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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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This going to be long I apologize//

Oh, I 100% agree with you! I’d wager that they got worse endings than Endeavor. Without going in about him being in a wheelchair (because being disabled shouldn’t be viewed as a punishment. BTW, would it be wrong for me to say the story is weird in handling disabilities?) he still had multiple people standing behind/defending him and he obviously still has fans, whereas we barely saw any support for the actual victims in the family, besides a few of Shoto’s friends. He started off the story referring to his family in literal dehumanizing terms, and was able to get away with years worth of brutalization and neglect and still get a happier ending. He even gets to work with All Might, the man who heard how he talked about his son at the SP and shuddered, and who apparently had nothing bad to say to him when he used him as an excuse to hurt his family. Yet, he gets to smile along with the wife he bought/abused who’s now to taking care of him along with his pseudo children who only attached to his hero career. Fuyumi and Natsuo are basically left out, and Rei/Toya/Hawks are only used as trophies to show how much he’s changed instead of actually showing the change earlier in the story.

For his father/back story, to me, it’s less about the father but about Endeavor’s reaction and how his character is. I also agree with you about how it was poorly executed, and most likely made just to make Endeavor more redeemable. However, it had the opposite effect for me; He lost his father that we know nothing about and never comes up again. But what we do know of Enji is that he runs away from his family issues, and prioritizes heroism over his family even in the end (since he tried the murder suicide with Toya to save the citizens around him/prioritized facing AFO). He also freezes when Natsuo was in danger and Toya revealed himself. If what you said was true about him feeling regretful/guilt from not jumping into action for his father, that shows to me how he didn’t change despite his obsession with power. It’s easy for me to imagine the pain he felt and internalized it where it got morphed into deep jealousy and insecurity towards All Might and let those emotions guide his choices in hurting others and digger himself deeper until he dragged others into hell with him.

I do think his father’s death was a terrible writing choice because for me it makes Endeavor look worse instead of sympathetic.

Don't worry if it's wrong, it's fun to discuss about the Todoroki!

Still there's a lot to say so let's start.

1) Regarding Enji and ending up on a wheelchair as punishment.

So in real life there are various ways to deal with things happening to a person that will make said person from unhappy to desperate (which for the sake of simplicity from now on I'll label as 'bad things') but I'll list the most relevant three.

Bad things happen and it's nobody's fault, it's just how life is (or you can also say it's Murphy's law).

Bad things happens to people because God punishes them for their sins, it's the divine law.

If someone does something bad (be it willingly or by mistake) or has the intention of making something bad they'll cumulate negative karma which will lead as an inevitable consequence that bad things will happen to them or/and to who's close to them. Said bad things can happen in their future or in their next life, it's the law of cause and effect.

You and I seem to embrace the first belief, some religions, mainly in the west, embrace/had embraced the second, Horikoshi likely embraces the third.

Things change when we're talking of a story, as in a story all that happened is due to the WILL OF THE AUTHOR and the author can decide to write tales with a moral that tends to show the readers that if you do bad things something bad will happen to you and if you do good things something good will happens to you.

In short, the author is God and decides to punish the characters for doing something they shouldn't, so as to show readers they can't do such things.

We can't use Murphy's law to explain what happens to the characters, because EVERYTHING that happens, the good and the bad, is decided by the author, it doesn't just happen and, in the same way, we can't use the law of cause and effect even if Horikoshi is trying to potray it in his story.

Horikoshi definitely decided to put Enji on a wheelchair, scar him (and Rei and Fuyumi) so as to prove that the negative things he did had VERY NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES FOR HIM (and his family). In short, he punished them for what they did... and it's not even the first time in the story a character gets physically hurt as a punishment for his misdeeds... only if said character is a Hero that would eventually ends up being toned down (remember Iida and how his left hand could have had permanent damage and the story directly connects it to Iida being in the wrong at wanting to fight the Hero killer and so his hand would serve him as a reminder?).

At the same time as Horikoshi punishes the characters by having them get physically damaged, he also rewards them by giving them people around them willing to help and by eventually by undoing their permanent wounds.

In the story the characters getting injured is meant to be viewed as CONSEQUENCES of an accumulation of negative karma. In the real world it's just Horikoshi punishing them so as to show his readers that who does bad things suffers negative consequences even if the law can't punish them.

Said so, no, in real life having a disability is not a punishment but in this story it often is.

