Characters / My Hero Academia - Shoto Todoroki

My Hero Academia Main Character Index
U.A. High School Students: Class 1-A (1-10, 11-20, Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, Shoto Todoroki, Ochaco Uraraka) | Class 1-B | Students From Other Classes
Pro Heroes: School Faculty and Staff (Shota Aizawa | All Might) | Other Heroes (Endeavor) | One For All and Its Torch Bearers
Villains: Known Villains [Stain] (League of Villains [All For One, Tomura Shigaraki, Dabi, Himiko Toga, Vanguard Action Squad, Artificial Humans], Shie Hassaikai [Overhaul], Meta Liberation Army, Paranormal Liberation Front, Villain Army)
Others: Police and Government Workers | Civilians (Main Characters' Families) | Other High Schools
Characters From Other My Hero Academia Media: Video Game Characters | Movie Characters
Vigilantes: Main Characters | Villain Factory | Supporting Characters
Team Up Mission

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Shoto Todoroki

^{Click here to see him in uniform}

^{Click here to see his first hero costume}

Voiced by: Yūki Kaji (Japanese), Kei Shindō (Japanese, Young), David Matranga (English), Mikaela Krantz (English, Young), Juan Felipe Sierra Cortes (Latin American Spanish/TV series), José Gilberto Vilchis (Latin American Spanish/Movies), María José Estevez (Latin American Spanish/TV series, Young)

Debut: Chapter 6 (Manga), Episode 5 (Anime)

Playable in: My Hero Academia: Battle for All, My Hero One's Justice, Jump Force, My Hero One's Justice 2, My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero, My Hero Academia: Ultra Impact, Fortnite

Quirk: Half-Cold Half-Hot

"If you wanna stop this, then stand up! Because I've just got one thing to say to you! Never forget who you want to become!"

A serious, determined, uncommunicative but well-meaning student enrolled by recommendation, he is the son of Endeavor (Enji Todoroki), a famous hero ranking behind only All Might himself. His Quirk is "Half-Cold Half-Hot", which allows him to generate and control large amounts of ice and fire from his right and left sides, respectively. Raised by Endeavor for the sole purpose of surpassing All Might, Todoroki hates how his father only views him as a tool and had originally vowed to become the number one hero without ever using his fire abilities as a form of rebellion.

Due to his rough and isolated upbringing, Shoto is painfully clueless in social situations, which is often a source of comedy in-series.

