Deku Has NOT Changed.

Recently many people have been interpreting the recent events within the My Hero Academia manga as a major step in Deku's character development, and while the character of Midoriya has experience subtle shifts and changes in his personality since the first chapter of the series. At his core... Izuku Midoriya Has NOT Changed.

#MyHeroAcademia #IzukuMidoriya #Midoriya #MyHeroAcademiaManga

~Social Media

[SSJ_EWGF]

"Deku hasn't changed, everything else has."
This the perfect quote. Deku is still the same person. His innate heroism, his altruistic selflessness, his over focus on the safety of others over his own, these all traits that have always been part of Deku.

The thing is that now, everything has changed. Hero society has been overthrown, the threat of AFO has never been greater, and the black and white lenses he viewed the world in at the beginning of the story have been completely shattered.

The reason Deku has seemingly 'gone off the deep end' in the recent chapters, is because of what AFO said to him during 316. His declaration that he 'is next, ' planted a seed in Deku that reminds him of the danger the villains can do, and the sole consequences his role as the current OFA user brings as Deku knows much more than he likes, that AFO can and will do anything it takes to bring him down. He will hurt and torture anyone near him in order to take OFA, and so, Deku thinks of Gran Torino being slammed, Bakugou getting skewered, Aizawa losing his leg, and knows that he would rather have that happen to him rather to others, because Deku wholeheartedly believes the injuries his mentors and friends received were because of Shigaraki's/AFO's pursuit of him, and thus, them getting hurt is his fault, both from his role and lack of the neccessary power to stop them.

Thus, Deku, almost unconsciously, believes the threat of AFO and the LoV is his sole responsibility due to being the current OFA user and his innate selflessness that disregards his own safety.

To conclude it, Deku will continue on pushing forward, even though his body is so exhausted that he could no longer walk without using black whip to support himself. Its not just one reason or feeling that has come to this point of his character. It is the result of his altruistic selflessness, his neglectful relationship with self care, and guilt on his own pre conceived failures that has pushed him into becoming this Batman like lone wolf of Japan.

[James.Hill.]

There is an interesting parallel between Deku and Bakugo. As they get stronger, Deku relies on others less while Bakugo relies on others more.

Bakugo prides himself on being the strongest. He developed self-esteem issues when Deku kept trying to help him when they were young. His self-esteem got worse when All Might was forced to retire.

After the fight with Deku, Bakugo is relying on others to help him. We saw that during the Class A vs Class B fight. Bakugo still believes he’ll be the #1 hero but he knows he can’t do it by himself.

The opposite is true for Deku. He’s always felt worthless since he dreamed of helping others but had no Quirk to do so. Deku was about to give up on life until All Might gave him One For All.

After every major fight, Deku keeps telling himself he isn’t strong enough to make people not worry about him. He is forced to rely on his classmates and they keep getting hurt. During his fight with Shigaraki; Grand Torino was forced to retire after getting stomped fightting along side Deku, Aizawa cut off his leg to keep his quirk going to help Deku, and Bakugo got stabbed in the gut saving Deku.

Seeing people he cares about getting hurt drove Deku to fight by himself. He has 5 Quirks unlocked, use 45% of OFA in Full Cowling, and hit 100% with Fa Jin.

With this current arc, Deku is being forced to face how his self-sacrificial mindset is hurting the people he cares about. It’s going to be really cool to see how his friends react when Deku tells them why he sacrifice himself to keep them safe.

[N_DAnimationEnthusiast]

You’re not wrong. In fact, I’m quite intrigued with Horikoshi’s execution of Deku overall. He was consistent all the way through. I’m stoked to see what will happen next.

[MpanzuELWik]

We are seeing now the full toxic behaviour that Nighteye talked about: All Might's and Deku's Madness. It's not completely altruitic selflessness it's more selfworth issues. "Being useful" is what Deku say a lot when he's at the brink. "Don't be the unuseful Deku"
If you recognize this, you will see patterns.

[Hello-xcjq]

You don't even need that many chapters to know deku has always disregarded himself. Horokoshi puts flat out states it. I believe chapter 284 bakugou, the first person deku risks his life for, states that deku doesn't take himself into account.

[MonkeyDLuis-jhsg]

Izuku isn't edgy, he's just tired. The responsability of OFA and being All Might's succesor was always there, but after the war and society crumbling down, the responsability has grown exponentially

[PichuElric]

THISSSS. I remember seeing Deku's "edgy" look for the first time and thinking if he's going to have unnecessary personality changes, but then one of his first lines was "Are you okay?" and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. Deku is still Deku.

[pintainhobalsemico]

Facts, my boy is "only" depressed, what a character development, character develop dont means exactly change personality btw, altough he continuing like this could make something, well his mentality for some things will change a bit and his notion from the world, feelings etc... will be bigger . Is fantastic the importance he have to the story, for the messages and what he represents in the story

[marcuso.]

