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tafferling · 3 months

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Dying Light 2: Game Story Rewrite

I have been tempted (and have since given in to this temptation) to write out one of the alternate Dying Light 2 story campaigns that'd been knocking around in my head ever since I started playing the game.

It sticks to the characters we already know, but aims to- I dunno. Add Taff flavour, I guess.

Enjoy!

Dying Light 2, an alternate main campaign story, by Taff.

While this is not Latchkey Hero, a lot of the main plot rewrites in this does draw from what I cooked up for Monsters, We. So, if you don’t want spoilers for the MW endgame, skip this.

The player character is either Aiden or Mia Caldwell. Because who hasn’t wanted a little more versatility? We start by choosing which one we’d like to play.

The Caldwell siblings are Pilgrims (I love the Pilgrims, okay? The world needs more Dying Light Pilgrims, please send me your Pilgrim OCs so I can give them platonic smooches) and they’re currently doing what they do best: helping people move across the territories. Specifically, you’re escorting a troupe (actors and musicians) from New Paris, who’re headed to Villedor to perform.

You get to know the siblings in the introduction, and see how they interact with not only each other, but the people around them, too. My aim here would’ve been to establish a relationship between Aiden and Mia, giving what’ll happen later more meaning. We learn about the Pilgrims, how they hold a fearful sort of respect from others, and just how good they are at this.

We even get a bit of combat! Defend against a bunch of biters. Fend off a banshee before nightfall. And, hey, we might even get to know some of the troupe a bit better! We’re having a great time.

Once we reach Villedor, we find out that there’s a bit of trouble brewing right now and that the troupe won’t be able to get to its actual destination (The Fish Eye), since there’s a blockade up. We don’t much care, we are getting paid already and we don’t plan on staying. So we stash them at the second best place, the Bazaar.

After that, our plan is to pick up some more work and then be on our way. Explore time! We find out that there are two different types of safe zones/holds in Villedor: Some which require a biomarker to get into, some which do not. The Bazaar, for example, has a no biomarker zone and a main only biomarker zone. We also find out that a lot of people here are infected. In our initial exploration, we get to go anywhere in Old Villedor except into holds that require biomarkers and places which have been sealed by the GRE.

We can do a few side quests! If we pay attention, we’ll also pick up on how there’s trouble brewing in Central Villedor, and also how, oof, be careful, newcomers, lotsa new people who come to Villedor just straight up vanish. Until one quest pops up for another escort. A man who’d like someone to help him get to New Paris. Fair. We’ve just been there, we can do the trip again, no sweat. Aiden and Mia agree and take the man (Dylan) back the same way they’d originally come in.

Things don’t go well.

We’re attacked by masked men (Renegades), who are trying to get something back from Dylan, who is wounded gravely at the start of the ambush. Aiden and Mia fight them off, but the noise attracts attention they don’t need (Volatiles!). It is clear they can’t do much, but before they run off, Dylan gives them something and tells them to take it and go and not let Waltz have it (whoever that may be, our two Pilgrims are not clued in).

As we try to escape, we’re eventually overwhelmed and both of our Pilgrims are (drum rolls) bitten. But before the GAME OVER screen can roll in, a set of Renegades and Waltz show up, ultimately saving their lives. Which may sound neat at first, not so much when we get punched out and dragged off. When our player character comes to again, it’s a vague affair at first. A bit of swimming in and out of it, really, where we realise we are in a lab (spooky) and have been injected with something (cue the OOOOOOOooOOO!). But never you fret! After overhearing a conversation that they’d be taken back to Central Villedor since they haven’t died and something something they have potential, our player character frees themselves. They get their sibling too and try to escape. During this escape, we see hints that some of those “vanished newcomers” may have met their end here, wherever here may be.

We also get our stuff. Which includes the GRE key (no one bothered checking our backpack, wee!).

But, once again, things do not go well. Waltz’s goons chase us, and while our player character manages to escape, our sibling sacrifices themselves and, for all we know, has just died. We want to do something about this, but we have our first full blown seizure, which leads to us falling to what everyone assumes is our death.

All of this is followed with an Oh no, am I turning? sequence, which ends similarly to the original intro of the game, where we are about to get lynched by a mob. Hakon to the rescue! Except this time the rescue is somewhat motivated by how we’ve already made some friends previously: the troupe! They recognized us and they are what we find after Hakon jabs us with our first inhibitor.

Afterwards, this version of the story follows the Bazaar VS PK story line, somewhat, with our player character motivated to reach Central Villedor to get revenge. Why revenge and why not have our sibling recaptured? ‘cause revenge can wait a little and it won’t feel so weird when we get side tracked by side quests.

To get to Central Villedor we must help Aitor solve his murder mystery of their slain commander and to do that we have to get a biomarker (which we can do since we have a GRE key). As we solve the mystery, we find out that the conflict with the bandits and whatnot and the PK’s hand being forced to suspect or even attack the Bazaar was being orchestrated by someone else.

Who, we aren’t sure.

There’s choices to be made of course! Some siding with the PK, or with the Bazaar, and all the while we also have our troupe friends to report back to and help with little side quests. Hey, we may even have a little devil and an angle in our troupe who try and sway us towards specific decision. Plus, Hakon, of course (who, by the way, is telling us he has an idea of where to go once we are in Central Villedor so we can get our sweet SWEET revenge). We also meet the usual suspects of the Bazaar, including Sophie, Alberto, and Co.

And in-between our chores, we are on the hunt for those inhibitors and like to jab ourselves with them like the dumdum we are. SURELY nothing bad can come out of this?!

Anyway.

Now that we have a biomarker, we can access other regions in Old Villedor. More exploring! And, eventually, we get the choice to help the PK see the Bazaar was innocent (and give the Bazaar their water tower back), or we claim the water tower for the PK cause we have a crush on Aitor (why else would you do this?!), OR we can cause absolute mayhem and botch the whole deal, leading to a war between the Bazaar the PK, which the PK narrowly win.

Then off we go into Central Villedor. Escorting our troupe, of course. Gee, maybe we get an LI in there?! I’m thinking too much about the troupe now. Down, Taff. But, seriously, there is someone in the troupe who is defo trying to win us over to “troupe life” maybe and sway us away from all the revenge talk. We aren’t having it though. We loved our sibling.

(No one blows up the windmill, btw. That thing is too damn pretty to die. Taff has spoken. Oh and we probably had another turning scare at some point and are figuring out that something may not be entirely right with us.)

Once we’ve survived some tense escort mission shenanigans (HEY those can be fun if done right, I promise), and as we are nearing the Fish Eye, we get into an argument about our desire to Do Revenge, which leads to use pointing the troupe to the Fish Eye and the fucking off with Hakon.

Cause we trust Hakon.

Hakon who has become a bit quiet now that we are alone with him.

Hakon who is getting a bit weird.

HAKON WHO LED US INTO AN AMBUSH TO GET THE DAMN KEY FROM US.

We are not happy. Especially since we are facing what seems to be a trio of WAY TOO strong people who remind us far too much of volatiles. Gee. Anyway, we manage to get away! Mostly thanks to the timely intervention of a crossbow woman (Lawan).

Fast forward, we end up at the Fish Eye, with Lawan giving us a bit of exposition about Hakon (who she was tracking when she spotted him near the Fish Eye), about Waltz and how he does some really creepy science stuff with young people.

We reunite with the troupe and get to know the Fish Eye. We meet Frank.

The Renegades attack.

Our valiant defense of it goes down just like in the game, which introduces us to the PK and properly begins ACT 2. ACT 3? Look, I am not counting. Also, I need a snack, be right back.

[one snack later; beware, Monsters, We. spoilers ahead cause all of this is ripped right out of my fic]

This act is all about Bringing back some light! The right (or wrong) people have noticed that we have a GRE key and are floating the idea by us that we should take our shapely ass over to the solar farm (ex “Tesla competitor” car factory) and do Villedor a solid. This is a big one, because we get to pick our team to do that. Do we go back to the Bazaar and bring Alberto and Co (if we didn’t botch Old Villedor), or do we go with the PK, organized by Aitor, and bring Tolga and Fatim? I mean Mitaf and Aglot, sorry.

Either way, Lawan comes with us.

As we gear up for this venture (which will not be an easy venture) we begin to also unravel some of the mystery around Waltz. The name X 13 is being floated by us at this point, too, which we begin to ask around about and are told to go get friendly with the Carriers (can I PLEASE rename them to Couriers?) since they hoarded a lot of communications and maps.

Anyway. POWER PLANT. Depending on how we left Old Villedor, our efforts at the power plant are challenged by either: The Renegades (if we prevented a war between the PK and the Bazaar) or the Bazaar (if we botched Old Villedor and the PK beat down the Bazaar).

This is when the “Renegade Mini Bosses” start showing up: Daylight proof volayouths. 20-somethings turned into weapons by Waltz.

During that particular fight, we experience another turning scare, but we’re good. Heheehehe. Yeah. We’re good. :sweating:

Then, after we’ve made it, cause, of course we made it: LET THERE BE LIGHT! This time, racing up to the top of a skyscraper is payoff and Lawan’s joy something we can relate to. We’ve seen Villedor dipped in darkness. Now we see it come alive with way more lights than our Pilgrim has ever seen in their life. It’s an emotional moment, ya’all.

We get a little hear to heart with Lawan, where she reveals some more about Hakon. This is driven by the VNC tower light coming on and her briefly recounting how Hakon betrayed the Nightrunners, the very people who took in Lawan when she was a child. She was a kid back then, but she will never forget the loss Frank (and therefore her family) suffered and she will always blame Hakon for it. Hakon was, in effect, outcast after this, and eventually fell in with Waltz. A lot of people do these days, mostly out of desperation.

After that:

The Courier quest line is turned into a bit of a main quest line this time around, at which end we find out what X 13 is: a massive GRE vault. And Waltz and his Renegades are looking for it. If they are able to crack it open, Villedor is in for a BAD time. Not only will he have all the supplies he needs to keep his operation running when it comes to turning people into whatever it is he is doing, but also because: guns. There is absolutely going to be a stockpile of them in there. Even working together, the PK and the survivors wouldn’t stand a chance against the Renegades.

And thus, the race is on!

To get there first, we need intel. And intel needs communication.

VNC tower time!

Frank and Lawan think its a terrible idea, but the PK are happy to help us; this one goes down pretty much identical to the original climb. I loved that mission, and hanging out with Rowe and his group was absolutely necessary to give the PK some much needed depth which they kinda lost after you lose track of Aitor.

The difference is though that Lawan doesn’t come after us. I felt her easily catching up with Aiden cheapened not only the player’s accomplishment, but the death of Rowe’s squad and the death of the Nightrunners. We do get help from Frank though, which is a big deal, since at that moment, Frank is facing his demons. He is going back to that day when his men died – and in doing so, he saves our life.

We celebrate.

We’re almost feeling at home, really. Our troupe performs at the Fish Eye. We get to see it all, and yeah, we still want revenge, but maybe we’re home?Maybe this is better than revenge? Maybe we don’t have to go back out onto the road (and how can we, we are infected, we are screwed anyway, we can’t go back to our old life, can we?).

Maybe this is good.

If you like romance, maybe there’s a bit of romance there (someone from the troupe? Lawan? BIG SHRUG! You choose!).

The next day the hunt begins: For X 13 and Waltz. This leads to us crossing paths with Hakon again (and a fight not unlike the one in the church in the game). Though this time, the fight ends in a revelation: Hakon tells us that (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) our sibling is alive! Yeah, I know you all saw this one coming.

We then get to choose to kill him or to let him live, but not before he tells us where they are.

And we see red.

Heeding no warnings, we head into what could easily be a trap (as Lawan tells us, cause Hakon is a bleeding liar, don’t trust him), but we don’t care. We go. We HAVE to go. Lawan, since we’ve grown on her, comes with us.

THIS IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN, FINISH ALL YOUR SIDE QUESTS

Surprisingly – it is not a trap. Not really. Not intentionally. We find our sibling, but they aren’t altogether themselves anymore, much as any of the other volayouths we find. They also aren’t leaving with us – and as we try and break them out anyway, Waltz gets in the way.

Forced to abandon our sibling, Lawan manages to get us to flee and come back later, with Waltz and one of his other volayouths chasing us. We manage to kill the volayouth, but Waltz is too much – but thankfully, Lawan is crafty, and she manages to get us out.

Except now its night. And we are kinda in the middle of nowhere with no UV light and– oh no, you know exactly where this is going.

We (as in you, the player, not Lawan) turn.

Look, Veronika was sweet, but I had absolutely 0 emotional connection to her. Let this moment matter.

We kill her.

:RECORD SCRATCH:

Unless! We allowed Hakon to live, in which case he realized just how harebrained we were and shadowed us, swooping in at the last second to jab us with an inhibitor, saving Lawan’s life.

The happiness we were so close to his absolutely shattered now. Regardless of whether Hakon helped save Lawan or not. What happened, happened. There is no coming back from that.

If Lawan is dead, we do not go back to the Fish Eye. We crawl into a hole after we come to and hope to die.

If Lawan is alive, we also do not go back to the Fish Eye. We refuse, even though both Hakon and Lawan insist.

It’s not until Waltz contacts us and says he will trade our sibling for the key and the location of X 13 that we spring (or crawl) back into action.

It is decision time.

We can now choose to either: (a) give up, betray all our friends, and leave Villedor with a half-feral sibling, or (b) return to the Fish Eye and go to claim X 13 for Frank or (c) go to Missy and claim X 13 for the PK.

(a) If we betray our friends, the game ends here and the credits are us returning years later to find Villedor in the worst shape it can possibly be in.

(b) If we go to the Fish Eye, and Lawan and Hakon are alive, Frank will put the Nightrunners back together and they come with us to X 13. If not, we go alone and it will be a lot harder than (c). In this case, Matt leads a squad (which includes Aitor) after us and what happens in that confrontation depends on how we handled Aitor and his situation in Old Villedor. Either Aitor sides with us and turns on Matt, or the Nightrunners stay behind to hold off the PK. If the Nightrunners have not reunited (Lawan is dead), we have to fight the PK alone.

Assuming (b) and (c), we manage to claim X 13 in what I would hope is an epic battle. One where we fight through Renegades, volayouths, and, eventually Waltz, who has brought our sibling along and pits us against them. We fight both Waltz and our sister or brother, kill him, and are left to choose to subdue or kill what’s left of our family.

Credits!

If we claimed X 13 for the survivors, Frank has taken a reluctant leadership position and oversees things from the Fish Eye. If Lawan is alive, the Nightrunners have been reestablished for good. They control Villedor’s firearms and the supplies coming out of X 13..

If we claimed it for the PK, the PK control Villedor’s firearms and the supplies coming out of X 13, though the outcome itself depends once again on how we handled Aitor’s situation. If we have Aitor on our side, Matt is overthrown after being overzealous and Aitor takes charge and the survivors and the PK enter a reasonable time of peace. If not, Matt brings Villedor under a militant rule (before he dies).

If we have killed our sibling and/or Lawan, we leave Villedor, unable to cope with what we’ve done.

If, however, Lawan is alive and we subdued our sibling, our own credit is us looking for a way to help not only our sibling, but all the other volayouths still out there. Including ourselves.

EDIT! I forgot to mention that NG+ has you have guns.

