#dabi meta

[trashformha]

Since this episode will inevitably stir up bad todofam discourse and I'm a clown who hopes to convince ppl to look at Touya's situation more critically let's look into it, shall we?

First off: Endeavor married Rei for her quirk not out of love.He had children with her because he wanted a successor and not children. This in itself already established that Endeavor is not going to be a good dad.

I mean sure in the first few years he wasn't abusive and things seemed alright. Rei was ok with the situation, Fuyumi was happy and Touya seemed really excited to train with his father but then Touya's quirk started hurting him.

Of course the most reasonable approach here was stop training him. This was not the problem. The problem was that Endeavor neglected him.

There is a reason we are shown this specific scene. Endeavor has a day off and instead of spending it with his family he is heading out. He didn't need to train with him but he could have at least tried to convinced him to do smth else together.

The reason Touya liked training was because he could spend time with his father, so the moment Enji stopped training him he also stopped spending time with his son.

So even if Touya's quirk wasn't harming him think about it: Touya might have surpassed his father but could he really surpass All Might? What would happen if he didn't manage to surpass him? Would Endeavor just start avoiding him? Would he really deal with the situation in a healthy/good way? How would Touya feel about his inability to surpass All Might after his father spend his whole life intoxicating Touya into this role? At the end of the day Enji would have doomed this family one way or another.

Back to the topic at hand. Touya could not be trained. As a result Endeavor had Natsuo and Shoto. This is an even WORSE slap to the face towards Touya. Because Touya might be a child but he is not stupid. His father stops spending time with him and now he has 2 new siblings? Even though their father doesn't bother to spend his free time with the 2 children he already has? Touya KNOWS he's being repalced. And for a child that's still so young and developing this gotta leave psychological scars. What Enji did was cruel towards Touya and it's why he ends up lashing out at Shoto.

Another problem was that Endeavor's attempts at stopping Touya from hurting himself were half-assed. He did not want to face the problem.

Every instance of him talking to touya is him saying to stop because he's hurting himself and to find smth else. He never bothered to sit down and talk through this issue with Touya because then he'd have to admit to himself how awful his behavior has been so far. How he spend years avoiding Touya and didn't spend a single second of his time with Natsuo and Fuyumi either. Natsuo literally describes Endeavor as a stranger despite having lived with the man in a house his whole life.

Eventually everything escalated when Touya makes one last plea to his father to watch him at Sekoto Peak and the later never arrived.

Endeavor was probably never physically violent to Touya in the way he was to Rei and Shoto but that doesn't change the fact that his treatment of Touya was cruel and that he had never been a good father towards him in any way.Touya wasn't born unhinged and evil and his accident at Sekoto Peak is a direct result of Endeavor's actions.

#mha #bnha #dabi #touya #todoroki touya #endeavor #enji todoroki #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #mha s6 #bnha s6 #dabi meta #meta

[commander-revan]

So I finished reading through the Naruto manga for the first time last night, and I had some thoughts about how similar parts of Obito's and Touya's stories are. They have very different pasts and different reasons for becoming 'villains' in the worlds they live in, but they do have several things in common.

When they're younger they're both bright, energetic, and determined kids that both have a goal of becoming an important person in their communities (hokage/hero). While Obito didn't really have family or parental figures in his life, given that he's Uchiha there's most likely a sense of legacy he's trying to live up to similar to Touya, and they're both working towards their goals so they finally feel seen by those around them. They both feel ignored by the people they consider important (Rin and Minato/Endeavor) in favor of those who are seen as more skilled than them (Kakashi/Shoto), so they train harder and harder in an effort to finally be noticed.

Both of them 'die' tragically young at the age of thirteen, though in very different ways. Obito dies with Kakashi whom he had finally bonded with, and Rin whom he loved though he still didn't have the courage to tell her his feelings. While Touya 'dies' alone, waiting for a father who won't show up for him until he's already gone.

However, they're both saved by a major villain that was thought to be long gone They're revived and healed using rather unethical science (White Zetsu/Nomu). And they both come out of the experience with weaker power than what they once had, and scars covering a large portion of their bodies.

While Touya never buys into AFO's plans and immediately breaks out and runs home, Obito has to stay and recover. Part of him even feels indebted to Madara, even though he is a bit creeped out by him and his philosophy. Eventually, though, he gets out too with the 'help' of one of the Zetsu's. However, when they both arrive to reunite with the people they're trying to get to, they see something that sets them on their dark paths.

They come to different solutions for what they want to do (Infinite Tsukuyomi/getting revenge on his family) but they both spend time walking the world and see how more than just their personal situations are fucked up. They see how much injustice there is in their societies, and how the people up top that are supposed to protect others frequently harm and use them. (The world of Naruto is quite a bit more fucked up than MHA, but the point still stands.)

After that, they both go by an alias (Tobi and Madara/Dabi) and start setting their plans in motion, eventually teaming up with the villain who saved them. Later on, they both fight their past loved ones (Minato and Kakashi/Endeavor and Shoto) who don't realize who they're fighting initially. Though once they do finally get it, Obito and Touya point out how they should have realized it sooner.

(This is a minor one that I didn't quite know where to put, but they do both show up to the final battle with white hair and outfits.)

They both end up fighting and losing to the one that they've always envied (Kakashi/Shoto), but they get back up and do something violently self-destructive that has the power to kill a lot of people that neither has complete control over at first.

During this, and the pain they're experiencing, they both start having flashes of a life that could have been. A life that should have been so simple to have.

That's about where we leave Touya, he's down, but he hasn't been completely saved yet. Meanwhile, thanks to Kakashi and Naruto's efforts, Obito begins to realize that there is hope still in the world, and that not all of it is hell. And he ends up fighting with them to take the bigger threat to the world down. Until he eventually sacrifices himself in the end to save Kakashi (and Naruto), just like he did during his first death.

If Obito, who did way more heinous things than Touya has ever done, can be saved and redeemed in the end, then I believe Touya can too. But, unlike Obito, I think he's going to get to live afterwards.

#my hero academia #dabi #touya todoroki #league of villains #bnha #dabi meta #bnha meta #naruto #obito uchiha #madara uchiha #Naruto meta #toya todoroki

[spiritofwhitefire]

Dancing on the grave of the man who murdered you

Recently I made a joke post saying that “I do not relate to Dabi but I do admire him, which is arguably much more disturbing”. Well… that may not be entirely true. Because like many other victims/ survivors of parental abuse, I find his story, particularly Dabi’s Dance to be one of the great moments of catharsis that I have witnessed in media.

::read more::

Part 1: The silent sufferer

I’ve read a lot of pre-touya reveal fics where enji was depicted as this towering monster in touya’s life, the same sort of obviously monstrous abuser as he was with shouto. But when the reveal happens, we see that in touya’s case, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Enji is subtle with touya, he grooms touya with much more serpentine grace than he does shouto because he shows a loving side as well. He showered touya with praise and promises of greatness and told him how powerful and loved he was. And then he ripped all away.

Enji stopped spending time with touya, smiling at him, no longer praising him. In fact actively telling him he wasn’t good enough for the one thing he had always praised him for in the past. His other siblings (Natsuo and fuyumi) had always been deemed useless, the failures of the family and so now what is he to think of himself as? Imagine going through that physical trauma while also knowing you can’t lean on your biggest support? And what’s worse, he sees himself replaced, like he never mattered as an individual at all? This is abuse. Just because we don’t see him being physically traumatized like shouto doesn’t mean he didn’t go through a horror of his own.

The worst part is that we know he still to this day loves his father. You can’t hate someone that deeply without loving them, even now he craves his fathers approval and acknowledgement. To make someone depend on and love you that deeply and then rip it all away takes a terrible toll on that persons mindset because then they are forever chasing that acceptance and plagued by good memories that make them question that bad ones.

Part 2: crawling out of your grave

It is very telling that even after burning alive, Touya doesn’t even blame his father. If you were looking for proof that touya cared deeply about his family, it’s in the scene where he wakes from his coma. His first thought is of his family, how worried they must be and how badly he wants to make amends for the way he left things. He makes excuses for Enji’s absence at Sekoto and I fully believe he would have returned to his family had he not seen what he did.

Now MHA is hardly a source of realistic fiction however I do want to mention that after waking up from a coma, your body is extremely weak. Most people need to be on bed rest for weeks after their coma and are often severely underweight and in a very delicate place health wise. A burn victim with fresh grafts? VERY DELICATE place, at high risk for infection. I have no idea how far that hospital was form touya’s home but I doubt it was close. He ran home from there.

And in that physically and mentally delicate place he was forced to confront what Enji had been essentially building up over the course of the years since touya became unable to be his heir - that touya’s life didn’t matter.

Enji didn’t kill touya, but he might as well have.

Part 3: make me your monster

The first thing I want to talk about is the horrific idea that looks translate to quality of character. It’s not a fictional issue, it’s a real world one and it I see it reflected all the time in people’s reactions to fictional characters. Blah blah blah yeah Dabi is a villain, but he’s not a villain because he is a burn victim. He is a burn victim who happens to be a villain. I’ve already talked about how weird people’s reactions to the entire idea of skin grafts are and I’m not going to get into it again but it’s actually horrible the way that people react to anyone with facial differences.

He’s a fictional character so speculation about his life after leaving home is a little ridiculous but I mean… a 16 year old boy fresh out of a 3 year coma with blankets of trauma and a severely burned/ grafted body trying to make it on the streets? The amount of resilience, conviction and inner strength that kid has is beautiful, truly.

Step 5: Touya’s Dance

Apart from being really fucking cool it was also incredibly emotionally charged. The adrenaline in that moment is overwhelming. When you’re in a moment of ecstatic triumph your body just can’t contain it. His motions are not graceful, they’re awkward and jerky and entirely an expression of desperate emotion. He’s confronting his monster after years of torment, a man who birthed him but couldn’t even recognize him. Truly his voice actor deserves an Emmy for that performance the way his vocals rose and fell with despair, and passion! Beautiful.

And that’s not to mention his video recording. @pikahlua and @thyandrawrites wrote a wonderful post analyzing his disposition in that recording when the manga came out and the anime did not disappoint. That was the voice of a little boy buried too soon, talking about his own murder, his death! And atop the giant, a man who has lived his life as a vengeful spirit, whose wrath has finally come to collect. It’s a dance of vindication sure, but it’s one of pain too.

Afterword: As a victim, as a survivor…

For anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and felt like someone else, for anyone who had ever felt dead before they died, forgotten while they still breathe, like a failure when they were never give a chance….

Most of us will never get justice or revenge. For me, my father hurt me and my mom and now he’s changed and I’ve been forced to forgive him. And I still love him, but I’ll never forget what he did. And no one will ever know how bad it was. But seeing that man confront his monster and dance in ecstasy at his vengeance, in that moment, I felt something close to peace. And to see how many others feel as I do, well. It’s just nice to be seen. To be looked at.

#dabi’s dance #Dabi #touya todoroki #MHA #bnha #Dabi meta #MHA meta

[rainygirl2399]

how much self-awareness does dabi have?

Sorry for the late reply anon, I am trying to catch up with all the asks that have been sent to me over the past few months. I had a lot of school work to complete for college.

Anyway, regarding Dabi's self awareness, I would argue that he is one of the most self aware characters in the entire manga.

The entire theme around the Todorokis is "to see" and acknowledge each other as a family but also acknowledge the awful truths and problems they have that are rooted in Endeavor's awful decisions.

Examples of Dabi's self awareness are shown multiple times throughout the manga:

Dabi scouting Hawks yet also getting background information on him and his past by tracking down his mom and releasing his real name and past to the public just in case he turned out to be a spy. Even Hawks acknowledged how much he underestimated Dabi as a threat.

The next example would be how he called out his mom Rei's hypocrisy when it came to family expectations, he was that aware and he was only 13 years old.

Basically he tells her he knows her situation with her family and how she had no choice but to choose her marriage with Endeavor to fulfill her family's expectations of her and that is something he is doing too.

When she tells him to look beyond he tells her in his own way that she chose this path too and if she gives that advice to look beyond the hero world then she's basically a hypocrite who regrets her marriage to Enji and thus regrets having him to begin with.

Rei was being a hypocrite here as she was basically telling Toya not to do what she did but he knew she didn't care enough about him to stop having kids to replace him in Endeavor's ambitions and never took her own advice once in her life. While Rei was in a powerless position she acknowledges later on that she didn't .

The best example imo would be how he copied Shoto's Phosphor move because he has owned his battle intuition and quirk all for the sake of vengeance.

Toya always has to work an uphill battle against his own quirk and against others who underestimate him. While the case here is not that Shoto is weak but Toya is just stronger and willing to do anything to achieve his goal and Shoto is a hero who refuses to go all out it it means he'll hurt people unintentionally.

His awareness is not limited to simply gathering intel from heroes but battle intuition and learning moves and how they work by simply looking at them.

Heck even Ujiko commented on his good eye for noticing things.

#Dabi meta #rainygirl2399asks #dabi todoroki #bnha dabi #bnha dabi analysis #bnha dabi meta #rainygirl2399 #rainygirl2399thoughts #rainygirl2399replies

[class1akids]

I am so sad. They gave this Dabi vs Shouto panel to some B-studio.

