Hawks To Endevour: I Want You To Be My Dad!Toya, Natsuo & Shoto: No You Dont!

Hawks to Endevour: I want you to be my dad! Toya, Natsuo & Shoto: No you don’t!

312 is out and still no raws and this is still driving me mad.

White I wouldn’t call AFO completly one-dimensional because we know quiet little of him aside from being an evil overlord that wants to be an even bigger evil overlord and is a complete dick to his brother he is a villain more inclined with the likes of Muscular - he does what he wants, sees no wrong in that because he likes what he’d doing and he won’t be stopped by means of reasoning/saving like the League could be. He wasn’t wronged by a society that needs to change, he used it for his goals.

I do agree with your interpretation of Endevours ark going forward, he is taking steps for redeeming himself and while he definitly isn’t there yet and he still has so much to learn and self-reflect and take complete responsibility for what he did his ark does work towards that, which as you put it so well is sadly not usually something that happens in the real world.

And I love the take on the “I am Legend” (never watched, I don’t want to see the dog die, but now I have a nice summary.) version of Endevour’s self-realization that would fit his ark really well and is a healthier take on abuse than version that keep Endevour in the family. And since I am a sucker of people staying alive and living with the consequences of what they have done, I’d prefer a Enji finally takes responsibility for what he’s done without any blame-shifting and removes himself from the family by choice rather than death.

So I hope you are right because it is a very good and healthy take on this very complicated topic.

Anybody who has acess to raw scans and knowledge about Japanese to be of any help, because the translations of bnha 311 are saying very different things:

This is the first translation, where I want to point out the line about never stopping to smile and something missing in his soul are directed at AFO.

And Endevour clearly asks a question, which in japanese is indicated through a parcel, so if something is a question it should be obvious to see.

But then the other translation sais that the one with extra hatred is Shigaraki , same with the person that doesn’t stop laughing/smiling.

Which would make perfect sense to talk about Tomura because he is always smiling/ laughing, which can’t be said for AFO, the guy barely shows what is left of his face and none of them have any knowledge about AFO always laughing/smiling.

It would on the other hand make sense for AFO to have no hatred, but rather emptiness inside of him, but then the translation to laughing seems off. Wouldn’t it be rather something along the lines of laughing on the inside, thinking he is going to win no matter what (I lack the english word for what I mean right now.).

And Endevour isn’t asking a question here too, he is making a statement.

I can get behind differences like laughing/smiling or missing his soul/lack of heart, but there is a huge difference who they are talking about and Endevours statement/question about the person’s sould/heart.

I am here to remind everyone, that this was in chapter 19 of bnha:

It’s really sad to see how Tomura starts to feel itchy right before AFO tries to take control over him, when he hasn’t been scratching himself since AFO’s arrest.

I think in general with the fact that this is shonen and the theme is heroism that the stones for character growth towards making up for your mistakes in some way are definitly given for almost everyone.

On the other hand there are characters that don’t necessarily need redemptions from a storytelling point because they haven’t done anything “evil enough” to the protagonists or their friends (Spinner and Compress would fall into that category).

Or those who are content with who they are and don’t have issues with the way they are, like Muscular or AFO. That is not a story place for redemption and more how can we deal with someone like this in a heroic way. (And it is not locking them up the way they were locked up because it obviously wasn’t a good long term solution.)

But Endevour is definitely on the other end of that spectrum of someone with a (formerly) good reputation that needs to make up for his mistakes. So I am expecting more growth there from a storytelling perspective considering he already started his way there and the fact that he is a pov character.

Your Black Panther reference is pretty much exactly how I’d put it in terms of how the story will progress.

I think Yokumiru Mera is a very good early on the hero’s side of the flawed system, we get very hit into the fact with the societal issues from the villain povs but the hero’s side are more subtle, just like the kids would see them.

The framing from HK is very much like that for all issues. Asui tells the viewers early on that mutant type quirks with less human features are something that make your life harder, but Asui has a cool quirk that can make up for it. Spinner on the other hand hits us in the face with there are legit mutant KKK and they want to kill me, mutant is called a slur and I have a weak af quirk that won’t make me seen as “useful” by society.  

Which reminds me heavily towards ableism in the real world. Disabled people who are conveniently attractive get praised for their bravery of existing and showing their face as a model or actor but society itself is still bothered by disabled people who meet different needs than the most common one, which any disabled person knows means that getting the help you need to live your life is hard in most places, impossible in some.

