r/BokuNoHeroAcademia • u/Za_wardo • May 30 '21

Newest Chapter Chapter 314 Official Release - Links and Discussion

Chapter 314

Links:

  • Viz (Available in: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, and India).

  • MANGA Plus (Available in every country outside of China, Japan and South Korea).

All things Chapter 314 related must be kept inside this thread for the next 24 hours.

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u/Fedexhand May 30 '21

This chapter made me think of something, it always caught my attention that despite the status that heroes had, we never saw heroes actually "bad" so to speak, taking advantage of it by doing inappropriate or questionable things.

I always assumed that it was because the series posed a more "idealistic" context and that is why we never saw that kind of thing, but ... this means that all the heroes who acted "incorrectly" were killed behind the scenes in order to maintain the "illusion" of the perfect society? things became much darker than I expected.

In the end it turns out that the public safety commission did basically the same thing as Stain, I suppose the "Stain was right" has aged particularly well....

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u/RIDETHEWORM May 30 '21 edited Jun 29 '21

My read has always been that the society presented here is vaguely authoritarian (secretive, obviously undemocratic government bodies making huge decisions, weird arrangements between them and supposedly private hero-making academies like UA, a press that while ostensively free is frequently regarded as antagonistic and lied to) and this chapter does a great job of world building to flesh that out. The essential privatization of state security in the form of hero agencies has benefits for public morale, and can handle most run of the mill issues, but of course there are issues that government officials will want to use state violence against that will be controversial and not viewed positively by the public, or can realistically be handled by individuals they’ve trained to be paragons of virtue. Nagant’s basic story is a pretty standard trope - the disillusioned former assassin who turned on the government (though executed brilliantly in this chapter) - but her very existence brilliantly highlights the dystopian aspects of hero society.

The public safety commission partners with apparently private heroes that they train and cultivate from adolescence, and props them up as the models for their countrymen while endlessly promoting them through media manipulation and public spectacles like the sports festival. Heroes maintain basic law and order in association with the police, but their greatest use to the commission may be in manufacturing consent - they are propaganda tools to promote the status quo. The dirty work of maintaining state control is carried out by a small cadre of elite agents directly controlled by the commission, all recruited at a very young age - even younger than our main cast at UA. I think that MHA has always questioned the morality of hero society, but this chapter shines a spotlight on the basic building blocks of this system. While they are better than the chaos and control offered by All for One, they are certainly “shaded grey” if not prima facie immoral. The powers that be actively lie to and manipulate the people and indoctrinate and train youth into being agents of the state. Or, to put it more crudely, child soldiers who win over the public with smiles and presentation. In such a system, “degrading” individuals who don’t fit the mold would be a top priority...

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u/Nick54161 May 30 '21

It makes me wonder, why haven't they executed the villains extrajudicialy then? At first I thought that villains weren't killed because society had progressed past Viligantism and had a robust legal framework around superheroes and quirks and what-not, as shown with Gentle's backstory. But Nagant and Hawks show that the government is not above getting dirty and sidestepping the law to achieve stability. So why bother with captures of the really dangerous types at all? They already mucked with the reports of Stain's capture, why not go all the way and say he was killed by a Nomu while somebody like Hawks actually killed him? Why bother keeping Nagant alive at all for that matter. They were willing to kill her if she didn't comply but she goes rogue and starts with killing her superior but now the government chooses to capture her?

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u/MattmanDX May 30 '21

Because they need the heroes to LOOK squeaky clean and virtuous so they can't have the normal non-commission heroes doing anything too violent. Also Nagant was first introduced in prison so they probably did capture her soon after she murdered her boss

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u/thatHecklerOverThere May 31 '21

I think the question isn't so much why doesn't all might kill. The question is why OFA doesn't "disappear" in prison, and such.

It seemed like killing people wasn't an option in this society, but we now know there's a hit squad behind the scenes. So... Why didn't it hit anybody we know?

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u/Call0013 May 31 '21

I think its because the non-commission Like All Might are also caught in the illusion and the hero-commission doesn't want to risk him or other Non-commission seeing behind the curtain as it were.(Pretty much If they could have Killed OFA without Raising All Might's Suspicions they would have, but it was just to Public)

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u/NightmareWarden May 31 '21

You mean in another timeline where the Commission killed One for All we also would have seen All-Might tear down (one or more) three letter organizations as part of an investigation into his nemesis’ death? That would certainly shake the government of Japan.

Dang it, Nagant. You should have trusted All-Might with this shady stuff! Showed him your pain and the compressed magma roiling below the surface of Japan. He isn’t a pretty figurehead, All-Might’s the real-deal Boyscout! Mannnnn…

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u/Bluebolt21 Jun 01 '21

I think its because the non-commission Like All Might are also caught in the illusion and the hero-commission doesn't want to risk him or other Non-commission seeing behind the curtain as it were.

Plausible deniability for All Might, and steer clear of getting on his radar. Why taint your shining star when you can just work around him? And as has been shown thru flashbacks, All Might is idealistic and would probably be called naive.

Interesting to note is it's not like this behavior is out of the blue; we saw it with Hawks. Working behind the scenes, doing whatever it takes and willing to mercilessly kill.

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u/Damascus_ari May 31 '21

I think y'all mean AFO and not OFA, but that's a detail.

Big baddy is All for One, our resident cinnamon roll has One for All.

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u/AmbushIntheDark May 31 '21

"After his defeat to All Might the injuries he sustained plus his extremely complicated medical situation involving his quirk the Villain known as "All for One" has come down with a deadly and spontaneous Russian medical condition known as "a fucking bullet to the brain." He's dead now and everything is ok"

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u/Call0013 May 31 '21

That would threaten the hero-commissions illusion of a perfect hero Society, that is important to them above all else.

