My Hero Academia Final Season has a big problem regarding one of its most polarizing endings for a character. When the manga version of Toya Todoroki’s story reached its conclusion, the audience had no idea the disturbing images that would follow. Rather than death or redemption, Dabi was given something much more unsettling: a mechanical existence.The My Hero Academia Final Season should absolutely reconsider this narrative choice. What Horikoshi presented as a path toward family reconciliation came across as prolonged torture dressed up as atonement. A cleaner death, even after the moment we get with Shoto, still carries the same thematic weight of brotherhood without the disturbing images.Todoroki family comes to meet Dabi (Image Source: VIZ)The readers had an immediate reaction to Dabi when chapter 426 revealed his condition. Toya was alive and imprisoned in advanced medical technology that burned him beyond recognition. The first page of Toya’s reveal was jarring in how mechanical he appeared and treated his trauma. He could only speak for minutes per day, each conversation potentially his last.The way Dabi looked from the get-go got people thinking of horror, and a few went as far as to mention the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream story, with sentient entities suffering forever, while the film Tusk (where bodily horror was the main disturbing quality) also brought it up.Why This Ending Missed the MarkEndeavor talks to Dabi (Image Source: VIZ)The issues with execution had ramifications beyond gross imagery; the framing of Dabi's long-suffering was a part of Endeavor's potential redemption arc. Breaking it down: The father who neglected and abused his son now has more time to apologize and "make things right," while Toya slowly dies in front of him. This struck many as problematic because Dabi, unlike the other two, actually had suffered childhood trauma and parental abuse.Dabi ends up wallowing in a broken-down shell of himself (mechanized), while All For One, the series' primary villain (who has likely experienced lots of pain, danger, and loss), goes after being defeated. To be clear, this could explain the wrongdoing and looked wrong on multiple counts..The My Hero Academia Final Season's OpportunityDabi's life hanging by a thread (Image Source: VIZ)Animation alters the way stories can land emotionally. What works in panel form in a manga doesn't always translate to motion, voice, and sound. The My Hero Academia Final Season can use that difference in medium to benefit it, editing out some of the parts from print that weren't quite working.One way to do that is timing. Rather than sitting with Dabi's mechanical status by stretching many scenes across the previous sibling interactions, the My Hero Academia Final Season could condense that into one appropriate moment. Show the device, pause for some of the emotional points between family members, and then let Toya go. The bonus is that he can still accomplish the narrative function, but without as much unyielding pressure.The brother moment when they shared their favorite food was glorious. The tiniest connection to their parent, something mundane like a food choice, was so indicative of the relationship they were meant to have. That Shoto was observing Toya as a person, not a threat, and Toya was seeing the brother he had pushed aside as a child, guaranteed respect based on shared understanding.This point could be a good stopping point, too. The moment we felt Toya realized by virtue of his medium and the tears of Toya, we do not carry him through a mental apology to Shoto that takes away from the impact of those moments. The My Hero Academia Final Season would be equally impactful, but with less awkwardness.Final VerdictThe My Hero Academia Final Season has the chance as well as the obligation to do better with this plot. Not because the manga's version was without value—the emotional beats between family members certainly did work—but because its execution leaned far more toward discomfort than meaning, and animation may stir these problems up even more.Let Toya Todoroki die simply as a person, and not a cyborg. Let his moment with Shoto be the moment where he can find peace. Let there be consequences, without cruelty. Let the redemption arcs not be sustained by suffering anymore.