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#-F

• Abusive Parents: Endeavor subjected Todoroki to intense training at five years old to the point where he vomited and couldn't even stand. His abuse doesn't just stop there, as it affected his mother so badly that she mentally snapped and unintentionally splashed boiling water across her son's face.
• The Ace: One of four first-year students recommended to enroll in U.A., with the others including Yaoyorozu, as well as Tokage and Honenuki from class 1-B. He's the undisputed strongest of the class by a wide margin, even stronger than Bakugo himself - which is why Bakugo wants to defeat him at full strength. Midoriya notes during their match that all of Todoroki's abilities are strong (not just his Quirk) and his official stats reflect this, being the same as Bakugo's except for a higher Cooperativeness rating.
• Achilles' Heel:
  • Since he almost always only uses his ice powers, he can't effectively defend his left flank. His father Endeavor calls him an idiot for it. When he eventually starts utilizing his fire abilities he finds that he's grown so accustomed to his ice powers that he tends to immediately default to them. He doesn't wind up shaking off this Achilles' Heel in full until extensively training with his fire powers and figuring out the right way to use them over the course of several months.
  • Adding onto the above, he has a lot of trouble using both his ice and fire powers at the same time or getting them to work in concert. This was a major problem he ran into in the Provisional Hero License Exam, where switching from one power to the other took a critical agonizing second that his enemies were easily able to exploit.
  • Todoroki has been shown to be over reliant on his Quirk to the point that he wasn't trained in close quarters combat. His fights against Eraser Head and Tetsutetsu show that if someone gets past his Quirk, he doesn't have the skills to fight in melee combat.
• Always Someone Better:
  • To Bakugo. Taking his place as the strongest of the class, which rubs Bakugo's massive ego the very wrong way.
  • Yaoyorozu, the other student who got in through a recommendation in class 1-A, also saw him as this in regards to herself. This was subverted when Todoroki admitted that Yaoyorozu was a better leader and strategist.
• All-Loving Hero: While not as overt as Midoriya's motivation to be a hero, Shoto is a kind person who wants to be a hero that makes others feel safe. This even extends his own long lost estranged brother Toya, with whom he wants to understand and even share a meal with if possible.
• Animal Motif: Alongside Ochaco, the volume 30 character page depicts him as a cat, and it makes sense given in his case they can be aloof but affectionate after some warming up. There's also some art with him and cats.
• Apologises a Lot: He tends to apologize a lot◊ for Curb Stomping his opponents in battles and outside battles◊. Could be a habit he fell into due to his strict upbringing.
• Ascended Extra: Starting from the U.A. Sports Festival Arc, he becomes a main character.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: His hair colors represent exactly the sides where his ice (white) and fire (red) powers manifest.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: He's the first person besides All For One to recognize that the similarity between Midoriya and All Might's Quirks is more than just a coincidental passing resemblance on his own, and correctly deduces that there's more to their relationship than is readily apparent based on Midoriya's choice of words. Though the conclusion he drew from that was incorrect, it made sense based on the information he had available. He's also able to deduce that many of the villains in the USJ Arc are just a bunch of thugs and that the real dangerous villains (which were in another area) are only five or so just by analyzing the situation and the villains' motive.
• The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest of four siblings of the family. His older brother is in college, his older sister is a teacher, and his oldest brother was believed to have died, but instead shows up as Dabi from the League of Villains.
• Badass Boast: He has his few moments, like when he tells Midoriya he'll rise above him with just his right side or when he delivers the lines "losing against a child is pathetic for an adult" to a bunch of villains he easily defeated in the USJ Arc.
• Bandaged Face: As of chapter 298 onwards, Todoroki's whole face — excluding his eyes and mouth, of course — and even his throat and arms are bandaged due to the severe injuries and burns he suffered during the Paranormal Liberation War.
• Berserk Button: Comparing him to Endeavor is a quick way to get under his skin.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Aizawa's life from Shigaraki in Chapter 282.
• Blemished Beauty: He has a prominent burn scar over one eye. This doesn't stop Mina from considering him the "preeminent pretty boy" of the class.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: During the Winter Internship Arc, he is the Redhead to Bakugo's Blonde and Midoriya's Brunette.
• The Bore: Due to Todoroki's Socially Inept nature, he fails at connecting with the elementary school kids he was assigned to take care of for an exam twice because of his flat tone and matter-of-fact language. As a result, they find him quite boring and refuse to listen to him.
  Todoroki [takes a deep breath]: My name is not five weenies. I'm Shoto, a U.A. student who wants to be a hero. My father, Endeavor, is the current No. 1 hero, but I've always hated him. So I set my sights on becoming a hero to get back at him. I didn't mesh well with my classmates and-
  Present Mic: He's talking like a character introduction page!
  The group of children he is talking to: ...So boring.
  Present Mic: ...And no one likes him!
• Boring, but Practical: His second hero costume is plain and unadorned, but it's fireproof and mitigates his Quirk's drawbacks.
• Break the Cutie: As a child, he was sweet and pretty much a normal child. Thanks to his father's abusive training, his mother's psychotic breakdown, and his isolation from his siblings, he grew up to be a cold and socially awkward person.
• Break the Haughty: He began the story as a detached person, so self-sufficient and powerful that he earned the title "instant killer" because of how quick he was at taking opponents with a single move and all by himself, as he declared that he isn't here to make friends. Later on, his poor teamwork with Yoarashi makes him fail the license exam but he admits that it taught him a lesson. And he also deals with opponents that are stronger than him or at least not easily defeated who make him realize he still has a long way to go.
• Broken Ace: Todoroki is attractive, powerful, skilled, and intelligent, but he has a lot of emotional baggage because of his abusive father.
• Broken Record: Though it's not clear if he intended to annoy Bakugo or not, Todoroki kept repeating the phrase "we need to catch up as soon as possible" three times^note as they were the only two students in the class who failed the provisional license exam till Bakugo snapped and told him to stop saying that the second time and to shut up before he even finished the sentence the third time. He also repeats it again in another episode, much to Bakugo's irritation.
• Brutal Honesty: Has his moments.
  Bakugo: (after Kota punches Midoriya in the balls) Precocious brat.
  Todoroki: Isn't he kind of like you?
  Bakugo: WHAT?! NOT AT ALL!!
• Burn Scars, Burning Powers: He has fire powers and has a burn scar across his face thanks to his mother scalding his face with boiling water during a mental break.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: He was so focused on his vendetta against his father in his entrance examination to U.A. that he acted needlessly cold to a student that would later gain a grudge against him. Ironically, this was also when said student was trying to befriend him. Said student would then develop a grudge and leave U.A. for Shinketsu just so he wouldn't be in the same school as Todoroki.
• Byronic Hero: He's an attractive, brooding teenager who's deeply conflicted because of his Dark and Troubled Past and whose refusal to go all out with his fire powers (and by extension his rejection of his father) and I Work Alone attitude were quite destructive to him prior to his Character Development.
• Cain and Abel: The Abel to his eldest brother, Toya a.k.a Dabi, who planned to kill him and managed to burn him severely.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Todoroki doesn't waste a chance at throwing jabs or snide remarks at his father, like the time he went to intern at his fathers' agency of his free will:
  Todoroki: Sorry, I only came here because it's convenient Number One. [So] don't put on the parent act in front of my friends.
