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So let’s talk who’s the traitor" some more!
If you’ve never read my initial theory post, please do yourself a favor and check that shit out. It is a foundation for the theory that, regrettably, is missing a lot of information that I wasn’t able to get to until I was able to do a reread of the series, plus I wanted to wait for the series to develop a little further. The original post was made right after "Deku vs Kacchan 2" was released, so we’ve had about 30 chapters of development. You might be wondering how on earth 3k words isn’t enough to make my point the first time, but here I am yet again!
I might sound crazy, but believe me when I say… I am the MOST serious.
[ READ MORE CUT ]
The Art of Subtlety
One of the most amazing things about Horikoshi’s writing is that he is incredibly subtle. This has happened in a bazillion different places, from pointless comparisons like Horikoshi’s love of rabbits, the rabbit-like ears on Deku’s costume, and the antenna that the rabbit-ears are meant to emulate; and it can also span a much greater distance, the subtle references to Bakugou’s issues with Deku mentioned in their first fight, later making more sense in their second. Uraraka is no different. Without going into anything about traitors yet, here’s an example. Most of us might say that the very first time that Uraraka’s crush on Midoriya comes up is when Aoyama asks her about it during the midterm exam. But actually, it’s Gunhead who first teases her about it right after the Hero Killer Stain arc!
More significant moments have happened, as well. I’d like to talk two kinds of subtlety; artistic subtlety and literary subtlety. Because we’re dealing with a comic book, both art and literature ideas should be taken into account, though naturally they have expectable overlap. The following image is the entire basis for the theory that there is actually a second Twice that exists in canon right now.
Middle guy look familiar? This kind of subtlety relies a bit on artistic judgement. The figure’s hair is a light object on a dark ground, is located in the very center of the image, is the foremost, unobstructed figure in the picture, and it is the largest unobstructed figure on the page. The gradient on his suit could also be a way to guide the viewer up to the characters head. He is also located under the window which, presumably, Twice is looking out of as he tells his story. This is all a part of “artistic subtlety”, where even though we’re given no words regarding the situation, the art draws our attention to the character in the center. This, naturally, hasn’t been proven yet, but I’m sure in due time we’ll see it bears fruit.
Toga’s quirk also gets concealed by subtleties, though this time we must infer by what is written. Upon being introduced to Toga, we never find out what her quirk is. Despite this, it later becomes hinted at during her encounter with Uraraka: "You wanna be the same as the guy you like, it's only natural! so you, like, wear all of the same things! // But then you start not taking the same satisfaction as before and you start wantin' to straight up become that person! There's just no helpin' it!" (FA translation, image linked below.)
It’s subtle, but unmistakably a reference to what we would eventually find out. It’s only later on that Toga actually uses her quirk, becoming Camie - but again, we have no reason to believe that Camie could be an imposter. Nevermind the fact that Camie, for some reason, is WEIRDLY obsessed with Midoriya upon meeting him without knowing anything about him (couch, Toga’s crush on Midoriya). The other thing that I’d like to note is that Camie expresses an odd interest in Uraraka when she disappears, obviously a result of their first encounter:
All of this is enough to give the suggestion that Camie is actually Toga, and I don’t think it would have been farfetched in previous months to have made this theory. Horikoshi definitely deals heavily in subtlety.
So, this might sound like a lot of talk about Not Uraraka, but hear me out. What’s important to note here is just that the subtlety is the basis of the argument - because that’s just how Horikoshi writes. What I’ll be doing here mostly is connecting her to other things in the series, and how what we’ve seen compares to Uraraka’s behavior. Even I’ve made a subtle remark already toward a later part of the theory.
Double Double, Toil & Trouble
This first one is a bit silly, but I think it’s kind of funny and curious; and also I want to make a point about "artistic subtlety.” If you take a look at the 2017 character poll for My Hero Academia, you’ll find that the characters in the image appropriately line up with the kind of role they would play in a medieval fantasy RPG. Bakugou the rogue barbarian, Deku the commoner, Iida the knight, and Todoroki the nobel they fit because of who they are in canon. Though were forced to speculate a little, we cannot doubt that each of these characters absolutely fits their role.
Then…. we get to Uraraka. The witch. Though it’s absolutely possible to claim she’s "just a mage," we should be particular about the artistic decisions made when designing her costume. The pointed cap, the rustic color scheme, the wooden staff - from experience dealing with RPGs, that usually adds up to a "black mage," which of the different types of mages most closely equates "witch." There is variation, but could Uraraka be any other kind of mage base on her costume?
