History Sandbox / MyHeroAcademiaAllForOne

* SuperpowerLottery: As his name implies, All For One can steal Quirks from others and wield them as his own. He can also combine the Quirks he's stolen to perform devastating attacks and can combine multiples of the same Quirk to stack their power. He can also give the Quirks he's stolen to others, and if he gives a Quirk to someone who already has one, it sometimes causes the Quirks to combine and mutate into a completely new Quirk. In a world where EveryoneIsASuper, the man who can steal powers and give them to other people is king. At least until All Might beat him. It's also technically PlayedWith, as on its own merits, without any other quirks to leech from and manipulate, All For One cannot do ''anything'' by itself and is technically one of the weakest Quirks out there when judged on its own abilities. When Star and Stripe booby-traps New Order with a rule that allows it to 'revolt against other Quirks', allowing it to fight back within All For One's vestige world against his one-sided absorption of it, despite All For One's entire power being based around controlling and subjugating Quirks for his own use, he's ''completely helpless'' in a straight-forward fight between their respective powers, and can only cravenly look for the nearest host to offload New Order onto to stop the attack, rather than being able to defeat Star himself.

* TakingYouWithMe: After taking a full power Prominence Burn from Endeavor and nearly being reduced to ashes, All For One admits he's pretty much dead, but decides if he's dying anyway, he might as well 'try something out.' Namely, a copy of Eri's Rewind Quirk reverse engineered from the Quirk-Destroying bullets to restore himself. He flat out admits this will be fatal regardless but is beyond caring.

** PlayedWith. He tends to favor [[LongRangeFighter Quirks or attacks that are effective from a distance]], allowing him the freedom to engage in a [[BreakThemByTalking verbal beatdown]] of his opponents as they try to get close to him in order to agitate his opponents and make them lose focus, allowing him to press the advantage whilst using his multiple abilities to securely defend himself. However, he ''is'' regularly attacked and sometimes cut off mid-taunt by his opponents, especially when All Might had truly had ''enough'' of his endless insults, but even then, he always keeps a clear focus on pressing his psychological advantage against his enemies even if they do land some hard blows upon him.

* TargetedToHurtTheHero: This is his favorite tactic for inflicting psychological damage on his opponents.
** Nana Shimura went to the extreme of cutting ties with her son Kotaro and putting him into foster care to avoid this happening, despite the clear anguish it caused both of them, aware All For One would relentlessly focus on him as a weakness of hers as she chose to face him. Nana's fears proved to be utterly Justified. All For One manipulated her grandson Tomura into becoming a hate-filled villain in defiance of his heroic lineage. Even being dead didn't stop him from taking this further, as he recovered Nana's corpse and preserved it for later use.
** He's ecstatic when he finally breaks out of Tartarus and is free to turn his attention towards Izuku, aware that between his youth and kind nature pulling this off against him will be easy, as simply attacking anybody around Izuku in ways he's powerless to prevent will lead to him blaming himself for their suffering. All For One plays up the angle that One For All is the only power that can truly challenge him, but Izuku is an InadequateInheritor who can only waste its immense potential in his hands, grinding down Izuku's spirit because of his ChronicHeroSyndrome and belief that he must end the fighting by beating All For One himself.
** He doesn't limit this attitude just to the holders of One For All, but extends it to every hero he encounters. He deliberately targets civilians to mock their practice of protecting others at their own expense. He makes it clear that he and his side will not stop until they have torn down everything the heroes are trying to protect.
--->'''All For One:''' Heroes are those who defend, whilst villains violate. Behold, as we plunge headlong towards our dreams!!
** His final attempt to do this towards Izuku using a prone and broken All Might is [[FlawExploitation intentionally exploited]] by his ArchEnemy, as it allows him to use his [[ActionBomb final remaining support item]] close-range on [[TakingYouWithMe the pair of them]] when All For One is OutOfContinues.

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: In his prime form, he can be seen as relatively ordinary-looking, once he rewinds to his prime in Chapter 363.

* ThisCannotBe:
** Downplayed, but still noticeable example. When Deku and Aoyama manage to actually trick him despite his LivingLieDetector Quirk, his inner monologue shows he has no clue how it happened and is visibly shocked. This happens ''again'' when Kurogiri's Quirk is used to warp Deku's reinforcements to his location, something he has no clue ''how'' they're doing and then sees someone ''other'' than Kurogiri is using it when it's supposedly a one of a kind artificial Quirk.
--->'''All For One''': What is the meaning of this? Not in our direct phone calls, nor in my contact with his parents, did I sense any traces of lies or ill-intent. How in the Hell...
** He has this again when Jiro's defiance of him ''despite'' his power edge inspires the vestiges inside of him to rise up against him, wondering how this is even possible. Her and Hawks successfully shattering his apparently unbreakable CoolMask with a {{Vibroweapon}} move exposes his expression of sheer shock and disbelief underneath, visible even with his lack of a full face. This swiftly turns to anger and a spiteful denial of his unfavorable position after Tokoyami follows up on that by breaking the rest of his mask to smithereens, violently suppressing his rebelling Quirks and attacking the heroes with everything he's got to regain control of the fight.
** The vestige All For One is shocked when Mirko's attacks actually start staggering Tomura's body, despite his [[NighInvulnerable almost impervious]] toughness. He quickly realizes that Bakugo's new DangerousForbiddenTechnique somehow managed to leave lasting damage and weakened him somehow, despite all the effort he's put into ensuring Tomura would be an all-powerful being unchallenged by anything but the accumulated power of One For All. Furthermore, he's stunned to realize that he himself felt threatened by Bakugo at that moment, struggling to accept that a 'random background extra' could elicit such a response from him.
** A later conversation with Hawks as well as his internal monologues implies that at his core, All For One is so narcissistic that he simply ''can't'' comprehend the possibility he might genuinely suffer an actual loss or set back, or bare to admit he did if there's some excuse he can make to avoid it. As such, his default reaction to ''any'' set back or loss he suffers is disbelief it could happen at all.

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: A variant. When he fights the American heroine, Star and Stripe, he succeeds in managing to kill her and take her Quirk, New Order. But before he did, she placed one more order for her Quirk: to rebel against all Quirks. As soon as he absorbed it, New Order starts to destroy his Quirks and tear up his body from the inside and he soon frantically tries to get rid of it before it kills him completely.

** All For One even cites this as the reason why he doesn't want Best Jeanist's Fiber Master Quirk: Taking someone like [[WeakButSkilled Best Jeanist's]] Quirk, where most of the power comes from years of training and intimate knowledge of what it can and can't do, is much less attractive to him since he won't be able to use it to its full potential right off the bat, versus an unsubtle but powerful Quirk like super strength. Plus, he plans to pass down (correction: ''had'' passed on)[[note]]All For One had his original Quirk extracted and preserved by Dr. Garaki so that the latter would implant it to Tomura at the right time.[[/note]]All For One to Shigaraki and feels a Quirk like Fiber Master wouldn't mesh well with his student's personality.
** All For One doesn't seem to have much skill, if any, in hand-to-hand combat. As a result, the few melee attacks he actually makes tend to be huge power attacks with no real technique behind them. The one time he tried to go for a FinishingMove close-range was mainly a ploy to gambit All Might into using his remaining strength for him to reflect upon him with Impact Recoil, showing that All For One never fights up close unless he has some advantage he can press. Even then, he has no answer for All Might's counter except to try and charge up a powered-up Air Cannon and being left wide open as a result. When Endeavor grapples with him close-range, All For One's only response is to try and steal his Quirk rather than attack him, and once his hands are scorched, he has no response to answer to Endeavor incinerating him despite the former lacking an arm at that point. He mentally admits that his busted life-support mask means that [[WorfHadTheFlu his body is shutting down and won't respond to him anymore]], but it's still notable that he was unable to fight off an injured one-armed man despite his immense power.

** All Might exploits this when he uses his PoweredArmor to stall him: he knows All For One is very unused to actually having to worry about a close quarters fight at all, so he makes sure to get into melee and ''keep'' him there as soon as possible.
* {{Unperson}}: Whilst initially he was presented as an [[NothingIsScarier unquantifiable figure of menace]] with unclear goals, powers and no stated personality beyond being Japan's old ShadowDictator seeking to make a comeback, as time goes on, the narrative gradually strips away the aura of grandeur he cultivates to reveal that behind the mask of the imposing villain, there's not much more to him.
** Due to his [[TimeAbyss age]] and [[ShroudedInMyth secretive nature]], not to mention his near-death at All Might's hands and needing to recover in the shadows for his comeback, the number of people who know about him towards the start of the series could be counted in the single digits, and even they aren't aware of who he was prior to the supervillian identity of AFO. His past identity has been so effectively erased by the passage of time, not to mention his own selfish nature leading him to accumulate power and resources for his own use, rather than attempting to leave a legacy, that once All Might destroyed both his empire and his body there was basically nothing left. His own name has been so thoroughly forgotten that All Might didn't make the connection to him when he christened Tomura with his own last name of 'Shigaraki', and it's clear that he has no 'normal' life outside his villain schemes and plans.
** Star and Stripe tauntingly refers to him as a 'John Doe' when mocking him about how the will of a hero will always be passed down as long as people will save each other, and someday, somebody with that will shall put an end to him. All Might later theorizes that the original All For One avoided facing Star himself because he would have recognized the term 'All For One' as his own name, rather than his Quirk's, and thus been vulnerable to [[RealityWarper New Order's]] rules, showing again how his villain identity has utterly consumed his original self. His own 'inherited will' to Tomura is eventually torn apart and destroyed to monopolizes his Quirk for his protégé's use, free of his interference, highlighting how he ultimately failed to create a ''true'' legacy.
** [[SimpleMindedWisdom Inasa]] accidentally taunts him with this when he starts mocking the younger heroes that [[YouHaveNoideaWhoYoureDealingWith their defiance of him is simply due to ignorance of how fearsome he is]], by confirming [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder he's absolutely right]]: they ''don't'' know who he is. The history books of his reign don't mention him at all, and once All Might defeated him, everybody who knew about him refused to speak about him because of [[HatedByAll how vile he was]], leaving him a nobody to the present generation.

* VillainousBreakdown: Suffers several of these over the course of the series' final arcs as the heroes begin turning the tables on him.
** The All For One vestige inside Shigaraki has one in Chapter 333 after stealing Star and Stripe's Quirk only to find out it has been ordered to rebel. He desperately tries to find someone to transfer New Order into before it destroys him. The chapter ends with All For One damning the specter of All Might that Star represents.
--->'''All For One:''' '''''DAMN YOU, SPECTER OF ALL MIGHT!!!'''''
** After slowly losing his composure as the heroes gain more victories against him, it all comes to a head when Tokoyami's attack shatters his mask entirely, causing All For One to completely snap. His outward composure completely fails, resulting in him screaming at the heroes and his inner self devolving into a beast. When Endeavor returns to the fight All For One's demeanor shifts straight into panic and eventually begs for mercy as he realizes there's nothing he can do to stop burning him alive.
** As Izuku hands his ass to him, the All For One vestige within Tomura starts ranting about how unfair it is that he is unable to use his Quirks. He ironically sounds like just as much of a SpoiledBrat as Tomura was at the beginning.
--->'''All For One:''' Giving everything you've got you say?! And that business about Quirks?! ''Surely you jest!'' I haven't used a single Quirk yet! I've yet to brandish the true value of this body! They're to blame. Wretched, unsightly Eraser Head and his merry brats! And this tomb of theirs. Their sneaky, ramshackle ploy to divide us. The whole sequence of events that led to this moment...
** His vestige is practically frothing at the mouth over Lady Nagant's intervention in the final battle, screaming like a petulant child who's lost his favorite toy and demanding Kurogiri warp him to his real self to reassert control over Shigaraki. It doesn't work and Shigaraki tears his vestige apart from the ''mouth'' down.
--->'''All For One:''' '''''THAT DISPOSABLE TRASH!!''''' After murdering her fellow heroes, she plays the victim like some noble agent of justice?! She's just a pathetic pushover, drifting whichever way the wind blows. (...) '''''KUROGIRI!!''''' I'm not in control of this body! Stop gawking and warp me to All For One this instant!
** A subtle example throughout the entire final arc is his manner of speaking. All For One generally has a dignified EvilOverlord persona, but once things stop going his way, his manner of speaking begins to slip into more childish, frustrated territory with increasing frequency, showing that no matter how hard he tries to regain his composure, he's seething beneath the surface.
** By the time he's confronted with All Might, what composure and MaskOfSanity he had ''left'' is completely gone. His normal smirk is replaced with a completely psychotic and unhinged expressions and CreepyShadowedUndereyes. His normal mocking confidence has also given way to him screaming all of his dialog and even the ''font'' being distorted.

* VillainsNeverLie: As manipulative as he is, All For One has not once lied to anyone, even his enemies and ''especially'' if it concerns an AwfulTruth, simply out of delight with them trying to deny the awful revelations whilst he's being completely honest and forthright with them. When he tells All Might of Tomura's true lineage, the latter accuses him of lying, but All For One retorts that it is the truth and it is something he would do. Lady Nagant was convinced to aid him in capturing Izuku because of this, out of her sheer disillusionment with the Hero system after all the DirtyBusiness she performed over the years for it and sick of all the lies that were fed to the public, but unfortunately for her, 'doesn't lie' does not mean All For One still isn't manipulative, deceitful and callous towards others. However, if he's desperate, he will resort to [[BlatantLies bold-faced lies]] in order to keep any kind of advantage he can, such as denying that any part of Tomura's psyche remains after their SplitPersonalityMerge to demoralise Izuku and dash his hopes of 'saving' Tomura from him, whilst the visual imagery makes it clear his vestige self is still struggling for control with [[FightingFromTheInside Tomura's remaining consciousness]] within himself.

* PyrrhicVictory:
** His battle with Star and Stripe effectively amounts to this. Though he managed to kill her and remove the biggest obstacle to his plans, it came at the cost of many of his stockpiled Quirks thanks to New Order going on a rampage within his Vestige World. Also, because he had so many Quirks, New Order ended up destroying itself, thus keeping the Quirk he fought so hard to obtain forever out of his reach. On top of that, because he was forced to fight Star while Shigaraki's body was incomplete, the damage from the fight ended up delaying Shigaraki's perfection by a week, giving the heroes more time to prepare for the final battle.
** During the FinalBattle, this is the ultimate outcome of his fight with the heroes at Gunga. He eventually succeeds in beating them all, but in doing so he was actually ''killed'' by them -- multiple times -- and had to 'cheat' through using [[DevolutionDevice Rewind]] to remain a credible threat. Even then, they managed to burn through so much of his remaining time he used up all his extra years and Rewind is burning through his original lifespan. Even worse, his actual goal, to reach and stabilize his "next me" is now up in smoke, as they bought enough time for Tomura to retake control and destroy his Vestige. He leaves the battle LivingOnBorrowedTime with no clear plan for winning anymore and having failed to actually break any of his enemies' spirits, even if he physically pummeled them.
* RageBreakingPoint:
** When the heroes' plan to enact the FinalBattle on ''their'' terms goes into motion and successfully OutGambitted him despite his extensive planning, his SmugSuper attitude is rapidly undermined, and his attempts to remain outwardly calm and composed only make it clearer just how ''pissed'' he's becoming from suffering repeated setbacks and unable to do anything himself to influence the outcome. After his Life-Support mask is successfully smashed to pieces and he realises that switching to a copied version of his Quirk weakened his control over the vestiges of his stockpiled power, enabling them to [[FightingFromTheInside resist him]], he ''snaps'', violently suppressing them with an animalistic fury, his vestige self deforming into a monstrous shape as it literally devours the vestiges' consciousness to forcibly regain control and his physical body ''exploding'' with his CombatTentacles in order to both reassembles his mask through sheer force of will and to skewer the heroes who managed to humiliate him so, with only Endeavor's return preventing his vicious counter-attack from working.
** He hits another one of these when the heroes are ganging up on him and literally smashing him into dust, recognizing that he's wasted far too much of his remaining lifespan fighting them and is in danger of [[DeathByDeaging vanishing]] without being able to reach Tomura. This time, he channels the feeling directly into his Quirks to empower them, overwhelming both the heroes and the limitations of his physical body as he does so, with only Rewind keeping him 'alive'. He expresses [[WhatIsThisFeeling unfamiliarity with the sensation]], believing that it comes about from his PsychicLink to Tomura allowing him to ''actually'' experience deep-seated rage for once, rather than something he could always do. This implies that despite his furious displays prior, he ''still'' wasn't truly feeling angry deep down.

** Gives one to Izuku, ecstatic he gets to pick on who he perceives to be [[WouldHurtAChild an incompetent child.]] He describes him as mediocre and worthless, confused as to why All Might would ever pick him as the next successor, but overjoyed his last target to steal One For All from seems to be the easiest mark of them all to drive home how much of a colossal {{Jerkass}} he truly is. His reveling is interrupted when his brother Yoichi calmly rebukes him and voices his support of Izuku with a SoProudOfYou speech in return.

* SanityHasAdvantages:
** All For One's psychopathy makes him a ruthless, dangerous individual...but also, as Hawks points out, is one of his biggest weaknesses, as it blinds him to certain things and makes him physically incapable of becoming truly emotionally invested in anything. This is a problem, as his inability to become invested means he underestimates his opponents and can't work up the emotional will needed to achieve his goal of stealing One For All.
** All For One's sheer love of KickTheDog, no matter the circumstances, makes him extremely predictable to the heroes once they've figured out his overarching goals. They simply set up a situation that would allow him to [[BreakTheBadass mentally break Izuku]] all alone and he reacts ''precisely'' as predicted, simply because he just can't resist reveling in his own monstrous nature at the expense of others.
** His genuine belief that the world they're in [[CannotTellFictionFromreality ascribes to comic-book logic]] because of the advent of Quirks and that there's no way for mere '[[CListFodder Jobber Characters]]' to meaningfully damage the '[[BigBad Demon King]]' or do anything more than [[TheWorfEffect demonstrate his overwhelming power]] in a fight with them leads to him critically underestimating his opponents, allowing them to take him off-guard and severely damage his Life-Support mask because he does not have any kind of narrative PlotArmor protecting him or guaranteeing his victory against anybody.
** His pathological obsession with One For All has screwed him over repeatedly because no matter how much of a pragmatic move just killing its bearers when it was still weak would've been, he simply couldn't stand doing so before he had the chance to steal it.
** When he uses Rewind to revert to his prime, his narcissism means he both can't resist wasting his now limited time relishing in his restored body, bragging about his raw power, and letting those who have already bruised his gigantic ego continue to get a rise out of him and further distract him. All Might specifically exploits this to delay him reaching Izuku when all other attempts at forcibly stopping him weren't quite enough, by giving him a target he ''can't'' resist destroying even with his scant remaining time almost having run out. All For One's inner monologue shows he's well aware of what All Might is doing, but still can't resist the urge to mangle him. Furthermore, All Might even pulls a DeliberateInjuryGambit to hold All For One still long enough to hit him with a KillSat, aware that despite the risk for him instantly caving his head in, the villain wouldn't go for an instant kill and would instead hit his old GameBreakingInjury, just to relish in All Might's expression of pain instead. This leaves All Might crippled, but still alive and able to counterattack.

* SatanicArchetype: In the past, All For One amassed loyal followers by presenting them what they desired the most. He would cast people away once they became useless. If anyone dared to oppose his will, they would be purged. All For One goes out of his way to commit evil acts and [[ForTheEvulz for no apparent reason]]. One of his principles is to overwhelm his enemy with misery before killing them. Just as All Might is this brilliant savior figure, he is the opposite, a shadowy threat. He even hands out deals to people desperate for their loved ones, like how he manipulated Aoyama's parents into accepting him giving Navel Laser to their son, only to met out worse punishments as "rewards" to keep them in line, like how All For One blackmailed Aoyama into becoming the U.A. Traitor otherwise he would kill his parents, leading to Aoyama's breakdown. By the time of the Final Battle, when he activates Eri's Rewind as part of his ThanatosGambit, he goes back to his appearance before his fight against All Might, with beautiful white hair and covered in bright golden energy, much like Lucifer before falling. To drive the comparison further home, he steals Hawks' Quirk, giving himself a pair blood-red wings, fitting perfectly the FallenAngel archetype as well.
* ScarsAreForever: None of the regeneration Quirks he's obtained have been able to fix the massive injuries and scars inflicted upon him by All Might. According to his doctor, it's because the wounds had already scarred up and stabilized before he'd gotten a Quirk powerful enough to fix them, and if he'd gotten the necessary Quirk while they were still fresh, they could have been fixed. When he's almost killed from Endevour's firepower, he counters his impending death by activating a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] he gained from the Destroying Bullets Tomura scavenged from the hospital, the first sign of their effect being his right eye and left ear regrowing from his charred husk of a body as he's de-aged years in seconds, back to a time before All Might ever scarred him.