There are so many things wrong with this shot, but the most infuriating part is that it shows that its creators do not have a clue what this fight is about.

The composition. The composition matters. This is Kamino. Shoto and Touya are having a showdown in Kamino. All Might's last stand, the place where Endeavor realized he destroyed his family for nothing, the moment where the reason they were created, they have suffered for became moot.

All Might's statue is looming over them. All Might was the goal - they were little toddlers when Endeavor told them that their worth is coming from being able to surpass All Might. Their existence was conditional on that goal. It's the reason of the wedge between them.

"I am not here". It has so many meanings. But also for this particular fight the "hero" who created this family, these two boys to surpass All Might is once again not here. As AFO rightly calls him out for it, once again, he fails to show up for Touya.

Shouto does show up and he's looking at Touya who is not looking at him. "Watch me" is like the desperate cry for self-worth in the Todoroki family.

Shouto's pose in the manga radiates his determination. He who is always so full of doubt is so sure here. He stands firm. But the fire and ice at his feet are a reminder of his "masterpiece" status, due to his perfect quirk. In the anime, his pose is floppy, the ice and fire are missing too.

Touya who looks away is so full of disdain for Shouto. His swag shows what he thinks of this 3rd son. In the anime? Nothing.

I'm not only mad because the artwork is lazy and looks bad. I'm mad because every choice they made here, every corner they cut tells me the people who made this did not understand a single thing about this fight.

#bnha s7 #todoroki shouto #Dabi #manga vs anime #When I saw the director was an Endeavor stan I knew we were doomed. #todoroki touya #bnha meta

[shadowed-dancer]

Horikoshi recently revealed that Endeavor was supposed to die during the PLF war and that honestly validates something I've been feeling but couldn't quite articulate: "Horikoshi doesn't know who the central Todoroki is" (or he does, but he changed it halfway through to the worse option)

Endeavor dying would have been AMAZING if Shoto were the central character in the Todoroki subplot. The main reason this is so is that Endeavor would be out of the way. Shoto would have full reigns on how he wants to handle Touya (the "final villain" of the Todoroki subplot), and the rest of the family can play a role in this as a supporting cast.

However, Shoto is NOT the central character in the Todoroki subplot. Or, at least, he used to be, but he's not anymore. He's not allowed to have a final fight with Touya because Touya needs to still confront Endeavor. Regardless of how that fight ends, whether it's Shoto saving his brother or knocking him out, Shoto isn't allowed to end the conflict until Touya and Endeavor interact.

At the start of the series, it was really obvious that Shoto was the central figure (and was our pov character) for his family drama. During the sports festival, HE'S the one who shared the backstory. The flashbacks are framed around what HE saw. HE is the one taking a step forward to fix his family, and it starts with reconciling with his mom. At this point, Endeavor is what I'll call "the instigator". He is the cause for the family drama, and though we may not know Touya at this point, Endeavor has already released the future final boss of the subplot into the world.

In the Pro Hero arc, Endeavor becomes his own central figure as a pov character into the world of pros. He then overlaps with the Todoroki subplot by wanting to atone and remove himself from the role of the instigator. The thing is, he can't. What was done cannot be undone, and the most he can do at this point is try to make things better for his family moving forward. At this point, he and Shoto can coexist as central figures because the final boss has not yet been introduced.

The second Touya confirmed his identity, either Endeavor or Shoto had to stop being the central figure. Having Touya need to fight two heroes before being able to come to any end just feels sloppy, and since Shoto was given the first fight, it makes him seem like the less important figure. Even Touya doesn't care! He spends a good chunk of the fight talking about how he'd rather fight Endeavor. This makes Endeavor into the central figure as he is now the one to end the fight. HE'S the one the final boss has been waiting for, not Shoto.

The thing is, this started as Shoto's story, so it would have made sense for it to end as Shoto's story as well. Even if it meant killing Endeavor to force Shoto to be the ONLY central figure (probably to Touya's dismay) it would have allowed Shoto the space he needed to lead the ending he deserved, rather than be pushed to a side character.

TL;DR Endeavor surviving forced Shoto into the role of a supporting character in a plot line that started as SHOTO'S plot line.

#bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha critical #shoto todoroki #touya todoroki #dabi #enji todoroki #endeavor #bnha meta

[helga-grinduil]

Saw the most insane take on this chapter today, and I feel like I need to say something.

Toga decided to die… NOT because she accepted Ochako’s feelings and her ‘healthy love’. If you were to actually read the chapter with your eyes instead of your ass, this is what you would see:

The structure of Toga’s monologue (and the monologue itself) here mirrors Jin's monologue. The narrative is basically throwing it in your face that Toga is copying Jin, even if unknowingly. Her entire 'sacrifice' is a parallel to Jin, who also decided to sacrifice himself for the people who accepted him (The League in Jin's case, Ochako in Himiko's case) because he didn't really care about himself anymore and didn't think rehabilitation was possible for him. She's not doing this because she accepted the 'healthy' concept of love, she's literally copying Jin's version of love - self-sacrifice.

Toga literally gives us an actual reason for why she's doing it: she doesn't believe (yet) that the world can change for the better and that the society would try to work with her instead of completely supressing her. She doesn't believe that she would have a future if she'd allow herself to be captured by heroes. This entire thought process is coming from the core ideology of the League of Villains. Not believing that the world can change and help them so the only thing left is to either destroy it or die is Tomura's ideology.

(Destruction is the main point. Destroying as much as they can and feel like before they're killed off or before they're left with nothing but ashes is the real purpose behind this entire war.)

And even when Toga speaks about the League creating an easier world for her to live in, the flashback shows them before MVA - alive and well. Twice is dead. Touya (as she thinks) is dead. Compress was captured. Currently, as far as Toga is aware - only Shigaraki (who isn't even Tomura anymore, the last time she saw him), Kurogiri and Spinner are left standing (and Spinner is actually currently laying on the hospital floor, dying). Ultimately, the League creating that world for her is an impossible, unachievable dream by now - and she knows it. It's not something that is going to happen. She gave up on that idea. She doesn't believe that she has a future if heroes capture her, and she doesn't believe that she has a future if the League 'wins' (and she knows they won't).

She believes that dying is the conclusion all of them are heading towards, the League came there prepared to die - that's why she chooses to save Ochako (the person who accepted her and made her happy) and kill herself instead of getting locked up or dying in some other way. Dying on her own terms, dying by saving the only person who actually accepted her (like Twice did) is the only way she can see herself going out happily now. There is no other option left in her mind.

And hey! There is actually another huge factor at play here, which I feel like some people forget for some reason? Toga thinks that Touya is dead. Moreso, Toga thinks that Touya killed himself. Dying on her own terms, killing herself while smiling?

