I've been wanting to do this for a while but I haven't gotten around to it with everything I got going on. And good lord this isn't going to be a popular opinion, but I'm at a point where I don't care. I just want to predict what's going to happen based off of what we know.
I got into a recent back and forth with someone about the "Shigaraki as the final villain" argument, and quite frankly, nothing that has been brought to the table has changed my mind on that front. He won't be, because as he is in the story right now, he's just not final villain material (a thread talking about that in that link). I still stand by that.
But one of the counter arguments to suggest that he'd manage to fight his way out of AFO's control was that he has strong convictions tied to his and the LOV's goals, and that he'd hold onto his hatred enough to keep fighting for "that". And well, given that in the text it's literally stated that the more he hates, the weaker he gets against AFO, I'm not even gonna bother diving into the "letting go of hatred to set himself free" argument. We have the solution in the dialogue of the characters, there's no point in debating what we literally already know for a fact. What I DO want to tackle is this idea that the LOV have goals to work toward, because personally I feel like that's romanticizing what they're actually doing into something more grand and spectacular than what's actually happening. That is what I'm gonna counter below the cut:
"The LOV have goals to work toward." Do they?
I mean, what goals do we have, honestly:
We have Touya, whose goal was to meet his end in a blaze of glory alongside his dad. So basically, to die. Yes, you can say he was trying to bring his dad to justice, but look at the response to the exposure we literally HAVE. In the end Endeavor would have just been upheld as the hero who was killed by a villain. I'm sure Touya to some extent understands this, and understands that (in HIS mind) his family would go on resenting him for killing their dad. But he would be dead, so he wouldn't care. He wanted his dad to see him, and that was his way of making sure he did. Also like...nobody in the Todoroki family is condemning Touya for being angry. None of them. Shouto didn't say "get over being mad at dad", he said "Stop taking innocent lives and take your rage out on US". Shouto is the one who said "he is me." Nobody in the Todoroki family is saying Endeavor should be shielded from the hatred, resentment, and criticism, from the family or the public.
Toga, who "wants to live free" and be herself, but even she can't voice how that looks beyond the small community of acceptance she received from the LOV. The LOV were a small glimpse at what she wants, but seeing her recent attempts at achieving the same thing with the hero kids, she still doesn't even know what "free" looks like. She still can't express it without creeping the other party out.
Twice? Not that it matters because he's gone now, but I didn't see him voice any goals. He was just happy being with the LOV. They could have planned anything, and he would have gone along for the ride. They could have run away and lived in a forest somewhere, and he would have just gone along with it. And before people say that they all felt that way, show me where? Lol.
Compress is just living up to his lineage in a way and following up on ideals carried through generations. Kinda just letting Shigaraki, Toga, Touya, and Spinner take the reins in getting there. But really didn't contribute much beyond just being a warm body there.
There's Spinner, who hasn't evolved beyond following people he idealizes and puts on pedestals. First Stain, now Shigaraki. And no, there is no framing to suggest it's a good thing that he's doing this. It's a flaw that is waiting to be addressed in his arc.
Then we have Shigaraki. Who, the very first thing he was called out for (by a scared Izuku at the mall) was having no conviction or ideals. Shigaraki came to a conclusion (a world without All Might), which actually was something that produced a vision to work toward, but then not long after that abandoned even THAT. All Might retired, the symbol was gone, and the frailty of their world was exposed, but the LOV still existed and were still suffering. Shigaraki was still left with unaddressed anger, resentment, grief, and sadness (which shows you exactly WHY everything he is doing is not the solution). He went from having a specific idea for what kind of world he wanted to exist, to just--wanting their world and everything in it to come crashing down. He didn't evolve his convictions into something intricate and grand, he devolved them into the opposite. Yes, it's reactive. Yes, his complaints are valid, I'm not discounting that, in fact, that's a different discussion altogether. But people continue to think that everything that happened in MVA was positive development for him, starting with the "Why not destroy it all?" speech. And it I fail to see how. Was it development? Absolutely, it moved his arc forward, got him closer to the conclusion he'll get at the end of the story. And it was necessary for this story to be told, obviously. But was it positive for him? Hmmm, not sure I believe that. I don't see it.
