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comecatchthesehandsCharacter Base
• Character Name: Tomura Shigaraki
• Age: 23 (CRAU, 20 Canon)
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: My Hero Academia/July 7, 2014 - Canon point is approximately circa 320 from his last CRAU. I will be canon updating for sure in the future.
• Items Coming Along:
Aside the first one these are CRAU items
- The hand that on his face and is canonically one of his father
- This jacket.
- This mug.
- This box.
- This bag because I can't let him be happy.
- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Content Warnings for Character:
Murder/Manipulation/Child Abuse/Brainwashing/Graphic scenes of gore/disembodied hands/general nutbag/self-harm in the way he scratches himself raw. I think that's as least spoilery as I can get and cover the huge swath of things associated with backstory and current. It's not a lovely time.
Character Background
• History: Wiki - Please mind CW he has a lot of them.
• Core Relationships:
Mon
Best dog, best boy. He very clearly loved his doggo and his doggo loved him too. Saddest situation in the whole series. There will be no debate, don't @ me. (lol) But jokes aside no, really. Tomura had little to no friend circle and any of them that engaged in anything even remotely to heroics got cut off.
His Grandparents
Both paternal and maternal side of grandparents were basically of no consequence to him directly. Nana Shimura is of course one of the holders of One for All, which is the counter ability to his own that he's been instilled with. However, he never knew her aside that he knew she was a hero thanks to his sister, Hana. His maternal grandparents lived in the same house and did basically nothing other than comforting words to save him from his father's ire.
Kotaro Shimura
This is his father, a hero hating man who crushed hopes and aspirations that his children may have had to become heroes because of the disappointment of his mother (Nana Shimura) giving him up for his own safety. His selfish attachment to his abandonment was the eventual reason that Tomura, then Tenko, killed his entire family. He had wanted to turn himself around, very much perhaps like a certain other father figure in the series just now, but it was too little too late.
Nao Shimura
His mother is a bit of an odd spot, he looks back on the killing of his family and justifies it as them all having deserved it in one way or another. It's not exactly unfounded but extremely twisted by the people who found him as a child and raised him to be the ruthless person he is today. But. The way he lets his mother comfort him even in his anguish over his father's hard handedness says otherwise. Much like his older years, Shigaraki tends to say one thing and his actions mean another. Yes, he has to sometimes be influenced into those truer actions rather than reactions which I'm certain he gets that temper from his father. That doesn't mean that his actions as a child aren't mirrored into his older age. His last moments with his mother, said woman reaching for her child even though she had to know what it meant, were reaching out for her in return for that same kind of comfort. He does say that he realized after Hana it was him, but still he wanted his mother.
The same mother's hands were given to him by his "Adopted" family and appear on his neck.
Hana Shimura
This is his sister. His older sister to whom he looked up to and in his own minds eye absolved of her role in the day that his whole family died. They were going to be sibling heroes when they grew up, according to Hana and her hands appear on his wrists. They seemed to be very close and she shared the same fate as him when it came to their father and any hero talk.
All For One
After Tomura killed his family, he was definitely lost as to what to do. There were no adults that came to his rescue, no heroes that swooped in to get the "villain" that he realized was him. Nothing. He was left wandering the streets until AFO found him, came to pick him up and took him back to his home. Since then, Shigaraki has called him Master and refers to him in that way and their relationship had been as such. He was given the last name Shigaraki because it was All For One's last name. Essentially, he adopted Shigaraki and gave him the life we see now. He manipulated and twisted Tomura. Nurtured the things that've made him who he is today and there is really no going back in that sort of area but he is still a human. Even with his loyalties as they are, he's none too happy about being meat piloted by AFO either. He wants to do this his way, not be told what to do.
Dr. Kyudai Garaki/Daruma Ujiko
This is one of All For One's most trusted. Someone that Shigaraki also went to for his means to an end. He has no real attachments to him as far as we see in the way of emotional, but he does seem to (whatever it looks like) trust that the doctor will follow through as long as Shigaraki does.