** As the FinalBattle goes on, it becomes apparent that All For One simply ''refuses'' to accept the fact he's NotSoInvincibleAfterAll and can actually lose. Every time the heroes manage to pull one over on him, he tries to pretend it didn't actually count and his internal monologue consists of frantically trying to convince himself he's still on top. When Endeavor kills him, forcing him to use Rewind, he states his old body is expendable, but Hawks' later ShutUpHannibal and All For One's reaction to it makes it clear he's still furious about it and he calls bringing it up 'splitting hairs.' The ''only'' loss All For One has ever suffered in his life he will actually admit to was All Might nearly killing him, and that's only because he was so badly wounded and everything he built destroyed that he can't deny it. Even then, the moment he can transfer his grudge to Deku, he attempts to write off All Might as not worth his time anymore, when his VillainousBreakdown against Star and it being implied All Might literally ''traumatized'' him makes it clear that's not the case.

** When All Might dons his armor and fights All For One in an attempt to stall him, All For One tries to deny the fact the plot to exploit his hatred of All Might is working. All Might promptly calls him out on it just being desperation to avoid admitting things aren't going his way, and mocking him for how undignified it is.

** Subverted after Jiro manages to inspire the vestiges to stand up to him. In the vestige world, he ''tries'' to give one of his signature smiles, but due to his VillainousBreakdown, it comes across as forced and frustrated rather than its typical evil glee. It whole-heartedly ''vanishes'' from both his physical and vestige self's faces when Tokoyami breaks his mask, forcing him to face the fact he's actually losing the fight and devolve into apocalyptic rage in spiteful denial of reality.
** When he activates a variant of Eri's Rewind Quirk to reset his impending death by Endeavor's hands, his smug smile compounds his NightmareFace as he taunts the heroes for thinking he wouldn't have a trick up his sleeve to compensate for his lack of a HealingFactor.
** His reaction to seeing All Might standing before him in challenge at the end of Chapter 386 is a wide-eyed, insane grin.

* StupidEvil: Normally, he's very good at avoiding doing anything to harm his plans, but when he gets an opportunity to harm someone he truly despises or sees a Quirk that really catches his eye, he can't help but give in to his sadism and waste effort on psychologically torturing his opponents. His ego and obsession with typical hero/villain narratives are so dominant that he can't bring himself to acknowledge the possibility that he could actually lose to someone besides the current holder of One For All, and his obsession with ''having'' its power drives him to take steps to preserve it, even as it becomes stronger and stronger over time and more of a threat to him.

** When he eventually damages All Might's PoweredArmour to the point he can't interfere with him reaching Izuku, he pointedly drags him with him to invoke a HopeSpot that All Might's last move can stop him, allowing him to both break his ArchEnemy's spirt, and then his body, before [[ForcedToWatch the watching world]] and his next "nemesis" to further demoralise them and ensure his victory.

** He grants Spinner additional Quirks when he wants to be stronger and useful to Shigaraki, but Spinner is burned twice by this. First, All For One is well aware if his plan succeeds, Shigaraki [[DeathOfPersonality will effectively cease to exist]] and is no longer the one giving the orders Spinner is following, and second, the two Quirks [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity begin to drive Spinner completely insane]] and turn him into DumbMuscle. This effectively means Spinner is destroying his own mind [[AllForNothing for nothing.]]

** He chooses to halt his advance of Izuku when All Might faces him in PoweredArmour, the chance to break his nemesis on live television before the world's eyes too tempting to resist, despite being aware that's exactly what All Might wants. He even thwarts his final attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe blow them both up]], just to deny him the ability to choose how he dies and revels in All Might's despair at his last-second failure.

** His genuine belief that the world they're in [[CannotTellFictionFromreality ascribes to comic-book logic]] because of the advent of Quirks and that there's no way for mere '[[CListFodder Jobber Characters]]' to meaningfully damage the '[[BigBad Demon King]]' or do anything more than [[TheWorfEffect demonstrate his overwhelming power]] in a fight with them leads to him critically underestimating his opponents, allowing them to take him off-guard and severely damage his Life-Support mask because he does not have any kind of narrative PlotArmour protecting him or guaranteeing his victory against anybody.

** This gets {{Inverted|Trope}} against him by All Might during their (second) final bout, as All Might goads him into the pointless battle by [[IShallTauntYou mocking]] him about how, even rewound to the prime of his youth and with greater power then before, All For One's piss-poor performance as a fighter makes him an unworthy opponent for the Quirkless All Might, beating him skilfully with [[PoweredArmour support items]] instead whilst laughing about how he planned to become the "Demon Lord" despite being so incompetent.

* YouDontLookLikeYou: Before confronting him in a Suit of PoweredArmour, All Might ruminates that their impending clash is likely the vision [[{{Seers}} Nighteye]] foresaw of his destined demise in the line of Duty. He realises that Nighteye called his opponent "a villain" rather than his ArchEnemy because the [[FountainOfYouth Rewind energy]] had physically restored All For One to his youth, and his former sidekick didn't realise the young man in his vision was the Symbol of Evil himself.

** As of Chapter 384, he becomes this to Gigantomachia. After All For One frees Machia from Shinso's [[CompellingVoice Brainwashing Quirk]], Machia continues to attack him out of anger for being abandoned and left to rot during the Paranormal Liberation War Arc.

* BackFromTheDead: At the ''exact moment'' of death by being [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill nearly vaporized]] by Endeavor's flames, as he activates his artificial copy of Eri's Rewind despite knowing it'll still [[CessationOfExistence erase him]] just to [[TheLastDancemake the fight even harder as he heals to his prime]], making [[HopeSpot all their efforts for naught]] to screw with them one last time.

---->'''All Might:''' You must remember the [[ItsPersonal endless warring that got us here...]] And now I hear that Tomura Shigaraki's hatred is even [[ThePowerOfHate affecting your original body.]] So I'm thinking you won't be able to ignore me. Isn't that right? ''[suits up in PoweredArmor]'' ''[[{{Catchphrase}} I AM]]'' ''[[BadassBoast HERE.]]''

** The injuries All Might inflicted upon him during their prior clash never healed properly, as he lacked [[HealingFactor Hyper Regeneration]] at the time, and [[DramaPreservingHandicap continue to limit his effectiveness in battle]] in several ways. He is forced to [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport constantly be connected to life-support equipment]], which he attempts to disguise by repurposing it into a CoolMask to intimidate opponents with, but Hawks notes the fact he took said equipment with him when escaping Tartarus is a sign that he ultimately ''needs'' it regardless, and thus targeting it becomes the focus for the heroes confronting him without One For All's strength to overwhelm him. When it breaks, All For One's body quickly shuts down and fails to respond properly, leaving to him getting fatally torched by Endevour. Furthermore, the injuries on his disfigured 'vessel' of a body limit the total power he could actually unleash against the heroes, as the strain of the powerful Quirks in combination together was more than he could physically withstand, and the loss of his natural senses leave him open to eating a massive blow from Tokoyami when he's briefly unable to use the sensory Quirks he was compensating with.

** Whilst normally he prefers to [[VillainsNeverLie distort the facts]] in his favor or will happily gloat to his enemies' faces about any AwfulTruth that will hurt them, when he's pushed into a corner, he will resort to this to keep as much of an advantage as he can. When the heroes successfully wear him down physically and mentally during the FinalBattle, when Izuku arrives to confront him and demands to know if any part of Tomura's mentality is remaining after their SplitPersonalityMerge, he claims that there isn't and that only All For One's consciousness remains thanks to his extended years alive in comparison, just to demoralize Izuku and [[HopeCrusher deny him any hope]] of an 'ideal ending'. Both the imagery and Miro's recounting of [=TomurAFO=]'s OutOfCharacterAlert make it clear that All For One and 'Tenko Shimura' are still FightingFromTheInside with each other, and All For One gets irked at his deception failing instantly.

* CastFromLifespan: After getting fatally torched by Endeavour's hands, he staves off immediate death by using Eri's Rewind as an Impromptu HealingFactor, undoing all his accumulated and old injuries in a matter of seconds, meaning his existence from that point onwards is owed squarely to this. However, he admits the end result will still [[DeathByDeaging be fatal for him regardless]], and the speed at which he de-aged indicates that it's only a viable option for him alone because of [[LongLived his extensive lifespan]]. Furthermore, several characters note that whilst it prevents him from getting fatally injured, physically damaging him in this state causes the Rewind energy to work harder to undo the damage, burning through his remaining time quicker. By the time All Might confronts him once again, he's reverted into a teenager about Izuku and Tomura's age.

** Once Eri's Rewind Quirk restores him, with his old unhealable injuries rewound to a point they never existed, the combination of his clothing having been burned off by Endeavour's fires, the Rewind energy covering parts of his body like divine energy and the paneling all frame him like a renaissance art painting, akin to ''The Creation of Man'', a parallel furthered when he fashions a makeshift toga out of a nearby hero's cape. Despite his otherwise holy appearance, All For One ruminates that his dream ever since childhood has always been to obstruct the future of the world, just because that is [[ForTheEvulz something a villain does]] to be [[TheDreaded feared by all]].

** During his conflict at Kamino Ward, hr faced the LightningBruiser All Might backed up by the FragileSpeedster Gran Torino, the latter providing moral support agaisnt the mind games he tried to play against the hero due to his own inability to directly fight All For One. This repeats during the final battle with Izuku and Miro against his "Perfected Demon Lord" self in Tomura, driven home by the fact that Miro and Gran Torino both noticeably use capes as part of their hero outfit and the opposing GiantHandsOfDoom wielded by both bodies against the hero. Both of them are defeated by his respective opponentchanneling their anger into an unorthodox attack that deals him a massive blow beyond what any other fighter could unleash.

** Befitting a man with absolutely no moral standards whatsoever, All For One will frequently mock others for their flaws and failings whilst showing worse traits himself, uncaring of his DoubleStandard so long as he [[BreakThemByTalking unsettles his opponent]]. He lambasts Endeavour for his mistreatment of his children, despite doing worse to Tenko, and whines at how "unfair" the heroes are making the fight after he's LuredIntoATrap despite him having pulled every dirty trick in the book to make his conflict with Izuku a one-sided affair for him.

** He put his plan to become a 'more perfect Demon Lord' through Tomura into motion in part because he was dissatisfied with his old body's unhealable crippling injuries that prevented him from ever recovering from them. He additionally desired to live beyond his natural lifespan, being so unwilling to accept his mortality that he actually begged Endeavour to stop when he was about to be killed. Yet he staved off his immediate passing by using Eri's Rewind energy to undo the damage, additionally rejuvenating him back to his physical prime. In effect, he only regained his former strength by embracing death.

** Whatever praise or concern he shows for others is only a false front, because ultimately, All For One sees his followers as a means to an end and is utterly devoid of compassion. All For One actually views guilt and other such emotions as signs of inferiority, and was actually ''concerned'' when he first started encountering the vestiges of those whose quirks he'd stolen, thinking it was a sign that he was showing remorse for what he'd done, disturbed that he might actually be capable of feeling such 'lesser' emotions, and relieved when Gakurai identified the true cause.

* ManOfKryptonite: {{Invoked|Trope}}. If All For One is aware he's going to be going up against a specific enemy or planning to face them eventually, he'll [[CrazyPrepared exhaustively prepare as many Quirks as possible]] to specifically counter them and maximise his advantages. He allows him to nullify Stain's ambush on him using a few Quirk he'd held in reserve ever since [[ControlFreak he noticed Stain escaping Tartarus on his own whilst rejecting All For One's aid]]. However, this same trait backfires on him initially during the FinalBattle, as his limited ability to store Quirks with his injuries and hyper-focusing on [[LightningBruiser Izuku]] meant that when he was forced to fight [[PlayingWithFire Endeavour]] instead, he didn't have enough Quirks that could properly counter the Number one hero.

* {{Retgone}}: A {{Zigzagged}} case. He's forced to activate Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] as an [[GodzillaThreshold emergency option]] when Endeavour fatally burns him, using its FountainOfYouth capabilities as a temporary HealingFactor and HourOfPower alongside his own lifespan, rewinding him to his prime years and preventing the heroes from physically killing him anymore. That said, his inability to ''control'' the power means he fully acknowledges the non-stop rewinding will be [[DeathByDeaging fatal]] for him regardless. Whilst his body is physically rewinding through his life, his prior actions aren't being erased from history. However, the narrative also makes the point that, thanks to his own selfish nature, they might as ''well'' be, as he's utterly failed at [[{{Unperson}} leaving a lasting legacy in the history books]] or through his 'successor'. When the Rewind energy erases him, it will be like he never existed at all.

* RuleOfSymbolism: His [[TheFaceless identity-obscuring injuries]] and [[{{Unperson}} lack of information about who he was an an individual]] ''before'' he became a villain, are symbolic of how his identity has been utterly consumed by the 'mask' of a super villain. The paneling of some artworks even goes out of the way to frame him in such a manner that [[AmbiguouslyHuman he doesn't appear to be human anymore]], and he intentionally wears a stylised CoolMask shaped like a blackened skull, referencing both his [[KnightOfCerebus shadowy threat level]] and how anybody could have become like him if they had the chance to, like he embodies the concept of evil in the hearts of all. However, as a significant portion of the FinalBattle is dedicated to steadily [[HumiliationConga tearing him off his high horse]], this becomes likewise undone. A combination of a fatal torching by Endeavour and him activating Eri's Rewind Quirk to survive ''forces'' him back into his original human identity, clad in rags and without any of the grandiose trappings he adorned himself with in preparation for his final victory, and the uncontrollable rewinding further reverts him back to his younger years. This showcases how he's reverting backwards from the 'Symbol of Evil' he crafted himself to be into the [[PsychopathicManchild childish true identity]] he tried to discard, as the fighting gradually proves how he's NotSoInvincibleAfterAll.

** When his original self is fatally injured fighting Endeavour, he activates Eri's [[FountainOfYouth Rewind]] Quirk to undo the damage in lieu of a proper HealingFactor, which additionally also reverts him back to the prime of health before he suffered his GameBreakingInjury and enables him to unleash more strength than he could before with his damaged body. Additionally, the energy also renders him [[InvincibleVillain effectively invulnerable]], restoring his body even from getting smashed into pieces, with the only downside being that it will inevitably subject him to DeathByDeaging. Thanks to his lengthy lifespan however, this works as an HourOfPower, and his PsychicLink to Tomura even allows him to [[EmotionalPowers unleash levels of power]] that [[VillainousRROD physically destroy his body]] before Rewind undoes the damage. However, Hawks also notes that the energy also renders any Heteromorph-type Quirks All For One possesses into an infantile state, limiting his available Quirks to use.

** It transpires that he's willing to acknowledge ''individuals'' like them in a backhanded way as this, but only as a taunt whenever he's facing 'lesser' heroes trying to fight him in a group. He mocked the heroes playing backup to All Might at Kamino Ward as their 'audience', telling them to shut up and let the fight between them play out, and likewise mocks the heroes for [[ZergRush attacking him en masse]] at Gunga mountain as a desperate move. Despite him being [[AnArmAndALeg heavily wounded]] and barely standing, he called Endeavour the 'only one who could stand up to him' amongst the heroes after he nearly/did kill him, believing their efforts useless without his aid. This is another aspect of his massive ego, as it's more 'appropriate' for the Demon lord to struggle against powerful individuals, but not mere 'side characters', which contributes to his multiple cases of UnderestimatingBadassery, constantly misguiding his opponents [[CannotTellFictionFromReality based on his comic-book belief]] that he only has one true opponent.

* OhCrap:
** He has his first completely genuine, unambiguous one when he realizes that Star and Stripe put a rule in place right before he stole New Order to make it rebel against the other quirks stockpiled inside Shigaraki. His Quirk can't actually destroy Quirks, leaving him with a rampaging Quirk he can do nothing about but either transfer or die from. Notably, he actually screams 'Crap!'.
** The original All For One has one when he realizes Aoyama and Deku have outplayed him. While he openly remains composed, in his internal monologue, he's progressively taken back when each stage of their plan to take him down goes into effect.
** His smug attitude gets ground down during the fight with Team Endeavor. He is taken off-guard by the vestiges of his quirks rebelling against him. This leaves him vulnerable and unable to react fast enough to stop the heroes cracking, then shattering his CoolMask.
** The Vestige of himself undergoing a SplitPersonalityMerge with Tomura is shocked when 'Tenko Shimura' briefly assumes control to throw a childish retort at Mirio's claims that Tomura's misanthropy was born from lacking friends, meaning he can better resist All For One.
** His vestige self freaks out when Izuku unleashes the 2nd's 'Gearshift' Quirk against him, vomiting blood helplessly as Izuku pummels him with attacks equivalent to 120% of All Might's strength.
** When he senses Tokoyami [[EnemyRisingBehind preparing to attack him full force]], his smile disappears before he turns around and sees a ''{{Kaiju}}-sized Dark Shadow'' towering over him and he's genuinely taken aback.
** After being reminded of the final words Nana Shimura spoke to him, All For One is horrified to realize All Might intends on blowing himself up and taking him with him.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Rule of Thumb: If that smile of his leaves his face for ''any'' length of time, it's a sign things aren't going well.
** When he finds out that Star and Stripe effectively booby-trapped her Quirk by imposing a rule that would cause it to rebel against other Quirks leaves the normally calm and composed All For One in a state of genuine panic and fury, his usual smile replaced with a twisted scowl as he realizes he's trapped with a rampaging Quirk he can't control and is going to destroy him from the inside out. Even the more composed original All For One isn't smiling anymore.
** After falling for the heroes' plan to trap him, All For One's typical aura of smugness falls apart. While openly trying to appear mildly annoyed, under the surface he's shown to be frantically trying to reassure himself he's in control. His normal manner of speaking and taunting becomes much more frustrated and angry, showing just how much the heroes caught him flat footed.
** After Jiro inspires the vestiges to rise up against him, All For One smiles... but it's a forced, frustrated smile, showing just [[VillainousBreakdown how much the heroes have got under his skin by this point.]]
** After Tokoyami shatters his mask, All For One starts ''screaming'' at the heroes and goes completely berserk almost to the degree of his vestige inside of Tomura and in complete contrast to the composed, confidence he normally radiates. This especially stands out because All For One's shallow emotions means him getting angry ''at all'' is a sign something has truly gone off the rails.
** Chapter 369 opens with a flashback of All For One killing the Second User with BerserkerTears streaming down his face. This is particurly notable as All For One is noted InUniverse to be a true psychopath and should be incapable of feeling strong enough emotions to cry.
** Chapter 379 has his vestige within Shigaraki practically foaming at the mouth when Lady Nagant arrives to help Midoriya.

* PerpetualSmiler: When not wearing his mask, All For One always has a PsychoticSmirk on his face. Hawks takes note of this and outright wonders if All For One is actually ''incapable'' of feeling true hatred for people. During the FinalBattle, inside his MentalWorld, which showcases his full range of expression underneath his CoolMask --[[TheFaceless such as it is]]-- All For One is shown to break out into a wide smile even when he's going ThisCannotBe at the efforts of the vestiges contained within him in fighting against him, inspired by the efforts of a 'side character' like Jiro. This implies that no matter what negative emotions All For One experiences, he habitually defaults to a smile irrespective of [[StepFordSmiler how he's truly feeling]], just in this case, ''this'' smile is visibly more forced and frustrated than he'd otherwise shown before. The smile ''finally'' vanishes from his face after Tokoyami manages to shatter his damaged mask into fragments, forcing All For One to recognize that he's actually losing the fight and ''literally'' explode into a VillainousBreakdown in [[SoreLoser denial of that fact]]. His inner self is shown to be actually screaming in rage as it brutally subdues the attacking vestiges with a feral wrath despite his psychopath nature, showing just how badly the situation is going for him.

* ThePowerOfHate: The one emotion that All For One seems to have faith in is hatred. His entire plan revolves around raising Shigaraki to be the most angry, hate filled person physically possible, hoping that sheer hate will provide the willpower needed for his Vestige in his Quirk to merge with him and finally steal One For All. However, All For One is so fixated on this, to the point of viewing empathy and remorse as ''weaknesses'', that it blinds him to how powerful [[PowerOfLove its polar opposite]] is. Indeed, he believed his mental merging into Tomura was completed by the point he showed up to 'confront' Izuku for the FinalBattle, and is taken off-guard when the fighting exposes the 'Tenko Shimura' Tomura's childhood self and [[ChildrenAreInnocent remaining innocence]], still exists, able to resist his mental assimilation because of the happier childhood memories he does possess, a possibility All For One was [[DidntSeeThatComing completely blind to]]. Ironically enough, despite believing it to be superior, All For One's psychopathy means he himself can't actually get invested enough in the conflict to [[WhyCantIHateYou actually hate anybody]]-- and even then, he mockingly invokes this [[NothingPersonal in a roundabout manner]] to further piss everybody off.
* PowerPalms: While it's easy to miss, in the manga, All For One has small holes in the palms of his hands. While not directly stated, it's implied that these are holes are what allow him to steal and give Quirks. This implication is furthered when Shigaraki gains holes in his palms as well after gaining "All For One" for himself. Accordingly, attacking or incapacitating his hands is one way to prevent him stealing a Quirk, though it's easier said than done with his immense power and speed, even in a crippled state.

