Unraveling the Meta Liberation Army and Endeavor Agency Arcs of My Hero Academia

Liz Clyde: 00:01:11

Foreign.

Christian Ashley: 00:01:15

For the villains to win. We're going to be asking this question and a lot more in today's episode of Systematic ecology. We are the priests of the geeks.

I'm your host, Christian Ashley. Today we're going to be discussing continuing on through our My Hero academia series.

This time, we're going to be going through the Metal Liberation army arc and the Endeavor Agency arc. But, of course, I'm not alone. You've heard her before. On these other episodes, you're going to hear her again.

It's Elizabeth Pangalang and Clyde, the best pangoling in the universe. How's it going, Peng?

Liz Clyde: 00:01:42

Hello. It's going pretty well. How are you?

Christian Ashley: 00:01:45

I'm all right. Let's get some stuff done for this week. I'm gonna go home for a bit. It's gonna be fun.

Liz Clyde: 00:01:49

Oh, really? When are you going to Charlotte?

Christian Ashley: 00:01:52

I'll be leaving Friday.

Liz Clyde: 00:01:53

Nice. Nice. Me too. I'm driving to Charlotte for the airport, and I will also be leaving Charlotte Friday to come home.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:00

All right. Got things to do. And speaking of things to do, how about you tell me what you've been geeking out on recently?

Liz Clyde: 00:02:07

It's really random. Dr. Stone. Okay. I'm a little late to the game, but I haven't. I literally just started the last season today, season four. Dr. Stone.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:16

Oh, nice. What do you think of it so far?

Liz Clyde: 00:02:18

I like it. It's a really good background, and I animate, and I am shocked at how much I like it. Like, I'm actually paying attention.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:26

I know. Without any romance or anything to keep you.

Liz Clyde: 00:02:29

I know. And there's not really, like, hot. I mean, there's a couple of cuties, but there's not really, like, any, like, eye candy there. But I'm engaged.

Christian Ashley: 00:02:36

Okay. You know what? That works. Yeah. I love the show. Four seasons now. I finished with the manga. It's really good. Very, very fun.

Me, on the other hand, I can't remember if I said this before and if I had, forgive me.

I watched all six episodes of Dune Prophecy, which is kind of taking place about 10,000 years before the events of the movie and the books, and it was pretty good. I'm looking forward to a season two, hopefully, that. I don't know if they've been confirmed or not, but that's been enjoyable.

Liz Clyde: 00:03:06

Nice. Nice.

Christian Ashley: 00:03:07

All right, so hang. We have two very important arcs to get through today. How do you feel about unpacking what happens with them with me?

And I know that that look in your face says, christian, take the lead. And you Know what? I'm fine with that, because I already have them already here suited up, ready to go.

And if there's anything you want to comment on, please feel free to interrupt me.

Liz Clyde: 00:03:30

Okay?

Christian Ashley: 00:03:30

Okay. So we start off the first arc with Bakugou and Todoroki.

They've come to the point of they've had to take their their hero license again, the remedial one, and now they're official pro heroes. And five seconds after becoming heroes, they stop a robbery in progress. And you know, all might's just like propping them up. They're doing their job.

But also there's this little. There's this hero known as sliding go there.

And he congratulates them on what they do, but also acts kind of weird, like hugs them and stuff, and says they're going to be great heroes one day, and he'll be kind of sort of important, and that he's part of the Metal Liberation Army. But we'll get that in a moment. And they then go back to their dorm and everyone surprises them. They congratulate them on getting their licenses.

Then we're kind of introduced to a guy named Rikiya Yotsubashi. I'm never going to use that name again, because it's going to be known as Redestro from here on.

And he is the leader of a company called Detnerat, and he offers items to help people with their quirks, you know, for the more anthropomorphic people who need help in their situation, items that are made individually for them.

And he talks to one of his aides who's this kind of like, if I remember it, it's like a cat kind of quirk guy named Miyashita, and talks to him about the destro who was a villain back in the days of early quirks, who raised people up against each other because people who had quirks were being oppressed by people who didn't, had started the whole little civil war there in many respects. But Miyashita unknowingly disrespects him by saying he finds it all hogwash, not knowing that Redestro is of course, the grandson of destroyed.

So he has me Ashida taken care of, and by that he does it himself. And it's through this that we learned that the Metal Liberation army kind of wants to take control of Japan.

