I feel like Toga and All for One have many similarities, but I am unable to articulate as to why I feel this way.
I think it's safe to say that AFO is an intentional foil to Himiko, Tenko, and Touya at this point! I've discussed how he shares body motifs with all three of them before, but his backstory more or less cemented that he's supposed to be read as "the worst possible extreme and the worst possible conclusion" to each of the trio's respective origins and overall stories.
As for how Himiko and AFO foil each other, specifically:
Cannibalism as a metaphor for Not cannibalism
Let's get the obvious point outta the way first, lol.
AFO and Himiko are both established as children that society wasn't prepared or willing to care for-- AFO was born during the advent of quirks where "paranormal" children like him were treated as diseased and shunned (or worse) by the rest of society, while Himiko was born during an "era of peace" where civilians are expected to maintain said peace through endlessly conformity and complacency-- outside of pro-heroism, civilians are essentially expected to role-play as though they've returned to "normalcy" (i.e. pre-quirk society) and the fear of being labeled as "abnormal" (despite living in a post-paranormal society) drives them to shun those who can't easily conform.
Both AFO and Himiko's "first sin" involves the "consumption of their fellow humans," which they both commit when they are too young to fully understand what they're doing-- and both acts of consumption were initially tied to their attempts to fulfill a basic human "need" that wasn't being provided for. Himiko drank the blood of a friend whose smile she envied after years of having her own smile called "creepy," AFO was a starving newborn whose mother couldn't provide him milk or protection and whose cries were ultimately ignored by everyone else. When Himiko takes someone's blood and "becomes someone else", she finally feels good "about herself". When AFO takes his mom's quirk and uses it to drink her blood, he no longer feels hungry and no longer has any reason to cry out for help/attention. Thus, AFO & Himiko ultimately learn and internalize that in order to fulfill their own neglected needs, they need to take from others.
Something something re: "the catharsis that comes with finally """"embracing your true nature'"""" so you can finally become what your family always feared you'd be (POV: you are 14 years old and utterly doomed by the narrative) (and so is the main object of your ""affection"") (puberty is a bitch ain't it!)" something something
To Himiko, the consumption of others becomes a way to "become somebody else"-- someone the world will treat more kindly than they treat "Toga Himiko." She feels the urge to completely drain the blood of anyone who has the life and relationships that she desperately wants for herself. Before that, drinking blood was simply her way of expressing admiration/affection and fell under the banner of MHA's definition of "pure love" (i.e. love as imitation). Himiko showed no inclination towards completely draining the blood of those she loves until her psychotic break with Saito, and she is notably able to restrain her supposed "urges" around the LOV despite loving them deeply. The "urge to drain those she loves completely" isn't actually tied to her quirk, but to her desire to "become someone else."
To AFO, the consumption of others became yet another way to rob them of their autonomy-- by taking away "a part of them" and forcibly turning it into a part himself in the most base, unsettling, and crude way possible. Before that, his consumption of others was simply driven by his instinct to survive. AFO's "urge to take" is tied to the preconception that no one will provide for him or look at him UNLESS he is taking something from them-- like Himiko, his quirk merely makes it easier for him to act on urges that don't actually stem from the quirk itself. AFO's warped perception of other people balloons wildly out of control by the time he reaches his teens, and finally cumulates in him ""eating"" the glowing baby out of jealousy:
*Kills someone over their follower count* Man, AFO is nvr gonna beat the "was a tiktok e-girl in his previous life" allegations
AFO and Himiko both "consume" other people out of jealousy and a desire to make up for what they feel they lack as individuals-- but an important distinction between the two of them, I feel, is that Himiko's consumption of others is ultimately driven by her desire to connect with other people while AFO's consumption is instead based on fear + mistrust of others. It's the difference between "Consumption as wanting to become a part of someone and become a part of the world they live in (+ consumption as a way to become a part of the world by living vicariously through someone else)" and "consumption as forcibly making someone a part of you and forcibly taking away their connection to the world."
Speaking of "consuming someone who has traits you envy in an attempt to make those traits your own" *pointedly looks at AFO's dynamic with Tomura* ...........yearp.
It's only after Himiko's human needs are finally addressed by Ochako, that Himiko learns the desire to "give" rather than take. I feel that this is probably one of the core take aways of the series while more or less being the "end goal" of the OFAFO plot-- "endless giving without ever taking" (All Might becoming the number one hero at the steep price of himself and Izuku almost destroying himself in the process of trying to emulate All Might) and "endless taking without ever giving" (AFO full stop, as well as society itself towards both the heroes and villains) are both extremes that only cause more people to get hurt. There has to be reciprocity. It has to be "One for All -AND- All for One." Give -AND- Take.
Side note: Himiko's favorite food being pomegranates also strikes me as ironic when you remember that Hori is gigantic mythology nerd-- In both art and mythology, it's not uncommon for pomegranates to be used as a visual for "flesh" and for their consumption to be used as a stand in for cannibalism. In greek mythology, pomegranates are known as the "fruit of the dead", and are believed to have originated from the blood of Adonis. There is also the legend of Persephone, who was cursed to remain within the underworld for six months each year as the price for consuming six pomegranate seeds while in hell.
The Buddhist legend of Hairiti/Kishimojin also stands out for framing pomegranates as a "cure" for cannibalism, by offering them to man-eating demons in lieu of flesh:
As for AFO-- it's been pointed out by several different people that he shares several parallels with the greek titan, Cronus, who is most famous for having devoured his own children whole.
With that in mind, I feel like the act of consuming blood has an almost mythological edge to it for these two (outside the obvious reality-based social stigma of it lol)-- the act of "eating" others, regardless of intent, is what condemned both AFO and Himiko to hell. But Himiko is offered a way out of that hell and ultimately finds salvation in allowing herself to be "consumed" in turn, while AFO just doubles down on eating every rando beefcake he can get his hands on while giggling like a school girl (and yet, when the chance to eat Toshi finally presents itself, he totally fails to capitalize on it. mfer can't even "cannibalism as a metaphor freaky gay sex with your dramaturgical foil" right smh 😤).
As an aside, when I say "people generally read into MHA too literally and expect entirely too literal conclusions for what is largely a fantastical story about abuse/trauma/coping mechanisms," how MHA depicts ""cannibalism"" through Himiko is actually one of the examples that comes to mind lol. So many people think that death or jail is the only appropriate conclusion for Himiko's character because it's the "only realistic conclusion" like they aren't reading a story where people have tape dispensers for arms lmfao.
OMNOMNOM-- (On Mouths)
:D
Not much to elaborate on here, mouths (and smiles) are AFO and Himiko's shared body motif in MHA's narrative. AFO's mouth is his only distinguishable facial feature during Parts 1 & 2, Himiko's smile/mouth is her defining feature and how others perceive it is a source of trauma for her. Her villain outfit is notable in how it covers her mouth/hides her smile while also resembling AFO's act 1 mask:
*squish*
During the final war, Himiko puts her mask on and hides her mouth immediately after being rejected by Izuku. This is symbolic of a lot of different things, but mostly, it drives home how she is no longer interested in talking things out and has "fully embraced being a villain." Ochako understands what's at stake and spends the rest of the fight trying to "take the mask back off"-- she understands there is something behind Himiko's villain mask that she needs to save.
Meanwhile, Toshi smashes past AFO's mask during Kamino and finds there is simply nothing underneath it-- reinforcing the idea that AFO has made "being a villain" his entire identity and that there is nothing worth saving behind his mask. However, Toshi was also the one who "smashed" AFO's facial features away in the first place. AFO definitely deserved getting his head popped, but in the context of MHA as a whole, I feel like AFO and Toshi's dynamic only highlights the overall tragedy of the hero/villain system and why it's a good thing that the new generation is starting to challenge it.
It is worth mentioning that mouths are frequently used to mask and dehumanize within the context of MHA's narrative, but this isn't something exclusive to AFO and Himiko ('sup Toshi) (''sup Tomura).
(I don't actually have anything else to add here lol)
Demon Child, Demon Lord
AFO and Himiko also stand out in how they're both framed as having been "born bad"-- Himiko by her parents, AFO by himself and the narration. Discerning readers already know that this is a crock of shit.
Child for One sees the Demon Lord being surrounded by people who provide for him out of fear while he's stuck living in isolation and squalor with Yoichi, and decides the only appropriate reaction to this is to make a children's comic book his entire personality (he's just like me fr)-- He embraces the idea of becoming a demon and shedding off his humanity, and immediately starts self-styling himself off a generic biz-caz corporate shmuck (lmfao).
Unlike AFO, Himiko resists the label of "demon" as much as she can-- she styles herself as "a cute high school girl" despite being a middle school drop out because she realizes the world will treat her a little more kindly this way (but only a little). Himiko longs to be seen as human, but is made to feel like a monster instead.
