Fanfic / Reality Check (MHA)

"His quirk is indeed fitting for hero work...but is he suited to it? A lack of dedication, discipline but most of all his insistence that he is being judged because of his quirk and getting screwed over, ends up yanking Shinsou's head out of the clouds and brutally back down to Earth"

Reality Check is a My Hero Academia one-shot written by Winds Carry Far, (who also wrote We're Not Friends Kacchan) which tackles both the fandom's treatment of Shinsou as well as Aizawa's Sadist Teacher tendencies which ultimately lead to him crashing out of the hero course in spectacular fashion. Shinsou's antagonistic tendencies, Playing the Victim Card and Fantastic Ableism alienate him from his classmates and cause him to slack off which seals his fate.

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This one-shot provides examples of:

• Accusation Fic: invoked The fic largely serves as both one to Shinso and Aizawa's canon characterizations, but also to their highly popular fanon interpretations, specifically via exaggerating Shinso's pre-Character Development personality, and focusing on Aizawa's flaws that were largely phased out later.
• Ad Hominem: Shinsou's go-to whenever someone confronts or frustrates him. This is how he deals with Bakugou's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Mina's and Kaminari's problem with Shinsou's false noise complaint, as well as his own frustration with his study group. When Mina and Kaminari aren't shut down by his insults, Shinsou's confused, as he's "a hundred percent sure he’d picked out their exact insecurities."
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed. Shinso's characterization here is more in line with him pre-Character Development he received during the Joint Training Arc, which saw him open up to the other Hero Course students, specifically Kaminari, Monoma, and Midoriya. However, his canon characterization's negative traits are exaggerated for the sake of being an Accusation Fic, having him deride his former classmates in General Education when he actually appreciated their support of him following his loss to Midoriya, continues to have a chip on his shoulder about the Hero Course students even after getting into it, tries stealing Momo's essay for himself, and goes with the interpretation that he never actually bothered to train himself in favor of relying solely on his Quirk, or act like he wouldn't and didn't train himself in canon (which we see several moments of him doing so before his return to the focus in the Joint Training Arc.)
• Adaptational Nice Guy: It's mentioned that Mineta was able to "clean up his act" and is no longer the Class Pervert.
• Adults Are Useless: Zigzagged.
  • In Aizawa's case played straight - shows constant favoritism towards Shinsou and utilizes intimidation to keep his students in line. Ultimately leaves Shinsou to hang when he needs him the most.
  • Subverted in All Might's case. All Might has been shown to be an inexperienced teacher who has his students' best interests in mind which goes against the fandom typically bashing him as an incompetent and/or malicious teacher. In this case not only is he a reasonable authority figure he even goes to encourage Shinsou after his expulsion.
• All for Nothing: It's heavily implied that Shinsou's Karma Houdini Warranty, which is paid for by Aizawa, comes at a fairly steep cost for the latter, as Aizawa uses his own influence and power to shield Shinsou but implicitly loses credibility and good will with others as a consequence. However, because Shinsou sees Aizawa's shielding as validation, Shinsou never changes his behavior, so Aizawa keeps losing credibility and respect as Shinsou continues to buck the expectations of the Hero Course until Aizawa has no influence left with which to protect Shinsou. By the end of the story Aizawa appears to have lost whatever remaining faith his class and All Might had in him to be a Reasonable Authority Figure and he's burned through all remaining favors with Nedzu, after which Shinsou ends up having to leave the class anyways.
• Ambiguous Ending: After All Might gives a meaningful speech on what heroism is truly about along with the possibility of taking university hero courses, Shinsou is unsure if he still wants to be a hero as his dream job.
• And Then What?: In the end, the Number One Hero openly asks Shinshou what he planned to do once he became a true hero. The boy finds that he's unable to provide a decent answer.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Shinsou believes people avoid him because of his Brainwashing Quirk. In truth, it is because he is a total Jerkass to everyone around him.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Downplayed into "Being Bullied Makes You a Jerkass." Shinsou has become so jaded from the bullying he received in the past that he presumes all of his classmates are his enemies and treats them as such even when they go out of their way to be kind to him, to the extent that he intentionally causes them problems ranging from minor to very serious and feels no remorse at the hurt and upset he causes, even enjoying it.
