Fridge Brilliance / My Hero Academia

"Fridge" reactions are defined as happening post-viewing, as such Spoilers Off applies to this page.

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• When Izuku was little he thought of choosing a hero name similar to All Might's, who he always idolized, but when he grew older and had to choose a hero name he thought he is not worthy of it yet so he chose Deku with the meaning "Give it all." Basically, in order to achieve all the might he can have he has to give it all.
  • This becomes more thematically appropriate when the crux of his climatic battle against Tomura comes down to him inflicting the greatest possible damage against his otherwise-invincible enemy by exploiting the transference aspect of One For All — in order to inflict the mightiest possible blows against an unstoppable enemy, he has to literally give all his accumulated power to him.
• There may be a more pragmatic reason behind Hawks' decision of giving Twice a chance to surrender, Hawks wants nothing more than to live in a society where heroes have more time than they know what to do with and he saw Twice as a perfect tool to achieve that dream. If Twice had chosen to surrender and allied himself with the heroes, he could lower the crime rate by creating clones of top-ranking heroes and thus give Hawks the freedom he always yearned for while in his perspective redeeming a man's broken life. No wonder he tried so hard to convince Twice to change sides!
• Overlaps with horror but Shoto has shown in multiple instances that while an expert at wielding his quirk, he has poor social skills. It is likely that Enji isolating him from his siblings and forcing him to train during his childhood stunted his people skills.
• Hilarious in hindsight as Shoto asked Izuku if he's All Might's secret love child. Later, we find out that Shoto is the product of a quirk marriage so he was asking based on experience. Dammit, Endeavor!
• A rather inspiring example: Keigo Takami's parents were desperate and cowardly people who spent their lives blaming others for their problems and using their Quirks to dodge the law. When he becomes Hawks, he registers his Quirk as "Fierce Wings", signifying his resolve to take life head-on.
• Of all of Bakugo's peers, despite being the weakest in terms of power Sero is the one least afraid to mock him and take advantage of his character flaws rather than Childhood Friend Deku, Class Clown Kaminari or manly Kirishima. This might seem weird but it fits his role as a Spider-Man expy.
• Now that Monoma knows One for All is a power stockpiling Quirk rather than a power generating Quirk, Izuku has the perfect excuse as for why it didn't "develop" until so late in his life. After all, how much power could he have reasonably stockpiled at age 4? It makes sense that a Quirk wouldn't express itself until it became viable as an actual ability, and would lie dormant until that point.
  • This also puts into view the possibility of Quirks that manifest much later compared to the majority of the population. All Quirks work differently and operate on their own mechanics. As such, there may be several individuals whose abilities didn't become apparent until much later in life.
• Meta-wise, it makes sense that Horikoshi decided against making Izuku a straight out Quirkless hero and chose to make him the successor of All Might. Often, the powerset of the hero influences the style of stories one tells about him or her and the environment in which the story is set, two notable examples of this are Superman with Metropolis and Batman with Gotham. Had Horikoshi made Izuku a Quirkless hero, he would have been forced to compensate both in equipment and attitude to keep up with the other heroes, impacting the tone of the story and making it more cynical and less hopeful, which was not what Horikoshi wanted. This can be noticed in the prototype sketch◊ of Izuku back when he was going to be a Badass Normal hero.
• For much of the early part of the series; Midoriya struggles with using One For All, injures himself in spite of having All Might's guidance, but then rectifies these issues once he trains with Gran Torino. All Might calls his instructing inadequate, but it's likely more complicated than that. Gran Torino states that Midoriya and All Might have contrasting personalities, but he also acknowledges that All Might figured out the Quirk much quicker than Midoriya did. It wasn't that All Might was bad at instructing Midoriya, he simply didn't understand the hurdles that his pupil was going through.
• The first person to pass on One For All had a latent Quirk that allowed him to pass it onto others. At first glance, it might seem like an incredibly convenient plot device, considering how weak and unnoticeable it is. However, it's not that far-fetched at all, and in fact, makes perfect sense. As shown in-story, Quirks are hereditary, meaning that parents can pass on their Quirks to their children. His brother has the power to steal Quirks, in addition to the power to grant them. Him getting the latter Quirk, but not the former, thus makes complete sense.
  • You could also say that this is why the later users of One For All can use their predecessors Quirks — One For All is essentially stealing them for its own use. In truth, both All For One and his brother actually had a very similar Quirk its just that one had a crippling flaw that was only remedied by the unnamed power-stockpiling Quirk that he was given.
  • The difference between the two 'twin' Quirks is best illustrated in the terminology used when they're adapting new Quirks into themselves — AFO Absorbs Quirks, thus non-consensually stealing what others own and demonstrating total control over whom the targeted Quirk is granted to, OFA Assimilates itself into other Quirks, passively submitting itself to the will of the Quirk holder it transfers to, and bringing along the Quirk factor with it when it's voluntarily transferred to another, thus leaving control in the hands of the target the entire time. In truth, the power-stockpiling Quirk wasn't strictly necessary for Yoichi to create OFA with — it merely allowed him to realize he did possess a Quirk of his own, once he assimilated a Quirk with a visible effect into his own existing Quirk, but he could have passed on OFA without it, though it wouldn't have had an effect until the Second Holder passed it on.
• While Bakugo's horrified reaction to Todoroki's reason for existing is justified by how disturbing it is — another part of it could easily come from him seeing the kind of person he could turn into over his obsession with becoming Number 1.
  • Also, his own Quirk is the merging of his two parents' Quirk into one that is much more powerful and 'heroic'. It was probably unsettling to him on a 'that guy's me but played for sinister' way.
• The name "One for All". At first, it might seem weird since it's actually a sum of many people's powers held by one person, suggesting that "All for One" might be a more appropriate name. However, taking into account All Might and Midoriya's personalities, it can be interpreted as "One person's power for the sake of All others". Also, it's a power that has been held by several people (with Midoriya being the ninth user).
  • It ends up making perfect sense, when following The Reveal of "All for One" as the name of another Quirk — one which enabled a powerful villain to selfishly hoard many other Quirks for himself.
  • Also, it fits in that it's "One power for All people", in that it's a Quirk which can be freely passed on to anyone, from a Quirkless kid (Deku), to a person who has proven themselves worthy with their own Quirk (Mirio)
• Todoroki's costume completely covered his fireside with what looked like ice. Considering how he hates his father's fire powers, and vowed to never use that side of his in battle, this makes perfect sense; especially considering how he later gets another costume change, one more suitable, after having accepting his flame powers.
• So far in the series, we have plenty of confirmation of Midoriya being worthy of One For All as All Might's successor, especially based on how he rushes into danger if it means helping people. But there's also the fact that several of his classmates are starting to be inspired by him as well. Todoroki is motivated to get over his anger toward his father to better himself as a hero, Bakugo is encouraged to start working with others if it means winning, and even Mineta is able to get over his perversion and cowardice in order to win against a much stronger opponent on his own. Just like All Might was an inspiration and a symbol of peace to others — Midoriya is starting to change a lot of people around him for the better.
  • This ability to inspire people to do better was even seen at the very beginning of the series; when his reckless attempt to rescue Bakugo convinced All Might to defy his time limit, despite the risk to himself, and save the day.
• Aside from Super-Speed and Super-Strength, One For All also apparently grants the user Enhanced Durability. How does this happen? Simple. One For All's massive backlash punishes the user with extreme pain (broken bones being very common), but over time, this helps the user build resistance to massive amounts of pain. So, All Might being able to tank just about anything isn't inherently granted by the Quirk. In fact, it's a long-term by-product of his Quirk after years of wielding One For All.
• Uraraka's weakness; namely that overusing her gravity-cancelling powers, or applying said powers to herself (which ends up causing her extreme nausea), actually makes a great deal of sense. Nausea is a common symptom if in zero-gravity conditions. There's a reason why the aircraft used to train astronauts for zero-gravity conditions, are collectively called the Vomit Comet, after all. When using this power of such a Quirk on herself, Uraraka is consequently then exposing her body to a zero-gravity environment.
• Bakugo telling Todoroki before their match at the Sports Festival that he'll "hold down his flames from above", since Todoroki had just started using them at that point. It's sounds slightly out of place, because he could have just said "I'll hold you back even if you use your flames". Why "from above"? Until we get to the last few seconds of their fight, and Bakugo pulls out Howitzer Impact, where he comes at Todoroki from above. Not only that, but the vacuum he made from using the move would have put out Todoroki's flames, so Todoroki putting them out himself from a traumatic memory took away a chance for Bakugo to prove himself to everyone that he's as good as, or better than Deku.
• Uraraka learning how to fight hand-to-hand seems like a suitable skill for her to learn to enhance her offensive capabilities. In what we've seen so far, though, this mostly seems to be limited to grappling and submissions. However, considering that Uraraka's Quirk allows her to reduce an enemy's weight to nothing, it's no wonder that grappling would be a fantastic fighting style for her.
• Tsuyu's unusual face, namely her big wide eyes, solid oval pupils, and a V-shaped smile, is yet another frog reference: She resembles the Sanrio mascot Keroppi. This also ties in to her chosen hero name of "Froppy".
• Shinso has Mind Control as a Quirk. On the surface, it certainly seems like a power only villains should have, but he'd be really good at beating whole hideouts full of villains by just kicking in the door and shouting pretty much any phrase that comes to mind. Whether he says "Your criminal days are over!" or "Did anyone order pizza?" doesn't matter; the instant everyone in the hideout yells, "Get 'im!" Shinso wins.
• One thing that's pretty interesting about My Hero Academia compared to other Shōnen series is that the arcs are very fast-paced: as of this writing, eight volumes have been published with a ninth coming soon, and each one roughly covering one whole arc (cliffhangers notwithstanding). This isn't just Horikoshi being good at pacing arcs, it's a reference to Superhero comics usually being collected in trade paperbacks, with one roughly complete arc collected into a roughly standalone volume!
• Todoroki is more like Endeavor than he realizes, in that in most of the competitions and exams he's ranked second. Second in Aizawa's Quirk evaluation exam, second in the sports festival, and second in his first term final exam. And with the introduction of Inasa, he's most likely ranked second among those who took the recommended student exam. He's even ranked second in the popularity poll!
• When Kaminari describes Bakugo's personality as being like "crap steeped in sewage" it's not just a colorful simile. Soaking feces in urine is an old method to produce saltpeter, an ingredient in gunpowder.
  • Bakugo is also very likely to have intermittent explosive disorder, a behavioral disorder characterized by explosive outbursts of anger and violence, often to the point of rage, that are disproportionate to the situation at hand (e.g., impulsive screaming triggered by relatively inconsequential events).
• Camie didn't get the usual square with her name and Quirk during the first License Exam Arc because we didn't meet Camie.
• Overhaul keeps talking about illnesses and cures in his first appearance. It's quiet befitting of his theme.
  • Almost a Genius Bonus: They are first shown burning the car of those they consider ill; it was common for the doctors to burn the bodies of bubonic plague victims.
• In a flashback we see Mirio with a ponytail while in the present he has short hair, His suit is made with his hair woven in, It probably just hasn't grown back fully yet.
  • Alternatively, the ponytail was specifically BECAUSE he was growing his hair out for his suit, and needed a way to keep it from getting in the way.
• In the first page of Chapter 117, as Midoriya and Bakugo leave the dorms at night, we see four students asleep in their rooms, Iida, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Kirishima. Though it may appear to be simply a random group of students sleeping to demonstrate how late it is, they are also the group of students that went to save Bakugo during his kidnapping. Given the content of the chapter, it could serve to highlight Bakugo's character development throughout the series so far.
• They say you subconsciously find romantic partners with similar traits to your mother. In Izuku's case, his mother happens to have gravity-related powers. Guess who the primary love interest's powers involve?
  • Adding to it is that Ochaco looks a little bit like Inko when she was young and thin, mostly with her haircut.
    • Adding to that, Ochaco is somewhat chubby as well. Not saying Midoriya is a Chubby Chaser, but...
  • Same goes for the opposite with similar traits to the father. Izuku's father's related to fire, as is his rival.
