Ok, so when I was re-reading chapter 257 , there was a panel where All might was told to not visit Stain by Aizawa
And this was the last panel before we entered the war arc.
I thought it was very odd that this was placed there and that All Might was visiting Stain. Was it a routine thing of his? Clearly we can’t say, but we know that Stain sees All Might as a true hero.
I know I sound like a broken record cause I keep saying “stain was taken out of the story too soon”
BUT, maybe I was wrong and he is making a comeback (I hope)
As of now, it seems that Shigaraki is being possessed by AFO and will attempt a prison break from Tartarus
Now that I’m putting two and two together, I have more reason to believe that Stain will be out on the streets again
If so, this is going to show an interesting dynamic in his character. Stain never supported the LoV and didn’t care for Shigaraki specifically. This was his face seeing AFO being rolled into prison with him
Stain to me is a morally gray character and the chaos that the LoV as enacted upon the country may have him flip to a more Anti-hero role and play a part in taking down AFO, or at least some of the members of Shigarakis camp.
Spinner, Dabi, and Toga were all supporters of Stain. He was the reason they even joined the LoV so it will be very interesting to see how things play out between them if they meet face to face.
He will be entering back into the world where the hero system that he criticized is at a collapse. But with the LoV winning and potentially giving way to an increase in unlawful quirk usage, will that make Stain go back to his vigilante days?
“Both this sham-filled society... and the criminals who wield their power in the name of petty mischief... are targets of my purge... All for the sake of a better society...
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Acknowledging character development and writing character development is not and making excuses for ones crimes.
Disclaimer: I read, I interpret, I express. This is a long post filled with images. Also probably some horrible grammar
Apologizing: Apologizing is acknowledging ones faults and vowing to never commit the same mistakes. What has happened has happened. Nothing can change the past or the effect it had. What you do now, does not change or erase the past, but it helps guide a path of healing for the future. It can be the start of change and morphing into a better person. BUT, only if that person truly means it.
Apologies is not making an excuse for yourself.
Forgiveness: Forgiveness can be rightfully given, or not. It can be a tricky thing to understand at times. Forgiveness doesn’t remove the pain. Forgiveness doesn’t erase the memories. But for some people, forgiveness is a key to freedom, for inner peace. For other people, forgiveness doesn’t offer them that, and that's fine too.
We are not monoliths, we are individual people, with individual brains, with individual emotions, with experiences that affects us as individuals. Our stories might overlap - they might even be identical, but how we process it may not be.
I don’t like this narrative I’ve been seeing recently in the fandom of Horikoshi being an abuse apologist. I think Horikoshi is challenging us and its working.
The Tales of the Todoroki’s: Enji, Rei, Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo, Shoto
6 people
6 perspectives
6 stories
1 truth
Each viewpoint and each experience from everyone is very important in putting the pieces together (yes, even Enji). In fact, I think it was important to have Enjis viewpoint to the situation because it was such a contrast to what we’ve heard and seen from everyone else. In Enjis mind, he truly thought everyone was complaisant. He saw nothing wrong with attempting to live vicariously through his kids. In the same breath he expresses contempt for this children, its also laced with disappointment
He speaks of Rei as though she was consensual, but we know he essentially used her a valuable Mare and hurt her as well.
His treatment of Rei cannot be erased, justified, or forgotten. It happened. We as the audience are suppose to carry that in our minds because we are reading a story about Heroes. This challenges us to understand that heroic actions is not what a hero makes.
There are cops who (most of them tbh) that become cops simply for the power dynamic, not because they desire to protect. A lot of cops abuse their spouse.
Rei: We are only introduced to her through the lowest point of her life and we have no insight on how Enji acquired her (yeah that sound harsh, but isn’t that what happened) nor her domestic life with him. What we know of her are scenes of her pain, and I think thats relevant enough. She may have had some “good” moments out of her situation, but she was still a mouse trapped in a lions den. Good days do not erase her state. Thats why this panel, was so odd to me
Because it implies that Rei was complicit in having kids even though we as the audience understand that he basically brought her for that single purpose. Now note, this is coming from Enjs mouth, not hers so I can’t sit her be like “oh yeah she was fine with everything”
To me, this is simply Enjis projection because what was Rei honestly going to do? Say no? But who’s to say that she didn’t want Touya to be lonely? Idk, that panel was too wishy washy for me.
