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thyandrawrites · 2 years

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I love reading your insightful thoughts on topics regarding mha and especially touya you alone bring my hype up

I just wanted to ask, after having read your rei meta (which I agree with wholeheartedly) I can't help but feel kind of a distaste towards some actions towards some members BECAUSE of the narrative framing

Rei calling her son "dabi" in the hospital scene was so distasteful considering she was ready to forgive her husband after everything but it almost narratively seems she holds no such regard towards the son whose demise she took part in regardless of intention

Also in the mental hospital scene where fuyumi was telling that "natsuo is the only one who isn't letting begones be begone" like hello? we are talking about you dead brother who mer his end due to your father's actions?

I don't know I am pretty sure it's because of horikoshi and I shouldn't think like this blaming the characters because he is the writer after all but the way he writes rei and fuyumi sometimes is so distasteful to me that I almost wish touya never returns to that home where he was labeled a black sheep simply for being self aware because of how they used him as a scrapegoat especially in the hospital chapter

Ps i am well aware touya will probably reunite with his family and all will be well but it's the narrative choices that kind of make me dislike them even endeavor who is pathetic is at leadt enjoyable to read in a sense that he stays true to character to an extent. Shouto is on the way of reaching an epiphany about how to reach his brother as family instead of a hero so i still have hope for him and natsuo is still true to character kind of in the hospital chapters but fuyumi and rei got me fighting against everything in me to not dislike them. Even toga and freaking afo calls him touya but his family is stuck with dabi like bffr

Hey! First of all, thank you for reading my stuff! I'm glad it can bring you some positivity in these otherwise trying times as a Touya stan.

Now, to answer you... I debated how best to approach this reply, because there's a number of ways I could go about this. But you specifically mentioned the framing, so I'm gonna build my argument on that.

So. How is Horikoshi framing Touya in the eyes of the Todofam? As you said yourself, they’re treating him like the black sheep to Shouto's golden child, and uniting to stop him.

From what I understand, though, you seem dissatisfied with the execution because you think that while every other fam member acts coherent about either blaming or wanting to rescue Touya, the Todoroki women are outliers because they have instances where they go back on that resolve to save him to blame Touya instead.

Am I getting this correctly?

If so, I think there is a problem with that conclusion. It's not just the women who go back and forth, and in fact, I think Rei and Fuyumi are the mildest ones of the bunch. But for reasons that I'm going to dissect later, I also think the fandom… latches on to them as exceptions, and in the process doesn't understand that it's meant to be a family narrative in which all of them are imperfect.

(putting this under a cut for length)

I think it’s important to remember that all the Todorokis agreed that Touya needs stopping. Not just Rei and Enji, or not even just the two heroes, Shouto and Enji. All of them gathered in that hospital room to discuss family matters, and they reached that conclusion as a collective decision.

Now, I’m stressing this because the language they used is peculiar. We all noticed that they said that Touya needs stopping, not saving. But when it comes to the Todofam, that word carries a certain weight, and I don’t think it was used randomly here.

As this person pointed out in this post, Touya was always asked to “stop” whenever his self-awareness or his attempts to be acknowledged disrupted the family dynamics. This is less apparent if you haven’t checked out the revised flashbacks in chapter 302. But the fact that Horikoshi went back to alter the storyboard and narration for the tankobon release means he wanted to draw more attention to something, to make it clearer for the audience. And indeed, the why becomes clear when we see Shouto confront Dabi and echo the same words: “please, stop.”

[source]

The Todorokis haven’t yet reached a place where they can fully sympathize with Touya. In Shouto’s case, it’s because he doesn’t know his brother; he can empathize with Touya’s circumstances, but not with Touya’s reasons. After all, Shouto is a successful creation. He never faced the brunt of the entire family’s blame and disappointment. As a result, he doesn’t understand that this approach is doomed to fail, because it echoes the scoldings Dabi’s used to.

Whenever someone tried to reason with Touya, it was always framed as if the root of Touya’s unhappiness (and the family’s by extension) was his refusal to quit his ambitions. Basically, they told him that it was his fault, and not his father’s for putting those ambitions in him. Even if it’s Enji who’s guilty of rewriting Touya’s sense of self around an impossible goal, the one who’s held accountable for it is the victim.

Not only do they all ask Touya to stop over and over (and not his father), but Touya’s also blamed for the fallout of Enji’s abuse. First, he was framed as the reason for Enji to keep making replacements, then for why Enji isolated Shouto from his siblings. It’s always because of him. Because Touya couldn’t quit.

Even now that the family supposedly knows better, they’re still struggling to move on from that pattern. Just like how back then Touya was always singled out as the disruption, as the element of unrest, Dabi is still pushed into this role. Except now he’s singled out as the disruptive element that exacerbates not only the inner dynamics of the family, but of society as a whole. Once again, his refusal to stop is making things worse for everyone willing to just lay down and take it in silence. Because of it, he’s not regarded with sympathy. Instead, all the flaws he addresses are his responsibility to bear. It doesn’t matter if those issues existed before him. He becomes the suitable scapegoat.

Now, all of these are things you seem well aware of. But you still singled out Fuyumi and Rei as subjects of your ire, and I don’t think that’s entirely fair. If this was something we could blame just on one character, or just on Rei and Enji as parents, we wouldn’t have heard the same words repeated by multiple family members. We would’ve at least seen someone push back against them.

Instead, even Shouto is still torn between seeing Touya as a villain and as his older brother. Linkspooky wrote an excellent post on this recently that I encourage you to check out.

This makes sense for him because Dabi was just a villain to him until a while ago. He has no solid memories of Touya because as a kid he wasn’t allowed to exist in the same room as his siblings. Yet, he has several memories of his brother as an enemy. He fought against him. Dabi kidnapped his classmate. So that mental divide is at least somewhat justified. It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that your presumed dead brother, who you only saw as a normal kid in your sparse memories, committed atrocities and tried to kill you and your dad (and himself).

However, I also think this divide works on a societal scale as well. During the present arc, we’ve seen the hero kids struggle to reconcile the idea of the League as victims with the crimes they’ve committed. Those two sides should coexist; one doesn’t exclude the other. Hurting people doesn’t mean someone can’t have hurt you first. The kids seem aware of this, unlike the rest of society. They see the League’s victimhood. The problem is, they still think in terms of which side weighs in more, which one deserves more of their heroic efforts. And because the people they’ve hurt are multiple, while their victimhood only involves a single person, the good of the many always ends up being more important than showing sympathy.

