and kanji, was to be a stand-in and representative for humanity, its duality, and the everyman. Hawks killed “Keigo” to kill “Jin.” Horikoshi even illustrates that point for us in No.264 by positioning the bottom panels to have Hawks’ feather blades, sharp and poised to strike, directed at HIM as he slaughters DOZENS of Twice clones, each one representing the same thing: humanity, its duality, and the everyman. Hawks killed Jin again and again and again and again... and every time he did, he killed part of himself, the part that makes him human.

But let’s not mince words here. While that moralistic, cutthroat, sacrifice-anyone-to-save-everyone attitude *hurts* Hawks, it *kills* people like Twice, and hurting isn't killing. (Yes, the HPSC instilled it in him and Keigo is a victim as well, but no, that does not mitigate the damage he, who is now an adult with the ability to make decisions for himself about how to behave and has long had the financial resources required to seek professional help, CHOOSES to inflict on others.) Hawks walks away from these encounters unfettered, without personal or professional consequence, and with his life, dreams, and opportunity to grow and heal intact, while the people he kills have their lives, dreams, and opportunities to grow and heal stolen from them by his hand. (Realistically, Twice was NOT Hawks’ first kill. Make no mistake, Hawks is an assassin for the HPSC. The “act” is being a cheerful, lackadaisical young man, NOT being a sanctimonious, remorseless state-sponsored killer for a corrupt government. THAT is the truth of the “Wing Hero: Hawks,” and it shows in how he thinks and operates. THAT DOES NOT MEAN HE CAN’T STILL BE ENLIGHTENED TO THAT WHICH HE HAS BEEN IN THE DARK ABOUT FROM HIS INTRODUCTION: THE ESSENCE OF HUMANITY, THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH THAT ALL IS ONE AND ONE IS ALL, AND WHEN ANY PERSON SUFFERS, ALL OF HUMANITY SUFFERS. HAWKS—OR KEIGO, RATHER—CAN GROW AND I BELIEVE HE WILL BECAUSE THE KANJI FOR HIS FULL NAME, LIKE EVERY CHARACTER IN THIS SERIES, AREN’T JUST FOR SHOW; THEY TELL US ABOUT HIS QUIRK, ABOUT HIS ARC, OR BOTH. KEIGO’S ARC IS TO *BECOME*, MEANING HE ISN’T ALREADY, ENLIGHTENED. *HE* IS THE ONE CLOAKED IN SHADOW, WANDERING AIMLESSLY IN THE DARK, NOT EVEN FULLY COGNIZANT THAT HE IS. *HE* IS THE LOST SHEEP, BUT HE *CAN* BE FOUND. HE’S JUST MOVING AT A SNAIL’S PACE AND MAKING AN ASS OF HIMSELF ALL THE WHILE. I STILL BELIEVE IN THE HERO—NO, FUCK THAT, THE PERSON—HE CAN BE. HE’S JUST NOT THERE YET. I’M ROOTING FOR HIM. I WOULDN’T THINK OR TALK SO MUCH ABOUT THIS GUY IF I HATED HIM. I LIKE HIM. I THINK HE’S BETTER THAN HOW HE’S ACTED ((AND KEEPS ACTING)). I FEEL ABOUT HIM LIKE A DISAPPOINTED PARENT DOES THEIR CHILD).

「そのボスが恐らく「俺たちが集まること」を望んでる」

= “The boss would probably like for ‘us to come together / assemble’ like [before]” or “I suspect the boss would like for ‘us to come together / assemble’ like [before].”

恐らく (romaji: osoraku) is an adverb that means “probably; (most) likely; in all likelihood; I suspect.” 望んでる (romaji: nozon deru) is the te-iru form (indicating that an action is ongoing) of the verb 望む (romaji: nozomu), meaning “to desire; to wish for; to hope for; to pray for; to expect.”

What is Tomura (probably) wishing on a star for? For the League of Villains to be together again like they were following their genesis. He is looking forward to a return to “normal,” to having fun and bonding over video games, magic tricks, general tomfoolery, and all-around hell-raising, like they did before everything went to shit, before the wars, before AFO invaded his body and mind and started abandoning his friends to be arrested or killed. (At the end of the PLF War, to punish Tomura for failing to steal OFA and defeat Deku and Endeavor, AFO deliberately left Toga, Mr. Compress, and Gigantomachia to be captured by the Heroes. Because AFO stated that all that mattered is that Tomura’s body and Spinner escape, and because it was Mr. Compress who concealed a compressed Dabi in Spinner’s scarf ((so he would not be further targeted by the Heroes or forgotten by AFO)) and pulled Skeptic loose of fallen debris, rescuing him, it is likely AFO intended to abandon them as well).

「勝手するのは敵の本領かってするのはおれたちのほんりょう」

= “Doing as we please / acting of our own volition is our (read as: the Villain’s / League’s) specialty.”

That “our” is like an energetic cord tying Himiko to the League of Villains. It says, “You are not alone. You belong and have a home with us.”