League of Villains in general
I just can't be convinced that Shigaraki doesn't care about them, or rather, the remaining ones even before Twice. At first, they were useful pawns in every meaning of the word. People loyal to his ideals only at the expedition of their own. After a while, even if he still sees them as useful pieces to a puzzle, you can see that he gives a damn. Even to the point where he calls them his comrades. He could've asked them to leave to reveal his "origin story" he could've done a lot of things where they're involved. He could've just gotten his revenge on Overhaul instead of taking Mr. Compress with him to allow him to extract his own. "Trusting" Dabi to be where he needs to even if he bitches about it, in timely fashion. It's all part of the same, even with Spinner who seems more than just loyal to Shigaraki's ideals but Shigaraki in general. Enough that it's made mention of by one of the LoV during a war, and that Spinner was the one to get through to him.
Kurogiri
Kurogiri was made to take care of Shigaraki and in the earlier stages where we see that he would've murdered people for the smallest reasons, Kurogiri gets away with a ton of things. While AFO is his 'father', Kurogiri is the man who's taken care of him in a longer time than just a year as far as we know. Shigaraki's relationship with him is just the same as all the other people around him, he's useful, but it seems like Shigaraki respects and cares about what he says when it comes to some of their interactions where they don't see eye to eye. He could've killed Kurogiri, Dabi and Toga the moment he first met said other duo, but he listened and respected what Kurogiri did to stop him.
Mr. Compress
Mr. Compress is one of their older loyalists, someone with a very neat quirk and someone that obviously Shigaraki cares about. Spoilers ahead:
Mr. Compress lost his arm to Overhaul the same day that Magni was killed by the same group of people. The long game got played and in the end, Shigaraki could've taken both Overhaul's hands no problem to send that message. Instead he allowed Mr. Compress to come with him and take an arm for an arm. For Shigaraki that's as close to sharing prey or toys as he comes and it's pretty incredible that he did it, especially that early into it. Mr. Compress was willing to sacrifice himself for Shigaraki and Spinner to get free and continue the fight. Shigaraki must have done something to win that kind of loyalty and not just loyalty to Stain (another villain that Shigaraki despises) or AFO (who most villains fear/respect). That kind of sacrifice doesn't happen for no reason.
Dabi
The first time he met Dabi he tried to kill him because he annoyed him. As time went on, yes, Dabi is a very powerful friend to have. Friend being more an operative word than a specific thing to say. The closest we ever get was my aforementioned calling of the people who are still with him his ally. When he's needed Dabi is reliable, and the understanding of his going off to do his own thing seems to only relegate an eye roll for the most part after a while of being together.
Toga
This "psychotic girl" is another anomaly that he almost killed the moment he met her. She calls him "Tomura-kun" and he does and says nothing about it (she also calls Dabi by his name later on, too). Everyone else calls him by his surname save very few other people and even then it's his full name for the majority. She is, while the sentiment is certainly the same as one would expect with murderous psychopaths, very much the 'little sister' trope in this dynamic, for all of them. He doesn't treat her as anything but an equal in the idea that she's given merit to fight or do as she needs. No one more than half mentioned she used her money to buy a coat instead of contributing to the cause when they were left with nothing. Including Shigaraki.
Twice
Giran, another associate of Shigaraki's and a well known all around dealer of illegalities in the villain world, delivered Twice to Shigaraki's doorstep. Though a great many are loyal to Shigaraki, including Spinner, Twice has been the one most loyal to them all. Though, sometimes, it seems like Shigaraki is bullying him it seems like he knows Twice very well. How to handle him, how to listen to the important parts of his ramblings and how to understand his incompetence isn't without it's merit. Twice has a strong quirk and it was never as strong as it was under the leadership and found family trope of the league of villains.