This is what happens with Uraraka, for example. She remembers Toga’s tears, and wants to help her smile, but because Toga is part of the League and wreaked havoc in several cities with the PLF, killing many innocents… that sympathy becomes conditional. So Uraraka looks at the destroyed landscape to remind herself that there’s also another side of Toga. One less worthy of her concern. One that deserves it, because this suffering she’s experiencing is Toga’s own fault. If Toga wants to live her version of a happy life, she tells her, she also must be ready to live with the consequences.

This sentiment is the same that Shouto later directs at his brother. You can’t blame dad for the lives you took, he tells Touya, because you did those things, not Endvr. They are your own fault.

The problem with this approach is that it asks victims to put their shit together on their own, for everyone else’s convenience, without anyone else involved in fixing a broken system. And most importantly, it also asks victims to face the consequences of their actions, while also turning around and not holding abusers accountable for their own.

The fact that this idea is explored through Toga and Shigaraki as well makes me think it goes beyond the Todofam’s dysfunctionality. But to bring this back to them…

Do I think it’s distasteful that the framing treats Touya this way? Yes. It hurts to watch on a near constant basis, even when I know there’s likely a reason for it. But at the same time, I dislike on principle when people hold Rei and Fuyumi to a higher standard than the men in the house for displaying character flaws.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not accusing you of purposeful malice or anything like that. You're clearly struggling against your instinctive dislike, and you came here to discuss it, so I presume you're looking for reasons to either reinforce it, or to let go of it. I hope that by the end of this, you will find some more reasons to be kind to them regardless of the quality of the writing.

What I’ve noticed during my time in this fandom is a certain... expectation, almost...? for women to always perform the role of "perfect victims", with the penance of getting the brunt of the fandom's anger when they don't.

What does that even mean?

In short, women in fiction aren't given the same leniency as their male counterparts when it comes to displaying said flaws. While for men having any is typically regarded as a good thing because it gives the character depth, when women do something “wrong,” they get crucified.

I believe this happens in the bnha fandom as well, particularly amongst Todofam stans. While Shouto, Natsuo and Touya are all allowed to be imperfect, and their rough edges get widely recognized as faucets of trauma, Fuyumi and Rei aren't given the same sympathy.

As I mentioned above, Shouto gets to be undecided and to direct unkind words to his brother without the same backlash from fans. Natsuo is allowed to put faith in Enji because he shows reluctance to trust his old man. But the women are hated because they take a less belligerent approach to Enji’s atonement.

I believe that the reason why so many fans struggle to like Fuyumi and Rei is because they misread them. Their lack of outright hostility is widely interpreted as forgiveness, when in fact, it’s not quite written that way. I find that equating their willingness to let Enji try to be a better person with forgiveness is a flattening of their depth as abuse survivors.

I think much of the blame Rei faces isn’t actually rooted in anything particularly bad she did in canon. Most of the things we can blame her for are also things that Enji did alongside her, and Enji did them with far more cruelty and selfishness. But! I also think that some people have an instinctual dislike of her because she’s written with a lot of stereotypes of submissive femininity in mind, and that understandably makes a lot of folks uncomfortable.

What I’ve seen is that because Enji is a pos, people have turned to Rei in hopes she could be a better parent, or someone okay-ish enough to make up for the bad, you know? And that’s totally fair. I’ve done the same. But I also think that in the process, people sort of created this idealized version of her that then didn’t live up to her canon characterization. They—perhaps subconsciously—wanted her to be a good victim and a good mom, when she’s meant to be neither. I think she’s more nuanced than that, and that perfect victims don’t really exist anyway.

But because they expected her to balance out Enji’s bad, they don’t really know what to make of a character who’s now written to parallel him in many ways. While she did not hit her kids, she still hurt them in other ways. While she tried her best to oppose her husband’s will, she still didn’t oppose it in a way that mattered when it came to Touya’s mental well-being in particular. Just like Enji, she was shown to be neglectful and avoidant of her eldest.

This makes her a nuanced character. Just like Touya, she can have done horrible things and still be a victim because the two things can coexist. But expecting her to be just one over the other, ironically, results in the same scapegoating Touya’s being subjected to by the narrative.

The fact that she’s a victim and that she ended up hurting others as a result of unaddressed and spiraling mental health problems aren’t factors that are battling for dominance. You’re not supposed to look at her and think “the bad she’s done outweighs the good, hence she doesn’t deserve any sympathy.” If you’re not doing that for Touya, why are you doing it for her?

To address the one complaint you mentioned about her, the fact that she calls her son “Dabi.”

She does that once.

In fact, if you look at it closely you’ll notice something interesting. She calls him “Dabi” when she’s thinking of him as a villain. When the topic of fighting comes up, and with it, the emotional baggage that “stopping” Touya already has as an ongoing theme. But Rei also calls him “our son” when she’s apologizing to Hawks for the burns, and she calls him “Touya” when she’s confronting Enji. To me, this confirms the idea I talked about above, the mental divide that makes it harder to reconcile the villain with the crying boy they remember. Rei, like Shouto, loves Touya, but her reaction isn’t perfect because she’s an imperfect victim living in a flawed world.

In the grand scheme of things, the issue with the framing of Touya as a bad sheep does exist, but I don’t blame it on Rei specifically. I think there’s a fundamental difference between her calling her son “Dabi” that one time versus Enji privately thinking of Touya as a mass murderer.

Putting this out there for those who can’t read japanese. The word (in kanji) Enji uses here reads tairyousatsujinsha. Which means indeed “mass murderer.” We only know that he’s even referring to Touya because the furigana (which typically shows the actual reading of the word in kanji) reads a different word, musuko, “son.”

So, sure, might be more internally coherent as an asshole who can’t face his actions, but getting angry at Rei for calling Touya “Dabi” seems rather… mean-spirited imho, when it’s not even on the same magnitude of alienation Enji shows for the blood of his blood here. He doesn’t even call him the more generic word for villain. Not his chosen villain moniker, either. He goes straight for the moral upper ground of calling attention to Dabi’s crimes, when he can’t even properly own up to his own.

Anyway. Moving on, there’s also the topic of Fuyumi. You mentioned that her line “letting bygones stay bygones” was in the hospital chapters, but I couldn’t find it there. Were you by chance referencing this?

because if so, I believe the above panel on the left comes from a fan scanlation. If you compare it to the official Viz translation, her words don't carry quite the same edge. Now, the wording is similar enough that it might be an instance of Viz correcting the release at a later date (it has happened before. Japanese is a tricky language).

But since you quoted this line, let’s discuss the nuance.

In the picture on the left, Fuyumi appears less sympathetic towards Natsu. It reads like she's blaming him for being too stubborn to let the past go, while also minimizing the extent of his trauma as something that can be just… brushed off. As something that should stay in the past.

