Tiny Mystery Todoroki

Who is Tiny Mystery Todoroki? His face we suspiciously have never seen in the two panels he’s been in. Is he a fifth sibling (if Dabi is a Todoroki)? Or just a random other sibling, or Dabi himself? I don’t know if he is a random sibling or Dabi, but I think there’s very little to suggest there is a 5th sibling for a few reasons, though you can never rule it out. I also lean towards thinking he’s Dabi.

The character book officially identifies four Todoroki children, in a particular order:

I guess it comes down to how much you trust the guidebook. It could after all just be interpreted from their sizes, though frankly I think this portrays Fuyumi & Tiny Mystery Bro as about the same size so I would hope there was, like, not just speculation. If that’s the case, then we have an explicit ordering of siblings. Of course, it doesn’t preclude another sibling, but it also doesn’t suggest it. Endeavor could have of course gone out and married someone else before Rei, or cheated on her, but there’s nothing in the story to explicitly suggest such as of right now and evidence in the guidebook suggests otherwise.

What was revealed in chapter 187 supports what the guidebooks suggests.

Basically, the ages we have for Natsuo, Shouto (15-16?), and Fuyumi all suggest an age gap of 3-4 years. Which, probably not so coincidentally, is the age kids are noted to manifest their quirks for the first time.

This seems to suggest that Endeavor was waiting until the child was old enough to manifest a quirk before having another one. Like, suddenly they’re not good enough. Dad of the year right there (this is sarcasm).

There simply isn’t room for another sibling and then Shouto, and nothing seems to suggest that Shouto had a younger sibling. Again this pattern of age gaps might not actually be intended to be a pattern or Shouto could have a younger brother, but there’s nothing textually supporting that, and I think it makes sense in a twisted way for Endeavor stopped producing children like products once he got the quirks he wanted.

The brother we don’t know about, regardless of whom he is, is therefore probably ~25 or Fuyumi’s (older) twin. Despite being short and tiny. (Or maybe Natsuo is just freakishly tall.)

The only possible evidence I’ve seen of a fifth sibling is the naming convention. Fuyumi’s name contains the kanji for “winter” and Natsuo’s for “summer.” That’s led to theories that there might actually be five Todoroki siblings with four of them having a season theme and then Shouto (whose name does not contain a kanji for a season). However, again, I personally don’t think there’s any direct evidence for this when the seasons referenced for Natsuo and Fuyumi expressly connote summer-heat-fire and winter-cold-ice which are related to the Todoroki family quirks (regardless of which quirks they specifically have). It’d be different if one of their names was related to spring or autumn, but it isn’t, so for now I can’t quite buy this.

tl;dr: there’s nothing explicit in the text suggesting a fifth sibling. Of course, there’s nothing outright ruling it out either, but Endeavor only thinking of four kids again strongly suggests four to me.

Now for what we know and don’t know about Tiny Mystery Bro:

1) Unless there’s been a retcon (you never know but I’m gonna go with unlikely given how the manga isn’t even adapting the anime’s hair color retcon) he’s probably the oldest, at either 22 or ~25.

2) He’s also the shortest. ~~I bet Endeavor would not have liked that.~~

3) Natsuo referenced another sibling being abused.

4) We’ve never seen his face, in contrast to the other siblings, which is something an author usually does when they want you to have questions. (aka, foreshadowing. Like the fact that Dabi’s name has also been kept secret and implied it’s important, whether or not these two mysteries coincide.)

5) No one character has mentioned Tiny Mystery Todoroki’s name, & if he were no one who mattered (like, I don’t think Fuyumi or Natsuo are gonna be characters with arcs of their own as much as I would love more of them) there’s not really a narrative point to keeping it hidden from us and BNHA is about as subtle as a flamethrower (pun intended) in its narrative, though it does tend to be coherent. He could be dead, of course, but again, I don’t think anything within the story expressly suggests this (everything seems to suggest Rei throwing water on Todoroki’s face thanks to Endeavor being an abusive husband/dad was The Incident in their family, not the death of a child, though again, anything is possible).

