Shigaraki is different, because he has nobody left. And I fully expect it to be difficult to get through to him, but in the end, because of the way BNHA is-I believe/expect that they will. His family (Shoto most likely) is going to have to reach out to him and PROVE to him that they mean it when they say they want him to come back home. His problems started with his family, and they’re going to have to be ended with his family. Touya’s situation is solely a result of his family’s neglect, but as we can see now, his situation is being set up to be resolved BY his family. And I 100% expect Shigaraki and Touya to turn down the helping hand that is extended to them-at FIRST. But right now of course it doesn’t seem like they’d want to be saved, because they don’t even view it as being in the realm of possibilities for them. In fact, they’ve never even said those words. You don’t actually know that they don’t want to be saved. Secondly, they don’t appear to “want” to be saved because, well, being saved was literally NEVER AN OPTION GIVEN TO THEM. Third statement: “They don’t even want to be saved!” First of all, the entire reason they are in these situations is because nobody saved them when they needed it. They will have to help in some way, because as it stands right now-society is falling apart in BNHA and we already know the pro-heroes aren’t going to be the ones to put it back together. Toga and Touya’s paths to redemption aren’t as clear, but they are there. It’s pretty obvious that Shigaraki is going to have to help Deku stop AFO. There is actually a big set up for how these villains will redeem themselves, and it’s in a very similar fashion to what happened in FMA.

So-all in all, being a murderer is not a deal breaker for being saved and redeemed. The same way it was for Scar in FMA, revenge, it’s the same for the villains in BNHA. What does this have to do with BNHA? Okay, well-I just addressed that first statement “They’ve killed too many people!” Okay, so what? Yeah, they have, and it’s portrayed as a bad thing, but it’s also portrayed as something that is happening as a direct result of the suffering they’ve endured. Our main character Ed, we see some of his discomfort knowing the things they’d done, and he has a strong conviction not to kill on his journey to restore his and his brother’s bodies-and he succeeds, even though killing somebody would have easily saved his life many times throughout the story. The characters around them-well a lot of them participated in the war as well, so they struggle with the same issues. They view themselves as such, the story views them as such. So, protagonist, antagonist, hero, villain, military, citizen, it doesn’t matter-they are mass murderers. They state many times that they cannot be at peace with what they’ve done, they’re haunted by memories, they even mention the possibility that they would be tried for their war crimes should their country be saved from its impending doom and become a democracy while they’re still alive. Roy used his flame alchemy to basically blow up entire cities in the country, and Riza was a sniper who knew that every time she pulled the trigger, somebody was going to die. Throughout the entire war they question what they are even fighting for-all while murdering thousands-millions of innocent people. Now don’t get me wrong, they aren’t the bad guys in this story, but these two both struggle with their actions from during that war. Why do they view themselves this way? Well, for one, they participated in the war mentioned above^^, and no matter how you view it: whether it was for the military, the safety of their country (you find out later what the war was for and it was NOT for the wellbeing of ANYTHING), or for their OWN lives & wellbeing (it wasn’t)-you *should* agree that there is no excuse/reason/justification for committing genocide. However there is one thing you can’t argue with if you pay attention to them throughout the series: they view themselves are irredeemable mass murderers. They’re secondary protagonists throughout the whole story, and are presented as such. Roy Mustang & Riza Hawkeye may be confusing to some people as an example in this post, because in FMA they’re the “good guys”.

Hitoribocchi psst hey you