#Dying Light 2 #Dying Light #:rambles into the void:

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cherryflavoredfruitloops · 5 months

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TLDR; i am more attached to the lost trio than the og trio

i don't know how this happened, but i find the lost trio much more, i don't know, entertaining(?) than the og trio. i also feel like the lost trio has like a counterpart to them in the og trio, so that's how im going to break down this opinion peice.

the first one i'm going to do is piper and annabeth. i chose piper for annabeth because in the books they are shown to be kind of like a direct parallel of each other, so thats my reasoning for piper as annabeth. that, and the only girls in both of their trios. i feel like i became more attached to piper since i got to see things from her perspective, i never really got that sort of thing in the original books. you are going to hear that a lot, but we only ever saw things from percy's perspective, and it was easy to get attached to characters but you were never as attached to them as you were to percy. i feel like we didn't ever get to see much from any other character's perspective, unlike tlh, where we get chapters from the three main characters perspectives. we get to see piper's personal frustration with the aphrodite cabin, or her traitor's guilt about what she's doing. we never got to see this kind of thing from annabeth, we kind of had to go with the social cues percy gave us, not annabeth directly stating. i feel more connected to piper because of how much more we got to see her emotions, and we were never told how she felt from a party that wasn't her.

next, i'll do leo and grover. they aren't a direct parallel like piper and annabeth, but i was originally going to compare jason to grover but their personalities feel too different, at least grover and leo have a little in common. i feel like we didn't see enough of grover to become properly attached. his story felt mostly wrapped up by book 4, and then his final ending in book 5 was like remembering you have leftovers from the night before. and even though he had some sort of cameo in every book, the cameos were always short. like that one family member that shows up to the function, grabs some food and leaves. and, once again, we get proper chapters from leo's view. we never really hear any sort of bad emotions from grover, the few times we did he seemed very general. like when he felt he'd never be as great of a hero as percy, or his fear of not getting his searchers license felt so general they were impersonal in a way. who knows how many demigods felt bad about themselves cause they thought they'd never amount to anything because of percy? or how many satyrs were afraid of not getting their license! were as we see leo dealing with what i assume is some form of survivor's guilt. like feeling that it was entirely his fault his mom died but he survived, it feels so personal. it makes you sympathize with him. i like leo more because of how brief grover is in most of the books.

lastly, jason to percy. they aren't the best parallel, like, at all, but they'll have to suffice. i don't think this is a real thing, but reading so many things from percy pov, i felt almost like a fatigue of reading it. at least with jason we get breaks. and unlike most readers, i actually found jason's perspective more entertaining. i don't know why, though it might have to do wiht the fact that i act a lot more like jason than percy, so there was almost a built-in connection. and percy kind of states the way he feels, and we already know most of what he had gone through, unlike the first ever interaction we have between jason and his past. he talks to lupa, and has this sort of context mental structure. he talks about how he has this feeling he isn't allowed to be weak when talking to lupa, he suppressed his emotion and he doesn't even know he did that. it feels almost like that joke where you say something traumatic under the guise that it's funny, and when they react weirdly you think, that didn't happen to you? jason doesn't even know he was taught to supresss weakness, and does it subconsciously, whereas percy expresses his emotion, even the ones that are weak. we also put percy on a gold pedestal, but jason didn't get that treatment from the fandom, since he was a demigod who felt he was better than the hero we read about first. jason just feels more relatable for the people who felt like they needed to hide anything that made them weak, or the ones who felt shunned by a large group of people. i am more attached to jason because he has subconsciously routed these ideas so deep in his brain, they are still there when hera steals his memories.

overall, i feel like the lost trio is more relatable to me than the og trio.

#essay #essentially just an essay #percy jackon and the olympians #heroes of olympus #pjo hoo toa #pjo #hoo #the lost trio #the og trio #jason grace #leo valdez #piper mclean #percy jackson #grover underwood #annabeth chase #opinion paper #opinion piece #opinion #opinion essay

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lostcauses-noregrets · 4 months

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not late to the fandom, just really not updated. last time I was on the ackerman bond between Levi x Erwin was canonically proven, but I have seen people in the tags and some other comments say it was disproven later on. would you mind explaining to me what the hell happened? thank you very much for your existence in this eruri fandom <3 you are doing the titan's lord works!

Awww thank you dear <3

Okay not so short summary…

The bond between the Ackermans and their lieges was first mentioned by Isayama in the Answers Guidebook which was published in 2016, the same week as chapter 84, Midnight Sun (boy was that a head fuck). In the book Isayama said:

Isayama With the heroes of American comics, conflicts dealing with the situation “with great power, comes great responsibility” have been depicted. In Levi’s case, if he had no power, he would probably have been an ordinary person with no responsibilities but, as a consequence of having power, that he became a person excessively burdened with responsibility. Kenny talked about “everyone… was a slave to something…”, when he put the question to Levi “what is yours!?”, Levi himself too perceived it. That he himself too was a slave in regard to his own strength. The sense of duty that “I must become a hero”. …the same thing can be said of Mikasa too but…, for the Ackerman family, in the service of their master, there are many people who are able to manifest their power to its maximum. —Eh!? (surprise) About that, isn’t this information that hasn’t been talked about in the original story!! Certainly for Mikasa it’s Eren, for Kenny it’s Uri that is the lord/master-like existence… Isayama In Levi’s case, it’s Erwin. As the existence who surpasses him, he has acknowledged Erwin or how should I put it. That is the Ackerman lineage or rather, the instinctive part probably.

This became known as the “Ackerbond”, though that is a term that was made up by the fandom. There is no explicit mention of the bond in the manga until chapter 112 when Eren tells Mikasa that she is a slave to her Ackerman instincts, who is compelled to follow her host’s orders without question. (Cue lots of hand wringing about the “abusive” nature of the Ackerbond.)

However later in chapter 130, in an extended flashback, Zeke tells Eren that there is no such thing as Ackermans having “ingrained behaviour” or “compelled instinct” to protect their “host”, and that the real reason that Mikasa shows him so much kindness and affection is that she loves him.

For once, Zeke is right, as this ties in exactly with what Isayama went on to say about the Ackermans in the Answers book:

— Regarding Mikasa and Levi’s Ackerman family mystery, we’re also receiving more clarity! Can we say that Mikasa, Levi, Kenny are all part of the same Ackerman bloodline? Isayama: They are all part of the same Ackerman bloodline. However, their reasons for protecting their respective counterparts don’t have anything to do with the bloodline itself - it’s just their nature (laughs). Within the story, Mikasa and Levi almost have the guardian/knight-like roles, right? That’s because they encountered the existence of a “boss”-like individual, and the desire to work for that person is very in line with their personalities.

So there you have it. The so-called Ackerbond isn’t mysterious blood magic that forces Ackermans to obey their host, however it is in their nature to devote their strength to an individual they choose, whose “existence surpasses them”. Put in broad terms, Eren “surpasses” Mikasa because he gives her courage, safety, family, all things she has lost when they first meet. Uri surpasses Kenny because he has unlimited power and compassion and sees the good in everyone. And Erwin surpasses Levi because he has a cause to fight for, one that Levi can dedicate his strength to. I once read someone describing the relationship between the Ackermans and their significant others as a particularly selfless form of love and a deep seated desire to protect, which seems to hit the nail right on the head.

If you want more info about the Ackerbond I have many posts here: Ackermans Master Post and Ackerbond / Ackerbonds, and @tsuki-no-ura has helpfully provided a translation of the relevant passages of the Answers book here: Answers Guidebook Interview about Levi and Erwin.

[All translations by @fuku-shuu (x), @ningen-suki (x) and @tsuki-no-ura (x).]

#asks #ackermans #ackerbond #levi ackerman #erwin smith #eruri relationship #zeke yeager #hajime isayama #snk

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stellarbat · 2 months

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Here's LittleBitTwisted Clive!

So in LBT, LittleBigPlanet 2 goes an awful lot differently. Avalon is responsible for creating the Negativitron, which wasn't originally the Negativitron. However, the machine was corrupted by a motherboard that may or may not have been in NAOMI (SABA takes place before LBP 1 here) and is now trying to take over Craftworld.

Sackboy nearly gets abducted by the Negativitron, but is saved by Larry Da Vinci and Avalon like in the canon story. However, Avalon sticks around as Larry goes to check on something, and when he gets back, he... Isn't Da Vinci. At least, not the one that just saved Sackboy.

The Negativitron has created somewhat faulty clones to attempt to replace Da Vinci, Victoria, Clive, and Eve. Avalon and Herbert weren't cloned because Avalon was "favored" and Herbert was already dealt with.

This is Clive's Clone.

When the group finds Clive at the factory, he has already been replaced by his clone. His clone tries to act at first, but Clone Clive is unable to express emotions, so they catch on. The clone then reveals that the real Clive has been dropped at the Waste Disposal.

After saving the real Clive, the Clone Clive is surprised that they lived, and a very pissed Avalon smacks the clone for everything.

Not only did that cause the Clone to have a new identity, but now the clone is also very mad.

This is Cleave, The Clone after he was gifted with emotion.

Cue Copernicus Chasing our heroes away before they manage to save their hides.

There's more to talk about with this au, and I really feel like making a masterpost or story at some point.

#littlebigplanet #little big planet #lbp #lbp3 #lbp2 #clive handforth #lbp clive #LittleBitTwisted au #LBT au

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wuxiaphoenix · 21 days

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Worldbuilding: Bottlenecks

In the real world, making anything usually runs up against at least one key limiting factor. For fabric, it was usually how much spun thread you had. Estimates in the 1800s were that it took five full-time spinners to supply one weaver. There are reasons why one of the first things water power was applied to was spinning. In making something as “simple” as a pizza from scratch, you have multiple potential bottlenecks, including but not limited to flour, yeast, oven fuel, toppings, you name it. And in making arrows, it’s usually the shafts that hold you back. Heads can be cast from metal or chipped from stone; fletching just needs large enough birds. But straight arrow shafts of the right length? Those are trickier to get hold of, and an excellent reason to scour the battlefield for still-usable arrows.

This also led to Korea having a military secret for centuries - a way to shoot half-length arrows from full size bows. Meaning they could pick up enemy arrows and use them, but invaders couldn’t shoot the tiny ones back.

Bottlenecks are a great way to throw obstacles at your characters. If you’ve established that something is rare, or in limited supply at that time, then when a Problem crops up that needs some of that finite supply and your characters don’t have it... cue sudden diversion, or even splitting the party. Which gives you ample opportunity to throw other problems and encounters at them, with a Ticking Clock along for the ride.

It doesn’t even have to originally be in limited supply. Storms, fires, and earthquakes can ruin storage; a noble throwing a vast Entertainment or a Bridezilla on the rampage might not leave one caterer standing. Your characters may think they’ve got their Evil Overlord Destroying Potion ingredients list down - and then find out no, no they don’t. At which point they have to get what they need from someone who really doesn’t want to give it up... or they need to find a substitute. With unpredictable results.

Or, they may just have to come up with a different way to handle the Bad Guy. Back to the drawing board, heroes!

Note, you shouldn’t bait-and-switch your characters this way too much. Otherwise your heroes won’t be the only ones gnashing their teeth. Too much, and your readers may wall the book. “There’s five bakeries in this town! How can they not find flour, sugar, and eggs anywhere?!?”

However, if your story is set in an unexpected disaster scenario? Hurricane, alien tsunami, zombie apocalypse; any kind of event where everything is in short supply except trouble? Then throwing your characters loops like this a lot more fair, and much easier on the readers. They’ve been warned!

Think about how things are made, and how your characters will have to make things to get themselves into trouble... and out of it.

The bad guys are closing in. They have what’s in their pockets and random shattered bits of wood and rock. How will they craft their escape?

#creative writing #worldbuilding #writing reference #korean history #apocalyptic

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rockmiyabideusexmachina · 11 months

Text

2023 Megaman Summer Fanart Contest - Rules Thread *CLOSED*

Happy Rockman Day! Time for the 12th annual-ish Megaman Summer Fanart Contest. Am I out of original ideas yet? Feels like it. But give it your all with these theme choices!

Two categories, in which you are allowed to submit one entry for each category, if you would like. If you place in one category, you will be automatically disqualified from the other, for reasons of fairness, and to give other people a chance to win a prize.

CATEGORY 1: The Sand-ly Cup Playoffs (Talent)

The very first summer contest I held was a Megaman sports videogame box art theme, in an ode to the summer Olympics and our only real Mega Man sports game at the time, Mega Man Soccer.

Taking a cue from Capcom’s recent announcement of it’s sponsorship/tie-in support of the Japan Volleyball Association, this year, let’s focus on beach sports.

What qualifies as a beach sport? Beach volleyball, soccer, polo, frisbee, and more, just to name a few. For a decent list of options, check this page out. Want to do something else more creative not mentioned here? You are welcome to.

As always, you are free to draw whatever characters you would like. However, for this theme, I would like you to draw some sort of sand-themed Mega Man character or characters involved in either the competition or ruining the gameplay of this beach sport. Who counts as a sand-themed character? Any major or minor character whose stage or design involves sand/desert works for me. Some examples could be: Pharaoh Man, Ground Man, Commando Man, Desertman.EXE, Anubis Necromancess, Terra Condor, Sand Snake, Pantheon Zombies, Mummira, etc.

Content Requirements:

* Megaman character(s) of your choice

* Characters playing some type of beach sport on a sand surface

* At least one sand-themed character(s), either in competition or ruining gameplay

* As the talent category, entries will be judged on things like detail and overall composition, on top of meeting basic content requirements

CATEGORY 2: BAELIAWATCH (Humor)

🎵 Some people consume all the Dark Chips Afraid to side with Dr. Light Some people need to help somebody In a swimsuit team Cross Fusion fight Don't you worry, It's gonna be all right 'Cause I'm always ready I won't let you outta my sight (I'll be ready) I'll be ready (Whenever you fear) No, don't you fear (I'll be ready) Forever and always, I'm always here🎵

Looks like we could use a lifeguard at this beach.

Huh? This isn’t the beach, this is a fanart contest rules thread!

It’s time to draw the heroes of the beach, those watching over the waters for dangers and saving people’s lives. The theme for this category is lifeguards. And one show that definitely mixed lifeguards and campy humor at times was Baywatch. Let’s draw a spiritual successor starring (The) Rockman as the leader of a ragtag group of beach lifeguards. Your goal for this category is to draw your favorite Megaman characters in some sort of humorous scene involving lifeguards wearing those iconic red swimsuits/trunks.

Illustrate slow-motion running with oily tans, rescuing Navis from Sharkman.EXE attacks, poorly written, long-form story comics about battling criminal activity while wearing a gratuitous, fan-servicey swimsuits the entire time, etc. Parody one of your favorite episodes, like that one time they held a funeral for a lifeguard on the beach, except this time it’s all the unlockable swimsuit characters holding a funeral for the XDive character who won’t ever get a skin because the game is dead. (Too soon? Yeah...)

Content Requirements:

* Megaman character(s) of your choice

* At least one character as a lifeguard, in red swimsuits/trunks in a parody of the Baywatch series

* As the humor category, entries will be judged on things like visual gags and how much they make us laugh, on top of meeting basic content requirements.

PRIZES:

The usual cash prizes, for you to use as you please.

The winners for each category will receive the following:

1st Place: $150 USD 2nd Place: $75 USD 3rd Place: $50 USD

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

When you submit, I would prefer you to include the following information in this format, along with your entry:

• (Your name/preferred alias) – As much as I usually know who you are, there’s always someone new or somebody who has a different preference from what their email name says.

• (Category this entry is for) – You can either say 1 or 2, Talent or Humor.

Only submit your own artwork, as usual. Any character, major or minor, from any series is allowed. OCs are allowed, as long as your art contains at least one canon Megaman character.

AI artwork is definitely not allowed. Unless the AI stands for “Akane Imagery,” which, in that case, submit as much as you want.

As always, participants are allowed to submit from all over the world.

Paypal is still the preferred method for cash prize payouts. Please have a valid account to receive your winnings.

Youngin’s, get your parents permission before entering.

Entries do not need to be colored, but it is preferred. The more effort put into things as always, the better chance you have!

