#MHA Meta

[evelynpr]

I have a theory that the Big 3 were designed to be Deku split into 3 parts. I have no idea if it's intentional or not, but I think it fits so here it is!

[fling-graysons]

I fucking love the different relationship Bakugou and Todoroki have with anger. On the one hand we have Todoroki who at the start of the story was closed off and the only emotion he clearly showed was anger. But having been a victim of his father's anger all his life he views the emotion negatively, so his bursts of anger are impulsive and fade quickly because of how much he associates it with the hurt his family has been through. And with his anger inevitably comes out all his frustration and hurt. It’s no coincidence that Midoriya first saw Todoroki’s hurt at the Sports Festival after he froze the whole stadium in a burst of anger directed at his father. But at the same time he uses the emotion as a weapon against his father, when the anger is projected towards and against Endeavor it becomes the only emotion Shouto allows himself to feel, canceling in a way the guilt he feels for being angry.

And then we have Bakugou who in a way uses his anger to show all his range of emotions. Every time he cries, he’s frustrated, there’s always a layer of anger under the surface, because feeling anger comforts him. For Bakugou anger is an overall positive emotion that helps him to understand and release all his other feelings. It's the emotion he processes best and the one that helps him process all his other emotions. His anger can be grounding, it can be the brust of energy he needs to keep going whether it's a fight or something else, it can be a force to fight against to discover his true feelings. It guides him, if he manages to control and own it. When he shows anger or is aggressive if we pay close enough attention we can see that it's protecting himself from letting others see what he's really feeling.

Bakugou uses anger to hide his true feelings from others. Todoroki uses anger to hide his true feelings from himself.

[nagitosstolenhand]

i don't like the growing opinion that people are being 'too hard' on deku for his failing to save shigaraki.

i've seen quite a few people complaining that a lot of the bnha-critical crowd are being too mean to deku for getting tomura killed, arguing that it isn't really his fault, and that hes a 16 year old child soldier who's been failed by almost every adult in his life, why should we be putting all of this on his shoulders? hes just a kid after all?

and the truth is, they're right. deku IS a 16 year old boy whos had the fate of the world thrust on his shoulders. but the story itself just plainly refuses to acknowledge this.

the narrative doesn't acknowledge how fucked up having a school that trains literal children how to be combo cop-celebrities is. it only tentatively acknowledges the fact that a universe having combo cop-celebrities is fucked up, and even then the only people who ever point this out are antagonists, who are portrayed and treated in-universe as untrustworthy. the narrative doesn't care how fucked up dekus circumstances are. the narrative treats deku like hes a fucking messiah here to touch the hearts of the evil depressed villains with his magical empathetic heart of gold before they get blown up or just sent to fucking superhell for daring to challenge the status quote.

deku isn't a person. he's barely even a fucking character at this point. he's a plot device, and a mouth piece for the objectively shitty themes bnha is trying to spout. the themes that tell you that if you're mistreated by society and want to do something about it, you're a villain. that disrupting the status quote and refusing to repent to some random teenage boy spouting empty platitudes at you means you deserve to get sent to fucking superhell. the themes that portray people fighting for civil change as mass murdering supervillains. the themes that look the audience dead in the eye and can call deku the greatest hero to ever live.

deku, who barely spared a second thought to lady nagant telling him the truth about the hero commission. who spouts meaningless platitudes about heroism and morality at nagant, and aoyama, and toga and shigaraki, when even the thought that he should question the world around him comes up. who's constantly talked about as this truly kind, empathetic person, but hasn't spared an empathetic thought to literally anyone who is classified as a villain. who listened to every authority figure around him except the ones who asked him to question his worldview. who saw la bravas tears, shigarakis various breakdowns, himikos plead for understanding, chisakis catatonic state, lady nagants truth, and barley batted a fucking eye. deku, who killed tomura shigaraki.

people don't criticize deku for failing shigaraki because they just hate deku. people criticize deku because of what he represents. because hes a mouthpiece for the atrocious morals and themes of this ideologically rotten manga. because any character he had was chopped up to bits in favor of the incomplete husk we have now. people criticize deku because hes the main character of my hero academia. theres nothing more damning then that.

[embers-of-the-league]

Tenko Shimura's ‘allergies’ and the implications thereof

I think most people always agreed that Tenko's allergies were - in some form or another - emotion-based.

Back in 235 we get the infamous "it only itches at home line" line.

It's also emphasized again later in the chapter when we see that the itching gets progressively worse after Kotaro yells at Tenko (meaning that it gets worse when Tenko is sad and/or in distress).

Back in the day, I saw a lot of people theorizing that the itch was a sign of Decay and that it was the early stages of the quirk manifesting within Tenko. But given what we know now, about AFO giving Tenko the quirk and especially when he gave Tenko the quirk, I don't think that this is the case.

We can pretty much pinpoint exactly when AFO gave Tenko the Decay quirk.

These two panels are from 235 and 419 - and I firmly believe that these panels take place only minutes apart from each other. This is also clearly the moment that AFO gave Decay over to Tenko, as shown by the small glow of his hand.

Before this point Tenko Shimura was quirkless.

Tenko got his original quirk stolen from him when he was just a baby - meaning that during the time between being an infant and being 5-years-old, Tenko was officially quirkless.

This makes a huge difference if we then look back at his allergies and why they appear.

This panel is from just before AFO takes Tenko's hand and gives him the Decay quirk. Look at his face. This boy already has irritated skin around his eyes (it looks like he's just been scratching at it too).

With the knowledge that Tenko at this point in time still is quirkless, I think it's fair to say that the allergies are not an early symptom of Decay.

It only itches at home.

Because the itching is purely psychosomatic. Because it's a stress-response/anxiety-response to the environment this young boy is forced to come home to every single day.

This boy is 5. He's 5. It's not normal for a 5-year-old to think thoughts anywhere near "does my father hate me?"

Kotaro has already put a fear in this little boy, which doesn't stop or go away as soon as his punishment does. The trauma in this boy is already so big that he thinks about these things in the moments when his dad isn't even actively scolding or punishing him.

It doesn't take a destructive quirk to cause a physical response like itching. All it takes is being constantly afraid of when you're going to be yelled at next, when you're going to be punished next, all by the hands of the parental figure you aren't sure even loves you at all.

It only itches at home.

Especially when the four walls of your house are a prison.

[toshinorimight]

can we also talk about toshinori crushing the "the end" card with his hand?

this man was gonna make sure his boy became a hero no matter what. like i'm fully aware this was probably just a humorous way to show us that this was not the end of deku's story, but to me it's symbolic of how the all might we meet at the start of the manga and this all might are not the same.

at the start of it all, he tells izuku he cannot be a hero without a quirk. but now he's the one quite literally breaking his way through deku's acceptance of his "fate" of not being a hero to tell him that he CAN be a hero. he's the one to hand him the tools to become a hero without a quirk (with bakugo, the one who always told him he'd never be a hero, being the one who spearheaded the efforts to get them made).

he crushed his dreams of being a quirkless hero once, and now he's crushing the idea that he CAN'T be a quirkless hero.

[kenzdolls]

𝐑 𝐔 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄? — 𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐘𝐒

𖤐 synopsis: touya finds himself desperately drawn to his equally dangerous colleague during an elegant gala, revealing vulnerability beneath his scarred exterior as he struggles with newfound emotions while they maintain control of their complicated dynamic.

𖤐 trigger warnings: mentions of violence, implications of criminal activity, power dynamics, manipulation, and descriptions of physical scarring.

𖤐 pairing: touya (dabi) todoroki x villain! gn! reader

𖤐 side note: this was my first actual fic i made..I just decided to post it now cause I’m obsessed with the song again...

the grand hall of the underground villain society's annual gala shimmered with danger and decadence. crystal chandeliers cast shadows across the marble floors where villains of all calibers mingled, their formal attire a stark contrast to the chaos they usually wrought.

you adjusted your gloves, running a finger along the intricate design that concealed the weapon beneath. as a newer but rapidly rising member of the paranormal liberation front, you'd earned your invitation through a string of perfectly executed missions that had left authorities baffled and the villain world impressed.

"enjoying the view?" a low, raspy voice asked from behind.

you didn't need to turn to recognize who it belonged to. the faint scent of ash and that distinctive voice gave him away instantly. dabi. the plf's flame villain with a penchant for destruction and a mysterious past that nobody dared question.

"i'm observing," you replied coolly, taking a sip of champagne. "there's a difference."

you finally turned to face him, allowing yourself a moment to appreciate how the formal black suit complemented his stapled skin and piercing turquoise eyes. unlike his usual casual attire, tonight he'd made an effort. the jacket hugged his lean frame, and the top buttons of his shirt were undone, revealing glimpses of his scarred chest.

"you clean up surprisingly well," you remarked with a half-smile.

"don't sound so shocked." his eyes never left yours as he moved closer. "though i could say the same about you. almost didn't recognize you without blood on your clothes."

you laughed softly, the sound drawing attention from nearby villains who quickly averted their gaze when dabi shot them a warning look.

"dance with me," he said suddenly, not quite a question but not entirely a command either.

you raised an eyebrow. "i didn't take you for a dancer, dabi."

"there are many things you don't know about me." he extended his hand, his eyes betraying a vulnerability that his smirk tried to mask. "yet."

the string quartet in the corner began playing something slow and haunting as you placed your hand in his. his skin was unnaturally warm—a side effect of his quirk—as he led you to the dance floor.

"i've been watching you," he confessed as his hand slid to your waist, pulling you closer than necessary. "since that mission in hosu city. the way you took down those pro heroes without hesitation... it was beautiful."

"careful," you warned playfully. "people might think you're developing feelings."

his grip tightened slightly. "would that be so terrible?"

you studied his face, noting the intensity behind his casual expression. dabi was known for his indifference, his detachment. yet here he was, holding you like you might disappear if he let go.

"you know how this works," you reminded him. "people like us don't do attachments."

the music swelled as he spun you effortlessly, bringing you back against his chest with practiced precision.

"tell me something," he whispered, his lips brushing against your ear. "are you just using me to pass the time? or is there more?"

you pulled back slightly to look at him. "that's a dangerous question."

"i'm a dangerous man."

around you, other villain couples danced, their faces masks of calculated charm and hidden agendas. everyone was playing a role tonight. everyone except dabi, whose eyes burned with something raw and unfiltered.

"every time you walk away," he continued, his voice dropping lower, "i find myself wondering if you'll come back. it's maddening."

"dabi—"

"i go crazy," he interrupted, "because being anywhere but with you isn't where i want to be. do you understand what that's like? to have someone crawl under your skin that deep?"

the music faded into the background as you studied him. this wasn't the dabi that the league knew—the apathetic, sardonic villain who cared only for his mysterious agenda. this was someone else entirely.

"you're acting like i own you," you said carefully.

his laugh was bitter and short. "maybe you do. isn't that what this is? you pull the strings, and i follow. like a damn puppet."

the song ended, but neither of you moved to separate. around you, villains exchanged partners, clinked champagne glasses, and plotted their next atrocities. but in your small bubble on the dance floor, something electric and dangerous was building.

"let's get some air," you suggested, acutely aware of how his fingers were now intertwined with yours.

he followed you through the grand ballroom, past clusters of villains deep in conversation, and out onto a deserted balcony overlooking the city lights below. the night air was cool against your skin, a welcome relief from the heat of the ballroom—and from dabi's proximity.

"better?" you asked, leaning against the stone railing.

instead of answering, he moved behind you, his hands gripping the railing on either side of you, effectively trapping you between his body and the stone.

"no," he said simply. "not better at all."

you turned to face him, your back now against the railing. "what is it you want from me, dabi? we've had our fun, haven't we? the missions, the nights afterward..."

