#and my father is not the same as endeavor and not the same abusive person

[airplanecrashingtowardstheground]

i know that mha is fictional, but what kills me on a personal level, is that shoto, his siblings, and his mother all got an apology. and a promise from endeavor that he would do better and I know that me, my siblings, and my mother won't ever get that

and getting an apology or acknowledgement from him about his actions was never something i thought about because i never saw abusers apologizing and now that ihave

[dekusleftsock]

Me personally, I’m a very big fan of how Horikoshi handled his themes around forgiveness. I love that he really hammers in that forgiveness is a choice that someone can or cannot make, and that neither of those decisions are necessarily “wrong” or “harmful”, that they’re just that. Choices.

And I realized just how much I enjoyed how he handles this because of these leaks. Like him choosing to never forgive Shigaraki for what he’s done, yet wanting to end the suffering as much as possible I feel really speaks to an experience I could never put into words. It’s so viscerally human to be angry, happy, sad; it’s human to forgive, it’s human to not. It’s human to empathize with someone you fundamentally feel shouldn’t be empathized for, and yet it is the single most prominent structure of ancient human societies. We live to empathize, it’s why we have a dog in our house, or we help heal a stranger back to health; and I don’t necessarily think is what “makes us human” bc I feel that excludes people who don’t (because they do exist and nothing is wrong with them for not doing so), but I think it does speak to a very common feeling. It’s normal to want revenge, or to be angry, or to not forgive, but it’s also perfectly normal to want to end the suffering from its source.

That’s also a prominent feature of the Todoroki family, and it’s also what made me so angry about the interpretations surrounding it. There’s nothing wrong with Fuyumi or Natsuo to respond differently to their shared father’s abuse, they’re normal and expected ways to handle one’s inner turmoil. There is healing in forgiving someone, that’s a perfectly truthful idea. But what’s also a way to heal is to simply not let someone matter in your life, you can simultaneously be angry for what they’ve done…and be perfectly fulfilled/healed.

Horikoshi isn’t telling you to forgive bad people, he’s telling you that there’s a reason behind every bad action, that empathy and shared humanity is the single most integral part to a healthy society.

And I love this EVEN MORE because Midoriya Izuku: Rising isn’t even about Izuku, it’s about how everyone else has brought him here, now. That we are one people, one society—Izuku may be the driving horse but he stands as a symbol of our shared humanity in this moment.

I wish I could find the officials rn but I’m gonna have to interpret this given what it is.

Ochako’s choice to “not wipe your slate clean” almost feels less like a “I can’t forgive you” and more like a “society won’t forgive you” statement.

Where Izuku’s or Natsuo’s choice to not forgive someone who has hurt them was a personal decision, this was more of a decision to empathize with Himiko, maybe even forgive her. I can’t help but notice that this was much more of a confession/declaration of affection for someone who has done bad things, than it was about forgiveness and mistakes.

It almost feels more like the bkdk apology if I’m honest. Both of which never have a “I won’t ever forgive you for this” statement, more like they avoid it in its entirety. Same with Rei and Endeavors conversations.

Because it is the victims choice to forgive or not forgive someone. They have as much a right to do so as anyone else.

I guess that’s why I always hated the whole “Izuku shouldn’t forgive Katsuki” take, it’s a very literal commentary on the very thing Horikoshi has written is wrong. It’s wrong to try to tell someone how they should or shouldn’t have reacted to something, you are taking away their integrity. To a certain extent you are infantilizing their ability to make choices for themself.

So it’s for this reason that my love for this series shoots to the sky at this “I won’t forgive you” moment. It’s like Izukus guilt has been lifted, that he has allowed himself to be angry or bitter at someone for wronging him or someone he loves. The mask has fallen, this is it; Izuku and Tenko, and he is being honest of his feelings.

That’s what I love most—the honesty, the anger, the relief, the love, and that these are his choices. No one can take that away from him. Not you, not I, not us.

[taeggukxiie]

I don't really like endhawks and it's not so much because of the age gape or the fan/idol relationship (la brava and gentle have some age gape and bakudeku are the pure description of fanatization/idolization trope and I like both of those ships), but more because endeavor literally embodies what Hawks hate the most.

Hear me out on this one, they have cute interactions but for me the fact that Hawks stayed by endeavor's side even knowing what he did to his children is kinda out of character. I mean the whole thing why keigo wanted to be a hero was to help people and make them smile because he went through abusive behavior all his life. Endeavor do save people but doesn't make them smile, not directly anyway. Hawks wanted to help the new generation, but endeavor traumatized the generation he gave birth to. Hawks wanted to be free, but endeavor stole freedom from his children (at least until he becomes number 1 and shoto comes to UA).

I understand hawks forgiving and accepting endeavor even after what he did, because hawks is so optimistic that he wants to believe eveyone can change for the better, but I don't understand him staying by endeavor's side. I mean, how traumatic would it be to discover that your idol who saved you and gave you a dream to follow did the exact same things as the person who traumatized your childhood? I see some narrative problems here. Or maybe it's just that hawks is too optimistic for his own good.

The thing is, I think Hawks so desperately needed a symbol to give him hope that he didn't even try to look more profoundly into endeavor's mistakes. Like he tried so hard to convince himself. Here we can see that hawks says he could keep up with training and abuse by the commission because someone supported him, probably implying endeavor. But it wasn't even true, hawks just chose to idealize enji because he saved him, but enji didn't know hawks before metting him as a hero, so he couldn't actually support him in his dream. I know it's only metaphoric, but it does mean that Keigo just needed something, someone to hold onto because of all the suffering he went through. And he chose endeavor, who was the only person indirectly "caring" for him.

Now maybe it's because I adore Hawks and I hate endeavor (the man and his actions, not the way he's written), but I can't imagine them in a romantic relationship. How could Hawks give his trust and love to the exact same profile as his father? How could they live together without hawks remembering the abuse? I think that even enji himself wouldn't trust his own reactions and feelings, hunted by the past. "The past never dies", and it's true for everyone in this story.

Look how similar they are. Honestly I don't really understand horikoshi on this one because if he wanted to give enji a loyal sidekick, then why give Hawks an abusive father?

Or if horikoshi wanted to give us grumpy x playful duo, then do it with dabihawks? They had so much potential to be our favorite bickering duo, and their drama would've been so good if they both knew each other before touya's death, became close during hawks undercover mission and then went through a heartbreaking breakup during touya's reveal.

(look at them they could've been soo good as a grumpy x playful duo aah)

Instead, we got Hawks indirectly supporting the same abuse he went through and the destruction of dabihawks' potential with the biggest absence of interactions ever after the first war.

(Also I want to add that I respect everyone's opinion and I don't hate endhawks shippers at all! It's just my point of view on the ship, everyone is free to ship whoever they want if that stays legal 🙏)

Maybe I'm going too far into the analysis (someone stop me please I'm talking too much-), but I really think that endhawks couldn't work, for hawks as much as for enji. Now the interesting thing to ask would be : would dabihawks actually work in a romantic relationship? I guess we'll never know.

[theloganator101]

The Great BNHA Review: Characters or Check Lists?

Oh Characters...

The bread and butter to all stories.

The thing that gets a story from Point A to Point B, the thing that allows us to connect with the story and helps it feel alive. You can pretty much make any character for your story, from the gentle and kindhearted to the more rough around the edges... to making them likable or unlikable. There are many ways to write a character and how they can make your story come to life.

And by bringing this up you know where this is headed... that BNHA utterly failed at expanding their characters into being people we're supposed to care about.

I could make a long fucking list of how BNHA failed every single one of it's characters it introduced but to keep that from happening, I'm just going to either list certain characters or just group them together since some of them share one common thing that's holding them back from being good.

Starting off with!

Shota Aizawa:

He was supposed to a hardass with a hidden heart of gold for his students, but what he ENDED up as was a walking hypocrite who hated Izuku for no other than he was associated with All Might and couldn't control his quirk... and then CONTINUED to give Izuku a hard time and labeled him as the "problem child" like... I don't even have the energy to get mad here, I'm saving THAT for another time in this review.

Oh and then there's him holding up this ridiculously high standard for his students to reach or else he fails them... which is exactly what happened when he failed Sero in the finals but allowed Bakugou to pass for doing the same.

Which again his hypocrisy gets in the way of that!

And not once does he ever get called out or punished for his blantant abuse in power and instead gets complimented and praised for his methods as if he's the next Einstein.

Fucking end me.

The Todoroki Family:

Oh how Hori totally fucked you guys over in the end... Natsu I'd give a pass since he ended on a more believable note, but sadly I can't say the same for Rei and Fuyumi.

As they were never allowed to think bad of the guy that made their lives hell and were instead to jump on the forgiveness train and take Endeavor's side so they can be a "Happy family" again. Which... no, that's literally stockholm syndrome.