勝手に (romaji: katte ni) means “arbitrarily; freely; of one’s own accord; without asking (permission); voluntarily; willfully; as one pleases; spontaneously; (doing something) by one’s self; one’s own convenience; one’s way.” It describes actions taken by choice, free of external influences like peer pressure or fear of punishment (e.g., criticism, shame, or expulsion from the group).

Due to his own traumatic loss of a friend to a violent end, Aizawa strives to keep his students on a tight leash to decrease the chances of something bad happening to them. To a person like Tomura, who was being raised by his parents in a highly structured and controlled environment and then groomed by AFO to become “a new [him],” having someone dictating to him how he is and is not to think, feel, and behave would feel stifling, oppressive, and triggering. He would feel like a frightened (and angry) caged animal denied its freedom and agency. Tomura hates control, and he chooses to “lead” the League of Villains by, well, hardly “leading”! Every member is encouraged to prioritize their own wishes, needs, and ambitions, and *decide for themselves* the extent to which they will function as a collective or hive mind (“we, us, our”) or as separate but interrelated and interdependent parts (“MY side project furthering OUR shared objective of disrupting the status quo and taking down Hero society”).

Touya and Himiko also grew up feeling unseen, unheard, and smothered by emotionally immature / unavailable / volatile parents who for any number of reasons failed to balance their filial responsibility to keep their children safe with their children’s natural need to be accepted, embraced, nurtured, and supported without conditions to achieve their dreams and develop a strong, healthy, *integrated* identity and self-concept, pride in themselves and their achievements, and a positive sense of community and purpose. The quickest way to alienate and chase Touya and/or Himiko away would be to try to control them, whether by force (“I’ll make you do it! You don’t have a choice about this! I’ve already decided FOR YOU!”) or coercion (“do this or else!”). Despite both having survived alone on the streets for years, proving they are perfectly capable of “roughing it” and making their own way, and despite both periodically running off to pursue their own interest, Touya and Himiko have consistently chosen to remain with the League of Villains because they were able to find in it something they had not been able to find elsewhere: unconditional acceptance, positive regard, protection, support, and companionship. The League of Villains’ dynamics “work” because everyone is free to be their authentic selves and share only as much of their stories as they are comfortable sharing—and with whom they are comfortable sharing. For example, the story implies that Dabi revealed himself to be Touya Todoroki to Tomura and Himiko, but not to the others, some time before his broadcast aired; Tomura, Touya, and Himiko all make allusions to a “plan” that we learn during the PLF War involved Dabi publicly revealing his identity as Touya Todoroki and exposing the routine violence and deception of the Number One and Number Two Heroes to shake the public out of their complacency and blind trust of Heroes. Mr. Compress and Spinner are shown to be shocked by Dabi’s revelation, with Mr. Compress remarking that he was not aware of Dabi’s connection to Endeavor and Spinner admitting that he, too, knew nothing of it. Himiko does not speak of her past often and when she does, she speaks generally, giving few details (e.g., “life is too hard,” “it’s too hard to live being me,” “when I was little, everyone kept telling me to stop being me”), skirting the surface, avoiding the deeper emotional aspects of her story, how she felt, how she was affected.

In No.341 Himiko takes Touya, but no one else, to her childhood house, which has been ransacked, vandalized, and graffitied with horrific messages insulting her and calling for her and her family’s deaths. She leaves him to read every slight against her spray painted onto the exterior walls while she walks through the interior rooms of the house, revisiting painful childhood memories of being snubbed by her own parents and sibling(s). When she is satisfied that she is ready to let go of her past life as the ever-sad-but-always-smiling abandoned child Himiko Toga, she skips out of her family house, feigning childlike lightheartedness (i.e., masking), only to be literally swept off her feet (and have her old familiar mask blown back off) by Touya suddenly blasting the Toga residence with enough force to cause a powerful explosion of fire and compressed air to tear through the structure, shattering the windows and doors and crushing the brick and mortar of the parameter walls. The house collapses into the raging inferno and is gone moments later. Stunned, she stands wringing her hands like a shy child, gently cautions him against taking such aggressive action because they will get “in trouble,” and tells him he is very kind. He repeats the word to himself, choking on it, his voice fading before he can round out the ending. He clearly wasn’t expecting to be complimented, to have his noble act acknowledged, *to be seen*. She didn’t ask him to burn her house down for her and never expected him to. He did that unprompted. We know from No.350 that he had also returned to his family residence at ~17 years old. Like the Togas had rejected and abandoned Himiko, the Todorokis had shunned and forgotten Touya first in life and then again in death. He did not need her to tell him how she felt walking through the ruins of her house to know she was hurting because he had experienced something similar and could empathize with her. He destroyed her house because it had tried to destroy her (and maybe some part of him wishes someone had cared enough about him to burn HIS house to the ground for him). He knew she had returned because she was looking for something she could not hope to find and so playfully teased her for (also) having “a heart indulged in sentiment.” He saw through her weak attempt to deny being sentimental and also saw through her attempt to skip away from her house as if her heart hadn’t just been sent through a meat grinder. He saw her, and, albeit taken aback, she responded by subtly confirming she saw him as well.

