#uhhhhhh we’ll see how i feel abt this post when i wake up LOL i fr need to sleep bc ambien is um😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[reihimura]

rei & touya’s relationship is so criminally underrated by canon and fanon imo. people have have pointed out how they look similar, especially when experiencing severe distress or melancholy (which they do look very similar, making their situation(s) all the more sadder), but i also feel a lot of people fail to mention how they are almost… mirror each other, in a sense.

the reason endvr abandoned training touya was because he “inherited rei’s weak constitution”, because he was too much like his mother - not only with the intolerance to heat, but perhaps in personality as well. they have similar reactions when under stress, usually lashing out verbally or sometimes physically. they’re both usually soft-spoken individuals, but also aren’t afraid to speak their minds when need be. they aren’t afraid of getting hurt if it means they deflect or reflect attention from themselves and others (i.e. rei stepping into one of shouto’s training sessions because it was getting too violent, and results in rei getting endvr’s attenttion in a slap. in contrast, touya trained everyday despite the massive amounts of pain it causes to get endvr’s attention.)

they were both the “firsts” in the todoroki family. rei was the first one to take on the todoroki surname as endvr’s wife, and touya was the firstborn todoroki child.

their actions also feel like parallels to each other. they’ve both harmed, or attempted to harm, shouto - but this harm was more-so meant for endvr; these attacks were an extension of the ideals endvr forced onto his family - that only one could be good enough for him.

they both separated from the family in nearly the same amount of time, due to mental breakdowns. they both spent a decade, if not more, away from the family, and then somewhat returned at, once again, nearly the same time. in canon time, it’s only been a year or so since rei and shouto reunited, and perhaps months after touya finally made his grand reveal. it’s kind of funny that this has happened twice - rei leaves, touya leaves. rei returns, touya returns.

and maybe it’s because these two are so similar and so seemingly (and perhaps unknowingly) connected that they don’t know how to help each other, much less themselves. the scene where rei tries to reach out to younger touya really showcases this imo: she almost got through to him, when she asked what he wanted to be. not what endvr wanted him to be; what he, touya, wants.

yet, she loses him when she brings endvr back into the equation - and you can’t fault her for this. her world so quickly and abruptly changed to focus on her husbands rather than her own, when he made her family agree to marry him. the forced marriage and abuse rei suffered from her husband caused her to focus on what she can do for endvr, to focus on him rather than herself. she has to have his children, care for said children, and pay special attention towards the “golden child”. endvr tells rei she needs to “take care of touya”, but not for touya’s sake, for endvr’s sake. because that’s the kind of household endvr has built for years and years. and that’s what causes rei and touya’s interaction to fall apart; because these characters don’t know how to separate themselves from their abuser. it’s a survival tactic; to focus on the needs of the abuser rather than the needs of the victims (including yourself). and neither rei, nor touya, nor any other member of the todofam are at fault for that aside from endvr.

but now, in canon, things are different. rei and touya have been physically separated from endvr for over a decade now, and in terms of mentally/emotionally separating themselves from their abuser, they’ve still got a ways to go. touya’s main goal revolves around killing his father, even if that means touya will die too. rei’s main goal is to bring touya back, and she even encourages endvr to help. while the whole situation regarding what the todofam actually wants to do with touya is still vague, we can see that endvr still has a strong influence over rei and touya.

maybe rei believes endvr can save touya because she couldn’t all those years ago. maybe touya believes he can’t go back to his family and should perish along with endvr instead because, in touya’s mind, he is his father’s ugly, failed creation. something-that-could’ve-been-turned-monster. he’s a reflection of the abuse endvr put both touya and his family through. he even sees himself as his father to an extent, as he’s called his own flames “endvr’s fire”.

they both feel like they can’t do anything for each other because of endvr, when in actuality, i think that rei and touya have always needed each other, and now they need each other more than ever. they had gotten close, back then, with rei asking touya what he wanted to do.

these two characters have so much in common, and their arcs play off of each other’s so well. they can teach each other that they’re not their abuser, and that they’re not what their abuser thinks of them. they are their own person, and it’s time for them to figure out what they truly want going forward.

touya is not his father’s failed creation, he is not weak due to having an intolerance to fire - he’s just touya.

rei is not the hospitalized wife of the #1 hero, she is not a failure of a mother - she’s just rei.

i think the two of them can help each other, and the rest of the family, find healing. they’re so similar, and they should understand each other so well.

basically there’s so much to rei & touya’s relationship that can be explored and analyzed, yet canon (and fanon) seemingly fail to realize this due to the focus on endvr and how He feels rather than… literally anyone else lmao.

there’s still so much about rei & touya’s relationship that we don’t know. but touya does still call rei “mom”, and refers to his father only by name. after all these years, after their brief falling-out before rei was hospitalized, touya still calls her “mother”. that means something.

there’s so much there for rei & touya’s relationship. and it’s a shame that canon and fanon don’t do much with it, or they take what’s been giving to us thus-far at face-value. their relationship has all the seeds planted to make it one that’s complex, caring, healing, and understanding. i just wish canon would actually let it grow instead of focusing on endvr for the millionth time /: