Well, Star and Stripe’s reign as the main protagonist of HeroAca was short and sweet. That may not be the worst thing, in the sense that – as some complained – she obviously couldn’t defeat Shigaraki herself. It just wouldn’t make sense in the larger context of the story. But then, we know literally nobody likes to complain more than Boku no Hero Academia fans, so that has to be taken with a metric ton of salt. And that’s exactly how I take it.
For me, Cassie was a very good addition to the series, and I like the way Horikoshi wove her into the plot. In order for what comes next to make sense – Japan being isolated and alone – the strongest hero from the strongest nation had to fight Shigaraki and lose. It can be argued that Cassie didn’t lose of course – I think with some credibility. But in the end All For One is probably right – with humans, the winner is the one who survives. Whatever Star and Stripe’s intentions were going in, he survived and she didn’t.
Just what Cassie’s intentions were here is an interesting question. What’s clear is that she felt a great debt to All Might. And despite being half-American he considered himself Japanese, and was Japan’s number one hero for much of his adult life. If he called, she was going to answer. And it’s a certainty that he filled her in 100% on just what she was going up against here. In addition to all the other regrets Toshinori Yagi has piled up, having Star and Stripe die fighting a fight he drafted her into because he was no longer able to fight himself is going to rank very high on the list.
An interesting element of this is that Cassie coming to fight Shigaraki alone, before his body was complete, was not the scenario All For One wanted. This is ultimately about One For All for him – New Order was just a dangerous obstacle he was trying to turn into a stepping stone. I have little doubt Star and Stripe and All Might took that into consideration in setting up this confrontation. She did at least try and come out of this alive – that was Tiamat. If it had finished Shigaraki off she would have had her dream scenario. It didn’t (though it was close) so she had to proceed to the best of two bad options.
From there she knew exactly what she was doing. Shigaraki was going to steal New Order, and she was going to use it as a quirk Trojan virus, in effect. Her last orders were to make New Order incompatible with and fatally hostile towards any other quirk. That of course means all the other quirks already in Shigaraki’s body, and it starts to work immediately. It’s quite a clever stratagem actually, if an act of self-sacrifice. She didn’t tell the stealth squad about it of course, because they’d never have gone along with it if they’d known. Once they did know, they had no choice but to support the plan – she left them no other options.
Again, Shigaraki actually dying here makes no sense plot-wise. But Star and Stripe certainly leveled the playing field some. Not only did she set back the process of his body completing its transition, at least some of his quirk collection is now toast. Just what New Order annihilated before Shigaraki managed to offload it on a hapless zaku isn’t clear – some quirks are gone and some remain. But All Might is certainly correct in that there’ll never be a better time to confront Shigaraki than this moment. If they can find him of course – and with the overall situation still dismal for Japan’s heroes and no help coming from abroad, that’s going to be no easy task.
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