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someone needs to redraw this as shigaraki and mon-chan

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while we're talking about hcs it makes me laugh to picture afo making Tomura learn piano to practice finger control, but like he fuckin hated it and quit, and if the league stumbles across a piano for some reason he sits down and they're all like "???? He plays??" then its just. Shitty hot cross buns

Lol hilarious, but I think it would be funnier if Compress is like Oh! I'm the cultured one! I can play piano! And he does something pretty basic but passible, and then Shig's like neat, I learned that song in my lessons too. And of course with some goading he fucking sits down and plays it and is somehow better than Compress???? Excuse???

Bonus, Compress is doing slight of hand at some point and Duster goes, hey that wasn't great, you may need to practice this finger flick to get better rotation on the object. And that's how they find out that was also practice for controlling his quirk and Compress is this close 👌🏼 to having a breakdown

(Spinner is the one who also accurately concludes that video games were also originally part of his training, but he actually liked those so he stuck with them)

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AO3 Comments are SO SO SOOOOOOO important because you can only leave Kudos ONCE. You add to the hit count ONCE (every 24 hours).

So whenever someone updates their fic, the ONLY way an author knows who their regular readers are is if they comment on each chapter. And we WANT to know who's still reading.

Believe it or not, some of us think about the name that pops up constantly in the comments and go "omg I can't wait to see what they think of THIS SPECIFIC SCENE cuz I KNOW they'll say something about it!!!"

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I think the League of Villains should get to go to an arcade and play those Pac-Man versions for 8 players. I think they should play Super Smash Bros until their eyes tear up because they are not blinking. I think they should be allowed to talk on pictochat on the DS and send stupid notes and share silly jokes.

Honestly they are way too love deprived maybe a little attention and a little fun and a little healthy bonding time would help. Just saying.

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Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

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Whenever I'm rereading Tenko's past and I reach that part when he's on the floor over everything that happened to him and Doc Garaki looks at AFO and goes "should I fix him?"

The horror I FEEL. They're looking at a 5 years old and wondering if they should erase his emotions to "perfect him". Doc Garaki is stripping him of his humanity in such a casual way. Should I fix him? like he's broken for suffering over the death of his family, for grieving , for feeling conflicted because he is free of the house that abused him but they are all gone and he misses them.

They're about to change his name and surname and convince him that he was born to destroy and live in misery. They are about to cover him with the hands of his deceased family. They are about to offer killing people as comfort, nurturing the hole of hatred and rage in his chest for their own plans, but it isn't enough damage? Torture?

Should I fix him?

I'm sorry. It makes me want to cry. He's 5 years old. He has no one. His family failed him. Society failed him. Not even Overhaul was that cruel with Eri. Not even Endeavor was that cruel with Touya. No one has ever been that cruel in the bnha world.

He's offering to nomufy a 5 years old.

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Tomura wants to be the LOV's hero, but does he know that Spinner wanted to be his hero?

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thinking about this old post of mine (tldr: I think kurogiri was programmed to not be allowed to show tomura affection) and it led to this mini comic

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a kurogiri theory/hc.

I have a theory for why Tomura was so much colder towards Kurogiri than he was towards the rest of League. We see Tomura be very accommodating and, dare I say, kind towards most of the League. He doesn’t get angry when Spinner gets up in his face and yells at him, he doesn’t lash out when Toga pulls a knife on him during the Overhaul arc, he never gives Twice shit for the self imposed limits of his quirk, etc. But with Kurogiri we see him be very angry, I remember him even calling Kurogiri stupid and threatening him during the USJ incident.

I think that this anger towards Kurogiri is likely a consequence of how Kurogiri’s programming effected his an Tomura’s relationship when Tomura was growing up. We don’t know much about Kurogiri’s programming (there might be more info about it in Vigilantes but I haven’t read that, if someone has and there is more info about how he was made/what AFO did to him please let me know!!) so I am going to guess what sorts of things he is forced to do and not do.

Kurogiri was made from Shirakumo Oboro’s corpse, someone who (from what little i know about him in Vigilantes) is very kind, great with kids, and a hero hopeful. I’m sure if Shirakumo saw little Tomura and how he was being raised (read: groomed) by AFO, he would try to put a stop to it, so AFO would want to ensure that Shirakumo’s personality does not break through (as has been known to happen to Nomu).

So the first bit of programming I think AFO did to prevent that is pretty obvious: I think AFO programmed in that Kurogiri cannot deny any order given by AFO to either Kurogiri or Tomura.

I think something else AFO would have been worried about is Tomura growing too dependent on or too affectionate towards Kurogiri. The reason grooming works is because groomers chose a victim who is isolated. They usually don’t have good relationships with their peers or their parents, so they latch on to their groomer who is giving them the attention that they don’t get anywhere else. Because of this lack of a relationship with anyone else, it also means that the victim does not have anyone to talk to about their relationship with the groomer, so no one will be there to point out that what the groomer is doing is inappropriate.

This leads me to my guess on the second bit of programming Kurogiri was given: do not show Tomura affection.

Showing Tomura affection would make him more attached to Kurogiri, and consequently not solely dependent on AFO, thus making the grooming less likely to work. Kurogiri obviously took care of Tomura’s basic needs and protected him, that is his job, but I think anything beyond the bare minimum was likely not allowed. No hugs, no bedtime stories, just what would keep him alive, so that AFO is the sole provider of all of the “love” and affection that Tomura craves.