2) Horikoshi and disabilities

Horikoshi handled disabilities the same way he handles everything, with no real analysis/point to ponders/whatever. In the story they're just things that happen (often as a consequence of negative karma) and need to be endured in silence and either overcomed by yourself (you don't get to have psychological scarring nor be angry about them but you've to be your best self) or you'll have to wait for a Hero to save you.

It's the same for discrimination, bullying, abuse and so on. They happen and you've to endure.

Which no, it isn't a particularly good look at such things. There's no critical analysis nor compassion just a 'do your best and endure and you'll become a Hero!' and I'm really, really not fond of this idea. It might be just me though.

However there's something else to say about them. Their handling becomes weird because Horikoshi pushes to an extreme the law of cause and effect.

Edgeshot was willing to give his life for Bakugou, this is a good deed that cumulates positive karma so... everything in his body gets reset to normal state. Midoriya's arms gets magically capable to bear the strain of OFA because he heically fought Tomura, his Quirkless state is corrected by giving him a Quirk because he tried to save Bakugou and, back to Enji we go again again as we're told in the end he'll recover enough to walk with a stick and so on.

In real life no matter how good of a person you are and how many good deeds you do, unless a miracle happen or some scientific progress find a cure, if you've a disability you will keep that disability, it won't magically gets fixed.

In this regard Fullmetal Alchemist offers a much more realistic and respectful approach to such things than Horikoshi's 'law of cause and effect'.

3) Enji getting support and his victims getting support

A problem of the narrative is what the narrative wants to show.

The narrative doesn't care AT ALL about Fuyumi, Natsuo and, ESPECIALLY, Rei so they vaguely mention they've support and that's it. The story isn't interested at whowing it to us because it has no involvement on them.

The narrative cares about Enji as a 'Hero who's suffering in silence and in pain but still has people being there for him'.

It's one of the themes of the story so Horikoshi provides us with ample examples of Enji getting support because that's what he wants to use as a theme.

It's not that his family doesn't get support, specifically we know Natsuo's girlfriend is still with him and willing to marry him very likely earlier than planned (this is pretty big, normally if you're related to a criminal in Japan you get a lot of social ostracism and bullying and people assume your blood is tainted too so people are often unwilling to keep on being something as simple as your friend, marrying you is a definitely bigger step as not only they'll risk getting ostracized and bullied but, if they have a child with you, their own child's blood will be assumed to be tainted), a woman helped Fuyumi to get a new job as a teacher and is willing to support her (again big because giving a job as a teacher to someone who's related to a criminal? Entrusting kids to them when they're believed to have tainted blood and loose morality? Definitely big) but the story doesn't think it's interesting to show Fuyumi and Natsuo's fate, it just asks us to accept since they've support it will be good.

On the other side Shouto sits on the other spectrum as Shouto also, like Enji, is suffering in silence but his support is just mentioned (we're told Class A would take care of him but we don't get to see it) because the story wants to focus on how Shouto is strong and can overcome things on his own now without needing a Hero to save him because HE'S THE FAMILY HERO. Besides at this point we should trust class A to be supportive without even needing to see it.

Anyway, in short, Enji needs saving so he gets saved, Shouto is strong so he saves himself, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Rei has people who'll save them but we don't get more than a few words on this because the story doesn't care about themand asks us to just trust they'll be fine.

It's a vision that's very focused on the themes of the story, but that's not focused at all on the Todoroki family and their narrative as a whole. The result is also that in the panorama illustration Horikoshi doesn't feel compelled to show Enji is supporting his family because... Fuyumi and Natsuo getting support is not among Horikoshi's priorities. After all he decided he wasn't going to make a societal critique so why should he feel compelled to focus on the victims? They're no part of his theme.

It's of course disappointing for all those fans who instead were focused on the Todoroki family as a whole and on their narrative but even in the fanbook Fuyumi, Natsuo and Rei hardly get any mention and they did have a big stop in the story and in the war and yet... other characters got more space.

The Todoroki family story in Horikoshi's mind was likely was never a story of an abuser and his victims, it was the story of Shouto and Enji and how they overcame their problems and got saved/saved themselves and the others. The other victims just happened to be there to give more shades of color to their story. Rei, Fuyumi and Natsuo (and in a way Touya) in Horikoshi's mind were never characters of equal value compared to Shouto and then Enji and that's why they get the short end of the stick in terms of care for their story.

4) Enji getting away with things

We've various important things to consider here:

Most of what Enji did was not considered a crime in Japan at the time it was written in the story or, if it was... it wasn't considered something that should be persecuted. I've other posts dealing with Japanese law and how it won't punish Enji but the bottom of this is that Enji's actions looked a lot less bad in Japan back at the time they were written than they do in other countries (or in current Japan as things are changing in Japan)

In Horikoshi's books Enji doesn't get away with his bad deeds, he gets karmic retribution, basically he punished him by having bad things happen to him.

