The Villain's Hero
is a My Hero Academia alternative timeline drama fan fiction by Rissy Wetzel / Valentines Star. The first chapter was published on February 5th, 2019. It is divided into two parts titled "I Could Have Been Your Hero" and "I Never Will Be Your Hero".
I Could Have Been Your Hero is about Ochako Uraraka, now an adult hero, going after a new, elusive villain with a group of her colleagues while a series of interspersed flashbacks tell the story of the loss and tragedy Ochako endured as a teenager after her friend Tenya Iida was killed by the Hero Killer Stain, along with her other classmate Shouto Todoroki.
The Villain's Hero contains examples of
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Deku, the kind, polite protagonist of the canon, becomes the main antagonist of the story.
- Fuyumi and Tensei, who are characterized as sweet and caring in the canon, are revenge-driven vigilantes with ruthless tactics.
- Age-Gap Romance: It’s never directly mentioned in the story, but there is an eight-year age gap between Fuyumi and Tensei.
- Alternate Timeline: The story begins with Todoroki and Iida dying during the fight with Stain, instead of defeating him like they do in the canon.
- During the League of Villains’ second attack, Yaoyorozu is killed and Deku is abducted with Bakugou.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- After seemingly being dead for six years, Deku comes back as a villain.
- Fuyumi and Tensei also fall into this, though they believe that all of the things they’ve done are completely moral and justified.
- Final Girl: Ochako is the only hero who survived Deku’s attacks.
- First Love: Deku was Ochako's first love. After he disappeared, she moved on by starting a relationship with Tsu.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: This happens mostly off-page with Deku and again with Fuyumi and Tensei.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The parts are "I [X] Your Hero": "I Could Have Been Your Hero" and "I Never Will Be Your Hero".
- Implied Love Interest: In I Could Have Been Your Hero, it’s a little vague if Fuyumi and Tensei are a couple or just close friends. In And I Never Will Be Your Hero, they’re given more explicitly romantic scenes and stated to be engaged after the time skip.
- Involuntary Group Split: Ochako and her co-workers are separated while wandering around in the dark, causing most of them to be cornered and killed by Himiko and Deku.
- It's All My Fault:
- Ochako blames herself for Iida’s death. She believes that if she had been there for him while he was grieving over his brother’s injury, he wouldn’t have gone after Stain to get revenge.
- Deku blames himself for their deaths as well, believing he could have stopped it had he made better decisions during the fight. He even says that they’re “haunting him”.
- Tensei also feels responsible for his brother’s death, going as far as to wish he had died instead.
- It's Personal with the Dragon:
- After she finds out that the Hero Killer is Deku, Ochako feels it’s her responsibility to go after him.
- Fuyumi and Tensei want Deku dead because he takes after the villain that killed both of their siblings and paralyzed one of them.
- Point of Divergence: Todoroki and Iida’s deaths lead to Deku becoming a villain.
- Romantic Rain: Subverted by being mixed with Gray Rain of Depression. Ochako and Deku get stuck in a heavy rainstorm while they’re walking home from Iida’s funeral, which leads to them kissing. The moment is not treated as romantic.
- Second Love:
- Ochako started dating Tsu after Deku was declared dead.
- Deku got together with Himiko after Ochako.
- These Hands Have Killed:
- Deku kills Stain in a burst of adrenaline after watching him kill Iida.
- Fuyumi kills her father after he comes into her home unannounced and starts attacking her. Years later, she kills a gang of villains who were trying to abduct a boy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Fuyumi and Tensei believe they’re doing the right thing. They even call their killing “alternative hero work.”
- Villain Has a Point: While threatening Ochako, Tensei makes the remark that heroes aren’t allowed to use lethal weapons on villains, even though villains are starting to use lethal weapons more and more.
