#but Rei raised the kids more than Enji did (that's his main fault)

[problemswithbooks]

You’re really asking why enji is homophobic in many fics? Most of his haters, especially the most vocal ones are projecting their own abusers onto him like crazy. He’s either homophobic or a violent drunk in the fics, and Touya is a protective, loving big brother, basically a saint. Their own version leaks into the canon too and it alters the general perception of both characters for many of their readers or followers too. It’s just how it is

I mean, in fics I get it and even if i don't like it, it's fine. Fics need conflict and Enji's a good antagonist for any Shoto romance fic. People write fic for any number of reasons so if they want to project and work through their own abusive father's homophobia through Enji they're more than welcome to. It's their fic and their expiration.

What I find more frustrating and understand les is the random short tumblr posts that crop up every once in a while that state for a fact that Enji would be homophobic or force Shoto into a marriage for strong grand-kids with zero evidence to back those claims up. The same can be said for when people try and blame Enji for Shoto and Touya insulting heteromorphs.

Maybe it's because I don't read fics that often, but I've never had an issue discerning between fanon in fics and canon material. And I'd never assert something as fact/ a theory without proof to back it up.

I get that people don't like Enji and for people that already hate him reading him as negatively as possible is always going to be the case. First impressions mean everything, and Enji's was of a horribly abusive asshole. It's hard for people to change their mind after that sort of introduction. The only reason I changed my mind of him was because I enjoy that kind of story.

But I just wish people would take the time to actually think a little before compiling every single bad thing a person can do/be and shove onto a character they hate as if it's fact. For a story, fine--I won't read it but, fic isn't meta and it's not always true that the author believes everything they write. OOC fic is a thing and sometimes you just need a character to get in the way of your ship for angst. But for a character analysis it's sloppy.

#ask #bnha #todoroki enji #endeavor #also it's frustrating because it really seems like people think if someone was one fucked up belief it means they have this other bad belie #and that if a person/character does a wrong thing they no longer deserve sympathy #like how I saw someone say it was toxic to say that it might be Rei that taught Shoto and Touya to insult heteromorphs #personally I think those insults were crafted before Hori decided they were a huge deal/side plot #and should be ignored as if they didn't happen (that's clearly how he's written them going forward) #but if you pretend it did happen and is a big deal #than it makes more sense that it comes from Rei #Neither parent insult heteromorphs #but Rei raised the kids more than Enji did (that's his main fault) #Shoto hates Enji and tries to be the exact opposite of him however he can so it'd make sense he'd follow Rei's example more than Enji's #and now we know Rei came from a racist family which means she probably learned some of that discrimination from them growing up #but that idea is seem as toxic because ...why? #she's clearly not animal people racist now #and even if she still was #what happened to her was still wrong and she deserves sympathy #her being racist doesn't mean it was fine that Enji abused her #it doesn't mean she doesn't love her kids #yet it's not toxic to say Enji made his kids racist....because? #he's already a bad person? #like idk how to tell you that sometimes a bad person can have a positive or neutral trait #the least racist person can still abuse their kids #the two aren't connected in anyway

[autumn-foxfire]

I always end up thinking it comes back to Shoto *needed* a abusive father who also abused and coerced his mom whom he bought to pop out kids, separated the family, practised eugenics, talked trash about the whole family year after year and turned his brother into a murdering villain. While being a selfish, power hungry No 2 hero who is greedy, uses money and abuses power and is known for his violent heroics and generally disliked. He is next in line to AFO for doing every unimaginable bad but in terms of family abuse.

He could have been a quirkless top cop, he could have been a disabled ex-hero and had the same story. It was important he was what he was just an asshole corrupt top hero. Also to show he was running away from hurting his body and from responsibility by torturing his bought family to suffer in his place.

It was never about Endeavor. His story is like an afterthought to give substance to Shoto's story and bolster him and later, the rest of Todofam's stories. Pro Hero Arc's objective was to set Endeavor up as the symbol of downfall of hero society after All Might era. It was foreshadowed after Kamino Arc by Jin Bubaigawara's comments no less. And Twice being someone Hawks replaced for admiring as the ideal for the man's virtues unlike the sins of a man who was more fake than All Might's true inspiration on a TV. And this downfall was pinned on Endeavor as his personal failure as if to say he isn't the victim folks, move along. It is said as if to make it seem unfair but when it concerns Endeavor the plot always flips to show that wasn't the case it really was his fault. It kind of is. His arrogance, his delusional view of himself, his average competence in comparison to true heroes and his weak hero motivation(I'm No. 1 instead of altruism), etc were clearly depicted. And contrasted with All Might who did his best and was not the one in the wrong in the system. And the Commission who were evil ar dead.