• Why doesn't All For One steal every single Quirk he can get his hands on? Because doing so would actually be detrimental to him. Quirks like Best Jeanist, Edge Shot, or Mirio's require intensive training to use at their full potential. Taking Quirks like theirs would just be a waste of time, seeing how long it would take to use the Quirk at its best. And then there's Quirks that either permanently mutate the user's body, like most animal-related Quirks, or are too dangerous to have, like Overhaul's Quirk. The best Quirks to steal, therefore, are simple yet incredibly useful Quirks like Ragdoll's or Quirks to later give to a Nomu.
  • Furthermore, it's later revealed in the manga that All For One's Quirk maybe be able to steal Quirks theoretically without limitations, but the user's body can only handle so many Quirks before starting to undergo a Superpower Meltdown, especially as Quirks themselves are starting to get stronger and more powerful as the generations pass, whereas All For One still possess the body of a first-generation Quirk holder. This provides a hard limit on the amount of powers he can store and hoard before he needs to pass on some of them to prevent his body rupturing from the strain. In addition, the number of Quirks he can safely withstand at once went down after his body got ravaged at All Might's hands, further limiting the immense power he can bring to bear, despite being able to theoretically use any power in existence. In addition to that, its further implied that All For One's lifespan, whilst extended through the particular Quirks he's been able to acquire over the years, isn't infinite, and will eventually run out, hence why he's so focused on creating a 'successor' for the new empire of evil he wants to build atop the rubble of modern Japan. He cannot afford to waste valuable time mastering tricky Quirks whilst his plans are in motion. Of course, All For One being the kind of person he is, said successor is basically a carbon copy of himself with a younger body, and has been further enhanced to store more power than his original self could, rather that truly bequeath anything he's accumulated over the years to another person.
• Some of the teachers like Aizawa and Midnight seem somewhat out of place in a class setting teaching kids, but something to consider is that a lot of heroes are fairly active during the day. Aizawa is stated to do a lot of his hero work at night, and it's likely a similar story with Midnight. Thirteen is a rescue worker, who would mainly be active during disasters, so it's possible a lot of the teaching staff was hired from a pool of heroes who aren't active during school hours.
  • It also explains why Aizawa is perpetually exhausted looking and sleeps in his classes a lot. The guy probably doesn't get much rest considering how much of his fighting style emphasizes heavy martial arts mixed with his eye straining Quirk. Conversely, Midnight being generally better off can be easily explained by her Quirk enabling her to subdue criminals more easily without needing to resort to extreme movement and combat, and her preference for non-fatal/physical methods and friendlier disposition (as is shown in both the series and Illegals) likely means she tends to finish things pretty quickly and with the villains probably either surrendering non-violently, thus giving her more time for rest.
  • It's also likely to ensure that heroes in training get exposed to a lot more types of heroes than the flashiest on the street. Why have a kid who has the potential to operate at night or as a rescue hero get exposed to only street heroes after all.
  • Given that they are teachers at a school filled with super-powered teenagers, one of the most important considerations is the ability to control the students. Both Midnight and Eraser Head have powers that can immediately end potential conflicts between students or any other incidents painlessly. These two in particular are also skilled in restraining opponents also without direct harm (well, non-consensual harm in Midnight's case). Combined, their powers and talents make the two ideal for teaching classes and instilling discipline on young, sometimes-defiant, heroes-in-training even with their personalities.
  • Notably on the idea of controlling the students it is the teacher who can deactivate Quirks on sight who is put in charge of not only the most aggressive student (Bakugo), but also arguably the most powerful student when it comes to raw Quirk power (Todoroki). It's fairly likely that choice was deliberate. Most of the students with self-destructive Quirks, like Kaminari, Aoyama, Tokoyami, and Midoriya, are also in his class, which would make sense -– if they get out of control, like Midoriya with his early Quirk and Tokoyami in the Training Camp arc, he can manually shut them down.
  • Also note the other teachers: Present Mic can get everyone's attention in a hurry, Ectoplasm can have a clone instruct a student one-on-one, Cementoss can separate students quickly, All Might can physically stop someone fairly easily regardless of their Quirk, and Vlad King can hold back students with his blood. EVERY teacher we've seen directly teach the first year classes in the hero course has something their skillsets and Quirks can do to handle 20+ superpowered students at once without hurting them; other teachers, like Snipe and Thirteen, haven't been shown doing more than helping with specialty classes with another teacher present, and likely teach the higher classes who have already been trained to handle their Quirks and tempers a little better than the first years.
• Another thing about Aizawa is that we see in Vigilantes that he was hit hard by the loss of Shirokumo. People who live with depression do sometimes sleep more and can be apathetic at times. Plus, he often has a The Eeyore personality. Add to that his work as an underground hero and seeing a lot of bad stuff and there’s a pretty good chance the guy has legitimate chronic depression, post traumatic stress disorder or both. And given what he’s gone through in canon on top of it…ouch. He also doesn’t come across as someone who’d be too easily persuaded to try antidepressants and/or therapy either.
• Tiger stands out quite a bit from the other Wild Wild Pussycats, who are quite girly. He's revealed to be transgender, implying he joined/founded the team before transitioning.
• The second anime opening shows Todoroki stretching alone in a dark place, soon after, however, the clouds above the sun move and the place where he is becomes bright, this foreshadows the fact that the Sports Festival Arc is a turning point to a brighter time of his life, he manages to reconnect with his mother, start dealing with his trauma over his father and even befriends Midoriya.
• Stain reducing Todoroki's ice to chunks with a battered katana and his ability to shake off a 5% Smash from Izuku's Full Cowl despite his Quirk having no apparent strength-enhancement might seem like a case of Charles Atlas Superpower, but given the nature of Quirks and how they can combine as they're passed down from parents to children, it's entirely possible that his Quirk could be a hybrid with some sort of physical enhancement from somewhere in his ancestry. This might also explain why some characters have odd appearances that seem unrelated to their Quirks — for example, Koda of Class 1-A looks like a rock monster but his Quirk is talking to animals, and Tokoyami's bird head seems to have no connection to Dark Shadow other than the aesthetic. This could mean that their Quirks are technically hybrid Quirks that present secondary/vestigial characteristics from their ancestry.
  • This could be the same reason Aizawa seems to have a minor antigravity Quirk that makes his hair levitate when he's using his Quirk. It only works when he's activated it, and since his actual Quirk is centered on his eyes, so is this one.
• Several of the locations in MHA have their names derived from planets in Star Wars. A lot of them have meaning when you look at the events that occur there:
  • Tatooin/Tatooine Station: A train station Midoriya and Bakugo's hometown, and one of the first named locations seen in the series. Tatooine was where Luke Skywalker's Hero's Journey began.
  • Orudera Junior High School: Named for Alderaan, Princess Leia's home world. Midoriya and Bakugo go to school here before being admitted into UA High. Destruction of something precious (Midoriya's Notebook) leads to a great change in the narrative.
  • Dagobah Municipal Beach Park: Named For Dagobah, where Luke Skywalker's Training from Hell with Yoda takes place. Midoriya undergoes similar training so he can inherit One For All.
  • Nabu Junior High: Named for Naboo. Hitoshi Shinso went to this school before attending UA. In Episode I, Naboo is blockaded by the Trade Federation, referencing the obstacles Shinso was unable to overcome, not being admitted to the Hero course due to his Quirk not being suited for direct combat.
  • Hosu, Tokyo: Named for Hoth. In Star Wars, the Battle of Hoth was the result of an ambush by the Imperial army, after discovering the Rebel Alliance base there, and the Rebels lost badly. In much the same way, Stain loses due to an ambush by Iida, Midoriya, and Todoroki, and the city is almost overrun by an attack from three Nomu.
  • Kamino Ward, Yokohama: Named for Kamino, where the Clone Troops were grown. Similarly, Kamino is where All For One was growing Nomu to use in attacks carried out by the League of Villains/Villain Alliance.
  • Musutafu: Named for Mustafar, the site of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi's last battle. Bakugo and Midoriya's hometown, as well as where UA is located; possibly a reference to the bitter rivalry between Bakugo and Midoriya.
• Todoroki and Yaoyorozu were admitted by recommendation, meaning they didn't have to take the entrance exam. Both of them have Quirks that would make it difficult for the tests to function properly if they were participating. Yaoyorozu's cannons would be potentially lethal if another student got in her way, and Todoroki would makes whole streets inaccessible with sheets of ice. Had they been present, they would have been bigger hazards to other test-takers than the robots, so they were allowed to skip the exam.
  • This is also true of at least one of those from Class B who were admitted the same way. Honenuki's softening ability could render the entire battlefield, or at least parts of it, very hard to maneuver, and could lead to drowning or suffocation if anyone was caught under any wreckage and he didn't notice.
  • Tokage, the fourth recommended student, would have been very at risk through splitting up if other students didn't notice her scales and attacked indiscriminately.
  • Yaoyorozu must have had a different exam pattern though, considering she doesn't have any kind of "high speed movement object" which could have helped her in the race.
• During the cavalry battle, Hatsume is eager to team up with Midoriya, who's huge point value scared everyone else away. We learn later in her fight with Iida that Hatsume isn't trying to win, and only cares about drawing attention to her inventions. No wonder she jumped at the opportunity to be on his team.
• Iida in fact was the one to defeat Stain; Stain was knocked unconscious due to a broken rib puncturing his lung. This injury could only have been dealt by Iida's kick to the chest. So even though it seemed Stain was knocked out by a Combination Attack leaving him open to a finisher from Todoroki, Iida was the one that actually brought him down. Fitting since he has the most personal tie to Stain.
• Mineta's attempt to spy on the girls in their locker room actually kind of worked. Jiro's earphones are shown to be extremely sensitive, and she plays with them constantly. Her stabbing Mineta in the eye was actually a moment of extremely intimate contact, just not in the way he was hoping for.
• Although the story provides a reason for why some were paired, the final exam matchups have more than just simple attempts to fix the weakness' of the students Quirks, but also help them improve in other ways.
  • Kaminari and Mina are put together at the End Of Term against Nezu. The reason why they failed was simple: The two Book Dumb characters of Class 1-A were put together to fight against a character with an Intelligence Enhancing Quirk and from the looks of the battle, it's clear they weren't even able to understand that the point of the test was outsmarting Nezu, rather than fighting him. It was obvious they wouldn't pass, because they didn't even get the assignment.
  • Kirishima and Satou both have Quirks that increase their physical strength and body but run on a timer of sorts, with Kirishima being more of a Stone Wall fighter, and Satou being a Lightning Bruiser who loses his intelligence due to the sugar he eats. Their opponent was Cementoss, whose Quirk allows him to manipulate concrete and cement. Cementoss used his power to create barriers that were easily replaceable, forcing Kirishima and Satou's frontal assault into a battle of attrition that neither could win due to their time limits. The idea behind their fight was to prod them into fighting tactically rather than going When All You Have Is a Hammer… and having Cementoss hard counter them. And while Satou has an excuse in that his power makes him think less clearly, Kirishima does not and could have at least tried to create a strategy for himself and his partner to follow.
  • Tsuyu has a Weak, but Skilled Quirk that gives her all the powers of a regular frog, just for a human to use. Tokoyami has a Unskilled, but Strong Quirk that has a lot of raw power to it, but very little control over. The entire point was to show Tokoyami that Quirk's are not always needed to fight and can be supportive, while Tsuyu is pushed to play the support role to someone whose Quirk doesn't have good synergy with her. Naturally their opponent is Ectoplasm, whose Quirk can create copies of himself that, while weak, can still close the gap and get into close combat with the Fragile Speedster and the Squishy Wizard, plus he can make larger copies that are more powerful than the others. His Quirk allows him to be both Weak, but Skilled, and Unskilled, but Strong at the same time, forcing both students to learn when offensive power is important, and also show when supportive power is needed.
  • Toru and Shoji both possess utility Quirks that are a great help with intelligence gathering and stealth, but don't give them much direct combat strength. Naturally they fight Snipe, a hero whose Quirk is the ability to manipulate the trajectory of his bullets, allowing him to both be strategic, and offensive at the same time. Since neither Toru or Shoji can hope to win in a fight against him, they both have to use their Quirk's ability to be strategic to outsmart Snipe. Notable their plan works because early on, Toru stayed close to Shoji, allowing Snipe to keep track of the two because Toru couldn't really well separated from Shoji, but because Shoji created a distraction, Toru was able to sneak around and nab him.
