My Hero Academia: Why Ochaco’s view on villains makes her a more realistic hero than Deku, explored

My Hero Academia: Why Ochaco’s view on villains makes her a more realistic hero than Deku, explored

My Hero Academia has had a lot of bumps in the road for everyone’s favorite heroes in Class 1-A. One of them is the League of Villains and viewpoints on villains. Specifically, Deku and Ochaco’s dueling perspectives on the matter and where they diverge.

While Deku sees villains as people that can be saved, thanks mostly to his experiences with Gentle and La Brava, Ochaco has a more realistic view of things. Yes, she does view villains as people but she doesn’t overlook things they’ve done.

The recent manga chapter 393 starts to make that picture clear. My Hero Academia has a lot to say about this, as we will dive into what separates Ochaco from Deku and why she’s a little more realistic of a hero than he is.

Disclaimer: The following article will contain heavy My Hero Academia spoilers, including the arcs after the ongoing one and the final manga arc.

My Hero Academia’s Ochaco changed for the better and became more empathetic

Ochaco doesn’t forget or approve of everything

Ochaco vs. Toga chapter 393 (Image via Sportskeeda)
Ochaco vs. Toga chapter 393 (Image via Sportskeeda)

There’s this tendency in some superhero media to either forgive and forget some things someone has done or otherwise to try and sweep crimes under the rug.

Sometimes the villain was a good person that was brainwashed, like Bucky Barnes, and sometimes the attempted redeemer was a legitimate fiend like Megatron.

To that end, as My Hero Academia chapter 393 puts it, Ochaco is still in the midst of the fight against Toga. She’s still trying to get through to Toga on some level, even if she states firmly that she cannot agree with or approve of what Toga’s done. She tried to erase that when Aoyama was revealed to be the U.A. Traitor.

The firm moral stance of My Hero Academia regarding heroes is this: they may not forgive, they may not forget, but they at least have to try when someone is in trouble even if that person is a villain or a jerk. Ochaco symbolizes that really well, especially after she and Deku converse about this in chapter 342 following helping Aoyama.

The long and short of that conversation was that, even though Ochaco was attempting to erase seeing Toga as a person, she was right to see that. It’s not a problem that she humanizes the villain, according to Deku, and still sees them as needing to be stopped before they can be helped.

Chapter 393: Understanding and empathy begins breaking through

The first time Toga and Ochaco met in My Hero Academia, Ochaco was frightened of Toga. Ochaco thought Toga was a monster, a rabid animal that had a sick smile on her face as she fought.

In their second encounter, she began thinking hard about Toga’s point of view even if she rejected her reasoning at the time. Ochaco says as much to Deku.

By the time of My Hero Academia chapter 393, Ochaco and Toga have awakened their Quirks and are emotionally and physically exhausted. The mass of Twice clones was dispersed by Ochaco’s Zero Gravity. This was a chance to kill the monster easily, by dropping Toga from a high place as an ironic comeuppance to what she did in chapter 224.

But Ochaco doesn’t take that bloody path, due to her moral compass. She instead continues reaching out. She said she was jealous of Toga’s genuine smile and joy, that she’d give all her blood to her if she just stopped to talk to her for five minutes even on a topic like romance.

This is notably represented by Toga and Ochaco as little girls, with Ochaco giving her hand to Toga to give her some blood so she won’t be alone. It’s a poignant moment that brought many fans to tears to read, and many are eagerly waiting for it to be animated.

Taking the burden off/helping a villain heal

Past(s) and present (Image via Sportskeeda)
Past(s) and present (Image via Sportskeeda)

Ochaco has shown no hesitation in beating villains up, but not in killing them. She’s been terrified, she’s frozen up, but she’s also helped bring down unrepentant murderers, drug traffickers, and other kinds of criminals who have been brought to justice because of her. The idea of a villain healing, seeing that human side is new to her but nonetheless something she approaches with gusto.

There’s this idea across fandom that redemption for villains is totally the new thing now. This idea that villains either need to be pure evil or pure victims and thus all need to heal and be redeemed thanks to shows like Steven Universe.

What seems to escape some people is that Steven Universe was a major outlier in the grandiose landscape of media involving villains.

Above: Actual killers and unrepentant villains. Below: Heroes (Image via Sportskeeda)
Above: Actual killers and unrepentant villains. Below: Heroes (Image via Sportskeeda)

A lot of anime have villains being killed, even anime geared toward kids like Dragon Ball or Sailor Moon. While many people profess frustration with Naruto’s “Talk no Jutsu”, for example, it only worked a scant few times as plenty of the villains were killed, including many of the Akatsuki and Kaguya.

In My Hero Academia terms, the heroes haven’t explicitly killed any villains, and when they have it’s a source of deep trauma and causes problems down the line.

Lady Nagant is one example, having severe PTSD from all the killings she did. Hawks is another, having his killing of Twice broadcast across Japan and resulting in chaos.

Villains as people, and dissolving the black-and-white view of the world

Several sympathetic MHA villains (Image via Sportskeeda)
Several sympathetic MHA villains (Image via Sportskeeda)

When the USJ incident happened, when the heroes were attacked in the training camp, and during many missions besides, the line was clear: the heroes were good, and the villains were evil. My Hero Academia had the students have very clear, black-and-white views of the world.

Then things began to fall apart. Deku encountered La Brava and Gentle, the Paranormal Liberation War happened, Twice died, and Ochaco was asked if Twice’s life meant anything and continually asked if Toga was just going to be swept aside. Ochaco has made that clear that she is not doing that, and that she wishes to talk and get to know Toga as a person.

Even Tsuyu points it out in chapter 392 (Image via Sportskeeda)
Even Tsuyu points it out in chapter 392 (Image via Sportskeeda)

Ochaco has made it 100% clear that she empathizes hard with Toga. Toga, for her part, is stunned by what appears to be the first real human connection and warm friendship she ever had. It seems to be cracking that monstrous mask she put on to hide her true feelings, that she’s a lonely girl in need of help.

The League doesn’t count as they were always encouraging Toga’s violent impulses throughout My Hero Academia and, aside from Twice and maybe Dabi, never got to know her too well.

Deku and Ochaco represent the last lingering lights and chances for a girl that was always put down by society and seen as monstrous.

There’s a lot to be said about My Hero Academia and how sympathetic the villains are. It’s harder to discuss how the heroes have changed following the Paranormal Liberation War. Ochaco Uraraka is among the heroes that changed for the better, becoming more empathetic, especially toward Himiko Toga.

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