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kacchanisms · 9 months

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i was asked about my thoughts on izuku and enji so... buckle up. here's about 2.5k words on them, because I LOVE THOSE TWO. they're a highly underrated dynamic! i know the enji-bkg parallels are more evident in the manga, but enji-deku is far more salient as an actual mentor-mentee relationship. (which tends to be the norm for mha.)

so here's a few points of interest for me in regards to them:

one element that's intriguing in their dynamic is how much deku is compared to all might. both shouto and enji's interactions with deku in sports festival concern his resemblance to all might, initially concerning quirk, but more deeply concerning his savior nature. and it's not just a passing element either. it's deku's "resemblance" to AM that helps shouto unlock his fire. deku's drive is what snaps enji into action as well in the first war arc. by the time we reach the last war arc, enji says deku's name in the same idolizing breath as he does all might.

this idolatry is fascinating to me. deku has a couple idols, all might and kacchan, but he's otherwise someone who forges his own way, learning bits and pieces from others. he's less idolizing than you'd expect. enji, on the other hand... he's very idolizing, and for a long time, i don't think he ever understands his own idolatry. he represses those feelings of admiration, refuses to engage or understand them. but he idolizes all might (which he resents, which he can't understand), deku, shouto... even touya, maybe hawks to a degree. he idolizes the younger generation, which i think is such a strange but interesting trait for a man like him to have. he has an absolutely monstrous inferiority complex and mind wired for idealism and that fucks him up, because he will always see himself in deficit. compare to deku, who's a bit scared of measuring up to AM's legacy, but is ultimately unafraid to be himself, his "deku who never gives up!" self. deku speaks and acts from the heart, puts himself into everything, and he has a natural gravitas, a saving grace. (he has his own issues as well, but enji can't see that.) and endeavor, on the other hand, keeps his heart under lock and key because it's a weak and wounded thing. he can't wear it on his sleeve because then everyone would know what a terrible, inferior man he is. so there's a part of enji that just can't help but idolize people like AM or deku or shouto who seemingly wear their pure and strong hearts out in the open, unafraid of who they are. (seemingly. again, the idolizing gaze is also a very biased one.)

legacy is such a heavy theme in MHA. there are two forms of legacy that lay between enji and deku. the first is the dichotomy they're introduced with, which is AM & deku vs endeavor & shouto. this dichotomy never disappears entirely, but it is deconstructed and examined. how much of AM's fatal flaw is in deku? (too much, given how he nearly self-destructs in vigilante arc.) how much of endeavor's fatal flaw is in shouto? (too much until sports festival, the same obsession but turned towards a different target.) then, vice versa! the good traits, the inspiration that AM and endeavor respectively take from their successors, their relationships with their protégés are intended to be understood in parallel. but this is where enji and AM have more in common than deku and shouto. (tomura and touya later complicate these dynamics.)

the second, and more pertinent to enji and deku's dynamic, is "you're next." deku (and kacchan) are the recipient(s) of that ultimatum. but within the story itself, the next number one hero is... endeavor. the entirety of MHA's part II (post-kamino through end of the paranormal liberation war arc) contends with the fall of AM and what symbols come after. deku is not the only one to have a serious conversation with AM about forging a new legacy -- enji has an incredibly important conversation with him, too. both of them are encouraged to build new legacies, to not follow the same isolating path that AM took, to find hero partners who understand and bolster them -- bkg and hawks, respectively. they both develop as people and as heroes. deku begins to learn more about OFA, about the secrets hidden within it, and enji reckons with his past abusive actions, with the slow unveiling of his family drama. deku fights villains outside the scope of OFA, gains new perspectives, which contrasts with enji, who fights several villains that are related entirely to his own family legacy, although he's unaware of it for a while. new vs old.

then, of course, both of them confront legacy at the end of the first war arc. for deku, this is a look into the past, into the conflict between AFO and OFA, into the parasitic/symbiotic relationships that AFO+OFA have with their heirs. for enji, this is a confrontation with his past, with touya, the long lost son, the corrupted heir. new vs old -- because deku doesn't carry the personal responsibility of OFA+AFO's past, he can desperately claw forward to try and reach shigaraki. because enji carries personal responsibility for his family's agony, he is frozen, unable to reach touya. during this confrontation, deku and enji's respective (de facto) hero partners are also implicated in their legacy struggles -- both bkg and hawks face repercussions from their counterparts' enemies.

