Idk How The Actual Comparison Was, And I Remember It From Some Years Ago.

You know? The amount or plot holes and inconsistencies originated from the reveal of Shigaraki being Tenko Shimura almost makes me think Horikoshi didn't originally conceived Tomura as related to Nana, but it actually was a late idea added without any proper context.

Notice how also unlike Dabi's reveal as Touya Todoroki, there's zero hints of the real identity of Shigaraki prior Kamino and even after it really doesn't change anything story wise. The reveal is just there to make AFO a more pety and sick bastard for taking the grandson of Nana, but Shigaraki could have been the grandson of anyone else it would change nothing. Does it change his relationship with Deku for example? Not really, Deku would have the same reaction for any kid.

Not even A.M gets an interesting reaction out of this beyond the inital shock.

One thing that is now unfair to ask is...what is Nine's name? Look hori treated him as an afterthought but his lack of origins works better than the comical twnko's origins.

Yes his family was all killed thanks to him but ...I can't help to think that scene was too ridiculous.

We never saw anyone mentioned them again, not even shig. (He remembers them in MVA and we do see the disgusting human puppet hori flay around) But that's it.

So Nine...

Im not one of those people who think a new character needs to be related to a pre stabelished one. Nine doesn't need to be a Todoroki, Shimura or hell even a lost Midoriya (hahahahahahaha as if hori would care for this family)

But ....imagine if Nine was related to Oboro, somehow, wouldn't that be interesting?

Maybe, maybe not.

Oboro's character became a thing to turns Aizawa into a better character...and fails. Kuro was sacrificed for nothing.

The thing about Shigaraki/Tenko backstory is that it feels... a bit overdramatic?

Well we can say that about his whole character, but the part of his backstory in particular when he kills his family is so exagerated for the sake of shock value that it kinda feels comical.

Horikoshi tried a bit too hard on make MVA feel like the edgier and "different" arc of the series, but the contrast in so big that I can't take it seriously.

Especially when Hori already nailed a dark tone without being super explicit or over the top.

Take the simplicity of Eri's backstory for example:

No blood, no unnecessary violence, just two panels giving a basic idea of what happened to Eri's father and yet the image of those clothes lying on the floor is much more haunting and eerie than the enterity of Shigaraki backstory.

Why Horikoshi stop being subtle with his storytelling?

...

Anyway going back to Nine real name, or the lack of one, I think it's interesting how that aspect of his character adds to the underlying theme of how AFO and Garaki dehumanize people, especially the ones that are part of their experiments.

We know very well how AFO doesn't view other human being as persons but rather objects that belong to him. This starts with his very own twin brother, which name Yoichi means something like "my first possesion".

And just like Nine, number 6 from Vigilantes was a child which whole life was modeled by AFO. They both are just numbers without a real name.

In this case the idea is presented even more explicitly because Six was a child who suffered some kind of amnesia and couldn't even view himself as a normal human with a face.

He even died as a monster without ever know if he had an identity outside being the number 6.

It's funny how you mention the idea of Nine and Shirakumo being connected somehow, as isn't the first time I've hear that.

It's interesting notice how they share this common theme about sky and clouds as part of who they are (Nine's name also is supposedly a reference to the term "cloud nine") both Nine and Oboro are individuals willing to sacrifice their own lifes for others, and ironically both of them ended being experimented by Dr Garaki.

I even have the headcanon of Kurogiri being the "Number 7" in this line of experiments were Nine and Six belong, as sort of missing link between Six and the sentient nomus.

I probably should make a post later explaining better this idea.

And yes for Horikoshi, Shirakumo was just a diposable character to make Aizawa look cooler and more edgy.

While the author of Vigilantes clearly invested a lot of effort on making Oboro a real and memorable character which complements Aizawa rather than just being an accesory. But that topic deserves it's own post as well.

P.S: I have an idea of what real name we could give to Nine, but I keep it for me at least for the moment.

People be shipping Tengen with Zenitsu when it's very obvious that our god of flashiness adores Tanjiro the most:

The way Tengen looks at him on this scene just screams "already found my 4th spouse"

I know!

That's a double edge sword because while having such great looking characters makes the world of MHA more interesting, it also makes us wish more of them have more screen time despite it's quite impossible.

I need to think on a spinoff with Cider as the main character btw...

You can't imagine how much I love the Cider House leader guy...

A minor villain has no right to look so cool, badass and handsome like he does.

Also he probably got the best water quirk of the series.

