My Hero Academia

1) Rude.

2) Not addressing at all what I said. I made it very clear I wasn't talking about his Quirk usage, and from his flashback the implication was that wasn't his problem in school either. If his story was supposed to be one of being failed by the school system or whatever you'd think that would actually be incorporated but it wasn't, at all. He had other personality issues going on that were clearly still affecting things even when he was introduced into the current story.

Edited by LSBK on Jan 22nd 2022 at 1:49:19 PM

Mineta's Quirk is better than Gentle's anyways. Both excel in mobility, traps, and neutralizing enemy attacks, but Mineta's is also a capture tool while Gentle's isn't.

Gentle had probably willpower and eagerness to spare about training his Quirk, especially in the flashiest possible way. Considering his personality, I'd say it's likely that he was being held back because being a hero includes a lot of other things.

I imagine his school career as a longer, more extreme version of Bakugo and Todoroki failing their provisional license exam.

Also, I think it's unclear on purpose who's to blame: young Gentle was unwilling to change his ways and was motivated by fame rather than by the idea of helping others, but maybe better teachers or mentors would have been able to straighten him out instead of just failing him and letting him drop out.

Edited by Cozzer on Jan 22nd 2022 at 10:14:52 AM

Yeah, I think at the end of the day what Horikoshi was going for was to make him a foil to Deku as someone with the same dreams and drive but who failed, so the specifics reasons don't really matter. That's why what ultimately kickstarted his downfall was jumping in to save someone when he had no business doing so, the same thing Deku did in chapter one that allowed him to become a hero in the first place, but with the opposite outcome.

Edited by WashTheLaundryHero on Jan 22nd 2022 at 1:25:09 AM

It didn't help that he actually did get someone hurt in his attempted rescue.

From what we actually see of Gentle, his quirk was clearly not the problem. Gentle's primary issue is that he simply does not think things through. His quirk's effects remain for a while after using it, so he has to take that into account. And he doesn't really do that, for instance. Deku beats him by better keeping track of his trampolines.

He had his head in the clouds, and it wasn't until after he met his former school friend that he really had a clear goal in mind and started acting towards it. And it's not until he meets Deku that he really thinks the consequences of what he's doing through.

Given all that, it seems likely he met the same barrier Deku initially did: being very self-defeating and self-destructive, and thus a liability for the school. He just didn't take it all very seriously (and he doesn't really get serious until the UA job, La Brava even notes he is unusually dedicated). So really, he was someone essentially cosplaying a hero.

Edited by devak on Jan 22nd 2022 at 10:51:22 AM

It just goes to show that being a hero is something that requires tons of analytical and processing skill, even for powers that are relatively simple. Not that Gentle is stupid mind you, but he clearly never fully explored the full potential of his powers and the effects they have on everything and everyone around him.

....Oh my god, he's a more typical Stock Shōnen Hero but in a setting where that type of attitude gets people hurt and alienates people around you.

Gentle's problems were more that he thought he could get through life on dumb luck and improvising, and things would just work themselves out when that...doesn't quite work in MHA's world. You need more than just dumb luck and a plucky attitude.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jan 22nd 2022 at 4:58:02 AM

Mind. Blown.

No wonder why the Gentle arc is one of the last highlights before RUBBER NEN.

>It just goes to show that being a hero is something that requires tons of analytical and processing skill, even for powers that are relatively simple.

I think more that it shows that being a hero depends on luck. A reckless action is heroic when it goes right, and is dangerous and senseless when it goes wrong. Deku made a reckless move but it went allright and so was rewarded. Gentle's went wrong, and it cost him everything.

I also don't think the series really shows that being a hero requires a lot of skill. Some people seem to easily coast by on relatively simple powers without needing a lot of effort or analytical skill. It's more that if you're lucky, you never really get hugely challenged. After all, part of the whole heroes quitting thing is that none of them had really ever experienced such a crisis, and there seem to have been many who simply coasted by. UA's entrance exam is noted as strict for instance. There must be many hero schools who give much easier routes.

Though this could also be part of the tension: logically, being a hero would require a lot of skill, but many don't posses that skill because the HPSC was basically rubber-stamping applications.

The difference between the two though is that in Deku's case, the only one at the risk of injury/death, was Deku.

In Gentle's case?

He was never in any harm's way at all and remotely placed a trampoline which got multiple people hurt in the process, with zero danger to himself.

