My Hero Academia 3: Villainous Interlude

[Ramza00]

Yep La Zodiac, I am not feeling great right now 🥴

Feeling worse now 🥴 ^{for other reasons}

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[Traab]

On the one hand

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he isnt hooked up to a bunch of machines keeping him alive. On the other, that doesnt prove much of anything for his long term health. Iirc there was much made of how if he crippled himself again over using his powers it would be permanent, right?

[Ramza00]

New Chapter and it is straight into the FEELS

https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapt...-hero-academia

[LaZodiac]

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The brutal life that Hawks lived is pretty sad. We learn how Beast Jeanist had his death faked. A good chapter!

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Chapter 300

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Well the tone of the series is definitely continuing down the dark path.

"Many had eagerly signed up for the cause when a peaceful society was the baseline assumption"

Kinda sad to see the old samurai guy resign before even seeing him in action (that I can remember). Whereas the hero wearing a washing machine as a costume is still soldiering on. Good on you, Wash.

And the Todoroki family drama just keeps heating up. I wondered how Rei got out of hospital, but then I never quite understood why she was there in the first place. If she was committed due to the incident with Shooto, did they suddenly determine that she was "cured"? Or maybe they let her out for a bit to visit her husband, that'd make more sense.

[LaZodiac]

Chapter 300

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Well the tone of the series is definitely continuing down the dark path.

"Many had eagerly signed up for the cause when a peaceful society was the baseline assumption"

Kinda sad to see the old samurai guy resign before even seeing him in action (that I can remember). Whereas the hero wearing a washing machine as a costume is still soldiering on. Good on you, Wash.

And the Todoroki family drama just keeps heating up. I wondered how Rei got out of hospital, but then I never quite understood why she was there in the first place. If she was committed due to the incident with Shooto, did they suddenly determine that she was "cured"? Or maybe they let her out for a bit to visit her husband, that'd make more sense.

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Seeing how society has... legitimately fallen to pieces because of this, is genuinely impressive. The "I AM NOT HERE" defacement on the All Might statue is blunt as a ballpeen hammer, but it WORKS. The Todoroki family drama is also wonderful, with some strong emphasis from everyone that "hey yo Endeavor if you feel bad imagine how us, your abused family, feel". That's good to see.

As for how Rei was allowed to leave... the reason why she was there was because Endeavor used his status as a hero to get Rei comitted in a decent hospital. Whether he did it to legitimately get her help since she DID dump boiling water on her son, as punishment for doing that, or just as a means to get her out of the way is... unclear, but probably a mix of all of these. We know her condition, such as it was, has improved quite well according to the doctors, so she's probably allowed day trips and stuff.

[Traab]

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Seeing how society has... legitimately fallen to pieces because of this, is genuinely impressive. The "I AM NOT HERE" defacement on the All Might statue is blunt as a ballpeen hammer, but it WORKS. The Todoroki family drama is also wonderful, with some strong emphasis from everyone that "hey yo Endeavor if you feel bad imagine how us, your abused family, feel". That's good to see.

As for how Rei was allowed to leave... the reason why she was there was because Endeavor used his status as a hero to get Rei comitted in a decent hospital. Whether he did it to legitimately get her help since she DID dump boiling water on her son, as punishment for doing that, or just as a means to get her out of the way is... unclear, but probably a mix of all of these. We know her condition, such as it was, has improved quite well according to the doctors, so she's probably allowed day trips and stuff.

Im going for a mix of the three. I imagine that it was a complicated host of reasons, she did her "job" so far as big papa smokestack was concerned and gave him his "perfect" heir. So he had no trouble with getting rid of her. Having her committed makes him look like the caring father and husband watching out for his family while also not letting her be underfoot to possibly interfere with his training of the youngest, and also may have helped him sweep it all under the carpet as a criminal trial for his wife would have reflected badly on him even without the inner workings of their "family" getting out. A quiet "She is ill and getting treatment" kept the details hidden from public knowledge. Plus she honestly WAS mentally unstable for probably a variety of reasons. Im not sure how deep we went into her personal life story but I imagine a loveless marriage where your only value is providing cold genes to balance out his hot ones, where every child you have is cast aside for not being good enough (and im sure he made it clear he blamed HER for the "failures") probably didnt help much either. There is no telling what sort of life or goals she had before this quirk marriage took place or how willing she was to be a part of it. So yeah, at least a part of it was fully legit and deserved commitment, but I imagine it was carefully setup to keep everything under wraps and not really about getting her the help she needed. that was just a side bonus.

[Ramza00]

Manga chapters 300 and 69 pair well together like peanut butter and jelly.

