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villainsandvictimsalliance · 2 years

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What is a smile to a war? : bnha 367

Have you ever wanted to die? Wish for the world to end? Have you ever lose yourself for a couple of minutes and felt like you wanted something really bad to happen to yourself or everybody else?

Has someone ever made you laugh in one of those cases— and just by that you realized how much you didn't want any of it to happen?

You were just upset.

Hold this concept in your mind, would you? Because the heart of the pro-hero thesis of bnha is that a hero not only saves your body or gets rid of the villains threatening you— they also save you from yourself sometimes, from the darkness within you; they prevent future tragedies with the force of their kindness.

Kid Deku watching a video of All Might's debut:

And he's smiling!! Mom... no matter what kind of trouble you're in... he'll save you with a smile.

⠀When we were first introduced to Deku and his admiration for All Might, the one thing the story made emphasis on was All Might's smile. Why?

Because if you're afraid and you see the person rescuing you smile, you relax, it makes you feel better, it tones down your fear and anxiety.

It gives you hope.

I won't be able to put all the panels I wish I could show you to support this meta, so I'll rely on your good memory about the manga, okay?

⠀

During the Hero License arc, we learnt that being a hero is much more than just knowing how to fight. We already knew part of it from All Might's first session (take care of the situation with the minimum amount of damage to both the property and the people surrounding the fight).

We learnt that the way a hero saves a person matters. Their words, their attitude, how they carry themselves and how they approach the victims and situations, it all matters.

With Bakugou and Todoroki we learn that the job of a hero also implies daily services, like helping kids and guiding others, stuff Iida Tensei (former pro-hero Ingenium) used to do.

That's an idea that finds its development along many arcs, the maximum point being after the War arc, with Ochako's speech. When heroes were giving up, she reminded them it was not only about defeating the greater evil, but also about wanting to see everybody smile together again.

It is an echo of Nighteye lessons to Deku and Mirio, of course. An echo we see in bnha 367:

A world without smiles or honor... has no... bright future.

⠀As you know, my thesis is based on the idea that the major problem with the hero society was how they forgot what a real hero was, but not because everything was exclusively monetized (it was still part of the problem, I gotta admit). No, the major issue was exposed by Tomura Shigaraki in his first speech in front of the UA staff and students:

Violence became comfortable for the bnha world, mundane even, to the point heroes stop trying to find the root of the problems so they could treat it and the civilians stop trying to help because they thought it was the heroes jobs, not theirs. Serious issues were getting overlooked, the system was getting corrupted and the effort of the heroes was shallow, superficial, even if well-meant.

Tomura/Tenko in his thoughts:

Everyone just passed by, pretending not to see, thinking that some hero would save the day. Who decided to make the world this way?

AFO "rescuing" Tenko, kneeling down to hug him:

You'll be okay now... I am here.

⠀Let's take Nana Shimura as an example; she was a great hero, we all know, the one who trained Toshinori and taught him that the people who smiled when they were afraid were the strongest. However, she was not perfect and she shouldn't be regarded as such. She failed her son and her family, something Kotaro was right about.

Can a hero talk about justice if they sacrifice their families to save others? Why some lives matter more than others? Why are heroes allowed to decide who lives and who dies, instead of helping everyone they can equally in the measure of their context?

Bnha narration:

People... are not born equal.

What is a smile to a war?

You could ask what is the sacrifice of a kid for the safety of the world, right? A life for the safety of the entire planet?

For Endeavor, what were his children and his family for the glory of his name and the glory of the hero industry, for example?

What is Tomura to AFO? Toga to the media?

What is Deku —a quirkless kid— to an entire society of people with quirks and cool abilities?

⠀

We learned it through Kota in the Summer Camp arc and with Eri in the Overhaul arc. Both kids. One of them was a direct victim like Tomura of the hero society, the child of a broken family who had many reasons to hate what pro-heroes were; the other was a kid victim of the discrimination of quirks, a baby abandoned by her mother and used by criminal organizations for power and gain, just exactly what AFO did to Tenko/Tomura.