Class 1-A:

... (Sighs)

Oh my babies... oh my favorites... look how that monster Hori ruined you all...

He tried to have this found family dynamic for them all, only for it all to fall apart since... you know, they barely interacted at all and got any screentime.

And it also didn't help that Hori had all of them as bystanders to Izuku's suffering, make fun of his interests, and follow Bakugou when he led them to beat him into coming back. So it really doesn't work when you have these things on your mind and fails to convince you that they give a shit about Izuku and his wellbeing.

And the worst part is that they ALL look like they have stories waiting to be told, but we don't get any of that. At most they're only used to fight against the minions while the Cash Cow Triplets fight the big hero.

Every Female Character in this Series:

Oh boy what even is there to talk about? Since they barely have any personality of their own and are only made to be fanservice for the pervs that likes watching anime girls in bikinis. They definitely deserves much better and to be in a story that'll treat them with respect and dignity.

ESPECIALLY to those like Hagakure and Miruko.

All Might:

Oh All Might, how the story did you dirty.

If there's anyone in this story that I feel sorry for the most (That isn't Izuku) It's All Might.

All because of how he started off at the beginning, people clung to the idea that he's a quirkest asshole who Izuku needs to steer clear from... even though he's literally the one to save Izuku from literally living in misery.

All Might deserves to be an actual mentor and father figure for Izuku, not fucking Aizawa who openly expressed his hatred for the boy.

The League of Villains:

I already made a post on how the narrative did them dirty and I don't feel like repeating myself, so I'm just gonna leave a link here while adding this.

What was even the point of building them up to be forgiven by their foils if they were just gonna die in the end? It was all just a big time waster.

And of course, we can't talk about characters and how the author failed them without talking about...

Izuku Midoriya:

Oh Izuku... the most tragic and wasted main character I've ever seen in an anime series.

He started off so strong only to get worse as the series went on. He should've been the shining definition of what a hero SHOULD be! He should've been the one to realize how fucked their world was and strive to change it for the better and to prevent others like him from suffering like he did.

But... we didn't get any of that.

We don't get acknowledgment of his past, we don't get him rising from his pain and become something more. Instead we get a watered down version of him at the beginning who has NO reaction or introspection to anything whatsoever, not to the world they live in, to the way things are handled, and even to him losing OFA.

For some odd fucking reason, Izuku is never allowed to grow out "I'm worthless" mindset or realization that everyone in his life has failed him in one way or another. He just praises it all like the fanboy he is and just stays where he is.

And then there's the fact that he just flat out refuses to ever acknowledge his past in any meaningful way, as whenever he DOES bring it up, he talks about his past self as if he's a different person from him. To which I can kinda see how this could be symbolic of something... But it just doesn't work as it only makes him look horrible for forgetting his roots and just wanting to fit in with the other people with quirks. To which it somewhat feels like "Fuck the quirkless they're useless so why even focus on them?"

He's a hollow version of the idea of his character, just blankly reacting to things in front of him and praising Bakugou for being the best thing to come around. He honestly deserves better and deserves to be with a writer that won't bully him and give him the depth and development he needs.

Now who else am I missing...?

...

Oh yeah!

Katsuki Bakugou is still trash.

Look forward to the next part.

(Roundabout starts playing)

[lineli225]

Tomura's Kill count in Canon

I'm done with people calling Tomura a "sadistic genocidal mass murder who killed millions" BECAUSE HE ISN'T.

So, i finally decided to prove it my self.

So today I'll be listing EVERY person Tomura killed! With his reasons too.

1- His father, his first intentional kill and one of the few he felt a thrill or pleasure, justified since he abused him.

3- The two thugs, he killed them under AFO's pressure, and if you pay attention, he was wheezing during it the same way he did during his panic attacks.

Time skip to the present:

USJ had no kills (despite his attempts), Stain's arc had no kills either (except some papers and a binocular, RIP). No kills even during Kamino, as he seemed to not even want to kill Bakugou.

Tomura's first kill, chronologically, in the entire series, is ironically, only on the 4th season, and 11th story arc (Shie Hassaikai Arc)

4 kills so far, one of Overhaul's man, this kill was literally self defense (and revenge)

5- The cop driving the police car, guarding the ambulance Ovehaul was in (we don't know if he died or just lost his hand though, it might not have even been intentional considering he aimed to the steering wheel)

Then we have the Overhaul arm snatching scene, the only moment Tomura is shown as actually sadistic so far.

Totally owned though, Overhaul shouldn't have threatened him, killed and injured his friends

Then, we move to the MVA arc, where the real kill count starts

First, we have a unknown number of kills, when the league visits Creature Rejection Clan, there was around 20 visible members, assuming the kills where shared equally though the League, we can say Tomura killed around 5 or 6 of these guys.

Which he did with no Sadistic glee, actually, so far, he either kills with no emotions, or seems bothered by it (Also, racists, so owned 💅)

Anyways, around 10 kills by now.

2 kills, then i could count 32 people, so 44 kills.

Considering Deika had 110,000 Meta Liberation members, and that good part of these people had died by GigantoMachia, Twice, Dabi and others.

We don't know though, how many where killed by Tomura's decay wave.

In the end Hawks had reported around 9,946 MLA members dead

I don't know if the kill wave should be counted though- since they weren't direct intentional kills

So by far Tomura has killed around 7,000 people, but none of them where innocent people (except that cop rip) People left alive:

Now we move to the Paranormal Liberation War Arc

First kill being X-less, then once again a unknown number of both heroes and villains killed by the decay wave, let's count the visible/shown deaths.

Crust, these 2 guys, some of the list- around 15 kills by Tomura

Since the city was evacuated, no one died besides a few heroes.

Tomura didn't kill anyone else during his fight against Endeavor and Izuku, so now we move on, with a kill count of around 61 visible kills and hmm.. 8,000 off screen?

I won't count any kill during the Tartarus scape since these where clearly by All for One

So we move to Stars and Stripes! Since here Tomura and AFO's personality where already half way, i'll count thise ones too. So more 2 kills here

Then the final arc begins, but despite the absolute mess the fight against Tomura in the UA cage was- it had no deaths besides Bakugou.

FINAL COUNT:

On screen kills by Tomura: 61 kills

Kills counting ShigAFO: around 64

Kills counting off-screen deaths: around 1,000 to 9,000

Bonus: Nine lol

Ngl, owned too

Now you're probably thinking: uhh- that's still a lot of people.

But the thing is, he killed much less than it looks like, literally all kills where out of self defense or necessity, very few in the list where innocent people, the vast majority are villains, and he never killed for pleasure or in a act of sadism.

Actually, he had very good reasons to kill each one of them.

Yes yes, he did attempt to kill much more, but he didn't.. Even if he did kill "millions" because of Deika- he's still not the monster he is portrayed by some.

Like come on, if you had an entire city trying to kill you, you wouldn't try to defend your self in your way to rescue a friend? If someone threatened you and had brutally killed your friend and taken another's arm, you wouldn't feel joy in vengeance?

Anyways, Tomura is innocent

"The reason why he killed them or how he felt doesn't change the fact he killed them!"

If so same for Gran Torino's "killing is a form of saving" ass!

Like come on, look at him!

Anyways, my job here is done 😌

[phantoms-lair]

Izuku 1/2 - better name pending -Snip

"You haven't used your quirk." Izuku looked up from the snack he got at the vendors. "The first two events of the Sports Festival are over." Todoroki stated. "You could have handled the obstacle course with ease with your wings, no one would have been able to touch you. Instead you handicapped yourself."

"This is not a criticism I need to hear from someone who's only been using half their quirk the entire year." Izuku pointed out.

"It's not a criticism, I just wanted to know if...if we're doing it for the same reason." There was an edge of desperation in his voice. An almost need that somebody would understand.

"It's not just that I'm not using it." Izuku unscrewed the the cap of his water and pour some on his exposed arm, where it beaded up unnaturally. "I've made it so I can't. There was a time when these water-based transformation quirks were a lot more common, so they developed a type of waterproof soap to prevent accidents." "Why?' Todoroki breathed.

"Because," Izuku seemed to falter for a second before steeling himself. "I love my quirk. I love how useful it can be in being a hero. But I am NOT my quirk. My potential, my capacity to help, to grow, to achieve, those things are me and not a magical transformation. So many people see a hero and their potential as as nothing more than their quirk and they're wrong." Izuku ended his impromptu speech with a snarl.

Todoroki sat down hard. Blood pounded in his ears as Midoriya's words repeated themselves again and again in his ears I am not my quirk.

Because his quirk was all he'd even been. He'd been born for it, his siblings had been born in their attempts to make what would be his quirk. His childhood, his training, everything he'd ever been was because of his quirk, and the bastard that gave him half of it.

I am not my quirk

They're wrong

"Todoroki, are you okay?"

