YMMV / Apotheosis (MHA)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Izuku presents his theory about the Double Standard that got Ochako expelled and Bakugou off scot-free but when meeting Nedzu, he reveals his awareness of the actual motive. Did he deliberately present a different idea as part of his manipulations? Did he honestly believe his initial theory and simply changed it after thinking things over? Did he present it knowing his first idea was false but believed it was something that could realistically happen? Did he allow his own bias to color his thoughts on the situation when he first presented it?
  • Is Bakugou's hallucination of Izuku a manifestation of his fears towards the villain or is it really his conscience trying to tell him to grow up?
  • How many of the U.A. staff are protecting Bakugou either because that's their jobs as heroes, they hate Izuku or fearing Bakugou's quirk get stolen by Izuku?
• Americans Hate Tingle: Apotheosis is the most popular fic of the franchise on Fanfiction.net, but on Spacebattles it is widely derided for being a Villian!Izuku fic with bashed characters and plot-breaking powers galore.
• Ass Pull: The ending to Chapter 22, which sets the conflict for the rest of the story, sees Izuku somehow force the Japanese government to put him, a teenager and known villain, in charge of a new branch of heroics, which is created on the spot with no due process of any kind, thus giving him complete immunity for his crimes and preventing the heroes from going after him directly. That the author fully admits he has no idea how government or politics work doesn't help matters at all.
• Broken Base:
  • Chapter 25 was a surprisingly big point of contention for the fic, to the point where the author felt that they had to address the situation themselves. One side agrees with Izuku stealing the Quirks of supposed false heroes while another side thinks he's going too far. It should be noted that this only applies to Mount Lady and Uwabami as the Original Character along side them went further in his misuse of his Hero License and outright caused environmental damage to those who refused to pay him, while Uwabami and Mount Lady were only heroes for selfish reasons. Interestingly, there wasn't much of an issue when Izuku did the same thing to Endeavor, one chapter prior despite Endeavor being the same kind of hero and his only misdeeds being a Domestic Abuser and Abusive Parent. Though, that may be justified by the fact that those are actual crimes, and Endeavor should be in jail for them; Izuku taking his Quirk and letting him go was actually merciful all things considered. Then there are those who don't agree with what Izuku is doing but know that this is a Villain!Deku fic and as such expected him to be doing these kinds of misdeeds.
  • While Chapter 32 was heavily praised, there was one big point of contention among readers: All Might and Katsuki escaping Izuku after becoming outlaws. On the one hand, many viewers find the potential of the two, alongside Gran Torino, Mirio, and others either forming a resistance group or becoming vigilantes against Izuku exciting, and fully believe that keeping Katsuki and All Might around can lead to compelling drama and fights. On the other hand, many readers bemoan the fact that the two escaped, not only due to wanting to see them punished and believing that the two being detained could lead to better drama than them escaping, but also because of how difficult is is to believe that the two could escape in the first place.^note  At the time of All Might's defeat, Katsuki was heavily wounded and encased in a block of ice, and All Might was lauched into a skyscraper a good distance from the fight. The story leads us to believe that Katsuki, who has had a few seconds head start at most, outpaced the completely uninjured Ochako, who has a wing suit jet pack aiding her, to the point that he is a good distance away from her when she arrived at the skyscraper, leaving her unable to track them. On the other other hand, many viewers like the idea of the two, or at least one of the two, remaining the main force against Izuku, but felt that either the escape wasn't well executed, or that the role of the heroic antagonist should have fallen to Katsuki and Mirio, and that All Might should have been captured and detained.
  • The author's decision to stick close to The Stations of the Canon for canonical events has also attracted some derision. Detractors believe that that story stays too similar to canon despite the numerous Point of Divergence scenarios, and criticize the story for repeating too much. The Internship arc, in particular, has been criticized for playing out nearly identically to canon, with the only real major differences being Mirio not temporarily losing his quirk, Overhaul's and Hojo's quirks being stolen, and Overhaul being killed at the end of the arc instead of captured. One the other hand, supporters argue that the story's unique scenarios, which take up the majority of the plot, make up for it, and that the story does not have to branch out to much from canon to effectively tell it's plot.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Izuku is a complicated case. Ever since his talk with All Might, he's always had a hatred for supposedly false Heroes and the flawed Hero Society around him and has not at all been subtle about how he intends to rebuild it, nor about what he views as an ideal hero. However, it's not until chapter 25 when he steals Uwabami and Mount Lady's Quirks that the fanbase actually seemed to realize he was a dangerous villain instead of a tragic well-intentioned Anti-Hero. This, despite the fact that early on he allows Stain to kill Native and makes a deal with the Serial Killer meaning that he has always had this warped view of morality and is only now carrying it out himself because he has the power to do so. In essence he was this until he gained the power to Kick the Dog himself, in which case his popularity quickly fell.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Out of all them, Nana is the one who is on Izuku's side. Well, the only thing that he was doing, and wasn't even villainous in the first place, was saving Eri from a child abuser. Being a mother herself, Nana would agree on Izuku's actions.
