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symbolsought · 2 years ago

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All right, so here is the Toshinori / All Might headcanon / info drop for now. Since he's a new to me and I've literally never had a Sunshine Boy Tm for a muse before, some things maaaybe subject to change as I think more about them and as I get more of a handle on him / my portrayal of him.

From what I know and what I can find we've been given NEXT TO NO INFO on Toshinori as a character outside of the bare basics which is wild to me so I've gone a little insane over it, don't mind me.

First things first, I've decided Toshinori is part American, probably on his father's side. Which, I think kind of explains a lot of his aesthetic. Out of universe, he's suppose to be heavily inspired by American comic book heroes, which is why he looks and acts the way he does but I don't really think Toshinori is just a Japanese dude who was fetishized America or anything. He has a reason to be so interested in the country and culture, imo. So yeah, in universe, I'm gonna be saying Toshinori is biracial, American on his father's side and Japanese on his mother's side, and that's also why he chose America as the place to move to when he graduated from UA high. ( Pretty sure there was no in universe explanations for why America beyond The Aesthetic )

I haven't decided exactly what happened to Toshinori's parents. I'll probably go with the idea that they were never married, however, and Toshinori was born and raised in Japan up until graduation. Whatever the case may be, I feel he never really knew his father to begin with and probably lost his mother quite young in some type of tragedy. I'm probably also gonna say Nana reminded him of his real mother and Nana probably stumbled on Toshinori pretty young, so ultimately they filled voids in each other, with Nana having to "cut ties" with her biological son and family to protect them and again, Toshinori probably having lost his mother to some crime/villain related tragedy hence possibly being part of the drive in him to become a "symbol of peace" and protect people. We know Toshinori claimed he thought of Nana as if she were his actual mother, and I think she shared the same sentiments for him given everything.

Anyways, I don't have super extensive details for Toshi's pre-All Might background beyond that, mainly cos I am kinda hoping we eventually get something / more from canon. So for now those are the concepts I'm working with because I still gotta have something to draw off.

Now as for Toshinori's "personal life" I'm about to speculate something brave here and say my boy might be gay. I say this for no other reason than it feels fitting given what I've been observing of him so far. I mean, we know Toshinori has no children or wife or love interests to speak of despite his status, which is a little unusual to say the least ( That being said we also know the insane situation with AFO so that does factor as well, IMO ) But, we've seen he's insanely popular with women, yet on top of this he never seems to return their interest in any way we've seen beyond being polite to them and posing for them in his All Might persona. Once again, even though we know Toshinori is a humble and well mannered guy his apparent disinterest in women romantically/sexually, and the complete lack of any female love interests and his insanely private / hidden / mysterious personal life feels to support this idea. ( ONCE AGAIN, I know AFO's existence def factors in, I've done the math, so to speak. ) Moreover, though, we do know Toshinori has had an extremely close relationship with his "best friend" David Shield and tbfh, the homosexual activity radar spikes when they're around each other, I know gay subtext-nearly-text when I see it. Toshinori may say he's a hugger, but I'm not sure we've seen him back that up until David, or at least, not on the same level because it wasn't even just a hug it was a barrels over to him at full speed, lifts him up and swings him around in the air like the shit was pretty much romantic. They were genuinely acting like reunited lovers. Then we have the fact David calls him "Toshi" affectionately and Toshinori calls David "Dave" in return ( as if thats not the cutest thing, actually. ) It was also implied David's marriage may not have lasted, given all we know is he was married apparently ( Seemingly at some point after Toshinori moved back to Japan ? ) and the marriage produced a daughter, but the wife is pretty much a complete unknown, and tbh imagine being David's wife and your husband's phone background/lock screen is a picture of his "best friend" and not even an official promotional All Might fan type picture, its a canid of him from back when were in college, like, please, it would make a whole lot of sense of things. Not to mention the fact David ALSO knows about Toshinori's true form, his injuries, etc, and they've been in near constant long distance contact with each other no matter what. ( He's also still the man who designs Toshi's suits as far as we know )

