redemption)

I agree about a Dabi redemption! As for Rei, I hope so. I do think they should reconcile at some point. I would love to see her play a large role in it but her willingness to forgive Endeavor might be a current obstacle and we don’t know what her relationship was like with Touya before… but I would think her willingness to forgive Endeavor means that she will also and perhaps way more eagerly forgive Touya and still love him despite his villainous deeds, which like. He needs.

I dabis brieth interactions are important to dabis character like aoyama,shoto,snatch and endeavor. they have an important each of them would you like to explain?

In short: they reveal Dabi has personal motivations for everything he does. Despite his talk about following Stain’s will, and he does, he has personal motivations as opposed to a cold ideology.

He spares a terrified child and it later almost leads to the downfall of the villains’ plans.

He takes time, when he succeeds in snatching the marble, to taunt Shouto in a personal sense.

He takes time to fight Endeavor even though everyone notes how stupid it is to fight him right there, even Dabi himself.

And then the Snatch fight itself isn’t terribly insightful (ti’s cool though) but his comments afterwards are pretty insightful.

In short, he’s motivated by personal connections and emotions. Presumably a bereaved family (likely the Todorokis), a personal grudge against Endeavor, perhaps sympathy for Aoyama, and probably a personal history with Shouto. This undermines Dabi’s claim that his goal is to make the hero killer’s will a reality.

~~why u lying~~

It might very well be a philosophy he believes in, but again, I suspect the reason he does is personal (that he’s Touya), because we’ve only ever seen him making decisions from an emotional standpoint rather than a logical one.

excuse me could you do a post about dabi,toya and aoyama its about the recent info about the chapter about how aoyamas quirk did not match his body and how toya has powerful flames but has a body that unsuitble for a body made for ice instead of flames can you do a post about this?

I actually already did a post about that interaction and its significance for the plot/foreshadowing for Dabi’s probable redemption here! I don’t really have much to add, except to say that I do think that the fact that Touya had a body unsuited for his quirk is interesting from a symbolic perspective when you consider this scene.

Presuming Dabi is Touya at this point, and even taking into account the fact that Touya would not have known Aoyama had a quirk ill-suited for his body, it’s interesting because Touya probably would have seen Aoyama as a frightened kid hiding from the chaos and violence erupting around him, and quite likely that would have hit… close to home for him. Perhaps it even reminded him of himself at a point. Knowing what we know know–that Aoyama and Touya both have bodies for whom their quirks aren’t compatible–it’s kind of symbolic that even as Dabi’s engaging in his first real villainous activity (since he was noted to be a petty criminal beforehand), he’s being driven by memories of a violent family and has mercy on a kid who shares a trait he was cast away from his father’s favor for. It wouldn’t surprise me if Touya/Dabi needs to learn to have mercy on himself in many ways, because self-preservation doesn’t really seem to be his thing and I wonder if he tried too hard to regain his father’s favor, hence the scarring. We will see.

Do you think dabi pities or hates shouto?

I think Dabi does not know Shouto at all. I do think he is Touya, though.

But Endeavor definitely kept them apart, and I think the fact that Natsuo, who is the sibling closest in age to Shouto, did not even know Shouto’s favorite food until recently indicates Dabi/Touya probably knows Shouto even less well than Natsuo. Natsuo also says Endeavor took care that the three eldest would not be involved in Shouto’s life “at all.”

I think it’s possible Dabi thinks Shouto is a mini Endeavor in the making. I also think it’s possible he primarily pities his brother, since he clearly knows Shouto was abused, or both–they aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s possible he resents him for having all his father’s attention. It’s possible he doesn’t.

I think whatever Dabi thinks of Shouto, though, is not crafted in whom Shouto is. Instead, it’s crafted in terms of Shouto’s role in their family: victim, and their father’s chosen child. Maybe he gives one or the other extra weight, or maybe gives them both equal weight.

I hope they get the chance to know each other as actual people beyond their hero/villain dichotomy. I think they will.

can you tell me what the left side symbolism has to do with shoto?

Hello Anon! Are you asking about a particular kind of symbolism? I’ll just talk generally for now, but if you’re asking about a specific aspect, please don’t hesitate to come back and clarify!

Shouto’s left side is his fire side, aka the side he takes after his father with in terms of abilities. He wanted to reject this part of him because of the abuse he’s suffered from Endeavor. It’s also the side his mother rejected, when she snapped and burned his face as a result.

