My hero Academia until now has given us some amazing fights, some wholesome moments and a fair share of emotional moments too. It has very well delved into the mindset of its hero characters and what makes them heroes. It has also tried to unravel the mindset of its villains. Until now the villains who showed up had philosophies which weren’t that exciting, with the exception of Hero Killer Stain. Even Overhaul had the same old philosophy of world domination just because he was strong and wanted his Yakuza group to be famous. His plan to achieve his goal though was impressive. Even in the Meta Liberation Army and its head had a pretty lame excuse of a philosophy to become a villain.

But in recent chapters, My Hero Academia has given us a villain who has seen the worst part of the society and has grown through it. His life is nothing but a series of mistakes made by other people which ended up affecting him and made him who he is. He’s the personification of all there’s wrong in the society. He despises heroes to the core. He hates civilians who rely on those heroes. He hates the system that is heavily influenced and works in tandem with the whims of these heroes.

All of this has made Shigaraki Tomura be the perfect villain one could expect, with a motive and drive to change the world. Though he wants to change the flaws of the society but the method with which he wants to change it will topple the world over. And it’s not just him that’s to be worried about. Shigaraki currently leads one of the biggest and most powerful superpowered villain army in existence. The top brass of his army aren’t just people who have powerful quirks and follow their leader blindly. Rather it consists of some of the most influential people in the My Hero Academia world.

If we just look at the wealth, influence and connections, the second in command, Re-Destro has he can easily manipulate the political situation by instilling politicians who favour him and his motives.

Shigaraki’s personal team itself consists of people who can easily overthrow any defensive launched against them. With Gigantomachia completely under his control Tomura has more than enough attack power. With Toga he can infiltrate any organisation. Dabi is a villain who is smart and powerful and is an asset to them. All of this could easily help the Paranormal Liberation Front become a global organization controlling every single part of this world.

Why would the villains win?

Only thing that’s stopping the League of Villains and the Paranormal Liberation Front from world domination are the heroes fighting Shigaraki and Gigantomachia currently. With Shigarakis’ growing powers and him having All For One, he is literally the strongest superpowered being left in existence. He can fight on par with Endeavour and has physics abilities and cellular and organ regeneration abilities without any quirks. His speed and strength rivals that of All Might and can even float huge distances by kicking air particles similar to All Might. He’s being held back currently thanks to Aizawa and his quirk Erasure. Endeavour, Deku with 2 quirks, Bakugou and no 10 Hero Ryuko are all having problems holding down Shigaraki alone.

Gigantomachia and team yet to reach there to help him. Also, there’s a chance that Aizawa might be in serious trouble. Even with all of these circumstances against him, it barely feels like the heroes could even win. The villains are more likely to win this battle. The moment Shigaraki takes Aizawa out of the picture all that’s left for Shigaraki to win is to wave his hands. With his decay quirk evolving and now being powered up by All For One, Tomura can destroy things even without any physical contact. That’s exactly how he won against the Meta Liberation army and is now leading them. That’s exactly how he would destroy everything and everyone around him. This ensures that the villains are on the verge of winning this battle.

The other reason why villains could win this battle is because the world of My Hero Academia has had a power shift ever since All Might got almost killed in his last bout against All For One. He lost whatever minor flames of One For All had in him that day. Thus, ending the era and snatching the people’s belief in their Symbol of Peace. After that, Hero Killer Stain got more active and his ideology started influencing newbie villains and citizens alike. The ideologies were further propogated by Re Destro. This started showing the regular masses how much they are dependent on heroes like All Might. Endeavour tries to fill in All Mights’ shoes and is doing a good job but not everyone trusts him due to his own arrogant nature.

This pessimism is spreading widely amongst the citizens. And it’s easier to defeat and beat a crowd if their spirits are already broken. They’ll oblige with zero resistance. Once the crowd itself is crippled in their spirits, the heroes protecting them are bound to lose their motivation too. Those who will fight will get destroyed by Shigaraki and friends. Further deepening the trauma and pessimism into the peoples minds.

Think of the situation that happened in the Christopher Nolan movie The Dark Knight Rises. In the movie, Bane took over the city and took out Batman and Gordon out of the game in whom the citizens of Gotham trusted. The entire city fell into an abyss of sadness and chaos. They lost their will to fight against them. Something similar will happen in the world of My Hero Academia. But on a much larger and horrifying scale.

A strong villain with a motive and a strong motivation. Makes him a very dangerous man. Tomura has just achieved the status quo if not equivalent yet, then at least very close to Pain and Madara from Naruto Shippuden.

But what would happen if the villains win?

Just above I mentioned how influential and wealthy Re Destro is. With his abilities and wealth he could easily change the political scenario of the entire society. With the villains ideals of not suppressing with people with quirks, the weak are bound to live in fear of the powerful. It would also lead to such a corrupt government system whose work would put the citizens in a huge turmoil, globally. It wouldn’t be just a financial crisis, it would lead to the rise in crime rate, increase in corruption in all sectors, which would in turn affect the outflow of resources for the regular masses. The rich will get richer and the poor will get nothing. The one with power will rule over the powerless. Mass genocide, physical and mental abuse of women, children and senior citizens, especially those with weaker or no quirks.

The ones who raise their voice would be muffled. Re-Destro already has the media in his pockets. He will spread his propoganda in such a way that it’ll appeal to those in power and would make the powerless subdue in front of him. He will further break the spirits of the masses through the media outlets controlled by him. It would be a very dangerous and sad world to live in.

If these events unfold in the very same manner we may see our beloved My Hero Academia manga jump from Shounen to Seinen category and that would make it much more better and have further complex storyline.

Although I don’t believe that Horikoshi Sensei is trying to end it with a grim world similar to ours. Instead he’ll end on a much positive note where Deku and his friends will have to stand up to the corruption and evil of the villains. They’ll be able to reignite the flames of justice, truth and hope inside the hearts of the masses. All, you and I have to do is be patient and watch how awesome Deku becomes in the future. But first we have to witness the dystopia built by the villains before the heroes build their utopia. As they say the night is darkest before the dawn, and also, if you notice, the current Saga in my Hero Academia is called the the Rise of The Villains!