Spinner
Though starting out with every value geared toward what Stain wanted, Shigaraki quickly became his focus. According to canon they bonded over video games, which Shigaraki is very fond of and became fast 'friends'. Again, for Shigaraki saying someone is their friend is a very serious thing. Spinner would do anything for Shigaraki at the current canon and to wield that kind of power over someone who was resolved, certainly isn't just the manipulative tactics, or tactics geared toward fear that Shigaraki once used. Spinner doesn't really relate to those things and he would've otherwise just left even as ingrained into it as he was. He stays, loyally, for Shigaraki and whatever Shigaraki needs and in current times often asks if Shigaraki really is the same man he knew. Someone very clearly capable of at least the rudimentary understanding and acceptance of outliers that formed this trope of a league.
• Summary of CRAU Impact:
Honestly over the course of the time he has had CRAU, he has been at the top of everything in his time of Mask or Menace all the way to the rock bottom in Avalon where I'm taking him from. He's dealt with heroes, he's even befriended some of them in the past for whatever "Friend" means again to him. Much like I've outlined, friend is the word that I can use to describe it where as Shigaraki just doesn't hate them as much as everyone else. Heroes he hates, hero society he hates, but he was able to see past that after years of CR with a few of them. Namely Bakugo and Ochako. Once he was in Avalon, however, he learned about the different worlds not holding the same people and is aware that yet again these aren't the "friends" he had.
Bringing his CRAU helps me to help himself, too, should I decide to update him. I took a bit of a risk in the past in Avalon and it did actually help. He wasn't as just 'attack the heroes :B' because they may have pissed him off. He had an optimal ability to do so, too, using their own technology against them if he would've wanted to and after a few conversations with Izuku Midoriya almost did a couple times. While he's not above doing it if they attack him, and he's not above being antagonistic, or just as egotistical as he is in canon it's dulled a little in the face of understanding his surroundings. Such as in this place, he understands that he can still "shit talk" Bakugo and understands at the same time he has bigger fish to fry instead of setting his sights on one thing and going for it.
That opens up opportunity for me, as the player, to be able to branch out more. See and feel out what he wants to do (above game mechanics and events of course) and also see what comes of negative or positive CR. I'm able to work smoothly with both as long as there's clear communication on the negative CR. Sometimes villains can be a bit much and I get that so I will always strive to make sure to have some sort of contact if needed.
Character Personality Through Key Moments
(2+) Positive Experiences:
- Ochako in Mask or Menace (CRAU)
Played by the same mun and not with the same memories, Ochako was a driving force for him learning a little more not to be impulsive and how to bridge the gap between the hero world and his own. He wouldn't give up his morals or ideals of course, but he was able to do that more or less with her help alone.
- The realisation he was being manipulated
The play out of the realization is a little bit strange in the most recent canon. However, when he first realized he was the pawn in plans still, Shigaraki was furiously fighting it. While that may not seem like the most positive outcome considering what's happened with him and the powerlessness of it, I think it taught him something extremely important. It gave him that fire to fight even himself, his resolve, and the person he thought was training him up to let him do this his own way. I think this sort of resolve will come with some more of Shigaraki's 5D chess later, but I also think it was a positive experience for him.
- The League of Villains
If anything, Shigaraki needed this ragtag group of people if he wanted them or not. Kurogiri knew it, and so did a lot of the other people influencing his life. I don't think they knew just how it would impact him, but he needed people to fight along side, not just people that he could control because of their allegiances to All for One.
- Losing battles in the series
Shigaraki hasn't always come out on top, but he's also learned a lot and grown into his position as 'leader', grown into the mistakes that he made and also made easy work of learning from it. He's very adept and very adaptable even if his anger can get the worst and best of him.
- Being forced to be around something he can't kill (CRAU)
His avalon experience has been great for him to learn humility and some other very important lessons about patience. His Onryo is someone he couldn't kill and therefore any time he went overboard she was there to reign him in (which was something I discussed with Cian while he was still there on the team, he's on extended leave right now, but it was the reason for her along with some very obvious overtones of his victims for thematic reasons). His frustrations were massive, and can continue to be massive depending on it, but it was one of the better things he ever had to face that gave him something he had to learn based on it.
