For anyone reading this, this post is going to cover the final exams, which is the very last set of episodes of this season right after the Hero Killer arc, thus if you haven't seen the series, a lot of what I say will probably fly over your head regardless but I recommend watching the series not just for spoilers but also for context on everything I'm going to say.
For those who have already caught up on either the anime or the manga, a brief recap. The final exams are a 5 day event, four days of written exams, and the fifth day is a practical exam. During the practical exam, each of the students are put in pairs to compete against a given teacher to optimize their growth for the league of villains and All for One in later arcs. Naturally, each of the students are paired with each other for a number of reasons but their opponents were chosen based specifically on the basis of their weaknesses and priorities as heroes. Here, I would like to briefly talk about each respective pair, their weaknesses, their strengths, and how they might improve over the coming seasons.
I'll start by outlining the pairs and their opponents so I can go through them one at a time, I will also cover their respective quirks so everybody's on the same page.
- Kirishima & Sato vs. Cementoss
- Tokoyami & Asui vs. Ectoplasm
- Iida & Ojiro vs. Power Loader
- Todoroki & Yaoyorozu vs. Aizawa
- Uraraka & Aoyama vs. 13
- Shouji & Hagakure vs Snipe
- Kaminari & Ashido vs. Nezu
- Jiro & Koda vs. Present Mic
- Sero & Mineta vs. Midnight
- Izuku & Bakugo vs. All-Might
I might have gotten the matches slightly out of order and I apologize if I did but, since the pairs and opponents are all correct, I think that's more important for a topic of this type.
I'm not going to talk too much about the first test because there's not a lot I can say about it that wasn't immediately apparent based on what happened and what was said during and after it but I still think I can say a little bit about it.
Kirishima's Quirk is the ability to harden his skin like rock. This makes his body quite a bit more durable but it also makes his strikes harder since he doesn't have to worry about hurting himself all that much. Sato's Quirk is the ability to increase his strength by a maximum of 3x for 10 minutes per a certain amount of sugar. Naturally, his strikes are going to be tough because it's an augmenting quirk but the time limit on it puts him at a disadvantage in a war of attrition.
Cementoss is a hero whose quirk allows him to manipulate concrete & cement in a way that is conceptually very similar to an Earthbender but visually resembles waterbending to an extent. Kirishima & Sato are both burst characters in the sense that they both have high damage for a set amount of time but the longer they have to fight the worse off they are. Cementoss has an earth quirk that has just as much power but, he doesn't exert himself as much due to the lack of movement and thus does not have such a limit on stamina.
This flaw is compounded by the fact that Kirishima and Sato both decided to tackle the fight the way Leeroy Jenkins did and somehow thought it would work out better for them. If Kirishima and Sato had taken their individual strengths and weaknesses into account, they would've realized that a direct fight was the absolute worst way to go about it despite the fact that that's also where both of them thrive. A better strategy would've been an indirect guerrilla style where they remain relatively out of sight long enough to get within range, then use their powers within that range to make the most use out of their limited time. Obviously, they weren't smart enough to recognize that this time so hopefully they'll figure it out by the time of the next practical.
Next we have Tokoyami and Asui. Tokoyami's Dark Shadow has high mobility, strength, mid-range control but, while he stated Dark Shadow is vulnerable to light, there's another weakness that many didn't consider before this point. If you're someone who knows a lot about swordsmanship or reads a lot of samurai manga, you may be aware of the concept of the zone. The zone, for all intents and purposes, is any area that you are capable of attacking and defending within. Some weapons will have larger zones but larger zones also have larger blind-spots.
That's Tokoyami's weakness in a nutshell, he's capable of attacking at great ranges, which makes him strong in a one-on-one fight or in a fight where he has a small number of things to deal with but Ectoplasm has the ability to make copies of himself, which he can use to swarm Tokoyami and get into his zone relatively safely. This makes Tokoyami pretty weak against this particular hero despite being relatively powerful in a lot of other situations.
Asui on the other hand didn't have any notable weaknesses as far as the characters were concerned but her quirk is basically Frog Physiology, which allows her to do things a frog can do on a larger scale. Kind of like Spider-man but with frogs, or a genderbent Toad from X-Men if that gives you a better idea of how it works.
Her frog physiology would be harder to make strong normally but she seems to compensate with a great deal of skill and accuracy with her vertical mobility and whip tongue. However, because she's just got a frog body, she's not as strong as other characters in leading or front line roles so her job during the test was to be a sort of sidekick for Tokoyami, supporting his dark shadow in any way she could manage.
Iida's quirk is one where engine pipes stick out the back of his legs to increase his running speed and forward momentum. Ojiro, on the other hand, has a large prehensile tail that increases the height of his jumps. The problem is that both of these characters are very heavily reliant on having land to work with, where Power Loader's digging ability allowed him to make trap holes to hinder their movements.
However, they overcome this by using Iida's speed to get as close to the escape as possible, then combine the Recipro Burst and Ojiro's Tail to cover the rest of the gap.
