Headscratchers / My Hero Academia

Headscratchers are questions that remain after you're finished with the work, so all spoilers are unmarked.

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How come there is so little information about AFO?

• It happened a long time ago, but wasn't the police informed about him when his little brother still lived? AFO imprisoned his little brother and the latter eventually found a successor and OFA was inherited for many generations. Nowadays the police knows about AFO and he is in prison, if the police and some heroes knew about him beforehand, how come they don't have much information about the villain? Also, did none of the users think about writing down information about this guy? Did AFO destroy some of the information, or is it the heroes' fault?
  • All for One rose to power during the chaotic era where Quirks were just beginning to manifest and ruled the underworld for over a century. Successful criminals, especially ones living in a world filled with super powered enemies like AfO, know that it's much easier to act if people don't know who you really are. It'd have been simple to exploit the chaos of the time to remove any inconvenient records about himself since society was barely hanging on when things got their worst. Over time, anyone who knew about him personally was either killed by him or his flunkies, absorbed into his network, or just died of old age.
  • As for running his operations, he takes precautions so he can interact with his subordinates as necessary. For the general riff-raff, he lets his lieutenants call the shots on his behalf. Most of them have no idea he even exists. More valuable pawns get voice or text only communications. Only his most loyal followers get to see him in person and they're either too fanatically loyal or too wisely terrified of him to talk. Anyone who does think about betrayal is either killed or becomes yet another brain-dead Nomu. Heroes don't get it much better: anyone who stumbled onto him is almost certain to be killed, mutated into a Nomu, radicalized into his cause, or terrified enough to never interfere with his operations again. The only way the good guys have managed to get any viable intel on All for One or his allies was thanks to heavy investment in investigation or deep cover infiltration missions. Those only got them to his allies and were only possible because he had deliberately blown the cover of his operation to begin his psychological assault on superhero society.
  • Later we learn that the Meta Liberation Army has many of its agents involved with various corporate industries, the media, and even in positions of political influence. It stands to reason that a lot of All For One's followers may have held high government positions, so it would have been no trouble for them to scrub any records of All For One's existence and get rid of anyone who got too nosy.
  • Besides that, All for One is pretty unbelievable. He's an immortal phantom mastermind with unlimited powers that will snatch you up, steal your strength, and turn you into one of his legion of twisted monsters. His powers break all the normal rules and his experimentations are outright horror movie material. He sounds more like a demon than a man. Without concrete information, anyone who heard about him would think this is some urban legend told to scare children. That's exactly as All for One wanted it, until the story began and he was ready to show the world the demons were very real and their false peace is over.
  • That explains most of my confusion. What I don't understand however is how his real name would be lost by the One For All users. The power of One For All has been given from generation to generation and a name is very little information to keep. In fact, why were the names of the users lost over time? There are nine generations in total, we already know the names of three of the user, so this means six names have been lost. Six generations is a long period of time, but a small amount of names (regarding human memory at least), they did manage to count the generations and the names can be written down. All For One might have the power to destroy information, but I doubt he would manage to make a user forget their master's name. In fact, why doesn't Toshinori know the name of Nana's master, didn't she tell her student about her master? To dig even deeper I find it extremely suspicious that during Deku's dream, when the first wielder talked to him and showed how All For One was in his prime, that he didn't tell his and his brother's names and that he started the story when his brother started his villainy, which was at adulthood and didn't give much information about their childhoods. Was AfO always like that? How come their the only ones left from the family? The little brother said that the older one used people for his own benefit, but what did he ask them to do more exactly? Those things weren't explained. Also, it was the first time Midoriya met them in a dream and he was missing parts of his body. Meanwhile, the first user can control what's going on in the dream and knows that Deku is missing body parts, because he mastered only 20 percent of the power. How come the first thing he did wasn't to introduce himself, tell the boy what's going on, reassure him that everything is fine and maybe even try to reduce parts of the dream or something so that Deku's body can be complete? He can tell the boy the story using words or ask him if his alright with showing him "the movie". Other users where present, how come they didn't do anything about it? Those users are really suspicious, not as scary as AfO, but there is something weird about them.
  • What good would a name do? Any halfwit crook knows to operate under an alias or three if you want to lay low. As far as we can tell, AfO has done this so long that abandoned his actual name long ago. It's not like he'd be stupid enough to register anything he uses under the name of a man who should have died over a century ago, so it'd be little more than a bit of irrelevant trivia to anyone looking to combat him. If anything, it'd be worse than useless since it could lead them onto false leads or chasing a trail that went cold decades ago rather than remaining vigilant to whatever threat he now poses. The One for All users only need to know who he and his brother are in the broad sense to understand the danger they face and why developing One for All as much as possible before passing it on is so vital.
  • The fact that the first OfA user didn't introduce himself to Deku nor did he tell him what was going on before starting the story is still suspicious to me. By all means, the story is interesting and important, but nothing urgent and an introduction takes only a few seconds and it's the first thing you do when meeting someone. I wonder if the author expects readers to be suspicious.
  • Later on it's revealed that Lady Nagant was sent after AFO in the past, meaning government agencies and such were aware of him. They most likely helped to cover up his existence, as he was antithetical to the image of a peaceful hero society they were creating. Something that probably also benefited AFO himself in the long run. He allowed them to obscure his existence because it gave him the opportunity to work on his plans in relative peace. The government likely attempted to eliminate him many times like they did with Nagant, but he managed to either avoid detection or easily defeated/converted anyone who tried to combat him.

Why wasn't it brought up that Deku saved Kota before the fight with Muscular?

• When the class was bathing there was a wall between the boys and girls. Kota was on the wall to make sure Mineta didn't get to the girls. At some point, Kota accidentally saw the girls naked, fainted, and almost fell in the water but Deku caught him. If Kota fell in the water, he would've been in danger of drowning if it wasn't for Izuku, whom Kota hit earlier. Kota was mad at superheroes, because his parents were superheroes and died after fighting Muscular, but Deku saved him without risking his life and as mentioned, in spite of being hit by the child. How come this wasn't brought up? The kid was unconscious when he was rescued so he has an excuse, but other characters, including his aunt, knew what happened.
  • Likely because it was a spur of the moment reaction. Sure, he was saved, but it probably wouldn't have any more of a major impact on his mindset than you would if someone just yanked you out of the path of a car you didn't see coming on a crosswalk. It's a shock and something to be thankful for, but nothing life changing. Deku sticking around to fight Muscular despite the clear danger and somehow winning in a display of sheer grit says much more about his character than "isn't callous enough to ignore a kid falling". If it didn't fly in the face of Kota's negative view of heroes like the Muscular right did, there's no point in mentioning it since anything else just reinforces his idea that heroes only act for profit or praise.
  • Then why did his aunt tell him that someday someone might save him? I don't think she was specific that somebody might risk their lives and not for profit. To me it feels like it would be worth a try to tell the kid what happened at the baths, like strictly what happened and let him come to his own conclusion and maybe discuss it later. Maybe Kota would've been upset if he found out later what happened by himself. I do agree that telling him what happened would've been very unlikely to change his mindset, at least not the entire mindset, but it might've been worth a try. And even if his opinion would've not changed, I doubt there would've been nothing life changing at least on the short long, he was in danger after all. Maybe Kota would've thought that he himself should not get so embarrassed in the future that he faints. Seriously, the kid needs help with that too.
  • The difference is that there was no risk, no sacrifice, and very little effort expended by Midoriya in that instance. That and the danger was a just caused by a careless slip on Kota's part which only lasted for a second. It was a dangerous situation, but a fairly normal one, all things considered. Trying to turn that into a lecture on why he should accept heroism would come off as hollow and opportunistic to Kota. It would seem like she was demanding that he praise someone for an simple instead of making any grand point about the nature of the world. His aunt realized that it would take something much more drastic to pierce the bitterness Kota had towards heroes, so she didn't bother to make a big deal about it then.
  • I did mention the option of telling the situation as it happened and nothing more. Granted, he might've still thought of it as a lecture, but she could've replied: "I'm just telling you what happened, you can draw your own conclusions.". Also, he didn't just slip, he outright fainted for seeing naked girls. I'm not saying he should be scolded for fainting, that would be ridiculous, I'm saying he has a problem with getting embarrassed and it should be solved.

How is Recovery Girl a superhero?

• By all means, she is a hero, she saves people by healing them with her Quirk, but other people in the story that treat people are called actual doctors and they save lives by applying medicine as well. We do not see recovery girl fighting against villains or saving people from natural disasters. Granted, she is old, so she probably did more things in her youth, but her Quirk can only heal people, how can she use it to be qualified as a superhero?
  • She's a rescue hero. She doesn't fight villains. Hell, given she was active a long time ago, she might not have even had to demonstrate self defense skills to be licensed. She goes into areas full of casualties that are too dangerous for the emergency services, patches up the wounded, and gets them out of there. The show does admittedly tend towards overexposing the job of the anti-villain heroes, but we're told early on that rescuing people is just as important and valued. Hell, the most powerful hero in the class, Bakugo, failed his licensing exam because he sucks at the job Recovery Girl would be PHENOMENAL at. Honestly, she's got one of the most powerful Quirks in the franchise, even if it has no offensive capabilities.
  • Being a hero is an occupation, so "hero" simply refers to someone who is licensed to use their Quirk in their own judgement of helping others, not necessarily someone who performs heroic actions. It's possible the only reason she got her hero license was to be able to help in emergency situations without repercussions, and working at U.A. is just a good side-effect, since we don't know her actual hero history before being with U.A. (where she's been for the past 40 years).
  • She's only been the school nurse for 40 years, she probably had a more conventional hero career before that and probably had to go through nursing/medical school before that since she mentions performing surgery on Midoriya's arms.
  • She probably got licensed under a different program than UA, which seems to be more focused on combating villains than anything else. Consider that both the homeroom teachers, Easerhead and Vlad King, are both combat oriented types, while the only rescue hero, Thirteen, is a specialty teacher. It would make sense that, like many other skilled trades, heroism has different licenses for different specialties.
  • It may also be that she has more permutations to her Quirk than we've seen (say, boosting her body in a way similar to Tsunade, or using her Quirk to cause harm ala Nia), but she hasn't needed to use those variations since she became UA's nurse. Alternatively, she was a physical fighter in her prime, using her Quirk to support allies if she needed (think someone like Gunhead, who mostly handles fights with his bare hands over his Quirk)
  • With the reveal of Hawks' backstory, its clear that the HPSC is willing to bend the rules for suitably 'amazing' people, so she may have been similarly scouted independent of a school program.
  • It's been implied in-story that healing Quirks are very rare and obviously extremely useful in a profession as hazardous as superheroics. We've seen many heroes on the job with far less useful Quirks, so why wouldn't she be able to qualify? She's been on the job in some form or another since she was young enough for the name Recovery Girl to be suit her, so her career has probably been very storied before she mostly retired to be a nurse.

Why is Bakugo only willing to accept being saved when Kirishima talks to him?

• I presume the reason why Bakugo and Kirishima are friends is because the latter is very patient and friendly, so he can take Bakugo's behavior. But Bakugo is very prideful and wouldn't want to be saved by someone else, what is so special about Kirishima?
  • Midoriya points out that Bakugo is smart enough to realize his being on the scene meant that All Might couldn't go all out against All for One. So they were relying on Bakugo's intelligence and friendship with Kirishima to have the highest chance they could get that Bakugo would cooperate.
  • Bakugo is defined by his pride. Even in life or death situations, he still has trouble swallowing it. Their rescue method left only one chance for success. If Bakugo hesitates at all in accepting it, they would pass by without him. So they picked the one person Bakugo actually considered a friend to reach out to him. Kirishima is the only person who managed to not be driven off by Bakugo's personality and to earn his respect without coming off as a rival. Even Bakugo, for his myriad faults, wants some companionship, so he formed a friendship with the one guy who could deal with him and didn't piss him off that much without realizing it. If his only real friend reached out to help, it wouldn't offend his pride to accept. Anyone else, especially Midoriya, would be resisted automatically for long enough to lose their chance to get away.
  • Kirishima, unlike Midoriya, is a very, very straightforward guy, much moreso than most people in the class (and world). Bakugo knows him well enough to know that there's nothing behind Kirishima offering him help, unlike how he knows Midoriya is always planning and analyzing things and doesn't know the rest of the class very well at all. He can trust that Kirishima isn't looking down on him or assuming he doesn't know what he's doing.

All Might's Injuries

• All Might says that he lost a lung and his entire stomach in a fight with a villain. My question is if he doesn't have a stomach anymore, how is he able to eat? He's seen drinking tea and I'm pretty sure there was at least one part where he was eating something, so did he get some kind of replacement?
  • It's actually possible to live without a stomach. After a total gastrectomy, the esophagus is hooked up directly to the small intestines. The patient is hooked up to IV feeding to allow time for the intestines to adapt, but yeah.
  • Side effects would include decreased nutrition, weakening of the muscles and bones, significant weight loss, and anemia in extreme situations. Which fits All Might's "weak" form's physiology.
  • All Might's had numerous surgeries and sessions with Recovery Girl between his first battle with All for One and the start of the series to cobble his ruined organs together into something functional. That he's able to function on a basic level without help, let alone continue being the world's top hero (in short bursts) in his condition is near miraculous as well as a testament to both the power of One for All and his sheer determination.

Midoriya's Recoil

• Why didn't Midoriya have his hero uniform made with something to absorb the shock from One for All? I know he wanted to use what his mom gave him, but there's no reason he couldn't have had it modified.
  • Where and how could you modify it though? The stress is from his own muscles on his bones and cartilage. So unless his "Costume" was to go full Wolverine and have his bones replaced with "Superstrong, Doesn't Exist in Real Life" metal... There's not much that the costume could do besides act as a splint. Boxing wraps only work because they are keeping the wrists from incorrectly distributing the force. That isn't supposed to by Midoriya's problem. It's that there is just too much force for his body to handle no matter what he does.
  • Midoriya breaking his bones after each use of One for All comes from Newton's Third Law, unfortunately, as was seen when he first punched Nomu and didn't break his arm due to one of Nomu's Quirks — Shock Absorption, which took the entirety of the impact. That being said, considering the pure power that One for All can put out from just a single punch (the shockwave alone enough to cause localized weather disturbances, tear through multiple reinforced concrete floors, and shatter stadium lights from several hundred meters away) what exactly could be used to shield Midoriya from that kind of recoil? Even now, he can only use One for All at 5% of its full power, and even then only by distributing that energy throughout his body.
  • Well, he just did that, although the absorbers also slightly increase his Full Cowl power. 100% One For All is still too much for his body even with them though, so he needed to change fighting styles anyway.
  • All Might calls out at one point how any support gear that could withstand 100% One For All was massively bulky and prevented a lot of easy movement. If All Might had decided to use that, it could have worked given how heavy he lands each hit, but Midoriya's fighting style tends to depend a lot on agility and landing a lot of key successive hits, so anything that could reasonably withstand One For All significantly better than his own body would be extremely impractical in the way that he fights (not to mention, it's implied that One For All is even stronger now than it was when All Might was in his prime, so there's a chance that nothing could contain it anymore).

Quirk Necessity

• Why is it that Quirks are so necessary for superherodom? It's already been shown there's technology that outright replicates Quirks — take Eraser Head's carbon-fiber tethers that he can seemingly control with his mind that are NOT part of his Quirk! This makes Ragdoll's forced retirement from being one of the Pussycats after the loss of her 'Radar' Quirk seems weirder to me when she could be set up with tech to make her into a Gadget Heroine and keep her with her beloved team seem even more awful. Heck, one of the students in the Tournament who was ACCEPTED TO U.A. HAS A QUIRK THAT IS JUST "SEE FAR" — despite it having low combat potential and being easily replicated by tech, this student was allowed to be a hero solely on her technological merits that carried her through the entrance exam, NOT her Quirk. In total — why did even All Might himself say to give up being a hero without a Quirk when you very clearly CAN BE A HERO WITHOUT A QUIRK IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TECH?
  • Mei is in the Support Course. She's training to be an inventor, not a hero, and because she didn't apply to the Hero Course there's absolutely no reason for her to have taken the Hero Entrance Exams. She fought in the Sports Festival, yeah, but that's open to everyone -– it's just that, due to the nature of the festival, the well-trained, athletic, and combat-ready Hero Course has an extreme advantage over the rest of the school.
  • First of all, Mei Hatsume is not in the Hero Course. She's in the Support Course.
  • Second, most equipment tends to be built around the Quirks themselves, so you still need the Quirk in the first place in order to use it. For example, Bakugo's Grenade Blasters that store his nitroglycerin sweat. So far, only Aizawa appears to have equipment that does not revolve around his Quirk and is sufficiently strong to overshadow a lot of other Quirks. Everything else is Quirk amplifiers or side-effect reducers.
  • Third, adding to the above, equipment can't effectively replace Quirks, because it often gets lost, stolen, broken down, etc. It probably costs a lot too, especially because that stuff is often customized. The students and teachers can get away with it because U.A. funds them.
  • Also, the only reason Badass Normal heroes are a thing in western comics is mostly due to author fiat and favoritism having to write around to keep the squishy normals from getting owned by villains with superpowers. This setting doesn't have that; trying to be a Badass Normal when there are Quirks that are good at mass destruction on even freaking purse snatchers is only going to get you killed. Even Midoriya himself admitted that him wanting to be a superhero without a Quirk was mostly wishful thinking on his part after All Might told him straight out that getting into Heroics without powers was dangerous. Sure, Izuku might not need a Quirk to save people, but when you're fighting against guys who can literally dis- and re-assemble people from scratch, you're going to die if you can't defend yourself.
  • Point number four doesn't really hold water. We already have examples of characters who can kick incredible amounts of ass even without using their Quirks. Take Stain, for instance. Sure, if he can lick a person's blood, they get paralyzed and are effectively helpless, but until he draws blood, he's effectively no different from Quirkless person. Nevertheless, he managed to kill or disable dozens of pro heroes and managed to hold off Iida's Super-Speed, Midoriya's Super-Strength, and Todoroki's massive Area of Effect Elemental Powers with only training, mundane weaponry and a normal human body. He lost in the end, but only because he got impatient and even then, Midoriya believes that Stain could have still killed him had he really wanted to. The Quirks of those three students are well above average, particularly Midoriya and Todoroki's. Most Quirks don't even have a fraction of the power of One for All or Fire and Ice, like Ojiro's Tail, which just gives him a strong tail. It isn't inconceivable that a sufficiently armed Badass Normal could defeat most villains given enough effort. The real reasons there are no Quirkless heroes are probably twofold:
  • 1) The whole point of a hero license in the first place is to allow heroes to use their Quirks against other people, something that not even the police have the permission to do. A Quirkless person would receive no benefit from the license, nor would a hero academy's heavily Quirk development focused curriculum help them in any way. It would just be a waste of time when they can just become a policeman instead. The entire point of Heroes is to be a Quirk-ed counterpoint to Quirk-ed villains, so a Quirkless hero would essentially just be a vigilante.
  • 2) In the current hero business, popularity is as important, if not even more important, than actual competence. No matter how skilled, someone without a Quirk to attract attention to would have a hard time making ends meet. Even if they got popular due to the interest in a Quirkless hero, there's only so long you can keep that up before flashier Quirks steal the spotlight.
  • Even so, despite these two factors, U.A. recently allowed applications from Quirkless prospective students, showing that they are at least open to the idea. Let's not forget that in the original draft of the manga, Midoriya was going to stay Quirkless. A Quirkless hero might appear in time, it's just that nobody with the right amount of skill and motivation has appeared yet.
  • U.A. is not really opening applications for Quirkless students, but rather scooping for users of Heart Is an Awesome Power like Shinso. Because fighting ability is an essential metric, there's not much of a point of having a Quirkless hero when you have hundreds of seemingly useless Quirk users in line that could potentially turn out to be a big asset.
  • No, U.A. literally opened applications from Quirkless students. The point stands, but Izuku literally wouldn't have been allowed to apply until they stopped discriminating against Quirkless people in the application process.
  • There's also the fact that (as All Might points out when he first meets Midoriya) there are plenty of other avenues for someone with no Quirk to contribute to society. In fact, All Might explicitly points out being, say, a police officer is a perfectly respectable and important job. Midoriya is explicitly asking about being a superhero, that is, someone whose job is essentially to be a first responder when dealing with disasters and supervillains, which are situations where having a Quirk would be most important. It's not that someone without a quirk is physically incapable of heroism, it's that trying to do superheroing without a superpower is extremely dangerous and it's just much more practical to focus on those who have Quirks. Heroism was literally designed to involve and use Quirks — there's no reason that Quirkless people would have an easy time in it, even with gadgets.
  • There is also the fact to consider that Eraser Head and Stain have POWER NEUTRALIZATION Quirks, and their skills are built around those powers, not in spite of. They cannot be considered a good sample to justify Badass Normal superheroes because their powers give them a specific edge against other Quirk users that couldn't be replicated with a utility belt. They're actually a fairly terrible example, because bringing others down to a temporary Badass Normal and then proceeding to absolutely annihilate them only proves that without Quirks people can't really survive in a heroic or villainous job.
  • Let's not forget that 'villain' isn't an arbitrary title for any ner-do-well. It's specifically meant for someone who uses their Quirk unlawfully. Hero is someone who has special permission to use their Quirk to stop unlawful use of Quirks. Quirkless people don't even need the Hero license to intervene in defense of others, provided that they're even able to make a dent.
  • This. The world currently has justified homicide laws that allow a person to a commit a crime if it's to prevent a worse crime like murder. For someone without a Quirk, it wouldn't have been illegal for them to, say, confront Stain, and there'd be no reason for them to be pursuing a hero license in the first place.
  • Ragdoll losing her Quirk also left her with severe mental trauma. Even if her physical abilities are the same as they were before, she effectively has severe, possibly even crippling PTSD from the events surrounding the loss of her Quirk, which would make it harder for her to perform.
  • This thread isn't about people who forcefully lose their Quirks, but rather people like Izuku who had been born Quirkless and learning to grapple with it/work around it for their entire lives. Someone who's always been Quirkless is going to handle it much better than someone who relied on their Quirk and lost it in what was already an extremely traumatic event for them.
  • In the anime, Midoriya says that U.A. doesn't require a Quirk anymore in order to take the hero entrance exam and he's still officially registered as having no Quirk when he took the exam, meaning that having a Quirk isn't actually necessary to be a hero but it gives you an advantage in the exam.
  • Considering how physical the exam is, it's almost impossible to pass without a Quirk. And even if somebody did it in a fluke, they would most likely get expelled by the likes of Aizawa.
  • Also, you can get in without a Quirk... in GENERAL EDUCATION program, not Heroics. And Support, Management, or any other realm.
  • As for why we haven't seen many tech-based, Quirkless heroes, it's very likely you could make far more money just selling that tech than you could use it to beat up purse snatchers. And that doesn't require risking your life and expensive equipment on a regular basis.
  • Part of the strange lack of tech-based heroes could come down to the image. A tech hero, no matter how incredible, isn't nearly as "unique" as who uses their own special power in the eyes of the public. Given how popularity-dependent professional hero work is, it makes sense that they'd go for a flashy freak of nature than what is essentially someone using just fancy toys. The villain, Mustard was mocked for depending on his gun above his power, so it does seem that there is something of social stigma on using weapons when you do have an active Quirk. Power-enhancing equipment and restraints are used, but the main focus for anyone trying to appeal to the public is their unique Quirk.
  • On a more practical note: the use of technology in the pro hero world is limited to prevent starting a form of arms race between heroes and villains. Crimefighting tools can be lost, broken, stolen, or copied far more easily than Quirks can be matched. That said, given the increasingly dire situation in the story, I wouldn't be surprised if a tech-based hero or villain doesn't appear soon.
  • There is a Quirkless Hero shown in some of the supplementary materials, and judging by how advanced some of the gadgets in this setting can get it's possible that a Quirkless person can act on even terms with those who have Quirks... but just because it's possible doesn't mean it's plausible. The reason Quirks are considered to be such a necessity is because of how dangerous the Hero business can get. Villains frequently have Quirks of their own that make them extremely dangerous, to the point that just physical training and gadgets may not be enough. You also have to consider that things like natural disasters are also a major threat even to those who have Quirks. Not to mention that a Quirkless Hero who's reliant on gadgets has their effectiveness drastically reduced if they can't use them for some reason, whether they were just caught without it or because it was damaged or lost. Now, considering Midoriya's so skilled at analyzing and planning for another person's Quirk that you could consider that to be a Quirk of its own, he had the potential to be a Hero even without receiving One for All... but would All Might really not try to talk one of his fans out of pursuing a career path that runs a strong chance of getting him crippled or killed?
  • Just because it is possible does not mean it is plausible is a fantastic descriptor that nails this whole question 100%. The MHA universe is clearly aiming to be more realistic than your typical Shonen or comic book: it is our world, just people have powers now. This is why Quirks have limits and can end up crippling, maiming, or killing the user if pushed beyond their physical limits because at the end of the day, they are still only human. And if we use western comics as an example, it inevitably brings us to the likes of Batman and Iron Man — men who are only able to do what they do because they are richer, smarter, more skilled, more agile, and have more determination, stamina, and endurance than any normal person could ever reasonably have. That is the level that someone like Deku would have had to be at to compete with the rest of Class 1A or 1B. I am also reminded of the film Kick Ass where the titular character's first act was to get stabbed near fatally by a couple of muggers — the realistic outcome of putting on a costume and going out to fight crime powerless. And as a final nail in the coffin: it is illegal to build hero support items without a license or without special permission. Deku simply could not have turned up to his entrance exams wearing a utility belt or an Iron Man suit. The most that he could have hoped for was General Studies or Support — and that is not his dream.
  • I think the easiest way to end this idea that the Quirkless can realistically become heroes would be to chart the exact moment in which Deku dies in the He never met All Might timeline. He possibly could have gotten into UA if he managed to save Ochako again (perhaps by running underneath the robot and freeing her leg or something). After that though... I cannot see Eraser not failing Deku after he fails every opening test. I cannot see Bakugo not splitting Deku in two in a jealous rage during the team task. And he absolutely would have died when the League of Villains attacked UA. Even if you want to seriously amp this and gave Deku enough Batman skills to put him beyond the Sports Festival then he would have failed hilariously against either Stain or Muscular because even with Batman Skills he would still be missing the vast wealth and years of touring the world honing his craft. Someone old enough to realistically be Batman would be too old to get into UA.
  • So a few responses,the hero exam IS open to people without quirks as Izuku entered whilst still filed as quirkless. Whilst making Hero support items is illegal, there is surely a market for civilain ones, plus they could just bring in a staff or something. And to the guy plotting were izuku would die- even without OFA Izuku was pretty damn strong after the ten months, so if he was thinking straight that is a pass through the exam and test, the battle training probably would have resulted in Izuku moving Katsukis arm so it isnt pointed at him when it goes off, the attack on the USJ would have been the least dangerous thing at that point because they can trapp the water villians and make a run for it, and then once at plaza taking down smaller vilians from a distance and doing basically what they did in cannon (since he didn't use the quirk effectively at all during it) and then going to block shiggy with a bar of metal or similar, sports festival is a non issue given it isnt life or death, stain is a ok to fight as long as Izuku has a lil' more mobility ( say capture weapon and able to use for dodging n stuff) and Muscular is a simple as distract and maim in eyes then run tf away. Finally, the batman "skills" stuff is negated by one word: robin. any of them.
    • "Izuku can pass the exam and the test without OFA" How? "They can trap the water villains and make a run for it" HOW!? "Then going to block Shiggy with a bar of metal or similar" First, where would get Izuku get a bar of metal? Second, once Shigaraki decays the bar of metal, what can Izuku do? And sure thing, Stain wrecked Izuku while using the power of one of the strongest Quirks in existence, which greatly enhahnced his strength and speed, but he'll do better with a capture weapon. "Muscular is easy, blind him and run away" oh sure, because Muscular is just a dumbass who's going to stand there let Izuku do that, right? But apparently, canon Izuku is a dumbass for not thinking in such an obvious solution. Dude, no matter how many Quirkless Izuku fics you have read, there's no way Izuku wouldn't have been either expelled from UA or killed without OFA.
• After reading all of this, I still wonder why the quirkless aren't considered able to be heroes. In the case of Ragdoll, even before she lost her quirk, she didn't have a power that was particularly suited to fighting someone with superpowers. Sure she could sense their weakness but that doesn't mean she had the power to exploit it (what would she do against a villain like Muscular, for example?). Same with Aizawa, Stain, Mandalay, anyone else who doesn't have a quirk with obvious offensive powers. Sure, some of their quirks could help neutralize threats temporarily, but they had to become pretty badass without relying on their quirks, to account for their limitations. Why couldn't Deku (had he not inherited One-for-all) have been trained to be the next Eraserhead, with a capture weapon that doubles as a fashion accessory and the ability to run on suburban powerlines like a ninja? Or trained to be the next Stain (but without the mental instability) where he's a badass swordsman?
  • Additionally, I have to wonder how Hagakure or the kid from Class 1-B who welds stuff together managed to get through the Hero Course entrance exam. Unless their exam was different than Deku's, it was largely offensive (taking out car-sized robots for points) something invisibility and welding two things (that already have to be touching) together wouldn't be super effective against. If they're both seen as having potential to be Heroes, why not a quirkless student with more passion than some of the Pros?
    • Regarding Hagakure and Yosetsu, the exam also awarded points for rescues, as well as incapacitating the robots. Hagakure is exceptionally good at stealth, so could easily slip past the boys and get people out, or hit some kind of shutoff/incapacitation device (which in the real field would be synonymous with something like a nerve strike or submission hold from stealth). Yosetsu has it even easier, in that as soon as he can touch a robot, he can Weld it to whatever it's touching (including itself). He gets the legs, the bot is completely immobilized, and if he gets the arms as well, it's out of action.
  • Later chapters show exactly what happens when people think that support gear alone is enough to beat hardened villains: it goes very poorly. Any villain of worth can easily avoid or overwhelm the sort of gear that would be feasible to provide. You'd have to break out cruise missiles to match the destructive power of people like Muscular, much less AFO himself. Even mid-level villains would require millions of dollar's worth of material to put down and likely require trucks to carry. Far beyond anything that a normal person could carry on their person, let alone afford. Especially not some random middle class kid in middle school. Yeah, Batman makes it seem simple, but he's written with unlimited time and money on top of a genius level intellect and decades of impossible training. He's basically superhuman, despite the bragging that he's a "normal man".

