#mind you
AFO shows up as a savior, liken to a god, offering forgiveness, salvation, second chances to the lonely and despised— but it’s only through him, no one else, nothing else, and so complete devotion to him is the hallmark of his followers. “To you, the powerless, I present a choice. Forgiveness for those who have sinned. I give to all whatever they may seek… that is, if you agree to join me.” But obviously he’s a false savior - the people he takes in become ever more isolated from everyone else, all the more damned, all the less forgivable. Cut off from everything else, they can only ever follow him deeper and deeper into hell.
Salvation/saving could mean lot of different things in different religions and beliefs, but I wanna take a look at the Buddhist side of things, because 1) Japan and it’s culture has a long and significant history of Buddhist influence which inevitably often makes its way to its media; 2) All For One has been compared to the Buddha (Chapter 270, Ujiko said of him as having a ‘Buddha-like smile’); and 3) HeroAca has always had a Buddhist vibe to me, esp. inShigaraki and his sufferingandemptiness.
(Most recently, we’re seeing it with the Todorokis and Dabi; 'Dabi’ (cremation) is a word with Buddhist connotations, and funerals are nearly all in Buddhist style.)
What 'salvation’ in Buddhism usually mean is to be free from all forms of suffering. It is the liberation from things like pain, grief, jealousy, anger; and from the things that cause these black feelings. In HeroAca, there’s suffering from: physical dangers (villain attacks, accidents, disasters); emotions such as fear and distress (hence Nana’s philosophy of smiling to provide comfort and hope); selfish acts, harmful behaviors, and malevolent thoughts that spell out doom for both the perpetrators and their victims (Endeavor’s eugenic scheme, Shigaraki’s destruction that inevitably includes self-destruction, Iida’s attempt at vengeance, the more mild case of Gentle’s desire for acknowledgement).
Above all, there’s the great pain of being rejected from society that is the common backstory of the Villains. Whether it’s being different and unable to fit in, or having done wrong and shunned, or just plain misfortune that left one in ruin, Villains are often the rejects of Hero society, the darkness at the edges, the dregs at the bottom - the forgotten and the lonely, the unforgiven and the despised. Unable to find a place to belong and unable to be live free, they suffer.
Which is where All For One comes in. As stated above, he offers salvation - purpose and solutions, belonging and flourishing, the ability for his victims to create a life that they think would free them from whatever pain they have. This is why he’s likened to a Buddha - imo, I think, specifically, he’s like a bodhisattva, who are Buddhist “saints”, people who have stop short of Buddhahood/ultimate enlightenment in order to stay and achieve the same enlightenment for all sentient beings. They are beings of great compassion, ready to help whoever is in need of it, like Kannon/Avalokiteśvara with thousand arms to reach out to those in need, or Jizo/Kṣitigarbha who made it his goal to empty all the hells.
That’s All For One, appearing before those in need and saving them, offering his compassion. Except. You know. It’s false, not that at all. There’s a knife hiding behind his smile. He doles out his ‘kindness’ to manipulate and exploit people and ensure their devotion and willingness to get blood on their hands. He’s the evil, distorted opposite of a bodhisattva. Demon King indeed.
Still, it’s true - as unpleasant as it may be - that he was there for the people who needed rescuing but who Heroes (and society) have ignored. He took in Tenko after the kid was left to languish under a bridge, plus countless children who ‘grew twisted’/developed a vicious hatred for a world they had no place in; he befriended Ujiko when the scientist got shunned for his quirk singularity theory; gave the Aoyamas’ son a quirk to no longer be bullied; offered Nagant a chance to change the sham Hero system that betrayed her; and he even saved Touya from literal death.
All For One is able to do all that, because Heroes didn’t. For people who are supposed to save other people, Heroes have giant blind spots that causes them to fail/ignore/actively alienate not-insignificant parts of society. A lot of it isn’t on purpose, but a lot of people aren’t saved all the same. They fall into despair. They grieve and hate and harm, and they fall further from enlightenment, only ever into a cycle of suffering.
Put it another way, All For One (false)saves anyone who needs help, because everyone will have that one bad day where everything goes wrong. Remember, anti-bodhisattva.
Heroes, on the other hand, are people whose job is to save people; but their system they uphold have massive cracks that people slip through everyday, and for whatever reason, that definition of ‘people’ doesn’t include all people, and so they just aren’t bodhisattva.
(Which is why Heroes have to save the villains - all of them - from their rage and desolation and suffering.)
(This doesn’t mean the villains get off scot free. They just gotta work off alllllll that karma.)
Anyways this got too long so there’s a part two later where I talk about Heroes and if they’re supposed to be the true bodhisattva. (Answer: Yes, but also no. it’s complicated.)
people get angrier about their tax money going towards helping people than it going towards killing people
I’m simply infuriated because our taxes go to the pockets of our “public servants”.
So when Tyreen explains that Troy needed to be physically separated from her at birth, we learn that the Calypsos were conjoined twins. But conjoined twins are always identical, meaning they have the same biological sex.
Conclusion: one of the Calypsos is trans.