[Dragonus45]

Given how, well, hotheaded he seems too be I'm always a bit surprised at how Machiavellian some people read Endeavor as being.

[Ramza00]

Given how, well, hotheaded he seems too be I'm always a bit surprised at how Machiavellian some people read Endeavor as being.

I see why people may believe that.

But my read is Endeavor has always been an entitled person and he had positions of power and thus he can just abuse people especially his own children in a way a crappy parent / authority figure but also similar to how some abusive people in Hollywood could be (the most similar thing to MHA Hero Society)

When there is an imbalance of power you do not need to be Machiavellian. And that is Shoto's relationship with his dad. The only agency he has is not to use his dad's power once he was in UH. It is oppositional in how much Shoto does not want to use that power, like Oppositional Defiant Disorder.*

^{*Except I do not want to say ODD here since if you have an abusive dad it is not ODD for ODD happens with multiple people and multiple spaces, and if it is dealing with one person only the ODD criteria specifically say this is not ODD.}

[Dragonus45]

I see why people may believe that.

But my read is Endeavor has always been an entitled person and he had positions of power and thus he can just abuse people especially his own children in a way a crappy parent / authority figure but also similar to how some abusive people in Hollywood could be (the most similar thing to MHA Hero Society)

When there is an imbalance of power you do not need to be Machiavellian. And that is Shoto's relationship with his dad. The only agency he has is not to use his dad's power once he was in UH. It is oppositional in how much Shoto does not want to use that power, like Oppositional Defiant Disorder.*

^{*Except I do not want to say ODD here since if you have an abusive dad it is not ODD for ODD happens with multiple people and multiple spaces, and if it is dealing with one person only the ODD criteria specifically say this is not ODD.}

That's similar to my read, he seems more like a supped up hyper mode Abusive Sports Dad type character then a crafty schemer looking to manipulate his family dynamics with such extreme deliberation. Regardless we might be about to finally get the last perspective needed to work out the timeline of the family and how much of a **** I have to give about Endeavor as a person.

[Ramza00]

Yeah Abusive Sports Dad actually works better than Abusive Hollywood Creep.

100% Agreement with everything else.

[Spacewolf]

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Turns out endeavour barely pushed his kids to do anything, actively discouraged Dabi from hurting himself, got along reasonably well with his wife even if it wasn't exactly daises and probably turns into the man we all know because he's about to have to blast his kid. Wonder if the author realised how bad they made him out to be and is trying to paint it all in a different light.

[Dragonus45]

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Turns out endeavour barely pushed his kids to do anything, actively discouraged Dabi from hurting himself, got along reasonably well with his wife even if it wasn't exactly daises and probably turns into the man we all know because he's about to have to blast his kid. Wonder if the author realised how bad they made him out to be and is trying to paint it all in a different light.

Spoiler: Chapter 301

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So I had to break down and check it out early after reading that, really should label these better btw, and damn. So keeping in mind that I've always considered the children to be some degree of unreliable narrator I imagined the Endeavor thing as sort of a spectrum of potential awful where on one end you had the worst possible motivations and actions we could imagine him having with "A literal rapist who bought his wife, beat one of his children into villainy and the other into Shoto while neglecting the others and then committing his wife to be rid of her." on the far end. This is showing a version that seems to be on the whole opposite end of that, much further then I expected. I always thought the reveal would come through that Rei was at least not literally bought and sold and here is implied to have had some agency in the decision and it looks like his flashback showing her being the one to bring up the idea of more kids bears out. I however, had thought that Touya would have been pressured into training despite his weaknesses right up until the moment Shoto was born before being forgotten and going mad that way. Here it shows that they realized Touya's issues early on and tried to stop him from training any more which is... a way softer look at Endeavor and the beginning of his family than I would have imagined. I suppose from here Touya eventually fakes his death, Enji goes off the deeper end of the deep end with with this manic desore to surpass All Might, and become the abusive jackass we all know when raising Shoto.

[Ramza00]

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Turns out endeavour barely pushed his kids to do anything, actively discouraged Dabi from hurting himself, got along reasonably well with his wife even if it wasn't exactly daises and probably turns into the man we all know because he's about to have to blast his kid. Wonder if the author realised how bad they made him out to be and is trying to paint it all in a different light.

Sorry but I am disagreeing.

(Talking about the chapter that has not been released yet, only unofficial translations)

Spoiler: Chapter 301

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This chapter does not take Endeavor off the hook. It is "context collapse" where you are collapsing the years of Dabi / Toya 's life, about 10ish years from year 5 to year 15 into only 12 pages. Furthermore Endeavor's words did not match his actions nor did they match "his wish" even a child can understand this where the approval of a parent is being withheld and that is literally traumatic to a child. Emotionally Immature Parents who are ¹Distant, ²Rejecting, or ³Self-Involved are just as abusive as parents who physically harm their kids.

