Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 131

 Izuku learns from his predecessors. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 130

 The tragic fall of the House of Todoroki

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 129

Families are... complicated. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, we had a prison break. Shigaraki, acting both through Tomura’s body and his original body in the prison, orchestrated a mass breakout of Tartarus, the maximum-security prison for the most dangerous Quirks. The chaos saw the escape of a few old villain faces, including Stain, Muscular, Moonfish, and Overhaul. There was also a new face in a woman we’ll come to know as Lady Nagant. After the big breakout, Shigaraki caused breakouts in several smaller prisons to sew chaos. After, Spinner demands to know what their goal is and why he should give his loyalty to this new guy possessing his boss’s body. Shigaraki told him not to worry as the end game is to make him the Demon king of the world. We move to Central Hospital where class 1A is being treated. The students made it out with injuries of varying severity. Bakugo is mostly recovered, Shoto is largely fine but was badly burned by his brother and is having trouble talking, and Izuku has been in a coma since being brought in. Shoto’s family are gathering at the hospital as his father, Endeavor is in surgery at the hospital. The episode ends with Bakugo swearing to kill Izuku if he dies. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The story picks up with Bakugo fighting Sato and Mineta as he fights his way to Izuku, to I guess try to threaten him into waking up.

 

After that we cut to a young Hawks watching All Might’s debut video like Izuku used to. He then saw Endeavor using his power to defeat an Elephant Quirk user. He tells us that while he grew up watching heroes like everyone else did, they never felt ‘real’ to him, more like beings from another world, or from dreams. We follow Hawks to his home, a rundown shack at the edge of town where he and his mother are violently abused by his alcoholic father. His father yells at his boy, Kego, for going into town and threatening the boy’s life if he, at the time just Keigo Takami, ratted the elder Takami out. Turns out he’s on the run for some crimes. Keigo says that his wings felt tingly, so he went into the city but came right back after it stopped. Future Hawks explains that his father was on the run for murdering someone over a very small amount of money, his mother let him hide at her place and he was born a short time after. We see that the elder Takami has the same feathers as his boy but they grow from his arms and not from wings on his back. Takami is the sort of person that blames all his misfortune on other people, so he whines out loud that he’d be free as a bird if he didn’t have to look after Keigo. While not looking away from their busted TV with her natural eyes, Tomei Takami looks at her husband with her free-floating eyes and begs him not to leave. Hawks calls his parents “broke souls” and that from a young age he knew to keep his head down and try not to end up like them. There’s a really sad image of this five- or six-year-old Keigo sitting quietly away from his parents in their house full of trash while clutching his Endeavor doll.

 

Sometime later Keigo comes home to his mother telling him his father was arrested. She looks at him with all four of her eyes and says that Takami stole a car to try to get away from the hero, but he was caught by Endeavor. This elevated Endeavor to a real, physical hero in Keigo’s eyes. Tomei took Keigo away from their home for fear of getting arrested for harboring a fugitive. While removing his abusive father from his life was a net gain for Keigo Takami, he unfortunately still had his mother. Tomei seems to suffer from a crippling level of anxiety and paranoia, leaving her unable to do things like, say, hold down a job, or raise a child. Keigo tried to get her to go to the police or someone that could help them, but Tomei was sure everyone was out to get them. She tells him to do what he had to help them survive and asks why he was even born if he can’t help them. Keigo knew that with his feathers he could steal wallets with relative ease, but he still wanted to be a good person. Eventually some government types tracked them down and gave Tomei a sweet deal, turn over her son to them, they’ll train him to be a hero and see that she’s financially compensated for the rest of her life.

 

After, the government types tell him that he’ll be giving up his name of Keigo from that day onward. He’ll be put through an elite training program to make him into a real hero. While looking at his Endeavor doll, he asks if he’ll get to be a real hero, like him, this man that saved his life.

 

Hawks wakes up from his recollection as someone says his name. He’s covered in bandages and has some sort of mask on to help him breathe. The other man, Best Jeanist, is relieved he woke up. Using an app on his phone to do text-to-speak, Hawks apologizes for getting to sleep while Jeanist is forced to do all the driving. Jeanist tells him not to worry about it. He compliments the doctors that stitched Hawks up, and saying that without them they wouldn’t have been able to pull off their gambit to use Jeanist’s murder to get Hawks in with the League of Villains. We’re told that the doctors basically put Jeanist into a very nearly death like coma, which was what they needed to fool Dabi and Dr. Garaki. He’d spent most of the last few weeks or months in a Nomu tank, preserving his body for if and when Garaki decided to start modifying him into a Nomu. Hawks snuck in and revived him in time for him to save the day. Jeanist suddenly makes a sharp U-turn and says he spotted some loose ends that need tending. They run into a villain known as Glutton God and his gang attacking a shopping district, saying that this whole area is his territory now. Jeanist takes them out with his car’s grappling hooks. After, he asks if the police are on the way, but the locals say that they aren’t. The cops have their hands full capturing the escaped convicts and unfortunately their heroes all turned tail and ran after starting to get scrutinized by the public. Jeanist hears someone in the crowd saying “they’re cowards, who needs them.” Jeanist spies a lot of angry people in the crowd when he offers to send some of his own sidekicks to the area to help.

 

They get back in the car and Jeanist takes Hawks to his mom’s house. The place is lavish but empty. Jeanist asks if she skipped town. Hawks finds a note from his mother, who apologizes, saying that some scary men came in and demanded information on Hawks and his father. She says that she’s so incredibly sorry for doing that, which is why she left, but tells her son that she’s very proud of him. Hawks isn’t too visibly broken up by this, saying that he cut ties with his mother when he gave up his name. But he does feel bad that he didn’t help her like he should have. Hawks says with the PSC out of commission for now, he’s got no one tying him down. He takes off his mask and speaks that last line with a raspy voice.

 

Hawks has a flashback to when his mother took him shopping one day to get him to stop crying. She tells him to not tell his father. They grabbed the Endeavor doll, his mother saying that “he’s alright, right? All Might is too expensive.” In the present, Hawks tells Jeanist that you see a person’s real self when they’re backed into a corner. It’s why he thinks Twice was a good man at heart. He backed the wrong horse in the race, but in the end all he really wanted to do was help people. As Hawks says this, we see what he did to get the PSC’s attention all those years ago… he used his feathers to help people out of a massive car accident. Hawks tells Jeanist that even if Dabi was totally honest about the Todoroki family, things are different now. Hawks’ vows to help Endeavor however he can.

 

Hawks and Jeanist drive around looking for metaphorical fires to put out. Hawks tells us that urban areas were hit hardest, and that it was the combination of freed criminals and Nomu that make everyone so scared. He says that ever since the original Nomu made an appearance at UA, rumors about those things had circulated. He thinks that that should have been the first sign that things were going to get bad. People fixated on these abominations running around and with heroes constantly failing, things just got worse. A villain with some kind of waterpower, the Cider House Gang, attacked a store, but the owners all jump them with Support gear, saying that they don’t need heroes anymore. The Laundry Hero: Wash rushes to help but is too slow and sees explosions rock the area. He makes it to the scene and sees everyone was killed in the fighting. Hawks says that this was clearly part of Re-Destro’s plan, people lost faith in Heroes, so they buy up a bunch of support equipment that they don’t know how to use and fights just get bloodier. Wash gets attacked by angry civilians, demanding what took him so long to get there. Wash takes the criticism, though, and uses his powers to disinfect wounds and carry people to the hospital.

