Imagine this:
You are hated.
You are ten years old and you are hated. Your father existed in your life for only a day, and he doesn’t like you. He can’t understand you. The anger in his voice echoes. You are to obey him. A teenager you just met scoffs at your presence. You feel he looks down on you. You need to prove them wrong.
You try.
They hate you.
Your grandfather sees you as a tool. He loves you, but you are also just a connection to your parents. His expectations weigh heavy. Your mother loves you. But you know this isn’t the life she wanted. The life she deserves. She loves you, but to stay by your side is a shackle.
You see the teenager again. He assumes the worst immediately. You cannot be trusted. You meet a man who calls that teen his brother. He does not like you. He may not say anything, but you can feel the bewilderment, the annoyance. You are a side character, an obstacle to work around.
Still. Still. You want to try again. Your father is here. He is a fighter. You can fight too. You can be better, even. But he leaves you behind. He already has sons who can be better. Your mother tried to warn you.
So you go to your father’s city. America. Gotham. It is familiar in its oppression and yet alien in its hostility, its rules.
You have cut ties with your grandfather. Abandoned your mother. You can’t be alone.
You discover your father is dead. The connection can’t be made. You have lost your family. The brotherly man is there again. He takes you in. But nothing is easy.
Nothing can ever be easy. No one can be kind to you. They never have. You can’t be weak. They will rip you apart. So you persevere. You have to hurt them before they hurt you. Abandon them before they abandon you. Deride them, see their flaws, before they see yours. You cannot be anything less than perfect.
Fighting back makes things worse. You are a monster.
They call you demon. Feral. A spoiled brat. You cannot be a son. You cannot be a child.
They have the privilege of having your father, and they deny your place. You are fighting for yourself. You must survive on your own.
The man gives you a name. It is an honor, but you can’t help but feel it is also a collar.
You are a bird of prey, yet they scorn you for exacting your purpose. What is an eagle if not a predator? You were born to hunt. You were born to maim.
But you are a Robin now. A songbird. You try to fit the mold. You clip your wings, dull your talons. You learn to sing, not scream.
It’s fine. You are fine here. You hold a name that must be cherished. A name that demands more expectations.
It’s fine. You are used to this. Your name was once “tamer.” Now you hold many more names. They watch you. They evaluate you.
You can be hurt, you are strong. You can be shot, you are strong. You can be killed, many ways, but you are strong. They will appreciate you this way. They will praise you. One day. They will love you one day.
You will no longer be hated until you are more than perfect. One day, they will see you as you.
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Shigaraki and Kurogiri as brothers
Not biological, of course. Anyway, I wanted to bring this headcanon outside of twitter. I usually flinch at unnecessary applications of familial terms (I’ve admittedly never liked dadgiri) but I do feel like there's a stronger case for this one, especially with it’s darker tones related to AFO’s cultish “family” of victims. So, I wanted to share my thoughts.
This first point is more of a simple one. Shigaraki and Kurogiri are both AFO’s “students”. It gets lost in translation since it all gets coined as “master”, but they are the only two recurring characters who refer to him as “sensei” (teacher/professor/master)- Machia refers to AFO as “Shū” (lord/head of the house/master).
And, well, AFO definitely raised Shigaraki. Kurogiri ominously says that “Shigaraki isn’t the only one he raised/molded/groomed” when referring to Machia, and he follows it up with “meet another one of AFO’s loyal servants”. Kurogiri tends to be put into panels that have double meanings and it’s very easy to make the connection that he could be talking about himself, too.
There's the third point that there's a strong theme of a cult-like family in the children that are orphaned/kidnapped by AFO and Garaki. AFO explicitly refers to "raising" Touya and being part of a family (of future Nomu).
On top of all of this, you have to look at their ages. Kurogiri has been raised by AFO from as young as 17. Bakugo and Toga are currently 17, if that helps with perspective. An older kid, but still impressionable. Maybe not always happy with all the lessons and dress-up, but he didn’t have the ability to leave. He was brought in at around the same time as Shigaraki, and their age gap is around 10-11 years.
So, here’s the logic. Kurogiri and Shigaraki were kidnapped around the same time, they were both kids, and they were both groomed-raised by the same man during the same time period. They view AFO with a similar reverence. He’s their sensei. Kurogiri doesn’t have any more ability to fight AFO’s will than Shigaraki does, even if he knows more.
So, rather than Kurogiri being a "dad", AFO is the "dad" to the two of them while Kurogiri is more of an "older brother" that's made to babysit Shigaraki (canonically, 'babysitter' is the only concrete term used to describe Kurogiri's role).
More discussion under the cut:
Once you realize they can be read as brothers, a lot of their interactions suddenly takes a more lighthearted tilt to it and a lot of things click in place.
I want to take a moment to debunk some interpretations I’ve seen that Shigaraki treats Kurogiri horribly or something, that it’s this awful abusive power dynamic. For one, Kurogiri can, in fact, say “no” to Shigaraki and his whims. He can’t say no to AFO assigning him as his protector, but this is a job that he genuinely doesn’t seem to mind.
The reason he does most of what Shigaraki says is that he, according to Ujiko, babies him like hell. 254 is the hammer on the nail that Oboro just genuinely likes and cares about Shigaraki, with his care for him being the very reason that Aizawa is able to recognize him under the mist. I’d even argue that the reason that Shigaraki’s voice is on the tape recorder is because AFO knew that Kurogiri would move regardless of mind control.
