#'nihilism is inherently negative. they think living life is worthless and everything is empty and devoid of meaning'

[anotherpapercut]

I HATE trying to read about philosophy on the internet because absolutely nobody understands what the fuck nihilism is it's insane

[linkspooky]

Shigaraki’s Nihilism

Shigaraki Tomura’s mindset is a difficult one to understand. So much so, even in story both heroes and fellow villains alike reject his mindset as incomprehensible and unsympathetic. He comes off to them nothing more than a brat who wants attention and is throwing a tantrum, or just a villain who is as pure as a villain as one can get, one who only exists to destroy lacking a redeemable motive like stain. 

However, the real reason Shigaraki is incomprehensible to characters in story, and even some members of the audience is because of his position as an outsider. All of the other characters in the story, inherently believe that society, their actions, their values all have meaning. Shigaraki is someone who positioned as the outsider to society, sees it all as meaningless and becomes in opposition to everything. Which is why Shigaraki finds sympathizers in his fellow outsiders, who cannot find the same meaning and place in society that everybody else does. 

“Destroy Everything” may sound like a vague cliche of a villain goal, but it can be viewed as an extension of nihilism. Shigaraki rejects, recklessly so, all moral principles that Hero Society has told him should have meaning. He is the ultimate challenge to Hero Society’s hypocrisy. I will explain more under the cut. 

So yes, Shigaraki’s words that sound like nothing more than the rantings of an edge-lord actually have a lot in common with a certain school of philosophy. Nihilism, specifically the kind written about by Nietzsche. Nietzsche is one of the most popular philosophers that have entered the popular conscious, but at the same time much like Shigaraki he is oftentimes misunderstood. 

The reason why is rather simple. People do not take kindly to the fact that the beliefs which they have been told have meaning their entire lives, ideas that they were raised on, are false. Especially if these values are what motivate them to work hard. Therefore Nietzsche is just a shallow edgelord repeated by those trying to sound deep. It’s easier to dismiss him like that. Nietzsche’s ideas are not asserting that the things that you believe in are worthless, instead he questions what made you believe in them in the first place? 

“Commonly held beliefs” or “Society’s Values” are things taken for granted and accepted just as they are because we are raised in society and told these things since birth. Once again this is not a rejection of society, it’s just critical thinking. It’s important to think about why we think the things we do, to challenge those beliefs.

Nietzsche lived a quiet and sad life, but his philosophy was actually not that negative. It was full of heroism and grandeur. His belief that humans could be more than they are. Due to his obsession with heroes, and challenging the limits of humanity his ideas can be seen as having a lot in common with hero society. The term superman itself (ubermensch) originates from Nietzsche. 

His thought centers around four main recommendations. 

1. SKLAVENMORAL (SLAVE MORALITY)

Returning to my original point in the opening, it’s been pointed out several times that those who exist within society cannot understand Shigaraki’s ideas at all. They are over and over again, dismissed as empty ideas and unsympathetic. The ramblings of a villain, who is simply just a villain. 

Shigaraki’s first lines of dialogue to All Might are questions about his violence. He asks how an inherently violent system like the hero system is one that can foster peace. Violence and peace are a contradiction. However, despite the fact that Shigaraki might have a point All Might dismisses him as a liar making things up. That his words are empty, ergo meaningless. 

Even if Shigaraki is not someone like Stain who endeavors to reform society with an ideal society in mind in his heart, that does not mean his statements are empty. After all the story has shown us heroes are inherently violent. Are you going to argue that heroes like Bakugo and Endeavor are not also violent people whose violence have been encouraged (though Bakugo just being a kid is more of a victim of society failing to curtail his attitude) by the hero system? 

The reason Shigaraki’s statement comes off as empty is because he just questions everything. Remember, Shigaraki’s entire world has been violent. His first formative memories are the violent deaths of his entire family, and then he was raised by a violent criminal. Therefore from Shigaraki’s point of view, how is he supposed to differentiate between good “Heroic” violence and bad “Villainous” violence. Whereas, All Might was raised inside of a society where protecting others, and protecting the peace was encouraged. 

