My Hero Academia: Shoto Todoroki (INTJ)
Ni:
“None of them felt it. In that moment, I was the only one who could sense your true power. It reminded me of something: experiencing All Might’s quirk.”
“I’m saying… the power coming from you felt the same as All Might’s. Midoriya, tell me. Are you really All Might’s secret love child or something?”
“‘That’s not it at all’ is interesting wording. It suggests there is something between you two that you’re not supposed to talk about.”
You can see Todoroki’s Ni manifest mostly in the way that he arrives at conclusions. He is one of the very first people to pick up that there is some connection between Midoriya and All Might, even coming to the conclusion that their powers seemed identical. He comes to the conclusion after he is able to experience both of them using their quirk. He comments that the powers ‘feel’ the same which is an abstract way to comment on their similarities. Todoroki also goes on to state that he knows there is something between Midoriya and All Might simply because of Midoriya’s body language and the way that he is phrasing his answers. All in all, he spends less time paying attention to the actual responses he is given and spends more time trying to get a feel for how Midoriya is reacting to the questions and how he is phrasing his responses. You will also notice that the way he phrases things and speaks always slants toward getting right to the end goal or driving motivation behind something. For example, he wants to know what purpose drives Midoriya to put himself through what he does.
Additionally, while Todoroki has been trained to be the next All Might, ergo is able to think on his feet, he prefers to form a plan and then launch into action. You see his tendency to internally strategize rather than just split-second improvisation via his mental dialogue during the licensing exam.
Te:
“He’s all cold intimidation, way different from Kacchan.” – Midoriya describing Todoroki’s personality
“I refuse to be a tool for that scumbag.”
“I’m sure our opponents intend to fight a defensive battle, but we’ve already won.”
“It’s not your fault. We’re just playing on different levels.”
Todoroki is very blunt and confrontational. He rarely takes into consideration if his wording is going to offend someone. He readily uses the prospect of torture to get information out of the villains that attack the USJ, knowing that is the quickest way to get the information he wants out of them. Todoroki frequently makes statements that are arrogant (without saying them in an arrogant way) like informing others that they can’t beat him because he is simply on a different level than they are. He tends to naturally take the lead when working with others, to the point where he completely forgets to even ask for their input if they don’t readily offer it to him without him asking. This happens when teaming up with Momo against Aizawa. Todoroki quickly takes charge, comes up with a strategy and implements it, completely removing Momo from the equation and choosing to deal with Aizawa himself while she runs to escape. In addition, like a typical high Te user, when Momo has an emotional reaction to successfully completing the practical exam, Todoroki fails to recognize it as emotion. Assuming she’s physically ill, he tries to offer up solutions to solve her problem.
Todoroki is also very rigid and structured in his everyday life. In the dorms, Todoroki’s living space was immaculate, everything perfectly in place and spotless. He literally remodels the entire space in one day to fit the specifications that he wanted.
Fi:
“I was overwhelmed, and it made me break the promise I made to myself a long time ago.”
“I have no intention of following any path you’ve created. Only I can decide my future.”
“…no matter how fiercely you come at me in the future, I will defeat you using only my right side. I can assure you of that.”
Todoroki tends to hold himself to a high standard and is very disappointed with himself when he falls short. His moral code leads him to a place where he refuses to use his fire quirk because it comes from his father who he despises. He is determined to reject his father’s legacy and prove he can overcome every obstacle only using his ice quirk, doing everything his own way. While many believe that Todoroki is an ISFP, it’s worth noting that Todoroki rejects a part of himself by rejecting his fire side, rather than claiming his inborn abilities as his own in spite of his father. This is anti-high Fi. It takes a stronger Fi user (Midoriya) to convince him that his fire quirk is his alone and has nothing to do with his father. After this, Todoroki is still very set on making his own path forward and sticking to what he believes is just. However, in spite of being against his father and his father’s ideals, he is able to put aside his own feelings and values to train under his father for the internship, which once again can indicate lower Fi and higher Te.
Se:
Todoroki’s inferior Se manifests itself through snap reactions. There are two main examples of this in the show so far. Because his anger is boiling over due to a recent encounter with his father, Todoroki freezes half the stadium during his first match in the U.A. Sports Festival, effectively trapping his opponent in a mountain of ice. He further confirms that this extreme attack was unintentional by apologizing to his opponent as he starts to melt him out. Later on in the show, the dog-headed police chief is chastising the members of class 1A for their unsanctioned and unlicensed use of their powers when Stain attacked. This angers Todoroki, and he starts berating the police chief, cursing at him, and calling him a mutt. Todoroki looks as if he might attack the police chief. Both of these examples are in line with inferior Se, as it tends to cause you to lash out or indulge in a physical way when used negatively.
