#AFO Did It. I Ain't Gotta Explain Shit.

[justatalkingface]

So in light of the absolute fuckery that's been Chapter 407, I want to talk about All For One, because I don't think I've ever really talked about him.

I don't mind that he's evil for evil's sake, I don't mind that his ultimate goal is to take OFA so that he can take over the world and make everyone reliant on him or whatever. I don't mind that he nearly took over Japan back in the day. But like everything else Horikoshi touches, AFO had potential that was ultimately squandered away.

I hate how he was literally pure evil IN FUCKING UTERO, I hate how he was barely even utilized (outside of Kamino Ward, which that was fucking awesome) before he tries wrestling control of Shigaraki to be the main villain again. I hate how even though he allegedly has hundreds upon hundreds of Quirks, he spams the same 3-4 ones, and I hate how for supposedly smart and devious he is, we never see him utilizing UA's bad PR or his traitor to his advantage.

It's kind of weird to say this, but I both miss AFO, and feel sorry for him. I know he's been in the story a lot, but... it feels like AFO, the real one, fucking died at Kaminio, and his idiot corpse has just been running around since with Hori's hand up his ass.

Before Kamino, AFO was evil, yes, and and we didn't know about him, but he felt like a real person; an asshole, but he was something you could imagine a super-powered mob boss could end up being.

Since then, though? He's just been becoming more and more... shallow. It's like Hori was hinting at these dark, mysterious depths of ancient man, and then he pulled the curtain and showed us a fucking puddle. And now? All the mystery, all the backstory?

'BeCaUSe i'M EEEEEEEVVVILLLL'. Unironically, it seems to be his only motivation anymore. He does bad things because he's evil; he doesn't actually want to take over the world, that's just something he's doing because taking over the world is evil. Money? Power? Ultimately worthless, nothing more than tools for the purposes... of EVIL!

So... here's the question: why is he evil?

Because he was evil when he was an adult. Why was he evil as an adult? Because he was evil as a kid, apparently, instead of anything more interesting like him slowly being radicalized by Quirk Discrimination. Why was he evil as a kid? Because he was born evil, instead of anything more interesting like a terrible family, or because a police officer hurt him and traumatized him for life. Why was he evil when he was born?

??????

Because he was born of evil genetics, maybe; I wouldn't put it past Hori to make him unironically Quirk Satan or something. The thing is, that's not how human beings work; even an actual sociopath isn't going to be born this gibberingly, one-dimensionally evil. Worse yet, it's fucking boring to have a human being this basic; at this point why aren't they fighting a robot, or monster or something? It'd have the same level of motivation, and it'd feel more interesting than this.

Even ignoring how stupid he's become post-Kamino (which is a related but different point, best summed up by post-Kamino AFO is basiclly running around with his pants on his head, constantly getting one upped by the heroes, the kids, and basiclly random strangers by now), AFO was at his most interesting, not only when he was competent, but when he felt like a person; there's a reason DFO is so popular, and it's not just because it drags Izuku into it, but because it humanizes AFO, gives him real, human motivations to make us interested in his character.

The worst part of it? There's been so many chances to make him more than this caricature of a human being; by making him care for Shigaraki (or for Dr. Plot Device, or even Kurogiri, his loyal minion, before he was Eraserhead's seemingly somewhat retconned 'human interest' (which was barely a thing), or even just for Gigantomachia, who is basiclly a giant, super-violent dog, who he could have cared about like he was just a giant dog), or for him caring for his brother.

I mean, shit. In all honesty, I could make the 'biting baby' thing work, even. Ideally, it'd need some set up beforehand, but you know how Himiko is (the only one we've ever seen) with desires from her Quirk? Do something similar to how Yhwach in Bleach was on AFO, with that kind of logic, with him needing something, at this fundamental level, to be functional, that he's almost addicted to stealing Quirks, that AFO as a Quirk only works as a Quirk because somewhere in his magic DNA he's... unstable. That the very versatility that allows him to hold every Quirk is starving for the stability of a normal Quirk, so that even as a infant, he's instinctively trying feed himself something a normal human would never need.

There's this whole, interesting dynamic this would introduce, a real nature/nurture-y kind of thing, that would put a whole new spin on his character; he's this seemingly pointlessly evil person because his needs, combined with the only real role model he had for someone in his situation, the demon kings he's seen in manga, and a society that rejected him, both as someone with a Quirk by the normal humans, and as someone who could take away their Quirks by the Quirked, turning him into this because that's all he's ever known.

And here's the thing? This idea? Hori could still try to do that. He could try to turns table us with this sudden development, and try to make a real boy out of AFO. But I don't think he's going to; I really don't think he'll do that. Worse, even if he does try that, he'll just double down on AFO being 'born evil' instead of anything with any real depth to it. Do you know why I think that?

Because in all honesty, AFO isn't a real character anymore; he hasn't been for awhile now. All he is is a plot device, the duck tape Hori's been putting on everywhere to try and hold the story together against all the plot holes and logic failures that have been built up from years of bad, biased and rushed writing. More and more, he's become the reason for everything, the cause of every problem Hori can't be bothered to think through, every villain he didn't want to actually have to explain.

