Characters / My Huntsman Academia Team MNVW

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Team Mandevilla (MNVW)

In General

Team Mandevilla (MNVW)

The primary focus of the story, Team MNVW (pronounced "mandevilla", after the flower) is composed of Izuku Midoriya, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and Weiss Schnee, a group of four aspiring Hunters-in-Training with wildly different backgrounds. Despite their differences, they quickly come together as one of the strongest teams in their year.

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• Badass Crew: It doesn't take long for the team to become so close that they're willing to fight and die for each other. They can also each kick copious amounts of ass. Nora's internal dialogue in sidestories also makes it clear that she sees them as family. In fact, of the three main teams (MNVW, RSBR, and TABY) they appear to have the strongest teamwork between them.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Amusingly enough, Weiss and Nora are this for Lulu. When Pyrrha goes out for a walk with Lulu, Nora and Weiss are appalled to find that Lulu has become attached to Pyrrha. They quickly plot a way to "destroy" her before she can steal away Lulu's love. Izuku is blissfully unaware of the exchange due to being too exhausted from fighting the White Fang at Vale's docks to wake up.
• Color-Coded Characters:
  • Izuku is associated with the color green, which is evident in his dark-green hair, emerald eyes, his forest-green weapons, and his surname, which contains the kanji for green in Japanese. Even his favorite ice cream flavor (mint chocolate chip) is associated with green. This represents his relative newness to the use of Auras and Semblances as a greenhorn compared to his classmates as well as his status as a Country Mouse from a mountainous and forested area.
  • Pyrrha is associated with the colors gold and red, with her striking red hair, the gold and red color scheme of her weapons, and her status as a four-time champion tournament fighter.
  • Nora is correlated with the color pink thanks to her striking pink dust canisters in Magnhild and her similarly colored gloves and skirt.
  • Weiss is named after the German word for "white" and is dressed primarily in white and frosty blue. Her powers are predominately ice and snow-based and she gets called "Ice Queen" by others.
• Colourful Theme Naming: With the exception of Nora, the names of each of the members of Team MNVW are associated with the color that matches their Color Motif.
  • Izuku's surname, Midoriya, contains the kanji for "green", referencing his primary color motif.
  • Pyrrha's name means "flame-colored" in Greek, referring to her bright red hair.
  • Weiss's name means "white" in German while her surname means "snow".
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Izuku was completely friendless prior to coming to Beacon and the constant target of mockery for his earnest desire to become a Huntsman despite being born Broken. He suffered beatings, broken bones, and bullying for more than a decade after being outed for his condition.
  • Pyrrha suffers from constant peer pressure from the burden of her own fame, which places her on a pedestal and deprived her of the normal life and relationships she craves. On top of that, she's so skilled means that she doesn't feel challenged anymore and is bored in most of her fights, which doesn't help her feelings.
  • Nora is an orphan whose parents were killed by a powerful Grimm known as a Nuckelavee, living on the streets for years and fighting off bandits and other unsavory figures up to attending Beacon. She casually throws out comments like not ever having had a home-cooked meal before or not knowing what condoms are, which just shows what kind of life she's had.
  • Weiss' home life leaves much to be desired thanks to her abusive, sociopathic father and neglectful, alcoholic mother. Outside of that, her family is personally responsible for much suffering and pain in the world, to the point that the White Fang targets her specifically for the crimes that her company commits. She's cynical and weary prior to coming to Beacon, always expecting others to want to exploit her for her connections rather than come to know her as a person.
• Dysfunction Junction: Every member of Team MNVW have their own set of personal issues that causes heat and conflict in the story.
  • Izuku spent his entire life before coming to Beacon as the target of bullying and scorn, giving him self-esteem issues, social awkwardness, and an inability to recognize the value of his own actions without the support of others. His Chronic Hero Syndrome, born from his admiration of Toshinori, is treated as both his most admirable and disturbing trait. Pyrrha and Weiss are thoroughly unnerved by his willingness to injure himself for the sake of others, with Weiss constantly having to rein him in before he causes himself irreversible harm. He also suffers from having to keep One For All a secret along with everything else related to Ozpin's inner circle, which eats away at him over the course of the story.
  • Pyrrha is lacking in drive and impetus due to her non-stop winning streak in the tournament circuit and does not have a single person to call a friend prior to coming to Beacon due to being placed on a pedestal for her achievements. Because of this, she almost always finds herself deferring to her teammates, is constantly apologizing for her actions, and can't bring herself to criticize others out of fear of offending them and alienating herself.
  • Nora is The Pollyanna who covers her emotional issues with constant cheer and energy. She doesn't know how to properly express her feelings to Ren and fears that he'll never reciprocate them, or worse, that her telling him her feelings will shatter the bond they have. Her past trauma means that she treats her new teammates like family and is terrified of losing them.
  • Weiss chafes under her father's influence and her desire to prove herself worthy of her illustrious family's name, making her an irritable perfectionist who hates it when things don't go her way. Her lofty upbringing has left her out of touch with people less affluent than her and she often comes across as condescending and cold without meaning to. Her icy relationship with her own family members and the stress of being the Schnee heiress also make it difficult for her to express how she truly feels about her friends.
  • Lulu-Bell is an aversion to this trope, despite the rest of her team's issues, for the simple fact that Lulu-Bell is a dog.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Inverted. Izuku is the only person on the team with actual cooking experience and the girls all end up being Lethal Chefs when they try to make something for him before winter break.
• Foil: The members of the team are all foils to each other in the following pairs.
  • Izuku is one to Pyrrha. Izuku was born a Moon Child and awakened his Aura just days before coming to Beacon. He is thus completely new to using his Aura and his new Semblance, forcing him to constantly injure himself in order to learn how to use it. Pyrrha is a world-renowned fighter with masterful control of both her weapons and her Semblance, having already achieved her Fourth Awakening by the time she comes to Beacon. Her incredible talent has led others to call her the "The Invincible Girl" who always seems to leave her fights without a scratch on her. Both of them come from Friendless Backgrounds, but Izuku's loneliness stems from his Dream-Crushing Handicap making him the object of scorn and mockery. Pyrrha's isolation comes from her overwhelming talent and celebrity status as The Ace putting her on a pedestal that no one can reach. Izuku is an inexperienced fighter who is extremely knowledgeable about the world of Hunters due to looking up to them his entire life and wants to become one to bring hope to people in need. Pyrrha is nearly indomitable in a straight fight but has only cursory knowledge of Huntsmen, having come to Beacon to get away from her past achievements and feel like a normal girl.
  • Izuku and Nora. Izuku is demure, lacking in self-confidence, and is the self-admitted weakest member of the team at the start of the story. Nora is energetic, outgoing, and easily the physically strongest member of her team. Izuku grew up friendless with his mother in a secluded city that was saved by the world's greatest Huntsman from ruin. Nora is orphaned and had to live on the run with her Childhood Friend Ren after their Doomed Hometown was ransacked by a powerful Grimm and its followers. Izuku is prone to attributing his own accomplishments as a member of Team MNVW to the other members of his team and berates himself for his perceived failings. Nora is proud of her strength and doesn't hesitate to honestly speak about it. Izuku and Nora are both Motor Mouths, but Izuku's mouth runs when he's deep in thought or busy fanboying over someone or something cool. Nora's mouth won't stop because of her Cloudcuckoolander tendencies and she gets especially chatty when something is weighing on her mind.
  • Izuku and Weiss. Izuku came from a well-off but not especially wealthy family in Mountain Glenn, an area that Yang describes as "the boonies". He lived with his loving mother who financed his dream even though everyone knew that he was unlikely to ever achieve it. Weiss spent her childhood in Atlas, which is known for its rigid urban and militaristic structure, living with the endless expectations required of her as the heiress to the Schnee family name. Izuku is a brawler who has to stay in his opponent's faces to best make use of his physical prowess, shotgun gauntlets, and his martial arts training, falling back on long-range Glenn Smashes when he's outmatched. Weiss has to keep her distance when she has to use her Glyphs and only closes in after she uses her time dilation Glyphs. Izuku's Semblance was passed down to him by his lifelong idol and is nothing but a pure physical boost that works only for himself. Weiss's Semblance is hereditary and has been passed down her family for generations, giving her a wide variety of supportive and offensive effects to choose from to attack her foes and supplement herself and her allies. Izuku has terrible self-esteem and little experience interacting with others his own age due to being bullied all throughout his childhood. Weiss is prideful and well-acquainted with conducting herself in high society because of her upbringing. Izuku is also shocked and brought to tears at the thought of being made the leader of his team, while Weiss is angry and indignant over the fact that she wasn't named leader. Izuku also has a tendency to see the best in others even when they've treated him roughly. Weiss spends the entire first day of school trying to find fault in Izuku in hopes of seizing his position as leader of the team. Both are very driven in their studies in Beacon but with Izuku having a very late start in obtaining his Aura and his character he constantly pushes his limits to the point Weiss has to reign him in for his own safety. They also have issues with their own fathers but for different reasons. Izuku's father Hisashi while still loving and involved with the Midoriya household is barely around to the point Izuku sees Toshinori Yagi more as a father figure than Hisashi. Weiss on the other hand outright hates her father Jacques for his abusive and controlling nature and it is all but outright spoken that she went to Beacon to be out of his shadow.
  • Pyrrha and Nora. Pyrrha and Nora are both respected fighters in their year with powerful Semblances. Pyrrha is modest about her abilities while Nora is a Boisterous Bruiser. Pyrrha is known for her incredible grace and precision, while Nora prefers to smash everything in her path with Magnhild. Pyrrha's Semblance also grants the illusion of invincibility by allowing Pyrrha to subtly manipulate her opponent's weapons so she's never struck, but Nora's Semblance requires her to be struck with electricity to give her a massive power boost. They both wholeheartedly support Izuku, but Pyrrha is much more soft-spoken about her suggestions while Nora shouts and hollers at the top of her lungs to egg him on when he's doing something cool.
  • Pyrrha and Weiss. Both are distinguished characters who are wealthy with extensive connections, coming to Beacon in hopes of finding some freedom of choice in what to do with their lives and escape the expectations placed upon them. But Pyrrha is modest about her achievements and wishes to escape her fame, while Weiss is prideful and wants to live up to her family name while also carving a path for herself away from her father's influence. Both fight gracefully, but Pyrrha wields a shield and a weapon that can be Mecha-Shifted three times while Weiss uses a single rapier with a revolving chamber for Dust canisters. Pyrrha is also happy to be Izuku's number two while Weiss initially tries to find ways to supplant him as leader. The colors associated with them (red and frosty-blue) are also diametrically opposed.
  • Nora and Weiss. Weiss is an uptight Proper Lady who fights gracefully with poise. Nora is something of a Leeroy Jenkins who crushes everything in her path with Magnhild. Weiss expects elegance, order, and responsibility from her teammates. Nora is energetic, chaotic, and prone to acting silly when her teammates aren't there to rein her in. Weiss is an extremely wealthy aristocrat while Nora is orphaned thanks to the Grimm. Nora is also supportive of Izuku from the start, calling him "Fearless Leader" and hollering whenever he's doing something badass. Weiss is much more critical of him and is surprised to find that does indeed have the qualities she expected in a leader but chastises him when he doesn't take his own well-being into account.
• Force and Finesse: Izuku and Nora are the Force to Pyrrha and Weiss' finesse. Izuku's Semblance grants him tremendous Super-Strength but he has little control over it on top of his lack of actual skill prior to coming to Beacon. Nora is also prone to brute forcing her way through her obstacles with her raw strength and explosive power. Meanwhile, Pyrrha and Weiss are both comparatively elegant fighters who use their Semblances to control the battle and provide support for their allies.
• Height Angst:
  • Izuku is a little embarrassed by how short he is relative to the other guys his age, attending Beacon at a measly 5'3'' due to his lack of Aura to help his growth along. He's taken aback and excited when Pyrrha points out that he's grown an inch or two taller than Weiss by the Long Night. Weiss is also conscious about how short she is and refuses to admit that she wears heels to mitigate this.
  • Pyrrha is embarrassed by how tall she is because she feels that it intimidates boys who are shorter than her. She's at least a half-foot taller than the next tallest person on her team, Izuku, which makes her stick out in particular. He assures her that this is one of the last things he'd be concerned with in a girl and wishes that he was taller himself. She also admits that it has practical problems as well- it can be tough, if not impossible, to find clothes that fit her figure or can be swapped with friends.
• Heroes Love Dogs: They're all enraptured by the puppy Izuku brought home when he found her in a box. After formally adopting her and naming her Lulu, all four of them find themselves distracted from studying for their end-of-term exams.
• Lethal Chef: In "Mystery Meat", the girls (who have never stepped in a kitchen to actually cook anything themselves) try to make chicken curry on their own as a thank you gift to Izuku. The resulting mess was green and looked like it had moss growing all over it. Weiss apologizes for making a dish that looked poisonous and Nora insists that it isn't moving while she pokes it with a ladle. The team agreed to never speak of this incident again, but the sight of it would haunt their nightmares for the rest of their lives.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: Izuku and Pyrrha have this relationship. The former is pugilist who makes up for his relatively lack of training and experience with the incredible power provided by his Semblance and sheer, raw determination. Pyrrha is a champion fighter who constantly manipulates her foes' weapons to give herself the upper-hand with her mastery of all sorts of fighting styles, but she lacks the raw firepower to take a Giant Nevermore out of the air. Weiss also qualifies due to having a Dance Battler fighting style that involves the use of Dust and an elegant rapier to keep foes at a distance compared to Izuku's tendency to run-in and clobber his foes.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: All three of the girls resort to this to get Izuku to cave in to visiting Lulu, an adorable puppy he sent to a local shelter after determining that his team couldn't take care of her. Izuku's own puppy dog eyes (which Nora calls "big and squishy") are also disarmingly effective, albeit he never does them intentionally.
  • The girls later try to use this on Izuku to get him to reconsider not letting them spoil Lulu rotten when they do adopt her, but surprisingly, he's able to hold on and insist that it's more important to get her trained up first before anything else.
• Secret-Keeper: All of them know about One For All and everything surrounding it

Izuku Midoriya

Izuku Midoriya

The protagonist and primary viewpoint character of the series. Izuku was born a Moon Child, meaning that his soul was so weak that it would never generate an Aura or create a Semblance. Despite this, Izuku stubbornly clung to his dream of being just like Toshinori Yagi, the #1 Huntsman in the world. His determination was answered when his reckless attempts to help people during a sudden Grimm attack inspired Toshinori to make Izuku his successor as the bearer of One For All, a unique Semblance passed down from wielder to wielder.

Izuku's weapon is Emerald Gust, a set of forest green gauntlets and boots similar to Yang's Ember Celica. They have handles inside the gauntlets that allow Izuku to control the pace and rhythm of the shotgun blasts with every punch while the guns within the boots can be fired with a sufficiently strong impact. While the buckshot isn't as effective against Grimm as a penetrative round, they can still stun Grimm and inflict serious damage if used at point-blank range.

