The PARASITE of My Hero Academia 

nature is healing

The sad thing is, I could see what's trying to be done here: contrasting Toshinori's willingness to allow his successor to surpass himself with AFO's insistence on remaining the king, ultimately proving that allowing the future generations to stand their own ground is better than to control their every move so they'll do whatever you want. The problem is: that was _not_ the intention of the entire story up to this point.

The sad thing is that this takes away from the entire MVA arc, whose sole point was to LIBERATE Shigaraki… but he’s now no longer a man with free will, just a puppet to his master’s wishes

I have no idea why Hori made AFO have a connection to literally everything. It makes the MHA world feel so small

The funny thing about the idea of AFO having overhaul's quirk is that if he had taken overhaul's quirk then he'd never need shigaraki at all outside of being another strong henchmen. Overhaul's quirk is just shigaraki's quirk but better.

Please talk about the plothole that is Eri's quirk as well.The fact she was able to help Mirio get his quirk back is such a huge plothole. Not because it was getting built up to, but if she can precisely use it now it would be the most busted power that allows for some really stupid shit to happen. Healing All Might Rewinding All Might back to a time he had his quirk Rewinding the damage to Aizawa's whole body which nerfed him. Any serious damage any hero has taken could have been healed before the final war began. etc. etc.

Man AFO and All Might understood their times were reaching their ends and decided “our battle will go to the next generation” Then AFO suddenly goes “no screw all that, I’m actually Palpatine!”

AFO was interesting to me beacasue he was willing to let the next generation flourish. That was such a new thing for a villian. It was very rare to see a villain to set up the new generation. AFO had everything to become a classic like Aizen. But Hori instead made him discount Aizen.

Hes like William Afton from fnaf. Cool in the beginning but was quickly run into the ground and is now just "STAY DEAD ALREADY SO SOMEONE NEW CAN BE INTRODUCED!!!"

I always had an issue with believing that AFO would ever give up his place in society to shigi, so the body stealing stuff made sense to me when it happened. But I can’t lie that it def brings up other issues like his comments to jeantist in kamino and how it does detract from shigi’s overall journey. The plot holes of him not taking quirks has always been indefensible to me tho, in canon he’s taken only one quirk from a hero/character that we know (ragdoll) while there are so many that would make his life so much easier

Honestly with you there man, I cannot remember the last time I did a complete 180 on a character like this as with AFO, he genuinely used to be one of my absolute favorite characters in the series back when he seem to be a twisted but genuinely caring parental figure who wanted to raise up Shigaraki to succeed and surpass him, that's a relationship angle you almost never see villains take so I was 100% on board for it. You can imagine how I feel now that it turns out absolutely all of that was completely pointless made all the worse by him completely hijacking Shigaraki's role as the main villain at the exact fucking point Shigaraki finally took the center stage he worked for and deserved after we watched him grow into and prove himself truly worthy of the role. I just want this fucking nutsack head to be gone already, he's doing absolutely nothing for the story rn

I agree he went from good to just “WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE!?!”

Funnily enough, AFO knew about Chisaki since he was a child. Shiggy said AFO showed him a photo of Chisaki when he was younger lmfao. Imagine not steali g such an op quirk from a little kid

ALL FOR ONE was the most revolutionary villain in Shounen history since MAKOTO SHISHIO when he went up against ALL MIGHT. Why? Do you guys know that cliche of "the teacher dies and passes on their will, teaching and hopes for the student in the hopes that they become greater"? He is the first Shounen Demographic Villain ever--EVER--to do that. Imagine that: we have a PROTAGONIST-DOMINANT CLICHE that's been flipped on its head and put into the hands of a villain, who practically does and fills all the check-boxes that a protagonist's mentor would have otherwise done and actually BELIEVES IN THE CREED to the point he is willing to put his life on the line so that his proteges will make and meet their own destinies. He doesn't/didn't even mistreat those that he imparts his lessons to: he plays the role of a teacher that wants to mold and see his students grow--and he's a VILLAIN to boot. Now he's just ... another manipulative bad guy. I know it's a kid's manga (Yes, it's a kid's manga--ask any grown up in Japan; it IS a kid's manga), but man, I am disappointed to see the drop in quality of such a rarer, once-in-a-lifetime villain to be just another "Cool and Keikaku" guy in WSJ's catalogues. He was truly unique, once upon a time: now he's ... well, the main bad guy. Hooray.