** In the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, All For One reveals that every Quirk factor bares the imprint of the user's consciousness, and due to All For One's unique ability to steal others' Quirks, he also receives that imprint. He speaks of how in his dreams the former owners of the Quirks he stole would hurl abuse and haunt him but disappear when he gives the Quirks away. This fact is also the reason why the former bearers of One for All can speak with the current holder and why after transferring All For One to Shigaraki, it also transferred part of his consciousness, allowing him to influence Shigaraki and even take control of him. In Chapter 297, he takes advantage of the Psychic Link created by his body and Shigaraki's to shut down the security system at Tartarus from the inside and outside simultaneously, freeing himself and a bunch of dangerous prisoners as new followers. It's noted this would give them a huge advantage in a fight together, which is why a major aspect of their plan to beat him revolves around not ''letting'' them use it.

** All For One has proven to be practically unstoppable. Until the very end of the series, nothing has been able to inflict lasting damage to him or his schemes. Even in his crippled state, All For One is such a menace, that any hero who rises against him is instantly defeated, regardless of their strength or skill. Indeed, his first true loss in the series comes at the cost of the strongest hero in the world, whose quirk was an outright RealityWarper, having to pull a HeroicSacrifice to stop him, and even then, the method she used to beat him relied upon indirectly weakening him rather that outright overwhelming him with her quirk, because the enhancements he'd made to Tomura's body meant that not even pulling a direct hit with a [WMD] was enough to stop him. In his rewound state, not only is he stronger than ever and lacking the AchillesHeel they were relying on to defeat him, but the Rewind energy also undoes any damage inflicted on him as well, even resurrecting him from being smashed into pieces at once point, meaning he ''cannot'' be physically defeated anymore. The only downside is that the same energy will eventually cause DeathByDeaging, but until then, the heroes can only endure his attacks one-sidedly.

* IRejectYourReality:
** In Chapter 333 All For One thinks back to the discussions he had with Yoichi about the comics they would read together and how the hero would always triumph in the end. All For One states that, contrary to what Yoichi thought, he was aware of how the stories ended, he just chose to stop reading at that point because he didn't like the outcome.
** This tendency shows up during the FinalBattle. As the heroes manage to completely outsmart him, all his internal dialog is devoted to frantically trying to convince himself he's still in control and not losing. Even his boast that his original body is expendable comes across less as the truth and more trying to reassure himself the heroes killing him didn't count, as he [[VillainsWantMercy was trying to convince Endeavor not to roast him a few seconds earlier.]] His response to Hawks reminding him Endeavor actually beat him is simply to call it 'splitting hairs.' At his core, All For One is such a narcissist that he'll make any excuse or argument to avoid admitting he's suffered an actual loss.
** This refusal to face the reality of his gradual loss and the failure of his centuries-long schemes gets more pronounced as [[FountainOfYouth Rewind]] starts [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody affecting his mentality as he steadily gets younger]], his denials becoming more childish as they become increasingly blatantly ''wrong''. He denies that All Might's last-effort plan to [[IShallTauntYou bait him]] into wasting the remaining minutes of his HourOfPower left in a pointless fight with him is working ''whilst he's fighting him'', trying to claim he can easily kill a Quirkless man like him with his immense power whilst said "powerless" man is using a suit of Powered Armour to [[WeakButSkilled skilfully beat him down]] regardless.

** After All Might defeats All For One in Kamino, he says, "You're next!", which sounds like a warning to the other villains, but is actually a way of telling Midoriya that he's no longer the Symbol of Peace, and it's now Midoriya's turn to step up. In Chapter 316, All For One leaves a recording for Midoriya declaring that he has no interest in All Might and has moved onto Midoriya before concluding the recording with the same phrase. Given that he ended chapter 94 with his own version of the same phrase, apparently directed at only Tomura to [[TakeUpMySword pick up where he left off,]] his repetition of the same words implies that he was ''also'' referring to Izuku as his next target when he said it with All Might having then been eliminated as a threat to his plans. He also admits he couldn't stop thinking about Izuku whilst in prison, and the paneling at the end of 94 prominently features Izuku alongside Tomura in focus when he says it.

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: His adoption and wholehearted support of Tomura, a.k.a. Tenko Shimura, at first seems like the only genuinely kind deed (other than giving Yoichi a Quirk to make him more powerful) he's ever done. Some people even thought of it as a heartwarming, if twisted, father/son relationship. In the end, he didn't save Tomura because he cared ''whatsoever''. He just did it because he knew of the child's heritage, and manipulated Tomura into being dependent on him. All to reveal that his right-hand man is the grandson of All Might's mentor turned to villainy, and emotionally shatter the Symbol of Peace. Don't let the below quote fool you; in later chapters he's perfectly fine with hijacking Tomura's body and using him like a puppet against the heroes and to break his real body out of prison. Yoichi speculates that All For One groomed Tomura as a tool to capture One For All.

** A retroactive example is revealed to be laid at his feet over the course of ''Vigilantes''. He's revealed to be the GreaterScopeVillain of the spin-off, responsible for Iwao Oguro, AKA the Hero O'Clock, having to retire after he brutally beat him and [[DePower stole his Quirk]] during O'Clock's investigation of one of his many underground labs. He furthermore had Oguro's daughter and wife targeted as the host for his Bee Parasite creature, leaving the latter an EmptyShell, the [[ReforgedIntoAMinion former]] his [[TheDragon front-line agent]] for inflicting suffering on innocents through his trigger experimentation, and both [[EyeScream physically maimed]] from their ordeal. Furthermore, he passed O'Clock's Quirk onto his next agent, No:6, a LoonyFan of the former hero who intentionally patterned himself after him as [[EvilCounterpart a bastardisation of his heroic legacy]]. Whilst these actions are consistent with the lengths he went through to torment All Might, and Oguro certainly considers him his ArchEnemy, it's made clear that All For One [[ButForMeItWasTuesday didn't even really care about O'Clock at all]]. He was simply a random hero he crossed paths with whose circumstances allowed All For One to torment him as much for his [[ItAmusedMe idle amusement]] whilst his long-term plans were underway, rather than any specific animosity held towards him. O'Clock was nothing special to him, he's simply willing to devote that much effort towards ''anybody'' just to ensure [[HatedByAll everybody hates his guts as much as possible]].

* LargeHam: Starts screaming his [[LamePunReaction head off]] into a tirade of insults against Deku when his younger brother openly defies him in the vestige world.

** All of the discord he's sown over the years, all of the previous One For All users he fought and killed, all of the torment he put the heroes and ''especially'' class 1-A through, ''every'' bad thing he's done in his life comes back to bite him during the FinalBattle. While All For One had spent well over a century scheming, building up to when he could finally steal One For All, he shows too much of his hand at the very end at an exact point where ''all'' of his enemies are banded together, ready and united to face him. Each of his plans start going spectacularly wrong, with All For One left confused as to how everything has come together to work ''specifically'' against him. This despite Yoichi's constant warnings he was barreling down a doomed path where the Demon Lord will ''always'' lose.

** He abandoned most of the League, including Gigantomachia, to be captured by the heroes. Turns out, Machia took being abandoned despite of his UndyingLoyalty personally and when he's freed, the giant ends up turning on All For One.
** He dedicated himself to creating a reign of never-ending fear and oppression over the people to become recognised as the supreme villain above all others, yet it was precisely to save people from living under such conditions that a young Yagi Toshinori dedicated himself to becoming the [[HopeBringer Symbol of Peace]], to give people faith in a better tomorrow. This resulted in him [[CreateYourOwnHero becoming the hero that would undo all of All For One's decades of effort]] and [[GameBreakingInjury physically maimed him]] to the point he was unable to achieve his grand ambitions with his original self anymore.
** He indirectly manipulated Stain's false hero crusade to give the League of Villains a popularity boost, which had a knock-on effect of spreading a rise of rampant chaotic villainy as heroes became stretched too thin to deal with the ongoing crisis, as per his master plan and the exact opposite message Stain actually wanted to spend. This motivated Stain to similarly indirectly undermine All For One's plans in important ways, becoming the single biggest SpannerInTheWorks against him. He provided the Tartarus security data to the heroes when nobody else could have salvaged it, giving them invaluable insight into All For One's actual plans to better counteract him, and also providing audio recordings for [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood Shinso]] to control Machia in his voice. He [[GetAholdOfYourselfMan snapped All Might out of his depression]] over his inability to directly aid others as a hero anymore, which was another objective All For one wanted to achieve, and lead to All Might directly opposing All For One when all other heroes had failed to stop him. Finally, when All Might was on the verge of losing, he stepped in to save him when no backup the heroes had could have made it, with All For One's [[RaceAgainstTheClock situation]] making [[TheParalyser his Quirk]] the ''worst'' one that could be used against him.
* LastVillainStand: The FinalBattle eventually turns into this for him: all of his plans are in ruins, his Vestige inside Shigaraki is destroyed, all of his minions are defeated, defected, or never actually loyal to him in the first place, and All For One himself mortally wounded and living on borrowed time. All he can do is flail wildly at the heroes trying to pin him down, unable to accept his ultimate plan has been ruined no matter what he does.

* LightEmUp: He posses a Quirk that allows him to shoot a laser from his hand. [[EmotionalPowers By pouring his rage into it]], he’s able to defeat both Gigantomachia, and a super charged Dark Shadow with one shot each; though the backlash tore his body apart to the point, he only survives thanks to [[FountainOfYouth Rewind healing the damage]].

* LikeASonToMe: In a twisted sort of way. He effectively adopted a young Tenko Shimura off the street when he was scared and alone after killing his family. He raised the boy as a successor, nurturing his worst impulses and even bestowing him with his own family name on the boy as Tomura Shigaraki. While his goal was to use the boy as a tool of revenge and to gain a body powerful enough to use his Quirk to its full potential, he seems content to accept Tomura rebelling against him as long as Tomura’s goals remain the destruction of superhero society. Ultimately subverted, however, as All For One doesn't care about Shigaraki and instead sees him as 'the next me' and an extension of himself.
* LiteralMetaphor: The manga's themes of succession and passing one's hopes and dreams onto the next generation is often referred to as an 'inherited will', best symbolised by One For All being Yoichi's inherited will to defeat his brother long past his mortal lifespan. As his opposite and antithesis to the manga's theme, All For One's own take on the concept is a complete bastardisation of it: By having Tomura ''literally'' inherit his will through his vestige attached to his original Quirk, planning to [[DeathOfPersonality subsume his protege's consciousness]] and take over his enhanced body to become the "Perfect Demon Lord". Tomura ultimately has to destroy his vestige and symbolic desire to make the plot revolve around him to truly become his own villain desperate from his master's influence.

* LongLived: Midoriya's the ninth wielder of One For All. All For One was directly responsible for creating the power in the first place, and even taking into account the possibility not all the wielders lived to their prime or gained it as children, it still puts him at living for a ''long'' while. When questioned how this is possible, it's pointed out that he could have possibly stolen a Quirk that delays aging or something similar. It's later revealed that he took a copy of Dr. Garaki's Life Force Quirk, which extends his life span at the cost of athleticism. This trait of his helps turn his usage of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind energy]] into an HourOfPower, as his body is rewound back to the prime of health before the injuries All Might gave him years ago were ever inflicted in a matter of seconds, meaning the only reason he doesn't get [[DeathByDeaging erased]] near-instantly is because he has so much lifespan for the energy to rewind through.

** All For One does have a lot of physical power enhancing Quirks, but he seems to prefer hanging back and spamming powerful ranged attacks and rarely willingly enters melee combat with others except on specific situations. The few melee attacks we've actually seen him use are large power attacks. This helps him enact his preferred and far more devastatingly effective tactic of using [[BreakThemByTalking psychological warfare]] to rattle his enemies [[TalkingIsAFreeAction mid-battle]] and make them lose focus enough to give him an opening to enact a devastating blow.

** During the Tartarus Escapees arc, it turns out that, rather than the two months' worth of time he would apparently need to complete Tomura's vessel, the original AFO apparently told his vestige counterpart within the boy to have him ready in ''38'' days, just to be certain to catch the heroes off-guard when they were expecting more time, meaning by the present time he'll be ready to take OFA in 3 days. All Might notes he could have [[CrazyPrepared faked the data they were likely to recover from the hospital]] to support his false timeline. If not for Hero killer Stain recovering a recording of the radio-wave conversation monitored by the security system as the prison was being breached, the heroes would have completely fallen for his ploy.

* ManySpiritsInsideOfOne: A side effect of him stealing Quirks is that he inherits vestiges of their personalities. When he gives that Quirk to someone else, he loses those traits as well. All For One believed that property to be exclusive to him but was surprised to learn that One For All had that property as well. In contrast to One For All, it's clear that All For One actively suppresses the vestiges that come attached to the quirks he hoards through sheer willpower, leaving him in utter control over the mental world formed inside his quirk. However, even this suppression has its limits. When he faces off against Jiro in the FinalBattle, her sincere efforts to fight him despite the power difference because of how he mercilessly hurt and targets those she cares about sparks a combined effort from the vestiges to hold him back, taking him off-guard that they could even ''do'' that at this point, all from the efforts of a 'nobody' like Jiro.

* MaskOfSanity: While always psychopathic, for the most part All For One shows himself as calm, collected, and always in control. However, the FinalBattle reveals that underneath it, he's far more unstable than he seemed. By the time of his and All Might's final fight, his sheer mania in his VillainousBreakdown has him pulling [[CheshireCatGrin demented smiles]] that illustrate his sheer lunacy.

** He's not directly possessing Shigaraki, rather his vestige inside of his original Quirk is. As a result, there are technically two All For Ones existing at the same time. This is shown directly when the original attempts to calm down his clone after their defeat from Star and Stripe, noting that the letter is undergoing SplitPersonalityMerge with Tomura's psyche and as a result he can sense his counterpart shares Tomura's boundless hatred of heroes and society, despite All For One being characterized by his [[TheSociopath lack of strong emotions]]. It should be noted, All For One does not see the fusion of Tomura and his vestige as an independent being, rather as [[HiveMind the same being in two bodies]], as All For One is so selfish he can't comprehend anything else. When he's fatally wounded by Endeavor's flames, he gloats that he [[ExpendableClone considers his damaged and weakened body expendable anyway]] in favour of his idealized self in Tomura, showing that he'll discard even ''himself'' in favour of his maniacal ambitions of becoming an 'invincible demon lord'. However, his old body being disposable gives him a good excuse to test out risky abilities with it, such as Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind quirk]] to undo his past and present disfigurements.

* MusclesAreMeaningless: Apparently, his multiple Strength Enhancer Quirks don't necessarily affect his appearance, as he can grapple with All Might despite his unintimidating businessman physique. He only gets beefier when he uses a specific "Hypertrophy" Quirk.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
** Besides the whole 'creating OFA in the first place' deal, an extremely downplayed and indirect example occurs during the Paranormal Liberation War arc, wherein his hyper focus on stealing OFA from Izuku causes him to induce Tomura to relentlessly pursue him to the exclusion of everything else, regardless of the heroes attempting to pursue him or his host's own wishes. AFO's interference and putting his own agenda above Tomura's limited the damage he was capable of inflicting, saving lives in the process and allowing the heroes to somewhat coral Tomura's rampage, though obviously AFO himself didn't care about that one way or the other.
** Summoning literally every villain on his side just to gang up on Izuku, including Tomura, Dabi, Toga, the remaining near High-End Nomus and all the assorted remaining forces of the PLF and the miscellaneous villains attracted to their cause, allowed Izuku and Aoyama to summon their own army of all active heroes in Japan to the scene, allowing them to confront all of All For One's remaining forces as a united effort, whereas beforehand their hiding in the shadows and the chaotic situation left the heroes too widespread to accurately track them down.
** His actions allowing the heroes to learn about his Psychic Link to Tomura comes back to bite him hard. It's noted their link would give them a huge advantage fighting together, but because they know about it ahead of time, they explicitly separate him and Tomura too far for it to work.
** His reliance on stealing the strength of others to fuel his own ambitions and desires unintentionally created his own massive weakness, as the vestiges within him are all united in their hatred of him. His massive strength is not something he created himself, and opposition from within can unexpectedly weaken him when he needs it most. This turtledoves with his monopolization of Tomura to become the "Perfect Demon Lord". Not only does Tomura himself have no interest in being used like this, All For One having intentionally groomed him to [[SuperiorSuccessor be stronger and more powerful than himself]] ultimately means he has no true means of stealing Tomura's strength for his own use. Despite initially suppressing Tomura's psyche because the latter [[DidntSeeThatComing wasn't expecting]] his master to [[GrandTheftMe possess him]] through his Quirk, Tomura's willpower stemming from his '[[ArcWords Origin]]' enabled him to retain his sense of self, [[FightingFromTheInside slowly regain control]] as the fighting turns against his master, and unhesitatingly destroying All For One's vestige when he forcibly reasserted himself as the [[ArchEnemy sole opponent]] for Midoriya.
** Just when it seems like [[HopeSpot he's successfully broken the heroes' control over Machia]], Shinso reveals that [[NotBrainwashed he actually hasn't been fully controlling him]], and Machia is attacking out of justified anger towards his master because he could [[SuperSenses sense]] he was in control when 'Tomura' [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness abandoned him]], cementing the unstoppable giant as his enemy through [[BadBoss his own abusive treatment of him]].
** All Might invokes this as a last-ditch BatmanGambit to stall All For One when he successfully defeats all the heroes delaying him from reaching Tomura, despite an [[PyrrhicVictory immense cost]]. He openly exposes himself before All For One whilst Rewind has made him [[InvincibleVillain literally unkillable]], but has also put him on a RaceAgainstTheClock before the same power [[DeathByDeaging erases him]]. All For One has no pragmatic reasoning to target a retired and powerless civilian whilst he ''needs'' to reach Tomura before his time runs out, but the combination of his sheer hatred for [[ArchEnemy All Might]] and his self-control getting eroded by [[VillainousBreakdown his plans imploding]], [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody his mentality regressing]] and the PsychicLink with Tomura making him emotionally unhinged for the first time in his life means that even seeing All Might's ploy for what it is, All For One ''can't'' resist the urge to mangle him and gets drawn into a pointless battle despite professing that [[BlatantLies All Might's plan isn't working]].
** His exploitation of Stain and his "crusade" for his own villainous goals resulted in a ''massive'' dose of LaserGuidedKarma against him throughout the FinalBattle, but most prominently, Stain's [[TheParalyser Quirk]] proved to be the ''worst'' possible one to be used on him once he got forced on a RaceAgainstTheClock.

** However, once he ''does'' return, the narrative makes it clear that as dangerous as he is, his threat level is handicapped by his egoism and embracement of the role of a comic-book villain. When he sees Best Jeanist and the group in the Nomu factory, he gave them warning of his presence with casual small talk before blasting them away with a supercharged Air Cannon, highlighting how helpless they were against him. This allowed Best Jeanist to pull the others out of the line of fire with Fiber Master, saving their lives, and he didn't even bother fully killing the survivors after he gored a hole through the number 4 hero. Him putting his ambition over Tomura's will handicaps the {{Superior Successor}}'s ability to fight against the heroes, allowing them to contend against him despite his immense power and [[TouchOfDeath Decay]]. His obsession with having One For All lead him to intentionally hold back against the inheritors of his brother's Quirk as it grew stronger over the years, [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou at least until they'd passed it on]], leading to him being rendered helpless against the 8th and 9th at the apex of its current power. And his sadistic tendencies enable the heroes to completely outwit him at the end, predicting exactly how his final attack on Izuku would occur and using that to turn the tables on all the assembled villains.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Even All Might is wondering just how he could've survived all those deadly injuries after their previous fight. Given the one image we saw of his last defeat and his scars imply All Might ''crushed his head'', he has every reason to think that. Even in the last battle, All Might's FinishingMove only knocked him out.