 

Making matters worse are the heroes quitting.  Hawks says that a lot of the quitters were the moderately successful types, guys who did good work but couldn’t handle the pressure, or old timers that had been coasting on their reputation for far too long. Guys like the number 9 hero, Yoroi Musha, announced his retirement after the raid. Many followed his example. Hawks says that they took peace for granted, and they have to ask themselves what it means to be a hero. We see Stain breaking into a building and getting his equipment back.

 

Hawks says that the outrage of these events, all the anger, frustration and pain was focused ended up focused on a single, broken man. We cut to Endeavor who is told by his doctor that the students are recovering, and that the doctor personally is rooting for him. Endeavor thinks that he can breathe, but his head is foggy from the anesthesia. Endeavor leans back in his hospital bed, saying that he knew this was Toya’s plan. That his oldest planned on him surviving and suffering from his indecision and inability to react to him. Endeavor realizes that this was just like when Natsuo nearly died in front of him, and he froze. Jeanist stepped up and debunked some of what Dabi said in his video, but Endeavor does own that he was a monster to his son and thus made him a monster as well. Endeavor remembers his son screaming at him while tearing at his white hair. Endeavor says that whatever he used to be, Endeavor is dead, and that he can’t fight his own son. He looks over to see his other three children watching him cry. Endeavor apologizes to his children, saying that he’s held down by his regret and guilt, and that there’s nothing that he can do. Endeavor is shocked to hear his wife say that they all know regret and guilt. He asks what she’s doing here, and she says they need to talk about their family, and about Toya.

 

I think it’s funny that this episode is titled “The Hellish Todoroki Family,” when its much more about the hellish Takami family. The fact this young man ended up becoming a hero is probably a minor miracle in and of itself with the parents he was dealing with. An all-around abusive father and a mentally unwell mother is like 35% of all villain origin stories. It really speaks to how terrible Hawks’ home life was that he considered his father’s arrest to be Endeavor ‘saving’ him. Imagine being that young and knowing that your dad is probably the biggest threat to your existence. Traumatic as hell. The show didn’t make it seem like he had the best time while training to be a hero, but it was a step up from having to take care of his mother, I’m sure. I like that they include his mother’s goodbye note, as it’d be easy to just have her go into the wind, but the fact she stopped for a minute to say goodbye at least suggests she was being honest about being proud of him. I liked seeing how the hero system is starting to crack under the strain. The escalation is very believable. People lose faith in heroes as it becomes clear that they’re not equipped to handle this crisis, they do their best to arm and defend themselves and end up causing more damage because they don’t know what they’re doing, which leads to more lost faith in heroes that aren’t able to handle the increasing crises. This part is clearly from the Re-Destro part of the Paranormal Liberation Front, as buying their products to inflate their stock feels like an evil corporate thing to do. Hopefully they’ll be able to start righting this ship once a certain green-haired hero wakes up. I’m looking forward to them digging into the Todoroki family next time. Their situation is… complicated, but it’ll be nice to get everything about the Toya situation out in the open. But more on that next time. See you then. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 128

 Who doesn't love a good prison break? Besides the guards. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, we had a prison break. Shigaraki, acting both through Tomura’s body and his original body in the prison, orchestrated a mass breakout of Tartarus, the maximum-security prison for the most dangerous Quirks. The chaos saw the escape of a few old villain faces, including Stain, Muscular, Moonfish, and Overhaul. There was also a new face in a woman we’ll come to know as Lady Nagant. After the big breakout, Shigaraki caused breakouts in several smaller prisons to sew chaos. After, Spinner demands to know what their goal is and why he should give his loyalty to this new guy possessing his boss’s body. Shigaraki told him not to worry as the end game is to make him the Demon king of the world. We move to Central Hospital where class 1A is being treated. The students made it out with injuries of varying severity. Bakugo is mostly recovered, Shoto is largely fine but was badly burned by his brother and is having trouble talking, and Izuku has been in a coma since being brought in. Shoto’s family are gathering at the hospital as his father, Endeavor is in surgery at the hospital. The episode ends with Bakugo swearing to kill Izuku if he dies. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The story picks up with Bakugo fighting Sato and Mineta as he fights his way to Izuku, to I guess try to threaten him into waking up.

 

After that we cut to a young Hawks watching All Might’s debut video like Izuku used to. He then saw Endeavor using his power to defeat an Elephant Quirk user. He tells us that while he grew up watching heroes like everyone else did, they never felt ‘real’ to him, more like beings from another world, or from dreams. We follow Hawks to his home, a rundown shack at the edge of town where he and his mother are violently abused by his alcoholic father. His father yells at his boy, Kego, for going into town and threatening the boy’s life if he, at the time just Keigo Takami, ratted the elder Takami out. Turns out he’s on the run for some crimes. Keigo says that his wings felt tingly, so he went into the city but came right back after it stopped. Future Hawks explains that his father was on the run for murdering someone over a very small amount of money, his mother let him hide at her place and he was born a short time after. We see that the elder Takami has the same feathers as his boy but they grow from his arms and not from wings on his back. Takami is the sort of person that blames all his misfortune on other people, so he whines out loud that he’d be free as a bird if he didn’t have to look after Keigo. While not looking away from their busted TV with her natural eyes, Tomei Takami looks at her husband with her free-floating eyes and begs him not to leave. Hawks calls his parents “broke souls” and that from a young age he knew to keep his head down and try not to end up like them. There’s a really sad image of this five- or six-year-old Keigo sitting quietly away from his parents in their house full of trash while clutching his Endeavor doll.

 

Sometime later Keigo comes home to his mother telling him his father was arrested. She looks at him with all four of her eyes and says that Takami stole a car to try to get away from the hero, but he was caught by Endeavor. This elevated Endeavor to a real, physical hero in Keigo’s eyes. Tomei took Keigo away from their home for fear of getting arrested for harboring a fugitive. While removing his abusive father from his life was a net gain for Keigo Takami, he unfortunately still had his mother. Tomei seems to suffer from a crippling level of anxiety and paranoia, leaving her unable to do things like, say, hold down a job, or raise a child. Keigo tried to get her to go to the police or someone that could help them, but Tomei was sure everyone was out to get them. She tells him to do what he had to help them survive and asks why he was even born if he can’t help them. Keigo knew that with his feathers he could steal wallets with relative ease, but he still wanted to be a good person. Eventually some government types tracked them down and gave Tomei a sweet deal, turn over her son to them, they’ll train him to be a hero and see that she’s financially compensated for the rest of her life.

 

After, the government types tell him that he’ll be giving up his name of Keigo from that day onward. He’ll be put through an elite training program to make him into a real hero. While looking at his Endeavor doll, he asks if he’ll get to be a real hero, like him, this man that saved his life.