It's so frustrating because Shigaraki on his own was a pretty amazing villain for the MHA world, and he was especially fitting to be Deku's main foil, and it all got ruined... I wasn't expecting MHA to be a super deep commentary on society, inequality and moral ambiguity, because it's a shonen after all, but in the beginning the story gave me the impression that while it wasn't going to be something super profound, it wasn't going to be something as shallow as good vs evil in the black and white sense either. There was nuance and that's why I liked it so much. Villains weren't villains just because they were evil and heroes weren't heroes just because they were good people. One thing that I loved about Shigaraki is that while you could disagree with his methods, the reasoning behind his actions made perfect sense. He had every reason to hate hero society; he was right in wanting to destroy it, because it was indeed flawed. It hurted people more than it helped them, and it was something that affected even heroes themselves because it put so much pressure on them, that's why we ended up with characters like Endeavor or Bakugo. And then you have Deku, a character that slowly but steadily was beginning to change the ways of hero society, he seemed to recognize the bad aspects of it, but unlike Shigaraki he was able to see the good parts that were worth fighting for. To me Shigaraki was about destruction while Deku was about change. It seemed to be a solid theme, until it wasn't. When AFO took over Shigaraki's body I feared the themes and story were going to derail, but I tried to convince myself that it wasn't going to happen, that the whole point was to have Shigaraki break free so he could finally be his own villain, because until that point he was still, to some degree, under AFO's control. Shigaraki, down to his name, was a villain that AFO created for his own shady purposes, so I thought it'd be nice to have Shigaraki break free and fully realize that he's doing what he's doing for himself, his own ideals and his friends, and maybe even have him reject the Shigaraki name and go back to calling himself Shimura Tenko to further distance himself from AFO and his goals. Finally free and more sure than ever of what he wanted, he would have been an extremely fearsome and unstoppable MAIN villain that Deku would have STRUGGLED against with, and not only phisically, but mentally as well because Deku does feel some sympathy towards Shigaraki. But nope, it's been over 100 chapters and all seems to indicate that AFO was the main villain all along even if thematically that doesn't make any sense whatsoever, it even if cheapens the story making it a shallow good vs evil in the black and white sense, even if the MAIN protagonist doesn't have any hero/villain chemistry with AFO. I guess Horikoshi, at this point, only cares about wrapping up the story as soon as possible, but so much good things are getting sacrificed in the name of ending it up faster. (extremely long comment, but I wanted to vent lol)

16:20 the funny thing is that the visual of AFO devouring other quirks makes no sense, why is that? Well ask yourself, what does his quirk vestige "eating" the vestige of another quirk do? It's stated by AFO himself in the Star and Stripe fight that he can't destroy quirks himself, only take and bestow, so what is that image supposed to show? as far as we're concerned once the vestige is destroyed so is the quirk itself, so what's going on?

In my opinion, AFO should've died at the kamino arc. The thing with AFO is that the man hardly does anything but talk about his plans or do something along the lines of the series until we get to arc 3, which is where the downfall of his character just ruins everything that I thought he was the biggest treat of and made me finally realize that this bitchless man didn't do anything interesting, only to be a plot device and ruin the best antagonist character, Shigikari. Obviously, if he actually died, then things would've been different, like the Aoyoma traitor thing, how the villains would react and do, and, of course, the AFO power. I can't really imagine any problems beside those, but the man was useless, which led him to be un-intressting and bad.

God I miss the real Shigaraki so much

People can come up with as many excuses as they want. The isse is that AFO was a side character. The story built up Shigaraki, Dabi, and Toga as the main villains and any COMPETENT writer would've fucking delivered on that. Not change their mind three-quarters of the way through the story and replace them with Nut-sack-Mcgee!

What's funny about Erasure, is if AFO had not given up and continued hunting down Aizawa, he could have killed All-Might and stolen OFA before the series had even started. AFO not stealing Overhaul is simple, it would end the series because Deku or Star and Stripes would have stood no chance if 100 % Shigaraki had it in their arsenal. You would have two AFOs running around before the heroes could reorganize and fight back. But Horikoshi is either sleep deprived or just ignored it hoping the readers would forget about it. Speaking of Horikoshi, i think he picked AFO as that Big Bad precisely because it would help end the series sooner to avoid all of those questions and criticism, he raised about hero society. Though if Dad for One is true, i think it will end up going poorly for both sides of this theory. If the critics are right, then this was a poorly executed last-minute twist but if the supporters are right then it will be a poorly developed last-minute subplot just to give AFO and Deku some depth without giving them any breathing room since its in the final arc.

A few points are that, 1. At the USJ they could just have taken eraser head when he was helpless but didn't 2. While AFO couldn't use eraser himself (No eye's) someone else could 3. Toospooky made a video that said why did AFO not take the quirk Twice he could have had dozens of himself to fight with 4. AFO Never considered that Overhaul could instantly make him whole again and make him unstoppable

At first I really enjoyed the reveal that the whole time All for One had just been using Shigaraki as a means of putting himself back on top. Ever since he was introduced, I never really found it believable that a guy like him would be the type to take on a successor. I mean, he was always portrayed as someone whose only motivations were to amass more power and place himself at the top of the world. And he had been working towards that for like, what, a few centuries by the start of the series? With all the work he put in to reach his goals and all the power in his arsenal, especially the ability the extend his lifespan for god knows how long, I had always found it kinda unbelievable that a guy like him would wake up one day and just decide, "You know what? I'm done. Just gonna let myself die now. In fact, I'm gonna take in the grandson of my nemesis and raise him to be my successor. He'll be the one to live out my dreams and create the world I've always wanted!" So, I think it makes sense that he had plans to bring himself back through Shigaraki. I just feel like he shouldn't have been successful. Or at least, it shouldn't have been permanent. Shigaraki was clearly being built up to be the main and final antagonist of the series, and he was a very compelling character, way more interesting than All for One. It would've been cool if Shigaraki had been able to cut himself off from All for One's influence, showing how much he's grown into his own person

He’s just uninteresting now. He definitely overstayed his welcome.

