YMMV / Thieves Can Be Heroes!

• Arc Fatigue: Due to taking time to get the Confidant Links in order on top of integrating the My Hero Academia parts of the setting, the story arcs can get very long. For instance, the Kamoshida Arc ends around Chapter 16 and the next arc doesn't begin in full until Chapter 21. The author has acknowledged this and promised to make the Madarame Arc brisker but that itself caused a notable problem under Broken Base and They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot below.
• Adorkable: Even with the confidence and power boost he gets while using his Persona, Izuku is still a quintessential Nice Guy who can't even threaten Shadows properly while negotiating with them, frequently stamping on a "please" at the end while making demands. Then there's the fact that he Cannot Talk to Women and his easy-to-fluster nature. He's such a dork that he stutters while texting, and he's intimidated when he visits a pricey hotel buffet for the first time and his friends have to talk him into eating more extravagant things to get his money's worth.
• Broken Base:
  • Shiho going through with her suicide attempt despite Izuku's best efforts. On one hand, you have the camp that says that it was a necessary catalyst in the Phantom Thieves' formation and it would be reaching too far into Fix Fic territory to get a happy resolution to that conflict. The other camp is frustrated with Izuku's inability to change much from canon, with much going along just as it does in the games no matter what he seems to do.
  • Shipping. Fans are split on who Izuku should be shipped with (as the author has stated that he fully intends to ship Izuku with someone) and whether or not there should be a romance aspect at all given Izuku's skittishness and the fact that he's simply not ready for dating in his home series.
  • The fight with Shadow Madarame, which some view as a serviceable action scene while others consider it a dull action piece that missed out on expanding Yusuke's character for the sake of getting the chapter done quicker.
  • The inclusion of the Unexpected Characters mentioned below, some thought of this as a way to change canon even further but at the same time and at the time of the writing, we have very little information about the aforementioned characters. The author even stated that they were included too early.
  • The inclusion of Nitro has been cause for some debate among fans of the story. Some find his inclusion to be interesting and a welcome addition to the Phantom Thieves, along with greater chance of Character Development since he joined during the Phantom Thieves' infiltration of Overhaul's Palace. Another camp isn't exactly thrilled to see Katsuki join the Phantom Thieves for many reasons, some familiar to Katsuki's Base-Breaking Character status.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Pairing Izuku with the older female characters like Kawakami and Sae is popular among fans of the series if only to imagine the reactions of the other characters. This has even inspired commissioned fanart!
  • While fans are split about whether or not the pairing would realistically work, Haru/Bakugou is certainly entertaining, especially given their interactions in certain omakes and one-shots.
• Epileptic Trees: Thanks to this one-shot, a lot of fans believe that Shoto may become a future member of the Phantom Thieves.
• Friendly Fandoms: Many fans of this story are also fans of other popular crossover stories Amazing Fantasy and Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!. The authors are professed fans of each others' work and the three of them went so far as to reference each other as being part of the same multiverse. It's perhaps best shown by this fanart of the stories' respective Izukus together.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Sojiro mistaking Izuku's attempts to examine one of the ceiling beams as a possible pullup bar for a suicide attempt? Hilarious. Watching Shiho actually try to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of Shujin Academy as Izuku looks on helplessly after nearly breaking his fingers while trying to reach her? Not so much.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The entire premise of the fic became this when, a little under a year after this fic was first published, the manga introduced its own Gentleman Thief characters in the form of Gentle and La Brava.
  • As Nitro, Katsuki uses a pair of axes and a gatling gun for weapons. Then, a few years later, mobile spin-off Persona 5 the Phantom X introduces Shun Kanou, who also uses axes and gatling guns. Talk about prophetic!
• I Knew It!: Many readers speculated that Eri's Shadow would appear in Chisaki's Palace in some form. On the other hand, fewer readers expected them to appear as Chisaki's Treasure.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Much like his home series (and perhaps even more so given that Izuku is taking the place of a known Chick Magnet), Izuku gets shipped with practically every major character of the opposite sex in Persona 5.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Kaneshiro's boss Overhaul gives him a surprise visit and gets him so on edge that when he's complimented for his ambition he's surprised. Which was enough for him to drop his guard and gets him to go POP before everyone. The boss then tells everyone to clean the mess.
  • Akechi is working for All For One! And the supervillain is aware that the Phantom Thieves have the same power as Akechi!
  • Sojiro and Izuku bump into Eri in the middle of running away from Overhaul, and he catches up. From the unease he puts on them, and Eri's genuine terror, tells them this guy is no good. But when Mirio comes along to defuse the situation, the three are forced to let Eri return to Overhaul. Sojiro gives the young hero a serious What the Hell, Hero? over this.
• Shocking Moments:
  • No one was expecting Kaneshiro to undergo Death by Adaptation, much less the surprise appearance of Kai Chisaki AKA Overhaul.
  • Of all the characters to join the Phantom Thieves, Katsuki Bakugou was the absolute last person fans expected.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It's noted that the final battle with Madarame's Shadow was rather dull, and what could've been used to spice up the straightforward fight were to focus squarely on Yusuke's perspective of fighting his father-figure who turned out to be a greedy piece of crap who let his mother die. This would have given the fight much more narrative weight and made the arc more personable. This was actually addressed and acknowledged in the next chapter by Yusuke himself.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Kasumi Yoshizawa's inclusion to the story came as a major surprise, seeing as how A) she did not appear in the original game and B) at the time of her appearance in the story, details about Kasumi's involvement in the plot were still far and few in between.
  • Following Kasumi Yoshizawa is Takuto Maruki, who appears at the end of Chapter 32, as P5R has only recently been released in Japan when he's introduced.
  • An unusual case in Chapter 40, as similar to Futaba's Palace in the game, Overhaul's Treasure is a person rather than an item. The person in question isn't just a cognition or representation though. It's Eri's Shadow.
• The Woobie: All of the Phantom Thieves count as they do in canon. Between Izuku's miserable luck and Trauma Conga Line (if going by the story of Persona 5, it isn't even close to ending), Ryuji's feelings of guilt for dooming the track team and his Career-Ending Injury, and Ann's horror and feelings of loss after Shiho attempts suicide by jumping off the roof, it's hard not to feel this way about any of them. Izuku, in particular, earns the sympathy of almost everyone he meets, as even Sojiro, who is a Defrosting Ice King to the protagonist in the games, finds it extremely hard to keep up his aloof facade around Izuku.

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