"is that all this is to you? fun?" his eyes narrowed, blue flames briefly flickering at his fingertips before he controlled them. "because for me, it's become something else entirely."

"careful," you warned again. "shigaraki wouldn't approve of... complications within the ranks."

"i don't give a damn what shigaraki thinks." dabi leaned closer, his forehead nearly touching yours. "i only care about one thing right now."

"and what's that?"

"whether i'm yours," he said, his voice barely audible over the distant sounds of the party inside. "because you sure as hell are mine."

there it was—the raw desperation beneath his usual controlled facade. you'd seen glimpses of it before: in the way his eyes followed you during meetings, how his hand lingered on yours when passing equipment, the unnecessary risks he took to protect you during missions.

"this isn't you," you said softly. "the dabi i know doesn't beg."

something dangerous flashed in his eyes. "maybe you don't know me as well as you think."

his lips crashed against yours then, hot and demanding. it wasn't your first kiss—far from it—but there was something different about this one. something desperate and consuming that made your head spin.

when you finally broke apart, his breathing was ragged. "tell me you feel it too."

you reached up, tracing one of the staples that held his scarred skin together. "i've never seen you like this before."

"answer the question." his voice was strained. "am i yours? are you mine? i need to know i'm not just losing my mind here."

the vulnerability in his question struck you. for all his power, all his danger, in this moment, dabi was laying himself bare—something neither of you were accustomed to doing.

"we're villains," you reminded him. "we take what we want."

"and what do you want?" he searched your eyes for an answer.

you considered your options carefully. attachment in your world was a liability, a weakness that could be exploited. but there was something intoxicating about having one of the plf's most feared villains looking at you like you were the only thing that mattered.

"maybe i want you," you admitted finally. "but on my terms."

a slow smile spread across his face, transforming his features into something almost beautiful in its dangerous intensity. "i can live with that."

inside, the party continued—villains plotting, forming alliances, and breaking them just as quickly. but on the balcony, something new was taking shape between you and dabi—something that burned hotter than his blue flames and cut deeper than any weapon.

"you should know," he said, his fingers tracing a path down your arm, "i'm not good at sharing. what's mine is mine."

"i don't recall agreeing to be yours exclusively," you challenged, enjoying the flash of jealousy that crossed his face.

"you will," he promised, his confidence returning though the desperate need still lingered in his eyes. "i can be very persuasive."

the sound of the balcony door opening interrupted your exchange. toga's cheerful voice called out, "there you are! shigaraki's about to make an announcement. something big!"

dabi didn't take his eyes off you as he replied, "we'll be there in a minute."

when the door closed again, he leaned in, his lips brushing against your ear. "this conversation isn't over."

"i wouldn't expect it to be," you replied, straightening his tie with deliberate slowness. "but don't forget who's in control here."

his answering smile was equal parts submission and challenge. "wouldn't dream of it."

as you both rejoined the gathering inside, dabi's hand possessively at the small of your back, you knew that things had shifted irrevocably between you. in a world where power was currency and weakness meant death, you'd somehow gained the most dangerous kind of leverage—complete devotion from a man who burned everything he touched.

and despite everything you knew about the dangers of attachment in your line of work, you couldn't deny the thrill that came with it.

after all, what was villainy without a little risk?

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© property of kenzdolls

[linkspooky]

JASON TODD VS. DABI: WHY NOT ME?

"You haven't been here long but you've seen him, right? The batman. The batman. He lives in darkness, to find the helpless and bring them into the light. So I have to wonder...why couldn't he do it for me?" The Boy Wonder: Issue #2

This is the story of the boy who didn't get saved. The story of a boy who really ought to have been saved. Of course, every victim deserves to be saved, but this boy was the son of a superhero. Can a hero who saves everyone, but fails to save his own son really be called a hero? As for the son, how does it feel to watch his father save complete strangers but let him fall to the wayside?

Jason Todd and Dabi are two characters with similar backstories and motives (so similar it's possible Dabi is outright based on Jason Todd) which are worthy of comparison. These are two tragic arcs which explore the conflict between a hero's responsibility to act as a father, and their responsibility to save people. As I said they are tragic because in both cases the hero fails, as a father, and a hero. However, I'm comparing the two because Jason Todd's story is a well written tragedy, and Toya's story is not.

If you were to write a story of my life, it would surely be a tragedy.

Aristotle's Poetics is the first attempt to define what Tragedy is, not as a story where sad things happen but a specific story structure. He outlines not only what makes tragedy, tragedy, but also what makes a good tragedy.

The Plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy: Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in painting. The most beautiful colours, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.

I use this quote because the painting metaphor is a great way of explaining what I'm getting at, you can have a painting with the most wonderful colors, you can have a story with really good ideas like the Todoroki family plotline but if you don't use those colors correctly all you're going to end up with is a bad painting.

In poetics Aristotle clearly defines a tight well-structured plot as the first priority for effective tragedy, character as second.

Again, a beautiful object, whether it be a living organism or any whole composed of parts, must not only have an orderly arrangement of parts, but must also be of a certain magnitude; for beauty depends on magnitude and order. Hence a very small animal organism cannot be beautiful; for the view of it is confused, the object being seen in an almost imperceptible moment of time. Nor, again, can one of vast size be beautiful; for as the eye cannot take it all in at once, the unity and sense of the whole is lost for the spectator; as for instance if there were one a thousand miles long

To make sure you understand, it's vital in tragedy for all the pieces to fit together. Tragedy is a specific story format. Good tragedy uses the parts of a story well, but bad tragedy is sloppy and poorly put together. In tragedy, the whole has to be greater than the sum of its parts. The Todoroki Family are all good characters out of context, but the story could have enhanced their characters but detracted from them due to how poorly it is told. The fact that a lot of MHA fans are in love with the Todoroki family out of the context of the story, but also have constant complaints for how Horikoshi handles their plotlines is, in my opinion, very telling.

What Aristotle goes on to posit is the best tragedies do not come about by accident, but rather by the direct actions of the characters.

But again, Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action, but of events inspiring fear or pity. Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. The tragic wonder will thee be greater than if they happened of themselves or by accident; for even coincidences are most striking when they have an air of design. 

Therefore Tragedies require consequentialism, like Newton's Third Law, every action will have an equal and opposite reaction. To simplify a good tragedy arises from the consequences of the character's actions (or inaction). The most basic form is that the hero of the story will have a tragic flaw that they fail to improve upon in time and then leads to their destruction. In essence, tragedy is where the hero fails. Not only does the hero fail, but the hero loses, and that irreversible loss is what defines tragedy. Medea slays her own children, Oedipus rips his own eyes off and deserts his kingdom, Creon Antigone is buried alive and Creon's son, her fiancee, commits suicide.

These events share two things in common, they are irreversible (hence why they feel like good endings), and two they evoke catharsis. Aristotle defines the goal of tragedy to evoke terror and pity. We feel alongside these heroes, Medea was abandoned by the husband Jason who she left her home and slaughtered her own brother for, Oedipus did all of his crimes unwittingly and is a victim of fate, Antigone was doing the right thing by burying her brother so his soul could pass on to the afterlife.

There's all different sorts of tragedies, Hamliet explores more here. I'd say UTRH and Hellish Todoroki Family are tragedies centered around grief.

Tragedy works on extreme emotions, and extreme hard-hitting consequences to the hero's failures. The worst thing a tragedy can be is boring.

The Tragic Hero

Now that I'm done lecturing you let's actually talk about both My Hero Academia and Batman like I promised. Both of these stories don't actually feature the central victim as their protagonist, and that is a feature not a flaw.

Rather, the story we are being told is that of a tragic hero, failing to save a tragic victim because of their own personal flaws.

These flaws are called (hamartia) or "error in judgement". A hero, being called a hero of a story is often unaware of his flaws which is central to what makes them unable to fix those flaws in time. That flaw can later lead to a moral failing, such as Othello's jealousy, initially jealousy is an understandable emotion, but then it leads to him trusting Iago over his own wife and killing his wife in a rage.

Most importantly, the hero’s suffering and its far-reaching reverberations are far out of proportion to his flaw.

Let's begin with talking of the heroes and their flaws, Batman and Endeavor. My main reason for comparing these two is in these specific stories they have the same flaw, inability to move past their personal guilt towards their son, and the same conflict the duty of a father versus the duty of a hero.

However, Batman functions as a tragic hero, and Enji does not. The summary of their conflict is right here in these two panels.

A parent is required to place their children above everything else, because they are the ones responsible for bringing that child into the world. Bruce Wayne made the decision to adopt Jason. Enji made the decision to have children, however with Enji you have the added insidious motivation of he only wanted to make designer babies and just didn't care for the ones who didn't turn out right.

Bruce attempts to do both, to act as a father for Jason and also a crime fighter as batman but he can't do both. This comes to a head in Death of the Family when Jason is having serious trouble because of his lack of a strong parental figure, and Bruce knowing that Jason is in trouble chooses still to go off and fight crime instead of staying with him. The choice to place crimefighting over the child they chose to take responsibility for has the unintended consequence of getting that child killed.

Whereas Enji makes the same choice over and over again, ignoring Toya's clear troubles at the fact his father no longer spends time with him and choosing to run away to the world of heroes because he doesn't want to face the fact that his actions are severely hurting his son. Bruce's motivations are more sympathetic admittedly he wasn't actively practicing eugenics, but the choice is the same and the consequences are the same.

Both Bruce and Enji are forced to bear witness to the deaths of their children when they are not there, specifically because they made a choice to be a hero instead of staying by their child's side. A situation directly caused by their choice to be a hero over a father, and a situation that would have been avoided if they had stayed with their child in their time of need. Jason runs off when Batman tells him to stay and gets kidnapped by the Joker, if Enji had been on Sekoto peak that day Toya would never have accidentally lost control of his fire.

This is just the backstory however, the main event that kickstart this plot is the unexpected return from the dead of both Jason and Dabi. Each story follows the same plot beats. A new villain appears to challenge Endeavor / Batman. The villain reveals themselves as their dead son. Both Endeavor / Batman are given a chance to try reaching out to their sons, but they choose not to.

Then even though they are given a second chance with a miracle of a dead son coming back to them, they choose the exact same thing they chose before, being a hero and because of that the tragedy repeats itself. For both of them they are unable to save their son again, and the son goes through a second death. History repeats itself, the lesson isn't learned.

Their fatal flaw is their guilt. This is a story about grief and mourning after all, a son who is died, buried, but never grieved properly, never mourned, an open wound on the father suddenly coming back. The inability of each to process their grief blinds them from seeing the fact the son has come back, and they have a second chance.

Toya has internalized he is a failure, because Enji literally called him that. Jason believes that Batman thinks he is a failure. In both cases the father is the one who failed, Bruce at least acknowledges this but cannot communicate it in any way shape or form.

This guilt and responsibility both Enji and Bruce feel causes them to self-sabotage. They no longer have the confidence they are in the right (they no longer feel like heroes because they have failed to be heroes to their own son).

You can also add the layer of complication that since both men chose to be heroes in the past, they do not know how to handle the situation as a father now that they're being challenged to step up as one. Unfortunately, they are not the fathers that stepped up.

The reason their grief becomes a flaw is because they put their grief over their victims. . Each man is aware too much of their own failure, and while they should feel guilty they make the classic mistake of placing their own guilt over the feelings of the victim. The guilt they feel for causing the death and the genuine grief of losing a son is given priority over Jason and Dabi who you know... actually died.

An overwhelming grief and guilt is understandable because grief is a messy and human emotion, losing a child is an unimaginable tragedy that should never be inflicted on anyone.

