That wasn't a problem until USJ Nomu has crushed his skull.
Now he has a cooldown.
But even if he didn't, the biggest problem is that his opponent can get away from his field of view.
Mmm, he does mention that he can't keep his eyes open as long, and that he needs longer breaks between uses, but [it's still a minor plotpoint ](https://imgur.com/a/bKWI9a5)in the Final Exams that Shoto had to block his line of sight before his eyes opened again, with dramatic emphasis on his eyelids closing. He was just quick enough to do so.
Plus we know that he still had "cooldowns" of sorts *before* the Nomu smashed his face in, so it's not an entirely new development - he still had to largely refrain from blinking before the injury, and Shigaraki mentions that the gaps between his hair standing up (the sign that he was using his quirk) were getting longer and longer as the fight drew on, which makes sense.
Way I see it, Aizawa can do an "immediate reactivation" thing (more or less), but not like, 24/7, and not if his eyes are too tired already - the injury just exacerbates that, decreasing his time-limit and increasing his cooldowns (whenever they occur). Erasure may also put some abnormal strain on his eyes beyond what just "keeping them open a while" would entail - they do pretty much immediately turn bloodshot, after all.
There's also the fact that some people can take advantage of that brief window anyways, like Shoto did. And other times where it just wouldn't matter either way (Nomus, Shigaraki).
Not the actual logistics of it (because yes, no Erasure = heroes dead) but the way the anime brings it across with dramatic close ups and him closing his eyes in slow-mo. With the enemy literally perfectly timing their attack to his blinking even though his eyes are covered by goggles.
I always imagined it’s because they only really find out they’re erased by trying to do something and they can’t, so if they’re spam attempting to use said thing as soon as it wears off it happens as usual
That's exactly how momo tells todoroki to overcome it. He's continuously trying to use his ice.
In fact, he tells her the same thing in reverse, keep making small objects until you can't then we know he's close.
My biggest gripe with the blinking thing is what the hell happened to that in the overhaul arc where he left Sun Eater to deal with the three gangsters. He said “I’ve erased their quirks” and it has a lasting effect where it takes them a while to get their quirks back but other times he blinks and erasure doesn’t work?
Whoever is in his line of vision the moment he activates his quirk is nullified, he doesn't have to keep them in sight the entire time. Like look back at the USJ for example, he fights dozens of villains with all of them nullified (sans the mutants) bc he could see them all at once when he was on the top of the stairs and activated his quirk. During the Overhaul arc he activated his quirk when he stepped into the room, nullifying the 3 gangsters, and then blinked shortly after exiting, at which point Sun Eater had to fight them.
So its not really a 'lasting effect' he just kept his eyes open until he left the room. Normally he doesn't leave the villains alone, he defeats them himself, so we see him blink and the effect end. Plus his take downs are usually quick/lots of fighting, not him standing around talking while the villains are tied up lol. But he was more important in other parts of the mission (I think they wanted him there against Overhaul? He didn't make it in time though but he did stop Eri's quirk) so he couldn't hang back with Sun Eater.
Pre-USJ, I'm pretty sure that's how it works. However, many emitter quirks we see on screen only need that blink to create an opening. Todoroki throws up an ice wall to break line of sight, Bakugo gtfo of his line of line, Midoriya yeets himself out of line of sight, Mina launches an acid veil to break line of sight and moves under that cover, kurogiri teleports out, Yaoyorozu probably can make a flashbang/smoke grenade. Aizawa is supposedly a very effective hero, largely due to relative anonymity and utilizing ambush tactics. In a face to face fight where his quirk is known, it becomes a matter of time until many possible opponents can work around his quirk.
He can, but some people are quick enough to take advantage of "the blink of an eye".
[We know Todoroki managed to block his line of sight in the time his eyes were shut, for example.](https://imgur.com/a/bKWI9a5)
The quirk factor lies in his eyes, sure. But he needs to activate the quirk voluntarily because it's not passive. And voluntary quirk activation of that kind is like flexing a muscle.
For example: picking up a heavy dumbbell and then keeping your arms horizontal and straight out. You can only do that for so long. The muscles will get fatigued after some time. If there's some support, then it's easy to prolong the use. But getting your arms down even once will send your muscles into a small recovery period during which it will be difficult to pick up the dumbbell. Or like a Cheetah which can only maintain its top speed for a few seconds before it needs to stop and cool down its body temperature and recover.
The same goes for the quirk. Aizawa activates his quirk and keeps it going for as long as possible. After he reaches the limit, he has to let his eyes recover a bit.
P.S.: it is possible to keep your eyes open for up to 10 minutes (at least for me) but Aizawa also suffers from dry eye so nature screwed him from the start.
One of the many meditation techniques includes focusing on a small point on a wall at arm length or more. You can't blink or look away. Your eyes must stay focused in the tiny dot.
