Boku No Hero Academia Analysis - Tumblr Posts
Something that surprised me was that during the fight that All Might and AFO have after Izuku and his friends rescue Bakugo, at one part during the fight AFO really looks like a hung man. This makes it that the fight is more twisted and terrifying.
AFO really describes the worst part of Japan society because his whole appareance represents the workaholic system (the suit), how it can push you far enought to destroy you (having the same position as someone who hung themselves) and and how japanese society values others only for the role they play in it (AFO's personality and how he values others only for their quirks and how others can be useful to him and once they're no longer useful, he discards them). That freaked me out even more when I saw that.
It's interesting to think that, in some way, Touya is what Zuko would have been if he hadn't had Ursa and Iroh's support and never left the Fire Nation and that Azula is what Shouto would have been if he hadn't had his mother's support and if he hadn't met to Izuku.
If Zuko had stayed in the Fire Nation, and by extension not had the experiences of other people, and had Ursa to love him and Iroh to advise and support him, he would have sought Ozai's recognition to extreme degrees until he injured and nearly killed himself and at the same time he would have wanted to take revenge on his father in the worst possible way for the abuse towards him and his family as Touya did.
If Shouto hadn't met Izuku and hadn't had his mother's support, Shouto would have only seen himself as a tool of is father which would cause him to focus on his personal goal to surpass Endeavor to an obsessive degree that would make Shouto become extremely perfectionist and would have repressed and controlled his emotions an extreme degree to achieve his goal that would make having relationships with others irrelevant and in case he wanted to have relationships with others he wouldn't be able to socialize or express himself with them in a healthy way just like what happened to Azula with her personal goal (be recognized by her father Ozai and unconsciously, by her mother Ursa).
Zuko and Dabi were the failures who wanted their fathers' love and recognition while Azula and Shouto possessed great power and talent that their fathers wanted to make them the perfect tools for them to achieve their ambitions.
Himiko and Eda: Search for Love, Fear of Rejection
Although they may seem different, Eda and Himiko are very similar and here I will explain why:
They both have the flaw of wanting to live a selfish life that benefits them but this stems from the fact that they have tried to fit into a society but have failed because that society rejects them for not fitting into its ridiculously high and idealized standards.
On the one hand Himiko's parents saw their daughter as a monster only because she used her quirk for the first time when she was 4 years old and despite the fact that they scolded her, they never corrected her because if they had really corrected her they would have explained to Toga why she was sucking blood from a dead bird was wrong but instead she was immediately tagged a freak and told to behave normally, repressing her quirk and her emotions.
Remember that children don't know what is good and what is bad unless someone teaches them and her parents never taught Toga that but rather gave up on her calling her a freak. Then when they took her to her quirk advisor they did the same as her parents: they didn't address the problem properly (teaching Himiko about empathy and how to use her quirk properly) and told her that she be repressed and treat her as a monster.
On the other Eda was cursed by Lilith with the Owl Beast and ended up hurting her father by accident. This caused her mother Gwendolyn to despair of getting a definitive cure for Eda but this made Eda believe that there was something wrong with her and see herself as a freak for hurting her father and for not being like the other witches (they are normal because they don't have a curse like her)
and she ran away from home because she felt rejected.
It's true that Gwendolyn loved her daughter while Toga's parents gave up on their daughter but this doesn't take away from the fact that their actions of wanting her daughters to be normal caused both Toga and Eda to see themselves as monsters and made them both believe that others would see them that way because of their conditions (Toga's quirk and Owl Beast curse).
What makes them different is that Himiko kept repressing herself to fit and be accepted in but she reached her breaking point that led her to attack a boy from her school and hurt others because she has internalized what everyone thought about her (that she's a monster that likes suck people's blood and kill them) while Eda was afraid that something similar would happen to her, so she decides not to tell Raine about her curse which leads to their breakup as a result.
The reason Eda didn't have a breaking point like Toga was the fact that she had people who loved her even though her relationships with them became complicated and problematic (Lilith and Raine) and now she has people who love her despite her condition and they taught her to have empathy for others (Luz and King) while Himiko had no one who loved her or anyone who she can tell about how she felt or about her quirk and although she had friends,
both them and their parents didn't love her but they loved the mask that Toga put on
until she couldn't take it anymore
and the few people who really love her as she is,
she loses them in the worst possible way.
This is so bad that Himiko pretends to be the people she admires and Eda does not relate to anyone because they think that if they reveal things about them, the others will reject them.
And this fear of rejection is worsened by the society in which they're because these societies stigmatize them for their physical conditions since these conditions don't allow them to fit in it, in addition to not seeing them as people but denying their humanity and seeing them and they want to use them as if they were a symbol. Hero Society will never approve of someone like Himiko because her quirk isn't flashy, or pretty, or used for direct combat but is like that of a villain and Curious wanted to use Toga as a symbol for for the cause of her organization but denying her autonomy and humanity while Belos uses Eda's curse as a supposed Titan's punishment for those who don't fit in the Coven System, denying Eda's humanity and branding her a monster. This leads them to be constantly running away and hiding because they know that if they're caught they will be killed because they don't see them as people but as monsters that must be eliminated.
Both also have a strong desire to be loved because while Himiko disguises herself as others just to be like them and feel what they feel and that way no one rejects her, Eda simply gave up that desire in the first place.
Eda begins to improve as a person thanks to the positive support of Luz and King and for this she manages to reconcile with her family and with Raine and I think Toga could improve as Eda if the heroes see Himiko's humanity and give her that positive support so that she can change for the better and this is possible because we saw a hint of this with her relationship with Twice and the League as they saw her humanity.
