eijiroukiriot:

eijiroukiriot:

it’s so interesting and puts a different perspective on his story when you consider that kirishima is likely an unreliable narrator. i mean, think about it, his entire character arc is him continuing to believe he’s not strong or skilled enough to be a good hero yet looking from the world around him there are almost no signs of that being true. he scored second place in the entrance exams with considerable points in both villain and rescue, eighth in the quirk apprehension test (when his quirk + the way he uses it is one of his biggest insecurities), was highlighted for his bravery during USJ, made it to round three of the sports festival and held his own in more than one tournament match, does well in training, performs well in the license exam, secures an internship and is immediately hailed as a promising hero-in-training by his mentors and media alike, great handling of his quirk with unbreakable…you see his internal struggles but they never really stop him from moving forward. even in the fight that causes him to “break” he does so well that fatgum stops to say he shouldn’t be underestimated. one of his only failures was final exams and that came down to technique more than his actual abilities 

and even more than that, everyone around him sees him as this spirited hardworking likable guy – one of the pillars of the class, proves his clear aspiration with his hero name, has the sort of heroic values that led him to take action in kamino, all the things he’s trying to get himself to be. out of all the characters in bnha, you’d never doubt that he more than deserves to be a UA student. he raises the surface level of his “my quirk’s not heroic” spiel on the bus to USJ and midoriya immediately starts gushing about how cool it is. at the beginning of the iconic “if you refuse to go down that means you’re stupidly strong” scene, his friends are startled that he’s even worrying about that sort of thing because they’ve never seen him as anything other than tough and talented and their equal – and there he was, saying he didn’t think he measured up. 

there’s a scene that caught my attention while i was watching the sports festival arc with my friend – near the beginning of the obstacle course, todoroki covers the floor with ice to trap other competitors, and there’s a shot of some of class A evading it while deku talks about how their abilities (both quirks and from training) are on another level. most of the characters in the shot are using their quirks to avoid the ice – ie bakugou blasting himself up, yaomomo using a pole to pole-vault over it – but kirishima’s quirk doesn’t help in that situation. he was in that shot just because his reflexes and physical abilities are so good that he could avoid an attack that big with no warning just by jumping. then two minutes later, it’s dismissed for a joke, but a giant robot falls on him and he gets out completely unharmed. probably not meant to be very significant, but god, he’s so much more skilled than he gives himself credit for.

and that’s why his story is so significant, because he still has room to improve and still has personal issues to tackle, but so much of his growth is moving away from the mentality that he’s weak and his power is useless. internship arc and unbreakable come long after he’s proved himself to be a great hero

kirishima: i don’t have the power, skill, or confidence to become a hero

also kirishima: