What makes this worse for me is that in the VERY first episode, we see Izuku inwardly expressing bitterness and anger toward Bakugo for how he treats him. It got me a bit interested to see how the story would explore this... only for it to do absolutely NOTHING. Even when the two became proper rivals, their relationship still felt unbalanced to me, with Izuku having too agreeable of a personality.
This is what I hate the most about the Villain Hunt/Vigilante Deku/Dark Deku or whatever you want to call it. It’s apparently spurred on by AFO but the issues are deep rooted in his treatment at the hands of Bakugo and during the fight against 1A he should have been yelling his feelings out and spilling it all to the class about said bullying experience and specifically call back to Bakugo telling Midoriya to jump off the roof. There would have been lasting consequences from the class towards Bakugo and they should be horrified that all this time such a thing was kept secret from them. But no we got this.
@@azurai3934 because that's cringe, deku has more things to worry about than the past two deku thought they made up when they fought the second time 3 deku always saw bakugo for a good person which he is
I think Horikoshi has been burnt out for like over a year at this point but has been either unable and/or unwilling to take a break for his own well being, this has probably been why the writing has felt more rushed and less thoroughly thought out lately. He clearly just wants to end the series so he can take a nap. Wish he would just take a break for a few months and come back when he was ready to finish the series properly.
@@woods93bullet44 Tabata took 4 months off to rest and plan the final arc of BC, and he has been doing as bad if not worse than Horikoshi. I think Horikoshi could easily find the motivation after some time away, but currently he is laser focused on gunning it to the end, and that his hurting his health aswell as his writing.
@@woods93bullet44 if he doesn't come back, that's fine. Mangakas literally work themselves to death sometimes. If he needs a break, our entertainment isn't more important than his health
@@woods93bullet44That was how Tite Kubo said he felt in the final arc of Bleach, as I recall. If he took a break, he'd never be able to regain his momentum and start up again.
@@ivanr6203 I know,but protagonists are usually number 1. I think the writer is forcing the characters to focus on the plot instead of themselves. I don't know. But I know that after liberation war arc,all of his developments are gone. I remember tokyo ghoul manga when that girl reze was just a normal ghoul who wanted freedom and enjoyment because of her being prisoned by his father and in the end her being the symbol of anti Christianity. Poor girl didn't even get her freedom and she was tortured and experimented and she became the devil herself without knowing it. She was just another being.
@@519zier I meant symbolism. Deku wasn't one for all user because of him being quirkless,he gained it when he tried to save his bully,bakugo. Even after that,he was an average person with his own goals and life,until the war arc. Now he is the chosen one and he is only one for all. Reze was just an average girl with a good kagune until the last arcs it was revealed that her blood is special and she was revived and she was the bad guy all along. She just became a bad guy that couldn't talk and her only goal was to be defeated. Do you see the similarities? They don't even have their personalities, their lives and they are just a symbol and their goal is to be defeated or defeat someone.
It really sounds like Act 3 Mha is devolving into the Harry Potter thing of "the status quo will be a lot better as long as the right people are in charge."
@@shadowednight1600 That's what happened what All Might lost his power. And after so many chapters, they are now relying on another powerful man..... at least all of the heroes have tried their best to defeat the villains and the crowd has learnt to be kind to erase the evil at very young age at the end.
It feels kinda sad to see Horikoshi care so little about his MAIN character. We don't get much information about how he feels now, we didn't even get a reaction from him about Bakugo's apology
That’s what makes Bakugou’s apology not work for me since Deku himself doesn’t have his own input on how Bakugou made him feel, 10 years of bullying isn’t something so excusable regardless of reason, there’s NEVER any justification on bullying someone to the point of telling them to Kill themselves, that’s just fucked up no matter what you yourself been through. And “Blaming Society” is honestly the most lamest excuse you could put for it Horokoshi loves his bully character more than the actual main character by this point.
@@Hollowmello1285 because you’re blind and know nothing about basic human behavior, Deku’s moved on from that and wasn’t holding anything against bakugo for what he did, they literally got that settled back in season 3.
Idk if this is a common opion or not but I really liked back when deku fought bakugo in season 1 in that building he had to tactically use his ability instead of just being able to spam it
I’m going to be honest, my main problem with the Villain Hunt arc that it was too short to wrap up everything that it should have addressed. I honestly think that Izuku should have multiple fights with Class 1A. The first time is him escaping them with ease which will let him believe in his mindset that he is the only one that can fight AFO and the class realizing that they need to train and step their game up if they want to show him their worth. The second time he will be more bent on his self destructive nature which will lead him to beating them up, becoming a monster as he tries to push them away and further putting him down the path as his insecurities and weaknesses start to show, glimpses of his past coming up as he doesn’t want to be a burden like before. This ends with a last fight between him and Class 1A as they pull all of the stops and remind him of the little things that he has done to save him. It won’t help but it’s a first step as they defeat him and carry him to a hero agency used as a hideout or order of operations and not UA.
Deku is someone I really used to like but my main problem is that he confirms to a society that would normally expell him. Horikoshi is someone who can build up a massively flawed hero world but he didn't flesh out these plot points. Even though Deku has stated that all men aren't born equal he follows regulation that don't help everyone. His desire to become the Nr 1 hero is a responsibility that Deku would still need to comprehend. Ever since Deku received a quirk that made him lose his uniqueness. Deku also doesn't seems to be open to reforming his villains. The spinoff manga vigilantes is actually what Deku's story should have been. What will be at the end of the series? Will there be another billboard charts with Deku as Nr 1? What exactly will change for the quirkless people? People will see exactly what they want to see, someone with a powerful quirk who worked himself on the top again.
@@ShumaiTheDetective yes, but isn't there anything else besides being a hero for him? Does he want people to have a different view. No, it's just to be a good person nothing more. Naruto wanted to be hokage so that the village will notice him and he wouldn't be alone anymore. Asta wants to become wizard king to eradicate classism. Tanjiro wants to hunt demons so that his sister can be turned back to normal. Yuji wants to collect Sukuna's fingers and destroy him so less people will suffer because of curses. Gon wanted to become a hunter so he could find his father and probably understand the world better then his story was done and dusted.
“The difference between a villain and hero A villain sees a broken society and tries to changes it. He is condemned A hero protects the ideology of a broke society. He is praised.” That should tell Izuku has no intention of changing or fixing anything.
@@Atticus-CatnippThat's literally a big point of MHA's world though. People don't need these super deep reasons to be heroes, it's a normal profession that's oversaturated with people. Deku was inspired at a young, developmental age and it's been his dream since. And like, it's definitely developed, as he wants to understand and try and help villains now
@@theboibubba Deku has always been someone who would’ve wanted to help villains if he knew they had a sad backstory from the first episode. And if he doesn’t get to know them personally, he treats them like they aren’t people. Both of his fights with Muscular prove he never changed about this.
I think the biggest let down if the vigilante/villian hunt arc is that Deku doesn't grow. I think back to some parallels with Subaru from re: Zero where Subaru is trying too hard or trying to do everything alone and it ends up putting him over the edge. Subaru eventually realizes that he's trying too hard to be something he is not, starts to understand that he needs to rely on others in order to be truly strong, and ultimately experiences a degree of success in practicing what he learns. Deku on the other hand here, doesn't actually seem to really experience character growth. The challenging part is that there is a ton of reasons WHY Deku could be on this path. He has been bullied, he has too much of burden to shoulder, he's trying to be someone he is not, he doesn't want his friends to get hurt because of his weakness. It's just unfortunate that they didnt use the opportunity to give Deku a chance to grow into his own number 1 hero.
Your last sentence is especially poignant. I have a poster of Deku with the caption of "Be Your Own Hero", and now more than ever it seems like Deku needs to be his own Hero.
It's really unfortunate how rushed act 3 feels considering how (on paper at least), the content of the arcs seem to be decent. I doubt it'll happen, but I really hope the anime can add in a few scenes to make Deku a bit more introspective. Great vid
Yeah all of Act 3 is mired by this exact issue: Ideas over execution Like you said all of these ideas sound fantastic on paper, but they're very rarely given the right amount build up or a satisfying payoff so they fall much flatter than they should
At this point I doubt it considering we’re now at the part where things go downhill in the anime. And with how much worse things get later on, they’ll need to add a LOT more later on.
@Toad General Waybright considering how badly they fumbled with villian academia last season, I'm not optimistic and yeah, it's just a downward spiral now
The way Deku’s dynamics with the rest of the cast have taken a nosedive on act III is so depressing, there’s SO much missed potential, he doesn’t reflect on Endeavor (beyond a brief moment protecting the Todoroki’s on PLW) and Hawks actions being exposed for everyone to see, the safety commission conveniently evaporates so Hawks and Nagant’s roles on society have already been taken down, leaving his desire to change society feel shallow. Hawks interacts with Deku on Villain Hunt but him murdering a Villain that was actually a good person isn’t explored, and neither is wanting to save Shigaraki or the way he’s gonna go about it when you could easily contrast what Hawks DID with what Deku will do Endeavor’s reaction to him having All Might’s power, his relationship with AM is ruined, his relationship with his own class is barebones besides Ochako, it’s so sad to see a character that was known for learning from everyone around him suddenly losing all of the wonderful dynamics he had and could have had on the last stretch of the story
Also I wished we get some more introspectives on the remaining League members before the final war in their current state, about how their ideals and wants have changed drastically. Honestly I wished we had more manga moments with Touya after the whole Endeavor speech on the news after revealing the truth about his connections with Dabi being his were true. Toga leaving the League was a potential plot point that really went nowhere when she just appeared with them again off screen, And Shigaraki ( my favorite character in the series for me) is woefully absent and was basically All for One 2.0 for the major duration until the most recent chapters.
@@Agent-57 in the past Hawks was forced to be an assassin against corrupt heroes, villains, and others in the Commissions way. That IS a bad thing to do. However, he was brainwashed his whole life and had no one to go to for help, inve the Heroes and police answer to the people making him do bad things
It really bugs that they brushed off All Might like that for Izuku's self destructive habits despite several arcs expressing concern over both of their self destructive tendencies and both of them recognizing and wanting to support eachother in dealing with those tendencies. All Might was hardly standing there saying nothing about Izuku's problems and this and the way All Might drops out of the narrative is kinda insulting. There's a lot about All Might's experiences that gets basically no attention in favour of unfairly blaming him for things that other people have responsibility in/he's also fallen victim to. The story seems to have forgotten that addressing the ways All Might's been harmed to end up the way he is is super important to both the narrative and Izuku's character development specifically. Was that whole talk in the Overhaul arc about facing the future together for nothing? It's already bad enough that the arc didn't really touch on how All Might was pushed into isolating himself and shouldering things on his own or all the stuff around why he had so much trouble facing his imminent retirement. He doesn't need to get blamed for his protege struggling with the same systemic issues he did on top of that. I miss when Izuku was allowed to be angry at Bakugou for his bullying too. Something that really bugs me is the tendency for protagonists to not be allowed to be angry about the harm done to them by other characters, who have to be forgiven, redeemed and included in the group because they're the rival and therefore the only other character in the protagonist's peer group allowed to keep up with them and actually matter to a comparable extent. It's exhausting and I don't like the toxic mindset it perpetuates about trauma, abuse and forgiveness.
Great video as always. Deku's fall from grace has been very hard to watch. It feels like every aspect of what made him good (his ingenuity, his empathy, his self-destructive behaviors and lack of self-worth) have been made either inconsequential or are discussed by everyone else without him having any input whatsoever. I think this is the first time that I have felt like I am being punished for being invested in a character. My only hope now is that the upcoming confrontation between Izuku and Tomura can salvage what is left of what was once my favorite character in the series, but even if that happens it won't make up for how poorly he's been written in the Final Act.
i feel like the hero who has zero self worth is a concept that is VERY well tackled in re zero arc 1-6, subaru needs to believe that he hurts the people around him by hurting himself, he is not able to see this because he sees himself as fundamentally meek and worthless. arc 4 (season 2) of re zero literally is about subaru learning to depend on others and is able to get beatrice out of her libary because he literally asks her to help him and save him symbolizing that the true strength of a person is able to be realized by saving others and depending on others to try to save you too. its such A TIER writing. im not gonna spoil arc 6 but when subaru loses his memory he is FINALLY able to respect himself. only by observing what he did himself and how much people feel for him and the way emillia inspires him like rem once did for him he is able to realize that he may not be the lowest of the low and is able to say that he actually likes himself for the first time. idk i know the 2 shows are drastically different but i think that both shows try to tackle to concept of ''what does it mean to be a hero and a good person'' for main characters that started out hating themselves. and i just think re zero is an example of how to do it masterfully and my hero was just not able to realize this.
I agree with pretty much every point in this video. Its a shame that he's at his least interesting towards the final arcs of the story. At this point, Izuku feels like Horikoshi's action figure rather than the organic character he used to be. Since Deku was my favorite going into the series, his degradation has eroded my investment in the story. If it wasn't for the mangas amazing art, the manga wouldn't have much entertainment value for me anymore. Thankfully alot of the earlier arcs still hold for me and I can always go back and enjoy Deku when he was more fun to watch.
You and me both mate, I can just hope Horikoshi breathes life back into Deku somehow before he wraps it all up. It feels depressing seeing my favourite character turn out this way after all his development.
I honestly think - and have thought since it happened - that Midoriya gaining access to multiple supplementary quirks is the moment the manga started slowly going downhill. It is a shift of focus between honing one power to its apex to pulling new powers out his his ass whenever needed, from Deku probably only being one from an ensemble cast (1-A) that would have to clash with the all powerful AFO due to the limits of OFA outside of sheer power, to being gifted with such a kit that makes OFA probably even stronger than AFO and thus could deal with AFO 1v1 if Deku was remotely near the end of his progression to 100% power. It changes the focus from 1-A to just Deku naturally, like DBZ left the human cast in the dust by making the Saiyans so much more powerful. it also retroactively makes All Might look like a massive chump.
I know. A better solution would have been for Deku using full cowl mode which here gives him enhanced speed and reflex but which strains his body if he uses it too much and to compensate he learns martial arts and create gadgets and other weapons alongside Hatsume which could provide interesting character interactions and, in all honestly, have a better romance than with Ochako which i find to be bland and poorly done due to how little chemistry they have compared to how he and Hatsume could have. What makes this work great is that it makes Deku closer to the Badass Normal character type while still giving him a quirk to justify this story happening that i think might make up for Deku not being a quirkless hero by making him something in between. What do you think about this?
When everyone was waiting for Deku to arrive, while he's speeding through sky, really reminded me of every side character in Dragonball waiting for Goku to arrive at the battlefield :D
@@stefanradebach2889 I don't think I had ever seen this comment, but let me answer anyways! Honestly, Deku's ingenuity is something I'd have been keener on them delving into to power him up, yeah. But honestly, with OfA, he could have just went full All Might by the end and it would have been good enough for him to believably defeat the BBEGs since All Might almost did. A more gadget-reliant Deku could have been a fun idea, but at this point I feel it should just be an entirely different series, one where he never inherited OfA and just entered U-A through using gadgets. Either way, I feel like the ensemble-cast of 1A is MHA's main strength, so a "perfect" version of Deku would master OfA but need his friends' help to deal with any of AfO's powers for which sheer power and speed aren't that handy. My two cents, at least. Make him a master wiedler of the blunt tool that is OfA, but let him need the others by leaving him with a lack of versatility, since it's better for cast-dynamics.
Deku: Tries to redeem a man who has shown zero remorse or regrett for getting thousands of people killed and ruining many more and who is such a fundimentaly shitty person that even the inocent child in him is a murdering pshycophat. All for one: Ngl he just vibing tho.
he only stated how he wanted to save the crying child he saw even then its still up to question if hes actually going to save him since like stated by grand torino "killing is also a way of saving" (if am not wrong)
Deku is trying to kill shigaraki in the manga idk what youre on he was giving it his all he blew a solid hole right through quirkless shigarakis chest hes def showing no mercy
@@jesseweneedtofast not that I disagree, Izuku as a character has always been problematic, but this response doesn't really disprove their point either.
Great video, really highlights how Horikoshi wasted Deku's potential and we wont get more unless a sequel comes out. Horikoshi is an incompetent writer that refuses to trash his favorite character Bakugo and hold him accountable. Deku can't or will never progress as a character until they address the negative experiences he has been dealing from Bakugo. But Hori doesn't want that because he loves Bakugo too much, so much he considered an ending where Bakugo gets One for All. That tells you how little Hori thinks of his mc.
No, Horikoshi has acknowledged that bakugo is a asshole in fact he is surprised by how liked bakugo is it's not that he likes bakugo too much this is jsut untrue, by what he says about bakugo. If anything the people that love bakugo is the people that rank him number 1 in every popularity poll, horikoshi himself never denied that bakugo was a afwul person. His care for bakugo probably comes from the fact that he became the most popular character in japan even tho his intention was to make bakugo a dickhead.
The difference between a villain and hero A villain sees a broken society and tries to changes it. He is condemned A hero protects the ideology of a broke society. He is praised
The villain in question turned a city to ash in 3.5 seconds The hero in question has recognized the flaws in hero society and is actively trying to help the victim he sees in front of him, even after all the death he's caused
The Villains are broken people who were either abandoned by society or were never understood cause their quirks weren't considered the norm. The heroes are the people who have either swept the pain of the flawed people under the rug while the new generation, was basically in a bubble of the problems with the society foundation until the Lost of their Superman.