They're actually adorable, ok, but this is just an interesting observation here. I'm not saying its intentionally canon or anything bc I'm gay and I Know Better than to think a popular Japanese Shonen type anime is likely to depict a main and influential character like All Might as a gay man but -All Might Voice- Thats why I Am Here. I would be REALLY shocked if this isn't a ship in the fandom because fr. So, moving on and back to "All Might". All Might really isn't just Toshinori's superhero code-name, it really is an entire persona / identity of its own. Much about it, aside from Toshinori's spirit, is false, its mostly an act, from the way "All Might" talks and looks, to some of the way he behaves as well, and I don't think the reason for that is hard to understand. Not only is All Might sort of "created" by Toshinori to be the most "ideal" hero but he also serves to protect a lot of Toshinori's identity given the entire thing with One for All and All for One which again is another reason for the fact that Toshinori seems to lack of much of a personal life, especially inside of Japan where AFO could and would do anyone too close to All Might extreme harm. David being largely spared from this problem DUE to remaining in America. Needless to say, Nana's murder in front of him left Toshinori deeply scared and he was pretty much ordered by Sorahiko to hide, even going as far as telling him to leave the country. So, as he was preparing to move to America, Troshinori "reinvented" his All Might persona in every way and cultivated it into the All Might we know now, before returning to Japan after many years to continue making a name for himself and eventually facing off against AFO. I also consider Toshi to have been a fan of American comic books and the campy, larger than life heroes found within them, due to the joy and laugher they tended to bring, so whats true for his out-of-universe inspo is also true for his in universe inspo in creating his "All Might persona". But of course, the constant smile was largely Nana's idea. Because of Nana's words Toshinori explained that he smiles even when ( or perhaps especially when ) he's anxious or scared which means even All Might's iconic smile is "false" in many ways. Just not in spirit. Everything about All Might was suppose to be comforting, protective and reassuring to everyone, but its also comforting, reassuring and protective to Toshinori himself. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we've still never got to see the original battle between All Might and AFO, but god I'd like to. I wonder if AFO instantly realized that All Might was that kid who's mother/mentor he murdered in front of him all those years ago or if it took him a sec given the difference in All Might back then vs All Might when they eventually came head to head again years later. I hope we get to see their original battle at some point, it'd be so metal its unreal.

#⊰ ° ‧: ｡* ＊ 💥 ━◞ Out Of Character ⊱#⊰ ° ‧: ｡* ＊ 💥 ━◞ Headcanons ⊱#Headcanons

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guardianspirits13 · 4 years ago

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I wanna talk about Natsuo Todoroki for a second here.

tw// mentions of abuse, self harm, and suicide

Natsuo visibly has the most emotional trauma out of anyone else in his family (Touya not included), and I really wanna talk about why that is.

For starters, we haven't seen him really smile since he was introduced in chapter 187. He's introduced as having a friendly, easygoing persona and it's easy to imagine this is how most people outside of his family know him. However, every time we see him appear since then, another layer of his trauma is revealed and expanded upon, and it cuts DEEP.

I think the main reason that Natsuo still seems so vulnerable compared to the rest of his family is different than what you'd assume. Fuyumi and Shouto both spend a lot of time around Endeavor, and have been in close proximity to his (relatively recent) decision to atone. They have seen his growth firsthand and come to terms with it. Rei has obviously taken a very different path to healing- not entirely voluntarily- but she has been working with doctors and therapists for years to change and recover and reconnect with herself and her children. Natsuo is off at college, and takes every opportunity he can to avoid Endeavor. He (understandably) wants nothing to do with him, and shows stagnant resistance to his attempts to atone.

The reason why Natsuo can't move on from the past is because his trauma didn't come from Endeavor. It came from Touya.

Now initially we were led to believe that it was simply Touya's untimely death that still bothers Natsuo, and it makes sense seeing how Endeavor drove him to the edge. Losing his best friend and brother as a young kid without parents to support him or any therapist to speak of can absolutely been the source of persistent emotional damage, but the more and more we learn about Touya's situation, the more evident it becomes that Natsuo's trauma is much much deeper than even grief.