then, after the first war arc winds down, we get full meetings, stories. deku and endeavor are explicitly paralleled throughout the war arc fallout. volume 31 has deku and all might on the outside cover, endeavor, hawks, and touya on the inside. when the villains make their retreat, AFO says that tomura was bested by one for all AND endeavor. multiple panels visually parallel the two of them. in the aftermath, the todoroki family come together to confront enji in his hospital bed, and most of the todoroki family backstory is unveiled. at the same time, the past OFA users come together to meet deku in OFAspace (while he's hospitalized as well), and most of their motives and relevant backstory is unveiled in the chapters between the end of war arc and throughout vigilante arc. interestingly, enji is also the first pro hero outside AM's circle to put two and two together and realize that deku bears OFA, the quirk shigaraki is hunting.

both deku and enji's mindsets degrade throughout vigilante arc. attempting to shoulder the burdens of OFA alone, deku becomes increasingly self-destructive. enji, on the other hand, recedes into his avoidant tendencies, unable to fully confront his own family's legacy. at the end of vigilante arc, class 1a first confronts endeavor. shouto specifically points out how enji's been avoiding him, how they were supposed to fight touya together. then class 1a moves to confront deku. while deku is in a far more belligerent mindset than enji, class 1a reaches out to him in order to tell him to come home, to not fight alone, to accept their help. these two confrontations run in parallel to say, "let's shoulder this burden together."

there's that infamous panel in the endeavor agency arc. lives rent-free in my head, truly. it's the one where enji notices that deku's quirk hurts him, says to himself that deku is "one of us." a quirk that hurts the user... enji empathizes with deku's flawed quirk. in that panel, he's reminded of touya, who also has a self-destructive quirk. he's also considering himself, since the very reason he started his eugenics project was because of his own quirk's debilitating weaknesses. in deku, he sees the same problem and the same drive to overcome weakness.

the notion of self-sacrifice and a tendency towards self-destruction is etched into these characters. a quirk, after all, reflects the user's personality. even OFA has chosen deku as its most representative user. both deku and enji have particular relationships with the concept of sacrifice. in life, they are both the type to sacrifice their personal life for heroics. in death (a limit that enji has approached), if they consider self-sacrifice a necessity for the good of everyone, for their own heroic sensibilities, they'll do it. everything in the name of heroism -- that's a tendency that's built into both of their characters. it's also society's attitude towards the profession itself, the fact that the most ideal hero is one that shirks all personal connections to become a symbol.

there's another parallel to be noted here as well. when bkg confronts enji alongside class 1a, he tells him what a terrible idea it is to let AM and deku operate together. both of them have the same character flaw and the ability to enable each other towards a self-destructive conclusion. something in bkg's words resonates with enji. perhaps because he too has a counterpart of the same kind, with the same flaws, with the same ability to self-destruct together -- touya.

deku and touya are very disparate characters, but enji draws a connection between them. i'd even say enji's grief over touya informs his behavior towards deku. going back to that issue of idolization, enji places deku on a pedestal in his mind. he tends to see deku as a symbol, a problematic viewpoint that he used for his own children before and hasn't entirely grown out of. to enji, deku is a treasured pupil, above bkg, closer to shouto's level. the feeling isn't necessarily mutual. deku doesn't idolize or have a complex concerning endeavor (like touya does), but he does see the humanity in the man. that's probably a far healthier mindset to have, between the two of them.

this may simply be a reiteration of what i said before, but deku and enji are far more similar than either of them receive credit for.

just look at their hero names. as i said, both of them have a need to overcome/reclaim their weakness. a striver mentality. they both chose names that they wanted to live up to, a creed to stand by. deku means "to do your best", endeavor means "hard work". to "never give up" vs to "never stop cursing your own weakness" -- the underlying meaning of their hero names are nearly identical. they're both incredibly persistent people who don't consider themselves naturally heroic.