Enji is no more an abuser, he has stopped and he's trying to atone. So, of course, since he sets himself on a better path, the story has to 'reward' this (or, if you prefer, he cumulates positive karma that leads to positive consequences).

Chapter 426 depicts a clearly NOT GOOD ending for Enji. Touya, whom the story says he loved, is going to die and might as well hate him, he never managed to truly make peace with Natsuo who leaves the family and doesn't even want to introduce him to his wife and her family, he lost his work which he loved and defined him, he's scarred and seriously debilitated and the majority of Japan should be ostracizing him and holding him accountable not for what he did to his family as, as said before, Japan doesn't care a lot about it, but for what Touya did and how Touya managed to connect it to Enji. As Natsuo says Enji's life IS GOING TO BE HELL and this is made worse by how Enji is also determinated to protect his children and was forced to realize all that had happened was his fault, that he's the cause of his own misery as well as the misery of his own family and of a part of Japan, the cause of his son's death. By all accounts Enji is meant to dance in hell as his son wanted and it's a very sad fate.

Horikoshi didn't wants to end his story showing us some characters will be miserable, no, he wanted everyone to look happy and hopeful and smiling like in the panorama artwork, so he doesn't really show us the hell Enji is in, he prefers to focus on how someone will support him despite him being in hell. So we get to see kids still wearing his merchandize and Hawks, his sidekicks and his driver supporting him, instead than seeing the truly miserable life he should be leading or him heartbroken for how his son is going to die and so on.

This fake happiness is applied on all the Todorokis, who also don't get a happy ending (but it's a not-happy ending that's tamer compared to Enji) but are supposedly all happy because they've people who support them and no one is crying. Except for Touya but who cares, I guess those are supposed to be happy tears same as the ones Himiko shed.

Long story short, everyone gets a bad ending but Horikoshi insists they all got a good ending, even Touya who gets to have his family look at him now and talk with him. While he's trapped in a horrid contraption. About to die. But who cares about these details, he likes soba same as Shouto and understood his family cared, it's a happy ending for him too!

All this causes who was following the story of the Todoroki family FOR THE TODOROKI FAMILY and not for the themes of BNHA to feel disappointed. The story feels tone deaf, it ignores the tragedy insisting on the happiness and while people wanted to see a positive ending for who's been abused... they just can't find solace in what feels like fake happiness.

In short again, to save the theme, Horikoshi is not making happy anyone. It would have worked much better if he had given up on this fake happy mood that feels distateful since Touya is dying and yet all his family seems either happy or normal instead than saddened, and they aren't worried at all about the hell that awaits them because hey, someone is willing to still support them! Such a happy situation! Who wouldn't want to be a Todoroki?

The matter is also made worse by how we tend to view Rei, Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shouto as innocent. If we'd been in Horikoshi's shoes we wouldn't have wanted to punish them, just Enji and we would have the means to punish him legally as in many countries what he did is a crime. Horikoshi instead didn't have the means to punish Enji legally and decides the rest of the family is also to blame so everyone gets punished.

This generates, in people who belived Rei and the Todoroki kids didn't need to be punished at all, to feel the punishment disproportionately large while the one Enji received feels tamer, hence generating the perception Enji got it easier than his family.

5) Enji's atonement

Something else that's to discuss is... that Horikoshi decided to send Enji on an atonement path way too late in the story and handled his motivation pretty poorly.

Enji's atonement arc falls flat not because Enji can't redeem himself, everyone can if they want to, but because Horikoshi doesn't handle it well, partly because, as said before, this idea dawned on him too late, and so, same as it is for Horikoshi, it feels like a spur of the moment on Enji's too, partly because it's a arc that hugely lack in compassion but that's a problem BNHA has with most of its story and would require a post on its own so I'll let it at this.

5) Enji's referring to his family with dehumanizing terms.

It's also worth to mention that ONLY ONCE IN THE WHOLE STORY Enji used a word that was inappropriate to use for a person, and I can't for the life of me figure if it was a figurative speech that would be considered acceptable to use in Japan or not.

