#and all the bitches in the room - like 30-40 people- answered The Three Musketeers

[hexalene]

The person I’m reblogging this from is an excellent blogger u should follow if you’re into BNHA, and I kinda wanted to jump off some of what they’re meta-ing with a literary reference/comparison I’ve been marinating on for a while.

To address the immediate relevancy to makeste’s post tho - I think they're dead on that OFA and AFO are more intimately tied than what’s initially been pitched by the characters in the story.

I personally think they ARE the same quirk, just forced to exist in two bodies. Like half of AFO went with OFA when it was accidentally forced into Yoichi with the stockpiling quirk. Yoichi was genuinely quirkless, no hidden quirk inside him all along (which would explain how he was able to survive having multiple quirks as well).

So to destroy AFO, they’re going to have to find some way to scatter the power of OFA across the whole cast as a last minute power up (look jake, it’s a shonen) or Deku is going to die to destroy it, becoming the ultimate number one hero to save them all.

Okay fine that’s too depressing for this story, what I REALLY think will happen is that Deku will destroy OFA and become quirkless again, but be recognized as the number one ultimate hero for his sacrifice. Better yet, the LAST number one hero because they better abolish the popularity contest BS before the series ends.

Then he’ll go on to keep being a hero because those muscles were 100% natural home grown grass-fed beef that didn’t need no OFA and he’s ALREADY started been using Hatsume’s gadgets so WHAT’S STOPPING HIM

Ahem

But what I REALLY want to ramble about is the fact that the quirk is named “One For All” and “All For One”

BNHA has shown some surprising depth of knowledge and research into what’s considered traditionally “Western” history. I wouldn’t be surprised if Horikoshi was aware of the origins of the phrase “one for all and all for all.”

Not to get all literary tinfoil hat on you but I feel like the themes of the story, at least as far as the origin of OFA/AFO as well as the society of BNHA generally, fits pretty well within the circumstances The Rape of Lucretia. The poem notable for being is the origin of the phrase “one for all and all for one” before Dumas popularized it in The Three Musketeers.

Honestly based on my memory the whole poem, The Rape of Lucretia is very All For One-core. It’s his aesthetic. He’s a bit of a Tarquin. At risk of extreme tinfoil hatting, I am going to try to elaborate:

Most abbreviated summary ever, I will not lie, it has been MORE than a decade since I read this thing:

Tarquin is a powerful roman military dude with all the honor and underage boys that comes with the job. He’s got a buddy, named Lucretia’s Husband, who does nothing but sing his wife’ praises night and day.

Unbeknownst to Lucretia’s Husband, Tarquin’s other job is hating women and he refuses to believe that she wouldn’t cheat and be a scheming, conniving feeeeeemale, so he makes his way over to her place and sets about with the alpha male dude bro SEDUCTION TECHNIQUES

It fails, she’s faithful AND a courteous host (the WHORE) so instead of facing his inner demons, Tarquin goes to her room and tries to seduce her one more time. She refuses him.

Tarquin threatens her, saying if she doesn’t consent to sex, he will kill a slave and make it look like they were having sex and tell Lucretia’s Husband about it so that he thinks she cheated.

She refuses. He threatens to kill her. She refuses. Failing to get any “““““plausible deniability””””” he goes through with the act he planned to commit all along and leaves.

Lucretia waits until Lucretia’s Husband returns, makes him gather all his soldiers, then tells them the awful truth of what happened to her.

They’re enraged, and then horrified, for Lucretia then takes her own life as she can no longer live as Lucretia’s Husband’s wife now that she is impure, ensuring these muscleheads Get The Picture and don’t talk their way out of getting vengeance for her in a useless “he-said-she-said” debate.

With the message thoroughly received, the men take her body and parade her through Rome or wherever they are and rile up a massive crowd to strip Tarquin of all his glory and kill him or something. Idk it’s been a while, but it’s all very Greek Tragedy and Sad n’ Shit.

NOW TO THE POINT:

Tarquin’s….act….is shown to not be driven by lust, instead completely driven by Lucretia’s Husband’s love for his wife and the praises he sings on her openly and proudly. Tarquin professionally hates women, so he cannot believe a woman could be loyal and pure.

(ties to: AFO’s belief that society is inherently corrupt and that noble acts of heroism are actually selfish grabs for personal honor and wealth. AFO acts as a villain and creates a world that reflects his worldview. He cannot believe that hero society can exist without fundamentally being as corrupt as he is.)

Like this man cannot stand the idea that Lucretia is a woman of genuine good character and pure while her husband is away. It has nothing to do with her as a person, but her husband’s belief, faith, and optimism in the inherent goodness of society his wife.

(At this point, AFO is Tarquin, society and the heroic forces acting against him are Lucretia’s Husband…and Yoichi is Lucretia. Hm…well this comparison just got a lot grosser, sorry for the unfortunate implications)

So Tarquin sets out to prove his worldview by corrupting Lucretia. He starts by trying to seduce her and fails. Then he tries to bargain and threaten her into consenting. This also fails. In the end, he forces himself upon her, which STILL doesn’t work, and then leaves her locked up in her home oh yeah he does that too, great guy Tarquin

(Unfortunate implications aside, I hope the line between AFO trying to convince Yoichi to join his side, to imprisoning and threatening him, to finally forcing a quirk onto his body only for that to fail in corrupting him as well is clear enough.)

So, Lucretia waits until her husband returns, makes him gather his allies, THEN passes the knowledge of Tarquin’s crime to her husband. She then kills herself.

Lucretia’s body is then picked up and carried through the streets, a symbol of rage and uprising against Tarquin, and what ultimately is used to bring his downfall.

