While the ending of My Hero Academia has come and gone, I’ll never say no to a little bit…more. This episode acts as an epilogue to the finale of the main series. It’s about a month after Deku starts acting as a hero again, everyone seems to be really successful, and they’re even gathering to celebrate Todoroki becoming the number two hero, which is a really interesting bit of irony considering his dad’s original position. Now you might be asking, what else is there to resolve? While it would be easy to just sum up that answer with the word “romance,” My Hero takes it a step further. In fact, as someone who read the original epilogue chapter in the manga, I would argue this episode almost goes out of its way to be more on the nose with what it is trying to do.

One of the more unique elements of My Hero Academia is the fact that Uraraka, Deku’s main love interest, not only fully acknowledged her feelings for the green-haired good boy, but came to terms with the fact that it was better for her not to act on them. Considering all of the trauma she’s been through, that makes sense and is even reinforced in this episode. When everything was said and done, her priority was to focus on rebuilding society and being a hero who helped special needs children rather than to act upon those feelings. Or at least that is the excuse that she seems to keep telling herself, because while that definitely seems to be true, Uraraka also feels guilty about everything that happened during the war. One of the biggest emotional climaxes of the main series was Uraraka and Deku bonding over the shared guilt of their failure. Deku was never able to save Shigaraki, and Toga actually sacrificed herself to save Uraraka. Not only is it implied to be Toga’s blood running through Uraraka’s veins, but now Uraraka is living proof of Toga’s real final act. Plus, considering that Toga died so young with a strong attachment to Deku, which was actually something they bonded over, maybe there is a part of Uraraka that feels like her love for Deku isn’t meant to be realized. I can even go a step further and argue that it’s probably something that she doesn’t want specifically because it would make her happy, like some kind of self-inflicted punishment.

Contrasting this was Deku, who seems to be having the opposite problem. His affection for Uraraka wasn’t as explicit throughout the main series because of all the other stuff that poor boy had to go through, but by all accounts, the man is thriving right now. He went up in the ranks incredibly quickly. He’s able to act as a hero while maintaining his teaching job, and his hero work allows him to actually spend more time with his friends. I believe Deku when he says that by all accounts, he has very little to complain about, but Bakugo’s response also makes a lot of sense. Deku has been through hell, so ANY happy ending probably feels like too much for him, and Deku has never been the type of person who asks for more. It took Bakugo beating the crud out of him for Deku to finally start acting like a proper selfish rival. It’s fitting that Bakugo is the one who tells Deku that if he treats everything as super special, then that ends up diminishing its value. That doesn’t mean that Deku shouldn’t appreciate what he has, but he should start thinking about what else he wants in this life and not settle for less because he is allowed to have more, just like what All Might told him at the end of the main series.

So we have two incredibly selfless people who have created their own personalized justifications for why they don’t want to pursue an even better life than the one that they already have, which is probably part of the reason why they’ve never hooked up until now. That is a surprisingly nuanced reason why you would not have your main couple get together in the first place. Todoroki’s speech touches on some of the themes of not only this episode, but also the series as a whole. Ironically, he talks about being a character in a preordained story, considering that he quite literally is. But for the character, he got to where he is right now because of every personal choice that he made. While there are definitely things that inform our environments, the future that we make for ourselves really boils down to what we do with the opportunities that we are given. You just have to have faith in those choices.

This comes ahead at the very end, where Deku and Uraraka make one of the more selfish decisions they have made since going into hero work. They both just want to spend time with each other more because, amongst all of the good things that have happened in their life, seeing each other more is that much more special. Would I have liked more from that? Maybe a kiss or a more blatant expression of love? Absolutely, I eat up that sappy stuff with a spoon. But anybody who watches this scene of them holding hands must be insane if they don’t conclude that they will at least start dating or try dating from this point onward. These are two adults who struggle with accepting happiness, even when it literally drops on their laps. Amongst all the action, amongst all of the social commentary, amongst all of the amazing music, that is one of the messages that is at the heart of My Hero Academia. It’s important to be there for each other, to lift each other, and create a world where heroes finally have a chance to relax, because when they do, they can finally start indulging in their own happiness.

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