My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 123

The Ones Within Us

My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 123 didn’t have much going on. There wasn’t any action in this episode. And the vast majority of the information we got from the episode wasn’t anything new. In many ways, it was a bit of a recap.

But, that’s not entirely a bad thing. In fact, I appreciated that we got a little recap of how One-for-All works. All-for-One’s brother originally had a quirk that allowed him to pass his quirk down to others. All-for-One then implanted a power storage quirk into him, and One-for-All was the result.

Something to note here is that what makes One-for-All so good is the power storage quirk. Without that, it would be a worse version of All-for-One. The power storage quirk is what allows all the passed-down quirks to grow in power over time. Oh, and let’s not forget the physical output of One-for-All users grows over time, as well.

What’s not entirely clear is how the power storage quirk interacts with all the other quirks. When it comes to Blackwhip, I assume it allows for more whips that have a longer reach. But, what about Float? Can Deku float better than Nana Shimura could?

It could be that Nana Shimura couldn’t cause other people and objects to float the way Ochaco can. But, now that Deku has a stronger version of it, he can. Though, it seems he still needs to maintain contact with whatever he’s causing to float.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the quirks Deku awakens are. How will they interact with the quirks he already has — including the power storage quirk? And what about the dangerous 4th quirk Bakugo brought up in Episode 122? Could power storage make it viable for Deku?

Transplanting Souls

All-for-One’s plan has a lot of moving parts. But, in the end, there appear to be 2 things he wants. He wants to be immortal. And he wants to be the undisputed strongest. These 2 things go hand-in-hand because he can’t really have one without the other.

Is All-for-One immortal? I’d argue that he was to an extent. He had a regeneration quirk that we now see in Shigaraki. You can view that as one type of immortality. But, that type of immortality isn’t going to cut it when facing off against One-for-All.

This is why All-for-One needs to get his hands on One-for-All. If he has that quirk, there won’t be anyone else strong enough to defeat him. And then his immortality will go unchecked. But, the issue is that he had to give up his immortality in order to bring down All Might.

Why did he do this? Because it’s easier to steal One-for-All from someone like Deku than from All Might. And, All-for-One actually has a second type of immortality he can use. He may have transplanted all his quirks into Shigaraki. But, he also transplanted his own soul into Shigaraki, as well.

As All-for-One explains it, transplanted quirks retain their original owner’s personality. It’s the same as if you were to transplant a “soul.” And if the will of that transplanted soul is stronger than the new host’s, the transplant can take over. This is what we see All-for-One trying to do to Shigaraki.

On the other side, there’s Deku and the souls of the previous One-for-All wielders. You could argue that Deku’s will to save people is what keeps him in control of his own body. But, more than that, the other souls within him want to support him.

Himiko’s Question

The best part of Episode 123 was when Himiko was trying to figure out what makes someone a hero. She says, “If a person who saves others is a hero, then was Jin not a person?” And she follows this up by saying, “If heroes killed Jin, then will they kill me, too?”

These are some great questions and they get to the heart of the struggle between the heroes and the PLF. So, let’s break down what exactly Himiko means when she asks these questions. It might not be clear to everyone.

There’s some unpacking to do with the first question. Himiko starts with the assumption that a person who saves others is a hero. And then she asks if that means Jin wasn’t a person. The implication here is that Jin also saved people — his friends. So, why isn’t he considered a hero?

If a hero is a person who saves others, and Jin saved others, then the part Jin must be missing is being a person. To Himiko, this just shows that society viewed him as less than a person; someone not worthy of respect. And she’s reasonably upset about that.

Her next question has to do not with saving, but with killing people. Heroes killed Jin. If they can kill him, what’s stopping them from killing Himiko and the rest of her friends, too? And there’s also the implication here of, “how are they still heroes when they’re killing us?”

Where’s the line between hero and villain? Both sides save and kill as they see necessary. So, what’s the difference? Who gets to decide what lives are worth saving and what lives aren’t? Who gets to decide when it’s okay to kill? Himiko has some great points and she wants answers.

Conclusion

What do you think of My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 123? How do you think Deku’s version of Float is better than Nana Shimura’s? Do you expect All-for-One to supplant Shigaraki in his own body at some point? And is this the start of Himiko transitioning to the heroes’ side? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 124 is available now.