All Might though, couldn't figure Enji used an inappropriate word because the kanji used for such word sounds EXACTLY THE SAME as the one of an appropriate word. If All Might shuddered it's not because Enji used this kanji 仔 (“offspring/young animal/cub/young plant/seedling”) which sounds exactly like this kanji 子 (usually translated as “child" but can also mean “egg/fruit/seed/small object”), nor because he used アレ which is usually translated as “that thing” but can also be used to say “that one person we’re talking about” but because Enji is showing an unwarranted degree of animosity and competition toward him while likely giving off a feeling of 'not normal'/obsessive/creepy behavior.

It's only later, watching Midoriya and Shouto's battle, that All Might will figure that there's a conflict between Enji and Shouto that pushes the latter not to use his left side... and this is all All Might figures about it.

Also, contrary to the fandom expectations, in the story Enji never referred to his kids as failures, the word was used by Touya and Natsuo because, as they're unable to fulfil Enji's ambitions, they can be considered failures in Japanese culture.

Enji is a HORRIBLE father but the fandom tends to pin on him things he didn't do and I find this is largely unnecessary and counterproductive.

He's bad enough. One doesn't need to make him worse as if what it is isn't bad enough.

6) Enji's backstory

I wouldn't say his backstory makes Enji more redeemable because it has zero focus on the trauma and psychological consequences he should have suffered for his loss and seems to aim more to prove that Enji doesn't have an heroic backstory and and heroic spirit, where Quirkless Midoriya ran to help Bakugou, Enji just watched as his father got killed. That's why he's not like All Might and Midoriya and can't become a superhero, he doesn't have the spirit, he can only try to do his best, to put all his endeavor in his job and get angry at himself but he'll never be like them.

And... it doesn't work like an excuse for plenty of reasons and it's just a retcon that comes in way too late but whatever, this would require a meta on his own.

7) Enji prioritizing heroism

Something that gets missed is that according to Horikoshi... prioritizing heroism is the right thing to do. Hawks decided Enji should be the one facing AFO and Shouto should be the one facing Touya, Enji phones to Shouto to swap job and... SHOUTO SCOLDS HIM TELLING HIM THEY MUST NOT.

Prioritizing his father's job over his Hero job is not something the story would agree with.

Committing suicide with Touya according to the story was the right response because it would allow him to take care of both (I've another meta dealing with how Enji dying with Touya is, in a Japanese mindsetting, a kindness and a form of love and care toward his son).

We see this with Nana also, she got involved in the battle against AFO on her dying husband's request even though he knew they had a kid and this could mean putting him in troubles, she left behind Kotarou, she continues fighting AFO even when she has just the embers and, when she FINALLY apologizes to Kotarou, SHE DOESN'T APOLOGIZE FOR PRIORITIZING HER HERO WORK BUT FOR NOT HAVING BEEN STRONG ENOUGH TO WIN AND COME BACK TO HIM.

Kouta has even worse as Mandalay says there's nothing better than for a Hero than to die while doing their job but, according to her, Kouta is just too young to understand this and will need to grow up to understand this.

It's not Enji the one who prioritizes his Hero's job but the story handles this as a fault of his, it's the story. Enji's sin is just that he neglected his parent's job COMPLETELY, not that he prioritized his Hero job.

Enji shouldn't have neglected his parent's job, while still prioritizing his Hero job, that's the message of the story.

...

said all this, sorry if my answer ended up being way longer than your post but you raised plenty of interesting points to ponder and they were so many I had to summarize here and there so I'm not sure I explained myself better. Please feel free to ask for clarifications where I explained myself poorly and thank you for your ask!

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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I Tamed the Monstrous Prince - By Cheong su pil (6.5/10)

The Cursed Prince and His Precious Jade. I should be telling you about a Gothic tale of a man Tamed by the Delicious Blood of His Dark Beloved, but alas. This lapses into boring and not fun "he's like a child" territory.

The Cursed Prince has finally reigned in his Draconian Powers.

He, who was once the Empires Shame, is now it's Shining Jewel. A hero and a symbol of fear both. A future Emperor with a glorious reign incoming.

Too bad he spent his childhood insane in chains eating people.

Guess we should replace his spare fiance. A woman without proper blood.

Then he'll really be Perfection.

His precious Jade Bride is his only treasure, but alas she has been suffering. He's been gone for two years and the whole palace believed he would die. The lovely Jade Queen has been broken down by sorrow. Fear for his life and her own, constantly.

So, she believes the lies from her replacement.

The Cursed Prince has returned triumphant, so he needs A Perfect Wife.

She hasn't seen him in years.

She leaves.

He hunts her down and then....fade to black...

We see the beginning of their violent story. All the way back when he ate his potential fiancé's on sight.

