the scariest thing about old tv isnt really the racism or the sexisim because you kinda go in braced for that it’s all the scenes where suddenly an actress is holding a lion cub or a chimpanzee is in the same room as a toddler, or suddenly theres a lion, or there’s a chimpanzee again but it’s driving a car, or holding a lighter, or holding fireworks. You just kind of watch in horror as over and over an actress performs with only 1960s tv film shootings best animal handling between her and the opening to Nope.
This is how I learn that the famous chimp my dad got my nickname from tried to kill Reagan. Fuck yeah.
Horikoshi giving hero tropes to the villains is probably my favorite part of bnha.
He presented us with a nervous wreck of a boy at the beginning of the manga. Look, he seemed to say, isn’t he creepy? isn’t he evil? He met Tomura in his most lanky form. Malnourished, neglected, real dead hands all over his body and blunt nails digging mercilessly in his skin.
Sure, the story paints him as a real villain. He is there to kill kids, after all. He wants to kill the light of the hero society, to spread violence and hatred all around. He’s also very very suspicious. You get that feeling that there’s more to the story. It’s in the way he acts, his desperation. He looks sick. What is he making him so? What is his story?
Tomura is a loser. A failure since the beginning, if you follow the narrative. Characters like Stain, Overhaul and Redestro point it out: Tomura isn’t the best strategist per se, they can’t understand his reasons to do what he does, there’s something wrong with him in villain terms.
That’s when the brain starts to pick up the signals and plants the doubt. Many people don’t notice it, but something in the story gives away that he is a very special type of villain.
We see him alone in his dark messy room, staring at a screen. We see him drinking alone in a bar as he sits on his misery. Over and over, we see that evil boy and his burdened stance. Only Kurogiri is there. His master only talks to him through some radio. He doesn’t mention anyone else. No one else seems to live in that bar but Kurogiri and him.
Back then, when Tomura was all about AFO and All Might and no one else, he felt hollow. Rotten.
We first saw him approach someone for help and some company after the first LOV members were introduced. We meet Toga and Dabi, then Tomura goes to find Deku. Is he still creepy? Yes. Is he still evil? Also. We have Giran talking about Tomura with the fondness you reserve for a spoiled child. The way Kurogiri and Giran talk about it, it’s more like Tomura needs to make some friends. He’s not used to it, so he’s being rude to them.
He’s a chosen one reluctant to make friends, since he’s used to doing things on his own— or at least with people he didn’t care about. Next time we see him, his telling Kurogiri that he doesn’t want them to die, he wouldn’t sacrifice them for a goal and he actually wants them to succeed. He talks like a leader, he considers them important.
When they show us the LOV around Tomura as he talks to a kidnapped Bakugo, there’s something in there already. How they worry when Bakugo hits Tomura and knocks the hand out of his face. They humanize Tomura, which is a lot to say when AFO did everything he could to dehumanize him. They make Tomura be more mature, more responsible and more capable. While AFO paints Tomura as a foolish child that cannot get things right until he’s guided there, the LOV trusts Tomura to take care of himself and guide them.
That’s when the hero tropes with villains started.
A quick list from the top of my head:
Twice overcame his trauma mid-battle in order to save Toga and then the LOV.
Tomura was tempted by Overhaul to betray the LOV in exchange for power. He pretended to agree, only to backstab Overhaul because Tomura would never forgive those who hurt his friends and would never betray the LOV.
Magne went to attack Overhaul for offending her and her friends, defending their ideals and their right to exist ‘til death.
Mr. Compress took the leading role in many dangerous situations to assure that the LOV would get their win, but also to assure they’d make it out alive.
Tomura would forgive people not on his behalf, but for the benefit of the LOV.
Giran refused to sell any info about the LOV and laughed in his captors face because he was not so important to them. Turns out he was bluffing about it being all business, since we know from Twice’s flashback that he did it also for the fondness he felt towards the LOV and the LOV went there to rescue him.
The LOV rushing through a battlefield the size of a city while desperately trying to find a way to save Tomura.
Twice and Mr. Compress refusing to leave Tomura fighting Gigantomachia alone and taking the burden of his training with him.
Dabi doing all he could to save Twice and snapping when he realized Twice was dead.
Mr. Compress worried about Toga and her solo mission.
Spinner telling Toga that she needs to come back safe and sound to them.
Tomura refusing to die or give up while the LOV still needs him (to be a hero).
Twice already dead and still moving because he needed to save Toga.
The entire LOV refusing to even consider defeat because they blindly believe that there is no way Tomura can lose.
And there’s so much more…
The LOV made Tomura act heroic. They gave him a reason to want to save and protect, instead of just wanting to destroy.
Nobody is talking about how Tenko has the little sibling trauma all over him, because AFO really said to his face that Hana was “too well nurtured” and Tenko was forced to take all the blame for something Hana led him to do and—
You can see how Hana was the golden child at home. There’s a panel of her petting Mon-chan while Tenko is left outside. There’s a panel of Nao hugging her protectively as Kotaro strikes Tenko down.
