~ Ochako and Deku ~

How Horikoshi has written a beautiful parallel within these two characters - and how he has set up/achieved a phenomenal possibility for future ideology links

IzuOcha Narrative Parallels Analysis

[A Thread]

To explain how these two characters are near perfect parallels to each other - I first need to explain each character

(Side note, didnt include physical parallels like black whip and her rope gadgets, her head set and Deku’s bunny ears, or their quirks, float and zero grav)

Deku - Thinks of other people first, self sacrificial nature, wants almost nothing but to be able to save people, less than optimal self worth, extremely hard working, analytical and intelligent, an unnatural need to save others

Ochako - Positive on the outside but self belittling on the inside, motivated by her need to save (her parents from financial issues, other heroes, etc), smart and analytical, hard working to a fault, a NEED to be better, aka she is never good enough in her own eyes

A large portion of this will be explaining Ochako’s character and how she parallels Deku’s - as many people already know Deku’s character more than hers

Starting off her smart, analytical mind that allows her to naturally be a good hero

Ochako is shown throughout the series to be just as analytically savvy as Deku, for example, she crafted the idea to beat Bakugo by herself (to the point Bakugo thought Deku made it up) - she was able to save Deku from Black whip and comm to Shinso in order to save him

- without even knowing the truth behind OFA and how shinso’s quirk naturally subdued that

Other examples are when she creates splints for Deku when his arms are broken, she is the one who realized/understood Bakugo wouldn’t take help from anyone but Kirishima

She is also smart enough to understand her own fault and “tunnel vision” and goes to train to up her own faults

All of this parallels to how Deku himself is smart and analytical person, always working to better himself and being able to formulate not only tactics in the battle field, but analyze quirks with insane levels - including his own

Next let’s look at Ochako’s self sacrificial nature and how that parallels to Deku’s

Our prime example will be this scene, how she immediately jumps into Deku’s black whip, no regard for herself, in order to save Deku.

This “self sacrificial nature” is not as prominent as Deku’s - but it’s definitely there.

The biggest example would be how she forced herself to stop feeling very prominent things for Deku in order to allow them to succeed

And this segways into - how Ochako also has a self belittling nature, this can also be seen when she
forces herself to stop feeling emotions in order to focus her entire effort on becoming a hero and not let her own feelings get in the way of both her own growth and others

while this is noble and a good quality, it can also be taken as her forcing herself to only ever be better.

Hence, she doesn't feel like she is adequate where she is now, at least not enough to let her have deeper relationships with the people around her

Not to mention she has also a tendency to think “what would Deku do” instead of thinking “what would I do”

She has all of the same ideas and ability in her own mind but she can’t put trust in herself because she doesn’t think she’s as good as him

Seems familiar to a certain green haired fellow I know - always making sure he is getting better and better because where he is right now is never good enough

Because he has people supporting him and if he doesn’t become the best then it was all for nothing

It’s slight differences but in general they both have this tendency to push themselves forward and do the most possible because they both aren’t good enough where they are in their own minds

But ever notice how both of these two constantly think that the other is amazing, great, and all of the above? They think incredibly highly of each other and respect each other

The parallels between these characters (characterization) are there and strong but now let’s take a loot at ideology of hero work and what’s being very cleverly set up for the story to come

Ochako looks on to toga as she cries and begins to feel oddly bad. Like she could have done something more, like she could have potentially saved her

Even though she was just trying to stop her and is fully aware she is a bad person

Just like Deku, and how he felt like he wanted to save Shigaraki even though he is more than aware of the person he is and how he NEEDS to be stopped // is unforgivable

To me - on top of the fact that Ochako has been being used to convey the sense of heroes not caring // not being beings who can take on everything // not being ones who would even think of saving villains

It tells me that these two are going to be crossing ideology very soon - both of them agreeing that even though they are bad people, villains, there’s a reason they are like that and there’s a good reason to try and save these people // try and save future possible villains

Now thinking from a shipping perspective yes these are all qualities and parallels that would lead to them being amazing together - not only narratively would it be awesome to see but it would just make sense the way these two are written

But think of this from a purely narrative perspective and how awesome it is for these two characters - particularly Ochako

I am one who appreciates her well written character but I will be the first to agree that she NEEDS to be utilized more very soon. And this is a way

That her utilization would skyrocket and make near perfect narrative sense with how everything is being written // set up in the story

All it takes is for her to get me screen time - cuz she is DEFINITELY deserving of it

That’s the thread - tweet limit lol. Thx for reading