#post-shigaraki-fight re-destro

[autumnmobile12]

My Hero Academia: AFO's Other Allies

Maybe it's just because I watched the first installment of Arcane S2, but something I think would have been a really cool plotline in My Hero is if other allies of AFO had been introduced. Not the Doctor or Gigantomachia who were clearly his loyal followers. I mean other villain overlords who were part of his inner circle. An inner circle that collapsed in his absence.

All Might kills AFO, the classic power vacuum opens up, the remaining villain overlords fight amongst each other for dominance in the new order and their individual greed and pride destroys what’s left of AFO’s influence.

I've already made another post expressing my skepticism that AFO rose to power and other villains just took that laying down. Somebody had to have looked at the crown and wanted it badly enough to take him on, crazy as it might have been. But every villain overlord has his/her/their generals, lieutenants, constituents, whatever you want to call them. Overhaul had his loyal Eight Bullets, after all, and Dark Might had the entire Gollini family.

Arcane: Silco had the Chem-Barons. Not exactly loyal followers, but they feared him too much to know they couldn't overpower him.

Harry Potter: Voldemort's Death Eaters. He was pretty pissed none of them tried to find him after his 'death.'

Castlevania: Dracula's Generals. Again, not a completely loyal group and were in the stages of forming a coup, but there was still that level of fear that kept them in line.

D. Gray Man: The Millennium Earl's Noah Clan. Definitely loyal followers as they do regard each other as family.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Father and the Seven Homunculi. Another makeshift family of a kind.

In all honestly, I guess there is a canon explanation for the lack of AFO's allies: He does say All Might took out several of his 'friends,' so I guess that could have been part of the strategy. Incapacitate the Demon Lord by cutting off his limbs first, then going for the head so to speak.

But think about how interesting it would have been for Shigaraki to have to go about winning the support of AFO's old allies instead of the MLA plotline. Or if Re-Destro had been a former ally of AFO who was no more impressed by the skinny, gamer nobody and his ragtag coterie than Gigantomachia was. Or if another one of AFO’s former followers was trying to win over the Doctor’s support and Garaki wanted them both to prove their worth. Maybe the old allies have gotten used to the new order, accepted the golden age of villainy has passed in spite of All Might’s retirement, and they just aren’t willing to gamble what little they managed to keep after AFO’s fall.

It's a very The Old vs The New theme if we're pitting AFO's former followers against the League of Villains, but I think it would have still fit the tone in mirroring the hero students working to surpass their own predecessors. It would have presented Shigaraki with a shrewd choice to make: Do I bother winning over the has-beens in hopes they have invaluable experience to offer or do I eliminate them and risk making mistakes they could have counseled me about?

[sophsiaaa]

SHIGARAKI IS BACK 🙏 BNHA 425 THEORY

spoilers below

Okay, so with the latest chapter leaks I know I’m not the only one hoping that our lord and saviour the King of Destruction has risen. We have all been in denial about this glorious hate-filled man’s death, and I know many will put this latest slew of ‘he’s back’ posts down to delulu coping.

However, I believe we are not being delulu. I firmly believe that shigaraki IS back. And that is all down to the evidence in Horikoshi’s visuals in these latest leaks.

Exhibit A: Hand Placement

Shigaraki is a character renowned for his hands - and hand symbolism in general. Is it any wonder then that one of the key things we see of this ‘random villain’ in the new leaks is a hand dragging against a wall?

Furthermore this panel where the random villain drags his hand reminds me of another panel much earlier in the story.

This page is from the My Villain Academia intro much earlier in the manga, and though it’s not identical or anything, the way both this random villain in the new chapter and shigaraki drag their hands is similar.

But if you’re not convinced by that circumstantial evidence, than listen further gentle reader…

Exhibit B: Destroying That House

As we also see in the new leaks, our random villain is emerging from the ruins of a destroyed house. This is explicit symbolism and parallelism in the story to shigaraki, whose entire arc and character centre around his desire to destroy the house and society that oppressed him. To see this random villain emerging from it now, seemingly born anew in the society which has been forever changed by shigaraki’s actions, is proof enough that this villain is shigaraki. Why else include the image of a house?

But if that doesn’t convince you, then move onto Exhibit C, the most damning evidence of all.

Exhibit C: Those Damn Grippers

We all know what shigaraki’s feet look like by now; the man will not put those dogs away. The random villain’s feet in these leaks and the tattered pants look exactly like Shigaraki’s did during the re-destro fight.

Therefore: despite his narrative shortcomings, Horikoshi is an incredible visual artist and one of the best mangakas currently in shonen. His panelling, details, and visual foreshadowing/parallels/storytelling are incredible. I do not believe in coincidence where Horikoshi’s visuals are concerned, and particularly within these leaks, where we are in the story’s epilogue and the wake of what is clearly a dissatisfied ending for shigaraki’s character (both for deku and the narrative). Shigaraki has risen, he had returned.

My fellow Shigaraki fans, at long last, we are about to get Tenko Shimura: Rising.

[ihatetaxes99]

I'll say it: I love the MLA, but they probably shouldn't have existed. Not in their canon state, at least.

Everything about their presence after their introductory arc only really serves to make everything to do with storytelling harder for Horikoshi. Let's remove the League from the equation for the moment. The MLA has Geten and Re-Destro, implied to be two of the more powerful characters in the series (and neither of whom were actually defeated during the MVA arc, with the latter only standing down due to losing his own faith in the battle), and that's without getting into the 100k+ foot soldiers they've got kicking around. Curious and Skeptic are fairly useless in regards to combat proficiency, but Hanabata provides another strong support pillar of the army. Even before you add in Shigaraki, Twice and Dabi, the MLA is overpowered.

And what did this lead to? A massively tangled operation where half of its members had to be unsatisfyingly knocked out off-screen because Horikoshi had accidentally made them too powerful to be conceivably beaten. And to be fair, it's a trap I fell into myself the last time I wrote them. The Liberation Army are very difficult to make threatening, because you have to gimp them in order for the heroes to not get immediately blown to pieces like a small child throwing a rock at the Berlin Wall. As it stands, they're too good.

So, in all this smug retrospect, what would I have done? Well, it's something I'm toying with for something I'm working on, but my main idea would be to cut the MLA down. Make them a real underground faction of extremists. They still have their primary figureheads, but that aside, give them a couple of hundred loyalists spread throughout the country, not a couple of hundred thousand. They're powerful, but they're low in number, with many of their forces consisting of people like Yotsubashi's private security team and Hanabata's party subordinates. Much like the IRB at the turn of the twentieth century prior to the Easter Rising, they're basically an old boys' club, sitting around and reminiscing on when the group had power. Their schemes have to be more subtle, more focused on the - ahem - hearts and minds of the public. Things like Detnerat's products and commercials, Curious' articles, Hanabata's proposed policies, they all subtly push a pro-Liberation message. They warm the general population up to the idea, they take advantage of the Commission's failures, they engineer public crises from behind the scenes to weaken people's belief in the current system. What if, for example, it had been the MLA who had secretly encouraged Overhaul's production of a Quirk-erasing drug, in the hopes that it would cause further unrest and fear that they could manipulate to turn public sentiment against the current government? What if they had provided funding to the League post-All for One's arrest in order to stir up more trouble, instead of getting in a big fight and losing half their men to Shigaraki? What if the UA traitor had been acting on orders from the MLA, who then relayed the information to the League for the purpose of essentially using them as their pawns to attack UA on their behalf? A secret society pulling the strings, and using the League as their unwitting patsies, behind the scenes to sow distrust in the Commission and set them up for their eventual failure. The final arc could have been less about whatever the hell it was about and more about the League finally realising what was going on and having a massive three-way battle between the heroes, the villains and the MLA who finally take to the streets after spending pretty much the whole story scheming and manipulating and building up their forces.

It's all fanfic stuff, and it's so easy to point and gape and go "I would do that so much better!" but I honestly think the secret society working to undermine the government angle would have been more interesting and made for a more threatening faction than a massive revolutionary army which gets immediately crumpled during their first major battle with the heroes.

[bnhaobservation]

Changing society even MORE in BNHA for a real PLUS ULTRA

So in my past post “Changing society in BNHA” I theorized that the change watching Midoriya fight was meant to bring in the society, was making it aware they should help their Heroes instead than just watching them. So far it still seems an idea that holds.

We see that the common folks as well as the U.A. first grades are all willing to help Heroes and are looking at the future optimistically and pro-active. They don’t want anymore just to be coddled by Heroes but helps them bringing them food, helping them to rebuild things.

But I wonder if this is really how it’s meant to end.

Midoriya wanted to stop the circle of hate, but until outcasts live, the circle of hate will never be broken.

Until people can’t accept everyone isn’t born equal and that’s fine, there will be another Heteromorph that gets abused and will become another Spinner, there will be another kid whose father won’t accept he like Heroes and that’ll be abused until he’ll snap and then someone else will take advantage of him and he’ll become Shigaraki Tomura, there’ll be another kid with parents that rejects and try to suppress his quirk and that will become Toga Himiko, there’ll be another kid ignored and neglected by his parents who’ll come to think they don’t want him who will become Dabi, there will be a nice man who, due to an incident, will become a homeless unable to find work until he’ll resort to use his Quirk to steal who’ll become Twice, there will be someone who’ll think Heroes just gain too much money while ignoring those who’re poor who’ll become Mr. Compress and so on.

And it was made clear that they can’t stop all this because they don’t really have that many Heroes and the refusal to stop and turn sides of Shuuichi, Tomura, Himiko, Touya, Jin and Atsuhiro in the story proves that when people are pushed too far it’s hard to save them, it might as well be too late, they’re just too disillusioned, I mean, even Himiko who regretted hurting Ochako and was touched by her words in the end chose death over living in the world in which Heroes would win because she knew that world wasn’t for her and Touya’s family reached out for him too late when his condition deteriorated too much, as for Hawks’ offer of helping Jin it came too late and at the price of abandoning the people who had been faster to help and welcome Jin.

Heroes were too late, they let things deteriorate too much, beyond the breaking point.

And they’ll continue deteriorating because Heroes more often than not step in solely when the problem is too big, when a person has turned to crime as the answer because they believes all the other ways had been cut from them (we’ll discuss in another post if this is true or not, for the sake of this post just let’s leave it as ‘they believed there was no other way’ and end it here).

Society has no plan to correct its shortcoming, Shuuichi’s book about Shigaraki Tomura is going to work like the old Destro’s book, it’s going to encourage people who’re oppressed by society to destroy it because there’s no way out. They might have kept Shuuichi alive but they didn’t save him. Tomura was his friend, now Shuuichi is alone, angry and desperate, plagued by guilt because he didn’t step in and saved his friend. It’s not just he’ll be jailed, it’s he still thinks this society wouldn’t accept him and for him there’s no way out to live if not destroying it.

So now what?

We’ll wait for the new Re-Shigaraki and Re-Re-Destro?

Well, there’s still a thing that Midoriya and Co. can do.

Chap. 428 brings up how Uraraka wants to suppress her feelings of pain for failing to save Himiko but can’t, mirroring how Himiko just couldn’t suppress her own feelings. The difference will be in how she’ll have her friends (or just Midoriya) supporting her. It also brings up how Midoriya, despite being considered a Hero for murdering Shigaraki actually feels bad for doing it. Fundamentally he hears a boy telling him that he inspired him by murdering the person Midoriya wanted to save, Shuuichi’s friend, by becoming an unwilling murderer. Midoriya feels bad but, same as Uraraka, he’s bottling it up inside himself.

People had been asking for the permission to interview class A. Aizawa refused.

However if it’ll be Midoriya and Uraraka who’ll take part to an interview and won’t just say the usual ‘oh, Villains need to fear Heroes, now we’re here, we’ll crush them’ but will talk about how Tenko and Himiko wouldn’t have turned into Villains if someone had helped them first. Shouji could help explaining how hard Heteromorph life still is outside the city, Shouto could explain the importance he had for him that Midoriya reached out for him to help him change his mindsetting and so on.

If we want to involve the adults, Hawks too could give an extra talk of how Jin was a good person and if they had helped him FIRST he wouldn't have turned into a Villain, Aizawa and Hizashi could talk of who previously was Kurogiri and how a side of him never died even if he was turned into a Nomu and All Might and Gran Torino might join to explain how they regretted they failed to protect Shimura's family.

Because really, it’s easy to criticize Tomura once he turned into a Villain, once he became a terrible person… but originally he was just a little kid who wanted to become a Hero and if people had helped him he wouldn’t have turned into a Villain and the point of understanding the root of this isn’t just to turn Tomura's story into a ‘sob story’ and feel bad for him, for the rest of the league, to give them a pass, it’s to stop the same mistakes from repeating. If society doesn’t learn anything from the tragedy of Shigaraki Tomura, that tragedy will repeat. Again, and again, and again.

So I wonder if this will be the next step in BNHA.

Class A using the League’s tragedies not to save the League’s members, it’s too late for that, Tomura, Himiko and Jin are dead, Touya is going to die too and Shuuichi’s life is likely going to be shortened by how he has more than one Quirk, saving the League can’t be anymore done… but others can be saved… if society learns from the League’s tragedies and help people not to become the next League, they will be saved and society will become the horde of ‘heroes’ the world need.