The Readers/The Characters: Why did X happen? What caused that? How does Y feel abou- Hori: AFO did it. I ain't gotta explain shit.

And that's the real reason he's so stupid, BTW, the reason he never uses any other Quirk, or applies any creativity in combat (or anywhere else), and why he keeps losing... it's for the plot. Because the thing is? AFO is fucking overpowered.

Let me tell you something I've never seen anyone else acknowledge: All Might never should have won. He overpowered AFO, sure, but we saw from their fight that he barely did that; didn't crush the puny caster AFO once he got past the lasers, his one super Quirk barely out-performed AFO's stacked Quirks in direct combat. Which, yeah, sure I can see that....

But. Why did AFO fight fair, just power against power, blow vs blow? Why didn't he, like, release poison gas as they fought? All Might is strong, but he still has flesh, blood, lungs; he's still very vulnerable to all kinds of softer Quirks. Where was the touch activated Quirk, like that kid from the License Exam, would have turned All Might into a meatball, or taffy, or whatever? Where was the voice activated Quirk that would have stunned All Might for a critical moment?

Hell. Why didn't AFO cheat? Why did he fight All Might, like an honorable person, when he realised the man was possibly a threat to him, instead of just... assassinating him, like a crime lord (or demon king)? Go to his home (or Might Tower, or wherever), drug his food, put something in his water, hell, just launch a surprise attack from point blank range? We know he tried for Eraserhead's Quirk once, before... apparently just giving up and never trying again; why didn't he try again, get it, and use that?

And beyond even all those problem, I don't see a reason for OFA to have survived long enough to get to All Might in the first place!

I mean, seriously: we know that every user fought AFO, viciously, to point where it caused their early deaths (except the one that basiclly started to Snap himself out of existence). We know OFA was only slowly building up in power, and the early versions especially didn't do much at all, and the Quirks all of them had where never top of the line because they were literally just a random person nearby when the Holder before them died.

So. Riddle me this: why, when a bunch of honestly mid-tier people tried, again and again, to kill AFO, who was overwhelmingly stronger than them, who had access to more tools, powers and money than they did; why, when all these factors were stacked against them, did they survive to the point where they could even pass OFA on? How did they survive blows strong enough to destroy buildings, laser blasts, all these powerful Quirks and techniques that AFO uses casually that most heroes would have been instantly killed by, if not flat out destroyed.

I mean... fuck, there's a decent chance AFO knew they had OFA in them, which he wanted (for whatever reason; sentimentality clearly isn't a emotion he's allowed to have, and early OFA wouldn't have been worth the effort for him to go through all of this to try and acquire it), which means instead of just killing them, he would have captured them, taken them back to his base, and then tortured them until they gave him OFA, just so they would finally be allowed to die and not hurt anymore? While I'm at this, why didn't he just kill any pedestrians around after he killed whatever OFA Holder he was fighting; it's not like morals are going to stop him, are they?

Fundamentally, MHA is built off the premise that AFO, terrifying criminal genius with countless Quirks, strong enough that he makes people by him hallucinate out of terror, is so pants shittingly stupid that he spent almost a hundred years basiclly punching himself in the face rather than just winning fights that were ludicrously stacked in his favor again and again and again; I mean, hell, he could still be an utter moron, and as long as he just got lucky once, just once, the giant, unending sequence of coincidences and logic breaking victories that allowed All Might to get his Quirk never would have happened.

None of this, of course, is even mentioning everything happening in the Final Arc, like AFO's obvious weakness to allow him to be finally beat forever appearing out of nowhere, in him having Remnants (even though AFO took eight users to to power it up enough to get to the point that AFO was apparently always at, and us having no reason to think this was a thing before now, much less all the absolute nightmare fuel questions that raises about the Nomu, and all the Quirks that AFO's doctor had stored away), and Eri's Quirk actively accelerating to heal him, thus limiting his life span (or the fact it's even working like that in the first place), even though it's a time Quirk, not a healing Quirk, and it doesn't fucking care about how wounded he is.

So, why did it happen? Why is it still happening?

Because he's a plot device. Because he exists, not as an active character with his own agenda, but as an adjustable target for the heroes to fight against, again and again and again, and if he won, the story would be over. Fundamentally, Hori made AFO too strong, too smart, too well connected, too perfect to every truly lose in this setting, and instead of trying to fix that, in any real way, impose some kind of realistic limitations or drawbacks in his wildly over-powered Quirk, or just kill him off so he wasn't a factor anymore, he just... made the man stupid.

[justatalkingface]

I saw a few anons mention Hori's other works in the past and I noticed something when I read them myself. Every main character of his works are nice, kind characters that have tragic backstories that make people want to root for them:

Oumagadoki Doubutsuen introduces a female protagonist who was laughed at by literally everyone at school for being so clumsy, she couldn't do anything right without hurting herself. Her working part time at the zoo (owned by the rabbit guy) not only helps her, but it reveals she has a deep knowledge and understanding of animals. Sensei No Bulge introduces a boy, who cares for the many homeless children younger than him, get roped into acting as the prince's body double because the two look alike. This end up revealing that the boy has what it takes to lead through his kindness and taking the lessons taught to him.

