#AFO should be a LOT scarier than he actually is

[justatalkingface]

So in light of the absolute fuckery that's been Chapter 407, I want to talk about All For One, because I don't think I've ever really talked about him.

I don't mind that he's evil for evil's sake, I don't mind that his ultimate goal is to take OFA so that he can take over the world and make everyone reliant on him or whatever. I don't mind that he nearly took over Japan back in the day. But like everything else Horikoshi touches, AFO had potential that was ultimately squandered away.

I hate how he was literally pure evil IN FUCKING UTERO, I hate how he was barely even utilized (outside of Kamino Ward, which that was fucking awesome) before he tries wrestling control of Shigaraki to be the main villain again. I hate how even though he allegedly has hundreds upon hundreds of Quirks, he spams the same 3-4 ones, and I hate how for supposedly smart and devious he is, we never see him utilizing UA's bad PR or his traitor to his advantage.

It's kind of weird to say this, but I both miss AFO, and feel sorry for him. I know he's been in the story a lot, but... it feels like AFO, the real one, fucking died at Kaminio, and his idiot corpse has just been running around since with Hori's hand up his ass.

Before Kamino, AFO was evil, yes, and and we didn't know about him, but he felt like a real person; an asshole, but he was something you could imagine a super-powered mob boss could end up being.

Since then, though? He's just been becoming more and more... shallow. It's like Hori was hinting at these dark, mysterious depths of ancient man, and then he pulled the curtain and showed us a fucking puddle. And now? All the mystery, all the backstory?

'BeCaUSe i'M EEEEEEEVVVILLLL'. Unironically, it seems to be his only motivation anymore. He does bad things because he's evil; he doesn't actually want to take over the world, that's just something he's doing because taking over the world is evil. Money? Power? Ultimately worthless, nothing more than tools for the purposes... of EVIL!

So... here's the question: why is he evil?

Because he was evil when he was an adult. Why was he evil as an adult? Because he was evil as a kid, apparently, instead of anything more interesting like him slowly being radicalized by Quirk Discrimination. Why was he evil as a kid? Because he was born evil, instead of anything more interesting like a terrible family, or because a police officer hurt him and traumatized him for life. Why was he evil when he was born?

??????

Because he was born of evil genetics, maybe; I wouldn't put it past Hori to make him unironically Quirk Satan or something. The thing is, that's not how human beings work; even an actual sociopath isn't going to be born this gibberingly, one-dimensionally evil. Worse yet, it's fucking boring to have a human being this basic; at this point why aren't they fighting a robot, or monster or something? It'd have the same level of motivation, and it'd feel more interesting than this.

Even ignoring how stupid he's become post-Kamino (which is a related but different point, best summed up by post-Kamino AFO is basiclly running around with his pants on his head, constantly getting one upped by the heroes, the kids, and basiclly random strangers by now), AFO was at his most interesting, not only when he was competent, but when he felt like a person; there's a reason DFO is so popular, and it's not just because it drags Izuku into it, but because it humanizes AFO, gives him real, human motivations to make us interested in his character.

The worst part of it? There's been so many chances to make him more than this caricature of a human being; by making him care for Shigaraki (or for Dr. Plot Device, or even Kurogiri, his loyal minion, before he was Eraserhead's seemingly somewhat retconned 'human interest' (which was barely a thing), or even just for Gigantomachia, who is basiclly a giant, super-violent dog, who he could have cared about like he was just a giant dog), or for him caring for his brother.

I mean, shit. In all honesty, I could make the 'biting baby' thing work, even. Ideally, it'd need some set up beforehand, but you know how Himiko is (the only one we've ever seen) with desires from her Quirk? Do something similar to how Yhwach in Bleach was on AFO, with that kind of logic, with him needing something, at this fundamental level, to be functional, that he's almost addicted to stealing Quirks, that AFO as a Quirk only works as a Quirk because somewhere in his magic DNA he's... unstable. That the very versatility that allows him to hold every Quirk is starving for the stability of a normal Quirk, so that even as a infant, he's instinctively trying feed himself something a normal human would never need.

There's this whole, interesting dynamic this would introduce, a real nature/nurture-y kind of thing, that would put a whole new spin on his character; he's this seemingly pointlessly evil person because his needs, combined with the only real role model he had for someone in his situation, the demon kings he's seen in manga, and a society that rejected him, both as someone with a Quirk by the normal humans, and as someone who could take away their Quirks by the Quirked, turning him into this because that's all he's ever known.

And here's the thing? This idea? Hori could still try to do that. He could try to turns table us with this sudden development, and try to make a real boy out of AFO. But I don't think he's going to; I really don't think he'll do that. Worse, even if he does try that, he'll just double down on AFO being 'born evil' instead of anything with any real depth to it. Do you know why I think that?

Because in all honesty, AFO isn't a real character anymore; he hasn't been for awhile now. All he is is a plot device, the duck tape Hori's been putting on everywhere to try and hold the story together against all the plot holes and logic failures that have been built up from years of bad, biased and rushed writing. More and more, he's become the reason for everything, the cause of every problem Hori can't be bothered to think through, every villain he didn't want to actually have to explain.

The Readers/The Characters: Why did X happen? What caused that? How does Y feel abou- Hori: AFO did it. I ain't gotta explain shit.

And that's the real reason he's so stupid, BTW, the reason he never uses any other Quirk, or applies any creativity in combat (or anywhere else), and why he keeps losing... it's for the plot. Because the thing is? AFO is fucking overpowered.

Let me tell you something I've never seen anyone else acknowledge: All Might never should have won. He overpowered AFO, sure, but we saw from their fight that he barely did that; didn't crush the puny caster AFO once he got past the lasers, his one super Quirk barely out-performed AFO's stacked Quirks in direct combat. Which, yeah, sure I can see that....

But. Why did AFO fight fair, just power against power, blow vs blow? Why didn't he, like, release poison gas as they fought? All Might is strong, but he still has flesh, blood, lungs; he's still very vulnerable to all kinds of softer Quirks. Where was the touch activated Quirk, like that kid from the License Exam, would have turned All Might into a meatball, or taffy, or whatever? Where was the voice activated Quirk that would have stunned All Might for a critical moment?

Hell. Why didn't AFO cheat? Why did he fight All Might, like an honorable person, when he realised the man was possibly a threat to him, instead of just... assassinating him, like a crime lord (or demon king)? Go to his home (or Might Tower, or wherever), drug his food, put something in his water, hell, just launch a surprise attack from point blank range? We know he tried for Eraserhead's Quirk once, before... apparently just giving up and never trying again; why didn't he try again, get it, and use that?

And beyond even all those problem, I don't see a reason for OFA to have survived long enough to get to All Might in the first place!

I mean, seriously: we know that every user fought AFO, viciously, to point where it caused their early deaths (except the one that basiclly started to Snap himself out of existence). We know OFA was only slowly building up in power, and the early versions especially didn't do much at all, and the Quirks all of them had where never top of the line because they were literally just a random person nearby when the Holder before them died.

So. Riddle me this: why, when a bunch of honestly mid-tier people tried, again and again, to kill AFO, who was overwhelmingly stronger than them, who had access to more tools, powers and money than they did; why, when all these factors were stacked against them, did they survive to the point where they could even pass OFA on? How did they survive blows strong enough to destroy buildings, laser blasts, all these powerful Quirks and techniques that AFO uses casually that most heroes would have been instantly killed by, if not flat out destroyed.

I mean... fuck, there's a decent chance AFO knew they had OFA in them, which he wanted (for whatever reason; sentimentality clearly isn't a emotion he's allowed to have, and early OFA wouldn't have been worth the effort for him to go through all of this to try and acquire it), which means instead of just killing them, he would have captured them, taken them back to his base, and then tortured them until they gave him OFA, just so they would finally be allowed to die and not hurt anymore? While I'm at this, why didn't he just kill any pedestrians around after he killed whatever OFA Holder he was fighting; it's not like morals are going to stop him, are they?