 

Hawks wakes up from his recollection as someone says his name. He’s covered in bandages and has some sort of mask on to help him breathe. The other man, Best Jeanist, is relieved he woke up. Using an app on his phone to do text-to-speak, Hawks apologizes for getting to sleep while Jeanist is forced to do all the driving. Jeanist tells him not to worry about it. He compliments the doctors that stitched Hawks up, and saying that without them they wouldn’t have been able to pull off their gambit to use Jeanist’s murder to get Hawks in with the League of Villains. We’re told that the doctors basically put Jeanist into a very nearly death like coma, which was what they needed to fool Dabi and Dr. Garaki. He’d spent most of the last few weeks or months in a Nomu tank, preserving his body for if and when Garaki decided to start modifying him into a Nomu. Hawks snuck in and revived him in time for him to save the day. Jeanist suddenly makes a sharp U-turn and says he spotted some loose ends that need tending. They run into a villain known as Glutton God and his gang attacking a shopping district, saying that this whole area is his territory now. Jeanist takes them out with his car’s grappling hooks. After, he asks if the police are on the way, but the locals say that they aren’t. The cops have their hands full capturing the escaped convicts and unfortunately their heroes all turned tail and ran after starting to get scrutinized by the public. Jeanist hears someone in the crowd saying “they’re cowards, who needs them.” Jeanist spies a lot of angry people in the crowd when he offers to send some of his own sidekicks to the area to help.

 

They get back in the car and Jeanist takes Hawks to his mom’s house. The place is lavish but empty. Jeanist asks if she skipped town. Hawks finds a note from his mother, who apologizes, saying that some scary men came in and demanded information on Hawks and his father. She says that she’s so incredibly sorry for doing that, which is why she left, but tells her son that she’s very proud of him. Hawks isn’t too visibly broken up by this, saying that he cut ties with his mother when he gave up his name. But he does feel bad that he didn’t help her like he should have. Hawks says with the PSC out of commission for now, he’s got no one tying him down. He takes off his mask and speaks that last line with a raspy voice.

 

Hawks has a flashback to when his mother took him shopping one day to get him to stop crying. She tells him to not tell his father. They grabbed the Endeavor doll, his mother saying that “he’s alright, right? All Might is too expensive.” In the present, Hawks tells Jeanist that you see a person’s real self when they’re backed into a corner. It’s why he thinks Twice was a good man at heart. He backed the wrong horse in the race, but in the end all he really wanted to do was help people. As Hawks says this, we see what he did to get the PSC’s attention all those years ago… he used his feathers to help people out of a massive car accident. Hawks tells Jeanist that even if Dabi was totally honest about the Todoroki family, things are different now. Hawks’ vows to help Endeavor however he can.

 

Hawks and Jeanist drive around looking for metaphorical fires to put out. Hawks tells us that urban areas were hit hardest, and that it was the combination of freed criminals and Nomu that make everyone so scared. He says that ever since the original Nomu made an appearance at UA, rumors about those things had circulated. He thinks that that should have been the first sign that things were going to get bad. People fixated on these abominations running around and with heroes constantly failing, things just got worse. A villain with some kind of waterpower, the Cider House Gang, attacked a store, but the owners all jump them with Support gear, saying that they don’t need heroes anymore. The Laundry Hero: Wash rushes to help but is too slow and sees explosions rock the area. He makes it to the scene and sees everyone was killed in the fighting. Hawks says that this was clearly part of Re-Destro’s plan, people lost faith in Heroes, so they buy up a bunch of support equipment that they don’t know how to use and fights just get bloodier. Wash gets attacked by angry civilians, demanding what took him so long to get there. Wash takes the criticism, though, and uses his powers to disinfect wounds and carry people to the hospital.

 

Making matters worse are the heroes quitting.  Hawks says that a lot of the quitters were the moderately successful types, guys who did good work but couldn’t handle the pressure, or old timers that had been coasting on their reputation for far too long. Guys like the number 9 hero, Yoroi Musha, announced his retirement after the raid. Many followed his example. Hawks says that they took peace for granted, and they have to ask themselves what it means to be a hero. We see Stain breaking into a building and getting his equipment back.

 

Hawks says that the outrage of these events, all the anger, frustration and pain was focused ended up focused on a single, broken man. We cut to Endeavor who is told by his doctor that the students are recovering, and that the doctor personally is rooting for him. Endeavor thinks that he can breathe, but his head is foggy from the anesthesia. Endeavor leans back in his hospital bed, saying that he knew this was Toya’s plan. That his oldest planned on him surviving and suffering from his indecision and inability to react to him. Endeavor realizes that this was just like when Natsuo nearly died in front of him, and he froze. Jeanist stepped up and debunked some of what Dabi said in his video, but Endeavor does own that he was a monster to his son and thus made him a monster as well. Endeavor remembers his son screaming at him while tearing at his white hair. Endeavor says that whatever he used to be, Endeavor is dead, and that he can’t fight his own son. He looks over to see his other three children watching him cry. Endeavor apologizes to his children, saying that he’s held down by his regret and guilt, and that there’s nothing that he can do. Endeavor is shocked to hear his wife say that they all know regret and guilt. He asks what she’s doing here, and she says they need to talk about their family, and about Toya.

 

I think it’s funny that this episode is titled “The Hellish Todoroki Family,” when its much more about the hellish Takami family. The fact this young man ended up becoming a hero is probably a minor miracle in and of itself with the parents he was dealing with. An all-around abusive father and a mentally unwell mother is like 35% of all villain origin stories. It really speaks to how terrible Hawks’ home life was that he considered his father’s arrest to be Endeavor ‘saving’ him. Imagine being that young and knowing that your dad is probably the biggest threat to your existence. Traumatic as hell. The show didn’t make it seem like he had the best time while training to be a hero, but it was a step up from having to take care of his mother, I’m sure. I like that they include his mother’s goodbye note, as it’d be easy to just have her go into the wind, but the fact she stopped for a minute to say goodbye at least suggests she was being honest about being proud of him. I liked seeing how the hero system is starting to crack under the strain. The escalation is very believable. People lose faith in heroes as it becomes clear that they’re not equipped to handle this crisis, they do their best to arm and defend themselves and end up causing more damage because they don’t know what they’re doing, which leads to more lost faith in heroes that aren’t able to handle the increasing crises. This part is clearly from the Re-Destro part of the Paranormal Liberation Front, as buying their products to inflate their stock feels like an evil corporate thing to do. Hopefully they’ll be able to start righting this ship once a certain green-haired hero wakes up. I’m looking forward to them digging into the Todoroki family next time. Their situation is… complicated, but it’ll be nice to get everything about the Toya situation out in the open. But more on that next time. See you then. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 127

 The butcher's bill on this one is high.