Next up is Todoroki & Yaoyorozu vs. Aizawa. This one was particularly cruel, I think because it capitalizes on their weaknesses at the worst possible time. Todoroki is an action taker who generally has pretty good judgment and control over his ability but he's far too reliant on his quirk and brute force. Yaoyorozu, on the other hand, is much more grounded in thought and strategy but is unable to make snap judgments and react on a moment-to-moment basis. Both of them are also quite reliant on their powerful quirks so what better way to test them than by taking away the thing that got them into the school so easily?
The bigger issue was that Yaoyorozu had taken a hit to her confidence after her swift defeat at the hands of Tokoyami and witnessing just how far Todoroki can go on his own despite the two of them basically starting at the same level. This is also the reason I suspect she was so eager to help the others with studying, not just because she's kind but also because she wanted to reaffirm that she was worth something in comparison to the battle gods that are Todoroki and Bakugo.
Another problem is that Todoroki tends to take the lead and take quick action for both better and worse even when he's paired with someone who, by his own admission, is better suited to the role. He's accustomed to immediately taking charge of a situation so he's not used to communicating with others as if they're equal, even though he acknowledges that she is just as good as him, even if she doesn't feel that way at the moment.
The victory came when they overcame that barrier, Todoroki encouraged her to take charge and make a plan and she got a grip long enough to actually capture Aizawa. Of course, her confidence wasn't completely recovered, she messed up at the worst possible time, which would've fucked them both over if Aizawa had just run in and grabbed her. However, he jumped back to give her a second chance and then gave a seemingly rational justification for it later to help her improve. After all, he may be mostly logical but he's not a bad guy and does want to help his students when the situation accommodates it. I don't think she's fully recovered but she's definitely starting to get her confidence back. It's not something that comes back immediately but if she keeps reaffirming it, it'll get stronger over time.
Back on topic, Uraraka & Aoyama vs. 13. This one, I feel like I'm going to have a hard time figuring out because not everything about the situation is entirely clear from a logistics perspective. Uraraka's Quirk is the ability to negate the effect of gravity on whatever she touches and turn it off at any point. Because her ability requires her to physically touch it, she's inherently a close range fighter.
Aoyama on the other hand has a naval laser which is exactly what it sounds like, he shoots a beam of pure energy out of his naval. While he does state that firing it too much hurts his stomach, I think the bigger issue in relation to their opponent is that it requires him to be facing whatever he wants to shoot. While that seems obvious, keep in mind that most fiction usually has a projectile be fired from the hands, eyes, or a weapon in the hands, which can usually move independent of where your body is facing. Aoyama, however, has to physically face them before he can aim at them.
13's quirk Black Hole allows her to absorb anything she points her finger at and turn it into dust. This makes her a powerful distance fighter since she can fairly easily control her opponent's zone. The slip up with this selection, though, is that 13 is a Rescue Hero, not a combat hero, and because she has no way to hold back the power she has, she can only turn it on and off, this means that someone can very easily exploit the absorbing ability by using it to get in close and put her in a joint lock, something Uraraka does.
The trouble with this is that while they do perform this solution I just presented, it seems to have been entirely by accident, with Aoyama asking an embarrassing question to get Uraraka to do her girly embarrassed face grab without thinking. 13 then turned off her quirk so she wouldn't kill the kid and, before anyone realized what just happened, Uraraka went into a pseudo berserk focus where she made use of the opening she got at the last second, giving Aoyama a chance to help. And, because all of this happened by accident, it's entirely unclear if either of them actually learned anything.
Shouji & Hagakure vs. Snipe. Not really much to talk about here. Snipe is a long range fighter and Hagakure is invisible. As long as Snipe had something else to take his focus, she could get in close and grab him without him noticing. Naturally, this is one of the shortest of the victories to occur in the final exams and, because the victory was so quick and easy, I'm not entirely sure what weaknesses they had to overcome or how Snipe would play into it. And, since it's not talked about, the show might not know either. The most we get is that Shouji had the guts to take Snipe's attention by going into his sights but, anyone who takes one look at this guy could see that that's just a natural part of his character. Unlike Uraraka & Aoyama who have something to learn that they probably didn't, Shouji & Hagakure may not have had anything to learn from this experience in the first place.
Kaminari & Ashido vs. Nezu. Okay, so when I first saw the fight, I thought this one was somehow about their quirks and the lack of control on both of them. However, upon further reflection, I think this one isn't as much about their individual abilities as much as it is about their personalities. Kaminari and Ashido are not particularly thoughtful individuals. The deepest strategy Kaminari has ever come up with in the entire show is, make sure nobody can be hurt except enemy then attack at full power. This almost gets him, Yaoyorozu, and Jiro killed in Season 1, it's what caused his defeat against Ibara Shiozaki in the Sports Festival, and it was also only sidestepped in the Cavalry battle due to Yaoyorozu's quirk and Todoroki's judgment on the matter. Kaminari has seen that this strategy doesn't work and somehow he still has yet to learn.