She is following in his footsteps.

That's why she 'asked' Touya if he'd managed to smile/laugh before dying, because *that's* what Touya's entire speech about laughter was about. Dying while having a fucking blast, dying while doing whatever they want and laughing at the world, accepting the fact that they will die, but at least they'll cause as much harm and pain to the world that hurt them as possible before that. Himiko has decided to kill herself while doing what she wants (sacrificing herself to save a person who made her happy) with a smile on her face.

It's not love & justice that lead to self-destruction, it's self-depreciation and inability to believe that things can get better that do.

P.S. She’s not dead btw.

#I know that vaguing is not the best thing to do when you disagree with someone... #But since that person constantly vagues me and my friends I think this is completely justified in this case. #If they're reading this and think that it's targeted at them - yes‚ it is. #bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha meta #bnha 395 #toga himiko #uraraka ochako #bubaigawara jin #twice #todoroki touya #dabi #lov #league of villain

[missgreenkitty]

I WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS PANEL/SCENE SO BADLY FROM AN ARTISTIC STANDPOINT

So we know this man is blistering hot right now into the canon world. Bubbling, boiling, blistering, you can't get close without extreme fire resistance without getting burned (and that's a stretch bc even Shouto is getting burnt). The steel cables around him are melting.

And yet, thanks to colour theory and innate colour associations, he looks frigid cold. You as a viewer can feel the ice and coldness (not emotionally) wafting off of him due to his white hair and ethereal blue fire---- the pallet associated with ice and cold deeply ingrained in our brains.

It's so poetic and fitting in the contradiction of fire and ice that IS the Todoroki family and I just. Ugh. Can't stop crying over this design and how much of a DELIGHT it is.

#rambles #meta #musings #dabi #todoroki touya #mha #bnha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #anime #manga

[nagitosstolenhand]

okay genuinely i hate the 'have eri or some other plot thing just de-age the league' solution to the lov as a plot point. like. did we even read the same manga. the whole POINT of the league is people forgetting or erasing them and the ways theyve suffered because of the hero system. literally erasing their entire lives all their suffering and all their joy to make them into cute innocent little kids is the exact OPPOSITE of what the ending of that arc should entail. and what about all the other people whove suffered because of the system? big sis magnes friend, all the ppl w mutant type quirks who rallied behind spinner, all the members of the MLA, and all the others we dont see, does eri just have to rewind all of them?? we don't need to reform the system we just need to use this literal child to reset everyone who we've made suffer back into small children so they dont stir up trouble for us anymore! sounds like a great plan! fucking hell

#my post #ramblings #rants #i understand the ppl who just use it as a fun thought experiment or au #like “THE VILLIANS ALL GOT AGED BACK INTO KINDERGARTNERS AND THE HERO STUDENTS HAVE TO BABYSIT THEM WHAT WILL THEY DO???” #but the people who say the GENUINELY want the manga to end like this #and act like theyve found the perfect solution to the story arc #like. are you sure. is the perfect solution in the room with us. #sorry it just annoys the shit out of me #bnha #mha #league of villains #does this count as a meta #more like fandom rant but whatever #bnha meta #toga himiko #dabi #iguchi shuuichi #shigaraki tomura #jin bubaigawara #bubaigawara jin #sako atsuhiro #spinner bnha #mr compress #bnha rants

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Toga’s Love/Quirk Theory;

‘I love Tomura-kun and Touya-kun too, but their quirks won’t come out like Jin-kun’s or Ochako-chan’s. I also tried it before this battle...and they wouldn’t come out! Even though I love him... Even though I can become someone I ‘love’... Even though Jin-kun could make them come out... ‘

Translations made in here by @pikahlua​.

Recently in chapter 382, we see Toga’s unable to become people she loves (Tomura and Dabi), despite the fact that she became Ochaco and Jin and used their quirks and i would argue that problem is not that she didnt love them enough. (This scene also remind me of the time La Brava gets depressed when her love quirk isnt powerfull enough and she questions her love, kinda parallels.)

But i dont think thats the case. Not after Shigaraki became the first person who believed in her, gave a place she belong to her and everything he did for her and not after Dabi and Toga recently connected through Jin’s death and we even get a official art of him imitating Dabi, more details in here.

I believe in you, Toga, that your love for them is geniue too.

So what’s the problem?

I think its no coincidence that the people whom she couldnt use their quirks happenned to be Shigaraki and Dabi. Suicidal brats who is full of hatred and have personal agenda in league the most, unlike Toga who wants to live, even if its her own way and she is living for love.

Toga cant fully become them because she cant understand them. She doesnt understand whats going on their head. She cant relate to their hatred and she doesnt understand their thoughts.

Compared to this;

Uraraka is Toga’s foil. She is someone who is just like Toga. This is exactly why Toga ran away to talk with her. Because they are similar. Their feelings, the way they tried to shut their feelings down because Toga did the same in the past, the good girls who repress their needs and they both want to become their crushes. This is why Toga thought if its Ochaco, then she can understand her and they could talk about love.

In Jin’s case, he is Toga’s bestie and someone she cares as big brother. They have many similarities, they both live for the connections. They both felt lonely. They both were abandonded by society and they wanted to live easier life. They saw league as home and they wanted to do their best to help people they care about.

Basically, Toga can understand their inner thoughts and relate to their inner feelings. I dont blame Toga for this really. Shigaraki and Dabi are too complicated to understand, especially if you dont know their story and inner thoughts. And they dont even talk about their past to connect with league so it makes sense why Toga cant use their quirks.

Well, you could say Toga cant become them because she doesnt want to become them? But i kinda disagree with that. There is a theory made in here by me and several people already mentioned that Toga is imitating Shigaraki and she seems to wanting to be more like him. I would even argue that when she says ‘Even though I love him... Even though I can become someone I ‘love’’, she is talking about Shigaraki.

‘I loved people’s happy faces. That’s why, for that girl, I won’t turn a blind eye to her tears.‘

Toga is a character who geniuely want to connect with people she care about but key point of love is understanding the person you love. I guess it happens to be good time to talk about love. And last panel with Uraraka and Toga is parallel with Deku’s last panel with Shigaraki, that they wont turn a blind eye to crying face, even though they are villains, they want to save them. So good luck, Toga and Ochaco.

#bnha 382 #mha 382 #bnha analysis #mha meta #mha theory #toga himiko #shigaraki tomura #dabi #uraraka ochaco #twice #bubaigawara jin #bnha parallels #midoriya izuku #todoroki touya #quirk theory #bnha theory #la brava #mr gentleman #league of villains

[greenhappyseed]

It hurts to see how damn close Toshinori was to becoming a Tomura or a Toya or a Himiko. Like Tomura, he lost his family when he was young, and presumably nobody came to help him since he took to the streets with a metal pipe and a fierce determination to stop villains from hurting others. At first, even Nana ignores Toshinori — she won’t turn around to look at him when he says his family is dead.

