Warning! Minor spoilers for My Hero Academia chapter 355!

Most My Hero Academia fans are under the impression that Tomura Shigaraki deserves redemption just as much as his villainous companions, if not more so. But a closer look into his past actually reveals that he's more far gone than originally believed.

One of the many strengths of My Hero Academia is mangaka Kohei Horikoshi's incredible aptitude for successfully humanizing even the vilest of villains like Spinner or Dabi to such an extent that readers are quixotically compelled to feel sorry for them, regardless of the atrocities they have committed. Horikoshi usually captures this dynamic by giving his evil doers tragic origin stories, ones so traumatizing that these poor souls essentially had no choice but to eventually embrace a life of villainy. Shigaraki has such a history but there's a key moment specifically that sullies his status as a potential victim, portraying him in a much more sinister light.

Related: My Hero Academia Is Somehow Topping Endeavor's Lowest Moment

Near the end of his origin story "arc" in chapter 236, Tomura Shigaraki's deadly Decay quirk awakens for the first time. Tomura Shigaraki's first victim in My Hero Academia is his dog. Upset over events that occurred in the previous chapter, the boy holds onto his pet for comfort, but this initiates his quirk, and the poor creature suddenly disintegrates in his arms. His sister is next, as she just so happened to come over to apologize to her brother for something that happened earlier. She is soon nothing more than a pile of remains. These terrifying incidents understandably cause Shigaraki to fall into a panicked frenzy and he rushes to his family for help. But his efforts only lead to him first killing his mother and grandparents, and then, finally, his father.

Tomura Shigaraki wonders if he knew as a kid why his family always made excuses for his abusive father during his origin story in My Hero Academia chapter 236.

Many fans who have been keeping up to date with current events for years only remember the main moments of Shigaraki's backstory, seeing as the flashback occurred three years ago. But as Shigaraki is pleading for help in these scenes, it's important to focus on the fact that the present-day Shigaraki simultaneously wonders if he actually did it on purpose. It would be understandable if Shigaraki felt this way about his father since his father mentally and physically abused him. But as readers see the young Shigaraki reaching out to his mother and grandparents, the present-day villain thinks that it is possible that he could have realized then that they deserved to die for always making up excuses for his father. Although this is only a theory, Shigaraki recalls that at the moment he killed his father, it filled him "with pure, maddening ecstasy."

Even for those who are skeptical that this means anything, it's crucial to realize that Horikoshi chose to insert the contorted views of the present-day Shigaraki into these ostensibly innocent scenes. In so doing, he tainted the whole memory, warping it into something completely sinister. Although this juxtaposition could just serve as a means to show how far Shigaraki has fallen, it also proves that Shigaraki doesn't feel badly about what he did to this day. He still believes that his entire family deserved to die. That is irredeemable - unless he eventually sees the error of ways. But as of now, that's not the case. As the battle between All For One and the heroes possibly comes to a close in the present day, it's important to keep this in mind. The fight with the fused version of Shigaraki/All For One could very well be next in My Hero Academia's final war after all. And if Tomura Shigaraki is forced to contend with his past yet again during his final battle, fans need to pay attention to see if he deserves redemption.

Next: My Hero Academia's Dabi Has Actually Been A Nomu All Along - Theory