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suugiart · 5 months

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So @melatien tagged me with the panel in this image and said the man that's leaving is probably AFO

I completely forgot about this panel because my most recent memories are of the anime, BUT THIS WASN'T IN THE ANIME. THEY LEFT THIS OUT.

You all remember the theory about AFO giving Tomura Decay, right?

I have this nagging feeling now that Tomura was actually quirkless. That's why he was a "late bloomer."

I used to be convinced that this theory was just that. A theory and nothing more. I've considered the fact again that his quirk just... doesn't make sense. You would expect maybe something similar to Nana's floating quirk, not something as random as Decay. This was the only thing I saw giving the theory any traction: the weird occurrence of Tomura getting a decay quirk. That can also be deduced to mutated quirks like Eri's and Tokoyami's (I believe he has human-looking parents. I recall it being mentioned in one of the light novels. Correct me if I'm wrong). But we have this panel showcasing a very tall man wearing a suit and NO TIE, MIGHT I ADD, sending Tomura home. I also feel like it's important to note the heights here. We know AFO is very very tall, coming up to a whopping 7'4 (still nothing compared to Fatgum who stands at 8'2, but this isn't about him), and the average height of a 5 year old boy is about 3'6-3'8, and we can see that Tenko just comes up to this man's hips.

One of my friends said they think AFO was just scouting, which is also completely possible! Again, this is only a theory. But I have a feeling that he already knew about Kotarou. I'm sure he has ways of finding out everything he can about the OFA users (he has a lot of "friends," after all). It probably wouldn't be too hard to learn that a pro hero such as Nana had a family. It makes sense that AFO would specifically target a user's family since he's also shown a bit of a tendency for revenge, given that he KILLS the users instead of only trying to get OFA (more specifically: Yoichi) back. (This can probably be excused pretty easily though, because as of the latest chapter (407) we can see that he also kills for the sake of killing, but I feel like it's different when it comes to the users).

His revenge on Nana was using her son as a vessel for himself when his body eventually grew too weak to continue on. It could easily have been a part of his plan to give Tenko that quirk when he brought him home so that Tenko would eventually kill his entire family by accident, leaving AFO with the perfect opportunity to take him in.

I got stuck for a bit on the itching, because it seems to be an effect of his quirk, and it was happening before his quirk came in. But I think that can easily be deduced to stress or anxiety. Itchiness can be an effect of stress and/or anxiety. Tenko was very stressed and anxious in his living situation because of his father. Having a father who beat and berated him because he didn't have the same ideals (and even had a dream that went against those ideals) obviously would have made him highly stressed, and would have made him feel anxious when at home.

He learned that getting rid of the problem (his father) made the itching go away. Which would make it easier to believe what AFO told him.

AFO took him in and told him that the itchiness is because he has a need to destroy, and that it can only be fixed by destroying.

Now when he is angry, his first resort is murder. When he can't murder someone he's mad at, he gets stressed out because things aren't going his way, which causes the itching to return.

All For One manipulated this child into believing that the ONLY WAY to get rid of that itch is to DESTROY. Considering that this is only a theory, this could still be very true. The itchiness could still easily be a side effect of a mutated quirk that he was simply born with. And because it's initially a quirk for destruction, the itchiness is just a way of telling him to destroy (and theory-wise, I think this still works. Stress caused him to itch, and it ultimately played a part in him murdering Kotarou. The quirk is emotion-driven, so it's possible that because the itch led him to murder, the quirk intensifies the feeling because it triggers his need to destroy).

(I will add that the quirk could still be used for good. He'd make a great rescue hero specialising in evacuation, minus the "must kill or itch will stay" bit.)

This is such a horrific revenge, which is why I think AFO would totally do something like this. He's a manipulative, vengeful, possessive man. He gave Tomura the quirk, manipulated him into believing that his problems could only be solved through murder. He did this as revenge on Nana for keeping his "thing" (Yoichi) away from him.

I'm excited to see if anything comes of this theory. I'm down for any possibility, whether it be that AFO was scouting, had a chance meeting with Tomura, or this theory. I just saw that panel and got excited when I remembered this theory, and I really wanted to talk about my thoughts on how the theory could make sense.

Anyway, this was longer than I expected it to be, so here's a cookie for your troubles 🍪

#tomura quirk theory #my hero academia #suugiart talks #shigaraki tomura #shimura tenko #crusty ass #afo #fat cosplay #mha 235 #shimura nana #mha theories #mha 236 #mha 237 #mha 407 spoilers #shimura Kotarou

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bnhaobservation · 1 year

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Ramblings about the Shimura family

So, one thing I noticed is how BNHA presents interesting family dynamics with a special focus to how parents deal with their children.

And where there’s an interesting dynamic I love to dig into things so let’s start.