Touya, as we know, was driven by an ambition instilled in him by his father and experienced extreme rejection sensitivity when those ambitions were no longer realistic. Touya's relationship with his parents could be described as insecure attachment, a psychological term primarily regarding how kids react and respond to their parents and other close relationships. As he was raised, Touya learned to equate his potential to be a hero with his personal worth and similarly confounded attention with love. The difference being, of course, that love is unconditional, but even attention was being continually directed away from him as a punishment for continuing to train and burn himself so he could once again become worthy in his fathers' eyes.

This is where Natsuo comes in. At first it was assumed that all of the Todoroki children were born out of Endeavor's strong-willed desire to have a child that could surpass All Might, but we learned that this isn't exactly the case. I'd argue that it was narratively poetic on Horikoshi's part once this was expanded upon. Fuyumi was born to support and encourage her brother, and that is the exact role she plays 23 years later, keeping her family together.

Natsuo's case is even more intersting.

It was bad enough if Natsuo was only born for the potential of his quirk, but it's even more sinister that the sole intent behind his birth was to discourage Touya from his ambitions. I'd say it was to replace him, but it was more to promote the idea that Touya was expendable than to raise aonther kid with the same ideals but the potential to actually achieve it, although that was definitely a secondary motivation.

The parallelism in this is how much Natsuo's life revolves around Touya. He was born because of Touya, he looked up to and took care of Touya as a kid, and the absence of Touya in the present continues to drive him and his decisions in life (but more on that later).

I continue to pray that we will eventually get more solid backstory on Natsuo and Touya's relationship as kids and where it cut off, wether on a bad note or not, but there are a few things we know for certain. One, Touya was mentally ill. Yes, he was rejected by his parents but he seems to have been particularly vulnerable to this compared to any of his siblings since he was the first of them and thus relied only on his parents for validation in his early years. He shows early signs of a variety of different mental disorders, particularly BPD, which I have previously written a whole analysis for on its own. Touya is shown self-harming both by the very nature of his quirk and even by very directly ripping his hair out. He was incredibly self-destructive.

This is why it is so much more concerning to me that Natsuo, who was AT LEAST four years younger than him, was his primary source of comfort. Natsuo was too young to have known anything more than 'my big brother is sad that daddy won't train him anymore' and he obviously wasn't equipped in any way to handle Touya's severe mental illness. Touya most definitely needed professional treaatment as his forms of coping were abnormal even for the neglect and rejection that he experienced. Natsuo comforted Touya through breakdown after breakdown, and more than that Touya relied on him and came to him voluntarily for support. Natsuo was the best option he had, and he took full advantage of that. The main source of Natsuo's trauma was Touya's reliance on him.

Not to say at all that this was in any way Touya's fault- he was mentally ill and desperately in need of some form of comfort to keep him sane; it was almost a survival method at this point since neither of his parents really acknowleged him at all anymore. Touya's instability hurt Natsuo more than parental neglect ever did, but it was the neglect that enabled it and striped Touya of the supportive atmosphere he would have needed at this point not only to prevent but to heal from the mental damage he had already suffered.

Natsuo dealt with this for years and you can see how much it hurt him to see Touya in so much pain, not only from Endeavor's rejection but from his own self harm as well. For Natuso to know that his brotherly love would never be the same as having loving parents; would neve be enough- but at least it was something so he continued to love and care about his brother for little in return- is indicative of the kind of character he is.

(Edit: After the events of chapter 302 we know that Natsuo's relationship with Touya wasn't perfect. I will elaborate more on this in a different post, but I just wanted to clarify that although we were shown a very high-tension scene between them, it is implied that this was a regular occurrence that Natsuo was usually more receptive too but tired out of, in addition to Touya's spiraling mental health. It fit with the natrative to show the tension Touya was feeling with his family from all directions, but Natsu and Touya clearly had a stronger relationship up to and before this point, evidenced by their sharing a room and playing together regularly.)

He is incredibly selfless, and it's interesting to note how many of his positive qualities as an adult stem from negative experiences as a kid. He never really felt love from his parents, so he relied on Touya (and likely also Fuyumi) for that as well. If he grew up learning he had to give love in order to recieve it back, it absolutely influenced who he became in the future, a solid example of this being the responsibility he feels to reach out and have a relationship with Shouto and further regrets that he wasn't able to help his abuse in the past either. Another aspect of his character that intruigues me is how gentle he is. Personality-wise he seems about as opposite as he could be from the awkward, stoic, emotionally-stunted person that is Endeavor.