** During his original body's LastStand at Kamino Ward, he faces down the LightningBruiser All Might, who is mainly supported by his cape-wearing ally Gran Torino, whose power disparity against All For One turns him into a FragileSpeedster who can only [[SupportPartyMember provide moral support]] and try to [[GetAholdOfYourselfMan stop All Might falling]] for his psychological mind games, even as the hero is enraged to a degree never seen before by All For One's vindictiveness, and part of All For One's attempted FinishingMove on him was to [[AbilityMixing combine 13 quirks]] within his right arm, turning it into a gigantic, vaguely hand-shaped amalgamation to mimic All Might's signature 'Smash' attacks. During the FinalBattle, he wipes out all of Izuku's allies but the cape-wearing Miro Togata, whose [[MadeOfAir intangibility]] protects him from [=TomurAFO=]'s immense strength, but is otherwise powerless to hurt him, and instead likewise provides Izuku moral and mental support in facing down [=TomurAFO=] and [[WeakButSkilled distracting him during crucial moments]]. Thanks to Tomura's AdaptiveAbility, his left arm transforms into a gigantic fleshy hand-shaped amalgamation made up of the bodies of Tenko's family, capable of unleashing 'Smash' attacks comparable to All Might's. Both these forms are defeated in swift order by his respective opponent controlling and instead channeling their anger into an unorthodox attack that deals him a massive blow beyond what any other fighter could unleash.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** In the lead-up to the FinalBattle, he goes to extensive lengths to ensure Izuku is not only under-prepared to face him before he's mastered his powers, but also [[HeroicRROD a wreck in mind and body]], isolated from [[IWorkAlone all his allies]] whilst All For One conversely intends to face him once he's perfected his [[SplitPersonalityMerge mental fusion with Tomura]] and gained full control over his [[AllYourPowersCombined extensive stockpiled quirks]] in a body powerful enough to handle them, additionally planning to mob Izuku with [[AllOfThem every available villain ally at once]] just for good measure. Due to a combination of factors, primarily his own self-centred nature coming back to bite him on multiple occasions, this exact scenario ends up occurring to ''him'' instead, leaving him on the losing side of the fight and bitterly complaining about how '[[SoreLoser unfair]]' it is.
** His grooming of Shigaraki backfires spectacularly when his GrandTheftMe spurs Shigaraki on to take control of himself back little by little. His vestige is left screaming in rage and desparation over his lack of control before Shigaraki literally ''explodes'' out from inside him, becoming the sole user of the original Quirk and making it impossible for All For One to ever steal back One For All.
** He sent Lady Nagant to attack Izuku, knowing that she would fail and then he could just kill her to cause another moral blow to him. Instead, Lady Nagant survives, and Izuku's intervention restores her faith in true heroism - allowing her to provide support for Izuku at a critical point in the FinalBattle.
** The intensity of his battle with Endeavor contributed to creating a massive storm over Japan. This ends up powering up Inasa and Tokoyami during the FinalBattle, making both a much larger threat to than they already would be.
** He intentionally turned Gigantomachia into a [[DumbMuscle mindless force of destruction]] that would [[UndyingLoyalty unthinkingly follow only his commands alone]], without regard for himself. This same BlindObedience meant that Machia would easily fall prey to [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood Shinso's]] ConditionalPowers when [[VoiceChangeling he spoke in All For One's voice]], allowing All For One to be attacked by the very force he groomed to serve his interest because of that same mindlessness. His abandoning of Machia and leaving him to rot in hero custody also comes back to bite him hard, as it turns out Machia's BlindObedience has its limits and that abandonment causes him to turn on All For One at the worst possible moment.
** He indirectly manipulated Stain's charisma and appeal to the masses in order to make the League of Villains seem more legitimate and attract noteworthy villains to ally under their banner, after the initial loss at UA. This corruption of his "crusade" to spread rampant villainy across Japan and undermine faith in heroes motivated Stain to dedicate himself to undermining All For One's plans, stepping in a crucial points to ensure the heroes could properly combat him.
* HopeCrusher:
** He absolutely revels in destroying others' hopes and idealism about the world, at times seeming ecstatic at the chance to mentally destroy [[TheParagon Izuku]] both for the sake of his plans and just because he is ''that'' unbelievably [[EvilIsPetty spiteful]] towards what he sees as an illogical delusion that [[ThisIsReality has no place in reality]]. Contrastingly, Aoyama points out to him that such views and the resistance against his rule that they inspire are the one thing he fears and abhors above all, which is why he demonstrates anger towards [[HopeBringer All Might]] whenever he's thwarted by those who were inspired to be heroes by his example.
--->'''Aoyama:''' You fear the world learning that Japan isn't finished yet, and you fear Japan inspiring the world to unite once more. So today is the day, and this is the place where you fall!
** He later espouses his opinion to Hawks that being this is the epitome of what defines a Villain, which is why he goes out of his way to invoke this with everybody he interacts with in ways large and small, punctuated by him stealing a nearby hero's quirk, as well as her hopes of a future using her abilities to protect others, almost causally as an afterthought, despite acknowledging that he's soon going to [[CessationOfExistence die]] and take her powers with him before he could make practical use of them. He even reveals that his grand goal that he's been aiming to achieve through his villainous plans since childhood, is to successfully destroy the world's hope through his oppressive rule over all, just so that he'll be seen by all as a universally [[HatedByAll reviled]] and [[TheDreaded feared]] villain in a class of his own.

** This is {{Deconstructed}}, as it seems he has a pathological ''need'' to crush the hopes of people in general, but especially those who have actually bruised his ego or he hates for one reason or another, letting his sense of pragmatism faulter in the process. Once the heroes pick up on this tendency, they exploit it by having the bait for their trap being a chance to completely crush Deku in the most unfair way possible, and he furthermore winds up wasting valuable time from his HourOfPower trying to force the heroes who humiliated him to recognise the hopelessness of facing the "Demon Lord". Even when he eventually succeeds in beating the heroes down, Hawks and Mineta's defiance towards him visibly tempts him into trying to continue to break their wills before he reluctantly concludes that he needs to [[RaceAgainstTheClock spend his remaining time wisely]]. Despite that, he still contents himself that the news footage of their defeat will break the spirits of the watching civilians, again showing his pathological dependancy on breaking others to sooth his bruised ego from the humiliation he's endured. All Might even [[FlawExploitation counts on this]] to pull a DeliberateInjuryGambit against him, aware that if All For One ambushes him, he wouldn't go for an immediately fatal attack to the head when he could painfully injure All Might and savour his agonised expression on his face instead. When All For One breaks All Might's legs and strips him of most of his PoweredArmour, leaving him prone and helpless on the ground as he flies above him, he literally hands his nemesis a final opportunity to [[TakingYouWithMe damage him with his final support item]] by bringing the prone hero in front of Izuku so [[TargetedToHurtTheHero he can mentally break him]].
* HumanoidAbomination: Having survived what should've been certain death, combined with his Quirk-enhanced lifespan, severe case of FacialHorror, and rampant psychopathy, All For One seems to have devolved into something less than human. Many shots frame him as some sort of EldritchAbomination akin to [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]], standing head and shoulders above other characters with a stooping, hunched gait, or sprouting out of Shigaraki in the vestige world like a horror movie creature. It's so bad that even Hawks is able to sense something truly vile is happening inside All For One's copy of his own Quirk, where he's shown ''eating'' the vestiges of those rebelling against him. So many years of using his PowerParasite powers seem to have turned him into something of a parasite himself, latching onto whatever he can find in his quest to consume ''everything'', living up to the name "All For One."
* HumiliationConga: Subjected to this during most of Final Act. Every last one of All For One's schemes goes utterly, ''hilariously'' wrong, to the point he's frequently screaming his head off, ranting and raving about how unfair it is and coming off as a SoreLoser. His plan to capture Midoriya fails thanks to his friends convincing him to return to U.A. His battle against Star and Stripe ends with a good number of his Quirks destroyed and Shigaraki's completion delayed by a week. His plan to use Aoyama to lure Midoriya away from U.A. results in him being LuredIntoATrap instead. Prime All For One gets barbecued by Endeavor and is forced to use Eri's Rewind Quirk to survive, and it's slowly rewinding him out of existence. The vestige of All For One inside Shigaraki is subjected to a CurbStompBattle by Midoriya, damaging Shigaraki's body enough that Shigaraki is able to desstroy the vestige and retake control of his body for good.
* {{Hunk}}: When he rewinds further to his prime in Chapter 363, he is revealed to have a chiseled jaw and refined, almost beatific looks that complements his tall height and muscular physique. However, even with his good looks, his [[EmptyEyes regenerated dead eyes]] underscore the [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon monster]] that hides beneath his mask of humanity.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** During his fight with Endeavor, he tries to get under his skin by bringing up his abuse of his children, lambasting him for forcing Shoto to clean up his mess by having him battle Dabi. While he isn't entirely ''[[HypocriteHasAPoint wrong]]'', those words ring hollow coming from a man who himself groomed a little boy for the express purpose of turning him into his new vessel for his Quirk and Vestige. Hawks' mental narration makes it clear that All For One doesn't actually give a ''damn'' about being right or having any kind of moral superiority over Endeavor, he just wants to use whatever advantages he can to [[BreakThemByTalking unsettle his opponent]] and regain control of the fight and his situation.
** When he's losing the fight against Izuku, he starts [[PsychopathicManchild childishly complaining]] about how '[[SoreLoser unfair]]' the situation is, that the heroes are pulling dirty tricks to weaken him and prevent him displaying the full might of Tomura's body, controlling how the fight goes thanks to their divide-and-conquer scheme no matter how hard he tries to break free. This, despite him having devoted every second after breaking free from Tartarus pulling every possible dirty trick and psychological gambit against Izuku to ensure he was in as poor a state as possible for their 'rematch', goading him to isolate himself from his allies and showing up to fight him with [[AllOfThem every assembled resource he had]], showing how badly he takes the concept of him losing.

* IControlMyMinionsThrough: In the past, All For One was shown to control his minions by giving them Quirks, thus indebting them to him. However, he's also shown a talent for manipulating people frustrated with hero society through their philosophical ideals, such as feeding Shigaraki those ideals and using them to groom him or appealing to Lady Nagant's cynicism to convince her to work for him. Part of what makes him such a ManipulativeBastard is that whatever the reason for those people's convictions, he's convincing them to fight to tear down one of the only things keeping him from turning Japan into his own personal dictatorship.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: All For One has a ''gigantic'' ego and always seems confident and composed. However, the final arc reveals underneath it, he has a fundamental ''need'' to constantly be in control, and his inner speech consists mostly of frantically trying to reassure himself he still is, and the heroes' plans don't matter. The one thing that can well and truly get to him is being shown he's NotSoInvincibleAfterAll, which may in part be because a large portion of his motivation comes from the manga he and Yoichi read as a kid always ended with the heroes winning and the idea Yoichi was ''right'' is something All For One can't stand.
* InstantlyProvenWrong:
** When he learns he's been lured into a trap, he frantically tries to reassure himself his back up plans will succeed and render the heroes' plans mute...and is instantly proven wrong multiple times in a row as the heroes reveal they already planned for his back ups.
** During the FinalBattle, he mocks the heroes for trying to fight him without Endeavor (who's fighting Dabi), who he considers the only hero that could actually pose a threat to him at this point. Cue Tokoyami [[EnemyRisingBehind appearing behind him]] after exploiting the storm formed from the massive clashes and having Pixie-Bob bury him in earth to power Dark Shadow up until its ''{{Kaiju}}-sized'' and smashing him into the ground. Turns out Tokoyami went to fight All For One precisely ''because'' Dark Shadow being generated ''by'' his Quirk means he can NoSell All For One's Quirk stealing.
* IWasQuiteALooker: Before he was horribly disfigured by All Might. All For One used to look like a clean-shaven man in his late 20s, having an imposing build (if not outright muscular), chiseled facial features, and a mop of white hair. His red eyes are still [[HiddenEyes shrouded in shadows]]. His lost looks start growing back when he uses Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind quirk]] to counter the burn damage from Endeavor's flames and rewind into his prime, revealing his chiseled jaw and angelic facial features, [[{{Irony}} looking almost like a textbook example of a hero]], befitting his desire to become the '[[DarkMessiah savior]]' for humanity... as its [[GodEmperor overlord and ruler]].
* ImmortalsFearDeath: In the 'not quite immortal but powerful' category, All For One has lived for over a hundred years and is nigh unkillable, but the only time he's ever displayed genuine ''fear'' is when Endeavor is on the verge of killing him and most of his planning revolves around 'upgrading' from his crippled, aging body to a young, fresh one. Of note, even in his 'expendable' old body, he only resorts to using his copy of Eri's 'Rewind,' a potentially fatal gambit he doesn't expect to survive, when he's already fatally wounded and going to die anyway. Even then, it turns out he plans to inject his copied Quirk factor into Tomura to have the two merge into a stronger vestige within, effectively ''still'' cheating his original self's death. His mental references to his near-fatal defeat at All Might's hands and how 'wounded heroes are the scariest' throughout fights when he's [[WhyWontYouDie struggling to put his opponents down]] imply that he gained [[TraumaButton a massive trauma]] from the one time his accumulated powers, abilities and plans ''failed'' to prevent him from almost dying after centuries of being an unbeatable 'Demon Lord' and how he's ultimately NotSoInvincibleAfterAll.

** As the situation continues to get worse and worse for him throughout the FinalBattle, his inability to adapt to the changing circumstances or accept that he's losing control of events has his thinking eventually limited to 'Have the [[GrandTheftMe Next Me]] steal One For All' as his only way of achieving victory against the heroes, especially once he starts LivingOnBorrowedTime. This allows them to steadily corner him by resolving the battles against the assembled villains on his side before ganging up on him and pressuring him with numbers, as he keeps trying to flee them and reach Izuku and Tomura.

** More immediately, he is devoting most of the manga into successfully pulling off his long-desired goal of absorbing One For All and marking his success against Yoichi in their generation-long feud, via manipulating Tomura into absorbing the Quirk where he cannot. He claims that it's merely the "midge goal" on his larger plan, but it's made clear that it matters as much or even more to him personally than his final aim.

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** During the vestige vision Izuku receives upon beginning to pass the singularity with One For All, Yoichi is seen futility attempting to prevent his brother from preforming a quirk transfer between a quirkless person and a Quirk-user whose mutation has warped his appearance and lead to him offering FantasticRacism, warning the two that taking [[DealWithTheDevil his offer]] would be nothing but harmful for them in the long run. It's later shown that taking a similar deal was how All For One was able to create the U.A. traitor, a fact they [[RegretfulTraitor very much regret]] by the present time.
** His [[EvilCannotComprehendGood inability to comprehend altruism]], on full display during his battle with All Might in Kamino Ward, plays into the later reveal that his psychopathic nature handicaps his ability to steal One For All. As he can't understand what it's like to care for something beyond your own wellbeing, he cannot grow as a character, and thus has remained the exact same CardCarryingJerkass for generations. This is why [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne One For All]] can't be assimilated by his PowerParasite abilities, as it is comprised of people whose collective HeroicWillpower are too strong for him to ever overcome without a strong emotion like Shigaraki's hatred.
** He waxes lyrical to the immobile Izuku and Nana Shimura when they briefly meet inside the vestige realm during his first attempted absorption of One For All, mentioning his own experiences with the vestiges of his former victims and how they were antagonistic towards him in his dreams until he passed the associated quirk to another. This antagonism comes to the fore during his battle with Team Endeavor, as Jiro's defiance of him and resolve to fight regardless of his power succeed in motivating all the vestiges stored within himself to rebel against him as one, leaving him vulnerable at a crucial moment and allowing the heroes to badly damage his life-support mask before he regains control.
** When All Might first talks about him, he brings up how he's ShroudedInMyth and the only knowledge about his existence as Japan's past ShadowDictator is rumors on the internet, emphasizing his [[NothingIsScarier unseen menace]] brought back by [[KnightOfCerebus his re-introduction]] into the present narrative. All Might even admits that he didn't talk about him before because [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat he thought he'd dealt with him for good]] and didn't see any reason to burden Izuku with the knowledge then. During the FinalBattle, this gets thrown back in All For One's face to his detriment: far from his monstrous villainy making him [[TheDreaded a feared villain who terrorizes everyone]] and will be remembered forever in infamy, it just means that nobody ''wants'' to remember him or talk about him, and history books have intentionally ignored any recollection of him while retaining the relevant lessons from the Dark Age of Quirks, dooming All For One to being [[{{Unperson}} a non-entity in the grand scheme of history]].

* GameBreakingInjury: His first battle with All Might left him barely alive with most of his head destroyed. As he couldn't obtain a [[HealingFactor regeneration Quirk]] until after it had partially healed, he was left with most of his sensory organs destroyed, severely weakened ability to use his Quirk, and dependent on constant life support to survive. While he is a force to be reckoned with, he's nowhere near as powerful as he was in his prime.

* GreaterScopeVillain: For the entire franchise.
** All Might put an end to a criminal empire that ruled Japan from the shadows when he defeated All For One for the first time. Since then, the villain pivoted his influence and resources to raising [[BigBad Shigaraki]] into a proper successor by creating the League of Villains for him to lead. Furthermore, he is the presiding evil across the entire timeline from the first generation of Quirk users all the way up to the present, and he comes back with a vengeance for the story's Final Act to reclaim the title of BigBad for himself. This is ultimately a SubvertedTrope, however, as despite all the build up, All For One's numerous flaws come to the forefront and demonstrate that his unwillingness to grow or change makes him only a supplementary threat to the series' true main antagonist, Shigaraki. Without him, Shigaraki wouldn't be as big of a threat as he is, but he still unwittingly hands him the keys to becoming the superior villain because All For One can't truly accept anybody would be able to outwit him.
** He's this in the first movie. When villains got together to steal David Shield's device, All For One made a point of granting their leader extra superpowers. The idea of All Might finding out his best friend is doing something evil put a smile on his face.
** Is also one for the prequel ''My Hero Academia: Vigilantes'', shepherding his underlings Hachisuka and Number 6 to wreak havoc on Tokyo, particularly Koichi and Pop's home turf of Naruhata. He makes them conduct Trigger and Bomber experiments which serve as the main conflicts of the story, which eventually leads to him and Garaki developing the Nomu we see in the main series.

* HandicappedBadass: He was blind and relied on an "Infrared Ray" Quirk to faintly sense sounds and vibrations, so to remain aware of his surroundings. He was also heavily implied to be in declining health, given [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport his constant need for life-support systems]]. He still overpowers every hero not named All Might, and both times All Might defeats him, it comes at a huge cost: the first time ravages All Might's internal organs, effectively cutting the time he can use One For All to a few short hours. The second time forces All Might to burn out the remaining embers of One For All, permanently ending his crime-fighting career. When he's nearly incinerated by Endeavor's firepower, he counters the damage by using a variant of Eri's Rewind quirk to undo his injuries, resulting in his body getting rewound years before he was ever handicapped.
* HatedByAll: Nearly everybody speaks of him with either fear, loathing, or both despite All For One claiming to have what he calls ''friends'' who will help him (read as: terrified lackeys he coerces into helping him). Even his protégé Shigaraki ends up hating him for [[GrandTheftMe stealing his body]] and trying to merge their consciousnesses without his consent. Although in that case, Shigaraki mostly HatesEveryoneEqually aside from the League and [[VillainRespect Aizawa]], and likely fostered resentment for his adoptive father all along deep inside for what he put him through. He later reveals to Hawks that he ''[[InvokedTrope wants]]'' to be this, as he considers villains to be those who are universally hated and feared by everybody for their villainous deeds, and thus he goes out of his way to commit as many of these as possible and revels in the animosity he inspires in others. His ultimate end goal, every since he was a child, has been to commit the ultimate villainous act of 'thwarting the future of the whole world', so that everybody will recognize him as a hateful villain. There are only three exceptions: his loyal toady [[TheDragon Dr. Garaki]], his brother, [[TheParagon Yoichi]], and [[DumbMuscle Gigantomachia]]. And eventually, his abusive treatment towards Machia, using him as a tool and abandoning him the second it benefitted him, sours even ''that'', leading to the previously [[UndyingLoyalty mindlessly-loyal]] giant turning on him in righteous anger when he expects his aid.

* HealingFactor: At some point, he managed to acquire a healing Quirk, but by that time, it was useless for restoring his body from the damage All Might inflicted on him. It is the signature Quirk of the League's Nomus. During the final battle, Endeavor notes that he doesn't have a Hyper Regeneration Quirk (having given it to Shigaraki), or ''any'' regeneration Quirk, for that matter, as their attacks are able to damage him and it will stick. However, he reveals that he'd prepared a trump card of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind quirk]] synthesised by Garaki from the Quirk-destorying bullets to counter this. He only activates it at the exact moment he's hit with a fatal attack, because once active, it can't be stopped and will eventually [[DeathByDeaging kill him]], but with the Rewind active, he's [[DeadlyUpgrade restored to his physical prime of health]] and further injuries inflicted upon him heal in seconds, shown by a slice Hawks leaves on his restored face vanishing instantly, thus leaving the heroes no choice but to [[VictoryByEndurance wait]] for the HourOfPower to eventually erase him.

** The first time, he rescues Tomura and the league from their certain capture at Kamino ward, gives Tomura words of encouragement to motivate him to move past his defeat and grow into a better villain and then stays behind to hold off All Might whilst the league escapes through Kurogiri's portal, the framing of All For One's actions making it seem like All Might is the villain and himself pulling an ObiWanMoment to ensure his protégé survives, even at the cost of getting thrown into Tartarus for life. However, this is later revealed to be a mere falsehood. All For One only rescued Tomura so he could later inherit his original Quirk, allowing his vestige to possess him and effectively allowing All For One to be 'reborn' within Tomura's body as the 'Next Me', meaning that his actions were not to protect Tomura, but rather, ''himself''.
** When Endeavor incinerates his original body to the point of nearly dying, he again mocks them for thinking he cared about his old broken shell when he now lives on through his ideal self in Tomura, but nonetheless uses the opportunity to test out Eri's [[DevolutionDevice rewind quirk]] despite [[DeathByDeaging the dangers of mishandling it]], comparing it to the heroes' own efforts in risking their lives and sacrificing their bodies to achieve victory, even though All For One isn't ''really'' sacrificing anything he values.