PREMISE

For the sake of this observation I’ll assume that ‘what is not shown just never happened’ meaning that if a character is never shown doing a certain action, it just means he never did it. This might not be necessarily true, sometimes stories don’t show things because they’re of no use (the character does it but it changed nothing so it’s unnecessary to add it to the plot) but, as assuming what wasn’t shown happened would just constitute a debatable speculation, I’ll simply leave it out.

Also, if you’re solely an anime viewer, this will contain spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

With this said let’s start with the Shimura family.

In the Shimura familywe see a characteristic that’s common with the other BNHA families which are abusive, this characteristic being that the main perpetrator of the abuse is the father.

So let’s give an in deep look to Shimura Kotarou.

The interesting part about Kotarou is that he isn’t just an abuser but also a victim of abandonment. His father was killed from All for One and his mother, believing to protect him, left him in the care of a foster family when he was a small child. [Chap 95/281]

While Shimura Nana’s intentions were good, her choice is debatable (her first loyalty and duty should be to her son) and the psychological effects of it on Kotarou will be terrible as he comes to see his mother as a monster and would have preferred for her to have never loved him [Chap 235].

Victims of abandonment can react by becoming unable to form future attachments so as to avoid the pain that might come should they be abandoned again, and this is probably what happened to Kotarou, who is 32 now and is still plagued by the pain he felt for his own abandonement.

Adult Kotarou therefore is depicted as an anaffective man, he married Nao, who knows of his sad past and feels sorry for him and hosts in his home his in-law who probably feels equally sorry as well as indebted to him (as they’re living in his house) and promised them all a home full of joy [Chap 235]...

...but it’s clear he never delivered what he promised, he’s actually not even shown making an effort to deliver it in some ways beyond giving the home they live in.

We never seem a single panel of him making happy, or at least being happy with one of the members of his family, of them smiling together.

Tenko’s wish to become a hero didn’t disrupt the peace of an otherwise happy family, the family was never depicted to be happy to begin with, people just contented themselves with what they had, probably feeling they couldn’t ask for more to Kotarou and Kotarou ends up taking advantage of how people seems okay with humoring him.

The one rule Kotarou forced upon his house, “never talk about heroes”...

...and that he alone enforces, clearly exists TO PROTECT HIM AND SOLELY HIM from pain, as no one else in the family is shown having a problem with talking about heroes.

Kotarou doesn’t consciously mean to be cruel toward his family, he’s not doing this out of a wish to harm them or of a sick pleasure in seeing his kids suffer, he is a victim of abandonment and just wants to protect himself from that same agonizing pain he felt from when he was a small child, and, in his mind, it makes sense his own experience and way to feel would apply to everyone, so he sells his own rule as a rule that would protect his family as well, because to him heroes are monsters and so, by this logic, everyone would be protected by staying clear of them.

However it’s clear there are 4 adults in the house and not only he is the sole person who’s believing such thing. This alone should really make him reconsider his beliefs, if he really cared about making people in his family happy. The problem is, he actually doesn’t.

Everyone is uncomfortable when he leaves Tenko out in the garden but he’s just ‘rules are rules’ and ‘I’m doing this for Tenko’, but shows 0 care for how, due to this, Tenko will end up skipping dinner (he’s a kid of 5, eating is very important for his growth!) and, when Nao points out how Tenko’s allergies are getting worse, he expresses no concern whatsoever.

What matters to him, it’s that the rules that exist to protect him will be respected, so he’ll be safe.

He dresses up his intentions as aimed to protect his children, but the only one he selfishly cares to protect is himself.

Kotarou, in upholding his rule, is not even caring of the societal pressure that presents heroes as good, forcing on his family his personal view.

His children live in a world in which people talk about heroes, has toys about them, view them as good people. He’s actually asking them to go against society’s view of heroes when they’re kids, to be different from the rest of the children. He forces them to hide their own aspirations (Hana too wishes to be a hero but doesn’t voice it, she actually lieas about her own wishes [Chap 234])...

...or tries to squash them (Tenko is clearly more vocal about how he wants to be a hero and so he suffers the brunt of Kotarou’s anger).

In short, this means the rule he forces upon his family, doesn’t protect it but actually psychologically harms his children.

The other adults in the family, Nao and her parents, don’t seem to fully realize this.

Likely, part because they feel bad for what he went through as Kotarou is a victim and they’re sympathetic toward him, part because they’re indebted to him (as he paid for the house they live in and everything else), they humor him, apparently without too many troubles. It’s not hard for them not to talk about heroes, after all, and this cause them to buy in his excuses (what I’m doing is for Tenko’s well being, he has no quirk so if he doesn’t understand he’ll only be more miserable). Because it’s not a big deal for them to respect Kotarou’s wishes, they assume the same should apply to the kids and their support is merely aimed to encourage them to endure/dismiss the situation and their feelings about it.