Yet at the same time both Dabi and Jason are grieving to. This paradox that Batman only thinks of his own grief at losing a son and never stops to think about how Jason must feel leads to one of the best lines in Under the Red Hood.

"The father had lost a son, and now the son had lost a father."

Batman's guilt is so strong over being the cause of Jason's suffering, that the suffering of the victim himself is ignored. To be fair to My Hero Academia, the Todorokis say a similar line to Enji.

However, this is where I begin to get into the difference between ideas and execution. Tragedies are stories of actions and logical consequences, every action has an equal and opposite reaction in Under the Red Hood. Batman is punished for the choices he makes, the choices he doesn't make, and the choices he fails to make in time.

The Todoroki plotline features almost none of its character making any choices of substance, and because of that the plotline says the right things over and over again, but it all comes off as tell don't show.

I'm going to quote @codenamesazanka's post right here a couple of times because they describe the complete failure of the Todoroki plotline to show us a reason why we should be feeling things for the characters artfully.

We've heard Enji say this before - I'm sorry, I intend to atone. It's indeed the right thing to say, it's exactly what he should be saying and acting. Natsuo is declaring no contact - That's fine, I'm sorry, I accept this as part of my atonement and will continue. Touya calls him a coward - That's fine, I'm sorry, I accept this as part of my atonement and will continue. The public hates him - That's fine, I'm sorry, I accept this as part of my atonement and will continue. But you can only hear this so many times before you want to snap and beat the character, the story, the writing over the head with Enji's wheelchair. Why is that? He's behaving exactly as he should, and yet...

The reason why it fails to evoke strong feelings is because of what we'd called "narrative dissonance." The actions of Bruce and Enji are the same, they both neglect to do anything, make any real attempts to reach out to their victims because they're paralyzed by guilt.

However, we are told that they have entirely different arcs. Bruce's arc is a tragic fall. He's failing as a hero. While we are being told that Enji is experiencing an arc of atonement. Enji is supposed to be improving himself, and Bruce is supposed to be experiencing negative character development but they both do the exact same thing in story. Bruce neglects Jason, we are told by the story, by the characters in the story that Bruce is failing Jason. Enji does nothing in time to actually atone for Toya or try to help him, yet, we are told again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again that Enji is atoning with nothing substantive to show us this is the case.

To show what I meant instead of telling this scene is in chapter 252.

This scene is the ending point in chapter in chapter #426.

It's just him repeating the exact same sentiment and yet in a more than 150+ chapter gap, Enji never made any action to show he was now placing his family first. Enji didn't say anything to Dabi when he revealed himself as Toya. Enji didn't look for Toya in the months before the final war arc. Enji literally appeared on live TV in a broadcast that Toya was watching and said the very selfish "Watch Me" atone for the crime of creating Toya instead of literally talking about Toya or too Toya. Well, that would have rocked the boat too much... THAT IS LITERALLY THE POINT. Enji had to somehow break from tradition or make some significant sacrifice onscreen to his social standing to show that he's willing to put his family first. Enji decides to go along with Hawks decision to not face Toya head on, making the decision to be the hero for the final time which directly causes Toya to get up after Shoto brings him down non-lethally and make one last attempt to suicide bomb for his father's inaction.

Bruce does nothing for a long time in Under the Red Hood. He ignores his initial instinct that Jason came back and instead makes a long investigation on whether or not someone can come back from the dead in order to distract himself. When Jason takes the mask off, Batman already knew but was pretending otherwise because he didn't want to face the reality.

Even when Jason takes his mask off, Bruce still takes on the "I need to investigate this" angle even though Jason calls him out that deep down he already knows it's the truth. This of course foreshadows Bruce's underlying flaw, he doesn't want to face Jason head on because he feels too much grief about what happened to Jason and his guilt is more important than Jason's own grief. Just as the father has lost the son, the son has lost the father.

What follows is several chapters of Batman fighting crime as usual and making no attempts to directly search for Jason. They cross paths a few times but when they do Bruce doesn't follow. In fact, Bruce only shows up when Jason sends Bruce a sample of the joker's hair and Bruce knows that the Joker has kidnapped him out of Arkham. Bruce almost lets Jason get killed by Black Mask because he doesn't know whether to stop Jason or save him yet again, and then they have their final showdown where Jason has kidnapped the joker to demand Bruce kill him, and Bruce finally attempts to talk him down.

Out of context it sounds like I'm describing the same plotline, to the point where if you haven't read either, it looks like I'm complaining baselessly. Why is one hero doing nothing until it's too late good, and the other bad? The difference is of course context, or rather framing. Bruce's actions are called out by the people around him (Dick, Jason, Alfred) as him handling the situation wrong. Whereas both Enji's internal monologue and other characters say that he is doing his best to atone for his actions and deserves a chance, but the events we are shown in story are the exact opposite.

Here's another example to SHOW my point. Here's Dabi with my special, hardcover edition of under the Red Hood.

I reread the entirety of the fourteen chapter plotline and the majority of internal narrations come from characters outside of Bruce observing his behavior and commenting on how differently he's acting. Jason's backstory for instance is told by Alfred, not Bruce. Dick Grayson the first Robin comments on Batman's odd behavior. The rest are the third person narrator. Bruce has four instances of internal monologues spanning a few pages each in a 378 page story. (Alfred has the most internal monologues and he's presented as a more trustworthy unbiased narrator than Bruce, to get us to question Bruce's actions).

"Information travels on many routes, sometimes it comes predictably like the tides. You just need to know where to stand and meet it. Other times it's elusive and you have to root through the garbage to find it. In the last few years I've come to rely on Barbara Gordon, Oracle, we all did. Utilizing every form of surveillance equipment she has been the eyes and ear [...] but those days are over. I can't rely on anyone anymore. [...] and tonight it's also about the company I keep. It's different with him [night wing] out here. I think about when he was younger, when I was younger, it was different, simpler and I miss it. I miss those days, for that it's hard to be around him.

This first internal monologue is a case of unreliable narrator, because as soon as finishing it Dick Grayson / Nightwing shows up, offers Batman his help and while Bruce at first refuses it the two of them are forced to work together to fight Amazo. What does this show us? Bruce is not alone, but Bruce actively acts like he's alone ignoring the feelings of the other people around him. It exhibits a flaw of Bruce and the bad headspace he is in mentally (if I remember correctly Stephanie Brown recently died in the comics while this storyline was being published. It establishes Bruce's improper coping mechanism with grief, and how he is going about it the incorrect way.

Bruce says I work alone, and then Bruce says it's easier working with Dick, I miss it, but I can't go back to those days. It's bruce's contradictory thinking patterns in the same chapter that stop him. it's bruce's fault he cannot connect to Dick, and he is actively mourning the past because his relationship with Dick has changed.

Now the final part of the monologue in that chapter.

He's quick. Not just fast, agile. He's not thinking about his next move, he's just making it. He's been trained well. And there's something about him. Something familiar. There was something interesting about before he cut the line, before it had been taught. That had to have been practiced. Either that or just plain dumb luck. No it's not luck.

This is the first hint that Bruce already suspects it's Jason from early on but is in denial about it. This unreliable narrator trope also gives an agency to Bruce's decision, he is actively choosing to ignore the possibility that it's Jason because it doesn't want it to be.

Whereas, a lot of Endeavor's plot takes away any agency from him. For example, he doesn't even know that Dabi is Toya, because if he had the sneaking suspicion and ignored it like Batman did that might have made him look bad. We can't have the main character in a tragedy looking bad now can we?

The second monologue is more denial.

That device is from Kord industries. I should know. Ordered it special from them. How can he have it? No more dead ends. No more questions. No more guessing. Tonight I find out what is passing for the truth.

Reading between the lines this is outright confirmation Batman already knows.

The third is a brief reflection in his feelings for Jason.

The armor has to be light enough to fit but strong enough to protect. But sometimes a great many times, it's not strong enough. It wans't strong enough for Barbara who has to fight from her chair. It wasn't strong enough for Stephanie, other dear soldier enough dear grave. And it wasn't enough for Jason. Willful Jason. Who ignored the danger. Who spat at risk. Who was never frightened enough. I've always wondered... always... was he scared at the end? Was he praying I'd come save him? And in those last moments when he knew that I wouldn't. Did he hate me for it?

This monologue directly shows without stating it outright, Bruce is prioritizing his feelings of grief and failure mixing them in with his genuine grief over the loss of a son. it's selfish of him, but grief is a selfish emotion.

Here's the thing Bruce is allowed to be selfish and to not have the correct reaction to his grief, because the whole story is centered on Bruce being unable to get his shit together in time, and this picture into his emotions is an explanation as to why. Bruce is afraid of being hated by Jason. Jason of course has every right to hate him for failing as a father, but still I think not wanting to be hated to a person you loved so much and feel genuinely sorry over what you let happen to them is an understandable reaction.

Meanwhile we have Enji saying repeatedly all the right things in his monologue, the selfless, I don't need to be forgiven, it's okay if they hate me, I just need to atone but he never actually does anything. There's no explanation for why he isn't doing anything either, so that narrative dissonance. We're shown why Bruce doesn't act in time, he's internally a mess to be frank. We are not shown why Enji doesn't act in time because his internal monologue tells us again and again he's committed to atoning and he understands what the right thing to do is.

As Codenamesanzanka says:

Enji is still saying all the right things, but the story isn't giving him the opportunity to actually do the right things. To have his new actions matter. I have no doubt about his sincerity in his mantra, but without the 'show', it's hollow. Similarly, "Let's talk" is actually kinda bullshit too, because it's so vague. This is less about Enji, and more about the writing, how it set up this scene. "Let's talk" or "I want to talk" or any of that variation is repeated 6 times, without anything more or specific added.

There's an excess of repetition of Enji saying he wants to atone, he's ready to atone, without any of that materializing in the story.

As @class1akids says in this reaction post:

It also feels also super-hollow to say he's sheltering the family from the fallout, after they've just talked about how Fuyumi lost her job (and got a new one through the connections she herself built). How is he going to do that?

The fourth because I don't want to write it down, it's just Batman monologueing on how his partnership with Jason is still good and explaining the technical details of his fight with count Vertigo. It's in chapter 10 if you must look it up.

So four monologues total. Two monologues establish indirectly that Batman knows that Red Hood is Jason and doesn't want to face him. The third monologue establishes why he doesn't want to face him, he's afraid of being hated. The monologue is in line with Bruce's actions in the story, Bruce investigates several ways of reviving from the dead instead of looking for Jason.

The character's reactions around Bruce are also talking about how he's not acting like himself. Especially Alfred's who speaks of Bruce's indecision, on whether to put a stop to or save Jason.

"It is curious. He is lost in thought. It is not like him to spend vast stretches of time immobile, where his mind is gripped in the solitary process of deduction. This is quite different. He is hesitating. At a loss for what to do. I believe it is about Jason. And whether or not to stop him or save him."

This is illustrated in two scenes later where Jason spends a long time simply watching when Jason is fighting enemies, first in a fight against Captain Nazi, and second Black Mask. Jason even gives a direct callout of that behavior.

Jason: What the hell took you so long? Couldn't decide if you wanted to let me live. Batman: Shut up and fight.

Observed by Alfred Bruce is completely stalling and can't choose, observed by Jason Bruce can't decide whether to let Jason live or not. Bruce hesitates twice. We know why. We see it in action. It's called out as flawed behavior.

Now let's cover all the tell that don't show that is Endeavor's many monologues.

Pro Hero Arc:

I have to safeguard the future for them. That's the job for whoever's on top. What about the lives I cut short? Just demanding forgiveness isn't enough, it's too late for that. At this point I need to atone there's no other route.

