#i love how horikoshi has written them

[obsessive-dumpling]

Okay! I saw it! Let's talk about it!

AHHHH! It was so good! It was ALMOST everything I wanted. There were a couple moments I felt like Bones was trying to minimize the gravity of this apology. Specifically, the lack of transition of Izuku's eyes.

When Katsuki first confronts Izuku, and starts at the beginning of their story (them being shown as young children) Izuku's eyes are completely void.

As Izuku begins to realize what's happening (when they reach their middle school timeline) we see his eyes coming back.

By their high school timeline he looks stunned and his eyes are lightening and becoming wider.

As he hears his name, his eyes have come back entirely.

By the end, his eyes are clear, present, his pupils are blown wide and light has finally returned them.

In the manga Horikoshi very intentionally shows Izuku's eyes becoming lighter and more present with every line that Katsuki says. Almost as if, Katsuki is slowly bringing Izuku back to life. Bones opted to leave those details out and that super sucks. This scene is so beautiful and powerful because even though it is BAKUGO'S moment, it's HIS apology that he's been agonizing over for months, it's still equally about both of them. It's still their give and take. It's so /them/ meeting each other where they're at, no matter what, and filling a role for each other that no one else could possibly fill. And by removing Izuku's part in that, you miss the full impact.

BUT it would be wrong of me not to acknowledge all the wonderful things Bones DID do in the episode. The rest of the animation was genuinely stunning. And Okamoto did an amazing job of bringing Katsuki's words to life. He made him so soft and I will forever be grateful for his portrayal. At first I was a bit upset he didn't do the pause indicated in the manga before saying Izuku's name but honestly...I like the change. I like that Katsuki says "Izuku" so confidently and without reserve. Because he knows he can. And he knows Izuku will accept it despite the fact that he probably shouldn't. It was a very nice change.

I loved that we got more shojo glow throughout, I also loved how they handled Katsuki's catch scene and Izuku finally feeling safe enough to sleep. That wasn't in the manga people! The catch was, yes, but NOT the panning in on Izuku's face as he relaxes into Katsuki's arms and falling asleep! That was a nice bonus touch that [not completely] helps balance out the loss of the eyes animation.

Overall, the handling of chapter 322 was done with a care I can appreciate. I can't wait to see how they handle our boys next big scene. 💚🧡

[linkspooky]

JASON TODD VS. DABI: WHY NOT ME?

"You haven't been here long but you've seen him, right? The batman. The batman. He lives in darkness, to find the helpless and bring them into the light. So I have to wonder...why couldn't he do it for me?" The Boy Wonder: Issue #2

This is the story of the boy who didn't get saved. The story of a boy who really ought to have been saved. Of course, every victim deserves to be saved, but this boy was the son of a superhero. Can a hero who saves everyone, but fails to save his own son really be called a hero? As for the son, how does it feel to watch his father save complete strangers but let him fall to the wayside?

Jason Todd and Dabi are two characters with similar backstories and motives (so similar it's possible Dabi is outright based on Jason Todd) which are worthy of comparison. These are two tragic arcs which explore the conflict between a hero's responsibility to act as a father, and their responsibility to save people. As I said they are tragic because in both cases the hero fails, as a father, and a hero. However, I'm comparing the two because Jason Todd's story is a well written tragedy, and Toya's story is not.

If you were to write a story of my life, it would surely be a tragedy.

Aristotle's Poetics is the first attempt to define what Tragedy is, not as a story where sad things happen but a specific story structure. He outlines not only what makes tragedy, tragedy, but also what makes a good tragedy.

The Plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy: Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in painting. The most beautiful colours, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.

I use this quote because the painting metaphor is a great way of explaining what I'm getting at, you can have a painting with the most wonderful colors, you can have a story with really good ideas like the Todoroki family plotline but if you don't use those colors correctly all you're going to end up with is a bad painting.

In poetics Aristotle clearly defines a tight well-structured plot as the first priority for effective tragedy, character as second.

Again, a beautiful object, whether it be a living organism or any whole composed of parts, must not only have an orderly arrangement of parts, but must also be of a certain magnitude; for beauty depends on magnitude and order. Hence a very small animal organism cannot be beautiful; for the view of it is confused, the object being seen in an almost imperceptible moment of time. Nor, again, can one of vast size be beautiful; for as the eye cannot take it all in at once, the unity and sense of the whole is lost for the spectator; as for instance if there were one a thousand miles long

To make sure you understand, it's vital in tragedy for all the pieces to fit together. Tragedy is a specific story format. Good tragedy uses the parts of a story well, but bad tragedy is sloppy and poorly put together. In tragedy, the whole has to be greater than the sum of its parts. The Todoroki Family are all good characters out of context, but the story could have enhanced their characters but detracted from them due to how poorly it is told. The fact that a lot of MHA fans are in love with the Todoroki family out of the context of the story, but also have constant complaints for how Horikoshi handles their plotlines is, in my opinion, very telling.

What Aristotle goes on to posit is the best tragedies do not come about by accident, but rather by the direct actions of the characters.

But again, Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action, but of events inspiring fear or pity. Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. The tragic wonder will thee be greater than if they happened of themselves or by accident; for even coincidences are most striking when they have an air of design. 

Therefore Tragedies require consequentialism, like Newton's Third Law, every action will have an equal and opposite reaction. To simplify a good tragedy arises from the consequences of the character's actions (or inaction). The most basic form is that the hero of the story will have a tragic flaw that they fail to improve upon in time and then leads to their destruction. In essence, tragedy is where the hero fails. Not only does the hero fail, but the hero loses, and that irreversible loss is what defines tragedy. Medea slays her own children, Oedipus rips his own eyes off and deserts his kingdom, Creon Antigone is buried alive and Creon's son, her fiancee, commits suicide.

These events share two things in common, they are irreversible (hence why they feel like good endings), and two they evoke catharsis. Aristotle defines the goal of tragedy to evoke terror and pity. We feel alongside these heroes, Medea was abandoned by the husband Jason who she left her home and slaughtered her own brother for, Oedipus did all of his crimes unwittingly and is a victim of fate, Antigone was doing the right thing by burying her brother so his soul could pass on to the afterlife.

There's all different sorts of tragedies, Hamliet explores more here. I'd say UTRH and Hellish Todoroki Family are tragedies centered around grief.

Tragedy works on extreme emotions, and extreme hard-hitting consequences to the hero's failures. The worst thing a tragedy can be is boring.

The Tragic Hero

Now that I'm done lecturing you let's actually talk about both My Hero Academia and Batman like I promised. Both of these stories don't actually feature the central victim as their protagonist, and that is a feature not a flaw.

Rather, the story we are being told is that of a tragic hero, failing to save a tragic victim because of their own personal flaws.

These flaws are called (hamartia) or "error in judgement". A hero, being called a hero of a story is often unaware of his flaws which is central to what makes them unable to fix those flaws in time. That flaw can later lead to a moral failing, such as Othello's jealousy, initially jealousy is an understandable emotion, but then it leads to him trusting Iago over his own wife and killing his wife in a rage.

Most importantly, the hero’s suffering and its far-reaching reverberations are far out of proportion to his flaw.

Let's begin with talking of the heroes and their flaws, Batman and Endeavor. My main reason for comparing these two is in these specific stories they have the same flaw, inability to move past their personal guilt towards their son, and the same conflict the duty of a father versus the duty of a hero.

However, Batman functions as a tragic hero, and Enji does not. The summary of their conflict is right here in these two panels.

A parent is required to place their children above everything else, because they are the ones responsible for bringing that child into the world. Bruce Wayne made the decision to adopt Jason. Enji made the decision to have children, however with Enji you have the added insidious motivation of he only wanted to make designer babies and just didn't care for the ones who didn't turn out right.

Bruce attempts to do both, to act as a father for Jason and also a crime fighter as batman but he can't do both. This comes to a head in Death of the Family when Jason is having serious trouble because of his lack of a strong parental figure, and Bruce knowing that Jason is in trouble chooses still to go off and fight crime instead of staying with him. The choice to place crimefighting over the child they chose to take responsibility for has the unintended consequence of getting that child killed.

Whereas Enji makes the same choice over and over again, ignoring Toya's clear troubles at the fact his father no longer spends time with him and choosing to run away to the world of heroes because he doesn't want to face the fact that his actions are severely hurting his son. Bruce's motivations are more sympathetic admittedly he wasn't actively practicing eugenics, but the choice is the same and the consequences are the same.

Both Bruce and Enji are forced to bear witness to the deaths of their children when they are not there, specifically because they made a choice to be a hero instead of staying by their child's side. A situation directly caused by their choice to be a hero over a father, and a situation that would have been avoided if they had stayed with their child in their time of need. Jason runs off when Batman tells him to stay and gets kidnapped by the Joker, if Enji had been on Sekoto peak that day Toya would never have accidentally lost control of his fire.

This is just the backstory however, the main event that kickstart this plot is the unexpected return from the dead of both Jason and Dabi. Each story follows the same plot beats. A new villain appears to challenge Endeavor / Batman. The villain reveals themselves as their dead son. Both Endeavor / Batman are given a chance to try reaching out to their sons, but they choose not to.

Then even though they are given a second chance with a miracle of a dead son coming back to them, they choose the exact same thing they chose before, being a hero and because of that the tragedy repeats itself. For both of them they are unable to save their son again, and the son goes through a second death. History repeats itself, the lesson isn't learned.

Their fatal flaw is their guilt. This is a story about grief and mourning after all, a son who is died, buried, but never grieved properly, never mourned, an open wound on the father suddenly coming back. The inability of each to process their grief blinds them from seeing the fact the son has come back, and they have a second chance.

Toya has internalized he is a failure, because Enji literally called him that. Jason believes that Batman thinks he is a failure. In both cases the father is the one who failed, Bruce at least acknowledges this but cannot communicate it in any way shape or form.

This guilt and responsibility both Enji and Bruce feel causes them to self-sabotage. They no longer have the confidence they are in the right (they no longer feel like heroes because they have failed to be heroes to their own son).

You can also add the layer of complication that since both men chose to be heroes in the past, they do not know how to handle the situation as a father now that they're being challenged to step up as one. Unfortunately, they are not the fathers that stepped up.

The reason their grief becomes a flaw is because they put their grief over their victims. . Each man is aware too much of their own failure, and while they should feel guilty they make the classic mistake of placing their own guilt over the feelings of the victim. The guilt they feel for causing the death and the genuine grief of losing a son is given priority over Jason and Dabi who you know... actually died.

An overwhelming grief and guilt is understandable because grief is a messy and human emotion, losing a child is an unimaginable tragedy that should never be inflicted on anyone.

Yet at the same time both Dabi and Jason are grieving to. This paradox that Batman only thinks of his own grief at losing a son and never stops to think about how Jason must feel leads to one of the best lines in Under the Red Hood.

"The father had lost a son, and now the son had lost a father."

Batman's guilt is so strong over being the cause of Jason's suffering, that the suffering of the victim himself is ignored. To be fair to My Hero Academia, the Todorokis say a similar line to Enji.

However, this is where I begin to get into the difference between ideas and execution. Tragedies are stories of actions and logical consequences, every action has an equal and opposite reaction in Under the Red Hood. Batman is punished for the choices he makes, the choices he doesn't make, and the choices he fails to make in time.

The Todoroki plotline features almost none of its character making any choices of substance, and because of that the plotline says the right things over and over again, but it all comes off as tell don't show.

I'm going to quote @codenamesazanka's post right here a couple of times because they describe the complete failure of the Todoroki plotline to show us a reason why we should be feeling things for the characters artfully.

We've heard Enji say this before - I'm sorry, I intend to atone. It's indeed the right thing to say, it's exactly what he should be saying and acting. Natsuo is declaring no contact - That's fine, I'm sorry, I accept this as part of my atonement and will continue. Touya calls him a coward - That's fine, I'm sorry, I accept this as part of my atonement and will continue. The public hates him - That's fine, I'm sorry, I accept this as part of my atonement and will continue. But you can only hear this so many times before you want to snap and beat the character, the story, the writing over the head with Enji's wheelchair. Why is that? He's behaving exactly as he should, and yet...

The reason why it fails to evoke strong feelings is because of what we'd called "narrative dissonance." The actions of Bruce and Enji are the same, they both neglect to do anything, make any real attempts to reach out to their victims because they're paralyzed by guilt.

However, we are told that they have entirely different arcs. Bruce's arc is a tragic fall. He's failing as a hero. While we are being told that Enji is experiencing an arc of atonement. Enji is supposed to be improving himself, and Bruce is supposed to be experiencing negative character development but they both do the exact same thing in story. Bruce neglects Jason, we are told by the story, by the characters in the story that Bruce is failing Jason. Enji does nothing in time to actually atone for Toya or try to help him, yet, we are told again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again that Enji is atoning with nothing substantive to show us this is the case.

To show what I meant instead of telling this scene is in chapter 252.

This scene is the ending point in chapter in chapter #426.

It's just him repeating the exact same sentiment and yet in a more than 150+ chapter gap, Enji never made any action to show he was now placing his family first. Enji didn't say anything to Dabi when he revealed himself as Toya. Enji didn't look for Toya in the months before the final war arc. Enji literally appeared on live TV in a broadcast that Toya was watching and said the very selfish "Watch Me" atone for the crime of creating Toya instead of literally talking about Toya or too Toya. Well, that would have rocked the boat too much... THAT IS LITERALLY THE POINT. Enji had to somehow break from tradition or make some significant sacrifice onscreen to his social standing to show that he's willing to put his family first. Enji decides to go along with Hawks decision to not face Toya head on, making the decision to be the hero for the final time which directly causes Toya to get up after Shoto brings him down non-lethally and make one last attempt to suicide bomb for his father's inaction.

Bruce does nothing for a long time in Under the Red Hood. He ignores his initial instinct that Jason came back and instead makes a long investigation on whether or not someone can come back from the dead in order to distract himself. When Jason takes the mask off, Batman already knew but was pretending otherwise because he didn't want to face the reality.

Even when Jason takes his mask off, Bruce still takes on the "I need to investigate this" angle even though Jason calls him out that deep down he already knows it's the truth. This of course foreshadows Bruce's underlying flaw, he doesn't want to face Jason head on because he feels too much grief about what happened to Jason and his guilt is more important than Jason's own grief. Just as the father has lost the son, the son has lost the father.

What follows is several chapters of Batman fighting crime as usual and making no attempts to directly search for Jason. They cross paths a few times but when they do Bruce doesn't follow. In fact, Bruce only shows up when Jason sends Bruce a sample of the joker's hair and Bruce knows that the Joker has kidnapped him out of Arkham. Bruce almost lets Jason get killed by Black Mask because he doesn't know whether to stop Jason or save him yet again, and then they have their final showdown where Jason has kidnapped the joker to demand Bruce kill him, and Bruce finally attempts to talk him down.

Out of context it sounds like I'm describing the same plotline, to the point where if you haven't read either, it looks like I'm complaining baselessly. Why is one hero doing nothing until it's too late good, and the other bad? The difference is of course context, or rather framing. Bruce's actions are called out by the people around him (Dick, Jason, Alfred) as him handling the situation wrong. Whereas both Enji's internal monologue and other characters say that he is doing his best to atone for his actions and deserves a chance, but the events we are shown in story are the exact opposite.

Here's another example to SHOW my point. Here's Dabi with my special, hardcover edition of under the Red Hood.

I reread the entirety of the fourteen chapter plotline and the majority of internal narrations come from characters outside of Bruce observing his behavior and commenting on how differently he's acting. Jason's backstory for instance is told by Alfred, not Bruce. Dick Grayson the first Robin comments on Batman's odd behavior. The rest are the third person narrator. Bruce has four instances of internal monologues spanning a few pages each in a 378 page story. (Alfred has the most internal monologues and he's presented as a more trustworthy unbiased narrator than Bruce, to get us to question Bruce's actions).

"Information travels on many routes, sometimes it comes predictably like the tides. You just need to know where to stand and meet it. Other times it's elusive and you have to root through the garbage to find it. In the last few years I've come to rely on Barbara Gordon, Oracle, we all did. Utilizing every form of surveillance equipment she has been the eyes and ear [...] but those days are over. I can't rely on anyone anymore. [...] and tonight it's also about the company I keep. It's different with him [night wing] out here. I think about when he was younger, when I was younger, it was different, simpler and I miss it. I miss those days, for that it's hard to be around him.

This first internal monologue is a case of unreliable narrator, because as soon as finishing it Dick Grayson / Nightwing shows up, offers Batman his help and while Bruce at first refuses it the two of them are forced to work together to fight Amazo. What does this show us? Bruce is not alone, but Bruce actively acts like he's alone ignoring the feelings of the other people around him. It exhibits a flaw of Bruce and the bad headspace he is in mentally (if I remember correctly Stephanie Brown recently died in the comics while this storyline was being published. It establishes Bruce's improper coping mechanism with grief, and how he is going about it the incorrect way.

Bruce says I work alone, and then Bruce says it's easier working with Dick, I miss it, but I can't go back to those days. It's bruce's contradictory thinking patterns in the same chapter that stop him. it's bruce's fault he cannot connect to Dick, and he is actively mourning the past because his relationship with Dick has changed.

Now the final part of the monologue in that chapter.

He's quick. Not just fast, agile. He's not thinking about his next move, he's just making it. He's been trained well. And there's something about him. Something familiar. There was something interesting about before he cut the line, before it had been taught. That had to have been practiced. Either that or just plain dumb luck. No it's not luck.

This is the first hint that Bruce already suspects it's Jason from early on but is in denial about it. This unreliable narrator trope also gives an agency to Bruce's decision, he is actively choosing to ignore the possibility that it's Jason because it doesn't want it to be.