They fail to notice the psychological damage Kotarou is doing to his kids and continue to enable him to damage his kids. They should notice instead, the warning signs that what Kotarou is doing isn’t good for the kids are all there.

We can see how both his children are actually scared of him, Hana to the point she keeps her wishes to herself without daring to voice them and, when caught peeking in Kotarou’s study, she’s so scared she pushes the blame on Tenko...

...and Tenko finds so distressing living in that house to the point he develops psychosomatic itching in response to feeling himself rejected and in danger.

Tenko even tries to verbalize how ‘it’s the house, he gets itchy there’ but the other adults, despite caring for the kids, don’t really seem to truly notice, or, more likely, don’t want to see.

Tenko’s family is a microcosm, it reproduces, in smaller scale, society.

Heroes and common people don’t want to see what fails to conform with their pretty vision of their society. They prefer to sweep it under the rug, to pretend Endeavour isn’t an abuser because he’s so much more useful fighting what threaten them.

In the same way Tenko’s family doesn’t want to see Kotarou is mistreating/abusing his kids, that their family is flawed, that the one who allows them to live a comfortable life because he pays the bills with his works, also selfishly cares solely to protect himself and damages his own children.

They realize Tenko is sad and try to comfort him, they try to cure what they believe is an allergy, but fail to nail the cause of his pain, fails to see he feels in danger, that he feels he needs to be saved, that he feels like the house is rejecting him, leaving him to his own devices, making him miserable.

And this works so easily because one of the problems with psychological abuse is how easy is to fail to notice it or how damaging it is or persuade themselves that what they’re witnessing is not abuse.

The scars psychological abuse leave are not visible so they can be conveniently missed.

In fact we see the adults grow concerned only when the abuse becomes physical, we can see they are uncomfortable and complain when Kotarou causes Tenko to skip dinner, and they outright rebel short after they see him beat Tenko up…

...but they don’t even seem to realize Tenko’s psychological state is being harmed to the point he developed a psychosomatic rash.

(And in a way this parallels how Deku realizes Shigaraki needs saving when he sees him being threatened by All for One… but can’t quite wrap his head around how Shigaraki needed help even before that point and was screaming in the battleground that what he was doing was because society itself lead him to that point with its constant rejection)

Also, as said before, Kotarou’s status as a victim contributes to protect Kotarou, to make him look as blameless (the way hero status helps heroes to get away with what they do).

Although Nao sees her son’s distress (but still doesn’t manage to connect the dots between the hitch and the family situation) she swallows the idea that Kotarou acts in sush way because he KNOWS and therefore he’s acting for Tenko’s well being, instead than for his own.

And mind you, Kotarou was probably genuine when he said (after slapping Tenko twice and leaving him out of the house and being confronted by the family) he didn’t want things to get that far (after all his profile confirms all he wanted was a happy family), although it was probably not for Tenko or his family’s sake but for himself.

Kotarou likely built a home hoping to find back what he lost when his mother left him, his own happiness and security but, due to the psychological damage he received from it, he wasn’t capable to create a happy, joyous family, a safe environment that could fill the hole his mother left inside him because he can’t connect with his family nor truly care for them. He’s too busy protecting his own old wounds.

As a result, his family becomes a mean to an end he can’t reach (finding happiness and safety), it exists to serve to that purpose and he can’t accept his children wouldn’t conform to this and give him distress instead.

The most obvious example we have of this is when Tenko ends up losing control of his quirk.

Although Nao is scared and she’s dying due to Tenko’s quirk having hit her too, after a second of hesitation she still opens her arms and still tries to embrace her son, to comfort him, to save him from the desperation he was feeling...

...where in Kotarou’s case, despite him not even having been harmed, his instinctive first reaction is to try to protect himself by trying to keep Tenko at distance, to swat him away, hitting him with the first thing he finds, a garden instrument.

Kotarou’s first reaction isn’t to protect his son, to save him from pain, he wants to STOP TENKO from harming him, he wants to protect and save himself, with the result that, according to what we’re shown, Tenko deliberately kills him or comes to think he has deliberately killed him (I’m not sure the narration is 100% objective, previously Shigaraki claimed he hated everyone but the visual seems to imply Tenko didn’t want to kill his mother and the story overall didn’t show him as hating his mother, Hana or his grandparents, so it’s entirely possible Shigaraki is now feeding himself a narrative in which young Tenko was in control and did it out of hate still to protect himself from the pain of having murdered his family by mistake and out of fear… and also because All for one did his best to groom him to hate things).

