The following contains spoilers for Season 7, Episode 3 of My Hero Academia, "Villain," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Season 7 of My Hero Academia is now in full swing and the plot is already moving at a breakneck pace, which is exactly what the show needs. After Season 5's endless setup, Seasons 6 and 7 are delivering incredible plot twists one after another. For its part, Season 7 opened strong with Star and Stripe's battle against Tomura Shigaraki. Their fight is now over as of Episode 3, but the plot twists are still coming – and it's a delight to watch.

Episode 3, "Villain," explores the villainy of All For One in two different ways, some more compelling than others. Right now, All For One is competing with his own heir, Tomura Shigaraki, to determine who the real supervillain is, which may lead to a rather confusing narrative. Then again, All For One's plans also involve the UA traitor, a subplot that the My Hero Academia anime is finally exploring once again. It also helps that all of class 1-A is there to see it.

Episode 3 Muddies the Narrative For Tomura and All For One

All For One was established as a great supervillain earlier in My Hero Academia's anime, with him being the big bad of the Kamino Ward incidenta and almost defeating All Might in a fight the entire world saw. Like his heroic nemesis All Might, All For One is fading fast and needs an heir. Tomura Shigaraki is meant to be the villainous Izuku Midoriya, the heir to an older man's persona as a symbol for society, and he's more than happy to become the next symbol of evil whom all villains can look up to.

However, My Hero Academia has started contradicting itself about who the real supervillain is supposed to be. Tomura is less All For One's heir and more his living vessel, not unlike Orochimaru in Naruto hopping into new bodies to stay young and get new abilities. On one hand, it's on-brand for a villain like All For One to exploit people for his own selfish gain, including his heir. It's just like him to do such an exploitative and resourceful thing. Then again, it makes the story rather muddled. Who is the real villain My Hero Academia fans should worry about?

It's possible that this confusion is the point as Tomura and All For One fight over the throne, but it actually makes the narrative a bit less compelling, as Episode 3 of Season 7 shows. This sort of struggle would have been more appropriate in the My Villain Academia story arc, when Tomura had an antihero training sequence and took on the Meta Liberation Army's leaders to realize his potential as the new symbol of evil. MHA's story is now in its endgame -- it's a bit late for the villains to have a power struggle like this and force fans to juggle both Tomura and AFO as the potential demon king.

Class 1-A Reunites For the Final Battle, But It's Nothing New

After Tomura's and All For One's scene in Episode 3, the plot switches back to its heroes -- more specifically, class 1-A. With Star and Stripe out of the picture, it falls to class 1-A, and presumably class 1-B and the UA " big three", to take on the Paranormal Liberation Front's remaining members in the next battle. Some pro heroes are still active and ready to fight, like Endeavor and Best Jeanist, but any shonen fan would know that it's the relatable teenage heroes – not the pro heroes – who will deal the final blow in the battle to come.

To set that up, Episode 3 spends some time showing everyone in class 1-A practicing with their Quirks yet again, from Deku and his shonen-style rival Bakugo to Mina, Mineta, Kyoka Jiro, and Eijiro Kirishima. On the downside, this short training montage doesn't say anything new about class 1-A's members or what they can do. It's just a refresher on everyone's Quirks and personalities, from Mina's acid to Momo's Creation and Denki's lightning powers. No major personal growth takes place here either, with the dialogue being token "we're in this together" sentiments and the like.

Still, class 1-A's scene does reinforce the fact that Deku cannot defeat the supervillains on his own despite his power with One For All – even if One For All has extra Quirks built into it. Deku's 19 classmates won't be the one to finish off either All For One or Tomura Shigaraki, but they can still play a supporting role in the final fight with the power of friendship, and that's exactly what Deku will need. The days of the Dark Deku persona are over -- class 1-A is in this together, and it's nice to see, even if it was 100% predictable.