As a character, Himiko had always been defined by a neurotic desire to appear “normal” at any cost. She studied her peers for years and adapted their mannerisms to camouflage herself among them as a “happy, smiling, totally normal girl,” despite never actually identifying with them (child and young adolescent Himiko are always depicted standing apart from others, looking out of place and out of sorts, the picture of a person trying desperately to at least seem to be like everyone else; she tried to wedge a square into a circle for over a decade, but ultimately, she could not “fit” where she did not belong). Prior to joining the League of Villains, while she was still on the streets, she became adept at reading people, predicting their next moves, and adjusting her behavior to manipulate outcomes to her advantage. This is how she survived. She learned that the people she was running from day after day—Heroes and police—treated high school girls just a little more kindly, so she began cosplaying as one. She never attended high school (after attacking Saito at their middle school graduation, she took to the streets as a runaway), so she had to have stolen her uniform off of an actual student at some point. Horikoshi wrote that she thinks of her school uniform as a literal “costume.” It is a part she plays, like she might play the part of a strict schoolteacher, but it is not an accurate representation of who she is and was never meant to be. To the contrary, it was intended to be a disguise, another way for her to mask her authentic self in a bid to feel safe. If you never let anyone close enough to see you—the real you, the timid, insecure you who fears she is simultaneously “not enough” and “too much”—then you never give anyone the chance to destroy you with their rejection. If you only ever show up in parts and pieces, then it is only ever parts and pieces that are scorned, rather than the whole. It is better to burn the edges of your paper heart than to burn the meat of it. Really and truly, Himiko is NOT “like the other girls”—she didn’t have the privilege of growing up loved, supported, and protected like they did—but she knows it’s to her benefit to pretend to be. Historically, it’s worked out great for her because everyone she has put on a performance for has fallen for her act... almost everyone anyway. All Might seems to have caught onto her game.

Himiko had always been defined by her obsessive need to appear “normal,” but she took Touya and Touya alone to her house, birthplace of her traumas, because on an unconscious level she must have been hoping (and a small part of her must have trusted) he would prove her parents wrong in their assessment that no one would ever, could ever accept and love her for who she is. He delivered and then some (overachiever, always dramatic).

Everyone in the League of Villains cares about everyone in the League of Villains, but they are not all equally close. Their relationship with one does not look like their relationship with another. The most obvious examples of that are Tomura for Spinner and Himiko for Jin. For them, Tomura and Himiko, respectively, are Special. However close the relationships between members, the League of Villains has never demanded or required emotional self-disclosure for its members to be welcomed, respected, mourned, remembered.

「ただし必ず戻ってこい」

= “But be sure to come back [to us], okay?”

Spinner’s parting words to Himiko before she runs off to confront Ochako are a plaintive request that she return safely to the League of Villains after she has done what she needs to do for herself. Remember: Twice has only just been murdered. The death of their friend is fresh on their minds and heavy on their hearts. Basically, Spinner is saying, “Don’t die and don’t be caught, please. Come back to us, Toga. We’ll be waiting for you.”

Take a good look at Himiko’s face in the first panel.

You might need to zoom in to catch it, but her mouth is twisted kind of like this ~. Her back is to the League of Villains and she is looking at Spinner over her shoulder with a cagey expression. She’s wary, not because she is afraid he’ll hurt her (of course not; he would never) but because she is anticipating that he will *scold* her, like “Mama” and “Papa” did, and try to convince her to change her mind, forfeit her conviction to ask Ochako her question. Did the Heroes recognize her brother Jin as a person, no less human than their own families and friends? If yes, then how could they justify killing him when Heroes claim to be the ones *saving* lives, not *taking* them? If Heroes save lives, and Hawks really is a Hero, then Jin must not have been a person to them. And if Jin was not a person to the Heroes, then it stands to reason that she and her remaining companions are also not people to them and will be killed.

Now look at how her demeanor changes when Spinner does not try to stop her and only asks that she return safely to the League of Villains.

Dabi and Mr. Compress join Spinner on the right side of the panel so that we understand that it is not just Spinner who will be waiting for her but all of them. Himiko fills the left side of the panel, her sincere, if a bit inhibited, smile reaching her eyes, her body angled back *toward* the League of Villains, an illustrative marker signaling that she has received the message and welcomes it, is relieved for it.

#bnha 288 #mha 288 #bnha manga #mha manga #bnha translation #mha translation #spinner and toga #league of villains #lov #bnha manga spoilers #mha manga spoilers

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thequietmanno1 · 3 months

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Thelreads, MHA 288, Replies Part 2

1) “Welp, sorry miss, but he’s dead. If not literally right now, he’ll be in a few minutes, there’s a fucking mountain about to meet him”- Well, if the husband was real, then Toga almost certainly had to stab him too before getting a sample of his wife’s blood, so his odds of surviving are slim to none.

2) “….

no… it can’t be Toga, right? I mean, Machia is still a bit far, there’s no way she would get here that quickly considering he’s moving around 100km/h

…right?”- Toga’s drive to answer her burning questions apparently gives her super-speed.

