Looking Into Dabi’s Actions and Possible Past: Part II
Part II of figuring out what the fuck is up with Dabi. The more I write on him, the more I think about how he ticks – the more enjoyable a character he becomes to me. Please don’t mind any typos I don’t beta read these things I just write like a possessed idiot. Also mind the tagged warnings!!
I’m gonna do a full analysis on Dabi because he’s interesting to me right now, especially with the Todoroki Theory looking more and more like canon every day. Everything we’ve got of him so far, I’m throwing it under a microscope and my finest fine-toothed comb. I’ll be delving into the Todoroki Theory too, so strap in lads. This is totally gonna get super long because I like pictures, so we’ll be doing this in parts. And under Read Mores.
after all might found out that shigaraki was nana shimuras grandchild gran torino told him that he is off the case because all might cant really see shigaraki as a villain and he would waver and thats dangerous asking him what are you going to do when you see him and regardless of his lineage he is a criminal now
so I think the same thing will be brought up with dabi and endeavor
there is no doubt in my mind that endeavor will try to save dabi because he will believe he is at fault for dabi and all might will try to save shigaraki because of how much he loved nana and his nature but all might will fail in saving shigaraki and end up being killed
while endeavor will succeed and top off his redemption
this is helped byhow all might and endeavor were/are foils
since While they are both very powerful heroes, Endeavor is only in it for the sake of winning and feels like becoming the best is the most important thing, while All Might is legitimately trying to do good. They also contrast in visual style. All Might has a more traditionally superheroic style with bright colors and a more silver-age style costume, while Endeavor wears a simple dark bodysuit whose details come from his flames, which include Shoulders of doom in more typical dark-age fashion.
so all might and endeavor would both have people connected to them who are with the league of villians shigaraki (nana shimuras grandson who he loved like his own mother
) and dabi endeavors son and when endeavor finds out he will react poorly
and they both have/will feel guilty over how shigaraki and dabi ended up
for dabi and endeavor endeavor will know it was because of his abuse of his family that dabi ended up like this
and for shigaraki
nana left her child at foster so she can raise one for all (all might ) so all might blames himself because she left her child at foster care to raise him.
so it would be fitting contrast if all might who has a more traditionally heroic and silver age style fail and was a true hero in saving someones heart and turn a villains heart around while endeavor who is in more dark age fashion and wasnt a true hero at the start and a horrible person and more focused on strength ends up saving a villains heart and getting them to have a change of heart when it would usually be the other way around
so the pro hero who pushed himself to the limit for the people in order to being the symbol of peace and save peoples hearts by always smiling would fail to save the villain he tried to reach out to while the pro hero who only cared about strength at the beginning and was a horrible person and even now is has a tough demeanor would end up succeeding in saving a villains heart turning him from the path. and it would be funny since for years endeavor wanted to surpass all mights strength and at first doesn’t realize that the reason why All Might always beats him is related to the fact that All Might is kind-hearted and morally strong and believes that the only reason he loses the spot of #1 Hero is simply because he isn’t as strong as All Might, rather than the fact he is unable to inspire people like him and abused his family for that purpose of being number 1 hero and focusing on strength but in the end when both of them wanted to go to someone who had become a villain and save their hearts and have them turn away from the path of a villian endeavor will succeed where all might fails when all might is the type of person that people imagine would be able to change a person
not to mention of course the fact that all might will end up dying
I have mixed feelings! I do think both All Might and Endeavor will try to save Shigaraki and Dabi, respectively, from themselves (they better). I also think All Might is certainly going to die without having saved Shigaraki, but I can also see his death being a catalyst that will spark a seed that Deku will help grow, and I do think Deku will save Shigaraki.
The story is definitely endorsing All Might’s version of heroism via how All Might is framed, in terms of his selflessness and compassion, so I don’t see a narrative purpose in his death not resulting in Shigaraki being saved. His flaws the story calls out are in not trying to save Shigaraki, so once he tries, there’s no point to denying that resulting in anything. Futility and nihilism are not themes present in BNHA; in another story, perhaps, but not in this one. I think Shigaraki being redeemed is highly likely.
I also think Shouto will have to be involved in Dabi’s redemption–he has to be, since he’s one of the main characters! 😀 Endeavor will likely sacrifice himself for Dabi (if he is Touya, which I think he is), and he may or may not survive it, but I think the actual saving of these villains is up to Deku and Shouto.
Fair; thanks for pointing that out! I definitely phrased that poorly. I was more directly talking about how he doesn’t seek out non-villains to murder; Snatch appeared. (I do think that it’s also true, as @echodrops pointed out here, Snatch was more directly killed by Mr. Compress since fire can’t burn sand. I highly suggest giving it a read!)