Episode 3 Delivers Heartbreak With the UA Traitor Subplot

My Hero Academia anime fans have wondered for years who the suspected UA traitor might be, a plot point that the series first brought up all the way back in Season 1. Not long after the villain attack in the USJ complex, UA's teachers have suspected a traitor gave Tomura Shigaraki inside help, but the anime seemingly forgot that subplot for a few years. Finally, Season 7 brings that subplot back to the fore, and with good timing, too. Author Kohei Horikoshi didn't forget this subplot -- he just needed the right context for it, and that context is right here, when the heroes are at their most desperate.

All For One boasts about his many plots and minions, saying that even if some fail in their mission, plenty more are availble to help AFO reach his goal one way or another. Right now, AFO's best bet is the UA traitor, and Toru Hagakure, class 1-A's goofy invisible girl, finally stumbled upon the truth. Toru finds Yuga Aoyama having a tense discussion with his parents in the forest surrounding UA's campus, and then Deku arrives to intervene in Episode 3's second half. The truth is made clear with rather blunt but also fascinating exposition -- that Yuga Aoyama was born Quirkless, just like Deku himself. The episode also builds strong emotional and thematic resonance with Yuga and Deku on this topic, since Yuga has always sympathized with Deku as a fellow kid born Quirkless. True, the first My Hero Academia movie did feature the Quirkless Melissa Shield, but this subplot does far more to move the story forward.

Yuga's desperate parents turned to All For One to give their son a Quirk of his own so he wouldn't be so horribly different, to mixed results as the exposition in Episode 3 states. Yuga fit into Quirk-based society with Navel Laser, but that Quirk strained his body and it came with strings attached. Now, Yuga and his parents are AFO's tools, giving him insider information about things like USJ's security and the timing of the forest training camp with the Wild, Wild Pussycats. None of the Aoyamas enjoyed this, nor did they identify as villains at first, but Yuga internalized it to the point he now calls himself a villain out of sheer guilt. He's confused about whether he's a hero in training or just a criminal, but resolving this will have to wait for future episodes.

This subplot helps remind My Hero Academia fans about the strong humanistic themes that make the anime so compelling. Quirks aren't just an excuse to make everyone an X-Men hero with cool powers and enable fight scenes in every arc. MHA features strong commentary about how such powers would reshape society and people's perceptions of themselves and each other, and it's quite effective. It's a resonant comment about how far some people will go to meet society's expectations for them and not be "weird" or "wrong" according to societal norms. It's another argument that Quirks are more of a curse than a blessing for the human race. Even after generations of Quirks, people have not fully reconciled these supernatural gifts with what it means to be human.

Episode 3 Ends on a Tense But Hopeful Note With the Aoyama Family

​​​​​In his own mind, Yuga Aoyama is a villain who doesn't deserve the trust or friendship of his classmates at school, but Deku and the rest of class 1-A feel differently. They still believe in the power of friendship, which brings Yuga to slightly happier tears during this emotionally turbulent time in his arc. Fans can think back on Yuga's moments of genuine kindness and support for his classmates, like his selfless moment in the provisional hero license exam or subtle emotional support for Deku as a fellow Quirkless person deep down.

Class 1-A's members are shocked that Yuga Aoyama was forced to be All For One's double agent, but they won't give up their friendship with him, anda they can even make use of him to make Yuga a force for good this time. Class 1-A's members and their adult allies can't easily find All For One with their current resources, but Yuga Aoyama and his parents may change that. Class 1-A urgently needs to strike the first blow in the inevitable battle that lays ahead, so to get the intel they need, class 1-A will use Yuga himself. Through him, the heroes may lure All For One into a trap or find his location, or anything else they need to get the upper hand for once.

It's not yet clear exactly how class 1-A will do this, but the situation feels cautiously hopeful as Episode 3 ends, getting My Hero Academia fans pumped for what comes next -- with Yuga Aoyama the traitor/friend at the center of it all.