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How Rikiya’s Introduction Changed The World Building Of BNHA, And The Insult Bones Turned It Into
Listen listen LISTEN I’m mad about the scene with the LOV killing the racist cult and the hut scene being cut out, but personally, I already expected them to cut something important out (cuz its Bones and they do that anyway), and I’m sad about Spinner and his narration and view being cut FOR SURE!
… But can we also talk about how they butchered Rikiya as well?
Like idk why this is bothering me, but for me, it was like SUPER suspenseful when he was first introduced. I was like “who is this guy?? why is hori showing us him?? whats going on??”
And personally I just really really love how Rikiya was shown in his first scene, from his act to his true nature
Like first we are shown this guy in a commercial, he looks happy and he’s all dramatic, and you’re like “wow who’s this guy?” (right)
Then we see him in his office with Miyashita (both panels on the left), and he seems quite humble! A good natured person! Goes along with his assistant’s jokes, laughs and is focused on his work! Nothing seems bad here!
Then we see him shift from his good-natured persona to “oh? why is he suddenly talking about a book? He looks quite serious”
He suggests the book to Miyashita, but his assistant doesn’t agree with the book. No big deal, right? People have different opinions on stuff all the time. Surely, this good-natured humble Detnerat company guy will let this go with one of his jokey laughs?
But no. We get this panel
This fucking panel. He looks so tight-lipped, and it really shows here how much of a “normal” persona he was putting on. Oh the jokes and good-natured attitude may very well have been real! But as soon as the Meta Liberation was spoken badly about, you can see with the open space around Rikiya that he does not like to hear this
And then your heart drops when you get this reaction
These two panels are like. such a change in the demeanor we’ve seen so far. Suddenly this guy’s had enough. Suddenly, he’s not the happy and energetic guy we saw before. No longer humble, no longer good-natured. He doesn’t like what he’s heard
And he apologizes (right). At this point, we know this guy is super fishy now. His complete change in mood rings so many alarms, and you know something bad is about to happen. It’s just the what and how, because we’ve only just met this Detnerat guy, and we don’t know what he’s capable of
He asks of any family. Anyone close to Miyashita. You’re thinking “maybe he’s trying to get his assistant to understand…? maybe he’ll relate his favourite book to something personal for Miyashita?”
But then
But then. The top panel seals the deal. The dark background? The tension in the panel? The words “You’ve done great work, Miyashita” that sound so final, and how we can’t see Rikiya’s face? Miyashita’s done for
And suddenly, he starts straight up choking him. Strangling him. Breaking him
Right there is where Rikiya’s true demeanor shows. That he was looking for other members, that all he was thinking of was the Liberation army. And now you’re looking back on the other panels, because you’ve realised.
He wasn’t apologizing for no reason. He was apologizing for the act he was about to commit.
He wasn’t asking about anyone close to Miyashita to make him relate. He was making sure nobody would go looking for him once he was dead.
And his angry expression? How Miyashita squirms and whines, but he just won’t let go? It’s frightening. It’s suspenseful. Personally, this terrified me. The sudden mood change, and the fact that this guy just straight up kills anyone who doesn’t agree with him or opposes his army.
The sickening krunch, and the body falls. Not 5 minutes ago, this guy was being so humble and laughing at his assistants jokes. Now, 5 minutes later, the guy kills said assistant.
And it shows him crying. And why? We just saw this guy kill his assistant, and he’s crying??
“I won’t… forget you”
It suggests that what Rikiya is doing, to him, is some kind of necessary evil. That he HAD to kill Miyashita for the good of the Liberation Army.
And that kind of twisted thought? That kind of no-restraint “if you don’t agree with me, I won’t allow you to live”? And so quietly done?? In the space of, what, 3 minutes?? That’s such a good way to introduce a Villain character! Hori’s art and use of panel space for tension is SO GOOD. It just draws you in, makes you think about what’s happening, makes you wonder who and why and for what reason, because once again, we don’t know who this character is
And that’s what terrifies you. The unknown of it all.
This manga, up until this point, was about Hero kids going to school, having shounen adventures and beating up the occasional villains, but this?
FUCKING THIS?
THIS is the game changer! This is the scene that changed the entire mood of the manga!
From here, we go into MVA, and then it fully changes, but do you know how terrifying and quick this scene was, so smoothly done in order to carry out the message “Things are changing, and fast. New dangerous people are coming up, and it won’t be pretty.”
