Fantastic chapter. I love these two.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Fantastic chapter. I love these two.
Originally Posted by MrBits
An actual bet and conversation on the Chapter 905 thread, literally an hour before he got banned again.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
I know that CCC was hoping for Deku to deal with this threat without ever talking about it to show a true hero's humility. So I think at least he will be happy..
"Life's not about finding out which card is yours, but finding out which cards you're not."Spoiler:
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Send both La Brava and Gentle to jail!
Deku saying this was his toughest fight was a bit strange considering the scale of the fight against the mafia guy
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Ahoy-hoy everyone, as I'm new I hope you will forgive any blunders on my part in regards to formatting. While I feel that there is still petrol in the tank for Gentle’s story arc this point is sufficient for at least a cursory glance at Gentle and La Brava. If there was any disservice in this arc it would be the back stories of Gentle and La Brava. Each back story, while generally engaging, lacked depth and made the villainous couple appear to have shallow motivations. La Brava’s abrupt spiral is perhaps the greatest example, but Gentle’s story is similarly sparse with detail—each backstory leaves us guessing rather than clarifying motivations. Was there only one incident for La Brava? If not, why was that one the most damning? Gentle’s backstory fairs little better upon examination because it paints the picture of a glory hound with little bite to back up his bite. There never is an explanation as for WHY Gentle wants glory—he just does. One angle that I was hoping for was that Gentle was the son of a former hero who had gone rogue and lost his good name or that Gentle’s family were pushing him to be this great hero. However, I can’t expect an ongoing series to always explore every facet of a hero or villain—I must make due with what I can get. With that bluster out of the way let me at least give a few thoughts on the chapter itself.
Deku’s battle with Gentle is perhaps his best to date. Hori still struggles with framing action and impact scenes, but I feel that he is beginning to gradually become more comfortable. The real star of this fight is not Deku but Gentle and La Brava. Yes, I know I just wrote a paragraph lamenting the rather subpar backstories, but the character’s themselves are a joy. Both serve as a fantastic foil for Deku, and their relationship is on full display here. I find it rare that I have ever rooted for the villain in fiction, but I found myself rooting for the diabolical duo more than once. Hori does appear to be framing them in a heroic light, or at the very least flipping a heroic staple on its head. It was equally refreshing that not once did Gentle attempt to sacrifice or double-cross La Brava. Innumerable villains before have done so for worse, but Gentle tells La Brava to flee. Bravo Hori, I am fully invested in how Gentle and La Brava will affect the story from here on out. Ultimately I fear that these villains will be lost to what I refer to as the Shonen Shuffle, and I feel that would be a disservice to them as characters. I appreciate the fact that the two need to be punished for their villainous activities just that their defeat at this juncture leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
I'm struggling to understand what Horoikoshi wanted to achieve with Gentle and La Brava, other than have them be quirky villain side characters. Also,to throw them in during the school festival, with Eri's subplot and all that... eh. Not a fan. I hope there are consequences to this, for Midoriya in particular.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
His toughest fight all by himself, he probably meant.
3DS FC: 0087 - 2971 - 9910
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Oh, thank you, Midoriya. Thank you for ruining everything that is good by existing.
I would be such a good father...
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
I was going to mention Muscular, but Kota splashed some water at him during the fight.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Hey that was before G+LB became so endearing! Izuku is scum. Though it's pretty clear he's going to walk it off and pretend nothing happened despite being beat up and covered in blood. And some of his classmates will be able to tell something serious went down.
Still, the festival not getting cancelled relies on Hound Dog and Ectoplasm keeping their mouths shut...which we have to assume they'll do at this point. Otherwise *everything* was meaningless.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Maybe he just mentioned toughest because he was sympathetic to Gentle and Brava.
Also damnit Deku...I wish Horikoshi gave us less interesting bad guys if they were to be defeated outside.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Sucks they got caught. Really sucks. Again, I have no problems with their backstories. People have selfish dreams, I think it makes them more realistic. Luffy wanting to be the Pirate King is selfish, but the One Piece narrative is turning the success of that dream into an unintentional mission to protect/save the world.