After all one didn’t need to be a Hero to save the League’s members BEFORE they become Villains, it was enough they were given a little of human warmth and care, the story proves it over and over that this is enough to save people.

But well, again this is just food for thoughts, we still have two chapters to see where BNHA is heading, if mystery guy will need to be saved by a titular Hero or if a common folk will be inspired by Heroes to extend a helping hand and SAVE HIM before he’ll turn into a Villain…. Or better, save him from turning into a Villain. For now we can only wait and see.

[salvagevillaintalk]

New Updated MHA Nemesis Unrestrained

Because what better way to welcome the new blog than by posting the updated version of Class A and who'd I choose to have them as rivals...becuase yes.

Even now my brain still has better match-ups for some of them. This time Kaminari and Jiro!

Given this is a new blog will only be posting the line-up with the newest rivals, though if you want to check out what I had before, you can look at it here.

Deku - Shigaraki

Ochako - Toga

Todoroki - Dabi (For all three above, you likely know why already xD)

Bakugo - Muscular (Same as before, genuinely think that Bakugo beating down against one of the strongest of Deku's Rogue's Gallery who was supposed to kidnap him as a way to return the favor just writes itself)

Iida - Stain (Speedster vs someone who stops you in your tracks, both are very morally centric figures with codes on how they feel heroism should be upheld - really wished they clashed in the Final War)

Kirishima - Rappa (seriously, these guys were perfect rivals. Incredible defense veruse overpowering offense. WHERE WAS RAPPA DURING THE FINAL WAR??!!!)

Tsu - Spinner (already spoke of this in the series, but both are Heteroromorphs that dealth with ostracization and are their group's mutant support)

Momo - Re-Destro (Leader of the First Years vs Leader of the MLA, one that forged her own path as a Hero and overcome her anxiety to be a proper leadervs guy who was essentially groomed to be Destro V2 and his whole ordeal is putting himself under mass stress to be strong, even if he isn't liberated.)

Tokoyami - Twice (both struggle with keeping their powers under control and have a relationship with Hawks, so its pretty natural)

Aoyama - Kunieda (for what it's worth, Kunieda made for a scary villain for Aoyama, his loyalty to AFO made me want to know more on their relationship)

Kaminari - Tajima (Basically a match-up of two electric types of contrasting disposition, that also act as supports and backbones for their teams. Kaminari is a confident, if kind over his head, showoff that struggles with his reliability under pressure, but manages to overcome it for the sake of the right thing - for his pals. Tajima, meanwhile, is one consumed by his fear of AFO and gives in to his anxiety to the point of doing sabotaging efforts that could harm people to save his own skin)

Jiro - Shin Nemoto (A girl who could hear theoretically anything against a guy whose Quirk can allow him to always gain the truth. There's a potential for introspection on how people with these sorts of Quirks are trusted, or even distrusted. Perhaps Nemoto and her could relate to people always thinking they'll spy on them or that they can't ever speak freely? Just a thought!)

Mineta -Toya Setsuno (A villain whose had a rough love life and can steal anything against someone whose desperate for love/lust and can technically hold down anything with just his Quirk. In addition, Setsuno has low self esteem to Mineta's high ego. It's a dynamic/fight that really works)

Shoji - Chimera (a Spinner stand-in that Shoji actually fought, and lost, to before and would've been perfect to be his Nemesis)

Mina - Slice (Already have seeds of a good rivalry given how Mina ruined Slice's hair that she prides herself in. Perhaps Slice could have been similar to Mina in that both were their community's popular girls that tried their best to be defenders. But in Slice's case, those she helped eventually backstabbed her to leave her destitute, maybe even for someone else - hence why prides herself in, usually, just her power...least until she met Nine's crew )

Hagakure - Mummy (The Invisible (Wo)man versus a mummy. It writes itself and Hagakure presents an interesting dilemma to him since she's unaffected his Quirk due to her, ah, situation)

Koda - Trumpet (Yeah, still think Koda would've worked well as a shy yet caring boy standing against a cold, faux preacher)

Sero - Ending (Another person who wounded up being affected by a Todoroki and essentially waltzed through. Though while Ending became obssessed and wants to be done in by them, Sero's easygoing nature has him not revolve his life around his defeat or said Todoroki's beyond a few jabs. Basically Sero is the 'dude its not that serious' of the MHA verse that makes him prime to restrain someone whose kinda off the deep end or go against them.....and, you know, similar power sets).

Sato - Deidoro Sakaki (Scratch that. Guy who gains power from ingesting sugar, vs guy whose Quirk is stronger from ingesting alcohol makes for a far better match-up!)

Ojiro - Hakiji Tengai (A disciplined monk vs a disciplined martial artist; with the added bonus of a match of pretty 'basic' power standings: someone with a tail trying to whack a guy in a shield - it's a pairing I think could lead to an interesting way for Ojiro to win.)

But, yeah, if I had no restraints, this is who I would actually give as Class A's proper Nemesis throughout the series.

[autism-connoisseur]

// bnha spoilers / leaks

thinking about this latest bnha chapter and how shigaraki was fighting back and ultimately took control back from afo by... remembering his origin. and how us as readers first learn about it when he tells the league during the mva arc. and since spinner narrates mva, we get to see his reaction, his thoughts; we know it's what makes him begin to understand shigaraki and to root for him, because he sees himself in him. they are both empty and broken and shallow and spinner sees his own reflection staring at him when he looks at shigaraki as he reveals the first scraps about his past. it probably meant a lot to spinner, who had just confronted shigaraki about being aimless and lost (which they were!). then all the stuff with machia and ujiko and the mla happened but a lot of people have talked about it already and it's not really the point of the post ykn.

what i wanted to talk about is that we know spinner stayed by tomurAFO's side all since the first war, knowing it wasn't quite shigaraki but still taking care of him because that was his body. his friend's body, his leader's face, and he needs to stick with him after everything that they just went through. and im wondering if in all the time they spent away on that cave, maybe when not-shigaraki-but-also-kinda-shigaraki was recovering from his fight with stars and stripes, spinner would just talk to him like he usually would. not to pretend that everything was okay but to remind shigaraki that he's not only a comrade or an ally but also a friend.

maybe sometimes he'd bring up a new game they had their eyes on or crack a joke about going from living in filthy spaces to luxuries to a cave in the middle of nowhere. and maybe other times he'd talk about how much he believes in him. how seeing him beat re-destro and level deika to ruins made him realize that he'd follow him anywhere and that's why he's there.

maybe, just maybe, he'd bring up that day so long ago when shigaraki opened up to them about his childhood, about his origin, and how it made him feel. and shigaraki, quietly listening, reassembling himself out of tiny pieces and memories, would have it a bit easier if spinner was telling the tale for him. spinner doesn't expect him to answer, and he definitely doesn't know what shigaraki is secretly doing, but he still talks, because he believes in him. and seeing spinner's undying faith in shigaraki tomura –not as a symbol of evil or as a broken villain waiting to be fixed, but as a fellow ex-hikikomori, someone with a shared interest in videogames, a leader, someone to spend meaningless fleeting moments with, a friend, just shigaraki tomura and nothing else– would help tomura as well. remind him that he has a reason to fight, that there's people waiting to destroy the world with him and that even if tenko killed his family and destroyed his home he still has people to return to.

[themattress]

I feel like the Ransik or Dr. Regal comparison works, but only for AFO, Shigaraki and Stain, the LoV's leaders and ideological gurus. AFO just wants to spread villainy because he's evil for evil's sake, Shigaraki doesn't actually care about a better society built in the ruins of the old and just wants to destroy society as a matter of vengeance and hatred, and Stain embodies that Dr. Regal quote but with the extra stupid addition that he thinks some human beings aren't truly evil at heart and that they deserve to be society's benevolent dictators.

Dabi is a similar case, but he's more self-aware. He knows what he's doing is wrong and doesn't deny culpability, which is why he always intended on killing himself along with Endeavor, whom he is 100% correct about also holding culpability and deserving of Hell.

The others, though, I'm more inclined to make this comparison.

Like Akito, there is absolutely no excusing or absolving the evil deeds that they commit and the pain they cause others. But it's also disingenuous to act as if they were provided with the proper understanding of how wrong what they do is or with adequate chances to change their ways. Their backstories all feature cartoonishly horrible people teaching them through example that hurting others is justified if in the name of upholding the life you want to live and the society you wish to live in, so they naturally internalize that behavior and even have a point about hypocrisy from heroes since if it's so imperative that they must be stopped, then where were heroes to stop their own abusers? Why should they follow a system that picks and chooses who is worthy of being helped or not, or who is worthy of being stopped or not. That's why they want to fight to change that system, which makes it all too easy for them to be taken in by the likes of AFO, Shigaraki and Stain and show them blind, unquestioning obedience even as they are dragged down an increasingly dark path beyond redemption.

Lastly, I must agree with the two comments left on this post that rightfully point out that no, the MLA are actually NOT any more "legitimate anti-villains" or any less hypocritical than the League of Villains. OP is conflating how the organization started out under Destro and how it currently is under his descendant Re-Destro. Destro's MLA was an organization that had well-meaning goals and tried to the best of its ability to achieve them peacefully. But the current incarnation is a corrupt, privileged, Communist-like terrorist organization that promotes people with quirks using them however they want on others, the strong pushing down the weak....except, of course, if those people want to use quirks in a way the MLA doesn't approve of, in which case they'll be dealt with. There's a reason this version of the MLA merged with the LoV: because they did not, in fact, "have a leg to stand on" morally.

There was said interview, where HK said that jpn audience hated the villains and since villains started to gain more popularity, the manga popularity plummeted each year and rn SJ is rushing HK to end bnha. Villain stans got totally mad of course calling jpn fans dumb, weird, saying they have a terrible taste and that jpn only dislikes them bc of the culture since they don't like out of the norm ppl gaining popularity and don't like to see opressed ones trying to change the system

So what do you think abt that?

Warnings:

*Mentions of Terrorism

*Mentions of Serial Killing

*Bad Language

*Anti League of Villains

**Anti Himiko Toga

**Anti Dabi

**Twice Critical

*Victim Mentality

Basically, Villain Stans may want to skip this.

First, I kinda knew that HK is being rushed to finish the story, as you can feel it when you read it. I wasn’t aware of the reason though.

Now I am not Japanese and I have never met one personally, but I don’t meet many people (I don’t like them, see?) so I don’t know what they’re thinking. But I think it’s insulting that westerns—yeah, I know who the culprits are, sadly--are making such a gross generalization. But if any of the Eastern parts of the fandom--particularly the Japanese--want to weigh in, then by all means, please do.

Why does everyone assume people hate villains because they’re “out of the norm people?” Jack Sparrow is “out of the norm,” and he’s the most famous pirate in fiction! The Disney villains are all “out of the norm,” and people love them more than the heroes! (And note how most Disney fans aren’t trying to justify their actions either.) Dr. Stein from Soul Eater is “out of the norm,” and���you all get the point.

Why is it so hard to accept that people hate villains because they do VILLAINOUS things? Is it really so hard to believe that villains can be hated because they kill innocent people, steal, and cause harm without remorse? And is it really so unbelievable that not everyone is willing to wave aside their crimes just because of a sad backstory?

Have any of the Japanese fans actually said, “I don’t like this person because they’re different?” Or have they given other reasons that people are ignoring?

“Oppressed ones trying to change the system?” Bullshit. That's my opinion on that. The League of Villains was never oppressed! (At least by the hero society.) Oh, yeah, I’m fucking going there!

Tago is a freaking serial killer, who wants to be able to do whatever she wants without consequence. Even if the thing she wants to do is drink blood without consent or drink them dry.

Dabe just wants revenge on Endeavor and has killed tons of innocent people to do that and even set up his siblings to die as well.

Compress comes from a family of thieves, who claims to want to bring corrupt heroes to light, but we never see that. Maybe his ancestors did, but here he’s just using his powers to hurt people and kidnap kids.

Twice was a criminal who was a one-man army who used his powers to commit armed robberies, battery, and assault (not confirmed if he crossed into murder). 

And finally, Shiggy is a brainwashed criminal whose actions have been manipulated and controlled by All for One since he was little, and he never received the psychological help he needed after accidentally murdering his whole family. He doesn’t want to change anything! He just wants to destroy heroes because that’s what AFO wants.

Spinner may want to change things to help people, but he’s probably the only one.

Every single person in the league is a terrorist who attacked innocent people and resulted in mass destruction. Not one of them is innocent.

Endeavor is the only one on the hero's side who has hurt an innocent person and set a member of the league on the path to villainy. If Dabe only hurt Endeavor we would be having a different talk, but he hurt several innocent people and tried to murder his siblings, so here we are.

The worst that society has done was suffer the bystander syndrome, and yeah, that’s bad, but it’s something everyone’s guilty of. Everyone has seen a stray and ignored them. Everyone has seen a homeless person on the street and moved on with their day. Doesn’t mean everyone deserves to die, it just means we need to be better. Same with the manga.

