Cw Salt, But The Fact That Shouto Lets Rei Say This:

cw salt, but the fact that Shouto lets Rei say this:

without explaining the circumstances to Hawks doesn’t sit right with me, especially when we have a previous in-text reference for how Shouto feels about his burns and the real person who’s to blame for it:

and idk, call me pedantic, biased or whatever, but the framing of the scene makes it feel as though the further the story goes on, the more the characters aren’t allowed to have complex and sometimes contradicting emotions towards the abuse they experienced. It’s just as Fuyumi said, “it’s not like I don’t feel the same way Natsu does, but we finally have this chance, you know?”

and that was perfectly fine when it was just Fuyumi’s chosen way to deal with her own feelings. Like, when it was still a decision motivated by a character’s agency. Fuyumi wants a second chance at a normal family. What she wants is not presented as an authorial statement on what everyone else should want. In fact, Shouto and Natsuo want something else entirely. And that was fine.

Until now.

With the shift the story took now, with the whole Todoroki family coming together to stop Dabi,

and with the emphasis on extending a hand to Enji while doing so, it feels less like this is an organic choice that makes sense with the characters’ personal journey of acceptance and of healing, and more like the narrative is forcing them to reconcile because it’s what the story needs in order to keep moving forward down the “saving Touya” path. Like, even admitting that there was good faith on hori’s part, even conceding that they might’ve just called a truce for the time being because they realized they have a second shot at getting their brother back from death…

That good faith falls short of the actual framing.

Cause Hawks asks Shouto that question right after acknowledging that Enji was indeed an abuser. Past tense. As if shedding a few tears suddenly cancels that out. It’s all good now.

And… idk… For it to be a “truce” the narrative still needs to hold him accountable. But it doesn’t. The second Enji vowed to do better, the story declared he was better. Hori can say that the victims don’t have to forgive him all he wants, the truth still stands that the story has already forgiven him