Deku's influence as an inspiration to others along his path

A thread

We can say, to get started, that the protagonist of a story will generally have an influence in the side characters' path, in some way.

However, this case is a little more special because the goal of Deku inside his world is, in theory, to become the "Symbol of Peace".

Deku doesn't have an influence on others' lives just because this is his narrative rol. It's not due to casualties or simple convenience like it happens in a lot of other stories

Deku was meant to inspire others.

So, before explaining how and who, I'd like to explain WHY.

Until now, we've been aware that All Might took the rol as the society's "Symbol of Peace". This designation entailed an enormous weight over his shoulders because it didn't only mean "being the strongest hero" or "having the best quirk"

Being the "Symbol of Peace" doesn't mean

just saving peoples' lives. If it was like that, then any hero could take the rol (a possibility that was demolished when we saw all the people's insecurity and fear when Endeavor became the number 1 hero)

Being the "Symbol of Peace" is winning people's HEARTS too.

The "Symbol of Peace" is a global icon whose mission is being capable to achieve the impossible

In All Might's case, he could keep the peace in a world full of strong people. He made the violence decrease in a society that was meant to be in chaos due to the apparition of quirks

Having said that, we see the function of the "Symbol of Peace" wasn't just an action concept, but a psychological one.
It was made for inspiring others and giving people the safety, relief and calm they needed. We'll see later that Deku's actions follow these same intentions.

But, summarizing, the most important wasn't the power (APPARENTLY). It was the message: "smiling even when the circumstances aren't by your side."

Deku, who was raised with love and in an atmosphere of peace, admired and understood more than anyone this focus.

Being a happy kid (at least until he was diagnosed as quirkless) and knowing there were people who didn't have the peace he had, but also knowing there was someone who could actually give it to them, marked his dream.

His goal was originated from nothing more than his feelings.
A genunine desire to help, just like that. The spirit of a hero.

This fact is extremely important because, as we know, MHA's society is hypocrite and it's corrupted.

Just like I said in the Bakugou thread, the strength of quirks and their potential to let their owners become a hero, are above moral values.

Words are one thing, but in practice all is different.
Remember the quote: "All men are not created equal".

As we learned with Stain's arc, in a world where people don't desire to be a hero due to sincere altruism anymore, but because the profession will give them money, popularity or admiration, AM was someone highly special because he was the representation of pure heroism and maybe

not everyone thought about it, but they FELT it.

This is almost directly related to One for All, of course. But the point here is that NOT everybody was the right person to continue this legacy.

It was needed someone who people connected easily with.

And here is where we have Deku.

Remember that villains and heroes were originated bc of the apparition of the supernatural. Deku, knowing he couldn't take the advantage in that matter, made the most of his intelligence and spent years analyzing the very minimum details about

the most popular heroes. How did they fight, which movements were more beneficial depending on the situation, what kind of equipment they used, etc.

Keeping on this line, Deku tried to apply all this learning while trying to save Bakugou and was acknowledged by All Might.

It wasn't luck. It wasn't fate either. It was the admiration from the number 1 hero towards a kid.

Because, yeah, strength is necessary. And you can't give someone an overwhelming strength everyday, but All Might had the opportunity to do it.

However, how can you give someone the genuine spirit of a hero?

Between two essential things, Deku had the only one who can't be given to anyone in any way.

The only thing that moved Deku was the desire to help others. And I personally think that's beautiful.

With OFA anyone can have an overwhelming strength, but not everyone can be a true hero.

It would be easy to say all happened because of a fortunate casualty. It would be easy to say Deku recieved a gift because he was quirkless and it just happened that he knew AM.

But is it really like that?

Let's see
First of all, AM was the most recognized hero in Japan, known (among other things) for making the criminality level decrease. With this sort of greatness, it isn't very improbable that a person is saved by AM at least once in their life.

But apart from this ambiguous logic, we have Deku, who didn't give up despite the circumstances.

Deku was surrounded by people who didn't believe in him. In fact, nobody in MHA believes someone quirkless could become a hero. We've not seen a single character who believed that,

not even All Might.

So, in a society where quirks have THAT weight and importance, it's only rational to suppose no quirkless person contemplated the mere possibility of becoming a hero considering their condition as almost a disabled person. We have Melissa from the film, but

she became a support engineer.

That's why, yeah, Deku is lucky. I'm not denying that. He found an opportunity and he used it in his favor.
But he wouldn't have encountered that opportunity if he hadn't stayed optimistic and determined to follow his dreams. And that has merit.

He didn't afford obtained OFA because of some sort of pity.

He obtained it because he had a stronger spirit than anyone.

He obtained it because he worked and worked despite being told over and over again he couldn't be a hero.
He obtained because of his sincere will to help,

because he had the bravery to jump into danger when he knew he could have easily died, since in that time he was weak.