Shigaraki’s tendency is to question absolutely everything, and reject the commonly held notions of the other characters. Everyone, almost every character in the story has something they believe in that drives them. Because Shigaraki questions everything and believes in nothing he comes off as empty. 

Even Stain a fellow villain believes Shigaraki at first to be someone who just kills for no reason, notice once again the word “meaningless” comes up. A lot of these characters going up against Shigaraki are extremely antagonistic to even the idea that their actions might lack meaning. It’s easier to see Shigaraki as an empty, soulless man, as someone who is just a villain.

The difference between Shigaraki and Stain is that Stain still believes in Hero Society. He believes Hero Society is warped, but that if every single hero in the world were like All Might he would be just fine with Hero Society. He accepts the values and beliefs of Hero Society, but believes that people are just falling short of them. Stain who calls “Hero Society” rotten, doesn’t really blame Hero Society all that much for the ways it has fallen short. 

He does not think that a system that relies on violent suppression of crimminals, and super strong offensive quirks that values violence over practical quirks is to blame for society’s failings. In fact, Stain believes what is needed is more violence. His version of reform is to rely on violence to kill other heroes who are not heroic enough for his tastes. His ideal being All Might. Despite All Might being a good guy, he’s also not really someone who sees the flaws in hero society at all. He does not even see the true nature of someone like Endeavor. 

So the irony is, Stain the radical deviant to society is still opposed to Shigaraki because he still believes in some part of society. He sees the absence of belief, a rejection of the values he holds dear, as the enemy. However, he does see that Shigaraki’s reckless rejection of everything is something that could lead to a change in the status queue. 

Which is what I am going to insist over and over again, Shigaraki’s rejection of meaning, does not mean he lacks motivation to his actions. In fact, it is a motivation and philosophy all in itself, and it makes perfect sense for the mindset of someone who is completely outside of society. 

In interview with Midoriya we see once again, Shigaraki’s views be completely rejected by Midoriya as if the two of them have nothing in common. Midoriya not understanding what character foils are. We see once again for the same reason that both Stain, and All might rejected his words. 

That Stain has a reason for his violent actions, and that makes it better somehow. Violence with a reason is superior to meaningless violence, Midoriya asserts. That, Shigaraki must be someone who only kills for fun and therefore cannot have a rational reasoning behind his actions. Shigaraki is once again not only rejected entirely but seen as inhuman, because he cannot find value in the things that Midoriya values unquestioningly ever since he was young. 

Shigaraki just cannot value the hero society that Midoriya and Stain value so much though, to him it’s failed him every step of the way. He was not taught to see the distinctions that Midoriya and Stain both recognize. Because those distinctions were just made up by human beings in the first place. They are not inherent to the order of the world. Therefore, Shigaraki just sees all violence as the same. 

Another thing is people insist that it’s better to have meaning than to question the meaning in everything, but Shigaraki witnesses the people when confronted with Stain’s ideals don’t actually care much at all about the context of his ideals. 

Stain attracts people like Toga who is just an obsessive freak who loves him for being bloody. People are posing in Stain cosplay, but do they really believe that a violent revolution is necessary to purify society? Or do they just think he looked cool? People care about having meaning so much, and yet they refuse to think critically about the so called meanings. 

In the most recent arc we see again, another villain coming into conflict with Shigaraki, specifically because Shigaraki is someone who questions their ideals. 

Re-Destro calls his beliefs “True Freedom” and yet we see the same pattern emerge. Re-Destro still believes in some facet of society, completely unquestioningly. He believes that people with quirks are inherently superior. Therefore they should be allowed to express their quirks as they like. 