(And again this parallels how the heroes, who shouldn’t kill, all feel perfectly justified in the idea they should kill what threatens them, be it Twice or Shigaraki)

In a way what makes it terribly ironic is that the ‘symbol of fear’ is nothing else but a very scared little boy himself, someone who nobody saved, the living representation of ‘All Might wasn’t here (to save him)’… and at the very same way that little boy who used to play with Mikkun and Tomo because no one wanted to play with them, is the young man who collects around himself people rejected by society (aka the league of villains) and plays with them videogames, wants their dreams to become reality and even sends Machia to retrieve them when they’re parted.

Ultimately, although a lot of Tenko’s issues come from having been groomed by All for One and from the trauma of seeing his quirk kill his family as well as not receiving help by passing people, the harm done to him by the abuse he suffered at home at Kotarou’s hands, is still equally visible and is the groundwork for All for One’s manipulation.

Even without the trauma due to his quirk and All for One getting involved, Tenko was a child showing signs of deep distress (Tenko scratches so much he basically ruins his skin and the itch is clearly a psychosomatic manifestation of his psychological distress) and, very likely, they would have plagued him even if he’d been allowed to grow up in his family. Actually, considering it’s implied his father’s abuse was escalating, they would have only gotten worse.

On a sidenote it can be that Tenko/Shigaraki can currently see that his father was a victim as well.

He quotes his father’s words “Heroes hurt their own families just to help complete strangers,” and claims to hate his grandmother even if he clearly couldn’t expect help from her as she was deceased. Kotarou informed him she was a monster who abandoned him so it can be Tenko/Shigaraki could see the causality of all it. Because Shimura Nana left Kotarou, Kotarou abused his two children and this in turn triggered Tenko’s loss of control over his quirk and the murder of his own family as well as his descent into becoming a villain who’s now threatening the whole Japan. As Shigaraki said, it added up, little by little.

By the way, in case I hadn’t stressed it enough, Kotarou being a victim doesn’t excuse what he did to his kids, no, not even if Tenko/Shigaraki himself can understand Kotarou was, but the idea that Tenko/Shigaraki could see the progression even in his family’s history makes for an interesting food for thoughts.

Tenko, after all, despite everything he went through and what he’s doing has, differently from Kotarou, shown more humanity.

He’s not a completely anaffective person, he showed worry for his master (before All for One tried to take him over), he cares for the league and doesn’t try to force them to do things that make him feel better. It’s little things but, for example, he remembers how the league wanted to eat Sushi and asks for it or accepts it when Dabi doesn’t want to tame Machia or doesn’t get angry when, Himeko, Twice or Spinner question him but explains himself the best he can, how he sends Machia to protect them and seems to want them to have a future in which THEY can be happy.

The league became an environment which accepts people, instead of making them feel rejected as Tenko felt rejected by his own home.

And despite everyone claiming he destroys things for the fun of it, we see that’s not quite the case. Although he claimed that, by killing Kotarou, he finally put a end to the itch (because he finally put a end to the distressing feelings his father summoned), we see him not much later racked with guilt (he’s again scratching himself as he walks).

Tenko/Shigaraki ‘s trauma due to his father’s mistreatment was never healed and got only worsened by All for one who capitalized on how Tenko came to think that, in order to find relief from what haunts him, his only way was to destroy it. Yet Tenko/Shigaraki knows this is not a fix all solution, he believes deep down that the weight in his heart will never go away but he believes all he knows is how to destroy things. He doesn’t want a future for himself (which in a way hints at how he’s suicidal too), however he cares for the guys in the league and wants them to have a chance to live how they see fit, to have all they want to have.

So, although Tenko is a victim like Kotarou, he tries to take care of his newfound family and this makes me hope that where Kotarou was ultimately what triggered his own family to be destroyed, Tenko will, instead, be the one who’ll manage to protect it as, in a way, his intentions are the opposite to what his father claimed the heroes are. If heroes are people who hurt their own families only to help complete strangers, Tenko/Shigaraki hurts complete strangers to help his found family.

It’s probably no coincidence Tenko/Shigaraki looks like Shimura Nana, down to having the same mole she had.

Now, the ideal outcome of the story would be that those two positions were to be reconciled into a ‘let’s hurt no one and help everyone’ because, if we accept the parallel family/society, saving your family saves society and saving society save your family.

After all the league members became a threat to society because their families didn’t save them, if their families had properly taken care of them they wouldn’t have ended up in such situation… but at the same time if they continue to care solely for their own little group at the expense of society, society will continue to try to destroy them in a vicious circle where no one gains something and everyone loses.

“One for all, all for one” should be a single unit after all, a single philosophy, a single person should be protecting society and society should be protecting the single person… but at the moment no one seem to fully have realized this in the story so we can only wait and see.

#Boku no hero academia #Shigaraki Tomura #Shimura Kotarou #Shimura Nana #Yagi Toshinori #Shimura Hana #Shimura Nao #Shimura Mako #Shimura Chizuo #BNHA Ramblings

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