3) “Oh no wait there she is

and she seems to be a speedster

We found koichi’s cousin, and she’s about to fucking die.”- Or was dead all along. 4) “FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK I FUCKING KNEW IT FUCKMOTHERFUCKING FUCK

HOW IN THE FUCK’S NAME DID YOU GOT HERE THAT FAST TOGA, EVEN IF YOU USED THE QUIRK FROM THAT WOMAN I DOUBT YOU COULD OUTRUN THE MOUNTAIN”- Toga’s disguise bursting when Urarak says she’ll save “Takeo” – who is basically a stand-in for herself and her own attraction to Izuku and Uraraka – all whilst blushing and naked because of her Quirk certainly caused some….interesting discourse on the internet when this chapter first came out. It almost looks like she couldn’t keep control of herself when she thought (in her own head) Uraraka was reciprocating her feelings. 5) “Nice face there Uraraka, unfortunately, remember that Toga is a ninja”- Were it not for the circumstances, Uraraka’s reactions almost feels like her dealing with a clingy girlfriend who keeps popping up in her life when she least expects her. It’s certainly a nicer way of looking at their situation than one traumatised girl desperately seeking support and affection from the only other person in her very small social circle she can think of to help her deal with the loss of a dear friend.

6) “Yeah see? She’s probably standing right by your side, but you can’t see her because she’s just that good at being stealthy.”- Toga prepped this battleground in advance before luring Uraraka into it. Tight confines to limit the extent she can get lifted about by Zero Gravity, dark rooms to help lower Uraraka’s visibility, and multiple connecting rooms to allow her to move into her blind spots quickly. In retrospect, she moved even faster than expected from Machia to find this place and set it up before reaching Uraraka.

7) “Which kinda describes how he’s looking 80-90% of the time. Honestly, that boy could look like he fought a bear and lost badly while coming out of the shower.”- The only fight that Izuku has walked away from where he didn’t look like he’d fought a combine harvester and lost was against Overhaul, and only because he was getting healed non-stop during it.

8) “Alright, it’s time for it. Time for her to put the cards on the table and know the truth, is she a monster to be killed, or is she a human to be saved”- Toga sadly needed more advice on how to actually frame her question, without it coming across as ambiguous flirting with the object of her interest. Another thing she might have had an easier time with if anybody had given her the help she needed.

9) “Oh thank god you had some clothes thrown around Toga, but still, that was quite the fast change you made, were you practicing this?”- Between this and the speed boost she’d have needed to set up this battlefield ahead of Machia, I choose to believe the power of Horny transforms Toga into the Flash. I mean sure she has other motivations, but you know that’s at least a contributing factor as well.

10) “Toga please can you be a bit more specific it really looks like you’re flirting with her rather than making a deep philosophical question about your own worth

I mean, you are kinda flirting with that knife and all, but please focus girl”- Toga is, for all her skills and abilities, still a young girl that was raised in an environment that didn’t put in enough effort into understanding her needs and perspective, instead expecting her to be the one to eventually understand if the lesson was drilled into her time and again. All this did was lead to her repressing her instincts until they exploded, and as a result, Toga is very bad at expressing herself when it comes to conversations like this. She’s good at showing her emotions and acting on them, but bad at explaining why this matters so much to her, especially since she doesn’t bring up Jin’s fate, still too damaged by processing his loss to realise that Uraraka wouldn’t assume that a hero would kill somebody in the line of duty, and thus that Toga’s asking her if she’s somebody who deserves to be saved or destroyed like a rabid animal. 11) “See Toga, that’s why you need to be more direct with your questions, Uraraka thinks you just did a really roundabout way of asking her out”- I couldn’t help but notice that Uraraka didn’t say no to the idea of another girl asking her out, just that it was neither the time or the place for it. 12) “Uraraka didn’t knew what was going on in Toga’s heart at the moment, she just stated a fact, she needs to stop her since she’s a villain endangering innocent people, but… Oh god this is not end well”- Uraraka is motivated to act by the loss of Nighteye, feeling that she failed to do something that could have saved his life, whereas Toga is motivated by Jin’s loss, feeling like her life is now in danger from the same heroes that deemed it necessary to kill him and wanting conformation from someone – anyone – that they see her as more than a monster to be put down. Neither fully expresses their innermost thoughts, so neither fully understands the other. 13) “I’m kinda hoping she’ll go back to the league, but at the same time I don’t know if she’s willing to do so. This is being quite the hellish day for her, and Dabi is there being an asshole, not helping at all- I don’t know if she won’t go her own way. If she’s a monster, what reason does she have to be with the rest of them? Because I know that Toga doesn’t see them as monsters, as villains, she sees them as people first.And, that is the one thing Uraraka implied by accident she isn’t.”- At the end of the day, the League is the only place where Toga can not only be herself without judgement, but feel safe and protected by her friends. And now those friends are all being taken away from her one by one, to her mind all of it resulting from the oppression of the same system that demonised her ever since she was a child. You can’t help but feel sorry for her, because in many ways, she’s just as much a victim of this war as Twice.

