#(in that horse-dude is being discriminated against by his own creator rip)

[stillness-in-green]

Why does Hori keep leaving out horse guy I am legit irritated we never even saw his quirk :(

Oh my god, right?? Where is he, goddamn. Why even put him in that group shot if you're never going to include him in any other scene with the sidekicks ever again??

Below the cut: Endeavor's sidekicks, and a little bit each on forgiveness, denial, and making a stand.

I suppose it's probably too much to hope for that horse guy is the one of Endeavor's sidekicks that got a look at the Dabi broadcast and resigned from the agency; I think it's always been a weakness of the post-reveal Todoroki plot that no one we actually care about is willing to draw that line in the sand.

In Hawks' case, I like it, both because Hawks's only relationship with Endeavor came after the latter started trying to become a better person, so Hawks has a fair reason to be willing to judge Enji only as the man he knows him to be, and because Hawks has been enormously psychologically invested in Endeavor since he was a desperately vulnerable and emotionally neglected child. It's difficult and thorny, with the potential to get fascinatingly ugly but also to allow for a beautiful grace. I quite like grace, in the sense it's used to mean forgiveness.

My Hawksdeavor soft spot aside, however, all the rest of the people in Endeavor's immediate circle, the ones with fewer excuses and longer exposure, really ought to stop defending Endeavor right to Touya's face, especially when it would be so easy to say, "I'm sorry he hurt you, but I still can't stand aside and watch you commit murder right in front of me," and leave it at that.

There is perhaps some tragic realism to the fact that we haven't seen that;(1) it's not uncommon for accusations like Dabi's to be met with denial and defensiveness, claims of, "Well, he was never like that around me..." Still, so much else about Enji's path to atonement has been so good, I hate that in this one area, his professional career, we never have to see him face a single consequence.

It'd be a nice touch to see that the reveal did actually cost Endeavor real, personal, direct support,(2) not just nameless faces in a sea of angry civilians. If that is the case, though, we do need to see it. In the layover chapters between that war and this one would have been ideal, but I would still accept a relevant flashback if sick horse-guy pops back up somewhere else, still trying to be a hero even if the association with Endeavor is doing his popularity no favors.

It's possible he's got something else to do yet, but if the Sidekickers were going to be all that relevant in the upcoming chapters, you'd think we'd have at least seen him, separate from the others if he's been assigned to a different villain for some reason. Also too, I went back and skimmed through a portion of it, and as best I can tell, he isn't anywhere to be seen in the war arc, either! As it is, it really just feels like Horikoshi has largely forgotten him, or never really intended him to play any major role.

And on the one hand, Endeavor does have thirty sidekicks working at his agency, so I wouldn't expect all of them to be with him on every assignment; we know they specifically don't work like that. On the other hand, if horse-dude was just going to be a random one of Endeavor's thirty sidekicks, not in the major, named, recurring group, Horikoshi probably shouldn't have a) put him in the Flaming Sidekickers introduction shot, and b) signed off on Betten Court's inclusion of him in that same group when they show up in Vigilantes!

Whatever the case, just give us the fuckin' rad-looking horse heteromorph dude already, Hori!

——

1: Oddly enough, Hawks himself is the one who's come closest to revoking his personal support of Endeavor, when he pointedly asks if Endeavor is the one who gave Shouto his burn. I don't imagine he would have turned around and walked out of the room if the answer had been yes—Hawks is a pragmatist, and society as Hawks knows it was in far too much danger to just write off its current Number One Hero—but in that moment, he did feel very ready to start cutting his emotional ties.

2: Part of me wonders if this sort of thing is why Rock Lock hasn't gotten any lines in the post-war arc; that dude is too much of a straight-talker and consistently willing to say things that are bad for morale if he thinks it's important they be said. He's also afaik just about the only other hero in the main canon (so, not counting Captain Celebrity) who's married, much less who has any kids. It's very easy, and indeed very satisfying, to imagine that he might have some very choice words for Endeavor in both capacities, hero and family man. We have been cheated out of this, I feel.