Good News. In My Hero Academia Chapter 379, Shigaraki actually frees himself from AFO's visage control. The AFO Visage tried to order Kurogiri to teleport Shigaraki to AFO's real body but Kurogiri refuses as he is only loyal to Tomura and only Tomura alone. What I hope is that the real AFO body will congratulate Tomura for defeating his visage and affirms that he is a worthy successor as the next Demon Lord. If you read Star Wars, what AFO is doing is similar to what the Sith would do in Darth Bane's ideology of the Rule of Two. The master must find a way for his/her apprentice to overthrow him/her to become the new Sith master. Horikoshi is a Star Wars fan so his inputting AFO and Tomura's relationship like a Sith Master and Apprentice is not uncommon. Darth Bane tried to conquer the mind of Darth Zannah only for her to defeat Bane and become the new Sith Lord.

I can't wait for the chapter AFO dies and then MHA becomes a 10/10 masterpiece of shonen for like only the last 9 chapters. Every single major flaw of the series (minus Mirio's return) is somehow linked to him

“Overhaul is probably one of the top 10 strongest quirks in the series, it was just wielded by a dipshit.” Gotta love how blunt this statement is. You’re absolutely right too lmao. Great video. This guy sucks. Cheers.

Bringing back All for One as the main villain is the equivalent of bringing back Palpatine in the Rise of Skywalker, which might've been the idea seeing how Horikoshi loves his Star Wars references.

I hate how Deku and biggest bad AFO don't even have one whole conversation or any developed relationship. This is like instead of the Joker it's Batman's dad's business rival from 20 years ago that he never met or talked but did lots of bad things. Riveting. It's like watching a small child argue with a CEO but the insults don't land cause they don't know anything about each other and aren't even in the same plane intellectually or culturally.

Here after 423 to pay my respect for All Fraud One. A demon lord who was no demon lord but a lonely man who retconed the story, inserted himself into plot lines, stole the main antagonist role from Shiggy, and made convoluted asspuls after convoluted plans to reunite with his brother, after he tried to get inside Izuku What a man you were: Dad for one

Newer once in media I saw writer pushing idea so far into the story, only to then turn 180 and make all that build up worthless. We can all agree that Shigaraki was meant to be main villain. He's natural opposite to Midoriya and their paths are mirrored. Both lost their mentors and had to rely on their own, both embody theme of passing down the torch. Seeing Shigaraki sidelined only to meat vessel after all this work is outrageous. It also doesnt help that Shigarali made so much effort to earn freedom and title if number one villain.

Ah yes, you love to see it. The points you brought up about the Overhaul stuff were the exact same things I was saying in the MHA discussion threads on SB back when that chapter was released but everyone acted like I was in the wrong for weeks and used the same nonsensical reasons mentioned in your video! Nevermind the newfound possibility that Chisaki was actually in one of Dr Garaki's orphanages when he was younger, which makes AFO look even more stupid for A, not duplicating Overhaul and B, not taking it when they were at Tartarus because there's no way he didn't know what quirk he had! And as mentioned he at the very least knew about Chisaki regardless of this possibility, since AFO had not only showed a picture of Chisaki to Shigaraki sometime before his defeat in Kamino but also said his name when they met during the break out! It's almost comical seeing the lengths people have gone to defend these blatant plot inconsistencies.

Why didn’t they just give him the death sentence after Kamino 😔

This aged really well, considering AFO came back for what, 4th time?

“Somehow, AFO returned.”

*possible spoilers, depending on when the chapter I'm talking about actually cane out* All For One not taking overhaul (the quirk) is made an even more stupid decision knowing that All For One used one of the leftover rewind bullets to revert his body to its past uninjured state. Especially since apparently the rewind bullet is uncontrollably rewinding All For One's entire body and will destroy his original body. Why use the uncontrollable Rewind bullets when he could've taken Overhaul's entire quirk and have control over how far his body is reset?

I always found it super weird how All For One raised Shigaraki to be a leader despite this seemingly inconsistent with his goals of hijacking Shigaraki. Hell, even most of the LOV including the doctor seems to be unaware of this goal by how much they genuinely support Shigaraki’s growth.

Afo just makes me so sad man I need him gone

Now he is a scape goat like Danzo in Naruto which the writer can pin the blame on for everything.

