I’ve been Thinkin About The Todorokis A Lot Lately 

Enji's soft expression, the joy on Touya's face...we should all blow up

commission for @certainaestheticfictionmuffin love drawing todofam interactions 🤧🤧💗

Chilling

About that post where you were responding to a bad take made on Twitter about Endeavor. Honestly what could Hori possibly write to have Enji finally step up as a father? I find Enji really compelling as a character, but the dude has literally had so many opportunities to step up as a father and he just,, hasn't??? Even when Touya was trying to kill himself he barely made an attempt to stop him before deciding to just die alongside him (which I suppose made since for his character but the wrong choice nonetheless). It's to the point where when he FINALLY does step up, I genuinely feel like it won't mean a damn thing. Like he's pushed all the real work dealing with Touya onto his family, which is the ONE THING they asked of him. I honestly wouldn't mind any of the guy's *continuous* failures if they didn't fall back on Shoto somehow every single time 😮‍💨

To me that’s why it’s an essential story beat. Shouto’s whole “become who you want to be” and “you are not bound by his blood” cannot happen as long as he keeps shouldering the burden that rightly is Endeavor’s.

Now the rest of the family stepped in a little, but if Enji sincerily wishes for a future where Shoto can choose to be with his friends and where he keeps his eyes on Touya, he needs to understand that the way to do it, is not by beating villains.

He’s lack of taking responsibility is why Shouto is not with his friends. Him prioritising his hero role over talking to Touya is why Touya is burnt so badly now.

So if there is a call for back-up to Deku (which I think there will be with the Warp Gate still in play), I think Endeavor the hero would go (feeling like it’s his duty as No 1), but a father may choose to stay with his badly injured son and family and take care of them.

So basically, for me it’s two things: Enji chooses Touya over the logic of hero work. And he tells Shouto that it’s not his burden anymore and lets him join his friends (by stepping up he allows him a real choice instead of being stuck with picking up the pieces).

My derp academia: Endeavor is tired of your shit

Why do you think Endeavor's solution to every problem that raises is to remove himself entirely? Like aside from his obvious inferiority complex (do u think he has an inferiority complex? 🤔)

Well...

let's start in reverse.

Enji himself admitted he had a 'weakness' within, that he'll believe he'll never be a true superhuman (like All Might), that he felt envy for him and had an inferiority complex and tried to hide his weakness by putting up a front.

So it's canon he has an inferiority complex and most of his behaviour stems from his attempts at hiding it by putting up a mask, a front, acting the opposite of how he felt.

So yeah, he has an inferiority complex toward All Might.

Now... is Endeavor's solution to every problem that he raises to remove himself entirely?

I think the question needs some clarifications.

For start, if we're talking of Endeavor as the HERO, Endeavor, no, he generally doesn't remove himself, he tackles problems personally the harder he can.

The only moment in which he felt tempted to remove himself from a problem was when Dabi turned out to be Touya and, in the end, he decided to tackle it, showed up to the press conference, took upon himself the entire responsibility, went to help Deku refusing Shouto's help, accepted to take part to the war, told Shouto he wanted to be the one to face Touya, accepted for the grand plan it was better if he were to face All for One and did face him, even though he didn't feel up fighting Touya he lead him away so that his son at least wouldn't hurt the other Heroes and this despite how worn out and wounded he was.

But I think you are talking about Endeavor the Hero but about Enji the man, the father and husband.

And here canon confirms he tried escaping facing responsibilities by pushing them on others (he told Rei he wouldn't look at Touya so she had to do it, he let Fuyumi face the responsibility of keeping together the family, he tried to push first on Touya and then on Shouto the duty to surpass All might for him, he removed himself completely from Natsuo's life).

That's why he is trying to atone now, because he realized his negligence caused his family's destruction.

He never really explained WHY he decided to act in such a way.

We can just speculate so my answer is as good as the one of anyone else.

Of course we can connect some things to his envy for All Might and to his inferiority complex toward him.

There's a bit in one of the "School Briefs" I find rather interesting. The story is about Parents' Day, a day in which the parents of the students are invited to go to school.

Shouto says nothing about it to Enji (as he doesn't want his father to go there) but Enji finds the invitation (too late) and rushes at U.A. as he really wishes to take part to it but... once Recovery Girl opens the gates up for him he can't bring himself to admit he's there for parents' day because he doesn't want to be exchanged for a doting father as, according to him, a Hero as to project strength and nothing more, absolutely not the image of a sensitive family man. He must look ambitious and prideful, nothing else.

So, if we take "School Briefs" as canon, part of why Enji avoids his family is also due to this, he believes he has an image to project and protect, an image that's tied to his inferiority complex with All Might because it's tied to how he wants to be perceived AS A HERO.