The Jade Queen only survived because of her Dragon Slayer blood, which can nullify dragon magic.

No one thought she had any abilities, because her mother is common.

His trauma remains.

She must teach the beast to read, write and hold a fork.

He's actually quite sweet.

...and exhausted and abused and untrusting.

The villains aren't bad either, but I have bad news. The "cute" parts of this story will not appeal to alot of people. The Cursed Prince gets Tamed, yes, but he also gets treated like a little kid.

There's also a really weird obsession with purity even though all the characters are adults.

In other words the vibe is rancid.

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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You know, those defenses are on the same mentality of "this villain commits genocide but he respect your pronouns"

The whole 'Bakugo respected Uraraka during their fight in the sports festival!!' Annoys me cuz like... why didn't he move at all? In all other fights he moved around. Why didn't he come up with an actual plan to fight her instead of just spamming explosions? He comes up with plans during other fights. If he respects her and thinks of her as an equal, why does he now put in any effort? Why I'd she not treated like an equal?

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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it still really frustrates me that hawks lost his wings

ive seen a lot of people frame it as though he's always been taken advantage of for his quirk so now he no longer has use to the people who abused him. but. the people who took advantage of him (his parents, the hpsc) are either dead or missing. and he still chose to work for the hpsc since thats been instilled in him since he was like 6.

but i think, even more than that, his wings weren't just his quirk. that was just his body. hawks has never had bodily autonomy, mostly because his desirable quirk. post war would be the first time in his life he'd be able to decide what to do with his body.

i get that hawks has done horrible things with his wings, but them being burnt off was supposed to be his moment to reflect and claim them for his own. i just cant wrap my head around why hori would do it, for any reason other than shock value. what message does it give in the end?

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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🎨 by Neggo

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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New art. Nothing spicy but small moments like that are just as important imo

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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I just finished playing Jedi Fallen order, and I realized something at the end. Of all the atrocities that Vader has committed, no one ever seems to talk about what he did to the Inquisitors. While some did join willingly like the Grand Inquisitor and Prosset Dibs, the rest were caught and tortured until they broke their minds and made them fall to the dark side. Then they were made to serve the Sith and hunt down their former brothers and sisters. While it didn’t affect nearly as many people as Vader’s other acts did, I still do see it as one of the worst things he has done just for how brutal and terrifying it would be to be in that situation. And the worst part is that it’s not over quick like those Vader killed with a lightsaber or force choked to death. The torture likely goes on for days, weeks, maybe months before they are considered broken enough to not try escaping or acting against the empire. Even after that it’s still not over. Vader has dismembered several of them during training and killed some of them, such as when he discovered two Inquisitors had feelings for each other. Seeing the cutscene that shows what Trilla and Cere went through in the fortress was hard to watch, and I’m surprised the game didn’t have the Jedi body storage room from the Kenobi series. What are your thoughts on this?

I know I HAVE seen people discuss the Inquisitors, but it also can sometimes just get lumped in with "what he did to the Jedi"/"betrayal of the Jedi"/"destruction of the Jedi" so on and so forth. It's a separate atrocity to Order 66, but it's also arguably not since a lot of the Inquisitors are CAPTURED during Order 66 and its immediate aftermath and then used to continue hunting down other Jedi survivors and Force sensitive people, which is just a continuation of Order 66 in many ways.

Everything Anakin does to the Jedi is pretty horrific, I'm not sure I'll ever quite forgive Tales of the Empire for REALLY downplaying the horror of the Inquisitor process and just how much it changed and damaged and traumatized the people who went through it.

Also, the reason Jedi Fallen Order doesn't have the weird trophy room from the Kenobi show is because the game came first and the show took a LOT of its design cues for that location from the game and then added in the trophy hall. It's a fun extra bit of mental torture for the Inquisitors to have to go through. I don't know if all of the people in there are Jedi or if it's a mixture of Jedi, Force sensitive people, and even civilians. But regardless of who those people actually were, it's intensely horrible and visceral.

I think part of the reason it tends to slink by is that the Inquisitors aren't always treated as the horrible atrocity that they are in every piece of media we see them in, and some of the things that DO focus on that part are more niche and fewer people have consumed them. Rebels treats them as basic antagonists with no real recognition from Kanan that these are former Jedi. There's no sympathy towards them and no nuance to their characters. There's at least a few comics focusing in on how they were broken into darkness, but fewer people read comics than watch TV shows and movies. JFO and Jedi Survivor give more focus to the tragedy of the Inquisitors, but again, fewer people will play the video games than watch TV shows and movies. In the Kenobi show, there's a LOT less focus on the tragedy of the Inquisitors than there is on Reva's personal tragedy and again the Inquisitors mostly get used as pretty basic obstacles. Same with the one episode with an Inquisitor in Tales of the Jedi which is just used to show off Ahsoka being cool or whatever. And then there was Barriss's episodes in Tales of the Empire which show like one fight to the death and little else.

