Are Heroes Fighting a War so they can be At Peace?
Already in Augustine’s old age (354 - 430 AD) we have the concept of “For every man is in quest of peace, even in waging war” (City of God, 426 AD- if you are familiar with philosophy or jus as bellum/jus in bello), and so I asked myself - isn’t this exactly what is happening (with a margin of error) in BNHA? Isn’t the reason, for the war that is currently happening, peace - or rather, not a status quo ante, but a change in pace, a break from this rose-colored view of rotten and corrupted society for a better (and pan accepting) society and better life standards for every citizen? Arguably, this argument works on every war (but I do have some reservation when it comes to imperialism and colonialism period wars, as the only better peace of these wars was to rob less developed, at that time, countries) but I find it particularly interesting how this works so well when applied to the current situation. I talked extensively about how there is a clear imbalance in current society and how a change is way more than needed, but I’d like to add to these, more or less, set in stone concepts, how the goal in mind for this specific war (which can be arguably framed as good vs evil, but I would rather define old order vs strive for change the old order) is not only a better peace, or the punishment of evil (Aquinas, XIII century,thanks) but reform, a change in the roots of the society that causes the problems - what, in hindsight, is the mother cause of the war. It is better summarized by Hugo Grotius in the sentence “the purpose of war is to remove the things that disturb peace” - and it does not refer to a simple balance of peace, because it would mean that the struggle made by the villains would have been in vain, and to a tentative peace - but to a huge reform of a national (if not international) scale clearly affirming that the status quo is wrong and has to be changed in order to address the problems that have been hidden from the public’s view, fueling the illusion of a this perfect society, which then clearly does not need change (and denies any kind of responsibility for those who have been hurt by it - namely, Quirkless people, Heteromorph Quirk-having people, villains, heroes who understood what was going on).
Currently, the head figure (the martyr, or the Jean D’Arc) of this war is Izuku - which brings me back to the fact that Izuku feels like he is not only on a time limit, but it is his duty to wage and win this war, and yet he feels like the only way to keep people safe is to do it alone (exactly like we saw in the preview of chapter 306 and now confirmed in 320). So, Izuku reasons out that the only way for the people he loves to be at peace and to smile again is for him to sacrifice himself (for a bit, at least) - and go on his mission, even when it means losing his friends, his mentor and somehow himself.
(Notice the use of the singular when it comes to responsibility and the plural when it comes to the outcome - Izuku has to work for EVERYONE ELSE to be at peace. He does not want to put the burden on anyone else’s shoulders, exactly like All Might and the pro-heroes did with him).
The point is, that the introduction to this war has been extensive and long fought, and yet, to this day, there is still reasonable doubt about how exactly this war should go: while everyone agrees that it should end in peace (good always wins), what peace exactly are the other actors looking and striving for?
On one hand we have Hawks - who clearly is disillusioned by the society which held him in shackles, but at the same time still does not know how to let go of the balance and system that shaped his entire life and on the other, we have the LoV, who is clearly disgusted and tired of living in a society, where (like in the AfO’s panel above) individuality, and differentiation have no place, nor do tales which are not conforming to the group narrative the HPSC has shaped the hero-dominated society in.
There is, therefore, little space of argumentation and dialogue in between these two views: one hopeful and the one plainly destructive (and rightly so). This is exactly where, in my opinion, Izuku Midoriya’a character comes into play: from what he saw of Shigaraki in the Vestiges, and then from Lady Nagant’s backstory, Izuku is the only character that has a sort of Omni view on both sides and parties and is trying to break through both the stereotype of the ‘villains are bad and heroes are good’ (the dichotomy of heroes and villains) and his own initial role of a Symbol of Peace. During the last chapters, we slowly saw Izuku descending towards a path that not only looks like a Villainification of his character, but boldly resembles the path that Shigaraki has walked in order to get where he is now (and that’s a good question: where tf is Shigaraki now?).
This not only brings insight to Izuku, but it also warns him that things are not as they seem - and that, is a big red flag when it comes to the current war. Shigaraki anticipated the heroes not understanding their view already in chapter 281, and yet it is only now that the consequences (real ones) of his statement of heroes not being able to understand, are seen: Endeavour is stiff iffy about the plan to stop his own son, while admitting that it is someone his responsibility to; class 1A not being familiar with the danger that AfO poses (+ their lack of insight in the villain’s point of view, excluding Shouto - who at the moment is the closest person to Izuku to actually want to listen what non-heroes have to say on the matter). And this is, arguably, not their fault but as always the consequence of a system which unfortunately has a strong grip on every individual (notwithstanding the current situation of chaos).
Izuku, as the middle man, has to conciliate somehow the old with the new, while fighting a war on his own with both parties - so everyone could have a happy ending. Not only those who deserve it (and indeed, who are these people after all?) , but every individual - because that’s exactly what this discourse in the Vestiges is about:
Izuku sees every cause as a worthy cause, no matter the label of that person or their affiliation. He wants to fight this war to bring peace to everyone (and yet, his self sacrificing spirit is both an asset and a curse). Because after all, that’s what being human is all about.
