Deku & Subaru: Portrayals of Self Worth

all i do is talk a big game and make myself sound like a big shot when i can't do anything i never do anything you like complain with the best of them like it's my job or something who the hell do i think i am i'm a fraud it's amazing that i could live like this and not feel ashamed you know i'm right what does self-worth mean two of my favorite pieces of animanga re-zero and mha make it a goal to address that very question albeit in different ways through their main characters natsuki subaru and midoriya izuku midoriya struggles with his self-worth after being bestowed with the strongest power in the world by his idol and worrying about not living up to the expectation of the hero that he wants to be natsuki subaru struggles with his self-worth after being best out of power in an unfamiliar world that allows him to return to an earlier point in time after his death as he fears he has nothing to offer but his death another theme they share which for both stories comes far later is shouldering the burden midoriya shoulders the burden of one for all a power destined to defeat all for one a villain and power that has ever increasing influence in the modern world while subaru shoulders the burden of pretty much everything his return by death ability allows him to know exactly what horrible things are coming and only he can stop them however the ways in which their similar struggles are addressed by the narrative are in stark contrast to each other you might be wondering why i even bothered to compare these characters as it's a pretty uncommon connection my hero academia just wrapped up an arc that had deku and his mental state front and center basically ending up as a culmination of all of deku's character flaws however in execution something just didn't sit right with me and then i watched re-zero subaru's growth and introspection helped me pinpoint exactly what i felt was missing from deku's art some of subaru's moments here were almost frustrating to watch because i was just hoping to see something similar from deku however to save myself some hassle keep in mind that this video is purely subjective if you enjoy deku or dislike subaru that's totally up to you and i know if i don't say this though somebody's gonna get mad midoriya's lack of self-confidence is immediate from the get-go and his self-deprecating self-sacrificial nature is slowly revealed over the course of the series he doesn't feel that things earned with his own massive effort are earned but rather he has been blessed and feels like he's cheating this can be even further compounded by scenes like his fight in the paranormal liberation war arc after single-handedly holding off shigeraki no matter what happens to him saving the lives of everyone on the battlefield and destroying his own body he lays there beaten and destroyed on the ground yelling at himself to not be the old worthless deku that couldn't save anyone deku is a result of his upbringing and trauma from his past riddled with bullying due to his quirklessness his own lack of self-worth or even preservation is what pushes him to such great lengths in the unfortunately named villain hunt arc where he pushes forward on his own for an entire month fighting villains and not taking care of himself in search of shigaraki and all for one this is where we see him double down on his feeling of shouldering the burden he pushes away his classmates he pushes away his idol and roams the streets by himself because nobody else can keep up subaru's lack of self-worth however is not so easily apparent from the get-go he arrives in another world and uses that as an opportunity to be eccentric loud and boisterous trying to act like well an anime protagonist but the problem is this is still a real world on the surface he appears to be the exact opposite of midoriya however time and time again throughout the show the loud and obnoxious mask of subaru gets taken off we see him struggle with his own insecurities feeling that he has no character due to his life as a neat before being isochied feeling that he has never done anything with his life that he can do nothing he lives in the shadow of his father somebody he idolized and ended up growing up feeling inferior to this inferiority complex he developed led to him desperately trying to become the center of attention until it ended up pushing people away his power of return by death later made him feel that the only thing he could offer to his loved ones was his own death and that without this power he was nothing with these two descriptions we can now draw the similarities between midoriya izuku and subarunotsky both people thrust into unfortunate circumstances while not being sure of themselves now is where we get to how these arcs were actually executed and their climaxes for midoriya izuku and my hero academia as a whole we see a subtle slow burn approach to writing deku's struggles have been built up for a long long time and we see this disregard for his own life come to the forefront during the paranormal liberation war arc in his fight with shigeraki this then segues into his feelings of responsibility and lack of own self-worth coming to a climax in the villain hunt arc an arc that gave readers the impression that deku's traumatic past and even present is going to come to a head here and give deku some much needed introspection however an area of the story that could have been used to give a deeper look in the deku's mindset was used for gags having a bath solve everything and some cutesy slice of life scenes making it feel like even hori himself doesn't take deku's issues that seriously deku directly dealt with the consequences of his mindset and trauma and came out the other end of the arc meant to address these things without having thought about it himself a single time people call him screwed up in the head or tell him how he should feel but he never gets his own moment to think about his circumstances never once does he think about his month-long rampage looking for shigaraki never once does he think about everything he's endured never once does he seem to struggle internally with the responsibility that he holds instead we see the adults talk about his rampage instead we see uraka talk about what he's endured instead we see everybody else understand the burden he bears the flaw in horikoshi's handling of deku's trauma or lack thereof is that his actions in villain hunt weren't portrayed as a good thing however the story never took the time to properly address what made deku turn out this way you heard me mention deku's childhood and quirklessness for reasons that he holds these self-sacrificial tendencies but unfortunately most of what we thought to believe about deku has amounted to basically head canons in a series as explicit as mha nothing about deku's past has actually