#i understand that Tenko not having 'supposed' to be rejected doesn't mean the rejection didn't occur for the other League members

[codenamesazanka]

Shigaraki/Tenko wanting to destroy the false sense of peace All Might and Heroes created

.⬇️.

Shigaraki/Tenko wanting to destroy everything that lead to the existence of that house, which he conceptualizes as the embodiment of rejection and injustice in the world. Be a Hero for the Villains.

.⬇️.

AFO basically literally created that house

.⬇️.

Shigaraki/Tenko helps defeat AFO

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Deku telling him 'you already destroyed it' is... apparently Shigaraki/Tenko having finally gotten rid of the true cause of (his) rejection and injustice? main antagonist's big problem that represents an overarching major issue of the story/in-universe society... solved? (main antagonist's big problem that represents an overarching major issue of the story/in-universe society not actually being the problem he thought it was but now also solved?)

.⬇️.

No longer a need for there to be a Hero for the Villains, Shigaraki/Tenko dies.

.⬇️.

Heroes not to be blamed in the first place. also fuck everyone else and all other 'actual' outcasts I guess.

[codenamesazanka]

If both Tenko and Tomura are supposed to be fake personas than it really doesn't matter anymore, does it? Now you can't go back to being Tenko, either, because that's also fake and attached to pain. And the reveal that AfO was even responsible for his childhood friends is brutal. Next thing we'll find out is that he didn't just come up with the name Tomura, but also Tenko.

(so I agree that atp the best way to fix this would be to say fuck it and reclaim everything, the League most of all, because they're his friends and the only people who have never rejected him, and that's something AfO can never understand.)

That's the thing, isn't it? If 'Shigaraki Tomura' and his gloominess and hatred and villainous shonen protag vibe was just a façade created by AFO, then we needed to ditch that and go back to an untainted Before - Shimura Tenko. His true self. Except now, it seems 'Shimura Tenko', his existence as a younger brother and the life he lived in his father's house and his heroic dreams, is also a bit of a constructed façade, so... do we ditch that too?

Like, in chapter 379, we have Shigaraki taking back control, saying that he knows AFO manipulated him, but whatever, fuck off, he's running the show now. Shigaraki falls back on his origin, using "Shimura Tenko suffering in his father house" as his anchor point. This is why AFO had to upend that too, to tell Shigaraki even that origin was manipulated in some way. Completely leaving him unmoored.

One can say, no! That origin is still real. Shimura Tenko was loved by his parents! He had a sister. He had a dog. He had considered Mikkun and Tomo-chan to be friends and he was excited to have a Hero for a grandma. AFO might have nudged him towards certain directions, AFO's handprints might be all over his childhood, but he can't be responsible all of Tenko's feelings and thoughts and dreams. He can't control how Tenko understands and processes his experiences. That's impossible.

But if that's true for Tenko, then it has to be true for Tomura as well? Here, AFO obviously had much more influence over Tomura's life because he was now raising the kid, but he still can't dictate totally everything Tomura felt or thought. (I think this is actually clearest in Shigaraki's hatred - AFO cultivated it, but it grew beyond his expectations, it became too strong and powerful for AFO to handle. Even overwhelmed and suppressed him.) Tomura grew into himself. He might have been building off of AFO's resources and teachings, but it was still him learning to find his conviction and creating a team and chasing after a dream.

So like, I don't think Tenko is fake. I don't think Tomura is fake, either. I don't think AFO apparently having influenced his childhood heroic dreams and encouraging a strong will means those things are utterly false and should be thrown out, same as how Shigaraki's very real frustrations over hero society and injustice shouldn't been dismissed just because AFO gave him opportunity to see the worse failures of it. Real is what Shigaraki makes of it.

Thanks for the ask!