An explanation of the limitations of My Hero Academia: New Order

Key Takeaways

• New orders have limitations. Star and Stripe can only have two rules active at a time.
• To activate the New Order, the target's self-awareness must be clear for the challenge to be possible.
• New orders require immediate contact, exposing short-distance shortcomings.

My Hero Academia As the series progresses into its later years, it continues to introduce new and powerful features into the mix. Latest additions My Hero Academia The Quirk lineup is New Order, a god-like Quirk owned by America's No. 1 hero Star & Stripes. With the power to set rules for all objects, animate or inanimate, the Stars and Stripes can bend nature itself to their will.

Although it seems like a broken quirk with little to no counters, New Order still has many limitations and shortcomings, and Star and Stripe's battle with Shigaraki exposes these weaknesses in detail. Her eventual defeat at the hands of the villain is further evidence of the many limitations that come with the New Order. While these shortcomings don't diminish New Order's godly nature, they still serve as a testament to My Hero Academia's solid power balancing.

Limited number of rules for new spells

Stars and Stripes can only have two rules active at a time.

New Order's biggest limitation is Star and Stripe's limit on how many rules can be active at any given moment. In New Order, only two rules are in effect at a time, so Star and Stripe must release old rules to implement new ones. This flaw severely limits the application of the New Order. That's because Star and Stripe essentially has one rule permanently applied to her body that grants her superhuman powers.

These limitations become apparent during Stars and Stripes' battle with Shigaraki. My Hero Academia Season 7. Only two rules could be applied at a time, so we had to let go of the laser holding Shigaraki and apply another rule to the missile targeting the villain. This momentary opening allowed Shigaraki to use Decay to burrow deep underground, allowing him to survive a missile blast similar to a weapon of mass destruction.

The subject's self-awareness must be clear to the user.

Stars and Stripes require a clear understanding of the subject's identity.

For Stars and Stripes to use New Order, they must call out the name of the target, whether animate or inanimate. The human case is somewhat more complex because the Stars and Stripes requires an understanding of the subject's sense of self. This usually entails knowing the name of the object. However, for a character experiencing an identity crisis like Tomura Shigaraki, whose consciousness is indistinguishable from All For One, New Order ceases to function.

When she calls someone with a sense of self by their name, she must identify with that person.

This also explains why the New Order's effects are much stronger on inanimate objects. This is because Star and Stripe's own understanding of the object's magnetic sense is enough to activate the strangeness. However, humans are complex creatures whose sense of self can be somewhat difficult to discern, and the New Order's effectiveness is further weakened for those experiencing inner turmoil.

New Order's rules are not omnipotent

There are limits to the effectiveness of the new order

In theory, the New Order seems similar to the power of God. Because nature can and will bow to its rules. However, the event of My Hero Academia It showed that even pious whimsy like New Order had its limits. Each rule set by Stars and Stripes has a limit to its effectiveness, a prime example of this upper threshold being how much she can improve her health. The New Order can grant Star and Stripe unprecedented powers rivaling All Might's, but they cannot exceed certain limits.

This limit is determined by the individual's maximum human potential. Because that specificity cannot change an individual's genetic makeup. The same concept applies to the rest of the rules in New Order, but with different restrictions depending on what the rule is for. If the target is an inanimate object, New Order's effects are much greater. The opposite is true for living things, especially humans. Because the New Order's effectiveness is greatly diminished on people, either themselves or others.

Your god-like features have their own rules.

Stars and stripes must be in direct contact with the object.

Although the New Order may have infinite applications, this divine power requires the user to make immediate contact with the object. This may be a simple task for inanimate objects, but for humans it can be disadvantageous. This aspect of New Order sees ingenuity as a short-range power. That means Star and Stripe has to put itself in the line of fire to activate its quirk on human subjects.

This flaw proved fatal in Stars and Stripes' battle against Shigaraki, as it gave the ingenious thieving villain the opportunity to close the gap and even use Decay. Star and Stripe's ultimate demise was not the result of this weakness, but it did open up several moments for Shigaraki to use it to his advantage against American hero Decay.

My Hero Academia You can stream it on Prime Video.