Endeavor's Journey to Betterment

you [Music] like any other wildly popular series my hero academia is a constant topic of conversation within the community and sometimes even outside of it while much of that is due to the generally positive reception of the series there is one topic or rather one character that has consistently generated passionate and not purely positive discussion while controversial characters are no oddity in the world of anime with MHA having two others itself very few elicits disagreements and responses of such emotional magnitude on such a regular basis I am of course talking about ng Todoroki hero named endeavour the dichotomous and contradictory position and development of the current number one hero and abusive father figure within the story has led to many fans of the series expressing their distaste for this decrying his position in popularity polls as unreasonable and in an especially egregious case sending death threats to the series author clay horikoshi this is however only one side of it conversely many fans have expressed their enthusiastic liking of the character which led to never receiving eighth place in the mangas forth popularity poll even more telling when a group of fans who particularly dislike that placement made their own fan poll on Twitter to prove that the original poll was not representative the result was even more in favor of ng with him ranking second and it's these two opinions of the character the constantly clash and creates a significant amount of friction and controversy around the series I being both a man of psychology and a fan of the series and quite fascinated by endeavours character and his position both in the story and in the public eye and I am obviously not the only one as both many not the bad guy and lobster magnate review made excellent videos about different aspects of the character so in this video my video I would like to present a comprehensive but extensive breakdown an analysis of endeavor and his development with a specific focus on his family dynamics and the reception that development and dynamic received within the community this being my actual field of expertise and job I will also try and provide as many respectable sources as possible so that if any of you want to do more extensive reading on the subjects we're about to cover that option exists I'll link them in the description with that I hope you join me today as we attempt to analyze and unravel the web of abuse pain ambition family and empathy that is endeavour [Music] now before we are quite ready to jump into analysis or breakdowns we do have to address one ear honest assumption many fans mostly of the negatively predisposed faction often present there is this idea that if you like endeavour you endorse and promote child abuse and maltreatment this idea is absolute nonsense appreciation of a fictional character can be tied to many factors like design personality function in the story etc liking a fictional character does in no way or form indicate an endorsement of older actions this presumption is absurd since that will mean that any time a villain or antihero character is popular and the joy of the fans be murder psychopaths etc for example Hisoka Moreau who is one of the most popular characters in Hunter hunter and he is not only a murderer not only a psychopath but also a pedophile do you really think that everyone who likes seeing his goofy crazy shenanigans indoors or shared those characteristics in real life or for an even bigger example one of the most popular fictional characters of all time is darth vader a war criminal evil overlord and genocidal villain are you telling me that the majority of fans of the most popular movie franchise in history are promoting such behaviors and values come on now I think it's plain to see that this association just does not hold any realistic ground these are fictional characters and the reasons for liking them can be entirely separate from the viewers slash readers personal moral code with that out of the way we can get into the actual topic at hand before we begin analyzing I think it's reasonable to quickly get a few bullet points about endeavour so we are all up to speed on what and who we are actually dealing with here and ever real name ng Taraki is a prolific and successful hero in the super-powered society of my hero academia thanks to both his endless ambition and powerful fire based ability he at the age of only 20 climbed his way up to the spot of number two hero at this point however he realized that he due to his own personality and lack of charisma would never be able to topple the number one hero all night furious and all his hard work had been in vain he was led down a dark path he used his wealth to marry ray a woman with an ice quirk in order to produce a child with a hybrid Clerk capable of controlling both fire and ice the child ng would train and groom to defeat all night in his name after three attempts ray gave birth to Shoto a boy with that exact combination at this point Angie's pride ambition and rage had escalated and developed to a breaking point he ruthlessly trained an abused Shoto to the point of vomiting at the same time ray was also subjected to physical violence from her husband this all came to a tragic climax when ray in a fit of manic hysteria poured boiling water over Xolos face in order to burn away a part of endeavour that she saw in it after ng had her put into a mental institution shota swore to