So most of the times we've seen Inquisitors in higher canon that's more mainstream, the tragic aspect of the Inquisitors has either not been there at all or it's been downplayed quite a lot. Not everyone really knows what was done to them or that many of them were captured former Jedi tortured into becoming Jedi hunters and what part Anakin played in all of it.

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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Rin and obito :D

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mikeellee · 6 hours ago

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X-Men Mamma Mia au

“Casting” is below the cut. vvvv

Donna- Scott Summers

Sophie- Rachel Summers

Sky- Betsy Braddock

Sam- Emma Frost

Bill- Jean Grey

Harry- Madeline Pryor

The Dynamo’s are coming up soon, so stay tuned!!

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mikeellee · 7 hours ago

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cooking something up, here’s some goldenwidow

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mikeellee · 7 hours ago

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morning

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mikeellee · 10 hours ago

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De-aged Jason Todd and his morally-grey parental figures + Dick

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mikeellee · 11 hours ago

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I agree with your observation of Horikoshi’s tendency to ignore trauma in characters like Shoto. I have also observed the same thing towards other characters such as Midoriya. I find Midoriya’s ending overall worse because a lot of his plot points such as losing the One for All quirk and the trauma of killing Tomura (and this is not mention of the overall mess when it comes to the themes and built ups between them) are either completely brushed off or used to prop up Bakugo. This pattern of using a victim in order to prop up the abuser is present in the entire manga, particularly Endeavor and Bakugo. From my perspective, I find Midoriya’s overall treatment as a victim of bullying and abusive friendship extremely terrible and downright offensive. Midoriya’s trauma is never explored at any point of the manga and he’s never allowed to react in uglier ways (basically a good victim). This is further exemplified by the apology scene where Bakugo gives an extremely vague apology while Midoriya barely reacts to it. In addition, there’s no follow up of the scene afterwards at any point. Horikoshi wants to present the two of them reconciling years later and Bakugo giving the hero suit (another thing completely centered on him) as a good ending; however, I don’t find their reconciliation and Bakugo’s redemption any believable because of the lack of focus on Midoriya’s feelings. What I find it alarming in particular is the type of abuse it covers which is abusive friendships. Abusive friendships are barely recognized in mainstream media, and a bad portrayal like this is going to cause a lot of damage.

Undoubtedly the story doesn't handle Midoriya's trauma well either...

...because it doesn't judge it as trauma inflicted by society (people like to mention Bakugou but the whole of Midoriya's class, teachers included were bullying and moking him, and Bakugou was just the most evident bully, not the only one) but something Midoriya has to overcome.

I tend to summarize the whole thing by simply saying that the story lacks compassion beause at the end of the day all it wants for it's characters each time they're suffering through something else is the following:

not get angry

stick to law

not upset the people around them (if they get a scar they should hid their face)

forgive

act according to their social role

be the best version of themselves

wait for a Hero or be the Hero and save themselves and the others

believe if you do all this things will eventually get better in the future

So we've Midoriya, who shows us how things should be done, who doesn't get angry with Bakugou, doesn't seek retaliation, doesn't even truly feel wronged by him, overcomes his fear of Bakugou and becomes the best version of himself TAKING INSPIRATION FROM BAKUGOU TOO and continuing to consider him his 'childhood friend' (this as a deeper meaning in Japan than it might have in other countries).

Giving away OFA?

It was the heroic thing to do, such Quirk after all wasn't given to him for his sake but because he had to inherit Yoichi's will and defeat AFO, that was why OFA existed and Midoriya received such Quirk to do this (even if no one informed him beforehand) so of course he can't complain or it would undermine all this. Midoriya did the heroic thing and fulfilled his role as possessor of OFA so of course he doesn't get to mourn over doing the right thing.

The worst part is that the story is totally on board with having Midoriya kill Tomura, Gran Torino even encourages him doing so telling him that 'killing is saving' and All Might insists if Tomura's expression was okay then it was okay to kill him.

