How Shipping Ruined Uraraka

What other MHA ships should I talk?

I still can't believe people disliked her for wanting money for her family. Her motivation is literally for the sake of her family, but somehow people can't see past the first half of her explanation.

I love how the only reason Bakugo won against Uraraka in the tournament arc is because he didn't underestimate her, unlike most of the characters who were watching. He was fully aware of how strong she is and was prepared to fight back. It is a crying shame that Uraraka was diminished to be exactly what people mistakenly thought of her as the series went on.

her aspirations went from: "i want to help my family" to "deku is doing it so i will do it"

"Questionable motivation" She was relatable as hell with her motivation. I liked Uraraka more when I found out she's just in it for the money. Like, being a hero is nice and all but you gotta eat, and have a family to feed if you have any. Uraraka had so much potential.....

Honestly, this doesn't bother me that much for one reason: EVERYONE who is not Deku, Bakugou, or Todoroki gets the same treatment. Regardless if they are male or female, they will get their episode to shine and then never be useful again. It's kinda like how in Sonic everyone who isn't the blue hedgehog is completely useless.

Everyone who isn't Deku, Todoroki or Bakugo are completely sidelined which is wild because at the beginning it looked like everyone in the class was gonna get a fair share of story due to their various backstories, designs and personalities. Iida, Deku and Ochako being our wholesome trio is completely tossed aside because they aren't tragic enough characters and are 'too nice' when more could have been done with Iida trying to live up his family's expectations and protecting their legacy at an extreme degree and Ochako being at such a disadvantage as a poorer member of society making her have to do as they need so she can get even a drop of cash for her family. Once the manga shifted to becoming Keeping up with the Todorokis I completely dropped it.

The problem with her wasn't shipping but rather both her AND Iida Tenya (seriously dudes even more irrelevant to the story after the Stain arc than Uraraka) being shoved aside and replaced as Midoriyas 2 main classmates and companions by Bakugo and Todoroki. Honestly it felt like the author decided to just swap the 2 of them out for the already established to be stupidly strong classmates rather than bother to try and build them up to the big leagues of power scaling. It also didn't help that the sheer popularity amongst the fans Tsuyu had kept getting her bigger and bigger roles in the story that would have otherwise gone to Uraraka

unfortunately this doesnt only apply to uraraka, but pretty much all the characters who arent deku, shoto & bakugo will have their "star moment" and will later just be left to rot in the sidelines (ex: mirio, iida) and dont even get me started on the girls .. they're lucky to even get a standout moment .. nejire is one of the biggest examples of this (and honestly one of the biggest missed opportunities in the show). while the boys have melodramatic & intense arcs about self-sacrifice, nejire's "arc" is about winning a beauty pageant. it starts to become funny at a certain point

It's not just Ochako that got screwed over. For example The Big 3. We know about Mirio and Tamaki backstory goals and why they have their Hero name. We don't know anything about Neijre other than she's apart of the big 3, her hero name "Neijre-chan" , and she works with the dragon hero.

I've said it years ago and continue to say it again. I'll forever miss Sports Festival Uraraka. Peak of her character, truly earned mine and Bakugou's respect that day.

One thing regarding Toga that I find strange is the fact that she was paired up with Uraraka as a "dark reflection" or whatever, when I have always seen Toga as a dark reflection of Deku funnily enough. She is someone who had to surpress her true self and be cast out by society because of who she was. Because she never received any aid, her fascination with blood which stemmed from her quirk, became a psychotic obsession. She became a villain due to circumstance because of how she was born and a society that wouldn't help her. Deku is similar in that sense where he got cast out because of the circumstances of his birth. The difference is that he ended up getting help and set towards a path of becoming a hero instead. If we would remove the part of him meeting All Might, Dekus backstory is for all intents and purposes a villains backstory if anything, and I could see him ending up similar to Toga because of that. But that's just my read on it at least. At least it makes more sense to me than Toga being a reflection of Uraraka tbh

She turned from caring about her family, goals and education To only thinking about Midoria.

I'll admit, as much as I like IzuOcha, I much prefer the fanon interpretations of it over canon. Fanfic writers really go above and beyond when exploring Ochako's character and giving her lots of development, while still HAVING a crush on Deku that doesn't interfere. Edit: A few of you have asked me to include some of my favorite Ochako-centric IzuOcha fanfics so I'll put them here: "Drops of Jupiter" by SingingCookie "Missing" by Encyclopika "The Emerald Ghost" by MHA Fics by LK (LK713) There are of course plenty more but these are my top three. Hope you all like them. I certainly did.

I think the main problem with love interests in battle shounen, is that that the MC gets the safest and most boring love intrest, so even if the mangaka can write female characters, the love intrest themselves will be sidelined for more intresting characters as the story goes on. As overdone as tsundere trope is in other anime, that trope lends itself for tragic backstories and easy character development.

I feel like uraraka actually had a good motivation, she wanted to support her family with the money she earns but later on in the series, her motivation just became about supporting deku achieve his dreams and 'make deku notice her'

Addressing how bad Shonen writers are at creating good female characters made me feel like I wasn't insane anymore. Like I've always felt like something was off, but as a beginning writer, I couldn't really explain it. So my faith in anime has been brought even lower again, thank you so much!! Edit: where did all these likes and comments come from?? 👁👁

FINALLY. She was one of the few female charecters in anime that I genuinely liked and enjoyed even respected. But then the moment with Ayoma happened and I felt that sense of dread. That everything about her and every important moment to her charecter will most likely be deku related and it crushed me. She still had few moments to her but she doesn't feel near as wholesome and independent as the beginning of show. Her journey became at least 90% deku related and it breaks my heart.

Finally, this topic needs way more discussion

one of the most frustrating moments in the show for me personally is yaororozu’s liscene test. she falls into a leadership role, that’s great! it makes sense! and then when she’s backed in a corner, she thinks “what would these three male characters i’ve barely talked to do?” and she realizes, she has to save everyone instead of prioritizing getting her liscense. WHAT? you mean to tell me YAOYOROZU wasn’t already trying to stop tsuyu from FREEZING TO DEATH? we already went through her lack of self confidence and believing in herself but the solution to her big moment is thinking what would deku do. and it WORKS.