isahnas:

This is cruel. Unlike Izuku, Togata Mirio was born with a quirk. However, just like his kouhai, he built himself from the ground up. Cursed with a difficult quirk to utilize, Mirio has been destined by fate to become anything but a hero. His father gave up the dream because their quirk is a danger to themselves, a hindrance rather than a power. 

But Mirio persevered and persevered to the point where All Might’s sidekick acknowledges him as someone worthy to become the future Symbol of Peace. Now take the span of hard work that Izuku has put in from the start of the series to now — a little under 1.5 years — and imagine Mirio doing the same grueling training, but for 17 years. This doesn’t just include manifesting his quirk and developing it; this encompasses his desire to become a hero from the day he understood the concept. His desire to prove the impossible.

And in a heartbeat, it’s gone. To uphold the very definition of hero he holds so dear, Togata Mirio becomes quirkless. Not only that, but he smiles triumphantly at his fate, one he must have known was a possibility, and dives headlong into battle without fear for his life.

Horikoshi writes a story about a quirkless boy who started from nothing, and now he tells the tale of another boy who also started from nothing, but refuses to lose his way despite becoming quirkless. 

Togata Mirio’s fate is hardly the opposite of Izuku’s. Even quirkless, he is still standing to the last breath. But my heart aches for him, for the little girl who will inevitably blame herself for taking away his quirk, for the first-year Izuku who will feel compelled to empathy but unable to say why, and for the boy who is, in Kirishima’s words, “someone who will never break.” 

This is cruel.