There are a couple of reasons for this, beyond what I've already discussed.

One, he had little to no contact with elements of toxic masculinity growing up, especially not from Endeavor.

Two, most of the influence he did have growing up was from Fuyumi, who is established to have endlessly cared for him since he was a literal baby.

Three, he grew up in a household where almost everyone around him was in much more literal, immediate pain than he was so he developed a very strong sense of empathy that might also have been tied to early survivor's guilt.

Now I have one important distinction to make, and that's the temptation to label him as a 'softboy' or something of the like after seeing him caring for his family and more pointedly, watching him break down in tears during chapter 252. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with men being soft or vulnerable (on the contrary it's actually so so important and relevant that Hori is writing characters like this in a mainstream shounen manga but that's an essay for another time), it is unfair to label him as such based on a moment when his trauma is being exposed.

Because his truama stems from such a young age, there is a blurry line between just being born with more emotional intelligence and the situation he was in fostering those traits. You know, the classic nature/nurture thing. My point being, it's important to tread carefully when discussing the nature of his personality to avoid invalidating his trauma; I have no doubt that he is very strong for having survived these things, and the moments we see of him onscreen are definitely among his most vulnerable.

Another thing that people less familiar with Natsuo's character might assume is that he is hot-headed and argumentative. I thought that at first too- after all, he doesn't seem to shy away from yelling at Endeavor when given the opportunity. However, this doesn't seem to be the case at all.

The first real scene we see him in with Endeavor, the man walks into the room and Natsuo decides he can't handle it and goes to leave. However, Endeavor happens to be blocking the doorway. Endeavor physically stops him and provokes him to his face, asking him to say whatever is on him mind. While Natsuo is notably not confrontational, Endeavor is. I think it's fair to say that he felt at least uneasy at this gesture. Natsuo is very honest with his feelings, and it's obvious that he's pissed at the audacity of Endeavor to be so oblivious to his own son. This is presumably one of the first real interactions they've ever really had, and at this point Natsuo has been dealing with trauma (caused by Endeavor!) on his own for years, and Endeavor seems completely oblivious to his pain and dismmisive to the rest of the family's as well.

Again during the internship arc Natsuo tries to get along with Endeavor and this time he actually gives it a fleeting chance. Tensions are high, however, and the conversation very quickly becomes uncomfortable, at which point he leaves. It is continually implied that Natsuo is uncomfortable being around Endeavor because his very presence brings up painful thoughts and memories of a time when sharing the same space as him was a warning to run and hide. This is later directly confirmed by Natsuo as he says that every time he looks at Endeavor's face he remembers Touya and the pain he was in.

I feel like an important side note is that we have never seen Natsuo outside the context of his family, which is understandable, as the role he plays in the story directly relates to them. However, if you take a look at Shouto, even though his experiences have shaped him to become who he is, he definitely acts differently when Endeavor's not in the vicinity.

Back to Touya's death, it would be very rare that someone would mourn a death for an entire decade without finding closure unless there are other factors preventing it, and uncomfortably this seems to be the same thing for both Natsuo and Endeavor: guilt.

This is getting incredibly long already, but it's important to note that Natsuo probably felt an incredible responsibility to take care of Touya and protect him because of his empathetic nature. His love was never going to be the same as having loving parents. His encouragement was never going to be the same as having support from Endeavor. Even further than then neglect and abandonement, it was not being able to save Touya that really made Natsuo feel worthless.

He seems to try and remedy this inability to save Touya and diminish his guilt by doing everything he can to be better. He reaches out to Shouto to be a better brother, he consistently pushes his limits to entertain Fuyumi's notion of a happy family, and he's working hard towards a degree rhat will allow him to help people like Touya (and Rei) because he failed to do so in the past.

