#I literally only pay attention if shigaraki dabi or toga are on screen because they are the only ones I care about at this point

[lesbiansanemi]

When will I learn that I don’t actually like bnha that much

[thejolteonmastertj]

The LOV Being Portrayed A Certain Way Started In Season 3

Relevant to the current My Hero Academia manga arc.

Discussion & manga spoilers past the keep reading link.

TR: Some discussion of trans/homophobia.

So some people have discussed how the League Of Villains (LOV, otherwise known as the Villain Alliance), are being written like the heroes of their own Shonen manga in the recent chapters, as discussed in this post by bloodycarnations, and by Khorale in this post.

I highly recommend that you read their posts first if you had not already.

But this didn't come from nowhere, in fact, the league has been gradually easing into this motif, to us as viewers, very particularly ever since AFO’s final stand. 

There were no hints at the league being portrayed this way while Shigaraki was still under the shadow of AFO as far as I can tell, which I find very interesting.

The first possible clue came right after AFO told Shiggy to leave and fly out of the nest.  It starts during AFO’s fight against All Might.

Its a really small detail, but it’s notable because the heroic motif continues to build over time.  After Deku, Kirishima, and Iida grabbed Bakugo, there is a moment where the league is at a loss for what to do.

But the way it was written is what I’m paying attention to here.  Usually, villains in anime aren’t portrayed as having a good teamwork environment.  In fact, these same villains, specifically Magne and Spinner were already shown having a squabble during the training camp arc over whether or not to kill Deku.  The squabble resulted in them being pinned down by the heroes while they were busy arguing.

But this time it's subtly different, they are genuinely and wholeheartedly cooperating on-screen for the first time (without threatening to kill each other like they were in the USJ arc, or merely hanging around and being annoyed by each other during the training camp arc).  While Deku & crew are getting away with Bakugo, Compress and Spinner have a brief panicked exchange: (Dub dialogue used)

This is bad, who can do distance?

Kurogiri and Dabi, but they’re down!

Then Magne steps in with a plan:

You two, come here.

And then the three of them creatively apply Magne’s quirk to throw Compress towards Bakugo... I just want to emphasize that Magne literally threw him, like, way up in the sky, and they did it willingly (it would have worked too if Mount Lady had not got in the way).  What they did requires a lot more trust and cooperation than anything else they had been shown doing before.

This level of cooperation continues to be highlighted in the Yukaza arc. 

First, Magne gets killed off, as we know, but this line and her whole speech is very notable.

This establishes something that will continue to be reaffirmed at different points in the manga.  This isn't a normal villain organization where the leader calls all the shots.  Notice how while Magne goes through her whole tirade Shiggy does nothing to object to or interject into anything she says.  This is a mostly democratic group where Shiggy grows to respect the wishes of his comrades as well as his own.  They are (slowly) becoming a team.

There are a few other villains in Anime I could think of who operate in a similar manner, but most of them arguably also fall into the villains-as-the-heroes motif, such as the villains in Nanoha A’s (Nanoha season 2).  Villains like those from the Nanoha series also, however, tend to have noble goals... but resort to villainy out of desperation.  Huh.

Then there is this contrast between the Yukaza and the LOV even Shiggy himself, as well as Overhaul eventually brings up.

Shiggy acknowledges the disposable nature of being a Yukaza underling.  Although whether he is referring to Magne’s value as a skilled fighter or a person or both is up for interpretation, he is using Magne’s name in contrast to “small-fry yukaza human shields.”

Whatever Shiggy’s intentions behind this particular line are, the contrast itself is clearly there.  The Yukaza members are disposable, and this is shown multiple times through the arc, especially when the heroes start fighting the villains.  The LOV on the other hand, clearly would not use each other as meat-shields in the same way, based on their emotional reaction to Magne’s death. 

Overhaul takes note of this when Shiggy attempts to make peace with and form an alliance of sorts with the Yukaza.

This is a similar contrast which drove Natsu from Fairy Tail episode 6 (the main character) into a righteous rage upon seeing a villain kill their fellow villain. 

Heroes/main-characters protect their friends, villains are backstabbers.

The Yukaza from this arc, the QLA from a later arc, and many other villains in manga/anime also differ from the LOV and other villains-as-heroes groups (like from the Nanoha series) in terms of affection.  Toga here is shown putting a handkerchief over Twice’s broken mask, accepting and assisting in correcting his panic caused by mental illness/trauma.

And then we have the elephant in the room.

The LOV members are progressive in terms of not just mental health issues, but with LGBT+ issues as well.  When Overhaul misgenders Magne, a Trans woman, Twice stands up for her.

We need to address something else first though.  It’s not uncommon for villains to be LGBTQ, and historically this cliche stems from homophobia because the association of gay and gender-non-conforming people with villainy backed up the idea that gay people are villainous/bad irl.  The uncensored Japanese version of Sailor Moon had several gay villains, even Pokemon used to dress up Jessie and James in gender-non-conforming outfits all the time.

But here’s what’s different.

1) Times are changing, LGBT+ people are becoming more accepted, particularly among young people in Japan (Sorry I can’t provide links, Tumblr keeps marking my posts as spam when I do that, but follow @JusticeKazzy_ on twitter for more info!  The Japan Times published an article titled: “More in Japan identify as LGBT as social awareness grows, study finds”.  A YouTuber known as ‘That Japanese Man Yuta’ also did an interview video on it back in 2015). 

Negative portrayals of LGBTQ+ people are becoming less common... it obviously hasn’t gone away, but things are improving in the uphill battle.  Horikoshi made it a point to also establish another canon Trans character, Tiger, a heroic character who would play a role in the battle vs AFO not long before Magne made her first appearance.

I think Horikoshi did that intentionally, not to soften the blow of Magne’s death (if he did have that intention in mind, it didn't work) but actually in order to establish that being an ally in this world is a positive attribute, a heroic attribute even, in contrast to Overhaul’s callous treatment of Magne’s identity.

2) In the past, when LGBT+ people were portrayed as villains, most writers did not bother researching the significance of misgendering or dysphoria... nor were these concepts attempted to be portrayed in a sympathetic manner.  (Horikoshi obviously neglected to do research on bad LGBT+ tropes in media, but that’s not the point of this post).

In any case, the League Of Villains aren’t just a team, the individual members are all established as progressive, and accepting of each other’s identity and who they are.  Spinner readily called Magne by her preferred feminized nickname, “Big Sis Magne,” even while they were arguing during the training camp arc. 

Nobody in the League ever misgenders Magne, only Overhaul did that.

Then the rest is history, this all led up to the League’s current manga arc where they beat up on Nazis, the QLA & crap.  Other villain groups in the manga are being used as key tools in order to emphasize the LOV’s heroic attributes by way of contrast.

Based on Khorale’s post linked above, it’s possible that Shiggy’s development as a compassionate leader actually started before AFO’s arrest, we just did not start to see the results until later. 

AFO had been encouraging Shiggy to act on his own for a long time...

... but will that turn out to bite AFO back eventually?  Where, exactly, is Horikoshi going with this set-up?

Who knows honestly, but I’m super excited to see!