User blog:Archereye45/Theory: Possable motive if Present Mic was the traitor.

There's many posts which provide evidence for or against Present Mic being the traitor, so there's no need to repeat to what's been said. Instead, this thread is less concerned about 'who', but 'why'. One of the difficult parts about traitor suspects is pinning down a motive. Due MHA to having such a large cast, many character backstories or deeper complexities go unexplored.

Out of everyone though, Present Mic has the most development as he's a major character of the vigilantes side series. At the same time, he's conveniently still a mystery, as the readers never see his inner thoughts. Also, it would be ironic for the main series, as the audience narrator turns out to be a traitor/villain.

MHA always make sure their major villains have ideological motives that relate back to the flaws in hero society; Tomura wants to prove Society's sense of safety is an illusion, Overhaul thinks society is better off without quirks and Stain thinks the hero profession is filled with corruption.

While there are villains like Toja who are motivated simply by their dark impulses - This motive would be considered a cop-out for the traitor. For a critically acclaimed series, fans expect the traitor's build up to reveal a complex motive. MHA would want to avoid the cliched "they were crazy all along and completely switch personas traitors".

Since Present Mic has an Intelligence grade of A, he could certainly spot flaws within society if he set his mind to it. So the question is, what specific flaw can be assigned to Present Mic? I think it's the participation of High School students in life-threatening hero work.

In Japan, the age of entering the army and police force is 18. Yet, Heros can routinely take 16/7-year-olds to fight dangerous criminals, whose often trying to murder them. It could be considered hypocritical of heros to claim they're the peak of justice, yet their safety measures for safely training minors are lower then the police/army. The most recent example is Tokoyami and Kaminari fighting in the front line against the Quirk liberation army, the equivalent of an actual war.

Present Mic was personally effected by this, when his friend, Oboro was crushed by rubble at 17 during their work studies. Even a decade later, when Present Mic is a Teacher there, UA and wider society hasn't learnt much. Students who haven't turned 18 are still allowed to go on life-threatening work studies. In the Sport Festrival, it's considered public entrainment to watch 15-year-olds injury each other on Live TV. Even cases like Izuku slowly breaking his fingers and limbs are acceptable. If Recovery Girl's Quirk teached her limits, a student could easily die one day.

So how would this motive relate to the traitor's actions of leaking information and getting UA's students attacked? At first, it seems paradoxical with my theory for Present Mic's motive. However, not necessarily. Present Mic might consider thd two set ups at the Simulation Joint and Summer camp "necessary sacrifices" to expose the issue to the media. Since then, there's been no further incidents of the League of Villains having information they shouldn't do. It's possible the traitor has ceased contact with the league. In this theory's version of Present Mic, he would have achieved his goal of starting a public debate and doesn't want his students to "get hurt more than necessary".

If UA, the highest ranking school in Japan can't guarantee safety, it could cause all of society to rethink how hero education works. Probably making it akin to how the Japanese army/police work, for the sake of fairness. It could prevent repeats of Oboro, who died too young.