• Berserk Button: After Bakugou's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, Shinsou very smugly calls him a villain. This sends him into a Tranquil Fury and he is only saved due to the intervention of his classmates and eventually All Might.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Momo is a sweet girl but she totally loses it after finding out that Shinsou tried to steal her essay. She slaps him fiercely and tells him to burn in hell.
• Blatant Lies: Shinsou tries to justify Bakugou stealing the flag from him by sayin he "snuck up" on him. Everyone knows that's a lie because Bakugou is incapable of sneaking up on people.
  Bakugou: Nor do I want to. Sneaking around is for pussies.
• Bothering by the Book: Shinsou blames his classmates for his lack of sleep, even though he's choosing to stay up and play video games. In response, Aizawa imposes quiet hours from 6 to 8. As Shinsou was a Smug Snake while Aizawa did this, the class quickly figures out he's the reason they're being disciplined and find a loophole: Aizawa didn't specify whether the quiet hours were AM or PM. As this is the most recent in a long line of Jerkass moves by Shinsou, they choose to interpret Aizawa's hours as AM and decide to retaliate by actually being loud when Shinsou's trying to sleep.
• Commonality Connection: All Might points out that Izuku could tell that Shinsou had a rough and lonely upbringing because of his Quirk, just like him when he was Quirkless. It was the main reason why Izuku tried to reach out to him or show him some sympathy.
• Confirmation Bias: In-Universe example. Shinsou goes into 1-A believing all of his classmates are secretly terrible people out to get him and ignores all evidence to the contrary, only paying attention to what he can mentally spin into confirmation of his beliefs. This allows him to rationalize unethical things like academic dishonesty and sabotage while still considering himself to be justified, because he's spent his entire time in the class convincing himself his classmates don't deserve to succeed anyways.
• Didn't Think This Through: Several instances of this. Nezu evokes this during Shinsou's punishment for trying to steal Momo's essay which he points out to him.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the underdog. Even once he's made it to the hero course, Shinsou never stops looking at his now-peers as obstacles first and foremost, and the thing that makes him an underdog—his history as a victim of discrimination—has left him extremely bitter at the world and almost everyone in it, with a me vs. them mentality that causes him to refuse to productively engage with his class without a care and even respond with smug satisfaction when he makes things worse for them. As a result of still being treated like his enemies, his peers slowly begins to reflect his distrustful attitude back at him. He also sees the fact that he struggles with physical training as evidence of bias in the system towards people born with more privilege instead of simply highlighting a personal weakness he needs to work on, and so doesn't try to change himself in accordance with the training he's now receiving or work on the things he finds difficult, insisting his existant qualities should be enough to make him an ace. Even though he achieved his own personal bar of success, his emotional baggage—which he lets control his life and color every interaction he has with anyone—makes him a liability to everyone who tries to work with him.
• Disappointed in You: After stealing Momo's essay along with failing the Finals, Aizawa gives a look of disappointment to his former apprentice while admitting that he misjudged his potential.
• Entitled Bastard: Shinsou, who resents being expected to work hard as he assumes things are easier for his classmates, expects Aizawa to bail him out of trouble without consequence, and even has the nerve to try to confront and "give [Yaoyorozu] a piece of his mind" after he got disciplined for stealing from and attempting to academically sabotage her; his role as this is a major focus point of Bakugou's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him.
• Fantastic Ableism: Often accusing others of doing so, Shinsou judges his classmates based on their Quirks. Be it the powerful ones believing they skate by their whole lives, the weaker ones for being beneath him, or his former Gen Ed classmates whom he resents for not wanting to be heroes despite having powerful Quirks.
• Fatal Flaw: In Shinsou's case, his arrogance, judgemental behavior, hypocrisy, and tendency to play the victim. It is clear that despite how potent his Quirk could be in heroics, any potential he has is undermined by his complete lack of self-awareness about his own flaws and unwillingness to improve himself. He arrogantly presumes everyone else is a worthless loser coasting along on their Quirks while ignoring his own behavior, judges everyone as lesser than him or hating him despite them trying to be friendly with him, consistently shows his own hypocrisy by lazing off and refusing to commit doing any actual work, and plays the victim whenever people call him out on it. By the end, people are just so sick of him that they let him crash and burn.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: All Might and Nedzu are fully aware of Shinsou's troubled background and alienation because of his "villainous" Quirk, but they constantly remind him that it's no excuse to lash out at his new classmates or treat them like dirt when they did nothing to deserve it.
