My Hero Academia: Why Midnight's Fate Was Ultimately Disappointing

Midnight's fate in My Hero Academia is ultimately disappointing. My Hero Academia spent the majority of 2020 embroiled in a huge war between the heroes and villains. Given how few characters have actually died during these major fights, there was a sense of mystery as to whether or not the heroes would suffer as many losses as the villains. When Twice became not only one of the first casualties in the heroes' raid, but the only major one for awhile, it began to seem like the heroes would not lose on that kind of scale.

Then it suddenly happened. Chapter 296 of the series confirms all of the heroes who died in battle, and while there are some familiar faces, the only really important character death is Midnight's. This completely comes out of nowhere, and is ultimately dissatisfying considering how much less involvement with the main story she gets compared to Twice. There's just not enough balance here on a thematic level going into the next status quo.

While it's easy to say that Midnight's death was disappointing simply because it happened off-screen, the truly heartbreaking nature of it comes when you compare it to some of the other deaths in the series overall. Nearly every critical character death gets a final good bye in some sense. Either a literal goodbye, or a moment of heroic glory such as with Nana Shimura in the My Hero Academia: Two Heroes prequel.

But Midnight just isn't treated like someone as important as she could have been. She's been adjacent to all of the major events in the series thus far because she's a teacher at U.A. Academy, but Midnight has never gotten to be part of the main action outside of class lessons (even when she shows up in Aizawa's prequel arc in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes). So it all felt like she would eventually get her time to shine.

But sorry, she had to go and die off-screen. We get to see her quickly pass on a last mission to Momo Yaoyorozu when we see her for the last time in Chapter 278 of the series, but it doesn't have the same magnitude or weight as the other heroic goodbyes in the series. Couple this with the fact we don't even see it happen, and the experience is hollow.

It's just such a fast death that it feels unfair for the wrong reasons. Characters' deaths have weight in this series as each one lingers so we can see the true cost of all this. It includes the villains as well as Twice's death far overshadows any of the deaths on the heroes' side. The villains might have scored a mental and cultural victory, but the heroes win with a cost that unfortunately seems less significant.

Midnight's death is heartbreaking because it doesn't feel fleshed out. It feels like picking a name out of a hat when it came to heroes adjacent to the main story, but you could lose them and it wouldn't do any significant damage to the overall plan. Midnight deserved better. But what do you think? Was Midnight's death a disappointment? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!