Re-Destro is just regurgitating another of the flaws of hero society, that flashy, violent quirks are valued over practical ones because power is what matters first. Except, he frames his views as revolutionary in some way. The most observable fact is that Re-Destro is still a part of society. The same way Stain was once a young hero wannabe who could have gone to UA but dropped out, Re-Destro is also a wealthy businessman, with power in society and influence over others. 

Not only that we literally see him use his wealth, influence, and connections to crush the outsiders. He claims he is a revolutionary, but he uses the tools of society that apparently have oppressed him to put others in their place. Once again we see the same accusation, that Shigaraki only cares about destroying therefore his actions are empty and unsympathetic. 

“Does your pitiful gang of thugs with nothing but the urge to destroy...Carry any of that burden of history that we do!?” 

At which point Re-Destro literally just directly quotes Nietzsche. Which is a good sign to switch over from Shigaraki to Nietzsche. The words “The Burden of History” originate from Nietzsche’s 1874 essay On the Use and Abuse of History for Life. 

“Observe the herd which is grazing beside you. It does not know what yesterday or today is. It springs around, eats, rests, digests, jumps up again, and so from morning to night and from day to day, with its likes and dislikes closely tied to the peg of the moment, and thus neither melancholy nor weary. To witness this is hard for man, because he boasts to himself that his human race is better than the beast and yet looks with jealousy at its happiness. For he wishes only to live like the beast, neither weary nor amid pains, and he wants it in vain, because he does not will it as the animal does.”

Chapter one. 

In the first part of the essay, Nietzsche uses the metaphor of a man observing cattle. Man considers himself superior, because he has thought and awareness. Yet, cattle has what man desires, happiness without misery. This is because cattle exist in an eternal present, unspoiled by anxiety over the future, or memory of the past. Like children, they have no history, and for that they would be grateful if they knew what history was. 

“By contrast, the human being resists the large and ever increasing burden of the past, which pushes him down or bows him over.” Chapter one.

The burden of history, therefore is the knowledge of the past which guides your actions in the present. Something every human being has, whether or not they are aware of how much it influences their actions. We believe the things we do, because we have history. It was true in the past, therefore it is true in the future. Re-Destro believes because he is a descendant of Destro, because Destro’s own mother was called the Mother of Quirks, that therefore history gives his actions meaning. He is also, compelled to act because of his history. If he did not act on those ideals which his ancestors had, he would be doing them wrong. 

Yet, once again how is that freedom? He does not believe the things he believes because he chose to, but rather because he inherited them. Therefore his beliefs are chains that restrict his own actions rather than liberating him. 

Nietzsche is not someone who dismisses everything as meaningless and pointless. That would be the antithesis of Nietzsche, as it would lack critical thinking. Nietzsche is someone who encourages others to question everything. To question what society says will give our lives value, because only by doing that can we discover the difference between where our own values lie and what we have been told to value. Another theme Nietzsche focuses on in his metaphor of cattle is happiness vs fulfillment. That is, living life unburdened by history the cow is completely without misery, and is therefore happy. Which many think the goal of life is to become happy, and then protect that happiness. However, if that happiness takes the form of a cow unthinkingly eating grains is that really happiness? 

“If happiness or if, in some sense or other, a reaching out for new happiness is what holds the living onto life and pushes them forward into life, then perhaps no philosopher has more justification than the cynic. For the happiness of the beast, like that of the complete cynic, is the living proof of the rightness of cynicism.”

Chapter One.

Now, let’s return to My Hero Academia for a moment. Shigaraki when talking to Midoriya, points out how everybody in Hero Society lives their lives unburdened from the dangers of life because they expect a hero to come save them. 

Shigaraki’s words sound like simple violence directed towards innocent people, but once again he is questioning. Why are they happy? They are happy because they expect somebody else is going to save them. Then, what about Shigaraki himself who nobody came to save? 

He sees that their peace of mind is not upheld by critical thinking, and the challenging of society, but rather ignorance. Moreso society encourages people to act this way, to not question things. The very first line of the manga is “People are not born equal...”