• Hated by All: Shinsou's antagonistic behavior and attempts to sabotage his classmates lead to them alienating and being cautious around him. This only feeds into Playing the Victim Card.
  • Brainwashed Satou when he was distracted and let go of a rope. Poor Satou (who was trying to keep a hold of Shinsou's rope when he got brainwashed) only tried to help him but earned detention for it.
  • Tried to blame his classmates for distracting him from studying by complaining to Aizawa who enforces quiet hours. This only results in them making more noise that night in retaliation.
  • Attempts to steal Momo's essay and pass it off as his own, perfectly content to see her fail. He's caught and his classmates are understandably upset upon learning the truth, especially Momo.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His antagonistic behavior towards his classmates results in them refusing to work with him in the finals causing him to fail and seal his fate.
• Holier Than Thou: Shinsou enters the class assuming all of his classmates are awful, bigoted, spoiled people who got into the course via unfair advantages and have hostile and malicious intentions towards him due to their bigotry. Shinsou then spends most of the story morally condemning them in his head, emphasizing his supposed persecution at their hands. Even when he's suffering the consequences of his own flaws, he recontextualizes this struggle not as the effects of his own actions but as the rest of the class having simply unfairly dodged these struggles by abusing their privilege to coast by without working, implicitly still positioning himself as the only hardworking, well-intentioned student in the class... even as he ignores the class' efforts to help him and intentionally sabotages their own work in turn. Jirou later mocks his obvious sense of moral superiority over them after he gets caught stealing Momo's work, calling him "Saint Shinsou."
• Hypocrite: Shinsou has a habit of mentally berating his classmates for socializing with each other and not taking advantage of their hero academia. He says this while spending his free time playing MMORPG games late into the night.
• I Work Alone: Shinsou very arrogantly believes his Quirk is infallible and has no desire to follow his team's plan. Not only does this alienate him from the class, but it proves to be the Fatal Flaw of his hero student career: he's so unfriendly, uncooperative, untrustworthy, and, frankly, hostile when people try to work with him that by the time he realizes he needs teamwork for a passing grade, no one is willing to work with him, and he fails out of the class.
• Indignant Slap: Momo to Shinsou, after his sabatoge and academic theft is revealed.
  Momo (crying): Don’t ever talk to me again! And after all the times I offered to help you! Rot in hell!
• Internal Reveal: In the end, Shinsou is shocked to learn that Izuku was Quirkless all his life and was horrifically bullied for it.
• Irony:
  • Shinsou is unfriendly and spiteful to the rest of 1-A under the assumption that everyone views him as a villain. He technically performs villainy by using his quirk to commit a crime (stealing from Momo).
  • Shinsou speaks badly about All Might specifically in comparison to Aizawa, insisting that All Might is a terrible teacher who probably only puts in effort for his favorite student and brushing off all of All Might's attempts to help him in favor of Aizawa's special one-on-one personal training and attention, all while uncritically putting Aizawa on a pedestal as an ideal teacher. At the end of the story, Aizawa has cut Shinsou off from all further assistance and won't even look at him, while All Might still tries to help Shinsou figure out his life.
• Jerkass: Shinso is a huge one to his classmates in several instances. His internal monologue reveals his rather judgmental and negative views which not only alienate his new hero course classmates but his former ones from General Education.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Bakugou of all people ends up chewing Shinsou out for being a lazy, self-centered spoiled brat who coasts along expecting everything to work in his favor without putting in any effort, pointing out that you'd have to be really shitty if Mineta of all people is doing better than you (much to the latter's annoyance). Bakugou even notes that as much of a "piece of work" as he himself can be, he at least actually works hard and gives a damn about the work to succeed. Shinsou immediately ignores this and goads the former into Tranquil Fury by insinuating him to be a villain.
