Sometimes, not even the greatest heroes in My Hero Academia can save people from others' or their own idiocy.
- When Izuku meets All Might for the first time he wants to ask the latter if it's possible to become a superhero without a quirk, but All Might leaves quickly by flying. Izuku manages to grab one of his legs and gets dragged with. All Might notices this only when they're way up in the sky.
You'd Expect: All Might to grab the boy in his arms to make sure he doesn't fall and land somewhere safe as fast as possible.
Instead: He tells Izuku to let go and tries to push him away at first. Luckily the boy points out in time that this could've lead to his death and All Might lands on a building. - Izuku manages to master 5% of One For All without breaking his bones and Toshinori wants to tell him that he needs to activate it in his whole body in order to be effective.
You'd Expect: Toshinori to tell this the boy directly.
Instead: He tells him that he needs to think of power activation like a microwave.
The Result: Izuku tries to activate the power at some body parts at a time, a strategy that fails, and he only finds the right way during his internship at Gran Torino.
Addition: It has been established that Toshinori isn't very good at teaching, but one doesn't need to be a teacher to realize that the method mentioned above should be told directly. - Before Iida's and Mei Hatsume's fight the latter offers self made gadgets to the former claiming that she wants to help him with the fight.
You'd Expect: Iida to be suspicious about his opponent wanting to help him in the fight; he only met the girl that day for the first time after all. Also, it's against the rules for superhero students to use gadgets, Iida who takes rules very seriously should take that into account.
Instead: He believes her, takes her gadgets and convinces the professional heroes to let him do it.
The result: It turns out Mei had tricked him and she partially takes control of her opponent with the gadgets. He only wins because she wasn't interested in winning the fight, she only wanted to promote her gadgets to businessmen that were present at the festival. After she finishes her advertising she quits the fight. - Also at the festival before Midoriya's and Hitoshi's match, Mashirao, who was mind controlled by Hitoshi at the cavalry battle, warns Midoriya not to answer to Hitoshi's questions, or else his mind will be controlled.
You'd Expect: This should be a no-brainer, especially for someone like Midoriya. He would keep his mouth shut during the entire match and finish off Hitoshi, who isn't at the hero course and has less physical strength.
Instead: For some reason Izuku replies to Hitoshi's question and gets his mind controlled. He would've lost the match if the ghosts of the OFA users didn't activate the quirk and moved one of his fingers which stopped the quirk's effects. While Izuku did end up winning, he could've succeeded without any drama, not to mention without breaking a finger. - Hero Killer Stain has killed 17 heroes and injured 23 beyond recovery. Ingenium (Tenya Iida's older brother) has been crippled for life. The little brother is understandably mad at Stain and wants to avenge his brother, so he chooses to train at the Hosu City Hero Office in order to find the criminal and manages to find some information in that regard. Iida is a highschooler and a hero in training so he isn't allowed to do much fighting against criminals. Manual, the hero he's training under even points out to him that he shouldn't act on revenge.
You'd Expect: Iida to tell Manual about the information he gained about Stain so that professional heroes can handle the criminal. Iida should realize that if Stain is so dangerous for the professionals then he as a teenager has barely if any chance against him. If Stain gets caught by the professionals he would avenge his brother by making the criminal's location known, he wouldn't put himself at risk and he would make a good job at his training, because he is supposed to patrol the city.
Instead: He takes the problem in his own hands and almost gets killed by Stain. Luckily he got saved by his friend Mydoriya and Todoroki and they all managed to capture Stain. To Iida's credit, after Stain called him out for his unheroic behaviour (focusing on revenge rather than justice and not offering the hero Native help) he quickly realizes what he did was wrong and changes his perspective. - Mineta, who is a huge pervert, tries a lot to take a look at the girls when they're half or completely naked. Every time he says out loud what he's planning to do and fails with harsh consequences.
You'd Expect: Him to give up on invading the girls' privacy or at least to stop saying out loud what he's doing.
Instead: He never learns from his mistakes and has to suffer because of it. - At some point Shigaraki sees Izuku at a mall by pure coincidence. Shigaraki is a villain who hates heroes and feels nervous, because Stain, another villain, got very popular.
