While a lot of things can be said aboutMy Hero Academia’s big villain, All for One, the one thing that’s always been true is that he’s a brilliant schemer who knows how to get what he wants. However, in all his genius plans, there’s one factor he never once considered, and that oversight ultimately came at a great cost.
Ever since the dawn of Quirks inMy Hero Academia, All for One has been using his power to gain favor and win allies. While having an incredible Quirk was a big part of his success, it also helped that he understood how to use it to leverage social advantages. It let him set up schemes that would take years to come to fruition.
But as with so many other villains, All for One has a blind spot, and that blind spot has to do with the bonds between people. Dismissive of the power of such bonds, All for One often ignores them in his calculations, a potentially fatal mistake in a shōnen series. Even among All for One’s minions, he failed to see the power of connection.
All for One’s League of Villains Built Friendship from Nothing
All for One Benefits from the League’s Friendships At First
InMy Hero Academiaproper, All for One sets up his layer of schemes by establishing the League of Villains, a group designed to do his bidding and raise his villainous protégé Shigaraki as a credible threat. He draws in new recruits by using thename of Hero Killer, Stain, and ends up with a crew of powerful ne’er-do-wells.
While the League members don’t have much connecting them at first, that slowly changes over the course of the story. They begin to develop friendships during their missions. Toga and Twice, for example, become very close, while Spinner bonds with Shigaraki over their shared love of video games.
The League’s friendliness with one another remains a boon for All for One until the Shie Hassaikai arc.
In many ways, this development of friendship and camaraderie among the League proves beneficial to All for One’s plan, as the group works better together as these bonds develop. It certainly helps them to escape on several occasions throughout the story, but that doesn’t change the fact that All for One didn’t see it coming.
The League’s friendliness with one another remains a boon for All for Oneuntil the Shie Hassaikai arc, at which point the League attempts a meeting with this rival criminal group that goes south quickly, resulting in the death of Magne, a member of the League. While each League member handles it differently, none of them are willing to forgive.
All for One’s Shie Hassaikai Plan Was Ruined by Bonds
All for One’s Scheme Didn’t Account for Camaraderie Among Villains
The meeting with the Shie Hassaikai was extremely important to All for One for a number of reasons. He was well aware of their rumored “Quirk-deleting” bullets and wanted this technology for himself. By setting up a meeting between the Shie Hassaikai and his League, All for One hoped to obtain the tech’s secrets and the ability to mass-produce it.
Had All for One’s scheme gone according to plan, he would’ve not only obtained a supply of the Quirk-deleting bullets, but would’ve understood how they were made. He’d also have learned of the existence of Eri and her Rewind Quirk. From there, All for One could kidnap the girl and steal her Quirk, or all manner of other horrible things.
As it stands, in the Final War, All for One was able to create a drug from the Quirk-deleting bullets that allowed him to rewind his body, a devastating blow to the heroes who fought hard to inflict damage upon him.IfAll for One had Eri’s Quirkas well,the situation would’ve been utterly hopeless.
But while that’s what would’ve happened had the League followed All for One’s orders, that’s not what actually played out. After the Shie Hassaikai killed Magne, Toga and the others grew extremely furious with the group, and while they didn’t disobey All for One directly, they only followed his orders to the letter and no further.
Toga ends up using Deku’s blood to disguise herself and help the heroes against the Shie Hassaikai. As soon as they complete their assignments, Toga and Twice immediately bail on the Shie Hassaikai, leaving them to their fates against the heroes. Thus, All for One never learns Overhaul’s secrets, never learns of Eri, and never gains her power.
If All for One Understood Friendship, He’d Never Have Failed
All for One Expects All Villains to Be Like Him: Cold and Calculating
Ultimately, All for One completely underestimated the power of the bonds of the League of Villains. Despite their allegiance, they cared about each other, at least to some extent, and seeing one of their own killed right in front of them implanted a fury in the group that couldn’t easily be doused by All for One’s logic and reason.
Even Shigaraki goes out of his way to get vengeance over Magne’s death, destroying Overhaul’s hands and rendering it impossible for him to use his Quirk, eventually turning him into a gibbering wimp. This also made it impossible to create more of the Quirk-deleting bullets, since Overhaul’s Quirk was key to creating them from Eri.
The fact that the League chose to pursue vengeance over following All for One’s orders proved that their friendships were very real.And despite all his scheming, All for One seems to have been legitimately surprised by this turn of events, proving that his fundamental lack of understanding of human nature is a true weakness.
It’s no wonder All for One has such a preference for Nomu as his minions; after all, the Nomu will never experience friendship or a desire for vengeance for a fallen ally. But Nomu are, in the end, too stupid to carry out his more complex orders.
Forced to rely on humans,My Hero Academia’s biggest villain couldn’t foresee one of the most common human reactions of all.