• Karma Houdini: Despite playing a role in Shinsou's toxic behavior and antagonism towards his classmates, it isn't specified if Aizawa faced any consequences for his ex-prodigy's actions or how they impacted the rest of his students.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Initially, owing to Aizawa's favoritism, Shinsou faces no significant consequences for his rude and spiteful behavior, near-demonization of everyone except Aizawa, and refusal to put effort into coursework he doesn't deem worthwhile. In fact, he's even enabled, as Aizawa restricts and disciplines the class for Shinsou's benefit. But once Shinsou does get disciplined with detention for stealing from and sabotaging Momo, the bottom drops out on his other issues: his refusal to prioritize putting effort into his coursework means getting high marks on the final is critical to his remaining in the class, his detention takes away his crunch time to study, his rude behavior drives away all possible study buddies, and his antagonism towards his classmates means they refuse to work with him on the teamwork assignment in the practical portion of the final exam for fear he'll sabotage them, meaning he fails.
• Kick the Dog: Shinsou lashes out at his former Gen Ed classmates after they go through the trouble of trying to help him study for his written finals. Even takes a shot at one of his former classmates dead mother. Needless to say, they're not willing to help him anymore.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Because he persistently treats his own class like they're against him, Shinsou has no compunction against sabotaging them for his own benefit or even on a whim. When the exams turn out to be team efforts, the rest of his assigned team appeal his inclusion, as they do not trust him not to sabotage them. Commending their wisdom, as in the field of battle removing a teammate with Shinsou's behavioral history would reduce risk to the operation, Nedzu agrees to remove Shinsou from their team, effectively failing him at the starting line for his inability to manage the basics of a team effort.
• Loophole Abuse: When Aizawa enforces quiet hours "from six to eight" on Shinsou's behalf, Mina points out to the latter that their teacher didn't specify if it was in the morning or the afternoon. Cue everyone making even more noise.
• Moral Myopia: Shinsou knows the kids in his past were wrong to call him a villain, and immediately demonizes his new classmates under the assumption they're doing the same. But when very accurately, if rudely, called out for his own poor behavior by Bakugou, Shinsou smirks and gleefully says "the perfect taunt":
  Shinsou: Well I have nothing to say to an actual villain. Why don’t you run back to your buddies in the League?
• Never Heard That One Before: Mina is unimpressed with Shinsou using her bad grades to insult her.
• Never My Fault: Shinsou is as unfriendly to his classmates as possible and repeatedly rebuffs all attempts to spend time with him. As their discomfort interacting with him increases, he holds this discomfort with him as proof they are bad people.
  • When Sato tried to help Shinsou during a training exercise, Shinsou brainwashed him into going away. This got Sato disciplined by Aizawa for "losing focus" during the exercise, a disciplining from which Shinsou evidently took visible enjoyment. After this, the class is far more wary and distrustful towards Shinsou. Instead of holding himself accountable for the fact that he's used his powers to sabotage his classmates and this naturally would create distrust, he instead concludes his classmates are people who "judg[e] people for things out of their control" and it makes him sick that they're in the Hero Course.
  • Right before a major term assignment is due, Shinsou forces Momo to give him a copy of her assignment and then destroy her own, then turns in Momo's work with his own name on it, giving himself credit for Momo's efforts and giving her no time to do the assignment over. When Momo finds out what Shinsou almost got away with, she slaps him. He insists she's just posturing and really only hates him because of his quirk.
• No Poker Face: Shinsou smirks whenever he gets his classmates into trouble. This wisest the class up fast to the fact that he's not only unfriendly, but happy to see them face misfortune and willing to cause it himself.
• The Only One I Trust: For Shinsou, it's his mentor Aizawa. This backfires when Aizawa's shielding Shinsou from consequences gives Shinsou the impression that Aizawa agrees with his behavior. Without Aizawa, the only authority Shinsou trusts, addressing what Shinsou did as wrong, Shinsou brushes off all other criticism and advice as discrimination against him due to his Quirk and doesn't stop until his behavioral issues are so severe that Aizawa can't shield him from the consequences anymore, even after invoking the last favor Nedzu owes him. After that, Aizawa cuts off all of Shinsou's special treatment and withdraws, leaving Shinsou alone to face the remaining consequences of his actions and feeling betrayed.