3:00 He's basically Reverse Flash. "It was me All Might"

I just want to throw it out there that Shigaraki actually proves he's tactically smarter than AFO the moment he wakes up in the War arc. I could go into a rant about ALL the dumb things AFO does, but the first offense is forcing Shigaraki to immediately go after OFA. When Shigaraki woke up, his initial plan was to group up with Machia and the League and proceed to destroy everything then. Realizing the heroes have infiltrated the laboratory, Shigaraki immediately activates Decay to clear out as much space as possible and turn the battlefield into an open area where they won't be able to get the drop on him, and any hero who can't fly or couldn't escape the initial shock is immediately removed from the battle. Shigaraki keeps his word, he won't underestimate heroes anymore. His plan was to wait for Machia and the League, and it isn't just for theatrics or for a welcome back party, but to know exactly where they are as well as bolster his opportunities as if anyone who survived wanted to fight Shigaraki, they would have to go through Machia and the League first. And since Shigaraki can control Decay he can prevent any losses from his side while completely overwhelming the heroes. If the entire League fought together in the War arc, it wouldn't have been a fight. Victory would've been theirs. But AFO influenced Shigaraki to go off on his own and basically urged him to go after OFA, who is closer to the surviving heroes. Instead of waiting for Machia, Shiggy is now further away from them and now has to face the pros AND OFA while completely surrounded. If Shigaraki waited for Machia, he would still have to face the pros sure, but OFA wouldn't be part of the initial fight. The actual fight even reaches a point where Shigaraki admits that the situation is so poor that his best option is to grab Midoriya and escape. But AFO urges him to stay and steal it IN THE MIDDLE of a fight. Shigaraki's plan was actually solid, and he genuinely didn't plan on underestimating the heroes. But because of OFA's influence, he kept on digging himself deeper in the disadvantageous situation. If Shigaraki had his way, they probably would've actually won the war arc. Edit: I just want to add that even in the final battle, AFO was panicking and afraid of the amount of damage he’d taken. He was showing signs of panic and fear against “nobodies who don’t even posses One For All”, clearly showing him underestimating heroes and panicking when under pressure. In the war arc, despite being in the near exact same conditions, Shigaraki kept calm and treated each hero as a genuine threat he needs to properly defend himself from instead of tanking every attack. Shigaraki was actually cautious about his quirkless predicament, than AFO “Shigaraki”.

This video was the exact cathartic release I've been looking for. I loved AFO as a Palpatine-esque villain, pulling the strings in the background. But making him the main villain is possibly the worst writing decision Horikoshi has made so far.

i just wanted to watch shigaraki become his own person as an antagonist. but i guess thats just too much to ask for

Another point that proves how badly written AFO is, is that in his reveal moment, he talks about how he created an Air Cannon Skill by making a "fun little combination" of other Quirks and how he would like to add more Quirks of the Power-Up Type. This "apparently" was supposed to sell him as a visionary that see the possible potential of seemingly weak Quirks being combined with others he possessed. In this case, letting the 2nd's "Gear Shift" escape his clutches is as or even more stupid than letting Overhaul's Quirk escape. Another fact is that the author can't decide if the AFO is just a caricatured villain or a villain with more things underneath that villainous persona. The fact that he didn't get rid of his own brother, but instead imprisoned him and he even granted him a Quirk, demonstrates that he has family attachment, however small it was. Another scene is him criticizing All Mighty for not letting his pupil grow up alone and that's why he wouldn't be able to keep up with Shigaraki's growth. Which proved true in the MVA arc. And more recently he "crying" while grabbing the 2nd's neck, it is unknown if he was saddened by the end of his empire or the death of his brother, but it is still a display of emotions that a supposedly "caricatured and shallow" villain does not it should have.

The problem with All for One is pretty simple. All for One is a remnant of an old age, one where people are evil just because in the same way that All Might is basically just a hero whose only flaw is being too self-sacrificing. In the same way that Quirks get more complex over time, they pass their legacy down to other people who have their own more complicated issues, like Deku's martyr syndrome due to his lack of self-worth. Shigaraki represents the issue of societal failings, which is his banner that draws in other people who feel they have been failed by the world. So the issue becomes less "beat up the bad guy" and more "address the flaws in society and figure out how to prevent more people like this from being created; also beat up the bad guy, but potentially reform them". But then All for One comes back and just becomes a black hole that the series can't escape. He's evil for no reason. He has no ties to any characters not named All Might, only just *barely* having a personal reason to fight Deku by virtue of OFA. And of course, Shigaraki was set up to be the big endgame villain, only for AFO to come in and make the story about himself, which not only makes it all the more confusing why we spent so much time watching Shigaraki grow, but also makes it baffling that none of Shiggy's friends even seem to care that AFO basically ate his soul and is using him as a meat suit most of the time. Then, of course, there's the fact that while Shiggy was able to be gradually worn down and defeated, like when he was shot by Snipe or humbled by Stain, AFO typically has some ridiculous nonsense to pull out of his potato head every time he fights that allows him to "Well ACKSHULLY" around just about every power up to and including *reality warping and Quirk erasure.*

