Ashtray Heart

A hero is defined as such in the English Webster’s dictionary:

he•ro (hîr'ō) n.

1 a person distinguished for valor, fortitude, or bold enterprise; anyone regarded as having displayed great courage or exceptionally noble qualities.

2 The central male figure of a poem, play, romance, or the like; in modern fiction, the male character in whom the principle interest centers.

While Mukuro a distinguished antagonist of the REBORN! series, he does have bravery, and he has displayed courage, but in society’s views, it all for the wrong reasons. Mukuro does not aim for the greater good, if anything he’s aiming to erase humanity.

No matter how cruel or diabolical he may seem, Mukuro is still human and all this hatred has stemmed from his childhood. He is someone you can still feel sympathy for, but instead we root for the Tsuna and his friends because they are the main characters, meaning they are the “heroes”. If we had seen the story from Mukuro’s point of view, we may even share the way he perceives life. The mafia had taken away everything that is precious to him. From Tsuna’s view, the mafias are “bad” but we have seen their good points first in contrast to Mukuro. He had only seen the evil side and wants to extract his vengeance because of this. Mukuro has depth. He has a reason to why he does what he does—unlike some villains. Mukuro is not the villain who is evil for the purpose of being just, well...evil.

         

As an antagonist with a grand scheme, Mukuro seeks power. His plan is driven by revenge, not world domination. He does not seek power for pleasure like later antagonists, notably Byakuran and Xanxus. Xanxus had wanted to become the tenth Vongola boss because of the power it held over all the other mafias. Byakuran aims for world domination, and from what we have witnessed, he is mad with power. Mukuro on the other hand does not aim to be strong for self-enjoyment. He understands that you need strength when wanting to accomplish anything. Whether it’s the strength of determination or strength in a physical sense, Mukuro understands he needs this all to get where he wants. He will use anything at his disposal no matter how petty it seems because sometimes he doesn’t have the right amount of physical strength to defeat his foes. A battle of wits and strategy is also what makes himn more intimidating.