(COME ON. Yoichi is saved from his prison, brought out by the second, only to die and pass on the -tragic backstory- quirk that is carried through the eras and becomes stronger the more people carry it on and becomes the catalyst that will defeat AFO??)

Obviously you could just point to the old tinfoil hat and be like “this kinda common tragedy stuff, asshole” but then there’s the name of the quirk, One For All and All For One.

The stanza the phrase “one for all and all for one” comes from is this one in The Rape of Lucretia:

The aim of all is but to nurse the life With honour, wealth, and ease, in waning age. And in this aim there is such thwarting strife, That one for all, or all for one we gage; As life for honour in fell battle’s rage; Honour for wealth; and oft that wealth doth cost The death of all, and all together lost.

The website I pulled this from says this is intended as a description of soldiers bound nobly together for war or some shit or something but hm ME PERSONALLY I feel like I remember this describing Tarquin and men like him?

Or it’s describing the circumstances that shape men to act like he did but it’s been more than ten years and that website has cast doubts into my heart, but for the purposes of this I’m sticking to my memory and I would love it if people with a fresher memory or more education than me had thoughts on it as well.

Anyways, my recall says this stanza is referring to all the work people do to have a good life. That war destroys that life and that in conflict instead of the collective being important, with wealth and honor generated from a good life, a man like Tarquin can come in and take the honor achieved by all and make it his alone through killing and taking credit for the efforts of those in his command, granting him power he lacked before.

In other words, the honor achieved by the “all” becomes the honor of the “one” and that honor is taken ignobly to create material wealth and power for the “one”.

And when that honor is taken by the “one” and wasted dishonorably, then all of the death was for nothing as well.

AND COME ON does that not sound like AFO??

Man takes the powers of others, uses it to amass wealth and power but what for?? Crime??? Nihilism??? Villainy??? SOUNDS LIKE DISHONORABLE WASTE TO ME.

And think of the society BNHA is built on — the glory of thousands of people (heroes, yes, but also scientists, researchers, other first responders) consolidated on the shoulders of an unworthy few more interested in furthering their own gains than improving the world they’re in. It’s a society built on AFO’s ideals, a world he helped shape and is complicit in the corruption of.

….if I follow through this comparison, that puts the successors of OFA after Yoichi in the role of Lucretia’s Husband, championing her injustice and building a mob to take town Tarquin.

You could also follow through and talk about why Stain’s “murder everyone who isn’t All Might levels of purity” is worthless as the teenagers that agree with him grow up and get part time jobs instead of worrying about the logistics of serial murder, because tragedy and collective injustice are a better adhesion than impotent rage against the machine.

Hm.

That’s enough of that, here, take this tinfoil hat from me.

Do you actually believe the DFO theory? What do you think supports it? (Genuine question)

I do think Deku and AFO have a yet-to-be-revealed connection, and back in my early BnHA fandom days I did think Dad For One was a possibility. nowadays though, I'm convinced there's a different explanation for the link between them -- namely, that OFA and AFO are actually the same quirk, and Deku is effectively a horcrux of AFO. I have a post here which explains this theory more in-depth, but basically the gist of it is that OFA was never a separate quirk at all. Yoichi really was quirkless, and when AFO attempted to force a quirk on his brother, he accidentally gave him a piece of his own quirk in the process. just broke off a lil section of it, like a Kit-Kat bar.

I will say that regardless of which theory turns out to be true, there's definitely something going on between AFO and Deku. chapter 217 in particular is practically overflowing with hints that the two are linked. Katsuki sees it right from the start, and even theorizes that AFO might have something to do with the SIXQUIRKS activating. and rather than disagree, All Might simply says "I didn't want to raise that point," meaning he made the connection as well. and then they just freaking drop the entire subject never to mention it again. and Horikoshi lays this panel on us as a parting gift.

which to me is confirmation that we'll be revisiting this at some point. simply because you do not lay the symbolism on that thick without some kind of game plan for the future. this isn't merely setting up OFA and AFO as foils; this is deliberately (and ominously) drawing attention to the numerous "coincidental" similarities between their two quirks. such as the fact that OFA is the only other quirk capable of holding multiple quirks within itself. and the only other quirk capable of being passed down to another user.

not to mention there's also the as-yet-unexplained link between Deku and AFO. the fact that Yoichi can "hear" his brother, and vice-versa. back in Jakku, the pre-Danger Sense Deku somehow knew that Tomura was awake before anything had actually happened. and when Deku first activated SIXQUIRKS, AFO was somehow aware, even miles away locked up in Tartarus. and we're just supposed to pretend this is all perfectly normal and makes total sense, lol.

so yeah there is definitely some sort of reveal coming up before this all ends. but I think DFO is more likely to be a red herring at this point. Horikoshi definitely knows about the theories, and that's probably why he still hasn't revealed anything about Dekupapa. he's the Hagakure in this scenario. distract me us with speculation about her, when in reality Aoyama was the culprit all along. it's the same tactic here. convince all the fans that AFO is Deku's father, when in reality the truth is even more insidious. he's not Deku's dad -- he's Deku's quirk. and the final final boss, secretly lurking not within Tomura, but within Deku himself.

tell me that's not the perfect final showdown setup. you know it's true. you know it's coming. or at least I hope it is lol.

incidentally, during the process of typing this all up, it occurred to me that if AFO is capable of creating horcrux!quirks (which we know for a fact he is regardless of how this theory pans out, since that's essentially how TomurAFO was created)... then why not Deku as well? which immediately led me down a whole new different theory rabbit hole. that's going to have to be its own separate post, though. my mind is now going a mile a minute, holy shit. this is going to be a busy weekend.