As opposed to that, the version on the right puts more emphasis on the process of grieving, on Natsuo's mental well-being. "Can't seem to let go" still carries the same implication that closure on Touya’s death is desirable, but her phrasing is soft enough that it comes across like she's sad about Natsuo’s sadness. Like she wishes he'd let himself find some peace, after all this time.

I'm bringing up both these versions because I wanted to compare and contrast them to the original. See, the jp text says this:

Which translates to: "Only Natsuo can't lower his raised fist."

Being fair to the eng translation, all these versions more or less say the same thing. She's still singling out Natsuo for reacting differently from the rest of them. Which does indeed seem like she’s blaming him for it.

However, the original wording has a completely different nuance imho. By bringing attention to his raised fist, Fuyumi is commenting on Natsuo using anger as a coping mechanism to deal with his grief. The emphasis then is not so much on whether or not she thinks he should "let go" or "let bygones be bygones," but on the fact that Natsuo is stuck in that defense position. His fists are permanently raised, and he cannot let them lower. He's constantly poised for a fight, and as a result, he always slams headfirst into one.

I think this confirms my reading of Fuyumi as a mediator, as someone trying her best to de-escalate all the fighting in the house.

In this post I explained why I think she's stuck into a part herself. As the big sister who stepped into the role of caretaker at a young age, Fuyumi displays all the traits of someone who learned early on to fear explosive tempers, and resorted to acting like the patient one to protect her siblings. She sorta acts like a… fire-retardant blanket, so to say. She attempts to put out fires before they can get bigger by sucking out the air that keeps them alight. She’s shown doing this with Natsuo during dinner, and she’s shown often playing mediator to avoid explosive tempers from bursting.

I think a lot of people read her as someone pursuing her idea of a perfect family because she remembers a time where things were better and wants that again. The problem with that, imho, is when people call her selfish for it. When they say she’s pressuring her brothers into forgiving Enji like she did. I find that—at least the latter part—a malicious misreading rooted in badly hidden misogyny. Why is she not allowed to want things that are at odds with her brother’s wishes, but her siblings are allowed to want things that are at odds with hers? Why is she perceived as selfish for it, but her brothers are not? And why is the reading of her as forceful in this pursuit so widespread, when she made no attempts to steer Natsuo back in both times he stormed out the room?

It seems to me like the same issue with Rei. Fuyumi needs to be a good victim and a good sister, or be crucified if she dares have flaws and imperfections. But again, just like Rei, she’s a victim as well, and she has trauma too. I think people shouldn’t presume that her feelings for her abuser are clearcut and black and white.

I know it’s easy to dislike her because she seemingly “forgave” Enji, but so far she’s never stated that. It’s the audience’s inference that she has. The fact that she wants a shot at having a more normal family doesn’t mean she thinks Enji did a 180°. It just means she’s willing to give him a chance to be a better person, which is something that Shouto’s also shown doing. But because Shouto remains hostile while Fuyumi makes an effort to treat Enji like a person, it’s widely assumed she must have no complex feelings for her father, or that she’s okay with moving on.

I find that an oversimplification. Don’t get me wrong, I know the Todoroki women are much less fleshed out than the men. Rei doesn’t even have a character profile yet. But because of this, I wish the fandom didn’t jump for their throat based on those few sparse lines we do have. Just because Horikoshi hates women doesn’t mean we should all follow in his example

Let’s all allow ourselves to think these characters can have depth. To experiment and play with ideas when something’s yet unconfirmed, to headcanon and theorize and fill the gaps of missing info like we do for other (male) characters. I promise it’s much more fun than getting angry or upset at all the failings from canon

If that's not your cup of tea... that's fine, but I hope I was at least able to make you consider something you hadn't thought of before

#bnha meta #meta:rei #meta:fuyumi #my post #bnha #bnha spoilers #todoroki rei #todoroki fuyumi #todoroki shouto

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littleholmes · 8 months

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Hi, I'm Monique 🌸 I do a lot of writing and rambling about manga and anime! To make it easy to find my posts, I've included links to my analysis posts, writings, and my AO3 below!

Note: This blog and these posts are not spoiler-free. Please do not repost or post on other websites, tiktok, etc. Sometimes there's a tag glitch so just be sure to please remove my tags first, or write ‘prev tags’ if you agree with my tags, before rbing (this includes specialty sorting tags)

-> weekly/monthly manga & manhua I read: Jujutsu Kaisen, Bungou Stray Dogs, Spy x Family, 19 Days, My Hero Academia, Kuroshitsuji, Astro Royale, Chainsaw Man. Series Ended/Complete: Dr. Stone (main & 4D Science ended), Tokyo Revengers (main ended), MHA: Vigilantes, Demon Slayer, Haikyuu!!

☆ I keep this navigation post and all lists regularly updated so check in weekly! For Viz titles, I read the official translation via the Shonen Jump app.

🌸 My Analysis/Ramblings Main Tags

A small note that my longer posts are my analysis & typically delve into actual meta/analysis and are tagged as analysis. My shorter posts are random thoughts that come to mind as I read instead of a deeper analysis, they’re light and I will elaborate in the tags if I have more to add. In my thoughts tags, you will find a mixture of both thoughts and analysis.

• weekly/monthly manga thoughts tags (newest!-> 21 April 2024): bnha thoughts* || jjk thoughts* || sxf thoughts* || 19 days thoughts* || bungo stray thoughts* || dcst thoughts*|| csm thoughts* (still read but no longer posting thoughts)|| [next new sxf viz: 28 April ] • long analysis/rambling main tag: idk I'm rambling* || Monique answers things* || see each series navigation list below for more posts and tags

[Golden week April 29-May 5]

🌸 My Analysis by Series

I've organized my analysis & thoughts posts in lists for each series below, and I also update each series link regularly! Also, reblogging my posts helps more fans find them, so consider rbing if you enjoy!

