#rei todoroki deserves better

[sapphic-agent]

I think the only reason for Izu to not see the corruption anymore even when he is a prime victim of it...it's bc of bk. Really. Hori went out of his way to make BK "it's not so bad" and did the same for us, AIZAWA and Endy.

Hori shut the victim's voice.

I can say with confidence here...all Izu's issues in writing and outside steem from BK's existence and how much Hori loves him.

Bc there no excuse for a person who was abused 12 years given or take to be so naive. Izu defending ua and Aizawa is baffling as Aizawa wanted to expell him day 1

Izu worshipping am is baffling as am doesn't deserve his adoration bc the man did the abre minium (and that is better than what Inko, his mom, did)

Izu liking A1 is baffling too since they are siding with the abuser.

MHA is a story where the abuser won.

Izu is silent

Shiga is put down bc he is the bad vicitm.

Yeah, the way MHA treats its victims as opposed to its abusers is... Mind boggling.

Touya's backstory retconned so much of the Todoroki lore and anyone can see it was an attempt to make Endeavor look more human. And in the process, Touya and Rei were demonized even more

Bakugou gets sympathy and admiration from everyone. Izuku gets made fun of and ignored. Even when someone does show concern for his well-being, it's either a) never talked about further or b) made into someone else's- Bakugou's- moment

Dabi's reveal ended up resulting in the rest of the Todorokis supporting Endeavor, not a word about Rei's pain or trauma. Nope, she's just there to help Endeavor's redemption

Hawks and Nagant were turned into child soldiers and forced to kill by the HPSC. Do they get autonomy or retribution? Never. Hawks continues to be their brainwashed soldier and Nagant fades into the distance. Even worse, Hawks is used to prop Endeavor's- another abuser- redemption

Eri escaped her abuser so she should be healing in peace, right? WRONG. She mutilates herself for the so-called heroes

Izuku loses OFA, only to comfort Bakugou who's devastated by this for whatever reason even though he was the one who made Izuku feel worthless for being quirkless in the first place

Kotaro is a grown man who purposely abused his children, right? But screw that, Nana is to blame even though she did what she did to protect him. And also, no one told him to abuse his kids

The only ones who are treated fully as abusers are AFO and Overhaul. But, well, we know what a disaster AFO was and how terribly Tomura towards the finish was written so it really didn't matter in the end, did it?

[palesweetscherryblossom]

The most realistic thing about MHA is that if you’re influential or famous and just so happened to do some of the most vile things imaginable, nobody will give a shit!

[nutzgunray-lvt]

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but It's really funny how Horikoshi writes characters that seemingly only exist to be cheerleaders/mouthpieces to his favored ones. What's even funnier is how divisive these favored characters are.

Izuku - He's the main character and he does have a personality, but he's never allowed to grow beyond his "Kacchan is the best" mentality, despite it literally being painful for Bakugou to actually call him by his name instead of 'useless'.

Present Mic - Pretty much only exists to show that Aizawa supposedly isn't a bad person, despite Aizawa canonically not treating him that good.

Aizawa - Exists to show that "Bakugou's totally a good guy!" despite him having expelled students for much less. It's REALLY not a good look for Aizawa as a person that he wants BAKUGOU to be the No. 1 Hero.

Hawks - Is ride or die for Endeavor, despite him being a domestic abuser and an all-around douche.

Rei and Fuyumi - Minimize the negativity Endeavor has brought into the family's lives and violate the boundaries and feelings set in place by those not favorable to Endeavor (though this last one is soley on Fuyumi)

The frustrating thing about these characters is that there are the building blocks for more nuanced characters there.

Izuku could gradually come to the realization that the way Bakugou treats him was never okay and leave him behind for the sake of his own healing.

It's all but stated Hawks latched onto Endeavor as a replacement for his own abusive father - have him see and fully realize that Endeavor was no different from his dad.