They want to start a new revolution where everyone with the quirk gets respected. Because, you know, there is a prejudice against people with certain quirks. You know, people like Spinner, obviously, a very huge reptile kind of guy.

It's like not as settling as seeing someone who looks regular human. So one month prior to this, we have Shigaraki and the gang taking down a group of a hate group against hetero Morse.

People like Spinner such taking them down very easily.

But they get a call that the Doctor, who's been working with All For One this whole time, wants them to hang out with him and learn about what's going on. Because All For One has something left, a legacy.

And that, of course, is Gigantomachia, who is this obviously giant hulking figure who only respects All For One. And Shigaraki, his job now is to get Gigantomachy's respect.

And so they end up fighting him for like over, like a month and a half, as the Doctor as well explains that he's going to help Shigaraki's quirk and the rest of their quirks, like, get enhanced a little bit. And we get a bit of the flashback that'll make more sense later on in this arc of what happened to Shigaraki's family.

Once again, that'll be expounded on in a bit.

And it's at this point that Giren, their guy, who's kind of like their, I don't know, like, information broker, gets kidnapped by the Metal Liberation army and some of his fingers cut off. And they're told, look, hey, we want you guys to join us. You can't be in charge anymore. We are the real villains here.

So Shigaraki decides to kill two birds with one stone. He's going to send the rest of the League of Villains up against a Meta Liberation Army.

They're going to take them down while at the same time bringing Gigantomachia there. Because Gigantomachia always has his scent, so that's gonna cause a lot of disruption there. They end up working together.

We have Toga attacking a woman named Curious, who wants to use her as like a martyr for the cause. But through the process, her quirk kind of improves a bit, where she can actually take on the aspects of people that she loves.

And she's able to kill Curious as one of the few casualties, well named casualties in this part. And actually, actually kind of uses Ochako's powers a little bit to kill Curious because she truly loves Ochako in that way. Uraraka.

So Redestro tries to get his guys involved. We're introduced to some other villains working with them, but twice his quirk gets activated a lot better because he thinks Toga is dead.

After what happens and after he Deals with his trauma of realizing that, oh, he's the original this whole time, and he's just been so addled with mental unwellness that what's going on there has happened.

And he starts making more copies and more copies and more copies, and they slightly just start overrunning the city, which gets Shigaraki over to Redestro, manages to take him out with the help of Gigantomachia, who finally comes to the point where he respects him. Skipping a lot here, but, you know, we'd be here for hours if we actually discussed everything that happened.

And with this, we get the flashback where it's revealed what happened at Shigaraki as a kid. He used to be a kid. And he is the grandson. We already knew this of Nana Shimura, who was All Might's mentor, who passed all for one down.

Excuse me, one for all down to him. And his family was raised. He was raised to the point where he wasn't supposed to know that until he found a photo of her one day.

But his dad, being a very abusive man who has a lot of resentment towards his mother, beat him up, and he suffered more abuse. And unfortunately, when his quirk activates, it kills everyone in his family. And he kind of says, you know what? I don't care about that anymore.

I'm my own man. And his decay strengthens even more to the point where he can reach beyond where it could.

Usually it was just he had to touch that person, but now he can touch a person and what's touching them, and it spreads from there. They take control of the Metal Liberation army after getting Redestro to kind of like bow down before him.

And Hawks comes in and still working as that double agent with them. So that's where we start that one. So I'm going to stop there. Wait. Anything you want to add, Peng?

Liz Clyde: 00:09:24

Yeah, I mean, the. The character of this is pretty. Pretty fun too, like, because you have a lot of the background. Is this the one where.

I think, as I don't want to overstep, it's the next arc with Todoroki and his dad, right when they kind of come. But is it mentioned any of this arc? I think it's like, do we see any flashbacks?

Christian Ashley: 00:09:44

Not in this arc. It's more like, you know, Endeavor's the number one hero, so we're going to have to counteract that. So. Yeah, we'll get to that.

Unless there's something else you want to add.

Liz Clyde: 00:09:52

No, I. Well, I'm glad you mentioned, like, the whole twice m. And gosh, you just said her name but twice. And the blood girl, because Toga. Toga. Toga.

Because it was just so sweet. And then, like, just hearing his backstory and like it. Because we've talked about this before.

Like, when you give villains too much backstories, you kind of like. You're like, no, I. I want to hate them, you know?