It honestly started to feel like Horokoshi was somehow punishing us for liking Deku as a character by this point after Villain. From my experience with watching Deku In the early seasons specifically 1 -3 there was a kinda nuanced to him, Deku was definitely as his best in the early seasons. Deku Vs Todoroki, his thinking strategy during the USJ invasion. And even Deku Vs Muscular, a fight that is paying homage to Naruto and would be generic but with plenty of heart added to it and real emotional connection was such a powerful moment for Deku. Now at this point reading the manga it all just feels like reading a Black and White “chosen one” prophecy comic but all the fun has been sucked out of it. Every chapter seems to end on this firecracker moment, the next “Boom!” before it leads into nothing. All these character moments that on paper should be cool, just feels bland as consequence of not being cooked long in the oven so to speak.
I can't help but feel Horikoshi wrote himself into a corner here. We know Deku's meant to be the Greatest Hero, but Horikoshi himself underestimated the time it'd take to finish a story like this, and now it's feeling rushed. It pains me seeing Deku turn out like this, as imo Deku was at his best in the early seasons; never gonna forget his tournament fight with Shoto. Kid badly needs time for himself.
@@oodenstuffDon't treat him like he is some cinnamon roll, he is a badass and "inadvertently say bad language" when it comes to his feeling of winning and friends getting hurt. The vigilante arc is his emotions going plus ultra of caring about others safety. But those scenes are the only scenes I'm interested about him and he will never be a cute bunny or cinnamon roll.😎✌️
I feel like one of the biggest failures in the writing of Deku's character is that the series gives him NOTHING interesting that could make him compelling. A majorly wasted opportunity is the fact that society is bigoted against those with "bad" quirks like mutant and villainous as well as the quirkless and Deku, having experienced something like this, wants to be a hero to fight against this societal mistreatment he and many others suffer, point out how wrong it is and inspire heroes to do the same thing. When he sees how it has no effect and if anything gets mocked and ridiculed for wanting to help the less fortunate, he realizes that fixing society's issues from the inside is practically impossible and the only way is to stage an uprising against the corrupt hero system to replace it with something better that promotes good values like compassion, decency, justice and honesty, not greed, celebrity fame, popularity and power, and to do that he needs to accept in becoming a "villain" to change society for the better. That would make Deku's character SO MUCH better since it makes him look more like a genuine hero wanting to actually fight for justice as opposed to this bland, cookie-cutter "i want to be No.1 hero to put smile on people's faces" that makes Deku barely look like a true hero and more like someone who does it just to make HIMSELF feel better while conforming to society's "acceptable" standards which makes him look both selfish and passive, two traits beyond unfitting for an MC hero character.
Horikoshi, or at least Act 3 Hori is far too precious and coddling of the world he's built up to allow it to have flaws that can't be fixed by punching the nearest villain into a pulp. ThIs in turn, eventually affects how the characters are written in relation. Deku being written into flat cookie-cutter heroics is a pretty bad telling sign for MHA in general.
@@sau7255 I have watched up to season 5 and have read the rest in the manga and I am currently caught up. I know he gets better. But the first 2 seasons really puts a damper on his likability.
In the likelihood that Hero Society is saved & repaired. It’s going to suffer, endure the same pitfalls & start the cycle all over again. Izuku can’t simply picture in his head a world without heroes. His admiration of heroes blinds him. Lady Nagant had some legitimate grievances with Hero Society, Izuku just brushed it off & still picture her as a hero.
Well there's always good ol fanfiction as I have found. The BNHA fandom is both My Hero's greatest Curse and Blessing seeing as while it's Toxic as all hell, the fans take this flawed hero world and the many, many characters that could've been expanded onn, mostly
@@toadlord8594 Same with Dragon Ball's fanbase. Toxic as all shit, but the gem writers from there can make fanfiction stories that completely dump all over Dragon Ball Super in every way. Sad, but it is what it is.
Well, besides the fact that literally any society is going to have pitfalls leading to people screwed by the system, In a world where 80% (and rising) of the human population has superpowers, that kind of society is inevitable. There'll always be assholes who use their powers to hurt people, and there'll always be people who wanna use their powers to help.
@@cold_Lightning9 eh, the toxic ones are just the loudest, most dragon ball fans are pretty chill and are just super into the lore, which is why their fanfics are so good, because unlike super writers, they actively remember past lore and try to build upon it in anyway they can.
@@toadlord8594 When one has to read fanfictions purely because the source material they are based off on barely did anything right with it's story, world and character then you KNOW something is clearly wrong with the original work.
This video cooked and delivered! Great structure to discussing Deku's character throughout the third act. It's a real shame his character has been reduced to what is is now since his character in the first two acts immensely intrigued me. Overall, great video!
I'm not gonna fully judge Deku's character until the very end of MHA. As long as there's still time left, I'm gonna take my dose of hopium that soon these aspects will get addressed in some way, because the possibility is still there. I'm probably just being too optimistic though
I don't think there's anything wrong with being hopeful and withholding your verdict until the end. I just hope that once there, Deku will again be the character that inspired me in my own life.
I’m starting to think Horikoshi doesn’t like writing Deku anymore. He’s able to write so many amazing characters like Bakugo, Endeavor, Dabi, Twice, Toga, All Might, etc but he puts very little effort into writing his MC. I don’t think him getting a little bit of decent writing in this final arc would help, because imo it has become a “too little too late” situation
At this point reading MHA has devolved into just finishing a story out of habit rather than suspense for the next chapter. I don't FEEL anything for the series anymore, no sympathy for the villains that have become nothing more than punching bags for the heroes, both physically and as fodder for their "righteous" philosophies, no admiration for the heroes who have become enforcers of the rule of law rather than people who fight despite the faults they bring into the battle (A job that is already being occupied by the POLICE FORCE mind you! If you want heroes to be the driving force of justice then cut the police out and have the heroes be their super powered substitutes). I have no admiration for Deku because he has become nothing more than a tool of the story and plot that no longer has any real agency as an individual to keep fighting. I have no fear for All For One nor Shigaraki because I feel no stakes for the outcome of this battle because neither villains have shown themselves as a REAL threat... AT ALL... Despite having some of the most powerful and murderous abilities... in this WHOLE series(Seriously, I mean how many people have we watched these people kill that mattered?). All For One who literally took over the entirety of Japan and controlled it in the shadows for near a century, who had to battle ENTIRE hero and villain organizations along with the Japanese government and its assumed military might and manages to either crush them all or bring them under his heel, who has access to countless Quirks that he's had DECADES to create powerful combinations with as well as use as countermeasures against whatever Quirks his enemies can bring to bear... is being pushed back by side characters and students... FUCKING ACADEMY STUDENTS THAT AREN'T EVEN CERTIFIED AS HEROES are pushing back a man who is regressing himself back into the prime of his life, who not even All Might himself has any idea how powerful he is because their final battle was when All For One was old and practically decrepit! If this REALLY is the best All For One can do then I am NOT impressed nor invested in his victory nor defeat... because it's no longer a matter of "if" but ""when" his inevitable and total defeat becomes boring and anticlimactic. And then there's Shigaraki who's been done dirty ever since he FINALLY became a real villain ready to lead his friends in their final crusade against the society that abandoned them and left them to die in the gutter... by turning him into a damsel in distress being piloted like a flesh suit by All For One that the "hero" has to save. He may be back but the damage is already done; the League of Villains has been reduced to a pack of barking dogs rather than people united in their despair and need to change their social and societal status in life, the heroes have shown that they are capable of countering EVERYTHING Shigaraki can throw at them leaving him no room to be menacing nor be a credible threat to worry about, and worst of all there is no truly defined connection between Deku and Shigaraki that would justify ANY kind of relationship between them. Not as rivals, not as adversaries, not even as philosophical combatants. They have absolutely NO REASON WHATSOEVER to be opposing each other than Deku being the main "hero" of the story and Shigaraki being the main "villain" of the story. I'll finish the series but ultimately I won't care if I did.
You literally expressed my thoughts and how I feel about this series. 👏👏👏 Honestly, at this point, the main reason why I'm still watching MHA is to know if AFO is really Deku's dad.
@@spicyspace1319 Now THAT would be the last great Shyamalan twist that this series could produce that I would ever enjoy. Just so I could hear Deku say, "No... That isn't true! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!! AFO: Search your feelings, YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE!!! Deku: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the Bakugo thing is kind of a broad Japan issue. Bakugo's bullying was never meant to be something Deku overcame or a problem for him to solve. It feels like, to me at least, it was just meant to be another hurdle in Deku's journey to overcome/endure or proof of his good nature: He is still a good person who never gives up even while he is being looked down upon. As for the power progression thing, that is more of an issue of Horokoshi speedrunning everything to the final arc. It is the final act, Deku needs to be at his absolute peak. We need Deku at his max NOW. We can't wait another year for him to get up like 20%, because Horokoshi just wants this to be DONE, but he apparently has a whole lot of shit to get through.
Great video! This is something that’s bothered me for a while now, I just couldn’t have put it into words this well. All your videos on mha are amazing and introspective. I would love it more than anything if something happened where all his issues climax and he has a breakdown with some introspection. I wish all of this frustration would become something purposeful and would be worth it. But I think horikoshi just wants to be done with all of this. A lot has been very rushed in mha lately… and a lot won’t be addressed, probably. Anyway, this video was amazing as always. Thanks for posting it!
Deku never had a clear flowchart for his power Progression. The most creativity to his journey are the quirks of the previous users, but that feels like a retcon since none of the others had that ability, and the argument that Deku is quirkless doesn’t make sense because All Might exists. In contrast, see the Crawler/Skycrawler from the spin-off, his power set grows organically as the series went on, compared to deku just… getting his powers practically handed to him.
The explanation is that OFA hit the quirk singularity it’s never said or connected but All Might is the longest OFA user so it must’ve only been able to hit that point because of him so the next time he passed it in the next user would reach it. I’m pretty sure AFO even says Number 6 and the crawler are hitting that point or something like that but it’s been a minute since I read vigilantes.
@@TauntPeak The problem with that explanation is that it's not foreshadowed at all, being a justification for the author to pull a handful of new powers to keep Deku "interesting". It's still just as unsatisfying as Deku getting super powers as soon as the series begins. What's worse is that these powers didn't come from anything, they just appeared over the course of time and still thanks to him eating some hair.
This was a really great video & it really captured how I felt about Deku now! I was wondering though if you’re gonna make a video on the Todoroki family and its betrayal of abuse. Because in my personal opinion it feels like Endeavor is forgiven way too easily. First by the public who when they find out he is an abuser are more mad about the broken out villains (which is valid for the most part) then the fact that one of their top heros WILLINGLY ADMITTED ON TV was an abusive husband and father (faced no legal repercussions either btw) and secondly by Hawks (which was a wasted opportunity since he was abused by his father too) when finding out his childhood hero was an a absolute piece of trash just basically shoved it to the side cause “Endeavors in trouble.” I’m not trying to rag on Endeavors character (if someone wants to be a better person great don’t stop them from trying) I like how he’s trying to atonement instead of getting forgiveness but it just feels like “he said he’s sorry so let’s move on.” Which seems very wasted opportunity. Anyway sorry for the rant lol I can’t wait for your next video!
He's not actually forgiven. The family is just putting their hatred for him aside as to focus on stopping Dabi. And the people don't really forgive him either, most are just watching him to see how he can make up for his shit behavior, while most others do still despise him and want him gone. Also, they can't arrest him, not now when there's so little heroes around to help try and maintain peace, especially not since he's the number one hero.
Thing is, Endeavor being exposed as an abusive father is the least of everyone's worries, since Japan is currently a hellhole after the war, and all the prisoners escaped their jails.
@@Hollowmello1285 I dunno, should they worry about that during a situation where there is no law, with so few heroes around to protect them, and they could be killed at any point?
I really was hoping that Bakugo and Deku would make up through a long heartfelt conversation filled with tears and what not, just giving me all the feels, and then they would become best buddies and be able to fight off the bad guys together
And that’s why I think the romance shipping between these two just doesn’t work because they don’t have any communication outside of their rivalry or training for that matter
Amazing vid definitely puts some of my thoughts into words. I also like how you've structured the video and taken into account the different assumptions others may have. I definitely felt like deku has become somewhat of a plot device rather than an intriguing character
I definitely agree with alot of your points here. It really feels like Deku's progression and development just got shoved to the background to focus more on the other characters in the story. While developing side characters is great, if the story focuses on one protagonist, then the author needs to let the protagonist be the protagonist, allow them to have their own time in story to grow, develop and progress as people, to see how they interact with and affect their surroundings and people, and see how their surroundings and people interact with and affect them.
This is what has turned me away from BNHA actually. I used to love it, but in season five, I could start to see the "we're going to speedrun Izuku's quirk development arc" and I haven't even watched season six yet because I don't want to be disapointed. Bnha was such a vital part of my art journey it hurts to see the way it currently is. Izuku was a confort character for me and now he feels so...different. Don't get me wrong I get characters changing and developing with time, but he just feels like an entire different character. He went from a lovable goof with great intentions and a long journey ahead of himself to well, the cold OP superstrong and badass character that is pureley goal focused and has 0 emotions. IDK, I miss the old Izuku.
The focus on OFA truly through the series into the shitter and I mean this in the same way after the basement of AoT we got just a different series altogether. For better or worse this turned into a kid who didn't have powers, knew what it meant to be forgotten and mocked by society, getting THE power to beat THE evil and then after he realizes the deeper plot, all the character building just stops. It doesn't totally get worse imo but it not progressing forward is too noticeable in a show that introduced so much nuance in societal commentary at least that a manga could provide. *He Didn't Laugh*
I'm not gonna lie, I never really liked Midoriya, but know that the main character is basically being overlooked, it does kind of hurt to see a animes MC be ignored
Little thing about it. Midoriya never blamed Bakugo for anything. He's always looked up to him. So saying that Midoriya never gives it another thought is wrong. Because Midoriya didn't ever think Bakugo was at fault.
You wanna know what would have made this story cool? If deku rejected one for all in favor of finding his own way to become the number one hero And him just getting more and more skilled without a quirk enough to basically do what he did in the vigilante arc. I just really wanted to see a more technical deku, where the answer to a fight isn't just "hit them, but harder this time" I find it hilarious that I started a battle here, but basically i was thinking what if deku fought smarter not harder, sure he can easily die in alot of the situations he's been in, but that would make it all the more cooler when he takes down someone like muscular, and instead of just saying he'd need everyone's help when he takes out shigaraki, he actually does fight with all of class A to take em out. And dont say they're all working together with him mirko is literally missing all of her limbs
I think the major problem is before my villain academya arc the manga was super slow to build everything but after it is extremely rushed. There should have and arc before that major fight in hospital. Instead of a class A vs Claas B should have been some arc focussed on the students working with heroes, especialy oversea heroes( Like the top 10 in ther world or something like that) so the students would develop better their powers, while we see that Hawks spy arc simultaneously. This way we would know more about the world heroes and their death or refuse to help japan would impact more. This should be an arc where time passes like by the end of this they become 3rd year students. If he hospital incident happened while the students were finishing their 3rd year this would bring they running back to japan to help only to see it fucked up. with more time to explore the society having problems with heroes and losing faith. The kids having problems and realizing graduating would be useless after Shigaraki/AFO take over japan. Some should have died, while some doubt if being a hero is worth at all, than maybe coming back after realizing the other need their help ans so understanding more about being a true hero. This would put Midoriya in more stress, could be a nice way to make him and other student or pro hero work together. This time around Midoriya becoming very powerfull and the other students too not in a rushed way but because they truly had time and experience to develop.
When the action scenes start, Deku stops being a character all together, and just seems like a force of nature. While that's not unheard of in Shonen series, it REALLY seems unearned here.
It worked for other protagonists because that's how they were portrayed from the beginning. Ichigo was a force of nature before he got his Shinigami power then went full race steroids. Goku is Goku. Man is on another level of power up. Naruto was a legit menace to society when Nine Tails took over. Luffy has that balance of being strong af but also getting his ass handed to him. But Midoriya has always been an underdog. That's what was most interesting about him. But he went from underdog to top dog like in a few chapters.
@@Phantom_Zoneyea unlike deku ichigo was already a delinquent in his universe n was talented from the jump due to his father indirectly training him his whole life Luffy is well litterally a force of nature but is kept check due to his child like nature Naruto like i said was built up to be a force of nature since episode 1 All of these characters earn there’s from the jump while deku displays none of these qualities besides being reckless with his powers
Deku is boring to me because he's never really had to grow or change meaningfully from how he was at the start. He still wants to be a hero who saves people; people just happens to also include Shigaraki now. I guess that kind of also ties into why I don't think Shiggy is a good antagonist for Deku: he doesn't really challenge him in a way that's interesting. If Deku had an archnemesis that, say, was banned from being a hero and ostracized for the type of Quirk they had (ala Shinso or a number of the mutants), then that could lead to Deku having to address the inequality he brought up at the start. Instead, the beginning of the manga now reads like "Woe is me" before he gets the best superpower and then we don't have to think about it further than that because the main character is happy.
Well Deku no longer wants to be a hero who wants to save people. He wants to find out what are the root causes for people becoming villains. It was stated in Season 4, so that's one point I have for defending Deku.
Now that you mention it, the deku and bakugo talk was shit. I would have enjoyed 2 chapters or so of deku and bakugo's backstory where bakugo and deku on a bench just talks to each other as they are going to work together being the strongest of their class. knowing each other since childhood. but No, they don't get that chapter of communication that reliefs alot of tension between them, and the guilt they both felt. this could've been a chapter that solidifies their friendship and they can work together better as a team. BUT NAW, TAKE A BATH AND YOU GOOD.
Thank you for putting this into words. See so many people portray dark Deku as character development or a overhaul pardon the pun, but he’s just gotten worse.