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• Accidental Kiss: Izuku gets one from Yang when he's trying to comfort her after a trying conversation about Raven with Toshinori. When he tries to give her one last hug for comfort before she heads into her dorm room, he accidentally plants his temple right onto her lips with a wet smack. The emotional shock of his impromptu First Kiss from a girl brings him to his knees after she shuts the door and he barely keeps himself from screaming in the middle of the night.
• Accidental Pervert: While experimenting with One For All in his room, Izuku manages to channel 1% or less of its power into his finger, which creates a small breeze when he flicks it at no harm to himself. Unfortunately, Weiss happened to be in the room at the time. The breeze ended up flipping her skirt, giving him an eyeful of her undergarments.
  Weiss: [beet-red from embarrassment while fighting to keep her skirt down] Izuku!
  Izuku: [equally red from embarrassment] N-No! Weiss, wait! it was an accident! I-I didn’t mean to!
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Thanks to having an Aura, Izuku is effectively bulletproof for as long as he can maintain it. He also doesn't have to worry as much about damaging himself in the long-term thanks to his Aura's ability to heal away his injuries. Because of this, he can utilize his powerful, finger-breaking smashes more liberally than his canon counterpart. He also has some other abilities that his canon counterpart doesn't like the Patch Smash.
  • Due to attending combat school at Birch Academy, Izuku is better prepared to learn how to fight than his canon counterpart, picking up karate from a book, doing above average in his hand-to-hand combat classes, and learning how to use shotguns attached to his wrists. He gets additional hand-to-hand combat training from Yang, Pyrrha, and Toshinori, making his fighting style much more refined than his canon counterpart's.
  • Thanks to being able to use Full Cowl to run errands, Izuku is able to master it far more quickly and learns to activate it nigh-instantly when compared to his canon counterpart's startup time.
    • By the time First Semester is over, he has a higher level of mastery of One For All than his canon counterpart did at the same time.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Izuku was never dumb, but this Izuku's grades are utterly flawless compared to the occasional hiccups his canon counterpart has. He earns an A+ in every course in his first semester at Beacon aside from his A- in sparring, which can be attributed to his Rookie Red Ranger status and newness to Aura. He's even able to tutor Pyrrha and Velvet, an upperclassman, in various subjects (though it should be noted that the two of them had mitigating circumstances, not to mention Velvet was held back a year).
• Adaptational Personality Change: Due to hanging out with Yang and other colorful characters, Izuku is more willing to try and crack jokes (compared to his canon counterpart who Cannot Tell a Joke) and is a bit of a First-Person Smartass who hides a lot of his disbelief at the wackiness that's always surrounding him. He's also mortified when he realizes that he's started subconsciously inserting puns into his everyday language.
• Adaptational Wimp: Not necessarily Izuku himself, but One for All, as the writer mentions that it’s unlikely that he’d incorporate the multiple quirks reveal in the My Hero Academia canon.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: After he and Yang start dating, she starts scratching his scalp affectionately and tenderly with her fingernails. She also likes ruffling his hair and resting her head on his and objects to the thought of him cutting it (trimming is fine, though).
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • "Deku" started out as Katsuki's Malicious Misnaming to emphasize how "useless" a Broken person like Izuku was. It becomes an affectionate one for his friends to call him after Coco calls it cute. After standing up to Cardin, he becomes better known as Deku among his fellow students than his actual name.
  • Yang calls him "Slugger" because of their mutual status as similar weapons, fighting styles, and working relationship as sparring and workout partners.
  • Nora calls him "Fearless Leader" due to his position as the leader of Team MNVW, his Crazy Enough to Work plans and Determinator mindset.
  • In the "If they met when they were 13" AU, he gets called "Scrappy" by Yang since he won't give up.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: While Izuku is good at drinking in moderation, he often doesn't think things through when he's feeling tipsy. He challenges Yang to a game of romantic chicken after sipping wine with her at a fancy restaurant. Later on, he intentionally pisses Katsuki off at Ruby's birthday party, getting chased around town for his troubles.
• All-Loving Hero: Having spent his entire childhood being the elephant in the room as a Moon Child, Izuku knows what it feels like to be considered "different" or "wrong" when compared to his peers. Because of this, he's remarkably unprejudiced and forgiving, treating Faunus the same way as he would a Human, and finds it strange that people would treat others differently for not being like them. All of his friends are stunned to discover that he doesn't hold a grudge against Katsuki for making his childhood a living hell. Not even the knowledge of Blake's past as a former terrorist who likely has blood on her hands is enough to sway his opinion that she's a fundamentally good person. Blake can't believe how saccharine some of his responses are.
  Izuku: Still, whenever I would see those kinds of couples on the news or even just everyday life... sure, I'd be intrigued, but I never really ever thought of them as... "different" like other people would think. To me they're just people who love each other, not some fantastical, otherworldly thing, but just... people. People who care enough about each other to go through with a relationship. A thing that should be looked at as normal to everyone, but for some reason can't due to some contrived reason. And that's... Horrible. [beams at Blake] People should be able to love for love's sake. [Blake freezes for a moment before going into sputtering laughter] Hey, I was being serious...
  Blake: I know you are. It's just... that was so saccharine but... I guess I shouldn't have expected a different answer from you. [gives a slight smile] Well... I'm glad to hear you're so forward thinking Izuku. It... suits the future Symbol of Peace.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Izuku was the target of bullying and derision as the useless "Deku" for being born a Moon Child, leaving him completely friendless. But this is subverted after he manages to squeeze his way into Beacon (with the help of Toshinori's recommendation and receiving the sacred torch of One For All). He becomes fast friends with his teammates and several of his classmates, who admire him for his incredible work ethic, numerous badass moments, and warm-hearted personality.
• Amazon Chaser: While talking about dating girls with Yatsuhashi, the latter says he'd be turned on if a girl flexed her muscles at him. This leads Izuku to imagine Yang flexing for him, turning him into a sputtering mess. Eventually, he and Yang end up dating.
  Izuku: [burying his face in his hands at the thought] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
  Yatsuhashi: [laughing heartily] Hahaha! I knew you'd get me Izuku, how's it look in that gutter you call your head there, bud?
  Izuku: PLEASE STOP TALKING!
• Animal Motif: Izuku is repeatedly associated with puppies because of his constant desire to please his teammates and teachers, his aw-shucks modesty and sweetness, his role as Toshinori's successor, and just how plain adorable he is in private. He's even said to tilt his head like a confused puppy when he can't wrap his head around something and Weiss uses a spray bottle on him to get him to shut up and listen to reason. His unintentional Puppy-Dog Eyes are also devastatingly effective, even on a Stern Teacher like Glynda. Of course, even the smallest puppies can bite, and Izuku bites back hard when innocent lives are in danger.
• Apologizes a Lot:
  • Not quite to the same extent as Pyrrha, but Izuku is prone to apologizing for any time he feels that he's committed some kind of faux pas, imagined or otherwise. The fact that he doesn't apologize to Weiss after subjecting her to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in their spar is a sign of how much he's intimidated by and respects her strength. Unfortunately, it just made it sound like he was actively trying to humiliate her from her end of the story.
  • He realizes just how unfair he was to his mother for putting her through the stress of sending a Broken boy to combat school after a talk with Blake. When he calls her to express his feelings, they soon fall into a loop of apologies that lasts several minutes.
    Izuku: Well, I'm sorry mom but it is my fault that you felt that way and I should've been more considerate of that!
    Inko: Well, I'm sorry-
    Izuku: No, I'm sorry!
    Inko: Izuku don't interrupt your mother when she's apologizing!
    Izuku: I'm sorry, mom!
• Appropriated Appelation: The nickname "Deku" started out as an insult to emphasize Izuku's powerlessness as a Broken kid. He embraces it after Coco tells him that it sounds cute, becoming an Affectionate Nickname for him.
• Armed Legs: The boots of Emerald Gust have the same built-in shotguns that his gauntlets do, allowing him to pump something full of buckshot simply by kicking or stomping on it. They also have iron soles to bolster his kicking attacks and improve their grip on slippery surfaces. Ruby has also proposed improvements to the soles that would allow them to return some of the force Izuku receives when he kicks something, improving his kicks' destructive power and the distance and frequency of his jumps.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. Izuku relies extensively on the armor Emerald Gust provides his arms to deflect oncoming attacks and defend himself against bladed weapons. Without them, his Aura would have gotten pierced several times over. Their heft also puts additional weight behind his punches and kicks, suiting his close-ranged in-your-face fighting style. He later adds a shield on one gauntlet for even more protection.
• Armor-Piercing Attack:
  • Izuku eventually upgrades his buckshot to armor-piercing slugs to better deal with Grimm, but he doesn't actually use them until his final exam in Live Exercises. They're powerful enough to vaporize an Alpha Beowolf's head when used at point-blank range along with a 5% Beacon Smash.
  • As of Week 11 of the Second Semester, Izuku has learned Mantle Smash which is similarly effective against heavily armored targets where brute force is less effective and AP slugs are too risky of an option.
• Ascended Fanboy: He became the inheritor of the Semblance of his favorite Huntsman and is directly tutored by him. Izuku is such a fanboy for Toshinori that he ended up writing an academic thesis about Toshinori and Enji Todoroki for his entry application to Beacon.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Subverted. Although he pulled his weight in the Emerald Forest and is eventually made leader, Izuku recognizes that he's the weakest member of his team in terms of overall fighting prowess (albeit he can beat Weiss with some Combat Pragmatism) who needs One For All: Full Cowl to stand a reasonable chance in any given fight. Nora even tells him that he'd still probably lose to Katsuki or Shoto in his current state and he doesn't even think of denying it.
  • That said, it is somewhat played straight in that his semblance is the most powerful of his entire team (if not the world). Mostly, though, this is averted- he doesn't use his strength to be a leader, he leads by understanding and thinking things through.
• Awesome by Analysis:
  • Izuku spends a great deal of time studying his strengths and weaknesses and that of others in order to improve on his own faults and exploit his opponents's shortcomings. His fanboy tendencies have given him a wealth of knowledge on famous weapon designs (recognizing Crescent Rose as a HCSS on sight), Grimm behavior and biology, the Semblances of other Huntsmen, as well as other important information that help him excel in his classes.
  • Izuku has been shown to be keenly observant of fine details that most others would miss. He can easily tell apart Katsuki explosions from that of a Dust grenade like the ones loaded into Nora's Magnhild simply by the sound they make when they explode. He also picked up on Aizawa's Exact Words and organized his classmates so that they would work together to find Aizawa for their first class exercise.
  • During his spar with Katsuki, Izuku was able to obtain the upper hand in the first part of their fight because he's watched Katsuki for so long that he knows all of Katsuki's favorite moves. He dodges Katsuki's opening right hook to judo throw him to the floor at the fight's outset.
  • In meta terms, he's able to roll an IQ check whenever stuff he's written in his notebook pops up in conversation. His constant note-taking on the intricacies of his Aura and Semblance have also allowed him to progress far faster than a less studious kid would.
• Badass Adorable:
  • He's a sputtering mess around the fairer sex, a huge dork around Huntsmen, and bursts into tears at the slightest emotional provocation. Even a Stern Teacher like Glynda finds Izuku's unintentional Puppy-Dog Eyes disarming. It doesn't mean he won't plow his way through armed mooks with ease or blast apart Nevermores with a single finger flick.
    • Coco calls him the "cutest little First Year" and loves pinching his cheeks and watching him get embarrassed. She blatantly calls him "friggin' adorable" while meeting Inko over Color Week.
      Coco: Mrs. Midoriya... your son's friggin' adorable. [Izuku blanches and gets slapped on the back] I mean look at the little guy! You should've seen him when I first met him; he was puffing himself up and trying to look serious so he could help Velvet out but, as soon as he didn't need to do that anymore, he just deflated into this pure little cinnamon bun! He just gets so bashful and it's endearing to know that one of my cute little juniors responds that way to his senior.
    • After watching Izuku talk to Blake, Tukson believes that if Izuku were a Faunus, he'd undoubtedly be a puppy dog of some kind.
• Badass Bookworm: Izuku enjoys reading books and studies everything he can in Beacon's library in order to catch up to his classmates. He later starts a miniature book club with Blake where they talk about classic novels and the philosophies that went into them. His last report card from Birch Academy also reveals that he had stellar marks in both Grimm Biology and History, with the school's headmaster believing that he would excel at any of Vale's most prestigious universities.
• Battle Couple: Izuku gets his first fight as Yang's boyfriend when they tag team against the various members of the White Fang scattered about Vale's port.
• Bad Liar: He tries his best to hide the worst of his injuries from his teammates to keep them from worrying, but he's terrible at it and they're all onto him. Most of his attempts to keep One For All a secret only succeed out of dumb luck and careful word choice, but he's still shuddering and stuttering the entire time.
• Badass Normal: Averted. He hoped to be able to make up for his lack of an Aura through sheer hard work and merit. He later admits this was pretty stupid of him and it really was impossible for a Moon Child to reasonably become a Huntsman, as evidenced by how many times his Aura saved him during Initiation.
• Best Friend: Pyrrha considers Izuku this for being the first person to approach her and treat her like a normal girl, appreciating her for who she is rather than her reputation as the "Invincible Girl". Because of this, she becomes protective of him when he's in danger and is always looking out for him.
  • Blake also considers him this for her, as he eventually becomes her sole confidant and the only one she's willingly revealed her past and species to prior to the end of the Fire in the Vale. She feels comfortable with this after weeks of seeing and hearing examples of how Izuku is honestly, truly, dedicated to both peace and coexistence.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Izuku is a shy and easy to embarrass guy who Yang describes as "beyond sweet" in how he treats others, but he's still armed with one of the strongest Semblances in the world. It's easy to forget that he's a stone-cold badass who won't hesitate to shatter his own limbs to deal serious hurt to his foes.
  • Even Port and Glynda are unnerved when they read Team MNVW's report on a Beowolf's reactions to pain. The team researched this by capturing a Beowolf and having Nora break its limbs one by one so Izuku could gauge its response.
  • When Team CRDL leads him away in hopes of beating him senseless while no one is looking, he scares all of them but Cardin himself into fleeing by activating One For All: Full Cowl and asking if Cardin really wanted to take his chances with him.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • He and Ruby hit it off very quickly because of how similar their personalities are. Yang ditches them just before Initiation to force them to talk to one another in hopes that he'll be Ruby's first friend. Ruby even says that awkward kids like them should stick together.
  • Yang and him also form a bond and stick close together due to their similar combat styles (even down to their Semblances). It eventually leads to them dating.
• Body Horror: When Izuku loses control of One For All, his muscles tear, his bones splinter and pierce his skin (if they aren't outright powdered), and enough blood spurts out that he can easily knock himself unconscious from blood loss. At the very least, every bone in the limb he used gets broken and everything else is bruised dark brown or purple. If it weren't for his Aura holding his arm together, it would flop around like an empty glove. This is why Glynda is always around to keep an eye on his training, lest he risk killing himself with his ridiculous determination to improve.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Emerald Gust is built with efficiency and sturdiness in mind rather than any sort of stylistic flair. It protects Izuku's hands and feet and packs a decent punch, but it lacks the special features associated with weapons like the Myrtenaster and Crescent Rose. The downside is that he has to engage the safeties when he wants to use grappling and judo techniques. As it gets upgraded, it leans it more towards Simple, yet Awesome. The functionality doesn't change, but its performance is greatly enhanced by a streamlined reloading mechanism, a buckler for deflecting attacks, armor-piercing rounds that can vaporize the skulls of Alpha Beowolves, and Armored Gauntlets that increases both durability and the power of Izuku's punches.
  • The philosophy behind One For All: Full Cowl is that it trades the explosive power of a 100% Smash for a strength and speed boost that won't break his bones. This makes it applicable to a far wider number of scenarios and improves his ability to stay in the fight.
• Born Unlucky: Literally. Izuku is one of the small handful of the Human and Faunus population to be born without the ability to produce an Aura or a Semblance. This earned him no end of ridicule all the way through combat school. After receiving One For All, he begins considering himself Born Lucky for the opportunity he was given and feels blessed to have met Toshinori on that fateful day. On a more sour note, he also has a tendency to attribute his achievements to luck rather than his own skill and effort, which may or may not be justified depending on the situation.
• Bring It:
  • When Team CRDL attempts to bully Izuku behind closed doors, Izuku hangs a giant "if" over whether or not they can beat him by showing off One For All: Full Cowl.
    Cardin: Not one of them, not even that second year bitch, has the right to look down on me. I'm not going to accept it from the old bastard, I'm definitely not going to accept it from them! They are going to know that if they keep getting in our way or belittling us that we can and will beat that little shrimp into a pulp! They can't protect him behind their skirts every single second of the day! Deku, over there, won't say a word as thanks for not pounding him into the dirt every single second of the day from here on out!
    Izuku: If you can pound me into the dirt, that is.
    Cardin: Right, if... [stops and stares at Izuku] Want to repeat that, Deku?
    Izuku: [activates One For All: Full Cowl] I said if, Cardin. If you can beat me. If you can win this fight... I'm just going to make it clear here and now though; that's a mighty big if you're working with there, Cardin.
  • After offering a scathing critique of Cardin's motives for picking this fight, Izuku challenges him to a one-on-one spar under the condition that Cardin stop his bullying and blatant disregard for what it means to be a Huntsman if Cardin loses.
    Izuku: So yeah, Cardin... we're going to fight man-to-man. We're going to fight in front of Port... and then when I'm done with you, I expect you to stop. You won't hurt or harass my friends or anyone else ever again. You understand?
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gender-inverted with him and Blake. Blake is melancholy, filled with self-loathing, and somewhat paranoid around people because she fears that her Dark and Troubled Past will come to light. While Izuku suffers from similar amounts of Heroic Self-Deprecation, he is a gentle and trusting soul who does his best to try and cheer her up. He has nothing but good things to say about her and offers her constant comfort and companionship. He shrugs off all of her attempts to push him away or try to convince him that she isn't a good person and gives her an outlet to vent to without fear of reprisal. A lot of his attempts to do so end up making her embarrassed when he buys into her impromptu excuses, like when she says that there's a guy she's interested in and tries to convince her to ask this guy out.
• Butt-Monkey: Izuku gets into tons of embarrassing situations, like falling flat on his face and getting stepped on by Ruby on his way to Initiation. He also gets tricked into running out of the shower with nothing but a towel, giving his team an eyeful of his six-pack abs to his embarrassment.
• Calling Your Attacks: It's necessary for him to effectively utilize One For All and helps keep him psyched up while emulating his idol.
• Cannot Talk to Women: Izuku has no problems wading into a crowd of armed terrorists if it means saving people, but he melts into a puddle when the opposite sex is involved. It doesn't help that all the girls around him are gorgeous. He tries to ask Toshinori for advice on how not look like a spaz in front of them, but the latter mistakes Izuku's vague wording for a need to have The Talk. He improves over time as he starts seeing the girls around him as "friends" and "teammates" rather than "girls", but he still freezes up when he does or hears anything remotely flirtatious.
  • He starts trying to overcome his awkwardness by trying his best to flirt with the far more experienced Yang. She takes him up on his game of romantic Chicken by acting even more suggestively than usual. This leaves him a sputtering mess as usual and all of his pickup lines are hilariously cheesy at best.
  • After Pyrrha burns down Junior's club, Izuku is trying to smooth things over with both the police and the Malachites, only for Nora to throw him on top of both of the twins. He promptly passes out from embarrassment. Later on, Nora knocks Izuku out again when she chucks Ochako at him.
  • After he and Yang decide to start dating, Izuku has a mental shutdown when Tenya starts bringing up the topic of safe sex. Afterwards, Izuku starts hyperventilating when he asks to hold Yang's hand and notices how soft it is when compared to his own calloused and rough hands. Weiss even lampshades this.
    Weiss: [shaking her head] I swear, the one man on Remnant who'd blush that hard over getting his hand held.
  • After the above mentioned safe sex incident, Tenya sends Izuku an apology over winter break that ends with, "I know you two will do what feels best for the both of you!" Izuku is so embarrassed that he falls unconscious, only to wake up when he sees the alert on his scroll before fainting when he hears the message again. This repeats for several hours.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Subverted. His meek and unassuming appearance gets people to assume he's a lightweight, but proper drinking habits and pacing mean that Izuku can down cider shots quickly while only feeling slightly tipsy. He tries vodka for the first time while hanging out at a bar with Toshinori, impressing his hero with how well he manages to take two shots. But Izuku is clearly starting to feel the effects at that point, prompting Toshinori to make him stop there.
• Catchphrase: "HOLY WOAH!" when something leaves him in awe or in panic.
• Centipede's Dilemma:
  • Due to his inexperience with Aura, Izuku feels that he has to constantly turn it on and off until a spar with Nora makes him realize that it should be as natural to him as breathing. Nora's pancake metaphor also inspires him to spread One For All's power throughout his body, allowing him to create One For All: Full Cowl.
  • He tends to fall into this when he's not focused on combat or his passions - he once went through an entire conversation with Katsuki before freaking out when he realized that Ruby's shoulder had been touching him the whole time.
• The Chains of Commanding: Izuku is honored, humbled, and terrified by his role as the leader of Team MNVW, doing his best to support his teammates and effectively direct them in the field. He takes his job so seriously that he is guilt-ridden when they're spending money to patch him up and when they take worse injuries than he does, even as they reassure him that he's doing just fine.
• Character Development: Izuku gradually gains more confidence in himself and overcomes some of his social awkwardness as he continues to interact with his teammates. He also Grew a Spine to act on his beliefs on what makes a hero, as seen with his choice to take on Cardin after he started bullying Velvet.
• Character Filibuster: Izuku can easily drop passionate speeches about his motivations for becoming a Huntsman when asked, waxing philosophy about what he feels a Huntsman needs to embody and their duties in the present. He seems to at least acknowledge this, apologizing for rambling on and on. His friends sometimes ask him for a straight yes or no answer after learning about this. He's also amazingly good at giving You Are Better Than You Think You Are speeches.
• Character Tics: Izuku mumbles whenever he's deep in thought and can do so for extended periods of time without stopping to take a breath. This was later bought off by the players, which is reflected in-story by appearing less frequently and his own attempts to stop muttering so much.
• The Chosen One: Izuku is the one chosen by Toshinori to be his successor. As the new holder of one of the strongest Semblances on Remnant, he is now an important cog in the grand scheme of things, making him privy to some of the inner dealings inside Ozpin's office.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Izuku can't turn his back on someone in need and will do everything in his power to save them. When given the option to run from a Giant Nevermore that was clearly out of his league, he runs towards it because he heard the voices of the people it was attacking. It's virtually impossible for him to put his needs before that of others, offering to take on a job to earn money for the team when his schedule is already packed to the gills. He later refuses to accept the prize money Pyrrha won for him from a competition to tend to his injuries, asking her to keep it for herself. This tendency gets so extreme Weiss has to threaten him with violence to get him to sit down and take care of himself.
  • Blake and Pyrrha are genuinely disturbed when Izuku breaks his arm after punching out the Giant Nevermore and starts muttering about how they need to get going before he puts them at risk.
    Izuku: [delirious from pain and adrenaline] Alright, you two are safe... that's what Pyrrha and I came here for... let's... let's start heading to the ruins. I'd rather not put anyone else at risk while I'm like this... I won't be able to fight as well.
    Blake: Put us at... are you for real?
  • In meta terms, this trait is also manifested in his "Charitable" trait. It adds minus modifiers whenever he tries to make overtly selfish decisions, making it harder for him to go through with them.
  • While battling the White Fang at the docks, Izuku punches his opponent unconscious and knocking him into the freezing waters below. Realizing that the man would drown, Izuku immediately dives into the water to save him even though the man had just attempted to blow his head off.
  • In the sidestory, "Charitable Disadvantage", Izuku turns a simple grocery run into an all-day affair when he stops to help everyone he sees in trouble: an overworked homeless shelter manager in need of extra hands, an aging widower who needed help carting her groceries to her door, and a lonely Faunus boy who aspires to become a Huntsman. He makes all of their days that much better by the time he finally returns to Beacon that evening.
• Clark Kent Outfit: As part of his Required Secondary Powers, Izuku developed a respectable Heroic Build that earns him plenty of surprised looks from the girls during his first night at Beacon, but his school uniform somehow manages to hide it all. Yang even lampshades it.
  Yang: [Izuku is in a t-shirt and shorts] Well, hey there Izuku! Where were you hiding all that earlier?!
  • In one sidestory, Weiss initially derides Izuku as "green and skinny". When Nora tricks Izuku into running out of the shower with nothing but a towel on◊, the girls of Team MNVW are all shocked to see that he's toned as heck with six-pack abs.
    Nora: [mockingly] Ya see Weiss? He came right to the rescue. And didn't seem all that skinny to me.
    Weiss: Y-Yes, well that just proved he's an idiot. A gullible, stammering idiot with really nice abs.
  • Coco mentions and deconstructs this. By wearing baggy clothing, Izuku is subconsciously making himself stand out less and feel less emboldened to to do things. In addition, she says that his muscles are a valuable asset in shaping his image and that he could up his intimidation factor simply by wearing more formfitting clothing.
• Classical Anti-Hero: At the start of the series, he's shy, socially awkward, easily startled, woefully behind his peers in strength, lacking in confidence, extremely emotional, and didn't even have an Aura prior to meeting Toshinori. Although he begins to improve after receiving One For All, Izuku continues to put little stock into his value as a person, a fighter, and a leader. He needs external validation from his teammates and teachers to recognize the worth in his own efforts. This makes him unassertive unless he's under fire and causes him to constantly underestimate what he's actually capable of.
• Close-Range Combatant: Due to following Toshinori's example, Izuku does almost all of his fighting at near point-blank range, weaving out of the way of dangerous hits before going in for punches or kicks. When that doesn't work, he's quick to judo throw most others into the floor or even resorting to wrestling moves. This has had the side effect of making his long-range game poor, going to Ruby for tips on shooting.
• Clothing Damage: Using One For All at maximum power tends to rip apart whatever piece of clothing is surrounding the limb he uses it in. Izuku is often forced to go out and find yarn to keep his clothes in working order.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet:
  • Izuku is oblivious to the fact that his warm and understanding personality is winning over his female friends's hearts, particularly Weiss, Pyrrha, Yang, and Blake. He just thinks of himself as plain-looking and that he's anything but boyfriend material, though a good chunk of this has to do with his absolutely abysmal self-esteem cultivated over the course of his childhood.
  • This makes Kaminari jealous of Izuku, insisting that he must have some kind of secret if he got Yang to start dating him. Izuku has no idea what to say in response.
• Color Motif: Green. His hair and eyes are both green, as are his weapons. Even his name contains the kanji for green. While using One For All: Full Cowl, he crackles with green electricity. Lampshaded by the narration in "Exes".
  Not that Yang was going to say he was a shortie for his age to his face, so she just kind let that slip by and hey at least he was Ruby's height while she had her boots on so he was at least a little taller than her. Second, the guy had a lot of green going for him; green hair, green eyes... even a green name, Izuku Midoriya...
• Combat Pragmatist: Aizawa is impressed with Izuku's use of terrain and his opponent's weaknesses to his advantage, putting his back against a tree to avoid getting taken from behind. He's also fully willing to give someone a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown after wrestling them to the floor.
• Combination Attack: Izuku actively develops these with his teammates to give them more options in the field. His personal combination attack with Pyrrha is called "Autumn Bell". She rams her shield into someone's head while Izuku comes in from the opposite side with a Beacon Smash, dealing serious damage as the attacks resound off each other.
• Comes Great Responsibility: Now that he actually has the power he needs to become a Huntsman, Izuku's Chronic Hero Syndrome has kicked into overdrive because he feels that it's his duty to help those in need with One For All.
  This entire situation felt, at once, all too familiar but now all too different. Now you weren't some powerless kid standing up and trying to do what was right. You had power now, you had the ability to help people... and just like before, you still felt you had a responsibility to as well.

