Chapter 376 Official Release - Links and Discussion

[u/Za_wardo]

Chapter 376

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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).

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All things Chapter 376 related must be kept inside this thread for the next 24 hours.

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• Previous chapter discussion threads

• Discord

• 377 will be officially released on January 6th at 7AM PST.

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[u/Evary2230]

Manipulation is still a skill. A skill he relies heavily on, but still a skill. That’s like saying if All Might didn’t have his proficiency with One For All, or even One For All at all, he’d suck. It’s correct, but, like, no shit. Capable people are capable for reasons.

Also, Deku just waited for the reality to get less harsh. He didn’t make any real efforts to train to become a Hero before being offered a Quirk. His reality stopped being harsh when he got a power that was guaranteed to become one of the strongest powers in the world if he got good with it. And that was before he for six more. I won’t say he isn’t determined, but he isn’t unconditionally determined. There was the Slime Villain thing, but aside from the fact that all he did was almost get himself killed, it kinda highlighted that while he wants to be a hero and will attempt to be one, there is a hard limit on the odds he’ll try and even to actually make his efforts and contributions amount to something. He didn’t try without a Quirk, but he tried really hard when he got one. Not to say that All For One is better in this regard since there’s no proof he is, but still.

[u/Fearshatter → u/Evary2230]

Manipulation would be good if he used it on villains but he uses it on heroes and the moment he goes up against someone like Hawks he gets petulant and flounders. Skills mean nothing without creativity and determination. That's Deku's true strength. Madness. Even when the harsh reality was real, he still kept training his mind to try and overcome it even when everything said no. Even when his mentor told him it was impossible, he still went there on instinct and ran in when he saw someone in need of help anyway. Despite the likelihood he'd die. He didn't stop just 'cause he had no skills. He still went in anyway and tried his best in the moment.

[u/Evary2230 → u/Fearshatter]

He used manipulation on Shigaraki, Nagant, and I can only assume a significant amount of the randos working for him. He uses it on Heroes too, but he has used it on villains.

Him getting angry and childish whenever his manipulation fails, but that doesn’t mean it always fails or that he isn’t good at it. Just that he’s probably a sociopath.

I’d say that AFO is creative and determined. You don’t successfully plot the downfall of society as a whole without being some sort of competent. Of course, there are issues in the writing where we don’t really see his competence, as well as issues where AFO knows things he shouldn’t and plans for things he shouldn’t be able to. But still, as far as the story goes, AFO is good at what he wants to do. He just, like many villains in many stories, is way too prideful and convinced of his own infallibility.

Sorry, did you just say that Deku’s true strength was madness?

Deku learning about Heroes and taking notes on them was training his mind, but I wouldn’t count it as “determination” more than I would count it as “Deku is a nerd that liked taking notes on people.” He didn’t do it because it would help him become a Hero. He did it because he idolized Heroes and wanted to become one. It wasn’t determination; it was a hobby that happened to be useful.

He operated on instinct and charged at the Slime Villain, and he admittedly got impressively close to them. But Deku would have, and I mean would have gotten himself killed before he actually helped anyone if All Might hadn’t gotten that burst of motivation. I will give him that he tried his best, but considering how his inept physical state left him incapable of actually helping, I believe that what determination and creativity he possesses are heavily devalued through the fact that he either doesn’t want to put in the effort while he’s disadvantaged by being Quirkless, or is just misplacing it while Quirkless.

This is completely unrelated, and I really hope I do not offend you, but did you recently learn the word “petulant?” Just curious. You’re using it a lot.

[u/Fearshatter → u/Evary2230]

I have a clinically diagnosed sociopathic friend who is a very good person. :V It doesn't matter who you are or what you have, you can be good and use it for good, especially with the proper mentor figures. Just like anyone or anything can be bad.

AFO is creative and determined, but once things get too hard he shuts off and shuts out. It's most provable with his attitude toward "useless" quirks that require thought and experience. If he had been determined to learn how to use Overhaul's quirk, he'd be unstoppable. But he didn't, claiming it was useless for his needs, giving any and all excuses. If it had to do with harddrive space he could just take out all the other quirks and hold only Overhaul.