6) Might be minor but Natsuo’s “I’m always in touch with you” which MS translates as “I still call home from time to time!” might carry a certain implication–that someone, presumably Tiny Mystery Bro since the same chapter tells us Shouto writes letters regularly and Fuyumi visits, is not in touch with them. I don’t know Japanese so that’s entirely possible I’m wrong here but given the explicit mentions of how the other siblings keep in touch in 187, I’m suspicious.

Occam’s Razor suggests that Tiny Mystery Bro is the eldest, was abused (or took the neglect harder than Fuyumi & Natsuo, which is also possible since neglect is also abuse and can be just as painful, & it’s Endeavor’s fault even if the pain Tiny Mystery Brother suffered was through a lack of actions rather than direct action), and is supposed to be something we, the audience, wonder about, and possibly the family wonders about him too.

If Dabi is a Todoroki (I think he is) he is probably that strange third child we see. Either way, I think Tiny Mystery Brother is probably very important to the story.

What kind of flower did he give to rei

I am not well versed in botany, so alas, I do not know. If anyone does know (I’m sure someone’s posted about it) do comment!

I didn’t notice until I saw a recent post pointing it out, but the blood from Endeavor’s facial wound is shaped like the flower he gave Rei.

Welp.

Yep. It’s also like, right there haha. I legit pulled up the panels from 187 to compare to 188 and then was like duh, Kate, the flower legitimately… right… above the wound. BNHA does not do subtle.

Karma’s a bitch. But *tinfoil hat appears* it’s also interesting to me that the wound resembles an object he gave to Rei, the wound Rei gave Shouto (because of Endeavor, let’s be real: it’s his fault), and, well-and I saw someone mention it here but it was the day the chapter came out and for the love of god I can’t recall whom nor find the post, I’m sorry person (if anyone knows pls do link so I can credit them!)–if Dabi is indeed the other sibling Natsuo mentioned in 187 as he implied 3 direct abuse victims, he’s got a cut directly down his chin like Dabi has.

Not to mention Endeavor implied the dangers of overheating this chapter, and well, the locations of Dabi’s scars are the same locations Endeavor’s fire comes from, so.

Falling Heroes

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.

Do you think Endeavor will go blind on his left eye? Sorta like a thematic message that means by chasing the wrong thing he lost sight of what was truly important? Kinda simplistic but still, really nice.

I think it’s possible, and I too like the thematic implications there. BNHA isn’t really a super thematic story though (though Todoroki’s arc is the most thematic one imo) so I’m not sure. But it’s definitely interesting that he got a permanent (probably) scar right where Shouto has his burn.

Anyways this implies to me that Endeavor’s quirk itself does have the ability to injure his body, which was also implied in what Horikoshi wrote about Todoroki (if he uses his flames too long what will happen?) and he hoped ice would temper it. Except Endeavor wound up burning everyone close to him. He broke Rei psychologically to the point where she poured boiling water (the opposite of ice) on Shouto’s face. He didn’t spend any time with Natsuo and Fuyumi, and whatever happened to Mystery Bro… well Natsuo implied it was bad and it’s fascinating to me we still can’t see his face.

Like, the age thing is the biggest question mark about the Todoroki Dabi theory, because I think one of the brothers is supposed to be older than Fuyumi but it isn’t Natsuo and Tiny Mystery Bro looks younger, but you never know, there are lots possible explanations. Anyways this interests me because it’s long been speculated that Dabi burned himself, explaining his scars (which are also exactly where Endeavor’s flames come from on his body). So to see Endeavor confirm that a fire quirk is potentially dangerous is interesting, and does have potential character implications for Endeavor himself.