never use his fire powers denying endeavour the object of his ambition once again and ever story absolutely doesn't end there and develops further but I want to cover those events as we go along for now I hope you noticed a very clear and central aspect that is found throughout this story the history of endeavour is drenched in cases of domestic and child abuse I think it is valuable to quickly go over a few important definitions of abuse and child abuse in particular since it is such a central aspect of this dilemma whereas domestic abuse is a publicly understood matter child abuse is a bit more complicated due to the fact that is not just another person harming the victim but usually a parental figure it is important to recognize that there are four major types of child abuse that are generally defined and differentiated by listing consequences they have these types are physical sexual psychological and neglected while sexual abuse is not confirmed within the series it being therefore irrelevant to our topic today the other three are widely present within the Todoroki situation which means that we should understand what they are and what they do physical abuse of a child is defined as the intentional use of physical force against a child that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in harm for the child's health survival development or dignity this includes hitting beating kicking shaking biting strangling scalding burning poisoning and suffocating basically all violent and active behavior of the parent towards a child and while the actual threshold of what constitutes as physical abuse and what doesn't is an entirely different topic of controversy and highly dependent on culture this definition covers all instances in which said violent behavior is reasonably believed to cause lasting damage and impact to the child's health while it is most commonly found as a form of punishment and discipline physical abuse appears to be part of a constellation of parenting behaviors that also includes authoritarian control anxiety induction and a lag of expressed warmth towards the child psychological abuse is defined as non accidental verbal or symbolic acts by a child's parent or caregiver that result or have reasonable potential to result in significant psychological harm to the child this essentially includes all psychological strain that is put on a child by the non violent but still active behavior of the parent towards it neglect of abuse is the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food clothing shelter medical care or supervision to the degree that the child's health safety or well-being may be threatened with harm neglect is also a lack of attention from the people surrounding a child and non provision of the relevant and adequate necessities for child survival which would be a lacking in attention love and nature this type essentially covers all the times a parent displays in action when action would be needed to secure the child's physical and emotional well-being while there are some definitions of this type the important thing to remember for this video is at a parent not acting correctly can be as harmful as a parent acting incorrectly hence why this classified as abuse these three types of abuse have very clearly been happening in Angie's family situation a situation we get an intimate look into in the mangas best chapter so far chapter 192 the Todoroki family and ever after drooling fight with the villainous high end and a subsequent hospital visit comes home to find three of his children present Shoto Fuyumi and for first time in a while not soooo while shooters abuse had been thoroughly established at this point squarely falling into the categories of physical and direct psychological abuse the types that his two siblings suffered are only made apparent here Natsu almost immediately begins berating and yelling at his father angry over the proposition to have suffered together congratulate him and reconnect in his rant he lists instances in which ng favored chotto and outright ignored the other kids where as far as to say that he didn't really know show too because he was so protected from him it is here we get some pretty solid indication that Natsu was subjected to and suffered worse from neglect of abuse which makes sense ng was completely obsessed with grooming Shoto into a hero that could surpass all might and so subsequently neglected and ignored his other children enter needs it seems that Natsu took the brunt of his and was the most affected by this type of abuse Fuyumi meanwhile is quite difficult to pin down as very little is actually said about her position in the family however due to her interactions within the household especially in regards to her father we can make a case for her being a recipient of indirect psychological abuse in all conversations she seems to be taking a patient mediator role and seems to be the only sibling who is interested in maintaining a close relationship to endeavor even before his eventual development while we do not know this it is a reasonable assumption that she has had his role for a long time in many abuse of households with multiple siblings one child will often try to calm and settle situations of escalation and hostility this will almost always cause a child in question to build up stress anxiety and mental strain in general hence why it's often put under psychological abuse and I do think it is not a stretch to say that this is what is happening