• Character Development: Following the U.A. Sports Festival, Todoroki becomes more and more willing to use his fire powers, befriend and interact with people, and just generally be a kinder, warmer person. The ultimate move he uses against Dabi during the final arc, Phosphor, reflects this. It's an attack that combines his fire and ice into a perfect whole, the sides he got from his father and mother respectively, and is gentle to the touch like Shoto is at his core. It shows that at long last he's at peace with who he is and his family.
• Characterization Marches On: He was considerably more callous in the USJ Arc, being that the only reason he refused to kill a villain was that it would make him look bad. Even then, he doesn't bother saving the villain either, just telling him to get out of the ice quickly so he won't die and tarnish his reputation.
• Cheerful Child: What he used to be before Endeavor broke him.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He was the other student who voted for Yaororozu in the election for class president, believing that she would be best suited to the responsibility. This becomes crucial in the Final Exams Arc when Yaoyorozu is suffering a crisis of self-confidence, thanks in large part to comparing her performance thus far unfavorably to Todoroki's; hearing that he supported her for class rep because he believes in her intelligence and leadership helps her regain her confidence and formulate a plan to defeat Aizawa.
• Chekhov's Skill: Downplayed. From his experiences in getting a rowdy kindergarten class to mind by showing them the fun side to being heroes, he recognizes that the best way to get U.A. to de-stress is to throw a concert so everyone can let loose and enjoy themselves.
• Clark Kent Outfit: When out of uniform, he typically wears loose or baggy clothes that hide just how toned he is. This includes his hero costume.
• Clingy Child: The cover page of chapter 166 shows him when he was an incredibly shy child going to school with his parents while clinging to his mother's legs as he's closer to her than his father.
• Clothing Damage: Whenever he fights outside of his hero costume, he burns half his shirt off.^note While this doesn't occur during the Forest Training Camp Arc, he couldn't use his fire powers without potentially lighting the woods on fire.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: It's strongly implied during the dorm room tour that several of his female classmates view him as handsome and desirable, though Todoroki has no idea of this.
  • He also fails to pick up on Mt. Lady's flirting during the hero interview training, taking them way too literally.
  • In the Remedial Course Arc, Camie from Shiketsu High also hits on him more than once and asks for his number, which he innocently agrees to give to her, but he's as still oblivious as ever.
  • Given more detail in one of the light novels. The 1-A girls and four of the 1-B girls are talking about who's boyfriend material in their classes during the training camp, and they all agree that Shoto Todoroki is a highly favorable candidate. Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle is Endeavor, who would at the time, either have too high of standards or outright disapprove of the relationship.
• Combo Platter Powers: He possesses fire and ice powers.
• The Comically Serious: Todoroki's reserved but earnest personality is often used for humor when it is contrasted against his more enthusiastic classmates.
  • In Chapter 57, he worries that people's hands get hurt whenever he gets involved, referring to Midoriya's injuries during the U.A. Sports Festival and Iida's injuries against Stain, thinking he may be cursed as a "hand smasher". Iida and Midoriya think he's making a joke, but he's actually not, which only makes them laugh even harder.
  • When his classmates see his dorm room, they're completely baffled because somehow he managed to refurbish the entire room to match his more traditional Japanese household, complete with tatami mats and a traditional sliding door. They ask him how it was possible for him to do this in one day. His response? "I worked really hard."
  • In Chapter 183, he joins Ida in posing for a face board. And although his side has a drawing of Nezu, he still looks just as serious as ever.
• Commonality Connection: Strongly emphasized with Iida's fury against Stain for crippling his brother, noting that he himself knows all too well what being driven by resentment looks like.
• Costume Evolution: His first hero costume solely focused on his icy half, while having his fiery half encased in ice as if to make him "fully icy", bearing a plain white color scheme similar to his mother's appearance. When he became more comfortable around his classmates, he stopped using the mask. After the events of the U.A. School Festival, he has found peace with using his fire side, and now his hero costume accommodates both his fire and ice powers with a built-in temperature regulator. The color scheme also matches that of his father's while keeping some aspects of his mother incorporated into the design.
• Cracks in the Icy Façade: Shoto Todoroki was first introduced as a cold, aloof and emotional distant boy with hates his father and is limiting his potential with his quirk in order to spite him. He reveals to Midoriya before their match in the Sports Festival that the reason he hates his father his because he's an Abusive Parent who put him through Training from Hell while simultaneously beating his mother until eventually, the mother snaps and throws boiling water on his face giving him his scar. Then, during their match, Midoriya in response, Midoriya calls him out for not going all out like everyone else just to spite his father and how his powers are his and his alone. This sparks him to be more willing to use both sides of his quirk, including his fire side, as well as try to be an overall more open and caring person. This even pushes him to (begrudgingly) accept help from his father to learn how to hone his fire side, and later on even give him the chance to be forgiven for his actions once he finally starts his redemption.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Initially, he only relied on his ice Quirk for combat, resulting in him having little control over his fire Quirk when he starts using it later. Stain and Aizawa both mention how his total dependence on his Quirk alone makes him more vulnerable at close range. This gets deconstructed in his fight with Midoriya. Even though he was fully aware of how much energy he was expending by only using his ice powers and how much it was costing him (frostbite), and despite not landing a single blow on Midoriya, he still doesn't change his strategy. If it weren't for Midoriya's Rousing Speech convincing him to use his fire powers, there's no doubt that ultimately he would've collapsed first.
  • This comes up again in the training exercise between Class 1-A and 1-B. Hokuneki is able to melt his signature ice torrent, while Tetsutetsu is able to resist both of his elements, putting him and his team at a significant disadvantage. This is what convinces him that he needs to learn how to better utilize his powers.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Beat his opponents alone in no time during the Hero vs. Villain exercise.
  • He actually does it to real villains during the USJ Arc.
  • To Sero in the U.A. Sports Festival, though he honestly apologizes for that one.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Because he spent so much time relying on just his ice powers, his default action when in battle is to use it primarily. It tends to work for him most of the time, but when he encounters opponents who can counter his ice, he tends to struggle since he isn't as used to relying on his fire side until recently. Also, because of his brother Toya apparently dying from overusing his flames, he subconsciously limits his power so he doesn't hurt himself or those around him. However, this is called out since heroes are supposed to push themselves beyond their limits. Plus, Shoto's Quirk lacks the weaknesses of his dad's and oldest brother's.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Shoto was very young when he saw his family collapse after Endeavor's Training from Hell with his oldest son Toya backfired when he attempted to teach him a Dangerous Forbidden Technique and learned that while Toya may have had hotter flames, he was weaker than his dad in handling them. Following Toya's assumed death, Endeavor started giving Shoto Training from Hell upon seeing his Quirk and believed that he would not be impeded like Endeavor himself. All the while, the rest of his siblings could only watch in fear and horror. And then his mother had a psychotic break and poured boiling water on his face by accident, giving him a large scar over his left eye.
