He’s not, at least not in the same sense as Touya/Dabi turning to the dark side of the quirk is absolutely Endeavor’s fault. It’s more of a foil situation than a direct parallel: the situations have comparative points, but also key differences.
Shigaraki is absolutely the result of Nana Shimura’s mistake in giving up her child to an orphanage because she was fearful for him–understandably so–but it was precisely that fear that put her grandchild at risk. And All Might knew about the boy and went along with it, which again, is not a terrible thing on his part since it was not really his place to do anything about it.
But because Nana put her son into the cracks of society, he died there, and Shigaraki was preyed on by All For One, despite desperately wanting someone to come and save him. Basically Shigaraki reveals the flaws in hero society that were further explored with Eri: people are still exploited, and people don’t always try to save the most vulnerable especially if it requires going against what society expects. It is absolutely not directly All Might’s fault, but as the willing symbol of hero society for many years, he put himself in a position where villains would blame him for the pitfalls of hero society… but villains, or at least Tomura, is just someone who wants to be saved as well. All Might does want to try to save him, and I am sure he will try, just as I do think Endeavor will try to save Touya.
after all might found out that shigaraki was nana shimuras grandchild gran torino told him that he is off the case because all might cant really see shigaraki as a villain and he would waver and thats dangerous asking him what are you going to do when you see him and regardless of his lineage he is a criminal now
so I think the same thing will be brought up with dabi and endeavor
there is no doubt in my mind that endeavor will try to save dabi because he will believe he is at fault for dabi and all might will try to save shigaraki because of how much he loved nana and his nature but all might will fail in saving shigaraki and end up being killed
while endeavor will succeed and top off his redemption
this is helped byhow all might and endeavor were/are foils
since While they are both very powerful heroes, Endeavor is only in it for the sake of winning and feels like becoming the best is the most important thing, while All Might is legitimately trying to do good. They also contrast in visual style. All Might has a more traditionally superheroic style with bright colors and a more silver-age style costume, while Endeavor wears a simple dark bodysuit whose details come from his flames, which include Shoulders of doom in more typical dark-age fashion.
so all might and endeavor would both have people connected to them who are with the league of villians shigaraki (nana shimuras grandson who he loved like his own mother
) and dabi endeavors son and when endeavor finds out he will react poorly
and they both have/will feel guilty over how shigaraki and dabi ended up
for dabi and endeavor endeavor will know it was because of his abuse of his family that dabi ended up like this
and for shigaraki
nana left her child at foster so she can raise one for all (all might ) so all might blames himself because she left her child at foster care to raise him.
so it would be fitting contrast if all might who has a more traditionally heroic and silver age style fail and was a true hero in saving someones heart and turn a villains heart around while endeavor who is in more dark age fashion and wasnt a true hero at the start and a horrible person and more focused on strength ends up saving a villains heart and getting them to have a change of heart when it would usually be the other way around
so the pro hero who pushed himself to the limit for the people in order to being the symbol of peace and save peoples hearts by always smiling would fail to save the villain he tried to reach out to while the pro hero who only cared about strength at the beginning and was a horrible person and even now is has a tough demeanor would end up succeeding in saving a villains heart turning him from the path. and it would be funny since for years endeavor wanted to surpass all mights strength and at first doesn’t realize that the reason why All Might always beats him is related to the fact that All Might is kind-hearted and morally strong and believes that the only reason he loses the spot of #1 Hero is simply because he isn’t as strong as All Might, rather than the fact he is unable to inspire people like him and abused his family for that purpose of being number 1 hero and focusing on strength but in the end when both of them wanted to go to someone who had become a villain and save their hearts and have them turn away from the path of a villian endeavor will succeed where all might fails when all might is the type of person that people imagine would be able to change a person
not to mention of course the fact that all might will end up dying
I have mixed feelings! I do think both All Might and Endeavor will try to save Shigaraki and Dabi, respectively, from themselves (they better). I also think All Might is certainly going to die without having saved Shigaraki, but I can also see his death being a catalyst that will spark a seed that Deku will help grow, and I do think Deku will save Shigaraki.
The story is definitely endorsing All Might’s version of heroism via how All Might is framed, in terms of his selflessness and compassion, so I don’t see a narrative purpose in his death not resulting in Shigaraki being saved. His flaws the story calls out are in not trying to save Shigaraki, so once he tries, there’s no point to denying that resulting in anything. Futility and nihilism are not themes present in BNHA; in another story, perhaps, but not in this one. I think Shigaraki being redeemed is highly likely.
