If I may get out one last post for the year, something I thought of when answering an ask recently is that I think I've got why I’m not getting behind the next generation of heroes surpassing their predecessors. The manga’s still trying to make those predecessors so inspiring and right in what they do that it’s stopped acknowledging the flaws that the students are supposed to be surpassing. Like, sure Hawks had his "contributions" to the 1st war; but the manga will still let him get a few cool one-liners off on AFO. He's still presented as someone for the kids like Tokoyami to aspire too. As a result, the students end up doing all the same things as those inspiring current pros would do instead of surpassing them.

I mean I recently saw it said that Deku was surpassing All Might by doing the one thing he couldn’t; saving Tomura. But did All Might not do that because he was incapable, or did he just…get forced into retirement first? We know he wanted to save Tomura. Do we really have reason to say he couldn’t besides not being given the opportunity, and if so, is that opportunity really the edge Deku has over All Might?

And Shoto and Endeavor both conclude their arcs trying to save Touya. They fail at this if you ask me but Shoto at least stops him from exploding…but his quirk is the only reason he manages that. That really ends up being the difference his contribution to the Todoroki finale has over his father's, he had an ice quirk to help cool Touya.

The students have even ended up participating in the really morally grey stuff we'd criticize the pros for, at least on the professional side; like using a hospital to hold Kurogiri, brainwashing Machia, and Deku still seems the only one who wasn't trying to murder Tomura in the Sky Coffin. And they get the same justifications of “but this villain’s so dangerous” and “the greater good” thrown around for them like when the current pros got criticized for doing stuff like this. Which tracks when, like I said, those criticisms didn't stop Endeavor from being shown as a good guy or Hawks from getting a cool one-liner or two off on AFO. Why would Class 1A avoid being like this?

There’s just not a lot of sense of actual improvement going around, I'm finding; the kids are only doing marginally better because the story lets them in this instance (and often in ways not replicable or applicable to their future heroics: I don't think Ochako can date every Toga Himiko-type she'll come across after all. So they're not beating any "treating the League as one-time exceptions" allegations either). Otherwise, they act exactly the same; Deku does what AM would do and (baring Ochako) the rest of the kids do what any general pro hero would do in their circumstance. In the end it leaves me feeling like instead of surpassing the pros, they’re simply ending up standing by their side as equals ready to be the next verse, same as the first. Everything will go back to normal, good and bad, including everything that brought us here in the first place.

It's like the series is now going "C'mon, the old pros weren't so bad, right? All Might wasn't so bad, right?" And strictly speaking that's even correct, All Might wasn't bad. In fact as I went over in that ask, he was frankly the best; the best any hero could ever be. It makes sense how Deku struggles with surpassing him in terms of behaviour while striving the same goals the same way. But All Might also wasn't enough. So if Deku's just acting as an extension rather than an improvement, I don't think he'll be enough either.

And I guess that’s the main problem I’m hoping gets addressed by this series in the new year (or if my part two theory comes true, then in the years to come after Hori takes a long break).