Villains Who Wanted To Be Heroes

Wanting to become a hero in the world of My Hero Academia can end in one of two ways. On the one hand, it can motivate characters to work hard and train as much as possible so that they are one day capable of protecting civilians from fear, but in some instances, it can actually end up pushing someone more toward villainy. Much of My Hero Academia‘s story is based around dissecting what it means to become a hero, with it gradually becoming clearer to readers and viewers that hero society isn’t quite as equal and fair as it may seem on the surface.

Related

My Hero Academia: 8 Characters Who Ended Up Being Surprisingly Weak

Despite seeming pretty strong at first, these My Hero Academia characters were quite a letdown in the end.

As a result, there are several individuals who, despite initially wanting to become heroes themselves, instead found themselves walking down a path of darkness and turning into villains, but what exactly drove them to reject their dreams in the first place? It’s time to take a closer look at these villains to uncover where it all went wrong for them.

5

Gentle Criminal

Gentle’s Dreams Of Becoming A Hero Were Ruined By One Simple Accident

• First Appearance: Episode 81

Danjuro Tobita is a character who experienced the harsh reality and strictness of hero society first-hand, and after realizing how horrible it could truly be, he decided to take on the persona of a villain known as Gentle Criminal. Before the My Hero story kicks off, Danjuro is a young student who is eager to prove his worth in order to eventually become a hero, but this eagerness ends up getting the better of him. After trying to use his Elasticity Quirk to save a man who was falling from a building, Gentle ended up getting in the way of a Pro-Hero who was trying to do the same thing, resulting in the victim landing on the floor and causing many injuries before being hospitalized.

Not only did this shatter Danjuro’s confidence, but it put his parents in heavy debt as they tried to pay for the man’s injuries, with Danjuro becoming hated among the public due to his actions. What really made Danjuro snap, though, was when he encountered one of his schoolmates who had just become a Pro-Hero, only to find out that his friend didn’t even remember his name. All of this would result in Gentle teaming up with the spunky La Brava to become a villainous duo ready to wreak havoc, though he does once again act as a hero during the final war.

4

Lady Nagant

Nagant Started To Question Her Role In Society After Being Used As A Killing Machine

• First Appearance: Episode 133

In her younger years, Lady Nagant, or Kaina Tsutsumi, was motivated by the idea of using her deadly Rifle Quirk as a way to protect society once she became a Pro-Hero. Initially, this personal goal went pretty well, especially once she earned the title of best marksman in all of Japan. As time went on, though, Kaina began to realize that the majority of her missions involved her mercilessly killing not just villains, but even heroes too, rather than trying to scare them off or reform them.

Related

My Hero Academia: Every Main Character’s Age, Height, And Birthday

My Hero Academia is made up of a dynamic cast of characters. Here’s everything you need to know about every major player.

Eventually, the stress of constantly killing strangers for the sake of the Hero Commission was too much, and Kaina lashed out by killing the president of the Commission, resulting in her being thrown in Tartarus jail. As has been shown with numerous characters in the series, including Nagant, keeping the peace isn’t always as easy as it sounds, and behind closed doors, the ones pulling the strings are more than willing to commit dirty deeds if it means saving their reputation, which is something Nagant came to disdain.

3

Stain

After Discovering Why People Were Signing Up To Be Heroes, Stain Became A Violent Vigilante

• First Appearance: Episode 24

Stain isn’t a traditional villain, in the sense that he doesn’t want to take over the world to hatch some kind of master plan as a supreme ruler. Instead, Stain’s goal is to hunt down and kill “Fake Heroes”, referring to anyone who becomes a hero purely for their own selfish gain, rather than for the sake of protecting others. The story of how he adopted this mindset comes from the Vigilante spin-off series, where it’s shown that Stain was actually a massive fan of All Might when he was young, so much so that he even joined a hero academy to be just like him.

Upon noticing how many people were choosing to take up the hero mantle purely for money and fame though, Stain became a vigilante who still leaned on the side of heroism, since he was only aiming to kill villains at that point. However, after fellow vigilante Knuckleduster rejects him as little more than a “Mad Slasher”, this would mark the birth of Stain’s Hero Killer persona, where he would turn his focus to eliminating fake heroes who he deems as unworthy of holding their positions in society.

2

Dabi

When Endeavor Stopped Paying Attention To Dabi, He Realized The Harsh Reality Of Hero Culture

• First Appearance: Episode 31

The whole reason Dabi, whose real name is Toya Todorki, was born was so that Endeavor could raise a child who would one day surpass All Might, the number one hero at the time. At first, this didn’t seem to be too much of a problem, as Toya’s Hellflame Quirk was much more powerful than his father’s, making the young boy excited to one day become a great hero. However, things started to go sour once Shoto, Endeavor’s fourth child, entered the picture, possessing both his father’s Flame Quirk and his mother’s Ice. At the same time, Toya’s own flames were beginning to burn him whenever he used them, causing Endeavor to see him as a failure.

Related

My Hero Academia: 8 Best Pro-Hero Characters, Ranked

My Hero Academia features a ton of intriguing and memorable Pro-Heroes, with these being among the best of the bunch.

Seeing Shoto as his latest prodigy, Endeavor began ignoring Toya, causing the boy to beg for his father to pay attention to him. When Toya decided to go to Sekoto Peak in order to show Endeavor how far he had come through his own training, only for his father to not show up, Toya then became obsessed with enacting revenge on him, becoming the highly dangerous villain known as Dabi. Dabi’s situation is an example of the malicious activities that go on behind the scenes of hero society, and while Endeavor would desperately try to atone for his sins against his children, it was still his own actions that drove Dabi to become a villain in the first place.

1

Tomura Shigaraki

Shigaraki’s Fascination With Heroes Resulted In Him Having A Horrible Childhood Which Eventually Led Him To Villainy

• First Appearance: Episode 8

Though Shigaraki may come across as a sick and twisted villain for much of the series, he didn’t actually start out this way. In fact, Shigaraki was a fairly normal child who looked up to heroes and even wanted to be one himself, but this wasn’t an idea supported by his father, Kotaro. At a young age, Kotaro’s mother, Nana, abandoned him in order to go and fight All For One, causing him to believe that heroes are simply people who would rather protect strangers than their own families.

After ridiculing and abusing Shigaraki due to his dream, the young boy ended up killing not only his father but his entire family, after accidentally activating his Decay Quirk. Shigaraki would wear the hands of his deceased relatives around his body from that tragic day onward, and would ultimately become a pawn of All For One’s until he is eventually taken out for good at the very end of the story by Midoriya.