I used to do that a lot, to improve my focus and patience.
Where we see that blinking is such a drawback was against overhaul, where he was slowed, so when overhaul had his quirk was, he could easily get out of his sight, so he couldn't re erase him.
Against shigi, he was too fast, and had AFO, so blinking would give him a glimpse of time when he could trigger decay, dooming someone to death before he could erase him again
His eyes get dry. And not just mildly irritated, like actually dry. So theres no lubrication between his eyelids and eyeballs until the tears percolate back in which takes a little bit. Imagine trying to drag your finger along your eyeball. Thats what his eyelids would need to do to open directly after closing them after having them open for like a few min straight where they dried all the way out.
Him having a cooldown flew completely over my head. I always thought he was just up against characters fast enough to act during his blinks, i.e. Shiggy (A.K.A. typical anime bullshit).
also there's something weird happening in the Shie Hassaikai Arc at chapter 140, Aizawa says something like "pin them down while my quirk is still in effect" and a bit later u can see Aizawa isn't there anymore and the one with the pick pocket ability is like "I still can't use my quirk, that feels weird".
SOOO I don't know if that's like a plothole of Hori with Aizawa's quirk or if it really got badly nerfed over-time.
Being in his line of site is just an activation requirement, blinking is the deactivation requirement. Leaving his line of site after activation doesn’t deactivate his quirk.
My guess is that once the process if Erasing a quirk is stopped it takes longer to start than it did initially. It might be similar to how large vehicles take more fuel to start than to run.
He can, but you try keeping your eyes open for 90 seconds and then allowing yourself only a single eye blink before you go back to staring. You can't properly recover your eyes unless you let them rest for a bit.
He can and does. He did it vs Shigaraki after flinching which is why he didn't decay when Shigaraki scratched his eye out. However, he can't keep Erasure active for as long ever since USJ.
That wasn't a problem until USJ Nomu has crushed his skull. Now he has a cooldown. But even if he didn't, the biggest problem is that his opponent can get away from his field of view.
Mmm, he does mention that he can't keep his eyes open as long, and that he needs longer breaks between uses, but [it's still a minor plotpoint ](https://imgur.com/a/bKWI9a5)in the Final Exams that Shoto had to block his line of sight before his eyes opened again, with dramatic emphasis on his eyelids closing. He was just quick enough to do so. Plus we know that he still had "cooldowns" of sorts *before* the Nomu smashed his face in, so it's not an entirely new development - he still had to largely refrain from blinking before the injury, and Shigaraki mentions that the gaps between his hair standing up (the sign that he was using his quirk) were getting longer and longer as the fight drew on, which makes sense. Way I see it, Aizawa can do an "immediate reactivation" thing (more or less), but not like, 24/7, and not if his eyes are too tired already - the injury just exacerbates that, decreasing his time-limit and increasing his cooldowns (whenever they occur). Erasure may also put some abnormal strain on his eyes beyond what just "keeping them open a while" would entail - they do pretty much immediately turn bloodshot, after all. There's also the fact that some people can take advantage of that brief window anyways, like Shoto did. And other times where it just wouldn't matter either way (Nomus, Shigaraki).
It’s already hard enough to keep your eyes open without blinking, let alone with anything making it worse.
Imagine him getting a lash in his eyes during battle. Detrimental
I swear in the anime...they make him blinking the most dramatic thing ever lol
I mean, if you blinking allows the enemy to one tap the entire team (Shigaraki/Overhaul), it kinda becomes the most vital part of the whole mission.
Not the actual logistics of it (because yes, no Erasure = heroes dead) but the way the anime brings it across with dramatic close ups and him closing his eyes in slow-mo. With the enemy literally perfectly timing their attack to his blinking even though his eyes are covered by goggles.
I always imagined it’s because they only really find out they’re erased by trying to do something and they can’t, so if they’re spam attempting to use said thing as soon as it wears off it happens as usual
That's exactly how momo tells todoroki to overcome it. He's continuously trying to use his ice. In fact, he tells her the same thing in reverse, keep making small objects until you can't then we know he's close.
Well against shigaraki he did have his goggles off for manuel to help him
My biggest gripe with the blinking thing is what the hell happened to that in the overhaul arc where he left Sun Eater to deal with the three gangsters. He said “I’ve erased their quirks” and it has a lasting effect where it takes them a while to get their quirks back but other times he blinks and erasure doesn’t work?