Whereas, a lot of Endeavor's plot takes away any agency from him. For example, he doesn't even know that Dabi is Toya, because if he had the sneaking suspicion and ignored it like Batman did that might have made him look bad. We can't have the main character in a tragedy looking bad now can we?

The second monologue is more denial.

That device is from Kord industries. I should know. Ordered it special from them. How can he have it? No more dead ends. No more questions. No more guessing. Tonight I find out what is passing for the truth.

Reading between the lines this is outright confirmation Batman already knows.

The third is a brief reflection in his feelings for Jason.

The armor has to be light enough to fit but strong enough to protect. But sometimes a great many times, it's not strong enough. It wans't strong enough for Barbara who has to fight from her chair. It wasn't strong enough for Stephanie, other dear soldier enough dear grave. And it wasn't enough for Jason. Willful Jason. Who ignored the danger. Who spat at risk. Who was never frightened enough. I've always wondered... always... was he scared at the end? Was he praying I'd come save him? And in those last moments when he knew that I wouldn't. Did he hate me for it?

This monologue directly shows without stating it outright, Bruce is prioritizing his feelings of grief and failure mixing them in with his genuine grief over the loss of a son. it's selfish of him, but grief is a selfish emotion.

Here's the thing Bruce is allowed to be selfish and to not have the correct reaction to his grief, because the whole story is centered on Bruce being unable to get his shit together in time, and this picture into his emotions is an explanation as to why. Bruce is afraid of being hated by Jason. Jason of course has every right to hate him for failing as a father, but still I think not wanting to be hated to a person you loved so much and feel genuinely sorry over what you let happen to them is an understandable reaction.

Meanwhile we have Enji saying repeatedly all the right things in his monologue, the selfless, I don't need to be forgiven, it's okay if they hate me, I just need to atone but he never actually does anything. There's no explanation for why he isn't doing anything either, so that narrative dissonance. We're shown why Bruce doesn't act in time, he's internally a mess to be frank. We are not shown why Enji doesn't act in time because his internal monologue tells us again and again he's committed to atoning and he understands what the right thing to do is.

As Codenamesanzanka says:

Enji is still saying all the right things, but the story isn't giving him the opportunity to actually do the right things. To have his new actions matter. I have no doubt about his sincerity in his mantra, but without the 'show', it's hollow. Similarly, "Let's talk" is actually kinda bullshit too, because it's so vague. This is less about Enji, and more about the writing, how it set up this scene. "Let's talk" or "I want to talk" or any of that variation is repeated 6 times, without anything more or specific added.

There's an excess of repetition of Enji saying he wants to atone, he's ready to atone, without any of that materializing in the story.

As @class1akids says in this reaction post:

It also feels also super-hollow to say he's sheltering the family from the fallout, after they've just talked about how Fuyumi lost her job (and got a new one through the connections she herself built). How is he going to do that?

The fourth because I don't want to write it down, it's just Batman monologueing on how his partnership with Jason is still good and explaining the technical details of his fight with count Vertigo. It's in chapter 10 if you must look it up.

So four monologues total. Two monologues establish indirectly that Batman knows that Red Hood is Jason and doesn't want to face him. The third monologue establishes why he doesn't want to face him, he's afraid of being hated. The monologue is in line with Bruce's actions in the story, Bruce investigates several ways of reviving from the dead instead of looking for Jason.

The character's reactions around Bruce are also talking about how he's not acting like himself. Especially Alfred's who speaks of Bruce's indecision, on whether to put a stop to or save Jason.

"It is curious. He is lost in thought. It is not like him to spend vast stretches of time immobile, where his mind is gripped in the solitary process of deduction. This is quite different. He is hesitating. At a loss for what to do. I believe it is about Jason. And whether or not to stop him or save him."

This is illustrated in two scenes later where Jason spends a long time simply watching when Jason is fighting enemies, first in a fight against Captain Nazi, and second Black Mask. Jason even gives a direct callout of that behavior.

Jason: What the hell took you so long? Couldn't decide if you wanted to let me live. Batman: Shut up and fight.

Observed by Alfred Bruce is completely stalling and can't choose, observed by Jason Bruce can't decide whether to let Jason live or not. Bruce hesitates twice. We know why. We see it in action. It's called out as flawed behavior.

Now let's cover all the tell that don't show that is Endeavor's many monologues.

Pro Hero Arc:

I have to safeguard the future for them. That's the job for whoever's on top. What about the lives I cut short? Just demanding forgiveness isn't enough, it's too late for that. At this point I need to atone there's no other route.

Hellish Todoroki Family 1:

I'm trying to make ammends going forward. It might be too late. but I fall asleep every night thinking about it. Lately it's been the same dream. The wife and the kids looking happy at the dinner table. But I'm never there with them. It might be too late but I fall asleep every night thinking about what I can do for my family. I wish you could be here too, Toya. It's always the same dream. My whole family's there but not me. If I really care how they feel [I'll remain here].

I'm not going to read 200 chapters so I'm just going to ballpark it based on memory. Here we go.

Dabi's Dance:

My eldest, Toya didn't harbor frost within him. He didn't have a way to overcome the inescapable downside of overheating but I nevertheless sought to raise the boy as a hero. [...] Because Toya had more potential than me I placed my ambitions on his shoulders. I thought it could be you. You could have been the one to reach my eternal goal. My frustration... My envy... The ugliness in my heart... you could have been the one to smash it all to dust.

Plot twist this is the only monologue I like. It's different from all the others, and it's the only one where Enji is being emotionally honest. He put the emotional burden of his own emotional insecurities on an eight year old child, and expected to live vicariously through him and when Toya failed to live up to those expectations he just abandoned him. It alligns what we have been shown so far, Enji is not acting like a reptentant man here who realizes the harm he's done to Toya and only thinks of Toya as an extension of himself and his own regrets.

The Fight Against AFO:

My mistakes took the form as Toya leading to many stolen futures. The past never dies. Rage, resentment and even penace wound together toward the future. And the future is a path for the young. A path with so many branching choices. That's why I must win this. [I'll keep paying my penance. I'll win today and keep my eyes on Toya.]

When Enji decides to double Suicide with Toya:

I take full responsibility. I swore to bear the burden and live my life atoning for it all. However, you've been watching me all this time. While I couldn't be there to watch you. You were someone I especially needed to do right by. No I can't let you meet your end alone, but I won't let anyone else get caught up in our tragedy.

Hellish Todoroki Family Final:

I came to talk about what's to come. I'm retiring as a hero. That was my initial plan even before the war started, but now I can't even walk on my own. The hero endeavor burned to death. Your flames were really stronger than mine. [...] You're right. You know everything about me, Toya. After all you were always watching me. And you wanted me to do the same for you, but I didn't. Not matter what anyone says your heat does come from my hellflame. From now on I'll come everyday, so let's talk. It's too late now, so let's talk. [...] You're free to hate me. Anything is fine really, so throw it all at me.

This one is spoken dialogue but it's still a four-page long monologue. Every one of Enji's monologues with one exceptionsays the same thing: I'm sorry, I'll spend the rest of my life atoning for my actions.

We're repeatedly told Enji is atoning but he acts like Batman. Then, his actions should be framed as Batman, not atoning but avoiding any responsibility.

As observed by Class1akids when we were discussing the update:

Everyone else faces an uphill struggle with their lives, but we should all feel sorry for Enji atoning and being in hell. I hate Hori's compulsion to over-write his abusers and over-explain their atonement. He does this with Bakugou too but with Enji it's more irritating. It was so much more enjoyable when he just wrote the thing but didn't point at them and say -> look, they are atoning. Aren't they soooo cool??

Enji's internal monologues and the other characters frame him as some sort of martyr, while on the other hand it's clear by both Batman's actions and Alfred's observations he's not acting like his usual self. In fact, this is an interpretation of Under the Red Hood that I love from the writers of the video game Arkham Knight that does a less tragic retelling of Under the Red Hood:

Batman doesn't fight victims. He saves them.

Therefore if Batman is fighting Jason, a victim, he's not acting like Batman. I'm also fine with Arkham Knight being an Under the Red Hood retelling because it's a different story. Comics do this all the time, different universe versions, popular storylines adapted into different mediums. It also works as a commentary on the original story, by showing what Batman could have done to lead to a more positive outcome it makes Batman's choices in Under the Red Hood worse and more tragic because he could have saved Jason, there was still a chance.

So here we have two flawed tragic heroes who are meant to be both pitied and condemned for their actions. One of them is all pity with no condemnation. The other is both pity and condemnation, Batman is grieving, but also he's failing his responsibility towards Jason. Therefore one protagonist works, the other fails utterly.

I'm not saying abusers don't deserve redemption. I'm not saying Enji should have died in order to atone. I'm not saying that the underlying problem with the arc is that they decided to make Enji sympathetic and a focus of the arc. The most important problem is the breaking of one of the fundamental rules of storytelling: Show, Don't Tell.

The Tragic Villain

Not only does The Hellish Todoroki Family plotline fail to make Enji a compelling protagonist, it also fails it's biggest victim. Now, these are both stories that end with the hero failing to save their victim. So if both of these stories have the same ending, why am I saying it failed Dabi, but not Jason?

Well, let me explain.

Dabi and Jason are both villains turned victims. The stories themselves are about this ambiguity. How much should the be held responsible for their own choices? If they are actively harming innocent people, then shouldn't they be stopped? Should they be automatically be forgiven just because of the pain and grief they've suffered, even if they've been causing it to others?

Both characters are also reflective of their fathers because they are too being selfish in their grief, they want their grief acknowledged and so are violently lashing out.

Jason and Dabi both make plays at being vigilantes at first, Dabi wants to inherit Stains will, and Jason Todd wants to be a better bat-man by taking control of the drug trade in Gotham and cutting crime down by executing gang heads. However, neither of them are being honest with this and it's shown through their actions, both of them abandon their original plans.

In the final showdown all Toya cares about is facing Enji on the battlefield, and when he's on the brink of death his mind erodes to the point where all he can do is scream for Enji's attention while his flames get hotter and hotter.

Let's take about Jason first and how his narrative treats him a whole lot better and more sympathetically, with more humanity than Batman. Jason is still held responsible for his choices, he is criticized by Bruce for murdering gang leaders and passing it off as justice. He's also blatantly shown to be a hypocrite. My favorite scene from Red Hood: Lost Days, the official UTRH prequel.

"I want to kill the joker in a cool way. Just sniping the Joker from a rooftop isn't dramatic enough for me."

This scene, and the final scene of UTRH underlines Jason isn't executing criminals because he believes it's the right thing to do, or because of his stated motivation that killing the joker would prevent more future victims.

Instead his every action is to set up a scenario where he makes a selfish demand of Bruce. He wants Bruce to prove to him that he would choose him over being a hero, by setting up his final scenario. Him, the Joker, and Batman. Jason will shoot the Joker. Bruce has a gun. He can either choose to let Jason kill the Joker, or kill Jason to stop him, either way it makes it clear what Bruce's priorities are.

The underlying reason for this is similiar to Bruce. Just like Bruce, Jason is deeply afraid that Batman doesn't love him. That he thinks of him as a failure. (This is Toya's main reason too).

He also interprets Bruce's failure to avenge him to mean that Bruce didn't even care enough to mourn him. If Bruce loved him enough, he'd choose him over the joker, but he's so afraid that Bruce doesn't love him enough that he's going to force Bruce to choose.

Along the way he's also going to behead several crimelords in order to put an exclamation point on that point.

The way Jason completely unravels in the confrontation shows this insecurity, he begins with monologueing about how batman should totally kill people, until his fear that he wasn't important enough, and his grief at losing his father is revealed.

Batman: I know I failed you, but I tried to save you. I'm trying to save you now. Jason: Is that what what you think this is about? Your letting me die. I don't know what clouds your judgement worse, your guilt or your antiquated sense of morality. Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me. Jason: But why on god's green earth is he still alive? Ignoring what he's done in the past. Blindly, stupidly disregarding the whole graveyards he's filled with people. The friend's he's killed. I thought killing me - that I'd be the last person you ever let him hurt. Jason: If it had been you that he beat to a bloody mess. If it had been you he left in agony. If he had taken you from this world. I would have done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil, this death worshipping garbage, and sent him off to hell.

Direct statement, it's irresponsible of Bruce to let Joker live after killing Jason and should have put him down to prevent future victims. Reading between the lines, Batman not taking revenge for Jason is a sign that he didn't love him enough, Jason loves Batman more because he would have taken revenge.

As the confrontation continues and Jason's mental spiral worsens, to the point where he can't keep up his pretense of self-righteousness.

Jason: I'm not talking about killing cobblepot, or scarecrow, or riddled, or dent. Jason: I'm talking about him. Just him. And doing it because...he took me away from you.

The father had lost the son, and now the son had lost the father.

Jason's revenge is just a cover, for his grief at losing Bruce. I think this also shows a really positive aspect of Jason's character to humanize him instead of condemning him for his actions to ignore or even justify the suffering he endured: Jason really loves Bruce.

I mean how meaningful is the statement: "Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me."

Bruce has been afraid to hear the whole time that Jason hates him, that he won't forgive him, but Jason loves him deeply. In fact his love is almost equal to his rage because Jason is a deeply emotional person, and these little details make him human and not just like a plot obstacle that Bruce has to face. A metaphor for his past failures.

Dabi is drawn as a crying boy who wants comfort, Jason is shown to be a crying boy who wants comfort through both dialogue and action without us directly needing to be told. It's a heartbreaking line and doing it because he took me away from you and it lands perfectly because the narrative wants us to just look at Jason's grief. It doesn't add an asterisk* even though he was in pain, he's done unforgivable things that can't be justified to undercut Jason's suffering.

In fact that might be another underlying problem with The Hellish Todoroki Family, the narrative tries too hard to make you feel a certain way instead of just presenting things as they are to make you come to your own conclusion. UTRH doesn't support Jason's revenge based serial killing of villains. It doesn't say he's justified to cut off the heads of mobsters. However, it doesn't excessively state "Well, I'm really sorry what happened to you but what you've done can't be forgiven" so we don't have to challenge ourselves to feel too much empathy for Jason's suffering.

Meanwhile even when Toya tries to express his rightful anger and grief, we're always met with someone shutting him down and saying well yeah, but you're wrong, involving innocent people is unforgivable.

As said by @stillness-in-green in the replies to this post:

I think so much harm (in-universe, but the state of the Twitter fandom makes me think the messages are pretty toxic irl, too) comes out of portraying the Heroes as needing to weigh in on the *morality* of the Villains' actions before they gauge "saving" them, when that is not a thing that glorified cops have any business thinking they have the right to do. Demanding repentance before the rehab is so bizarre.

You can say someone's actions are wrong without using it as a factor to consider whether or not their suffering as a human being should be acknowledged, and like I said there's multiple instances of people just yelling at Toya how immoral he is instead of addressing the elephant in the room.

You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong.

(Okay, I understand that some people have interpreted this as a show of Honnae and Tatamae, the Todoroki's who are a very repressed household are finally talking about their feelings even if those feelings are selfish and ugly).

(I'm not criticizing Shoto for saying that the people he killed were his own choice necessarily, Shoto is a character who's actions need to be read more deeply than his words he was dedicated to bringing Dabi down without him burning himself any further start to finished. My criticism lies in the fact that Hori uses Shoto as a mouth piece because he thinks we need to be reminded that murder is bad).

However, even acknowledging that time and place man, time and place. They couldn't have done that in the aftermath, when Toya isn't burning to death?

Hey buddy, you're being selfish.

Toya: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'M MELTING, I'M MELTING.

This is I feel the underlying problem with the way the arc is written, not because the Todorokis are a very traditional Japanese family and there are cultural reasons they express their emotions differently, I'll give a caveat to that it's a nuance I might not understand.

However, I am arguing the actual problem is tell don't show. Horikoshi thinks that we as an audience need to be told multiple times that murder is bad, and we cannot be trusted to interpret that on our own.

Under the Red Hood shows both sides of Batman and Jason's debate, and let's us just come to the conclusion that Jason is in the wrong because revenge isn't justice. Horikoshi reaches no shit sherlock levels of telling us that we're not supposed to approve of Dabi's murders.

it's also a matter of giving Dabi narrative space to express his feelings, like every time Dabi tries to talk he is continually shut down (Shoto does engage Dabi talk to him and listen to why he didn't come back though I'll give him that) and it seems to be to push forward this weird idea that you shouldn't sympathize with the pain Dabi has endured or the ways he's dehumanized unless he does something to prove he deserves to be treated like a human being first.

Jason gets to monologue and make an entire argument, and his argument also shows the depths of his love for Bruce and what a deeply feeling person he is, and how those feelings being hurt and twisted could logically lead to his lashing out.

Compare this to Dabi who doesn't get a final monologue, but is instead reduced to a completely mindless state where he just cries out for his dad's attention. He doesn't get to make his argument.

Jason and Dabi both choose to blow themselves up, but Jason gets enough character agency to show this is a deliberate choice he's making even if it's the wrong one. He retains his character agency and ability to make decisions until the end of the narrative.

Jason's also you know physically crying. The end result of the narrative is about wrong choices that both Bruce and Jason make together, and then suffer the consequences together. Bruce watches the same failure play out again and he isn't able to save Jason, Jason doesn't get what he wants, he doesn't get revenge and he doesn't get to reunite with his father. It's tragic for both of them, and brought about by decisions both of them made.

Whereas yes Dabi makes a lot of bad decisions leading up to the last war arc, but in the end his final fate is up to a choice Enji made to not face Toya in the final battle.

However, while the final consequence of the battle is brought about more by Enji's decisions than Toya's, it's Toya who endures all the suffering and punishment. It's Toya who is in an iron coffin, and doomed to slowly and agonizingly die with all of his skin burnt off unable to move. Toya doesn't even get agency after the arc is over. Enji still has a wheelchair, Enji can still move around, Enji's still fucking rich, he's not in prison for his actions, he as Rei wheeling him around.