And of course, we’ve seen dark stuff before this point. The reveal of Eri’s skin cells in the bullets. Eri clearly being used for her quirk and Overhaul leading her to the operating room. Overhaul fusing himself with Nemoto. Enji’s abrupt and bloody eye scar. Ragdoll being kidnapped and put with the Noumu. And so many more
But these were moments. Rikiya’s scene was about a person. So efficient, so happy, so frighteningly willing to kill someone he was laughing with 5 minutes ago.
Even Overhaul didn’t have this kind of lead-up. He’s definitely a complex guy and we definitely see his moments of twisted logic throughout his arc, we saw the after effects of his quirk and his introduction, but Hori showed us directly that Overhaul was a bad guy. We didn’t know that with Rikiya, not at first.
And the League aren’t treated as seriously as MVA treats them before this chapter. Before that, we get the overall impression that they are all over the place and barely have a plan. We have All For One, who is very scary, but by this point, he’s in jail. Done for (or so we thought). We don’t know what to expect from the League.
But then this guy comes in, and changes everything we know about the world of BNHA. We have the Heroes, the Good Guys. We have the Villains, the Bad Guys.
And then we have Rikiya, a CEO of his own company, starting off so positive in his first appearance, and then shattering that perspective so quickly, it gives you whiplash.
We think Rikiya is gonna be some kind of CEO who’s a money grabbing scheme-artist, or something along those lines; someone pretty much harmless in terms of physical action. And then he kills Miyashita.
Not quite a Villain. Not a Hero. Not even a civilian. A Vigilante.
And the way that reveal is shown is fucking amazing.
Carrying on, we find out who Rikiya is, his name and what he stands for.
Rikiya’s appearance here is so unassuming. So plain. But look at that dark look in his eye. Now knowing what he can do, we know how much trouble he is.
And we see this man in a frame. We learn of who this man is - Destro, who created the Liberation Army. The book that Rikiya talked about before was about Destro and his legacy, the very legacy that changed a part of Quirk History
Which, if I remember correctly, we’d heard a tiny snippet about before, but this being revealed so suddenly after what just happened just makes you interested to learn more
You’re quite literally reading from the narratives history textbook, and you just want to keep turning the page
After that info, we are then slapped so hard by this reveal
BECAUSE?? NO HANG ON- WAIT A SEC- DESTRO?? HAD A CHILD?? AND WHO IS THAT CHILD, IS IT THIS GUY?? THE FUCKING CEO OF DETNERAT??
The League are apparently enemies to them, and the Liberation Army want them dead. The way he phrases it, it’s almost like a duty.
And then we see his sinister grin, and a mask of some kind. We know it has to be a quirk, but what is it? What could it be? What could make this guy even more powerful in terms of strength than he already is?
The mask suggests that here, his duty is almost equal to a HERO’S. That this is something good and necessary, and “only he can carry out this justice”. This twisted thinking, comparing it to a duty that must be done, it sucks you in.
You know who this guy is now, you know somewhat of his goals, but you’re still wondering WHO IS HE. What is going to happen? What will happen to the League, and will this guy put the kiddos in danger?
And that isn’t the case, the kids are never brought into the Liberation Army’s narrative, but the fact that this whole chapter leaves you with more questions than answers, that means it’s good. It grips you, keeps you interested. The sudden change in mood brings with it a new sense of the story.
We assume the kids might be put in danger because it’s all we’ve ever known of this story. We come to expect the kids to be involved.
But this isn’t just about kids in hero school anymore. Not entirely anyway. This is about something bigger. This is about something more serious.
And to have this AMAZING scene and this AMAZING character introduction get reduced to this?
I gotta say, it’s an insult. Of course, these are the very scenes we see when the League finally talk to Rikiya, when it has already been well established that the story has changed, but to have Rikiya’s introduction be cut out just like that? To skip straight to the confrontation and have THAT be his first appearance? How disappointing.
This doesn’t have a game changer feeling. This just feels like a convenient enemy slotted into place for the League, so suddenly and recklessly.
At least the manga hyped him up. At least the manga had a lead up to who he was and his power.
Now it’s so sudden, thrown at you out of nowhere, it just feels dull.
If you’re an anime-only, you’re stuck thinking “Hang on, what? Have these Liberation guys always been here?”
The answer is YES but Bones didn’t give them the time of day to hype them up, especially for a world building device
Of course I’m mad at how the League has been treated by Bones… but what about Rikiya?
