My Hero Academia Chapter 302 : Careless Handling of Fire, Part Two

[Doggo]

I got some
"I never asked for any of this, but since I'm here, might as well create the perfect weapon to surpass All Might" vibe coming from Endeavor these last chapters.
He actually "tried" to talk some sense at Toya, but sucked at it. No parent is perfect, I won't hold this against him.
But from the "control freak that actively searched for the perfect quirk from a spouse, to create the ultimate quirk to beat All Might", to this "I was minding my own business, then things got out of hand and I went downhill from there" seems like a MASSIVE "fix" the author tried to make because of the backlash he suffered from Endeavor's "redemption" from the last arcs.

But oh well. Hope he gets rekt, Todoroki as well. More panel time for best boy angry gremlin Bakugo.

 

[JazzMazz]

He actually "tried" to talk some sense at Toya, but sucked at it. No parent is perfect, I won't hold this against him.
But from the "control freak that actively searched for the perfect quirk from a spouse, to create the ultimate quirk to beat All Might", to this "I was minding my own business, then things got out of hand and I went downhill from there" seems like a MASSIVE "fix" the author tried to make because of the backlash he suffered from Endeavor's "redemption" from the last arcs.

Eh, I think that he hasn't really fixed much. Its very clear that Endeavour was still an abusive asshole physically to his wife, and that he was still just incredibly neglectful for his self immolating child, who was very specifically self immolating himself to get Endeavour's attention.

 

[Doggo]

Eh, I think that he hasn't really fixed much. Its very clear that Endeavour was still an abusive asshole physically to his wife, and that he was still just incredibly neglectful for his self immolating child, who was very specifically self immolating himself to get Endeavour's attention.

Kids have the tendency to assimilate the behaviors of their parents.
When we see Endeavor meeting Rei, he says it's an arranged marriage, which is not something that unusual in a lot of places. Meh. He says that she looks really fragile and such, but there's not a "she seems useless, i dont think she can give birth to a good enough child. Screw her" thought. Instead she looks at some flowers and he is like "so, you like flowers?", like some connection moment between the two.
Then we cut to Toya, already a kid, saying things to his sister like "you dont understand anything because you're a girl". Endeavor was portrayed as a dick in a lot of cases. Male chauvinist that thinks "women are weak because women" is new I think. Might be forgetting some old moment. Toya picked that up on his own.
When he tries to make another child, Rei doesn't want to because she thinks Toya will know he is getting replaced, which is actually spot on. But Endeavor insists because it's the only way to actually make him give up trying to his "the ultimate weapon", because it will actually kill him. So Endeavor, at this moment, IS indeed thinking about Toya, but, as I said, he is dumb, and is still trying to make everything work out and still get his "weapon".
Natsuo is born, who cares, then Shouto. During this time, Rei is getting more and more depressed, because Toya keeps hurting himself, Endeavor is unable to convince him to stop. 2 pregnancies. that's probably 18 months of everything going worse and worse. And since Toya is still a kid, 18 months IS A LOT of time for a kid. Endeavor keeps trying to make give up being a hero, because he just keeps hurting himself with his flames. Still trying to help Toya, but Toya instead focus all his rage on Shouto.
BOTH parents couldn't help Toya. It wasn't like Endeavor at that point was isolating him from Rei.
Once Toya tries to attack Shouto, Endeavor starts his downfall. At this point, Shouto is not just his "weapon kid", it's a constant reminder that, if he doesn't pay atention, Shouto might end up fucked up like Toya. He learns that Toya is training in secret and is getting burned, starts pointing fingers at Rei, and so on. Classic "not my fault, but yours" behavior. The abuse begins.

That's why I say it's more like a "I became abusive only when some shit happened. Until that, I was just minding my own business".

 

[JazzMazz]

Then we cut to Toya, already a kid, saying things to his sister like "you dont understand anything because you're a girl". Endeavor was portrayed as a dick in a lot of cases. Male chauvinist that thinks "women are weak because women" is new I think. Might be forgetting some old moment. Toya picked that up on his own.