Endeavor's character is frequently contradictory or inconsistent and modt of what he says or thinks is contradicted and depicted as his misunderstandings or sugarcoated delusions. In fact it won't be surprising if Endeavor commented on Toya having only a fire quirk and Rei nervously suggesting having another child to be the Ice sidekick to Toya but Endeavor only believed in one body to be the only hero and mistook Fuyumi's role as the cheerleader. To make every interaction or connection negative than it appears does seem the current purpose of plot.

But what never makes sense from a real person point of view is why marriage and child at 20. Very few people think I'll have a child and spend years grooming it to replace me while I'm being impatient right now. People can say 20 is adult enough all they want but thats two years after graduating from UA high school and its unusual unlike in the States. Didn't he have parents? They also practiced quirk marriage doesn't feel like a good enough answer.

He could have experimented on himself like Danzo from Naruto, he could have had a child with a woman he gets rid permanently- a clone with genetic modifications like in Star Wars or a child throgh a surrogate. Instead he needed the free nanny, cook, cleaner and housekeeper that came with a marriage to look after the child while he was away doing heroics. That is what is pointed out recently was Rei's sole role according to Endeavor.

AFO and his cronies could have been hidden in plain sight as miraculous doctors. Quirks can be updated once without suspicion(Deku never raised red flags?) AFO can give and take quirks. Endeavor was desperate enough to commit a legal seeming unethical practice so if Dr Kyudai Garaki ran a legal experimental scene where he lured in people who searched enough to find him, then why not Endeavor?

But I feel if that was the type of plot then it will be explained how Endeavor's body was not suited to holding cooling quirk or extra quirk would shorten his lifespan. Since Shoto is the real character who has to exist with his mother of a origin. And most likely is the scenario that Endeavor forced Rei to undergo dangerous treatment for pregnancy in one of Kyudai Garaki's machines. Its typical shonen plot btw torturing the mom to have a extra special child.

As told through Rei, Endeavor's character is one who runs away from responsibility and pushes it onto people instead of doing anything himself or troubling himself to suffer at all and shows no remorse afterwards or makes no noticeable effort to do sone action to sepict the same. His endeavoring is only that- a show of endeavour, no substance. In terms of plot having a child makes sense but think of him as a real consistent human character, it no longer is. Rei's assessment contradicts what she excused during the Pro Hero Arc. If he only runs away why would she be so deluded to think he is trying to face his past and not just giving her flowers because he got what he wanted completely at last. It doesn't explain anything about his character beyond being empty words to explain why he should be given a chance. And currently the family really doesn't need him they needed Dabi to be saved and it was said in the raws Shoto stated he did not feel "saved" by having to lend a hand to Endeavor.

I do agree that a major aspect of Enji's character is to provide greater context for both his sons, one who is a main character and one who is a main villain, as well as used to highlight the flaws present in hero society but I disagree with that being all he's supposed to be, at least not anymore.

Hori has gone through great lengths to try and flesh out his character beyond what he originally wrote though it was kind of awkward at the time when he started to do so because he had already dug Enji into such a horrible hole, slowly retconning aspects of the Todoroki family past (such as him "buying" Rei to be his brood mare) in a way that wasn't jarring (by making the family unreliable narrators which is something one would expect) but sadly he couldn't change the image he had already built for Enji for the most part.

I also agree that because Hori had began to flesh out Enji more, there has been more contradictions in his story when you start to pick it apart (such as how he's supposed to be the most stubborn character and yet gave up before he should have), but these issues are really only something a reader that likes to analyse the story will notice, not that of a casual reader (which I guess Hori should be thankful for). I'm not sure if Hori planned to make Enji into a more likable character from the beginning or if he changed plans midstory (...which to be honest, the way his story is written does appear to be the later), but because of the drastic change, it has left us feeling a bit of whiplash.

I do disagree with your last sentences though, Enji is important to the family and important to saving Dabi (kinda). Unlike Shouto, who is trying to break free from Enji and because of that he doesn't need his father, Dabi is desperate for his father's attention which has evolved into hatred and spite. It needs to be Enji that reaches out to him (and I wonder if this is why he decided to have Enji begin to reform as well, to be in a place where he'd actually try to save his son? Hmmm...).

Enji is an interesting character but a lot of his writing has a lot to be desired at times, is what I'm trying to say T-T

#bnha #bnha manga spoilers #bnha critical #thanks for the ask!!

[aerislei]

Todoroki Family p2, Rei

So, so far post season three I have done the main wrap up for the season, Todoroki Shouto (and a post about his scar), Dabi (as well as my take on Dabi is Touya all in one post), and I’ve done Katsuki Bakugo, and Midoriya Izuku. I talked about the UA Traitor here! I talked about All for One/One for All the quirks a bit I also did a ramble-y meta post about the Todoroki Family but that is more manga than anime, so be warned!

