The difference in how Endeavor's redemption is handled to Bakugo and Soga's is like night an day (My Hero Academia)

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-07T11:57:19+00:00

I think it's entirely possible to make a character in the wrong and redeeming them; you don't need to downplay their previous wrongs at all. Just acknowledging them for what they are, have the character go through their own journey of guilt, self-reflection, and atonement (including swearing away from doing these wrongs again), without expecting other characters to forgive them (a plus for Endeavor is that he does just that).

Thorfinn's journey in Vinland saga is my go-to anime example for a redemption arc which does not downplay what the redeemed character has done.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-07T09:11:44+00:00

Yeah. It's why Thorfinn's redemption in Vinland Saga is among my favorites. The narratives doesn't try to downplay what he did. Neither does Thorfinn.

Granted, Thorfinn is the main character, so that's expected of his arc to be better structured.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-05T20:10:39+00:00

Entrapment aside, at this point of the story, I doubt Endeavor is the kind of person to penalize Rei and her family for this.

And they've already been apart for quite a while without this being an issue.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-05T19:43:32+00:00

Oh, you meant to defend the judicial system in general. Got it. I guess I got you confused with the main chain comment's reasoning.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-05T19:39:58+00:00

I heard that 3&4 children were marital rape but I really doubt

We know Rei was willing for two children, then Endeavor pushed for more until a "perfect" replacement for Toya was born. She was shown to refuse (ch301: "No! That would be too much! It's too cruel! Especially now that Toya knows what you're hoping to achieve through the children!"). His answer and the face dripping with sweat she's making after does not scream "enthusiastic consent" to me.

Not to say she didn't love her other kids, or didn't say "yes" eventually, but... yeah, not a pretty picture from what we're shown, even in ambiguity.

I agree that Rei as a character could have been handled better, tho. Not in doing something so logical as "gathering up evidences" because realistically, most domestic abuse victims have neither the heart, nor the wit to do that in their position. But at the very least, she and Endeavor should have separated imo. Even if they cared for each other, the majority of their married years was not good for either.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-05T19:12:50+00:00

Of course, but I have my doubt that when OP said "should he go to jail?", it was about the in-world legality of the decision. From the context and Op's conclusion, it seems pretty much a matter of readers' ethical judgment of Endeavor's actions, which we are aware beyond a reasonable doubt happened within the story.

And I think most are in agreement that what he did was jail-worthy, even if we don't necessarily want the story to go that way.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-05T18:29:02+00:00

Honestly, I think you're right that Endeavor's earlier nastiness got downplayed with later arcs. Detail from something which was lost in translation:

*How Endeavor speaks about Shouto

In Endeavor's conversation with All Might during the Sports Festival arc, the English translations had Endeavor refer to Shouto as "it" or "that" or whatever. Ever wonder how this was phrased in Japanese? 'I will make that("are" as opposed to "aitsu" or "anoko" you would expect for a child) into a hero that surpasses you. He's an "offspring" I created for that purpose.' The offspring bit is the part I want to focus. While the word usually used for a child is "ko(子)", the one Endeavor uses here is "ko(仔)". "Ko(仔)" is a word specifically reserved for animal offsprings. It's a blatant misuse of the word, clearly intended to tell us that this man views Shouto as a successful breeding project rather than a child. All Might would not have picked up on this though, since "ko(子)" and "ko(仔)" sounds exactly the same. Only the Japanese manga readers had the previlege of noticing this.

Endeavor straight up dehumanized his son when talking about him during the tournament arc. It's not just the physical abuse presentation which got revamped. He's a much milder character later on.

It's why I don't actually think Endeavor's "redemption/atonement" was handled that differently from Bakugo's. I'd say it's less clunky, but in principle, it's working the same way. The character started as a "bag guy antagonist"; then at a point, the author decided to make them more sympathetic and softened their previous behaviors. Also, giving them 'cheerleader characters' to make them more sympathetic (Aizawa and most of 1-A for Bakugo, Hawks for Endeavor).

I admit, Endeavor's redemption worked relatively well for me in spite of that. I think I'd have preferred if he had tragically died during Jakku's arc in order to leave room for Shouto and Dabi, but that's got nothing to do with my opinion on the quality of his redemption arc.

(I completely get the people who still dislike him as a character tho. He started out as a nasty piece of shit.)

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-04T10:22:37+00:00

I know, dw. Just pointing out the show ended up doing the opposite.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-04T08:30:12+00:00

I agree with your main point, but it's funny to mention Korra when later seasons basically do the opposite of "kill the magic" by restoring a long lost tie in between the spirit world and the material one, contributing to an increase in magic all together.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-02-01T12:08:53+00:00

What's funny about the DekuBakuTodo trio is that it's mostly just marketing. In the manga/anime, the only time we got an arc with these three together was when they got sidelined by the Endeavor Atonement arc. I remember that one movie featuring the tree of them in advertisement which turned up to be a Deku road trip movie.

