Tropes:
- Antagonist Title: The episode explores why Lady Nagant turned her back on Hero Society and how she ended up in Tartarus, as her fight with Midoriya wraps up.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Midoriya asks why a Hero like Nagant is working with a Villain like All For One, she responds that working with the Safety Commission to maintain the shiny image of Hero Society made her realize how ugly it really is. Having seen how far things have gone after the Jaku City battle, he is forced to agree, but wants to try and change it.
- Badass Normal: Even without One For All, All Might effectively intimidates two Villains on his way to regroup with young Midoriya... just by looking at them!
- Batman Gambit: Nagant fires at Chisaki in an effort to distract Midoriya for a clean shot at him. With the combined powers of One For All, however, he outmanuvers this gambit, saving Chisaki and defeating Nagant. That said, he tells her after that he anticipated that she would intentionally miss.
- Bittersweet Ending: Midoriya manages to defeat Lady Nagant and learns where the meetup with All For One is taking place, as well as news that other hired assailants are gunning for him. Unfortunately, it results in Nagant being blown up by AFO with the Quirk he gave her. She seems to have survived, if barely, but her fate is currently left up in the air as the Pros prepare to take her to a hospital before heading to AFO's location. The worst part is how this last-minute attack by the Big Bad seems to have left a bitter impression on Midoriya.
- Broken Pedestal: Nagant views the HPSC and Hero Society as a whole in this light, having known about the latter's ugly side as she spent years dealing with it without question. She goes as far as to say that All For One's chaotic vision of the world would make more sense in comparison because he's not afraid to be transparent.
- Call-Back:
- Midoriya recalls moments from last episode (with the tall mutant woman attacked by the vigilantes) and arc (between Dabi and Endeavor, along with his battle with Shigaraki), allowing him to agree with Nagant's claim that Hero Society isn't as black-and-white as he once thought.
- Midoriya reminds Chisaki that Eri desrves as much of an apology as the Yakuza boss the Villain looked up to, since he has hurt her for so long.
- Catch a Falling Star: After All For One blows up Nagant, Midoriya and Hawks work together to catch her so she doesn't fall to the pavement.
- Cover Up: Nagant explains to Midoriya that she was in charge of handling any loose ends that might endanger the bright image of Hero Society, by order of the Hero Public Safety Commission. In most cases, it involves killing off criminals, potential terrorists, and even corrupt Heroes without a process of a due trial. She eventually wonders if there was a point to her job and grows disillusioned by the society itself. After killing the previous SC chairman upon not being satisfied with the answer, the Commission immediately threw her in Tartarus under a cover that she instead killed another Hero in a dispute.
- Declaration of Protection: All Might warns his assailants that he's not going to stand around while the student he has trained is out there carrying the burden he once had, and says this:All Might: If the unthinkable ever happens to that young man... it'll be over my dead body!
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While not exactly evil, per se, Nagant is surprised how Midoriya and Hawks remain optimistic about the future, especially when the latter tells her that he was her successor/replacement as the Safety Commission's agent and thus was appointed with similar assignments like her.
- Forgot About Her Powers: Midoriya reminded Chisaki that his Quirk-erasure bullets project existed because he painfully used Eri's cells. However, he remembers that he was able to do so because he learned her Quirk can rewind time on anyone she touches, and wonders if she might be capable of reversing the coma he inflicted on his boss.
- Godzilla Threshold: The predecessors warn Midoriya that it's too soon to utilize Fa Jin but, with Nagant locked onto him, he feels like he has no choice.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Sensing Nagant's loss, All For One triggers something close to a bomb to attack Midoriya from within the sniper (hinted to have been attached to the Air Walk Quirk he had given her earlier), just as she was moved by Midoriya's words and considering a change of heart. She seems to have survived, but time will tell if she recovers at all.
- History Repeats: Nagant discusses this with Midoriya during their fight about what would happen if he does defeat AFO and things are back to normal. Worst case is that someone else would fill in for the HPSC and have another unwitting person endure the dark side of Hero Society while everyone else focuses on the bright one.
- Internal Reveal: Even with her aim and curved shots, Midoriya believes Nagant shouldn't be able to track him so easily in the city without help. He then spots her walking on air and suddenly remembers that All For One is capable of giving and taking multiple Quirks, so it explains why she supposedly has a second Quirk.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Nagant surprised in seeing Midoriya with so much power implies that All For One may have left out the information about him possessing One For All.
- Logical Weakness: Nagant breifly demonstrates a bit of close combat, but her Rifle Quirk makes long-distance combat her specialty. Get in close and she can't shoot much. Take out her arm gun and she is a sitting duck.
- Loophole Abuse: The Quirks in One For All can't exactly be used at once, so Midoriya has to use them in quick succession to be effective, similar to what Endeavor told him.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Midoriya makes use of the 3rd OFA User's Quirk called Fa Jin, which allows him to store up energy through repeated movement and release it for additional speed and power.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Midoriya seems to have finally gotten through to Nagant in the end, but All For One decides to play this card as a consequence for them both.
- Obviously Not Fine: The preview of the next episode has Midoriya sounding more eerily tired than usual, ending with the insistence that he's "fine" instead of the usual "Go Beyond! Plus Ultra!" It's clear, however, that the lengths All For One is willing going through just to get One For All are finally starting to affect him.
- On One Condition: Midoriya tells Chisaki that if he can have the will to apologize to Eri, the little girl he had used for his twisted Quirk-erasure bullet project, then he will help fulfill Nagant's promise and take Chisaki to visit his old boss. Time will tell if they will go through with this for Eri's sake.
- Posthumous Character: In a flashback, a familiar woman standing next to the Safety Commission Chairman would succeed him after he died at the hands of Nagant. Ironically, the Chairwoman would soon die afterwards back in "Hellish Hell" and the Commission taken down by Re-Destro in one fell swoop.
- Resignations Not Accepted: Nagant questions if silencing others and keeping the veil over the public is the key to a better society, the SC chairman reads what she was actually thinking about and only hints that "her job isn't something she can simply walk away from". Before he reaches for something, Nagant kills him point blank.
- Save the Villain:
- Despite everything he has done in Season 4, Midoriya chooses to face Nagant's Batman Gambit and prevent Chisaki from getting shot, even though he had a feeling she would miss on purpose just to try and hit the boy.
- Despite constantly trying to shoot him, Midoriya catches Nagant before and after AFO blows her up.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Flashbacks show that Nagant had been doing the Safety Commission's questionable errands for so long, she started to be more numb by the day and question if they have made any progress at all for a better society. At one point, she agreed to shake a few kids' hands, only to back away when she hallucinates her right hand stained with the blood of her victims or enemies.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the Villains has a Quirk that allows him to summon what looks like Thunder Spears, similar to the ones from Attack on Titan.
- Deku's generation remembers the sight of All Might moving faster than a speeding bullet. He uses "OFA Faux 100%" to outpace one to save Chisaki.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: While Hawks is able to fly again after healing from Dabi's fire, his wings are still too small for him to maneuver the same way as he did before. He is barely able to hold up Nagant, needing Deku's help to save her.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Zig-Zagged: Neither side has the time or luxury to just stand and talk in their fight in real time, especially since Midoriya has to keep moving to avoid getting shot by Nagant. However, they do hear each other out. Some of the bullets Nagant fires possess tiny speakers so Midoriya can hear her side of the conversation.
- Humorously, Midoriya's voice fades a bit as he falls while asking Nagant why she's working for All For One.
- There Is Another: Despite being blown up by All For One, Nagant survives and stays conscious long enough to tell the Heroes that she is not the only one All For One is sending after Izuku Midoriya.
- Underestimating Badassery: Sure, in a battle between generations, Lady Nagant has Izuku Midoriya beat. One For All notwithstanding, however, Midoriya has been surviving and beating deadly Villains during his first year of school, so she would never have expected a young teenager to dodge her bullets or defeat her in combat.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: The HPSC's mindset, according to Lady Nagant: Maintain the peace, keep the populace happy and ignorant, and weed out the imperfections that threaten it all. She eventually grew sick of this as she viewed it as no better than brainwashing the masses.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: It is never revealed what became of the Villains that attacked All Might after he told them to move. He is later seen driving after to catch up to Midoriya and the others.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After the battle is over, Midoriya tells Nagant that she still has the "heart of a Hero", considering that she has no killing intent. She seemed to be moved by his words, reading them as genuine.
It's not too late for you to fight on our side! I know the heart of a Hero still beats inside you!
~Izuku Midoriya
