My Hero Academia S6: was Endeavor's dark past planned?

The Todoroki family backstory in My Hero Academia Season 6 (2022 to 2023) shows how much darker the series has become. It finally shows Endeavor's treatment of Rei, Toya and Shoto instead of only describing it. We were glad the episode skipped the recap and got right into it, even if Deku still hasn't woken up. There was a joke that this might be an entire season where he just naps.

Endeavor's plan for the strongest child

Endeavor's goal was simple: produce the strongest child possible, one who wielded his and Rei's combined powers. The reaction in the room summed it up as a crazy thing, basically saying he can't beat All Might, so he'll make a kid who can. Someone also noticed that when Toya lists his family, the only one he refers to in a family way is mom. Everyone else, Endeavor included, is on a first name basis.

The question of whether to tell young Toya the truth about his body split the room. One view was that if his quirk actively hurts him, you have to tell him. The other was that he's pushing through, and telling him would take away his hope. Nobody landed on an answer.

Seeing Endeavor's abuse after seasons of redemption

We heard how bad Endeavor was, but we never got to see it. Then we spent multiple seasons with him mostly redeeming himself. Now that the audience likes him, the show turns around and shows what he truly was. The comparison that came up: "this feels like a lifetime movie."

Toya's cruelty toward Rei drew its own reactions, especially when he throws her parents' poverty in her face. "Oh, they raised a little monster." When Endeavor shouts at Rei that Toya is her problem now, he looks like a demon. Endeavor admitting that whenever he looked at his children, it was Rei's eyes he saw staring back at him landed hard. "This is heartbreaking."

Was this dark backstory planned from the start?

The episode raised a real question about the writer. "It's mindblowing how much darker it's become." Was this plotted from the beginning, or did the story descend into it? The level of detail drew a comparison to a One Piece backstory. One theory was that the real story was meant to start here, and the school setting came later as the backstory. Another was that it began as kids with powers at school and evolved. The conclusion was that it's one of the two.

The big three comparison followed. Deku is fatherless with an incredibly loving mother. Bakugo has a normal dad and a hotheaded mom, and both love him. Shoto's mother was abused and his father is awful, yet he's the calmest of them and by far the richest.

Best Jeanist, Hawks and the reaction to the team up

Best Jeanist and Hawks then crash the family conversation. Best Jeanist's line about eavesdropping being sketchy like black market denim earned an "I love him" and a request for more of him, plus a running joke that he exists on the fumes of the jeans. Hawks relating to Shoto, having never confronted his own parents, made sense: he'd be the perfect person to understand. The 10,000 released prisoners got a stunned reaction, and seeing Natsuo on board with the team up was surprising.