• Jujutsu Kaisen analysis posts (newest-> 21 April/Ch 257)|| thoughts + analysis about Yuji, Megumi, Toji, Nanamin, Gojo, the current manga arcs, & more [next new ch: 28 April ] • Bungou Stray Dogs analysis posts (new!-> 3 April/ Ch 114) || thoughts + analysis about Chuuya's corruption, Dazai, the aftermath of Odasaku, Akutagawa's health, the current manga arcs, & more [next new ch: ~3 May] • BNHA analysis posts (new!-> (14 April / Ch 420)|| thoughts + analysis posts including recent arcs, villains, the Todoroki fam, & more [next new ch: 28 April] Dr. Stone || Tokyo Revengers || Sk8 the Infinity || Yuri!! on Ice

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varsovie · 2 years

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i go on twitter and the first fucking thing i see is a father/underage son ship art. and twitter has the balls to say that its based on my likes. what likes bitch??? the fucking. todoroki fam meta i liked? a sfw dabi fanart? what a fucking piece of shit website

#i BLOCK ppl that make that type of content why the fuck would i LIKE it???????????#coming back to twitter was a mistake

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pluviophile-imagines · 2 years

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Me wanting to shout-out my fav meta blog vs said blog being anti-dc and anti-aging up despite the piping hot Todoroki fam takes

#pattering on the roof #got lost while reading Monty’s Dabi fic KDNCKSNF #WENT OFF DOWN A RABBIT HOLE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF TODOROKI USES NII-SAN OR ANIKI FOR DABI #(p sure it’s aniki)#AND THEN WAS LIKE WOW I RLLY WISH I COULD REBLOG THIS META BUT THE OP DOESNT LIKE READER INSERT FIC 😭😭😭#sigh #oh well #the people I’d rec the blog to probably already know abt it ngl #bc my beloved Dabi and patricidal mutuals r so intelligent and smart and sexy they’ve probably read her meta before 😍

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makeste · 3 years

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A theory I have seen is that Fuyumi wants the family back so desperately, because she and Toya experienced the better Endeavor, where everything was alright. My guess is that after his decent into abuse its stopped being like a normal family and Natsuo and Shoto never experienced a normal family. But that is just a therory

okay so speaking as someone who grew up with an abusive and neglectful parent (though in my case it was my mom rather than my dad)... it’s complicated. there are a lot of emotions there. I think one of the things Horikoshi has really excelled at with the whole Todoroki plot is the way that he’s used the four siblings to show the different ways that children respond to parental abuse. and I can say from personal experience that all of them are valid. not just the bitterness, anger, and resentment that Touya, Natsuo, and Shouto have all shown at times, but also that intense (but tentative, almost wishful-thinking) longing to just have a normal family that we see from Fuyumi. speaking again from experience, that last one isn’t an outlier at all. in fact, in my case, I’d say that was honestly the strongest feeling out of all of them, and it even fueled a lot of the other three emotions. btw just a heads up I’m gonna delve into some personal stuff here briefly, so yeah. I won’t put details, but if anyone wants an abuse trigger warning added to the post or anything like that, just let me know.

so the thing is, even during my angriest times, if some magic wish-granting genie had poofed in and told the child me, “’sup, I’m here to solve all of your family problems, just tell me what you want me to do,” I wouldn’t have wanted them to take my mom away and lock her up somewhere and make her suffer or anything like that. honestly, even during the worst of it, the thing I wanted more than anything else was just to have a normal family. my mom had a lot of untreated mental health issues, and it was basically a situation where you never knew which version of her you were going to get on any given day. so there were times when she was a kind and loving mother who took care of me and my siblings. and there were a great many more times when she was temperamental and erratic, and we all (my dad included) basically just walked on eggshells around her and did our best to lay low and try not to bother her because even little things might set her off, and we never knew how she was going to react. and my dad worked a lot, and my sibs and I were homeschooled for reasons which I’m not gonna get into because this post is already veering off on too many tangents, but anyway so the short of it is that my sibs and I grew up in this unstable environment and ended up more or less raising ourselves. and I resented my mom a lot for that, growing up, and I still do honestly.

now a lot’s happened since then, and she’s gotten some help, and my siblings and I are all adults now and we’re more or less good, even though we all took a certain amount of Psychic Damage along the way and we’re each still dealing with that. and we each have different relationships with our mom now, and a couple of my sibs are even fairly close to her. but for my part, I pretty much have no relationship with her at all outside of seeing her a few times a year at family get-togethers and the like. the thing is, even though my mom did eventually (after a LOT of false starts and struggles and heartache) get some help, she’s never really shown remorse for what my siblings and I went through because of her. she’s never taken responsibility for any of it. she blames a lot of other people, and will go on long rants about all of the terrible things that have happened to her and all of the horrible ways people have treated her (some of which is true, and some of which very much is not). but there’s never even the slightest acknowledgement of any of the things she herself has done to hurt others. she either passes the blame or just pretends it never happened.

and honestly, it sucks. even now, there’s little to no real desire to change on her part. she’s gotten therapy and meds now, and so emotionally she’s much more stable than when we were kids, but one of the unfortunate results is that it’s all the more clear now that a lot of her behavior never had anything to do with her mental illness at all. she just didn’t care at all about how she was hurting others; or at the very least, didn’t care to face it. and that’s just how it is.

anyway, so I’m sorry to keep breaking away and telling you guys my own life story lol. but the point I’m trying to get at here is that I actually relate to Fuyumi so much, though. what I wanted more than anything was for my mom to care, and to say she was sorry, and for me to be able to believe that and to trust her, and for her to actually change. that was it.

and so for me, here’s the biggest difference between the Endeavor situation, and my own and so many others. the difference is that unlike people in real life, we know Endeavor is actually remorseful for what he’s done. we know it for certain because we’ve seen it for ourselves, from his own point of view. the manga actually lets us get inside his head and shows us that he really is sincere, that he really is sorry, and that he really is trying to change. and that’s something that’s impossible to get in real life. that certainty that the person really means it, that they’re genuinely remorseful and committed to making amends.

and for me, that’s fucking wish fulfillment right there. for the abusive parent to finally realize the error of their ways and be sorry and try to do right by their kids. I fucking wanted that. hell, I still want it, even though I’ve made my peace with things the way that they are. that chance to somehow heal the broken relationship, and have your parent genuinely try their best to be a real parent to you, even if it’s years after the fact? shit. I’d take that in a heartbeat.

and so when it comes to Fuyumi and her attempts to get her family to reconcile and experience a few normal things, I f feel that. I really do. because when you’re growing up in that type of situation, normal is all that you want. and I don’t think it’s anything that requires an explanation on her part, because it’s not actually an unusual reaction at all. it’s natural. it’s the most natural thing in the world. honestly it’s annoying that fandom sometimes tries to shame her for having those feelings. like honestly, fuck that. because the thing is, I’d wager that almost every kid who grew up with an abusive parent has at some time or other felt the exact same way.

and that includes Touya, Natsuo, and Shouto as well. literally the only difference between them and Fuyumi is that they feel that Endeavor’s change of heart is simply coming too late. it’s not that they don’t want their family back, just like she does; it’s that from their point of view, it’s something they can’t get back. for Fuyumi, that dream of having a normal family is something she’s still seeking. for Natsuo and Touya, that dream of having a normal family is something that was destroyed. something that Endeavor killed. something they’re in mourning of. and so Touya wants revenge for it, and Natsuo is trying to pick himself up and move past it. and meanwhile Shouto is caught somewhere in the middle of all of those reactions, because he’s still trying to decide whether or not he can ever bring himself to trust his father again. he’s somewhere in between his brothers’ mourning and his sister’s hopefulness. sort of a Schrodinger type of deal lol.