Hellish Todoroki Family 1:

I'm trying to make ammends going forward. It might be too late. but I fall asleep every night thinking about it. Lately it's been the same dream. The wife and the kids looking happy at the dinner table. But I'm never there with them. It might be too late but I fall asleep every night thinking about what I can do for my family. I wish you could be here too, Toya. It's always the same dream. My whole family's there but not me. If I really care how they feel [I'll remain here].

I'm not going to read 200 chapters so I'm just going to ballpark it based on memory. Here we go.

Dabi's Dance:

My eldest, Toya didn't harbor frost within him. He didn't have a way to overcome the inescapable downside of overheating but I nevertheless sought to raise the boy as a hero. [...] Because Toya had more potential than me I placed my ambitions on his shoulders. I thought it could be you. You could have been the one to reach my eternal goal. My frustration... My envy... The ugliness in my heart... you could have been the one to smash it all to dust.

Plot twist this is the only monologue I like. It's different from all the others, and it's the only one where Enji is being emotionally honest. He put the emotional burden of his own emotional insecurities on an eight year old child, and expected to live vicariously through him and when Toya failed to live up to those expectations he just abandoned him. It alligns what we have been shown so far, Enji is not acting like a reptentant man here who realizes the harm he's done to Toya and only thinks of Toya as an extension of himself and his own regrets.

The Fight Against AFO:

My mistakes took the form as Toya leading to many stolen futures. The past never dies. Rage, resentment and even penace wound together toward the future. And the future is a path for the young. A path with so many branching choices. That's why I must win this. [I'll keep paying my penance. I'll win today and keep my eyes on Toya.]

When Enji decides to double Suicide with Toya:

I take full responsibility. I swore to bear the burden and live my life atoning for it all. However, you've been watching me all this time. While I couldn't be there to watch you. You were someone I especially needed to do right by. No I can't let you meet your end alone, but I won't let anyone else get caught up in our tragedy.

Hellish Todoroki Family Final:

I came to talk about what's to come. I'm retiring as a hero. That was my initial plan even before the war started, but now I can't even walk on my own. The hero endeavor burned to death. Your flames were really stronger than mine. [...] You're right. You know everything about me, Toya. After all you were always watching me. And you wanted me to do the same for you, but I didn't. Not matter what anyone says your heat does come from my hellflame. From now on I'll come everyday, so let's talk. It's too late now, so let's talk. [...] You're free to hate me. Anything is fine really, so throw it all at me.

This one is spoken dialogue but it's still a four-page long monologue. Every one of Enji's monologues with one exceptionsays the same thing: I'm sorry, I'll spend the rest of my life atoning for my actions.

We're repeatedly told Enji is atoning but he acts like Batman. Then, his actions should be framed as Batman, not atoning but avoiding any responsibility.

As observed by Class1akids when we were discussing the update:

Everyone else faces an uphill struggle with their lives, but we should all feel sorry for Enji atoning and being in hell. I hate Hori's compulsion to over-write his abusers and over-explain their atonement. He does this with Bakugou too but with Enji it's more irritating. It was so much more enjoyable when he just wrote the thing but didn't point at them and say -> look, they are atoning. Aren't they soooo cool??

Enji's internal monologues and the other characters frame him as some sort of martyr, while on the other hand it's clear by both Batman's actions and Alfred's observations he's not acting like his usual self. In fact, this is an interpretation of Under the Red Hood that I love from the writers of the video game Arkham Knight that does a less tragic retelling of Under the Red Hood:

Batman doesn't fight victims. He saves them.

Therefore if Batman is fighting Jason, a victim, he's not acting like Batman. I'm also fine with Arkham Knight being an Under the Red Hood retelling because it's a different story. Comics do this all the time, different universe versions, popular storylines adapted into different mediums. It also works as a commentary on the original story, by showing what Batman could have done to lead to a more positive outcome it makes Batman's choices in Under the Red Hood worse and more tragic because he could have saved Jason, there was still a chance.

So here we have two flawed tragic heroes who are meant to be both pitied and condemned for their actions. One of them is all pity with no condemnation. The other is both pity and condemnation, Batman is grieving, but also he's failing his responsibility towards Jason. Therefore one protagonist works, the other fails utterly.

I'm not saying abusers don't deserve redemption. I'm not saying Enji should have died in order to atone. I'm not saying that the underlying problem with the arc is that they decided to make Enji sympathetic and a focus of the arc. The most important problem is the breaking of one of the fundamental rules of storytelling: Show, Don't Tell.

The Tragic Villain

Not only does The Hellish Todoroki Family plotline fail to make Enji a compelling protagonist, it also fails it's biggest victim. Now, these are both stories that end with the hero failing to save their victim. So if both of these stories have the same ending, why am I saying it failed Dabi, but not Jason?

Well, let me explain.

Dabi and Jason are both villains turned victims. The stories themselves are about this ambiguity. How much should the be held responsible for their own choices? If they are actively harming innocent people, then shouldn't they be stopped? Should they be automatically be forgiven just because of the pain and grief they've suffered, even if they've been causing it to others?

Both characters are also reflective of their fathers because they are too being selfish in their grief, they want their grief acknowledged and so are violently lashing out.

Jason and Dabi both make plays at being vigilantes at first, Dabi wants to inherit Stains will, and Jason Todd wants to be a better bat-man by taking control of the drug trade in Gotham and cutting crime down by executing gang heads. However, neither of them are being honest with this and it's shown through their actions, both of them abandon their original plans.

In the final showdown all Toya cares about is facing Enji on the battlefield, and when he's on the brink of death his mind erodes to the point where all he can do is scream for Enji's attention while his flames get hotter and hotter.

Let's take about Jason first and how his narrative treats him a whole lot better and more sympathetically, with more humanity than Batman. Jason is still held responsible for his choices, he is criticized by Bruce for murdering gang leaders and passing it off as justice. He's also blatantly shown to be a hypocrite. My favorite scene from Red Hood: Lost Days, the official UTRH prequel.

"I want to kill the joker in a cool way. Just sniping the Joker from a rooftop isn't dramatic enough for me."

This scene, and the final scene of UTRH underlines Jason isn't executing criminals because he believes it's the right thing to do, or because of his stated motivation that killing the joker would prevent more future victims.

Instead his every action is to set up a scenario where he makes a selfish demand of Bruce. He wants Bruce to prove to him that he would choose him over being a hero, by setting up his final scenario. Him, the Joker, and Batman. Jason will shoot the Joker. Bruce has a gun. He can either choose to let Jason kill the Joker, or kill Jason to stop him, either way it makes it clear what Bruce's priorities are.

The underlying reason for this is similiar to Bruce. Just like Bruce, Jason is deeply afraid that Batman doesn't love him. That he thinks of him as a failure. (This is Toya's main reason too).

He also interprets Bruce's failure to avenge him to mean that Bruce didn't even care enough to mourn him. If Bruce loved him enough, he'd choose him over the joker, but he's so afraid that Bruce doesn't love him enough that he's going to force Bruce to choose.

Along the way he's also going to behead several crimelords in order to put an exclamation point on that point.

The way Jason completely unravels in the confrontation shows this insecurity, he begins with monologueing about how batman should totally kill people, until his fear that he wasn't important enough, and his grief at losing his father is revealed.

Batman: I know I failed you, but I tried to save you. I'm trying to save you now. Jason: Is that what what you think this is about? Your letting me die. I don't know what clouds your judgement worse, your guilt or your antiquated sense of morality. Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me. Jason: But why on god's green earth is he still alive? Ignoring what he's done in the past. Blindly, stupidly disregarding the whole graveyards he's filled with people. The friend's he's killed. I thought killing me - that I'd be the last person you ever let him hurt. Jason: If it had been you that he beat to a bloody mess. If it had been you he left in agony. If he had taken you from this world. I would have done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil, this death worshipping garbage, and sent him off to hell.

Direct statement, it's irresponsible of Bruce to let Joker live after killing Jason and should have put him down to prevent future victims. Reading between the lines, Batman not taking revenge for Jason is a sign that he didn't love him enough, Jason loves Batman more because he would have taken revenge.

As the confrontation continues and Jason's mental spiral worsens, to the point where he can't keep up his pretense of self-righteousness.

Jason: I'm not talking about killing cobblepot, or scarecrow, or riddled, or dent. Jason: I'm talking about him. Just him. And doing it because...he took me away from you.

The father had lost the son, and now the son had lost the father.

Jason's revenge is just a cover, for his grief at losing Bruce. I think this also shows a really positive aspect of Jason's character to humanize him instead of condemning him for his actions to ignore or even justify the suffering he endured: Jason really loves Bruce.

I mean how meaningful is the statement: "Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me."

Bruce has been afraid to hear the whole time that Jason hates him, that he won't forgive him, but Jason loves him deeply. In fact his love is almost equal to his rage because Jason is a deeply emotional person, and these little details make him human and not just like a plot obstacle that Bruce has to face. A metaphor for his past failures.

Dabi is drawn as a crying boy who wants comfort, Jason is shown to be a crying boy who wants comfort through both dialogue and action without us directly needing to be told. It's a heartbreaking line and doing it because he took me away from you and it lands perfectly because the narrative wants us to just look at Jason's grief. It doesn't add an asterisk* even though he was in pain, he's done unforgivable things that can't be justified to undercut Jason's suffering.

In fact that might be another underlying problem with The Hellish Todoroki Family, the narrative tries too hard to make you feel a certain way instead of just presenting things as they are to make you come to your own conclusion. UTRH doesn't support Jason's revenge based serial killing of villains. It doesn't say he's justified to cut off the heads of mobsters. However, it doesn't excessively state "Well, I'm really sorry what happened to you but what you've done can't be forgiven" so we don't have to challenge ourselves to feel too much empathy for Jason's suffering.

Meanwhile even when Toya tries to express his rightful anger and grief, we're always met with someone shutting him down and saying well yeah, but you're wrong, involving innocent people is unforgivable.

As said by @stillness-in-green in the replies to this post:

I think so much harm (in-universe, but the state of the Twitter fandom makes me think the messages are pretty toxic irl, too) comes out of portraying the Heroes as needing to weigh in on the *morality* of the Villains' actions before they gauge "saving" them, when that is not a thing that glorified cops have any business thinking they have the right to do. Demanding repentance before the rehab is so bizarre.

You can say someone's actions are wrong without using it as a factor to consider whether or not their suffering as a human being should be acknowledged, and like I said there's multiple instances of people just yelling at Toya how immoral he is instead of addressing the elephant in the room.

You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong.

(Okay, I understand that some people have interpreted this as a show of Honnae and Tatamae, the Todoroki's who are a very repressed household are finally talking about their feelings even if those feelings are selfish and ugly).

(I'm not criticizing Shoto for saying that the people he killed were his own choice necessarily, Shoto is a character who's actions need to be read more deeply than his words he was dedicated to bringing Dabi down without him burning himself any further start to finished. My criticism lies in the fact that Hori uses Shoto as a mouth piece because he thinks we need to be reminded that murder is bad).

However, even acknowledging that time and place man, time and place. They couldn't have done that in the aftermath, when Toya isn't burning to death?

Hey buddy, you're being selfish.

Toya: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'M MELTING, I'M MELTING.

This is I feel the underlying problem with the way the arc is written, not because the Todorokis are a very traditional Japanese family and there are cultural reasons they express their emotions differently, I'll give a caveat to that it's a nuance I might not understand.

However, I am arguing the actual problem is tell don't show. Horikoshi thinks that we as an audience need to be told multiple times that murder is bad, and we cannot be trusted to interpret that on our own.