@thelreads

#my hero academia #bnha #chapter replies #thelreads #mha 288

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leovaldezdefender · 11 months

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the red means i love you.

bad romance, lady gaga / boku no hero academia 80 / bright dead things, ada limón / bnha official art / literary sexts 2, caitlyn siehl / angel of small death and the codeine scene, hozier / bnha 288 / bnha 226 / if my body could speak, blythe baird / bnha 324 / anne sexton / bnha 341 / norwegian wood, haruki murakami / bnha 375 / snow and dirty rain, richard siken / bnha 382 / unknown / bnha volume 38 colour page / euripides, anne carson

#himiko toga #uraraka ochako #boku no hero academia #togachako #togaraka #uraraka ochaco #ochako uraraka #toga himiko #ochatoga #togaocha #bnha #mha #my hero academia #bnha spoilers #web weaving #bnha web weaving #workshopped this for like 4 days straight #maybe went a little overboard....#sorry guys tgchk just makes me insane. hope you understand

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thelreads · 3 months

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Finally. New week. New challenges, and above all, new chapters for us to read. And god was last week... tumultuous, to say the least. I barely got out of one business trip and I'm already set to go in another one in march. Goddammit. Anyway, chapter. What chapter? Well a BNHA chapter, of course. Last time we had OfA cast the spell of GTFO on AfO, and then Toga got all philosophical and it got a bit sad... Anyway, let us get started, because I want to see where that one is gonna end at. This is Chapter 288: Save Takeo!!

Oh boy, time for superior firepower to arrive from above to do absolutely nothing in this fight

Oh shit they are really bringing the heavy-stuff around, those looks like coils, it can be an electromagnetic bomb of some sort. But I fail to see how this could help against Shigaraki or Machia.

oh god now who the fuck- is it All Might? Who else was hurt before this fight broke out?

No it can't be All might, he would never be this rude to someone even when distressed. Oh god I can't remember who else was left behind, I don't remember a single person who was not in the best of health

#theLreads #reading #manga #liveblog #BNHA #MHA #Boku no hero academia #My hero Academia #BNHA liveblog #MHA liveblog #BNHAC288

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dekusheroacademia · 2 years

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All Togachako moments

I will try to keep this post updated, but under cut here is all Togachako moments. The list goes through all the BNHA material (manga, novels, anime fillers, movies etc.). Keep in mind that there will be spoilers of the manga. The number is the manga chapter.

You can also check the screenshots of each moment here.

TOGACHAKO

MANGA

073: In the forest, Toga is looking for some students to attack and she finds Tsuyu and Ochako

080: After attacking Uraraka, Toga introduceses himself and announces that Tsuyu and Uraraka are very cute

080: Toga also already knowns Uraraka and Tsuyu´s names, and wishes to get more blood from the little she got out of Ochako

080: We also have a scene of Uraraka using her combat training for the first time against Toga, and which Toga replies that Ochako is a lovely one, and she has her same scent

080: Toga immediately understands that there is someone Uraraka is crushing on, and that she wants to be just like him, and Uraraka is surprised Toga basically understood her so well. Froppy ends the fight and Toga runs away.

105: Toga disguises herself as Uraraka to understand Deku better, and she finds out that Deku truly trusts Uraraka

106: Uraraka intervenes when Toga transforms back into Camie. She jumps out of the way and Uraraka is impressed by her reflexes. Before leaving, Toga/Camie comments that Deku really trusts "her".

109: Uraraka thinks back to Toga's words, to the way she was seen (how she wants to be like Deku), and decides to push aside her feelings for Deku to focus on training

156: Toga, a true wild card, decides to betray Overhaul and in the mix of it she uses Deku's blood to go check on Uraraka and call her to where she is needed

223: While talking with the LOV, Toga announces that she loves Stain, she loves Izuku and Ochako too and she wants to become them because of it

226: In true danger, against the other villains, Toga tries to escape and without even thinking she transforms into Uraraka from the remaining blood she had of her

226: Toga thinks back about Ochako, who is a girl Izuku trusts, about how much she wants to be her, like the one she loves. While escaping she is surprised to find out that she can use, for the first time, the quirk of the person she is copying: OChako's quirk. She uses it to kill the villains in pursuit and she smiles, glad to be even more like the people she loves

227: Injured and covered in blood, Toga comments that now she feels even closer to them (Uraraka and Deku)

287: During the war and after Twice's death, Toga can only think about wanting to ask Izuku and Ochako about their heroic spirits. She has saw an hero killing Twice, and she knows heroes kill people, so she wonders if heroes just didn't see Twice as a person. She is shocked by Twice's death but she knows she will be fine, depending on their answers to her question

288: Toga feels gloomy and confused, she cannot wait anymore so she needs to go ask Ochako her question. She leaves her supposed spot and her job to go look for Ochako

288: At the end of the chapter, after finding Uraraka and Tsuyu, she lures Ochako away with a transformation. She transforms back right in front of Ochako

288: Toga attacks Uraraka, who is quite confused, and asks her "What do you wanna do to me?", where the answer of course implies if Ochako considers her human or not

289: Toga explains Uraraka about how thinking about the people she loves make her emotional, but how she feels different from others, and how others have tried to kill her because of who she is

289: Toga steals the All Might's keychain, repeating that her and Ochako are the same. Ochako tells her that they are not the same because she put her feelings aside, at which Toga explains that if she bottles them up they'll get worse

289: Ochako finally answers Toga's question saying that if she chooses to live like this then she must face the consequences. Toga runs away crying, saying that her confusion is all cleared, and later Ochako thinks back on it.