"Do you really believe there's more to me than my quirk?"

Izuku was quiet for a moment. "Todoroki, who do I need to have Sensei beat up?"

Sheer confusion brought him back to his sense for a bit. "What?" "If I beat them up I'm going to get expelled. Sensei, he -he really doesn't care." "He doesn't care about going toe to toe with the number 2 pro hero?" Todoroki asked skeptically. To his surprise, Midoriya grinned. "Well, the last pro hero was a hugely disappointing fight, so this would probably be a treat."

"Who was the last hero?"

"Not gonna name names, but someone who thought me being quirkless meant I should be abused and be thankful for the opportunity to serve my betters."

That was sick. "I hope your Sensei kicked his ass." Izuku grinned. It wasn't a nice grin. "He did." Then his grin faltered. "I was a late bloomer. Eight years old." "Did things get better?" Todoraki asked. "Almost immediately." Izuku said bitterly. "But that was almost worse because, things didn't really change, I just wasn't someone less evolved, so how they treated me was wrong. But...that's not why it was wrong and the next quirkless person or person with an unactivated quirk would be treated just how I was. So I want to change the idea that quirks are what's important. I'm going to do my best to win the sports festival quirkless. I'll show everyone just what the quirkless can do!"

Todoroki's hands gripped his knees. "My father, Endeavor - the number two hero. He bought my mother because he wanted her quirk. He wanted to create a strong enough quirk to unseat All Might. It took him four tries to succeed. He doesn't really care about my siblings, just me - his masterpiece." "And your mother?" Izuku was almost afraid to ask.

"She's been in a mental hospital since I was small."

"Consider his ass kicked." Izuku took a swing of his water. "Todoroki...I completely support you not using your fire today, but you're going to have to use it in hero work eventually. So," Izuku grinned. "How would you feel about using it in a way impossible for Endeavor?"

"Impossible for Endeavor?" Todoroki tilted his head like a confused cat. "For all his faults as a human being, he's a master of the flame."

Izuku snorted. "Master? His abilities are no fire, yes fire, and unreasonable amount of fire. What I'm talking about is being a rescue hero."

Todoroki let out a small laugh at Izuku's description of Endeavor's capabilities. The first Izuku had ever heard him make. "What do you mean a rescue hero? I'm clearly most suited for combat."

"And according to the people growing up the only thing I was suitable for was a training tool for actual quirked people to practice their quirks on, so fuck was people say we're 'suited' for'." Izuku paled. "Please don't tell my Mom I said that. But your quirk would be perfect for rescue work."

"How so?"

"You can make fire at will. You could keep people warm in an avalanche - and your ice could do the opposite in an overheating situation. You could be light in a cave in or night rescue. You could combine your fire and ice to make fresh water, or use your fire to cook. Your ice could act as supports to prevent further collapse, kind of like Rock Lock's quirk. You would be an AMAZING rescue hero. And all of it would be using both sides of your quirk to help and comfort rather than just attack. And that's kinda of what I meant by something Endeavor wasn't capable of. He's sort of a combat monster, for a given value, but that's all he is."

That was...that was a lot of things no one had ever told him before. He was told since his quirk appeared that he was going to be the best hero, and to do that he needed to take down villains. But to Midoriya, he had potential outside of combat. To help those that needed it the most without causing harm. That the fire he hated so much could be used as a gentle warmth.

Midoriya was right. That was impossible for his father.

"A rescue hero. I...I think I like that. Thank you for you guidance."

"We both have something to prove." Midoriya he'd out his water bottle like a toast. "Let's mess with their conceptions."

Todoroki grinned and tapped his own water bottle to Midoriya's. "Let's"

~

"Your sensei is BATTLE GRANNY!!!!!!!"

[autumnmobile12]

Normally when I create OCs, they're background characters. Names attached to a function; this character’s father, that guy’s childhood friend, etc. Sometimes I try to slip in cameo characters from other series for some extra fun. Ultimately, they serve no purpose.

But in Chapter 5 of Ambush Simulation, the character of Mr. Compress’ mother, Sako Koharu, kinda took on a life of her own and I decided to create a character design.

The inspiration behind Sako Koharu “Miss Sinister” came from the fact that Compress and his great-grandfather, Harima Oji, do not share a surname.  True, this could be because of one or more identity changes down the three generations, but it’s more interesting if this was a matrilineal relation. There is that one brief flashback Compress has where his father is talking to him about the family bloodline, but since the line is, 'you carry the Harima bloodline,' and not 'we,' there's just enough wiggle room that it's plausible the guy could have been referring to the lineage as an adjacent outsider.

So Sako Koharu.

Koharu was Harima Oji’s granddaughter and a thief.

The other part that went in her creation was my skeptism that all villains just accepted All For One as the crime overlord.  Historically, that’s not how humans behave, and I say that if there’s a whole gaggle of heroes who aspired to surpass All Might despite it seeming impossible, then there’s not reason a villain wouldn’t aspire to surpass AFO. You can't tell me that in all the years he was in power, not one villain looked at him and thought,

"That's a nice throne he's got there. I think I'll take it."

...

Similar to Compress’ ability to create an enclosed space and trap people/items, Koharu’s Quirk was Vacuum.  She could create a sealed space devoid of oxygen, and she used it to suffocate her victims.  It takes four to six minutes for suffocation to kill a person, so with her willingness to subject someone to that, Koharu was cold and ruthless with her enemies, and she used her Quirk to intimidate other villains, earning her a place as a feared crime lord. However, despite Koharu’s cruel demeanor, it is important to note that Compress never speaks of her in a negative way.  When Toga asks him if he had a good family, he answers, “The best.”  He also does not want to traumatize Toga with a description of how they died, both to spare her nightmares and to keep himself from reliving it.  This affection for his deceased family members contrasted with Koharu’s brutality gives a much deeper meaning to his line in Chapter 2:

“I’ve met criminals and villains who had more integrity than this.”

Compress saw firsthand what Toga’s normal family did to her, he knows about Shimura’s past with his civilian father, he suspects something bad happened to Magne with her family (although she’s told no one in their group about her past), and he knows how Endeavor the hero has abused his family.

And he’s left with the cynicism of,  “My mother was one of the most feared villains of the criminal underground and had aspirations of surpassing the current villain overlord.  And she was the most wonderful parent I knew. She loved us equally, she didn't care if we had or didn't have the same potential she did, she made sure we knew our heritage, but she didn't push us toward her path of radicalism.”

In spite of being a vicious criminal, Koharu loved and fiercely protected what was hers right up until the end.

RIP to a real one.

...

Her design had two inspirations, and it's rare that I can pinpoint something that specific in my head.

Her clothes came from this official art of Allen Walker from D. Gray Man. (Also took some inspo from the pose, too.)

And her design in general was inspired by Julia Belmont from Castlevania Nocturne.

Allen's influence made her look a little more ringmaster than whatever look Compress was going for, but the general aesthetic of emulating his late mother is there.

[sapphic-agent]

I think one of my main annoyances in Hori writing is him trying to redeem every villain and hero that some of them just doesn’t deserve that redemption.

Like; it’s reminds me too much of Naruto. But the difference is Naruto isn’t being held by modern standards since it set in a fictional world with ninjas while bnha is set in 200+ years in the future in modern japan.

I absolutely despise Endeavor and how he abused his family as a whole; in modern society he would have been put in jail, and yet he still gets a redemption arc. It’s feels like it’s cheapen all of the todorokis trauma.

And shoto being bakugo friend is another thing, since bakugo is so much like endeavor… like, if I had a classmate that act so much like my abusive parent that I absolutely despise I wouldn’t be close to them at all.

It’s gave me bad feeling how Hori just brushes all of the trauma the characters have from the actions of other characters selfish acts.

When I started reading the manga in 2015 I thought the concept is really good and having a main character with anxiety and socialization problems (in the start) made me hooked, because I had those things too. But looking at it now 8 years later I just feel so much dissatisfaction and disappointments..

You have a great point about Naruto. I mean, I'm not a fan of Naruto because of reasons, but it's the same concept as to why I like Vegeta better than Bakugou despite Vegeta technically being a worse person. Because MHA and DBZ are two very different shows. One is about becoming stronger and being able to face any threat to the world no matter what, the other is trying to push a narrative about morality and being a "true hero." The Z Fighters do have their own moral compasses, but it varies between every character. So there's no overarching theme that's beating us over the head.

Someone described this problem with MHA perfectly; it's constantly preaching about morality while willfully being tone deaf about its own overlaying issues. And that wouldn't even be so bad if so many of these issues weren't set up in the beginning to be addressed later.

I talk a lot about Bakugou, but I think we should focus on Endeavor like you mentioned. Not only are they similar in nature (temperamental, overzealous, dangerously ambitious), they're also two characters who benefit the most from the system in MHA.

...And it's barely ever acknowledged.

