The Perfection of Gentle and La Brava

boom by Patrick Storm themes are some of the most important aspects in any written work while it isn't always a priority and that's fine the central claim an idea a fictional story presents often ends up forming the very soul of the work in question almost every story made by a passionate heart of a human being has something to say something to communicate because such is the nature of literature and art in general even something as superficially simple such as let's say dragon ball still at its essence carries a core concept that frames and feeds back into the stories events in this case the neverending journey towards true strength and self-improvement one story that has a quite surprising variety and competence within its themes is Coco she's my hero academia I say variety because this series actually has many possible readings to it with many potential themes being able to have be extracted from the text while we will return to this aspect of hero acha at a later date for today I would like to talk about one specific theme and one specific way hero uh collaborates and develops it these would be systemic abandonment and gentle respectively I'll outright say it gentle is made my favorite villain in all of Urraca only narrowly being beaten by shigaraki recent developments and frankly he's one of my favorite characters in general his demeanor is fun his relationship to la Brava is adorable and his fight against tech who is easily one of the highlights of ma che for me however what truly makes him and his arc in general shine is his intrinsic interaction with the themes message and concept of my hero academia Don zero tobita was overall a mediocre student unable to live up to his high aspirations of becoming a hero known by all following a botched impromptu heroic act he is shunned by both society and his family receiving death threats and being thrown out of the house marginalized for his incompetence to the point where even his former friend doesn't recognize or associate with him in an act of lonesome desperation he turns his back on dreams of heroism and instead seeks fame and infamy through villainy dong-joo roto betta vanishing and giving way to the gentle criminal similarly mon ami IE be' lived a life cursed by her own power a quirk that activates upon the expression of romantic feelings it naturally compelled her to seek closeness a companionship as everyone naturally gravitates towards that which their power facilitates but as a result of that tendency she kept getting betrayed in this light labelled a stalker and a creep following this monami isolated herself plunging into a deep depression all the way down to a suicidal rock-bottom but her soul illuminated by the radiance of a certain dashing rogue she found purpose again and joined gentle taking on the mantle of La Brava it's quickly noticeable that these two stories share one thing they were both failed and abandoned by the hero system Caracas depiction of society goes to great lengths to ensure that those with clearly visible flashy potential are given all the opportunities possible however this system is consistently shown to fail and ignore the plight of people born under less fortunate conditions children cursed with cruel or outright detrimental powers and while the UI students represent the peak of potential and the villains the deepest slow of abandonment there is a middle ground between the two people who aren't geniuses but who aren't cursed by adversity either at least not directly this is the space gentle and la brasa occupy they are not prodigies and they're not thugs they are relatively ordinary people stuck in an unfortunate situation due to this they become a very powerful tool for hiro akka and horikoshi as now the story can move away from extremes like bakugan toga and give insight on how life is for the everyman both gentle and lebra suffered in relatively mundane ways and inform the reader and the narrative of the like full state of your society and its many consequences gentle suffered from society's idealization of heroism and fame through earlier counters with characters like stain and mound lady the story has already made it very apparent that the noble self-sacrificial concept of the superhero has long eroded and given way to the capitalistic super-powered celebrity the ideal of the hero is put on a pedestal presented as the ultimate goal to achieve in his superhuman Society and since everyone has a unique power everyone should aspire to become a great hero right this mentality is present from as early as episode 1 when the cooze middle school teacher doesn't bother doing future evaluation since everyone wants to be a hero anyway but the reality of the matter is that no not everyone can be all might society wouldn't function if everyone was just a hero but instead of affirming the worth of non hero lifestyles and lending guidance to those who have potential in other areas your society seemingly focuses all its attention resources towards raising next generations of heroes and nothing else gentles plight is therefore a consequence of this flawed system with his elasticity quirk he could have excelled as a construction safety worker or other less glamorous but important tasks but because society instill into him as it does in to everyone that being a famous hero is the only thing worth aspiring to he blindly pursues