  • Iida and Ojiro both have Quirks that increase their physical mobility and strength, so naturally they fight Power Loader, whose tunneling Quirk negates the biggest strength both of them have. Iida is faster than Ojiro but his movement is more rigid and mostly in a straight line, which means he cannot run across the battlefield because he'd fall into a pit. Meanwhile, Ojiro isn't as fast as Iida, but he has better mobility when it comes to dodging and isn't limited by one direction. At the same time, he can't move fast enough to the exit since Power Loader is tunneling too fast for him. Naturally the strategy they use to win is to use Iida's speed advantage to move Ojiro in such a way where he gets enough of an advantage to move quicker to the exit, which works out in the end.
  • Koda and Jiro is a bit more straightforward, as both are sound based Quirk users, so they fight Present Mic. Koda's Quirk allows him to speak to animals while Jiro can use her headphone earlobes and heartbeat to create blasts of sound that are very powerful. The entire point of the test was not to see if Jiro was strong or weak, but more to see if Jiro could get Koda to break out of his shell and use his Quirk without his shyness getting in the way of the situation. Present Mic could easily negate Jiro's Quirk and any of Koda's weaker attempts at using his Quirk, so pushing him to be loud was the only way to win, and Jiro managing to do so is how they succeeded.
    • Adding onto this, Present Mic spends most of the match screaming incredibly loudly. And since most animals are afraid of loud noises, the first time he did this would have likely scared away most of the naturally diurnal animals in the forest. Forcing Koda to really step up his game and use his communication with living things outside his normal purview.
  • Uraraka and Aoyama are put against Thirteen, which seems weird at first, but their Quirks are easy for Thirteen to counter. Aoyama needs to stand still for a moment to fire his navel laser while Uraraka needs to physically touch something to manipulate its gravity. By trying to suck them up, Thirteen makes it too difficult for them to do either and pushes them to try and find ways to get around it. It's worth noting that Aizawa says in the next arc they barely passed, which makes sense as the only reason they passed was Aoyama bringing up Uraraka potentially crushing on Midoriya, causing her to let go in surprise and Thirteen to cut off her Quirk of fear for the students' safety, allowing Uraraka a completely accidental opening to get the cuffs on her. Another aspect that is not used in the story was that both have Quirks that cause them illness, so it's possible the goal was to have them somehow beat Thirteen before they overtaxed themselves.
  • Sero's Quirk allows him to make tape, while Mineta can make sticky balls. Since neither of them have Quirks outright designed for actual combat, Midnight, whose Quirk isn't suited for combat, makes logical sense. Furthermore, personality wise, Mineta is a pervert who gets Distracted by the Sexy, while Sero is the Generic Guy who has on multiple occasions called out Mineta on his perverted behavior. Naturally, Ms. Fanservice Midnight is the best opponent for the two since if the two can pass, it proves they have matured. Sero and Mineta also fight mostly by immobilizing their opponent, which won't mean much to Midnight because she doesn't have to move to activate her Quirk, and can just stay by the entrance and use her Knockout Gas against anyone who comes too close.
  • Todoroki and Yaoyorozu are matched against Aizawa because both of them have Quirks that are so powerful and versatile that both tend to depend on them above direct combat. Aizawa presents an opponent who can rob them of their greatest strengths and easily overcome them both in physical combat and mobility. To defeat or escape him, the two would have to use their Quirks in more creative manners and use each other's abilities to their fullest. In addition, because of the nature Yaoyorozu's Quirk, they just needed a moment to devise a counter to Aizawa and they would be able to win before the battle even began, as even if their Quirks were erased, Yaoyorozu's items would still be there for her to use.
  • Midoriya and Bakugo were paired against All Might to help fix their personal issues. Bakugo is Strong and Skilled with his only real flaws being his Pride uncontrollable temper. Midoriya's strong, but he also has a tendency to avoid direct confrontation and is a bit of an Extreme Doormat to Bakugo. All Might is strong enough that neither can defeat him on their own, and (as Bakugo points out) fast enough that they can't just escape without fighting him. If Bakugo continued to abuse Midoriya and refuse to work with him, and if Midoriya kept retreating and refused to stand up to Bakugo, then they would be easy prey for All Might. Their powers (which are actually fairly good all-around) were a bit of an afterthought, but considering that they're the two most well-rounded and powerful students in the class, it made sense to pair them with a very well-rounded and powerful hero, especially considering that All Might is likely the only teacher who could have stood up to a full-force attack from the two of them anyway (barring Aizawa erasing one of their Quirks, which would leave him open to the other).
• At the end of Jiro and Koda's exam after defeating Present Mic, Koda is shown carrying Jiro through a gate. Why? Mic's screaming ruptured Jiro's eardrums, which would make her dizzy and affect her balance, so Koda carried her so they could make it through the gate before the timer sounded.
• The perfected Quirk-destroying bullets rewind peoples' bodies to a state from before humanity ever developed Quirks, removing their Quirks permanently. This probably means that the prototype bullets rewind peoples' bodies to a state from before they, personally, developed their Quirks, so it always comes back after a while.
• A potential reason Izuku was born Quirkless: as a recessive trait it is likely it a trait carried on chromosomes. Many traits in real life life like that are present in non-affected people, but those who are carriers. They'd be noted as Qq, with the Q being the dominant trait and q the recessive. Izuku's mom and dad likely were both carriers, and as a result Qq crossed with Qq. Thus 25% Quirk with non-carrier for Quirkless, 50% Quirk with carrier for Quirkless, and 25% Quirkless.
  • Quirklessness being so rare is also explained by this. While Quirks were originally shunned, nowadays a flashy Quirk can be attractive, so it chokes out the recessive q gene. Let's use Todoroki as an example (Bakugo would also work, as he has combination of his parents' Quirks): he's obviously a QQ carrier, carrying both of his parents' dual-dominant Quirks. If either Endeavor or Rei were Qq, either Fuyumi, Natsuo, or Toya likely also ended up Qq, but Todoroki's parents kept pushing until they had a QQ child. Now, any child Todoroki has can't have the recessive qq, since Todoroki himself doesn't carry it. Now consider how common Quirk marriages used to be, and you realize that there's been an intentional flooding of QQ people into the world, which overpowers the odds against both qq and Qq people. Quirklessness may never be eradicated, but there's certainly been a concentrated effort at reducing it.
  • This isn't necessarily incorrect, but its an oversimplification. Toya Todoroki was born with parts of both parents' quirks: his father's flame and his mother's ability to tolerate cold temperatures. This shows its not as simple as getting a quirk gene or not getting one. Shoto avoided this problem by essentially having one quirk on each side of his body.
• A minor one, but at the start of the Final Exams arc, we see Mina and Kaminari complain about Mineta being ranked 9th in the classes' grades since they thought he was "one of them" (a.k.a. they thought he was a slacker like them as well). That being said, he is actually a bit of a slacker; despite the fact that he has the highest intelligence stat in 1-A (tied with Yaoyorozu and ahead of Midoriya, Iida, and Bakugo), Mineta's grades are lower than those of Ojiro (Ranked 8th), Jiro (7th), and Tsuyu (6th)!
• During Midoriya's battle with Chisaki, Nighteye's Quirk predicted that Izuku was going to die by the end of it, but that didn't happen. At first this seems to be a typical Shōnen cliche about how The Hero is in charge of their destiny or some crap like that, but there's a perfectly rational explanation (as rational as the world of MHA will let it be): Eri. Her Quirk allows her to "rewind" people to a certain point, even erasing them from existence entirely! And Izuku was carrying her during the end of the fight. He likely knew that Eri's Quirk would prevent the future of him dying in that battle. It also helps that Eraser Head showed up when Eri's power was starting to overwhelm her.
  • Actually Nighteye's Quirk seems to have a pretty big blindspot, it predicts the future of its "target" but it doesn't take into account the actions of other people; for example he says "Chisaki will kill Midoriya and flee with Eri" but this is just relative to Deku and doesn't assume any action on Eri's part. It seems he "loads" the odds of his visions with his biases (subconscious or otherwise) because he just sees Eri as a victim to be rescued and not a catalyst for victory.
• It makes sense that Nighteye was going to die. Since all his visions happen 100%, and only he saw the vision of him and Deku dying, while everyone else fought to save Eri he gave up and stuck to the future he saw.
• A possible reason why Mic and Aizawa are shown to be friends despite their conflicting personalities: both of them are shown to be very intelligent. It's possible they were able to appreciate each other simply for being people they do not have to talk down to.
• Why is Recovery Girl one of the people who knows All Might's secret? Well, who else could he go to for all those surgeries?
• The reveal that Camie's Quirk makes her a Master of Illusion further serves to make her a perfect fit to be replaced by Toga, as she could have passed her shapeshifting off as illusion to Camie's classmates.
• Why did Nomu block Izuku's smash against Tomura without being prompted, when every time prior he had to be ordered to do something? Because he was ordered by All for One before the villains came to protect Tomura from any attack made using One for All.
  • In addition to this, when All Might and Izuku talk before the Sports Festival, Izuku comes to the conclusion that the reason he didn't break his arm attacking Nomu was that it was his first time using One for All on a person, and he subconsciously put the brakes on. His original target for the punch being the much more frail looking Tomura gives another reason why the brakes were put on.
    • Also fridge brilliance in that Izuku notes that the reason his bones shatter from using One For All usually isn't the blast itself, but the shockwave that radiates through his body afterwards. That's why he can charge up OfA with no problem before releasing it, and it's why his braces and his iron soles are so useful — they also blast the kick back out for two separate attacks. If the Nomu absorbed the shockwave from OfA the way it did All Might's punches, there wouldn't have been anything left to radiate through his arm and destroy it.
    • Going further with that point, each time Deku is using Full Cowl is basically "sending the shockwave through his own body to power up". Which is actually why he feels pain when using higher percentages even while he is just standing in a place. The "focusing the power in one point" technique doesn't cause that unless you release the power upon impact since he is just reuniting energy. Using Full Cowl, however, can be harmful, since he is not only channeling power but also releasing it at the same time.
  • Tomura does order the Nomu to block it, at least in the manga. In the anime we're focused on Midoriya too much during that moment to hear what Tomura may or may not have been saying at the time.
• With the unsettling reveal that Aoyama is stalking Deku, we know something unpleasant is in the air. It means that a character obsessed with bright and shiny things... has a hidden dark side. Sneaky Horikoshi!
• Aoyama struggled to place 42nd in the first event of the Sports Festival and we saw him in a lot of pain after the race, coming in last among the cutoff point. In Chapter 168, he explains ever since he was little his Navel Laser has been painful to use without a support belt because he suffers power leakage problems while using his Quirk. He really was at a disadvantage.
• Izuku fighting against Gentle with the reveal of Gentle's Quirk is actually a very worthwhile test for Izuku. Gentle's Quirk allows him to make anything elastic and bouncy... including the ground below them and even the air in front of him. This means most brute force or offensive tactics will not work on him and push Izuku to do better, especially now that with the focus on long-range combat.
• The collaboration between My Hero Academia and the Marvel Cinematic Universe to promote Avengers: Infinity War focuses on trailers which show that All Might and Class 1-A idolize (or in Bakugo's case, begrudgingly respect) the Marvel heroes, especially given certain parallels between some of the comparisons (Deku notes that Captain America was once powerless like him, but never gave up to fight for his heroic ideals, for example). This works on multiple levels:
  • The United States is credited in-universe as the birthplace of superheroes — obviously a Shout-Out to said country being the homes of Marvel and DC, the two companies which formed the foundation of superhero fiction, which My Hero Academia takes heavy inspiration from. Not to mention, many of their heroes obviously being American as well, barring exceptions like Black Panther, Thor, and Star-Lord's alien teammates from the Guardians of the Galaxy. All Might in particular is a very "golden age"-esque classic style American superhero: a blonde haired, blue eyed, musclebound stud with a chiseled smile blowing away every enemy in his path.