What’s in a Name?
Horikoshi has been fairly intentional with his naming structures, as is typical of manga and anime. This is a part of literary subtlety, similar to the queues Toga has given to her quirk and Camie’s true identity.
Just some examples of current naming sturctures: Midoriya contains the kanji 緑 (midori), which is "green" in Japanese. Bakugou’s name uses 爆 (baku), a part of the word 爆破 (bakuha), meaning "explosion." We even see characters developing naming structures in canon; Bakugou changed the meaning of “出久”, Izuku, to “Deku” - and also in the way Uraraka reappropriates the name. There’s a lot of hidden meaning and puns involved with the names in MHA. So…
We know Urarka Ochako’s name, 麗日お茶子, means "bright, beautiful" and "tea girl" respectively. Her hero name is Uravity, ウラビティ, which is again a kind of pun on her name. The two names are meant to be just subtle fun references to her personality and her quirk.
My hang up here is the interesting fact that "ura" is actually a repeating element in both names. I’m thinking of the noun 裏 (ura). I’m just going to list off a few translations using the character on its own as well as a few highlights of how it’s combined with other kanji and hirigana to give you a sense of what kind of word 裏 is.
裏(うら) (ura)
1. bottom (or another side that is hidden from view); undersurface; opposite side; reverse side
4. out of sight; behind the scenes; in the shadows
裏切る(うらぎる)(uragiru)
1. to betray; to turn traitor to; to double-cross
裏方 (うらかた)(urakata)
1. someone working behind-the-scenes; scene shifter
translations: jinsho(.)org
Obviously, 裏 is not in Uraraka’s name, the "ura" instead coming from 麗 (urara), but like… if Horikoshi actually used the other kanji it would have been a dead give and I wouldn’t be here arguing this. Covering up this naming structure seems like just the kind of thing Horikoshi would do. Given that we have uraraka and uravity being repeated as a theme, is it really far off to think perhaps there’s more meaning to it?
Envy
verb 1. desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to (someone else).
As loving and kind as Uraraka is, we cannot forget that she has her flaws just as every character in MHA does, which is what makes her and so many characters in the series so great. What’s interesting, however, is that her flaws (as far as this post is concerned) have a lot to do with a particular theme that keeps repeating in the storyline: the them of admiration, imitation, and copying. Some examples from the heroes include the struggle Midoriya is constantly overcoming to separate himself from his idol, All Might; Iida nearly getting himself killed because his admiration for his brother get over his head; and the struggles Todoroki goes through trying not to become like his father.
The villains are just as much part of this theme; however, it would appear that one of the aspects has consumed them. For example, Twice’s quirk is to make copies, which we’ve seen resulted in the identity crisis he talks about in his monologue. Toga’s ability to imitate a person, and how her own personality results in an obsession with wanting to literally become her crush. All For One is the quirk that pretty much embodies the tragedy, a man who enviously steals all quirks to inflate his own power.
Which brings me to Uraraka, who must overcome an aspect that makes her most like the villains of any other character. Namely, her crush on Midoriya is absolutely now treads on the thin line between admiration and envy.
Toga first introduces us to the idea when she compares herself to Uraraka, talking about how they both want literally to become the person they admire. That admiration is what makes Toga’s personality “evil.” Because Toga relates her own feelings to Uraraka’s, we as the readers are meat to question the approach to Uraraka’s crush in turn. Has she envied Midoriya longer than she’s had feelings for him? Has the number of people asking if she had a crush on Midoriya affected the way she she perceives her own feelings? Did she deceive herself to believe her own envy is actually feelings of love?
Every other hero in the story has been shown exactly why imitation and admiration can be a problem and each has learned from their mistakes in order to embrace their own strengths - Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki are all learning how to embrace the strengths that were passed on to them. But none of these boys learned this lesson without going through great hardships: Midoriya’s scarred arm is proof enough; Iida watched haplessly as his friends nearly got themselves killed to defend him; and Todoroki was shamed at the sports festival resulting in a spell of dissociation and he was shamed during the provisional license exam. Bakugou goes through something similar, in the shape of jealousy; and Momo as well, envying Todoroki.