If I made it, I'd have Midoriya's arms losing the ability to properly grip things aswell as simply not moving as well as normal, while avoiding them becoming totally useless because his body is stronger. Then keep the arm bracers and have them be a support item that allows his arms to return to normalcy somewhat, this let's us know that Melissa is still out there and also gives Deku pause, his mom berates him, All Might tries to advice him on his self-preservation. This kickstarts his recovery arc. Villain hunt remains the same, but it is longer, having multiple pages if not an entire chapter of Deku reflecting on his actions, their consequences and what had brought him to this point. However he can't snap out of it just yet, because the burden is not one to be carried alone. The power progression is easily fixed, have Deku fail in using or misuse the quirks sometimes, have chapters where he trains before PWL, simply show us his progress, and have him succesfully use all his quirks against Nagant as a pay off, one month of literally constant training and being aided by the past users of O.F.A (explaining why he learns them so quick) but also have him acknoledge he could have had done better. Then have Deku vs Class 1-A be a longer battle, where Deku replies with anger and dehumanizing himself in order to defend his actions, but also being given pause, thinking to himself "hey, these guys are right... I am a human being, why should I be destroying myself?". Then making it all culminate in one bombastic shouting contest between Bakugo and Deku, the apology stays the same, but Deku snaps and interrupts Bakugo, finally acknowledging the damage Bakugo has done, and no longer calling him Kacchan. Then, Bakugo apologizes, really apologizes, and the rest plays out as it originally did. The bath scene becomes a gauntlet, everyone having their own reactions to O.F.A being revealed and treating it like the big fucking deal it is, with the conversations slowly getting deeper, until Bakugo cuts in and almost calls Midoriya Deku, splashes him with water. Ya know what Deku does? He pins Bakugo againsg a wall and snaps at him, because he's blaming Bakugo now for his self-destruction, this is a way to show that Deku has developed a sense of self, but is clumsy in handling it. Then Bakugo backs off, we have Deku walking outside and contemplating further, and realizing that all of these kind words and heartfelt apologies aren't enough, he needs someone who understands, someone who was quirkless, who dehumanized himself, who destroyed himself. That's when All Might appears, Deku apologizes, tells him about his problems and All Might acknowledges that Deku is his own person, that All Might was wrong in becoming the Symbol of Peace when it came to his own life and shares how he would have wanted to handle everything in hindsight. Deku goes to sleep with a lot of thoughts. The next morning, Deku walks up to Bakugo, apologizes for his out burst earlier and, read this, *doesn't* forgive Bakugo. Deku knows this isn't all Bakugo's fault, but he also knows Bakugo is the main catalyst (from his perspective), so he doesn't forgive Bakugo, he offers to start anew, but that Deku and Kacchan were no more, only Izuku and Bakugo. Deku learns many things, destroying himself, dehumanizing himself, isn't worth it. He doesn't think of himself as the vessel to O.F.A who is obligated to kill Shigaraki, no, he sees himself as Midoriya Izuku fulfilling his dream of protecting people and putting smiles in their faces. Then we have a training arc where Deku masters his quirks proper and either achieved control of 75% O.F.A (which is acknowledged as beinh Prime All Might level but that's my headcanon, realistically, 45% Deku plus quirks is Prime All Might level ) with the ability to use 100% at the moment of impact, and having the reason he still can't use 100% fully due to him breaking himself too much, but that eventually he could given enough work. When Aoyama is revealed as the traitor, Deku is angry, seething even, but also, wants to forgive Aoyama. I wouldn't change the situation no, I would just make Deku have a conflict between his anger at the real reason he is a cripple outside his hero costume. After that, have Deku forgive Bakugo, finally, but still hold him accountable for his fault. Knowing that even if the blame was on all the different facets of society leading to Aoyama's and Deku's disposition (have Deku slowly piece together the yap about bad society from every villain with his own experience), that Bakugo still needed to be held accountable instead of mindlessly forgiving him. Bakugo tries to call Midoriya, deku, stops himself. Then Deku tells Kacchan to call him his nickname. The arc is over, now Deku is not burdened by being the vessel of O.F.A and knows not to destroy himself, aswell as has nuonced thoughts about how Shigaraki was right and that Deku would carry his torch, but this time burning the vines, not the flowers.
Honestly, I never liked deku as a protagonist. In a world that is arguably the most realistic fantasy ever created, the protagonist is the definition of a mary sue and only survives due to plot armor. It's like Horikoshi put so much effort into the world of mha, then added his MAIN F--KING CHARACTER as an afterthought
It's obvious how little of an overall plot line Horikoshi had figured out. If he was always planning to bring the other quirks out of OFA it would have made more sense for them to appear as Deku kept wrecking himself in the fights. Hell, given All Might's explanation for the extreme training it could have been possible that a different quirk manifested first instead of the super strength.
Tbh I like deku as a character a lot, lots of development and topics seem to go to other characters when deku needs it more then them, hell I agree that in these past chapters I would’ve loved some sort of gohan ssj2 rage moment from deku or something, maybe some sort of negative emotion from him, like with aoyama, no negative emotion and what sucks is that deku doesn’t talk to bakugo after his apology, like I get he’s tired but straight after that there’s no interaction. I really like deku with his morals and goals and his ideals plus his progression of his strength, I just hope that before the series ends that bakugo and deku get some sort of interaction with deku not forgiving him (I like bakugo but 10 years of bullying doesn’t heal that fast). So in the end when the villain hunt ends I guess that’s where horikoshi thought his character was complete or smth.
Thank you for highlighting these points, Izuku wasn't interesting anymore since his fight against Shigaraki, and to be honest, I don't like Vigilante Deku at all, yes, he's badass, but even if I understand the meaning behind this about him worrying for other and wanting to end this by himself because he has one for all and such while hiding his suffering, I think it doesn't fit to Deku at all, all of his progression within his first year was almost wiped down, he started from injuring himself ar each hit, to reducing the amount of injury and even being able to use his quirk without having to always breaking something, just to end up as a powerhouse without consideration for his physical state and becoming someone he wasn't. As for the empathy machine, I totally agree too, this was only a part of his character and he even say it during his second fight against Bakugo, when he lashes out and let his emotion taking over, he can shout and get carried away. And that was something I liked. We know his empathy, it has been shown many times, but we also know he lived around 10 years while getting bullied because he didn't have quirk, he was afraid of Bakugo, and because of his bullying thought himself as worthless, but still, could grt angry at Bakugo for a second because he didn't liked this, and he kept this rage in him, trying to hide it, but then, has some moments where this rage still showed up because he was carried by his emotions. And as for you, even if this apology was great for Bakugo and showed his character evolution, as a bullied person, if I had that kind of apology I wouldn't accept it that easily, even after a long talk, it would still take time to finally accept these apologies. He bullied Izuku for around 10 years ! It's not a simple "I'm sorry" that will wipe out everything. I will take for example Vinland Saga (manga spoiler) (even if what happens in VS is far worse) with Hild, who, even seeing how kind Thorfinn had become, wasn't able to forgive him that easily because of what he done with Askellad's crew back then. It took many chapters before having her finally accepting Thorfinn redemption and saying that she forgave him (it was btw extremely meaningfull for Thorfinn, who saw that his efforts payed of in a way he never expected) Finally the power progression. Once again, I agree with you, what was nice to see with Deku was how much more he had to train, just to make as much progress as others because he didn't have his quirk since the beginning and couldn't master it in time like the others (that's why Aizawa scolded him in the first chapters, thinking that Izuku, who didn't knew how to use his quirk, was a slacker given how much time he had before). It was interesting to see him learning how to control OfA to prevent him from having his bones breaking, learning how to create his own fighting style, based on his favorite Heroes and comrades (also something I enjoyed, je analysed every person he admired, and learned how to use their abilities with good tactics like he did in his first fight against Bakugo). I even hoped he could become a OfA user in a different style than All Might, using speed and agility more than brute strength, but then...the other quirks appeared...with only black whip, I didn't mind that much, he had to master it, and it was a clever quirk that could improve his tactics. But then float, danger sense, Fa-Jin, Smoke screen, Gearshift, that was too much, it's as if he was becoming like AfO to Balance the forces, not to mention his quick mastering of all or them, at the point he was easily able to combine them, and going from 40% to 100, and even 120% in just a bunch of weeks if not says, while it took him month to go from 5% to 8% and 20% (with 45 for short periods). For the last point, I think the problem isn't only Izuku, but the scaling itself, I mean, it escalated too quickly for both Heroes and villains, with Shigaraki awakening his quirk, just to get dozen more, while with the heroes, it was almost as if they all had the power of an experienced pro hero, but without this expérience. I know there's the quirk singularity theory that explains why, but even with that, in my opinion that was too much. I think MHA would've been better if it extended on the three years in UA, with the students slowly become true heroes and having things becoming darker with the villains, once again, slowly but surely...
Deku is a poorly written character with a savior complex but I don't think the writers know that because they glorify his complex as if it was a good thing probably because they are projecting their own complex on Deku and don't even realize it.
I'm just surprised that it took people so long to start seeing that. Izuku has been a character lacking in nuance and introspection from the very beginning. Izuku spent his entire life eating shit for not being special, got a power that made him the most special boy ever, and immediately jumped into doing the exact same shit that everyone who made him eat shit was doing. He completely and utterly conformed into the same garbage society he grew up getting kicked by, literally integrating himself into a system that would've spat on him if he didn't have the number one hero give him everything he needed to be special, and he never once feels conflicted about this decision. The lack of nuance there isn't new. It just carried through. He should've been struggling with the fact that he's living a life that none of his fellow quirkless would ever be able to get close to, fighting for people who couldn't give a shit about him, and was working for a system built on the idea of kicking down others. Considering the only thing that ever really came through was his self worth problems, I'm not sure why anybody was expecting the show to start seriously dealing with his origins in any sort of competent manner.
I'm honestly baffled by this take, what do you mean he never once feels conflicted about his decision of becoming a hero in such a society? :0 The entire manga basically revolves around this topic, and Izuku gets confronted with and feels conflicted about it numerous times. Why he wants to be a hero is specifically for this reason, too: to save lives both literally and figuratively while being a beam of hope and light to those in need (e.g. giving encouragement and dreams and empathy to people deemed "worthless" or "bad" by society). He wants to fit in, yes, he wants to be strong enough to be able to protect and uplift others, but he never forgets his roots and struggles greatly with imposter syndrome, guilt, self-worth issues and Additional Problems He Didn't Sign Up For a.k.a. him receiving not just any Quirk but THE Quirk of THE All Might, and it comes with such consequences and responsibilities and burdens and a time limit he was not at all ready for when he agreed to be the successor. (And frankly, he was not informed about properly beforehand, either.) He wants to put his miraculously gained power to good use and change the system for the better from within but he also feels the need to live up to expectations suddenly thrusted onto him. He went from 0 to a 100 in many ways way too suddenly and the whole story so far is about him paying for this (at first mostly physically, now lately mostly mentally and emotionally). Also, he wasn't given Everything he needed to be special, the story points it out many times that Izuku's heroic and self-sacrificial behaviour and manic spirit are and have always been special (both in a good and bad sense), and even after receiving OFA the main driving force of his character is this, not the Quirk or his connection to All Might. On the contrary, he narrative downright punishes Izuku most of the time when he ends up depending on All Might or tries to imitate All Might meanwhile it rewards him whenever he depends on his own wits/other people and draws inspiration from Bakugou. I'm not saying Izuku is the best-written MC ever, or even the best-written character in the story, but I wouldn't say there is no nuance to him whatsoever, especially not now when the manga is still on-going. ^^
Are you? It's a really common one. I scrolled through this comment section just to see if I was alone, and I found plenty of people complaining that Izuku got All Might's quirk, immediately conformed to the society that spat on him, and didn't have enough conflict about these decisions to be satisfying. I admitted that his self worth problems shined through, and I didn't say he had zero nuance. He originally had a decent amount of nuance toward Bakugo specifically, but don't pretend like he wasn't lacking. The second he got his quirk, he was dead set on becoming the number one, another symbol, and while he does struggle a lot with feeling like he doesn't deserve the power, my problem is that he never really has a problem with the fact that he needed it to not get ruthlessly beaten down by everyone around him in the first place. His imposter syndrome and guilt is all centered around feeling like he's not good enough for his role. What I'm talking about is the fact that he completely tossed out the frustration centered around the fact that he wasn't worthy of respect before his quirk. Maybe the manga was different, but I can't recall a single time where Izuku thought about how his treatment only improved once he got his powers, how garbage it would've been for him if he hadn't, whether it was worth it to be a hero in such an insipid system, or whether he's betraying everyone like him for hopping into the big leagues once he was no longer like the worthless trash that's STILL suffering at the bottom. A lot of his issues stem from the discrimination he faced. Trying to find out why villains do what they do and trying to save everyone isn't the same as him actually working on his character. His struggles are all based around someone who feels like he's worthless trying to fill the shoes of an extremely important role in a society he was trashed by, but his original character and the conflict that was introduced at the beginning were all centered around someone who didn't have power wanting to be useful and help people too. His character issues should've had him struggling with the fact that he's in such a good spot only because he got extraordinarily lucky and managed to conform to the things society respects, but he immediately starts struggling with whether or not he's "good" enough to deserve the position he has and wants to occupy. Does that not strike a nerve with you?
@@zanbarlee6190I think the main, central theme of MHA has never been the "Quirkless vs. Quirks" problem, it has never been the focus. It has always been about "What is a hero? What makes someone heroic?", that is the fundamental theme everything revolves around, the message is getting quite clear in the manga and Izuku's character has always been the center of this topic. Izuku was at conflict with society mainly because of his dream to be a hero, not because he was Quirkless. The main issue the story points out the most is society's views on heroes, and that having a powerful Quirk is considered to be an integral part of being a good hero. Izuku's Mom felt sorry for him when it was revealed he has no Quirk because she knew her son's dream was to be like All Might. Bakugou was mean to him mainly because they both wanted to be the greatest heroes and Izuku failed to live up to the most important criteria set by society ( = having a powerful Quirk) in order to become that. Bakugou lashed out at him not because he was Quirkless but because he wanted to be a hero despite the standards and expectations set by society - and also because he had something else instead of a Quirk, something that Bakugou lacked and thus deeply feared and envied. The adults and kids at Izuku's kindergarten and middle school pitied him or laughed at him because of his wish to be a hero, which was deemed ridiculous and impossible without a Quirk. Little Bakugou actually had allowed Little Izuku to hang out with him even after it had been confirmed to him that Izuku has no Quirk, he started to act malicious towards Izuku only after the River Incident, when the fear and envy fully hit him. All Might, Izuku's idol, advised him to become a police officer or doctor instead of chasing a stupid dream he has no proper qualities ( = Quirk) for. Tsukauchi the police officer appears to be Quirkless yet he's being respected and liked and treated well by everyone else, after all. The real problem is not being Quirkless but when someone's Quirk or lack of it clashes with the person's ambition (like for example in Shinsou's case, too). So I believe while Izuku might have some issues due to the fact that he used to be Quirkless in a society that ties worth to Quirks, his problems are mainly caused by the fact that he used to be Quirkless AND dreamed to be a hero in a society that ties heroism and a hero's worth to Quirks. He wanted to save people from the beginning and he wanted power to do that, because thanks to society's ideals he thought being strong is the only way he can be a hero. Once he got the power, he was dead set on making his dream come true and finally save people - without realizing that what he keeps saving people with is not just his Quirk-powered fist but much more importantly his spirit. Stain and Shigaraki both pointed out the flaws of society's views on heroes and heroism. Shigaraki works as a foil to Izuku so well because they were/are both at odds with society but meanwhile Izuku seeked power to save everyone and change society for the better, Shigaraki seeked power to destroy everything. (Society sees Shigaraki unsalvageable and thus Shigaraki considers society unsalvageable as well.) And now in the manga we are circling back to this problem once again: Izuku in his head tying his heroism to his Quirk and thus deeming himself worthless without a Quirk, but slowly but steadily learning the core message of the story about self-sacrifice vs. self-destruction, about saving and winning, about offering and accepting help. Within all of this the question still stands: "Who is a hero?" And it seems like Izuku is finally about to have the answer we readers already are aware of. :")
Man I love Deku, but I agree with so much of what you said in this vid. While so many moments in the villain hunt arc and current arc look amazing and are incredibly epic, I wanted so bad for deku to address the issues with who he is and how he does things. This second aspect is slightly fixed by choosing to rely on his classmates and other heroes, but theres nothing to say he wont literally destroy himself to save another person (shigaraki probably). It's an aspect of his character I've always loved, but it's also obviously a flaw one would've hoped to be addressed by now, but I think horikoshi is more focused on the overall story at this point which is still interesting, rather than deku himself as a character, which I think you explained really well. Based on your videos on Mha/Re Zero, Deku and Subaru, I feel like you would really enjoy reading/watching Fate/stay night. It's main character is essentially a deconstruction of this sefless hero but lacking any form of self worth and dehumanising themself to the point they view themself as simply a tool for heroism/justice. I also think it deals with and handles these issues you brought up with Deku really well. There is so much introspection into why the way he is, what he is fighting for and how he goes about it and how he must change himself if he wants to continue on this path of heroism
It sucks that VH arc was when he finally got good proper development and then his journey gets cut so damn short then goes back and acts like his old self again for the most part.