His bio mildly implies that he didn't have much of a direction he was heading in after high school, but Fuyumi's encouragement led him to seek out his current college career. This goes back to Natsuo's 'purpose' in a sense revolving arount Touya, from his birth to his relationship with him to his death, after which he lost his direction. They were always rather inseperable, so naturally their seperation hit Natsuo hard. He lost his direction in life so when Fuyumi encouraged him to rediscover it, he thought of helping people, because that's ultimately what he was born to do.

Thank you so, so much for reading this if you made it to the end! I clearly have a lot of thoughts on this. Let me know what you think about it as well, and hopefully we'll get more info on this soon in the manga :)

#bnha 203 #bnha spoilers #long post #natsuo todoroki #todoroki natsuo #bnha meta #mymeta #todoroki touya

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multi-lefaiye · 2 years ago

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hi multi, i hope u feel better soon! is there any symbolism in fragile things or modern ghost story?

thank you, bat, i really appreciate that ❤

alright, i wanna talk about fictional people, so i'm gonna ramble a bit!! and i'm gonna talk about fragile things first <3 my sad little gay people make me so so happy <3 then i wanna talk a bit about a modern ghost story as well. both!!!

Fragile Things:

so at the moment there's not too much in the way of direct or obvious symbolism for Fragile Things that isn't Massive Spoilers, but there's one thing i've thought about that's like... really been rotating in my head rent so fast. so i'll try to talk about it as vaguely as possible to avoid giving away too much.

so the supernatural elements in fragile things, which haven't come up yet in what i've shared, might seem kinda arbitrary at first but they're very much meant to mirror the troubles in arthur and noah's relationship, especially as they get worse. i don't know how to explain the details without just outlining exactly how arthur dies, but i'll go ahead and just say the realization i came to without explaining it too deeply (cw suicide mention):

i realized recently that the entire story of fragile things, and then bleeding over eden (which takes place four years later), reads as a metaphor for the guilt and devastation that comes with someone you love taking their own life.

like that's not what happens, but it's not a difficult interpretation and honestly i think i might... lean into that, a bit? it's definitely dark and sad but that's what this whole thing is, babey!!!

even though the supernatural elements of fragile things/bleeding over eden aren't as important as the relationships between the characters, they serve a very important symbolic purpose for those relationships.

alright i'm making myself a little sad here, but anyway here's a list of other little symbolic touches:

a few months after arthur and noah finally do get together romantically, they adopt a cat together (i'm still deciding on a name for her, but i've got some ideas), and the cat is a very not-subtle symbol of the good in their relationship. the cat's health starts declining around the same time that the cracks in the foundations of their relationship start to show.

this might be a little silly but i'm attaching some symbolic value to noah's hair as well--at first, he hates his hair so much and wants nothing more than to cut it all off, but as he becomes more comfortable with himself he grows it out more and takes better care of it. like... noah's hair length correlates roughly with his self esteem as the story progresses.

a big theme in the story is the idea of the expectations placed on you by your parents, and this is most obvious with arthur. there's a lot of little things that arthur does as the story progresses to go against his parents' expectations, and essentially that's like. his whole thing for a while. i can't think of a specific example off the top of my head but trust me on this.

okay i'm getting in my feelings about these two so i'm gonna try and write about them, but first! a little about A Modern Ghost Story as well <3

A Modern Ghost Story:

okay so most of the symbolism i have in mind for a modern ghost story centers around roach tbh- roach is just my favorite <3 but my favorite thing i've done with roach is that i'm like... trying to very much associate them with wings imagery, and i have a Couple Of Reasons for this.

the obvious choice is the association with freedom, because so much of roach's personality is their desire to be free from others' expectations and judgments of them. kind of an obvious reach but yeah <3

without going into why too much just yet. i think there could be some icarus parallels here. don't worry about it.

also the wings imagery ties back to their ex, vulture, and how much he shaped their life and outlook. they downplay it a bit whenever they talk about him, but he had a huge impact on them that hasn't gone away. i'm thinking that as they move on more from vulture, the less and less wings will be associated with them.

also this is a little sidenote but uhhh fun fact roach has tattoos of wings on their back <3 i'm not subtle <3

#talk to the bunnykitty #long post #bat time all the time #a modern ghost story #fragile things wip #roach my beloved #thank u for the ask! sorry for the delay!

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