Hori brushes over the parentification Fuyumi underwent as a result of Rei's hospitalization and Endeavor's neglect - just fucking give her SOMEONE to take care of her, as well as someone calling her out on pushing her feelings onto her younger brothers.

I don't really know with Rei, but I guess just have multiple people reminding her that not only was the abuse she suffered never okay, but Endeavor leaving her favorite flower is the bare minimum of apologizing.

[spaceasianmillennial]

Writing a fanfic that explores the complexities of Rei staying with Enji Todoroki

In a bit of compromise, it clarifies that she spends more days at the new house than she does as the Todoroki mansion. And she got her own complex reasons for assisting Enji. And yes, there's a hint that she feels power over the situation.

And she invites friends, fellow discharged patients at the hospital, over. And they got opinions.

[gece-misin-nesin]

i hate it when media portrays someone angry about what happened to them or loathing their abuser as someone who's 'letting anger control them' and 'not healing'. i don't see why unequivocally despising and hating the person who hurt you means you aren't/can't be healing. like, why does every character have to forgive and forget to heal? why can't characters just resent their abusive parents while still healing/having healed. why can't they be angry about their traumatic experiences without every other character telling them bullshit like 'you should forgive' or whatever? it's so fucking annoying AND entirely unoriginal.

[bibibbon]

It's weird that only Natuso (and, sometimes, Shoto) are debated as rape children.

I doubt Rei was beaming in joy when Endeavor decided his first attempt at his successor. You know, because Rei never had any romantic or sexual thoughts of Endeavor before being bought.

From what I have seen it is indeed only shoto and natsou that are considered rape children (gosh that is such a disgusting term) and if I had to say why it probably all stems from chapter 301.

Chapter 301 was the chapter we were fully introduced to touya and Rei's circumstances from ENJI'S pov (for some unknown reason😑😐😑) and people only recognise enji's actions as rape and SA when Rei says that she doesn't want anymore children (by this point touya and fuyumi are already born)

That aside can we talk about where the hell did touya get this sexist ideology from? (Probably enji) 🤷‍♀️

A lot of people do end up forgetting that Rei didn't have the choice and had to marry enji. No when she was sold she was compliant and went along with it. Enji was the one to initiate this and Rei's family had no problems in selling her (SHE HAD NO CHOICE OR SAY IN THE MATTER!!!) she complied because it would of just been easier for her and in the end when she said no she was proven right that she had no authority or power in the relationship.

After she says no the manga pages following after show her getting more and more mentally distressed with the birth of each child with clear and dominant eye bags underneath her eyes while enji gets angrier and more aggressive.

In the end if we're being technical all of the todoroki children were born out of consent and the only reason the fandom mainly debates and shoto and natsou being the ones born out of consent is because of the panel of Rei saying that she doesn't want anymore children in chapter 301

[thr0wnawayy]

Rei-Demption: A problem and my solution (ft. Rei's trauma and Hori's bullshit)

Might as well give my shot at it.

My take on Rei's personality has always been based in suppression.

Rei's whole life has been a balancing act of doing enough to protect her family, while still staying within the lines to not get disposed of.

She's everything Enji isn't. An iron will, a golden heart and a strong sense of empathy.

So with that in mind, hopefully it she'd light on it thought process with this post

A theory I have is that Rei was aware of the hospital's corruption

These panels always felt off too me, it always made me wonder: "does she know?"

The wording is very specific.

"I told him I liked it, around the first time we met. But only once"

It always struck me as odd, We're talking about the man who looked at his eldest death and kept going, man who destroyed multiple lives for a redundant pipedream.

It's not even why would he remember such a small detail, but rather how?

Unless... the doctors are feeding him information.

Think about it, who pays for all this. Surely it's not Fuyumi, on account of this being a massive money sink.

You really expect her to pay for all that on a teachers salary?

It can't be Natsuo because Enji has likely cut him off from everything to his name.

And that's assuming Enji even bothered to save up a college fund for any of them. Plus Natsuo is a full time student of medicine.