Heroes and teachers

• How do professional heroes end up teaching at a high school, apparently with degrees allowing them to teach Literature or Math?
  • First of all, it should be noted that U.A isn't a normal high school, the ability to teach Heroics/responsible Quirk use is likely the priority. However, that doesn't mean that the teachers never studied to do anything else. It's very possible that all of them are qualified to teach those subjects, and if there's a gap then U.A would likely hire a normal teacher to fill in the gaps.
  • It's also possible that in-series children are taught all their literature and math before reaching high school. Since over 80% of the population has a Quirk, it's possible that average school happens at an elevated speed so kids can learn Quirk responsibility, and how to be a hero.
  • Horikoshi released schedules that confirm they only have actual hero classes a few times a week as first years. The vast majority of their time is spent in English, Japanese, Math, World History, and other typical high school subjects, and we get scenes of Present Mic teaching them English and Ectoplasm teaching them calculus sometimes.
  • Having pros teach the kids even in normal classes probably serves several purposes. 1) It helps the kids familiarize themselves with the pros and get more accustomed to the outlandish world of their future careers. 2) It lets the pros impart some wisdom related to the class that normal teachers wouldn't. 3) It lets the pros monitor the students for any behavioral problems, areas personal growth, and/or external dangers. 4) It allows them to quickly respond to any students that might get out of control. That said, normal teachers, possibly with special equipment, could likely do most of the regular classes while the pro heroes stuck to doing heroics-related classes, but that would be a lot less interesting to the real-world audience. When you're reading a story about a superhero school, you want to see the kids learn from superheroes, not sit through what is essentially a normal class with a normal instructor.
  • In Vigilantes, we see Aizawa considering the idea. Apparently, it's not uncommon and is considered to be a valid career track as a professional hero, so it's unlikely there wouldn't be special licensing courses or other things to help heroes learn what they need to teach as well. Also, it's unlikely pro heroes teach people outside the Heroics Department on a regular basis, but that the Heroics Department but necessity needs to be smaller and tight-knit and led by people who understand how being a hero also impacts the rest of your life and doesn't happen in a vacuum.

Eraser Head and blinking

• We see when he saves Tsuyu's life from Tomura that he only needs one eye pointed at a person to nullify their Quirk. If that's so, could he train himself to blink one eye at a time so that his Quirk would remain indefinitely activated?
  • That would require an insane level of training, coordination, and effort, which wouldn't be very practical in an actual battlefield situation.
  • I dunno, people have successfully trained themselves to do things like crack the knuckles on only one hand for their entire life.
  • Aizawa's got dry eyes anyway, which is what actually prevents his Quirk from being always in use, so this is a waste of time.
  • It would also limit his depth perception, which is probably not a good thing in a combat environment. The other thing is that he tends to focus more on neutralizing the target as quickly as possible rather than suppressing a Quirk for a long period of time.
  • Even if he has his eyes open, his Quirk is only active as long deliberately activates it, which takes physical effort. His power only keeps others neutralized for the time it takes for him to need to blink again, meaning maybe a minute or so at a time. Because he knows he only has a short window to act in, he made his fighting style all about ending fights quickly and efficiently. There would be no point in training up some blinking trick because it'd offer little benefit compared to working on fundamentals like martial arts, stealth, and restraint. Besides, he already has a measure to deal with enemies knowing when he blinks: his goggles.
  • It may also be that Aizawa's Quirk ISN'T directly tied to his blinking, but rather operates on a set timer similar to Monoma's (in his case, it can remain active for roughly a minute max), and he just ties it to his blinking as his metric (similar to Monoma using the watches on his costume).

Aizawa's fitness testing

• So Midoriya came in the last place in the class, right? While it seems obvious because he can't use his Quirk very much, thinking about it a bit still raises the question: How the heck did he manage to place behind Toru Hagakure? It's true that he only got an above-average result in one test, but Toru's power (invisibility) isn't an ability that would give her any kind of boost in any of the activities that Aizawa was having them perform. As a result, you'd think that Midoriya's one above-average activity would've pushed her ahead of him, as all of her results would've been on the level of a Quirkless individual. The only way that could happen is if she managed to beat him in all the other events by a wide enough margin that it nullified his massive advantage in the softball throw. But that in itself is unlikely, as Midoriya has been training super hard under All Might for months and is in really good physical shape. In light of that, how did he manage to still end up in the last place?
  • Pitching was Trial 5 out of 8. There were 3 more events after that where Midoriya underperformed due to the broken finger. So yeah, his advantage was nullified.
  • Midoriya did exceptional in one event, okay in the previous ones and poorly in the rest. For all, we know Toru managed to do average or better in the other events, and so she wasn't placed last. It's also possible that Aizawa was scoring them based on their Quirks. After all, he was gauging their potential first and foremost.
  • An interesting theory would be that Hagakure scored exceptionally well during the long-distance run, as we didn't get to see the full duration or results of that test. Hagakure could simply remove her clothing and run in the opposite direction to the finish line (assuming a circular field), which would acquire her one outrageous score.
  • isnt that called straight up cheating- like not using your quirk to your advantage straight up cheating
  • Midoriya had only begun serious training within the last year and was exceptionally nervous. It's possible that he let his worries get the best of him and let his performance suffer because of it.
  • He still has ten months of training under All Might and was moving freaking cars on the beach. He should have done better than a large portion of the class on physical abilities alone.
  • The rankings were based on Aizawa's own discretion. He didn't give any explanations of how they work.
  • The test was not for fitness but for Quirk comprehension. He graded them based on how they used their Quirks. Izuku did not use his at all save for the pitching test, thus he had the lowest score. For someone like Hagakure, whose Quirk does not enhance physical abilities, Aizawa probably graded them using the human baseline for their age, gender, and size.
  • The entire point of the test was to cheat with your Quirk for better scores. Bakugo using his to fly across the long jump field, for instance, rather than actually jumping. Hagakure just took off her clothes and lied about how fast she did on any timed event, or starts way past the starting line, or any other way to use her Quirk to cheat. Of course, Aizawa knows she's doing it, but using your Quirk to get better scores was the entire point, so he records what she says.
  • using your quirk to ASSIST your normal capabilities was allowed- not the "entire point" and not cheating- bakugo had to jump and use his quirk to extend his jumping distance not fly, hagakure couldnt straight up cheat hers, ect.
  • We find out later that Aizawa has a serious soft spot for people with non-combat utility powers like Shinzo, and that he has a serious hatred of heroes who are too quick to get themselves hurt. He was really just picking on Deku specifically because he nearly got himself killed in the entrance exam and had to be saved by Ochako.
• What still confounds me is how Aizawa justifies expelling a student who places last in his fitness test when I wonder how he himself would pass his own "Quirk Assessment" fitness test? If we're saying Hagakure got higher points than Midoriya because she "used her quirk" (something she can't turn off) and he didn't, I find myself curious how Aizawa would manage to do better? The only way someone with his Quirk could best his classmates would be if he erased all of their Quirks and therefore took away all of their advantages, which would seem counter to the test itself (since the point is to assess how they USE their quirks to get through the fitness test). It just seems sort of hypocritical of Aizawa to hold his class to a standard he himself wouldn't have been able to live up to as a first year (presumably before he learned to be a literal ninja).
  • That's something that used to bug me as well, until I rewatched the attack on the USJ. When Izuku is worried for Aizawa, who's about to fight an horde of villains in the open while he normally ambushes single enemies in the dark, Aizawa replied that no Pro Hero worth their salt is a one trick pony. Now, this is speculation on my part with no basis on canon, but my guess is that in the case of people with Quirks that didn't have applications to physical exercises, like Kaminari, Kyoka, Hagakure or Koda, Aizawa wanted to see how was their physical shape, or what would they do in a siatuation where their Quirks would be of no use. Like a cop or a firefighter, being fit is a must for a hero. It still doesn't explain how the four I mentioned above still ranked higher than Izuku when he was trained for 10 months by All Might while everybody else presumably trained on their own.
  • Short answer is, he doesn't. Expelling the least capable student on the fitness test is a lie and he admitted as such. The real purpose of the fitness test is for him to monitor his new students in a controlled environment and judge their potential. He's expelled an entire class in the past after deeming them unfit.

Midoriya looking down on Bakugo

• So, chapter 119 has Bakugo stating that Midoriya always looked down on him. Why does he think that? I never quite realized any point in which Midoriya hasn't treated Bakugo with respect, even in situations where he was undeserving of it. Is that just Bakugo's view on the relationship? What exactly triggers him so much that he believes Midoriya to be constantly looking down on him, even though they interacted very little despite Bakugo's bullying?
  • Bakugo interpreted Izuku offering to help him when he fell in that pond when they were five as Izuku looking down on him and has apparently obsessed with the idea from then on. Yes, it's that stupid.
  • It wasn't the pond scene, but rather the fact that Midoriya had managed to obtain power from nowhere, which led Bakugo to believe Midoriya was deceiving him all this time and made things worse. Before that, he just thought Midoriya was an annoyance.
  • Bakugo's own mom said he got an inflated sense of ego due to incredible raw talent and the praise from it, and as a result, devolved a complex where he views receiving help as a personal weakness and failing. Midoriya rushes to help no matter what, but Bakugo interprets Midoriya's behavior as Midoriya thinking that he is the more capable of the two and thus disrespected/looked down upon.
  • Not to mention, Mitsuki made an offhanded remark in that same scene about Bakugou's capture by the villains being due to his own weakness. She probably said that kind of stuff to him a lot while he was growing up (possibly as some sort of Tough Love) which led to Bakugou associating any vulnerability, whether it be something as small as falling into a pond or as major as being kidnapped, with being a failure.
  • Midoriya managed to be at the center of the first events that really damaged his pride. Midoriya saved him from the Sludge Villain when Bakugo was helpless, he defeated him in the mock battle while displaying power far surpassing his own, spewed some crazy story about him somehow gaining a Quirk for someone else to rub it in, he has the attention of All Might, he earned the respect of Class 1-A while Bakugo was generally seen as just a jerk, got the respect of the one other student Bakugo saw as a rival, etc. In Bakugo's mind, this all meant that for their entire childhood, Midoriya was hiding his own immense power and skill. The only reason he can process that Midoriya didn't challenge him before now is that Midoriya was letting Bakugo play Big Man on Campus because he didn't consider him worthy of enough respect to use his Quirk on. Remember, Bakugo filters everything through his ego, so his former victim overshadowing him is seen as the gravest insult.
  • I think it's important to note that when Midoriya tries to help Bakugo, he (unintentionally) points out Bakugo's weakness(es). When Bakugo falls into the pond, it is Bakugo "failing", albeit in a minor way. When Midoriya comes down to help him out, he is pointing this "failure" out. Basically, Midoriya helping Bakugo is showcasing that Bakugo isn't perfect and Bakugo thinks that is Midoriya's true motivation for trying to help him.
  • Another thing that Bakugo might consider as Midoriya "looking down on him" is that Midoriya DOESN'T respond to his bullying/taunting. To someone like Bakugo, continuing to see him as something less than a hated rival is tantamount to Midoriya seeing him as beneath notice, especially since Midoriya was apparently hiding an incredibly strong Quirk. The fact that Izuku NEVER decided to try and pick a fight or even retaliate is, to Bakugo, a slight that basically says "you're not worth my time, loser"

Could Mirio really have been the top hero?

• Mirio's permeability Quirk is very useful and he's certainly gone through a lot of training to work out all the bugs with his Quirk (and he had some very big bugs to work out), but overall, but does he have ability to actually take on other villains without some kind of offensive power? He could train himself into a hard-hitting master, but the hardest hitting punch on record measured in at around 950 foot pounds: the same kind of impact a magnum round has, but in the MHA universe, that's still rather weak considering some people have hardening Quirks, can actually take hits like that easily, and shock-absorbing armor exists. Worse still, his Quirk means he can't carry weapons or armor or any kind, and he'll have to become tangible at some point to do any damage, since it's specifically stated that if he re-materializes in solid matter, he's violently ejected, so no internal organ damage. Not to mention area attacks, like electricity, sticky mines, earthshaking audio blasts, or tape (all of which class 1-A can produce). Since he's deaf and blind while permeable, it would be child's play to scatter or conjure said obstacles around and wait for him to re-materialize — right into whatever trap had been laid for him. I'm not saying he can't be a powerful hero, but perhaps "top hero" is a bit of a stretch.
  • Mirio himself stated that he has developed counters for his counters. He also didn't have a hard time taking down Kirishima, who has a hardening Quirk. He's fast enough to just knock out any guy that takes over half a second to activate their Quirk, so the whole area obstacles thing only works if the dude is Crazy-Prepared enough to know he's facing Mirio.
  • Mirio took down the entirety of Class 1-A in a matter of seconds in one of his first appearances. His Quirk is somewhat one-note, but he honed his body and skill with it to the point that even its disadvantages are helpful in setting up devastating attacks. Sure, he's never going to flatten buildings with his bare fists, but he's at least near peak human strength and durability by in-universe standards (i.e. highly superhuman in the real world). Beyond that, he has the charisma and morality to shine as a beacon to others that is so rare as to almost instantly elevate him in the public eye. With all that combined, he could easily have become a top-tier pro after graduation as he was. If things had gone as planned, All Might would have ended up passing One For All onto him instead of Midoriya, which would make him almost certain to take the Number 1 rank as soon as possible.
  • To be honest, it's more that he almost can't take damage. He's got himself so well trained that he can punch someone through a hostage without injuring them, remain solid enough to do damage while letting someone's weapon swipe through him harmlessly, and has no reason to let things like tape, bullets, or knives affect him. Most large-scale villain attacks are handled by teams anyway, so people would be there to balance out Mirio's weaknesses, but he could have been a fantastic rescue or hostage hero, which seemed to be more up his alley anyway. He wants to rescue a million people; when you picture him phasing through wreckage to find survivors or reaching through a hostage to incapacitate their attacker, things make a lot more sense then if he's just hammering away at villains all the time.
  • Spoilers for the 4th Season but we learn that Mirio was more than capable of becoming top hero. Even without his Quirk, he's learned to predict his opponents' attacks so well and has the physical abilities to counter them. He's absurdly well trained and able to hold his own against some extremely powerful villains. Add in his permeance Quirk and he's basically unstoppable. He's more than perfect to be Top Hero.
  • I think the OP of this post has just been validated somewhat by the climax to the Paranormal War, however. Mirio shows up to fight the Nomu and he's invincible as usual, but he ultimately proves to be not much help against them because there's only so much damage he can do to Nigh-Invulnerable monsters. He ends up having to call for help because he has no method of putting the Nomus down for good. While it's true he could dominate as a rescue hero and apprehend humans for days, as long as Japan continues in the direction of having these large monsters be a primary threat, he may not be able to rack up as many battle wins as, say, Endeavor for example.
    • I think what pushed Mirio into "top hero" material is more his personality and charm combined with his cleverness in Quirk use. While he may not have the raw destructive power of someone like Endeavor, he had a combination of power (nearly impossible to deal real damage to), cleverness (if he had his quirk, he could likely cause even Nomu significant damage by using their power against them), and above all, CHARISMA. He's the kind of person that others gravitate towards, who reassures others, and generally is a shining beacon for people

Unknown Class 1-A Student

• In the first panel, top right on this page [1] there is a guy with no head. He's appeared a couple of times before and after this, but I cannot, for the life of me, remember anything about him. He doesn't even have a character page here or on the wiki. Who is he?!
  • In the original Japanese text, the words would end up blocking the student's head from view and after English translation condensed the space it would take up, it reveals the area but they didn't edit in someones head to fill in the missing space.
  • That actually seems most likely. Just wish I could find the raws to check.
  • It is, the head is blocked by a vertical "バカか"
  • He might have been the 1-B student Manga, who has a speech balloon head, and the writers never bothered to fix it in the English translation.
    • Can't be Manga, considering the talk happened in 1-A class. Probably just an art error from Horikoshi that never got fixed or pointed out.

Is Tsuyu one of the main characters?

• I mean, she always gets heavily promoted, always on the top 10 of popularity pools, the colored spread made by Horikoshi included only the 5 main characters plus her, she always appears to be somewhat related to the current Story Arc, when Class 1-A fights, she always gets at least one moment on the spotlight to fight. Is she considered one of the main characters now?
  • She gets so much time in the spotlight because she's popular. She went big, so Horikoshi puts her in a lot of marketing material as a gift/shoutout to everyone who likes her so much.
  • Tsu is a secondary character in the same way Kirishima is; they're kept in spotlight due to their proximity to actual main characters. In Kirishima's case, it's usually Bakugo, for Tsu it's Uraraka.
  • Tsuyu's biggest role so far is still the USJ arc. Outside of that, she hardly had screentime comparable to the main character.
  • Tsuyu and Kirishima have had the most exposure and focus of anyone outside the main five students of 1-A, but they're still secondary characters despite it all. They have gotten more attention in more recent chapters, but they have a long way to go before either one is considered comparable to the likes of Iida and Uraraka, let alone Todoroki, Bakugo, and Midoriya. That's not to say that they can't ascend later on, but that's looking unlikely.
  • I'd say that there's various tiers when it comes to characters in 1-A. At the top is Midoriya, the protagonist. Just below him are Bakugo, Iida, Todoroki and Uraraka. Next are the supporting characters, who appear fairly often but not enough to be "main" characters — Yaoyorozu, Tsuyu, Kirishima, and Mineta. Next are the characters who appear occasionally — Jiro and Aoyama come to mind. The rest of the 1-A students are strictly supporting characters.

Quirkless

• Considering that 20% of the human populace is supposed to be Quirkless it's strange that Midoriya is treated as being that unique. In the hero business, it would strange and worrisome, but he's already being bullied and treated as traumatically handicapped as if nobody knows of other Quirkless people from the age of four. With a 20% chance of being Quirkless, there should be dozens of them walking around and every class should have a couple of them (every non-hero class).
  • The story is about how a boy wants to become a hero even though he's originally not suited for it. The author wants to make the protagonist look more extraordinary by drawing attention to how in a world with superpowers he's born without any. Granted, even then it's strange that he'd say that 20% of humanity is still Quirkless rather than 1% or something to increase the rarity and more solidly justify Midoriya's position.
  • Being unique in the hero business makes sense. The strange part is that he would be unique in kindergarten, primary school, AND middle school, and mistreated for it to boot. Midoriya is basically the Token Quirkless, a position which is later inherited in the opposite direction by All Might. Somewhat.
  • It could be age-related. Since the number of people with Quirks increases in each generation, and the percentage given encompasses ALL human populace, it's possible that most Quirkless people are older, while for Izuku's generation the percentage is different.
  • Adding to this, worth remembering that Japan has a disproportionately large amount of old people, so yes, the majority of the 20% are likely them.
  • It's age-related. The 20% is world-wide and coalesced mostly into the older population by the time of canon. All Might, when revealing he too was Quirkless, says something along the lines of "Being Quirkless wasn't nearly as rare in my generation as yours."
  • Keep in mind that Midoriya and his peers are still very young. This is a world where children spontaneously develop superpowers in preschool. It's as natural as, say, losing your first baby teeth. Then comes this one kid who just didn't have anything. He's nervous, weak, goofy-looking, and obsessed with heroes to the point that he keeps mumbling to himself and taking exhaustive notes about all of them. Kids see him as some plain, weak weirdo that can't do anything special and is clinging to pitiful fantasy he could never achieve. In short, he's the perfect target for bullies like Bakugo looking for a quick ego boost and victim that can't fight back. Kids Are Cruel is in full effect, but the adults are part of the problem. They are culturally inclined to judge based on Quirks, heaping unearned praise on those lucky enough to develop "heroic" flashy abilities and neglecting or mocking those with lesser or no powers. Since Quirks are becoming more and more the norm, those without them are seen as relics of the old era. The kids may not understand that fact, but the adults, intentionally or not, pass that bias onto the children.
  • First of all, "20% of the world population being Quirkless" does not equal "20% chance of being born Quirkless". The manga established that being Quirkless is becoming rarer and rarer with each passing generation, and that Izuku might as well be among the last Quirkless persons ever born. Second, this is something a lot of people forget, but while the world's Qurikless population is 20%, it's pointed out that Japan's is a measly 3%. And combined with the previous point, most people in that demographic are likely from All Might's generation (age 50 and up). So yes, it would be extremely rare for somebody in the youngest generation to be born Quirkless, which would explain why other kids would treat Izuku as something unique.

Japan the Center of the world

• Why are the majority (if not all) of the world's top heroes Japanese? If 80% of the world's population got Quirks, how come that it is Japan that seemingly gets the highest global recognition in terms of hero business? (the majority of the heroes, the most famous hero academy, etc...) What about the rest of the world? Are there "top-10 heroes" per country or just a massive global Top-10 all in all? (I get that All Might is the acknowledged global symbol of peace, but how does that work in other countries? He can't be working beyond the borders of Japan, right? So does the other continents have their equivalent of him there as well? Confused.) And in that case, how come it is Japan that gets seems to be the most skilled in handling the Quirks? (Since the Top 10 heroes appear to be all Japanese...) Can anyone possibly help out explaining this? (This is more of a "universe" headscratcher than a story one since I know the story follows Izuku for a reason. I'm just curious and puzzled over how the world handles the Quirks on a global scale, that's all.)
  • It's probably due to a lot of things. If we take into account some of the things that have been said in the story: such as the emergence of Quirks causing such unrest as to stagnate or even regress society, to the point that if it hadn't happened the world of MHA would be a Gundam world (and that this statement is noted by Izuku to have been said some time ago to boot) and the fact that All for One is, due to a Quirk he stole, the oldest living human by far — having seen 9 Generations of One for All users come and go — we can safely say that an enormous amount of time has passed since that baby in China with the first Quirk was born. IF we assume that, that child's birth was somewhere between 2020 and 2050; then taking account of the space travel comments, and factoring All for One's supposed age and the time for 9 generations of One for All to come and go — if we assume a generation is about 20 years then AFO is in his 180's at the least — I would suspect that at least ~200 to 250 years have passed since then, meaning that Izuku and his friends are living somewhere between the years 2220 and 2300. It may not seem like it but that's a significant number of years. In an equivalent period of time, the United States went from a backwater colony to the world's preeminent Superpower. In the same time frame, the British, Spanish, and French Empires rose and fell, and two World Wars, the Cold War, and the nuclear bomb reshaped the world and its balance of power. Considering the suggested upheaval that occurred when Quirks first emerged, and the probable centuries that have passed, it's possible that nations like the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and much of the like no longer exist or at least not as we know them. Lastly, one has to remember that until the near past when the last few users of One for All beat him back All for One basically ruled Japan. It's possible that Heroes migrated there to combat his influence even without knowing he was the exact cause. I also don't remember if it's even addressed if Japan is still Japan, as a nation-state, anyways — at least currently. There could be some sort of greater world government that administers the whole planet — at least by Deku's time — perhaps after All for One was beat back into the Shadows, Japan was absorbed into the global Super UN or whatnot.
  • It's also a reference to the fact that New York is the center of the world in Marvel Comics.
  • The rank is confirmed to be Japan-only in the manga. The U.S. is mentioned to have its own heroes as well as a global headquarters (probably something like the Justice League), which implies a separate system.
  • We are only dealing with Japan in this story because that's where the creator and main audience lives. We know very little about any other nation in the setting. For all we know, there could be hundreds of Number 2 heroes the world over and All Might is just so amazing that he's recognized worldwide. There is no indication that any of the other top-ranked heroes in Japan are well known outside the borders. That may indicate that All Might isn't simply Number 1 in Japanese rankings, but he effectively broke the scale to become a world phenomenon. No wonder Endeavor gave up in chasing his spot: it isn't just moving up a ranking. It's transcending the ranking system itself.
  • The manga gives the impression that those are Japanese rankings. Also, the subbed anime says that the U.A. Sports Festival is the most popular event in Japan. Maybe the Dubs use the world as a way to pull in the audience and make them more invested?
    • Piggybacking some the previous bullets by mentioning that Chapter 328 has All Might requesting aid from non-Japanese heroes in the fallout of the War Arc and the sole one who accepts it is not only from the U.S., but also is the #1 Hero there.
  • Also, it may be that, in the MHA universe, Japan is considered to be the cream of the crop for Heroes. So being the #1 Hero in Japan, or being one of the most promising up-and-comers is considered a BIG deal, akin to, say, being the #1 soccer player in Europe (which has produced the creme de la creme of players). After all, Japan has produced All Might, Endeavour, Crimson Riot, Hawks, Miruko, etc, so being a top Hero in Japan puts you on that same footing.
  • It's a Japanese comic. It's only natural that the action would be centered in Japan, in the same way that American super-hero comics are focused on the US. To be fair, in the MHA universe, the US was the first nation to issue hero licenses, and is popularly referred to as "the home of the heroes," which would seem to indicate that they have a lot (which would be natural with such a large, diverse population).

Worst in class on the first day

• Okay, during the first class, the students do a big physical fitness test. Since Midoriya's got no control over his powers, he comes in dead last. However, should that really be the case? Even if he could only use his Quirk on a single part of the test, he's still coming off a year-length intensive training regiment. Meanwhile, a majority of other students have Quirks that don't seem especially useful for the tests either. The invisible girl is the most obvious, but you've also got the guy who can replicate body parts, the girl with the sound powers, the guy with the sticky hair (who has miniature legs to boot), the guy with the duct tape in his elbows, the girl with acid powers and the guy who talks to animals.
  • Midoriya said he severely underperformed during the last three tests because of his broken finger. Besides, Mineta was shown using his Quirk for one of the tests with ludicrous results and it is not that much of a stretch to think Sero used his tape to help in some tests, Spider-man style.
  • Except the last three tests are Sit-Ups (doesn't involve fingers), Seated toe-touch (doesn't require 10 fingers), and a long-distance run (also doesn't involve fingers), although in the last one invisible girl and grape boy are shown outrunning him... somehow. Either way, it doesn't make any sense.
  • Having a finger with multiple bone fractures and third-degree burns is bound to be quite distracting.
  • As noted above, it was not a fitness test but a test for Quirk usage. Midoriya only used his in one event and showed that he has only the barest control over it, netting him the lowest score.
  • Midoryia was extremely nervous and very distracted all day. That would almost certain help to tank his performance in most atheletic competitions, even if he was in good enough shape to be competitive with the students that don't have relevant Quirks for atheletics.

Midoriya vs. Todoroki: Cavalry Match

• Why didn't Midoriya attempt to grab all the point headbands around Todoroki's neck when he had the chance to do so? There's really no justifiable reason as to why he couldn't.
  • He just didn't expect Todoroki to shuffle the headbands as that's a rather trivial move, otherwise his logic of the top band being his was solid, albeit not optimal because Todoroki was clever enough to come to the same logic.
  • Also, you have to take account of Midoriya's personality. He wants to win, sure, but he wouldn't want Todoroki's team to be eliminated because he took all of their headbands when the One Million would have been enough.
  • More bands, more friction, more likely to get stuck. Snatching one and breaking it off is way easier.

