Question Is Deku Boring?

[Nejire-chan]

I don’t find Deku boring at all! I’m not a fan of him being a whiner, but, when he needs to, he delivers as a protagonist. His tactics are actually interesting to read, and they usually work well enough given his limits. That said, I would really appreciate if the author put a lot more of effort and screen time into honing his fighting abilities. We know he needs to work on his kicking style to begin with, but we still did not see any concrete indication that he is training to that end. Besides, we also know that his fighting style is limited and almost completely based on Gran Torino’s and All Might’s. Considering he is an intern in the same office as two of the most technically gifted heroes in the world, he could surely improve greatly from sparring with them. I’m not sure Sir would agree to it, given the fact he does not acknowledge him (at least yet), but I don’t see any reason why Mirio would not agree. I believe a reason he has not considered suggesting it may be the tense atmosphere in the office, thanks both to Sir’s disapproval of him and to his own embarrassment at knowing he has taken the place that was meant to be Mirio’s, who is obviously so much stronger than he could be right now. If he can go beyond that wall, I’m sure he will have a lot of room to grow. We would not even need a training arc or, worse a time skip; sparring matches can be very organically interlocked with ongoing plotlines, after all, and I’m pretty sure Horikoshi would be totally able to pull that out.

All that said, yeah, Deku’s position is very uncomfortable right now. The worst part of it all is that, as things stand, Sir is absolutely right about who would be the best successor. Mirio is easily the best living hero in terms of fighting ability, and he also embodies All Might’s ideals as perfectly as anyone possibly could. Considering yet how little time All Might had after his first victory against All for One, it was especially urgent for him to choose someone whose rate of growth was consistent with his time left. Personally, I think choosing Deku for his heroic spirit was a really bad call.

Buuuuut, even so, I totally agree with Aonori. It’s much more fun to follow someone who is starting to grow right now than someone who is almost established as a hero. Thus, as a reader, I’m thankful for his bad call.

I want to kinda pitch an idea here...even though Midoriya has OFA and All Might has shown that it easily makes one capable of being the number one hero what if Midoriya does not become the No 1 hero. A common theme I see in MHA is that while the heroes are indeed helping people and fighting crime they are engrossed in publicity, endorsements, and money this is reflected in ones like Mt Lady. Deku represents the ideal that heroes simply help people because its the right thing to do and to inspire others etc. That was the real meaning behind the Hero Killer arc. In this way I could see Deku either dying in martyr way to save everyone else to include the Heroes from themselves. Additionally, I could see him shying away from the publicity this is a difference between him and All Might. While All Might is fine with being in front of people as the symbol of peace and with the publicity I could see Deku shying away from it all simply being a hero on his own until it was time to choose the next user of OFA which

Spoiler

as we know once OFA is passed on the original user gradually loses their power as the embers go out as seen in All Mights last fight against AFO.

Regarding him not becoming n. 1, I have been thinking so for some time as well. However, I honestly don't think he is going to shy away from One for All. It has always been his dream to become a hero, and doing so without a quirk would be especially difficult. Nevertheless, if he had only the good of the world in mind, I think passing on the power to Mirio might be the best option right now. All for One is still alive, after all, and he can pass on his power to Tomura if he breaks himself free. The world might need a (really really) strong successor, like, sooner rather than later.