both of them also have a tendency to repress, to shut out or avoid emotions. enji has likely suffered from this since he was young, and it became a full-fledged inferiority complex when his father died. izuku has also had some form of repression since he was young, of never considering his own needs, and at UA, this repression crystallized into a savior complex. these complexes emerged as both of them selected and began to embody their hero names. these names became masks. even considering other heroes and villains relevant to deku and endeavor's plotlines, few others utilize second names/masks the same way these two do. hawks and shigaraki weren't given any choice to have their original name replaced by their hero/villain name; both bkg and shouto chose to live authentically, to just be themselves. for touya, dabi was an interim identity. the closest parallel in terms of hero names is all might himself. AM, deku, endeavor... they have a tendency to let their own legacies consume them, to suppress their feelings and wear their names as aspirations, symbols, masks.

like AM, deku puts on a nicer mask, says "i'm fine" and attempts to smile, while endeavor puts on a cold one, a bad attitude, a scowl. (enji, of course, is a lot more temperamentally similar to bkg. they both share inferiority complexes.) even though deku's mask is superficially better, he ends up in a self-destructive, unhappy spiral all the same, lashing out, telling his friends that they "can't keep up with him". deku takes after AM's isolation and follows bkg's old habits in this situation, yet deku's loneliness during the vigilante arc isn't dissimilar to enji's loneliness. both of them, in their worst mentalities, reject intimate emotional connection with others. when they are burdened by their feelings, they resort to avoidance and intensity, even (emotional/physical) violence. where that violence is then directed is then a matter of the individual. is it inwards, outwards, or both? towards villains, classmates, family members, or yourself? enji hurt those closest to him for years, while deku thankfully directed most of his anguish towards villains. both of them do turn their violence inwards, though, towards themselves -- enji, in his self-loathing, and deku, in his self-neglect.

(bkg is also relevant to this analysis, but unlike both enji and deku, bkg's repression is exhibited very differently towards the final arc.)

while they have improved significantly from their worst moments, deku and enji entered the final arc of MHA with this repression problem still hanging over them. it made them both mentally weak, easier to manipulate. in enji and deku's first confrontations with AFO/shigAFO, their complicated emotions about touya/bkg's "deaths" made them freeze initially. their defenses lowered, they began to exhibit uncontrolled, berserk behavior. deku calmed down before shigAFO managed to exploit his weakness, however, enji received several wounds for that same weakness.

then, in order to achieve their current goals (defeating AFO/finding tomura within shigAFO), both of them swallowed down their emotions. they suppressed themselves once again to perform their job. while both of them fought excellently after this point, their negative habits remained. they battled intensely, with raging hearts, with a self-destructive edge. in their respective battlefields, they delivered final attacks that echo what happened to touya and bkg -- in endeavor's case, he burns AFO to a husk, and in deku's case, he punches a hole through shigAFO's chest. these wounds force both villains to enter their next stage. AFO begins to rewind, tomura rids himself of AFO's control. at this point in the battle, enji and deku have both achieved their first objectives. enji defeats AFO once, his villainous parallel. ("i'll keep raging against myself.") deku frees tomura from AFO's control, his destined nemesis. ("you're gonna be the one to complete one for all.")

after this, they both fight onwards, towards their true objectives. enji and deku finally face touya and tomura 1-on-1. at this point in the manga, i'm uncertain how deku's attempt to save tenko will play out, but endeavor's climactic moment has concluded. in order to save touya, he had to see him in his entirety, to take responsibility. the rest of the todoroki family had to anchor them until shouto came with the final blow, tearing down the boundaries between him and touya, doing away with the term "masterpiece". then, lastly, enji had to release the emotions he's been holding in all this time and apologize to touya (and the rest of the family), which spurred touya to finally voice his innermost emotions as well.

i can't predict how this will compare to deku saving tenko, especially since that dynamic is also likely to parallel ochako saving toga. however, in both touya and toga's cases, they needed particular people to show them attention, care, and love. they needed understanding and vulnerability from their respective heroes before they were willing to let down their guard. so in deku's case, he will need to admit/embrace whatever emotions he's been restraining before he can expect tenko to reciprocate, just like what shouto, enji, and ochako did.

anyway, those are my current thoughts on deku and endeavor! i hope that clarifies my perspective on them.

#bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #izuku midoriya #enji todoroki #mha #i got this ask on retrospring and was gifted with some incredible brainrot #whoops

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class1akids · 4 years

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you beautifully pointing out the parallels of shouto trying to reach bkg in time and deku's reaction panels of bkg in danger honestly got me thinking a bit: tdrk managed to grab bkg (definitely improved, works with his fire side as you pointed out). dk - and maybe that's just me seeing things - however doesn't look nearly as devasted as in the forest arc and doesn't listen to bkg (which he did during the kidnapping -> stay back). it kinda seems as if tdbk (as friends) are 'closer' than bkdk atm

I wouldn’t try to make this into a competition. These are completely different dynamics between the characters. The last couple of chapters shown really well from Bakugou’s POV how close they are with Deku - it’s the kind of profound bond that you can’t deny, no matter where your shipping interests lie. Recognizing it also doesn’t invalidate TDBK (or TDDK for that matter) as a ship in any way.

I may be completely wrong, but the way I’m reading Deku’s actions and reactions in the last chapters is that the more he relied on rage to harness OFA’s power, the more he lost sight of his surroundings and teammates (like when he punched Shigaraki out of Todoroki’s ice) until he got into a “winning frenzy” completely forgetting he’s not alone out there. It almost felt like OFA’s purpose (beating AFO) was calling the shots out there, not Izuku himself.

In the last chapter, you see him slowly blink like waking up from a dream when Endeavor tells him to back off, like he kind of forgot they were there...

I think that pausing for the moment may also lets him feel the pain, which I guess was something he didn’t fully realize until the adrenaline rush.

After that, everything is happening in split seconds, but you kind of can see the way the panels are arranged that for Deku it’s all in slow motion...

Realizing that Bakugou is there, and took a hit for him...

That he’s falling out of reach - look at his eyebrows, he’s completely terrified...

but also frozen in shock, as he remembers after Shigaraki taunting him all the people that got hurt - and I can’t read this expression as anything other than absolutely devastated and feeling like he failed everyone...

And I think Bakugou would have maybe been successful to snap him out of it, but AFO’s taunt was very well aimed, and Deku just loses it (even more)... but under the rage, there is also the pain as he’s crying.

Todoroki and Bakugou have been acting different.

Neither of them let their emotions take over fully - they were working as a well-oiled team together and with Endeavor, putting into practice all that work-study experience. I think Bakugou especially has been trying hard not to get caught up in Deku’s emotional energy and trying to keep a clear, logical mind for both of them, which he did until he reached the end of the line, and his body took over. He also looks almost calm in that moment - even though we know just how terrified he feels at the prospect of Deku getting hurt...

And Todoroki has been trying to keep it together since he arrived, just a few minutes ago, not knowing fully what’s going on, but trying to live up to his “putting people at ease” aspiration. Since then:

- Aizawa almost got killed

- Midoriya manifested a new quirk

- he administered first aid to three gravely injured people, while watching the Midoriya-Shigaraki showdown from the corner of his eyes

- watched Endeavor and Bakugou get stabbed and fall

- scooped them up

- and now he sees Shigaraki’s hand on Deku’s face and there is nothing he can do to stop it, unless he’s ready to sacrifice the people he’s holding...

So, yeah..he’s starting to lose it too. And his scream hit differently, because we’ve never seen him scream with such pure horror, not even watching Endeavor fight the nomu on live TV or watching him being stabbed a moment ago...

So I think all in all, the pain and devastation is pretty evenly distributed between the three of them. I expect each of them to come out of this arc feeling like they could have, should have done more and handled things better, that they didn’t save enough, they weren’t strong enough - in fact, I think this is how the entire hero side will feel.

#bnha 286 #bnha manga spoilers #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #todoroki shouto

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