Shouto is in a Hero school and, in the story, Enji ultimately convinces himself him watching Shouto performing in a Hero school wouldn't make him look soft... but think at his other kids.

They aren't in a Hero school, which means Enji might very likely have avoided going to school on parents' day meaning, after Rei's hospitalization, they had no one who would go to school for them.

But there's more to consider.

First of all, remove yourself from a situation, isn't necessarily a wrong strategy. Sometimes we must know when to back off and leave people more competent than us handle the problem... or just give up on seeing it being solved because it can't be solved otherwise we'll only do further harm. Knowing when one has to back off or when one has to continue tackling the problem is supposed to be one of the things that mark the passage to adulthood.

As an adult you're expected to know when something is worth trying being fixed or not and since it's generally not so simple and clean cut people still make plenty of mistakes despite being adults...

For example, while Rei was recovering it was important for her psychological health not to meet Enji. Enji staying away from her instead than, for example, pressure the hospital to let him meet her, was a good thing.

In Japan divorce isn't as smooth as in other countries (it carries a social stigma for both parties as well as for the kids involved) so if it'd gone for a divorce it wouldn't have been equally good... but it could have been a good solution in other countries.

Why this is relevant?

Because Enji has to judge each time if the option of removing himself from something is a good idea or not, it's not a given it's always wrong.

When he decides, for example, that he'll build another house for Fuyumi and Natsuo so they can welcome Rei there, he persuades himself it's a good idea FOR THEM.

Rei can't meet him, Natsuo feels bad when he sees him, Shouto told him not to put up a father's act in front of his friends, making him feel rejected as a father... so if they don't see him everyone's happy, right? Wrong because it doesn't take into consideration his family's wishes.

But the fact it seems right it's part of why Enji feels it's okay to choose such an option.

I particularly like how the anime represents this choice.

Neither Natsuo nor Fuyumi are happy with Enji's choice and the visual seems to imply he's leaving them, abandoning them...

...with Enji who instead continues to think "What I can do for my family after all this time...? I think about this every time I go to sleep."

The fact he dreams his family being happy while he's not with them, to him comes to seem the answer to the question.

He thinks that's what he has to do if he really cares about them.

But there's also, of course a dark side to all this.

Removing himself from his family... is the easy choice. Forcing Rei to look after Touya, leaving on Fuyumi the responsibility of the house, pushing first on Touya and then on Shouto the duty to surpass All Might, not caring about Natsuo... are also all easier choices than actually getting involved.

Let's pick this scene because it's easier.

Enji doesn't know what to say to Touya. Saying the wrong thing has the potential, of course, to make matter worse and Enji excuses his inaction also by telling to himsef 'if I go there I'll end up encouraging him'... so he chooses to do nothing... which requires him zero efforts... and ultimately leads to terrible consequences.

Touya needed him to step up to his duty as a father, to risk doing mistakes but putting up all his efforts into reaching his son, into keeping him safe.

Because although all this seems to steem from how Touya wants to become a Hero, the real core of the problem is he doesn't feel himself being seen by his father.

It's not so much about Enji telling him something, is about Enji making him feel seen. Enji doesn't, he kind of understands Touya needs to be seen but pushes that duty on Rei. He runs away hiding behind his Hero role. He has job to do, he can only show him the world of Heroes.

He runs away. He pushes forward excuses and runs away.

He did it with Touya but it's basically what he had done with the rest of his family, the story simply digs it more on how he did it with Touya because the consequences were terrible and came to bite him back.

And yes, we can blame for it his weakness, his inferiority complex, he wants to look like a strong Hero and he can't even help his child. He's afraid to fail because trying would be hard and failing wouldn't fit the image of a Hero and so he doesn't.

He's insecure, not in battle, not on duty but with how he presents himself.

Which might be tied to how he lost his father.

We don't really know the answer (and, of course, even if we were to know, this wouldn't make right what Enji did to his family), and throwing in his loss makes things really complex because Horikoshi developed extremely little that part.

Basically for 355 chapters he let us think that Enji's sole weakness was he was self centered, selfish, then with basically zero build up, threw in that he had lost a parent same way as Kotarou and this gave him trauma but... well, Kotarou's loss and reaction were better developed.

I really wish Horikoshi were to go back at that because that needed more space and... got nothing. But I doubt there will be time for it.

So hum... I fear I've ended up rambling a bit. Sorry if I can't offer you some definitive answer on why Enji does what he does, just my guesses about it and thank you for your ask!

I do love to talk about the Todoroki family!

Todoroki themed inner covers

Shouto’s really going through it.

Bonus:

I relate to Enji because we’re both hot dilfs

It's my 3 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

My life has gotten significantly worse ❤️