So there's several layers of dramatic irony to this comment from Endeavor. He can kill a "bio-engineered freak" with no remorse here. But this was also the chapter when Endeavor met his twice over bio-engineered son for the first time since Sekoto Peak.
Like the high-end noumu, Dabi was also a patchwork existence pieced together from the dead. But on a fundamental level, Touya's existence was due to Endeavor's desire to bio-engineer his version of the perfect quirk.
It's also notable that while Endeavor's feelings about it were completely different, he used the same maneuver from this fight in his final battle with Dabi. He brought them both up into the sky until someone burned to ash
Generally speaking, I like more the anime because soundtrack and animation enhance the action scenes (lively moments can be really confusing in the manga because Horikoshi draws scenes jumping from a moment to another and he skip a lot, I'm not saying it is an error, it's just his style - in fact when people says that scene looks differently in the manga, I think it's less "they deliberately changed it" and more "It's inevitable because in animation/reality you don't skip from an expression/pose to another so abruptly").
But this scene was better in the manga. I mean, I like the almost mystical atmosphere in the anime with the light and all, but here you can see more clearly the "everybody holding their breath and being frozen" like if the world stopped, waiting (obviously, that is because everything IS still, it's a drawing, lol). And obviously because to have them all flanked in the same panel underlines the: "All your children are watching you".
Dabi revealing Endeavor’s abuse is so much bigger than the Todoroki family
He’s revealing that a man who was torturing his children was able to become number two hero.
He’s revealing that the man who did this was able to hide it from the public with next to no effort.
He’s revealing that there were absolutely no measures in place that would have prevented this from happening. No one at the HPSC thought to check in with the families of individuals as powerful as Endeavor
No one thought to do an investigation after Rei’s mental breakdown and Shoto was burned
No one thought it was suspicious that Touya died soon after
No one took notice of how Shoto was reluctant to use his fire in the sports festival, not even the school staff that works closely with Endeavor.
Because no one in this hero society doubts the heroes’ moral integrity. The citizens of Japan simply don’t perceive it as a possibility that their heroes could do such evil selfish things under their own noses and still succeed.
Endeavor is genuinely good at his job, he’s talented and hardworking. So of course no one expected this of him, the people of Japan put him on a pedestal with All Might and every other hero.
By exposing Endeavor, Dabi is exposing the whole of hero society. He’s exposing the rampant hero worship of this society. He’s exposing the incompetence of the HPSC. He’s exposing the heroes who have done evil selfish things much like Endeavor. He’s exposing the media for painting heroes as perfect and flawless. He’s exposing every single citizen that saw him and his family’s pain and ignored their cries for help.
Obviously this is gonna negatively effect the other members of the Todoroki family. I’m not saying he’s entirely in the right in the way he went about doing this. Obviously killing people is wrong. Obviously Rei is gonna lose a lot of progress. Obviously Natsuo, Fuyumi, and Shouto are gonna be meet with a lot of negative attention from the public and the people around them, etc.
But Dabi is doing something that has the potential to change so much, and I’m tired of people whining about the interpersonal drama of the Todoroki family when what he’s doing is so, so much bigger than that.
I was wondering about Hood’s cameo in this chapter - and beyond the revelation that Touya escaped the fate of being turned into a nomu by running away...
I realized that this fight is set up similarly as the Endeavor vs Hood confrontation (down to the point where Shouto has a speed-quirked buddy to help him out). Touya is Shouto’s rage-filled past self, the way the strength-obsessed Hood was Endeavor’s past self.
Touya is even drawn more and more nomu-like as the fight goes on...
Endeavor vs Hood ended up with Endeavor killing his past self (and Hood easily could have been Touya - just for a chilling thought!!!). He won by drawing out every last bit of strength out of himself (the old way of just going plus ultra and winning by pushing limits - which at the time seemed impressive) and killing that “creature” without wondering for a moment who he was or why he was created.
And even though Endeavor thought he killed his past and got a fresh start - and as a hero kind of did - it didn’t change his family dynamic. Things remained tense, his children were still shunning him. And because he didn’t, couldn’t heal his family, not by just burying the past, and in the end it came back to bite him and destroying even Endeavor as a hero legacy because:
Shouto now fighting Touya head-on, repeating Endeavor’s “feat” of killing him or helping him in his suicidal quest, would be just making the same mistake. Burying the past again. And we know how well that went the first time.
But Shouto’s view of his past self is different. That resentment and rage-filled boy he was, didn’t die - he was saved, he changed. And he believes that others can change too - which is why he kept reaching out. When he yells, ”I won’t let you, baka aniki”, he’s seeing also Touya beyond Dabi’s nomu-like appearance. His idiot brother, his past self, who shouldn’t be killed, but should be saved, because the family won’t be healed and Shouto won’t be the hero he wants to be unless he can reach Touya and show him that he can give meaning to his own power, he leave the mark of his own existence on his own terms.
I was actually even thinking - and call me crazy - that what if we got it all wrong? What if it’s not Endeavor who supposed to save Touya - because he clearly has no idea how, and because just like Toga being obsessed with Deku, Touya needs to be broken free of his obsession of seeking Eneavor’s approval first. But, what if, after Shouto saved Touya, it will be Touya who will reach out to Endeavor? Who will give him one last chance to do the right thing and be the father he never was, but should have been? Closing the circle that started when Shouto went to visit Rei.