Toya's agency and choices are all taken from him, presumably to serve the plot purpose of making Enji save him to finish off his arc, and then ENJI DOESN'T EVEN SAVE HIM.

Also I think it's important to mention, Bruce's tragic ending is brought about by him attempting to save both, trying to save the joker and Jason with the same action. Whereas Enji's tragic ending is brought about by Enji NOT LIFTING A FUCKING FINGER TO HELP. Yet, it's Dabi who has the lion's share of suffering, and is sentenced to this horrific state of being skinless in an iron coffin and only being able to be awake a few minutes a day with no choice but to waste away.

Bruce is also immediately called out for his actions, by the Joker of all people, you handled this all wrong, it's your fault. Bruce is right to not kill the joker, killing the Joker would not have solved any of Jason's problems, but the fact that he put off facing Jason for so long, and his inability to communicate that he loves Jason is what leads to Jason thinking that the only way to prove Bruce loves him is to force him to choose. It's because Bruce has utterly failed to show him in any other way that he is loved.

Joker: Oh my god, I love it! You manage to find a way to win, and everyone still loses. I'm going to be the one who gets what he wants tonight, badda bing, badda boom."

I'd also like to add that a lot of agency in Enji's actions are taken away too, to make him look more blameless. It's not Enji's fault that he didn't say anything to Dabi during Dabi's dance, he passed out because he had a punctured lung. It's not Enji's fault that he spent a month protecting Deku instead of searching for Toya, he had to protect innocent people. It's not Enji's fault that he didn't go immediately to face Toya in the final war arc Hawks told him not to.

It's not Enji's fault that he made Shoto and Toya fight like Pokemon instead of cleaning up his own mess, and also he feels really sorry for it and as soon as he's done punching the bad guy he'll look after Toya he promises.

Enji does get called out for this behavior but it falls flat because it only comes from the villain AFO, and Toya himself. As I stated above too, the ending is more influenced by Enji's actions not Toya's (because Toya's agency is stripped away until he's mindless) but Toya is the one who has to die while Enji gets to live and atone.

That is the real sticking point for The Hellish Todoroki Family, the way it ends.

Themes Are For Eight Graders

The underlying problem with the whole arc and why The Hellish Todoroki Family fails as a tragedy, is because it wasn't written to be a tragedy.

The above quote is from an interview with the writers of the widely hated Game of Thrones Season 8, which took a sudden tragic turn for Dany's character, gave her an incredibly dehumanizing ending of being put down like a rabid dog by her own lover, an ending that was neither foreshadowed nor did it match with anything written before.

In this meta here by @hamliet it goes far more into depth that Game of Thrones isn't a tragedy, but a piece of Romantic fiction (not a love story, Romanticism is a genre of big emotions, the beauty of life, larger than life ideas hence why it fits well with fantasy genre, it can be sad but it doesn't follow tragic structure).

Dany is a romantic heroine, a deconstruction of the idea of the classic warrior princess trope, and you know a colonizer, but she's not meant to be written as an inherently bad person. There are people who say that Dany was going to die in the original books. I'm one of those people. Me. However, context and framing matters, Dany for all her colonizing ways does genuinely want to do the right thing, so it's likely she'd die a heroic death as a reflection of her selfless intentions (and intentions do matter for fictional characters) whereas in the show she's put down as a villain.

Now watch me I'm going to coin a term for future literary critics to use: Narrative Gaslighting.

Narrative gaslighting is different then Show Don't Tell, where an author has just failed to properly show what they're trying to tell you in the story. Narrative Gaslighting is when a narrative deliberately tries to mislead you, straight up lies to you, or just insists things that did not happen totally happened guys. Much like real gaslighting, Narrative Gaslighting makes you feel stupid for interpreting things a certain way and insists you were wrong all along.

Narrative gaslighting is when Tyrian gives a speech that everyone should have suspected Dany when she burned slavers alive that she was secretly evil and would one day turn on them.

Like, no.

Dany is flawed because she is a foreigner, interfering with the politics of a different country that she does not understand in order to gain enough resources and men to return to her home country and invade that country to exercise her right as a Targeryn to uphold the divine right of kings.

Game of Thrones doesn't mention any of that shit that's in alignment with the previous actions in the story, it's just insisting the very ableist notion that Dany was insane all along and her violence towards other people is the result of her mental illness.

(Also before anyone says, so if she's a colonizer than how can she have good intentions, everyone is Bad in Game of Thrones, they're all waging war to vie for a throne, monarchy is bad guys. IDK how to tell you that Game of Thrones has gray on gray on gray on gray morality).

(Also this aside ties into the hangup of MHA and most popular fandom culture on Twitter, that Dany's moral failings somehow disqualify her from her humanity. In spite of the fact that on top of all of that she's a rape victim, and like, Dany's only on that continent in the first place because she was sold as a bride.)

But here's the same weird subtext that Horikoshi's writing of Dabi. The fact that Dabi was continually victimized and denied human dignity does not need to be addressed, because he did the bad things and didn't atone properly enough for it first.

In essence this random post on the gunnerkrigg court forums I found on the same day the chapter came out, displaying apollo's gift of prophecy.

"When someone is persecuted, it's important to inform everyone about their flaws. That way you don't have to feel anything about all the times that they were denied human dignity."

So, Dany is not written as a tragic hero but a romantic one, we as an audience are both meant to acknowledge her flaws and sympathize with her, not demonize her in an ableist way for being insane, and even if Dany is meant to die the tragic way she dies does not match up with all of the narrative foreshadowing that was built before that.

Like, for instance a lot of POC after the show ended kept telling everyone that Dany's actions in a foreign country were seriously problematic, and not only did the audience not listen but the showwiters didn't acknowledge it with the same subtlety as the books. So those people especially were able to pick up Dany's character flaws, and when the show finally acknowledged them it's not even in the way that critiques of the show were pointing out Dany's flaws it was just "she was insane all along." Not like taking time to go "no matter what the intention, interfering with the politics of a foreign country is wrong."

The problem with the Todoroki arc is essentially the same, down to the ableism (because outsiders continually call Dabi either a maniac or insane Demon without even giving credence to his grievances about hero society he's just reduced to an insane fringe element of society, and Dabi himself is reduced to a completely mindless, childish, insane screaming state where he can't make active decisions).

The Todoroki Arc is not set up to us as a tragic one. The ending is pretty clearly telegraphed to the whole audience. People are not wrong for thinking that Toya's ending would be either rehabilitation like Rei with the eventual hope of being welcomed home, or some kind of house arrest where he still gets to be with his family.

Everyone happy at the Dinner table and Enji not sitting with them.

"I wish you could be here, Toya."

"We all have to go stop, Toya."

"In that case, I'll make him sit down for a bowl with me."

Even Shoto's efforts to take down Toya non-lethally are rendered completely pointless, because Toya gets back up again and then burns himself alive (completely by his own choice so no one has to feel bad that they failed).

The story sets up the expectation that Toya is going to be brought home and sit down for a meal with his family. Then it makes you feel stupid for going in an entirely different direction. It was always going to end this way didn't you know The Todorokis are a tragedy?

Well, I just spent a very long section of this thesis statement illustrating that if it's supposed to be a tragedy, then it's still not written well.

It's a written as a romantic story of a family healing, and the villain getting saved, only for the villain not to be saved and the story to just keep on going like not getting saved isn't a huge failure. This is something that should permanently destroy the main characters, that they got the chance to repeat Sekoto peak and be there this time and they all utterly failed. I feel bad for Shoto most of all because he did everything right, and he still loses his brother, but does the story show that?

The problem is the story is blatantly lying to you about the fact that Toya was somehow saved, even though he LITERALLY LOOKS LIKE HELLRAISER. To quote Codenamesanzanka again:

But I feel the story couldn't give us that because it will remind the reader and everyone just how much Touya will be missing. In-story, talking any more will overburden Touya's heart - and how apt is that metaphor? So let's talk about how we'll talk, but that's all that's allowed here for this scene. Else we'll see how unfair it is that Touya has to be confined to this room, he isn't with his family and they have to come to this prison just to tell him about their day, and soon he will be gone. Details make it real, and it would've exposed the lie that Touya was saved in an actual way. The story knows it too - "this extra time Shouto gave us." This is all 'extra', and not the core. [...] If the story was sincere that this is a case of "it's simply too late" - as it should be!!! imo, to really drive in the clear point that they failed, they did not get the save they wanted, because that's the truth - the tone of the chapter isn't tragic enough for that. The tone is going for 'Making Peace With This'. We've skipped the stages of grief and all we have is acceptance. The characters have accepted this, and so must the readers as well.

Therefore it's narrative gaslighting, the story is making us doubt our perceptions and trying instead to manipulate us to feel a certain way. We don't have to question the unfairness of Toya's fate, because look at all the people he's hurt, and look how Enji is atoning and taking responsibility.

The story builds up the idea that Enji will choose Toya. That he will choose being a father over being a hero. Enji doesn't do that, and it's Toya who suffers the horrific, painful consequences while Enji gets off mostly scott free. Mind you it's also ableist to suggest that being in a wheelchair is some sort of life-ending consequence like he's fine. The story even goes out of its way to say how avoidable this ending could have been if Enji or Rei or someone lifted a single finger to give Toya the acknowledgement he wanted, and then gives it a "Too little, Too Late" conclusion but doesn't acknowledge that this is where it's ending and instead tells us that Enji has successfully atoned.

"Everyone's watching me. So this is what it's like. If it was such a simple thing, then why not sooner?"

If it was going to turn out this way Toya should have just died here, not because death would somehow be a mercy compared to life in prison, but because the Todoroki Family doesn't deserve to get to pat themselves on the back. If they let Sekoto Peak happen a second time, then they should have to deal with the consequences of that.

It would be consistent is my point. This is written as a "Too Little, Too Late" kind of ending, but we don't get the emotional response from the Todorokis that they've let Toya die a second time.

On the other hand, UTRH has the exact same tragic ending but it doesn't make me angry because it's honest about it. The Todorokis let Sekoto peak happen a second time. Batman let Death in the Family happen a second time, but look at how even the narration and comic panels of the story acknowledge it.

"Fate is a funny thing. It swells up like a raging current and we are forced to travel. It provides us no exit. No deviation. It drops us in a bottomless ocean and compels us. We either swim, or drown, and sometimes as we struggle against the tide, a great truth arises."

One ends with Enji meaninglessly stating that he'll spend the rest of his life atoning for Toya and watching over him (which I guess will be like two months tops) for the fifth time. The other ends with Batman being lectured by the Joker of all people of how he chose wrong and being forced to watch once again as a warehouse blows up, and he's completely helpless to save Jason.

UTRH ends with the message that Batman sucks, Enji's atonement arc ends with Natsuo calling him cool for atoning and UTRH makes me like Batman way more as a character. Whereas at this point I feel nothing from the Todoroki Family, except for a disgust for the way that Toya not only has to die, but has to die a slow, gruesome death while the rest of his family walks away with the small comfort of "oh at least we'll get to say what we need to say before Toya passes."

Especially with the fact that Toya's greatest fear was that when he died, he died meaninglessly because his family never grieved him and all moved on with their life. I guess we don't have to analyze how gross the underlying message that criminals don't deserve to be sympathized with because themes are for eighth graders.

EPILOGUE

The post is finished but apparently everyone expects me to cover every single possible angle even in posts this long.

You didn't address the cultural aspect. Under the Red Hood is a western story, and Todoroki Family is based on eastern concepts.

The post isn't about that. The post is long enough I can't cover every single topic. Here's someone who covered that topic thoroughly. This one discusses more about the nuances of collectivism.

Also, since the Todoroki Family obviously copied Under the Red Hood's homework, it warrants a comparison. Especially since it seems to critically misunderstand what made the original work.

Which is a valid form of Literary Criticism, as Ursula K Le Guinn once said:

 It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does.

The Todorkis aren't all to blame for Toya. Natsu, Fuyumi and Shoto are innocent:

You're right. It's just easier to refer them as the Todorokis then specifying "Enji and Rei" each time.

You didn't mention Shoto once in this post:

I have no cricism for Shoto's role in all this. In fact I think he's the best written part. I praise it here.

Shoto is a good boy, and he deserved to spend more time with his brother. The fact he won't be able to sit down and have dinner of him, is the greatest tragedy of them all.

[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.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 428: Night of the Kouhai

Previously on BnHA: Well at least Spinner is sort of kind of doing okay??

Today on BnHA: I see the check that I sent to Horikoshi finally cleared.

okay first things first, you all know how it is right. I’ve never made a secret of my Kacchan bias on this blog. I promise you I did actually write a recap to 426 and 427 as well, but both of those chapters went HEAVY on the themes and drama and philosophical shit, and my reactions were kind of all over the place, and the Todoroki one in particular was like a million words wrong and it needs a shit ton of editing which I don’t know when I’ll have the spoons for

on the other hand however, a chapter like this which features class 2A cuteness and an absolutely unreasonable amount of Kacchan character development fanservice to hyperfixate on, takes absolutely no spoons at all and in fact actively recharges some of my spoons, so yeah. here we are

anyway so when we last left off Kacchan and Shouto were in terrible danger from a threat more terrifying than any they’ve ever encountered before. so I already knew this chapter was going to be great

“IIDA IS BIG AND STRONG AND AUTHORITATIVE, LET’S HIDE BEHIND HIM, HE WILL PROTECT US” everyone, I’m delighted to announce that the BnHA manga ending arc, despite having its ups and downs until this point, has officially been saved thanks to this panel right here. pack it up folks. this was officially a sweeping success. this panel brought Tomura back to life and teleported Touya’s mind back into his childhood self from roughly ten years ago time travel fix-it style. Horikoshi you beautiful bastard

Shouto trying to explain that he can handle them one on one but just not ALL TOGETHER IN THIS TERRIFYING SWARM LIKE THIS... buddy you don’t have to explain yourself sob. or is he trying to negotiate with them??

meanwhile Kacchan skips the negotiations entirely because he’s already assessed the situation and knows that the best way to handle this is to appeal to Iida Tenya’s boundless love of regulation and social order

y’all it’s killing me that this boy can handle being LITERALLY MURDERED by the greatest evil the world has ever known. but a group of admiring fifteen year old kouhais? no sir. that’s where he taps out

“but I thought Bakugou liked attention” yes well, you see, Shinsou, it’s kinda a “monkey’s paw curls” sort of thing

Kaminari with the BLACK SPEECH BUBBLE lmfao. FRIENDSHIP WITH KACCHAN HAS BEEN CANCELLED. NOW MIDORIYA IS MY BEST FRIEND

“well you see up until recently the ladies all thought Kacchan was a feral troll so they avoided him at all costs” wow Deku this man literally died for you and you just throw him under the bus with zero hesitation just like that

“SOURCE: ME, HIS CHILDHOOD FRIEND” just adding in his credentials in that little footnote there lest anyone question his authority on the subject

wait so is Shinsou surprised that girls used to not like Kacchan? or is he surprised that Kacchan and Deku were childhood friends? I can see how the latter might be surprising (oh Shinsou, sometimes I forget that you effectively just got here. we have so much to catch you up on. you will not BELIEVE how badly the two of these kids just want to hold hands all the time), but ngl, I’m rooting for the former just for the implications. “you’re seriously telling me a certified ten like him never had any girls interested in him?”

Horikoshi, hear me out, I know there are only two chapters left after this, and they’ve both already been written. but if you wanted to rewrite one of them at the last minute in order to add about a dozen more pages solely dedicated to Shinsou interrogating the rest of class 2A about Kacchan’s love life, out of what he insists is just innocent curiosity with no ulterior motives. well, I would not complain about that

anyway so yes Shinsou he is still single, for now. though I don’t really think it’s the girls you need to be worried about

meanwhile Mineta is all, “I just wanted to let all of you know MY opinion, which is that Bakugou isn’t morally upstanding enough for my delicate sensibilities.” yes you heard that right. Mineta of all people is weighing in on which personalities are deserving of being popular. that’s some audacity right there

A WILD DEKU FANBOY APPEARS???!