• A Day in the Limelight: During the U.A. Sports Festival Arc, which not only showed off his match with Midoriya but also delved into the rough relationship Todoroki has with his father, Endeavor.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Inverted. Although Midoriya was defeated by him, his insistence and drive to help Todoroki gets through to him and they start to become friends. This does not seem to happen in Bakugo's case, as after their fight, Bakugo sees his throwing away the fight as an insult and hates him. Todoroki, on the other hand seems to genuinely view him as a friend much to his irritation.
  (During an interview)
  Todoroki: That’s right, we’re friends.
  Bakugo: HUH!?? WHERE THE HELL DO YOU GET OFF MAKING UP RANDOM CRAP LIKE THAT YOU ICY-HOT IDIOT!?
• Defrosting Ice King: Almost literally, humorously enough. While he was never mean to anyone, he was distant from everyone in the class at the start of the story. However, he defrosts after starting to use his fire powers more instead of focusing entirely on his ice abilities. After the U.A. Sports Festival, he becomes closer to Midoriya, his first friend in U.A., if not ever, even visiting him in the hospital, and events in the Stain and Final Exams Arcs bring him closer to Iida and Yaoyorozu, respectively. In the succeeding arcs, he's on good terms with the rest of his classmates and even considers Bakugo his friend by the time of the Endeavor Internship arc.
• Duality Motif: He has fire and ice powers inherited from his father and mother, respectively. Both his hair and eyes are two different colors split down the middle, each matching his parents', with either half of his powers only able to be used from that half, ice for his right side and fire for his left side. He also has a burn scar covering the left side of his face. In this case, it all represents his family issues and childhood trauma. With a deep hatred for his Abusive Dad, he considers his left side a curse and refuses to use his fire powers for a good chunk of the series. His initial hero costume, when he relied entirely on his ice powers, also tries to subvert this by covering up the entirety of his left half in an ice motif.
• Elemental Baggage: He can produce a glacier-sized amount of ice out of thin air without much apparent effort, enough to swallow half a stadium, as well as massive torrents of flame that should logically consume a lot of energy,
• Elemental Eye Colors: Inverted. He has a blue left eye but his fire powers come from his left side.
• Elemental Hair Colors: To reflect his ice-and-fire powers, his hair is half-white and half-red. Both sides also indicate which side controls which.
• Elemental Personalities: His Quirk lets him produce vast streams of ice and fire. At the start of the story, he exclusively uses his ice powers to spite his father, resulting him being cold, stoic, and fixated on becoming a hero without using his fire powers. But once Midoriya forces Todoroki to realize that his fire powers are his own, Todoroki begins to defrost, showcasing far more warmth and empathy while retaining his burning passion to become a hero.
• Epiphany Therapy: Reconstructed. Yes, Todoroki is still not over the trauma of his past until he assesses what happened and makes a conscious attempt to address it, since a simple speech cannot fix all of the problems so shortly. However, Todoroki only begins to move forward and address the various problems and complexities of his life because Izuku gave him the supportive words and advice he desperately needed. He begins reconnecting with his mother, practices using his fire powers, becomes more open and cooperative with his teammates, swallows his pride to work with his dad even if he understandably doesn't forgive him, and becomes a happier and more stable person.
• Everyone Has Standards: Yes, he may have a really rotten relationship with his dad, but he still cares about him. He's in a state of immense stress and almost panic seeing his father fight the High-End Nomu, especially when he gets wounded pretty badly, on television. When Endeavor wins, he pretty much collapses on his knees in sheer relief.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Yoarashi mentions that Todoroki's eyes look just like his father's. His mother also noted that he was growing to look more and more like Endeavor when he was a kid.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His I Work Alone tendencies. Due to his general uncooperativeness and arrogance, Todoroki can be prone to underestimating his opponents and be a terrible team player. He's often very confident that he can win all on his own and doesn't need anyone's help which bites him in the ass in the Licensing Exam, which he failed due to poor teamwork, and during his fight against Gang Orca and Tetsutetsu. He fully overcomes this in his final fight with Dabi, fighting alongside Endeavor's sidekicks to counteract his brother's flames despite his crazed sibling's desire for a one-on-one deathmatch between them, which allows him to ultimately win when they step in to blunt a flame attack hot enough to overcome even Shoto's resistance to heat, allowing him to land his own Finishing Move on Dabi when he's wide open.
  • Spite. Todoroki can be downright spiteful at times to others, mostly his father. Because of his hatred for Endeavor for abusing him and his family, Todoroki's desire to be a hero was more motivated to spite his father rather than improve himself and help others. This often caused him to sabotage himself led him to have a mediocre experience using his flames, shown in his match with Tetsutetsu. He's fully overcome this by the time of his final fight with Dabi, sympathizing with his sibling's hatred towards their father, but calling him out on involving others outside their family drama, attempting to take him down to stop him hurting unrelated individuals.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: He can use both fire and ice powers, the fruits of an abusive relationship between his fire-using father and ice-using mother. His body is split into a fire and an ice side and he is more inclined to use the latter as he hates his father.
• Fiery Redhead: Played with. Not only is he only technically half a redhead (only on his left side), but he has a cool demeanor in general. However, things get more fiery when he uses his fire quirk, which most of the time is amplified when he does get angry.
• Fiery Stoic: He's a stoic hero who controls fire. Part of the reason he's this way is that he also has control over ice and tries to avoid using his fire powers to spite his father. Even when he does come to terms with his fire side, he still remains calm and collected but has his moments of getting riled up or unleashing an extremely passionate side of himself.
• Forgotten First Meeting: With Yoarashi whom he barely acknowledged upon competing with him during the U.A. entrance exams and coldly ignoring his attempt at befriending him. This becomes a plot point later on, as both he and Yoarashi have to work together during the Provisional License exams and Yoarashi's unwillingness to cooperate with Shoto no matter the circumstances causes both of them to try to one-up each other during the rescue tests, costing them their graduation and sending both of them to the Remedial Course.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: Todoroki is mild-mannered and temperate which shows in his polite way of speaking with others.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse:
  • A bizarre example in that he's not a villain, but his excuse is still called out. Midoriya feels sympathy for Todoroki's crappy childhood due to his father. However, he still calls out Todoroki for only using half his Quirk since it insults every other hero, aspiring and professional, by not giving it his all, purely to spite his dad despite that, ultimately Todoroki is just shooting himself in the foot.
  • He himself gives a brief one to his older brother Dabi about how they both had the same hellish childhood but he's the one who chose to be a murderer and to take innocent people's lives who have nothing to do with his trauma on his own.
• Freudian Trio: Of the main trio who intern under Endeavor together, Todoroki, who's aloof, cold, and quiet, is the Superego to Bakugo's Id and Midoriya's Ego.
• A Friend in Need:
  • He's able to deduce that Midoriya's in trouble after seeing the message the latter sent to the class' group chat. He ditched his own father to go to the exact location and saved Midoriya and Ida just in time. This landed the three of them in hot water for breaking the law, but the police were able to cover up the incident.
  • After listening to Midoriya and Bakugo's predicament over being unable to intern at their original hero agencies, Todoroki offers them internships at Endeavor's office. They accept.
• Friendly Rivalry: Despite everything that happened during the U.A. Sports Festival, Todoroki eventually considers Midoriya this. That being said, they do become closer and are very friendly toward each other.