Manga vs. Anime
I must clarify I adore All Might as a human because he represents how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
He did want to make something good and save the world and at a great extend it's not his fault what happened with the hero society.
To society to end up like that it took millions of person to avoid confilt and hide the truth because they wanted peace. It took hundreds of corrupted corporations and institutions who made heroes the equivalent of celebrities mixed with cops or the army. It took many decisions and a lot of social manipulation and All Might was too busy fighting people to properly understand the extend of what was happening around him and how the corporations and institutions were using his image.
Every martyr and every symbol and every man in the front is a mask controlled by a million threads. The people with money and power and pushing those threads and the people like All Might, who were poor once and wanted to truly change the world, make it better, make dreams come truth, protect the children, etc... They are the toys that can be given to the multitude to destroy when things start going bad.
Like I said, the real villains and enemies here were the big figures with money and power hiding in the shadows, safe at home, not even sweating.
Like wtf is All Might supposed to do? Kill himself? Will that make you happy? I mean. How dare he be alive and work in a school. What a fucking cunt he is. Honestly should just let the villains kill the kids and boom. Problem solved. I mean. It’s not like he saved the world countless times. But fuck him eh
Okay but chill. You're going to have a heart attack. Really. Breath and chill.
He can be the big All Might but he didn't have the proper studies to teach to kids at the UA. Don't go mad about it, it's the truth. He wanted to retire? NICE. Everyone has the right to do so.
But he shouldn't have hided in a school. Why he didn't talk with other heroes to help him and why he didn't make a plan to protect Japan of what was coming? Oh right, because the hero society and hero system don't work like that.
So the hero 1# didn't have anywhere else to go but to a school. And in result, the kids realized they couldn't trust only the adult pro-heroes to protect them, so they started pushing themselves in order to protect his families, his friends and also the professional pro-heroes.
My problem here has always been the safety of the kids. They were 15-16 years old at the beginning of the manga. The became child soldiers. And in the current arc of the manga they are the ones carrying the weight of society because the adults are unable to do so.
And this all started with All Might, even if you doesn't like it.
He saved the world because HE WANTED to save the world, no one pushed him to do so. And even when people should be grateful, he's not a god. He's very mortal. With flaws and mistakes. And All Might is another victim of the hero system, but that doesn't excuse how he pushed the UA kids into a war. By sharing the responsibility with Izuku, immediately class 1-A passed to bear that responsibility too. And class 1-B suffered from the consequences too. And the whole new generations.
You're over simplifying all of this. Stop seeing things in black and white and learn that humans are complex and have many aspects. Humans are like Shrek, like onions, they have layers lol.
Remember that.
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MY VILLIAN ACADEMIA (2021) + letterboxd reviews parody
And after sleepless nights, mva begins
Shop opening soon...
Why does this egg have legs
Things that hit different after Touya's backstory reveal
I gotta give credit where credit is due. MVA is one of the best and most well written arcs of the series not because it's villain focused but because Horikoshi truly built it well. There's a lot of foiling going on and each League member gets a turn at being confronted by their shadow, or in other words, by a certain narrative they're trying to reject. For Toga, it's the idea that she's a deviant, someone whose "normal" isn't normal for everyone else. For Spinner, it's the fact that he's weak on his own and can only lend support to others. And for Dabi, it's the desperation to prove the worth of his quirk to someone who wants to exploit it for their own gain. But this scene in particular really hits different now:
when you have the full context for it. Before the reveal, the most commonly accepted theory concerning Touya's "death" was a training accident. Basically, the result of Endvr pushing him too hard. So the foiling with Geten worked, but not 100%. You saw Geten's desperation to prove his worth to an army that just considers him a pawn and thought: well, for Dabi the training had to be a duty. Surely, there was never a point in time where Touya decided to train on his own in order to satisfy his abuser's wishes and make him proud.
Right?
Well, Hori says. Think again.
And the foiling doesn't even stop there, but it's also told in the small details. For example, it's the fact that Geten had enough of an emotional attachment to Redestro to unlock a power up of his quirk in order to be helpful, to be of assistance to Redestro in times of need.
… In a fashion that's not too dissimilar to how Touya unlocked the blue flames in a highly emotional situation where he just wanted to prove useful to his father.