but anyway, the point I’m trying to make here is that all four siblings are really experiencing the same thing, just in different ways. Fuyu may be the one arranging family dinners and the like, but that same longing to be part of a normal family is at the core of Natsuo, Shouto, and even Touya’s behavior as well. Natsuo’s hurt and resentment, and Touya’s spite and bitterness, come from being denied the thing they want. and Fuyu’s shaky attempts at reconciliation come from her desire to still obtain it somehow. but at the end of the day they’re the exact same feelings. and they all come from the same place.

anyways, hopefully that makes some kind of sense. basically, everyone is valid. Fuyu is valid, Natsu and Shouto are valid, and Touya is murdery which isn’t cool, but his feelings are still valid too nonetheless. hugs and therapy for the Todoroki children in 2021, Horikoshi. please and thank you.

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redphlox · 2 years

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A while ago I learned that people who give birth in Japan tend to have up to 8 days of inpatient postpartum hospital care. That got me thinking...

Touya's birthday is 1/18. Shouto's is 1/11. Shouto was born a week before Touya's birthday, and he probably came home for the first time from the hospital around Touya's birthday, if not on that very same day.

So, not only did Touya have to process the fact that his father wanted another kid to replace him for the second time, but that the new baby was perfect in every single way he wasn't AND that the new baby came home on the day that was supposed to be a celebration of TOUYA'S birth. It must have felt terrible for Touya to be actually replaced on/so close to his birthday. I'm sure everyone was too excited or flustered and focused on the new baby to pay much attention to Touya at that time.

It might sound silly to be threatened by a baby, but jealousy and feeling insecure when a new sibling is welcomed into the family is pretty normal and natural. For Touya it wasn't unusual at all, considering the home environment Endeavor created by demanding something of his children and burdening them with his ambitions. Ultimately Touya learns, on some level, that Shouto isn't the problem and that their father is, but the sting of having been replaced on his birthday must have been salt in the wound for Touya.

#Bnha #Bnha meta #Touya todoroko #Shouto todoroki #Todo fam #Bnha spoilers #Dabi #Todorokis #keeping up with the todorokis #Shouto #My meta #rei #hospital

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be-gay-and-do-crimes · 4 years

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Todoroki Kids Quirk Theory

Enji Todoroki, AKA Flame Hero: Endeavor, who has a very strong fire Quirk called “Hellflame”, wishes to beat the Symbol of Peace: All Might at all costs, but he realized that his Quirk and strength alone wouldn’t be able to do that since All Might was always two steps ahead of him.

So, he decided to create the “perfect” offspring that will be able to defeat All Might in his name. A child with a devastating strong Quirk that will take the spot as Number One Hero and never let anyone take it away from them.

Enji searched for a woman with a Quirk as strong as his or that will complement it in the child, and he found one.

A woman with snowy, pure white hair with — ironically — an ice Quirk, Rei. He saw an incredible display of said Quirk if he took the decision to make a child with her, that or her family is one of generations of strong ice-based Quirk users.

Enji then bribed Rei’s family into allowing her to marry him and create a powerful successor. And as Rei didn’t have a say in this, their Quirk Marriage set sail. And eventually they had four children, few of which we already know of, if just slightly.

And in this post, I will theorize said children’s (possible) Quirks.

(I wrote this jazz on a notebook like,, three or two years ago so I thought why not post it here as wrong as I may be with it,,,have patience fam,,)

From older to younger would be; Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shouto, with each of them having an age gap of 3-4 years (a bit on the fence with Touya and Fuyumi here, since we don’t know how exactly old he was, so there could be tidbits of the theory that those two are twins).

A rundown of the kids, starting with the firstborn;

Touya Todoroki

Very little is known about Touya, even simple yet crucial facts like his hair color are confusing due to the Manga and Anime adaptation. What we do know is;

He had red hair.

A fire Quirk stronger than Endeavor’s but a body that couldn’t withstand it.

He died at a very young age of either 12 or 14/15 by causes most likely related to said Quirk.

To add to his weak constitution inherited by Rei, Touya looks to be the shortest out of all his siblings, despite being the oldest. I’d also say he was he meekest of them all, if only for a few years if I go by his body language in the two (2) full images we’re given ( i.e. clinging onto natsuo’s shirt, keeping his arms close to his body, hair covering his face— namely his eyes, likely to avoid making direct eye-contact with endeavor):

I’m personally inclined to believe that he had Enji’s turquoise eyes too, seeing as either his eyes or hair seem to be a distinct telltale sign of the fiery factor of his Quirk. and then boom he had gray eyes all along,, or either sectoral-heterochromia, or central heterochromia and the manga is deceiving us

Fuyumi Todoroki

The one and only girl of the four siblings while also the second born of Enji and Rei. Like her older brother, Fuyumi’s colors (her eyes) differ from the Manga and the Anime, but since we’re following the latter’s palette...

She has gray eyes like her mother behind a pair of red glasses.

Has mostly spiky/messy white hair with red streaks.

She is a primary school teacher.

Her behavior is more like Rei’s; soft-spoken and kind.

As another color-fact, out of everyone else in the family, she’s the only to use colors related to red (any color of that palette, contrary to her younger brothers that deliberately seem to avoid anything related to that color, and so use mostly cold tones).

She can’t handle hot weather.

Her Quirk is unknown, if she even has one, but it should’ve been deemed weak or useless by Endeavor if she wasn’t put through the training Touya was, therefore becoming the first of her brothers to suffer from his neglect.

Natsuo Todoroki

Natsuo seems to be the most hellbent and prominent out of his siblings on his hate for their father, voicing his thoughts about him at any given chance, and also the one that looks closest to Rei.

Pure snowy white hair, but spiky like Enji’s.

Gray eyes, fully resembling his mother with nothing red that could remind him of his father, unlike his frame which is bulky like Endeavor’s.

Repressed anger issues.

He feels sensitive towards warm weather.

The tallest out of all his siblings.

Funny enough, Natsuo is a combination of Rei’s looks and Enji’s muscular build. Any signs of a Quirk are unknown, but either way he was deemed useless and thrown into the burning pile along with his big sister.

Shouto Todoroki

The golden egg of the Todo Children. The one Enji could, after so much time, call his masterpiece, the perfect offspring to finally topple All Might off his high horse. Everything Touya failed to be, Shouto is. A perfect combination of both himself and Rei.

Perfectly split white and red hair.

A gray eye and distinctive turquoise eye.