And, if you really look at the way Shigaraki talks to him, if you read him as a little brother, suddenly all the “idiot”s make a lot more sense. I’ve never quite placed how it’s intended to read but now it’s clear it’s “ugh, my stupid idiot babysitter who can’t read my mind”. It’s a very, dare I say, sibling thing to do!!
And Shigaraki cares in return. He’s clingy at heart. When it’s all over, I can’t imagine either of them would carry much or any resentment. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to have a proper reunion yet, but I’d be shocked if they didn’t.
That’s not to erase the complexity of their relationship that comes with the two of them being under AFO’s thumb, though. There’s plenty of other meta about how Shigaraki is abused by AFO (and it should be obvious how Kurogiri is controlled) so it doesn’t bear repeating here.
Kurogiri aids AFO’s plans and Shigaraki takes advantage of Kurogiri’s mind-controlled service, but at the same time, Kurogiri physically can’t dissent and Shigaraki is likely left in the dark about everything. For the two of them, there’s an underlying sense that they can’t save each other.
They can care, but not too much, and they can’t cling or protect respectively in any meaningful way. That’s why they both need outside help in order to have a relationship that’s genuinely as deep and meaningful as it could be.
Speaking of darker readings... There’s three main big brother/little brother relationships in mha: Toya/Shoto, Tensei/Tenya, and AFO/Yoichi. They’re all vital to the plot, and it‘s worth mentioning that the first two have similarly large age gaps as Kurogiri/Shigaraki. However, AFO always had a "complicated" relationship with Yoichi. Despite that, he seems to have a great desire to be with him. He now lives vicariously through Shigaraki, someone that looks almost exactly like Yoichi, so why not provide him a caring big brother that gives him good advice, just as he believed himself to be? Either ignoring or playing on the fact that Tenko, himself, had an older sister around his age.
EDIT: I COMPLETELY FORGOT!!!
Hammering this in, Shirakumo and Tenko are both paralleled with Mirio and Eri. Mirio is Eri’s babysitter/brother figure while Aizawa is both their sensei… but as a much lighter, happier parallel to the horrific situation that is Kurogiri, Shigaraki, and AFO.
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My family: Hey you wanna come to lunch with us today? We’re gonna make you anyway because when was the last time you left your house?
Me: Well I WOULD but you see I’m neck deep in an obsession about my OC for a mobile otome game and even though I’m not editing his story like I should be right now, I am fleshing out his relationships with the canon characters & my other OCs just for my own knowledge and like yeah I could leave it for a bit but I am just in the MIDDLE of it right now-
My family: 🙂
Me: Yeah okay lemme get my shoes on.
This is how it would go if I even bothered trying to explain the OC stuff to them. But while my parents are aware of the shenanigans, they don’t get it & I already know that excuse won’t work. So fine I guess I’ll leave my house today.
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a while ago @elekinetic asked me to expand on my complicated feelings regarding ted wheeler and it wasn’t until i saw this post by @booksandpaperss that i was finally able to articulate what it was about ted wheeler that put me off so much:
he’s just really fucking clueless.
here’s the thing right, is that contrasted with the violent, abusive, asshole male characters we see in the show— lonnie, billy, brenner— ted wheeler’s character is almost comical. he’s a caricature of the typical 80s husband and father. and on the surface level, this is supposed to be funny or whatever, like, ooh, he’s just some guy, and maybe mike and nancy don’t talk to their parents but the byers’ dad was straight up abusive so it’s better than that. but consider: nancy is literally terrified of growing up to marry someone like her dad and living out a life like her parents (aka why the six little nuggets monologue effectively extinguished any of steve’s chances of getting her back). mike goes to his mom for comfort a few times, and they’re not close either, but we never see him have an interaction with his dad that isn’t hostile or painfully neutral. and ted and holly seem to have an okay relationship, but i’m attributing this to the fact that holly hasn’t yet grown into a person with her own opinions like nancy or mike, so ted finds it easier to be around her because she doesn’t talk back and she doesn’t really have a lot of feelings on things and she’s like a sort of blank slate before she comes into her own.
so this is the problem: he’s just totally checked out. karen can’t ever count on him to support her because he has no idea what’s going on. when he does step in, he does nothing but escalate the situation, usually for mike (“you see michael? this is what happens.”/“it’s strike twenty. if it’d been my coach, you’d be lucky to still be on the team.”) he’s had like, zero interactions with nancy which is maybe the whole point on its own.
and maybe this isn’t articulating my feelings in the most eloquent way but like the tags on the aforementioned post said: yeah maybe this isn’t the worst thing ted wheeler could do, but it doesn’t mean it’s good. there’s a permanent sort of silence that seems to linger over the wheeler house, why even though they have a clean kitchen and a basement and fancy plates at the dining table, the byers’ house is infinitely more homey than theirs. why even though karen obviously tries, sometimes trying isn’t good enough, because she defers to ted every time. having a parent be totally clueless and totally checked out really fucking sucks and it shows.
(and to sum it up: my dad thinks ted wheeler is the funniest and most relatable guy ever so that’s all i really have to say on the subject)
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