Our Hearts Are Broken | My Hero Academia Season 7x11 Reaction | EP149

[@Kaempfdog]

Ohhhhh boy I’ve been waiting for this. Let’s all be very calm as we watch this very laid back episode. Where do we start? AFS has just broken Bakugo’s arm after receiving nothing but an inconvenient burn on his eye after tanking a STADIUM NUKE. Jeanist, Mirko, Edgeshot are all down leaving him completely unattended as Aizawa is screaming hysterically for help to come for his student/kid/problem child. Mandalay can’t contact Deku so we have no eta from him. And this IMMENSELY uncomfortably long scene plays out as he holds Bakugo by the neck with Bakugo HELPLESS in action. I was shaking watching this again. This is one of MHA’s scariest moments because now that the main villain is in this final battle, the plot armor of our favorite characters is at long last fallen down. They are at NO GREATER RISK than they are now. But it leads to the Big 3 getting ready for their 1st team up. They’ve been implied to be a tight knit team but we’ve never actually seen them get active together before. We just know in the Overhaul arc all 3 are one man armies. We got next to no proper Mirio time in the 1st war as his opponents were High End Nomu and while he did WELL, they were mindless creatures he couldn’t actively confuse, wear down all that much, and lacked the force to beat. A mindful opponent is important against Mirio because permeation is so freaking confusing. So the best moment he really had in the 1st war was JUST his opening move and saying his motto is Nighteye’s dying words. And it was his grand return to the field. It’s one of my biggest criticisms of the 1st war. And the other Big 3 didn’t get much either but both GOT to be effective as more than a distraction. Here? What else could I ask for. Nejire has completely controllable curving blasts and can level city blocks PRETTY easily at max power, Amajiki is choosing mythical constellation beasts for his manifesting, and Mirio gets to look AFS dead in the eye through all this chaos without so much as a wince with the arm mutations which now have POISON FILTERS WITH GROWING MOUTHS. This is just outstanding team up moves as Mirio uses an energy punch, but just how relaxed he is just MAKES my day. And then there’s this TERRIFYING faltering as Tenko Shimura speaks up for the 1st time. He screams, he cries, out of NOWHERE he’s a child that wants to think about his childhood friends and his dog. Something he’s so intent on destroying, it’s ALL BACK. That’s…not AFO. That’s not Shigaraki. This is NOTHING like ANYTHING we’ve seen this character be EXCEPT in the backstory in season 5. But it’s treated not as a trigger point of Tomura Shigaraki…but as a 3rd personality from within. This…is just terrifying. Nejire is doing EVERYTHING she can and showing the true depth of how great a quirk surge is with all these amazing curving shots, layers and layers of blasts, and the memory to trust those she REALLY loves to be around. The Big 3 are all the most popular personalities in high school you can find. The undying optimist, the socially awkward shy guy that tries his best, and the social butterfly. In middle school and high school though, ESPECIALLY for girls…the social butterfly personality is seen as a large intimidation to many. Guys are often too scared to talk (ordinarily from a crush), and girls are jealous of the attention they garner with ease. And Nejire got the full brunt of them both despite her being completely earnest in her curiosity. And of all people to have AMAJIKI be the one to work up the courage to accept her….I LOVED that so much. (I think Amajiki and Nejire are one of the more likely couples of this show. Even while seeing her friend blushing up a storm with every move she makes) She’s ultimately buying time and helping bolster Amajiki same as Mirio. And the absolute hype of a light that swallows the sun in an OUTSTANDING combo of a dozen different consumables at once to make a CANNON fueled by a freaking KAMEHAMEHA. (I can’t see it ANY other way) And just…WHAT A MOVE. Manifest has the 2nd highest versatility in the show right up there with OFA and AFO. And CAN gain the power to threaten them. Provided the time. Also Mirio jumped in to get another hit in mid blast because their main goal is to press him against the electric fence as much as possible so his body stops cooperating with him so Mirio wanted him off balance to accomplish that. And Bakugo during