to fool me even though she as the older sibling has learned to cope and deal with it much better than her younger brothers have okay now we have all that we are armed with the knowledge that we need to jump into the real meat of this discussion the main controversy around endeavour came up when horikoshi decided to do something very risky humanize endeavour and give him a shot at redemption this happened in many gradually more significant ways the first step to that and really the catalyst for his change was endeavours reaction to all Mike's retirement and his following sudden elevation to number one instead of being triumphant and happy about finally reaching his goal he is outraged and devastated after already having resigned himself to forever be number two he gains the proposition he wanted out of nowhere and not you to his actions or ability but simply because all might step down effectively never being surpassed by endeavour this greatly wounds his ego and pride a wound that gets twisted and expanded even more as he over time realizes that he still isn't really the number one hero while he technically holds that title he's still not seen by the public with the same trust and reverence at all might was his years of presenting a cold focused persona made him an effective hero but not a symbol of peace and while we are not shown this explicitly it is very clear that this realization sparks a period of self-reflection for endeavor the reason this is clear is that next time we see him we get to witness a completely different energy as he comes to our show dose training for the retaking of the license exam and never seems visibly changed first of all him showing this much interest in show toe while not completely unheard of is quite telling he seems almost pumped to come and watch his son perform as he excitedly calls him beforehand having even cleared his schedule for it additionally once he actually arrives and chats with all might he seems way more contemplative and reflective than at any point before this is especially in regards to how he watches show to be kind and gentle towards the children this together with a brief flashback to India all for one arc and him firing on show toe and looking at him with a sort of melancholic gaze Clues us into the fact that he has become quite aware of the damage he has caused and regrets it deeply this appearance of his even ends with him promising show to become a hero he can be proud of this line then comes to fruition during his clash with high end where it never publicly shows that he's not only a strong reliable hero but also capable of carrying the weight of the symbol of peace and justice however as we mentioned before at his return home his success and his willingness to change are mocked and ridiculed by natsu and mostly ignored by Shoto Fuyumi attempts to shut Natsu up in a way that is similar to how Rey defended endeavour during a hospital visit from the kids earlier in the arc these scenes in particular are what most detractors of this arc have a problem with they interpret both Fuyumi and Rey as horikoshi telling the audience to immediately forgive endeavour for what he has done as he is trying to get better in their eyes endeavours actions are virtually irredeemable and the character hasn't done nearly enough to justify the amount of sympathy horikoshi is trying to instill with some even saying that these scenes serve as a defense of abuse I find these interpretations to be problematic and lacking they ignore major parts of the story and twist and misrepresent others in order to accuse horikoshi and while I absolutely understand that many readers might have very strong emotions connected a topic of domestic violence I passionately and completely disagree with these accusations and interpretations and believe that one shouldn't jump to such rash conclusions without considering the more subtle implications within the text especially considering the touchiness of the subject matter so let's go through it step by step my first issue is with the assumption that endeavour is irredeemably evil I totally get how this impression comes to me however many people see him in the anime in season two and make up their mind about him he is shadows evil dad an abusive monster because of how quite a lot of popular fiction tends to deal with the subject of abuse the idea that that could change seems outrageous in many movies shows books and anime abuses are shown to be people of low morality low intelligence unilaterally and stabili evil and sadistic with no redeeming qualities and no prospects of betterment true pieces of filth and why most fiction decides to show abuse like that is clear it's easy and it's comfortable people want to believe that abuse can only come from inhuman evildoers because then you can see them coming and avoid them and are also completely sure that you yourself would never do that this is a pleasant fantasy people want to hang on to but fantasy nonetheless the real situations of abuse are often much more ambiguous some abusers do indeed resemble the drunk idiotic savages Hollywood shows us however most of them are not inhuman monsters but rather well human this means that almost all of them do have qualities that one would call positive and productive and this absolutely applies to endeavor to the viewer and his children he might be an abusive father but the larger society he is a hero not only that he is the hero with the most resolved cases and wins that