Deku could save Kota and Eri because he individually cared about them. No one told him there was a problem, he was actively looking. The same with Bakugo at the beginning, Deku didn't need a reason or a command, he didn't need the title or the suit, not even the quirk. He was doing the right thing.

Deku helped Kota because Kota was upset and he wanted to change that. He payed attention to Eri because she was crying. Same reason he found his way to help Bakugo, Todoroki and Iida.

What are they to Deku's journey of defeating AFO? Nothing. And everything.

Tomura talking to Doc Garaki and the LOV:

Every living, breathing thing just rubs me the wrong way. That weight in my heart is never gonna go away. So why not destroy it all?

⠀During his fight with Endeavor, AFO asked Hawks what was evil, what could be categorized as "wrong", why everybody got so easily offended. Then revealed that his main motivation of being a villain was because he wanted to make everyone bitter, everyone, inspired on those comic books villains.

In a way, it means "I am bad, everybody's bad too"

On the other hand, Tomura's motivation to destroy it all comes for the trauma of not being rescued. Why? Didn't he deserve it? Why people wouldn't help him? Isn't it because he must play the part of a villain?

Tenko asked his mother why his father hated him. Tomara also asked the UA staff what was the difference between villains and heroes using violence, the same way Toga asked Uraraka why people wouldn't help or save them (the villains).

There is real inequality in bnha: you have people like Spinner, Shinso, Hawks, Toga, Deku, Aoyama, Dabi, Tomura, Shouto, Hatsume, Aizawa... The list keeps on growing.

There are differences. Preferences even.

If you're a pretty metahuman to be used by the hero commission or a filthy "mutant" with a weak quirk, if you have a spooky quirk or a "villain" quirk, if you're quirkless or your quirk is not flashy enough or powerful enough, if you look creepy or are not "hero material", if you are hero material even if you don't want to be one...

Inequality. Discrimination. Society prescriptions.

AFO almost won, he almost made everyone mad and bitter, including Deku in bnha 367.

⠀

Go read what Nighteye told Mirio again.

The fight against AFO (and what he represents) isn't a fight of just weapons. It was a fight with the hero society itself.

Their indifference, their apathy, their prejudices...

A smile matters in a war because why the fuck would you fight for if the only thing your gonna leave behind is a bunch of broken people who wish they were dead.

Why would you rescue Eri if you're not going to fight everyday with her trauma so that she can be happy? Why would you leave Kota to live in pain and anger without his parents when you can make his life full of light again?

What about the Cultural Festival arc?

Or rescuing Deku from his suicidal mission?

Going for Bakugo and Iida and fighting for Shouto to melt his heart??? Shouto going for Dabi???

This is why what Hawks did to Twice was wrong, because he forgot the principle of a hero:

Every lives matter.

Every smile matters.

The reason Tomura doesn't see a future is 'cause no one has ever showed him otherwise. No one saved him back then and no one has saved him (yet) in 20 years. No one told him he deserved to live and be happy, no one ever stopped and tried to make him smile or laugh or ask him if he had friends or if he liked dogs.

AFO killed Tenko the day he put those hands on him and has been dragging his body around in a parade— and even when Tomura was screaming about pain and injustice and screaming about the problem of the hero society, no one listened to him, no one tried ro reach him.

Dead.

Except Deku sees him.

⠀

Every moment of the manga, every mission and arc, every panel and interaction, it has brought us here: to Deku asking AFO if Tenko/Tomura is still in there.

What is Tenko's smile to the bnha war?

Maybe the end of it. Maybe the defeat of AFO. You have a wounded animal that will try to attack you because it's in pain. Here are your options: you can kill every wounded animal you encounter or you can go search for the cause of their pain and treat it, so the next generations won't arrive at your door full of desperation and rage.

Everyone can be a hero, because everyone can do the right thing, everyone can make others smile, everyone can save someone one day just by telling a joke or being gentle.

⠀

A smile can prevent a war.

Which is more powerful than any weapon which could stop at war.

In summary, bnha is about a society ruled by violence and miscommunication learning that if they don't reach for each other, if they don't try to understand, if their only solution is to erase what make them uncomfortable... they're doomed to dissappear.

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