I love La Brava going with the plan, trusting Gentle will take out Deku. I love them both genuinely caring for each other. Deku's keeping his mouth shut at least until the festival ends but Hound Dog might pick up his scent. Toshinori will definitely figure out Deku's tardiness and Gentle/La Brava's capture are related.
It was a great introspect into a different kind of villain we've seen but I got a feeling Gentle and La Brava will return. The Gentle sent to Tartarus and La Brava/Villain Alliance Prison Break-in Theory is all set in my mind. Gentle's crimes weren't horrible but he defeated numerous heroes in the past. He's too dangerous for normal prison in law enforcement eyes, even if he used La Brava's quirk.
And yeah, its Deku first solo win without wreaking his body. Major improvement.
NNID: jervinnectar
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Hey look, Gentle actually stopped being selfish for a second.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Heh the arrested for internet crimes came through, damn you Deku.
Enviado do meu iPad usando Tapatalk
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
I feel a little bad for Gentle, but he had it coming, at least he showed concern for La Brava at the end instead of getting depressed about his broken dream.
Deku really showed how much he has grown, but I wonder if Mei is gonna get mad at Deku for breaking the new gloves without any reason though and if the school will act like if nothing happened, the dog teacher must have smelled him.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Thoughest fight doesn't mean Gentle was the strongest enemy.
It means he was the hardest one to fight against.
Deku knew his internet videos, he knew he was mostly harmless/not a violent or destructive villain and they had a quick chat about dreams. Deku knew that in some other situation they could have resolved their differences trough dialogue or something peaceful like that but he was forced to fight to his limits anyway because Gentle wouldn't back down.
Kinda like one of Luffy's toughest fights was against Usopp, not because Usopp was stronger than Luffy's usual opponents but because he had to fight a friend.
Luffy din't cry after he beat Lucci.
Gentle doesn't need anything in his backstory to trigger his desire for glory. That's a pretty normal desire for people to have, specially noticiable in the XXI century with so many youtubers and instagramers around.
The temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the world, was burnt down in 356 BC by a man looking for fame. His whole plan was just to destroy something so great and famous that he would also be recorded in history. For that crime he was the first person to be sentenced to damnatio memoriae, the condemnation of memory, and his public records where destroyed. (despite this his name was recorded by an historian at the time and is still known, you can look it up easily but I refuse to say it because that means he wins)
Btw, props for starting your post with ahoy-hoy, mr. burns.
Also, lol at the people that are assuming Gentle and La Brava's participation in the story simply ended.
Things went very differently that what I was expecting, with them being defeated before the entered UA grounds, but this is a series not a movie. They were not killed, at least wait a couple of chapters to see the immediate consequences of their actions.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Okay, I hope that worked. Now then, you are very right in that Gentle's yearning for fame is very much a fundamental human desire. We all want to feel as though what we have accomplished will be remembered-that we have had an impact. I will freely admit that I wanted Gentle's motivations to not be so basic--that wish was perhaps misguided--which is not to say that Gentle was a terribly executed villain. Ultimately he is miles ahead of Chisaki in my eyes, but there is still that nagging feeling for something more. I do believe that this chapter goes a long way in showing that Gentle isn't JUST a self-centered braggart, as he was willing to sacrifice himself for La Brava. So time will tell if Gentle and La Brava will become more well-rounded as the series progresses--I hope that they do when we see them next.Gentle doesn't need anything in his backstory to trigger his desire for glory. That's a pretty normal desire for people to have, specially noticiable in the XXI century with so many youtubers and instagramers around.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
The problem I have with Gentle's character is that he only put his mind into perfectioning his quirk once he was rejected by the hero society.
There were better ways to make him fall from the "right" way than simply him being a slacker all his life until his pride got dragged through the mud.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
I think he also wasn't getting good grades. So it wasn't necessarily just his quirk being a problem.
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Despite my earlier gripes with Gentle and La Brava, I liked this ending. I feel for their relationship woes and liked how Gentle took responsibility for La Brava's codependency. I don't have much else to add.