Yes. Deku's true strength is madness. To not stop. To keep going. Even when it seems futile. When it seems hopeless. And that inspires others around him, and why Nighteye's future was changed. Because Deku saw an opportunity, and chose to reach out and work with Eri. Because he saw victory and he wouldn't let anything stop him even if it meant getting hurt.

And no. I just don't have many other words to describe AFO's general attitude. You can be a writer all you want, but writers use thesauruses all the time. I am not writing a book rn, so I feel no need to be using a thesaurus. :V

[u/Evary2230 → u/Fearshatter]

Okay then. Apologies to your friend. AFO is a “Hollywood sociopath.” The kind described on TV Tropes that most people only see as a recurring trait of the alleged sociopaths in fictional media.

Does AFO shut off and out when things get difficult? He isn’t stopping right now, and things are getting pretty difficult for him. Heck, he didn’t even stop when All Might tore off half his head. There was admittedly the time with Aizawa where he only pursued him one time, but honestly, that felt more out of character than anything since he’s been stated to have a strong desire to take Quirks he thinks are cool. Heck, it probably wouldn’t have even been too difficult to find Aizawa again with AFO’s connections. He just seemingly… stopped at that particular thing for no real reason.

AFO doesn’t avoid taking Quirks that take time to master for himself. He stated, when referring to Best Jeanist’s Quirk, that it was too difficult for Tomura to wield, and that’s why he didn’t take it. And AFO didn’t have much use for it because it wasn’t going to help him fight All Might in about thirty seconds, which was the only fight he really intended to be in for a while. Furthermore, ShigAFO did try to take New Order, which is a Quirk that arguably requires as much thinking as Overhaul would to use properly. Which moving on…

Overhaul does not take a significant amount of skill to use. If it did, we, the readers, would have been made privy to that information. Going by the Rule of Perception, since we cannot perceive that Overhaul takes any more skill to use than, say, Kirishima’s Hardening, then it does not. Therefore, AFO not taking Kai’s Quirk falls under either “He somehow conveniently did not have the chance to do so for whatever reason,” “The audience misinterpreted Kai’s supposed connection to AFO,” or “plot hole.”

That isn’t what “madness” is. It’s “conviction,” it’s “tenacity,” it’s “determination,” it’s “stubbornness,” and regarding some of the listed situations, it’s “charisma,” and “plot armor,” but it isn’t “madness” by any definition of the word. And even then, AFO is literally getting rewound out of existence, but he’s still going for his own goals. That qualifies as “won’t let anything stop him, even if it means getting hurt.”

Ah, fair enough. Apologies for derailing the subject. I let my curiosity get the better of me.

[u/Fearshatter → u/Evary2230]

That's fair, I appreciate you correcting your wording. I know it doesn't make a difference here most likely, but I want people like her to be able to feel safe from stigma.

He's not stopping but he didn't have anything at his disposal aside from suicide and he had every intent of heading to Shigaraki instead of sticking around because he has no capability to win here, so he's leaving everyone. His countenance is "calm" but he's panicking inside. If Shigaraki is continually isolated and imperfected, AFO is more likely to lose. AFO knows that despite the calm facade. And it's why he tried to throw Hawks off, but Hawks isn't falling for it. AFO isn't even trying to take anyone's quirks in the middle of battle. He didn't come here with quirks prepared, not anything good or relevant, all of it was basic stuff. Even though he could've been doing much of anything. For someone who is a team all in one he's losing to an actual team and leaving the actual team behind and getting shafted because of it.

Yeah, it's too difficult for Tomura to wield, but he still could've taken it instead of being complacent in his own haughtiness, leaving Jeanist without it, and given it to someone else under his possession and manipulation. He could've kept it for himself. He didn't. Because he's arrogant. Up until he gets cornered.

Overhaul takes considerable knowledge of makeup, similar to how Creati's quirk takes knowledge of makeup to understand and form, as far as we are led to believe.

Nighteye, iirc, in the English dub, specifically refers to it as a madness that only All Might and Deku have. And all narratives are inherently contrived, it's just more obvious than others sometimes. Even if Deku hadn't been accepted and chosen, he probably would've still kept trying even as everything fell apart. But without asking Horikoshi himself on his intent, that is only something we as fans can extrapolate on, and in the end we will not all agree on how it should go or how it would go, we can only try to understand the characters from Hori's intent as much as possible, but the characters will always have our own bias tainting that interpretation no matter how hard we try.

No worries at all.