Dichotomies are kind of a recurrent motif with Shouto. He struggles to see himself as a full person and not as two halves, one good and one bad, by virtue of things certainly beyond his control. In his first hero costume he wears ice over his left side even though that’s the side for fire, because he wants to be one or the other and doesn’t want to see both.

As we’ve seen and as Deku reminds Shouto in the Sports Festival Arc, it’s his power and it’s his choice about what he does with it. It’s not inherently rotten because it comes from Endeavor, and limiting himself in hopes of sticking it to his father is ultimately not hurting Endeavor so much as it is hurting Shouto in terms of his potential. It’s also hurting his friends, because his not using his fire quirk is definitely part of why the villains were able to kidnap Bakugou and it’s why Dabi taunts him (and Dabi, who also probably wants to stick it to Endeavor for the exact same reasons as Shouto since Dabi is probably Touya, overuses his quirk).

If Shouto wants to be a complete, full hero, inside and out, in public and in private, he has to accept the darker possibilities and choose differently, and he has to reconcile with himself, but it’s a journey–one we’ve seen him making progress in, but one he’s still struggling with. I’m curious to see when this will be addressed again, and if it will come up in the current manga arc.

The three main characters–Deku, Bakugou, and Todoroki–all have a negative foil that they are trying to be better than, but the main struggle for them is to grow up, and to do that they have to overcome their own insecurities. Deku is trying to be All Might, Todoroki’s trying not to be Endeavor, and Bakugou’s trying too hard to be himself at the expense of others around him, and they all need to kind of find a healthy medium via overcoming their insecurities.

if dabi does turn out to be toya why do you think his actions would have anything to do with his family?

why do you think dabi is a todoroki?

do you think dabi is an abuse victim?

I’m guessing these are from the same anon. 😀 I’m always happy to talk Dabi.

It’s stated in the text that something awful happened to Touya and that is related to Endeavor directly. Natsuo says it twice. The first time I don’t have access to the official Viz translation, but the translator noted that Natsuo is using a term in Japanese when he says “you and Shouto” that implies “you, Shouto, and another sibling who is explicitly not Natsuo himself.” We know now it’s Touya.

It could be abuse or abandonment–which is a type of abuse that produces just as harmful long-lasting psychological effects. Yes, Endeavor did something to Touya.

Dabi clearly has a personal grudge against Endeavor, seeing that he joined the League of Villains because of Stain’s philosophy against heroes who are bad people in their personal lives (Endeavor exactly) and targets Endeavor and plans to target him again.

And we know Dabi has a hang-up about family/something related to why he is a villain now has to do with family.

Not to mention Dabi’s personal grudge against Endeavor–I can’t think of what else would make narrative sense at this point. He’s just someone who Endeavor wasn’t nice to, or a friend of Touya’s who saw a friend suffering? That could in theory work, but we already have that kind of character challenging Todoroki in Inasa (who comments on how Todoroki and Endeavor have the same eyes, which btw, Dabi also has).

So that option no longer makes sense, because it’d just be a repeat of Inasa but villainized and Inasa I like you but you’re just not that important.

Dabi being Touya honestly seems like the only narrative option I can think of that explains why Dabi has a personal grudge against both Endeavor and Shouto (in Japanese, the “too bad, Todoroki Shouto” is very familiar and it’s supposed to be unnerving).

My guess is we can look to Inasa to understand why, perhaps, Dabi if Touya would want to mock Shouto–because Touya might think Shouto’s just like Endeavor. If Natsuo didn’t even know Shouto’s favorite food until chapter 192 I’m guessing Touya knows even less about Shouto, so it might make sense in a sad way for him to presume that the son who’s trying to become a hero like Endeavor was raising him to be might be just like Endeavor–but, of course, Shouto is not.

BNHA ask. About the traitor being Kaminari or Hagakure. I’m always curious to know your thoughts and theories. Why one of those two? (If it’s Kaminari, things get interesting for Kyouka, since the two of them have so much shipping tease.)

Sure! I think those two have the most evidence against them (and I doubt the traitor will be anyone massively important, but it will probably be someone from the class for writing impact because writing-wise you’ll want it to be someone close enough so that the reader feels betrayal, but also not someone you’ve previously set up as a hero because that isn’t how BNHA works as a story lol–it’s just not full of “I didn’t see that coming!” moments which is not a bad thing).

