Imma just open by saying "y'all don't have to read this". This is the 'part of the story' where I ramble for a long time about things I wanted to do with this fic, things I regret doing and not doing, and my complaints about MHA as an entity on it's own.

To be perfectly clear regarding that last bit, I like My Hero Academia. I think as a series it has an enormous amount of potential and that the characters are more vivid and alive than they manage to be in most series out there. That said, there are some missteps, bits of shortsightedness and some shortcomings that I really couldn't ignore.

And that's the initial reason I wrote this abomination.

This started as a "no no no, you're doing it wrong" type thing. I had issues with the narrative, particularly Deku's character and the chapter/episode named 'All Might'. You don't name an episode after a character unless they die in that episode. Some things are sacred, damn you! (no they're not)

But that's not what I want to open with here. No, I'm dropping what I'm hoping is a rather obvious bombshell: Hi, I'm Satellite_Vi, that one crazy bitch/yandere who wrote a little something called 'What Makes a Hero' its sequel 'Legacy' and the... questionable sequels that came after those. If that means anything to you: Hi, I'm not dead and I had my reasons for deleting those fics.

If that sounds like moonspeak? ...sorry?

To clear the air on those reasons: I did some crazy, self destructive, friendship ending, stupid shit and didn't want anything to do anything MHA once I'd begun to realize what I'd done. Took me a long time, but I did eventually realize it. Also, once those stories were deleted, as in 'less than a week later' something... fitting happened to me.

My leg decided it was going to stop working. There was no injury, no fall, no awkward stretch, nothing. It just stopped working the way it used to, went numb from the knee down and a trip to the hospital turned up nothing. It just said "fuck this!" and that was that. So, writing about a crippled Izuku after that felt a bit too close to home, not that anything in this story wasn't.

Damn thing still doesn't work like it should. Feeling came back, sure, but that one section of muscle above my knee doesn't work. It's either numb or hurts like hell and doesn't support my weight no matter what. As I said: writing crippled Deku took some time to get back to for reasons. (Hello, Denizens)

So while I was on my butt, staring at the ceiling and tripping out from pain and pain meds after I got home... well, that's when Blood Butterfly hit my head so hard it almost fell off. It was inelegant, awkward and arguably the most 'crack fueled' idea I'd ever composed. It was a way to use every idea I had for MHA and to correct the perceived shortcomings of MHA all in one, really-overly-long, fell swoop.

Blood Butterfly came at me with a really weird plan in mind: Make Izuku a vampire, analyze who he was in canon and proceed deconstruct everything around him, which was the world, other characters, the narrative and setting and write better transgender characters. Because seriously, Horikoshi, what the fuck were you doing with Magne? Really.

Three chapters in total were in mind, fully formed, from the beginning: 13, 26 and one version of 45 which was scrapped. For reasons. Reasons involving someone else's story. Which I was reading as I wrote this fic. Movin on.

I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do with Jiro (taken out of context, that's worth a laugh. laugh, damn you.) There were a few other stories out there that had already portrayed her as trans, not that I'd read them, but the idea just... appealed to me. Arguably, there are better characters to suit that role, but... Jiro's one of my favorite members of the cast and finding an excuse to write her just kinda blended with this.

Fun little note, the main inspiration for her character throughout this story was Makise Kurisu, along with sprinkles of Ramona Flowers, Sheena Fujibayashi and Touka Kirishima. Also, she wasn't going to be with Izuku. That just sorta... happened.

When I realized that I'd started writing a story about two people suffering from two different kinds of dysphoria (look it up), Izuku and Kyoka getting together just made sense. When I saw all the parallels between them, most of them heartbreaking, I shipped it so hard the damn hull nearly cracked. I'd accidentally written myself into a new OTP and I just ran with it at full tilt.

It was awkward, difficult, even painful to write at times, but god dammit that was how it was gonna go. ...especially after Moonfish happened.

As I said in one comment, this was where the recycled material from those other now deleted stories came back into play. Except it was Inko dying instead of All Might, because this wasn't a dad-might fic anymore. This was a new animal.