Under the Red Hood shows both sides of Batman and Jason's debate, and let's us just come to the conclusion that Jason is in the wrong because revenge isn't justice. Horikoshi reaches no shit sherlock levels of telling us that we're not supposed to approve of Dabi's murders.

it's also a matter of giving Dabi narrative space to express his feelings, like every time Dabi tries to talk he is continually shut down (Shoto does engage Dabi talk to him and listen to why he didn't come back though I'll give him that) and it seems to be to push forward this weird idea that you shouldn't sympathize with the pain Dabi has endured or the ways he's dehumanized unless he does something to prove he deserves to be treated like a human being first.

Jason gets to monologue and make an entire argument, and his argument also shows the depths of his love for Bruce and what a deeply feeling person he is, and how those feelings being hurt and twisted could logically lead to his lashing out.

Compare this to Dabi who doesn't get a final monologue, but is instead reduced to a completely mindless state where he just cries out for his dad's attention. He doesn't get to make his argument.

Jason and Dabi both choose to blow themselves up, but Jason gets enough character agency to show this is a deliberate choice he's making even if it's the wrong one. He retains his character agency and ability to make decisions until the end of the narrative.

Jason's also you know physically crying. The end result of the narrative is about wrong choices that both Bruce and Jason make together, and then suffer the consequences together. Bruce watches the same failure play out again and he isn't able to save Jason, Jason doesn't get what he wants, he doesn't get revenge and he doesn't get to reunite with his father. It's tragic for both of them, and brought about by decisions both of them made.

Whereas yes Dabi makes a lot of bad decisions leading up to the last war arc, but in the end his final fate is up to a choice Enji made to not face Toya in the final battle.

However, while the final consequence of the battle is brought about more by Enji's decisions than Toya's, it's Toya who endures all the suffering and punishment. It's Toya who is in an iron coffin, and doomed to slowly and agonizingly die with all of his skin burnt off unable to move. Toya doesn't even get agency after the arc is over. Enji still has a wheelchair, Enji can still move around, Enji's still fucking rich, he's not in prison for his actions, he as Rei wheeling him around.

Toya's agency and choices are all taken from him, presumably to serve the plot purpose of making Enji save him to finish off his arc, and then ENJI DOESN'T EVEN SAVE HIM.

Also I think it's important to mention, Bruce's tragic ending is brought about by him attempting to save both, trying to save the joker and Jason with the same action. Whereas Enji's tragic ending is brought about by Enji NOT LIFTING A FUCKING FINGER TO HELP. Yet, it's Dabi who has the lion's share of suffering, and is sentenced to this horrific state of being skinless in an iron coffin and only being able to be awake a few minutes a day with no choice but to waste away.

Bruce is also immediately called out for his actions, by the Joker of all people, you handled this all wrong, it's your fault. Bruce is right to not kill the joker, killing the Joker would not have solved any of Jason's problems, but the fact that he put off facing Jason for so long, and his inability to communicate that he loves Jason is what leads to Jason thinking that the only way to prove Bruce loves him is to force him to choose. It's because Bruce has utterly failed to show him in any other way that he is loved.

Joker: Oh my god, I love it! You manage to find a way to win, and everyone still loses. I'm going to be the one who gets what he wants tonight, badda bing, badda boom."

I'd also like to add that a lot of agency in Enji's actions are taken away too, to make him look more blameless. It's not Enji's fault that he didn't say anything to Dabi during Dabi's dance, he passed out because he had a punctured lung. It's not Enji's fault that he spent a month protecting Deku instead of searching for Toya, he had to protect innocent people. It's not Enji's fault that he didn't go immediately to face Toya in the final war arc Hawks told him not to.

It's not Enji's fault that he made Shoto and Toya fight like Pokemon instead of cleaning up his own mess, and also he feels really sorry for it and as soon as he's done punching the bad guy he'll look after Toya he promises.

Enji does get called out for this behavior but it falls flat because it only comes from the villain AFO, and Toya himself. As I stated above too, the ending is more influenced by Enji's actions not Toya's (because Toya's agency is stripped away until he's mindless) but Toya is the one who has to die while Enji gets to live and atone.

That is the real sticking point for The Hellish Todoroki Family, the way it ends.

Themes Are For Eight Graders

The underlying problem with the whole arc and why The Hellish Todoroki Family fails as a tragedy, is because it wasn't written to be a tragedy.

The above quote is from an interview with the writers of the widely hated Game of Thrones Season 8, which took a sudden tragic turn for Dany's character, gave her an incredibly dehumanizing ending of being put down like a rabid dog by her own lover, an ending that was neither foreshadowed nor did it match with anything written before.

In this meta here by @hamliet it goes far more into depth that Game of Thrones isn't a tragedy, but a piece of Romantic fiction (not a love story, Romanticism is a genre of big emotions, the beauty of life, larger than life ideas hence why it fits well with fantasy genre, it can be sad but it doesn't follow tragic structure).

Dany is a romantic heroine, a deconstruction of the idea of the classic warrior princess trope, and you know a colonizer, but she's not meant to be written as an inherently bad person. There are people who say that Dany was going to die in the original books. I'm one of those people. Me. However, context and framing matters, Dany for all her colonizing ways does genuinely want to do the right thing, so it's likely she'd die a heroic death as a reflection of her selfless intentions (and intentions do matter for fictional characters) whereas in the show she's put down as a villain.

Now watch me I'm going to coin a term for future literary critics to use: Narrative Gaslighting.

Narrative gaslighting is different then Show Don't Tell, where an author has just failed to properly show what they're trying to tell you in the story. Narrative Gaslighting is when a narrative deliberately tries to mislead you, straight up lies to you, or just insists things that did not happen totally happened guys. Much like real gaslighting, Narrative Gaslighting makes you feel stupid for interpreting things a certain way and insists you were wrong all along.

Narrative gaslighting is when Tyrian gives a speech that everyone should have suspected Dany when she burned slavers alive that she was secretly evil and would one day turn on them.

Like, no.

Dany is flawed because she is a foreigner, interfering with the politics of a different country that she does not understand in order to gain enough resources and men to return to her home country and invade that country to exercise her right as a Targeryn to uphold the divine right of kings.

Game of Thrones doesn't mention any of that shit that's in alignment with the previous actions in the story, it's just insisting the very ableist notion that Dany was insane all along and her violence towards other people is the result of her mental illness.

(Also before anyone says, so if she's a colonizer than how can she have good intentions, everyone is Bad in Game of Thrones, they're all waging war to vie for a throne, monarchy is bad guys. IDK how to tell you that Game of Thrones has gray on gray on gray on gray morality).

(Also this aside ties into the hangup of MHA and most popular fandom culture on Twitter, that Dany's moral failings somehow disqualify her from her humanity. In spite of the fact that on top of all of that she's a rape victim, and like, Dany's only on that continent in the first place because she was sold as a bride.)

But here's the same weird subtext that Horikoshi's writing of Dabi. The fact that Dabi was continually victimized and denied human dignity does not need to be addressed, because he did the bad things and didn't atone properly enough for it first.

In essence this random post on the gunnerkrigg court forums I found on the same day the chapter came out, displaying apollo's gift of prophecy.

"When someone is persecuted, it's important to inform everyone about their flaws. That way you don't have to feel anything about all the times that they were denied human dignity."

So, Dany is not written as a tragic hero but a romantic one, we as an audience are both meant to acknowledge her flaws and sympathize with her, not demonize her in an ableist way for being insane, and even if Dany is meant to die the tragic way she dies does not match up with all of the narrative foreshadowing that was built before that.

Like, for instance a lot of POC after the show ended kept telling everyone that Dany's actions in a foreign country were seriously problematic, and not only did the audience not listen but the showwiters didn't acknowledge it with the same subtlety as the books. So those people especially were able to pick up Dany's character flaws, and when the show finally acknowledged them it's not even in the way that critiques of the show were pointing out Dany's flaws it was just "she was insane all along." Not like taking time to go "no matter what the intention, interfering with the politics of a foreign country is wrong."

The problem with the Todoroki arc is essentially the same, down to the ableism (because outsiders continually call Dabi either a maniac or insane Demon without even giving credence to his grievances about hero society he's just reduced to an insane fringe element of society, and Dabi himself is reduced to a completely mindless, childish, insane screaming state where he can't make active decisions).

The Todoroki Arc is not set up to us as a tragic one. The ending is pretty clearly telegraphed to the whole audience. People are not wrong for thinking that Toya's ending would be either rehabilitation like Rei with the eventual hope of being welcomed home, or some kind of house arrest where he still gets to be with his family.

Everyone happy at the Dinner table and Enji not sitting with them.

"I wish you could be here, Toya."

"We all have to go stop, Toya."

"In that case, I'll make him sit down for a bowl with me."

Even Shoto's efforts to take down Toya non-lethally are rendered completely pointless, because Toya gets back up again and then burns himself alive (completely by his own choice so no one has to feel bad that they failed).

The story sets up the expectation that Toya is going to be brought home and sit down for a meal with his family. Then it makes you feel stupid for going in an entirely different direction. It was always going to end this way didn't you know The Todorokis are a tragedy?

Well, I just spent a very long section of this thesis statement illustrating that if it's supposed to be a tragedy, then it's still not written well.

It's a written as a romantic story of a family healing, and the villain getting saved, only for the villain not to be saved and the story to just keep on going like not getting saved isn't a huge failure. This is something that should permanently destroy the main characters, that they got the chance to repeat Sekoto peak and be there this time and they all utterly failed. I feel bad for Shoto most of all because he did everything right, and he still loses his brother, but does the story show that?

The problem is the story is blatantly lying to you about the fact that Toya was somehow saved, even though he LITERALLY LOOKS LIKE HELLRAISER. To quote Codenamesanzanka again:

But I feel the story couldn't give us that because it will remind the reader and everyone just how much Touya will be missing. In-story, talking any more will overburden Touya's heart - and how apt is that metaphor? So let's talk about how we'll talk, but that's all that's allowed here for this scene. Else we'll see how unfair it is that Touya has to be confined to this room, he isn't with his family and they have to come to this prison just to tell him about their day, and soon he will be gone. Details make it real, and it would've exposed the lie that Touya was saved in an actual way. The story knows it too - "this extra time Shouto gave us." This is all 'extra', and not the core. [...] If the story was sincere that this is a case of "it's simply too late" - as it should be!!! imo, to really drive in the clear point that they failed, they did not get the save they wanted, because that's the truth - the tone of the chapter isn't tragic enough for that. The tone is going for 'Making Peace With This'. We've skipped the stages of grief and all we have is acceptance. The characters have accepted this, and so must the readers as well.

Therefore it's narrative gaslighting, the story is making us doubt our perceptions and trying instead to manipulate us to feel a certain way. We don't have to question the unfairness of Toya's fate, because look at all the people he's hurt, and look how Enji is atoning and taking responsibility.

The story builds up the idea that Enji will choose Toya. That he will choose being a father over being a hero. Enji doesn't do that, and it's Toya who suffers the horrific, painful consequences while Enji gets off mostly scott free. Mind you it's also ableist to suggest that being in a wheelchair is some sort of life-ending consequence like he's fine. The story even goes out of its way to say how avoidable this ending could have been if Enji or Rei or someone lifted a single finger to give Toya the acknowledgement he wanted, and then gives it a "Too little, Too Late" conclusion but doesn't acknowledge that this is where it's ending and instead tells us that Enji has successfully atoned.

"Everyone's watching me. So this is what it's like. If it was such a simple thing, then why not sooner?"

If it was going to turn out this way Toya should have just died here, not because death would somehow be a mercy compared to life in prison, but because the Todoroki Family doesn't deserve to get to pat themselves on the back. If they let Sekoto Peak happen a second time, then they should have to deal with the consequences of that.