Last time on My Hero Academia, Mr. Compress decided to talk about himself. The masked stage magician of the League of Villains revealed himself to be the Great-Great Grandson of Oji Harima, a legendary Robin Hood-style thief from the early years of the hero system. He brings this guy up to explain why he’s a master escape artist and to show off just a little. Compress uses his compression quirk on himself, removing bits of his flesh to allow himself to escape the bonds Best Jeanist put him in. He gathered up all the allies that he could in compressed spheres and slowed down Mirio Togeta long enough for Spinner to wake up Tomura Shigaraki’s body. I specify his body because it turns out the one piloting his body is the elder Shigaraki, All-For-One. Using the powers implanted in his student to summon the Nomu to him and used them as a distraction to allow his and Spinner’s escape. Izuku tried to stop him, but he was incapacitated by the intense pain caused by his new Danger Sense. It’s a Spidey-Sense that should just warn him of danger but the pulse it gives him keeps knocking him out. He is able to stay awake long enough to confront All-For-One, using Black Whip channeled through his tongue to move. All-For-One knocks Izuku back and tells him they’ll meet again when Tomura is complete. As the heroes gather their wounded and dead, Izuku passes out again from his own injuries. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open the scene on the destruction of Jaku city where the battle took place. Lots of death, destruction, and it was so bad someone stuck a “I AM NOT HERE” sign on All Might’s statue. Future Narrator Izuku let us know that he didn’t know how bad the total damage was until sometime later. We learn that just before the big attack, the chief of the public safety commission reached out to the head of a certain company to begin a project to develop support items. The company was unfortunately Detnerat Company and the official brough in was Rikiya Yotsubashi aka Re-Destro. His assistant says that it’s weird they’re being brought in when the Safety Commission hasn’t been their biggest fans. He says that it’s because the PSC can’t ignore their products anymore and admits he’s going to introduce malware and spies into whatever products they give the PSC, which will give them lots of data. Like the identity of the PSC’s spy (Hawks). They’re both excited about bringing about the future the original Destro dreamed of. He then cryptically states that “the Other Me” is ecstatic.

 

Re-Destro meets with the PSC chair and her entourage, including Yokumiru Mera, the guy that ran Izuku’s Hero License Test. She starts speaking to him like this is going to be a simple business meeting… right up until her squad pulls out guns and heroes start busting in. We don’t see the fighting, but when we come back into the scene, the building is destroyed, Re-Destro’s assistant and the Chairwoman of the PSC are dead, and it’s revealed this Re-Destroy was a body double Twice created. As the copy melts he admits he was impressed at them using his company’s desire for expansion to lure him into a trap. He tells them that this is the beginning of the end and melts to goo.

 

Future Narrator Izuku goes on to explain that with the chaos in the PSC headquarters, no one was able to get in contact with the heroes to warn them, and the raid began. He summarizes the events of the raid. Heroes tried to grab Dr. Garaki, but he escaped thanks to a double, Garaki activated a bunch of High End Nomu and activated Tomura Shigaraki. Shigaraki’s enhanced Decay allowed him to destroy Jaku city from a distance. Izuku was outside helping to evacuate but he sensed his opposite’s presence. While that was going on, Edgeshot lead a raid on the Paranormal Liberation Front’s villa about 80 kilometers from Jaku City. Kaminari got his big moment of absorbing a big lightning attack and the raid began. Izuku mentions how Hawks was on a secret mission with the goal of removing Twice from the battlefield. He killed Twice, but was badly injured by Dabi. He was barely saved by Tokoyami who flew him to safety. The fight escalated with Gigantomachia and the PLF’s heavy hitters joining. Gigantomachia got drugged by class 1A which ultimately stopped him.

 

Izuku gets to Endeavor’s fight with Tomura Shigaraki and how he called in everyone that could fight without touching the ground. He mentions how Tomura’s enhancements made him impossibly strong even when his quirks were being actively suppressed by Aizawa. Endeavor tried to incinerate Tomura, but he survived the attack. Dabi revealed his status as Endeavor’s oldest son to the world and dealt a massive blow to public confidence in heroes. Best Jeanist and Lemillion helped when Gigantomachia arrived, but ultimately Shigaraki escaped with seven Nomu.

 

Future Narrator Izuku reveals that the professional heroes at the scene denied that any students got involved with the fighting. This was obviously to protect the students and the hero system from any additional scrutiny after how badly the operation went. He says that the denial that work study students helped was the only mention of Izuku and his friends fighting. He reminds us of what was really going on, how All-For-One attempted to take full control of Tomura Shigaraki’s body and steal One-For-All from Izuku. Izuku remembered how the first wielder of One-For-All, Shigaraki the younger, manifested in the mental plane along with All Might’s Master, Nana Shimura, to help fight Shigaraki the elder off. He also mentions how it looked like Tomura Shigaraki had wanted to be saved.

 

We see Izuku get loaded into an ambulance as Future Narrator Izuku talks about Garaki getting arrested for murder and other crimes. They captured Gigantomachia and took him away with a pair of helicopters. Mr. Compress, real name, Atsuhiro Sako, survived the fighting and was arrested. And they captured any of the Nomu that couldn’t escape with Shigaraki. They harvested equipment from the hidden lab in the hopes that would help them figure out what was done in the lab. Re-Destro and Geten, the PLF’s Ice user, were captured by Edgeshot and Cementoss. They also captured Koku Hanabata aka Trumpet, as well as over 16,900 members of the PLF. He reveals that along with the big raids there were dozens of smaller raids that focused on smaller bases around the country. They arrested dozens of more PLF members as well as double agent heroes.

 

Future Narrator Izuku states that’s all that was in the official report and that he has nothing more to add to it. And while the raid was largely successful, he admits that the aftereffects of it were devastating. We see a group trying to find and capture Himiko Toga but shifted priorities to helping civilians. We see a pair of kids almost crushed by rubble but are saved last minute by Uraraka and Tsu. Uraraka sends Tsu to drop the kids off while she rushes around to help people. She proves herself to be invaluable in this situation as her anti-gravity powers help her clear rubble extremely quickly. Koda, who can speak to animals, is also extremely helpful thanks to being able to talk with pigeons to get aerial views of the city. We see that resources are stretched to their absolute limit as doctors are forced to prioritize saving people they can treat. In an extremely low, as Uraraka saves another civilian, an unnamed hero just… quits. He admits that he can’t keep doing this, as it’s just too much.

 

Class 1A finds Midnight’s body. Kirishima, Sato, Ashido and Yaoyorozu beg her to get up, but she’s been dead for hours at this point. Tokage of 1B joins them and informs them that another hero friend of theirs, Majestic, is also dead. We see Mineta holding back tears with the rest of his class as he says this feels like a nightmare. We learn from Garaki’s deposition that Tomura Shigaraki straight up died when his pod was broken into. Izuku postulates that Tomura came back to life, not from the mild electric shock that he received while in a puddle of fluid, but by his ‘dreams and desires.’ Not gonna lie, Izuku, ol buddy, but that’s a bit of a reach.

 

We see that the public has started to turn on Endeavor specifically but heroes more generally. Some are still hopeful, like the kids that Bakugo and Shoto tutored to get their hero licenses approved, but they’re in the minority. We see Shigaraki both in his cell at Tartarus Prison as well as the possessed Tomura talking about how the plan didn’t go off perfectly, but it went extremely well. He says that people naively expect tomorrow to be brighter, but he’s not going to give them time to recover. We see a tired Dabi crouched by his side and Spinner looking absolutely horrified. Shigaraki orders his Nomu to free his real body. And that’s where we end.