What I find interesting is that AFO himself outright admits that he lacked the ego/awareness necessary to "consciously" take Yoichi's quirk when they were children-- yet, both he and the narration continuously frame the siphoning of his mother's life, quirk, and Yoichi's nutrients as though they were intentional, malicious acts. AFO leans into this framing and builds his whole identity around it until that framing is finally pulled away from him literal seconds before his death.
Being "human" to Himiko means going back to a time where she was loved and accepted unconditionally. Being "human" to AFO means going back to being that screaming infant who no one would look at.
Like it or not, everyone is human in the end little dude.
Other Miscellaneous Similarities:
This one doesn't require much explanation-- through prioritizing their own needs above all else, AFO and Himiko both dehumanize other people the same way other people dehumanize them. Himiko is still a child, however-- and she is ultimately saved by her desire to be accepted and form genuine connections with others. Her final fight with Ochako is as much about getting Himiko to see Ochako as "human" as it is Ochako acknowledging Himiko's humanity. Once again, it's all about reciprocity/give-and-take.
""join our family and let me raise you! :D *hard cut to a burning orphanage*" AFO being genuinely puzzled that ppl aren't jumping at the chance to raised by him is my favorite running gag in mha.
Both AFO and Himiko also have a habit of being.... inappropriately intimate with other people, often to the point where whatever "relationship" they have with others exists almost entirely in their own head. Himiko calls Tsuyu by her first name and gets told to cut it out because this is a privilege Tsuyu reserves for her friends, and Himiko immediately interprets this as Tsuyu offering to be friends. AFO calls his worshippers his "friends" and his cult "his family" and asks that his young victims call him "uncle" like he's a kindly family friend and not the dude who is blackmailing them into betraying all their friends.
Also, neva 4get.....
To think AFO could have also had fun yuri times if he had just stopped being a dickhead for five seconds. Tragic. 😔
"When I was shouting from the top of that building, thoughts of Himiko Toga filled my head. I shouted at her about what I thought was right, but it twisted her face into the saddest expression I'd ever seen."
This one is mostly directed at the "Himiko *was* saved and dying is a fantastic way to end her arc because she's dying happy, fulfilled, and on her own terms" and "Hawks is too injured to help, there's no one else capable of helping, she's dead, get over it" crowd.
Himiko has the same laments as Touya-- "If only someone had loved me sooner, then maybe I would have been happy just being myself..." "If someone had reached out and given me love sooner, then maybe I could have finally given something back to the world....." It's an utterly dismal, depressing note to go out on.
Himiko isn't smiling happily in her dying dream-- she's wearing the same miserable, resigned smile she had when she let go of that last bit of hope that Ochako and Izuku would ever understand her. This time, she's smiling resignedly because she’s letting go of the life she thinks she’ll never have-- because she thinks it's too late and that the world will never be any easier for her to live in. In both scenes, Himiko is letting go of her hopes-- and in a series that's all about inspiring hope, this is something that needs to be challenged.
Ochako's goal started from wanting to alleviate her parent's burdens because they always wore tired, unhappy expressions-- that goal eventually grew into wanting a future where they can all smile together. And Himiko is explicitly tied to that goal.
I'm getting more and more convinced that Ochako's role as a "normal girl" who is able to inspire the civilians to see the heroes as human is what's also going to play a big part in getting them to see the villains as human. Ochako's heroism touched Himiko and made her heart lighter-- but it also touched the civilians, the media, and Keigo.
The phrase "the feelings of a single girl can change the world" has been repeated several times now throughout Ochako and Himiko's arcs during the final act. Ochako reaching out to Himiko and saving her, and Himiko attempting to sacrifice herself to save Ochako... both scenes are being broadcast to the world right now. Multiple civilians who got stranded within the vicinity of Gunga are currently watching the battles via livestream... while in possession of multiple high-speed transport vehicles. Basically, what I'm saying is: There are more people who are capable of reaching out and helping than this chapter leads us to believe, and that's relevant to Ochako's arc as someone who has connected the spirit of OFA to the people.
If "the feelings of one girl can change the world," now would be a good time for "the world" to respond to those feelings.
I've read a lot of callous takes on All Might from fans who are otherwise sympathetic to Tomura (and vice versa)-- which is sad, because I feel these characters are meant to be viewed as two sides of the same coin. It's not much of an exaggeration to say that a good bulk of the story/conflict is built on top of their crumbling bodies. It's also not much of an exaggeration to say that the resolution to this story hinges on them both being allowed to heal.
Toshinori and Tenko are both victims who were repeatedly failed by the adults around them, and are now both adults who are stuck in roles that perpetuate the same cycle that wounded their childhood selves. Their particular traumas regarding identity/loss and how they've been taught to cope with pain (that is to say, not at all) doesn't allow either of them to truly be "complete" people-- instead, they shut away core aspects of themselves and attempt to lose themselves in their respective roles in a futile attempt to run away from their wounded selves. Toshi throws himself into the role of All Might, Tenko throws himself into the role of Shigaraki Tomura-- But Toshi and Tenko still haunt every aspect of this story, and their inability to completely vanish into their alter egos remains a source of pain before it ever becomes a source of strength for them.
One of MHA's biggest messages is about the importance of society's most vulnerable people having access to good social support-- so it's no surprise that Toshi and Tomura's feelings of isolation end up fueling their blind pursuits of peace/destruction. They both gorge themselves on a fantasy they think will fill them, but are never full-- at least, not until they start allowing other people in their lives who can see beyond their respective hero/villain masks and understand that what's behind those masks is someone who desperately needs help.
Brief(ish) Thoughts on the Gravity of Their Designs
"Starvation" is very much the theme of the hour for both characters-- both characters are introduced to the series in severely emaciated, malnourished states. Toshi's true form is literally skin and bones, with his stomach having been ripped from his body by AFO. Tomura is depicted as frequently vomiting from sheer stress and suffers from nearly constant nausea-- during his debut, he's so malnourished that you can literally see the outline of his spinal column. They're both unkempt and unhealthy looking (with Tomura's clothes being visibly tattered/frayed around the collar and shirt/pant cuffs in a particularly infuriating bit of visual story telling-- AFO UR FUCKING LOADED WHY IS HE WEARING RAGS I'LL KILL YOU🗡️🗡️🗡️)
MEANWHILE, AFO himself is depicted as a cannibalistic, gluttonous, greedy monster who gorges himself on the misfortune of others and spares no expense whatsoever when it comes to maintaining his own health-- all while remaining well dressed and well groomed. Hori's art direction is simple but highly effective in how it indicates who the real enemy is, while also indicating that Tomura and Toshinori secretly share a mortal foe with one another.
Less seriously, Toshi & Tomura's muscle forms are both shams lmao.
Nana's Boys-------------------------------
God, Tomura is SUCH a fucking grandma's boy and he doesn't even know it. 😭 😭 😭You too, Toshinori. Hate u both! ❤
For all her flaws and mistakes, Nana still remains a major influence in Tomura and Toshinori's lives-- She is a source of pain for them both, but also serves as a source of strength for Toshinori and a source of deeply repressed hope for Tenko. She is the unbreakable binding thread that connects Toshinori and Tenko together as "family". Nana is also completely inextricable from the origin of both boys:
There's also the ever creeping implication that all the traits Tomura latched onto with AFO actually originated from Nana and Toshinori-- the concept of an inviolable "origin" that defines you, donning an invincible smile that hides your pain/fear, pushing past your limits by remembering why it is you swing your fists. AFO intended for both his "teacher persona" and his lessons to be a dark, twisted mockery of Nana-- but Tomura still "found" Nana in those lessons and then used them to take the first step towards breaking free.
Y e a h.
Nevertheless, Tomura can't bring himself to take the next step towards being saved until someone starts to challenge him a bit more on what his origin actually *IS* . Izuku, that's ur cue.
The Kamino Incident---------------------
mmm cinnamontography......
Kamino and its immediate aftermath is definitely the meat and potatoes of Tomura and Toshi's connection, and the story is STILL reeling from the aftershocks of this arc. AFO gleefully picks up his pen and proceeds to write Tomura and Toshi into a corner they can't escape from on their own, setting the stage for the rest of the series.
It's all but confirmed through AFO's actions and internal dialog that Kamino was a set-up meant to retraumatize Tomura and Toshinori by recreating the worst moments of their lives, while also permanently putting them at odds with each other-- AFO takes himself off the playing board willingly in a way that's deliberately meant to resemble Nana's sacrifice while also ripping Tomura's trauma about not being saved wide open. My guy played the longest con specifically so he could create a hell specifically tailored to these two, then gave them both time to "pick themselves up and dust themselves off" just so he could knock them both down AGAIN in an even MORE spectacularly traumatizing way a few months later. (I am once again encouraging people to reread MHA while actually paying attention to AFO this time and while acknowledging that Tomura and Toshinori are his victims, because the dude's a fucking FANTASTIC villain)
All Might and Tomura both get their "masks" forcibly removed in a way that's meant to humiliate them and expose their pain/humanity, which causes them to both bury themselves even deeper in their hero/villain roles and further away from each other. AFO depends on Toshi's hero mask and role as a "symbol" being the very thing that won't allow Toshi to save Shimura Tenko. Kamino is to Toshi what MVA is to Tomura-- an awful tragedy that shackles both men to their masks, masquerading as a good ol' high-energy shonen beatdown.
AFO: Hey can I copy ur homework lol
Name a bigger "Ohhhhhhh This Bitch (ʘ‿ʘ)" moment
AFO gets a sick pleasure out of masquerading as a savior and turning others into the "villain"-- he has always delighted in dragging others to his level, in bringing the absolute worst outta them, in watching them make all the same decisions *he* would make without him having to force his hand, in stealing the light from their eyes so they look just as dull and unhappy as his, in making others "another him".
Tomura is an obvious example, but Toshi himself is also a victim of AFO's particular brand of perversion (for lack of a better word)-- Kamino has AFO turning Toshi into "another him." All MIght is turned into "the villain" who takes Tomura's beloved master away from him, just as AFO took Nana away from Toshinori. All Might inflicts the same trauma he went through onto Tomura, while AFO takes a bow and proceeds to laugh himself all the way to the bank Tartarus.
(Seriously, tho-- reading "All Might: Rising" and the Kamino arc back-to-back and realizing that AFO's dramatic sacrifice was *literally plagiarized* is probably one of the biggest doses of fridge horror in the entire series-- it immediately throws EVERYTHING about Kamino and AFO's relationship with Tomura into question.)
*enraged chimpanzee shriek* THE WAY HE PRETTY MUCH SAYS EXACTLY WHAT HIS PLAN IS BUT THE PLAN WAS SO FRIGGIN INCONCEIVABLE THAT NO ONE PICKED UP ON IT.
FUKX>.
From AFO's perspective, Toshi's rise to power as "The Symbol of Peace" was shaped by his rage and the loss of his beloved master. This blind hatred eventually allowed All Might to corner and "kill" AFO. AFO takes his notes and ultimately sets Kamino up to mirror Nana's sacrifice, turning Toshinori into the figure who fuels Tomura's blind hate-- which kick-starts Tomura's development into "The Symbol of Fear" in earnest. He then spends 90% of his meeting with Toshi in Tartarus talking in bullshit riddles that are ultimately meant to mock Toshi-- He's basically saying "look a little closer buddy, that's you! :)" and then ominously chuckling to himself when Toshinori completely fails to pick up on what he's actually saying.
"wait so all that talk about Tomura growing and developing into a symbol and learning how to use his rage was just AFO being a perverted freak about Toshinori/All Might?" ALWAYS HAS BEEN!
AFO "writes" an "evil" version of All Might he has complete control over, then self-inserts himself into that version of All Might. Oh, and it's also a version of his brother who "willingly" submitted to him and was totally stoked walk the path of evil with him. Oh, and it's also a vessel that has the blood of Shimura Nana running through him, who happens to be the object of AFO's strangely charged derision.
Fellas, Freud would have a fuckin' field day.
>This Action Will Have Consequences.
Toshi's kneejerk reaction in the aftermath of Kamino is to chase after Tomura, to approach him as "Shimura Tenko". His first reaction is to act on his feelings as Toshinori, not as All might. Gran Torino shuts this down immediately, shoving both Toshinori and Tenko back into the hero and villain boxes and refusing to let them remove their "masks." Toshi's fear of Gran Torino is funny, until it isn't-- he buckles immediately and defers to Torino's will like a scolded child.
Gran Torino claiming “It doesn’t matter who he’s related to” in a series where familial relationships are frequently used to humanize its characters is a particularly backhanded way of dehumanizing Tomura (especially since the death of their families was the catalyst that caused both Toshi AND Tomura to start dehumanizing themselves).
Gran Torino immediately brings Toshi's "role" as All Might back up as a means of silencing him. Reading between the lines of this scene, Toshinori is essentially being told that he isn't allowed to take off the hero mask, that he isn't allowed to act on his feelings as Toshinori. Toshi is told that he can no longer act as the symbol of peace, but in the same breath, he's told that he can't ever STOP being the symbol of peace-- it's subtle, but this dissonance is what causes him to start slowly spiraling throughout Acts 2 & 3.
In Kamino's aftermath, Tomura and Toshi are both left feeling hollow and directionless. AFO mostly succeeds in hollowing out Tomura, who spends the beginning of Act 2 as a sullen and depressed mess until he finally snaps during the events of MVA. Toshinori, however, is lucky to have people in his life who begin to fill him up again with little acts of love for who he is outside the "Symbol of Peace" mask.
Toshinori, Rising.
MHA has been about Izuku's growth into someone capable of saving Tomura, but it's also been about Toshinori's growth into someone who can live outside his alter ego and finally become the sort of hero his childhood self wanted to be-- someone who breaks the cycle of grief turning into hatred. Yagi Toshinori WANTED to be the type of hero who could save Shimura Tenko, more anything. And if Hori sticks the landing with Toshinori and Tomura's arcs, then we're going to see some massive pay off in the coming chapters.
The series supports the underlying implication that Toshi's initial impulse to go after Tomura and treat him as Shimura Tenko was the correct one, and that not going after him was ultimately a massive mistake-- and Toshi has gradually been developing into someone who can now act on that impulse without being shouted down or shoved back into a box.
Side note: I feel that people who are insisting that Toshi is gonna die are severely underestimating how important Toshi and Tomura actually are to each other's respective arcs-- Killing Toshi before he gets to meet Tomura again leaves a big part of his arc unfulfilled. It also compromises Tomura's arc and MHA's message about the importance of good social support and family in saving society's most vulnerable people-- Yagi Toshinori becomes a hero that surpasses All Might through helping Tomura, and fulfills his dream about breaking the cycle of grief and hatred. Tomura gains the closure and social support he needs to finally start healing alongside what is basically his only remaining family (on a spiritual level!).
On that note.....
"You're Just Like All Might, Ten-chan."
*gazes pointedly at the SMAAAASH* Oh, Tenko.....
When Tomura/Tenko gets pushed to his mental breaking point during the UA Fortress Battle, he manifests the biggest targets of his grief and anger to "protect" him. Tomura twists his form into a childish interpretation of All Might-- one that exists solely to protect him-- then unleashes several "SMASH"es on the heroes. Tomura betrays himself and his true desires through this form more than any other.
The unstated implication scattered throughout the entirety of MHA is that Tenko has always been waiting for All Might to "finally show up and save him," but All Might never came. It's the core of the tragedy between these two. Tomura's ""hatred"" of All Might is fueled by extreme unprocessed grief, as always-- the same cycle that Toshinori dreamed of breaking when he was a child.
Midoriya Izuku's "Role"
NOTICE: THIS IS A SET. DO NOT SEPARATE.
(side note: Tomura touching All Might's screen while delicately raising his pinky to avoid destroying it.... I can see u bitch.)
Izuku is Tomura's hero for the same reason that Izuku is Toshinori's hero. Through Toshinori's relationship with Izuku, he learns that his life always had meaning, that he always had a role outside of being "All Might." He learns that it's okay for him to keep living as Yagi Toshinori, and that his "origin" didn't disappear when he lost One For All-- it's easy to see how Izuku's role in helping Toshi reconcile his identity and heroic origins ultimately bleeds into his arc with Tomura.
Izuku and Tomura learn how to define heroism and villainy through each other. Both boys start off with a vague, poorly-defined goal of wanting to save everyone/destroy everything-- and both goals are equally shallow/unattainable, at first. Thinking about those "goals" too deeply means confronting an aspect of themselves that's still wailing in pain-- they only begin to confront those feelings and the origin that fuels them through their repeat contact with each other.
All Might is the one who gave Tenko and Izuku's idea of heroism its "shape"-- but Tomura is ultimately the one who helps Izuku define his idea of heroism by forcing Izuku to repeatedly examine that definition each time they encounter each other. And Izuku the one Tomura's mind instinctively drifts towards when he thinks about about "some hero"-- he's the one who consistently motivates Tomura to struggle and claw himself back to the surface from the depths of the Demon King role. If "hatred" is what allows AFO to maintain his control over Tomura, then why was Tomura able to wrench back control after Izuku asked for him? Why was he able to resist when AFO attempted to unleash decay at the very beginning of the final war arc? Because there's something other than hatred fueling him right now. Tomura's truth, as always, lies firmly between the lines and under about seven different layers of misdirection (and yes, this is just a purple-prosey way of calling him a fucking tsundere /derog).
what do u guys think they were feeding toshi at the orphanage
Toshinori gets his mask removed, but learns that it's okay for him to live without it and that lesson brings him closer to his origin than he's ever been before. He is finally "reborn" as a fully formed human, not as a symbol. And with that being said, *points at Shigaraki Tomura*
Rereading the early chapters of MHA, and tbh I think we can pin this scene as the exact moment Tomura develops his fixation on Izuku.