324: Ochako is speaking up for her classmates, to save them, and when she talks about a future where they can smile together the image of Toga, crying, pops up into her head

341: Toga's quirk is clarified, and if the person is closer to her heart then she means she can use their quirk, as she did with Ochako

342: On the rooftop, talking with Izuku, Uraraka explains that she feels weird because she wants to save Toga. She said that she fought her and she took a lot of things for granted, in return Toga appeared sad.

345: Ochako has been sent to Toga's location as she was the one planned to fight her

347: Ochako looks at Toga attacking Deku, probably understanding that Toga attacks people actually out of genuine love and affection

348: Toga asks Izuku her question "What do you want to do to me?" and Uraraka think back about their encounter, probably realizing that that question holds the key to Toga's love

348: With Izuku rejecting Toga, Toga decides that Izuku and Ochako are just the same as everyone else and she rejectes them. Uraraka thinks back about how sad she looked.

349: Uraraka announces that she will be living her life following what is right, which is probably saving Toga

375: Toga fights against Tsuyu and Ochako, but ends up tricking them and drinking Twice blood. Ready to leave the field, Ochako tries to stop her by asking her to talk about love. That seems to make Toga hesitate, before she leaves in the portal with a sad expression, saying that she wishes she could.

376: Ochako attempts to communicate with Toga, asking her to have their chat about love, but Toga refuses and for the first time she calls her just "hero", instead of Ochako-chan.

382: We have the confirmation that Toga can only fully transforms into the people she loves. When she cannot use Twice's quirk to fully recplicate Shigaraki's, Uraraka finds her because she is crying, and thinks back about how she cannot ignore her tears.

ANIME EXTRAS AND FILLER

In season 6, the match between Toga and Ochako is enhanced, with a bit more interaction compared to the manga.

The first OP of season 6 also has a Togachako moment added, where Ochako turns around to look at Toga's handkerchief, flowing in the wind

#togachako #ochako uraraka #toga himiko #himiko toga #bnha #togachako moments #ships moments

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punkpresentmic · 1 year

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I posted 1,286 times in 2022

193 posts created (15%)

1,093 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@scream-mans-friend

@punkpresentmic

@o0fyuu0o

@jutsuuu

@bnhastanning

I tagged 1,211 of my posts in 2022

Only 6% of my posts had no tags

#yamada hizashi - 384 posts

#aizawa shouta - 288 posts

#erasermic - 141 posts

#kayama nemuri - 67 posts

#isaythings - 64 posts

#bnha thirteen - 62 posts

#ianswerthings - 55 posts

#thoughts.c - 49 posts

#shirakumo oboro - 40 posts

#ask games - 33 posts

My Top Posts in 2022:

so you know how Nemuri is kind of known for making mixed drinks that are The Worst? I like to think that carries over to non-alcoholic beverages too. she’s in the communal kitchen of the teachers’ dorms at 3AM combining milk with an energy drink thinking to herself wow I’m a genius

433 notes - Posted February 12, 2022

wishing mr dabi the absolute best of luck killing his dad in his fancy lil outfit <3

484 notes - Posted February 9, 2022

have we done this one yet

529 notes - Posted March 4, 2022

LISTEN sometimes panels w aizawa have him looking super intense or badass or attractive. but my absolute favorite aizawa images are ones where he’s so clearly just some weird guy

654 notes - Posted April 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

having Interests is literally so funny sometimes bc i'll have these major events/updates in my life & the whole time i'm rotating a couple silly little anime men in my mind

1,334 notes - Posted April 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #hello mutuals :)#YES babygirl post is in the top 5 let’s go

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iheartbookbran · 3 years

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This is my hot take on the Heroes vs. Villains Discourse™

#i had half a mind to leave violet as todoroki only but the rest of the kids are going through this bs as well so #but bakugou is totally sunny because he’s babey #i want all these children to live and to stop being sent to war that would be nice too #i actually sympathize with a lot of the lov’s struggles but destroying whole towns and killing innocent civilians is no way to cope honey #izuku midoriya #shouto todoroki #ochako uraraka #katsuki bakugou #ua kids #bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha 288 #bnha 289 #boku no hero academia #mha spoilers

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thisismytrashok · 4 years

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Best Jeanist til chapter 288:

#best jeanist living his best life #best jeanist #pls have the audacity to change bakugou's hair #or make him get into the conflict by screaming "tF KATSUKI BAKUGOU WHAT UGLY ASS HAIRSTYLE IS DI #???#bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #katsuki bakugou #bakugou katsuki #bnha 288 #manga

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niks-minion · 4 years

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Horikoshi: oh, sorry folks, no chapter next week, too many things to draw and stuff

Me:

#I don’t trust him after cheerfull Bakugou Katsuki: rising #like at all #somehow it’s the most disturbing thing this week #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #manga spoilers #bnha 288 #mha 288 #bnha leaks #mha leaks #kohei horikoshi

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class1akids · 1 year

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It makes sense it is in his head. I’ve found the drawing a little eerie since touya since to be off proportioned instead of his usual self Dabi. His face seems too round and much younger, I’d expect a more mature face as you can found in many fan arts. But touya still sees himself like that kid at Sekoto , so this being his imaginary or even the whole family imaginary of a 13 years old touya as in a touya who is healthy physically makes sense.