It would be consistent is my point. This is written as a "Too Little, Too Late" kind of ending, but we don't get the emotional response from the Todorokis that they've let Toya die a second time.

On the other hand, UTRH has the exact same tragic ending but it doesn't make me angry because it's honest about it. The Todorokis let Sekoto peak happen a second time. Batman let Death in the Family happen a second time, but look at how even the narration and comic panels of the story acknowledge it.

"Fate is a funny thing. It swells up like a raging current and we are forced to travel. It provides us no exit. No deviation. It drops us in a bottomless ocean and compels us. We either swim, or drown, and sometimes as we struggle against the tide, a great truth arises."

One ends with Enji meaninglessly stating that he'll spend the rest of his life atoning for Toya and watching over him (which I guess will be like two months tops) for the fifth time. The other ends with Batman being lectured by the Joker of all people of how he chose wrong and being forced to watch once again as a warehouse blows up, and he's completely helpless to save Jason.

UTRH ends with the message that Batman sucks, Enji's atonement arc ends with Natsuo calling him cool for atoning and UTRH makes me like Batman way more as a character. Whereas at this point I feel nothing from the Todoroki Family, except for a disgust for the way that Toya not only has to die, but has to die a slow, gruesome death while the rest of his family walks away with the small comfort of "oh at least we'll get to say what we need to say before Toya passes."

Especially with the fact that Toya's greatest fear was that when he died, he died meaninglessly because his family never grieved him and all moved on with their life. I guess we don't have to analyze how gross the underlying message that criminals don't deserve to be sympathized with because themes are for eighth graders.

EPILOGUE

The post is finished but apparently everyone expects me to cover every single possible angle even in posts this long.

You didn't address the cultural aspect. Under the Red Hood is a western story, and Todoroki Family is based on eastern concepts.

The post isn't about that. The post is long enough I can't cover every single topic. Here's someone who covered that topic thoroughly. This one discusses more about the nuances of collectivism.

Also, since the Todoroki Family obviously copied Under the Red Hood's homework, it warrants a comparison. Especially since it seems to critically misunderstand what made the original work.

Which is a valid form of Literary Criticism, as Ursula K Le Guinn once said:

 It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does.

The Todorkis aren't all to blame for Toya. Natsu, Fuyumi and Shoto are innocent:

You're right. It's just easier to refer them as the Todorokis then specifying "Enji and Rei" each time.

You didn't mention Shoto once in this post:

I have no cricism for Shoto's role in all this. In fact I think he's the best written part. I praise it here.

Shoto is a good boy, and he deserved to spend more time with his brother. The fact he won't be able to sit down and have dinner of him, is the greatest tragedy of them all.

[nyc3]

People seriously sleep on how much attractive and fine looking All Might was as a teen...

I mean:

Big pretty blue eyes, tall, tan skin, golden hair.

Also the hairstyle sures help.

Weird how his old and skinny look seems to have more simps than the younger versions lmao.

[arceus-insanity]

Endeavor Deserves No Sympathy!

I don't understand how anyone can think Endeavor was ever a good dad. It also always comes off as incredibly victim blamie, especially towards Touya, and often Shoto too.

He literally only got married and had kids to use them. He never gave a shit about their well being, never even thought about it until he had the one thing he cared about and was still miserable. I've already gone over the math proving he gave up on achieving his dream himself at 21 at the absolute latest. (https://www.tumblr.com/arceus-insanity/763259515356512256/i-liked-endeavors-character-when-he-was?source=share)

And basic math will once again be used to prove just how little this waste of flesh actually tries.

This time the focus is on how quickly he abandoned Touya and immediately went to emotional abuse via neglect & literally replacing him, and once again risking that more children be born with self-destructive quirks.

For context we only see Endeavor doing anything with his kids that's not him literally walking through and ignoring them in two circumstances. Once when Fuyumi's a newborn and Touya is attempting to crawl (not walk) over to her. And training. Those are the only times he tries to spend with any of them, even after he starts his 'atonement'

Now comparing Touya in the scene of them training and himself as a toddler and all the child imagery this series loves to use instead of actually saving imperfect victims, Touya is at least 3 (probably closer to 4) when he's taken to the doctor and they are informed of his condition

Natsuo is 4 and a half years younger than him.

We know for a fact Natsuo (& Shoto) was conceived after they got the news, not willingly either. Pregnancy takes 40 weeks average, so Touya would still be 3 when Natsuo was conceived. So once again it took this 'man' less than a year to give up and have another child he hoped to use as a tool, and was explicitly making to hurt his existing son. And as I have said plenty of times before, risking that the new kids could be born with the same disorder, I hate how convenient it is that Shoto gets near zero negative quirk side effects.

Want to know what we never see, Endeavor doing something else with Touya and Touya demanding training, it's always him walking past/ away from Touya. Considering all of the shit they've pulled to soften Endeavor's abuse both in the manga and even more so in the anime, they wouldn't skip something like this. It's not hard to tell that Touya's 'obsession with training' is really about spending time with his dad, you know like a human child that literally needs love, proven by numerous studies and research in the real world.

He throws all parenting responsibilities onto Rei, adds more children to that load, and when Touya suffers for it (like everyone else) he does nothing, doesn't even hire a nanny

Another are you kidding me take I've seen is that somehow Touya's quirk issues are worse than Midoriya's and Yuga's. Touya managed to train his quirk to produce blue fire at 13 with zero equipment and less than no help, and only lost control of it, because of the mental abuse Endeavor had inflicted on him leading him to a mental breakdown. And/ or the theory I've only seen once of AFO using his ability to force quirk activation (seen with a passed out chapter 90 during his first confrontation with All Might)

Midoriya was breaking his bones all the way into the Shie Hassaikai arc and was only able to fight because Eri and was breaking support equipment in the following arc as well. Yuga had a support belt all the way back in the entrance exam and was still struggling with that.

Speaking of Yuga let's compare parental effort here, because as much as it backfired Yuga's parents tried a whole lot more. For starters they nearly bankrupted themselves to get him a quirk, so he could feel equal. All For One is a mythic man prior to his arrest, and those who knew of him were shown to be serious long-term villain groups, so they had gone to quite a bit of effort to find that he existed to begin with. They also got him support gear (the navel belt thing) as a kid to help him with said quirk, he literally had it in the entrance exam. Endeavor never looked into that, Endeavor is not only rich too but he's a top hero he would have direct access to support equipment companies that would jump at the opportunity and it never even occurred to him.

Endeavor's name is an irony as endeavour means to try hard to do or achieve something. He never tries hard he gives up incredibly quickly the second there's any road block, but instead of moving on he makes everyone suffer for it. He's a toxic pageant mom who'd rather force their child into a toxic world and a role they don't want than work on himself

And what finally makes him change? Getting exactly what he wanted and still being miserable, and he still expects through his actions his family to cater to him.

Not his son getting a major disability due to his actions, no, he decided to double down, mentally abusing and neglecting the son he supposedly loves, raping his wife who didn't want more kids or participate in this abuse, and again risking that Natsuo & later Shoto might have that same issue. Not when his wife breaks down and permanently scars his precious masterpiece, who proceeds to rightfully blame him, and he just thinks of it as a tantrum despite it lasting a fucking decade. Not when his eldest literally dies as the result of his selfishness. Not literally during any part of this entire process!

Dabi is 23 when Endeavor finally starts to 'try' to be better, that means that for at least 24 years he has only been caring about his fucking precious number one spot in a popularity contest that he couldn't even bother to try to be likeable for, this wasn't one bad decision, this was him constantly choosing to be so insanely selfish that he found ways that shouldn't even be possible for over two decades. And it was all him.

[polpol333]

Bnha with LoV be like:

Introduce new villains

Make them interesting

Let them interact with each other in a found family way, let them care about each other, showing that they're not monsters

Give them sympathetic, tragic, and understandable backstories

Show through these backstories that they became criminals not bc of their flaws but bc of circumstances and trauma

Raise serious topics through their backstories like child abuse & neglect (real world problems) and detrimental quirk counselling & mutant discrimination (bnha world problems)

Let them occasionally make great points about the hero society (which would be instantly ignored by the heroes)

Give them parallels with the heroes

Don't let any of them kill anyone the audience cares about, don't let them commit anything truly unforgivable and gross

Let (a few) heroes connect with them

Make saving them the main goal of some heroes

Kill almost all of them 👍

[absolute-decay]

Do you think in the most twisted, misguided, disgusting, and almost idiotic way, Chisaki saw his young self in Eri, and thought he would be to her what the boss was to him. Like. This lost young orphaned child with nothing but the clothes on their back taken in by a Yakuza. That's literally their only similarities but do you think Chisaki decided that was enough? That he should be the one to "save" her?

I know it sounds ridiculous but just stick with me here.

This single image from chapter 136 screams so fucking much about Kai's brain and his relationship with Eri to me. Because ask yourself. "Why doesn't Kai just put Eri into a coma like he did The Boss?" Because that would solve so many of his problems. No chance of Eri escaping. No chance of any Heroes finding out about her. There'd be minimal resources spent on her since all he needs is to keep her alive regardless of physical condition. It literally solves everything, it almost feels like a plot hole. But then you remember the fact that Eri was entrusted to Kai by The Boss, and then you take another look at the image above, and it kinda clicks, doesn't it?

He doesn't do that because he genuinely, truly wants to take care of Eri. He might even really see himself as her father figure. And I think that makes so much sense, especially with his other relationships. Case in point, Shin Nemoto.

We saw the results of Shin using his Quirk on Kai, and he says straight up, "I like you, I trust you, your presence makes me feel at ease." And he didn't even seem shocked or upset after saying it, so it wasn't a truth he was unaware of or didn't want Shin to know. That's simply how he felt, cut and dry. But, with that being the truth, he was more than willing to use him as an expendable asset, have him be a fall guy after the raid with the other Bullets, and fuse with him, which he seems to believe will fucking kill him. That's not Kai using a pawn: That's just how Kai is with someone he cares about.

So, it wouldn't be far fetched to say, the same applies to Eri, and that really does recontextualize every one of their scenes, huh?

"You're the centerpiece of my plan."

"To this girl, you're no hero."

"You're cursed, every action you take kills someone."

"Someone else is going to die because of you!"

"She doesn't want you."

None of this is manipulation or scare tactics or anything like that. This is just what Kai thinks of humans. That he can hurt and pull and abuse them in the worst ways possible, and do it over and over again, and not understand when they want to run away. And I feel like him being raised in one of Garaki's "orphanages" just rubs salt into this wound.

Because, he takes care of Eri, doesn't he? He gets her toys and a pretty room and a soft bed, and he's nice and calm with her, doesn't even use his quirk to kill her and bring her back to life painfully as punishment! He doesn't seem to be physical with her at all, outside of the blood extractions. She has everything a girl could ask for, and she spurns him? Runs from him? Well, no matter. That's just how children are. Ignorant, illogical, they just don't make sense.

...It's such an incredibly fucked up way of thinking. And I think it's ingrained so deeply in Kai's mind because it's what he thinks he never had.

I think the way he treats Eri is how he thinks loving parents would have treated him. Pretty toys and nice clothes and good food and absolutely nowhere in his mind does any genuine relationship dynamics or aspects of unique personality come into play because after years and years of not having it he just. Doesn't. Get it.

So that's why it's lacking in his relationship with Eri. In all of his relationships, really. Because The Boss took him in and loved him and cared for him and Kai knows that but he doesn't understand that. So he's trying his best to "love" and "raise" Eri by being an empty photocopy of a parent at his best, because that's all he is. That's what defines Kai, till the very end.