Dabi / Toya was literally cause his skin to have physical burns, something that is extremely painful, and later 3rd degree burns that caused physical scars, a kid would not do this unless there was something wrong in this family. The parents refused to see that there was something wrong with this family where a kid would self-mutilate in order to get attention. To physically cause a higher amount of pain on oneself than getting a spanking or other forms of physical abuse.

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And after Shoto is physically scarred by his mother, and Toya died due to these injuries that Endeavor / Enji created a shrine inside the house to remember him ... even after all that Endeavor is so self-absorbed at the Sports Festival and is repeating the abuse again to another child.

Endeavor / Enji is poison incarnate. Pure toxic bs that the show is "dumbing down" but by doing so the shows wish is not matching the actual data we have been given so far, for if we take it literally it is beyond our ability to process the horrors of what Endeavor / Enji did to his family.

Spoiler: Parallels

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Dr Frankenstein and his Creation, that is the story of Dabi / Toya.
Endeavor inverting the Promethean flame myth. Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, for Prometheus and his twin brother Epimetheus (whose names mean forethought and afterthought respectively) created the Silver Age of humans respectively after the Golden Age humans died due to the war of the Gods and Titans. Prometheus stole fire from Zeus for he wanted his kids to be happy.
Endeavor / Enji created the next generation of kids due to his own Narcissism. Endeavor is Prometheus as Monster (like Dr Frankenstein), instead of Prometheus as hero (which some Romantic Poets saw him as, something that was new not really seen until the 1700s CE, though possibly this was how cultures saw him in the BCE period)

[Spacewolf]

Sorry but I am disagreeing.

(Talking about the chapter that has not been released yet, only unofficial translations)

Spoiler: Chapter 301

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This chapter does not take Endeavor off the hook. It is "context collapse" where you are collapsing the years of Dabi / Toya 's life, about 10ish years from year 5 to year 15 into only 12 pages. Furthermore Endeavor's words did not match his actions nor did they match "his wish" even a child can understand this where the approval of a parent is being withheld and that is literally traumatic to a child. Emotionally Immature Parents who are ¹Distant, ²Rejecting, or ³Self-Involved are just as abusive as parents who physically harm their kids.

Dabi / Toya was literally cause his skin to have physical burns, something that is extremely painful, and later 3rd degree burns that caused physical scars, a kid would not do this unless there was something wrong in this family. The parents refused to see that there was something wrong with this family where a kid would self-mutilate in order to get attention. To physically cause a higher amount of pain on oneself than getting a spanking or other forms of physical abuse.

-----

And after Shoto is physically scarred by his mother, and Toya died due to these injuries that Endeavor / Enji created a shrine inside the house to remember him ... even after all that Endeavor is so self-absorbed at the Sports Festival and is repeating the abuse again to another child.

Endeavor / Enji is poison incarnate. Pure toxic bs that the show is "dumbing down" but by doing so the shows wish is not matching the actual data we have been given so far, for if we take it literally it is beyond our ability to process the horrors of what Endeavor / Enji did to his family.

Spoiler: Parallels

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Dr Frankenstein and his Creation, that is the story of Dabi / Toya.
Endeavor inverting the Promethean flame myth. Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, for Prometheus and his twin brother Epimetheus (whose names mean forethought and afterthought respectively) created the Silver Age of humans respectively after the Golden Age humans died due to the war of the Gods and Titans. Prometheus stole fire from Zeus for he wanted his kids to be happy.
Endeavor / Enji created the next generation of kids due to his own Narcissism. Endeavor is Prometheus as Monster (like Dr Frankenstein), instead of Prometheus as hero (which some Romantic Poets saw him as, something that was new not really seen until the 1700s CE, though possibly this was how cultures saw him in the BCE period)

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Unless your talking about some Dr Frankenstein I don't know about (I.E. some manga one) your misrepresenting that story almost as badly as you're misrepresenting the story of Zeus, Prometheus and the creation of humanity. You don't even tie in the story of Prometheus except that it has fire in it.

You talked earlier about tying chapters together, well try this one and the first chapter. Two kids who want to be heroes but unable to due to their lack of usable quirks, who both have break downs after being told it's not possible and have fathers with fire powers. Be harder for it to be any more obvious.

[LaZodiac]

Now that the chapter is actually out lets take a real look at it.

