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justatalkingface · 1 year

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Bonding Over Burns

You know, like you do when your part of the Endeavour Family.

You remember when the relevant Todoroki was Shoto? Good times, good times.

I've talked on and off about Endeavour, and how soft the story has gone of him, and to a lesser extent Dabi, and how things should be harder on him as well, if for different reasons, but I just want to talk... broadly a bit. This is going to get a bit rambly, and mostly focus on the clusterfuck of the latest chapter.

Hmm. Let's start here: I actually like Dabi. He's insane, and I wouldn't want to be in the same room with him in real life, but he's a fun character who can drive great plot. In all honesty, I want him to win, even now, and I'm not even guilty about it, because unlike Shigaraki, his goal is literally just, 'Fuck Endeavour', and that's something society could survive, and honestly should.

So, with the background of me being a long-time Dabi fan, I say this: this is shit. There's been so much Todoroki content recently, so much of it focused around Dabi, and yet this is what we get.

A lot of the discontent is around the Quirk Awakening, and while I have problems with the ice part of it, which I will get to in a sec, but the Awakening itself isn't a problem. Rather, with how the story is arranged now I don't see a problem with it, but in the first place I think he should have gotten it way back when when he lit himself on fire.

In any normal circumstance, there's no way Dabi should be alive. As the story is, that's being explained as AFO's interference... but that goes into the problem of AFO being everywhere, and everything, that Hori has been thrusting at us since Kamino. Making AFO the cause of every damn problem in the story is a problem in itself. So, how would he be alive now?

*jazz hands* Quirk Awakening.

Not ice, but something tailored to his situation, something that to solve the problem of, 'how in the ever loving fuck are you alive?', because even before he started cosplaying Skeletor Dabi was living with a level of burns that would have serious day to day life consequences, if he even managed to survive getting them. To be blunt, Frankenstein's Monster, which is made out of corpses, is better put together than Dabi's body is. If Dabi's Quirk is too strong for a human body, then give him something to let him survive it; advanced regeneration, the ability to just shrug off burns, being fueled by his fire, something.

You see, Quirk Awakening themselves are... acceptable, as a concept. They're something that makes sense in a manga like this, as a power up, and especially as the 'lore' of it has developed and it's become clear that Quirks themselves can change over time, even if the logic and science of the setting has become softer and softer as time passed. The fact that, as people have put it, Dabi awakening because of how Endeavour treated him 'proving him right' is kind of missing the point, because, well, he always was.

In the coldest, brutalist, most devoid of mercy or empathy kind of way, Endeavour has always been right about this. Quirk marriages are objectively horrible, but they're also the path to stronger Quirks. Like, hell, look at Bakugou. By the logic of the setting, Bakugou might as well be from a Quirk Marriage for how well it was set up for him, because he is the exact sort of multiplicative product Endeavour desired, but he happened by sheer dumb luck instead of primitive, inefficient, and cruel eugenics. We damn well know that his parents wouldn't have kept going for another child if his Quirk was just really slimy skin or something.

Dabi getting a Quirk Awakening doesn't prove shit about Endeavour's methods because Shoto already exists, the very product he desired. Hell, Dabi already unlocked super blue flames by pushing himself to limit, because again, while the mental, social, and ethical consequences of pushing someone to their limits and beyond are very valid, in a manga like this going beyond your limits is exactly how you get a power up, something we've seen time and time again in the story; Endeavour isn't making anything new, he's just tainting an already known phenomena with his abuse. It's not worth the price, but the result itself can happen under this kind of logic.

But, do you know what the first thing I thought was when Dabi started shooting ice?

How convenient it is, that it happens just in time to save Endeavour. Because that's what the ice is ultimately for: to protect Endeavour from the consequences of his actions because, without that, at the very least his arm would probably be gone by now. The ice literally appeared just in time to protect Endeavour from any career ending injuries. Dabi would die without being able to be redeemed. Endeavour himself would be dead, which is seeming more and more unlikely to happen at this point.

Making Rei 'important'? This HImura clan stuff? Please, don't insult me; it is dead obvious that all of that is nothing more than yet another last minute justification to push what narrative Hori wants to tell against the actual story he's made.

How is anyone alive now, when Dabi is literally a giant bomb radiating lethal amounts of heat? Rei is randomly strong enough to counter that, an actual suicide attack with smidgen more of Dabi's ice being used against him to help everyone else at his expense.

Actually, let's talk about Rei: can we replace her without a cardboard cutout with the catchphrase of, 'Endeavour isn't that bad!' yet? Because this isn't a character with agency. This isn't even a proper character. She has never been, on screen, shown with any real agency as a human being. Actually, let me put it like this: do you know when she was shown with the most respect as a human being, as a person with her own will and desires?

When she was burning Shoto. That is how badly her inclusion in this manga is; Rei's best showing is her having a psychotic break.

Sweet burning fuck that is pathetic.