Fundamentally, MHA is built off the premise that AFO, terrifying criminal genius with countless Quirks, strong enough that he makes people by him hallucinate out of terror, is so pants shittingly stupid that he spent almost a hundred years basiclly punching himself in the face rather than just winning fights that were ludicrously stacked in his favor again and again and again; I mean, hell, he could still be an utter moron, and as long as he just got lucky once, just once, the giant, unending sequence of coincidences and logic breaking victories that allowed All Might to get his Quirk never would have happened.

None of this, of course, is even mentioning everything happening in the Final Arc, like AFO's obvious weakness to allow him to be finally beat forever appearing out of nowhere, in him having Remnants (even though AFO took eight users to to power it up enough to get to the point that AFO was apparently always at, and us having no reason to think this was a thing before now, much less all the absolute nightmare fuel questions that raises about the Nomu, and all the Quirks that AFO's doctor had stored away), and Eri's Quirk actively accelerating to heal him, thus limiting his life span (or the fact it's even working like that in the first place), even though it's a time Quirk, not a healing Quirk, and it doesn't fucking care about how wounded he is.

So, why did it happen? Why is it still happening?

Because he's a plot device. Because he exists, not as an active character with his own agenda, but as an adjustable target for the heroes to fight against, again and again and again, and if he won, the story would be over. Fundamentally, Hori made AFO too strong, too smart, too well connected, too perfect to every truly lose in this setting, and instead of trying to fix that, in any real way, impose some kind of realistic limitations or drawbacks in his wildly over-powered Quirk, or just kill him off so he wasn't a factor anymore, he just... made the man stupid.

[bokunometacademia]

Theory time! A lot of other people have had their take on this theory (AFO is Izuku’s dad) but I have yet to see any of them address the obvious elephant in the room. Why would Inko marry AFO?

They conclude either:

Inko must be evil (which would be horrible and feel out of character)

Inko must not know (but then why would AFO choose such a sweet lady with such a low powered quirk)

At the end of the day it just doesn’t make any sense...or does it? 

(warning: manga spoilers)

I’m not gonna worry about proving AFO is Izuku’s dad too much, enough people have already done that, I’m gonna focus on why he would choose Inko.

The only reasons I can think that AFO would marry Inko (aside from her being evil, unlikely) were if he had briefly in his life turned over a new leaf (unlikely), or if she had something that he wanted...

AFO is a really powerful guy (THE most powerful guy, really). And One for All users may not have been too much trouble for him at first. But with each new iteration of OFA, as it gets passed down user to user, it gets more powerful. They don’t just get the quirks of the previous users, they also get the physical capability of each quirk user added to their own. OFA users get amplified quirks, amplified physical abilities, AND the ability to use the previous quirks.

It’s to the point where All Might almost killed AFO, he genuinely thought he had. He was surprised that AFO was still alive.

So AFO would have been getting a bit scared, or at least if not scared, a bit concerned about OFA continuing to exist. What’s a guy to do who can steal and use quirks though?

Well, as I have discussed much more thoroughly in this meta about AFO’s weaknesses, AFO wants as much power as possible in as easy a way as he can. The best way for him to do that is to:

Get powerful quirks that require very little training and have few drawbacks

Get quirks that specifically cover the weaknesses of his own quirk

Do it all without too many people noticing

What’s the best way to do that?

Well, I would say that the best way to steal quirks without anyone noticing is to steal them from other villains who no one will care about (although this could leave AFO vulnerable if his minions turned against him) and/or steal quirks from children who have not fully manifested their quirk yet.

Which sounds eerily like what could have happened in BNHA if Izuku’s doctor was in fact evil or something...but he’s not...right?

(although this is a meta for another time my friends)

The other question is what’s the easiest way to find and steal a quirk that would specifically cover one of AFO’s weaknesses?