Also he got so much sassy energy on top of having such insane drip.

Being one of his like 3 fans isn't easy, but still love him.

You can't imagine how much I love the Cider House leader guy...

A minor villain has no right to look so cool, badass and handsome like he does.

Also he probably got the best water quirk of the series.

Also he got so much sassy energy on top of having such insane drip.

Being one of his like 3 fans isn't easy, but still love him.

Kai is that impossible crush.

I know he loves Chrono despite everything, people overlook how much Kai values him. Is just that he's too busy being the perfect yakuza leader to attend romantic feelings.

This is such a fun scene when you think about the context, cause is supposed to be from Chrono's perspective.

Chrono really think he can fool us and make us think Chisaki, a person with severe misophonia, would voluntarily enter in a cage fight shirtless AND without gloves?

Especially considering we have another the flashback of the same or a similar situation from Rappa's perspective and we clearly see Chisaki doesn't take off his clothes for "fight".

Is Chrono so thirsty for Kai that he unconsciously imagines him shirtless?

Well I can't blame you at all Hari... I do the same thing all the time.

You can't take sexist Dabi away from me!

But seriously I love the idea for multiple reasons, one of them being that is a direct response to the whole "lov are sjw" that lov fans love to circlejerk just to make them look more noble compared to the "problematic" characters like Endeavor or Overhaul especially.

Just think on Dabi having to share space with Toga after that makes it extra hilarious.

And another important reason is because as you know I ship DabiTen a lot, but here's a thing: I like Geten being a trans boy.

So the consequences of Dabi being super sexist but at the same time Geten being sort of the love of his life are fun because it will drive him mad for clash with his own beliefs. I imagine a situation in which Dabi tries to have sex with Geten, but when he found what Geten haves under his clothes it left him in shock.

Ah the sweet drama.

For some reason I think this is Dabi's favorite book ever:

Hahahahaha hahahahaha

Listen @nyc3 I do love some good old joke "Dabi is a sexist" but in canon...we don't see much to proof that. He was rude to his mom and sis one time ? Sure. He was under a fucked up situation as he knew why he was born.

Plus when he wakes up from the coma, he wanted to see his mother and sister.

Funny jokes

But don't think dabi is a sexist.

His hair blowing by the wind...

Nine is too gorgeous.

I kinda get what point you're trying to make here, but this is more about Kai character arc that the Hassaikai arc itself.

For Kai as a character I do agree on him not being as fleshed out as he could be (but disagree on the love part, I love him anyway so...).

The Overhaul arc as a storyline feels pretty consistent overall outside of thay specific part.

Besides you have to put this in the context of how it was published in the manga. Because by that point the Overhaul arc was at the time the longest arc of the series and go on for over a year which was a huge difference compared to everything else the manga had previously.

Besides is a known fact that Horikoshi wasn't emotionally okay during that time, and writing the arc with a very dark tone was not doing very good to his mental health as he said on interviews.

With that in mind it's totally possible that Horikoshi just wanted to be done with an arc that was going on forever and pass to something lighter in tone (main reason of why the school festival is almost cartoonish in comparison). That was at the cost of not expand on Chisaki as a character sadly.

As for the rest of your questions, it sounds like you don't finished the stoey of the manga so it might be spoiler so I couldn't talk about them without spoil some things.

ok so tell me if I'm wrong or overthinking this, but....

Does anyone else think Overhaul's ark was rushed and kinda half-finished? Why does every character have a fully explained back story that makes you love them no matter what, but we still don't know anything about Overhaul? Where did he come from? who are his parents? why does Pops' daughter not want anything to do with him? Is it just me? I feel like Pops neglected Kai as a kid. He's obviously mentally ill, and he had no care for that. where did he get his quirk theory from? When he said it, it sounded drilled into his head like he had heard it somewhere else. how is he connected to any of the AFO ark? he seems to be the adult version of Eri if she was never saved right? why did Pops find him wandering the streets? WHY?

Horikoshi is always involved in the movies production in more or less degree, as a consultant for the story despite he doesn't get credit in the script writing, and doing character designs and he does the promo Volume that is gifted to the people that go to the cinema.

Heroes Rising in particular seems to be the one movie he contributed the most, as we know the overall plot is based on a discarded ending he had for the main series. And he did an origin chapter for Nine, something no other movie villain has.

Slice being betrayed by men is something HK put in the volume extras despite that info isn't present in the movie itself.

