One of my favorite concepts that the story relates to Toga is the whole consumption of what you want to become, or the concept of trying to eat away your negative feelings, this time applied to aspects of the personality or the social life, symbolized by blood.
At first it appears to be that Toga wants to become someone else entirely through her quirk, when in facts she desires something that the other person has. Let it be freedom, acceptance, self-love, people to love them, courage… the first bite was pretty symbolic in the way it was a bird. She sees someone she admires and tries to reach for it.
The difference between her and most people (characters) is that they tried to turn into the people they admire by changing the inside as much as the outside. Toga’s quirk allows her to look like them, sound like them, even use their quirks, but she’s still herself, she’s still Toga Himiko at heart. Toga’s quirk is directly related to a level of self-acceptance as well as a personal perception of value. It’s about understanding one’s purpose, being sincere with oneself, embracing the ugly and the sad and the good and the bright, embracing the truth at core, without black or pink lens.
I love the idea that she tries to devour it, like a kid trying to put in her mouth her favorite toy ‘cause it is pretty and she wants to be like that. Spinner twisted perception is always a clue on what’s wrong: Toga is not as free as he perceived her, but she’s rather trapped in her desire to be accepted and feel accepted. It doesn’t matter if the world accepts her if she doesn’t feel like it is true.
It’s such a natural instinct to want to explore the world with the teeth, to test it and judge it based on taste and texture. After all society is always taking bites out of teenage girls and letting them suffer if they find “something is lacking”.
how dull for you to live your life without any hills to die on, you, on your vast flat barren plains of compromise, acceptance, and accommodation, while I reign supreme over the lush, rolling highlands of stupid shit I have irrationally chosen to stake my entire identity on