So Izuku lost his parent, we did the big time-skip, Bakugo realized he was kinda awful by literally breaking Deku and the lead villain turned out to be human. Someone broken and out to fulfill a somewhat understandable need for revenge. Oh yeah, also Endeavor was involved in a major conspiracy and the story turned into a songfic.

Another fun note, did you notice how the music only came into play, working its way into the story, once Izuku started fixing the Zune? Immersion!

This is where we get to the main event, the meat of this story which was the whole reason this project started:Deconstructing and analyzing Deku. Chapter 26, while a huge nod to the finale of Evangellion's original anime (and a certain part of Tokyo Ghoul) was about the most brutal, in-your-face-honest appraisal of who Deku is as a person in MHA. An escapist fanboy who can't cope with his awful life.

Nothing in that entire chapter, nothing that I used to piece together and then rip apart his identity, (aside from Inko's failed suicide attempt and his father being evil) was anything non-canon. If horikoshi felt like committing plagiarism, well, something like chapter 26 happening in canon wouldn't surprise me. All those details I wrote in were there to do was to frame his mindset and expand his and Inko's characters.

Inko is and will forever be 'best mom'. Killing her off was one of the hardest things I've ever done as an author, but if I hadn't then the entire rest of this story couldn't have happened. If she'd lived, Izuku would never have started drinking, read the documents that gave his psyche the clue it needed to start accessing the memories he'd locked away and would never had survived being captured by All For One and Overhaul as a result.

I'd call it 'Fridging Brilliance' if I was just a little more evil at heart, but life hasn't quite gotten to me that much yet. We'll see where I'm at when I finally hit '30'.

Of course, the main event of BB and the Endgame of BB were completely different beasts. One went exactly as I'd planned it, the other did not. See, while I was getting closer to the end of the fic I was also nose deep in another story, one I'm still not going to name because you should read it. Like, right now.

See, Blood Butterfly was originally going to end in tragedy. The only 'happy' thing about the ending was Izu and Kyo sticking together despite everything, despite dead friends and broken hearts, seeing their futures as bleak and promising only 'more pain to come' they at least had each other.

The note this story ended on was bleak, disheartening and sad as hell in the first draft. Stain was going to actually fight Izuku, trying to make the world quirkless even as he was choking on the smoke and dying. The fight ended with a very wounded, very tired Izuku holding Stain's hand, trying to stop him from falling into an inferno as the Shroud was collapsing and exploding around them.

Then Stain, realizing Izuku loved him and desperately needed to save him in spite of the fact that Stain was going to ruin the world, just smiles. He said "you're going to put them all to shame." Drank Izuku's blood to paralyze him, then fell into the fire and died. He sacrificed himself, unable to let go of his ideals to make his brother happy and just... live.

The original message was 'sometimes redemption cannot be had', that sometimes mistakes are just forever. You accept it, cry, realize that 'sometimes the greatest gift of all is never seeing you again' and move along.

But then I read that other story and couldn't DO that.

I had to go back, redraft the entire last portion of the final act and do at least three different reversions for most of the chapters after 'Unravel' and a few scenes involving Sten in almost every chapter before hand.

Making Stain the lead villain was always the plan, so humanizing him before his inevitable fall was necessary no matter what I did. I wanted Stain to be lovable, human and someone the you guys -the audience- wanted to see succeed and be happy. His fall was meant to be painful, his death was meant to be heartbreaking and feel sort of... inevitable and fitting. He wasn't supposed to really be missed as much he was 'looked back on uncomfortably'.

Then I read that other story and beat this running gag like a dead horse.

Honestly, I'm glad. The ending that happened as a result was considerably more satisfying and was perfect for the deconstruction of MHA.

Ending BB on a high and happy, bittersweet note was perfect for a few reasons. One, I kinda started to like Sten myself and wanted him to be happy. Shocking, I know; it's not like I clearly have a thing for broken men or anything like that. That's crazy, you should feel crazy for even thinking that. (...um.)

Two, after so much pain, hardship and sadness, ending it with more of the same would have just felt disrespectful to you guys -the audience- and to the characters and narrative. Which brings us to reason three.

At its core, MHA canon is a story about perseverance through difficult times and about hope. It's about struggling through the hardest times of your life and coming out the other side with a smile, bearing with it and getting to tomorrow despite all the odds against making it there. Ending this story any other way would have put this fic outside the original story too far to still be considered MHA.