Ashido on the other hand, is very heavy on damage with her acid but lacks control over it so against regular opponents, she would be scared of killing them. This is something that Kaminari jokes about at the beginning of their test and, the way both of them talk about just running into the principal and beating him down with ultimate attack power shows how little they actually thought about their opponent or their past experiences for that matter.
Nezu on the other hand has a super brain that allows him to make calculations at a rate significantly higher than any human can manage. On an IQ test, the highest recorded IQ is about 209. Nezu would score around 300, far higher than any human has ever been able to achieve. Naturally, since his ability is intelligence based, he uses it by working as a mastermind controlling the environment as if it's a series of minions but because he still wants the test to be passable he leaves one path open for them to take and as long as they think about it, find it, and get to it, they have a chance.
However, neither Kaminari nor Ashido stop to think that a head-to-head fight may not be how Nezu fights even though his body is not physically strong enough to handle direct fighting the way All-Might or Cementoss can, and even though that fact is obvious based on his appearance, they don't think about it at all and they're defeated because of it.
If they learn to think their moves out a bit more before running into an engagement these problems could be sidestepped but, as it stands, they have too much to learn.
Next up is Sero & Mineta vs Midnight. I think the reason behind this one is relatively obvious if you think about it for a little bit. Sero shoots tape out of his elbows and Mineta has sticky balls that come off his head. Naturally, both of these abilities are best suited to restraining an opponent rather than killing them. However, Midnight's quirk is the ability to knock out whoever smells the perfume coming off her body. In this situation, she can be easily restrained but that by itself won't beat her. Both of these quirks also have a limited range which works perfectly for a scent based power like hers.
Now, I think Sero & Mineta were supposed to work together for this one. However, since Sero was knocked out right at the start of the fight, I think Mineta fighting by himself was an oversight rather than an intention. That said, Mineta ends up making good use of his ability by placing several sticky balls on Midnight's whip and one on the hand the whip is in. The multiple balls to bind the whip to the ground, since a whip's unpredictable landing pattern would make it tough to see where he'd have to place it to connect it to the ground but the one on her hand was to prevent her from disengaging by disarming herself.
This is pretty straight forward but I'll highlight it anyway. If you're using a melee weapon like a sword and your weapon gets caught on something, the fastest way to get yourself out of range of the next attack and to regain your bearings is simply to let go of the weapon and either use your hands or fight with a different one. By binding her weapon to her hand, he not only prevents her from letting it go but he also binds her to one spot so he can go straight to the escape gate.
And finally Izuku & Bakugo vs. All-Might. Izuku & Bakugo both have damage based powers, and while both of them are capable of high end mobility, generally both of them are best suited to direct fighting. However, both of them also have a habit of jumping straight into a battle and trying to win even when they see that they can't.
I don't know about Izuku but Bakugo figured out before the test began that their opponent would be too strong to damage consistently and too fast to escape without fighting so he formed the plan to have Bakugo's high end damage distract All-Might while Izuku heads for the escape gate to make them pass. The thing is, that this isn't hashed out until mid-way through the test due to Bakugo's incredibly poor communication skills.
Going back to Tokoyami & Asui for a moment, the main reason the two managed to pass was because Asui was willing and able to communicate, listen to, and comprehend feedback to, from, and with Tokoyami, so they were able to form a strategy ahead of time. Bakugo didn't do this, perhaps partly because he thought it wouldn't need explaining but also just because he has a really poor way of communicating with others.
One problem Bakugo has is that, while he is powerful and has some amount of intelligence, he comes off as aggressive and is also very short tempered so he has a habit of saying a small amount, having it get taken the wrong way, he gets fed up on having to explain something he thought was obvious, and then blowing up until the others finally shut up and let him elaborate. This is partly because the others misunderstand what he's saying but also partly because he just doesn't know how to communicate.
If he had just pulled an SAO Abridged Asuna and just said something like ""Here's how we win, I attack All-Might with everything I got, you head to the escape gate. He'll be distracted and that will help put distance between you and him" that would've covered the situation without much argument. However, the fact that he didn't led both of them to in-fighting much more than what was necessary and unavoidable. As All-Might says himself, it's commendable that they work together at all but, for a test like this, that's the prerequisite.
So, where do we go from here? Well, despite how tough the test supposedly was, only five actual people failed: the two teams of idiots, and Sero because he passed out without doing much of anything and left Mineta to fend for himself. Everybody else managed to pass and though I'd like to believe that it was because they overcame their biggest weaknesses, in reality that really only applies to Izuku & Bakugo: Asui and Tokoyami barely had any weaknesses to start with, Shouji and Hagakure have unknown weaknesses and won fairly easily, Iida and Ojiro just did what they do but better, Uraraka and Aoyama passed by accident, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu didn't overcome their weaknesses as much as they made space for their strengths, Koda overcame a weakness that, in all honesty, he shouldn't have had in the first place, and Mineta's weakness is still present and played into his strength this particular time.
The ones that had significant weaknesses failed and Bakugo and Izuku's weakness as a team was far more because of their poor relationship than their actual skill, something Aizawa even confirms before the tests actually begin.
That's all for now, have a wonderful day.
No comments:
Post a Comment