User blog:Lover of the Muse/Meta Liberation Army and the Incredibles

In chapter 231 there's a moment when Koku Hanabutu, leader of the Hearts and Minds Party, and member of the Meta Liberation Army says "It is time we show the world that everyone is a hero! And that nobody is a hero!" There's a parallel that's been in my mind since we first learned the ideology of this villain group and as of this chapter I think this parallel is 100% intentional. Let's talk about the first Incredibles movie.

Incredibles is a movie where special people aren't allowed to use their gifts/be themselves because of government regulation and an ungrateful conformist society. The film takes a dim view of egalitarianism and equates it to mediocrity. Part of the villain's evil plan is to sell powers so everyone can be super "because when everyine is super, no one will be".

In My Hero Academia we see a world where "everyone is super", or almost everyone that is, but still "all men are not created equal". You could be born with the ideal quirk and be treated with undeserved privilege. You could get a mutant type quirk and be discriminated against for the way you look. You could get a quirk that is stereotyped as "villainous", or one that doesn't suit you're body, or you could just have one that's weird and not useful for combat, or you could be born quirkless.

In this world people are also prevented from using their gifts because of government regulation. In the Vigilantes spinoff we see how frustrating that can be. In the main series during the Quirk Apprhension test, Shota Aizawa says something about the schools "still wanting to pretend were all created equal" and how that's holding the kids back.

The ethos of the Meta Liberation Army at first seems to be the same as that of the Incredibles but in chapter 230 we learn an essential difference. In that chapter Geten (the cryokinetic guy) reveals that "the ultimate goal of the Liberation Army... is to establish a society where your social status is determined by the strength of you're speical ability Simply put 'Powering up you're ability' is no different from 'survival'. If you don't have a strong special ability, why bother living?" Dabi calls this a sad dream.

The society Geten is advocating for is one where the social differences and inequalities that already exist would be amplified and where there would be no place for the quirkless.