One For All vs. All For One: Just how?

• Okay, One For All is an amazing Quirk, simple but its power is just ridiculous, but All For One has centuries of experience plus ALL THE QUIRKS AND THEN SOME, How is All Might able to keep up with him, much less overpower him? It's even implied by Gran Torino that the first time that All Might and All For One fought, it was a clean win to All Might, All For One only escaped because he played with All Might's emotions by mentioning his mentor's name, which gave him the opening to get a clean hit(which is what took most of All Might's organs) and escape, which means not only One For All overpowers All For One, it does so by a notable margin. And if One For All is that ridiculously powerful, why did All For One give that Quirk to his brother of all things? even if his intention was pure and he just wanted to help his brother, he could have given anything to achieve the same effect, yet it seems he gave away the holy grail of all Enhancement-type Quirks. I get it as a narrative contrivance, that One For All HAS to be able to keep up with All For One for the story to work, but how equal they are in power just doesn't feel it adds up from a logical standpoint.
  • Let me try and answer as best I can:
    1. All for One's Quirk allows him to steal and GRANT any Quirk he wants. Any Quirks he keeps are simple that doesn't require much training to use. The Quirks he had when he fought All Might the first time were likely things such as super strength, shock absorption, and speed. The first Nomu had those or similar Quirks, and All Might managed to beat him even though he was weakened. Plus, because of how powerful he was, All for One likely got cocky and rusty over the years. Remember he was ruling Japan from the shadows, so he probably has the same amount of combat experience as to, say, a sidekick working for a Pro Agency. He just makes up for that lack of experience with his many Quirks.
    2. Another likely reason is that All For One mostly has Quirks geared towards augmenting physical strength, which is All Might's specialty. Had All For One used a different set of Quirks, he might have been able to easily defeat All Might.
    3. When All for One gave that stockpiling Quirk to his brother, the brother only had the strength of two grown men at least. And remember, no one, not even the first user of One for All, knew he had a Quirk that could be passed on to others. One for All builds up power as it's passed along, adding the strength of the previous users to the next. Remember, All Might once changed the FREAKING WEATHER with one of his smashes once.
    4. Gran Torino trained All Might when he was just starting. And judging by All Might's reaction when he recalls the training, it must've been harsh. Plus All Might has been a Pro for a few decades, meaning he's fought all kinds of villains with varied Quirks. Take the above points, and it's not that hard to imagine how All Might managed to beat All for One.
  • It's been stated by several people that All Might hasn't just got a powerful Quirk, he mastered it with ease, far greater ease than Midoriya. Nana also had One For All, and it didn't seem to help her. Simply put, All Might is just that good.
  • We do have to account for plot contrivance, but there are so many things going on here that we can only guess at.
  • First off is AFO's actual level of power, it's completely unknown, we know that All Might beat him twice so theoretically 100% All Might > ?% All For One (Person), we have no way to confirm that AFO was at 100%, did not have any other injuries or issues — when he fought All Might, though we can assume it.
  • We also don't have much exposition on All For One (the Quirk), either. We know it can steal, store and bequeath other Quirks, but the requirements, if any, for that to happen is not exactly known, nor is it known if there is a limit to how many Quirks the user can steal or use at one time. It might be similar to Pokemon with its 4 move limit, AFO may only be able to use a limited number of Quirks and might have to rid himself of one to acquire another one if he is at his limit. Or it could be like items in an RPG, you can have a near unlimited inventory but you only have a limited number of "slots" you "equip" at a time. We can also assume that the voluntary giving lock on OFA prevents AFO from taking it — seeing how he hasn't stolen it back from any of the users that have faced him.
  • One last thing to consider is AFO's motivations, All Might the 8th User of OFA is the first user — that we know of — to actually defeat him. I can possibly see him sparing his brother — and it's possible that when he killed Nana, that was his intention, not knowing OFA had already been passed to Toshinori/All Might -, but why has he "allowed" One For All to continue to exist and to hop around getting progressively stronger? We could chalk it up to arrogance, perhaps he thought it would never become a threat — though that level of myopic overconfidence seems out of character for the intelligent and constantly scheming AFO — but surely by the 4th or 5th user he would have realized that allowing OFA to keep moving to new hosts, increasing its power as it went would be detrimental to his plans. I suppose that like with the previously Nana situation, each time he tried to kill the host it was too late and the Quirk had already been passed on — though that would be rather contrived on its own — it's also possible that Nana or All Might were the first users since his brother to actually encounter and fight him — in which case his ability to gauge how powerful the Quirk was growing might have been hindered. It's also possible that OFA fits into some master plan of his, when knowing he's infamous for his scheming and he's already pulled a Xanatos Gambit with his defeat and his preemptive grooming of Tomura as his successor — one that he expects to fully eclipse himself — it's possible that he needs OFA around for some unknown endgame. We just know so little of him, his ultimate goals and plans that everything is mostly just mad guessing and speculation.
  • Remember, despite his power, All For One is more of a crime boss than a fighter. His specialty is manipulating events from the shadows rather than personally crushing all who oppose him. When he does fight, he has to juggle his selection of powers, constantly trying to decide which might be useful at the moment. Even for a genius, that takes time and focus. All Might has power as basic as it gets and is a workaholic who can't bring himself to ignore any situation where people are in danger. He's in constant practice to hone his skills. All For One is likely more powerful than All Might, but he isn't in action nearly as often meaning that someone close to his strength level could win if he had enough skill/determination.
  • We also have to remember that All for One is big on symbolic victories. He doesn't want to just kill his opponents. He wants to destroy all that they stand for and force them to watch. He's willing to invest decades into corrupting the grandson of one of his greatest enemies just so he could rub it in the face of someone he hated even more. All for One probably had enough raw power to kill All Might in both of their fights, but merely killing him wasn't the goal either time. Not when he could make him suffer more. He lost twice because both times he underestimated just how clever, powerful, and determined All Might had become.
  • As for how the users of One for All kept it circulating for over a century, there are ways. When the power was first made, it was, at best, a mediocre strength boost. It likely took a few passes before it amassed enough power to be worth All for One's attention. It's not like he'd have any way of knowing how many iterations the One for All had taken unless a wielder explicitly told him. We also know that it is possible that it could be given to people with Quirks and enhance them, meaning that the lighting-aura strength booster we see isn't the form it'd always take. This would make it very hard to locate over time since it'd be next to impossible to tell who the current wielder was. Even if they were found out, a wielder could pass it along to the next one and throw AoF off the scent. We're talking about All for One having to play "Needle in a Haystack" all over the world with a needle that constantly changes size and shape. Even with his resources, he'd have to be ridiculously lucky to track down the current vessel of One for All before they passed it on out of his reach. All this combined would allow the accidental Quirk to continue to grow until it not only threatened All for One but maybe even surpassed him.
  • Another possibility is simply that All For One justifiably thought it was useless when he passed it off to his brother. We know the Quirk he gave his brother was a "stockpile power" Quirk, but there's one thing we don't know, and one thing AFO didn't know, that made it seem much less useful than it became.
    1. We don't know whether the stocked power is transferred whenever the Quirk is transferred, or only if the Quirk is transferred willingly.
  • If the former, then it would've had whatever power its original owner had stocked, plus whatever All For One allowed it to stock before giving it to his brother. This means it would've been able to become relatively powerful given enough time, but still weak enough that AFO could reasonably believe himself able to overpower it if necessary.
  • If the latter, than it would've reset its stock when AFO stole it, leaving it as an "empty" pile. All For One would've thus had reason to believe that it would reset again when he gave it to his brother, and that it would only be able to stock his brother's power, leaving it weak enough for AFO to overpower. He thus would've seen it as not worth the time investment required and basically given his brother a broken toy to entertain himself with, not realising that it would keep whatever it had stocked from him due to this being a willing transfer.
    1. All For One had no way of knowing that his brother had an "I can choose to transfer my Quirk to another" Quirk, nor did anyone else. This is a significant factor, considering that the "can't be stolen" part is a side effect of this Quirk and not the stockpiling Quirk. It's highly likely that not only did AFO think he would be able to take the stockpiling Quirk back if necessary, but that he was planning on using his ability to take it back to further manipulate his brother.
  • If the stockpiling Quirk retains its stocks whenever it's transferred, then the best (and possibly only) way to further empower it would've been for All For One to take it back, and then give it to his brother again, to let it stock more power from the both of them. This would leave AFO's brother entirely dependent on AFO to realise the Quirk's full power, giving him a very strong reason to join up with AFO, which fits AFO's typical modus operandi.
  • Otherwise (either if it specifically requires willing transfers, or just if the brother proved to be too much of an annoyance regardless of how the stockpiling works), All For One likely planned to just take the Quirk back again if it started to give him trouble. In this sense, it was likely more a Quirk lent out than one truly given away, for an indefinite time period but always with the unspoken possibility of it being taken back. The only reason this backfired and turned into the problem that it was for him is that he wasn't able to take it back as planned, which again, was something he had no way of seeing coming.
  • Another reason All for One loses to All Might is a matter of mastery. Af O has a lot of quirks, but only at the barest minimum of understanding (he figures out how to use them, and that's it). All Might has only one Quirk, but has trained and experimented enough with it to understand all sorts of ways to use it (as has Deku, who turned "Super Strength" into things like Superspeed (Shoot Form), air bullets (Delaware Smash), etc). All Night's power is basic on the surface, but he knows how to use it, whereas All for One has many possible powers, but only uses them on a superficial level (only considering the very fundamental use (using a strength quirk only as "Punch hard", using emissive quirks only to blast at things, etc)

Quirks mimicking human technology

• How is it possible for Quirks, a naturally-occurring phenomenon, to mimic the appearance and functionality of human-made inventions like jet engines, earphone jacks, and cellophane tape? If people had made earphone jacks look different, would Kyouka's Quirk have looked like that instead?
  • It could be that the Quirks started off as a Imagination-Based Superpower and formed from what the user wanted them to be before setting in as that power for that Quirk, (For example, the very first documented Quirk in the series was an infant who radiated light from its body, hinting that it might have been scared of the dark and the Quirk was formed in accordance to its wishes, a light, to feel safe again.) The first generation Quirks might have been formed by their users' minds, and then at the second generation, passed over unchanged with the lack of Quirk users at that time, but at the time of the third generation, their numbers grew for possibility of mix-Quirks, and as the number of Quirks increased, the diversity of them became heritage from parent to child, with the possibility of mixing them, so at the fourth generation, the number of Quirkless people started to drop, in consequence of Quirk users seeking out other Quirk-users as partners instead. Why do they look like earphones, engines, tape, and the like? Because the originator of those and other similar Quirks, wanted those powers when the Quirks were formed, and then it stuck, carrying over to their descendants. Just a theory, of course...
  • One thing to add is the fact that it's now known that Quirks were created by some type of bizarre virus that went circling around the globe, significantly mutating the DNA of everything that caught it. Allowing for suspension of disbelief and acknowledging "Fantasy Science", due to how out there an impossible many Quirks are — and acknowledging that "Fantasy Science" of this level could just lead to both the virus and the weird Quirks developing ex nihilo — it's always been my suspicion that Quirks and thus the virus were not natural events but something that someone, perhaps your stereotypical mad-scientist with a god-complex, created and then introduced into the world. If that man-made theory is correct, then it might explain some of the weird Quirk manifestations. It also could be a simple rule of cool.
  • Going off the above, if it was some kind of engineered virus, it's possible that it somehow assimilates technology to create Quirks.
  • Any answer to this question would have to be speculative, but it's worth noting that as of the end of the Joint Training Arc, we know Quirks are capable of looking into the future, establishing contact with the dead, and rewinding time altogether (albeit "locally"). So while it's been obvious for some time that Quirks are essentially Fantastic Science, there seems to be an additional "metaphysical" aspect to Quirks that might also serve to explain why some of them seem to reflect human ideas rather than just natural physical things (in addition to the people who have technology or manmade materials as part of their Quirks, you also have people like Comicman and Ryukyu whose appearance and power take after parts of human culture). Of course, this could all be overthinking something that's just Rule of Cool.

Taking the Bullet

• Putting aside keeping Eri from getting physically hurt, why did Mirio take the Quirk-destroying bullet for her? He knows that it's her Quirk that does the destroying, and if her own Quirk is destroyed, that would nip this entire problem in the bud, no? That way, he could've kept his own Quirk, and the Quirk-destroying bullets would be gone for good — no more could be made, even if the heroes fail to recover her this time. Of course, as a hero, he wanted to protect her from any further harm, but... Well, I'm proud of him nonetheless.
  • Well, that was completely self-answering.
  • Also, he had no way of knowing if it was loaded with real bullets or not. (WE know that but HE didn't know that.)
  • I think Mirio was very aware that they were Quirk-erasing bullets, and therefore knew that he would lose his Quirk if he got hit by them. That said, a special injection bullet is still a bullet when shot, and Nemoto was clearly aiming with the intent to kill Eri in order to lure Mirio. You can see the bullet pierce his costume's armor, which has likely been reinforced in some manner just in case he can't use his Quirk (because it's stupid to not think of contingencies when Quirks like Aizawa's exist), so if it had hit Eri in the head or even anywhere else on her body, it likely would have killed or mortally wounded her. Which, yes, would have also potentially solved the problem of her Quirk being exploited, but considering the heroes were supposed to be rescuing her, I wouldn't really consider that a successful mission if that had happened.
  • Mirio nearly passes out from blood loss after that, and then fully goes to the hospital and they keep him for a bit. The dude genuinely got shot -– imagine if that had hit Eri, square in the chest.
  • I am pretty sure Mirio lost that much blood and went to the hospital because of other wounds from the fights, like being impaled by a stone stake. Of course, the bullet would have still killed Eri with that speed and her being a child, just wanted to correct that part.
  • What bugs me more about this scene in that Nemoto took a huge risk by shooting Eri and counting on Mirio to take the bullet for her. If Mirio couldn't get in the way in time, Eri's Quirk would be erased, the Hassaikai's whole plan would be ruined, and Nemoto would be as good as dead.

Tokoyami's Head

• What's the deal with Tokoyami having a bird head? His Quirk Dark Shadow doesn't seem to have anything to do with him having it and all the other characters with animal characteristics Tsuyu, Selkie, Centipeder, etc have them because of their Quirks, so what's with Tokoyami?
  • Bakugo, Kirishima, and Kaminari have unnatural eye colors and Kirishima has a mouth full of fangs, all details that seem unrelated to their Quirks. It's possible that humans in this universe have more phenotype variance than the real world (possibly as a side effect of the Quirk Phenomenon?) outside of their Quirks and Tokoyami is an extreme example.
  • It's been shown that Quirks can and do mix over generations and that several of them are more like deformities than fantastic powers. It's likely that people like Tokoyami and Koda have vestigial remnants of what were once more useful Quirks at some point in their ancestry. Since they provide no real function thanks to being so heavily diluted over the generations, they're not called to anyone's attention compared to their actual powers.
  • As said above, it's about genetics. Even if Tokoyami's Quirk is Dark Shadow, he probably has in his ancestors someone with a mutant Quirk that made him a crow. The power passed to Tokoyami, was that of the living shadow but his genes still hold the mutation.
  • Same goes for Midoriya who, despite being Quirkless has an unnatural hair color he inherited from his mother. On an ever farther extent, you could assume that the average human in the MHA world is way stronger and durable than the average human in our world because a lot of them are descendant of freaky power wielders.
  • This might also be a weird case of Required Secondary Powers: To have a sentient bird-headed shadow, you need to have a body whose shadow has a bird head.
  • Maybe Dark Shadow, being sentient, is "anthropomorphizing" itself for Tokoyami by copying his appearance? It refers to him in yobitsume, so its possible they have an imaginary friend/brother type relationship.
  • It's stated in canon that a child can sometimes inherit the quirks of both of their parents. Todoroki is the best example of this, with his Half-Cold Half-Hot quirk. It's possible that Tokoyami is similar. Maybe one of his parents had the bird head quirk and the other had the shadow quirk, therefore giving Tokoyami the quirk of "shadow with bird head".
  • Tokoyami was born as a bird.
• It's established that children whose parents have Mutant-type quirks can be born with those same mutations but develop their own individual quirk. So the above troper is correct that Tokoyami must've had a parent with a crow-head as their quirk. We also see Koda's mother and she has a similar rock-head, which further proves that physical mutations are passed down through families.

Just what is exactly the purpose of All For One?

• Okay, so despite being the main villain in the series, we know very little about All For One. Why did he establish a criminal empire in the first place? When All Might asks him, All For One simply replied that he felt like it, which actually sounds lame (given the extent of his crimes).
  • All For One is a Sadist- He just wants to enjoy himself at the expense of people before discarding them. His ambition to Take Over the World is only a means to that end. All For One has the power to embody his ideal and live in a world shaped by that ideal forever.
  • Did you remember The Dark Knight ? There are people that just want to see the world burn. AFO didn't mind to be in prison, or being at the risk of being on the receiving end of [[Depower Eraser's head sight]] that would disable his Eternal Youth quirk (That would kill him quickly, and by a complete accident!) He

Is the hero course hard locked to a specific number

• I've gotten conflicting answers on this, but is having two classes in the hero courses, 1-A and 1-B, the rule? Transferring in and out based on grades is one thing sure, but if, say, Shinso had gotten through the exams would he had bumped a 1-A/1-B member out, or would there be 41 students? If there was an unusually large crop of good students in a year, say, sixty students, would there be a Class 1-C?
  • U.A. seems to have a very small staff of some of the top pro heroes. It's likely that part of why they are so extremely selective about students is because they don't have enough pros on hand to provide the attention larger numbers would need to properly succeed. That might change soon since All Might's retirement lead to a massive increase in crime, necessitating more skilled heroes be produced.
  • There is a Class 1-C. It's part of the General Studies course. That's the class Shinso is currently in. As for what would happen if U.A. had a significantly larger than usual number of people pass the entrance exam, I don't know whether they have enough pro heroes on staff as teachers to add a third hero class. It's possible that that they would, or that they'd expand the class size to more than 20 students for that year. Given that Shinso was told after the Joint Training arc that he'll be allowed to transfer to the Hero course next year and nothing was suggested that any of the current 40 students is losing their slot, there doesn't seem to be a hard limit of 20 per class. Whether Shinso passing the entrance exam would've resulted in either 1-A or 1-B having 21 students, I figure it probably depends on just how well he and whoever else is at the bottom of the scoreboard did. If 41 students pass and 1 of them only barely gets past the cutoff, it wouldn't surprise me if they'd still only take the top 40. But if both of the bottom scorers exceeded the cutoff by double digits, I figure U.A. would admit 41 that year.
  • I'd say it's not hard locked, but definitely soft-capped at around 40~ students. If there's a huge crop of ultra-promising freshmen, then they'd likely up the number, but 40 is something of a benchmark.
  • This isn't much of mystery since this is actually how many elite schools work in real life: the students are ranked according to their exam scores and the top few get to enroll. This is usually a hard fixed number because it reflects how big a workload the school can realistically handle. In this case, you can't pass the exam without making the cutoff, because the two mean the same thing.

Monoma and All for One

• What would happen if Monoma copied All for One's Quirk and stole a Quirk with it before his time ran out? Would he keep the stolen Quirk, or would it fade with the copied All for One? Also what if he stole All for One with Copy All for One?
  • I doubt it's possible. Monoma's power is essentially a vastly inferior version of All for One that can only temporarily use one power for about five minutes. If it even is possible for him to copy the real thing, he'd likely have no way to properly use it since he couldn't handle what he took and lose it in minutes.
  • Chapters 216 and 217 reveal that certain Quirks (such as One For All, Fat Gum's Quirk, or Eri's Quirk) result in a "blank" and can't be copied. I'd imagine that All For One would produce the same results.
  • First, we need to understand Monoma's Quirk, which is to copy the nature of a Quirk, but not it's accumulated benefits. So, when he tried to copy One for All and Eri's Quirk, nothing happened, because those Quirks accumulate power over time. The same would happen if he copied All for One. He could copy the Quirk, but not the Quirks stored in All for One's body. However, if in the 15 minutes after stealing Af O he stole a Quirk, maybe it would be permanent.
  • Probably not, because Af O (the quirk) is also what lets Af O (the person) manage his quirks so that they aren't all active at the same time, so he would either lose the stolen quirk or it would just remain in his body but be useless.
  • There also seems to be a requirement of genetic material for Quirk copying. Af O straight-up steals the relevant genes that grant quirks and has those quirks until he gives them away, Toga can copy her targets powers but is limited by how much blood she has consumed, Monoma can copy quirks by touching people (maybe he picks up the genetic material from skin cells?) but only for 10 minutes.
  • The series answered that question with a firm "no". Monoma can copy any Quirk as long as he touches someone else, but only the the Quirk itself. Any additional benefits it accumulated over time are not transferred. He tried to copy Izuku who we know has multiple Quirks in One For All, but ended up with nothing but One for All itself. The other Quirks it gained over the years either aren't considered fundamental to the Quirk itself, or required all the power it gained from over a century of existence to be apparent. All For One would almost certainly end up nearly as useless to him. Even if he did mange to take a power with it, his own Quirk can only mimic it for such a brief time that that he would gain no benefit.

Animal Quirks

• Exactly how deep does the physiological change go for people with animal-based Quirks? Hound Dog is known to forget human speech when he gets angry enough and Mirko recently mentioned that Shigaraki's unconcious Slasher Smile made her "rabbit survival instincts" go nuts. But other Beast Men characters like Gang Orca and Spinner act like regular humans. If Quirks are genetic, than does that mean certain animal heteromorphs have brains that are just hardwired to exhibit more animalistic behaviors?
  • It may also be that it's due to divergence in the animal and human traits. Orcas are shown to be very intelligent, social, human-like creatures, so Gang Orca's mutation is more subdued due to the relatively close neural patterns. Spinner's mutation is a Gecko, which has a very different neural structure that may not overlap as much with Spinner's own brain. Wheras rabbits and dogs have mammalian brains, but ones with much more divergence from a human's behavior patterns

Stopping Dark Shadow's rampage

• If Tokoyami stays in the dark for too long, his Quirk goes out of control and starts rampaging against his will. Why doesn't his equipment take this weakness into account? Just giving him a flashlight could have helped prevent the situation during the training camp invasion. Considering how he used his Quirk in broad daylight during the Sports Festival, this light wouldn't weaken Dark Shadow to the point of making it useless, but it should be enough to keep it under control.
  • It is possible he didn't want to reveal his weakness, as at this point only heroes know how it works. Making it part of his uniform and strategy means that it is pretty obvious how his power works, letting Villains use it against him. It was implied by the training thing that he can learn to control it better, so once he becomes a full-hero he shouldn't need light at all.
  • Also possible is that because Dark Shadow is a part of him, it's going to directly know about the flashlight and immediately move to neutralize it, rendering it ineffective

Snipe vs. Hagakure and Shoji

• During the final exams, Hagakure and Shoji are pitted against Snipe. His fighting style involves shooting people with his gun. The gun was clearly loaded with real, high-powered bullets judging by how he can destroy a large stone pillar by shooting it. Did no member of the U.A. staff think of why it might be a bad idea to have kids get shot at like that? A-Team Firing was thankfully in effect for the fight, but if a single bullet had hit its mark, someone could have ended up with an injury that even Recovery Girl can't heal, and that's if they weren't outright killed instantly (I repeat, these bullets are strong enough to destroy a large stone pillar). Sure, Snipe might have been intentionally aiming off-target, but one slight mistake by him or the students and we'd have a case of I Just Shot Marvin in the Face.
  • It wasn't A-Team Firing, it was Improbable Aiming Skills. Controlling his bullets is his power, so it isn't any more risky to use than it is for All Might to punch the students (given that said punches can level buildings if he is being a fraction of serious). He seems to go for non-lethal shots even against serious threats (or a bunch of plot would have been resolved when Tomura's head exploded). It was still a weird choice (given that he kinda has to hold back), but it really wasn't any riskier than anything else that was going on.
  • Snipe seems like a poor choice for any sort of test, but so is All Might. Granted, it's easier to pull punches than make bullet wounds non-lethal, but it doesn't change the fact that instructors other than Snipe are putting the students at high risk of death without extreme skill on their parts. Being a pro-hero would place the students in a variety of dangerous situations, many of which would include opponents with guns. U.A. is staffed by firm believers in hardcore training, so pitting students against at least somewhat controlled versions of those dangers would make some sense. That said, those two were probably just pitted against Snipe since all three characters are pretty minor and the writer couldn't think of anyone more specifically suited to their abilities.
  • Also, it's possible that Snipe used a different weapon at that particular moment, specifically to put the fear of death into Hagakure and Shoji. Both to push them into fighting for real, and to test their response. He may have been using another weapon loaded with non-lethal rounds to actually fight them.

How did they pass the Practical Admission Test

• A lot of the students' abilities raise a few questions about how they passed the practical admission test. Izuku and Uraraka seem to be the only one who scored primarily in heroics, so everyone else must've got most of their scores in killing/disabling/trapping robots. One wonders how a naked girl — invisible though she may be, destroys a robot? Did the robots have any weaknesses? An off switch? How did Jiro take out enough robots to pass the exam? Did Ojiro just kung fu the robots to oblivion with his regular human strength? Could anyone just punch the robots apart?
  • According to the author, the test robots have shut-down switches that can be used if you can sneak around them. That explains why it's possible for students with non-destructive Quirks to pass. That said, the test still heavily favors flashy, physical power sets and disregards useful non-combat Quirks as Aizawa said.
    • No he didn't. All Horikoshi said is that the robots just have to be disabled in order to gain points, which is what Mineta did. The switches are pure fanon.
  • Kind of make mind reading boy looks like a chump given Aizawa's and invisible girl's Quirks are just as useless as his in this instance but they still manage to pass.
  • Aizawa's ability would be useful in making other students fail as it would put them on an equal level to him. At that point, he just has to be better at sneaking around.
  • Also, while Izuku noted that the cut off last year was fifty-two points the examiners may have changed it without informing the examinees. It could have been lowered. Plus they only announced the top ten scores so for all we know they could have passed by accumulating rescue points like Izuku.
  • Ojiro very likely did "just kung fu the robots", and his strength exceeds the human norm. Especially when you account for his tail, which is extremely thick and muscular. And Jiro's earlobes can stretch up to 6 meters and are strong enough to punch holes in concrete. She could very likely forcibly plug them into the robots and disable them via sound vibrations.
  • Like most shonen anime, series presents a world where heroes are generally much stronger and more durable than normal people just with a bit of training. We can assume that it is possible for someone sufficiently trained to smash the training bots even without a destructive Quirk. It's not likely they expect many of the prospective students to already be at this level, but they do note the ones who are. The shutdown switches exist to test other abilities besides pure strength or destructive Quirk power like speed, agility, stealth, and observation that would be useful for an applicant. It still is overly catered to sheer destructive power, but other abilities aren't completely ignored.
  • I'm not sure the shutdown switch thing is anything but Fanon, but anyway, an equally reasonable alternative to the above is that the scoring robots (not the huge one that Midoriya smashed) are not as tough as they look and could be destroyed/immobilized by anyone with above-average (but still human) physical ability. While a point is made that the exam isn't fully rational, it's hard to believe UA would be so irrational as to exclude anyone who can't easily destroy hard metal from being a hero. In this scenario Hagakure's Quirk still provides her a combat advantage over Shinso's. And for the record, at least in the anime, the robots reappear during the Sports Festival; Jiro and Ojiro destroy them easily with their Quirks. More importantly, so does Midoriya, without using One for All; he uses a part from one of the destroyed ones as a weapon.
  • I thought the same thing about this shut-down switch that I keep hearing about. Surely the teachers would have actually said something? Bearing in mind it is unrealistic to expect it to be there given how a real attacking robot would not have a videogame big glowing weak point. I also think its likely that these robots were incredibly weak its just that our POV character was too busy blubbering at the time. You really can see Eraser Head's concerns about how Deku wasn't ready to be a hero when everyone else got on with their jobs (including the one's not suited for combat) whereas he had an emotional breakdown.
  • The shutoff switch may not be something big and obvious, but something noticeable if you look closely (thus testing a person's ability to notice and act on subtle weaknesses). Think of it as something similar to spotting a flaw in a Quirk or fighting style (being able to notice something like a small flaw in a Quirk-user, like a window of vulnerability, or a hole in a martial artist's stance).

What does U.A. stand for?

• Seriously, what's the acronym for?
  • It's probably not an acronym, just the word "hero"(ei(A).yuu(U)) spelled backward.
  • But in-universe the name is written "U.A." and not "Yuuei"/"雄英". That would imply it really is initials and not just a pun. Even if the pun in the initials was deliberate.
  • Ultra Academics? Maybe?
  • ULTRA ACADEMY!!!

How do Bakugo's Gauntlets work?

• In the Hero Vs Villain battle, Bakugo reveals his gauntlets store his excess hand sweat (Which is Nitroglycerin) in the "lever" part of his grenade-shaped gauntlets, which he can then shoots out. How does the Nitroglycerin in his gauntlets not detonate whenever he makes any sudden movements? Nitroglycerin's instability is why Nobel invented TNT in the first place.
  • It's a nitroglycerin-like substance, but it isn't exactly nitroglycerin. If it were, he would die just by sweating the substance.
  • Given that Bakugo seems to have complete control of when his sweat explodes, it seems that he's got some additional power to detonate it and it remains stable at normal times. We see a firing pin on the gauntlets and his grenades that must be pulled for a blast, so we can assume that this pin unlocks its own ignition system to cause the stable liquid explosive to react without his direct action.

Mineta staying in U.A.

• Aizawa is noted to be a strict teacher who has expelled several students with the Class 1-A of the previous year being totally expelled. Mineta is an open pervert and invades his female classmates' privacy, opening trying to peep at them while they're undress, which is technically a crime. Shouldn't he have been expelled for sexual harassment if Aizawa is so strict and willing to expel students?
• In his own words, Aizawa expels students he deems to have zero potential. Mineta's potential to be a pro hero is apparently somewhere above zero in Aizawa's assessment. And we already have Midnight as an indicator that being a pervert is not disqualifying to be a pro hero and even a U.A. teacher.
• Mineta's kept in part due to his Quirk's utility, but more because of his intelligence. When he buckles down, he's shown to use his underwhelming power to surprising effect and be highly crafty. Mineta's perversion and cowardice are problems, but he has shown that he can keep control of himself and isn't crazy enough to push his perversions into dangerous territory. Aizawa is clearly forgiving of character flaws when it comes to people he considers to have potential, so he's probably hoping that Mineta will gradually mature enough to be a decent hero on his own.
  • If anything, Mineta's one of the less problematic students in a class. We have Midoriya breaking any rule if it meant living up to his standards of heroism, Bakugo barely keeping himself from blowing up when someone looks at him funny, Todoroki making glaciers when rattled, and the others all having their own renegade moments. That's not even getting into the villains. If things were more peaceful, Mineta would probably be getting more attention. As of now, his creeper behavior barely registers in comparison.
  • It seems to be partly due to Values Dissonance, with his perverted behavior making him seem more like a nuisance than a sexual predator in the making. That said, in the second volume of School Briefs, Momo worries that Mineta will never learn until he actually gets hurt, and Tsuyu says that given how much abuse Mineta has suffered, he'll likely never change.
  • As mentioned above, Midnight is allowed to be a teacher so along with Values Dissonance there are definitely a lot of double standards tropes at play here, too. A hot woman being a pervert is a lot more socially acceptable in the eyes of the world than an ugly little guy with a lisping voice.
  • Midnight might be slutty, but she doesn't peek at others. She does have a sadistic side, but she only showed it towards students when she played the role of a villain at the final exams. She might get sexual pleasure from it, but if so it is a fetish, this means being sexually aroused by something non-sexual and she didn't go fully BDSM on them. Maybe she doesn't go as easy on the villains she fights against, but because they are villains there are no issues.
  • Really when you think about it, if these girls cannot handle one relatively mild creep (which they do effortlessly each time), how are they going to handle going up against supervillains every week? These aren't normal kids. These are kids training to become weapons and Aizawa knows it, it's one of the reasons why he expels students he thinks have no hope as they will just go and get themselves killed or worse. I think how they handle being peeped on by Mineta in a controlled enviroment is actually good training for handling all sorts of real world issues that they as female superheroes will face on the field.
  • And what about the issues he'll cause in the field? We already see him deliberately timing his "rescues" of classmates in training exercises to enable him to grope them; do you think he's likely to stop doing that when the person he's "saving" is a female civilian rather than someone who can actually fight back?
  • However, that does not excuse him being a pervert towards any and all female characters he meets, including a 7-year-old abuse victim. The fact is that his teachers at AU should try to correct his way of conduct, and if he doesn't learn, then such an unheroic behaviour should be enough to expel him.
  • I don't think we have much to worry about with adult Mineta becoming some kind of predator because its unlikely he'll ever manage to get any work in the hyper-competitive hero world to begin with. He's not charismatic, he's not handsome, and his powers not only don't stand out but are also only circumstantially useful. And the moment even one sexual assault allegation gets out then no one will want to hire him anyway. The best chance he's got is as a sidekick and at which point he'll have someone watching over him. Its in his own interests to reform and I think Aizawa probably sees that too.

Why did the Pussycats drop so far in the hero rankings?

• I get that one of them was depowered, but one would think this wouldn't be public knowledge since the heroes and the Japanese government would hardly want to advertise the whole "All For One can steal Quirks" thing. And 32nd to 411th is a pretty ridiculously huge drop. Plus, the very same chapter where the new rankings came out refers to how heroes who participated in the Kamino Incident all had their approval go up. So what about Tiger, who was right there alongside Best Jeanist and Mt. Lady when All For One attacked? And for that matter, why are the Pussycats ranked as a team when other heroes who are members of a hero team get individual ranks. Edgeshot (4th), Kamui Woods (7th) and Mt. Lady (23rd) are a team by the time latest rankings came out, for example.
  • Losing Ragdoll was probably a crippling blow to the team. Not only are they a hero down, but they lost a Quirk that would let them scan wide areas for life forms and powers. They'd be shorthanded, hit with a devastating blow to morale, and rendered essentially blind without her. It only makes sense that they entered a big slump.
  • They may have taken a long sabbatical in the aftermath of events. Both to help Ragdoll recover, and to reconsider what they're going to do going forward.
  • Confirmed, in the same scene where they say they were dropped. It's just because they've been totally inactive for such a long time – and with Ragdoll's tragedy, it makes sense that they weren't trying to capitalize on their involvement in Kamino Ward and gain publicity anyway.

Quirk Categories Too Broad

• Currently, all Quirks are sorted into one of three categories: Emitter, Transformation, and Mutant. Mutant and Transformation are broad but acceptable enough as they have concrete definitions (i.e. body modification abilities that are permanent or can be activated and dismissed at will, respectively). Emitter, however, is the one that poses the big problem since its only definition is "does not physically alter the body". This makes is so all-encompassing that it tells you basically nothing about the Quirks in the category. It should be broken down into at least three or more other categories that would better reflect the powers it describes. Like, say, Emitter is for Quirks that, well, emit a substance or effect; Manipulation for Quirks that control the environment or others; and Enhancer for effects on the users' body like super-speed or what have you. That's just a few off the top of my head, but it presents a much more useful description. So why is it left this way?
  • One panel mentions that there used to be many, many Quirk experiments even before the Nomus (the ones which produced Nedzu, for example), so presumably Quirk research and experimentation is just absurdly tightly regulated at the moment. Makes it hard to give a reason to reclassify.
  • Maybe, but classifying Quirks in this way would require nothing more than observation and changing names on paperwork. It'd be no less invasive than the what they already do now since most Quirks are self-identified on forms after manifestation. It's essentially just adding more bubbles on the forms.
  • One thought is that all of those subcategories DO emit some form of energy (whether destructive, tangible effects, subtle emissions that control a substance or person, or energy that enhances the user)

Tsuburaba's Air Prisons

• Just how does he make cubes of solid air? (Beside the obvious "blow square breaths".)
  • Functionally, that's just how his Quirk works. It may be that it's actually able to make other shapes, but he's just not developed it that far yet.

Shigaraki inheriting All for One

• It's hinted a few times that one day, Shigaraki will inherit All for One. If he does, how would he even be able to use it? We've seen with the first One for All user that All for One can steal and transfer Quirks by placing his hand on people(or at least their head). If Shigaraki gets this Quirk himself one day, how would he steal or transfer Quirks when his initial Quirk, Decay, destroys the very people he is stealing from/transferring to? He probably won't care that his enemies end up dying, but what about his allies and the Nomu?
  • Simple. Step 1: All For One takes away Shigaraki's "Decay" with All For One. Step 2: He gives Shigaraki All for One(But keeps "Decay" for himself as a secret trump card just in case, alongside with possibly one more.) Step 3: Shigaraki now has All for One and can use it safely, while Former All For One (FAFO) keeps a lethal Quirk as a hidden gun just in case while being allowed to watch hero society despair a bit more at the rise of the second generation All For One. Done.
  • Decay only activates when all 5 fingers are touching the target. Shigaraki simply needs to keep one of his fingers in the air like he already does.
  • We now know that Shiguraki's Decay is both far more powerful and controllable than we thought. Its previous limitations being more of a trauma induced mental block from the mentally unstable young Tomura than a real physical limitation. All For One knew this from the beginning and was just waiting for his protege to mature enough to realize his potential as his successor before giving him the tools to make his chaotic dream a reality.
  • The Paranormal Liberation Arc reveals that Tomura underwent months of painful surgery and body enhancement to have the All For One Quirk transplanted into him. Unfortunately, this also means that All For One the villain has hijacked Tomura's body.

Quirk Law

• How on earth did a law get passed that punished unlicensed Quirk use to cause injury regardless of circumstances? Yes, in general, it's perfectly sensible, it's no different from normal assault laws. But to prevent people from using their Quirks in justified self-defense (which also extends to the defense of others) is not only stupid, I'm pretty sure it's a violation of basic human rights. When the police chief countered Todoroki's question about whether he should've just let Native die with "so it's okay to break the law if it works out for you", Todoroki really should've shot back, "If you dare punish me for defending the lives of myself and others, I'll hire the best damn human rights attorney money can buy." Japan should be getting raked over the coals by the international community for trying to discourage its citizens from protecting their own lives.
  • Because Todoroki's Quirk is one of those dangerous ones the law was meant to stop in the open. Consider that if his aim had been off even by a little, Native could have been either been frozen to death or burnt to a crisp by the flames or ice, not to mention impaled by the ice if not the cold took him first. Besides, Quirks are equal to guns in this setting, and just because you got a gun, it doesn't mean you can use it to shoot someone with it, even if it is to save their lives. On the other hand, had Todoroki tried to save the others without using his Quirk, relying solely on hand to hand combat for self-defense, the law would have been much more lenient, as it would fall under the "Quirkless clause" which would make it solely a case of civil courage and not a violation of a dangerous Quirk in accordance with the law. Besides, Vigilantes shows that using a Quirk as a civilian is okay in self-defense, as long the offending party egged the defender on into using it, however, this is only in case of saving one's own life from a dangerous situation, not anyone else. So there are flaws in the law, but still, reasonable considering the circumstances.
  • This is a setting where citizens regularly have powers that can easily kill others. Some can cause mass destruction on a whim with a bit of training. Letting average civilians run around like that without any regulation would lead to disaster of unimaginable proportions. More than that, remember, when the laws were made, Quirks were fairly rare. Their users were subject to intense Fantastic Racism. Making the then-majority nonpowered people feel safe was a big priority as it kept them from attacking Quirk users out of pure fear. That isn't much of a concern now as Quirk users far outnumber non-Quirk users, but that still leaves the possibility that a simple road rage incident could lead to an entire city block being destroyed. The story is very open about the flaws in the laws, even from those who defend them, but they do serve a logical purpose.
  • Except the flaws of the laws are far, far too gaping. Stain is a unrepentant serial killer, in the act of increasing his bodycount (and this isn't counting certain revelations from Vigilantes, which ups the count considerably). Yes, the argument could be made that Iida could have faced charges for it, he went looking for Stain, but ultimately a law that makes it so any attempt to move in defense of other people when their life is openly and undeniably in risk wouldn't actually work. It would see the lawmakers villanized as Bystander Syndrome kicked in on a grand scale. The amount on attempted murders, rapes and assaults would drop as the successful number skyrocketed as exponentially.
  • There is nothing that says a law keeping people from using their Quirks without a license to stop crime in day to day life is mutually exclusive with a law that makes using that Quirk in defense of others when there are blatantly outstanding circumstances (such as fighting a serial killer) on the line allowed. A gun permit doesn't translate to you being allowed to fire on random people, but you also wouldn't likely to face charges if you picked up a third party's gun and shot someone if lives were on the line. Outside if Iida, none of the U.A. students went into that alleyway with the explicit intention to confront Hero Killer Stain, but to save people in legitimate danger of death. Tordoroki in particular arrived not even knowing that much, only that his friend had sent him a contextless location.
  • Exactly. Like in the real world, premeditation counts for a lot in violent situations. If you saw someone being mugged and used your Quirk to take them down, the police might wave off charges providing there was no excessive violence or collateral damage. If your loved one was mugged and you hunted the criminal down and used your Quirk to beat them up that's a hell of a lot more serious, and the police have every reason to throw the book at you.
  • I have seen this question asked a lot on various forums and each time the elephant in the room gets ignored: the day that Quirks first appeared set into motion a chain of events that nearly collapsed civilization as we know it. A complete societal upheaval that led to widespread pain and misery on a massive scale — and why wouldn't it have? The human race right now is largely equal in ability. Sure, you have Olympians who are physically more able and scientists who are smarter than the common man, but on the whole, their advantages are only advantages in relative terms. Usain Bolt isn't going to conquer the Earth single handed with his awesome few MPH speed difference over you or me. But watch out, here comes Quirks. Now, suddenly the most unassuming person on the street can casually bend the laws of physics, can turn their skin into steel, can crack rocks with their bare hands and even invade your very thoughts. Our society as we know it is not coming out of that unscarred or without some laws that to us, from the safety of our armchairs, will look draconian or overreaching. It is also why Marvel so often got the Mutant Registration Act wrong. Mutant/Quirk discrimination is not akin to those based on surface traits like skin colour or genitals; it is discrimination based on the justifiable fear that your short tempered neighbour may have the ability to turn his sweat into a hand grenade.
  • Probably because the story takes place in Japan, and Quirks are basically comparable to guns. Japan used guns (and swords) to devolve into 150 years of civil war, which didn't end until the winners basically confiscated all of the weapons except for those belonging to a loyal minority. Of course, they would take a hard stance on Quirk use; it's the method they used previously to solve a similar problem. As for why the international community is silent, remember that modern day countries are silent on the abuses countries like China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc inflict on their citizens, and they do much worse things than simply not allow them to use "Quirks".
  • Maybe the law is meant to prevent Beware the Superman by the general public, Todoroki is actually the exception in terms of power level and utility, most people have rather cosmetic or unimpressive quirks - like the newsreader with horns, the newtman Deku meets in his intro, Bakugo's long-fingered crony etc. These people are not really in the same league as the guy with explosive sweat, the girl with acid glands, or the girl with alchemy powers. The public would live in a constant state of panic and uncertainty without safeguards against exploitation by more powerful people.

Orphans and Foster care

• For such a varied cast of characters in the show and Manga, we have next to nothing to work with concerning things like the foster system of the MHA universe. We also have no characters who are able to show what it's actually like to be an orphan in the show/manga. This leaves a lot of questions concerning it. What's it like to be an orphan in a society where almost everyone in the world has some kind of power? Do the people running the system treat the kids well? What kinds of rules and regulations are put on the caretakers and the kids themselves? Do they make sense given the kids' situations? Are the kids treated well by the rest of society? Or are they socially isolated like Izuku and Shinso? Basically, all questions that fall under "What's it like?"
  • It comes up with the villains later on. Basically, it does exist, but many fall through the cracks. Especially if their powers are overly destructive, cause unhelpful mutations, or require too much special care for parents to handle. Some of those who end up homeless become villains out of necessity or are snatched up by villains looking to exploit their power.
  • That still doesn't say much of the Orphan's Ordeal itself. Is there a general way people figure out that someone is an orphan or otherwise in the system? If so, does it have something to do with their Quirks or how they use them? Do they have any sort of particular degree of Power Incontinence like Eri's Rewind? Or is it typically a lot harder to notice at all?
  • Add to this the difficulties of being an orphan in Japan, where adoption is historically not at all popular. Family lineage is of enormous importance in Japanese culture, to the point where every family is listed on a national registry. Adoption confuses the registry, as it essentially places a child in two places, their biological family and their adoptive one (this doesn't sound like much to Westerners, but is considered a big deal in Japan). Less of an issue now than in decades past, but still definitely an issue.

Ochaco's Arena Strategy

• In the tournament, Ochaco's plan to beat Bakugo is to float him out of the arena with her Quirk, so why does nobody acknowledge Bakugo's flight abilities that would obviously negate her entire strategy?
  • Nobody knew her strategy until the fight started. She refused to tell anyone. When it became obvious that she couldn't even get close enough to touch Bakugo, she adjusts her plans and levitates the rubble he broke off with his blasts for one big attack. That also failed miserably, but that was kind of the point. The battle was written to show that Ochaco has the resolve to be a hero, but has a lot of growing to do before she can stand with her peers, let alone pros. It was basically her first real attempt to act as an independent hero instead of clinging on to Deku or others, so of course, it would be deeply flawed. She starts working on correcting her flaws in the next arc having found inspiration to start working seriously.
  • To be fair Bakugo's aerial maneuverability would have been seriously impaired by his mass essentially being negated, even the slightest blast would have sent him flying at very high speeds. It was still the best chance of defeating him, though he had ways to counter it.

Timeline

• I'm a little confused about the timeline, specifically the events that happened before the story began. Like, when did Destro live? According to Chapter 232, he was born when Quirks were still relatively new (possibly around the third or the fourth generation) and yet had a secret son who looks no older than 30. Also, Endeavor mentions he's been the Number 2 hero since he was 20 in Chapter 165, so that mucks up Shoto's statements about Endeavor marrying Rei just for her Quirk since his oldest known sibling (Fuyumi) is 23. A little clarification would be nice.
  • Destro is actually Re-Destro's ancestor, not his father.
  • Checking Endeavor's age, he's listed as being currently 46. Minus 23 + 9 months for Fuyumi's age, he'd have been around 22-23 approx when she was conceived.
  • Also wanted to add, we don't know when he realized he wouldn't be able to pass All Might. He may have realized before he became Number 2, but was still high ranked and had enough money to get his hands on Rei.

Todoroki's Explanation

• According to Todoroki, Endeavor used his fame and wealth to force Rei into a Quirk marriage so he could have a child with Combo Platter Powers who could be strong enough to surpass All Might as the greatest superhero. However, not only Endeavor later monologues about how he chose Rei because her Quirk could combat his weakness, which would need no child to do so, but also he remembers her favorite flowers, which she mentioned only once when they first met. What makes it so strange is that no other character in the series is so contradictory as far as I know. How does it make sense?
  • Endeavor is a bad man, make no mistake. It doesn't mean he didn't have a feeling or two for his victims. It's also not a contradiction. He knew he couldn't match All Might, so just like All for One, he put some of his focus into a legacy. Maybe there was some attraction but primarily he wanted a child who had all of his power and none of the weaknesses. Clearly, he grew to care a little and maybe now he's had a wakeup call.
  • It's also possible that Endeavour does legitimately love Rei, but he's just absolute CRAP at expressing it in any way. Think how Bakugo actually really cares about others, it's just that he can't quite find a way to NOT be an abrasive, hyperaggressive prick.
  • Todoroki Shoto is an unreliable narrator. He's the youngest of 4, and all but Fuyumi hate Endeavor. Given what Endeavor did to Shoto, it's entirely possible someone told him a false or exaggerated narrative, and he believed it.

U.A.'s number of staff

• This is something I just realized from rewatching the series: Just how many students does U.A. have? So I did a little multiplying based on all the current classes we know about. Classes A to B are Heroics, Classes C to E are Gen Ed, Classes F to H are Support, and classes I to K are Management. Assuming each class has 20 students total (based on Classes 1-A and 1-B) then there are 220 first years. Multiply that by 3 (the number of years the average high school in Japan has) and we get 660 students at most. Now here's the point of this: What about the staff? Not counting Nedzu as he's the principal, U.A. has 13 Pro Heroes working as both staff and teacher. That's NOWHERE near enough to teach 33 different classrooms. Even assuming Power Loader teaches all of the Support students regardless of class or grade at the same time, that still leaves 30 classrooms that need to be tended to. So does this mean U.A. has more Pro Heroes working as teachers, or do they have civilian teachers as well?
  • There probably are civilian teachers at U.A. that just aren't shown — given that the story is following Midoriya, we only see the teachers he and his classmates interact with. The Pro Heros(except for Power Loader) are most likely focused on teaching the Heroics classes, leaving General/Support/Management to civilian teachers.
  • We've already seen that the Pro Heroes are teaching the 'standard' classes as well, though. Present Mic teaches English (as befitting his general focus on communications/DJ persona), and Cementoss teaches Mathematics (He likely studied architecture or engineering to get the best use of his Quirk, so that makes sense). The others also likely have their own areas of expertise for teaching normal courses
  • Except Cementoss is the Modern Literature teacher. Ectoplasm is the Mathematics teacher.
  • Pro Heroes teach the Heroics department, even the standard subjects. We can assume either civilian teachers or less Heroics-suited pros are teaching General Studies, Business, etc. Present Mic may be the best suited English teacher UA has for the Heroics course; doesn't mean he's the only one, or the only Pro teaching English. He's just the only one teaching the A and B classes.

How did All Might maintain a secret identity prior to being depowered?

• Sure, at the start of the series, Toshinori Yagi looks completely different when out of action than when he's doing heroics as All Might. But that wasn't the case before his injury at the hands of All For One. Toshinori was a student at U.A. and participated in the nationally-televised Sports Festival, presumably under his real name. Then he graduated and went to America for a few years where he established himself as All Might and then returned to Japan. And the fact that All Might is a U.A. graduate is known to all in-universe. In which case, it should've been suspicious that there's this guy named Toshinori Yagi who works for All Might as his manager, since Toshinori Yagi is also All Might's real name. Or did he actually attend U.A. under an alias? And if he did, why didn't he suggest Deku do the same?
  • Actually, I think it's the other way round, depowered All Might is going under an alias. I don't think anyone who doesn't know his secret has ever called him Toshinori.
  • Then what is his real name and how come nobody mentioned it? There are plenty of people who have known him for years and Deku is a big fan of his, All Might's real name should be something to draw his attention. In fact, he is still being called Toshinori even after his retirement. Why would he use an alias anymore? Everybody knows who he is.
  • No one refers to All Might by his real name likely due to his celebrity status as a hero. Two Heroes reveals that he didn't always have a depowered form — until the accident.
  • As mentioned above he was a student at U.A. and participated at the Sports Festival. Deku is a huge fan of his and very analytical, he already knows that All Might went to U.A., so he should also know the latter's name. However, I think I have an explanation to why All Might didn't suggest Midoriya to get an alias. Midoryia applied there before meeting All Might and Bakugou also applied around the same time. Even if the school accepted Midoryia to go under an alias, there were chances that Bakugou, who already knows him, would be also accepted and it happended. Also, Deku keeps OfA a secret from his mom, she would've been suspicious if her son was the only one with an alias from his school.
  • Just a bit of a guess on this Troper's part: All Might had his personal information suppressed as much as possible, and likely played up his image as simply "All Might" so much that people see and know of him more as that name and that heroic image than as a simple man, which is pretty much what we see in-universe. Just look at Izuku's reaction of disbelief and shock when All Might loses his form right in front of him, as well as what he says in response. Taking that a little further, people seeing All Might in that state (such as Uraraka at the Sports Festival, or anyone who sees him out on the street), and even hearing that the man in front of him is called "Toshinori Yagi", people would be more likely to dismiss the possibilty of this "Mr. Yagi" being the famous All Might, and instead think it a coincidence, or even as something like All Might giving up his name to a close friend, or a relative, rather than that the legendary Symbol of Peace is somehow able to be what he is while really being so weak and fragile. You could almost see it as an example of Clark Kenting on All Might's part actually...
  • Maybe a downplayed version of Clark Kenting, since if you compare powered and depowered All Might you would say at first glance that they are completely different people.

Quirks and DNA

• To pass on One For all, a user must have their successor ingest their DNA. How exactly did All For One's brother get this knowledge?
  • Neito's 'Copy' Quirk gives him a pretty detailed insight into how his copied Quirk works, which establishes precedent to Quirks that analyze other Quirks. He could have simply found someone like that, or even conceivably found a standard scientist or doctor smart enough to work it out conventionally.
  • One for All is passed on by DNA imprinting/ingesting. If so, why didn't Nana Shimura's husband receive OFA? When you have sex with another person, your DNA can be traced back to you (like in paternity tests). Shouldn't her husband inadvertently have become the next OFA holder? Or was Kotaro adopted? Or was the state of being childfree/celibate (as not to pass on DNA) a trend followed by the previous OFA holders, only broken by Nana?
  • When Deku fought against Stain the latter licked the blood of the former. After this event All Might told Deku about this incident and told him that Stain did not get OFA, because it can only be inherited if the user wants to give it to someone else. So Nana's husband would've gained the Quirk only if she wanted to give it to him.
  • My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising also shows that the vestiges are able to have at least some say in whether or not the Quirk is transferred.

Kota and superheroes in general

• Why was Kota mad at superheroes in general? His own parents were superheroes and got killed during a fight and he felt abandoned by them. I suppose his logic was that if his parents chose to have a child they shouldn't have chosen a dangerous career path that could get them killed and let him orphan, but not all superheroes have kids. All superheroes might have people close to them, but what was Kota expecting? Nobody to fight against villains to keep people safe? Other people told him that his parents saved other people and that someday someone else might save him. Why didn't he believe that a hero might save him as well? Didn't he think that maybe by fighting villains his parents were protecting him as well? He had all the rights to be sad, but he was for the wrong reasons. I believe it would've made a lot more sense if he was mad at superheroes who had kids or maybe at superheroes who are too confident and go through missions too dangerous for them. I understand that he is a kid, but I have the feeling that he was more or less selfish.
  • That was the whole point. Kota is a five-year-old who responded to his parents' death by blaming their job. He doesn't think in terms of heroes and villains For Great Justice: he thinks that the people he loved the most neglected him and were killed in an inane game where life and death struggle is glorified because both sides wear silly costumes and call themselves goofy names. Having people constantly glorify their murder only made him hate the whole system more since it seems like nobody is taking the tragedy or his pain seriously. It took a firsthand look at both true mindless villainy and selfless heroism to make him understand why his parents did what they did. Yes, it's selfish, but Kota is just a kid and he did make some good points based on what little he knows.
  • I also want to point out that not all kids are the same. Some show more intelligence than the others. I'm not saying his age didn't play a role in this, and he did have some points, but to generalize bad traits at all people from a group is still wrong. I also believe that the other characters were a bit too patient with him. I don't think Izuku was, he only met Kota for the first time at the camp when he found out about his struggles and they weren't related, so it's understandable that he would talk so nicely to him. However I believe that his aunt should've told Kota directly that his view point was kind of selfish (in her place, I would've punished him for kicking Izuku's balls). I'm not calling them bad characters, people in real life aren't always level headed sometimes for stupid reasons.
  • Kota is five. He's at an age where most kids are just barely learning to read and he had his parents brutally murdered within the last couple of months. He is being irrational because he has next to no life experience and is suffering from the kind of event that would that would cripple many adults emotionally. Giving him some trite lecture about selfishness regarding that would only reinforce his view that nobody is taking his pain seriously. His acting out isn't acceptable, but is understandable given that he's a very young child going through a grieving process with no peers to help him understand what's happened. This is not the kind of thing you fix with a quick scolding. If anything, the kid should have been given ongoing professional counseling to deal with the trauma in a more constructive way, but this is anime, so, you know the drill.
  • I know it's been a long time, but I want to take back what I said about Kota. I didn't really mean to say that she should've directly said what he was doing was selfish, I didn't think straight. The reason why I was surprised is because I assumed that the Pussycats being heroes would use their connections to get him to talk to people who have been saved by heroes. They could've also showed him clips of heroes saving people. I didn't expect him to be a fan of heroes, but at least to understand that the people prasising his parents weren't doing it because they don't care, but because they are glad that their own pain ended or other peoples' pain ended. Of course, this shouldn't replace counceling, but it still would've most likely helped. There is technically no proof that he didn't get counceling, but considering how incompetent the Pussycats were, it's very unlikely. Honestly, my question should've been why they are so incompetent with Kota. Seriously, the kid was bitter for 2 years not for months. Not only that, but they took him to the camp, which has little to no contact to the outside world and they're training students to become heroes, which Kota hates, along with other things listed on My Hero Academia's What An Idiot! Subpage.