heroism and when he falls short of the inherent potential and power that profession prefers plunges into villainy as a last attempt at the fame and glory society told him was the only thing that mattered Don zero is by no means innocent in his own misfortune absolutely not he didn't seem to try all that hard at school and he jumped into action without a license something he knew was wrong illegal but then again so did Deku at the start of the series and while Deku was granted a unique chance to turn the situation around Don zero was left to suffer the consequences of his ineptitude he had a part in his own fall but the narrow-minded tenacity that led him to ignore all alternatives was imprinted onto him by a broken system making him a tragic reminder of how the system only really works for the prodigies not for the dreamers society tells everyone to chase their dreams in hopes but then does nothing to actually facilitate that pursuit la Brava meanwhile suffered from another vestige of society's neglectful Ness namely its inability to properly educate and guide the myriad of possible quirks that can emerge anyone can have any power and accounting for every possible permutation possible is simply not feasible however ideally structures and services would be put in place to try and offer guidance and advice to kids and their budding powers in a healthy and nurturing manner as to avoid miss developments and what we do know that quirk counselling exists we have so far only seen it fail at actually preventing negative developments through a later example we learn that kids are naturally drawn towards testing their powers and if you're born with traditionally flashy quirk then that's great the system will love you and guide you towards glory and if you have a boring or useless quirk life's kind of tough but I mean you'll deal no harm done if you just try using it and see that it is useless but what if York work requires actions that are not socially acceptable with monami she was naturally compelled to seek out human connections with the type of vigor and youthful obsession something like a superpower would obviously beckoned in a more proactive system she could have been educated on the social ramifications of her quirk she could have had a healthy relationship to her power and more positive understanding of what it means for her as a person likewise other students around her could have been informed and educated on the different core conditions and situations but none of that happened instead she was left to be ostracized and shunned for a natural curiosity causing her to believe that her very existence was inherently something flawed something to ridicule and something that didn't deserve to be the system would rather simply pretend quirks are mostly cool simple powers like fire breathing and telekinesis instead of acknowledging and caring for the more complicated socially impactful abilities it's easier to pretend that everyone can either to shoot fire or shoot lightning than to actually admit that some powers are kind of messed up and need special care we see this with la brasa and later with toga indicating that this is by no means not an isolated phenomenon but rather a fundamental issue with the system a system that in this case abandoned la Brava these two stories by themselves already present inherent flaws of her system and fulfill that purpose very well but it's once these two characters are pitted against a protagonist deku that hero ANCA truly opens up to some really juicy societal criticism and injustice the true beauty of this encounter is that because gentlemen our Brava aren't exactly evil the story invites the reader to see this fight from both perspectives and just like how it enables two potential scenarios of either rooting for deku or for gentle it also enables two readings two interpretations of the same fight that complement each other let's start with de Guiche side first as gentle lays defeated before him he states that this was the hardest battle he has ever fought this line sparked some surprise among the reader base when it first released since just in his last fight deku had his body literally pulled apart repeatedly in order to destroy a megalomaniacal kaiju hell-bent on destroying and destabilizing all of society so why were tussling with a bouncy youtuber in order to prevent the cancellation of school festival be anywhere comparable let alone harder well this statement is firstly a reestablishment of hero Arcas core tenant regarding stakes while it is less bombastic fundamentally culture festival and overhaul are both about the same thing saving Airy in hero occas interpretation the salvation of Ares emotionality and smile is in no way less important and impactful than saving her physically from the clutches of a violent abuser and this extends to the entire series its stakes are less about destruction and global peril but about personal development emotionality and dreams my Rekha damia isn't about the impact of explosions and laser beams but about the weight of personal expectations dreams and hopes and this line reflects that and secondly the reason the fight against gentle was harder and deku is connected to this tenant as well gentle force deku to grow up in a sense until now decos fights have always either been idealistic bouts against his classmates in an attempt to grow alongside each other or vicious