Making Everyone Finally Get On Board With Saving Shigaraki From AFO And Launching The True Rescue Arc - Tumblr Posts
see, much as Shigaraki/Tenko needs to be saved, we’ve also always been shown that Shigaraki/Tenko wants to help/save/be a hero to others.
Child Tenko’s one characteristic was his stubbornness to play Hero despite his father’s punishments, that’s how much he wanted that dream; in fact, he was inspired to be a Hero in the first place because his friends told him he was kind.
Years later, Shigaraki hates Heroes, but that kindness is still there, if twisted - he creates the League that ends up being a place of belonging for societal outcasts; past the empty horizon, past the destruction, he says himself that at the end of it all, he wants his League to live as they please after a lifetime of ‘suppression’ in the current Hero system.
The one thing guaranteed to make Shigaraki go all heroic-like is messing with the League. Overhaul betrays Twice’s goodwill, kills Magne and takes Compress’ arm? We get Shigaraki tenderly saying he believes in Twice and Toga, along with that amazing highway ambush where he avenges Magne and lets Compress get revenge. The MLA kidnaps Giran? Shigaraki’s off to go save him, despite impossible odds. Hell if this isn’t the most heroic shonen protag thing to say, too:
Shigaraki’s a villain with destructive dreams, but at his core - as distorted as it is - is a brutal sense of justice and empathy, along with a incredibly strong willpower and desire to back that up.
Right now, we have Spinner, who is
1) a League member, a fellow outcast, someone Shigaraki seems have a deep, genuine bond with
2) being messed with by AFO, in heart and spirit and body
3) in danger, needing some immediate extra quirk extraction else his brain is going to turn into more mush
4) exploited-and-weak-pink-haired-love-interest-slated-to-be-a-housewife-coded
and the conditions are ready for Shigaraki to go all heroic-like again to save a friend. Plus:
- the first usage of All For One (quirk) by Shigaraki Tomura as truly himself would be a benevolent act to take away a harm that’s hurting someone, the complete opposite what AFO (person) has always done, a total rejection of the idea that Shigaraki Tomura’s touch only destroys in a negative way
- that’s the solid proof Deku needs of an Inner Being still there inside that he needs to separate from AFO and reason with/reach out a hand to
- it’s Shigaraki both remembering his roots (as Tenko, wanting to be a Hero) as well as staying true to himself (“don’t reject me”)
- and how is Deku going to save Shigaraki? By appealing to their shared sense of heroism, that one commonality they both have
- we need the ‘part minus 2’