This comment got away from me, but tl;dr the thematic justification for the vestiges rebelling against AFO now is both inconsistent and actually undermines the themes it tries to illustrate. I've read an argument along the lines that the vestiges not helping All Might works thematically to demonstrate how everyone contributing to the fight wins out over relying on a sole pillar, which All Might was. Essentially, the vestiges saw All Might as the Superhero, one who could handle AFO by himself, leading them to be passive because they did not think they would make a difference. This was meant to reflect how society became complacent while All Might was active since he could do everything, while all the "weaklings" working together to defeat him now do inspire the vestiges because ordinary people are fighting back against the Demon Lord himself and they now believe they can help. This theme is, in my opinion, weakened by two issues: the first is that All Might is not the first person to resist AFO. We know that at least the Second and Third users of One For All were part of a whole resistance group that fought AFO and that they managed to at the very least infiltrate one of his bases and rescue Yoichi (the Second, in fact, seems to be the most pro-teamwork of ALL the OFA vestiges and is arguably the reason OFA exists to this day at all). We also know Nana had a partner that she worked with up until her death in Gran Torino. So groups of weaklings have fought back against AFO in the past, but he's crushed them because they weren't strong enough and has apparently had no trouble controlling the vestiges when doing so. What changed? This brings me to the second issue, the explanation that AFO provides the following chapter concerning the copy of All For One and how much control AFO has over these vestiges (which, as you correctly pointed out, already makes little sense, and makes even less when you realize these vestiges are themselves copies of other vestiges currently inside Tomura's version of the quirk). So now this rebellion could not have happened had All Might not already defeated AFO twice and put him in a situation where he was forced to use a copy of the All For One quirk. This, in my opinion, makes the vestige rebellion even more contrived, since now being inspired to fight back against the "all-powerful" demon lord not only requires a bunch of "weaklings" fighting together but also requires said demon lord to not be as all-powerful as he was when he fought the guy everyone relied on to defeat him, ironically weakening the narrative that a society where everyone does their best is better than one held up by a sole Superhero. Even when he's being used to try and further the themes of the series, All For One somehow manages to fail again just like he has all of Act 3.

Wow. A bit late but here we go. I agree with pretty much all you said and i can say even more: saving Shigaraki doesn't need AFO to work. Midoriya can beat him and still talk to him after the fight. Shigaraki having agency makes the fact that Midoriya is trying to saving him more compelling in my humble thoughts.

Never thought I'd see such an interesting idea for an antagonist get fumbled so hard. AFO was so unique BECAUSE he was willing to give up his own personal quests and instead hand off his authority to a successor for a new generation. On one hand, it's obviously a parallel to All Might's mentoring of Izuku as he and Shigaraki struggle to live up to their mentors' legacies, but it also serves as another form of proof that the "villains" of MHA's hero society are indeed more complex and nuanced than their society's "clear good vs evil" wants its citizens to believe. I really don't understand why Horikoshi thought that having AFO actually return (and in a way that actively undermines Shigaraki, the guy _who was being built up as the new main antagonist_ of the series) was a good idea. It makes no sense from either an established character standpoint or even a thought-out thematic perspective when you look at the story up until that point. This is not the hallmark of a consistently competent storyteller.

Damn, Hori managed to make All for One worse lol

My Hero Academia always had its ups and downs in the story and pacing but putting All For One into the main villian role during Phase 3 was definitely one of the worst decisions in the story!

It felt to me like Horikoshi really wanted to create his own Aizen, but failed to capture what actually made Aizen so cool.

This take just ages better with time

And his hindrance to the plot is made even worse with his inclusion in MHA: Vigilantes. Now given that the context for all of this was still that he was out of the game in the Kamino arc, the timeline would go from MHA: Vigilantes to MHA Season 3, which in that case is still fine. But now with how absolutely *bloated* his presence is, it wouldn't surprise me if All Might's toilet not flushing one time is somehow connected to AFO trolling him.

He could have gotten Overhauls quirk and made a new human noumu hybrid body for himself.

To add further to the argument of him not being so smart. He didn’t want to take best Jeanie fiber control quirk because he knew it was a hassle to actually learn and develop (kinda like mirios quirk). Why not just take it from best jeanist then? Take away his quirk and the heroes lose one of their best, we saw how much of an asset he was when it comes to restraining villains and especially gigamoachinsh ( I dunno how to spell it). Now imagine if afo gave it to a nomu so that it could learn it and sent it against the heroes? It could struggle but the heroes would be struggling s lot more, the only hero would have to be Mirio (maybe) or they have to fight in the nude (which would be amazing plot line for a rule34 comic i dunno)

I wish AFO had stayed in prison. Shigaraki is much more enjoyable to watch as a villain lol And he doesn't have that pretentious "All according to plan" attitude that annoys me every time I see it in anime in general. OFC Shigaraki also has problems, but his problems are with his asspull powers, not the character himself.

