My Hero Academia's final arc turned Star and Stripe's sacrifice into the biggest joke of the series

Modified Nov 20, 2024 01:30 GMT

My Hero Academia's final arc delivered many tough fights, emotional sacrifices, and big-stakes drama, though nothing entirely reached its mark. Between them, Star and Stripe stood there ready to be the biggest moment of the series in her heroic stand against Shigaraki.

Her sacrifice was aimed to cripple the power of the villain and give the heroes precious time. However, the narrative decisions really did undermine what was supposed to be its significance, making one question its impact on the story.

It ended up not delivering that kind of a blow to the dominance of Shigaraki as her actions did little to fill the arc of the conclusion with much meaning, which could be interpreted as one of the most unsatisfying moments for the whole series' conclusion.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the manga. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda.

How My Hero Academia's final arc turned Star and Stripe's sacrifice meaningless, explained

Star and Stripe or Cathleen Bate as seen in anime (Image via Bones)

In the final arc of My Hero Academia, Star and Stripe's sacrifice was meant to be a game-changer, depicting her bravery and devastating power in her Quirk, New Order.

But the way the story went about after her death made her efforts almost meaningless, making what seemed to be a strong defining sacrifice in the story an ambiguous narrative choice.

When Star and Stripe encountered Shigaraki, she resorted to releasing New Order, the final effort to eliminate his Quirks, which showed her willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.

Star and Stripe as seen in anime (Image via Bones)

Though she did manage to destroy some of the Quirks possessed by Shigaraki, the series never clarified how many or which Quirks were destroyed. This ambiguity, however, gave the audience no clear idea of how significant her sacrifice was to Shigaraki.

Adding to this problem was the use of his Quirks had already been constrained in the battle by Erasure. In this regard, despite this supposed weakness, he was still too predominant, owing to his adaptation and almost invincible body, compensating for the momentary loss of powers.

Even worse, Shigaraki soon regained one of his most critical abilities, Hyper Regeneration, nullifying the supposed advantage Star and Stripe's actions had provided the heroes.

Even when his Quirks were restricted, Shigaraki's raw strength and resilience made him nearly unbeatable, reducing the stakes her sacrifice was meant to raise. Even when he regained his Quirks, he was still using very few of them, so it's a bit hard to say whether the loss of the others even mattered in the plot.

Adding to the frustration was how fast the action just sped past over the death of Star and Stripe. She didn't really inspire much difference in the hero's strategy or a fundamental shift to the final arc of the story's outcome.

While she did delay the heroes' defeat, neither this benefit was played up enough nor explored in full, so her action is more of a temporary plot device than something that genuinely helped shape the war.

Final thoughts

In the final arc of My Hero Academia, Star and Stripe's sacrifice was set up as a pivotal, heroic moment but ultimately failed to leave a lasting impact on the story. Her effort to weaken Shigaraki and give the heroes some more time was foiled by the rapid recovery of the villain and the lack of focus in the narrative on her contribution.

The arc passed by her death without using its potential. Due to this error, what could have been a defining moment became an empty plot device. Her sacrifice ended up becoming the series' biggest narrative mistake.

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Edited by Bharath S