And bnha has this with quirks: those who look different can “make up for it” with a cool quirk like Asui or Gang Orca, but if you have a strong mutant quirk appearance on top of a weak quirk you’ll get bullied, have a worse chance at jobs or even get attacked like the tall lady in the recent chapters.

Which also blends in with your part about people slipping through the cracks (which was very nice btw), if so many people can slip through the cracks why are only a certain part of them seen as human?

I have nothing to add about you All Might –Endevour foil it’s perfect the way it is.

And my stupid brain decided to focus on the writing of women in bnha instead (and because it is the one of the big issue I have in general with the manga, where I can’t say I have to wait until the end to truly make a statement).

I generally don’t think that any character in bnha is “unproblematic pure” they all have their issues or are underdeveloped / side characters with not enough arks to make an actual statement about them.

But because this is shonen we have way more male characters. And HK is someone who can actually make really great characters, gender aside so I don’t see any reason why the ratio from female/male characters is so low. I mean it’s not Dragonball low, but even Naruto had at least a 3-1 ration, bnha has less than 1-5 and that is low.

The female characters we do have are all very different in the way they are and I don’t think any reader would complain if there were more female characters, especially considering that the costumes being so sexy is literally discussed in universe so there is a “good” excuse why they are walking around like this. Uraraka literally said that her own design wasn’t so sexy but the costume makers made it tighter.

I like that is was addressed in general that hero costumes need functionality and Midnight and Creati both wanted to show more skin for practical reasons that would help in a fight but weren’t allowed to.

On the other hand Uraraka who should have a costume that would allow her to land safely something cushioning all around her would make way more sense instead of skin tight stuff.

So obviously the costume designers of this world have the sex sells in mind even with children and while I don’t think it will be addressed as an issue itself that this is a very strong female problem (no one tells Fat Gum to keep slim because his quirk would be useless that way, but he’d look more conveniently attractive I do think it is just going to be part of a dismantlement of hero society that this will go away because a true hero is more about practicality than looks.

So I really see no reason why we have so little women, but at least they are all really cool and different from one another.

Sadly the villains only have Magne, Toga, La Brava, Lady Nagant and Curious and two of them are already dead.  You’d think in a society like this more women would join the “evil side”.

So when discussing the women of bnha they are held to higher expectations because we have way less.

And I think that really shows with Rei and how a part of the fandom is pushing more and more blame on her than Enji. Enji himself has an issue with shifting the blame about Toya on others, mostly Toya himself and Rei, that is a flaw he has to overcome.

But parts of the fandom did it too. Do I think Rei was completely innocent? No. Do I think that the fact that she was also abused and clearly had bad mental health into consideration? Absolutely! Without Endevour the situation would not exist, without him buying his wife and having children because he had goals to achieve there would be no Dabi. So Endevour is responsible for most of this, but Rei did some parenting mistakes too that didn’t help the situation.

I don’t think she is presented as an enabler in the manga though. Through Endevour’s perspective the first thing in the flashbacks about her are literally that she only married him for the sake of her family. And that is the first moment of the fandom taking over and saying Rei is equality/more to blame than Enji for doing so. There are people who say that she agreed to this, so she is completely responsible for what happens afterwards. I say 4 things about it:

1. Arranged marriages are still common in Japan today and you’d want someone wealthy, especially if you come from a poor family like Rei does. So you have to take the culture this plays into consideration when discussing this.

2. If Enji didn’t seek a wife this arrangement would have never happened in the first place.

3. If the options are between live in poverty with a family who resents you for saying no and marrying a man for money then there is a systematic fault because you need to make that decision and it isn’t really an option to begin with. Toya himself says that Rei had no choice at the age of 13.

4. Enji had a really good reputation, he was the number 2 hero, he was seen as a great guy and we know from the flashbacks that his abuse started later. She couldn’t have possibly known how Endevour would treat her children because earlier he treated her in a normal way for an arranged marriage.

And after that we get the flashbacks.

And I using the flashback chapter for this because they are objective, they don’t have a character pov. Any character flashback is always personal, they have subjective memories that taint the objectiveness of the reader and HK does that all the time, which is interesting writing and very humanizing but it leads to discussions amongst fans.