Everyone in this scene assumes that All Might doesn’t need any help and starts wandering off, leaving All Might to face Kurogiri and Tomura alone. Izuku is the only one to intervene, "offering help that no one asked for." Of course, Izuku is the only one with actual insight into All Might’s condition and realizes that he's in danger— but from Tomura’s perspective, Izuku is some rando kid that's throwing himself into danger to help someone who doesn’t appear to need any help. And the emphasis on everyone else being willing to just sit back and do nothing while All Might handles everything is something we know ties directly to one of Tomura’s biggest traumas:
Tomura: "Don't just watch. Help Me. Someone please look at me. Don't just tell me not to cry. Don't just smile and pretend that everything is alright. Don't pretend you don't see me."
MHAReddit: Ah, I understand-- obviously, the series is saying that Tenko is dead and we can beat this guy by punching him harder! :)
I gotta stress that Shouto and Co. are kids and I'm not faulting them for deciding to let an adult handle the situation (and I don't doubt in the slightest that they would have also chosen to intervene if they were privvy to the same information abt Toshinori's health as Izuku)-- but from Tomura's perspective where he holds pretty much everyone equally responsible for society's failings, this act was enough for him to start subconsciously singling Izuku out.
Meanwhile, the sports festival just reinforces Tomura's budding interest bc it reinforces that Izuku is actually batshit crazy and Tomura's response to this is to ask ".... how crazy we talkin'? 👀"
Oh, Izuku, you were definitely gonna get kidnapped at some point 😭
Anyway, stuff like this is also why I feel that Horikoshi likely planned on having Izuku save Tomura from the very beginning (And I've seen ppl argue that Hori had planned to have Tomura be the final boss and get defeated/killed because of Nine's existence, but let's be real-- Nine was an AFO expy parading around in a Yoichi expy's body and ya'll know it). There's a lot of set up for why Izuku is ultimately the best person to save Tomura scattered throughout the early stages of the manga, like, literally starting from the very first page:
Izuku: *crying the biggest and ugliest tears mankind has ever seen, snot pouring out of his nose, sweating a frankly concerning amount, and fighting back his own tears because he just can't ignore the tears of others* I GOTTA SAVE THAT CRYING BOY....!!!
Shigaraki Tomura, famously a freak, inching himself closer to Midoriya Izuku's splash zone with every chapter: ....... :) :) :)
Izuku saves others despite being a sobbing, snotty, sweaty mess--often times while he's being a sobbing, snotty, sweaty mess. It's antithetical to All Might and Nana's beliefs about saving others with a smile and about cultivating an "image"/"mask" meant to reassure others-- but that's not a bad thing, and the whole series is built around showing us why it isn't a bad thing.
Izuku cannot separate his own inherent humanity and desires from his heroism and is driven by impulse/ego/pain the same way Tomura is. He remains a crybaby who wears his emotions on his sleeve throughout the entirety of the manga-- and the lesson he ultimately learns isn't that he should "just stop crying and hide all his fear behind a smile," it's that he shouldn't run from that aspect of himself because it's the part of himself that allows him to empathize with others. Izuku saves a piece of himself every time he gives his all to save those who are in tears, and he's become the exact type of hero who would've given it his all to save his child self.
This might not be the sort of hero Izuku fantasized about being-- but it's exactly the sort of hero Tomura needs after a lifetime of having his own tears downplayed and ignored by everyone.
on that note, the anime having Tenko and Izuku's "masks" basically evaporating to reveal their soft, sparkly, shoujo-y centers in that one season 6 OP remains one of the most on-point visuals the anime has ever given us lmfao. can't wait to see what they do for s7.....!
I still don’t understand AFO. Why is he like this. This series repeatedly goes out of it’s way to humanize the villains but AFO is still just evil because he wants to be the demon lord and I don’t get it.
That would be the point, I feel-- AFO doesn't want to be understood or seen as "human." He wants to completely lose himself in character, wants other people to mindlessly play along with the story he's written for himself like good little extras, and wants everyone around him to acknowledge what a ~perfectly inhuman demon lord~ he is-- and he's bent the entire narrative of MHA around himself like a shield in order to accomplish that. Like, the idea of people breaking the same black and white narrative that he's been using to protect himself (and trap others) quite literally drives him insane:
"That murderer--" "You killer--" oooooo you're so mad that human nature is basically good, that people are endlessly capable of growth and healing, and that actual human beings can't simply be shoved into teeny black and white fictional boxes ooooo
all the more evidence that he's gonna completely lose his shit when Tomura ultimately refuses to kill Izuku lmao
I wanna point out his speech bubbles in the second image, bc Hori frequently uses speech bubbles to emphasize a character's mental state-- Like.... Bro is literally coming apart at the seams with rage that Stain is trying to be anything more than a starter villain. 😭The english translation also kind of sort of makes it seem like AFO is simply referring to Stain by his moniker (Hero Killer), but the term he uses in the original text feels a little more... loaded, imho?? The kanji used for Stain's "Hero Killer" Moniker is "Goroshi" ("殺ごろし"), but here, AFO instead refers to him as a "Murderer" (殺人犯/satsujin-han). Calling Stain an out-and-out murderer instead of calling him by a villain moniker feels a lot more specific, a lot more pointed, and it also tells us a lot more about AFO’s fucked up sense of values.
Anyway, I've said this before, but AFO is a character who reads heavily as an escapist fantasy gone horrifically wrong. "Why is a world where villains are allowed to climb back up from rock bottom and heal so intolerable to AFO?" "why does the idea of people breaking free from their roles make AFO so angry?" "why is AFO literally trying to BECOME a comic book character?" are better questions to ask than "why is bro just evil for the sake of it," I feel. Like obviously, a world where the label of "villain" gets thoroughly and utterly dismantled is one where AFO loses his power over others.... but it's also a world that rips that protective layer of "fiction" away from him, exposes his own humanity, and destroys that delusion of becoming the "perfect villain king" that he's wrapped himself up in.
tfw you LARP so hard that it ends up getting your brother killed and now breaking character means you gotta Process All Of That
.................................................... Unless...? :)
What I find especially interesting about AFO is that MHA's narrative actually cooperates with shielding him from the readers, to a degree-- scenes that depict rare moments of genuine emotion are overlaid with contrary, cartoonishly evil narration that's meant to distract the reader from what's actually being depicted. The bulk of the series depicts his face being hidden in shadows even though it *literally* has no reason to be, and we don't get an unobscured look until the other characters finally start rallying together to reject his story. He is literally introduced to the series through a TV screen, which MHA has been using as a shorthand for its depiction of fantasy since day one:
In my opinion, I feel the final act of "rejection" that AFO fears isn't from his brother, or his followers, or "his other self"-- what he fears is the story itself rejecting him and finally exposing him for what he is: an utterly mundane human. Like, a total freak of a guy to be sure, but still totally human. The narrative revoking its various "protections" and working against AFO to humanize him acts as the final insult to everything he claims to believe in while doubling as the last bit of confirmation that he was never gonna become a "perfect demon lord." MHA being what it is, this is something inevitable.
Where other characters in this series draw strength from their origin-- the moment that defines them as a human and individual-- AFO likely fears and rejects his own origin for this same reason.
Anyway. I would describe AFO as a wannabe-author who refuses to make public appearances or divulge details about his personal life, but ultimately reveals a little too much about himself through the "stories" and "characters" he tries to write-- so ppl still know he's a freak with issues by virtue of how fatherless his content is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Putting together all the pieces of himself that AFO accidentally lets slip is part of what makes MHA so fun (to me, at least!).
"My dear,
In the midst of hate, I found within me an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found within me an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found within me an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that… In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better – pushing right back "
Disclaimer: The above quote is famously misattributed to Camus-- who seemingly only wrote the midst of winter/invincible summer portion of the original piece-- and the author of the expanded quote remains unknown. Nevertheless, it fits Toshi's character perfectly.
Iron Might remains a polarizing love-or-hate-it topic within the fandom, with many fans expressing their concerns that it ruins Toshinori's character/arc. It's no secret that I fall pretty firmly on the "love" side of camp-- and as is the case with all things I love, I can't love quietly or in moderation. So here's another really really really long post on all the reasons why I love it, and why I don't feel that this was character assassination in the slightest.
Breaking the key points down, I aim to discuss:
A) How Iron Might acts as a sort of resolution to Toshi's complex relationship with his body and injuries, and reconciles the divide between Toshinori's body and soul.
B) How Iron Might embodies MHA's definition of "love" and acts as a love letter to everything Toshinori wants to protect and everything he's ever wanted to protect. Iron Might is not meant to be read as a suicide mission, but as Toshinori weaponizing the joy of living as "Yagi Toshinori" and pitting the weight of his entire existence against AFO.
