The T[a]LK is an absolute bust. I don’t think that’s a surprise, and we always really half expected failure early on. I mean, the time zones are just insane. A two-on-two collab is easy to pull off, but a three man project is really insane. I’m glad I tried it though, and none of us is really calling it quits yet. We finished our T[a]LK for Devil’s Line and Mahou Shoujo Site, so we really only have BHA left. Unfortunately, real life is knocking and we all have to answer it. Combined with the ridiculous time zone, where at any given time the situation is always morning, afternoon and night/midnight for anyone of us, then the project is really a beautiful bust at this point. I honestly still want to do it. I even have plans on expanding it to four people, and there is no failure in this project. It’s all valuable learning opportunities that’ll help us smoothen out an even more ambitious collab. But, for now, the T[a]LK team has reached the end of two shows and the midpoint of BHA’s 25 episode run. We plan on celebrating reaching the end point with something fun and stupid.

The team gathered miraculously on our usual time, and we compiled a list of WHAT IFs to properly end our experience with the shows. Each of us will answer the compiled questions, and we try to reflect on the shows we just watched. We each threw in one question per shows, but we also had some extras that I decided to answer. So, here’s the T[a]LK team, individually, writing their thoughts on possible alternate routes for each show.

Boku no Hero Academia Season 3

1.What if Bakugo turned evil and joined Shiragaki?

I asked this question, because I think it was a missed opportunity for the show. My team mates did argue that it was kinda predictable, and I even likened it to Sasuke’s heel turn when he piledrove Naruto into the ground, but c’mon this idea is awesome. Here’s the deal, I don’t watch Naruto and I don’t plan to watch it. Still, I knew about Sasuke’s betrayal and it’s because it’s an iconic moment for the show. Along with Rock Lee’s tribute to Jackie Chan’s drunken fighting style and Bruce Lee’s haircut, and Naruto turning into a fox demon, the Sasuke heel turn ranks as one of the best things in Naruto. I confidently say this even though I’ve never seen the show. I honestly don’t like Naruto, but Boku no Hero Academia had a chance to reach an iconic point too with a Bakugo betrayal. Given how complex the show is with character work, this was really the only chance for bomber man to turn evil.

His fight with Deku the first time is awesome, their fight with Almight planted the seeds for Bakugo to suppress some of his frustrations, and getting kidnapped was a nice catalyst to set the bomb off. If he stayed behind watching Almight get killed by All for One, then he could’ve easily agreed to turn evil. Bakugo will spot Deku, almost kill him, this’ll persuade All for One to stop being satisfied with what he saw, both of them leaves and the heel turn is established. The stars aligned at that moment, and it’s a shame nothing happened.

But Ok, what if he did turn evil? Naturally, Almight goes to save him, Deku tries to persuade him but All for One and Shiragaki is riding on a high with a powerful turncoat they immediately used to create more chaos. Seeing a machine like Bakugo fight on the side of evil will rally an even bigger army by Shiragaki’s side, and they’ll march once more to UA. We’ll have a huge arc that includes a rematch of All for One and Almight, Deku and Bakugo, and the rest of the faculty and student fending off a herd of powerful people that rallies, not for Shiragaki, but for Bakugo their new beacon of light.

But yeah, maybe it is too clichéd, and BHA does function on a cause and effect style of storytelling. Bakugo was a target because he won the tournament, public opinion turned sour because of his kidnapping, and Almight was forced to retire because of the many times he pushed his body to the limit. Most shounen have self-contained arcs, but BHA doesn’t. A hero’s actions have ripple effects and I guess a giant war raining down on UA is not in the story’s plans for now.

2. What if All For One saw the children trying to save Bakugo and stopped them?

This was during the Bakugo rescue, and the five man team was able to save Bakugo. The rescue came at an opportune time, because Almight couldn’t go all out because he feared Bakugo would get hurt as well. It was a daring rescue that truly changed the outcome of the battle.

If they were found, I’d say while All for One is taking on Almight, then the rescue attempt would be impossible. Bakugo would be the main priority in being teleported out, and the arc would be prolonged. Meanwhile, Almight would have a tougher time taking on All for One because of the five children. At that point, they have no choice but to fight. If they do fight, then they’d most likely end up like Best Jeanist, with holes in their torso. I’d say it’s a good thing, since while the villains won this battle, the war is far from over. They recover, level up with one goal of beating All for One and rescuing Bakugo, develop new skills to properly face him, we’ll see Deku use his delicious brain to use everyone’s leveled up quirks to their maximum and prop a rematch. It’s team Almight with the five children against All for One with the Shiragaki alliance. Hopefully we see Toga’s quirk by then.