Hi there! If you enjoyed that article, leave us a quick comment to encourage us to keep writing, and check out our Updates and Current Projects. In addition, if you've found our content helpful, please consider Buying Us A Coffee to help keep this website running. Thank you!
Reposting my Shoto discussion that I accidentally put on Aizawa’s page—Thanks Mara!
I see where you’re all coming from with Shoto, but I can’t help feeling there’s a strong argument for ISFP (same functions at least)
To me he comes off as much more Fi than Te driven (particularly compared to a more obvious Te-using INTJ like Lelouch) Shoto spends so much time reflecting on his value system and relatively little on the efficiency of his methods or lack thereof. “What does my fire side mean to me? I gotta sort out my feelings with mom before I use it again/move forward.”
There’s also a point where Eraserhead contrasts Shoto with Yaoyorozu noting that “for better or worse, he doesn’t hesitate much.” I don’t know any confirmed INTJs in real life but he’s so incredibly quick in his physical reactions that I feel he’s a higher Se-user, less hesitant than we IxTJs. Even that thing you mention where he says Midoriya’s power “felt” like All Might’s strikes me as more Se; it’s like my judo instructor (who is definitely some kind of xSxP) saying that you’ve gotta use your hands as “feelers” to read your opponent’s balance. He also does some ridiculously fast Se-improv in the provisional license exam, some risky blowing-up of industrial buildings pretty close to him.
TLDR—I feel that he’s mostly more Fi > Te and particularly more Se > Ni. Though I believe that could be because most speculative fiction writers aren’t higher in Te-than Fi. 😜
Yeah, a lot of people seem to see him as an ISFP. We did consider it as a possibility when typing him, but ultimately there are several reasons for why he lines up more with an INTJ. One of the reasons the Fi seems so prominent in the story is because they are focusing on developing his tertiary Fi. Note, for instance, how he rejects his fire side as even being part of himself. He refers to it as his father’s strength, and etc. I would not expect an Fi dom to reject a part of himself. You would expect an Fi dom to view it in the same way Mydoria did. This is also why it took Mydoria, who I firmly believe is an Fi dom, to get through to Todoroki, and convince him that his strength belonged to him and no one else. Midoriya was essentially preaching that Todoroki should not be rejecting a part of himself. Todoroki did not naturally latch onto his inborn abilities, and claim it as his own in spite of his father. He tried to deny self, which would be unnatural for high Fi users.
The next indication that he is INTJ instead of ISFP is the general way that he approaches his everyday life. He has a very rigid and structured way about him (Te). Even, for example, when everyone was looking at each other’s dorm rooms, Todoroki’s living space was immaculate, everything perfectly in place and spotless. He literally remodeled the entire space in one day to fit the specifications that he wanted. I would expect an ISFP to have a more casual and relaxed way about them. The environment that they feel comfortable in would also be more relaxed.
As for Todoroki not looking like Lelouch, this is true mostly because Todoroki is closer to a realistic, everyday INTJ. Lelouch is set up as a very stereotypical, dramatized one.
As to the Se… What you are seeing from Todoroki is not tied back to Se. In short, it’s as a result of his training. Pretty much from the moment he was born, his father has been training him to be the next All Might. This is why he is so comfortable and so adept at reacting. Se is not a requirement for making you good at reacting in the moment, provided you have been trained. In my experience, IxTJs are mostly hesitant in situations we are not prepared for. Todoroki, however, had been preparing since the day he was born. In the test with Yaoyorozu, Todoroki assumed that he was the best prepared to make a plan, so he took the lead, completely dismissing the possibility that Yaoyorozu might have anything to contribute. That instinct to take charge suggests high Te.
In regards to what you said about feeling, you are trying to relate two different things. The sense of Mydoria’s power feeling like All Might’s pertains to Todoroki absorbing abstract information and making an observation. (Ni) Your example with your instructor is completely different. His use of feeling pertains to action not observation. (Se) He literally said to use your hands to feel out your opponents balance. Todoroki’s use of “feeling” was not really physical.
I went back and watched the tank exploding scene you referred to. It didn’t look very much like split second improvisation to me. In his mental dialogue, he even makes comments about the fact that the stage for the test was setup to be realistic, which is the reason they were instructed to go to an area that plays to their strengths. So, Todoroki does that. From there, he deduces that the tank would be filled with an explosive chemical, which he then uses. He lures his opponents into a trap with it, punctures/seals the tank with his ice, sets a sign on fire to lure them in, and then springs the trap by melting the ice with his fire while hiding behind a mountain of ice a distance away to protect himself. That seems more strategic than split second improvisation to me, and note that he was running an internal dialogue the entire time. Se users tend to react without pre-thinking everything out.
Very thorough breakdown, Ryan. I applaud you. 🙏