C) How Iron Might further cements MHA as "meta-fiction" through discussion of what being "quirkless" means on a narrative level + the dismantling of popular but overdone tropes that people have come to expect in comics. Toshi is also fighting for his right to exist in a battle manga against a toxic comic nerd who thinks that Toshi's role ended in Kamino and that he contributes more to the story by dying.
D) How Iron Might functions as a narrative device (i.e. It gets Toshinori to Izuku and Tomura). This is the battlefield where Toshi's character was always destined to end up because this is where all his unfinished business is at. Simple as!
"The body and mind are two halves of a whole" Iron Might as Toshinori coming to terms with his injuries and his body:
Kicking things off with this point bc I feel like... understanding how Toshi's relationship and struggles with his own body have been a major part of his character arc is something that's, like, absolutely essential when it comes to getting an accurate read on what Iron Might means to Toshi's character. Iron Might ultimately functions as a reconciliation between Toshinori's wounded body and heroic soul, so it's a bit sad to see people repeatedly dismissing it as "ruining Toshinori's character arc" without ever taking Toshi's relationship with his own body into consideration. Like, this is not some "insignificant" part of his arc that's being prioritized over everything else:
A collection of very relevant panels! Side note: Tsukauchi fumbling the toshibowl so hard that Toshi's car seems like the better romantic choice in comparison will never stop being funny.
Aiba ur the only person in that control room i respect btw.
For the longest time Toshinori has viewed his emaciated, ill body as something pathetic and shameful. His body was something he felt that he *had* to hide from the world, in order to maintain the illusion of being a hero who could never possibly succumb to evil. His injuries and the state of his body cleaved his identity/self-perception in two-- he begins the series treating his actual body as the "secret identity" instead of his authentic self. The story doesn't spoonfeed this to the readers because it expects its readers to have enough empathy to put two-and-two together on their own-- That Toshi doesn't simply struggle with the loss of OFA & "All Might/heroism" in the aftermath of Kamino, but also the loss of what he felt was his "true" body.
Toshinori is very easily read as someone who suffers from intense body dysmorphia-- and him forcibly changing himself back into his muscular form over and over again can also quite easily be read as Toshi attempting to cling to whatever time he has left with the body that doesn't make him feel like a stranger in his own skin. It's him holding onto the self he views as "actually him" for as long as he can.
Toshi's arc is something that resonates with a lot of people who have disabilities or suffer from dysphoria-- So it's frustrating when some fans decide to take the least gracious interpretation of his character and issues and run with it, instead attempting to frame Toshi as some washed up attention seeker who ~simply can't let go of his glory days~. Toshi's character has been hit with a lot of ableism both in-universe and out of it, with the fandom only really acknowledging that he's a disabled man when it conveniences them and otherwise disregarding how this aspect of him plays a major role in his arc.
Iron Might is built to specifically resemble Toshi's "ideal" body-- to the bitter cynics, this supports their idea that Toshi is unable to let go of "All Might" and hasn't learned to value himself or his life as Yagi Toshinori. To those who understand what Toshi's been going through and understand that his arc was never *just* about "living," though, it's a different story altogether. So much of Iron Might symbolizes Toshinori coming to terms with the fact that he is a disabled man, accepting that there was never anything shameful about this, accepting that it never needed to be "hidden away" for him to be a hero-- and ultimately, accepting that his body is 100% him and an undeniable aspect of what makes him a hero, no matter how injured.
"Who's that skinny guy?" KID, LET ME TELL YOU A STORY.
There is a noticeable shift in Toshi's relationship with his body during Act 3-- We go from practically begging that Toshi's true form not be exposed to the public during Kamino, to Toshi encouraging that this fight be broadcast to the world. In the aftermath of Kamino and after losing the last embers of OFA, we still see Toshi forcibly shifting into his muscle form multiple times whenever he wants to "reassure" others, even though this process obviously hurts him:
The implications behind this are obvious: Toshi is not coping with the loss of his body as well as he lets on, and all those implications finally come to a painful head during the dark hero arc.
During his meeting with Stain, Stain outright refuses to recognize Toshi's "Muscle form" as "All Might" and instead makes it clear that it was Toshi's heroic soul that earned him the right to call himself a "true hero"--and that this "soul" still exists in everyone Toshi has ever saved. It never went away. The embers of OFA might have vanished, but the flames of Toshi's own heroism remain all around him-- they keep him warm and allow him to keep shining.
Toshi begins to accept his own body for the first time after his meeting with Stain-- we see him starting to reassure his friends as his authentic self instead of scrambling to shift back into his muscle form. During his last stand against AFO, he boldly shows the world his injured back, and wordlessly asks that they still express their faith in it and feel protected by it. His injuries are a part of him and his lived reality, and they're part of what makes him a human.
"--Because a hero's back exists to reassure others!"
Toshinori's body itself is ultimately included among his blessings that he weaponizes against AFO: his bonds, his origin, and his body-- no matter how badly injured it may be-- are all what defines him as a hero. Even if his back is no longer "broad," it will always be something that reminds others that "he is here."
During this fight, Toshinori reconciles his fractured identity by finally embracing all the aspects of himself that he'd previously grown distant from. Reflecting on the life he's led as Yagi Toshinori-- the life he led before he ever became "All Might" and the life he led after receiving his injuries and losing OFA-- is what gives him the strength to laugh in AFO's face, and it's what causes the light to finally return to his eyes. In the midst of a battle between life and death, we witness Toshinori being reborn.
He fully embraces his humanity during this fight, and then weaponizes that humanity against AFO (and considering AFO's character/how AFO is constantly attempting to escape his own humanity... it's pr delightful to see him getting his shit wrecked by another "god" who fell to earth and was forced to live his as a mortal, but ultimately realized that he loved it).
The battle ends with "All Might's" iconic shading now being used for Toshi's true form-- symbolizing the reconciliation between Toshi's heroic soul and his wounded but nevertheless heroic body.
As an aside: I also feel the context surrounding Iron Might/Toshi's body touches on MHA's theme of "consent versus nonconsent" as something that separates true heroes from true villains (starting from AFO forcing a quirk on Yoichi, cumulating with Toshi offering Izuku OFA and later making it clear that the quirk requires Izuku's explicit consent to be passed on-- OFA being born from an act of utter violation and then turned into something that explicitly requires consent always been one of my favorite aspects of MHA's lore, but I digress). During Kamino, AFO forcibly exposed Toshi's body to the world in an effort to completely humiliate him and destroy the public's image of him. Now, Toshi taking his power back and exposing his true form to the world entirely on his own terms.
"All that I've been blessed with will bear its weight against you!"-- or, Iron Might as a love letter.
I've talked on this point a lot bc it's what enamored me immediately with this fight (which is really about the depth of Toshinori's love and the love others have for him and his willingness to BE loved by others -versus- a man who takes advantage of the love others have for him and is utterly unable to leave his fragile heart at the mercy of others out of fear of ppl perceiving him), so I'll try to keep it brief:
Iron Might embodies the essence of how MHA defines love (love is admiration, love is imitation, love is seeing/watching, etc) while also acting as Toshinori's love letter to everything he wants to protect (himself and his life as "Yagi Toshinori" included). It also embodies the essence of how MHA defines true heroism (those who have been blessed should use their blessings for those who have not been blessed, those who can still act must act, etc etc etc ).
Toshi would not have been able to pull off Class 1A's moves or found the best way to integrate them into a cohesive fighting style without love as imitation/watching/admiration. (again, versus AFO, who at this point just randomly fires off powerful quirks without any actual respect for how the quirks work or how they can support each other, & who doesn't admire his own student beyond his capacity for rage).
This battle is a celebration of the bonds Toshi has allowed himself to form. It's him using everything he's ever been given and everything he's ever been blessed with to fight against a man who only knows how to take things away. Toshi has learned that OFA was never what made him a hero, that he can live without OFA-- and he's pitting the weight of that life against a man who is convinced that OFA is everything, who can't move on from it, and who has built his entire existence around getting it back. AFO wins the physical battle, sure, but Toshi remains the clear winner in the war of existences.
"This story is still being written, Toshinori."
Another aside: Names are everything in MHA, and that's especially true in the final act. MHA treats names like incantations, and “Do your best, Toshinori!” is the magic spell Toshi is using to motivate himself. Hori frequently uses how a person chooses to refer to themselves during key scenes as a way of emphasizing a person's mental state. From this, we can deduce that Toshi doesn't view this fight as All Might vs. AFO-- he views this fight as Toshinori vs. AFO.
