I keep thinking about how much I want to see Tomura cry. I say this a lot, and I mean it.
Because one thing I love about BNHA is how much is emphasizes that it’s okay to feel your feelings.
The main character cries…a lot. Readers hate him for it, I love him for it. Izuku cries a lot, but everybody outside of him tries to avoid it at all costs. But they let it slip sometimes:
And it’s funny (probably intentionally done this way) that the first two people to be brought to tears after Izuku’s intervening, they’re the two to remind Izuku that crying is okay:
We had a whole arc where Izuku refused be himself and let his tears flow, and the same two people, once again, remind him it’s okay to cry it out:
Now, those are people meeting Izuku eye to eye, being there for him.
Let’s look at someone who has a different dynamic with him, someone who won’t let it out and cry no matter what, or really until they can’t hold it back anymore:
I’ve already said a few times that I think Dk vs Kc 2 is a very clear preamble for Izuku vs Tomura, and I think that so much because of how important it is in BNHA to cry.
Bakugo and Tomura have similarly constructed relationships to Izuku in regards to how they feel about him (disliking him because of how they feel about themselves).
Now lets look at our three villains:
Toga, who can and does cry:
Touya, who tries to cry because he feels those feelings that bring on his tears, but it’s obscured with blood:
And then Tomura…who we haven’t seen shed a single tear within the time frame of the manga:
Toga and Touya….more or less really know what they want. There are deep rooted feelings of self-hatred in both of them that they can’t quite escape without help, but they know those feelings are there. Tomura on the other hand, has all of those same feelings, and isn’t even really aware that those feelings are there. He’s only good for destruction because that’s what he was born to do, so why feel guilty or hate himself?
He’s really far removed from his own truth, so he isn’t letting himself feel what he really wants to be and should be feeling.
And we know what that is:
Bringing it back to Bakugo having a break down in front of Izuku. All I’m saying is that…if Bakugo was able to achieve some sort of relief, some sort of cathartic release by spilling his guts and letting the tears flow, and if Bakugo and Tomura are similar in this aspect in that they needed/currently need a person to spill it all out to, and if Tomura has yet to let the tears flow because he hasn’t faced his own reality yet, then I think that’s going to be a key part in Tomura really finally waking up.
We’ll know when Tomura finally sees his reality for what it is when we see those tears flowing, because up until now the manga puts emphasis people crying to express their feelings. We’ll know Tomura is really aware and making progress when the vision Izuku saw in the vestige finally shows itself out in the real world. Tomura is crying inside, and the reason he can’t express that he wants to be saved yet is because he isn’t crying on the outside yet.
Don’t mind me, I’m just praying for my favorite character to have the break down of a life time.