Entries can either be e-mailed to me at rock2125[at]hotmail[dot]com, or you can just PM/note me a link to your pic.

DO NOT post your pics in this journal, your dA galleries, Twitter, tumblr blogs, other sites, etc. until the contest is over. This is the fairest way for competitive reasons. I prefer to keep them all secret until the deadline has passed. I’ll edit a confirmed entry list in this thread when I receive them. So you won’t be in the dark about whether or not I’ve received your entry.

DEADLINE:

The deadline for this contest will be:

Monday, August 28th, 2023 by 11:59PM, global end of day. This gives you close to 3 months to finish your entry!

MISCELLANEOUS INFO:

- As usual, If you don’t plan to enter, but would like to help me judge, please let me know through DM or mention so here. Never hurts to have extra opinions on all the entries.

Bug me with questions if you have any. Please join in, and good luck to everyone who enters!

Confirmed Entries:

Cat. 1 - Dr. Fresh, @ingopotato, Tori, Kaitlin.EXE, @pstart, Mattasaurs, Daidaro,

Cat. 2 - AbilityField, @grammars-doodles, miralie,

#Rockman #Megaman #Mega Man #Rock Miyabi's 2023 Megaman Summer Fanart Contest #Fanart Contest

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demifiendrsa · 11 months

Video

youtube

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 | Gameplay Reveal

youtube

Introducing Kraven the Hunter

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will launch for PlayStation 5 in Fall 2023.

Screenshots

Latest details via PlayStation Blog

It’s a banner day for Spidey fans! We’re delighted to finally show you the first-ever gameplay of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the next installment in our original Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise, which will launch in Fall 2023. There’s a lot to unpack about today’s gameplay reveal, so let’s highlight some of the big stuff…

The Great Hunt begins

As many sharp-eared Spidey fans noticed in our announcement trailer in 2021, Kraven the Hunter. This version makes his debut appearance in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and he’s in search of an equal. That spells bad news for the inhabitants of Marvel’s New York including a rogue’s gallery of villains and the Spider-Men, Peter Parker and Miles Morales. Between the start of Kraven’s Great Hunt and an all-new Symbiote threat to Earth-1048, our heroes have their work cut out for them.

Setting the stage for our gameplay reveal: Kraven’s Hunters, a new enemy faction, are in pursuit of Dr. Curt Connors, AKA The Lizard, and Peter needs to stop him. We kick things off at Connors’ home across the East River in Queens, one of the all-new playable and explorable boroughs we’re introducing in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Let’s get Symbiotic

We don’t waste any time: bursting through basement doors is Peter Parker, our original Spider-Man in this story, who needs no introduction. But what he’s wearing perhaps deserves one: he’s donning the highly coveted, iconic, and beloved Black Suit and he’s more than ready for a fight.

Beyond serving looks, our Symbiote-bound hero has some new tricks up his sleeve. We’re no stranger to Spider-Man knocking heads, but never like this: he’s much more aggressive and punches certainly aren’t being pulled. Symbiote tendrils aggrandize Spider-Man’s silhouette, slamming foes against hard surfaces, dealing no mercy to Kraven’s Hunters.

My advice: get cozy with the L1 button because you’re gonna love it.

The super-popular suit can strike fear in almost anyone who comes face-to-face with it, but Kraven isn’t just anyone and his highly trained Hunters aren’t afraid of a brawl. Fret not! New combat abilities can neutralize our new headstrong opponents with a little finesse. Strike back with aggressive parries to gain the upper-hand, or cast a web to shunt enemies between a hard place and a harder place. You can also activate a classic dodge to get out of danger – but don’t get too comfortable; some attacks can’t simply be dodged and will require a parry to properly evade them!

Our animators put the work in to deliver a much more impulsive Peter Parker, fitting for the symbiote bonded to his person, without sacrificing his combative finesse. New takedowns humble even the most rugged enemies, and new combat animations push Spider-Man’s limits. I mean, did you see what Spider-Man did to this guy?

In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, we’re putting respect on the Black Suit and giving it the story it deserves. In this installment, we’re really delving into Peter’s personal relationship with the Symbiote and how it affects those closest to him…

More Miles per hour

Speaking of which, this sequel features not one but TWO playable Spider-Heroes, as Miles Morales returns in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and is a key player in our story. In this demo, Miles is in Harlem hot on Lizard’s tail. Speed is of the essence in many ways than one.

First, get a glimpse at the near-instant switching between both our playable Spider-Men. And if that wasn’t enough, traversal gets a significant speed boost in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2! Cue the Web Wings, which can be deployed by either Spider-Man to move about the city swiftly and urgently. Use wind tunnels between skylines to move with haste and behold the capabilities of the PS5 console’s SSD as you soar above the concrete jungle, zipping past all manner of cars, buildings, and people (and pigeons). If you thought traversal in our first two games was exhilarating, just wait until you experience it firsthand in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Bringing down the warehouse

After a brief flight across town, Miles has tracked Connors inside the Harlem Fish Market. By the looks of it, Kraven’s hunters are making a move on him, so it’s time to clear them out.

In Marvel’s Spider-Man fashion, players can approach encounters with stealth or fists of fury, or both. Regardless of your approach, there are new gadgets and abilities that complement different playstyles. One of the new gadgets we’re excited about is the Web Line, a new way to sneak around the environment to get the drop on enemies. Cast a line over a couple of Hunters and watch as Spider-Man performs a dual takedown… a Marvel’s Spider-Man first!

Like his mentor before him, Miles Morales also has some new abilities and gadgets at his disposal. On the gadget front, we showed off the Web Grabber, a new gadget that pulls enemies together to an isolated spot. This allows Miles to chain one of his new abilities, the Thunder Burst, unleashing an electrifying ground-pound against a group of foes. You also saw a glimpse of the Chain Lightning ability, which has a shocking radius of effect on any nearby enemies.

Between Peter’s new Symbiote abilities and Miles’ newfound blue bioelectric powers, each Spider-Man has their own unique set of skills that can be upgraded via all-new individual skills tree. Our heroes share technology and train together, too, so we also included a shared Skill Tree that offers parallel upgrades for both.

The Lizard’s in the details

As Miles tracks Lizard through the Fish Market, our environments are sure to activate your Spidey senses: our world is richer, denser and packed with details from particles to improved textures. Lighting also gets an upgrade, casting more dramatic shadows and reflections along walls and pipes; meanwhile spatial 3D audio creates unique soundscapes all around you. Further, we’re upping the immersion in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 with our signature use of the DualSense wireless controller, including a range of haptics and spectacular use of the adaptive triggers.

Whether you’re sneaking through interiors or exploring our city streets, Marvel’s New York is brought to life in ways only possible on PlayStation 5 console.

Be greater together

Working together, the Spider-Men must pursue Lizard and fight the Hunters who seek his capture. Unfortunately for them, Kraven is well-equipped: boats, aerial transports, and weapons are all-eyes on Lizard. The Great Hunt continues along the East River, one of the new areas you can traverse in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and the action is tight: Miles dismantles vehicles in his wake while Peter Parker leads the chase from afar.

You’ll seamlessly switch between both Spider-Men across a variety of story moments in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. We want players to bask in iconic team-ups elevated by our signature set piece moments, and experience the story from the perspective of each Spider-Man.

Give me what I desire….

There’s no combination of words that can wholly convey how excited we are to finally show you Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 after all this time. We’re excited to give you this first-ever glimpse at what we’ve been working on all these years, and we hope you’re as thrilled as we are.

We know you have been patiently awaiting more information about the game, including when you will be playing it at home. While we can’t confirm a date today, we are on track for Fall 2023, and hope to be able to share a final release date soon. Stay tuned for future updates on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, including edition information and pre-orders.

#Marvel's Spider Man 2 #Marvel's Spider Man #Spider Man PS5 #Spider Man #Marvel #Insomniac Games #Sony Interactive Entertainment #PlayStation Showcase #PlayStation Showcase 2023 #video game #long post

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sarahjacobs · 15 days

Note

punk jack? how would it affect the story of newsies if at all? do you have headcanons about him? ideas?

im still in the process of refining his playlist, but jack is a folk punker through and through to me. i love folk punk to bits and always return to it despite listening to a little bit of everything punk, so im biased, but it makes sense to me. i mean, it's pretty country sounding due to having similar instruments and taking cues from country, blue grass, folk, etc -- we can keep the cowboy vibes that way (very important)

plus the subgenre originated from folk singers who were heavily enmeshed in organizing against fascism and war and for worker rights (one singer, phil ochs, concerned the fbi so much they had a 500 page file on him). folk punk today has carried forward a lot of these same themes, of leftism and a struggle to make a living, of wanting to get the hell out of where you are in search for something, somewhere better. i know that this kinda sounds like a description of punk as a whole, but these themes feel especially prevalent in folk punk. additionally, it's pretty tongue in cheek and usually sounds upbeat, but there's a kind of sadness, anger, and hopelessness that permeates its lyricism

and all of this is fitting for jack, as the first to call for a strike and a possessor of a rebellious streak a mile wide. who wants to leave for santa fe so he can start anew, and has a happy go lucky, bullheadedly optimistic exterior, but is deeply cynical at his core -- thinking about the lyrics to santa fe, "we was beat when we was born," and the 91 script in which jack says, "last year [roosevelt] was a hero. this year, he's a politician." he may seem like an idealist, but he certainly holds no illusions about how the world operates.

as for politics, i can't see him getting too into the weeds of theory, just because he's someone who prioritizes action above all

that being said, i can easily see jack being motivated by anarchist ideals of direct action and anti-authoritarianism (well, more specifically, anarchism is anti hierarchy of any form, but jack's status as strike leader complicates things for me). after all, in the movie, he doesn’t campaign directly to roosevelt or some other authority figure to deal with pulitzer for him, he just… goes and does it himself, and the tactics he uses are pretty real as hell -- forming hard picket lines at the circulation center, destroying newspapers because they’re the property of the world, going to break crutchy out of the refuge, etc. jack even sings, “even though we ain’t got hats or badges / we’re a union just by saying so,” which seems to point towards a general disinterest in going through official channels

if we’re lifting the beats of the backstory provided in canon and placing it onto a modern au, i think he’d be most concerned with mutual aid, particularly food, and prison/police abolition. so for praxis, there's a whole lot of stuff he could do. make connections with unhoused people and give them the food out of his fridge. distribute free meals and/or groceries to people (to be clear, not a soup kitchen or another charity service, food not bombs and punks with lunch are by far the most common mutual aid orgs i see). writing prisoners and organizing to get them books. doing jail support, as in setting up in front of jail and waiting for people to get released so you can offer them comfort, food, clothes, and/or a ride home

and jack's definitely not against actions that are either dubiously legal or outright illegal. so yk, stuff like blockading an intersection with your own body, a car, or stuff that's laying around like rocks or traffic cones. graffiti. hell, even providing free food to the public without a permit isn't really allowed and can get you harassed/fined/written up by cops or other officials

im going to cut it short here bcuz this is already pretty long. if you read this far. hi :-) i didnt talk fashion so all i can offer is this little sketch of jack

i can't really see him with the stereotypical 'Punk Look' with the studs and spikes and leather jacket n all. imo he'd be pretty lowkey overall, most of the patches he has are pretty utilitarian in that they're usually placed to cover up a stain or tear. i dont think he'd modify his appearance much in general, at most he'd get his ears pierced, and even that was scary enough for him. he went with david for emotional support and squeezed david's hand so hard it went numb </3

#mail #newsies #92sies #jack kelly #punk newsies #ty for sending this in btw! i always have thoughts about punk and leftism

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watching-pictures-move · 5 months

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Movie Review | Godzilla Minus One (Yamazaki, 2023)

We are so inundated with images of mass destruction tossed off so casually in our mass entertainments that it’s cathartic to see a movie give such images the physical and moral weight they deserve. This is a movie very aware that what it depicts is mass death and wants you to reckon with that. And on a pure technical level, this apparently cost a fraction of the average Hollywood blockbuster but looks substantially better than most in recent years, because it takes care to frame its effects through a clear sense of scale, and to render Godzilla’s movements so you can practically feel the ground shake. The opening attack scene, which takes cues from the T-Rex attack in Jurassic Park, is especially terrifying. This movie respects Godzilla and understands that he can be fearsome.

The conventional wisdom about these movies is that the monster scenes are the raison d’être but the human scenes are boring and must be suffered through. That’s probably true of the recent American movies (King of the Monsters has an especially wide gulf in quality between the two), but I actually like the fable-like directness of Mothra vs. Godzilla, the media satire of King Kong vs. Godzilla and the Cold War tensions of The Return of Godzilla, to name a few examples outside of the original. In any case, I think the human scenes here are a cut above in the way they parallel the hero’s story with the tensions around Japan’s postwar identity, overcoming the dehumanizing wartime experience under fascist rule to achieve something empowering and humanist. I’ve perhaps grown cynical from the last few years of humankind being totally unable to work together to solve problems that threaten us all, so I couldn’t help but be moved by this movie’s vision of ordinary, collaborative heroism. I feel no shame in saying that I found much of this movie deeply moving and shed more than a few tears during my viewing.

I’m on the record for finding Shin Godzilla a pretty wretched piece of work that fails entirely as both spectacle and social commentary, so it was nice to see a Godzilla movie do those things as well as this does. I will also say that I was pretty annoyed that during my screening I was sitting next to two dudes who spent the entire movie talking and laughing. Given that they weren’t actually that loud, I probably shouldn’t care too much, but that’s the big man up there on screen, show some goddamn respect.

#film #movie review #godzilla minus one #takashi yamazaki

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tarisilmarwen · 9 months

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Rebels Rewatch: "Twin Suns"

In which the end of the Malachor arc is profoundly beautiful.

First off, obligatory live reaction version from 2017.

Second, I would be remiss if I did not link back to this close read of "Twin Suns" (by greenreticule here on Tumblr), from which I draw quite a bit of my own analysis and opinions about the themes and messages of the episode. Check it out sometime, there's ten parts (technically eleven but the last post in the series is more of a memoir/personal reflection by the author and therefore not as relevant to our meta purposes) and it is a loooooong read but worth it, in my opinion. I don't always agree with every single point of the analysis (the stuff about the Sequel Trilogy, for example) but there's a lot of things that resonate and that I incorporate into my own interpretation of the episode so I figured I'd mention the source.

Onwards!

Rather appropriately we open on a shot of the titular twin suns themselves.

The next series of shots are stark and empty, nothing but the vast white desert, emphasizing the loneliness and isolation of both Tatooine itself, and Maul in particular.

And he is not, ah... taking Ezra's rejection or the long wanderings out in the desert well. To say the least.

From this first opening monologue we can already tell that Maul is fraying. He spent ten years in the depths of madness and it seems like he's descending into madness once again. Even his clothing reflects this, sandblasted and torn, a ragged hood recalling the one he wore at the beginning of Malachor as he feigned being weak and decrepit, and uneven wrappings circling his arms, asymmetrically.

His mood swings from "Visions and Voices" are more pronounced, one moment warbling pitifully about being lost, about being so close to his target, the next shrieking Obi-Wan's name skyward like an obscenity.

Obi-Wan has managed to elude him all this time since Dathomir, and Maul is beginning to get desperate.

RIGHT, SO THIS IS THE PART WHERE I GET BACK INTO MY BLUBBERING KENOBI SHOW FEELINGS BECAUSE "JEDI CANNOT HELP WHAT THEY ARE. THEIR COMPASSION LEAVES A TRAIL. THE JEDI CODE IS LIKE AN ITCH. [THEY] CANNOT HELP IT." AND SOB FOREVER ABOUT HOW WHOEVER IT WAS ON THE WRITING TEAM THAT CAME UP WITH THAT RAW-ASS LINE, THEY UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT.