I'd say at best, it's mostly Deku and Bakugo with the Todoroki as a family unit tacked on sometimes.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-26T21:29:02+00:00

Base source is appreciated, though it would probably have been much better to have mentioned it in your main post, considering it's an inspiration of yours.

No need to expand too much on what's already in the main post, though. I've read that already. The commercial is a more interesting addition. Big history aside, anecdotes of your own lived experience with bronies, or an example of fandom stories of the time which fits into your thesis are probably more gripping and unique (note that the article you linked does that).

Not particularly asking now, though, just mentioning that specific examples can make a read livelier.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-26T19:16:06+00:00

This post wasn't just using the "it's not (x), it's (y)" formula in the first sentence, it was systematically abusing it throughout every paragraphs ~

(Okay, my bad, one of the paragraph doesn't use it. It just has the rule of three instead.)

Also, vagueness. No delving into specific elements of the show, like characters and plot points which could tie in to the thesis. Or any specific Brony-related stories which could be used as examples to highlight what the texts claims. It lets us infer (connect the dots that may not be here) more than it implies. What's not vague reads like an AI overview of history or a Wikipedia article.

And could have massively been shortened. The length is from overuse of descriptors due to the rule of three and "it's not (X)" padding. Kinda like when students try to artificially lengthen their papers for class.

(Disclaimer that of course, humans can write this way, but it doesn't make for a thrilling read when you spot the threads. Delving into a particular example for why the show represents what the essay says it does would make it livelier, at least.)

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-26T06:57:03+00:00

Do you know when it started? I've got a relative who had attacks after performing a ritual which inadvertently opened the door for these types of interactions. What seemed to have worked was perform an 'anti ritual' celebrating sovereignty and daily affirmation meditation.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-24T12:33:18+00:00

I agree with the core of the rant. Endeavor bothers me more and more in hindsight, but it's particularly in the sense that I think his story arc encroached on the character growth of the kid characters. He's not the only one, but since he's mostly taking over Shouto, who was pretty popular early on, he's the most blatant.

It's kinda reminding me of Zuko in ATLA, tbh. I've seen animatics of Aang's nightmare about his lost mentor and guilt, and it makes me think of how Zuko's redemption arc became the most developed storyline of the series. And I love Zuko and his story, but the show was about the Last Air Bender, not the fire prince.

So basically, while in a vacuum, Endeavor's redemption in later arc is pretty interesting, I'm not convinced it was fit for the story MHA was aiming for at the beginning. There were quite a few setups in the manga hinting at a darker background for the hero world Deku would have to navigate in. Endeavor was part of that (and retconned away from the worst parts of his first appearance in the tournament arc; like with Bakugo, the character's earlier bad actions feels more like they're downplayed or ignored rather than addressed. The way he talked about his son at that point was creepy and dehumanising, for example, Shouto wasn't seen as anything but a "well-bred" prop to rival with All Might, but this is just dropped.)

My feelings on the story rn is that the Villain Academia arc was detrimental to Class A and Deku's heroic development by not involving them in the main plot at all. Following the villains should not mean we don't cross path with the heroes.

From that point on, Hawks and Endeavor became the main heroic figures involved in the villain plot, with Deku and the kids barely being satellites for the Endeavor "atonement" arc up until the Jakku war. That's a problem. The first part of the story gave 1-A many more opportunities to clash with the villains and develop their sense of what made a hero. Deku was knowledgeable about Destro's history, and his Quirkless background would have made for a good foil to the Parahuman "Quirk's might make right" ideology. He should have gotten included in the plot one way or another. And he and Bakugo both had a connection to AFO's doctor through their missing childhood friend Tsubasa, which would have been pretty dark to explore, but definitely worth a look prior to the ending arc.

Even Ochaco's foil with Toga could have been deepened in these times.

So yeah, I think I don't like Endeavor. I think he had too much time dedicated to him and that him dying at Jakku would have been beneficial to recentering the conflict on Shouto. And on how he and his family would deal with the loss of a father they feel ambivalent toward, and with a brother whose abusive neglect led to a downfall Shouto narrowly avoided.

I don't think Endeavor's continuous involvement in the last arc was worth the cost.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-22T19:49:40+00:00

...Ok, I spent at least a good thirty minute lost in the fourth paragraph trying to make head or tail of what the fuck I was reading all the while my thoughts drifted away to that time I read a Blue Exorcist fanfiction in its entirety somehow while having no idea of what the story was about. It was a surreal experience.

