M-rivas1 - María Fernanda Rivas.✨♥️

My take on the "AFO is the glowing baby" Theory!

So, after seeing some of the opinions from my mutuals and think about my own previous theory, I came to a conclusion with how this would fit in the narrative:

First of all, I wanted to mention the obvious, AFO's face.

Many speculated that the reason his facial structure looked different to everyone's else was because he is either White or Hori's heavy reference to Greek gods.

But, now, looking closer at his eyes as he gets younger, he has clear Asian features.

We all know Japanese people tend to retract Chinese people as somehow different, despite the same ethnicity.

So, If AFO truly is Chinese, it would explain his different face structure.

Well, second how this play in what we already know about him?

We all had somehow presumed he had a dark, tragic past, many are already sure he is a orphan.

We all always found weird that Yoichi, who is clearly younger, is named "first son", that could be due to the times hate towards Quirked people, so many presumed AFO was someone disowned or hated by his parents for having a quirk, therefore rejecting him and naming their second child as their first.

But that is a bit too complex, so now we are presented with the possibility that AFO was adopted by a family who already had Yoichi.

If AFO is really Chinese, it would explain why he has the surname "Shigaraki", a clearly Japanese surname.

But.. How did AFO go from China to Japan, to get adopted by the Shigaraki's?

Well, now that's the part I want to fill in with my theory:

We all know humans are shit, if someone is different, their life will be living hell, even in a futuristic society, the surge of quirks caused pain to thousands of quirked people, as we see by the Mother of Quirks story.

There is no doubt that the first quirked child to ever be born, would be experimented on.

This ties well with the fact All for One embraced the belief that he is a monster, to shape his own personality, his desire for control and changing everything to his own liking, as a way to reject back the society that rejected him first, it explains his central beliefs and background for his plans being "Society will always fear and reject the different".

He used that to forge Tomura, and plans to use that to cause chaos. He knows human hate and cruelty deeply.

Ok, we all knew AFO has a tragic past, we all knew he had a though uprising, being treated like a monster, but how it reinforces that he is the very first quirked child, and not just many of the first generation of quirked people who suffered as well?

Good question!

Now, I want to point out a very... Interesting, pattern in MHA.

It may sound a bit extreme, but don't blame me, blame Horikoshi!

1- We see by this panel, on the background, the main University of Tokyo, one of the greatest universities of Japan, which led to the belief that as an adult, AFO was a teacher, or a renewed doctor, a man with a carrier status powerful enough to make hundreds trust him and follow him.

And we know AFO must have been somewhere in the science field, to have met Ujiko, an also renewed doctor.

By the way, it leads to our second point, where things get.... hmm... questionable.

Did you know MHA is banned in China?

It's for a pretty heavy reason, just- the fact Horikoshi named Ujiko Shiga, as Maruta at first.

2- Maruta, is a Japanese term, used during the 2 world war, to refer to victims of human experimentation, mostly Chinese, by the unit 731, the Japanese Nazi facility knows for committing all types of medical atrocities against humans.

At first, I believed it was just a reference to the fact that Ujiko himself is a doctor that experiments in humans, as he creates Nomus, steals and copy quirks, and experimented on many orphans.

But- Horikoshi never do things without a good reason......

Right?

3- We know MHA is heavy in Human experimentation references and sketchy Eugenics logic.

Be it the Himuras building their family up on incest to not "corrupt the lineage"

Be it Shouto being born of a quirk marriage, an attempt of mixing 2 strong genetic lineages to form a new stronger power.

Be it Eri, being experimented on by Overhaul, to create weapons using her powerful mutant quirk.

Be it again, when Ujiko turned his own grandson into a winged nomu, and built thousands of hospitals and orphanages, to collect, and experiment on children.

Following this line... I wouldn't be surprised, if AFO's origin, someone who he himself has very... Fascist, point of views, has a lot to do with human experimentation... Eugenics... and Marutas...

