I’ve been seeing some posts lately that include analysis of the Summer Camp Arc, but I think many of them don’t break down the villains’ plans accurately. Some have pointed out that the attack led directly to Kamino and made the League of Villains suffer long-term consequences, which is true, but I’m going to take the short-term view here and say that the Vanguard Action Squad accomplished their mission splendidly. Most of the more critical posts are written with the benefit of hindsight, and from the standpoint of observers without trying to dissect whether the VAS actually had a plan at all, which isn’t exactly fair if we want to give credit where it’s due. So let’s just even the score here a bit. Whether or not you think the LOV lost the war in Kamino, they very much won the battle in the summer camp. Even Deku concedes this in his outro: “We utterly lost.”
(Note: Some of the posts I’ve seen trying to break down the Summer Camp Arc are character-centric, but my intention here isn’t to dispute characterization; rather, I want to offer an alternate interpretation to these events so that if you’re going to include this arc in your character analysis, you can do it fairly. It is an option to take the attack as the face-value mess it was, and judge it by assuming all elements should have been predictable, but I personally find it more interesting to reverse-engineer strategies that aren’t outright stated to the reader, which is what this post is about. Obviously, this information isn’t canon and it’s my own conjecture based on studying the villains’ movements in the arc.)
So, that said… Stepping back from looking at the long-term results, what were the villains’ actual goals and strategy, and what did they accomplish?
I’ve been seeing some posts lately that include analysis of the Summer Camp Arc, but I think many of them don’t break down the villains’ plans accurately. Some have pointed out that the attack led directly to Kamino and made the League of Villains suffer long-term consequences, which is true, but I’m going to take the short-term view here and say that the Vanguard Action Squad accomplished their mission splendidly. Most of the more critical posts are written with the benefit of hindsight, and from the standpoint of observers without trying to dissect whether the VAS actually had a plan at all, which isn’t exactly fair if we want to give credit where it’s due. So let’s just even the score here a bit. Whether or not you think the LOV lost the war in Kamino, they very much won the battle in the summer camp. Even Deku concedes this in his outro: “We utterly lost.”
(Note: Some of the posts I’ve seen trying to break down the Summer Camp Arc are character-centric, but my intention here isn’t to dispute characterization; rather, I want to offer an alternate interpretation to these events so that if you’re going to include this arc in your character analysis, you can do it fairly. It is an option to take the attack as the face-value mess it was, and judge it by assuming all elements should have been predictable, but I personally find it more interesting to reverse-engineer strategies that aren’t outright stated to the reader, which is what this post is about. Obviously, this information isn’t canon and it’s my own conjecture based on studying the villains’ movements in the arc.)
So, that said… Stepping back from looking at the long-term results, what were the villains’ actual goals and strategy, and what did they accomplish?
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 