I’m going to stick my arm directly into the hornets’ nest on this one. I don’t have an issue with Izuku’s dialogue about Shouto and forgiveness in context.
Both Shouto and Izuku have a tendency to project their situation on each other. Shouto incorrectly assumed Izuku was All Might’s secret love child, but Shouto’s analysis correctly identified the hero/successor relationship. It’s just that to Shouto, the father/son relationship and the hero/successor relationship are indistinguishable. Izuku observed that Shouto was moving past his hatred of Endeavor, was genuinely watching Enji’s atonement, and reconciled with Rei who scarred him. And Shouto had already forgiven Rei at this point. Unconsciously due to his own experiences with Bakugou, Izuku interpreted Shouto’s actions as preparation for forgiveness.
It would have been atrocious if the narrative presented the idea that forgiveness is required to be kind without critique, but that isn’t what happened here. Someone had to present this issue in order to tear it down. Natsuo had to hear this in order to create the conflict necessary to explain that atonement shouldn’t be done to seek out forgiveness and that forgiveness is not an obligation. Izuku was in the best position to fulfill this role because he deeply understands and cares for Shouto as a person while simultaneously being rather interpersonally naive.
The fandom reaction to this scene is overblown. While misguided, Izuku’s dialogue here is far more compassionate than most people who push forgiveness, speaking from my own experience in a country far less collectivist than Japan. Even in these panels, Izuku still makes it clear he thinks it’s fine if Shouto wants to continue to hate Endeavor. Furthermore, it’s so important that he called Shouto kind in this scene. Surviving that type of household requires a sharpness that doesn’t lend itself well to kindness. Beyond that, Shouto was born to be a weapon for his father’s ambitions. This was likely the first time anyone ever called him kind. There is something especially validating about it given that it’s a trait he developed in himself as an individual that doesn’t apply to Endeavor.
This scene also establishes a key parallel with Touya. He was born for the same purpose as Shouto and didn’t think of himself as kind. He was raised in the same Hellish Todoroki Family. And yet regardless of all of that, Toga Himiko genuinely believed he was a kind person.