So not only is this a callback to the previous times Maul lured Obi-Wan out to him in TCW, this now also a call-forward to Kenobi and I just want y'all to appreciate for a moment that Maul is using the exact same tactic on two different Jedi, simultaneously.

Maul is luring Ezra and taking advantage of Ezra's compassion, hero complex, guilt complex, and sense of hyper-responsibility, in order to then exploit Obi-Wan's compassion and protector-guardian streak, so that he can kill Obi-Wan when Obi-Wan comes to Ezra's rescue.

Because that's what Jedi do, that's what Jedi are, the Jedi Code is like an itch they cannot help it--frick man, I'm already emotional and we're not even two minutes in.

A general overview of the music this episode, and I'll comment on specific cues as they happen, but I mostly want to point out the frequent lack of music, actually. This episode is very stripped down in terms of theme and instrumentation and there are long stretches of utter silence, to help us absorb the atmosphere. It's very effective in making Tatooine feel utterly desolate, like we're alone on this journey with the characters.

This episode had originally been very ambitious, we've been told from behind-the-scenes commentary, longer, more complex, a lot more plot points, but as it was coming together they very wisely pared it way down to the barebone tacks, cutting out all the excesses and stripping things down to a simple character journey narrative, making the resulting story that much more profound and intimate.

(Plus the saved budget allowed us to get some absolutely gorgeous animation and new pajamas for Ezra. XD)

He looks so comfy in them.

This sequence is heavily styled after the cold open in "Legacy", camera movement and shot choice almost exactly matching. This is not a coincidence, as the basic premise of both episodes is the same: Ezra receives a vision through the Force, and it moves him to action.

Unlike in "Legacy", however, when the Force itself was moving to comfort Ezra and connect him to the voices and images of his parents one last time before their death, this vision is artificially constructed, sent to him by Maul--like the ones in "Visions and Voices"--to deliberately manipulate him, pull him away from his support network, make him act out of fear.

A false Call To Action, in an artificial Hero's Journey narrative that Maul has constructed for Ezra to follow. (More on that later.)

Side note, completely unrelated to all this meta, but an observation I just want to point out: It's the middle of the night and Kanan is not in his room on the Ghost. Where exactly was he eh? Perhaps a certain Twi'lek pilot's room? *eyebrow waggle*

Anyway, after Ezra's Weird Force Tele-Distance Holocron Call we move to a scene that is a bit heavy in the exposition department, by virtue of it having to hold the burden of the extra plotlines they pared down. It's maybe not quite as effective as it could have been but it serves its purpose: It establishes that they identified the "desert planet with two suns" as Tatooine sometime offscreen, and that they asked about Obi-Wan and Bail Organa lied through his teeth about the man being dead. So therefore they must have decided to give the matter up, and let Maul chase ghosts in the Tatooine sands.

Rex being clearly distraught at Obi-Wan's assumed death. :(

Kanan also reminds Ezra that the last visions he got from and about Maul were a trick designed to manipulate him.

Ezra's insistent though, as he always tends to be whenever the notion of being able to obtain "the key to destroying the Sith" pops up. So Hera takes him aside for a moment.

Her face and how often she touches Ezra's arms and shoulders in this scene hurts. :( And the strain in her voice when she asserts that if Obi-Wan were alive he wouldn't be hiding in the desert, he'd be helping them, Hera understands Jedi nature too, she just hasn't gotten the full picture, doesn't know the reason why Obi-Wan is doing... well... exactly that.

This is where the story beat parallels to "Legacy" end, because this time, Ezra does not receive Hera's blessing to go. Instead she reminds him, rather sternly, that he is supposed to be there with them, planning the attack on Lothal, she needs him and his focus here.

Recall Yoda's line about Luke: "Never his mind on where he was. What he was doing." Since all the way back in Season Two, when his mere presence started to become a danger to the safety of his friends, Ezra has been growing more and more obsessed with finding a way to kill the Sith, whenever Maul turns up more distracted. It ties straight back into his motivation for becoming a Jedi in the first place that he told Yoda in "Path of the Jedi".

"I just want to protect myself and my friends. And not just them, everyone. I'll protect everyone."

Ezra has an abundance of that natural Jedi urge to protect (planted by his parents, nurtured by Hera), the itch inside him intermingles with his clingyness and attachment to his Ghost family in particular. When everything went wrong on Malachor he internalized that failure severely, and his natural Jedi compulsions went overdrive into a crippling sense of hyper-responsibility, magnified by his guilt and leading him down the same path Anakin walked--seeking more power, from dubious and deceitful sources, in order to prevent another personal tragedy from happening to him again.

His desire to protect got twisted into attachment, into a clingy possessiveness, into a fear of more potential loss. In this way his flirtations with the Dark Side mirrored Anakin's, though ultimately Ezra never went far enough that he wasn't able to come back, the disaster at Reklam and his reconciliation with Kanan enough of a kick in the head from the Force for him to be all, "NOPE, I REGRET EVERYTHING, I'M NOT DOING THAT AGAIN."

But even though Ezra came to his senses and rejected the Dark Side, he was still not on the right path. The aftereffects of Malachor remained and he kept letting that Sisyphean unattainable goal of defeating the Sith--himself, personally, or else personally enabling it to happen--pull him away. Kept letting it move him out of place in the narrative.

He was supposed to be here, Hera needed him here. "You're in the wrong place, Ezra Bridger," Obi-Wan tells him gently, later. Ezra lets Maul, lets his obsession with destroying the Sith, yank him out of order in the cosmic destiny of things.

The Force has a place for him. But it is here and not there.

But he kind of has to go on this perilous journey for it to finally kick in.

(One of the scenes I do kind of wish they had kept from the original extended plot is the one where Hera and Kanan and Zeb all kind of commiserate about how "the kids", meaning Ezra and Sabine, are growing up and leaving home, and how they have to let them go, even if they might make bad choices, really playing into that whole parental angle and explaining why they didn't immediately rush off after Ezra.)

Despite Ezra's half-hearted assurance to Hera, it's clear he has no intention of obeying her order to stay put. His sense of impulsive hyper-responsibility is too strong, he's following the same instincts that led him to obsess over and misinterpret his other two major Force visions.

So he swipes a training A-wing.

He's such a little shit I love him. <3

This is the point of no return and Ezra is unwittingly drawn into Maul's trap, which mimics the beats of a classic Campbell Hero's Journey.

Joseph Campbell, for reference, is a writer and philosopher who purported the idea of the monomyth, that in all stories and all mythologies across cultures there are similar patterns and cycles. His Hero's Journey is often styled as a closed circle ("It ends where it began."), with a dividing line between the Known and Unknown worlds and various stops and characters and plot elements mentioned along the sides. The Hero's Journey monomyth, incidentally, was one of George Lucas's major inspirations for writing Star Wars, wanting to create one such classic mythological narrative.

So we have all the elements in place here. We have the Call To Adventure (the distorted holocron message). We have the Refusal Of The Call (Hera ordering Ezra to stay and him initially not fighting her). We have the Supernatural Aid (the pieces of the holocron that function as some kind of magic compass). We've outmaneuvered the Threshold Guardian and crossed over into the Unknown (Ezra swiping the A-wing from under the technician's nose). Along the way we'll pick up the Ally or Helper (it's revealed Chopper snuck along and went with him). And we will be facing Trials, Tests, and Tribulations (everything from the initial Tusken attack to braving the harsh elements of Tatooine's unforgiving sand and heat).

...But it's all wrong.

See, Ezra has already answered the Call to his own Hero's Journey, the one that started for him all the way back in the pilot, when he returned Kanan's lightsaber and crossed the Threshold into the Unknown world of being a Rebel and a Jedi Padawan. This falsely constructed cycle Maul has drawn him into is not his narrative. It was never intended to bring him enlightenment, never intended to complete, only to be used to further Maul's selfish ends.

That Ezra manages to find enlightenment and complete the cycle anyway is something that happens in spite of Maul, and not because of him, and takes some severe course-correcting from Obi-Wan. Over and over this episode we'll hear this idea repeated, that this was not where Ezra was supposed to be in the story, it's not his job or responsibility to deal with Maul, he is where "[he] should never have been".

We'll table that for now and come back to it, have a moment to enjoy some pretty caps.

Thus far, music-wise, we've had a couple ominous cues, and a bouncy jaunt full of Rebellion flutes and brass as Ezra made his escape, in between a couple of the aforementioned long bouts of silence. There's a bubbly little bit when Chopper is discovered. (And I can't even tell you how much I love the touch with Ezra startling so bad he smacks the A-wing cockpit window and bumps the steering column so that the ship swerves out of place--PART OF THE METAPHOR MUCH?) Soft vocals filter in as Ezra consults the holocron shards, holding in long, mystical notes. A lone viola sounds, mournfully. Higher strings sound with spiritual reverence as Ezra gets out of the A-wing, as if to suggest his goal, his enlightenment, is just up ahead.

Then, darker notes like a pulsing heartbeat. The voices go discordant.

Then the Tuskens attack and hell breaks loose.

One of the underlying threads this episode is Ezra and Chopper's devotion and loyalty to each other so I really like how, even though Ezra told him to find cover, Chopper doesn't and charges in to get a Tusken off Ezra instead. Ezra in turn shields him with his own body when the Tuskens score hits that make the A-wing explode.

And that's Ezra's, "I'm in so much trouble." look lol.

Maul, meanwhile, decides to go ahead and murder all the Tuskens and I would not fault you for thinking back to another lightsaber-fueled Tusken massacre.

In fact, probably any parallel or allusion you think of during this episode is in all likelihood deliberate. Frankly I'd argue that this is one of the most important episodes of the show, with how integral it is to Ezra's character arc.

Which is why it was so annoying and asinine that people complained that Ezra took up most of the episode's focus and whined that it should have been only about Maul. Hello, do you understand the concept of a protagonist?!

Speaking of allusions though, we get some lovely call backs to "Visions And Voices" with Maul once again letting Ezra hear him inside his head and catch fleeting glimpses of him, this time in order to lure him further out into the desert. Maul is still trying to keep him in the false cycle, tempting him away from escape.

And Ezra's sense of hyper-responsibility, of This is all my fault and I have to fix it, leads him right down Maul's preordained path.

"I have to help Master Kenobi, if I can." As if Obi-Wan needs any help dealing with Maul, ha ha.

Another moment of pure heartwarming loyalty from Chopper here, he has the opportunity to keep going along the path to safety, but begrudgingly chooses instead to stay with Ezra, through thick and thin.

Ezra once again returns the favor by refusing to leave his side when he runs out of power.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra staggers, looking completely exhausted. Also the sandblasting in his hair and clothes kjhfkasjfha.

Taylor's acting here is heartbreaking, he makes Ezra sound SO lost and scared. :(((((((

Maul decides to rub things in a bit and oh hey some mirror dialogue here, eerily similar to a certain exchange in "Gathering Forces". :D

Grand Inquisitor: The Darkness is too strong for you, orphan. It'll swallow you up even now. Ezra: No. Grand Inquisitor: Your master will die. Ezra: No! Grand Inquisitor: Your friends will die, and everything you've hoped for will be lost. This is the way the story ends. Ezra: NO!

And in comparison:

Maul: He is dead... He is dead. Ezra: No... Maul: You led me to him. Ezra: No. Maul: You failed your friends. Ezra: No! Maul: You will DIE!" Ezra: NOOOO!

~It's like poetry, it rhymes.~

Also this is terrifying.

So I've legitimately teared up like... twice watching this show. This was one of the times. This moment right here where Obi-Wan's feet step softly into frame.

Yeah it got me.

Cut to... Night. A quiet campfire. Ezra comes to and things are suddenly put into perspective.

"You're in the wrong place, Ezra Bridger."

(The voice they got for Obi-Wan is perfect btw, sounds just like Alec Guinness.)

Obi-Wan explains gently that he is not "the key to defeating the Sith". He never was. Maul's desires muddied the holocron vision, he used Ezra to get his own answers and left Ezra with only partial answers. Because Obi-Wan is associated with the key to defeating the Sith but he's not the Chosen One.

And neither is Ezra.

He is a narrative "chosen one", a key player picked by the Force, imbued with purpose, but defeating Vader, killing the Emperor... that was never his task to take. After the loss he suffered in "Legacy" Ezra had been letting himself get obsessed with the idea that he could fix that problem--the problem of the Sith--himself.

But that is not his role in the story.

It is not yet sunrise (Luke and Leia). So the moon (Ezra) must endure.

"You win by killing an Inquisitor." "No, you win by surviving."

Ever since before Malachor, Ezra has been stepping outside his station, trying to do things he was never meant to do, instead of what he was supposed to do, which was to help the people in front of him, right now, do what good he can in the moment. (Something that he'd gain clarity on via a falling out with Saw in Season Four.)

"What you need, you already have."

Ezra lost sight of that in the grief over his parents, in his guilt over Malachor. He was never going to be the one to defeat the Sith. Yoda and Obi-Wan both knew the only ones who even stood a chance... would be Vader's children. Maybe Ahsoka. Perhaps that was even why Yoda advised going to Malachor, to test and see if Vader could be saved, or killed, by his former padawan. Someone who he might have had a strong enough attachment to that it would cloud his judgement. (Just as Obi-Wan's mere presence would drive Vader mad with irrational murderous rage and yet, paradoxically, a cloying need to have him back.)

"We asked for a chance to destroy the Sith... and we failed."

Vader has no connection to Ezra, therefore Ezra will not be the one to end him.

His task is to endure, keep the darkness back, and hold the line until the narrative chosen one who will do that task (Luke) is ready to take up the sword. This is not Ezra's role in the story. He has his own destiny, his own part to play in the Rebellion.

And he needs to return to it.

Obi-Wan closes the broken cycle for Ezra, rescuing him from The Ordeal or Abyss, and sending him back to the Known world with the Boon (his sage wisdom) irregardless of how false the path there to him was. Ezra is freed from the obligations, responsibilities, and burdens he wrongly took on himself... to return home, and rejoin his own Hero Cycle.

And then all that's left is to "mend this old wound". (Maul)

Maul has what he wanted, or so he thinks. His old enemy, his past, ready for the killing. His future and legacy, his apprentice, within reach for taking.

But things have changed. Obi-Wan is older, wiser, more serene and at peace with himself and with the Force, in spite of all he's suffered. He has grown from his failures, let go of the past, and found balance, while Maul has regressed, repeated the same mistakes, clung to the hurt and pain in his past and deteriorated, been sucked almost dry by the Dark Side.

And Obi-Wan pities him.

Maul is scalded by this, upset that after everything he's endured, Obi-Wan seems to have taken no ill effect. And it's not like Order 66 and Anakin's betrayal didn't hurt him (hell we have all of the Kenobi show to demonstrate otherwise) but that he's processed those emotions and feelings and traumas, and returned to a settled baseline. He is more a Jedi now than ever, and revenge is not the Jedi way.

And can I flail a little bit inarticulately for a moment about the dichotomy between Obi-Wan's "I had no intention of fighting him, though that seems inevitable now." and Thrawn's "It was not my intention to utterly destroy Lothal but that is inevitable now."?

So Maul digs for something to bait Obi-Wan with, touching about the reason he's there on Tatooine to begin with, discerning that there is someone that Obi-Wan is protecting. Notes of Sith vocals creep into the music here, a sequence that sounds like Maul's arrival on Tatooine from Phantom Menace ("It ends where it began.").

And with this implicit threat towards Luke, Obi-Wan ignites his saber.