Kids don't need to be raised in explicitly chauvinistic homes to pick up sexism at a young age. Like, its something that happens with or without the attentiveness of parents. Kids can be pretty sexist, because they don't know any better. This is something that continues on till teenage dom.

Natsuo is born, who cares, then Shouto. During this time, Rei is getting more and more depressed, because Toya keeps hurting himself, Endeavor is unable to convince him to stop. 2 pregnancies. that's probably 18 months of everything going worse and worse. And since Toya is still a kid, 18 months IS A LOT of time for a kid. Endeavor keeps trying to make give up being a hero, because he just keeps hurting himself with his flames. Still trying to help Toya, but Toya instead focus all his rage on Shouto.

Shoto was born 4 years after Natsu roughly because they probably wanted to confirm Natsu's potential(which only manifests at 3 or 4 typically).

I think that its sort of implied that outside of the occassional talk, Enji didn't actually spend much time with Touya, instead focusing more and more on his work. Its also implied the only time he really spent a lot of time with Toya before hand was when he was training with Toya.

Touya also doesn't hate Shoto personally. He hates Endeavour for giving Shoto all the attention while utterly neglecting him.

Endeavor keeps trying to make give up being a hero, because he just keeps hurting himself with his flames. Still trying to help Toya, but Toya instead focus all his rage on Shouto.

Toya think that Endeavour making him give up being a hero is silly, because Toya sees that the only thing that really matters to Endeavour is being a hero. Endeavour is not only the number two hero, but also someone who works harder than most heroes to continue to try and surpassing All Might. Endeavour is someone who only sees his own worth as being a hero, and that's something that Toya has learnt from Enji. The only worth that Toya concieves himself to have is from being the best, because that's also the only thing that Enji truly values, or at least the thing that Enji valued above and beyond everything else.

I think the problem with Touya was even though Endeavour was tryng to make him stop burnin himself before Shoto was born, the problem was that Toya was mimicking Endeavour's own obsession. Endeavour was someone who placed all his value on being a hero, and that gave Touya the idea that the only way he himself could have any value or validation for being born was by also being a hero.

In Toya's mind, Endeavour stopped giving him attention and validation when he stopped exhibiting the potential to be a great hero.

 

[Doggo]

Kids don't need to be raised in explicitly chauvinistic homes to pick up sexism at a young age. Like, its something that happens with or without the attentiveness of parents. Kids can be pretty sexist, because they don't know any better. This is something that continues on till teenage dom.

Shoto was born 4 years after Natsu roughly because they probably wanted to confirm Natsu's potential(which only manifests at 3 or 4 typically).

I think that its sort of implied that outside of the occassional talk, Enji didn't actually spend much time with Touya, instead focusing more and more on his work. Its also implied the only time he really spent a lot of time with Toya before hand was when he was training with Toya.

Touya also doesn't hate Shoto personally. He hates Endeavour for giving Shoto all the attention while utterly neglecting him.

Toya think that Endeavour making him give up being a hero is silly, because Toya sees that the only thing that really matters to Endeavour is being a hero. Endeavour is not only the number two hero, but also someone who works harder than most heroes to continue to try and surpassing All Might. Endeavour is someone who only sees his own worth as being a hero, and that's something that Toya has learnt from Enji. The only worth that Toya concieves himself to have is from being the best, because that's also the only thing that Enji truly values, or at least the thing that Enji valued above and beyond everything else.

I think the problem with Touya was even though Endeavour was tryng to make him stop burnin himself before Shoto was born, the problem was that Toya was mimicking Endeavour's own obsession. Endeavour was someone who placed all his value on being a hero, and that gave Touya the idea that the only way he himself could have any value or validation for being born was by also being a hero.

In Toya's mind, Endeavour stopped giving him attention and validation when he stopped exhibiting the potential to be a great hero.

