All My Hero Academia villains have a major flaw, except one

Modified Oct 18, 2024 16:22 GMT

My Hero Academia villains have a common flaw except for one (Image via Bones).

My Hero Academia villains have oftentimes been portrayed as victims, whose tragic stories of how society mistreated them serves to undermine their evil actions. While is fair to say that the likes of Dabi and Tomura Shigaraki had difficult childhoods, their actions and goals are hard to support. This is something that works in favor of only one villain in the manga, and that is Re-Destro.

While it is true that Re-Destro wasn't the most impressive villain in My Hero Academia in terms of characterization and writing, his motivation, goals, and strategies are much easier to support or understand than the others.

That is quite interesting since he didn't have a lot of time in the series but the way he was constructed is miles apart from most villains in the series.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series.

Explaining why Re-Destro's actions and goals are a lot more logical than other My Hero Academia villains

Re-Destro fighting Tomura Shigaraki (Image via Bones).

Tomura Shigaraki wants to destroy society without discrimination and Dabi has killed innocent people just to spite his father. Then there are the likes of Spinner, Himiko Toga, and Twice who terrorized society because they had difficult childhoods.

Re-Destro, also known as Rikiya Yotsubashi, on the other hand, is a different case and an exception to the rule since his goal is to change the way Quirks are regulated by authorities in Japan.

Moreover, his way of doing things was centered around gaining political power, controlling the media, and gaining riches to be able to spread across the country as an ideology.

The League of Villains, for the most part, is a rather aimless organization that just wants to create chaos without a clear plan of what to do if they manage to obtain a position of power.

However, Re-Destro and the modern Meta Liberation Army have a clear idea of what to do and have a clear plan to reach the top while also having a motivation that is easier to understand.

More elements to consider

Re-Destro about to face Twice (Image via Bones).

It is also worth pointing out that the vast majority of My Hero Academia villains had tragic backstories because of their Quirks and that is a problem that Re-Destro was dealing with through the modern Meta Liberation Army.

His idea was to create a new system where Quirks were not controlled in such a rigid manner, so there is an argument to be made that he was addressing the situation in a rational manner.

This is emphasized by the way that Re-Destro and his men were gaining power in several areas so they could influence people. They were aiming to provide ideological change in a way that was less radical and perhaps a bit more permanent, which is a direct contrast to Tomura Shigaraki's gung-ho approach of simply destroying everything around him.

It is fair to say that the Meta Liberation Army and the League of Villains have different goals and motivations, which is the genesis of the My Villain Academia arc.

But the first case is at least more rational and aims to deal with a problem that the series established but the second group didn't deal with.

Final thoughts

The My Hero Academia villains had some considerable strengths in terms of writing but it is also fair to say that their goals and motivations are difficult to support.

However, Re-Destro and his men were easier to understand and had a more realistic approach to things.

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Edited by Prem Deshpande