“IT GAVE ME COURAGE” omg yesssssss. jotting this down for essay material at some future point in time!! because THIS. this right here is the true “what it means to be a hero” in my opinion. a hero is someone who brings reassurance, yes. someone who makes people feel safe. but I think a hero should also be someone who makes people feel brave. someone who inspires other people to be heroic in turn. so yes, this, all of this, inject it into my veins. wtg Deku

having an official fanboy apparently broke Deku’s brain. hang in there bud. I know you’ve still got villain angst to work through, but try to enjoy this. you’re allowed to have nice things

IS MINETA STRANGLING KACCHAN BY HIS FUCKING TIE OMFG. THAT’S WHY HE NEVER USED TO WEAR THEM. also you’ve worn my patience down all the way now Mineta. get the fuck out of my blog

also Kacchan successfully beat the shit out of him with his ONE GOOD ARM so take that Mineta

also shoutout to this KiriBaku moment right here which feels like the first time we’ve had the two of them together in ages. good stuff

I’m LOVING this panel of Ochako staring at Deku all indecipherably, but ngl it’s also giving me just the slightest bit of anxiety, because does this mean we’re finally gonna get answers on what ultimately happened to Toga. it better not be sad. please don’t ruin my happy chapter with depressing things Horikoshi

“tell them no” OH MY GOD AIZAWA’S TURNING DOWN ALL THE INTERVIEW REQUESTS FOR HIS KIDS SO THEY CAN JUST BE KIDS AGAIN FOR A LITTLE WHILE nooooo what is this. “yeah but I’m prioritizing the kids who aren’t up for dishing to the media about all of their horrific trauma.” omfg. it’s been too long since my last Dadzawa feels. I wasn’t ready after all this time

you guys Izuku finally got a new hero costume that’s not in tatters after all this time. all it took was his old costume getting literally torn to shreds. and now he’s back to looking twelve years old again lol

JEANIST AND FATGUM REUNION?!?! RETURN OF KACCHAN’S THIRD DAD, AND A SECOND WACKY UNCLE TO BACK UP GOOD OLD MIC? GOD BLESS

FAT HIRED TAMAKI AS A SIDEKICK D’AWWWW

now they’re putting the kids to work. glorified janitorial duty. Deku you better not be using up any more of your embers on this sob

this motherfucker did not just liken my baby boy Kacchan to “distressed denim” omg. we have less than three chapters left and we’re spending our hard-earned time on this and I TRULY WOULD NOT CHANGE A SINGLE THING

“Kacchan on light duty” PROTECT HIM!!! don’t think I don’t see you over there too in the background, Aizawa. he’s surrounded by dads. they’re not letting him out of their sight again until he’s thirty

meanwhile he’s out here quietly sorting through trash with his one good hand without complaint and without even the barest hint of a gremlin face. with his half-and-half costume so we can’t see how fucked up his arm is. AND NO MORE MASK. we burned the mask. my thank you letters are in the mail, Horikoshi. and you too TomurAFO, this was your actual greatest contribution to society

ANOTHER DAD?!?!?!

dfjsdlfksldkfjl

“don’t worry, I’m gradually recovering” fsdfkslfkj r.i.p. my ability to take this man seriously ever again. do you think his voice is like the normal sexy Edgeshot ASMR voice except all high-pitched like a squirrel in a Disney princess movie. it is, isn’t it

he can make hands now. buddy you’re amazing. mvp of the entire fucking manga. my son literally owes you his life. please let me see you sitting Jeanist’s shoulder like a parrot before this wonderful glorious chapter ends

Kacchan’s little cheek scar is somehow both badass and adorable at the same time. I can’t stress how fucking much this chapter is just surrounding me with “protect him at all costs” feelings.

MORE SOFT KACCHAN FEELS ON THE NEXT PAGE BECAUSE HORIKOSHI WROTE THIS CHAPTER SPECIFICALLY FOR ME, THANK YOU SO MUCH

“are you... [ever] gonna go back to normal?” because if not he’s gonna cry himself to sleep every night for the rest of his life!! no big!! YOU WOULDN’T DO THAT TO HIM WOULD YOU EDGESHOT?

NO HE WOULD NOT. THANK YOU EDGESHOT. ONCE AGAIN YOU ARE A REAL ONE

...or wait. so does he mean he is indeed going to go back to normal eventually? or is it that he’s embracing this new form as an exciting new evolution, hence the “even further”? it kind of feels like the latter, ngl. especially with this weird sad little smile Kacchan gives in response... fuck me. what the hell am I gonna do when this series ends in two weeks. nobody can rip my soul to pieces as utterly and effortlessly as Horikoshi does, man

THEY MADE THE KIDS LUNCH AWWWW. though in fairness there’s something seriously messed up with Japan if any of these kids ever has to pay for another meal again for the REST OF THEIR LIVES. like come on

noooooo goddammit I’m tired of seeing Izuku quietly despairing over things that AREN’T HIS FAULT

I am glad to see this side of the civilian population, though. sure have come a long way since the low point that was the U.A. clown mob. I like this a whole lot better ngl

what’s up with this mysterious bus all of a sudden

OH MY GOD THEY’RE BACK LMAO. QUICKLY BAKUDADS. form a perimeter

they’re apologizing again dsfkjlskdfjlsfd THEY DIDN’T EVEN CONSIDER EVERYONE’S CIRCUMSTANCES!!! holy shit these first years are all collectively my new favorite character

Cementoss couldn’t take the pressure omfg. is this your first year as a homeroom teacher?? YOU CAN MAKE ANYTHING OUT OF CEMENT BUT CAN YOU MAKE YOURSELF A FREAKING SPINE, CEMENTOSS. I love him

Cementoss is telling them to go work in the corner so they don’t bother everyone else lmao. stuck them as far away from Kacchan as possible. good looking out, Cementoss. how many dads are we up to now?? five? six if we count Iida????

“hey so anyway what actually is up with these fucking kouhai though” I don’t know but my greatest regret is that this only became a thing three chapters before the series finale. where has this nonsense been all my life

“I don’t really understand” me neither fella but here in BnHA land we just roll with it

now we’re cutting back to Ochako who’s making yet another mysterious face that makes me think she knows perfectly well how much we all want to know whether Toga is alive or not, and she’s deliberately dragging it out just to fuck with us

okay I honestly can’t tell if Ochako is being fake cheerful or genuinely cheerful. but it’s definitely fake cheerful right??

aaaaand there’s a close up of Deku with FULL LIGHT back in his eyes like the clouds just parted for the first time in an age. accompanied by a THROB sound effect. ohhhh buddy. did my boy just have a hormone. is it finally that time

THEY’RE LETTING THE KIDS GO BACK HOME OMG. if they want. awwww. r.i.p. fanfic dorms. poor Shinsou missing out ONCE AGAIN

THEY DIDN’T CATCH THE CONCLUSION OF THE TOGACHAKO FIGHT ON FILM??! oh hell no. that settles it, she’s definitely still alive

tell me this cheeky motherfucker (Horikoshi, not Ochako lol) isn’t going to try and actually END THE SERIES with Toga’s fate still all ~mysterious~ and ~up in the air~ like I’m starting to get the sneaking suspicion that he’s doing

HORIKOSHI I SAID I DIDN’T WANT A DEPRESSING CHAPTER WHY ARE YOU HITTING ME WITH THESE FEELS AFTER I LET MY GUARD DOWN

YOU REALLY GAVE MY GIRL A SYMBOLIC FRODO STYLE ANGSTY STAB WOUND SO SHE CAN NEVER FORGET THE PAIN OF THAT DAY ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW WITH THIS

DEKU AHHHHHH

oh my god lol. I’m so curious what’s going to happen next week. my money for the record is on them bonding in a STRICTLY PLATONIC WAY over their respective dead(!??!?!) villains rather than a Romance Thing happening. but I wouldn’t be bothered if they do go there though just so long as we don’t get any timeskip epilogues where they’ve all got fucking kids and such now. don’t you do that to me Horikoshi Kouhei. I swear to god two chapters left omfg. this is really happening. the inexorable march of time etc. etc. ahhhhhhhhh

[razorblade180]

HEAVY MHA MANGA SPOILERS

People: Horikoshi loves subverting expectations! How could this be what he’s written!?

Me:…You wanted the 15 year old Shonen protagonist to achieve everything he ever wanted and for everyone to make it out okay. He did subvert expectations. They just weren’t yours.

People:I like how realistic children of Endeavor acted in the end because that what happens in abusive households. You don’t have to reconnect.

Also People:I can’t believe we didn’t save the villains, some citizens don’t care, and Deku failed.

Me:Man, it’s almost like it’s realistic that a teenager with strong conviction came up short despite trying everything he possibly could against someone who never once said he wanted to change; how could a growing boy possibly not achieve perfectly going against the weight of the world?

I don’t mean to be completely insensitive but a section of this fandom really just can’t seem to balance reality with extreme optimism. (delulu) Admittedly, I’m shocked about Toga but when it comes to everyone else there really is no reason to have expected them to get any semblance of a nice ending. Bare minimum they’d all go to prison because they destabilized a country and murdered so many people. No tragic backstory is getting you out of that.

Now I will say the most recent chapter feels a little rushed to me but the overall message the show has been preaching is still communicated. They never looked away from taking the hard path; to the very end, they tried to save everyone they and they will do it again despite the risk. We even get the panels of an old lady deciding to reach out this time instead of waiting for a hero to take care of it because “The essence of being a hero is meddling where you don’t have to.” People are starting to actually look at their fellow man! That was the original complaint from the league; hero society just letting people fall through cracks without a second thought!

Everyone has a right to be mad, but you can be mad and still see the point even if it’s not point you wanted to be made.

All and all I can’t say I’m particularly mad about how most things generally went, but that’s because anything that would’ve upset me would have to come from immense character favortism/bias that muddies narratives and character traits. For example, you can’t have Izuku save Tomura and he gets some kind of decent ending, but then have Overhaul rot in prison. Touya can’t have a happy life but Endeavor is condemned forever by everyone. Doing that doesn’t make with any sort of messaging and character ideals that want to be presented. None of that happened though so I’m chillin.

As for the shippers, I don’t know what to tell ya? Welcome to your Naruto initiation? Balance your preference with what text and scenes are actually saying to see the obvious boats that will probably make it to end so you can at least brace impact next time. You can ship proudly and be fully aware your boat is sinking, or in some cases, smile snuggly because you always knew you’d make it to the finish line.

[dippable]

autism and media. spoilers for criminal minds, my hero academia, and dungeon meshi.

okay so, i'm an autistic person, and i've seen portrayals of autism (both implied and explicit) and they've had.. a range of quality overall.

in explicit examples, i've seen only a few. spencer reid comes to mind first- the autistic savant with an eidetic memory and a penchant for seeming robotic. i, personally, was heavily influenced by this guy- i did (and kind of still do) enjoy criminal minds after all. however, spencer's existence as one of the first explicitly autistic characters that was seen by a wider audience. the show was insanely popular, but in the later seasons (mainly after he was sent to prison) many of his autistic traits seem to fade away. of course, he is a traumatized man who was on high alert for a WHILE, but one would expect he wouldn't lose many of his core personality traits. personally, i think these were written out since his traits weren't seen as "popular", since autistic people can offend those they love or say the wrong thing on accident and it seemed too weird.

second, my hero academia. i don't think any of these characters are explicitly autistic, but i haven't watched in a while. mainly, i see deku and tamaki as autistic (although bakugo, aizawa, and shigaraki are.... suspicious) and i believe my views on these two are mainly influenced by the rest of the fandom, so here goes. overall, i think the characterization of these two lends itself directly to their emotional or anxious nature. most media i see with one or both of them severely dumbs them down to these traits, with tamaki getting the brunt of this treatment. most don't seem to remember that both of them are strong for their age, smart, and have faith in their quirks. even if tamaki might seem pessimistic about fights, he's just that- pessimistic. he's much more inclined to believe he'll lose because if he does, he's prepared to do what he can to help whoever comes after. deku is emotional, yes, but who wouldn't be? he's a teenager who's been told over and over again that he's a failure and he'll never achieve his dream, and suddenly, he's being helped by the #1 hero to become the person that he thought was unattainable. i think horikoshi's representation of them is alright, it's just mainly the fandom that compresses them into "uwu anxious cinnamon rolls too sweet for this earth" instead of remembering they're multifaceted characters, and damaging their own interpretations of real people in the process.

in dungeon meshi, i don't know if they're explicitly autistic (however laios and falin are HEAVILY HINTED AT so.) but the representation of autism here is incredible. in the series, we see laios fuck up with shuro (and, notably, we see the fandom sweep it under the rug because laios is white) while he has real, genuinely close relationships with others (marcille is like a sister to him, and chilchuck's his best friend) so we know he is a multifaceted character. he's also tied to the tendency of autistic people to be interested in fringe interests, or alterhuman circles. he thinks (like many others) that he's weird enough to people, so he throws all caution to the wind and goes all-in on being weird. i know that when i realized i was "too weird" for others, i just stopped caring, and that's how i got into many of my favorite things- like OFF, house of leaves, etc etc. if they thought i was weird then, i don't really want to know what they think i am now, especially since i'm out here playing obscure meta rpgs or reading books that require me to flip them around.

overall, i think the representations of autistic people in media have a long way to go. there is still a critical shortage of autistic poc in media, and many representations of autism are still influenced by the savant stereotype we see with spencer reid (see: the good doctor) and there's still a variety of symptoms that haven't been shown accurately yet. i'm very proud of where we've come, though- now, i can see an incredibly accurate portrayal of myself in laios, but there's still many autistic people who haven't seen someone they can relate to on the silver screen.

[bnhaobservation]

BNHA ENDING or how a good plan might become something not so good when written down

So time has gone by but people who’re unsatisfied about BNHA ending remain.

Of course part of this might be because people had personal wishes that weren’t fulfilled, and part of this might be due to cultural clash that didn’t allow the whole message of the story to pass smoothly when the story was offered to an international readership, but, I think, another problem might be that Horikoshi’s Doylist purposes end up on moving the characters more than their Watsonian intentions.

What do I mean by this?

When you write a story you often draw a general outline of what you, the author, want to happen in it so that you’ll insure the themes of the story, the messages you want to pass and the arcs you want to close will be carried on by the plot. It’s usually a good thing because it allows you to stay on track.

Then you flesh out everything by writing the story itself. This is the part in which you write the characters and make them move as if everything that happens in the story was due to their wants, wishes and mistakes and not due to your own will, so that the story feels like a smooth and logical narration of what people are doing of their own free will and of what is logically happening to them in consequence.

The BNHA ending has a good outline as the author’s plan was definitely good.

As the ending touches various plotlines I’ll take the part regarding the Todoroki plotline for example (also because it’s the part I love the most) but I could take almost whatever bit of it, starting from the bit in which the plan to split the Villains is put in action.

So let’s first go through what the outline Horikoshi planned likely said:

FINAL WAR ARC

Touya and Shouto end up together in Kamino and, with them there are also Endeavor’s sidekicks and Iida (PLUS POINT: This will built up the idea of how Endeavor’s sidekicks will remain supportive of him so that their arc will close with them continuing to be supportive of him in the epilogue). Touya and Shouto talk and how Touya survived the fire is revealed (PLUS POINT: this clears up something we were previously left in the dark about and starts to get the basis for the idea that AFO is to blame for everything). Shouto and the sidekicks realize Touya is suicidal. Touya and Shouto have a big COOL fight in which Shouto put to action a new ultimate move (PLUS POINT: Shouto shows why he was born in his family carrying on his arc). Touya is temporally stopped.

In Gunga Endeavor gets distracted and All for One makes him even more upset by revealing his involvement in Touya’s tragedy. This leads Enji to end up wounded but he thinks back to his origin and overcomes this (PLUS POINT: Enji gets a tragic past) and, despite losing his arm, put up a big COOL fight, thinks at how he won’t stand in the way of the kids’ future and manages to seriously wound All for One. All for One uses the rewind bullet.

Touya wakes up, copies Shouto’s technique and uses Kurogiri’s warp gate to reach his father. Shouto and the rest remain behind. Enji worries about Shouto’s survival and then leads Touya away from the battleground only to discover his son is about to blow up and he can’t stop him. Endeavor discovers Touya also has a ice Quirk. Geten tells us the Himura’s history and how he’s an Himura and Compress is alive (PLUS POINT: this explains why ice Quirk was predominant in Enji’s kids to the point even Touya has one ice quirk). Enji takes responsibility and decides to die with Touya. Rei, Fuyumi and Natsuo arrive and try to help (PLUS POINT: the Todorokis deal with their regrets carrying on their arc and Touya finally feels seen which carries on his arc). Shouto arrives there thanks to Iida (PLUS POINT: Iida becomes the Hero he wanted to be carrying on his arc) and saves the day in a COOL way. Enji apologizes to Touya who cries and his fire, both physical and psychological is finally shut down (PLUS POINT: This mostly ends Touya’s arc), then Enji apologizes to the whole family (PLUS POINT: he carries on his atonement arc). Shouto faints.

EXTRA

Shouto and Enji will fight again against All for One in Shigaraki's body (PLUS POINT: this carries on their atonement to society), although it’ll be Midoriya the one who'll beat him.

In the epilogue, days after the battle ended, the whole family will visit Touya at the hospital, where we’re told Touya is dying. The family confirms its wish to keep on talking with him until he’ll die, Shouto and Touya learn how each other favorite food is the same (PLUS POINT: This allow Touya and Shouto to connect and lead Touya to regret what he did to Shouto, closing their ‘siblings’ arc). Once the family leaves Touya, the fate of the other family members is revealed: Fuyumi got another job, Natsuo will marry and cut contacts with Enji, Shouto will continue to stay at U.A. high, Rei will remain with Enji who’ll continue to try to protect his kids. (PLUS POINT: Enji continues to take responsibility, strengthening his atonement arc) Natsuo acknowledges his father's efforts as cool, calling him father for the first time (PLUS POINT: this ends the Todoroki family arc in a way that paves the way for a possible reconciliation (even though Natsuo previously expressed the wish to never see Enji again), and therefore to a happy ending for the family). Enji’s sidekicks as well as Hawks and Kurumada will keep on supporting Enji (PLUS POINT: This reaffirms the theme of supporting Heroes when they can’t keep up any longer). Much later Shouto is confirmed to have turned into the Hero he wanted to be. (PLUS POINT: This closes Shouto’s arc)

THE END

Of course this is not, exactly, how Horikoshi wrote his outline, this is how I think he wrote it according to the story he wrote (but the plot might have been changed along the way, enriched or shortened), and I’ve split the whole outline in two parts, labeling as extra the final fight with All for One and the epilogue. That’s because the final fight with AFO is more a cameo and the epilogue merely confirms and expands most of what was basically into the final war arc already, with one notable exception, the ‘reconciliation’ between Shouto and his brother which we can find SOLELY in the epilogue.

I’ve also underlined the action scenes as ‘COOL’ because in an action manga like BNHA you need cool fighting scenes, and often people think the more, the better.

So, as you can see, in the final war outline, we’ve three cool fighting moments (the Shouto/Touya fight, the Enji/AFO fight, Shouto saving the day) [yeah, I’m not counting as a fight the Enji/Touya one as there was really no fighting… if you want we can label Touya’s nuking technique as cool, but as it ends up sliding into Shouto’s cool final saving the day moment it feels redundant to do so], the chance to expand things with info (how Touya survived, AFO’s involvement, the Himura background) and moments in which the characters’ arcs are advanced/lead to conclusion. The epilogue is mostly kind of like a bonus which just strengthen and confirm all that was said/shown here (the only really relevant thing here is the moment of bonding between Shouto and Touya, everything else was implied, if not outright stated, in previous scenes).