So it's actually worse. not 18 months. but a good 4 years of things just getting worse and worse.
That's the thing. The idea here is "share" the blame, instead of dropping it all on Endeavor, when, before, it was highly suggested it was ENTIRELY his fault. These chapters made it look like both Endeavor and Rei failed as parents.
Now, I would understand Rei being powerless if, before, Endeavor was indeed an abusive asshole. But he just seemed like a regular asshole. The author also hinted that Toya himself wasn't quite sane, since both Natsuo and Fuyumi turned out "normal". When Toya is first shown, he is eager to train, but Endeavor is ALREADY telling him to slow down, because he keeps getting hurt. Toya is already fucked up, despite Endeavor still not going full "obssessive" mode. At least that's what it looked like to me.

 

[JazzMazz]

So it's actually worse. not 18 months. but a good 4 years of things just getting worse and worse.
That's the thing. The idea here is "share" the blame, instead of dropping it all on Endeavor, when, before, it was highly suggested it was ENTIRELY his fault. These chapters made it look like both Endeavor and Rei failed as parents.
Now, I would understand Rei being powerless if, before, Endeavor was indeed an abusive asshole. But he just seemed like a regular asshole.

Yeah, I think that Hori showed good reasons for why both Rei and Endeavour would feel responsible, I feel like it is a bit more difficult to place actual blame on Rei, whose main crime was just being a bit distant and not very assertive as a parent.

The author also hinted that Toya himself wasn't quite sane, since both Natsuo and Fuyumi turned out "normal". When Toya is first shown, he is eager to train, but Endeavor is ALREADY telling him to slow down, because he keeps getting hurt. Toya is already fucked up, despite Endeavor still not going full "obssessive" mode. At least that's what it looked like to me.

I don't think that Touya's sanity is really the problem though. There's nothing particularly insane about what his doing or what he wants. Although his parents are concerned with him hurting himself, it doesn't seem like Touya really cares about it much, so its not like his burning himself because he likes or is trying to hurt himself, his hurting himself in order to get Endeavour's validation, which unlike Natsu and Fuyumi, is something he actually once recieved. Unlike the others, Endeavour imprinted in Touya the desire to become the best when his quirk manifested, and that desire was never really reconciled with, again, because its something that Endeavour could never reconcile with himself.

Touya's messed up, but his messed up because his father made it incredibly clear to him the reason he was born and what he had planned for Touya, and he failed to reconcile that ambition he imprinted on Touya, because he never gave up that ambition himself.

Post automatically merged: Feb 23, 2021

Interesting twitter thread.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1363624192344805378

 

[Kiwipom]

ugh Endeavor is such a trash father. The fact that he realized he fucked up after Touya died and decided "fuck it I guess I'll just have to double down" 🙄🙄

I don't really like where this is going with the whole Todoroki family going to stop Dabi.
I mean I know it's inevitable but still, I hope Dabi kills Endeavor first. That's the only way Endeavor could redeem himself.

 

[Redx]

So as someone pointed out before Hirokoshi is being very on the nose with his metaphors.

I mean I previously described Dabi as a flame that needs to be put out and they're pretty much saying that in the chapter. I mean we had Rei literally saying "we have to cool him down" and Touya himself saying that his father ignited a flame in him that won't go away. The flame itself meant to represent a burning desire that then morphed into hatred.

So the entire metaphor would be that: Endeavor a fire user, started a fire that he himself could not put out. He tried to ignore the fire and so then flame kept burning and burning to get his attention until it was so hot it burned him and his family. His family due to their weak constitution and preference for the cold were unable to do anything in the face of this flame. Unlike Shoto who not only possesses the constitution to resist the flames but also the ability to put them out. Represented in his powers.

The Todoroki's family problem was that they were like fire & ice. Fire couldn't understand ice and ice couldn't understand fire.

So Shoto being the only person that can understand Touya's ambition having been there before himself but has since cooled down becomes the link that can bond his family together. Because he represents both sides of his family combined into one.