But, like, with these villains, you kind of just see, like, as, oh, they literally just got dealt a crappy hand, and this is why they are the way they are.

So Toga's backstory was really sad and then just kind of, like, using as someone who's, like, had the media kind of use tragedy to, like, profit off of, like, just them, like, trying to, like, use Toga as, like, this is going to be our poster girl, and this is going to be so I wasn't mad when Toga killed her. Just being honest, like, dumb reporter.

Christian Ashley: 00:10:40

Fair enough. That, of course, brings us to the endeavor. Excuse me. Agency arc.

Liz Clyde: 00:11:36

This is my arc.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:37

There you go. Yes, of course. So it's at this point, both Todoroki and Bakugo are being interviewed, and the end result is that they both suck.

So, like, Todoroki gets, like, one line or something like that, and Bakugo's entire part of the interview is cut out when it's actually aired on tv. So everyone's making fun of them.

So that actually gets them to have Mount lady come in and say, look, idiots, this is how you've got to talk to the press. This is how you've got to be able to hype up yourselves as people. This. This is showbiz to an extent.

You need to be able to hype up yourselves what's going on here. So let's see your secret moves. All this mess so that people know who you are. And through this, they get to celebrate Christmas.

Aries come back for a little bit dressed as Santa Claus, looking all cute, her horns starting to grow back. We see that. Oh, yeah. Deku has some time with his mom where she's, like, crying as normal for the family about how he's grown as a person.

Now she doesn't have to worry about him as much because he's his own, and she's always worried about him without a quirk. And then we go back to Hawks, who meets with Slide and go, who, of course, is working for the Metal Liberation Army. And Hawks is still working.

Is he a double agent? Is he a triple agent? It's all over the place where it could be. Allegedly, he's working for the hero side, right? Now as a double agent.

And he is contacted Dabi. Which explains what we saw forever ago in the when Endeavor became the number one hero.

And it's at this point the internships need to happen again because it's that time of the year. But Deku can't go back to Sir Nighteyes Hero Agency because he did.

Liz Clyde: 00:13:14

And he's a donut.

Christian Ashley: 00:13:16

Yeah, I love your. Your fascination with that. And Centipede, or the guy in charge now is like, hey, we can't handle you right now. We have other things to worry about.

So he doesn't have anyone to go to. Gran Torino is not going to take him. And Bakugo can't go to best genus because he's gone missing.

And other than that, you like, he has, you know, dealt with the trauma of being attacked by all for one forever ago. And he's down like a lung or something like that. So Todoroki says, well, why don't you guys just, like, come hang out with my dad?

He's going to take me, and if I tell him to take you, he'll do it. And so they meet him. And Endeavor is not happy because he said yes, because that was a condition of Todoroki joining him.

But he's like, I don't care about you. I'm only training Todoroki. And so they follow after him.

They take down a villain named Star Servant and kind of little bit gain a bit of Endeavor's respect for, like, keeping up with him, but not enough quite yet. And that's when Hawks comes in to save the day. And he's got some. Some literature they need to read.

This, of course, being Destro's manifesto that is now being distributed everywhere across Japan. And people are starting to read up more on it. And he encourages them to, but he especially encourages Endeavor to read the parts that he highlighted.

So there's that.

Endeavor then takes the boys to his agency, they meet with some of the heroes that intern and sidekick with him, and Endeavor starts reading the book. And it takes him some time. I actually kind of appreciated how long it took him to get this done.

It's not like, oh, I just need, like, cross my eyes and dot my T's. Excuse me? Cross my T's and dot my eyes. And now I understand everything.

No, he has to figure out exactly what the coded message Hawks is sending him is.

And that is, they have four months before Shigaraki is super empowered by the doctor to then take on all of Japan and take it over in the name of the new Metal Liberation. Army, the League of Villains, so emboldened by this endeavor, decides, you know what? I got these guys.

I'm going to take care of them in my own Endeavor way. So he encourages Deku with his new powers that he's developing. He's still just got a little bit of Black Whip. Can't use it correctly yet.

Bakugo's Bakugo, he needs no improvement, but he's still there to hang out. And Todoroki, he's going to work on his. Was it the Hellfire Fist or something like the Flash Fire Fist? That's what it is.

Because Todoroki still isn't able to do that.

