i really do wish we spent a little more time with dark deku. maybe 2 or 3 chapters of his descent into loneliness instead of just the 1 that ends with class As interruption. chapters showcasing him winning a minor villain fight without support trailing him, or something - exposing his weaknesses, showing that he really is fighting until he drops. idk

Some thoughts on the Villain Alliance (Spoilers)

Loooong post under the cut

Now, while I don't think we have nearly enough information to make endgame predictions, with so much focus on the Eight Precepts lately I can't help but wonder what's going to happen with the other big villain group. We know almost everything about the bird gangsters now excluding a few big things- Chisaki's plan, the former don, maybe some stuff about Chronostasis- and having them to compare the VA against has given me this unexpected feeling of family. The Eight Precepts is completely structured around people being used by the ruler, with the 8 Expendables and even Mimic throwing themselves at heroes to buy the boss time and Overhaul not giving a damn about anyone's life but his own. (RIP Nemoto). Seeing Shigaraki respond to this by showing genuine care and trust in Toga and Twice, putting value in his subordinates in exactly opposite the way Overhaul behaves... it was a big shock! I suppose AfO's capture gave him a crash course about losing people and what they can mean to you. This is a big important change for Shigaraki's leadership; he's come a long way from threatening to kill Kurogiri for a small mistake in the USJ arc. So with this new leadership method, I can't wait to see how the VA will evolve under Handman's guidance. This is where I just wanna throw out some ideas about that.

Strategy

It feels like with each arc Shigaraki is directing VA missions, he gets better and better at strategy. While he had a few clever plans in USJ to deal with the pro heroes, it sorta ended there. The mooks he brought in were almost entirely useless, and he didn't even bother factoring the students into the equation which lead to the plan's downfall. In the Feild Training arc, he was more or less throwing a tantrum over Stain being more popular than him and wasted three Noumu by throwing them out into the streets to cause havoc without any sort of plan. But after his talk with Deku in the mall and receiving a wave of recruits due to Stain's legacy, he really started playing it smart. I could make an entire post about the Vanguard Action Squad, but the things he did with some of its members- Dabi, Toga, Twice, Mustard and Mr. Compress stand out- really showed some forethought into their abilities. This is made even more clear in his Shogi game with Overhaul; he recognizes that Kurogiri, Toga, and Twice are vital to the VA's mobility. If he has the same understanding for the other members- Dabi's destructive power, Compress's ridiculous power in sneak attacks, etc- then the things he could pull off would be insane.

Quirk Improvement

We see 1-A constantly training their abilities, improving their quirks and costumes to be stronger and stronger. With that said, I think it would be massively beneficial for the VA to do the same. A lot of their quirks are already ridiculous, so training them up further could snowball pretty fast. Plus, with Giran around, they could get their hands on some seriously impressive equipment. The shining example so far has been Toga's blood extractor, which paired alongside her surprising skill in combat makes her hella dangerous. If Giran loaded up his buddies with some solid stuff they could get pretty diesel pretty fast.

As for Shigaraki himself... Admittedly, I fear he might have hit his limit. Disintegration, while a powerful and very fitting weapon, is relatively simple and seems to lack much room to grow. It has strict rules and looks to stick to them. So how do I think Shigaraki can get stronger? I think it would be best to save for a post on its own, but judging by what AfO said to Best Jeanist... Handman might join Deku in the "inheriting insanely OP quirks" club.

A quick side note- to my knowledge, we still don't know what Spinner's quirk is. We know he has one because he's a lizard, and we know it isn't just being a lizard since Mandalay pointed out he hadn't used it against her. If his name and his mention of being the one to "spin Stain's dream into reality" are any indication, we could potentially be looking at a Johnny Joestar situation- and Tusk Act 4 is really something. Time will tell.

New Members

The VA has seen some serious losses since the first wave of recruits rolled in. Numbers have sunk from the peak of 14 (including the chainsaw Noumu) down to a meager 8. Arguably the biggest hitters of the Vanguard Action Squad- Muscular, Moonfish, and Mustard- are behind bars, and Magne is tragically no longer with us. The biggest loss is obviously AfO, whose guidance and connections were vital in establishing the VA. His quirk, alongside being ridiculously powerful, also provided a stream of Noumus for Shigaraki to use. And despite how much I love the current lineup, 8 villains against a whole world of heroes just won't cut it. That was made clear as day during Hideout Raid, and they don't have Sensei to bail them out anymore. So, Shigaraki is gunna need more friends in his weird evil family or at least scoop up some old ones.

I reckon that at some point, there will be a jailbreak arc in BNHA. I can't imagine another way for AfO to pass down the mantle, or for Stain to do more things as his cameo seemed to imply. If this is the case, some old VA members might make their return. The first Noumu still seems to be the strongest, and with All Might gone it could wreak havoc without much trouble. Muscular is STUPID strong- he tanked a 100% OfA hit like it was nothing and could obviously deal a shitton of damage himself. Moonfish has been pointed out multiple times to be a force to be reckoned with, and the fact that two top seeds like Bakugo and Todoroki needed the help of a fucking KAIJU to take him down seems to back it up. Mustard went down to a couple of bit players, yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that he's got a crazy quirk and was apparently a big part of the Bakugo plan. I might be biased though- I have a weakness for gas masks in character design.

Another obvious addition is whoever the traitor turns out to be. There's a ton of theorizing that I won't get into here, but whoever it is is a shoo-in for joining up.

That said, when it comes to completely new members, I have some thoughts on this as well. Everyone remembers that spiky rock monster that cameod alongside Toga, Dabi, Mustard and Spinner, and judging by what appears to be a cameo in Chapter 100 (when Midnight was talking about fighting prowess), that might be followed up on. As for other new members, well... this might be me putting on my tin hat, but I reckon Toga and Twice will grab a few from the 8 Precepts before booking it. Last chapter Twice suggested something to Toga, and alongside potentially grabbing the quirk bullets I think they might try to lure over some of Overhaul's minions. Setsuno, Hojo, and Tabe's mindset of "friendship as people spurned by society" near-flawlessly matches Shigaraki's new style. All of their quirks are easily on the level of the VA and their team dynamic is incredibly strong. I reckon having their masks removed after losing could be symbolic, and I can only imagine what they'd do under a leader that values them like Overhaul didn't. Speaking of masks being removed, this sort-of fits with the other potential expendable I think will get recruited- Rappa. Again, his quirk is no joke- his battle with Kirishima and Fatgum made that clear. But unlike the other trio, Rappa never respected "Overhole" from the start. I imagine this would make him very attractive to Toga and Twice, whose objective seems to be "piss off that bird asshole as much as possible". Plus, with Kirishima edging his way into main-characterdom and Rappa being very interested in a rematch, joining up with the VA seems the obvious next step. I mentioned something about his mask earlier- it, like those of the Trash Trio, is removed in a way. But unlike them, his mask is not forcibly taken away. It splits in HALF, showing his face and emotions underneath, when he screams out for Fatgum to continue the fight. Rappa's own desires literally and metaphorically tear his connection to Overhaul to shreds, and if that doesn't fit with the VA I don't know what does.

Sorry for the long post, I've had these things on my mind for a while. XD