The concept of dabis birthday being like, right between Betty White's and Dolly Parton's is so wild to me. The energies converging during these three days is something I'd like to snort up my nose just to feel something again.
Bakugou: *punches Izuku*
Izuku, starry eyed: "Woow, Bakugou, that was so cool!"
Kirashima: "What a manly punch!"
Eraserhead: *grumbles, but is secretly impressed by how good a punch it was, even though he wants to improve his form a bit*
Shigaraki: *nods* "I can see why you're the one closest to Deku."
All Might: "What good friends they are!"
Hmmm I just wanna put it out there that
Who cares if youâre âinherently evilâ (which is a concept I donât believe) or more likely, might have a predisposition to antisocial tendencies? You can still change. You can still modify your behavior. Itâs never too late to do better. Sure, maybe thereâs stuff you canât fix, but you can still do better.
Iâm a little confused, what does rei telling shouto about rejecting bloodlines have to do with himura mutant phobia?
(Re: a comment I made about Shouto's Sports Festival flashback in my post on Chapter 387.)
Itâs not a direct correlation! I was pointing out that Rei has early dialogue that can potentially be read as foreshadowing for the familial issues discussed by Geten 350 chapters later. Basically, that Horikoshi might have chosen to specifically frame the conversation in terms of bloodlineâmangling an explanation of All Mightâs catchphrase to do so*âbecause he was already aware that fears about the sorts of things one can inherit via bloodline were significant to the characters in the scene.
Shouto is afraid of inheriting his fatherâs willingness to hurt Rei, but what sort of fear of bloodline inheritance has Rei already faced in her own history such that she can now reassure Shouto that blood is not binding? It could simply be a generic assurance, not connected to Reiâs history at all, but what if it isnât?
What if Rei is able to reassure her son that one isnât bound to oneâs bloodline because she already has personal experience with the consequences of excessive regard for bloodline? And given that sheâd later burn Shouto out of fear of his resemblance to Enji, did she really even believe it at the time, or is it the same as when she tried to get Touya to change course and he lashed out at her for lecturing him about choices, save that, unlike Touya, Shouto was young and attached enough to believe her?
To look at it another way, when Horikoshi was brainstorming the Todoroki familyâs general situation, he would have had to figure out Endeavorâs obsession and the forms it tookâthe attempts to wrangle genetics, the failures that came before the success, the spiral into abuseâas well as at least the broad strokes of the ways Enjiâs kids and wife reacted to it. Itâs entirely possible that all Horikoshi originally had figured out about Rei was âmentally fragile because of the abuse; gets institutionalized after she burns Shouto,â but heâs on the record as thinking a lot about the lives of his minor characters and thereâs plenty about Rei that begs further thought.
For example, why would the woman with the ice powers Enji sought agree to the marriage? Why would she stay in the marriage even after it turned sour? Was it all out of love? Wouldnât it be a bit convenient that Enji could find a woman who just loved him that much given his unabashed ulterior motives? Further, Rei was open to her mother about the dire straits she was inâwhy wouldnât her mother step in, call child protective services, tell her own husband, do anything? Reiâs family being traditionalists, with old-fashioned ideas about marriage and commitment, works to answer the question. Then, on top of being traditionalist, Reiâs family needing the financial resources Enji brings to the table bolsters that answer even further.
The questions that follow logically from that scenario are what tradition looks like in the world Horikoshiâs created, and why Reiâs family need money? If they were an old-money family but lost their fortunes, what caused that? Geten provides the reader with the answers, but itâs not impossible that Horikoshiâs known them from the start. If thatâs the case, then even Reiâs earliest lines in the series can be read as speaking in light of her family history, and that family history is intimately entwined with heteromorphobia.
It's somewhat reachy, I acknowledge, but I hope that explains my thought process a little better? Thanks for the ask!
* The conversation on TV is so weird. What in godâs name does self-love and the DNA inheritance of quirks have to do with All Mightâs, âI AM HERE!â catchphrase? Thatâs nonsense, counter to everything else heâs ever said about the meaning of the phrase, which is supposed to be both reassurance to those in danger and threat to those endangering.
Itâs an awkward and baldly contradictory contortion of a response that, so far as I can tell, serves no real purpose save to suggest a question from the interviewer that upset Shouto because it implied that his blood doomed him to grow up like his father, and give Rei a chance to answer in the same framework. What question could the interviewer possibly have asked that would have both given Shouto that impression and prompted All Might to respond, âYes, quirks are naturally passed from parent to child. However, thatâs not the only thing that matters. Itâs not just blood tiesâŚÂ Instead, one must recognize and appreciate oneself!  Thatâs what I mean when I say, âI am here!ââ
Dabi's first interaction with Spinner really was to call him a slur
It's probably to be expected for the product of a multigenerational eugenics project though...