So as they're training, they also have time to go have some Todoroki family shenanigans where they go have dinner with his family, which of course is not awkward at all.

Liz Clyde: 00:15:36

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:15:36

And. And it's through this, if they get a new side of him. It seems that he's trying to become better than who he was.

He's seeking his family's forgiveness. He's hoping his wife will be able to come back. And not so well. His son is like, no, I'm done. I can't handle any of this. And leaves.

Even though Fuyumi, his sister, tries to stop him. And after she has encouraged, encouraged the guys like, look, you're Todoroki's friends. I love you. So like, keep it up.

Not so was having none of it, but he gets kidnapped by a villain known as Ending. Yeah, ending. And through the process of this, Endeavor and the kids go in to save him.

They have a little heart to heart after Ending is taken care of, where it's like, Natsuo is not ready to forgive, but like, he understands all the pressure that's on his dad. So they can at least have that for right now. And that's where he is.

Where it sounds like Rey is going to come back home, but Endeavor is going to leave the house so that they can have a family there and he can go elsewhere. So what do you think?

Liz Clyde: 00:16:32

Well, I mean, it's just one of those things. And we talked about this in our very first overview when we did our first hero episode is people have a problem with Endeavor seeking atonement.

And so just kind of showing that I love that it's taking him a while, like, at least through like the episodes for the Atonement, like he's continuing to seek it and like work towards his family and like, you know, to atone, you know, not just. He doesn't want to just be forgiven because like, you know, that's. That's a little bit different.

So to forgive someone is kind of like, okay, you're good, slate's clean. You don't have to do anything else. But he's not asking for forgiveness.

He's literally just atoning and like, wanting to move forward with his family with however that may look like, you know, he's not expecting anything. So I think that shows, like, really great character development with Endeavor.

And also, I mean, Todoroki, like, to be able to forgive a parent because, I mean, everyone's been emotionally abused. And my hero for such a happy go lucky kid show. I mean, we.

We hawks abuse like Toga twice, even like, Midoriya, like, even though he wasn't really abused, but just the trauma of having your dreams crushed at like, age 5, it's pretty awful.

Christian Ashley: 00:17:48

And having parents who weren't prepared to, like, help you with that, and a parent who never shows up at all, even though allegedly he's working overseas. So that's that. And of course, we get Shigaraki too, with the parental abuse that he suffers. That kind of makes him to the man he is today.

So we'll get into that in a bit. But what do you think? Do you have a favorite character in these arcs besides your boy?

Liz Clyde: 00:18:07

Yeah, I mean, I do. I just. I love Todoroki. I don't know why I love that icy hot little boy. But I really like Bakugou probably in this one.

So he's pretty, like, kind of like a background character. But when you think about Bakugo, he was always like, you're my underlings. I'm better than you. Like, I'm number one.

And so for him to kind of take a backseat in this season, I feel like shows really big character growth. So he's learning teamwork. He's, you know, learning to be a little bit more compassionate, you know, not.

He's not telling anyone to go kill themselves, which, you know, thank you, Bakugo.

Christian Ashley: 00:18:40

Huge improvement.

Liz Clyde: 00:18:42

Huge, huge improvement. So he's. He's probably my favorite. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:18:47

That was his tease. And you could talk about Shoto.

Liz Clyde: 00:18:49

No, I mean, I do, but I do love Shoto. But even then it's not. I think it's a past episode.

Is this the one where we, like, we see the endeavors, leaving the flowers for his wife, or is that like a past episode?

Christian Ashley: 00:19:05

I want to say it's this one.

Liz Clyde: 00:19:06

I think it's this one. It just kind of shows because you.

Because we learn about the quirk marriages and stuff like that, but, like, just kind of Showing like, he has, like a. He's had a soft side all along, and he's just didn't know how to, like, use it. You know what I mean? So it's not like this crazy.

This crazy, like, flip of a coin, if you will. Like, he's always had this. He's just learning how to show it. And he's learned, like, his way wasn't the right way.

Christian Ashley: 00:19:33

He's not this irredeemable abuser who, like, is just, like, cackling madly about the next time he's going to punch his wife in the face or something like that.

This is someone who knows he's done wrong and it knows that he meant what he did when he did those terrible things and that there's something that needs to be done here. And I'm actually choosing him for my favorite character in these arcs because of that growth, because of the recognition of, I suck.

