#don't even know if this counts as meta so I apolgize for using the tag | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

villainsandvictimsalliance · 3 months

Text

The itch for destruction, the hands of repression and my theories on AFO's involvement in Shigaraki Tomura / Tenko Shimura's past:

For all I prefer to interpret the hands around Tomura as AFO's way to control his grief and turn it into a weapon, there's another option to it.

According to the canon, Tomura was using the hands to keep himself in check*. Supposing that what AFO said is true and Tomura's itching is his urge to destroy*, then he was using the hands to remind himself of what he did to his family and why he couldn't let himself be left unchecked*.

Image for the orange text:

AFO, talking to Tomura:

" You carry an urge for destruction that you yourself can't even control. That itch is simply your body letting you know that your urge can't be contained any longer. "

Image for the green text:

AFO, talking to Doc Garaki:

" He wears the hands of his family as if he's restraining himself, reproaching himself. With his memories locked away, all that's left are residual emotions. He's insecure. Just look at him. He doesn't even realize he's holding back when he's using his quirk. "

Those panels raise several questions.

For example, we already know how suspicious it is that AFO was the one able to find Tenko. Chances are that he had been observing the Shimuras all that time, but then why didn't he kill them before? What was he waiting for?

Another suspicious thing is that the hands of the Shimura were in perfect condition.* Tenko killed them at night. He says he flew from his house, he ran away. *

No one, absolutely no one showed up.

It happened in seconds, of course. The backyard probably looked like a war zone or something.*

Images for the red text:

He decayed the house completely, to the point it was split in two when he left. He decayed the sidewalk in front of his house and if you look closely, the house next to the Shimuras too.

The question is: how was AFO able to search within that disaster for each individual hand of the Shimura family members before anyone could get there to clean it up? Those hands looked almost fresh, as sick as it sounds.*

You're telling me that AFO found Tomura— who was not speaking between, he went mute for a while after what happened that night— and he "coincidentally" found a way to get the hands of the Shimuras like it was nothing?*

My theory is that AFO manipulated Tenko more than we are allowed to know up until now.

Image for the blue text:

Doc Garaki talking to Tomura:

" These are your family members' remains. "

Did the police ever get there? To erase Tenko's existence just like that means that AFO had to either pretend Tenko died too or somehow he managed to erase the Shimuras altogether. What was said to Tenko and Hana's school? Or Kotaro's workplace? To the neighbors?

Were there any neighbors even? A house gets demolished at night with people screaming and no one even panics thinking that a villain can be attacking them?

Of course AFO had cops on his side. It's just a bit insane to me to think it worked out like clockwork just by accident.

Theory aside, it makes sense that the memory of his family kept Tenko anchored to his morals and the rights and wrongs of society.* He was a good kid, he wanted to be a hero to help people. He is also the type to hate injustice to the point he can't shut up about it. No matter how many times his dad punished him for following the hero ideals, he kept trying.

(I wish I could add more than 10 pics, but you should absolutely re-read My Villain Academia and pay attention to Tomura's general hesitation when it comes to hurting people— before AFO).

Like I said, there are several moments of Tenko avoiding his "destructive" side and holding the justice he knew from his childhood close to his heart.*

If what AFO says is true, then he repressed his memories in order to keep his quirk from being too aggressive towards others.* It was a defense mechanism that tells us that Tenko didn't want to hurt people, because he was fighting the urge to do so.* He was even becoming self-destructive in order to contain his urges.*

Images for the pink texts:

Panels show Tenko wondering on a street with his hands clasped together to avoid touching anything and therefore decaying it.

AFO talking to Tomura:

" What is that you want to do? "

Tomura talking to AFO:

" ... The two punks that hit me earlier... I want to kill them. "

AFO talking to Tomura:

" Aaah, poor child. What are you so afraid of? Just follow your heart. "

( notice that the encounter of Tenko and the two punks happens BEFORE Tenko had the hold amoral combo with AFO.

The panels show how Tenko almost reaches to decay the people who just hurt him, but he forces himself to back down, close his hand in a loose fist and leave it at that).