Yet, Deku as a character is someone who unquestioningly fights for hero society to remain exactly as it is. He is specifically aware that society is flawed as it is and yet does not attempt in any way to challenge those flaws, because the safety of the herd is preferable to anything else. What is Deku’s philosophy? Besides, “saving people is good.” 

All for One even points this out directly. That Heroes and Villains are not natural concepts, they are literally just things that people invented in comic books. They existed in the realm of fiction, until suddenly meta powers existed in the real world. Yet, despite these just being made up human concepts they are given weight. The burden of history. The mistaken belief “things are this way, because they were always this way.” 

My point is not to say “there are no such thing as bad people in the world” or to assert some kind of moral nihilism, but rather to point out what Midoriya believes and accepts unquestioningly as the truth his belief in Heroes, is in fact meaningless. It is made up human nonsense that used to belong in comic books. It is entirely human in origin. That does not make his beliefs false, or make him stupid for believing in things.

However, at the same time Midoriya’s beliefs are not an absolute truth either. Shigaraki is not wrong to question them, especially because the Society of Heroes has failed him every step of the way. Midoriya’s unquestioning faith in heroes has led him to want to save people and help others and that’s a good thing. However, an unquestioning belief can also lead to horrible consequences. Endeavor got away scot free with abusing his entire family, because of the belief that heroes are always good. Bakugo was allowed to beat up Midoriya several times throughout childhood, because Bakugo unquestioningly saw himself as a hero and saw him asserting himself as the strongest as a heroic action. 

Therefore, it is not bad to recklessly question everything as Shigaraki does. It is not inherently superior to believe in ideals over being a cynic. However, Hero Society is something that shapes other people NOT to question these things. 

Which is where we reach SKLAVENMORAL slave morality. For Nietzsche, he saw existing in every society of every era, something that exists that encourages people not to be their best individual selves. For his era it was Christianity, for MHA it’s the Hero System but there’s actually a fair bit of connections between the two. For one, it’s a system outside of government that still nonetheless has the biggest impact on the beliefs of society, and two both Christianity and the hero system focus around one central figure as a savior meant to save all weak people. 

I think it’s silly to say that the Hero System is a direct reference to christianity, that’s not the point I’m trying to make, it’s just both of these systems in the place of society are something that dictate the values of society to other people. 

Christians, who he rather rudely termed DEHERDER had wished to enjoy the real enjoyments of fulfillment, a position in the world, intellectual mastery, creativity, but they had been too inept to get them. They therefore fashioned a hypocritical creed, denouncing what they wanted but were too weak to fight but, and praising what they did not want but happened to have. 

So, in the christian value system sexlessness turned into purity.  Weakness became goodness.  Submission to people one hates, became obedience.  Not being able to take revenge, turned into forgiveness. 

Whether or not Nietzsche’s view on christianity is true is unimportant. Instead, it’s a matter of perspective, and history. It’s undeniable that in a christian influenced society, sex is treated as a bad thing, and purity is treated as good but that’s only because these are human values made up by humans. That which is seen as the foundation and bedrock to life, can oh so easily be changed into something else. 

This is how Shigaraki sees the values of other people. The things heroes fight and die for, have no meaning to him, because they never offered him the safety and security that they did other people. Shigaraki’s view of the hero system is the same as Nietzsche’s on so-called Christian Morality.  In Hero Society, everyone wants to be a hero but the simple truth is the vast majority of people are born with quirks not appropriate for being a hero. Therefore, they submit to a life they do not want, and become helpless relying entirely on heroes instead. People believe in heroes simply because they are told heroes are going to come save them. They are not living the life they want, rather the life they think they want. Therefore, Hero Society encourages helplessness among its people. Which also has the added benefit of making people more dependent on the hero system and therefore it perpetuates. 

My point is not to say all society is bad, but rather than societies have flaws that should be confronted rather than ignored.  