means that throughout the years he has potentially saved multiple thousands of does that erase his sins as a father or do those sins negate the good II has done for society and even if we ignore his larger contributions and just look at who endeavor is as a character there are quite admirable qualities to him as Hawkes explains all mites dominance as the symbol of peace was so absolute that no one even dared to dream about him being overcome people were more comfortable just watching from distance among them however and there was the only one to ambitiously pursue the number one spot in an era of comfortable complacency he was the only one willing to rise above and see all might not as a protective wall but rather a peak to be climbed and conquered this motivation isn't inherently bad or evil in fact it is quite outstanding and admirable if he had not acted the way he did due to the anger and depression inside of him this ambition could have easily been used for more positive endeavors so it is clear that endeavor as a person is not fundamentally good or bad he's just a person like all of us additionally the notion of him being irredeemable also implies that he cannot and will not change which again blatantly ignores much of what we are shown with in the manga not only does endeavor eventually regret the things he has done not only does he go out of his way to try and correct them he does so all of his own accord he decides for himself to become a better person and takes proactive steps towards that goal he starts working on reconnecting with his children he visits his wife and brings her flowers he tries becoming a warmer a more empathetic person this is an insanely productive and positive development that is very plain to see so while I understand the feelings behind that interpretation saying that he hasn't changed and is irredeemable seems very difficult to defend given what the manga shows us many also seem to have an issue with a specific fact that endeavour hasn't openly and directly apologized yet this confuses me quite a lot imagine if horikoshi just had endeavour go I'm sorry after everything it would not only be an insane cop-out but would fix not engi has already impacted children for years their lives are thoroughly intertwined with the actions he took a simple apology just wouldn't be enough even more importantly than that however him wanting to have tone through his actions rather than through his spoken words is quite in character remember even though he looks incredibly intimidating and commands a lot of respect and authority we do get glimpses of just how much of an awkward introverted messy is when it comes to social interactions that don't directly revolve around hero work so it's quite feasible that he knows he wouldn't be able to word an apology that could cover all the harm he has done he would much rather step up and show them that he's willing and able to change for the better but now we get to the big offenders the hospital and household scenes let's start with ray and Evers wife and her scene in the hospital as I said many interpret her a bottle of Natsu as horikoshi telling his readers to shut up and forgive endeavor this is again an incredibly questionable misunderstanding of the situation ray exhibits a very positive and healthy outlook towards the situation she seems to have somewhat forgiven endeavor but not in the sense of absolving him of his crimes and sins she might never be able to fully do that but rather she chooses to look ahead and accept his attempt at redemption because it's the emotionally healthier thing to do think about it this way every second you hold on to your hate your anger your sadness regarding someone who has harmed you they robbed you of another second a second you could have used to pursue your dreams your goals your hobbies your personal happiness you are 100% absolutely not wrong to feel those negative feelings towards that person they are absolutely justified but it's important to understand that the end goal of many abuse recovery therapies is to forgive and let it go not for the sake of the abuser not to save him the trouble of being weighed down by the skilled but for yourself otherwise remaining chained to such a negative emotional core can greatly impact your quality of life we even get two examples of this in the series with Shoto his anger towards his dad costs him both the sports festival and even more egregiously his provisional license setting him back in his career quite a bit he wasn't wrong to feel the way he did but it is also undeniable that those feelings hindered him from progressing ray seems to already understand that somewhat moreover she seems to be interested and hopeful in endeavours Redemption she mentions that he brings her flowers specifically a type that she has always loved something she told him only once at the beginning of the relationship if ng were truly a heartless monster something as minor as this would never occur to him but he remembered ray understands that and acknowledges it no longer chained down with hate this isn't to say that she's fully recovered mind you she still avoids meeting him face to face as her doctors think it'd be a bad idea so horikoshi is absolutely not rushing her to forgive endeavor completely but instead he's showing her making significant and positive steps towards an emotionally healthy self this is a very responsible and respectful way of showing the healing process of an abuse victim Fuyumi and to