G-R

• The Gift: He has an extraordinarily powerful Quirk, and has the talent and physical abilities to use it effectively.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Not really evil, but this is used to reflect his rage and inner conflict. When Yoarashi was talking to Todoroki, his eyes were shown to be similar to Endeavor's. When he brushed off Yoarashi, it disgusted him so much that he left U.A. for Shinketsu. Once he gets over his inner demons, his eyes are shown to be gentler.
• Harmless Freezing: Subverted. He can seriously injure or even kill people with his ice, and actually froze off two of the first Nomu's limbs. He later mentions he can't restrain Stain with it for similar reasons. While he does later use ice to restrain opponents, he's constantly careful, even when going overboard with the amount of ice, to never obstruct their breathing or keep their bodies frozen for too long.
• Hates Their Parent: Played straight at the beginning, as Todoroki truly loathed his father, the #2 hero Endeavor, for trying to turn him into a Tyke-Bomb through intense training in an unloving home. As a result, he refused to use the fire Quirk he inherited from his father and only relied on the ice Quirk he inherited from his mother to spite his dad. However, after receiving a Rousing Speech from Midoriya and a dose of Character Development, his stance considerably softens over time when he sees his father begin to improve and even swallows his pride to learn under the man. He also shows genuine concern for his father during his fight against High-End.
• Hero-Worshipper: Of All Might when he was a child. Having Midoriya bring sense back into him reminds him of this.
• Heroic Lineage: His father is Endeavor, the #2 hero, who is only topped by All Might.
• Heroic RRoD: According to his character notes, overusing his ice powers without regulating his body heat through his fire side will cause him to suffer frostbite. In Chapter 38, he starts shivering during his match with Midoriya since he's forced to generate more and more ice, while Midoriya keeps sending the cold back with each of his shockwaves. It's implied something similar would happen if Shoto overused his fire powers without also using his ice side, and Endeavor notes this was the advantage Shoto had over him and Toya, Shoto's eldest brother.
• Hidden Depths: The brooding, anti-social loner? He actually wants to become a genuine hero. Heck, he was inspired by All Might when he was a child.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Shoto is highly intelligent with an incredibly powerful Quirk and has everything it takes to become a top-ranking pro hero. However, his refusal to go all out with his powers (either using his fire at all or using both at full potential) based on a mix of spite and fear hampers considerably and something Endeavor harps on him for and Izuku calls him out on. The growing challenges he faces is forcing him to confront this.
• Hybrid Power: He gained his father's fire and mother's ice. While Endeavor did intend, it was more out of the sense that Shoto lacks the realistic weaknesses of over-using either ice or fire since he can use the other to maintain stability.
• I Am Not My Father: Todoroki's most consistent trait is his rejection of any and all comparisons to Endeavor. This is deconstructed since this is what impaired him from moving on or keeping his full potential since he just used to rely solely on his ice and not his fire, viewing it like his dad. Once Midoriya gets him to realize it's his power and not his dad's, Todoroki is able to move on. He is also able to objectively learn from Endeavor because for all the man's personal failings, he earned his spot as the No. 2 Hero from his talent and capabilities.
• I Work Alone: He separates from the group during the Provisional Hero License Exam, despite Midoriya telling everyone they need to stick together. However, Todoroki mentions that his Quirk is far-reaching and by being by himself, there's a minimal chance of accidentally hitting a comrade in the crossfire. Despite this, he eventually ends up in conflict with a student from a rival school who has a similar far-reaching Quirk of producing gusts and with a beef against him. They don't start working together until Midoriya calls them out for their carelessness. Ultimately, he and Bakugo end up being the only U.A. students to fail the exam.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: States this about himself to Midoriya before the U.A. Sports Festival and has this attitude towards Inasa Yoarashi upon entering U.A. which earned him a grudge from the latter. Nonetheless, he does befriend Midoriya after this arc and comes to befriend both Ida and Yaoyorozu after the fight with Stain and the final exams, respectively. Sero compares Shinso's similar speech to old Todoroki, to which Todoroki is surprised that he ever sounded like that.
• An Ice Person: On the right side. He also seems to strongly prefer using it over his fire abilities.
• Icy Blue Eyes: His left eye is icy blue like his father. Ironically, this is where his fire powers come out of.
• In-Series Nickname: Bakugo calls him "Half-and-Half Bastard" in Japanese and "Icy-Hot" in the English dub.
• It's All My Fault: A tragic case. He interpreted his mother scarring him with boiling water as being (partially) his own fault for triggering her by resembling Endeavor. For years following the event, Shoto avoids visiting Rei on the basis that he would hurt her by showing her his, and by extension Endeavor's, face. And when Rei doesn't hate him, he says she forgave him, showing that he still thinks he was the one who did something wrong.
• The Jinx: He claims Midoriya and Ida's hand injuries are because of him being "cursed" as a "hand smasher", and he had the misfortune of running into an Endeavor-hater during the Provisional Hero License Exam whose animosity and continued interference during the rescue stage of the exam plagued him every step of the way and cost them both passing marks.
• Leitmotif: "Kimi no Chikara" ("Your Power").
• Lethal Chef: Downplayed. He's not lethally bad so much as merely "not good", to the point that Bakugo harangues him for the terrible job he did cutting spring onions for the dorm hot pot. In Team-Up Mission, all of Todoroki's initial attempts to make soba for Gantetsu end up failing miserably, only managing to make some satisfying noodles after using his Quirk in tandem with Kaminari's, Yoarashi's, and Shishikura's.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When he finally breaks out his left side's fire powers in response to Midoriya calling him out for holding back during their match. He even responds by telling his opponent it was really not such a good idea to provoke him.
• Like Parent, Like Child:
  • Although he would never admit it, he does have a few traits in common with Endeavor, such as their intense glare and attitude towards the objects of their hatred; All Might for Endeavor and Endeavor himself for Shoto. They're also both Literal-Minded and possess No Social Skills. This sets them up for being the Comically Serious.
  • While it isn't as obvious he also seems to take after his mother when it comes to kindness as shown when Deku notes Todoroki wishes to forgive Endeavor and is waiting for the right time to do it, which is contrasted with his older brother Toya who takes more after their father and is willing to use any means to necessary to destroy his father's legacy.
• Literal-Minded: Shoto does not understand metaphors and takes them at face value. This results in some hilarity during the interview training; when Mt. Lady says that seeing him might cause her heart to burst out of her chest, he asks if she has a heart condition, and he was concerned his smile will kill women after she told him that flashing smiles will make a ladykiller. This is mainly used for humor, and is Lampshaded when Mt. Lady demands that he drop the "literal airhead" gimmick.
• Logical Weakness: The more he uses his ice side, the colder that same side gets as a result of using it consistently, which also means his entire body begins to freeze as a result. As a result, if he overuses his ice powers without using his flame power to warm himself up, his movements slow down, both his physical movements and even the speed at which his ice is used. Bakugo compares it to an MP gauge in an RPG, and when Midoriya fights him in the U.A. Sports Festival, he begins losing as a result of his sluggish movements. There's also the fact that, as strong as his Quirk is, he cannot fight in a controlled environment or alongside allies very well, since his Quirk has a massive spread and area of influence. This, along with a rival student's own far-reaching Gale Quirk and vendetta, causes them to fight one another until Izuku calls them out on it and costs Shoto the test.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Because Endeavor sheltered him from the world to mold him into his greatest pawn against All Might, Shoto led an isolated, solitary life, despite the presence of his siblings, and thus never really made any friends.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: He was very cold and aloof at the start of the series but has gradually warmed up to many of his classmates, becoming more and more sociable and regularly spending time with them, despite remaining mostly serious and quiet but well-meaning, sometimes even seen smiling.
• Long-Range Fighter: His Quirk has incredible range and firepower, allowing him to ice dozens of Mooks at once without even trying. But this power has also made him reliant on it, and he struggles against those fast enough to dodge and close the distance or just tank it to plow through him. However, he's working on improving himself at close range, as seen in his fight with the Close-Range Combatant Tetsutetsu.
• Made of Iron: Despite not having a durability increasing Quirk, Todoroki regularly shows a crazy amount of resilience in direct combat. During the UA Sports Festival alone he takes multiple punches from Midoriya that send him flying; tanks a direct kick to the head from Iida's Recipro Burst; and is even hit by Bakugo's Howitzer Impact. This trend continues during the Joint Training Arc when Todoroki experiences an extending beating from Tetsutestsu, who's capable of breaking through concrete. It's implied that this toughness comes from experiencing Endeavor's Training from Hell since early childhood.
• Magic Pants: After his bout against Midoriya in the U.A. Sports Festival, half his shirt has been burned off, but his pants are fine. This is justified with his normal battle attire, which is made of fire-resistant materials.