If the doctors are watching her every move, looking for any sign of deviation from the narrative then it makes sense for her to disguise her words.

Of course there's still more

Having PTSD isn't something you can keep someone institutionalized for. Especially when Rei's is very proportionate, given what she's gone through. (No, Japan's stigma of mental health wouldn't justify this)

I mean what are Rei's triggers?: Enji and that's about it.

"But we still... haven't met face to face, I'm still too afraid"

That's a standard reaction to have to your abuser (especially when he raped you multiple times)

('Just stop' gets a whole lot darker when you consider it's context)

Not to mention she's no longer fearful of anything resembling Enji, just Enji himself. So there is no real reason to keep her there unless they are afraid she might speak out.

This whole thing makes me think she's trying to tell Natsuo and Fuyumi what's really going on, in a way.

Subtly and under the calm, complacent mask she's expected to wear, in case anyone else is listening. Anyone who could report back to him.

It might also be she doesn't trust them. Fuyumi or Natsuo could blab or say something within earshot that could set Rei back months.

And she can't have that, not with how close she is to finally breaking free. She loves her children, all of them but the trust just isn't there, how can it be when when they don't have all the pieces.

So here's my theory: The hospital staff are in Enji's pockets. Either taking bribes (as recent as Dabi's Dance) or they were given a large sum of hush money when Rei was first hospitalized, with the goal of keeping her there as long as possible and possibly molding her to either keep her mouth shut or (sickeningly) gaslight her into returning to Enji.

(Note how she was only released when they could no longer keep a lid on things, the moment Dabi frops the bomb. She's out, no struggle)

This paints a picture of grotesque corruption, sloth and apathy (the very same cocktail that created Shigaraki) even by Hori's narrative standards. Shedding light on just how deep MHA's despotic nature goes.

The anime makes this even more apparent. Rei's fake smiles make the whole thing that much more viable. She seems so dead, it's like she smothered her soul or something.

I've seen both the sub and dub of this scene. The sub is the correct translation, the same as the Manga panel above.

The Dub however, while severly off mark, adds it's own flavour of dread. Rei sound so hollow, it was jarring the first time I heard it.

It sounded like she was reading a script (in-universe). Like she'd rehearsed this in her mind a million times, staring at the same 3 white walls + the window and waiting for an opening to finally speak.

That was supposed to be Shoto, until the dorms ruined that. Suddenly Rei's lifeline is gone, reduced to letters that don't even tell half the story.

10 years, 10 fucking years reduced to lines on a page.

Can you imagine the despair, dear reader?

The frustration. The sheer vitriol coursing thorough her veins, far hotter than Touya could ever manage.

Having to do the same thing she's been doing even before she was locked away. As the the skeleton in the closet of a criminal with a license.

Wearing masks for so long you can hardly breath and in the brief moments you can take them off. You can hardly recognize yourself, how you once were.

It must be the truest form of hell.

The Rei-demption Arc

Rei's redemption arc takes the attention of our theoretical arc without overtaking it.

The arc would mostly focus on the more domestic aspects of our trio being: Midoriya, Shoto and Uraraka.

A few minor changes would occur. The dorms never happen, allowing the characters to exist outside of UA.

There is solid confirmation that Fujiya is corrupt and is keeping Rei institutionalized on illegal grounds (ie: not meeting the criteria set up to ensure her silence)

The dinner scene would still happen only it would bd framed for what it really was. A pathetic attempt at creating a moment that never existed.

There's no family with Enji.

Just a family held hostage and a tyrant. I have my own grievances with Fuyumi, but I'll leave that for the future.

The only difference besides Natsuo being properly portrayed as a victim acting well within his right, the reasons for our trio going would be for Shoto's emotional wellbeing, because he asked them to.

Uraraka could have a moment where she realizes that money is as much as good as it is bad. An actually decent shift into her change of goals.