Let's remember that Japan is okay with murdering dangerous criminals even when THEY ARE ESCAPING so of course it's okay with murdering Tomura who wasn't escaping and the story doesn't have a single good character criticize the use of child soldiers because 'hey, they're better than the Pro!'.

Plus there's this desperate need for a happy ending so that when finally Midoriya tries to mourn Tomura while Uraraka mourns Himiko, the whole thing is handled as them bonding and establishing Uraraka is Midoriya's Hero and it's quickly pushed aside by Class A coming to resque the chapter ending with them smiling as grandmother saves 'the kid who's meant to be a stand in for Tomura with a whorse past so that we can all believe now society is all better because this kid created solely for the sake of this is saved'.

Back to bullying, of course it gets handled in a disrespectful manner.

Bullying is likely included because at the time it was likely 'trending' as in Japan, in 2013, it was enacted an anti-bullying act which prohibits bullying, due to a 13-year-boy committing suicide in Otsu due to bullying in October 2011, and its parents suing three former classmates, their parents and the city in February 2012. The Act still does not stipulate any punishment for those who bully others but it's hard not to see the connection between how BNHA starts in 2014 with Bakugou encouraging Midoriya to commit suicide while with two other classmates.

The predominant mentality prior to this law (and for a long while even after this law passed) was that if you were to get bullied it was your fault so Horikoshi claiming that... hum, no, it's also that Bakugou has a bad character, might feel a little more modern, but actually CLAMP handled bullying way better in 1991 so no, I'm not impressed.

Having Midoriya be strong and not commit suicide nor resent the bully, and be still basically charged with the duty of overcoming his own trauma as if it were an obstacle in his Hero path is disrespectful to the kid who died and to all the other kids who died PRIOR and AFTER him as while the intention might be to show them it's possible to overcome things, the overall problem is handled in a way too tame way, and mostly solved by magically giving Midoriya what he lacked that caused him to be bullied, a Quirk.

Since at this point Midoriya isn't anymore handled with a victim of bullying but as someone who's tasked with overcoming an obstacle created by having been bullied, Bakugou is also no more handled as an abuser but as someone who has to overcome his bad character and realize how amazing Midoriya is and that he didn't deserve to be bullied. Midoriya in short has to be the better person and PROVE HIM that he wasn't deserving of bullying (making his own his Quirk, proving his way to view All Might is right, surpassing Bakugou) because they are equal/Midoriya is better.

Bakugou's story becomes therefore one in which he, simply put, grows up from an insecure teenager who bullied Midoriya because he undermined his idea of being the best, to a confident man that can accept Midoriya is his equal and wants to compete with him.

In short... the bullying behaviour becomes the obstacle Bakugou has to overcome. In the story there's a little of pondering about how Bakugou's behaviour toward Midoriya was wrong but... it's overall very minor because the bullying isn't allowed to have consequences since Midoriya, having to be amazing, has to overcome it.

Therefore, since Bakugou's bullying didn't do great damage it ends up looking like something minor. Bakugou will apologize for it, he'll cry when it'll turn out Midoriya lost his Quirk, he'll even give him a suit so that Midoriya will be able to continue doing heroics and will ask him to join him in his agency, but since we don't see Midoriya's suffering, what Bakugou does end up on raising Bakugou, working for Bakugou's 'grow up' plotline that will lead him to become a better person where it affects little Midoriya who was already a great person on his own and doesn't need Bakugou to do anything.

It's similar to Shouto's story as he's asked to overcome his family drama and, the moment he thinks he can do it after he has met Rei, he has to accept to intern under his father because this is the best solution, where Enji's arc is one in which he becomes a better person regardless of his family as we're never shown what he can do to make Rei, Fuyumi or Natsuo better and the little he does for Touya and Shouto, especially in a western setting, feels too little.

Horikoshi doesn't really want to andle none of those stories as the stories of a victim and their abuser but as the stories of people becoming better people.

However, removing from the stories of the character that they were victims (it happens to Midoriya, to Shouto and his family, to Shouji and to many other) to place solely on them the burden of overcoming what is turned into a hurdle in their past toward becoming the best version of themselves is disrespectful toward the victims, especially as it's done over and over and who can't do it and snap (the League for example but also Rei or even Hawks who feels less because he can't forgive his parents) is criticized.

There are things that a person just can't bear, things that are damaging and that you can't just tolerate and overcome, they can break you and turn you into someone else or forever cripple you in certain things and insisting on the idea we've to be like Midoriya and be Heroes and it's on us to overcome such things and yes, the one causing them has to be ashamed of causing them but that's all fine as long as he tries to be better is not a good answer.

