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My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 128 – Quick Summary
My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 128, “Tartarus,” All for One, controlling the body of Tomura Shigaraki, delivered on the promise he made at the end of the previous episode. He didn’t give the heroes a chance to rest. He launched a well-orchestrated attack on Tartarus, the maximum security prison for criminals with dangerous Quirks. It was well-protected. Can he free his physical body? Do the heroes have enough strength left to resist him? And how will the public react to the heroes’ failure to capture Tomura?
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
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Favorite Quote from My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 128
It was nice to have some normalcy re-established. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I thought the previous episode was dark. It was – but this one gave it serious competition in the darkness race. Fortunately for my mood, it wasn’t all dark. There were a few moments of levity that not only made the episode’s emotional weight easier to bear. It made the painful moments more affecting.
My favorite quote from this episode is one of the humorous ones. Katsuki Bakugou had been so seriously injured that he only now regained consciousness. Minoru Mineta was the first to see him come to. He announced the event to Rikidou Satou, Hanta Sero, and Toru Hagakure, who immediately began celebrating.
Katsuki was in no mood for that sort of thing. Angrily, blood spurting from his mouth because of his injuries, he demanded to know where he was and what was going on.
Hanta said (16:08), “Oh, good, he’s mad. He’s his usual weird self!”
After what they’ve been through, I don’t blame them for celebrating what victories they can get!
Favorite Moment from My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 128
Praise me, he says. I’m protecting the public against the enemy – that I helped create. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Setup: Unjust Laws Undermine the Rule of Law
My favorite moment in this episode isn’t my favorite because it was uplifting, or hopeful, or anything positive, really. It helped cement an idea that has been floating around in the back of my mind. It has to do with what I have come to think of as an oxymoron. Namely, the criminal justice system in the United States.
Before we get into this, let me stress something. I am very much pro-law-and-order. I know what happens when we don’t enforce laws. So I’m not in any way, shape, or form advocating for the abolition of law.
I’m just very much in favor of laws being used solely for the preservation of life and property. And not to push forward a particular agenda.
Some of those in Tartarus deserved to be there. Some did not. And that’s a problem. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Consider this scenario: many people not in prison advocate against anything they see as comforting prisoners. They fight against exercise equipment, entertainment, even library books. The thought is that if they were bad people for being in jail, they don’t deserve anything comfortable. They broke the law, and they should suffer for it.
Sound familiar?
Now, layer that on top of the observation that stealing a loaf of bread will result in more jail time than depriving the global economy of trillions of dollars. That’s “trillions” with a “T”. If you were anyone in the chain of complicit individuals responsible for the 2008 global economic crash, from the bank executives to the loan officers to the appraisers to the investment houses repackaging loans as collateralized debt obligations, you served zero time in jail.
Delivery: Save Money, Promote Freedom: Only Pass Just Laws!
I’m not saying all laws on the books are unjust in that way. Merely asserting something I find stunningly obvious: some laws are unjust. Therefore, some people in jail are there not for being “bad” people or sinners or whatever else you want to call them. They are there because they didn’t have sufficient political support to remain out of jail.
My favorite moment in this episode cemented the link between “sinner” and preserving an unjust system. If you can call someone evil, if you can in some way deprive them of their humanity, then you can hurt them as much as you want. You can even demand society praise you for it – because you’re protecting the public from those evil-doers.
One of the guards on duty in Tartarus took exception to another guard referring to the prisoners as “human.” He said (05:10), “I wouldn’t call something like that a human. He’s more like a walking disaster… or a beast. Just like all the other animals being held here.”
How we treat those under our power says a lot about us as a society. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
His co-worker said, “Stop it. This is being recorded. The Hearts and Minds party will probably be broken up, but there’s no reason to give fodder to any of their factions. We already get enough flak about human rights violations and such.”
But notice: that co-worker didn’t disagree.
I’ve heard this kind of thing in real life far, far too often. This series has done a great job of making this issue clear. It’s one of the reasons I’m reviewing it: this is a message I think is important. Because until we understand it and do something about it, we cannot claim to be a just society. Because there’s nothing just about laws that favor the rich or those with connections over “common” citizens just trying to live their lives.
What did you think of the fall of Tartarus? What were your favorite moments in this episode? Feel free to share in the comments!
My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 128: Other Posts
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This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 114: A Quiet Beginning
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 115: Mirko, The No. 5 Hero
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 116: One’s Justice
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 117: Inheritance
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 118: The Thrill of Destruction
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 119: The Encounter, Part 2
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 120: Disaster Walker
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 121: League of Villains vs. U.A. Students
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 122: Katsuki Bakugo: Rising
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 123: The Ones Within Us
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 124: Dabi’s Dance
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 125: Threads of Hope
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 126: Final Performance
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 127: Hellish Hell
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 128: Tartarus
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 129: The Hellish Todoroki Family, Part 2
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 130: The Wrong Way to Put Out a Fire
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 131: Izuku Midoriya and Tomura Shigaraki
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 132: Full Power!!
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 133: Hired Gun
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 134: The Lovely Lady Nagant
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 135: Friend
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 136: Deku vs. Class A
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 137: A Young Woman’s Declaration
- My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 138: No Man Is an Island