It’s not that OFA in itself is romantic. It’s that powerful emotions can override it. I think the reason Katsuki had to die in the way he did and FOR THE REASON he did..was so that he accesses OFA realm. In order for a person, ESPECIALLY a third party to even be able to affect OFA, they have to have insanely strong emotions AND a connection to OFA. I’ll explain both.
Emotions STRONGER THAN ONE FOR ALL!!! That’s the key sentence.
Emotions too strong for them to handle. Emotions overflowing. Katsuki has loved Izuku for a long time but when he found himself in a moment where he was alone with AFO who told him straight up that he’s going to die BECAUSE HE’S IZUKUS MOST IMPORTANT PERSON? That’s when Katsuki’s emotions started overwhelming him slowly.
For SFO to target Katsuki THIS AGRESSIVELY AND OBSESSIVELY, Izuku had to have insane feelings for him. And Katsuki realised it in that moment.
He started crying, he went mute, was barely able to talk and when he did, he was able to barely utter a few words. He knows he’s going to die. But he’s not ready.
He wants to survive. He wants to see Izuku again, wants to be with him SO HARD.. that he makes himself go from that utterly shocked and traumatised state, to pure blissfulness and calmness. And that feeling of wanting to still be able to see Izuku no matter what..
It becomes stronger than anything. Stronger than even OFA. And so.. OFA grants him exactly that by letting him inside the realm. Because remember how Nana said that when one person dies, the other can still meet them even after death because of OFA? And how that’s romantic? Yea this line was said for a reason. This idea of two people being able to meet even after one of them dies is romantic. And now we have Katsuki breaking into OFA realm A SECOND BEFORE HE DIED THINKING OF IZUKU. Not a coincidence.
Katsuki wouldn’t have gotten access to the realm if he wasn’t that desperate to not lose Izuku. To not lose the sight of him, to not be able to be with him and protect him even if only as a spirit. This feeling and desperation was so strong that it ended up overriding OFA.
And in the very last second of his life, he broke through into the realm. So now.. even if he’s on the ground and unable to fight for the rest of the battle, he is still going to be with Izuku and once the battle moves to the realm, Katsuki will be there.
And we can see this with the quote of Edgeshot on the volume cover. The only thing that he notes is the fact Katsuki has been waiting for Izuku and that’s why Edgeshot won’t let him die. Once he found his way into Katsuki’s heart, he knew exactly what to say to him. What to tell him to get him to fight for his life.
“Don’t give up, you’ll see him again, I’ll make sure of that.”
That’s what gives Katsuki life, what makes him want to fight. Not his dream or being a hero, not his family or friends or anything.. Izuku. Being able to see Izuku after all of this..THAT’S what gives Katsuki the will to want to live. And that’s as romantic as it gets.
What I’m saying is that Katsuki needed a life changing moment. Something he’s never experienced before, something that’s gonna make him feel so many emotions of love because that’s the only thing that can beat OFA.
It’s why AFO keeps feeding Shigaraki’s rage. He wants to do the same with him. He wants Shigaraki’s rage to become stronger than OFA..but since Shigaraki himself doesn’t have a connection to OFA (which is needed cause this can’t be one sided.. else any person in the world with strong enough emotions would be able to leech on OFA) AFO provides it for him by getting him inside of the realm.
But Katsuki beat him to it. Through his connection with Izuku, the actual wielder and his own overwhelming emotions for the said wielder.
So why did Katsuki’s strong emotions affect OFA when he seemingly has nothing to do with it and why no one else’s emotions could do the same? Because of Izuku. Izuku is his direct connection. Izuku as a wielder is responsible for this. Because Izuku too has feelings too strong for him to handle.
Now we’ve seen Izuku deal with so many different emotions but the only times when his emotions got so hard out of control that he couldn’t even control OFA was when it was about Katsuki. And Izuku KEPT THIS A SECRET! He even lied that there was no trigger for Black whip when we know he’s aware of what triggered it. He remembers Monoma’s words when Banjo tells him to control his heart. So Izuku is aware that whatever he feels for Katsuki should he kept a secret. This doesn’t read platonic to me.
Especially since Izuku has always been open about his feelings. He’s always shown his admiration, shown his overprotectiveness, his fanboying, his desire to catch up to Katsuki.. so what was so secret that he couldn’t tell ANYONE? Has to be romantic feelings that he realised he has. Even during DvK2, Izuku slowly starts realising that there are things he simply can’t talk about. He couldn’t tell Katsuki that he’s his image of victory.
He couldn’t tell Katsuki that he subconsciously imitates his FLAWS. Because admitting this would mean admitting Izuku actually loves Katsuki’s flaws.. and you only love flaws of those you’re in love with.
So Izuku has been aware that his feelings were strange for a while and that’s why we see his pov gradually being taken away from full monologues where he admits things are off, to unfinished sentences.. and finally.. nothing but face expressions.
His emotions started fighting OFA, started overriding it, started bending rules. Cause OFA is an emotion based quirk. It’s seated within Izuku’s heart but that’s also where Katsuki is. Inside Izuku’s heart. So Izuku’s love mixed with OFA. Now he can’t quite separate the two.
So if he lets his feelings for Katsuki run wild, so does OFA. He’s scared he can’t handle the full power. That’s why we see a metaphorical door with about a dozen locks on it. And that’s a problem that Izuku doesn’t know how to fix. He’s also afraid to release the full OFA cause that would mean releasing his feelings which he can’t do cause he doesn’t think they’re reciprocated.
Anyways, something happened here, Izuku opened the door of OFA to Katsuki a long time ago but now it was Katsuki’s turn to reach back and actually access the quirk. For that, HE also now needed emotions stronger than OFA to bend the rules on his side and access Izuku’s power.
And again, I can always back everything up with panels as evidence. And I already have a thread on this being set up for a while. There are panels that prepare us for this.
You can read the Twitter thread here. (You don’t need an account to read it!)
