MHA: Todoroki ages, Touya’s “death” date, and more (2024)

Debunking common claims because I love my boy and don’t want him to be evil. This is all for fun, and if you still want to believe he’s the traitor thenI’m not stopping you.

This will be spoiler free, and will only cover stuff we see in the anime.

“We don’t know where he was during the USJ attack”

Ok, very fair point. However, have you ever considered that the USJ attack doesn’t actually matter when it comes to the traitor? Whether it’s Aoyama or not, I don’t think this is a solid place to look for clues.

We know how the villains got the class schedule, there was no need for a traitor. Shigaraki noticed the press was desperate to get in, he disintegrated the barrier, and let them storm the campus

Then, while all the students were trying to evacuate, the teachers were also busy dealing with the reporters.

We only see Aizawa and Present Mic, but we can assume the others were dealing with the security breach too (and if not, then perhaps a teacher is the traitor? it doesn’t really matter, but the point is: it’s not a student).

Now, it’s possible that Aoyama was not affected by the rush of students, as he usually eats in the classroom, but he’s still pretty innocent.Students likely didn’t know the schedule, and had no idea All Might would be taking them to the USJ. I doubt the traitor would go through all this trouble if they weren’t absolutely sure that All Might would be taking them off campus sometime soon. Shigaraki could risk coming up empty (as in, finding a schedule where All Might never leaves campus) because he just doesn’t know what to expect,but a STUDENT risking themselves is a lot less unlikely. They’d risk getting caught and possibly expelled, or worse.

As for the USJ attack itself, Aoyama was most likely hiding. I’ll talk about this more in just a second, but in scenarios where he’s put in danger, Aoyama gives up and hides (even if there’s no one around).

So why’d he call attention to his absence? Well, to figure that out we need to look at…

Aoyama’s goals, personality, and motivations

Aoyama’s shtick is that he wants to stand out and be the centre of attention, yet is constantly pushed to the background.

His costume and hero name are meant to stand out, and the way he constantly talks about how wonderful he is is an attempt to get attention. He’s also obsessed with his appearance (as shown when Mina ruins his cape). None is this proves he’s a traitor, it’s just a form of comic relief.

When he asks if anyone wanted to know where he was, only to say“it’s a secret”, he was most likely trying to garner attention and make himself seem more cool and mysterious in the eyes of his classmates, but as an audience, it’s a lighthearted moment to ease us out of the heavier storyline.Again, he was probably hiding in fear, but wanted others to THINK he was bravely fighting like everyone else, which takes us to our next point to break down…

“Dabi didn’t attack him during the training camp”

This is probably the most damning piece of evidence.. If you need a brief refresher, Aoyama is hiding behind a bush, peaks his head out, and is almost immediately noticed by Dabi (it’s unclear if the villain sees who is behind the bush or not, but Aoyama says,“he saw me”. Even if Dabi didn’t see his face, he saw that there was a person). He goes to check but is immediately sidetracked by Twice, who reminds him to call back the Nomu he sent out. Dabi proceeds to forget about the student behind the bush.

Here’s the thing; this scene says more about Dabi than it does Aoyama. People tend to forget, but at this point in the story Dabi has not killed anyone. Heck, he’s not even in the criminal data base. Maybe he’s just sneaky, but Giran specifically calls out the fact that,“he hasn’t done any flashy crimes”. If he’s a criminal, he’s never been caught.

Back to that comment about the criminal data base, it’s a detail a lot of people overlook. When Tsukauchi is taking statements from Aizawa and Vlad King, he tells All Might that they ran a search through the CRIMINAL data base, looking for a man that matched Dabi’s description, and they came up empty handed. Not the quirk registry, they were specifically looking for criminals.

Dabi’s appearance is distinct, to say the least, so even if he was caught for petty theft, they’d be almost certain to catch and identify him. But no, he’s not a criminal at this point.

That being said, let’s look at how Dabi acts during the rest of this arc. For the most part, the real Dabi isn’t attacking unless he’s provoked first. When Deku, Shoto, and Shoji fall from the sky, he attacks to protect his teammate (since the boys had just jumped Mr. Compress). The exception is when Dabi’s clones goes after Aizawa and Vlad King, but in these situations he is very much aware that the two are pro heroes and will protect their students. Aizawa says it best, they’re trying to keep the pros distracted.