been referenced in his current self he has never once had an introspective moment nor has any character actually link these feelings to his past we may be able to implicitly infer this but i don't know why this entire series would be so explicit and yet leave its main characters so implicit leading me to believe that we simply looked too much into it without these qualities and feelings of deco being addressed what is to stop another self-destructive rampage from happening deku believes all of these things happen because all might wasn't there for him completely and utterly missing the point of what led to his isolation for 20 chapters this was deku at his rock bottom with his flaws on full display but hori's execution of it was simply deku working with his friends of course my hero academia isn't over there is still time for this kind of stuff to be addressed however there is a point where it comes down to too little too late why should we accept that our mc has yet to face a massive hurdle in his mindset for over 300 chapters why should we be fine with the emcee of a seven year long series only having minor changes throughout the course of the series why in a series that has previously demonstrated nuance when it comes to not only mental health but how it addresses the aftermath of traumatic events should we be totally fine with deku's agency being stripped from him and having only his friends there to support him rather than him improving himself enter natsuki subaru a character who almost had no choice but to reflect on his own character and the things that made him the way he is there are multiple hints towards subaru's true feelings throughout the show whether it be him struggling with familial expectations or his own self-confidence but is never super explicit until his first absolute meltdown with rem in episode 18. after multiple return by death loops his situation only seems more and more impossible and he finally gives in asking for rem to run away with him to run away from the problems he has gotten himself into subaru has done nothing with his whole life till this point and felt overshadowed by his lineage when he was isakai'd he saw it as a chance to reinvent himself and wore the mask of the subaru we saw for the first 18 episodes he fought so desperately to go above and beyond taking language lessons getting a job at the mansion trying to solve all the problems himself so he could tell himself that he was trying but subaru knew subaru best he knew that this was all an act a way to look cool in front of these people of the new world and after suffering failure after failure he finally cracks he acknowledges his powerlessness his greed his arrogance his ignorance and his slothfulness in one bombastic 20-minute long self-reflection between subaru and rem with her help he is able to see his own character from a different perspective and she explains to him how somebody else that isn't natsuki subaru might see natsuki subaru the best part about this isn't just his introspection though it's how his problems don't go away after a single solitary event he still struggles with his self-worth at times culminating once again in his encounter with the witches in the witch's graveyard during season two subaru got to a point where he felt the only thing he had to offer to the ones he cared so deeply about was his own life in the final loops of season 2 we see subaru come to an unsettling perspective of using throwaway lies for the first time he is comfortable with killing himself if it means he can find out as much info as he can the witch of envy however points out that he himself should be among the ones he wants to so desperately save i don't want to die the trials in the sanctuary weren't there to make him suffer or show how people grieved his death it was to show that despite how he feels about himself people do care about and love him they want him to succeed and to succeed he must actually take care of himself for midoriya it feels like he takes a backseat to his own character being used solely as a springboard for other characters subaru on the other hand has these raw emotional meltdowns showing us exactly how he feels about the situation he's in while actually progressing throughout the course of the series unlike deku's past subaru faces his previous life of a shut-in directly we see how his childhood has affected him and it even re-contextualizes moments from prior in the series talking with his mother again helps him come to terms with his inferiority complex in relation to his father subaru grows and adapts to put it simply episode 18 and the witch's graveyard scene is exactly everything i wanted from deku's character a moment of genuine self-reflection opening up about how he feels about himself his past his situation how he can't carry it all and just like how subaru felt swallowed up by his power perhaps how deku saw himself only as a vessel for one for all all of subaru's climactic character moments and meltdowns lead to him reflecting on the situation he's in and what parts of himself led him here helping him progress past the situation at hand as well as progress as a character working through those flaws reflecting on his failures and self-perceived ineptitude helped him stand up one more time to finish off the white whale loops reflecting on his familial life in the trials helped him work past the feeling of being in his father's shadow and reflecting on his fear of death helped him bring about him taking himself into account in the future a great moment of reflection could have come after bakako gave his apology to deku we could have had time for deco to think about their friendship their past and how it might have affected him how midoriya feels about something but instead they splash in a bath at each other and had some cute but cheesy dialogue i hope this video ages poorly i want deku progression and introspection and again this video is my subjective opinion on the two characters so if you disagree that's okay some people just want different things from stories and there is nothing inherently wrong with that thank you for taking the time to watch this even if you disagree i hope you see my perspective now on deku's character and what i enjoyed so much about subaru if you like this video please make sure to subscribe and like and comment and stuff for you know the funny youtube algorithm uh follow me on twitter where i post uh good takes and also updates on my videos and if you want more updates on videos like when i'm gonna post one next you can join my discord down below we also talk a lot about my hero academia and re zero so if you're interested in that please feel free to head on over

Channel: AsarathaHS

Views: 310,700

Keywords: rezero, mha, my hero academia, re:zero

Id: QIvPdVOw-MM

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2021