I also think Shouto will have to be involved in Dabi’s redemption–he has to be, since he’s one of the main characters! 😀 Endeavor will likely sacrifice himself for Dabi (if he is Touya, which I think he is), and he may or may not survive it, but I think the actual saving of these villains is up to Deku and Shouto.
I don’t know. I’m dying for the chapter man. I’m just like… it’s happening. Finally. It’s be 190 years.
Give me my Dabi angst, the delicious, savory, salty, aroma of consequences, and Todoroki family drama being dealt with instead of swept under the rug. Give me that All Might-Endeavor parallel continued, with Shigaraki-Dabi and them realizing oh shit I have someone I care about on the other side. Give me Endeavor realizing just how badly he fucked up and that he can’t use his hero power to fix this but has to delve into yet uncharted territory called Empathy and True Repentance.
So High End makes some sort of superficial comparison with Endeavor, and Endeavor responds as he does:
It’s not like these panels look similar at all, Endeavor:
What will you gain if you destroy a Nomu and lose your soul? You’ve already lost it and lost your family trying to get to #1, after all.
“Don’t
lump me in with the likes of you” seems to indicate, unsurprisingly given the last chapter when Endeavor still thought of his kids in terms of breeding them for their quirks, that Endeavor’s not willing to see his sins as
sins yet. He’s not willing to face them. Because there are some pretty
clear parallels in that Endeavor bred his kids for their quirks to
have them surpass All Might, just like whoever is behind High End
deliberately mixed certain quirks to create a Nomu who could actually
get results.
It would make sense for Endeavor’s character, if by destroying this Nomu, he finds himself facing those precise sins.
It’s not like the narrative is deliberately comparing it to what happened to All Might, Endeavor’s parallel,
when he won against AFO but it would up being–well, not quite a pyrrhic win but he did
lose his quirk and find out his mentor’s grandkid got brainwashed into
becoming a villain so like.
I expect Endeavor to win this fight, as I’ve said. I just also think it’s pretty fitting to end with it being revealed Dabi is behind High End and also is Tinyroki.
So the week after the anime airs the episode in which All Might defeats AFO, but loses his quirk and therefore his status as the number one hero (and it’s all televised), the manga drops a chapter in which the new number one hero, Endeavor, is seemingly defeated on television.
Whether or not Endeavor’s actually defeated or just down for the count right now + disfigured in a karmic way (I really don’t think he’ll die), Endeavor and All Might have always paralleled each other very very closely in terms of their relationships with each other, with their respective proteges, and possibly with villains. They are great foils, and I expect that foiling to continue.
This isn’t me equating them btw; All Might is a hero inside and out, even though not without his flaws, but Endeavor is a hero on the outside but a complete asshole of a human being and everything wrong with the hero world. That being said the narrative is clearly aiming for redemption for him so w/e.
Parallels with each other: Endeavor & All Might
Endeavor has always been Bakugou’s negative foil, in that they are heroes (or a hero in training) but not great people, with bullying tendencies that’s blatantly abuse in Endeavor’s case. Bakugou could become just like him if he isn’t careful. All Might is, of course, a foil for Deku, but not so much a negative one… though in some ways he is, but I’ll get into that later.
There’s this idea of the new UA heroes in training surpassing the heroes currently in existence: Endeavor takes this literally, talking about strength and breeding his kids to do just that, but the story seems to be suggesting that the kids need to surpass the current heroes in terms of being better people and not making the same mistakes. For example, All Might is exactly whom Deku has always wanted to be, but he isn’t a perfect person, just like his mentor Shimura Nana was not perfect. Like, she sent her child to an orphanage ostensibly to protect him, but as a result of this, her grandson has become a villain, and All Might wasn’t able to save him (yet), and Shigaraki hates him for it.
If Nana’s neglect was pretty directly a response to tragedy that led to more tragedy, All Might’s desire to honor her request is far more understandable and less condemnable narratively. Yet a repeated motif in the story is that the UA kids will break the rules to save people, and while they do need to like balance that, the underlying principle thereof is something heroes could use a bit more.
Bakugou and Deku’s relationship parallels Endeavor’s and All Might’s: they’re rivals, and one of them is kind of a jerk in a lot of ways and resentful of the other, but they do care about each other and have a grudging respect.