(2+) Negative Experiences:
I'm going to forego too much talk about his abuse as a child, I think that's very obvious as a negative experience, but don't want to write too many different 'experiences' where those have influenced him and will summate it below.
- The realization that the people he knew, weren't the people he knew anymore. (CRAU)
It was extremely tough for him to go through knowing that Ochako didn't remember a damn thing about their past. It made him stronger, yes, but it made him more upset and luckily he's dealt with it a little easier nowadays, but it certainly didn't make it easier on him. It made him upset and withdrawn until he met Gokudera who gave him something else to concentrate on, even if it was just making fun of him and egging him on.
- The loss of his family and therefore gaining All for One as a "father"
There's nothing more negative than taking a tiny child and teaching it how to murder with an already devastating quirk. Nothing more devious than using the abuse they went through to justify murder on even the smallest scales and nurturing that hate within him.
Deer Country Attributes
• Canon Powers:
Decay [Wiki]
This is his primary quirk and the one he was born with. Anything he touches, no matter how many fingers make contact, decays within a very large radius. Anything that the decaying matter touches will decay as well. I will be carefully policing this and so far have had no problems and no reason to mass use it to where I've had to be concerned. He shows a great command over it so I can kinda wiggle room that where its usage is considered.
All For One [Wiki]
This quirk in itself is a quirk that takes other people's powers and uses them for himself. There aren't many quirk users here that would be of his own canon and again would appear on the permissions page for people who know their canon and their wants better than I would. AFO (which is both the name of his father and the name of his 'father's quirk lol) contains a bunch of Quirks as it is. Some I think would make him 'too powerful' here and so I will be negating them entirely by not listing them even though they may show up in the list. In future canon updates I will reassess this should I find the need to update will be a help not a hinderance.
╘══ Rivet Stab
This one is just the ability to use either fingers or spines to create long, stabbing red and black appendages. Sometimes used to look like a horrible mess of limbs and intimidation from his back. Here, though, I will keep them simple unless an event, or an update if I find it isn't going to overpower him, allows for me to go really ham as with all his abilities.
╘══ Search
This is just an ability that focuses on finding quirks (or other abilities that users give me permission for -- rest assured I'll be reaching out to the other taken list MHAs to please direct them to my permission post before interacting and leave that ball in their courts). This gives the fun cat and mouse game when I decide it doesn't work, either, like I had in the TDM. I'm all for the 'huh doesn't work' method when it suits me or another player lol.
╘══ Super Regeneration
What it says on the tin! It's sort of redundant, a little bit, considering he can just have a nap, but I think it'll be a good co-ability with the natural one here.
Avalon Specifics
This one I'm going to have to say I want to skip. As cool as his abilities were there, I'd much rather forego them and really I think within the confines of the game they wouldn't work with or without his Onryo here.
• Blood Type: Darkblood. If you find that he's too powerful to be given anything more than warmblood and would rather, please just let me know and I'll gladly write out a revision balance within your guidance for common ground.
• Omen: Wendigo (? IS that an animal lol I was going to go with Onryo but that's not an animal! If it is allowed though I'd love to have his Onryo from his last game without the manifest powers of course).
• Blessed Day: April 4th
• Patron Pthumerian: Mariana - This is just him vibes all over the place. He's just as chaotic and slave to whims of his current mood.
• Blood Power Manifestation:
I nullified a lot of his AFO powers for certain simply because I wanted him to be able to explore the ability to warp reality eventually. Everything will start off small because until he realizes what it is that he can or can't do, or how to find out, he'll be relying on his canon abilities. I'd like to go for a balanced suit of both canon and blood, but honestly other than defensively (which is the abilities I let him keep with AFO) I kind of want to explore these possibilities. The idea of him being able to move things with his mind is kind of interesting, too. Maybe even teaming up with other users to move what they need or manipulate what they've made in order to enhance or use it for their benefit, beit whatever that is.
It'll be a lot of fun!