Now, how would that cause Tomura to have the tumultuous relationship that he has with Kurogiri by the time of USJ? Well, from what little we see of Tomura’s childhood after being taken in by AFO, it was pretty fucked up. Getting beaten up in the streets, frequently physically ill, constantly scratching his own throat out, being forced to kill… not great to say the least. Couple that suffering with a “caretaker” who can only do the bare minimum, who cannot comfort him when he is in pain, who cannot step in when AFO is pushing him too hard, and some resentment towards said “caretaker” is likely to form.

I don’t think that Tomura hates Kurogiri, and I think that logically he knows some of Kurogiri’s coldness towards his pain is a result of AFO’s influence, but feelings don’t always listen to logic. I think that the planning of AFO in harboring a tumultuous relationship between them worked, and Tomura now has some deep seeded resentment starting from a very young age towards Kurogiri that can’t just be removed by the logical understanding he has as an adult that Kurogiri is just doing what he has to.

anyway, that’s my guess. I’d love to hear what you guys think and any other bit of programming you think AFO did.

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HE LOVES THEM

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Thinking about how when my oldest brother took Japanese classes his professor was like your pronunciation is really good 😊 but you need to watch movies that aren't about the Yakuza because you sound like a criminal

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Overly crispy image but Tomura is the best lol

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YOU ALL ARE ABSOLUTELY SLEEPING ON TWICE BTW HE IS THAT HE DOESN'T HAVE AT LEAST ONE VOTE C'MON EVERYONE

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Watching a series about how cult leaders are made and again I'm in awe of how Tomura had everything laid down for him to become one.

He kinda was during the Paranormal Liberation Front bit, but he really didn't care about them 😭

It's impressive how many times he chose to be honest with the members of the League. He was not trying to manipulate them, he was not trying to mastermind anything ill intended with them??? He never tried to use AFO's name to give himself more importance, which is wild. You're the heir of the king of the underworld, but you use it as an excuse for others to bow down to him. Sure, you call yourself the king, but that's because you will do it by "your own merits"???

There's even a moment in MVA when Compress is soooooo worried over Tomura's wellbeing that he uses Tomura's identities as leverage to force Doc Garaki to help them!!! Crazy crazy, Mr. Compress goes "HE CAN'T DIE HE'S AFO'S SPECIAL BOY RIGHT? YOU MUST HELP HIM". It's so clear that Mr. Compress didn't care about the AFO bit, but he knew Garaki cared and Compress would do anything to keep Tomura protected.

I'm just saying!!

He could have taken advantage of them, but the most Tomura did was break them free and told them to cause havoc. He never encouraged them to not be friends, to distrust each other or to only pay attention to him. He never encouraged them to compete to be closer to him. There weren't any ranks beside him as the boss and even then he'd go beside them to war, he'd fight next to them, he would listen to their complaints and change what he could to accommodate their demands.

Right from the start, Tomura never saw them as his slaves (like AFO) or soldiers (like Redestro). He did call them pawns in a game once at the start. The difference with Overhaul is that Tomura saw himself also as a pawn and he saw the League as important characters. That's his team. He won't plan for them to die or sacrifice themselves. He plans for them to succeed! He plans on making their dreams come true, not just his. He won't put his own goals over theirs, he won't destroy what they like, he won't cut down their freedom.

Tomura explicitly opposed the cult-like systems of bnha. He called Redestro a coward for letting his people fight for him while he watched from afar. Tomura challenged Overhaul over the importance of their "subordinates", making clear that he didn't consider the League of Villains disposable or even replaceable. While AFO took over his body he would only talk about himself over and over, but whenever Tomura broke through and as soon as he was back in control, he talked about his friends and the League. Even through the possession and the fighting and the pain, they were in his mind.

He was thinking of them.

Tomura was a brat. He would throw tantrums and call himself the king and give orders and arrange plans without them. The difference is that Tomura never tried to step over the League of Villains. He didn't care if Spinner had a weak quirk, he was a valuable member as the rest. He didn't punish Twice for bringing Overhaul to them, instead gave him a chance to make it up because he knew that Twice was feeling bad about it. Tomura allowed Dabi to come and go as he pleased, trusting him even if Dabi never had a good recruited lol. He'd call Toga a brat, but he'd defend her too and he'd answer to her whenever she questioned him. He spared an entire cult system for Compress and his sushi. He terrorized Overhaul to avenge Magne.

Tomura never snapped at any of them beyond their introductions. Even when they'd sometimes threaten him physically. Even then.

He had everything to be a crazy cult leader who promised the ending of times, a free world and whatever. He talked a lot of bullshit, said a lot of true things, but he was human about it, sincere.

He never lied to the heroes either, did he? Never said something he didn't believe in. Never hide his hatred or resentment. Tomura never pretended to be someone he was not, unlike AFO.

I think about all of this when people ask if Tomura can be saved. I think about how his circumstances were the worst imaginable, about the weight of the grooming, abuse and the brainwashing he had to survive. I think of 21 consecutive years of hell on Earth, but somehow he isn't as cruel as others. He can be, he showed us as much. He has done terrible things just because he wanted, not 'cause he was told to or manipulated into doing it. If he wanted, he could be as cruel as AFO.

And yet.

And yet.

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“but AI art lets me create my OCs!” YOU WILL USE PICREW AS GOD INTENDED

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Shigaraki Tomura: actually a nice and fair guy