OFA accumulates the work of each user. By using OFA, you're using the will and feelings of other heroes. The abilities are the materialization of the desires

from multiple generations.
That's why it couldn't be given to anybody. It had to be carefully given to a true hero.

Because a hero isn't someone who is born with the power of a hero, but with the genuine will of being one.

But, what does this all have to do with Deku being "meant to inspire" others?

Well, I already said it. Not everyone was worthy to inherit OFA. Deku was. That means Deku's mission is in theory to become the Symbol of Peace.

And the Symbol of Peace is the representation of someone capable to achieve the impossible, remember? And also the most important is the message, not the power.

That said, one of Deku's principal messages is "you can". He made it clear when he picked his hero name, and he demonstrates it through his actions.

Because he, from the very bottom of society, managed to become not only "a hero"; but the greatest hero. And that thanks to his strong spirit and the way he used the opportunities that were given to him, a fact that extremely makes him the right person to being capable to inspire

others.

To begin with, becoming "the greatest hero" as he says in his narration, wasn't his purpose. He wanted to be a hero who saved lives with a smile, someone who people could rely on.

So, his path doesn't start when he graduates. It starts from the moment he gets the real

possibility to become a hero. And Deku in less than one year changed the life and the way of thinking of a lot of people. Because that's his mission, and he doesn't even do it on purpose.

It's because it comes from his heart naturally. The popularity of Deku inside the story isn't precisely the best, and despite that he's already swinging his way to win people's hearts.

Let's see some examples:

1. ALL MIGHT

All Might clearly expressed it was Deku's bravery which drove him into action in the Sludge's villain to save Bakugou. This same action was also the one who moved him enough to pass the OFA to Deku.

2. BAKUGOU

In the same way as Bakugou is Deku's maximum reference of the image of a hero after All Might, Deku is the most close person to the image of a hero (after All Might) for Bakugou.

During the story is implied several times that Katsuki always feared Deku's heroic heart. Since the moment he was capable of recognizing it and acknowledged Deku as an equal rival from who he could learn, he began to apply the things he learned from observing Deku.

He had the opportunity to reflect on himself and began to give importance to the action of "saving" as an essential quality of a hero, at the point he made use of this new focus on his training excercises.

But finally, in the last chapter, we saw the maximum exponent of this reasoning when he saved Deku. That being the result of a true and sincere feeling of needing to save, fueled by his memories about Deku, who always showed a pure heroic attitude towards him and the rest of the

world.

Deku's actions and words soaked through his heart up to the point of knowing by first hand and by first time, the thought that All Might described as the one that always crosses a true hero's mind: "his body moved on its own"

3. URARAKA

Ochako has felt inspired by Deku multiple times.

The first one was when he saved her from the robot in the UA admittance exam. Deku despite not having any point and knowing that he could lose the opportunity of studying in the school of his dreams didn't hesitate

to hrow himself into danger because the only thing that mattered to him was that Uraraka's life was at risk.

She felt so touched by this gesture that she went to UA to ask if she could give part of her points to Deku. As All Might said, Deku "adquired his quirk and moved others with his actions".

Uraraka admired Deku's determined attitude and his willingness to do always his best effort to improve himself. That's why she's expressed in several occasions that she wants to be like him.

4. MINETA

Deku's bravery pushed Mineta to try to give his best during the their escape from the villains in the U.S.J incident.

And also this memory helped Mineta to get his head together during the exam while fighting Midnight.

"They're not cool because they're heroes, they're heroes because they're cool!"

5. TODOROKI

Izuku showed sympathy for Shouto after noticing his sadness and resolved to help him, rather than focusing on winning

Izuku's disposition to give his all to the point of breaking his arms and fingers, dug up a lot of things of Todoroki's past which he hadn't thought

about for a long time.

The passionate discourse of Deku about himself doing everything in his power to live up to his expactations and the ones from the people who trusted him, as well as to achieve his dream of becoming a hero, accompained by his "self-sacrificing" fighting

style, made Todoroki remember his own sincere desire to be a hero too.

Finally Deku, even knowing that would make him lose the fight, said the words Shouto needed to hear, reminding him of his own admiration for All Might and the time when her mother told him he could be the

the person he wanted to be, no matter his blood ties with his father.

This marked deeply Todoroki's development.

6. IIDA

Iida felt impressed by Izuku's heroic actions in the Admittance Exam, when he saved Uraraka instead of focusing on himself in the test. And he even apologized for misjudging him.

But the moment where he truly felt inspired by Deku's heroic attitude was when the latter saved him from being killed by Stain. Todoroki, now with a more clear vision of his goals thanks to Deku, said the words that moved Iida into action.