So, in the end, Chizome Akaguro got what he'd secretly always wanted but had been too afraid to try and find since day one. Izuku managed to shoulder his pain and grief, moving forward with optimism, hand in hand with the love of his life. Our third protagonist reconciled with her own past, accepting that there was nothing she could do to change it and... let it go. She let Toga go, hoping it wouldn't be goodbye, after saying she missed her and then went and embraced love and happiness -things she'd deemed out of her reach eons ago- and got her happily ever after.

Also, as another fun note, Izuku and Chizome both saved each other from their worst memories and regrets. Chizome saving Izuku from a burning, crumbling ruin of a building like the one his family died in while he was powerless to stop it; and Izuku bringing his family back from the dead and talking him down from his villainous schemes, something he failed to do with Shigaraki in order to save his life.

I dare you to find a better ending for those two. I'll read it if you do.

Toga being the unsung real hero of the story is probably my favorite bit. She literally had everything lined up, all the evidence, everything to take down Philanthropy on her own and stuck to her plan throughout the entire story. She was heroic, sassy and a wild child off the rails at every turn and she was so fun to write this way. It only occurred to me very close to the end of the story that Chizome would absolutely fall in love with her for that.

That said, I regret not making Vanessa more of a character. She was delightful, in a very sad way and I would have loved to have her around more. But she was an OC and having her steal the spotlight from the others would have felt deceitful. Y'all weren't here to read about original characters, you were here for the real stars of the show.

I would have had her investigating with Stendhal while he looked into Eri's past, but... killing her off felt just a step too far. So that's where Twist and Sparky came in. Not the best characters, very referential by design and ultimately kinda... unimpressive.

One other thing I really should have done better was the big build up to and reveal of Endeavor being the true Nameless One and Philanthropy's big reveal. Maybe have the prophet system be involved in the finale. Do something with that whole 'oh yeah, dragons exist' plot threat, but that's about it. Oh yeah, and portray Mina and Den's relationship a bit better and have Mina's subplot conclusion be less... abrupt.

Over all, I did what I'd set out to do. I made the version of MHA I wanted to have exist, surprised myself along the way, used all the best parts of 'What Makes a Hero' and 'Legacy' along with the good ideas from its planned sequels and put it all to rest.

I might come back and write a sequel, probably not with the same stakes on the line. Just a continuation from where things left off, showing Izu and Kyo in their futures, have Chizome steal the damn show some more and Toga being her badass, vigilante self as she was here. Her backstory was fully written too, just never actually shown.

This is all speculation mind you, I wouldn't want to go back into Blood Butterfly without something of equal (if not better) quality to show for it. I'd want the narrative to gain something from continuing, the characters to feel as or more human than they did here and remain consistent. One of my biggest problems as a writer is suffering from 'Kojima syndrome': big, great, cool ideas that look good in theory and reference the amazing works that inspired me to write but ultimately feel... campy and a bit awkward. I'd like to avoid that if I do a sequel.

Needless to say, it'd be hard not to go full grimdark considering the potential plot threats I have access too, considering BB's ending. Secrets are out there, dark, heavy secrets and more could easily be unearthed. The temptation to go full 'Millennium Series' with this is difficult to ignore, and very viable.

But I gotta stop writing this eventually, my own original works gotta get published too.

It was a weird trip realizing I had to write this the way I did. It was only after I'd basically completed 'What Makes a Hero' that I'd finally pieced together who Izuku was as a person, so writing him in the first place was fun, sappy and very optimistic feeling. He was the hopeful, doe-eyed kid who wanted to save lives and had this awkward, harmless adorableness about him that just melted my damned heart.

...then I started watching House-MD and Evangellion and ah, things got depressing. Realizing that Izuku's main coping mechanism for his life was avoiding dealing with it felt very Shinji, and with his level of intelligence he could very easily have wound up a drug-addicted man with a 'rubiks complex' that helped him avoid thinking about everything that hurt him.

So that's where his alcoholism, chapter 26 and 'Legacy' (god, that pun) came from.