But why wasn't he getting good grades though? We still don't know that. Was he just not smart? Did he slack off on his studies? Does he have some sort of mental deficiency or physical disadvantage like Quirkless Deku? Does he have other obligations that keep getting in the way of getting his schoolwork done like Koichi in Vigilantes being late for his exam because he had to save a kid?
Without anymore info, we can only assume the simplest answer (lacking smarts or laziness). And... neither of which makes me too sympathetic for him (maybe the former can if you execute it in a way where Gentle REALLY put all his effort and we saw more of how his parents were affected, like in the Simpsons episode Bart Gets an F). I mean, it's always slightly sad when a student doesn't do well in school if they're not a jerk since education is a necessary requirement for opportunities later on in life. But as far as we know, My Hero Academia's education system is "fair" in accurately testing whether or not students have the mettle to become Pro-Heroes. If Gentle couldn't make the cut, then... boo hoo, I guess. He wasn't cut out for it and let his naive ego get to his head.
Gentle did get in trouble for saving that random civilian by breaking the law in using his Quirk publicly, but I saw that more as the straw that broke the already extremely flawed camel's back than it being that one bad day out of his control costing him everything.
That's my issue with his flashback. Horikoshi wants to give him a selfish motivation? Fine. But don't try to make his backstory out to be sympathetic like he was unfairly wronged by the world if his goal all along was something rather petty (unless that goal ties into becoming psychologically unhinged from some sort of tragedy, which can be validly sympathetic to a degree). Deku in this chapter explaining his dream was a hundred times more inspiring than the dozen repetitive monologues we got from Gentle talking about making a mark in history and vaguely inspiring others without going into detail.
Gentle's flashback would work a lot better for me if the story acknowledged that he didn't take school seriously enough and needed a midlife crisis to make him realize his past errors, not just breaking out of depression. I really don't know what exactly this flashback wants me to feel, but if it's sympathy, it has issues.
I agree with both this and your first post. Welcome to the forum!
Luffy has valid ideals when it comes to promoting freedom and pride though. He's "selfish", sure. But it's always in this peculiar but charming "mutual selfishness" way where he empowers other people to stand up for their dreams and value the people they care about above everything else as the greatest treasure.
Gentle only looks selfish to me though. Not in a particularly malicious way, but still simply self-centered and using his altruistic escapades as more of an excuse to get attention than really being into heroism. Which is fine! That's unique and, like you said, realistic. He's a small-time villain, that works for him. But doesn't mean his dream deserves a sympathetic flashback that's supposed to make it seem cool and inspiring. At least not without going into more detail about how he might use his fame to better society or help somebody. I feel like Horikoshi could have improved there. He "helped" La Brava, sure, but that's because she's an obsessive stalker and Gentle likes to talk about this vague goal of changing the world without ever actually going into much detail as to how or why.
If Gentle got his selfishness and criticized more outside of one retort from Deku and the sympathy angle was mostly concentrated on Gentle and La Brava's relationship rather than their backstories where both of them are almost kind of unstable dislikable people (maybe that's too harsh as I still like and slightly pity them, but stalking is no joke no matter how cute/shy you are and fame can easily look shallow, especially if you don't look like you put the work into achieving that) then Gentle would work much better for me as an antagonist. That kind of "villain" where their goals are obviously selfish or corrupt, but their camaraderie with their allies and whoever they protect executed in a very endearing way. Which doesn't fully justify what they're doing, but makes them still feel human and deep enough to like.
Last edited by Count Mario; April 20th, 2018 at 12:31 PM.
"Life's not about finding out which card is yours, but finding out which cards you're not."Spoiler:
Re: My Hero Academia II - A Horikoshi series that actually made it to a second thread
Small clarification - he didn't save the guy. He interrupted the rescue (the one bouncing off his air trampoline in that panel is a winged hero) and the window cleaner ended up so badly hurt he needed 6 months to recover.
His crime, there, was obstructing public duties. Not illegal Quirk use.
There are currently 3 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 3 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