He's just like Eren Jaeger. Instead of growing with the world, he's dug himself further into who he was, which can be very dangerous when met with a master manipulator like All for one, who's already fought an ideology like Deku's in the form of All might and Nana Shimura.

[echonotex]

I’m so glad Horikoshi decided to go this route and show how Izukus (and all mights) heroic mindset is actually super dangerous

[RedGyl]

This reaffirms what I had been noticing, too. All along, we have seen this type of mentality in Midoriya (complete with him answering villain monologues with a punch in the face and him voicing his own purpose), and it had been described several times as an insanity or a madness. "If you want to know what someone is truly like, give him power, " holds true here. He hasn't changed as a person, but, rather, what he IS has been amplified to the point where it cannot be masked anymore. Even him not looking like a hero fits in: he had never been good at looking or coming across as heroic to the masses, and whenever he fought seriously, he looked crazy and scary as heck. Even in the fight between him and Gentle, some people commented that Deku looked like the villain.

[Treyshellz]

As Miles Morales said "I'm taking on a lot more responsibility than I can handle" That's how I see current Izuku. The weight of One For All and being All Might's successor was already there, but the war and All For One targeting him defiantly took a huge toll on his mental health

[ipizza]

FINALLY, SOMEONE SAID IT. I was getting seizures everytime someone said deku is an anti-hero now when they don't even know the meaning of the word. Some called him anti-villain which was closer but still wrong.

[Healthandwellnessp]

Well he’s alot like Spider-Man, self destructive heroism

[ItzATC]

i’ve been saying this forever. i responded to somebody’s video not too long ago and said that dekus character itself never changed and everything he does is rooted and protecting the people around him and becoming a hero as it always was and they were just like nah 😕

[tophatgeo]

Joint Training Arc: Treats himself as the bait for Team Monoma
War Arc: Is used as bait by Bakugo

He definitely has a very selfless nature, to a degree which makes it overly detrimental to himself

[Muddy]

Deku has changed and developed clearly as a person while still keeping his same ideals and still being the same person. It's the perfect character development and change handling for him. Horikoshi is a great and excellent writer for doing this. Making Deku, his MC develop and change a lot while also not changing as a person too much at the same time and still sticking to him same ideals since chapter 1 in the story on wanting to save everyone and be a true hero. It's the perfect mix and more people need to understand and the development style of his character. Deku and Goku have a similar change and gradual character development style in both of their series as characters, they're the perfect examples both on how real people change as a person in actual real life with it being gradual and slow but not always obvious and still being the same person and having the same ideals, but still changing and developing a lot as a person in the end in their life still through many life experience they had in the past affecting there change but in more realistic ways. Seth the Programmer did a excellent analysis on this in his Goku character analysis video and on Dragon Ball as a whole and in his Strength of Goku video, his comments on Goku's development style in the beginning of the video still holds true to all this and his character development style in the series and its also similar and perfectly mirrors Deku's character development style writing here. Deku is just going through the most dynamic and obvious change in the story right now as a person, while still being the same and same person in terms of ideals wise based on his views and values towards heroism. So in the end both sides of people on this topic are both wrong and right on this topic all at the same time. It's really interesting actually. Horikoshi is a fantastic writer for handle this once again, taking his save everyone hero complex and making Deku change and be affected by his past experiences and changing forever since the war and so on and what's going on in this arc to him. While also still staying the same as a person and keep the same ideals on wanting to save everyone but just taking those traits in him in a more darker turn and more self destructive direction for him and his character, with him wanting no one to help him at all unlike before and even pushing away All Might and telling his classmates to get out of his way. So Deku's character development style in the story is interesting and perfectly written and handled extremely well by the genius writer that is Kohei Horikoshi. He knows exactly what he's doing and really knows well of his own MC.

[cainyo]

Man I've heard a lot of people saying: "oh my gosh dekus so diffrenet and so much better." and for me I couldn't see any changes and people's descriptions seemed like exactly what he was before and they'd get mad at me when I'd ask that so thank you

[paulanocu]

Personality changes: hi
Deku: GET AWAY FROM ME

[DonniedrakoE]

While I do think the eren comparison are funny deku pretty much never changed. He's always been someone who's tried to save others at any cost it's been his best trait and his biggest weaknesses at times. This trait has basically nearly killed himself numerous times and scarred up his body heavily, but it almost always has lead to him improve as a fighter and save many characters in the story.

Now we are finally seeing the dark side of this trait in full force. I always found it flawed that all might is the only hero that should serve as a symbol of peace when one man can't save everyone. Whether it's now or later I hope that this all gets acknowledged since right now afo is playing him.