WARNING: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 5, Episode 15, "One Thing at a Time" now streaming on Funimation, Hulu, and Crunchyroll.
Despite being the world's #1 Pro Hero, Endeavor is notorious for the abusive and immoral training tactics he used on his own children. However, the latest episode of My Hero Academia has revealed Endeavor's surprising ability to mentor and inspire the next generation of heroes now. At the same time that his competency and intelligence shine through in Episode 15 of Season 5, Endeavor proving himself as the teacher young heroes need also provides satisfying character development.
Given his brutal upbringing with Endeavor, Shoto Todoroki once refused to use his father's Fire Quirk out of spite. However, as the pair continue working to improve their relationship, Shoto agrees to do a work study with his father and invites Deku and Bakugo to join him. As they all train under him, the boys quickly realize they have even more to learn from Endeavor than they originally thought.
While My Hero Academia originally painted Endeavor as a petty hero obsessed with surpassing All Might to be #1, he now exhibits significant development in his knowledge and ability to mold young heroes -- and he's got a very good reason to. Since Hawks is a double agent who's being closely monitored and must choose his words wisely, he previously handed Endeavor a Meta Liberation Army manifesto and told him to pay attention to the highlighted parts. Endeavor instantly realized something was off, as Hawks' words and demeanor contradicted his usual personality.
In Episode 15, Hawks believes the code he left was too subtle and worries Endeavor will never figure it out, but his fellow Pro Hero quickly deciphers his cryptic message. Despite having his keen intellect and observational skills underestimated, Endeavor immediately understands the committee is planning on using students for extra manpower in the upcoming war with the Meta Liberation Army if necessary. Understanding the ramifications of such a plan, Endeavor decides to use the work study to prepare them for this potential worst-case scenario.
As a result, Endeavor starts to take the work study more seriously. He asks Deku, Shoto and Bakugo what their current abilities are and what they hope to learn from him. He intently listens and even manages to follow Deku's longwinded rambling without getting annoyed, providing surprisingly deep and valuable insight on managing Deku's overwhelming Quirk and telling him to learn how to control just "one thing at a time." He compares mastering Quirks and combat to learning how to drive, where all the different motions become second nature and work in unison with practice.
Despite Shoto asking him to treat them as students instead of his son and friends, Endeavor takes great care in mentoring them. He teaches the boys there are three key components to being a hero: rescue, evacuation and fighting. While some heroes try to divide these responsibilities, Endeavor explains the importance of parallel processing and claims a hero should be able to do all three by themselves. In the field, he demonstrates how they aren't able to keep up with him yet and successfully teaches Bakugo one thing he cannot do, as requested. At the end of Episode 15, Endeavor challenges the three students to become faster than him as he hopes to expand their limits in preparation for the upcoming war.
After reaching the top, and with an impending war looming, Endeavor is now focused on turning over a new leaf and improving his relationship with both his family and the public. Five seasons in, the Flame Hero continues to surprise and impress My Hero Academia fans.
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