The appeal of a villain friend in fiction is more often than not the thought that someone out there would choose you over the entire world.
The members of the League of Villains were anyone's priority. They felt replaceable or even worse, they knew they were replaceable. They weren't pretty enough, strong enough, normal enough, cool enough. They were wrong in the head, were too violent, too weird, too creepy.
All the rage? The hurt? They were told to swallow it because it was making people uncomfortable.
Stain was their inspiration, but he wasn't the one to pick them. He wasn't the one who looked at them and told them "you have a place". That was Giran. The manga tells us that Giran was putting together a sort of friendship group for violent outcasts like them. That he formed the League for them to have company, a reason to fight for, to exist.
There's a sort of catharsis that fictional villain friendships give that you can't find somewhere else. A sort of short-lived relief that comes when someone sees you being mistreated and decides retribution is needed. Wouldn't it be wonderful if revenge had no consequences and the damage it caused was at once lasting and non-existent?
That's what fiction is for. You put all your feelings there and create scenarios where you purge those feelings. No one gets harmed and you come out of it cleaned, renewed, with a clear head.
So when Tomura Shigaraki creates the League of Villains, it is an instant click for people who had been wronged and are seeking catharsis of their negative experiences and feelings.
The League of Villains punishes someone with torture and failure for misgendering and hurting their trans friend. A shonen manga does that, a gender where nonconforming people are a joke by tradition. Do you get what that means to some readers out there?
Tomura claims to hate everything and everyone, but when Toga asks him, he admits that they are his exception. He wouldn't destroy something they loved. His prioritizing their wishes and their likings. There was no one else above them for him and no one was as important to him as they were.
Suddenly, they are someone's number one people and not out of manipulation. They recognize in Tomura a man who really cares.
Tomura was shown to live in total neglect. He had poor hygiene, was isolated almost completely from the outside world, talked with maybe three or four people tops, ate whatever, liver whatever. He didn't care about his living conditions. It was only when the League asked for clothing and food and other stuff that he began to care. For them.
He wants them to live, to succeed, he wants to hurt anyone who hurts them, to protect what is precious to them.
And now we got confirmation that they matter more to him than his own past.
Tomura would destroy the world simply because they asked him to, because they promised to. He would destroy himself trying because he must be their hero. Remember how every time a villain would question him about his motivation or his ideals, he would talk about his hatred or his need to destroy. We've gone past it and at his very core we found that the thing that truly fuels him is the desire to be a hero.
For them.
It's really something to see people wondering why a reader would be fond of Tomura Shigaraki or the LOV in general. Is it that hard to understand?
Again, that's the appeal of a fictional villain's friendship to real life victims:
To be important, to be picked, to be prioritized, to be felt, to be seen, to be understood, to belong to and be considered, to be irreplaceable. To be all those things to the point the weight of it shatters the universe.
So much love outplacement in someone's love— to matter so much to someone —that to see you hurt would make them want to destroy the world.
grief is so crazy like what if i forget what her laugh sounds like. does she know i loved her. i miss her so much. i catch myself doing things she used to do. i wish i could call her. i miss her so much. i do a crossword puzzle. i cry while washing the dishes. does she know i loved her? my heart feels like a hummingbird. i miss her so much. what if i forget what her laugh sounds like. what if i forget.
this is your thanksgiving reminder that the chinook tribe is still fighting for federal recognition, which means they are unable to access programs and resources. please take some time today to sign their petition and donate if you’re able to. and if you live in washington or oregon please write to your elected officials.
today marks day 111 of the genocide in gaza.
and i need you all to keep in mind just how dire the situation in gaza is right now. and to keep talking about it. now is not the time to turn away.
today i want to talk about khalil again. yesterday, khalil posted about how his aunt passed away and they went to the graveyard to bury her, only to find thousands of tents in the cemetery. the people living as refugees in rafah have been so jam packed that they’ve started sheltering at the cemetery.
in a heartbreaking sentence, khalil says “they are living in the cemetery, waiting for their time to be buried”. can you imagine the situation one has to be in to say something like that?
not only do the gazans not have a safe place to live, they are also starving and suffering from diseases and lack of medication. in fact, that’s the cause of khalil’s aunt’s death—bad food and no medicine.
the people of gaza barely have food to eat. the children have to clean dirt and insects off animal feed before milling it to make food. medicine isn’t coming into the gaza strip. there are pharmacies all around but none can help because they do not have the means to. why?
because israel consistently denies shipments of vital aid. in fact, according to the UN, israel recently added insulin pens for children to the list of prohibited items that are not allowed into gaza. this list also includes other medicines for chronic illnesses are also not allowed [here is the full press conference for anyone who’s interested].
this claim is also backed by the report journalist motaz azaiza was making as he was evacuating gaza of a plethora of aid trucks waiting at the border to enter gaza. and for the little bit of aid that is available to gazans? yesterday the israeli military opened fire at starving citizens who were queueing to get aid in northern gaza.
there are too many heartbreaking stories coming out of gaza; there is at least one per person, in a population of 2.2M people. i urge you to not turn away from hearing their stories and facing the reality of the crimes being committed against them by israeli occupation forces.
whatever anyone else might say, whatever the verdict of tomorrow’s hearing may be… i want you to remember that what’s happening in gaza is nothing short of a genocide—a collective total of 33,360 deaths, and 64,150 injured. don’t let them just be numbers. these are people.
people who are not just being killed in cold blood, but are also being starved. they are being tortured physically and psychologically. they are being subjected to illnesses with no treatment given. they are being subjected to eating things like grass, immature food, expired food. read the euro med monitor report for the full picture of the destruction happening in gaza at the hands of the israeli occupation forces.
this is a genocide. this is one of, if not the deadliest of war crimes we’ve seen in the 21st century.
i am so heartbroken i barely have the energy to type today. please call for an end to all of this, for a permanent ceasefire. and subsequently an end to the israeli occupation.
we cannot leave the palestinians to fend for themselves and continue being oppressed directly or indirectly by their oppressors and colonisers. this occupation must end. palestine must be freed in its entirety.
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please especially send donations to help supply aid and food to gazans. especially to the organisations working within gaza. it’s not like there isn’t any food at all. gaza is not a barren land. the food is just inaccessible and very expensive and unaffordable for most gazans (if you follow journalist muhammad smiry, you’ll see he posts a lot about the atrocious prices of food in gaza). so your donations help people purchase food in bulk within gaza and supply to the civilians.
I thought I needed a new laptop but nope, youtube is slowing down your PC if you have adblock on on any open tab...
have you heard about what happened to mai rajab?
this is so so sad oh my gosh.
People talk a lot about Bakugou’s possible intentions for being an ass to Midoriya, like some tragic backstory, but it comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding. From Bakugou’s perspective, he’s unloved by everyone. He never understood that Midoriya just LIKES him. To Bakugou, he is the most determined manipulator of all time. Him secretly having a quirk basically confirmed that to Bakugou. The real reason their relationship improves after their fight in season 3 is because he realizes, “Oh. He just… cares about me.” Knowing what little we know about his relationship with his mother and her constant belittling, it makes perfect sense that he tries to make up for his actions only after putting them in hindsight.
wait actually???
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