And anything SAID by the Todoroki children and Rei is extremely based on actual abuse victim behavior, which I actually did quiet some research on and I have to say it is very realistic for them to behave the way they do in the manga.

Which also includes Natuso, Shoto and Fuyumi not realizing they were being abused themselves, Fuyumi and Rei trying to solve the issues by brushing them off because they don’t have the healthy mindset to find other means and shifting blame around for something they did while they weren’t healthy enough to do better.

Rei went to talk to Enji, telling him he’s being cruel and that Enji’s treatment is too much. After which Endevour says “If we want him to give it up, then we have no choice” the framing of those panels show Rei terrified and Enji completely in the dark and we know from earlier chapters that he forced himself onto her.

So saying she had part of “making” the children is blaming her getting raped by her husband on the fandoms part.

At the end of chapter 301 (the first flashback chapter) she takes some of the blame by saying Enji wasn’t the only one that looked away. But from the chapters we also know that Toya would have needed attention from his father which Rei told Enji and she told him that he was running away from his problems.

The one person in the household that has issues with women is Toya who’s saying they are useless, which on one hand is something a lot of boys that age say and on the other hand comes from the upbringing Fuyumi has. We know Rei tried to talk to Enji, but Toya doesn’t and Fuyumi is a child that actually had the “most normal” up brining in the house because Enji was busying using Toya for his goals and Rei raised them both together, so little Fuyumi isn’t capable of understanding Toya.

The issues Toya has with his mother we see when she tries to do something about Toya, who only wants his father’s attention back, because that’s what he feels like his father’s love is.

She suggests other things and is trying her best given the circumstances. Are they good? No. Are they probably the only thing she’s capable of? Most likely. Endevour wouldn’t have gotten a therapist for Toya and we know Enji beat her when she didn’t do what he wanted her to do. But what he wanted her to do wasn’t something she was capable of doing.

The panel where she asks Toya if he even wants to be a hero always hits me, just because no one ever asked Toya what he wanted. Dabi has no known want but to end Endevour and the hero society because he was raised as a tool and not a child until Endevour found a more useful tool. And by then it was too late for Rei’s words be of any help when she tells him to find other ways. Just like Rei isn’t capable of helping Toya with those words, Toya isn’t capable of finding a different way on his own anymore.

Toya himself says that Rei had no choice for her future (marriage, children) when she suggests Toya to make a choice for his future (anything other than his father’s original plans) and simultaneously blames her for his state. And while I do stand by my original argument that Rei couldn’t have possibly known that Endevour would abuse her and her children or the fact that she didn’t have any better options other than marrying him I can understand Toya’s reaction. She is responsible for his existence by repeating the cycle of she was forced to do something, so then her son was forced to do something.

And Rei herself says that she and Enji both say that they did not know what to say to him. But the thing is Endevour didn’t even try or give the option for someone else that wasn’t Toya’s parents to talk to the child and take care of his problems, like a psychologist might have done. And Endevour was the one in charge of the household.

The point where Rei stopped trying was after Toya’s death, when her mental health was got so bad after years of abuse that ended with her mental breakdown of the attack on Shoto.  And I can’t call that enabling, because she wasn’t in a position to enable things anymore. She wasn’t healthy enough for that after trying and getting abused for it.

(What I still heavily dislike about those chapter is just the fact that Rei is saying that it is now all of their responsibility meaning the kids as well, as if they had any part and Natuso even blames himself and not one of his parents tells him that it’s absolutely not on him.)

So I can’t see her being framed as an enabler in the manga, but very much in the fandom. Same for Fuyumi who was an abused child and as all Todoroki siblings is still very much affected by the long term consequences of child abuse and is just trying to find a way to deal with the situation.

[Could you give me a chapter reference of Inko on this, because I’d need to re-read that in order to properly make an analysis other than teenagers say stuff like this to their parents all the time when they are angry, because they don’t have enough knowledge about situations like this yet. Because in general Inko is framed very much like a really great mother.]

I do enjoy the LoV chapters more as well and I have little hopes of survival about my favorite character Spinner ever since the “we connected over games” notion.