I mean sure, Dabi calls Endeavor out and it leads to the public losing faith in heroes. But not only does the family he abused and/or neglected choose to help him (I can't get over Fuyumi and Natsu taking blame for Touya when they were LITERAL CHILDREN wtf, not to mention Rei), why he was allowed to do this is never addressed. People knew he wasn't the kind hero All Might was, and it was something his fans admired along with his strength. Because as long as you have a strong quirk, you're admired in the MHA world and allowed to get away with whatever you want. Yet this is overlooked so easily.

(I like Hawks (because of Zeno Robinson mainly), but him dismissing this is so weird?? Why on Earth would Horikoshi go out of his way to introduce a character with an abusive father and make him an Endeavor fan? With no moment of clarity either?? There's something really off about that)

Bakugou's apology (one day I'll make a post critiquing this scene) is a little better in this regard as he does acknowledge that he was enabled because of his quirk. But again, it's really just skimmed over and only referenced to give Bakugou an excuse.

And the people who do question society and its system are either villains who are use it as an excuse to cause destruction and hurt people (the LOV and Overhaul) or bloodthirsty murderers (Stain). I would have loved for Horikoshi to introduce a group of vigilantes or anti-heroes who work outside of the HPSC and call out how discriminatory their system is.

Someone's talked about this before, but the Todoroki and Bakugou "friendship" was so forced and unnecessary. Bakugou has, at every turn, been completely unsympathetic towards the fact that Todoroki was abused and yelled at his sister for talking about it in her own home (but sure, let's call Bakugou an abuse victim I guess). Todoroki should have at the very least remained indifferent towards Bakugou like he was in the beginning.

Izuku deserves so much better than how Horikoshi treats him. He's either used as a tool to make Bakugou better or he's shoved into the background of his own show. He was so relatable in the beginning of the series only for the plot to suck his character dry.

[punsbulletsandpointythings]

So I've been watching My Hero Academia and like

GOD ALL THE TODOROKI FAMILY BAGGAGE HURTS SO GOOD.

Like damn. What a complicated situation. I love that all the kids are handling things differently. I've already figured out the (obvious) Touya twist and BOY do I hope we get a reverse Darth Vader moment with that.

But also like. Fuck Endeavor with a rusty spork. He's a terrible terrible person. But gosh what a good character. That contrast between being a Great Hero and a Terrible, Abusive Father is a deeply compelling story, is definitely a part of how the show interrogates the idea of heros and the complexities around a society and culture of heros and villains.

We already see that complexity with All Might, and how by becoming a Symbol of Peace he's made it so he can't do anything but destroy his own body and still try to put on the smiling face for the public, and when he forcibly can't do that that anymore, for a few moments, the public turns on him, until he shows he's /still/given all of himself for the "Greater Good". Which is heartbreaking, and fascinating, I hope between him and Deku we get to examine that dynamic a bit more.

But that's like.....the needs of an individual being put aside for the expectations of society and how by being There for Everyone All The Time, All Might unintentionally became part of a system that can't really survive without him, so he can never leave, until he's forced to, and the plot becomes how society deals with that sudden lose of security.

With Endeavor, it's like. How do you come to terms with the duality of this person. He's saved so many lives, and in doing so, in his status rising because of his heroics, he turns around and commits atrocities. But it's not so much society forcing him into a corner like I think All Might is. Yeah societal expectations of heros probably played some part, but I think the larger part is the narrative pointing out how Endeavor's own drive, while I think coming from an initially good place, is corrupted by his own way of viewing the world.

We know he cares for people, he clearly can manage that on wider, impersonal scale. But he can't, or doesn't, apply that to his own family, because his own drive and desire to Be Better Than All Might outweighs everything else when he's not out in hero mode, thus: a Good Hero and at the same time, an Abusive Asshole Father.

And I like that, at least so far, the characters and the narrative won't let him forget that! Even as he tries to "fix things", I like how, as far as his family is concerned, he can't! He can try, but Natsuo and Shota, and even Fuyami, have no reason to trust him, and even less to forgive him, and I like that they say that! Like, good! I'm glad he's trying to be better, but fuck him!

AND I like that we see Shota seeing that juxtaposition of Good Hero v Terrible Father. I love that scene where he straight up says, "Don't pretend to be a good parent in front of my friends. I'm here for Endeavor, not Enji ((that's his name right?)) Todoroki, and I'm only here because it will benefit me and my training."

I don't entirely know where I'm going with this but it's all just! Such a good story! And there are so many other bits I could ramble on about (Fucking!!!! Bakugo???? Listen, as someone who was bullied for uhhhhh most of my pre-uni school life, if this were real I'd have OPINION. But it's NOT it's FICTION and GOD Bakugo and Izuku and their fucked up co-dependant situationship delights me, what delicious storytelling!!!) but I'm currently watching the Todoroki Backstories episodes of season 5 and ANNOYED (Read: delighted, again this narrative is WORKING SO WELL) that I'm so invested in Endeavor and his painfully slow realization of just how badly he fucked up!

Anyway, I'm gonna need so Todoroki Family Time Travel Fix-It aus please, because I want Rei and All Her Children to not get Backstory Trauma, so if anyone has recs (or like. MHA recs in general) HMU!

[lovelystarg1rll]

Horikoshi is a professional mind fucker, he could be a virgin yet the way he writes fucks with the mind, I'M A VICTIM.

Endeavor s1, 2,3,4 = Referred to as a complete ASSHOLE, pushed his beliefs on his son (Horikoshi sucked his cock enough to make him nicer in the backstories) every piece of information we are given about this man in these seasons are that he's a dick, he fucked up his only family and then switched up once he became number one, or when he knew he'd be number one, it's honestly fuckin sad, and then in seasons 5,6,7 we see this always gentle, good helping guy, "çharacter development—" SHUT UP, WHAT SHOTO HAS IS DEVELOPMENT EVEN IF IT'S FUCKING SPEEDED ALONG.

Rei = She agreed and was sold off but when you're raised to be a of use to your family or to save your family and you don't really care, Rei has spoken up, she's tried, but she never has a position of power, she can't speak like she should but only could when Enji was in a hospital bed, she was in a mental hospital from the time she scarred Shoto to when he was in highschool, I'm sorry for to be there that long is horrendous and to be put in the same placement as the man that would hit you when you defended your children and hit those children and hit YOU in front of those children, baby I'd go insane too, "Oh but when she married Endeavor she knew-" If she knew she wouldn't defend her children, and she expected them to be raised into heroes but by beating them around the age of five and six was not in the review.

Bakugou = This is where the tomatoes come, and it's completely normal to like him even if I don't, he's a dick, all three seasons he's a dick, he simmers down because all mights retirement humbled him, it's not bad to give a downright dick a bad arc so you can put him through hell and fix him, that's not bad, but admit he was a bully, admit he's downright disrespectful a majority of times, the way he only gets nice to Midoriya is when they drag his ass to U. A, I hate hearing his inner dialogue about Midoriyas situation, if being a bitch until you need to be nice is character development then I'm not for it, and I don't mind when characters who are dicks get kindness but we have him dragging Midoriya and suddenly it's them against the world.

Shoto, poor Shoto, see he's very solid then he breaks apart, like ice that melts when hell is on him, no Im alluding to his parents And his connection with them, Shoto despite having a grudge is right through and through, his father drove his mom insane and then she was in a mental hospital, his rebelling is not wrong, it could be seen as him trying to oppose the abuser yet makes him slightly feel that he has to stop using fire for a bit until his mom is like it's all fine and you do you babes, he's always been a snark to Bakugou so it's really stupid to make him the resident punching bag, "Oh but Shoto sees Bakugou as a friend—" THAT'S FINE HOWEVER THIS TAKES AWAY HIS CHARACTERIZATION OF SEASONS 1,2,3 AND MAYBE 4, Bakugou being high and mighty only for Shoto be like fuck out of my way.

Hawks = I almost tricked my mind, he looks good but he's murdered twice and I'm saying that I don't give a FUCK about what Twice could have done, shit, I just don't like the fact they became friends and he just betrayed Twice, it's like if time came and you both are friends and he's hired to kill you for some reason, mf will kill you, he's tainted by the hero commission and it's sad, because his dreams were the advantage, he realizes that over time, he didn't kill just anyone that was a friend and that is backstabbing and then instead of him still seeing what he did as the right thing, just let him have conflict like a normal person unless we're revealed that he's a sociopath, I don't hate him but the anti tag makes me feel comfortable.

[transhawks]

sorry for the cringe ask pls ignore if you want but with these chapters of the todofam do yuo think it is like "wrong" to not see anything poetic/pretty/anything like that about the family and mostly touya and endeavor situation? ive seen all these texts (not here though) abt how touya loves his father and is a Liar™ while also ignoring most of what he went through and his feelings of anger and bitterness i mean... sure there is/was love behind the hurt but i feel like i read the story wrongly

Okay, let's break down your ask a bit because it's not that I think you read the story wrong, it's that there's a missing component that I see a lot of people miss when it comes to stories like this:

you can love your abuser.

you can love your abuser.

most of us love our abusers.

