These My Hero Academia Villains Who Have Suffered More Than The Heroes

In the world of My Hero Academia, it’s very rare that someone will decide to follow the path of villainy just for the sake of it. Most individuals who are considered to be villains will have their own personal reasons for turning their back on society, and very often, this means that they’ve suffered a lot more than the average citizen, which has gradually altered their outlook on life as time has progressed, leading them to accept that pursuing a life of villainy is the only way forward.

While there are many villains seen in the series who have experienced a lot of emotional suffering, it also goes without saying that many have also taken a physical beating too on more than a few occasions. As a result, while these characters are designed to be the big bad antagonists of the story, it can honestly be hard not to at least feel a little sympathetic towards them considering how much they’ve been through, especially these My Hero Academia villains below, who have all suffered more than most.

Stain

Knuckleduster Shattered Stain’s View On Hero Society

While Stain plays a very important role in the main My Hero Academia story, his past life as a vigilante is primarily explored in the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes spinoff series, where fans get to uncover why exactly he became the murderous criminal that many know him as. It may be hard to believe, but Stain once wanted to become a hero, but after realizing that those around him were simply aiming to be heroes for fame and wealth, he decided to take on the moniker of a vigilante, literally taking the crime into his own hands.

While he enjoyed playing his role for a while, he would eventually come up against another vigilante by the name of Knuckleduster, who completely disagreed with Stain’s philosophy and pummeled him almost to death in their fight. After heavily disfiguring Stain’s face, the man himself began to have an epiphany, with his mind becoming completely warped after realizing that those who only become heroes for their own selfish gain deserve to be killed. Stain isn’t an easy villain to sympathize with considering how many people he’s killed, though it’s important to realize that he has also gone through his own mental suffering to get to where he is in the main story.

Spinner

Spinner’s Appearance Made Him A Target Of Discrimination

Mutant Quirks can be somewhat of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, taking the appearance of a beast or animal at all times can give someone an instant advantage in combat, but the drawback is that these types of people aren’t often treated too kindly by the people around them. A prime example of this is Spinner, who assumes the appearance of a humanoid lizard who clearly looks a lot different to the average citizen.

This resulted in him facing a lot of discrimination and prejudice when he was still young, ultimately making him an outcast while he was growing up. This is a big reason why Spinner decided to dress up as the menacing villain Stain, since it allowed him to obscure his own identity while also mimicking the person he views as a role model.

Lady Nagant

Nagant’s Constant Killing Warped Her Mind

While the Public Safety Commission may claim that they are doing all they can to protect civilians from harm, the truth is, the ways they go about achieving this are often pretty sinister and dark. A person who knows this better than anyone is Lady Nagant, considering she was a top agent in the commission for many years, and was forced to kill a plethora of defenseless villains in cold blood through the use of her devastating Rifle Quirk.

The constant killing would take a heavy toll on Nagant’s mental state, to the point where she decides to abandon the commission and even ends up with All For One, who grants her a brand-new Quirk. It’s unlikely that Nagant will ever be able to recover from the trauma she acquired as a result of her time in the commission, giving fans a clear idea of just how devious hero society can truly be beneath the surface.

Himiko Toga

Toga Couldn’t Control Her Quirk, And Was Punished For It

Considering Quirks can come in all types of forms, it’s only inevitable that at least a few would need to be handled by professionals if they’re too dangerous or unpredictable. In the case of Toga, her Quirk made it so that she was forced to consume blood on a frequent basis, which wasn’t exactly an accepted trait by her friends, or even her own family.

Though she was able to go to Quirk counseling, this only encouraged Toga to suppress her hunger for blood, rather than actually manage it, and if anything, only made her deep desires even more ravenous. All of this would convince Toga that killing people for her own wellbeing was completely acceptable, considering it was unfair that she was the only one who was unable to live a normal life, just because of an ability that she was born with.