It’s not her fault, she was just a kid and she really loves Tenko. It just doesn’t change the fact that they were treated sooooo differently. While she learned to lie and fake in order to please her dad, Tenko suffered and nobody did anything. It had to do with how sexist Kotaro was, of course. It had to do with the fact that Hana was untouched by AFO, while Tenko never stood a chance because he was born a puppet.
Tenko was the family failure for not having a quirk, while Hana acted like the hero, promising Tenko pretty lies and filling him with hope and doing all she could to support him.
The little sibling who is not enough.
The black sheep for wanting to be a hero.
The naive loser, daydreaming to escape his reality and make the world a better place.
The son that cannot carry his dad’s legacy and that cannot be the man his dad wants him to be.
The little child that hides with his mom, because she’s the only one who cares to heal him or hear him or look at him like she’s proud of him.
Too fragile. Too foolish. Too broken.
Tenko was led to believe that he was a monster because he lost control (once!! at 5 years old!!) and did something unforgivable with a quirk that wasn’t even his. Half a quirk.
Hana died running and Tenko died chasing her that night.
Toga couldn’t use tomura Or touya’s quirk. Because that ability depends on whether a) she loves them and b) her understanding of their quirks.
Toga’s love for them was never in question. It never should have been.
It was her understanding of their quirks that was in fault.
Touya’s quirk is not just a basic fire quirk but has a subsidiary ice factor while tomura’s quirk was incomplete and not his own to begin with. Something they themselves were unaware of.
When toga couldn’t use their quirks it was just some old fashioned foreshadowing.
I hope little Himiko finds out the truth. That she loves them both (that her love was true and strong) and that she is loved in turn. That it wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t use their quirks.
My heart is breaking in a million pieces because Tomura thinks he can destroy the world and go back to the League, but he doesn’t know that most of them are either dead or terribly hurt.
He doesn’t know Twice died because he refused to betray them. Tomura doesn’t know that Mr. Compress sacrificed himself to save him, doesn’t know about the way that Compress screamed he loved the League as he went down. He has no clue about what AFO did to Spinner in Tomura’s name, the way Dabi explained so perfectly to Shouto the LOV and their philosophies because he always paid attention even if he said he didn’t, Tomura wasn’t there to witness Toga’s breakdown over not being able to use the Dabi’s flames or his decay even if she loved them so much.
At his absolute worst, even once the worst of his own past is over, the thought of them keeps him going.
It’s honestly so upsetting to see that the majority of people just don’tunderstand that Tomura doesn’t actually get enjoyment from killing people.
Tomura has literally felt so sick to his stomach that he has thrown up when he has killed people before.
The difference between all of the times Tomura has felt physically ill from killing people and all of the times that Tomura has gotten “enjoyment” from it(Tomura doesn’t feel enjoyment,he feels relief.) is that each time the person he killed had hurt him first.
Killing the people that hurt him is just genuinely the only thing that Tomura can think of to get them to finally stop so that they won’t hurt him anymore.
Tenko had originally reached out to his father for help, only for him to be struck by him with a gardening tool…and only then Tenko killed (with purpose) his father to stop him from hurting him again:
Tomura only wanted to kill the two drunk men after they had hurt him for literally just walking down the street:
Tomura wanting to kill the heroes that had hurt him (with the intention of killing him):
Tomura still doesn’t get enjoyment from killing people who hurt him, but he does experience relief from it…
((Edit: I would just like to clarify that the relief that Tomura feels from killing people that hurt him comes from knowing that they can’t hurt him anymore (relief that he is safe, even if temporarily) It does not come from him getting rid of the “itch” that he experiences (it always comes back, even after killing), like AFO groomed him into believing. I saw someone add that in the tags, and I realized that I never fully explained my thoughts on it. LOL.))
Not to mention, Tomura was literally GROOMEDby All For One (which is something that people just like to ignore for some reason…) to even have this desire to kill people in the first place.
And even then Tomura doesn’t have the desire to kill people in the way that AFO wants!
His want for destruction stems from his inherent empathy for others, and his inability to understand how people are able to ignore the suffering of others. Not what All For One has groomed him into believing.(That Tomura’s want for destruction is an impulse that’s something inherent to him.)
Tomura has continued to have empathy for others despite AFO’s grooming, and has showed genuine kindness to the league on many occasions…
All of this is such an important aspect of Tomura’s character and being able to actually understand him, and it’s so disheartening constantly seeing people completely overlook this part of him.
Stop saying Tomura’s entire character is because of afo’s meddling. He literally managed to become someone despite that much interference. Despite being treated as a puppet he found allies he could trust. Despite it he truly loved them and fought tooth and nail for them. Tomura would flatten a mountain for spinner, he promised toga he’d protect what was dear to her, he took revenge for Magne and motivated Twice. He trusted all of them. He’s so much more than just a puppet.