Anyway, in this outline we’ve Shouto becoming the Hero he wants to be, the Todoroki family coming together and finally looking at Touya, Enji acknowledging his wrongdoings, showing he’s willing to sacrifice so as not to let his son die alone (finally acting like a father) and apologizing to Touya and to the rest of the family, and Touya sort of reconciling with them. Yes, I hear you, he still said he hates his father, but he switched from ‘die shitty old man’ to ‘I hate you, dad’ and he’s crying and previously he thought he wanted to talk with them more so this is Touya’s way to ‘reconcile’ by venting to his family instead than against the world like Natsuo and Shouto and Enji asked him to do.

Originally there was another plus point, Shouto commenting it was Touya the one who was the Masterpiece Endeavor wanted (someone with an amazing firepower and who could use ice to cool himself down), which meant to close the arc in which he viewed himself as a failure as well as be another stab to Enji, but it was removed for the final version likely because it was completely in bad taste in such an emotional moment for Shouto to slip into the Masterpiece topic, never mentioning the realization Touya was the one with the Quirk Enji wanted all along, came already when Enji realized Touya had a fire Quirk, no need to repeat it, and so all that remained was Shouto showing appreciation for his brother’s ability to raise heat.

It’s a damn good outline, one that carries on the family members arcs and gives us cool moments and additional info and so on. It works great on paper.

It doesn’t work so great when Horikoshi transposed it into his manga though.

Why?

Because the Doylist reasons for why things happen often force the characters to act in a way for which the Watsonian reasons, even when the story gives them (and it doesn’t always give them), are poor or not so good, when not outright OOC.

Basically on the Watsonian side of the story we’ve plenty of problems and, while we can make up some answers for them, fundamentally the story mostly handwaves them because they’re not important, what’s important is for the story to keep on following the outline.

In fact let’s go through the outline again and look at what doesn’t work for the Watsonian perspective but works just fine for the Doylist one.

Touya and Shouto end up together in Kamino and, with them there are also Endeavor’s sidekicks and Iida.

Watsonian problem: The sidekicks hardly contribute to the fight. 4 Heroes, 3 of them seasoned Pro and they just stand around and watch as Touya and Shouto exchange blows, with only one notable exception in which Enji’s sidekicks take a blow aimed at Shouto at the end of the fight, when all around a war is waged and resources are stretched thin. From a Watsonian perspective it doesn’t make sense, there’s no reason to waste resources like that. So why this happens?

Doylist answer: The sidekicks and Iida can’t attack Touya, that’s Shouto’s moment to shine, bringing him down isn’t meant to be a group effort but the result of Shouto’s hard work who, through this, proves why he was born in that family and moves to the path for becoming the Hero he wants to be. At the same time Iida needs to be there because he’ll bring Shouto to Gunga later on and the sidekicks need to be there because Horikoshi needs to develop them so as it wouldn’t come out of nowhere they would support Enji at the end of the story. Also, involving the sidekicks in the fight too much, would stretch the scene more and make it look as if the Heroes are ganging up on Touya, who’s not as powerful as AFO. This would end up making Shouto look weak and the fight look unfair as it would be Touya against many. So it’s one against one and Shouto can win by his power only.

Touya and Shouto talk…

Watsonian problem: Touya and Shouto talk more than once through the fight, but all their talks carry on the same problem. In fact we see how Touya first complains about how Enji isn’t there to face him, which upsets him because he interprets it as Enji AGAIN not caring about him, which again hurts him. Then he tells Shouto he went back home only to discover again he was judged a failure and the family left him in the past, which was something that hurt him. Ultimately Touya tells Shouto they’re different and Shouto can’t understand him. All this hurts Touya and makes him angry and more determinate to fight Shouto. Shouto though, could have corrected Touya’s beliefs. Shouto KNOWS Enji wanted to face him, Enji even phoned Shouto asking him to switch, Shouto knows the family didn’t forget Touya but mourned him, his mother’s health got worse when he was assumed dead, Natsuo spent more time talking to the Butsudan than talking to Shouto, when Touya turned out alive his father cried and the whole family expressed regret for what had happened. Shouto wants to connect with Touya, he wants to sit down and eat with him, he would even accept to eat hot udon in order to connect. Shouto is also a kind boy who doesn’t want to cause people pain and doesn’t want his brother to die. Shouto however doesn’t say anything to soothe Touya’s pain/anger. First he makes the fact Enji didn’t come there all about himself, saying HE came here to face Touya because he decided so (either way Touya wanted to interpret it, Enji didn’t want to come but Shouto wanted or Enji wanted to come but Shouto didn’t let him is not going to make things better), then, instead than reassuring Touya he was missed, Shouto worries about telling him that he won’t let him hurt people. Also, when Shouto will scold Touya, he won’t tell him he’s wrong in thinking his family didn’t care, that his family is actually still suffering for him, no, he’ll do it from a morally superior point, telling him ‘yes, father was a madman and our family was screwed but you decided to burn people on your own when you should have aimed your rage at us’. The result is he NEVER denies Touya’s family didn’t care about him, he doesn’t soothe Touya’s pain but enrages him further, which clearly leads Touya to want to fight more and to use more of his firepower which hurts himself and the ones around him. Not only enraging Touya is counterproductive as it worsen the situation instead than improving it, but it let Touya in pain and stewing in false beliefs, which is uncharacteristic for Shouto. From a Watsonian perspective it doesn’t make a lot of sense Shouto wouldn’t tell Touya the truth about his family loving him and missing him, and therefore Touya being wrong in raging… especially since Shouto had a full arc about the importance of connecting the heart, yet Shouto doesn’t, to the point such behaviour borders on OOC and unnatural for him, so why he does so?

Doylist answer: Shouto can’t soothe Touya’s rage because Touya’s rage is FUNDAMENTAL to lead Touya to fight him and then, consequently, to try to nuke Japan. If Shouto had managed to calm Touya down, to connect with him, the battle wouldn’t have happened or, if it had, Touya wouldn’t have been so enraged he couldn’t bring Enji Shouto’s head he would try to nuke Japan in order to hurt Enji. Shouto has to worsen Touya’s rage and his physical conditions (let’s remember Touya is meant to die soon by the end of the epilogue) as well to carry on the plot. What’s more, Shouto has to talk about himself so as to remember the readers about Shouto’s arc, about Shouto becoming a certain kind of Hero. His speech is IMPORTANT for his arc, instead than with moments of attempted connection, the fight is peppered with discussions on how Shouto took the long way as a Hero, how he improved flashfire, how Shouto has to fight him because that’s the only way to reach the goal he’s aiming at, how that’s Shouto’s power, how this will affirm the reason why HE WAS BORN IN THE FAMILY (skipping completely how instead Touya wanted to know why he was born in that family). That because Horikoshi, instead than prioritizing creating a connection between the two brothers, decides to prioritize furthering Shouto’s arc as a Hero, and that he will focus on the connection between the two siblings in the epilogue. Also, at the same time, Shouto’s speech is IMPORTANT for everyone’s arc as it triggers Touya into discussing why they’re all there fighting. Plus… the whole moralizing speech is something that all the Heroes do when facing their Villains in this final arc. Probably, since the Villains were sympathetic, Horikoshi felt the need to remember to a younger audience that no, what they were doing wasn’t right. Long story short, Shouto’s words are functional for the story to advance it the way Horikoshi wanted it to advance.

… and how Touya survived the fire is revealed.

Watsonian problem 1: The Touya flashback ends up with the explanation that Garaki and All for One left him go because he only had a month to live… a month in which, if Touya had decided to remain at his home, he could have revealed everything behind Garaki’s orphanage to the Number Two Hero. Why Garaki didn’t worry about this? It makes no sense.

Doylist answer 1: In the story the problem is inexistent because Touya won’t remain home and therefore won’t reveal anything. The main purpose for the flashback isn’t really to explain what happened to Touya, but to set up how the blame for what happened to Touya had to be placed also on AFO and giving Touya an additional sad backstory so as to further increase the empathy readers have for him and give him more reasons to rage. We’ve to feel bad for him, it’s a tragedy, a kid who loved his family and wanted to become a Hero now has turned into a Villain who wants to kill his family, a tragedy that could have been avoided if Enji had changed his ways. We also need to hate AFO more because he meddled with the Todoroki family ruining further Touya’s life... and this prepares the ground for how he manipulated/ruined Tomura's life too. Also, remembering all this, Touya has to rage more because, remember, this is mainly ‘angering Touya’ time.

Watsonian problem 2: To explain how Touya survived even though he supposedly only had a month of life we’re told… it was his grudge who kept him alive. To swallow this asks us a huge suspension of disbelief as Touya survives FOR YEARS with ZERO HELP, in apparently good conditions (we never see him feeling sick or something) which kind of backfires as it becomes harder to accept Touya could survive without medical aid (or any sort of aid for the matter as Touya has no one to help him and no money) for years just fine, never showing any physical problem through the story beyond his burnt skin, all this thanks to his grudge, but won’t live long at the end of the war despite having medical aid and people wanting to take care of him. In truth way too many situations in the story begs for our suspension of disbelief SO HARD, that it becomes hard to accept characters can indeed die, it feels more like they have been forcefully killed off by the author instead than that they had met their expected fate.

Doylist answer 2: Horikoshi likely assumed by saying Touya was meant to die so long ago, it would make easy for the readers to accept now he has to die, that he has burned up all his resources and that his death would feel like a natural conclusion for him, since HE WAS MEANT TO DIE BY A LONG TIME. In short, after asking us to suspend our disbelief, he’s asking us to accept the realism he can’t live any longer. He’s basically preparing the ground for Touya’s incoming death, a death that won’t take place on the battlefield, and that will take place despite Touya getting medical aid. He wants us to think that nothing can be done, that this was meant to happen. The intention is good... the execution is not.

Shouto and the sidekicks realize Touya is suicidal.

Watsonian problem: Wait, hadn’t Shouto realized it sooner, in the Paranormal Liberation War arc? When Touya has hugged him, Shouto has pointed out how Touya would burn himself as well (implying this would kill him as Touya is even more burnable than Shouto) and had showed concern, to which Touya basically replied he didn’t care as long as it hurts Enji. Actually Enji too, watching the scene, should have realized it and yet it never goes discussed by the family, nor the Heroes are warned about this. This is important, a suicidal person would go much farther in a fight than a not suicidal one, in fact we’ll later see Touya is okay with exploding himself to hurt Enji. This information needed to be shared and yet Shouto and the sidekicks acts as if they had just found out about it. Have they forgotten about it?

Doylist answer: Shouto and Enji couldn’t realize Touya wanted to die because otherwise they should have worried with the family about SAVING Touya from himself. No one in the family wants Touya to die, so Touya being willing to die/wanting to die to hurt Enji would have become an additional problem and source of concern. Instead the family prefers to worry about how, since they hurt Touya, now Touya is out on hurting society, skipping how he’s also hurting himself as the more he uses his flames, the more he burns himself. This is because the family back then had to worry about STOPPING Touya from hurting others, they've to feel guilty about the damage that's being done to society due to them, and they’ve to realize they’ve to worry about Touya’s survival LATER, when Enji will face Touya and then he’ll be joined by the rest of the family as they attempt to stop Touya from exploding. So the whole thing about how Touya is suicidal and showed it already, goes somehow forgotten, only to come up later on.

All for One makes him (Enji) even more upset by revealing his involvement in Touya’s tragedy

Watsonian problem: AFO says he tried to take advantage of Enji’s longing for power for ages, which lead him to target Touya. So far so good. But then Touya escapes and AFO just… let him go because Touya is gonna die. And never again AFO tried to take advantage of Enji’s longing for power by… let’s say targeting Shouto or Fuyumi and Natsuo, or even Rei. No, he did try with Touya, it didn’t work, and he let it go and, for years, he did nothing to try to take advantage of it again. Why didn’t he try again? Also… all his trying with Touya constituted in him picking Touya up once he burned himself. Not only he didn’t orchestrate the situation (like instead he did with Tenko) but what if Touya hadn’t lost control of his Quirk and burned himself? What if Enji had gone there before Touya were to lose control of his fire? If one of the above had happened, Touya would have been saved and AFO couldn't have managed to take advantage of Enji's longing for power. This doesn’t feel like a carefully planned plan, this feels like AFO randomly passing by and catching the chance… and it feels pretty similar to how Garaki talks about how they wanted Eraser Head’s power, made an attempt, it failed and they settled up for Shirakumo’s power never trying to get Eraser Head's power again (Chap 270). This undermines AFO’s characterization as a careful planner, it feels more like he follows random spur of the moments.

Doylist answer: This has likely as main answer that originally there were no plans for an Endeavor/AFO fight. Horikoshi revealed Enji was meant to die in the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, during which AFO woke up at the last minute. Likely AFO wasn’t going to give Enji a speech on how he had a hand in his son’s disappearance to distract him.  Mind you, Garaki showed interest in Dabi from the Villain academia arc, so Garaki and AFO were likely always meant to be involved in Touya’s survival… but, since there was no plan to slam it on Enji’s face, in the first draft their involvement might have been a (un)lucky accident, which would have fit more with how things went. However telling that AFO instead planned and orchestrated it works well for the story. It paint an even more terrible image of AFO as a great mastermind (preparing the ground for when he’ll reveal he was behind Tenko’s tragedy) and it adds to Enji’s arc by underlining even more his responsibility in Touya’s tragedy. Not only Touya burned due to Enji’s mistakes and his decision not to go on Sekoto Peak, but due to his ambition his son was also targeted by AFO. As if this wasn’t enough, it contributes to create drama and a problem Enji will overcome, in fact the revelation causes Enji to lose it, attack AFO and get wounded so that he’ll have to rouse up himself again, while at the same time making space for Jirou and Tokoyami to do something, before Enji’s COOL fight with AFO.

This leads Enji to end up wounded but he thinks back to his origin and overcomes this

Watsonian problem: Wait, wasn’t Enji’s origin how he got envious of All Might and wanted to surpass him? Weren’t we told this over and over and over and over? Why no one ever mentioned him losing his father? Why the whole things is extremely vague and unclear and not foreshadowed at all?

Doylist answer: The point of the scene is give Enji drama and a motivation to rise up. A dead father when he was in middle school is dramatic and traumatic, no matter how unclear the whole thing is, actually the whole thing being unclear works to push the readers to interpret it as they prefer, making easier to generate sympathy toward him after having just reminded us how it was due to Enji’s mistakes that Touya was targeted. Of course the scene is not foreshadowed because if Enji was meant to die in the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, this revelation was never going to take place.

(Enji) thinks at how he won’t stand in the way of the kids’ future

Watsonian problem: Why when he thinks so, he thinks only at Shouto (and class A?) What about Natsuo and Fuyumi? What about Touya?

Doylist answer: Credits when it’s due, even discounting the fact that Touya is dying and suicidal, Touya was never meant to have a future if the Heroes were to win but just to be jailed in a new Tartarus and, likely, consequently executed (as in BNHA they can sentence people to death, Moonfish was on death row before he escaped). When Enji says he’ll keep his eyes on Touya, Enji doesn’t mean he’ll look at him the way Touya wants but that he’ll keep him under control so he won’t be capable to harm society any further. It’s only later Enji will realize he should have also looked at Touya the way Touya wanted him to, but this doesn’t change Enji knows Touya doesn’t have a future and Horikoshi surely couldn’t show us as an example of bright future a jailed and executed Touya, a Shouto that walks toward his classmates and toward the future looks much better. As for Fuyumi and Natsuo, compared to Shouto, they’re considered minor characters so the story doesn’t bother with them. It’s important to say Enji’s past won’t be a hindrance to Shouto’s future because Horikoshi assumes among the Todoroki kids that’s the only future we care about. It’s something we’ll see also in the final chapter when only Shouto’s future will be shown (there though it makes more sense as the narrator is Midoriya and he might not know about Fuyumi and Natsuo’s future).

Touya wakes up…

Watsonian problem: Why does Touya take so much time waking up after Shouto hits him? It can’t be he fainted if he was copying and keeping active Shouto’s technique so why he takes so long?

Doylist answer: To give the plot time to advance Touya couldn’t wake up immediately. Also the idea Touya lost makes it for a surprise once he wakes up.

(Touya) copies Shouto’s technique

Watsonian problem: Not only Touya copies Shouto’s technique successfully after just seeing it for a short time, while Shouto had to try it out many times before grasping it but, while Shouto keeps on losing concentration to keep it active, Touya will manage to keep it active no-stop, even when he's unconscious, even when his mind is supposedly gone, all this while his stats regarding techniques are considerably lower than Shouto (Shouto has first 5/5 and then 4/6 while Touya has 3/5, 2/6 and 2/6). How is that possible?

Doylist answer: Stats are either clearly not reliable (all of Touya’s stats are considerably lower than Shouto which should make very easy for Shouto to defeat him…) or influenced by how Touya doesn’t bother creating new techniques but just copies others’… even though he clearly manages to learn them without teaching, quickly and can use them better. But the real core point of Touya managing to keep Shouto’s technique ongoing while Shouto kept on losing concentration during the fight is that in the Shouto/Touya fight this created tension, and made harder for Shouto to fight, in the Enji/Touya ‘fight’, not only Touya keeping up phosphor no-stop allows him not to get destroyed by the cumulating heat but, even if this wasn’t the case, Touya losing concentration would be just a distraction to the chase and, later, to Enji’s speech. We’ll see Shouto also effortlessly managing to keep up phosphor later on, despite Shouto being completely worn out and stressed and even rolling on the ground due to a fall, when he’ll race toward where Touya is, and this will also be because him losing control of it would have been a distraction, so Shouto also conveniently managed to learn how to keep it costantly active.