Moving on
She replies to Natsuo by saying that's not true
Its not in his defense like how Natsuo claimed. Rei never states that she forgives him, and we can see she is still on her journey of healing when she mentions shes still a bit scared of him. However, she acknowledges his acts as stepping stone for his own path of atonement.
If she does come to forgive him later in the story, thats her decision (Horikoshi actually lol). If she doesn’t, that her decision.
Natsuo:
The only insight from Natsuo is his resentment towards his father with what happened to Touya and the hurt of their mother. It is revealed later that Natsuo was Touya confidant in the house (I’ll get into that when I talk about Touya).
But He doesn’t forgive him....or hes not at that stage yet
When endeavor saves him from the villain, we are able to see Natsuos raw thoughts:
He’s conflicted: He wants to maintain the peace, but he can’t deny how he feels.
Natsuo felt like he had to compromise his feelings, and that shouldn’t be fair. Even thought he is the middle child, I feel like he took on the presence of the big brother and wanted to protect his siblings. But when you have a man like Enji as your father and you know how he is.....standing up to him as a child is terrifying
So when Enji says this
I’m like: DUH! Of course he would feel like that
But I’m taking this scene has Enji recognizing how he made Natsuo feel as a child which showcases. he owns up to the fact that he pushed Touya to the edge.
Yet with all that said, hes not suppose to forget. Hes not suppose to suppress how he feels. And even at his age, that child inside him still hurt and was never offered a chance to properly heal. I know what that feels like.
Natsuo must figure out what he needs to do to find peace - however that may be.
Fuyumi :
We don’t have much insight to Fuyumi and I’m sure her experience is completely different from her brothers. One, because she was a girl and Enji is misogynistic, I doubt he gave her any type of attention as a father figure especially since she only inherited her moms quirk. I don’t recall signs of physically abuse on Fuyumi and (Natsuo), but there probably was demeaning behavior at some point. Just being in that environment and seeing their sibling subjected to that, negatively impact her however
But with Fuyumi, she is trying to move on
I think Fuyumi is on her path of forgiving her father - thats her choice to make to find peace for her experience. After expressing her desire to move on as a family, she ask Shoto how he feels....
Oh my sweet prince Shoto:
Shoto has a lot of baggage and being one of the main protagonist, we get a more in depth experience on his relationship with is father. I’m not going to go into too much detail because we all know he detested his father. I’m mainly going to focus on this middle ground that I find him at.
In the panels above he mentions having grudges and how it clouds the mind. Thats a toxic feeling to carry with you, especially when you’re trying to be a hero. He recognized that, and he’s been working on fixing that. Even his mother had to forgive herself towards what she did to him.
Shoto is not here to forgive Enji, hes here to forgive himself
What I mean by that is the fact that Shoto experienced self-hate. He hated a part of who was, how he looked, where he came from. He had no control of his childhood, but he now has control of his future. At the sports festival, that was Shotos first step towards finding his healing. It wasn’t about Enji apologizing to him. It was about him.
And now look at him, he’s more social, more expressive, more powerful once he began to love himself. He got there on his own and with the support of his friends.
It doesn’t change what happened to him, and it doesn’t erase his feelings However, it gave him control over himself.
This is almost the same position Natsuo is in. He hasn’t seen anything (yet) for himself that warrants him to forgive his father. Maybe we will see it in these later chapters... maybe we wont.
Thats his decision
And last: Touya
Touya, touya, touya touya......
I honestly don’t know how to tackle his situation, but shoot me
From this memory (by Enji), Touya appears...enthusiastic. He appeared that he wanted to train with his father.
And I think this is where things went wrong in his rearing. He was GROOMED .
