My Hero Academia

I mean, my problems with this line of thought are mostly:

1. Treating the destruction of "hero society" as if it's a concrete thing that can just be done by force, instead of a more metaphorical/political standpoint about changing views in the world. The Paranormal Liberation Front just launching a big attack and destroying a bunch of stuff and that being deemed the "end" of hero society is the most boring thing I can think of.

2. The idea of this series honestly going Darker and Edgier seems so antonym to almost everything about it. Yeah, there's gore sometimes, and he doesn't shy away from dark or uncomfortable themes, but fundamentally this is an optimistic story. Plus, Horikoshi already tried something "darker" with the whole Hassaikai situation and commented on how actually writing that drained him heavily.

Yeah, so far a major aspect of the story is that society is more complex than simply being categorized as "heroes" and "villains", so having the bad guys "destroy hero society" doesn't really fit the plot anyway because like LSBK said, "hero society" isn't really a concrete entity that can be destroyed. The attitudes of the general public towards heroes can change, but it's not like the concept is just going to evaporate.

My guess is that the conflict is ultimately going to be more about the underlying philosophies of the sides involved, specifically Deku's idealism and belief that heroes stand up to those who can't stand up for themselves, vs. Shirageki's Might makes Right and destructive tendencies.

You could destroy hero society by destroying people's faith in heroes.

How?

(Got a couple of ideas, but like to hear what others have to say about this first...)

They are already off to a good start.

They've managed to attack UA multiple times, despite the fact that it should be safe (though not due to a lack of trying on the part of the Faculty).

Consider also what would have happened if Gentle had succeeded in his infiltration, and then have the villains pull something like that, only with their usual amount of destruction.

On the Hero side of things as opposed to the school side, remember that people don't exactly have much faith in Endeavour yet, despite his genuine skill as a hero, and the fact he barely managed to defeat that Noumu (which was clearly tailor-made for him). All Might had difficulty with his own, but people don't know that. And that's ignoring the rather nasty Skeletons in his closet as well, which we've had debates about if they'll be revealed or not.

And there's also more people gulping up Stain's rhetoric, especially if he got free again.

Basically just undermining the heroes efforts at every turn is pretty good.

The most obvious weapon they have, assuming that Dabi is indeed Touya, is Endeavor’s past, though I don’t think that’d do it by itself.

They also have the heroes who are members of the MLA, and I could see Hawks’ undercover mission end up backfiring here if there are catastrophes he could have prevented (or indeed, becomes complicit in), but doesn’t because he couldn’t break his cover.

And of course, there’s the possibility of a devastating attack that the heroes can’t adequately respond too. All this being said, public perception of heroes seems to be on an upswing, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen here.

No it wasn't; Dabi explicitly did not expect Endeavor to be the one Hawks tested Hood out on.

Anyway, I maintain the idea that Dabi's identity is unlikely to ever be used as for that, at least not intentionally. Nothing about his behavior supports the idea.

Anyway, destroying the idea of hero is basically impossible, but I guess you can alter the idea of what a hero should be and say that most of them don't live up to it.

Actually, that's already happening because of All Might, though obviously no point of his own. For so many people, in story and out, hold up All Might as what a hero should be, that they very unduly and harshly judge everyone else both for not being that, even though most people literally can't be, and honestly, it's not unreasonable for someone to not want to do that.

I recall that happening during the High-End fight, and for all the valid criticisms of Endeavor there are, that just struck me as incredibly unfair.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 8th 2019 at 12:22:34 PM

"How to undermine a hero society = Display heroes doing villainous acts on live media for the public to witness for themselves".

And I do recall the former MLA having just the right people for that job...

What? You mean those no-names the MLA had in its ranks?

Considering they already had a opportunity for something like that, and explicitly didn't, I wouldn't count on it.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 8th 2019 at 12:42:24 PM

They can undermine the heros all they want and they probably will, but that's still not going to make all of them just disappear, just make their lives ostensibly more difficult. It'd also be a slow process and not something that happens instantly over one specific event.

If anything, the public opinion after Deika seems to be 'Hero's do what they can so good on them, but people should be able to defend themselves too. Down with strict quirk regulations!'. If Hanabata's party is preaching something along those lines, maybe the PLF can get him elected with a couple more incidents like that. Then they can destroy society with the power of...bad lawmaking. I mean, not 'destroy' it per se, but just make it worse, and, most importantly, make our heros deal with the higher-ups having it out for them.