2. Own Up to Envy 

Envy is, nietzsche recognized a big part of life. Yet, people are taught to feel ashamed of their envious feelings, they are seen as an indication of evil. Once again, Nietzsche summarizes the mentality of the outsider is one that is almost always is rejected by others. Similar to Shigaraki who is dismissed and dehumanized time and time again in the manga. 

I have tried to describe a feeling which has often enough tormented me. I take my revenge on this feeling when I expose it to the general public.  However, most people will tell me that this feeling is totally wrong, unnatural, abominable, and absolutely forbidden, that with it, in fact, I have shown myself unworthy of the powerful historical tendency of the times, as it has been, by common knowledge, observed for the past two generations, particularly among the Germans

On the Use and Abuse of History for Life Foreword

Shigaraki’s viewpoints are just the viewpoints of a villain and nothing more. 

If Shigaraki is rejected over and over gain what kind of people do sympathize with him then? To answer simply, the envious. Twice, while being the exact kind of person that the Hero System would dismiss as a lunatic is also someone shown to be much more understanding not only of Shigaraki, but the society around them as a whole. 

In the first panel it’s illustrated well enough, Twice’s perspective is that of the outsider looking in. The reason he is able to observe so well in the first place is because he fell outside. One of the first things Twice observes, that most other characters miss, is that Endeavor is obviously not someone who qualifies to be a hero. Even All Might misses this. 

Twice’s philosophy is rather observant, especially of people like Gran Torino. While heroes do exist to save people, they really only save the good, virtuous ones. To the point where Gran Torino, a close friend of Shimura Nana who is literally aware of the fact that All For One is extremely manipulative with people is like “Nope, I know Shigaraki is in no way responsible for getting kidnapped and raised by that person but he’s past the point of no return now, he’s entirely a villain. There’s no hope for saving him.”

Like, here is a point I have stated several times before this. If Eri, one of the most innocent characters in the manga who was tormented and disected on a daily basis by Chisaki, had grown up to be the least bit violent Gran Torino would also say that she wasn’t a person worth saving either. 

However, someone like Twice who considers himself one of the crazy ones is capable of a great deal more self reflection than a majority of the cast. Why? Because he acknowledges his envy. Twice literally states a basic philosophical question as a joke in the translation before repeating his point as philosophy. 

Other characters are encouraged to suppress themselves entirely, their resentment for their circumstances, their feelings of hurt, all of it. Todoroki is not allowed to hate his father. Monoma is not allowed to hate Bakugo who got encouraged to be a hero while he was bullied and slandered for his quirk. Envy is seen as a bad thing, a villainous trait. 

Yet, there’s nothing wrong with envy so long as we use it to what we really want. Every person who makes us envious should be seen as an indication of who we could, one day become. It’s the villains not the heroes who live aware of their own negative emotions, who actually confront them and resolve who they want to be. 

Why does Deku want to be a hero? Ummm... because he just wants to.  Why does Bakugo want to be a hero? Umm... because being number one is cool. 

Twice has more knowledge of what he wants, and why he wants it because he has lived carrying those negative emotions in his heart and acknowledging them. 

 Pretty much every member of the Villain’s League is envious in some way. They are all filled with an unnatural resentment for normal society, because they have explicitly fallen through the cracks. Shigaraki the son of Nana Shimura was not saved by All Might. Twice who was just trying to live a normal life, got no sympathy for his circumstances and no one helped him. Himiko thinks she is living a normal life and does not understand that her quirk is abhorrent to others. Again and again, all these people want is a normal life they are envious of. 

So, yes Shigaraki is just motivated in part by envy over the fact that other people were saved and he was not, but is that a bad thing? How is he supposed to feel when he’s a helpless child and everybody looks away from him? 

That envy on its own is not a bad thing, it’s what directs them towards the self realization of what they want. The League of Villains are the characters who over and over again we see directly confronting the negative elements of society, and yet even if it’s turned them all into twisted maniacs they also come out the other end having gained that self awareness. 