Another prominent aspect of the foiling between those two is the pressure to achieve perfection and how much it shaped their whole life. Those who get to sit at the top of the Liberation Army are held to a standard of “worthiness” and strength that's frankly inhumane. And they're asked to keep it up to avoid "disappointing" their boss, because, hint hint nudge nudge, they'd be replaced. We can infer this from a number of hints:
It's the fact that Skeptic frenetically insists that he only ever failed once, and then promptly tries to turn his shortcoming into a chance to succeed and make Redestro proud again.
This insane standard of perfection is also shown in Geten's words:
If you don't have a strong enough superpower to be of use to the cause, then your existence is as good as meaningless. Sounds familiar, yet?
To Touya, his life lost all its purpose when he was tossed away, because Endvr held all his children to the impossible standard of carrying his ambition without any “imperfections”:
And being unable to meet it meant being worthless. Cause again, for pre-atonement Endvr and the Meta Liberation Army, “a person's only worth lies in the strength of their superpowers.” As further emphasized by the way Geten's words directly parallel Endvr's mindset.
So when Dabi reacts with homicidal rage to Geten's taunts, he's not just reacting to the umpteenth reminder of his status as a “failed masterpiece”. He's also rejecting the naivety of his past self, and of that boyish wish to please his father that never quite got fully overwritten
So basically... chapeau, Hori. You got me there. Well done foreshadowing only hits you at your second reread, and I have to admit that mva really delivers on that front
You want ideals? He’s had ‘em!
An Exploration of Tomura’s Ideals (Part 1)
We really don’t give Shigaraki enough credit for a certain line that was overshadowed by what he said prior to it.
So, this is a very big line for Shigaraki, right? He states this, says it to /Endeavor/ of all people, and also links it to his father’s violence against him. BUT what does he say right after?
One of the things that has consistently been a problem for Shigaraki is people absolutely doubting his intentions and ideals. They oversimplify his action of wanting to destroy everything as destruction just for the sake of it. And perhaps he doesn’t himself realize he’s had convictions and ideals from the start. This has happened right from the very beginning.
This essay is devoted to documenting how Shigaraki’s ideals have always been present from the very beginning and how both ‘allies’ and foe alike have consistently denied their existence because Tomura’s actual ideals are incredibly linked to him feeling compassion and sympathy for others, which is not a trait either AFO would have wanted encouraged nor would his heroic foes want acknowledged.
I. How Shigaraki is constantly portrayed as a manchild
This entire page is the first time we see any sort of ‘villain’ ideology. Tomura is saying that the heroes are just as violent and disruptive as the villains, and that their violence is only reactionary and thus merely prolongs or adds to the cycle of violence - and that the designation of good and bad, in that light, is not a real designation. The Fallen Angel scans (RIP) put it more bluntly;
Tomura has always been upset at the way heroes are lauded by society for the violence and pain they cause. Because he’s been on the receiving end of that, whether by people ignoring him as a blood-covered five year old as a child so that heroes ‘could do their job’, or his father taking out his trauma over his mother choosing heroism over him on his own child.
But notice how All Might immediately disregards anything Tomura says? And how Tomura readily agrees? He’s standing here, a few days after turning twenty, meaning an adult in Japanese society, and he’s told that his feelings aren’t genuine. Kurogiri and All For One believe that to be the case too, which is why he’s being ‘educated’.
Stain throws aside Tomura’s plans as ‘a tantrum’, because Shigaraki tells him he wants to destroy what he doesn’t like. No one really asks questions as to why he doesn’t like the society that holds up All Might, not those who ‘care’ for him and those who don’t, so his actual ideals and feelings go unacknowledged or, frankly, infantilized. The framework here is that Shigaraki is a manchild, so his motivations can’t be complex, or above wanton destruction and the satisfaction he can get from it.
Stain is particularly important here because he’s also the first in a series of three adversarial villains to disregard Tomura’s capacity for holding ideals. Once again Tomura is asked his convictions, and first denies having them, but then states once more that he wants to ruin the society that made All Might.
Like everyone else, Stain then says, Shigaraki has something that needs to be nourished, a ‘seed of warped conviction’. It’s really fascinating that weeks after becoming an adult, Tomura is very much seen as a child by everyone around him. Kurogiri thinks of him as a child to be guided, All For One’s title of Sensei speaks clearly to his relation of him as someone who has something to ‘teach’ Tomura. Simply put, even someone who cares about Tomura, like Kurogiri, doesn’t think he has anything he believes in but a childish need for destruction. And this perception is nurtured too - from how Ujiko talks to him later on.