I hurt all these people, and I don't know how to make it up.

So maybe the best thing I can do right now is remove myself from their lives to an extent, not completely, because he does want to reconnect with them, but knowing that if he's in the same house as them, things are going to go wrong and he can't let that happen because he doesn't want to hurt them any more than he already has. And as well, I really appreciate his brain in this side of things.

He takes the time to look at the clues that Hawks has left behind, to see the note inside of the book while he's also reading the book itself for its content, to figure out, oh, these people are around. They're going to come in four months. We need to prepare.

And then a part of that humbling himself because he started off, I don't want to train any of you idiots. I just want my son. And then going, no, we need people like them prepared for this.

So I'm going to learn about them, learn their quirks, learn who they are, and then help them out, which is what I was supposed to be doing anyways, but now I'm going to actually do it.

Liz Clyde: 00:20:53

Yeah, it's a great one. And even Natsio, I don't blame him for part of me is like, just for give you a dad, like, get healing. But that's not always reality.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:03

Well, it's one of those things that's easy to say, just get over it or just forgive. Like, just get over. It's the worst part. But yet just forgive can be just as bad at times. If you're wording it that way.

It's like, yeah, you should forgive the people who abuse you, but you've also got to be ready to say that out loud. You've also got to be ready to actually do that. I just can't say, hey, get over your trauma, and then you're done. That's not how therapy works.

That's not how ministering and discipling people works.

Liz Clyde: 00:21:29

Gosh, I would save so much on therapy if it was that one and done type deal.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:34

It'd be so great, wouldn't it?

Liz Clyde: 00:21:36

It would be.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:37

And speaking of that, one of the things that are also introduced here are some new quirks. What do you think? Do you have a favorite one that was introduced? I'm going to go ahead and say, because you sparked me there. My memory.

I'm going to choose Redestro's quirk of stress, where he gets to build up his stress and grow super strong and super big. If I could only utilize my stress that way in a way that was useful. Oh, my gosh.

I get so much done, so much better than what I'd typically do with my stress.

Liz Clyde: 00:22:06

Trying to think, what. What was the new one? This is hard because you said new. Name some of the new ones. Because all I can think of is I remember the. The mirror one.

We learned about that one, right? The reflection one. So, like, they got one.

Christian Ashley: 00:22:21

I know we've got one of the villains. I think it's Star Servant. Has, like a glass manipulation quirk. You've got Vernon's fire.

Liz Clyde: 00:22:32

It's not new. And this is going to sound crazy, but I'm a chew. So I'm gonna have listen to you and answer the question wrongly. But I want to be Dobby. Not Dobby.

I want to be. I want to be. Gosh, we just said it twice. Twice.

Because honestly, there's just some days I just need more of me to get the job done, you know, I mean, like, if I could be cleaning my house, well, I can also be baking a cake. Well, I can also be doing yard work, you know what I mean? Like a shadow cone jutsu type of deal.

So we weren't introduced to that, but I'm gonna be twice.

Christian Ashley: 00:23:05

But it got improved into. Sorry. Yeah, it did get a new way to use it. Yeah. Shout out to Andy hosted a show. His avatar being multiple man from X Men. X Factor.

That would be such a useful power to be like, hey, all right, I'm not feeling it today. You go clean the house. You go to work for me. You get this done. Actually, you know what? I'm going to make three of you.

We're going to have three jobs, and you're going to get all that to come back this way. And if the government says anything, well, I'm doing my work anyways and I'm paying my taxes, so you can complain as much as you want.

Oh, and you, you're going to be doing my taxes. That'd be perfect.

Liz Clyde: 00:23:42

I would literally just cry. I would just cry out of happiness. Because right now, I mean, we have Bible study. Like, I got home from work, but then I had to go to the store.

But now and then I had to clean the kitchen a little bit before jumped on this podcast. And right after this podcast, I have Bible study. And then after that Bible study, I have to finish decorating a cake.

And then tomorrow I leave for Texas. And then. But there's still, like, stuff to do around the house. It would just be fantastic. I don't even have a kid. Imagine.

Like, I would want even more with a kid. Like, okay, you're on the shift duty. Like, granted, I'll have a husband when I have a kid, but. Well, I do have a husband.

Not I'll have, but you know what I mean? Like, it's just like, we could take shifts because, you know, the husband can't feed the baby if you breastfeed.