  • The Class 1-A students are teenagers who grew up in a universe which reveres the hero profession, and are heroes in-training themselves who look to older pros for inspiration. Many of the Marvel heroes are adults or at the very least, in the case of heroes their age like Spider-Man, experienced crime-fighters themselves and have gone through a lot more than their U.A. counterparts^note To compare, many of the fights shown thus far in MHA, including All for One's reign of terror in the past, have always been localized within Japan. Infinity War shows that the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy are set to do battle with Thanos to prevent half of humanity (and the universe) from being wiped out, and that is still without pointing out how many other times the world has been threatened in previous movies or even the more outrageous events that take place in the comics, to further display the massive gap in power between both franchises. There's also the massive difference in how long both franchises have been around: My Hero Academia began publishing in 2014, nearly 6 years after the MCU began with Iron Man and more than several decades after many of their heroes made their debuts in the comics proper.
  • One main source of conflict in My Hero Academia is whether a hero must choose whether To Be Lawful or Good; people like Izuku and Shouto recognize that doing the right thing at times means breaking their universe's pre-established rule that Quirk users must be licensed to use their powers in public, and vigilantes are frowned upon despite their intentions. Such a struggle formed the basis of Captain America: Civil War, which delivered good arguments for both sides of the conflict, and outlaw heroes in the Marvel universe tend to be treated a lot better than their Academia counterparts. Even the Avengers could be considered as a Hero Agency in the Academia universe, with Spider-Man outright calling his crime-fighting activities an internship akin to the ones done by U.A. students.
  • In something which overlaps with Fridge Horror, Shigaraki takes the place of Thanos in the MHA version of the poster. His Decay Quirk allows him to disintegrate everything with the touch of his fingers, much like how in the end of Infinity War, Thanos ends up disintegrating half of the universe with a snap of his fingers after completing the Infinity Gauntlet.
• Towards the end of the anime's third OP, Sora ni Uteba, we see scenes of Class 1-A taking their exams. Several of these scenes serve as Foreshadowing to the circumstances of the exams.
  • Tokoyami and Asui are both in positions that suggest they've just landed from a great height (and we even see Tsuyu land on-screen). The majority of their exam involves them trying to escape from Ectoplasm by using their Quirks for their mobility.
  • Satou and Kirishima both have Quirks based on brute strength, but neither are fighting at full capacity — Satou's Quirk makes him dumber the more sugar he eats, and only Kirishima's arms are hardened, when he can cover his whole body. They're not using all of their resources in the face of a stronger opponent, so it's not going to end well.
  • Uraraka's face takes up several frames when she and Aoyama show up, indicating that the exam will focus mainly on her realizing she has feelings for Deku, while Aoyama takes a backseat.
  • Shoji is shown with several of his Dupli-Arms turned into ears and eyes, indicating that he and Hagakure have no idea where Snipe is, and their exam is going to focus on avoiding, locating, and subduing him.
  • Kaminari and Ashido are the only duo to have a high-angle shot of themselves, implying that Nezu is looking down on them; indeed he is, both literally and metaphorically. Not only is Nezu in a crane destroying the city they're in, but they're the two lowest-scoring students in the class, and Nezu's Quirk is literally Amplified Animal Aptitude. They're also looking away from one another, whereas all other groups have them moving and/or looking in the same direction or at each other, implying they're clueless as to how to beat Nezu.
  • Yaoyorozu is alone, but looking resolute, preparing to use her Quirk; by this point in the exam, Todoroki had been captured and suspended over a bed of caltrops by Aizawa, and Yaoyorozu is finally getting over her self-confidence issues.
  • Sero's tape is seen blatantly across Mineta's face in their exam shot, before it retracts into his arm; Sero is incapacitated for most of the fight, but Mineta places his tape over his nose and mouth to avoid getting KO'd by Midnight. Also, Mineta takes a pose that implies he's going to grab onto something, and considering what Midnight's main identifying trait is, and Mineta's personality, you know what he's thinking about.
  • Iida and Ojiro's exam shows only the latter, flying above several holes in the dirt. To clear their exam, Iida uses his engines to "throw" Ojiro into the gate while getting buried himself, explaining why he's off-screen.
  • Jiro and Koda are the easiest to spot — the wind blowing through the grass represents the volume of Present Mic's Quirk. However, Jiro also has one ear covered, possibly to stop the bleeding that results from Mic's Quirk damaging her eardrum. Koda's bringing his hands towards his mouth either as a show of nervousness, or as he's preparing to speak to the bugs and beat the exam.
  • Bakugo, sans Izuku, flies through the air with his explosion Quirk, his red-hot hand coming into contact with the camera. This represents a point where he breaks away from Izuku to attack All-Might on his own.
    • The lack of Izuku, Todoroki, and Iida in their respective exam shots also serves to create suspense as to whether or not they make it out of the fight with Stain.
• While he'd never admit it aloud, some part of Todoroki instinctively knew that he should stick to ice on Bakugo. After all, when your opponent's Quirk is sweating nitroglycerin, do you want to surround him with ice to lower the temperature or do you surround him with fire that logically should give him a power boost? Or, inversely, blow up Bakugo to bits with his own sweat set on fire, which Todoroki really doesn't want to happen.
• Yaoyorozu (whose Quirk allows her to create any inanimate object that she knows the molecular composition of) mentions that it's against the rules for people to use their Quirks to manufacture products, especially money, as it would disrupt the economy. Being a Spoiled Sweet Ojou, it stands to reason that her family likely capitalized on the Creation Quirk in previous generations, before laws could be implemented to regulate such things!
• While Yaoyorozu's costume may seem to be mostly for fanservice, the design and what it shows actually make sense given her Quirk. Her Quirk allows her to make inanimate objects from her body fat. Her costume is a leotard which exposes her arms, legs, and part of her stomach. These areas of the body tend to have some of the largest fat deposits.
  • It is also stated that she was intending to make the costume even more revealing than it was but wasn't allowed to due to the rules on modesty (no doubt thanks to women like Midnight). This implies that she was originally planning to employ her rather large breasts in combat due to their high fat content as it is hard to see where else on that costume she could gain an advantage by losing any more fabric. Its also possible of course that she may have been discouraged to do so by the fact that she would have gone down to an a-cup each time which sounds rather painful.
• Class 1-B's School Festival idea is a play that manages to be a strange mash-up of The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Romeo and Juliet, and Harry Potter. The idea is suggested to have come from Monoma, which makes sense when you realize that the guy whose Quirk is all about copying other people's Quirks can't come up with anything original.
• Endeavor's reverence for All Might's position seemed strange. It should be merely a slight increase in standing, but he treats it as an impossible gap to cross. When he gets it, it brings nothing but misery to him. Partially because he didn't technically earn it, but mostly because he knows he can't fill the position like All Might did. Why the obsession over a simple number? Because it's not just a number. The ranking system we see in the series is supposedly only used in Japan and not recognized by other nations, but All Might is repeatedly referred to as "the World's Symbol of Peace and Justice". All Might wasn't just Number 1 in Japan, he was an international phenomenon. He was so amazing that he transcended the rankings entirely. He became a global beacon of heroism, not just Japan's top rank. To Endeavor, being bumped up a number is worse than meaningless, because despite the title, he's still just as far from All Might as ever -– but now with the pressure of trying to live up to a role that no simple number could approximate. A role that he understood better than anyone that he could never really fill. No wonder he got so upset about it.
  • To put this into perspective, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes expands on this: whereas the rest of the world have a 20% national crime rate on average, All Might's presence alone has suppressed Japan's crime rate down to the single digits. There's also the implication that the US, the birthplace of heroes itself and where All Might trained after graduating from U.A., is not faring that well either, which is why All Might's retirement was a shock to the U.S. hero association as well.
• Todoroki's Quirk splits his fire and ice down separate halves of his body, with the left side being his fire half. A Sinister Clue is a trope related to the fact that many people see left-handedness as a sign of being evil or demonic and tied to hell. The left side, the fire half, originates from Endeavor, whose Quirk is Hell Flame.
• A reason that Tsuyu tends to come off as Mineta's minder/friend more than viewing him as a pest sometimes: Tsuyu is the primary caretaker of her younger brother (and sister), and Mineta is fairly small. It's possible, to some subconscious degree, that she mentally compares him to one of her brother's friends and treats him more like a disobedient Dirty Kid and seeks to parent him away from such behavior like she would a ten-year-old friend of her brother.
• One might wonder why no one ever went around warning people publicly about All for One, for even if the idea of him shadow ruling Japan was a shameful past, the possibility of him still being alive is a serious danger to people. However, Izuku commented that the 'shadow ruler of Japan' was an internet story. Trying to warn people about him would basically be telling someone the Illuminati was after him, and very few if anyone takes such a warning as anything but delusional paranoia.
• No one brought up the issues of Mina naming herself after Ridley, Alien, and the Xenomorph when it came to copyright, only that the name itself was weird. Failing to know legality wasn't probably in play though, as the series later suggested a lot of big franchises from the 20th century such as Star Wars and Harry Potter entered the Public Domain by the present day, meaning that they do not fall under copyright concerns. ^note  Disney still holds Mickey copyright because the "new" versions of Mickey (white gloves, anyone?) are still protected. It's not just a one-and-done; if they stopped making new Mickeys and using them in advertising and merchandise, they'd lose the copyright.
  • As to why public domain wouldn't have been fought tooth and nail (see Mickey Mouse laws), there are several likely reasons. One is that the emergence of Quirks means that stories with superpowers aren't as lucrative, which has flaws. The other argument is that Quirk management legislation was pressing enough lobbying to make extending the protections seem stupid (likely combined with a backlash against superpowered fictions when Quirks were still controversial, making them less profitable to make movies and video games of to extend copyright). Nowadays, it could also be that movies about superheroes or fighting monsters are viewed the same way as racist movies are in our world –- discriminatory products of the time that no longer reflect views it's okay to hold, especially since mutant Quirks were some of the most discriminated against. Finally, it could be that it's just been long enough that even after extensions, the copyrights still expired, though less likely now that Disney is in charge of Star Wars and it's implied Disney's copyrights, like Universal Studios and Disney Land, are doing just fine.
    • It's possible hero names aren't necessarily subject to as many copyright laws. Think Dove chocolate and Dove soap: very similar, but it's allowed because they're entirely different markets. Unless the movie studies are trying to send out branded superheroes of their own, it's entirely possible that a hero name referencing a movie or movie character just isn't worth the cease and desist, especially since it's extremely clear that it applies to Mina and not to anything within the movie, and shutting down a successful hero would just be bad publicity. If she was going around actively dressing up and acting like a movie character, it'd probably be worth it, but as it stands it's a totally separate industry. Laws also could have made exceptions for hero names, since the original licensed heroes likely would have been dying to reference old superheroes of yore when picking their names.
  • Speaking of names, given Midnight's reactions to the names the students choose, it seems as if she is approving them based on her personal preferences. However, looking at how she gushed about "youth" multiple times during the Sports Festival, it makes much more sense. Namely, she's a fangirl, and as such her reactions to hero names are a good way to judge the reactions of the public as a whole.
    • Midnight is an expert on the court of public opinion. Public perception of her being a slut, for example, went so far as to change costume laws for superheroes against her, a move that she still protests and hasn't been able to undo. If there's anyone who knows the likely effect of a hero's name and appearance on their public perception, it's her.
• Izuku's hero name is written in a clearly shaky hand when presenting it to the class. It could be nerves... or it could be the fact that he's writing it with hands that are still recovering from surgery after breaking them fighting Todoroki. He can be seen gripping the marker with his entire hand when thinking of what to write. It's probable that he doesn't have fully functioning hands yet at this point.
• A minor one from the School Festival arc, but one part of the Uraraka versus Bakugo fight that ties into Aizawa calling out the pro hero who was calling out Bakugo, is that not only was the pro hero saying Bakugo was basically using Uraraka as a punching bag, he was also inadvertently calling Uraraka weak. By calling out Bakugo for not finishing her already, the pro hero was insulting Uraraka by implying that there was no way she could beat him. In addition, not only was Bakugo taking the fight seriously, but the pro hero was not aware of Uraraka's plan she had made for her final attack, making it clear he had no faith in her. As seen shortly after Aizawa called him out, Uraraka's last-ditch attack could of worked on Bakugo, as he himself notes he nearly failed to stop it. Not only would Aizawa be pissed about the pro hero calling out Bakugo, he'd be pissed that someone was calling one of his students weak as well.
  • Theres also the fact that they should be able to see the debris floating in the air from the stands, Aizawa saying that they should retire wasn't just for the blatant sexism, but also because they were failures for not noticing Uraraka's plan.
