I mean when compared to Midoriya. Obviously he has like second biggest in verse. His influence also kinda made things go a bit worse, which is why I put Midoriya’s influence over his.
Some of these are positive attributes for Deku but ultimately not affecting what people consider as aura.
Aura farming = looking cool. That's pretty much the baseline for it.
But people typically judge how much aura there is by how cool a character is (charisma) and how memorable or iconic their aura farming is.
See, I’d consider Deku to have a “cooler” personality than All Might, or at least as cool. They are somewhat similar, except that Deku kinda has more of a “never give up” spirit to him than All Might.
The correlation or causation you're looking for really doesn't exist here given you're looking at completely different samples. The twitter users you see aren't the same people voting in WSJ's popularity polls.
Maybe not the JP ones but they should be on the global ones. The diehards anyway.
If polls were dictated by aura farming edits Megumi wouldn't have ever dominated JJK's but it took until after the 2nd season ended when Gojo usurped the #1 spot from him.
Ultimately the fact that All Might is a less prominent character at the end affects his poll placement more than anything else.
Not gonna go on about the poll thing too much, it was more meant as a joke than anything but All Might had a major fight by this point so that’s not the best point. But the Megumi point I kinda get, honestly didn’t know he ranked that high (above ******* GOJO? REALLY?). Is that the Japanese or global poll?
I could make a very scathing and mean-spirited comment about Deku's poll placement here but I'll refrain from it as it's quite pointless to do so.
I ultimately meant it as a joke anyway. We’re not saying Mirko has less aura than ******* Monoma based on that lmao. I do think Deku’s popularity is partly due to his relatability which - to me - is what makes him cool.
Sung Jin Woo rapidly becomes powerful compared to his peers within the parameters of his story and the ratings and reception of Solo Leveling tanked whenever he showed weakness after he became strong.
That’s actually a misconception. That episode where he cries still has a very high rating. I think there was slightly more dislike from some fans upon release as it had followed action episodes, and people saw that dislike and said “Solo Levelling fans hate when he cries” and it stuck. It’s like how misconceptions spread about the MHA ending, and then for a year Deku was the McDonald’s worker.
There isn't really any meaningful parallels between Deku and SJW here especially in the context of shallow aura discussions.
I'd go as far as say that it's outrageous for Deku to be compared to SJW. His popularity is sourced from more than just having glowing sperm cells in his eyes.
I agree. I was just bringing up Jin Woo as an example of a character with aura and why he had aura.
You're not wrong about character design but there are plenty of examples of non-edgy dark designs being full of aura, like Piccolo, and multitudes of examples of aura flops copying said dark and edgy designs. Being edgy isn't aura.
It’s not the only thing of course, but it’s a big contributor. It requires the character to actually be good though, that is where I agree otherwise it just feels try hard. Like how people laugh at Infinite and call him try-hard (true) and laugh when he gets beaten up by Shadow, who does his archetype so much better. Edgy characters who are well written are often the biggest aura merchants in fiction. I’d say it helps that Deku doesn’t really have a try-hard personality, it’s easy to say he’s a cool character because his personality backs up his design.
Is the implication here that I'm fanboying over All Might?
Because this whole conversation I've barely talked about All Might at all compared to other points.
Not fanboying no. It’s just I could imagine a similar conversation happening in verse. If anything that comparison is worse for me anyway, cos it implies I’m an annoying student.
Anyway, the aura topic probably has gone on long enough, it’s such a subjective thing that there’s no use arguing honestly. Both have a lot of aura anyway imo. And I’d still say All Might’s a bigger aura-farmer it’s just that Deku gets aura without trying (except that one bit with Spinner, he knew what he was doing lmao). But it is getting a little tiring taking about, and it’s making me hate the word aura a little now.
I will say about the topic you are actually interested in, I agree. The reason I think PAM gets so much glaze is because when the series began he was that mythical God you can’t reach or live up to. As the series went on, Deku got closer to that level but he could never reach the image of PAM in the minds of the old heads. Then, newer fans started going like “Deku and Shigaraki are stronger than All Might” and it didn’t make sense to older fans. “Deku is the underdog protagonist. He can’t match Quirk Superman”. The fact that we never see Prime All Might do anything built him up in the fandoms heads. It’s not that Deku is less powerful than PAM, it’s that he’s less powerful than their vision of PAM. This perfect hero that can’t fail. A version of All Might that does not exist. It’s the version of All Might that is believed to exist in canon, the one built up by propaganda and suppression of emotion to make him seem stronger than he is.
Now I’m gonna start glazing All Might Not the well rounded character who learns that his example lead to flaws in society, and thus moves away from the idea of the symbol of peace into training the next generation to be better. Not the All Might who learns to live for himself and his students rather than accepting his death. Not the All Might who looks deranged fighting AFO, weak but ready to win with what he learned from Class 1-A. All Might isn’t cool because he’s the strongest. To me, he’s cool because he has one of the strongest spirits and purest hearts in the series (besides Midoriya and Uraraka).
This perception skewing is also Season 6's fault. Specifically how Bones did All Might vs AFO in Camino compared to Deku vs Tomura in Jaku.
Strictly manga-wise, Deku vs Tomura was at least on par, if not far better than AM vs AFO. You can compare the panels and so on and see how much weight and impact there is when Deku was pummeling Shiggy. This is easily one of his best charisma showings on par with Dark Deku.
The anime did not do that fight justice at all. Back when the season aired, folks here cited the fluid arm animation Deku had when doing Wyoming Smashes as evidence that the fight as well adapted when it looked like he was using 5% in the anime version. The manga version made Deku look like he's hitting with the force of high yield explosions.
That's another part of the reason why some fans (anime-onlies) argue that Tomura and Deku atp was weaker than All Might.
I was mostly anime only until Final Season, and this didn’t really impact anything for me. You do see the shockwaves going quite far in Season 6 when they punch. But also that fight is in the air so no destruction occurs, and destruction makes things feel more powerful. I remember for the Final Season people were saying Bakugo was more powerful than All Might cos of that. Most of Deku’s fights with Shigaraki are in the sky (for obvious reasons), so you get less of that destruction than you got in All Might vs All For One. I think since the Final Season, you get a lot less people saying All Might is more powerful, for that reason. You see Shigaraki destroy a city to the point where it floods (I know that doesn’t scale to AP, but that doesn’t matter for general viewers), Deku survives a massive explosion, he lifts up portions of the ground, uproots trees with wind pressure, disperses clouds, causes winds in America (I have seen casuals react to that feat with a “whoa”). They’re still there of course, but there’s less of them now cos the feats point more to Deku atp. Same as how the McDonald’s worker meme went away, it’s still here sometimes but the majority of people who have seen the anime can see that these people are either lying or just wrong.