** In Midoriya's vision, his eyes were always twisted or blurred and his full face is never revealed. This is inverted with Vol.0 chapter, where his eyes are the only visible part of his face when he fights Nana. Season 5 of the anime reveals that his eyes were originally red. His right eye regrows from the charred husk of his burned face as part of a WhamShot when he reveals he'd managed to access a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind quirk]], using her power to restore the injuries he'd suffered, past and present.

* HiddenVillain: He first appears talking through a computer screen up until later in the story, so for the first part, the audience won't know who he is, what he looks like, etc. just that he's plotting something with Shigaraki as his direct underling. His face shows up after the conflict with Stain, but he maintains himself ShroudedInMyth even then.

** When the heroes start actually winning against him, beating him to the point that his body is smashed to pieces and only Rewind keeping him 'alive', he abuses the fact it undoes even otherwise-unhealable injuries to push his Quirks to the point that [[VillainousRROD they'd negatively affect his physical body]], creating massive attacks that destroy his arms from the sheer power, making it clear that it's a DesperationAttack for him.

* TheFaceless: His face is first hidden in shadow, then by his mask. Even after All Might breaks it off, [[BodyHorror he still kind of counts.]] The clearest image of his face shown so far in the manga is [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/all_for_one_face.png shown hanging over the UA traitor's head]], visually demonstrating the absolute control he has over them. When Endeavor nearly kills him with a point-blank Prominence burn, he activates the variant of Eri's Rewind quirk he managed to scavenge from the Destroying Bullets to counter the damage, rewinding not only his present injuries, but his past, [[WoundThatWillNotHeal unhealable ones]], demonstrated by his face [[RemovedAchillesHeel regrowing his eyes and ears once more]].
* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: When Eri's harvested Rewind energy restores his original appearance, undoing the otherwise [[WoundThatWillNotHeal unhealable]] disfigurements that were his trademark appearance before, he's revealed to have this. Fitting of a man whose charisma and manipulation skills with the masses were one of his greatest assists in tandem with his powers, his appearance is that of a ruggedly handsome man, not too dissimilar to that of an idealized hero, and the paneling even frames him as if he were a messiah figure gazing down upon those beneath him. However, everything about his actual personality demonstrates him to be one of the evilest, twisted and morally irredeemable villains in the series, and his almost angelic grace is offset by his [[EmptyEyes soulless gaze]] hinting at his true monstrous nature behind his superficial charms. Taken even further in Chapter 382 when he rewinds further into a teenager.
* FacialHorror: All Might left his head so mangled that the top half of his head is nothing but a mass of scar tissue with no eyes, nose, or ears. He originally had white hair and red eyes. It doesn't get any better-looking when his missing features start growing ''back''.

* FatalFlaw:
** While All For One has many flaws that contribute to his ultimate defeats, the one that actually spells his downfalls is [[EvilIsPetty spite]]. He refused to read the comic books he enjoyed to the end because he didn't like how [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin the stories always had them lose in the end]], and wanted to '[[IRejectYourReality correct]]' that in reality when he discovered his powers. Yoichi pointing this out to him again as adults when he was revelling in his success as a villain had him spitefully force the stockpiling power Quirk onto him to likewise '[[ShutUpKirk overwrite the reality]]' where his brother refused to join him, creating One For All and his greatest opposition as a consequence. All For One has a pathological ''need'' to destroy his most hated enemies in the most spiteful, hope crushing way possible. His second defeat to All Might is the direct result of this, trying to kill him in the most ironic way he could think of and crush Japan's spirit in the process, only to put himself in range of his finishing move. He's LuredIntoATrap in the final battle precisely ''because'' the heroes realize this flaw and exploit it, knowing he couldn't resist crushing Deku with mass overkill out of spite. Even after being reduced to ash and having to use Rewind, he's easily distracted from actually meaningfully ''using it'' because he's too spiteful ''not'' to be provoked by the heroes' heroic speeches and having his ego bruised. Even upon eventually beating them, the defiance the heroes show towards him regardless visibly tempts him into continuing to try and break them before he composes himself and rationalizes that [[RaceAgainstTheClock he needs to make his remaining time count]].
** All Might himself banks on this flaw to halt All For One and buy time, as even though he's lost his Quirk and is no threat to All For One, he knows All For One is such a petty, vindictive man that he won't be able to resist confronting and crushing the one man on the planet he hates more than anyone else no matter how little time he has remaining.

* FauxAffablyEvil: All For One is polite and cordial towards everyone and his incredible charisma allowed him to amass a following of devoted servants when he ruled Japan. That said, he often laces his politeness with barbs and jabs at his opponents and views everyone as beneath him.
** This is best seen when All Might visits him in prison. At first, he greets All Might as if they were two old friends, but soon tries to get under his skin by making an educated guess about the current state of society and mocking All Might's powerlessness, smiling all the while.
** All For One offered support to the traumatized Tenko Shimura. Even when he repeatedly failed, All For One calmly encouraged to him to keep trying. However, he slowly warped Tenko's mind against heroes while keeping him emotionally dependent on him: he sees even him as nothing more than a pawn for his twisted ideals.
** When he meets Yoichi Shigaraki and Nana Shimura in the vestige world, All For One treats the whole thing as if it's a big family reunion, but his polite conversation is laced with insults towards Nana and Midoriya.

* EnfantTerrible: After Armored All Might's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown against him to cause Rewind to make him disappear, he's regressed to a young boy by Chapter 400, still retaining his desire to kill All Might by ''slowly'' [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe tearing him apart]].

--->'''All For One:''' Pitting One For All against Tomura is a deadly knife's edge to dance upon. But the most brutal part of this little scheme has to be ''you forcing your '''youngest''' to clean up your own mess, no matter how much it pains him. [[HypocriteHasAPoint And the unceasing abuse toward your eldest child!]]''

---> '''Bakugo:''' You wanna talk about some big disparity? Lack of understanding? Dread? Guess what - [[JerkassRealization I've long since taken all that crap to heart]]. And I've seen a real step toward progress, with all that. It might take time, but some people I know are trying to push forward. Thanks anyway, [[ShutUpHannibal but you can shove your sermon, ya nutsack-faced handy-man!]]

* EvilIsPetty: While All For One has higher goals and ambitions, he can't resist committing smaller acts of sadism, especially when it involves All Might.
** He claims to All Might that his taking in young Tenko to be his protégé wasn't done just to have a successor, but to give a giant middle finger to both All Might and Nana Shimura by raising her grandson as a villain, pointing out how such a low blow is exactly the sort of thing he would do. Likewise, when giving Tenko the hands for his villain outfit, one of those hands (the one on the back of his head) is revealed to be Nana Shimura's, showing just how far he went to defile his legacy.
** In the movie, ''Two Heroes'', when he learns of Wolfram's plot, he grants him a Quirk to aid him - completely expecting Wolfram to lose anyway - just so he can give All Might more grief with the knowledge that his former sidekick turned to villainy.
** If he sees somebody with a Quirk that he wants, he'll take it regardless of the practicality of it, simply because he desires to, and he'd rather go through immense effort to keep what he's stolen than surrender any of it. This is part of his mad obsession with One For All -- because it is the one Quirk that can resist his PowerParasite ability, [[ForbiddenFruit he desires it all the more strongly]].
** When the vestige of himself merged into Tomura is on the verge of killing Bakugo, he uses the latter's helplessness against his sheer power to deride his dreams of becoming number one hero in a world where he can to contend against the power level of One For All and All For One, mocking him that [[CantCatchUp he'll forever be a side character in Izuku's story no matter how hard he tries]]. Notably, despite the mental fusion ongoing between Tomura and All For One making it unclear which one exactly is in command of the body, its made crystal clear that this sadistic mockery of a child's hopes and dreams right as he's about to perish anyway comes squarely from [[TheBully All For One]].

** {{Deconstructed}}, as the heroes ''realize'' how petty All For One is and that it's an easily exploitable way to manipulate him. The make heavy use of this throughout the FinalBattle, playing him on multiple occasions.

** He uses this to great effect when manipulating his enemies to act the way he wants them to. When Izuku leaves UA after the Paranormal Liberation War, All For One takes advantage of Izuku's ChronicHeroSyndrome by planting a seed of fear in the boy via a holographic message telling him that he is now All For One's main focus, complete with a villainous inversion of All Might's last words as a hero; [[PriceOnTheirHead "Now it's your turn!"]] As he predicted, this leads Izuku to isolate himself from any and all support for fear of them getting caught in the crossfire while desperately trying to find the villain, making Izuku an easier target for AFO's hired guns.

** Chapter 329 has him confirm privately to Spinner that all the events that have proceeded in the manga thus far are part of his overarching grand ambitions, but that, contrary to what the latter thinks, it is not merely to steal One For All for himself-- rather, that is the 'Midgame Goal' and a [[AbilityRequiredToProceed necessary step]] for him to achieve his final objective, though he's [[VaguenessIsComing intentionally unclear]] about what exactly that is, save that he's been preparing for it for a long time with his extended lifespan.
--->'''All For One:''' I've planned ahead for a ''long'' life.
** Aoyama reveals that his parents told him something of All For One's overall goals. Firstly, the societal breakdown he's created in Japan has tanked the value of the yen and forced multiple Japanese corporations into bankruptcy, in tandem with All For One's allies in other counties enacting coordinated uprisings to [[ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil further spread the chaos worldwide]]. Thus, internal aid will not be sent to stabilize Japan as said countries work on prioritizing their own stability and Japan's society devolves into one seeking stability at any cost. All For One would then monopolize certain quirks he's stockpiled over the years to provide necessary resources for the citizens, such as water or electricity on demand, taking control of the country and rebuilding it in his image, before using that as his starting point to turn his attention to subjugating other countries as well. All For One admits that said Aoyama's explanation isn't 100% accurate, but is close enough to outline the idea. He later espouses to Hawks that his actual motive is simply to become HatedByAll, and that trashing the world's economy is merely another step to arrive at that goal.

* EvilerThanThou: Pulls a version of this on Tomura when he does his grand reentry into the story employing GrandTheftMe on him to hijack his body and free his original self from Tartarus. He claims to genuinely respect Tomura and his tenacity, and wants to merge their personalities together into one superior being so he can become a PhysicalGod, yet it becomes clear this amounts to just creating a superior clone of himself at Tomura's expense. Eventually, however, Shigaraki manages to pull this on him instead, destroying his vestige and retaking his body from All For One's control.

* EyelessFace: No nose either. Everything above his upper lips is nothing but a mass of scar tissues. This winds up biting him in the ass during the FinalBattle, as despite compensating for his destroyed senses with any sensory quirks he could find, these are no true substitute or replacement for his original senses, and the fact he has to rely on a crutch like a quirk to fight anywhere close to his original power means that when that crutch is [[FightingFromTheInside unexpectedly removed]], he's left ''extremely'' vulnerable and unable to keep track of his opponents in a pitched fight, which they don't hesitate to exploit for all it's worth. This ceases to be the case after he uses a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind quirk]] to compensate for his lack of healing, the Quirk rewinding his crippled body to a point before All Might permanently injured him.

* {{Determinator}}: When All For One sets his mind of a goal, he ''will not'' deviate from it, no matter the amount of time, effort, and resources required to succeed, even (or rather, ''especially'') for the pettiest of reasons, such as spending decades on a convoluted plan to steal his brother's Quirk rather than destroying it for the risk it poses. This pairs nastily with his HopeCrusher mindset, as he also devotes long years worth of effort causing abject misery to those around him and enforcing his villainy. His refusal to ever suffer a loss in battle renders him incredibly dangerous even outwith his immense power, managing to push through an entire assembled army of the strongest and most experienced heroes and even villains he turns against himself throughout the FinalBattle, managing to reach izuku in the end despite running an entire gauntlet of enemies.

** His eagerness to absorb One For All is such that he focuses on targeting Izuku the ''moment'' Tomura has awoken from his procedure, the Vestige of himself putting that goal first and foremost above crushing the army of heroes assembled before him, like Tomura wished to do, which spared enemies that would give his original self serious problems in battle later. This single-mindedness also benefited Izuku in the end, as All For One's failed attempt to absorb the Quirk instead drew out and strengthened the connection between the boy and the Vestiges of the past wielders. Previously, Izuku's unfamiliarity with the functions of his awakening ComboPlatterPowers [[HowDoIShootWeb handicapped him using them in a fight without long periods of trial and error]], but with the past wielders able to directly coach him on how best to use them, his effectiveness in combat [[TookALevelInBadass dramatically increased]], such that a few months after the War, he is argu the strongest hero opposing All For One, and utterly thrashes his "Next me" in combat so badly, it allows Tomura to easily regain control of himself. If All For One had been more patient and pragmatic in using Tomura's powers against his enemies as a whole, Izuku would not have become such a powerful figure so quickly.
** He chooses to face [[PoweredArmour Armoured All Might]] in battle despite having little to no practical gain and being on a RaceAgainstTheClock to reach Izuku, and fully aware that All Might is trying to delay him, because he hates his ArchEnemy ''that much'', and the temptation to succeed in killing him on international television like he failed to do at Kamino is [[HopeCrusher too tempting to pass up]]. Whilst he eventually succeeds in overcoming every trick All Might has up his sleeve, and even subverts his last-second TakingYouWithMe to [[BreakTheBadass emotionally break him with his failure]], the fighting drained what excess time he had left to waste and bought enough for Bakugo to revive as his final opponent when every other hero was down for the count, meaning All For One's efforts were AllForNothing despite how much effort he out into trying to break the world's hopes.

* DisabilityImmunity: Although he never realized it until it was too late, him losing his eyes and relying on sensor-type Quirks to "see" made him impossible to fool with sight-based illusions. Once he regains his vision with Rewind, he completely gets distracted with killing a fake Hawks conjured up by Camie.
* DiscardAndDraw:
** Apparently, he used to have a very different power set when he first fought All Might. In a flashback showcasing his fight with Nana Shimura, he is seen utilizing gruesome landscape-altering Quirks. In the Kamino Ward battle, he seems to prefer strong ranged abilities paired with diversions and attrition strategies, specifically to counter [[CloseRangeCombatant All Might's]] LightningBruiser abilities and [[VictoryByEndurance exploit]] his HourOfPower weakness until he can no longer use his Quirk at all.
** During the fight with team Endeavor they deduce that he lacks the [[GoodThingYouCanHeal Hyper Regeneration]] or any similar Quirks on him, meaning the injuries deal to him with stick. However, after Endeavor managed to scorch him to a charcoaled husk with a point-black Prominence Burn, he mocks the heroes for thinking he's show up for the FinalBattle without a trick up his sleeve to compensate, revealing he'd managed to absorb a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] from the Destroying Bullets Tomura salvaged, using that to undo his injuries instead despite [[DeathByDeaging the potential risks]] from mishandling the Quirk, due to seeing (or wanting the heroes to think he does) his old crippled body as [[ExpendableClone disposable]] next to the perfected body he has in [[GrandTheftMe Tomura]]. With his body now back in the prime of health, he's twice as dangerous as he was before with no [[AchillesHeel weakness]] the heroes can exploit, but he also acknowledges that [[HourOfPower this state is only temporary and will eventually result in him vanishing regardless]], so he intends to make the most of it breaking his 'Next Me' free of the heroes' trap.

** The original All For One is confident if he makes it back to U.A. in time, he can salvage his "next me" and still achieve his goal. The audience learns well before All For One himself that Shigaraki finally took his body back thanks to Midoriya and company's efforts on top of Shigaraki being much harder to bury than All For One believed. What's more, Shigaraki rejects the prospect of actually stealing One For All ''period'', meaning the goal All For One has spent the entire series striving for just went up in smoke and he doesn't even know it yet. His EvilGloating to Hawks underscores this, as he intends to get rid of Shigaraki's psyche for good through a FusionDance between his original and copied vestiges, a plan non-viable by the time he reveals it because Shigaraki ''blew up'' his original vestige when he wrested control over himself away from his master.

* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: According to Aoyama, All For One's endgame is to plunge the entire world into social instability and anarchy to the point [[ToCreateAPlaygroundForEvil villains run rampant]] and things are hanging by such a thread that the slightest shortage of anything, be it food, water, or power, will give All For One the chance to swoop in with his stockpiled Quirks and force his will on them. All For One has no greater goal or philosophy he wants to enforce by taking over, taking over and ruling as an EvilOverlord ''is'' his endgame in and of itself. All For One admits this isn't 100 percent accurate, but close enough. When he specifies later, he reveals his real goal is to 'thwart the future of the whole world' solely to be [[HatedByAll as hated as he possibly can]].

* EmptyEyes: Though they're absent for the majority of his appearances [[EyelessFace due to his facial injuries]], they are briefly shown to be this during the flashback of his rise of power and after his battle with Endeavor, [[WindowsOfTheSoul reflective]] of All For One's heartless and self-centered nature. When his vestige self begins enacting a SplitPersonalityMerge between himself and Tomura's psyches to revive himself as a "more perfect Demon Lord", Tomura's eyes being to take on this trait whenever the All For One vestige is in control. However, when the 'Tenko Shimura' personality surfaces, his eyes regain their pupils for an instant, before visibly changing back to their prior dead-eyed state as the merged All For One/Tomura reasserts command, showing they're [[MindControlEyes indicative of who's driving their shared body]].
* EnfantTerrible: After Armored All Might's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown against him to cause Rewind to make him disappear, he's regressed to a young boy by Chapter 400, [[{{Bookends}} who fittingly looks like a heavily-mutated version of the Luminescent Baby due to him glowing brightly like the first ever Quirk-user]] and still retains his desire to kill All Might by ''slowly'' [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe tearing him apart]].

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: PlayedWith. He claims that the actions of beings like himself are AboveGoodAndEvil, when [[TheCorruptor convincing young Tenko to embrace the path of villainy]], but it's implied to be another manipulation tactic to break the young boy's fragile mentality to serve his purpose rather than something he actually believes. He actually has a very clear understanding of right and wrong, mainly from his avid love of reading comic books in his youth. But what warps it around to this is that All For One ''deliberately'' sets out to commit 'evil' actions not because he believes they're [[WellIntentionedExtremist for the greater good]] or a twisted sense of morality, but simply because [[ForTheEvulz they're considered to be evil]]. As he explains to Hawks, he considers villains to be those who are feared and hated [[EveryoneHasStandards equally by all who know them]], and as he's intending to become a [[CardCarryingVillain real-life]] 'Demon Lord', his grand ambition is to become [[HatedByAll the most universally hated person the world over]], as a sign of his status as the ultimate villain. What matters to All For One isn't whether his actions actually are truly evil or good, it's whether they [[{{Troll}} stoke the ire of those around him]], on a grander scale, the better.

* DeathByDeaging: {{Discussed}}. He considers (or at least wants the heroes to think he does) his permanently-disfigured and broken body to be '[[ExpendableClone destined for the scrap heap]]' in favor of his ideal self as undergoing a SplitPersonalityMerge within Tomura's strengthened body, thus he has no issues using [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique potentially dangerous but highly-useful abilities]] with his old body despite his entire endgame being to find a way to become an immortal and invincible demon lord. He therefore 'tests out' a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] to see how it will affect his broken body in place of a proper HealingFactor, despite the potential risk of him having NoBodyLeftBehind from the effects, having no other means of avoiding immediate death otherwise.

** What his services amount to. Found yourself to be [[{{Unsorcerer}} Quirkless]] or [[BlessedWithSuck your own Quirk is detrimental?]] If you can find him, he'll gladly grant you a Quirk or take yours, in exchange for loyalty towards him. Practically everyone who sought his help including Aoyama's family found out the hard way. His ultimate plan is basically ''forcing'' everybody into one of these, by [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans causing complete societal breakdown nationwide]] so he can step in and use his accumulated abilities to [[DarkMessiah provide for the people's needs]] and restore order under his rule. People will be given whatever they desire to live a life of safety and comfort, but it will mean giving All For One complete power over them.
** He grants Spinner two Quirks when he wants to be more powerful and useful to Shigaraki, but Spinner is burned in two ways by this. First, All For One is well aware if his plan succeeds, Shigaraki [[DeathOfPersonality will effectively cease to exist]] and is no longer the one giving the orders Spinner is following, and second, the two Quirks [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity begin to drive Spinner completely insane]] and turn him into DumbMuscle. This effectively means Spinner is destroying his own mind [[AllForNothing for nothing.]]