• Why is Hawks helping Endeavor becoming a good Number One Hero after All Might's retirement? It's because he's a good wingman.
• Vol. 0 gives an explanation for why All Might, a Japanese-born superhero, would name all his attacks after places in the United States: Gran Torino told him to go across seas after Nana Shimura's death, to avoid All for One's influence. The America-themed attacks exist because the United States is where All Might officially began his career as a Hero.
• Another small one from the Sports Festival; During his match against Shiozaki, we briefly see Kaminari's hair float up around his head while he's charging up a big attack. It's not just a cool visual –- his hair is standing up due to static electricity.
• Jiro, who had low Quirk appreciation test scores, did a lot of physical training during her internship with Death Arms. A random choice perhaps, but think about how Izuku, Bakugo, and Ochaco's internships went, and how Fourth Kind wanted to teach Kirishima and Testsutetsu manners and how to hero outside of fighting and saving, one could take the interpretation that the internship she got was partially to work on a flaw of hers, namely her physical ability (she placed poorly on the Quirk test, which had a lot of physical fitness elements).
• The round that each winner took in the sports festival was due to their strengths, and the other two's weaknesses.
  • The 4 kilometer race was won by Izuku Midoriya based on his forward planning and improvisation ability, which allowed him to surpass Shoto and Katsuki (who were only thinking on going forward and winning, and not much else.)
  • The cavalry battle was won by Shoto Todoroki, who had the most thought out plan and teammate choice. Katsuki had ideas, but he had to be reminded of what his classmates could do, and Izuku wasn't able to really make the choices he wanted because of how high-risk his actions were (sound familiar?).
  • Katsuki Bakugo won the battle tournament because he was solely focused on winning: Izuku was focusing on helping Shoto in their fight, while Shoto did not have his head in the game due to both Izuku's talk and his stress about his father (if he didn't taken the result of such combined power into account).
• Kirishima being able to bond with Bakugo makes sense beyond the former being just an all-around Nice Guy; Kirishima is also obsessed with things that are manly and is also not particularly smart at that. He likely sees the latter's No-Nonsense Jerkass behavior as manly. He also has thick skin, so he doesn't get bothered by Bakugo's attitude easily.
  • A video of the Chivalrous Hero, Crimson Riot, showed that he also had a rather gruff nature, even being prone to swearing. Kirishima's looked up to Crimson Riot ever since he was little, so of course he wouldn't mind having a friend with similar traits.
• It's noted on the YMMV Page that several characters, among them Tsuyu, invite Unintentional Uncanny Valley reactions from some readers. These same feeling were likely in play during the emergence of Quirks when people were debating what was human. Those members of the audience are reacting just like in-story characters did back when All for One was young.
• One of the reasons Uraraka wants to be a hero is because she wants to earn enough money so her parents can have a comfortable life. As Iida said, there's nothing wrong with this, but why would she choose to be a hero when she could've picked some other high-paying job like being a lawyer or doctor? Well, turns out she has similar or the exact same reasons as Midoriya. Guess they're more similar than they thought.
  • It's possible she was planning on going for that, had she not gotten into U.A. But since her Quirk was good enough to get her in, she just didn't need to take the harder options. Besides that, it seems like the medical industry is one of the few where you can get a license to use your Quirk if it's significantly helpful; Uraraka would have been competing against people who had better Quirks, more money, and better grades.
• One For All being revealed as passing on the Quirks of its previous users makes sense when you remember the power of the original Quirk that later became One For All. It was a Quirk with the power to pass itself on to another. It either already had the power to pass on Quirks other than itself (much like All For One) or by transforming into One For All, it gained the power to imprint the user's Quirk onto itself, strengthening One For All.
  • One For All is explicitly described as a power-stockpiling Quirk. Quirks are super-powers.
  • It also has shades of Semantic Superpower: One For All is the combination of a power-stockpiling Quirk, and a Quirk that lets the bearer pass their Quirk to another person. Nana Shimura's Quirk was Float, for example, until OFA joined it in being her Quirk. And thus both of them are "her Quirk" to pass down.
• After the first user until All Might, every user of One For All had a Quirk of their own before being given One For All. They were born with Quirks, born special, and yet none of them could defeat All For One. It was only when Nana passed on the Quirk to somebody who wasn't born to be a hero, the Quirkless All Might, did the world's greatest hero, one who could defeat All For One, appear.
• Monoma's Phantom Thief code name makes sense when you consider his goal as an anti-hero: he's there to steal the spotlight from the more extravagant heroes. He also needs to be sneaky to make best use of his Quirk, as he has to touch someone to copy them and his powers work best when his opponent is unaware of what Quirks he currently has available.
• There's a good reason Iida didn't vote for himself as class representative, even as he wanted the job himself: as he said, the election was about people getting their classmates' trust, and voting for himself could have been considered "cheating" on his part.
  • In the same vein, him eventually taking over as class representative with Momo being ignored in spite of being the deputy makes just as much sense: he earned the class' trust by showing he could do the job, while Momo didn't do anything in the same occasion.
• Why was Black Whip the very first secret power Deku activated beyond One For All's habitual physical enhancement powers? Midoriya has been trying to cling and reach his dream to be a hero for years, even when he couldn't realistically achieve it. So Meta-wise, it makes senses why Black Whip was the first Quirk unlocked –- Izuku is prone to try to reach and grab his goals impulsively. And the most fitting Quirk for that? The one that allows him to reach, grab and seize stuff far away from him with just a thought.
  • It's also somewhat similar to his mom's Quirk, which allows her to move small objects and pull them to herself. So the idea of 'pulling things to oneself' is somewhat familiar to him.
  • Alternately, it could be that the Black Whip Hero was the second wielder, though only time will tell if Izuku unlocks the Quirks in chronological order.
    • The Black Whip Hero, Lariat, was actually the fifth wielder.
  • The second Quirk he manages to activate is Float, which was Nana Shimura's (All Might's mentor). Now that he is achieving his goals by grabbing them, he wants to keep moving forward — and what's best for that than finding a way to be able to fly? This is also a sign of the influence two other women have had in his life: his mother, who, when he was little, liked to make objects float to entertain him, and his first real friend, Uraraka, who can use Zero Gravity to make herself float as well.
  • The third Quirk Midoriya unlocks is the Fourth's Danger Sense, an ability that causes a numbing pain when imminent life-threatening danger is coming. Fighting an opponent like Shigaraki, where just one touch can lead to death, makes having an ability like Danger Sense a must-have.
  • Then he gets smokescreen as his fourth Quirk, because he just went vigilante and incognito since All for One is tracking him. What better Quirk to have to be hidden other than a built-in smoke grenade
  • Now he has his fifth Quirk Fa Jin, and how does he use Fa Jin? To create a faux 100% due to the fact that he doesn't have time to exercise and build up to 100% normally, this works since Fa Jin works by repeated movements (which exercise is to its bare essentials), and at this point he rushing to defeat All for One (and is in a firefight)
• The main lesson Tsuyu learns in her A Day in the Limelight episode in the Field Training Arc is the importance of following orders and being a team player. This explains why she emphasizes the spirit of Aizawa's allowing the students to use their Quirks against the villains in the School Trip arc (to protect themselves, not take the fight to the enemy), and why she takes the harshest stance against the unauthorized rescue mission.
• The third season's second opening begins with a scene of Class 1-A frozen in mid-air, with the exception of Bakugo and Todoroki, who are standing with their backs turned to the camera. At a first glance, it seems that the class is in pain or being attacked, and Aizawa looking away — as if he was just erasing their Quirks — gives that impression. But on closer look, the students aren't in distress, they're happy, jumping for joy, because they passed the exam. The last scene of the opening does something similar — the students are all looking at the camera, while Bakugo and Todoroki — the only ones who failed the exam — are looking away.
• Toga's "love" for Stain takes on an interesting light after her backstory is revealed: both their Quirks involve drinking people's blood, something Toga's own family reviled her for, but something her Quirk compelled her to do. It's entirely possible, even extremely likely, that Stain had the same compulsions and issues she did growing up, and yet, in a twisted kind of way, he was accepted by a lot of people who embraced his ideology, like Spinner and Dabi. Did Toga, even subconsciously, hope to find some acceptance for "her normal" among Stain's followers?
• A Central Theme in the series is "Legacy." Midoriya receives the legacy of All Might and One For All, trying to become the next great hero; Shigaraki received the Legacy of All For One, to become the next great villain. In later arcs, this even reflects in how they grow stronger: Midoriya is gifted with the Quirks of great heroes who came before him, willingly. Shigaraki, on the other hand, is building his power base by effective high-jacking the legacies of villains who came before him, like Stain's philosophy, Overhaul's bullets, and Destro's followers, and twisting them to his own ends. One For All passes strength on-All For One steals it.
• Weirdly, Midoriya is more similar to Endeavor then he is to All Might. Both of them have powerful Quirks that can seriously harm them if overused (One For All; Hellfire). Both have good analytical skills and good forethought. Endeavor is also one of the few who can understand Midoriya's Techno Babble mumble-thons without any confusion whatsoever. Arguably, and somewhat ironically, Endeavor teaching Midoriya could help him improve far better than training with All Might.
• Ryukyu is portrayed as a very calm, collected, and patient woman, a stark contrast with her intern Nejire. In fact, it makes perfect sense for her to be Nejire's mentor. Strong as she is, Nejire can also be exhausting to deal with because of her near-childish personality and short attention span (which may be even seen as a sign of ADHD); also, in a formal society like Japan, her touch-feely manners may be problematic for a lot of people. It takes someone not easily losing their patience to tutor her, and UA faculty may have specifically directed Nejire to Ryukyu because they knew the Pro Heroine was best suited for their promising but high-maintenance student. Ryukyu may also have picked her for this exact reason –- her curiosity and constant examinations of the people around her may easily pick things up that Ryukyu is too reserved to catch, at the same time that Ryukyu's cool demeanor balances Nejire out.
• When Magne sends Compress flying at Bakugo during his escape at Kamino, she does it by magnetizing both him and Spinner to have the latter repel the former. This trick only works if the "anchor"(Spinner) remains stationary for the "projectile"(Compress) to push off of — something that would be difficult given the apparent amount of force involved. Which is why Spinner is the "Anchor" — his Quirk lets him stick himself to the ground so he won't move.
• Early on after the U.S.J incident, both Shigaraki and Kurogiri were determined to be using aliases, a minor detail that quite notably exploded in importance as we later learn more about their origins. Very long foreshadowed on the author's part.
• Many of the heroes in the top 10 who have had Quirks revealed don't have Quirks that are traditionally easy to use or broken, such as Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, and Hawks. Someone like All Might or Endeavor is an exception to the rule it seems. There are a couple of ways to look at this, and one of them could be the idea that someone like Best Jeanist has to work a lot harder than someone who had a far easier Quirk and that hard work translated to results. There are, however, fridge horror ways of doing so. See below.
• It's discussed between the fandom that Toga' ability to use her transformations' Quirks is not compatible with the mechanics of the verse. However, it makes sense why this ability has never been explored before:
  • For starters, a good deal of the population don't have flashy/practical Quirks to use in first place. It's likely Toga' victims didn't have Quirks to help them against her... or she killed them before they could use them.
  • It also seems Toga lacks intuitive knowledge about her transformations' Quirks, which averts the Instant Expert trope. She needs to see how they use their Quirks before to know how to activate and deactivate some of them.
    • Which makes her appearance in the Provisional License Exam more impactful: she saw how Uraraka used Zero Gravity during the test. While that wasn't her intention, Toga certainly found it useful during her fight with Curious.
  • To make things more difficult, she needs to ingest her victims' blood to Transform into them; once she runs out of blood, she can't Transform into them nor use their Quirks. And acquiring blood for a specific Quirk is hard to her. She can't run the risk of wasting valuable blood due to trying to figure out her transformation' Quirk.
  • Toga spent most of her life being forced by her parents to suppress her Quirk and only started going off the deep end after middle school, which in Japan spans from age twelve to fifteen. Toga is only seventeen years old, so she's had a lot less time to really experiment with her Quirk beyond simple transformations.
  • In the movie, Two Heroes, a concept called Quirk Numbers appear to be the chromosome version of superpowers (we can assume that it's where all the different data for Quirks are stored), which are also presumably in the blood!