Deku and Shouto, by worrying about Iida and saving him even if the matter didn't have to do anything with them, helped him remember the hero he wanted to be.

7. STAIN

However, the most surprising about this arc was how even Stain, a killer, acknowledged Deku's pure heroic heart in a matter of minutes.

Stain's ideology was based on the fact that heroes didn't choose the profession due to a genuine will to help anymore.

For him, All Might was the only hero worthy of respect of admiration.

The fact that Deku thought about Iida and Native's safety automatically and stayed in the fight with a conviction similiar to All Might's, won Stain's approval despite being his enemy.

This is more clarified when Stain goes even that far to save Deku from the Noumu "for the sake of a better society", showing he sees Deku as a true hero.

8. KOTA

Kota despised heroes and quirk society in general.
But when Izuku rescues him, he finally understands why heroes exist and acknowledges that Deku risked his life and suffered a major injury in a fight over a stranger.

He showed him what a true hero is, and now Kota admires Deku and considers him his hero.

Also, an interesting fact is that Deku asked Todoroki for advice to help Kota, and Todoroki said he just couldn't tell a stranger empty words. Words had to be accompained with actions.

Here he was probably implying that's the way he felt in his fight with Deku in Sports Festival. If Izuku had told him "it's your power" before the fight, it wouldn't have had the same effect as saying it while he was doing his best and breaking his bones at all.

We also see that actions were what worked for Kota to understand what Izuku was trying to tell him, in contrast to when he refused to listen to him.

9. CLASS 1-A

It's not me who says it, it's Aizawa

Also Yaoyorozu thinks about what would Deku do while trying to pass the licence exam despite them not being close friends.

This is quite interesting since Deku was showed as a social awkward person at the beginning of the series, but he didn't have an actual mental problem to interact with others.

He didn't talk much at school or defended himself and he wasn't especially participative but then in different and specific danger contexts we see how he takes a main participation, something that he doesn't even understand himself.

On the contrary. Deku's own attitudes were being overshadowed by his fear and the pressure he felt in relation to his environment, like his strong character, determination and leadership capacity; attitudes he adopts little by little in the academy.

This leadership and influence upon others speak of a person who has a main rol on a social level and possibly handles the pressure that entails being the center of attention, as it happens in any hero's life.

10. ERI

Izuku is the first person who touched Eri with kindness. He refused to give her back to Chisaki in their first encounter, forcing Eri to run to Overhaul when she knew he would kill Deku and Mirio.

During the rescue, Izuku describes Eri's quirk as a blessing and not as a curse, what made her cry for joy.

When she saw how far Mirio and Deku were going only to protect her, she felt overwhelmed with emotion and she learnt that she deserved and wanted to be saved.

11. NIGHTEYE

Deku achieved what Nighteye always looked forward to: to change the future.

After the fight with Overhaul, Nighteye implied he finally acknowledged Deku as a worthy inheritor of OFA, after seeing how everyone's wishes centered, as a sort of energy, on Izuku,

who was capable to accomplish the goal with his optimism and strong faith.

There are a lot of more aspects about Deku I'd love to discuss about. But, summarizing, what I tried to show with these examples is that Deku, despite being a first year student, despite being only a KID, has already marked the life and standards of a lot of people.

These are obvious statements and there's really nothing to understand about them, but since the manga is still on publication and the story advances and advances, almost without us noticing, many times we forget how far the protagonist has gone considering how much time has

actually passed inside the story.

And the fact that he's hardly ever been recognized for the things he did, only reinforces the idea of how big his potential is. Even without recognition, Deku is always willing to help others and change their perspective, so they can be

the best version of themselves.

In my opinion, the message of Deku's character isn't "you can do anything if you believe in yourself". It's that you can give your best to achieve what you desire. It doesn't always go well and you won't always feel you're walking in the right way But you continue walking.

This is what Deku demonstrated from the beggining. He has commited mistakes and he's learned from them.

He learnt to support people's dreams, but also to be willing to break others in order to keep his own ones. He learnt to understand there are people better than him, and to

know that the way to get what you want won't always be favorable.
He perfectly distinguishes the opportunities that were given to him, from the ones he got by himself.

Deku was always considered as a person who couldn't see the reality. A person who needed to learn his place and play the "rol" of the society he belonged to as a quirkless person.

But Deku didn't put their feet on the ground. He brought the ground to their feet.

- END OF THE THREAD -

Sorry for my mistakes! If I said something weird please tell me
I repeat, I'm aware any of all this wasn't new for you to hear, but I couldn't help but feel amazed while thinking about how much Deku has influated others in a short period of his life.

If you want to add anything, feel free to qrt this with your thoughts

I leave this here btw

https://twitter.com/noob_it/status/1312122769685934081?s=19