Great video Asa, the thing with AFO is I think his presence in the 3rd act of the series could have been really great and would have paralleled (lol) a lot of Deku/All Might's relationship at this point. With Villain Hunt, we saw Deku take All Might's idea of being the lone hero and run with it, All Might's ideology kind of 'plagued' Deku and VH was (or should have been) Deku moving past that mindset and learning there is a better way that is not so self sacrificial. I think it would have been interesting to this more paralleled with AFO 'plaguing' Shigaraki throughout this third act, similar to how All Might's ideology plagued Deku throughout the story and VH. It would have set Deku up to 'save' Tenko from All for One's influence and it would have been a great way to fully link Deku and Shigaraki's arcs together - coming from their masters influence into their own people (i.e. Deku not being self sacrificial and Shigaraki no longer being controlled and having true 'liberation') Unfortunately, what we got and what we are getting seems to be like a undercooked version of this - and I think the main problem is AFO is *too* present. I think it would have worked a lot better if instead of seeing so much of 'Main Body AFO' throughout this third act, we got more of it from Shigaraki's perspective of being controlled. The reason I think Deku's arc with All Might's ideology works so well, is because All Might isn't hovering over every scene with Deku conducting the show. It feels natural and earned to see Deku retreat back into that ideology at the start of VH. With AFO however, he is literally *always* there and in this third act instead of seeing it from Shigaraki's perspective (like we did with Deku) we are seeing AFO being far too present and overbearing which grays the line between who the actual antagonist/deuteragonist of the story is, and who the focus should be on (Shigaraki). Of course, all of this is on top of other issues that you've pointed out, which adds to the overwhelming reality that AFO is just overstaying his welcome in this part of the story and the quicker his actual body and presence goes on the backburner/fades away - the better the narrative will be. Great vid man the production quality on these has been getting better and better

11:00 is crazy now from what was revealed in the 419 leaks

This^ I really love my hero academia. But ever since the end of All Might vs AFO the show kinda fell off. I hated the part the prison escape arc like wtf they have weak ass guards who does not have quirks to guard villains who could destroy a town instantly. Im still wondering why they dont kill villains even though they kill heroes off. The moment I knew AFO would come back basically killed all the hype for me. Its like saying the All Might vs AFO arc which is the best part is basically pointless. Even after reading the comments theres alot of plot holes i unconsciously ignore because I like the show but I stopped watching it because of how the plot starts to look dumb.

In its earlier days? MHA had so much promise. When AFO fought All Might, and then there was the MVA arc? I was thinking AFO would be so excited to take Shigaraki before being turned to dust. The man who can take all quirks being shown no one is immortal, not by All Might, not by Midoriya, but by his own pupil realizing that, if he didn't need his own original family? Removing the hands of his "family", and losing his last connections to the real world? Shigaraki realizing AFO is more of a hinderance (which ends up being true; he steals the guy's body) and his past connection to the world with everyone who knew him before he became.... well, this? Wouldn't it fit better thematically to have him just hold AFO's face in his hands, like a savior...just to disintegrate him to dust? He was never his family; he was a manipulative force, and if we see one trait from young Shigaraki? It's that he hates three things: being lied to/about, not being in control, and authority, whether that be his dad, the government, the hero association... but not AFO? Guy turns his dog and sister to ash because he can't control his powers due to his abusive father, but let's AFO be his NEW abusive father? Nah, imo? Shigaraki killing AFO would've made things way better. Society can be scared of the guy who just steals quirks right and left; that's the plot of every "we're afraid of Superman cuz he's so strong!" story. But having the master of taking quirks turn to dust by a man wielding one? A scarier villain, a more reasonable scene when the people sheltering want Midoriya out, and a better narrative overall.

The second worst villain in shonen jump got an ending fitting to him.

I was really hoping that All for One was done. Like he is captured and there is no saving him and even if they did it wouldn't matter since he is pretty busted or maybe the government would just kill him. I think bringing him back kind of pulls out all the investment we had with the villains to the point that I just kind of want the series to end and get it over with. Feeling a real game of thrones situation coming up for My Hero.

Spoilers for the manga currently I come to this video now, since after AFO's two supposed deaths, he comes back and "kills" Shigaraki, finally hijacking his body. I'm honestly in utter disbelief how much I hate this guy as a character. There's really nothing to keep me engaged in the story and I'm just sticking around to see how it ends. Also also, apparently Decay is just Overhaul but without the healing part, as stated by AFO iirc, which is hilariously stupid

This was All For nothing

Tbh, this sorta ruins AFO, he would be way cooler if he legitmately tried to groom Shigiraki as his successor, and had a true stance to his ideals. Now he just looked like generic power ranger last boss.

Shigaraki should have used one of the quirk destroying bullets on Kisaki to justify AFO not getting overhaul. Would it be a little contrived, yes but it's better than what we got.

age like wine

10:12 I have a feeling Horikoshi would stoop that low afterall he is a big fan of star wars and it looks like he's going to use the dark Vader being Luke Skywalker's father with deku and all for one why else would he keep him alive for this long and if this does happen it's definitely going to divide the fans of mha. Afterall he's messed up alot of things going into and in this final arc but this is just my opinion.