That being said, canon does of course hold Dabi responsible for that, and I do think he should be held responsible. He did murder Snatch. It’s just clearly not something he goes around routinely doing for fun, but also does signal a slide into more villanous behavior for Dabi which continues to accelerate in having High End attack a public area. It’s like… Dabi be careful because you seem to be becoming what you hate. Which he probably will even more (he’s on a downward spiral of sorts) and will eventually realize it.
Yep haha. I actually think it’s interesting and important that Kurogiri is the one who’s been captured–the one who can reign in their worst instincts and keep them moving towards some kind of goal is now removed from the situation. Chaos, ensue.
I think it really comes down to the fact that the villains don’t know what they want as a group/have different goals. Class 1A for example is united in wanting to become heroes, even if their motives are different. The League wants to upend society–but do they have a concrete image for what society should look like? Do they even care? Pretty clearly, they don’t have that image, and that’s why I think that when they eventually upend hero society (which they almost certainly will) it’s going to be a classic “was what you thought you wanted really what you wanted after all?” type of situation. Some will probably go down with a sinking ship; others like Dabi and Shigaraki I’m thinking will have to find a new way to get what they want.
Shigaraki, for example, hates Stain despite the fact that his existence is the reason the League has so many members now, and I really don’t think he wants much of anything other than to lash out at those who didn’t save him because what he really wants is love and safety. Shigaraki doesn’t want a society with heroes at all. AFO is not going to give him the love and security he craves (especially if Shigaraki is every useless to him) and eventually Shigaraki should realize that. Himiko wants fun and a feeling of belonging. Twice wants to feel whole. Spinner wants to bring down false heroes. Mr. Compress… idk. Dabi wants revenge on Endeavor for some reason (probably because he is Touya). Most of them aren’t there for the ideology but there because they’re lonely people who are trying to work through traumas and personal pain in their pasts.
Based on what we know about Dabi, I don’t think he wants to be a villain actually, or sees himself that way despite teaming up with the league. If anything, I think who he wants to be is a lot closer to being a hero, but his own specific definition of a hero. Like with Stain, he believes heroes who don’t exactly act like heroes should be brought down.
That also probably has to do with why he doesn’t kill anyone except villains (and the implication was that he was looking for low-grade villains to use to create High End), doesn’t turn Aoyama in, and is willing to work with Hawks. Like, I don’t think he’d ever acknowledge this even to himself, but as that brilliant meta by @echodrops pointed out, he kinda sucks at being a villain.
Of course, the irony for Dabi is that he’s becoming exactly what he supposedly hates: someone who does awful things but hey they have a goal so it’s all okay! He’s evaluating people based on their worth to soceity, which is exactly what Endeavor does (and presumably what Dabi hates him for regardless of whether or not he is Touya). It isn’t okay, and that’s the tragedy of Dabi’s situation that will probably bite him eventually.
I got a couple asks regarding my opinions on BNHA’s villains, especially Dabi, so… Time to engage in Echo’s very favorite game: alternative character interpretation!
Look man, I’m not about to go off on a wild conspiracy theory here and suggest that Dabi’s actually a vigilante who has his own agenda that only occasionally overlaps with the League’s (I mean that would be… totally absurd, right… Not at all possible in the slightest…), but one thought I can’t shake after re-reading BNHA is that Dabi may be a Todoroki many things in fanon, but you know what he really is in canon?
The single worst thing to happen to the League of Villains since All Might himself.
Oh, you think I’m joking? Let’s review some things from the manga:
Hm. I think Dabi is inspired by Stain to the extent that he believes hero society is corrupt and needs to go down, and I also am not sure how much of the details of Stian’s fight with Izuku Dabi is aware of. However, Dabi also has personal motivations as his fight with Endeavor showed us, motivations that we don’t know if Spinner has at least not to the degree Dabi does (esp if Dabi is Touya).
That’s actually another reason why I would find it interesting if Dabi is Touya, because he would be more likely to go along with Shigaraki perhaps because, well, the League of Villains is kinda starting to resemble a dysfunctional family of its own in a few respects, which might explain why Dabi is less likely to protest than Spinner at least from what we’ve seen. I also think that whatever Dabi’s personal grudge is, as I said above, might also contribute to his “burn it all” tactics.
Dabi like Stain believes his actions are morally right because the ends–exposing hero society’s wrongs–justify the means. We know from his breakdown after his fight with Endeavor that he does indeed feel guilt about the families of those he kills, but he also believes it’s necessary.
In many ways this is kind of terrifying because he is so certain he’s right he’s willing to inflict a pain he appears to know personally on someone else. It sets up a conflict between Dabi’s ability to empathize (which he does have) and his stringent ends-justify-the-means philosophy, which is probably going to hit him at some point.
I think sanity is relative, and there’s not much point of rationalizing degrees of sanity. Is Dabi somewhat unstable? Yeah. But is he capable of evaluating his actions? Also yes, I ‘d say.
hamliet 