It’s also similar to how Enji won’t look at Toya or listen to his ideas. And, like Toya, Toshinori seems to have internalized that, because he lacked quirk power, he existed for no reason. Yet Toshinori’s mark on the world will be the symbol of peace, not revenge.

Toshinori never succumbed to the slowly building cycle of violence and hatred the way Tenko did. Toshinori wanted to break the cycle and have a world where revenge and hatred didn’t have a place.

I love the contrast of the overpowered man-child standing in front of a beautiful, pristine skyline, saying he took his power to destroy it all compared to the oversized quirkless boy standing in front of a wasted, destroyed cityscape, saying he has no role but is willing to step up if he had power. Power isn’t something Toshinori is owed; it is a gift he is given.

Like Himiko, young Toshinori knew damn well that buildings come and go, but they can never fix people’s hearts. But he didn’t turn that inwards — he always looked outwards and found joy helping others.

And boy, does that line about “new buildings” bring it all back around to Tenko, and the one thing he says will save him: The destruction of everything stemming from his father’s house.

#bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha 398 #mha 398 #all might #toshinori yagi #toshinori yagi rising/origin #nana shimura #tomura shigaraki #toya todoroki #himiko toga #lov #league of villains #tenko shimura #Dabi #bnha meta #mha meta

[trashformha]

Unpopular opinion ig? but it really bugs me how many dabi stans actually fail to understand that Endeavor's death is neither what Dabi needs or wants.

Touya as a child, wanted his father's attention,his approval and his love.That's why he trained his quirk this hard. But no matter how hard he tried Endeavor didn't look his way. He ignored and neglected him. Touya "died" believing his family didn't care about him anymore, that his father was probably happy even that he was finally gone.

Touya became a villain because now it's impossible to look away. Endeavor can no longer avoid Touya, he can't ignore him and he can't just dump his responsibility towards Touya to someone else.Now he is finally forced to look at him.

Dabi wants revenge sure, that's why he intended to kill Shoto this whole time. Shoto's death would be a huge blow into Endeavor's face afterall. Nontheless he also still wishes for the one thing he never received: his father's attention and validation. If Endeavor just dies all that becomes pointless.

#like i know this fandom has literacy problems but the takes on the todoroki family are smth else 😭 #mha #bnha #dabi #touya #todoroki touya #endeavors and dabis arcs play into each other and I wish ppl could accept that one does not work without the other in this case #I know its hard to accept since a lot of villain stans hate endeavors guts but being in denial is no solution either #dabi meta #ig? #i'll just tag it like that #meta

[commander-revan]

I've looked through a lot of Dabi playlists the last few months, and it seems like we all use pretty similar songs for him.

But there are a few songs that I think fit him so well it's almost like they were written for him specifically that I don't see people use as often, so I figured I'd share them here.

The lyrics to this just fit his life so goddamn well, even up to talking about the years stuck in hell and how long he's been planning revenge.

In a way, I can see this fitting how Natsuo feels about Endeavor too.

I can see this one playing during his fight with Shoto in the Final War arc.

Honestly most of the Bad Omens songs I know fit him pretty well, but I think this one works the best.

Just change all the references to God to being about Endeavor and it fits pretty perfectly.

Never expected to put a Steven Universe song in a Dabi playlist, but the abandonment issues he and Spinel have are pretty similar.

"I'm the loser of the game you didn't know you were playing."

Ending on a sad one, but I feel like it fits Touya after he tried to go home and realized that everyone left him behind, and that not even him dying could change his father.

#my hero academia #dabi #touya todoroki #toya todoroki #bnha playlist #Dabi playlist #boku no hero academia #evanescence #breaking benjamin #bad omens #natewantstobattle #hollywood undead #derivakat #i prevail #Spotify #dabi headcanons #Dabi meta

[spiritofwhitefire]

Burning the one you love part 1

Ok no I can’t stop thinking about that scene though. The amount of emotional layering it takes to hold your brother in your arms, to hug him while burning the both of you alive. And he didn’t have to do that, he didn’t have to hug him, he could have just burned him, his flames can reach insane distances,he chooses to do that!

And then for shoutos reaction to be to think of touya, even when he is in mortal danger, he says that touya shouldn’t do this because then HE will die. It takes so much empathy to reach out like that in a moment of serious violence. And what makes it even more insane to me is that touya’s response to that is to say “you grew up kind, im happy for you little brother” and I know a lot of people think he was being sarcastic when he said that but I fully believe that he was being entirely genuine. I think he IS happy his brother grew up kind despite growing up under the horror of enji’s abuse.

But despite that exchange of empathy, he still feels the need to kill both himself and shouto because his whole reason for still living is to destroy enji and that includes the parts of enji that life in himself and his brother.

It’s just so beautiful, because love can be violent but that doesn’t mean it isn’t love. And you can’t truly hate someone who you haven’t loved more than anyone else. No one can hurt you the way your loved ones can

#MHA #bnha #bnha meta #Dabi #touya todoroki #shouto todoroki #Dabi meta

[darkonekrisrewrite]

The Villains (specifically the Lov) Are Right

Especially about the civilians in Bnha

(2 Part Meta Civilians and Lov) (Warning spoilers and long Meta Post) (Permission given to re-blog)

The Lov, specifically the core League of Villains, don’t owe any consideration, atonement or apologies to the civilians in Bnha. Because since long before the Lov had even become villains, even when they were still children, the civilians decided that they don’t owe them anything at all.

Most people I’ve seen in the fandom say something like “I don’t justify or excuse the villain’s actions.”, when it comes to the destructive/murderous parts of the villain’s deeds, which is very nice and moral of them to say.

But as long as we’re talking about the average Bnha civilian, I definitely justify/excuse the Lov’s actions.

Because the “innocent” people in Bnha are awful.

Part 1 The Civilians

That’s not even an opinion really but rather a fact that’s been presented to us clearly, over and over again, in Bnha’s story.

That’s partially why I believe that, even at their worst, the Lov are still worth more than most of the civilians that we’ve been shown so far.

See Past the Labels

“Heroes”, “Villains”, “Innocent People”. All labels that are used frequently over the course of Bnha, but seeing past these, looking beyond what we’re told by the story and instead seeing what we are shown by the story, that’s where the truth is in what these characters are and the effects their actions have on each other.

In Hero stories, saving the innocent/civilians is pretty much a guarantee at any point in time, it’s a prerequisite.

