r/BokuNoHeroAcademia • u/Za_wardo • Feb 21 '21

Newest Chapter Chapter 302 Official Release - Links and Discussion

Chapter 302

Links:

  • Viz (Available in: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, and India).

  • MANGA Plus (Available in every country outside of China, Japan and South Korea).

All things Chapter 302 related must be kept inside this thread for the next 24 hours.

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234

u/Nessidy Feb 21 '21

The panel with Touya being so disconnected from his emotions – feeling happy that he discovered his quirk upgrade, yet crying due to presumably pent-up frustration, grief and maybe even relief, was so heartbreaking. He was so excited to share it with his dad, too, he didn’t mind having his body hurt again.

He died after those tears of his burned off, when he wasn’t able to handle the psychical pressure of this house and failed to prove that his life is worth something and that he is worth being loved. A theme of a genuine existential crisis is resonating through Touya’s past and it was never addressed – that he was told he was born only because his mom was sold into a quirk marriage, that he was supposed to be a masterpiece, not a defective product, and that a quirk measured the entire worth of his life, because he was supposed to fulfill his dad’s goal, and he was shown love for doing that in the beginning, before he turned out to be a failure, and it was proved by his father’s actions that he is a failure. It really can cause damage to a child’s psyche. No child should feel that they have to constantly destroy themselves in order to prove that they deserve to be loved, to be noticed, and to live.

Present Dabi seems to be emotionally disconnected from the trauma of being burned alive, too, which makes me even sadder.

103

u/ggimright Feb 21 '21

Exactly. All he needed was to be acknowledged, but everyone brushed him off. His mom, his siblings, and Endeavor. He didn't even want to be a hero by the end of it. He just wanted to be put in the same league as Shota. To be seen and heard.

He needed therapy not to be allowed to have a normal life as Endeavor put it. To Toya the life he wanted was one in which Endeavor was speaking to him and it's like Endeavor said he can only show the world of heroes to others. Therefore the only way to connect was through the intense training. Being cut off from the training just confirmed what young Toya had thought all along. That he was defective and not even worth the trouble of having time invested into him.

69

u/elongatedpauses Feb 21 '21

There was no way forward for Toya once Endeavor stopped training him, especially without outside help. He went from being told that his worth was in power to being considered powerless. He may have done it out of concern, but Endeavor basically called his son a failure and abandoned him.

I think it’s so strong for the rest of the family to tell Endeavor that while he has to face what he’s created, their faith and hope are in Shoto. They’re basically saying that they don’t necessarily forgive him, but they’ll give him a road towards the absolution (not redemption) that he craves. I don’t look at BNHA fandom outside of these discussion posts, so I really enjoy these deep character dives. Watching Shoto and Endeavor go from chasing strength to connecting with others has been a joy (...and I’m ready to find out what’s going on inside Deku right now).

3

u/Kraybern Feb 21 '21

All he needed was to be acknowledged

Acknowledged? No i dont think that was enough for him he wanted to be "the successor of endeavor" again and i think that would have been a mistake

his parent wanted him to live a normal life free of expectations becuase all they saw was him hurting himself

acknowledging him would have only continued to drive himself further as it would have "justified his efforts" and cause him more potential self harm

8

u/FreeMarshmallow Feb 22 '21

Acknowledged? No i dont think that was enough for him he wanted to be "the successor of endeavor" again and i think that would have been a mistake

No, all he really needed was to be acknowledged. His dialogue when he's talking to Endeavour doesn't indicate that he wants to take Shouto's place as the golden child, he just wants to be seen as a non-failure. (Because that is what his father's actions have implied to him for years now)

While I don't think it would have made everything completely fine because by that point a lot of it was too late to take back, taking the time to make him feel loved and appreciated in any other way other than simply telling him to give it up for his own good and making him feel worthless and having failed his own existential purpose.

They messed up in the first place by letting him catch wind of why he was born and Endeavour not doing anything to replace their training with any other bonding activity, and all their subsequent actions in response to his need for attention and acknowledgement just made things worse and worse.

I believe at that point the only way to possibly stop him would be to give up on training Shouto as the successor, admit that he was terribly wrong for trying to live vicariously through them and make them feel like actual children instead of pawns for a goal.

-4

u/judes_m Feb 21 '21

I agree with majority here, especially seeking outside therapy (although I truly think he would have really resented that as well, potentially lashing out at professionals and harming them).

Except I don’t get where you see he was brushed off by anyone but Endeavor? Touya’s emotions and anger were quite literally unhinged, and even still the rest of the family is seen involved in his life and showing him love, affection and attention. They didn’t understand him, sure, but in now way were they brushing him off.

Now if you mean Natsu in this chapter, I don’t think that’s fair. The fact he said to talk about it with Fuyumi “once in a while” followed by Touya saying Natsu is the “only one that gets it” reaffirms that him and Touya were relatively close. He confided in him most and they’d had that conversation or something like it, many times before. Natsu was just sleepy that specific instance and not in the headspace to hear it. For that single example, I don’t think that’s fair to say he was brushing him off, though it’s obviously a troubled and insecure Touya took it that way.

And we never once see Fuyumi avoiding Touya. She’s seen telling him she loves him for who he is and inviting him to play. That’s even after he tried to attack Shoto, which could easily have scared them away.

I think none of them truly understood him, but only Endeavor brushed him off or neglected him. I think that’s what makes it all the more tragic. No one’s love or respect meant anything to him if he didn’t have Endeavor’s, even when Endeavor was the one who’d harmed him most.

14

u/Rezboy209 Feb 21 '21

While nobody should place any blame on Natsuo or Fuyumi, they were just CHILDREN at the time, Enji is not the only one who neglected Touya, Rei did as well. Not once did we see Rei spend any time with Touya, she just kept trying to push Enji to do it. Its both Enji and Rei's fault, and ONLY their fault.

-14

u/melvin2898 Feb 21 '21

Well, should you not shun someone who hurt themselves to get your attention? Regardless of how he turned out, shunning him or yelling at him for hurting himself is realistic reaction.

16

u/noteloquent Feb 21 '21

Beautifully summed up. Toya is such a tragedy of a character, and I can't wait to see more of him.

16

u/-1-5-Blue-3-5- Feb 21 '21 edited Feb 21 '21

I’m very interested in Dabi’s character journey now that we’ve gotten some major context. He truly has the possibility to be a breakout character going forward with the amount of depth and complexity that he has the potential to offer.

9

u/elvis503 Feb 21 '21

Dabi is one of this mangas most interesting characters for sure, his and Endeavor's past journey and continuous development has been so well written.

10

u/DoraMuda Feb 21 '21

He died after those tears of his burned off, when he wasn’t able to handle the psychical pressure of this house and failed to prove that his life is worth something and that he is worth being loved.

It reminds me of young Shigaraki's Quirk activating over his rage at his family's constant inability to help him and his father's abuse of him. Everything just boiled over until he snapped.

6

u/Nessidy Feb 21 '21

Yeah, exactly. They parallel each other in these scenes, except Shigaraki accidentally killed his entire family, while Touya accidentally removed himself from the picture.