Gentle Criminal

One Fatal Mistake Cost Gentle Everything

Though he may appear as a villain in the main story, there was once a time when Gentle actually wanted to become a hero, though his hopes and dreams would be crushed after he made one fatal mistake. In a desperate attempt to save a civilian who had fallen from a building, Gentle threw out his Elasticity Quirk to provide a safe landing, but he only ended up getting in the way of another Pro-Hero who was already on the scene. Not only that, Gentle had also acted without even having a license, and when paired with his crippling debt and shattered self-confidence, it made it more or less impossible for him to become the hero he always wanted.

This is why he would end up deciding to become a villain, as it was essentially Gentle’s way to lash out against a society that threw him aside and ruined his life, just for a simple mistake. The world of My Hero Academia can be very strict on those who don’t follow its stringent laws, and there’s no better example of this than Gentle Criminal.

Twice

Twice Just Wanted Some Peace Of Mind After Losing His Own

On the surface, an ability that allows the user to create a double of anything they touch might sound pretty useful, but for Twice, it’s been much more of a curse than a blessing. Twice had attempted to use his Quirk to create multiple versions of himself that could help him in his daily life, but once they all started turning on each other, it resulted in a bloodbath where he was left to wonder whether he was even the real Twice, or simply just another clone.

Because nobody was willing to help him with his mental distress, Twice would eventually start buddying up with the League of Villains, who were the only people he could call his true friends, and even a family. Not only that, Twice was also brutally murdered by Hawks after believing that the two had become close friends. Needless to say, Twice is a villain who really can’t catch a break.

Dabi

A Rejected Son Who Incinerated His Own Body To Impress His Father

It’s not until fairly late in the story that Dabi’s true identity and backstory are revealed, and to say that he’s had a pretty tough upbringing would be putting it mildly. Dabi is actually Toya Todoroki, and was once seen by his father Endeavor as being his latest protege, though this all began to change once his parents realized that Toya’s flames were actually harming his own body.

Once Shoto entered the family, Toya was essentially completely disregarded by his father, who simply wanted him to stop trying to become a hero so that he wouldn’t have to inflict any more damage. Toya was so desperate to earn his father’s affection that he decided to go all out with his flames, resulting in an explosive spectacle where it was believed that he had ended his own life. In reality though, Toya survived, and had now become completely numb to the flames which were continuing to destroy his body every time he used them. His only goal from then on would be to destroy the man that he once called a father who he blamed for leading him down into his dark pit of despair.

Tomura Shigaraki

Shigaraki Accidentally Killed His Own Family With A Mysterious New Ability

• Quirks: Decay / All For one

Shigaraki might just have one of the most emotional backstories in any shonen series, as it does an excellent job at conveying why a once sweet and kind young boy would eventually turn into a monster who simply wants to destroy everything in sight. Shigaraki’s father, Kotaro, was the son of Nana, a previous user of One For All who decided to abandon him when he was still young in order to protect him from being targeted by All For One. This gave Kotaro a seething hatred for heroes, to the point where he would mentally and physically abuse his own son, Shigaraki, any time he expressed an interest in becoming one himself.

As if this wasn’t already bad enough, Shigaraki would mysteriously awaken a powerful new Quirk without even realizing it, causing him to kill his entire family, including his beloved dog and mother, without even knowing what was happening. Once he entered the city to try and find some help, everyone he walked past decided to reject him, with the only person coming to his aid being All For One. Even after he signed his soul away to his new master, Shigaraki would still be forced to relive his traumatic memories over the course of the story, and would even realize that All For One himself is trying to steal his body for his own selfish deeds.

My Hero Academia

Release Date

April 2, 2016

Network

TBS, MBS, Nippon TV

Directors

Shouji Ikeno, Tsuyoshi Tobita, Ikuro Sato, Takudai Kakuchi, Masashi Abe, Tetsuya Miyanishi, Kazuma Komatsu, Yoshifumi Sasahara, Masayuki Otsuki, Daisuke Tsukushi, Takayuki Yamamoto, Yohei Fukui, Takuro Tsukada, Masatoyo Takada, Naomi Nakayama, Sayaka Morikawa, Takanori Yano

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  Daiki Yamashita

  Izuku Midoriya (voice)

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  Kaito Ishikawa

  Manga Fukidashi (voice)