#flect turn

I wouldn't really say the movie Villains are better than the League for the simple fact that, in the end, due to being characters in a movie, they're way too quickly defeated and forgotten and hardly do any damage. They don't get to kill someone important, they don't really make countless schemes, they don't manage to escape capture and remain active and if they impact society that impact last an incredibly short amount of time because everything must be returned to zero for the story to manage to fit into the storyline of the anime.

But Horikoshi's choice to go for the League as the main Villain group is surely... odd.

Let's compare it with the other Villain groups, All for One's, Overhaul's, Re-Destro.

Re-Destro is a powerful businessman with plenty of men working under him, enough they rightfully define themselves a Army. He also has plenty of elite fighters, even if few get properly introduced and plenty of money and resources as he's in the support item industry and his underlings are also people of power.

Overhaul has less men but he's still a powerful Yakuza boss with enough money and underlings to look like a threat plus 10 elite fighters (the eight bullets, Chronostasis and Mimic) and resources to produce his Quirk-cancelling bullets.

All for One in his golden age was better off than Re-Destro in every mean possible, after he fell he still has enough money to support Garaki's research and his hospitals and orphanages in which they also do human experimentation secretly, have allies all around the globe, finance the League and dispose of Nomu.

As for Shigaraki without All for One's support... his league is moneyless, they live in a trash hideout, since Kurogiri leaves to search for Machia and Magne dies early on, he's left with 5 underlings. Of them initially only Dabi has a strong offensive power because Twice, due to his trauma, can't really fight, Himiko hadn't had her Quirk awakening yet and so she, Compress and Spinner aren't really that big of a threat.

The fact that the police fears them makes the situation hilarious and the police incompetent, not them a threat.

The moment the league gain enough power to effectively be a threat, the story immediately bring them back by having the Heroes make a surprise strike that erases most of their newly aquired assets.

Shigaraki's modding is interrupted, Garaki is taken captive, the Nomu factory is lost, most of the army is gone, Twice is dead and the plit between the League and the Meta Liberation Army becomes clear as Shigaraki cares to have Machia bring to him only the League which makes sense as the MLA never truly cared for Shigaraki and Co and only tailed after him because Re-Destro told them to do so.

And they're up facing an overwhelmingly number of Heroes.

At the same time the story sabotages them, Dabi's name doesn't mean cremation just in reference to how Touya almost died burned alive, his fire is hot enough he can cremate people but... not Hawks apparently, even if, considering how close Hawks was to him and the time he was exposed to fire, should have reduced Hawks to a charred corpse. I'll say Touya's fire damages Touya more than it damages others which is ridicule when Horikoshi reveals Touya HAS some fire resistance while Hawks has none...

On the other side the less powerful fire of Endeavor works just fine to burn Shigaraki consistently, good to him he has regeneration... to bad the fact Garaki hadn't finished modding him causes troubles.

Also Shigaraki hits Gran Torino as hard as he can and the old man survives to it! Deku ruins his arms but... it's okay, they'll heal just fine.

Bakugou's get stabbed in place of Deku but doesn't die like Twice, no he can fight and will recover.

And hey, the Heroes now have new technology and Eri controls her power so Best Jeanist is back from death and Lemillion have his Quirk back.

Compress instead is captured, Shigaraki gets possessed and they've to escape.

In the second war the Heroes overwhelm the Villains again, both in numbers and in times the narrative depicts them in advantage. @stillness-in-green did count the cliffhangers and the Heroes were definitely more often in advantage than the Villains.

Never mentioning that the Heroes get even better off than in the first war. In the first war they had some minor casualties... here they don't have even that, the deaths are all on the Villain side, Machia, AFO, Himiko, Shigaraki, and, even if delayed as he gets to live a little longer, Touya.

Bakugou gets resurrected and his arm will recover, Midoriya gets his arms back, Edgeshot survives and manages to regrow his arms.

The ones who take the worst deal are Enji, who gets wounded so seriously he's unable to use his legs, loses his arm and can't be a Hero (but he had already decided to Quirk), Fuyumi and Rei that get scarred (but they're no Heroes), Hawks who lost his Quirk (but he still becomes the HPSC president).

The LOV is a much more interesting Villain group than many others and I love the choice to make them all outcasts but... after the lost AFO's patronage they aren't genuinely given a chance to shine as a real threat that overwhelms the Heroes. The moment they might be capable to do it, the story turns the tables so fast you wonder if you dreamt it.