mmh… I’m not convinced at all that shiggi is gonna be the series big bad. for one, because afo never actually trained him to be his successor. actually, afo did everything in his power to stunt shigaraki’s growth and make him as dependant on him as possible. secondly, and most importantly, because while it’s certainly true that bnha is a story about passing down the mantle to the new generation so that they can fix the mistakes of the previous one, nothing about deku and shigaraki’s narrative ever pointed in the direction that deku’s role was that of defeating shigaraki. it’d be pretty pointless if that was all there was to it imho.
shigaraki having inherited afo’s quirk does not change any of the rules. it’s merely foiling for deku having aquired not only ofa, but also the predecessors’ powers. hori simply just evened out the playing field for their inevitable conflict later down the road, but if it had just been about simply winning against the league, hori wouldn’t have spent huge amounts of screentime detailing shigaraki’s character growth, both personal and as a leader.
sure, if you only mean that shigaraki will be deku’s real challenge as a hero, and his main antagonist, then I agree. they are foils for a reason.
but before we start catastrophizing, I think it’s important to remember that deku’s journey as a hero has always been motivated by his desire to save people. not defeating big bads.
and I think this chapter made it pretty clear: what tenko—and then shigaraki—only ever wanted was to be allowed his own personhood. yet his father and his family always denied him, always punished him for speaking up, for having goals, for refusing to let his voice and his ambitions be stifled. even then, little tenko clung to them, in much the same way deku clung to his own hero aspirations well into his adolescence, when he finally had a chance to meet his idol and ask him to give him that same chance of proving his personhood. Can I be a hero, too? even if I’m quirkless and everyone else keeps telling me that it’s hopeless and I’m delusional?
All might said no at first. then he saw izuku’s worth and changed his mind.
all I’m saying is that—given how it’s been set up so far, and how deku has yet to be challenged with the question of what saving others really means for him specifically—I think that deku’s role is that of reaching out to shigaraki and do the same for him.
you can be a hero in your own right, too.
especially since this chapter also made it very clear that nana failed her grandson, too. she’d rather he stay dead and in eternal mourning, if it meant not becoming afo’s heir. can you imagine how stifling that is? to be denied until your dying breath (or lack thereof, since shigaraki isn’t even breathing)?
I think the best part of this chapter was how it proved all of them wrong about shigaraki. even afo, who tried to mould him into a feral killing machine. because no matter how nana tried to keep him from joining afo’s side, and no matter afo’s insistence that shigaraki is a symbol of terror, and that he’s made for destruction… the point still stands that shigaraki only ever had a smile to offer to the people who had so thoroughly and so mercilessly silenced him.
he might not have “saved them with a smile”, but he most definitely forgave them with a smile.
he is not afo. he never was and never will be.
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