This isn’t meant to be defending Dabi, but instead to point out that, at this moment, he’s not very experienced in being a criminal.No spoilers but it’s obvious that CURRENTDabi has no hesitations about killing people (see: those thugs in the alley and the hero Snatch). But, in this arc, he didn’t seem to want to cause any unnecessary violence. For these reasons, I believe he would have spared ANY kid behind that bush, not just Aoyama (forgetting to go back after Twice distracted him was a conscious choice, it would have taken literally no time out of his day to go check who it was, and instead he decides to let the kid live). Dabi’s purpose is to seem intimidating and distract the pros, not to attack recklessly.

Whoops, I went on a tangent. Back to my twinkling boy!

Aoyama is a coward

(meant in the most loving way possible)

Aoyama is a coward. I brought it up with the USJ that he was probably hiding, and we saw it with Dabi when he was cowering behind a bush. But the important thing is that, at the training camp, he actually does get the courage to attack (specifically when he sees Deku and the others fighting back).

We see this again during the license exam

During the test, he was scared to fail, so he hid until Iida found him. And, once again, the courage of his classmates gives him the strength to act. Aoyama is just scared. Some people point to this as evidence that he’s the traitor, since he doesn’t have the character of a hero, but actually think about it. Hero society is corrupt; people are becoming heroes for a whole host of other reasons. Almost no one has the motivations of a hero out of Class 1A.

Bakugo wants to be the best, Todoroki wants to stick it to his dad, Uraraka wants to make money, Iida is carrying on his family business, and Mineta wants girls. And hey, Mineta is also a coward, so take that as you will. Not everyone becomes in the hero course is suited to becoming a hero, and that’s the whole point (it’s the entire motivation behind Stain and his followers).

“How about the secret message?”

Ah yes, the secret message. “il faut se méfier de l'eau qui dort”, literally translated to “beware the water that sleeps”. It basically amounts to“there’s more than meets the eye” or“watch out for the quiet ones”.

Would a traitor expose himself? Probably not, the only reason I could say yes is if the traitor was helping the villains against his will and needed to tell someone, but what’s more likely is that Aoyama knows who the traitor is.

This next little theory isn’t really based on anything, but it’s possible that, while he was hiding from Dabi and Twice, the villains mentioned who the traitor was. Twice seems like the kind of dude who’d accidentally let it slip, or if he didn’t say a name, maybe he mentioned that SOMEONE at UA is a traitor and Aoyama is trying to get Midoriya’s help in figuring it out.Either way, he may be trying to alert Midoriya that someone can’t be trusted.

Alternatively, he could be referring to both him and Midoriya, and may not be talking about the traitor at all! When Aoyama wrote“I know” in cheese, he specifies that it was meant to say,“I know you have a quirk like mine” or“I know what you’re going through”. This could be similar, attempting to tell Deku“we are the same, there’s more to us than people know because we go through things that others do not.”

But wait,“the water that SLEEPS?” Mr Aizawa sleeps! Is Mr Aizawa the traitor?!?!?!

Tangent: Is Mr Aizawa the traitor?

No. This dude puts himself at risk for his kids more times than I can count. It makes no sense for him to go so out of his way to protect his kids (like at the USJ) only to be the traitor. As well, Aizawa could have easily texted Shigaraki and been like“yo change of plans, All Might isn’t here, don’t bother showing up”.

In addition, Dabi actually DOES attack Aizawa at the training camp. No one is around to see it, so it’s not like it’s for show, and Aizawa is deliberately shown to not know what Dabi’s power is. (As seen when he says,“the fire wasn’t his quirk?” when the clone melts).

So yeah,“the water that sleeps” isn’t referring to Aizawa.

Some final thoughts about the traitor

I personally don’t believe there is one. In one chapter of the manga, the teachers are talking with the principal and mention how the dorms have revealed nothing suspicious from the students. As well, when Present Mic first brings up the idea of a traitor, he actually points to a STAFF MEMBER before bringing up the possibility of a student.

He mentions that only the teachers and first years knew where the training camp was, and then says,“I guess a student could have used their phone”. He says it like an afterthought, as if the possibility of it being a student hadn’t even crossed his mind until he said it out loud.