Shouto and the rest remain behind.

Watsonian problem: Why Shouto doesn’t try to chase Touya like Uraraka and Tsuyu do? He has his fire that would allow him to fly to where the gate is, he has his ice who could raise him, why he doesn’t even try? He’s not too tired for it, when he’ll try to go there with Iida he’ll use his fire and ice no-stop and yet now he doesn't even try to chase and therefore stop his brother from reaching his father. Why?

Doylist answer: If Shouto has given chase right then, we wouldn’t have had the chance to let Iida have his cool moment and fulfill his arc, nor we would have needed to have Enji face Touya. Shouto has to remain there to watch in order for later to have Iida help him reach Touya as that was why Iida was there, and also in order for his father and his family to face Touya before he’ll arrive to save the day, otherwise it would have been a Touya vs Shouto part 2 with no chance for the other Todorokis to confront Touya.

Enji worries about Shouto’s survival…

Watsonian problem: Why Enji doesn’t worry about Touya’s condition but just worries about Shouto, when Enji is supposed to care about Touya too and Touya is in horrible conditions, with people wondering how he’s still alive? According to the story Enji loves Touya and, as soon as he sees him this should be his first thought, and then, the next thought should be for Shouto as he’s nowhere to be seen and Touya had bad intentions toward him. What’s more, why since transmitters work (we’ll see it with All Might) Shouto or someone else in his group hadn’t warned Enji Touya was about to show up? Touya could have caught them on surprise, causing serious damage. And why Enji hadn’t checked upon Shouto’s group by using the transmitters, which would have been safer than ask Touya (as the latter could lie) and wouldn’t have hurt him?

Doylist answer: Because, of course, it’s Enji’s turn to upset Touya so that Touya will keep on being angry. Enji couldn’t worry for him or apologize to him, this must happen later, and Touya must be affected by the apology, but we still need him to try to nuke Japan first, so Enji can’t do something to tone down his anger, he actually makes it worse by asking about Shouto. And, of course the transmitters aren’t used exactly because if Enji had known beforehand Shouto was fine, he wouldn’t have asked Touya about Shouto. It also serves to introduce Touya’s determination to destroy something to hurt Enji.

…then leads him away from the battleground only to discover his son is about to blow up and he can’t stop him.

Watsonian problem: Why, since Enji had the time to ask him about Shouto, Enji doesn’t try to talk with Touya FIRST but just tries leading him away? Since Touya will use his Quirk to give chase, he will only hurt himself more and he’s in an already horrible condition. Enji doesn’t want Touya to die, so why would he want to cause damage to him? Also why Touya’s mind is declared gone when he asks for Natsuo to play with him, but not only he can keep up phosphor and concentrating heat inside him, but later he’ll be aware enough of his surrounding to realize Rei, Natsuo and Fuyumi have arrived (meaning he could tell who’s there and who isn’t), will realize everyone is watching him, will ponder on it lamenting it should have happened sooner, will think at his origin and about how things aren’t so simple and how he wants to talk more with his family and, once Shouto hits him with his blow, will also speak in a perfectly coherent manner, in short he does plenty of things that seem to point out his mind is not gone?

Doylist answer: If Enji has talked with Touya first, again this would have risked soothing him and so it couldn’t be done. But at a certain point Enji needed to talk with Touya so as to let the readers know of his feelings, so Touya conveniently loses his mind (same as Spinner, in a way to Kurogiri and similar to Shigaraki who’s possessed) in order not to hear anything of the sort and keep up continuing what he’s doing… how he kept on doing what he’s doing (using phosphor, collecting heat) if he was thinking he was playing with Natsuo is something the story doesn’t bother trying to explain but just asks us to suspend our disbelief, possibly invoking the rule of cool. But then we needed for Touya to realize his family was there and for us to hear Touya’s thoughts so… his mind has to go back to coherent again. Because the story needs so.

Enji apologizes to Touya who cries…

Watsonian problem: Touya cries? Wait, wasn’t he unable to cry? Was that a lie?

Doylist answer: Having Touya cry was the easiest way to deliver his feelings. Horikoshi already forgot he said Touya couldn’t cry when he made him cry tears of blood… and we also saw him crying during the flashback when he was told by AFO about his status and when he went back home. Long story short, likely Horikoshi retconned that part because now tears well work to deliver Touya’s feelings (Touya is going to cry another time in the epilogue). Touya being unable to cry and losing blood from his scars in place of tears, or the visual of the hair dye dropping from his eyes in place of tears, worked well for the previous part of the story, so likely, when Horikoshi had him saying so it wasn’t meant to be a lie. It was just something he retconned because it didn’t work well anymore.

Enji apologizes to the whole family

Watsonian problem: Why Enji apologizes just for ONE thing for each family member when he actually hurt them in more than one way? (he shouldn’t just regret he didn’t go to Sekoto Peak, but also that he neglected Touya and caused him to be targeted by AFO, he didn’t just push Rei to the breaking point, he beaten her, he didn’t just let Fuyumi pick up the pieces, he neglected her same as Touya and Natsuo from when Rei was at home…) And why he doesn’t find a thing to apologize for Shouto but just tell him sorry?

Doylist answer: The overall idea is that Enji apologizing for hurting his family is all that matters. In case you don’t remember what he did to his family members, you get a hint. It’s impossible people forgot about what he did to Shouto so Horikoshi doesn’t bother to give readers a hint but takes advantage of how he doesn’t have to add anything else to say sorry in bolder letters. The chapter is meant to end after all and ending with a big sorry work well to deliver Enji’s regret. It’s a visual choice to deliver the message of how sorry Enji is. Of course this works a little less well in the anime that can’t write a big sorry not can have Enji scream it, though I’ve to praise Inada Tetsu for how he delivered the line.

Shouto faints.

Watsonian problem: Okay, Shouto ran and also fought and also used his power but making him faint with no one catching him and leaving him on the ground with no one worrying for him feels cruel. We don’t even know if he heard Enji’s apology! And what’s more Enji fought and used his power and is hurt way more than Shouto but he’s awake. The same goes for Fuyumi and Natsuo, who are unused to use their Quirk and are more hurt than him. Why knocking Shouto off and letting him sleep even when the sea of Twice arrives, which makes him look weak, especially since Enji who’s clearly more hurt than him, doesn’t pass out? And what about Enji protecting Touya from the Twices? The Twices wouldn’t have hurt Touya.

Doylist answer: Basically, same as what it happened before with Touya, who slept for a bit, now it’s Shouto’s time to miss a turn. Shouto is the less hurt, he can move around, if he did the story should have followed what he did. Instead the story preferred to wait until he and Enji needed to go fight AFO to wake him up, letting him sleep even when the sea of Twices appeared close to them so that Enji could have one panel of him protecting his family by covering them with his body. By the way now Enji protects Touya by the Twices because now he can shows he cares for his whole family and does what was meant in Japan too the duty of the family head, protect the family.

Shouto and Enji will fight again against All for One

Watsonian problem: Why sending Shouto and Enji to fight against AFO? Later it will turn out Enji was physically destroyed (not only he lost his arm but he’s covered in burn scars and won’t be able to walk) and it would have been better if he had remained with his family instead than prioritizing his Hero work. Shouto had fainted and hadn’t wake up till now. If we’ve to believe he was so tired, why not letting him rest and be carried to a hospital like Uraraka?

Doylist answer: Enji and Shouto have cooler fighting powers compared to Uraraka so Horikoshi couldn’t pass the chance to use them and, what’s more, they’ve to atone to society for the sin of being related to Dabi. Plus Horikoshi wanted Sero to give us a piece of wisdom about them. Hence they don’t get a break.

…days after the battle ended, the whole family will visit Touya at the hospital

Watsonian problem: Wait, days? Why they didn’t immediately check on him, especially since he’s dying? Okay, Enji might not have been up for it but the others definitely were and it’s not like it could be the problem was Touya as they just put him in a tube! He wasn’t in coma nor they were operating him or anything and he could talk just fine when the battle ended! And still even if he were unconscious why not to visit him?

Doylist answer: Because Horikoshi needed to wrap up all the Todoroki plotline in one chapter and he needed to do so by having ENJI speak to Touya. The family barely speak because they’re relegated to side characters BIG TIME. So they couldn’t go there without Enji and start things without him, or Enji’s speech would have less weight.

…where we’re told Touya is dying.

Watsonian problem: Touya is dying? Why his family isn’t reacting to the news? Why they’re all so calm? It feels like they don’t care! Besides why Touya has to die? Couldn’t Horikoshi just save him since he saved, often in unrealistic manners, plenty of other characters?

Doylist answer: The info was likely given for the readers’ benefit. The family was likely already told it but we weren’t yet so the guard/nurse tosses totally at random that piece of info in order to let us know in the fastest way possible. Yes, an info box would have worked better as it wouldn’t have felt such an unnatural monologue. Also, if the family had been grief stricken and busy crying, the conversation wouldn’t have worked well. Horikoshi decided to prioritize the words that are being said to the tears, because for a Japanese audience the fact that the family is there despite Touya being a criminal is already A BIG PROOF they love him. The point of the Villains dying is that it’s a tragedy. Society didn’t help them and so three kids, two of which originally wanted to be Heroes and one who just wanted to be normal, ended up becoming Villains and causing pain to other people and then they die because when someone decided to help them it was too late. What Touya (and Tenko and Himiko) suffered was real and unfair and the unfairness is made more vivid by how nothing could be done to save him. At the same time their death is also a direct effect of their actions because the story can’t say their actions were okay. Touya burned himself over and over, so his body got destroyed by his own Quirk, Tenko wanted to destroy everything that came from his house and he came from his house so he got decayed (it was implied Tenko was suicidal too), Himiko stabbed the person she loved so she gave her blood to save Uraraka. The Villains’ death in some cases also serve to inspire others, like how Himiko’s death inspired Uraraka to work on Quirk counseling and Tomura’s death inspired Spinner. Also, if they weren’t to die they would just end up jailed like Spinner and Compress, and eventually executed as they didn’t have a redemption moment, so the story couldn’t just spare them from punishment like they did with Aoyama, Lady Nagant and Gentle Criminal. This would have been depressing too but less tragic, so it would have worked less well.

…the fate of the kids is revealed…

Watsonian problem: Wait, if Touya can talk only for a short time each day and Enji is going to visit him all the days as Touya wanted and needed, the fact Natsuo won’t met Enji ever again means he won’t see his brother ever again! Didn’t Natsuo regret not listening to Touya? Didn’t he tell him to take it out on them? Wasn’t he so close to him? Does he not care anymore even though he was supposed to be a kind boy?

Doylist answer: The core of the problem here is that Horikoshi have to wrap everything in one chapter and that he didn’t want to include in it Touya’s death, and so he had to reveal Natsuo’s intentions as soon as he finished the part with the talk with Touya. It’s the same reason why we aren’t shown the reaction of the family to the news Touya is going to die. It’s ergonomic for the story. Of course he could have had Natsuo just say he’ll cut contacts with the family ONCE TOUYA DIES and not right then but that’s what we got.

Enji’s sidekicks as well as Hawks and Kurumada will keep on supporting Enji.

Watsonian problem: Enji and Rei’s son is slowly dying and they’re all happy they’ve support? Shouldn’t they be sadder?

Doylist answer: Horikoshi didn’t want to end the story on a sad note and he wanted to focus on the theme of supporting people. Hence Enji and Rei having someone supporting them magically make things well enough they can smile and instead than being shown suffering for their dying son. The same goes for Fuyumi, who has someone who supported her to get a new job, for Shouto who can count on class A support, for Natsuo, who can count on his girlfriend. Support making everything better is one of the core themes so… no sadness.

Much later Shouto is confirmed to have turned into the Hero he wanted to be.

Watsonian problem: Wait, what about Fuyumi? Natsuo? Is Touya still alive? Did what happen with Touya influenced Shouto in any way (not just in the hardship he experienced but in his way to be a Hero)? We only see Enji with Rei and supported by his sidekicks and Hawks but what about his kids? He’s supporting them?

Doylist answer: Fuyumi and Natsuo are minor characters. Horikoshi already told us Fuyumi is going to keep on working and Natsuo is getting married, likely he didn’t think we needed to know more. He also probably didn’t want to reveal Touya’s death because it’s depressing in a chapter that’s meant to be happy. In short Shouto’s three siblings don’t get mentioned. What Horikoshi needed to do was to close Shouto’s arc confirming, in case people missed it, he became the Hero he wanted to be despite everything, so he did and that’s why we’re shown Shouto being this kind of Hero. In the whole matter with Touya there wasn’t something that might have pushed Shouto to change (Shouto was never held accountable for what happened to Touya, differently from the rest of the family) or to start something like it did with Uraraka (Uraraka started a project about Quirk counseling), nor Shouto’s actions in dealing with Touya are criticized in any way, so he had to change something about himself. Since all this was never a plot point, all this isn’t touched. The fact he got rid of the fact he was called Endeavor’s son is instead an OLD plot point (it came up already in the sport festival), which was made worse by the whole matter with Touya, so it gets touched. Japanese readers know Shouto faced hardship due to what Touya did, Horikoshi didn’t feel like he needed to write it. The last thing Horikoshi needed to do was to show a major character like Enji receiving support as the importance of support was one of the themes of the story, so he does. Yes, Horikoshi could have shown Enji supporting/protecting Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shouto but this was likely harder to show visually so Horikoshi decided not to show it.

THE END

And so we have reached the end of the story and a similar exercise to the one I did for the Todoroki plot can be done for Tenko and Himiko as well. Spinner too to be honest but as his arc is pretty minor there’s less to talk there.

Now I can hear some of us saying that they could just give Watsonian explanations to the Watsonian problems. I could too, however those would be my headcanons. Canon doesn’t offer an explanation for too many things, nor makes it so intuitive everyone would get it, which is why people complain.

We aren’t talking of the “Divina Commedia” here, there are just too many blanks to fill in a story that’s meant also for entertainment.

The result is that while the idea of the story makes sense the presentation feels disjointed, with characters doing things BECAUSE THE PLOT WANTS THEM TO DO THEM.

It’s entirely possible that if Horikoshi were to be given more time, he would have streamlined more his narration, so that what happens would feel more natural, but it’s something we’ll never know.

The final war arc is just a giant sized arc with too much happening in it (it’s around 7 volumes compared to the previous war which was around 4), too many characters involved and too many plot points that need to be closed.

In a way stretching things more would have made it even longer and I’m not sure how well this would have worked.

Horikoshi did his best to carry on his arcs and his themes in the most ergonomic way, but the result ended up being that the story was forced to go forward without the story really having a chance to make the characters’ actions feel well streamlined, which causes people who focus solely on the Watsonian part of the story to feel rightfully disappointed, because a Doylist answer like ‘this is needed/important for this character’s arc to close’ means nothing to the Watsonian perspective.

Now Horikoshi is being given time and extra pages for the final volume and it’s possible he’ll use it to improve the epilogue, but it would have probably benefitted the story if he had time and extra pages for all the volumes starting from Vol 35.

This is however the manga industry, volumes and chapters needed to come out at a certain pace and he couldn’t help it.

I think his attempt to stick at his themes and arcs is praiseworthy, even if the result came out messy. Of course though, this is just my opinion and you’re free to think differently.

[x-kiwi-03]

I was wondering if you have any thoughts about the difference between Overhaul's story being handled compared to how Endeavor's was? I feel like Endeavor was given a better hand than Overhaul. Both in fandom spaces and in the story. I've been thinking about it and I wonder what circumstances could get Endeavor the same ending as Overhaul and vice versa. It almost makes me want to make an au to explore this.

First of all, Horikoshi likes Endeavor and he obviously doesn't like Kai. His writing is hypocritical when you comparing Kai to similar characters like Endeavor and Tomura, characters that Horikoshi actually likes.

To be fair, Endeavor has shown remorse and regret for the right people. He's put in a lot of effort and sacrifice to better his family's circumstances.

Kai has shown only remorse and regret for losing his family. He's desperate for Pops' forgiveness so he won't be thrown away (again?). Kai's making no effort to right his wrongs to the real reason he should feel guilty, Eri.

But here's the thing, Endeavor is a lot older and has had more time to figure out HOW and WHY and to whom he should feel guilty. Endeavor is also in a whole lot healthier situation to get through these feelings, to figure them out and find a way through it all.

Kai got his arms chopped off and immediately thrown in solitary for almost a year. He lost his family, freedom, and dignity in less than a day. His situation not healthy to say the least.

It's very obvious that Kai is very emotional, which is surprising given his villian arc was written as this cold and heartless capo. Solitary is what I think did most of his mental destruction. The only person he cared about would naturally be the only thing on his mind while he was all alone. He doesn't blame Eri for everything, he blames himself. He knows he's the one that messed up. Eri is still only a quirk in his eyes. How could you blame your product for losing everything and more?

Anyway, back on topic, Kai needs guidance and Endeavor was able to get through it himself, miraculously.

Also, Endeavor has been able to talk to his victims directly. Kai has had no contact to Eri, if not been separated from her more. I will forever stand by the belief that anybody else's opinions on Kai do not matter other than Eri's. Just like how Endeavor's family were the only people who's opinions mattered regarding what he did.

One thing to really remember is that Kai was a villain and Endeavor was a Hero. Kai has done no good to make up for his wrongs. And he's never, and probably will never be able to, do anything to help his case.

It's tragedy vs redemption.

Definitely make an au! I'd love to see what you'd do with it!

[venus-cow]

Though I am biased towards Toga and Dabi I find all these points logical and want to express why Toga's death and Dabi's status doesn't feel right to me.

Rant under the cut:

Toga did die giving her life for Ochako and that is beautiful, she spent some years taking blood from others selfishly and she killed people, but she turned around and decided to die for someone instead, to give her blood to someone she loved instead of hurting and killing Ochako. It is a beautiful thing.... But...