Toshinori has weaponized his blessings and bonds and is now hitting back at AFO with the full weight of his complete existence. In this fight, he carves the joy of living-- of being Yagi Toshinori-- into AFO's barren, empty soul. Every scene he flashes back to is a scene of the life he has lived as Toshinori, not as All Might. This fight, just like the rest of the war, is all about "love" in all its various forms. AFO's abuse of love (both of his own deeply hidden love and of the love others have for him) is why he cannot win in a war where love is the essential element-- love is what keeps motivating everyone in this war to keep getting up, to keep struggling, to keep reaching out, etc etc etc.
Moving on.
"I'm quirkless. Born without a role." or, Iron Might as an act of defiance against both the narrative and the expectations of the 'battle manga' genre.
MHA being an example of stealth meta-fiction is something I've talked about before, particularly so with these two posts (plus... basically any post about our favorite cringefail LARPer, AFO).
Horikoshi takes full advantage of the medium/the fact that MHA is a manga and uses every tool that's available to both tell and enhance the story, and these chapters have cemented him as someone who has mastered his craft-- The decision to draw Toshi's true self with thick/bold lines after his armor breaks, the dark shadows finally leaving his eyes, Toshi consistently referring to himself by his own name instead of his hero name, the chapter titles, the backgrounds, etc etc etc all of it. Absolutely everything has meaning.
Through Iron Might, we once again delve into how the series chooses to define "quirklessness"-- the idea that quirklessness is meant to be a disability allegory gets more or less debunked (thankfully, since MHA already has a fairly good track record with depicting ACTUAL mental and physical illnesses/disabilities), with the narrative instead framing the possession of a quirk as something that determines what "role" a person gets in life. The implication being that not having a quirk means you don't get a role, period. You don't get to shine brightly on stage, you don't even get to be an "extra." This fits into the previously established idea that society's biases against "villainous quirks" basically railroad a lot of people onto the path of villainy (plus, the treatment of heroes/villains as fictional characters by the masses instead of viewing them as actual people). But, quirks are just quirks-- they're neither good or evil, and they aren't what determine whether a person is a hero or a villain. And as such, having or not having a quirk isn't what determines whether or not someone is truly a hero.
Toshinori is now defying the narrative that states that not having a quirk means you don't get a role. At the same time, he stands up against AFO-- our resident toxic comic book fanboy who sincerely believes Toshi should have picked Kamino as the best time to "bow out" (read: die) as a character-- who spews all sorts of vile things about the state of Toshi's body and how this is the primary reason why Toshi has no place in the story. The satire practically writes itself.
Like so many other characters, Toshinori uses the "role" of All Might as a coping mechanism for much of the series. As already stated, there is a disconnect between Toshinori's body and his soul--Toshi begins to use All Might as a mask to hide his feelings, his fears, and his humanity from the rest of the world. The series draws attention to the fact that the people forgot about the heart and soul--that is, the person-- behind All Might and started treating him like a character instead of a real person, and it's made clear that Toshinori forgot, too.
AFO is still trying to hide his true self in the role of the demon king, but Toshinori is no longer trying to hide himself behind All Might. AFO thinks Toshinori should have died in Kamino because that's where his "role" as a "character" ended, but Toshinori refuses that end. Both men find their origins in fiction (AFO from captain hero, Toshinori from Anpanman) but only Toshi has managed to reconcile his identity, break free of the story, and meet AFO head on as a human instead of a character. AFO is still hiding and refusing to engage with this story as a real person.
Toshi's overshadowed eyes are also heavily implied to be a side effect of him completely losing himself in the role of "All Might," rather than merely being the result of the injury he got from AFO-- we see that his eyes were already overshadowed long before he ever received his fateful injury, and the emphasis on shadowed eyes is also a design quirk that ties him to AFO (whose eyes were constantly hidden by shadows bc he was constantly LARPing as a demon lord instead of being authentic-- To drive this bit of visual story telling home, Hori emphasizes AFO's eyes whenever the "demon king" mask starts to slip and we start seeing peeks of what an utter sad sap of a person AFO is beneath the mask). It's a clever bit of show-don't-tell and another testament to Hori's art direction. Eyes are forever the window to the heart and soul in MHA, and Toshi reconnecting with his heart and soul-- with what defines him as a person-- is what finally causes the light to return to his eyes. The mask is fully off.
"Midoriya Izuku and Yagi Toshinori ~ Midoriya Izuku and Shigaraki Tomura ~ Shigaraki Tomura and....?"-- Or, Iron Might as a Narrative Tool.
(reminds u that the pivotal/trajectory changing chapters known as 304 and 305 were titled "Midoriya Izuku and Yagi Toshinori" and "Midoriya Izuku and Tomura Shigaraki". These three are the key!)
Changing gears for a sec and speaking purely from a writer's perspective: Iron Might simply couldn't have been included at Gunga and Toshi simply couldn't have remained locked up in a surveillance room for the entirety of the final battle-- because Toshinori's final destination as a character was always supposed to be the Izuku and Tomura fight. That's where his role as a character was always supposed to reach fruition and find his resolution:
"--I want to save that little boy!"
Aura!Might shedding tears when he realizes that Izuku wants to save Tomura and that Izuku has redefined OFA as something that exists to save is one of those underrated character moments that deserves more attention, because it's like. Everything. One of the most important scenes in the series by a large margin.
Izuku's declaration tells us everything we need to know about the trajectory of the series. Aura!Might crying in response to that declaration gives us everything we need to anticipate where his character is heading and to understand why Toshi's arc isn't over until he finally reconciles his business/regrets with Tomura & OFA/Nana.
it's heavily implied that real!Toshi was crying, too, after he felt what vestige!Izuku said. His eyes are hidden, but we see him briefly wiping his tears away. (and this is one of the many things I love about MHA-- there are so many lovely little details that add so much to the story. You just gotta be willing to look for them.)
Anyway! This point really speaks for itself, so I won't get into it too much: Tomura/Izuku's battlefield is where Toshi was always supposed to end up-- it's where he obviously needs to be to wrap up the loose strings in his arc, hear Izuku's "I am here" moment, and "change fate" by Izuku's side (not necessarily just his own fate, but also Tomura's). Iron Might is just a way that gets Toshi from point A to Point B while allowing Toshinori's character to shine as brightly as possible.
TL;DR The stage is finally set, the main characters have finally assembled, and now we get to see how the grand finale plays out.
-- -- -- -- --
In summation: Iron Might is sappy, sentimental, and fueled entirely by heart rather than logic-- and it's everything I love about this series.
I've been wanting to talk about how MHA plays with the concepts of "fiction vs reality, the characters vs the actor, the world vs the stage" for awhile now, bc I believe understanding how MHA utilizes these concepts is pretty crucial to understanding our Big Bad (and Tomura!) (...and Izuku!) (.. etc!) (y-yeah...!!!) (wooo.....!!!!!)
If this post is more incoherent than usual, I apologize-- I'm just really enthusiastic about stories that play with the fact that they're stories and characters who throw themselves into a fictionalized role as a means of coping. I love the way MHA handles these concepts in particular, so I lost all sense of restraint as usual.
Hori: "I'm Like Dropping Hints That Hero/Villain Personas Are Actually Coping Mechanisms Lol"
"As Tomura Shigaraki and Tenko Shimura, I've got just one wish: the total destruction of everything that created that house."
"If my origin as Touya and Dabi was such a simple thing, then... No, there are still things I want to say. Arguments I want to have."
I've seen a few ppl saying that it sounds awkward/strange to have the characters repeatedly asserting themselves in the third person, but imo, the emphasis on real names versus hero/villain names during these particular scenes plays into the idea of the villain/hero identities being "alter egos" that might not actually have the same core desires as the """"actors"""" that are behind these personas.
Tomura and Touya invoke both their real and villain names while asserting their respective wishes. Himiko also invokes her villain name, though it's less obvious to english speakers because she uses her real name as her villain name (in the raws, "HIMIKO TOGA" as a villain name is written using katakana-- and this is what she uses when asserting her wish). MHA plays with the idea of "fiction"/"Alter Egos" as a form of escapism and as a coping method, and at this point in time, the Dabi/Tomura/"Himiko" identities are still being utilized as a crutch/mask by these three very hurt individuals.
Ochako's fight being like the second most thematically important fight in the whole series still makes me unreasonably giddy btw.
To contrast, Ochako uses her civilian name alone when asserting her wish-- and imo we're meant to read this as Ochako wanting to save Himiko as herself, not as Uravity. Saving Himiko is not something she can accomplish as her alter-ego-- Ochako is able to save Himiko by stepping off the stage and becoming a "real" person, while also acknowledging the person behind "Toga Himiko (villain name)".
Izuku hasn't had his "I'm Izuku Midoriya"/"I'm-saving-you-as-Izuku-not-as-Deku" moment yet-- instead, we see Tomura intentionally making that distinction between the-hero-and-the-true-self by constantly referring to Izuku by his real, full name. And I'm pr sure Izuku is also the only one he does this to-- we see him referring to all the other heroes he encounters by their hero names alone, or by insulting nicknames (l-lol). Correct me if I'm wrong, tho!