3. What if the villain alliance ended up taking Tokoyami instead of Bakugo?

This was given by Leap, who argues that Tokoyami has a greater chance of joining the dark side than anyone else in the series. I can totally see that, but Tokoyami is honestly a good guy. It’s his powers that act bad. Shiragaki’s plan is to convince Bakugo to join them. It wasn’t blackmail or a threat. I think it stemmed from his jealousy of Stain. He wants to move people just like how Stain managed to do so. With that being said, I don’t think Tokoyami will budge.

If All for One convinced him, maybe forced Tokoyami to activate his bad guy quirk, get the shadow to go on a rampage then Tokoyami might be forced to join them. It’ll be a noble reason though, like distancing himself to the people he loves cause he doesn’t want to hurt them with his bad guy quirk. If we are to pursue this route, then it should end with Tokoyami actually controlling his powers so I would love to see that.

4. What if Almight actually died instead of just losing his powers?

Again, I threw this out. I just really wanted Almight dead, and I was a bit satisfied when he kinda technically died after his fight with All For One. It seems he is forced into retirement now, and I honestly would’ve preferred to see him dead. I think he proved too popular to kill off, but I always have this vibe that he was supposed to be offed at some point. Pure speculation on my part though.

I wanted Almight dead simply because it was the necessary steps for Deku to complete his hero transformation. I likened it to Simon and Kamina. The story didn’t become Simon’s journey unless Kamina didn’t go out first. It was actually his absence in TTGL that made him such a great character, and Almight kinda needed to go the same way. It’s awful to say, but a heroic Almight death seems logical to me. Now, what if he did die? Well, Deku will be heavily on the spotlight. Villains had no one to fear anymore, so they all come out of the wood works. The students are forced to speed up their training, Eraserhead now acts as Deku’s father figure and caring mentor, and the ultimate goal is for a rematch with All For One. But, I’d imagine Shiragaki would’ve forced his master to give it to him by this point, so it’s the long awaited Deku vs Shiragaki fight as the end goal. This is pure fantasy on my part, but I stand by Almight’s death. He should’ve left the stage at his peak.

Devil’s Line

1. Ooh, what if DL was about werewolves?

After experiencing Devil’s Line, I’d happily sum up the entire thing as incredibly incompetent. It was a bad manga adaptation akin to most early 2000 flops, but it’s a 2018 release. It’s cathartic to know failures of the past can’t escape the industry. Devil’s Line was just gawd awful from start to finish. From its story, to its characters to its aimless direction, this anime is beyond amateur. Every aspect is incompetently made, aside from the cringy bondage. I like that.

But, OK, what if this anime about vampires focused on werewolves instead? I believe it wouldn’t do anything, since the people working on the show is consistently incompetent. But, yeah, this anime had a lot of “sexy vampire” tropes to it, and I guess we’ll replace that with a lot of body horror and gore. We’ll see transformations of a guy into a werewolf, beasts eating humans and an organization tasked to put silver bullets in them. Devil’s Line had an incompetent subplot about vampires wanting to live peaceful lives like humans, so we’d swap that with werewolves wanting to not eat humans.

It’s honestly the same anime for me, but in a different frame. We’d still have the edgelord stupidness of the show, so nothing really changes. I guess werewolf bondage would be nice to see, so I’d mostly swap vampire out for werewolf just to see that.

2. For DL, what if Tsukasa wasn’t in the story?

Keiko asked this, and you can tell she really loved Taira. I guess this question is also a “what if there was no female lead”? This is an easy question. The show would naturally be a shounen ai anime, and yeah, that would certainly make the anime ten times more appealing. Seeing the guy control his lust for the white haired vampire would be hilarious. Seeing the cringy and awkward public display of affection by two male vampires would be a treat to watch, and male on male bondage in anime would be awesome.

Holy sh*t, the rape scene also won’t exist if Tsukasa wasn’t in the story, or does this mean a male character would be raped instead? I’m conflicted about seeing that one, but I secretly want to as well.

3. For me, the bondage happened at ep 8, so what if the rest of the show centered at the two characters just doing more bondage at ep 9 to the end?

Who would ask such a stupid question? *grins*

This is honestly the best moment in the show. When the girl grazed the guy’s nipples and he moans in pleasure, I was dying from laughter. It was cringy all the way, and it was awkward in how the entire thing plays out. If the anime devolved into just more bondage, then I would’ve loved watching every episode that comes after. We get new toys for the couple to play with, we get more awful lines like “can I rub your nipples again?”, and it’ll honestly just feel like a proper payoff for a very incompetent anime.

Heh, and the final episode would be a twenty minute long sex scene full of handcuffs and leather restraints. Ahahahahahahahaha We’ll have the credits play while the two main characters build up a satisfying loud moan as they orgasm. Oh gawd, I’m glad I’m done watching this sh*t.

Mahou Shoujo Site

1. What of the B team died instead of Nijimin? How will they each die? And how will Nijimin play a role in the end?? XD We should clarify who the B team is.