Something that surprised me was that during the fight that All Might and AFO have after Izuku and his friends rescue Bakugo, at one part during the fight AFO really looks like a hung man. This makes it that the fight is more twisted and terrifying.
AFO really describes the worst part of Japan society because his whole appareance represents the workaholic system (the suit), how it can push you far enought to destroy you (having the same position as someone who hung themselves) and and how japanese society values others only for the role they play in it (AFO's personality and how he values others only for their quirks and how others can be useful to him and once they're no longer useful, he discards them). That freaked me out even more when I saw that.
It's interesting to think that, in some way, Touya is what Zuko would have been if he hadn't had Ursa and Iroh's support and never left the Fire Nation and that Azula is what Shouto would have been if he hadn't had his mother's support and if he hadn't met to Izuku.
If Zuko had stayed in the Fire Nation, and by extension not had the experiences of other people, and had Ursa to love him and Iroh to advise and support him, he would have sought Ozai's recognition to extreme degrees until he injured and nearly killed himself and at the same time he would have wanted to take revenge on his father in the worst possible way for the abuse towards him and his family as Touya did.
If Shouto hadn't met Izuku and hadn't had his mother's support, Shouto would have only seen himself as a tool of is father which would cause him to focus on his personal goal to surpass Endeavor to an obsessive degree that would make Shouto become extremely perfectionist and would have repressed and controlled his emotions an extreme degree to achieve his goal that would make having relationships with others irrelevant and in case he wanted to have relationships with others he wouldn't be able to socialize or express himself with them in a healthy way just like what happened to Azula with her personal goal (be recognized by her father Ozai and unconsciously, by her mother Ursa).
Zuko and Dabi were the failures who wanted their fathers' love and recognition while Azula and Shouto possessed great power and talent that their fathers wanted to make them the perfect tools for them to achieve their ambitions.
Himiko and Eda: Search for Love, Fear of Rejection
Although they may seem different, Eda and Himiko are very similar and here I will explain why:
They both have the flaw of wanting to live a selfish life that benefits them but this stems from the fact that they have tried to fit into a society but have failed because that society rejects them for not fitting into its ridiculously high and idealized standards.
On the one hand Himiko's parents saw their daughter as a monster only because she used her quirk for the first time when she was 4 years old and despite the fact that they scolded her, they never corrected her because if they had really corrected her they would have explained to Toga why she was sucking blood from a dead bird was wrong but instead she was immediately tagged a freak and told to behave normally, repressing her quirk and her emotions.
Remember that children don't know what is good and what is bad unless someone teaches them and her parents never taught Toga that but rather gave up on her calling her a freak. Then when they took her to her quirk advisor they did the same as her parents: they didn't address the problem properly (teaching Himiko about empathy and how to use her quirk properly) and told her that she be repressed and treat her as a monster.
On the other Eda was cursed by Lilith with the Owl Beast and ended up hurting her father by accident. This caused her mother Gwendolyn to despair of getting a definitive cure for Eda but this made Eda believe that there was something wrong with her and see herself as a freak for hurting her father and for not being like the other witches (they are normal because they don't have a curse like her)
and she ran away from home because she felt rejected.
It's true that Gwendolyn loved her daughter while Toga's parents gave up on their daughter but this doesn't take away from the fact that their actions of wanting her daughters to be normal caused both Toga and Eda to see themselves as monsters and made them both believe that others would see them that way because of their conditions (Toga's quirk and Owl Beast curse).
What makes them different is that Himiko kept repressing herself to fit and be accepted in but she reached her breaking point that led her to attack a boy from her school and hurt others because she has internalized what everyone thought about her (that she's a monster that likes suck people's blood and kill them) while Eda was afraid that something similar would happen to her, so she decides not to tell Raine about her curse which leads to their breakup as a result.
The reason Eda didn't have a breaking point like Toga was the fact that she had people who loved her even though her relationships with them became complicated and problematic (Lilith and Raine) and now she has people who love her despite her condition and they taught her to have empathy for others (Luz and King) while Himiko had no one who loved her or anyone who she can tell about how she felt or about her quirk and although she had friends,
both them and their parents didn't love her but they loved the mask that Toga put on
until she couldn't take it anymore
and the few people who really love her as she is,
she loses them in the worst possible way.
This is so bad that Himiko pretends to be the people she admires and Eda does not relate to anyone because they think that if they reveal things about them, the others will reject them.
And this fear of rejection is worsened by the society in which they're because these societies stigmatize them for their physical conditions since these conditions don't allow them to fit in it, in addition to not seeing them as people but denying their humanity and seeing them and they want to use them as if they were a symbol. Hero Society will never approve of someone like Himiko because her quirk isn't flashy, or pretty, or used for direct combat but is like that of a villain and Curious wanted to use Toga as a symbol for for the cause of her organization but denying her autonomy and humanity while Belos uses Eda's curse as a supposed Titan's punishment for those who don't fit in the Coven System, denying Eda's humanity and branding her a monster. This leads them to be constantly running away and hiding because they know that if they're caught they will be killed because they don't see them as people but as monsters that must be eliminated.
Both also have a strong desire to be loved because while Himiko disguises herself as others just to be like them and feel what they feel and that way no one rejects her, Eda simply gave up that desire in the first place.
Eda begins to improve as a person thanks to the positive support of Luz and King and for this she manages to reconcile with her family and with Raine and I think Toga could improve as Eda if the heroes see Himiko's humanity and give her that positive support so that she can change for the better and this is possible because we saw a hint of this with her relationship with Twice and the League as they saw her humanity.