Uraraka hasn’t learned her lesson, however. In fact, we’re watching over and over again as Uraraka just barely avoids learning her lesson in order to become stronger. For example, during the provisional license exam, this happens:
Uraraka reacts this way because she is trying to mimic Midoriya's act-first-think-later attitude, nearly costing her a lot more points during the exam. Instead, Momo cuts her off, thus preventing the much more sever consequences that could have helped Uraraka learn from the situation on her own. Even though she wants to overcome her feelings for Midoriya, she hasn't actually learned anything. She continues to try and become Midoriya, thus inhibiting her own development. And worse, in this case, she's only "learned" because Momo did the thinking for her. Arguably, she would be better off embracing her crush, but Horikoshi just didn’t write it that way.
Chapter Titles and What’s to Come
There are a couple of "themed" chapters in the series, notable by the syntax used in the phrasing of the chapter titles. One is "[Character]: Origin" which Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugou have each had. The "origin" chapters are typically a turning point in the title character’s development, and we can assume that this point is the most significant turning point in their storyline. Todoroki uses his fire for the first time; Bakugou works with Midoriya for the first time; Midoriya receives his quirk. Momo also has a similarly phrased chapter for herself, called “Yaoyorozu: Rising,” and she goes through a similar lesson to the aforementioned boys. Logically, Momo is likely to get her own “Origin” chapter later on.
The next is "From [Character A] to [Character B]" which Todoroki, Iida, Midoriya, "teacher" (ie, All Might and AfO), and "disciple" (ie, Shigaraki and Midoriya) are in the the titles. These chapters deal with passing something on. "From Teacher to Desciple" is the (presumed) final battle between All Might and AfO, where at the end of the battle both hero and villain are "defeated" in some way; thus the torch is passed from All Might and AfO to Midoriya and Shigaraki respectively.. Todoroki passes on what he’d learned from the sports fest to Iida; Iida passes on his trust to Midoriya in order to save Bakugou. There’s also "vs" and "and" for a couple themes, but they’re very self-explanatory. Most of these characters have been mentioned a couple of times in the titles of chapters.
Uraraka has only had one of the “themed” chapters with her name in it, titled “Bakugou vs Uraraka.” That is, currently, her pinnacle chapter; almost 100 chapters ago. For the heroine of the story, that is way too long ago. What that means for what we’ve already seen is up to you to decide, but I can say these two things for certain:
As Uraraka continues not to learn from her mistakes, she has no way to grow. She, unfortunately, needs to eat just as much dirt as Midoriya, Bakugou, Todoroki, and Iida have in order for this to happen. So, this much all depends on whether we ever see that chapter appear "From [character] to Uraraka." Similarly, we absolutely are waiting to see the very best of Uraraka, as 100 chapters of going unmentioned in the titles, you better believe that whatever "Uraraka Ochako: Origin" has in store for us is going to be a hell of a trip.
Greed
The other chapter mentioning Uraraka in the title is “That’s the Idea, Ochako,” and the most pertinent panel for us is the one linked above. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do work that you love for money - plenty of people do it, and those people who do work obviously deserve to be paid for their work. There's nothing inherently wrong with Uraraka's way of thinking, and I think it's actually really cool that this is her motive for becoming a hero. I would have no problem with this line ever in a million years! Except for the fact that this gets brought up:
Hero Killer Stain is objectively wrong; utterly and miserably. But this issue was still brought up in canon as something to make us question. There are those who work for a *passion* and those who work for a *paycheck*, and those who work for a passion are, in theory, considered "superior" in their field because they are doing what they love. Whether or not you agree with this mindset is not the issue here; the issue is that this mindset exists, and Horikoshi has consciously brought this mindset into the series. So what does that make Uraraka?
Tactile relationships
It’s probably about time that we start talking about Shigaraki, Overhaul, and Uraraka. You might be asking what on earth these three characters could ever have in common, but as one might have it, their quirks are all surprisingly similar, don’t you think?
From what we know, all of these characters require touch to make their quirk function. When I initially considered this relationship, we hadn't yet been introduced to Overhaul. I did, however, find it interesting that Uraraka and Shigaraki had such similarly designed quirks, to the point that I have to wonder why Horikoshi allowed them to be as similar as they are. In order for their quirks to take effect, all five fingers must be touching their subject. So, by not touching them with a single finger, as seen iabove, they keep their quirks at bay entirely.
Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what his quirk is supposed to be, but based on the panel above (and a few other hints in the series) we can assume that touch is part of the requirement, meaning that all three of their quirks are dependent on a tactile relationship. This should be considered different than, say, Mineta, whose balls are always sticky without prerequisites; or Denki, whose quirk can be activated at will when making physical contact. Uraraka, unlike the two villains, can at least deactivate the quirk after the fact.
Tactile relationships appear to be a very important aspect of MHA, which makes this whole theme of quirks so interesting. Although Uraraka might not seem to have a strong, comparable relationship to Overhaul thus making him little more than a prop in this argument, the close, comparable similarities to hers and Shigaraki's quirk is just remarkable enough to make one wonder why Horikoshi, who could have designed their quirks in any way, design these two quirks so similarly.
Uraraka and Toga
Honestly, you should be losing your mind over Uraraka and Toga. THERE’S SO MANY PARALLELS BETWEEN THEM IT HURTS. My deep regret here is just that I’ve said this once before and I’ve read it from others, but still I am unable to stop myself from writing about them. Uraraka and Toga’s relationship is wildly important even if Uraraka isn’t the traitor. I’m losing my mind for the chance that Uraraka and Toga interact again, because I know I’ll need like a year to recover.
Very quickly into their encounter, Toga immediately likens herself to Uraraka, explaining her own feelings so that we understand who she is. Toga has an unhealthy sense of admiration for the person she also consequently loves. She tells Uraraka this, and Uraraka's reaction is incredible. You know how it goes when someone points out a truth that one has been hiding away? They respond with anger. Not only has Toga made the comparison, but Uraraka seems to understand the truth and validity of her comparison, and for a brief moment we see the frustration build in Uraraka. Her brows are not lifted, but rather they are knitted. Toga has her pegged. Funny to note, after all this, Toga ends up with a crush on Midoriya as well - just one weird similarity between them.
This happens again later on, where Toga literally takes on Uraraka’s person and imitates her during the provisional license exam. This was clearly done as a part of the storytelling mechanic, helping us to understand how well Midoriya knows Uraraka, and also to lead us into the discovery that Uraraka is Camie who, in turn, is Toga; but there is absolutely more to it. Why did Horikoshi decide that Uraraka’s blood should be taken and not, say, Asui’s, who was just as exposed as Uraraka was during their first encounter with Toga. The decision was clearly very intentional, as could be inferred from the manga cover I linked above - Uraraka and Toga/Camie are shown on parallel sides of the cover, and feature as the secondary “center” of the book cover. Uraraka and Toga are connected; their stories are going to connect again, perhaps very soon.
What is our heroine up to today?
To start this section out, because I know I’m going to sound like I’m speaking the contrary: Uraraka is the heroine. In no way shape or form am I denying this, nor do I dislike that she is the heroine. Even if Uraraka turns out to be the traitor, she can still be our "heroine," it’s just super fucked up and probably cooler that way. She’s our heroine because of all the girls, she has the best relationship to Deku, naturally, and she’s also got a ton of excellent relationships with many of the other characters, such as Bakugou, Iida, Asui, and Toga. Add who you like to that list, the relationship she has with pretty much all the characters is great.
However… I find a particular "lack" of our heroine in the story. I’ve briefly touched on this before, as I mentioned that Horikoshi seems to absolutely ADORE female characters (I mentioned how populated his pixiv is with strong, female characters), so the lack of Uraraka is strange. She hasn’t been on the cover yet, she hasn’t gotten her own specialty arc yet - mainly she gets a highlight ever few chapters because she rightfully deserves it. She also seems to fall into the background during critical portions of the series. In fact, I would say her most critical moment in the series was her fight against Bakugou during the sports fest, and since then a lot more has been brooding around her than anything.
"Hold up! Uraraka has been doing a lot! She got an internship right now and everything!" Like, right??? It’s amazing! But like…. We totally didn’t get to see her in action? Compare how much we saw of Kirishima’s fight against Knives McGee to how much we saw of Uraraka’s fight. I’m not saying we need to see like 100% of every fight that ever happens in the series, and I’m vastly grateful that we don’t, but it’s been almost 100 chapters??? Bakugou vs Uraraka was a whole chapter; but Toga vs Uraraka was only a couple pages, Uraraka and Aoyama vs No. 13 was barely a fight to mention, and Camie actually stole Uraraka’s screen time in the provisional license exam. What I’m saying is, a lot of her fights are quickly wrapped up or skipped over.
