My Hero Academia: Deku Losing his arms may have been Horikoshi's most pointless stunt yet

My Hero Academia chapter 420 is set to be released on April 15, 2024, but the spoilers for this chapter have already been released. The spoilers gave a silver lining to the final battle as more reinforcements arrived to help the injured Deku in the final battle of the final war arc.

The chapter also showcased the reunion of an old trio and indicated that all is not lost for the heroes. However, the chapter also made a reveal that could have had the fans of the series thinking about the author, Kohei Horikoshi's writing.

In the previous chapter, Deku lost his arms while he was inside Shigaraki's consciousness. In the latest chapter, using Eri's quirk powers, Aizawa healed Deku's hand, which was a good thing as the protagonist could be the main powerhouse against the villain. However, making him lose his hands could have been a pointless stunt from the author as he recovered them after a chapter.

Disclaimer: This article contains potential spoilers from the My Hero Academia manga series and has the author's opinion.

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Deku losing his arms could be the most unnecessary development in My Hero Academia

Aizawa (Ieft) and Mike (right) (Image via Bones)

According to the spoilers of chapter 420, the chapter starts with a flashback of the time when Mike, Aizawa, and Kurogiri were standing in the middle of an island. Mike was reprimanding Kurogiri for messing with the body of his friend, upon which the villain started to cry. This gave them hope that Shirakumo could still have a consciousness inside the villain.

So, they created a white spark and used it on Kurogiri. After using it, Kurogiri called Mike by his real name, which made the latter hero cry. Aizawa kept his tact and decided to use Kurogiri's power to gather as many heroes as possible to assist Izuku.

Izuku Midoriya as seen in the anime (Image via Bones)

So, he wrapped using the villain's quirk and arrived at the sight where some U.A. High School students were fighting Gashly. He was accompanied by some other teachers and they could have taken care of the villain, thus taking all the U.A. High students with them towards Deku.

The chapter then shifted to the current situation where Aizawa was standing behind Deku asking about the current situation. After a little chit-chat, Aizawa pierced Izuku with a horn, which belonged to Eri. She had given it to him so that he could use her powers. This regenerated Midoriya's hands and the chapter ended with more heroes arriving at the sight.

In chapter 362, fans experienced a similar case when Bakugo tried to go 1-on-1 against Tomura Shigaraki and got his chest pierced. He was critically injured and most fans considered him dead. Fortunately, Edgeshot arrived in time and vowed to save his life using his Ultimate Move: Zenith.

Katsuki Bakugo making a hair-close escape from death (Image via Bones)

In chapter 403 of My Hero Academia, the hot-headed hero made a flashy return when All for One was about to kill All Might. Izuku and Bakugo glared at each other for a while, after which Bakugo jumped toward the former who pushed him in the direction of All Might. He managed to save All Might and managed to end All for One.

What happened in chapter 420 was very similar to this scenario as Kohei Horikoshi could have only added both these panels to create a 'shock' for fans. Although this helped, as Bakugo took care of one of the major antagonists and Deku could also help in the upcoming chapters, this was an unnecessary development.

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Final thoughts

As of right now, Midoriya has no quirk because he passed all of his quirk factors to Shigaraki while he was in the consciousness of the villain. His regaining his limbs could indicate that he still has a chance of fighting the final battle.

Either one of the vestiges of One for All could still be present inside him, or he could be set up for manifesting his actual quirk, which hasn't awakened yet. The latter one could be a more exciting case but a theory is a theory, and it is advised to wait for official confirmation from the source material.

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