• Endeavor's choice to more or less cut himself away from his family and move them has a second purpose: to keep them safe. With the war between the villains and the heroes rising, he likely wants to have them stationed somewhere as far as possible. Hell, it's likely he has come to the possibility of dying and thus has given them the seeds to have life without him.
• Dabi getting infuriated at Hawks' for killing Twice and his offer of redemption to Twice, in which Dabi overheard everything Hawks said to Twice, has more to do with his past and ultimate goals than actually caring for Twice as a person. After Dabi reveals his true identity to the public as Toya Todoroki, it makes sense why he was especially angry at Hawks. Hawk's talking down to Twice reminded him too much of his own life and the fact that he called Twice "unlucky" despite it being the very same Hero system that failed them in the first place made Dabi go understandably berserk. It doesn't help that he knows Hawks admires Endeavor, Dabi's father whom he hates and wants to demolish his heroic legacy.
• The first opening theme for Season 4 is called "Polaris," another name for the North Star. Because Polaris lies nearly in a direct line with the Earth's rotational axis above the North Pole, it stands almost motionless in the sky, and all the stars of the northern sky appear to rotate around it, making the North Star a fixed point for navigation to guide people home. The song is about Midoriya's and Mirio's declaration to protect Eri. They are the constant, unwavering stars that will guide her to a safe place and a real home.
• Uraraka's hero costume being a skin-tight body suit actually makes a lot of sense when one thinks about the nature of her Quirk and how it works. Any loose material, such as flaps and whatnot, would be affected by her zero-gravity abilities and potentially get in her way anytime she would need to make herself float.
• Both All Might and Nighteye chose someone like the other as their protege. All Might choose the intelligent, detail-oriented Awesome by Analysis Midoriya, and Nighteye choose the pure-hearted, ever-smiling, invincible brawler, Mirio.
• Why didn't All For One try to steal One For All? Probably because he can't. "All For One" allows the user to take someone's Quirk, and give it to someone else. "One For All" allows the user to give the Quirk to another person, but doesn't allow the user to take someone else's Quirk; as a tradeoff, "One For All" is a Quirk that can be given by the user, but cannot be taken from the user.
• Overhaul refers to his top agents as the "Eight Bullets of the Hassaikai." Bullets are inherently something to be used once and discarded, demonstrating quite clearly how he views them.
• For the most part the story manages to avoid the Bad Parents trope that is common among super-hero stories. Bakugo's parents are well-meaning and acknowledge their failings with him and are willing to give him to UA in hopes of making him better. When Jiro explains to her parents that she wants to be a hero and not a musician she's in tears, thinking that she failed them in some way. Only to have them tell her to do what she wants, because they are always going to love her and be proud of her. Midoriya's mother is willing to pull him out of UA because she sees how it's hurting him and is willing to be hated for it so long as it keeps him safe. Even All for One is shown to be supportive of his protege Shigaraki, going so far as to support him and the League of Villains in Hosu.
  • While Endeavor has shown he can be a Bastard, even he is taking steps to improve his relationship with his children; He's the exception, not the rule.
  • The reason there's relatively few parental issues among the heroes, and heroes in training, is because being a hero is a recognized, highly respected career. In most series, the Kid Hero struggles to keep a Secret Identity and continue his/her hero activities while keeping up with the civilian and family duties, which causes lots of parental friction; this doesn't happen in a series where the family can support the kid's heroic career just like they'd do with a military or police one. Also, being a recognized and remunerated career means that people with enough power and dedication consider becoming heroes from childhood, and in an orderly, reasonable manner, instead of being motivated by tragedy as it happens to many heroes in other series. As stated above, those who become heroes as a form of atonement, revenge, or motivated by negative feelings in general are the exception rather than the rule.
• When Bakugou agreed to help Kirishima study for the end of term exams, he was as explosive as usual. But this time, it's not Bakugou just being an asshole. His mom is a firm believer in tough love, she puts pressure on him to be strong by being harsh, and it was shown at the license course that he is willing himself to apply her methods to the young children. He was tough on Kirishima because he cares about the latter and wants to motivate him to study hard and have success.
• Given how several studies have proven that increased and regular sugar consumption makes brain activity deteriorate over time, Sato doping out and becoming sleepy after using his Quirk makes a whole lot of sense.
• America being the "Home of Heroes" might not just be an allusion to it being the largest influence of super hero comics. It's mentioned multiple times that the early days of Quirks were incredibly chaotic, and it was only through strict regulation that peace was achieved. Any one familiar with Japanese history might think this sounds familiar: it's similar to the Warring States period of Japan! It was only after Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Oda Nobunaga had basically made owning weapons illegal for all but a few elite members of society, and all of them members of the Shogun's administration, that peace was restored. Contrast this with America; where Japan fell into 150 years of civil war because of personally owned weapons, America used personally owned weapons to establish their country. And if you look at Quirks as natural, personal weapons, you can see how different cultures might see them. The US is the "Home of Heroes" for the same reason that it does really well in shooting sports; more permissive attitudes means that people have more opportunities to practice, and it's probably easier to get a license than in Japan.
• Aoyama choosing an English superhero name makes sense if you remember that he likes getting attention. English is the most spoken language worldwide, so a lot more people would understand the meaning of his name. Also, while it is true in real life that most French people stick to their culture and don't speak much English, Aoyama lives in Japan, so he is already used to another culture and while he himself is very attached to the French culture, he never showed signs he hates other cultures. His classmates were surprised that he chose an English name despite saying a lot of French words and that was very likely intentional in order to draw attention. He probably also wants to show that he doesn't look down on other cultures.
  • Also, considering his name and the fact that he lives in Japan, it's also possible that his heritage isn't French, if at all, but he just prefers sticking to French culture (at least a big part of it).
• Aoyama's Quirk isn't compatible with his body, but this actually seems to be the principle behind his character design; his costume looks like a suit of typical High Fantasy armor suggesting a melee fighter, but functionally he's a Squishy Wizard (seriously he gets one-shotted every time he's in a fight).
• All Might's bunny ears like hairstyle might be Rule of Funny In-Universe. It has been established that he wants to make people happy and one of his ways of doing so is through comedy, so he probably chose that hairstyle for that purpose.
  • This might also apply to other heroes who have something funny in their designs or names, take for instance the washing machine hero.
  • Alternately, they're meant to invoke the victory sign.
• Deku's shoes go well with his bunny-like hero costume considering rabbits have big feet. Also, he has fluffy hair similar to fur.
• Bakugou's first try for a hero name was "King Explosion Murder". This might be a coincidence, but his hairstyle does slightly resemble a crown.
• Gran Torino is one of the few heroes who has gone up against All for One on several occasions without getting his Quirk yanked. His power isn't something that would mutate the user nor is it overly skill-based like Fiber Master. Why does Gran Torino still have his powers? Simple: he is a master of evasion and is hard for All for One to get a solid grab on him to remove Jet. The Warping Quirk is heavily implied to have not been present in the battle that cost All Might his guts and All for One his face, meaning the one power that let All for One catch him wasn't present. In an interesting coincidence, the other ally that we know All Might had in his battles against All for One, Sir Nighteye, could see into the future and was fast and quick enough to avoid blows by faster and stronger opponents, and he in turn trained a young man who could render himself intangible to physical blows.
• Rock Lock's distrust of the hype that U.A generates for its students, along with his debut in an arc sandwiched between stories debuting other hero schools, leads one with a pretty viable argument that Rock Lock did not attend U.A. It's possible his size-limited Quirk wouldn't even be effective on robots, expanding on the post Shinso battle of the Sports Festival.
• Deku's special move Delaware Smash has him flicking one finger at a time in order to create powerful shockwaves. Have you noticed that it's usually his middle finger he's using?
• All Might's secret identity is an inversion of Clark Kenting, or at least the opposite of what Clark Kent himself does. Clark Kent changes his name but his appearance would be recognizable in real life. All Might on the other hand uses his real name "Toshinori Yagi", which is known to the public, but real-life people wouldn't recognize him by his appearance alone if they didn't know prior it's him.
• The second opening theme for Season 4, showing Class 1-A happily preparing for the festival, seems like a big case of Mood Whiplash since we first see it right after the episode where Sir Nighteye dies a tragic death. But what were Nighteye's last words to his comrades? To cheer up and smile, because a society without joy and laughter has no bright future.
• Why do many people start believing Dabi's recording about Endeavor and his criticism of heroes in general, despite his false claim of Best Jeanist being alive? Simple. Best Jeanist was missing from the public masses for months and didn't return to help until Gigantomachia was at Shigaraki's location. Even if what Dabi said wasn't true the public feels that the real liar was Best Jeanist as he didn't announce to the public about his recovery and his disappearance meant he lied to the public, not just Dabi. The fact that best Jeanist lied about his disappearance, and having the highest approval rating of the masses, only reinforced Dabi's claim that heroes are just criminals who lie while holding masks of justice.
  • There's also the fact that people will wonder why he was so convinced. Even if most don't believe it, there will be some who will conclude that Dabi was presented with a corpse that was passed off as him. Which will lead to those people wondering how that was done with some thinking it was fake and others thinking someone was killed for the charade. All it takes is one person posting such a theory on the internet on the right site and the rumor will become wide-spread even if most dismiss it.
• Speaking of Dabi and the public, wonder why Endeavor decided to come forward with the truth and acknowledge Dabi's accusations against him instead of lying to comfort the public in the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War? Simple, aside from Endeavor's current goal of atoning, he couldn't lie to the public despite knowing the truth because it would mean he would have to face Dabi himself in battle to prove he isn't his son,something he dreads so Endeavor comes clean to avoid facing his own son in battle.
• One For All being dangerous for those who already have a Quirk makes more sense when one remembers that it was originally a Quirk designed to empower the weak and oppressed (the First Wielder) to fight against the strong and tyrannical (All For One). Those who already have power (those born with a Quirk) cannot safely keep One For All without its power burning through their life force. Only those with a strong sense of justice but too weak to fight against evil, like the First Wielder used to be, can safely use One For All to its full potential.
• One For All being deadly for Quirk Users gives it another layer for it to contrast with its sibling Quirk All For One. All For One hoards all the powerful Quirks it can and while One For All can also hoard Quirks, it is deadly for Quirk Users to hold onto and can only be safely used by the Quirkless. The Quirkless cannot pass on any Quirk Factor and so, One For All can't possibly hold as many Quirks as All For One can.
• On the subject of those two Quirks in particular, it's interesting to note that All For One is an evil counterpart to One For All. Both are able to stockpile other Quirks inside themselves, but in opposing ways. All For One steals the Quirks of others, ripping them away without consent. One For All is a Quirk that can be passed on to others, a gift willingly given. All For One stockpiles many Quirks during a single user's lifetime, while One For All can only acquire a single new Quirk per user.^*Unless the user has multiple Quirks to begin with. All For One makes stolen Quirks stronger by stocking multiple copies, while One For All contains a single copy of each Quirk and grows stronger each time it's passed on. All For One leaves its victims Quirkless, while One For All was created to give a (seemingly) Quirkless individual a Quirk. All For One ignores the feelings of its victims, while One For All bears its prior hosts within it, forever preserving their feelings. All For One doesn't come with a Quirk instruction book and won't make you as good at using a stolen Quirk as the Quirk's original owner, while One For All lets every gifted Quirk's original owner come with it and teach you how to use their Quirk themselves. All For One lends itself to highly strategic usage with a massive toolkit, while One For All defaults to but a single hammer unless you awaken the bequeathed Quirks sleeping inside. All For One lets its user steal Quirks to extend his life, while One For All causes Rapid Aging by burning through its user's life force if they already have a Quirk. Both Quirks have the same end result of giving the user multiple peoples' Quirks in a single package, but take exactly opposite paths to get there. ...And, y'know, All For One's owner created One For All, albeit not entirely intentionally.
• Midoriya's battle against Overhaul makes a lot more sense after the Paranormal Liberation Arc. Notice how Midoriya was zipping through the air with One For All: Full Cowl 100%? Think about what "100%" means for a moment. Full. Complete. Perfect. Everything. All. True 100% includes all of the bequeathed Quirks, not just the base power stockpile, and what did we see in that battle? Deku floating in the air with the shockwaves of his movement, and (in the anime) whipping Overhaul apart with his lightning aura before the final punch. One For All: Full Cowling 100%. That may have been the moment when Izuku began to unlock its full potential, and he might very well have been subconsciously using the basic power-stockpiling as a precursor to Float and Blackwhip.
