With My Hero Academia, One For All is more than just a Quirk; it is the solidarity of the masses in favor of the symbol of peace.
Society itself remains in balance in My Hero Academia as Izuku Midoriya and the few remaining heroes clash with an endless army of villains, and Izuku faces another challenge: being a source of mob anger consisting of frightened civilians gathered at the front gate of the UA. It wasn’t enough for Izuku to fight; he must also serve as a symbol.
Ochaco Uraraka gave a passionate speech to the crowd, prompting Kota Izumi to rush out and take Izuku’s side. Izuku became Kota’s All Might, and Izuku had to become All Might for the rest of the crowd as well. The time to become a global peace symbol has come.
The mob wants Izuku to go to prevent him from luring the bad guys to UA and getting past it, and Ochaco argues that this is Izuku’s last hiding place where he can rest and recuperate. Ochaco’s speech took a moment to sink in, and at first, fiery hero Endeavor doubted that the crowd would side with the hero. Then, as Hawks points out, the crowd changed and a specific man spoke on Izuku’s behalf to continue what Ochaco had started. He argues that only professional heroes can bring back the stable, happy world people once lived in, and that Izuku can only reclaim that world from the villains while he rests at UA. before the final battle with Tomura Shigaraki.
The man also argues that All Might is more than just a warrior; he fought for the hearts and souls of all, uniting the masses in an intangible form of One For All. All Might is out of the picture, so it falls into the hands of Izuku, who carries his iconic legacy, to inspire people as the last, best hope in the world. Commoners, for their own sake, cannot stay on the sidelines. They and Izuku must support each other, a symbiotic relationship between the One For All Quirk and the invisible, secondary meaning of “One For All.” The commoners must become Izuku’s mainstay, united as one. As hoped, everyone united under Izuku’s banner and made room to accept him into the school.
This latest development further proves that heroes and villains don’t fight in a vacuum just to prove whose ideology prevails. Even the strongest heroes and villains need the support and loyalty of the masses, otherwise their ambitions are meaningless. The battle between heroes and villains is truly a contest to see who can control society, playing tug of war with the heart of modern civilization. Each side is truly a populist movement, and people can “vote” based on whether they support the hero or the villain. In My Hero Academia #325, Izuku wins the “votes” of the entire UA crowd, and if he can keep that up, he can turn the tide of battle in his favor.
Generations ago, All For One had similar goals as he swapped people’s Oddities to win their loyalty and make them happy. All For One knows that the villain is defined by the support of the masses, not just by their Quirk firepower, and he seeks to transform society, with himself at the helm. Izuku and All Might have similar goals but for different reasons, and Izuku has only gone so far as to win over society – not to dominate it, but to protect it as a symbol. The struggle of My Hero Academia has always been a vote between the foundations of All For One and All Might, and Izuku just won a bunch of votes as a newly realized peace symbol.
