perception check ✔️

you know the drill, I'm still thinking about this post and it's been awhile since I had an emotion about this, but seriously what's the deal with Aizawa being narratively surrounded by characters who were "born bad" because of their powers. Eri is the most obvious example (again!! this post!!), but then there's Shigaraki as her parallel character who, omg, has respect for one (1) hero and it's Eraserhead. look further, and there's Shinsou, whose entire motivation is proving that he can be a hero in spite of what people call a villainous quirk. if you want to reach for the stars, Present Mic was born with his quirk and immediately deafened not only his parents but the doctor who was present, probably some nurses too. objectively this is a bad thing. something something inherently "bad" powers surrounding Aizawa whose power it is to take other people's quirks away. I'm taking it, I'm running with it, I'm like a Swedish cow put out to pasture after a long winter in the barn

every week when I read the manga leaks btw I shake them upside down like that will make aizawa mic and kurogiri fall out

after a full year of wondering I am putting this question out into the universe. does anyone know who this person is?? are we supposed to know???

lowkey highkey stalking ur blog and saw a tag abt how u have thoughts abt s6 shigaraki. share🥹

HI thank you for asking!!

So I think you might be referring to this post about Shigaraki's s6 Fit Of All Time. The spiritual TL;DR of those tags is: I know this version of Shigaraki is a character who has reached Peak Manipulated, Tragic Story Potential, but his look is lowkey fire anyway.

(A note on the outfit: I stand by the fact that it is the Fit Of All Time. Simple. Classic. Very very cool. I overthought about it when I first saw it because I <3 overthinking about MHA and had a small Moment about Shigaraki reaching this final-ish villainous form and immediately donning a hero's cape, and the possible implications of this. Plus, and this is more of a USAmerican view I think, but a red cape is like The Superhero Accessory, because Superman (and Thor. And Doctor Strange. But mostly Superman.))

So. For context, I'm halfway-ish through Season 6 atm. It's me and my pockets full of spoilers against the world, but there have been Several Things that no amount of spoilers could have prepared me for, Shigaraki being one of them. I mean. TALK ABOUT A CORRUPTION ARC.

The thing about Shiggy is that, by the time we meet him, he has already had his traditional 'corruption arc' when AFO found him as a child and manipulated him into becoming a villain. When we talk about corruption arcs in literature, we're usually talking about this kind of moral decay (pun intended). It's the movement from 'hero' to 'villain' (or, in Shigaraki's case, 'innocent child' to 'supervillain successor.' And, yes, I know he decayed his family before he met AFO, but I'm really not going to assign any moral blame there for obvious reasons).

But Shigaraki has also had numerous other negative character arcs before we met him. He starts his life perhaps not with a happy, normal family, but with a family and a house and a dog. By the time we are introduced to him in s1, he's been living in the shadows, is isolated emotionally and physically from the people around him, and has garbage interpersonal skills and relationships. Even his name has been 'corrupted,' from the name of a hero (Shimura) to that of a villain (Shigaraki). So, it seems like Shigaraki has undergone every possible negative/corruption arc long before s6.

AND YET.

The s1 -> s6 Shigaraki journey isn't a corruption of morals or circumstances. It's a corruption of wills. When we meet Shigaraki, he's a whiny, impulsive 'manchild' (I don't remember who called him that after USJ, but it was iconic and they were correct. It might have been All Might. You go All Might). But in spite of, or maybe because of, his manchild-ness, you can definitely see that Shigaraki has willpower. He's bossy. He's actually kind of bratty. He pretty much stomps his foot and expects people to comply with his demands. If he doesn't like something, he's like, "Ew, Kurogiri, get rid of it/them this instant." AFO definitely has an unhealthy amount of influence over him at this point, but Shigaraki still plays a very active (though often unsuccessful) role in his own schemes (the Nomu attack in Hosu City, for example).

And, after AFO's arrest at Kamino, we actually see Shigaraki's will get stronger. He might flounder a little at first, lost without AFO's direct supervision, but eventually he's forced to start making real decisions for and about the League. This character growth reaches its apex when he takes over the Paranormal Liberation Front. (Note: red cape again. Grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him, etc.)

But THEN. Season 6. The literal battle of wills. If AFO prevails, he will have destroyed pretty much the only thing Shigaraki has left. It's like. The ultimate corruption arc. Corruption of the self. BTW in case it wasn't clear I want to roundhouse kick AFO into another dimension. I genuinely like most of the villains in MHA but he is the Emperor Palpatine of this story and it shows. [MANGA SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH] I really, really wanted Shigaraki to throw him down the proverbial reactor shaft Darth Vader-style, but from what I understand that ship has sailed. Boooooo.

