It's Really Funny Seeing All Those 'ao3 Is Down' Posts Because It Always Happens When I'm Fast Asleep

It's really funny seeing all those 'ao3 is down' posts because it always happens when I'm fast asleep

Here's some maybe controversial takes on My Hero Academia:

Spoilers under the Read More

Horikoshi has this weird thing for trying and failing to redeem abusive characters

Bakugou's character development is shit and that apology was awful

Hori is not focusing enough on Izuku, his main character, and the lack of introspection is appalling

Mineta being Hori's self-insert is disgusting and the SpaceToon version is leagues better

Dabi should not have been given ice powers

Bakugou is getting way too much screen-time and relevance, considering he wasn't even planned to be a major character

Ochako has become stale and lost any flavour after the Sport's Festival arc

Toga is not a good character

Shigaraki is not a good person. He was implied to be when he was younger, but not at the current point of time

Aizawa is a shit teacher and plays favourites with Bakugou and Shinsou

Shinsou is a lazy, quirkist asshole who likes to play Trauma Olympics despite his backstory being incredibly tame and not traumatising in the slightest

Monoma is actually really interesting and I love him

Momo's powers are being undersold majorly and Hori refuses to give her anything

All Might gets bashed way too much

Mic is the best adult around

Izuku should have either always been quirkless throughout the series or never should have given OfA away

Hori has a habit of making gory things happen for shock value and then immediately resolving them

Kaminari's quirk is OP but Hori doesn't want to acknowledge that

Eri is a plot hole and the way the heroes use her is disgusting. She should have just had a minor rewind quirk that was strengthened by Trigger, making it so she literally cannot rewind All Might to his prime, or Aizawa's eye and leg, or dead people

Mirio is amazing and I love him

Kouda is the purest boy but his hero costume is ass

People forget Iida a lot and it's saddening

Mitsuki is not abusive. She's just Asian

Inko is on a weird scale of 'supportive' and 'neglectful'

Hori lets Bakugou get away with way too much

toshinori's character was supposed to encapsulate the idea that 'not everyone can be heroes, but everyone has the capacity for heroism'.

maybe you can't be a hero without a quirk, maybe you can't be a hero with strength.

but it doesn't change the fact that everyone can be heroic.

after all might's retirement, toshinori goes through a bit of an identity crisis, wondering who he is if he cannot be all might. and aizawa tells him straight up that he does not need to be all might. all he has to be is toshinori.

stain further exemplifies this, when he saves all might and tells him that it was not his strength that moved him. it was his actions. the all might statue built had been defecated, and this upsets toshinori. it makes him feel as though he failed in being a symbol of peace.

yet, when stain tells him that people loved all might for his actions and what he stood for, not his strength, a single person goes up to that statue and cleans it.

all might may have died, but toshinori lives on and that is all he needs to do. all he has to do is be himself.

...

all this gets thrown out with iron might.

iron might goes against what his character was building up to be, what his character was going to say.

'not everyone can be heroes, but all can be heroic.'

by giving us iron might, it erases that first half. because, while quirkless, toshinori is able to fight on using this suit to mimic quirks. which, while i'd accept if izuku did this at the start, or if a different quirkless character did, is just not good.

the whole point of all might dying was so that toshinori could live on. he shouldn't have to fight after everything that he's already done.

toshinori dying would have been trash, but i wouldn't mind it so much if he died an honorable and heroic death, such as saving someone from an attack, maybe having a call-back to izuku's 'my feet started moving on its own'.

he wouldn't be a hero in that moment, but he would be heroic, and that is what his character was supposed to say.

his character was supposed to show us that. we were supposed to gather that, even if toshinori is no longer a hero, he is still heroic.

supporting others, trying to reach out to izuku in his dark hero arc, dong whatever he can to keep morale up.

iron might is cool and all, but it goes against his own narrative.

horikoshi, once again, did him dirty. he does so many character dirty.

Now, I hate to say I told you so...

But I knew MHA was a travesty and the ending just proved it.

Normally, I respect writers/mangakas, because it's such a hard thing to do.