It was the first real piece of uncomfortable truth that I'd uncovered in MHA, Uraraka being a lonesome, home-sick soul was a close second. The entire premise of 'Talk to me' and the unfortunate, uncomfortable 'Komm, süßer Tod' chapter were written around this. Ochako isn't just an extrovert who befriended the hapless social klutz, being extroverted is a coping mechanism. Spending your life constantly saying goodbye gets sad very quickly, and when you finally land somewhere and don't have to let go of the people you like right away?

Well maybe a teenager would confuse that with love. Maybe her best friend with a talent for observation would piece this together. Maybe it would really, really suck for everyone and make you wanna cry.

I still can't get over that one bookmark someone made after reading that chapter "stab me, it would hurt less." On one hand... yay, my plan worked but that's a human being feeling that because of something I wrote!

Maybe that's canon too. It wouldn't surprise me, but Horikoshi doesn't seem to write that way.

At its heart, MHA is too hopeful and cheerful to really delve into those sorts of depressing truths. It's a very fanservicey story there to lift your spirits, not ask the real questions and hit you close to home.

That would be where my decision to write this and deconstruct MHA came into play.

I can't not see these things when looking at people, characters and stories. Hell, I even outright fabricated more reasons for the cast (Kyo, Mina and Den) being the way they are just to emphasize this being an unsung theme in MHA.

Telling a story about hope is all well and good, inspiring even. But without something real, something tangible to contrast that hope with it ends up feeling a little blind. MHA had a bleak start and a very rapid upward spiral in the first few arcs. Izuku was a bullying victim, Bakugo was just rotten and Izuku's whole life was just depressing.

Then he meets his idol, gets his idol's quirk, good times happened from then on and all was well.

Call me an old cynic, but that ain't how life goes, buddy.

Life is a roller coaster, there's high-highs and low, really low lows to be had in abundance. It hurts, it feels amazing and leaves you drained and tired but we always wake up tomorrow somehow wanting more. (...uh...) MHA's tone after the USJ arc had the potential to go somewhere real, somewhere uncomfortably relatable and hard to avoid acknowledging.

But instead... we got the arcs that came after Stain.

Don't get me wrong, there's good things about those arcs. They're fun, feelsy and all around enjoyable. I do have a complaint though, something you might have noticed coming up now and then in this fic. What was it...? oh yeah! VILLAINS HAVE TO FEEL LIKE ACTUAL GOD DAMNED PEOPLE!

After Stain, enter Toga! Embodiment of Yandere! Frankenstein flamethrower boi! The crocodile (hunter) fanboy! ..ugh... I could go on. It really doesn't help that Shigaraki, our main bad-lad's motivation is 'I want to murder'. Yes, I'm sure his backstory was explained very well in his own personal chapter after however many hundreds of chapters into the story just like Toga's chapter.

You know. Toga's chapter. The one that stripped her of all Humanity from the very beginning, showing her as just 'always like that'. No depth, no interesting reasons for being who she is. Just born a yandere. Fuck. That.

As a fan of 'Tales of Symphonia', one of the best stories ever and the best game I've ever played (My favorite all time character in anything is Sheena Fujibayashi) villains who are just evil for evil's sake are... dull, flat, boring and just plain bad-in-terms-of-writing. A story is only as good as the characters and the relatability of their decisions. If you can't relate to a villain, then are they really human or do they just look like one?

MHA's villains are not good, not well written. What, what's that? It's a shonen series and they don't really have to be? Like DBZ Yeah? So's Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 and boy howdy are those villains good. Painfully human, tragic and the perfect foils to the protagonists in every way they oughta be. Yes, the series is uncomfortable to watch at times but that's the point. Putting people into 'good boxes' and 'bad boxes' doesn't work.

Even the throw away villains of 2003 in some what chanllenged, reflected or mirrored the mindset and struggles of Ed and Al. Storytelling gold and it's kinda hard to appreciate anything less now as 'acceptable'. I'm a lady with high standards, what can I say?

Unless we're talking about Nazis, you can assume humans are actual people with actual reasoning behind what they do and not just hate.

I'd like to think this story had one universally applicable kernel of wisdom in it: the dividing line between good and evil is just how willing a person is to hurt innocent bystanders in order to succeed. If what you aim to achieve is or becomes more important than the well beings of people not involved in reaching or obstructing those goals, then you've crossed the line.