@@PoIarisPrime I have up until the bs fakeout with bakugo’s “death” among all the other bs that happens and mostly I just heard of spoilers after that so nice try there lol. And apparently “leave me alone” doesn’t get to your head does it? Edit: As for the more bs that happened, Prime AFO being a waste of time, The bad Toga Uraraka and Deku dynamic, the extremely rushed pacing in many areas thanks to the bad editor and the higher ups, Shiggy being used as a puppet for over 2+ years before coming back. Mirio being a joke with his ass, and more. Bet you’ll just blindly like all that regardless so stop wasting my time to convince me again dude
@@jeffali5157 uh Deku is the same from Villain Hunt arc, the only difference is he now accepts his friends’ help and he is not insanely and unhealthy obsessed with AFO anymore. And it is good, he matured.
The final act begins? More like the assassination of MHA begins. Asa you have no idea how much this video was _needed_ . Thank you. Question: Are you interested in making an MHA rewrite in the future? I'm sure many of us are curious about the Asa vision.
I think the story will loop back around to interesting. After Deku obtains ultimate quirk powers the way he saves the ultimate villian isn't with a quirk but with his humanity. His quirks give him the strength to fight but the strength to save anyone/everyone comes from his heart as a hero.
Just one thing to note: I love the comment: "It all started with this damn bath" xD Thing is, somewhere along the line, Deku was just given the biggest spotlight but his entire character is NOT set up to carry the series like a Batman or Superman, which was completely fine, I really liked that aspect of MHA actually because we saw all the other characters instead. BUT, because he now has the spotlight, he now has to be "Superman", which he is not designed to be and throw out all the other characters and their backstories as well. Which, in the end, will ruin the series to a simple: "Oh... and then the hero rescued the princess and the village was saved" ending again. It is predictable, it is boring, it is just an absolute waste of "potential". MHA and their story deserved so much better, imo.
This is so on point (well, except for saying Bakugou's apology was trauma dumping-- it really wasn't in anyway) it hurts. Deku and the handling of his character symbolizes the biggest issue with Hori's writing. He introduces a problem and glaring flaw in the status quo... and his solution is for everyone to just keep doing the same thing. Nothing really changing. There may be heroes who are shallow and/or abuse their power-- but they are all cool and useful. So none of them are punished or forced to change. And any changes that occur are very small in the grand scheme of things. If anything, they are changes that simply allow for the current order of things to continue just with less guilt. Solution to Deku's bullying problem? The bully redeems himself. Solution to Shoto's sociopathic father? He simply decides to stop being a sociopath. Anything involving Hawks, Nagant, and the Safety Commission? Just forget about them. No one really addresses them in the main cast, Hori always goes out of his way to say they aren't that bad, and they're gone now anyway. As much as I like Bakugou and Endeavor's character arcs-- I can see why people are upset. They complete overshadow the characters they were supposed to be connecting us to. Bakugou was my favorite character for a while because he really did most of the heavy lifting in his and Deku's relationship. But I now realize that that SHOULD NOT be the case. I have no issue with his character arc. But the LACK of an arc for Deku makes things feel so off kilter. And it shows when Bakugou (and loads of Deku's other supporting characters) is removed from the main story and the spotlight shines squarely on Deku... we get nothing. Just vague words and stances. Deku's character has gone from a relatable underdog to just another late-game Naruto. He doesn't find creative solutions to problems anymore. He just punches through them and/or gets very very lucky. It sucks.
I agree that the pro quo issue is the problem but it's not Horikoshi who is really the issue. All Shonen anime are like this. People always claim that their favorite is different but a close look at it objectively shows that they all raise important issues but the answer is never to change just to keep trying until you're strong enough to overpower the issue. The reason is simple: it's cultural. In Japan the attitude of people is that working hard is everything. Failure is not acceptable and authority cannot be challenged. It's always the person who is lower down who is blamed for failing. Therefore the solution Shonen anime poses is to tell kids that trying harder and working more will make you strong enough to handle life. The problem is you, not the environment. It's why Japan has not had a major Revolution, it's against their principles. Contrast that to America, which is built on Revolutions and movements to change things whenever the people do not like something Other western cultures are similar to that. So in the West, we blame the system for the problem. We say it's not us, it's the culture that needs to change. Anime does not believe that, that's why the villain of every anime threatens the established way of life and is stopped by force or persuasion. Though mha was refreshing about admitting the problem, it doesn't have the guts to change the norm. Naruto is the same. The mc acknowledges the problems with ninja society but he only becomes Hokage, and fixes none of the problems that he talked about. He's not allowed to. The hero cannot be a rebel. Unless it's just a dark arc, but not the end of the show/manga. Weebs tend to get mad when I point this out but it is the reason and I really doubt it will ever change. Shonen Anime is disappointing for that reason.
@lemonbread27 I forgot about even writing this because no one ever responded to it lol. But thanks, given how mha ended, it looks like I was even more right than I knew. I feel bad for the villains who didn't get taken seriously enough for the heroes to change anything.
Fantastic video bro, and as an MHA fan, I respect your opinion, but I want to say the issues I have with Midoriya as a protagonist. And before I begin, I love Deku, but I think his writing is ass. Okay anyways, here we go: 1. My biggest issue with Midoriya as a protagonist of My Hero Academia is that he never bothered to train his body or at least work out before he met All Might. And before you say, "he worked hard to receive One for All". Yes, I am aware that Midoriya did work hard but I am talking about before meeting All Might. Like he literally had the opportunity to work out or learn some martial arts. He could've been training his body after the doctor told him he was quirkless in order to be prepared. But instead, he spent all of his life idolizing heroes and never trying for once to train his goddamn body. 2. My second issue with Midoriya as a character is that I didn't like how quickly he forgave Bakugo after he bullied him. Like dude, Bakugo bullied Deku for not possessing a quirk. He even told Deku to go commit suicide off a building in order to possess a quirk in his next life, but instead, you chose to continue to be his friend even though he said a million times he didn't want to be. Like I wish Deku ignored Bakugo and never forgive him for what he did. 3. The final issue I have with Deku is the fact he is reckless, and his view of a hero is stupid as hell. Like Deku really ran in there to save Bakugo from the Sludge Villain. And while I do understand that Deku was trying to save Bakugo, he could've been killed out there and there were other pro heroes in the area, so why didn't they use their quirks to defeat the villain? Like it is not that hard. But goddamn, it felt like it was created to make Deku the chosen one. And that's all I have to say. But however, what I like about Deku is the fact is the fact that he is kind-hearted, and he always tries to help out others. I also like his vigilante arc because he finally got an arc that made him interesting for once.
Katsuki didn't bully deku because he is quirkless, He bullied him because he thinks Izuku is better than him and even thinks that Izuku is looking down on him ever since when they're young. So, Katsuki hate him because because he feels inferior to him.
Both Shigaraki and Midoriya have been wasted in act 3. During the entire series and mostly act 2 we followed the progression of Shigaraki and Deku, promising a deep seeded relationship being formed into future. During their proper first fight it wasn't Shigaraki vs Deku. It was Deku dehumanizing himself into just the one who wields OFA and Shigaraki having been taken away from the action to be replaced by a 1000 years old edgy teenager potatoe man. Then the next fight they have is the conclusion of all that was built up in the series? Why...? Why we go from a fight where they 2 were barely there to the conclusion? ACT 3 has been infected by AFO doing bullshit after bullshit, which is not important for Deku and Shigaraki's relationship at all. AFO doesn't need to take an entire act for himself to motivate Deku to save Shigaraki, so much so that in the current chapters it will be Deku vs Shigaraki and Deku trying to save Shigaraki regardless of AFO being in the control or not. Not only Deku has been flanderized into this reactive empathy machine, but Shigaraki has been reduced to this endless hate machine. Again, hating is a thing that Shigaraki has always done but there was more into it. His relationship with the LoV was something very important to set the new generation of heroes and villains apart. The previous generation were these comic books idealistic hero and villain. AFO in specific was literally the most cringe cartoon villain ever created, thinking only about himself and nothing else...While Shigaraki created mutual bonds with the league. Shigaraki wasn't AFO's replacement because isn't all for just one person. With that said we've NEVER got any thoughts from Shigaraki regarding his teamates and Twice's death because Hori was too busy building up a fodder villain that only fought the protagonist for 3 chapters in someone else's body and said protagonist was just asking "ok, cool and all but where is my man Shigaraki?". The second fight btween Shigaraki and Deku for me doesn't feel very emotional because both characters were basically erased from any nuance whatsoever during act 3, making not only the individual characters worse but they relationship.
I kinda always disliked deku (mostly for a joke) but after all the stuff the manga had been doing , im hating him for real. i think the most i dislike is his power progression , but the other problems ale glaring as well . Good vid !
Deku has ALWAYS annoyed me. He suffers from "explain every little detail syndrome" a lot of action anime fall into now a days (looking at you Tanjiro from demon slayer) where the main character feels compelled to think or vocalize every little microsecond of what's happening on screen. SWEETIE WE HAVE EYES! Unless there's some hidden detail that we can't inference from sight or sound alone, shut up and let the action do the talking. On top of the fact, how he recklessly DESTROYS needlessly his body in so many fights, I don't care that he's a young teen, medicine girl isn't going to be there to patch you up Everytime and that recklessness will get him killed.
Gosh, I hope, at some point in the future, a motivated Horikoshi or a group of passionate fans coming together will reset the series to Villain Hunt, rewriting it and then the story from then on. Problems may have slowly started arriving beforehand, but at least they were possible to fix by that point. At the manga’s current point, however, it can hardly be salvaged. There was so much potential squandered because the story wants to bolt to the finish line now and it just disappoints me. What a travesty.
From what I'm getting after the first war arc is that he doesn't want to beat Shigaraki and stop his rampage. He wants to find that child inside Shigaraki, to stop him from his rampage. But, Shigaraki litarlaly killed a lot of people. If I was Deku I would just stop Shigaraki
was expecting to see a mid video with a mid youtuber that i'll watch once then forget but holy crap youre great man, i'll be checking your other videos out!
Went from a kid struggling (and being creative) with his limited movesets, to basically Ichigo from Bleach with multiple different powers. He went from an MC we can root on, to borderline gary-stu.
13:14 when i saw that panel of him missing his arm i thought “no way, it actually happened? he was careless and it bit him in the ass?” and then after that it was just like, oh, nvm i guess. it never mattered to being with
I love My Hero, I really do. I don’t understand why manga is completely written by one man. Obviously it leads to burn out and then we suffer because the writer/creator turns a story with so much potential and many more great character elements to a rushed down plot just because he’s tired of writing the manga. It’s utterly ridiculous. So much potential wasted for the anime and manga.
Mha and especially deku has always been a story to me about actions and consequences. Good things happened and characters grew but due to them and mistakes made along the way bad things also happened but ever sense season 4 with the exception of a couple of individual moments mha follows rule of cool like it's dragon ball witch wail rule of cool works in alot of shownen in the world mha has created rule of cool doesn't work and it's greatly changed how much I enjoy and how I enjoy the show deku vs bakugo durring season 3 was great but that's the last time other then maybe the festival arc that things happened with reason. Maybe if I went back and analyzed earlier mha there might have been traces of deku learning other users quirks but it felt like making him into spider man was just a hey this is a cool idea thing
yk these videos are very helpful for since I wanted to start my own lil project of just a retelling on MHA. and knowing deku character and why doesn't it work gives me a better idea on what to address and focus on in the story
Hot take. Deku isnt boring..he simply needs another big introspective moment and people will jump on the deku wagon again People just hate him because unlike other MCs he isnt the main focus all the time and he isnt the only key factor in stopping the villains Another hot take, while mha has had its poorly executed moments thruought the last few arcs, people are moreso mad that the series didint take the direction thst suited their fanfic and headcanons
I really like all the points youve brought to the table here, but idk some thing says to me , “ yes these are all true but know that u wish they were were just addressed with more time to the manga. “ instead of the direction it going being its … eventual end
Hate me for it or not, but Deku would be more interesting if he kept destroying his body when using One for all, forcing him to use tactic or other means. I love complicated fights, JoJo part 5 has some of the best fights with how creative they can get. But i know why author just give Deku Super strength caped behind literal milestone cap... Because its easy writing, its easy to write Dragon Ball 2.0 where all mc does is Punch things harder, heck Punch thing harder is a meme for ages. For me Deku stopped being interested during his fight with Muscular or whatever that guy name was. He didnt won because of his wits, or because of his knowledge of quirks as a super hero fanboy... No author jusr decided he filled up his super move meter by being punched repetitively, and one shot Beef man
I agree but while People call shonen fights in dragon ball repetitive….Jojo has some of the most repetitive fights in fiction. protag gets outsmarted by villain of the week, mc pulls some strategy out his ass in the last second and wins, repeat for 100 episodes. It only seems creative on the surface level
His first or second fight? In general Muscular is nothing he didn’t even need to repetitively punch him it only took 1 direct hit to the face to beat him. He didn’t need wits or knowledge cause he was fighting a brute and it’s shown when Muscular could’ve ended the fight multiple times but wanted to get some fun in.
What if he's supposed to be a tragic figure, and must sacrifice almost every part of himself in the same way that All Might did before him? That's how the anime seems to be playing out. Deku doesn't get to resolve his mental health issues because society is willing to wear him down until he is nothing but a shell of himself, solely for their own peace of mind and wellbeing, same as All Might, who gave everything but his own life. The cycle repeats itself, and Deku is the victim. Deku and All Might's sacrifices for those around them are almost Christlike in nature. Its hard not to feel like that's an intentional motif, given the parity between the two characters. Not all stories have a happy ending.
It's really sad to see my favorite character end up having all of these problems. Loved the video, totally agree with the points you brought up, but despite the huge amount of flaws in the third act, I liked so many of the ideas brought up, but unfortunately they had horrible execution. It's kinda counter intuitive, but one of my favorites, if not my favorite arc in all of MHA is Villan Hunt, because I loved some ideas and moments, but it made me really sad that they missed tremendously on the execution. I basically love Villan Hunt for all the good parts and what could've been, the ideas laid out and not exactly how they turned out. My Boy deserved better ;-;
What makes this worse for me is that in the VERY first episode, we see Izuku inwardly expressing bitterness and anger toward Bakugo for how he treats him. It got me a bit interested to see how the story would explore this... only for it to do absolutely NOTHING. Even when the two became proper rivals, their relationship still felt unbalanced to me, with Izuku having too agreeable of a personality.
You explained this issue so well, and i agree
Yup
The whole shit with thinking that they are still friends anoyed me cus like i would be pissed at bakugo
This is what I hate the most about the Villain Hunt/Vigilante Deku/Dark Deku or whatever you want to call it. It’s apparently spurred on by AFO but the issues are deep rooted in his treatment at the hands of Bakugo and during the fight against 1A he should have been yelling his feelings out and spilling it all to the class about said bullying experience and specifically call back to Bakugo telling Midoriya to jump off the roof. There would have been lasting consequences from the class towards Bakugo and they should be horrified that all this time such a thing was kept secret from them.
But no we got this.
@@azurai3934 because that's cringe, deku has more things to worry about than the past two deku thought they made up when they fought the second time 3 deku always saw bakugo for a good person which he is
I think Horikoshi has been burnt out for like over a year at this point but has been either unable and/or unwilling to take a break for his own well being, this has probably been why the writing has felt more rushed and less thoroughly thought out lately. He clearly just wants to end the series so he can take a nap. Wish he would just take a break for a few months and come back when he was ready to finish the series properly.
Im worried he takes the break and he never wants to come back
@@woods93bullet44 Tabata took 4 months off to rest and plan the final arc of BC, and he has been doing as bad if not worse than Horikoshi. I think Horikoshi could easily find the motivation after some time away, but currently he is laser focused on gunning it to the end, and that his hurting his health aswell as his writing.
@@woods93bullet44 if he doesn't come back, that's fine. Mangakas literally work themselves to death sometimes. If he needs a break, our entertainment isn't more important than his health
@@woods93bullet44That was how Tite Kubo said he felt in the final arc of Bleach, as I recall. If he took a break, he'd never be able to regain his momentum and start up again.
Honestly deku might be more of a self insert than a character
I genuinely do not understand why horikoshi hates his mc so much after building him up for two full acts
The fandom and editors are forcing him to focus on more popular characters like bakugo.
@@motivatedtoscapechildsupport but deku is the 2nd most popular
@@ivanr6203 I know,but protagonists are usually number 1. I think the writer is forcing the characters to focus on the plot instead of themselves. I don't know. But I know that after liberation war arc,all of his developments are gone. I remember tokyo ghoul manga when that girl reze was just a normal ghoul who wanted freedom and enjoyment because of her being prisoned by his father and in the end her being the symbol of anti Christianity. Poor girl didn't even get her freedom and she was tortured and experimented and she became the devil herself without knowing it. She was just another being.
@@motivatedtoscapechildsupport They literally have no say in what Horikoshi does 💀💀 Especially not the side you're referring too
@@519zier I meant symbolism. Deku wasn't one for all user because of him being quirkless,he gained it when he tried to save his bully,bakugo. Even after that,he was an average person with his own goals and life,until the war arc. Now he is the chosen one and he is only one for all. Reze was just an average girl with a good kagune until the last arcs it was revealed that her blood is special and she was revived and she was the bad guy all along. She just became a bad guy that couldn't talk and her only goal was to be defeated. Do you see the similarities? They don't even have their personalities, their lives and they are just a symbol and their goal is to be defeated or defeat someone.
It really sounds like Act 3 Mha is devolving into the Harry Potter thing of "the status quo will be a lot better as long as the right people are in charge."
That's just slapping tape on a broken hull. Once the "right people" leave the status quo roars back and nothing is ever fixed.
@@shadowednight1600 That's what happened what All Might lost his power. And after so many chapters, they are now relying on another powerful man..... at least all of the heroes have tried their best to defeat the villains and the crowd has learnt to be kind to erase the evil at very young age at the end.