Now the Meta league, that’s a different story. Yes, they’re still villains and killers, but they’re the ones actually fighting for their rights and unlike the League, they have points. Quirks are a part of who people are, and if they’re not hurting anyone, they should use them. It’s not fair that only “heroes” should be able to use them legally. THEY’RE the “oppressed ones trying to change the system.” And they tried to do it peacefully at first and only went to extremes when no one would listen, as back then there was a fear against quirks. And now, thanks to their history, they’re seen as anarchists and no one is willing to even listen to them. They’re still villains, but they’re villains with a leg to stand on.

The LoVs are just people who kill other people, then throw a fit when they’re called out on it. This reminds me of a villain from demon slayer, who was always going, “Stop picking on me!” or “I can’t stand those who bully the weak!” when said demon was literally murdering a village of people. That’s exactly what the LoVs are. They are stuck on the victim mentally because they don’t want to change.

The heroes are far from perfect, and they’ve done questionable things with the assassins, and Hawks, but the majority of heroes still do everything they can to help people. Some do it for money and fame, but they still save people. Even Endeavor, who is the biggest asshole on the hero side, still saves people every day. (He should still go to jail for child and marital abuse, and lose all custody of his children, but I digress.)

Stans and the narrative can push all they want that the LOVs are just “oppressed ones trying to change the system,” but the facts prove that they aren’t. They’re killers and criminals who want to do bad things without being challenged or made to feel bad.

The manga's not over, so there's a slight chance I may change my mind, but I doubt it. As is--well, I think I've made my feelings clear. 

That’s all from me on the topic. Have a nice day!

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts: 360, Despite Everything...

HEY GUESS WHO HAS MORE TO TALK ABOUT THIS WEEK THAT'S RIGHT IT'S ME.

      On Shigaraki and Body Horror:

I hadn’t taken note of this until Bakugou’s muttering at the end of the chapter made me go back and check, but through this entire fight, it’s always been Shigaraki’s left arm that’s all Akira-ed out.  His left hand is the one Re-Destro maimed, the fresher injury compared to, say, his facial scars, which certainly don’t look to be healing.  Is it more unstable than his right?  Back in the cave, when Spinner and the audience got their first glimpse of the body horror that was to come, it was still that left arm.

It’s interesting here that he doesn’t revert his arm, choosing instead to use his toes to fling Bakugou around by the hair (on which note, ShigAFO, please, could you have chosen a weirder way to show off?).  I wonder if he’s still having some trouble controlling it, such that it’s just easier and faster to use his feet rather than wrestle the arm into compliance.

...Well, if nothing else, as a shipper who was a touch miffed at the suggestion that Shigaraki was going to heal the injury RD left him, I’m not displeased to see that it’s the injured arm giving him more trouble.

Still on the topic of the body horror, though, I do want to call specific attention to this:

I always wondered what in god’s name was up with the horrible monster feet in the background of the flashback to AFO’s fight with Nana!  I’d assumed it was just a gross quirk he had at the time that he later cycled out, but with the clear similarity here, now I wonder if the monster feet back then are Ujiko’s work, some pitiable early guinea pig for his and AFO’s work on developing “a body that can overcome quirk singularity.”  It would certainly explain why AFO has been so blasé about the incredible horrors his new vessel has been undergoing.

     

On Bakugou and (Not) Friends:

As far as what AFO says to Bakugou this week, I don’t have a tremendous amount to say—it’s calculated to hurt, and I’m sure the vestige believes it.  If anybody following me more meta on the kids than I will likely ever provide, I recommend class1akids, who’s got some great posts on this chapter here and here. (Also this one, a bit more relevant to villain fan interests.)

Anyway, one thing that does catch my attention is the fact that the physical body speaking these cruelties to Bakugou—“Midoriya Izuku’s hanger-on,” “a minnow of One For All’s wake”—is himself a person who has been pulled into All For One’s wake, so much so that he’s been pulled under by that tide.  Will Shigaraki Tomura—Shimura Tenko—never be more than an accessory to All For One?  If we don’t believe that of Bakugou, why should we believe it of Tomura?

It’s an interesting parallel, and I wonder if anything will come of it.  Shigaraki has—regardless of what the vestige said last week—always been more interested in Bakugou than in Midoriya, after all.  Something to keep an eye on!

Jumping to the end of the chapter, I like the Jeanist/Bakugou scene a lot.  Jeanist might be my actual favorite Pro Hero; he’s just about the only one who’s been shown to think about the lived reality of villains, who has a concrete awareness of the pros and cons of the performative nature of heroism.  Jeanist comes off like someone who really has thought about the system he lives in and the pressures it exerts on people who don’t fit in, and even as he’s come to some questionable conclusions about how to help those outcasts-in-the-making, he is trying to help them—alone among the Pros, he’s portrayed as going out of his way to look for those people who are in danger of falling through the social safety net so he can guide them back towards the right path.

Jeanist brings a considered decisiveness to his scenes; he’s stringent, not simply because it’s his personality to be so, but because he has thought through every scenario he can and decided that his severity will lead to the best outcomes.  I’ve always liked that air of perceptive deliberation.

So, that all being the case, what we get this week is vulnerability like we’ve never seen from him.  We’ve seen him physically on the ropes before,(1) yes, but before now, he’s always kept his sense of self-possession. So here, while I like his visible tremor when he lands beside Bakugou and sets a hand on the kid’s back, what I love is his wide-eyed jolt at Bakugou’s tears, his fumbling attempts to break out of his brisk, matter-of-fact pragmatism long enough to find something sincere and reassuring to say to this grotesquely injured teenager he personally trained. 

His realization that Bakugou is still in the game, despite everything, is all the more rewarding for those moments of fear that that might not be the case.  Jeanist and Bakugou are great, actually; I wish we could get a ton more about their regard for each other.

     

On Mirio and Asking the Right Questions: 

YES GOOD GOD BLESS THIS BOY.

Mirio.  Mirio.  THANK YOU.

Finally.  Finally.  A hero who asks what Shigaraki wants.  I want to shake this kid’s hand, give him the key to the city, and shove a picture of him in the face of every idiot who responds to people talking about the villains’ complaints with, “Well, what do you expect the heroes to do, just let the villains do whatever they want?  The villains are trying to KILL PEOPLE; they have to be STOPPED.”

God.  GOD.  Mirio shows up here and completely fucking nails it.  He rescues the person in immediate danger, he defends himself, and he gets his opponent talking about his motivations.  That’s it!  That’s what I want to see heroes doing!  Asking why the villains want what they want!  Engaging them in conversation!

Contrast this to the last time Shigaraki tried telling a bunch of heroes what he wanted, and Endeavor thanked him for the breather while attacking him again, with no one there making the slightest of attempts to intellectually refute him, much less ask him any follow-up questions on why he felt the way he did.

THAT ALL SAID, I’m not entirely without some quibbles here.

While I love the course of this conversation, and especially its potential future directions, the structure does feel a touch contrived?  Like, the whole thing feels designed to get to the end-point it reaches without necessarily considering the knowledge and perspectives of the characters involved.  Following are the problems as I see them:

Who is Mirio addressing his question to?  Does he know about the AFO vestige and its current control over Shigaraki?  Aside from Deku and the vestiges, Bakugou seems to know, and All Might brings up a “mind meld” in discussions with the taskforce, so presumably they have some idea.  I’m much less clear on how widespread that knowledge is.  This matters because, if Mirio knows he’s talking to some version of AFO, the question makes no sense.  That’s because…      

“Destroying” isn’t AFO’s modus operandi.  Both the question and ShigAFO’s reply feel much more geared to Shigaraki than they do AFO.  And sure, the AFO-vestige is melding with Shigaraki, so there’s a lot of Shigaraki in there, but that answer to that question just doesn’t feel like it’s coming from AFO at all.       AFO doesn’t “destroy,” not in the sense Mirio is asking about, and he certainly doesn’t destroy because of the failures of the system.  AFO “controls,” and he does it because he desires control.  The last time he talked about systemic failure being a motivation for him, as opposed to just a fact of life that makes reaching his goals easier, was the OFA dream flashback, and I’m not convinced that the AFO we saw back then is even reconcilable with the version we have now.       The systemic failure answer is entirely in keeping with Shigaraki’s motivations, but Shigaraki isn’t in charge right now, so who is this answer even coming from?  (More on this in a sec.)      

Mirio’s response suggests a knowledge of Shigaraki’s aims that Mirio has no reason to have.  Consider that he says that Shigaraki has no friends, otherwise he’d know that there are things worth keeping around.  This feels like a response to, of all things, Shigaraki’s answer to Ujiko’s challenge way back at the beginning of My Villain Academia.  He talks some about the destruction he desires at Jakku,(2) but there, he’s really just talking about the society heroes have built, which he could easily seek to destroy without also destroying any friends he might or might not have.  It’s only been to other villains(3) that Shigaraki’s laid out just how far-reaching his hatred is, how he wants to obliterate everything that annoys him, and everything that breathes annoys him.       Not knowing that, Mirio has no reason to assume that Shigaraki’s target is anything other than what Shigaraki has told heroes his target is, what Hawks in his information-gathering capacity assumed his target was—the Hero Society status quo.  The destruction of which, again, would have no bearing on Shigaraki’s friends or lack thereof.

Again, I very much like the places the conversation goes!  I consider it a fantastic step that makes me very hopeful that we will eventually get to see the importance of the League to Shigaraki, because I consider it of paramount importance that the narrative acknowledge Shigaraki as someone whose feelings and relationships matter, that he is more than the victimhood of his internal five-year-old.

And I do think it’s a fantastic callback to that bit with Ujiko, because, hey, Mirio is not saying anything Shigaraki doesn’t already know.  Shigaraki has friends; he explicitly makes a conscientious exception for them in his apocalyptic desires.  AFO is the one who—regardless of his protestations to the contrary—doesn’t have any friends.

And therein lies the intent, I think?  Several times now, Horikoshi has tried to tell us that the AFO vestige and Shigaraki are becoming muddled, that there is no firm boundary between them.  So then, I could buy this being intended as a jolt to Shigaraki to disturb his synchroneity with AFO.  If AFO has him trapped in his hatred for heroes and the status quo, unable to resist because he’s so caught up in the fight against his and AFO’s common enemy, then the reminder of how differently the two of them treat their allies makes a fine boulder to drop into that wave pool.

My only qualm with it is that, regardless of what the story has told us about the identities of Shigaraki and the vestige blurring together, ShigAFO is still mostly written to talk like AFO, act like AFO, desire what AFO desires, with very little in him that “feels” like Shigaraki.  I’d feel better about the exchange with Mirio, then, if it didn’t feel so much like ShigAFO is written to be only as Shigaraki-flavored as is convenient to the story at any given time.

…On a totally separate note, it sure is Something that Mirio’s response to an accusation of systemic failure is, “Oh, I get it; you’re a bitter friendless loser!”  Mirio, I love you for asking the question at all, but your follow-through leaves a lot to be desired.

It is, shall we say, not putting me at ease that the story is going to engage with Shigaraki’s real complaints, rather than handwaving them like it did Lady Nagant’s.(4)

     

Odds & Ends: 

As a certified Suneater Appreciator, I would like to note that I Appreciate this panel:

I like that, this time, Mirio doesn’t come in with a “POWAAAA” gag and his face popping out of something; he just comes in fast and serious, because there’s someone there to be rescued, not just someone to punch.  (Which is as good as saying, I like it when the heroes don’t have the leeway to run around making light of villains their society has failed.)      

“Your stupid face,” ShigAFO, don’t be rude to people from other countries’ comic traditions.  XDD

Fingers crossed for more good stuff next time, and see you all then.

----

1:  [Rimshot sound.]

2: Which Mirio wasn’t there for, but I could believe some debriefing of it went around.  Color me skeptical, though, that said debriefing included much of anyone talking about Shigaraki’s professed motivations instead of just confirming his stated desire to bring down Hero Society.  Certainly if Mirio heard about the latter, no one told him about the former—that or he’s even cannier than expected, and has observed that, since Shigaraki obviously will talk if one gives him the opening to, it can’t hurt to get him talking and see where it goes.

3: Principally Ujiko, though Re-Destro got a bit of it as well.

4: And using the exact same rhetoric, no less: “A few good people exist in the system, so even though the system is horribly corrupt and dehumanizing, it must be worth preserving after all!”  Barf.

[swiftwidget]

Gigantomachia, “Master’s Scent,” & Izuku Midoriya

This is a portion of a larger theory/analysis paper that I am breaking into smaller pieces to be assembled later as a larger whole on Ao3 when it is complete. I wanted to get this part out before MHA 285 spoilers.

__________

Gigantomachia is a noumu created by All for One himself and is a creation that AfO’s Doctor says he tried to replicate with his own High End Noumu. He is All for One’s loyal bodyguard/servant sent to be an ally and weapon for Shigaraki, though he only willingly followed him once Shigaraki defeated the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, Re-Destro. 