Here Enji motivates her to "watch the watchmen". Her need for money is still a crucial part of her reasons for becoming a hero, but she also has a more front and center goal.

I'd imagine she has a moment parallel to Midoriya's during the Sports Festival.

Where (alone in front of the Dojo after the failed dinner) she rightfully calls out Enji for being a self pitying piece of shit and that "sorry" doesn't cut it.

"You've hurt them in ways you can't imagine." Would probably be the last thing she says before walking away.

She may not know the whole story but she knows it hurt them and that's enough.

Rei's ascent

Rei's biggest hurdle is accepting that she was also an abuse victim. She's furious but she's only furious on her children's behalf and what they lost.

Her unintentionally harmful actions weigh on her, be it her neglect or the night she scalded Shoto, these events have impacted her deeply.

She learns to reconcile with her past, improve her relationship with Shoto and even meets Shoto's friends at one point.

Eventually she finds closure but that's later on.

She also acts as an advisor at times, having given Shoto the idea of using Ice projectiles (as seen in the Licensing Exam)

The second half comes from the Hospitals corruption, as Rei learns that she is long overdue for release (by about 8 years) among other horrific practices. This would play out as the arc's B plot, building up to what I call "The Summit"

The Summit

Eventually Rei fights Hood.

After gathering the evidence, she escapes the hospital. Planning to go to Natsuo for protection. As she's walking across a crosswalk however, she hears what sounds like an explosion.

Eventually she hears screaming and is forced to use her quirk as a bus is suddenly sent hurdling in her general direction.

As of her body moved on its own, she envelops it in her ice. Stopping the bus and saving those behind her in the process.

Only to see Hood land on top. They lock eyes and Rei can't help but see Touya in Hoods ambition.

In response to Rei holding her ground, Hood dashes. Rei counters this by manipulating her ice to send him crashing into an empty building, impaling him on the glaciers end.

Hood is impressed by Rei's proficiency and chooses to fight her.

Rei having no experience, fights for her life. Where as Rei avoids Civilians, Hood has no care for them which forces Rei to play the role of hero.

Rei uses every weapon in her arsenal in order to stave off Hood, who only gets more relentless as the battle stretches on. The upside is Hood's regeneration struggles in the cold, which Rei is constantly producing.

Each side gets blows in, with Rei taking them surprisingly well but still being worse for wear. Hood notes this saying "as if y-you've done t-t-this before" (close, Hood very close)

Eventually Hood gets the upper hand, towering over Rei in a manner that triggers her PTSD and leaves her stunned.

One of the civilians (Horoshi Tameda) emboldened by Rei's efforts, picks up a loose chunk of pavement and chucks it at Hood's back. It hits, causing Hood to look back.

Civilians begin making loud noise, others begin picking up anything they can find and throw it at Hood. Further catching him off guard long enough for Rei to snap out of her episode and strike back.

From here the fight kicks into high gear, with Rescue heroes & paramedics arriving on the scene and a camera crew recording the fight from above. Overall I imagine the scene to be very uplifting, with the Orchestra swelling as Rei prepares a final attack.

The move rivals that of Shoto's, arguably even surpassing it. Hoof is incased in a prison of Ice, covering an entire city block worth of destroyed buildings. And the fight finishes with Rei collapsing to her knees.

From here on out things change. Rei's newfound fame leads to the hospital being forced to do their job. Because of this Rei gets out early (around the time the Internship arc would started had I not scrapped it)

As for what this could lead to I'll let you decide. I'd love to read some suggestions.

Bonuses:

Theories:

The reason they kicked Fuyumi from her job is because she covered an abuser's ass for years. While Fuyumi is a victim, it doesn't excuse her complacency in regards to Enji's treatment of Shoto before and after his "self pity" arc.

Natsuo didnt go to someone because he wouldn't likely be believed, being seen as bitter and untrustworthy (his time away from home wouldn't help with pinning evidence).

Extra:

Hood survived the fight, Rei opted to capture him as opposed to kill him. That doesn't mean he didn't get frost bite. Police found out it is very difficult to question a Nomu.