I think, however, one of the most intriguing moments where Uraraka is surprisingly sparse is when they’re going to save Bakugou.
While she’s not wrong, what the hell kind of line is that? Thoughout the whole discussion, listening to the class go back and forth about whether or not to do something about Bakugou, Uraraka offers only one, very minor line pointing out their numbers. It’s not until afterward that Uraraka has anything to say. But what sort of heroine says this? What kind of hero says this?? It goes so strongly against the mold for heroes that it honestly surprises me - Uraraka does not strike me as a girl to tuck her tail and flee. I almost expect a girl in love to want to follow her crush anywhere, as I would expect from a usual shonen romance.
Were she the traitor, it makes a lot of sense that she wouldn’t want to be around the villains in an attempt to rescue Bakugou. If she’s not a traitor, she must have a serious beef with Bakugou to try to use the claim that saving him would just upset him. It’s just… unhero-like, and all around strange. It also bothers me that Uraraka was unable to say this line until after they Midoriya’s hospital room. It’s as though she could only think of it after that point or she didn’t want Midoriya to hear her say it.
After saving Bakugou and playing "King of All Room," Asui apologizes for what she said before saving Bakugou:
This whole scene with Uraraka is just weird. I’ll start with mentioning that Uraraka expresses no remorse for not going to save Bakugou - nor do we receive any indication of how Uraraka feels regarding the situation. Even if she didn’t want to risk saving Bakugou, shouldn’t she have risked going to make sure Midoriya would be okay? I mean, that’s basically why Iida went; shouldn’t the heroine and love interest of the story want to go just to protect Midoriya? At the very least, I would have expected a little soliloquy explaining her position to the reader. Similarly, Kirishima mentions that what Uraraka said was "really harsh," so I think it’s weird that when scene finishes that only Asui has apologized - I would almost expect Uraraka to want to join in on the apology so Asui feels better, but like clearly not. Uraraka either is the traitor or she has a serious beef with Bakugou.
By extension, what she does eventually say, weirdly enough, rubs me the wrong way. I would LOVE to see more translations of this scene, even just to look at the Japanese, because the way this is handled is so weird???? Why is she hesitating so apparently? What on earth does she have to be nervous about in this situation?! It’s WEIRD!!! But perhaps that’s just a personal feeling, you can be the judge of this dialogue yourself:
Short wrap-up
That should be like 90% of everything I’ve ever considered related to the traitor theory regarding Uraraka specifically. Just a few final notes to close the argument:
- I am not trying to imply that Uraraka is a villainous character. MHA is absolutely dealing with the gray areas of what is good and evil, a theme that has been mentioned in several places in the series, from different perspectives and in different ways. The immediate moments we figure a traitor has to have been involve are (debatably) when the "reporters" break into school grounds as a guise for the villains, during summer break where someone leaks the location, and in the most recent chapter where Overhaul already knows about the infiltration.
- One post-script update to my previous post regarding Uraraka is Bakugou’s “heel”. First is that the better, less presumptuous term for their relationship is “foils” - however, that gets convoluted due to the fact that in canon Bakugou and Midoriya are also called “foils.” Either way, both terms are acceptable. Recent omake information has revealed that Bakugou and Uraraka’s costumes are actually made by the same company. Translation here In short, the two black dots on each of their uniforms is supposed to be the company’s way of “branding” their material. It’s just backup omake information, but I think it’s just a cute detail to add and support my earlier argument regarding them.
- Food for thought: I’m still not sure when Uraraka becomes “the traitor.” My initial belief is she must have been a traitor since the beginning in order for the reporter incident to make sense, but it’s not necessary that she was. My other theory is that she joins the league after her crushing defeat against Bakugou. It’s also entirely possible that she isn’t the only traitor in the series; while I can’t think of any suggestions that might make this apparent, Uraraka had to have been contacted some how by the villains. The only thing I could say for certain is that if she is the traitor, she would have made her contract before her feelings for Midoriya became an issue.
- More food for thought: If Uraraka is the traitor, do Toga and Uraraka know each other? And was the encounter in the woods with Asui intentional? If I’m honest, I think Toga knows who Uraraka is, but because Uraraka has been away from "HQ" for so long, she never had the chance to meet Toga. Something about their encounter in the forest feels too real for it to be an act.