Basically, Endeavor brings these burns on himself. His redemption & becoming an actual hero probably won’t involve defeating anyone through strength because relying on his strength/quirk potentially injures himself and everyone around him.

Endeavor will be fine

~~I can’t believe I’m writing this because I have no love at all for his character and he’s on my forever shit list.~~ But he’ll be fine.

Redemption arcs in fiction rely on suffering. In straight-forward stories, anyways (less so in deconstructions like Tokyo Ghoul). I’m not saying this is how it should be but rather observing how they absolutely tend to go in fiction. If a character suffers enough they live (zee: Zuko, got what he wanted, wound up alone and isolated and losing the one person who truly loved him; Mutsuki, who endures terrible things in TG, etc.). If they suffer but not quite enough (think Darth Vader) they usually die at the end of their arc (and I hate redemption by death but. It is a trope). The more characters suffer, the less likely they are to die as a result of their redemption arcs. That’s just how redemption arcs commonly work as a trope, problematic or tasteful or not. It is what it is. And BNHA, unlike most (all?) of the other mangas I write about, does not really subvert tropes; it sticks to them but generally does them well.

I’m going to reference this really well written summary of how redemption arcs tend to work in fiction. It does not apply to real life not to whether or not readers have to like it. It’s not saying things should be this way, but simply commenting on what already exists.

Endeavor’s redemption is always going to be controversial because unlike most characters who tend to get redemption (like, say, Shigaraki, and probably Dabi if he is Endeavor’s son) he, as far as we know, is not a victim who became an abuser. He’s just an abuser. And for that reason I personally do not like it. But the narrative is definitely aiming for redemption for him.

According to the steps in this redemption arc meta (which are accurate to how fiction tends to work), let’s see how this is playing out for Endeavor:

Initial crime: Endeavor marries Rei and forces her to produce children whom he plans to use to further his own ambitions as a hero.
A worsening of the crime: he abuses his children: Shouto and according to Natsuo last chapter, one other child as well. He neglects Natsuo and Fuyumi.
Reckoning/refusal of the reckoning: Rei snaps under Endeavor’s abuse and burns her son’s face to keep him from ending up like Endeavor. Endeavor locks Rei up and refuses to accept that it might just be his fault.
Suffering: aka, where we are right now.
Acceptance: that’s probably about to happen but it hasn’t happened yet.
More suffering: it’s coming, quite possibly through a Dabi Todoroki reveal.
Penance: See here for how I think that’s going to go.
Forgiveness. If he actually does want to earn his family’s forgiveness which this arc is definitely implying.

So let’s talk about Suffering Round #1. The fact that Endeavor is, in this chapter, suffering a wound that resembles what happened to Shouto, a victim of his abuse, is actually a positive sign for those who want to see a redemption, and a positive sign for the writing, because Endeavor cannot earn his redemption based on “I shall defeat a strong Nomu who has no emotional connection to me!” when his crimes are not against random people but his family, people he has emotional ties to.

Endeavor cannot earn his redemption via his succeeding at his status as the #1 hero, because it was seeking status that led to him abusing his family. Endeavor focuses on his reputation. Being wounded publicly/poooossibly defeated is a first step to breaking that down, and it needs to crack for him to earn a redemption.

also for the villains to get a redemption which shigaraki at least (& probably dabi) is clearly headed for they’re probably going to get what they want just like endeavor just got what he wanted in becoming the #1 hero (shigaraki et al want to erode trust in heroes) only to find out it’s not what they wanted at all and this is a step towards that.

Also? The suffering’s probably going to get worse for Endeavor over this arc. Now that his reputation–which he’s always valued most–has been targeted by the narrative even if he like happens to wake up next chapter and defeat the Nomu, it’s probably going to next target the thing he’s starting to realize maybe he should have valued more: his family. Quite possibly through Dabi being revealed as his son, because that targets both his reputation further, and his family.

~~I can’t believe I just wrote this when I want to stick him on my Bad Dads list and delete him forever~~