It's majin buu, Madara, Azien and Ywach all over again

I think part of why AFO is starting to make a lot mistakes in recent years is because now he's finally getting close to REALLY reaching the final act, you know? Up to this point in the past it's always been implied that yeah he was a major threat who controlled Japan's underworld (and to an extent japan itself) but it was always just that: The underworld. It's been said a few times that he wants to be "The demon lord" which kind of sounds way bigger than it just being about controlling Japan's underbelly. I mean, if he was just interested in control he probably wouldn't have invested as much into Shigaraki to mold him and raise him to be his host. I think AFO is pulling a Dabi here. He's getting so cocky and worked up over the idea of everything finally lining up after what, 16 years of preparation? The dude's like a college student who just aced all of his quizzes and gets cocky and confident on the final exam since everything else has gone according to his plan. I think something else to remember here is that despite AFO's power and experience, he's still human. He's bound to be ruled by things like emotion or he may not take into account some things that could occur in the future. I have seen fan-fictions out there (and yes before someone says something I know there not cannon) that show how it would take would be one thing he didn't factor in that could easily happen to completely throw his plans off rail. He flat out tells All might in prison that his abilities used to be Infinite but now thanks to Toshinori they are finite showing that if things don't go his way his plans definitely end up changing and needing some kind of work around. I think you're right in how they're kind of misusing his character here, but I do kind of like some of these nuances with him since it gives a different feel to him you know? Before it felt like he was still gearing up for something big even when he went to Tartarus. Now though? It feels like were all reaching his final act. And the whole "plans on plans" thing, honestly does feel like something AFO would do. We've never SEEN him do it but it has been alluded to by people like All might, Gran torino, and Naomasa that AFO is tricky in how he thinks and doesn't view things the same way normal people do. Geez that was a lot to type. Props to anyone who read this

What a good video. Explains exactly what’s up without spoiling in detail. I’ve only seen up until the anime so far so I appreciate this approach

My goat cooked a five ⭐ meal holy shit, afo may be the worst villain i've ever seen in jump, what a fucking parasite, shiggy you deserved better💔🕊

AFO is the new Aizen, shonen stories have yet to learn this lesson.

All for one took the napkin first and used it to wipe his ass

If you think Shigaraki and Dabi could be used by AFO, he did not rule out that it could be an experiment with a parasite or Nomu or another monstrous style, but dabi was in a coma and even though AFO did not steal his quirk, his body could have prepared him to anything else?! Doesn't that seem strange to you?

The takeover of Shigi takes the dynamic between himself+AFO versus Deku/AM from a parallel to a perpendicular

I personally think that the overtake isn't the worst idea but only if it is followed up by Shiggy taking advantage of the ongoing battle to maybe retake his body, murder/subdue his master because he is in Shiggy's way/they have different goals or some other reason and then him fighting the heroes or backing away to recharge or something else. This should be his final liberation arc because he feels betrayed that the only person he trusted or at least the first after his quirk accident was as selfish as the entire society.

His aura and prescence (especially that ost) is undeniable. But sometimes the "i planned everything" villian can get tiresome

I agree with most of what you said I do think starts and strips last order she made did more damage to his vestige world than he thought but ya AFO totally messed up the ending this manga

With some small hindsight corrections. The overhaul blunder was kinda with hawks now explained a small thing that all for one requires the quirk factor(the effective part the quirk is tied into) to be in decent condition because he’s stealing that (so he only gets hawks damaged and effectively destroyed wings not full flowing wings, likely overhauls destroyed arms means no overhaul that afo could steal.)

Is so sad that one of the best moments of the series could had easily being Shigaraki finally killing AFO and taking his place as the "demon king" he hyped him so much to be, even if it happens is too late now since AFO is supposedly on a timer and dyng? what was even the point of having 2 AFO and 0 shigaraki if in the end he was gonna die anyway and Shiggy was ovbiously taking his body back

It just really feels like someone higher up is just telling an editor to try making the series more "Marketable" IE villains who are vastly oversimplified, unsympathetic and less complex and have the focus soley more on the heroes, all while Horikoshi has to deal with someone who is vehemently trying to wrestle the writing pen out of his hands.

The "evil mastermind from the shadows" is genuinely the worst trope ever. I never see it work, it's just cliché after cliché