 

I don’t have much to say about this episode as it was largely just summarizing the last arc. Overall, Future Narrator Izuku paints a very bleak picture of the raid and the wider world. While he doesn’t say that Jaku city was one of the biggest and destructive events of the modern era, it’s heavily implied to be the case. It’s so bad that even though the capture tons of villains, including high ranking members of the new PLF, Gigantomachia, and dozens of Nomu, Izuku clearly thinks they failed. I liked that the episode did its best to capture the duality of the situation. Parts are hopeful, like when we see Uraraka working tirelessly to try and most often succeed in saving people, or seeing guys like Compress and Gigantomachia captured. Others are totally bleak like the hero that just quit from how overwhelming this all is, or Izuku’s classmates finding their dead teacher. This as never going to end cleanly, but it’s clear that the heroes took as many losses as wins. I can tell you that Endeavor is taking a big hit from all this, Dabi planned his attack on his father extremely well, the backlash is intense. And then we see Shigaraki planning to keep up the momentum by freeing his original body from Tartarus. The part I liked most from this scene was Spinner, who had a look on his face that can only be described as “what the hell have I gotten myself into?” All-For-One’s master plan is just starting to get into motion, and no one is ready for what comes next. See you next time. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 126

 Mr. Compress takes center stage. 

It’s been a bit since we covered My Hero Academia so a quick refresher before the ‘last time,’ section: My Hero Academia takes place on a version of Earth where the vast majority of people have a power of some kind dubbed a quirk. These powers range from basically pointless, like the ability to stretch ones fingers out, to world breaking like Super strength. The need to protect people from super humans with more power than sense lead to the development of Heroes, part law enforcement, part brand spokesman, part WWE personalities. Our protagonist is Izuku Midoriya, a young man born without a quirk. He was endlessly bullied for this, but despite the mockery and torment he received he still wanted to be a hero. He impressed the Superman of Japan, All Might, by throwing himself at a sludge monster to try to save his childhood friend turned nemesis Katsuki Bakugo from it. All Might, who was seriously injured in a battle five years ago with a villain, revealed he could transfer his power into Izuku. Izuku took the chance and enrolled in UA High, the most prestigious Hero High School in Japan. While the power was initially too much for Izuku’s body to handle, he eventually was able to harness it and shape along with his fighting style to become an amazing fighter and hero in training. At the same time, a group called the League of Villains formed, at it’s leader, a man known mostly by the moniker All-For-One began setting up and pitting his student and adopted Tomura Shigaraki up against the heroes in order to destroy the system. This all culminated in the most recent plan, he transferred his ability, All-For-One, that lets him steal and transfer powers, into Tomura along with some other enhancements to make the ultimate Symbol of Chaos. Izuku, his classmates, and their various teachers and other pro heroes are trying to capture Tomura Shigaraki, a task made all the harder by his decay quirk being put into overdrive.

 

Alright, so last time on My Hero Academia, we started to see the fallout of Dabi aka Toya Todoroki’s plan to ruin his father. The long lost son, presumed dead, son of Enji Todoroki aka Endeavour did his damnedest to murder his stunned father and his littlest brother Shoto who kept fighting back. At the same time, the thought to be dead hero Best Jeanist arrived and used his powers to entangle Shigaraki’s colossus of a henchman Gigantomachia in threads. We learn that Bakugo has decided on the hero’s name Dynamite, and he hopes to tell it to Best Jeanist. They’re also joined by Mirio Togeta, aka Lemillion, class 1A’s upper classman who had just gotten his powers restored by Eri, the girl who can basically rewind time. Izuku and everyone do their best to hold Gigantomachia back, Endeavor even snaps out of his panicked trance to deliver a powerful punch to the giant’s chin, but the titan breaks free… only to pass out from the huge amount of tranquilizers the other members of Class 1A fed to him an in-universe hour or two ago. While the heroes cheered, one of the last League of Villain members left standing, Mr. Compress, announces that he’ll show these philistines. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with Endeavors mega flame punch and Gigantomachia dropping from the combination of exhaustion, damage and tranquilizers being digested in his stomach. Which is good. Unfortunately, Mr. Compress isn’t down and out yet. He yells at his boss, Tomura, for getting knocked out, saying that none of their group has achieved their dreams yet. Best Jeanist tightens the threads around Compress to try to knock him out.

 

Mr. Compress has a flashback to the League of Villains attacking a cult that wears skull mask. These are the CRC, the Creature Rejection Clan, a group that believes in the supremacy of non-mutant Quirk havers. They basically hate guys like Spinner whose quirk makes him look like a lizard. The League kills all the CRC members and starts going through their stuff for things to fence. This is at a point where their funds were basically gone and their gear was starting to wear out, like Toga’s needles are breaking, and Mr. Compress’s prosthetic arm is getting creaky. They could go to their black market contact Giran for more stuff, but again, they’re broke.

 

Later, Spinner asks how long they are expected to keep going like this, and Tomura tells him to shut up. Dabi joins them and reveals that he’s been trying to recruit new members, but he hasn’t brought anyone yet again. Spinner asks what their goal even is at this point. He dives into his backstory about how h was originally from a small village where he was ostracized for his lizard looks. He was inspired by the hero killer, Stain’s words to try to destroy the current system so it can be purified. After that he remodeled his look to be like Stain. Dabi calls him an empty cosplayer, and Spinner agrees, and demands to know when they’ll actually DO something.

 

In the present, Mr. Compress, who is being choked by cables, gasps out the Spinner that he loved being in the League of Villains. Spinner asks what he means, and Compress tells him that Tomura is the key and that he’ll buy Spinner time to let them escape. He says that he owes it to his bloodline. Compress uses his Quirk, shrinking anything he touches down to a pale green marble, on his own body. He gouges a chunk of meat out of his thigh, which gives him space to wriggle out of the cables and shrink Spinner and Tomura down to marble size. He tries to flee, but Best Jeanist uses his powers to constrict Compress in his own clothing. Compress decides that he’d rather streak than be captured, and compresses his clothes until he’s basically naked, taking chunks of flesh with it. He takes a moment to grab Tomoyasu Chikazoku aka Skeptic, their tech support guy, as well. He says that he’s a master of great escapes.

 

We learn that Mr. Compress is the great-great grandson of Oji Harima, a peerless thief from back before Quirks were rampant. He lived when the current system was just getting started. Harima was a Robin Hood type, robbing from those he considered false heroes and spreading the money around to those in need. Compress greatly respected his ancestor, as well as his own father who told him justice runs in their veins.

 

Meanwhile, the Todoroki’s are battling. Shoto does his best to fight his brother, but the elder Todoroki overwhelms him with his fire blast. Once Shoto is out, however, Dabi decides to let him off. He’s not interested in fighting his brother if their dad isn’t awake to watch and suffer. He promises the ‘masterpiece’ that they’ll fight again soon. Compress grabs and compresses him too. It’s at this point that Compress lands on Gigantomachia and announces his relation to Oji Harima, the master thief. He says that the heroes hadn’t even noticed him, really, up to this point and claims that this was part of his design. He unmasks himself for the first time and not going to lie I was expecting him to be much older. His face makes him look like he’s not much older than the other members of the League. Lemillion charges, saying that he won’t let them escape. Compress reverts Tomura and Spinner, saying they’ll witness his greatest escape.