“I know the hatred and envy of your hearts. Ye are not great enough not to know of hatred and envy. Then be great enough not to be ashamed of them! And if ye cannot be saints of knowledge, then I pray you be at least it’s warriors.” 

Thus spake Zarathusra, chapter 10.  

3. Never Drink Alcohol

Nietzsche himself drank only water, and as a special treat milk. His point was not about diet, but rather the heart of his philosophy. 

“There have been two great narcotics in European civilization, Christianity and alcohol.”

Nietzsche hated that which numbed pain. He hated that which reassured things are just fine as they are, sapping us of the will to change our lives for the better.

To clarify, Nietzsche was not against the idea of comfort, but rather the avoidance of pain. 

Similiar to Shigaraki, that which he is told to value he cannot value because those values failed him every step of the way.

A villain killed his parents and he was offered no support. He hit someone in a sheer accident and he got a criminal record even though he was obeying the law.

Twice followed the rules of society and still got punished. He tried to work hard honestly on his own, and he was punished again. Twice does not see himself as someone above society, but someone who had fallen far below it because nobody offers help to people like him.

However, it’s also by falling out through the cracks in society and realizing that all of its so called values that if you followed would keep you safe, that Twice was able to realize what he really wanted out of life.

Twice’s journey is quite literally a philosophical one. His flashback initiates by him screaming AM I REALLY ME? AM I NOT ME? I AM! Over and over again.

It ends with the realization of who he truly is, what he truly wants, and the reasons behind those desires. Confrontation of pain is the key to realizing those desires. 

What Nietzsche was against philosophically, was not repression of the self. Which is markedly different from what Re-Destro believes that if you have cool super powers you should be free to just, blow stuff up whenever you want. In actuality what it means is that, say for example. Todoroki has to live every day with a wound on his face. Yet, Endeavor who is the cause of that wound is not punished for what he did. This is because Endeavor is an important man who will cause a disruption and scandal in society if the fact that he’s a child abuser got out. Therefore, for the sake of his abusive father Todoroki has to repress himself and his own needs. Nietzsche argues that this is wrong, that repression of the self in order to serve some greater good is never right. Todoroki should not have to suffer silently with no recognition of his pain. It’s not the comforting of his negative emotions, it’s the suppression, he’s just looking away. 

Therefore, in My Hero Academia you have the strange case where the villains are characters who continually suffer from and confront the negative aspects of society, and their own disatisfaction with the way things are over and over again. Whereas, heroes and main characters simply seem to accept the status queue even when they are hurt by it, like in cases such as Deku, Todoroki and Hitoshi. Their desire is not to reform the status queue but rather become a part of it. 

 Returning to Shigaraki once more, he’s someone who lives fully acknowledging all of his negative emotions. Which is why he’s so repulsive to common good people. 

It’s also important to acknowledge that Shigaraki was raised to be this way. All for One manipulated him to resent others to turn him into a weapon against All Might. Shigaraki has stated it several times, “I hate everything, I want to destroy everything, everything makes me feel this way.” 

Shigaraki lives with a very raw wound on him, constantly confronting the pain of that wound. Not only that but he makes himself sick with his own feelings of remorse, and regret for what he has done to his family. Unlike all other people in the story who are taught to repress for the greater good of society, Shigaraki was specifically cultivate to express those same negative emotions. 

Which is why Shigaraki serves as a walking Id. A shadow of society. He embodies every single person in the league’s disatisfaction. He is, the repressed element of society that everybody feelings. He is the existence of Hero Society’s reckoning, because Shigaraki was created only because of the negative aspects of society that everyone looked away from and refused to take responsibility for in the first place. That is why, Shigaraki who confronts those negative aspects and lives with them, is shown to be oddly compelling to them. He does not numb himself, he confronts everything, he rejects everything, he seeks answers to everything, he challenges everything. 