• Cool Helmet: He gets a custom-fitted motorcycle helmet as a Solstice present from Yang with room for his Messy Hair and two blonde-strands sticking up like Toshinori's hair.
• Covert Pervert: He secretly admits to getting excited at the thought of seeing Yang in a bikini. When they're in the sauna together, his eyes trace the outline of her swimwear and he feels that it's totally unfair how entrancing it is.
• Country Mouse: Izuku is from "the boonies" as Yang puts it and is in awe of Beacon's facilities from the minute he stepped in. He also lets Yang take him around Vale because he simply doesn't know where to go. This is exemplified even further in his interactions with Weiss, who chastises him for his Valite accent and relaxed mannerisms, telling him that he needs to learn how to present himself if he's going to be the Symbol of Peace. He is also completely unaware of Pyrrha's or Weiss's reputations at the start of the series until they lay it out for him. Pyrrha and Weiss find this somewhat refreshing and endearing.
  • He has some imaginative ideas of what Beacon's Forge looks like at first, expecting a dark, smoky workshop with anvils and coal-fired furnaces instead of a sleek, modern laboratory-like facility.
  • Due to his background, Izuku has better wilderness survival skills than Pyrrha and Weiss, who have both lived in luxury due to their respective backgrounds. He teaches Weiss about what berries are safe to eat, the importance of boiling water when outdoors, how usable moss is for navigation, and other things.
  • Pyrrha's manager, Arata, outright calls Izuku a country bumpkin when they're arguing over Arata's insistence on having Pyrrha return to the tournament circuit. Izuku flips this on its head when he decides to hang up.
    Izuku: I'd say that it was a pleasure speaking with you but, like you said: I'm a country bumpkin and we're raised to be honest.
• Cowardly Lion:
  • Izuku is easily startled and nervous, but it won't stop him from charging in to save someone or screaming at Tenya to launch him into the air to one-shot a Giant Nevermore with a single Smash.
  • This attribute was actually how Coco met Izuku- despite his nervousness, he was standing up to Team CRDL in defense of Velvet.
  • Weiss is often annoyed by how unassertive Izuku is outside of combat situations. He spends a good chunk of their dorm time cowering from her after doing something reckless and stupid. But when the chips are down, Izuku proves himself capable of taking charge and few of his friends ever balk at his leadership.
  • Yang finds this quality attractive because Izuku is constantly flipping between his shy, mousy exterior and his driven, badass hero interior. This makes him adorable and fun to tease, but also means that he won't chicken out when something really matters.
• Crash-Into Hello: Izuku meets Ruby and Yang after he trips over his own feet and falls on his face, which in turns allows Ruby to trip on Izuku and fall on top of him. He later meets Ochako when Nora throws her at him, which knocks them both unconscious. The inverse happened for the Malachite twins, as Izuku got thrown at them by Nora, upon which he faints from sheer embarrassment.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Izuku gets dealt one in his first spar at Beacon, as his Aura gets pierced in one shot by his opponent.
  • Izuku gets another one from Mirio Togata, who is able to take him down easily with only martial arts even as Izuku began tapping into One For All in hopes of turning the tide, proving that Izuku isn't ready for Juu Atama's training.
  • Pyrrha (predictably) hands Izuku his ass when they're pitted against each other and he isn't even able to get a single hit in before the exercise is finished.
  • Izuku dishes one out to Cardin after developing One For All: Full Cowl, scaring the crap out of the rest of CRDL to force them to stand down. He hands out another one to a pack of Beowolves during his final exam in Live Exercises, killing most of them in one or two hits. This stuns him as he remembered how badly he struggled against just three of them at the start of the semester.
  • Izuku's spar with Demi Polendina is a rather brutal one, consisting entirely of Izuku getting grabbed by the hair and repeatedly punched in the stomach until he was sore. Glynda ended up having to remind her to take it easier in future spars since they're meant to be educational for everyone
• Curtains Match the Windows: Izuku has forest green hair and emerald green eyes.
• Crazy Enough to Work:
  • Izuku is very good at coming up with extremely dangerous plans that actually work. He pries a murder of Nevermores and a pack of Beowolves off some Huntsmen in trouble by having Weiss speed him up so he can Glenn Smash the majority and 5% Beacon Smash the rest. All this while bullets were flying around from armed terrorists. Even before this, he has Tenya throw him at a Giant Nevermore that was dozens if not hundreds of feet in the air in order to get in range to use One For All for the first time. This gets lampshaded by Yang, who calls him a "little green madman" for his over-the-top heroics and reckless plans.
  • Izuku banks on this to weasel his way out of a water bottle spraying when he threatens to jump out of a window if Weiss pulls the bottle on him. He admits that it probably wasn't wise to pull a page from Nora's book but it manages to work.
• Cry into Chest:
  • Izuku lets Blake sob into his chest after he shrugs off her attempts to push him away by confessing everything she did in the past to him.
  • He later comforts Yang in the same way after Toshinori tells her that Raven wanted her when neither Qrow nor Taiyang could work up the nerve to do so, allowing Yang to believe that she was the reason why Raven left. He's surprised, though, as when he did it to Blake, she tried to push him away before giving up and letting it happen, while Yang actually grabs him tighter.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • Due to his social awkwardness and the way he looks up to Katsuki, Izuku has it drilled into his head that he needs to prove his strength if he's to earn the respect of his peers. This mindset backfires when he takes an overly pragmatic approach in his spar against Weiss that humiliates her and didn't teach either of them much of anything. It gets deconstructed further when Pyrrha reveals that it's having the opposite effect that he intended, with all of the people he's beaten being branded weak for losing to him rather than making him look strong.
  • It's also hurt his relations with his peers, as despite being absurdly strong and skilled given his relative inexperience, he still views himself as massively inferior to everyone because they're more skilled than he is, making him feel unworthy of their attention.
• Determinator:
  • Izuku was single-mindedly determined to become a Huntsman even before he obtained One For All and it took Toshinori telling him to his face that being a Huntsman was unfeasible for him to get Izuku to even start considering other options. After obtaining One For All, he became fully willing to repeatedly shatter every bone in his arms with full knowledge of the grievous pain it would cause if it means learning how to use it, even if he's doing it while under Glynda Goodwitch's supervision and immediate medical attention. While giving it his all against Yang, he breaks all of his fingers in his attempts to force her back, only barely losing.
  • A talk with Blake deconstructs this trope as Izuku realizes that he's been incredibly unfair to his mother by making her suffer the emotional and financial burden of supporting his self-destructive dream on top of the worries of him getting hurt because he didn't have an Aura. He calls her to apologize after this realization, leading them both to break down in tears as they apologize for each of their own failings.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • For all the time he spends planning, sometimes Izuku does things without thinking about the potential consequences. For instance, he offers to give an exhausted Yang a piggyback ride while they try to get somewhere safer, only to realize that her breasts are now pressing into his back. He does it again while hanging out with Yang at a restaurant, responding to her teasing by trying to flirt with her in a game of romantic chicken. His internal response after the words leave his mouth sums up this trope nicely.
    Yang: Izuku Midoriya... are you trying to out tease me of all people? Do you really want to play this game of Chicken? [leans closer to him] Because Slugger, I'm not sure you want to try to make me flinch. I mean, good show right there, you almost got me... but Slugger, it's going to take way more than that. I wouldn't want to put you at risk of a heart attack from the attempt.
    Izuku: [internally] There was no way you could do this. Just absolutely no way. Look at her: you knocked her off her footing for just a second and then, bam, there she was grinning like a wild animal. There was no way you were in this, no way you could possibly handle it... [to Yang] I think my heart's a little stronger than you give it credit for Yang. L-L-Let's do this. [internally again] WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
  • Played for Drama in the backstory. As Toshinori says, there are people who leap into harm's way to save people, whose legs begin moving before their brains tell them to. This trait is what convinces Toshinori to give Izuku the mantle of One For All.
  • This gets played more dramatically when he unintentionally humiliates Weiss by taking an overly pragmatic approach to their in-class spar, which ended up teaching them nothing other than the weaknesses they already know. He admits that he was flying by the seat of his pants and apologizes by offering to bake her whatever she wanted.
  • This also gets played for laughs again when Katsuki says that his favorite ice cream flavor is Neapolitan. Despite all of the red flags he definitely took note of, Izuku pushes Katsuki's Berserk Button by bringing up Neo, sending the bomber into a murderous rage. Even Izuku doesn't know why he said it (though given where they were and what they were doing, alcohol seems to be a strong factor).
  • In another sidestory, Izuku tries to channel One For All into his ears in hopes of improving his hearing. Unfortunately, he misunderstood what the muscles in the ear do and he renders himself temporarily deaf before becoming hypersensitive to sound until his Aura managed to fix his ruptured sound-dampening muscles.
  • Played for Drama when Izuku knocks Panchito out cold while they're both fighting over the ocean in the middle of winter. Izuku was so focused on beating him that he forgot to take the terrain into account, forcing him to dive into the water himself to save Panchito from drowning. He chastises himself for his rookie error afterward.
    Izuku: I forgot. Even as I was hanging above it I forgot one of the basic lessons of being a Huntsman. Always keep in mind the terrain. Yes, I beat him Yang. I beat him so badly he bounced of the water, helpless, and sank. Under the pier, in the dark? He could have drowned. I should have made sure I held him before knocking him out of the fight. Maybe tried reasoning with him. But I was too busy figuring out how to win to think of the after. I was stupid and lucky.
  • Played for laughs again when he offers to help Yatsuhashi get a girlfriend by offering advice based on how he started dating Yang. After he started the conversation though, he realized that he had no idea how on Remnant he did that.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength:
  • Izuku is used to fighting opponents who are as strong if not stronger than him. So when he uses Glenn Smash on Junior's Mooks, he and the rest of Team MNVW are shocked as they watch and hear the mooks' Auras, legs, arms, and ribs break instantly.
  • After activating One For All: Full Cowl for the first time, he's utterly astonished at how fast and strong he is in this state, easily batting away Nora's Magnhild and keeping the upper hand against her in their spar when he was on the losing end just minutes prior.
  • When he and Pyrrha are in a doubles match together, he tries out their combo attack, Autumn Bell, where he slams a target into her shield, by using a 5% Beacon Smash. This is so strong that the shockwave actually blows Pyrrha back.
  • By his final exam in Live Exercises, he's utterly blown away by how easily he takes down an entire pack of Beowolves, killing them with a single hit each. He asks Toshinori if those Beowolves were in the larval stage out of disbelief. He has to hold back Tears of Joy when he learns that they were just as strong as the Beowolves he fought during Initiation.
• The Door Slams You: As per his Butt-Monkey tendencies, Izuku gets a face full of door in his fourth week at Beacon after he absentmindedly walks up to his dorm room while Weiss was about to leave. It's actually treated fairly seriously compared to most examples, as he would have broken and bloodied his nose if not for his Aura. It happens to him again when Weiss returns from Winter Break
• Double Jump: Izuku eventually learns how to perform a Patch Smash, pushing himself off the air with One For All's power to give himself a boost in speed and jumping distance. The downside is that he still needs to work out the landing part, meaning that he can't use this willy-nilly lest he crash into things or land on the ground hard.
• Dork Knight: As usual, Izuku is packing seriously powerful Super-Strength, an unyielding work ethic, and a heart of gold. That doesn't mean he's isn't going to stumble over himself while speaking with girls or fanboy like a maniac whenever he meets someone he admires.
• Dramatic Stutter: Izuku stutters whenever he's feeling shy, embarrassed, or excited. He also stutters when he has to lie.
• Dream-Crushing Handicap: Izuku was born a "Moon Child" or "Broken", meaning that his soul was so weak that it would never manifest an Aura or a Semblance on his own. Because of this, Izuku always lagged behind his peers at combat school and being a Huntsman was virtually impossible for him no matter how hard he tried or how badly he wanted to become one. This got fixed when Toshinori granted him One For All.
• Dream Reality Check: Izuku feels so grateful for the opportunities he's been given that he sometimes has to pinch himself as a reminder that he isn't dreaming and is in fact attending the greatest Huntsman Academy in the world despite being born a Broken Soul.
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: The point of the "Charitable" disadvantage. He goes out of his way to save everyone in trouble even if that includes people who try to kill him and/or if it gets him into an even more dangerous situation.
• Dynamic Entry:
  • Junior tries to barricade himself behind a heavily locked door when Izuku is hot on his heels. Izuku responds by Beacon Smashing the door down, sending it flying into Junior in the process.
  • Izuku gets an extremely over-the-top entrance while ambushing the White Fang at Vale's docks. After being thrown into the air in a van Sun was driving, Izuku punches out the van door and throws himself out. Somersaulting through the air, he activates Full Cowl and Patch Smashes himself into the Fang member Yang was fighting. His Beacon Smash and forward momentum managed to punch the guy all the way across the shipyard and into the water.
  • Izuku gets another one that also doubles as a Big Damn Heroes moment when he ambushes Stain while he had Tenya and Blake paralyzed and was getting ready to kill them, landing a 10% Beacon Smash to his head while he was distracted
• Embarrassing Old Photo: It's implied that there are still photos of him and Katsuki in their Toshinori onesies from when they were kids. Izuku desperately tries to keep his teammates out of his room to keep them from finding it or the onesie itself.
• Emotional Bruiser: Izuku cries a lot, bursting into tears whenever he's feeling especially happy, sad, or regretful, but the only one who really calls him out for this is Toshinori. It helps that he packs a serious wallop thanks to One For All.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Izuku was once a Moon Child without an Aura or a Semblance, but he still tried his best to become a Huntsman regardless. After obtaining One For All, he's quickly catching up to his peers who have had their Auras their entire lives and his new Semblance is one of the most powerful of them all in terms of raw strength.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Izuku gets flustered at one point because he feels that he did something to make Weiss mad at him after noticing she was annoyed after their last conversation, but is too afraid of doing anything to cut through the tension. Finally, while he's in the middle of studying in their room, he bursts into tears and begs her to tell him what he did to upset her and how he can fix it, only for her to inform him that she was annoyed at Shoto, not him.
  Izuku: [bawling and nearly knocking Weiss over] Weiss, I'm sorry, please tell me what I did wrong and I'll fix it!
  Weiss: Izuku, what are you even talking about?
  Izuku: AAAAH! It's just you got so angry when Pyrrha and Nora left and I was the only person here and we had that talk yesterday so I thought you were still mad at me and I just didn'twantallthatefforttogotowastesopleastWeissjust-
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: During his first day of Grimm Studies, Izuku gets called out by Port in the middle of class. When Izuku looks up, he notices everyone staring at him while Katsuki looks ready to bust a vein. He says it's funny, because that usually only happens when he's mumbling... only to realize that he's been mumbling for several minutes.
  You blink a few times as you look at Port, before your eyes glance around at your fellow students. You see that they're all staring at you with really weirded out expressions... well, except Kacchan. The guy looked like he was about to bust a blood vessel from pure rage and annoyance. Huh, that's funny... usually people and Kacchan only looked at you like this whenever you... you... Oh crap.
• Expy: A weak, nerdy social pariah is suddenly granted amazing power by a twist of fate, putting them on the path to becoming an amazing hero. Are we talking about Izuku or Peter Parker? Lampshaded heavily by the non-canon sidestory, "Spectacular What?" When Izuku starts writing about Spider-Man as a work of fiction, his teammates all immediately assume that he's writing a Self-Insert Fic again until they go over his notes.
• Fainting: Izuku can get so embarrassed that he briefly loses consciousness. When Eijirou and Kaminari mistake Izuku for some sort of Sex God thanks to Nora's poor phrasing, he passes out standing up, forcing Weiss to drag him back to their dorm by the scruff of his hoodie. Yang gets a moment of revelation when she meets Inko and realizes where he gets it from.
• Famed In-Story: Izuku slowly starts building up a reputation for himself within the story. He becomes well-known within Beacon for solving the case of the mysteriously destroyed bathrooms and for standing up to Cardin. In Vale, he and the rest of Team MNVW are responsible for taking down Junior and his gang, which earns him brownie points with the local police officers. Back in Mountain Glenn, he becomes the talk of the local Hunters when they watched him obliterate Nevermores with a finger flick and punch out various armed terrorists during the Monochrome League's attack.
• Fan Boy: Izuku is a self-admitted "super nerd" who would probably get looked down on by other nerds for his fixation on Huntsmen. He has all of Toshinori's merchandise, makes figurines of him, and knows almost everything there is to know about him. On the flip side, his single-minded obsession has also made him oblivious to more popular matters. He's completely unaware of Pyrrha's and Weiss's reputations when he first meets them.
• Feels No Pain: Rather, Izuku feels lots of pain, but has become so accustomed to it that it doesn't faze him the way it would most people. His constant bone-breaking antics have given him such incredible pain tolerance that he can continue to punch people with a completely broken hand and keep fighting even when he runs out of fingers to break, using his mouth to force himself to be able to use a Glenn Smash with his thumb. He winces again after breaking his arm while trying to push his limits up to 10% of One For All's power after managing to not break his limbs for weeks.
• First Kiss: He gets his first one from Yang when he plants his temple against her lips by accident while trying to help her hug out her distress over Raven. He gets his first intentional kiss on the cheek after making a spectacular Dynamic Entry and punching the guy Yang was fighting across the docks and into the water. The shock of it makes him forget that he's in the middle of a battle and leaves his knees wobbling even after the fact. Finally, he gets his real first kiss as a Solstice present, nearly collapsing from both surprise and happiness. He proceeds to have four more with Yang in rapid succession.
• First Girl Wins: The first girl his own age he hears in the quest is Yang making fun of one of his muttering storms. By the end of the first semester, they're dating.
• First-Person Smartass: Izuku comes across as this is some of his internal dialogue underneath his constant politeness and sweetness.
  Ozpin: [after explaining how Initiation works] Now, are there any questions?
  Izuku: [screaming internally] Any questions?! ANY QUESTIONS?! Why is your school being run like this?! How do you not have massive lawsuits from parents year after year because of this!? HAS ANYONE ACTUALLY DIED?! ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS?! HOLY WOAH, WERE TOSHINORI AND ENJI REALLY JUST BLIND LUCK?! HOW ARE WE ALL EXPECTED TO GET DOWN THE- [watches someone get flung into the forest] Oh... Oh. Well, that was one question answered, at least... WHAT?!
• First Time Feeling: Izuku is astonished at how good it feels to have an Aura after spending his entire life without one, breaking into Tears of Joy after first obtaining One For All. He's also ecstatic when he realizes that he's totally unharmed after falling flat on his face and getting stepped on by Ruby on his way to Initiation.
• Flat "What": Izuku's reaction to Coco demanding that he take his shirt off.
• Foil:
  • As per their original appearances, Izuku is this for Katsuki. They grew up together in Mountain Glenn and both admire Toshinori above all. But Izuku was the Shrinking Violet Nice Guy Un-Sorcerer until he met Toshinori, who named him his successor and gave him the opportunity to achieve his dream of becoming a Huntsman who saves others. Katsuki is a Jerkass Born Winner with a Hair-Trigger Temper who felt that he was born to be a Huntsman, desiring to become number one to prove his strength to everyone else, just as Toshinori did.
  • He's also one to Shoto. They're both Socially Awkward Heroes whose Semblances are incredibly powerful and inherited from someone else. While Izuku was explicitly not cut out to be a Huntsman thanks to being born a Broken Soul, Shoto was tailor-bred to be Enji's perfect successor. Izuku was ostracized from his peers for being different from them despite his best attempts at fitting in, while Shoto was sheltered so Enji could make him train constantly. They even share the same Thinking Tic of tilting their heads when they're confused.
• Food as Bribe: Izuku becomes the best cook on his team after learning about Nora's obsession with pancakes. He soon finds that the best way to get her to do anything is to offer (or deny) her pancakes. He also tries to smooth over bumps in his relationships by offering sweets as part of apologies and compensation.
• Friendless Background: Izuku was relentlessly bullied by his peers at Birch Academy because he was a Moon Child and left without a single friend to talk to by the time he inherits One For All. One of the first things he tries to do when coming to Beacon is to introduce himself to others and try to make friends, but his attempts come out stilted and awkward due to his lack of social experience. Weiss and Pyrrha are both taken aback when he introduces himself just to make friends, because they're so used to being hit on or having people try to curry favor with them for personal gain. By the time he's proclaimed to be the leader of Team MNVW, he's overwhelmed by the fact that he's now in a place where people won't immediately hate or mock him.
  Izuku: [after figuring out who Weiss is] Oh! That's... that's pretty cool. Uh... I didn't know that. I just thought that... it'd be pretty nice to say hi? That's how people make friends... or at least, I'm pretty sure that's how.
  Weiss: [puzzled] Are you for real?
  Izuku: I think so? I mean... err... sorry. I'm not too good with people. I don't exactly do this a lot... but, well, we're all going to school here for now to be Hunters, right? So I just thought... that we should get along, right?
• Friendly Rival: When Izuku declares that he's going to be the greatest Huntsman in the world, Ruby refutes him because she's going to be the greatest Huntress in the world, declaring the two of them to be rivals. It doesn't make their relationship any less friendly.
• Generation Xerox: Many of Toshinori's old friends and colleagues, particularly Glynda, notice how similar Izuku is to Toshinori: They share the same Semblance, the same drive and passion to overachieve in order to bring hope and smiles to others, and the same stubborn recklessness and disregard for their own well-being when other's lives are on the line (to the consternation of their teammates). Toshinori was also a Moon Child, just like Izuku. Also just like Toshinori, Glynda is forced to patch Izuku up during his training sessions.
• Genius Bruiser: While Izuku admits that he doesn't think he's the smartest in school, he thinks ahead far more than any of his peers, coming up with extensive battle plans in moments based on all of the information he's absorbed over the years on Hunters and their tactics. His grades are also excellent, earning near-perfect scores in many of his classes and going so far as to tutor Pyrrha and even Velvet, an upperclassman, in different subjects. While he isn't the strongest kid around, One For All more than allows him to pull his weight in most fights and send mooks flying across the room with a single punch.
  • From a meta perspective, he has the highest IQ rating on his team at 18, compared to Pyrrha's 14, Weiss's 16, and Nora's 13. Even Katsuki's IQ Rating falls short of Izuku's at 16, despite Katsuki's incredibly high grades in combat school. When Izuku takes his final exams, he passes them all with flying colors, getting an A+ in each course with the exception of sparring, where he gets an A- for his (understandably) poor performance earlier in the semester.
• Glass Cannon: His 100% Smash takes this trope to its logical extreme, giving him enough power to turn a Giant Nevermore into tomato soup at the cost of breaking whatever limb he decides to use it in. To a lesser degree, his Glenn Smashes break whatever finger he uses them on, but generate enough force to send Yang tumbling backward and lay waste to entire packs of Grimm.
• Glowing Eyes: Izuku's eyes glow neon green when he's using One For All: Full Cowl. At one point, Ruby stumbles in on him in the middle of the night and freaks out when she mistakes him for a ghost.
• Good Luck Charm: Izuku has a set of lucky dice with Toshinori's face on them, giving him bonuses when he's playing a dice-based game.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Zig-zagged. Izuku is almost entirely self-taught (he took up karate from a book) up to the point that he starts sparring with Yang and Nora and takes judo lessons from Toshinori. While his Birch Academy report card says that he has above average skills in hand-to-hand combat and he's improving through experience, he still gets his rear handed to him by anyone who has been fighting for longer and had actual instruction. The sidestory "Lack of Skill" lampshades this, noting that both Izuku and Katsuki aren't especially skilled fighters because their school does not specialize in training combat-ready Huntsmen.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Izuku makes gratuitous use of the Healing Factor his Aura provides him to pop his bones back into place after a bone-breaking Smash so he can continue fighting after a short rest. This gets taken to the limit when he's using Go Beyond, as he's fracturing his bones, tearing his ligaments, and stressing or bursting his blood vessels with almost every movement while he's forcing himself to use double his safe limit. He's only saved by his Aura constantly taping him back together. This is what causes its relatively high Aura cost per round, forcing him to finish fights quickly before it runs out. It's also a contributing factor in his Adaptational Badass nature - when he fought Shoto in canon by firing shockwaves from his fingers, it nearly crippled Izuku, and had permanent repercussions for the rest of the series. When he fought Yang the same way in this timeline, the two of them were released from the infirmary a few hours later, no worse for wear.
• Grew a Spine: Part of his Character Development is getting over his jitteriness from his Broken days and standing up for himself and others. This is best seen when he's stands up to Cardin in Velvet's defense and offers to throw down with him to get him to stop.
  You're going to make it clear; it isn't just a matter of them getting in trouble if they do fight you... they'll be in trouble just as part of fighting you on top of it. You weren't a pushover... not anymore. You hadn't been ever since you stood up to Kacchan back in Mountain Glenn. When you'd made it clear that you were going to Beacon and there wasn't anything he could do to stop you.
  This wouldn't be a cakewalk for them. Not like they'd imagined.
• Grin of Audacity: Izuku tries his best to smile in the face of danger or adversity to better emulate Toshinori, but his nervousness makes it come out as a quivery grin most of the time.
• Hard Work Hardly Works:
  • No matter how hard Izuku worked, he simply wasn't able to keep up with anyone as a Moon Child due to his lack of an Aura and was probably never going to be a Huntsman. After obtaining an Aura and a Semblance from Toshinori, Izuku works double time to catch up to his far more experienced classmates and is making excellent progress, managing to nearly beat Yang in a brawl at the cost of breaking all of his fingers and later defeating Weiss with some Combat Pragmatism.
  • His borderline obsessive work ethic and research into Aura training is what allowed him to reach his Second Awakening just a couple of weeks after school started. For reference, even Yang needed a few months to reach that level.
  • His driven work ethic pays off during his final exams for the semester, as he aces every single one of his tests with flying colors.
• The Hero: Izuku is always trying to do the right thing, even if it means bending certain rules. He's simple and earnest in his wish to become a Huntsman who saves people, even if he knows that most real-life situations are far more complex. Ozpin even lampshades this, calling him the "'in case of emergency, Go Hero' button".
  • Ozpin states his regret, to Toshinori, that Toshinori got to Izuku first, as Izuku's fine mind might have made him an excellent member of the Conspiracy and a possible heir to his role in it. Toshinori disagrees, stating that Izuku is too much of a hero to ever take Ozpin's place, stating that Izuku will become Remnant's greatest hero.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": In "The Greatest Huntsman", Izuku used to live out his dreams of being a Huntsman by writing self-indulgent stories where he'd have a powerful Aura, an amazing Semblance, and get praised by Toshinori all day long. These stories are an in-universe Old Shame for him and even Pyrrha can't help but laugh at how obviously terrible they are.
• Hero Does Public Service: His Chronic Hero Syndrome isn't limited to saving lives. If he sees someone in need of help, he will rush into help them. The sidestory "Charitable Disadvantage" covers one of his usual outings into Vale, which turns a short grocery run into an all-day affair. He volunteers to help a local homeless shelter feed hundreds of people, helps an old widower cart her groceries back home, and stops to play with a Faunus boy who was being bullied.
• Heroic BSoD: He was devastated when Toshinori told him he couldn't become a Huntsman. It shook Izuku out of his delusions that he could be one without an Aura and just left him standing there for a while he pondered what he was going to do with his life from then on.
  You'd shrugged off so much. Blown off so many other people when they told you the same thing... but hearing it from the man you admired most? Hearing it from the world's greatest Huntsman, who would know better than anyone else? There was no amount of crap you could put up to deflect that, no amount of grit you could pull to keep moving forward. You just... stopped dead in your tracks. Who knows where you would've gone to next without the later experiences of that day.
• Heroic Build:
  • Izuku's muscular body◊ is a requirement to be able to handle One For All, with many of the girls commenting on his chiseled six-pack abs and Ruby staring in awe at his biceps. It's one of the things he takes pride in, as it's a reminder of how hard he's worked to arrive at Beacon and how fortunate he is to be Toshinori's successor. It also makes him the target of many a Female Gaze from Yang while they're working out together, though he admits that he's more lean and toned than rippling and massive like Toshinori.
  • Later on, Weiss demands an explanation from Izuku when he mentions that there are berries in the forest that are poisonous, grabbing the fabric of his shirt. When she calms down and starts patting the creases down, she notices that his pecs are surprisingly solid. She definitely didn't enjoy feeling them though.
  • Coco makes Izuku go shirtless while taking measurements to help him pick out a new wardrobe. She suggests he wear more form-fitting clothing to show off his muscles and make himself look more intimidating. She also has Velvet take a bunch of pictures of Izuku's shirtless body for good measure.
  • He's also been getting brawnier over time due to his intense training. By his tenth week at Beacon his muscles show prominently through the skintight Toshinori costume he wore for the Long Night without bothering to flex. His abs are downright mesmerizing by his third night out with Yang, who stares at them greedily until she's snapped out of it. He still feels inadequate next to someone like Yatsuhashi, who towers over Izuku and manages to make him look like a toothpick, though to be fair the man is built like Toshinori's muscled form and is barely smaller than the Symbol of Peace himself.
  • By winter break, Izuku finds that he can't wear his old Birch uniform, which was fitted to his old Geek Physique and when he was a few inches shorter.
  • Because of how Aura works and provides Super-Strength, it's mentioned that this sort of build is rather uncommon for Hunters to have (since you have to work hard enough to not just use Super-Strength but regular muscles as well). Because Izuku started off without Aura and underwent Training from Hell to catch up, he starts out with impressive muscles and the Aura simply locks that in place.
  • Played for Laughs in one non-canon omake, where he manages to make his t-shirt explode in his attempts to practice using Patch Smash just by flexing his muscles like Toshinori. Yang approves and asks if he's going to try it on his pants next. He quickly flees for the hills at the implications.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • Just like in his home series, using One For All at full power shatters the bones of whatever limb it's used in, which can often make it a Death or Glory Attack when dealing with dangerous Grimm. The steep price of this ability comes with a massive potential payoff: Izuku killed a Giant Nevermore with one punch and can obliterate scores of Mooks and smaller Grimm with a finger flick. He gets injured so often while he's training to use One For All that his team has reserved their first aid kit for him, renaming it the "Izuku's Done Something Stupid Kit", or the IDSSK for short. He often has to pay out of his own wallet to refill it due to how many times he uses it.
  • He later manages to limit the damage to one finger, which he calls Glenn Smash. After this, he figures out how to channel a small fraction of One For All into his arm without breaking it, giving his punches extra oomph.
  • Weiss also explicitly bans him from trying to use Dust along with his Semblance due to how volatile both of them are, which could cost him an arm or worse.
  • In a way, Izuku's inability to control One For All works in his favor, as his Aura gets trained even more quickly from having to constantly pull him back together. It also makes it harder for others to draw the line between him and Toshinori, who never suffered from the same bone-breaking recoil.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Oh boy.
  • He puts himself down when things don't go according to plan and when others get injured on his watch because he feels that it's his responsibility as a team leader to ensure that everyone is safe. Even when they tell him that he went above and beyond his duties as a team leader by breaking his own bones to get them out of danger, he still feels that he hasn't done enough. He also seems to be unable to internalize his own accomplishments, chocking them up to his luck at being named Toshinori's successor.
    Izuku: [misty-eyed after punching out a Giant Nevermore] W-Well... I didn't do it cause it was cool... I-I did it because it was the right thing to do. It's what you would've done. [gives an appreciative, shaky smile to Toshinori] And really... it's only because of everything you've done for me that today was possible. Passing Initiation, joining Beacon as a student... living my dream as a Huntsman. None of it wouldn't have been possible without the help you've given me.
    Toshinori: Come on young man, I get done saying how cool you looked out there and you start crying? Jeez, way to kill a moment...
  • When speaking with Weiss about how to introduce Team MNVW in her letter to Winter, Izuku heaps glowing praise on Nora and Pyrrha but can't think of any for himself. He also says that she should tell Winter about how he's been taking advice from Weiss on leadership, again denying himself any praise.
    Izuku: You're on a team with Pyrrha Nikos and she's as skilled as people talk about. She's also... very well-mannered in private? Your teammate Nora is super strong and super reliable, and she's always full of energy and... optimistic. Me... I've got nothing... [shakes his head] And even though you haven't been made leader, I come to you a lot for advice and to help me brainstorm ideas because I know you're reliable and invested as much in this team as the rest of us.
  • Even after the incident in the Underground Training Facility, he still doesn't consider himself heroic in the slightest despite risking life and limb for the sake of his friends and civilians. He outright tells Yang that he doesn't think he'll ever be in a romantic relationship with someone because he considers himself high-maintenance and a selfish pain to deal with rather than a considerate and understanding person who is a joy to be around.
  • During his final exam in Live Exercises, Izuku is stunned by how easily he demolishes an entire pack of Beowolves, always expecting some other shoe to drop. Even after Toshinori tells him that he passed with flying colors, Izuku has to ask if the Beowolves he fought were larval and weak, only for his mentor to assure him that the Grimm he fought were just as strong as the three Beowolves Izuku struggled to fight during Initiation.
  • While sparring with Yang just before final exams begin, she comments about how strong Izuku he is now and how he throws a mean punch. He quickly starts mumbling about how it was all thanks to how good of a teacher, sparring partner, and spotter she is before she stops him.
    Yang: I swear even without that Full Cowl of yours you’re almost as bad as fighting Ruby. [rubs the side of her face] Except you can throw a better punch, hell of a punch too, I remember when I taught you that one.
    Izuku: Well, you were a good teacher… and sparring partner… and spotter… and-
    Yang: [raises a hand for him to stop] As much as I love hearing this, I feel like you’ll go all day if I don’t stop you. [Izuku blushes in embarrassment]
  • Ultimately, this is one of Izuku's biggest flaws. Years of bullying and being told he wouldn't amount to anything powdered his self-esteem. He's exceedingly uncomfortable with accepting compliments and thinks so lowly of himself that he tries to argue to his friends that they're amazing for trying to keep him from freezing to death at the docks (albeit while suffering from a hypothermia-induced haze). Yang has to give him You Are Better Than You Think You Are speeches as his girlfriend several times now to try to make him think that he's worthy of dating her, and he still doesn't know what there is about him that someone like Yang would see worthwhile in him.
• Hero-Worshipper:
  • Izuku is a huge Fan Boy for all things Huntsman-related and fawns over any cool Huntsman he meets. Toshinori in particular is his lifelong inspiration and Izuku holds him in the highest regard, rattling off virtually anything about him with ease.
  • Izuku is also this for Katsuki, looking past most of his flaws to admire all of the awesome parts about him: his incredible talent, unyielding drive to win, and his incredible bravery in the face of danger. This is part of the reason why Izuku is still friendly towards him despite their rocky past together.
• High-Pressure Emotion: When Yang starts holding his hand teasingly, the sweat on his face practically turns into steam from embarrassment and nervousness before he starts to faint from emotional overload. When she invites him into the sauna, he gets so hot that Yang swears she could boil tea on his head.
• Hot-Blooded: While he's normally withdrawn or demure, he can't do anything by half-measures and is always taking everything he does very seriously. He meticulously analyzes baking and confectionery to make better pancakes, trains his Aura, body, and Semblance until he can't move, and throws himself into the thick of the fight to save lives. Yang even says that she isn't sure if he knows how to take it easy when it comes to training. This earns him points with her, because she dumped one of her boyfriends from combat school after he started going easy on her in their spars.
  • In "The Inheritor", Yang says that Izuku uses moderation the same way she uses scalp shiner, which is to say never.
• Humble Hero: In his first meeting with Pyrrha prior to Initiation, he doesn't even consider himself in the list of candidates for making a strong team, because he knows for a fact that Yang is vastly superior to him when he's not going with a 100% Smash. Even with his rapid progress, Izuku knows that he's still behind many of his classmates and never lets his accomplishments go to his head. Sometimes this veers right into Heroic Self-Deprecation territory, as mentioned above.
• Hypocrite: Izuku rarely takes his own advice.
  • He tells Blake to feel better about herself and that she's a fundamentally good person, but suffers from crippling Heroic Self-Deprecation himself.
  • He tries to tell people to tone things down and take things easy, but trains so hard his teammates sometimes have to physically restrain him or threaten him with violence to get him to consider leaving time for rest.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me:
  • Gender-inverted. Izuku is utterly astonished when Yang brushes aside his own concerns about how he'd never make a good boyfriend and says that she wants to date him.
  • To a small degree, this is how Izuku views any positive attention. Thanks to his terrible self-esteem, praise from other people is usually met with initial disbelief and embarrassment.
• Iconic Outfit: Izuku's signature red shoes◊. He's almost never seen without them when he's not equipped with Emerald Gust.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Izuku has wanted to be a Huntsman ever since he was a little kid and not even a decade of bullying, broken bones, and scorn was able to beat this dream out of him.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Izuku wanted an Aura and Semblance to call his own for as long as he can remember, falling for numerous scams as a child in his desperate efforts to get one so he can become a Huntsman. At the same time, this can be seen as I Just Want to Be Normal, as almost everyone else around him has powers (or the potential to have powers) when he never could. He gets his wish when Toshinori bestows One For All to him.
• I Just Want to Have Friends:
  • Type B. After spending nearly his entire life as an outcast for being Broken, Izuku tries really hard to make friends and fit in at Beacon. He forces himself to talk to people (even pretty girls he's never met) in hopes of getting on their good side. His relationship with Katsuki also made him believe that Defeat Means Friendship, which pushes him even harder to get stronger in hopes of gaining the respect of his teammates and the rest of his class. He relaxes a little once he settles into Beacon and after Yang tells him to just be himself after a night on the town. In time, his sheer niceness and growing badassitude gives him more friends than he ever dreamed of having scantly a year before. His progress is probably best shown when he offers to be friends with Shoto after spending his first six weeks at Beacon trying to be everyone else's friend.
    Shoto: [shyly] I find that I, too, would like us to be friends... So how much more do we need to do before we become friends?
