In the long timeline of My Hero Academia, protagonist and future number 1 hero, Deku has made a number of strides along his difficult journey. When fans first met Deku, he was a shy, helpless child with no quirk and no hopes of becoming a pro hero.

Now, the Deku that stands in front of audiences has successfully earned his Hero License and is well on his way to becoming a successor All Might can be proud of. Deku often gets heavily criticized for being weak and it’s about time critics take a step back to appreciate exactly how much Deku has grown during his journey.

Disclaimer: This only includes Deku’s development up to Season 5 of the anime.

11 Middle School: Quirkless And Ostracized

At the very beginning of the series, the audience is introduced to a very insecure, shy protagonist. After a young aspiring Deku finds out that he is quirkless, the series then fast-forwards to his middle school days. This was to be Deku’s fate — a quirkless student who wished to be a hero with all his heart.

Because of his (at the time) unrealistic dream of becoming a hero and attending the prestigious U.A. High, he was often bullied by his classmates. At this point in Deku’s life, he had no one but his kind mother behind him to support his lifelong dream of becoming a hero.

10 Meeting All Might: Beginning The 10-Month Training Program

Early into Deku’s story, he serendipitously has a run-in with his idol — All Might, the number one pro hero in the world. Realizing his difficult position, Deku takes the opportunity to confront All Might, telling him about being quirkless and being insistent on pursuing his dream of becoming a hero.

At first, All Might reluctantly tells Deku his dreams are unrealistic. However, after witnessing Deku rush in to try and save his classmate Bakugo from a villain, All Might has a sudden change of heart. It is then that he tells Deku he has what it takes to be his successor and begins Deku’s training period. Deku began as a young average student and didn’t have any real physical advantages, so it’s only natural that All Might needed to first prepare Deku’s frail body for the power of his quirk.

9 Training Completed: Deku Inherits All For One

Deku finally completes the rigorous training plan All Might devised for him. After all his hard work and strict dieting (thanks to the helpful hand of his kind mother), Deku is finally deemed ready to have All Might’s quirk transferred to him.

However, to Deku’s surprise, this process included the bizarre ritual of eating a strand of All Might’s hair. This is also where the audience learns the means of how All Might’s quirk passage works: via the willing exchange of any kind of item that holds the previous user’s DNA.

8 U.A. Entrance Exams: Deku Uses OFA For The First Time

During the entrance exams for U.A. High, Deku finally puts his quirk to the test for the first time ever. During this examination, he finds himself at a loss, overwhelmed with all his classmates showing off their skill and experience. In a serious bind while trying to save Ururaka, Deku finally successfully summons the power of OFA as his intense need to save and protect others activates it.

Here, the audience witnesses not only the first time Deku uses his powers, but also the first time he breaks almost all of his bones and discovers the harsh effect such a powerful quirk has on his body.

7 Sports Festival: First Encounter With Previous OFA Users

After his successful entry into U.A. High, Deku participates in the school’s sports festival. Here he is matched up with classmate Shinso Hitoshi who has the eerie ability to brainwash his opponents by simply engaging them in conversation.

In a panicked frenzy after getting brainwashed by Shinso, Deku sees strange shadowy figures outside of the arena and manages to activate his quirk to break free of Shinso’s control. This is the first time Deku encounters the previous users of OFA and has them to thank for his eventual victory against Shinso.

6 Fight Against Muscular: First Usage Of OFA At 100 and 100,000,000%

Until this point, Deku had been warned about “over-doing it” with his quirk as it was clear that over-usage of OFA had detrimental effects on his body. However, in a terrible run-in with a powerful villain Muscular, Deku has no choice but to use his quirk at 100% in order to save a helpless Kota.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Muscular withstands Deku’s 100% smash and continues to pursue him and Kota. Now pushed to his limits, Deku is finally forced to use OFA at a whopping 1 million percent. Although Deku left this battle victorious, it was pure adrenaline and concern for getting young Kota to safety that allowed Deku to ignore his injuries and flee afterward.

5 Full Cowling: Deku Develops A New Style & New Armor

The audience up until this point watched a young struggling Deku aspire to be just like his idol. It was clear that Deku’s admiration of All Might forced him to try and imitate his hero rather than grow into a hero identity of his own.

After the dangerous encounter with Muscular, Deku decided to develop his own style of combat; a unique one that came from his own mind, not All Might’s. With the help of U.A.’s support class’ Mei Hatsume, Deku then develops his Full Cowling Shoot Style — a combat style utilizing kicks rather than punches aided by Mei’s leg-support armor.

4 Fight Against Overhaul: Aided By Eri, Deku Freely Uses OFA At 100%

At the time of the big battle with Overhaul, Deku still had difficulties with handling the immense power of OFA. It is also during this battle that Deku discovers Eri’s quirk of “rewinding humans” allowing him to unleash OFA at 100% with little to no repercussions on his body.

Although Eri couldn’t quite control her quirk, this just meant Deku needed to keep his attacks going in order to give Eri something else in his body to rewind. Deku ensured to take advantage of her power and successfully subdued Overhaul.

3 Heroes Rising: Deku Transfers Half Of OFA To Bakugo

In one of the most intense fights in the entirety of the series, in Heroes Rising Deku and his classmates are pushed to their limits with their encounter with the villain Nine. Nine, a powerful villain connected to All For One, seemingly defeats a battered Bakugo and Deku. However, with little to no other options available, Deku makes the decision of transferring OFA to Bakugo in order to have two current vessels present at once.

At this point his quirk is essentially split in two; Bakugo now canonically being a (temporary) user of OFA. Although this incredible battle ends with Nine’s defeat, the embers of Deku’s quirk begin to fade away as a wary Deku finally loses consciousness.

2 Nine Aftermath: OFA Users Transfer Quirk Back To Deku

By the end of the film, the pro heroes finally arrive at Nabu Island well after the battle. All Might finds the weakened Deku and Bakugo and discovers that although the embers of Deku’s quirk went out, OFA still miraculously managed to find its way back to Deku, leaving Bakugo with no recollection of what happened.

All Might interprets this as the previous OFA users reigniting the quirk back into Deku, as they wished for him to continue being the chosen vessel. (Sorry, Bakugo!)

1 Joint Training Battle: Deku Manifests Blackwhip

At this point, Deku is visited by visions of the previous users of OFA. Initially deeming them as simple nightmares, Deku eventually understands that the previous users are trying to communicate with him.

During the joint training exercise, Deku then summons a mysterious quirk — the Blackwhip. In the form of black, glowing tentacle-like entities, Blackwhip is manifested within Deku via the quirk of a previous OFA user. It is then that Deku learns that the core of OFA is growing larger and stronger in him; ultimately causing him to manifest the cultivated quirks of all the past users.

NEXT: My Hero Academia: The Best Story Arcs So Far, Ranked