#But hori wrote himself into a corner by making Dabi's arc reliant on getting closure from enji for that to happen imho

[thyandrawrites]

Do you think Endeavor will die trying to save Touya or helping Shoto save him? It makes sense for his character being afraid of dying like his father did to only end up the same way and Endeavor being dead also would bring peace to Touya and release him from his obsession on Endeavor. What do you think the ending will be for the Todoroki family? I just want Touya to be happy and not love that awful person that is a failure of a father anymore because loving Endeavor is only poison imo

My feelings about this aside, I see Enji surviving the manga and stepping in as a father only in the aftermaths of this war.

I don't think that the trope of redemption through death works to address Enji's remaining loose ends, because I don't think it's compatible with the resolution that Touya's arc needs.

Touya needs distance from his father to finally explore who he really is, true, but he also needs closure with his dad.

So far, the set up is that Shouto and Enji will have to work together to save Touya:

But the thing is, Enji is not yet written as someone who's ready to do his part. In fact, he kept avoiding Touya in the war itself, enough so that Touya had to chase him down to get that closure.

This tells us that Enji isn't yet in a mindframe where he can contemplate Touya's needs, let alone act on them, act in his son's best interest. Endvr entered this second war with the mentality of a hero.

He's still thinking in terms of how many heinous crimes Touya committed, and thinking of him in abstract terms. Here you can see it most clearly: the mention of Touya doesn't bring up memories of a family member, or even of a person; he's depersonalized into a receipient of Enji's regrets and inadequacies as a number one. When Enji thinks of him, he doesn't see the boy he wanted to have survived the Sekoto blaze, he sees the crimes Endvr should've been able to prevent.

This mindset won't change simply because Touya now appeared before him, demanding his attention. If anything, I see this making Enji feel backed into a corner, pushed to make a choice when he's not yet ready to acknowledge Touya's humanity.

My current prediction is that Enji will fail to acknowledge Touya as Touya, and only face Dabi the villain, until Shouto realizes why this approach won't work and lead the way for a change of pace. So far, neither Enji not Shouto have been successful in "stopping Dabi", and that's precisely because they're stuck approaching him as the family's black sheep, the sum of Enji's mistakes, the consequence of Enji's stubbornness. They need to think of Touya as a person and as a victim first, or their approach will keep failing. What makes Touya a villain is the fact that he felt shunned and abandoned by his kin. If Enji died before he could correct that and show Touya a real change, then I don't think Touya's arc would reach its necessary closure. Touya would simply lose his purpose once again.

But the thing is, Enji's not yet into a place where he can help Shouto save Touya, either, because Enji and Shouto approach him with completely different attitudes. Shouto sees someone he can relate to ("he is me") and someone who is family ("Touya-nii"), so even if he currently doesn't understand Touya's methods and is stuck perpetrating the scapegoating, he does have the set up to eventually sympathize enough to reach a common ground with him. Enji, however, not only still sees Touya as someone to defeat ("a mass murderer" "I cannot fight him"), but also as an abstract evil who is inhabiting the body of who was once his son ("my mistakes took form as Touya and stole so many futures").

So I think Enji will realize why resorting to his hero persona to solve problems won't work only when he sees Shouto approaching Touya as his brother. Then, and only after that, I can see him realistically step up as a father and finally give Touya the closure he needs, acknowledging him as a dad who loves his son, and not a hero who captures a villain. Right now, Enji's too stubbornly focused on soothing his guilt with a work success to begin to acknowledge the needs of others. Hence, death wouldn't accomplish anything. What he needs is growth, and since he's so resistant to it, resistant to admitting his flaws, the only way I can see him growing is if he clings to his methods and fails first, and is then shown a better way by the only son he ever paid attention to, and finally eat his pride and follow in his example. I think Enji needs to acknowledge that he never contemplated a scenario where he could mend things without violence,

And frankly, I think that would be a nice way to make amends to Shouto, too, but this time for real.

Two birds with one stone.

#None of this reflects what I /want/ to happen but it's where I see the story going #I hope it makes sense #Honestly I think enji should've died in the first war arc #But hori wrote himself into a corner by making Dabi's arc reliant on getting closure from enji for that to happen imho #Ali replies #Bnha #Bnha spoilers #Bnha meta #Meta:endeavor #E slur #My post