• Meaningful Name: The Japanese characters that compose his first name mean "freezing" and "heating", respectively. His last name is the kanji for "roar", inherited from his father.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: One of his major arcs is getting over his fixation on not using his fire powers out of spite for his Abusive Dad. He's disgusted with himself for even thinking of using it and gains a Thousand-Yard Stare when thinking about the Training from Hell he endured. Even after Midoriya goads him into going all out at the Sports Festival, Todoroki consistently struggles to use his fire when compared to his ice but goes from being unwilling to stand in the same room as Endeavor to actively seeking him out for an internship to learn from him. This goes to where the two are able to work together, especially with Endeavor attempting to improve himself.
• Misplaced Retribution: It's implied that some of his issues towards Endeavor are him displacing his negative feelings towards his mother at his father. In particular, his firm refusal to use his fire powers at the start of the series is shown to be strongly related to his mother scarring him.^note The last image he sees before disabling his flames while fighting Bakugo is the sight of his mother's fear and panic right before the kettle incident, and the first time he visits her in the hospital is only after he's made strides in overcoming this issue. In general, it comes off as if he's handled the trauma from that moment by deciding that being like Endeavor was the problem, resulting in a serious amount of self-loathing. He later explains, however, that he believes that since his father's abuse pushed his mother to her breaking point, Endeavor is ultimately responsible for Shoto's scar.
• Momma's Boy: He acknowledges that his mother is the one responsible for the burn scars on the left side of his face, but feels that the act was caused largely by the trauma of Endeavor. As such, he is much closer to her and blames himself for some of her problems. It actually requires her to tell him outright that he didn't do anything wrong and that she was sorry for what happened to get through to him.
• Mr. Fanservice: To a much lesser extent than Midoriya, but he does get some scenes of Clothing Damage and a single Shirtless Scene. To boot, his female classmates consider him very handsome.
• Mundane Utility: Those fire powers come in handy for lighting fires when the class has to cook their own dinner.
• Must Make Amends: After the U.A. Sports Festival Arc, he gets enough courage to visit his mother in the hospital, and visits her every Sunday since then.
• Never Give Up Speech: Inspired by Midoriya's similar speech to him, he delivers one of his own to Iida, who was so consumed by hatred (just like the old Todoroki) during the Hero Killer Arc. He tells a physically paralyzed Iida that if he doesn't want his friends to get hurt because of him, then he has to stand up and fight.
• Nice Mean And In Between: In the Endevaour Agency arc, Todoroki gets paired with the Nice Guy Midorya and jerkass Bakugo, serving as the in-between one in the trio. Todoroki was detached and antisocial at the beginning, even having made a rival without knowing due to ignoring said rival. At the same time, he's called a softie when paired up with Momo and a kind person for forgiving his mom for the scar she caused him.
• No-Sell: During his fight with Dabi, he's able to nullify the heat from Dabi's Flashfire Fist (though not the force behind it) with his own special move: Phosphor. Even when Dabi's flames are hot enough to injure Shoto, Shoto simply shrugs it off and counterattacks with his ultimate move.
• No Social Skills: He's been sheltered for much of his life due to his father's attempts to groom him into a hero to surpass All Might. As a result, he often misses social cues and comes across as Literal-Minded. For instance, when Mt. Lady and Midnight point out his good looks, they tell him girls would die for him When He Smiles. He's immediately taken aback by the idea that people would die if he cracked a smile.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • He sees a likeness between his old self, filled with contempt for his father and unrelentingly stubborn about not using his full power, and his big brother, Toya, festering with hatred for his whole family, particularly Shoto and Enji, and fixated on causing them as much misery as possible while destroying his body and others' lives in the process. He thus concludes that Toya is basically him.
  • Neither he nor Midoriya notice it, but All Might thinks to himself that both of them are very similar, recalling how both of them leaped in to save him from supervillains. Further emphasizing this, both of them have nearly identical thoughts at the beginning of their match worrying about their opponent's power. It turns out Todoroki was also a fan of All Might and was inspired by him to become a genuine hero. Endeavor's abusive parenting made him lose sight of this, but Midoriya's words bring him back.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Actually gets fired up during his battle against Midoriya at the U.A. Sports Festival, going from increasingly exasperated that his opponent is resorting to Self-Harm to stay in the fight, to furious when provoked into unleashing his left side powers.
  • He is angered at the Hosu police chief for saying that it was illegal for him, Midoriya, and Ida to use their Quirks to fight Stain. Todoroki responds by calling him a damn mutt and giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • Todoroki shows a great amount of emotion during Endeavor's fight against High-End, ranging from shock and fear to visceral relief as it winds down.
  • His fight with Tetsutetsu is extremely painful for both of them and Todoroki gets increasingly frustrated at Tetsutetsu's refusal to back down when his body is melting.
    Todoroki: [glaring] You're so damn loud!
  • When Endeavor is in the middle of a Heroic BSoD and right in the way of a Prominence Burn about to be dealt by Dabi, right after he spilled the beans about his identity, Shoto shouts at him to get out of the way, with tears in his eyes.
• Not Quite Flight: Like his father, he can use his flame for air mobility, although to a lesser extent. He helps Bakugo propel himself and Endeavor into the air to assist Midoriya, who was fighting Shigaraki. He is able to carry Endeavor and maneuver to Bakugo after they are impaled by Shigaraki.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • At the end of Chapter 29, when he sees Midoriya charging him with One For All active, his expression is noticeably nervous. He immediately activates his flame powers to defend himself, something he swore he would never do in battle. That's how intimidated he is.
  • When Tetsutetsu is about to rearrange his face if he doesn't perform a move that traumatized him as a child, he drops a Precision F-Strike:
    "Shit."
  • He is completely off guard when Dabi manages to copy his Phosphor move to stop his own ultimate attack. This leaves him in frozen as Dabi continues his assault and plans to attack Endeavor as his body burns down.
• Oblivious to Hatred: Bakugo's insults and drive to surpass him go over Shoto's head. He seriously believes that Bakugo is his friend and has repeatedly addressed him as such.
• Odd Friendship: Mostly one-sided on Todoroki's side, as Bakugo constantly insults him and makes it clear he wishes to surpass him to prove he's the strongest. Despite this, Todoroki believes he and Bakugo get along well and sees him as a genuine friend. While it is 'very' subtle, Bakugo seems to consider Shoto a friend and is often observing Shoto or thinking about him. Bakugo even mentions Shoto's sister while ribbing Shoto about his (nonexistent) culinary skills.
• One-Man Army: His powers are extremely useful for dealing with large numbers of enemies.
• Out of Focus: During the Internship Arc, since he didn't have a license. He doesn't even fight with Mirio, despite the fact that he had challenged the whole class.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Feels this way to his oldest brother Toya due to realizing how similar they both are in regards to their strained relationship with their father. This makes him feel obligated to deal with his brother himself.
• Playing with Fire: On the left side. Interestingly, he refuses to use it in battle. This is out of spite for his father after he learned why he was born. He starts to accept this side of himself and use it more after Midoriya tells him that the power belongs to him, not his father.
• One-Liner: Since he doesn't talk much, he has lots of those short badass lines. For example:
  • After Midoriya provokes him into using his fire Quirk in a battle:
  Todoroki: Midoriya... Thanks. (Proceeds to blast Midoriya completely out of bounds with one attack which sends the referee Midnight flying and destroys the entire fighting ring from its impact.)
  • When he defeats and immobilizes five or more ninjas with various Quirks in an anime-only scene all by his own:
  Todoroki: Sorry... I can't afford to fail.
• Pretty Boy: His facial features are a bit more slender than most of the boys and he's really good-looking. Mina even refers to him as "the preeminent pretty boy of the Class" at one point. It's even more pronounced in the manga.
• Primary-Color Champion: Through his new blue costume adding to his red and white hair.
• Psychoactive Powers: A variation. He doesn't need to be in a specific mood to use his powers but, if he gets very angry, his powers grow increasingly destructive, including to himself.
• The Quiet One: Not to the same extent as other characters but when he's not fighting, Todoroki is one of the quietest students. If the atmosphere is calm and casual, expect him to say very little. Even after he started to defrost and get along with everyone else, he's easily still the softest spoken member of Class 1-A aside from Koda.
• Required Secondary Powers: His fire powers act as this to his ice powers. If he overuses his ice abilities, his body temperature drops dangerously low, but he can balance it out with his fire powers. However, the character notes explaining all of this don't say what happens if he were to overuse his fire powers◊. Additionally, official art and comments by his brother Natsuo suggest that he has increased resistance to low temperatures. He can endure temperatures hot enough to melt steel, but it's extremely dangerous to himself since to get that hot he can't cool himself off.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Todoroki is almost immediately able to pinpoint that Midoriya has some form of relationship to All Might and that they share the same Quirk. Though, he mistakenly thinks Midoriya is All Might's bastard son.
• The Rival: To Midoriya, because of his relationship with All Might. Becomes a friendly rivalry as Midoriya helps Todoroki start healing from his abusive childhood.
• Rotating Protagonist: After Midoriya and Bakugo, his relationship with his father and family formed significant parts of the story, causing him to gain regular focus and act as the tritagonist of the series during it's first act. After Endeavor succeeds All Might and becomes the new Number 1 hero however, Shoto himself shifts to this, a role he shares alongside Ochaco and Tenya, sometimes acting more as a supporting character to Izuku or Endeavor, other times taking a backseat for Ochaco and/or Tenya.