Where in most of those fiction, the civilians (or any large social group of innocents) are shown to definitely be people that should be saved, that it would be a tragedy if even some of them died, no matter the numbers.

But that’s not the case here, because the civilians in bnha aren’t like what you’d normally find in a hero tale, so much so that they’re nearly incomparable to any other series’ “Innocents”.

Looking at them as a whole, they’re more like what you’d find in a horror story.

Starting with one of the largest by the numbers examples:

They’re personifications of the bystander effect/syndrome, taken to the highest degree.

A truth that’s sometimes overlooked is that, while All for One and the Shimura family played a part in making Tenko Shimura the Tomura Shigaraki that he is today, so did all the civilians above. If even a single one of them had tried to help the child that would become the most dangerous villain, no matter how that would have turned out, the person Shigaraki is now would be different, maybe entirely.

Even just one true attempt to aid the scary looking child, instead of leaving it to the heroes who weren’t there, would have made a lasting impact. Just like the civilians choosing not to lift a finger to help left a lasting impact on Shigaraki in the present.

They condemn people for things that aren’t their fault, even when the individual hasn’t done anything wrong:

These are pretty self-explanatory in the point, but these aren’t just examples of ‘bad luck’, they showcase a callous legal system and civilians willing to throw a 16 year old kid under the bus for something that was in no way his ‘stumble’ or fault.

(First Side Point: Twice didn’t turn to a life of villainy because it was his “choice”. There’s been zero evidence of any social help for victims of hero society’s circumstances, so there’s no reason to assume that Twice had any help in supporting himself after his parents died. Twice then getting fired from his low level Job and having a glaring blemish on his record (as shown above ^) was a death sentence for a normal life right then and there, especially considering the setting in hero society (Japanese culture taken to its most socially merciless), it doesn’t really need to be spelled out any more than that why he turned to a life of crime against a society that screwed him over at every level and left him to rot. Between becoming a tragic statistic that the hero state didn’t (and still doesn’t) care about or becoming a villain for the chance at having some kind of life, it’s not really a choice at all. The saying ‘Cool motive still Murder’ comes up sometimes when taking about specific villains in Bnha and my response to that would be: ‘Then Suffer and Die Nobly.’ There is no ‘being better’ because if they were better in their current circumstances, they’d just quickly become a statistic.)

They’d rather someone, even their own children; suffer in silence than be seen as anything but their “normal”:

Toga’s parents might seem like a more ‘personal’ point but they’re actually a prime example of the standard bnha civilian, caring nothing about their own suffering young and only about their own lives and normalcy. Even when Toga was obviously self-harming due to her quirk, something that couldn’t logically have been hidden from them, there was no real attempts to help her with this other than rejection (as evident by the parents stopping taking her height down on the wall when her quirk presumably manifested, clearly meant to be a hint that it was the point that they stopped caring about her) and sending her to “Quirk Counseling”, taking no responsibility in helping their child and taking none after Toga was broken under the weight of what was normal after struggling to hold back for so many years.

This mentality extends past Toga’s parents to most of bnha’s civilians.

When Dabi revealed himself as Toya and exposed the Todoroki family’s past the world, nobody cared. At least not in any way that could be considered ‘caring’.

Endeavor bought and bred his wife, and it’s very debatable whether or not the later ‘child making’ could be considered consensual.

Rei told endeavor that it was “too much” and “too cruel”, all but saying that she didn’t want to have any more children, and in the anime it’s played even more clearly:

This ^ does not seem like consent.

Also letting his first born son burn himself to his apparent death because he couldn’t be bothered to care enough to prevent it.

Endeavor knew Toya was burning himself and he never got him any psychiatric help, even though Toya was already having extreme signs of mental breaks alongside the burning, he never even thought about it.

Even if this failed in stopping Toya, Endeavor just could have pulled some strings as the number 2 hero and gotten Toya Hero tech/equipment/suits, anything that might have helped.

But all Endeavor did was tell Toya to stop and do “other things” and when that failed he simply ignored him, even though he knew his child was literally burning himself.

(Endeavor could be considered an unreliable narrator, I think other great Meta writers have already called him on that, with him telling Natsuo that he never meant to neglect any of his children, which is evident (by how he treated Toya) as complete Bullshit.)

Now do the civilians know all of this down to a T?

No, but even before the Dabi reveal there was more than enough sketchy events surrounding Endeavor to raise eyebrows on anyone paying attention.

A son burning to death alone on a mountain, another son getting a burn scar on his face and a wife in a Mental Hospital, more than a little suspicious. Nobody ever looked into it.

And after the Dabi reveal, after Endeavor confirmed what Dabi said to everyone, this is the only Civilian backlash he gets:

Nobody cared what happened to the Todoroki family; they only cared about how it affected them. The first half of that anger wasn’t even about the Todoroki drama.

And while the mention of Dabi’s victims and their families might seem like consideration, paired alongside everything else the bnha civilians are/do, I really doubt that the line comes from a genuine place of sympathy.

They have no loyalty to their best Heroes:

After everything Deku did for them, they wouldn’t risk a single thing for him. Most of them don’t even look anxious or afraid, just angry at their lives being disrupted.

Telling the kid who nearly worked himself to death, fighting so that they could have their lives back to piss off, while danger sense was being activated implying that they did mean him very real harm.

 Another big point against the Civilians that’s brought up a lot:

They’re violently racist. (Quirk-ist? Anti-Mutant? Basically against anyone very different in their appearance and/or their quirks.)

Mutants are an obvious Allegory for the racism/minority angle of the story, and it never casts the majority of the civilians in a positive light when it’s touched upon.

(Second Side point: Revisiting the end of ‘Side Point One’ because it pairs perfectly here, Shoji Mezo’s “Answer” to the horrible treatment the Heteromorph/mutants face is the opposite of that, and by that I mean Shoji’s answer is pretty much: Aspects of Uncle Tom’s Cabin Syndrome (an American theory/term but a Universal Theme) mixed with the acceptance of hero martyrdom.

His words to the Heteromorphs are this: “Let’s use that light to change the people who hurt us. So that they’ll feel ashamed to ever raise their fists against us again.”

Very inspiring…or at least it would be, were his words not disproven by his own backstory. 

Shoji got his Scars ^ after he saved the little girl, in fact him saving her life was literally the cause of it.

There is no greater way to Shine or be heroic than doing what Shoji did, saving the life of a small child from drowning to death, and for that act the “Innocent People” gave him the Joker facial treatment.

Seriously if there’s a group of people who “don’t deserve to be saved” in Bnha; it is civilians like this.

Yet Shoji’s answer is still to “Be better than mere Avengers” and if they don’t the Heteromorph’s “Children will become the next Target!” as if they weren’t already??