However I can’t wait for Shoto to make his enter like a ram and headbutt in touya that he is also part of the family!

I love seriousness and drama , so a hug would be lovely, but at the same time I can’t avoid imagining whether Shoto might do something a little comical and anticlimactic - some sort of pestering like real siblings really do sometimes.

I have no doubt it's gonna be suitably dorky - funny. The Shouto-Touya encounters always have these off-the-charts annoying sibling energy:

Forest:

Jakku:

Final war:

I have zero doubt Gunga will be the same vibe.

#c1a asks #bnha manga leaks #bnha manga spoilers #bnha 288 #bnha 81 #bnha 290 #bnha 344 #we desperately need a bit of comic relief because it's too heavy #i hope Shouto will get yeeted in some clumsy way

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antiquity1111 · 1 year

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Sorry to trouble you but was curious if you’re still doing MHA meta and work? Your stuff is amazing and insightful, always a pleasure to read and re-read, but it seems a lot of meta-writers for the fandom have slowly been disappearing.

Welcome to my Tumblr page! :) Thank you so much for your kind words and for checking in. You're not bothering me, I promise. I've definitely noticed a decline in the number of fans creating meta and translations for BNHA. There are all kinds of reasons for why people decide to take a step back from the fandom or abandon it altogether. Some are disappointed by the direction the manga has taken and is taking and are finding it difficult or impossible to enjoy the series the way they did in the past; some find certain narrative choices unforgivable; some have grown disillusioned with the manga, the fanbase, or both; some have found other series they're more emotionally invested in and giving more time to; some have become lurkers, consuming content from the shadows and avoiding direct interaction with other fans; and some have just been distracted with, well, life. Things have been rough on the home front for a while now, and I've been feeling absolutely drained by all of it. I've also spent the past month applying for jobs, and one finally came through! I'm working part-time Monday through Friday as an assistant preschool teacher for infants age 6 months to 13 months at a child development center in my area. Between work, family, and doing my part to keep my household running smoothly, I've been busy. I know it's been a minute (a month? more?) since I last shared anything BNHA-related, but I can assure you I'm working on more content to share with you all! I had originally planned to upload four different posts--direct Japanese to English translations for No.375 and No.376, an English vs. Japanese translation comparison for Spinner's 288 speech to Toga, and an English vs. Japanese translation comparison for No.294 and No.295 for Mr. Compress--all at once, but I've been dragging on that last one. It's taking longer to finish than I ever anticipated it would because of everything else going on. My new plan is to upload the other three posts as soon as possible. With any luck, I'll have at least one up tonight! Fingers crossed! They'll all be uploaded to Tumblr first. The links will then be added to the ever-evolving Google doc pinned to my Twitter page and shared in a separate tweet announcing the uploads. I hope you enjoy them as much as you have the others! <3

P.S. You're my first ask. <333

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thequietmanno1 · 3 months

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Thelreads, MHA 288, Replies Part 1

1) “Last time we had OfA cast the spell of GTFO on AfO, and then Toga got all philosophical and it got a bit sad… Anyway, let us get started, because I want to see where that one is gonna end at. This is Chapter 288: Save Takeo!!”-Chapter should have been titled “Save Toga”, because that’s what she’s really asking Uraraka, but then I guess we wouldn’t be having the miscommunication between them that’s sparking further conflict.

2) “Machia is truly an unstoppable force in action, that’s a mountain going 100km/h through a city, jesus fuck man, we would seriously need an All Might-level of power to keep him down.”-The problem with facing Machia is that the only person who can actually give him a standard fight is already being targeted by AFO and Tomura both-in-one, so there’s really no chance for Izuku to help out against the mass devastation he’s causing as a side-effect of him just trying to reach his master ASAP

3) “Five? Try twenty. Really, there’s no amount of distance that would make it safe. The End is here, and Machia won’t stop until he reaches it.”- They can try and run towards Machia, away from him, or avoid him, but either way, the malice of the master he serves so blindly will find you out one way or another. Like, even if they stopped Machia by some miracle, he’s already caused so much destruction and damage getting here that many cities may not recover at all, assuming things even get better from this chaotic melee. 4) “I have a feeling that there’s one fiery guy up there that wouldn’t agree with that line of thought. I bet he’s giggling right as we speak.”- The juxtaposition of this hero on the ground level acting genuinely selflessly heroic and Dabi’s scornful dismissal of the ideology of heroes actually holding up, based on Hawks’ necessary murder of Twice, underscores his own hypocrisy. There’s somebody in this mess who just wants to help save people, and he thinks it’s nothing but the ranting of a brainwashed populace who think too highly of the humans who dub themselves “heroes”. 5) “Oh right, you were here as well, I almost forgot it.