The question of what brought about Spinner’s change of mind and loyalty to Shigaraki when he was originally loyal to Stain is this same philosophy. Once again, Spinner describes himself as repressed, his living life just accepting what everybody else told him he was left him entirely empty. He did not know who he was. 

Spinner was not inspired by Stain’s ideals, but rather the fact that he was confronting someone, whereas Spinner himself just always accepted his lot in life. When Spinner says society is suffocating, he’s once again not speaking as someone turning their nose up at society but rather a genuine symptom of hero society that encourages helplessness. Spinner was struck by the sight of someone actually confronting something, and taking a stand for something, because he did not know where his own values lied, because he only other accepted the words of others. 

That’s why Spinner goes from questioning Shigaraki to sympathizing with him, because he understands now that Shigaraki is someone continually confronting the pain of society as well, and living with that pain too. He just came to a different conclusion than Stain. 

Stain still believes in hero society to a point, whereas Shigaraki rejects everything about it. He insists none of it has meaning, because he can’t see any meaning to it. Shigaraki does not even believe so much in the things that All For One told him has meaning. He at least knows on some level that it’s not going to fix the wound on his heart. 

All For One said he did all of this to give Shigaraki a purpose, and yet Shigaraki sees through the meaninglessness of that whole purpose too. (Note this is not saying that Shigaraki was not manipulated or groomed by All for One, or rather Shigaraki knows he was manipulated by All For One and chose to be evil anyway, it’s just to show Shigaraki’s rejection of the values others told him were purposeful). 

Spinner realizes all of that and sees that they are the same. That both of them want to confront the dissatisfaction in their own lives, and they can’t accept the answers of others as any comfort. Both Spinner and Shigaraki do not want to numb themselves to escape pain. Thus, they both challenge the status queue that everybody else acepts. Shigaraki earns spinner’s loyalty in that moemnt because he realizes they are two of a kind. Which is why the friendship is so strong among the League of Villains, they all exist confronting the pain of their own lives as a path to self discovery and because of that they all see each other as human. 

The confrontation with Chisaki was literally about how Shigaraki cannot treat his own allies as tools like Chisaki can, because he sees them all as far too human, and even when he gives his big speech about hating everything he does not hate them. 

That’s why, despite rejecting everything, Shigaraki isn’t void of love for his comrades, or teamwork among the league. Even though as society dictates villains should have no values of cooperation of friendship, because it’s only heroes to fight to protect those things. Shigaraki, Spinnner, and Twice all understand their desire for companionship because they have confronted loneliness. These things do not exist in opposition to each other, rather they are complementary. 

“How little you know of happiness -you comfortable people. The secret of a fulfilled life is live dangerously, build your cities on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.”

Nietzsche - The Gay Science 

Nietzsche was convinced of this as well, that getting valuable things done, hurts. Shigaraki similiarly questions the happiness of the crowd he sees. How can they know they are happy, when they have not confronted the miseries of society? How can they know they are safe when they have not confronted danger? 

My brother, are war and battle evil? Necessary, however, is the evil; necessary are the envy and the distrust and the back-biting among the virtues. 

Thus spake Zarathusra, chapter 5.

The negative aspects of emotion, pain, envy, hatred, are all as equally human as the positive ones. Therefore, as much as Shigaraki is dehumanized, and treated as a simple villain he is shown to be just as affected by human misery as all the rest, except for his struggles to confront it that most happy people do not even bother with. 

Once again, Nietzsche’s point is not misery is better than happiness, but rather that trying to numb the pain will get in the way of pursuing what will really make us happy. 

4. God is Dead / All Might is Dead 

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” 

Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Section 125

Nietzsche’s dramatic assertion that god is dead is not as many take it to be a celebration. Religious believes were false, he knew, but they were very very beneficial with helping us cope with the faults of life. Nietzsche is not against coping, or comfort, he’s just against addiction to numb the pain. 