 

We cut to Endeavor’s sidekick Burnin and her allies fighting through Nomu. One of her friends, Master Driller, is eaten by a worm like Nomu saving her, and she announces she kill these monsters.

 

Izuku regains consciousness, someone in his head telling the “Ninth Wielder” that he can’t rest now. He wakes up, eyes bleed, his right arm badly burned, and the rest of him not looking much better. We learn that he was knocked out b Dabi’s blast earlier, but he remembers seeing Endeavor charge Gigantomachia. He sees Shoto is alright and breaths a sigh of relief but then he is hit with a massive headache. We’re talking about a stress migraine powerful enough to double up. He says that he felt like he’d felt these headache a few times during the fighting, and after thinking about it a minute realizes that it sounds a lot like something he read in the notes All Might gave him on the previous One-For-All wielders. It’s the “Danger Sense” of the fourth wielder.  The pain is too intense for him, it’s like when he first got Black Whip, the power is too much for him without training. He starts to pass out again.

 

Back with Compress, he announces that this’ll be his big escape. Lemillion charges him and knocks him aside. Compress is hurt by being brushed aside so easily. He gives us his plan, which is basically to try to buy time for Spinner to wake up Tomura, so Tomura can order Gigantomachia and the Nomu to get them out of here. He admits to himself that he’s a bit player in this performance and the real stars are Tomura and Spinner. He says the whole reason he’s leaving it up to Spinner is because he is the most devoted of their crew, even going so far as to stash Skeptic and Dabi’s marbles in Spinner’s cloak to help them escape too. He grabs Lemillion’s cape to slow him down. Spinner tries to wake Tomura up by shaking him, but when that doesn’t work, he remembers what Tomura said about how having his family’s severed hands on him made him feel calm. Spinner grabs the burnt but still intact hand of Tomura’s father and puts it on Tomura’s face.

 

Tomura wakes up and fires off an energy wave so powerful it basically kicks up a dust storm around them. The blast wave knocks around everyone in the vicinity. Izuku wakes up again, but the pain is still intense. He realizes what that must mean.

 

We hear Tomura speak, but it’s with All-For-One, Shigaraki’s voice layered over it. Shigaraki praises Tomura’s allies for keeping him safe for so long. He says that the more Tomura embraces the trauma of his past, the stronger his hold gets on the body. We see black veins spread across Tomura’s body, and then in the gap between the thumb and pointer finger of his hand-mask we see the destroyed face of Shigaraki overlayed on Tomura’s head. He announces “Long live the King, Tomura.”

 

Back with the other heroes, the Nomu stop fighting. Burnin’s team thinks for a second that the might be able to destroy them all now, but the Nomu start rushing for Gigantomachia. We learn from Shigaraki that the Radio Wave quirk he has is crucial for his plans as that allows him to control the Nomu from a distance, but Tomura can’t use it as well as he’s still ‘a hatchling.’ Best Jeanist tangles up the Nomu in threads, but he’s hitting his limit at this point. Lemillion and Bakugo refuse to stay down and prepare to charge. Spinner asks what the plan is and Shigaraki tells him they’re falling back. Spinner is confused by this and asks if they’re really abandoning Gigantomachia, Mr. Compress and Toga here. He puts his hand on Tomura’s shoulder and asks what’s up. He tells Iguchi to hold his tongue. This freaks Spinner out because I’m pretty sure he hadn’t given his real name. Shigaraki tells him that Tomura has already lost this fight, to the heroes and OFA’s wielder. He woke up too early from his metamorphosis, so his healing powers weren’t up to snuff. He’s beaten, bruised, and unconscious, so Shigaraki stepped in to get him out of this. Spinner says that they can’t leave their allies behind, but Shigaraki tells him that they will. He says that Tomura is going to have to pay for his failures.

 

The heroes do their best to keep the Nomu from reaching Gigantomachia. Iida uses his recipro-bust to race to Shigaraki, saying that he’ll stop the villain and then get Izuku and Bakugo help. He and Shoto charge, but Shigaraki unleashes another huge blast wave to knock them back. Lemillion tries to charge but gets stabbed with Shigaraki’s tentacles and knocked out. The Nomu breaks out of Jeanist’s grasp, and he throws up blood from overexerting himself. Izuku tries to get his body moving. He remembers how Tomura fought Shigaraki’s attempt at taking him over in the mindscape to try to motivate himself. He hurls himself at Shigaraki, channeling Black Whip through his tongue to move him around. He charges Shigaraki. He compliments Izuku, saying his tenacity is on par with All Might’s. He says they’ll meet again once this new body is complete. Izuku tries to attack with Black Whip but is knocked back. As he flies backward, he admits that he won’t forgive Tomura for what he’s done but he can’t abandon him to being Shigaraki’s meat puppet. When he saw him in the mindscape, Izuku says that he looked like he wanted to be saved.

 

As he falls, we see the heroes running to try to help their allies, and the number of heroes knocked out and in extremely bad shape from the fighting. Basically, every hero we’ve seen up to this point is down to one degree. Izuku, Bakugo, Shoto, Iida, Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, Fat Gum, Lemillion, Mirko, Ryukyu, Nejire, and Hawks, to name a few, are all down. And it’s heavily implied by her abandoned mask that Midnight is dead. As the somber music plays, Izuku passes out again. 

 

Well, that was a pretty dark place to pickup from. It is funny to think this is over a hundred episodes and literally hundreds of chapters later and we’re just now getting backstories for some of the OG League members. Dabi, Mr. Compress, and Spinner have been part of this story for far longer than guys like Lemillion, but up until this point they were here mostly to enact Tomura’s evil schemes. I like how they kind make that part of the plot, with the reveal that the reason Mr. Compress wore a mask this whole time was to hide that he’s not just a master escape artist but possibly one of the best in the world. Spinner’s backstory is significantly simpler… but it does point out that you couldn’t ask for a more earnest zealot for your cause than a hikikomori. That’s a Japanese term for someone suffering from an intense form of social anxiety and withdrawal where they functionally become hermits. Which definitely seems to describe Spinner pre-Stain to a T. Mr. Compress’s trust in that zealotry speaks to how well he knows this reptilian outcast me thinks. I also like to be reminded that while certain members of the League like Dabi and Shigaraki himself are out for their evil plan above all else, that guys like Spinner and Compress are more on the Twice end of the spectrum. They aren’t good people by societal standards but these guys care about each other in their weird way, and you kind of wish they could have found this weird community without the crimes. Just saying. Seeing the heroes fight and try to capture Tomura only to be beaten by the overwhelming power they were trying to contain was a solid way to end this part of the story. Really drives home how dangerous Tomura is going to be if he develops his power even a little bit more when a badly beaten and burned Tomura could hold off so many heroes with just a little help from his master. And it was neat to get confirmation that Izuku’s powers are growing. Hopefully he can get the hang of danger sense, because Spidey-sense that knocks you out is probably the worst power any hero could have, ever. But we’ll see more soon, I’m sure. Have a good night. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: Peacemaker ep 8

 Time to crush some bugs. 

