A world where Izuku Midoriya is not Quirkless, but hides it because the truth would be too much for people to handle. A world where Inko Midoriya is an abusive mother would alter everything. Or how about a world where Izuku sort of accidentally becomes a villain?

For those who can't get enough of My Hero Academia, there's good news: both fanfiction and the MHA fan community are hopping. Fanfiction has become more accessible than ever for fans to read and enjoy. Nowadays, two of the most popular places for fanfiction are Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. On Wattpad, there are over 390 thousand results for fanfiction about My Hero Academia while Archive of Our Own has over 210 thousand.

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Deku And All Might Stand Proud In My Hero Academia

Wattpad and Archive of Our Own were ideal communities for fanfiction to thrive when MHA began publication in July 2014, with both sites on the rise as others such as Fanfiction.net lost popularity. However, the demographics are very different. On Wattpad, there is a number of fanfiction stories with original characters or self-inserts. Stories with original characters make up a character and put them into the MHA universe. A self-insert is meant to transport the reader themselves into the story, often through second-person narration. However, on Archive of Our Own, also known as Ao3, self-inserts and original characters are often considered a detractor.

When it comes to romance, Wattpad has many stories that don't include romance or are romances with a self-insert character, whereas Ao3 has over 112 thousand MHA stories with male/male relationships, 51 thousand with female/male stories and 15 thousand with two women. Izuku and Bakugo are the most popular relationship on Ao3, with over 28 thousand stories featuring the two together.

Both sites are fond of 'alternate universes' or 'canon divergences,' where authors either place the characters in a setting completely unlike the MHA world or tweak things so that the story diverges from the original path. Alternate universes are often used to place characters in a particular setting -- such as a normal coffee shop -- where it would be more likely the characters in question could fall in love.

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Ao3 boasts a very efficient search function that allows for fanfiction demographics to be determined quite easily, so it's easy to see that, on Ao3, the three most popular male characters to show up are Izuku, in over 100 thousand stories, Katsuki Bakugou in almost as many, and Shoto Todoroki trailing behind with just over 60 thousand.

Delving into these collections, while Izuku and Bakugou have always been popular characters, Todoroki's presence in fanfiction exploded in 2017, lulled for a bit, then went back up again in 2020. These dates correlate with My Hero Academia Season 2, Episode 10, "Shoto Todoroki: Origin," and with the manga spoilers in November 2020 about Dabi's true name. It makes sense that those events would bring Todoroki back into the interest of fanfiction writers and their readers.

Dabi's identity in itself is a great way to show how fanfiction can influence a community. Dabi being a Todoroki began to show up in fanfiction around 2017 -- part of the spread of the theory that led many fans to be unsurprised by the actual reveal. Judging just by the fanfiction specifically tagged with 'Dabi is Touya,' over 5,500 stories were written with this idea in mind before it was confirmed by the manga, some of these with close to 500 thousand hits. Although small numbers compared to the overall size of the MHA fandom, it means that among those who write fanfiction, Dabi as a Todoroki was mostly a confirmation. The same thing can happen when it comes to other character reveals, relationships, rivalries, final battles and more.

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When it comes to the landscape of fanfiction today, Wattpad still leans toward either self-insert fanfiction or the use of original characters, although some truly amazing alternate universe stories can be found there. Ao3 is still a hub for fanfiction only focusing on characters from MHA, although the most popular fanfiction also leans toward alternate universe or canon divergence. Fanfiction featuring Dabi, Hawks and Shoto Aizawa, aka Eraserhead, have been on the rise lately, with Mina Ashido gaining popularity to become the second most appearing female character besides Ochaco Uraraka. Stories where Izuku ends up a villain are very popular, as are ones where he remains Quirkless, but also where he was born with a Quirk as well.

With the sheer amount of fanfiction available, anything is possible. Even 'crossover' stories where the UA students end up in the Naruto universe are out there, and while these stories may be being written by unpublished writers, the quality of the writing can surpass that of some published books. In fact, it's growing more common for publishing houses to reach out to fan communities. In any case, with almost 250 thousand stories to choose from, there's plenty for My Hero Academia fans to check out.

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