SO much ink has been spilled about this duel. I was surprised at how short it was at first too, but it makes perfect thematic sense in hindsight. The way Obi-Wan slowly baits Maul, drawing Maul's mental frame of mind back to Naboo, because he knows that Maul is stuck in the past, constantly reliving that moment of triumph and defeat over and over again, fixated on it as the shatterpoint where things in his life first went wrong. He can't let it go. He can't move on. He has to keep going back to that moment over and over to make things "correct" and kill the one he pins the blame on for his pain. (But this will not fix him, even if he accomplishes it.)

An entire story is told solely through foot placement and stances. Maul moves through the stances he's used in duels with Obi-Wan before. Obi-Wan shifts through his classic New Hope lightsaber grip, to his iconic Soresu.

And then he switches to Ataru, to the same stance Qui-Gon used.

The music has been tense throughout, but now the Force Theme creeps in. There's a flare of recognition in Maul's eyes; He knows this, this is familiar.

So he lunges, using the same lightsaber trick that he used to kill Qui-Gon...

...except it doesn't work.

I love the look of quiet realization and acceptance in Maul's expression. It's just like, "......Oh."

Maul submits and falls in defeat, into his enemy's arms, yet another parallel to Phantom Menace, to the start of everything between these two men. And then he asks something heartbreaking: Is Obi-Wan protecting the Chosen One? The one who would defeat the Sith?

And because Obi-Wan no longer believes that Vader can be saved, he answers yes. (Amazing how well this scene fits with the later Kenobi show.)

With his dying breath, Maul finally recognizes his true enemy, accepts and forgives Obi-Wan as his brother, as a fellow victim of Palpatine, and declares with almost prophetic insight, "He... will avenge us."

Not take revenge, avenge. As Trilla Sundari would admonish Cal Kestis in the Jedi Fallen Order video game, Maul also asks for restitution and justice with his last words.

(I do kind of wish we got one brief reaction shot from Ezra as he sensed Maul passing, just for confirmation that he knows. It's inferred but still.)

Back with Ezra as he returns home with the Boon, and he's also claimed the prize of Maul's ship, the Mandalorian gauntlet. (Again, just the briefest scene of him finding it, that would have been nice.)

"I was wrong. This is where I'm supposed to be. You're my family. And we should go home."

Ezra has finally forgiven himself for Malachor, completed the arc he started in "Legacy" (or maybe even earlier), and returned to his proper place. His family accepts him back with the laying of hands like a benediction.

And meanwhile, just to wring your heart one last time, we return to Tatooine, to watch Obi-Wan watch over Luke from a distance, a scene drenched in OT nostalgia, from using the exact audio of Aunt Beru calling Luke to closing us out with Luke's Theme and Binary Sunset for the credits, reminding us that the shadow will not hold sway forever.

Eventually, the sun will rise. And a new hope will emerge.

Trust in the Force.

Man, there aren't enough words to tell you how much I love this episode. It's so beautiful and poetic and thematic. It's the lynchpin of Ezra's character development, he needed to be in this episode, to go on this journey. It's gorgeously animated and there are so many many layers of parallels and themes, motifs and archetypes, that tie into the monomyth in general and Star Wars in particular. I'm astonished how well it melds with later canon material (JFO and Kenobi), but I guess that just speaks to how true to the spirit and essence of Star Wars it is.

It's just beautiful.

#star wars #star wars rebels #ezra bridger #obi-wan #kenobi #rebels rewatch #liveblog #meta rambling #long post #music #soundtracks #this is a pro jedi blog #i love rebellion era jedi they come pre traumatized #rebels rambles

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bnhaobservation · 7 months

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Todoroki Enji's atonement arc: observations, ramblings and speculations (Part 2)

Welcome to part 2 of my “Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc: observations, ramblings and speculations” meta. Part 2 will make more sense if you read part 1 first, so I recommend you to do so.

In case you really don't feel like going through part 1, I'll tell you in it I went through what are assumed to be the steps of Todoroki Enji’s redemption arc, and noted why they don’t seem to work so well.

Now we’re going to dig into…

IN THE END WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT?

Most of the story so far didn’t look as if it has been set up to shows us Enji walking a redemption path in regard to his family, as originally his goal was merely to become a better hero, fitting of the title of number 1.

So I might be wrong but my guess is that what the story aimed to show us so far wasn’t his redemption path, but how Enji came to the realization he has to atone to his family not because this means he’ll be a better Hero, but because he has wronged them and he truly regrets doing so.

Long story short, STEP 2 IS THE GOAL of Enji’s arc, not the beginning.

As Shōto said:

‘Chottoshita kikkake ga hito o kaeru koto mo arutte’ 「ちょっとした切っ掛けが人を変えることもあるって」 “Sometimes a small reason can change a person.” [Chap 192]

‘Kikatte’ (切っ掛け) can mean “motive”, “Impetus” but also “chance”, “occasion”, “start”, “cue”, “excuse”.

It’s one of the themes of the story, we saw it with Twice, that became a Villain due to a small incident that caused him to spiral always lower, but, in Enji’s case, we’re meant to see him slowly rising into a better person.

And the small thing that’s meant to trigger his change, his starting line, is his wish to become a better Hero so as to be fitting of his role as Number 1.

This is what will push him to ponder on what he did, so that he’ll later, much later, will come to the realization he did something horrible to his family, something that had devastating repercussions on them and can’t be just shrugged off, and that he has to redeem himself not in order to be a better Hero… but because he regrets he has hurt his family and wants to make them better.

That small thing is meant to lead him to point 2, which is still very, very far.

ENJI’S ‘TRAVEL’ TO REALIZE HOW MUCH HE WRONGED HIS FAMILY

So, let’s watch again what happen when Enji comes to the decision he’ll become a better Hero and tries to ‘atone’ because a Hero should protect people’s future, not cut people’s future short.

When, for the first time, he tries to reach out for Shōto gently, Shōto moves away, refusing contact. This drives home it’s not enough to change the way he interact with Shōto, to get Shōto to shrug everything off and start anew with him.

He can’t do something as simple as meet Rei, meeting Rei would be bad for her, while she could meet Shōto just fine, which drives home he’s actually the problem with Rei, not Shōto, even though it was Shōto who got hurt by her.

When he’s injured, his injury makes him take true notice of Shōto’s scar. He blamed Rei for it but Shōto blamed him for it and now he might start feeling guilty for causing his son such scar.

When he tries to connect with Natsuo, Natsuo calls out on his behavior. Enji just expects them to leave the past behind and start moving forward together but Natsuo is plagued by the past and can’t leave it behind. The past comes to his mind each time he does something as simple as seeing Enji’s face. Shōto also remarks how he is a great Hero but he still can’t forgive him for what he did to his mother. This forces Enji to face with the feelings of his victims. They can’t just… start again because he wants them to.

When things fail with Natsuo and Fuyumi is so very hurt by this, he’s forced to acknowledge how his daughter worked hard to give him the chance to have a family dinner and he wasted it saying the wrong words to Natsuo so he apologizes to her.

‘Fuyumi imamade sumanakatta’ 「冬美今まですまなかった」 “Fuyumi, I’m sorry (for what happened) until now”

‘Natsuo ni kakeru kotoba o machigaeta’ 「夏雄に掛ける言葉を間違えた」 “I said the wrong words to Natsuo.” [Chap 192]

I’ll stop a moment on this apology as it’s the first apology Enji makes in the story.

Japanese people have 2.000 ways to apologize depending on what they’re apologizing for, how casual or formal is the speech, who they’re talking with, the context… you name it.

And of course, Enji uses always different ways to say ‘I’m sorry’ and the various differences between a sorry and another aren’t that easy to translate in English so almost all goes translated with an ‘I’m sorry’.

Said all this… how Enji is apologizing to Fuyumi here?

For start let’s go with the premise he usually uses casual speech to talk with his family members, which makes sense.

The word he picks now to apologize is ‘sumanakatta’ (すまなかった).

‘Sumanakatta’ is the past tense form of ‘suman’ (すまん), which is the informal/contracted version of ‘sumimasen’ (すみません) which comes from the verb ‘sumu’ (済む) “to feel unease or guilt for troubling someone”.

This is the apology you use when you do anything that might make someone else uncomfortable and, even if Enji is using the casual form, it’s generally considered a formal apology, kind of like an “Excuse me”.

It doesn’t necessarily mean what you did was small, in fact it’s also what you’ll use to apologize to your boss for a mistake because, in polite language, this is the way to apologize you’ve to use.

An interesting thing though is that you can also use it with the meaning of “thank you” when someone does something for you, so you are apologizing for the inconvenience with the purpose of thanking that person. It’s however less strong than ‘arigatō’ (ありがとう).

In this case it can have both meaning, Enji might have been apologizing Fuyumi for troubling her up until then, or thanking her for all she did even though it troubled her up until then.

The following sentence seems to imply it’s more an ‘I’m sorry’ as he mentions messing up with Natsuo, which ruined Fuyumi’s efforts for them to have a family dinner.

Is he using polite language and therefore making a formal, serious apology to Fuyumi or it’s just casual speech?

The visual helps us figuring this out.

In fact, while it’s nice Enji apologizes, the apology feels hollow, a mere formality, just an act because Fuyumi went through a lot of effort and Enji was about to leave without saying nothing. He apologizes solely when she protests he’s about to leave and the visual doesn’t even show him watching her as he does so, no, he’s looking ahead, likely focusing on his atonement plan, which is ironic as he’s thinking at atoning and yet he isn’t even watching one of the people he should atone to.

So let’s go back to Enji.

When Enji decides Shōto should let him teach him Flashfire Fist because ‘now he’ll do like a father should’, Shōto for a while ignores his calls. This leads him to experience the feeling of being ignored, his feelings dismissed after he has done it for so long with the ones of his family.

This also tells us more on how he continues doing things one sided in his ‘atonement’, he basically wants to still do what he wants (teach Shōto Flashfire Fist) but in a different, ‘better’ way. He thinks Shōto should just open up to him because he’s going to be better, because he’ll became the man he wants to be (a man worth of the position of Number 1). He’s not addressing what he did to Shōto in the past, how it impacted Shōto’s life, nor he’s asking Shōto what he could do to make up and he’s again not really caring for his feelings since he is the one who decided Shōto should learn it, this is not Shōto’s idea.

So how this becomes another lesson?

When Shōto accepts to have his Work Study in Endeavor agency Enji takes it as a win, he doesn’t even ask Shōto what he wants to learn, he has already decided for him, SAME AS BEFORE, and what’s Shōto’s response?

Shōto, who had previously told him he believes he’s a great Hero but wants to see what he can do as a father, remarks he came to his agency SOLELY BECAUSE HE’S THE NUMBER 1 HERO and doesn’t view him as a father… because Enji did nothing to show him he can be a father. Wanting him in his agency, wanting to teach him Flashfire is still because Enji is a Hero and Shōto answers in kind, accepting him as a the Number 1 Hero but rejecting him as a father. And Enji has to face and swallow this, that now that he’s trying to be a father, his son views him solely as a Hero. Enji wanted to live in the Hero world with Shōto? Now he’s doing it, but he doesn’t have his son anymore.

And we continue with the lessons.

When Fuyumi invites them to dinner and Natsuo says he also used to cook for the family but Endeavor might not have let Shōto eat it because it was rich… Enji says he didn’t know Natsuo did this but hey, why not to try again, which is Enji’s version of attempting to connect with Natsuo now.

In reply Natsuo gets upset because Enji has again acknowledged he hadn’t paid attention to Natsuo in the past but he’s not apologizing, he’s not addressing the past, he’s just saying, try again, this time I’ll see you… and so Natsuo leaves, hurt, because his past pain was dismissed and he was fundamentally asked to move on, which leaves Enji to face the fact it’s not enough TO DO BETTER NOW, to try to pay attention to his kids now.

And all those lessons lead Enji to think harder at his family, at the situation, at what he’s supposed to do.

Later, for example, he’ll thanks Fuyumi.

Remember when I said ‘sumanakatta’ could work as “Thank you” but it’s less strong than ‘arigatō’?

‘Fuyumi. Arigatō’ 「冬美ありがとう」 “Fuyumi. Thank you.” [Chap 250]

Well, to thanks Fuyumi, Enji uses ‘arigatō’ now. He still seems not able to look at her in the eyes, but this time it’s not because he’s looking ahead at his future plans, his gaze is downcast so he’s probably ashamed of himself.

Enji had been trying ‘atoning’ by a while with little to no result and yet Fuyumi had always acted supportive. Now he’s likely more aware of how this isn’t necessarily a given, he has learnt to appreciate more his daughter’s efforts, this time he doesn’t try to leave without saying anything, he stops to thank her. And, from Fuyumi’s expression, we can see this matters to her, this makes her happy.

But back to Enji.

Enji claims each night he asks himself what he can do for his family. And his subconscious in a way answers him, as he says he dreams each night his family at dinner table, they’re all happy but he’s not there. Enji first interprets this as a manifestation of how he feels now, he’s cut out of his family, they’re now ignoring him, they’re happy but he can’t partake at their happiness… even though now he’s trying to be better and wants to be there.

But there’s another way to see the dream, as his subconscious pointing out at his mistakes.

He’s the one who was never with his family, he’s the one who decided on not sitting with them and enjoying that simple happiness, he rejected it because he wanted to live in the Hero world and surpass All Might, and so he cut them out, neglected them when he didn’t outright abuse them to force them to serve his needs. He had no time for them he wouldn’t see them. Now that they’re also cutting him out, he’s merely reaping what he had sown.

The fact he had cut his family out of his Hero World, that he is focusing only on his Hero persona is always the root of his problems.

His family has told him what they wanted him to do, Shōto wants to see what he can do as a dad, Fuyumi has made clear she wants her family back, Natsuo might feel more obscure in what he wants, but in the end he too asked Enji something, for Enji to do something, to make that atonement happen so that Natsuo will stop being plagued by the past and will manage to grant his sister’s dream for them to live together. Enji hears Midoriya saying Shōto is waiting, waiting to see Enji do something as a father, but he doesn’t know what to do because Enji is still too busy on being a Hero.

It’ll turn out his plan to do something for his family was AGAIN letting his family go. He’ll give them a new house and remain in the old one. Even though Shōto and Fuyumi made clear they wanted him to step up on the role of father, he’s not trying to be a father, he’s not trying to fix the hurt he caused, he’s just pulling out. AGAIN.

To be a Hero.

And here comes again an important lesson. In regard to his family he can’t even be a Hero.

In fact we see that when Natsuo is captured by Ending DUE TO HIM as Ending is targeting ENJI or better ENDEAVOR, even though didn’t want Natsuo to get hurt, in that moment in which his son was in danger he was so worried with his own feelings he froze. He couldn’t even be a Hero and Shōto, Bakugo and Midoriya had to step up and save the day.

We aren’t talking about him needing to be the Number 1 Hero, the strongest Hero, Ending is nowhere near a Nomu in terms of strength, we’re talking about being just as good as a Hero in training so that he can save his son. And he fails. And this for him might be the harshest lesson, that, for his family, he can’t even be a Hero, the only things that matters for him.

And this time, faced with his complete and utter failure as a Hero and the fact he was about to lose another child of his like he had lost Tōya, he apologizes to Natsuo.

He hugs his child, admits he failed where Bakugo and the others succeeded (a clearly humbling moment) and, when Natsuo forcefully breaks out of his hug, he apologizes to Natsuo, admitting he was in the wrong.

‘Warukatta…!’ 「悪かった…!」 “It was my bad…!”

‘Isshun kangaete shimatta ore ga tasuketara konosaki omae wa ore ni nani mo ienaku natte shimau node wanai ka to’ 「一瞬考えてしまった俺が助けたらこの先おまえは俺に何も言えなくなってしまうのではないかと」 “I thought for a moment that if I helped you, you might not be able to say anything to me from now on.”