Someone can be like Midoriya but, generally, the mass won't be like Midoriya and that's fine because IT'S NOT UP ON THEM TO PROVE THEY DIDN'T DESERVE THIS.

What if Midoriya were to never receive a Quirk? What if he was a guy who just wasn't suited for being a Hero? Does it make okay for Bakugou to bully him because he's Quirkless if Midoriya can't become better than he is, if Midoriya breaks down and drops from school and becomes an hikikomori like Shuuichi did? If Midoriya, instead than admiring Bakugou, always hates him and refuses to help him?

Mind you, I don't think this is the message Horikoshi wants to pass but his story toes dangerously in this direction because it praises no-stop as heroic silent bearing of pain and personal betterment and places all who can't just bear silently among the people who snap and become Villains. There's no middle way and there's no compassion, not for those who bear it nor for those who don't.

The story doesn't want to lead us to have compassion for whose who will overcome their trauma because HEY, they'll overcome it and doesn't want to lead us to have compassion of those who didn't because HEY, they became a Villain and their pain is no excuse and society has no blame for this.

Yes, a bit of sadness spice up things but that's all there is. Midoriya, Shouto, Shouji must not be victims, they're HEROES. And if you can't be a Hero, at least you've to be a good victim like Eri and wait for a Hero to save you. Actually just know what? You should be careful not to bother people by requesting for help, what if your abuser were to turn toward them? Learn from Eri how to be a good victim if you can't be a Hero. That's the way to be.

And okay, now I'm being sarcastic and over the top but this story is harsh with Aoyama, a teen who was threatened to be killed and with him his parents if he didn't comply with AFO.

Tsukauchi says he'll sympathize, but THE BOY TURNED HIS BACK ON DECENT SOCIETY. The boys hould have totally chosen to be a good victim and die and let his parents die instead than trouble society.

Extenuating circumstances just aren't meant to be considered.

So at the bottom of the story I think Horikoshi should have just given more thoughts and more compassions to his victims, their circumstances and the burdens he places upon them, be they bullied kids like Midoriya, discriminated people like the Heteromorphs, victims of an abusive family like the Todorokis or of society in general.

Instead they're asked to stick their neck out for society even when society was turning its back to them or worse.

That or he shouldn't have included huge things like bullying, abuse and discrimination in his story merely for the sake of giving characters a hurdle to overcome. Just give them powerful enemies, they would have been fine.

Horikoshi creates a society that has insane high expectations on the tolerance and ability to overcome trauma of its characters and just labels them as Villains if they fail to fulfill such expectations, break and turn against a society that was squashing them.

And the 'problem' of Midoriya and Bakugou's friendship is that there was never reconciliation and redemption because Midoriya, in order to fulfil such expectations with flying colors, never held it against Bakugou. Bakugou never had to gain back Midoriya's friendship, Midoriya always viewed him as a friend and an admirable fighter despite the bullying and never needed Bakugou to pay him back for what he did. The result is that the reconciliation and atonement are entirely on Bakugou's side in the sense that it's Bakugou that has to decide to accept Midoriya as a friend and it's always Bakugou who, now that he has matured, wants to atone for what he did because now he feels guilty.

He doesn't have to win back Midoriya's friendship and all he does can't pay Midoriya back because for Midoriya his slate is clean already.

Horikoshi uses a similar pattern with Enji, as the moment we learn Enji wants to atone is the moment we learn Rei and Fuyumi are already willing to forgive him and Midoriya will claim Shouto is also willing to do so even though for Shouto's own admission, he hadn't seen anything that would make Enji deserving of such thing. But SHouto is kind so he's supposed to forgive him already.

On the other side there's no reconciliation with Natsuo but... Enji doesn't fight for it, he just accepts it and, while there's likely reconciliation with Touya... we don't really get to see it.

To us all this feels unsatisfactory because it's not a redemption arc. A redemption arc requires the redemption of the character, aka he pays back the victim for his wrongdoing. If the victim doesn't feel a victim and claim there's nothing to pay back, where's the struggle, the effort?

And if the victim claims there's nothing that can be done to pay them back, that the wrongdoing between them will always remain, and the character says, fine I'll just keep on atoning, without breaking down at the uselessness of their efforts, it feels equally unsatisfying because it doesn't change anything, it feels like a wasted effort that doesn't really help the victim nor break the abuser letting them grasp the huge amount of damage done.

Overall I'm not won over by the atonement arcs in the story. Maybe it's just me though.

Sorry for this long reply and thank you for your ask!

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