None of it makes sense when looking at the whole picture and it’s clearly not a great plan, to draw another American based parallel that fits too well not to be noticed despite it being American; Shoji Mezo is basically Sturdy Harris from the Boondocks TV Series (freedom ride or die episode).

Look up the character’s wiki info or watch the episode, the fact that Shoji is willing to use violence in some extreme instances might seem a difference between them but the fact that he urges the other Heteromorphs to “be better than avengers” and “use their light to change the people who hurt us until they feel ashamed”, giving no thought as to whether or not his fellow Heteromorphs could even survive living by that standard like he can, fits the comparison to a T.)

Back to the final few points about the Bnha Civilians:

Are the Civilians in Bnha conditioned to be this way, products of influence and circumstance much like the heroes and villains are?

Kind of but not really.

While it is true that there are mountains of propaganda in hero society, there’s nothing specific enough to point to and say that this is why the Bnha civilians are this level of callous. They’re conditioned to love heroes and fear the violent villains they’re fighting, not to ignore the suffering of children (even their own) completely, and they’re definitely not compelled through propaganda to reject them or scar them, nothing in the series is evident of that.

And even worse, all of these examples of the people’s flaws/incidents (excluding the Ordinary Woman Heteromorph) happened during Allmight’s “Era of Peace”, so there’s no shifting the blame onto the villain’s current actions and even less excuse for things like these to be happening.

Why should the Bnha civilians have peace or justice if they’re like this?

If they show no more empathy or loyalty than the worst, most unsympathetic villains in the series (Like AFO) then maybe their point of view shouldn’t be considered any more than his. (And even AFO had some truth in his points: Failed social framework and the Quirk Singularity.)

To draw one final example for the Civilians with another Manga series that has pretty awful ‘ordinary people’ in it: Naruto.

But even in Naruto, the Author still showed that there were good people among the Civs. Population that weren’t like that and that did deserve to be protected and live peaceful lives, people who were outside of the Ninja system and just genuinely humane.

Before Naruto became a hero who saved the village multiple times, before he was even a ninja, they treated him like the human child he was.

These characters deserve their own Meta, other Naruto fans have probably written them already.

But suffice to say that the people who treated right the abandoned and hated child, host to a demon Fox that could casually level mountains, Teuchi Ramen (Owner and Daughter), are an excellent example of giving narrative motivation to “protect the people”.

There’s not much of anything like that in Bnha’s story, not anyone to point at and say; “They are worth saving/protecting!” and having it actually be true instead of just ‘What the hero is supposed to say’.

 And if anyone disagrees with this, I’ll ask: Can one instance of goodwill be pointed to for the Bnha civilians? Any act of compassion, bravery or selflessness from someone in Bnha who wasn’t in anyway associated with heroes?

And no, the Civilians letting Deku stay at UA does not count.

It wasn’t even framed as selfless or compassionate anyway:

This ^ is a deal more than anything else.

Because the heroes (Deku) swore they’d fix things and the people practically made him swear it before they were let in.

Kota and the Ordinary Woman running to stand by Deku was a sweet and great moment but considering that he saved them first, it seemed more like a ‘returning the Favor’ sentiment. Same with the rogue Civillian group helping Shindo after he fought Muscular, more a give it back than a gift.

 Part 2 The Lov

Even at their worst, the Lov still display humanity and redeeming qualities more than most of the civilians.

And I believe that this is 100% truth because Actions/Dialogue without reason for deception and inner thoughts, imply genuine Truth.

Actions:

This ^ scene is referred back to a lot because it’s a good showing of Compassion/Bonds, one of the first really, in the League of Villains, in Toga saving Twice from ‘coming apart’.

Toga has no real reason to comfort Twice as much as she does in this series, in this first instance and in later ones, because aside from one time (no matter how cool and heartfelt it was) in MVA when Twice saves her and the rest of the League, Twice kind of messed things up more than a few times for the Lov.

Bringing Overhaul to meet the Lov without precaution resulting in the death of Magne (even though she herself rushed in recklessly), Twice’s personal hang-ups limiting his Quirk lessening his value to operations overall (from a purely strategic standpoint), and trusting Hawks (because he felt bad for him) so much he gave out Info that definitely shouldn’t have been given.

Yet despite having one singular success in MVA that Twice really pulled through among many other shortcomings, Toga still cared about him. Enough to try to help him hold himself together during the Overhaul business and then later go on a violent, rage filled assault toward the Heroes during the MLA raid after Twice was killed, giving little thought to her own safety.

Dialogue without reason for deception:

While Shigaraki is definitely an unreliable narrator, as evident by the monologue ^ in the bottom panel clearly contradicting what actually happened during the death of his family, the middle panel where he states that he only wants “Them” (definitely the Lov) to live as they see fit seems like the truth.

Because why would Shigaraki lie here? In this time or place to Redestro, someone he presently had no reason to manipulate, as they were in a life or death fight?

Shigaraki couldn’t have known Redestro would surrender, at this point he was talking to someone he fully intended to kill, further dissipating any suspect of manipulation.

Shigaraki does care about his comrades, their wishes and while he hasn’t really kept the promise he made as of current Bnha, I think that’s a result of All for One scrambling his Brain so much during the Mental Fusion stuff, the true Shigaraki barely seeming to know what’s going on half the time and only able to think about his past.

Twice and Spinner: Basically everything about them.

They might not think things through that much, but there’s no doubt that Twice and Spinner were and still are devoted to who they care about, true loyalty in all its successes and faults.

Inner Thoughts:

Dabi is…kind of a dick most of the time, even to the Lov, just to a much lesser extent than to everyone else.

It makes sense that he’d act that way though, given what he’s been through and the end goal of his plans, it’s understandable why he’d want to push everyone away in some form and not let them get too close.

But even underneath all of that, Dabi much like the rest of the core Lov never blamed Twice for his mistakes, and since this is an inner thought and thus having no reason for manipulation, it does imply that this is his honest truth.

Knowing that Twice would blame himself, although he never said it out loud, maybe he couldn’t with all of his own personal hang-ups, Dabi inside probably did want to reassure Twice that none of this was his fault.

The Core Lov do have empathy towards others abandoned and hurt by Hero Society like themselves, and they do care about each other, that is as much as they’re able to care about each other while being weighed on by their own individual issues.

 The hero kid’s parents

Lastly for this Meta, there are parts of Hero Society that shouldn’t ever be destroyed, but they fall into small groups and come with their own faults.

The Hero Kid’s parents shouldn’t be destroyed just by virtue of being so close to the better/more heroic characters, but even they aren’t that great with possibly one exception.

Inko Midoriya has technically tried to protect Izuku but she never really helped him. She basically apologies for his existence in the childhood flashback, and until Izuku got a Quirk and became a Hero, she was never really shown to encourage him in anything, even to find happiness in other things.

