Understanding Lil' Touya's Behavior
Lil' Touya was a complicated individual and is such a challenging character to be understood looking at the discourse that keeps happening in the fandom as a prove of that. I want to share an analysis focused on kid Touya's behavior including his expression of words. I will also try to explain his behaviors towards every member of the family.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying whether his every action was right or wrong. This meta doesn't have that purpose. I'm writing this to have us take a look at how lil' Touya perceived every situation thus we will be able to understand the reason behind his every action.
Firstly, Touya was "the initial prodigy", the initial potential heir to accomplish his father's ambition. Touya was born for a purpose of surpassing All Might specifically. While most children in BNHA universe manifested their quirk at the age of 3-4, Touya's quirk was manifested at the age even before 1 year old! The reasoning behind this case could be caused of him born prematurely.
In the pictures above, it was revealed that the father already discovered Touya's quirk even before Fuyumi was born thus resulting in the creation of Fuyumi because the father wanted another try. Touya and Fuyumi were only 1 year apart and we can see how Touya was still crawling when Fuyumi was just born.
The early quirk manifestation resulting in the younger age when the training started.
While Shouto started training at the age of 5, Touya most likely had been training with his father since a very young age until the incompatibility of his quirk and body revealed at the age of 3-4. He couldn't be older than 4 years old because Touya and Natsuo were 5 years apart plus pregnancy took Ā±9 months as Natsuo was born on time. Touya's age ranged between 3-5 years old in the pictures below.
Let's delve deeper into this situation.
Touya had already had the idea of surpassing All Might planted in his mind since a very young age.
Within the golden period of a child's brain development (the first 1000 days of life) and the most important years of a child's development (birth to age 5), Touya had already been trained to be a hero and already had an idea to surpass the Japan's no. 1 hero resided in his mind. Children's experiences and relationships that are formed during the first 5 years of age determine how their brain develops. In fact, by the time children reach age 5, 90% of a child's brain is already developed. Just from this knowledge, we already can conclude that it is unfair to blame Touya for his disability of letting go the idea of surpassing All Might since it had been planted in his mind since a very young age, said idea was also a very heavy burden to be put in a very young child's mind futhermore.
The affects towards Touya's brain development reflected into his behaviors.
Touya was seen persistent with the idea of surpassing All Might; as his relationship with his family and his self-worth revolved around the said idea.
Since his training was stopped, Touya found that it was a hard to find a quality time with his father anymore. Touya realized that a bonding time with his father could only be reached through training. His father couldn't prove that he'd love his child no matter what through his words nor actions. The father drowned in his own intense ambition that he failed to notice his child's decreasing self-worth and fear of losing his father's love.
Touya undoubtedly, very undoubtedly loved his father so much (I'm crying as writing this). His love was pure and unconditional yet he was let down and neglected after. His father couldn't and didn't try enough to understand him as Touya viewed his father as a role model. Of all the people we will ever influence, our children are the most impressionable and attentive. Of all the people children will be influenced by, the strongest influence is their parents.
It was very hard for Touya to be able to let go the idea of surpassing All Might because he saw his father couldn't let go of the same idea and he realized his father's attention towards him had been declining since he was decided of not being able to accomplish the said idea anymore.
Touya noticed that his father wanted a child only to surpass All Might. He also noticed that his mother didn't object to his father's desire and action as she and his father kept having another child and his father continued to neglect the "failed" tries. From Touya's perspective, his mother also took responsible in the matter as a bystander, although, Touya was also aware that his mother was powerless to the matter and tended to let decisions regarding her life decided by others thus resulting in the heartbreaking dialogue in the pictures below.
Touya, as the only one of the children who was aware of his father's intention, tried to share and discuss it with Natsuo, but to no avail, Natsuo was too young to understand. Previously, we saw Touya tried to discuss with Fuyumi regarding his body and his disability to let go the idea of surpassing All Might, but again, to no avail, Fuyumi was also too young to be able to think about anything besides her brother's safety (bless her).
Touya felt as though none of siblings could understand him. He received no answer regarding his confusion revolving the situation and the confidence regarding his self-worth kept decreasing. Touya didn't even know why he even existed anymore. It was truly, truly heartbreaking to see a child felt that way towards himself.
As he didn't get any answer for his misery, the only way Touya could think of to resolve it was to return the situation to the beginning. If he could prove to his father he was good enough, he would be happy again and all the misery would go away. Therefore, Touya kept training and training all by himself, despite his body was burn and his heart was broken. He was suffering extremely the entire time. The continuous suffering led to a frustation and an aggression. Touya's aggression towards his mother and Shouto was the result of the frustation and misery he felt regarding the whole situation. Touya was in misery but he felt no one reached to him.
Lil' Touya was in constant confusion, heartbroken, suffering, and decreasing of self-worth. He was neither evil, misogynistic, psychotic, nor manipulative. Touya always had constant questions regarding his miserable feeling and life, but no one gave him an answer.
