#mha chapter 407

[myheromedia]

One for All, and All for One

[thealiveshadow]

Men will literally try to create a whole world filled with copies of the brother they view as a “possession” in order to make up for the love and comfort that their dead mother was never able to to them, instead of just going to therapy.

[mirioboo]

I’ve noticed here that

A. AFO beating up these guys is most likely a reaction because they were beating up yoichi, hence the blood already on yoichis face

B. He is wearing barely any clothes (a trashbag) whereas yoichi has a shirt and pants… it’s interesting to me

[talaofthevalley]

Feeling a little insane how the new chapter recontextualises MHA's whole world set-up to match the tone of the series now VS how it was presented at the beginning.

Like start of MHA is very much a hero's story, typical shounen with a comic book flare. It leans hard into "anyone can be a hero" and the underdog tale that is Deku's story, a guy with no quirk in a world where superpowers are the norm. And the world building at this point matches this lighthearted tone perfectly. One day a glowing baby was discovered, and after that more and more people began to develop powers, or quirks, of their own. Short, sweet, and simple. Tells you all you need to know.

But the world has Vastly changed since ch1. Quirk discrimination has been established and deeply dug into. The ways people can be exploited and abused in this world where people are either heroes, villains, or civilians. Where being a hero is a job. Where having a quirk not deemed acceptable by society means you're subhuman.

And then we get All for One's background chapter. Where we find out the glowing baby wasn't the first quirk user at all. It wasn't Afo or Yoichi either. Their MOM had a quirk, thought to be just a tumor on her arm, that Afo then stole. It's highly likely other people had quirks too, they just either didn't realise it, kept it hidden, or it was explained away as some odd medical condition.

But the glowing baby was undeniably supernatural. There's no way you can explain a GLOWING BABY with scientific terms. Plus it was harmless, nothing dangerous or offputting. It's even depicted in a comedic manner in the first chapter. So it was held up as The First one.

I just- fuck the way this works perfectly into how the world of MHA looks now. The way it has always been like this, but the colourful veil of heroes fighting bad guys, this easy to accept narrative so long as you land on the Right side of the battle, hid it all. This fucking series man how is it real.

[cyber-harpie]

Tw corpse (and babies?? sickly babies??) under the cut

[arbitrary-numb3r]

I'm so sad about the newest My Hero chapter. So much about it just does not make sense to me.

[amaranthdahlia]

my love, my love, love, love

[palebonedry]

Orphan of the Paranormal

[thealiveshadow]

My live reaction after reading leaks

[fanfiction-gremlin]

I was reading some tv tropes pages and I got inspired by the drinking game! Anyways here’s an all for one/ Shigaraki family drinking game! When you read a dad for one fic, whenever you see something in the list, take a shot! Have fun!

Disclaimer: I don’t suggest actually using alcohol for this. Use candy or something. Be safe.

[avis-fictional-world]

The look

[xxx-caliber]

I had to draw the shigaraki twins from this chapter they’re so adorable

[thealiveshadow]

>Start a lighthearted shounen with a cute green-haired kid and interesting premise

>Get invested into the story and find the themes to be inspiring and comforting

>some dark moments here and there, but ultimately it doesn’t seem to be super grim

>Start reading the final arc and get hit with inbred families, baby-mother cannibalism, and incestuous/pregnancy subtext between two brothers

>wtf

[mirioboo]

Difference between the official (second pic) and unofficial (first pic) translations. I like the unofficial translations wayyy better

[suugiart]

This week's chapter gag: AFO eats anything and everything and Yoichi gets literally nothing.

[featherstorm2004]

All For One and the power of context

I tend to drift alongside the BNHA fandom as a somewhat casual enjoyer so I haven't really made much posts about the series even if I do like it. Mostly because the things I want to say have already been stated by someone else so, I never felt a need but with these latest chapters I wanted to mention what I believe is Horikoshi"s biggest strength "context".

What I mean by that is his ability to turn seemingly boring or one note characters into some of the most fascinating by showing how these characters upbringings and living situations made them who they are today. And I believe we can all agree this is shown most strongly with the villains, are most recent example being All For One who has made the transformation from a pure evil one note villain to a complex human being within just a few chapters, even if All For One himself would refuse to admit to such humanity.

This can also be seen with other examples such as Mr Compress, Dabi and Toga with the later being the most demonised by the fandom until recent chapters. But for now I wish to focus on All For One as I find his situation to be the most fascinating because unlike the other villains who desperately want to be seen as human and accepted by the world around them, All For One seems almost afraid to admit his humanity and the cruelty of his circumstances.

Ever since All For One was introduced we have been lead to believe by the narrative and All For One himself that he is simply pure evil, that there is no complex reasoning behind what he dose or why he dose it he was simply "born arrogant". But I don't believe that and I don't think Horikoshi wants you to believe that either, it has been displayed to us multiple times in the series that there is no such thing as people who are born evil. I would argue that nature vs nurture is one of the key themes of BNHA.