But, you know, I'm going way too deep into this. But yeah, strongly feel I should have twice as cork if I could.

Christian Ashley: 00:24:31

That's a good one. All right, so moving away from that and also in respect of your time, why don't we get into more of the themes here?

And one of the ones that kind of come up multiple times is Hawks as a character and his motivations for acting as a double agent. You know, to help hero society out.

Like, yeah, but he's also having a lie about his intentions coming from a more moralistic ideal of something like Christianity. Like, I'm going to ask you, is it moral to lie in order to save lives like Hawks does as a double agent?

Liz Clyde: 00:25:01

Yeah, it's crazy because you have to think about, like, the greater good. And I just read this because I decided to do the 30 day shred since April had beautifully 30 days and I was in my 30s.

So I've been reading 30 days shred is pretty much reading the Bible in 30 days. So I just got done the other day with reading Genesis again.

And then if you think about it, Abe, Abraham was like, tell them you're my sister so they don't kill me. And so. But she was his wife. You know what I mean? So it was like those like half truths.

And so like, you see all these scenarios in the Old Testament where they're like, well, tell them this. And like, you know, so I'm like, it's, it's hard, you know, because it's not black and white per se all the way.

But I mean, I don't see anything wrong with it. It.

Christian Ashley: 00:25:45

Well, I'd argue that that one is a black and white and that Abraham is in the wrong because he's acting out of fear despite knowing God has already promised him all these things. And he's acting out of self preservation versus trust. And to the point where Isaac does the exact same thing because he learned it from his dad.

Liz Clyde: 00:26:05

Yeah, I call it strategy that.

Christian Ashley: 00:26:07

See, now what I would call that.

Well, is next book over, we've got Exodus where the Hebrew midwives are told by Pharaoh, murder the children as soon as they come out of the womb, but they lie and they say, well, before we even get there, yeah, we can't do anything about it. That one, I would say is actually an example of that lie being something moral in the sense of preserving life is being done.

There is a greater good that is being achieved through this action. And same thing, Rahab, you know, lying about that's also something I'd throw in there.

It's like preserving life is better in that circumstance because to tell the truth in that scenario is kind of your classic. You're harboring Jewish person in your house in Nazi Germany or you're going to just say, hey, I got Jews in my house, go ahead and kill them all.

Or you're just going to say, no, no one's up there because one leads to death, the other more often than not would lead to life. So I think Hawks is in the right here. And I know there's some nuance there that other people would look at and they'd.

I know some people here that would argue completely against that idea at seminary. And I see their point. I completely disagree.

Liz Clyde: 00:27:21

Yeah, I call it strategy. So. But it's not all black and white still. I mean, people say the Bible is black and white, but I was like, we read in different Bibles, so we.

Christian Ashley: 00:28:16

Also have in here, like we mentioned earlier, several villains, backstories, like not fully revealed, but better revealed to us. You have one here that worked the best for you.

Liz Clyde: 00:28:25

Let's see.

I feel like maybe Hawk backstory would be the most relatable and because they were pretty much kind of put all these expectations on him, that was completely unfair, you know, and so that would probably be the most relatable. I don't really. When you said that works for me, what do you mean by works for me?

Christian Ashley: 00:28:44

I mean, like, does it ring true to you when I'm talking about the villains here?

Liz Clyde: 00:28:48

Say. Yeah, they all work. I mean, it's a great, like, TV show. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say Hawks, definitely. I feel like Toga was the. One of the most sad.

It's just. Just if you think about it, like, parents just suck. Like, if you have.

Listen, if you guys have two decent parents, if you have one decent parent, like, you know, just count yourself grateful because, like, these parents really do be out here traumatizing these. These kids probably has the. The most chill parents. If you think about all the parents we met. Think about it.

He has two of them, and they're like, yeah, he just. And they. They joke around. They encouraged him. We haven't really met any trauma from Bakugo besides him wanting to be the number one hero.

And, like, seeing his best friend take it. Like, he doesn't have, like, this doormat.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:38

His mom's basically the female version of.

Liz Clyde: 00:29:40

Him, which is fun.

Christian Ashley: 00:29:42

Yeah. So this kind of ties into the second question anyway, so I'll just skip ahead because that's actually my answer to this.

And that's for the character I typically don't care for. And that's Toga, her backstory, her as a character. Let me explain. I know she's got a ton of fans out there.