• It might seem like an Ass Pull to some for Deku to manifest the quirks of his predecessors when All Might, the most successful user, never could; but it does make sense from a meta-perspective. All Might is a clear Expy of Golden Age Superman whose "powers" were mostly just applications of his super-strength, hence as his successor Deku is an expy of Silver Age Superman. And what is the most standout feature of silver age superman stories? ...New Powers as the Plot Demands!
• Why was All Might immediately able to One For All at maximum strength, while Deku still can't do the same without breaking his bones? Well, it's stated that All Might held onto the Quirk longer than any of his predecessors. It stands to reason that, powerful as it may have been, the Quirk's power maxed out at a level that All Might's body was simply capable of enduring when he got it. The same isn't true for Deku because the work All Might put in over his forty or so years in service had the knock-on effect of giving the Quirk a significant boost in power, which leads to broken bones in a young vessel whose strength didn't grow in tandem with the Quirk like All Might's did.
• Deku manifesting his own version of All Might’s Glowing Eyes of Doom in his new hero look might not just be artistic merit, or a sign that he’s adopting a similar self-destructive mindset of his mentor used to possess whilst upholding the image of the symbol of Peace in his new role as a Vigilante protector in this time of Crisis. One thing that always differed from All Might’s usage of OFA compared to Izuku’s was his ability to somehow shift forms between his true gaunt, thin appearance and his muscular, heroic form for performing on the job. All Might’s comparison to somebody with a flabby stomach "sucking in his gut" to appear better than he actually is might work as a comparison, but still doesn’t really explain how All Might — the first Quirkless user of OFA, is actually able to pull the effect off, up to and including a visible transformation effect of generating steam from his body as he "deflates", which Izuku notably commented upon during the climactic confrontation at the end of the USJ arc as a sign All Might was bluffing about his ability to continue fighting... until recent chapters revealed that one of the Quirks contained within OFA is Smokescreen, allowing the user to generate obscuring cover to hide themselves from sight. Since All might’s focus was similarly on preventing anybody witnessing him transform into his ‘pathetic’ true self early on in the story, and the other vestiges later commented on how well Yagi had adapted to OFA, thanks to his Quirkless body being a natural fit for it, almost to the point of it reaching the singularity stage by the time he passed it onto Izuku, it’s possible that Yagi actually was manifesting partial effects from the other Quirks stored within OFA unknowingly, and assumed instead they were merely by-products of his injured body struggling to continue fully utilizing OFA's full power. His blackened sclera might be tied to another of the effects of the remaining Quirks stored within OFA, which Deku himself is now manifesting when he’s in combat mode, due to him fully unlocking all the associated powers held within OFA.
  • All Might potentially (and unknowingly) making use of smokescreen is granted more credibility when one considers that Black Whip originally manifested as a result of Midoriya's desire to capture Monoma. It's reasonable to assume that All Might's desire to hide his true form may have served as a similar kind of trigger for the Smokescreen Quirk.
• For a while, it seemed like an incredibly Contrived Coincidence Kota ended up running into the very same villain that killed his parents during the lodge attack, just so Izuku would have an opportunity to convince him of the value of heroism in rescuing him from Muscular, but it’s heavily implied that there’s more to Muscualr’s presence in the attack than just random coincidence. Looking at the map of everybody’s positions◊ and the order in which they revealed themselves/attacked the protecting pro heroes, it becomes clear that each member of the Vanguard Action Squad is positioned to best execute their abilities in a complimentary manner, and displays uncanny knowledge about which heroes specifically will be protecting the students. Firstly, the Squad takes out Ragdoll at some unknown junction and abducts her before the attack even fully begins, taking advantage of the fact she’s the furthest away from the group, and also preventing her Search from being used to locate all the students when the attack commences. AFO’s comments in Kamino Ward afterward indicated that abducting her so he could steal her Quirk was a priority for the villains, second only to Abducting Bakugou himself, which comes into play with Tomura later being able to use Search to accurately keep track of Izuku and OFA, showing that AFO was fully aware that the Pussycats were the designated heroes assigned to watch over the students and worked that into his plans. Mustard then begins unleashing his gas throughout the forest to subtly poison all the students before they realize they’re under attack, ensuring that there will be students who are harmed from the incident even if the Vanguard Action Squad ultimately fail to kill or main any of them, which fits both Dabi and AFO’s overall goals of worsening the public image of UA and the ability of official heroes to protect others. Dabi then lights a fire to distract and confuse everybody, drawing out the teachers in the lodge so he can launch a sneak attack on them via Twice’s cloned version, and working together with Twice to continue sending a steady barrage of Dabis against the best-fortified building around as disposable Suicide bombers, going along with Dabi’s self-destructive Quirk, preventing reinforcements from reaching the clearing or the Pussycats being able to safely escort the students back to the lodge.
  • Magne then uses her magnetism ability to draw Pixiebob close for an unavoidable sneak attack before they’re even fully aware of what’s going on, preventing her Quirk from being used to protect the kids from the blaze or keep the villains at bay with temporary fortifications. ^note  Additionally, their Quirks have good synergy, with Spinner’s Quirk enabling him to remain in place, sticking himself to one location to be used as an anchor or repelling point for Magne’s Magnetism.As well as that, there are two villains assigned to each loop of the forest path, one sneaky villain^note Toga, Compress. Partnered with one brute-force villain ^note  Moonfish, Chainsaw Nomu.to best complement each other’s preferred fighting style whilst they search for their target. ^note  As a bonus, the Chainsaw Nomu can fight best in the poison gas-filled areas of the forest, unaffected by the fumes either through its modifications or the apparatus in its mouth. The only odd one out is Muscular, who admits that he "came up here for the view" — and based on the fire in the background, the cliff must face south-east — meaning the only thing that can be reasonably seen from there is the clearing where the other Pussycats are. Given how coordinated the other villains are, and how Muscular notably has a much-lower intellect than the rest of them according to the databook, it’s highly likely his intention — and assigned goal during the operation — was to join up with Magne and Spinner in the clearing, but he got lost in the forest, then distracted by a ‘fun toy’ along the way. If Muscular had joined the clearing fight, his brute strength would have been the decisive factor in taking out the next most important target on the priority list — Mandalay. Without her, the heroes lose all communication throughout the forest and cannot regroup the students.^note  Plus, if Pixiebob hadn’t been knocked out, his strength would have allowed him to easily tear through any earth constructs she could make. Though it’s never stated, it’s implied that Mandalay needs to concentrate and keep a clear mind in order to effectively use her Quirk — and with her sister’s killer staring her straight in the face and laughing about how much fun he had killing her, Mandalay wouldn’t have been able to concentrate enough to get any messages out to the kids in time. This means that it wasn’t a coincidence that Muscular ran into the surviving family members of one of his victims- rather, he was likely recruited specifically for this job because he’d killed Mandalay’s sister, with his usefulness as a powerful attacker being a secondary concern. It also means that Izuku unwittingly interrupted one of the lynchpin moves in the League of Villains' plan when he ran off to rescue Kota, and took out one of their strongest foes before he could even make a move to seal their victory, explaining why the fight starts to turn against the Vanguard Action Squad after Muscular goes down.
    • Which becomes Fridge Horror when you consider that if Izuku died, not would that mean Kota would be murdered as well, but then Muscular would likely head down the mountain to meet up with the others and likely kill at least one of the other pro heroes. And if Mandalay would have trouble concentrating on her quirk while fighting her sister's killer, finding out he killed her nephew and one of the students she was trying to protect on top of that would make it near impossible. And considering that Muscular could likely take every hero in the training camp with the possible exception of Aizawa, who was both crippled and had lost to Unskilled, but Strong before, there would be a non-zero chance of no one getting out of that camp alive.
• Although Magne, a transgender woman, being a Lady Looks Like a Dude may carry Unfortunate Implications, it also makes sense that she's not able to pass very well. Many members of the League of Villains are from marginalized groups, turning to villainy because of social and financial difficulties. Magne likely grew up poor, making her unable to afford voice training, hormones, surgery, or other steps in her gender transition. Compare her to Tiger, another transgender character who grew up in a supportive environment and was able to undergo a full medical transition including gender confirmation surgery. Magne and Tiger serve to represent the class divide in hero society, where societal inequality pushes the poor to villainy in order to survive and be respected.
• Midoriya being in Class 1-A is actually very fitting, given his Quirk: 1 for All.
• With the Chapter 336 reveal that Yuga Aoyama had received his Quirk from All For One and was forced to be his mole in UA, his actions when befriending Izuku make a lot more sense. Creepily watching Izuku through the window and leaving the message "I know" was weird at the time, but he was able to deflect it as just part of his eccentric personality. But now it becomes more apparent that he didn't just recognize that Izuku also had a Quirk that his body couldn't handle, like he said, but that at the time he suspected that Izuku might also be a plant sent by All For One.
• Yuga Aoyama's number according to the 1-A seating order is 01. He had nowhere to go other than down.
• Despite its powerful versatility, Momo Yaoyorozu's Creation likely wouldn't be a handy Quirk for All for One due to the user requiring a good reserve of body fat and in-depth knowledge of elements to a molecular level. This especially also wouldn't be a good use for a Nomu aside from Kurogiri.
• When asked about if she has a relationship with Kamui Woods, Mt. Lady just responds with "no comment". Due to a large part of her In-Universe fanbase being fueled by her sex appeal which she gladly uses, any official reports of a relationship would instantly cause a large amount of her fanbase to collapse.
• All For One being Izuku's ultimate Arch-Enemy rather than Tomura, despite their Evil Counterpart natures and thematic parallels storylines throughout the manga, was foreshadowed in their proper one-to-one talk at the mall. Izuku highlighted to Tomura that the main difference between him and Stain was that he could understand with and empathize with Stain's perspective of the world, even if he couldn't accept his actions and opposed him for it, something Stain found commendable in him. However, the same conversation also started to make both Izuku and the reader understand Tomura's perspective at that same point, hinting at his Dark and Troubled Past and having him vaguely allude to the Bystander Syndrome that so negatively affected him back in his childhood, and was arguably the greatest factor in him choosing to extend his hatred to all of society. In contrast, when All For One's motivation is revealed in the following arc, it turns out that he became a Classic Villain because he wanted to. He had the power to affect the world and he went out of his way to choose to be a horrible monster for no reason than he found it fun and exhilarating to do so. In contrast to Tomura's true status as a Tragic Villain, All For One is a far more incomprehensible villain who has no real greater motive or overarching reason for his vileness, and is later shown to be a less effective villain for it, as he cannot successfully steal One For All because he's such a Flat Character. Is it any wonder that Izuku would wind up so opposed to somebody that greatly embodies the very same character flaws he criticized in Tomura, and would actually desire to save the latter once he understood his origins?
  Izuku: Well, I can't accept what you do, and I don't understand it...The hero killer... Although I can't accept him, I do understand him.
• The beginning of the final stand against All For One in Chapter 343 starts when Aoyama suddenly shoots his Navel Laser at him in retaliation, which is deflected by the villain into the sky. Soon after All For One summons the League of Villains through his Warp Quirk, the heroes suddenly appear through a repurposed Warp Gate. This may as well be a reference to Aoyama's attempted Heroic Sacrifice during the Provisional License Exam where he fires his Navel Laser to the sky to draw attention away from Iida, except he unintentionally also beaconed Class 1-A to his location. History Repeats!
• Chapter 346 shows there is an upside to Monoma being only able to copy the bare bones of a Quirk. While he can't replicate stored resources, if the original user of a Quirk he's mimicking has sustained injuries that diminish their power, Copy won't replicate the damage so the Quirk will function normally for Monoma. Thus, he's able to fill in for Aizawa during the fight against AFO after the hero loses one of his eyes.
• The reason Toshinori Yagi glows more brightly than the other vestiges is likely because he's contributed more to One for All's power stockpile than any of them by far. Yes, the others had actual quirks to give (as well as the fourth user's physical training), but in order to be the Symbol of Peace, All Might had to constantly push himself harder than any user before him every single day, from day one—for over thirty years. And Quirks are like muscles, when you challenge them, they get stronger, particularly OFA.