(side note: Tomura switching to calling Izuku just "Hero" in the aftermath of Bakugate is actually a big step backwards imo-- it reads as Tomura trying to push Izuku away by shoving them both back in the hero/villain box and doubling down on enforcing their respective "roles." Not that I ever expected mister doomdere to make things easy, but, woof. Good Fuckin' Luck, Izuku ( ´･ω･) )
TL;DR The final arc has mostly been about tearing off the hero/villain masks to reveal who is hiding underneath— MHA's careful use of names and monikers plays heavily into that and its distinction between "alter-ego"/"true self" a lot. Which is... probably one of the many reasons why All For One still doesn't have a given name, as someone who has all but completely lost himself in his character.
Anyway! That brings us to the meat of this post: how does MHA take the concepts of "reality vs fiction" and "the character vs. the actor" and apply it to All For One (...and Tomura) (and Izuku--)?
"Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain!"
"If you refuse to submit, then I'll just rewrite the story." - it's amazing how all of this coulda been avoided if someone had just introduced AFO to Demon Lord x Reader fanfiction. (/j)
AFO fancies himself as the author of MHA's greatest tragedy (the desecration of Shimura Nana's legacy via the sacrifice of Shimura Tenko), while simultaneously inserting himself into its overarching narrative and treating himself as the leading villain of the story-- it's self-indulgent and intentionally invasive in the way that most self-insert fanfiction tends to be invasive, with him going to extremes to make it seem as though the whole story revolves around him. AFO wants to be both the author and the leading character and the leading antagonist. This greed is typical of him, but it also establishes him as a character who's more caught up in (read: trapped by) his relationship to "fiction" than anyone else. Again, MHA explores the use of fiction and alter-egos as an escape from a painful reality-- so, it's entirely reasonable to assume that this applies to AFO as well.
To me, so much about AFO reads as an escapist fantasy of someone who is utterly terrified of being put in a position where he is truly seen. The idea of being vulnerable, of being naked, of being "human," is intolerable to him. But by not allowing himself to feel and "be a human," he has effectively cut himself off from what he wants most. The character of “Shigaraki Tomura” is as much an escapist fantasy for AFO as it is Tenko-- It's just another (younger, prettier) layer of skin he can hide his true self in.
"so basically you're saying that AFO is a never nude" yes, actually :)
AFO dehumanizes Tomura through his attempts to turn the boy into his personal comic book character, but he also dehumanizes himself by desperately trying to insert himself into that “character." It's only fitting that Tomura’s innate humanity and capacity for feeling ends up rendering AFO himself painfully, painfully human-- and ultimately causes AFO's carefully constructed character to start crumbling.
If All the World’s a Stage, Then Let’s Destroy the Stage
"That stage is gone now. The theater's knocked down. How much longer can we afford to be spectators on the sideline?"
"Once upon a time, a man named All Might showed all of us how to be a hero. But somewhere along the way, people forgot about the heart and soul that made the man."
-MHA, Chapter 325
Tomura is attempting to destroy the stage, because without the stage there can be no "Shigaraki Tomura" (Or "All Might," or "All For One," or "Endeavor," etc etc etc). Without the stage, there are no more "characters" and no more tragedies. But-- without the stage, there are no more stories period. There are no more tragedies, but there are no more happy endings either. The world never recognizes the actor behind "Shigaraki Tomura" without the stage. The stage is not inherently a bad thing, so long as people can remember that the actors on the stage still exist outside of it.
But Tomura himself cannot imagine what happens after the curtains fall, and all that's left is Shimura Tenko. He is stuck in a role that was written entirely for someone else, but remains convinced that the role was always his and that the role defines him.
Tomura rebels against the story the only way he knows how--against an "author" who *LITERALLY* views him as a spicier self insert, and against a "setting" that treats his death as a happy ending-- but even so, Tomura still can't picture an ending that doesn't end in tragedy. His rebellion is not about him trying to wring a happy ending out of a miserable, mean-spirited book-- it's about burning the whole damn library down so he never feels let down or hurt by a story again.
Basically: Tomura cannot act outside the confines of his "character" in a way that will truly save him. Even as he rebels, he's rebelling in a way that is painfully consistent with the way his "character" is written-- and that's why AFO (the author) still poses such an enormous threat to him. Destruction cannot save him from this story when he was explicitly penned to destroy.
The only way to break this narrative is to act in a way "the author" doesn't expect, and to tap into all the traits that AFO desperately attempted to "write out" of him-- Shimura Tenko is someone who has always rebelled against his writing, his author, and the unfairness of this story with his kindness and his willingness to accept those that no one else will.
AFO cuts off Tenko's own power at the root by reinforcing Tomura's belief that the world will always inherently reject him, without fail, always and forever-- so he should just reject the world, too (and I've talked at length about this before, but this is why a story that ends with Tomura dying or locked away from society is an ending that fails in its goal to save Tomura). The more Shigaraki Tomura rejects everything and the more Shigaraki Tomura is rejected by everything, the more he distances himself from his root and the source of his power-- and the more Shimura Tenko gets lost in this character.
While AFO is terrified of someone seeing behind his mask, Tomura longs for it. Tenko has been there since the beginning and has been begging for someone to finally see and acknowledge him (both in-universe and out of universe).
"I’ll Be There, Changing Fate by Your Side."
AFO: "Blah Blah Blah Do you still believe myths can save you? Foolish creature. Let me be clear: every version of the story ends with you being slaughtered yadda yadda yadda :) :) :)"
ENTER, MIDORIYA IZUKU WITH A STEEL CHAIR.
Izuku's role is that of a completely average boy who gets pulled into a narrative ''that wasn't for him"-- he has no heroic lineage, no hidden powers, and no connection to the centuries old conflict that drives the plot. He's just a boy who did the right thing at the right time and was rewarded for it. Izuku is someone who was "never supposed to be a hero" the same way Tenko was "never supposed to be a villain" per the "rules" of their world-- and Izuku, like Tomura, is someone who exists to destroy those rules and the expectations of their narrative, completely changing the ending.
But rather than burning the book and ending the story forever (like Tomura wants to do), Izuku believes that the story and characters can still be salvaged. There's always something worth saving. It doesn't have to be a tragedy, they can still change the ending. They can talk specifics after Tomura's crazy ass puts the lighter down.
Izuku, like Tomura and so many other characters, throws himself into an alter-ego in an attempt to redefine himself and escape from pain ("Nobody's been saved yet. Don't be the worthless old Deku who can't save anyone" 😬). He almost loses himself in the role of "OFA's torch bearer" the way All Might did-- but just as Izuku managed to find Toshinori Yagi and helped in convincing him that his life as Toshinori has meaning, Izuku ends up getting saved by his friends who couldn't care less about OFA's ~protagonist power~ and know that Izuku is just a goofy, awkward, human boy who needs help.
Like.... If we explore quirklessness as like... a narrative stand-in for characters that the story typically views or dismisses as irrelevant extras/npcs, then AFO's barely restrained anger at Izuku and Toshi (and possibly Yoichi if we're being honest) for daring to ''act beyond their roles'' becomes even funnier. AFO can't stand the idea of his power/the protagonist role being passed on to someone who seems so utterly unworthy, unremarkable, and plain. He can't stand the idea of someone without a quirk/"role" standing up to him, the leading character. Dude really is a toxic comic book fan to the core.
afo really said "I didn't like how things were going so I stopped reading and just wrote a better ending to the story :^)" like...... @mhareddit that's u buddy...........................;
Anyway...........!!!!! AFO is someone who cherry picks what he likes about a story while ignoring the actual intent/message of the work (#theabsolutestateofthemhafandom), but he has no intention of breaking down the dichotomy between heroes/villains and instead actively enforces it (.............#theabsolutestateofthemhafan--). He just wants to flip what side wins in the end.
Tomura wants to break the narrative because he sees that as the only way to escape from his pain (but in doing so, he permanently cuts himself off from being a part of a story with a happy ending). He wants to destroy the dichotomy between heroes and villains because heroes and villains "will never understand each other and never stop creating each other" (lol. lmao, even).
Izuku wants to break the narrative because he's realized that there's something more to this story than your standard "Hero versus Villain," "good vs evil" affair and that he cannot explore what lies behind those masks and labels without tearing them down, first.
These three work together well as a narrative set of Fucking Nerds, and AFO works well as both Tomura and Izuku's villain for all of the above reasons (& also bc he's the only one who is actually benefitting from their current society) ((which basically offers him an endless buffet of hurt and angry children he can exploit on a silver platter)).
so what are your thoughts about what happened to og!afo? while og!afo was able to stop pretending right before his death, i feel like it was just... not enough? do you think his character arc is not over yet and will continue with vestige!afo? because i can't stop thinking about 368 where shigaraki's face changed to afo's pre!potato face upong seeing yoichi and how in 369 afo kept saying "not yet, not yet!" and talking as if he still has some kind of a last card up his sleeve. and that trump card was mentioned again in this chapter.
