The Meta Liberation Army arc brought formidable villains who posed a grave danger to the heroes in My Hero Academia. One of the most formidable foes was Re-Destro, the enigmatic leader of the Meta Liberation Army. As the self-proclaimed liberator of quirks, Re-Destro sought to dismantle the hero society and allow people to use their quirks freely without restrictions. At the center of his formidable combat abilities was his unique quirk known as stress, which allowed him to convert stress and negative emotions into a monstrous increase in physical strength.

Through mastering his stress quirk, Re-Destro emerged as one of the most physically powerful villains in the series. However, beyond its raw destruction applications, stress also represented Re-Destro's burden as the leader of the Meta Liberation Army and his desire to create a society without the oppression of quirks.

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Re-Destro's Quirk: Stress

Re-Destro's Stress Quirk allows him to channel feelings of tension, anger, and frustration into physical empowerment. His Quirk converts heightened stress responses in the body into remarkable enhancement effects. The more distressed or agitated Re-Destro feels, the greater his abilities grow.

Stress manifests through dark markings spreading across Re-Destro's muscles and limbs as they expand and harden. A single finger was recorded destroying one of Twice's clones, demonstrating the immense power even small parts of his body attain. His entire arm smashed through several League of Villains duplicates in an explosive blow.

Perhaps most impressively, Re-Destro can control the "Liberation" percentage that determines his transformation scale. Reaching 80% pushes his physique to tower new limits, changing his appearance into a hulking monster far outmatching Tomura Shigaraki's raw strength. The Stress Quirk allows Re-Destro to internally harness stressful energies and unleash devastating super-strength on his foes.

Stress Quirk Has Some Weaknesses

While the Stress Quirk allows Re-Destro to tap into immense power sources, it also comes with some limitations. As his Meta Ability draws strength from distressing emotions, experiences that promote more positive feelings like calmness or relief can paradoxically undermine the effects. Strong fluxes in Re-Destro's stress levels impact how much he can transform utilizing this quirk.

Physical injuries also pose obstacles. After losing his real legs, the prosthetic replacements do not fully sustain Re-Destro's shifting weight and amplified physique when activating his powers. This deficiency leaves him vulnerable, such as facing Tsukuyomi's Ragnarök technique, which pushes him back due to the artificial limbs failing to sufficiently handle his modified form. Without full control and support of his own body, Re-Destro cannot maximize the destruction Stress enables him to unleash.

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Using Stress in Combat

Through shouldering the weighty history and future of Meta Liberation, Re-Destro has forged his Stress Quirk into a formidable power. Years of repressed tension have manifested physically in baldness and emotionality, yet also granted mastery over his ability.

Generally, Stress reinforces Re-Destro's body with dark markings, amping his strength, speed, and bulk according to the opponent's threat. A single finger sufficed against Twice's clone, while fully transforming matched Tomura Shigaraki's menace.

In his hulking form, Re-Destro utilizes overwhelming brute force in combat. His immense power handily counters Shigaraki's decay Quirk, pulverizing the ground with a single blow. Despite his massive size, Re-Destro maintains impressive agility at pursuing opponents. He displayed his precision by merely pinching and crushing Tomura's fingers.

At full 80% Liberation, Re-Destro's monster physique allows attacking with condensed stress energy too. He launched Tomura distances with a stress-engulfed hand, underlining his Quirk's flexible and formidable applications under his experienced control. Re-Destro has honed Stress into a multipurpose power matched by few.

Re-Destro's Ultimate Moves

Utilizing his Stress Quirk, Re-Destro possesses several ultimate techniques tailored to maximize his potential in combat.

80% Liberation

By raising his Stress enhancement to 80%, Re-Destro transforms completely—covering himself in black energy while increasing his bulky physique considerably. In this hyper-charged state, Re-Destro first utilized this technique against Tomura Shigaraki.

Stress Output Burden

After boosting his Stress empowerment to 80%, Re-Destro extracts and materializes his inner turmoil. Through an explosive release, he launches a wide-range black wave capable of sending targets flying forcefully. Dubbed the pinnacle technique honed since youth, its waves grow ever mightier at 100% Stress—allowing dual simultaneous blast discharge.

Stress: 100%

Pushing his Stress to its absolute limit allows Re-Destro to augment his size and strength beyond even the 80% level. This maximizes his Burden technique, enabling him to discharge massive black energy waves simultaneously from both hands.

Re-Destro's Stress Quirk is one of the most formidable abilities in My Hero Academia due to its scaling might. Through prolonged negative emotional storage, he can access extraordinary boosts in size, resilience and striking power. With named techniques enhancing its raw functionality, Stress serves as a perfect weapon for the Meta Liberation Army's enigmatic leader. While reliance on stress presents limitations, Re-Destro has mastered channeling tension into total physical domination on the battlefield. His stress-fueled combat prowess and power make him a prime threat to any hero.

My Hero Academia is available to stream on Prime Video.

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My Hero Academia (2016)

Action

Superhero

In My Hero Academia, some humans have superpowers called quirks. Izuku Midoriya, nicknamed Deku, is not one of them. Deku has always idolized heroes like the number one hero, All Might, and since he was a child, he has always wanted to be a hero. However, his lack of a quirk has always held him back, but a chance encounter with All Might after discovering a classmate in danger sets Deku on the path to becoming a true hero. My Hero Academia centers around Deku and a class of heroes-in-training at UA. This school shapes young quirk users into future heroes through fake rescue missions, combat training, and other hero-tempering tasks. With young Deku inheriting the "One-For-All" quirk, he will learn what it means to be a true hero while facing off with dastardly supervillains.

Release Date

April 3, 2016

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

7

Creator

Kōhei Horikoshi

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll , Hulu

See at Amazon