- For The Want Of A Nail Series: Deku? I think he's some pro... | Mastermind: Strategist for Hire | Mastermind: Rise of Anarchynote | Viridian: The Green Guide | Cheat Code: Support Strategist | Shadows: The Horror Movie Heroes | Erazerhead: The Unknown Hero
The For The Want Of A Nail series is a collection of different My Hero Academia fanfic written by myheadinthecloudsnotcomingdown. While not bound to a single continuity, they all share the same very basic premise; Midoriya Izuku doesn't get One For All, so what does he do instead of Canon? The answer ranges from becoming a hero anyway to becoming an infamous villain to even joining the Support Course as Nedzu's personal student.
The series can be read on Archive of Our Own here
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For more fanfics by Clouds, see the pages for Nemesis (MHA) and Death Daggers (MHA), and see Modified for an original story written by Clouds.
Tropes in the For The Want Of A Nail series include:
- Adaptational Badass: One For All is always given to a different person in each story. Deku? has it given to Mirio, Viridian has it given to Kaminari, Cheat Code has it given to Uraraka, and Shadows is going to have it be given to Jirou. The only exception is Mastermind, where All Might dies before he can give it away.
- Adaptational Heroism: On occasion, characters who were initially or canonically villains will turn to heroism. Toga gets adopted by Vlad King in Deku?, Dabi becomes a vigilante and joins the Vigilante Reform Program in Viridian, and Cheat Code has Shigaraki realize that All For One was just using him and becoming something of a Big Brother Mentor to Todoroki.
- Adaptational Villainy: Every story in the series has a different traitor. Mastermind has Monoma, Viridian has Queen Bee controlling Hagakure, and Cheat Code has Mineta. Deku? and Shadows have not yet shown who the traitor is, yet.
- Mastermind tends to have a lot of this. Additional adaptational villains include Midoriya himself, Todoroki, Hawks, Bakugou, the Wild Wild Pussycats, Tokoyami, and Nedzu, though he's more of The Chessmaster than an actual villain.
- Butt-Monkey: All Might tends to get this treatment, usually being continuously called out for his callous words towards Midoriya, poor ability to teach, and tendency to give people One For All at inopportune times while keeping it a secret from their teachers and family. That, or he gets murdered.
- Death by Adaptation: Each fic tends to have a number of people end up dead when they would have survived in canon.
- Deku?: All For One.
- Mastermind and its sequel: Mount Lady, Wash, All Might, Stain, Kota, Giran, the entirety of the Shie Hassekai, Endeavor, the Meta Liberation Army, the entirety of the Hero Public Safety Commission, all of the teachers and staff of Aldera Junior High, Ogawa, Muscular, the Wild Wild Pussycats, All For One, Edgeshot, everybody still in Tartarus when Shigaraki dusted it .
- Viridian: Endeavor, All For One, Queen Bee.
- Cheat Code: The USJ mook jamming the alarms, Stain, Kamui Woods, Mount Lady, Death Arms, Mineta, All for One.
- Demoted to Extra: A lot of characters tend to get put on the back burner when they're not central to a fic. Characters that tend to avert this are Bakugou, Todoroki, and Shinsou.
- Disappeared Dad: Midoriya Hisashi rarely, if ever, makes a mention in any of the fics. Mastermind shows that he's a notorious villain named the Dragon, though it's not shown whether or not this is true for all the other fics.
- Fantastic Ableism: A central theme in all of the works is how Midoriya deals with the discrimination he faces as a quirkless person, along with how other people are discriminated for their quirks, with a common character to appear in a central or semi-central role being Shinsou.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Each fic has different ships from each other.
- Deku?: Midoriya / Uraraka, Eraserhead / Ms Joke, Bakugou / Kirishima
- Mastermind: Midoriya / Todoroki, Dabi / Hawks
- Viridian: Midoriya / Kaminari, Bakugou / Uraraka
- Cheat Code: Midoriya / Hatsume, Shinsou / Uraraka, Eraserhead / Present Mic
- Shadows: not written to that point yet, but the tags have it as Shinsou / Kaminari / Jirou
- The Smart Guy: Without One For All, Midoriya is always required to rely on his wits to defeat foes, therefore shifting him from being The Big Guy he was in canon to being the brains of his team.
- Un-Sorcerer: All the stories are linked by this. Midoriya will never have been born with a quirk, will never receive One For All, and will never be given a quirk by All For One.