I asked this mainly because only Nijimin died in the anime. There were a lot of girls introduced later on that felt like they were just for body count, and none of them died. We call them the B team, a cast of secondary characters. This includes the girl with the flying broom, her butler, the swordswoman, the strong woman, the otokonoko, and the emo girl that likes to slash her wrist. These girls didn’t really do anything in the final episode, because the show devolved into a yuri-fest between Yatsumura and Aya. The swordswoman fought with an admin, but it didn’t really affect the story in any capacity. So, what if Nijimin is in the final episode but the B team isn’t?

First of all, how will they die? I’d say by big brother’s suggestive panties. In order to make Aya feel more guilty, big bro will kill her newly acquired friends one by one. While she struggles in trying to keep the news that big bro has Nijimi’s panties, big bro would be attacked by the strongwoman controlled by otokonoko. This happened in the show, but strongwoman would be killed here. Half dead, Otokonoko tries to warn the others. She(?) is too late as she reaches the group but big bro has already killed the witch by getting her butler to kill her. The rest of the girl gathers, but swordswoman kills the butler for defiling her place. Big bro then orders her to kill the other girls. They escape, but forces to abandon otokonoko, who is killed by swordswoman. Big bro chases after, and eventually catches up. Swordswoman is able to break big bro’s spell though and tries to slash him. He proves too cunning and immediately fires a gun at her. Half dead, emo girl tries to save her. Both dies in the end. Emo girl dies from blood loss and swordswoman from choking in emo girl’s blood. This is where the cop comes in, restrains big bro and they disappear forever until the anal rape ending.

As for Nijimin, she was stuffed in a broom closet by big bro or something, but she lives. The plan to capture the admin looks impossible to do now, but Sarina comes back to hand the yuri lovers their sticks. For the sake of their friends, they push on with the mission. I’d say the anime plays out as it is, but instead of a fight between swordswoman and an admin, it’d be Nijimin with her newly reclaimed panties ordering the admin to drop dead. How she acquired the panties would be left unanswered, just like the anal raping, and the show ends with dog girl alive.

2. What if Yatsumura didn’t interfere during the bathroom scene, or at least, what if she just chilled and didn’t slash Sarina’s neck?

This is Keiko’s question, and this was the turning point in the anime. This sets up Sarina as a magical hunter, Aya meeting Yatsumura and the two of them trying to solve the Tempest riddle. If Yatsumura didn’t step in when Aya was being bullied, I’d say Aya would get her mouth slashed ala Joker. This will most likely turn Aya sadistic, so she will retaliate by killing Sarina right then and there. The other girl will escape though, and she tells everyone that Aya just killed Sarina. Of course, Aya would’ve disappeared by then. She’d cross path with the magical hunter, and she would kill flat chest for the title. Aya is now the magical hunter, she knows the truth about the tempest and I’d say she goes after the admins right then and there. Of course, she can’t do it by herself, so she eventually teams up with Yatsumura and the rest afterwards. Aya would eventually soften her attitude after her facial scarring, and the yuri resumes. The anime continues as planned afterwards.

3. What if Sarina didn’t become a Mahou Shoujo? Or What if the magical hunter wasn’t Shioi but the cop from the very start?

If the cop had a more recognizable presence at the very start then I’d say he’d be a constant villain from the get go. Since the magical hunter would hunt down girls and steal their sticks, then he’d have the authority to visits schools and question girls with no alarms being raised. He’d cross path with Aya and Yatsumura very early on, but he won’t be captured by them. He might abandon his stash of sticks, but he resumes his killing. We learn he’s being controlled by the admins, so they order him to kill Yatsu and the girls. I’d say this is where he captures big bro, and he obtains the powerful panties. He doesn’t put them on though, but instead plans on playing both sides. As a magical hunter, he feeds valuable info to Yatsumura and the gang to help catch an admin but he also tries to inform Nana of where the girls are. Since he plays neutral, he plans on siding with whoever wins the magical girl vs admin showdown, and then the anime still ends with the anal rape thing. It has to.

4. What if the cat didn’t die?

Simply put, we’d have a very annoying mascot. I’d say one girl would have the power to make him speak or whatever, and the cat would play a Wushu or Jiminy Cricket role for the rest of the series. There is a rule of equivalent exchange though, so if the cat doesn’t get killed by the train then I’d say someone close to Aya gets killed instead, or maybe Aya herself is caught by the train and she loses a limb.

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Writing this isn’t as fun as I thought it’d be, but I think I just overthought it. Keiko and Leap will make the same post, so I can’t wait to see them answer these questions. I hope you guys enjoyed as well. The T[a]LK does still continue, because me and Keiko plans on discussing Attack on Titan S3, while me and Leap also plans on discussing a show. Please look forward to those collabs. The BHA three man collab is still on going, but it’ll take some time for us to catch up. We apologize in advance.

Thank you guys for reading. Have a great day.