S-Z

• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Invoked by Endeavor where he separated him from his siblings in childhood and gave him strict, sheltered upbringing because they "live in a different world" and would distract him from his training. As a result, Todoroki grew up to be Socially Inept, distant, overly self-reliant, and with lots of emotional baggage. He gets better, though.
• Scars Are Forever:
  • He received that burn scar from his mother when he was a small child. It still hasn't healed.
  • Even after panicking while watching Endeavor nearly being killed on TV, Todoroki takes a moment to make his dad suffer the irony that he will now always have a scar that's very similar to his, via one extremely sarcastic comment:
    Todoroki: That's a nice scar you've got there. [slurps soba as loudly as possible]
• Signature Move: He tends to start any fight he's in by launching a huge torrent of ice to trap his opponents. This tends to backfire on him when he encounters opponents who know this and have ways to counter it, which puts him on the defensive.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: In the beginning, Todoroki wore a costume that completely covered his left side, which is where the fire Quirk he inherited from his Abusive Dad came from, in ice and even hid his scar as a way of rejecting his father. Thus, he limited himself to only using his icy right half. But after he learns to accept his fire Quirk and unleashes it in a battle, something he vowed he wouldn't do, he changes his costume to look less dull and allow access to both Quirks, unlike his old one.
• Single Tear: Sheds one single tear with a big never-seen-before Tearful Smile after Midoriya's Never Give Up Speech and Warrior Therapist approach with him during their match push him into finally using his fire Quirk in a battle after he was so adamant about not using it in one.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Shoto's greatest challenge in the series is facing the culmination of Endeavor's failings as a parent in Dabi. Even All For One, who isn't exactly a father of the year himself, points out how Endeavor essentially tasked his youngest son to clean up the mess he made.
• Slasher Smile: Seldom seen, but when he goes all out, he starts displaying a very disturbing one at the prospect of no longer restraining himself.
• Sleepyhead: He can fall asleep whenever, wherever. Many scenes of Class A-1, especially in the manga, have him sleeping while people around him are talking.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: He's considered a Level III World Class beauty, as he's noted to be handsome by multiple female characters despite having a burn scar on his face and lacking social skills. Mt. Lady even thinks "he's so cute I want him" to herself after witnessing how Literal-Minded he is.
• So Last Season: When he was first introduced, his Quirk was noted as exceptionally powerful even when he wasn't using his left side and was easily the most powerful student in Class 1-A. However, while his Quirk is still noted to be very strong, he has started to encounter opponents who can counter his powers, which puts him at a disadvantage because he's spent so many years relying on just the power of them alone.
• Socially Awkward Hero: As a result of his strict upbringing, Todoroki is endearingly awkward when dealing with other people, especially his friends at times. This could also be connected to him being The Comically Serious.
  • When Yaoyorozu starts crying in front of him, his response is to ask if she's sick and tells her about a pressure point that helps deal with nausea.
  • A chapter page showing him with his parents being enrolled in elementary school shows that he was socially awkward and shy since he was quite young.
• Soulless Bedroom: Downplayed — his dorm room is made completely in a traditional Japanese style with very little furniture, reflecting his icy personality. For most of his life, he's been under the thumb of his abusive father Endeavor who has been training him to become a pro-hero, so he hasn't really had the chance to express who he is yet.
  Everyone seeing Todoroki's room: A Japanese-style room!
  Kaminari: Was his made different?
  [...]
  Todoroki: (with a poker face) I worked hard.
• Spell My Name With An S: His first name can be romanized as "Shoto", "Shouto", or "Shōto".
• Squishy Wizard: Downplayed. Todoroki is by no means weak or unathletic, in fact he's on the upper end of his class in terms of speed and strength. He just relies on the devastating long-ranged power of his Quirk so much that he falls into the danger of overspecializing, which is why Aizawa faces off against him during his exam, so as to negate his Quirk and force him to not rely on it temporarily.
• Stealth Pun: One could say he started to warm up more to people once he begins to accept his fire power and use it.
• Stock Shōnen Rival: A straighter example than Bakugo, but also deconstructed. He's a Privileged Rival who's the son of the 2nd-Ranked hero in Japan and is pressured to follow in his father's footsteps, possesses tremendous power that Midoriya can barely match at first, and has a broody, loner personality to contrast Midoriya's friendlier one. However, due to his Dark and Troubled Past, he's under great stress and it's limiting his growth as a hero-in-training. It's only after Midoriya acts as his Warrior Therapist during their fight, Todoroki starts to work towards amending his familial issues and becoming more social. He then becomes one of Midoriya's closer friends and friendly rivals in the process.
• The Stoic: When he isn't in battle or with his father. Even after he opens up to Midoriya, Ida, and Yaoyorozu, Todoroki remains calm and tends to have rather lethargic reactions to anything his classmates do.
  • When most of his classmates are having some fun with the "King of Dorms" competition, all he can think about is going to sleep.
  • During his remedial license training, he tries to connect with the children they're dealing with by introducing himself, only to be called boring because his flat delivery fails to reach them.
  • In some serious O.O.C. Is Serious Business showing how much thought he's putting into how to handle Endeavor after his sudden change of heart despite still hating him, Shoto never shows any emotion in the family meeting his sister attempted. He even stays perfectly calm during Natsuo's rant, his only reaction is being surprised that Natsuo could ever get that emotional. Shoto even ends it by agreeing with Natsuo and giving Endeavor some legitimate indirect advice on how to apologize, then goes back to eating his noodles like nothing has happened.
• Strong Family Resemblance: While he resembles both his parents with one side having red hair and a turquoise eye and the other half white hair and grey eye, Todoroki's facial features and hair take after his mother, Rei.
• Strong and Skilled: Zigzagged. Midoriya notes that during their fight Todoroki's incredibly potent power combination isn't all that makes him dangerous, there's a high degree of intelligence, control, and creative thinking to back it up. However, this is only relative to most other students and some pros, as he eventually realizes he needs to get even more creative with his powers to contend with the best villains and heroes.
• Superior Successor: Invoked, as Endeavor trained him to be as such. However, he wasn't planned to be this. Originally, it was his oldest brother Toya who possessed a superior fire Quirk, but also inherited their mother's weak constitution, which eventually seemingly killed him during a training exercise with Endeavor. It was likely around this time that Endeavor switched over to Shoto. Endeavor reveals that this was because Shoto is not bound to the same weaknesses he has (Endeavor's Hellfire Quirk runs the risk of overheating and damaging him, something that Shoto can avert by using his ice at the same time.)
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's very cold, distant and uncommunicative at the beginning of the series and remains usually quiet and stoic around strangers and when he's not on the battlefield. However, as he gets to know his classmates and starts appreciating their company, he gradually becomes more considerate, to the point of being called a "softie" by Recovery Girl when she noticed just how gentle he was around Yaoyorozu in the Teachers vs Students finals.
• Superpower Lottery: Invoked by his father who wanted a child with fire and ice powers, and he's The Ace of his class. The combined powers of his fire-and-ice side were able to overpower and blow away Midoriya using One For All at 100% of its power, albeit after Midoriya had already smashed the fingers of his hands to bits over the course of the fight. This is downplayed because, while one of the strongest in his class (if not the strongest), his power isn't a story-breaking one. Furthermore, as shown over time, his Quirk is not enough to deal with larger problems, even when he uses his fire.
• Teeth Clenched Team Work: With Yoarashi at the end of the provisional license exam. Todoroki plainly points out their incompatibility and non-existent teamwork before they finally get their act together and start working alongside each other.
