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The following contains spoilers for theMy Hero Academiamanga.
Izuku Midoriya inMy Hero Academiabegan the series with an unshakable obsession with being a hero, desiring to be one himself. He is eventually given the chance of a lifetime when he receives One for All, allowing him to become the ultimate hero he has always dreamed about.
However, would Midoriya have been happier if he hadn’t been gifted such an amazing power from the start of his journey? At the end ofMy Hero Academia, we see how bittersweet Deku feels after having expended the power and becoming quirkless again. Was One for All delaying his character development and preventing him from maturing to become the person he was meant to be?
Deku is Happier Now
In the Epilogue, Deku Takes Losing His Quirk In Stride
One reason to think thatDeku would have been happierwithout One for All is how he acts at the end ofMy Hero Academia,despite having lost his ability to use the powerful quirk.
“The armor made me very happy… but my feelings haven’t changed. I think I’d enjoy being a teacher… even if I still had One for All.” -Izuku Midoriya
We see that Deku has come to terms with having to give up being a pro-hero, feeling like even if he still had his powers, he found a true calling in teaching and helping others in non-heroic ways. Midoriya turns down a job offer from Bakugo, insisting it may be fun to be a hero occasionally, but he is happy with his decision to stop being full-time.
While bearing the burden of One for All, Deku was happy that he was able to be part of the hero world and use the power to save everyone. However, through his hero journey, he learned that becoming a hero wasn’t actually what he wanted out of life. Chapter 431 ends with him happier than we have seen him, finally taking a chance to spend more time with Ochaco and feeling true fulfillment despite being left behind by the other members of his class.
What If Deku Never Got One for All?
Would Deku Be Happier?
It’s hard to say ultimately what would have happened to the world if Deku never got One for All.All Might would have passed it on to another student, who likely would have been an extremely powerful hero and taken on All for One and Tomura Shigaraki in Deku’s place.
At the beginning of the series, Midoriya felt despair over his inability to save people and developed an inferiority complex due to being quirkless. While receiving immense power from All Might helped him make friends and start to overcome his flaws, having One for All also brought him much pain and hardship.
It’s possible that, having toface the reality of his quirkless existencehead-on earlier, he could have come to avoid the pain and found his place in the world regardless. If he had never received All Might’s help, Midoriya may have joined the police force or become a support item hero like All Might did when he assembled Armored All Might.
We get a taste of what Deku could have been like without One for All in the spin-offVigilante series with Koichi Haimawari. Koichi idolizes All Might just like Deku and tries to be a hero despite being weak. Although Koichi is born with a quirk, it starts pretty lackluster, and he has to put in a lot of work to make it his own. If Deku never got One for All, his hero’s heart and determination would still have found a way to contribute to the greater good. The difference would be that, with his limitations fully realized, Deku could have found his place in the world without going through his dark Deku phase and nearly destroying his body. It’s also possible thatif Deku never received One for All, he could still be working as a hero, much happier with his limitations that he overcame without All Might’s power.
My Hero Academia
Cast
In My Hero Academia, some humans have superpowers called quirks. Izuku Midoriya, nicknamed Deku, is not one of them. Deku has always idolized heroes like the number one hero, All Might, and since he was a child, he has always wanted to be a hero. However, his lack of a quirk has always held him back, but a chance encounter with All Might after discovering a classmate in danger sets Deku on the path to becoming a true hero. My Hero Academia centers around Deku and a class of heroes-in-training at UA. This school shapes young quirk users into future heroes through fake rescue missions, combat training, and other hero-tempering tasks. With young Deku inheriting the “One-For-All” quirk, he will learn what it means to be a true hero while facing off with dastardly supervillains.