In the current arc, as of MHA 283, Gigantomachia is answering the Shigaraki’s call to come to him via radio. (Gigantomachia’s eyes whited out at the command, similar to how the High End Noumu Hood’s eyes did when he lapsed into a more base state during his fight with Endeavor.) He is carving a 80 km path from the Gunga Villa to the remains of Jakku General Hospital where the battle is raging between Shigaraki and Izuku.

But before that, as we are seeing Shigaraki wake from his months-long nap, Gigantomachia smelled his “master’s scent.” 

I believe that he doesn’t smell Shigaraki when he says that. 

I believe he is sensing Izuku Midoriya. 

Gigantomachia’s own words

What does “Master’s Scent” mean? 

Did he just mean Shigaraki? Well, that’s up for debate. While the moment in question happens at the end of MHA 271, the chapter after Shigaraki is broken out of his tube and shocked to start his heart (MHA 270), it’s not a guarantee that’s what triggered the smell from 80 km away. 

Pay attention to Gigantomachia’s words. He has only referred to All for One as “Master” and Shigaraki as “Master’s Successor” and “True Successor.” 

Back in MHA 231, when Gigantomachia is sniffing out Shigaraki prior to Shigaraki proving himself worth following, in the context of his scent he refers to him as “master’s successor.” 

He calls Shigaraki “True Successor” when Shigaraki proves his strength and impresses Gigantomachia.

If he is referring to Shigaraki as “Master” it would be a first. 

Now, could it be that the “scent” Gigantomachia smells is the Quirk: All for One that Shigaraki now has? That is somewhat doubtful, I think, since we don’t currently have a precedent for individual quirks having smells. Additionally, if there was a quirk that could identify other quirks by smell, I feel All for One would have kept something like that for himself considering his interest in Ragdoll’s Search Quirk. (Granted, post-skull-crushing AfO doesn’t have a nose… but he doesn’t have eyes to add to Ragdoll’s Search Quirk either.) Even then, would Gigantomachia refer to specifically the quirk All for One as “Master” over the person All for One? That seems less likely even taking into account Quirk Singularity and the appearance of All for One in Shigaraki’s dreamscape prior to awakening.

We believe that the “scent” is directly related to All for One, the scent of All for One’s immediate family. And assuming the Dad for One theory is correct, that would be Izuku. 

In MHA 283, we have Gigantomachia barreling toward the battlefield between the Heroes, various noumu, and a battle between Shigaraki and Izuku. His eyes covered are covered by the armor plate that previously covered his chin, and he is very possibly just following his nose as he follows Shigaraki’s verbal order and “Master’s Scent” on his way “to Master.” And he literally is roaring “To Master” as he is crashing through towns. 

What comes next?

What happens when Gigantomachia gets to the battlefield and finds himself between Shigaraki and Izuku, and only one smells like “master”? Will he lash out against Shigaraki, or recognize Shigaraki’s voice but realize that this person Shigaraki is fighting shares “master’s scent” somehow? Would he recognize Izuku as AfO’s son? 

More importantly, what happens when Gigantomachia reaches the battle and finds Izuku with his “master’s scent” showcasing multiple quirks, flying above Shigaraki who is an incomplete vessel for the Quirk All for One, not able to handle the power given him, and beaten down from a prolonged fight?

When Gigantomachia was offered to Shigaraki as an ally, he lamented that Shigaraki wasn’t strong enough to be All for One’s successor, he wanted to accept him because it was All for One’s decision to make him successor but he couldn’t bring himself to because Shigaraki was weak. He attacked him and the other members of Shigaraki’s League. 

The Doctor explained that Shigaraki must prove himself and get Gigantomachia to submit - to do so, he’d have to be the kind of “king” Gigantomachia describes: someone who inspires dread, is admired, and is strong. 

Shigaraki only becomes that in Gigantomachia’s eyes when he witnesses him standing in the middle of a ruined battlefield, his enemy bleeding and beaten and bowing before him, and all the enemy’s allies frozen in awe of Shigaraki. Only then does Gigantomachia call Shigaraki the “true successor.” 

Now? Now, Shigaraki is in the middle of another ruined battlefield of his making, a near mirror image, but his enemy is not bowing down before him. The tables are turned. 

At the end of MHA 283, Izuku Midoriya is flying - floating with Shigaraki’s grandmother’s own quirk - keeping his own allies safely away from Shigaraki with Black Whip and vowing to take him down with the strength of One for All no matter what. And Shigaraki is below him, looking up at Izuku, broken and blooded because his body is incomplete and can’t handle All for One or the number of quirks he’s been using.

If someone appears more powerful than Shigaraki even with All for One, will Gigantomachia’s loyalties change or at least come into question? Would Gigantomachia see this as Shigaraki’s fall from approval? Fall from his role as “true successor?” Would Gigantomachia simply abandon him and his allies? Would he just lose his will to fight against Shigaraki’s enemies and return to lamenting that Shigaraki isn’t enough? 

If Izuku has the same “scent” as Gigantomachia’s “master,” All for One, how much more does that change things for Gigantomachia? Would Gigantomachia declare Izuku Midoriya a better successor for All for One? How would the other heroes present react if Gigantomachia were to imply Izuku is “master’s” family? The Dad for One Theory exists because there are a number of things that seem to imply, foreshadow, and work thematically that would support the idea that All for One is Izuku’s father. Is this where we get more blatant hints at it? 

As for the other heroes, they certainly have enough questions now about Izuku: 

The fact Shigaraki was after him at all 

The fact Shigaraki (All for One) called Izuku (the First) “little brother” in front of heroes

The fact that the heroes knew All for One as literally “All for One” and Endeavor even said over the radio that Shigaraki was looking for “One for All” before Izuku said Shigaraki was after him 

The fact Izuku keeps displaying new and different powers while in the same area as Shigaraki who is displaying multiple quirks - the comparison has to be drawn by someone (and, I mean, there’s even two Todoroki’s present) 

In MHA 284 Bakugou, said that people will find out eventually and Toshinori makes a point to say that it isn’t just villains who seek power (see: the Hero Commission and their sketchy dealings with paying Hawks’ family off to raising him as a hero from childhood). 

What could happen next?

As for Gigantomachia’s loyalties, what carries more weight? All for One’s son or the incomplete and damaged vessel/successor who is ultimately being beaten in a show of power? Will Gigantomachia still be under the influence of Shigaraki’s verbal commands or will his loyalties cut that tie? Will Shigaraki’s role as All for One’s successor and heir to his power come into question? 

For Izuku, despite gaining ground and seeming to strike fear into Shigaraki, he’s using a lot of power in his arms. He was already warned that he can’t tear up his arms anymore or risk losing function in them. He’s using 100% attacks, wrecked his left arm already so he has to use his extremely damaged right arm. Will the backlash of using this much power in a do-or-die fight render him too injured to fight or move? Will he need some kind of rescuing? (Will @aoimikans​ Luke Skywalker prophecy come to pass and Izuku loses a hand/arm? Will Shigaraki?)

Could we see a kind of Avatar State Izuku with the Will of One for All shining through like how All for One’s personality/will peeked through when Shigaraki was not in total control? 

If Izuku is badly injured, could we see a regeneration quirk manifest from One for All? (@aoimikans​ theorizes that the 4th’s quirk could have been healing or regeneration and Toshinori avoided telling Izuku that to keep him from being even more reckless because who knows what the drawback of that quirk might be.)

Could we see Shigaraki try to take One for All in a last ditch effort only for One for All to reject him? (And my gosh, the imagery that could go with that, AfO rejected by his brother again. Nana forced to reject her grandson.) 

Will Gigantomachia get there in time to see Izuku defeat Shigaraki and have his loyalties change / reveal something about Izuku’s father / decide he’s a better fit to be All for One’s successor? If Izuku does get badly hurt, will Gigantomachia see the other heroes and forget his orders, forget the villains on his back and simply abandon them in order to “rescue” (kidnap) his master’s son who showed more power, more promise than Shigaraki? 

(Will my old theory that Gigantomachia is noumufied Crimson Riot get any kind of hint more than my gut feeling?) 

The end of the battle has to be getting closer… probably? Either way -

We have a real chance to see some long-standing theories get thrown a bone: 

Dabi and Endeavor and Shouto are on a collision course so we may see some Dabi is a Todoroki theory finally get confirmation. 

Gigantomachia is on his way to “Master” and could be about to blow open the Dad for One theory with some blatant hints/foreshadowing/just saying it. (Or he might be literally on his way to Master, make a 90 degree turn and ram into Tartarus while all the heroes are busy which boy wouldn’t that be out of the blue?)

No matter what happens the heroes and possibly Hero Commission are going to want to know what the deal is with Izuku, his quirk, and why Shigaraki targeted him. The Hero Society is going to have so much clean up and explaining to do. There is likely going to be another major tonal shift in the world of MHA. 

But even if we only just see Gigantomachia’s loyalties come into question, if Shigaraki’s place as AfO’s successor isn’t as solid as before because he is weakened, we will have a lot to explore there as well.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Pana. I have the theory that AfO wants Yoichi 's vestiges to live inside Tomura's body. That why they look so alike. It is a weird theory and i have to think more about it, but it felt like a revelation. That's why he wants ofa so bad, is not about the power. Is about the ghost. 😲😲😲😲

It's funny because the one person who is delusional and living on a fictional world of his own is AFO.

He wants to control the world and he wants to control his brother, he wants everything to be exactly as he planned. You know how some people can get obsessed with controlling everything because they are very insecure? Yeah, it doesn't make AFO happy to see Yoichi defying his orders, because that means he can't achieve the perfect scenario in his mind.

We know that AFO wants to make Yoichi watch how he wins. And we know that for AFO, there's nothing else aside his fight with Yoichi. All the other people, all the other users, they are just toys to play with, pieces to move. AFO thinks he's some sort of narrator, sitting on his big chair, doing his interventions whenever the plot needs to go back on track, moving strings...

So you're not so wrong. AFO has in his mind all the vestiges of the people he stole quirks from. By taking OFA, he would also get all the vestiges from that quirk, including Nana, Deku, All Might and Yoichi. That's perfect because he can make them witness his supremacy.

And like you said, it's not only about the power. Because like serial killers, AFO is a drama queen. For him it's not worth the achievement if people is not there to see it, to see him winning, etc.

Now, as to why Tomura is the perfect vessel or user for AFO, there are many aspects. For example, Tomura is directly related to the OFA and AFO fight because he is Nana's grandson. He looks very much like Yoichi, like you said. He is also a very protagonist like boy, because he's in fact hero coded. Tragic pasts, wanted to do some good, lost everything, tries to make some justice, etc. What AFO did was taken a perfect hero-to-be and twisted him into being the "biggest villain", because in AFO's story the heroes get corrupted, they give up or die.

Now, it's very clear that AFO is obsessed with his brother. BUT I've always think about how Tomura doesn't represent just Yoichi, but the Shigaraki brothers as a whole. Tomura has in himself the potential to be just like Yoichi or AFO, good or evil, do things right or wrong. That's why the narrative always had him kinda fighting to find his identity. Is he the kid who wanted to be a hero? The kid who murdered his family? The kid who created a home for a few outcasts? They kid that killed an entire city? The boy who loves his dog and dreams about the future? The boy who hates everyone and wants to be able to just thinking about the present?

The trick is: Most people in bnha have a future they want to protect or achieve. And those plans can blind them, because they are imposing their views into the world. It happened with All Might and Deku, with AFO and Re-Destro. Tomura had no plan for a future, he just care about the now, the immediate. And what is it? Well, the hero society needs to be over because is hurting people. The heroes need to change, people need to stop the cycle of violence, etc. Tomura is thinking about the urgent, about the current time, when many others live in a dream world or a distant future.

And even when Yoichi and Tomura are very alike, I think AFO is unable to see it as a whole because for him Tomura is just another kid. Yes, the perfect user, but he's a thing, a body to live in, but not a human. Even Yoichi was not completely human to AFO, because AFO only wanted the projection of a brother he made of Yoichi. It's like AFO is running a TV show and there are not actors, just manequins he can magically move.

Sorry for the long post. I love your theory and I think it has some interesting implications, but it also inspired me to create this other theory. I hope you don't mind. 👉🏼👈🏼😔

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 294: A Half-Assed Escape

Previously on BnHA: Mirio was all “SURPRISE I’M BACK THANKS TO OUR RESIDENT SEVEN-YEAR-OLD WHO RECENTLY EARNED HER BACHELOR’S OF BEING A TOTAL BADASS.” Kacchan was all, “you know what, Dabi’s been trending long enough, time to remind the fandom what a real G looks like,” and he blasted his little bleeding body back into the fray and was all “FROM HERE ON OUT CALL ME DYNAMIGHT!!” Mirio was all, “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh, you’re serious,” and Kacchan was all “!!”, and so that’s the story of how my son got murdered twice in one day. Meanwhile in the Todoroki Drama Zone, Deku was all “STOP MURDERING MY FRIEND” and Dabi was all “THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS” and fandom had a whole big debate about Whether Or Not Dabi Trying To Murder Deku’s Friends And Mentors Is Any Of Deku’s Business, which went exactly how you think it went. Anyway, so then Deku yelled at Dabi, and Endeavor was all moved by his manly words and randomly went to go uppercut Machia in the chin. And, seeing as how the Momoserum finally chose that exact moment to kick in, Machia is now down for the count.