Writing Samples
One
Two
The Player
• Player Name: Cytes
• Player Age: Over 18
• Player Contact: PM Journal or Plurk
• Permissions: Here. Please make sure this includes our permissions requirements.
Revisions
Date: 2022-03-10 06:44 am (UTC)Positive Things
Date: 2022-03-10 06:45 am (UTC)- Ochako in Mask or Menace (CRAU)
Played by the same mun and not with the same memories, Ochako was a driving force for him learning a little more not to be impulsive and how to bridge the gap between the hero world and his own. He wouldn't give up his morals or ideals of course, but he was able to do that more or less with her help alone.
Personality Attachment: While it was undone largely in Avalon, in Mask or Menace he really did learn over the course of his time there how to be a little more of a team player. It helped him to calm himself down, at the time in his canon it was a very heated situation and one that only had him seeking more destruction. Taking that away from him just enraged him more considering this wasn't a hero world like his. It didn't hit any of the boxes that his did and he found other ways to take it over from the inside out that probably were a lot less violent over all (ish) than if he didn't have the befriending of people like Ochako (and a few of the pro heroes) in various events. Even now killing them would be on the menu but he wouldn't like it or enjoy it as much as maybe he would've back in the day. Depends on how the CR goes or continues, just as a side note I suppose.
- The realisation he was being manipulated
The play out of the realization is a little bit strange in the most recent canon. However, when he first realized he was the pawn in plans still, Shigaraki was furiously fighting it. While that may not seem like the most positive outcome considering what's happened with him and the powerlessness of it, I think it taught him something extremely important. It gave him that fire to fight even himself, his resolve, and the person he thought was training him up to let him do this his own way. I think this sort of resolve will come with some more of Shigaraki's 5D chess later, but I also think it was a positive experience for him wherein it was one of the few times he stood up to the powers that be in his life in more than just a murderous rage like with his family.
Personality Attachment: Wherein the situation isn't ideal, Shigaraki's resolve always steels itself every time he fails. Every time he goes through a failure (and after whatever version of tantrum he throws about it) he comes back ten fold. Wherein when he realizes he's being manipulated, he's more or less docile about it after he's taken under. It's a long game, likely and that's exactly what Shigaraki is like. He will lay in wait for you to be at the gates and take you the moment you step out of it. This is something that he's been through before, understanding that if you don't take your chance you will never get it again. That sort of fierceness and learning over and over in trial by fire never leaves him and while he has moments where people think it might be gone, it never, ever does. Every time we see him he's stronger, better, faster, (harder lol? It's a good song) and more adept at his next go. This is the same thing now even after being taken over. He's become even smarter, more resourceful, able to calculate things like having to decay the ground around him just so he can avoid a ground-level attack that would've otherwise hit him if he were on the surface.
Being manipulated isn't ideal and isn't the way someone should have to learn those things, specifics aside, however, it did teach him a great deal more about trusting absolutely no one but the people who have proven themselves. Not people with higher ideals than his own that he previously trusted, as far as I'm concerned.
- The League of Villains
If anything, Shigaraki needed this ragtag group of people if he wanted them or not. Kurogiri knew it, and so did a lot of the other people influencing his life. I don't think they knew just how it would impact him, but he needed people to fight along side, not just people that he could control because of their allegiances to All for One.
Personality Attachment: These people taught him a myriad of lessons and none of which are words that he would use many sense, companionship, friendship, family, and the will to let others participate in things he wants to see happen. While it's all the ends to his own means (as is with most villains and people who are otherwise maniacal), he's forged lasting relationships with all of them in the ways that I described up in their descriptions. Things like taking Mr. Compress to claim his literal pound of flesh from Overhaul when in Shigaraki's sense of it, that early into the League of Villains, they were pawns not friends. He absolutely didn't have to take compress to allow him revenge in part, Shigaraki could have "done it all" for them and instead he allowed him to do it. While that may not have thrilled Overhaul to lose his arm to Mr. Compress, having killed one of the League of Villains and maimed another, it was a price to pay that I'm sure he would've prefered with his life instead. However, for Shigaraki not to have just taken the revenge was a huge step. Dabi and Toga taught him patience and the value of people who you might not see eye to eye with. Of course that was guided by Kurogiri, but all the same. Twice taught him a lot as well about just how much this world is willing to find the weakest links and exploit them. No matter how kind the source is. Spinner acts like more a friend than an underling, someone who actually cares. Someone who takes care of him and doesn't just get saddled with making sure he's okay like Dabi. Spinner understands him, the old him, and Shigaraki seems to allow that too.
