My Hero Academia has shed a tragic new light into Endeavor’s origin story teasing the darker elements that push his idea of heroism with the newest chapter of the series. Ever since he became the number one hero and his son Shoto Todoroki starting actively pushing back against him, Endeavor has been forced to face the darker parts of his past as he tries to become the hero Japan needs and the better person his family needs in general. But with his fight against All For One in the latest chapters, all of this has come back to the forefront.
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As both All Might and Hawks were fully aware of, one of All For One’s deadliest powers isn’t his actual quirk arsenal, but the fact that he often uses his knowledge of everyone around him to exploit the emotional weaknesses of his opponents. It’s already proven to be a crippling tactic against Endeavor, and all of these thoughts being brought back up has given fans a new look at the darker reasons why Endeavor has been pushing himself and his family so hard for all these years. It comes from a place of fear and trauma.
Chapter 356 of My Hero Academia sees Endeavor pushing himself back into the fight after All For One was able to emotionally stun Endeavor for a moment and hit him with a huge blow. He begins recklessly charging ahead without regard to his own life, and All For One is ready to call him out on it. Endeavor then sees a version of his younger self berating him in the present over the fact that no matter how much he’s seemingly advanced and covered it, he’s still trying to overcome the weakness he feels at the core.
It’s then revealed that Endeavor’s father had died while attempting to save a young girl from “some bastard” but ended up losing his life along with hers in the process. This kicked off the inferiority complex we see later as he began to view “supermen” like All Might with envy and even called himself “Endeavor” to highlight how he was planning to overcome his inner weakness with hard work. But like he and fans have seen thus far, this singular chase to overcome that trauma has only resulted in more pain for those around him and a worse life overall.
In a way, attacking this weakness head on will carve out his own unique path to strength, but we’ll soon see whether or not this will be enough against All For One as the fight continues in the coming chapters. But how do you feel about this new look into Endeavor’s past? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
