#like i've got lots of wishes for how i want the todofam plot to wrap up
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I think, at the end of the day, what I want above all else from the end of the Todoroki family story arc and Dabi's story, beyond Enji not just getting off scotfree after ruining his family's lives but I feel that's a given but beyond that-
I want Dabi to be given time.
One reocurring thing running among the Todoroki's is that most of them has been given time away from the fucked up family situation, away from Enji, to grow as their own people.
Fuyumi complicates this obviously. You could argue her becoming a teacher and building an adult life could count, but Fuyumi also wants other things compared to her siblings, and that's okay! But if you look at the other three, I think it's easier to see what I mean.
Shouto is the most obvious example. It's thanks to not having his thoughts occupied by his father and letting them rule his actions and mindset, even if just to piss his dad off, that Shouto is able to grow. UA and his classmates give him that, he's given a space and time to develop as a person and find out who he is and who he wants to be. Bouncing off his classmates and interacting with people his own age as equals helped him.
It's a big part of Shouto's character that he thinks about his decisions thoroughly and what he wants to do. And he's able to do this because he is given the time and space to do so. It's not explicitly stated, but I think moving to the dorms helped him a lot with this. Shouto is no longer at risk of interacting with his father everyday, letting Shouto distance himself and decide how he feels about his father, being his son, and his ow quirk, without his abuser there to influence him.
I think this page best shows what a bad influence Endeavour can be on Shouto's mind. Shouto was calm before this, just trying to get to his match and not engaging, but his worsening mental state is called to attention the longer Endeavour talks. Keep in mind this match and moving to the dorms happens long before Enji decides to be a better parent when he realises becoming No.1 wasn't satisfying.
Shouto had not even given Enji his contact information before this and Enji had to get it from Fuyumi(a breach of boundary most definitely, but we don't know Shouto's reaction to this). Shouto doesn't even reply to his fathers incessant messaging until he himself needs something from him, and it's from Endeavour the hero, not Enji the father.
Shouto's development is gradual, but noticeable, and never really stops happening. Even now in the manga he's not finished his arc. But that's what made it very satisfying to watch him grow and find what kind of hero he wants to be.
I think it's worth noting that no one tells Shouto he should go visit his mother. Neither does anyone tell him he should try and talk to his siblings. How Shouto got started on properly talking to them is unknown, but it's clear it's on his terms, and because he wants to. Visiting Rei and reconnecting with her is something Shouto decided himself, and he goes to see her when he can and writes to her. How these visits go are never shown, but it's clear both of them want to connect again, and that both Rei and Shouto are in good places to actually do so in a healthy way.
Rei being in a good place is very important for this, and she is because she has been getting help and been away from the source of her distress and breakdown. When we see Rei out of a flashback, she's calm. She even seems happy, smiling with her children. Happy Shouto is keeping in touch with her through letters despite being so busy.
Rei was in dire need of getting away, that is obvious when you read the flashbacks. Her worsening mental health and situation ended up hurting not only her, but her children, especially Touya and Shouto. And she's been getting help and getting better since. At this point, she hasn't seen Enji since she was admitted to the hospital. Thanks to all that, Rei has been able to better process her trauma, what went on in their family, and her part in it, and she can face it. Rei, unlike Enji, is open about scarring Shouto, how she couldn't reach Touya and ultimately failed him as a mother.
We don't know a lot about Natsuo, but in his character profile, it's stated that thanks to Fuyumi, he was able to make the decision to go to college. It's said he spends a lot of time away from home and Fuyumi teases him about not keeping in contact enough. For Natsuo, who was one of the 'worthless' children of the house along with Fuyumi, going to college, making friends and getting a girlfriend, probably did wonders for him.
Natsuo is very upfront about his dislike for Enji, and his refusal to ever forgive him for what he's done. He's taken up the role of holding Enji responsible for his actions after Touya was no longer able to. I think it's pretty clear what Natsuo would like to do is go no-contact with Enji, but he doesn't want to hurt Fuyumi's feelings, so he goes to the family dinners where he has to sit in Enji's presence anyway. Though we still see him stand up and leave sometimes because he can't stand to be in the same room as his father. Natsuo getting up and leaving is, I think, the mature thing to do. He's looking out for himself.
So, where the heck am I going with this? Basically, I want Dabi, Touya, to be given the time and space to decide himself what kind of relationship he wants to have with his family, every single one, in the same way the others have.
Touya up to the point of his death had his life defined by decisions made for him or things happening out of his control. His life after his death were dedicated to one day kill his father, with the heavy implication he has no plan to get out of that confrontation alive.
You could say Dabi has no identity outside of the Todoroki family, outside of killing Endeavour and getting revenge for himself because no one else ever would. He was born, raised and groomed to be Enji's successor and the next number one, only to have that ripped away from him and expected to just, deal with that and move on, when he had no tools or methods to do that. Touya had no identity outside of being Enji's successor because that wasn't how he was raised. In his mind, he had no worth outside of that.
He was scapegoated by his family for most of his time living with them, and he might not even remember what being with them without being treated as the source of all the problems in the family is like. He went back home and thought they continued on as if he never died. And while that might not be fully true, just telling him that isn't going to magically absolve and fix the damage that left him with.
Throwing him right back into the family, with or without Enji involved, when the rest of the Todoroki's doesn't even know how to treat him now either, could end up really badly.
Especially when they still appear to lean into Touya being the problem. Dabi is the problem for acting out and "involving unrelated people in family matters" as Shouto so eloquently put it(not word for word don't shoot me), when Dabi wanted society to hold Enji accountable for his actions. They still say Dabi needs to be stopped, not saved.
At this point of the arc, Dabi is expecting to die, and he'll have to deal with the fact he's still alive after all this. I don't think he's gonna have the mental strenght to reconnect with the family he hasn't seen for years, not to mention we don't know if Dabi believes they even want him around or ever truly loved him. What does he think of them? We don't know, and chances are big he doesn't know either.
And that's why, I think a timeskip is one of the absolute best ways MHA can end, with time to see, years later, how all the characters are doing. And for the Todoroki's, it could mean Dabi has gotten time by himself to heal, to find out who he is outside of being a Todoroki, outside of being Enji's son, the failed experiment, his own avenger, and deciding on his terms how they should finally meet and talk and what kind of relationship he wants to have with them, if any at all.
It would also give the rest of them the time to once again process Touya's death, Dabi's existence, the fact their brother and child is alive once more and what that means to them individually. It's clear Touya's death was a big open wound for the family even years later, and if it wasn't still bleeding it definitely was after Dabi revealed himself, and that shits messy to deal with.
Then, we can have them meet at a dinner table. Maybe even have it be a picnic or something. When Dabi, Touya, is in a better place, because he was given the time and space to get better and finally decide for himself what he wants to do. It's the very least he's owed.
#bnha#dabi#todoroki shouto#todoroki rei#todoroki natsuo#todoroki fuyumi#endeavour#god this got long i'm so sorry#i have a lot of thoughts and wishes but i think this is the most of it#like i've got lots of wishes for how i want the todofam plot to wrap up#but alot of my issues with others thoughts and fears can easily be appeased if we see it actually takes time before it's all resolved
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