The relationship between Chisaki and Eri

• Is there a need for Chisaki to claim Eri as his daughter rather than his adoptive niece on the sister's side?
  • To make it easier to control her. What would break the kid faster, someone who claimed to be her uncle leaving hope of the remote possibility of her parents coming back for her someday? Or her own "father" doing these horrific things? Chisaki needed her broken. He needed her so far into the grip of despair that there was little chance of her being able to escape it. And leaving her even the slightest glimmer of hope that someone might come back for her someday would prevent that. "No, he's lying, Mommy and Daddy didn't abandon me, they're coming to save me some day". Remember, it's all but stated that Overhaul's "care" is all Eri remembers. She doesn't remember erasing her father. She doesn't remember her mother cursing her and leaving. And while hope is frail, it's hard to kill, the most powerful emotion of all.
  • I think that it was only a lie he told Mirio and Midoryia when they found Eri because it was the simplest cover story rather than claiming to be her uncle by adoption. When Mirio is confronting Chisaki in the raid, he's pretty casual about admitting the fact that Eri isn't his child and I don't think we ever hear Eri identify him as her father. Chisaki even seems slightly confused when Mirio first mentions Eri being his child, suggesting that it wasn't a lie he used regularly.

Chisaki breaking Eri

• Why did Chisaki whish to break Eri? He was cutting her to take her blood and cells and make experiments, but why break her emotionally as well? She didn't harm him, so there was no wish for revenge. She is also his master's granddaughter, who told him not to harm her and he respects his master. Also, he had pretty good ways to keep her locked physically. Why didn't he tell her that she is a heroine by letting herself being cut? He could've also consider training her Quirk and convincing her to join their organisation. She is young, it most likely would've been easy to convince her.
  • He's a sadist.
  • More specifically, he's a sadist with a limited scope and lots of psychological baggage. Just because Chisaki may have respected the Boss, doesn't mean he would hold that same reverence towards the rest of his family. And he's been known to break a lot of the traditions the Boss holds sacred, so even that relationship is pretty shaky. Eri's cruel treatment may have also been influenced by jealousy on Overhaul's part since, from his twisted perspective, the Boss chose his biological granddaughter over his loyal adopted son who was doing everything to bring the yakuza back to power. Plus, Chisaki's Germophobia and Lackof Empathy is so severe that even pretending to be nice to Eri for an extended period of time may be beyond his abilities. And Eri is young, but she's also very perceptive and compassionate, so she wouldn't want to be a part of an organization that hurts people and would probably be able to pick up very quickly that she's being used.
  • The same reason any abuser does: to establish control over his victim. Overhaul needs Eri to endure repeated disassembly and reassembly on a regular basis to make his bullets, something so horrible anyone would desperately try to escape. He can't risk her running off at the first opportunity and tipping off a hero or using her Quirk on his subordinates out of fear or rage (putting them beyond his ability to heal). So he decided that the easiest way to prevent this was to shatter her will and make her believe that there was nowhere for her to go outside of him. It's disgustingly evil, but it serves a purpose for him beyond sadistic satisfaction.

Eri's Abandonment

• If Quirk Counseling is a thing, why did Eri's mother not think to try that as soon as her daughter manifested an unknown Quirk? And even if she didn't want to raise her child anymore, why dump a vulnerable toddler who has a deadly and uncontrollable Quirk on a still-active yakuza boss instead of having Eri adopted into a more stable home/facility where she would get the help she needed?
  • Maybe her mom wasn't mentally stable and this is why she didn't take the better decision. Also, while Eri's grandfather is a yakuza boss he does seem to love his family, so the mom probably thought that Eri would be taken good care of. Adding to that I have heard that counseling tends to be avoided in Japanese culture, so maybe that was one of the reasons too.
  • Except Midnight confirmed during the UA Staff meeting after the USJ that every child is supposed to go through Quirk Counseling to fully understand their abilities. So, either no counselors were able or willing to work with Eri, or her mom didn't even bother looking in the first place and just immediately abandoned her.
  • Because the first thing that happened when Eri's Quirk manifested was her accidentially unmaking her father. She's so powerful that it's next to impossible to train her for fear of her erasing anyone else. There is no safe way to train her without the ability to shut down her power externally, especially because she's so young. Her mother was so terrified and grief stricken after losing her husband to this incident that all she could think of was getting rid of Eri. If she had regrets, it would be far too late to get her back after Overhaul got his claws on the girl for his schemes.

Re-Destro's name

• Why would Re-Destro know and share his surname with his father, who never acknowledged him in life?
  • The original Destro is Re-Destro's ancestor, not his father.

Destro and his son

• Why would Destro not know his own son in life? Was he that irresponsible about the matter? Or else why?
  • Destro was jailed and had no way of knowing that he had children. His descendants went into hiding for generations before handing the mission to Rikiya Yotsubashii, aka Re-Destro.

Tsuyu's sister

• In the second School Briefs volume, Tsuyu claims to have a sister who's two years older than she is when telling the others a story on the bus over to the training camp. Did the author forget about her younger brother and sister, or was Tsuyu lying about having an older sister?
  • She could have another sister and just didn't mention her younger siblings on this occasion. That, or it's a continuity error.

Red-haired boy

• Who's the red-haired boy with the goggles and the odd-looking teeth in Opening 5?
  • Which one? The only red head with odd teeth I see in Make My Story opening is Kirishima.
  • In the opening to Season 3, part 2 (the Provisional License arc) there's a still image of what looks like some machinery, then another still image of a close up of a person's hand manipulating some kind of round controller, and then an extreme close up of the face of a grinning person in goggles, with red hair (these three images go by pretty quickly). One of the Shiketsu High students has red hair and goggles, but he never speaks, isn't named, and appears only in the background (and not at all in the manga). Possibly he was intended to feature in a scene that was cut from the story, as otherwise featuring him in the opening is an odd choice.

Traitor plot

• Is the U.A. traitor plot still happening? I haven't heard it mentioned in a while.
  • Yes. All Might and the Principal had a one-on-one conversation about the traitor, and how All Might was convinced that the traitor was not one of his students.

Controversy

• What exactly is the "unforseen controversy" surrounding the name Maruta Shiga? From what I've seen so far, the My Hero wiki doesn't mention it and still use Maruta Shiga (as of this writing)
  • This.

Executing dangerous criminals

• How do you execute someone with a dangerous Quirk? Moonfish (the villain with the Blade Tooth Quirk) received the death penalty and is currently on Death Row in Tartarus.
  • I don't understand the question. His Quirk doesn't make him immortal or untouchable.
  • It would, in theory, make him too dangerous to approach, let alone be within any distance of hooking up any sort of execution devices, outside of a firing squad.
  • Can't he be killed with poisonous gas or by asphyxiation by locking him in space without oxygen or by drowning or being set on fire? Maybe there are people who can shoot electricity like Kaminari, if someone can shoot enough electricity from the distance, they could kill him. Also the question was how do you execute someone with a Quirk. Some Quirks are harmless and don't offer protection, not all are like Moonfish's.
  • Have Aizawa stare at him while the lethal injection (or whatever method they use in future Japan) is happening? That would be the obvious way to prevent somebody with a dangerous Quirk from rampaging at the time of their execution when they've got nothing left to lose.

Was Jiro also Peeping On The Boys Locker Room?

• So back when Mineta was trying to peep on the girls locker room using that peephole he found in the wall, what was it that made Jiro stick her earphone jack into the wall at that exact moment in order to learn what he was doing? Was she nosing in to what the boys were saying beforehand? It seems like a massive coincidence given how he was only perving for about five seconds.
  • Earphone Jack grants Kyoka enhanced hearing. It's possible she just heard Mineta muttering to himself.
  • You missed the joke in that scene. Mineta wasn't just muttering to himself. The loud way we hear it, was actually the volume he was using. Check the Funny Page or Mineta's character entry if you don't believe me...

Did the Pussycats unwillingly neglect Kota?

• Kota's parents died 2 years ago and he didn't get over it and stayed bitter at superheroes. I don't think there is evidence he didn't get counseling, but I doubt he did. Also, the Pussycats took Kota at the training camp with them, where they where training superhero students. Did they have no other option but to take him with them? If so, why didn't they keep him away from the students? I'm pretty sure he would've been glad to see as few superheroes as possible. The kid kicked Moidoryia's balls, yet they put him to guard the wall separating the girls and the boys while bathing. Not only that, but they let him go into the woods to a specific rock when he wanted some time alone. Everybody needs time alone, but most people would not let a well behaved happy child alone in the woods, let alone one like Kota. Those pussies (get it? pussies) might not have experience with raising children, but still.
  • I'm fairly sure that you just answered your own question.

Tiger being Transgender

• Tiger is female to male transgender, but what does that have to do with a trip to Thailand?
  • The implication is that he went to Thailand for gender reassignment surgery

Why are the Meta Liberation Army villains?

• I'm unfamiliar with the show so it's likely I'm missing something, but if the writers decided to add a group whose goal is to fight against the draconian regulations concerning Quirks, why did they make this group villainous? It sounds like quite a noble goal—if I'm understanding correctly, these regulations essentially make everything illegal by default in public, except for those things which normal humans are capable of doing. So is there a reason there seems to be no one fighting against this tyranny aside from a villainous group? Is it even fair to present them as villainous? Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters after all. Which one is it more fair to call them?
  • Values Dissonance, partially. Japan places more cultural emphasis on obedience to authority than the west. Americans view rebelling against authority as a positive act, at least when that authority oversteps its bounds, while Japanese audiences would believe upholding the law and obeying authority as more heroic. Hence why the MHA world revolves around a Super Registration Act which is presented as a good thing, while American comics frequently depict that as a villainous action, or at least an overly authoritarian one, showing the difference in views. Whether you agree with the Quirk regulations is a different matter, but in Japan, the fact that they're rebelling at all slots them into the villainous role by default. Having said that, it's also possible the original Destro was a more noble individual than the crazily fanatic and murderous Meta Liberation Army Re-Destro runs.
  • Alternatively, they're an example of Well-Intentioned Extremist group. Just because their goal is good, doesn't mean their methods are. Horikoshi is a noted fan of American comics, and Destro has more than a few parallels to Magneto, the definitive Well-Intentioned Extremist.
  • It's not a tyrannical system. It's an imperfect system and sometimes people fall through the cracks. That's bad, and it needs reform, but the MLA's plans would do nothing to help with that. Their plans are to create a Social Darwinist world where the strongest abilities win. They aren't even a Well-Intentioned Extremist group, they're a straight-up Knight Templar group with one or two examples of Villain Has a Point.
  • This is a large army run by private businesses in secret that is very open about being willing to kill anyone they need to enact their goals. Said goal is essentially anarchy where Quirk power rules. They are not the good guys just because they make a few good points about a flawed social order.

Hero name standards

• So, Bakugo can't call himself Lord Explosion Murder or King Explosion Murder, but another Hero calling himself Death Arms is perfectly fine?
  • This got Lost in Translation with the localized name being Death Arms, but the death part in Desutegoro is hidden behind a cross-language pun, so it's acceptable. And even without the pun, his usage of "death" is Gratuitous English, so it doesn't hold nearly as much weight to his Japanese audience.
  • There is a big difference in implication between the words murder and death. Not to mention the fact that murdering villains is frowned upon in the MHA universe; heroes are meant to be capturing and detaining villains long enough for the police to arrive.

Why didn't Kota believe that somebody might save him one day?

• Kota has been going through a lot. He's 5 now and his parents, who were superheroes, were murdered by Muscular 2 years ago, this means he was only 3 back then and his hate for superheroes while wrong is understandable. There is also the fact that his caretakers, while well intetioned and patient, aren't the most level headed ones when it comes to raising him, as mentioned in the question if they neglected him. Considering he's so young he very likely doesn't (fully) understand that some people are evil like Muscular so him not thinking he might someday be saved from a villain is believable, but there are rescue heroes who save people from disasters without fighting against villains. Did Kota's caretakers not tell him that? He believed that superheroes care only about glory and telling him that would've most likely not changed his opinion, but this types of superheroes are just as important as the ones who fight against villains and it's still important for Kota to know they exist. If he knows natural disasters are a thing wouldn't he believe there are chances he would be someday in danger and somebody would want to save him? If he thought superheroes are only seeking glory wouldn't he believe said hero would only save him for the glory?
  • Kota likely never had to have been saved himself. He wasn't there when his parents were killed and his aunt would make damn sure he isn't in danger. Kids don't think about "someday I'll be in danger." Hell, grown adults don't think that far. It's not that Kota doesn't know that heroes rescue people, that just doesn't to him exclude the idea that they only do it for glory. He's a child who doesn't truly understand what it means to be a hero, doesn't understand the danger or the risk or importance of saving people, not until a kid not much older than him risked his own life to save him against the same villain who killed his parents. Kota knew heroes but he never had his hero.
  • Adults are usually aware that they could get into danger, although they usually don't think often about that. As stated, Kota's a kid, so he has a different way of thinking. Also, the aunt isn't the best at protecting him. She didn't make the best decision by letting him go to a rock into the woods when he needed time alone. Granted, it was near to the camp and the place itself wasn't dangerous. Well, not until Muscular came anyway, and the Pussycats couldn't have known the villains would've found them. What she should've thought about is the possibility that Kota might've done something regrettable, like running deeper into the woods, he's a young traumatized kid after all. Seriously, why not tell him to go to his room or somewhere else in the camp if he needed time alone? Or even better, not take him at the camp at all? If they can't let him somewhere else, then maybe don't host the camp, it's not like others couldn't do it in their places. They may not have experience with raising children, but there are 4 people and they can ask others for advice and go to counseling if they need help and by they way, the kid really needed counseling himself.

Fevers after fights

• Minor one. How did Deku get a fever after the fight? Did his wounds get infected? Did he catch a cold or something? He did spend an evening outside without a shirt on. Or was it Brain Fever? Nothing unbelievable, just what could have been? Also, how did Eri get a fever after being rescued from overhaul? Did she have an infection prior that agrraveted because of the tension around her or is that a side effect to using her Quirk?
  • Both Deku and Eri didn't look well-dressed for the outside at the time, so that's probably why.
  • In Eri's case she got a fever right away. In real life cold itself doesn't make you sick, but it can weaken your immune system, and if you do get sick you don't feel symptoms right away. Either it's not entirely realistic or she had something beforehand and the circumstances made it worse.
  • It'd make sense if she had something before, considering the type of conditions that she was in. As for Deku, he's stronger and far more resilient than Eri. It's possible that he already had a fever during the fight, but the symptoms didn't show up until afterwards. Alternatively... Chisaki's strange illness infects others as well, causing them to get a fever.
  • Sorry, I should've been more clear. I didn't mention that Deku got a fever after the fight with Muscular, not the one with Chisaki. I hope I didn't confuse you.
  • Ahh. It's quite alright! As for Deku, then, it's very easy to see how he could get an infection, considering the fact that he's been running shirtless throughout the forest (sticks, leaves and the dirt amongst other things could've been able to cut/infect him) and has a broken, bleeding arm.
  • With Eri, it turned out that Chisaki had used Quirk Enhancers on her in an attempt to strengthen/alter her Quirk to get the result he desired. It was why her horn was always so large compared to after she was freed. Mind you, he was basically using drugs on a 6-year-old. Considering the awful affects that Quirk Enhancers can have on grown-ups and teens (demonstrated in Vigilantes), having them used on such a young girl is bound to have side effects. Since her Quirk is centered at her head via her horn, that was where the issues resided.
  • Deku's imperfect One for All may also be WAY harder on his body than even he realizes. It may be that overclocking it to 100% is both damaging his body visibly (breaking bones and causing burns), but also is basically burning his vitality as fuel (so overextending his power will also weaken his immune system and possibly expedite the growth of any illness he may have).

Why does Shinso look creepy?

• So his Quirk is mind control and in order for it to work somebody needs to respond to him when he talks. Then why does he keep this creepy appearance? Wouldn't it be more likely for someone to fall if he didn't look creepy? Of course, we shouldn't judge people based on their appearance and if he doesn't want to use his looks to gain attention, good for him, but if he didn't look creepy, he would've had higher chances of tricking the ones who judge based on appearance. Also, most people, even if they don't assume others are good or bad based on looks still feel attracted or repulsed by looks, so it still would've been an advantage. He has messy hair and bags under his eyes, otherwise he looks fine. Maybe he can't do anything about the bags, but the hair could be fixed. With bangs the hairstyle would've been similar to Deku's and looked better, or just cut the hair shorter and that would probably fix it.
  • I'm... Very confused by your question. No one in-universe appears to be bothered by his appearance, and his Quirk is very effective anyways. No need to fix what ain't broke.
  • I guess I partially forgot how different this universe is from our real world. Some people look like animals or fantasy creatures, so I guess someone like Shinso looks normal for their standards. But it would be easy not to be affected by his Quirk, just don't talk to him and you're fine. As a pro hero he might need to take disguises, so that people won't recognize him and won't know about his Quirk.
  • It's ok, and all of those points are good ones. Him wearing a disguise would fit the ninja-theme that Aizawa has going on for himself as well. On a side-note though, people do canonically get bothered by some appearances of the characters, such as Tsuyu and her lizard friend, as well as Gang Orca, who is intimidating to children. So there likely are a few people who would find Shinso creepy. So a disguise would work better for him, probably.

How did Mirio get enough hair for his costume?

• His hero costume is made out of his hair. In the present day he has short hair and in middle school he had a small ponytail. Doesn't he need really long hair in order to turn it into material?
  • Considering how technologically advanced the world of BNHA is, there's probably some sort of cloning machine out there or a highly-advanced 3D Printer that can copy such threads of hair, and then wove the threads into a costume.
  • Also, he may not need the entire costume to be made out of his hair. Just enough woven into the main fabric to allow his Quirk to recognize it as part of him so it phases when he does (a few stands across each major body part, or possibly concentrated into something like the pattern on the chest)

Secret identities?

• Why does it appear that no one thought that keeping heroic super identities would be a good idea? The only person who is close enough to having one is Eraser Head, and even his true identity isn't kept a secret. Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the school to keep their students life private, and to make sure that villains don't discover their private lives?
  • Because MXH is not Marvel or DC, where a pair of glasses or a domino mask is enough to disguise your identity. MXH is the real world only people have superpowers now. With that in mind, most of those tricks they use on other franchises would not work. But why do they not all wear full face masks? Because that is boring for us the reader to look at.
  • To be fair, some heroes and villains do wear full-face covering masks in the series, though (such as Stain in Vigilantes, although he rather ironically ditches that). I was talking about that more-so. For example, Iida's breather wears a head-to-toe covering outfit (although people do know his real identity). Also, I doubt that full face masks would be boring for readers to look at (well, most of them anyways). Expressive Mask's exists, after all.
  • This is a setting where superpowers are the norm. People have them listed on government paperwork. Superheroism is an industry in this setting. There's no point in keeping your identity secret because you already have it all listed in multiple places just to get a paycheck. The only way to stay secret is to have powerful friends covering for you and basically giving up any normal life, which is the whole point of having a secret identity to begin with.
  • Heroes aren't just here to catch villains. They're celebrities, this is their JOB. They're required to fill out paperwork, be licensed, and pay taxed. Heroes, off-duty, have no more need to hide than any other public figure, and most fewer than that. Think of it more like being a pro wrestler with a ring name, than anything like Batman or Superman.

Why doesn't Ayoyama eat at the cafeteria?

• I get it that he doesn't want to eat Japanese food and that he has his own French food, but what's stopping him from taking his food to the cafeteria and eat it there? Is he even allowed to eat in the classroom, do none of the teachers have a problem with it? He probably keeps the classroom clean, but still.
  • That's likely just him being anti-social and not wanting to hang out with people in the cafeteria.

Why was the entire class of primary kids from the lisence course out of control?

• Yes, they have stronger Quirks than the adults had at their ages, but don't the parents and guardians of these children know about the teacher having problems with them? I'm pretty sure they can overpower their kids at home and they can get help if needed. Also, they can punish their children without the use of Quirks, like cutting their allowances or something similar. It's very likely that not all parents are good enough to keep their children under control, but won't at least some of the parents manage to make their children behave at least a bit better?
  • Apparently not. It's been established that the teacher has lost control of her students. They may be well-behaved at home (and keep in mind that Quirk usage is legal when you're at home), but the idea that they could do anything got into their heads (likely due to the "ringleader"). Handling a kid sounds fairly easy, if not Adult Fear inducing, but can you really handle one with superpowers?
  • I know why the kids weren't nice, what I find odd is that the entire classroom was this wild. Is the "ringleader" a genius that stopped the parents' punishments or convinced the other children to endure the punishments? Or did the parents not come up with good solutions to the problem? Or both?
  • Probably both. Not every parent is the same. Most of the kids were probably raised similarly to Bakugo, in which they fight back against their parents.
  • It could also be a herd mentality thing. Kids tend to act out more when in larger groups. Individually, any one of these kids might be an angel but put them altogether and they'll be much more likely to go wild because they see their friends doing the same thing.

Mirio's costume and Hagakure's "costume"

• Mirio's hero costume is apparently made out of his hair, which is why it responds to his Quirk. So, Mirio gets a costume, but Hagakure has to be naked just because it's less embarrassing? She even runs the risk of freezing to death while in her hero costume in the winter, so that's something that U.A. should have already offered to her if it's possible.
  • Perhaps she enjoys that kind of stuff. She teases Ojiro about him looking while she's changing, after all. So, clearly she doesn't mind that much.
  • It's entirely possible that she does have a costume similar to Mirio but it just has to be very thin and skintight to work so it provides little to no insulation and for the rest she's just been messing with her classmates this entire time.
  • Imagine trying to create a costume out of material you can't see, or trying to keep track of a costume you can't see. Not to mention that it wouldn't serve much of a purpose since, unless she told someone she was wearing it, no one would know it existed. Basically, making it would be next to impossible and it would almost pointless to do so. Hagakure designed her costume herself, so she seems to be comfortable with her current look.

Native not giving permission

• U.A. students are allowed to use their Quirks with pro heroes present. When Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida defeat Stain, Native is there. Why didn't he stick up for the three of them? Maybe lie and let the police know they had his permission to use their Quirks in that fight? He's never mentioned again. You'd think a pro hero who survived an encounter with the Hero Killer would have something to say.
  • It can't be just any Pro Hero. It has to be a teacher from their school. Besides, even if Native did say something, then people will know that Iida and Midoriya disobeyed orders from the Pro's they were interning with, which would diminish their chances of joining any agency since not many Pros will be willing to work with a Sidekick who would regularly disobey orders.
  • It was also an extremely risky thing for Eraser Head to do. It's implied that he was nearly fired for doing so, and one reason he wasn't was because it was genuinely a life-threatening situation.

Mirio and light

• Mirio explains that his Quirk makes even light phase through him, effectively making him blind. But if so, shouldn't he be invisible, as well?
  • And what about Toru? Supposing her Quirk is some form of light manipulation (as shown in the provisional license exam arc) then the fact that light (assumedly) passes through her in her normal state, shouldn't she be blind?
  • Maybe Toru's Quirk isn't actually invisibility at all; instead, it's "mimetic skin". Not true invisibility, but skin that instantly adapts to the colors around and behind it. This would also explain how someone who's supposedly invisible can generate such a massive flash: it would be a matter of forcing your skin to change color into a highly reflective pastel (something accomplished by certain fish and octopi) for an instant.
  • Think about it, the process of reflecting light also refracts and deflects it, so some light rays hit people and reflect onto Hagakure's eyes, of course, she'll see them. As for Mirio, the light "phases" through him, he is not reflecting it completely.
  • Also, in Mirio's case, he explicitly almost never turns himself entirely intangible because then he'll fall through the floor and be blind/unable to breathe and such. And since you can't see something that's currently being intersected by another object anyway, it's likely that he's trained himself to instinctively keep himself solid in all places that aren't within a few microns of being touched. This also explains how he 'disappears' so quickly when going into/out of the ground. It's not just that he becomes intangible and falls quickly, it's that at the moment of full intangibility, he's also very briefly invisible.
  • It's also entirely possible that Mirio either does not fully understand how his Quirk interacts with light or was oversimplifying it for Class 1-A. It is entirely possible that light does enter his eyes, but the state of semi/full-intangibility interferes with his retinas' ability to process the light into workable signals for the brain to interpret.

All Might's "mutations"

• All Might claims to have been 'Quirkless' before he received One For All, but he has black sclerae, irises that are not actually a humanly possible shade of blue, and a frankly impossible bone structure. And you can't even argue that the black sclerae came from having One For All because Midoriya didn't gain them. So... is he lying, or did he mean 'effectively Quirkless', or does the BnHA world categorize people whose Quirks have no actual effect other than extremely minor cosmetics as 'Quirkless', too?
  • All Might's eyes are just artistic in the way of showing how sunken they are in his current condition, as in the movie, it's revealed that he had normal white sclera back in his day. He's skin and bone due to the injuries on his stomach and the only really weird part about him is his "buff-mode" which no other hero with One For All shown, not even Izuku. So that is the only fridge logic about him, which may hint that he indeed has a Quirk, which is the "Buff-mode", that he still has even after transferring One for All to Izuku.
  • Actually, as All Might mentioned to Izuku, that "Buff Mode" is just him temporarily restoring his body to its prime. It's not a separate Quirk, just a side effect of One for All. He's still Quirkless, he just has said side effect remaining after losing OfA, even if he can only hold it for a few seconds now.
  • This makes sense even as a side effect of One for All, now that we know more about it. If OfA has accumulated certain parts of the user's will over time as All Might speculates, then of course using it would bring All Might back to his prime –- he doesn't just want to be a hero, he wants to be a symbol.
  • Bakugo, Kaminari, and Kirishima have unnatural eye colors and Tokoyami and Koda have non-human heads that don't seem to be relevant to their Quirks. It's possible that humans in the MHA verse have a greater phenotype variety than in real life, which makes All Might's eyes and body shape more believable.
  • Considering that Midoriya has green hair despite being Quirkless further supports this.
  • Note that Kirishima's hair is actually dyed, though. Although Deku's mum also has green hair, which further supports this again.
  • Considering that it's been revealed that One For All is so high-maintenance that it drains the user's vitality if they have a quirk of their own in addition to it, we have official confirmation that All Might is completely Quirkless. Not even a useless cosmetic Quirk, he has nothing.

All For One battle

• All For One must either have some unexplained limitation to his Quirk-stealing power or else a poorly-timed total lack of imagination. In his big (second) battle with All Might, he tries to beat him at his own game — punching really hard — instead of using any of the countless utility powers he presumably has to make it a Curb-Stomp Battle. We already saw that Shinso's "Brainwashing" Quirk can almost completely incapacitate a One For All user on its own; surely All For One has collected many Quirks of that caliber by now, but he doesn't try to make use of any of them. Perhaps his weakened state from the first big showdown is the issue, but then we have to figure out how in the world All Might managed to beat him when he was at his strongest. Either the writer or All For One himself seems to have vastly underestimated how ridiculously overpowered a lone All Your Powers Combined character could become in a world where Everyone Is a Super.
  • All For One is limited by how many Quirks he's got at the time and it's hinted that if he doesn't use a Quirk with regular intervals, it erodes and fades away from his arsenal once he gets new ones. That said, he's a sadist and just wanted to make All Might suffer for as much as possible by using his own means against him, which backfired spectacularly instead.
  • Given what we know about Quirks, we can assume that they don't just cease to exist if All For One doesn't use them. It's more likely that they still remain, but they become difficult for All For One to recognize them specifically enough to identify and use at all. That leaves them still existing, but overshadowed by everything else All For One has assimilated over the years. All For One is a genius, but he's still human: there's no way he could keep track of every Quirk he's stolen over the years since they all work differently and many of them are functionally identical. If not that, then it's likely that Quirks he's stolen merge and mutate with others in his collection, resulting in them becoming entirely new powers. Summoning them individually helps slow or prevent this process since All for One is exerting mental effort to actively keep at least part of his collection organized.
  • Also, All for One received massive head injuries during his first battle with All Might. It's not that much of a stretch to think that he lost access to some of his Quirks due to brain damage.
  • About how All For One tried to punch All Might instead of just using a ranged attack: it's all about the message he sends by doing that. Think about it; All Might's smashes have, in the eyes of the public, the ability to solve anything. If All For One manages to beat him at his own game, he doesn't just kill All Might, he destroys the image he spent years building.
  • All for One has also been giving Nomus his Quirks for quite some time now. It's possible he put some of the more drastic ones in there. He also specifically makes a point of not taking Quirks that are hard to master, or Quirks that are difficult to remember the rules for — so miracle Quirks like Shinso's would still work, but a seeming "miracle" Quirk like Mirio's would be out of the question.
  • All for One is, like All Might, already preparing to give his legacy over to a successor. Think about it – he doesn't need to beat All Might, he just needs to force him out of hero work and give Shigaraki a chance. What better way to do that then to overwhelm him with punch after punch after punch and exhaust him enough to push past his limits? This way, he also becomes a martyr for the villains to rally behind Shigaraki. This fight was never supposed to be All for One's incredible victory, just a last hurrah to clear the stage for his successor.