She's also a child who hasn't yet really lived. I don't think a child should make the choice to end their life when it hasn't really been lived at all. She died as a child. She hurt people but she didn't deserve to die, she wasn't a villain as long everyone in the League was. Twice needed to die to save thousands of people and while he fought to live he still lived into adulthood and got to have something more satisfying than she did. Shigaraki was probably always meant to die (as much as I hate it) but he should have died being a hero, a symbol of what the League needed and saving all of them. I always expected Shigaraki to die even if I hated it but Dabi and Toga's fates don't feel as impactful as they could.

I don't want to encourage a child being happy killing herself when her life has hardly been lived.

If society is changing like we see it do when Ochako and Izuku watch that lady help that teen then why is it limited to preventing villains and not helping the villains as they are? Society may have very well hated Toga of she tried to reintegrate back into society but Toga could have also had people's who understood her the way Ochako does. Her life may not have been perfect but she would have at least had the opportunity to live and be the perfectly normal girl with the prettiest smile on the world.

Toga should not have died when Edgeshot lived giving away his literal heart. Toga shouldn't have died when Nagant exploded from the inside out.

It feels like Horikoshi just believes all villains should die no matter how savable they are. Dabi lives, sure, but it feels like he only did because he's related to a hero directly and got high in the popularity polls. Him living could have been differently. Enji being around Dabi all the time now seems like it's more for Enji than Dabi, for Enji to feel better about his mistakes rather than support Dabi while he's suffering in his last possible month alive. Dabi is getting looked at but Shoto is getting neglected. This is a terrible way to support your family and Enji is so self deprecating it makes me wish he and Dabi both would have died in their fight just because it would have been more satisfying. I don't think that should have been the outcome of course but seems better than this.

Of course we shouldn't harass Horikoshi for his own story, it would horrible if people treated him like shit just because he believed this was the ending that was needed. I'm just expressing my opinion and why these endings to such well written characters doesn't impact me as much as Horikoshi probably intends it should.

[aucatgirl]

I'd like to hear your complaints about mha please. I think rei should've rolled her ex husband off a cliff.

SIGH. Here is my official diatribe against MHA’s ending. This is definitely not my first rodeo with a series I love and had hope for having a bad ending but wow this one stings harder than usual

What’s craziest about all this is how much I defended this manga up until the last ten chapters. I loved this manga so much and had such high hopes for it. My own MHA social circle was nothing but huge fans that also had high hopes, some criticisms about things but willing to give the benefit of the doubt… But then 420 happened and I snapped out of it (and then my mutuals also snapped out of it, one by one, lol). It was so rushed and baffling that it actually ruined my day when it released, lmao. Deku regaining his arms via Eri ripping off her horn via child mutilation was only the beginning and I was not prepared for the everything else that would happen

The biggest issue starts and ends with Deku, who apparently got a secret lobotomy during the dark Deku arc and has not been written the same since. He completely loses his ability to be introspective in any capacity. “I’ve been having these thoughts about Tenko too” where?? Where is it??? Where is literally any of your real thoughts on Tenko or losing OFA or anything??? This manga used to have such an interesting insight into Deku’s mind. And it’s just, gone. A big issue with Shigaraki’s death goes back to that. Where’s the reflection?? “Show don’t tell” doesn’t work that well with a protagonist that barely shows any emotion at all!!

When it comes to the saving Shigaraki plot, I saw some mutuals suggest that Horikoshi changed his mind on the ending at some point between the togachako fight and 423. I reread those chapters and disagreed. Deku being unable to save Shigaraki is a plot twist and it’s a BAD one. All of the build up leading to 423 is that Deku would save Shigaraki, not just his soul, full stop. Unless it really was a last minute change or pushed by editors/SJ, I cannot imagine that this ending was not planned the way it was, so I will criticize Horikoshi as such. The twist was ass. And now we’re left with an ending of “well we can try to prevent villains, but if they’re already villains, beat ‘em up!” which is just.. AUGH!!! Completely throws Twice’s death down the drain!!! I can’t believe we were left with “we’ll do better next time” when the whole point was that the next generation would do better than the previous… Deku’s generation was supposed to be that one!! Not to mention that All Might seemingly forgot about his personal connection to Shigaraki…

It’s also wild that the togachako plot was the best written tragedy while also being the most offensive of all of them. I don’t care how many people Toga killed 😭 she was explicitly queer. At least izuocha didn’t happen, that would’ve made things so bad I don’t think I would’ve been able to interact with the series anymore. It was a one-off line but Toga’s death had the most direct impact on improving society, however, it was a ONE-OFF LINE, there is zero indication that Uravity is as prominent of a hero as this line makes you believe, which sucks. Also, the fact that the cameras got retconned is ridiculous, just another knife twist of completely gutting the theme of rehabilitation and societal changes on how people view villains

And… that’s not even mentioning what the fuck happened with 3baka. I understand the rush. Horikoshi has health issues, there are time limits for endings. I would’ve been okay with just the rush. But the writing decisions that were made… why the fuck did Kurogiri die like that?? In the most baffling, inconsequential way possible? Aizawa wasn’t shown, Mic didn’t react, it’s never brought up again except for a tiny, tiny panel of Shirakumo’s grave. I guess the whole plot with nomu and how they’ve slowly been humanized was just completely scrapped, because Kurogiri’s death was more inconsequential than Hood’s. If you’re going to kill Kurogiri, make him die by AFO’s hands. It would’ve worked a lot better as a tragedy rather than random and unnecessary Bakugo moment

This is honest to god one of the worst pages in the entire series:

Finally okay I honestly don’t care for the Todorokis so I don’t really have any strong thoughts on their ending. The ending Dabi got is actually better than I expected after Shigaraki died lol. Though I do agree that Rei pushing around Endeavor in his wheelchair is a hilariously bad look and I don’t know why Horikoshi thought it was a good idea

Here is one thing I will say, though. One final word:

Foster brothers Shigaraki and Kurogiri never got debunked!! Can’t have your theories be wrong if you get no information about a character!

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 407: Wait Why Are You Running Away

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan figured out how to control his quirk upgrade and was totally chill and normal about it. Definitely not terrifying at all. He actually spent the entire chapter smiling and laughing like the wholesome little boy he is. I don’t know why Kid For One is so freaked out about it. He even politely introduced himself using his childhood nickname. Clearly he just wants to be friends with you, KFO!

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “sorry to keep you waiting, here’s the AFO and Yoichi flashback you ordered at long last” and proceeds to serve a nightmarish stew of HUMAN MISERY and RATS and STABBING and CARNAGE and SO MUCH MURDER and THE SINGLE MOST FUCKED-UP CASE OF CODEPENDENCY ANYONE HAS EVER WRITTEN. I was not even remotely prepared for any of this, and if anyone else claims that they were, I will call you a liar to your face. If this chapter had a mouth it would scream. Or just sob, ceaselessly and uncontrollably. I’m really glad Horikoshi is on break next week because that man needs to take a fucking nap. My god.

okay WOW

anyone else read the first two words and just immediately say to themselves, “oh okay, so it’s gonna be one of those chapters”? I mean, I guess we were due for a darker chapter after last week’s Kacchan Comedy Tour. but idk, I just wasn’t expecting “homeless sick prostitute with a drinking problem” levels of dark

AND SHE’S PREGNANT?!

what exactly is this manga rated again? doesn’t this backstory seem just a little bit raw for the impressionable kiddos??

has anyone actually checked in on Horikoshi recently? you know, just to make sure he is okay??

what a fun and wholesome manga this is

the lil baby arm covered in blood with the AFO hole on the palm. lying next to the dead mom hand. what an image to sear into our minds. I guess it’s been a while since he killed any dogs. gotta keep us on our toes somehow

also wasn’t expecting AFO and Yoichi to be twins! that puts an interesting spin on their relationship, because it’s usually a closer bond than even regular siblings. especially with all of that delightful shared trauma from a young age!!

yes, exactly

ohhhh this chapter is gonna hurt me, isn’t it. okay. ooooooookay. let’s do this

OH I’M SORRY, THERE’S MORE?!

Horikoshi my dude. you do realize that their mom dying in childbirth and the two of them just barely surviving and growing up as street orphans would have already been MORE than tragic enough, backstory-wise. you did not have to turn this into a freaking horror show with RATS TRYING TO EAT THEIR NEWBORN SELVES jesus christ

and THAT’S where you chose to put a one year timeskip?!

what the fuck am I reading here, you guys. no please tell me, I am actually desperate to understand

so the narrator is saying that some of the quirks manifested later in life, in “pubescent and pre-pubescent stages”, which is interesting because it’s the first time I can recall hearing about someone actually manifesting a quirk that late. maybe Deku’s old OFA cover story was more plausible than I realized

anyway so eventually it occurred to everyone that they should maybe freaking study this shit, idk. and eventually the researchers concluded that the superpowers came from a new gene that apparently isn’t human. and upon hearing that, society apparently lost its freaking mind. which is fascinating to me because it implies that the turning point wasn’t actually the superpowers themselves, but the realization of what it meant

like, so they were apparently fine with it when they thought it was a “mysterious disease”, but somehow it hit different when they learned it wasn’t actually a sickness at all, but instead the Next Step in Evolution. and it became an “us vs them” thing, as opposed to a “we have to cure these poor people” thing. damn

anyway so now Japan is a dystopia and we’re cutting to a big crowd of merc-looking dudes who are getting ready to attack some “meta freaks”, how lovely

but who is this figure in the shadows

I ask politely, as if it wasn’t already beyond obvious that this is AFO about to wreck some people’s shit

ohhhhh my god lmao

hopefully Katsuki and Deku can take the present day AFO out before he winds up looking like this. because this little fella is clearly demonic and idk if anyone can stop him

you all don’t understand. you need to run the fuck away right now

oh shit it’s already too late for them

it’s too late for any of us. it’s over. it’s all fucking over

((((；゜Д゜)))

AFO I am putting the manga down. I am backing away slowly with my hands in the air. I mean you no harm. please for the love of god have mercy

holy

“you see, we told you he wasn’t human” okay Scientific Research Group, you know what?? you win this round I guess

“HE WAS LITERALLY EVIL FROM BIRTH” HORIKOSHI SERIOUSLY ARE YOU OKAY??

HE WAS BORN AN ARROGANT BABY is literally the most terrifying sentence I have ever read

what the entire fuck

it’s a gorgeous sunny mid-November afternoon outside my window. but no matter how hard it tries, the light cannot reach this place

what kind of moron would throw a can of soda at him. officially the stupidest person we have ever seen in this manga

OH MY GOD OF COURSE IT’S HIM LMAO

(ETA: how come baby Yoichi has clothes that fit him perfectly but baby AFO is just stomping around wearing a tablecloth.)

BABY YOICHI. OH MY GOD. HOW THE HELL DID YOU GROW UP TO BE SANE AND KIND AND GOOD. THAT’S MY QUESTION THAT I NEED ANSWERED RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE LITERALLY A MIRACLE. YOU ARE AN IMPOSSIBILITY, DO YOU KNOW THAT

small and weak, but also so, so cute. all of the cuteness genes went straight to him. no wonder AFO was jealous

(ETA: just want to press pause for a second to speculate about what type of twins AFO and Yoichi are, since it has some relevance to the story, and especially to the OFA/AFO quirk lore. so! at first glance the two of them would appear to be fraternal twins, just based on the fact that they have very different appearances, and also the fact that Yoichi doesn’t have the AFO quirk – no holes in his hands, etc. identical twins are born from the same fertilized egg, so in theory they would both have the same sequence of DNA, which means Yoichi would have had the same quirk as AFO. but that doesn’t appear to be the case. so all of that points to them being fraternal, not identical.

on the other hand, there is one piece of evidence in this chapter that does support them being identical twins, and that’s the fact that per the narration, AFO absorbed most of the nutrients from their mother. a few minutes of google fu informed me that this condition is relatively rare, and only happens in cases where two twins share a placenta, which typically is only the case for identical twins. HOWEVER, for what it’s worth, there have also been rare instances where two fraternal twin placentas fuse together and become a single placenta. AND this apparently also increases the chances of one of the twins gaining more of the nutrients and causing the other twin to have a lower birth weight.

so based on the evidence here, my conclusion is that the two of them are most likely fraternal twins with a case of placental fusion. besides, you can’t tell me that stealing his baby brother’s placenta while the two of them are literally still in the womb doesn’t sound like exactly the type of BS that fetus!AFO would pull, lol.)

HEY!?!

okay?!?!?! well to be fair he did throw that soda at him

oh my god this is so fucked up. in like the best and worst way possible

I genuinely couldn’t ask for a better AFO backstory. it’s so incredibly twisted, and you actually do feel sorry for him. or at least I do. but it’s also beyond clear that this kid was FUCKED UP BEYOND ALL REASON right from the get go. zero goodness in him. literally doesn’t see other people as people. sees them as possessions only. things to rule over. not other thinking, feeling human beings. and that includes his own little brother

but. even if it’s not actually what I would call love, there’s still... attachment, there. it’s the closest he can get to actually caring about someone. guh. just, somehow they have both managed to humanize him, and at the same time made him less human than ever. this manga, man. this fucking manga, though

lmao and here we go. Captain Hero

you know, all those times that I made fun of AFO for not knowing how to read, I never suspected that the twist in his backstory would be that he LITERALLY DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO READ dfksjdlfkjslkdf

but seriously though. because Yoichi appears to be self-taught, and I can’t see AFO having the patience for that, and CLEARLY no one else was around to teach him, sooooo...

oh my goodness it’s actually getting wholesome up in here

what a good fucking boy. poor AFO. fuck me, I can’t help it. it’s not your fault you’re the world’s greatest monster you poor bastard

now we’re cutting to THREE YEARS LATER. okay

is he going to declare war on the glowing baby

typical teenager concerned about nothing but likes and view counts. AFO you would be so much happier if you stopped worrying about all of that and just focused on your own growth

oh, lol. well that was quick

(ETA: r.i.p. Damien.)

“this guy had more instagram followers than me. so I killed him” honey. sweetie pie. you need therapy

omfg

all this time I was wondering who AFO’s middle school lit teacher was who had failed so spectacularly at teaching him reading comprehension. and it was YOICHI ALL ALONG. omg

“and, presumably, that’s how it always was and always will be.” dude. can you imagine listening to AFO’s oral book report on A Tale of Two Cities. “ahem. it was the Best of Times. the end” buddy noooooooo

it was at that moment when Yoichi knew, etc. etc.

oh my GOD I scrolled down to the next panel right after this one and I just IMMEDIATELY DIED LAUGHING

“WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID” ffffffffffffffff I fucking can’t omfg

NOW THIS HUSSY IS STEALING HIS BROTHER AWAY FROM HIM NOOOOOOO

HE’S HIS!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! THAT’S NOT ALLOWED!!!

oh my god the hands. so wait, is this just the standard symbolic BnHA handholding, or are there More Levels To This. when exactly did Yoichi pass OFA on to Kudou. like is that why the sudden close-up and all that? omg

WHAT!!!!

OH THAT’S THE END, HUH? THAT’S THE END RIGHT THERE, AND THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS. I SEE. OKAY THEN. EXCUSE ME WHILE I PUT MY LAPTOP DOWN AND GO INTO THE NEXT ROOM AND SCREAM INTO A PILLOW

oh my god. and break next week too. this is what you guys have been dealing with this entire time huh. I understand your feelings now. godfuckingdammit lmao

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Love in Chaos

The way chapter 393 seized me from the inside out, brought me to my knees, smiling with fierce glee—it was all the proof I needed. All at once, a checklist I didn’t even know I was keeping started getting all its boxes ticked. I’ll admit that for some time, I haven’t been sure exactly how Toga’s story should be handled for her to get the care, nuance, and dignity she deserves. So I’ve been resigned, waiting to see what Horikoshi has to say about it. I didn’t know until I saw it, but I can tell we’re on exactly the same page.

This fight between Ochako and Toga—or should I say Himiko, since ya know, they’re both on a first name basis now—it’s a kind of breaking point for the overarching narrative and its themes. Here is where the big questions about hero/villain society are not only asked, but answered. Himiko, more than any of the other main villains, was branded with that label as far back as she can remember, without her having done anything except exist. Thus, she carries the weight of their society’s problems and becomes a symbol of the injustice in prejudice and fear, the brutal agony of being rejected by the world. I’ve maintained this resolve about the story for a long time: I will not be satisfied with an ending that constitutes a return to normal, or even a slightly amended normal. I know that it would be a disservice to Himiko if she were made to fit into society again, whether that be in death or reform or containment. Society has to change for her. After 393, I can tell that Horikoshi knows this too.

It’s the way Ochako steps up to this conversation so boldly and positions herself on Himiko’s side. When Himiko dismisses her words as fickle, claims she’ll go back on them and do horrible things to punish her according to hero society, Ochako comes right back and says no, this isn’t about what you’ve done, this is about you. I see you. I see your beautiful smile and I want to protect it.

Throughout her life, Himiko has not been treated like a real person, so of course this is what she needs. No lecture on morals could disarm her the way acceptance can. It’s also extremely refreshing and reassuring to see Himiko being taken seriously. I’m so incredibly excited for Ochako to accomplish such a completely transgressive act of unconditional love against this harsh world. I could stare in awe of the panels in this chapter for hours, how they’re drawn at the exact intersection of beauty, pain, and honesty. Grotesque violence and elegance. Power and vulnerability. I was so overcome that, for a while, I failed to register a crucial implication.

Enter: The Female Vampire Carmilla

She is referenced merely in passing, but as a rejected villain name for Himiko, speaks volumes. It’s difficult for me to find the words to summarize… perhaps you’ve heard by now that Carmilla is a gothic horror novella about a lesbian vampire. THE lesbian vampire, in fact—the one who popularized the trope. Knowing this, it is simple enough to apply the story of Laura and Carmilla in parallel to Ochako and Himiko, and register it as direct proof of the dynamic’s sapphic undertones being acknowledged and intentional. I mean. Look at them.