I mean, that would require a perfect quirk. A quirk that fits like a puzzle piece, related just enough to AFO to meld with his own quirk perfectly, but different enough that it solves one of the drawbacks of his own power (and like I already pointed out in this meta that I linked just above and will link again, there are many potential limitations to AFO that may or may not be true)

But that would require a quirk that was essentially made for AFO. How can someone make a quirk, like if they wanted to become the top hero so bad they wanted to make a quirk that could do just that, how would someone go about doing that?

...oh...

We’ve long since been introduced to the idea of quirk marriages. And if it’s not above a particular hero to quirk marry than it’s certainly not above the worst villain of them all.

Now I would imagine at this point (this point would be while AFO is still concerned for his safety, but before his epic beatdown by All Might) All For One is contemplating quirk marriages to either create epic quirks that he could later steal or to create a successor that would kill OFA should he fail. He would have already had Shigaraki as his ace in the hole, so I’d guess the former.

But now who to pick as his bride? And I wouldn’t imagine he’d stop at one bride, I’d imagine he has a few ladies he’s using for their quirks. 

I’d also like to pause for a moment to point out that there are a couple quirks that strike me in the series as similar to AFO in some way or another, the obvious being Monoma’s copy quirk (although it’s significantly less powerful than AFO, so it makes sense that AFO wouldn’t even bother stealing it) but another more recent one that’s come to light is actually Himiko Toga, who can borrow people’s likenesses and also their quirks if she knows them well enough.

Now I’m not saying they are also AFO’s experimental quirk children, but I am saying we should definitely watch these experimental quirk children.

And now back to the AFO’s brides...

I think it’s important to point out at this moment that Horikoshi takes words very seriously. He is incredibly specific with what words he decides to use, from character names describing their powers and what we should expect from them, to using Star Wars names for the locations in BNHA, to describing powers in a very particular manner as I discussed in this meta about OFA.

We’re introduced to Inko’s quirk through a single line of dialogue.

A lot of people interpret this to mean that Inko has psychokinesis. She can move objects around with her mind.

But that’s not true. Her ability is less powerful than that and two fold.

She can only use it on small objects

She can only bring those objects towards herself (she can’t send them away)

This is exactly how Horikoshi intends her power to be, not psychokinesis, but acting more similarly to a positive magnet when turned on.

And if you have already read my incredibly long meta about AFO’s weaknesses that I’m now pointing out for the third time (kudos if you did), you know that of the numerous potential weaknesses to AFO’s power one such possible weakness is the distance in which AFO would have to be to be able to steal someone’s power.

Specifically that he may have to be touching his victim to steal their power.

This is of course an assumption, but it’s a possible assumption, probable even.

If AFO is capable of stealing OFA, when is he gonna get the chance to lay a hand on the forehead of the current OFA user? Even if it turns out he can’t steal OFA, the ability to steal quirks from a distance would increase AFO’s power considerably.

And what was Inko’s quirk again? Oh right, the ability to attract small objects towards her.

It’s not a stretch at all to assume an all powerful quirk-stealing quirk + a very specific attracting telekinesis quirk would make a mega all powerful quirk-stealing quirk that could steal from a distance.

It may only be able to steal small quirks, or it may not be able to steal from very far away, but hell, it’s still fixes a problem AFO has, and it does it without AFO lifting a finger. 

He just has to pretend to be a doting husband, do the hanky panky, and pretend to work abroad the moment he has a kiddo. He can leave the child-rearing to his wives, and the moment the kids are gonna manifest quirks, pull them into doc’s office to see what they have. He can steal the ones that are worthwhile and leave the ones that are useless to him alone. He could even do it face to face, what kid’s gonna be afraid of their own father touching their head?

Of course then All Might had to go and smash his face in.

But not before Izuku turned 5...and found out he didn’t have a quirk...but the scarier question is what if he did?

...

I don’t imagine we’re gonna find out anytime too soon, but if any of this is true it makes me hope Izuku really didn’t have a quirk. Because if he did...welp...AFO’s more powerful than we realize. 

Anyway this is why you don’t underestimate women.