Smolthealmighty - Spazz Hands

because like, Tenko, age 5, wanted to be a Hero and the reason he gave for it was "there were these two kids who was being excluded by the others, but I was nice and became their friend," making the very core of that desire kindness. A sense of fairness, a refusal of rejection even if everyone else was doing it; then the willingness to reach out, to bring them them into his fold. Connection. Friendship. Belongingness.

And see, Tenko himself understood rejection, for he was rejected by his own family - gently, he notes, the house my father built rejected me gently - but it was denial all the same, it decayed him from the inside out; then he understood it to a level that shattered him, when an entire city of people ignored him at his most desperate and vulnerable. Saw him, and decided he wasn't worth helping. A city of people who lived under All Might billboards and touted Heroes as the pillars of their society, who expected, demanded help and saving from Heroes, and yet turned around and did not feel the need to embody those ideals themselves, never even thought to pay it back or forward. The common trash, all too dependent on being protected. And the Heroes themselves? Brave guardians who created the trash that need coddling. They uphold all this. Whatever they believe, whatever genuine and high ideals individual Heroes hold, they have relinquished it to safeguard the system. A corrupt, vicious cycle.

(Even now, Heroes see him and—what happens is this: Possession by All For One has them musing strategically that they rather deal with All For One than Shigaraki; the arena to battle him in is called his Coffin In The Sky. Those jerks who hurt me over and over, he calls the Heroes he fought - and he tells this point blank to Deku. And above all, Heroes would give their lives to save a corpse - already broken and gone, I already destroyed that one - in midst of an urgent war, when years ago on a normal day, they never showed up to reach out a helping hand to a child looking to live on after the end of everything he knew. The dead have their place among the Heroes; but not all of the living. Do they even consider him as part of their world? Not like anybody would even look at me.)

Tenko can't forgive them; Shigaraki won't forgive them.

And these two things are what make up his origin, feeding into each other. It's because he values connections, friendship, belonging, that he refuses to forgive - everything I've witness in this world, lead to the existence of that house...this whole system you've built has always rejected me...Now I'm ready to reject it…; and because he refuses to forgive, he wants to destroy the world to create one where there's nothing but the one enclave of solidarity and belonging he founded - the League of Villains. The future? Unnecessary. Whatever lies ahead, I want them to live how they see fit.

That unforgiving valuation of connection and belonging, though, is also directed at himself. After all, Shigaraki himself rejects the world, rejects having a place in it. It’s not allowed to be part of what comes after his horizon. He does not believe in futures. He killed his family and destroyed any chance of reconciliation. He’s committed atrocities that put a chasm between him and the rest of humanity. Now he rejects being human at all. Shigaraki believes the rejection to be complete both ways, and belongingness to be exclusively mutual. Understanding is no longer on the table. It’s him vs the world; it’s the League vs everyone else; it’s I don’t care if you don’t understand… That’s why we’re Heroes and Villains.

To stop Shigaraki is to save him; and to save him, the key is exactly that origin, the two things most important to him, but remade: forgiveness, and reconnection.

THE LEAGUE MATTER SM TO HIM LITERALLY LEAVING BIG IMPACTS JUST LIKE TOMURA'S ORIGINAL FAMILY DID

WE DID IT. IT HAPPENED

it's Dungeon Meshi premier day!

Neurodivergence is fucking wild because people can make literal death threats to my face and I feel almost nothing but if someone slams a door in my house I have a panic attack.