How My Hero Academia Twists the Plot

if you're Patrick who's that plot twists are easily one of the most commonly recognizable writing techniques it was him no it was them some things like this you it's like that instead but how do you actually construct a plot twist just do something unexpected isn't exactly sound advice here as that being your only guideline is a good way to disappoint everyone JJ just being surprising isn't enough I'm really no authority on any of this but if I had to say what makes a good plot twist and this is my video so I'm gonna say it I'd say it has to have one of two qualities two approaches if you will one either something news revealed that nonetheless fits seamlessly into a story or two existing elements are combined and recontextualized into a new development it's essentially the difference between the plot twists creating new information and the plot twist simply merging and combining pre-existing information and it is the second approach that I would like to talk about today an approach that I like to call the toolbox method every time the author presents a piece of information it isn't just relevant to the scene and is presented in instead the author stores that piece in a proverbial toolbox together with all the other information they created when it comes to then write a plot twist instead of creating new information the author simply grabs into his toolbox finds information of fits together and uses that to twist the plot into a new and exciting direction that is nonetheless founded in clearly established and pre-existing information or in other words these kind of plot twists work because we the readers and viewers could reasonably have predicted it but we didn't okay a lot of technical talk let's get down to some practical examples Koivu Cochise Maya academia is really good don't fight me on this and just recently the anime aired one of its big moments the climax of Deku versus overall and it was great however this fight also climaxes with a really solid and cool plot twist Deku can usually not use his power for all at 100% as it would tear his body apart however by strapping area on his back a girl whose power is to rewind things into previous state he manages to harness his full power as Erica's continuously reverses the damage that output keeps producing this not only makes for an amazing finale but it is also an example of a tool box plot twist no new information is actually created here we are told basically from the beginning that deku is theoretically able to use 100% in fact that's what he does for the first couple of Oryx however every time he does he breaks his body pretty badly leading him to reasonably abandoning using 100% meanwhile Aries quirk being rewind may be elaborated upon shortly before the twist but her power is established way earlier as it is a centerpiece to overhauls plan and the reason he thinks she is cursed both of these pieces of information are created completely separate from one another and from the twist which makes it unlikely for us to try and combine them ourselves before the twist actually happens but once or Acco she takes these two elements and makes them interact the ensuing 100% twist is an incredibly organic and natural development from these two aspects existing together this then creates a very fluid plot progression that is nonetheless quite surprising not to mention hype but his biggest achievement is that it perfectly fits into the story without actually changing anything because both of these elements already existed let's look at another example of horikoshi using the toolbox method to great effect but for that we will have to get into more four walls this is your only warning from this point onwards we are in manga territory be good good during the joint training arc which pitted Class A versus Class B deck ooze quirk went berserk and gifted him with a vision of a previous user this bloke then revealed to him and the audience that one for all actually stored all the quirks of the predecessors and the tech who will eventually have access to all of their powers to some degree effectively giving him seven core now when this first dropped in chapter 213 the fandoms response was a measured and calm what the dude even I was worried making my to date only chapter reaction video however after thinking on it a bit I have come to massively appreciate this twist and all it does to the story and for today's purposes it is also an incredibly well built example of a toolbox plot twist we are told in Chapter one of the series that 80% of the population has quirks and after stain arc we are told that the first user had a quirk that can transmit quirks which is how one-for-all came to be and works and that's hint these two pieces of information is all this twist needed and is based on 80% quirk users means that there is an incredibly high chance that the predecessors possessed works of their own before inheriting one for all and since they can continue to transmit the power it means that the quark transmitter also transmits itself which itself implies that it transmits all quirks present in a person these are not stretches they are logical deductions based on information given in the text and so we for literal years sat on the clues necessary to predict this development by all means we all should have seen this coming but basically nobody did the information was presented in such a way that it was so relevant for the scenes of their initial mentioning that we really didn't think about either of them being taken out of the tool box again like that by presenting them like that horikoshi minima is the possibility of the twist being obvious but because the twist is based solely on early established information it makes perfect sense and creates a natural development for the story while fitting in seamlessly with the world and story horikoshi is telling and to quickly talk about that development thanks to this twist Deku becomes more versatile without getting too overpowered he still has to work hard to gain these quirks some of them are probably useless and we're probably not gonna see him use all of them at once until well into the game also sugar aqua can level cities now so overpowered really isn't a