Despite having doubts herself about saying the wrong thing to her son, Inko later tries to keep him from going back to UA for very good reason from a parent’s point of view.

But then she’s pretty easily convinced by a promise from Allmight, that wasn’t in anyway kept. Cut to the Dark Deku stuff later, she never calls Allmight out on this.

It’s the same story with little difference for all the student’s parents, they’ve never been shown to try to protect their children, especially at the UA confrontation with the Civilian Mob.

Inko, Bakugo’s parents, Ochako’s parents, and I’m just assuming the rest of them to cause it makes sense for them to be at the UA shelter, none of them helped.

I know Inko was being held back by Mitsuki because it was dangerous, but couldn’t she have shaken her off?

Kota did and ran to Deku to try to help him, and he was a little kid being held back Pixiebob (a Hero).

That probably wasn’t what Hori was going for or implying but that’s what happened.

Is this an illogical thought process that would be dangerous or harmful for the parents? Definitely.

But that’s the point. The parental instinct that goes beyond self-preservation and logic to protect their children hasn’t been shown for any of them.

Except one.

*Current Spoiler Warning*

 Rei Todoroki in the recent chapter stands apart and above in this aspect, although this depends very much on how it’s framed going forward.

A mother fighting to stop her child from killing himself more than trying to stop a Villain from killing. Both true but one has to take front over the other for it to be meaningful, for Rei to show that she will stop Touya from burning himself this time, unlike how she wouldn’t before.

That’s character development, that’s parental instinct.

*Very current Spoilers*

 Rei is there for Touya  :)  trying to save her son…and also Endeavor maybe?

Close enough (Double Thumbs UP!)

 The children

Another group that definitely should never destroyed is the Young Children of Bnha, Kota, Eri, the work studies Kid group.

I put them into a separate category than the whole of the Civilians but it would take a lot to explain why that is and why they can be viewed as their own separate group, so I’ll put it in the next Meta and expand on how they relate to the existential parts of Bnha.

Also same for the villains/heroes and finally getting to the Quirk Singularity Theory.

To be Continued…

#bnha #bnha meta #mha meta #hero society #league of villains #lov #shigaraki tomura #toga himiko #dabi #jin bubaigawara #spinner #mha

[class1akids]

Act 3 Fumbles in the Todoroki arc

The decision to keep Endeavor alive with no clear narrative plan came with some terrible writing fumbles in Act 3 of the Todoroki arc which walked back previously established themes and failed to deliver on certain set-ups.

Off-screening Rei's reunion with Shoto.

Saving Rei from the hospital was Shoto's starting line back in Ch 44. After 250+ chapters of visits and letters, it was a huge milestone for him to see her out of the hospital and would have deserved a proper highlight and dialogue. Yet it was off-screened in favor of Endeavor getting the reunion scene.

2. Spreading the blame for Toya to Natsuo and Fuyumi who are victims and children themselves

In a clunky attempt of parallels between the passive civilians of hero society, Natsuo and Fuyumi incomprehensibly are being framed as part of the blame for Touya's escalation.

3. Walking back the Act 2 narrative of all victim responses are valid in favor of "it's heroic to prop up your abuser"

Instead of having Hawks feel bad about killing Twice, he was used as a prop to call into question the victim's right to walk away by making it seem as if he's done something wrong by cutting off the parents who abused and sold him.

Shoto's choice is valid, but he shouldn't be pitted against other victim responses.

4. Focusing only on Endeavor's side of the fall-out for the scandal, while off-screening the impact on Shouto and only making coy references to it

It's convenient to hide the implied backlash at Shouto. Since his feelings never matter in relation to his family. His POV conveniently focuses on his friends helping him.

5. Endeavor failing to step up for his family gets excused constantly, and turning everyone into Endeavor's cheerleader, while not having anyone anything to say about the abuse.

This was personally for me awful to watch how Hori kept using characters to shill for Endeavor, and did not make a single effort at an honest condemnation.

6. Endeavor never delivers on becoming a father - in fact, Shouto spends Act 3 playing parent to Endeavor and carrying his burden and his arc of emancipation is invalidated as he gets no real choice

Shoto's arc was about freedom to decide who he wants to be. The emancipation cannot really happen though. He is bound by Endeavor's abuse, toxic legacy and past. While his peers rise into incredible heights, Shouto is condemned to pick up the pieces after Endeavor fails to step up.

Endeavor's arc was leading to a moment where he would choose to be a father over a hero. The moment never comes. Endeavor breaks every promise he made to the family, his solution for Touya is to kill him and has to propped up and saved by his victims throughout Act 3. He never gives them anything.

7. Endeavor gets a bonus fight he doesn't need then sits back and waits while all the victims step up to save him and Toya. He gets no consequence at all for breaking his promise to the family since it would invalidate Shoto's arc of "family hero".

See above. Endeavor's fight with AFO is cool aesthetics and lots of internal pain. What it doesn't do is to step up for the family.

8. Shouto's fight in 352 has a clear narrative vision and strong, beautiful visuals, yet it gets invalidated for Round 2 which is a mess of short chapters that need heavy revision.

I'm convinced 352 was the original ending for Shouto vs Touya. It has a strong visual and great focus on their themes as brothers.

9. By contast, Todoroki Shoto: Rising in fact in the weekly version had not a single strong visual for Shouto

Clearly Hori had no idea what point he wanted to make about Shouto. We don't really learn anything new about him - he steps up when Endeavor fails, like every time before. I'm still incredibly angry about this fumble. In fact, Hori doesn't really know what to do with this Todoroki family which has to embrace its abuser in order to save its "villain" without the abuser ever stepping up or giving anything back to the family and especially to Shouto. Even the masterpiece line which could be read as a reproach to Endeavor is scrapped.

10. Ending the Todoroki climax on Endeavor's word is an awful disservice to Shouto as a character, which is why I fervently hope this is not the end for Shouto who deserves much better.

He doesn't even get to say anything.

By keeping Endeavor alive without a plan, Horikoshi couldn't stick the landing of the Todoroki arc.

Sure, he has some cool visuals, but the overall message is terrible. In Act 3, the victims take on the burden of the abuser who keeps doing the same thing as he's always done: run away and play hero.

To make matters worse, the narrative is at most half-hearted in calling Endeavor out for this, and rather uses characters to shill for his heroic qualities.

The rebuilding of the family is hangs on the victims (apart from Touya) never getting to voice their feelings. In order to heal, not only they have to save their villain, but they have to embrace their abuser, who in turn doesn't have to do anything for them.

#bnha critical #endeavor #bnha meta #todoroki shouto #todoroki touya #dabi #todoroki rei