Out of all her trauma. Rei accepting she was never given a choice will be the hardest to accept.

Rei's family is not inbred, rather her parents ran away so her father wouldn't be forced into a marriage with his cousin. Only to ironically do the very same to their daughter.

Hiroshi still becomes a meme, his 'Can't you see speech' leads to him becoming a motivational speaker.

The reason Hood appeared is because Dabi lost track of him. He nearly had a heart attack when he discovered his mom was holding the Nomu off.

[toyasgirl]

Am i the only one who doesn’t like this line? Not just her line but the todo family lines when it comes to touya

I mean i was waiting for the official maybe she could sound better than the scans but it’s even worse

It shows how she doesn’t want anyone to go down with touya (rei and enji die with touya) but she never said anything about touya himself? Like it should’ve been “touya, please!! Don’t take yourself again!” Or smth like that like touya is the one who’s closer to death than any of them. It’s like fuyumi still can’t see touya and she sees him as making the family she wants falling apart and like she doesn’t care about if he was included or not. It’s really so sad to see how each todo member still can’t see, feel and know touya’s pain and they all still act with him as they used to do. Also natsuo’s line isn’t even much better. First it was rei underestimate touya’s pain and then shoto defends Touya’s abuser in front of him and then enji sees touya all burned and instead act like that is fine and ask if shoto is okay and now fuyumi and natsuo :/ like Touya deserve soooooo much better than this family. They learned nothing and they all still the same.

[cat-eyeball-nul]

Not me crying sad-upset-angry tears whenever i see an endeavor apologist, or him interacting with any of the kids in a positive light, i HATE that fictional man, he does not deserve their love or respect or forgiveness

[doodlegirl1998]

So we know of Rei getting put in a psyche ward when she burns Shoto. And from there she's supposed to be getting better, but it seems like the opposite when she says "We all have to take responsibility" and praising Endeavor for remembering her favorite flower.

The ONLY way I can interpret this is if Endeavor paid off the doctors to make her more susceptible to his words and make her believe he's good so if any chance Shoto dies or fails, she wouldn't put much of a fight to what he wants or has to say.

I wish we could see more of the negative side of Endeavor's abuse instead of the cushioning and retcons to make him better and play off his redemption.

Hi @theloganator101 👋,

I'm of a similar mindset to you. Rei's attitude and mindset now doesn't read like someone who has "gotten better" or truly healed from being mentally broken.

In fact, even now she still reads to me as someone mentally broken. But now also coerced and manipulated by Endeavor and the pysch ward staff into thinking how Endeavor wants her to - for his benefit.

The flower and the fact that it was even let in to Rei's room is atrocious, this is abuser tactic 101 into making the victim 'forgive' or 'go easy on the abuser' because the gift proves that they "aren't that bad deep down."

But they are. They know what they doing. Endeavor knows what he is doing.

The fact that we aren't seeing the negative impact of the abuse on Rei or any of the kids (bar Dabi) is awful writing and only there for Endeavor's benefit.

Imagine if we saw more prominent ugly things that would occur like;

Shoto having chronic nightmares of training.

Shoto flinching at unexpected touches or wondering why training at UA isn't as painful as it is at home.

Natsuo and Fuyumi experiencing the ugly impact of being unloved by their father

Showing Natsuo struggling with neglect in general, unintentional neglect from his mother (who was focusing on Touya and Shoto) and intentional from Endeav.

Showing Fuyumi struggling with parenting her brothers / bonding with Shoto as a mother figure.

Showing Rei having a full blown panic attack in hospital during a bad day when she is reminded of Endeav.

Showing Rei experiencing the full impact of losing a decade of her life inside hospital.

All of that makes Endeav harder for the reader to forgive doesn't it?

The fact that Hori is twisting the narrative of Rei and of the Todoroki kids to serve their abusers "redemption" sickens me.