He's empty. And so is his love. So Eri's room will always be full.

[paesagex]

Shimura Koutaro and wasted occasions for depth within My Hero Academia

Thinking about Koutaro Shimura one day a realization suddenly hit me. If Gran Torino and All Might fully believed for five whole years that All for One was dead, but neither knew of Koutaro’s and his family's tragic passing in a “mysterious Villain Attack”, that means that they never tried to get in touch with him.

That’s not a big revelation, we already knew that, but the more I thought about the implications of this choice, the more fundamentally wrong it felt.

There was one sole reason Koutaro was sent away from his mother, and that was to protect him from Afo. but once Afo was “dead”, there were plenty of good reasons to try to look for him.

Out of minimum decency, Koutaro deserved at the very least an apology and an explanation for his abandonment. He also deserved to know that the death of both his parents had been avenged, as the man that is behind all his family’s trouble was believed to be dead. Besides, was Koutaro even ever informed of Nana’s death? If she tinkered with the documentation, it would mean that there was no legal proof that Koutaro was her son. Therefore, no government official would know to notify him.

One may counteract that they tried but failed, but that’s a weak argument.

Koutaro was a successful businessman who likely had a lot of social connections, and his name wasn’t even changed. All Might, with all his resources, should have been able to find out anything that Afo, the guy who Koutaro was supposed to be hidden from, could.

The motto of this story is “Plus Ultra”.

If it is the right thing to do, you should put the whole of yourself in achieving your goal, no matter how difficult.

Therefore, All Might and Gran Torino, thematically speaking, have no excuses to not have tried to make things right with Koutaro. Even if, let’s say, Afo had managed to make the whole ordeal of the Shimura’s mysterious deaths go mediatically unnoticed, the heroes aren’t excused from their inaction.

Or rather, the narrative that established this theme isn’t excused from not calling this out.

THE WEAKENING OF THE NARRATIVE'S OWN MORALS

In fact, this last consideration is really my main point. This essay is titled “wasted opportunities,” not “heroes suck,” after all.

The problem with this oversight from the two heroes isn’t really that it’s a clear show of neglect towards a man that lost his childhood innocence because of the choices heroes made for him.

It’s that they’re never called out about it.

Making characters mess up, make bad choices and ending up hurting others is not bad writing at all, actually it is very good. This shows that they’re complex and have multiple facets, and that their actions have consequences within the story, which is what makes them well written!

However, when the narrative fails to acknowledge bad, hurtful choices, especially if it is trying to frame a character as a “good guy”, then it creates inconsistency.

All Might’s arc is one of deconstruction, where he’s supposed to go from A, an untouchable idol, to B, a man with flaws and sins. However, this example I’m bringing up and many other ones people pointed out over the years shows that his arc really goes from A, to B, and then back to A again. The story never fully dives into all the things All Might could have been criticized for, it is afraid to touch upon Deku’s idolization of him.

Despite my opinion in the matter being that Koutaro and his right to know should be mainly Gran’s responsibility, as he was involved personally in the decision to abandon him, All Might is a much more important character, and should be challenged harder.

Of course though they’re both left off the hook, All Might to protect Deku’s moral integrity and refusal to question his idol, Gran because he’s specifically thought out as a stagnant old fashioned hero who represents the suppressive justice system which Deku was supposed (and failed) to surpass.

Letting the matter of these two heroes just leaving a presumably still alive man unaware of the reasons behind a huge injustice imposed on him when he was just a child makes them look bad, but not in a good sense. They seem indifferent. The fact that Koutaro was already dead by the point of Afo’s “head massage” is irrelevant. It’s the fact that they never even think about making things right with him that counts.

Heroes neglected Koutaro when they decided that his right to have a parent was less important than fighting Afo, and they just kept neglecting him even after they believed the fight was over.

WHY THIS CHOICE (in my opinion)

I thought about it, I tried to find a reasonable explanation as to why Horikoshi would just pretend this whole deal wasn’t there. And the only one I could come up with is the same one I reached in trying to explain myself why nobody ever seemed to look into Shigaraki’s past once his identity as a Shimura was revealed:

Horikoshi had already planned the whole Afo/Ofa psychic connection and wanted that to be the way Deku grew any interest in understanding Shigaraki.

All Might and Gran Torino looking for Koutaro would have uncovered part of the mystery behind Shigaraki too early, while the author wanted the protagonist to be able to look directly into Shigaraki’s heart through the power of One for All, the Quirk Created to Save.

However, as many pointed out before me, the last arc and Deku’s newfound interest in helping villains feels incredibly rushed, his empathy forced, which is frustrating since there was, through the whole time of the story, a huge pile of information just lying there gathering dust that the characters had tons of good reasons to look into and be interested in.

MISTAKES AND USING THEM TO BUILD A STRONGER STORY

I fully believe that the story building would have worked better if Deku’s interest in Shigaraki had been gradually built from the start, and Koutaro was the key to achieve this.

Heroes are “forbidden” from focusing too much on the Shimura tragedy because that would ruin the story’s strong plot twists and tragic flashbacks, which are one of MHA’s main strong qualities, one might say. However, this isn’t a true problem.

In fact, if you think about it, making so that All Might was aware of Koutaro’s and his family gruesome death would have created 1) foreshadowing to Shigaraki’s identity reveal, 2) added weight to his shoulders, challenging not any hero, but the Symbol of Peace himself to face the consequences of his neglect directly, and 3) at first, it would have made the assumption that Shigaraki was the one to kill his family even more horrifying.

If we as readers had been aware of the level of violence that the death of the Shimuras involved before Shigaraki’s flashbacks, we would have been lead to believe, just as any character who would have bothered to do any research about them, that they were a perfectly normal, loving family that couldn’t possibly have deserved this tragic fate. Making Shigaraki, who is said by Afo to have killed them, look like an innate psychopath.

For these reasons, the emotional investment of Shigaraki’s flashbacks in the My Villain Academia arc would not have been undermined at all, actually it would have strengthened it, as in this case, they would work both as an explanation of how Shigaraki was manipulated from childhood by Afo and it would unmask an impression of superficial happiness and perfection, one of Mha’s big themes.

Moreso, a gradual investigation through the whole story on the main Villain’s past would, as we already said, have created a more earned interest from the protagonist, but it would have also… made a lot of sense logistically.

His Quirk was known, so was his real surname, by this point the fact that the police never connected the dots and didn’t manage to find his old neighbours, kindergarten teachers, anyone who could have testified that Tenko used to be perfectly normal and even exceptionally gentle before he was taken in by Afo is just a huge, unjustifiable plot hole.

CONCLUSION

Keeping All Might and Gran Torino so disinterested of Koutaro’s and his family’s fate is both a bad choice in moral consideration and, because of the way it is (not) handled, in writing, just as the gaping black hole that is the nonexistent investigation on Shigaraki when there was plenty of information.

The Shimuras are not only amongst the biggest tragedies of this story, they’re a missed opportunity for a fully deep exploration of the story’s themes. One of many, unfortunately.

One that fully reflects all the things that make MHA a hypocritical, double standard narrative that parrots its desire to uncover cycles of pain and violence and hold society accountable but then never fully commits to its message.

Koutaro and Shigaraki, father and son, led sad lives, neglected by the people who should have protected them and therefore becoming easy prey for Afo, and then died horribly without this sadness ever being really acknowledged, the people responsible never expressing their guilt appropriately.

There was no improvement between their two generations, Deku’s teachers didn’t manage to be a good example to the new Symbol of Peace by facing their mistakes honestly.

My Hero Academia presents the tragedies of the Shimuras as ways to uncover cycles of violence and societal neglect, when it is actually using them to create empty emotional engagement that isn’t used to add depth to the story and doesn’t even reach a real resolution.

To put it simply, they’re wasted.

[bnhaobservation]

BNHA IS NOT A WORK OF SOCIETAL CRITICISM AND ITS MESSAGE IS NOT REALLY ‘OUT OF JAPAN’ FRIENDLY

When I got into BNHA, the general impression was that it was a manga doing societal criticism. When this seemed to clash with the ending people assumed BNHA lost his themes/messages. However, after long research to me it seems BNHA has more or less kept up coherent messages/themes, but, WAY TO OFTEN, they do clash with the idea other countries have of how things should be handled.

Examples (in an extremely short, overly simple and vaguely ironic way):

BULLYING

General expectation: bullying is bad/evil and should be blamed and punished, not enabled as it’s extremely damaging for the victim who will/might need support to overcome it so society should stand tall against bullying.

BNHA: bullying is due to a character flaw/weakness the bully must overcome and it’s an overall private business between him and his victim who has to overcome their trauma by (getting a Quirk) and standing up to the bully, showing they’re as good as them and don’t deserve bullying.

SCHOOL

General expectation: School is the place where we teach and help you to overcome your problems

BNHA: School is the place where we point out your problems, overcoming them is your additional problem. (All Might didn’t tell Midoriya his Quirk would break his bones when used but let him ‘figure out’ how to deal with it, U.A. keeps on setting up challenges the students have to overcome without telling them how, be it Aizawa telling Midoriya to figure out how to use his Quirk without hurting himself, All Might having the students play Heroes and Villains without telling them how FIRST or asking Midoriya to shine at the sport festival without working out a strategy and so on…)

ARRANGED MARRIAGE

General expectation: bad, people should marry for love or, at least, affinity, not because a family wants money and the other wants a baby machine with specific characteristics. That marriage shouldn’t have taken place.

BNHA: not great but since she agreed to it there's not a real problem… *shrug* and since the marriage exists, it will continue. Why should she want divorce anyway? Enji is better now.

EXPECTATIONS ON CHILDREN

General expectation: very bad, a child should be born out of love and let free to pursue his own interests, not forced into a career path to satisfy his parents’ ambitions.

BNHA: absolutely fair and society will pressure/expect you to fulfill your parents’ ambitions, follow in their footsteps, but good parents normally don’t force their child if he has other wishes for himself.

DEALING WITH GRIEF, ABUSE, NEGLECT, WHATEVER

General expectation: a victim needs support because they’re in a bad mental space and this can lead them to also do wrong things for themselves or the others. They should seek support and people around them (society) should offer it to them.

BNHA: suffer in silence without bothering anyone and man it up so as to be a Hero. If you lash out you’re a Villain and you need to be punished. Society doesn’t own you a damn thing.

PARENTS PRIORITIZE WORK OVER CHILDREN

General expectation: they shouldn’t their obligations to their children comes first.

BNHA: totally fair but this shouldn’t lead to neglect children. They should be strong enough to also take care of them so as to insure they’ll become productive and well adjusted members of society. Neglecting works though is a BIG NO, works comes first.

ANGER

General expectation: it’s fair to be angry if you get hurt or mistreated and act in response to it even though you shouldn’t break law.

BNHA: you can only get angry on the behalf of OTHERS and, in this case, you can stand up to the person who did the hurting. Otherwise you’ve to work a way to handle it.

ABUSIVE TRAINING

General expectation: abusive training is still abuse and therefore bad and needs to be stopped and the abuser to be punished.

BNHA: abusive training is not recommended but it’ll surely make you stronger. Yes, it might give you psychological problems but overcoming them is your problem. Besides, come on, you want to be a Hero, don't you? How do you think you can become one if you can't put up with it? Just say you agree to it and we won't call it abuse anymore.

PRISON, ESPECIALLY WHEN VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHT IS INVOLVED

General expectation: a bad place which needs reform otherwise it can’t help prisoners to become better people.

BNHA: do we want to talk of the heroic jailers that inspire their sons not to get angry (by telling them people in jail is animals)? People of course gets reformed otherwise they’re just bad people and no one will care about their human rights being violated except for the political party tied to Villains. Also, good people, given the possibility to get out of prison (by means of escaping or by legal means) would still choose to stay in prison.

