#and Hori makes it clear to the readers that Spinner doesn't actually care either

[problemswithbooks]

I think it’s funny that people are calling Shoji and the Heroes stupid because they put Kurogiri in the hospital. Was it dumb? Yes. It was a stupid choice, a choice we have no idea why they made. 

But the 15,00 random heteromorphs attacking the hospital are just as stupid.

Here’s the thing, Hori did not explain why so many people got behind Spinner. This isn’t like with Stain who had his speech recorded and put online. Spinner just exists and I assume there was some news footage of him escaping with the LoV at the end of the first war arc. 

Spinner has never made any public speeches about how he wants to help heteromorph people, nor have his actions ever hinted that that was part of his cause. His only claim to fame is that he is a part of the LoV/ PLF. The LoV certainly have never made their stance on heteromorph discrimination clear, and all there actions have only made things worse for literally everyone. The PLF/MLA want some sort of Quirk freedom, but it’s entirely based around better Quirk=better person philosophy. 

There’s also the whole AfO thing. He is literally pure evil and that’s not really a secret. Before his public fight with All Might and getting put in prison his existence was kept on the down low, but what reputation he had was as a shady guy who ran everything from the shadows. Once he was arrested I’m sure a lot more came out about his past crimes (plus he leveled a city block and the Nomu are publicly his doing so whatever they do is linked back to him). 

So, you’re telling me these 15,000 people just looked at a heteromorph, who is only known for working with AfO, the evilest villain of all time, and picked him to be their mascot for anti-mutant discrimination? These people watched and know about how the LoV/PLF leveled multiple city blocks killing and wounding thousands, upending everyone’s lives, without any show of fixing it and decide to join him? Why? He hasn't even shown that he cares about discrimination anyway--hell right now he can barely talk!

These people are obviously some of the dumbest people around, or they just legitimately want to kill everyone and this is their excuse. AfO has never been shown to be a supporter of heteromorphs--but even if he was, that’s not who they’re following. These people are only storming this hospital because they hard core Stan Spinner for no discernable reason, except he looks like them.  They don't care about Kurogiri--I don't even know if they understand why Spinner wants them to attack this place. 

Are the Heroes dumb and even reckless for keeping Kurogiri in a hospital with innocent people there? Yes, they are.

But these 15,000 people are also, not just stupid but apparently just violent assholes. They looked at a guy helping to mass murder random people for seemingly little reason and they just decided to hard core Stan him, and do whatever he said even if it means killing a lot of people. Spinner hasn't even told them if this will help their cause, mainly because he is now a giant and can barely talk anymore. But I guess their mascot can just foam at the mouth and yell and that’s a good enough reason for them to shank sick people to get back a guy they don't even know. 

No wonder Shoji is mad at them--they are absolutely idiotic and bloodthirsty.

[marunalu]

don't understand why people think afo possibly having a bad childhood would cheapen his character, he grew up during a time where everything was chaos and people were going insnae. it's not too far fetched to think he's a had a bad past and doesn't lessen any evil he does now. it's a little annoying when you suggest that he probably has had something bad happen to him when he was younger and people get mad at you saying let villains be villains.

Absolutely agree!

I think the main reason why people dont want afo to have a terrible past is because they dont want to sympathy with him! They want to hate him and they know a sad backstory could change their view of him. I mean look at tomura: at first pretty much all of the readers hated his guts or at least thought he is an terrible excuse of a villain, because how whiny, spoiled and bratty he is! But then we got his past flashbacks and BAMM all of a sudden he was everyones favorite character and even wanted him to succeed in his goal of destroying everything! Feeling sorry for someone is the main reason why people are ready to start to make excuses for that persons behavior, no matter how horrible their actions are. The thing is a villains backstory is there to explain why he ended up that way and NOT to make excuses for him!

Lets face it: tomura, dabi, toga, spinner etc. are all HORRIBLE people! They are terrorists and massmurderers. Thats a fact! No sane person in real life would want to interact with them or accept their reasonings. The reason why readers are ready to forgive them their crimes and want a happy ending for them is because its fiction and we know their backstorys and what they went through during their childhood. All of them are MURDERERS of innocents, but they are also lost, lonely and traumatized children who need help and therapy! And I think deep down people are aware that its the same or similar case with afo, because thats how hori writes his main villains. They are complex and complicated characters. Hori made very early clear that afo is not pure evil, because in yoichis flashbacks we hear him say that he loves his brother and in the recent chapters this is even more confirmed when we see afo crying (most likely shortly after yoichis death) when he is about to kill 2th. Pure evil doesnt love! Pure evil doesnt cry, after they lost a family member! And I think its pissing people off. They dont want afo to be turned into someone they pity and sympathize with, because of what he did to tomura, to some degree to dabi and other horrible things (turning people into nomous), despite that every single member of the lov is a horrible person too from a realistic point of view!

Afo already showed clear signs of suffering from past trauma himself, for example his unhealthy obsession with his "the only family I have" brother. We dont have the full context yet what actually happend in their past, but we know that afo was there when the "dawn of quirks" happend. He was there from the start. We know it was full chaos! From one day to the other the world turned upside down. It was violent! It was bloody! People startet to kill each other out of the blue! Know picture how horrifying this apocalyptical world must have been for two young boys! Espicially for the older one, who has to take care for the younger, sickly brother and wants to shield him from the horrors of that world! The fact that afo mentions that yoichi was the only family he had, makes clear that there were no parents or guardians to take care of them. In a world in which people startet all of a sudden to kill each other, because they developed scary powers. Afo shows clear abandonment issues (his unwillingness of yoichi leaving him and rather locking him inside a vault like a treasure and his obsession with getting ofa back) and I believe its because the brothers either lost their parents pretty early in life or they lived in an abusive househould and when afo showed first signs of a quirk, the parents kicked them out. All in all I believe afo was the one "raising" yoichi (at least as good as he could in that time) and made a lot of sacrifices to make sure his younger brother stays safe and gets enough to eat and evtl. medication.

A while ago I watched the disney movie encanto and I think the lyrics of the song "pressure" are perfect for how I picture afos life was back then. Everything he did was for his brother, he wanted to make order for his brother, to bring peace even if it meant he had to do nasty things to archive that. But then his brother was gone and afo lost his main motivation for wanting to change the world to the better. I think its interesting how afo never refers to himself as a villain while yoichi was still alive, in fact he trys to lay the blame on others and that his hands are clean ("they did it on their own, I never ordered them to do it"), but after yoichis death he has no problem anymore to call himself a villain. But why? Well, yoichi was "kidnapped" by two heroes, right? Afo locked him into a vault for his own safety, but this two dumb heroes showed up and took him away from him and what was the end result? They motivated yoichi even more to live after his heroic ideals and that got him (most likely) killed! The heroes killed his brother (thats what he is telling himself) and what is the opposite of the hero?

The villain!

So afo rather wants to be seen as a villain, because its the opposite of what killed his brother. This is of course mainly my own speculation, but I think its clear that afo is a by FAR more complex character then readers give him credit for, because they arent ready to accept that! Complexity doesnt cheapen a character. It flashs them out and hits home that just one bad day can destroy your life, your future and turning you into someone you never planned to become. No matter what happened in afos past it doesnt change the fact that he is a horrible man now, it just explains he wasnt born that way, because no one is born evil! Evil is born by circumstances!