But Fuck Horikoshi

I... I need it

No, yeah, you're completely right.

Mitsuki is absolutely psychologically abusive, and I will not deny that.

The issue I have with people saying he was being abused is how people present it as physical abuse. I was going to bring up her victim-blaming, and how Bakugou's sort of internalised it, but decided against it. Can't remember why - I can barely remember what I did two hours ago so...

The biggest issue I have is people using it as an excuse.

He was definitely victim-blamed by Mitsuki, but as I said in the original post, and as you said and what you linked, being hurt doesn't mean you can hurt others.

I need Bakugou stans to realise that it's not that I hate him as a person. It's that I hate him as a character.

A lot of my favourite characters are unrepentant assholes, or assholes who are set to or have already been redeemed. Vegeta from DBZ, Ouma Kokichi from DGR: V3, Dio from JoJo, Laxus from Fairy Tail, Greed from FMA: B, Bill from Gravity Falls, and the list that goes on.

If a character is a terrible person, that's fine by me. But if the author tries and fails to redeem them, yet still acts as though they are suddenly this amazing person, that's when I have an issue with it.

Bakugou was originally written to be a minor antagonist, and that would have been fine, if Horikoshi didn't suddenly go "I drew him crying so imma fix him".

Redemption is such a complex yet simple thing to do. So when you try to do it and fail spectacularly, um, yeah, I do not enjoy that character or your writing.

That is my main issue with Bakugou. I do not think he deserved any redemption, not because he's a bad person, but because there is nothing to convince me that he could change.

He gets one scene where he goes, "boohoo I lost and everyone is stronger than me" then cries, and that's supposed to be enough for him to become a better person? That is nowhere near enough.

There was no moment that made me believe he genuinely regretted and took accountability for the abuse he put Izuku through in middle school.

"He changed!" That's not my issue. I don't care that he's changed. I care that I don't believe in it. If there was a plausible reason as to why he changed, then I would be fine with it. Maybe I'd even enjoy him!

The fact that he's changed doesn't mean shit if it's not believable.

"That was in middle school!" Okay. This one pisses me off the most. That was a year pre-canon? Oh, wow, I guess that's completely fine! It's not as if characters are the way they are based on their past. Oh, Itachi killed the Uchiha clan before canon! Okay, maybe comparing a massacre to bullying is a bit unfair. Still, just because it happened a year ago, it doesn't mean it never happened. It doesn't mean that he's changed considerably.

"Izuku doesn't have any lasting damage and forgave him!" And? Just because your friend forgives their bully, it doesn't mean you have to forgive them. And, again, I do not believe Bakugou's apology was good in anyway. He was trash-talking Izuku, blaming All Might for Izuku's behaviour, and didn't accept any culpability for what he did to him. He didn't tell anyone else what he did to Izuku. Also, if Izuku really didn't have any lasting damage from the bullying, then why did Bakugou's apology make him calm down? If he didn't care about the bullying, then why is he so relieved by the apology? BECAUSE HE WAS AFFECTED.

"Bakugou was being abused!" ... NO HE WASN'T!! Mitsuki is not abusive. Yes, she hit him round the back of his head. After he threatened her. Anyone with Asian parents can tell you that her hit does not hurt. Not only is it somewhat normal in Asian families, but it also doesn't hurt. We have no evidence that she is abusive. Horikoshi knows how to set up abusive families, as seen with the Todorokis. This not that. Either way, even if she was, being abused doesn't mean it's okay to abuse others. You can hurt without hurting others.

"It's the school and teacher's fault!" No, it's not. Part of the fault lies with them enabling him, but Bakugou is already fifteen when the series starts. His mother clearly doesn't agree with his attitude. The school is only partially to blame. Bakugou should have learned by himself what is right and what is not. In fact, he clearly does know considering he doesn't want any of that stuff on his records in case U.A. rejects him.

Again. I don't care if he's a terrible person. I care that he's a terrible character.

So the next time someone says that I'm stuck in Season One, take a moment and think about what you're saying. Bad people in fiction are entertaining. Bad characters are not.