They are the people who have had the most impact on his life, no matter how the journey started.
- Humility lessons (CRAU)/(Things he can't kill/can't control)
Shigaraki's Avalon experience has been great for him to learn humility and some other very important lessons about patience. His Onryo is someone he couldn't kill or control and therefore any time he went overboard she was there to reign him in.
Personality Attachment: With Shigaraki being as controlling as he is, or attempting to be considering that any semblance of control has actually been a fake lead toward the aforementioned meat-mech, it's something he had to learn very well and very fast. That he is not always going to be able to be that person in control, and while he can control situations in his stead of understanding, he won't be able to keep situations in the grasp of his hand when it's not his world. And sometimes, even when it is.
Negative Things
Date: 2022-03-10 06:45 am (UTC)(2+) Negative Experiences:
I didn't forego in the revision about his childhood, I definitely went ham on that.
- The realization that the people he knew, weren't the people he knew anymore. (CRAU)
It was extremely tough for him to go through knowing that Ochako didn't remember a damn thing about their past. It made him stronger, yes, but it made him more upset and luckily he's dealt with it a little easier nowadays, but it certainly didn't make it easier on him. It made him upset and withdrawn until he met Gokudera who gave him something else to concentrate on, even if it was just making fun of him and egging him on.
This took a toll on him in the way that he threw himself back into general villainy and things that brought him closer to his roots. The decision was a horrible one (a fun one OOCly) that alienated people who could've been otherwise beneficial in making him more than what he was: Just a villain. His decision cut him away from possible ties that he could've made that weren't criminal syndicate and though some of his CR Lay in the grey area between villain and guy who blows things up that isn't Bakugo, it didn't do much in the way of helping him to be viewed as anything but what he used to be. He did take steps to do as he wished and if they coincided with what other people wanted, great, if not, then he kept people back at an arm's length yet again harkening to the need to do so before he formed any more meaningful bonds that he's certain he'd lose.
That didn't stop new CR, he eventually learned to do it but it wasn't the best way he could've handled that situation. There could've been a lot better ways and instead he opted for what he knew for comfort sake and falling back on neutral chaotic methods he had in familiarity.
- The loss of his family and therefore gaining All for One as a "father"
There's nothing more negative than taking a tiny child and teaching it how to murder with an already devastating quirk. Nothing more devious than using the abuse they went through to justify murder on even the smallest scales and nurturing that hate within him.
Knowing what AFO was as he grew up had to have him considerably capable of understanding that he was a bad man, doing things that were fundamentally wrong but being nurtured in that environment never gave him that option. Even at a young age he was told he was going through it. Staying and not taking the lessons he saw around him was a terrible decision on his part.
------- Additionals Not in the App
- Deciding to become a villain and not taking the out when things looked like they were at their worst.
While I will defend that Shigaraki makes every decision he does with 5D chess in mind no matter how low the stakes are, and that is a positive trait I think too that his decision not to take the off ramp early in his life, or going his own way without the League of Villains ever starting was a bad one. He may not see it that way, but if I had to pin myself down to it it's definitely a negative. Being as re: his childhood and not having stability, now that he had it in the League and or with Kurogiri and AFO, he's a creature of habit and at the whims of his own decisions, be they bad or good for him or anyone else. His decision was certainly made out of necessity, it's not like he had a bunch of life skills to his name aside what he had built through his association to AFO.
But before he got too deep in, he definitely could've left that lifestyle and even if he was still a villain he could've done all the early series things he did on his own and for the most part, he did. However, I think they would've become a drain on him too, mentally, had he not had some sort of syndicate and support and I think he honestly wouldn't have been the man he is today. He probably could've been just a low time criminal living in criminal land with a little bit behind him, depending on how AFO felt about the deviating from the plan thing. That could've ended him up dead, too, as it does for most 'traitors'. Of which I'm certain Shigaraki isn't afraid to die, but he certainly is allergic to wanting to fail, therefore this was never an option for him, but it certainly could have been with the right support. ...The right support could've come a bunch of years earlier too but that's beside this point.
- Having to bodymod himself just to further his own goals.
Terrible, horrible choice that he doesn't regret. He put himself through living hell to get where he is today with his quirk and be a suitable host for the quirk All for One and unbeknownst to him the parasitic "master" that had raised him through the ranks. Choosing it, for him, was an easy choice but the toll it's taken on his body and his mind is so evident that the people closest to him don't even know if he's himself anymore or if he's just a monster of the pinnacle design of his Master. He's not thrilled for it and as aforementioned he's certainly not been saying much about it these days. If anything I will be hoping for the 5D chess that he usually pulls, but as far as negative experiences, making himself seem lesser just to be more.
====
In summation he makes his mistakes because he has been groomed into a certain grain to grow. That may not all be AFO's fault, he is a grown adult who can see right from wrong and just doesn't care to follow it. He's, as said, a manlet that was forced out of Daddy's basement and away from Reddit to have to go it on his own and learn to be his own person in every way that just so happens to take a villain to that next plateau. He makes them because someone is always trying to throw him back into the anger, willingly or not, that he's never going to escape. Heroes trying to kill him, rightly, are attacked brutally out of defense mostly these days, a defense that's weak depending on your side in the moral of the story. Shigaraki is doing these things as he works toward the destruction of everything. He makes bad decisions because for him, they're positive ones. They get him closer to his goal, they get him closer to his niche and closer to his end run of destroying everything and everyone.
It doesn't matter whom or what, or so he says even if sometimes his actions say otherwise, he will reach that end goal even at the cost of his own well being.
Abuse Explanation (CWs all over)
Date: 2022-03-10 06:47 am (UTC)I thought I would separate this out just in case anyone on the team had any triggers where the CWs were considered. There's also a lot of spoilers for his origin story, I apologize I can't avoid them for this easily!
A lot of his abuse does, obviously, pop into a negative light and it comes in the form of pretty much everything. Even before he was the big bad, too. Tenko's story is the sad start of Shigaraki's. His entire family was under the thumb and under the shadow. The thumb of his father who, classically, is supposed to be someone that a person can rely on in their culture which is the Japanese culture. Men, for the most part, are expected to go out and become whatever level of successful to take care of their wives at home who in turn take care of children. While that's binary and in some way not everyone's ideal life, that's how a lot of/most of the family structures in MHA are built. There are outliers and stronger, meeker as the dynamics go but that's just how it is.
Especially when we look at Tenko's family. His mother is between a rock and a hard place, unable to really stand up to her husband because there are elderly family members living with them as well. Further that she seems to be a resolute woman capable of standing up, but does it all too late likely out of fear of that ire being turned on her. Since Kotaro, Tenko's father, is the reason for the upheaval of their home the instability of it to begin with was likely a large part.
From moment one, Shigaraki has never had a stable family. No one to look up to and no father figure to speak of in his early childhood before being adopted. Being hit, being told he can't follow his (and his sister's) dreams, dealing with these "allergies" they thought he had, his sister's betrayal which in kid terms was big deal, a mother who couldn't truly protect him and grandparents who were too dependant to help. When the dog is the only one loyal to you in your child-like understanding, as a four/five year old you begin to develop tendencies toward anger that you don't understand how to handle yet.
