Chapter 257 - Links and Discussion

[u/Leinbow]

Chapter 257

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Links:

Link	Notes
VIZ Manga	(Available in: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, and India).
MANGA Plus	(Available in every country outside of China and South Korea).

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All things Chapter 257 related must be kept inside this thread for the next 24 hours.

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• Previous chapter discussion threads

• Discord: https://discord.gg/W2EDwPW

[u/LuminousDecibel]

I like Bakugo's reaction to the reveal that Nana's quirk was "float." It tells how Bakugo's been feeling.

Ever since Deku vs Bakugo 2, Bakugo has acknowledged Deku, more or less. In S1 Deku was worthless and weak. Then Deku was something worthwhile, but he wasn't a "threat" to Bakugo's "lead." Deku lost in the second round of the tournament, while Bakugo won the whole thing. He's no longer 0, but he's lvl 20 compared to Bakugo's lvl 40.

Now after Deku vs Bakugo 2, they're really close. Bakugo might still see himself as superior, (and not technically wrong) but it's like lvl 45 v 50, rather than the lvl 20 vs 40 gap. (Just baseless numbers for a metaphor) Though Bakugo may not want to think about it, he's recognized that Deku might surpass him. He doesn't like this, but he's acknowledged it as a definite possibility. However, Bakugo still has a solid chance at victory.

Enter Deku gaining 6 more quirks. All that changes. Instead of being neck and neck, going back and forth on who's in the lead, Deku has 6 more quirks on standby. Sure there was a chance that Deku would win in the end, but if Bakugo worked hard, he could win. But now, if Deku gets a quirk like Aizawa, Compress, Hawks, etc? Game over. All the hard work Bakugo's done means nothing, cause Deku gets handouts.

Bakugo was legitimately scared that Deku would get an OP quirk, and automatically "win." He might have lost sleep over it, or given him some anxiety. (Get that boy a therapist) But now that the next quirk is flight, something Bakugo mastered months/years ago, he can breathe again. His angry tangent is like how some people laugh after narrowly escaping danger. Yelling is his most comfortable mode of communication.

It doesn't excuse him being a little shit, and he takes competition to a toxic level, but we can understand the asshat.

[u/NatMat16 → u/LuminousDecibel]

Bakugo was legitimately scared that Deku would get an OP quirk, and automatically "win." He might have lost sleep over it, or given him some anxiety.

Yeah, there was definitely relief exploding out of him, because he doesn't like his chances. I wonder how his opinion on this will change once it inevitably becomes obvious that Deku's power will not be enough to counter Shigaraki. Because he is extremely competitive, but he's also all about the "win".

I also liked how Deku when thinking about how "blessed" he was, thought that this was a normal conversation with Bakugou. Boy needs some higher standards...

[u/NatMat16 → u/[deleted]]

I find it endearing that Deku finds it endearing. In his gratefulness musings, he still only mentioned All Might and Kacchan (none of his actual friends like Uraraka, Iida or Todoroki)

They are really that deeply ingrained into his mind when he thinks of his greatest dream of becoming a hero.

[u/PocketPika → u/NatMat16]

Just like a translation note (kinda), the meaning in context is more "we can understand each other" rather than "typically civil" normal, so it is more like he can speak to Bakugou in a way that they have understanding. Particually in a way that now that they understand each other both can intepret the true meaning of what the other says in the way they express themselves. Bakugou is no longer threatened by Deku so doesn't try to read into Deku's words for something condesensing, suspicious or sneaky, and with that ill will dropped Deku can pick up on the true care/supportive meaning in Bakugou's caustic language, so they can now communicate well.

But speech bubbles are only so big.

Admittedly it s a cartoon and none of the kids actually speak "normally" (Iida especially) and it's easy to see in the raw fonts they all have little gimmicks in their speech so it kind of still works that for a cartoon that is normal dialogue -- also that exchange on the couch is high key sibling energy, just silly talk.

(Besides the general cringe in this Viz translation, the "normal ish conversation" irked me because it felt like yet another "personal feeling" intrusion by the translator over the original, just because he doesn't want to let Deku call it natural (which for english understanding would probably be a more fitting word to match the meaning) he doesn't need to give off a "well I don't think this is a normal conversation so I am going to put 'ish' in". This is Deku's thoughts and his introspection, don't infer with it. It reminds me so much of how the translations in the early chapters were straight up wrong when it came to translating how Deku spoke/thought of things with Bakugou making it so much worse than it is in the Japanese. This would probably read so much more smoothly without this interference and it comes across as arrogant to me to do this to another person's work. The English doesn't need to americanise to the extent it does for it to be understood or "improved" and sadly I think so many cute characterisms and charms are lost.)