After the last chapter came out today, I can sadly say this aged well.
It feels kinda sad to see Horikoshi care so little about his MAIN character. We don't get much information about how he feels now, we didn't even get a reaction from him about Bakugo's apology
That’s what makes Bakugou’s apology not work for me since Deku himself doesn’t have his own input on how Bakugou made him feel, 10 years of bullying isn’t something so excusable regardless of reason, there’s NEVER any justification on bullying someone to the point of telling them to Kill themselves, that’s just fucked up no matter what you yourself been through.
And “Blaming Society” is honestly the most lamest excuse you could put for it
Horokoshi loves his bully character more than the actual main character by this point.
Wdym?
@@toadlord8594 tbf to him he was tired af and probably lost all energy for any reply. Still he could've replied later on
@@naganut9718 but never did
@@Hollowmello1285 because you’re blind and know nothing about basic human behavior, Deku’s moved on from that and wasn’t holding anything against bakugo for what he did, they literally got that settled back in season 3.
Idk if this is a common opion or not but I really liked back when deku fought bakugo in season 1 in that building he had to tactically use his ability instead of just being able to spam it
That's what exemplified him. While everyone was developing their quirks, this quirkless kid was developing his mind.
@@kompav5621This. Honestly MHA would be a hundred times better if Deku remained powerless.
@@jesseweneedtofast lmao that's bull that would've been trash
Nah that sucked
@@kompav5621 nah lol don't even try
I’m going to be honest, my main problem with the Villain Hunt arc that it was too short to wrap up everything that it should have addressed. I honestly think that Izuku should have multiple fights with Class 1A.
The first time is him escaping them with ease which will let him believe in his mindset that he is the only one that can fight AFO and the class realizing that they need to train and step their game up if they want to show him their worth.
The second time he will be more bent on his self destructive nature which will lead him to beating them up, becoming a monster as he tries to push them away and further putting him down the path as his insecurities and weaknesses start to show, glimpses of his past coming up as he doesn’t want to be a burden like before.
This ends with a last fight between him and Class 1A as they pull all of the stops and remind him of the little things that he has done to save him. It won’t help but it’s a first step as they defeat him and carry him to a hero agency used as a hideout or order of operations and not UA.
you coudl toss Deku not being able to save someone between the 1 and 2 one
Deku is someone I really used to like but my main problem is that he confirms to a society that would normally expell him. Horikoshi is someone who can build up a massively flawed hero world but he didn't flesh out these plot points. Even though Deku has stated that all men aren't born equal he follows regulation that don't help everyone. His desire to become the Nr 1 hero is a responsibility that Deku would still need to comprehend. Ever since Deku received a quirk that made him lose his uniqueness. Deku also doesn't seems to be open to reforming his villains. The spinoff manga vigilantes is actually what Deku's story should have been. What will be at the end of the series? Will there be another billboard charts with Deku as Nr 1? What exactly will change for the quirkless people? People will see exactly what they want to see, someone with a powerful quirk who worked himself on the top again.
“This is the story of me becoming the greatest hero” should tell us enough
@@ShumaiTheDetective yes, but isn't there anything else besides being a hero for him? Does he want people to have a different view. No, it's just to be a good person nothing more. Naruto wanted to be hokage so that the village will notice him and he wouldn't be alone anymore. Asta wants to become wizard king to eradicate classism. Tanjiro wants to hunt demons so that his sister can be turned back to normal. Yuji wants to collect Sukuna's fingers and destroy him so less people will suffer because of curses. Gon wanted to become a hunter so he could find his father and probably understand the world better then his story was done and dusted.
“The difference between a villain and hero
A villain sees a broken society and tries to changes it. He is condemned
A hero protects the ideology of a broke society. He is praised.”
That should tell Izuku has no intention of changing or fixing anything.
@@Atticus-CatnippThat's literally a big point of MHA's world though. People don't need these super deep reasons to be heroes, it's a normal profession that's oversaturated with people. Deku was inspired at a young, developmental age and it's been his dream since.
And like, it's definitely developed, as he wants to understand and try and help villains now
@@theboibubba Deku has always been someone who would’ve wanted to help villains if he knew they had a sad backstory from the first episode. And if he doesn’t get to know them personally, he treats them like they aren’t people. Both of his fights with Muscular prove he never changed about this.
I think the biggest let down if the vigilante/villian hunt arc is that Deku doesn't grow. I think back to some parallels with Subaru from re: Zero where Subaru is trying too hard or trying to do everything alone and it ends up putting him over the edge. Subaru eventually realizes that he's trying too hard to be something he is not, starts to understand that he needs to rely on others in order to be truly strong, and ultimately experiences a degree of success in practicing what he learns.
Deku on the other hand here, doesn't actually seem to really experience character growth. The challenging part is that there is a ton of reasons WHY Deku could be on this path. He has been bullied, he has too much of burden to shoulder, he's trying to be someone he is not, he doesn't want his friends to get hurt because of his weakness. It's just unfortunate that they didnt use the opportunity to give Deku a chance to grow into his own number 1 hero.
Your last sentence is especially poignant. I have a poster of Deku with the caption of "Be Your Own Hero", and now more than ever it seems like Deku needs to be his own Hero.
I love it he amzing to me sill heve nice day my friend ❤
It's really unfortunate how rushed act 3 feels considering how (on paper at least), the content of the arcs seem to be decent. I doubt it'll happen, but I really hope the anime can add in a few scenes to make Deku a bit more introspective. Great vid
Yeah all of Act 3 is mired by this exact issue: Ideas over execution
Like you said all of these ideas sound fantastic on paper, but they're very rarely given the right amount build up or a satisfying payoff so they fall much flatter than they should
Anime is way worse than the manga.
At this point I doubt it considering we’re now at the part where things go downhill in the anime. And with how much worse things get later on, they’ll need to add a LOT more later on.
@@jeffali5157 Here's hoping the anime can try and Salvage the series post Villain Hunt cause they're gonna need it.
@Toad General Waybright considering how badly they fumbled with villian academia last season, I'm not optimistic and yeah, it's just a downward spiral now
The way Deku’s dynamics with the rest of the cast have taken a nosedive on act III is so depressing, there’s SO much missed potential, he doesn’t reflect on Endeavor (beyond a brief moment protecting the Todoroki’s on PLW) and Hawks actions being exposed for everyone to see, the safety commission conveniently evaporates so Hawks and Nagant’s roles on society have already been taken down, leaving his desire to change society feel shallow.
Hawks interacts with Deku on Villain Hunt but him murdering a Villain that was actually a good person isn’t explored, and neither is wanting to save Shigaraki or the way he’s gonna go about it when you could easily contrast what Hawks DID with what Deku will do
Endeavor’s reaction to him having All Might’s power, his relationship with AM is ruined, his relationship with his own class is barebones besides Ochako, it’s so sad to see a character that was known for learning from everyone around him suddenly losing all of the wonderful dynamics he had and could have had on the last stretch of the story
Also I wished we get some more introspectives on the remaining League members before the final war in their current state, about how their ideals and wants have changed drastically. Honestly I wished we had more manga moments with Touya after the whole Endeavor speech on the news after revealing the truth about his connections with Dabi being his were true. Toga leaving the League was a potential plot point that really went nowhere when she just appeared with them again off screen, And Shigaraki ( my favorite character in the series for me) is woefully absent and was basically All for One 2.0 for the major duration until the most recent chapters.
"HAWK"S ACTIONS"
I don't know what drugs people do that make them think he has done anything wrong.
Damn that sounds like skill issue, you might wanna reread the fight or watch the Nagant episodes cause am not gonna bother explaining it to you
@@twicejaeger6997 then why comment? Only you know your probably stupid angle, since even you can't put it into words
@@Agent-57 in the past Hawks was forced to be an assassin against corrupt heroes, villains, and others in the Commissions way. That IS a bad thing to do. However, he was brainwashed his whole life and had no one to go to for help, inve the Heroes and police answer to the people making him do bad things
It really bugs that they brushed off All Might like that for Izuku's self destructive habits despite several arcs expressing concern over both of their self destructive tendencies and both of them recognizing and wanting to support eachother in dealing with those tendencies. All Might was hardly standing there saying nothing about Izuku's problems and this and the way All Might drops out of the narrative is kinda insulting.
There's a lot about All Might's experiences that gets basically no attention in favour of unfairly blaming him for things that other people have responsibility in/he's also fallen victim to. The story seems to have forgotten that addressing the ways All Might's been harmed to end up the way he is is super important to both the narrative and Izuku's character development specifically. Was that whole talk in the Overhaul arc about facing the future together for nothing? It's already bad enough that the arc didn't really touch on how All Might was pushed into isolating himself and shouldering things on his own or all the stuff around why he had so much trouble facing his imminent retirement. He doesn't need to get blamed for his protege struggling with the same systemic issues he did on top of that.
I miss when Izuku was allowed to be angry at Bakugou for his bullying too. Something that really bugs me is the tendency for protagonists to not be allowed to be angry about the harm done to them by other characters, who have to be forgiven, redeemed and included in the group because they're the rival and therefore the only other character in the protagonist's peer group allowed to keep up with them and actually matter to a comparable extent. It's exhausting and I don't like the toxic mindset it perpetuates about trauma, abuse and forgiveness.
Great video as always. Deku's fall from grace has been very hard to watch. It feels like every aspect of what made him good (his ingenuity, his empathy, his self-destructive behaviors and lack of self-worth) have been made either inconsequential or are discussed by everyone else without him having any input whatsoever. I think this is the first time that I have felt like I am being punished for being invested in a character.
My only hope now is that the upcoming confrontation between Izuku and Tomura can salvage what is left of what was once my favorite character in the series, but even if that happens it won't make up for how poorly he's been written in the Final Act.
Lies
Fights here now, and it’s not very good
@@PoIarisPrimeDeku x Bakugo is real
@@jesseweneedtofast only thing likely to be real is deku and uraraka.
@@jesseweneedtofast plus, ur probably a girl, as no normal guy would say this
i feel like the hero who has zero self worth is a concept that is VERY well tackled in re zero arc 1-6, subaru needs to believe that he hurts the people around him by hurting himself, he is not able to see this because he sees himself as fundamentally meek and worthless. arc 4 (season 2) of re zero literally is about subaru learning to depend on others and is able to get beatrice out of her libary because he literally asks her to help him and save him symbolizing that the true strength of a person is able to be realized by saving others and depending on others to try to save you too. its such A TIER writing. im not gonna spoil arc 6 but when subaru loses his memory he is FINALLY able to respect himself. only by observing what he did himself and how much people feel for him and the way emillia inspires him like rem once did for him he is able to realize that he may not be the lowest of the low and is able to say that he actually likes himself for the first time. idk i know the 2 shows are drastically different but i think that both shows try to tackle to concept of ''what does it mean to be a hero and a good person'' for main characters that started out hating themselves. and i just think re zero is an example of how to do it masterfully and my hero was just not able to realize this.
omg i just saw that you already made a video exactly about this, thats actually hilarious, glad to see someone sees it same as me!
I agree with pretty much every point in this video. Its a shame that he's at his least interesting towards the final arcs of the story. At this point, Izuku feels like Horikoshi's action figure rather than the organic character he used to be. Since Deku was my favorite going into the series, his degradation has eroded my investment in the story. If it wasn't for the mangas amazing art, the manga wouldn't have much entertainment value for me anymore. Thankfully alot of the earlier arcs still hold for me and I can always go back and enjoy Deku when he was more fun to watch.
You and me both mate, I can just hope Horikoshi breathes life back into Deku somehow before he wraps it all up. It feels depressing seeing my favourite character turn out this way after all his development.
I honestly think - and have thought since it happened - that Midoriya gaining access to multiple supplementary quirks is the moment the manga started slowly going downhill.
It is a shift of focus between honing one power to its apex to pulling new powers out his his ass whenever needed, from Deku probably only being one from an ensemble cast (1-A) that would have to clash with the all powerful AFO due to the limits of OFA outside of sheer power, to being gifted with such a kit that makes OFA probably even stronger than AFO and thus could deal with AFO 1v1 if Deku was remotely near the end of his progression to 100% power.
It changes the focus from 1-A to just Deku naturally, like DBZ left the human cast in the dust by making the Saiyans so much more powerful.
it also retroactively makes All Might look like a massive chump.
I know. A better solution would have been for Deku using full cowl mode which here gives him enhanced speed and reflex but which strains his body if he uses it too much and to compensate he learns martial arts and create gadgets and other weapons alongside Hatsume which could provide interesting character interactions and, in all honestly, have a better romance than with Ochako which i find to be bland and poorly done due to how little chemistry they have compared to how he and Hatsume could have.
What makes this work great is that it makes Deku closer to the Badass Normal character type while still giving him a quirk to justify this story happening that i think might make up for Deku not being a quirkless hero by making him something in between. What do you think about this?
When everyone was waiting for Deku to arrive, while he's speeding through sky, really reminded me of every side character in Dragonball waiting for Goku to arrive at the battlefield :D
@@stefanradebach2889 I don't think I had ever seen this comment, but let me answer anyways!
Honestly, Deku's ingenuity is something I'd have been keener on them delving into to power him up, yeah.
But honestly, with OfA, he could have just went full All Might by the end and it would have been good enough for him to believably defeat the BBEGs since All Might almost did.
A more gadget-reliant Deku could have been a fun idea, but at this point I feel it should just be an entirely different series, one where he never inherited OfA and just entered U-A through using gadgets.
Either way, I feel like the ensemble-cast of 1A is MHA's main strength, so a "perfect" version of Deku would master OfA but need his friends' help to deal with any of AfO's powers for which sheer power and speed aren't that handy.
My two cents, at least. Make him a master wiedler of the blunt tool that is OfA, but let him need the others by leaving him with a lack of versatility, since it's better for cast-dynamics.
Deku: Tries to redeem a man who has shown zero remorse or regrett for getting thousands of people killed and ruining many more and who is such a fundimentaly shitty person that even the inocent child in him is a murdering pshycophat.
All for one: Ngl he just vibing tho.
he only stated how he wanted to save the crying child he saw even then its still up to question if hes actually going to save him since like stated by grand torino "killing is also a way of saving" (if am not wrong)
Deku is trying to kill shigaraki in the manga idk what youre on he was giving it his all he blew a solid hole right through quirkless shigarakis chest hes def showing no mercy
@@Young_WrathCry all you want, deku will always be a garbage main character
@@jesseweneedtofast not that I disagree, Izuku as a character has always been problematic, but this response doesn't really disprove their point either.
Another great Asa video.
Kinda sad to see how Deku turned out. He's no Subaru, sadly
Even though I’m not a MHA fun. I really enjoyed Asa’s video about Subaru and Deku. It’s such shame to see his character turning like this.
Great video, really highlights how Horikoshi wasted Deku's potential and we wont get more unless a sequel comes out. Horikoshi is an incompetent writer that refuses to trash his favorite character Bakugo and hold him accountable. Deku can't or will never progress as a character until they address the negative experiences he has been dealing from Bakugo. But Hori doesn't want that because he loves Bakugo too much, so much he considered an ending where Bakugo gets One for All. That tells you how little Hori thinks of his mc.
No, Horikoshi has acknowledged that bakugo is a asshole in fact he is surprised by how liked bakugo is it's not that he likes bakugo too much this is jsut untrue, by what he says about bakugo. If anything the people that love bakugo is the people that rank him number 1 in every popularity poll, horikoshi himself never denied that bakugo was a afwul person. His care for bakugo probably comes from the fact that he became the most popular character in japan even tho his intention was to make bakugo a dickhead.
Deku lost all of his potential in the first few chapters.
@@imsentinelprime9279 nope
@@PoIarisPrime yes,
@@imsentinelprime9279 nope
The difference between a villain and hero
A villain sees a broken society and tries to changes it. He is condemned
A hero protects the ideology of a broke society. He is praised
"The Child Who is Not Embraced by the Village Will Burn it Down to Feel its Warmth."
It's more a villian sees a broken society and tries to change it in a way that we would consider as "morally questionable" to even downright immoral.
The villain in question turned a city to ash in 3.5 seconds
The hero in question has recognized the flaws in hero society and is actively trying to help the victim he sees in front of him, even after all the death he's caused
@@theboibubba Yeah, my beloved Shigaraki being based as always.
The Villains are broken people who were either abandoned by society or were never understood cause their quirks weren't considered the norm.
The heroes are the people who have either swept the pain of the flawed people under the rug while the new generation, was basically in a bubble of the problems with the society foundation until the Lost of their Superman.
I feel like an anime where a hero is uncovering hero society and trying to fix it would be quite interesting
Psycho pass literally exist
It honestly started to feel like Horokoshi was somehow punishing us for liking Deku as a character by this point after Villain. From my experience with watching Deku In the early seasons specifically 1 -3 there was a kinda nuanced to him, Deku was definitely as his best in the early seasons. Deku Vs Todoroki, his thinking strategy during the USJ invasion. And even Deku Vs Muscular, a fight that is paying homage to Naruto and would be generic but with plenty of heart added to it and real emotional connection was such a powerful moment for Deku.
Now at this point reading the manga it all just feels like reading a Black and White “chosen one” prophecy comic but all the fun has been sucked out of it. Every chapter seems to end on this firecracker moment, the next “Boom!” before it leads into nothing. All these character moments that on paper should be cool, just feels bland as consequence of not being cooked long in the oven so to speak.
I can't help but feel Horikoshi wrote himself into a corner here. We know Deku's meant to be the Greatest Hero, but Horikoshi himself underestimated the time it'd take to finish a story like this, and now it's feeling rushed.