Shigaraki keeps people at arm's length and it's not because of his quirk. He keeps people away from him because he's been reliant on himself for so long he can't help but do it. He's been told, despite it being an obvious lie, that he is the one of a kind, basically messiah, to bring the hatred and malcontent that he feels for everyone in the world to said world in a broiling hell. All of those childish dispositions of feeling alone, feeling betrayed, feeling hurt even before he killed his entire family and later on said that he had that inkling he knew what he was doing, all add up. It was a ggez moment for All For One (who we don't know how exactly he found Shigaraki if it was a plant or if he knew, or someone told him or he had been keeping tabs on his old Rival's family or any of the above) when he picked up Shigaraki and taught him only a day later that his murderous tendencies were good. That he should follow them and not let that itching upset overtake him and instead let it out at anything he felt he wanted to lash out at.
Even Shigaraki's wardrobe is styled with the trauma he felt as a child in mind and kept until after his "awakening" in the story. Even then in some way it still persists in concept. The hand over his face is his Father's hand and the one that reached out toward him as he crumbled the abusive man into nothing for all the things he had put him through. It was his father's open hand at Tenko's face that opened the crack in the dam of Tenko's powers, that small 'had enough' equalling the death of his family that if he would've waited mere minutes more, might have been so much different.
That same hand that, aforementioned, kept him at bay and content and almost 'trapped' behind it still reaching out. He wears his family in remembrance and it's much like a kid that has a stuffed toy into their adulthood that gave them that ultimate comfort and still does. Only. You know. Embalmed hands of the dead people you first killed trophy serial killer style. Potayto Potahto.
Thanks to All For One - and in a lot of respects, Tenko's father, Shigaraki never learned how to grow out of that angry, five year old mentality. Though there's nothing wrong with living a life loving video games, even that is something harkening back into the childhood that he enjoys greatly. He never puts them down and often makes pop culture and video game references in the way he actually speaks if people around him understand them or not. His selfishness isn't subtle. The Leader of Villainy for a great many is quite the tantruming manlet when he wants to be, even to this very day. Given room for the fact he was probably in a lot of pain, but he was still tantruming.
Like a spoiled child, Shigaraki is given everything he wants and more when he first starts out to make a name for himself in the beginning of the series that aren't just whispers of a guy with a crazy quirk covered in dead hands. If he wanted Nomu that took months to "make" he got them. A legion to attack a hero school with? At your beck and command and that was simply to not only teach him that he can lose but to use those feelings to reinforce in him the hate and anger he would feel when he did. All orchestrated by the conductor of his late childhood to adulthood, AFO. While likely raising him was left to others, Shigaraki calls him "master" not father. Everything is a culmination of his early years and the trauma sent wayside.
There were no heroes that stopped, no one in society cared, and Shigaraki learned that as he wandered the streets scared, alone and a child.
Despite all this, the people who were loyal to the League of Villains still follow him uninterrupted in their own ways. Dabi is a wildcard, but he remains loyal in the way that when he's actually needed, when he's called, he comes through again in his own way. Since you wanted more negative than positive, I can also see the bad side of that where it only enforces his actions as they are. Leaderbean with an uninterrupted manlet attitude, but I also see the positive in it which is why most of my thoughts on the league of villains aren't actually negative where it comes to Shigaraki. Mostly.
Without bringing manga caps and the like into it, I've tried to stay into the negative of the whole thing to do with his abuse and his adulthood, where, essentially he's still being abused. All for One's entire plan was to make a meat-mech he could pilot around and control, and the fun dynamic in that (can I say fun here) is that Shigaraki's strong will is in play and I hope they don't forget that come time in the manga because they're sure forgetting that come time in the manga.
I hope that clears up at least a little of what you wanted!
Smaller Fixes
Date: 2022-03-10 06:49 am (UTC)Omen: Oh I see! I entirely misunderstood what I read. If it's got to be more bestial then is it alright if it's (not the actual character) a corgi that looks like his childhood dog, Mon? I really hope I'm not misunderstanding again and apologize if I am.