Ice and fire.

Shouto’s Quirk is Half-Cold Half-Hot; allowing him to create ice and fire from his right and left side respectively. He needs the two sides of his Quirk to nullify their drawbacks; too much of the right side leads to frostbite or hypothermia, too much of the left side leads to either overheating, dehydration or self-burns.

Now that we know the Todo-kids, their personalities, and Quirk too (or lack thereof), let’s dive into theorizing of the lacking two;

Fuyumi and Natsuo — The Flukes

Going off of appearances, I’d say Fuyumi could be the exact opposite of Touya. While having Rei’s eyes and most of her white hair, I’d say she could have her same ice Quirk but not being able to withstand it. Contrary to Touya that has Enji’s fire Quirk, but a constitution more adapt for ice.

I.e. She could create ice as strong as Rei’s, but the constitution of her body is weak and causes her to easily fall into a light to severe case of frostbite or hypothermia. Or on the other hand, she can create ice, but isn’t as strong as Rei’s, thereof a disappointment. On the third hand I just pulled out of my ass; an extremely weak fire Quirk, a constitution more suited for ice.

Natsuo is a more complicated case here. He looks nothing like Endeavor aside from his jock build, He looks like Rei down to a tee, and that makes me think of three possibilities for his Quirk.

He is resistant to ice AND fire, but isn’t able to manipulate them in any way.

He is able to resist and create ice, and seeing as he only had Rei’s part of the Quirk, labelled as an immediate failure for Endeavor.

Or the option I have no compelling argument for but I’m really bias to believe: He’s Quirkless, plain and simple. If this one’s the real deal, then it’s likely that he’d be the BIGGEST disappointment out of all the other kids to Enji. I mean, one thing is having just one side, but not having neither? In a world were 80% of the world has a Quirk as useless as it may be?? In his house??? Outrageous!

Any of these options lead to immediate alienation of his family so either is acceptable tbh.

SO! To try and wrap this whole mess up with some nice percentages!

Touya is a 100% of both of his parents’ 50%

Being able to create fire but with a constitution more adapt to ice.

Fuyumi could be/is a 100% of her parents’ 50%

Being able to create ice — that could or not be stronger than Rei’s — but having a constitution more adapt for fire. Therefore, if Endeavor ever tried to train her, she’d have no visible burn marks whatsoever.

Natsuo could be/is a 100% of his parents’ 50%

Being able to withstand fire and ice but not manipulate them in any way.

Or the unfortunate one, being part of the 20% of humanity that doesn’t have a Quirk.

Shouto is a 200% of his parents’ 100%

Being able to resist AND create both fire and ice to an extent as long as he uses one to counter the side effects of the other. I.e. using too much fire might get him a third-degree burn if his ice doesn’t cools down the effects and keeping his body temperature at bay. Having a constant balance between the two, one not being able to work fully well without the other — as much as he hates it.

yeah that’s it thanks for coming to my ted talk please message me with things to write gdi i’m bored and scared for the hobo man

#BNHA #todoroki enji #todoroki rei #todoroki shouto #todoroki natsuo #todoroki fuyumi #todoroki touya #the todoroki family #bnha meta #my meta #meta talk #tf i have no idea if this shit counts as meta #but whoops there it goes #bnha theory #shoto todoroki #toya todoroki #this is so messy tbh #apologies fam #my writing

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ravelights · 3 years

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Is Inko Midoriya abusive?

I've seen this argument get tossed around a lot, and I'll admit some people have very convincing arguments, but I think most people can agree that there always something off about those claims.

So if I can add my two cents into the whole: "Inko not doing something about Izuku bulling" Or "Inko is abusive/neglectful because she wasn't there for Izuku" ect, argument, here it is:

Inko Not Abusive, She Underwritten.

I just want to preference this by saying: Inko isn't and is not meant to be an abusive parent/character. She's not an antagonist of the story, and she's not someone that Izuku must either get away from, or do whatever's going on with the Todoroki fam. I'm sorry, but if people are seeing her as an abusive parent in the story, they are not reading it right.

What she is, is a realistic parent, that has been underwritten.

I think the problem when it comes to these debates, about whether or not Inko is a good parent, people tend to think of it in the story context. This is fair, especially when we start talking about Fanfic and Meta-analyses, people would want a in story explanation for her actions.

What the audience sees is that Izuku got bullied for several years and Inko did apparently nothing, but the confusing thing is that this doesn’t line up with her as a character. We seen that she’s more than ready to go up against All Might of all people and pull Izuku out of school because he kept getting hurt.

We also know that even though she not completely on board with Izuku being a hero, she still gives her all to support her son, even when attempting to pull him out of UA she said that Izuku was allowed to go to another hero school. She just didn’t want her son at UA (which seem justifiable, given several events)

We also see that despite her worries she still protects her son, and they have a good relationship, in no way has Izuku ever been resentful towards her, which you would think he would be, if Inko was abusive/neglectful in the story. Izuku is a good person but he’s not a pushover, if Inko was abusive in anyway Izuku would make it clear that he doesn’t like her.

The worst we seen Izuku act towards his mother was disappointed about one moment when he was four, when she apologised for him being quirkless. Which we later see her apologising for when she gives Izuku his first costume, which he wore and even when given the opportunity to change designs, he doesn’t.

Most of the time it pretty much typical teen “Mum, I’m fine” response to a nagging/worried parent, which is pretty realistic because I think most people sometimes get annoyed by their parent, especially when they are teens. And I’m curtain everyone has one moment with their parent when we felt as if they didn’t handle the situation as best as the could have.

So, what’s going on, we have a character who apparently did something (or nothing in this case) that could been seen as abusive/neglectful, but it seems like the exact opposite of what Inko would do as a character. Realistically if Inko was a good parent she would have done something about the bullying.

In the real world, yes.

But MHA is a story, not real life.

I think people need to step away from the Story perspective and start looking at it from a Writing perspective.

Let me explain, Inko is a side character in the story, but she in a very unique position because she is the protagonist mother, which in most Shonen’s is pretty damn rare, most of the time they are dead or missing. But she still a side character, and on top of that she is a female. As much as I love Hori writing, world building and character arcs, his biggest weakness is how he treats his female characters. Although he has gotten a lot better in the recent arcs, and is better than some anime out there, he still has room for improvement.

And Inko is very justifiable, underwritten, she had about one and a half major moment in the whole of MHA. That being when All Might beg her to intrust her son to UA and when Izuku was diagnosed quirkless, that’s about it, everything else has been moments with her that really don’t last more than a couple of pages, at best.