You'd Expect: Shigaraki to leave Izuku alone and not let himself be spotted. He might think that society relies too much on superheroes and that most people won't do anything to help, which is true, but it is possible that Izuku didn't come alone and that they will be spotted by the people who came with Izuku or by a guard or by a hero that just so happens to go near by in their free time.
Or: He would take Izuku hostage and leave with him as fast as possible. He can use him later as a bait and can talk to Izuku about whatever topic he wants in private. Maybe even contact his master or somebody else for help.
Instead: He takes Izuku hostage by threatening him that he can use his quirk (decay) on him and the people around then stops at the front of a shop to talk to Izuku about Stain. Later they get spotted by Uraraka and Shigaraki has to free Izuku and leave. - Mandalay is a member of the superhero team Wild, Wild Pussycats. Her cousin and cousin-in-law, who were superheroes as well, died after fighting Muscular. She now has to take care of their orphan son, who hates superheroes, because he blames the job as a superhero for their deaths.
You'd Expect: Her to send Kota to counseling, maybe go to counseling herself as well. Also, the boy is mad at superheroes because he doesn't understand the concept of danger, at least not well. If necessary they can come up with something to show him what danger civilians face and why superheroes are important. They themselves are superheroes after all and can also ask other people for help. For example they can show him news articles about danger (in many cases civilians get hurt or killed, maybe this will make Kota question if he should hate heroes), show him a clip of a superhero risking their lives to save people (the internet is flooded with such clips), get him to talk to people who have been saved by superheroes, the list can go on.
Instead: They are patient with him, try to talk him out of it and that's basically it. Those things are good and necessary, but not enough.
The Result: The boy stays mad at superheroes for 2 YEARS LONG and has trouble controlling himself. After this the Pussycats decide to supervise the forest training camp for U.A. students, a place which is on a extremely secret location with no contact to civilisation and harsh training for the students.
You'd Expect: Them to not take Kota with them and leave him under the care of someone who will stay close to society during that time or to split up, so that at least one of them will stay with Kota while the rest are at the camp, or to give up supervising the camp and stay with Kota.
Instead: They take him at the camp with them.
The result: Kota gets really bitter and when the students arrive and Midoriya greets him the former punches the latter's balls.
You'd then Expect: The Pussycats to now send Kota somewhere else or to at least keep him away from the students. The kid can't handle the situation well and has trouble controlling himself.
Instead: Not only do they not do it, but they chose him to guard the wall that separates the girls and the boys during bathing and let him go to a specific rock in the woods when he feels the need to be alone. Yeah, letting a traumatized and angry kid who has self control issues go alone in the woods where there are dangers like poisonous plants and wild animals...
Result: During bath time Kota, sees the girls naked, falls and would've probably died, hadn't Izuku saved him. And about the woods part... it's actually not nature itself that puts him in danger, but it turns out that the League of Villains has found their location, in spite of the pro heroes' efforts to hide it. The heroes have to fight the villains at the camp, while Kota is staying at his rock where Muscular finds him and the heroes don't know about Kota's situation. Mandalay doesn't want the students to fight and uses her quirk to tell Kota to return, but the kid can't return due to Muscular. Midoryia offers himself to get Kota.
You'd Expect: Mandalay to not let Midoryia go there. Not only does he lack experience, but also has a quirk that can break his bones. It would be wiser to send somebody else (like one of the professional heroes, or maybe even some of the other students, take for instance Iida, who is very fast and has the chance to run away from danger, or Koda, who can talk to animals, which is very effective in the woods) and/or to go there herself. Her nephew might be in danger after all and the rock isn't too far away from the camp. The pro heroes and students at the camp have at least a chance to fight the villains, while Kota is a 5-year-old with no combat experience.
Alternatively: If she agrees to let Deku, she wouldn't let him alone. Maybe join him and/or send somebody else with him as mentioned.
You'd also expect: Since her Quirk is sending telepathic messages she will inform all the heroes and students about Kota's situation, so that somebody will go to get the kid if they could. In fact, Vlad and Aizawa took care about their problems very quickly and would be able to help. Mandalay doesn't know that, since she can only send messages, not read minds too, but she should see it as a possibility.