  • Why hasn't All For One's vestige from his quirk factor appeared to Izuku? It's likely that the uses Of One For All are stopping him.
• Fridge Horror:
  • Other than All Might, Bakugou is the target of Izuku's revenge; At least as far as the story shows. What if Izuku at some point decides to get revenge on his former classmates and teachers who hurt him, whether directly or indirectly? Bakugou had at least possessed a quirk to defend himself but the others.....not so much.
  • How would Bakugou's parents feel about the whole situation? How would they feel that their son has driven his childhood friend into becoming evil and causing a rampage across Japan? Better yet, how would they feel now that Bakugou is branded a fugitive of the law? Chapter 46 reveals they do in fact learnt about their son's horrid bullying thanks to Izuku's smear campaign in which he used Katsuki as the main example.
  • Even if All Might were to succeed in arresting Izuku, the latter's Infinity Gauntlet is still a threat to the world, (The gauntlet likely can't be destroyed immediately due to containing stolen quirks, including his own). Sooner or later, someone might try to steal the Infinity Gauntlet. What if that person does not have Izuku's moral code and is more than happy to use that powerful device to kill people and take over the world or worse, destroy it?
  • Given that canon reveals that All For One's quirk factor allows him to possess Shigaraki, is it possible that the reason he aided Izuku with creating the Infinity Gauntlet was so that he could possible later control it as another possible path to victory?
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Chapters 25 and 26 make it a point to say that Mt. Lady is a false hero who Izuku was right in taking the quirk of, and that they were ultimately nothing more than a Glory Seeker. Around a few weeks later in the actual manga, Mt. Lady returns and demonstrates they underwent some significant Character Development that would make them come across as a true hero, but that said development only came as a result of Endeavor's Character Development and their impact on the story in the wake of All Might's retirement. So not only does the actual manga go to show it's treatment of Mt. Lady was wrong, it retroactively makes Izuku taking Endeavor's quirk worse, since it not only neutered their canon development, it neutered other characters development in the process.
  • Dabi's portrayal as the downright Token Good Teammate of the villain's side of the Knights Of Balance, as well as the numerous sympathetic moments and character traits he gets in Chapter 28 has become much harsher when, not long after that chapter was published, Dabi's began to show more evil traits in the official manga, to the point as coming across as just as monstrous as Shigaraki. This has gotten even worse as of Chapter 290, when it's revealed that Dabi's hatred of Endeavor is so strong that he originally planned to kill Shoto when the latter became a pro-hero just to spite and break Endeavor, and that he holds nothing but hatred for his younger sibling. This makes his portrayal as an, at worst, Aloof Big Brother who does legitimately care for Shoto in this fic all the harder to swallow.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: With the reveal in the manga that Dabi is in fact Toya Todoroki, this makes Izuku's beatdown on Endeavor even more touching as Toya has finally received justice for what the Number Two Hero has done to him.
• Hype Backlash: As the current highest rated My Hero Academia fanfiction on Fanfiction.net and up there with the likes of Hero Class Civil Warfare and Mastermind: Strategist for Hire as the most popular Villain!Deku AU overall, it's unsurprising that many believe this fic to not live up to the hype, often citing numerous cases of bizarre, near amateurish formatting, spelling, and writing decisions, on top of several wasted plot points and characters as the reason. At worst, some see this fic as downright awful.
• Karmic Overkill: All Might's 'crime' at the start of the story was telling Izuku that a quirkless teen can't be a hero, showing his injuries as context. He got his quirk stolen and life destroyed as a result of a genuine answer and reality when one isn't crafting the Infinity Gauntlet.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Izuku crossed it when he began using his Infinity Gauntlet to steal the Quirks of others as a form of Cruel Mercy. While he may desire to rebuild Hero Society so that true Heroes are brought forth rather than the current "false" Heroes he perceives to exist, he's still stealing quirks from people who are doing good things as Heroes even if not for the right reasons. And while it may be easier to justify him doing it to Endeavor and Weather Dominator, it's hard to justify him stealing the quirks of Mt. Lady, Uwabami, and All Might when the former two's biggest crimes were being a Glory Seeker and Attention Whore, and the latter's was more a result of Izuku wanting revenge for All Might crushing his dream. It becomes even worse when considering the fact his Start of Darkness was the cruel treatment he received thanks to being Quirkless, and that he is in turn subjecting them to a similar fate by stripping them of their quirks, and only offering to return the quirks of some individuals and only if they conform to his high standards.