this ENTIRE fight was trying to watch and track the movements of AFS. And he found his opening with a new facet of his power. He stored and he stored until it finally started coming out of EVERY part of his body providing him with the power to match Season 1 All-Might. Let’s call it what it is to have AFS be so taken aback by this. It’s Mach 30. The speeds All-Might used against the 1st Nomu. Deku at 75% can NOT move that fast. It’s as he promised. He would analyze like Deku and surpass the chosen one. AFS is marked as on the level with All-Might season 1, but LESSER. I’ll pat myself on the back for calling all his sweat works the same way 2 seasons prior to this chapter and I was squealing when I was reading the manga. He gives AFS war flashbacks of none other than the 2nd holder of OFA who looks VERY SIMILAR to Bakugo. And the passion to match. He was holding Bakugo the SAME WAY as AFO did the 2nd in the 1st true battle of OFA vs AFO. The 1st never battled his brother. The 2nd as the leader of the rebellion would have no choice but to make a stand against AFO no two ways around it. 1/60th of OFA’s true potential and the highest power we’ve seen in the show from the heroes. There’s just one MASSIVE PROBLEM. I have never once said that Explosion is in the top quirks of MHA. The drawback is FAR too massive. Exploding sweat glands from overstrain makes everything hurt as he fights. COMPLETELY empathizing with how Deku has done battle almost the ENTIRE SHOW. This is the 1st true empathy he provides Deku since the 2nd movie and he lost his memory of that experience. His eyes sparkling VERY similarly to how they did DURING that fight in fact. And he thinks of his good luck charm being an All-Might card. He wants to reach Deku’s level. Knows he’s been through this and HE wants to do right by All-Might. The competition he’s held so fiercely falls away to just admiration and pursuit. And if you think this is the level he’s always meant to be, the best of the best. It turns into the same question Bakugo asked All-Might the night of Deku and his rematch. “Am I not worthy of OFA?”(S3E23) The sad answer to both questions is realistic instead of the hope we ALL want to give him. A standard he’s realized he can’t be at no matter what best HE offers…we all fall victim to the very same mindset that Bakugo faced at the beginning. (S1E7) We turned into the adults that overhyped him and he wanted to show he was worthy of that assumption. And my heart goes out to him. Something I’ve said MANY times to people that say Bakugo is the unquestionable best. And he loses control just as Deku did trying to save everyone, and fulfills the very warning Aizawa gave Deku in the beginning: If you can only get one good hit in before falling apart, you’re nothing but a liability. And HE didn’t even get THAT much. Despite the new speed, it didn’t reflect on his force. AFS only was shaken mentally and emotionally from being reminded of the 2nd holder. There’s no physical damage on him at all unlike Mirio’s energy punch combo with Nejire and Bakugo’s maximum gauntlet blast. And he falls. Heart ruptured. This…was DEVASTATING. And the manga decided yup we’re going to break NOW. I’ll say this as a public safety situation again. Don’t threaten creators. This was the 3rd MASSIVE wave of threats on Horikoshi. 1st was the season 4 finale, 2nd was the rushing around the SaS fight, 3rd is when THIS happened to Bakugo. Just…don’t do that. I fell victim the same way everyone did of overhyping what Bakugo would do. In my theorizing the set up of this war, I had Bakugo 1v1 Machia. I believed Machia wouldn’t be as strong with only 1 opponent as opposed to like a HUNDRED which is what he’s designed to face. And Bakugo would face the most direct of AFO’s soldiers. I overhyped him. People thought he would win the day here with his power up. They overhyped him. We ALL DID IT. This level is not sustainable considering he was only at 30% at Deku’s 45% level during the 1st war, and is WAY BEYOND IT NOW. OFA stabilizes the higher you control it. Bakugo had NO SUCH protection. The reality is this. You can’t jump THAT much in power and accept perfect control instantly. (Mach 4 to 30 is WAY too much of a boost even with a month gap) And with it coming from EVERYWHERE, well there’s a LOT of “everywhere” by your organs. But no one has ANY RIGHT of seeing that and saying that threats need to be made. Next time…the war just keeps moving…as the rain falls.

