#still better than afo for Tomura but eerily similar

[buttercupshands]

mixing is in progress...

[itsnothingofinterest]

When will Endeavor Die?

That’s a question that’s been on my mind lately. I mean for one, he’s in the position we know Deku eventually occupies, so the answer is clearly sometime between now and the end of the series. But also there’s the fact that as the new no. 1 and the face of heroes, he kind of keeps All Might from being a target until he either dies or messes up super royally (as in more than he already has this arc. The kind of mess-up that’s pretty much death anyway). And if there’s to at least be any tension around All Might dying, any obstacle in the way of that probably have to go first.

Add in that his character is largely that of a partially-tragic failure; failure to be a father, failure to live up to All Might, and given recent events a failure to be a hero at all as he fails to defeat Shigaraki, and it really feels like his days are numbered. Unless of course he fails to die and instead lives to wallow in his failures until the end of his days, but I kind of doubt that because his failure of a son really wants to succeed in killing him.

But anyway, “when?” is something I’ve been wondering about lately.

On the one hand, this arc seems like the moment where all the necessary pieces align, and it’s when I thought he’d die for the arc’s early chapters. The only thing he was really needed for anymore was the Touya reveal, and with all the Todoroki fighters converging on one spot and the reveal imminent thanks to Hawks knowing, we can assume that it’ll be happening real soon. Add in a lot of his recent actions highlighting his worst traits, and this feels like a fitting moment to meet his end.

But on the other hand, those actions haven't really been in focus; mainly because they’re him disregarding his flaws. He sees a villain who’s crimes are eerily similar to his own? Absolutely no reaction beyond telling him off for all the evil he’s done. Shigaraki starts talking about the flaws of heroes which he embodies most of all? “Thanks for yapping on like that so I could catch my breath, now die!” He refuses to acknowledge these things so his flaws are never in focus, which kind of hurts the idea that this is building up the the consequences of his actions finally getting him. That could indicate it’s not the right time, and the story is waiting for a better time for him to face his final fate.

And additionally, there are at least a few things he could theoretically still do if he survived the Touya reveal; he could have a moment to sit down, reflect, & really think, outside of any other dangerous circumstances, does he want to prioritize his hero work or his family? I don’t have high hopes for him either way, it’d likely either be that he tires to prioritize his family and fails anyway or he’ll fail to properly consider them again, but it’s something that would be harder to do in the middle of battle than in the downtime between arcs. Not impossible, but harder. So that might be a reason to wait for a better time to ax him.

But back to the first hand; would there ever be a better time? I mean if a major problem is he has the self-awareness of a couch, well Dabi confronting him will either fix that or it won’t; letting him stew over it won’t help that much. Plus any future fight would have to be against people he’s already fighting or primed to fight, namely Tomura and/or Dabi, which is all the more reason to just to it now. In general, there’s not a lot of ways to improve the scenario he’s imminently headed towards fighting Dabi, so why wait?

Plus, even if he hasn’t been the focus this arc; Horikoshi could fix that easily in a proper Dabi fight. I mean AFO had hardly any on-page presence before he showed up at Kamino 7 chapters/3 episodes before All Might beat him into the ground, and that was still generally considered a satisfying battle. One fight is probably all it would take to make it really feel like this is where all of Endeavor’s failures finally come back to bite him all at once. There’s not many ways to make his death feel more appropriate that’d really require a large amount of time.

So I guess in conclusion, it feels like there’s a 60-40% split chance he’ll either die this arc or another that will follow shortly after, maybe during the PLF’s actual attack after they escape their current mess. I’d be very surprised if he made it past that though.