    Izuku: Well... I suppose we only really have one thing we need to do before we become friends. [extends a hand] Hi. My name's Izuku Midoriya. Would you like to be friends?
  • He gets ludicrously excited when Sun decides to call him a bro and cheerfully refers to the van they stole from the White Fang as the "Bro Mobile".
  • He also takes his new friendships very seriously and feels absolutely terrible when he realizes that he hasn't hung out with Ren in a month after Nora calls him about it. He starts hyperventilating and mumbling to himself once he arranges a meet-up to say sorry and make it up to him.
    Izuku: WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I DIDN'T EVEN REALLY HAVE FRIENDS BEFORE COMING TO BEACON AND HERE I AM IGNORING ONE FOR SO LONG THAT I ACTUALLY HAD TO BE TOLD HOW MUCH OF A JERK I WAS BEING BY JUST COMPLETELY BLOWING HIM OFF! ALL THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVED IN ME NOW, WHO TRUSTED ME AND I JUST IGNORED ONE OF THEM BECAUSE HE COULD BE A LITTLE TOO SILENT SOMETIMES! HELL, REN TRUSTED ME WITH NORA, HIS BEST FRIEND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD AS A TEAM LEADER! HE PUT THAT KIND OF FAITH IN ME WHEN FEW OTHERS FROM MY OLD LIFE WOULD HAVE AND I ANSWERED THAT BY JUST ACTING LIKE HE DIDN'T EXIST, OH GODS, WHAT AM I GONNA DO?! WHAT AM I GONNA DO!?
• Imagine Spot: At one point, Izuku and Yatsuhashi discuss the best way to impress a girl. When Yatsuhashi says he'd be turned on by the sight of a girl flexing her muscles for him, Izuku imagines Yang doing just that and immediately begins blushing.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: While fighting at Vale's dockyards, Izuku dives into the freezing waters after his opponent to save him from drowning. When Sun and Yang manage to fish him out, Izuku is shivering but doesn't feel that cold at first. Then he realizes that he's suffering from hypothermia and his Aura quickly drains itself while trying to keep him from freezing to death as the sensation of cold returns to him.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Izuku is so focused on improving himself and his combat abilities that he doesn't realize how his pragmatic approach to his spar with Weiss wounded her pride, as she intended to use their fight to prove that she too was a capable member of the team and as a learning experience for both of them, only to get suplexed and have her face punched repeatedly while Izuku held her down with full knowledge that he was physically stronger than her. He apologizes profusely for this when he confronts her about it and makes it up to her by offering to bake whatever she wanted.
  • Izuku is also cheerfully oblivious to the raunchier contents of "Ninjas of Love" because he only read the first few pages, unaware that he's actually making Blake uncomfortable when he talks about it.
  • Before winter break, Izuku makes a poorly worded comment about how Nora is hesitant about her feelings for Ren, which sours her mood before going on about she had nothing prior to meeting Ren and how she's terrified of pushing him away.
  • Played with when he lets Ruby look up her mom in his Hunter Journals, only to realize nearly too late that it might be upsetting since it lists that she's dead. Ruby takes it well and thanks him for being considerate of her feelings.
  • In one omake, he offers to share some notes with Weiss he made when he was studying the Schnee Glyphs of her ancestors, in an effort to help her. What he didn't know was that doing that could have been seen as a backhanded insult in Atlesian High Society to Weiss, basically telling her "You aren't good enough with your Semblance, so here's some scraps that I happened to throw together in my spare time." Weiss, however, knows Izuku's offer is sincere and he's simply insensitive rather than insulting.
• In the Hood: He picks out a hoodie to keep warm in the winter months while shopping with Coco. He wears this with a cap he bought from the same store to keep his hair in check◊ along with a navy blue shirt and dark-green slacks to complete his new outfit.
• Insecure Love Interest:
  • Once Izuku starts dating Yang, he instantly becomes worried about how inexperienced he is in romantic situations and promises to do his best to "get better" at it, even as she assures him that they'll go at a pace he's comfortable with. He also worries about how his hand feels when he asks to hold hands, noticing just how rough and calloused they are when compared to her unbearably soft hands that were protected by Aura for all her life.
  • He nearly has a panic attack on his first date as a couple while thinking of all the ways he could possibly mess up and ruin his new relationship before it gets off the ground.
    Izuku: So yeah, better to just argue logistics with yourself over whether or not your first date was actually your first date rather than to ruminate on it and let your own embarrassment and nerves potentially ruin this day out, yeah? Y-You mean... imagine if you ruined your first date with a girl ever. Imagine if it went badly! Would Yang break up with you? Would she tell everyone how terrible of a boyfriend you were?! WOULD YOU BE SINGLE FOREVER?! HOLY WOAH YOU DIDN'T-
  • Later on, he hears from Velvet that Yatsuhashi was trying to pick up girls and walks up to give him some advice. Then Izuku stops to think about how much more of a Hunk Yatsuhashi is than him and begins panicking over what advice he could possibly give to him.
    Izuku: You'd noticed it somewhat before but, walking up to him and seeing him put his shirt back on, it made you aware that you were a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny boy in comparison to him. You weren't ripped like him and... and... Oh Gods. What the Hell had you done in order to get Yang to agree to date you?! You'd said so many terrible, true things about yourself the night she agreed and it was just because Yang was so cool and a caring person that made her look past all of that! You weren't anywhere near as ripped as Yatsu so if his muscles weren't working on these girls then your looks wouldn't have been what reeled Yang in... and Gods knew you weren't some Lothario capable of making girls swoon!
  • Then it's Played for Drama when Inko discusses how she's worried that he'd be emotionally shattered if Yang breaks up with him after everything he's thrown into their relationship. She asks Yang to be gentle about it if it does happen. The following morning, he admits to his mom that he's terrified of the situation he's in and of letting Yang down.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Over the course of Spring Break, he confesses to everyone who broke curfew that he knew about Blake's past since Color Week and kept it a secret. Reactions to this revelation ranged from calling him out for not informing anyone (Yang, Weiss, and Tsuyu), surprised/upset but mostly taking it in stride(Pyrrha, Ruby, Tenya, Momo, Eijiro, Kaminari, and Mina), and unsurprised because it sounds like something Izuku would do (Nora, Ren, Katsuki, Shoto, and Sun).
  • Later on, after Toshinori talks to him about the origin of One for All and how All for One is still alive, he proceeds to reveal the secret of how he got his power to his team and Yang, being the first people he willingly revealed his secret to.
• Inverse Law of Utility and Lethality: Izuku's armor-piercing slugs turn out to be an amazing upgrade when dealing with tougher Grimm like an Alpha Beowolf. But they're so lethal that he ends up packing his old buckshot more often than not when dealing with people so he doesn't punch a hole in them. They're also overkill against your bog-standard Grimm like Boarbatusks and regular Beowolves.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One:
  • Zig-zagged. Izuku is incredibly grateful and happy to be the inheritor of One For All as it finally gave him the opportunity to becoming a Huntsman. His adventures have given him a plethora of friends he could have only dreamed of prior to coming to Beacon and he gets to meet and learn from people he's idolized his entire life. But One For All's backlash hurts and he has to be extremely careful not to incapacitate himself in a life-or-death situation. Izuku also has to keep the nature of his new Semblance a secret, which eats away at him internally and contributes to his Heroic Self-Deprecation. That guilt only adds to the crushing weight of his responsibilities as the leader of Team MNVW and his duties as the next Symbol of Peace and Hope. His unique position also makes him privy to even more dark and dangerous secrets that he has to keep under wraps. While he will always appreciate the opportunity he's been given, it's clear that Izuku doesn't have his work cut out for him.
  • What's worse for him is that his mentor, Toshinori's advice only goes so far towards helping him master One For All since Toshinori had no problems at all mastering its power. This means Izuku has to figure out how to moderate One For All by himself. This also worsens Izuku's hero worship of him, as he sees Toshinori as a born hero, which skews Izuku's own perceptions of how much he needs to do to catch up.
  • Then there's the fact that, in addition to the secrets he must keep as the next host of One For All, he's been thrust into the front lines of a war he doesn't even know existed against All For One and Salem, the two strongest forces on Remnant outside of literal Gods themselves. And on top of that, Ozpin and Toshinori are deliberately keeping him in the dark so as not to cause him mental trauma like it did Team STRQ.
• Jack of All Stats:
  • Izuku is strong but not nearly as strong as Nora. He's fast but not nearly as fast as Ruby or Weiss with their Semblances. He can take a hit but not to the same extent as Yang. His equalizer is One For All, which turns him into the epitome of a Glass Cannon when used at full power, but he can't use it frequently this way without hurting himself or risking killing other people.
  • This is further exemplified by One For All: Full Cowl, which evenly spreads One For All's power through his body to make him above average in all areas. He's fast enough to run circles around Yang and strong enough to take and deflect hits from Nora's Magnhild, but he still gets floored by both of them when they're using their Semblances.
• Jack of All Trades: Izuku picks up a myriad of skills during his time at Beacon, becoming a skilled pastry chef, hand-to-hand combatant, botanist, tutor, and wood-carver. He's also decent dancer, a good diplomat, and a capable team leader.
• Karmic Jackpot: Izuku spent years enduring ridicule, scorn, and broken bones as he stubbornly clung to his dreams of becoming a Huntsman while remaining as good-natured and idealistic as ever. His determination was answered when he became Toshinori's successor, acquiring an Aura and an amazing (if dangerous) Semblance.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: As much as his friends praise him for being earnest and straightforward, Izuku feels terrible about the fact that he can't share his own secrets with them because of the nature of One For All. It's telling that he goes into full-blown panic whenever the topic of his Semblance's resemblance to Toshinori's gets brought up.
  You hold back tears as Blake says this. Gods, what a lie. What a horrible lie when you put it into the context of everything you put yourself and your mother through. To condense all that suffering on your part and on hers to "it was just a mistake".
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Izuku Squees when he meets any cool Huntsman or Huntress and is excited to talk about Toshinori above all else. He later descends into hysterical thank yous after Ozpin praises his application essay, promising to relay this to his future grandchildren, which takes even the sagacious headmaster completely off-guard. Izuku is horribly embarrassed afterward, but Ozpin finds the episode amusing.
  Izuku: Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh- THANK YOU HEADMASTER OZPIN!
  [shocks Ozpin with his sudden outburst and begins bowing repeatedly, nearly spilling the hot chocolate Ozpin was brewing] THIS IS SUCH AN HONOR I'LL NEVER FORGET THIS DAY AS LONG AS I LIVE! I PROMISE THAT I'LL TELL MY GRANDKIDS STORIES ABOUT HOW THE WISE HEADMASTER OZPIN TOLD ME THAT MY WORK WAS AN ACADEMIC THESIS I MEAN THEY PROBABLY WON'T BELIEVE ME AND-
  Ozpin: [between chortles] Mr. Midoriya, deep breaths.
  Izuku: [goes beet red from embarrassment] So... Headmaster... u-uh... d-do you have any critiques, sir?
• The Leader:
  • Izuku is the leader of Team MNVW. Like his canon counterpart, he combines aspects of the Levelheaded (his skills as The Strategist as well as his prodigious knowledge of the world of Huntsmen), Headstrong (his Chronic Hero Syndrome), and Charismatic (his ability to bring his wildly disparate friends together).
  • His leadership skills are fully on display when his class is attacked by the Monochrome League at Mountain Glenn. In the midst of the chaos, Izuku quickly takes charge of the situation, with many of his friends and even the local Huntsmen following him without question, preventing numerous casualties.
  • He later coordinates a raid on the White Fang, working with Team RSBR, TABY, MADE, and Sun Wukong to foil an attack on Vale.
• Legacy Character: Izuku is the latest (ninth) holder of One For All, a powerful Semblance passed from bearer to bearer to oppose the looming threat of All For One.
• Leitmotif: Izuku is typically associated with the adrenaline pumping "You Say Run", which usually coincides with one of his most badass moments. He also has the solemn and touching "You Can Become a Hero" when he's talking about his dreams and motivations.
• Liquid Courage: Izuku gets more impulsive when he's feeling tipsy, blurting out things that he'd be far too embarrassed to say under normal circumstances. He takes up Yang on her offer to play romantic chicken (which he immediately regrets) and how Pyrrha's diet did wonders for her figure.
• Limited Wardrobe: Aside from his school uniform, Izuku almost exclusively wears his workout clothes while training or going on missions even though he has plenty of t-shirts and shorts, but this is somewhat justified by his unwillingness to damage more of his clothes with One For All (which tend to shred or destroy anything that covers whatever he empowers). Yang and Coco both try to to diversify his outfits, successfully getting him to pick out new workout clothes, a hoodie, some shirts, jeans, and a hat for when he's hanging out with his friends. But he still wears his "stupid tracksuit" whenever he's actually going to fight. By the start of the second semester, he replaces the tracksuit with his Alpha Costume he got from his Mother on Solstice and eventually upgrades to his Beta Costume.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: One of Izuku's upgrades for Emerald Gust adds a buckler to one of his gauntlets for additional protection. He admits that he isn't skilled with it yet, refraining from attempting to Shield Bash his opponents the way Pyrrha does. By the end of the volume, he can reliably block oncoming hits with it.
• Luminescent Blush: Izuku turns into a sweating, red mess whenever girls are involved or if he does something embarrassing like mumble in the middle of class. Yang loves making him do this, finding it adorable. In fact, when the two stop in a photo booth in Vale, one of the four pictures is her forcing him to blush.
• Magnetic Hero: Despite his social awkwardness, Izuku has an innate ability to gravitate people towards him. He manages to make friends with even the prickliest of his classmates, Weiss and Shoto. As a leader, Pyrrha and Nora follow him without question. Only Weiss provides any resistance on basis of his own well-being. During the battle in the Underground Training Facility, he takes charge of the situation and gives orders and directions to all of his friends, who follow through in an instant. He also manages to rally his friends into conducting a coordinated raid to foil the White Fang's attempts to steal Dust from Vale's docks.
• Major Injury Underreaction:
  • Less so than in his home series, as Aura can fix his broken fingers with enough resting time. Even still, Izuku still breaks his own fingers on a regular basis (and in some cases his entire arm) when it comes to improving his control of One For All or helping others. He just grits through the pain he's long since become accustomed to. It's best emphasized by the following exchange with Weiss (who regularly chews him out for this habit):
    Weiss: [as the bones in Izuku's finger pop back into place after being broken] I still find that pretty unsettling. It can't feel pleasant either.
    Izuku: It isn't... but doing this gave us a pretty big advantage back there in taking out all those Nevermore. Without it, the fight would've gone on longer and everyone would've probably gotten badly injured. It was more than a fair trade off, I think.
    Weiss: Just... don't make a habit out of it, okay? Pointless to ask I know, you're going to use it if you feel like you have to, but... well, it's not exactly fun for the rest of us to see you break yourself over and over again.
    Izuku: I know, Weiss. [sees his friends in trouble five minutes later] Weiss, repeat the old plan!
    Weiss: [begrudgingly speeds him up with a glyph] Izuku, your-
    Izuku: I know, I promise, I'll only use one finger this time!
    Weiss: THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT BY RESTRAINT, YOU DOLT!
  • He hunches over for a few seconds after he pushes One For All far enough against a high-ranking member of the White Fang that he tears his leg muscles from his bones. He shrugs it off as best he can and runs off to help Blake and Sun clean up the remaining White Fang grunts, ignoring the feeling of his back and shoulder muscles tearing once he's finished.
• Manly Tears: He cries when he first obtains an Aura and again when he realizes that he can in fact achieve his dreams after slaying three Beowolves on his lonesome.
• Meaningful Name: Izuku's given name contains the kanji for "being from a certain place" while his surname contains the kanji for "green" and "valley" in Japanese, reflecting his primary color motif and the fact that he came from the rural Mountain Glenn. The last syllable of first name (ku) is also homophonous to "kyu", the Japanese word for nine, which ties back into his status as the ninth wielder of One For All.
• Men Don't Cry: Despite his Emotional Bruiser tendencies, Izuku tries his best not to cry too much, always fighting back his Tears of Joy because he doesn't think they're cool and worries that they'll affect his image as a Huntsman. Subverted when he frequently cries anyways despite his best efforts.
  Izuku: [internally] Do not cry, do not cry, do not cry, do not cry, do not cry, do not cry, do not cry, do not cry... Crap, there it goes...
• Messy Hair: Izuku's hair is curvy and wavy, going in nearly every direction. He gets a bit self-conscious about this when Kaminari calls him a "curly-haired bastard" before Eijirou assures him otherwise. Yang reveals she likes it in her journal and Izuku goes out of his way to "maintain shag levels" after Nora points this out to him (but not without some initial confusion on what it meant).
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • Emerald Gust gets continually upgraded as the series goes on. First, it gets a special retractable finger shield in order to allow Izuku to fire off his finger Smashes without destroying the gloves. He later has a small shield added to it for improved defense along with armor-piercing slugs to better penetrate armor, Auras, and Grimm hides on top of having the armor extended to the elbow to make room for a streamlined reloading mechanism. Just before the first mission he futher extended the armor on the gauntlets and strengthened said armor which both improved its durability and increased his punching power. He also received even more upgrade ideas from Ruby and Tenya like reinforcing the soles of his boots. But these ideas are mostly theorycrafting according to Mei, who needs to conduct serious testing to make sure she can get it working (hence it taking a long time for the Smash Air Force Gauntlets cooked up by a drunk Ruby on her birthday to become available). This of course, means that these upgrades will come at a pretty penny.
  • Semblance-wise, Izuku develops One For All: Full Cowl, making him strong enough to bat away even Nora's hammer and fast enough to run circles around Yang while minimizing his risk of injury. He ups the ante near the end of his first semester at Beacon by developing "Go Beyond", allowing him to temporarily double his maximum safe limit of One For All at the cost of increased Aura usage to keep his body taped together and intense exhaustion and cramping when the fighting is over. By the start of the Summer Break, he was able to achieve 15% as his base for Full Cowl (which means that he can use "Go Beyond" at 30%)
  • In terms of combat outfits, he spends the entirety of the First Semester with nothing but his workout clothes as his primary combat outfit. Over Winter Break, he gets the Alpha Costume as a gift from his mother which becomes his new primary combat outfit for the first four weeks of the Second Semester before taking it to the Tailor to upgrade it to Costume Beta (which meant the costume was unavailable for the rest of Week 5, meaning he had to fight Tenya in sparring class in his workout clothes).
• Misery Builds Character: Izuku discusses this while talking to Blake about what it was like to be Broken. He knows that his childhood was absolutely miserable and the truth was that he would still be Broken without One For All. But he also knows that these experiences have shaped who he is, for better or worse, and he might not be as caring, empathetic, or unprejudiced as he currently is without them.
  Izuku: It was... hard. A normal person's perception on having Aura is that it is a part of them like, for example, an organ. You may not ever use that organ, just like how most normal people never use Aura, but it is a part of your being. So to not have that means that you're not like other people, that you're not normal. [lowers his head slightly] Growing up knowing that was tough, but the tougher part of it was that everyone else also knew it too. There was no hiding it; even if I wasn't actually Broken... well, I still looked it. Even now I'm pretty short for someone my age who should've had Aura, and I've always been a little on the weaker side. My teachers would always pity me, seeing me try so hard to keep up with my peers when it must've looked so pointless. My peers would ridicule me for being born "wrong" and "Broken". Lastly there was... Kacchan, who bullied me throughout the years as he hated to be near such a "weakling".
  Blake: Izuku...
  Izuku: But... all of that made me the person I am today. If I didn't go through these hardships who knows how I would turned out. Sure, I loved Toshinori Yagi before and after finding out my "Brokenness", but would I have really cared for the hardships of other people? Or perhaps I would have just wanted to be cool like him, who knows? [clenches his fist] It's strange how people can perceive others differently over slight differences, maybe even not so noticeable ones, and then go on to lord it over them. Like they're above such "weird" people. While my dream is to protect people, it's also my dream to change and inspire people to new paths of thinking about their surroundings. Sort of similar to your dream of changing people's minds for the better, isn't it?
  Blake: ... I think so Izuku. I think so.
• Missed the Call: Ozpin believes Izuku's academic insight and tactical brilliance would have made him a perfect successor for his position as the head of The Conspiracy if Toshinori hadn't swept him up first. Toshinori's responds that Izuku's Chronic Hero Syndrome would have made him unsuited for Ozpin's role as The Chessmaster (which echoes a comment Izuku makes about himself about why he would not be a good fit for a sniper rifle).
• Mistaken for Masturbating:
  • In one sidestory, Weiss notices there have been an unusual number of tissues going in the trash. When she confronts Izuku about it, he admits he's been using them a lot because "it’s like an itch you need to scratch" and that he's been using them several times a day. He also apologizes for getting some of "it" on her bed and doing "it" by her bed often. Weiss is shaken by this, but Izuku wonders why she's so worked up over how he's sneezing because of a cold.
  • In another sidestory, Izuku is trying to push the limits of One For All in his room while his teammates are showering. When they return, they find a sweaty and red-faced Izuku hunched over on his bed with his hand near his waist area. Coupled with his terrible choice of words, it was easy for the girls to come to exactly the wrong conclusion.
    Weiss: [irritated] Really? After all this time, now you do this?
    Nora: [amused] Hey, it was good he waited until we were gone!
    Pyrrha: [dazed with a strange expression on her face and hiding a Nosebleed] Yes.. it's very lucky we missed seeing this.
    Izuku: [panicking] I-It was just a little experimenting, I swear!
    Weiss: [twitching and rubbing her temples] Just... just stop talking. Stop talking forever.
    Nora: Aww, c'mon Weiss! Miss Kayama said this sorta thing is natural for boys to do!
    Weiss: I will not be taking advice on what is "natural" from her, thank you very much!
    [Izuku groans into his pillow as he realizes what they're thinking]
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Izuku's weapon, Emerald Gust is a set of boots and retractable gauntlets with built-in pump shotguns designed to fire when he punches or kicks something with enough force. They also have safeties so he can fight without the shotgun function if necessary.
• Momma's Boy: Having spent his formative years with just his mom to raise him, Izuku wants her approval just as much as he wants Toshinori's, calling home every week to check on her and to assure her he's doing fine.
• Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: Subverted. When he was a child, Izuku would write indulgent Self-Insert Fic where he'd be an amazing Huntsman and get praised by Toshinori all day long. Even Pyrrha can't hold in her laughter when she learns how obviously terrible it is. In the non-canon sidestory, "Spectacular What?", the rest of Team MNVW catches him writing on GalaxySkirmishes. The story is about a powerless boy who suddenly gains amazing abilities and goes onto become a great hero. Naturally, they assume he's writing about himself again until he passes them his notes and outlines. The story's title? "The Spectacular Spider-Man".
• Motor Mouth: He's prone to spewing everything all at once while he's feeling especially excited, grateful, or apologetic. That's not even taking his mumbling into account.
• Mr. Fanservice: Izuku and his abs are the story's primary source of fanservice, getting talked about more than any of the girls' physiques. Yang enjoys admiring his bulging arms when he's lifting and sneaking peeks at his rear end when he's squatting. Weiss also gets flustered when she notices how solid his pecs are when she's patting down his shirt.
  Yang: [getting called out for staring at Izuku] Okay, fair, but can any of you actually blame me? [all the girls go silent and Yang nods approvingly]
• Mundane Utility: After developing One For All: Full Cowl, Izuku starts using it to help him cart groceries back to his dorm room faster.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Izuku worked hard in order to become a worthy vessel of One For All and it shows with his well-muscled body. While he doesn't quite hold a candle to Yang or Nora, he's still strong enough to wrestle with Katsuki and easily beat Weiss into the floor during their spar.
• Nerd Action Hero: Izuku is a Huntsman Fan Boy to the nth degree and a self-described "super nerd". Even still, One For All makes him a powerful Close-Range Combatant who easily punches mooks across entire rooms and will use any amount of brawling, karate, judo, and grappling to get his foes where he wants them.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Having chiseled six-pack abs and a glowing personality go a long way towards making Izuku a Clueless Chick-Magnet.
• Nervous Wreck: Izuku is extremely jittery and nervous when placed into a new situation, especially if it's anything involving the opposite sex. He later starts to grow out of it, but he can still be startled fairly easily. He also frequently goes into hysterics when something pertaining to One For All gets brought up or when he feels he's messed up badly.
  Izuku: [sees Ruby by herself] Hey Ruby, what's u-
  Ruby: [surprised] BWAAAH!
  Izuku: [equally surprised] AAAAAAH!
  Ruby: [suddenly calms down and smiles] Oh hey, Deku! What's up?
  Izuku: [patting his chest with a weak chuckle] Oh, nothing. Just probably my blood pressure...
• Nice Guy: Izuku is sweet, polite, caring, and empathetic to a T or, as one non-canon sidestory says, "a living, breathing cinnamon bun". It's rare for him to hold grudges, is always conscientious of others whenever possible, and is almost completely free of negative prejudices. He feels terrible when he feels he's wronged someone and always tries to make up for his mistakes. He's also remarkably forgiving and has the patience of a saint, bringing his friends together despite their wildly different personalities.
• No Hero Discount: Izuku quickly learns that being a Huntsman is expensive, spending hundreds or even thousands of lien on upgrading and maintaining Emerald Gust, buying and repairing his clothes, and making sure he's stocked up on medical supplies and ammo. That's not even getting into the money he spends on regular school supplies, gifts and other things for his friends, and for necessities like food.
• Not Me This Time: An early canon omake has Izuku being fussed over by his teammates for breaking his arm, and they rail against him for pushing himself too hard again... but try as he might, he can't get out that he didn't break his arm training, he just fell down a flight of stairs.
• Not So Above It All:
  • He tries his best to be a responsible, level-headed leader, but he has his moments of goofiness even when his nerdy tendencies are accounted for. He excitedly calls shotgun when Sun offers to take everyone on a joyride in a van, intentionally gets on Katsuki's nerves for a reaction against his better judgment, and decides he's so exhausted that no one will care if he pees in the shower after fighting the White Fang at the docks.
  • Later on, he talks Yang out of extorting money from Tsuyu over betting money on whether or not he and Yang will get together. He instead negotiates to give Yang a Dope Slap-free pun quota every day to Tsuyu's horror.
• Oblivious to Love: Izuku is so convinced he isn't boyfriend material that he's totally oblivious to how several of his female friends are developing feelings for him. This is most obvious when he buys Blake's impromptu "I Have This Friend excuse" hook, line, and sinker, frustrating her as he's trying to convince her to ask out this wonderful guy she described to him. All the while, she's muttering under her breath if the gods are trying to punish her with her sheer embarrassment and Izuku's cluelessness. When Yang asks what sort of girl he'd be interested in, he gives a speech about how they'd have to take all the pressure and strain his goals and attitudes would place on the relationship. It takes Yang flat out asking him if he wanted to date her for him to realize she had feelings for him beyond mere teasing.
• Ocular Gushers: Izuku has a tendency to burst into tears when he's feeling emotional. He has to be pried out of the stage after his tears bury his feet into it when he's named the leader of Team MNVW. This contributes to everyone's initial perception that he's a wimp unsuited for being a leader. Izuku reveals later that he got this from his mom.
• Official Couple: Izuku becomes this with Yang.
• Oh, Crap!: Izuku has these moments frequently. This is almost always Played for Laughs.
  • He panics when he realizes Katsuki has seen his new Aura, which sends Katsuki into another rage as it seems like Izuku was lying about being Broken the entire time.
  • He starts freaking out when Pyrrha discovers the autograph he got from Toshinori when they first met, even though Izuku is supposed to keep his relationship with him a secret and has to talk his way out of it with a white lie.
  • Later on, he fumbles with a response when Tsuyu points out that his Semblance is similar to Toshinori's.
    Izuku: [internally] Crap, crap, crap, crap, okay, gotta think of something, gotta think of a way around this... OKAY DON'T PANIC, THERE'S NO NEED TO PANIC! I MEAN, WHY PANIC? JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE USED BASIC OBSERVATION TO KEY INTO THE FACT THAT YOUR SEMBLANCE IS SIMILAR TO TOSHINORI'S?! I MEAN, WHY WOULD YOU PANIC? IT'S NOT AS IF EVERYONE HAS BASIC SKILLS OF OBSERVATION AND LOGIC, RIGHT?! ...OH GODS, HOW MANY OTHER PEOPLE FIGURED THIS OUT JUST BY LOOKING! OKAY, DON'T PANIC! JUST DIVERT HER ATTENTION! POINT OUT SOMETHING RANDOM?! MAYBE A FLY? SHE IS A FROG FA-OH GODS, WAS THAT RACIST TO THINK? I MEAN, YOU'D HEARD FAUNUS LIKE THE SORTS OF FOODS THEIR BASE ANIMALS LIKE TO EAT SO YOU JUST ASSUMED-STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS AND START THINKING ABOUT HOW YOU'RE GOING TO LIE YOUR ASS OFF!
  • After finishing Pyrrha's birthday cake, he begins to worry if he used the right flavor because he forgot to ask her.
  • He does it again after Ruby sees his notes on Summer Rose, which include the designation "KIA", which he immediately knows is insensitive to Ruby.
  • He does it again when prepping for a sit-in date with Yang, when he realizes he doesn't know what type of food she likes... and works himself up so much that he forgets if Yang eats at all.
• Only a Flesh Wound: He gets shot in the stomach during his first spar at Beacon, but gets fixed up soon afterward by his Aura.
• Older Than They Look: Izuku's is frequently mistaken for being Ruby's age due to stunted growth as well as his baby face and big, squishy eyes. This is starting to change, though, as by the time of Ruby's birthday he's already grown a few inches thanks to his Aura being unlocked.
• The One Guy: The sole male of MNVW
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Downplayed. After he stands up to Cardin, people Izuku barely knows recognize him and refer to him as Deku because that's what Cardin and Katsuki call him. Whenever he tries to provide his actual name, he just gets waved off. Several of his friends, including Ruby and Coco, also call him Deku, but he still gets referred to by his given name and some other nicknames around them.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Izuku has a problem with his own vague wording stemming from his lack of confidence and inexperience with speaking to people who don't want to mock him. This leads others to come to the wrong conclusions about him, like Toshinori mistaking Izuku's desire for advice on how to talk to girls for a need to have The Talk or the Mistaken for Masturbating example above.
  Izuku: [when Weiss asks what he isn't good at] W-W-Well I'm not good with t-talking to people! I get really nervous, and I can't even talk to girls sometimes without just going blank.
  Weiss: [snorting] You're doing a fine job with me at the moment.
  Izuku: Yeah, but I don't see you as a girl. [Beat as Izuku goes sheet-white]
  Weiss: Explain. Now.
  Izuku: I-I-I-I didn't mean it l-l-l-ike that Weiss! I m-mean I just see you as a teammate! I know you're a girl! A smart, nice, pret-
  Weiss: Compliments later! Speak!
  Izuku: [curls up into a ball as she looms over him] B-But it's easier to just see my teammate! When I think about it, I get all n-nervous and shaky, so it's just simpler that way! Please don't be mad!
• Opposites Attract: He and Yang are opposites in almost every way imaginable. Izuku is shy and lacking in confidence due to his Broken background, growing up an only child with only his ordinary mother for company because his father is always working overseas. He's extremely driven to achieve his goal of becoming an amazing Huntsman who saves others, but is inexperienced and lagging behind his peers when he comes into Beacon. Yang is proud of both her abilities and her appearance, growing up with her father, a prestigious Huntsman, and her half-sister Ruby because Raven Branwen and Summer Rose both mysteriously vanished when they were young. Yang is much more relaxed and happy to party and lacks a driving goal or dream in her life, being content to simply help her loved ones achieves theirs. They end up becoming close friends and later start dating.
• The Paragon: Izuku's incredible work ethic and noble ambitions constantly inspire his teammates and friends to better themselves. Pyrrha regains some of her lost competitive fervor due to Izuku's potential to outpace her. Ruby becomes more determined than ever to be a great Huntress with a Friendly Rival. Even Toshinori himself was inspired by Izuku's willingness to put himself at risk for the sake of others despite being Broken, which reignites Toshinori's optimism and heroic fervor while pushing him to break through his limits in order to save the day. This quality, along with Izuku's Chronic Hero Syndrome, was the deciding factor in Toshinori's decision to name Izuku his successor.
• Personality Powers: The ultimate Huntsman fanboy is given the power of his lifelong idol. One For All grants Izuku tremendous Super-Strength at the cost of breaking a limb upon use, which fits his own self-sacrificing nature. This is something Weiss acknowledges.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's about Ruby's and Weiss's height at the start of the story due to his lack of an Aura somewhat stunting his growth. Yet he packs one of the most powerful Semblances in his year and can send people flying across the room with just a fraction of its full power. His intense training and new Aura have started to make up for the difference by his second month at Beacon, growing an inch or two taller than Weiss.
• Positive Friend Influence: Izuku is a good listener and has a knack for bringing out the best in others, giving Blake someone to trust unconditionally even after he found out that she was stalking him, helping Ruby feel more confident as a leader, getting Katsuki to simmer down somewhat, and bringing Mei out of her funk and frustrations at not having a good Semblance for being a Huntress. His work ethic is positively infectious and everyone close to him becomes more determined to improve themselves as they get to know him.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Getting a simple peck on the cheek is enough to make him freeze up and leave his knees rattling even when he's in the middle of a battle. After getting his true First Kiss, he briefly forgets how to stand and needs to be caught before he hits the floor. Even then he fumbles for something to say while trying to process it all, blurting, "... Hu... buh..."
• Poster-Gallery Bedroom: His room at home is plastered from wall-to-wall with Toshinori merchandise, having everything from posters, to comic books, to figurines of him. He's horribly embarrassed by this nerd sanctuary of a room and desperately tries to keep his teammates out of it to no avail.
• Power Fist: Emerald Gust's gauntlets are designed to add extra oomph to Izuku's punches by firing a shotgun round whenever he successfully punches something. They later have to be modified so that they don't interfere when using One For All, as that can destroy the gauntlets.
• Power Glows: Whatever limb Izuku uses One For All in glows gold with Volcanic Veins up to the point that he uses it. One For All: Full Cowl makes his entire body glow gold and his eyes neon green. Yang jokes that he copied her when he made Full Cowl, as her Semblance also makes her glow gold.
• Power Incontinence: Played with. Izuku can turn One For All on and off just fine, but he struggles to control its power output at first, often going to 100% immediately and shattering the bones in whatever limb he used it in. He later learns how to tone it down to 5% to avoid injuring himself and develops One For All: Full Cowl to give him a boost to his overall strength and speed. But he still has to be maintain his concentration at all times lest he fire off 100% again by accident. As of the first week of Summer Break, he can only safely control 15% Full Cowl, as well as 15% versions of his other attacks. Further than that (such as the "Go Beyond" technique, which bumps Full Cowl up to 30%, or the full strength smashes) causes him severe injury and burns Aura like gasoline.
• Pun: After spending his entire life Broken, Izuku is continually reminded of the fact by his tenuous control of One For All, which breaks his limbs if he isn't careful.
• Precision F-Strike: Izuku normally keeps his language in check, but there are times (usually in hard or stressful situations) where he fails to do that. One notable instance is when he he rebuffs Tenya's attempts to get Blake and Izuku to leave when he rescues the former two from Stain.
  Tenya: Would the both of you just stop! Midoriya, Blake, I didn't ask for either of you two to be here! Just get out of here right now with Blake and leave! I need to do this myself!
  Izuku: What am I supposed to do, Tenya? Am I supposed to just leave with Blake when you shout stupid shit like that?! I have a lot to say you Tenya... to both of you, in fact. That'll have to just come later... when I'm done protecting everyone here.
• Punched Across the Room:
  • The usual result of any of Izuku's 5% Beacon Smashes, which can also knock mooks into other mooks. Lampshaded when he and Weiss are fighting terrorists.
    Terrorist #1: ... Are you shits fucking serious? You're actually giving up? Sons of bitches, they're two friggin' kids!
    Terrorist #2: Yeah, two kids who've been kicking our asses. You really want to take one of those punches?
  • Junior tries to barricade himself behind a heavily locked door when Izuku is on his tail. Izuku responds by 5% Beacon Smashing the door down, causing it to plow into Junior.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Izuku has an Oh, Crap! moment while he's fighting the Admiral, a high-ranking member of the White Fang who can easily deflect and dodge his blows. Worse still, the speed boost he got from Weiss runs out at the same time.
• Pungeon Master: Unwillingly, but hanging out with Yang has caused her constant punning to rub off on him, making him pun without meaning to in casual conversation. He's mortified whenever this happens.
• Raging Stiffie: While taking a shower, Izuku reminisces about how he had leaned into his girlfriend Yang's arms and how overwhelmingly warm and comfortable it was. He immediately switches to cold water after he finishes that thought.
  Izuku: Cold water. Cooooooooold water...
• Real Men Wear Pink:
  • Izuku picks up cooking, particularly baking, as a hobby due to Nora's insatiable desire for pancakes, making meals for his team as well as Team RSBR and Team TABY. He becomes quite good at it and is placed in charge of baking Pyrrha's birthday cakes, which turn out spectacular, to the point that Katsuki shovels four slices into his mouth over the course of the party. But there's a lot of trial-and-error involved, as his pancakes are only a 6/Ren (a passing for a first time but on the level of a professional chef) to Nora at first and his attempts to make "pancookies" for Ruby don't turn out well for the first few batches. He also admits Ren is better than him and tries to catch up to him in order to please Nora.
  • Izuku is also surprisingly artistic because of his Fan Boy tendencies, teaching himself how to carve figurines of Toshinori from wood when he was younger. He makes figurines of himself and his teammates as gifts after noticing a figure of Pyrrha in a store and not wanting to leave Nora and Weiss feeling out. They're good enough that Nora and Weiss are completely fooled into believing they actually came from a store. At the same time, he admits his sketching skills are amateurish at best and his painting ability is nonexistent, sending his figurines to a professional painter rather than risk ruining his hard work himself.
  • He becomes a reasonably good dancer under Weiss' tutelage, literally sweeping Yang off her feet at Pyrrha's birthday party after she teases him onto the dance floor.
  • While hanging out with Yang at a karaoke lounge, he and Yang are both surprised to find that he's actually a good singer when it's a song he knows, reducing the crowd present to Stunned Silence that gives way to thunderous applause by the time he's finished. Yang even jokes that he should start a boy band.
  • Izuku throws his all into botany class and does his best to create a pretty bonsai tree. The result (which ended up being part of his final exam in the course) made Professor Peach weep a Single Tear at how beautiful it is.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Izuku gives a scathing one to Cardin right before challenging him to a one-on-one spar in front of Glynda and Port.
  Izuku: No, Cardin. It's not about my friends; neither about you insulting them or calling them pets... though, admittedly, that does have me a smidge irritated with you. [grits his teeth] Yang doesn't need me to protect her from you, Cardin. Neither does Tsu, or my team, or anyone! They don't need me to stand here and protect them from you... they could kick you to the curb on their own. They choose not to because they're better than that.. It's not even because you tried to target me Cardin... I've had worse things said about me and if I can still try to help Kacchan despite everything that's happened between us, I could let something like this slide off my back... It's not about any of that; that's not why I'm going to kick your ass to the curb, Cardin! It's because of your lack of respect! Not for me, not even for my friends... but for this school and for the Hunter's profession itself!
  