So yeah, I don’t think a student is the traitor. I am also hesitant to think it’s a teacher since Nezu says he can trust everyone in the room during their meeting. I think the traitor theory was just an excuse to get the kids living in dorm rooms for all the goofy teenage moments that could arise from that.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed! And I hope all Aoyama fans can feel a little more at ease, knowing their boy (probably) isn’t the traitor.

(Spoilers, obviously)

I was reading reactions to the Touya reveal the other day and wanted to comment on something I saw. The general consensus is that it’s nice that the theory is finallyofficial, but it was weird for him to do it NOW in the middle of the war. There’s a lot of drama going on, lots of chaos, and the reveal almost gets lost amongst everything else.

And while I totally get where that mindframe comes from, I also wanted to talk a little on why, in my opinion, it actually did make sense for him to reveal his identity when he did.

I think we’re all forgetting something: this isn’t the first time Dabi’s told someone his name

At the time, his words were blocked out in order to leave us (the audience) in the dark. However, Hawks is now aware that Dabi is related to Endeavour.

Why’d he reveal it here? Hawks admired Endeavour, so by revealing that such a“wonderful” hero could produce a villain like himself, Dabi is crushing Hawks’ spirits.Dabi intended to kill Hawks in this moment, so it was probably a way for making his (Hawks’) last moments as tortured as possible.

However, Hawks gets rescued and survives. Upon his failure, I think Dabi realized he needed to reveal his name sooner rather than later. While I don’t think Hawks would have revealed this secret to the press (probably to spare Endeavour’s reputation), I DO think he’d have told Endeavour.

Dabi probably reached that conclusion too, so in order to ensure Endeavour found out on his terms, Dabi had to reveal his identity before Hawks woke up and was able to contact Endeavour. By revealing his secret in the middle of the war, he was absolutely losing some of the spotlight, but he was also ensuring that his dad found out directly from him, and as such he could make it as painful as he wanted (something he wouldn’t be able to control if Hawks told Endeavour) and would be able to see his reaction live.

Based on these lines, its clear that Dabi values seeing Endeavour suffer. This is also shown in the fact that he left Shoto alive after Endeavour passed out. He wants to see his reactions, so he wouldn’t risk his grand reveal getting spoiled by Hawks.

Plus, when revealing it to the public, Dabi has the added bonus of hitting hero society during an already-fragile time. It can be argued that (as of 296) the heroes have won the war, but they certainly cut it close. The heroes suffered MAJOR losses and the destruction to residential areas was catastrophic.

They didn’t lose, but I sure as heck hesitate to call this a win

With society as shaken as it is, people are bound to wonder whether heroes are truly up to the task. This final little reveal that “Endeavour was an abuser and Hawks is a murderer” may be enough to get some people to turn their backs on heroes all together.

Assorted reactions to the news, mostly showing uncertainty and questions regarding Endeavour’s future. Even if these people continue to support heroes, the doubt has been sewn.

Also keep this in mind: WE have been overloaded with reveals (Best Jeanist, Mirio, Bakugo’s hero name, Mr Compress’ family history, Mr Compress being HOT, the 4th user’s quirk, andMidnight), but the society within their world has not. The only point on that list that MIGHT have made it onto the media is Best Jeanist’s return, POSSIBLY Midnight’s death,and that’s it. None of these people care about random high schoolers picking their hero names.

Tl;dr - Yes, Dabi’s reveal gets lost amongst everything else FOR US, but in-universe, he did the best with what he could. He had to tell Endeavour before Hawks did, and he managed to shake a few people’s trust in hero society along the way.

Exactly like the title says, I want to throw in my theory for the context surrounding Touya’s disappearance. I’ve honestly being theorizing this from the moment 291 came out, but as of 301 I’m even more certain that I’m right, so I want to share this now either for bragging rights, or to laugh at incaseI’m totally wrong

Spoilers under the cut. Also mentions of burning, death, and surgery, so read with caution.

Keep reading

(Assuming there is a traitor in the first place, which I’m not entirely convinced of)

I know we all love pointing fingers at the students, but we need to stop because I just realized something HUGE. To my knowledge, no one has brought this up. I never see people talking about this, for some reason, but it instantly clears the students of suspicion.

This post is entirely spoiler free! It only looks at the Training Camp arc, so read on without fear.

Keep reading

I noticed something a few weeks ago and a comment in today’s leak summary gave me hope that I might be right. So here’s something I noticed about the quirks of OFA, as well as a prediction of what some of the quirks might be.