In the real world good and evil don't exist, not the way we think of them. Altruism and selfishness absolutely exist though, and those are the closest you're going to find.

If you'll forgive me for waxing philosophical about the obvious: human motivations aren't just black and white, in fact, human motivations are never 'black'. (no. not like that. Stop that.) Human motivations range from white to grey, we just see things through lenses that are really good at seeing black.

Because when your entire species has terrible nightvision, shadows are terrifying. Real shadows, metaphorical shadows and Carl Jung shadows. All equally scary because what lurks within is unseen, and if you can't see it then what can you do except run and run screaming from it?

This was the entire premise of the re-write along with one other thing, but we'll get to that. I wanted better, more human villains who were relatable.

And that's why I wrote Stain the way I wrote him.

Stain was supposed to be that one guy, the goth kid who says a lot of dark, cryptic and uncomfortable things you can't really argue with. That is, in the beginning. He was meant to come across as sort of out of place, put in a classroom full of happy-go-lucky kids who see the world with 'black and white eyes' and daring to speak up and say things that challenged that.

But class 1A being class 1A they loved and accepted him anyways, even if Momo never quite got there till the end of the tale. They heard what he had to say and politely challenged it, softening him and his world view as he hardened theirs a bit. (hmm... phrasing? Phrasing. ...what is my brain?)

This is particularly visible in his relationship with Izuku, and at the end of the story they reach this sort of middle ground. Yeah, Stain is absolutely right. The world is wrong, that's just how it is, but Izuku and class 1A are also 100% correct too. Doing bad things right back wont solve anything, it'll just make everything else worse and ultimately it's up to them -the next generation- to define what fixing everything means.

Stain's progression both as a character and through the narrative -in the roles that he played- is by far the thing I am most proud of as a writer. From ominous ally, to the 'dark knight' type thing he was through act three and most of act four to one of the lead villains. He's what I wish Horikoshi had done with Stain in the first place, the replacement for worst-boy that we needed and deserved.

Then there's Kyoka, the girl in the middle who simply has no idea what else to do or where else to go. She was in that place that Izuku and Stain both got to only at the end of the story, the character who defined 'the line' as it were. At least that was the plan, I'm vaguely comfortable with how that played out, but it could have been clearer, better and executed more eloquently.

Then again, making that clearer would have been a bit against the plan and point, wouldn't it? Or maybe I'm just talking nonsense, I dunno.

All in all, Blood Butterfly went exactly as it should have. It ended in the way it had to in order to respectfully complete the story and mini-stories therein. As it was with Izuku's hero name: this was a story about love and kindness overcoming harsher things. Healing broken hearts instead of beating them down in order to stop them from breaking others.

Blood Butterfly: messy, violent, scary and celebrating gentleness and acceptance. Welcome to the ending of the greatest thing I've ever written. It hurt to write, it made me cry to get here more than thought still possible and... it left me kinda happy.

That was the point, plain and simple.

That said, it's been a treat. If you read this, thanks a bunch, hopefully my insanity wasn't too jarring/annoying and cleared the air on some things or gave you something to smile at or gave you better understanding of moments you hopefully already loved. I spent two years and some change writing this, it was quite the ride, and I appreciate you for riding along with me. Yes, you. The person reading this, in theory. It's nice to know I wasn't just writing this for myself after all.

Blood Butterfly is a crack fic that took itself seriously enough to become something else. From Moonfish being the most important puzzle piece in the plot, to Inko's death, to the ship, to Izuku being a vampire and All For One being a human being with feelings and Chizome being Mineta's replacement and also turning out to be human? Yeah, crack fic, just a bit.

But it's good, right? I sure thought so.

Anyways, I'm Black Dog and Satellite_Vi and it's been fun, hopefully stays that way a bit longer. Maybe I'll just write more IzuKyo smut and leave it at that. Eventually. Provided I survive the embarrassment of posting such things.

Catch ya in the next fic, it could be yours. (so go kill someone. ...don't-don't actually do that. that's just a reference to 'Doctor Horrible's sing along blog'. It only occurred to me hours later that some folks might not...get that. my bad.)

Signed - Black D0g