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Here’s the thing though, I think they’re all good mentors to Midoriya, but none of them are better one way or the other.

(Mini breakdown coming up)

1) All Might

Look, I have personal beef with All Might’s style of teaching (considering he borderline offers nothing helpful in terms of skills and the nuances of ofa), but Midoriya needs him as a source of motivation, and I think that’s an overlooked part in some of All Might haters. Some of the tags mentioned All Might teaching ideals and that not being what Midoriya needs the most, but it should be said that he does need it in a way that only All Might can offer. Midoriya needs to see who he’s wanted to be his whole, discover what he wants to be, and then figure out what he doesn’t want to be. All Might is the mentor that exposes him to the tragedy but also the brightness of heroism that isn’t touched by the other mentors through existence alone.

(On a side note, he’s also the mentor that gives Midoriya the most connections probably, which is more a byproduct of All Might being who he is than anything, but also something to consider in evaluating the benefits of a mentor)

Possibly due to his own origin, All Might’s approach mostly comes down to ‘just do the thing and see what happens’, which isn’t a good method in the context of bnha (just look at Midoriya’s poor bones), but it’s not bad either. Arguably, he’s the one that gives Midoriya the most emotional/ motivational support out of all the other mentors. And of course, All Might’s frankly incompetent way of teaching Midoriya about his quirk is juxtaposed by Endeavor’s mastery over technical skills.

2) Endeavor

There’s a lot of hate regarding his abuse ‘training’ of Shoto and Touya, and I’m not here to change that. What I will say is that the question asks about him as a mentor to Midoriya. I hope we can agree that despite Endeavor’s shit parenting, he was the most beneficial when it came to teaching Midoriya how to develop his quirk. By this point in the manga, Endeavor is sorta mellowing out. It doesn’t excuse him (of course it doesn’t), and whether or not you can separate ‘the man’ from ‘the hero’ is a purely personal thing. But Endeavor is all about results, and he undoubtably gets that for Midoriya as a mentor.

[Edit: I feel it necessary to point out explicitly that Endeavor neglects teaching the ‘helping’ part of being a hero and all the other things that All Might upholds as a hero. It probably should be noted he wasn’t even going to mentor Midoriya and Bakugo seriously until they fought for it.]

Contrarily, I think the thing that he should be hated for in this specific scenario is his willingness to prep and send these kids to war. And this dangerous sentiment that is shared by (a bit too many imo) other heroes fuelling Midoriya’s self-sacrificial tendencies is where Eraserhead comes in.

3) Eraserhead

Eraserhead is able to provide the safety and controlled development that none of the other mentors really managed (or even tried to give, in some cases). He’s what you would look and pray for in a teacher of future heroes in general, and he does a fantastic job of that by fanon standards. I probably don’t need to go on about the positives of Eraserhead as a mentor. But, does he actually manage to provide those positives for Midoriya specifically? I think that’s a bit more for debate.

Eraserhead definitely tries his best, but he’s a teacher to way more kids than the other mentors in this poll, and the effectiveness of targeted teaching, of mentoring, is somewhat dulled. (Compare this to how he presumably mentors Hitoshi) That’s not to say he doesn’t target his teaching materials/ care a lot for Midoriya, it’s just that he’s got at least 20 other kids to worry about. And with the way that Midoriya clearly has issues with following Eraserhead’s guidance (Ik for plot and personality reasons too, but hear me out), I would say Eraserhead actually didn’t do too great of a job with Midoriya in this aspect. What I think he did do a good job of, was rebuild Midoriya’s respect in teachers, and also attempt to reshape Midoriya’s internalised prejudice about quirks.

Eraserhead’s the teacher that tries his hardest to be nurturing, and as a mentor to Midoriya, is slowly breaking down some of that Hero society preaches, and very, very slowly teaching him the importance of self preservation. He exposes Midoriya to the different sides of heroics in a brusque yet almost coddling manner (relative to the other mentors), which is contrasted directly by Gran Torino.

4) Gran Torino

There’s a surprising lack of Gran Torino fans supporting their argument, but I think he’s an interesting candidate for best mentor to Midoriya. Upon his introduction, Gran Torino was the most effective technical mentor, but that’s now been overshadowed by Endeavor. He’s blunt while also prioritising Midoriya’s safety like Eraserhead, with the added quality of being eccentric and dramatic.

So what does he bring to the table?

Well, I think that’s his perspective on heroics. He’s a hero too, but he’s not as involved with the current politics while still being somewhat aware of the corruption and tragedies of being a hero simply due to his age (yes I’m calling him old, it’s a compliment). He also gives credit where credit is due, and unlike Eraserhead, is able to give that mentorship in a very specific and personalised manner without it being biased against another student.

There’s probably more to him, but I can’t think of any rn so that’s all you’re getting loll.

Conc:

They’re all important for different reasons, and there’s definitely a few mentor figures that aren’t mentioned in this post. But I think at the end of the day, it’s not the mentor that makes the difference — Midoriya is just a really, really good learner.

Feel free to explain in the tags