Mt. Lady's horns

• Mt. Lady's costume is made of super stretchy material, so it changes sizes with her... but why do her horns (clearly part of the outfit, not her body) change size, too?
  • Mirio's costume changes with him, so it's probably something like that.

Uraraka and nausea

• Uraraka gets nauseous when using her Quirk on herself; this is explained (in the Fridge Brilliance section) as her experiencing a common symptom of zero-gravity conditions. Then why don't other people who she uses her Quirk on experience it too?
  • Different people have different levels of tolerance for unusual motion. Being levitated is probably pretty disorientating, but the short bursts that they'd experience from Uraraka's Quirk would probably be less so than a roller coaster ride. It's just that Ochaco herself is more susceptible to motion sickness than most.
  • Potentially, they do. But it's not really relevant in her Quirk training, since most of the actual people she levitates experience it just once or twice and move on, while trying to levitate herself would be a constant struggle and more relevant to her actual life.

Yuyu

• When talking about Haya Yuyu's design, Horikoshi said that her dyed hair would be against the dress code in a real school, but that it's fine in the story...but why mention it specifically anyway when in this particular setting you can't throw a rock at a group of people without hitting at least three characters with technicolor hair?
  • Maybe it was to show that she has kind of a delinquent streak and that it's fine in-story precisely because of an abundance of technicolor-haired characters?

Endeavor timeline

• Since Endeavor would have been starting his hero career by the time his oldest, Toya, was born, Shoto's explanation that Endeavor used his connections and wealth to force Rei into a Quirk marriage in hopes of having a perfect heir that would surpass All Might makes no sense.
  • It does make sense if you know their ages. Endeavor himself stated in Chapter 165 that he was the Number 2 Hero ever since he was 20. Taking his current age (46) means he's been a hero for at least 26 years. Fuyumi, the second oldest of his children, is 23. Of course, Toya's age hasn't been confirmed, so this is just speculation, but if he's in his mid-20s it still lines up.

Thirteen's gender

• Thirteen's gender wasn't known for a long time, but it was revealed in the ULTRA ANALYSIS Character Book that she's female. Then how come she's known as the "gentleman hero"? There are many ways to describe a female — and everybody for that matter — as gentle. Thirteen looks androgynous, I doubt people assumed her to be male. Is she non-binary? If she identifies even just partially as a woman, it wouldn't be wrong to call her female (at least not all the time).
  • It's possible that people In-Universe just don't know her real sex or what she identifies as (note that there is in fact a distinction between sex and gender). Also note that people don't really refer to Thirteen by any gender pronouns at all, not even they/them. Make of that of what you will.
  • Yes, I know the difference between sex and gender. Your answer might be true, but this raises the question why people would use the word gentleman to refer to her. As I mentioned, there are gender neutral ways ways of calling someone polite.
  • As mentioned before, her sex is ambiguous to both the readers (at the time before her real sex was revealed), and likely to those In-Universe. From their perspective, they're about as clueless as the readers. She doesn't appear to mind people calling her a gentleman and has never called anyone out on it, so people call her one anyways. To make a somewhat long-answer short, Thirteen just doesn't care about the gender pronouns that people use when referring to her (alternatively, she might prefer to be going by male pronouns, but still clearly doesn't bother to correct anyone because she doesn't care). Someone in their universe thought she was a male, and since Thirteen doesn't care to correct them on that, it just kinda stuck that way despite no one knowing her true gender. That, or Thirteen insisted upon people calling her the gentleman hero.
  • I highly doubt Thirteen would insist on being called a gentleman, she seems too humble to do that.
  • Is she actually called "Gentleman Hero" in Gratuitous English in the original Japanese as well? If not, then maybe it's simply a matter of translation and nothing more.

Just take the kids and go

• Why didn't Nao Shimura put her foot down earlier when her children were getting mistreated? And I say children because Hana knowing to deny that she wants to be a hero implies that Kotaro likely abused her in a similar manner before she learned to avoid his wrath. The moment Kotaro started locking the kids out of the house should have been Nao's cue to start the divorce process rather than waiting until her son's Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
  • From what I understand, Nao Shimura was in the same situation a lot of people in an abusive household are in: She was too afraid to do it/felt trapped by her circumstances, and it wasn't until things went way beyond the norm that she Grew a Spine. Relationships are complicated and abusive ones, whether you are the direct victim or not, are not as simple as "Do the right thing when someone does something wrong". It is just not that simple, even in real life, or we wouldn't have cases where children are abused by one parent and the other is very much not okay with it, or at least, they wouldn't go on for very long. Kotaro was clearly a very harsh and disciplined man, so likely any disobediance, even without punishment or threat, would be hard to do in his household, just by virtue of having that viewpoint hammered into your head by just living with him. That is also more likely why Hana would deny wanting to be a hero as well, even if she wasn't punished herself. That, and she would know what makes her father angry regardless, as the family clearly did know about the abuse. Essentially, living with a controlling and abusive person who has a significant place in your life, such as being your spouse, gives them influence on you, whether you like it or not, and it often either affects your thinking, restricts you in more material ways, or a combination of both. Just running/leaving is not easy for those who've lived like that, as any abused person will tell you.
  • There's also the Values Dissonance of what is and isn't considered abuse in Japan. To a Western audience, locking your kids out of the house would undoubtedly be considered abuse, but it's not necessarily true in Japan. The very first chapter/episode of Sailor Moon has Usagi's mother locking her out of the house for getting a bad grade on a test, but is nevertheless portrayed as a loving mother. It's possible that Nao might have been uncomfortable with it, but didn't actually see it as abuse.

Tenko Alone

• So I can kind of understand why people were reluctant to approach Tenko due to his Nightmare Face, but did nobody think to at least call the police about there being an unsupervised emaciated Creepy Child wandering around a public street? That kind of help wouldn't even have to involve getting close to the kid, maybe just keeping an eye on him from a distance until the authorities arrived.
  • As All For One said, it was likely because they were just waiting for a hero to take care of it. Though he could've been exaggerating, and it was more just Apathetic Citizens at work more generally...
  • It's also possible that on top of the explanation mentioned above, some people were in a hurry (maybe due to emergencies) or didn't notice him at all. Though if Tenko was in that situation for days, then All For One isn't wrong that there is something wrong with society. Maybe this problem persisted for a long time and it geniuenly made All For One mad.
  • How many homeless people begging have you passed by in life? The sad truth is Bystander Syndrome is very real. If people can rationalize that "someone else" will take care of a problem, they will ignore it with hardly any regret. In a world where superpowered battles are the norm, the temptation is only greater. That is Shigaraki's point: he is what happens when a society becomes unwilling to solve its problems and labels them villains when they grow too great to ignore. He's out to show people what sort of monsters can result from their apathy.

Eraser Head canceling Daruma's Quirk

• In Chapter 260, Eraser Head erases Daruma's Quirk, "Life Force". According to the Wiki, "Life Force" is classified as a Mutation Quirk, which Eraser Head is unable to his Erasure on, as stated early on in the anime and manga.
  • It's clarified in the Internships Arc that while Aizawa can't erase the physical attributes of mutant Quirks, like Ojiro's tail, he can halt their functions. Ojiro would still have a tail if his Quirk was erased, but he wouldn't be able to move. Also, there's no basis to assume that "Life Force" is a mutant Quirk anyway, as there's been no official classification for the Quirk.
  • It seems like "Life Force" may be a hybrid Quirk with both passive and active effects. Aizawa can nullify any ACTIVE component of Quirks, but can't remove passive mutations that change a petson's body on a permanent basis (such as Sero's elbow dispensers or Mina's pink skin).

Why were the students bathing together at the camp?

• Is it a common thing in Japan that campers bathe together or did the author take artistic license on that?
  • Public baths are a just a normal thing in general, not necessarily attached to camps.

Overhaul's touch of death?

• Early on we see Overhaul blow up Magne and a random henchman with a single touch. Why then does he resort to creating stone spikes when he has to fight Mirio, Nighteye and Deku? Sure, he has to get in close so it's riskier than attacking from a distance, but it seems like a good tradeoff, since if he touches his opponent once it's all over. Especially since both Mirio and Deku are close-range fighters anyway, so he wouldn't even need to draw them in.
  • You answered your own question; he needs range. Especially against Mirio and Deku, who are much better fighters than him. Getting into melee with them is a bad idea.
  • Adding to above, both Deku and Mirio have Quirks that make getting close and using Overhaul dicey. Mirio's intangibility could possibly make actually touching him to disassemble him virtually impossible (similar to how Shiragaki couldn't affect Snatch due to not being able to get all 5 fingers in contact with any single point), and getting up close with Deku risks him getting turned into a floor pancake in seconds.

Toshinori being afraid of Gran Torino

• Why is Toshinori still afraid of Gran Torino? Yes, the latter used to beat the former up quite hard at training but it was long ago. Since then Toshinori became the number one hero -his hero name is All Might for a reason- had fought thousands of dangerous criminals including All For One and Gran Torino, while still very capable, got old and even shrinked. I can't possibly believe the old man can overpower Toshinori, at least not under normal circumstances. Maybe the fear is emotional, but how would that be possible? As mentioned, All Might got to the top, this would require not only physical but also emotional strength. Also, at the end of the day Gran Torino cares about Toshinori and the latter knows that. All Might feeling some fear not to disappoint the other one isn't hard to believe for me, but why is he outright terrified?
  • Plenty of grown people still tremble when their mother raises her voice, it isn't about what Gran Torino could realistically do, it is about how the nature of their relationship shaped out.

1.000.000% of One For All

• 100% percent is by definition the maximum of something, why did All Might say he used 1.000.000% of his power when giving the last blow to the nomu? The concept of percentage above 100 does exist, but it refers to growth. Maybe All Might went above his limit and he said that his new limit and it represents 1.000.000% of the old limit. But here's the thing. Deku also said he used 1.000.000% when fighting Muscular. Did Deku also go beyond the limit, how would he know that the amount of power he used wasn't his own limit from the start? I'm confused.
  • Don't get too hung on the numbers. In both cases, they were simply pushing their body beyond what they could normally take due to the life-or-death situation at hand. Kind of like how the stories of parents that can suddenly lift entire vehicles up when their children are in danger. The 1,000,000% thing is just them hyping themselves to go past their limits.
  • Also, 100% isn't the maximum of something, so much as a complete 1/1 ratio (in this case, using the power to the maximum of the body's potential to use it properly). Pushing past 100% is entirely possible (say, having a 300% accuracy in something, meaning for every 1 shot, you hit 3 marks, giving you a 3/1 ratio). 100,000,000% might be a significant exaggeration, but the core idea is that All Might and Deku are pushing One for All well beyond safe limits in order to go further (basically overclocking their bodies to a dangerous level for more power).

How much longer does Rei Todoroki have to stay in the psychiatric ward?

• I understand Rei was sent there for burning her son's face, which is a very serious crime, but it's not something she'd get a life sentence for, and she's already been in there for more then a decade. She seems to be sane and rational by the time we see her, and on good terms with all her children. So is there any cannon source material that mentions a release date for her? It's odd this isn't talked about after she seems to be have paid her debt to society and appears fully rehabilitated.
  • Maybe she's already been in there long enough to have served her sentence, but doesn't want to leave. She may have let herself been eaten up with guilt to the point that she prefers to punish herself by remaining in the ward than to be free.
  • Alternatively, she stays because she knows she's not quite over her issues, and the Psych ward has people who can help if she experiences another breakdown. That way, even if she does go into another breakdown, she's unlikely to hurt anyone
  • There's a misunderstanding here. Rei isn't in a prison for the mentally unstable. She's in a hospital being treated for a mental breakdown. She has not been sentenced by a court and she is not imprisoned.
• As of the end of the Parahuman Liberation Front war, she has been officially released and recovered enough to confront Endeavor about the actions of their villainous son.

Overhaul breaking out

• Chisaki simply has Mysophobia, so what's making him break out in actual hives?
  • Stress and/or freaking out from being touched.

Shigaraki's lack of motivation

• Shigaraki used to say that he wants to cause destruction without any reason. I get it that he's or at least used to be a Psychopathic Manchild, had repressed memories of his dark past, but he's also a sadist and open about it. Real life sadists, those who embrace this aspect about themselves at least, cause pain to others in order to get pleasure and are perfectly aware it gives them pleasure. Also, he was raised by frigging All For One, who makes it extremely clear that he causes destruction to obtain power and Shigaraki shares this ideology. I can understand him not being fully certain about his motivation, but why didn't he say "I want destruction because others' suffering gives me pleasure and I will obtain power."? Also, while his traumatic memories were repressed, I'm pretty sure All For One told Shigaraki reasons to hate heroes very clearly, why did it take him that discussion with Deku at the mall to realize he had those convictions? If Shigaraki wants destruction due to anger or feeling like the world doesn't matter, why wouldn't he understand that he has those feelings?
  • When people demand an explanation of motive from Shigaraki, they aren't asking him just what he feels like doing. They want to know if he has some plan or some point to to make in all his chaos. Just saying "it makes me feel good" doesn't count as a motive any more than some random thrill killer. Until he thought about it, Shigaraki didn't have an end goal or solid motive that he was aware of. He was just childishly lashing out and wasting the resources given to him while accomplishing nothing of value. It wasn't until after he spoke to Deku and lost his master that he matured enough hone his destructive impulses into a real ideology and work towards his vision.
  • But Shigaraki clearly wants as much power as possible, isn't that enough of an endgoal? Not a morally good endgoal, but enough to be considered a clear endgoal. Yes, he didn't have much of a plan, but why didn't he say the plan is secret or something? At some point at least he wanted to gain more people to his side, which is part of a plan or at least a step in the right direction to create a plan. Shigaraki has a very high intelligence score, and I know there is a difference between intelligence and maturity, but I would expect that somebody trained under AFO would be at least a bit better. It's not like he didn't analyse and plan anything at all. I agree with your answer that he gets called out due to not thinking things through, the point was that he should've been at least a bit better.
  • Again, they aren't criticizing his planning ability, but his motives. He's causing massive death and destruction of innocent lives with the excuse of "I felt like it". That was what disgusted most heroes. It took until about this point that he matured enough to make uncomfortably true arguments to heroes.
  • He did disgust a fellow villain Overhaul with his lack of a plan. It's possible that Shigaraki actually had a plan, but didn't bother to explain it properly. Still, he could've told Overhaul the plan is secret or something. Shigaraki is smart, but will sometimes act without thinking. I think what the heroes hate about Shigaraki is a combination of his sadistic motives and not planning things well enough.
  • He genuinely didn’t have a plan developed until after the Meta Liberation arc. That was part of the point of his character: he was a raging manchild at the time. He was slowly maturing for some time in the story by that point, but he didn’t really have a coherent long-term goal. It was more like an urge to destroy that not even he could understand. It wasn’t until he unlocked his childhood memories and was hardened by his battles that he was clear headed enough to remember why he hated All Might and the world as a whole so much.
  • Its simply a difference in ideology, most of the "villains" we see in the story are simply Real Life criminals with powers, they commit crimes for money or power-through-money; even resident Hate Sink Overhaul and his crew are essentially running a narcotics operation. Shigaraki and the League of Villians are stereotypical comic book criminals motivated by sadism, For the Evulz, and personal grudges.

Midoriya's lack of hero requests post-Sports Festival

• Midoriya puts in a great effort at the Sports Festival where he outright won the obstacle course with just his basic intellect, and dueled Shoto Todoroki in what was arguably the standout duel of the Battle Round. Yet I'm supposed to believe that aside from Gran Torino, absolutely none of the other heroes offered the boy a request to come work for them? I could understand a lot of people not being interested at sight of Midoriya's ability dealing a lot of damage to himself, but somehow, EVERYONE was turned off?!
  • Maybe if someone chose Midoriya and he got hurt, they woud've been held more or less responsible for it. Also, while he did put a pretty impressive fight against Shoto, he did intentionally break his own arms and he wasn't forced to go that far. Yes, he didn't have much of a choice if he wanted to win, but probably the heroes thought what he did wasn't worth it. Maybe the other heroes were afraid it would be hard to keep him under control not to hurt himself or even worse, die.
  • All that Deku displayed in the festival was 1) An unwillingness to use his Quirk, 2) a willingness to inflict serious injuries upon himself, and 3) a Quirk that is so powerful he cannot control it. I wouldn't hire him and the business course students noted the biggest reason why: he has no market value. They even note that he is very plain looking, which whilst superficial, matters in an age of celebrity heroes.
  • The plain looking thing might not matter that much, considering some uncanny looking heroes have a lot of success and weird looking students got chosen. Also, beauty is subjective, it's very likely that some characters do find him good looking and just didn't express it.
  • Also, his looks might be easy to fix, like making some changes to his costume for example. He wants to keep it as similar as possible to the one his mom made him, but he would probably accept some changes to make it more interesting. Maybe a different hairstyle, or some interesting looking gadgets. He was called plain, not ugly, it's generally not that hard to make plain people look outstanding.
  • Aizawa outright explained the problem with Midoriya in his starting day test: Midoryia's power is incredible, but if he ruins his body after a short burst, he's useless in a real fight. In the Sports Festival, Midoriya did well in the opening rounds and put Todoroki through his paces, but did irreparable damage to himself in the process. Remember, despite how intense the matches were, they aren't supposed to be real battles. Most sponsors saw a kid that barely had any control over his power, little to no exceptional fighting skill, and a complete disregard for his own health. Not only does he epitomize Unskilled, but Strong, but he's so reckless that he nearly crippled himself for life just to prove a point in what was essentially glorified sparring. This is a kid that, to people who don't know him, would seem practically insane and certain to do more damage to himself than to any enemy. An actual villain that didn't crumble with one blow would have no trouble killing him after that. He'd be a massive liability to a pro hero in the state he was at the time. It wasn't until Gran Torino taught him some basic control that he started learning to actually fight.

Why doesn't anybody use paint or ink to reveal Toru? Why doesn't she use make up to appear visible?

• Her clothes don't disapear after she has been wearing them for a while, so things like that should remain visable on her skin. She could appear mostly normal if she worn make up, hair dye covering clothes and contact lens. Even simpler would be a skintight mask (like in the film hollow man), sunglasses and a wig.
  • Why should she? People can tell where she is just by looking at her clothes. She's not the only invisible person in the story, probably most invisible people only wear clothes. Also, floating make-up or something similar might get into the Uncanny Valley. In a Smash comic, the other girls tried to find out what she looks like, and she gave a pretty vague description, meaning she probably dislikes her looks. Also, putting paint on her if she does not want to would be rude.
  • Covering her face with makeup would hinder her in battle (she'd have to clean all of it off to sneak around) and result in a very disturbing appearance in civilian scenarios. All and all, a set of floating clothes is more convenient and far less likely to creep people out for Toru. As for why opponents don't mark her, she doesn't really have any. She's not really a combat hero. Despite being in 1-A, she's a very minor character at best and only useful in very rare, not particularly serious group scenarios. If an opponent considered her an actual threat, it'd be trivial to come up with countermeasures for her, but she's just not important enough to be worth that level of special attention.

Deku being plain

• I've only watched the anime and I heard people saying multiple times, that Deku was called plain. First of all, I don't remember hearing that in the anime. Is it only mentioned in the manga or did I miss it? Second of all, he looks pretty cute. Some real life fans find Deku cute, others even hot. Beauty is subjective, but let's be honest, most people have at least somewhat similar tastes. Also, he has very definitive features, how can you call him plain? Maybe average looking would be a better description than plain. Is plain used as an exaggeration for Deku? Also, it's hard for me to believe that no character in universe would find him really cute or even hot. Maybe those characters do exist, but did not express their opinion.
  • I've only got the English dubbed Manga to hand here, but Uraraka described him as plain when begging the judges to give him some of her points after he saved her life during the entrance exam. The Business Course students during the festival also describe him as not being much to look at. As for the meaning of plain looking, the Oxford English Dictionary describes it as not beautiful, distinctive, or remarkable in appearance. In other words, average. People look across the room and do not note him above anyone else. I would say that he is clearly meant to be plain in the same way that Hermione Granger is meant to be plain (the book version, not Emma Watson). They both have traits that society in general would not pick for the cover of a beauty magazine even if on an individual level many do find them attractive. In both cases, however, what arguably makes them good looking is their personalities. They're heroic, loyal, and will go the extra mile for you. It can also be said that Deku lives in a world where people like Tokoyomi exists (who has a bird's head) and All Might (who has those very distinctive blonde hair ears(?) on his head). Compared to them, he really does not stand out at all.

Uraraka calling Deku plain out loud

• After the Entrance Exam, Uraraka wanted to give Deku her points, because she felt guilty that he had to save her and she thought he didn't get any points. What surprises me is that she called him plain when describing him, why? Uraraka isn't superficial and she was geniunely grateful for what he did for her. Besides, she already gave a clear description of his appearance before calling him plain. Not to mention that he was the only one who fought a giant robot and broke his legs and an arm very badly, there is no way the pro heroes wouldn't remember who she's talking about. In this situation, looks really don't matter, so why did she say out loud that he's plain? Granted, she's young and gets easily nervous, she probably didn't know he will eventually hear it and her statement wasn't outright insulting, but still.
  • I think you just answered your own question. She's young, nervous, and probably wanted to make sure they knew exactly who she was talking about without really thinking it all the way through.
• You're getting way to hung up on something that isn't really an insult. Ochako was describing a kid she had just met and barely spoken to. Deku didn't have any particularly unique physical features by the standards of this world and Ochako didn't know his name at the time, so she had to scramble to find something to describe someone she had seen for about two minutes to the teachers in her attempt to pay him back for saving her.
  • I wasn't angry because of this, just slightly surprised. As stated, he was the only one who destroyed such a robot and the pro heroes do know his name. Yes his appearance doesn't stand out, but he's different enough no to get mistaken for someone else. I was rather expecting her to simply say what he did and maybe ask All Might if he recognizes Deku. Then again she's young, nervous and rather shy at times. She probably didn't prepare herself before talking to All Might and if she did she got nervous and called Deku plain. Question answered.

Dabi's decision to become a villain

• Dabi has very good reasons to be angry at his father and the hero society, but why did he decide to become a villain? He did eventually expose his father, so why did he not do it sooner? He did grow up without being supported by his family, and he probably was afraid that if he goes to the police he'll end up being sent back to his abusive home, so he probably broke the law in order to survive, but why turn to murder, at least why innocent people and why not before trying other things? Why wasn't his plan to firstly expose his father and see what happens and only do very serious crimes if he's not satisfied with the results? Also, why did he try to kill Shoto? Toya had a pretty good relationship with his siblings, Shoto got abused by Endeavour too and the other siblings don't like what Endeavour did either. Did Dabi never think about teaming up with them to stop Endeavour/ get revenge on him? Shoto is training to become the number one hero, but wouldn't it hurt Endeavour more if Shoto succeded this goal, then ended up turning against him? Alternatively, even if he doesn't team up with his siblings, still keep them out of it, at least not hurt them directly when getting revenge on Endeavour.
  • It's possible that whatever happened that made Dabi's family think he was dead had a severe effect on his psyche. I mean, the only thing they recovered was Toya's jaw! While we still don't know all the details, it's clear that Toya's 'death' had a severe effect on the Todoroki family, and Toya himself had it the worst since he was THERE!
  • Dabi's goal wasn't merely to expose Endeavor; it was to hurt him. He thought he'd inflict the most pain by killing Shoto, because Shoto was Endeavor's "project". Being his sibling wasn't an obstacle: Dabi himself has made it clear that he's so obsessed with revenge, he's past the point of caring if his actions affect the rest of his family, let alone random strangers. Any empathy he might have once had has apparently been beaten out of him. So Toya became a villain — ie, joined the League — as a way to find and kill Shoto. Even if none of this were the case, though, Toya also had good reason to think his accusations would fall on deaf ears (assuming he'd even find some way to broadcast his message), combined with a complete distrust of society and heroes, who he considered complicit in the abuse he received. So it's a two birds, one stone kind of thing: joining the League also made his message much harder to ignore.
  • But according to Endeavour's flashback, Toya actually wanted to train before the incident happened. I get it that it was a very traumatic event and he probably doesn't remeber it himself very well, but why would this make him lose all his emapthy? I am not a psychologist, but I know plenty of people who suffered trauma and didn't lose their empathy. Most people, if they get hurt and see their loved ones grieveing because of that would feel sympathy for them. There are people who lived during war times that didn't lose their empathy, at least not as badly as Dabi did. From the MHA universe take Eri for instance, she received constant abuse from Overhaul and she's still a very caring girl. Rei (Dabi's mom) also has mental issues due to the abuse, but did not lose her empathy. Also, when Dabi got burned it was an accident, is he aware of that? I am not exepecting him not to want revenge if he knows, but most people would give a little credit to someone who hurt them by accident. Also, while Dabi is mad at the system did he ever consider that Shoto might be an exception to the rule or that he might improve? Honestly, the family besides Endeavour was pretty decent, and even he might've not been as bad as Dabi thinks. They were a good part of his life, most people who know what pain is feel grateful about the good aspects. I get it that not everyone reacts the same to trauma, but it feels like an extreme example in comparison to other characters who also suffered trauma.
  • There's no reason to assume the accident we've seen so far is the only time Endeavor hurt Toya. We know for a fact Endeavor became deliberately abusive afterwards considering his behavior towards Shoto. The timeline just isn't entirely clear yet. If all that happened to Dabi was that he got hurt once, his backstory makes no sense. And I'm pretty sure the author of the manga isn't a psychologist either, which doesn't change the fact that the Freudian Excuse is a recurring theme in the series (in fact, Dabi's backstory is similar to Shigaraki's). And again, Dabi really doesn't care that the rest of his family are good people. He wants revenge and is indifferent towards everything else.
  • Also, while being a villain does drag some attention to him, wouldn't this make people, at least some of them, distrustful of him? There are a lot of scandals in real life and there the victim is usually portrayed as innocent as possible and the offender as bad as possible. It seems to me that Dabi could have a more innocent image and still attack the system. Even in Universe the news and people did criticise the system. If he wasn't heard this way he could've then turned to villainy and tell society that this is what happens if you don't take his warnings seriously. Did he ever consider that exposing Endeavour might result in Shoto failing/giving up at becoming a hero? Or that Shoto probably would've ended up being taken away from Endeavour and thus destroying the project?
  • People don't have to really trust him because he "proves" he's Endeavor's son through a blood test (we could speculate that he faked the test, for example, but I think that turns into nitpicking; we as the audience are probably expected to take away that yes, Dabi is Endeavor's son and most people In-Universe are convinced by this), and the fact that Endeavor had a son who eventually became a murderous villain is enough to shatter his reputation for a lot of people. Also, wether people really would have believed Toya on his own isn't important; the point is that he probably thought they wouldn't, because he sees society as complicit in Endeavor's behavior, and might have figured that the only way they would listen is if he made the message impossible to ignore. Again: we have reason to believe, given his dialogue after The Reveal, that Dabi is entirely indifferent to the suffering he causes, so he likely wouldn't have seen any advantage in trying things the "nice" way first.
  • Yes, Endeavour's abuse might've, just might've been there before that one accident, but it's still hard to me to understand how he could lose his empathy this badly. The other family members weren't abusive and they suffered too. Maybe the abuse wasn't so bad on Natsu and Fuyumi, but their father was at least partially to blame for Toya's accident (accidentally, but still), and while Toya didn't get enough emotional help, at least he escaped that home and the worst accident happened only once and was an accident. By contrast Eri was constantly abused by Overhaul for years, way worse than what Endeavour did (Overhaul constantly abused her emotionally and killed and brought her back to life multiple times), and she still didn't lose her empathy. Also, Toya was still spying on the family, didn't he see how angry Shoto was at Endeavour? Why didn't he think he could turn Shoto into a villain too or make an Enemy Mine kind of deal. In Star Wars Darth Vader tried to convince Luke to join the dark side, and by the way the mangakan took inspiration from Star Wars. Of course, diferences are to be expected, but I can't understand why Dabi would stop loving the innocent family members and why he wouldn't consider Shoto's potential.
  • Think of it from another few angles. First of all, apparently all that was left of Toya after the accident was his jawbone. If his head was particularly damaged, severe head or brain injuries have actually been known to cause behavioral changes and increased aggression, lack of empathy, etc in people (it comes up on the Wikipedia pages of a fair few notorious murderers). About the family and abuse specifically, it's worth noting that even within the Todoroki family, Toya's experience of abuse was probably unique. Fuyumi and Natsuo were neglected from the get-go because their Quirks didn't meet Endeavor's standards, and were kept separate from Shoto because their dad didn't care to train them due to their less than ideal Quirks. Toya started out as Endeavor's "project," so to speak, because his fire quirk was just that strong... even if he hurt himself because of it. Endeavor basically said in 291 that Toya was the child on whom his hopes and dreams were riding, and though his flashback only really touched on the beginning with Toya, Toya himself seemed eager to impress his father and be the vehicle for his hopes, even if it caused him pain to do so. Since the age gap between Dabi and Shoto is probably 10ish years (?), it's safe to say he went through a lot of pain as a child, but thought it was for a purpose. Then Shoto is born with the Quirk combo Endeavor wanted, and Toya goes from being the golden child to one of the neglected with Fuyumi and Natsuo. So Toya's been on both ends of Endeavor's abuse. And in a sense, Shoto is the person who robbed Toya of his purpose in life, so Dabi's not going to give him much thought as a person beyond that. Does that make any sense?
  • I would just like to throw in a bit on the original "losing empathy" thing, just because most don't lose their empathy, doesn't mean nobody would, and anecdotes do not account for the entirety of a population or species. Everybody reacts differently to things, because the human mind is not so easily contained in boxes or by another person's expectations. A loose example being that plenty of things in real life are "1 out of 10" chance of X thing or a similar number vs. number, and that does not mean that the less likely result will never happen. You add that in with what everyone else has shared, then it is perfectly possible for Dabi to straight up go off the deep end like he did. His feelings are his own, and how what happened to him affected him is, in some ways at least, unique to him alone (though I'm sure he'd be willing to share how exactly it made him feel if asked). Also, revenge is not rational by any means, no matter how patient or calculating the person doing it is. One way or another, you want the person who did you wrong to suffer, and if the basic physical pain is not enough, then those who lose themselves to vengeance often will do literally anything to not only destroy the object of their vengeance physically, but emotionally/symbolically too, and at times punish others just to feel some satisfaction to counter-balance their pain/rage/emptiness. Revenge Before Reason is a trope after all...
  • A later flashback arc provided the whole truth. Tohya wasn’t really abused. He genuinely wanted to surpass All Might as his dad taught him to. The problem is that he inherited a poor mix of his parent’s powers, making him weak to his own flames. Endeavor forbade him from training anymore when he found out and Shoto, the “perfect” child, was born not long after. Having his dream ripped away after putting in so much effort and being effectively replaced by his “better” little brother started him on a dark road. His first act being an attack on baby Shoto, so you can see how quickly his grudge dragged him down.
  • Additionally, it is flawed to assume Dabi does not have any empathy, any caring left in him. Not that inside he is a inner good guy, but that he is intentionally supressing and ignoring his own instincts out of trauma. Take his smile, we are told through the flashbacks whenever he grins like that he is crying. And when does he grin so obviously like that? When ever there are attacks on people he is related to through blood or through the League. Taking Hawks' and Dabi's own words about his emotions at face-value doesn't necessarily mean they are true. We see he hurts his own family as a way of hurting Endeavor, but it is not clear if he would hurt them if Endeavor was not around to see them getting hurt.

