“When Enji didn’t answer Shouto’s call and focused on Deku he choose hero work over fatherhood”
Yeah, that’s totally why he did it… because he liked Deku more and cared more about being a hero
It’s not like there’s an insanely superpowered criminal mastermind who’s targeting Deku and WILL target Shouto if he got himself involved with Deku’s mission. It’s not like protecting Shouto from certain and terrifying danger is part of Enji’s duty as a father.
I mean it’s one thing to criticize Enji for being overprotective and not having complete faith in Shouto’s powers, that’s valid, but to act like his motives and priorities are still the same as his pre-redemption self? and act like being protective of your child has nothing to do with fatherhood? wtf, fandom???
Unfortunately, I feel like Horikoshi sort of wrote Endeavor into a corner where no matter what he does he will be failing in someway.
It doesn’t really matter if he’s looking out for Shoto or not when he ignores his messages because it still will come across as him putting his Hero work over his family. But at the same time if he dropped everything and only focused on finding Dabi/Touya he’d be criticized for being a bad Hero and caring more abut his personal issues then the citizens that are being attacked left and right.
I mean I remember when people got mad that it looked like that was what the Top 3 were doing–just going after Dabi instead of the main Big Bad AfO, but now that’s he’s focused on AfO and helping Izuku, he’s now being a bad father.
Horikoshi has written it so that Endeavor’s arc is supposed to be him learning to put his family over his status as a Hero, but then destroyed the Hero System and Society in a way where if Endeavor quite or focused on his family it’d still make him bad because suddenly he’s leaving when Heroes are needed more then ever and innocent people are dying. Neither option will make him look good–he’s failed and is perceived as selfish either way.
The only way I could have seen this being at all mitigated is if Hori had taken the time to do the Hospital Recovery Arc so many people expected because then we could have been shown Endeavor’s reaction to finding out about OfA/AfO and seen his sudden concern for Shoto. Hori also could have had Endeavor explain to Shoto that as much as he would like to go after Touya with him, that AfO has to come first because they’re working against the clock of Shigaraki becoming complete.
As it is, it comes off as him blowing off Shoto, who most likely has something important to talk to him about because he doesn’t contact Endeavor for basic pleasantries. I don’t think it’s supposed to come off as so harsh, and I until we’re given more on the situation, I’ll say that I doubt Hori wrote it to show Enji going back to his old ways. At worst I think it was meant to show how hard it still is for Enji to face his family, especially after all the negative things he’s gone through lately and not wanting to subject his family to those things.
I honestly can’t blame Hori’s flawed writing for how some parts of the fandom chose to be deeply biased and jumped to silly, ridiculous conclusions.
That’s on them, not on Hori.
It doesn’t really matter if he’s looking out for Shoto or not when he ignores his messages because it still will come across as him putting his Hero work over his family.
I disagree.
It doesn’t have to come across like that because Hori’s writing does not support that impression. Nothing in that scene even remotely indicated that Enji has regressed to his past self.
We don’t have to assume the absolute worse about Enji’s motives and priorities just because he felt he had to delay answering Shouto’s call (not outright refused to answer him). It’s an active choice on the fandom’s part to come up with the conclusion that Enji is putting his work over his family again (when protecting Shouto IS part of his duty as a father).
We didn’t need to be told that Deku is distancing himself from his friends in order to protect them. It was immediately understood and acknowledged as soon as it happened. But apparently we need to be explicitly told that Enji is temporarily distancing himself from his son in order to protect him or else it’s totally fine to disregard all of Endeavor’s character development and accuse him of selfishly choosing his work over his family.
Was it wrong for Enji to delay answering Shouto’s call? Yes. He was too overprotective.
But since when was “overprotectiveness” something Endeavor’s past self would do?
Endeavor was never overprotective of Shouto before now. Worse yet, he disregarded Shouto’s physical safety every time he brutally trained him.
So how can anyone say Enji “regressed to his past self” when his old self wouldn’t have a problem in getting Shouto involved in physically dangerous situations?
