Enji Meta

What I should be doing?

Writing.

What I an doing?

Enji meta because this shit popped into my head.

CW: abuse, word vomit made over several hours cause I am procrastinating.

— yuu 🔞 ♡ (@snakefujoshi) June 6, 2019

So let me preface that Enji has been a shit parent and husband but Rei has also had bad moments. They both made mistakes in both marriage and child raising. Enji's are most definitely more but that's part of what makes them such interesting characters.

I don't forgive them for what they did but it has me thinking...

We know Jack shit about their pasts other than the fact that their marriage was arranged, presumably by Enji (and it is only a presumption). Arranged marriages are not illegal.

I don't have the stats off the top of my head but in Japan, and other places in the world, they are pretty common. We don't know if their parents were in talks or if Rei's parents were putting her up as a potential marriage partner for a ton of possible, probably wealthy suitors.

We can assume that Enji was in a very respectable, probably very old Japanese family. Houses aren't cheap, especially with traditional style (please consider the fact that momo's family is shown with a western styled house. Everyone is shown in a western style home or an apartment EXCEPT FOR SHOUTO. The only other place we've seen it in canon? Yakuza.) And especially not for a family of fire quirk users which means shits get replaced often or they shell out for fire retardant shoji and the like.

That's fuxking expensive.

I'm gonna take a guess that the house and the grounds are probably inherited rather than something he purchased after becoming a hero because, again, land ain't cheap esp in Japan.

Now to get into the "respectable" part.

Trends in Japan are changing steadily as global modernization continues but there are plenty of people (not just in Japan) who see women as an extension of her husband, meant to take care of the children and the home.

If she's well bred enough, she'll even have training in martial arts to help protect it (but often times only certain ones. Naginta and archery. Maybe swordsmanship if the woman is from a family of that sort).

I would be utterly unsurprised if Enji's parents are like that - a demure mother, an overbearing father who wants to micromanage every bit he can of his household.

Like I'm pretty sure Enji wanted to be a hero because he honestly cares for people... but I bet his drive to…

…not be the best he can be or just a great hero but this UTTER OBSESSION with being #1 probably came from overbearing father type, with a good dose from his mother "become the #1 to show I raised you right".

The utter pressure - can you picture it (and if you ever had a parent or parents push you into fields you hate just because of the prestige, you know EXACTLY what im talking about).

Whoops posted too soon OTL

ANYWAYS

Just combine an intelligent young man with drive and charisma with overbearing pressure to be the best, you'll get the ragepot that is Enji (and to a similar degree, Katsuki but that is a very different meta).

To extrapolate from there, if Enji is from a very traditional household, we can also assume that his father had very traditional ideals where his wife and his child are fair game to do what he wanted.

He could have very easily isolated his family, taken his anger out of them, maybe trained Enji with his quirk within an inch of his life...

Let's be clear - Enji most definitely abused his kids to certain degrees and in different ways.

But he has NEVER been shown to strike them out of anger, any physical damage has always been done in the name of training.

Considering we know how unorthodox U.A.'s training methods can be he could have certainly learned how to "train" his sons there... but it is probably much more likely to have learned it in his childhood with his own father (and maybe grandfather).

Enji is smart and he should know, intellectually, that a 4 or 5 year old cannot handle extreme training sessions... unless he's blinded by something, such as his own childhood. Like sure.

You can argue he would go that far to make his kid the best but Enji understands that time off is needed to both heal and decompress. But what we've seen has been p much torture thinly veiled as training sessions...

I posit that Enji had a very similar upbringing like his kids had, except his mother never tried to intervene and he didn't have siblings to deflect on or get comforted by. No friends and their families to show how they could or should be. And that's hella sad.

(End)