The latest chapter of My Hero Academia explains the reason behind the villain Twice being hesitant to take too active a role in fights. Despite being a fast and dexterous fighter and having the ability to create clones of anyone, including himself, Twice has always been defensive in battle and avoided taking any damage. Lately, the villains have been getting all the focus in the manga, and Twice has always been one of its most complex.
My Hero Academia takes place in a world where superpowers (“quirks”) are ludicrously commonplace, with 80% of the population developing one as they grow up, ranging from laughable and surreal to powerful and godlike. The series follows Izuku Midoriya, a teenage boy who dreams of being a hero despite being quirkless. After a selfless act of bravery he is chosen by All Might, the world’s greatest hero, to be the recipient of his own quirk One For All, which unlike other quirks can be willed to others, and increases in strength with each iteration. Attending a high school where the heroes of the future are educated and trained, Izuku learns to develop and control his new power, while the ruthless machinations of supervillains constantly threaten their lives.
Reported on ComicBook, chapter 229 of the manga, referentially titled All It Takes Is One Bad Day, relates part of Twice’s backstory. Alone and unemployed, he used his ability to create doubles of himself so he would have someone to talk to, but resulted in them brutally slaughtering each other when they began arguing over which of them was the original. As a result of this fight, the ‘prime’ Twice thus far featured is unsure whether or not he is a clone himself, and it’s revealed that since the clones require only a small amount of damage to be destroyed, he has avoided being injured for fear of being utterly obliterated should his suspicion be proved true.
The rebelling of Twice’s clones against him is also the cause of the dissociative identity disorder that prevents him from being an active member of society, believing himself too lost and broken to belong. Wearing a mask allows him to maintain some semblance of control over his mental ill health; while masked he is merely blithely contradictory, but when unmasked his split personalities bicker and argue with each other and his sanity deteriorates. He fell in with the League of Villains since they were more accepting of his madness and willing to put up with his being in quite literally two minds about everything.
One of the most enduring appeals of both the manga and anime versions of My Hero Academia, aside from the seemingly limitless imagination shown in the dozens of quirks created for the series and the development of their applications and limitations, has been the constant dedication to the growth of its vast assortment of characters. Twice has been something of a puzzling character, since his clones also have his ability you would think he would be nearly unstoppable since he could create an overrun army in no time at all and have little to fear from anyone. The reason for his hesitation, as well as the personal tragedy that sparked it, is another example of what makes the series so compelling, and a reminder of how likely it is for such a focus to continue.
Source: ComicBook