However, these two (plus Izuku) NEVER have their backstories explored after the introduction of it. We never get a deeper look as to WHY the girl is so clumsy, or how her passion for animals came to be. Nor do we get to see any more of her school life after that. We never learn more about the boy that explores his kind and willingness to help others. And, once again, he doesn't go back to check up on those homeless children.

But we DO get focus of the rabbit guy, who is literally abusive to the zoo animals and a jerk to the girl. Don't worry, it's revealed that the rabbit guy was a child turned into an anthropomorphic rabbit by a rabbit guardian as punishment for abusing a rabbit in the woods. Which apparently made him stay stuck in his (horrible) child mentality. We DO get focus on the jerk mentor/bodyguard who is teaching the boy. But when it came to learning some backstory? It's the a$$ hole of a prince who we get the backstory of! After he's KILLED! And it turns out that HE'S THE FAKE AND THE BOY IS THE REAL PRINCE!

Every. Time. Hori puts his focus on characters who are jerks (though, the other two aren't as bad as BnHA's jerks.), while the main character is relugated to taking care of everyone problems and being their mandatory support rock. The main character is always neglected, and never explored. The pattern just grew worse due to BnHA not being cancelled like the previous two mangas, and was allowed to continue for this long without any kind of self-awareness or an editor intervening.

...You know, I get the feeling, sometimes, that to Hori, the story is just a vessel to put his favorite characters in.

Like. 'Loser kid gets gud' is quintessential shonen, in the most basic of ways; and so that basic plot is there so MHA can be written and sold. Izuku, as he is now, exists to support MHA's existence more than anything.... but it feels sometimes like MHA itself is a stage that exists so he can play with his favorite toys characters on them.

There's Bakugou, obviously; always angry, always unrealistically loved, allowed to rampage with abandon throughout the DnD board that is MHA.

There's also Mirko, though; I don't remember where, but I seem to remember she's basiclly in the form of Hori's ideal woman or some bullshit? And, of course, the way he tortures her is infamous, and with that context... it's like he's playing out a fantasy.

Bakugou is the impulsive, angry, consequence-free prodigy he always wanted to be, maybe, and Mirko is, god help us, his fetish? Mineta is his perverted desires, and all the attractive women in skimpy outfits are just...fan service, for him as much as everyone else.

When you look it at that way, it feels like he made the setting, established the basics, then just... lost interest in the broader context of it, and just decided to double down on whatever specific elements he liked, and that's why certain things are so deeply invested in, like Mirko's torture porn and Bakugou's deep feelings and why we should totally like him, and how we should all forgive Endeavour already, since all the cool kids are doing it.

At the same time, though, the demands of the setting itself, and the important characters supporting them are still there: All Might, All For One, One For All, and Izuku. They're still in the story, and still massively important to the broader plot of the manga, and they have to be told. Hori can't just switch it to the Bakugou channel when this is, explicitly, Izuku's story... but he can stop focusing on it as much. So, as time passed, Izuku was less and less in focus, but he still did the checklist of whatever major parts he was supposed to play in the first place to move the plot along.

The only time it feels like he gets any focus anymore is when Hori can draw him out all edgy and dramatic, those moments when he's least like Izuku and most EPIC AND COOL, with serious Spiderman vibes with Black Whip, because Hori apparently loves Spiderman, and to some extent Izuku is his Spiderman wish fulfillment, but... as soon as he's talking about his feelings, or not wearing his costume, or basiclly doing anything that isn't fighting? Izuku is just kind of... skipped over, like someone's fast forwarding past their least favorite parts of a show.

That same logic can apply to OFA, who we know shit all about, even though this is one of the most important characters in the lore and the story is almost over, about All Might, who was been turned into this bumbling fool who can't even tie his own shoes, and AFO, who is probably the only person passing Izuku on the, 'I exist only support the plot' scale. AFO has just turned into Hori's' excuse for everything that has gone wrong these days; he's a multi-purpose answer that allows him to push forward the story without having to have any logic behind it at all beyond, 'AFO did it, I don't have to explain shit'.

(Someone get that 'it's magic' meme and slap AFO's mask on it.)

And that kinda energy, even if that isn't exactly what is happening, is part of the reason MHA is so... boring these days. Everything that happens seems so contrived and predictable, and it just isn't... fun anymore, or interesting. There's no depth to it, no life, just hollow tropes being executed by characters who no longer resemble who they used to be.

It used to be that I waited eagerly for each chapter to come out, that I was on the edge of my seat as Izuku struggled to establish himself and beat the odds, but now I can barely be assed to see if it updates. I can call most of the major story notes without even thinking about it at this point, and so far I've been pretty spot on in a broad sense, though a lot of them still need to play out, and when they do happen, I just want to groan more than anything.