‘Natsuo shinjinakute mo ī!’ 「夏雄信じなくてもいい…！」 “Natsuo, you don't have to believe me…!”

Ore wa omae-tachi o utonde ita wake janai 「俺はおまえたちを疎んでいたわけじゃない」 “It’s not like I was distancing myself from you guys”

‘Daga sekinin o nasuritsuke nigeta’ 「だが責任をなすりつけ逃げた」 “but I lay the blame/responsibility on others and ran away.”

‘Tōya mo… Ore ga koroshita mo dōzenda…!’ 「燈矢も…俺が殺したも同然だ…!」 “Tōya too…it's the same as if I killed him too…!” [Chap 252]

And here Enji apologizes again but this time the word he chooses is ‘Warukatta’ (悪かった).

‘Warukatta’ is the past tense form of ‘warui’ (悪い), which comes from the noun ‘waru’ (悪) “bad thing” (or, if you read it as ‘aku’, “evil thing”).

Technically, it isn't an actual apology but an admission of fault. Of course, if you admit you’re at fault, which is a big deal in Japan, this should imply you're sorry for what you did.

And okay, I already said Enji uses casual speech with his family but… this is a… very casual way to say ‘sorry’. Even if it imply you did something bad… it’s not something you should use, not even with your friends, for a serious matter, in fact it’s kind of like “My bad” and, what’s more, what Enji says after it, is still very much focused on defending himself and explaining himself but he’s FINALLY acknowledging some of his wrongdoing and taking responsibility for them instead than avoid the whole topic. He’s not escaping from the blame by pushing it on others anymore… even if, despite how serious they are, it seems he’s still underplaying them. There’s to say though that his head is lowered in apology so maybe he’s being super casual just because he’s Natsuo’s father and therefore socially above Natsuo, which makes him bowing his head to Natsuo matter a lot more.

However yes, he’s not really addressing Natsuo’s feelings… at least not in a way that matters. He’s not soothing the hurt he caused to Natsuo. He thinks he’s doing it when he says Natsuo doesn’t have to forgive him, but this is missing the point of what forgiving is and why it’s done.

‘Ore o yurusanakute ī’ 「俺を許さなくていい」 “You don't have to forgive me”

‘Yurushite hoshī n janai’ 「許してほしいんじゃない」 “I don't want you to forgive me”

‘Tsugunaitainda’ 「償いたいんだ」 “I want to make amends” [Chap 252]

The importance of forgiving, which often gets lost in redemption arcs as they tend to focus on the abuser and everything seems to get fixed for him when he’s forgiven, is that ‘forgiving’ isn’t done for the abuser, but for the victim.

The abuser can (and often should) continue to feel bad for what a disgusting thing he did even if he get forgiven but, at least, the victim will feel better because forgiving means to let go of all the painful/angry feelings the victim feels. That’s why, in a redemption arc, striving for being forgiven is important and is the milestone that signal the end to the arc, because finally the abuser is no more causing pain to the victim. He had paid the victim back. Which is the point of redemption. To pay the victim back, to make up to the victim.

In a roundabout way, this is what Natsuo is asking Enji to do, to soothe his hurt. It’s hinted Natsuo too wants to forgive Enji… but he doesn’t want to be the one who does the work.

Natsuo will in fact point out that when he sees Enji memories come rushing in. Those memories are painful so they clearly make him feel pain and he reacts to it with anger… so even though his sister would be happy to have them all, his father included, live together, he can’t do it. He feels like Enji is asking HIM to do the effort to let go of the past, but he wants Enji instead to make him let go of the past, to soothe the hurt he had caused.

Enji can’t atone if he doesn’t get forgiven because as long as Natsuo can’t forgive him, he’ll always feel pain seeing Enji, meaning Enji will always hurt him even when he tries not to.

‘Nande kotchi ga nōdōteki ni kawaranakya ikerunda yo!’ 「何でこっちが能動的に変わらなきゃいけるんだよ!」 “Why do I have to actively change!?”

‘Tsugunautte anta ni nani ga dekirunda yo’ 「償うってあんたに何ができるんだよ」 “What can you do to make amends?” [Chap 252]

And what is Enji going to do?

He’s again removing himself from Natsuo’s life. Yeah, if you want to face palm that’s the moment.

He will gift Natsuo and Fuyumi with a new, more comfortable house in which they can go live with their mother. Because Rei can’t see him without feeling fear, because Natsuo can’t see him without feeling pain and rage, he thinks the solution is for them to not see him, to avoid him, the way he has done with them.

He doesn’t try to fix the problem, he wants them to avoid it.

Mind you, he’s not doing this to be a jerk. Now he wants to be part of his family, he was thinking he could start again, so giving up on it feels painful to him… and avoiding him seems on the surface what Rei and Natsuo wanted, what they needed (Natsuo was trying to avoid him and Rei’s doctor said she’s not supposed to meet Enji). But this goes against what Fuyumi wants, for him too to be also part of the family, and shift the blame for this not happening on them.

Because they can’t stand to the sight of him, he has to pull back and Fuyumi won’t get her wish to live together and Shōto won’t get to see him acting like a father. And Natsuo made clear he wanted to fulfill his sister’s wish, he just didn’t know how to do it and wanted Enji to do something in that regard and Enji… didn’t.

Enji chose the easy way out of the problem, like he admitted he always did.

While the consequence he has to face is that he has ‘lost’ his family, turning into reality the dream he kept having, the family now that he’s no more plagued by his envy he has discovered he wanted to be with… building a new house for his family is no big deal for him as he has the money to do so and he can still hope things will eventually get fixed and that they’ll move over.

If this didn’t happen… well, he’ll remain without his family but, since he kept away from it though most of his life prioritizing his Hero career… to us readers it doesn’t really seem a big deal. After all it’s not like he wants to stop being a Hero, and he’s Number 1 and so we reach the Paranormal Liberation War with Enji still having been forced to face unpleasant consequences for what he did but, fundamentally, nothing earth shattering, nothing that pushed him to fight with all he had to make up to his family.

He still needs a push.

Enters Dabi, who’s more than willing to give him a giant size shove.

TŌYA OR WHEN GENTLY NUDGING YOU DOESN’T WORK, LET’S TRY WITH KICKING YOU

Redemption and revenge aim at the same thing, refunding the victim of an abuse. The difference is that in redemption the abuser decides on the refunding on his own, in revenge it’s the victim that take matters in his hands and extract refunding from the abuser, often believing they’re done in an ‘oculum pro oculo’ manner… but actually going way too overboard because they often want revenge for something that’s intangible and long lasting, the pain they suffered and keep suffering.

But back with Enji.

Up to this point Enji has interacted with his victims… but they were all what you call ‘good victims’ victims who wouldn’t try to return back the wrongdoing they have received. Even in Shōto and Natsuo’s case, despite them being angry with him, the most they do is tell him why they’re angry and avoid him or reject him as a father, they don’t really try to make Enji’s life as miserable as he made their own.

In fact, while Rei and Fuyumi are of the ‘forgive and forget’ type, Natsuo and Shōto are more of the ‘forgive but NOT forget’ kind (and, to be honest, they aren’t even fully done with the forgiving part) as they’re slowly letting go of their anger but they aren’t willing to shrug off what Enji did.

However Tōya, at the moment, is fully of the ‘NOT forgive and NOT forget’ type. His father ruined his life and he CAN’T get over this. What he suffered destroyed him psychologically, he’s suicidal and he chose anger as a way to cope with pain which leads him to pursue revenge as a way to get even with his father. If Enji made him miserable, he’ll make him miserable in return. If he destroyed him, he’ll destroy him back. If he’s in hell due to his father, he’ll drag Enji in hell as well.

‘Jigōjitoku da ze’ 「自業自得だぜ」 “You reap what you sow!”

‘Saa issho ni ochiyou Todoroki Enji!!’ 「さァ一緒に堕ちよう轟炎司！！」 “Well, let’s fall together, Todoroki Enji”

‘Jigoku (read: kotchi) de musuko (read: ore) to odorou ze!!!’ 「地獄(こっち)で息子(おれ)と踊ろうぜ！！！」 “Dance with your son (read: me) in hell (read: here)!!!” [Chap 290]

Tōya wants revenge which makes him aggressive as hell and causes him to do plenty of wrong things, but this doesn’t change the fact he’s also Enji’s victim, he’s also a family member Enji horribly wronged and Enji should atone to him too.

Now, a note on Tōya.

Differently from the rest of his family, who just blames Enji for the pain they suffered, Tōya is not just blaming Enji for what he went through, he’s blaming his family, who didn’t help him, and society, which enabled Enji.

So he doesn’t want to be paid back SOLELY by Enji, but by the rest of his family and society as well, and part of his actions aren’t aimed merely at hurting Enji but also all the others he views responsible, even if he thinks the biggest part of the blame rests on his father’s shoulders and extracting revenge from him is his main goal.

It’s what the other Todorokis, who set the blame solely on Enji, don’t quite get, but it’s also why Tōya has no problems hurting people who aren’t Enji. Because he sees them as co-responsible. To him it’s not ALL ABOUT ENJI, though Enji is the BIGGEST REASON of why all this happened and his main focus.

“Boku no Hero Academia” is a story that criticize/analyzes/promotes change in society as well so of course it has to be also about society… but this is about Enji and his redemption arc, so I won’t focus much on society and its problems and Tōya’s attempt to get revenge out of society as well. That’s for another post.

But, back on Enji.

Tōya’s role in this part of Enji’s arc is to FORCE HIM to come face to face with all that he is still trying to not see, the consequences of his actions and how they can’t just be erased, how not everyone will content himself with just moving out of his life and go on living because some can’t. Their future is a barren land, it doesn’t exist, they’re in hell and their only way out is dying.

Tōya’s whole speech is about forcing him to see.

Tōya doesn’t need to be prompted to speak his mind like Natsuo, he immediately makes clear his father ignored him, hurt him, stripped him of what gave his existence a meaning, made him miserable, he made clear the pain Enji put him through, and why he did so, which were the extremely selfish and egotistical reasons which moved Enji… and now he wants payback, or better he wants to return everything he received. He won’t set aside the past. Not only the past made him what he is now, keeps hurting him like an open wound, but it’s basically all he has, as he believed he has been stripped of his future.

‘Kako wa kienai za!!’ 「過去は消えないザ!!」 “The past doesn’t disappear!” [Chap 290]

Tōya also nails what had been Enji’s thoughts, Enji really thought ‘As long as I face the future, I can be better’, now that he was Number 1 he really tried to stare to his kids in the eyes longing to feel the warmness of his family.

‘Mirai ni me o mukete ireba tadashiku areru to omottadarou! ! ? 「未来に目を向けていれば正しくあれると思っただろう！！？」 “You should have thought if you turn your attention to the future, you’ll be able to follow the right path!!?”

‘Shira nē yōdakara oshiete yaru yo! !’ 「知らねエようだから教えてやるよ！！！」 “Since you don’t seem to know it, I’ll tell you!!” [Chap 290]

It didn’t went as easy as Tōya seems to think it went, as the others weren’t as accommodating and forgiving as he seems to believe they were, but those were Enji’s thoughts, he believed by walking toward the future he could leave the past behind.

And Tōya is there to remind him he can’t, that the past would never die. He dehumanizes himself so that he can present himself as the embodiment of such past, of Enji’s mistakes. He’s no more a person, he’s the result, the consequence of all of them.

Not only Tōya won’t forget what Enji did, he won’t forgive him and he’ll extract revenge from him.

Tōya won’t stay quiet in a mental hospital or go on with his life away from him, no, Tōya will expose everything Enji did, as well as the fact he’s his son and that his villainous actions are a direct consequence of Enji’s actions, an answer to them. He destroys Enji’s reputation as a Hero and as a man… and destroys the faith in Heroes the Hero society in which they lived thrives upon.

It was ‘easy’ for Enji to leave the past behind because he wasn’t the one who got hurt by his own actions, he wasn’t the one who had to face the consequences, who has to live with the psychological scarring.

Tōya forced him to see the past wouldn’t die, that the past actions have consequences that live on, that who’s hurt can’t just move on as easily as who had hurt people. He forces him to see this by hurting him, by giving him pain and psychological scars he won’t be able to shrug off and leave behind.

His father fails at empathy, he won’t get into someone else’s shoes willingly so Tōya forces him to do so in order to lead him to understand how much harm he did to him.

Tōya rips to shreds his father’s Hero persona, which was his father’s reason of existence, Enji now might stay Number 1 but he’s clearly no more a HERO in people’s eyes, no Hero is a HERO in their eyes. Because since Tōya was banned from entering in the Hero world by his father, he did his best to destroy such world in which his father thrived and which society enabled, refusing to see the wrong things Heroes were making.

What’s more, Enji, with Natsuo and Rei, thought he could fix things with them simply by pulling himself out of the equation. They won’t see him, and therefore won’t get hurt by seeing him, he won’t see them, and therefore won’t get hurt by seeing the consequences of his actions.

They all will not look at each other so that nobody will get hurt, or so he tells himself.

Tōya doesn’t let him do the same with him. Tōya wants Enji to look at him, to look at him and see all the harm he had done to him, he wants Enji to face consequences, to realize how he destroyed him for his beloved Hero world, for his selfish dream, for his ego.

Tōya is in pain and wants his father to see such pain and feel it on himself because Tōya is unable to move on, he can’t stop seeing Enji, he’s at a stage where he always feels pain inside himself. He doesn’t expect to be healed from his pain by his father, he’s more in a ‘commune naufragium, omnibus solarium’ mindset.

And Tōya does a pretty good job at making Enji face consequences, in fact, when Enji wakes up in the hospital he cries, saying Endeavor is dead. Tōya has succeeded in making him feel as miserable as he felt, he has ripped from him the reason why he existed, his Endeavor persona and Enji crumbles under the pain. He can’t just shrug it off like he expected his family to do.

He apologizes to his kids, this time using ‘suman’ (すまん).

‘Suman… hontō ni… sumanai. Suman…tsu.’ 「すまん…本当に…すまないすまん…つ」 “I’m sorry… I’m really… sorry. Sorry…”

‘Oso sugitanda… kōkai ga… zaiaku-kan ga… ima ni natte…! Kokoro ga mō’ 「遅すぎたんだ…後悔が…罪悪感が…今になって…!心がもう」 “It's too late… I feel regret… I feel guilty… now…! My heart is already…” [Chap 300]

Previously Enji has used ‘sumanakatta’, which was the past tense form of ‘suman’ (すまん).

So back at this are we? Is he just offering a formal apology because he “feel unease or guilt for troubling someone” in this specific case his family?

The visual helps us figuring this out.

This time the apology is more heartfelt. Enji is crying rather badly, his head lowered in shame, and he doesn’t say just ‘suman’ but also ‘hontō ni sumanai’ (本当にすまない).

‘Sumanai’ in this case should be the negative form of ‘suman’. The implication should be “he’ll never stop feeling unease or guilt for troubling someone”, so it’s a bit stronger than ‘suman’ even if still just casual (in fact some dictionary translate it as “I did something inexcusable”) and, to it, he adds ‘hontō ni’ (本当に), “really”, so he means “he really never stop feeling unease or guilt for troubling someone”.

This time the apology is clearly more serious, more heartfelt than with Fuyumi. It drives better home this time he’s more aware he didn’t just ‘troubled’ his family.

Now Enji is better grasping why he should be sorry about it, he’s crying, although he’s still very much focused on himself. His concerns are for his heart, which is broken (and possibly for how ‘Endeavor is dead’), not for how his family is feeling. He calls them there likely because he also wants them to comfort him, to make him feel better, not because he wants to make them feel better.

And this time it’s Rei to give him a wake up call, pointing out they had it much worse than him. And when he asks her if she’s okay, she points out she’s not.