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Yeah no Endeavor is a ****ing monster holy ****. His wife was definitely coerced into quirk marriage and did it "for the family", likely without any real choice. While yes, Touya did want to continue training, it is clear that Endeavor is more "my ****ing fail son is going to die because he's weak" then "I do not want my son to get hurt", though the latter is still there too.

But yeah no this is a BAD look for Endeavor. Yikes.

[Ramza00]

New Chapter Out, I still hate Endeavor.

https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapt...-hero-academia

[LaZodiac]

I suspect a lot of people will dislike this chapter, and ultimately is it going to raise some questions about the role of media in the world. Should it dedicate itself to showing something rule, and true, and raw, or should it show the world how we want it, where the bad people reap what they sow and everyone react the Correct way.

Is the entire situation with Endeavor's family ****ed up? Absolutely. Is it realistic? absolutely, from beginning to end. The blame, the hate, the self-loathing... and, here, the decisions to make. It's real, and legitimately dark, and also kind of painful to see. Rei deciding... not to take Endeavor back into her life, obviously, but to put her (clearly justified and backed by the writing) hate of Endeavor, in order to save Touya, who IS a victim.

Maybe it would be better to just go "Endeavor is entirely fault and deserves all he got". Because he does! It's true! But what does that... accomplish, other than bringing some satisfaction to those he hurt? Isn't it better to heal- not to forgive the wound, but to heal your injuries. I don't know, I'm tired, I just think that it's really really well written even if I do wish it was less realistic about how people blame themselves for ****.

[Ramza00]

OMG Illegal Denim !!!

New Chapter.

https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/my-he...78?action=read

[John Cribati]

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I love how everyone just keeps using Bakugou’s entire hero name. Like, Iida likely said it with all sincerity, but you can tell Best Jeanist is having a laugh and a half behind that waist-collar-belt

[LaZodiac]

OMG Illegal Denim !!!

New Chapter.

https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/my-he...78?action=read

Every time someone in universe reacts to Jeanist's character trait of making jean based allusions in inappropriate moments with "... wha...?" i laugh my ass off because it's a reminder that as shonen anime goofy as this series can be sometimes, it is actually rather realistically written.

"This mean speaks in jean puns" is pretty shonen. "The people react as if this is the real world and he is very weird for doing this" is very My Hero.

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I love how everyone just keeps using Bakugou’s entire hero name. Like, Iida likely said it with all sincerity, but you can tell Best Jeanist is having a laugh and a half behind that waist-collar-belt

Honestly given the way Jeanist talks I feel like he always treats it 100% seriously. He also approves of the name completely without flaw, after all.

Anyway this chapter rules. It's good to get a small recap of how ****ed the world is getting because of this, it's nice to see Hawks and Jeanist dedicate themselves to helping Endeavor, Hawks little aside about Shoto is fantastic because after listening to that entire story of course he'd accuse Endeavor of hurting him. Something about that just feels really Correct, I suppose?

But I think most of all I like Hawk's little internal monologue of Hawk comparing himself to Shoto. They both come from abusive households, but Shoto is getting the chance, and is choosing to take the opportunity, to try and confront it. Hawks just ran away. He doesn't say that's bad, because it's not, and he kinda wishes he had that chance himself, even though just running is a valid choice too. It really helps sell Hawks some more as a character, and seeing him decide he's going to help Endeavor because he recognizes the dude IS trying to be better, is nice.

In this world there are people who do not deserve your respect, and do not deserve redemption. There are going to be people like that in your life who realize how bad they are, and earnestly make an attempt to be better about the things they've done. It is up to you to decide how to react to that. And I think My Hero is tackling that with tact, respect, and skill.

[Ramza00]

So it has been two weeks, any thoughts on the soul parasites / inner avatar realm?

[LaZodiac]

So it has been two weeks, any thoughts on the soul parasites / inner avatar realm?

The last two chapters have been amazing. Between learning some important details of One For All, and learning more about the successors- including seeing their quirks (as in character traits, not powers) is honestly really fun, and makes me wanna see how their stories went too. Especially interested in the two standoffish holders, I definitely wanna know their deal.

The bit with Nana asking if Deku can bring himself to kill Shigaraki if need be, and Deku going "yes, but I'm going to push if need be to the limit since heroes should save people" is... beautiful, and something more people need to acknowledge. Both facts, that some people can't be saved and that we should try to save as many people as we can, are true, and it's good to see it. I especially love how Deku thinks about all the major antagonists he's fought, and how that stuff still affects him even now.

The only other series I've seen care about a super early arc character like that has been Full Metal Alchemist, and it does my heart good to see that.

[Dragonus45]

Yea it was great, Vigilantes is also on a roll and I'm almost more hyped for it's next chapter then the mainline series.