Blood related quirks

• Whether they have to ingest it like Stain and Himiko or can control their own like Vlad King, how do people with blood related quirks realize they have them?
  • It was explained in Toga's flashback that she instinctively used her quirk. Also, quirks are usually inherited (children either inherit the quirk of a parent or a combination of their quirks). If one or both parents have a blood related quirk chances are their kid or kids will too.
  • Himiko is insane. She probably would have been drinking blood anyway.
  • In real life people aren't born crazy. Genetics might make you more vulnerable to mental issues, but they on themsleves can't make someone crazy. It's possible though that the story isn't realistic and Toga was born insane. Alternatively, she wasn't born crazy, but something made her lose her mind. Though it's hard for me to see what kind of event could've made her like blood. Her parents weren't exactly good, but they don't like blood themselves and they weren't abusive towards her until she discovered her quirk.
  • The easiest explanation is that her quirk gave her an instinctive desire for blood, and when she acted on that desire her parents freaked out and declared her a monster. Years of suppressing her quirk is what drove her crazy, until she snapped and flat-out murdered someone. Is it possible that she was destined to be a murderer from the start? Maybe, but there's been no sign that quirks alter someone's personality to that extent. The story has treated her as a girl broken by a flawed system, not some little monster that should have been strangled in the crib. Of course, now she's definitely crazy, and the heroes know they can't just let her run around free because she has a sad backstory.
  • There's no indication they want to harm her though. Most likely they want to catch her and rehabilitate her.
  • At this point, she is a notorious serial killer with a massive body count and willing member of the most infamous gang of villains in the world. She is not going to get a pat on the head and some counseling if she’s caught. The characters aren’t nearly as sympathetic to her as some fans are. A sad backstory doesn’t sweep all this under the rug outside of fanfiction.

Quirk Singularity Theory question

• Part of the theory that said "the Quirks will also become more difficult to control, since the human body doesn't evolve quickly enough to keep up. Eventually, there will come a point when Quirks will become too overpowered and complicated, and no one will be able to control them anymore." which got me confused. Wouldn't the quirks evolve the body so that it can handle the strain of it's power, or at the very least control it slightly?
  • No, because evolution, and apparently Quirks, do not work that way. The Quirks seem to, in some cases, give resistance at least, and even more rarely, immunities or workarounds to certain powers more extreme effects (such as Todoroki and Endeavor being able to use their Quirks period when in real life they'd die immediately, but also having a limit to their use, and Mirio being shot out of something solid if he becomes tangible in it), but they seem to never work like comic-book powers, where pretty much everything about it works in the most effective and badass way possible unless the writer wants it to. As for evolution, it is essentially (this is my best shot at it anyway) random mutations in genes leading to different traits, capabilities, etc. and Quirks are tied in with that. Now, notably, not all Quirks do something impressive or seriously effective (see David Shield or Spinner) so they seem to basically be mutations in humans shaping a certain Quirk in a likely extremely complicated process that, as best This Troper can guess, might involve the entirety of a single person's genetic structure on what it is and how it works for them specifically. The Quirk Singularity theory posits that, since Quirks have been shown to combine and mix, as well as in some ways get stronger (Todoroki being an intentional, but still very good example, or Bakugo for another), and the implication of how unique some people look and how strong they are compared to humans in real life in some cases, like Stain in terms of strength or Koda and Tokoyami for appearance, and it has nothing to do with their Quirk, then it is likely, if not inevitable, that the doomsday scenario it puts forth will happen at some point, that essentially too much of humanity of the future in My Hero Academia will evolve in ways that will no longer balance out, and then, well...Quirks already known are insanely dangerous in a lot of ways, like Shigaraki's Decay, and Eri's Rewind, so you can probably imagine what would happen if, say, Quirks that would kill/destroy surroundings and/or people by touch happened to change so that the person (likely a child) who had it couldn't turn it off, or even if those changed to work like Aizawa's, so whatever you even looked at would be destroyed in some way, and again, could either not turn off at all, or would be not easy to control enough to do it easily. The Theory, in simple terms, is hypothesizing that, since Quirks are beyond normal scope in a lot of ways, and they seem to have no actual guarantee on how they do and do not work, and can be extremely dangerous in some cases, and can mix and grow further, then their might well be a point where humanity simply cannot evolve and adapt enough on a large enough scale for individuals to handle them.
  • Quirks aren't governed by anything, and they in essence are just particularly unusual genetic mutations, and like genetic diseases, can be very, very dangerous. In the case of Quirks, not just to the person who has them either...
  • Eri is the perfect example of what the Quirk Singularity warns of. She’s a little girl who, through a random mutation, gained an ability that could let her uncontrollably erase anyone she touches. Without external help, there would have been no safe way for her to practice her ability enough to get any degree of control over it. Now imagine when she grows up and has a child of her own that inherits this power or merges it with her partner’s. More and more people are being born with Quirks almost this dangerous and will eventually pass them on into the gene pool. This is what the theory fears: unless something changes, there will come a time where a sizable portion of the population have Quirks too powerful to be controlled at all.

Endeavor's Jerkass Realization

• Due to his obsession with becoming the best, his oldest child ended up horribly disfigured and they thought he died and Rei ended up in a psychiatric ward. After many years Endeavor sees his son dealing with small children and now boom, Endeavor wants to change? I used to think maybe after becoming number one hero Endeavor realized it's not worth it, but he only became number one because All Might retired, so Endeavor didn't really become as strong as he wanted to. I don't think it's impossible for Endeavor to have changed, but I for the life of me cannot see a reason as to why he would change so much so sudden.
  • Actually, Endeavor's change is combination of factors and events. It started with him becoming the #1 hero by what was, for all intents and purposes, a twist of fate, meaning that all his hard work and the things he did with his family were worth nothing. The incident with Shoto and the children just rubbed his mistakes on his face again. And then there was his near-death experience with High-End, which sealed the deal. Also consider that some flashbacks and trivia imply that Endeavor was a loving,or at least normal father and husband once. He isn't becoming as much as different person as he is becoming what he was meant to be/once was.
  • According to a later flashback in the manga, Endeavor did care for his wife and children in the early days. It wasn't until Tohya’s “death” that he became embittered and obsessive enough to become the abuser we saw him as in Shoto's backstory. It's possible that being forced into the role of Number One hero and losing any chance of ever officially beating All Might force him to take notice of the aftermath of his sins turning his son into a remorseless killer and realize how far he had fallen from the man he wanted to be.

Eri's treatment while she was with Overhaul

• Overhaul was very abusive towards her, why were some underlings buying her toys and why was her room nice looking? The room was probably nice because it was arranged while her grandfather was still around, but again Overhaul was abusive, so why did he keep the room the way it was or didn't move Eri somewhere else? Some abusers have moments when they treat their victim nicely, because they either actually care about the victim and the abuse is due to emotional problems on the abuser's part, or because they are manipulative and want the victim to think they actually care about them. Overhaul doesn't care about Eri nor does he try to make her think he cares about her.
  • It's part of the tactic. Abusers often present their victims with small acts of kindness at strategic times. This helps wear down the victim’s resistance and encourage Stockholm Syndrome. If Eri doesn't believe there is hope for anything better, then she might grasp onto these hollow gestures out of desperation to have something positive in her life and cooperate fully. If the absolute best she could hope for is to get the occasional toy, then that toy now represents the most positive aspect of life itself in her mind. The manipulation is obvious, but it works because it comes as part of a long process of wearing down a victim and exploits the natural human need for affection and companionship. It's more effective here because Eri is so young that she hasn't known anything but Overhaul's abuse so she didn't have a chance to develop psychological defenses to this sort of thing.

Stain being sent to Tartarus

• Why was Stain sent there? He is a serial killer, but he's not as dangerous as All For One or Moonfish. In fact, as long as Stain is locked and can't get blood he's harmless. Why not send him to a prison that handles less dangerous villains than All For One? Also, given Stain's Black-and-White Insanity he's definitely crazy, why not consider sending him to a psychiatric ward instead?
  • Stain’s Quirk lets him paralyze anyone he can get a scratch on. He’s more than fast and skilled enough to make that scratch happen with anyone short of the highest tier of pro hero. If he were sent to a normal prison, he’d only stay caught for as long as it takes break something into having a sharp edge. Real prisoners are notorious for modifying just about anything into a weapon. With Stain, you have a deranged fanatic with all that, plus paralysis and practically superhuman strength, speed, and agility. He doesn’t need his Quirk to kill. It just made doing so a lot easier. He’s known as the Hero Killer for a very good reason. It makes sense to have someone like him in the most secure prison available. Anything less would result in a massive bodycount. The only reason he got out was that All For One happened to make that prison much, much less secure than anticipated.
  • I agree with most of your points, but are all other prisons besides Tartarus in the My Hero Academia Universe notorious for having sharp edges too? If Stain is kept isolated there is no way he would have access to sharp objects. Unlike All For One, Stain is harmless if he's kept locked in a room without any sharp objects.
  • Just about anything will form a sharp edge if you break it the right way. Including basic utilities that prisons are required to provide by law. If nothing else, he could use his teeth, fingernails, or kick a chunk out of the cell walls to get that first cut going. Even just hitting the target enough to bleed with sheer blunt force trauma will give him the drop of blood he needs for his Quirk. Sending him to Tartarus made sense given that he proved dangerous enough to make a habit of slaughtering pro heroes, putting him at the top of the list of known active villains at the time. It is still foolish to put all the big baddies to one facility, but it did hold them just fine before All For One sent an army of genetically engineered monsters to open it and a number of similar prisons up.
  • All For One was all tied up, they could've done this to Stain without sending him to Tartarus. Also, is there no prison guard with a quirk similar to Kirishima's? Sending such a prison guard would make it impossible for Stain to get blood. Or make the guards wear some sort of armor. I agree that Stain only escaped due to All For One's plan, but it wasn't Stains plan. I don't think Stain could have possibly come up with a good enuough escaping plan if he was kept isolated and tied up.
  • You're overthinking things on the specifics. Tartarus is the most secure prison available in the story and designed to hold the most dangerous people and Quirks around. Stain was public enemy number one during his time in plot, so he was sent there because of his infamy and danger to anyone who doesn't meet his standards. Remember, Stain hates villains only slightly less than he does "false" heroes, so he'd create a bloodbath with guards and fellow inmates if he was sent to any prison not keeping him contained at all costs. It may have been possible to send him somewhere else, but why do that when you have this one facility already designed for criminals like him? Tartarus made perfect sense as a destination for him and simplified the story by avoiding detailing multiple prisons that serve basically the same narrative purpose. Not that it would matter much in the plot as of now: All For One had both his bodies strike every major villain prison he could get to, so Stain would have ended up escaping no matter where he was sent.

Prevention of the Quirk Singularity

• How exactly do you stop something like that from happening, like is there anyway at all to prevent it from occurring?
  • A couple possibilities would be finding a way to know what Quirk a child has the moment they are born, then taking it away or suppressing it somehow (possiblity for all Quirks, or just dangerous ones), or using gene manipulation to do something similar and prevent dangerous Quirks from developing at all. Of course, that would require large amounts of surveillance and consent from the entire population of the planet, as any child born with a mutant Quirk that's dangerous would after that be a huge risk, so it would likely not be at all easy to achieve. With that said, barring some other possibility regarding some sort of unique Quirk in the future, or science in that universe managing the above ideas or some other solution fast enough to keep up with the development of Quirks, then no, there would not be. Possible, but not very plausible that humanity could actually do enough in time to stop or control it, as every generation gets humanity closer and closer, if not every single birth of a human on the planet.
  • The whole point of the issue is that in-story no one knows how to address such a thing, let alone make a solution for it. Garaki began his career as a villain because he saw it coming and couldn't convince anyone it was serious enough to take the sort of drastic action he wanted. That's why he began his morally bankrupt experimentation with the Nomu and, eventually, Shigaraki: he wanted to create a human body powerful enough to handle any potential Quirk. Nobody else yet introduced has even acknowledged his theory as a real possibility, let alone taken steps to counteract it. When such a character is inevitably introduced, finding a less depraved; more practical soliton will become goal. It'll probably become important to the plot nearer to the end of the series because it is such a fundamental issue with the setting as a whole.

Eraser Head's elbow

• All the way back to the USJ attack, Shigaraki managed to touch Eraser Head's elbow, which started to crumble. Is there a reason why he didn't die there and then? Every other time Shigaraki attacked like that the results were lethal unless the victim chopped their limb off: once decay starts it can't be stopped, so even if Eraser Head used his powers, they would work on the cause, not the effect itself...
  • And yet that does seem to be the only answer. Besides, the way I look at it, Eraser would be smart to avoid revealing that his powers are a lot stronger than advertised as that would keep his enemies off-balance.
  • The implications of what little we see of Decay in its restricted stage, such as during the USJ attack, is that Shigaraki's Decay is extremely slow at that point, when it comes to spread, and was more susceptible to the problem of "the decay breaking apart what it touches so it can't spread further than a certain point" problem that Shigaraki has since overcome. According to the wiki, Aizawa did Erase Decay when he broke away from Shigaraki, which is what saved him. What this Troper surmises from what we know of Decay is that it was a combination of the above two, coupled with the possibility that since Shigaraki's Quirk is far more controllable than it originally appeared (such as Tomura being able to choose what he does and doesn't destroy), that also might come with the drawback of the Decay stopping even when spreading independently, when the Quirk it originates from is Erased, since Shigaraki's own intent is tied to it, so with him temporarily cut off from the Quirk, the spreading Decay is stopped, or at least can be, as well when whatever indirect connection to Tomura is shut off with it.

Toga's parents and their reaction to her

• Quirks are generally passed down directly from the parents, so it seems odd that Toga's parents were so strongly repulsed by her Blood Lust tendencies and unprepared to deal with her; shouldn't one or both of them also have a taboo, blood related quirk that would've helped them deal with their daughter a bit better? Maybe they're just awful parents sure, but unless her quirk was a mutation a la Eri and Shigaraki, it seems like they really shouldn't have been so shocked by her natural impulses.
  • While most Quirks are combinations of the parents' Quirks, how exactly the Quirks are combined and how strong each one is in the mixture apparently varies. For example, Dabi is said to have stronger fire than Endeavor (and no control over ice, but is implied to have inherited Rei's Required Secondary Powers), Fuyumi apparently has weaker ice than Rei (and no fire), and Shoto seems to have an even mixture that's literally just both Quirks at once. The Quirk Singularity theory also implies that Quirks are getting stronger in general (although this could be for another reason, e.g. mutations getting more frequent). So whichever of Toga's parents had a blood-related Quirk, if either of them had one at all, might have had a very weakened or negligible compulsion to drink blood, or the compulsion part might have come from the other parent's Quirk. It also isn't really clear how the Personality Powers work to begin with.

How quirk Racism works

• It's been mentioned that there was racism against people with mutant type quirks when they first showed up. That I completely get, even the fact that there is still some in the story's present. But how does it work still confuses me. I read on here that Shoji, Spinner, and Tsuyu didn't have easy lives due to the prejudice. Shoji and Spinner I can get, but Tsu is the one that confuses me cause, aside from her frog like face, she looks perfectly human. So does the racism have to do with the apperence of the person or the quirk type they have? Cause people like Ojiro and Jirou have Mutant Quirks but they still look like normal humans, so would they have to deal with the prejudice as well? And what about people like Koji, Tokoyami, and Mina, all three have non-human apperences yet have Non-Mutant quirks, so would they be safe, Or would they have to deal with it as well?
  • Well, like in the real world, people who are lighter skinned or white passing recive less discrimination and the oppsite is true as well. It's probably because Tsuyu looks different to the average human, and it's mostly about how they look, rather than how their quirk works. No one's going to come up to Tokoyami and ask them if his quirk is a mutant type before they discriminate against him. At least, that's what this troper thinks.
  • If bigots can find a way to discriminate based on black skin or different shaped eyes, then they will find a way to discriminate based on having a long tongue and a big mouth. Racism does not follow logical rules. Being a girl in a world obsessed by what girls look like also doesn't help I suspect.
  • It also depends on the region and how lucky and unlucky someone is when getting to know people.

Could Eri or Overhaul have saved All Might?

• Taking into account just how incredible their healing powers are, if they had met All Might at any point before he gave his hair to Deku, could they have saved the Symbol of Peace? And if they could, does this not open the possibility that there are other healers out there who also could have saved him? If so, kind of seems as if All Might and company really should have tried harder to find someone given how he had five years to track someone down.
  • As of now, we know of three people with healing Quirks. The series implies that Quirks that can heal others are very rare because restoring a living thing without killing it is very complex and delicate work. Of the three we know can do it and be trusted with All Might's secret, Recovery Girl only bolsters natural recovery, so regrowing lost organs is out. The other two only heal as a byproduct of their real function. All Might received his injuries six years before we learned of either of these two, meaning one hadn't been born yet and the other was already a hardened gangster that would much sooner use his Quirk to kill All Might than heal him. Eri is a small child who barely has enough control over her Quirk to not kill a target and requires significant time to recharge after using a large amount of power. There may just not have been anyone with the right power, enough control, and worthy of enough trust to have repaired All Might's injuries. As for taking a regeneration Quirk in, that wouldn’t do any good. All For One showed that even a Super Regeneration Quirk can't undo damage that had time to scar over as All Might's injuries did. So there just wasn't anyone that could or would give him what he needed at the time.
  • There's no doubt that All Might looked as hard as he could for a healer at the time, but just didn't have the time or desire to risk the extended search it would take to fully restore him. Even if he did miraculously find one and convince them to be perfectly discrete, it would only delay the inevitable. All Might was pushing his 50s at the time. He knew that no matter what he did, he was out of his prime and just couldn't keep up the fight for too much longer. He had to accept that his career as the Symbol of Peace was going to end soon no matter what he did. Denying it would just lead to him eventually getting killed in battle and taking One For All with him. So instead of wasting years out of his, at max, decade or so left being physically able to fight, he decided to focus on finding and grooming a successor. Ensuring One For All would go into qualified young hands and continue protecting the world was more important to him than stretching out his glory days a bit longer.

OFA and its deadly drawbacks for quirk users?

• Chapter 304 elaborated on how One For All is powerful but also dangerous to quirk-users as it burns away their life force. It broke Hikage Shinomori's (The Fourth's) body in his final year of his life. Not even battling against a foe mind you, just training. Though the casual relationship between OFA being inherited and adapting with user's quirks and the quirk-less is still unknown so it raises a lot of questions.
  • OFA represents in spite of this, a beacon of hope for the world. It will always be needed. Midoriya is immune to Rapid Aging, but he's not immortal. He isn't just going to allow the Super-Quirk, one of the seven great mysteries of the world, to die out or allow the spirits of the quirk for all their sacrifices to simply perish along with it when he's elderly, reaching the end of his natural lifespan.
  • He'd have to pass it on sooner or later, OFA is all about Passing the Torch, but who would make a suitable candidate now that the best candidates - the quirkless, are becoming rarer with every generation? Ultimately All-Might's reason for choosing Deku was his virtue of Rule of Empathy i.e. a true Hero is all about the spirit of self-sacrifice in order to save others. Deku may have no choice but to pass OFA onto a quirk-user someday knowing the inherent risks of doing so. While there's no doubt it would destroy someone like Shoto Todoroki, but quirks are like people, complex and diverse - so would this be necessarily be certain death or can it be averted somehow?
  • If Deku instructed his successor to pass it on after several years (consequently leaving them quirkless and ending their career prematurely), would that save them from death? This raises its own complications in the mentor finding protégé so quickly.
  • What about people who have cosmetic quirks only? For example, a user with an animal's appearance. It gives them no power or advantage in life, its purely aesthetic - would these now be the ideal alternative apprentices as the quirkless are disappearing fast? Would Deku seek out the powerless instead? Say a cute bunny girl adored and admired the hero and wanted to be just like him, would that destroy her or not after 20 years if she were to recieve OFA?
  • If OFA was inherited by someone who had an immortality quirk, what would that do to their lifespan? Would we still get the same scenario as with Hikage Shinomori? Or just reduce them to having a normal span of 70-100 years like most people? Rendering the drawback moot somewhat.
  • There are people with Wolverine level healing quirks out there. Find that person and then not only will he be saved but every user who can access the previous OFA abilities will be saved as well. At worst, I can imagine a scenario like is mentioned above where it will shorten their lifespan to something more akin to an ordinary human. Lets be honest, the problem we have here is the diverse nature of the MHA universe. This plot may have worked quite well in a universe with different power sets. As it is, there is a very easy get-out clause that the author can invoke should he wish to write a sequel to this Manga one day.
  • As was stated in the original question, we don't know the full nature of One For All, and according to that very set of chapters that revealed, those who are part of the Quirk have just figured this out (and based only on one example out of seven so far), so we are left with speculation for the moment. Now, the interpretation that seems to be what the general fandom is going with is that it means anyone with a Quirk of any kind undergo rapid loss of life, as so far Quirks have not been shown to ultimately have different rules when it gets right down to it. All Quirks, from Eri's Rewind to Tsuyu's Frog, are all essentially the same in terms of how they exist within each person, hence why Aizawa's Erasure Quirk can work on all of them. If the side-effect of One For All is the same, then Izuku is genuinely going to have to simply let the Quirk die with him, or find some alternate solution that doesn't involve the standard "passing the torch" situation. Of course, Horikoshi could have there be a new revelation/solution down the line of either Izuku actually finding people who are Quirkless, using some sort of new Quirk to alter One For All to negate that drawback, learn more about One For All that provides a workaround, and the list goes on and on. Essentially, my point is that we've only just started down the road this new reveal had led, so we will hopefully get more to go on with time.

Does Bakugou Stink?

• Considering his Quirk is sweat based you'd think he'd smell awful.
  • Three things occur to me: 1) Bakugo certainly wouldn't care. 2) I suspect he cannot smell that bad as I find it likely the girls would have brought it up once they moved into communal dorms as they are all very outspoken. Perhaps not to his face but certainly in such a way that we the reader knew. 3) That said, I imagine that the humans of the MHA universe are probably used to odd Quirk-related smells in the same way that no one comments on Tokoyomi's head. They may be nose-blind to such things.
  • Adding to this, since his Quirk is based on his mums, maybe he smells nice too.
• I would imagine he doesn't stink, since he doesn't perspire the same substance that normal humans do (and BO is the byproduct of bacteria feeding on sweat on the skin). Plus his sweat combusts, so there wouldn't be any of it left to make a stink. If anything, he probably has more of a smokey aroma. Like barbecue...Barbaku-Go. ;-)
• He sweats nitroglycerin, which smells like caramel. So quite the opposite of stinky, most likely.
• Let me say this as a Korean, most people from East Asia lacks the gene that is responsible for body odor. Yes, that's an actual thing and to my knowledge, a very, very, VERY small percentage of East Asians have this gene, which is why deodorant isn't a common good sold there. So tl;dr, most likely not.

Does any hero try to change the system?

• I am not expecting people to reach a perfect system, and consiering superheroes are busy fighting villains, just because the system is flawed it doesn't make villany acceptable after all. But There are so many instances of people turning into villains because of the system and rightfully pointing the flaws out. Did any of the superheroes try anything to change the system because of that and stayed heroes? Maybe ask for help or ask someone else to take care of it entirely. As stated, I am not expecting anyone to achieve a perfect system, I am just unsure if any hero who didn't turn into a villain is still trying to change the system and isn't just fighting villains.
  • Reforming the very basis of society is far more difficult than fighting villains. Remember, most heroes are just as ignorant of the shadier side of the Hero Commission as any random civilian. Most are brought up to see heroism as either just a career path or honestly believe in the idealistic image it presents. This is a world where superheroes and supervillains battle in public on a daily basis. Many people either have been saved or at least know someone who has been saved by a hero at least once. For the most part, the heroes are genuinely benevolent, if flawed, and are looked up to because of that. Out of the people who do know of the darker side of hero work, they see how depraved villains can be and can rationalize the idea of being used as hired guns to a point to counter it. Let's not pretend that the government of any given real world country doesn't engage in a dozen atrocities before breakfast in the name of "peacekeeping". Heroes pushed too far in the business of doing HC wetwork can easily be relabeled villains at any time and will be taken down before they can give up the dirty little secrets they know.
  • Even ignoring the general ignorance and societal programming, bringing reforms is never simple and always opposed by those who benefit from the current system. A hero can't just punch out offending actors in government both because there are far too many and because their only legal protections come from the very hero system itself. Any violence (don't kid yourself, hero work is mostly violence) against a government official will result in immediate reclassification as a villain and incarceration. Possibly even assassination. Heroes aren't politicians. They deal with problems directly and this is a problem that just doesn't have a direct solution. To reform a system, the hero would have to start up a full political movement and slowly gain a following that can win enough elections to rise to a point where the laws can be rewritten. This is a long, complicated, and usually very boring process with no guarantee to show any results even over decades. Especially since there are so many monied interests (heroism has always had a very profitable corporate element in this series) in preventing change to hero society. This is complicated even more by the fact that villains are very much active and making city-destroying plays all the time. Even All Might in his prime could barely keep up with them and have time to sleep. This means that there is no chance of doing anything meaningful politically and keeping up a hero career, so they would basically have to become full time politicians in flashy costumes. All of this political drama could make an interesting story, but it wouldn't be the sort of one fitting here. Unless Deku unlocks some hidden legal argument Quirk in One For All, we are unlikely to see this process in any meaningful detail in this shonen battle manga. At least not until All For One is dealt with permanently.
    • Well, they might not manage to change the system for the reasons mentioned above, but I really think Deku might be unsatisfied with it. Maybe they will manage a few small changes or raise awareness somehow. Better than nothing. Plus, as All Might himself stated, even if they get rid of All For One another Big Bad might arise.
  • Do you remember that scene in The Matrix with the lady in the red dress? It is honestly one of the most important lessons that anyone can ever learn: there are those who are so beholden to the system, so hopelessly dependent on it, that they will fight and die to protect it. It doesn't matter what the flaws with that system are, or even if those flaws are ultimately just as harmful to them in the long run as they are to everyone else, they will resist change. Its just a sad fact of life. Many social issues that we pat ourselves on the back for making progress in today have actually been battles that go back generations, its just that those heroes were not written into the history books.