Instead: She sends Deku on his own and doesn't even think about informing the others about the situation. His phone gets accidentally destroyed when he finds Kota, so he has no other choice but to fight. Muscular would've killed Kota if Deku hadn't come to his rescue and endangered his own life as well, breaking his arms to do so. Now, the Pussycats couldn't have known that villains would attack, but letting Kota alone in the woods was still dumb, as well as giving Deku permission to go there (on his own).
Even worse: After all of this Aizawa scolds Deku for putting himself in danger. While he does have a point that Deku did choose to endanger himself, the latter was perfectly aware and willing to take the risk and he's just a kid who would've been in a dangerous situation regardless. It's the Pussycats' incompetence he should've really been mad at. - During the "Provisional Hero License' Arc the students have to save at some point actors who pretend to be victims. Said actors also evaluate them.
You'd Expect: Bakugou, even if he is a big asshole, to understand that a hero has to make people feel safe and to be nice to the ones he rescues or at least not to insult them on purpose.
Instead: He's a jerk to them and fails the exam because of it. - Also during said exam, Yoarashi, a student from another school than U.A. has a grudge for Shoto Todoroki. When Yoarashi was little he used to be a fan of Endeavor, Shoto's father, but when he met him and asked for an autograph the man refused it coldly and rudely. Years later Yoarashi participated at the U.A.'s entrance exam for recommended students and saw that Shoto had the same cold eyes as Endeavor, but still tried to befriend him. However, Todoroki refused, saying that he's in the way. Now at the license exam Yoarashi wants to fight Gang Orca but sees that Todoroki is already doing it; Todoroki tells him to go help with rescue operations.
You'd Expect: Yoarashi to put his grudge aside and do as Todoroki says. If he really can't help calling Todoroki out, that he would limit himself to using words. Or he would stay and fight Gang Orca. If he wants, he could also focus on dealing with Todoroki after the exam.
Instead: He calls Todoroki out for having the same cold eyes like his father and attacks him.
You'd Then Expect: Todoroki to remember being rude to him in the past and apologise, or to try to point that Gang Orca is still there, that Yoarashi isn't following the rules, or to leave.
Instead: He fights back. They do eventually make amends and team up, but they still end up failing the exam. - Nana's husband gets murdered by a powerful villain and because of this she decides to cut contact with her son Kotaro, so that the villain won't find him too.
You'd Expect: Nana to calmly and gently explain why she is taking this step (to protect him from All For One and other dangerous villains) and to keep regular contact with him, and also requesting All Might or others to keep a watchful eye on the family in case All For One finds him anyways.
Instead: Nana gives a vague letter to Kotaro and basically advises him to fend for himself, leading to him hating his mother and hero society. She also forbade her friends and All Might to keep any contact with him, thus All Might and Gran Torino being completely in the dark about Kotaro's abuse, Tenko snapping and killing his family, and All For One corrupting the boy anyways.
Also You'd Expect: Kotaro to not believe that all superheroes are absent from their families and to not be against his own children becoming superheroes as long as they will be there for their family. It's understandable that he wouldn't think like that when he was a child, but with experience he should have see that superheroes who didn't abandon their kids exist and there are people with other careers who did abandon their kids or are abusive. He grew up at an orphanage, he can't be the only child with parental issues there. He also shouldn't be (too) angry in general at his children considering that Children Are Innocent. Also, going to counseling and/or some talking with people he knows could help solve his emotional problems.
Instead: He grows bitter at all superheroes and punishes his son just for mentioning them.
Results: Tenko snaps and kills his father (and the rest of the family), falls the into clutches of All For One, and becomes the monster that will bring death and destruction to an entire populace. - Kotaro's children enter his office and he sees his son Tenko found a picture of Nana.
You'd Expect: Him to tell his son why he's bitter at Nana and to not go too harsh on the boy. He could stop at just scolding, or if he wants to punish him give him a different punishment from the usual one, locking him outside, since it's dark, or if he wants to lock him outside to stop there.
Instead: He beats his son and locks him outside.
Result: He makes his entire family mad. Later he looks at the mentioned picture and reads the letter his mother gave him when she left him and realizes he went too far. Outside Tenko's Quirk manifests for the first time and he accidentally kills his dog and other family members. The father goes outside shortly after and sees what happened. Tenko asks his dad for help and runs to him while unwillingly destroying the area around.