Yeah. But that’s not all. That isn’t what really makes it noteworthy. Put in context: Himiko has been called a soulless inhuman vampire since childhood, and shunned for it. To her, this or any villain name would be a reminder of her lack of agency in identity. Add to this the overall themes of 393 I just described, and suddenly it becomes clear that Himiko is set in contrast against much of what Carmilla, as a fearful narrative about the supernatural, represents.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me provide some details about Carmilla for those who aren’t familiar. The story was written in 1872 by Sheridan Le Fanu, and belongs to a genre characterized by a revival of Gothic aesthetics in service of providing mystery, intrigue, and suspense to a very Victorian expression of fear. On top of that, Carmilla directly influenced Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and set the precedent for many vampire portrayals to come. Many female vampire characters reference her at least in their name, and the novella has been adapted and reinterpreted countless times. Because of this, it is admittedly difficult to be sure of Horikoshi’s familiarity with the original, or pinpoint any other potential influence he may have picked up from another adaptation. One could quite literally write a whole book about the many iterations and widespread impact of Carmilla. This is why, however, I believe I can confidently say that Himiko being compared to a female vampire has implications that are felt no matter one’s familiarity with the origin of the trope. Certain things are baked into the definition through generations of media. The female (lesbian) vampire implies predation, deception, lust, a danger to innocent young women. She represents an inhuman desire that must be vanquished.

In the novella, the main character Laura becomes a fast, intimate friend to Carmilla, a strikingly beautiful and captivating young lady who has suddenly appeared in her life. Laura admires and loves Carmilla dearly, but feels conflicted in moments where Carmilla is overcome by a desire that is explicitly compared to that of a lover. She talks of blood, death, sacrifice, and unity all while holding her close and kissing her. Whether or not this is hot, or whether Laura reciprocates any desire is, I guess, up to interpretation. But one thing is for sure: the ending of the story is not in Carmilla’s favor. I’d argue it’s not in Laura’s favor either. Look, I was an English major. I’m very familiar with discussions along the lines of “is ___ gay?” and “is ___ a sympathetic portrayal of ___ ?” It’s definitely gay, but the rest is unclear. There might be a tangent to go on about how Le Fanu’s complicated relationship with religion may have informed his characterization of General Spielsdorf and the other men who hunted down Carmilla’s grave and destroyed her. Regardless, there is narrative injustice in the way Laura is removed from these events, sent home and only told about what happened later. She loses agency. Her narrations become distant and clinical. In the very end, she describes being plagued by visions of Carmilla, sometimes as her beloved companion, and sometimes as a fearful monster. To me, this represents the lack of closure she has, either to reconcile these two sides of her, or mourn her loss.

There is also so much we’ll never know about Carmilla herself. The finality of her condemnation silences the multifaceted character that was only partially revealed to us. There is an inferred humanity to her, a self-awareness, a true romanticism, that gets dismissed by the people’s understanding of what a vampire is: a deception.

Keep in mind this tragedy. Fast forward through countless vampire portrayals to the present, to Himiko. What a contrast indeed. Remember, she does not want to be called “Carmilla,” or “Vampire.” To make such a reference in a chapter that is showcasing Ochako’s acceptance of Himiko implies that the trope is being broken. It is as if Laura were to go running to Carmilla’s grave herself, throw her own body over her in protection, and shun everyone else’s superstition and desire for vengeance.

(footnote: the above is supposed to say “Himiko-chan” but you know who is a buttface)

Here’s the kicker: since female vampires are so closely tied to negative and predatory portrayals of lesbians, this humanization of Himiko also suggests that her queerness will likewise be treated openly and sympathetically, because there no longer exists an allegory that could be used for dismissing it. Ochako has already made monumental assertions in this chapter. By saying she admires her openness and envies her beautiful smile, and by presenting complete vulnerability in offering her blood, she swiftly separates herself from the lifetime of persecution Himiko has dealt with. It all represents so much more than those who mistakenly call it “yuri pandering” could hope to understand. This is the real deal. 

So what is this talk about romance they’re supposed to have? I firmly believe whatever Ochako says, it has to be a very surprising revelation, for both Himiko as well as us, the audience. Otherwise all the hype and mystery makes no sense. If Ochako has something so important to say, it can’t be to confirm Himiko’s assumptions. Whenever I try to dissect the exact possibilities, I get hopelessly tangled up in semantics, but ultimately I just hope to get Ochako’s perspective in full, especially as it relates to what other people think of her.

Actually, I had an idea while writing this. I saw someone on twitter (I think jokingly) bring up the All Might doll, like oh god, what if it comes up again. Ok but listen. There’s a LOT of potential symbolism in the token from Izuku that Ochako has kept being a doll of All Might specifically. We all know it calls to mind Izuku’s emulation of All Might, which resulted in the aspects of Izuku that Ochako herself admired. We can also easily infer that during the mission to rescue Izuku, Ochako saw the darker side of these traits. Okay, so here’s another wrinkle: All Might, as a near mythical figure, represents hero society. He’s the hero archetype, an upholder of the status quo, “peace,” and his weakening under all the pressure implies a flawed system.

Nighteye predicted All Might’s death, but also admitted that a strong enough collective will can change the course of his predictions. Ochako sites Nighteye’s own death as an origin for her beginning to question who exactly in this world needs saving. If you know my meta, you know that I believe All Might needs to die in symbol only. Right now, Ochako is throwing out an awful lot of things heroes take for granted. Things everyone takes for granted. The outcome of this fight could be a turning point in the war that completely changes the tone. If Ochako is to accomplish this by way of an intimate talk of romance, well…

Bye-bye, All Might!

[mallas28]

Why i think Horikoshi need some help.

So, sorry for my English but will try to explain my point of view why Horikoshi favor Katsuki Bakugo so much and doesn't like Izuku.

Problem is...Horikoshi really doesn't like Bakugo and He actually loves Izuku. But he is too afraid showing this. This is my opinion.

Reason for this is Horikoshis PTSD from his previous experience with Shonen Jump. As you know SJ has cruel practice closing Unpopular mangas without giving them any time to get popular. (Ironically this cruel practice lead SJ in bad condition they are now).

Horikoshi suffered from this deeply. He even stated in interview that he considered leaving manga industry and find other job. He even stated that he has nightmares about that times and waking up with horror thoughts that his manga will be closed. So this is only my POV, but i think Horikoshi has PTSD and need help..

You see, Shonen Jump is not very nice company. Its a horror place in reality. I don't know other shonen magazine which have so mant artists with ruined health. Which says a lot about their work atmosphere.. You could also read about their conflict with Dragon Ball rights to realize how they treat horribly their employees. For Shonen Jump mangakas is a trash that needs to be thrown out.. Nothing more.

So going back to Horikoshi. I think he doesn't like Bakugo as many claims. I nean doesn't like so much. He in reality loves Izuku at some way.

Problem is because of his past experience with Shonen Jump. Horikoshi become to dependent from popularity polls. And popularity overall. You could see that from his interviews. Like that villain academia (the best written arc in manga) was axed because lack of popularity. Or that Aoyama was supposed to be revealed traitor in Camp arc but Horikoshi was afraid it will low popularity. You could find many of them

So i think Horikoshi is so afraid of losing popularity that he try to please fans instead of telling his own story. Like he pushes Bakugo forward and forward excuses his actions because he is most popular. Meanwhile Deku seems on second place..

Also, I truly believe that Horikoshi originally planned different ending but SJ forced his to rewrite it in last minute. Just look hiw badly 430 chapter was written. No design changes, narration jumping and etc.

So because of Shonen Jump pushing him and because of dependent from popularity Horikoshis own story suffers a lot. Bakugo gets too much ridiculous spotlight. Horrible resurrection and no abuse recognition. Izuku sufferers as independent character. Whole story and almost all characters suffers because of that.

. Why we only see it in last arc? The answer is editors. First three Editors were the saviors for Horikoshi. They lead him in righg direction.

The last one... Imamura or whatever. I think he is the most horrible. Because he did nothing. 430 was not edited at all. Why he was put with Horikoshi? I don't know.

So i truly believe that if not Shonen Jump and Horikoshi PTSD we would get a great story. The only thing that could probably change Horikoshi behavior and point of view on Bakugo is the next film flop in box office. If next film will be dedicated to Bakugo i will be praying for it to flop hard . And SJ will lose money. Only that could make them think a little.

This is only just my point of view.

[bigleoenergy]

Obviously this isn’t the last chapter of my hero but even so I think the ending of this final battle was done very shallow anyways. Like happy for bakudeku people fr I’m happy they got their destiel moment but I sincerely feel like horikoshi said whatever to the actual story he was writing in favor of pleasing the izuku and bakugo fans which are the majority of the fandom. Because besides them literally every other character has just been side lined into an “okay? That’s it I guess??? “ ending. I’m so serious if you step outside of Bakugo and Izukus storyline not a single other character has had any proper wrap up for this war. Over half of these characters aren’t even acknowledged despite being set up for a more impactful story it’s crazy.

And I’m sorry but genuinely what is the point of anything right now if Touya, Himiko, and Tomura are dead. I literally don’t care if one of them did actually survive and we see that in the next chapter, we should see them alive now….getting help…being acknowledged. What was the point of emphasizing to your viewers how fucked and unfair hero society is and how so many people suffer and become villains because of never getting help if the three characters who represent the unfairness just die??? All of them??? Like okay… hope that their deaths impact the hero students so hopefully when they grow up they….feel more inclined to be sympathetic to future villains, instead of actually writing how current society should’ve acknowledged our marginalized characters and through enough help these people could be rehabilitated into a better society. Like the point of emphasizing this entire time how this new generation of hero’s, Izuku especially, are better than the hero’s before them and are going to right past wrongs should be shown in the characters actually doing that… not just hoping they will. Like because these characters are dead there can’t possibly be any justice brought. If they are all truly dead how can we see hero society face their mistakes and work to fix them because nobody else in this universe if going to care about the deaths of these villains besides Izuku, Ochako, and Shoto who knew them personally. It truly feels like he backed out of writing the harder story in favor of just pleasing the majority of fans there’s no other way to spin it.

Also….the way izuku didn’t even reach his goal like bro failed….and not poetically like you can spin it as “he’s just a teenager!!! He can’t be expected to actually succeed at everything!!!” We know. We’ve seen him fail plenty before. Showing us this in the final battle is unsatisfactory. “It’s realistic to show that you can’t save everyone! Not even the good guys can meet their goals it wouldn’t be realistic .” First of all this is a fantasy story. This is a fictional story written by someone to share a message to his audience. And he failed at showing the message he had built up since the start. Like there’s plenty of times you can show me how the good guys don’t win every battle and I love it but trying to say this at the price of your characters who represent abuse and mistreatment is bad writing and it’s lazy. You can not spin it any other way.

I’m just spur of the moment rambling so if anything I say is incoherent sorry I just genuinely expected so much better.

[oshiawaseni]

Trails of Love Hori's been paving down in the build up for the series' ending

Part II: Decoding the love story being told through other characters

Part One | II. Compress | Part Two -> KiriMina

.•° ✿ 2. Gentle & La Brava ೋღ

Gentle and La Brava are classic portrayals of the archetype known in Japan as "baka couple" - a couple that dotes on each other and are very openly affectionate. By juxtaposing the baka couple with Izuku and Katsuki, who keep their true feelings for each other close to their chests, Horikoshi is highlighting the tension and ambiguity going on between bkdk even more.

This tale is the evolution of my feelings towards Gentle/La Brava.

Their introduction was, very... unexpected. Izuku had just finished his tough fight against Overhaul. Nothing much was going on at the time and it had been quite a while since Izuku and Katsuki had interacted with each other.

Shortly after Gentle and La Brava's introduction to the series, BkDk development ramps up and Izuku's "Control your heart" character arc begins. Isn't that interesting..?

The very first time I watched Gentle/La Brava's story in Season Four, something seemed so... misplaced about them.

Their vibe felt filler-ish and because of the school festival side plot going on, their appearance was more like a filler inside of a filler. Yet, Horikoshi had indeed written them into BNHA. These two characters felt so strange when compared with Hori's usual characters. Even downright silly. They were criminals, but they weren't even that bad..? Tea? U.A? They loved each other?

I just couldn't quite work out their purpose in the grand scheme of things and I quickly gave up trying to.

Izuku has no regard for himself? He's crazy? Don't get entangled with him? These lines scream out KATSUKI KATSUKI KATSUKI and how he had felt towards Izuku for years. It seems Hori projected Katsuki's issues with Izuku onto LB/G over 100 chapters before Katsuki verbalised them himself. Going back, now knowing they were written for BkDk is a new experience in and of itself.

Around the time of Katsuki's death, a few theories were floating around on twitter, saying that Gentle and La Brava were put in the manga to highlight what's going on with BkDk. At the time of hearing these theories, I never expected they'd be making a return to the story in the final arc, it had broke my brain thinking about them the first time, so I didn't give this theory too much thought... but when they showed up a second time, in the final act, I really wish I had.

Because as I was reading the things they were now saying the second time around, and being more open to this theory about them, all I could see in my head were visions of everything Izuku and Katsuki had ever done for each other. It had finally clicked:

God, Hori did invent these characters to be the voice of BkDk.

These were the new lines in question that sent my head spiralling about the magnificent truth of this theory:

"Are you still fighting to protect someone's smile?!" It made me think of Katsuki, how Izuku was fighting for Katsuki's sake! To keep him safe, so he'll come back to him, energetic, alive, red eyes shining again with the passion that Izuku loves so much, and his face brimming with confidence and that wonderful, infectious smile of his that tells, no, shouts to everyone that he knows he's a winner.

"My only happiness was the thought of you at my side" Immediately made me think of Katsuki's last moments and thinking of Izuku when he knew, he just KNEW he was going to die. And his thoughts of Izuku - wanting to be the hero that Izuku loves, so he could feel that love when he needed it most, these feelings surrounded and filled his entire heart like a comforting, soft, warm blanket. These feelings are what got him through everything until the end.

This one made me cry because Izuku was his happiness at his very end. And I finally saw Horikoshi, the mangaka who cares about BkDk more than anyone! I saw what he was doing!

"The time we spent apart made our love even stronger." was like a ray of hope for me because every time they had a separation, BkDk's love grew even stronger. It meant that this separation caused by Kacchan's death would some day have an end too, where afterwards, they would be free to love each other for all the world to see.

Can you see it? Katsuki and Izuku were always meant to end up together, and La Brava and Gentle were meant to help show readers what they feel, without BkDk necessarily saying it themselves.

If Izuku's love of Kacchan is what got him a power up every time (OFA, Black Whip, Danger Sense), then this ultimate power of La Brava's must be the same for Katsuki too. Because it is his love for Izuku that gave him a quirk awakening. (And there's another great theory that their deep bond and immense love for each other is what connected Katsuki to Izuku's OFA, as well. So Gentle La Brava are connected via Love... and Katsuki and Izuku are connected via love!)

Let's say from the very beginning of BNHA, Horikoshi's idea was to gradually bring BkDk closer and closer, adding in little details here and there that don't make much sense on their own and are never expanded upon. Because he couldn't make their feelings known in the early/mid game... but he wanted to have them romance-ready at the end game.

Hori would have had a basic outline for the ways he was going to develop BkDk's relationship and he knew he needed a lot of 3rd party help to really spell out their relation to each other in the future. So Hori created Gentle and La Brava for this singular purpose. They exist to help verbalise Katsuki and Izuku's unsaid feelings! It's a perfect marriage between Gentle/La Brava's words and BkDk's actions.

And once people realised that Hori was doing this, they could then go back to the dialogues and connect the dots with other BkDk scenes as well, for example, Katsuki's abduction by the LOV in season three.

In a scene where Katsuki is taken away, Izuku's emotional pain is palpable. His deafening scream shocks not only his classmates, but a lot of viewers too. Because of his deeply emotional reaction and later scenes displaying symptoms of PTSD, this seemingly one-sided affection that Izuku has towards Katsuki, raised so many questions about their relationship for me. And as the series progressed, the mystery of Izuku's powerful feelings and need for Katsuki only deepened further. It feels like La Brava's dialogues were written into the series, just to verbalise what these overwhelming moments were truly like for Izuku.

This can't be just a coincidence. There are just too many parallels between BkDk and Gentle/La Brava to even count.

If you've read my twitter thread on the Gentle/La Brava vs BkDk parallels and how incredibly similar Izuku and La Brava's backgrounds are, but you're still sceptical about this theory, then going on this journey of Hori's trails with me may help convince you that Hori was going to make BkDk canon no matter what and that he's been using other characters to narrate the feelings of BkDk's actions.

In the future, I hope to show you how instrumental Gentle and La Brava were in expressing Horikoshi's vision.

Because there are more layers to Gentle and La Brava's arc than a damn rainbow cake. And I'm still not finished with these two yet, but that is a topic for a later post. Next up, KiriMina!

Part Two -> KiriMina

II. Compress Back to Part One

[takami-takami]

Thats why I love Horikoshi. Been a hawks girl for...idk how many years atp. Probably since he was introduced in the anime. Every action has a reason behind it, also just the way keigos trauma is written is scarily accurate. Not even just keigo but tomura and dabi as well, like you can see the way they've grown up correlating with their trauma. But like most of all is hori kinda writes them like their PEOPLE and not just their trauma, they have their own values and such.

YES, YES ABSOLUTELY! When grabbing those panels, I read a few pages of Toga's story and it genuinely made my heart clench. Every character is a person, developed and accurate and nuanced. The dynamics, the way they internalize it and how their behaviors change as a result!! So good. Genuinely he is such a fucking good writer.