She's discount Harley Quinn to me in many ways.

And I'm very tired of the way Harley Quinn has been oversaturated in comics recently to the point where she's become a hero, which is dumb and terrible how it was done there. But the point being for Toga, even though she still comes across as me, as discount Harley Quinn, this enhances her character.

And like, she was born with this compulsion to just take blood because that's her quirk. That is part of who she is. She can't deny this part of herself.

And when her parents send her to a therapist, which, like, okay, yeah, good, good parents, they sent her to the wrong one. They sent her to the one who told. They sent her to the rock trolls that on Elsa's parents went to says, oh, conceal. Don't feel.

It's like, no, no, this. This is part of who you are. You need to wrestle with this and you need to get actual help for this. Because when it doesn't.

As part of her story growing up she kills birds and she drinks their blood. And then there's this guy that she's really attracted to, kind of sort of looks like Deku, and she attacks him and drinks his blood too.

Rather than if she had just been taught, hey, you know, you're having these feelings. Here's how you disassociate from those ideas. Here's how you handle them, here's how you control them. And when you don't, like, come to us.

So you have a support base here. No, she doesn't have any of that. She's just told conceal don't feel essentially, and it's let out.

And then she becomes a villain simply because of who she is and how it wasn't treated well. And that rang especially true to me because I know there's tons of people out there.

There's just parts of them that they can't control because it's part of themselves. They have these mental illnesses and these compulsions and these disorders that if not treated effectively, they're gonna let loose. And it's. Some of.

It's not their fault.

Liz Clyde: 00:31:40

Yeah, no, it's definitely. And it's just similar. Like, we. I don't see much have changed from today's society. You know what I mean?

If someone has a difference that goes against the grain instead of. There's a difference between, like, celebrating someone being different that goes against the grain just to go against drain.

But like, someone who actually has like a. This is a. I'm like, I'm struggling. I don't know what to do with this because, like, people could just.

I don't know, they just are so quick just to hate on it and be like, this is wrong, this is bad. Instead of educating and giving a growth plan, if you will. So I really feel for toga even, like nowadays, like, people, if you're different.

And I just think of like some. Like, I work at a trade college and some of my students are really quirky and I love that.

But like, if you just looked at them, like, tattoos are more accepted now, but usually when you saw someone with a sleeve tattoo, you just automatically was like, well, they are worthless. Or you see someone.

Someone just posted something in one of the Facebook groups and someone was dressed, like, super loud, super, like, you know, like tutu, like hair up and stuff. And they're like, why do, like, the weirdos are out.

I'm like, no, if someone enjoys that style, just because they enjoy something that's different doesn't mean, like, we can't, you know, be celebrated if that Makes any sense, but I just don't see us growing too much as a society with that.

But then you have the opposite of people wanting just to go against the grain to be different, to like show society, like this is what it is and it makes us callous. We suck. Take. Come Jesus, now, please. Thanks.

Christian Ashley: 00:33:17

I actually saw a post the other day that I kind of like. I don't know if it would actually work, but it's worth inspecting, investigating.

If nothing else is that she'd probably make a good nurse in the respect of, you know, if she took someone else's blood, changed herself into that person.

Well, now they have available blood off the bat for that person, or they have antigens or anything that could be created from that that would help that person. You know, since she's literally them. She's. Her body is perfectly fine now that she's morphed into it.

And if had been led better, maybe that's what she could have become. And maybe that's even a good way for her to feel A feeder quirk is to use something like that. But unfortunately we get the end result of that.

Same thing with Shigaraki's family.

Like you could use his quirk perfectly to destroy buildings or something like that if they're condemned or to disassemble objects that need to be gotten rid of or something. But the way he grew up, the way all for one took control of that situation too, probably caused it. He ended up as he was.

And now we're in the scenario here where we've got got two sides working against each other. Both of them quite evil Metaliberation. Sure, you can call it whatever you want. You're out for yourselves.

And now as such, like, how are we supposed to pick sides in a conflict that is evil versus evil?

Liz Clyde: 00:34:34

Which one is the hottest? Who has the most hot guys? And this is how you pick the sides. If they're both going to be evil, might as well have something good to look at that.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:43

Okay. Excellent answer.

Liz Clyde: 00:34:46

Thank you.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:46

Of course, your real answer.

