Going Forward

When I first started writing Heart of Iron I had only watched until season four or five of the anime. This was something I never really planned to dedicate as much attention to as my Fairy Tail story and only updated when I needed time to plan out something on TDL or just wanted to write but felt burnout on TDL.

This is one reason I wrote Alice as a rich character and into the Support Course. She had money and an influential and dangerous mother who could get Alice whatever she wanted, and the Support Course route would let me skip to big content without too much effort.

I had plans for the story, though, even if they were fairly loose.

That being said, I caught up with MHA's story…

And damn if I'm not glad I had the plans I did.

Everything after Villain Hunt sucks, and I am not going to hide my vitriol for it. I already had my doubts after hearing Midnight died off-screen yet Gran Torino wasn't killed by Shigaraki, and seeing what comes after pretty much set that in stone.

So without hiding it, my plans were pretty predictable by the quote I put into the description, "The thing none of you will ever understand is that there are no sides. There are no heroes or villains. There's just what I want and how I'll get it." The quote, unsurprisingly, comes from Magneto.

Alice isn't an evil person actively, but I would put her in the firm anti-hero spot for several reasons.

She inherits her grandfather's and mother's inclination towards mental illness. In particular bipolar disorder. In Alice's case, it will be more akin to bipolar aggression rather than bipolar depression.

She holds a disposition towards the concept of heroes and villains in the marketed way they are in MHA's Japan. And how could she not? Her grandfather, mother, and adoptive mother were all terrorists for fuck's sake. And it would be pretty much impossible for anyone to say that they didn't have a fairly righteous cause, especially in MHA's mutant world where who gets discriminated against became reversed. Instead of mutants being oppressed, non-mutants have become viewed as inferior. Alice, more than anybody else, would have a legacy of grey morality that surpasses the boundaries defined by the concept of heroes and villains.

She was raised by Mystique and created to be a weapon. Mystique, for all intents and purposes, wants to thrive. In this story, it would be pretty easy to say that mutant-kind "won" the war for supremacy and she would happily discriminate against quirkless people behind closed doors. She has had criminal underworlds trapped in a vice grip several times in the past and lived for hundreds of years as an assassin who had no hesitation in assassinating government leaders for either personal or financial gain. That being said, she doesn't have any morals at all. Trying to understand Mystique is pretty much impossible, and that's why I love her. She would reasonably pass on some of these qualities to Alice who she adopted as both a weapon and shield, but also as a fresh start. If you know anything about the X-Men comics, Mystique is treating Alice in the same way as Rogue. She cares about her but views her as a tool. And do I even have to bring up what trauma she probably has from the NME?

She doesn't value human life as badly as Japan's heroes. She would have no problems killing someone if it meant the betterment of society, but she isn't bloodthirsty. She won't kill anyone if she absolutely doesn't have to but isn't against giving some cancer. If she was hired by the Public Safety Commission to kill heroes, she would give them cancer, expose them to the public eye, and simultaneously expose each and every corrupt hero leaving them all to the dogs of society without any remorse for their fate. They fucked up, they suffer the consequences.

Now, what does all of this come to for my plan for this story? Simple, a third faction.

If Hiro Mashima, creator of Rave Master, Fairy Tail, and Eden's Zero has an obsession with the number 7, then I have an obsession with the number 3. A lot of stories that I love have two factions, and when I write I like to challenge myself by creating a third faction that intrinsically opposes the bad faction but carries an ideology that influences both in, what I hope, is a way that is interesting and entertaining.

For Heart of Iron, I wanted to take the foundation upon which My Hero was created, legacy, and write a character around it. Thus came Alice. And you can easily see how she came into play if you look at the protagonist and antagonist of My Hero.

Midoriya - trained by All Might, the symbol of all things good - inherited the legacy of All Might and his quirk

Shigaraki - moulded by All for One, the symbol of all things evil - inherited the will of AFO and his quirk

Alice - raised by Mystique, a woman whose intentions are morally grey - inherited the legacy of Magneto and his quirk

If Shigi is black and Midoria is white, then Alice would be grey.

She would be the faction the Meta Liberation Army would support and the one Vigilante Deku would go to for help.

Now, why did I say all of this?

Because I will change as much of the war arc as I fucking can.

All for One will not be taking over Tomura.

The conflict between Deku and Alice will be whether or not killing villains is acceptable.

The war arc will drastically change because the Meta Liberation Army and Overhaul were heavily underused assets.

The plot involving the Safety Commission and Best Jeanist was fucking stupid.

And I still don't know whether or not to hate All Might's quirk armour and One for All's past users being actual talking characters that act as a fucking council.

And I can continue on and on for AGES!

So yeah. Here's a small update for the story I doubt any of you will read in five years.