His most famous quote, God is dead, and therefore we must become him. It was written in response to the Age of Enlightenment, that shook the centrality of the Concept of God in Western European civilization that had been there science the later Roman Empire. In other words, what everybody believed to be true, that God was good, and dictated what was right and wrong was finally questioned. 

Nietzsche recognized the crisis that this “Death of God” represented for existing moral assumptions in Europe as they existed within Christian belief.

"When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one's feet. This morality is by no means self-evident... By breaking one main concept out of Christianity, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary remains in one's hands."

If you realize that the origin of morals are not self evident, but instead something which humans made up and are therefore imaginary and meaningless, then what exactly compels you to follow them? 

The liberation from morals does not mean in Re-Destro’s sense of the word, I have a cool quirk so it’s okay to run around blowing people up. Rather it means we do not have to accept the morals we are told to believe in. 

Which is why the central goal of the League of Villain’s is the destruction of All Might, the symbol which is proof of society’s righteousness. The pillar which holds up society. The one who enforces the beliefs that heros save people, like facts, rather than just made up human values. 

Shigaraki’s goal is to show them how fragile their justice is, not because he enjoys hurting people like a simple psychopath, but because Shigaraki is someone who was hurt and failed every step of the way. The reason Shigaraki wants to destroy everything is not because he’s a psychopath, but because he sees no value in it. 

Shigaraki’s relfection “why not destroy it all” is shown in the background many aspects of life, heroes saving others, friends laughing together, Gran Torino, Bakugo enjoying the festival, Stain belieinv in heroes, Deku frowning, a baby being cared for by their parent, Aizawa and Toshinori as teachers guiding people, students growing up together and learning together. 

All of these are things which Shigaraki was denied from life. How is he supposed to see value in them? The family that was supposed to keep him secure was torn apart. The supposedly good innocent people turned a blind eye towards his suffering. The heroes who were supposed to save him did not. Everything, which has meaning to everybody else never applied to Shigaraki in the first place, so no wonder he sees it all as meaningless.

Life is worthless to Shigaraki because his own life was treated as worthless. He was only saved by someone who only wished to use him as a tool. He was conditioned to only hold the most negative emotions in his heart and resent everything, because that made him more useful. He was literally raised in a basement outside of society. 

Shigaraki sees the central pillar of the society he can never be apart of, as All Might. Who is also the one who failed him personally. 

All Might was the pillar who held up the status queue. Shigaraki cannot find the answers he was searching for, as long as All Might existed as a block. 

That is why philosophically, All Might had to fall. However, once again Nietzsche frames the death of God as not a tragedy, but a good thing. If All Might is gone, then somebody can rise up to replace him. 

Which is why All Might encourages Deku, not just to copy him as his devoted fanboy but rather to find his own answers. Nietzsche felt that the gap left by religion is something that should ultimately be filled.  

Crisis is followed by reformation, therefore insome aspects crisis is necessary. Especially if a society that hurts everyone, especially the least fortunate among them is what’s being upheld. Shigaraki needs to challenge everything, to question everything the main characters believe in, to antagonize them otherwise they will never question their own beliefs. 

God is dead, so we must become as Gods, or rather All Might is Dead so we must become All Might. 

What that means is even if “heroes”, “morals”, “justice” are all human values that are made up, that is not a bad thing. After all, if it’s an incorrect justice than it can be revised, because Justice is not an objective fact but rather something that can be changed as people change. It means that by questioning those values we can change them for the better. We don’t need God to tell us what is right and wrong, to give meaning to morals, because we can create our own morals and follow them on our own. 

Nihilism, the rejection of all religious and moral principles, the belief that life is meaningless is the first step to existentialism the realizing of your own life and its meaning. One must reject the meaning told by others in order to find their own meaning.  In that same vein, Shigaraki’s viewpoints are valid and necessary for the story. They are something that should be confronted rather than dismissed as empty lunacy. The villain is the one who disrupts the status quo and challenges society, rather than returning the status quo it should be the job of the hero to respond to crisis with reform and solve the problems in society that created the villain in the first place.