• Only Sane Man: When Bakugou is about to beat the tar out of Shinsou for calling him a villain, Todoroki snarks at his classmates to stop trying to reason with the enraged blonde and focus on subduing him.
• Playing the Victim Card: This ultimately is Shinsou's main problem. He has a severe persecution complex stemming from years of discrimination for his "villain Quirk," and it seems that, to protect his own self-worth, he has gotten used to reframing every instance of struggle or lack of achievement on his part as proof of bias or discrimination against him rather than the obvious result of him being a student in a training course that will inevitably teach skills he needs to work on. He also often accuses others of mistreating him and skating through because of their powerful quirks while ignoring his own faults and lack of effort. Several poor decisions come from this which end badly for him.
• Psychological Projection:
  • Trauma projection: It's heavily implied Shinsou sees his classmates in 1-A as indistinguishable from the kids who bullied him and called him a villain. This adds a layer of vengefulness to his delight when he gets them in trouble.
  • Behavioral projection: Shinsou insists his classmates are lazy slackers skating by due to their privilege who are mocking him, judging him for his Quirk, and planning to sabotage him. Shinsou is, in fact, a lazy slacker who skates by his own bad choices via Aizawa's favoritism, judges everyone for their quirks, and mocks and sabotages his classmates.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Bakugou viciously tears into Shinsou for his behavior pointing out that he is lazy and puts no effort while sitting around acting entitled.
  • All Might gives a much gentler and encouraging one at the end.
  • Subverted when Shinsou tries to give one to Ashido and Kaminari. Not only do they laugh it off but they cause a lot of noise preventing him from getting sleep as revenge for rattling to Aizawa and getting him to enforce quiet hours...though they find a loophole rather quickly.
• Relationship Upgrade: There are several couples in the background: Midoriya and Uraraka, Todoroki and Jirou, Ashido and Kirishima, and Shouji and Tsunotori. Tokoyami is mentioned to be seeing an unnamed student at UA.
  • Midoriya and Uraraka share a tender moment given they are the author's favorite pair.
• Sadist Teacher: Played straight. Aizawa is seen handing out detentions for dissent and is rather harsh on his students in sharp contrast to Dadzawa take usually present in Shinsou-centric fics. His enabling of Shinsou's behavior results in his expulsion.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!:
  • Nezu rather cruelly tells Shinsou that he will be failing his final exam.
  • Aizawa too does this though it links back to Sadist Teacher.
• Selective Obliviousness: The story begins by making clear that Shinsou interprets every interaction he has with his fellow 1-A students as uncharitably as possible, insisting they're secretly against him for his villainous Quirk. It doesn't matter if they're respecting his expressed boundaries, leaving him breakfast, waking him up on time to help him adjust to the new class schedule, and perfectly polite with him. Every interaction is either spun in his mind as proof that they're secretly judging him and prepared to stab him in the back, or ignored. He persistently focuses only on things he can mentally rationalize as unflattering to them, and never focuses on the things that clearly show they're trying to be nice.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Shinsou goes into 1-A expecting that everyone there will exclude and dislike him. Because of his constantly antagonistic behavior, his classmates all slowly lose their good will towards him and stop trying to include him, and he ends the story with the entirety of 1-A either excluding him, disliking him, or both.
• Skewed Priorities: Shinsou seems far more interested in video games and browsing memes than training. He stays up late, often making him late for classes and horribly affecting his grades.
• Tempting Fate: Fate loves to screw over a lazy slacker like Shinsou. Every time Shinsou thinks an assignment or class will be easy, it cuts to him failing because of his laziness and lack of effort.
• Tranquil Fury: After Shinsou calls Bakugou a villain out of petty spite, the explosive blonde calmly walks up and wishes to unalive him. He even maintains a calm tone of voice while addressing his concerned classmates.
• Ungrateful Bastard: All Might, understanding that Shinsou had a late start in the class and might have trouble catching up, created a training plan for Shinsou to help him adapt and catch up to his peers physically. Shinsou throws the plan in the trash while internally insulting the probable quality of the plan All Might went out of his way to make for him. Probable, because Shinsou never bothered to actually look at it.

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