In a fanfic I'm writing I very subtly wrote All For One's character through his manipulation of the MC, since Tomura was a failure pretty early on in this AU. I went with the route that cannonizes quirks being connected to one's own personality and drive in a way. The MC is known throughout the fanfic as someone who "lacks a personality," and being aware of this, picks up personality traits from those around them. This comes in handy when AFO starts to manipulate the MC, breaking them down to the point of mentally shattering before then offering them something worth living for: a new quirk. The MC realizes that by being given these quirks, they actually feel their very soul returning to them. Finally, they had something innate that drove them. The quirk itself was only secondary to the amazing amount of drive that was at last given to them. Because of this, the MC became addicted to adding new and exciting quirks to their arsenal. They went through great lengths to gain AFO's quirks which they happily used to steal the quirks of everyone they loved, because now they at last felt they understood and were able to be closer with their family this way. They also went after people they simply admired, both for their quirk and their personality. This, coupled with taking the quirks, and therefore personalities, of so many villains, led them to be corrupted even more than before, longing now to steal ALL quirks...and then kill themself so "the root of all evil" will at last be rid of. Their og quirk is seen more of as a curse to them, so that plus personal experience also leads them to deciding this goal. And I meant to tell this story in a way to share how the same might have happened to AFO himself. How he may have felt completely empty inside until he started stealing quirks. Then, quirk theft essentially became his addictive drug. The one thing that gave him meaning and made him stand out.

I HATE how AFO is taken over tomura

The bummer is really the AfO trying to take Shiggy's body angle could have worked with a few tweaks: it's quite obvious that AfO was too selfish to just step aside, so the idea of his Quirk trying to consume Shigaraki's will and overtake him could have been an ongoing conflict in further story developments(like seen with those subtle mind breaks around the beginning of the PLF War), but the rapid pacing and the fact that his old body still exists kinda muddies that and butchers Tomura/Tenko in the process since due to his identity crisis/Ego Death he's been a near non-entity for around 50 chapters.

I’m still holding out hope that Shiggy will overpower AFO’s will and still be a villain

He should have died when he fought all might

Could've been a way better character. Easy way to make him a vilain in the 3rd act... Make him the 3rd Team. Shigaraki Vs AFO Vs the Heroes

Can someone list every moment All for One is involved in something? I lost my list a year ago.

It's sad cause I really didn't care for Shigaraki in the beginning but he really changed into the villain we needed only to get possessed. I feel Dabi took the spotlight of best villain of the season in my opinion. Honestly I think what you said about him taking Overhauls power alone would have changed a lot. Just imagine Shigaraki actually succeeding in one of his main goals only for AFO to show up and acts proud of his achievements and Shigaraki not suspecting a thing gets absorbed right in front of the League. 💀 Also just a thought on Aizawa. Maybe AFO believe he erased quirks only to find out it was temporary. "Oh, it's not permanent, welp, onto the next quirk."

Yeah I completely get it I like All For One but Shigaraki is awsome every time I see Shigaraki on screen I lean In or stand up because of how amazing he is and to have All For One take the spotlight is really damaging and wasting Shigaraki’s potential as a villain

Can we delete best jeanist from existence?

I'm more suprised he didn't go after Eris quirk in the past. For a character that seemingly has his hands in everything and knows everything, it's not to far fetched to imagine that he would have found out about Eris existence before landing in Tartaros. Especially since he knew who Overhaul was.

When I first encountered best jeanist dialogue from him, I was intruiged. He implied that best jeanist didn't have strong quirk but he had a quirk that requires a lot of training to be good and that he doesn't like quirks like that. This always gave me such a strong impression that he leaned more on the stereotype that bigger and flashier quirk is better even though that's not the case. AFO wants powerful quirks he can use day 1 without any training or effort which I think is very interesting trait for a villain! And then he brings Shigaragi line and the whole thing waters down.

Hopefully this can be explained/fixed by possible draw backs of his quirk. Bc these are big issues 💀

here's a way to excuse him not getting some powers... give them side effects. like for example in the case of erasure or regeneration, there might be a chance of it affecting his other powers, and actually erasing them, which would be too risky for him to test. for others, add some effect of them on the user, and since he isnt born with those, there's a risk of them malfunctioning when he aquires them. like for example phasing, if he got it, he could just end up phasing through the floor and getting stuck inside the earth, or teleport, could make him end up at random places that are dangerous like outer space or under the ocean. give plausable reasons for why he wouldnt want to even try and get those op powers.

16:49 Holy shit, that chapter came out 6 months ago? Time flies for real !!!!!

Bro can we move to the timeline where AFO remained was Shigarakis dad figure, and actually let him take his place? Fuck dude I'll take a timeline where Iron might doesn't happen and Negant shoots AFO with a quirk deleter, over what he is now

Even though I've been enjoying the recent chapters of MHA and it's still my favorite anime and manga awesome but all for one is literally annoying every time hopefully with this recent chapter he's gone for good Shigaraki and Dabi are the best villains they felt like actual threats and weren't annoying by the end still staying awesome seriously your videos are so good:)

In defense of AFO, I'd say he wanted Shigaraki to strike out on his own as he insisted, but he also had every intention of one day taking Shigaraki's body once he became an ideal vessel and he was freed from Tartarus. To him, this might have been a plan that could take years to pay off, as he himself said Shigaraki would stumble down the path he laid out, and it was very possible that he was expecting he might die before Shigaraki would become his new vessel or something else would go wrong, so he was still totally genuine about having Shigaraki become his successor as the Symbol of Evil; in the worst case scenario, Shigaraki would HAVE to pick up the pieces himself without All For One or his Quirk.