[LaZodiac]

Yea it was great, Vigilantes is also on a roll and I'm almost more hyped for it's next chapter then the mainline series.

God Vigilantes is so good. Koichi going up against top rate heroes and actually holding his own shows he really had the chops for it. It's tragic, in a way. Especially because... now he's up against Eraserhead. His advantage is over. but Eraser IS the Batman... he might not actually fight him.

[Ramza00]

DUN DUN DUUUUN!!! (Dramatic Sound Effect)

New chapter out now.

[Traab]

Could I get a synopsis in spoilers? Im kinda curious to hear whats been going on.

[LaZodiac]

Could I get a synopsis in spoilers? Im kinda curious to hear whats been going on.

Sure thing!

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This chapter opens on All Might being confronted by Hawks and Jeanist about One For All. It's clear the media has caught word of this as well, and All Might lets them in on the secret. Meanwhile, Principal Nezu is doing damage control; namely, because of the loss of many heroes, heroes are going to be reduced in scale as well. They're setting up all the major hero schools as shelters for nearby civilians and the parents of students, and going to be protecting from these locations.

They also set up another press conference, led by Endeavor, where he admits to the world... everything Dabi said is true. Hawks and Jeanist back him up, saying taht even if they are alive and not evil... everything else, 100% legit. The world is shaken, but not enough to completely destroy it. There is clearly a lot of people at the breaking point though, and the world hangs on a very narrow thread. Endeavor insists that he cannot do more than apologize, that showing his true grief and sorrow would not help so he's put on a brave face, and how his work as Endeavor will be how he makes amends.

Then we cut to the UA dorms... where we start to get narration from Deku, talking about how heroes vanished from the world that day. Depending on your definition of hero as "someone you can look up to" which is a little silly but also works. He is not wrong though, the world has changed signifigently. And for those who think of heroes as those who suffer silently... who will be there for them. It's rather interesting and I'll have to give it some more thought later.

Anyway, Deku narrates, and we see the other kids in the UA dorms reacting to this, that he uh... left. He left the school, and left them all notes explaining his situation. He left so they wouldn't hae targets on their backs because of him. And so, in April, I think a few months later, we see Deku atop a building, observing a giant villain attack, and we get our title drop... that this is the beginning of the final arc.

[Ramza00]

Could I get a synopsis in spoilers? Im kinda curious to hear whats been going on.

Spoiler: Telling things in reverse order, My Hero Academia chapter 306

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• Deku is going to leave UH and do it alone in order to not create any potential bystanders in case things get weird agian.
• All Might tells Hawks and Best Jeanist the secret with One for All. Likewise Deku gives different but similar information to his former 1A class saying he gained his quirk from All Might. (We do not know the exact details of what was shared)
• There are less heroes now with the entire of society. Best Jeanist, Hawks, and Endeavor do a press conference revealing information to the public of their previous "lies" in order to establish trust and to reveal (some of) the truth. The #3, #2, #1 realize they do not have the public's trust and their answer to this is "I am [still] here!" , and I will endure remaining here, and I will try to "Endeavor" to regain once again said trust."
• Meanwhile in previous chapters Deku talks to the previous 8 holders of One For All and he can hear the voices of 7 of them and All Might and Deku are able to pass on feelings similar to Luke and Leia in Empire.
• The 7 previous holders say if you are a quirk user and you receive One for All your life will be shortened, with the maximum life being roughly 18ish years after recieving this quirk. Quirkless users that gain One For All do not have said limit (they think, it is a working theory.) This is a problem for less than 20% of the population are quirkless and it is shrinking each day with each new generation.
• [ From a population nerd standpoint since you get your quirk at age 5, and the 20% are people age 5 to 100, and this number is not uniform with younger people more likely to have quirks it may be very small the amount of people who are 10 years younger than Deku who do not have quirks ]
• The last quirk user before All Might, Nana Shimura, All Might's mentor asks Deku can he kill her Grandson Shigaraki. Deku says yes but he will "try his best" to save the crying boy Shigaraki for when Shigaraki invaded Deku's mind he too could mind delve into Shigaraki and he feels Shigaraki is acting out and wants a better way. Deku will maintain his resolve to save others though even if this forces a confrontation.
• And chapters previous before that have stuff with Icy Hot and Bakugou. Kirishima was not at the side of his "best friend" *wink* for he was visiting Icy Hot with Momo, Mina and Mezo telling what has happened in the last 48 hours of hero society to Icy Hot. Likewise Icy Hot and his family had a conversation concerning Dabi / Toyi, the oldest of Endeavor's kids. Likewise Bakugou was injured and as soon as he woke up he is hot headed and looking for Deku.