Today on BnHA: The Miriosquad handles the Nearly High End Noumus, freeing up Jeanist to jasphyxiate (okay that one doesn’t really work so well) the rest of the League. Compress is all “TIME FOR THIS MILD-MANNERED SIDE CHARACTER VILLAIN TO SHINE”, except that by “shine” what he actually means is “use his quirk to punch a literal hole right through his own ass to free himself.” The rest of the chapter is basically just a back and forth between him and Jeanist, with Jeanist trying to recapture him, and Compress repeatedly thwarting him by chopping more holes out of himself because HE’S FRESH OUT OF FUCKS, AND THE ONES AT THE STORE ARE ALL SOLD OUT, MOTHERFUCKERS. Anyway, so with Compress basically dying and all, Horikoshi is all “you know what that means”, and delivers a freshly-baked villain flashback revealing that Compress is a descendant of Harima Ouji, a.k.a. the Peerless Thief, a.k.a. some famous guy whom Gentle mentioned this one time for like two seconds back in the day. The chapter ends with Compress finally demasking himself and dumping Tomura back onto the ground, a.k.a. The Worst Possible Place For Tomura To Be. ( •﹏•)

WHY IS CRUST HERE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD

-- OH WAIT, SHIT. OH

AIZAWAAAA you’re alive and receiving medical help thank GOD. HOW MANY EYES DO YOU HAVE. AND MIRKO!! HOW MANY LIMBS DO YOU HAVE, OMG

so is this Aizawa dreaming about Crust’s final moments, then?? jesus. with All Due Respect to Crust’s memory, does Aizawa not already have enough misplaced guilt on his conscience as it is?? “nope, we’re gonna keep piling it on. that’s all he is now. three limbs, an indeterminate number of eyes, sexy hair, and Guilt” well shit

motherfucker y’all really out here placing an oxygen mask on Gran Torino’s corpse. fucking shounen characters. each one comes with a lifetime warranty

DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI WHY DO YOU KEEP SHOWING THESE CLOSE-UPS OF HAWKS’S UNCONSCIOUS FACE ALL WHUMPED OUT AND EXHAUSTED. HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS ARE WE GOING TO GET. ARE YOU PLANNING ON KILLING ME WITH THE UPCOMING CONVALESCENCE ARC, BECAUSE IF SO, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL ME AHEAD OF TIME SO I CAN MAKE A WILL

for a moment I considered going back and checking my previous recaps to count how many times I’ve already made a joke about Dabi’s fire incinerating Hawks’s wings but not touching so much as a hair on his five o’clock shadow, so that I could calculate whether or not I could possibly get away with making that same joke one more time. but then I realized I could just do it in this kind of roundabout way I’m doing right now instead. so there you have it

FFFFFFFMT LADY AND MIDNIGHT NOOOOO

PLEASE BE ALIVE. PLEASE RESPECT THE SIGN ON THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. THE ONE THAT SAYS “NO LADY CHARACTERS ALLOWED TO DIE”, WITH THE FINE PRINT AT THE BOTTOM “AT LEAST NOT UNTIL HORIKOSHI GIVES US LIKE TWENTY-SIX MORE OF THEM FIRST IF THAT’S THE WAY HE WANTS TO PLAY IT.” IT’S A GOOD SIGN, PLEASE RESPECT ITS WISHES!!

so anyway though, Jeanist is giving a speech about how god knows how many people all worked together to bring Machia down. and now RHA is getting in on those fabric puns too, I see. “A SINGLE STRAND MAY BE THIN BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A STRONG ROPE” oh so you think you guys are funny eh? I’m a frayed knot

MEANWHILE EXCUSE ME BUT WHY ARE YOU FUCKING CRYING BLOOD, HOLY SHIT

fffffff. so much for him taking over as the Number One once all this is over. so let’s just recap real quick, because Horikoshi has long since made it clear that one of his plot goals for this arc is to wipe out every single member of the Billboard Top Ten. so how we doin?

Endeavor - was just figuratively eviscerated in front of the entire nation by his homicidal zombiepunk son. also burnt half to death and possibly down a lung. will almost certainly be forced to retire after this one way or the other

Hawks - lying prettily in a medical tent. wings status: gone. hair status: still perfect

Jeanist - WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS FINE BUT APPARENTLY HE’S OUT HERE DYING, JESUS CHRIST

Edgeshot - MIA, last seen fighting Re-Destro. I really want him to have kicked RD’s ass because fuck that guy, but realistically they probably fought to a draw at best

Mirko - alive but in critical condition and missing something like 1.5 limbs

Crust - dead, currently haunting Aizawa’s traumatized dreams. now he’s gonna be triggered the rest of his life by people giving him the thumbs up, THANKS A LOT

Kamui Woods - was set on fire which is His Weakness. thoughts and prayers

Wash - last seen floating hospital patients to safety as Tomura’s wave of decay descended towards him. probably dead ffff

Old Man Samurai - haven’t seen this fucker in a hot minute, who even knows where he’s wandered off to

Ryuukyuu - currently being treated for her wounds, looked pretty bad off. but it’s hard to tell how hurt she is since most of the injuries were acquired in her transformed state. SHE BETTER GET WELL SOON

anyways, so yeah. so much for the top ten. guess that’s another reason Horikoshi brought Mirio back now, huh

so there’s a big panel of everyone fighting the Noumu while Machia lies there all “blurgh.” good riddance my dude. it took like twenty chapters and a hundred people to stop this guy so I really fucking hope he stays down. you’ve had your fun

anyway so Jeanist is sending another steel thread towards Dabi! and he’s all “just a bit more!!” fklklj this is gonna go real well isn’t it

meanwhile Mirio’s fighting a Nearly High End with all of these weird rock formations jutting out of its skin. go on and kick his ass then, Mirio

“each of these guys is probably just as strong as the Noumu from Kyuushuu” hold on I thought Ujiko or Tomura or someone said that wasn’t the case? not that Mirio would know I suppose. anyways let’s just hope he’s wrong cuz if not these kids are probably screwed

kLSDKFHLSKHGLKLK OH MY GODDDD

IIDA FUCKING TENYA YOU’RE A PEACH. THINKS THE NAME IS OUTRAGEOUS, CHECK. USES IT ANYWAY, CHECK. “JUST BECAUSE I DON’T UNDERSTAND DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T BE SUPPORTIVE.” WHAT A CLASS ACT

AND KACCHAN IS RESPONDING WITH AS MUCH DIGNITY AS HE CAN MUSTER

WOW, SON. IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR TORSO, OR SOMETHING!! although listen up, real talk, the fact that Kacchan of all people can’t muster the energy to yell at someone questioning his ability to kick ass is HIGHKEY troubling and we may be in need of an intervention here soon :/

now Jeanist is finally turning his attention to the League! was... was it not already on the League. omg

ACTUAL SCREAMING AHHHHHH FUCK FUCKLK LK AHHLKHKFFFF

hey so um. what the actual fucked up hell. my soul left my body. imagine if you saw the reflection of this panel on your bedroom window. you would never sleep again

OKAY RHA TRANSLATORS ARE YOU HAVING YOURSELF A LAUGH AGAIN

THIS CANNOT BE WHAT HE’S ACTUALLY SAYING RIGHT. BUT IT’S RIGHT IN THAT UNCANNY VALLEY OF NOT BEING QUITE SURE, THOUGH... (　ﾟдﾟ)

(ETA: just a next-day clarification here, apparently my sleep-deprived ADHD word-skipping brain completely skipped right over the “a” in that last panel, so what I read was, “and Shigaraki’s limp noodle.” so yeah, the moral of this story is always read the speech bubble carefully before you start making running jokes throughout the rest of your post, folks.)

oh wow he’s really freaking out lmao

to be fair though, I’d argue that Dabi has gotten pre-tty close at this point :’) thrilled for him, really I am

but anyway, well then figure something out you big dramatic robot-armed fiend. didn’t you just say you could touch your own ass? can you not just Compress yourself to break free?? does it not work on you? or would you be stuck afterwards lol

(ETA: I was picturing him compressing his entire body at once, not just chunks of it. ghhhlkh.)

um

holy shit Jeanist. are you stupidly trying to cut off their air, or are you going for more of a sleeper hold (jleeper hold??) thing instead. the latter would be way smarter and faster and probably safer as well just saying

but unless Spinner is just being super dramatic, it sure looks like he’s fucking strangling them djslkjlk. this will certainly cement his popularity among the villain stans. good thing you’re not running for office any time soon bud

anyway so I have no idea what these guys are trying to do now. what is this

do you even have till the count of 5 at this rate. I mean

OH MY GOODNESS

HE’S REALLY FUCKING DOING IT!! HE’S COMPRESSING HIS BUTT!! OMFG. TOMURA HIDE YOUR NOODLE!!!

WHAT THE FUCK

DID YOU COMPRESS A PIECE OF YOUR OWN ASS. FUCKING WHAT. PUT THIS MAN’S PICTURE IN THE DICTIONARY NEXT TO THE WORD “LOYALTY”, HOLY CRAP

HOLY SHIT COMPRESS

“HOLY SHIT DID THAT GUY JUST PUNCH A HOLE THROUGH HIS OWN ASS IN ORDER TO SAVE HIS VILLAIN PALS. FUCK IT, HE DESERVES TO ESCAPE”

jeez, talk about... A HALF-ASSED ESCAPE ATTEMPT :D :D :D hahaha. but real talk though, Horikoshi has clearly never tried to leap twelve feet straight up in the air multiple times in succession with only half his glutes though. everyone, I regret to inform you that this panel right here on the left may be slightly unrealistic

also where the hell is he going to go?? did you pack a jetpack away in one of those little marbles sir. and what about Dabi?? and Skeptic too, I guess, but we don’t really care about Skeptic

(ETA: at this point I had to stop reading for about two hours because I had to go out and take care of something; that’s also why this is being posted later than usual lol. anyways so where were we.)

oh my lord

the existence of a translator’s note here implies that the earlier line about Compress being able to reach Tomura’s junk was not, in fact, ad-libbed. hmm. hmmmmmmmm

anyway so now he’s grabbing Compress again because OF COURSE HE IS, so now we’re right back to square one! except now Tomura and Spinner are secured inside of little marbles, and presumably Compress is the only one who can release them

oh nevermind he’s just maiming himself again instead, SHEESH

Skeptic a man is dying please have some goddamn respect

so, uh. is he gonna die, though??

I really can’t tell wtf is going on here, this is the most confusing the art has been in a while. Horikoshi put all of his spoons into that creepyass close-up panel earlier, that bastard

OMG WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS

DON’T FUCKING TELL ME THE “COMPRESS IS RELATED TO THIS THIEF GUY FROM OLDEN TIMES” THEORY IS ACTUALLY TRUE WHAAAAAAT. OH SHIT

so apparently Harima was a Robin Hood type guy who stole from... heroes?? wtf. are heroes the 1% in this scenario. y’all didn’t have any Fortune 500 CEOs to steal from?

THAT’S THE BLOOD THAT FLOWS THROUGH YOU, OH SHIT. and in a related oh shit, the fact that we are getting a Compress flashback now of all times doesn’t bode super well for him. ffff

MEANWHILE THE TODOROKIS ARE STILL TODOROKI-ING

listen here boy if you touch one freaking hair on Shouto’s candy cane head I swear to god --

WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY!!!

SHOUTO NOOOOOO. WTF YOU’RE LITERALLY THE ONE GUY WHOSE WEAKNESS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FIRE. DABI YOU SHIT, YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELF!! I’M PRINTING OUT A COPY OF THAT COMPRESS PANEL!!! KEEP AN EYE OUT ON THAT BEDROOM WINDOW YOU PUNK!!!

SO NOW POOR SHOUTO IS UNCONSCIOUS AND FALLING!! SOMEONE SAVE HIM!! WHO CATCHES THE CATCHER

COMPRESS LITERALLY HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE RIGHT NOW, WHAT IS HAPPENING

PLEASE DON’T CALL TOMURA LEADER OF THE “PLF” YOU KNOW I CAN’T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY WHEN YOU DO THAT. ARE YOU DYING. ARE YOU JUST A FUCKING HEAD NOW WTF

(ETA: “masks are removable, makeste” you know what it’s been a long day okay lmao. or I suppose Compress is really the one who is lmao.)