I do want to also say that Tomura doesn’t protest against being treated like a small child or told all his actions are devoid of any ‘true’ meaning besides a need for wanton destruction. Which is why he keeps saying he doesn’t “have convictions” to people. You can see that down below, in how Overhaul (the second of the adversarial villains) simply insults Tomura’s way of leading and calls it daydreaming, while Ujiko calls him a child with friends from the wrong crowd.
Why? Because he was groomed to reject the idea he had any ideals. In one of the scenes where Tomura has his third ‘adversarial’ villain encounter, with Redestro, he both affirms and rejects his grooming and we see in a flashback that the belief he has no ideals was literally instilled into him from the beginning.
It’s AFO’s prerogative to have an empty vessel full of hate, which is why from the start he starts telling Tomura that all he can do is destroy and all he wants to do is destroy. That morals and ideals are meaningless and only seek to control others. Tomura isn’t exactly as a manchild as much as he’s forced to be this way by AFO, with Ujiko and Kurogiri upholding that same grooming (the latter being programmed to do so). And the world reacts accordingly despite Tomura lack of outward disagreeing. As will be explored in part 2 of this essay, Tomura shows a paradox where his words, when questioned, mostly agree and voice his grooming and abuser’s opinions while his actions certainly don’t.
I need to know @gentrychild, are you an alien?
Just dropped a homophobic "friend"
This is actually his screen shot. I don't know where the original screen shot was taken, all I know is that he posted it on his discord server.
I was, originally (before I confronted him) going to give him a second chance. But then I actually thought about it, and read his response (spam and apologies that made no sense). Why the fuck would I deal with his bull shit and give him the satisfaction of having me come back? Hell no.
Thanks for reading. I hope no one else has to get rid of friends because of something like this.
It’s edited, so I’m confident in this.
I forgot to fucking post this but here ya go, some extras. enjoy
Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug) & Midoriya Izuku, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead & Midoriya Izuku Characters: Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Midoriya Izuku, Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug), Original Akumatized Character(s), Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Tsukauchi Naomasa, Bakugou Katsuki Summary:
What if Master Fu went to Mustaufau, Japan instead of Paris, France?
"Are you okay sir? That was a big fall." He said as he reaches his hand for the man.
The man takes his hand as Izuku helps lift him up
"Thank you young man, you didn't have to do that" He says while Izuku picks up his cane.
"I-It was n-no problem r-really." He said blushing slightly at the praise. "It's what anyone would do. Besides, I'm trying to be a hero after all!" He declares his last statement with pride while he smiles at the man.
The man smiles back at the boy. Finally some one who knows the meaning of a hero.
"Yes, you'll make a fine hero some day young man."
As Izuku trains to be a hero a new Vigilante comes to Mustaufau, Eraserhead gets a headache, and Tsukauchi drinks more coffee than humanly possible to finish all that new paperwork.
I got my favorite!
uquiz part 2 for shits and giggles
Chapters: 3/? Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku & Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Midoriya Izuku & Original Character(s), Midoriya Izuku & Sensei | All For One, Dabi & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku & Toga Himiko, Garaki Kyuudai | Ujiko Daruma & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku & Noumu, Akatani "Yamikumo" Mikumo & Class 1-A, Akatani "Yamikumo" Mikumo & Original Character(s), Akatani "Yamikumo" Mikumo & Bakugou Katsuki Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Sensei | All For One, Dabi (My Hero Academia), Toga Himiko, Garaki Kyuudai | Ujiko Daruma, Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki, Kirishima Eijirou, Original Characters, Akatani "Yamikumo" Mikumo, Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, League of Villains (My Hero Academia), Nedzu (My Hero Academia) Additional Tags: Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Villain Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku is Akatani “Yamikumo” Mikumo, Protective Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Protective Midoriya Izuku, One-Sided Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Sensei | All For One Being an Asshole, Manipulative Sensei | All For One, Yagi Toshinori | All Might Bashing, Bakugou Katsuki Bashing, Other Additional Tags to Be Added Summary:
"If you come with me I'll help you become a hero." He held out his hand for the boy to reach.
He took hold of Sensei's hand that dwarfed his in comparison. He wiped his tears, and with a determined look said.
"Let's go"
Join Izuku and his new found family as they create a better hero society.
I hope you enjoy my very first fic!
Cross-posted on Wattpad.