A Chinese baby is born with a "weird feature", sketchy Japanese doctors got somehow their hands on that child, toke him to Japan, and experimented on him.

"Yo this sounds a bit far fetched- u sure u not delulu?"

I DIDN'T FINISH

It would solve the mystery of why a Chinese kid was raised in Japan. Why Hori risked getting his Manga permanently Banned to add a very heavy reference, why AFO is so desensitized with seeing children used in such a cruel way, why his views are full of hatred, and why he wants to change reality to his own needs, so badly, after all- they toke everything from him..... So why not, take it all back, from everyone?

Let's say somehow AFO escaped, he wondered through the streets of Japan, being seen as a monster, neglected, hated...

But for some reason, someone toke him in, the Shigaraki's Now- if the Shigaraki's where really a good family... Things would probably be different.

If the Shigaraki's where also as cruel- there was only one thing keeping AFO there. Yoichi.

All for One mentions multiple times that Yoichi is his only family, his only loved one.

But if they are not biological siblings, why would he care about Yoichi only, but not his adopted parents?

Perhaps the Shigaraki's adopted AFO, with the intention of using his quirks to cure or treat Yoichi's disease, nothing else, but, Yoichi himself was the only one, who ever treated AFO with kindness.

Ok, this all still doesn't explain how he got both AFO and the glow quirk. Just how he came out fucked up in the head and obssessed with Yoichi... BUT WAIT

We know Ujiko is capable of cloning quirks, making new quirks by mixing previous ones (Like happened to Kurogiri) and to implant multiple quirks in one body.

Who's to say, the doctors that experimented on AFO didn't have the same capacities?

What if... All for One, is a human created quirk?

Perhaps, AFO was used to steal quirks from other children, so they could be analized on HIM, or AFO was used as a cure for Quirkness, used by the doctors to remove the quirks of children of desperate parents.

"Ok ok nice, but wtf it has to do with AFO being a teacher or smth?"

Well- Who's better to understand quirks, and medicine, than the experiment himself?

IF, all i said until now makes sense, we can trace a time line.

All for One is born in China, taken to Japan, to be experimented on, the doctors manage to create a new quirk, to use as they please, All for One, as he is submitted to all types of things, but as a very observing child, starts learning as well.

He eventually runs away, maybe he used AFO to destroy the facility, or who knows, and walks alone through Japan, until a desperate family with a sick son, finds him.

OR maybe the head chef of the experimentation team, was Mr. Shigaraki himself, and "adopted AFO", as a form of hiding the experiments from the world, as well to also use him to try to help their only child, Yoichi.

(This would also exmplain why the name "Shigaraki", which literal translaiton mean "Death Grip Tree" or "Death Hang Tree", we know Hori likes to pun around with names, so what surname more fitting for such a horrible person? and the root of all evil. Yeah, i can see Hori naming a human experimentation head chef "death tree")

He grew to become attached to Yoichi, his only momments as a normal child being reading comic books with him. Yoichi, as a kind child, also grew to love his new brother no matter their differences.

Anything is possible, from there on, maybe he grew under Shigaraki's wing, or killed his adoptive family and ran away with Yoichi, whatever..

Keeping all his knowledge, as he grows older, he starts to study medicine, his expertise leading him to Japan's most important university, where he becomes a renewed teacher.... And plans society destruction in secret.

He has lost all emotion and empathy due to the torture he went through, so he uses more children for his own gain, repeating the cycle of abuse.

He at some point meets Ujiko, and with him they grow their empire during Japan's most chaotic times, while in private, he obsessed over the only one who ever loved and cared for him, his adoptive younger brother.

And this is how, All for One, became who we now know.

Also, this all kinda of makes us understand WHY All for One treated Tomura the way he did, he fabricated his own childhood and projected into Tomura, it gives a total new meaning to "he is the next me" besides the possession.

And if the theory that AFO's name is also Tomura Shigaraki, his uprising explain why someone would name a child "mourning" or "funeral" (the literal translation to "Tomura").