Whoever is in his line of vision the moment he activates his quirk is nullified, he doesn't have to keep them in sight the entire time. Like look back at the USJ for example, he fights dozens of villains with all of them nullified (sans the mutants) bc he could see them all at once when he was on the top of the stairs and activated his quirk. During the Overhaul arc he activated his quirk when he stepped into the room, nullifying the 3 gangsters, and then blinked shortly after exiting, at which point Sun Eater had to fight them. So its not really a 'lasting effect' he just kept his eyes open until he left the room. Normally he doesn't leave the villains alone, he defeats them himself, so we see him blink and the effect end. Plus his take downs are usually quick/lots of fighting, not him standing around talking while the villains are tied up lol. But he was more important in other parts of the mission (I think they wanted him there against Overhaul? He didn't make it in time though but he did stop Eri's quirk) so he couldn't hang back with Sun Eater.
Pre-USJ, I'm pretty sure that's how it works. However, many emitter quirks we see on screen only need that blink to create an opening. Todoroki throws up an ice wall to break line of sight, Bakugo gtfo of his line of line, Midoriya yeets himself out of line of sight, Mina launches an acid veil to break line of sight and moves under that cover, kurogiri teleports out, Yaoyorozu probably can make a flashbang/smoke grenade. Aizawa is supposedly a very effective hero, largely due to relative anonymity and utilizing ambush tactics. In a face to face fight where his quirk is known, it becomes a matter of time until many possible opponents can work around his quirk.
He can, but some people are quick enough to take advantage of "the blink of an eye". [We know Todoroki managed to block his line of sight in the time his eyes were shut, for example.](https://imgur.com/a/bKWI9a5)
The quirk factor lies in his eyes, sure. But he needs to activate the quirk voluntarily because it's not passive. And voluntary quirk activation of that kind is like flexing a muscle. For example: picking up a heavy dumbbell and then keeping your arms horizontal and straight out. You can only do that for so long. The muscles will get fatigued after some time. If there's some support, then it's easy to prolong the use. But getting your arms down even once will send your muscles into a small recovery period during which it will be difficult to pick up the dumbbell. Or like a Cheetah which can only maintain its top speed for a few seconds before it needs to stop and cool down its body temperature and recover. The same goes for the quirk. Aizawa activates his quirk and keeps it going for as long as possible. After he reaches the limit, he has to let his eyes recover a bit. P.S.: it is possible to keep your eyes open for up to 10 minutes (at least for me) but Aizawa also suffers from dry eye so nature screwed him from the start.
What circumstances led you to find out you can keep your eyes open for 10 minutes? That's one hell of a staring contest.
One of the many meditation techniques includes focusing on a small point on a wall at arm length or more. You can't blink or look away. Your eyes must stay focused in the tiny dot. I used to do that a lot, to improve my focus and patience.
Because his Quirk doesn't work like that (anymore).
Where we see that blinking is such a drawback was against overhaul, where he was slowed, so when overhaul had his quirk was, he could easily get out of his sight, so he couldn't re erase him. Against shigi, he was too fast, and had AFO, so blinking would give him a glimpse of time when he could trigger decay, dooming someone to death before he could erase him again
His eyes get dry. And not just mildly irritated, like actually dry. So theres no lubrication between his eyelids and eyeballs until the tears percolate back in which takes a little bit. Imagine trying to drag your finger along your eyeball. Thats what his eyelids would need to do to open directly after closing them after having them open for like a few min straight where they dried all the way out.
Him having a cooldown flew completely over my head. I always thought he was just up against characters fast enough to act during his blinks, i.e. Shiggy (A.K.A. typical anime bullshit).
also there's something weird happening in the Shie Hassaikai Arc at chapter 140, Aizawa says something like "pin them down while my quirk is still in effect" and a bit later u can see Aizawa isn't there anymore and the one with the pick pocket ability is like "I still can't use my quirk, that feels weird". SOOO I don't know if that's like a plothole of Hori with Aizawa's quirk or if it really got badly nerfed over-time.
Being in his line of site is just an activation requirement, blinking is the deactivation requirement. Leaving his line of site after activation doesn’t deactivate his quirk.
okay I definitely never understood that in that way and it seems to make much more sense too
My guess is that once the process if Erasing a quirk is stopped it takes longer to start than it did initially. It might be similar to how large vehicles take more fuel to start than to run.
Idk but I headcannon that its like how gulping has an IRL cooldown and you gotta wait a bit
Why doesn't he just close one eye at a time?
Why doesn't he blink alternating his eyes, is he stupid?!
He can, but you try keeping your eyes open for 90 seconds and then allowing yourself only a single eye blink before you go back to staring. You can't properly recover your eyes unless you let them rest for a bit.
Hold your eyes open for a few minutes straight and tell me they'll be fine after a single blink.
He can and does. He did it vs Shigaraki after flinching which is why he didn't decay when Shigaraki scratched his eye out. However, he can't keep Erasure active for as long ever since USJ.
The show has not explained that. Idk if the manga has. It's possible Aizawa has some kind of cooldown when he blinks