#can it rlly follow through in creating a satisfactory narrative?

[dabistits]

hey... you're the smartest blog i follow on this hellsite so i gotta ask... why do people use tomura saying he fully intended to kill his father when he reached out for him as an argument that tomura is obviously 100% evil? like... why not something else? because tbh, idk about other people, but like... i got abused way less than tomura did as a child but never felt bad about my father dying and, if anything, felt relief because it meant that one of my abusers was gone (1/2)

and sometimes i get desperate about the situation im in now, to the point that i do honestly consider murder just so i can be free and like… dont rlly feel that bad when i look back at those thoughts when im in a clearer mindset… so, if i, someone who’s gone through less than tomura has, am not necessarily evil, then why is that used as a ‘trump card’ to prove that tomura is 100% pure villain and not like… something else? also.. please humor my vacuum question? (2/2)

thank you, lovely, but the truth is i learn a lot from other people on this site too!! just not the fandom blogs, absolutely do not develop your sense of morality from fandom blogs…

for your question: people think tomura killing his father makes him evil because they look at morality in stories through the same lens that predominates our own society. it pushes the message that an intent to kill (from anyone who isn’t an agent of the state) is bad, encouraging us to divorce violence from the context that surrounds it. it’s the easiest way to undermine victims and marginalized people, because comparisons are drawn between the intent of both parties: i.e. your abuser only wanted to hurt you, why does that make it okay kill him? white supremacists only want to remove you from this country, how is that equivalent to violent resistance?

this approach 1) obscures the violence of the more powerful party (assumes that the abuse isn’t serious or otherwise inescapable, pretends that ‘population removal’ doesn’t entail uprooting people from their lives at gunpoint), and 2) creates a double-edged sword where victims can only endure the violence of their oppressor/try to resolve everything peacefully and accept that their oppressor has gotten away with all the pain they inflicted, or be branded the ‘bad guy’ if they respond in a way that other parties deem ‘excessive.’ in every case, responding to violence with violence (even necessary violence) is deemed worse than initiating violence where there wasn’t any in the first place.

as far as bnha goes, we can question if kotaro ‘deserved it’ or if tenko’s response to him was ‘proportionate’ (which are not wholly worthless questions, but that’s for another post). i do think there could be debate on this—because for instance, i largely see him as more redeemable than emdivor or afo—but as per my first couple paragraphs, i don’t think we can simply call a child, who justifiably felt deeply, deeply wronged, ‘evil’ for acting on his emotions. we might call it ‘unfortunate’ or ‘badly misguided,’ maybe, or even ‘vengeful’ or ‘hateful’ (which i’m listing because that was how he felt in the moment) but nothing that presumes a static, unchanging characteristic like ‘evil.’ there are decisions that people can make that are not morally upstanding that nevertheless doesn’t brand them forever.

but, just as an aside, i don’t even really believe that a five year old going through one of the most traumatizing moments of his life was making a completely rational decision to commit murder. tomura’s internal monologue does bias us towards this interpretation to a degree, but it feels dissonant with what is actually being shown on the page. it could be deliberate, it could not be. hori could be trying to show that tomura is retroactively inscribing a narrative wherein he was fully aware of events as a disordered way of coping, or hori could genuinely believe that a five year old’s decision-making in that moment was the revelation of his truest self. i don’t know which interpretation is closest to the author’s intention, but i guess time will tell.

and, lastly… i want to take a moment to say to you, anon: i’m sorry you’re in this situation, but believe me when i say it will get better. you will get away from your parents and you will remove their hold over you. you will be better than they ever were. thank you for sending me this question (i hope this answer is satisfactory), know that my inbox is always open if needed, and i wish you the very best❤️