My Hero…

Expanding On Inko’s Segment From The “Izuku’s Emotional Neglect” post!!

I recently did a post about Izuku’s Emotional Neglect and it had a segment on Inko’s influence on him and like I wanted to add this part in but 1) I couldn’t find anywhere to put it that would still make the post flow well and 2) it would have made the post too long

Here is the original post [x], I recommend you read it before reading this!

The part I wanted to talk about was the All Might Visit scene in chapter 96, specifically this part

“If only my child had stayed quirkless (…) wouldn’t Izuku have been happier that way…?”

I know we talk about The Todoroki Family’s disconnect, but can we also talk about the Midoriya Family’s disconnect?

The way it is, Izuku sees his quirklessness as bad because of how it’s been treated in the past by his childhood peers/friends, his teachers, his mother and All Might. It’s always been implied to be bad and wrong, to be worse than having a “lame” quirk.

But Inko doesn’t know this. She doesn’t know how Izuku sees his quirklessness. To her, the extent of her idea must be “it was bad because he wanted to be a hero but you need a quirk to be a hero”, but that’s not the issue here

Izuku doesn’t want to be useless therefore -> quirkless.

Inko wonders if staying quirkless [therefore -> useless] would have been good for him.

My point is Inko doesn’t know how bad her son’s self worth is. She doesn’t know the gravity of her words in this moment.

As said in the original post, Inko’s language always implies his quirklessness as something deeply upsetting and bad. While she didn’t mean to imply it, to Izuku, her apology would have felt like a betrayal to how she acted before [she acted so upbeat and happy when Izuku would go on about becoming a hero, but when he asks her for the last time if he can become a hero, she cries and instead apologises. That would have felt like a big betrayal to Izuku]

The deeper problem here is that Inko and Izuku don’t communicate.

Izuku never told her how his quirklessness or her words made him feel, plus we don’t even know if he ever told her about Bakugou’s bullying or even the bullying in general! It seems like Inko hasn’t the foggiest idea of Izuku’s problems.

And in this scene, as you can see with the flashbacks, Inko seems to see his quirklessness as a lost opportunity for peace. She would be absolutely content with playing pretend as long as Izuku doesn’t run off into danger “like what she witnessed on tv”

[oh Inko… you’ve got a big storm coming]

And this isn’t to say Inko is wrong to think this. It’s not wrong of her to want her son to be safe. But the fact of the matter is that she doesn’t know how deeply her words effect Izuku, because this is the second time she has said something upsetting about his quirklessness. Not purposefully, but it still must hit Izuku deep.

So then we look at Izuku’s reaction to this

To her, she views it as a necessary evil. That she hates making her son upset and dragging him away from a place he loves, but she feels she has to do it in order for him to be safe.

To Izuku, this is the end of his dream, that panicked realization just before you wake up to reality. He eventually accepts that he can go to other schools, but I think this initial reaction is interesting.

“All my efforts reduced to zero! (…) I have to go back to UA, no matter what!”

Once again, I feel like it could be that familiar feeling of betrayal. That she’s taking away that dream of his.

Actually, that apology seems the same. She tells him “I’m sorry”, almost like a parallel to before.

To add more to the disconnect, let me also very briefly mention this

Because here, Izuku is promising things he can’t keep. This is more or less a “fake it till you make it” thing where Izuku PROMISES to work on getting stronger so he won’t worry his mother anymore but uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh [war arc flashbacks and vigilante arc visions]

This is a disconnect with himself, because he’s still being reckless and not thinking about his own safety, but at the same time it’s a disconnect with his mother for not upholding his promise, with not thinking about how this behavior effects his loved ones

Izuku’s self hatred and self worth issues outweigh the feeling of not wanting his loved ones to be worried. It’s that constant need to prove himself worthy, not just to those he admires but to himself. Like saying “See, I am worth something. All those voices in my head telling me I needed to wake up and see reality were wrong, because I am worthy now.”

Unfortunately, even though Izuku IS stronger AND better than he was, he still sees himself as useless. This isn’t something a Hero Destiny can fix, this is a deep rooted issue that has been happening since childhood.

Anyway idk man, things turned out okay [kinda] but I think this scene speaks volumes to how Inko interacts with her son, the effect she had on him and how he views his quirkless, and how the two literally just don’t communicate effectively with each other

This isn’t to say Inko is a bad mother. She’s certainly trying her best and we can’t fault her for that. I’m afraid this is just one of those things where everything could be fixed if two characters just sat down and talked to each other [which ya know. can’t do that cause it would shut down the ~tension~ of the story]

Inko sees his quirklessness as sad, but also a lost opportunity to have a quiet life.

Izuku sees his quirklessness as something bad, the worst part of himself. When he’s reminded of it, he remembers how “useless” and “pathetic” he was, and tries to separate the quirkless version of himself from the “stronger” version, because he’d rather not remember that. In fact, it seems like he doesn’t want to remember it, or ruminate on it for long, because he can’t face how horrible it was. He simply wants to focus on the now, the better version of himself, because the past seems to be too hard to face.

It IS hard to face, especially with the amount of self hatred he has. As he is now, he can’t look at the past as someone who knows it shouldn’t have happened, he can only look at it as someone who still blames himself for being born quirkless.

me n the homies robbing some back alley convenience store for goods

izuku places his entire sense of identity and self-worth on being a hero, and having the quirk that allows him to be one. those two things, heroism and having this quirk, are inextricably linked to him - when he was quirkless, he couldn’t be a hero, and he got the quirk so he could be.

izuku also clearly identifies heroism as saving people. when he fails to save people - ie fails at being a hero - he feels worthless. if he doesn’t save, he’s not a hero, and thus is nothing.

now apply this reasoning to when he offers mirio his quirk after the overhaul arc. again, without a quirk, he can’t be a hero. why is he wanting to give away the very thing that he thinks makes him valuable to other people?

because he failed to save someone, so he’s already not a hero. he thinks he doesn’t deserve his quirk, the thing that gives him that worth and identity, because he doesn’t deserve to have any worth or identity. he’s already squandered it. he deserves to be nothing again.

am I funny yet

a little something from chap 4 of the curse of the anime protagonist while i disappear to work on asks and commissions

Has the manga explained what Todoroki Rei’s diagnosis is?

old inko and shigaraki doodles

au where inko unknowingly befriends the leader of the league of villains and ruins afo’s schemes with the power of motherly love

stop staring at me with them big ol eyes

雨の日

woah this character is so cool i wish they were covered in blood their whole body trembling with a look of absolute horror on their face as theyre struggling to breathe in panic