But Inko's Izuku mother, shouldn’t Hori at least show she tried to do something? Hypothetically yes, but the truth is he hasn’t, and it’s probably because he has just not thought about it, or it’s going to be brought up later. There are a million different things happening in MHA right now, with way more central characters and plot points, and the bullying thing happened all the way back in chapter one to about three.

Also, there is also the whole Izuku being bullied throughout middle school. Because it’s barely mentioned throughout the whole manga. We have moment where it’s been mentioned but it’s sort of been forgotten by Izuku and the Manga. It just starting to pick up again now and it more with Bakugou arc, because Bakugou was the bully, and is trying to atone for what he did, it doesn’t really involve Inko at all.

Because Inko is a side character, who purpose is to show that Izuku is still just a kid, that has a worrywart mum. That was literally said by Hori himself in an interview:

(Mama Midoriya Is the GOAT (greatest of all time), You can’t pick a favourite character in My Hero Academia because everyone loves them all. However, everyone loves Inko Midoriya. What was the inspiration behind her character?

KH: Well, first and foremost, I wanted Deku to be like any other kid. Not like every man, but every kid. So, I wanted him to have a kind of worry wart mum. And my own mother is a bit of a worry wart.)

Also, Izuku had to have an underdog story, meaning he had to have a rough beginning at least, him being bullied at school and being quirkless was his rough beginning. It was to show his progress to where he is now, aka someone with a powerful quirk and friends.

I saw this with Rei as well when a lot of people got kind of mad that Shoto ended up apologise to her when she the one that threw boiling water on his face. But then as we got deeper into her background of the event, we see that Rei was horrified by her actions, apologising and trying to cool Shoto burns, and people perspective on her changed.

We might get more about Inko when Hisashi eventually shows up, especially if it turns out he's All For One. But for now, she just plainly underwritten, with like three basic character traits.

So Tl;DR: Inko isn’t an abusive person in the story, she underwritten character that has been given little thought to when it comes to major events in the story. Because of that people have filled in the gaps of what it must be, AKA abusive/neglectful, when in reality she just written as a realistic mother in the beginning and then basically getting next to nothing afterwards.

#Bnha #bnha meta #inko midoriya #izuku mydoria #mha #rei todoroki #kohei horikoshi #Bnha Writting #hisashi midoriya

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tonya-the-chicken · 3 years

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It’s so depressing finding a todoroki fam fic where everyone is well written and ic except for enji, who is never afforded nuance. Or they make touya a chill and good big brother when he’s shown to be pretty much the opposite. I relate to how flawed and messy touya was as a young teen so I guess it feels like a rejection when troubled kids aren’t allowed to be the “bad kind” of troubled.

Yee, your feelings are valid but I must say many fanfics were written before recent chapters so reading them now feels... Kinda cringy? Like, who the hell are those people LOL

I don't read that much fanfiction because I only enjoy it when the characters are as close to canon/my interpretation as it is only possible and many authors spend too much time reading metas from antis

I guess a fandom is free and very self-indulgent place so you can't really demand or ask for any sort of stuff... You either suffer trying to find what caters to your own taste or start writing yourself

#asks #bnha #todoroki family #fandom

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thyandrawrites · 3 years

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Hi! First of all I wanted to say your meta about Fuyumi and her not really having forgiven Enji yet is well written and really well! I have a question tho, it's just your honest opinion, since it's never shown and is far fetched. But you said, that Fuyumi took the role as mediator in a family where rebelling and fighting back always resulted in personal tragedy. That's why she also decided not to talk back and avoid things that might cause Enji to get angry. (It continues in the next ask-)

You said that you think Fuyumi learned early on that being stubborn and temperamental wouldn’t help her any against her dad. Now I wonder, what if she did being stubborn and temeperamental. I just want to hear your thoughts hoe things would be, if Fuyumi wasn't submissive and talked back. How would the Todoroki family have looked now? In your point of view. (It's okay if you can't answer it, since it would be like a headcanon?)

hey! Thanks for taking the time to read my meta!

To answer you, analysing hypotetical scenarios is always hard for me because I base my understanding of how a character behaves on events that already happened, so I have a frame of reference already. But with "what if" questions I'm always unsure bc I think a lot can change depending on how you write the AU and on the elements that make it different from canon.

If I was trying to write out that scenario, I think I would try to isolate the main traits that make up Fuyumi's personality and build off from them. For example, I think Fuyumi's main theme is that she's someone who is willing to self-sacrifice and take on more than she can handle for the sake of protecting the people she values. She's a lot like Hawks in that respect, except Hawks is protective of the whole population of Japan, while Fuyumi narrows it down to her family members. So in a context where one other trait of hers is changed - the willingness to fight back - I would still keep every other one in place. So she'd still be as antsy, scared and protective to a fault as canon, and she'd talk back to achieve a better way of keeping everyone safe. I don't think the family circumstances would've changed much overall just because of this, though. Her brothers already fought back and yet that didn't change the fam dynamic into a healthier one. But personal dynamics would definitely change. The siblings could potentially interact differently with each other, though I can't exacly pin down how

On this topic, I have a great fic to recommend, if you want to check it out. I'm still halfway through it but I think the author has done a stellar job of portraying Fuyumi's pov in it. She's a sort of outsider looking in the dysfunctionality of the fam until she finds it in herself to stomp her foot just once, making a difference. I won't spoil you anything else but if you enjoyed my meta you'll definitely enjoy this fic, too. I found it as I was writing that analysis and I was nodding my head so much through it all bc I couldn't believe how much I agreed with the characterization (it literally read my mind on a lot of things I also wanted to write about and that I don't see often mentioned by ppl who write Fuyumi). It's also a what if scenario so def up your alley I think. You can read it here

#ali replies #bnha

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littleholmes · 2 years

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Hi all! I'm Monique🌸 I do a lot of writing & rambling about manga and anime! To keep things easy to find and semi-organized, I've included links to my analysis posts, writings, and my AO3, below!

Notes: This blog and these posts are not spoiler-free. Please do not repost or post on other websites, tiktok, etc.

Note! Reblogs are awesome and help others find these analysis posts so please reblog! Also just be sure to please remove my tags first, or write ‘prev tags’ if you agree with my tags, before rbing (this includes specialty sorting tags)

Post retired - current and updated list available here and also pinned! :D

Analysis/Ramblings Main Tags

🌸Weekly/monthly manga I currently read: Jujutsu Kaisen, Bungou Stray Dogs, Spy x Family, 19 Days, My Hero Academia, Chainsaw Man, Dr. Stone (ended) || Ended series currently catching up: MHA: Vigilantes, Haikyuu!!

🌸my analysis/long ramblings main tags: idk I’m rambling || jjk analysis || bnha analysis || bnha meta || [see each series post below for more tags!]