Like you could notice in the last image, it was AFO who gave Tenko the impression that he could give in to the urge to kill and destroy because it was okay.* Previous to that moment, Tenko was full of hatred. There are several panels of Tenko saying "I hate them all " the day he got his quirk and the Shimuras died. The difference is that he only killed the Shimuras because he couldn't even control his quirk and he killed Kotaro in particular with purpose, but while he was practically blind with the rush of all that was happening.

Never before Tenko killed someone premeditated. Never before he planned it.

When AFO gave Tomura the impression that the itching was because he wanted to destroy* and it was okay to destroy to get rid of the itch*, that's when it all went to hell.

It's a dangerous thing to tell an impressionable 5 years old who just got out of an abusive home in the most traumatic fashion. Especially because Tomura's hatred got mixed with the guilt over the way he killed his family. He was convinced that the fact no hero saved him was justice for what he did. He was throwing up over it. He ran away from home, scared because he was the culprit. He was 5 years old, I must remind you all.

AFO falsely liberated Tenko from his guilt by giving him the freedom to destroy*. It was clearly not the solution because Tomura's itch would only go away temporarily after destroying whatever was annoying him.

Listen, we all want to destroy things that annoy us on a daily basis. The problem with Tenko is that

A) He is very very little.

No one explained to him that he was allowed to feel pleasure over the fact his family could not abuse him another, while he could also feel guilty because that was not the way he wanted things to end. He lost his family. No, even worse, he killed his family. Even if they hurt him, he also loved them. Those feelings can coexist within him, but he shouldn't confuse one thing with the other.

B) All kids have tantrums.

If any 5 years old was given that type of power and I promise way more incidents like that would happen. They are kids for a reason, they don't know better. It's the job of the adults around them to teach them how to tolerate things and live in society.

Laws are there for a reason too. They are meant to keep people in check. No, you cannot murder everyone because you are stuck in the morning traffic. No, you can't murder your boss because they're an asshole. You cannot erase everything that bothers you from the Earth. Why? Because it won't make you happy in the long run. We need to learn to coexist with our surroundings, annoying as it could be.

AFO did the opposite. Just look at the way he speaks to Tenko. Even working on the assumption that Tenko always wanted to kill, it was AFO's manipulation who set him on the villain path.*

Image for the purple text:

AFO talking to Tomura:

" Otherwise, you'll be the only one suffering.

Integrity. Morals. Ethics. All of them are just social constructs designed by some guy who wanted harmony in the world.

There's no need to let yourself be held back by them. In the end, what you yourself want to do is the most important of them all. "

We know AFO is not the most reliable narrator and neither is Tomura, right? The bnha manga is currently on chapter 414. We're at the point where Tomura and Deku just started seeing each other's memories. Hopefully, the manga will soon clarify / reveal the truth and this meta would be obsolete.

Take this purely as a couple of people creating theories for fun, because they want to entertain themselves in hypothetical scenarios. Okay?

Time to close this endless meta post by saying I think AFO was wrong about the nature of the itch. It does come from a form of desire to destroy, but I think it's Tenko's reaction to seeing injustice and not being able to do something about it. It started at home, when he was unable to change the way his dad treated, when no one would defend him or try to stop his dad.

When Tenko killed the Shimura's, his hatred grew to everyone because he found them unfair. You could say hypocritical too. He learned to hate himself for killing his family, learned to hate the heroes saying something and doing something else, especially All Might because he is the symbol of heroism, but wasn't there to protect Tomura from all the pain. Isn't he "all mighty"? He hated Deku for the same reasons / for being a copy of All Might.

It's a twisted version of Deku running to save someone without even knowing what he's doing. an instinct none of them can deny. Where Deku's instinct was nurtured and taken care of, Tomura's was taken advantage of and corrupted almost beyond recognition.

But that's an entire meta I'll post later, so I hope you all enjoy this rambling. No idea if it makes sense, for which I apologize.

Any asks, to the inbox as always <3

50 notes · View notes