  • The Hero Public Safety Commission is revealed to have crossed it in Chapter 26. Tensei was trying to get help in receiving an exoskeleton that could help him walk again but it was expensive even for the Iida family. The Commission declined his application for financial aid because it was too expensive and wouldn't be able to get Tensei back to the level he could do hero work. Even if that could be passed off as pragmatism or legal technicalities, they then spent even more than what the exoskeleton would have cost paying off business owners whose properties were burned down by Endeavor.
• Rooting for the Empire: The comment section on FanFiction.Net has made it very clear that the vast majority of viewers are rooting for Izuku to win. The fact that this story is a Villain!Deku fic in which Izuku is an Anti-Villain with very accurate points may be the reason to why he is so unanimously popular.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: There are a good amount of characters that viewers feel are underutilized in this story.
  • Perhaps the biggest example is Class 1-A, specifically the members who didn't participate in the Raxas Junkyard battle. While it's understandable as to why they barely appear in the first arc, once Izuku gained a governmental position and started to turn several members of the class to his side it's a bit odd that we are never shown their reactions to these events beyond vague summaries from Kirishima. In fact, 1-A's opinions on Izuku in general are near completely unknown beyond Kirishima, who is neutral on him but is close to supporting him, Momo, and Mina, who are both against him.^note The most we can gather on the other members is that they fear Izuku, given their reaction to him appearing in their classroom. However, specific feelings or opinions on if the boy is just in his actions and if any of them support/are against Izuku are completely unknown. This problem is exemplified when Bakugou and All Might are beaten by Izuku and declared outlaws, and we get no scene of 1-A reacting to this event beyond Kirishima, after the fact, confirming that Monoma is criticizing them for losing multiple classmates.
  • Of the participates of the Raxas Junkyard battle, Momo and Tsuyu have had little to do with the story past that event, in spite of the fact that they continue to get mentions by the author and have seemingly been built up as important characters. Momo, in particular, is a bad case of this, as she is behind Bakugou and Todoroki as the most important and focused on character during the battle, with the entire battle plan being created by her. Despite this focus, the only thing of significance she has done past Raxas was attempting an Armor-Piercing Question on Izuku.
  • A minor example with Midnight, who was one of the Pro Heroes, alongside Aizawa and Gran Torino, to serve as backup against Izuku during his second battle with All Might. Despite this and the fact that Aizawa and Gran Torino remained relevant to story after the battle, Midnight has near completely disappeared.
  • In spite of being one of All Might's close allies and friends in canon, Naomasa Tsukauchi suffered a bad case of What Happened to the Mouse?, disappearing from the story completely after Izuku outed himself as Apotheosis. Many wished that he was one of All Might's allies to help him escape from Japan after the latter was declared a fugitive, and many see the fact that we never even got his reaction to the event as disappointing. While Tsukauchi has reappeared in the story as of the Gentle and La Brave battle, he only really serves as an Exposition Fairy who catches Izuku up on the investigation into the League of Villains, and is confirmed to not be assisting All Might in any way after his interview with Izuku.
  • Sir Nighteye, after All Might and Bakugou are declared villains and have to flee Japan, is set up as a major antagonist towards Izuku, alongside Mirio, repairing his broken friendship with All Might to assist him and having a mutitude of interactions with Izuku during the Internship Arc. This sets Nighteye up as an important character to potentially topple Izuku once and for all. And all of this is thrown out the window when Nighteye is killed in the exact same way as in canon, wasting all of the buildup for him to take a center role and shifting it on Mirio. This was seen by many viewers as an extremely blatant stick to canon for no good reason, and resulted in the Broken Base listed above.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • There are a lot of consequences to Izuku's attempts to ban hero merchandise and his decision to take away the quirks of Mt.Lady and Uwabami. The former has the problem of potentially putting hundreds of people out of a job due to factories either shutting down or being forced to switch products, thus potentially forcing lay offs, on top of alienating and angering collectors and children who love to purchase hero merchandise. For the latter, regardless of how much they deserved it, forcing two popular heroes out of a job would likely cause some form of outcry from their loyal fanbases. The story never goes into depth about these problems despite them potentially playing into Grey-and-Gray Morality, with the only acknowledgement towards one of these issues being one scene that portrays Izuku in the right without going to much into depth about the consequences.
  • The Knights of Balance being a team of multiple former hero students and villains has created the opportunity for a lot of unique interactions. While Chapter 27 and 28 have given some interactions between the two groups, several reader feel as though the story hasn't given enough, and that the focus tends to be far more on both teams separately instead of together. In particular, many wished that we got to see Stain training Todoroki on using blades instead of it just being entirely offscreen.