  I've worked so hard my entire life to be here, Cardin. I've put everything I had into making it here to Beacon... even when I thought it was impossible, when I thought it'd never happen. I made it though... in spite of everything I made it. [fights back the tears building in his eyes] I couldn't have been luckier... I couldn't have given it anymore than I could've. However, that was enough. By the skin of my teeth, I made it.
  
  [narrows his eyes at Cardin] You though? You were born to be a Huntsman, Cardin. You're strong and powerful, a naturally gifted fighter... you were made to be here. Beacon was probably happy to have you! A great potential Hunter to add to their ranks... and... and you waste it. Here you are messing around, dragging your teammates into some stupid scheme that could cut your careers short just because you want to try and beat me up for some slight to your pride? You'd face expulsion not just for that, but so that you'd be free to try and mess with the hopes and dreams of other people who want to be here, who want to be Hunters, by bullying and berating them! Worse than that... you've actively tried to sabotage Kacchan's chances of becoming a Huntsman, something he's wanted for as long as I've known him...
  
  [Izuku's gaze turns into a Death Glare] So yeah, Cardin... we're going to fight man-to-man. We're going to fight in front of Port... and then when I'm done with you, I expect you to stop. You won't hurt or harass my friends or anyone else ever again. You understand?
• Recoil Boost: During the Initiation, Izuku does his best to land, taking inspiration from Yang's approach by trying to direct himself with the recoil from Emerald Gust. But it takes Pyrrha's spear to help him actually land safely. He has rarely used it since, preferring to conserve his ammo for actual attacks while improving his mobility through One For All. Patch Smash works similarly, uses its power to kick off the air as a Double Jump.
• Required Secondary Powers: His ripped body is a prerequisite for wielding One For All, as a vessel that isn't sturdy enough to handle it will explode under the strain. This actually becomes a serious plot point during his exercise against Neito Monoma, who has the ability to temporarily copy other Semblances with a touch. Izuku has to do everything he can keep Neito from touching him out of fear that Neito would not be able to handle One For All and be seriously injured or killed by it.
• Rookie Red Ranger: Izuku only had his Aura for two days prior to being named the leader of Team MNVW, putting him woefully behind his teammates who all had their Auras their entire lives. His combat training was also subpar when compared to his teammates, which is particularly glaring when compared to Pyrrha's status as an undefeated four-time tournament champion. At the same time, he possesses One For All, one of the strongest Semblances in the world, which utterly totals a Giant Nevermore in one punch when Pyrrha's best attempts to kill it failed.
• Rule of Empathy: Friendless and bullied throughout all his childhood? Check. Burdened with a Dream-Crushing Handicap? Check. Unbelievably kind, hardworking, and empathetic to the point that he's willing to risk serious harm to himself just to save others? Check, check, and check.
• Running Gag:
  • Izuku's mumbling is still in full force, which creeps out people around him until someone tells him to stop (or in Tsuyu's case, she slaps him with her tongue). He's actively trying to stop doing this, but it still happens.
  • It's practically a gag how frequently Izuku's bones get broken. Even when both of his legs get broken by Nora in a sidestory, all Nora gets as punishment is denial of pancakes for a week.
  • Comments about Izuku's abs by Yang and Nora pop up frequently throughout the story after the incident where he was tricked into running out of the shower while shirtless.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl:
  • Izuku has this relationship with Nora and Ruby, usually being the Straight Man to their antics.
  • Izuku is also this to Yang because of how frequently they hang out. Yang is lively, outgoing, confident, and flirtatious. Izuku is more demure, shy, timid, and withdrawn. Yang is content to live her life without a clear goal in mind, while Izuku is constantly thinking about how he's going to get closer to achieving his dream of succeeding Toshinori.
• Scars Are Forever: Subverted. Thanks to his Aura, the scars Izuku earns from overusing One For All are usually temporary. Even after breaking all of his fingers repeatedly (and against Yang, in rapid succession), he came away with no noticeable deformities and the scars are fading over time. The callouses he did earn while training to become worthy of One For All have stayed.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Izuku's screams of surprise and fear are called girlish by the narration and he's often said to yelp or squeak when he's nervous. After Tenya asks that Izuku and Yang use protection when having sex, Izuku gets so embarrassed that the only sound he can make is a squeak akin to the death rattle of a baby harp seal.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Izuku says that he would break any rule without hesitation if it means saving lives. Toshinori is proud to hear this, since he saved Mountain Glenn against specific orders to stay in Vale.
• Secret-Keeper: As Toshinori's successor, Izuku is one of the only people to know about Toshinori's condition and has some base knowledge of the members of Ozpin's inner circle. He also agrees to keep Blake's identity as a Faunus and a former member of the White Fang a secret, as well as those of several of his friends (which are admittedly not as bad as "Secret Conspiracy Knowledge," or "Former Terrorist," but still important to those involved).
• Sentimental Drunk: He begins acting drunk while suffering from hypothermia, sobbing and weeping about how lucky he is to have such great friends and how he's such a nuisance.
  Izuku: [clinging to Tenya's leg while crying Ocular Gushers] YOU'RE ALL JUST SO AMAZING! I-I just keep on doing such stupid stuff and getting myself into these situations and... and you all just do your best to help me! I keep promising that I won't hurt myself anymore but just don't and you all keep helping me anyway and... AAAAAAH I DON'T DESERVE ANY OF YOU!
  Tenya: M-Mr. Midoriya, I appreciate the sentiment but please stop crying, you're soaked to the bone as is!
  Izuku: [still sobbing] AAAAAAAAAAH! I'M SORRY!
  • More seriously, when Yang tries to tease him while he's warming up, he starts crying and hugging her while listing all the reasons why Yang is amazing.
• Serious Business: Izuku gets into a surprisingly tense rivalry with Ren over who can make the most satisfying pancakes, studying all sorts of cookbooks in order to optimize his pancake recipes in hopes of pleasing Nora. It's gotten to the point that their "failures" are almost as good as a professional chef at the Schnee household.
• Ship Tease: Izuku gets copious amounts of this with nearly every named girl in his age group, particularly Yang, Pyrrha, Weiss, and Blake. Yang ultimately wins out.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Zig-zagged. On one hand, Emerald Gust's shotguns are effective ranged weapons and Izuku often uses them to divert people's attention and pepper oncoming mooks as he closes in. They're especially effective in this way when he swaps out his Gravity Dust for Lightning Dust. On the other, they're borderline useless at long range against the homogeneous bodies of the Grimm, forcing him to use them exclusively at point-blank range.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Emerald Gust has built-in shotguns in both the gauntlets and the boots. But this is subverted in that buckshot is explicitly stated to not have the same effectiveness against Grimm as it does against Humans. Played far straighter once Izuku upgrades to armor-piercing rounds, which are powerful enough to vaporize the armored skulls of Alpha Beowolves. Izuku opts to not use them during his spar with Cardin to avoid inflicting serious damage.
• Shrinking Violet: Compared to his much more lively friends, Izuku is shy and reservedly cheerful at best when he's not busy nerding out over a Huntsman he just met. This is what makes Yang consider him a "safe" first friend for Ruby and ditches them to make them talk to one another.
• Signature Attack:
  • He's known for his Glenn Smash and 5% Beacon Smash more than any of his other attacks. Yelling "Smash!" has also become so intuitive for him that he instantly gets the hang of an overhead tennis swing because it's also known as a smash.
  • Unfortunately for him, thanks to Nora, many in his age group know "Glenn Smash" as "Finger Bang," so he's mistaken for some kind of teen Sex God.
• Significant Birth Date: According to Ruby, he has one. He was born one day after Yang, "as if the Gods looked down, saw she was lonely, and made [Izuku] to fill the void." That's not made up, by the way- their canon birthdays are one day after the other, with Yang being one day older. Izuku thinks that this is silly, but sweet at the same time.
• Socially Awkward Hero: The sum total of Izuku's social interactions with his peers after being outed as Broken consisted of scorn, mockery, and bullying, giving him terrible self-esteem issues and little experience speaking to the opposite sex. After coming to Beacon, he does his best to reinvent himself by going out of his way to talk to others, especially girls, in hopes of making a few friends. But almost all of his attempts come out as awkward and forced and he's constantly stumbling over himself in conversation. He improves with time and becomes comfortable speaking to his new friends and total strangers without falling to pieces, but even then he trips up here and there and hurts his relationships with others when he says something wrong.
• Start X to Stop X: Izuku tries to explain that there's nothing to worry about in using Go Beyond because his Aura heals up his body faster than it breaks. Then Weiss points out that he's trying to avoid breaking his fingers by breaking his everything. He can't formulate a response to this.
  Weiss: So your solution to us worrying about you breaking your fingers and fixing them with Aura is to break your everything and fix it with Aura?
  Izuku: [Beat] Ah... I... You see...
• The Strategist: Izuku has studied Hunters and their Semblances for so long that he's usually able to formulate a plan of action in minutes that can usually make quick work of most enemies. Even when they don't, it's rare for any of his plans to completely fail in the end. But these plans rarely take his own well-being into account, such as having Tenya throw him at the Giant Nevermore without coming up with a way to get down without dying and repeatedly breaking his fingers with Glenn Smash to break up enemy formations.
• Stunned Silence: Izuku just doesn't know how to respond when Ozpin breaks into maniacal laughter after Izuku brings up Beacon's pet policy. He's even more surprised when Ozpin tries to continue their conversation as if nothing happened.
• Suggestive Collision: Izuku ends up in this position when he and Yang go sledding at Mountain Glenn together. They were both riding in the same sled, but after they hit a snag in the trail they end up tumbling until Izuku is kneeling on top of her.
• Superpower Lottery: One For All is one of the most powerful Semblances in the world, allowing Izuku to punch out an Elder Grimm in one hit at the cost of breaking every bone in his arm. It greatly enhances his strength, speed, and toughness while using Full Cowl and he got over Full Cowl's only real downside by training to activate it virtually instantly. In meta-terms, it's a straight stat boost that doesn't require any FP to maintain, allowing Izuku to keep Full Cowl nearly indefinitely so long as he isn't knocked out of it and is strictly better than even Katsuki's Semblance when it comes to dice rolls.
• Sweet Baker: He takes up baking and pastry making as a hobby to satisfy his teammate Nora's pancake cravings. He becomes surprisingly good at it, baking two delicious cakes for Pyrrha's birthday and another as an apology to Weiss after he was Innocently Insensitive to her. He's also the type of person who wouldn't hesitate to break his own arm to save someone's life.
• Super Mode: One pancake metaphor from Nora during a sparring session allows Izuku to realize that he should be spreading One For All's power through his body evenly rather than in one part all on demand. This allows him to create One For All: Full Cowl, giving him the ability to slam Nora into a wall and knock the wind out of her and run circles around Yang in their next spar. The downside is that it has some startup time and he has to constantly focus on keeping it active. A strong enough blow can break his concentration and knock him out of Full Cowl, forcing him to take the time to start it up again. He also has to be careful in regulating his usage of One For All while in this state, as he could accidentally fire off 100% and break something again.
• Superior Successor: One For All is a Semblance that stockpiles physical power with each successive user. Once Izuku masters it, he'll be more powerful than Toshinori ever was.
  • This is also averted at the same time- while Izuku has the potential to be stronger, Toshinori was a natural who instantly adapted to the power of One For All. Izuku, on the other hand, has to shatter his bones repeatedly to get even a fraction of a percent of control.
• Team Mom: A rare male example. Izuku is always there to listen to his teammates' issues and concerns and offer a shoulder to lean on when things get tough. He always has a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech ready when they're feeling down and his positivity and work ethic ties the team together. He's also the team's best cook and makes nice gifts for his friends by hand.
• Tears of Joy: Izuku often has these when he does something right for the first time, like when he first acquires his Aura, when he kills his first three Beowolves on his lonesome, and when he successfully makes a batch of pancakes that please Nora. Pretty much any significant achievement or moment of tenderness will make him fight back tears though.
• Tearful Smile: He has the biggest, goofiest smile he's ever had in his life while crying Tears of Joy after he kills three Beowolves on his lonesome for the first time, proving that he can finally be a Huntsman and fulfill his dreams.
• Technicolor Lightning: Izuku's body crackles with green electricity while using One for All: Full Cowl.
• Terrible Pick-Up Lines: All of Izuku's attempts to flirt with Yang are hilariously cringeworthy at best, which he acknowledges most of the time. His nervous and unconfident delivery doesn't help matters.
  Yang: Don't be so stressed Iz-u-ku~ [leans forward so her breasts are directly within his line of sight] After all, you've taken me out to some place fancy... you're allowed to look~
  Izuku: W-Well I wouldn't want to look too long... I mean, y-you're so... r-r-radiant I might just go blind.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Expect Izuku to do something awesome every time "You Say Run" is the selected track.
• Theme Naming:
  • Izuku's various Smash attacks are named after locales on Remnant.
    • Beacon Smash is named after Toshinori's alma mater, Beacon Academy. It's a haymaker charged with anywhere between 5% and 100% of One For All's power. The 5% version of this attack quickly becomes Izuku's go-to move for bashing Grimm and villains as well as plowing through obstacles like locked doors, while the 100% is his last resort should all else fail (and is pretty much an instant kill, but destroys his arm in the process).
    • Glenn Smash gets its name from Mountain Glenn, Izuku's hometown and the City of Hope. He charges 100% of One For All's power into a single finger to unleash a powerful burst of wind and concussive force with a wide radius. It's great for taking out tightly clustered Grimm at range, but it comes at the cost of breaking that finger.
    • Patch Smash is named after Patch, an island off the coast of Vale that Ruby and Yang grew up on. Izuku channels One For All's power through his legs and kicks off the air as a Double Jump. He has used this to change his direction midair to dodge attacks, quickly close distances and cross steep terrain.
    • Mistral Smash is named after another kingdom, this time the one that Pyrrha, Shoto, Nora, and Ren come from (and where Sun attends school in Haven). This attack is similar to Beacon Smash, but is more limited in scope and designed to not have the same shockwaves of air or side effects that the other moves use, so as to prevent collateral damage.
    • Vale Smash^* originally named Grand Slam is named after Vale, the kingdom Beacon is located in. Izuku grapples an opponent and uses One For All to empower the resulting throw, allowing him to chuck his opponent a farther distance.
    • Mantle Smash is named after Mantle, a city in the Kingdom of Atlas. A cross armed attack where Izuku focuses the energy of One For All along the edge of his forearm before slicing out at the moment of impact for a cutting blow. This attack trades the shockwave from the attack for an Armor Divisor of 2, reducing a target's DR by half.
    • Birch Smash is named after Birch Academy, the Combat School in Mountain Glenn and Izuku's alma mater. This attack is virtually identical to Beacon Smash except it's executed as a kick instead of a punch.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill:
  • Izuku prefers not to kill people if he can help it, engaging the safeties on his boots when he goes to knock the Admiral out with a kick and doing the same for the rest of the White Fang members he's fighting. After knocking Panchito out cold and letting him fall into the ocean, he realizes that Panchito is going to drown and dives in to save him even though it's the middle of winter.
  • Ozpin confronts him on this during one of their meetings, asking if Izuku would be willing to kill someone like Adam Taurus if it meant saving lives. Izuku responds that it isn't a Hunter's place to be judge, jury, and executioner. He also points out that someone like Adam would just be martyred if he's killed, which could create even more Adam Tauruses. Ultimately, Izuku would consider it as an absolute last resort, but he'd do everything in his power to bring him in non-lethally first. Ozpin considers this response admirable, but naive.
    Izuku: Being a Hunter, it means protecting people from the Grimm and then turning around and killing those monsters. Sure, you might be right... people like Adam Taurus might be as terrible as the Grimm... but they aren't Grimm. They're people, they're human beings and Faunus with souls. As horrific as they might be... they're us... and they deserve justice the same as everyone. If I were to hold no regard for that, if I decided to act as Judge, Jury and Executioner... when we decide that we can just destroy lives because we view them as being like the Grimm, then we've stepped out of what we've sworn ourselves to be as Hunters. From that moment on, we're not the protectors we've sworn to be.
• Thinking Tic: Izuku's mumbles and rambles when he's excited or deep in thought. He often taps his chin with his right index finger at the same time when he's not busy scribbling notes down. When asked something that he doesn't quite understand, Izuku is also said to tilt his head like a confused puppy.
• Think Unsexy Thoughts:
  • After roping himself into a game of romantic chicken with Yang, Izuku desperately tries to think of anything other than how pretty she is or how she leaned forward to give him an eyeful of her breasts.
    Yang: [leaning on a restaurant table seductively] Don't be so stressed Iz-u-ku~ After all, you've taken me out to some place fancy... you're allowed to look~.
    Izuku: [looking anywhere but at her] Cold thoughts Izuku, cold thoughts. Ice cubes, cold showers, Mountain Glenn winter. Going skiing on the top of the mountain and then tumbling down a good way through all that snow. Cold thoughts, cold thoughts, cold thoughts...
  • The same night, she takes them both to the Wonder Wheel, a popular ferris wheel in Vale where the two of them would be alone. She then proceeds to turn up the charm even more as she leans closer and closer, making Izuku panic even more.
    Yang: Looking for someone, Iz-u-ku~?
    Izuku: [internally] DON'T LOOK DOWN DON'T LOOK DOWN DON'T LOOK DOWN!
    Yang: What's wrong Izuku? Nervous about having an audience? [slowly drags herself closer while holding the dragon plush he got for her] Don't worry... it's okay if he watches.
    Izuku: [internally] COLD THOUGHTS! COLD THOUGHTS COLD THOUGHTS COLD THOUGHTS COLD THOUGHTS COLD THOUGHTS COLD THOUGHTS COLD THOUGHTS COLD- [Yang starts snickering] thoughts?
    Yang: [busts out laughing] Gods Izuku... you needed to see the look in your eyes. Wow, I mean, I thought I've seen panic before but wow.
• To Be a Master: Izuku's end goal is to succeed Toshinori as the Symbol of Peace and Hope and become the world's greatest Huntsman.
• Token Boy: Izuku is the only guy on a team with three very attractive girls. Hilarity Ensues.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Izuku is actively trying to improve his combat skills, his control over One For All, and the strength of his Aura in order to catch up to all of his classmates. He gradually gets stronger and more skilled as he faces more and more dangerous threats, to the point that he couldn't believe that he decimated an entire pack of Beowolves on his lonesome with ease during his final exam in Live Exercises, caving in their skulls or punching their heads off with a single hit each and coming away from the fight without a scratch. His teachers and classmates are quick to notice that he's improving faster than anyone else despite being so inexperienced with Aura and his subpar combat training at Birch.
    You did it. Really did it. You've gotten stronger.
    • This is also visible in his sparring record. He loses his first bout as a Curb-Stomp Battle when his Aura gets pierced in one hit. He manages to win his next round against Katsuki, albeit through his knowledge of Katsuki's behavior and some luck. He then manages to force a near-draw against Yang by firing Glenn Smashes over and over. After this, he wins nearly every single one of his other spars during his first year, solo or in a team, going so far as to curb-stomp Cardin. The only spar where he suffered a decisive loss was against Demi Polendina who managed to defeat him easily despite using 10% Full Cowl and holding back against him.
    • Meta-wise, he's gotten as skilled in karate as as Pyrrha, who has had an Aura and trained for years, is with her shield in just one semester. All while working on developing his Aura and numerous other skills at the same time.
• Training from Hell:
  • His ten-month session to become a suitable vessel for One For All involved triathlon-level running and swimming on top of other tasks. He also willingly subjects himself to serious punishment while sparring with Yang and Nora, which frequently ended with him getting broken bones until his Aura grew enough to sufficiently protect him. That's not even getting to the parts where he willingly shatters the bones in his arms to pieces while learning how to use One For All.
  • On the bright side, all of the work his Aura puts in to keep him taped together when he's being reckless helps him train it even faster. Just... not without aches and pains.
  • He lampshades this repeatedly, wondering why he puts himself through so much punishment when it would just be easier to take it slow, only to continue doing it anyways because he knows he can't let himself slack off.
  • What makes this an improvement over canon is Aura, which allows him to put himself through more punishment, faster, and be able to recover from it. As stated earlier, the canon fight between Izuku and Todoroki nearly crippled him. In the quest, the fight with Yang had nearly the same moves thrown around, which meant that he broke all his fingers... but both he and Yang were let out of the Nurse's office a few hours later, a little tired but none the worse for wear.
• Trick Bullet: Izuku usually uses Gravity Dust ammo for Emerald Gust in order to produce raw kinetic force. He can also swap this out with Fire, Ice, or Lightning Dust if the situation requires it, though he tends to prefer Lightning Dust as his secondary ammunition.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Izuku's mousy behavior and highly emotional demeanor frequently makes him the target of this. His ferocity and determination in battle tends to take people by surprise, not to mention his Super-Strength. His personal emblem◊ even invokes this, as it's a mountain nestled in a valley. From a distance, it seems small and easily written off. But the closer one gets to it, the greater and more imposing it becomes.
  • In "Charitable Disadvantage", the people he helps can hardly believe that he's a Huntsman(-in-Training) at first. Case in point, this exchange with a boy named Noir who was told that he couldn't become a Huntsman because he's a Faunus:
    Izuku: Noir, the people who told you that were wrong. I promise.
    Noir: How would you know?
    Izuku: [straightens up and juts his chin out] Cause I’m a Huntsman-in-Training myself, in fact, I was on my way back to Beacon when I saw you, and guess what? Some of my best friends and classmates are Faunus.
    Noir: [dubiously] You're a Huntsman?
    Izuku: [deflating] Ouch.
• Uninhibited Muscle Power: Izuku develops the ability to utilize "Go Beyond!", forcing himself to use up to 200% of his safe upper limit of One For All. The downside is that this exhausts him and his Aura quickly and messing up can result in catastrophic damage to his own body. Even while he's controlling it, he manages to rip the muscles in his legs and back from bone. His Aura has to work constantly to keep his body together, quickly draining it dry if he isn't careful. He later realizes that he also fractured multiple bones, stressed gods know how many blood vessels, and shredded many ligaments during his fight at Vale's docks. When he wakes up the following day, everything is sore and his legs give out underneath him when he tries to get out of bed. His muscles are still spasming when he manages to stumble his way into the shower.
• Unskilled, but Strong: One For All is an amazingly powerful Semblance, but Izuku is woefully behind on both his combat training and his use of his Aura at the start of the story. Nora and Yang easily dominate him in their spars, leaving him sputtering for air. Part of this is his inability to get adequate combat training because of his Brokenness. Birch Academy's poor combat training program didn't help matters either.
• Un-Sorcerer: Izuku was born "Broken" or a "Moon Child", meaning that his soul was too weak to ever manifest an Aura or a Semblance. Despite this, Izuku remained doggedly determined to become a Huntsman anyway even though it would probably get him killed. Luckily for him, he obtained an Aura after inheriting One For All.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When he shares what he knows about Raven Branwen with Yang at Ruby's birthday party, he unintentionally kicks off Yang's subplot by ripping off a bandage she'd had over several emotional issues, like Taiyang's Parental Neglect and Raven's Missing Mom nature. This eventually leads to Yang losing trust in Qrow and Taiyang for them not telling her anything about Raven and leading her to think that she was the reason Raven left, and thus the reason why Taiyang suffers from major depression.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Due to Nora constantly referring to his Glenn Smashes as "finger-banging", she manages to convince Team MADE that Izuku repeatedly pleasured Yang in the middle of sparring class. Eijirou and Denki both congratulate Izuku on his manliness and bow their heads in supplication. Meanwhile, Izuku passes out standing up from embarrassment. It comes to a head when Mina straight up asks if he had sex with Yang. Unfortunately, this is Played for Drama when it makes Momo very uncomfortable around Izuku until he manages to clear up what Nora meant by "Finger Banging" actually means, as Momo essentially thought that Izuku sexually assaulted a girl in public with no consequences to himself, and was extremely concerned about that.
• Volcanic Veins: Izuku's veins glow bright red in the limb he's using One For All in. Subverted when he does five percent Full Cowling, which has his skin turn slightly golden and the veins don't show up. Then played straight again with the Go Beyond technique, which reintroduces the veins.
• Wall of Text: His notes in Peter Port's class turn into this as he unconsciously mumbles all of them out loud, inadvertently putting everyone's attention on him.
  Izuku: Yeah, about the Beowolf. You listen intently and you realize that Port's lecture this entire time, while braggadocios, loud and obnoxious even to you, has been a careful description of properly hunting down a nest of Beowolves. The way he describes his action is in these very flattering terms is a turn off, sure, but Port is describing some very basic hunting and tracking techniques for the Grimm in his story. Some of these are things you're already aware of; the fact that the Grimm don't have any bodily functions which makes tracking them like normal animals nearly impossible, that they don't eat, drink or stop for anything so it makes catching up to a pack of them difficult... and then there's the pack mentality of the Beowolves that he's taking the time to describe, you mean, you've already been through a lot of trouble with the number of Beowolves that can be in a pack yourself and three is usually a pretty small number but what Port here is suggesting about separating out small bits of the herd through carefully manipulated bursts of Aura or negative emotions to draw far-flung elements of a nest or pack toward your location to even out the numbers is actually pretty genius, not to mention the fact that the way he goes into depth about the homogeneous nature of Grimm, a slightly lesser known fact, and possible counters. He brings up the fact that cutting weapons are usually the most effective as it allows the Grimm to be dismembered but he also reminds the class that caving a Grimm's chest in is also perfectly viable, as it his own preferred technique that he spends several minutes of the lecture going into detail on but is nonetheless actually rather informative; wrestling. It sounds ridiculous to wrestle a Grimm into submission sure but the fact of the matter is that in some cases it's even more effective than shooting them if you can't get a good shot in at their head after all wrestling and pinning a Grimm to the ground gives you opportunity to snap its limbs while you're grappling with it not to mention the benefit of slamming it around while in a position where the Grimm can't fight back which is really useful against most Grimm because they have no fine manipulators which makes things like grabbing on or grappling opponents amazingly difficult because Beowolves are the most common Grimm that have hands with digits and their lack of real strength makes them easy targets for wrestling but then that leaves Grimm like Nevermore, Boarbatusks and such in the dust because they don't even have the sort of hands that Beowolves have which make them incredibly easy to subdue if you can get a good grip on them which, speaking of, Boarbatusks are probably the oddball of all Grimm in that if you can get them to expose their stomachs then by all means you should pound whatever you have into that rather than their heads, even if you have an impaling weapon or a gun which ordinarily isn't as effective against the Grimm, as they have literally no armor or resistance to damage down there, this particular subset of Grimm having developed all their armor and defensive capabilities on the top side of their body which considering the fact that they're quadrupeds really isn't all that much of a surprise but it is rather interesting and furthermore-
  Port: Young man?
  Izuku: -the best strategy for a rolling Boarbatusk isn't actually to meet it head on as that introduces a risk of you taking a nasty hit if you aren't strong enough to take its full damage but if you dodge out of the way and force it to hit some terrain behind you then the Boarbatusk is more than likely going to just beat the crap out of itself going at its full speed into another, more solid object though you don't always want to do this if you're trying to protect-
  Port: Young man?
  Izuku: -civilians or structures because the Boarbatusk's force against the object it hits is still pretty powerful all things considered and you really need to stop and consider your options in all cases like he did when instead of trying to kill the Beowolf in his story he instead decided to wrestle it to the ground which he was able to accomplish because the gangly limbs of a Beowolf-
  Port: Mr. Midoriya!
  Izuku: [looks around and realizes he was mumbling] I'm sorry! Was I mumbling to myself?! I'M SORRY!
• Weak, but Skilled: Izuku's final report card from Birch noted that he had above-average skill among his peers in hand-to-hand combat due to studying karate in his free time. While he still pales in comparison to better trained fighters like Yang and Pyrrha, his quick thinking and tactics manage to carry him through his first encounters with the Grimm during Initiation.
• We Used to Be Friends: Izuku used to consider Katsuki his best friend when they were kids, always following the more talented boy around and doing his best to emulate him. But after Izuku was outed as Broken and tried to help Katsuki after the latter fell into a river, their relationship soured and Katsuki quickly became an abusive bully who left Izuku shy and friendless. They begin to mend the bridge in the weeks after getting into Beacon, with Katsuki even demanding that Izuku help him find the person who stole the belt Katsuki won from an ice cream eating competition.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Izuku's dad, Hisashi, is almost always away on business and Izuku barely remembers his face. While Izuku appreciates the money Hisashi sends home (especially since that money was used to put Izuku through combat school), he can't help but wonder why his dad is virtually non-existent in his family's life otherwise. Because of this, their relationship is closest to apathy rather than resentment.
• Willfully Weak: Izuku spends much of the early part of the story trying to be able to handle a lower percentage of One For All. First, to make sure he can use it without breaking his bones. Second, to make sure he can use it at close range without killing someone. Even after he develops One For All: Full Cowl, he still has to carefully regulate his usage of his Semblance lest he pop like a balloon.
• Would Hit a Girl: When facing off against Weiss, Izuku is so intimidated he drops all of his former chivalrous and overly conscientious behavior to go in for grappling hold into a suplex before subjecting her to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Weiss is stunned at this, not expecting the boy who was a quivering mess to resort to such brutish tactics.
  • He regularly spars with Weiss, Nora, and Yang, and combat class occasionally has him go up against other women.
• Workaholic: Izuku lives by the motto "Plus Ultra" and is constantly working himself to the bone. He juggles training, studying, meetings, and getting himself hurt while using One For All every day. No matter how hard he's working he still doesn't feel like he's doing enough. Weiss has to threaten Izuku with harm when he talks about getting a job to earn money and feel more useful to the team. He also willingly forgoes sleep some nights to continue meditating and training his Aura and his ability to use One For All without hurting himself. The team makes a "Prevent Izuku From Doing Something Stupid Kit" (PIFDSSK), which includes a pair of Purely Aesthetic Glasses and a spray bottle to make him shut up when he's making comments like these. Pyrrha personally dislikes the name as well as the IDSSK, since she feels it's insulting to his efforts to improve himself, but Izuku doesn't seem to mind.
  • Coco lampshades this, calling him someone who "tends to go all-in". Izuku attributes his tendency to try and overachieve to the "Plus Ultra!" motto he learned from Toshinori in an attempt to rationalize it, but then remembers the 200 batches of pancakes he made for Nora one night and flat out admits it.
  • He even calls himself a masochist when he thinks about all the training he has planned after his tiring exams. Even while sore from keeping his body taped together with Aura and suffering hypothermia while fighting the White Fang at Vale's docks, he's right back to working out the day after.
  • Pyrrha considers sleeping in one morning when Izuku is tired enough to sleep through his alarm. She can't bring herself to do it because she knows that Izuku would be up and at em' if he were awake. When something goes bump in the night, she's tempted to just ignore it and go back to bed, but again, the spirit of Plus Ultra compels her to take a look.
    Pyrrha: Curse you, Plus Ultra.
  • Coco confronts him about this while they're talking over coffee, asking him when was the last thing he did something or bought something solely for his own enjoyment and not for his Huntsman activities or the sake of others. He struggles to formulate a response until he remembers buying an All Might comic book for himself... six months back.
• Workout Fanservice: Izuku is the subject of a lot of this when he and Yang are working out together, with Yang secretly taking note of everything from his arms, to his pecs, to his rear end.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • The right gauntlet of Emerald Gust is utterly wrecked after his first use of One For All. The only reason why he was able to take his fingers out was because his bones were shattered enough to slip through the twisted and warped metal. He later gets them repaired with special finger guards to prevent his fingers from getting caught in them again while he's performing a Smash. These guards can also retract when he needs to use his fingers for more delicate work.
  • At the end of the first semester, the entirety of Emerald Gust dinged up and busted again from his battle against the White Fang at Vale's docks, which included gratuitous use of 10% Smashes, digging his gloves and boots against concrete to break his fall, and diving into ice cold seawater to save someone. Mei is understandably cross with him about this, but not as much as she would have been if he'd just broken it doing something stupid- if you wreck a weapon in the field, that's kind of what you're supposed to do after all.
  • At the end of the fight with Tenya in Week 5 and the events of the Fire in Vale, including fighting Stain, Emerald Gusts damages totaled up to several bits of metal shaved off, the shield dented, numerous deep cuts, damage to the feed from a long drop, and damage to the nuts, bolts, and internal cloth from using 20% Smashes
• Wrestler in All of Us: He practices grappling and judo techniques with Toshinori in their one-on-one sessions. It culminates in Izuku locking Weiss in a full nelson before subjecting her to full-on suplex during their in-class spar.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • Despite his own doubts about himself, Izuku has a talent for giving these speeches himself.
    • Izuku gives one to Toshinori when the latter is blaming himself for the Monochrome League's attack.
      Izuku: Toshinori, sir... did you know that terrorists were going to come in and attack today?
      Toshinori: [blinks in surprise and shakes his head] Course not, no one did.
      Izuku: [nods and smiles] Then you didn't do anything wrong. Sir... I might not know what you were up to today, but it still sounds like it was important if you needed to hero it up. You've said yourself how important saving lives it... it isn't fair to you or to other people who might need the Symbol of Peace for you to hide yourself away just in case we might need you. That's not fair to you or anyone.
      Toshinori: [frowns and rubs his chin with a sigh] Still, I do have responsibilities to you kids. I'm not just a Hunter now...
      Izuku: And you fulfilled them. Sir... you coming kept Professor Aizawa and everyone else from being badly hurt. Even if you were there from the beginning... well, we all got caught by that Kurogiri guy at first. Who's to say that they wouldn't have done the same thing to you in order to deal with you on their own... or worse, just off to the side for them to come to later. You wouldn't have been able to do anything to help then. We can't say for certain whether you being there from the start would've made things better... and besides, we have our responsibilities too.
      [puts his hand on his chest and looks Toshinori in the eye] You are our teacher... but you can't be everywhere at once. Part of our jobs as students is to learn how to deal with situations like this on our own, something you've been training us for weeks now to deal with. We can't always depend on you being around... at some point, we'll need to be ready to step up.
      [flashes his best smile] What matters is that today, you were here when we needed you and you did make that difference. I don't want you to apologize, Toshinori... I want to thank you.
    • He gives another one to Blake as she tells him that she feels like a fraud and that she's a horrible person that he shouldn't be around.
      Blake: [struggling to break away from Izuku's hug] Izuku... you can't... I can't be that. What I've done, the secrets and lies-
      Izuku: So what if you're keeping secrets? Everyone has their secrets, even me! I'm not perfect, and I don't want you to be. I want you to be Blake Belladonna, the person I trust even if she's got this mysterious past. [swallows a lump in his throat as he continues to hug her] Blake... if you didn't think you could handle it on your own, all you had to do was ask. I would've jumped in at a moment's notice to help you, the way you've helped others; you were there in the Emerald Forest too Blake, fighting with Pyrrha, Tenya and I... and you were in those Tunnels too, saving those people to the best of your ability. You say I'm a hero, but what kind of hero would I be if I didn't help my friends? What kind of person would I be if I let you, my friend, think this about yourself.
      Blake: ... You'd still be a good person Izuku. Like I said, it's better for you... please... trust me... I'm... I'm not worth it Izuku.
      Izuku: Blake... You are Blake. You're worth the effort to me.
  • He gets the tables turned on him by Yang just before she asks if he'd like to date her when she gives him one.
• Your Size May Vary: Pyrrha mentions that Izuku was about the same height as Weiss, who is 5'3'', at the start of the story, growing an inch or two in the meantime. At the same time, he's also mentioned to being just a few inches shorter than Yang's height, who is 5'8'', so his height is likely 5'5'' (or in that area).
• Youthful Freckles: Izuku has a cluster of four freckles symmetrically arranged on each cheek.

