My Hero Academia: Star and Stripe’s Defeat Has Global Repercussions

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Chapter 334, "Parting Gift” by Kohei Horikoshi, Caleb Cook, and John Hunt, available now in English from Viz Media.

My Hero Academia fans are still reeling from Star and Stripe's death at the hands of All For One. After an intense battle between the two juggernauts, Star gave up both her Quirk and her life to put an end to his All For One's reign of terror. Her plan was somewhat successful as All For One was forced to flee the battlefield before he was completely destroyed, however, the true ramifications of Star's actions are still being brought to light.

Before Star even began her battle with All For One, it was revealed that she'd left for Japan before she'd received the proper clearance. All Might and the other Japanese Pro Heroes had sent out requests for help from other governments to deal with the chaos the Paranormal Liberation War and All For One's mass prison break had caused. One would expect that they would have received speedy aid sufficient support from international heroes but even as the situation in Japan continued to worsen, the aid never came. Even though the heroes were willing, their hands were tied with bureaucratic red tape.

Star and Stripe standing atop the lead of a fleet of jets

Star's premature departure was in part because it was All Might who asked for help and because of her frustration with the system. She'd recognized All For One as a severe threat and after trading blows with him, concluded that he was powerful enough to be a threat not to Japan alone but to the world at large. Her plan was to rendezvous with the Japanese heroes on arrival and confront All For One as a united front.

Unfortunately, she was cut off en route by All For One, whose worst nightmare had unknowingly been brought to fruition by Star and Stripe. He'd always had his eye on New Order and the thought of it colliding with One For All was a possibility that would threaten his plans too much to ignore. Instead of stealing One For All and then confronting Star and Stripe as he originally planned, he was forced to gamble fighting Star while Tomura Shigaraki's body was still incomplete.

All For One's gamble paid off but one could argue that he still got the short end of the stick. After successfully stealing New Order, the Quirk proceeded to wreak havoc on his body, destroying quite a number of the other Quirks he had stockpiled and forcing him to flee the battlefield or risk being completely annihilated. The battle left Shigaraki's body operating at far less than optimum capacity but the abilities he displayed were more than enough to discourage further international intrusions.

Star and Stripe was America's Number 1 Hero and widely regarded as one of the most powerful active Pros. Her involvement in Japan's crisis, had she survived, may have spurred other nations to follow her example but her defeat had the exact opposite effect. It made the international community more aware of the threat All For One posed. Rather than support Japan, they chose to fortify their own defenses. It's a pragmatic move, albeit a bit selfish, that might come back to bite them should All For One fully conquer Japan. If his greed has shown anything, it's that he won't stop after conquering just one country.

Fortunately, all hope isn't lost yet. Japan still has its heroes as a final line of defense. Their tenacity along with the final advantage Star gifted them with her sacrifice might just be what they need to finally put All For One to rest but for the time being, it looks like they'll have to do it alone

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