Let's be blunt here: does Rei have any culpability? Technically, yes. Realistically? Honestly? Fuck no. Rei is a broken woman who was sold to Endeavour. He spent his entire marriage growing more aggressive, more dominating, to the point where the only time she did something of her own free will, without the approval of Endeavour, is have a psychotic break. He was the one with power in the relationship, who made the choices, who made the Todorokis into this. And, just to be clear? He did, in fact, hit her.

The lion share of blame for Dabi is with Endeavour, followed by Dabi himself. Rei's share is fucking miniscule. And yet she has to run into the death fire to apologize to the mad, suicidal terrorist for everything.

Meanwhile, why is everyone else here? Why is Natsuo and Fuyumi here? Why are they, the people who were literal children at the time, feeling guilty? Their father had all the power, all the control, wh fuck could they do then? Or even now! They're even weaker than Rei, and Rei needs a pointless, out of nowhere power up just to survive. They should be dead long before the point they could even have this conversation. Actually, could we even have a real talk if they want their 'big brother' back, instead of it just being assumed that of course they want their crazy, murderous relative back, who they were seperated from as different, inferior, in childhood, who didn't know how to interact with them, and who they grew up without their entire lives? Them ultimately settling on wanting him back is fine, in theory, but it shouldn't be this assumed thing, they should be conflicted over this, and have had long talks about, in the same way they should have about Endeavour himself.

Hell, from the other end, why does Dabi care? Why is he going, 'Fuyumi-chan'? They were never more important than him than his ambition to live up to his father's dream, it was all that he lived for. There's every indication he's left all that behind for his hate; let him. Let Dabi be evil, let him be unredeemed!

But that's the thing: it's not about Dabi, and what he should think. It's not about Natsui, or Fuyumi, and what they should think, and we damn well know it's not about Rei, because nothing is ever about her. It's still about Endeavour. All of this, all of this, is still about god damn Endeavour.

Dabi being an actually unforgivable person makes Endeavour look bad. If Dabi dies, gloriously filled with his incandescent hatred, it means that Endeavor can never 'fix' what was done to him, he can never be redeemed from his crime, his apology can never be accepted. This is, of course, exactly the reason why Dabi is trying to do it at all, to rob Endeavour of the peace that could give him, and why Hori won't allow him to do it, to let him succeeding in taking that away from his father.

Everyone being here to claim responsibility for making Dabi who he is? Is taking that much blame away from Endeavour, lightening the guilt he bears. Even if they're logically wrong, when the whole family is there, working together to 'fix' things, it gives the impression that they 'broke' it together, and thus Endeavour's sins are lessened in the eyes of the viewers.

All of this, all of them; Shoto, Dabi, Fuyumi, Natsu and Rei, all of them exist for one thing only at this point: to tell the story of the great and glorious Endeavour. His rise to success, his overcoming of the odds, his wonderful redemption story. Everything they do is to prop up the man who abused every single one of them, and it's sickening.

#bnha critical #mha critical #endeavour critical #what is this crap #even now all of this is about endeavour #even the ice is to protect endeavour #let endeavour be hated #let dabi be evil #let people want neither of them back #let shoto be important #let rei be her own person #let rei BE a person at all

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cozylittleartblog · 2 months

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cant tell you how bad it feels to constantly tell other artists to come to tumblr, because its the last good website that isn't fucked up by spoonfeeding algorithms and AI bullshit and isn't based around meaningless likes

just to watch that all fall apart in the last year or so and especially the last two weeks

there's nowhere good to go anymore for artists.

edit - a lot of people are saying the tags are important so actually, you'll look at my tags.

#please dont delete your accounts because of the AI crap. your art deserves more than being lost like that #if you have a good PC please glaze or nightshade it. if you dont or it doesnt work with your style (like mine) please start watermarking #use a plain-ish font. make it your username. if people can't google what your watermark says and find ur account its not a good watermark #it needs to be central in the image - NOT on the canvas edges - and put it in multiple places if you are compelled #please dont stop posting your art because of this shit. we just have to hope regulations will come slamming down on these shitheads#in the next year or two and you want to have accounts to come back to. the world Needs real art #if we all leave that just makes more room for these scam artists to fill in with their soulless recycled garbage #improvise adapt overcome. it sucks but it is what it is for the moment. safeguard yourself as best you can without making #years of art from thousands of artists lost media. the digital world and art is too temporary to hastily click a Delete button out of spite

#not art #but important #please dont delete your accounts because of the AI crap. your art deserves more than being lost like that #if you have a good PC please glaze or nightshade it. if you dont or it doesnt work with your style (like mine) please start watermarking #use a plain-ish font. make it your username. if people can't google what your watermark says and find ur account its not a good watermark #it needs to be central in the image - NOT on the canvas edges - and put it in multiple places if you are compelled #please dont stop posting your art because of this shit. we just have to hope regulations will come slamming down on these shitheads #in the next year or two and you want to have accounts to come back to. the world Needs real art #if we all leave that just makes more room for these scam artists to fill in with their soulless recycled garbage #improvise adapt overcome. it sucks but it is what it is for the moment. safeguard yourself as best you can without making #years of art from thousands of artists lost media. the digital world and art is too temporary to hastily click a Delete button out of spite

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