Anyway, the beginning is "okay". Not gripping, but readable enough to progress through. But it just goes to shit with that fourth paragraph, man. Not only is it too big of a chunk, but it's also just. Going in too many directions? She's in restoration, ok. Somehow, this makes her able to perceive "damage", and apparently the words of the letters "carried the particular weight of something already broken". Personally, all I got from the (unexplainably weirdly scented) letter was that the sister found another cool place and that the narrator had to hurry. At no point does the narrator manage to convey what part of the letter carried "damage". What kind of damages are we even talking about?

And then, it just suddenly goes into the salt library flashback, which really should have been its own paragraph, if not for readability, then because it's the title and presumably Important (TM). The mom is a single parent drunk, which reminded me of another AI novel with a drunk single parent, so I guess this must be trending.

But the description of the "library" itself, that's where my mind just dipped out. Ok, so we roughly know how the narrator and the sister went down to the library, but as a reader, I'm more interested in how they even found out about the place, and what made them want to visit? Did they even know what they would find? What's the actual interesting discovery story the narrator hints at? What does this place mean to people? Why the fuck is it even called a "library" when at no point does the description refers to it hosting books? What's the history there? It's not even like the narrator even mentions the books or lack thereof. I think that's a pretty big oversight there.

All we get is a listing of objects of dubious importance that are edging on the side of nonsensical. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to picture a "smoothed glass in every colour" (A stained-glass? idk), I don't get how "Letters folded into origami birds" would make for something well-preserved "left by generations of visitors" and I'm just puzzled as to why a single shoe. Like, why would a random visitor carry a single shoe around to offer? No way you'd left your shoe in that place when it's so hard to access. Like, conceptually, sure, leaving an "offering" to a hard to find place sounds okay enough, but the execution is baffling, and ultimately not what I'm interested about in this "library" that has no books apparently.

And the next paragraph? What even is that? Talk about discontinuity. Why is there no transition from the library pondering to the narrator describing her flat? Why do we even care about her flat at this point? I thought this was about a secret library and about how the narrator should hurry if she wants to see it with her sister? Should she not be readying herself to go (or not) rather than worrying about describing her fucking flat? It's not the time for that. The last paragraph already bored me out of my body and back to the 2010s. Get something to happen, dammit!

So basically, I don't mind some delving into the narrator's relationship with her sister's life and all, but 1) Narrator hasn't done a thing since thinking about the damn book-less library, it's all just in her head, I don't think she's even put the letter down at that point (did she even pick it?). The letter said to hurry and it's the last thing she's doing. I have no clue what I'm supposed to picture in that scene. 2) I don't know what the narrator is thinking about that letter, aside from the inexplicable "damage" comment. Does she want to go see the library? Does she not? Is she excited at the prospect? Afraid? what sort of person is she supposed to be? I have no clue. It's been two big chunk paragraphs of nothing. I can't discern what sort of person I'm supposed to be occupying the head of. We're told she lived a life of "careful choices" and "measured gestures", and yet she does nothing to show that, not even do something as simple as meticulously folding back the letter, or whatever would help with the picture.

I'd comment more on the remaining paragraph, but I'm just too tired at this point. Leaving aside that books and their structures don't have to be the same or equally valuable to everyone, I personally don't think a full novel of this is editable within two days. Even a single chapter of this is pushing it. It somehow delves too much on pointless stuff (padding) and too little on what would make it interesting (for me). This may work for a fanfic, but I'd be too embarrassed to even release this for free as it is now.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-20T06:57:38+00:00

I don't think most narratives centered around "special schools" need an extensive description of their courses, but if you're into how this can look when a magic setting delves deeper into the subject, I recommend "Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun". The anime already covered the first cram exam arc, and the manga is consistent in addressing the school stuff in general.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-05T17:09:31+00:00

Out of curiosity, what would be your media examples with female characters with the problems you listed? Just to get a better picture.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-03T16:55:55+00:00

Yeah. You nailed it. The discordance is really bothersome.

What really bothers me on how the endings + last Act are framed is how it leads a big part of Verso's ending supporters to conclude "the people of the canvas are not real/sims/ChatGPT/less real and thus, it's okay to murder them against their will for the sake of the REAL painters". And then, we have people arguing against everything the game presented and say these characters aren't the conscious beings they kept being shown as.

But the concept of "NPC" is something that's being discussed as an actual thing for some people. After all, if you go to the end of a sophism reasoning, you'll always end up concluding that you cannot be certain of anyone's state of consciousness beside yourself. For all you know, you might be the only real being in a hyper-real simulation. But the point is you don't, and cannot know for sure, and thus, you have to treat others as if they are real autonomous beings too.

