My Hero Academia - Manga Spoiler thread (Untagged spoilers)

At best, I see Toga like a mad dog; it's a shame she ended up this way, but there's probably nothing you can do at this point but put her down.

Nach jeder Ebbe kommt die Flut.

So let me get this straight: Toga transforms into Twice, and since she "loves" him, she can use his Quirk

But the copies she creates are not of Twice, they are copies of her transformed into him right? So basically they can use her quirk?

Wasn't Twice able to directly create copies of anyone (he has sufficiently measured)? Like Tomura's clone that was fighting against Re-Destro? Or Dabi during the summer camp attack? Those copies were able to use (weakened?) versions of their prototypes' Quirks too.

Why wouldn't Toga-turned-Twice be able to do the same?

Either she can directly create copies of other people that way because she fulfills the conditions (perhaps, drinking blood gives her the needed information), or Twice-clones create clones of her who then transform into whoever. either way works

Edited by NHunter on Jun 22nd 2023 at 1:41:35 PM

Yes, another solution would be this: copies of Twice created by Toga, create other Togas...

I still think that Toga is the most likely out of the major villains to survive and enter rehabilitation. In large part also because convincing her to stop fighting seems like the only logical way Uraraka could stop her at this point.

Back when Curious talked about it, there was a suspicion that she might have sensationalized the issue - but no, turns out, Himiko's parents were that terrible. It's astounding just how terrible those two are for such non-entities; like, cartoonishly evil. Plus, nothing suggests that they were from a warped environment themselves; by all means, they were well-to-do middle-class people that just so happened to have a staggeringly pervading level of hatred for their own child.

There is some fucking competition for terrible parental figures in this story, and they blow Endeavor, Kotaro Shimura - hell, even AFO - and everyone else out of the water with such stunning panache, it's incredible. And the worst part of it all is, it's unlikely they suffered any consequences for it, them and that quirk counselor. Sure, they probably got disgraced and had to skip town after Himiko stabbed Saito, but that's frankly small potatoes.

And you know, with how strongly LGBTQ-coded Toga is, the whole thing about being "fixed" at counseling, of being called not-normal and even inhuman, by her own parents, no less; of having to repress herself this entire time until she just can't... yeah...

-cough-

I liked Kamui Woods' leafy afro, too.

It may also help that her Quirk is less destructive than Decay and Blueflame on the base of it, which makes the affair somewhat less dangerous.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Jun 23rd 2023 at 11:19:03 AM

Big Grah

The "superpowers as queerness" thingy has always felt a bit off to me, since it doesn't survive scrutiny very well.

Song of the Sirens

It feels more like Japanese normalcy to me. Don't be different from others, don't stick out, don't be an embarrassment etc. It certainly includes queer stuff there though.

Secret Signature

See, there's a much better allegory there, especially considering, y'know, the term for superpower in this verse is "Quirk"

(IIRC the Japanese name means something like "individuality", which is not even a little bit subtle)

Song of the Sirens

It would, but we are getting an extended look into what that might entail from the perspective of arguably the most prominent queer rep in the manga (that her attraction to people is superficial at best notwithstanding).

And while it's true that it would be largely about the uniformity of Japanese society - Tsuyu even says in this chapter that she thought it was about following the rules first and foremost - I just don't know; we see from Bakugo's backstory or how the Hero Rankings operate that there is some push for individuality too.

Heck, All Might was a single Pillar of Peace, too.

Big Grah

I think you could still argue that AM being the sole pillar of peace is an example of this. Everyone other than Endeavor felt complacent with that and didn't really try to support AM's ideals or really even approach him much.

Secret Signature

Even if this series is heavily Western based, and even has some LGBTQ reps, I'm inclined to believe it relates more to Japanese society... because this is a Japanese series made by a Japanese man. I'm not gonna tell anyone not to read into the queer connotations, but I don't think it's intentional on Hori's part.

Now granted, LGTBQ issues in Japan are related given their rising prominence, who knows.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Like yeah, it's still about queerness imo, cause that same problem affects it as I said.

Secret Signature

Like I said, you're free to interpret it how you wish. I'm just saying I don't think Hori sat down and was like "alright, In gonna put every queen analogy I can think of".

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Looking at the flashback again, I now realize why all of Toga's smiles just look fake, forced and straight up wrong whenever they showed up.

Because they aren't actually her smiles.

Just forced upon her at a young age without much, if any, context by the "counseling" as a way for her to appear "normal" among others.

And instead, making her situation that much worse.

There could be a high risk that Toga herself doesn't actually know how to make a genuine smile herself or how to use it.

...

What Toga really needs to do now, is to face her past, accept it happened, and move on from it. For she is still stuck deep into those memories and they are not helping her.

Problem is that that feat doesn't feel like something that can be done with one session of warrior therapy on the battlefield with Ochako.

"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

Superpowers to queerness honestly works fine, though I definitely once thought it didn’t in the past.

Because the people who hate the latter realize the former is being used for symbolism. It’s why a Republican in Florida unironically compared themselves to th X-Men villains seeking to exterminate X-Men. And Trans people are the X-Men in said case.

That’s what happens when people as cartoonishly evil as All For One exist in real life.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jun 23rd 2023 at 5:08:21 AM

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

I don't think what Himiko has dealt with is meant as a direct metaphor for queerness, but it's easy enough to reach that interpretation. Which I guess is cool in its own way, I dunno.

Himiko's case feels more or less like one where someone has "Clinical Vampirism"(aka the "Renfield syndrome") and the environment doesn't really know how to deal with that person's condition.

"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

It's still rather telling that her parents have made no attempts of trying to help her beyond sending her to a biased Quirk counselor - and then very pointedly continued to dehumanize their own daughter when that proved ineffective.

Although there is something grimly amusing about the idea that, actually, Himiko's problems were completely unrelated to her Quirk. (although it still probably fed into some of that blood obsession, too)

Big Grah

What's even more fucked up is her Quirk would've obviously been a mix of whatever her parents' Quirks were, so...they probably could've seen it coming or something.

And even on the off-chance it didn't came from her parents, it still would have been a mix of something from her grandparents' four quirks, that just skipped a generation in the genetic lottery of that family tree, and still be within knowledge of her parents to figure out.

They still did nothing but engage in the worst possible option regarding their daughter. Even after they had that stiff quirk-counselor staple a fake smile on Toga's face first.

"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

Not really.

Eri establishes random mutation is possible. Her grandfather did a check on the history on both sides of the family and nothing like it had even been seen.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that Toga's quirk was that out of the famoly norm.

At best, I see Toga like a mad dog; it's a shame she ended up this way, but there's probably nothing you can do at this point but put her down.

Considering Talk No Jutsu has clearly failed that's really their only option.

Edited by Guy01 on Jun 24th 2023 at 9:40:11 AM

Ok, who let Light Yagami in here?

We don't know that yet lmao. Chill.

Tenko's Quirk was a random mutation too

Song of the Sirens