You'd Then Expect: Kotaro to tell his son not to come any closer to him, since this could potentially kill him, to assure him that he will help and to think about a solution. He could run to keep some distance from his son as well.
Instead: He tries to beat Tenko again to keep him away from him. Maybe he lost control because of the shock, but even then he could've tried to say he's sorry and to reassure the boy, maybe even run away.
Result: The boy can't take his dad anymore and kills him as an act of revenge. - Overhaul meets the League of Villains and asks who will become the next ruler of the underworld after All For One's fall. Tomura Shigaraki, who is All For One's successor is convinced that he will be the next ruler and that he needs more forces to join him.
You'd Expect: Tomura to try to find out why Overhaul asked that question and to try to get him on their side, he is a villain as well and they are searching for more people after all. If Tomura wants to say that he will be the next successor he could tell Overhaul that this is a good reason to join them.
Instead: He just says that he will be the next ruler and asks Overhaul if he wants to provoke him.
Result: Overhaul isn't impressed and asks Shigaraki if he has a plan.
You'd Then Expect: Shigaraki to have already made a plan and to say that.
Or: If he doesn't have a plan he will say that he is still working on it, considering how hard to achieve his goal is.
Or: Him to ask Overhaul if the latter has a plan.
Or maybe: Him to tell Overhaul that the plan is secret.
Or even: Him to say that the plan for now is to get enough people and that he will think about the next step after getting to know the abilities of his subordinates.
Instead: He asks Overhaul if he wanted to join them this whole time.
Result: Overhaul is of course annoyed by Shigaraki's lack of a plan and calls him out on it. He then tells them that he could help them improve if they follow him as their leader, an offer which Shigaraki refuses. Magne doesn't agree with his proposal either, because she wants to live freely.
You'd Expect: Magne to keep quiet or tell her point of view, then to wait and see where this is going to. She knows Overhaul is dangerous, they are not fighting and maybe they can solve the problem peacefully. Also, considering Overhaul is outnumbered one to many, chances are he won't attack, at least not at the moment.
Or: Her to realize that while she feels free the way things are, she still has Shigaraki as a boss, so having a boss may not mean not being free. In fact, Overhaul didn't show any signs that he wouldn't let her live the way she wants, so she might take into consideration to join Overhaul, considering that her current boss is a Psychopathic Manchild. Granted, Overhaul turned out to be a worse boss than Shigaraki later on and joining him wouldn't have been a good idea. The point is that Magne couldn't have known if he was a good boss or not and she should've been aware of that.
Instead: She tries to attack Overhaul.
Result: He activates his quirk and kills her. - All Might defeated All for One in his final moment as hero, completely depleting One for All within him, but defeating All for One and knocking him out.
You'd Expect: The government realizes they can not afford to keep such a dangerous villain alive, and schedules him for immediate execution. The HSPC have executed dangerous individuals deemed a threat to society, without due process, it should have been a quick and easy endeavor, especially since All for One is knocked out cold.
Instead: They imprison him in Tartarus, because they deem death is not enough punishment for him. Ignoring even the slightest, most remote risk that he could mastermind his escape or breakout. Tartarus also contains other criminals with similar threat level, so a prison breakout would be a catastrophe.
Result: All for One eventually breaks out of Tartarus, invalidating All Might's final sacrifice for nothing. Even worse, he breaks out six other prisons and the prisoners within, completely plunging Japan into chaos. Worst of all, there are now two All for Ones running around; the original and the vestige within Shigaraki. - In the anime, Todoroki is the single target of a huge number of ninja-themed students during the provisional hero license exam.
You'd Expect: Them to realize that under the rules, each of them would have to take out two students to pass, and that ganging up on one person isn't worth the effort when only one of them will get the credit.
Instead: They focus their energy on taking out Todoroki.
The Result: Todoroki manages to get through to the second phase of the exam, but none of his foes do. - In another anime-only part from the same arc, a group of at least seven students pull off an incredibly elaborate and time-consuming plan to trap and subdue Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Shoji, and Tsuyu.
You'd Expect: Them to realize that with four targets to capture, only two of them could pass. Furthermore, this method is significantly more time-consuming than the one the ninjas used.
