Summary

• Stain's critique of hero society is validated by the behavior of heroes like Uwabami who prioritize fame and endorsements over helping people.
• Heroes in My Hero Academia often use their status to boost their music or acting careers, rather than solely focusing on protecting and serving the public.
• Uwabami exemplifies the societal issues that Stain condemns, highlighting the flaws within hero society and adding complexity to the conflict between heroes and villains.

My Hero Academia's hero killer Stain is a complicated character, as despite his murderous tendencies, he does have some valid criticisms and complaints of hero society. In fact, the story went out of its way at the beginning of the Hero Killer arc to prove exactly the kind of hero Stain was talking about.

In the Hero Killer arc, the students of Classes 1-A and 1-B are sent off to be hero interns for a week, based on requests sent to them from the Sports Festival. In chapter 48, while Deku is sent to meet Gran Torino and Bakugo is off with Best Jeanist, two other students, Momo Yaoyorozu and Itsuka Kendo, were interning with a celebrity, the snake hero Uwabami. Kendo and Yaoyorozu are disappointed in what they see, as Uwabami's day consists of basically no hero work, instead filming commercials, making appearances, and otherwise attending to business matters. While the girls are mostly disappointed that they aren't gaining any real experience, Uwabami is making the case for Stain's argument.

Uwabami is the Kind of Hero Stain is Talking About

Stain's motivation for hunting heroes is that he feels that most pros, perhaps all except for All Might, are unworthy of the title of "Hero." Instead, they are treated as celebrities, endorsing products and making talk show appearances while people are left to suffer from crime and disasters. From Stain's point of view, these heroes are putting their own needs above those of others, which is exactly the opposite of what a person proclaimed as a hero should do. Even Tenya Ida's brother, the original Ingenium who was taken out by Stain, was shown filming commercials in the prequel series My Hero Academia Vigilantes.

Uwabami is almost certainly included in the Stain arc because her behavior proves that Stain has a point: there are many people who have become pro heroes for the glory, rather than to do good and help people. Heroes in My Hero Academia don't seem to have any kind of requirements in of incidents resolved in order to maintain their status as pros, so getting one's pro license and then immediately pivoting to being a public figure is perfectly legal. It wouldn't be surprising to find out that some pros actually only became a hero as a gimmick to enhance their music or acting careers.

This, of course, doesn't mean Uwabami deserves to be killed by Stain; she's shown later helping out with the hideout raid to retrieve Bakugo, for example, so she does do some hero work. After all, All Might has plenty of merch floating around, and the existence of that All Might merch doesn't seem to have affected Stain's opinion of him. Uwabami, however, stands out as emblematic of the social issues which Stain is railing against, and the problems with hero society as a whole. By introducing her in the chapters with Stain, it helps to prove Stain's argument and make My Hero Academia's conflict between heroes and villains a lot grayer.