... The last one is only getting linked because today as the title indicates we’re going to talk on a very broad level about how Rei may be a victim, but she definitely still shoulders some guilt for what happened here. And also my thoughts on Rei’s (maybe, eventual?) arc in general.

Still to come on the headcanon front:The Doctor and Quirks, just in general. I’m sure I’ll find other stuff to discuss too.

Be warned this post references domestic abuse and also child abuse. It is not graphic but I can’t have this discussion without referring to it. Please read with caution as these are sensitive topics.

I could write for ages on why I don’t like Endeavor and why Endeavor’s redemption arc may be something I was demanding but it’s not something I actually care to see. You’ll likely hear all about it as the story goes on. But today, we’re going to talk about Rei.

Please note when I reference ages I’m working from my semi-established timeline from the Dabi-is-Touya theory post quoted here: ("Shouto is the youngest at 15, Natsuo is 19, and a college student. Fuyumi is 22 and a teacher. Considering that was still early in their marriage, he could be 23/24 and that would still fit into the window of Dabi’s “early twenties”. So let’s call him 23, just a year older than Fuyumi, for the purpose of the rest of this discussion.”) I’m using that particular reference because it gives us one of the shortest timelines for these four kids, and you’ll get an idea of what I mean here.

So let’s jump right in. Rei is a victim, I’m not arguing against that. I am in no way saying she wasn’t abused (god she was, we’re looking at most likely some seriously dubious consent in having these kids, never mind as Shouto says “she was always crying” and the few flashbacks we have also indicate that she likely fought with Enji to *try* and protect her children).

I’m also not going to stand here and pretend that getting away from Enji would have been easy, or that her remaining there wasn’t, you know, a completely believable thing, as terrible as it was. It’s not easy to get away from an abuser. And Enji is a very powerful man. But I do have to wonder... like maybe we’ll learn she did try and like some domestic abuse cases are, they were just swept under the rug. But I do have to wonder why she didn’t reach out for help at any point before the night she snapped.

We know she was trying to get help that night, she was talking to her mom and telling the other woman that she didn’t think she could do this, didn’t think she could raise the kids any more because they were getting more and more like Enji. Was that the first call? We don’t know, maybe it was, or maybe her mother just kept telling her to suck it up, or that she was overreacting, or something.

What we do know is that Rei put up at least a token resistance against Shouto being trained too harshly, and so we can (hopefully) assume that she did the same for Touya. But by the time Shouto’s training came around, Rei had been going through this for around 12 years.

That’s a long time to tell yourself he loves you when you know it’s a lie and that things will get better, and a long ass time to put up with what was going on in that house and the way he treated her and her children. Emphasis on her children, actually, because that is what we see her step up about, the way he’s pushing Shouto too hard because he’s too young.

12 years of the same behavior, with each of her children. Now, I know, I said before we don’t know if she sought help before. Maybe she was afraid he’d do her very real damage if she tried. We don’t know.

But being realistic, not trying at all, if that’s truly what happened, is almost as bad as doing it herself. Failure to report a crime is not the same as committing it, no, but it is it’s own crime. Now. I don’t know the specifics of the laws in japan and doing some research involved a lot of dead ends thanks to the fact that I don’t read Japanese with any fluency at all.

We know Rei was a source of love and comfort for her children, iirc Shouto does indeed depict her in a very positive light when he talks about her. It’s clear he loves her.

This doesn’t make her blameless.

I’ve noticed the fandom likes to heap blame on Enji - and while I agree he deserves it - it sometimes goes to the level of forgetting/ignoring that Rei is the one that poured boiling water on Shouto. That burn didn’t come from Enji training him too harshly, or being angry because he couldn’t pull off whatever move he was trying to teach him this time. It came from Rei.

Now. Enji obviously was the main source of Rei’s instability. Shouto (and thus the audience) blame Enji for what happened because yes, he is the one that pushed her over the edge. This makes sense.

It still doesn’t take the fact that she is the one that did it away.

Do I think that any of the kids are ever going to put blame on her? No. No, I highly doubt it honestly. Legally the situation seems to have been deemed more-or-less not her fault by way of insanity, and this is why she’s in a hospital and not, you know, prison.

You know what that doesn’t change? How Rei feels about what happened that night. And after the breadcrumbs we’ve been given about Rei, I’m banking on “pretty terrible” being the answer to that.

And that, my friends, is something Rei is going to have to face before she can actually tackle the road to recovery enough to ever leave the hospital.

If we ever get a Rei arc as anything more than a backdrop to Enji getting a redemption arc, I think that’s going to be what it has to cover, before it can go anywhere else.

So that’s my take on Todoroki Rei as she stands in relation to the family.

#mha #bnha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #todoroki family #todoroki rei #y'all dont kill me for this #things I'm doing instead of NaNo #writing about mha apparently #derp