Instead: They trap those four students in the building and gradually lower the room temperatures, giving Yaoyorozu enough time to think of a countermeasure.
The Result: The plan backfires, with the four U.A. students managing to turn the tables on their attackers, and eliminate enough people for all four of them to pass. - Endeavor realized that Toya's flames were hotter than his, but his body was susceptible to heat, meaning he would never be able to put his Quirk to good use as a hero. Both he and Rei try convincing Toya to not hurt himself any more, but he refused to listen, outright obsessed at this point.
You'd Expect: Endeavor to realize Toya wouldn't stop this on his own and get him professional help.
Instead: He had two more children, hoping Toya would give up his obsession if one of his younger siblings took his place. Keep in mind, Endeavour would have probably still done it even if Toya did give up, considering that Endeavour did conceive children with the hopes that one of them will be powerful enough to be his successor. At the same time though, he does love all of his children and wife. Still, he shouldn't have expected Touya to give up just like that.
The Result: Toya not only resented his father, but became jealous enough of Shoto to attack him. He didn't give up on becoming a hero, either, and after his Quirk went out of control and caused him to be badly burned, became the villain known as Dabi and sought revenge on Endeavor. - All For One has used Rewind on himself to save himself from getting burned to death by Endeavor. Any major attack he does ends up massively rewinding him near the state of non-existence. He then decides to reach Tomura and possess him before it's too late for him to do so.
You'd Expect: All For One to ignore the "side-characters" and use his Super-Speed to reach Tomura.
Instead: In an act of sadism, he constantly tries to kill them to crush their hope so that the world recognizes him as a Demon Lord.
As a Result: He loses a lot of time fending them off, and de-ages himself to his youth. By the time he finally decides to go to Tomura, All Might shows up with his Powered Armor.
Now You'd Expect: All For One to ignore his taunting and to deal with him after possessing Tomura.
Instead: All For One decides to fight him with all his power, after which Stain intervenes to protect All Might. In the process of dealing with both of them, All For One de-ages into a teenager. However, All For One steals his quirk and kills Stain, and stops All Might with the power.
Now You'd Expect: All For One to just finish him off.
Instead: All For One falls into one of his favorite Demon Lords' weakness: gloating, as he decides to execute All Might in front of the whole world. Before dealing the final blow, Bakugo intervenes and saves him. To be fair, All For One didn't anticipate him to be alive, but he still loses points for trying to make a show out of it.
Result: All For One ditches any pretense of going to Tomura and decides to kill All Might and Bakugo. His attempt at a last-ditch attack ends up costing his remaining time as he gets erased out of existence, thus failing in all of his goals. - All For One's vestige reveals that he had a copy of the Overhaul Quirk sourced by Dr. Garaki.
You'd Expect: All For One to take the Quirk for himself, because not only does it possess a high destructive power, it can reassemble anything in any way. This could help All For One overcome the limits of his body to help him store Quirks better.
Instead: All For One has Dr. Garaki remove the Quirk's ability to reassemble, leaving only its destructive abilities intact, turning the Quirk into Decay, that AFO gave Tomura as part of his convoluted plan to prepare a stronger vessel. Years later, even after breaking out of Tartarus, All For One could have taken the original Overhaul Quirk from a broken Chisaki, but he let's him go with Lady Nagant instead.
Result: All For One loses to All Might and is left crippled and on the verge of dying. His entire plan now hinges on Tomura's decisions and giving overwhelming power to a person with an unstable and volatile mentality. Not even once did he factor Tomura's unpredictability. As a result of relying on raising an unstable individual as his vessel, All For One ends up losing everything and his grand plan to steal One For All falls apart.
* All For One's vestige explains that his attempts to steal One For All from the 5th and 6th users failed. He correctly observes that sufficient willpower can override the will of the user, making the theft of One For All possible.
You'd Expect: All For One to pose as a confidante for the user of One For All, win their trust, and trick the user into transferring the One For All Quirk to him. After all, this is his specialty and comparatively easier than simply overpowering the user's will.
Instead: All For One insists on stealing One For All through brute force and spends at least two decades grooming an individual to harbour overwhelming hatred.
Result: The plan begins to go awry when Tomura starts rebelling against All For One's control.
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