see in a total hockey estate got similar complaints not Sue's outburst about how endeavor isn't forgiving just because of a strong villain is seen by many as a stand-in for the voices of the audience while Fuyumi trying to defend and never is again seen as horikoshi being defensive and putting this childish hatred in its place now this is a misinterpretation I don't understand because it almost forces the characters into roles and mouthpieces while not so being a surrogate for the audience is arguably true and defensible freebie and Rea being horikoshi zwey to explain to us how ng is a good person just doesn't work that is clearly not what is going on here if I had to guess this interpretation stems from the idea of having to have someone be wrong in this argument and that's the issue because all three siblings are correct Fuyumi and Dre proposed the forgiveness and healing we talked about earlier not-so defends the feelings of anger and hate that he rightfully feels towards his father and chato who interestingly keeps getting ignored by people when talking about the scene creates a compromise between the two trying to find what the author's correct voice is and where the audience's wrong one is is misguided because all three of these are legit approaches that do not get in validate by horikoshi sure for me and Dre might be expressing the most emotionally healthy approach in the long run but not so is absolutely not wrong as feelings which never get debunked by the way in fact Soto says that his rant about endeavour was right on the money the anger and hate and feelings of inadequacy nots who expresses are absolutely founded in reality and valid and the scene ends with him walking out but it never goes out of its way to say that he is wrong furthermore Shoto essentially vocalizes the entire concept behind his father's development at the end endeavor the hero is an outstanding member of society a man to be admired and learned meanwhile Angie Todoroki is an abusive father trying to reconnect but not quite getting there yet and as Shoto says while he hasn't forgiven him he is interested to see what he does next both as a father and a hero because as Shoto knows all too well a single incident can truly inspire someone to turn their life around so basically this scene isn't horikoshi defending endeavor but rather a three-sided breakdown of Angie and all aspects of his actions and potential redemption process lastly all these aspects play into why endeavour is so insanely popular he is realistically flawed and feels real because of it people can connect to him because he's capable of both great and horrible things much like real people albeit usually on a smaller scale additionally horikoshi she's exceptionally well written approach to his touchy subject has made many people me included quite excited to see how it never develops further because it is pretty clear that this is not the end of the road for him and it's just realistic there's just so much here that heralds back to very real and raw depictions of abuse households all these qualities make him incredibly interesting to experience in conclusion I completely understand why there's so much controversy about Endeavor abuse is unfortunately very common and many of us do have very strong and personal feelings attached to this subject matter and might therefore have trouble separating these from our perspective from the series or the interpreted intention of scenes like the ones we have here however consuming the depth subtlety and consideration horikoshi shows in his characterization of Endeavour I can't call it anything other masterful it is clear that he has done his homework and understands how these dynamics function when I read first read chapter ninety-two I was amazed at how accurate this was and what I don't think everyone has to like endeavour especially not if you have personal problems with the subject itself suggesting at horikoshi is defending abuse and shutting down criticism of Mg is blatantly ignorant of the lengths he went to to ensure that the issue is almost as ambiguous gray and complex as it is often times in real life and I don't think I need to say it but sending an author death threats because your personal feelings stop you from properly analyzing his work is garbage behavior I know you're all better than that come on his flaws make him realistic his attempts at fixing his mistakes make him respectable and to riding behind him makes him exceptionally interesting to follow throughout the story and this is why despite the controversy he remains insanely popular because the idea of people rising above their mistakes and becoming better people because of it in a realistic way is compelling and I think that more than anyone and never is emblematic of this a man of past cruelty now struggling to fix what he broke thanks for watching and take care

Channel: Oceaniz

Views: 102,610

Rating: 4.9473071 out of 5

Keywords: Endeavour, Todoroki, MHA, BNHA, My Hero Academia, Kohei Horikoshi, Psychology, Character, Analysis, Fan, Community, Oceaniz, Oceaniz96, Enji, Shoto, Rei, Fuyumi, Natsuo, Touya, Dabi

Id: QtXN_hxdj-s

Length: 30min 21sec (1821 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 17 2019

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[u/Oceaniz96]

Hey so I made a video about Endeavou. I study psych so his entire situation is suuuuper interesting to me! Please check it out!

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Take care!