Cathaleen Bate, also known as Star and Stripe, is America’s number one hero in My Hero Academia and one of the strongest heroes in the world of the anime. She is a powerful hero with a unique costume design filled with her country’s flag patterns, and blonde hair inspired by All Might.
After she and her family were saved by All Might in her youth, she gained admiration for the hero and decided to follow in his footsteps, getting tutelage from him and eventually rising to the top of the ranks. Star and Stripe is a powerful hero with an even more powerful quirk. The quirk allows her to directly affect the properties of people and objects around her, transforming them into other things according at will. With the new season of My Hero Academia airing, fans are bound to be curious and want to know all they can about America’s number one hero.
5 Her Quirk’s Power
America’s New Order
Star and Stripe’s quirk is a major reason for her standing in the pro-hero scene, and it is called New Order. It allows her to directly affect her surroundings under certain conditions. She can apply a rule to anything she touches, as long as she knows its name. This gives her near-omnipotent power, bending space and time at her will.
Star needs to be in direct contact with the object, and then she verbally gives it an order. If she knows the name of the object, she can change the properties of that object infinitely. This allows her to strengthen herself and others, as well as do outlandish things like turning laser beams into swords or air into a vacuum.
4 Her Limitations
Star and Stripe’s Power Has Its Limits
Star’s Quirk may seem extremely overpowered, because it is. It bends matter and changes reality as we know it, transcending the power of other quirks seen so far in the anime. Some could say that this power could even put down the likes of All Might. But there are certain conditions that must be met in order for it to work. Some scenarios can lead to the quirk not working as planned.
The first limitation is that she needs to be in direct contact with the object or person she wants to affect. Second, she has to verbally speak to impose a rule on it so it can be affected. Another limitation is that she has to know the name of the object or person she is touching before applying a rule. This condition can lead to her powers not working on individuals with a fluid sense of identity or, for instance, knowing an identity that an individual holds no conscious or subconscious association with. She also has limits to how much she can strengthen and improve herself and others. Additionally, she can only apply two orders at a time. If she wants to add a new one, she has to cancel one of her pre-existing ones.
3 Her History
The Origin Of America’s Number One
When she was young, Cathaleen was saved from a rogue villain attack by a younger All Might. He was in the United States for training, outside the public eye of Japan. Afterward, she gained immense admiration for the hero and everything he represents, emulating her approach towards becoming a pro-hero for him.
Star looks like a female version of All Might, even dyeing her own hair blonde and adding eight tufts to its design in order to resemble him. This similar design represents a desire to achieve greater peace, following in the footsteps of her mentor. Even from a structural standpoint, Star has similar physical features to those of All Might. She stands extremely tall and has a broad, muscular physique. This emulation extends to a similar blue and patriotic design to her costume, as well as her outlook on heroism. Star believes in All Might’s outlook and principles, considering his charisma as a bright and reassuring protector.
2 Events Before Her Final Battle
The Strongest American Who Could Defeat All Might
All For One said that the evolution of Shigaraki Tomura was almost complete, but they needed to steal One For All from Midoriya, stating that he had additional goals for the future. After All Might’s distress call to other countries for aid, Star and Stripe immediately mobilized without waiting for the permission of the United States government to go to Japan. All For One fears Star’s powers, stating that she is his current greatest obstacle and possesses the power to put an end to him.
All For One takes a gamble and sends Shigaraki to intercept Star on her journey to group up with Japan’s heroes. He knows there is a possibility Tomura could be defeated doing this, but that he stands a lower chance of winning if she reaches Japan. The two powerhouses meet mid-flight and set up for a high-stakes battle. Star sees that Tomura is a world-threatening villain that has to be stopped at all costs, and Tomura, enacting the will of All For One, needs to destroy and acquire the quirk of the biggest threat to their plans.
1 The Aftermath Of The Battle
The End Of A Titan
The battle between these beacons of good and evil ensued, with Star taking command. During the fight, Star showcased some of the strongest uses of her power, reducing Shigaraki’s power and summoning a giant mimic of herself made of air. She commanded fighter jets and manipulated them to maximize the full extent of her quirk, showing her strategic abilities.
After putting pressure on Shigaraki, backing him to a corner and almost defeating him, he grabs her and decays her body while also trying to steal her quirk. To give the world a fighting chance against the monstrous villain, Star corrupts her quirk before he can steal it, causing it to damage and destroy his other quirks. Ultimately, this makes him unable to use it, and the quirk is lost forever. Cathaleen Bate was a short-lived hero in the anime, proving just how powerful and game-changing she would have been if left to aid the hero cause.
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