Edited by WashTheLaundryHero on Sep 8th 2019 at 11:25:42 AM

Something like that sounds mich more feasible to me. I wanted to say it, but couldn't put my feelings into words.

So... a take on The Incredibles, basically? Pros are presumably not straight-up outlawed, but have to face much harsher requirements for becoming heroes, and so their numbers drastically decrease?

Unless Hanabata's party would push for some kind of "General Populace Self-Defense Force" to try and phase the pros out as obsolete. I don't know how much patience Shigaraki has for such a slow burn of a plan, dropping the scandal bombs on the Top Three heroes (Endeavor a shitty parent, Hawks a turncoat who may or may not have killed Best Jeanist) might be a good start to that.

So...basically creating the "Second Amendment Right" but for Quirks and their usage by civilians?

Edited by TitanJump on Sep 8th 2019 at 8:48:55 PM

It's probably doubtful that's an intentional parallel on Horikoshi's part, but I've definitely seen the comparison made. It has many of the same (but not all) of the pitfalls as actual Second Amendment arguments.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 8th 2019 at 3:13:02 AM

Any knowledge Horikoshi may have on this issue probably comes from reading comicbooks. That could yield some weird results if he's actually going for it XD.

I will say that this does kind of lean into a possible issue with Western comic books, when superheroes are criticized - the sentiment that “only this privileged class is able to protect the masses, so everyone else should just shut up and let them handle it”. It does read as rather authoritarian, especially when real life authorities (such as the police, in my experience) use it in an attempt to silence critics.

Now, there is a point to be made that you can’t just have any person with no training be a fire fighter and what not, but then, the real world doesn’t have a substantial portion of the population who can lift steel beams with their minds and what have you. I do think there’s a case to be made for training civilians - particularly those with with appropriate Quirks - in basic emergency response and self defense if they so desire, while giving prospective Heroes more specialized training.

I suppose I’m just cautious when most of the pointed criticism of Hero society comes from people like Stain and is meant to flawed in some way. It’d be nice to have a more heroic character give some more pointed criticisms.

I don't think people aren't allowed to use their Quirks to defend themselves, rather, they're not allowed to use them to do harm to others.

And you can say "but sometimes you have to hurt others in self-defense" and that's a fair point, lines can easily become blurred, but I think it's a fair point that generally encouraging to try and get away or somewhere safe should be prioritized over retaliation, and retaliation should be looked at with greater scrutiny than either of the former options.

People get mad that the three who fought Stain were criticized for that, but it always seemed more like the specifics of the situation - them being heroes-in-training who intentionally left or disobeyed the heroes they were working with to search out a fight, was the bigger hang up than the fact that they ended up in a fight in itself.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 8th 2019 at 3:56:10 AM

Yup. Ida went against orders to seek out stain for revenge. Izuku went against orders to save him. Shoto didn't explicitly disobey orders but didn't inform any pros either. It's not that they beat stain, it's that they did it in a dumb and reckless way when perfectly capable heroes were near to *actually* save him, and that Ida should never have put himself in the position to begin with.

Edited by devak on Sep 8th 2019 at 10:56:15 AM

On an unrelated note, this arc is probably going to have a decent amount of Tokoyami focus since Endeavor is still kinda working with Hawks.

Um, Shouto does inform the pros. He tells Endeavor to send someone where he's going because the Hero Killer might be there.

He couldn't have mentioned Stain, because he didn't know any of the specific details. He didn't actually give Endeavor a chance to say anything before running off.

Honestly, if he had asked one of the sidekicks to come with him, I doubt he'd have been in any trouble at all.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 8th 2019 at 4:11:26 AM

Oh yeah. He says something like 'one of my friends is in trouble' and runs off, and then Endy later sends Gran Torino after him or smth.

Easter doesn't necessarily need to be well known throughout Japan for UA students to be familiar with it. Remember, one of the 1B students is openly a very devout Christian.

And another was born in the US IIRC

On a note related this and the spy situation, I've mused before it could be Tokoyami, and I figured before the reveal we'd probably be getting more focus on the person in question. So... it probably isn't him, but if it is, I get to say I called it.

Plus, it would be a bit poetic/ironic - master and pupil each playing spy for the opposite team.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 8th 2019 at 1:43:49 PM