[@Kaempfdog]

⁠ You know, I had been holding back for a while. I have been IMMENSELY critical to Bakugo from the start of their rivalry, to the sacrifice play, to the apology. And I wanted to explain that a little. If it wasn't apparent, I knew about this episode a WHILE ago. And I still chose the route to talk about him the way I did because NOW I understood he DOES care. But when you look back at his journey to get here, the fact that their relationship STAYED so toxic COMPLETELY fell on Bakugo. The care, admiration, and understanding must have started growing around the season 5 range when they were training Blackwhip together and he realized All-Might was hiding the history of OFA from Deku, and in the ways he was, he realized OFA has to be INSANELY dangerous to hold PERIOD, and not from any AFO hunting. And All-Might said I'm worried and scared about what I have found yes. I worry for Deku. And I know you are too. And it always drove me crazy that it ALSO included the scene where their training entailed him blasting Deku in the face over and over and OVER again. And I just sat there and said your care might be real, but if you are able to put something AS SERIOUS as OFA might be killing Deku just by HOLDING THE QUIRK, and say "Hold on its time to compete. It was HIS idea." You have shown your priority. You want to compete with OFA MORE than you want to think about how this quirk could KILL HIM. That is HORRIBLE. And that guilt eats at him for when he's carrying Endeavor to the 1st Deku vs AFS slingshot battle when float awakened, but he says "Even if OFA is a cursed power, it's still-" And he practically SHOVES DOWN the guilt of bullying him and thinking about protecting his image of what that power was used for. Being his and Deku's hero through All-Might. And he keeps shoving it down until he gets the memory of Deku walking through the river when he did his 1st acted before thinking for the sacrifice play. It isn't that the care is not present, it's that we have crossed the juncture by a MILE of a simple "I'm pretending not to like you." And it turns into I am struggling to put care where it's actually needed for the person that genuinely needs it. And between moments like him being taken away from Deku's hospital room while Deku was comatose, or him going out of his way to STILL insult Deku leading up to intervention fight while Deku has the emotional breakdown of his LIFE. If his care, admiration, understanding had been as big as they CLEARLY are today, I am watching this guy twist himself in PRETZELS to cause him or the people that have COMPLETE love for him harm. (It does not matter the intention when the result remains negative) Imagine if he made it INTO the hospital room and Izuku's mother was crying next to him and THIS GUY charges in screaming at her comatose son about how he didn't pull his weight, get up, you haven't done ENOUGH, and in THAT tone. I'd probably file for a restraining order IMMEDIATELY in her place. But it's fine, 4 people STOPPED HIM BY FORCE FROM DOING SOMETHING EXACTLY LIKE THAT. And THEN has the gall that this endlessly selfless person is looking DOWN ON THEM in the intervention, DOESN'T stand up for him OR check on him when an ANGRY MOB is getting ready to attack him, (Deku almost left the UA barrier with no one stepping up for him. But Uraraka stopped him and did the legwork to show him all the care she had to stand up for him in that speech.) and let's not forget Deku's VERY LOUD silence when asked for forgiveness through it all. Don't try too hard to call me Izuku. Deku is fine. (Don't push yourself that hard to value me. Keep calling me worthless.) These two episodes have shown the progress Bakugo has made to truly value Izuku's mindset and care for him not just as a rival. And the care is MASSIVE here. But it shines a GIGANTIC spotlight on what he DID NOT provide when he IS capable of understanding Izuku's circumstances so thoroughly. And worse Bakugo refuses his OWN advice to Izuku when he made the sacrifice play. "Stop trying to win be yourself." He needed this GIGANTIC journey to turn his fear, hatred, insecurity and competition of Deku into full blown care and understanding. And it is HEART WRENCHING he never got the chance to actually point it AT Izuku to mend their relationship that Izuku has tried SO HARD to repair from their friendship...BEFORE BAKUGO EVER GOT A QUIRK AS A KID. AFS took that chance away. And it's going to make it EVEN HARDER for Izuku to stand against him and say "I WANT TO SAVE YOU SHIGARAKI."

[@Nelchann]

Such a great episode !! Prob the best one of the series 💙