Rei is another result of the past not dying, even though she’s moving on, now she’s capable to look straight at him… but it’s not like all the hurt went away.

Then Enji is forced to look back at the past and at his past actions as they, as a family, go through them.

Enji refused to look at Tōya, escaping responsibility, caused him to keep burning himself in an attempt to regain his affection and had two more kids with the excuse this would make Tōya stop burning himself but, in truth, because he was the one who couldn’t get over the fact he couldn’t surpass All Might. He drove Tōya so desperate that, in order to have him look at him, he attacked Shōto, because negative attention is better than no attention.

In response Enji isolated Shōto from his siblings, continued to refuse to look at Tōya even when it was made clear to him that this was what Tōya wanted, what Tōya needed, and not a sibling that could surpass All Might as Enji claimed Tōya needed… but that, in truth, was what Enji wanted.

Then Enji drove Rei to insanity and, even though he saw Tōya’s desperation and how his supposed idea to stop him from training by having Shōto didn’t work, continued to refuse to look at him to the point he knew Tōya would go to Sekoto Peak and would get burned if he were to use his Quirk but didn’t go to face him… and Tōya ended up with more than just new fresh burns, he burned down the whole place and himself as well.

As if this wasn’t bad enough Enji continued to put Shōto through hellish training, excusing his actions and insisting in his impressive sunk cost fallacy.

His family makes clear he can’t escape responsibility anymore and has to face Tōya.

Now, there is a problem in this if we look at the story as Enji’s redemption arc toward his WHOLE family (and therefore include Tōya too in it).

From now on, Enji will be pressured into focusing not on atoning to Tōya (or the rest of his family), but on focusing on doing his duty as Endeavor to protect and atone to society (which is tied to his responsibility toward society as Tōya’s father) which requires him to fight/stop Tōya/Dabi.

Yes, Tōya absolutely needs to be stopped, stopping him is the most logical thing to do but, if Enji is focusing on this and not on his atonement, stopping Tōya becomes a side quest that distracts him from his real quest… and stops him from seeing which is the fire he should truly stop, not the one his son creates with his Quirk, but the one burning inside Tōya, a fire he had light with his mistakes.

It’s a repeat of his past mistakes, where the family has focused on the fire of Tōya’s Quirk which burned him, and not on the one burning inside Tōya which made him miserable.

So, even though all the family is now taking responsibility for the situation, at the end of the day what they tell Enji to do is go face Tōya not as his father who needs to atone to him, but as the one who needs to stop him, likely wanting to encourage him to take up the mantle of Endeavor again, in fact Rei says ‘he has to fight Dabi’, using her son’s Villain name.

‘Sekinin wa anata dake no mono janai’ 「責任はあなただけのものじゃない」 “The responsibility is not just yours.”

‘Konkai no koto wa watashitachi zen'in no sekinin’ 「今回のことは私たち全員の責任」 “We are all responsible for this time.”

‘Kokoro ga kudakete mo watashitachi ga tata semasu’ 「心が砕けても私たちが立たせます」 “Even if your heart is broken, we will make you stand up”

‘Anata wa Dabi to tatakau shika nai no’ 「あなたは荼毘と戦うしかないの」 “You have no choice but to fight Dabi” [Chap 302]

Shōto also will remark they have to stop Tōya and then Hawks and Best Jeanist will insist on this as well. It’s irony at his finest, when Enji was finally willing to declare Endeavor dead, everyone wanted him to be Endeavor.

We could make another meta talking of his family and why they want this and why they don’t ask this because they don’t care about Tōya (they all love him), but that’s a Meta for another time.

Let’s stick to Enji.

The conclusion of all this is that he has to remain Endeavor and prioritize apologizing to society, atoning to it so he has to take part to a press conference and apologize.

‘Owabi no mōshiageyō mo gosaimasen’ 「お詫びの申し上げようもごさいません」 “There is no way for me to apologize enough/I have no excuses.” [Chap 306]

This is what he says to the press and this time the apology is as formal as you can get. It’s a sentence used to apologize to customers or superiors about really big mistakes. It’s fitting the context since he’s apologizing to the press and to society itself.

It makes sense he’s being formal here, he even shaved for the occasion.

It’s also worth to mention openly admitting his wrongdoing is a big deal in Japan. While he won’t face penal consequences for his sins, socially speaking he’s destroyed (as well as his family).

Hawks also will go with a formal apology.

‘Shazai mōshiagemasu’ 「謝罪申し上げます」 “I would like to apologize” [Chap 306]

It’s worth to mention that, while society thinks very poorly of Enji now… the way the manga presents it seems to imply society didn��t give a damn he abused of his family, their problem is such abuse resulted in them being ‘troubled’ and while not caring about Tōya can be in response to what Tōya did… what about poor Shōto? Tōya made clear he also was abused.

Enji’s arc likely is meant to parallel society’s arc. Because society was selfish, set in motion the chain of events that lead people like Tenko, Himiko, Jin and Tōya became Villains and now society is also paying the price and trying to deflect the blame solely on the Heroes. But again, that’s something for another meta.

Again to Enji we go and to how he gets here comes another wake up call.

A journalist also makes a point of how the past never dies.

She tells them than saying sorry doesn’t change the situation they’re in and that they can’t just stand there and pretend like it’s all over, that while Villains are to blame, they too share a responsibility.

‘“Subete jijitsudejita sumimasen” ja torikaeshinotsukanai jitaina ndesu yo’ 「『全て事実でじたすみません』じゃ取り返しのつかないじたいなんですよ」 “You just saying ‘It’s all true, sorry’ isn’t going to make it undone” [Chap 306]

Yes, she downgraded his formal apology to a mere ‘sumimasen’ to better drive home how little heartfelt it felt to her, how it just felt like a formality.

Enji asks her if, were they to show their pain, exhaustion and tears, this would fix things, which only enrage the journalist because of course it wouldn’t be enough.

Remember the whole atonement path?

Step 2 is realizing you did something wrong, step 3 is to regret it but then there’s a step 4. Step 4 is to start working on fixing things.

The journalist was accusing Enji to be at step 2, he’s aware he has done something bad and had wronged ‘society’ (as said before society don’t give a damn about how Enji has wronged his family), if he had also shown regret he would have been at step 3 but, according to her, he’s not, which meant he won’t move to step 4, which is the one in which he fixes things. Only with step 4 he can atone, just feeling sorry is mandatory but nowhere near enough.

And here however comes a problem, Horikoshi subtly remarks how this is bringing Enji away from atoning to his family.

The journalist starts to point out what he should do to atone to the people, only to pause in mid sentence as she realizes that, by asking him to take down every Villain, she’s asking him to take down his son.

‘Teki (read: Villain) o zenbu katadzukeru sore ga…’ 「敵 (ヴィラン)を全部片付けるそれが…」 “Get rid of all the enemies (read: Villains), that’s how…” [Chap 306]

‘Katadzukeru’ (片付ける) can imply that, in order to get rid of the Villains, Enji has to kill all the Villains. Note that in the past it was said that Heroes shouldn’t kill, and Hawks had to apologize for killing Twice… but now the public rage feels they’re entitled to be above such rules. They were wronged and they want blood… same as the Villains.

It was the point that Shigaraki made when he fought against Endeavor. Because he was rejected, he rejects. Because he was hurt, he hurts. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s what Tōya is doing. It’s what society wants to do. Again, on this too, we could write meta.

For now let’s only remark that, if Enji were to take down his son, he wouldn’t get to atone to him.

So the narrative calls Enji to a choice… but he doesn’t even realize it.

In fact, here he should decide if he wants to atone to Tōya, whom he had wronged, or society, whom he also had wronged.

Enji chose to be Endeavor and atone to society… but it’s not really a choice because he hadn’t truly grasped yet Tōya is HIS VICTIM and he has to atone to him too.

In fact later, fighting All for One, Enji will say his mistakes took form of Tōya… but Tōya isn’t a personification for his mistakes, he’s a real person he hurts and who’s now trying to retaliate.

His wish to look at Tōya after the war has ended, isn’t related to finally give his son the attention he emotionally always needed and asked, but to look after him to stop him from making mistakes/causing harm to the people. He’s planning to look after Tōya, not at Tōya.

Doing so is still part of his atoning to society, to make sure his son won’t cause further harm to it. And he’ll do this later, because he still first prioritize his Hero work… because his regret is very much focused on what his actions had caused to befall on society on how his son is a mass murderer now, which causes harm to society.

Let’s make clear Enji doesn’t want to kill Tōya, he has made clear he can’t when he woke up in the hospital, Tōya, to him, is not like Shigaraki whom he wanted to kill (despite how Heroes shouldn’t kill) and for whom he had no sympathy whatsoever. Tōya is still his son.

But he’s still not at the point in which he has realized he has to apologize to Tōya because he has hurt him, for now he’s just thinking he mismanaged the situation and seeing Tōya as an extension of himself same way as he saw Shōto. To him, they’re both his creations, Shōto exists to defeat All Might, Tōya exists as personification of his mistakes.

Ironically the chapters in which the Todoroki family past was told were called “The wrong way to put out a fire” in English, but in Japanese they are ‘Hi no fushimatsu’ (火の不始末) which can be more literally translated as “mismanagement/careless handling of fire” (it generally implied in ‘putting it out’) with ‘fushimatsu’ meaning “omission”, “failure”, “incompleteness”, “irregularity”, “mismanagement”. “misconduct”, “malpractice”, “carelessness”, “wastefulness”.

And this is what Enji felt he did, he messed up, he handled things badly. He’s not quite thinking at the hurt he caused to his son, he’ll still need some time to figure that out.

Due to all this, Enji’s redemption to society take priority, in Enji’s eyes, to his redemption to his family. Enji has to put society at ease, he has to redeem himself in society’s eyes by saving society… society needs to be saved for them to live… and everyone, his family, the other Heroes, are pressuring him to do just that… and so, in a way, his redemption arc to his family stagnate. He returns to prioritizing his Hero job… and doesn’t even realize that his redemption arc toward his family is being postponed. He isn’t yet at step 2 of his redemption to his family yet. Even Tōya realizes it (and it's interesting how we aren't shown his eyes as he speaks).

‘…Ijime tarinakatta ka a kuku…’ 「…虐め足りなかったかあクク…」 “…the bullying/tormenting wasn’t enough? Heh heh…” [Chap 306]

No, it wasn’t enough to make him empathize with the pain Tōya (or his family) went through.

Enji is sorry. For himself. Really, really sorry. But he’s not yet sorry for his son, for his family… possibly not even for society. He knows he messed up. But he’s still doing this because it’s his duty.

But we’re getting close because now he’s left experiencing what it feels like to be miserable, to be rejected, to be cut out from society, to have failed completely and utterly.

“Boku no hero academia” doesn’t explore it much, possibly because for Japanese people this is a given or because this is an optimistic story aimed at young audience, or because the editor just didn’t want to show one of the Heroes having it too bad, but I can recommend you a good SEINEN manga (remember, seinen manga are targeted at male audiences aged 18 to 40, if you’re younger they’re not for you!) “Theseus no fune” (テセウスの船 ‘Theseus’ ship’) which will show you how ‘kind’ Japanese society is with the family of a man who’s accused of having poisoned 20 people.

His family, his children included, is forced to live in shame, they can’t show happiness or pain in public, they’ve to live hiding their identity, if people find out who they are, they’re bashed, hated, avoided, bullied, they’ve to move away from their house and workplace/school, constantly apologizing. One of the man’s child, who wasn’t even born yet when the crime was committed, managed to get married but his wife’s family refuses to see him. He can’t become a teacher, he has to wear a mask to hide his face at work and avoid people the best he can so they won’t discover his identity and he learns from his mother that when she had to give birth to him hospitals didn’t want to take her in because she was the wife of a murderer.

So yeah, Enji and his family supposedly aren’t really having a nice time, which is hinted also when Tōya asked Shōto how was he when he was being holed up in U.A. after the truth about Endeavor was revealed. Tōya expected people to reject him as he were Endeavor’s son and Dabi’s brother.

However supposedly people in the shelter at U.A. and Shōto’s classmates are all nice with him and no one apparently harassed Rei, Fuyumi and Natsuo… or if they did it was never shown.

We see Enji has it a little worse as, while he’s on work, the people he just protected rejects him but again, the manga doesn’t focus much on this and he has his family’s support as well as the one of all the other Heroes so… he’s not having it as bad as one would expect, at least not visually.

Logically he should have it really bad… but the story prefers to focus on how nice people at U.A. and Heroes are which is… a choice.

Anyway, back to Enji, that’s why he comes to the battlefield completely unprepared to face his son, why he hadn’t thought of anything to say to him. Because he still hadn’t grasped Tōya is also a victim to whom he should atone… nor he has really grasped his family’s feelings.

In fact we saw how, although Shōto has agreed to work with him to stop Tōya, prior to the start of the war, Enji cuts communications with him and goes with Midoriya and Hawks on a Team Up mission.

When confronted by Shōto, he claims that Shōto wanting to help him to stop Tōya meant a lot TO HIM and that FOR HIM is enough, and Shōto is forced to point out Enji is again cutting him from the equation and focusing to himself. To Shōto the whole thing means nothing if Enji doesn’t act on it, if Enji ignores him. Enji has again not considered his feelings, has again ignored his family.

Shōto has to remind him again they’ve to stop Tōya TOGETHER.

And then the Heroes are ready for the war to start… and it’s decided Endeavor will be put against All for One while Shōto will have to face his brother... which isn’t exactly how many expected them to stop Tōya TOGETHER, even if yes, putting an end to All for One can be seen as a way to stop Tōya too as he could end up being affected by the consequences of All for One’s fall… but well… it’s a huge stretch.

More than them stopping Tōya together it’s just they happen to be together in the war.

Credits when it’s due, Enji will phone to Shōto suggesting they should switch, that he should be the one to face Tōya but Shōto refuses and encourages him again to act as the Hero Endeavor and stop All for One, not as Todoroki Enji, while he’ll act as the Hero Shōto and stop Dabi.

Now no, I’m not saying this to blame Shōto.

Shōto’s situation is very different from Enji’s, he did nothing wrong, he’s a victim and he’s trying to do his best and help people as well as doing his duty as Hero. He doesn’t have to atone to his brother.

Sending his father to face his brother would have been psychologically much easier for Shōto, because it pains him a lot to face his brother. All for One calls this cruel against Shōto and abuse against Tōya.

'Soreni mottomo zankoku na saihaida to omou ze?' 「それに…最も残酷な采配だと思うぜ？」 "In addition… Don’t you think this is the most cruel arrangement?"

'Tsurai tachiba no masshi ni shirinugui o oshitsuke' 「辛い立場の末子に尻拭いを押し付け」 "You forced your youngest son, who was in a difficult situation, to wipe your butt."

'Kare (read: chōnan) e no gyakutai o tsudzukeru to wa!' 「彼（長男）への虐待を続けるとは！」 "And continued to abuse that person (read: your eldest son)!" [Chap 345]

‘Zankoku’ (残酷) which means “cruel” should be a well known word due to the famous song theme “Zankoku na tenshi no these” (残酷な天使のテーゼ)

‘Shirinugui’ (尻拭い) litterally means “to wipe your butt” but yes, it can be used to mean “clean up for someone else’s mistakes”.

‘Gyakutai’ (虐待) can mean “Abuse”, “mistreatment”, “Cruelty”. “Child abuse” in Japanese is ‘Jidō gyakutai’ (児童虐待), just to give you an idea of how serious the accuse is.

Long story short, what Tōya is doing is the result of Enji’s actions so Enji should have been the one to deal with it, not again push the work on Shōto.