It pains me seeing Deku turn out like this, as imo Deku was at his best in the early seasons; never gonna forget his tournament fight with Shoto. Kid badly needs time for himself.
But-but Asa! He’s so raw and cool! He’s just a sweet baby boy who can do no wrong!
Yeah. do no wrong. Sure.
@@dragonempress8367 surely
I am sorry who?
Whatever
@@oodenstuffDon't treat him like he is some cinnamon roll, he is a badass and "inadvertently say bad language" when it comes to his feeling of winning and friends getting hurt. The vigilante arc is his emotions going plus ultra of caring about others safety. But those scenes are the only scenes I'm interested about him and he will never be a cute bunny or cinnamon roll.😎✌️
Asta kicked his ass in a death battle.
I feel like one of the biggest failures in the writing of Deku's character is that the series gives him NOTHING interesting that could make him compelling.
A majorly wasted opportunity is the fact that society is bigoted against those with "bad" quirks like mutant and villainous as well as the quirkless and Deku, having experienced something like this, wants to be a hero to fight against this societal mistreatment he and many others suffer, point out how wrong it is and inspire heroes to do the same thing. When he sees how it has no effect and if anything gets mocked and ridiculed for wanting to help the less fortunate, he realizes that fixing society's issues from the inside is practically impossible and the only way is to stage an uprising against the corrupt hero system to replace it with something better that promotes good values like compassion, decency, justice and honesty, not greed, celebrity fame, popularity and power, and to do that he needs to accept in becoming a "villain" to change society for the better.
That would make Deku's character SO MUCH better since it makes him look more like a genuine hero wanting to actually fight for justice as opposed to this bland, cookie-cutter "i want to be No.1 hero to put smile on people's faces" that makes Deku barely look like a true hero and more like someone who does it just to make HIMSELF feel better while conforming to society's "acceptable" standards which makes him look both selfish and passive, two traits beyond unfitting for an MC hero character.
*THIS*
Horikoshi, or at least Act 3 Hori is far too precious and coddling of the world he's built up to allow it to have flaws that can't be fixed by punching the nearest villain into a pulp. ThIs in turn, eventually affects how the characters are written in relation. Deku being written into flat cookie-cutter heroics is a pretty bad telling sign for MHA in general.
As someone who never like Izuku that much I was surprised by how much potential he actually had as a character
You prob dudidn't watch the show enough
@@sau7255 I have watched up to season 5 and have read the rest in the manga and I am currently caught up. I know he gets better. But the first 2 seasons really puts a damper on his likability.
In the likelihood that Hero Society is saved & repaired. It’s going to suffer, endure the same pitfalls & start the cycle all over again. Izuku can’t simply picture in his head a world without heroes. His admiration of heroes blinds him.
Lady Nagant had some legitimate grievances with Hero Society, Izuku just brushed it off & still picture her as a hero.
Well there's always good ol fanfiction as I have found. The BNHA fandom is both My Hero's greatest Curse and Blessing seeing as while it's Toxic as all hell, the fans take this flawed hero world and the many, many characters that could've been expanded onn, mostly
@@toadlord8594 Same with Dragon Ball's fanbase. Toxic as all shit, but the gem writers from there can make fanfiction stories that completely dump all over Dragon Ball Super in every way.
Sad, but it is what it is.
Well, besides the fact that literally any society is going to have pitfalls leading to people screwed by the system, In a world where 80% (and rising) of the human population has superpowers, that kind of society is inevitable. There'll always be assholes who use their powers to hurt people, and there'll always be people who wanna use their powers to help.
@@cold_Lightning9 eh, the toxic ones are just the loudest, most dragon ball fans are pretty chill and are just super into the lore, which is why their fanfics are so good, because unlike super writers, they actively remember past lore and try to build upon it in anyway they can.
@@toadlord8594 When one has to read fanfictions purely because the source material they are based off on barely did anything right with it's story, world and character then you KNOW something is clearly wrong with the original work.
Video aged like fine wine
This video cooked and delivered! Great structure to discussing Deku's character throughout the third act. It's a real shame his character has been reduced to what is is now since his character in the first two acts immensely intrigued me. Overall, great video!
I'm not gonna fully judge Deku's character until the very end of MHA.
As long as there's still time left, I'm gonna take my dose of hopium that soon these aspects will get addressed in some way, because the possibility is still there.
I'm probably just being too optimistic though
I don't think there's anything wrong with being hopeful and withholding your verdict until the end. I just hope that once there, Deku will again be the character that inspired me in my own life.
im hoping too!! lets all hope together
idk man, my hopium is running dry. Maybe they can pull it around and go out with a bang, but I'm not sure it's gonna be enough.
I’m starting to think Horikoshi doesn’t like writing Deku anymore. He’s able to write so many amazing characters like Bakugo, Endeavor, Dabi, Twice, Toga, All Might, etc but he puts very little effort into writing his MC. I don’t think him getting a little bit of decent writing in this final arc would help, because imo it has become a “too little too late” situation
At this point reading MHA has devolved into just finishing a story out of habit rather than suspense for the next chapter. I don't FEEL anything for the series anymore, no sympathy for the villains that have become nothing more than punching bags for the heroes, both physically and as fodder for their "righteous" philosophies, no admiration for the heroes who have become enforcers of the rule of law rather than people who fight despite the faults they bring into the battle (A job that is already being occupied by the POLICE FORCE mind you! If you want heroes to be the driving force of justice then cut the police out and have the heroes be their super powered substitutes).
I have no admiration for Deku because he has become nothing more than a tool of the story and plot that no longer has any real agency as an individual to keep fighting. I have no fear for All For One nor Shigaraki because I feel no stakes for the outcome of this battle because neither villains have shown themselves as a REAL threat... AT ALL... Despite having some of the most powerful and murderous abilities... in this WHOLE series(Seriously, I mean how many people have we watched these people kill that mattered?). All For One who literally took over the entirety of Japan and controlled it in the shadows for near a century, who had to battle ENTIRE hero and villain organizations along with the Japanese government and its assumed military might and manages to either crush them all or bring them under his heel, who has access to countless Quirks that he's had DECADES to create powerful combinations with as well as use as countermeasures against whatever Quirks his enemies can bring to bear... is being pushed back by side characters and students... FUCKING ACADEMY STUDENTS THAT AREN'T EVEN CERTIFIED AS HEROES are pushing back a man who is regressing himself back into the prime of his life, who not even All Might himself has any idea how powerful he is because their final battle was when All For One was old and practically decrepit! If this REALLY is the best All For One can do then I am NOT impressed nor invested in his victory nor defeat... because it's no longer a matter of "if" but ""when" his inevitable and total defeat becomes boring and anticlimactic.
And then there's Shigaraki who's been done dirty ever since he FINALLY became a real villain ready to lead his friends in their final crusade against the society that abandoned them and left them to die in the gutter... by turning him into a damsel in distress being piloted like a flesh suit by All For One that the "hero" has to save. He may be back but the damage is already done; the League of Villains has been reduced to a pack of barking dogs rather than people united in their despair and need to change their social and societal status in life, the heroes have shown that they are capable of countering EVERYTHING Shigaraki can throw at them leaving him no room to be menacing nor be a credible threat to worry about, and worst of all there is no truly defined connection between Deku and Shigaraki that would justify ANY kind of relationship between them. Not as rivals, not as adversaries, not even as philosophical combatants. They have absolutely NO REASON WHATSOEVER to be opposing each other than Deku being the main "hero" of the story and Shigaraki being the main "villain" of the story.
I'll finish the series but ultimately I won't care if I did.
Well, that's an L.
You literally expressed my thoughts and how I feel about this series. 👏👏👏 Honestly, at this point, the main reason why I'm still watching MHA is to know if AFO is really Deku's dad.
@@spicyspace1319 Now THAT would be the last great Shyamalan twist that this series could produce that I would ever enjoy. Just so I could hear Deku say, "No... That isn't true! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
AFO: Search your feelings, YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE!!!
Deku: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you see yourself recommending MHA to people years after it's ended?
@@Knick3607 I'd recommend the first two season...
I think the Bakugo thing is kind of a broad Japan issue. Bakugo's bullying was never meant to be something Deku overcame or a problem for him to solve. It feels like, to me at least, it was just meant to be another hurdle in Deku's journey to overcome/endure or proof of his good nature: He is still a good person who never gives up even while he is being looked down upon.
As for the power progression thing, that is more of an issue of Horokoshi speedrunning everything to the final arc. It is the final act, Deku needs to be at his absolute peak. We need Deku at his max NOW. We can't wait another year for him to get up like 20%, because Horokoshi just wants this to be DONE, but he apparently has a whole lot of shit to get through.
Then the Japanese are weirdos. Here in the other side of the world, one could get killed for bullying.
@@jesseweneedtofastNot surprising when guns here in America are a standard, so not even surprised to be honest
Great video! This is something that’s bothered me for a while now, I just couldn’t have put it into words this well.
All your videos on mha are amazing and introspective.
I would love it more than anything if something happened where all his issues climax and he has a breakdown with some introspection. I wish all of this frustration would become something purposeful and would be worth it. But I think horikoshi just wants to be done with all of this. A lot has been very rushed in mha lately… and a lot won’t be addressed, probably.
Anyway, this video was amazing as always. Thanks for posting it!
Deku never had a clear flowchart for his power Progression. The most creativity to his journey are the quirks of the previous users, but that feels like a retcon since none of the others had that ability, and the argument that Deku is quirkless doesn’t make sense because All Might exists.
In contrast, see the Crawler/Skycrawler from the spin-off, his power set grows organically as the series went on, compared to deku just… getting his powers practically handed to him.
The explanation is that OFA hit the quirk singularity it’s never said or connected but All Might is the longest OFA user so it must’ve only been able to hit that point because of him so the next time he passed it in the next user would reach it. I’m pretty sure AFO even says Number 6 and the crawler are hitting that point or something like that but it’s been a minute since I read vigilantes.
@@TauntPeak The problem with that explanation is that it's not foreshadowed at all, being a justification for the author to pull a handful of new powers to keep Deku "interesting". It's still just as unsatisfying as Deku getting super powers as soon as the series begins. What's worse is that these powers didn't come from anything, they just appeared over the course of time and still thanks to him eating some hair.
This was a really great video & it really captured how I felt about Deku now! I was wondering though if you’re gonna make a video on the Todoroki family and its betrayal of abuse. Because in my personal opinion it feels like Endeavor is forgiven way too easily. First by the public who when they find out he is an abuser are more mad about the broken out villains (which is valid for the most part) then the fact that one of their top heros WILLINGLY ADMITTED ON TV was an abusive husband and father (faced no legal repercussions either btw) and secondly by Hawks (which was a wasted opportunity since he was abused by his father too) when finding out his childhood hero was an a absolute piece of trash just basically shoved it to the side cause “Endeavors in trouble.” I’m not trying to rag on Endeavors character (if someone wants to be a better person great don’t stop them from trying) I like how he’s trying to atonement instead of getting forgiveness but it just feels like “he said he’s sorry so let’s move on.” Which seems very wasted opportunity.
Anyway sorry for the rant lol I can’t wait for your next video!
i do wanna get into it eventually, but i feel a todoroki family video is one that requires a lot of nuance, so i think i'll wait to its over
He's not actually forgiven. The family is just putting their hatred for him aside as to focus on stopping Dabi. And the people don't really forgive him either, most are just watching him to see how he can make up for his shit behavior, while most others do still despise him and want him gone. Also, they can't arrest him, not now when there's so little heroes around to help try and maintain peace, especially not since he's the number one hero.
Thing is, Endeavor being exposed as an abusive father is the least of everyone's worries, since Japan is currently a hellhole after the war, and all the prisoners escaped their jails.
@@sparktwochristopher7240 still no character is acknowledging it no?
@@Hollowmello1285 I dunno, should they worry about that during a situation where there is no law, with so few heroes around to protect them, and they could be killed at any point?
You finally gave us the long awaited goods! Thank you Asa!
I really was hoping that Bakugo and Deku would make up through a long heartfelt conversation filled with tears and what not, just giving me all the feels, and then they would become best buddies and be able to fight off the bad guys together
And that’s why I think the romance shipping between these two just doesn’t work because they don’t have any communication outside of their rivalry or training for that matter
Amazing vid definitely puts some of my thoughts into words. I also like how you've structured the video and taken into account the different assumptions others may have. I definitely felt like deku has become somewhat of a plot device rather than an intriguing character
I definitely agree with alot of your points here. It really feels like Deku's progression and development just got shoved to the background to focus more on the other characters in the story. While developing side characters is great, if the story focuses on one protagonist, then the author needs to let the protagonist be the protagonist, allow them to have their own time in story to grow, develop and progress as people, to see how they interact with and affect their surroundings and people, and see how their surroundings and people interact with and affect them.
This is what has turned me away from BNHA actually. I used to love it, but in season five, I could start to see the "we're going to speedrun Izuku's quirk development arc" and I haven't even watched season six yet because I don't want to be disapointed.
Bnha was such a vital part of my art journey it hurts to see the way it currently is. Izuku was a confort character for me and now he feels so...different. Don't get me wrong I get characters changing and developing with time, but he just feels like an entire different character. He went from a lovable goof with great intentions and a long journey ahead of himself to well, the cold OP superstrong and badass character that is pureley goal focused and has 0 emotions.
IDK, I miss the old Izuku.
Same for me...
I miss him too :')
I instantly dropped the show when bakugo got resurrected
The focus on OFA truly through the series into the shitter and I mean this in the same way after the basement of AoT we got just a different series altogether. For better or worse this turned into a kid who didn't have powers, knew what it meant to be forgotten and mocked by society, getting THE power to beat THE evil and then after he realizes the deeper plot, all the character building just stops. It doesn't totally get worse imo but it not progressing forward is too noticeable in a show that introduced so much nuance in societal commentary at least that a manga could provide.
*He Didn't Laugh*
I'm not gonna lie, I never really liked Midoriya, but know that the main character is basically being overlooked, it does kind of hurt to see a animes MC be ignored
Little thing about it. Midoriya never blamed Bakugo for anything. He's always looked up to him. So saying that Midoriya never gives it another thought is wrong. Because Midoriya didn't ever think Bakugo was at fault.
You wanna know what would have made this story cool?
If deku rejected one for all in favor of finding his own way to become the number one hero
And him just getting more and more skilled without a quirk enough to basically do what he did in the vigilante arc.
I just really wanted to see a more technical deku, where the answer to a fight isn't just "hit them, but harder this time"
I find it hilarious that I started a battle here, but basically i was thinking what if deku fought smarter not harder, sure he can easily die in alot of the situations he's been in, but that would make it all the more cooler when he takes down someone like muscular, and instead of just saying he'd need everyone's help when he takes out shigaraki, he actually does fight with all of class A to take em out. And dont say they're all working together with him mirko is literally missing all of her limbs
Brother in Christ he would die in 3 seconds without a quirk
@@supermegaultahypercoolguy4327 Powersuit, utility belt
@@Greg12839 fun fact in eraser heads first fight shown on screen he would have been shot dead without his quirk even with the support gear
@@supermegaultahypercoolguy4327 Eraser head does not wear any body armour and i literally said Powersuit in my previous comment
@@Greg12839 do u think that elastic scarf of his is part of his quirk?
I think the major problem is before my villain academya arc the manga was super slow to build everything but after it is extremely rushed.
There should have and arc before that major fight in hospital. Instead of a class A vs Claas B should have been some arc focussed on the students working with heroes, especialy oversea heroes( Like the top 10 in ther world or something like that) so the students would develop better their powers, while we see that Hawks spy arc simultaneously.
This way we would know more about the world heroes and their death or refuse to help japan would impact more. This should be an arc where time passes like by the end of this they become 3rd year students.
If he hospital incident happened while the students were finishing their 3rd year this would bring they running back to japan to help only to see it fucked up. with more time to explore the society having problems with heroes and losing faith. The kids having problems and realizing graduating would be useless after Shigaraki/AFO take over japan.
Some should have died, while some doubt if being a hero is worth at all, than maybe coming back after realizing the other need their help ans so understanding more about being a true hero.
This would put Midoriya in more stress, could be a nice way to make him and other student or pro hero work together. This time around Midoriya becoming very powerfull and the other students too not in a rushed way but because they truly had time and experience to develop.
Yeah man, I was so angry when deku decided to forgive aoyama so easily.
It's gotta be the many quirks that distract me. If anything, he should've had at least 1 quirk, 3 quirks, or no quirk. The gadgets could help him.
When the action scenes start, Deku stops being a character all together, and just seems like a force of nature. While that's not unheard of in Shonen series, it REALLY seems unearned here.
It worked for other protagonists because that's how they were portrayed from the beginning.
Ichigo was a force of nature before he got his Shinigami power then went full race steroids.
Goku is Goku. Man is on another level of power up.
Naruto was a legit menace to society when Nine Tails took over.
Luffy has that balance of being strong af but also getting his ass handed to him.
But Midoriya has always been an underdog. That's what was most interesting about him. But he went from underdog to top dog like in a few chapters.
@@Phantom_Zoneyea unlike deku ichigo was already a delinquent in his universe n was talented from the jump due to his father indirectly training him his whole life
Luffy is well litterally a force of nature but is kept check due to his child like nature
Naruto like i said was built up to be a force of nature since episode 1
All of these characters earn there’s from the jump while deku displays none of these qualities besides being reckless with his powers
Deku is boring to me because he's never really had to grow or change meaningfully from how he was at the start. He still wants to be a hero who saves people; people just happens to also include Shigaraki now. I guess that kind of also ties into why I don't think Shiggy is a good antagonist for Deku: he doesn't really challenge him in a way that's interesting.