* DentedIron: As unbelievably powerful as he is now, the injuries that All Might inflicted on him means he's nowhere near as powerful as he used to be. All Might notes this when All For One comments on his diminished strength, pointing to the life support system he constantly has to be on. This is exploited during the final battle as the main goal of the heroes is to weaken him by targeting his life support helmet. He in turn also exploits the state of his body as an excuse to test out [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique extremely useful but potentially dangerous Quirks]] through it, before risking letting his 'Next Me' use them, such as Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] to compensate for his lack of a HealingFactor, though he implies he fully expects it to still be fatal.
* {{Determinator}}:
** He is completely obsessed with [[EntitledToHaveYou claiming One For All for himself]] (as it houses the spirit of his [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes younger brother]] whom he had always wanted by his side in his schemes). His ego even permeates his very Quirk: when his protégé Tomura undergoes the intense medical procedure to transfer it to himself, he finds his master's desire consuming his thoughts. He enacts multiple plans aimed squarely at breaking Izuku's willpower to increase his chances of success in their 'rematch' and makes it clear that he will stop at nothing until he can finally absorb the Quirk for good from him -- even refusing to allow Izuku to be hit by Tomura's Decay wave, showcasing that this obsession runs counter to any [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim pragmatic solutions]] to dealing with his 'nemesis'.
** When Stain has successfully paralysed him and he's caught in a pincer move by him and All Might, still on the verge of being erased by [[FountainOfYouth Rewind]], he escapes the apparently certain defeat by using a prepared couple of Quirks to counter Stain's power, forcibly [[BloodFromEveryOrifice expelling]] ''every last targeted drop of blood in his body'' just to regain his movement. It's only viable because of Rewind resting his lost fluids, but it illustrates the depths he'll sink to to avoid losing no matter the odds.
** This trait pairs nastily with his HopeCrusher mindset, as he is willing to sink immense amounts of time, resources and effort solely into the petty goal of causing abject misery to those around him and enforcing his villainy. This is ''especially'' true for those who actually manage to bruise his immense ego and disrespect the "Demon Lord" with their defiance. He lampshades to All Might that tracking down his dead mentor's grandson and spending long years [[TheCorruptible twisting him into a villain]] for him to fight against is ''exactly'' the kind of malicious scheme he'd commit. This thankfully [[HoistByHisOwnPetard backfires on him]] during the FinalBattle, when his numerous humiliations cause him to [[SanityHasAdvantages fall for the heroes' provocations]] and waste valuable minutes of his HourOfPower trying to break them with the futility of fighting him, only [[OhCrap realizing his mistake]] when he physically de-ages into a young adult.

* CostumeEvolution: As his previous helmet was destroyed during his battle with All Might, for the final battle with Midoriya, All For One sports a sleeker, more futuristic version of his original helmet that somewhat resembles Kurogiri's. This helmet has more armored plating as it was able to withstand a slash from Hawks' feather blade, which makes sense as he was planning on facing [[LightningBruiser Izuku]] in a fight and wanted his AchillesHeel to have adequate protection against his raw power.

* CreateYourOwnHero:
** When he gave his brother the mediocre Power Stockpiling Quirk in an attempt to make his brother submit, it merged with his brother's then-unknown power-transfer Quirk, accidentally creating One For All. Out of a mix of greed, a need for control, and his obsession with the fantasy stories of his youth, All For One allowed this new Quirk to spread down a lineage of heroes until it evolved into the one Quirk powerful enough to defeat him no matter how much he stole from others.
** A {{Downplayed|Trope}} example occurs with Izuku himself, [[BookEnds appropriately enough]]. Izuku was ''already'' on the path to becoming the WorldsStrongestMan through One For All's ComboPlatterPowers, and in All For One's crosshairs for possessing [[ForbiddenFruit it]], but it was a gradual process that came with the quirk slowly awakening over the course of an entire year, and Izuku's connection to the visages being spotty and infrequent, giving him significant hurdles in [[HowDoIShotWeb managing his new unexplained abilities]]. However, All For One's single-minded ''obsession'' with absorbing his brother's quirk induced him to make the attempt to steal it as soon as Tomura awakened with his quirk, resulting in the vestiges getting drawn out and [[NiceJobFixingItVillain strengthening their connection to Izuku]] through their mental tug-of-war. In the aftermath, the vestiges are able to frequently communicate and coach Izuku on how best to use their powers in tandem, resulting in his combat ability skyrocketing once he begins chaining his quirks together for increased effect. Mere months after the battle at Jaku hospital, Izuku's become strong enough to easily trounce All For One, even in his 'perfected Demon Lord' self in Tomura, a [[TookALevelInBadass rapid power spike]] that wouldn't have occurred if All For One hadn't been too greedy. For bonus {{Irony}}, part of All For One's haste in stealing One For All from Izuku immediately was to deny him the chance to [[TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential better master his powers]] before their showdown, only for his very attempts to prevent that to result in that exact outcome.
** It's later revealed that he even more indirectly did this with All Might himself. All For One spoke with joy about about the "Dark age of Quirks" he ruled over where people lived in fear of [[NothingIsScarier the unknown menace]] that existed in society. Yet All Might's flashback to his first meeting with Nana Shimura revealed that it was ''precisely'' because of this state of affairs that All Might wanted to become a HopeBringer in the first place, to save people from the oppression they lived under, eventually becoming a figure who would commit himself to undoing all the diabolical evil All For One spent decades creating.

* CurbStompBattle: Receives a truly epic one from Izuku while in Tomura's body. Izuku has zero reasons to hold back, and so unleashes all of his power and rage on their shared vessel with each of his predecessors showing up as part of the attack rush, leaving All For One with a hole in his chest he needs to cover up without his HealingFactor. It's so bad it further shakes up the melding between himself and Tomura, with the vestige having to force Tomura to stay in place as he essentially fights two battles at once.

** PlayedWith. His [[ImmortalitySeeker long-term goal]] runs counter to the idea of him ever risking himself from using powerful Quirks that could have dangerous consequences upon him if mishandled, thus there were sometimes abilities All For One encountered that were TooAwesomeToUse even if he stole them. However, once his vestige self starts undergoing a SplitPersonalityMerge with Tomura to become the 'invincible Demon Lord' he dreamed about becoming, in a new and enhanced body capable of withstanding the strain of hosting multiple powers beyond his original self's capacity, All For One considers his original damaged body expendable, and has no problem using it with dangerous Quirks like Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] is, content in the knowledge that he'll still live on as the 'Next Me' regardless of what happens to him. However, even then, he reserves actually using it for after Endeavor mortally wounds him anyway, since if he's going to die anyway, he might as well try it.
** When the heroes start actually winning against him, beating him to the point that his body is smashed to pieces and only Rewind keeping him 'alive', he abuses the fact it undoes even otherwise-unhealable injuries to push his Quirks to the point that [[VillainousRROD they'd negatively affect his physical body]], creating a massive blade to slice off Machia's arm and a WaveMotionGun blast to tear apart the empowered dark Shadow, both of which destroy his arms from the sheer power, making it clear that it's a DesperationAttack for him.

* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: His previous battle with All Might has left him severely incapacitated. He has tubes running into his face and neck. When he finally steps outside, he wears a black mask that doubles as a life support system. After causing the Tartarus break-out, he literally has to carry the life-support machine from his cell with him. This is a major plot point during the FinalBattle, as the heroes are entirely aware of this and make a point to target his life support. When it breaks for good, even though he's still able to move and fight somewhat his body won't respond like he wants it to, leaving him open to getting pummeled by Endeavor close-range and almost fatally incinerated to death. However, he reveals that he'd successfully managed to absorb a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind]] Quirk from the Quirk Destroying Bullets before the fight to compensate for his lack of a HealingFactor going in, the Quirk's energy restoring his lost eyes and ears before the heroes' sight. Downplayed, however, as his words flat out imply, he expects to die in the process and is only trading one form of life support for another.
* DarkMessiah:

** During Shigaraki's battle with the heroes, All For One waxes lyrical about this point, saying [[HappinessInSlavery he wants to conquer the world to stop persecution]]. Despite this, it's also made clear that his preaching is simply nothing more than a ''poor'' cover for his desire to TakeOverTheWorld because [[ForTheEvulz he has the power and the ambition to]].
--->'''All For One:''' But under my rule, all will be exploited as the working class! All will be equal! Don't heroes yearn for world peace? Is it that hard to imagine taking a step towards that?
** Once Eri's Rewind Quirk restores him to the prime of health, with his old unhealable injuries rewound to a point they never existed, the combination of his clothing having been burned off by Endeavour's prominence burn move, the Rewind energy covering parts of his body like divine energy and the paneling all frame him like a renaissance art painting, akin to ''The Creation of Man'', a parallel furthered when he fashions a makeshift toga out of a nearby hero's cape. Despite his otherwise holy appearance, All For One ruminates that his dream ever since childhood has always been to obstruct the future of the world, just because that is [[ForTheEvulz something a villain does]] to be [[TheDreaded feared by all]].

* DeathByDeaging: {{Discussed}}. He considers (or at least wants the heroes to think he does) his permanently-disfigured and broken body to be '[[ExpendableClone destined for the scrap heap]]' in favor of his ideal self as undergoing a SplitPersonalityMerge within Tomura's strengthened body, thus he has no issues using [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique potentially dangerous but highly-useful abilities]] with his old body despite his entire endgame being to find a way to become an immortal and invincible demon lord. He therefore 'tests out' a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] he absorbed from the Destroying Bullets to see how it will affect his broken body in place of a proper HealingFactor, despite the potential risk of him having NoBodyLeftBehind from mishandling the Quirk. This is in part because Endeavor manages to fatally burn him almost to ash, so he has nothing to lose.
* DeathGlare: As he's trying to fly off to rescue Tomura, he's still smug in the face of Hawks' attempts to stop him...until Hawks' points out Endeavor already ''beat'' him, prompting a hateful glare from All For One.

* BodyBackupDrive: His ultimate purpose for Tomura. Over the decades, All For One's own body had experienced difficulties storing new Quirks, as these evolved at a fast rate. When Dr. Garaki performs a body enhancement surgery on Tomura and transplants the original "All For One" Quirk onto the young villain, a vestige of All For One's consciousness, which can override Tomura's will, is carried with it. To this end, All For One starts treating his original, crippled body like a [[ExpendableClone disposable pawn]], willing to undertake risky moves with it that he would never do himself otherwise because he fully plans to live on through his 'Next Me', performing faux {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s with it to further his plans, such as staying behind to fight All Might to enable Tomura and the League to flee the scene despite the risk of him losing and being executed for his crimes, or using a variant of Eri's dangerous and untested 'Rewind' Quirk he salvaged from the Destroying Bullets in order to 'try it out' on a body that he held no particular attachment and was already doomed anyway.
* BodyHorror: With the exception of his mouth and chin, his head is a mass of scar tissue, with no eyes, nose, or ears; judging by the scars on the back of his neck, there are likely many more hidden within his suit. During the final battle, Endeavor manages to burn him alive with a point blank Prominence Burn, reducing him to a charred corpse only for All For One to use Eri's Rewind Quirk to rejuvenate himself, with the energy undoing every injury that's inflicted on him in gruesome detail, from being smashed to bits to self-injuring himself from throwing a SlasherSmile too wide for his face to properly hold, ripping his mouth open.

** When facing off against All Might, he drops a bombshell by revealing Tomura Shigaraki's true identity: Tenko Shimura, the grandson of All Might's mentor, Nana Shimura. All Might is so stunned by the revelation that he briefly loses the will to fight. It takes the help of Endeavor and other Pro Heroes for him to get back into the fight. Later, when All Might visits All For One in Tartarus, All For One wastes no time trying to antagonize him by making an educated guess about the current state of society and mocking All Might's powerlessness.
** When facing off against Endeavor in the final battle, he wastes no time trying to get under his skin, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech bringing up his abuse of his children and accusing him of shirking responsibility by pitting Shoto against Dabi.]] Hawks desperately warns Endeavor to not fall for his mind games and Endeavor is able to ignore his taunting for the most part... until All For One mentions his indirect role in Dabi's descent into villainy, enraging Endeavor and leaving him vulnerable to a brutal counterattack.
--->''''All For One:''' (''Chapter 354'') But Hawks... Your timing doesn't quite match up. It almost seems like Endeavor's heart isn't in it? Behold, Endeavor. Everyone is fighting so hard to fulfill their role. Even the novices among them are focused on the battle at hand. So why does it feel like ''your'' head is somewhere else? ''Maybe because your masterpiece mopped up your failed experiment?!'' '''Aren't you delighted?!''' You should know, for ''ages'' now, I've had my eye on your twisted longing for power. And the thing about me is when I come across fertile ground, I can't help but sow seeds. [[WhamLine You never did find Toya's body, did you?]]

* TheBully: At his core, All For One is this. For all his power and influence, All For One is nothing more than a narcissistic, psychopathic bully who just wants to lord his power over everyone and everything, and constantly mocks and belittles anyone brave enough to challenge him. In particular, his hatred of All Might stems from him dismantling his criminal empire and ruining his image of himself as this all-powerful demon lord.

* CannotTellFictionFromReality: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. All For One isn't ''completely'' delusional and is fully capable of understanding the reality of his situation and adapting it to suit it long-term plans with practiced skill. But as the series approaches the FinalBattle, it becomes clear that on some level he genuinely does see the events unfolding around him like a real-life comic book, helped by the fact that he exists in a world with ''actual'' superpowers. He sees himself as a real life "Demon Lord" and sincerely refers to non-One For All users as "jobber characters" who only exist to showcase his strength in a fight. This mindset backfires on him constantly when those same "jobber characters" start turning the tables on him.

** It becomes apparent that while All For One is capable of becoming stronger, One For All's ability to improve is superior to his own. With each transfer, it exponentially increases in power while also retaining and empowering ''their'' Quirks as well. All For One can only stockpile powerful Quirks and thus is limited to what he can find. In addition, he can't actually ''increase'' the power of the Quirks he's stolen unless he can find Quirks close enough that he can stack them on top of one another. It is greatly implied that part of All For One's obsession with One For All is his acknowledgement of this, as if he were to combine the SuperEmpowering trait with his own stockpiled abilities and an [[ImmortalitySeeker extended lifespan]] in Shigaraki's enhanced body, he would effectively become a God in name and deed.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Later in the story, it's revealed that he knew who the holders of One For All were the entire time. He just let them live long enough to cultivate the Quirk and pass it on to a new wielder before he personally killed them. All to ensure that One For All would become as strong as possible before he stole it. Even after it grew powerful enough to overwhelm him, he refused to kill All Might or Midoriya and risk losing his prize before the [[SuperiorSuccessor next "him"]] could claim it.

* CardCarryingVillain: When All Might visit him in prison, he outright asks All For One for his motives. The villain plainly states that being "[[EvilOverlord an all-powerful devil king]]" had always been his ambition. This sets All For One apart from the rest of the League and villains in a big way. He ''chose'' to be a villain entirely of his own free will for no other reason than that he ''wants'' to be. He knows he's evil, he simply doesn't ''care'' because being a demon king ''is'' his end goal in and of itself.

* CastFromLifespan: A Variant. After getting fatally torched by Endeavour's hands, he staves off immediate death by using Eri's Rewind Quirk as an Impromptu HealingFactor, undoing his present and long-term injuries in a matter of seconds, meaning his existence from that point onwards is owed squarely to this. However, he admits the ultimate end result will still [[DeathByDeaging be fatal for him regardless]], and the speed at which he de-aged indicates that it's only a viable option for him alone because of [[LongLived his extensive lifespan]] letting him use it as an HourOfPower. Furthermore, he himself notes that whilst it prevents him from getting fatally injured, physically damaging him in this state causes the Rewind energy to work harder to undo the damage, burning through his remaining time quicker. By the time All Might confronts him once again, he's reverted into a teenager about Izuku and Tomura's age.

* CombatPragmatist: For all his power, All For One is a ''very'' dirty fighter and will use any tactic to gain the advantage in a fight. He'll play mind games to get under his opponent's skin, use sneak attacks, take others as human shields, and even threaten innocent bystanders to win. In ''Volume Origin'', he knew that Nana was using the final dregs of One For All, yet he does not hesitate to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill kill her with a massive explosion that ravages an entire island]]. During his fight with Endeavor, he immediately engages in psychological warfare, bringing up his abuse of his children to throw Endeavor off his game. Endeavor is able to ignore his taunting for the most part... until All For One mentions his indirect role in Dabi's descent into villainy, enraging Endeavor and leaving him vulnerable to a brutal counterattack.

* TheCorrupter:
** Took Tenko Shimura, the grandson of his most hated adversary, and groomed him from childhood to become his own successor as a villainous symbol of evil.
** In ''Vigilantes'', All For One muses that he can turn anyone into a villain by either making their Quirks go berserk or igniting their rage to violent proportions.
** It's later revealed that he was able to turn Aoyama to his side by offering them a Quirk, as said person was naturally born Quirkless, enabling them to live their dreams of being a hero before the demands he made of him in return for his 'favor' turned into a twisted nightmare for [[RegretfulTraitor him]]. This is exactly what Yoichi warned the two unnamed individuals whom All For One demonstrated a similar 'deal' with about far in the past.

* AbusiveParents: Zigzagged and then ultimately played straight. He does appear supportive towards his adopted son at first, but the ensuing reveal that he intends to merge with Tomura into one being against his will shows he never actually cared about him at all. He just saw him as an extension of himself, making him the ultimate narcissistic parent. Tomura also mentions over and over how nobody saved him when he needed it even though All For One supposedly ''had'' saved him, implying he's known all along that his master had condemned him to a life of suffering, and deeply hates him for it. This is confirmed once Tomura calls him out on grooming him for his own purposes, destroying the vestige controlling him and rejecting his adoptive father once and for all.

** The injuries All Might inflicted upon him during their prior clash never healed properly, as he lacked [[HealingFactor Hyper Regeneration]] at the time, and [[DramaPreservingHandicap continue to limit his effectiveness in battle]] in several ways. He is forced to [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport constantly be connected to life-support equipment]], which he attempts to disguise by repurposing it into a CoolMask to intimidate opponents with, but Hawks points out that the fact he took said equipment with him when escaping Tartarus is a sign that he ultimately ''needs'' it regardless, and thus targeting it becomes the focus for the heroes confronting him without One For All's strength to overwhelm him. When it eventually does break, All For One's body quickly shuts down and fails to respond properly, leaving to him getting fatally torched by Endevour's Prominence Burn move. Furthermore, the injuries on his disfigured 'vessel' of a body limit the total power he could actually unleash against the heroes, as the strain of the powerful Quirks in combination together was more than he could physically withstand, and the loss of his natural senses leave him open to eating a massive blow from Tokoyami when he's briefly unable to use the sensory Quirks he was compensating with.
** His [[EvilCannotComprehendGood inability to understand positive emotions]] repeatedly screws him over in several ways but becomes a fatal weakness for the Vestige of himself merged into Tomura's psyche. Being able to understand and assimilate only the negative part of Tomura's personality left him blind to the fact Tomura had retained his individuality thanks to the ''positive'' emotions and memories he still possessed. This allows his protege to steadily start [[FightingFromTheInside regaining control of his mind and body from within]] as the heroes start damaging the physical body All For One is controlling, leaving him panicked that the merging is coming undone and he has no means of preventing this mid-fight. The [[CurbStompBattle utter thrashing]] Izuku unleashes on Tomura's body is bad enough that Tomura seizes full control and obliterates the vestige one-sidedly.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Even as a kid he loved to emulate a demon king from a manga and came to revel in the power to rule the world. He was there at the beginning of the Quirk crisis where Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains arose, rising to power in the ensuing chaos. It can be argued that his ambition is [[PsychopathicManchild the exact same as it was ever since he was a child]] -- to become an invincible demon lord and successfully enact whatever plans and schemes he has to in order to ensure a future where TheBadGuyWins, and all that changed in the meantime was the variety of Quirks he could steal, export and monopolise towards that childish dream at the expense of countless people.

*** All Might, as the murderer of his mentor Nana Shimura, and the one who dealt him a crippling blow. He reciprocates the feeling towards All Might, despising him for destroying his criminal empire, and makes his loathing clear during their interactions. Exploited by All Might in the FinalBattle, as he banks on All For One's pre-existing hatred of him combined with his ongoing VillainousBreakdown, Shigaraki's influence on his psyche, and [[FountainOfYouth Rewind]] making him too unstable to be capable of ignoring him if he sees him, and they engage in a final brawl as he puts on PoweredArmor.

*** Izuku after the Kamino incident. He becomes fixated on him as his new enemy after All Might's retirement and tortures the boy mercilessly, almost like a child who's found a new toy. And the feeling is mutual on Izuku's end as he loathes and detests him with every fiber of his being. Him being the final One For All user also magnifies All For One's obsession with the Quirk, as he grows increasingly determined to destroy the young man at any cost necessary.