So now s6 Shigaraki is walking a very thin line between the success of this final corruption arc, that of his autonomy, and finally breaking some aspect of AFO's control over his entire life. It is a very, very thin line, because even if AFO can't control him anymore, he's the reason Shigaraki is WHO he is and WHERE he is (and WHAT he is, if we get into the whole Nomu-ification storyline).

So, yeah. Walking a very thin line. But at least he looks good doing it!! Wearing a disembodied hand on your face is OUT, wearing a tattered red cape is IN. What does it symbolize? Shigaraki personifying what he blames heroes for--destroying society--while dressing up as one of them? Shigaraki becoming his own hero by finally 'achieving his dream' of being powerful enough to destroy the world that hurt him? Foreshadowing that Shigaraki, wearing a hero's literal costume, and AFO are in some way opposed now? The author wanting to draw a really cool cape??? Who knows!! But I love it sm.

this isn't a spoiler exactly but I need someone to explain what just happened to me like I'm five

I just noticed that Iida refers to himself as the 'second-oldest Iida son,' not just the second Iida son. It's such a weird way of wording things if he only has one brother? Does this imply that he has other siblings?? How many Iidas are there the world must know

Thinking a lot about pro heroes who became pros after All Might's debut but then had to witness his final fight and adjust amidst the fall out of that. 'Uh oh! The defining pillar of your life, career, and society is gone' kind of thoughts

Listen.. listen.

sister & brother in law have adopted the phrase 'bakugou doing bakugou things' while watching mha and honestly my only thoughts on this week's chapter are: bakugou doing bakugou things

gang orca: it's time to start training a new muscle, the one that beats in your chest!!!

me: so true bestie

Going back through notes I made when I was first watching the Joint Training arc and I want to talk about it again because you know what I was right. And no I'm never going to get tired of talking about JTA, it literally has everything. Vlad King. 1-B. Shinsou. Bakugou being a bakubro. Tokoyami & Aoyama being the funniest duo to ever live. Hawks teaching Tokoyami flashback. Low stakes high energy. EVERYTHING.

So something MHA will occasionally do so well I wonder if it's even intentional is 'show, don't tell.' The Joint Training arc, and specifically Shinsou's role in it, is a really great example of this. Obviously, when 1-A sees Shinsou at Ground Gamma, everyone (including the viewer) is like "Oh, hey, he has a scarf just like Aizawa's!" And we get to see that Shinsou has been learning Aizawa's combat style and support weapon. So fun, but also, not the only on-screen results of his training!

During the Sports Festival, Shinsou uses his Quirk the way one would imagine Brainwashing would be used: telling people to do whatever will help him move on to the next round, such as carry him through an obstacle race or walk out of bounds during the tournament matches. Fast forward to the Joint Training arc, and that changes. Shinsou brainwashes a couple of 1-B students during his first match, but notably, unless I'm severely misremembering, he never actually gives them any commands while he's using his Quirk. Rather, he uses the kind of blank, default state of Brainwashing to freeze or incapacitate a target before he or one of his teammates engages them. And wouldn't you know, that's exactly the function of Erasure: neutralizing a more powerful opponent to give yourself the upper hand in a fight, primarily by relying on combat skills and a capture weapon. Not only has Shinsou gotten more creative with the applications of his Quirk (his Persona Chords are also evidence of this), but his entire approach has shifted to be more in line with Eraserhead's methods. And I think that's neat!!

me: what class does aizawa teach? what do general studies students do after lunch? how long does it take on average for a support item to be made from concept to finished product?

my hero academia: wouldn’t you like to know weather boy

tiny™️

Putting the funny Todoroki fam story here like a little ticket stub in a journal bc I was suddenly reminded of it:

So, back in late 2022 (before I started watching MHA again, but I credit this experience with putting the show back on my radar even if it was not the final full-body shove), I was listening to some playlist on Spotify, and this song came on. To me, it was stunning, and poignant, and compelling--the vocals, the imagery, the story it told. I thought this was a song about a narrator with the world's most complicated relationship with her family and her home I had ever heard. I said to myself 'I simply must know more. I must know what inspired such lyricism.'

The song was "Brother" by Madds Buckley. It's an MHA fan song about Dabi. I learned this in a Barnes & Noble parking lot and almost broke something laughing while simultaneously texting my sister because HEY THAT DABI GUY WAS A TODOROKI AFTER ALL AND YOU'LL NEVER GUESS HOW I FOUND OUT.