One key example of this is Endeavour and Dabi, where in the early arcs of the series we are led to believe Endeavour to be this pure evil abusive monster who tormented his family and whilst he was most certainly an abusive prick, Endeavour can't be simplified so quickly with his atonement arc being a clear sign of that. And then there's Dabi who was hated for not caring about his family or friends because of the way he tried to deflect and hide any emotions that weren't pure anger or disgust, then his complete backstory that wasn't from Endeavour's point of view we see almost immediately after the fire he rushes back home to apologies to his family.

The reason I bring these things up is because it displays seamlessly how the lack of context to Dabi and Endeavour's stories led to them to be demonised and simplified into pure evil characters when that is far from the truth.

And I believe a similar phenomenon has begun to scour with All For One, as with the most recent chapters, where we have been allowed to peel back to mask the demon lord just a little bit to see the real man behind the mask of evil. Now dose this mean I am implying that All For One is simply misunderstood or that he can be redeemed? God no but that's not the point, that''s never been the point.

We aren't meant to like All For One or think that he deserves forgiveness but we are supposed to understand him, to deconstruct the layers of the number one villain and understand how he has gotten to this point. To understand that he was a child born in what was essentially an apocalypse with no parents, no name and no one willing to help him because of his quirk, where him and his brother where hunted by hate groups and the government for simply being born different, where he had to not only find a way for himself to survive but also his sickly twin who couldn't help him much due to his illness.

It is this very important context that allows us to understand how a man like All For One came to be. But we must also understand two very important things and that 1) All For One is a liar and 2) he is very childish. At first I thought it was strange how juvenile he acted during these recent arcs and even stranger when he started de-ageing but now I understand why, because the truth of the situation is that All For One never truly grew up from his days as a young child reading comic books with his brother.

In many ways all of this conflict, pain and destruction is merely an extension of that, he is quite literally a child playing at being the big bad in his favourite story. It also explains why he doesn't understand why his brother wants to stay away from him because it's just a game why are you getting worked up over me breaking a few toys? This also would explain all his tantrums first with All Might and now Hawks because they're ruining his game and his story.

Now that's not to say that I think All For One doesn't understand all the pain he's caused or that what he's doing is wrong. But like early Shigaraki he's distance himself to it, it's a similar phenomenon where people in a video game are more willing to do more messed up stuff like murder or bulling a character because they are distanced from it to a point they feel comfortable acting that way just to see what happens.

That's also why I believe All For One clings to his demon persona so much, because if he is truly a demon if he was simply born evil with no ability to feel love or empathy then that also means that he doesn't have to take accountability for his actions because that was simply how he is.

But it's not just about accountability.

I also think the demon persona is a form of self defence for All For One, a way for him to take back control from a world that denied it to him. Like most victims of trauma he is trying to create a way for him to have agency in a situation he originally had no control in, this can be seen in many children who place themselves in the positions of the hero's in the stories they are exposed to, so they too can feel that sense of power and control in they're own lives.

So, that's simply what All For One did only instead of mimicking the hero he decided to mimic the villain. And I think his reasons for doing so are fascinating, at first he relays to the audience and All Might that it's simply a power thing or his desire to rule the world but it's not that simple.

The real reason is surprisingly more human, All For One wants to be loved, to be relied on and trusted. Essentially, All For One desires a family, a community to call his own after being denied one his entire life and this explains a lot about his earlier actions, hell in one of the first vision's Deku receives about All For One he refers to his minions as his "dear friends" and when he is fighting with All Might one of his biggest grievance is how All Might forced his "dear friends" to go under ground.

He even refers to Aoyama as his nephew and gets him and his family to call him uncle, this man is obsessed with the idea of family. Which in turn explains his absolute rage and hatred to all the barriers of One For All as in his eyes they stole the only family he's had since birth, the only person who loved him unconditionally, until he went too far. It's probably the reason All For One chose to fixate on Tenko so much despite having an army of children who could be his successors as not only did he get his revenge by stealing a family member of one of All For One's holders but he also gets to have a child who appears close enough to him and his brother that he could pretend he is actually family.

However, I don't think All For One can admit this to himself, that he is in fact a human being. A human that desires to be loved and love in return because if he dose admit that to himself then he would shatter and he'd have to face all the emotions and consequences that he's been running from for over a century. It would essentially be an ego death for him as everything he's convinced himself he is and what he was taught to be by the world who fears him would suddenly be a lie and he can't handle that.

So, he lies to himself and to the world desperately trying to convince everyone that he is in fact the demon lord, and not a child who desperately clings to fiction. It's tragic in a way as ultimately I believe Yoichi was correct, if given the right care and upbringing All for one could have been the kindest ability in the world, but alas they were not so lucky.

As, for where his story is going I honestly have no idea, he may be killed, he may De-age into nothingness. But I think it's important to remember this context whenever we discus the story of BNHA with all it's flaws it is ultimately about broken people desperately finding a place in the world.

But that's just my opinion.