So it makes sense why he got hit so hard by the law for what he did, in sharp contrast to Deku's case...

In deku's case there were also plenty of bystanders and several pros, all of whom could've been hurt by Deku's actions.

The difference is simply that Deku's reckless actions didn't hurt anyone.

In Deku's case, he didn't use a Quirk (because he didn't have one, but still), and he only acted after it became clear that everyone else, including the pros, was unable or unwilling to.

In Gentle's case, a pro was acting, and Gentle's intervention got both him and the person he was trying to rescue badly hurt.

Edited by asterism on Jan 23rd 2022 at 9:19:47 AM

Which got him hit with a huge lawsuit.

Gentle pulled a Hell of an Epic Fail.

The way the whole sludge villain thing went, I think a certain amount of recklessness is desired/needed in a good hero, as it's during that sequence we get the whole thing where all the best heroes have that moment where they moved without thinking. Part of what the hero schools do is temper that recklessness, teach them enough that it shouldn't be necessary to be but offer the tools to enable it when it is necessary.

The Muscular fight is probably a good example here. Putting aside any other errors Deku made such as not bringing anyone with him when he went after Kota or trying to keep going after the fact whih caused him to lose consciousnessat a critical moment, he entered a situation where a level of recklessness was needed to survive.

Chapter 341:
We're taking one little step back as we see how our villains are doing. The major development is that it seems like AfO's army's about to march. The other is that Toga now has Twice's blood from Dabi, who kept some.
No chapter next week...

Edited by thuse on Jan 23rd 2022 at 11:08:06 PM

"You can't do whatever you want all the time" is a good counter-argument to Himiko, considering the, y'know, everything about her.

They said that to her when she was a little kid though, when they were telling her not to be herself at all. It also is undermined when they also tell her "No one will ever accept you the way you are." and "We're telling you this for your own good!" They might have had a point with her now, but when they said it they had no point at all. Especially when she is a product of both society and their actions, and yet they chose to write her off as having always been beyond help: "We did our best, but nothing worked.", "The girl is demonic..."

Putting aside whether or not the Toga family deserved to have their home ransacked like this, it is abundantly clear that Himiko had awful parents, and that they are one of the biggest reasons Himiko is the way she is now. They were supposed to accept her even if no one else would, they were supposed to actually help her control her urges, not take her to someone who said she should deny and repress who she is for the sake of everyone else. Himiko needed help as a child, a proper Quirk Councilor and learning proper restraint. But her parents failed her. So when she had a psychotic break and let her impulses control her to the point of mania, they chose to write her off as a monster rather than admit any fault in how she turned out.

And right as it looked like Himiko was having a Heel Realization after seeing the carnage they caused and learning Jin died, she was rejected when she went to Ochako for help, since Ochako didn't know the whole story and thought Himiko did this just For the Evulz. Now, she's got nowhere to go. She's come too far in her eyes, and people like Dabi are perfectly willing to exploit her vulnerability for their own ends.

Her only hope now is Ochako, having realized Himiko had been asking for help that time, trying to save Himiko from herself.

Edited by RebelFalcon on Jan 23rd 2022 at 10:49:39 AM

Lesson learned: "Not everyone are fit to be parents."

Oh that Dabi!

Alway setting things on fire.

She’s going to be real upset if she learns how Dabi set up Twice to die

Unless she learns it from the asshole himself, it's gonna be hard to tell her. The only other person present when it happened was Hawks, Jin's killer, meaning she'd be less inclined to listen to him. So unless Dabi is dumb enough to start ranting in earshot of Himiko, or Hawks has empirical evidence to present to her, I don't think Himiko will learn the truth about Jin's death.

I don't think that's actually something the story was actually trying to establish. If you go back and re-read that scene, the framing is very clear. Twice's death is exclusively on Hawks. That's clearly what he himself thinks and also how the story sets it up. It literally makes no sense any other way.

This idea that Dabi somehow planned the whole thing out is only a thing in this thread because there's just a ridiculously overblown Dabi hate here.

Dabi only showed up.

Hawks never intended to kill twice but lost control of the situation because of Dani’s arrival.

So Dabi was really more of a Spanner in the Works to Hawks’ plan to non lethally take Twice off the board.

Man this is some good character stuff for spinner. Can't wait for it to be skipped over