[sapphic-agent]

It's kind of fucked up only (or more notably) the female members are interested in staying with Endeavor.

Especially for Rei. Endeavor's arc can't be well-written because Rei's arc isn't well-written, it doesn't exist.

And it's easy to understand why. Rei is a victim, a "good" victim and "good" victims are insignificant & forgettable compared their abuser.

It somewhat makes sense for Fuyumi. She was parentified- which is still abuse- but she didn't get the brunt of it. She also wasn't incredibly close with Touya like Natsu was. It makes sense that for her, having her family together makes her feel like she's being that part of herself. Her family being apart is her source of trauma, so her trying to rectify that tracks.

But Rei having no backstory or introspection past being a prop for Endeavor is awful. The Touya backstory makes Endeavor sympathetic, but it doesn't extend the same courtesy to Rei. In fact, I would argue that it makes Rei look worse. It insinuates that she lashed out because of prior mental health issues when before it was very heavily implied- if not outright stated- that Endeavor abused her into insanity.

It takes blame off Endeavor and takes away Rei's agency to make him look better. I'll never forgive Horikoshi for doing that to her

[palesweetscherryblossom]

Sorry if my memory is wrong, but I can’t help but think that this is correct, because I believe Rei went through the same treatment.

Can’t argue since it’s right ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[nutzgunray-lvt]

If I were Fuyumi and I experienced:

Being concieved via eugenics, only to be deemed a failure for only inheriting my mother's quirk and completely neglected as a result

Having to step in as my younger brother's caretaker at the age of 7/8 years old due to my father solely focusing his attention on my youngest brother and my mother being forced to essentially keep my oldest brother under lock and key

Being completely isolated from my youngest brother by my father growing up

Witnessing my mother and youngest brother being beaten by my father

Witnessing my mother undergo a psychotic break from my father's abuse, resulting in her hospitalization

Having to step in as my youngest brother's primary caretaker because my father sure as hell can't/won't do it outside of training

Having to practically be EVERYONE's mother and having no one to take care of me

I'd not only want a functioning family, but I'd be holding in some resentment due to these circumstances. The groundwork is there and Fuyumi's motivations/position in the family ARE interesting, but as always, Horikoshi utterly fails in the execution and makes Fuyumi seem 1D as a result. Instead, she reprimands her younger brothers for rightfully wanting nothing to do with Endeavor, violates Shoto's boundaries by giving Endeavor his contact information, and absolves Endeavor of his part in making Toya the person he is today (even though she was a kid, so wtf was she expected to have done to stop him.

[heterochromatica]

Anonymous asked: How do you feel about your mom now, Todoroki?

Well... what did he feel about his mother?

"Nothing..." was the short answer and maybe there is more to it, but he doesn't know how to put it into words anymore. The truth is much more complicated, it's uncomfortable and ugly. His fingertips feel numb, his throat feels sore, his head feels heavy and his chest feels tight but...

She had been his everything, the light in the dark, his lighthouse, his safe haven in a stormy sea. All he ever wanted was to see her smile again, laugh again....

And then--

He thought reconnecting with her would resolve it. He thought it would redeem the fear in his heart, mend the wounds in his soul - of course he enjoyed spending time with her, he wrote her letters because he wanted to, but it was never the same again. She wasn't the same again, never had been. The memories and dreams of a warm smile, of a loving embrace, of gentle hands had been nothing but an illusion.

Now that Touya returned things changed even more... he didn't really know why or how or what exactly changed but the way they spoke about him was differernt, the way they looked at him was different, the way they behaved was different and suddenly Shoto felt like he didn't belong with them anymore. He felt like he moved further and further away from them - all alone.

It was his duty to safe them and he would do it. He would save them. He was there to be strong, to be a voice of reason, to be a hero and save them like heroes are supposed to do but never at any point in time they would do the same for him.

Up an foremost his mother.