But from a Hero’s point of view, this is the best plan, they pin the strongest Hero against the strongest Villain. Putting Endeavor against Dabi, after seeing how he froze the last time and how he declares he wants to atone to his family, risks for that battle to get lost, Hawks can see this, can see there’s the risk Enji will figure out he should atone to his son too and therefore wouldn’t be able to fight him.

Shōto, on the other side, in addition to being strong and having a move that supposedly can counter Dabi’s fire, has no debts toward him. The way the Heroes see it, Shōto did nothing wrong against Dabi because he basically didn’t even interact with him and also, due to this, his family ties with Dabi feel weak. He can fight him without freezing up, especially since, from Shōto and the Heroes’ perspective, it’s Dabi who’s wronging him, making Shōto Dabi’s victim and therefore giving Shōto an incentive to fight back.

It’s a good battle strategy but it grabs Enji’s atonement arc and throws it into the recycle bin for the sake of winning the battle.

It asks Enji to prioritize being a Hero in the Hero world and neglect both his children. Shōto accepts it as his duty as Hero but this doesn’t make the matter less unfair to him as a son. Tōya of course, has no duty to accept it, it only makes him more enraged.

And so, instead than focusing on his atonement arc toward his family, Enji focuses on his atonement arc toward the people as Endeavor and fights All for One.

It’s not all lost though, there’s conflict in him, sadly it’s not Luke Skywalker who tells him “Search your feelings, father. You can't do this. I feel the conflict within you. Let go of your hate,” but All for One and let’s make it clear, All for One isn’t interested in helping Enji to atone… All for One is the palptine, the Emperor of the story, he’s interested in leading Enji to step 2, for the mere fact that this would shift Enji’s attention on the pain and regret for what he did and make easier for him to defeat Enji.

So All for One continues on hammering on it, on how Enji hurt his children, and reveals another of Enji’s failures, because Enji didn’t go to Sekoto Peak it was him who found Tōya.

What happens later is interesting.

All for One manages to deliver a good blow and Enji has an inner monologue with his younger self who… basically tells him he’ll never improve but that has to go on doing what he has always done, what has kept him alive, struggling against his weakness, to keep on raging.

It sets Enji in full Endeavor’s mode as the first thing he says is that putting an end to the fight is his duty.

He acknowledges some unpleasant truth like how, as Tōya said, the past never dies. He can’t just tell hurt people to move on.

He acknowledges that he’s the cause of many stolen futures… but he’s still not really focusing to his family in this. He thinks that his mistakes took form as Tōya and this lead to so many stolen futures, because he now acknowledges he’s the cause why Tōya did that…

‘Ore no ayamachi ga Tōya no sugata to nari’ 俺の過ちが燈矢の姿となり “My mistakes took the appearance of Tōya”

‘Ooku no hito no mirai wo ubatta’ 多くの人の未来を奪った “And stole many people’s futures.” [Chap 357]

… but he’s more focused on playing penance to society than to his son and it’s in this vein he claims he’ll continue watching Tōya.

‘Batsu wa ore ga uke tsudzukeru…!’ 「罰は俺が受け続ける…！」 “I will continue take punishment/being punished…!”

‘Katte Tōya wo mi tsudzukeru!’ 「勝って燈矢を見続ける！」 “I will win, and I will continue watching Tōya!” [Chap 357]

His idea that he’ll win this and after will keep his eyes on Tōya is not something he plans to do for Tōya. It’s for society so that it will have a path toward the future. It’s Endeavor’s atonement to society.

His keeping his eyes on Tōya doesn’t mean finally giving his son the attention he demanded, means to finally taking responsibility for him, keeping him from harming himself or the others as he hadn’t done when Tōya was younger.

It misses the part of the point of why he’s to blame for not watching Tōya when Tōya was a kid, not just because as a result Tōya got physically hurt, but because he got emotionally hurt by his neglect. Tōya isn’t doing all this because he got burnt, but because he got neglected.

However Enji hasn’t realized this yet and, in fact, when Enji finds himself face to face with Tōya and tells himself this time he’ll look at him…

‘Shimei…’ 使命… “My mission…”

‘Kondo wa ore ga miru’ 今度は俺が見る “This time I will watch you.” [Chap 376]

…and what he does after?

He doesn’t confront him on the hurt he caused him, he doesn’t apologize, he worries Tōya might have hurt Shōto and then drags him away so that Tōya won’t manage to hurt others.

And yeah, he’s clearly not trying to atone to him.

However, while many saw this as Enji saying one thing and doing another because it seemed he was escaping from the duty of looking at his son, this is actually what he’s doing, he’s making sure his son won’t hurt people. He’s trying to look after him… but he’s not looking at him.

He’s taking care of his mission, protecting people. And yes, he’s also doing one of his duties as a father, not taking care of his child but being responsible for his child’s actions, making sure they won’t hurt anyone. That’s why the tagline of that chapter in the magazine version says:

‘Chichi ni kasareta no wa…’ 父に課されたのは… “What the father was tasked/imposed with…” [Chap 376]

In a redemption arc atonement and redemption aren’t the task of the day, something others push on you. They’re your choice, your decision. No one can force you to redeem. You either decide for it or don’t.

We all were thinking now Enji would look at Tōya the way Tōya wanted, but that’s not the plan. Enji isn’t going to be there for Tōya like Tōya wanted… he’s going to act in a way that will stop Tōya from hurting others.

So Enji escapes to lead Tōya away from the others, so as to stop the incarnation of his mistakes from stealing other futures.

And it turns out this isn’t enough because Tōya is going to explode and when he’ll do… he’ll take so many lives with him. Tōya promised him he would try to take away from him what Enji tried to protect, that he’ll take away from him what Enji deemed precious in retaliation, and boy, he’s going to do it in a litteral blast.

And so Enji has to face his son… and in a way he really faces him as, although Tōya is in a terrible state, when Enji watches him all he sees is young Tōya smiling and asking him to watch him show him what he now can do.

It’s now he’s starting to reach step 2, because now he’s not seeing Tōya as a personification of his mistakes, but as his child… and tells him to stop because he doesn’t want HIM to die.

And it’s when Enji realizes Tōya has inherited Rei’s Quirk as well that Enji finally, FINALLY has his epiphany. [Chap 387]

This was what he wanted, a child with a superior fire Quirk and Rei’s Quirk to cool it down... and he got it, in a horribly warped way. The visual shows him thinking back to all he did that lead him to this moment, to have his wish fulfilled in such a distorted way, included his promise to ‘win and then watch over Tōya’.

Only now that he has finally connected all the dots and realized how much he hurt his son, he’s ready to finally watch him the way Tōya wanted.

AND YEAH! THAT’S STEP TWO! TOOK US A LOT OF TIME!

So finally…

2) Due to some circumstances Character A realizes what an horrible thing/things he did.

The visual is symbolic, Tōya had asked Enji to dance with him in hell, and now Enji is doing it. He’s with him in hell, he understands his pain and understands he’s the cause of it.

In fact it’s no more child Tōya he’s seeing, it’s the Tōya who told him to dance with him and Enji now is willing to do it

Enji finally answers to his son’s needs, takes full responsibility for what he did to Tōya. Finally he sees him, he sees the hell in which Tōya is, finally he’s with him like Tōya wanted, like Tōya needed.

‘Zenbu ore no sekinin da’ 「全部俺の責任だ」 “Everything is my fault/responsibility.” [Chap 387]

And with step 2 comes step 3.

3) Character A comes to genuinely regret his actions, they plague him, he’ll ABSOLUTELY have to either fix things or make up for them because he can’t bear living otherwise, it’ll always gnaw at him.

Enji goes through his original plan, bear the burden of the responsibility and live his life atoning (to society).

He goes on pointing out how Tōya had been watching him for all this time… even if it was painful, even if Enji wasn’t watching him back… while Enji didn’t watch him back so as to spare himself from facing responsibility, from facing pain.

‘Zenbu seotte tsugunai ni ikineba to omotte ita’ 「全部背負って償いに生きねばと思っていた」 “I thought I had to shoulder everything and live my life making amends.”

‘Demo omae wa zutto ore wo mitsudzuketetanda mon na…’ 「でもおまえはずっと俺を見続けてたんだもんな…」 “But you were always keeping on looking at me…”

‘Omae wo mite yarenakatta…’ 「おまえを見てやれなかった…」 “I couldn’t look at you…”

‘Omae ni mo tsugunawanakya ikenakattanda’ 「おまえにも償わなきゃいけなかったんだ」 “I have to make amends to you, too.” [Chap 387]

He can’t atone solely to society, he must atone to his son as well.

His dream of him never being at the table with his family comes to his mind. While in a way he accepts to make it become true… he accepts he won’t sit at the table with them… at the same time this time this time he won’t leave one of his family members alone, he won’t leave Tōya alone.

4) Character A starts to put all his efforts into atoning one way or another.

I’m not sure if, at that point, the explosion could have been avoided had Enji killed Tōya, but he’s not considering it because he won’t let his son die alone. He’ll die with him but in a way that won’t drag others with them. He thinks if they’ll go high in the sky the others won’t be caught up in the blast. Note that Tōya’s heat is so high it’s burning him but he’s not letting go of him.

Through the whole story, even when it was at his lowest, Enji has never thought to die, he always thought he would atone and keep living… this is also why Tōya said the bullying wasn’t enough, because his father never became as suicidal as him, and despite everything not even ‘Endeavor’, his Hero persona, died... but, after all, Enji’s whole start was that he didn’t want to end up like his father and die so he has a strong attachment to life… but now he’s accepting it. He’ll die with his son so as not to let him alone. It’s what Tōya asked him to do in a way.

But then Rei joins them and she immediately starts by apologizing to Tōya… as well as trying to cool him down. If Enji was ready to die with him… Rei, and then the rest of his children, will try to make their hardest to save them (and the rest of Japan from Tōya’s explosion) using their ice Quirk, a Quirk Enji always judged inferior to his fire Quirk which now is completely useless.

Enji can’t do nothing at this point, he can’t even bring Tōya up high in the sky, it’s too late for that, he can only beg Tōya, saying no one else has to die, just his life should be enough.

‘Mou… tanomu kara…ore dake ni shitekure…’ 「もう…頼むから…俺だけにしてくれ…」 “Now… I'm begging you… only me, please” [Chap 388]

Though Tōya’s mind seems to be partially gone, he’s aware enough for the first time everyone is paying him attention… and can’t understand why, if it was such a simple things, they hadn’t done it sooner. Now it’s too late, he’s about to explode and drag his whole family with himself.

But then Shōto, with the ice Quirk Enji only wanted him to have to cool down his fire Quirk, joins them and saves the day… yet he remarks in terms of sheer firepower, his own wouldn’t have been enough if he hadn’t added it to the one of his family members, rejecting the idea he was the masterpiece creation Enji wanted… remarking again how everything Enji did and believed, even in terms of Quirks and masterpieces and strength was wrong.

Meanwhile Tōya informs everyone this isn’t enough to soothe his hurt, that he still hates them all and himself as well and wants them all to die.

And, despite having to crawl to do so, Enji reaches him, rests his hand on him and apologizes to him.

‘…Tōya…! Warukatta… Sekoto-take ikanakute…gomen na…!!’ 「…燈矢…！悪かった…瀬古杜岳行かなくて…ごめんな…‼」 “…Tōya…! It was my bad... For not coming to Sekoto Peak…I’m sorry…!!” [Chap 390]

Remember Enji’s various apologies to his family?

We had an ‘imamade sumanakatta’ (今まですまなかった) said to Fuyumi, that was just a pro forma, then a ‘warukatta’ (悪かった) said to Natsuo, that was a really light way to admit it was his fault, then he went for ‘Suman… hontō ni… sumanai. Suman…’ (すまん…本当に…すまないすまん…) which better expressed how sorry he was.

Now… now he starts again with ‘warukatta’… but then he uses ‘gomen na’ (ごめんな).

‘Gomen na’ (ごめんな) is the informal/contracted version of ‘gomen nasai’ (ごめんなさい/御免なさい)” which comes from the verb ‘mensuru’ (免ずる) “To forgive” in its imperative form at which is added the honorific prefix ‘go’ (御) “Honorable”.

This is the apology you use when you really do something wrong, something you weren’t allowed to do, and asks for forgiveness, although you’re meant to use it only with people you’re close with like family and friends (for people you’re not close with use Endeavor or Hawks’ apology).

Basically Enji is begging his son and his family to forgive him with this ‘I’m sorry’ because he’s finally acknowledging he didn’t just ‘wronged them’, he is understanding how badly he wronged them and is so very sorry about it.

Basically previously Enji finally took seriously the consequences of his actions, but he still doesn’t quite grasp how much at fault he was, how much he hurt others. Now he does. He didn’t just troubled them, he hurt them and even if it happened in the past they still carry the psychological consequences of it and might carry them for the rest of their lives if he doesn’t manage to atone to them properly.

And when Tōya doesn’t just forgive him but professes his hate for him, he accepts this, he respect his son’s feelings and doesn’t try to escape to it. He tells Tōya to tell him more. This time he’ll listen, he’ll be there even if it’s painful for him, because saying all that IS GOOD FOR TŌYA.

And, since he’s at it, he apologizes also to his whole family and it’s all ‘gomen na’ (ごめんな).

Yes, it’s not a great apology speech, not to Tōya nor to the rest of the family. There are plenty of ways he wronged them but he’s picking one for each of them… and my poor Shōto gets solely a sorry without him even picking a thing for Shōto.

But, credits when it’s due, he’s not in the best physical situation and the real core of the apology isn’t that it’s a literary masterpiece… it’s that this time IT’S FINALLY HEARTFELT. This time he’s genuinely sorry for causing pain TO THEM, not for himself but FOR THEM, this time he wants to soothe their hurt that’s why he’s saying he’s sorry.

He doesn’t expect them to comfort him, he is fine if they toss hurtfull words at him, acutally he asks for them, to tell him how they feel, because he wants to make them feel better.

Yes, he still has a long way to go but he’s finally there, he’s finally ready to do all he can to have his family forgive him, even if he has to crawl, even if he has to face pain physical and psychological, because he’s sorry he has hurt THEM and wants THEM to feel better and that’s exactly the whole point of atoning.

You wants to ‘save’ the others from the pain you inflicted them.

However, at this point in the manga… we might never get to see step 5 because we likely will never see the end of step 4. Enji will have to work for his atonement, to get his family to forgive him… not because it’ll make him feel better, but because it’ll make them feel better.

The story will probably end with the promise he’ll work in this direction and, since this is an optimistic story, the idea is, of course, that he’ll manage to atone eventually, that he’ll manage to do enough for his family to fix all his wrongdoing. We’ll probably be asked to just… believe he’ll do it instead than seeing it, and the most we’ll get will be at most a flash forward showing him finishing to do so, having done so.

So yes, in a way we were right and in a way we were tricked. We were right into thinking the redemption arc was unsatisfying because we were tricked into thinking we were watching a redemption arc coming to full course, when instead Enji’s arc was not about redeeming himself but about coming to the point in which he could start working to redeem himself, the point in which he would genuinely understand his wrongdoings, the consequences they had and feel sorry for someone else that’s not him.

He created his family to basically take care of his needs, but now he’s finally ready to be the one who’ll take care of his family’s needs. He’s ready to be a father. He’s ready to try to work to deserve to sit at that table with his family and be happy for simple things with them. It took him a long time but finally he managed to work in the right direction.

At least… that’s my interpretation of his arc. As I’m not Horikoshi I might, of course, be wrong.

Said all this, thank you for sitting with me in this long analysis.

#boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #Todoroki Enji #Todoroki Touya #Todoroki Shouto #Todoroki Rei #Todoroki Natsuo #Todoroki Fuyumi #bnha ramblings

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