Now, and I think this is something I believe that uhh I've argued with my friends over - I don't know how much parents who abuse their kids "love" them. It's complicated and a case-by-case basis, but I want to say that often it's love for what they want the child to be, not the child themselves. I've said it a few times over the years: out of the all the Todoroki children, the only child that got Enji as an actual father from the start was Touya. Toddler Shouto is scared of him, Enji seemingly didn't interact much with Natsuo as a baby or toddler, maybe to avoid the issue he had with Touya. And, well, bluntly, Fuyumi was essentially a baby sister for Touya's sake. Add to that the Japanese tradition of male primogeniture, and you get a very, very strong reason for why Touya loves his father and hates him at the same time, especially since this is met with apathy from Enji's end (as Touya thinks). As @pikahlua said recently, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference. The actions and desperations of Todoroki Touya to be seen by the man he loves, no matter if the man in question doesn't deserve this adoration, are signs of a child yearning to be loved by his father, not ignored. Now, let's break down your ask: "Poetic/pretty"

Abuse isn't poetic or pretty. It's abuse. It's messy, and it creates rifts and broken, messy people who don't make sense and move through the world breaking things further. I know that's quite a harsh thing to say about other victims like this, but I'm not going to candy-coat it - victimhood is not virtuous. Being abused and victimized doesn't automatically make you good person or a better person, and you are not a better person for having struggled. In fact, honestly, trying to do good will be that much harder. And this is exactly why cycles of abuse are replicated.

Touya is both a liar and he isn't - because he's abused and that creates irrational feelings about the abuser and what happened. His lies are mostly to himself. That's how you get Touya maniacally making a video decrying all of hero society propping up abusers while trying to murder his younger brother in sheer jealousy that he wasn't abused the way he was.

I'm going to use the same words I use for Hawks: when are you people going to understand people who are fucked in the head are fucked in the head?

To me it makes sense that Touya has conflicting thoughts and feelings because people, especially mentally people who got there due to abuse, have conflicting thoughts and feelings. That's what you go to therapy to fix. (no one in BNHA goes to therapy) So, where does that leave you, anon? I think it's again about a greater question of what kind of stories you want to read. I will always agree we need more stories where child abuse victims walk away from their families and get to be happy about it. I get that the reconciliation stories like Encanto have their place, but for so long that's been such a big narrative in why people like me have to continue to have ties with people who hurt us. But BNHA isn't bucking that formula.

Horikoshi's own experiences and perspectives on abuse want wish fulfillment. And in his wishes, he wants the abuser to say sorry. Most abusers never get to where Enji has gotten. However, a good chunk of people don't want Enji to even say "I'm sorry" in the first place, and that's where I feel the story was just not written with them in mind. So, if you read the story wrong, it's because you wanted something different from it. You wanted a different type of narrative of abuse. Neither Horikoshi or you are wrong in wanting or writing this sort of story, it's just that the story is not for you. And accepting that will make you a happier person in the long run. Sometimes stories just aren't for you. I keep beating this like a dead horse; a large amount of the fandom, especially among my fellow villain-stans, didn't heed my warnings that the story wasn't going to end with what they wanted and they'd end up frustrated and angry at spending so much time for something that feels flat to them because they couldn't adjust their expectations. Lo and behold, it's too late now and now people are in their feelings about something they could have simply dropped or accepted. I'm sorry the story isn't for you and I hope you find a manga that suits you better in the future.

[bnhaobservation]

How do u feel about Endeavor being back on the battle field? I'm all cool for a good fight, but I thought it was a bit strange since his biggest flaw was prioritizing hero work over his family. I mean, I get why Shoto and everyone else is there, but he just sticks out to me. Granted he is the number one hero, but my point still stands. Seems counter productive given literally everything his arc is about.

Well…

As someone who has written a fanfic in which Enji takes a period of leave from work to stay with his son and support his physical and psychological healing you might picture my first reaction to ‘Enji goes back on the battlefield while Touya is taken away to receive medical care’ had me think “NO! I WANTED HIM TO STAY WITH HIS SON! I WANTED HIM TO PROVE TO HIS FAMILY THEY MATTER MORE THAN WORK!” but the problem is, of course, I’ve a western mentality which prioritize family over work while in a Japanese story at most you can judge them of equal value or prioritize work (in the past you would have to prioritize work now things are shifting so you can archive a balance).

Part of the HUGE problem we have with the Todoroki family is that it is a family with some strong Japanese views which clash a lot with western ones so that we often end up disappointed with what’s going on with it when it’s actually much better than what it looks to us.

Now this is also the moment in which I make a PREMISE. While I’ve a general understanding of Japanese beliefs due to reading and researching on it and know how those beliefs are represented in manga and anime (often in an excessive, over the top way to deliver a point and not in a perfect reproduction of how they are in real life), most of those beliefs are changing and, anyway, I’m not Japanese so don’t take me as 100% reliable. What follows is what I managed to learn and understand as well but I’m just a person and I don’t own The Truth so I might have made mistakes.

Also this is complicate and would require a much longer meta. For simplicity sake I’ll try to summarize things so I apologize in advantage if things come out unclear. Feel free to ask again if something really sounds too messy to be understandable.

So…

I’ve discussed about it in another post but in the ’70, ’80 a father like Enji would be considered a model father in Japan. This kind of view is shifting so BNHA actually criticizes what Enji does, but not as hard as the western audience would like because… it’s a recent shift so, while Enji has to prove he’s going to be a better father… for the Japanese audience he doesn’t have to put as much effort as the western audience feels he needs to put in it (never mentioning sometimes the manga forgets that what Enji did is bad and has other characters do the same without criticizing them at all…).

There’s another problem in addition to this.

Chap 302 and part of the chapters that followed disappointed many because while the family reflected on their behavior… they didn’t seem sorry enough for what they did to Touya, they talked about fighting him, stopping him but not about saving him, were focused on apologizing to Hawks, to society but they hardly felt like they were understanding his pain. They don’t try to reach for him emotionally, showing him empathy and understanding. Enji claiming he’ll look after Touya after he wins All for One is more an Enji claiming he’ll make sure he’ll take responsibility for his son, will make sure he won’t trouble society further than that he finally will give him the emotional attention Touya needed. Enji will understand he has never looked at Touya (as in paid attention to him, tried to understand him), that he has to apologize to his son only short before he’ll realize his son will try to nuke Japan and Rei will also do so when she’ll see them both about to explode.

That’s because for a Japanese audience the biggest sin Endeavor committed isn’t abusing his child to the point he did what he did… but to have a child who did what he did. As Shouto said Dabi is their family’s crime/sin, meaning the family isn’t supposed to see him as a person they’ve mistreated, but as a sin they’ve committed against society, a sin of which Shouto too, Shouto who, poor kid, had no hands in Touya’s mistreating, is blamed by society (I’ve discussed about this in another post), he is punished for it by having to fight Touya (chap 352). And also note how Horikoshi expresses the change in views.

While having Shouto (and Enji) fight and kill Touya as a punishment for what Touya did to society would have been perfectly fine in the past, Enji makes clear he can’t kill his son no matter what and class A expresses sympathy for Shouto, they find unfair the fact he has to fight his brother, even the journalist who wanted to demand the head of the Villains cut herself off when she realizes she’s asking Enji to kill his own son.

So it makes sense Horikoshi had to absolutely send Enji (and Shouto) back to fight All for One.

It’s not because Enji has to play Hero again, but because he and his family are considered directly responsible for Touya’s crimes against society and therefore they have to atone by giving their all to save society even when this is asking a lot from them.

While most of the western audience want Enji to atone toward his family (and some don’t even believe at this point there’s something he can do to be forgiven), the Japanese audience want him to atone also toward society for the damage Touya caused.

And note how Horikoshi went at it by having Natsuo, the one who was the most vocal critic of how Enji neglected his children and caused Touya’s ‘death’, be the one who tells his father to go fight, to leave them behind, that it’s better if he does because he would be of no use to them there, his family having suffered enough heat already so he can go fight. Enji goes to fight after having ‘permission’ from his family, represented by Natsuo only merely because we know differently from Rei and Fuyumi Natsuo resented him for his neglect so if Natsuo says it's okay if Enji goes we as readers are meant to assume it is since for Enji's family it's okay if he goes (the fact that we ultimately agree or disagree though remains up to us).

Anyway the message here is that Horikoshi is trying to archive balance, to have Enji give equal importance to his family and his work but, at the same time, have Natsuo also accepting that what Enji does as Endeavor is important.