Mineta having such a hatedom

• I am not to big of a fan of Mineta myself, though I don't outright hate him. That said I don't see why so many people see him as such a hatetable character. There are many other perveted characters from anime who aren't hated nearly as much. Some like Sanji from "One Piece" and Meliodas from "The Seven Deadly Sins" are even generally regarded as good. I can see why those characters are liked more than Mineta, but he is considered by so many one of the most annoying characters (at least from anime) and I don't see why. The perverted jokes with him are few and far between when it comes to the overall story and he always gets his comeuppance. Besides his preverted tendencies he's not really a jerk. He doesn't mean to hurt anyone (at least not unprovoked) and can be even friendly, unlike Bakugou, who isn't a pervert, but is rude and inconsiderate. For example, Mineta was never mean to Deku, admired him and was supportive of him, unlike Bakugou. Mineta has also some other redeeming qualities. Many complain there isn't enough focus on them and while I agree on that, I also don't think he deserves that much hate.
  • Perhaps it is the fact that Mineta's whole characterization revolves around him being a pervert, at least at the first seasons which gives the audience a very stark and unfavorable first impression. There is hardly any of his appearences that don't include him coping a feel, peeping, stalking or just being generally horny in a very, very creepy way. It goes well beyond any other "perverted character" in anime, too, because he seems unable to conceive his female classmates (or even teachers and pro heroes) as sexy things to drool over. He's supposed to be comic relief, but he comes a sexual predator in the making.
  • If we compare Mineta to Master Roshi from Dragonball or Jiraiya from Naruto (who are both fan favourites), you really do start to see the flaws here. Because whilst they were both peeping toms, I do not remember them ever escalating that to sexual assault, which is exactly what Mineta did when he grabbed one of Tsuyu's boobs. Not to mention the fact that Roshi and Jiraiya are certified badasses who would immediately die for their friends should they need to - whereas Mineta frequently skirts the line between The Load and The Millstone. He can be useful, just as a pair of sunglasses with one arm can be useful, but he is hardly someone that you would actively pick to have your back. Incidentally, regarding Sanji, his respect for women comes across in everything that he does even if his actions do occasionally get a bit creepy. I think he would flatten Mineta for what he did to Tsuyu to be honest.
    • Your point about Mineta being rather useless compared to your examples rings true as far as I can tell, but you really need to rewatch the original Dragon Ball and Z. In the Saiyan Saga, right after Yamcha dies and Roshi comforts Bulma, he takese the opportunity to grope her ass, and has had to be restrained from groping her and other characters, and done so successfully many times (and gets walloped for it). I, personally, find both Mineta's more ridiculous moments funny, as I do Roshi's, but they both are equally an example of "Dudes, boundaries " or however else to put it that they aren't respectful. It seems to me that Mineta is just viewed more negatively due to cultural situation, and not being as admirable or pleasant outside of his perversion. Which to me, and from what I've read and seen, is the point of his existence, as an example of shallow heroes, or soon-to-be in this case, but all of that makes me understand it, even if like the OP, I don't share the sentiment. Another example of a pervert who both goes up to assault (constantly), but is a more badass character than Mineta, is Miroku from Inuyasha, though he does have more standards than Mineta shows.
  • Also I think a lot of the hate comes from the fact that Mineta is really unattractive. That makes his perverted nature seem more pathetic and repulsive compared to someone like Miroku from the Inuyasha series, who is for the most part charming and good looking. It's kind of funny Miroku is a perv because that aspect is not only immoral, but also self-defeating, because he'd certainly have a much easier time getting women if he just acted normally. With Mineta you get the impression that he'd never get a woman to like him under any circumstance, so his perverted and outright criminal acts are done because it's the only way he ever gets close to them, which makes him a lot easier to hate.
  • Also, when a guy whose only personality trait is "likes to sexually assault people" wants to go into a line of work where he'll regularly be in a position of authority over others, that raises all kinds of red flags. He's already shown taking advantage of both real emergencies (like the USJ attack) and training exercises (like the battle where he first showed off his "grape buckler" special move) to grope his female classmates, so imagine how he would treat a civilian in a similar situation.

Nana Shimura's "Great Mistake"

• It seems that whenever someone discusses Nana Shimura’s decision to give up her son Kotaro, it’s always described as a “mistake,” and that her grandson Tenko’s corruption at the hands of AFO was to some degree a result of that mistake. But is that a fair assessment in context? We hear that Nana’s husband was murdered, which was the impetus for her giving Kotaro up for adoption. I’ve always read the implication that at that point AFO had discovered Nana as the latest bearer of OFA, and was killing off her loved ones just for the twisted pleasure, meaning her son was indeed in danger. Aside from that, Nana’s letter she wrote to Kotaro implies that she expected to die soon herself, so she would have had to take some steps to protect her son. Letting Torino or Toshinori look after Kotaro would still put him in AFO’s sights, even after her own death, so giving him up for adoption/foster care seems like the safest, if most heartbreaking option. If there is anyone else to blame for young Tenko’s corruption (aside from AFO of course), it would be Kotaro himself. Yes, as a child Kotaro wouldn’t understand his mother’s reasons for giving him up and grow bitter and angry at her and heroes in general (similarly to Kota). But I’m sorry, when we see him next he is a grown-ass adult who should have gained some understanding or insight into the circumstances of his childhood. Even if he still hates his mother, there’s no excuse for letting his mommy issues lead to abuse of his own family, which only ended up making the young Tenko more susceptible to AFO's manipulations. This is made even more damning by the fact that Kotoro still has his mother’s letter, where she explains at least some of her reasoning why she gave him up (ie: he knows she didn’t hate him or “abandon” him). Given Nana’s situation, I can’t see her doing anything other than what she did, even though AFO’s inexhaustible cruelty made her sacrifice in vain.
  • This might be just me, and I will freely admit I haven't directly read the manga yet, but I see it more as people (in-universe, the narrative, etc.) are saying it's Nana's mistake in the simple sense that it didn't work out. Tomura at least I know blames Nana directly, but others seem to speak of it as just "Nana had the best of intentions, but it backfired horribly". You make a good point Nana didn't have many options other than foster care, and she did what she could, so it definitely isn't her fault in any "lay the blame" sense, at least not to any meaningful extent by most standards. That said, part of the "she's to blame" point, might come from a more broad sense then just her own personal situation. If she hadn't left Kotaro in foster care, even if that meant getting him killed eventually, then Tomura wouldn't have even existed, or if he did had Kotaro survived, he probably wouldn't have resented heroes enough to make Tomura so moldable, so the current suffering and death tied to Tomura specifically, and his part in All For One's plan, can be partially laid at Nana's feet by that metric. It's a cold and very detached way to see it, but that's the attitude that appears to be held when that point is brought up. That, and it's possibly based a bit on a "what-if" sort of thinking, that the current events trace back to how Tomura was raised, and Nana's choice was, even if Kotaro's own choices are more to blame, a part of that nonetheless. It's essentially the idea that Nana's actions are a part of how things unfolded, and we have no idea how they might have gone no matter how likely one speculative idea is or not (like Kotaro dying) had Nana done something different, so the blame in this sense is more that Nana's decision is a part of what has occurred, for better or worse, and that is a fact. It's not entirely a flat condemnation, or at least it might not be meant that way in an overarching sense, though Tomura certainly does see it that way. Those are just my thoughts, since again, I haven't read the exact wording and context of every mention of that idea, and it is a very complicated thing in general. Hope that helps. If someone more informed has something more concrete, please speak up.

Was the Symbol of Peace a mistake?

• No disrespect intended to All Might, he is clearly a hero through and through and made many people's lives happy. But given the immediate fallout after his retirement however, wouldn't Japan have been better off without him? Because what ultimately happened under his reign was that hero society became bloated and lazy, too reliant on one man to do the heavy lifting, too reliant on hero rankings in the hope of taking his place, too reliant on selling merchandise and taking magazine shoots. If All Might had set up a Justice League of sorts that could have immediately taken up the slack in the wake of his injuries, we may not have seen any of the rise in crime that we did. And really, it should not have come as a suprise that the golden age of peace was artificial. All Might retired early yes, but he was aging. It really does seem to me that the majority of the problems faced in the latter half of the show is due to All Might's negligence in future proofing society and the laziness that he had bred among the people.
  • All Might spent his career handling the things nobody else could. He was the first one to ever give All For One and his organization that ruled the underworld for over a century a real defeat. That others didn't rise to meet him isn't his fault. Sure, keeping his injuries hidden wasn't the best idea, but far as he knew, All For One was dead and the world was going towards relative peace. Announcing he was weakened and close to retirement/death would only accelerate the coming rise of villains. Not to mention make others covet his Quick before he could find the right successor. So he prepared to find and train a successor who wouldn't have to face the level of horror he did in his youth and while helping to teach a new generation to be the best heroes they possibly could be as part of UA's staff. It's not like he left society helpless. There were more heroes than ever active. Many of which were in game for the right reasons. Unfortunately, they proved to be unequipped for the legion of near unstoppable monsters AFO and Garaki produced, but those were yet another element that nobody could have predicted. From all indications, the process to create nomus was only perfected shortly before the story, long after the final battle between All Might and All For One. Bottom line, All Might did more than what anyone could have expected from him. It just wasn't enough to deal with situations that neither he nor anyone else could have seen coming. All For One was more dangerous and crafty than anyone realized.

Twice's identity crisis

• In the penultimate episode of Season 3, A Season for Encounters, Twice's voiceover talks about how he created clones of himself that started to fight and kill each other, all of them insisting they were the original and none of them being quite sure. He states they all killed each other in the end and he's still not sure if he's a duplicate or the original. But in the Training Camp Arc, we saw that his clones turn to mud or slime when they're destroyed, so if he was merely a duplicate and the original Twice had been killed, wouldn't there be a body that didn't turn to mud? I get that he's got clear mental health issues, but you'd think there'd be physical evidence to at least prove to him he's the original.
  • It's theoretically possible for the "original" to have run away, leaving behind one of the copies. Besides, when he's got a combination of schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, it's gonna mess with his logic quite a bit. Either way, he eventually figured this out when he himself never turned into mud when he got injured.

The idiocy of the populace

• The populace spend all their lives glorifying and worshipping the pavement where the "heroes" walk on like celebrities. But when the "heroes" failed, they start turning against them. Do they not realize that if they just toss away their heroes, they would be still the target of the villains?
  • Who Watches the Watchmen? That's what this comes down to at the end of the day. The thing is, we the viewer have an advantage over the people who live in this world. We can see everything as a meta-whole via the fourth wall which allows us to take in the majority of the bigger picture. But for them, yes, they enjoy the UA sports festival and they see All Might and Captain Celebrity stopping disasters and hugging babies. And they also see Bakugo being chained to a post on live TV because he cannot control his temper, Endeavour walking around covered in flames knocking autograph books away, and Mt. Lady who frequently ends up costing the city millions of Yen because she keeps on flattening buildings Godzilla-style. If you lived in this world, if it was your shop or house flattened by Mt. Lady, if it was you who was running when Endeavour sent a wall of flame down your street to stop someone, you too would wonder who the heroes and villains actually are. And it doesn't help that this is a world that has decided upon raising what are essentially child soldiers - which really came back to bite everyone on the ass when UA started to come under constant attack. Parents tend to take photographs of injured children seriously.
  • Adding to the above, human adoration is fickle and tempestuous. Look at how people react even today with celebrities. When, say, a star player is on your team, they're an idol, the greatest of the greats, etc. But then they leave your team, and people turn against them, spewing hate and vitriol, burning merchandise, wishing ills on them, and so on. Once someone is no longer benefitting you and yours (heroes no longer beating back the bad guys to keep a perceived peace), people turn on them, even if their reasons are faulty. In this case, people are lashing out on the misconception that without heroes, there wouldn't be villains, and thus now that the heroes aren't winning, they're the root of the problem.

Lady Nagant's backstory

• So Lady Nagant went to prison for killing the president of the Safety Commission, and the Safety Commission covered it up by saying that she killed a fellow hero in an argument. That's a bit of a vague cover story, though. Did no one wonder exactly who she killed? Even if the commission refused to answer, wouldn't someone have noticed that no heroes have suddenly died or went missing with no explantion, especially in a society that treats heroes as celebrities?
  • I think that kinda underlines the point about how complacent and unreactive the current society has become since the advent of superheroes. Nobody put forward to helping hand to young tenko when he needed it most, and nobody bothered to ask the dangerous questions about natant's circumstances. They just went with the flow and did what society expected of them, because there was less personal risk to themselves that way.
  • Hero work is a dangerous profession. Perhaps the Safety Commission used a recent hero death to frame Nagant.

How did Toya survive burning alive?

• Toya apparently went from burning to death in the woods to being debateably fine, or at least alive. How did he just walk away from that? Who took care of him while he was initially healing? And whose jawbone did they find?
  • As of now it's not clear, perhaps deliberately ambiguous. The simple answer would be that Toya was rescued by...whoever (likely an concerned onlooker or an authority figure), taken to an hospital as a John Doe ( not unlikely given that 50+ % of his body is burn scars) and recovered there. As for the jawbone...you got me there.

Katsuki using his quirk against Izuku in Chapter 1

• Given how later arcs make a big deal about how strict Quirk usage laws are in Japan, such as during the Stain Arc, wouldn't someone at their Middle School step in and punish him or at least call him out for essentially using Explosion to intimidate Izuku? I get that Japan has a vastly different view on bullying and how to handle it but it's bizarre in retrospect.
  • Bakugo was definitely bullying Izuku, but he technically never used his Quirk against him. He did scorch his notebook and did get physical, but he never directly struck him or even put an explosion close to making contact. When he did scorch the notebook, we can see that it was nowhere near his real power since the book survived. Combine that with his youth and the obvious favoritism and you can see how he manged to get by without doing enough to force discipline from the instructors.
    • I might be misinterpreting what Hori said on them, but it would still be considered illegal if we take Japan's quirk regulations into consideration, since he doesn't have a license and it wasn't under self-defense.

Aoyama in the final exam

• Why didn't Aoyama fail the final exam? Aizawa points out that he and Uraraka passed by the skin of their teeth, but it's shown that if a partner doesn't contribute enough, they can still fail, like Sero did after Midnight sedated him. Since Aoyama didn't appear to contribute much to the exam and Uraraka was mainly responsible for taking Thirteen down (most other victories wouldn't have been possible without both participants working together), he probably should have failed on the same grounds as Sero.
  • We only see the last part of Uraraka and Aoyama's test, after they've already been pinned down by Thirteen. Presumably, he could've been more helpful before. Also, Uraraka "attacked" Thirteen, which won them the test, after talking to Aoyama, so perhaps Aizawa and the other teachers thought they were planning it together.

Questions about Deaths of the Shimura Family

• How is it that in the aftermath of young Tenko killing his family and destroying his house, a.) Tenko was able to just walk away and b.) AFO was able to dig through the scene for the victims' hands? Were there not any poilce or heroes in the vicinity that were alerted by the house collapsing and immediately went to investigate, and even so did none of the neighbors rush over to see what happened or even call the authorities^note more likely the latter given society's dependency on heroes? How were neither of these events witnessed by anyone?
  • Possibly Rule of Drama. But there may be some actual explanations: It's likely Tenko simply ran away/wandered off immediately after the incident, which is possible since he was a small child in a mental breakdown. Or maybe he was under some sort of authority figure or service for a while after killing his family but somehow, easy to think due to the Crapsack World, ended in the streets. Last but not the least, is possible that All For One was acting somehow to make sure everything ended the way it did. As for how AFO got the hands all he would need to do was getting to watever authority was investigating and bribe them/blackmail them into giving them to him.
  • As of chapter 350 it is definitely implied that AFO had a hand in the whole event being hush-hush. Gakurai reveals that he and AFO were on the lookout for 'warped, twisted seeds' suitable to serve as his 'next me' and had actually collected enough potential candidates to form a small Orphanage of Love. It's not shown, but is is greatly implied AFO has an extensive information network in place to locate and monitor these children so he can step in and take advantage of their misfortunes to twist them to his will, possibly even giving said misfortunes a 'nudge' as the case may be. Toya's self-immolation was an honest accident, and not the intended outcome from the duo's POV, but nonetheless, before even Endeavour himself made it to the scene, AFO was already on the mountaintop and aware of where to find Toya's horribly-charred body. Gakurai outright says that he remembers Toya's case in part simply because he was already too twisted up by Endevour's crappy parenting to serve their purpose, implicitly implying that all those kids were 'rescued' by AFO in a similar manner to Toya and Tenko, at their darkest hour of need so he could appear as a saviour and bolster their loyalty that way. In such cases, AFO must have had some way to silence or obscure any information that could lead to the kid's whereabout and his plans for him, considering how important they were for his long term goals so it makes sense for him to stifle any clues that might alert the heroes to this particular one of his myriad evil plans.
• After the fight with between All Might and AFO, All Might and Gran Torino mention that they didn't keep track of Nana Shimura's son after she told them to not get him involved in heroes. This implies neither of them were aware that said son has been dead for about fifteen years. Was the incident never reported on the news? Something like, "Shimura Family found dead in the wreckage of their home!" or something like that. It feels weird that neither of them had ever caught wind of this incident in some way.
  • You answered your own question. They didn't keep track of him, period. The world of MHA is a pretty dangerous place and Shimura is a pretty common name. Even if they saw the news, assuming that the incident reached the news (remember Crapsack World and AFO's manipulations),they may simply not have made the connection.
  • One of Nana's last requests to the two of them was to not get involved with her son's life. She assumed that All For One would be more interested in One For All itself and not target her family if she cut ties with them. Unfortunately, she greatly underestimated AFO's willingness to play dirty and the negative impact leaving would have on her son.

Shigaraki can wear full gloves without decaying them?

• A flashback to Shigaraki as a kid shortly after his quirk awakened and All For One took him on as an apprentice shows him wearing gloves. Not artist gloves or those type of gloves that expose some of the fingers, but regular gloves that cover all fingers. Since his quirk can decay anything he touches with all five fingers, shouldn't he be incapable of wearing full gloves due to how wearing them means touching them with all his fingers?
  • His Quirk (at least in the early stages) decays whatever he's touching with all of his fingers, and by that it means he has to be touching the same unbroken surface or object with all five of his fingers at once, whereas if he touches, say, three of his fingers on a wall, while his pinky and thumb are on the ground, neither of those will decay since he isn't touching either surface or object with all five fingers. Gloves, due to how they cover each finger seperately, would be immune to decaying since they essentially create small seperate surfaces that each finger is individually touching, and by extension, since he isn't making direct contact with anything while wearing gloves, he can't decay anything until he takes them off. With his Quirk much more flexible now, it's likely this is not the case anymore, but in Decay's less controlled stages, gloves wouldn't trigger it. Another example is that if Tomura were touching someone's neck with four of his fingers, but his thumb were on their shirt, that wouldn't trigger his Quirk either. His Quirk needs a "clear path" of sorts to spread out and decay an object that is in contact with all five of his fingers, with as little distance as possible and no obstruction, and in a sense, the parts he's touching have to be "level" with each other and "fully connected", rather than separated by their shape, like the finger-parts of gloves are.

Is/was All Might bulletproof?

• I mean, considering just how powerful he was, namely at his prime (and even in his weakened state he can still take a small explosion to the face without flinching), It's hard to belief if guns can even make a dent on him, but I don't remember it being shown anywhere.
  • Izuku eventually learned how to use One For All to protect his body. Since All Might was a genius with OFA, we can assume he figured it out a long time ago and that's part of the reason he was to invincible.

Does One For All absorb Quirks of its past users or copy them?

• In the grant scheme it doesn't matter much, as all of the users who had Quirks died or were killed very soon after passing All For One on to the next bearer, but all of their Quirks were assimilated into the core Quirk over the years for Izuku to eventually be able to access. The question being, did the actual Quirk factors merge with One For All to be passed along - in that when they passed on One For All, they were essentially left Quirkless? Or did One For All simply adapt the Quirk factors independently and the bearers kept their Quirks for the brief remainder of their lives?
  • On a similar note, if it is the former explanation, did the embers of One for All that remained allow the previous bearers to use their original Quirks until the embers guttered out?
    • The answer to the first is: there's no way to know. OFA users usually died violent deaths before it became an issue. 4th literally wore himself out cultivating the power, dying quickly afterward. All Might didn't have a quirk himself, and Izuku likely won't have a successor. Unless there's a sequel series that explores these questions we simply don't have enough data. The answer to the second question is: Most likely. See the point about violent deaths. They went out in a blaze of glory, most likely getting a gut feeling that they'd pushed their luck too far and passing OFA along to a friend before providing a distraction. Nezu makes a point during the entrance exam that the most successful heroes use power, tactics, and information gathering in order to maximize their potential. The OFA heroes, while fighting against The Personification of Evil in their world, would have done this by necessity.

Clone Blood transfusions

• Since Twice gave Toga a blood transfusion from her own clone, shouldn't that mean that when the clone turns back into mud, Toga will suddenly have mud in her bloodstream?
  • Evidently not, seeing as she survived. Most likely the cloned blood stabilized once it was in her system. Twice was clearly distressed at the time and just throwing it at the wall to see if it would stick. Obviously it did, continuing the theme of quirks being something that can take a lifetime to truly master.

Growth of One For All

• It has been well-established that the power stockpiling Quirk that merged with Yoichi's Quirk that could be passed along has been growing over time. It is often described as growing stronger with each time it is passed down, but has also been described as being cultivated. So is it use of the Quirk and its power - the cultivation of the stockpile — the only thing that causes it to slowly grow and it's grown so powerful only because it has been in use for so long? Or does the act of actually passing it to someone else cause a jump in its strength, too?
  • Given that All for One deemed it a useless Quirk, it's very likely the stockpiled strength only becomes available when passed down to another person. Since the first stockpiling Quirk couldn't do that, then it just stores up strength with no payoff. This is tied to the "cultivating it" thing — by training one's body, one stores up more strength than if one led a sedentary life. That way, the next successor has a lot more power available. However, that first user cannot fuel the Quirk with their own strength — at least, not for themselves. All Might spent his entire career cultivating One for All but he didn't get progressively stronger, he could only use what was stockpiled up until Nana and focused on mastering it. There's no immediate feedback, so to speak. By contrast, Midoriya has access to both the already-stockpiled power plus what All Might cultivated.
• The original power stockpiling Quirk is very vague. Is there any particular reason why it can't store "brain power" too? Cognitive prowess is as much biology-based as physical strength — just with neuronal pathways instead of muscle fibers. We've seen memories get kind of stored inside of it. Why not other kinds of knowledge? Why not muscle memory too, for that matter?
  • Why it doesn't work that way is unknown, but it clearly doesn't. The stockpile (at least as far as can be observed) ups purely physical power without directly affecting biological processes. It's mentioned sometime around Deku's loner period that he's learned how to use the energy to reinforce his body, but that's something he had to train himself to do. It took practice and time. Following this to the logical extreme, it might be possible for Deku to direct the energy into his brain to achieve enhanced cognition, but once again it would take time.

Operation Troy

• All Might's idea of separating the villains to create optimal circumstances for facing them isn't confusing in and of itself, but the way in which they're scattered and who is chosen to fight them leaves a lot to be desired.
  • Locations: Dabi is put in an evacuated cityscape, Toga and several Nomus are sent to an island, and Shigaraki is put in a floating fortress that has the UA building in it. For starters, why aren't Toga and Shigaraki's locations reversed? It's stated that Shigaraki is being kept above ground to minimize possible damage from his Decay and several other provisions are in place to counter that specific quirk. But it's been established that Decay cannot affect small particles or liquid. If the heroes truly wanted to prevent him from using Decay, an island full of nothing but sand and water seems like a better solution. Shigaraki wouldn't be able to destroy anything important, but while within the fortress he immediately starts attacking the UA building which isn't protected for some reason. In Toga's case, it's both stated and shown that she struggles against multiple enemies during her confrontation with Curious. Having her in the floating fortress facing off against a barrage heroes would diminish her chances of hiding or escaping. Sure she could suck the blood of heroes to blend in but since everyone is out in the open, it would take little effort to figure out who she's impersonating and then it's just a matter of overwhelming her. And why wasn't Dabi sent to an open area without buildings? The city may be empty, but he still has the potential to use his surroundings as kindling and burn more people than he otherwise would.
    • For why Shigaraki and Himeko were sent where they were, he was placed where he was because while the island would have minimised Decay’s power it wouldn’t have helped defeat him just minimised the destruction he could cause till he returned to the mainland. They sent him instead to UA because it had been prepared to help with the taking him down part. Himeko on the other hand, well, her greatest asset is her ability to completely erase her presence, they decided thus that the best place to fight her was where she couldn’t escape them and minimised the places she could hide herself. Thus a deserted island.

  • Match Ups: Using people with mid to long range quirks against Shigiraki such as Nejire, Bakugou, and Jeanist makes sense. But why send in a contact fighter like Mirko? Even Shigaraki points out how poorly planned this is. We've already seen her take out high end Nomus and part of her quirk is great speed and agility, so having her fight Toga or at least assist Uraraka and Asui would have ended things quickly. This isn't helped by the fact that Uraraka's fighting style leaves her open to having her blood sucked as shown in the Training Camp arc. And all of their fights thus far have only resulted in Toga escaping unharmed. Why was it decided that she'd be the best person to face her from a strategic standpoint? On top of this, Toga flat out told her that she can use the quirks of people she loves. So why even risk that happening when you can just send in heroes she doesn't know? Furthermore, as of chapter 380, the Shiketsu students arrive on the scene to help face off against AFO. But why wasn't Inasa sent to help confront Dabi in the first place? His quirk is extremely useful in dealing with fire and he's one of the few people outside of Class 1A to have bonded with Todoroki. It makes both more narrative and strategic sense for him to be there instead.
    • For Mirko, I think she most likely insisted that be assigned to the anti Shigaraki team. They did after all originally intend for Deku to be the main combatant of this fight after all. As for Ochako, well, she’s had lots of encounters with Himeko and they need their heavy hitters elsewhere. Contained on an island as she was, her threat was minimal. As for Inasa he and the other Shinketsu students were meant to handle the refugee evacuations. They realised something had gone wrong and came to help.

Ochacho's Odd Hubris

• During her battle with Himiko, Ochaco tries to talk with her. Himiko claims that this must be hubris, since they are both fighting for their lives. If Ochaco wins, then Himiko will die. Either by Ochaco's hands, or later by execution. Ochaco admits to this and says that you could think of it like that, but that she still wanted to know why Himiko did what she did. The ending becomees even weirder when Himiko sacrifices herself to save Ochaco, only to have the other girl beg her not to die. The end of the fight would have resulted in Himiko dying anyway, so what was Ochaco on about here? She was shown to be fully aware Himiko will likely be executed if she catches her, so what is up with her reaction here?
  • Ochako understood that Himiko Toga was a PERSON, someone who felt she had no choice but to become what she did. She wanted to understand Himiko, and, if she could, save her. It's the same way Deku intends fully to save Shigaraki, even if it ultimately means that Shigaraki will not live. It's the attempt to free someone from the darkness that has overshadowed them

The nice person

This is a really minor thing I noticed when I went over the show in both dub and sub: Why do the subtitles display "nice person" when Deku refers to Ochako upon first meeting her, like when he noticed her presence at the Entrance Exam? In the English dub (and Arabic dub, since that's what I watched actually), she's called "the nice girl".

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