* ArchnemesisDad: To Shigaraki, having raised the boy as his adoptive father with the express purpose of absorbing his consciousness into himself to ascend as a "more perfect Demon Lord." In the Final Act of the story he becomes as much of a threat to Shigaraki's goal of becoming the greatest villain as he is to the heroes, although he keeps trying to play it off as genuine respect. He only sees Shigaraki as an extension of himself, [[ItsAllAboutMe explaining why he was able to care about him at all.]] It was always in service to his own prosperity and to Shigaraki's detriment. It boils to a head in Chapter 379 where Shigaraki manages to fully retake control of his body and destroys the vestige of All For One within him, making it clear he has no desire to steal One For All or be All For One's pawn.

** Mass Quirk combinations like his 'ultimate combination of Quirks' fall into this: he has to activate the individual Quirks and spend time actually letting the changes to his body take effect. Against All Might this wasn't an issue because All Might couldn't really counterattack and no one was able to interrupt, but he's notably never shown using that complex of Quirk combinations otherwise, normally settling for one or two at a time.
** He finally manages to unlock the full strength of his stolen Quirks through [[EmotionalPowers channeling his hatred and refusal to lose into them]], something he can only achieve through his deepening mental link with Tomura. This allows him to unleash cataclysmic blasts of power far quicker than he could with his mass Quirk combinations before. However, his body cannot withstand the strain of such power, and every time he does so it utterly disintegrates one of his arms. Thanks to [[FountainOfYouth Rewind]] he can use this as a repeat tactic, but every time he does so it temporarily handicaps himself, and regrowing his limbs burns up more Rewind energy than necessary, further limiting the time he has remaining. Furthermore, due to the self-same mental link and All For One's unfamiliarity with handing such strong emotions, [[SanityHasAdvantages he no longer thinks his actions through carefully]], resulting in him continuing to make sloppy errors in judgement that get worse the more the heroes exploit his ego.

* BackFromTheDead: At the ''exact moment'' of death by being [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill nearly vaporized]] by Endeavor's flames no less, as he activates his artificial copy of Eri's Rewind reverse-engineered from Overhaul's bullets despite ensuring CessationOfExistence [[TheLastDance just to make the fight even harder as he heals to his prime]], making [[HopeSpot all their efforts for naught]] to screw with them one last time.

** All For One seems to be genuinely lenient, patient, and encouraging as leader of the League, willing to give them as many chances to succeed. However, this "compassion" is but a false front: ultimately, he sees people as mere means to an end, and '''will''' abandon them as he sees fit, without remorse. During the Paranormal Liberation War arc, he hijacks Tomura's body and flees the battlefield, deserting most of the League of Villains members, including [[UndyingLoyalty Gigantomachia]]. He frames this as Tomura's punishment for losing the battle against Deku and Endeavor. Otherwise, he averts this trope through PragmaticVillainy.

* BadSamaritan: He made it a habit to take in desperate children harmed or rejected by society and provide guidance for them. Not because he cares for any of them, but because he was on the lookout for children with powerful Quirks and enough trauma that he could mold them into potential host bodies to replace his damaged original one. Those who were unsuitable for that were put to use as either minions or materials for his Nomu experiments. In some cases, it's implied that he was at least partially responsible for some of the circumstances that lead the kids into his clutches in the first place. It turns out his ''entire endgame'' is to set up a situation where everything is so horrible, he can swoop in to 'help' with his Quirks, all so he can force the world to bow down to him as their demon king.

* BadassLongcoat: Chapter 193 reveals that he used to wear one, back in his prime.
* BaldOfEvil: Everything from his mouth upwards is nothing but mangled scar tissue, including his scalp. Granted, he used to have hair before his first clash with All Might and gets to have it back temporarily when using Rewind as a SuicideAttack against Endeavor's group.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: On two fronts, his plan relies on both subjugating Tomura's personality to absorb into his own, and then use their combined wills to override the will of One For All. This ends up backfiring spectacularly as the punishment he suffers in Tomura's body from the heroes stacks and stacks with Erasure deactivating his Quirks, leading to the "fissure" resulting in Tomura's original aspect as Tenko to fight back against his adoptive father. When Izuku catches a glimpse of All For One's inner vestige world, he sees him stumbling around in a pool of metaphysical miasma, on the cusp of being overwhelmed and just barely keeping himself and Tomura merged. And in the end, he fails as Shigaraki regains control.

* BelievingTheirOwnLies: The longer the FinalBattle drags on, the more evident it becomes that All For One has largely been deceiving himself on the veracity of his plan to assimilate Shigaraki's personality and become an immortal Demon Lord. Even after the heroes have bested him numerous times and Shigaraki has (albeit without his knowledge) destroyed his vestige, he still cannot concede defeat because [[SunkCostFallacy he's too far in to quit]], and as a coping mechanism continues talking down to them, saying they're helpless without All Might even though their cooperation has been foiling every last one of his schemes.

** People pointing out that [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin villains are inevitably destined to lose]] is a more downplayed one, that combines the above two points together. He grabbed Yoichi by the face to force the power-stockpiling quirk onto him when he refuted his dreams of TheBadGuyWins with this and his ongoing VillainousBreakdown through the FinalBattle is tied to the fact that no matter how much effort or planning he put into averting this outcome, he's somehow ''still'' [[SoreLoser losing]] in the end. Hawks becomes fully aware this is an easy way to get under All For One's skin, and while trying to stop him from falling back to save Shigaraki, he invokes this by reminding All For One that Endeavor already beat him and hitting his 'self-image threatened' button. This successfully causes All For One to go from smug and mocking to a hateful DeathGlare.
** Though he keeps a stoic facade on, it's shown that All For One cannot ''stand'' people who keep a positive outlook on the future, and believe in outcomes where the heroes triumph, feeding into both the above points. To his warped perspective, this disrespects the "Demon Lord's" position as [[TheDreaded a figure of absolute dread and misery]] that [[HopeCrusher humbles and terrifies all around him]], and continued rejection of this outcome only makes him redouble his efforts to demoralise and break his enemies' will, with his inner monologue showcasing him getting continually more frustrated by their persistence. His Vestige, upon suffering an actual ''loss'' against Star and Stripe because of this, ''snaps'' into a VillainousBreakdown, ranting at her as the 'Spectre of [[HopeBringer All Might]]'.

* BigBad: He is the central antagonist of the series and the founder of the League of Villains until All Might beats him and he is incarcerated. Even with him imprisoned, the story still frames him as the ultimate evil, and his presence is felt throughout. It becomes PlayedWith later on, as upon freeing his original body from Tartarus, he takes back control over the remnants of the League in full and focuses his efforts on destroying Midoriya and completing his centuries-long plan of stealing One for All, aided by the fact that Shigaraki's consciousness is getting subjugated by the SplitPersonalityMerge with his vestige. This becomes entirely [[SubvertedTrope flipped]] towards the end as he turns into a BigBadWannabe instead once Shigaraki destroys his vestige.

* BishonenLine: Thanks to being pushed past his limits by Endeavor's team, All For One is forced to use Rewind in order to briefly return to prime strength and make his way to Shigaraki. This gradually undoes all of his injuries, but [[FountainOfYouth only because he's getting younger.]] The more damage inflicted upon him; the faster Rewind is forced to go. He goes from his current, mutilated state to a middle-aged, yet handsome and well-built, man. He later de-ages to his mid-to-late 20s, looking very similar to Tomura and Dabi. This is only viable because of how long he's lived; otherwise, it's implied he wouldn't have more than a few meager minutes at best.

* BlindSeer: He's been blind since his fight with All Might and uses an "Infrared Ray" Quirk to sense his surroundings. The prison he's kept in has so many sensors that it impairs his ability to "see". This ceases to be the case after he activates a variant of 'Rewind' he managed to get from the Destroying bullets Tomura successfully salvaged from the hospital, with his right eye regenerating as part of the WhamShot of his survival despite lacking a direct HealingFactor like Tomura or the Nomus at that point.
* BloodFromEveryOrifice: He escapes the effects of Stain's [[TheParalyser Bloodcurdle]] this way, using "bloodlet" to forcibly expel all his viscera out of himself, with a lovely shot of the fluids bursting from his eyes and ears before he's [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank entirely obscured by his own body mass of blood]].

* TheAgeless: He's older than ''One For All'', which has been passed down through ''nine heroes'', yet has not aged since. All Might speculates that he found a Quirk that stops aging, later confirmed to be Dr. Garaki's Quirk, "Life Force". It's implied that he's not ''truly'' ageless, but his natural ageing process has been slowed down so noticeably that he'll be alive and in good health for a ''very'' long time -- and his overarching plan throughout the series is ultimately to create the 'next him' in the younger Tomura's body with said Quirk copied into it, meaning All For One would outlive his original self's natural death and have an extended lifespan on top of that. This is part of the reason his HourOfPower with Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind]] is able to last so long -- despite the energy rewinding him at a speed so fast that the wounds All Might inflicted on him years ago vanish in seconds, he's ''so old'' that his lifespan has enough years on the clock that he's confident of freeing his 'Next me' before his inevitable CessationOfExistence.

* DidntSeeThatComing: This is All For One's general reaction throughout the final arcs of the series as his plans completely fall apart around him.
** His plan to isolate and wear down Izuku during the Dark Hero arc fails because he didn't take into account that his friends at Class 1-A weren't just going to sit back and let him run himself ragged.
** In both his fights with Star and Stripe and Armoured All Might, the concept of a genuine HeroicSacrifice with no benefit to your wellbeing completely blindsides him, resulting in him showcasing a horrified reaction to his enemies' unorthodox tactics to take him down at any cost. Even when he counters All Might's due to knowing he'd pull ''something'' against him, its made clear he genuinely can't comprehend a willing selfless sacrifice for another's sake.
** His plan to use Aoyama to lure Izuku away failed because he didn't think Aoyama would be brave enough to turn on him, nor did he expect Aoyama's friends would be willing to give him a second chance to atone for his mistakes, resulting in ''him'' getting lured into a trap instead.
** He's shocked when the collective wills of those whose Quirks he stole start fighting back against him, allowing Team Endeavor to destroy his life-support mask and nearly burn him alive. It's only thanks to Eri's Rewind Quirk that he didn't die right then and there.
** He admits to Hawks that he originally planned to [[DeathOfPersonality utterly subsume Tomura's psyche]] into his own once he inherited his Quirk and was taken aback that Tomura's willpower enabled him to resist this to the degree of a SplitPersonalityMerge instead. His back-up plan of enacting a FusionDance between his original and copied vestiges to suppress Tomura for good also falls into this, as by the time he reveals this to the hero, Tomura's already ''destroyed'' his original Vestige, something All For One never anticipated as a possibility.
** The idea that Gigantomachia's loyalty might actually have its limits never occurred to him. As a result, he expected Machia to instantly be on his side again the moment he was freed from the heroes' confinement. It turns out not only was Machia furious at being abandoned despite his loyalty, but his SuperSenses meant he realized it was All For One possessing Shigaraki that abandoned him. As such, he's caught flatfooted when Machia genuinely turns on him.

** He hyper-focuses on Izuku as his one and only challenge to his ultimately victory in the setup for the final fight. Whilst he's proven correct that One For All's immense strength is the greatest threat to him in a fight, dismissing the other assembled heroes besides Izuku as [[UnderestimatingBadassery irrelevant]] only allows them to repeatedly take him off-guard and gradually chip away at him despite the absurd range of abilities and powers he possesses in both bodies. This culminates in his original body ''actually dying'', because he couldn't process the concept of the 'Demon Lord' having to struggle against 'mere gnats'.
** He brainwashed Kurogiri to protect and serve Tomura Shigaraki, and to always follow his orders. When he's losing control of his possession over Tomura's body, he desperately orders Kurogiri to warp him away so he can stables himself. However, Kurogiri has enough of his original self left within to recognize that the being in command of said body is ''not'' [[ExactWords Tomura]], and so fails to respond.
** All For One's LackOfEmpathy and extreme pettiness means he only places value on ThePowerOfHate, and sets about making Tomura's life a hellish existence where he's given no reason but to abhor absolutely everything so he can be filled with enough rage to be used in stealing One For All through a forced SplitPersonalityMerge. All For One doesn't consider that ''perhaps'' this is really a case of him BullyingADragon, and it leads to Tomura blowing his vestige up from the inside to regain control of his body, now the true master of his almighty All For One Quirk and the true BigBad of the series.
** His desire to be an absolute villain HatedByAll meant that, despite him [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide lording his past success]] as the ShadowDictator of Japan as either intimidation against his enemies or incentive for others to cooperate with him, when he actually ''lost'' to All Might, nobody wanted to remember him and his vile actions, resulting in him effectively becoming a [[{{Unperson}} faceless nobody]] by the present day. Though he sets up multiple intricate plans to regain his [[GloryDays former glory]] and more, as these repeatedly fail by the story's climax, it just throws into perspective how [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen pathetic he actually is]] underneath his intimidating exterior as the 'Symbol of Evil'. His attempt to intimidate the various 'Jobber characters' for trying to defeat [[BigBad him]] just has Inasa point out that he's literally a forgotten remnant of history that nobody wants around, which he considers [[DudeWheresMyRespect an insult]] to the reputation of the [[InvincibleVillain immovable evil]] the 'Demon Lord' is supposed to embody.
** A zig-zagged case when he chooses to engage Armour All Might in battle, despite knowing his nemesis is pulling a delaying tactic whilst he's on a RaceAgainstTheClock. All For One judges that he has enough overwhelming power and excess time to overcome anything All Might pulls against him, and is ultimately proven correct despite being put on the ropes several times, but his sheer petty malice is clearly a major motivating factor in him choosing to proceed with the 'distraction' regardless. Despite his success, and almost breaking the watching world's hopes along with All Might's body, the fight delayed his arrival long enough for Bakugo to recover as his final opponent, rendering all his effort for nothing.

** All Might specifically invokes this against him, during their third fight. All For One is on a RaceAgainstTheClock and has no logical reason or benefit to delaying himself to kill a Quirkless All Might and risk vanishing before he can reach Tomura. All Might instead banks on his pre-existing hatred of him and his [[SanityHasAdvantages unstable mentality]] from his [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody reverted age]] to override his rationality and compel him to kill him at all costs in order to sooth his bruised ego for the humiliations he's suffered. It works like a charm, despite All For One's retorts to the contrary, and even upon his eventual victory, the fighting bought enough time for Bakugou to revive and snatch All Might from his nemesis' grasp right as he was about to kill him on international television, further humiliating him over how nothing is going the way he envisions.

* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: His previous battle with All Might has left him severely incapacitated. He has tubes running into his face and neck. When he finally steps outside, he wears a black mask that doubles as a life support system. After causing the Tartarus break-out, he literally has to carry the life-support machine from his cell with him. This is a major plot point during the FinalBattle, as the heroes are entirely aware of this and make a point to target his life support. When it breaks for good, even though he's still able to move and fight somewhat his body won't respond like he wants it to, leaving him open to getting pummeled by Endeavor close-range and almost fatally incinerated to death. However, he reveals that he'd successfully managed to absorb a variant of Erik's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind]] Quirk from the Quirk Destroying Bullets before the fight to compensate for his lack of a HealingFactor going in, the Quirk's energy restoring his lost eyes and ears before the heroes' sight. Downplayed, however, as his words flat out imply, he expects to die in the process and is only trading one form of life support for another.

** He chooses to face [[PoweredArmour Armoured All Might]] in battle despite having little to no practical gain and being on a RaceAgainstTheClock to reach Izuku, and fully aware that All Might is trying to delay him, because he hates his ArchEnemy ''that much'', and the temptation to succeed in killing him on international television like he failed to do at Kamino is [[HopeCrusher too tempting to pass up]]. Whilst he eventually succeeds in overcoming every trick All Might has up his sleeve, and even subverts his last-second TakingYouWithMe to [[BreakTheBadass emotionally break him with his failure]], the fighting drained what excess time he had left to waste and bought enough for Bakugou to revive as his final opponent when every other hero was down for the count, meaning All For One's efforts were AllForNothing despite how much effort he out into trying to break the world's hopes.

** A zig-zagged case when he chooses to engage Armour All Might in battle, despite knowing his nemesis is pulling a delaying tactic whilst he's on a RaceAgainstTheClock. All For One judges that he has enough overwhelming power and excess time to overcome anything All Might pulls against him, and is ultimately proven correct despite being put on the ropes several times, but his sheer petty malice is clearly a major motivating factor in him choosing to proceed with the 'distraction' regardless. Despite his success, and almost breaking the watching world's hopes along with All Might's body, the fight delayed his arrival long enough for Bakugou to recover as his final opponent, rendering all his effort for nothing.

* EvilIsBigger: His crippled body ''looms'' over everybody else, aided by his life-support helmet making him look even taller, and adds to his dominating and imposing presence. However this becomes {{Inverted}} during the final battle, as when [[FountainOfYouth Rewind]] pushes him back to the point his body begins to physically de-age, he winds up shrinking down into a young boy even smaller than Bakugou, along with his status as the [[BigBad driving threat]] of the conflicts.

** The vestige All For One is shocked when Mirko's attacks actually start staggering Tomura's body, despite his [[NighInvulnerable almost impervious]] toughness. He quickly realizes that Bakugou's new DangerousForbiddenTechnique somehow managed to leave lasting damage and weakened him somehow, despite all the effort he's put into ensuring Tomura would be an all-powerful being unchallenged by anything but the accumulated power of One For All. Furthermore, he's stunned to realize that he himself felt threatened by Bakugou at that moment, struggling to accept that a 'random background extra' could elicit such a response from him.

** The vestige of himself merged into Tomura's psyche makes it clear that he's focused on killing Bakugou as painfully as possible to break Izuku's HeroicWillpower with his mangled corpse. He eventually succeeds in putting him down when a blow to his chest causes an internal detonation from his Quirk that blows his heart to pieces.

* EnfantTerrible: After Armored All Might's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown against him to cause Rewind to make him disappear, he's regressed to a young boy by Chapter 400, [[{{Bookends}} who fittingly looks like a heavily-mutated version of the Luminescent Baby due to him glowing brightly like the first ever Quirk-user]] and still retains his desire to kill All Might.

** Ends up one to Bakugo, interestingly enough. All For One's belief that Quirks dictate the entirety of a person's value instead of the other way around is an uncanny mirror of Bakugo's own belief system at the beginning of the series. As Bakugo fights his vestige in Shigaraki's body, he essentially comes face to face with an incredibly warped version of himself and once again affirms he was wrong to treat Midoriya how he did and is finally ready to step up as a real hero.

* AxCrazy: He was ''always'' this to an extent, as indicated by the lengths he'd go to to sadistically torment others and his desire to stoke universal animosity towards himself, but had enough self-control to be able to channel this into fulfilling his roleplaying of a real-life Demon Lord from his favourite comic books. However, by the final battle, his ongoing HumiliationConga pushes him ''deep'' into the throes of a VillainousBreakdown, combining with Rewind [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody regressing his mentality]] the closer he gets to his HourOfPower running out to erode that self-control and showcasing his mania in full, sporting wide-eyed [[SlasherSmile grins]] that highlight how much he's lost it. Despite logically ''knowing'' that All Might is intentionally baiting him into delaying his precious time and having practically no benefit to halting his rush towards Tomura, his desire to kill him is so overpowering that he ''can't'' resist, [[SanityHasAdvantages his mind becoming ruled by his violent impulses]], coming off as an unhinged madman obsessed with sating his desire for carnage, not unlike [[DumbMuscle Muscular]].

* BodyHorror: With the exception of his mouth and chin, his head is a mass of scar tissue, with no eyes, nose, or ears; judging by the scars on the back of his neck, there are likely many more hidden within his suit. During the final battle, Endeavor manages to burn him alive with a point blank Prominence Burn, reducing him to a charred corpse only for All For One to use Eri's Rewind Quirk to rejuvenate himself, his eye being the first thing to regenerate, resulting in one hell of a NightmareFace. When Shigaraki manages to retake his body from All For One's control, it results in numerous hands erupting from the All For One vestige.

** All Might specifically invokes this against him, during their third fight. All For One is on a RaceAgainstTheClock and has no logical reason or benefit to delaying himself to kill a Quirkless All Might and risk vanishing before he can reach Tomura. All Might instead banks on his pre-existing hatred of him and his [[SanityHasAdvantages unstable mentality]] from his [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody reverted age]] to override his rationality and compel him to kill him at all costs in order to sooth his bruised ego for the humiliations he's suffered. To that end, he strategically mocks All For One as he skilfully combats him with support items, literally kicking the crap out of him whilst laughing in his face over the absurdity of his dream to become an "invincible Demon Lord" when he's too inefficient and pathetic to kill a Quickless man like him despite reaching godlike levels of power with his Quirks. It works like a charm, despite All For One's retorts to the contrary.

** Despite framing it as a voluntary choice for the Tartarus prisoners to join him upon their liberation, All For One actually took note of Stain leaving under his own terms and specifically prepared counter-measures against him because of it, aware that it was a sign Stain was against him and showing that he was only giving lip service towards the prisoner's options.

