[Boku No Hero Academia] Okay I just watched up to episode four and I have a SERIOUS question and I apologize if my tone is a little brusque so perhaps do not open this if you feel it would be a sensitive matter for you
To review the circumstances I feel are relevant - the protagonist Midoriya meets this female student also taking the entrance exam, who turns out to be named Uraraka. As he is tripping, she touches him, showing that she has some kind of telekinetic ability ("antigravity"?). He becomes suspended in midair and then she "releases" him harmlessly
- a large machine (falls or treads) upon Uraraka, crushing her legs underneath. She remains in this position for the time being seeming to be helpless indefinitely barring intervention. She is the only person harmed in this way, everyone else running away or out of range in the first place
- Midoriya unlocks his powers to jump up and punch away the machine. There's nothing underneath him up there in the air, so he begins falling. right when he is finally close to Uraraka, she slaps him, rendering him immobile and then once again releasing him to harmlessly fall
WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS GOING ON HERE? WHY CAN'T URARAKA JUST POWER THE MACHINE UP OFF OF HER IN THE FIRST PLACE? Even if she can only reduce gravity to zero instead of pushing objects all the way up actively working against gravity, surely she could have done this back when the machine was falling, right?
she was already wearing herself down quite a bit. since she used it prior to the exam beginning (upon meeting him) she went into the exam with a little less. besides that, the other machines were significantly smaller
Like, we saw Bakugou get bound by the slime monster thing and not able to explode his way out of it. fine that made sense because it was a liquid probably resistant to fire
also, I think the thing with Bakugou was he requires his sweat, but like... the slime monster was absorbing that? Also, struggling to survive/suffocating, he probably didn't think about taking advantage of this slime absorbing said secretion to make it explode
anyway, not denying that Uraraka's abilities might've been the best for the situation, and like you said, she was the only one that got pinned. Still, panic and a nauseous mind do not make for a good combo
That's the other thing like I can understand why none of the other characters helped out such as Glasses (Iida?) specifically thinking "maybe I should... nah" but none of them getting pinned? Like she's the single worst at this particular task in the entire group?
the point of the exam was to test the new students as heroes. Iida didn't want to bother because the robot was said to be 0 P even if another student was at risk. Meanwhile, everyone else gathered points mainly by eliminating the scored enemies which isn't very promising
There are so many other ways this could have been done where an unlimited gravity power would have been helpless anyway though. even just a robot tightly grabbing her in its encircling claws would have been enough. or someone else got crushed and Midoriya saves them but Uraraka is still the only one who thinks to save Midoriya
I also don't really understand the point of a concept as complicated as "gravity power... but it's limited so it wouldn't work in this situation that otherwise appears extremely amenable to a gravity power"
Also if it's THAT dangerous a large object [a] why are they putting this in there with The Children [b] why did everyone BUT her get away from an object that large
Where I'm really coming from is "this girl's entire character traits so far are that she has gravity powers, but apparently not strong enough to save herself, and this is the first time Midoriya has talked to a girl his own age the entire franchise, in his own words" so it just left an EXTREMELY bad taste in my mouth
Midoriya's a quirk-less boy who is given a powerful quirk. there's waaay going to be consequences, but like, his impulsiveness to save people is another thing
but I'm just like "why does she have PRECISELY the amount of gravity power where she could save Midoriya twice but not avoid getting crushed in the first place" SO AT LEAST... IF THIS THEME OF LIMITATIONS IS CONSISTENTLY APPLIED TO ALL THE CHARACTERS... I'LL CALM DOWN A LITTLE
the sexism inherent in it being ochako that needs saving is a valid criticism, but like. the power limitations aren't the problem there. it's just bad, sexist writing.
Maybe I should have just opened with sexism from the beginning haha beCAUSE I JUST DON'T LIKE HOW YOU HAVE IIDA AND BAKUGOU AND MIDORIYA AND NAVEL AND THEN... URARAKA LYING ON THE COLD HARD GROUND...
- the protagonist Midoriya meets this female student also taking the entrance exam, who turns out to be named Uraraka. As he is tripping, she touches him, showing that she has some kind of telekinetic ability ("antigravity"?). He becomes suspended in midair and then she "releases" him harmlessly