If Deku had an archnemesis that, say, was banned from being a hero and ostracized for the type of Quirk they had (ala Shinso or a number of the mutants), then that could lead to Deku having to address the inequality he brought up at the start. Instead, the beginning of the manga now reads like "Woe is me" before he gets the best superpower and then we don't have to think about it further than that because the main character is happy.
Well Deku no longer wants to be a hero who wants to save people. He wants to find out what are the root causes for people becoming villains. It was stated in Season 4, so that's one point I have for defending Deku.
Now that you mention it, the deku and bakugo talk was shit.
I would have enjoyed 2 chapters or so of deku and bakugo's backstory where bakugo and deku on a bench just talks to each other as they are going to work together being the strongest of their class.
knowing each other since childhood. but No, they don't get that chapter of communication that reliefs alot of tension between them, and the guilt they both felt.
this could've been a chapter that solidifies their friendship and they can work together better as a team.
BUT NAW, TAKE A BATH AND YOU GOOD.
Thats what im saying! They have no communication outside of their rivalry. Which is what they been missing
Thank you for putting this into words. See so many people portray dark Deku as character development or a overhaul pardon the pun, but he’s just gotten worse.
If I made it, I'd have Midoriya's arms losing the ability to properly grip things aswell as simply not moving as well as normal, while avoiding them becoming totally useless because his body is stronger. Then keep the arm bracers and have them be a support item that allows his arms to return to normalcy somewhat, this let's us know that Melissa is still out there and also gives Deku pause, his mom berates him, All Might tries to advice him on his self-preservation. This kickstarts his recovery arc.
Villain hunt remains the same, but it is longer, having multiple pages if not an entire chapter of Deku reflecting on his actions, their consequences and what had brought him to this point. However he can't snap out of it just yet, because the burden is not one to be carried alone.
The power progression is easily fixed, have Deku fail in using or misuse the quirks sometimes, have chapters where he trains before PWL, simply show us his progress, and have him succesfully use all his quirks against Nagant as a pay off, one month of literally constant training and being aided by the past users of O.F.A (explaining why he learns them so quick) but also have him acknoledge he could have had done better.
Then have Deku vs Class 1-A be a longer battle, where Deku replies with anger and dehumanizing himself in order to defend his actions, but also being given pause, thinking to himself "hey, these guys are right... I am a human being, why should I be destroying myself?".
Then making it all culminate in one bombastic shouting contest between Bakugo and Deku, the apology stays the same, but Deku snaps and interrupts Bakugo, finally acknowledging the damage Bakugo has done, and no longer calling him Kacchan. Then, Bakugo apologizes, really apologizes, and the rest plays out as it originally did.
The bath scene becomes a gauntlet, everyone having their own reactions to O.F.A being revealed and treating it like the big fucking deal it is, with the conversations slowly getting deeper, until Bakugo cuts in and almost calls Midoriya Deku, splashes him with water. Ya know what Deku does? He pins Bakugo againsg a wall and snaps at him, because he's blaming Bakugo now for his self-destruction, this is a way to show that Deku has developed a sense of self, but is clumsy in handling it.
Then Bakugo backs off, we have Deku walking outside and contemplating further, and realizing that all of these kind words and heartfelt apologies aren't enough, he needs someone who understands, someone who was quirkless, who dehumanized himself, who destroyed himself.
That's when All Might appears, Deku apologizes, tells him about his problems and All Might acknowledges that Deku is his own person, that All Might was wrong in becoming the Symbol of Peace when it came to his own life and shares how he would have wanted to handle everything in hindsight.
Deku goes to sleep with a lot of thoughts.
The next morning, Deku walks up to Bakugo, apologizes for his out burst earlier and, read this, *doesn't* forgive Bakugo.
Deku knows this isn't all Bakugo's fault, but he also knows Bakugo is the main catalyst (from his perspective), so he doesn't forgive Bakugo, he offers to start anew, but that Deku and Kacchan were no more, only Izuku and Bakugo.
Deku learns many things, destroying himself, dehumanizing himself, isn't worth it. He doesn't think of himself as the vessel to O.F.A who is obligated to kill Shigaraki, no, he sees himself as Midoriya Izuku fulfilling his dream of protecting people and putting smiles in their faces.
Then we have a training arc where Deku masters his quirks proper and either achieved control of 75% O.F.A (which is acknowledged as beinh Prime All Might level but that's my headcanon, realistically, 45% Deku plus quirks is Prime All Might level ) with the ability to use 100% at the moment of impact, and having the reason he still can't use 100% fully due to him breaking himself too much, but that eventually he could given enough work.
When Aoyama is revealed as the traitor, Deku is angry, seething even, but also, wants to forgive Aoyama. I wouldn't change the situation no, I would just make Deku have a conflict between his anger at the real reason he is a cripple outside his hero costume.
After that, have Deku forgive Bakugo, finally, but still hold him accountable for his fault. Knowing that even if the blame was on all the different facets of society leading to Aoyama's and Deku's disposition (have Deku slowly piece together the yap about bad society from every villain with his own experience), that Bakugo still needed to be held accountable instead of mindlessly forgiving him.
Bakugo tries to call Midoriya, deku, stops himself. Then Deku tells Kacchan to call him his nickname.
The arc is over, now Deku is not burdened by being the vessel of O.F.A and knows not to destroy himself, aswell as has nuonced thoughts about how Shigaraki was right and that Deku would carry his torch, but this time burning the vines, not the flowers.
BRAVO!!! 👏
Deku got outshined by bakugo in final arc, horikoshi seems like he wants his mc to be the side character, same thing with Yuji in jujutsu kaisen
Honestly, I never liked deku as a protagonist. In a world that is arguably the most realistic fantasy ever created, the protagonist is the definition of a mary sue and only survives due to plot armor. It's like Horikoshi put so much effort into the world of mha, then added his MAIN F--KING CHARACTER as an afterthought
I still blame Kaminari to this day. This is all his fault for suggesting that goddamn bath!
And what is wrong with that? Not being mean just asking.
Was he not supposed to bathe
It's obvious how little of an overall plot line Horikoshi had figured out. If he was always planning to bring the other quirks out of OFA it would have made more sense for them to appear as Deku kept wrecking himself in the fights. Hell, given All Might's explanation for the extreme training it could have been possible that a different quirk manifested first instead of the super strength.
Tbh I like deku as a character a lot, lots of development and topics seem to go to other characters when deku needs it more then them, hell I agree that in these past chapters I would’ve loved some sort of gohan ssj2 rage moment from deku or something, maybe some sort of negative emotion from him, like with aoyama, no negative emotion and what sucks is that deku doesn’t talk to bakugo after his apology, like I get he’s tired but straight after that there’s no interaction.
I really like deku with his morals and goals and his ideals plus his progression of his strength, I just hope that before the series ends that bakugo and deku get some sort of interaction with deku not forgiving him (I like bakugo but 10 years of bullying doesn’t heal that fast).
So in the end when the villain hunt ends I guess that’s where horikoshi thought his character was complete or smth.
This has been a video coming for a long time I presume.
Deku was always mid. Can't believe it took this long for people to see it.
great video, cant wait to see more from you!
Thank you for highlighting these points, Izuku wasn't interesting anymore since his fight against Shigaraki, and to be honest, I don't like Vigilante Deku at all, yes, he's badass, but even if I understand the meaning behind this about him worrying for other and wanting to end this by himself because he has one for all and such while hiding his suffering, I think it doesn't fit to Deku at all, all of his progression within his first year was almost wiped down, he started from injuring himself ar each hit, to reducing the amount of injury and even being able to use his quirk without having to always breaking something, just to end up as a powerhouse without consideration for his physical state and becoming someone he wasn't.
As for the empathy machine, I totally agree too, this was only a part of his character and he even say it during his second fight against Bakugo, when he lashes out and let his emotion taking over, he can shout and get carried away. And that was something I liked. We know his empathy, it has been shown many times, but we also know he lived around 10 years while getting bullied because he didn't have quirk, he was afraid of Bakugo, and because of his bullying thought himself as worthless, but still, could grt angry at Bakugo for a second because he didn't liked this, and he kept this rage in him, trying to hide it, but then, has some moments where this rage still showed up because he was carried by his emotions. And as for you, even if this apology was great for Bakugo and showed his character evolution, as a bullied person, if I had that kind of apology I wouldn't accept it that easily, even after a long talk, it would still take time to finally accept these apologies. He bullied Izuku for around 10 years ! It's not a simple "I'm sorry" that will wipe out everything.
I will take for example Vinland Saga (manga spoiler) (even if what happens in VS is far worse) with Hild, who, even seeing how kind Thorfinn had become, wasn't able to forgive him that easily because of what he done with Askellad's crew back then. It took many chapters before having her finally accepting Thorfinn redemption and saying that she forgave him (it was btw extremely meaningfull for Thorfinn, who saw that his efforts payed of in a way he never expected)
Finally the power progression. Once again, I agree with you, what was nice to see with Deku was how much more he had to train, just to make as much progress as others because he didn't have his quirk since the beginning and couldn't master it in time like the others (that's why Aizawa scolded him in the first chapters, thinking that Izuku, who didn't knew how to use his quirk, was a slacker given how much time he had before). It was interesting to see him learning how to control OfA to prevent him from having his bones breaking, learning how to create his own fighting style, based on his favorite Heroes and comrades (also something I enjoyed, je analysed every person he admired, and learned how to use their abilities with good tactics like he did in his first fight against Bakugo). I even hoped he could become a OfA user in a different style than All Might, using speed and agility more than brute strength, but then...the other quirks appeared...with only black whip, I didn't mind that much, he had to master it, and it was a clever quirk that could improve his tactics. But then float, danger sense, Fa-Jin, Smoke screen, Gearshift, that was too much, it's as if he was becoming like AfO to Balance the forces, not to mention his quick mastering of all or them, at the point he was easily able to combine them, and going from 40% to 100, and even 120% in just a bunch of weeks if not says, while it took him month to go from 5% to 8% and 20% (with 45 for short periods).
For the last point, I think the problem isn't only Izuku, but the scaling itself, I mean, it escalated too quickly for both Heroes and villains, with Shigaraki awakening his quirk, just to get dozen more, while with the heroes, it was almost as if they all had the power of an experienced pro hero, but without this expérience. I know there's the quirk singularity theory that explains why, but even with that, in my opinion that was too much.
I think MHA would've been better if it extended on the three years in UA, with the students slowly become true heroes and having things becoming darker with the villains, once again, slowly but surely...
Deku is a poorly written character with a savior complex but I don't think the writers know that because they glorify his complex as if it was a good thing probably because they are projecting their own complex on Deku and don't even realize it.
I'm just surprised that it took people so long to start seeing that. Izuku has been a character lacking in nuance and introspection from the very beginning.
Izuku spent his entire life eating shit for not being special, got a power that made him the most special boy ever, and immediately jumped into doing the exact same shit that everyone who made him eat shit was doing. He completely and utterly conformed into the same garbage society he grew up getting kicked by, literally integrating himself into a system that would've spat on him if he didn't have the number one hero give him everything he needed to be special, and he never once feels conflicted about this decision.
The lack of nuance there isn't new. It just carried through. He should've been struggling with the fact that he's living a life that none of his fellow quirkless would ever be able to get close to, fighting for people who couldn't give a shit about him, and was working for a system built on the idea of kicking down others. Considering the only thing that ever really came through was his self worth problems, I'm not sure why anybody was expecting the show to start seriously dealing with his origins in any sort of competent manner.
I'm honestly baffled by this take, what do you mean he never once feels conflicted about his decision of becoming a hero in such a society? :0 The entire manga basically revolves around this topic, and Izuku gets confronted with and feels conflicted about it numerous times. Why he wants to be a hero is specifically for this reason, too: to save lives both literally and figuratively while being a beam of hope and light to those in need (e.g. giving encouragement and dreams and empathy to people deemed "worthless" or "bad" by society).
He wants to fit in, yes, he wants to be strong enough to be able to protect and uplift others, but he never forgets his roots and struggles greatly with imposter syndrome, guilt, self-worth issues and Additional Problems He Didn't Sign Up For a.k.a. him receiving not just any Quirk but THE Quirk of THE All Might, and it comes with such consequences and responsibilities and burdens and a time limit he was not at all ready for when he agreed to be the successor. (And frankly, he was not informed about properly beforehand, either.)
He wants to put his miraculously gained power to good use and change the system for the better from within but he also feels the need to live up to expectations suddenly thrusted onto him. He went from 0 to a 100 in many ways way too suddenly and the whole story so far is about him paying for this (at first mostly physically, now lately mostly mentally and emotionally).
Also, he wasn't given Everything he needed to be special, the story points it out many times that Izuku's heroic and self-sacrificial behaviour and manic spirit are and have always been special (both in a good and bad sense), and even after receiving OFA the main driving force of his character is this, not the Quirk or his connection to All Might. On the contrary, he narrative downright punishes Izuku most of the time when he ends up depending on All Might or tries to imitate All Might meanwhile it rewards him whenever he depends on his own wits/other people and draws inspiration from Bakugou.
I'm not saying Izuku is the best-written MC ever, or even the best-written character in the story, but I wouldn't say there is no nuance to him whatsoever, especially not now when the manga is still on-going. ^^
Are you? It's a really common one. I scrolled through this comment section just to see if I was alone, and I found plenty of people complaining that Izuku got All Might's quirk, immediately conformed to the society that spat on him, and didn't have enough conflict about these decisions to be satisfying.
I admitted that his self worth problems shined through, and I didn't say he had zero nuance. He originally had a decent amount of nuance toward Bakugo specifically, but don't pretend like he wasn't lacking.
The second he got his quirk, he was dead set on becoming the number one, another symbol, and while he does struggle a lot with feeling like he doesn't deserve the power, my problem is that he never really has a problem with the fact that he needed it to not get ruthlessly beaten down by everyone around him in the first place.
His imposter syndrome and guilt is all centered around feeling like he's not good enough for his role. What I'm talking about is the fact that he completely tossed out the frustration centered around the fact that he wasn't worthy of respect before his quirk. Maybe the manga was different, but I can't recall a single time where Izuku thought about how his treatment only improved once he got his powers, how garbage it would've been for him if he hadn't, whether it was worth it to be a hero in such an insipid system, or whether he's betraying everyone like him for hopping into the big leagues once he was no longer like the worthless trash that's STILL suffering at the bottom.
A lot of his issues stem from the discrimination he faced. Trying to find out why villains do what they do and trying to save everyone isn't the same as him actually working on his character. His struggles are all based around someone who feels like he's worthless trying to fill the shoes of an extremely important role in a society he was trashed by, but his original character and the conflict that was introduced at the beginning were all centered around someone who didn't have power wanting to be useful and help people too. His character issues should've had him struggling with the fact that he's in such a good spot only because he got extraordinarily lucky and managed to conform to the things society respects, but he immediately starts struggling with whether or not he's "good" enough to deserve the position he has and wants to occupy. Does that not strike a nerve with you?
@@zanbarlee6190I think the main, central theme of MHA has never been the "Quirkless vs. Quirks" problem, it has never been the focus. It has always been about "What is a hero? What makes someone heroic?", that is the fundamental theme everything revolves around, the message is getting quite clear in the manga and Izuku's character has always been the center of this topic.
Izuku was at conflict with society mainly because of his dream to be a hero, not because he was Quirkless. The main issue the story points out the most is society's views on heroes, and that having a powerful Quirk is considered to be an integral part of being a good hero. Izuku's Mom felt sorry for him when it was revealed he has no Quirk because she knew her son's dream was to be like All Might. Bakugou was mean to him mainly because they both wanted to be the greatest heroes and Izuku failed to live up to the most important criteria set by society ( = having a powerful Quirk) in order to become that. Bakugou lashed out at him not because he was Quirkless but because he wanted to be a hero despite the standards and expectations set by society - and also because he had something else instead of a Quirk, something that Bakugou lacked and thus deeply feared and envied.
The adults and kids at Izuku's kindergarten and middle school pitied him or laughed at him because of his wish to be a hero, which was deemed ridiculous and impossible without a Quirk. Little Bakugou actually had allowed Little Izuku to hang out with him even after it had been confirmed to him that Izuku has no Quirk, he started to act malicious towards Izuku only after the River Incident, when the fear and envy fully hit him. All Might, Izuku's idol, advised him to become a police officer or doctor instead of chasing a stupid dream he has no proper qualities ( = Quirk) for. Tsukauchi the police officer appears to be Quirkless yet he's being respected and liked and treated well by everyone else, after all. The real problem is not being Quirkless but when someone's Quirk or lack of it clashes with the person's ambition (like for example in Shinsou's case, too).
So I believe while Izuku might have some issues due to the fact that he used to be Quirkless in a society that ties worth to Quirks, his problems are mainly caused by the fact that he used to be Quirkless AND dreamed to be a hero in a society that ties heroism and a hero's worth to Quirks.
He wanted to save people from the beginning and he wanted power to do that, because thanks to society's ideals he thought being strong is the only way he can be a hero. Once he got the power, he was dead set on making his dream come true and finally save people - without realizing that what he keeps saving people with is not just his Quirk-powered fist but much more importantly his spirit.
Stain and Shigaraki both pointed out the flaws of society's views on heroes and heroism. Shigaraki works as a foil to Izuku so well because they were/are both at odds with society but meanwhile Izuku seeked power to save everyone and change society for the better, Shigaraki seeked power to destroy everything. (Society sees Shigaraki unsalvageable and thus Shigaraki considers society unsalvageable as well.)
