My Hero Academia fans are misunderstanding one villain’s “absolutely flawless” arc

As we near the conclusion of My Hero Academia, fans are reflecting on the various storylines, and there’s one baddie who’s getting unfairly framed.

The My Hero Academia ending looms, with only a couple of chapters to go. We don’t know exactly how the overall story will finish, but some character arcs are already tied up.

Shigaraki‘s story is finished, as well as All Might’s and several other side characters. One whose narrative is on the verge of finishing is Endeavor, whose embattled anti-villain son Dabi remains in intensive care after suffering extensive burns from exploding himself to stop All For One.

Their last scenes together have Endeavour and the rest of the Todoroki family visiting Dabi, refusing to let him suffer alone. It’s touching, and the moments have been interpreted by some as a form of redemption for the Todoroki patriarch, when really, as a Reddit thread points out, it’s really about atonement.

“I don’t know how many times Endeavor says he’ll never be able to fix what he did to his family or make up for it, all he can do now is respect their wishes and try his hardest to be better,” the thread starts.

“The writing of this entire character arc is absolutely flawless and I feel like people often discredit it because of the misconception of what it actually is.”

This does feel truer to the complexity of what’s happening. Just because Endeavour is being seen in a slightly more positive light, as a father who’s being present and accountable, doesn’t mean he’s redeemed. He still helped influence and create one of the worst villains in the entire manga and superhero anime. But he understands that and knows he needs to do better.

“I think something really important in Endeavor’s atonement is that ever since he committed himself to the path, all he has done is suffer the consequences of earlier actions,” reads a comment.

“Both atonement and redemption are things he should strive for and anyone else who wants to do better, regardless of what they have done,” adds another.

In line with the latter comment, some believe Endeavor will be somewhat redeemed, but that’s part of the nuance.

“People really misinterpret Enji so much. It’s OK if you don’t like him and most Endeavor fans who understand his arc meaningfully understand that,” says another user. “But it’s a whole other ballgame when you say something like ‘abusers don’t deserve mercy’ and you’re a Dabi or League of Villains stan and they’ve committed worse crimes than what Enji did.”

Well-written heroes and villains ask us to hold complex, perhaps even contradictory views. That is the joy of following something like My Hero Academia for over a decade. To see what’s going down right now, check out our guide on Chapter 429.