Also, thank you captain obvious, it’s not like you could’ve looked over your shoulder and see an army of them approaching from all sides.”- Sceptic is not the flashiest member of the MLA, but his computing skills and ability to undermine communications between different teams mean that he’s the perfect guy to help out with what Dabi has in mind… 6) “OH I DON’T EVEN NEED TO ZOOM IN TO SEE WHO COMPRESS SAW

ITS URARAKA AND TSUYU, RIGHT THERE ON THE LEFT CORNER

THEY ARE CLOSE, AND TOGA KNOWS IT”- That Compress noticed them and helped point them out to Toga, despite the League needing all hands on deck at present, just because he knows how much she’s thinking about them and needs to have a conversation with them after Twice’s passing, shows he’s a good team player. He could have intentionally hidden their location to make sure Toga was sticking by their side when they plunged forth into the melee with Tomura, but instead he not only aids her, but gives her his blessing to go resolve her personal issues with them, merely asking her to come back safely alongside Spinner. Like, these guys may be villains, presently culpable in mass slaughter through riding Machia, but they are truly ride or die for each other, sans Dabi, who’s finally letting his true colours show through…. 7) “Alright, Toga is equipped, and ready to deploy. Something tells me that she doesn’t plan to come back, one way or another. It feels like that with Shigaraki awakening under the control of AfO and Twice dying, that the league is, subtly, approaching its End.”- On the other hand, where else could Toga go? Sure, she doesn’t know about AFO hijacking Tomura, and that’ll put a downer on her mood as well when she finds that out, but both Compress and Spinner have her back as well, so Toga does have somebody to look after in the League still left to return to. Even if the whole world demonises her, those two have still stuck by her, so she knows she can rely on them even at her lowest point. 8) “Mr. Dadpress was not something I was expecting to see now, shame we hadn’t more of it before this fateful moment. Toga is going, she needs answers, and she’s willing to die to get them. She can’t live with this doubt, with this fear. She must know.

And, once she does, she’ll decide what path she shall take. Either on her own, or back to the league.”- I assume that Dadpress really honed his parental skills whilst Tomura was undergoing the surgery, given how Loopy Twice was and Toga needing somebody to look after her from the near-death beating she received. Even if he’s not a powerhouse member of the League, in Tomura’s absence he’s the one standing up to hold them all together, physically and emotionally. In contrast to Dabi and his mysterious nature hiding the fact he genuinely doesn’t feel the team vibes with the league, we still knw very little about Compress, but the fact he’s a full-on supporter of the younger members through thick and thin has come through loud and clearly, 9) “Well fuck you too Dabi, not like I was expecting much more from you by this point. You are on the brink of getting what you want, the rest of the league has outlived their utility I suppose.”- Dabi’s about ready to kick the show off, and there’s nothing that could really impede him now. With or without the league, he’s got everything he needs to get the ball rolling, so it doesn’t matter to him if one or two of them jump ship before the Curtains rise. 10) “Well, it seems like it’s only one person in this group that isn’t feeling the loss of Twice, now that Spinner stepped forward to talk. He knows he can’t stop her from leaving, but he can’t let her going without saying that he also misses their friend; regardless of being villains, they were friends, they were family.”- The league becoming each other’s support and therapy group is a beautiful thing to witness, even if it’s tinted by tragedy over how this, while well-intentioned, only allows the re-enforcement of their worst traits. Like, they let Toga run off and face down Uraraka, without giving her some advice on how to properly express herself to the young hero the way the League members know Toga, which contributes to the mis-communication issues. 11) “I would say he’s definitely more interested in that than Dabi, but it’s not that much more. Still, I bet he won’t take Twice’s death lightly, we saw how he reacted to Magne.

There will be retribution, especially now that he has the power to do so”- Well, that’s entirely dependent on if it’s still Tomura in charge by the time they get there… 12) “OH BOY, NOW LETS SEE HOW URARAKA IS HANDLING THIS

SHORT ANSWER: NOT THAT WELLTHAT THING IS COMING AND THERE’S NO WAY TO EITHER STOP IT, OR TO SAVE THE PEOPLE ON HIS WAY”-The oncoming destruction visible in the background, the streets seemingly absent of civilians to save, but you just know that there’s people hiding in the buildings somewhere, hoping and praying that they won’t be swept up in the damage, and unintentionally lowering their chances of being saved in time.

13) “At the very least they are not part of the Prometheus school of running away, and they are moving out of his path rather than trying to outrun him, but honestly, it doesn’t help that much. He’s causing a big wave of destruction around his path, and like the heroes said, debris is being thrown rather far.”- Machia’s not even trying to cause damage, he’s just lifting the buildings out the way to make his passage easier, showing much the same disregard of civilian casualties that Dabi does. He doesn’t intend to harm them, but he prioritises his own aims over the wellbeing of others, unlike heroes, which in this case gives him an advantage, and is why the villains can pressure the heroes despite the numbers disadvantage. They were disregarded by society, so now the shoes on the other foot, they’re not holding back.

@thelreads

#my hero academia #bnha #chapter replies #thelreads #mha 288

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