Anyway, current thoughts are All Might Makes Me Cry For The Same Reasons Superman Does still and that Bakugou continues to be BEST MOST PERFECT BEST BOY I LOVE YOU GOOD BOY. This is because he is, as the kids say, relatable. I am aware of like most of the plot up to the end of the third season of the anime because I'm a gremlin who fucking doesn't care about spoilers. IN FACT I LOVE THEM. This is only regarding broad strokes mostly unless it concerns MY BOY, though. SO LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHILE I GET THERE.
finally getting caught up with the manga - partway through 166, and I'm so proud of bakugou. my boy is developing his character :')
Up to episode six of season 2 now. We're slowly but surely catching up. Slowly. But. Surely. God Bakugou remains...A Good Trash Son. Also man is 'I only got second place GOD FUCKING DAMMIT,' a relatable ass gifted child feel. Todoroki is finally showing his colors. Which I am liking quite a bit. I know what's coming with him, and I'm really liking how the show's handling it thus far. Stuff with Deku's been good too. In general the tournament arc is very standard and typical in terms of its setup, but it's done very, very well and its writing is damned good. Like it's not doing anything new with the formula, but it is highlighting the strengths of it exceptionally. It's also doing this in a reasonable time frame. I didn't have to watch like 20 episodes worth of the race or the cavalry battle. They each got two episodes, which was more than enough to highlight specific characters and show neat character interactions. FUCK. AM I HYPE FOR WHEN THE ONE ON ONE BATTLES ARE GONNA START. HNNNNNNNG. tournament arcs are like one of the best things about battle series and this one is just Everything Right About Them Done Well And In A Reasonable Amount Of Time I don't have to watch 30 episodes of Naruto's Adventures In Snake Forest Land before I get to the fights.
Spoiler: chapter 203 Nothing is more heartwarming than Endeavor being angsty about getting left on read :'). Well ok to be fair the "nasty scar you got there" probably tops it but this is like 2nd place.
Spoiler: Manga spoilers (Chapter 210) Oh my god it's finally happening, the match I've been waiting for since literally this character's introduction. PLEASE LORD SHOW ME HOW THESE QUIRKS INTERACT
Spoiler I fully believe that either for Plot/Dear God Protect This Child He Has No Clue reasons, Monoma won't be able to copy the power. Which is cheap but like. He would Die.
Spoiler To some degree I agree, but I'm actually not sure, and the uncertainties I have about Copy are part of why I want him to try because I want to see what he gets. Monoma seems to innately understand the mechanics and activation requirements of Quirks he copies; he knows how to pop off Hardening and that Bakugo's Explosions source from sweat and how to use them moments after getting them. He also doesn't seem to show any lack of confidence believing he could imitate Brainwashing. So there's no learning lag on things. The thing is - what is One For All? That's been kind of the driving point of this whole arc. If Copy tries to grab it, does it snag the whole thing? Does it just snag a base Stockpiling power? Does he snag the ability to pass Quirks onto people since that was apparently an individual Quirk that somehow kind of co-habitated with the stockpiling? Is he going to be aware of the nature of these visions Deku's having? Does nothing happen because he's not a designated inheritor? If he GOT One For All, could he actually use it since he seems to gain some innate mastery? The dude's hardly jacked so part of me doubts it, but on the other hand, All Might seems to think that Deku's lack of mastery of it is less "Wasn't ripped enough" (though he did have to make a bare minimum) and more "Just doesn't have the innate knack for it like me." I don't think Copy is the same nature of permanent theft as something like All For One, and thus might not be prevented outright, so I'm really, really deathly curious.
Spoiler This is totally fair, and I don't think I have a definite theory to give a satisfying answer. My best response would be it's possible that he gains the stockpiling ability (for up to 5 minutes I think his quirk says?) but doesn't inherit all of the power that has been stockpiled, which is the only thing making One For All so terrifyingly powerful, and so he has 5 minutes, starting from his own base power levels. He would probably notice almost no change, though potentially understand what it is that he actually got.
Spoiler Personally, I agree. That seems like the absolute most likely outcome - he just gets the base Quirk without any of the build-up. I guess it depends on whether or not the collective power is a part of the Quirk he can copy - and I can't really decide if it is or isn't. It's passed on along with the rest of the Quirk, which makes me...Not sure, really? Whatever the case, I feel like the author wouldn't be pitting this conspicuous match-up out there for no reason. If this fight doesn't lead to at least one major revelation about OFA I'll eat my hat.
Spoiler: Previous talk about Copy, spoilers for manga One of my personal takes on this is actually that Monoma has been set up to gain some copy of One For All since his introduction because of the simple nature of his name. Note that this doesn't mean any indication on what version copying it has, but this is just a silly bit of trivia: He has the name requirement. Every user of One For All has a number in their name somewhere indicating where they are in the lineage. Nana is seven, Toshinori has the kanji for eight in his name, one of the kanji in Izuku's name can be read as nine... Monoma copying it would make a new, temporary lineage. Monoma. Mono. One.
Spoiler: Late thought to this discussion and highly improbable but Okay so this just hit me out of the blue after my comment on their legacy and I absolutely don't know how much I buy into it because I think it's too crazy for the story to try and touch on, but All Might tells us that All For One's brother received the Stockpiling Quirk and then it smashed together with the Inheritor Quirk and made One For All. So here's my question. WHY THE HELL did they fuse? More concerningly, if that's some innate trait common to either one of those - just kind of osmosising into a new host body and its Quirks, um...What happens if a temporary version tries to do that? SO MANY QUESTIONS!
Spoiler: kind of a joke theory Monoma copies Izuku's quirk, it merges with his normal quirk and becomes permanent, accidentally creates new One for All
Spoiler I was always under the impression that it was like chemistry. The two were compatible and since they were both there permanently, they mixed and created something new.
Spoiler: Reply to joke theory Monoma bumblefucks his way into becoming deuteragonist, Bakugo is endlessly pissed
Spoiler: addendum what if monoma’s quirk merges with the “ability-to-give-quirks” quirk and then monoma could copy someone’s quirk and then give the copied quirk to someone else
Spoiler: joke this is really dumb but i also love it, so: in this AU, monoma’s new merged quirk is called All For All
