In My Hero Academia’s world of heroes and villains, the series begins at the late end of the careers of both sides’ biggest players, All Might and All for One respectively. And just as Deku inherits All Might’s will, so too does Tomura Shigaraki inherit that of All for One.
Despite this role as the new big bad and Deku’s main villainous foil, several hints in the story have pointed towards a possible redemptive path for Shigaraki. Whether or not this comes to pass, it’s vital to analyze his history and the fans’ feelings in order to decide whether a redemption is possible for him.
How Hw Got This Way
Shigaraki’s problems started way before All for One found him on the streets as a child. Before that, he lived with his family, which included his father, mother, his mother’s parents, and his sister. His father was short-tempered and distant, but otherwise, the family was rather happy together. However, as with most kids in MHA, a young Tomura and his sister wanted to be heroes, to the chagrin of their hero-hating father.
It was the abuse and neglect he recieved from his father that not only gave Tomura his trademark itchiness, but eventually led to him murdering his own father when his quirk, ‘decay’ first manifested. While the deaths of the rest of the family were accidents brought on by decay awakening, Tomura killed his father willingly, dispelling any hope of holding on to his past life.
However, it is important to remember that he was still a child at this time, and a rather kind one at that. If it wasn’t for his father’s abuse, a child as young as 5 may not have ever had serious thoughts of murder. So it is fair to say that he isn’t naturally evil, and might have a good side.
How Far Gone Is He?
Since being found by All for One, Tomura has been on a downward journey into villainy. While the deaths of his family traumatised him at first, AFO encouraged Tomura to give into his spiteful desires to murder other people with his quirk. In season 5, Tomura is even shown killing two random men who had attacked him previously. While they were far from good people, death is too harsh a punishment for their crimes.
Since then, Tomura’s crimes have only gotten more numerous and despicable. He’s purposefully endangered the children of UA several times, including at USJ and their training camp. While none of them died in these events, that was only due to the student and teacher’s efforts.
During the conflict with the meta liberation army, he personally killed many people, and ended up decimating an entire city. And now, as the leader of the paranormal liberation front, he has spearheaded plans to plunge Japan itself into chaos, resulting in the death and suffering of millions.
Past where the anime has covered, he’s now responsible for the fall of the country, the release of AFO, the death of Star and Stripe and several other heroes, and possibly many others by the time the final battle is over. He has become so consumed by his thirst for destruction, that it’s hard to see him having a change of heart.
How He Could Be Saved
There is one avenue the story of MHA could take toward some form of redemption for Shigaraki. It’s been established that his personality has somewhat been taken over by that of AFO. In the most recent chapters, his child form has even been portrayed as being trapped by AFO’s influence. And, after all, he is still technically a victim of AFO’s manipulation.
MHA also seems to be using Shigaraki to critique All Might’s ‘symbol of peace’ model for crime fighting. The idea is that since society puts all their hopes in All Might and the heroes, civilians don't feel any obligation to help out lost kids like a young Shigaraki, leading to his eventual corruption. Through this logic, the story might be preparing to present the “saving” of Shigaraki as an example of how nobody in society should be left behind, as many of the villains were.
Will It Be Accepted?
The series hints towards this conclusion have already drawn some negative feedback. To some fans, Shigarakis actions are too unforgivable for him to receive any form of believable redemption. For others, redemption for villains has become too common a plot device in recent media from The Owl House to Attack on Titan. Plus, MHA has already had a hard time getting fans on board with Endeavor's redemption.
If series creator Kohei Horikoshi does want to go ahead with a Shigaraki redemption of some form, it will take some clever writing, and some form of justice for his crimes for the fans to feel fully satisfied with the series’ conclusion. There is also the question of whether the characters themselves will be willing to adapt to this more progressive mindset on villains.