Last time on Peacemaker, everyone is getting hunted by someone. Chris, Adrian and Economos load up and try to attack the Butterfly farm on their own, but get by the White Dragon, Auggie Smith, and his battalion of skinheads. The trio dodge him for a while, but Chris is forced to face off against his father. With the help of Adrian and Economos, he’s able to fight back against his father and ultimately kills him with a headshot. Meanwhile, Murn, Leota, and Harcourt try to load up and follow the other trio, but are stopped by the Butterfly police force and Goff-Song. Murn is cornered and killed by the Butterflies, both the man Murn and the Butterfly that had body snatched him, Ik-Nobe-Lok. Leota and Harcourt are then jumped by Judomaster. Harcourt fights the angry little man and gets beaten up, but ultimately grapples him long enough for Leota to taze him into unconsciousness. The two women then meet up with the other three at an animal hospital they’d rushed to. Eagly had gotten shot during their showdown with White Dragon and needed emergency care. The five special agents resolve to stop the Butterflies once and for all, the vets that they were kind of holding hostage offer to come too, but get left behind. At the Butterfly farm, the Butterflies start bringing in heavy machinery they’ll need to move their Cow, after having realized the team know about it. We see the Cow and learn that the translation was a bit… loose, as it’s a colossal worm. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Ep 8: It’s Cow or Never

 

The episode begins with the agents driving their stolen vet van to the farm. Leota tries to apologize to Chris for planting the fake diary that the Butterflies are using to frame Chris as an unstable sociopath murdering innocent people due to a conspiracy theory. Chris makes a loud raspberry whenever she tries to talk, so he’s mad but characteristically mad, I guess. After he and Adrian do that for a solid minute, Leota tries to apologize, and Chris tells her an ‘I’m Sorry’ isn’t going to cut it after betraying his trust and setting him up to be the fall guy for their mission. Leota says that she’s getting a lot of moral judgements form a pair of murderers, and Chris defends himself by saying he doesn’t kill people for no reason. He “vowed” when Keith died that no one would die for no reason at his hands. Leota says that’s stupid and tells him to stop defining himself by the accidental death of his brother. Adrian is exasperated at this point, saying that they had a classic run of murdering White Dragon with his two best friends, Chris and Eagly, and now Chris and his fifth best friend Leota are ruining it. I enjoy knowing how he ranks his friends.

 

They pull up to the farm and Harcourt ushers them out. Leota makes a call to Amanda Waller, her mom, and tries to see if they could get an assist. She tells Waller than there is WAY more Butterflies than they thought, and if they don’t act fast, they’ll lose the Cow, which is their only means of stopping the Butterflies. She begs for back up from the Justice Leage, but Waller says they’re on their own. She orders Economos and Leota to stay back while the shooters handle it, and that otherwise Harcourt is in charge. So, they’re on their own, that’s fun.

 

We see that the Butterflies have set up their teleporter. Goff-Song asks how much longer they’ll have to wait, and B-Locke says that it’s nearly complete and once it’s finished their teleport the Cow to their Eastern Base. Goff-Song tells him to hurry as their enemies could arrive at any minute and without the Cow they’re screwed.

 

The team gather outside of the farm’s barn, Economos asks the obvious question, why is Leota’s last name Adebayo when Waller is her mom. Leota says she took her wife’s name and when Adrian asks if that makes her the woman in the relationship she explains that in a lesbian relationship they’re both the woman in the relationship. They try to make a plan based on the equipment they have handy, that includes a few Peacemaker helmets. They’ve got underwater breathing, scabies inducing, anti-gravity, sonic boom, and human torpedo. They think about using the anti-gravity helmet to set the sonic boom helmet on the barn and use that to level everything, but Leota accidentally says “activate anti-gravity” too loud and the helmet floats away before anyone can grab it. They try to pivot, Chris suggesting they could sent the helmet over on a line they shoot at the barn. When Adrian asks ‘like Green Arrow,” Chris says that that dude goes to Bro-ny conventions for anonymous sex. When Leota calls him out for having another fake hero rumor, Economos says he’s heard that one, and it’s the only ‘real’ one he’s said. Before Adrian adding Aquaman having sex with fish. Harcourt gets them back on task and says they don’t have a bow. Chris says they’ve got a teammate that can fly. Harcourt says “Get the F*** out.” Chris tells Eagly to take the helmet to the barn, Harcourt saying that there’s no way this could work. They get Eagly to take the helmet and fly away… but he drops the helmet in another part of the forest. Harcourt is pissed, and Adrian says, “Peacemaker is a great guy in almost every way… but his biggest flaw is that he commonly overestimates Eagly’s abilities.” The group fans out to get the helmet, they have to hurry because the teleporter could be online at any minute.

 

In the underground, we see them start to power up the teleporter.

 

Economos and Adrian team up to find the helmet, and argue the level of importance of ants in the circle of life. Harcourt asks Leota why she decided to come with, and Leota says that she saw an Eagle hug a human and thought that it was a sign to help. Harcourt asks why she didn’t interpret it as a sign to run in the opposite direction, and that is clearly the first time Leota has thought about that. Chris is searching alone when he sees the ghost of his dad. He’s hallucinating, but it’s the DC universe so Auggie being an actual ghost isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Chris grabs his blowgun and shoots his dad with it. He knew it was a hallucination but he need to metaphorically kill his dad again. Harcourt sees him just blow a dart at nothing and asks what’s up. But before he answers they find the helmet where Auggie’s ghost fell. She grabs it and tells Chris that there’s something he needs to do for her.

 

Christ walks up to the perimeter and stabs a guard. He steals the guards uniform, and gives it to Economos. They need someone to sneak in and setup the helmet, and Economos is the only person that the Butterflies won’t recognize on sight, as the costumed killers have very recognizable faces at this point, and the women have a lot of visible injuries. And to make matters worse the guard crapped himself as he died, so they’re diarrhea pants. Economos goes in, clearly nervous, but the Butterflies don’t get people, so they barely notice. He makes it to the barn before B-Fitz stops him, asking where he’s going. Economos says that he’s going inside, because of this bag, and that seems to work for some reason. Economos runs inside and vomits from nerves, which almost makes Chris vomit from the noise. Harcourt encourages him to keep going. He tells her he sees stairs and an elevator, and she tells him to take the stairs. He descends.