If this were the actual conclusion to AFO's arc, I wouldn't feel satisfied! But like you said, Hori has already gone out of his way to include the "trump card" line and left the actual fate of AFO's vestige deliberately ambiguous (ex: using words like "suppressed/defeated" instead of "killed" to describe vestige-for-one). Like, there's a lot that points to his arc not being finished yet, imho.
That said, I do believe AFO's "trump card" is gonna be something particularly heinous, and may involve him tipping his hand/finally revealing his involvement in the Shimura Family massacre. Like, something we have to keep in mind is that Tomura sincerely believes that he killed his family intentionally and that he """enjoyed""" killing them + enjoyed destroying his home— it’s what he considers to be his origin, and "remembering that origin" is what allowed him to take back control of his body. So in theory, all AFO has to do in order to shatter Tomura's sense of self is cast doubt on that "origin" (which in turn may create a necessity for Tomura to finally remember his *actual* origin in order to take back control of his body again).
Like, I gotta stress: AFO's villain mask/demon lord persona finally slipping off to reveal the pitiful and desperately lonely human underneath does not equal him suddenly becoming a good person, so I'm 100% expecting vestige-for-one to try and pull some truly awful bullshit at the absolute worst possible time lmfao.
----
Anyhoo, a couple more points to consider:
I know I'm beating a dead horse at this point, but once again: names are everything in mha and Hori 100% wants his readers to pay attention to what names are being used/emphasized during key scenes-- especially when it comes to names being used to separate fantasy from reality, authentic from inauthentic, and the "actor" from the "character/role."
Chapter 393 begins with the LOV discussing the meaning behind hero and villain names and encouraging Toga to pick a villain name for herself (with Toga ultimately deciding to use "Toga Himiko" written in katakana as her villain name because she ultimately just wants to be seen as herself)-- chapter 393 then ends with Ochako referring to Toga as "Himiko-chan," in a stealth rejection of Toga's stealth villain name. Bakugo resurrects and starts proudly referring to himself as "Kacchan" instead of “Great Explosion Murder God" + starts calling Izuku by his given name in total earnest. Meanwhile, Tomura stops referring to Izuku by his given name and starts referring to him as the much colder and distant "hero." Etc etc.
With this in mind, AFO still not having a name reveal-- not even during his own damn flashback/origin chapter-- is something that sticks out like a sore thumb.
This chapter was (appropriately titled) our farewell to "All For One: The Demon Lord/The Villain King/The Shameless LARPer" It's not necessarily our farewell to "*insert name here*: The Cataclysmic Mess Of A Person" yet. Yoichi and Tomura are the only ones who can properly say farewell to that side of AFO, because despite everything, they're the only ones who have some semblance of pity/"affection" for AFO as an actual human person (not as a god, or an object of worship, or a villain king, or a "role").
Death and Rebirth continues to be one of the big (and criminally underrated) themes of the series-- MHA frequently plays with the idea that part of a character's identity/alter-ego can "die" while their body lives on (or conversely, that a person's will can take on a life of its own and live on even if their body dies. which. y'know.)
All Might """dies,""" but Yagi Toshinori lives. Touya """dies""" and Dabi is born. Tenko """dies""" and is "reborn" as Shigaraki Tomura. Endeavor """dies""" during the PLW, leaving the world's ugliest crier Todoroki Enji behind. The representation of Keigo's hero identity (the fierce wings vestige) """dies""". Bakugo switches it up by dying for real, but upon resurrection, sheds his conceit and discards the "mask" he used to conceal his insecurities. Etc etc.
AFO himself has always been born (and reborn) from death. He takes his very first breaths while next to the corpse of his mother and half-dead brother. He died once, but was brought back to life by someone that society rejected and AFO ""accepted"". He has now died a second time, triggering a subtle change in Tomura that has made him even more dangerous (i.e. Tomura has started using the AFO quirk again, and more specifically, is now using the AFO quirk to whittle away at the collective "will" of OFA by stealing the vestiges one by one. This Action Will Have Consequences.jpg)
Killing AFO does not actually solve the root problems of this story, nor does it fix the longstanding problems of heroaca society (which all precede the advent of quirks and the creation of the hero/villain system)-- or rather, it might be better to say that AFO will never *truly* die as long as the world remains fundamentally unchanged. AFO is enabled by the status quo! He is allowed to keep existing and able to continuously resurrect himself over and over and over again as the ultimate villain specifically because of it.
My theory right now is that AFO will only die permanently when A) He is finally acknowledged as a human individual and given a name, and B) when Izuku finally takes Tomura's hand + Tomura is "finally taken out of the garden and back into the house," symbolizing the radical shift in the status quo that empowered (read: created) AFO in the first place.
Also worth mentioning: body!AFO and vestige!AFO are heavily implied to have some sort of "shared" awareness with each other-- we even see body!AFO flashing back to the UA cage match during his mental breakdown. This means there's a chance what body!AFO was feeling at the moment of his death might spill over to vestige!AFO, allowing for his arc to continue seamlessly from where it apparently "left off" during this chapter.
Which is good! Because this chapter has AFO finally admitting that "nothing is good" without Yoichi while also indirectly confirming that yes, the various traumas from his childhood DID in fact play a major role in his development into a villain-- AFO and Yoichi growing up in a society that ignored them is basically what fuels AFO's ridiculously self-detrimental attention seeking behaviors (like the AFOmight fight becomes retroactively hilarious when u realize AFO was trying to get as much attention out of mangling Toshi as possible and that his obsessive need to kill Toshi in front of an audience is what ultimately led to his downfall 💀It's, uh, marginally less hilarious when u also realize that he impulsively killed Yoichi bc Yochi had stopped looking at him. 😬)
Anyway....!! AFO and Yoichi are both the "source" and the representation of the main conflict in this series-- og!AFO fizzling out without any fanfare is admittedly an appropriate narrative punishment for someone who wanted to be the eternal star of the show, but it doesn't offer a proper resolution to the actual conflict of the series: the cycle of irrational fear and insecurity leading to a lack of understanding, lack of understanding leading to rejection, rejection leading to the creation of villains, villains creating more fear in civilians and leading to the necessity of heroes, which inevitably leads to even more rejection, and so on and so forth, etc etc etc. Yoichi and AFO exist at the center of this cycle, representing it in its purest form-- and Tomura is the ultimate consequence of this cycle.
Ultimately, I feel like vestige for one’s death may be….. gentler, for lack of a better word. Less focused on karmic punishment and more focused on giving Yoichi and Tomura a sense of closure. Like, it's honestly not about what AFO "deserves," but what Yoichi needs in order to finally pass on and what Tomura needs to finally detangle himself from AFO (although in the spirit of keeping it completely real, all three of them need to detangle themselves from each other lmfao💀💀💀). Neither Yoichi or Tomura have ever been granted a chance to truly grieve the loss of themselves or their families, and AFO is at the root of that as someone who is both "family" and as someone who also took everything away from them.
tl;dr Hori can eat his cake (punish AFO for his hubris by having him fight, lose, and die against versions of himself that *chose* to be better or regret how they treated their own "Yoichis"-- i.e. Toshinori, Endeavor, Bkgo) and have it too (finally resolve the ShigaBros century long conflict and the complicated feelings AFO-Yoichi-Tomura all have for each other, giving everyone the closure they desperately need) thanks to the presence of the vestige world.
I also think it'd be cool to get some sort of resolution re: the captain hero comics, since they were the "trigger" that started it all-- perhaps in the form of a dying dream sequence, where we get Yoichi and AFO as children again-- but this time Yoichi basically forces AFO to sit his ass down and finally read volume 4 of captain hero lmfao.
Like, a lot of AFO's actions/beliefs stem from his insistence that he ~already knew~ how the story was gonna end, and he built his life and plans around "rejecting" that ending-- I feel like a scenario where it turns out the ending WASN'T what he expected (like, say it was an ending where Captain Hero does defeat the Demon Lord, but ultimately chooses to save him rather than kill him-- something that mirrors Tomura's ultimate fate, rather than AFO's) would be a neat way to wrap up his and Yoichi's arcs from a metafiction perspective, since he and Yoichi both represent "different types of readers."
It would also be bittersweet, with the implication that things could have been different if AFO had just stopped being reddit pilled for five seconds and just read to the end with Yoichi in the first place-- the blueprint for an ending where the hero is no longer all alone and where the "demon lord" doesn't have to die/vanish at the end of the story was there all along, he just refused to see it.
tl;dr 2.0: AFO's ultimate punishment should involve him getting slapped in the face by tiny yoichi with his little comics over and over and over again until he develops an actual sense of media literacy.
