My Hero Academia has set the stage for Shoto Todoroki’s ultimate showdown with Dabi – aka his older brother, Toya Todoroki. The My Hero Academia manga finished the tragic backstory of the Todoroki family in chapter 302, the second half of “The Wrong Way To Put Out A Fire” story arc. This dark chapter covers the disintegration of Enji Todoroki/Endeavor’s marriage to Rei, after the birth of Shoto, the couple’s final “experiment” in quirk blending. Meanwhile, we learn how the seeds of “Dabi”were planted in Toya early on and grew into twisted weeds of madness when Shoto came along. The chapter ends with a bold declaration: Shoto Todoroki is the one who will take out Dabi, and redeem his family’s name.
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Warning: My Hero Academia Manga Chapter 302 SPOILERS Follow!
The story of the Todorok family is especially tragic because of the earnest emotion everyone in the family had, which still led them to ruin. Endeavor tried to pull Toya back (even as repeated his obsessive power mistakes with Shoto); Rei tried to reach Toya, and Toya just wanted to matter. However, the madness of “Dabi” in Toya was too deeply rooted; he dropped Joker-style truth bombs on his mother about her being breeding cow from a poor family, responsible for failed creations like Toya sees himself as.
While emotionally battering his mother, Toya continued pushing his flames in secret training sessions alone, terrifying/enraging his father when Endeavor eventually saw the burns. Endeavor took his fears out abusively on Rei, while neglecting Toya and pushing Shoto further. Things hit the wall when Toya finally trained too hard and pushed too far, incinerating an entire mountainside. Toya’s “death” solidified the Todoroki family’s fall, as Endeavor leaned viciously hard onto Shoto; Rei began to resent Enji and the sight of their offspring; and even Shoto’s other siblings Fuyumi and Natsuo admit to not having done enough to help right the ship – even if Endeavor was the one who steered it off course.
In the end, Rei declares the entire family is to blame for Toya’s fall into the darkness of becoming Dabi. She declares that “Shoto is our family’s hero” that will “save” them from the legacy of shame and evil that Toya/Dabi has unleashed. Shoto, however, has a different idea, telling his father that stopping Toya has to be a family affair, with the two of them taking him on.
MyHero Academia releases new manga chapters FREE ONLINE weekly. Season 5 of the anime will premiere this year.