Because he is the least villainous out of the LoV with no criminal history prior and no innocent deaths on him I do have a suspicion of him dying for Tomura in a very heroic fashion like Twice did for his friends. The guy was fed up with society to the point he spend more of his time at home playing video games , got inspired to change the system, joined the league, became close to them and found someone to fight for. That isn’t a person that can redeem himself, because that isn’t someone who has to redeem himself. If Tomura would change his plans and explain the reasons to the Lov aside from Dabi they’d most likely still follow him, especially Spinner.

And yeah, they deserve the world. I mean we can’t get Compress being the grandson of one of the big 3 and then never see him again after his first pov chapter, so I assume we are going to still see more of him.

I headcanon that Spinner can actually be really great as a leader if he just got a good “main quest”, so if AFO completely takes over Tomura it would be like a questlog of: Quest: save Shigaraki.

Parts of the quest: Get more people to help me. Find Toga. Get Compress out of Prison. Maybe get the PLF too. Find a way to save Shigaraki. [etc.]

And I’d love to get the gang back together that way, now that Tomura is in a comatose state right now, although I doubt Spinner would leave him with Dabi and Sceptic in charge.

I can see Spinner and Compress dying through saving their friends, Compress already nearly did. And I can see AFO killing Spinner to get a stronger grip on Tomura’s hatred (which would probably backfire) but I don’t want them to die.

I don’t really want anyone to die aside from AFO, who I wish to get decayed into ash by Tomura for grooming him.

And it would be really unsatisfying to read Dabi die, because he doesn’t care if he dies as long as he takes his father down with him. And if is still at that point by the end of the series that would mean that Shoto failed saving his brother and that would go completely against the entire message of bnha.

Anybody who has acess to raw scans and knowledge about Japanese to be of any help, because the translations of bnha 311 are saying very different things:

This is the first translation, where I want to point out the line about never stopping to smile and something missing in his soul are directed at AFO.

And Endevour clearly asks a question, which in japanese is indicated through a parcel, so if something is a question it should be obvious to see.

But then the other translation sais that the one with extra hatred is Shigaraki , same with the person that doesn’t stop laughing/smiling.

Which would make perfect sense to talk about Tomura because he is always smiling/ laughing, which can’t be said for AFO, the guy barely shows what is left of his face and none of them have any knowledge about AFO always laughing/smiling.

It would on the other hand make sense for AFO to have no hatred, but rather emptiness inside of him, but then the translation to laughing seems off. Wouldn’t it be rather something along the lines of laughing on the inside, thinking he is going to win no matter what (I lack the english word for what I mean right now.).

And Endevour isn’t asking a question here too, he is making a statement.

I can get behind differences like laughing/smiling or missing his soul/lack of heart, but there is a huge difference who they are talking about and Endevours statement/question about the person’s sould/heart.

12 central traits of heroism featuring My Villain Academia

Psychologists have also identified the traits of heroes. Elaine Kinsella and her colleagues have identified 12 central traits of heroism, which consist of:

brave,

[Bravery is the ability to confront something painful or difficult or dangerous without any fear. It’s a quality, not a state of mind; it doesn’t need a cause to awaken it. Someone is brave—full stop.]

moral integrity,

[Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values.In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions.]

conviction,

[conviction (kənvɪkʃən ) Word forms: plural convictions 1. countable noun [usu N that] A conviction is a strong belief or opinion. ]

courageous,

[Courage, on the other hand, is the ability to confront something painful or difficult or dangerous despite any fear. It’s not a quality, but a choice; a person feels the fear or pain or danger, but chooses to persevere anyway. Unlike bravery, courage is driven by a cause; the courageous person believes that cause is worth standing up and fighting for, despite all the clear reasons not to. It takes a great effort, because what’s on the other end merits it. ]

self-sacrifice,

[sacrifice of oneself or one's interest for others or for a cause or ideal]

protecting,

[to keep someone or something safe from injury, damage, or loss]

honest,

[ To be honest (= To tell the truth) ]

selfless,

[ concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than with one's own; unselfish. ]

determined,

[ showing the strong desire to follow a particular plan of action ]

saves others,

[1: to stop (someone) from dying or being killed : to rescue (someone) who is in terrible danger 2.informal : to help (someone) in an important way —often used to thank someone for his or her help]

                                                                                                                                                                                            inspiring,

[inspiring(Adjective) Providing inspiration; encouraging; stimulating.]

and helpful.

[adjective giving or rendering aid or assistance; of service]