Pyrrha Nikos

Pyrrha Nikos

Izuku's partner and a world-renowned fighter who graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum Academy in Mistral. Born with a natural talent for combat and a powerful Semblance that allows her to control polarity, she tutors Izuku in the use of his Aura and becomes one of his closest friends.

Her weapon is Miló and Akoúo̱, a shield and a weapon that can change between a pilum (heavy javelin), xiphos (short sword), and a hunting rifle.

---

• The Ace: She's drop-dead gorgeous and a skilled warrior with excellent grades on top of being famous all over the world, having pulled herself up from the impoverished lower-class of Mistral on her own merits.
• Action Girl: Pyrrha is one of the best fighters in her year and is borderline invincible in a one-on-one confrontation, easily taking down Team LPSZ's leader in an instant when asked and crushing people in hand-to-hand combat even without her Aura and Semblance.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The source material did mention that she didn't like being famous, and that it weighed down on her, but it wasn't given much attention (and mostly used so that she could become interested in Jaune, who had never heard of her). This story gives much more weight to her struggles with fame, and how it's not just a one-time-thing, but something she has to deal with every time she goes to a restaurant or runs into someone on the street who wants her autograph. She also struggles with her nature as a humble, kind person and the desire to take advantage of her fame for her own ends- while she might be humble in most respects, she loves wearing jewelry, and is afraid that that's a sign that she's becoming more corrupted by greed (which she's seen happen to other famous people).
  • It gets to the point where it's a major revelation that she doesn't have to keep up the facade of "the invincible girl," around her friends, and allows herself to shake out a hand cramp in front of them. While they don't notice her internal struggle, they do note that she seems more relaxed around them after she does it.
  • While she doesn't like her fame, she comforts herself that the money and notoriety that her skills give her keep her family living in a very nice house and allow them to pursue their dreams.
• Apologizes a Lot: To the point that her Catchphrase is "I'm sorry!", even when others are thanking her for helping them. Lampshaded by Weiss.
  Weiss: [internally] You're a warrior queen! STOP BEING SORRY!
  • Sometimes it's justified (like the time she accidentally stabbed Toshinori in the chest in an exercise), but other times it comes across as someone who is deeply afraid of hurting anyone's feelings and is terrified of losing what few friendships she has.
• Bait-and-Switch: She overhears Eijirou talking about how awesome she is, specifically listing off her amazing victories. Then later, he mentions he dyes his hair to the red color it is (which is very similar to Pyrrha's shade) because of his favorite person. She puts two and two together and is about to confront this stalker when he announces he dyed it because of the Crimson Riot Hunter, not Pyrrha. This leaves her feeling good, if suffering from a tad bit of Mood Whiplash, when he finally announces that he thinks Pyrrha is "Manly."
• Because You Were Nice to Me: She's drawn to Izuku because he's the first person in the longest to appreciate her for who she is rather than her reputation and skills. He became her first lasting friendship and source of support after years of being left on a pedestal.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Pyrrha is incredibly kind, modest, and supportive of her friends. But she is a four-time champion fighter for a reason and can kick gratuitous amounts of ass with and without her Aura and weapons, as one underground fighting ring can attest, tossing its champion around like a ragdoll and beating him into the floor even as he provides little resistance after he insults Toshinori and Huntsmen in general. At a later date, she also took down a group of gangsters on her own with no weapons because they were planning on smuggling drugs inside of dolls, faked a call to the police from a "concerned citizen," and escaped with no one knowing she was involved.
• Big Eater: She wolfs down several burgers on the Long Night after being forced to keep away from them her entire career as a tournament fighter. Just one of the burgers she ate was enough to completely fill Izuku with some leftovers remaining (albeit after he'd been drinking and snacking earlier).
• Blood Knight: Not nearly as blatant as Nora, but Pyrrha is bored out of her skull in virtually all of her spars simply because she's so much better than virtually everyone else that beating them isn't much of a challenge. She is visibly relieved when she is finally bested by Sorahiko, realizing that this is a man who will push her past her limits and provide an actual challenge... though it says something that the first person in the quest thus far who we see can do that is the one who trained Toshinori.
• Broken Ace: For all her talents, Pyrrha was incredibly lonely prior to coming to Beacon as her celebrity status left her with a packed schedule and little time to socialize with others her own age. In addition, her grades are partially due to her non-stop winning streak, leaving her behind on her studies until Izuku starts tutoring her. She's genuinely surprised when Izuku doesn't recognize her on sight and treats her like a normal person on top of never letting her celebrity status change his perception of her.
• Celebrity Is Overrated:
  • Pyrrha hates the fact that her fame has placed her on a pedestal that makes her unapproachable to most people. She's genuinely surprised and relieved when she realizes that Izuku doesn't know who she is at first and is willing to sit down and have a friendly chat with her without regard for her celebrity status. This is what makes her go out of her way to help him during Initiation and become his partner.
  • Her attitude actually makes her a bit of a Foil for Toshinori and Izuku, who believe in using fame as a means to an end (inspire people as the Symbol of Peace) and accept the downsides as just a part of the job.
  • She's deeply uncomfortable with fans as well, and she's spent so long dealing with them that she's unsure of how to actually make and keep friends.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Pyrrha is always putting the needs of others above her own, never asking for anything and always supporting her teammates in their endeavors. But even she is put off by Izuku's own self-destructive impulses and is unnerved when he feels that powdering the bones in his own arm isn't doing enough when he successfully saves everyone from the Giant Nevermore.
• Combat Stilettos: Like Weiss, Pyrrha wears high heels while fighting. She admits they're more to make her imposing and fashionable as part of her PR as a tournament fighter than worn out of any sense of in-combat practicality. She's just gotten so used to fighting in heels that she hasn't taken them off.
• Combination Attack: Pyrrha has one with Izuku called "Autumn Bell". Pyrrha and Izuku position themselves on opposite sides of their opponent and charge at the target at the same time. While Pyrrha Shield Bashes the target's head, Izuku comes in swinging with a Beacon Smash, slamming the target back into the shield and causing the attacks to reverberate off each other, dealing serious damage to the poor sap caught in the middle.
• Covert Pervert: She has a Nosebleed when Izuku was caught hung over his bed and Mistaken for Masturbating.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Virtually any one-on-one fight involving her is one in her favor, easily decimating the leaders of other teams as well as Izuku when they're pitted against one another.
• The Dreaded: Pyrrha's sterling combat record and reputation for invincibility has made her an opponent to be feared on the battlefield. She has to disguise herself while entering an underground fighting ring because she knows her reputation would clear out the halls and prevent the tournament from continuing. When Izuku is pitted against her during an exercise, his entire strategy revolves around getting the heck away from her and running straight for the objective because he knows that beating her in a fight is all but impossible for him. The moment she actually gets in range, he's immediately on the losing end of the fight because he simply can't keep up with her strength and skill.
• Exposed to the Elements: Her clothing isn't Stripperiffic, but she still feels cold in the chill autumn air of Vale due to living on the coasts of sunny Mistral for much of her life and wearing correspondingly tropical clothing. Tenya notices this and buys her a jacket for her birthday, and she and Izuku go out shopping for new clothes in one social.
• Extreme Doormat: Pyrrha has little drive of her own, deferring almost all important decisions to Izuku and generally backing him up on everything. She struggles to respond to Weiss's criticisms of Izuku's dangerous work ethic and has so little impetus that she can barely decide what she wants on her bread every morning, much less have a goal to strive for the way Izuku and Ruby do. She's also scared to admit her fears and criticisms of Izuku's dream to him because she feels like she'll be betraying him by doing so, even when her thoughts are perfectly valid. This isn't just because of that feeling of betrayal, but of absolute fear that she'll accidentally drive away the few friends that she has. Luckily, Izuku is aware of many of the things she's afraid of and decides to take those things to heart when she finally does work up the nerve to tell him.
• Famed In-Story: Pyrrha is already world-famous tournament fighter by the time she comes to Beacon and has garnered a reputation for invincibility, never losing a fight and always leaving them without a scratch.
• Fiery Redhead: Subverted. Despite her reputation as a fierce warrior, Pyrrha is calm, collected, and thoughtful, being the most demure of the three girls on Izuku's team, if not the most level-headed person on the team period.
• Friendless Background: Pyrrha's celebrity lifestyle left her schedule packed, giving her little time to get to know others her own age. Those who do rarely approach her as a friend but instead as a fan or rival, never getting to know her personally. It's left her absolutely terrified that she'll accidentally drive away what few friends she has, which mostly consists of her team.
• Guile Hero: Pyrrha's subtlety in using her Semblance is the reason for her supposed invincibility, as few people realize that she's discretely nudging attacks away from her or guiding them into a position that leaves her opponent open.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: One of Miló's configurations is a xiphos, a type of Greek short sword.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Her Semblance allows her to manipulate massive amounts of metal at once for use as projectiles, but she mainly limits herself to guiding her own attacks, that of others, and diverting her foes' attacks so she can easily block and parry them. Because of this, few people catch onto the secret behind her supposed invincibility and assume she's just that good.
• Humble Hero: Despite her amazing talents, Pyrrha is never boastful about her abilities and constantly downplays how good she is. She's overjoyed to meet someone like Izuku who treats her kindly as a friend and doesn't know about her fame nor does he care when he finds out.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: While Izuku definitely pulls his own weight, he heavily relies on Pyrrha for guidance in training his Aura and to have his back when executing his stupidly dangerous plans. Izuku admits that he can't think of a single bad thing about having Pyrrha as a partner, calling her "perfect" when compared to Weiss's irritable perfectionism and Nora's sanity-bending energy.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Her motivation for coming to Beacon is to get away from her reputation as "The Invincible Girl" and do things that a normal girl would for once, like hang out with her new friends who know and care for her as a person instead of being besieged by legions of fans who want things from her. She's somewhat ashamed of this, feeling that it's a shallow reason to become a Huntress when compared to Izuku's and Ruby's lofty goals.
• Jack of All Stats: Pyrrha isn't as specialized as any of her teammates. She doesn't have the raw destructive power of Izuku's or Nora's Semblances, or the overwhelming speed and elemental flexibility provided by Weiss' Glyphs, or Izuku's ability to strategize on the fly. But she also has none of their weaknesses (i.e. Izuku's bone-shattering recoil), is effective at any range thanks to the flexible nature of Miló and Akoúo̱, and is by far the most skilled out of all of them, making her more than capable of curb-stomping almost anyone who comes her way.
• Javelin Thrower: Miló can be turned into a pilum, a type of heavy javelin. She can use this as both a melee weapon and a throwing weapon, using the latter function to help Izuku land during the Initiation.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: She snipes Izuku's collar with Miló's javelin form in order to help him land during the Initiation despite falling in midair herself and the considerable distance between her and him.
• In the Hood: She wears a bulky, concealing hood when travelling between Mistral and Vale so as not to be noticed by the general public.
• Invincible Hero: She's widely recognized as the single most dangerous member of Team MNVW in a straight fight and walks away from all of her fights without ever taking an injury. She's even known as "The Invincible Girl" in story.
• Lady Legionnaire Wear: Her combat outfit resembles that of a Greek hoplite, with a breastplate, helmet, spear, and shield with bare legs. The primary difference is her regular skirt in place of the leather one.
• Lady of War: Her fighting style is fluid, graceful, and calculated, always remaining in control of the fight by manipulating her opponent's weapons to present the illusion of invincibility while she goes in for the kill.
• Lonely at the Top:
  • Her celebrity lifestyle and renown have made her unattainable in the eyes of many, leaving her friendless until she comes to Beacon Academy. She's somewhat ashamed of the fact that her motivation for coming to Beacon was essentially to distance herself from her past accomplishments that make her the envy of others while others like Izuku and Ruby are working to help others in need.
  • She's also frustrated because she's so good that no one else can really challenge her - there's no one else in her year she can test herself against, and thus has grown more isolated and more than a little bored.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Pyrrha's shield can defend her from most Grimm attacks when used alongside her Aura. She can also use it as a throwing weapon.
• Luminescent Blush: Pyrrha isn't exempt from obligatory blushing whenever Izuku's sex appeal is brought up or when something lewd becomes the subject of the conversation.
• Magnetism Manipulation: Pyrrha is able to manipulate polarity to levitate and control metal objects at will. She can use this to subtly maneuver her opponent's weapons so that she will always be able to block them, giving her the illusion of invincibility and inhuman grace.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Her given name, Pyrrha, means "flame-colored", referring to the color of her hair and matching the color theme naming in the series. In addition, "pyrrhotite" is an iron sulfide mineral that's nicknamed "magnetic pyrite" because its iron-rich variants are highly magnetic, which in turn fits her Semblance. On top of all of this, Pyrrha was the pseudonym used by Achilles, who is also famed for his invulnerability, while he hid from Agamemnon's draft. Her surname, Nikos, means "victor of the people", referring to her humble origins and her unstoppable winning streak as a tournament fighter.
  • Her name can also refer to the term "Pyrrhic Victory", which is a victory that comes at such a steep cost that it may not have been worth it. Pyrrha's reputation as the Invincible Girl and ability to crush her competition in the Mistrali tournament fighting circuit left her lonely, bored, and miserable, spurring her decision to come to Beacon to find people who would respect her as a friend and could even keep up with or surpass her.
• Modesty Shorts: As the above picture shows, she wears these under her skirt.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Miló can be transformed into a pilum, xiphos, or a hunting rifle depending on the situation.
• Multi-Melee Master: Pyrrha is able to seamlessly switch between Miló's sword and javelin forms with ease and use them along with Akoúo̱. That's not even getting into her skill in wrestling and hand-to-hand combat.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: While reminiscing about her birthday party, she mentions how touched she was to receive gifts from all ten of her new friends... and Katsuki.
• Not So Above It All: While she tends to present herself as a professional, calming influence, Pyrrha willingly agrees to raid Izuku's room at his apartment just so she could snap a picture of Izuku's old Toshinori onesie from when he was a child for Nora and Yang's amusement.
• Persona Non Grata: Pyrrha's first attempts at getting a job in the food service industry to earn some extra income ended disastrously after Junior tries to get touchy-feely with her. The resulting fight burned down the entire club and left Junior temporarily paralyzed. From then on, she is basically blacklisted from working in restaurants all around Vale.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: She can throw Akoúo̱ like this without a problem. This is fully justified by her Semblance, which allows her to guide it into her opponents and back to her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When the team starts running into money issues because of Izuku's injuries and the cost of Dust rounds, Pyrrha decides to disguise herself and enter an underground fighting ring where the use of Aura is banned to earn the prize money. After wiping the floor with the competition, Pyrrha faces off against the champion, a huge pig Faunus called "The Porker King" who believes that he is the strongest person in the whole world, dismissing Toshinori as a man relying on steroids and Aura to get anything done. Predictably, Pyrrha puts him in his place, stomping all over the "King's" hubris with a speech about what real strength is about.
  Pyrrha: [breaking one of the Porker King's ribs] Toshinori Yagi could have taken that punch. Even without Aura, he would have laughed everything I've done to you off. [dodges an attack and drives her knee into his chest] He certainly wouldn't be falling over himself after a few minor injuries like this. Because ya see, he's just better than you. [tosses him to the other side of the arena] Not only is Toshinori better than you, but so are all the Huntsman I've ever met. [casually walks over and picks him up by the back of his head] They are always seeking self-improvement. Always trying to grow stronger. Always seeking to do the best they can for the people of Remnant. [smashes his face into the floor] So they will always be better than some big fat pig lording over some rat-ridden sty.
• Recoil Boost: Her spear can fire a shot to boost itself towards a location or to maneuver her in midair, as seen when she fired a blast to carry her and Izuku into a nearby tree after catching him.
• Red Baron: "The Invincible Girl".
• Retired Badass: To an extent. She's officially retired as a tournament fighter in order to attend Beacon.
• Retractable Weapon: Miló can seamlessly switch between its xiphos and pilum forms, allowing Pyrrha to take others off guard by quickly extending and thrusting Miló while it's in its xiphos form.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: She's an incredibly skilled fighter, but she's cowed by mundane things like shopping on her own, eating what she wants, hanging out with people who don't care about her reputation, and cooking.
  • One problem that she really struggles with is poor grades. She was part of a Hunter school in Mistral, but because they wanted to keep her both on the records of the school and as a tournament winner, they let her have all sorts of passes so she could skip class to train or go to said tournaments. Izuku has to help tutor her in several subjects as a result of her less-than-stellar education.
• Selective Magnetism: She can choose whatever she wants to magnetize with her Semblance to subtly manipulate her foes' weapons.
• Sense Freak: A lesser example, but after years and years of following diets and food plans to make sure she looked her best for tournaments, advertisements, and sponsorships, Pyrrha absolutely loves to try new foods that are terrible for her.
• Sexy Mentor: Pyrrha is amazingly beautiful and Izuku's guide in training his Aura.
• Shield Bash: She sometimes uses Akoúo̱ offensively, bashing it into her foes' heads to stun them or to smash through obstacles. This is also one half of Autumn Bell, her Combination Attack with Izuku.
• Shout-Out: Her Greek-inspired appearance and weapons, reputation for being invincible, and incredible fame make Pyrrha a walking allusion to the famed Achilles of Greek Myth. Pyrrha is also the pseudonym Achilles used while disguised as a woman and hiding out from Agamemnon's draft for the Trojan War.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Green-eyed with striking red hair and is very important to Izuku's development as his partner, teacher, and ally on the battlefield. In time, he considers growing enough to match her blow for blow to be his next step on the way to becoming the world's greatest Huntsman.
• Situational Sword: Her semblance, while useful, works on metal and not Grimm, meaning that in terms of straight utility, she's more useful fighting against other people than against Grimm.
• Skilled, but Naive: She's bar none the single best fighter on her team and possibly in her entire year. But at the same time she has little experience dealing with life outside of the tournament circuit. Izuku has to coach her through their history and Grimm biology courses while she teaches him how to train his Aura. She is also socially awkward due to being isolated from others her age for so long and finds eating a burger to be a luxury after being on such a tight diet for her entire career.
  • Part of the problem might stem from her hinting that due to her tournament career, she was pretty much in Huntress School on paper for a lot of the time, and that the school allowed this to have the Invincible Girl on their roster.
• Slave to PR: Pyrrha says that the worst part about being famous is that she was trapped in it. She couldn't disappoint her fans by diverging from her image as the Invincible Girl or she'd face hate mail, lose her sponsors, and otherwise let down the people who believed in her. She recognizes that Toshinori has it exponentially worse, as he has to maintain his image as the Symbol of Peace or everything will come crumbling down, hiding his fear behind fake smiles. This is also why she's scared for Izuku, because she's worried that he doesn't understand what it means to live with those kinds of expectations.
  Pyrrha: Izuku... if I told everyone that I hated being the Invincible Girl... then... what? People would get disappointed, fans would write me hateful, betrayed letters, my family would take a hit on its income when sponsors would drop me... but it wouldn't be something too outlandish or crazy. The world wouldn't depend on me... [Pyrrha shudders as she places her hands on her arm] ... Maybe I'm off, Izuku. Maybe I'm projecting... maybe I'm seeing things that aren't there... but... Gods, Izuku. I can only imagine what it's like for him; his smile isn't just about his fame... his smile is for the World. That's the meaning of being the Symbol of Peace. To smile so that the rest of us can feel safe... Toshinori Yagi can never have a bad day. He can't ever have a day where he's tired or he's just not feeling it... he has to be out there. People need to know that their Symbol of Peace is there for them... the Invincible Girl was a constant drain because I was pushed into it... for him... for him, Gods... with that kind of pressure... then that fear is understandable.
  • One Omake had her let herself relax and shake her hand out after getting a hand cramp, because the only people who could see this moment of weakness was her team... and they either didn't notice or just brushed it off. This subtle moment actually meant a lot to her and she starts to relax around them more often since they don't care if she shows weakness.
• Sniper Rifle: Miló can turn itself into a hunting rifle, complete with scope, that's optimized for long-range shooting and can easily penetrate the Auras of an untrained mook.
• Statuesque Stunner:
  • She stands at six-feet-tall, much taller than any of her teammates (the tallest of whom is Izuku, who barely tops 5'3'' at the start of the story). A shopkeeper in Vale comments on this when Izuku and Pyrrha are shopping for clothes.
  • She notes that she has problems because it's hard for her to borrow clothes, since very few women are as tall as she is (and that category includes virtually none of her friends, a problem when she comes from a warm climate and Vale is... less so).
• Strong and Skilled: Having already achieved her fourth Aura awakening, Pyrrha is physically stronger (except for One For All, obviously) than Izuku and way more skilled at the start of the story. While his training has helped to bridge the gap somewhat, Izuku knows that he'd get curb-stomped if Pyrrha were ever seriously trying to take him down.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: She's significantly taller than Izuku, who is noted to be somewhat short for his age due to his lack of Aura to help his growth along.
• Unknown Rival: She has two - her teammates Nora and Weiss, who have declared that they must destroy Pyrrha so that she doesn't steal Lulu's love. Pyrrha is blissfully unaware of this.
• Victory Is Boring:
  • Having demolished all of Mistral's top tournament fighters and best teams on her lonesome, Pyrrha was just bored with her celebrity lifestyle on top of the crushing loneliness she felt from being put on a pedestal. Seeing Izuku and the rest of her friends at Beacon try so hard to improve themselves and the fact they could compete with and even exceed her in some aspects restores her drive to win, making her the happiest she's been in years.
  • But even still, Pyrrha finds herself more downcast than anything after Team MNVW's decisive victory over Team LPSZ during finals and the feeling becomes infectious among her teammates. Izuku takes this as a reminder that for as strong as he's gotten, he still has a LONG way to go before he even comes close to Pyrrha's level of fighting skill.
• Willfully Weak: She rarely goes all out simply because she doesn't feel threatened or the need to exert herself. Once she does start trying, chances are her opponent is going to be on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Wrecked Weapon: Miló ends up getting destroyed setting off a massive explosion during the Final Exam.

