It’s no secret that Horikoshi-sensei is a huge Star Wars fan.  Most of the place names in HeroAca are taken from SW, after all.  It struck me watching this episode that in a sense, this part of the story is kind of his “Empire Strikes Back” arc.  BnHA has always been pretty dark, and important characters have died before.  But there’s a somber, reflective mood to the series in this passage.  Bad shit has gone down, good people have paid the ultimate price, and the general state of affairs is “broken”.  One looks around for hopeful signs, and they’re not easy to find.

If you really want to stretch the metaphor, you could even look at the situation with Dabi as kind of a reversal on the Luke-Vader relationship.  Hell, even Shigaraki and All For One as having a Vader-Palpatine kind of vibe.  I don’t think we need to go that far but I don’t think it’s invalid to try and understand what Horikoshi’s influences (more American than Japanese) are.  And they might offer some clues on where he’s planning to take the series in its final arc (which he says is ongoing in the manga, which is running almost exactly two years ahead of the anime).

What’s really happening here, it seems to me, is the pigeons coming home to roost.  I don’t think there’s a moral equivalency between the hero side – for all its myriad flaws – and the villain side.  But arrogance and poor judgment have laid hero society low, and it’s never really come to terms with quirks and how it must depend on them to survive.  All For One chooses his moment well – he hasn’t lived this long and asserted this much influence without being smart.  He sees the cracks in society and exploits them – that’s always been his M.O..  The time is right for this comeback – Shigaraki and Decay have softened the hero ranks and shattered public faith in them.  There’s little to stand against him now.

Whatever you think of Shigaraki, he’s clearly a tool to All For One and little more.  The guy is true to his name, that’s all.  But again, he’s not the guy the League or the Paranormal Liberation Front has pledged their support to.  He doesn’t necessarily need them now, but he will.  And breaking into the island prison fortress Tartarus is no easy task even with Shigaraki and the nomus (their first album was their best) as his assault team.  Once he’s out, he goes into hiding and sets the nomus loose on seven other prisons, six of which they successfully breach and free the inmates (including Overhaul).  Still more cracks in the foundation of hero society.

As for the other side, the mood is as bleak as their health.  Bakugo wakes up only after two days unconscious.  Several of the pro heroes are seriously injured – Eraser, Gran Torino, most seriously Endeavor himself – and many have lost their lives.  Shouto has lost his voice and is deeply shaken by Touya’s arrival on the scene.  And Deku appears to be in a coma, with no signs of waking up (prompting Kacchan to say “if he dies, I’ll kill him”).  Never has the world needed All Might more – but he’s not “here”, and he’s not coming back.

All For One thinks big, like a demon lord (or an emperor).  He’s outlasted all of his foes, lived on as they’ve fallen by the wayside one after the other.  There’s only one person seemingly fated to stand against him now, and he’s in no condition to fight anybody.  Everyone is wounded and broken, outside and inside both.  As Luke, Leia and the droids stood on the bridge of that ship and stared off into the blackness of space, there was little reason to feel hopeful – apart from the fact that they still lived.  They could look towards the future, no matter how bleak it seemed – which meant that no matter how small it was, they had a chance to change it.