My Hero Academia is a series that brought us some truly remarkable series. Everyone from the heroes to the villains have caught our attention, and with good reason. But sometimes those heroes or villains don’t make as much sense as we’d like to.
For example, perhaps the biggest antagonist of the series (so far) is the one known as All For One. There’s a lot we don’t yet know about him, and even more questions we’d like to have the opportunity to ask. We know he’s a threat thanks to what he has done to All Might, but sometimes it still feels like there’s something missing about his character. So we’re going to take a moment to talk about ten things that just don’t make sense about his character.
10 10. Why Does He Not Have A Face?
The first and possibly biggest question most fans have, when seeing One For All is: what happened to his face? Frankly, there's really no answer that will satisfy this question either. We get that the amalgam of quirks he's taken in has altered his physical appearance quite a bit.
Removing his eyes and nose does seem a little extreme, no matter how you look at it. One would think that he'd immediately remove any quirk causing this issue for him. Or that he'd work towards finding a quirk that could fix it, should it be damage based.
9 9. His Motives
From what we've seen of All For One so far, he's actually quite brilliant. He certainly knows how to strategize and plan. What we don't understand are his motives. What does he hope to get out of all of this scheming and manipulating? Yes, he wanted to hurt All Might with Tomura's appearance. But there's got to be more to it than that, doesn't it?
So let's ask the hard question: what is All For One getting out of this battle? Is he out for world domination? Is he seeking the best quirks in the world? What? What is his motivation here?
8 8. Is There No Limit?
All For One's quirk is incredibly powerful, and thanks to the way he uses it, also extremely dangerous. His quirk not only allows him to take other quirks but to hand them off to others as he sees fit.
That is, quite frankly, terrifying. We're left wondering; is there a limit to this quirk? Every other hero or villain we've seen has had a natural limit to their quirk. But so far, we've yet to see the limit for All For One. This fact either breaks the rules or implies that he's very careful in the way he uses his quirks.
7 7. What's His Motivation Involving Shigaraki?
Another lingering question we have is why he chose to take in Tomura Shigaraki. We get that Tomura is related to All Might's predecessor, but there's got to be more to it than that, doesn't there? There are so many easier ways to hurt All Might. Even killing Tomura and gloating about the fact would have done a lot of damage to All Might.
We're left wondering if Shigaraki is a situation of two birds and one stone. Perhaps he was looking for somebody to mentor, and when he found Tomura it seemed like fate. Or if we're just reading into the situation way too much.
6 6. Why Let Himself Get Arrested?
One of the biggest moments in the series (so far) was the dramatic fight between All For One and All Might. It was intense, brilliant, and more than a little bit scary (because we love All Might so much).
The fight ended with All Might the victor, and with All For One in prison. While All Might absolutely earned that win, we are left with this disconcerting feeling that All For One is actually content with being arrested. And that's a concerning fact. If this is true, what is his endgame? And when will he make his move?
5 5. Couldn't He Have Come Up With A Better Name?
Time for a moment of honesty here: All For One is not a name that rolls off the tongue easily. Could he really not come up with a better villain or quirk name than All For One? It is descriptive of his quirk, sure, but there are also so many better ways he could have gone about describing it.
Perhaps he wanted a name that would be more forgettable. After all, he's not a villain that seems to crop up in the public knowledge all that often. Or maybe he just wanted a name to go with his bother's quirk – One For All. Though it does raise a question of who named themselves or their quirk first.
4 4. Could He Pass His Quirk On?
Speaking of One For All, we obviously know that this is a quirk that can be passed down, as that's really the only way it works. We also (obviously) know that All For One can take and transfer quirks at a whim. But could he transfer the one quirk that makes him work?
That is to say, could he transfer All For One, or is that finally the limitation of his quirk? We'd love to know the answer to this question – provided he'd ever be willing to pass up that much potential for power.
3 3. His Villainy
All For One is not a good guy. We get it, they've made that much painfully clear. What we don't understand is how and why he became a villain in the first place. What made him lean towards this side, given that he could basically have any quirk he wanted in order to be happy in life?
Are we meant to believe that it was his quirk that caused this, and thus it is a variation of the belief that power corrupts? Or is there something deeper going on here – something that has yet to be explained to the fans of the series.
2 2. The Mask
All For One's mask is another thing that we don't quite understand. Based on all of the pop culture references in My Hero Academia, we can probably assume that a mask is a form of life support (much like Darth Vader's). But um. How does that work? He does not much of a face, and thus the obvious ways of helping him breathe wouldn't work. So...how does this mask provide life support? Assuming we're correct in its purpose.
1 1. Why Doesn't He Just Steal One For All?
Finally, we have one last question about All For One. We know that he can take quirks, obviously. But why has he never tried to take One For All away from the bearer? Does it have to do with the nature of One For All (how the user has to consent to hand it down)? Or is it more than that?
The fastest way to end this battle, presumably, would be to eliminate that quirk from the opposing side. But maybe All For One isn't looking for easy. Maybe he needs a challenge in his life. Or maybe we're reading into it too much. No matter which is true, we would really love to hear the answer to this question.