So.....tell me exactly what goals we're talking about? What exactly is AFO standing in the way of, in terms of what the LOV is trying to achieve? He's not stopping Touya from completing his suicide mission, he's not stopping Toga from "becoming the people she loves", and he's certainly not stopping Spinner from worshipping the ground Shigaraki walks on. All of these "goals" the individual League members have point in the same direction AFO is heading toward. And currently you don't see any of the LOV members fighting or going against AFO at all--who btw aren't really all that in the dark about AFO and Shigaraki's situation, as they've seen and been horrified by what they saw in that cave. They're not fighting against him because....everything they're all doing points in the same direction.
With the state the League is in right now, they're all operating on their own individual agendas. This is clear. They're not coordinating any plans together, they're not forming teams to combat anything.
We literally SEE the individualistic mindsets they're stuck in through Toga's actions at the beginning of this arc. She didn't pull Izuku through that portal with the intent of just fighting and killing him. She pulled him through as a last ditch attempt to reach an understanding and maybe find some sort of answer to her question that she's been asking since Twice died:
She wanted an answer.
She pulled him through to talk. Obviously it didn't work, it was never going to. Izuku hasn't thought hard enough about her, had enough one-on-one time with her to deep dive into her mindset, and he's got his thoughts elsewhere too much to talk it out in their setting. Plus, there's the obvious narrative issue that she's not his villain ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
But Toga pulling him through at the last second was showing just how much she's focusing on herself right now.
The LOV trio are all operating on their own self-interests. You could actually split the LOV in half and see how differently the six members were operating:
Twice, who just wanted to be with the League, regardless of what was going on
Compress worrying about keeping everyone together during MVA, while Shigaraki trudged on ahead, worried about keeping everyone together during the war arc as well, while Toga split for Ochacko, and even sacrificed himself so they could all get away
Spinner, following Shigaraki around during MVA, trying to keep everyone together during the war arc while Toga split, continuing to get lost in his idealization of Shigaraki in the current arc and now *gestures toward current Spinner*
Then compare to the trio:
Touya, who kept his identity a secret the whole time, who constantly split off to "recruit", gather intel on other people where it might come in handy later to bring his dad down crashing and burning
Toga, again I bring this up a lot, but constantly wanting validation and attention from Ochacko, Tsu, and Izuku--how does that align with anything the LOV are working at? (Tomura even said he wouldn't destroy the things she likes, butttt he tried to kill Izuku like a bunch lolol)
Then Shigaraki--who, yes wants to destroy the corrupt society they're in because it brings about its own villains, causes pain, ignores those who need help etc. etc., but he also has an entire other set of issues completely separate from the "lost child wandering the streets and being ignored"
His family. How many times does he remember the pain associated with them, with losing them. How many times do we see the Tenko that existed before his family died to represent his honest thinking?
And, well, Shigaraki's family has nothing to do with the League. Just, another notion that the LOV aren't all in sync and working to rebuild some "fixed" version of what they're living in now.
So back to Shigaraki just magically becoming himself again (which, I've already explored why that ain't happenin)--what is is exactly that AFO is keeping from happening? Again, he's not keeping Touya from his plans, or Toga from hers. Does he view them as equals? Nah. Not even a little. But idk what Shigaraki would be fighting for when the LOV aren't even fighting against AFO themselves, as in, they don't view it as a fight TO fight for.
At this point, literally the only thing AFO is "in the way of" in terms of the LOV and what they're doing, is Shigaraki being himself. That's the obstacle. The rest of the League are all also operating on an individual agenda that doesn't have much to do with each other, or anybody else.
Again, this isn't to say they don't care about each other. Like....I'm not here to throw shade at anybody's interpretation of their friendships or anything. But the romanticizing and woobifying of what they're actually trying to do is getting in the way of analyzing what's actually going on.
You know, people on the other side are probably suffering too (there are several canon examples actually!), but, they'll die if the LOV win. This isn't a fight for making things better for people in general who are suffering. It's a reaction to their own unaddressed pain and suffering, it's revenge, and anybody who gets in the way is going down.
And that's why saving is so important. Because if the LOV win, they still lose. (expanded on there) They're still miserable, they're still ignored by the people they wanted attention from. Nothing gets better. That's why their solution is not a revolution or a positive thing they can continue to pursue, it's not even remotely framed that way. It'll only hurt them more, and--once again, that's why being saved by the "other side" (heroes!) is so important for them to get what they need.
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