Enji, being who he was, probably placed the ideas in Touya head of great success, importance, power, fame, ect. These things sound good to a child, and being the only child at the time, he had all his fathers attention. But as he got older and his quirk became incompatible, things started change.
Even before his quirk no longer became compatible for him, Enji still didn't see Touya as his ideal child, but he accepted it. Touya looks to be about 6 here meaning Shoto wasnt born yet or an infant.
Going by the ages given for Shoto, Fuyumi, and Natsuo I’m going to state that
Touya was 13 when he staged his death
Fuyumi was 11, Natsuo was 8, and Shoto was 5 and thats when we are introduced into in abuse.
So there is a 8 year window between Touya shift in his relationship with his father and the start of Shoto gaining his quirk.
That is a missing puzzle piece, and I can only speculate what happened in that time period to drive Touya to his mental breaking point and what his father did or, didn’t do for him.
Here, there is more white in his hair and he looks to be maybe 10? And this is when he starts to question his existence.
I can’t say all that Touya went through from the time Shoto was born to his faked death.
I think Touya suffered from feeling abandoned by his father father, the feelings of being a failure because of these ideals of greatness only to be sideline. That he was just a placeholder like the rest of his sibling and not worthy to work along his fathers side.
I don’t think he faced the same treatment from his father as Shoto did. I think he became blinded by approval and pushed himself to his limits to compete for Enji attention, He probably developed depression, anxiety, and a lot stressors as he became more and more incompatible with his quirk
And I think thats why there is the hate for Shoto because he feels like he took away his purpose ( which has nothing to do with Shoto but everything to do with Enjis grooming)
We know Touya is absolutely not on the scale of ever forgiving his father for what he did. For him to sit there and watch his father on TV and proclaim to be a hero when he knew what went on behind closed doors, it can drive him towards wanting to retaliate.
His story showcases damages of a broken child. Where Shouto found liberation, Touya remained bound to the ambers Enji left on his worth and lies on being a hero.
Not everything can be fixed, and once a crack forms, it will continue to spread until it shatters.
In conclusion
The Tale of The Todorokis is not to serve as excusing abuse. Its a showcase of how 1 man can affect the lives of many people in different ways. It is a tale of moving forward, finding peace, and gaining control over your own person.
Enji knows he can’t snap his figures and all will be well. Though I think some actions he could have done was to take it upon himself to address the country, come clean, and maybe retire as a hero, but he’s not a perfect character.
But I’ll take what I can get. Enji knows his place, he knows what he has done.
Happiness to his family is absence
Its there space
And there nothing more better he can do than that.
I saw this meme on instagram and I instantly thought of Mr.goody two shoes trying to remind Aizawa they had an assignment before the bakusquad shut him down
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“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”
― C.S. Lewis,
So with that quote, this chapters theme is centered around how actions impact the future. I absolutely love the way Horikoshi used his panels to emphasize that message.
Momos group worked hard and swiftly for the amount of time they had to prepare, and the experience to engage in such combat. Even though their actions seemed to not affect Machia now, they may have brought other backup more time by confronting him, and, the drug just might take more time to circulate due to his size.
Mineta seems to be the voice of doubt. How can we say what we do is actually right? How can we know if the judgement calls we make will be worth it in the end?
Its no accident that Horikoshi uses Hawk during this scene. Hawk made his own judgement call to kill Twice with the belief in doing so will save everyone. He could not see the incoming threat of Dabi nor Machia. Was his efforts wrong given the current situation we are at now?
Then we have my girl Miruko who lost her arm, damaged her leg, and had half her ear ripped off
Her attack was interrupted by that Nomu, and who knows if she would have been able to kill Shigaraki before he woke up.
But Horikoshi is emphasizing that she stopped Shigarakis process at 75%. Even though his body was nearly complete, her efforts, her losses, are paying off now.
And she needs to live to see that her actions and the toll on her body was note in vain. I know she said she doesn’t care if she died, as long a she got the job done; but I hoping she makes it and she see how her actions played a role is saving the day.