[ocdhuacheng]

endeavor you piece of shit cocksucker im gonna rip you to shreds

[bibibbon]

Todoroki Rei doesn't feel like an actual character.

Her children do, Shoto does, Dabi does, Natsuo and Fuyumi do.

However, Rei just doesn't. We learn about how Endeavor DROVE her insane with his abuse, caused what she believed was the death of one of her children, made her grievously injure another, and locked her away from all of her children for a decade.

She should HATE the guy.

Yet when Endeavor sends those stupid manipulative flowers - she sings his praises and defends him to Natsuo. Tell me how that makes sense.

People have suggested Stockholm syndrome or manipulative psychiatry as reasoning for her inane Endeavor simping despite everything. Yet if this is the case, it should be portrayed tragically, like Harley Quinn is - not portrayed "admirably" and like she is "so kind" like some members of the fandom have called her.

There's also everything to do with Dabi, and I thought surely this revelation should stir up Rei's hatred. Yet it doesn't.

She gives Endeavor a stern telling off with the rest of her children in tow (which we were all cheering at because this is the bare fucking minimum. ) The Touya backstory hits (in part from Endeavor's POV because he's so reliable as the abuser and the cause of this mess 😒. Why didn't you let Touya tell his own story, Hori!?) It scapegoats her and Touya largely to take a lot of the heat off of Endeavor. And then... she tells Shoto as the hero of the family to save Touya.

Umm...no. Just no.

Endeavor is the hero parent. This should be his responsibility - but it should never be on Shoto to save the brother who wants him dead.

Then, in the epilogue, we find her being Endeavor's carer, staring up at her dying son, Dabi.

Do we see her talk with her son, Dabi? Do we see her cry at his state here? - Nope, it is all focused on Endeavor and his guilt/ self pity.

All she is allowed to do is pose with a solemn expression behind Endeavor's wheelchair and smile cutely at her abuser when the story demands it.

The injustice at the abuse victim - incarcerated mental patient - carer of her abuser pipeline Rei's story has taken is so disgusting.

I am horrified and appalled under Hori, Rei will never be free of her abuser and neither will the rest of the Todofam (Endeavor paid for thier new house after all - he still has the power over it and them as an extension of that. Abusive bastard.)

All I can think of is how horrible it is to handle an abuse narrative in such a way - uncaring of what real people this hurts.

THIS 👆👆👆

Yes, Rei doesn't truly feel like a real character at all because of the way she is depicted.

Even though all of the todoroki backstories come from either shoto, Touya or enji we still can see and notice the horror of rei's abuse. Even with there being almost litte to no focus on rei we can still how she suffered and get a general view to how she was driven to insanity.

So just imagine if horikoshi actually allowed rei to have her own proper perspective and we see HER STORY FROM HER VIEW! @thr0wnawayy (puts some of it into deeper perspective) imagine how gut wrenching it would of been and tell me that she would somehow be okay with being enji's caretaker in the end like he isn't at fault for what happend to Touya (touya's death is literally stated to be her final straw and that she fully broke down after that). Imagine rei a young women who tried to do everything for her children and failed, she ended up hurting them even though she wanted and tried to do what she can to protect them.

Rei should ultimately despise enji completely heck there is no reason for her to like him or tolerate his existence at all. I wholeheartedly doubt that her relationship with enji can even be good in the slightest and her having Stockholm syndrome or manipulative psychiatry also to me doesn't make sense at all after the guy put her and her children through straight hell. Why is her opinion of enji somehow swayed after flowers? He doesn't do anything except send flowers (and I don't even think he has always done that) it's like she has no one. It's like the narrative is blatantly ignoring fuyumi and natsou who stay with their mother and keep her company. Heck fuyumi and natsou brought their mother clothes but somehow only enji's flowers hold any significance. What about shoto who after everything also started a relationship with his mum?!?!?

Why the actual hell does the narrative frame enji giving rei flowers as somehow more meaningful and symbolic than her children doing the exact same thing and more for her!!!!

