My Hero Academia

But isn't it AFO that actually tells Shigaraki he'll need equal allies and not just lackeys of no consequence?

That article is a fascinating take… Also pretty relevant when it seems like the new Joker movie is taking a similar approach to The Killing Joke (though I'm still waiting to see it to judge). The article does an especially good job at explaining why the MVA arc needed to be a full arc and not just a one-off chapter or off-screen event as some suggested it should have been. It's not just a "villain power-up arc" or an inversion of heroic shonen tropes − although there's also that −, it's a tremendously important arc thematically.

I don't know if Deku will save Shigaraki in the end, but that would make sense with what the story has been building up so far.

…By the way, is that scene between Tenko and his mom an addition of the compiled volume? I can't remember it…

The one with the itch eyes? No, that was in the original flashback chapters.

The one issue I'd have with that analysis is it saying that Shigaraki was raised with domestic violence, because, while their situation was undoubtedly unhealthy and bad, I don't think it actually got to that point until that one day we saw.

And while going "it just happened that one time" feels really weird, I think in this instance it's actually important because it highlights the tragedy of the situation even more - because it made Tenko's mother and grandparents say enough is enough, and, seems to imply that Kotaro might have actually started trying to work on his issues instead of burying them. Things might have actually gotten better if not for the horrible timing of the release of all that Quirk stress or whatever it was.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 15th 2019 at 1:34:05 PM

I think that's exactly what gives it so much power. His dad is never physically abusive, and Tenko is never enjoying killing people.... until his dad is faced with the product of his abuse who hits out and he resorts to violence, and Tenko mirrors him and does it too.

A shame some people looked at it and went "that's it? Eri and Shoto went through worse and they're not evil, so terrible backstory". Like, even ignoring that Eri and Shoto had people to save them (in literal and/or figurative ways) different people are, well, different, and one person going through something "worse" in no way invalidates someone else's past. Aside from just being really callous, I also think that sort of thinking can easily reduce a story's writing.

Similarly, regarding AFO, I think he genuinely did, and still does, care for Tomura. Just like he actually cared about his brother. And just like he apparently actually cared about a lot of his subordinates that he hates All Might for taking down.

I think it makes the character more interesting that he's both a horrible, twisted person capable of doing terrible things, and is also capable of genuine (albeit twisted, because it's him) love. Which is part of why the whole "All For One gave Tenko his Quirk, and set literally everything else up after it!" an unappealing notion to me.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 16th 2019 at 3:07:08 AM

Wanna know how I got these scars?

Hey I've seen people argue against the idea that Thanos ever loved his kids even if its a toxic harmful form of love.

Edited by slimcoder on Sep 15th 2019 at 12:45:12 PM

Did these people sleep through the soul stone scene that 100% demonstrated that, in his own fucked up way, Thanos DID care? That the big huge twist is that sacrificing her DID work?

A shame some people looked at it and went "that's it? Eri and Shoto went through worse and they're not evil, so terrible backstory". And yet i'm not surprised. I feel like horikoshi is practically beating us over the head with this stuff yet people miss it. But then i also regularly see threads where people ask basic questions that have been answered or even miss fairly simple stuff. Like, one guy didn't see the Bakugo-Endeavor parallels. After a chapter where Bakugo straight up imitates him!

Edited by devak on Sep 15th 2019 at 10:26:04 AM

Yeah, I do believe he feels that he genuinely cares, so he’s not truly psychopathic.

Just it’s a very unhealthy and warped love that sadly if he never existed would have made the lives of so many people much better

Those people were too put off by man-pain and fridging to care.

That too.

Edited by Cross on Sep 15th 2019 at 4:36:47 AM

Also a little bit of "abusers can't love".

I'm more put out with Replacement Goldfish AU Gamora.

There was a lot to dislike about the Soul stone scene.

The irony being that we may have gotten a better & more entertaining Gamora out of that.

Both Soul Stone scenes were kind of....eh

And that's on top of the fact that the comics Soul Stone never had anything like that as a requirement to take it.

It was something made up for fridging and man-pain.

Edited by M84 on Sep 15th 2019 at 10:12:20 PM

Well...the movies never adhered too closely to the comics anyway. But I REALLY don't think the Russo brothers actually thought much about the implications of how the stones were received.

The abusers can't love thing is an coping mechanism thing abuse survivors do. While their is a decent chunk of abusers that do love in both fiction and in real life it is as mentioned before and twisted, toxic kind of love.

I think most people whom say that are more saying that to try remove the complicated feelings an situation like that can bring.

Edited by Wispy on Sep 15th 2019 at 8:15:53 AM

I personally am just sick of the LOV fans who are all 'abuse is UNFORGIVABLE but killing people is cool', and 'murder is fine so long as you have a tragic backstory'.

I always found that attitude really strange. It's not just in this fandom here.

It also pisses me off when people say dumb stuff as it makes abuse survivors look like potentially murderous lunatics.

However tragic a character may be they cross the line when they escalate to wanton murder.

Man does the League's acronym make this sound weird.

I don't deny what Shiragaki has become. I also don't ignore what was done to him (way to make you mom's sacrifice meaningless in every way possible there Kotaro) either.

There's no good side in his backstory, except for maybe his mom, who died trying to reach out to him.

But yeah, despite the genuine tragedy of what happened, it doesn't excuse what Shiragaki is trying to do now, and we need to stop acting like having a tragic past gives you an excuse to then ruin other peoples lives when they've done nothing to you.

Just think of it in Undertale terms where "LOV" means "Level of Violence".

Edited by sgamer82 on Sep 15th 2019 at 10:43:49 AM

I am now imagining someone like Shigaraki with the power of determination that Frisk/Chara and Flowey has.

Quite the disturbing thought.

I'm reminded of that joke in Phineas and Ferb where Doofensmirtz accidentally names his evil scientist organization Love Muffin.

I can understand the position of "for me, because of personal experience, characters like Bakugo and Endeavor hit harder than the actual villains of the story". What I do get annoyed by is people trying to turn that into more than personal baggage and assert that Endeavor and Bakugo are objectively much worse people and what they've done is way worse than actual murder is annoying. I've already elaborated my thoughts on the notion that serial killing and mass-murder are somehow less "real" than bullying or domestic abuse.

A lot of people don't seem to understand that you can like villains while still understanding that they're villains; and so you get them downplaying or even attempting to justify their actions because apparently liking bad people in the context of a fictional story makes you a bad person in real life.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 16th 2019 at 2:51:31 PM