Nora Valkyrie

Nora Valkyrie

Lie Ren's Childhood Friend, Nora is a hyperactive girl who loves food, especially pancakes. Ditzy and loopy at times, she can be surprisingly insightful and is always supportive of Izuku's efforts to improve himself and just look cool. Her energy is matched by her raw strength and loud weapons as the team's muscle.

Her weapon is Magnhild, a hammer that converts itself into a grenade launcher and can loose grenades even in hammer form for a powerful rocket boost or an explosive smash attack.

---

• Action Girl: Nora is even stronger than Pyrrha and Yang in terms of raw physical prowess and thoroughly trounces Izuku over and over in their initial spars.
• Alpha Strike: While fighting Team LPSZ, Izuku orders Nora to fire everything she has in Magnhild. Nora is more than happy to oblige.
  Izuku: Nora! Fire everything you have at those two!
  Nora: [smirk creeping along her face] Everything?
  Izuku: EVERYTHING!
  Nora: WOOHOO! [starts firing all of her grenades in the other team's direction]
• Bait-and-Switch: In one Omake, the rest of Team MNVW discover that she's at ground zero of a building collapse, and assume the worst. When they confront her about it, she confirms that she did wreck the building... but not because she's Cute and Psycho who just wanted to see things smash, she got a job with Uraraka's construction company and was paid to knock the building down.
• Beneath the Mask: Beneath her Blood Knight and Boisterous Bruiser tendencies is an emotionally fragile girl who is terrified of pushing her Best Friend and Living Emotional Crutch away with her budding feelings for him.
• Big Eater: She's always eating the pancakes Izuku and Ren cook up for her and eats them so quickly that it looks like she's either drinking or inhaling them. The first time she asked Izuku to make pancakes for her, she wouldn't stop eating until she had devoured 200 pancakes.
• The Big Guy: She wields the largest and loudest weapons on her team on top of being the physically strongest. A single direct hit from her Magnhild was enough to punch through Izuku's Aura and break his ribs in one of their earliest spars. When charged up by her Semblance, her blows liquefy the insides of an Ursa Major. Physically, though, she averts this- she's the shortest person on the team except Lulu.
• Blood Knight:
  • Nora gets a little too excited when going into a fight and is positively ecstatic when told to go all out.
    Nora: [after unloading all of her grenades] Awww, phooee! You guys didn't even get hit by more than one!
    Weiss: Nora stop acting like you're so bloodthirsty...
  • After negotiations between Team MNVW and Junior's club break down, Nora just remarks that they'll be able to break people's legs now.
    Nora: Well... hey, at least we get to break their legs now!
    Izuku: [taking a deep breath as he prepares to brawl] Well, at least you're putting a positive spin on this, Nora.
• Boisterous Bruiser: She's strong, she knows it, and she's proud of it. This is especially prominent when she's on a Power High from her Semblance, upon which she declares that she'll go out and slaughter every single Grimm in the Emerald Forest.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Both Ren and Nora are shocked and disappointed that they didn't end up on the same team, but they're still the best of friends.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Nora has the lowest IQ rating on her team and is a self-admitted ditz, but she can be extremely perceptive when she wants to be. She floors Weiss, who insisted on them studying well into the night in preparation for their end-of-semester exams, by spewing a variety of esoteric facts from class off the top of her head.
  Nora: [after Weiss challenged her to say what she knows] The white half of the King Taijitu will be just slow enough that hammer throwing the black half will both work and keep both of their bodies in a silent ring that won't attract other Grimm, and it's super obvious from how Port likes to keep telling us his stories like wrestling matches.
  Weiss: Okay, bu-
  Nora: Oobleck's fast talk is a classic style among auctioneers and town criers, talking about anything from the recent increase in Dust Robberies that's been improving the prices on merchant caravan escorts, to a memorial of a turning point in both the Color War and Faunus Rights Revolution. It almost sounds like he used to be a town crier. Aizawa always uses eyedrops after before talking about criminology; he thinks that staring is going to create a more menacing aura so that we'll pay more attention, but he won't do the same if it's a lesson on tracking. Kayama acts super flirtatious, but you can see her change her "rewards" around new couples, handing prizes to their partner rather than themselves; it's a way to show that leaders don't need to give a direct reward but rather give the person what they want. Lastly, Peach tends to double up on lessons; her lessons on Bonsai Arrangement tend to be advice that she'll repeat in Flower Arranging, while First Aid remains separate from either; she likes to separate her work from her hobbies, in a sense, okay? [flicks Weiss in the forehead] Geez, you don't have to worry about me so much; I had to do this for Ren too, you know. Now will you go to sleep?
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Nora's tendency to blab about anything on her mind means that she's horrible at keeping secrets. This is what gets Weiss to try to keep her at Beacon while investigating the string of Dust robberies from Schnee Dust Company-affiliated stores until Izuku convinces her otherwise. Try as she might, Nora also blurts out that Izuku already has a box full of condoms when Tenya sits MNVW and TABY down to talk about how Izuku and Yang are now dating.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She has serious feelings for Ren, but doesn't know how to approach him about them and he doesn't seem to notice her romantic affections. Later on, it's revealed that this is more than just Twice Shy, as she's utterly terrified of somehow driving a wedge between herself and Ren as she didn't have anything to call her own or rely on before she met him.
• Childhood Friends: She's best friends with Lie Ren and they've been together practically their entire lives. They're so close that Nora rates things on a scale of 0 to Ren, Ren being the absolute best something can be.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Nora has an... interesting perspective. It's especially prominent in this story because Ren isn't on her team to be her minder.
  Nora: [after meeting Weiss] YOU MUST BE A SLOTH ENTHUSIAST TOO!
  • She insists on naming the puppy Izuku found "Lulu-Bell Lord of Thunder". That eventually becomes her name, though it generally gets shortened to "Lulu."
  • She tends to count how many legs she'll be able to break when she gets into a fight.
  • Nora is also completely unaware of what a condom is, mistaking the ones Inko sent Izuku for "hat-shaped balloons" and not understanding why Weiss and Pyrrha are so uncomfortable around them.
• Combination Attack: Nora has one with Weiss called "Flash Freeze". Nora opens up Magnhild to allow Weiss to charge them with Ice Dust. Nora then fires her grenades into the enemy formation, allowing them to explode with a violent burst of lightning and freezing cold that traps their foes in ice. The victims are so brittle that Izuku can easily crack a frozen Atlesian Knight's breastplate with a casual punch. While devastating against Grimm, it's costly to use and can potentially be overkill.
• Cute and Psycho: Nora has a penchant for violence that doesn't go unnoticed. Case in point?
  Nora: [sparring with Izuku] MOMMA'S GONNA BREAK YOUR LEGS!
  Izuku: PLEASE DON'T BREAK MY LEGS, NORA!
• Cute Bruiser: Nora is short, bubbly, and loves hearts and pancakes. She also enjoys smashing Grimm into paste with her hammer and breaking their legs one-by-one.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Nora was a lonely, terrified, and shy street urchin until she met Ren, who was fleeing from the destruction of his own village at the hands of the Grimm.
  • For the most part, this is hidden under her smiling features, but she will occasionally say or do things that reveal that she didn't have a normal childhood- like not knowing things of a sexual nature, claiming that she's never had a home-cooked meal before, or pointing out that she hates winter because it means that she and Ren would have to break into people's houses to stay warm.
• Disproportionate Retribution: One of Nora's first responses to any offense against her team is to break the legs of whoever was responsible.
• Distinction Without a Difference: After a miscommunication with Izuku leaves them both feeling awful, Nora notes that Izuku wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn't lie. He just doesn't like to talk about some things, omits things that make him uncomfortable, and dances around topics like his Semblance.
• Does Not Like Spam: Nora hates waffles, calling them the enemy and stomping on them when she gets the chance. She also goes catatonic when Tsuyu points out that six-pack abs (like Izuku's) resemble the grills of waffles.
  Nora: How could you bring those vile things to the table! [points at the waffles] They are the enemy!
  Pyrrha: Eh? What’s wrong with waffles?
  Nora: Everything’s wrong with them Pyrrha! For years, Pancakes have been oppressed by waffles. Do people go to pancakes houses? No! They go to waffle houses!
• Elemental Absorption: Nora's Semblance, I EAT LIGHTNING!, allows her to absorb electricity to drastically up her already incredible physical prowess. But Nora's isn't immune to electricity, it just doesn't slow her down as much as anyone else.
• Everyone Can See It: Her attraction to Ren is as obvious as anything else she does, really, which is to say "extremely." It doesn't help that her attempts to say that she's not attracted to him are, to the last, one Suspiciously Specific Denial after another. She is, however, terrified that she might screw it up and ruin what they have together, since he's literally one of the only people in her life that has never left her.
• Flanderization:
  • Nora is obsessed with breaking legs in this story, practically becoming her Battle Cry even though she only said it once in the original RWBY series. For instance, when the team runs into a massive Terramaw while hunting for Grimm in the Emerald Forest, Nora wants to ride it before breaking all of its dozens of pairs of legs.
  • Her love of pancakes has also been flanderized into a hatred of waffles, which she actually has no problems eating according to RWBY Chibi.
• Fiery Redhead: Oh yeah. Loud and powerful with boundless energy, trading the usual standoffishness associated with this trope for Cloudcuckoolander tendencies.
• Foil: Her Semblance is pretty much an exact counter to Kaminari's. He creates lightning, and she absorbs it to make herself more powerful. Hers is called "I Eat Lightning", while he named his "Eat My Lightning". Even the side effects of overuse are the same (their brains are fried and they wander around repeating a phrase over and over again).
• Genki Girl: Nora is by far the peppiest person on her team, almost always seeming to have a smile on her face and never seeming to run out of energy. She's babbling from dawn until dusk, even speaking while she's brushing her teeth or eating breakfast. This contrasts heavily with her best friend, Ren, who is The Stoic and The Quiet One. When she stops being as energetic, the team knows something's up.
• Girly Bruiser: Nora is the strongest member of her team in terms of raw physical prowess, having the highest HP and STR ratings at the start of the story. She's also bubbly and hyperactive, loves the color pink, and has hearts on everything from her clothes to her grenades. It doesn't stop her from breaking legs, smashing Grimm to death, or getting down and dirty to wrestle if the situation requires it.
• Hidden Depths: Nora's Cloudcuckoolander tendencies hide how concerned she is for her friends and how much they mean to her. A sidestory that takes place after the Underground Training Facility incident shows that she's legitimately terrified of losing the people she's come to regard as a second family. She then promises to redouble her efforts to become stronger and ensure that they'll never be in that kind of peril again.
• Lightning Bruiser: She swings hard and fast and easily smashed her way through Toshinori's obstacle course in just over three minutes, even faster than Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha. But she relies on her explosion recoil for her primary bursts of speed and Izuku can outpace her while using One For All: Full Cowl.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Nora normally fires her grenades one at a time, but when Izuku orders her to do an Alpha Strike, she happily obliges by opening up the barrel, allowing all of the grenades to be fired out at once in a heart-shaped pattern.
• Meaningful Name: The Valkyries are Odin's twelve handmaidens who choose half of the slain dead to be conducted to Valhalla. They are warriors in their own rights. One of the valkyries (þrúðr "strength") is a daughter of Thor, the Norse God upon whom Nora is based. Nora's power, like Thor, is rooted in her strength and ability to power up that strength with electricity, such as lightning. As a result, her weapon also has a Norse name, composed of "magn" (mighty) and "hildr" (battle), that emphasizes her strength and power in battle.
• Motor Mouth: Weiss is horrified to find out that Nora never. stops. talking. Nora gets particularly chatty after having a cup of coffee or when something is weighing on her.
  Nora: Oh my gosh, I thought I was the only one! It's crazy that I just so happen to meet someone else who knows what sloths sound like in the middle of Beacon's Initiation, I mean really, what are the odds of that? Super low I bet, though I really can't run those numbers right now! You know, I bet this is that crazy destiny stuff people talk about; I mean, it can't just happen to be that you were making a sloth noise just around the time I was passing by, no, that's too convenient! You and I must be destined to be partners! Oh this'll be great! We can talk about sloths and stuff while we walk around and try to find Ren! When we all get on a team together it'll be great! You and I can be good friends, but not best friends because Ren and I are best friends because we've been together for years, and that's just together not like, together-together, and-
• Muscles Are Meaningless: She's more petite and not nearly as obviously muscular as Izuku, but she's significantly stronger than him without his Semblance, as shown when she easily won the strength game on Hunter's Day even though Izuku couldn't (albeit barely).
• No Inside Voice: Much of her dialogue is rendered in ALL CAPS when she's excited because of how loud she is. She's also Izuku's most vocal supporter in class, shouting and egging him on whenever he does something cool.
  Nora: [after Izuku agrees to fight a Young Boarbatusk alone with his damaged equipment] WOOOO, GO FEARLESS LEADER! YOU CAN TOTALLY DO THIS, GO GET YOUR SHOTGUN STUFF AND KICK THIS THING'S BUTT!
• Odd Friendship: She has one with her employer, Uraraka.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She is unusually knowledgeable and solemn when Team MNVW starts talking about the Nuckelavee for their pop quiz in Grimm Studies, pointing out all the things that were wrong with the description in the textbook with utter seriousness. She then leaves the room without a word and just vanishes for the rest of the day. The team is so shocked by this that they all go out of their way to cheer her up by stomping on waffles and offering her copious amounts of pancakes.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Nora sucks at explaining herself and often blurts out phrases that could be interpreted in any number of ways, all of which cause Izuku and the rest of Team MNVW much grief, but it's always Played for Laughs. She refers to Izuku's Glenn Smash as "finger-banging" his opponents, loudly talking about how he did it repeatedly to Yang in their sparring class even as he begs her to rephrase what she's saying.
  • This is played for drama when it nearly sours the relationship between Team MADE and Izuku nearly before it got off the ground, as it made them think he was some sort of sexual deviant. What's worse, it left Momo unsure of exactly how different the culture of Vale is, or how people could react to their team if "Finger Banging" people is okay here. Izuku, once he figures out what the issue is, manages to correct it.
• Pink Is Feminine: Nora's skirt, shoes soles, gloves, and grenades are all hot pink and her signature motif is a heart. When she pulls a full Macross Missile Massacre, the grenades shoot out in the shape of a heart and produce pink smoke upon detonation.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Nora is even shorter than Ruby but even stronger than Izuku for as long as he isn't using his Semblance. When Nora is using hers, she's by far the physically strongest of her peers for as long as Izuku isn't going for a 100% Smash.
• The Pollyanna: Almost nothing is able to get her down. Getting threatened by mobsters, Grimm, and terrorists only gets her blood pumping and she's relentlessly cheerful even in the worst circumstances. This is so ingrained in her that her team knows to be on edge when she suddenly stops being cheerful Thus far, the only things that seem to be able to knock her out of this are her fears revolving around Ren potentially leaving her, the prospect of her team dying, or the Nucklelavee.
• Power High: Nora can get one of these if she's charged up with too much electricity, pummeling the corpse of an Ursa Major even after she basically liquefied it and asking why Weiss was telling her to stop and calm down.
  Nora: [yelling at the top of her lungs] STOP, WHATDYAMEAN STOP PARTNER?! I FEEL LIKE I NEVER HAVE TO STOP AGAIN! I BET I COULD RUN THROUGH THIS ENTIRE FOREST AND KILL EVERYSINGLEGRIMMTHATCOULDPOSSIBLYLIVEHEREWITHJUSTMYLITTLEHAMMER! I DON'T NEED TO STOP! I CAN'T BE STOPPED! I'LL GO EVERYWHERE AND KILL EVERY GRIMM EVER EVEN THE MOST TERRIFYING ONES BECAUSEIJUSTCAN'TBESTOPPEDNOTBYANYONEORANYTHING!
• Pummeling the Corpse: While on a Power High from her Semblance, Nora smashes an Ursa Major to paste and continues to smash it until she finally runs out of energy.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Nora is the Red to Weiss's and Ren's Blue.
• Rocket Jump: Nora is able to fire off her grenades in Magnhild's hammer form to propel herself along, allowing her to clear Toshinori's obstacle course in just over three minutes, the fastest out of anyone in class, including Ruby and Weiss.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: She's the Energetic Girl to Izuku's and Ren's Savvy Guy.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Tellingly, she rates how good things are out of "Rens." Izuku's abs are 8.5 out of Ren, for example.
• Smarter Than You Look: While she's disinterested in schoolwork and a self-admitted ditz, Nora is far from stupid and is often far more intelligent and perceptive than she lets on. In "Nora's Not a Ditz-Ditz", she proves to Weiss that she has in fact been learning the material when the latter insists they keep studying rather than sleeping.
  Nora: Weiss, I might be a ditz, but I'm not a ditz-ditz. I know this stuff already, and you really shouldn't be taking the test with bags under your eyes, you know!
• Shock and Awe: Downplayed. Nora's Semblance, aptly named I Eat Lightning!, allows her to absorb external sources of electricity to gain a massive boost to her already impressive strength, speed, and durability. While charged up like this, she can liquefy the insides of an Ursa Major. But while she can absorb electricity, she can't actually manipulate or project it. She also doesn't have the typical Required Secondary Power of "being immune to electricity", as she can potentially be overwhelmed by sufficiently high voltage, it just doesn't impair her as much as it would for someone else. Going overboard with her Semblance can also leave Nora feeling lightheaded and woozy for a while afterward. Magnhild is also loaded with Lightning Dust grenades.
• Super-Strength: In addition to being the strongest member of the team, Nora can also use her Semblance to become even stronger, liquefying the bodies of Grimm she slams Magnhild into.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: While introducing herself to the rest of Team MNVW, she talks about how long she's been together with Ren but corrects herself and says that they aren't "together-together". None of the other members of Team MNVW have even spoken with Ren for any significant period of time at this point, so this denial comes across as awfully specific for no apparent reason and serves as an Establishing Character Moment for their relationship.
• The Talk: Due to losing her parents early in her childhood, Nora never got this from them. Because of this, she has no idea what a condom is and doesn't understand why Pyrrha and Weiss are freaking out over the box Inko sent Izuku in the mail. She then proceeds to play with the "hat-shaped balloons".
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pancakes, to the point that she drags Izuku out of bed in the middle of the night to get him to make them for her.
• Wrecked Weapon: Magnhild ends up getting smashed to pieces in one punch by Toshinori during the Final Exam.