Enji being willing to die to be with his son and Natsuo accepting his father can’t stay with them (even if they’re seriously hurt) but has to go back to fight because his work is important too because if All for One wins they’re all lost are two faces of how Horikoshi is trying to archive balance between ‘work is important’ and ‘family is important’.

In a western story, we probably wouldn’t content ourselves with this sort of balance. We had to see Enji neglect his family for too long in favor of his work, to have emotional ‘balance’ we would now need to have the story allowing Enji to neglect his work in favor of his family because the lesson here would need to be he should always have prioritized his family and never neglect it.

If he were to do something like leaving his family to go back to work, no matter how important that work is, we’ll expect him to be punished by, for example, losing his family which he has neglected one too many times.

Think at the movie “Devil’s advocate”, when Kevin Lomax neglects his wife for his works he ends up losing it. Choosing his work over her is represented as selfishness, caused by his sin of vanity, not as the right action because work is important.

In “Baby boom” J. C. Wiatt’s choice to leave her old work to spend more time taking care of her adoptive daughter is pointed as the right one. In doing so she’ll manage to start a better activity and even find love.

In “Kramer vs. Kramer” Ted Kramer’s attempts at taking care of his son which lead him to neglect and therefore lose his job and end up with one that pay him less is rewarded as ultimately he’ll be the one who’ll get custody over his child.

In “The family man” a man is lead in an alternative reality to learn that being with the woman he love and having a family with her is much better than having a work that allows him to gain millions.

We generally make movies in which work is less important than family, that neglecting work in favor of prioritizing family will lead to a reward and the opposite will lead to punishment.

In BNHA instead the goal is to have Enji view his family and his work as equally important… which is a BIG step forward considering in the past a Japanese father wasn’t expected to care for his children and nurture them (that was a mother’s job), that his duty was just to work and bring money at home and cultivate relations with his boss and coworkers by drinking with them in the evening and manga and anime tended to remark this depicting stories in which the children were learning to appreciate how it was right their fathers would neglect them in favor of their work, because their work was surely more important than be with them.

Even when criticizing the father’s actions the story would go out of its way to depict the father’s work as fundamental for the salvation of the universe and the son would ultimately forgive the father for the neglect. As I said it’s an over the top representation. Plenty of fathers in real life don’t have a work that requires them to fight for the survival of the universe and could genuinely spare some time for their kids but stories presented them as doing as such so as to pass the message fathers��� jobs are important and growing up means accepting this and loving them anyway and putting aside the fact you felt neglected.

Of course I’m not Japanese, I live in a country that recognizes a child’s need for attention from both parents as one of the child’s primary needs, that if this need isn’t satisfied the child can face psychological damage and the father is considered neglectful. The ‘but he’s saving the world’ doesn’t cancel or excuse the fact with his neglect he’s harming his child.

So back to the topic at hand… I understand why Horikoshi sent Enji (and Shouto) back to fight All for One, and I understand why Natsuo had to be the one who sent Enji to do so, basically giving Enji the pass to leave his family behind. I understand the way Horikoshi is trying to represent this represent a positive shift from a past view that was much, much worse… or, if you prefer much, much more different from ours.

Does it make me happy?

Honestly, despite understanding why Horikoshi chose to handle things in this way… I WANTED TO SEE ENJI BE WITH HIS FAMILY, FINALLY PRIORITIZING THEM. Actually I wanted all the Todoroki be together, which means Shouto too. I wanted them to have a moment a little longer than what they had for a reunion.

But maybe there will be time for this later.

Actually it’s possible even Touya will go back on the battlefield (as well as Himiko, Spinner and Compress) because, although All for One had told Tenko/Tomura he chose nothing, Tenko/Tomura actually chose the League. They were his friends, the ones he wanted to protect and be a Hero for. So it’s possible it will be up to them to call Tenko/Tomura back, to also BE THERE as ‘Heroes’ who’re there to save Tenko/Tomura.

If the League were also to be involved in defeating All for One (and therefore indirectly protecting society) it would probably easier for them to have a better ending. After all it’s a shonen trope that if a bad guy/adversary joins forces with the Hero against the main enemy then they’re kind of absolved from their crimes.

It is, of course, as unreal as it can get, but in manga it has always worked just fine (think at how in a big classic like “Dragon Ball” the enemies that change side are easily accepted and no retribution for their past crimes is demanded [okay, sometimes they die first and then get resurrected because “Dragon Ball” had always been big in its resurrecting policy]) so Horikoshi might decide to deploy it here as well. We’ll see.

In the end, as much as I’m more involved in the Todoroki family than in the rest, this isn’t the Todoroki family manga and the battle against All for One has to take precedence.

But hey, if Horikoshi or someone else were to decide to make a spin off about the TodoFam I would surely buy it!

Said all this I apologize if it felt confusing, I remind everyone this is just my opinion and since I'm not Horikoshi it has the same worth as everyone else's opinion and I thank you for your ask!

I love to talk about the Todofam so thank you for giving me the chance to do so!

[potahun]

it's fun for me personally that endhawks-touya and kotetsu-mr. legend-yuri offer two very different takes on essentially the same concept, namely, the reknown hero who gave hope to one kid while also abusing/neglecting his own family behind the scenes.

(yuri and touya grow up haunted by their dad or obsessed with him, respectively, while hawks and kotetsu are validated in their own experience of endeavor and mr. legend respectively, as kids who only got to receive the 'light' of the Hero as a figure, not a person, and who felt so encouraged by them that they themselves became heroes as well)

with mr legend being dead as of tiger&bunny's beginning, yuri never got closure, had no chance of getting closure from his father. so in the end, it's through kotetsu himself being a dad and being the way that he is, that he gets some form of closure?? sorry i realize this will be v long

i dont want to say that kotetsu became his dad, he didn't, but i think yuri saw in him everything he wished his father could have done, and watched him with disbelief at first, before finally daring to believe it while knowing he'll never get to have that. and in the end, it was still kotetsu who humanised mr legend for him? kotetsu's line "if there was someone like barnaby for him...if he had comrades...maybe it would have been different" was a bit insensitive in context for someone who just dropped their whole childhood trauma onto him, but kotetsu also subconsciously caught the message that yuri was telling him, namely, "please dont become like my father". to which, kotetsu assured "i will not." still, that sentence, as insensitive as it was (kotetsu himself admitted he said too much right after) also helped yuri humanize what he had grown to see as the ghost of the hero gone bad, the shipwreck of a hero who couldnt pull himself together and thus took it out on his innocent mum and himself. i think that's why the final ghost he ever sees of mr legend is out of his costume, as his father. for the first time in a long time, through kotetsu's own situation, he saw his father as a lonely, wretched man with awful coping mechanisms and no support system, who never got to grow and move on.

this is all very different from touya and endeavor since endeavor is alive, and in the process of changing himself, and it's when this change is already in motion that touya returns. this means they do get to have an exchange, a face-to-face, touya gets to pour out his dissatisfaction without bumping into a wall (endeavor is willing to receive). also, unlike some of the other members in the todoroki family, what touya was desperate to get from endeavor was attention. he did get that in the end. tragically too late, but it does offer him closure.

on hawks and kotetsu's end, it's also very different due to the fact that mr legend's dead. unlike kotetsu, for whom mr legend never got past the idol stage, hawks does get to develop a personal relationship with endeavor (and they were Colleagues). he's also Perceptive and rational so he gets to see endeavor's limitations quickly ("just how clumsy can you get"). adult hawks doesn't treat endeavor as an idol. by the time he receives the revelation of the abuse endeavor has done in the past, he's already in the process of seeing endeavor as a person with flaws, and still supporting him in a very global manner: one, as a hero, yes -- he wants a leader for the heroes at large, and he is going to support endeavor become that for his own purposes - but also as endeavor, the person, who is too clumsy to know when to stop.

hawks himself has his own baggage of a dark past, basically being asked to do all the dirty work of the safety commission. imo the way he sees himself and what he can do for the world (he does call his own wings "filthy"), makes it easier for him to side with endeavor when the reveal happens, bc if endeavor can try to make amends, then he also has hope that maybe he can still do good things. hawks and endeavor are also complementary, not similar. hawks doesn't find that he has to dissociate himself from endeavor when the reveal happens because they're never going to walk the exact same path. this in turn makes it easier for him to cling onto the good that endeavor has given him, and to put himself in the position of someone who can help endeavor as he strives to become a better version of himself. he doesn't risk ever becoming like him.

meanwhile, kotetsu's situation is different. kotetsu is facing all of the same struggles that mr legend was facing at the time (waning power, decreasing ability to work as a hero) and he himself has a child, so he has to dissociate from it. it's the point.

kotetsu is also in a position where he can only receive. his idol is long dead when he's told the man was an asshole at home. it's not something he can change or argue with. kotetsu's also older. he's not at a stage in life where hearing something like this is going to shake his worldview. so all he can do, and which he does almost on the spot, testimony to how much of an empathetic wart he is, is to take yuri's confession to him about mr. legend as a warning. and a plea of "please don't become like him."