Spoilers for the manga up to 310

Keep reading

Reasons Endeavour should ditch Hawks and Best Jeanist and team up with Wash instead (or at least why Wash should be added to the team)

• He makes bubbles. Bubbles count as water, right? And they’re going after a fire type. Boom. Instant success
  
• He keeps appearing in various panels, obviously to foreshadow his immense importance later on in the story
• His hero costume looks very sturdy and would likely protect him from Dabi’s flames, unlike Best Jeanist’s denim suit which burns so easily
• Same with Hawks’ feathers. You need to know how to counter your enemy
• The goal is to talk to Dabi, right? And what did Wash teach Koda? Good communication. They need his skills
• As shown in chapter 300, he is very calm and collected, even when the people he is trying to save are being rude to him. The team needs someone with such a level head
• He is simply too cool to be relegated to a background character. I mean, look at him

This started as a joke but low-key I accidentally convinced myself so now it’s a 100% serious analysis.

Spoilers for the manga below

Keep reading

I don’t agree with anything Endeavour did in his past, but I am curious about this.

I always found it odd that Shoto was kept separated from his siblings as a child, and yet he seems to be allowed to talk to Fuyumi as much as he wants now that he’s a teenager. The explanation we had accepted was that Endeavour didn’t want his “failures” distracting/influencing his“masterpiece”, hence the explanation that“they live in a different world” than Shoto. But again, why would it now be acceptable for him to interact with Fuyumi with no hesitation?

And then we got this

I’m not saying Rei or Enji handled Touya’s situation well (they absolutely didn’t), but do you think they kept Shoto separated form his siblings specifically to keep him away from Touya?

In 291, Rei said she wanted more kids so they could support each other. Keeping Shoto separated seems counterintuitive to that goal, unless one of the siblings actively posed a threat to him.

Like, obviously this was a bad solution since they were now totally abandoning Touya in favour of their new kid (which doesn’t help the Touya situation), but it’s just something I was thinking about.

If people in charge of the anime somehow see this post and want to use my idea, go for it, my dudes. No need to thank me.

So anyways yeah, I’ve been thinking about Touya’s hair and how the anime can save their colouring choices, and I’d like to present my case to you today!

If you somehow didn’t know about the hair dilemma, let me catch you up to speed. Shoto has 3 siblings, who we see in his flashback during the sports festival. However, one of his brothers (who we now know is named Touya) had some inconsistencies in his hair. The manga had his hair uncoloured (which implied it was white), while the anime had it coloured red…

Due to the way Shoto’s hair reflects which side of his body has which quirk, people wanted to assume that the red haired brother had a fire quirk, and the white haired brother had an ice quirk. This assumption was integral to the“Dabi is a Todoroki” theory, which has now been confirmed! Touya is indeed Dabi.

See, in the manga we learn that Touya was born with red hair, and that it started turning white as he got older. By the time Shoto was born, Touya’s hair was almost entirely white.

Touya as a kid, his hair has just started turning white

In the manga, this all makes perfect sense. However, this does not explain why his hair would still be red in the anime. Shoto is 5 in both scenes, so how can Touya have two different hair colours? And how will they explain this when his backstory gets animated?

The anime is now faced with a choice where they either have to randomly start colouring Touya’s hair white and hope we don’t notice the difference, or they can go with my idea.

If you aren’t aware, the anime sometimes adds little“anime only filler scenes” to pad the runtime. One of these scenes is of Endeavour using blue fire, and a much more noticeable example is Froppy’s internship episode. Season 3 also has that episode that follows the 1A kids during their license exam, which is built upon just a few panels in the manga. All these added scenes are cleared with Horikoshi beforehand too.

So I’m suggesting the anime adds a scene of Touya dyeing his hair red.Somewhere in the flashback episode (adapted from chapters 301 and 302), they can have a line or a scene where 13-year-old Touya dyes his white hair back to red. Not only will this fix the inconsistencies of the anime colouring, but it will also add a fun symbolic element to Touya’s hair colour.

Touya wanted to be like his dad, so him dyeing his hair back to red would be representative of him trying to make that dream come true. He’s dyeing his hair to be the colour of a hero. Meanwhile, adult Dabi has dyed his hair black, no longer the hero but instead the villain.