concern so now we have seen two examples of the tool box method working incredibly well in Urraca but no riding technique is without its pitfalls and shortcomings and every author has times where they underperform so let's look at two examples again from here akka where this approach didn't work so well and where horikoshi didn't executed all that well and our first example is somewhat odd as it's a plot twist that hasn't actually happened yet introducing the Curious Case of Dhabi supervillain now you me your parents your neighbor Benedict Cumberbatch we all know that Dobby is very very likely toya Todoroki shadows lost brother and endeavours eldest son the clues are all over the place from Dolly's quirk to his demeanor it's painfully obvious that that's what his identity is it's gotten so clear that I even announced that if it ever got D confirmed I would make a video wearing a clown costume discussing it that's how sure I am and there is some really cool pre-established information regarding this twist for example and ever mentioning the Toya had strong flames that his body couldn't resist and got damaged from then finding out dobby's own flames hurt his body to only to then go back into earlier ours and his earlier appearances and realized that he from his very first time he showed on screen always retracted and recalled his hand after using fire because he doesn't want to get burned is a really satisfying sequence of realizations but you see that's the issue we know dobby astoya it is basically confirmed but it hasn't actually been confirmed yet as of right now January 2020 dobby being Toya is still not even mentioned in the story it's not been revealed and is still supposedly up in the air this is a case where the toolbox method inherent need for pre-established information backfires the information is so abundantly present and available and the lines of deduction so clear that the plot twist has already happened in the readers minds way before it actually happens in the story on paper this creates a frustrating lose-lose situation if horikoshi decides to confirm that dobby is Toya tomorrow the overwhelming response would likely be earth finally and earth took you long enough from me included and if he D confirms it and dobby is someone else it's my grandma it's just gonna feel cheap and out of nowhere most likely so here the toolbox approach has forced horikoshi into a very delicate situation that I don't envy where no matter what he does he has to be very very careful if he wants to still maximise on this twist or the lack of it our last example for today is one of hero Acas most recent plot twists and it concerns kuru giri here it is revealed that the misty babysitter of the League of villains and antagonists since day one is actually created out of the corpse of Oboro shirokuma Xu a student and former friend to Izawa and present Mike before his passing this is clearly presented and meant as an emotionally charged moment with aizawa's cold facade gradually breaking down into a much more emotional broken mess this is given a lot of attention it gets to chapter cliffhangers and it's very clearly a massive twist to the story but here's the thing while seeing the stoic Izawa breakdown in of itself is pretty resonant the star of this twist should be Shira kuhmo and his fate but any actual information regarding him is not actually present in my hero academia instead it is relegated to a flashback arc in the spin-off manga my hero academia vigilantes so it's this weird situation where the necessary information to this twist should Akuma's quark his life and his death were theoretically pre-established but in the wrong manga horikoshi does try to bring some of this info into the mains story but he does so immediately after the reveal and he only really gives a sparknotes version Allah he was a friend he died how sad this creates the unfortunate situation where I and readers in general understand the twist cognitively but we don't feel it this is a good example of how raw information sometimes isn't enough to maximize the impact of a twist in this case just being matter-of-fact they told that Sher Akuma was their friend is just too detached and doesn't really create any of the wait the flashback in vigilantes and additional material would have brought to the table granted even the stuff in vigilantes itself might have been insufficient as that itself is relatively limited but regardless of that this is a case of pre established information existing but not being available and expanded enough to maximize the narrative and emotional potential another trap one can fall into when following the information focused toolbox method and there we have it four examples of our quarry horikoshi employs the toolbox method within hero ARCA both to great effect and to unfortunate disappointment overall I think he handles plot twists like these relatively well with the majority of his manga having a satisfying flow of events and developments even up to now with the most recent chapters however he is a writer like any other and like every writer he makes mistakes and has flaws and still has to learn and in this case his reliance on his method of constructing twists has bitten him in the ass but considering how young horikoshi is and that hero akka is only just now approaching it's probable middle point it's safe to say that this is an approach that will continue to be polished and perfected horikoshi is already a really really well trained writer he knows how to create plot twists and these are the stumbles just show that he still has to learn I personally cannot wait to see how he continues to grow as a writer but for now thanks for watching take care consider subscribing ring the bells stay notified all that jazz you've been on YouTube you know what I mean take care of my friends see you all next time you

Channel: Oceaniz

Views: 99,559

Rating: 4.9182034 out of 5

Keywords: My Hero Academia, Boku no Hero Academia, MHA, BNHA, HeroAca, Deku, Shigaraki, Mirio, Overhaul, Eri, All Might, Anime, Manga, Horikoshi, Plot Twists, Oceaniz, Oceaniz96

Id: c2oFyl90C_c

Length: 13min 27sec (807 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 20 2020

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