Now’s as good a time as ever for Deku to join the army. Get it? ARMy? No, you shut up!
I hate All For One as the final villain. I hate Shigaraki’s growth being all for nothing. But, I’m not gonna dwell on it this chapter. Talking about it ad nauseum would be underhanded of me. Ah! See what I did there?! …Sorry, Deku.
Deku lost the arms race against Shigaraki. And, AFO all but confirmed the young hero no longer has One For All. Where’s Eri when you need her? Seriously. Deku needs Eri, big time. I guess Aizawa will warp him to Eri’s location so she can Rewind his arms and bring One For All back. But, didn’t Ectoplasm say Eri’s not at full power? How is she gonna pull this off? Whatever. I wash my hands with this topic. Oops! Sorry, Deku.
I wonder who else Aizawa and Kurogiri brought to the party? Sero, Ojiro, and Sato aren’t nearly enough to hold off AFO. You know? We’re bound to get a flashback revealing how Aizawa broke AFO’s control over Shirakumo/Kurogiri and then they (and Present Mic?) begin finding able-bodied heroes to help Deku. Makes me wonder if international heroes will assist the teenage boys who have no business being there. Heroes like Captain Celebrity and Skycrawler?! Yes, dear friends. Once again I’m hoping Skycrawler, my favorite My Hero-verse character, makes an appearance in My Hero Academia. I mean, there’s no one else left to fight AFO, right? RIGHT?!
The Decay quirk was a modified version of Overhaul’s quirk. I didn’t see that coming! Makes sense. That AFO. What a genius, Y’all! So glad he came back to monologue more about how everyone but him sucks. Apologies. I said I wasn’t gonna dwell on it. I’ll just give him the finger and move on. Mi dispiace, Deku.
This was a good chapter (minus my annoyance at AFO being AFO)! I’m actually looking forward to several chapters of Aizawa’s Excellent Adventure. Later dudes and dudettes and… non-dude-narys? Yeah. I’d understand if you facepalmed that last bit.
Sorry, Deku.
Mammoth Base Opera Castle 
3 replies on “Disarmed & Dangerous [My Hero Academia 419]”
Having sat on it for a minute, I’m realizing that this is the same thing he did with Bakugo:
1. A “perfect send off(Bakugo’s “Death/” All For One being absorbed by Tomura)
2. A Stupid way to survive(Edgeshot/ AFO forcing his way back into the story)
3. A Cool Pay off After that(Bakugo’s return/ The Battle To Come)
He’s like: “Trying To Have His Cake And Eat It, Too-” wanting to have BOTH a Cool Death and yet still use the character. One makes the other feel pointless, though; it just feels like we wasted all that time watching Bakugo vs that All For One/Tomura fusion feel Pointless. I think I said it back when I talked about Bakugo’s survival: You can’t take back something you’ve drawn- IT HAPPENED. To “undo” what’s been drawn is like saying “I didn’t have anything to draw this week, so enjoy this What If Chapter I drew for fun.” If that weren’t part of the main series and just a “What If” Volume extra or whatever, then fine. But to have it BOTH WAYS just……….. shows a lack of faith in the writing.
And what makes it WORSE is that EVERYTHING THE ALL FOR ONE HAS TOLD US- we could all gather. I mean; not him basically forcing Tenko’s parents to have him- that part just seems like he went out of his way to Make All For One look like the “Baddest Bad Guy To Ever Be Bad.” But him giving Tomura “Decay,” and even his return- ALL OF THAT we saw coming. I don’t know if I’m explaining what I don’t like about it right, but I’ll say this: It’s not THAT he was involved in Tenko’s Tragic Life- it’s HOW involved he was. If he had stopped at “I’m The One Who gave You ‘Decay’ and egged you on to keep that anger up,” then I think that would’ve been fine. Insteadl he’s the only reason Tenko was BORN? It went THAT DEEP?
And All For One’s return was foretold when the original de-aged to nothingness. But Tomura just……….. they just………. LET THAT HAPPEN? Didn’t even ATTEMPT to fight back? Izuku tried to fight and he didn’t even have ARMS at that point. It’s enough to make me think that Tenko and Tomura really ARE just gone now- that whole theory I had about them “splitting” is now just completely out the window for me. And it was only a theory, so I should have expected the possibility of it being wrong. But………… I mean, REALLY? They were in a FINGER COCOON- you had the perfect chance to do that, and just threw it out.
I’m willing to wait and see Step 3 before I completely write this off, but for now I can’t say I’m “enthused” to have this guy back.
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Interesting comparison with Bakugo’s battle. There is a level of “cool” Horikoshi seems to want for this last arc. Or, maybe, he had a bunch of ideas and decided to throw in as many as he could.
I agree about AFO being TOO involved with Tenko’s change into Shigaraki. It puts all the blame on AFO so he can be killed and Tenko be saved. Whether or not, Tenko survives after being “saved” is another matter.
At this point, either something like your theory happens or Tenko’s will helps defeat AFO and he dies a “hero”.
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It IS the Finale of the Story that made his dream of being a Mangaka come true. I guess “throwing caution to the wind” and drawing all the cool stuff you wanted to draw is understandable. I just wish it were executed better.
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