Characters / My Hero Academia Entropy The Syndicate

The Syndicate

[[folder:Shared Tropes]]The Syndicate is a new Villain organization founded by Izuku Midoriya after his slide into villainy and abandonment of U.A. and his old life. Composed of U.A. drop-outs, old League members, independent villains and common gangsters, through a combination of Midoriya's calculated planning and magnetic personality, the Syndicate has managed to quietly ascend very close to the top of Japanese villainous underbelly. Dealing mainly in weapons, illegal hardware, smuggling and fraud, it has assembled formidable resources and connections, biding its time until the Hero society was vulnerable enough for its grand debut. At the start of the fanfic, that time seems to have finally come.

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• Bad Powers, Bad People: Played with. Not all of the Syndicate has powers which would be considered "evil", but there's enough members who joined with (and sometimes because of) their powers being somewhat unseemly in nature - see Hitoshi's Brainwash, Mustard's Gas, Toga's Transformation and whatever the hell Dark Shadow has become.
• Black Market: The main source of the group's income, unsurprisingly. Extremely cost-effective once Yaoyorozu joined the fold, since the elaborate designs Mei came up with to sell Momo could reproduce on the fly using her Quirk. Thus, the group could afford to sell caches-worth of illegal weapons and hardware for the high price of buying Momo six or seven boxes of pizza.
• Corruption by a Minor: The group has managed to turn and coerce an impressive amount of people to their side, through sweet-talk, brainwashing, blackmail or simply by offering a better deal. Most of the senior members are also teens and young adults.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Essentially the reason why many League members abandoned the exposed, hunted and largely spent Shigaraki in favour of Midoriya. Not to mention this was long before Tomura could canonically undergo his Character Development, so few of the members truly cared about him.
• Evil Power Vacuum: What allows the Syndicate to rise after the League of Villains is destroyed and Shie Hassaikai is crippled by the heroes.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Syndicate formed proper after breaking apart and absorbing parts of the old League of Villains, with the Pros chasing after Shigaraki often finding only the remnants of Midoriya's handiwork. More recently, the Meta Liberation Army has grown to see the Syndicate as an obstacle. The feeling is very much mutual.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Who would have guessed a mottley crew of high school dropouts, two-bit criminals and barely registered internet celebrities could come together to form the most dangerous criminal organisation in Japan?
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Many of the Syndicate's hideouts are actually expensive rooftop apartments or suburban manors, owing to the group's considerable resources and a taste for the finer things in life. When hiding after Black Day, Midoriya and his companions casually hang around a private resort in Okinawa, with a fully stocked bar and a private stretch of the beach.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With the Shie Hassaikai during the Black Day Arc. Overall, what keeps the two groups from openly going for each other's throats is mostly the fact that they can't afford to quarell and fight the Heroes simultaneously.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: While many members, Midoriya in particular, may spout lofty ideals and sophisticated reasons for their actions, most honestly see it as little more than a flimsy justification to pursue their private interests. Mei just wants to craft whatever she thinks up without being restricted, Toga simply wants to hurt and murder others at her leisure, Dark Shadow simply wants to kill and destroy whatever it fancies, Dabi has his own agenda and so on. Several members, notably Shinso, Mustard and partially Monoma, serve Midoriya out of personal loyalty and admiration. Of all members, only Momo seems to retain a modicum of genuine belief in their stated cause.
• The Infiltration: Syndicate's preferred modus operandi. Using a combination of Quirks (usually Toga-Twice-Compress-Monoma), the group is noted to have succesfully infiltrated and exfiltrated heavily guarded areas on multiple occasions. The mission to Okinawa is an almost-perfect example of their conduct.
• The Reveal: During the Black Day, the Syndicate reveal their existence and identities to the general public. And what a reveal it is indeed...
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The group's main excuse for their heinous and criminal activity. Midoriya argues that, since the system is too bloated and unwieldy to alter "in time", it must be done away with by force:
  Midoriya: "Now we know that simply pointing out the need for change doesn't suffice. As urgent as the problems facing our society are, those at the top of the hierarchy would never willingly hand the reigns over to people like us, relinquish their power and influence, even as they continue to knowingly drive this country into the ground and ignore the consequences on the horizon. Change is hard to accept, after all, and radical change harder still. Sometimes a step in the right direction requires a bit of a push, and the old guard must be made to move aside by force. So no matter what happens today, no matter how it affects you and your personal lives, remember that everything we do is for the greater good."
• The Social Darwinist: Most Syndicate members are of the opinion that the strong have the natural right to dominate and discard the weak, as it is pointless to try and accomodate them, especially in a world with rapidly diminishing resources. Notably, with their leader originally being a Quirkless nobody, the Syndicate probably doesn't mean only the strength of one's Quirk, but personal strength and prowess in general.
• The Syndicate: Enough said...
• The Usurper: The Syndicate's endgame, essentially. Midoriya aims to overthrow the Hero system, the Japanese government and even the Imperial family, styling himself as the new absolutist Emperor and his own version of the Symbol of Peace, and pulling the country through the impending crisis with an iron fist and necessarily brutal countermeasures. And the best part? He expects he can make the public nod along and support him every step of the way...
• Villains Act, Heroes React: At this point in the story, the Syndicate has been the initiator of all major conflict, with both Pros and the government struggling to respond and contain them. Justified, seeing as the Syndicate are still relatively new players in Japan, and have had years to prepare many of the plans they have enacted thus far.
• Villain Has a Point: Yaoyorozu's research into the economics and supply chains of the Japanese Hero society seems disturbingly credible, and coupled with the widely acknowledged theory of the Quirk Singularity, they might just bring about the Syndicate's vision of a nation brought to its knees under its own weight. Many people in-universe seem to agree, making the Syndicate...
• Villain with Good Publicity: Not exactly good, but after the Black Day, especially after presenting evidence of Japan's impending socio-economic implosion and Hawks's treachery, the Syndicate begin to be seen by a considerable amount of citizenry as a harsh but fair neccesary evil instead of the villainous monsters that they are.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: For a sizeable chunk of the public, the Syndicate are doing neccesary work, exposing the fragility, corruption and weakness of the incumbent system - by any means neccesary. Not that anyone in the Syndicate is really after freedom...