Liz Clyde: 00:34:47

Oh, no, that was it.

Christian Ashley: 00:34:49

Oh, of course.

Liz Clyde: 00:34:50

Okay. Okay. Okay. So what? What? So the two. The lesser of the two.

I guess I'll probably pick either a the lesser the two evil or unless my like, really good friend or husband was on the more evil side. Then I'm. I'm a people pleaser. Honestly, it depends on who's on which side. Still, I still. Still. Similar answer.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:08

Can you imagine Taylor joining the League of Villains of the Meta Liberation Army? It's like, hey guys. Yeah, I'll Say king, I'll play for you.

Liz Clyde: 00:35:14

I mean, you said like, if they're both evil though, I mean, so usually. So like, that's a little different. So obviously I would join the heroes, but like, if it was one of those, like, if it was like vigilantes and.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:26

Oh yeah, I'm talking more like an audience member reading this book.

Liz Clyde: 00:35:29

Sorry, clarified that I thought I was like joining into the fight. So I was like, I gotta think strategically here so I don't die. This is self preservation similar to Abraham, you know, strategic.

So yeah, no, I definitely side with. I definitely side with the heroes. But I love how this anime paints the Metal Liberation army and like the League of Villains because it's, it's.

There's still people, you know what I mean? So they're just misguided. They're not bad. So it is a hard choice because it could easily.

You could easily be on the misguided side and it's, it's all. At the end of the day, it is your choice, but I would say like half the time, it's luck of the draw too.

Christian Ashley: 00:36:09

Well, that's the thing though is that, that this can easily go astray in the sense that they've got one side who's creating an army, a literal army. And what does that mean? You're going to war in order to change something rather than working within the system and changing things correctly there.

And then you have the League of Villains who are also trying to change things for themselves because they've been unable to fit in with society. That should have helped them out better.

So this comes to the point of when you have an evil character, we're supposed to follow them, we're supposed to cheer for them.

I think Horikoshi did it good enough job of making me sympathize with the League of Villains more in that one side over the other probably is going to lead to a better Japan if they happen to win.

One side is not as evil as another in this scenario, but you have to do that as a writer in this instance, to have you cheer for that one character who is evil. You got to introduce someone who's just slightly a little different kind of evil or more evil than them.

And when you keep doing that, it gets annoying. That's why we stop here. And I'm very grateful for that. As opposed to. I've derided the show before and I know I'm in the minority here.

Breaking Bad loses its way with me, with.

You know, we have to make Walter White look better than the other people around it, even though he's a terrible person from episode one and he doesn't change that much over time, I would argue. So there's that. There's my little hot take there. So I. I get. Makes sense.

I'm probably on the League of Villains side more, even though I find both reprehensible.

Liz Clyde: 00:37:41

Yes.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:42

Okay, well, our time is slowly approaching, so we're gonna get to wrap up here. And also, guys, we have a special bonus question you're going to be asking is which pro Hero bonus?

Which pro hero would you choose to train you as a hero? So, out of 10, were you ranking these two arcs?

Liz Clyde: 00:38:03

I see. I didn't really care one, but I love the second one, so I'm gonna say a seven for both. Balance.

Christian Ashley: 00:38:13

Okay, okay, fair enough. I'm giving the first one a nine. Actually, no, I'm giving an eight. Five. There's parts of it that could have been fleshed out better.

The villains that were introduced to in this could have gotten some better backstories or at least a backstory from the Metal Liberation side. But it's fine. Nothing obscene. I'm actually gonna give the Next1A10 because I really enjoy the family drama that's there and Endeavor's charact.

And as well like, the preparation for what's to come has to happen the way it does in this series. If Hawks isn't doing his job, if Endeavor isn't doing his job, if our trainees aren't doing the job, we don't get what we have later on.

So there we go, guys. Actually, no, before that. Pang, do you have a recommendation when you offer the audience?

Liz Clyde: 00:38:58

Yeah, we just did a White Lotus episode.

The season finale just ended for season three, so if you haven't watched it, it go watch Right Lotus season three and then go listen to our episode because it should be live by the time you do all that.

Christian Ashley: 00:39:11

Okay. Propping things up in the future. I like it. So, yeah, I'm going to choose.

And I've probably also done this before, but, you know, you recommend two things. An episode you're going to repeat yourself after a while. 20th century boys.

s and we go into: 2000

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