 

He reaches the sublevel and sees the Butterfly’s Cow is a giant worm that they’re milking. He also sees the teleporter is almost ready. Economos drops the bag with the helmet and mutters, “No more Kaiju.” He runs off, telling the others what he saw and that they need to get the fuck out of here. As he leaves, B-Fitz stops Economos and asks about his oddly colored beard. Economos admits that he dies his beard to look younger; that because he’s overworked, he doesn’t dye the roots regularly; because he’s underpaid, he only gets the cheap brand; and because until very recently he didn’t think anyone paid enough attention to him to notice. Very sad man, John Economos. B-Fitz believes him and says that humans can be really pathetic. Economos tries to run, but one of Butterflies, one of Auggie’s old goons, comes out and says that Economos left the helmet there. He tries to run and the Butterflies run after him. Chris tells her to activate the sonic boom. Leota tries, but she drops the walkie-talkie. The Butterflies grab Economos and force him to the ground, but Leota finds the walkie-talkie and activates the sonic boom several times. The blasts level the barn, kills all the Butterflies nearby, and damages the cavern that the Cow is housed in. Harcourt orders Leota to stay back as she will be their only backup if something goes wrong. Economos is hurt at being left out.

 

Peacemaker, Vigilante, and Harcourt charge the Butterflies, killing humans and bugs to their non-diegetic theme song. Vigilante slices them with a machete, Harcourt and Chris shoot them, and Chris uses a Shield for some trick shots. Chris heads into the cavern to kill the Cow. B-Fitz tries to grab him, but Vigilante kills him with a machete slice. Vigilante is the first to drop as he’s shot from behind, but he throws a knife at the guy and kills him. Chris slides down the tunnel to the cavern but gets buried under some rubble. Harcourt gets shot in the shoulder, kills a few more Butterflies and then drops as the music fades out. Leota and Economos run in to try to help. Well, Leota does, Economos unfortunately trips over a bit of fencing and breaks his leg. Like, bone is exposed broken. Leota kills the last few Butterflies and stops one from getting into Harcourt’s mouth. Harcourt tells her to go help Chris, Leota asks how, and an injured Economos rolls the human torpedo helmet to her.

 

Leota finds the rubble and tries to dig him out. It looks like she reached him and pulled him free, but it turns out to be Goff-Song. They fist fight, Goff-Song getting him up against a wall. Leota reaches them and tries to use the Human Torpedo on them… but the helmet rockets her way off and makes her hit a wall, knocking her down. Goff-Song says that they don’t need to fight and tells him to come with her. She tells him that she and Locke need three sets of hands to operate the controls to teleport the Cow to their base in Maine. Chris tells her to screw off, and asks why he’d help, and she says that for the same Judomaster agreed to help them. She says that they’re trying to live up to a vow. Goff-Song says that they came to Earth from a world that was dying.  The only thing the planet could do was feed them, so they brought the Cow with as that would feed them for a hundred years. It sounds like they’d intended to just live in secret, but then discovered that the human race was on the same trajectory their kind had been on. Populism, selfishness and greed, the big ones. She said they vowed to save humanity from themselves, to do whatever they had to stop humans from destroying themselves. Goff-Song say that Chris is like them, willing to do anything for Peace. She says she tried to communicate that to him with the peace sign when she was stuck in the jar. She thanks him for talking to her and feeding her while in the jar. Chris has visions of his brother’s death, of killing Flag Jr, and of praying to God for peace. Goff-Song asks if he’ll help, and after a beat of silence, Chris activates the Torpedo helmet. Leota is turned into a human bullet and punches into the Cow’s body, killing it. Chris shoots B-Locke, and apologies to Goff-Song as he kills Song’s body. He grabs Leota and they limp to the exit. Chris looks back and sees Goff climb out of Song’s body.

 

The team convene topside, Harcourt is unconscious but alive, and Adrian limps over to join them. At some point they’d gotten a split on Economos’ leg. Chris grabs Harcourt and carries her away as Leota helps Economos limp away. As they leave, Superman, Aquaman, the Flash, and Wonder Woman arrive. Chris calls them dick heads for being late and tells Aquaman to have sex with another fish. Aquaman (Jason Mamoa) says he’s sick of that rumor, the Flash (screw you Ezra Miller) says it’s not a rumor and Aquaman tells him F you.

 

They get Harcourt and Economos to a hospital. Chris tells Adrian he needs to be admitted too as he was shot, he tries to say that he’s fine, but then passes out. Left alone, Chris asks if Leota heard she heard everything, and if he doomed the world by killing the bugs. Leota says that he might have, or he gave them a chance to choose rather than listen to their bug overlords. She asks why he did it instead of following their lead, asking if it was due to his… complicated beliefs on freedom. He says it’s just because they’d hurt the others if he went with the Butterflies. Leota gets up and walks away, Chris asks her where she’s going, and she says ‘to do the right thing.’ Chris tells her to not tell Adrian, but after Eagly, she’s his number one BFF.

 

Leota holds a press conference at their former base and admits to all of what she knows about ARGUS and Taskforce X, and her mother’s operations. We see Adrian slip away after he’d gotten a bit of treatment, and Waller’s shock at her baby revealing everything. Chris gets led back to Harcourt’s room, and we learn he’s been waiting out there for days. They hold hands. Leota is reunited with Keeya and they have a passionate kiss. Economos heads back to his office in Belle Reve and gets back to work, but adds a the picture Leota took of him, Adrian, and Chris laughing after their first mission. Chris returns to his trailer and Goff’s butterfly wakes him up. Judomaster makes it to the farm, sees all the dead Butterfly hosts and starts sobbing. He sits outside with a beer and pours out the last of the fluid for her to drink, his little peace offering to the last of the Butterflies. He sits with the ghost of his father as Eagly gives him some more roadkill.

 

That was a fun finale. It was as chaotic as all the other missions we’ve seen Project: Butterfly go on. Chris is still a bit of an idiot, but that’s a key character trait at this point. Overall, while it wasn’t a great plan, their decision to use the sonic boom helmet as a bomb was probably the best thing they could have done in this situation. Crazy how much kick that thing has. The fight scene with Peacemaker, Vigilante and Harcourt verses the swarm of Butterflies was very well choreographed with lots of cool stunt kills, and really let the trio of wet work operatives show off. The final confrontation between Goff-Song and Chris was solid. I liked the fact that we got to see that Chris has grown over this season, as while he was clearly tempted to help the Butterflies bring Peace to Earth by any means necessary, he ultimately couldn’t do it. If she offered him that in episode one, I’m not sure he would have resisted temptation. Using Leota as a human bullet made me laugh even if it was a serious moment. I liked the final scene between Chris and Leota, with the latter apologizing for framing him, and the former admitting that she really is his BFF. It was nice to see Jason Mamoa as Aquaman/Arthur Curry again. I’m excited to see him as Lobo in the new DCU, but he was a solid Aquaman and one of the better elements of the Snyderverse… which I’m going to be honest I hate. I wasn’t as actively against it when it first came out, but years of Snyder-bro stupidity really soured me on what was a compromised vision to begin with. Screw off Ezra Miller, you’re a legitimately bad person and I don’t understand why the Warner Bros executives were so dead set on this casting. Please, James Gunn, pick a better Flash. Barry, Wally, Bart, or hell even Jay, I don’t care what Flash ya go with, just don’t cast someone that sucks that hard to play him. Okay, I’m done with that rant. Overall, I liked this show, and I look forward to diving into season 2 at some point. I decided for the rest of December, we really should get back to My Hero Academia now that it’s finished. See you then. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social