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justatalkingface · 1 year

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Even more so than the other female characters, I argue Momo has been screwed over massively both in-universe and out; her public image is in tatters after being publicly humiliated during the Sports Festival, meaning the hero industry is unlikely to take her seriously, and from then on she's constantly being denied any poorrtunity to be relevant or even prove she's more than someone who can help the "true" heroes, in spite of being potentially the most OP character in the entire fucking setting.

I've actually written a fic that deconstructs the way she's treated by Horikoshi and the likely in-universe consequences of such.

Ah, Momo. You were meant for so much more than this.

So, the thing is with Momo and her reputation is you need to remember that she's not... unique in these problems. To be blunt, you can count on one hand the number of non-sexualized females of any importance, and it seems to be baked into the industry on a fundamental level, again considering how sexualized the heroines seem to be. So, in that context, Momo's outfit (sigh) isn't actually a problem, because the only reason she shows so much more skin that everyone else is because of her power which 'demands' it.

The thing is that Momo's costume has both Watsonian and Doyislist problems with it's design; on the Watsonian end, Mirio exists, as I've said before, and since his costume can be made to work with his power, there's no reason that Momo's costume can't work with her powers. And, while it's canon that she asked for that skin to be exposed, to work with her powers (which... I kind of look at judgingly but ultimately can buy), the people who made her costume, presumably, actually communicate with their customers and offer suggestions, like, 'what if we make this this color instead'? Or, maybe, and relevently, 'what if we make it so you don't have to be half naked and exposed to the elements to use your power'?

It honestly should be part of their jobs to not only make what these kids want, but to help them figure out what they want, and use their careers in making these kinds of costumes to think of something an inexperienced kid without industry knowledge wouldn't.

Or, to be even bolder, even if that was, like, a UA special, something that would have to happen in-house after being in school instead of random company or something... buttons exist. And zippers. And velcro. And, hell, magnets, if you want to be fancy with My Hero's high tech levels, and are used in her dictionary she carries around. In other words, even if Momo's powers require all this exposed skin to properly leverage it... can't they do something that opens and closes? So she can be battle ready, and then be able to walk around and not get sick from a brisk breeze; rocket science that isn't.

Meanwhile, the Doyalist problem is that Hori designed this. The requirements for the power exist because of him, her costume looks like that because he wants it to. Even if you're keeping to the idea of 'made from her body' to go off the idea that Quirks are biologic, it's so unnatural that it wouldn't stretch imagination that whatever she made just sprouted from her hands, and that things like the size to skin ratio are as irrelevant as Momo making a cannon that probably weighs more than she does without visibly losing weight.

There are dozens of ways, with minimal changes to her Quirk, to get past this problem. Hori chose none of them.

On the matter of Sports Festival humiliation... the cheerleading and Tokoyami. On the cheerleading... Yeah. While that was personally humiliating, in that she didn't want to do it, was tricked into doing it, and was unhappy about it, between MHA's entire... female end of the heroics in general, and the way they did it as a group, outsiders probably thought they just did that to encourage their classmates and so it was acceptable, instead of being punked on national television. So, from that perspective, that probably didn't damager her career, but only because MHA heroics standards on this thing is so low that no one thought much of it.

Which. Is not exactly a shining defense: 'Everything about this is terrible, therefore this one specific terrible thing vanished into all the other terrible things and so had no real consequences!' is not an argument that fills me with the warm fuzzies, but it is what it is.

Tokoyami though... I'm going to segway this into her power in general, because the thing is she should have been able to win that, easily.

Tokoyami: I use my incredibly light sensitive living shadow!

Momo: I use a road flare! Or a flashbang! Or a spot light! Or one those big flashlights that can cause actual damage to your eyes!

Tokoyami: Oh no, my one weakness! Bright light!

Momo: Haha! My big brain allowed me to see your weakness and pull out the proper tool to exploit it to my advantage!

After that, use a bo staff, her default weapon that she's trained in using, or something to drive him off the stage; GG easy.

The thing is with Momo's powers is... part of it is that, obviously, that Hori doesn't want her to be competent, or powerful, or a viable threat to anyone tougher than a nameless thug, the same way that every female not named Mirko is. But more that, more than the other female heroes, her power is just... criminally under used, and to some extent it's because it's that potentially broken.

I've mentioned it before, beyond anything else a tranq gun, some flashbangs, and more sleeping gas in a more easily handled container would be a massive game changer; a good ninety percent of the setting could be easily managed with those tools alone, and maybe her wearing a gas mask or some night vision goggles.

But if I'm remembering right, she uses a electric proof blanket to survive Kaminari's full out electric blast. Well, off that alone, she should also be able to make some sort of fire retardant material to tank fire, warm stuff, layers and actual heat generation for ice, and depending on the situation something super absorbent or a rebreather for water, and just like that the basic elements are covered.

Walls in the way? Good thing Momo has siege equipment/a cannon/high explosives/a battering ram!

Are you falling? Jet pack/pillows/pile of flubber, depending on how serious you're playing it and how high tech the objects she can make.

Speaking of, support gear exists, which can effectively give people superpowers while using them, including offense ones. Momo is a super genius who can memorize things super easily, with a belt carried dictionary filled with useful designs. Why... can't she just pull out 'Insert gear here' for any given situation?

Because it's too broken, too adaptable. Full Potential Momo is basiclly memetic Infinite Prep Time Batman; at virtually any given situation, with the technology she should be able to access, she should be able to counter whatever problem she's facing almost instantly, short of Izuku, SFO, AFO, and the few others with enough raw power to just overwhelm her adaptability. She's so broken that, if Hori allowed her any true successes, (more) people are going to start asking, 'What about Momo? Why can't she do X like she did last time?'

So, instead of dealing with that, the genius prodigy Momo is just stuck with an idiot ball for a head.

#ask #mha critical #bnha critical #hori's chronic hatred of women #please give her some clothes #momo is op #momo is basiclly batman

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