This weeks chapter is a continuation of the Todorki family drama, with this chapter concentrating on the backstory of the family right from the beginning. The arranged marriage between Endeavour and Himura Rei, who was from a family who once boasted powerful quirk users, which had dwindled over the generations.
Rei agreed to marry Endeavour for the sake of her family, although it’s highly likely she didn’t personally want to go through with it, she selflessly decided to, although that decision is probably one she secretly regrets, and lives with the pain of it for the rest of her life.
My Hero Academia 301 Discussion:
The scene switches now to Dabi, who is looking at the burns on his arm that his own quirk inflicted on his body, he can’t feel anything on his arm at this point, the damage is extreme although Dabi probably doesn’t care.
His fixation on destroying his father is enough of a painkiller. Now the story jumps back to Toyas youth, where he is a young child, frustrated that his father has decided to stop training his son due to his quirk hurting him.
A medical examination shows Toya suffers from a huge mismatch, his quirk is more powerful than his father fire, however his body was built to withstand freezing temperatures, an ice based quirk from his mother. Putting them together is a recipe for disaster, and genetics weren’t kind to Toya, who put him in this predicament.
Endeavours decision to stop training his son after telling him he could become the number 1 hero is one that causes a lot of frustration for Toya, who wants to surpass All Might and become the top hero. However his father thinks differently now, seeing his son damage his own body means he has to come up with another plan, or in this case another child who can surpass All Might.
Powerful imagery is used to show Endeavours devolving into an angry and frustrated man, as All Mights fame and exploits increase, Endeavours anger does too, with his children being failures up until Shoto.
Toyas own transformation continues, his black hair turning whiter as he grows older, him burning himself as he tries to train his quirk to be the hero his father originally wanted him to become, although to Endeavours credit he does try and get Toya to lead a normal life like his other two siblings, but Toya doesn’t want to hear it, he wants to become a hero, he wants to be the best and this drive plus the rejection of his father, the knowledge that he’s been passed over for more siblings who might be the perfect hero, all drove his young mind into insanity.
Shotos birth causes Toya to crack, especially when they found out that Shoto was born with both ice and fire powers, he was the child Endeavour was looking for, and Toyas chances were now over. this being the final crack now as he says that Endeavour being his father means he can’t understand why other people would want to be heroes.
At this he uses his powers and tries to kill Shoto, his thinking was that if the perfect child is dead, his father will go back to training him, it’s twisted to the point where he really has no return, at such a young age his mental derangement was clear.
Another interesting aspect of this chapter is the fact that Endeavour actually wasn’t an asshole to Touya, he wasn’t even a bad parent. His worst mistake being that he got his son motivated to become the next big hero, and not being able to tell Touya that he doesn’t need to stress himself out over becoming the top hero.
Other than that, Touyas entire backstory is quite weak, becoming a psychopath based on this alone is not justifiable, at this point, Endeavour was not abusive, he was just a concerned parent who wanted to look after one child, whilst also working on a side project.
Some people may say Endeavour should not have had any more kids as this made Touya feel like he’s been pushed to one side, but this simply isn’t the case, Endeavour could have has as many kids as he wanted, nothing that Touya goes onto do can ever be pinpointed back on Endeavour, they didn’t do enough wrong to push Touya into becoming a villain.
My Hero Academia chapter 302 predictions: Endeavours dilemma, Dabi the forgotten son.
Well this story is heading into the Dabi/Touya climax, where Touya who is about to attack Shoto will probably be stopped before Endeavour has to make a hard decision about how to deal with son, and from this point onwards is going to be how Touya fakes his suicide and goes onto the path which leads him to becoming Dabi.
Endeavour will also be faced with dealing with the public, no doubt the news that Touya being his son will be a hot topic which he will either have to confirm or deny, more than likely he will have to confirm it because of Dabis threat of a DNA test cannot be dismissed entirely, which really places Endeavour is a tricky situation.
Acknowledging that a villain is the son of the new number 1 hero is no doubt going to send his career tumbling, but for once, I can see Endeavour letting go of his pride as a hero, which has caused so much pain to his family, but now he really needs to give some attention to his family, try and heal the wounds as best he can.
Nothing will be perfect, an estranged wife, children that hate him, a problem child turned villain, the public intruding into your life, your career as a hero on the line, the ever growing feeling of being a failure, the pressure of being able to do nothing, the feeling of utter helplessness as you can’t deal with growing problems.
One can see retirement as a very attractive option right now, and Endeavours future decisions will be very interesting for us to see where his journey takes him
My Hero Academia chapter 302 release
BNHA 302 will be released on the 21th February, which can be found on mangaplus or viz.that’s all for today guys, keep on eye in this post as we will be updating it in a daily basis by adding the latest spoilers as soon as they get out.
Dabi still did suffer from abuse, it wasn’t physical abuse like we thought instead it was phycological strain. Touya was a child, I’m assuming around 8-12, he grew up knowing he would be able to make his father proud and be number 1. When he learned he couldn’t do that, his entire life flipped upside down. His “life goal”, was destroyed, his mindset was to become a hero and he wasn’t going to give that up for Shoto. If Endeavor was really a good parent, he would got up, stopped doing the bare minimum, and taken him to professional help instead of just telling him to stop which obviously didn’t do anything.
In the end Dabi is just wrong in the head and needs medical help for his childhood since it was deprived from him for several years, then the big and sudden change.