#and tbh i could allow the redemption. i wouldn't LIKE it and it would rub me up the wrong way but id allow it

[hella1975]

this guy is the main antagonist? with NO redemption? when he was just trying to be good enough for his father to love him like he did his other siblings? WHAT

mha spoilers ahead bc i lost my shit but several points to make here. 1) he's not the MAIN antagonist he's like. villain no.3 in the rankings imo but he's a BIG hitter like defo one of the first villains u think of when u think about the series 2) THE DAD DIDN'T EVEN LOVE THE OTHER SIBLINGS!!! okay todoroki trauma time: there's enji, the dad, rei, the mum, and then the kids: touya (this guy: goes on to become the villain dabi which literally means cremation. i hate everything. hot topic ass), fuyumi (invented eldest daughter syndrome), natsuo (loml), and shouto (youngest brother that got all the attention).

so in mha the abilities are called 'quirks' and enji's ability is that he's basically a firebender, and because of that, he becomes the no.2 hero, second only to all might, who he envies with every fibre of his being. he is DESPERATE to become the no.1 hero instead of all might, but his quirk is limited bc he overheats if he overuses his fire, so when he realises he can never individually defeat all might, he decides that his legacy will. so he get a quirk marriage, which is when u marry another quirk user with the sole ambition of selective breeding high-power quirks in your children. this is illegal. off the bat, the no.2 hero is breaking the law he is literally upholding and a representative of. he marries rei, an ice user, in the hopes of producing a child able to wield both fire and ice with the ability to balance one with the other. low and behold, his first child is born. touya todoroki, my fucking guy that is driving me NUTS today. touya has his father's flames and his mother's resistance to the cold, but NO fire resistance, meaning every time he overuses his fire, he burns the fuck out of himself. still, regardless of the pain his quirk causes touya, enji trains him from the moment his quirk manifests, which is like. age 5 im pretty sure. literal full ass AGGRESSIVELY ABUSIVE combat training for this 5 year old, and regardless of the pain his quirk causes touya, he puts his all into it because he literally just wants is to impress his father like all he knows is that he's supposed to be a hero he's supposed to beat all might it's what he was BORN for it's literally the purpose of his creation and why his dad is so hard on him, so he tries tries tries, but ultimately like i said, his quirk is faulty. so enji keeps having kids, all the while abusing the fuck out of rei as he goes bc he just treats her as a breeding machine and won't let her have any input on the kids' upbringing, but fuyumi and natsuo both come out with very weak quirks and no fire so he still puts most of his faith in touya until he's literally like eight like that's his entire developmental period being the One That's Gonna Achieve Dad's Dream Of Defeating All Might. and then shouto is born. shouto, who has the Perfect Quirk. shouto, who is one of the main characters from the get-go, who we meet LONG before touya is even MENTIONED, who is one of our big protag and set to be one of the top heroes of his generation. he is literally everything touya was supposed to be, and enji throws touya aside because of it. literally completely drops touya.

and touya HATES him for it and he hates SHOUTO for it even though shouto gets subject to the exact same abuse and indoctrination and 'you're no more than a quirk to me' bullshit from their dad like NEITHER of them were ever just kids ever just enji's sons they were weapons first and foremost touya is a complete parallel of what shouto could have become but didn't and when touya's fourteen it all comes to a head and he basically burns himself alive bc he loses control of his quirk and his dad isn't there and they forget he ever existed and shouto continues to shine while touya lives in the ashes and the criminal underworld throughout his teenage years and he does terrible things and when he shows up again it's as a villain and he's treated like nothing more than some lunatic monster and im just. normal amounts of upset about it bth.

[zukosdualdao]

6, 7, 8, and 16 for the fandom asks!

6. My favorite character:

*nearly buzzing* hey have you guys heard of my good buddy zuko?

okay this is gonna be long and then i'll try to be normal shshhsghjh it's funny because the answer definitely used to be katara (and don't get me wrong, i still adore her and she is absolutely is a close second, she deserves everything tbh), but something about zuko on my last rewatch (before my current rewatch) (i am ridiculous) just... really stuck with me. i hadn't seen the show in years at that point, and while i'd always liked his story, this time around, i couldn't help but appreciate the nuance in it, as someone who is both a victim of abuse and a villain in the narrative, and how the show goes out of its way to show you why he's acting the way he is and doing the things he's doing in a way that allows you to sympathize with him (and that helps to sew the seeds of his redemption because his abuse cannot be disentangled from the fact that he was once a kid who valued kindness and things like not unnecessarily sacrificing new recruits on the front lines, and that he is now performing his father's ideals of cruelty to try to both conform and cope.)

but i also feel the show does a good job at showing this without ever falling into the trap of justifying what he's doing. and his story is really cathartic, as it's one of not just redemption but healing, and the idea that those two things go hand in hand? that the narrative didn't demand zuko hate himself to be redeemed (and, in fact, discouraged it, "pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source", after all) but instead, the actions he took toward changing his life and helping people made him a healthier, happier person??? it's just. it's so good. i could talk about zuko for hours, and i won't do that but. yeah i love this character a normal amount.

7. My least favorite character: (*i decided to interpret this as characters i don't like as people rather than characters i don't like the arcs of. that's a different, more complicated answer i don't feel like delving into at the moment.)

ozai is the boring answer, but i mean. c'mon. (he's not a BAD character, he's just the literal worst.) i don't feel like this one requires that much explanation.

also, though, i don't hear enough hate for my guy zhao. (again, good character! he does what he's supposed to in the narrative, which is overshadow zuko as a threat/villain and showcase viewing oneself as inherently superior as something that will ultimately lead to downfall, which foreshadows the defeat of both ozai and azula.) like.... i don't totally know why, but zhao actually really gets under my skin as a villain lmao. maybe it's because he's more tangible than ozai? like, ozai spends so long as this shadowy, untouchable figure, and so much about him is implied, but zhao is just right there throughout book one, being the worst. and i don't know how to explain it, because there are honestly a lot of similarities between them, but i feel like not everyone has met someone like ozai, but most people know someone like zhao. he has less power than ozai (not none, but less) but just as much ego and will rub whatever power he does have in your face and i just. yeah i hate him.

8. Is there anything I wish people would write more about in fics? (A dynamic, an exploration of an arc, just a character that doesn’t get much screentime, etc): honestly more of toph's dynamics with like, everyone in the gaang, because at a certain point, i do feel like toph gets shoved to the side a bit. (you're telling me TOPH BEIFONG of all people wouldn't have an opinion in the southern raiders?) the friendship moments we do get in the show are cute!!! she's never had friends before and now she does, let her have friends, let it be cute!

i do think some corners of the fandom try to remedy this but i just. i'm having a moment about toph pour one out for my my girl <33

16. Favorite inside joke the fandom has:

zuko, a man who cannot be killed!