GASPPPPPP

okay. okay. looooool okay then

WHY WERE YOU COVERING THIS SEXY MOP OF HAIR UNDER THAT HOOD YOU TOOL. IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED SO GOOD WITH THE TOP HAT. I’M SO MAD AT YOU RIGHT NOW

as if it wasn’t enough for him to demask himself, he also had to get all shirtless and then do this weird attempt at a sexypose too huh

hard to say exactly how much of his torso is currently missing, but safe to say that’s proooooooobably not good. :///// fuck

on the other hand, Kacchan also has a torso hole and he’s still flying around like he just drank a dozen red bulls, so

this man lost his ass and he’s still out here monologuing like it’s the last two minutes of The Prestige. one might say he is monologuing his ass off

so he let Spinner and Tomura free, but is Dabi still trapped in his marble?? wasn’t he all on fire and stuff?? hopefully he can still turn off his quirk in there because if not that’s a pretty fucked up way to die. somewhere out there Snatch’s ghost is all “YEAH I’LL SAY.” oh how the turntables

last but not least, sooooooo. Tomura. back on the ground. that’s. um. ...shiiiiiiiit

[sethmacenzie]

So besides the point that My Villain Academia is my favourite ark and I might be a bit biased on changes to it, especially because Spinner is my favourite character, but what they did with it is a terrible adaptation due to the pacing and scenes they did in the Endevour Agency arc. And I am going to explain why! I’m not going to even touch the animation style going from amazing to abysmal with Shigaraki and his flashback. Or the fact that Dabi is the tallest now or some reason. And don’t get me started on Spinner’s bad animation, (the link is a nice comparison by @helga-grinduil) because if anything it plays into quirkism that is now not getting adressed. So @mettywiththenotes already explained better than I ever could how they screwed up with Re-Destro’s introduction, but they did that way earlier already with the scenes of the PLF and Shigaraki destroying Deika. Watchers know the League are going to win, that takes out the threat completly. We know that they are going to make it out alive and fine.We saw Toga with both eyes intact alive and well, we saw Dabi, Spinner and Twice as part of the PLF. You can see Re-Destro in his pinstripe suit in the Hawks scene. You can make out Trumpet’s back and maybe with good eyes Sceptic’s. That leaves Geten’s, Curious’, Giran’s, Compress’ and Maschia’s fate undetermind. Two of them are enemies of the LoV that watcher’s most likely won’t care about, Giran is a background character and Maschia is the boss fight they have to win anyway, so that leaves Mr. Compress as the only person with an unclear fate of the entire ark to care about. We see Shigaraki in the Ujiko scene that happens in the episode before they get transfered and if you look closely you can see his missing fingers. So we know he’s going to be fine after the fight and it completly spoils the war arc. Let alone the fact that the power up got spoiled. As @robotlesbianjavert pointed out: screwing up Spinner’s narrative fails the narration and that’s something they can’t undo. If you bring the Spinner screams at Shigaraki later in a flashback it loses all emotion because we know how it ends instead of experiencing it the same way Spinner does in the manga. The reader sees through Spinner’s eyes in this ark, we saw the inspiration that he got from Shigaraki and the anime watchers should have gotten the same.   The anime misses out on so much of them just being human normal being which is extremly important to the entire story, that they are people too. So cutting out all of it loses that. The banter with Dabi, Toga noticing Shigaraki misses Kurogiri, Compress’  thinking about his image, all of that is lost. Let alone it completly erases both Spinner’s backstory and the worldbuilding of discrimination. This was brought up earlier and it’s going to come back later. If they don’t cut it too, not that isn’t a theme that was in the manga since the first chapter. The “Mutant KKK” (as I like to call them) are part of making them seem human instantly. There are people who fight for awful things that have nothing to do with choice, aka discrimination based on how you are born and the LoV are killing them. It’s one of the easiest ways to make bad guys seem not as bad and it works, but the anime doesn’t have that. So for the viewers they are just the same child kidnappers from before. And Spinner’s narration backs that up, he’s a pretty normal guy and the viewers eyes and by cutting out the entire chapter we lose his intro and you start to wonder why this guy is the one narrating everything. Spinner is the one that asks Shigaraki what the plan is and this ark is the answer to that question for both Spinner and the readers. It amazing framing and it is completly gone. And of course the whole Sushi scene is why Shigaraki decides that he wants an alliance, because he cares for the League’s wishes. 220 adresses their poverty and they are in dire need of money not just by showing Compress’ broken hand like the anime did, but they are running low on food, Toga’s equipment is broken, their cothes are torn and Spinner is obviously not ok living like that.

@future-dregs already added to my post how important this all is for the future manga arc. Or as they put it: they shot themselves in the foot.

So when this comes back up later they are screwed, they’d have to stitch in illfitting flashbacks that are narrativly bad, change the story or just make it seem as if they included it earlier. And so far there no plans for this, since the voice actor of Spinner already confirmed that it’s not in season 5.

They will have to adress this and more: Why would Spinner be the most loyal to Shigaraki if he never doubted him? Why are they going to make an alliance with the mta if Mr Compress and Spinner weren’t uncomftable with their living situation? Why would Mr. Compress sacrifice himself like that if they are just average companions? Let alone stuff like: Why would anyone fear for the live of Toga if they saw her being fine? Why would anyone think that Re-Destro is threat if Miyashita isn’t in the anime?

[robotlesbianjavert]

MVA is a Matryoshka Doll of Character Development & Framing: Yes This is About How the Anime Failed. Whatever.

Breaking it down, the My Villain Academia arc serves two (2) main purposes in the overall narrative.

→ Put the League of Villains back in a position where they can be a credible threat to the heroes after losing All for One and their potential partnership with Overhaul falling through. Obviously accomplished by upgrading Shigaraki / Twice / Toga, giving Shigaraki the Meta Liberation Army, Ujiko’s assistance, Gigantomachia’s loyalty, etc. 

Of course the anime undercuts all of this by letting the heroes know what the League is planning before the League can take advantage of their new position (ergo narratively giving heroes the advantage, as seen in the manga’s war arc) before we even get to see HOW they got all these cool new toys. So why bother. That’s a different sin that the anime has committed, we can put this on the backburner.

→ Pseudo-reboot the direction of the story so that villains are characters on equal standing with the heroes, rather than being obstacles to beat up. This involves a lot more factors, but it’s all rooted in how the arc and characters are framed, and how the characters are developed.

I talked a bit about my concern about the sympathetic framing of the League in MVA way back when we first learned about the anime arcs being shuffle here (my triumph of objectivity). The gist of it is that the arc switch undermines the way the League are portrayed as underdogs—broke, aimless, and relatively weak compared to the heroes and the army coming for their heads—and I was right! Worse, they didn’t just undermine that underdog framing, they straight up didn’t bother. There is zero context for the League’s situation post-Overhaul, pre-Gigantomachia. No explanation for how they have to rob other villain groups to get by, that their equipment is breaking down, that they have no solid end goal or means to achieve anything of note. Just a challenge from Ujiko and Gigantomachia that loses a lot of pressure without understanding the sorry situation the League is in.

Tellingly, they don’t even let the League kill the fantasy racists. Who doesn’t want to see the fantasy racists get murdered! Outside of the existence of the CRC being an interesting bit of worldbuilding that confirmed the existence of heteromorphic discrimination, which is likely to continue playing a role in the manga, it’s an easy way to let the villains be villains while allowing the readers to go with the flow into this villain-focused arc, without having to be outraged by their actions.

From the get go, we’ve lost the framing that made MVA an arc worth paying attention to when it was first released, which indicates a) that the anime doesn’t care about the actual purpose of this arc outside of setting up a flashy hero vs. villain fight for season six and b) that we shouldn’t expect much from the rest of the anime arc. Even if they get the technical aspects of it right, we’ve already lost the weight of the narrative.

MVA is also obviously known as being the big push to develop the villains as characters. We’ve gotten some character development for them before (Twice and Toga’s adventures with Overhaul, Shigaraki’s consistent growth from “brat” to a capable villain and leader in his own right), but MVA is the first arc solely dedicated to their stories and humanization. However, there are “tiers” of character development and focus here, nested within each other, that are tied into the arc’s narrative structure.

Getting them out of the way: Dabi and Compress didn’t get to do much, though we do get to see their relationships with the League in action, plus stuff like Dabi’s quirk limits which come up later. Otherwise, their actual storylines only come into fruition or start with the PLF Raid arc (which in itself is dependent on MVA but that’s another argument). 

More memorable and meaty is the development for Toga and Twice. We learn more about their backstories, we get to see them push themselves to the breaking point for the sake of survival, Toga gets to evolve her quirk while Twice finally uses his to its full potential. We also get to understand their personal philosophies, relationships with society, how they view the world around them, and their loyalty to Shigaraki and the League. And with the manga’s underdog framing and the life-threatening situations they were thrust into (plus at the time they didn’t have guaranteed plot armour the way the students and heroes did), the audience wants to root for them, even if they’re the bad guys!

Toga and Twice’s development are undeniable highlights of the arc, contribute strongly to the story as a whole, and justifiably receive a lot of attention. However, they are also primarily moments nested within the arc, tying into their personal ongoing storylines (Twice’s starting with the Overhaul arc and ending tragically with the PLF Raid; Toga’s storyline carries on into the PLF Raid with the loss of Twice and her confrontation with Uraraka). But they aren’t the primary storylines of the arc.

A primary storyline of MVA is in Shigaraki being able to identify the direction he wants to take the League in and make that a reality, as well as answering the questions of his past. MVA starts with the League’s aimlessness and with him revealing how little he remembers of his origins; the arc climaxes with him regaining his memories and having the confidence and strength to earn the Ujiko, Gigantomachia, and Redestro’s loyalty and resources, giving him the means to finally enact his dreams of destroying hero society. Toga and Twice’s development is encased within Shigaraki’s storyline, and that storyline provides a concisive beginning and endpoint structure of My Villain Academia—

Except Shigaraki’s narrative structure is encompassed by a layer even beyond that: Spinner’s story. When the arc begins, before Shigaraki can discuss his dream of a destroyed horizon, Spinner is the one challenging him about the League’s lack of direction and purpose. When the arc ends and Shigaraki stands victorious, Spinner is the witness who now understands that the destroyed horizon can be their reality. Spinner is the one watching Shigaraki throughout the arc, Spinner’s gaze is emphasized at the beginning and end of Shigaraki’s MVA storyline, and Spinner is the one who undergoes the most radical change from frustrated Stain flunky to Shigaraki’s devoted follower.

To paraphrase from @stillness-in-green, My Villain Academia is “about what Shigaraki coming into his own looks like to the people watching him”.  To Re-Destro, to Ujiko and Machia, and most importantly to Spinner.

It’s been frustrating enough over the past two years to see people who have read the manga discard Spinner’s role in the arc just because he isn’t a basic easy pretty boy didn’t get an elaborate flashback sequence the same way that Toga, Twice, and Shigaraki did. Seeing the anime not even bother emphasizes that lack of comprehension. But why does it specifically matter that the anime screwed over the Spinner & Shigaraki premise of MVA?

Aside from the anime’s decisions taking all the weight out of the story: In the current manga, Spinner is the only one left at Shigaraki’s side who is specifically loyal to and cares for him.

Barring executive meddling, Horikoshi changing his mind on plot points that he set up, and straight up bad writing (which can all very well happen): You don’t go through the effort of developing a character like Spinner, explicitly in conjunction with your main villain, as the framing perspective of an arc that is so vital to your story, without having a plan for that character. With the way Spinner is positioned right now, there’s a lot that can be done with him! And if that potential does get utilized, then the anime lost out their chance to give that potential its due.

Between the immediate loss of set up and context, tossing the pseudo-protagonist framing of the League, and gutting the emotional core of Spinner’s developing regard for Shigaraki, the anime adaptation has already lost. The rest of the episodes could be perfectly competent, but without the actual base of the arc it all falls flat. Hell, they could stick Spinner’s confrontation with Shigaraki in as a flashback in his fight against Trumpet and it won’t matter; that just nests Spinner’s story within Shigaraki’s the same way Toga and Twice’s is, when it should be the other way around.

Of course there are other reasons why MVA anime arc is set up to fail without reany spect for the source material (I know that the MLA got screwed over in the PLF Raid arc but that’s no reason to not even TRY with introducing them into the show properly just LET Rikiya be his fun, threatening, and engaging self!), but the fact of the matter is that I’m not going to get my Spinaraki AMVs and I want to fucking die about it.

[sarahjtv]

BNHA Chapter 327 Spoiler Analysis: Home Sweet Home

OH MY GOD, GUYS!!!  DEKU GETS A BATH!!!! 🎉🛁 🧼   My broccoli boy finally gets squeaky clean, gets some sleep, and we finally get some R&R time with the Class 1-A kids.  It’s not close to the happy-go-lucky days of old, but it’s some time with the kids nonetheless.  I’m glad Horikoshi put some heart and humor in this chapter because god knows we needed it.  But, let’s be real, this is the calm before the storm:

The chapter starts off with what everyone and Horikoshi has been wanting for Deku since he went on his mission: A motherfuckin’ bath 🛀 🧼🛁!   Kaminiari and Kirishima lead the Class 1-A boys to carry Deku into their side of the UA Alliance bathhouse (looks real nice btw) and give him a good power-wash.  The whole sequence is very comical!  The boys are rushing in and poor Deku has this O_O face on him like “what is happening?” 😂 We also see some of the boys butt naked 😳  It’s clear that Horikoshi had fun drawing this thing and it was fun to read 💚

Bakugo is with them of course and you can actually see his scars from when Shigaraki stabbed him.  He’s not bleeding, but you can see those scar patches on his skin.  I’m curious of how fan artist are going to draw him from now on.  I would like to see that fan art 👀

There’s also some bubble sfx coving Bakugo’s crotch and a translator said it might say dick or penis.  I’m curious what the officials will say.