• Star and Stripes wasn’t just The Dreaded to AFO because of her Story-Breaker Power. By this point, AFO now has likely recognized that Midoriya is displaying the quirks of the previous OFA wielders. If she met with Midoriya, he could possibly give Star OFA to make herself even more busted, and she’d have All Might there to help advise her on how to use it against him. Alternatively, she could take OFA for only a few moments, then give it right back to Midoriya, meaning that Izuku would have New Order added to his quirk arsenal, and AFO would get curb stomped by both Midoriya and Star.
• So far, those who received many Quirks like Gigantomachia, Spinner, and Noumus have all shown to have decreased intelligence and a multitude of mental issues. This is likely because Quirks essentially have a “soul” of the user imprinted on them and by inserting those Quirks into different people, those “souls” start to merge and it becomes far harder for the individual to remain themselves from the conflicting emotions such a process entails. Those with stronger wills, like Lady Nagant, can forcefully assert their individuality and not have much side effects with an extra Quirk or two. But for those with weaker wills, like Spinner, their minds will be ruined by the extra “souls” within the Quirks they were given.
• More like Fridge Humor, but bear with me: It makes sense that some of the villains- namely Shigaraki and Spinner- to be League of Legends players, as in Real Life League Of Legends is infamous for its very toxic fanbase.
• Once they're fully revealed, the 6 additional Quirks within One For All are revealed to have a complimentary Yin-Yang relationship between certain pairings, with their particular Quirk's abilities countering or nullifying the disadvantages of the other. In fact, Izuku unlocks/reveals each Quirk in an order that showcases which pairing they're meant to combine together with: Black Whip - Float - Danger Sense - Smokescreen - Fa Jin - Gearshift. Furthermore, they each fall into 3 categories: Combat, Support, and Movement.
  • Gearshift and Fa Jin are the Combat. Mirroring their user's close bond in life, the Quirks work together in unison well. Gearshift's speed increase initially allowed the Second to manipulate the environment to his advantage in a fight through altering the projectiles he launched, but its initial weak state meant that it was limited in directly attacking somebody with his bare hands, forcing him to rely on intermediaries like guns to remain a credible threat with his power. Fa Jin is powerful in a fight, especially since it allows Izuku to side-step the disadvantages of unleashing more power than his body can handle at a crisis period where he needs 100% strength attacks, but its charging period can be tricky to pull off mid-battle effectively, especially against any Lightning Bruiser or tricky opponents who can keep up with Izuku's own speed. Combining the two together cancels out their mutual disadvantages, effectively granting Izuku a Super Mode of One For All that can 'warp the very fabric of reality'.
  • Danger Sense and Smokescreen are the Support. Smokescreen allows Izuku to obscure his movements on command and get the drop on his enemies, but since Izuku can't directly see through the smoke either, it also runs the risk of this working to the Villain's advantage as well, allowing Izuku to be blindsided. Danger Sense, however, enables him to keep track of any incoming threats, preventing this being an issue, albeit the Quirk's specific trigger being only 'malicious intent' still leaves it with some blindspots it cannot predict. One robs Izuku and his enemies of a vital sense, the other gifts him an extra sense that allows him to compensate. Neither offer direct advantages to Izuku physically, but are useful support options that allow him to anticipate ambushes or launch his own on command, enabling him to keep control of his immediate environment no matter what.
  • Float and Black Whip are the Movement. Float allows Izuku unparalleled movement in mid-air, especially once combined with One For All's base strength to enable him to change direction in mid-air on a dime. However, the same recoil movement means that Izuku cannot unleash his stronger attacks whilst suspended in the air lest he blow himself away from his target. Black Whip however, enables Izuku more limited movements that relies upon latching onto his surroundings and using his enhanced strength to swing around, but this same ability to grab onto targets and hold tightly to them means Izuku can freely change course without losing his momentum or launch attacks at targets outwith the reach of his hands. Their combination is effectively demonstrated against Tomura during his and Izuku's solo mid-air clash in the Paranormal Liberation War, with Blackwhip furthermore enabling Izuku to carry multiple people aloft at once, whereas Nana was limited to whomever she could hold with her own two hands.
  • Furthermore, this Yin-Yang theme is present even in the 7th 'base' power of One For All — more specifically, it's first and last wielders. Izuku at the manga's start is almost exactly like Yoichi was, a powerless individual who deeply admired the ideal of heroes and wanted to help others selflessly, despite his physical limitations, and was winningly to stand up and do the right thing even if it was reckless and hopeless of him to do so against literal superhumans to him. Whereas Izuku was genuinely born powerless and in chapter 1 is a literal child with all the strength and abilities of one, Yoichi had a quirk that was so weak and specific in usage that he seemed powerless, and despite being a grown adult, his health issues and frailty meant he was hardly better off than Izuku. The difference between them is that Yoichi's physical disabilities and weakness meant he could never grow stronger physically enough to confront All For One, but his spirit remained as strong and steadfast as ever in opposition to his brother, and this same spirit would be passed on after his mortal death to reside within his quirk. Izuku meanwhile, has the capacity to physically grow stronger and capable of unleashing One For All's true power beyond what any other the other successors could safely unleash, because of his unique 'weakness'. In contrast to Youchi's steadfast confidence and optimism, Izuku's weak spirit is something that handicaps him and allows All For One to psychologically manipulate him with ease in the lead-up to the final battle, and he only starts overcoming that with the aid of multiple allies, in contrast to Yoichi being isolated from many people by his brother's controlling nature. Yoichi is hinted to have died without successfully saving a single person, whereas Izuku is destined to become the greatest hero in the world thanks to the power he received from him. Yoichi was the weakest holder, and his power was to give what meagre strength he had away. Izuku is the strongest holder, and the one most suited to receive Yoichi's gift in the end, to achieve the dream he could not.
• Take a look in the background of the scene showing the aftermath of Gentle's fight to contain his fellow prisoners. There is a steal beam that's been wound tightly around a group of prisoners. How could Gentle have done this? Simple: he must have figured out that making things rubbery doesn't just make them springy, but flexible, which would presumably let him bend steel with his bare hands no matter how hard it actually is.
• Toga gains the ability to copy the Quirks of those she imitates, but only if she's very emotionally close to them. During the final battle, she attempts to copy Dabi, All For One, and Tomura, but fails to replicate their Quirks. Dabi is an Aloof Ally and an Ineffectual Loner, and while he did try to console her, it was too little too late for her to care enough about it. All For One is a complete Sociopath who goes intentionally out of his way to be hated by everyone, and almost all his "allies" - Toga herself included - only work with him out of personal convenience. But what about Tomura? Toga seemed to have a decent relationship with him... but not with the fusion of Tomura and AFO. And the "Double" Quirk requires the user to have a perfectly-accurate mental image of what they want to copy: Toga has the measurements of TomurAFO, but not the "original" Tomura - meaning that she can copy the former, but not the latter.
• Tamaki being annoyed at Class 1-A assuming that Mirio is where he is because 'he has a strong quirk' was pretty clear about how it was ignorant of how much work it took to make Permeation so effective. However when you also add in how Nejire got social issues from people assuming her super-strong quirk made her look down on them, which had a drastic effect on her, it's clear that statement offended Tamaki on behalf of both of his friends, not just one.
• At the end of the battle at Gunga, All For One attempts to steal Tokoyami's Quirk, but changes his mind and decides to leave after Mineta stands up against him, which specifically reminds AFO of the battle against Jiro - where her decision to stand up against him caused the vestiges of the Quirks he stole to rebel against him. Dark Shadow is a sentient Quirk with its own independent will, meaning that it's even more likely to rebel against AFO should he steal it. No wonder he decided that it wasn't worth it.
  • Ironically, the vestiges do rebel later on... because of the vestige of Hawks, Tokoyami's mentor.
• All Might started out as a Superman Substitute, including the fact that he doesn't really disguise himself to keep his Secret Identity (he just "flexes" to switch between his muscular and skinny forms). In his final battle, he wears a black suit that leaves his mouth exposed, lacks superpowers, pulls through the fighting mainly through lots of gadgets and by out-thinking the stronger opponent, and endures lots of physical punishment; in other words, he becomes an Expy of the other main DC Comics hero - Batman. It's also a Development Gag, because Horikoshi wanted to make Midoriya was going to be The Team Normal of his class; so, in a sense, both of Deku's predecessors (his original character concept and his mentor) are Quirkless heroes.
• All For One's backstory does state that he and his brother had a horrible origin...but also spells out plain and simple that All For One was very likely just born evil. This contrasts every other origin in the series, which explains or gives some reasoning for how a character ended up that way. This is fitting, as not only is All For One incapable of changing meaningfully, he's literally never grown or changed from the moment he was born.
• Many works of fiction have the hero succeeding in talking the villain down and helping them turn to the side of good. It is likely consuming these works of fiction encouraged Yoichi's belief that his brother All For One had some good in him and that he could successfully redeem him, at least until that belief was shot down and Yoichi being forced to accept the reality that his brother is irredeemable and must be put down.
• The reason why All For One committed fully into the Might Makes Right and It's All About Me mindsets? He happened to be born under the worst circumstances ever - his mother was a homeless prostitute who went through Death by Childbirth, and he happened to be born just when Quirks were thought of as a disease, so no one would bother to care for, teach him right from wrong, or even adopt him. He had to take and kill as part of a survival instinct, just to not go hungry - and it got worse from there. It's not an overly sympathetic backstory, like Tenko's Abusive Parents and The Chain of Harm, but it's subtle, because AFO never had a chance to grow up good.
  • All For One, however, did have many chances to turn away from his villainy thanks to his brother trying to be his conscience. While his childhood gave him little choice if he wanted to survive, his brother, likely the only person he would ever bother listening to, was there at his side the whole time, encouraging him to do the right thing for years. He could have been like the Luminescent Baby and become a leader, offering to take the Quirks from those who didn’t want them for free, and helped end the fighting. But instead, All For One chose to ignore his brother’s attempts to steer him onto the right path and make the chaos worse. So while upbringing had a hand in how he turned out, it was ultimately All For One’s own choices that made him irredeemably evil.
• All For One’s consuming desire to steal One For All could be his way of reclaiming the possession he lost that day when Yoichi died. Since Quirks have an imprint of their user on it, creating a sort of ghost onto the Quirk, All For One could see taking One For All as a way to get back his brother, whom he sees as one of his possessions that was stolen from him.
• Many people throughout the series have Quirks that match their personality. Later on, we're introduced to an in-universe theory stating that a person's Quirk shapes their personality. Much later on, it's revealed that ALL Quirks carry a sentient "vestige" of their original owner, which would justify both interpretations at once: the Quirk is determined by, and/or influences, the owner's personality because it is part of their personality.
• The hero teachers and staff at UA have a habit of referring to their students and aspiring young heroes with promising careers as "Hero eggs/Zygotes", referencing how they've yet to mature into their full potential from learning all the valuable life lessons they have to offer. Because he selfishly wasted all of his potential and never matured one bit, even having an extended lifespan on top of everything to enable him more time than the average person to realize his wrongdoing, All For One's ultimate fate is to be rewound through his entire extended lifespan in a humiliating and undignified breakdown of the "Demon Lord" image he was so obsessed with being, until the point where's he's literally a Zygote.
• Todoroki's Trademark Favorite Food is cold soba noodles. He prefers them served that way just like how he favored using his ice side over the fire one.
• Decay being a modified version of Overhaul's Quirk isn't just mere serendipity — given how All For One "lost" Yoichi to Kudo before, he tailor-designed a Quirk specifically to destroy anybody who'd reach out a "helping hand" to Tenko/Tomura, whom he'd groomed in Yoichi's image and intended to assimilate his vestige within as a warped "reunion". Overhaul already had the setup of such a Quirk, requiring only the removal of his Required Secondary Powers to achieve the result All For One wanted. Indeed, Izuku has to destroy his arms giving Tenko the support and comfort of said "saving hands" within his Mental World, an outcome beyond All For one's imagining.
• Aoyama being the first of Class 1-A to make note Ochako's feelings for Deku to her. Seems he hasn't forgotten her concerned face for Deku on their first day during the ball throw test.

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