And now in the manga we are circling back to this problem once again: Izuku in his head tying his heroism to his Quirk and thus deeming himself worthless without a Quirk, but slowly but steadily learning the core message of the story about self-sacrifice vs. self-destruction, about saving and winning, about offering and accepting help. Within all of this the question still stands: "Who is a hero?" And it seems like Izuku is finally about to have the answer we readers already are aware of. :")
Man I love Deku, but I agree with so much of what you said in this vid. While so many moments in the villain hunt arc and current arc look amazing and are incredibly epic, I wanted so bad for deku to address the issues with who he is and how he does things. This second aspect is slightly fixed by choosing to rely on his classmates and other heroes, but theres nothing to say he wont literally destroy himself to save another person (shigaraki probably). It's an aspect of his character I've always loved, but it's also obviously a flaw one would've hoped to be addressed by now, but I think horikoshi is more focused on the overall story at this point which is still interesting, rather than deku himself as a character, which I think you explained really well.
Based on your videos on Mha/Re Zero, Deku and Subaru, I feel like you would really enjoy reading/watching Fate/stay night. It's main character is essentially a deconstruction of this sefless hero but lacking any form of self worth and dehumanising themself to the point they view themself as simply a tool for heroism/justice. I also think it deals with and handles these issues you brought up with Deku really well. There is so much introspection into why the way he is, what he is fighting for and how he goes about it and how he must change himself if he wants to continue on this path of heroism
It sucks that VH arc was when he finally got good proper development and then his journey gets cut so damn short then goes back and acts like his old self again for the most part.
you haven’t been reading
@@PoIarisPrime I have up until the bs fakeout with bakugo’s “death” among all the other bs that happens and mostly I just heard of spoilers after that so nice try there lol. And apparently “leave me alone” doesn’t get to your head does it?
Edit: As for the more bs that happened, Prime AFO being a waste of time, The bad Toga Uraraka and Deku dynamic, the extremely rushed pacing in many areas thanks to the bad editor and the higher ups, Shiggy being used as a puppet for over 2+ years before coming back. Mirio being a joke with his ass, and more. Bet you’ll just blindly like all that regardless so stop wasting my time to convince me again dude
@@jeffali5157 yeah that part was kinda trash but that’s the only bad thing about the current arc
@@jeffali5157 bet u can’t name more
@@jeffali5157 uh Deku is the same from Villain Hunt arc, the only difference is he now accepts his friends’ help and he is not insanely and unhealthy obsessed with AFO anymore.
And it is good, he matured.
The final act begins? More like the assassination of MHA begins.
Asa you have no idea how much this video was _needed_ . Thank you.
Question: Are you interested in making an MHA rewrite in the future? I'm sure many of us are curious about the Asa vision.
2 of the last users of One For All’s Quirks were so dumb too…
I think the story will loop back around to interesting. After Deku obtains ultimate quirk powers the way he saves the ultimate villian isn't with a quirk but with his humanity. His quirks give him the strength to fight but the strength to save anyone/everyone comes from his heart as a hero.
Just one thing to note: I love the comment: "It all started with this damn bath" xD
Thing is, somewhere along the line, Deku was just given the biggest spotlight but his entire character is NOT set up to carry the series like a Batman or Superman, which was completely fine, I really liked that aspect of MHA actually because we saw all the other characters instead. BUT, because he now has the spotlight, he now has to be "Superman", which he is not designed to be and throw out all the other characters and their backstories as well.
Which, in the end, will ruin the series to a simple: "Oh... and then the hero rescued the princess and the village was saved" ending again. It is predictable, it is boring, it is just an absolute waste of "potential". MHA and their story deserved so much better, imo.
This is so on point (well, except for saying Bakugou's apology was trauma dumping-- it really wasn't in anyway) it hurts.
Deku and the handling of his character symbolizes the biggest issue with Hori's writing. He introduces a problem and glaring flaw in the status quo... and his solution is for everyone to just keep doing the same thing. Nothing really changing. There may be heroes who are shallow and/or abuse their power-- but they are all cool and useful. So none of them are punished or forced to change.
And any changes that occur are very small in the grand scheme of things. If anything, they are changes that simply allow for the current order of things to continue just with less guilt.
Solution to Deku's bullying problem? The bully redeems himself.
Solution to Shoto's sociopathic father? He simply decides to stop being a sociopath.
Anything involving Hawks, Nagant, and the Safety Commission? Just forget about them. No one really addresses them in the main cast, Hori always goes out of his way to say they aren't that bad, and they're gone now anyway.
As much as I like Bakugou and Endeavor's character arcs-- I can see why people are upset. They complete overshadow the characters they were supposed to be connecting us to.
Bakugou was my favorite character for a while because he really did most of the heavy lifting in his and Deku's relationship. But I now realize that that SHOULD NOT be the case. I have no issue with his character arc. But the LACK of an arc for Deku makes things feel so off kilter. And it shows when Bakugou (and loads of Deku's other supporting characters) is removed from the main story and the spotlight shines squarely on Deku... we get nothing. Just vague words and stances. Deku's character has gone from a relatable underdog to just another late-game Naruto. He doesn't find creative solutions to problems anymore. He just punches through them and/or gets very very lucky. It sucks.
I agree that the pro quo issue is the problem but it's not Horikoshi who is really the issue. All Shonen anime are like this. People always claim that their favorite is different but a close look at it objectively shows that they all raise important issues but the answer is never to change just to keep trying until you're strong enough to overpower the issue.
The reason is simple: it's cultural. In Japan the attitude of people is that working hard is everything. Failure is not acceptable and authority cannot be challenged. It's always the person who is lower down who is blamed for failing. Therefore the solution Shonen anime poses is to tell kids that trying harder and working more will make you strong enough to handle life. The problem is you, not the environment.
It's why Japan has not had a major Revolution, it's against their principles.
Contrast that to America, which is built on Revolutions and movements to change things whenever the people do not like something
Other western cultures are similar to that.
So in the West, we blame the system for the problem. We say it's not us, it's the culture that needs to change.
Anime does not believe that, that's why the villain of every anime threatens the established way of life and is stopped by force or persuasion.
Though mha was refreshing about admitting the problem, it doesn't have the guts to change the norm.
Naruto is the same. The mc acknowledges the problems with ninja society but he only becomes Hokage, and fixes none of the problems that he talked about. He's not allowed to. The hero cannot be a rebel. Unless it's just a dark arc, but not the end of the show/manga.
Weebs tend to get mad when I point this out but it is the reason and I really doubt it will ever change. Shonen Anime is disappointing for that reason.
@@aslprincess3944 yo, that’s actually a really interesting perspective, I never realized that. Thanks for sharing
@lemonbread27 I forgot about even writing this because no one ever responded to it lol.
But thanks, given how mha ended, it looks like I was even more right than I knew. I feel bad for the villains who didn't get taken seriously enough for the heroes to change anything.
Bakugo literally said that Deku was the reason he bullied Deku in the first place because he felt like he was ahead of him and it’s fucking ridiculous
*"Maybe a Bald Deku would have been much appreciated."*
Fantastic video bro, and as an MHA fan, I respect your opinion, but I want to say the issues I have with Midoriya as a protagonist. And before I begin, I love Deku, but I think his writing is ass. Okay anyways, here we go:
1. My biggest issue with Midoriya as a protagonist of My Hero Academia is that he never bothered to train his body or at least work out before he met All Might. And before you say, "he worked hard to receive One for All". Yes, I am aware that Midoriya did work hard but I am talking about before meeting All Might. Like he literally had the opportunity to work out or learn some martial arts. He could've been training his body after the doctor told him he was quirkless in order to be prepared. But instead, he spent all of his life idolizing heroes and never trying for once to train his goddamn body.
2. My second issue with Midoriya as a character is that I didn't like how quickly he forgave Bakugo after he bullied him. Like dude, Bakugo bullied Deku for not possessing a quirk. He even told Deku to go commit suicide off a building in order to possess a quirk in his next life, but instead, you chose to continue to be his friend even though he said a million times he didn't want to be. Like I wish Deku ignored Bakugo and never forgive him for what he did.
3. The final issue I have with Deku is the fact he is reckless, and his view of a hero is stupid as hell. Like Deku really ran in there to save Bakugo from the Sludge Villain. And while I do understand that Deku was trying to save Bakugo, he could've been killed out there and there were other pro heroes in the area, so why didn't they use their quirks to defeat the villain? Like it is not that hard. But goddamn, it felt like it was created to make Deku the chosen one.
And that's all I have to say. But however, what I like about Deku is the fact is the fact that he is kind-hearted, and he always tries to help out others. I also like his vigilante arc because he finally got an arc that made him interesting for once.
Katsuki didn't bully deku because he is quirkless, He bullied him because he thinks Izuku is better than him and even thinks that Izuku is looking down on him ever since when they're young. So, Katsuki hate him because because he feels inferior to him.
Both Shigaraki and Midoriya have been wasted in act 3. During the entire series and mostly act 2 we followed the progression of Shigaraki and Deku, promising a deep seeded relationship being formed into future.
During their proper first fight it wasn't Shigaraki vs Deku. It was Deku dehumanizing himself into just the one who wields OFA and Shigaraki having been taken away from the action to be replaced by a 1000 years old edgy teenager potatoe man.
Then the next fight they have is the conclusion of all that was built up in the series? Why...? Why we go from a fight where they 2 were barely there to the conclusion? ACT 3 has been infected by AFO doing bullshit after bullshit, which is not important for Deku and Shigaraki's relationship at all. AFO doesn't need to take an entire act for himself to motivate Deku to save Shigaraki, so much so that in the current chapters it will be Deku vs Shigaraki and Deku trying to save Shigaraki regardless of AFO being in the control or not.
Not only Deku has been flanderized into this reactive empathy machine, but Shigaraki has been reduced to this endless hate machine. Again, hating is a thing that Shigaraki has always done but there was more into it. His relationship with the LoV was something very important to set the new generation of heroes and villains apart. The previous generation were these comic books idealistic hero and villain. AFO in specific was literally the most cringe cartoon villain ever created, thinking only about himself and nothing else...While Shigaraki created mutual bonds with the league. Shigaraki wasn't AFO's replacement because isn't all for just one person. With that said we've NEVER got any thoughts from Shigaraki regarding his teamates and Twice's death because Hori was too busy building up a fodder villain that only fought the protagonist for 3 chapters in someone else's body and said protagonist was just asking "ok, cool and all but where is my man Shigaraki?".
The second fight btween Shigaraki and Deku for me doesn't feel very emotional because both characters were basically erased from any nuance whatsoever during act 3, making not only the individual characters worse but they relationship.
I kinda always disliked deku (mostly for a joke) but after all the stuff the manga had been doing , im hating him for real. i think the most i dislike is his power progression , but the other problems ale glaring as well . Good vid !
I definitely dont hate deku as a character but he definitely feels like a rushed character
Deku has ALWAYS annoyed me. He suffers from "explain every little detail syndrome" a lot of action anime fall into now a days (looking at you Tanjiro from demon slayer) where the main character feels compelled to think or vocalize every little microsecond of what's happening on screen.
SWEETIE WE HAVE EYES! Unless there's some hidden detail that we can't inference from sight or sound alone, shut up and let the action do the talking.
On top of the fact, how he recklessly DESTROYS needlessly his body in so many fights, I don't care that he's a young teen, medicine girl isn't going to be there to patch you up Everytime and that recklessness will get him killed.
What it means to be a hero.
Something I would love to see being questioned.
Alas it isn't possible anymore
Gosh, I hope, at some point in the future, a motivated Horikoshi or a group of passionate fans coming together will reset the series to Villain Hunt, rewriting it and then the story from then on. Problems may have slowly started arriving beforehand, but at least they were possible to fix by that point. At the manga’s current point, however, it can hardly be salvaged.
There was so much potential squandered because the story wants to bolt to the finish line now and it just disappoints me. What a travesty.
That's never gonna happen.
@@Knick3607 Never said it would, just that I’d hope.
From what I'm getting after the first war arc is that he doesn't want to beat Shigaraki and stop his rampage. He wants to find that child inside Shigaraki, to stop him from his rampage.
But, Shigaraki litarlaly killed a lot of people. If I was Deku I would just stop Shigaraki
this is the bad use of talk no jutsu. Naruto didn't do this. He beats the shit out of the 6 paths of Pain THEN talked to him after.
Deku himself has always been the least interesting part of mha
was expecting to see a mid video with a mid youtuber that i'll watch once then forget but holy crap youre great man, i'll be checking your other videos out!
It's been 3000 years
Still haven't watched My Hero and i dont intend to start
Yet i still get videos about it
Went from a kid struggling (and being creative) with his limited movesets, to basically Ichigo from Bleach with multiple different powers. He went from an MC we can root on, to borderline gary-stu.
13:14 when i saw that panel of him missing his arm i thought “no way, it actually happened? he was careless and it bit him in the ass?” and then after that it was just like, oh, nvm i guess. it never mattered to being with
I love My Hero, I really do. I don’t understand why manga is completely written by one man. Obviously it leads to burn out and then we suffer because the writer/creator turns a story with so much potential and many more great character elements to a rushed down plot just because he’s tired of writing the manga. It’s utterly ridiculous. So much potential wasted for the anime and manga.
I disagree, Izuku Midoriya is my favourite anime character and the culmination of his character shinned in my opinion in this arc
Mha and especially deku has always been a story to me about actions and consequences. Good things happened and characters grew but due to them and mistakes made along the way bad things also happened but ever sense season 4 with the exception of a couple of individual moments mha follows rule of cool like it's dragon ball witch wail rule of cool works in alot of shownen in the world mha has created rule of cool doesn't work and it's greatly changed how much I enjoy and how I enjoy the show deku vs bakugo durring season 3 was great but that's the last time other then maybe the festival arc that things happened with reason. Maybe if I went back and analyzed earlier mha there might have been traces of deku learning other users quirks but it felt like making him into spider man was just a hey this is a cool idea thing
yk these videos are very helpful for since I wanted to start my own lil project of just a retelling on MHA. and knowing deku character and why doesn't it work gives me a better idea on what to address and focus on in the story
Hot take. Deku isnt boring..he simply needs another big introspective moment and people will jump on the deku wagon again
People just hate him because unlike other MCs he isnt the main focus all the time and he isnt the only key factor in stopping the villains
Another hot take, while mha has had its poorly executed moments thruought the last few arcs, people are moreso mad that the series didint take the direction thst suited their fanfic and headcanons
7 months later and the series is done and where that introspective moment at
@@ultrascouter203 I can predict my hero. Academia will have a sequel.
because it’s just too popular.
I really like all the points youve brought to the table here, but idk some thing says to me , “ yes these are all true but know that u wish they were were just addressed with more time to the manga. “ instead of the direction it going being its … eventual end
Hate me for it or not, but Deku would be more interesting if he kept destroying his body when using One for all, forcing him to use tactic or other means.
I love complicated fights, JoJo part 5 has some of the best fights with how creative they can get. But i know why author just give Deku Super strength caped behind literal milestone cap... Because its easy writing, its easy to write Dragon Ball 2.0 where all mc does is Punch things harder, heck Punch thing harder is a meme for ages.
For me Deku stopped being interested during his fight with Muscular or whatever that guy name was. He didnt won because of his wits, or because of his knowledge of quirks as a super hero fanboy... No author jusr decided he filled up his super move meter by being punched repetitively, and one shot Beef man
I agree but while People call shonen fights in dragon ball repetitive….Jojo has some of the most repetitive fights in fiction. protag gets outsmarted by villain of the week, mc pulls some strategy out his ass in the last second and wins, repeat for 100 episodes. It only seems creative on the surface level
His first or second fight? In general Muscular is nothing he didn’t even need to repetitively punch him it only took 1 direct hit to the face to beat him. He didn’t need wits or knowledge cause he was fighting a brute and it’s shown when Muscular could’ve ended the fight multiple times but wanted to get some fun in.
@@TauntPeak 1st fight. It was pretty much nothing but waiting for Green Jesus to fill his power gage to use super move and end the fight
What if he's supposed to be a tragic figure, and must sacrifice almost every part of himself in the same way that All Might did before him? That's how the anime seems to be playing out. Deku doesn't get to resolve his mental health issues because society is willing to wear him down until he is nothing but a shell of himself, solely for their own peace of mind and wellbeing, same as All Might, who gave everything but his own life. The cycle repeats itself, and Deku is the victim. Deku and All Might's sacrifices for those around them are almost Christlike in nature. Its hard not to feel like that's an intentional motif, given the parity between the two characters. Not all stories have a happy ending.
It's really sad to see my favorite character end up having all of these problems. Loved the video, totally agree with the points you brought up, but despite the huge amount of flaws in the third act, I liked so many of the ideas brought up, but unfortunately they had horrible execution.
It's kinda counter intuitive, but one of my favorites, if not my favorite arc in all of MHA is Villan Hunt, because I loved some ideas and moments, but it made me really sad that they missed tremendously on the execution. I basically love Villan Hunt for all the good parts and what could've been, the ideas laid out and not exactly how they turned out.
My Boy deserved better ;-;
Agreed. Vigilante arc was my favorite because of themes it tried to explore... but we needed more.
Don't downplay my boy like that, he did not deserve this, Deku represents what it means being a hero!
Is it bad that I don't feel like season 6 being canon cuz it pretty much killed my excitement for the series???
Kinda.
i wish hed take a break, and re write it from the overhaul arc and add in vigilante but actually do it well
I still enjoyed season 6 but I see your points. I think it would have been great to get a "this is my starting line" moment from Midoriya.