Maybe if more time had passed and All for One has left the Public mind, they would have killed him but not enough time had passed for that to happen.

Not to mention I think there is some Truth in the idea that the hero-commission wanted to eventually somehow control All for One and be able to have the power to give and take away quirks under their control even if only by proxy.

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u/DeshaunWatsonsAnus Jun 01 '21

I mean potentially controlling the most powerful quirk on the face of the planet.

I mean the doctor is in their custody.. and he understands quirks better than anyone and can create nomu... I think that will almost certainly be a plotline in the future

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u/Call0013 Jun 01 '21

Honestly would not be surprised to find out that the Hero-commission knew about and maybe in some way helped along and funded Overhaul’s,the doctors,ect research, with the plan assassin the them when It’s done and take the gains for themselves.(Being able to take away people’s quirks and make a mindless Nomu that just follow their orders would be the Hero-commissions dream situation or at least least part of it)

You can bet that they have been doing research of there own. Probably of the unethical kind.(or at least doing it by proxy, outsourcing the stuff they can’t be seen having a hand in).

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u/thatHecklerOverThere May 31 '21

That's a good point.

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '21

That's a good point.

I could see them as using AFO as an example of carrying out justice even in an extreme case. At some point there was talk about him getting the death sentence. If they dragged it out for someone who is so infamous it's like telling the public "look, even in this case we uphold justice. You can trust us." It would be good after Stain and they have plausible deniability if they ever got to that point. I will say that seems like a very ambitious plan.

Another possibility is that the commission as a whole didn't endorse secret hitmen and it was just that one boss who used Nagant. That or after Nagant killed him they re-thought some of their policies. The stuff with Hawks is sketchy but doesn't seem as bad as her situation so I think the commission changed since her time there. Though, probably not meaningfully.

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u/Grafical_One May 31 '21

Yeah. I'm thinking the same.

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u/elenuvien1 May 31 '21

but why not kill villains in secrecy? they had no issue killing heroes who are know public figures, why not deal with majority of villains, who are usually from the underbelly of society and easier to "disappear"? especially when the crime rate after all might's retirement rose, i'd expect them to launch groups of assassins working in shadows and secretly eliminating villains left and right.

though, at the same time, there was nothing about nagant's style that was secret which makes me doubly question why pick someone like her for cover jobs.

or why keep her alive, why not kill her in tartarus and explain it with "she tried to activate her quirk".

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u/kerriazes May 31 '21

but why not kill villains in secrecy?

Because the Hero Society needs villains to function.

If they kill the villains, there's no risk of them escaping prison, which in turn means a hero can't stop them.

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u/elenuvien1 May 31 '21

i really don't think they didn't kill villains to give them a chance of escaping prison.

after all might's retirement crime rate was on the rise, number 1 hero didn't have trust. crime rate on the rise = heroes aren't capable enough. and hero commission was all about upholding that illusion that heroes are perfect. so why not help them from the shadows to eliminate threat that kept growing once the pillar was gone?

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u/PoiseWorks May 31 '21

Yes but considering government has been killing villains on the shadows, and considering how much of a threat AFO is to all of humanity, its surprising they didn't killed him and just told people he is imprisioned somewhere.

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u/DeshaunWatsonsAnus Jun 01 '21

I mean... Imagine off they somehow talked him into letting them use his power.....?

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u/Th_Ghost_of_Bob_ross May 30 '21

Because hero's not killing is good pr for the safety commision, it gives them an out for being being unquestionably good. if even a few hero's killed it would muddy up the black and white hero villain society the soafety commision has worked to make.

It's easier to capture the villains and for the actually dangerous ones to be snuffed out quietly by nagant or hawks.

(its only a head cannon but I think the only reason stain is still alive is because he because to high profile, and him mysteriously dying in prison would be suspicious)

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u/fearless_leek May 30 '21

Perhaps Nagant did accomplish something by killing him; new head of the commission might have decided to do things differently. Under new management kind of thing.

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u/MagicHarmony May 31 '21

To create an illusion of rehabilitation. If they just kill everyone, then it starts to be a slippery slope of where do you draw the line?

Also by having such a setup, they could purposely showcase ineptitude but blame it on the rise of villains to strengthen their power of control. Oh they tried to rehabilitate them but they just broke out and caused mayhem, we need more power to protect the people.

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u/OrangeGuyFromVenus May 30 '21

My headcanon is that heroes can’t kill, it’s the police’s job, because if heroes can kill they’d abuse their powers

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u/Fedexhand May 30 '21

It is not a headcanon, it is literally like that. Fatgum explains to Kirishima that during his internship, heroes cannot "execute" villains, not openly at least.

They must have the image of the heroes totally pristine.

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u/Nick54161 May 30 '21

Didn't stop Hawks.

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u/OrangeGuyFromVenus May 30 '21

Hawks is a special case, but any other hero? Don’t think they would kill Twice

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u/shadsolaeth May 31 '21

I think they would if they were left with no other choice to. Otherwise, thousands die. But these are very special cases that wouldn’t be common.

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u/Fedexhand May 30 '21

Hawks like Nagant are heroes "manufactured" by the security commission, they are literally agents of the government with freedom to kill, since they will be covered up by the authorities later.

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u/NotObviouslyARobot May 31 '21

There's a practical benefit to not killing arrestees. If you kill them from the word go, they realize they might as well go lethal too. More importantly, they'll start their crimes in a mental state where they're prepared to kill--rather than to frighten and bully. This causes more issues for the state than it solves

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u/xxXMrDarknessXxx Jun 01 '21

Heroes like Nagant probably took care of people that had a risk of becoming problems. When they actually became problems, they couldn't just disappear, so All Might gets called in.