But, Bakugo being Bakugo is still aggressive towards his classmates.  More playfully than before, but still.  He reminds everyone that he still intends on being the best there is and that everyone is still his rivals (also friends, Bakugo).  HE EVEN MAKES AN ATTEMPT TO CALL DEKU IZUKU!  LIKE HE ALMOST SAID “DEKU” BUT HE CHANGED IT TO IZUKU AT THE LAST MINUTE!  AND DEKU SAYS THAT CALLING HIM DEKU IS JUST FINE LIKE THAT ANGER THAT ORIGINATED FROM THE NICKNAME ISN’T THERE ANYMORE AND IT’S A FREINDLY NICKNAME BKDK FRIENDSHIP GROWTH YOU LOVE TO SEE IT 🧡💚  

After Deku’s bath, he’s sitting in the commons talking to the rest of Class 1-A.  Well, most of them.  Mina tells Deku that Ochako and a few other students went to bed after everything became ok again.  So, I definitely didn’t see Tsuyu, and it looks like Shoji, Aoyama, and Hagakare weren’t in this chapter either.  Ochako I understand; her speech must’ve been emotionally taxing.  Aoyama and Hagakare are the top suspects for being the traitor in the fandom and this isn’t helping their cases.  I don’t know about Tsuyu and Shoji though.  They’re both mutant-types, but characters like Ojiro or mutant-like people like Jiro, Mina or Tokoyami didn’t get outcasted.  Horikoshi did hint that Shoji would be getting something soon.  But, I really am just speculating here.

Now that Deku’s back, everyone has questions for him.  Though I understand why, this has gotta be overwhelming for Deku.  At least they’re not mad at him for hiding OFA.  They seem very understanding actually.

Then my ❄️🔥 boy, Shoto Todoroki, comes in all handsome right out of the baths 💙  He’s drying his right side while you can see a steam cloud on his left.  So, it is canon that Shoto drys himself naturally with his heat. His entrance is so pretty that even Mineta’s questioning it (shut up, Mineta, you’ll never be as beautiful as him).  And yes, I might be a Shoto simp, don’t judge me I see y’all too 👀

Anyway, Shoto asks everyone to let Deku sleep since that was pretty much the whole reason they brought him back.  Problem is, Deku can’t because he really needs to apologize to All Might for abandoning him.  AND AFTER HE SAYS THAT THERE’S A DETAILED PANEL OF SHOTO POINTING TO ALL MIGHT LIKE “UH, MIDORIYA? HE’S RIGHT THERE” AND ALL MIGHT LOOKING FROM THE WINDOW LIKE A HORROR VILLAIN WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE 😭

All Might comes in and apologizes to Deku for not being able to support him when he needed it, but Deku says that All Might support him more than enough.  Mina also scolds All Might for not saying anything when he left.  She wants All Might to apologize to everyone for that.  Though I’m glad Deku and All Might have reconciled (I honestly thought that last convo between them was going to be THE LAST for a hot minute), Mina has a point.  All Might did bail on all of them without any warning.  Kinda messed up in general.

All Might apologizes and he is going to fight with everyone regardless of his physical state so that he can see that flame continue to shine.  However, he warns the kids that they got info on the villains and that the final decisive battle is coming soon.  If the whole “Final Arc” thing hasn’t been hammered into your head, there you go.  I’m also glad that Stain’s speech did end up motivating All Might further.  Who knew?

So, All Might is off to help Endeavor since he’s got unfinished business to take care of.  But, the kids are wondering why Endeavor (and probably Hawks) isn’t entering UA entirely yet.  Shot reminds them that Endeavor is still connected to Dabi and that his presence alone would cause more discourse.  People’s minds can’t change that easily.  Shoto of all people would know.  

As Deku FINALLY SLEEPS 💤 and Shoto puts a blanket over him (possibly warmed by his left side 🔥) 💙💚 Shoto acknowledges how his presence might be making people anxious too even though it’s not his fault at all (thank you, Kirishima for doubling down on this btw ❤️🪨).  But, things are different and Shoto’s going to show that so that everyone can be at ease like he wants as a hero.  There’s even this sweet small smile on his beautiful face as he says this.  He’s grown so much and he’s pretty to boot I love him so much *HANDS IN FACE* 💙❄️🔥 

EVEN KIRISHIMA’S CRYING FROM HOW MANLY SHOTO IS I LOVE THESE KIDS!!!!

And now Jiro steps up and says her piece.  That she knows how hard it is to convince everyone to change their minds for the better.  Like with those two critics from the Culture Fest.  Even so, they accomplished this before, so she thinks they can do it again.  She even gathers all the band members to emphasize on this.  I love how Jiro uses her earphone jacks to rally the band and how she literally drags Bakugo by the shirt for a cute group shot.  None of these kids are afraid of Bakugo anymore LOL 😂!  Also, Momo is the tallest out of all of them in this line up shot (except for Bakugo who’s still being dragged on the ground).  I think she’s roughly 5ft 6-7 inches?  She’s the tallest of the girls I know that, but damn.  She towers all of them.  Even me...  She’s also very pretty in this shot and it’s her birthday as I’m posting this, so happy b-day Momo ❤️

And we get a beautiful panel of Jiro leading everyone to make sure that they’ll go beyond with making everything better than it was before.  We get a nice group shot of the rest of the class agreeing with her with a smile including Shoto with a small one (did I mention that I love him?) 💙💙💙 And Deku’s in the center still sleeping away.  I hope he has good dreams *kisses forehead*💚  And go Jiro for stepping up to the plate too 💜!  All these kids have grown so much.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Finally, the last pages show Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist going somewhere, maybe Tartarus.  They got info out of Dr. Ujiko via polygraph and the Nomu Research Group at Central Hospital.  They predict that they have 2 months until Shigaraki’s ready to go again, so they’ll need 1 month of preparation.  But, the info Stain gave All Might gave them more info.  His letter ended up being a personal letter to All Might (Stain really is that nuts...), but there was a microchip in the blade Stain left containing the security records from Tartarus.  It’s not stated how this info affected the mission at hand, but it sounds like it has to do something with the time frame.  So, I’m curious if they have less time to prepare or more?  Given how this is the Final Arc, Imma say less.

Finally, the teaser asks “How are the villains moving?”  I wonder if that means we’re switching to the villain’s next week.  I would love to hang out with the kids more, but I would also like to know what our villains are up to.  Like, where the hell is Himiko Toga?  Is Spinner still questioning shit?  What happened to Mr. Compress after he mauled himself to help Shigaraki and the others escape?  Also I think we need more info on this dude’s backstory given he’s the grandson of the famous Robin Hood villain who’s name definitely didn’t escape me... 😐  Is Dabi laughing his ass off from the utter chaos he started?  Is AFO still smiling like the evil mastermind he is?  Is Shigaraki as crispy as he was earlier?  I was going to ask about Twice but... 😭

So, yeah!  Love this chapter.  Really good transition chapter into whatever happens next.  I’m kinda sad we didn’t see Deku fight off more past villains during his vigilante days.  We got Muscular and Overhaul and I think that’s it?  Didn’t see any of Overhaul’s minions or that teeth-blade villain (Fish-something?; he broke out, but we haven’t seen him since) or Re-Destro or his goons.  I don’t count as Gentle or LaBrava as villains anymore and they were never truly evil to begin with.  Regardless, it was a really cool arc to see a more dark side of Deku.  I’m really glad Horikoshi made great use of his bunny hood and metal mask finally.  Deku really did look demonic for some time.  Also, seeing Deku badass is always a plus.  And seeing the deconstruction of hero society and the possible reconstruction of it was really good too.  Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, unfortunately, but we can do our best to make it that way.

I’m also glad that we finally got our kids back in top form.  Not just being heroes, but being teenagers too.  They all had great moments especially Iida, Ochako, and now Shoto as they should.  But, Bakugo’s apology was peak for me.  Over 320 chapters of development and build-up lead to that moment and it really is one of the best in the series.  It lives in my head rent free.

So, we got 1-2 months in-manga-time until what is probably the final battle of the series.  God, I can’t believe we’re actually nearing the end of this series.  I started reading it back in 2018 when shit was rough for me. I found this series after listening to the music and reading the hype around it.  I watched the show then I read the manga and it really helped me.  Saved me from a dark place actually.  I will miss this series when it’s done and I will be greatly for the joy Horikoshi has gifted us.  I’ll try to save the farewells for later.  I’d say this series has at least 1-1 1/2 years to go.

Me @ the kids and All Might:

[linkspooky]

Shigaraki Can’t Be Destroyed

I often get asked this question. Can Shigaraki still be saved? Yes. Alright, post done. Time to go home. Just kidding. I thought I’d do a more comprehensive post not only on why Shigaraki can still be saved, but also why saving him is the only thing that will work. 

The most important thing about Shigaraki’s character is the idea that he: could have been saved. He was a kid who wanted to be a hero just like Deku and would have been in different circumstances. It’s not some internal quality of Shigaraki’s that drove him to villainry, but rather external circumstances. The thing about circumstances is, they change! Shigaraki will react differently under different circumstances. 

Shigaraki is first and foremost, a reaction to problems within society. Punishing Shigaraki will not make the circumstances that created Shigaraki go away. Which is why the most productive response to him, is reform rather than destruction. Society needs to be reformed, Shigaraki needs to be reformed, there’s still a chance for both. Shigaraki can still be saved, because the entire point of his character is that Shigaraki would not even exist if heroes had been doing their job in the first place. 

1. If Gran Torino hadn't been so against saving Shigaraki do you think they could've helped Shigaraki? 

Yes. Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. To me the most meaningful quote in regards to Shigaraki’s character is this one. If, at that time, just one person had extended a helping hand... 

We have been told time and time again that Shigaraki is past the point of saving (by heroes who hold high status in hero society, funny that) only to be shown the opposite. It’s the system that has given up on Shigaraki. It is the system that remarks that Shigaraki is unredeemable. 

Even when Shigaraki says that he wanted to kill his family on purpose, that he was happy to see them dead we are shown this is something he was told by AFO to manipulate him. 

Those aren’t Shigaraki’s own beliefs but rather him accepting what AFO told him, him falling victim to AFO’s grooming. He claims he wants to be released from his family but even after the fight with Re-Destro he still holds onto one family hand. (It’s also theorized that the sole hand remaining is Nana Shimura’s hand, the grandmother that inspired little Tenko to become a hero hust like her. 

The hands always have been a symbol of the guilt and remorse Shigaraki feels for killing his family. An unrepetant, symbol of destruction would not feel that way. He wouldn’t be so guilty that he’s constantly apologizing to even the hand of his father who abused him.

Shigaraki has always carried remorse for killing his family, his desire to be a hero, and also guilt for having a terrible quirk only meant for killing others in his heart. Those feelings never disappear, just like Tenko has never truly died. It’s just that Shigaraki is pushed by circumstances to react in a certain way. It’s demonstrated by the dream he has with his family. Shigaraki is very loving and tender, and also, forgiving of his dead family. 

Shigaraki doesn’t hold a grudge against society because he doesn’t want to forgive. It’s the opposite actually. Shigaraki wants to let go of the past. However we’re shown in the same flashback that it’s Shigaraki’s family that refuses to let go of him. 

Shigaraki is happy to see his father at first, but when he sees his father’s violent hand reaching out towards him, he responds with his destructive impulses. Shigaraki wants to forgive and love his family again, but then he’s reminded of their rejection of him. 

Shigaraki has always wanted to be a member of hero society. He’s always wanted to be a part of the picture with everybody else. However, Shigaraki is continually rejected by hero society again and again. Not just for his bad actions. This rejection started when he was a child who had done nothing wrong. Shigaraki is rejected for his trauma. Shigaraki in his dream is gentle, forgiving, until his family turns controlling and only then does Shigaraki respond with violence. Shigaraki as a person is someone who is sensitive who respects the feelings of others, and only becomes violent in response to society’s rejection of him. 

The more the hero system tries to destroy him, the more Shigaraki responds with destruction of his own. Shigaraki is a very responsive character defined by his environment. When he is in a healthier environment such as with the league he acts pretty much like the villain’s equivalent of a hero, he protecst his friends, he cares for their needs and gives them a second family to call home. It’s the hero systems continual rejection of him that pushes him further, and further along the path of villainry. Shigaraki is radicalized and fights back harder with each violent rejection. He started out as a minor villain, but the defeat by All Might, the loss of AFO, the loss of Magne,  all of these things have served to push him further along until he’s reached this point. It’s important the key words to Shigaraki’s arc are if only someone had reached out a helping hand. 

There are two key differences between him and Deku. Deku is someone who has been helped every step of the way whenever he’s needed it. Deku had All Might show up and tell him he could be a hero. Deku has the support of Aizawa. Deku had the mentorship of Gran Torino The opposite has always been true for Shigaraki. The people who gave every effort to help Deku did not lift a finger for Shigaraki. Aizawa has no empathy for Shigaraki despite taking care of Eri, and being told by Kurogiri that some part of him cares for Shigaraki. Gran Torino despite knowing Nana Shimura makes no effort to rescue her grandchild. All Might knowing exactly how manipulative AFO is never makes the connection that Shigaraki might have been abused and manipulated. 

