#The HEART BREAKING MOMENT DEKU KILLS ALL MIGHT'S HEART With MONSTROUS CHANGE In | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

codenamesazanka · 5 years

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What are your feelings on Shigaraki getting a redemption? From your post comparing Gaara and Shiggy, I got the feeling you didn't care for Gaara becoming a good guy. Personally I would love for Shiggy to have a redemption arc!

Nah, I actually absolutely loved Gaara’s redemption arc!

tl;dr: Gaara’s redemption was done super well in my opinion. & I have no opinion on redemption for Shigaraki’s character, I’m waiting to see what happens! I wouldn’t mind it, should a few conditions be fulfilled. But I also don’t mind him not being redeemed. (Does he deserve to be? Sure.)

(Super, super long post because I love Gaara and I wasn’t smart enough to write meta about him when I was in the Naruto fandom so this is my 14-year-old self breaking out to do what was never but should’ve been done.)

I loved him being a homicidal 12-year-old, and I also I loved him having turned into the 15-year-old ninja leader who re-discovered love and bonded with his siblings (the sand sibs!!! I love them).

I love this brat and his post-goth self

What I hated was this guy:

Who the fuck is this. Who the fuck. Who the f—

So here’s the thing about Gaara!

He was literally created to be a monster, manipulated by his father into being one, on top of having a literal demon inside of him that would break his mind and take over. One can see how it led to him being the murderous, unstable 12-year-old he was. Yet.

A lot of the bad guy stuff he did was also by his choice. His father wanted a weapon; Gaara became something worse, one that became too much to handle; gone horribly right. He killed for pleasure, he threatened his siblings, he almost crippled an important side character because he could, he released the demon on purpose, outside of orders.

Gaara was traumatized by his upbringing and influenced by how others judged him; but he also eventually arrived at his philosophy by himself. The influencing words for him were “love only yourself and fight only for yourself [because no one else will, monster]” and he took that to heart. Then he turned it into “I exist to kill all humans other than myself, so for long as there are people for me to kill, I will not cease to exist; I will feel alive.” Damn.

I totally get it. His own father tried to kill him, again and again. Sent assassins after him. There was no one he could trust, and the only comfort came from relying on the demon inside of him, and killing others to feel alive. But—

From the way he interacted with others, he knew what he did was wrong. Not the self defending himself from assassins; but things like killing people who surrendered or treating his siblings like shit. There were a lot of fanfic that blamed all his monstrous acts on the demon inside of him, or like an insanity defense; but I never thought so. He had moments of demon possession, but for the most part, he retained his self, he reasoned, he made choices. If I wrote meta back then, man…

It was why when Gaara turned good, it was solely on questioning himself and reframing his perspective, and not like, extracting the demon from him. He reflected on himself, he reconsidered everything he thought, he listened to another person’s philosophy, and here’s the most important part: he made the choice to change.

Because when faced with that moment, it wasn’t because he was arrested or told a secret that changed everything or it was revealed he was actually loved all along or freed from external manipulations. He could’ve gone back to his old ways. He was still in the same situation as before; the only thing that changed were the choices he could make despite everything. So, quite immediately, he apologized to his siblings.

And so began the long process of atonement. He went back and saved the guy he almost crippled, he opened his heart and reached out to his siblings, he decided to become ninja leader despite the poor, poor relations between him and the village (which yeah, started because they treated him as a monster, but then he started killing for pleasure…). He worked hard.

That was a redemption story I really liked. It’s true that Gaara had a terrible childhood and a good reason for turning out the way he did; but eventually, there came a point where he couldn’t blame his actions on that. He was understandable, but not forgivable - yet. There were choices made on purpose, connections rejected out of hatred, and blood on his hands. I think ‘redemption’ is all about coming to that choice on your own, owning up to that and working to correct those wrongs - even if it’s impossible, even if it’s never ending.

Gaara’s story is really much like Shigaraki’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if Horikoshi was influenced by the character! Prototype Sazanka had his name written out as: 沙惨禍. “Sand Calamity”. Hehe.

But yeah, Gaara started out as a creepy character that showed up antagonistic and began murdering people outside of what was allowed in ninja society. He showed no mercy, he told his siblings he never thought of them as family, he tried to kill an unconscious hospital patient. Pretty unsympathetic except for very, very subtle hints; until bam! Backstory. Yeah, it made you want something better for him!

It was a matter of how.

I have no opinion on redemption for Shigaraki’s character. I’m waiting to see what happens. I would like it!

If! Shigaraki reaches that conclusion by himself. Not him realizing he was so manipulated by AFO none of his own actions were actually his actions. Not him being ‘unbrainwashed’, if that even was a thing. Not a secret revealed to him that changes everything, wow, if only I knew this, I would not have become a terrorist… Not him getting captured and All Might begging the courts to be lenient on him and dragging him kicking and screaming to rehabilitation.

I really like Shigaraki! What made him fun was that he’s a willful brat. “Before we leave, let’s kill a kid!”. “This asshole stabbed me so I’m releasing bioweapons onto the city.�� “I’m going to hold this boy hostage in broad daylight and discuss morality.” He delighted in destruction, he looked for ways to hurt people most. All his chosen actions.

Does he deserve to be ‘redeemed’/recover/be allowed to atone for his actions/given the chance to change? Sure!

It’s just, Shigaraki’s gotta make that decision on his own.

One thing about Gaara’s redemption is that, yeah, he was ‘saved’ by the main character, Naruto. Talk-no-Jutsu, I think that was called, the main character’s habit of changing someone’s life/morality/philosophy/sinful ways simply by telling them his feelings.

But it made sense. Naruto and Gaara were proper foils. Both have demons inside of them, both were shunned by the village, both struggle with feelings of loneliness and hatred and finding a reason to live. Sure, Gaara had it worse since he was targeted for assassination; but Naruto related Gaara’s pain at a basic level. And Gaara recognized it too.

They understood each other, that they were mirror versions of each other, that they very well could’ve ended up like the other, the difference between them that one had someone who cared about him, and one didn’t. Naruto showed Gaara a different way to live - but he didn’t force it. Naruto simply told Gaara he empathizes with him, but if Gaara tries to hurt his friends, he’ll kill him. It’s thanks to Naruto, but Gaara realized his path to redemption on his own.

So excuse my lost of control here, but what the fuck kind of foil is between Deku and Shigaraki??? Deku getting Shigaraki redeemed is, currently, laughable.

One is quirkless and got bullied (I maintain my position that these things are overemphasized and made worse than it was by the fandom), but had a loving home and grew up as a normal kid…

for Shigaraki, being at home made him anxious, then he gets a truly dangerous, frightening quirk, and then he’s raised to be a a weapon by Japan’s Number One Villain.

Why are there so many AU fics of Deku having a deadly quirk? Or made him be so relentlessly bullied? Or kidnapped by Villains and forced to work for them? Overall, fics that make his situation/backstory worse? It’s cuz he’s boring. All these stories is just taking Shigaraki’s past and giving it to Deku to make him more ‘badass’ and then have the audacity to write Shigaraki as a dumb tamper-tantrum-throwing manchild. Don’t get me wrong, I actually love reading these fics cuz I’m a sucker for AUs, but honestly.

Talk-no-jutsu isn’t gonna work here.

Still! Should Horikoshi go for redemption, I wouldn’t mind! I just need to see exactly how he handles it. If he screws it up, I will also never forgive him.

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