How about we talk about how horrible rei's condition must of been if she and the doctor said that she shouldn't see enji even though she hasn't seen the man for a decade?!?!? How about we talk about how Rei literally said that she was scared of seeing enji even though its been 10 years?!?! Why does the narrative seem to ignore this moment and its exactly when this moment is ignored that her making an appearance face to face with enji holding the flowers he gave her in chapter 300 is such an underwhelming scene. I personally felt such mixed emotions with that scene.

This scene and what comes after it all feels weird to me and it fails on so many notes. Rei comes in holding the flowers enji has given her and we are supposed to interpret this as her finally overcoming her fear of enji and stepping up both as a character and parent but it falls apart because

We aren't that emotionally connected to rei (she should of had her individual arc that tied her to the family and allowed us to see her prespective)

We haven't seen the steps that led her to becoming like this

After she doesn't even properly beat or scold enji at all. It all ends up being a pathetic speech where the narrative seems to shun from putting almost majority of the blame on enji and instead she continually says its her fault (the narrative tries to paint it like it's all of her fault when It isn't she is part of the problem but enji never seems to get that much criticism)

All of these reasons are there to show that Rei doesn't feel like an actual character. She starts and ends the same and even when her son, Dabi ends up in the same position as she starts from she doesn't even speak to him in chapter 426. Actually she tries and all she says is that she has a lot to talk to him about but then enji hogs all the screentime and she stands back separated from the conversation.

Rei, unlike her family is also not written in a way to fit the families dynamic. Her character isn't logical in a way where she is supposed to hate enji after all he did. Rei also doesn't have role unlike the other members of the todoroki family.

We clearly see that fuyumi wanted a happy family and tried her best to keep up appearances.

Dabi absolutely despised his family after he learnt about his creation but ultimately even as he tried to run away he still has memories of playing with natsou and even when on the verge of death in the 2nd war arc he instinctively calls out to them.

Natsou is like dabi in hating enji and wanting to run away except he follows and accomplishes this in a different path.

Shoto is completely trapped and is supposed to be the saviour child whether that be for enji wanting him to be his masterpiece or for rei putting the title of family hero onto shoto (which she shouldn't of done at all)

Enji neglected dabi and he is the reason why dabi was made. Rei acknowledges this multiple times that what touya wanted was his father's love and attention and she even goes to blame herself saying that she should of tried harder into convincing enji to talk and spend time with his son (which she already did before but he flat out refused and ignored her)

After this rei also claims that shoto is the families hero and this puts pressure on shoto to save dabi, his brother who wanted to kill him for being enjis favourite ever though he never asked for it and actually ended up suffering for being enjis favourite.

Yes, shoto reaching out to rei was important for both shoto and her. It symbolised shoto starting to heal and reconnect with his mother whom he cared about so much and for rei it was a new hope for her and a new goal to be a good mum to reconnect with her child. However, shoto isn't the families hero. He doesn't need all of the families problems on him and he for sure doesn't need to solve them all especially when enji was the one to cause them specifically the ones to do with dabi.

Ultimately I stand by the choice that enji should of died in the first war arc giving more focus to shoto and the rest of the family members.

Enji would die in the line of duty so you would probably have a lot of people try and excuse his behaviour and this would be a good way to explore how this negatively effects the todoroki family and dabi who grows to have even more resentment and has to learn that shoto's life was full of suffering under being enji's favourite.

Rei should of had an arc that tied her into the jaku hospital arc where she learns about touya and stands up to enji at the same time while coming face to face with a lot of the new information and maybe even learning about genten himura her distant cousin. There is so much that could be done with rei and all we got in Canon was a horrible non existent arc where she is used to prop up her abuser!

In the end enji doesn't face consequences for his actions (being disabled isn't a consequence) and his whole dance in hell with dabi ain't even effective because enji hasn't experienced true hell (not to the extent of dabi). In the end enji still has people and he still has money his hell can be paradise for some people like the villains.