The point is, how can you say that Shigaraki can’t be helped at this point when all the people who could have helped him at any step of the way never so much as lifted a finger? 

This is a deliberate story parallel. Deku gets helped, Shigaraki does not. Deku gets better, Shigaraki gets worse. We are told that Shigaraki might have been different if just one person tried to save him, and then shown again and again not a single hero trying to save him yet. At the same time Shigaraki gets worse and more violent the more the heroes try to put him down. HMMM. I wonder why that is? That’s because the story is deliberately setting this up, Shigaraki cannot be stopped by violence. Shigaraki can only be stopped by being saved. If heroes acted like heroes Shigaraki, would not even exist in the first place. 

2.  Why do you think that Tomura seems to respect Aizawa?

Shigaraki respects Aizawa because part of him still admires heroes. As I said before, the Tenko who wanted to become a hero never went away inside of Shigaraki, he just changed, because circumstances changed him. That’s one of the first questions his mother asks him in his subconscious, after all this time... Tenko, do you still want to be a hero? 

Remember, Tenko wanted to be a hero even in a household that told him he couldn’t be a hero and then beat him for not being able to follow his father’s rules. One of Tenko’s primary reasons for fighting back is being told he can’t do something. Being told he can’t become a hero, because somebody, a power structure, society, says no. 

This is a foiling point between Shigaraki and Dabi too. They are both constantly praising the heroes they fight against. They even both happen to give the same compliments to Aizawa. 

It’s not hard to believe that both Touya and Tenko grew up as hero hopefuls at some point. That they both had an idealized image of heroes in their mind. We don’t know what Touya’s backstory is, but as the son of Endeavor who was denounced as a failure because of his quirk it’s likely he was told just like Tenko that he couldn’t become a hero. 

Shigaraki and Dabi are constantly praising the heroes for how cool they are when they act heroic. They still have this idea of what heroes should be in their mind. And look who the heroes they so often raise are. Aizawa, Hawks, it’s heroes who prioritize saving people above all else. Especially Aizawa, as Aizawa is someone who always moves without hesitation in order to protect children. Whereas, Tenko and Touya are children the heroes did not save. 

They praise Aizawa but at the same time they know deep down that heroes like Aizawa are never going to save people like them. Even the heroes who act mostly like the ideal of heroes they hold in their hearts, are ultimately disappointing. This goes back to what Twice said against Hawks. 

You call yourself a hero, but you’d never save a person like me. 

Dabi mocks Hawks for how heroic he acts, and then grows angry and disappointed when Hawks decides to kill someone. Something a hero would never do in his eyes. It probably doesn’t help that Dabi was someone most likely killed either directly or indirectly by Endeavor, a hero. 

THE THING IS. The thing is here. Here is the thing. Who is savable and who is not, is not judged on whether people are good or bad or whether or not they want that redemption. Shigaraki, Twice, Dabi, Himiko they are all violent crimminals but we’ve also been shown they’re capable of good. Twice wants to protect his friends. Himiko is empathic and capable of tending to people’s feelings. Dabi and Shigaraki are both trying in their own way to reform hero society (and they are really the only characters taking an active look at even how one would go about reforming hero society). 

Who is redeemable is just something society chooses based on its unfair standards. Endeavor was offered a chance at redemption before Shigaraki, Twice, Dabi or Himiko. The thing is, Endeavor was never even punished, he was never held accountable for his actions in any way the same way the villains are not because his actions were better or worse but because he has power and status in society. 

People get saved based upon whether they fit the mould of society or not. The rejects will never be offered the same oppurtunities or chance at rehabilitations that the heroes get. It has absoluetly nothing to do with whether they’re actually redeemable, but whether they’re useful. 

Which is why we see Aizawa’s hypocrisy regarding Shigaraki. So much emphasis is put on how Aizawa has to destroy Shigaraki, for the sake of someone like Eri.

The things Aizawa thinks about Shigaraki, are the things Chisaki said to Eri almost ad verbatim. Aizawa who knows what a gentle and kind girl Eri is capable of being refuses to see any victimhood at all in Shigaraki. 

Because in Hero Society, victims are only victims if they are meek, and cry politely and beg to be helped. If they fight back. If they become violent when violence has been done to them, they lose all status as victims. 

What Aizawa is doing is essentially putting two victims against each other. Eri needs to be protected at all costs because she’s good, Shigaraki needs to be put down at all costs because she’s bad. If Shigaraki had somehow been a more obedient, quiet, meek victim than he would still be salvagable but he’s not. Shigaraki isn’t a direct threat to Kurogiri / Shirakumo, he’s not even a direct threat to Eri. Aizawa pretending he has to put down one in order to protect the other is just Aizawa’s own faulty judgement. 

Eri could have been a lesson to Aizawa to how kids held in captivity and manipulated all their lives by violence in order to be groomed into good little child soldiers act, but Aizawa completely ignores the connection between Shigaraki and Eri, or even Kurogiri / Shirakumo and Shigaraki. He sees two people taken in by villains and manipulated into becoming someone that is the opposite of who they originally were, and doesn’t draw the connection that AFO must have done that to Shigaraki too. He wants to sacrifice himself to protect children, but only the good ones ultimately. 

Which is why Aizawa while acting like a hero most of the time is ultimately disappointing to both Shigaraki, and Dabi. No matter how good Aizawa’s intensions are he’s still a part of hero society, and reflects Hero Society’s ills and perpetuates them. Aizawa wants to be a hero who protects people, and children especially. However, Aizawa often ends up becoming a part of the violent suppression of villains. 

Because that is how Aizawa has been taught to be a hero. That is the standard Aizawa has always held himself too. Even when Aizawa wants to save people, he thinks it’s his job to kill villains. 

Which is why Aizawa’s two primary motives contradict each other. He wants to live to protect his students, but he also wants to dedicate his every living effort to taking down Shigaraki in the most suicidal way possible. Aizawa cannot choose both, because one is living for violent revenge, and the other is acting like a real hero. 

Aizawa is most like a hero when he takes his role as the protector of children seriously. He’s farthest away from the idea of a hero when he forgets that, and allows children to be brought to a battlefield, or thinks that the solution to all of this is taking down yet another abused child like Shigaraki.

Which all ties back to my main point, Shigaraki and Dabi are characters who after all this time some small part of them wants to be saved. In this fight Shigaraki is the character with dreams, convictions. Shigaraki is still after all this time acting like a hero struggling to make his dream of a better world come true.

It’s Shigaraki who constnatly tries to open the lines of communciations between heroes and get them to understand his point of view. Shigaraki is at his literal lowest point, half insane from getting lit on fire over and over again STILL trying to get people to understand his point of view and sympathize with him. 

 It’s the heroes who gave up on Shigaraki. It’s the heroes who decided Shigaraki cannot be saved. Not Shigaraki himself. Shigaraki wants heroes to exist, and some childish part of him wants heroes to save him, he just knows it’s never going to happen as long as society as a whole rejects both his victimhood and humanity. 

That’s why it’s on the heroes to live up to the promise that heroes save people. Shigaraki’s arc would not constantly call back to the fact that at any time, anyone could have saved him by simply reaching out a hand, if he wasn’t supposed to be saved. 

[korpuskat]

Kinktober Day 8 - Blood & Injury - [Tomura Shigaraki/Reader]

[Ao3 Mirror] Rating: Teen (blood & injury) Word Count: 1,169 Summary: After his fight with Re-Destro, Shigaraki wants to see you. Contains: Post-MLA Arc (spoilers up to Ch230-240); blood & injury, Soft Shigaraki =====

He stands, still slouching over the red-haired man you assume to be Re-Destro. There should be the ever familiar yells of fighting, screams of pain, intimidation, rage, but it is utterly and completely silent. He moves, lifts his gaze up to the crowd- and a presence settles over you, so heavy, so real, so forceful, you nearly collapse.

You’ve seen him on a battlefield before, this is not that.

Something has happened, something more than the devastating injuries that have blood pouring from his arms, smeared all over his face, still running free from his cracked nose. They speak, the two men in the crater, while you exchange worried glances with Spinner. A motion from Re-Destro has a medic rushing to his side. They bind the once-taller man’s legs, but Tomura rejects them without a word.

And just like that it’s over; other Liberation grunts carry Re-Destro out- and Tomura does not look at you or Spinner or anyone at all as he limps along behind. You want to be at his side, to take his weight- but there’s a glint in his eyes that makes you think just this once your touch would be unwelcome.

The MLA and League regroup, settle into a fancy hotel that was untouched by the decay. Not being in the room with him as he speaks with Re-Destro has your stomach uneasy, makes you pace anxiously- waiting for news of any direction. The doctors that appear for you are the first good sign; Himiko and Jin must be doing okay enough if they’re able to spare time with you. But your injuries are minimal as compared to theirs or Tomura’s and soon you are back to pacing.

The doors open. The bastard politician stands there- and twists his lips as he works up the nerve to speak what he’s been told. “He wants to see you.”

He says it with such a tired dejectedness you don’t need to ask, but do anyway. “Who?”

He hesitates again, before settling on “Shigaraki.” You stand- as do Atsuhiro and Shuichi, but Trumpet speaks again: “just you.”

You glance to the others, but find only suspicion in their eyes. You don’t trust him either… but the promise of being able to talk with Tomura, to find out what the hell is going on is too tempting.

You follow him down the hallway. Follow him to a set of double doors just off the lobby. He motions for you to enter, so you steel yourself, ready your Quirk on the fair chance this is a trap, and open the door.

“Should get him to let the medics patch him up.” Trumpet advises you lowly- and shuts the door behind you.

You blink- and on the far side of the room, you see him. It hadn't been a trick of the light in the crater: his hair is white, snowy where it isn't soaked in red-brown.

“Oh, gods, Tomura,” falls from your mouth as you close the distance. He’s still beat to hell, the rings under his eyes are the darkest you’ve ever seen them. Dried blood cakes his face, peeling and broken off over the tip of his nose, the curves of his cheeks. But that’s hardly the worst of it. The damage to his arm is beyond anything you’ve seen before. The Quirk backlash has decayed away his own skin, left huge cracks that spider their way up his arm, all the way up to the corner of his mouth. The space in between is covered in skinless, half-decayed flesh. Tomura stares at that hand, arm trembling slightly. The other hand, however.

“Tomura…” he’d at least taken someone’s advice during the meeting. A towel wraps around his wrist and from the corners, you think it was probably once fluffy and white. It isn’t anymore.

“I remembered something.” Whatever despondency was there has faded- and Tomura returns to the room with full awareness.

"You need a doctor." Your fingertips ghost over the cracks of his arms- and his hand raises, smears blood over your sleeve at he touches your bicep. His fingers shake, the slow twitching of his muscles damaged- but he grabs at you. Only then do you look up, look to his scarred face. The oxidized blood is brown, but the scarlet of his iris, the red of the tired, overworked capillaries of his scalera is close enough to blood to still make your stomach tighten.

His other arm lifts- and the towel shifts. The fabric rots away before you- bloodied cloth fading away into spindling fibers until nothing is left around the twitching remains of his hand. You can't hide your gasp; he moves his hand and the two long, thin fingers turn as he examines the ruined gore that clings to his palm. Bile rises in your throat, the memory of Atsuhiro's bloodied, sheared-off shoulder resurfacing without permission.

You touch the knuckle of his ring finger and both fingers- and part of the wound- twitches in response. "Careful." A questioning look has him continue, "My Quirk still works."

"...With two fingers?"

He nods, after all, you had just seen the towel turn to dust. Most of the bleeding from his crushed hand has stopped, at least- "I've only ever wanted to destroy." You blink, look to him again- and find him staring at you. The weight of his gaze makes you shake. "To make this broken society rot... But after," He pauses, tips his head as he thinks. "I want you to see that horizon."

"We will." You say, "That's always been the plan, Tomura."

"No." His half-decayed right hand lands at the corner of your jaw, ring and pinky finger lifted, as though he can't trust himself to keep just one off you. "I want to see it with you."

His mouth is on yours. His bright red eyes are still open, so close now you can only gasp against his lips in shock- and Tomura has no problem taking advantage of it. His tongue sweeps through your mouth, warm and wet. A cut on his lip opens again and the taste of iron follows, frees you from the shock long enough to close your eyes and lean into him.

Finally, finally the adrenaline crashes. The stress of the fight, of seeing him like this, all crumbles down onto you and you're grabbing at his shoulders, the back of his neck, into his now-white hair. All that matters is his kiss- heavy and hot and messy, unpracticed but dominating- and the fact that he's alive, that you're both still breathing and barely standing up and-

Tomura wavers, his three-fingered grasp of your jaw tightening as he stumbles, catches himself on his misshapen, injured leg. You grab his sides where he at least looks bloody or bruised, try to steady him as he looks down at crushed hand again. A fresh trail of blood drips down his ring finger, drips onto the floor. He mutters, more to himself than you, "Should get that doctor."

=====

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