If you read the theory and like it, please reblog! If you have more questions, or want to add onto it, feel free to respond. This is just a theory after all, so I really hope that even if you don’t agree she’s the traitor, you may have found that I’ve made a few good points about the peculiarities of Uraraka’s storyline, and are just as excited as me to see how she develops.
no subject
Yeah, that’s a fair concern. For anyone who’s not aware, Japan’s particular brand of sexism puts some weird limitations on female characters that can be the ultimate blockade in their growth. Women can be depicted as badass, but not more bad ass then men; they’re supposed to be the damsel in distress and shouldn’t save the guys; they need to possess a passive role primarily. I think there’s other trends that exist and im not going to go into them all bc only so many are relevant, but if anyone’s curious, id suggest doing extensive research into it because it’s a mess. Blue Exorcist does a pretty good job of subverting these problems, so does FMA, and i’ve been told Pandora Hearts faced a lot of these problems as well. They’re also all female mangaka, so i would imagine it’s more important to them and so more gets done; but they’re also published by different companies than MHA is.
I’m personally not worried about Horikoshi’s handling of women as far as storytelling goes; i’ve already voiced my thoughts on his handling of females in part one, but also i made http://yeastofeden.tumblr.com/post/164300390700/yeastofeden-horikoshi-is-a-friend-and-an-ally this post months back, which is just a quick highlight of gender positivity in the series. there are other moments i would add to this list.
i am absolutely worried about shonen jump though, and i think that’s really what the storyline should be most afraid of. Spoilers for assassination classroom in the remainder of the paragraph but i believe its traitor character is also female, a series also produced shonen jump, so perhaps she could be looked at to understand what shonen jump would allow for a character of that variety.
Besides that, I’m suspicious that a substantial portion of this last arc of MHA, mostly near the end, were actually ghost written by shonen jump - there’s a noticable difference in storytelling essence that strongly contrasts Horikoshi’s usual handling of battles, but parallels some of the writing i’ve seen in other shonen jump manga. There’s also some artistic differences that’ve bugged me. Horikoshi was repeatedly on leave during the end of this arc and so a lot of the chapters were delayed a week, meaning it’s possible control needed to be taken of the manga to keep it going until Horikoshi was able to get back into the series. I’d say this arc was the result of Shonen jump getting its fingers involved with otherwise good writing; and as a result, the girls got shafted. But like, I could totally be wrong.
I totally get you about not trusting shonen -I don’t really either- but i’m willing to put my faith into MHA so far.
Anyway…..
Personally, I think putting uraraka into a villains position will actually give horikoshi more power to do with her as he wants (or already has given him that power). Female villains seem to take on much more aggressive roles and are allowed to be as badass as necessary in order to provide sufficient challenges for the heroes that will ultimately defeat them, and so they literally can’t “overpower” the hero otherwise the story would become a tragedy- and shonen doesn’t really deal bad ends. You’ll see this exact same trend in western media as well (more obvious, probably, in dated material). Female villains are just short of allowed to run rampant because ultimately they will be defeated and cant look more badass than male heroes.
Toga seems to be handled fairly well from my observations; she has overpowered deku on a few occasions, is completely unhinged, and clearly not a passive character in the series. Toga is doing more than many of the other male villains in the series, even perhaps being the second or third most active villain in the story. Whether she’s flat or well-rounded is probably moreso up to personal interpretation and opinion, but ultimately I’ve found that she’s a well written character. Apply those hopes to Uraraka, and I’m not to worried what villain-status would do to her.
Given Uraraka’s personality, she’s pretty ill-suited for the femme fatale trope. If I saw her personality going somewhere, I would cite her battle against Bakugou for any behavioural changes; this particular personality has always existed in her, and i would argue that it suits usual villain tropes well enough that Uraraka wouldn’t be an unpleasant fit as an overt villain. if she ends up physically joining the league of villains, It might even be kind of amusing to watch her awkwardly trying to navigate personal relationships with the villains that are there, which i would hope for and expect to see.
My main fear, weirdly, is that we could end up with a sasuke-naruto situation where Midoriya chases after Uraraka relentlessly to “bring her back.” It’s not that I had anything against it in Naruto really, but I don’t want to see a repeat of that storyline set into MHA; it becomes excessive and trope-y at that point, especially since Naruto is evidently Shonen Jump’s unstoppable money maker and everyone knows that storyline now.