My Hero Academia brought us some pretty awful villains over the years, but All For One has been in a class all his own. And it’s not because he is all-powerful or has ruled with an iron fist for a long time. But it’s what he did to a 5-year-old named Tenko Shimura that is unforgivable. The more you think about it, the more inappropriate it sounds.How Scary All For One is in My Hero AcademiaAll For One (Image Credit: Studio Bones)And that’s what makes AFO manipulating Shigaraki so especially gut-wrenching in My Hero Academia. He didn’t simply stumble upon a traumatized child and capitalize on it. He created that trauma from scratch. AFO literally stalked the Shimura family for years, disguised himself as a friendly businessman, and orchestrated every single tragedy in Tenko's life. He stole Tenko's original quirk (a repulsion ability he was born with) and replaced it with Decay, a modified version of Overhaul's power with the restoration aspect removed. Just pure destruction.Think about that for a second. Tenko wasn't supposed to kill his family. His actual quirk would have just pushed things away. But AFO planted a time bomb in that child's body and waited for it to go off. Fans have been discussing how Tenko should have inherited some variant of his grandmother's Float quirk instead of becoming a walking nightmare. One user pointed out that children rarely have quirks different than their parents, which makes AFO's interference even more calculated and cruel.And when that bomb finally detonated? My Hero Academia showed us AFO there, watching from the shadows, ready to swoop in and play savior. He kept the hands of Tenko's dead family and gave them back to him as accessories. He literally made the kid wear his trauma like a costume.The Ultimate Long ConAll For One and Tenko (Image Credit: Studio Bones)What separates AFO from other villains in My Hero Academia is the sheer scope of his planning. He didn't just want Shigaraki as a successor. He wanted a vessel. The whole time he was acting like a caring mentor, he was really grooming Tomura's hatred so he could eventually steal his body and use that rage to finally steal One For All.Some fans argue this twist feels natural, not forced. One Twitter user praised Horikoshi's foreshadowing, saying everything clicked into place when the reveal happened. But others feel differently. The fact that AFO essentially turned Shigaraki into a puppet from day one removes a lot of aura from what could have been a fascinating villain arc.Why It Hits DifferentAll For One stealing Tenko's quirk (Image Credit: Studio Bones)My Hero Academia has always explored how society creates its own villains. Toga was demonized for her Quirk. Twice was abandoned after one mistake. Spinner faced discrimination for looking different. But Shigaraki's case is different because his villainy was manufactured. There was no society failure that pushed Tenko over the edge. There was just AFO, playing god with a child's life.The community's reaction has been mixed. Some call AFO a huge fraud for needing to manipulate a kid instead of achieving his goals through his own power. Others see it as the ultimate villain move, someone so evil that he can affect the life of the descendant of a wielder of the quirk made to counter him.The Real Horror behind All For OneBut the crazy part is how My Hero Academia handled the reveal. Tomura Shigaraki, the character we watched grow from a man-child into a genuine threat, never really existed. Every choice he made, every bit of growth he showed, was contaminated by AFO's influence. When Tomura told Spinner he wanted the League to live how they wanted, was that really him, or was that just AFO's programming?The saddest part is that Tenko genuinely wanted to be a hero. He played heroes with his friends. He admired All Might despite his father's abuse. AFO took a kid who could have been saved by literally anyone on the street that day and turned him into the Symbol of Fear. Not because Tenko was special or chosen, but because he was Nana Shimura's grandson, and AFO wanted to traumatise All Might.ConclusionMy Hero Academia wants us to think about whether bad guys can become good again. But how do you help someone whose whole life was controlled by another person? That’s what makes Shigaraki’s story so sad, and why what AFO did to him is one of the scariest things in the series.