As you didn't see the movie let me explain this quick: Slice and especially Mummy don't get much real exposition about their past in the movie, as the plot gives more attention to Nine and Chimera.

I wouldn't discard Slice being exploited on a romantic/sexual degree, I guess that part is leave to the reader imagination.

Like I said my own interpretation based on the few info we got is that Slice trust and admire Nine because other mens in her life he views her with different eyes and help Slice to find a new porpuse, also giving her the opportunity to discorver her own strength and also meet people she can trust.

That's why also I don't like Nine/Slice on a shipping sense, it feels wrong (and Nine could only have one valid ship).

Looking at the characters pages in the Volume Rising extras, I notice an interesting detail about Slice's background.

Now I'm aware this is a rough translation by google, but it's interesting that Horikoshi explicitly describes Slice as being used by "men".

Which could also connect with this panel from Nine's origin backstory, in which Slice is seen lying on the floor of a destroyed apartment looking totally defeated and helpless.

As far I know this is the only time a female character (and a villain for that mattter) in the series is written with an explicit background about being used and possible exploited by mens, implying a context of misoginia.

Which also makes me wish we had more context about Slice relationship with Nine and the rest of the crew.

How she pass from not trust anyone to be fully concerned about her team? (All being mens).

There's a lot of potential to developed their relationship there.

But an important note: I don't see Slice devotion to Nine and his ideals as romantic, not at all like much people like to interpret just because she's a woman. I feel that kinda goes against her characterization, considering Nine probably was the first man she ever trust but unlike others he wasn’t a lover or anything, but a savior and a true friend/family.

Horikoshi also says on Slice character page that Nine asked her about her quirk first and he values the name of it over actual names (which btw adds to Nine's own characterization considering he doesn't have a real name). I like to think it might be one of the reasons of why Slice trust so much on Nine's vision for the world, as he probably give a new meaning to her life other than being a pretty face and help her to value her own power.

Matching tattoos for lovers is a trope I live for.

And Cider probably would get a taste of his own medicine is Izumi starts teasing him in more creative ways. Two can play the same game.

The whole cinderIzu is great and I welcome with open arms. For my au, I have an idea for them meet.

Again, BK is a footnote in her life and Izumi is not dedicating all her time and energy in thinking of him. (She hears how his quirk remains the same, no quirk awakening bs, how bk's attitude got worse and how Aizawa is sure BK is the future)

Izumi hears about the mpa here and there and ...is not impressed. She needs money, her group can't work by luck...they need ration and more, and Izumi is not happy ReDestro has "schools" for kids to learn their quirks...its just a camp where the kid learns how to use their quirk AND NOTHING ELSE (Geten my be alliterate here)

Stealing from Redestro is not something she can pull off on her own. She needs help to do this heist.

(the quirk schools aren't illegal, per se, but it rubs Izumi in the wrong way. She is right)

Enters Cinder. He shows up with his helmet, all gear up and...well, he too needs money and Mr. Youtsubashi is loaded and if he wants to make quirk schools, fine...let's rob the fucker.

Izumi gawks as Cinder removes his helmet. He is handsome and cute...she wasn't expecting this.

Lol

(I love a good mask reveal!)

I also live for the moments when a character takes of their mask and reveals to be hot, and Cider isn't the exception. I mean can you blame Midoriya for what him?

Note: Izu probably loves in particular the little scar Cider got in his eyebrown, he/her found that detail to be especially sexy.

...

Is funny you mention the whole plot of Cider helping Izu to steal stuff from Re-Destro company, as I also have this idea of him making an operation to steal from a werehouse full of valuable tech and support items that Detnerant (I think that's the company name) sells into the black market.

They would have success stealing a lot of merch they later sell to get money, but also Cider found a particularly expensive prototype of a high tech glider he decides to keep for himself and use to compliment his surfing style. As Mizunami is really into surfing in my AU, like he seems to be in canon.

Oh I forgot to mention before but the vigilante name Cider/Mizunami will use for my AU will be "Splashdown". Be free to use it if you like the name.

And since you mentioned Geten here, do you think he will have some role in the story? As I mentioned before I love the idea of Cider being a Himura, but also he probably was rejected by his clan because his quirk is water instead of ice and the Himuras seems to be the kind of elitist jerks to would dishonor a child for born with a "imperfect" quirk.

Which would create a lot of tension between Cider and Geten, especially is they reconogice each other. Geten hating Cider for being "a failed Himura" and Cider will hate Geten because he's just a "an attack dog" for Re-Destro.