So as a clear disclaimer: I haven't actually read the My Hero Academia manga. Have I followed it fairly closely and try to stay up-to-date on it? Yes! Have I been able to make the emotional commitment to actually read it? No. It'll probably be a really long time until I can because (as is probably kinda obvious), I get very attached to characters very quickly so I would just be... in shambles for a while. But anyway, this topic has been on my mind for literally months and I just have to talk about it or I might explode.
For a quick note on why I'm writing this: I remember going through the comments on a post with Natsuo and Toya, and people were talking about how Natsuo is being dramatic because he's the only Todoroki child (besides Toya obviously) who is refusing to forgive Enji despite him being the child with arguably the least trauma. And it just really bothered me and I was thinking about why and it's been months and I'm still thinking about it. So here I am to make you think about it too!
((Fun fact: my spellcheck extension hates their names so that paragraph looked really ugly for a bit.))
For some context (why you're here if you don't know the context, I don't know but you do you), we have the Todoroki family which consists of mother Rei, father Enji, and children Toya, Fuyumi, Natsou, and Shoto. Enji was... a bad dad, to put it lightly. He put a ton of pressure on Toya to be his successor despite Toya's quirk hurting him. Shoto was kinda the miracle child who had both Rei's ice quirk and Enji's fire quirk, so Enji "trained" (aka abused) him from when he was a child. So a rough childhood, as demonstrated by the fact that I cannot find any panels with the entire family. The little kid with the half red-half white hair is Shoto.
Sorry for the low-quality shot here on the left but again, it's very hard to find clear panels of the kids that actually shows most of their faces. The boy with all white hair on the left is Toya, the kid in the middle who looks done with life is Natsuo, and the girl on the right is Fuyumi! There's a better pic of Toya on the right where you can actually see his face.
Aaaand here are the Todorokis grown up. As we can see, Toya is not present. Why? Well, he supposedly died. Did he actually die? Of course not, Enji's not getting away with his mistakes that easily, and we're not passing up on the chance for a really cool and complex villain.
So now Toya is Dabi, aka a very big villain who has burnt a lot of people to ashes and whose main mission is to bring down Enji. He's got all his fancy scars, he had dyed his hair black before doing a big reveal that involved some bleach or water or something (he's either got some really weak hair dye or he just never takes a shower, and I would not be surprised by either)
For mORE context (I'm sorry this is so long but I just want to make sure everything's clear. If you don't need the context just skip over all this), Enji's now trying to make amends with his family. Fuyumi is all for it because she's the one that's been trying to hold the family together and pretend that everything's fine. Shoto is hesitantly accepting Enji's attempt to atone for his mistakes. And Natsuo is... angry. And he's basically the one that's saying, "They might forgive you, but I won't."
Now this has apparently been kinda controversial. Why is Natsuo the one who's "being dramatic" and refusing to forgive Enji when Shoto, the child who's suffered the most at Enji's hands, is willing? Why is Natsuo the angriest of all the Todoroki children?
He's not angry on his behalf, he's angry on Shoto and, most of all, Toya's behalf.
In advance, I'm gonna mostly take Fuyumi out of the equation because she hasn't really suffered in the way that Toya and Shoto did due to her not having a fire quirk. She's been witness to it sure, but she's also the optimist and more neutral figure among the kids.
So back to Natsuo. He's the child that's been witness to both Toya and Shoto's suffering. Yes, Fuyumi was around, but it's canon that Toya was closest to Natsuo and vented pretty much exclusively to him. Shoto was too young to have really remembered Toya, and he was kept pretty separate from his siblings anyway. So that leaves Natsuo as pretty much the only Todoroki child who remembers Toya's suffering and who'd bear the most guilt for Toya's "death". And obviously, Natsuo was there for all of Shoto's abuse.
Now to be clear, Shoto has every right to either forgive or not forgive Enji. It's his trauma and his decision. If he chooses to forgive Enji, or at least try to move on, that's his choice and should be respected. And Natsuo might not agree, but he seems to at least respect his and Fuyumi's decisions.
Natsuo is mainly angry on Toya's behalf, because there's no one else among the siblings who really remembers. There's no one else to speak for Toya except Natsuo. And clearly, Toya is not planning on forgiving Enji any time soon judging by the latest murder spree. So Natsuo wasn't wrong in his (subconscious; I doubt he's actively thinking about it) assumption that Toya would still be angry and that Enji would have to do a lot more to make up for what he's done.
So there's my quick little word vomit on this topic that's been on my mind for ages. Natsuo is still angry because he's the only sibling left to stand up for Toya's memory. He's not angry on his own behalf because yes, he doesn't have as much to be angry compared to Shoto. It's for Toya and probably a little bit Shoto as well. So I think he's justified in his anger, and it really bothers me whenever people say he's being overdramatic.
This was a little shorter than I thought it'd be but that's okay hehe. I hope you enjoyed it and it made sense! I bashed this out in a few hours so not as much in-depth analysis as I usually like to do. I'll probably come back to this when I read the manga and talk about it more in depth (and hopefully with better screenshots)!
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