SAVING

General expectation: saving means saving someone’s life and soul.

BNHA: just the soul is enough. Killing can save the person killed after all. If you’re so against killing, there’s jail and legal sentencing to death.

MURDERING ESCAPING PEOPLE

General expectation: it’s wrong and who did it needs to be punished.

BNHA: it’s right so no punishment but not nice.

CHILD NEGLECT

General expectation: you neglected your child so he has problems and he’s taking them out on society. You’re a horrible person and you need to be punished/jailed and your poor child needs help.

BNHA: you didn’t teach your child not to make troubles for us? You’re as much of a horrible person as your child. We hate you and we’ll jail/kill your child.

ABUSIVE HUSBAND/PARENT

General expectation: divorce, taking away kids and jail are recommended.

BNHA: put up with it until he changes his mind, then stay with him. Forgiving him is expected.

ARRASMENT OF GIRLS

General expectation: kick him out of the Hero school

BNHA: how fun, how hilarious, how getting girls can totally be a heroic motive!

RACISM

General expectation: it’s wrong and something should be done against it, it should be openly despised especially by whose who have public relevance. People have a right to speak up against it if they’re victims of it.

BNHA: there’s racism? We didn’t know, and you shouldn’t let us know or make us uncomfortable so wear a mask and don’t get angry about being a victim of it because if you do you’ll make us upset and we’ll handle you worse. Pretend nothing is wrong, put up with it and it’ll go away. Eventually.

SOCIETY IS DEEPLY FLAWED

General expectation: society needs reform.

BNHA: society is fine, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO CHANGE or feel bad, however if you show us you try your hardest at killing the bad guy we’ll be inspired to act nice too. Maybe also make a counseling so as to help who society would mistreat to better fit in society.

ORGANIZATION IN POWER COMMIT EXTRAJUDICIAL MURDERS TO COVER UP CRIMES

General expectation: this is very bad, it requires arrests and internal investigation, possibly closing the organization

BNHA: it’s fine, we’ll just change the president.

HAVING CHILDREN WITH YOUR WIFE WHEN SHE DISAGREES TO IT

General expectation: it’s spousal rape! It’s a crime! It needs to be punished.

BNHA: it’s fine even though it might affect negatively your wife and your other children.

RANKING PRESSURE PEOPLE IN NOT ACCEPTING TO COME SECOND OR IN GIVING UP TO TRY TO COME FIRST

General expectation: ranking is bad, not everyone can be the best but if they tried their harder this doesn’t make them less.

BNHA: let’s keep the ranking and expand it to other jobs!

WE USE THE WORD HERO NO MORE FOR A PERSON WHO IS ADMIRED FOR THEIR COURAGE, OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS, OR NOBLE QUALITIES BUT FOR WHO HE’S ADMIRED FOR THEIR AMAZING PAY, STRENGTH AND SOCIAL POPULARITY

General expectation: either let’s just change the job’s name to ‘special cops’/’Quirk cops’ or demand people who use it will go back on having noble values.

BNHA: let’s do nothing as deep down who become a Hero for status and money or chasing strength and girls is deep down deeply heroic and will rise to show it, eventually.

I could go on and on but, I think, you get the idea.

The problem it’s not that many of those are horrible messages… it’s that many of those are based on beliefs/laws Japanese people have/had and so the story doesn’t even bother to counter them.

BNHA isn’t a work of social criticism. It doesn’t aim to have its characters to actively CHANGE society, not in the way they just tackle society’s problems and try to change things. Bad things in society exist the same way as earthquakes. The story isn’t trying to find a way to stop earthquakes, it’s telling people they’ve to accept they exist and how they’ve to behave when they strike.

It’s a work that sees that society is the way it is and this causes people problems and fundamentally tells them they should man up and deal with them without getting angry but overcoming them and be better people. If society is inspired or not… well, that’s just up to it.

In fact in the story there’s extremely little done by the characters to drastically improve things on a general level, actually there’s just Quirk counseling (which works not on society but on the kids who might grow up mistreated by society for their Quirk and lash out at it), a general attempt at inspiring kids at being focused on other works which aren’t the Hero ones, a Hero (Shouji) getting a ‘peace prize’ for deciding to peacefully solve conflicts involving Quirk discrimination and a spreading of niceness because seeing Midoriya ‘do his best’ at murdering Tomura somehow inspired (some) people to do their best at being good (= nice) citizens… and, if I’ve to be honest, things like Quirk counseling and Shouji’s efforts, while likely ALWAYS planned, were overall poorly set up.

We can see that while Quirk counseling and Quirk discrimination were mentioned through the story, Uraraka was never involved in Quirk counseling before chap 430 and Shouji never let us know what he had in mind before chap 371. There’s not a real effort in involving the readers in those topics, they just lie in the background.

BNHA takes society problems as obstacles Heroes has to endure and overcome, not as things they’ve to solve or at least improve so as to create a new society. If you come from an abusive family, if you’re bullied, if you’re discriminate, you just endure and then go on with life trying to be a better person. Because things are hard Midoriya extends a helping hand but that’s it. He didn’t mean to produce a spread in niceness that’s not really niceness but more civil responsibility, he just happened to inspire people. Midoriya becomes the greatest Hero because he did his best to defeat a Villain, not bullying, racism or whatever of the above and the fact that he DID HIS BEST, inspired others to DO HIS BEST at being citizens of their own country. That’s it. That’s all there is.

Yes, the kids will be better people than their predecessors which will help things but that’s different from trying to go and change society actively, society just changes because it’s ‘inspired’ (and, apparently, because kids are taught how to deal with their problematic Quirks without going on a rampage).

And, that’s probably not a message that sits well with people from many different countries because we have a different take on many societal problems BNHA raises… as in we would jail many people who were committing such things, not accept sometimes people do those things for... reasons. To us they're just criminals, Villains same as the ones the kids fight... but in Japan they didn't break any law.

Credits when it’s due, BNHA is also in a way an outdated work. Laws in Japan are changing so they too aren’t accepting some things anymore but BNHA does little effort to keep up with time… if anything in some cases it changes things for worse.

I guess it should have been up to the editors to help Horikoshi stay in line with the changing times so that problems would be tackled differently compared to how they could be tackled 10 years ago… though, credits when it’s due, I saw works dated 1990/93 which tackled some of BNHA societal problems in a way that was more critical and modern than what BNHA does… but that’s because discussing societal problems was their main goal. In BNHA they’re just the setting, not the topic so, I guess, no one saw the point of tackling them which is a pity.

I think the story could have been a lot more cooler if it has tackled the issues it mentioned instead than using them just to set up the characters… but, of course, that’s just me.

[rhythmic-idealist]

One problem with the society of BNHA is that being “someone in need of saving” is an undesirable category to be in.

“People who need saving” is a category of people. It’s hypothetically a valued one, since heroes save those people.

However: there’s no glory in needing to be saved.

There’s glory in SAVING, but we value the people who do the SAVING, not who need to be saved.

One thing that REALLY felt off to me in the final chapter was how that granny talks to Joki Joki Boy. She talks about herself, about who she can be. If I was in his shoes I would itch under this. Under someone explaining how they can be so charitable to people like me.

I was trying to think about what Izuku could possibly have “showed the world.” I still don’t quite have my answer.

But weirdly I do know what wasn’t shown to the world when the cameras on Ochako and Himiko cut off.

They didn’t see a villain being a hero. They didn’t see a hero needing saving.

The lines between the three societal categories - hero, villain, and people who need saving/protecting - blurred. And the camera missed it.

Edit: I believe this is social commentary BNHA made on purpose. More is available in the notes if you’re curious.

[smallmightsupremacy]

Izuku isn't losing his arms and here's why:

Okay so I know that we're all freaking out over that one manga panel, but we really shouldn't be.

Deku isn't going to lose his arms. It's all in his head.

Just stay with me.

First and foremost, look at the reactions from the characters when they join the battlefield. Specifically Aizawa:

What about this screams 'one of my students just lost both of his arms and may not end up having a future as a hero anymore?'

You would think that if Hori were to really go through with Izuku losing his arms, he would put more emphasis on the characters' reactions to make it more impactful, right?

To further reinforce this idea, we also need to consider the significance of Izuku's hands in Katsuki's arc. Whether you view their relationship as romantic or not, you can't deny that Izuku's hands holds significance to Katsuki. It represents the time when their relationship first fell apart, and I think in order to call their relationship fully 'healed' and complete Katsuki's growth, he's going to need to accept Izuku's hand again.

I mean, look at how foreshadowed the handhold is. There's no way they're not going to be holding hands by the end of the series. It's a necessity at this point.

And yes, you can argue that they already did hold hands, but to me that handhold didn't seem like the official one. It wasn't as impactful as it could've been. Now, while I'm not saying that the handhold didn't have any emotion to it, I feel like it's impact got a little diluted by Katsuki's revival. It wasn't the main focus. I think that the proper handhold is going to come later and be in it's own moment.

And, I mean, Izuku kind of needs his hands for that to happen.

So now you may be wondering, if Izuku hasn't lost his arms, then how do you explain what's happening to him right now?

Well, like I said earlier, it's all in his head. I think it's AFO fucking around with his mind.

I think AFO is somehow manipulating the vestige world and OFA mental connection he was with Izuku to make him hallucinate that he's lost his arms. He wants Izuku to crumble, and what better way to do that than to convince him that his dream is over and that there's nothing he can do?

I feel like this has also been foreshadowed in a way too. Take a look at this picture:

This image already foreshadowed Ochako getting stabbed in the chest, so perhaps it's also foreshadowing Izuku's fate?

The knife is in his head, so perhaps it's hinting at him being affected psychologically?

Also, the idea that it's only those that are connected to the vestige realm that can see the illusions that AFO is planting would be a great way to get Katsuki to be a part of the final fight too.

We already know that's he's going to be involved somehow. Hori himself said that the ending for mha was going to be better than the ending for Hero's Rising (the one Kats and Izu share OFA), and what better way to improve that than have Katsuki come save him from the mind fuckery?

I also think that finally having Izuku and Katsuki fight side by side has been foreshadowed for a long time, and if that really were to happen, then there's no better time for that than the final fight.

Also, Katsuki's really the only one that can save Izuku right now if my theory were to be true. He's the only character that fits the very specific requirements that Izuku needs (being connected to the vestige realm, and also having a willingness to save/help Izuku).

Speaking of, Katsuki being connected to the vestige realm was a shock for us all, and it doesn't make sense for why Horikoshi would show us such ground-breaking information if he didn't plan on using it later. This has to be the later. There's no other case where I can see Katsuki's connection to the vestige realm being implemented into the story again other than this.

So here's the TL;DR:

Izuku is being mindfucked by AFO and Katsuki is going to be the one that brings him back to reality

[red-sneakers]

The official translation missed the callback to Katsuki’s apology

The way 405 is officially translated, Katsuki sounds like he’s belittling Izuku again:

He’s NOT belittling Izuku. He’s making good on his promise to have Izuku’s back.

Here is the literal translation (courtesy of the amazing @pikahlua):

1

OFAに拭えねーもんは

あいつにぬぐえねーもんは

aitsu (kanji: OFA) ni nuguenee mon wa

"What he (read as: One For All) can't handle..."

2

こっちで拭うってなぁああ!!!

こっちでぬぐうってなぁああ!!!

kocchi de nuguu tte naaaa!!!

"I'll handle right here!!!"

And here is the part of the apology scene Katsuki is referencing:

And here is the fan translation:

Do you see how Shonen Jump missed the point???