My Hero Academia

I could maybe see him being like not a good kid, but amoral when he was young and trying to survive with his younger brother. Especially as there’s no indication they had parents to raise them in these times.

And then It all goes downhill from there.

If anything, I could see him as a deconstruction of the Escapist Character, where as a regular kid he end up using the villains as ones and desires to be like the villains of his comics one day because Evil Is Cool... and then his Quirk awakens, and he realizes he can be just like the villains.

No. At some point you need to stop making all your prominent villains some combination of tragic/sympathetic/misunderstood, especially when it adds nothing.

AFO is basically a Chuunibyou who never grew the fuck up.

Edited by WorldTurtle2 on Apr 6th 2021 at 6:15:07 AM

We got plenty of tragic and misunderstood villains.

It's got it's appeal, and it can add depth to them....but sometimes, you just need a jerk.

AFO works really well as just someone who couldn’t help but be corrupted by the immense inherent freedom and power his Quirk provides.

Like Killgrave from Jessica Jones.

Edited by slimcoder on Apr 6th 2021 at 6:16:14 AM

Ichigo is going to hit him with a sword and loudly announce “this dude is just lonely!”

I wasn't saying he'd be tragic or anything. If anything, what I said was meant to highlight just how warped he is, that he chose to become the ultimate supervillain just because he thought the villains in his comics were cool.

The flashback of the brothers already established he did like the villains more, what I suggested would just expand on it.

Edited by RebelFalcon on Apr 6th 2021 at 9:50:35 AM

I'm fine either way, I just think it's pretty easy to make the argument that, in a story that very much seems to be about how villains are made, not born (the same applies to heroes, but not the focus right now), to have the Big Bad essentially be evil just because he is is a bit counter-intuitive to the narrative. (Yes, there are characters like Muscular but they're not really major and you're not supposed to think of them as anything more than obstacles to be overcome.)

Note - the reasons he's the way he is doesn't necessarily have to be sympathetic in this hypothetical, just existent.

Edited by LSBK on Apr 7th 2021 at 2:19:52 PM

I think AFO was someone who was always very manipulative and egotistical from a young age and he just got the worst possible quirk that could be wielded by someone with that personality type.

His desire to become just like the demon king in the comic books, his tendency to want to take everything for himself, and the glee at the destruction he causes all highlights how he's still got the mentality of a child. A narcissistic child with multiple superpowers and the moral compass of a roulette wheel.

Edited by drakecake72 on Apr 6th 2021 at 7:12:34 AM

Reminds of a scene from Code Ment.

Shame that series isn't uploading much anymore, because it is a gold mine for quotes.

Fairly certain it won't be updating ever again. PurpleEyesWTF announced he was retiring from making Abridged series anymore, and cemented it with his final Abridged video: Digimanz The Adventure Too. He'll still guest voice in other series, but he's said as far as making his own series, he's officially retired.

Edited by RebelFalcon on Apr 6th 2021 at 11:21:40 AM

[x5] Hey, who knows, maybe we're about to get Muscular's tragic backstory next chapter.

Edited by WashTheLaundryHero on Apr 7th 2021 at 1:50:19 AM

I wouldn't mind getting more backstory for All for One, but I don't think the story needs it. The current villains are the dark mirror of the young heroes, characters in which the audience can see parts of themselves. All for One has a different role, narratively.

Still, that could change. I mean, Endeavor was in a similar role in the beginning. But I can see All for One being just an asshole who got addicted on his own Quirk and the feeling on control over other people it gives him.

I personally don't think All for One needs to be explored that much more. The general feeling I got off him is that he is basically one of those edgy assholes that constantly think Villains are cooler than heroes and I wish I could be one and sadly got the worst possible power for someone whom has that type of power fantasy.

I think hes a good contrast to a lot of the other villains in that way, he doesn't really have deep seated trauma or an issue with society or something, hes just a power hungry dick.

I think if they were gonna give him a sympathetic backstory they would have needed to hint at it way earlier. Shigaraki's bckstory was hinted at as early as the USJ arc, Dabi's backstory has had hints dropped all over the place, and Twice's backstory started to get explained in his first appearance after the camping arc. Toga and Spinner's backstories took a bit longer to get into, but I think both of their backstories feel like natural extensions of how they were presented beforehand. The big exception is Compresss, and pretty much everyone thought his backstory felt out of place. So if they want to flesh out AFO's backstory it has to be something that meshes well with what's already been established, especially in the flashbacks. To that end I think that AFO originally genuinely trying to help people unhappy with their quirks before succumbing to megalomania could work.

Edited by Druplesnubb on Apr 7th 2021 at 11:33:07 AM

I apologize if this has been asked and answered already, but does anyone know why the April 4 installment of MHA didn't post to the Viz site? I've checked the site, and it doesn't even have the indication that another chapter is coming anymore.

I just checked, scrolling down after the last page of chapter 307 on Mangaplus, there's a notice saying next chapter is coming on the 11th.

Not sure why it took 1 week since the release of 308 for them to put it on Mangaplus, but at least there is a notice for it.

EDIT: oh, 11th April is also listed on MHA's title page in Mangaplus.

Edited by ShiningStardust on Apr 7th 2021 at 10:27:57 PM

Basically, Horikoshi got sick so the chapter got delayed.

Any update on his health? I hope he's doing okay.

Well, he's back on schedule so...

Also, 'the author is ill' is kind of the generic explanation they give every time any manga gets an sudden break, so it could be anything really.

Part of me wonders if it's not just Horikoshi's physical health we should be concerned about, but his mental health as well. I can imagine it's not easy to be him, especially with some of the tweets he gets. I hope he recovers, but I also want him to take all the time he needs.

Back to the Shigaraki Brothers, while I get it's because Horikoshi doesn't want to reveal their real names yet, the way they keep referring to each other as just "Brother" feels really artificial, especially on AFO's end.

Edited by LSBK on Apr 7th 2021 at 8:00:58 AM

Well that's what happens when you have to force a mystery to keep going.