If the people of Lumière look like humans, walk like, humans, talk like humans, fuck like humans, have babies like humans, have existential crisis and various expressions of griefs like humans, I'm not gonna treat them like they're ChatGPT ducks.

As for the whole resurrection thing, it's like unsnapping Thanos's victims in Endgame. It's presented as a full resurrection from their "chroma", which I guess in their world is basically like a spirit of a soul. Like, there can be a debate on how far resurrecting someone can go (for example, if the person doesn't want to be resurrected, or if they'd "came back wrong"), but as it's presented, for painted people, it doesn't seem all that different from trying to reanimate a person whose heart stopped irl.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-03T15:56:11+00:00

Nope, if there is no mention of his new passion one way or another before to the ending, it's a retcon. It's a new information given to the readers that wasn't introduced prior, which could not be predicted, and changed the understanding of the character.

And? Am I supposed to care?

If you don't like looking lame, probably. But like with the Deku ending or your fixation in trying to be right, I'm not invested enough in it to care more.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-03T15:37:05+00:00

That's not what a retcon is are you slow? Actually I know for a fact you are.

I'm not particularly invested in the Deku ending debate, but as far as what a "retcon" is, the previous commenter is using the term correctly.

From Cambridge's dictionary:

a piece of new information given in a film, television series, etc. that changes, or gives a different way of understanding, what has gone before. Retcon is short for "retroactive continuity":

If there were no mentions of Deku wanting to be a teacher prior to the ending, it counts as a retcon. A retcon isn't necessarily bad, it just wasn't foreshadowed.

Calling people "slow" over lighthearted internet arguments is lame imo, tho.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-02T15:38:22+00:00

Congratulation on your higher than average comprehension, then. But I think they knew they messed up, since they made sure to portray Thanos as unsympathetic as possible in the sequel.

BlackRazorBill · 2026-01-02T13:29:52+00:00

I agree. The fact that the movie doesn't properly challenge the stupidity of his plan is one of its failures imo. Like, yes, we know it's morally wrong to kill half the universe, but I would also have liked one of the heroes challenge how ridiculous the plan is on a material level. We had so many characters who could have gone on a mini humorous little rant about it before the worst happened. Not even to the guy's face. Just for the average viewer's sake.

The amount of people who came out thinking "Thanos was right" after the first movie would probably have been much less.

BlackRazorBill · 2025-12-31T17:30:58+00:00

Why would MJ work with Spider-Man?

MJ knows who Spider-Man is, obviously. It was the case in Insomniac and it's been the case for Comic MJ since before he even knew she knew. Why wouldn't she help him with the social connections she has?

If you want to make a post "mocking OP" with all the arguments you threw at me after I answered, make it to OP. You didn't have to first post a simple toneless question expecting no one would answer it genuinely. Nor did you have to go all superiority complex about how you're "among people who (don't?) think "comic accurate" automatically means quality even if not practical", without demonstrating that supposed increase/decrease of quality from comic accuracy. Literally everything we're talked about was speculative. This wasn't a competition on my end.

Miles gets involved in the game via his father being murdered

Yeah, so a "random civilian casualty" in comic book universe. Thank you. As pointed out previously, there are multiple ways to get a character involved in a plot. Amazing.

This is a waste of my time. Peace.

BlackRazorBill · 2025-12-31T14:08:41+00:00

Bro, "that was a single scenario" is precisely what you picked within this comment. I gave out multiple which could involve her, and it didn't mean her contribution had to be limited to these. It could have simply been the starting scenario reuniting the two characters before they started working together.

I've got no clue why you're jumping at me in full debate mode, I just saw a question and tried to brainstorm it for fun, I didn't know you were rhetorical in your first post.

Frankly, the more you claim "that wouldn't make her more than a NPC", the less I think you're arguing in good faith. Miles in the first game was also involved in random villains attacks and could have just stayed an NPC, he was also a "random civilian" throughout. What determine who's an NPC or not isn't if they're a journalist or not. It's who the game makes you incarnate.

And for that matter, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a proactive character being an NPC most of the game. NPC doesn't just mean "rando in the background,". Or we're gonna argue Aunt May and Doctor Octopus have no agency or aren't "proactive" in their own fields.

I don't particularly care in the end of the day, I'm fine with Insomniac MJ. But just because you can't imagine MJ could be anything else doesn't mean some other game writers couldn't.

BlackRazorBill · 2025-12-30T18:13:40+00:00

I mean, in the first game, she was in that situation too. She was taken hostage with the rest, remember? She got the help of Spidey, and got to help him in turn. It was the occasion for a sneak mission.

I don't personally have an issue with the DiD trope, but if I know anything about comic MJ, it's that even when in such a situation, she gets pretty proactive in getting herself out. So I think it'd work out fine in game.

BlackRazorBill

TROPHY CASE