• Temporary Blindness: In his case, muteness. His throat got badly burned that he couldn't talk as a result of Dabi's Hellfire burning him in the Paranormal Liberation War. We only see him having Inner Monologues afterward and occasionally uttering little ah and uhs till he finally speaks to his dad, albeit hoarsely and not without a bit of coughing.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: His expression in Chapter 290 when Dabi reveals himself to be his older brother Toya is one of mute shock that slowly transitions into growing horror as Toya gleefully reveals his revenge plan against their father.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: He points out how deadly his power is to a villain, but refuses to kill him. Not because it's morally wrong, but because it would put a black mark on his record as a hero. It's really because he doesn't like to see people get hurt. Despite hating the man and being tormented by the memories of childhood that Endeavor forced on him and his family, Todoroki still doesn't want to see anyone be badly hurt or killed. Watching his dad be mauled by High-End on national television sends him into a Freak Out.
• Took a Level in Kindness: While he wasn't much of a jerk before, just aloof and arrogant, he gets noticeably nicer after Sports Festival Arc.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He seriously loves cold soba noodles and is frequently seen eating them.
• Tragic Ice Character: He has double fire and ice powers, but makes the most use of his ice power, which he got from his mother, to spite his father, who abused them both in a bid to make Shoto into a worthy successor as a superhero.
• Trophy Child: His father, the flame-powered hero Endeavor, willingly admits that he married Shoto's mother for her ice-powers in the hopes of fathering a superior hero who could do what Endeavor could not: supplant All Might in his position as the No. 1 hero. Shoto and his siblings were all born as a result of Endeavor's desire for a "worthy heir", but Shoto's balance of fire and ice powers made him the unfortunate target of his father's attention.
• Troubled, but Cute: The general consensus of Class 1-A girls, apparently. During the "King of Dorms" mini-arc, he is referred to as the strongest, coolest, and most handsome boy of Class 1-A. At the same time, he also has a lot of family issues and was seriously antisocial until Midoriya became what is very likely his first friend.
• Understatement: Has a habit of making these with a completely straight face, overlapping with Comically Serious:
  Todoroki: (after freezing Sero in a stadium-sized glacier) Sorry... I was angry...
  Todoroki: (on how he re-built his dorm into a traditional Japanese home in one day) ...I worked really hard.
• Troubled Fetal Position: He dramatically falls into this position in relief when his dad makes it out alive after fighting a powerful High-End Nomu.
• Unreliable Expositor: When the story starts to shed more light on Endeavor's past, it becomes clear that Shoto's explanation to Izuku about his father forcing an Arranged Marriage onto Rei in order to bear him a Superior Successor becomes very inaccurate.
• Verbal Salt in the Wound: Makes the sarcastic comment "that's a bad scar" to remind his father that he'll now have a permanent scar awfully similar to his, while loudly slurping his soba.
• Visual Development: Following his Character Development and Defrosting Ice King in the U.A. Sports Festival, he has lost half of his body that is covered with ice and changed his white hero clothes for dark blue ones with a utility belt.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Surprisingly capable of calling out people:
  • When Ida tells him and Midoriya to stop interfering with his fight with Stain, Todoroki disdainfully responds that the real Ingenium never had such a hateful, unheroic look on his face.
  • Lashes out against the police chief for telling him, Midoriya, and Ida that they shouldn't have illegally engaged Stain in combat, demanding to know if the "right course of action" is to leave another hero and his friends to die.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Everything looks like it can be solved by hurling icebergs at it. While he's capable of using other tactics (like freezing Ida's leg mufflers during their match), he acknowledges that he needs to get more creative with his Quirk usage if he expects to fight competent villains that can handle his barrages of ice or flames.
• When He Smiles: He usually has a stoic demeanor on his face, but he occasionally cracks tiny smiles.
• Willfully Weak: For the longest time, he mostly neglected his fire capabilities out of spite toward his dad and would not push himself too hard out of caution. This bites him on the butt big-time as several characters call him out on it (his father Endeavor and Midoriya) as not using his full potential. While he has overcome this and is training, it becomes evident that he still tends to hold back and not push himself. Granted, his brother died (seemingly) after using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique due to getting hotter flames than Endeavor but a weak constitution towards heat from his mother, so this is somewhat understandable. However, Tetsutetsu of all people calls him out on it for not pushing himself to the limit. Shoto finally begins pushing his Quirk to the limit and only manages a draw despite his power.
• Worf Had the Flu: He ultimately throws his fight against Bakugo after mostly giving it his all, due to the Heroic BSoD he was undergoing regarding his identity and how he'll use his powers. It's still unknown who would win between the two if all conditions were ideal. This infuriates Bakugo, who didn't consider it a true victory.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Heavily implied when Bakugo suggests that they beat up the disobedient elementary kids during their extended hero license course, saying "sometimes violence is necessary." Todoroki disagrees, insisting that "there's definitely a better way of doing things" other than using violence. Considering what Todoroki went through as a child, it isn't hard to see why he'd think so.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: He inherited fire powers from his father and ice powers from his mother, though he doesn't like his father much, so he spent his entire childhood using only his ice powers out of spite. However, he can only generate heat from one side of his body and cold from the other, meaning using both for more than a few seconds will create all sorts of health problems for him as his body becomes extremely unevenly heated.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Yaoyorozu starts having bouts of Heroic Self-Deprecation when they're paired up for the final exams, he tells her that he voted for her for Class Representative because he believed in her intelligence and leadership. This raises her spirits considerably.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: During the Joint Training arc, as he watches Itsuka Kendo trying to overwhelm Yaoyorozu with physical attacks after separating her from her team, Todoroki calls Yaoyorozu by her full name as he states that Momo is gifted enough to have anticipated Kendo's strategy, since this is what she excels in. It says a lot about Todoroki's faith in Momo's capabilities, given he has never called anybody else by their full name.
• Youngest Child Wins:
  • Played with. He may have won the Superpower Lottery, but it resulted in him being subjected to Training from Hell by his dad in an effort to make Shoto a Superior Successor. It's later revealed that Shoto's oldest brother Toya was the original choice, due to possessing superior flames to Endeavor. However, Toya also had his mother's innate weakness to fire, so when Toya tried to learn one of his father's Dangerous Forbidden Techniques, it apparently ended up killing him. After Toya's death, he switched over to Shoto, whom he learned had fire and ice abilities and thus, lacked the elemental limits Endeavor and Toya suffered from.
  • Toya's later flashback further clarifies that he's the youngest child because he won the lottery. Toya internalised Endeavor's desire for a Superior Successor so much that he actively trained himself with his quirk despite the harmful side-effects for him and against his parent's wishes, wanting to prove that he wasn't a 'mistake' and could fulfil Endeavor's dream even with his handicap. Unable to dissuade him from repeatedly hurting himself, Rei and Enji decided to have more children that could eventually achieve Endeavor's dreams in Toya's stead, stopping with Shoto once he showcased the perfect combination of powers. Unfortunately, this instead caused Toya to have a mental breakdown over losing his reason for being born in the first place and develop his animosity towards his younger sibling merely for existing, despite Shoto having done nothing to him personally.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame:
  • When Midoriya provokes him into using his fire powers during the U.A. Sports Festival, his father Endeavor (who, while not outright villainous, is an abusive Nominal Hero) expresses excitement for him, telling Shoto that this is his first step in becoming the greatest hero. This greatly frustrates Todoroki, who had sworn to win by only using his ice powers. Later, he's able to use his fire powers after dissociating them from his father.
  • In Chapter 167, Todoroki blows off a So Proud of You from Endeavor, which is hollow at best. His reaction is implied to be along the lines of this. On the other hand, it is a bit subverted since he faintly smiles at his dad's attempts at reforming.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Implied. Shoto seldom ever loses his composure but, when he does, his powers become much more dangerous and powerful than they already are and he starts to display a fearsome Slasher Smile.

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