However, Bakugou and Deku push each other to become better, whereas Endeavor projected his insecurities and resentment of All Might onto his kids, trying to force them to become better than All Might since he couldn’t be. If All Might was too hands-off with Shigaraki, he at least is very hands-on with Deku and he is a great father figure. Endeavor is extremely neglectful of some of his children, as Natsuo notes:
And unlike All Might who is very good with Deku, Endeavor is truly abusive and awful to Shouto. He’s too controlling, refusing to so much as let Shouto have fun with his siblings because he has to focus on training instead.
Which brings me to the next foil I want to discuss.
Parallels with their kids: Endeavor & Shouto vs All Might & Deku
Both Endeavor and All Might also have a mentee/kid in the UA class: Deku again, but for Endeavor it is Shouto. Todoroki and Deku first connect when Todoroki asks Deku if he’s All Might’s secret love child.
And Deku isn’t, of course, but he doesn’t have to be All Might’s biological kid to essentially be his kid. Deku is mentored in a paternal way by All Might.
And the way in which All Might mentors Deku sharply contrasts with how Endeavor mentors his son. Deku was born quirkless and was chosen to inherit One For All because of his heart. Endeavor married Rei to gain her ice quirk presumably, as this most recent chapter suggested, to temper the side effects of his own quirk:
And Shouto is chosen over his siblings because of how perfectly his quirks compliment each other; in contrast to All Might’s selection of Deku, it has nothing to do with whom Shouto is as a person, and Endeavor abuses him.
Endeavor focused on trying to get Shouto to surpass All Might, but in reality surpassing All Might and/or Endeavor means nothing if you’re not a good person, as Endeavor’s kind of starting to (maybe) realize right now. In that way, it’s possibly too late for Endeavor to ever surpass All Might, but Shouto does not want to be his father and will probably surpass him in terms of being a decent human being. He’s already the opposite of neglectful of his mother.
And there’s one more foil I really will be surprised if we don’t see because of how well it works:
Parallels with their kids’ negative foils: All Might & Shigaraki vs. Endeavor & Dabi
All Might’s mentor’s grandson, Shigaraki, became a villain because no one came to save him and AFO manipulated him as a result.
I really will be absolutely shocked if the parallel does not extend to a kid Endeavor ignored being a villain as well (Dabi). It just works so well on a paralleling level.
For All Might, the moment he found out who Shigaraki actually was during the fight where he lost his quirk. While I don’t expect Endeavor to lose his quirk or even his status really because losing his quirk doesn’t add anything to his character (strength isn’t going to redeem him, if we really are headed down that path and we pretty clearly are, whether I like it or not, it’s got to be through making amends to his family which is not going to be easy), the parallels between these two situations do make me wonder if this is going to be the arc where it comes out that Dabi is his son (if he is. Which I do think is likely but you never know).
What good is being a hero if you can’t save your loved ones? Shimura Nana could not save her husband, abandoned her son, and so her grandson faces a worse fate. All Might did not do anything nearly so bad, but he respected Nana so much he obeyed her request not to seek out her child and, well, that didn’t exactly work out. Endeavor protects people but hurts his family. Compare this to the kids at UA, who as I mentioned routinely flout rules if it means helping their friends (though they have to learn to balance this).
Basically: to be a true hero to everyone, you might have to break a few rules. I do think All Might will have something to do with Shigaraki’s strongly hinted redemption arc. It probably won’t be pretty though, but you don’t need a quirk to save someone’s heart.
And if Dabi is Endeavor’s son, Endeavor will probably have something to do with his, as well. It’s kind of the only way I would actually buy a redemption arc for Endeavor, if he sacrifices his reputation, his strength, his everything, to save a son he hurt.
Sacrificing himself (whether or not he dies and I’m speaking of a hypothetical future event not this current battle) for Shouto or any of his other kids wouldn’t likely cost him his reputation. Being knocked down by this Nomu is not a decisive moment (though it definitely matters for his redemption & is a good step) because it is not a decision Endeavor is making; in fact, he’s still focusing on his strength by thinking “that’s why I had all of you” instead of on “sorry I was a shit dad.” For him to prove that his family matters more than his reputation, he’ll have to make some kind of choice at some point, and imo a really powerful narrative way of doing that would be to save his son.
hamliet 