struggles against irredeemable evils who in the name of justice and safety had to be stopped Deku just kept smashing his way towards creating and protecting smiles this time however things are different gentle isn't evil he isn't even all that dangerous and his plan is a crime in only the most marginal sense moreover his story and motivation is incredibly similar to Dec ooze and quite honestly very understandable the pain of mediocrity in a society that expects excellence is something Deku understands very well after all in a way gentle is just like Deku a dreamer hoping to bring about smiles on the faces of those he cares about but because of how the world is one of them has to fail there has to be a victor and there has to be a loser this situation in which Niko's naive view of heroism is forced to mature he cannot simply keep talking about bringing smiles and happiness because the reality of the matter is that in order to protect the smiles he cares about and to achieve his dreams he will have to stop those of others dead in its tracks some smiles can only be created by destroying the smiles of someone else it isn't fair it isn't just but it simply is how the world works sometimes as a result of a deeply rooted inequality and a flawed system realizing this is an important but immensely hard step for Deku which makes this the hardest fight he's ever fought if we turn towards the other side of the conflict we get gentle and la brasa desperately struggling to achieve their goals to bring about gentles infamy and glory in a society that didn't want him interesting to note here is how gentle says that he wants his story to inspire others this is the exact same motivation deku has to save people from desperation in her own lack of ability to show them that even someone who is born without a quirk or who didn't excel at school can have a bright future gentle even has a direct example of him inspiring someone named Lila Brava who indirectly saves from suicide there that's what pursuit of happiness is fueled by reasons that are very well known not just by their adversary but the readers as well however this is where a hefty portion of irony comes in both gentle and lebra seek fame and glory because they want to both feel happy in their own existence and inspire those struggling in similar ways but they already found the happiness they sought in each other gentle wanted to be seen to have his competence drive an existence be acknowledged and appreciated and that is exactly what LeBron does as she admires and celebrates gentles ingenuity and class meanwhile LeBron sought to have her feelings and existence be accepted and to be given a purpose which coincidentally is what gentle does as he accepts her into his life and seeks to honor and protect her feelings even making dark Sharpie rings around his eyes his trademark to make la Brava feel better about the dark rings around her eyes reminders of her depression and oppression gentle happily and positively integrates into a personal journey in short they had everything they wanted found in their love and care for each other but the thirst to live up to society's expectations instilled by the hero system made them both blind to it and it is this that's the realization that hits gentle in those last moments of the fight the happiness he sought wasn't something any amount of notoriety was gonna give him but rather a joy derived from a genuine human connection his pursuit of glory did not only blind him but it also implicated the one person he loves into a crime potentially tarnishing her bright future he may have inspired her yes but he in fired her into a lifestyle of criminality a far cry from the inspiration he wants to be and inspiration deku ory is to people like Koda whom he inspires to become a hero not a villain and so in an act of true kindness he chooses to forsake his dream and interrupt a fight allowing the festival to continue and for la brasa to not be incriminating this duo is many things adorable entertaining and appealing but more than just that gentle and la brasa represent the deeply harmful consequences of a system that is only concerned with greatness and glory but doesn't pay any heed to what those expectations and structures do to the regular average person they are reminders of the fragile nature of the self image of the right to dream and to pursue they are manifestations of the pain associated with systemic abandonment which itself feeds back into one of hero occas most central themes the demystification of hero society as a utopia but they are also an example of how to escape that vicious cycle of how human connections and emotions can provide joy and happiness in a world obsessed with reserving dreams and ambition only for the best of the best in the end one could say the answer truly was as simple as a single word love you

Channel: Oceaniz

Views: 109,184

Rating: 4.952682 out of 5

Keywords: Gentle, Gentle Criminal, La Brava, MHA, BNHA, My Hero Academia, Boku no Hero Academia, HeroAca, Anime, Season 4, Overhaul, Manga, Analysis, Oceaniz, Oceaniz96, Deku vs Genlte

Id: KL-Pkf1uhHo

Length: 17min 25sec (1045 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 12 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/way-we-used-to-be]

This is s great character, I'm starting to like him more than Stain.

[u/Spatterx23]

Wow... amazing video Gentle is an amazing character 👏