Weiss Schnee

Weiss Schnee

The frosty heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Elegant, self-assured, and determined to prove herself, she's cold to Izuku and the others at first and is skeptical of his leadership skills. But she warms up to her teammates in time, using her connections to help out her new friends and offering Izuku lessons in poise and dance to better present himself.

Her weapon is Myrtenaster, a "Multi-Action Dust Rapier" loaded with Dust cartridges that is both a deadly melee weapon and an effective conduit for her Semblance.

---

• Abusive Parents: Jacques Schnee is a sociopathic, greedy miser who only cares about his bottom line and never for his workers or his own family. He married into the Schnees solely for their family name and to obtain the Schnee Dust Company and systematically neglected Weiss and railed at her when things went wrong. On the other hand is her mother, who is an alcoholic and neglectful person. Weiss confesses to Shoto that she wished that her mother had been there at least some of the time for her and her siblings. Weiss is implied to be jealous of the loving relationship Izuku has with his mother, her voice strained while he's talking about her.
• A-Cup Angst: It's not a big facet of her personality, but she does get rather offended when Izuku says he doesn't consider her a girl. He has to quickly explain that he thinks of her as a teammate, not a girl, because he freaks out when talking to girls and finds it easier to think of her that way.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Weiss' abrasiveness and Noble Bigot tendencies are toned down in this story. She warms up to Izuku faster than she does with Ruby because of how responsible and focused he is. Her racist tendencies against Faunus aren't touched upon nearly as much as her canon counterpart, to the point that Blake and Tsuyu spend far more time complaining about Weiss than the other way around.
• All Men Are Perverts: This is Weiss's opinion of Izuku during their first night sleeping in the same room as a team, not trusting him with anything. She's quickly disproved when he rushes out of the shower in nothing but a towel when he believes Nora in trouble and meekly goes back in when he realizes that the girls are ogling him. She also comes within a hairs-breadth of strangling him when she and the team go through his mail and find a box full of condoms that his mother sent him.
• Ambition Is Evil: Zig-zagged. Weiss begins giving Izuku the cold shoulder after he's named the leader despite their initially good first impression. But after a talk with Toshinori, she turns her attentions to supporting Team MNVW as best she can, becoming a very effective foil and check to her leader's less productive tendencies.
• Anger Born of Worry: Weiss is usually the first one to be cross with Izuku when he plans on adding even more work onto his already tight schedule or injures himself in the middle of a fight. While she admires his drive, she cannot stand his self-destructive tendencies, going so far as to threaten him with violence if it means making sure he gives himself time to rest.
  Izuku: [after offering to take a job for his team] I just don't feel really useful is all. You two give plenty of lien already, and I have a hundred to add. I don't want to ask my mother, and be any more of a burden then I already am, so I was thinking I should see if Vale has an places I can get a-GAH! [Weiss sprays him with water from a spritz battle] Weiss! Stop th-ah! [continues spraying him until he shuts up]
  Weiss: Now that I have you attention, allow me to explain why that is a bad idea. One, you are already close to overworking yourself with your training, studying, meetings, and this will eat into what little time you have left. Second, you routinely cause yourself extraordinary harm in the name of personal training. Can you say, with full confidence, that you will always be fully healed in time to go to whatever job you get?
  
  [waits for him to shake his head no] Third, with everything currently going on that I've mentioned and most likely more besides, I know you will not be able to give any job you get your 100% effort. [points the spray bottle at him when he tries to argue] Not from lack of trying, I know, but you will be physically and mentally exhausted when you arrive, and I cannot in good conscience allow you make such an attempt when there are certainly people looking for work that will certainly give more of their time and effort then you. Fourth, you are our team leader. Monetary deficit or not, you are expected here. You will not be learning about combat effectiveness and leadership flipping burgers in some greasy spoon.
  
  And finally, [extends her hand as if to slap him] I will hurt you if you try.
  • She gets more with Shoto when she hears about his home life, getting angry at his parents for... well, everything. Shoto doesn't really understand, but he's somewhat grateful nonetheless.
• Appeal to Force: As seen in the quote from Anger Born of Worry above, she ends her list of reasons why Izuku will not get a job by threatening him with violence if he attempts to get one.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Shoto starts pressing her on why a "pampered diva" like her would come to Beacon instead of going to Atlas Academy, Weiss presses his Trauma Button by bringing up the fact that he's "the boy who was born of two elements". After she leaves the room, he proceeds to freeze it shut.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted. Her dress gets torn and ripped up in places and she's bleeds from a wound near her ribs while fighting off terrorists and Grimm at Mountain Glenn's Underground Training Facility.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Shoto, particularly after she learns that he had to strip her naked while rescuing her from an icy cave.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: She gets her team a deal on Dust at a shop in Vale by "informing [the shopkeeper] of what he could expect if news about his less scrupulous practices got out".
• Butt-Monkey: Weiss is the butt of many jokes in the series, many of them involving how out of place she is in mundane society or when Izuku accidentally does something perverted to her (or when she mistakes whatever he's doing for something perverted and his own words aren't helping at all).
• Color-Coded Elements: Myrtenaster is loaded with six Dust vials that are colored according to the type of Dust they utilize, but one color can have more than one effect. She uses yellow Lightning Dust while using her time dilation glyphs, blue Ice Dust for freezing attacks, and white Air dust for propulsion and attacking.
• Combat Stilettos: Weiss wears high heels into combat, but they only serve to make her look taller than her diminutive 5'3'' height rather than serve any purpose in combat.
• Combination Attack: Weiss has one with Nora called "Flash Freeze". Weiss charges several of Nora's grenades with Ice Dust that are then fired into the enemy formation. These grenades then explode, engulfing the targets in a storm of ice and lightning that deals devastating damage and roots anyone who survives it in place. These survivors are all rendered brittle, allowing Izuku to easily crack an Atlesian Knight's breastplate with a casual punch and making it easy for Team MNVW to cut and smash these Knights to pieces while they're in a hurry. The downside to this attack is its costliness and the fact that it may be overkill to use against sentient targets.
• Compassionate Critic: Weiss is oftentimes harsh and critical of Izuku, but that's primarily because she cares and has experience in things that he doesn't. He actively seeks her out for advice and relies on her to keep him in check when he's not thinking straight.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Like Ruby, Weiss doesn't have any experience fighting without a weapon, leaving her helpless should she be disarmed. She's started taking unarmed combat lessons with Izuku to try to cover this, as well as doing weightlifting with Ruby and Tsuyu.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Her icy blue eyes match her light blue hair.
• Cuteness Proximity: Weiss's stuffiness collapses when she's given a puppy to coo over. Even Nora has to pick her jaw off the floor while watching Weiss play with Lulu for the first time.
  Weiss: Who is the cutest thing in the whole wide world! Oh yes you are! Yes you are!
  Pyrrha: Um... Weiss? Are you... well?
  Weiss: [freezes and composes herself as she starts to blush] Mmph. Is it so strange that I have a small soft spot for animals?
  Izuku: [before Nora can say something stupidly blunt] N-no, not at all! [sees Weiss raise an eyebrow] W-well, maybe it was a little out of character.
• Dance Battler: Weiss's moves are poised and graceful like she's ballet dancing or figure skating, even while she's gliding across the floor at high speed. Her dance-like motions are actually intentional as they're required to utilize her Semblance.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's quick to snark at Izuku's recklessness, Nora's bloodlust, and Pyrrha's constant apologizing.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Despite their good first impressions, Weiss gives Izuku the cold shoulder due to doubting his abilities as a leader and wanting the position herself. A talk with Toshinori gets her to revise her opinion and apologize to Izuku. In time, they become quite close and she frequently frets over his well-being given his reckless heroism.
• Doesn't Trust Those Guys: She's understandably on edge around Faunus due to the war the White Fang is raging against her family's company. She gets over it in time, which leads Blake and Tsuyu to complain more about her than the other way around. It helps that she doesn't take unreasonable pride in the SDC and does accept that the company did horrible things in the past, realizing that some of the company's detractors have a point.
• Dueling Scar: Has a small thin one over her left eye. Bonus points for having a German name as well as being a fencer.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Although she'll deny it at every turn, she was definitely entranced by Izuku's surprisingly muscular body when she saw it for the first time.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When talking to Shoto, she gets frustrated by how blunt and non-understanding he's being, mentally calling him more socially awkward than Izuku. She then realizes what she just thought and adjusts how she talks to Shoto accordingly, since he is more socially awkward than Izuku.
• Fairy Tale Motif: Weiss has a Snow White motif. Her hair and clothes are predominately white and frosty blue, she has a butler named Klein Sieben with seven personalities styled after the seven dwarves, her abilities are primarily themed around white and blue, she's a powerful heiress, and her name means "White Snow" in German.
• Famous Ancestor: Weiss is a proud member of the Schnee family. Her grandfather, Nicholas Schnee, built the company up with nothing but his own strength, charisma, and wit while guaranteeing an affordable, quality, and ethical product. Weiss seeks to live up to his example and not her father Jacque's.
• Fantastic Racism: She is notably more on edge around Faunus than around humans. This, however, is shown to be a bit more nuanced than in the show- she's aware that it's not a good thing that she feels this way, and that her company is wrong for its crimes against their people. On the other hand, it's a bit of a learned response, given that there is an entire Faunus terrorist organization dedicated to making her family pay, and will single her out in a fight she happens to be in.
  • While she's not nearly as overt about it as Cardin, Weiss has some reservations and assumptions about Faunus and the White Fang due to the war they're waging on her family's company. But more often than not, it's Blake and Tsuyu who are more likely to hold grudges against Weiss than the other way around, with both Faunus being unusually irritable around her.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: She wears her ponytail on the right as a subtle form of rebellion against her strict parents.
• Flash Step: Not quite to the same extent as Ruby, but Weiss can use her Glyphs to speed herself up to the point that she seems to vanish from sight, attacking multiple times before her foes can react.
• Floral Theme Naming: Myrten Aster is German for a family of flowers (Myrtle) that are typically found to be white, but can come in a variety of other colors.
• Fragile Speedster: Weiss's Glyphs allow her to move in virtually any direction she needs to and makes her almost as fast as Ruby with her Semblance. But at the same time, Weiss can't take hits well and actually bleeds during the attack of the Underground Training Facility.
• Friendless Background: Weiss's leitmotif, "Mirror, Mirror", declares her to be the loneliest of all, implying that she had no genuine friends outside of her own household prior to coming to Beacon. Because of this, she's genuinely stunned when Izuku introduces himself and asks to be friends for the sake of being friends, as she's far more used to dealing with people who want to use her connections for their own gain.
• Geometric Magic: Weiss' Semblance focuses on the creation of glyphs through Dust and Myrtenaster through complex, ballet-like movements. Her white glyphs can repel objects and move them away while her black glyphs can pull on things or hold them in place. Charging up a glyph with Lightning Dust dilates time around them to give them a speed boost while using blue can create ice. One omake reveals that doing so takes time, energy, and practice, and that she has to work hard to make each glyph perfect. She frequently spends her training time trying to make flawless glyphs faster and more efficiently.
• Girly Bruiser: Wears a "combat skirt" and heels into combat and will gladly behead Beowolves with Myrtenaster.
• Gravity Master: Weiss can use her Glyphs to yank, slingshot, repel, and attract her foes into her path of attack. She can also use them for Wall Running.
• Had to Be Sharp: Weiss is quick to assume the worst of people in a social situation, that they're making schemes or ploys or are planning to use her for their own ends, or that their "kind words," are in fact hidden insults, but that was the nature of the Upper Atlesian social scene. It takes her a little while to realize that people like Izuku or Shoto aren't trying to take advantage of her, they genuinely are nice and misunderstand situations out of ignorance.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: A classy rapier to boot.
• Hypocritical Humor: Weiss' internal monologue when she's recovering in the hospital and faced with Shoto (who had stripped her naked to save her from hypothermia) is shame that someone else saw her naked... and irritation that Shoto had no reaction to it, warring her desire to not be seen as vulnerable with her desire to at least be seen as desireable.
• An Ice Person: She usually uses Ice Dust to emit waves of ice for attack and defense, allowing her to create sharp projectiles and root people in place.
• Icy Blue Eyes: They emphasize her preference for Ice Dust and Defrosting Ice Queen tendencies.
• Idol Singer: One of Weiss's duties as a Schnee was to entertain her father's guests with her singing and dancing. Izuku comes across her singing on a handful of occasions and several sidestories focus in on this.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Like Katsuki, Weiss was expected to succeed from the beginning and is obsessed with proving herself, resulting in her initially abrasive behavior and the stuffy air around her. She needs to be able to prove herself more than anything and her pride is seriously wounded when her spar with Izuku puts her on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown as he exploits her weaknesses. This infuriates her not only because she was humiliated, but she didn't see the point in the spar since it was meant to have them both improve and learn.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • She inadvertently presses Shoto's Trauma Button when she brings up gossip about how he's the "boy born of two elements", completely unaware of how troubled his home life is.
  • At one point it's mentioned that Izuku's frequent offers to help her out, in the context of Atlesian High Society, could be considered mocking insults. However, she knows enough to understand that when he offers to get records of other Schnee glyphs she could get ideas from, he's just trying to make her better.
• Insult of Endearment: Yang half-jokingly calls Weiss "Ice Queen" and "Weiss Cream".
• Instant Runes: Her entire fighting style revolves around drawing specialized Glyphs with specific movements in order to use her Semblance.
• Jerkass Realization: She comes into Beacon convinced that she's going to be a leader and begins nursing a grudge against Izuku, hoping to seize on some kind of flaw of his to take his position. She ends up breaking her own haughtiness when she realizes she's being unfair to a humble, honest, kind-hearted and responsible person who has nothing but good things to say about her. It's a reverse of canon, where she felt she should be leader and so pounced on the mistakes of Ruby, except here, Izuku might not be perfect, but he's doing everything in his power to be better. Ruby on the other hand was irreverant, too young, and didn't seem to take things seriously. Ultimately, this allows Weiss to come to the conclusion that she was being a jerk on her own, rather than get a minor talking to by a teacher about how she's being unfair.
  Weiss: [to Toshinori] My expectations for today were... terrible. I've spent so much of today just waiting for him to make a mistake, waiting for him to do something that I could latch onto... waiting for an opportunity to find fault in someone who was trying their best and doing... well enough... ugh... [shakes her head] Toshinori, sir... Izuku Midoriya has exceeded the awful expectations I had... set for him and done so in a way that has my other two teammates confident in him... and I feel like I should be too... but... I still want that position. I still feel like it's something I'm owed. Even knowing that Ozpin didn't make a mistake... what does that say about me, sir?
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Izuku cowers under her gaze and instinctively fears being spritzed with her spray bottle. But she rushes into battle to save her friends and classmates without a second thought, assures Izuku that he's been going above and beyond his duties as a team leader when he's in the middle of his Heroic Self-Deprecation, and offers to teach him how to dance so that he wouldn't embarrass himself at parties. She punctuates the latter by threatening to make him eat his hands if he tries anything funny.
• Lady of War: Weiss's fighting style consists primarily of her gliding around with her Semblance with elegant, graceful movements similar to that of a figure skater while trying to find openings in her opponent's movements. This is in sharp contrast to her partner, Nora, whose fighting style is "Hit it with a hammer until it dies or blow it up."
• The Lancer: Weiss takes up this role for Izuku, being his most vocal critic and foil, pointing out when he's being blockheaded and moving when he's too busy overthinking the situation. She also can conduct herself in social situations far better than he can and has plenty of connections that a Socially Awkward Hero like him doesn't. In combat, she hangs back and provides support and crowd control while he goes in as both a distraction and to defend her from those who would try to stop her Glyphs. Izuku's karate and brawling is rough and almost self-taught, while Weiss's own fighting style is elegant to the point of being a Dance Battler.
• Leader Wannabe: She wanted to be the leader of her team more than anything and is more than annoyed that the nervous, stammering, crybaby Izuku got the part. She spends the entire first day of school trying to find some kind of fault in him that she could harp on to get him to step down as leader. She's frustrated to discover that he is responsible, intelligent, hard-working, humble, honest, and kind-hearted with an extremely noble motivation for becoming a Huntsman. Her frustrations are soon directed at herself for being so judgmental of him. A talk with Toshinori gets her to talk to Izuku about her reservations and give him a chance. After the incident at Mountain Glenn, Weiss is glad that Izuku was named the leader.
• Leitmotif: "Mirror, Mirror", an elegant song that questions how well Weiss truly understands herself as well as the loneliness that comes with keeping up with her duties as an heiress.
• Lonely Rich Kid: She's stunned when Izuku asks to become friends with her without knowing her identity, as she's used to people wanting to suck up to her for her connections.
• Luminescent Blush: Weiss is a blushing mess whenever Izuku's sex appeal is brought up.
• Magic Knight: She can use a variety of elemental and supportive abilities with her use of Dust and Glyphs on top of using her sword to cut apart Grimm with speed and grace. She's deficient in the physical area compared to her peers, as even the inexperienced Izuku is able to overwhelm her in close quarters during their spar.
• Magic Wand: Myrtenaster is effectively a conduit for Weiss to use her Semblance.
• Meaningful Name: Her name means "White Snow" when translated from German, alluding to her Snow White motif and her preference for using Ice Dust.
• Mythology Gag: At the start of the original RWBY series, Weiss wants to be leader of a team with Pyrrha. Here, they do end up becoming teammates, but Weiss still isn't the leader.
• The Napoleon: Weiss is the second-shortest member of the team and has the most petite figure overall. She's also undoubtedly the most bossy of the group and expects nothing but perfection from her teammates.
• Noble Bigot: Downplayed compared to the original series. Weiss doesn't make many comments about the Faunus, even though she has a justified distaste for the White Fang, and she's noticeably awkward around Faunus like Tsuyu.
• Non-Idle Rich: Weiss is wealthy enough to live a life of luxury however she pleases, but she chose to come to Beacon to get away from Atlas and her father's influence as a proud member of the Schnee family. She actually gets into a fight with Shoto when he questions this and calls her a "pampered diva" (he actually didn't mean anything by it- he was honestly curious and is really bad at talking with people).
• Not Quite Flight: Weiss can use her Glyphs as stepping stools to quickly reposition herself in the air.
• Not So Above It All: Like in the original series, one of Weiss' character arcs is her defrosting a bit.
  • Despite saying how much she hates the Remnant version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," for all its technical issues, she winds up singing along with the rest of the crowd.
  • She goes positively gooey when she interacts with Lulu.
  • When Nora proposes that they “destroy” Pyrrha for having more of Lulu’s favor than both her and Weiss, Weiss goes along with it with an almost disturbing level of zeal.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The sight of Weiss cheerfully relaxing with a cup of tea instantly puts Izuku on edge, especially as she invites him to join her. She's back to her usual, sarcastic self just minutes later as she confronts him on what exactly Go Beyond does to his body with an evil chuckle.
• Precision F-Strike: When Izuku told her in the aftermath of the Fire in Vale that he knew about Blake's past before anyone else and kept it a secret from everyone, she pretty much screams this before she starts to throttle him while calling him out on it
  Weiss: (enraged) ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?
  
  Weiss: (while shaking Izuku) GODS, WHAT WERE YOU EVEN THINKING IZUKU?! WERE YOU EVEN THINKING?! GODS, I KNOW WE SAY YOU CAN DO THE MOST GODS DAMNED STUPID THINGS ANYONE COULD POSSIBLY COME UP WITH IZUKU, WE HAVE AN ENTIRE KIT DEDICATED TO IT, BUT I HONESTLY DIDN'T THINK YOU COULD... AGH!
• Proper Lady: As the heiress of the largest Dust company on Remnant, Weiss has learned how to conduct herself in high society. Izuku goes to her for help on presenting himself, where she proves to be a demanding but effective teacher.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Weiss wears these as part of her "Prevent Izuku from Doing Something Stupid Kit" (PIDSSK) to discipline Izuku and Nora. She furiously denies it when Nora brings it up to Yang.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense:
  • She assumes that baking a cake is a tedious affair because her family had a cake butler devoted to making sweets for her, talking about this as if it were natural, everyday affair. This elicits mixed responses from her friends.
  • She is also completely unaware of what moss is, never seeing it in the cold, snowy peaks of Atlas and freaks out when she learns that some berries are poisonous.
  • She wants to get all the best toys and things possible for Lulu, leaving Izuku to point out that they should instead focus on training her first before spoiling her rotten.
• Royal Rapier: Downplayed in that she's not actually royalty, but her aristocratic background and use of the intricately designed Myrtenaster more than makes up for it.
• Ship Tease: She gets more than a little with Shoto, due in part to his No Social Skills nature failing to realize when something is romantic or not.
  • They become an Official Couple after the Beacon dance when she “accepts Shoto’s courtship.”
• Squishy Wizard: Contrary to her use of a sword, Weiss needs to keep her distance most of the time in order to maximize the use of her Glyphs. She struggles against opponents who can take her hits and stay in her face to prevent her from using the complex movements she needs to form a Glyph. Normally, she's able to mitigate this weakness with her speed and time dilation Glyphs, but enclosed spaces can limit her mobility. Izuku exploits this in his spar with her, resorting to grappling techniques to restrain her before suplexing her in preparation for a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Weiss also struggles when she starts weightlifting to mitigate these tendencies, becoming utterly exhausted early on in her first workout.
• Spell Blade: She can use her weapon to provide supernatural effects like ice, fire, barriers, and she can combine the dust inside with her Glyphs to make them even more effective.
• Stance System: Myrtenaster has a revolver-like mechanism that allows Weiss to cycle between different types of dust for different attacks.
• Start X to Stop X: Weiss tells Izuku off for trying to get a job by reasoning that he'll hurt his growth as a leader and a Huntsman if he stretches himself too thin. She punctuates her argument by threatening to hurt him physically if he doesn't comply.
• Stern Teacher: She criticizes Izuku's Valite accent, use of contractions, and clumsy footwork while teaching him how to present himself and dance. She also threatens to make him eat his hands if he places them in any funny places. To her credit, it works, with Izuku even managing to sweep Yang into a frenzied dance at Pyrrha's birthday party.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • Early on, she assumes that cakes are easy to make because she has a Cake Butler as part of the Schnee staff to make pastries like that, thinking it's a normal thing. Later, Momo is revealed to have the exact same thought process, including having a Cake Butler of her own.
  • In the wake of the Docks battle, when she sees Lulu getting along better with Pyrrha than either herself or Nora, she teams up with Nora with the intention of destroying Pyrrha.
• Swipe Your Blade Off: On one occasion, she's disgusted after she rips the head off a Beowolf with the tip of Myrtenaster, flinging the head and the blood off with a flicking motion.
• Team Dad: A female example. While Izuku is MNVW's nurturing source of positivity, Weiss is grounded in cold, hard reality. She constantly presses her team to give their absolute best, keeps everyone on task and reins in their worst impulses. She's the one to scold Izuku and Nora when they're acting up and is treated with both respect and fear.
• Time Master: By using Lightning Dust, Weiss can create time dilation Glyphs that speed up everyone who steps in them. The only real downside is that it also speeds up the user's speech, which can make them difficult to understand.
• Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Weiss flies off the handle after discovering the box of condoms Izuku's mom sent him. While his poor choice of words didn't help, she was the one rifling through his mail.
  Izuku: [walks in on Weiss holding a condom] W-Weiss, I kn-know our f-f-families have different ways of doing th-things, but that's not the sort of thing you should just... wave around. [tries to offer a reassuring smile] You're an adult, and I respect your choices, but I think we'd all just prefer some things stay private. Ok? [Weiss screams and tries to strangle him as they both blush like mad] W-Weiss! Not in front of the others! It's lewd!
  Weiss: Die!
• Winter Royal Lady: She's the heiress of Remnant's largest corporation with an air of nobility around her and frequently manipulates ice. The "royal" part is downplayed because she's not an actual princess, simply the heiress to an extremely powerful company that treats her like one (as does other members of the Atlesian Elite, as Momo shows when the two meet in Vale).

Lulu-Bell, Lord of Thunder

Lulu-Bell, Lord of Thunder

A puppy that Izuku found while spending some alone time in Vale, he brings her back to Beacon the same day, upon which the girls instantly fall in love with her. Unsure if they can take care of the puppy, Izuku initially sends Lulu to the shelter, but he and the others eventually return to formally adopt her.

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• Abandoned Pet in a Box: How Izuku found her. The box was sealed shut and it was only Lulu's growling and scratching noises that caught his attention.
• All Dogs Are Purebred: Lulu is an Atlesian Mountain Retriever.
• Big Friendly Dog: Lulu's breed is known for this, which leads to Izuku's recommendations that she sleep in her own bed so she doesn't crush them once she gets bigger.
• Cuteness Overload: Lulu tends to induce this in people around her, making them coo and want to cuddle her if not go into full-blown hysterics over her.
  Izuku: [sees Lulu popping out of the box she was in] C-cute...! Damn! Critical hit! Cuteness overload detected!
• Deathbringer the Adorable: Lulu-Bell, Lord of Thunder doesn't have anything to do with thunder, she's just an adorable puppy.
• The Dreaded: Like in canon, Blake is not fond of dogs, only this time it's Lulu and not Zwei who triggers that particular fear.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Has these, which only further ups her cuteness factor.
• The Nicknamer: She doesn't refer to Team MNVW by their names in her internal dialogue, instead referring to them as "Nice Girl" (Weiss), "Loud Girl" (Nora), "Tall Girl" (Pyrrha), and "Leader" (Izuku).
• Non-Indicative Name: Lulu has no association with thunder or lightning and is a girl (so the masculine title of "lord" isn't correct), but Nora is the one who named her so...
• Original Character: Lulu has no counterpart in either My Hero Academia or RWBY, and was invented purely for the quest.
• Precious Puppy: Lulu is an adorable puppy◊ small enough to get stuck in a box and is mostly there to just lift everyone's spirits with her fuzziness.
• Retcon: She's initially introduced as a lightly-furred dog with brown eyes akin to a Labrador retriever. After a fierce debate over what her breed should be, the vote finalized her current design and breed.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: While it's understandable for Nora to go gooey over Lulu, Izuku is surprised to learn that Weiss is right there beside her, demanding that the team spoil Lulu rotten (especially since their partnership normally verges on Vitriolic Best Buds).
• Super-Senses: In addition to having the typical doggy sense of smell, Lulu is attuned to the sensation of Auras and Semblances and all animals are implied to be the same way. In "New Family", she's initially confused as to why "Nice Girl", "Loud Girl", and "Tall Girl" follow "Leader" until she feels the surging power of One For All within Izuku's soul. From then on, Lulu knew that Izuku was someone worth following.
• Team Pet: Her basic role is to look cute and be a source of warm fuzziness. It's noted that she could potentially become an Action Pet if properly trained.