[linkspooky]

MY HERO ACADEMIA, CHAPTER 375 THOUGHTS

Right before Toga disappears we see Uraraka express regret that they still haven’t talked about love. This also parallels Shoto’s attempts to get Toya to stay with him rather than go after Endeavor. However, I think it’s important to remember that neither of them were actually trying to talk that much with Toga and Toya before that point. This is just as much a regret that they didn’t get the opportunity to talk, as it is a taunt to keep both Toga and Toya fighting with them so they can stay and be defeated. Which shows why the kids failed to keep them there, and also the butterfly effect that created this situation. More under the cut. 

1. The Butterfly Effect

It’s significant that the flames from Toya and Shoto’s fight, as well as Endeavor’s is what’s referred to as changing the weather so significantly that it’s brought about a sudden rain event. Afo goes on to add that it’s the emotions of Spinner that the heroes underestimated that allowed the villains to change the tide and create the right circumstances for the sad man’s parade. 

Endeavor, Enji, and Toya’s flames have always been a metaphor for their feelings, Toya is implied to have kept himself alive through a pure blazing grudge, Enji’s habit of overheating is a metaphor for his destructive and violent nature, Shoto has difficulty controlling his flame side because he has trouble reintegrating his father’s childhood abuse into who he is currently and trying to grow up as his own person. 

Toy’s blue flames are powered by his emotions, the quirk evolution that turned his flames blue happened when he started crying, the flame that burned him alive and started an entire forest fire happened again when he was crying. 

So flames = emotions, the emotions of everyone involved in this fight is so significant it’s literally changing the weather, and to top them all off, Spinner’s feelings have changed everything.

The current situation like a butterfly flapping its wings, is created by the feelings of one individual, and Hero Society as a whole has the habit of trampling on individuals in order to uphold the greater good of society. It is essentially the logic that Hawks used to justify the killing of Twice, he as an individual couldn’t be allowed to live because of the threat his quirk presented to all of society. 

All of this a long prelude to, before the fights itself not only have the villains made multiple attempts to have those feelings understood, and the kids have expressed interest in trying to understand what those feelings are. 

However, it’s incredibly important that at the same time, those same kids have then repeatedly tried to squash any attempt to sympathize with the villains they have inside of themselves, by remdining themselves of the destruction the villains have. Deku and Uraraka both mention seeing Toga and Shigaraki’s crying face, Shoto mentions he literally knows nothing about Toya even his favorite food. 

Then they immediately go back to squashing those thoughts. It’s important to realize the kids are actively trying not to sympathize with the villains, because it’s easier to just see them as villains and clears doubt from their head. This idea of crying is brought up by Toya too “whether you’re crying or smiling doesn’t matter”, the deeper meaning of that statement is that the people they are fighting against just don’t really care about what face that they are showing the world. Remember, Hawks actively dehumanized Toya’s mourning of Twice his friend, by insisting he couldn’t care because he was smiling even though Dabi literally cannot biologcally cry due to his burn wounds. The outside world just doesn’t care what kind of emotions they’re having, so might as well be strong and show a smile. 

All of this to say, the villains right now are the individuals the butterfly effect is referring too, they have continually been pushed down and insisted their personal grievances of society doesn’t matter because they are threats to the whole of society. But the butterfly effect statement reflects what Toya says to Hawks. A single person with a single conviction has the power to save the world. The collective isn’t all that exists, individuals are still important. 

All of this to say, the feelings of all the individual villains matter. All of the attempts to shut them up for the sake of the collective good have only backfired. We see this pattern repeated, Shoto, Uraraka, and Deku express an interest in what the villains feel only to just resort to physical violence. 

However, they never even act on their expressed interest to talk. Shoto asks Toya why he didn’t come home, and then proceeds to beat the crap out of him. Uraraka tells Toga she’s been thinking about her, and then proceeds to beat the crap out of her. Deku asks if Shigaraki is still there in the body possessed by AFO, but then doesn’t do anything else but beat the crap out of him. 

It’s not even that the villains didn’t reciprocate, Toya said very clearly that he still wanted to come bac home after being burned alive and only gave up when he thought his family had moved on without him, Toga was still trying to ask Deku to understand her and even says aloud that heroes are the only ones they count as real people and villains aren’t even considered human. Shigaraki breaks free from AFO’s control a couple of time and shows clear distress. 

Which is why I want to clarify, the villains themselves are giving clear hints that they don’t actually want to destroy, Toga hints she wants acceptance more than revenge against Hawks and the heroes, Toya makes it clear that there’s still a part of him that wants to go home (he literally tried to) Shigaraki still exists within AFO-Garaki. It’s the kids themselves that didn’t try to show them there was still a chance for things to go different, the plan wasn’t to talk to them ever the plan was to beat them up.Which is where we get to this chapter.

This isn’t an attempt to get them to talk, this is an attempt to get them to stay and fight. In fact during the Uraraka fight itself Urarka didn’t try to talk to Toga at all, the plan wasn’t try to de-escalate or try to understand Toga the plan was to sick a bunch of heroes on her at once and then... beat the crap out of her.

It’s even confirmed in the chapter itself, Toga’s incredibly impulsive and emotoinal, she’s not really a long term strategy or big picture girl. Yet, she survives in the fight despite being vastly outnumbered because she had to. It was the heroes attempts to just beat Toga down that forced her evolution and made her into a more cunning villain. A different strategy would have probably thrown her off of her game, but Uraraka had all the time in the world and didn’t even try it. 

Which is why the one hope the heroes might have right now is Uraraka getting thrown into the combat scenario with Toya, Enji, AFO, HAwks and now Toga. As none of those heroes except for Uraraka have ever expressed any interest in talking in the past. 

However, part of me wonders if Uraraka herself is going to have to actually question and challenge the adults present in order to actually get the character development where she acts on her feelings and desire to talk. (The feelings you’ve locked up inside...) those feelings are the only chance to turn the tides. THe feelings of one crying girl (Himiko Toga) have created this disaster, and the comfort given to one crying girl can be what stops it... 

However, I want to keep in mind that there is a reason all the kids have been suppressing their desire to talk with the villains, and that is their hero worship of the previous generation. Hawks makes it clear what he wants to do to Toga now that Twice is back (Kill her). The kids so far haven’t questioned the wisdom of the adults so far and that is what directly has led to repeating their mistakes. After all, Toya is here because SHoto agreed that despite Enji being the one who abused Toya, it was totally okay for him to have to skip any kind of confrontation with Toya and just leave all the responsibility up to Shoto. 

Toya bee lined to Enji, because Enji abandoned him for like the six millionth time. Toga herself, wants to target Hawks, because Hawks expresss no remorse over Jin’s death at all and given the chance would kill him again. Toga wants to fight Hawks, because she’s said several times Jin was someone important to her and his death is something she is still reeling from and mourning, and not even a single kid hero seems to question the fact that Jin was murdered in cold blood and Hawks the murderer went free. Toga pretty much told Uraraka to her face that Jin was someone incredibly important to her, and then later on that heroes just don’t see villains as people and Uraraka herself saw the broadcast that Hawks murdered Jin when his back was turned. Nobody else has acknowledged that Jin doesn’t deserve to die (not Uraraka and not Tokoyami) and therefore Toga’s grief for him is completely invalidated. 

Like, yes I think Toga killing Hawks and continuing the cycle of revenge would only make things worse. However, in the eyes of the heroes and even the kids (Uraraka and Tokoyami) Hawks did not do anything wrong in killing Jin. There’s no way the cycle of abuse can be stopped, if the cause of that abuse isn’t even addressed in the first place. 

Which is why the kids have to disavow the elders. They are the reason so far the kids haven’t been able to act on their desire to talk. Every time the kids have expressed a desire to talk, they completely squash it, and despite thinking they might be able to talk these people down they go along with the plans of the adult heroes that are essentially “Beat ‘em up.” Shoto decides to go along with Enji’s plan to just leave Toya entirely to Shoto, and abandon him yet again. Deku wants to save Shigaraki, and yet he builds a floating coffin and death trap in the sky with all the adults and just pummels him. Uraraka wants to talk to Himiko and yet the plan for fighting her is essentially just to have several heroes against one girl until she’s too exhausted to either run away or fight back. 

The kids have expressed an interest so far, but they haven’t changed. This chapter is about the power of the individual, the only way the world is going to change is if the kids stop going along with everything the adults tell them and learn to think for themselves. 

[dahvampire]

I'll start this thing with the premise that I've only seen BNHA's anime, so I'm at the end of the events of season 6 and I don't know anything else from the manga. So, that's also a spoiler alert for anyone who isn't at my same point.