🌸weekly manga thoughts tags (newest!* -> 27 Dec 2022): bnha thoughts*|| jjk thoughts*|| sxf thoughts* || dcst thoughts* || 19 days thoughts*|| bungo stray thoughts*|| csm thoughts*

🌸Haikyuu!! thoughts/analysis tag: hq!! thoughts* [finished anime 23 July || currently reading ]

Analysis by Series

🌸my Jujutsu Kaisen analysis posts: thoughts + analysis about Yuji, Megumi, Toji, Nanamin, Gojo, the current manga arcs, & more (newest!-> 25 Dec/Ch 208)

🌸my Bungou Stray Dogs analysis posts: thoughts + analysis about Chuuya's corruption, Dazai, the aftermath of Odasaku, Akutagawa's health, the current manga arcs, & more (new-> 1 Dec/ Ch 104.5)

🌸my BNHA analysis posts: thoughts + analysis posts including recent arcs, villains, the Todoroki fam, & more (newest!-> 25 Dec/ Ch 376)

🌸Dr. Stone analysis posts * || Sk8 the Infinity posts * || Yuri!!! on Ice analysis || Link Click/Shiguang Daili Ren posts

More Thoughts/Ramblings by Series

🌸Blue Lock || Tokyo Revengers || Food Wars + some Toonami || Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

Rather read a fic? My AO3!🌸

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theteapotofdoom · 4 years

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All these people make jokes about telling on Dabi to Rei and I'm just over hear like bruh what if not only does she know already but she's 100% behind her son killing Enji. To the point where she's met the league and her son's new boyfriend (Tomura) who she absolutely adores because he's so not what her husband would have picked for Dabi and she loves that. The whole league loves Rei and she give Tomura motherly affection which he loves but will never admit.

Okay, so when it comes to actual meta-discussion analysis about the canon I usually don’t like the idea of Dabi having any form of contact with any of the Todorokis ... but this cracky AU about Rei becoming a part-time villain? HELL YEAH LET’S GO FAM

This is so cute, Kurogiri would finally have someone to help raise the kids and keep the family in order (Sako is not a regular dad, he is a cool dad, so he is not good at disciplining everyone). The two of them would just be having tea and keeping an eye on this chaotic family. AUs with Rei and Shigaraki interacting always make me super soft because my boy lost his mother when he was so young (I kind of conflicted feelings about Shig’s mom but that’s a whole other subject so let’s just focus on the soft here) and sometimes you just a mother figure gently petting your hair while you play animal crossing :’)

This is very soft and very pure, we love to see it!

#my hero academia #dwarf-stan

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makeste · 3 years

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"Those regrets and guilt. Everyone has bore much more than you have"

mmmmm....does she mean the rest of the todoroki family or ppl in the world in general? If it's the latter then yeah? But this situation in particular lol I have to heavily disagree. Who is she talking abt has done something as regrettable as Endeavor has?

I actually think she is talking about herself and the rest of the family, anon. and I think she’s absolutely right.

keep in mind, having regrets has nothing to do with actually being culpable. you can blame yourself for something even if it was absolutely not your fault. and it’s hard to imagine that anyone else in that room is as familiar with the feeling of regret as Rei is. she spent years locked away with her own guilt over what happened to Shouto, and over subsequently not being there to prevent what happened to Touya.

was any of that her fault? absolutely not. but that’s not going to stop a mother from being haunted by the memory of injuring and scarring her five-year-old child. even if she wasn’t in her right mind at the time, even if it was Enji’s abuse which actually drove her to it -- you can’t just switch those feelings off, or logic them away. particularly when it’s someone you love who got hurt. when it’s your children, whom you naturally and instinctively want to shield and protect. there’s no doubt in my mind that Rei is more intimately acquainted with guilt and regret than almost any other character in the series. she literally spent years trying to recover from it. it tore her apart, and it wasn’t until the child she’d blamed herself all those years for hurting finally came to her and told her it was okay that she finally started to get better.

so yeah, I absolutely think she’s referring to herself here. she knows all too well what it’s like to have regret and guilt weighing down your heart to the point where you just feel helpless, like Enji does now. and she’s not wrong when she says that the others understand those feelings as well. you don’t think Natsuo has spent all these years wondering whether Touya would still have died if he’d managed to be there for him more? wondering if his family would still be intact if he’d only been a better brother? you don’t think Fuyumi has wondered the same thing? or that Shouto blamed himself for reminding his mother of Enji? again, it’s nothing to do with actual culpability here -- that much is entirely on Enji. and it’s not that they don’t blame him for it as well, because we have of course seen that they do, Natsu and Shouto in particular.

but one of the unfortunate things about guilt is that there’s always plenty of it to go around if you want it, and plenty of second helpings available for anyone who feels like indulging. and humans are very, very good at assigning blame, including among themselves. whether they’re deserving of it or not. when something really bad happens, especially to those close to you, it’s a natural response to have that voice of doubt in the back of your head wondering if it might have been your fault. eating at your peace of mind and your self-esteem, and just generally making your life miserable. and it can be so, so hard to shut that voice up sometimes. especially if you’re never quite able to fully convince yourself that it isn’t true.

anyway! so pardon the angst, lol, but yeah. “the rest of us have borne that burden much more than you have” -- absolutely. because even though Endeavor’s burden of guilt is HEAVY, don’t get me wrong, it’s only recently that he finally started paying attention to it. whereas the rest of them have already been carrying their burdens this entire time. burdens that they should never have had to carry in the first place. but burdens that they’ve dealt with nonetheless.

and that’s what makes this such a powerful moment on multiple levels. the first being that this is the man who’s actually responsible for ALL of their burdens, and so it’s nice to see that acknowledged. and the second is that everything he’s going through now -- they’ve already experienced it. and so Rei can speak with authority when she tells him that it absolutely won’t do anything to help, and that the important thing now is that he actually takes action to save their family and to help their stray murderchild. and it’s also kind of a demand that he put those feelings aside to wallow in on his own time. because sorry friend, but you made this mess, and now they all have to deal with it. and so if he really is feeling that regret, and he really does want to do something to alleviate it -- then stop crying and do it. figure it out. if he really does want to atone, then this is the most important part of it. figuring out some way to make things right, however he possibly can.

anyway so tl;dr Rei is speaking from experience here, and that’s what makes this such a BAMF moment for her imo. tell him girl. don’t hold back. I honestly can’t wait to see how this discussion goes. this is why I can never get enough of you Todorokis and your endless ongoing soap opera lol.

#bnha 300 #todoroki rei #todoroki enji #todoroki fam #todoroki fam meta #todoroki rei meta #todoroki enji meta #bnha meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #asks #anon asks #long post

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