** He has Dr. Garaki replicate the Quirk All For One, takes the replica for himself, and gives the original to Shigaraki, after foreseeing his own defeat. He furthermore rigged the hospital data on Shigaraki's medical procedure to give an inaccurate timeline for the stabilization of his perfected body. This was set up back before All Might took him down at Kamino, ''months'' before Tomura even underwent the procedure.
** He waxes poetic to Dabi about this principle of his in Chapter 335, making it clear that he's made full use of his [[LongLived extended lifespan]] to prepare every angle he can imagine guaranteeing his victory, regardless of what SpannerInTheWorks the heroes try to throw at him. Given this comes on the heels of him suffering [[BreakTheHaughty his first actual setback]] against Star and Stripe, it underlines how much effort and preparation All For One has put into place before the series even began, that even that can be overcome eventually.

** Dabi's backstory in Chapter 350 reveals that All For One and Garaki ran an orphanage to groom several children in hopes of having a backup vessel if Shigaraki proves to be a failure.
** After Endeavor manages to burn him alive with Prominence Burn, All For One reveals he has one last trump card: A version of Eri's Rewind Quirk recreated from the Quirk Destroying Bullets stolen by Shigaraki, which restores All For One back to his prime. He fully admits that he will likely be rewound out of existence and plans to make the most of it by freeing Shigaraki from the heroes' trap.
** He sent Spinner to rescue Kurogiri from the hospital he'd been contained in with a recording of his voice to relay orders to him, since the Nomu was intentionally LockedOutOfTheLoop to prevent his abilities from aiding the villains. Despite Mic destroying the recording device, a desperate Spinner manages to place Tomura's [[CompanionCube blackened hand]] upon Kurorgiri's face whilst pleading with him to save Tomura, recalling how this roused Shigaraki to action once before. All For One reveals [[BatmanGambit he was counting on this]] as a backup and implanted a microdevice within the hand that relayed his orders to Kurogiri regardless, enabling his [[ThinkingUpPortals Quirk]] to serve his interests once more.

* DeadlyUpgrade: His words fully imply he expects using a copied version of Eri's Rewind to restore his body will be fatal. As a result, he only resorts to using it when Endeavor fatally burns him almost to ashes, as at that point he has nothing left to lose.
* DeathByDeaging: {{Discussed}}. He considers (or at least wants the heroes to think he does) his permanently-disfigured and broken body to be '[[ExpendableClone destined for the scrap heap]]' in favor of his ideal self as undergoing a SplitPersonalityMerge within Tomura's strengthened body, thus he has no issues using [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique potentially dangerous but highly-useful abilities]] with his old body despite his entire endgame being to find a way to become an immortal and invincible demon lord. To this end, he 'tests out' a variant of Eri's [[DevolutionDevice Rewind Quirk]] he absorbed from the Destroying Bullets to see how it will affect his broken body in place of a proper HealingFactor, despite the potential risk of him having NoBodyLeftBehind from mishandling the Quirk. This is in part because Endeavor manages to fatally burn him almost to ash, so he has nothing to lose.

* DetrimentalDetermination: Whilst his sheer commitment towards embodying the role of a comic-book villain so utterly were what allowed him to carve out a successful generations-long reign as Japan's ShadowDictator, by the final arcs it becomes clear that his same desire to [[ControlFreak control the narrative of the story]] to play out the way he wants it to be ultimately [[HisOwnWorstEnemy one of his biggest flaws]]. His eagerness to absorb One For All is such that he focuses on targeting Izuku the ''moment'' Tomura has awoken from his procedure, the Vestige of himself putting that goal first and foremost above crushing the army of heroes assembled before him, like Tomura wished to do, which spared enemies that would give his original self serious problems in battle later. This single-mindedness also benefited Izuku in the end, as All For One's failed attempt to absorb the Quirk instead drew out and strengthened the connection between the boy and the Vestiges of the past wielders. Previously, Izuku's unfamiliarity with the functions of his awakening ComboPlatterPowers [[HowDoIShootWeb handicapped him using them in a fight without long periods of trial and error]], but with the past wielders able to directly coach him on how best to use them, his effectiveness in combat [[TookALevelInBadass dramatically increased]], such that a few months after the War, he is argu the strongest hero opposing All For One, and utterly thrashes his "Next me" in combat so badly, it allows Tomura to easily regain control of himself. If All For One had been more patient and pragmatic in using Tomura's powers against his enemies as a whole, Izuku would not have become such a powerful figure so quickly.

** In both his fights with Star and Stripe and Armoured All Might, the concept of a genuine HeroicSacrifice with no benefit to your wellbeing completely blindsides him, resulting in him showcasing a horrified reaction to his enemies' unorthodox tactics to take him down at any cost.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: While [[HatedByAll he is despised by everyone who is not a villain]], even the League of Villains find their relationship with All for One to be tenuous at best, not helped by how frequently he sees and uses them as tools at best for his own selfish gains. By the {{final battle}}s climax, all of his followers have either left or betrayed him due to his abusive treatment, with Garaki being the only one that remains loyal to him.

* EvilIsCool: An InUniverse example; All for One used to be an avid comic reader in his youth. He states that he identified with and appreciated the villains of the story more than the heroes of the story, and this served as a reason why he decided to become a villain later on. Deconstructed as the nature of this trope shows just how shallow and childish All for One is beneath his grandiose reputation.

** During his fight with Endeavor, he tries to get under his skin by bringing up his abuse of his children, lambasting him for forcing Shoto to clean up his mess by having him battle Dabi. While he isn't entirely ''[[HypocriteHasAPoint wrong]]'', those words ring hollow coming from a man who himself groomed a little boy for the express purpose of turning him into his new vessel for his Quirk and Vestige. Hawks' mental narration makes it clear that All for One doesn't actually give a ''damn'' about being right or having any kind of moral superiority over Endeavor, he just wants to use whatever advantages he can to [[BreakThemByTalking unsettle his opponent]] and regain control of the fight and his situation.

* NoFullNameGiven: His first name is unknown, instead going by his Quirk's name All for One and acknowledges that his last name is Shigaraki, which he also names Tomura after taking him in. All Might later theorizes that the reason All For One didn't show up to fight Star and Stripe alongside '[=TomurAFO=]', despite their shared [[HiveMind mental link]] giving them an unparalleled combat advantage, was that All For One would have recognized the term 'All For One' as his name, and thus been subject to [[RealityWarper New]] [[IKnowYourTrueName Order's]] abilities, despite that technically just being the name of his quirk, showing how he considers his 'supervillain' name his actual name, rather than a title for others to refer to him by.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: When confronted by his younger brother, Yoichi, All For One claims that he is helping people and bringing order to society. Yoichi countered that All for One was just exploiting people for his sadistic whim, which All for One does not deny afterwards.

* ObviouslyEvil: His appearance screams "evil guy"; large and imposing figure, wears a dark suit and a black skull-like mask, uses a bunch of abilities you'd see a villain use, and [[CardCarryingVillain makes no pretensions about being a supervillain lord of darkness]]. [[JustifiedTrope It aligns well with his motivations]]; All for One was inspired by comic books, saw the EvilOverlord as his favorite character, and based his entire character around that archetype, wanting to play out his role as a menacing villain because he just likes it ''that'' much.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Zigzagged and justified as opposed to most examples. All for One remains hands-off because his body was actually horribly crippled during his last bout with All Might prior to the series's start. He only leaves when he's rejuvenated enough to fight and even when escaping from his prison cell, he prefers to stay out of conflict and let Shigaraki do all the heavy lifting, with All for One only personally entering once he's certain everything is going to plan.

** In the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, All for One reveals that every Quirk factor bares the imprint of the user's consciousness, and due to All for One's unique ability to steal others' Quirks, he also receives that imprint. He speaks of how in his dreams the former owners of the Quirks he stole would hurl abuse and haunt him but disappear when he gives the Quirks away. This fact is also the reason why the former bearers of One for All can speak with the current holder and why after transferring All For One to Shigaraki, it also transferred part of his consciousness, allowing him to influence Shigaraki and even take control of him. In Chapter 297, he takes advantage of the Psychic Link created by his body and Shigaraki's to shut down the security system at Tartarus from the inside and outside simultaneously, freeing himself and a bunch of dangerous prisoners as new followers. It's noted this would give them a huge advantage in a fight together, which is why a major aspect of their plan to beat him revolves around not ''letting'' them use it.

* SatanicArchetype: In the past, All For One amassed loyal followers by presenting them what they desired the most. He would cast people away once they became useless. If anyone dared to oppose his will, they would be purged. All For One goes out of his way to commit evil acts and [[ForTheEvulz for no apparent reason]]. One of his principles is to overwhelm his enemy with misery before killing them. Just as All Might is this brilliant savior figure, he is the opposite, a shadowy threat. He even hands out deals to people desperate for their loved ones, like how he manipulated Aoyama's parents into accepting him giving Navel Laser to their son, only to met out worse punishments as "rewards" to keep them in line, like how All for One blackmailed Aoyama into becoming the U.A. Traitor otherwise he would kill his parents, leading to Aoyama's breakdown. By the time of the Final Battle, when he activates Eri's Rewind as part of his ThanatosGambit, he goes back to his appearance before his fight against All Might, with beautiful white hair and covered in bright golden energy, much like Lucifer before falling. To drive the comparison further home, he steals Hawks' Quirk, giving himself a pair blood-red wings, fitting perfectly the FallenAngel archetype as well.

* UncertainDoom: The vestige of himself containing his consciousness is viscerally ripped apart from within by Tomura when he re-asserts control over himself, leaving All For one's mental avatar in pieces. It's unclear if this violent takeover destroyed the vestige portion of All For One completely, but it certainly left it incapable of further controlling Tomura anymore. To a lesser extent, the original body of All For One ''exists'' in this state thanks to the combination of Eri's Rewind interacting with his [[LongLived extended lifespan]]. Not even he knows when his remaining time will run out and he will cease to exist, informing his haste to secure victory with his 'Next Me' before the inevitable happens.

** The All For One vestige inside Shigaraki has one in Chapter 333 after stealing Star and Stripe's Quirk only to find out it has been ordered to rebel. He desperately tries to find someone to transfer New Order into before it destroys him. The chapter ends with All for One damning the specter of All Might that Star represents.

* WithMyHandsTied: As their final fight continues, All For One taunts All might that he's well aware of [[VictoryByEndurance his victory conditions]], and so he won't both using all his power to destroy a Quirkless opponent like him, calling it using "power-saver mode" against him. When he attacks All Might with [[BodyHorror gigantic fleshy constructs]] that literally eat through entire buildings to get at him, the former number one accuses him of lying, only for All For One to refute that statement. Awe-inspiring as the devastating attacks are, they're really nothing much to All for One with him rewound back to the prime of health.

* WorldsStrongestMan: His Quirk is the most powerful one in the series. All For One himself remained unchallenged for over a century until the advent of All Might. By the present day however, the fact his [[GameBreakingInjury wounds and crippling at All Might's hands]] mean that he no longer ''is'' this, informs much of the plot. All For one embarks on a complex scheme to turn Tomura into his [[NotHyperbole literal]] '[[GrandTheftMe next me]]' in preparation for gaining the ability to claim his former strength and more through the body of a younger, more physically- enhanced individual capable of withstanding the strain of his accumulated abilities without risk of a SuperpowerMeltdown, along with the capacity to finally absorb One For All, the only power that can challenge his reign, and finally succeed in claiming the role for good as a near god-like being that will then TakeOverTheWorld. He even becomes dismissive of his weakened original self after this plan is underway, considering (or at least wanting himself and the heroes to think he does) his old body [[ExpendableClone fully expendable]] once it became incapable of achieving his ambitions.

** This gets {{Inverted|Trope}} against him by All Might during their (second) final bout, as All Might goads him into the pointless battle by [[IShallTauntYou mocking]] him about how, even rewound to the prime of his youth and with greater power then before, All For one's piss-poor performance as a fighter makes him an unworthy opponent for the Quirkless All Might, beating him skilfully with [[PoweredArmour support items]] instead whilst laughing about how he planned to become the "Demon Lord" despite being so incompetent.

* ObviouslyEvil: His appearance screams "evil guy"; large and imposing figure, wears a dark suit and a black skull-like mask, uses a bunch of abilities you'd see a villain use, and [[CardCarryingVillain makes no pretensions about being a supervillain lord of darkness]]. [[{{JustifiedTrope It aligns well with his motivations]]; All for One was inspired by comic books, saw the EvilOverlord as his favorite character, and based his entire character around that archetype, wanting to play out his role as a menacing villain because he just likes it ''that'' much.

* ObviouslyEvil: Everything about All For One - from his character design to his personality - is fine-tuned to accentuate why he's the Symbol of Evil and one of the most wicked characters in the series. Whilst he didn't indulge in a Super villain costume back when he was in the height of his power -- instead preferring to wear either [[BadassInANiceSuit sharp suits]] or a BadassLongcoat ensemble -- when the injuries he endured at All Might's hands forced him to wear a life-support mask into combat, he went out of his way to stylize it into a menacing black skull-like appearance, fitting with how he [[CardCarryingVillain embraces the role of a villain with glee.]] He even goes out of his way to get a second similar mask ready when he appears to confront Izuku directly, despite the league having to lie low and apparently lacking a lot of resources following the Hospital raid, apparently just for the sake of appearing suitably menacing and dramatic when confronting his new '[[SketchySuccessor nemesis]]'.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: Zigzagged and justified opposed to most examples, as All For One is aware of his and Shigaraki's shortcomings and that a head-to-head fight with the heroes is not a guarantee of victory despite their combined might. Early on he prefers to recuperate with his body so weakened and only steps in when he's sure Shigaraki will mature and grow capable of handling his original All For One Quirk. After he frees himself from jail, he again prefers to take it slow and wait for Shigaraki to reach full compatibility with his original Quirk before attempting to steal One For All and kill Izuku again. He only ever personally takes to the battlefield if he's set up a situation where [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose his plans will be furthered regardless of his victory or loss]], or if he's absolutely confident there's ''no'' possibility of him losing, which the heroes [[FlawExploitation exploit]] in the end by tricking him into thinking that all his plans are proceeding as he envisioned, leading him to [[LuredIntoATrap walk straight into a trap]] along with his assembled forces when he tries to strike the final blow on Izuku and steal One For All for good.

* TheSociopath: All for One is a malignant psychopath with traits including an [[{{Narcissist}} over-bloated opinion about himself]], [[{{Sadist}} compulsive enjoyment over hurting others]], [[LackOfEmptathy inability to properly connect with or understand others]], [[FauxAffablyEvil exhibiting a falsified sense of civility]], and [[PsychopathicManchild having very poor impulse control whenever things aren't going his way]].

* SoreLoser:
** Rather than graciously accept defeat in his fights or admit that his brother was right about his doomed quest to become like the demon lord in their favorite comic, All For One will scheme, insult, and squirm his way out of every situation no matter how unethical the means. It's implied that part of his surviving his [[YourHeadAsplode defeat]] at All Might's hands, even without [[GoodThingYouCanHeal Hyper Regeneration]], was his sheer ''refusal'' to accept the loss, motivating him to cling to life no matter what, and he goes out of his way to torment Yagi in ways large and small afterwards, in part because it benefits his plans, but also because he's that spiteful towards the man who emerged victorious against him. He screams in a blind rage when Star out gambits him during their battle.
** He [[PsychopathicManchild childishly whines]] about how "unfair" the fight with Izuku is, being outnumbered, depowered, and isolated from his allies despite this ''[[CurbStompBattle exact scenario]]'' being what he intended to do to the last One For All wielder. This childish entitlement to his "victory" despite having stacked the deck as much as he could showcases just how far he's willing to go to ensure that he will ultimately triumph over his enemies.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Let's be clear: [[HatedByAll barely anybody actually LIKES All For One.]] The only ones shown wholeheartedly supporting him are demonstrated to be [[UndyingLoyalty mentally]] [[MadScientist unbalanced]] in their own ways, and their support comes across more as him manipulating their attachment to him. His rampant narcissism and determination to ruin the life of almost ''anybody'' he comes into contact with show he's a cartoonishly evil and insipid man obsessed with enacting his MaouTheDemonKing fantasies without a thought for anybody it might hurt -- in fact, he ''delights'' in spending time [[{{Sadist}} creatively finding means to make as many people as possible suffer]], just [[ForTheEvulz for the sake of hurting them]], and reacts with ecstatic glee at any bare-faced animosity expressed towards him. What's more, his overarching goal isn't so much to be the WorldsStrongestMan as it is to be so utterly reviled he is recognized as the ultimate villain. Ironically, of all characters, [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan it's Shigaraki]] [[BastardUnderstudy who doesn't]] [[EvilerThanThou let him get away with it]]. It's telling that by the FinalBattle, Garaki is the ''only'' minion he has that genuinely remains loyal to him.

** When he's almost killed by Endeavor's Prominence Burn, he gloats to the heroes that he considers his damaged, disfigured and weakened body expendable anyway. When his body is rewound back into the prime of health by Eri's Rewind quirk, he revels in both his physical health and looks.
** The negative aspects of this trope show themselves when he faces a genuine setback or otherwise has his ego bruised. When he's genuinely outplayed in the final arc, his internal monologue consists of him frantically trying to reassure himself he's still in control. When his self-image as the invincible demon lord is finally completely shattered, All For One can't take it and goes completely berserk. A later conversation with Hawks implies even calling his original body expendable is an attempt to convince himself and the heroes killing him didn't count as an actual loss, as being told Endeavor already beat him causes him to suddenly become furious.
** Another negative aspect is that All For One seems fundamentally incapable of realizing or acknowledging his own flaws. Even if he ''does'' acknowledge them, it's by projecting them onto someone else, usually Tomura. This bites him in the butt, as being unaware he ''has'' flaws means the heroes are free to exploit them.

* {{Sadist}}: All For One specializes in tormenting and [[MindRape psychologically breaking others]] to catch them off guard and cause them suffering just for the hell of it.
** In his final battle with All Might, he gleefully reveals that Tomura Shigaraki is actually Tenko Shimura, Nana Shimura's grandson, knowing the knowledge would hurt All Might the most. He even rebuffs All Might's claim that it's a lie by pointing out that this is exactly the type of thing he would do.
** During the Villain Hunt Arc, he has Lady Nagant explode in front of Midoriya just as he's about to turn her to his side solely to demoralize the boy. Afterward, he sends villain after villain to wear him down and make it easy to steal One For All.
** During the FinalBattle, the vestige of himself that's undergoing a SplitPersonalityMerge with Tomura derides Bakugo's efforts to become strong enough to be the number one hero, mocking him that all his impressive progress and potential means nothing before [[WorldsStrongestMan him]]. Nonetheless, he is singularly focused on killing Bakugo as painfully as possible for one reason only -- because he's Izuku's FriendlyRival, and All For One is ever focused on hurting and breaking Izuku as much as he can both to steal One For All from him and for the sheer pleasure of watching his suffering. He even notes with genuine glee that his Quirks being sealed by Erasure is actually a benefit to him in this case, because it means that when he gruesomely crushes Bakugo to pieces, he'll leave a body behind he can dangle in from of Izuku to further demoralize him. He even goes the extra mile of taunting Bakugo that his hopes of becoming the number one hero are useless when contrasted against One For All's sheer might, and that Bakugo is doomed to forever be a mere side-character to Izuku's story regardless of how strong he gets. Notably, whilst it's hard to tell at times whether Tomura or All For one is in command of the body, it's made crystal clear that this sadistic tormenting is all from All For One.
--->'''All For One:''' Your thoughts? Feelings? What you strive for? No. Katsuki Bakugo... the only thing about you that catches my interest is how you're closer to Izuku Midoriya than anyone else.

* SmugSuper: His arrogance, manipulative nature, and outright malice are matched by a tremendous amount of power. {{Deconstructed}}, however: as powerful and competent All For One ''is'', he's not as invincible or infallible as he ''thinks'' he is. As a result, he genuinely believes he's already won and actually winning is a formality. This blows up in his face when a large part of the heroes' plan to trap and defeat him for good is simply to allow him to believe things are going exactly as planned, something All For One doesn't question because to him, that's the natural way for things to progress. This sees him completely blindsided when he learns too late that they're decidedly not and the trap is sprung.

* TheSociopath: Befitting one known as the Symbol of Evil, All For One carries all the traits of a classic psychopath: he has no empathy or remorse for all the things he has done, shamelessly bragging to his brother about how his followers had wiped out a faction of Quirk users who refused to join him. He views others as mere pawns to be used. He lies and manipulates others with ease. He's a {{Sadist}} who enjoys getting under other people's skin, often taunting All Might about the death of his mentor. He is incredibly arrogant and condescending to the point of megalomania and is charismatic enough to gain a loyal following of villains to serve under him. Even when he does something to help someone, it's never out of pure altruism and he always has an ulterior motive:
-->'''All For One:''' ''(in response to a HeroicSacrifice)'' Thank you for such wonderful comedy!