God I really, really despise Enji Todoroki.

Endeavor is a great hero, don't get me wrong: always on point, efficient with criminals, saves people and yada yada yada. Public interactions aren't his forte but anyone has his weaknesses, so it's fine.

But boy, boy if he's shitty. A shitty father, a shitty husband, a shitty person in general.

How can you beat your six year old son to the point of making him sick just because you're salty you're not at the same level of someone else? How can you try to erase your first son's suicide attempt that he did because you first indoctrinated him about being the n°1 hero since he was four and then discarded him at eleven because he couldn't keep up with your expectations? Enji told Touya his life was defined only by being a hero, and then he snutched the dream he put in his son's head from him when he was still a child. No wonders Touya didn't exactly take it well, his father just said he's actually worthless because of something Touya can't even control - the affinity that his body has for cold temperature.

And okay, maybe Enji wanted to keep him safe avoiding him to train, but the adult approached the situation wrongly from the start, since Touya's birth, for fuck's sake.

When Touya became useless, Enji focused his fixation on Shouto, feeding sibling rivalry to Touya and making him easily jealous of him because his younger brother became their father's focus of attention - and love, in his mind - .

Let's put the kids beside for a second.

Enji married Rei for her quirk, that's common knowledge, he even admitted it. After he finished using her for his convenience and after probably treating her just like he treated Shouto and Touya, he pushed her 'til the breaking point and then accused her of being unstable while the only reason for her unstableness has always been his presence in her life. We had a snippet of Rei before she married Enji, and she was a perfectly fine woman. Maybe reserved, but fine.

Then, Enji happened. She lost her rights on her body, the man married her just to breed a valuable heir after all. She lost her rights as a mother, because I think Enji hasn't ever allowed her to interfere with Touya and Shouto's education and lives in general, just think about how Touya treated her when she found out he was still training in secret. She lost her connections with the world, too, I guess, because I don't think she would be free to go and come at her will, considering how Enji thinks about his family members as his properties.

Then, she slowly started to lose her mind to the point of disfiguring her own child because his eye reminded her too much of the man she was forced to live with even though she clearly dreaded him, and she lost it. She crumbled under the pressure of what Enji did to her and to her children - that I guess she never actively tried to protect, maybe to save herself from the man's wrath, maybe because scared of aggravating things - and Enji took her out of the picture without even try to comprehend why she did what she did.

I'm not saying that she isn't guilty about the whole situation, I'm saying I can see her redemption arc. I can understand it. Now she's free of the shackles that held her down the whole time she was with Enji, and she wants to try and do something to make amends. I can see it, I can understand it.

What I cannot understand is the thing they're trying to do with Enji's redemption arc.

Like, are you kidding me?

He's an abuser, a manipulative man who hides himself behind a façade of ideals and stoicism, a person who looked his own kid in the eye at the age of eleven and told him he was not enough for his father and should get lost with his other two siblings, casted aside since birth because they too didn't meet his expectations.

Fuyumi is still hanging by the threads of hope that someday they will be an happy and functional family, but those threads started strangling her a long time ago, and I think she didn't even realized it yet.

And Touya.

God, Touya. He attempted suicide by the age of fourteen, being it consciously or not. Maybe he actually did it on purpose, maybe his emotions took the upper hand on him, but his mind couldn't accept the fact that his father's love was so conditional. Touya tried his best to satisfy the man, and Enji never acknowledged him beside to berate him for training without his permission. And Touya still tried, tried, tried to be seen by the man that put himself at the center of his child's universe since Touya was young enough to comprehend what heroes were.

No wonders Touya broke that night on Sekoto Peak, no wonder he died.

No wonder Dabi was born.

He's the incarnation of Touya's resentment after all, of the hate he feels towards Enji, towards the society that idolatries the hero without looking at the man, without understand that the monsters people fear aren't always the criminals and the villains on the streets, but hide themselves in plain sight, under a spotlight.

Touya was fourteen, he had all his life in front of him, and he still chose to trust the man he called father to care for him even without the incentive of his quirk, and his trust, his prayers fell on deaf ears.

I don't know yet what happened after Sekoto Peak, I guess what remained of Touya was find by someone - maybe Shigaraki's doctor himself -, put back together and brought back from the dead. And Touya didn't know what to do with the time that someone else borrowed him, so he set himself on the path of revenge to find some sort of justice for himself.

I'm not saying that Dabi's modus operandi is right. He's a murderer and his ways are almost always extreme, and his mind clearly isn't in the right place, but I can still understand him, his motives.

An hypothetical reception arc.

Before everything else he's a victim, after all, just like Rei.

Dabi wants to avenge what's remaining of Touya, of his inner child, and the only way he finds fitting is to take Enji's life to compensate the life Enji took from him.

Enji, on the other hand, doesn't deserve it.

He has seen that his ways were wrong only when everything came crushing down on him, and he cried on his hospital bed about being a terrible person after all the years he spent without questioning even one single time his actions.

How many times he made Touya cry? And Shouto? And Rei, Natsuo, Fuyumi? And his own fans, for God's sake? How many people he deluded without realising it, without even thinking it was an actual chance of him doing wrong?

Nope. Sorry, nope, I'm not fine with that. I don't think he deserves the pardon of all the victims of his actions, or surely he doesn't deserve to be forgiven so fast.

I don't approve the death of characters only because I don't like them, I know that's not how it works and it's simply stupid wanting someone dead just because, but fuck if i want him dead. Like, actually dead. Maybe it's because what he represents hit a little too close to home, maybe it's because I can't see a possible way to actually redeem him without stomping again on everyone he hurt, maybe I just can't stand him, I don't know.

I don't even know if I actually want Dabi to be still alive, at this point. I really like him, his character, his dramatics, but he's a dead man walking, literally. Maybe death would put an end to his suffering, maybe confronting Enji would be so cathartic to actually help him to recover the parts of his mind that he lost in the flames, in the walls of the house he grew up in, among the discouragements and the conditioned love he almost drown into.

The only thing I know is that I really hope Dabi lives long enough to see Enji's ashes scattering to the ground, being them the ashes of Endeavor's legacy or the ashes of his own body, cremated by Dabi himself.

[darkonekrisrewrite]

Another they did it quick but at least they got it done

Catra from She-ra and The Princesses of Power

Was it rushed in the last season, yes, but we see changes in her behaviour, her apologizing without excusing her past shitty behaviour

Meanwhile Bakugou and Endeavor have had multiple seasons to get better. And they certainly talk a lot, the other characters certainly talk a lot about how much they've improved/ how amazing they are

But the second you analysis their behaviour they suck! They haven't changed they are just getting treated differently, mostly at their command

Bonus points, Catra had a long list of issues and problems leading to her shit behaviour. Here's a simplified list: she was abused, her best friend (and crush) chose strangers over her, because of preexisting and very obvious issues with the Hoard, the people she looks up to constantly pick other people over her, she doesn't believe she can be loved so she doesn't take it seriously when she is, lost cost fallacy, etc

Bakugou and Endeavor, they weren't worshipped enough. That was the fucking reason, for their years of abusing others, they weren't worshipped enough. "Redemption/ atonement" my ass

Bakugo and Endeavor's character arc and how other characters react to them, has always been all over the place.

No one on the hero side ever being super critical of them, despite the fact that there's a lot wrong that's going on with them.

Bakugo's main issue started with: 'Everyone praises him, resulting in a superiority complex.'

That negative quality doesn't have to be so unlikable by itself, but the real problem started when little izuku tried to help him as a child and he took it as some world shaking personal slight.

As if the very common and friendly gesture of extending a hand as a sign of concern after someone falls down, was a giant middle finger to Bakugo.

It's very petty but he's a little kid at the time so he's gets a little leeway.

But he never really grew out of that mindset until much later in the series, when it should have been obvious that izuku never looked down on Bakugo in the first place.

"He's looking down on me!!" is an entirely baseless delusion that came from a simple act of compassion, that had Bakugo steaming and blowing up at izuku for years.

It would be kind of silly if it wasn't played like a big dramatic conflict.

Endeavor's kind of the same way, only with worse justification.

Endeavor lost his father at a young(ish) age and that 'presumably' gave him trauma that compelled him to reach power that would lead him to the top, to overcome weakness.

But when you look at the results of that path and what Endeavor kept doing after he saw the results of that path, it becomes clear that his motivations were entirely selfish.

For his own sake and not for others.

The absolute point of that proof is when touya 'died' as a child, as a direct result of the fire Endeavor lit within him and his absence as a father when touya needed him.

Touya's death should have been the end of Endeavor's ambitions, that was where his atonement should have started, if he really felt remorse at killing his own child through neglect.

Only after Endeavor got what he wanted, the number 1 title, did he start feeling regret.

The timeline makes any sentiment of atonement feel hollow, because it always comes far too late for it to matter.