I think @ CDCubed on twitter does a good job outlining the Hagakure evidence in this thread and here’s some on Kaminari.

I personally prefer Kaminari because of the angst it’d set up with Jirou, but I think the evidence and the writing around Hagakure makes her the strongest candidate for right now. Each 1A class members gets some kind of focus and a mini-arc (with Todoroki, Bakugou, and Deku getting long arcs and Iida and Uraraka getting a bit more focus than the rest) and Kaminari has arguably had some of his in the Hero Exam arc, but we know absolutely nothing about Hagakure. Plus, BNHA is again subtle as a flamethrower and the irony of having an invisible girl be a traitor is. Not remotely subtle at all. So I lean towards her.

It could of course be someone else as well! But those are the ones I think have the most evidence against them. I’m also hoping with the possibility of Shinsou joining the hero course and the question of whether a spot will open up + the focus on Hawks being a double agent last arc + it’s been 84 years we might get a reveal soon(ish). But we’ll see, I can see it waiting until the series hits it nadir eventually.

If Dabi is a Todoroki, and why wouldn’t he be at this point, I want to see Todoroki family reacting. Although I’m not sure how I feel about seeing already-traumatized Rei doing some super-ugly crying. Although I do want to see someone who’s been used and abused making a stand for her children, even the lost soul, ESPECIALLY the lost soul. Shouto can show his brother that not all is dark, I’m sure now (soft Dabi panel was the clincher, I feel). I hope Endeavor’s house of cards comes down at last.

Yeah, I do think Dabi is almost certainly a Todoroki at this point, but until it’s confirmed I’m going to try to sound cautious but it’s. Hard. Lol. But I want to see Dabi’s family wanting him saved, and my guess is we would–Natsuo clearly refuses to forget his brother whatever happened to him, Fuyumi just wants her family back so presumably that would include Touya, Rei loves her kids, and while I think Dabi likely presumes Shouto is Endeavor 2.0 right now he is very much not, and I’d like to see Shouto being Dabi’s hero and saving this idiot from himself. Though I think Endeavor would play a significant role as well.

could you please talk about what shoto’s ideal of a hero should be is?

In short: Not Like Enji.

Haha, but actually. It’s similar to All Might, mostly in that he wants to be someone whom people can look up to–and who is worth looking up to, as opposed to being two-faced like Endeavor was until very recently. Like, if Bakugou’s definition is someone who wins and Deku’s is someone who saves people, Shouto’s is in the middle as someone who is the best but also is a good person, and that… wholeness is of paramount important.

Shouto’s primary conflict in the Tournament Arc is about wanting to be himself and surpass his father on his own merits, but at the same time inhibiting himself because he refuses to accept half of who he is (having a fire quirk).

If it seems contradictory it’s because Shouto is a character of paradoxes right down to his quirk. His main flaws are paradoxical themselves: a tendency to rely too much on himself (Hero Licensing exam arc, anyone?) and a tendency to, at the same time, define himself and others by the traits passed onto them (ie by how other people have affected them). Which is why he relies too much on himself: he doesn’t want to be defined by what’s gone in to making him who he is, because he doesn’t yet understand that he gets to grab the pen and decide for himself what defines him.

Shouto wants to be a hero who is the best in every single way, who is exactly as he appears to be inside and out, in the public eye and in private. Those are all good desires, but he isn’t going to be able to be the best or be the same person inside and out unless he learns to accept the parts of himself he’s afraid of (his heritage being Endeavor’s son, his fire quirk, etc.) but choose for himself what that means for him.

That’s why Dabi is such a good villain foil for him: he overuses his quirk likely to the point of injuring himself, he is also driven by Stain’s ideology of a hero being a spotless person inside and out (kind of Shouto’s idea but taken to an extreme) and he too is driven by defining himself based on… something related to family as shown in the most recent chapter (especially if he is Shouto’s brother, which he probably is, because he is likely referring to his own family then).

If Dabi is related to him, I think it would make sense for Dabi’s mockery of Shouto to be based at least in part on not knowing his kid brother super well and perhaps assuming he’s just like Endeavor. And, of course, Dabi learning that Shouto is actually the hero Endeavor was not during his childhood might actually be part of what helps Dabi find redemption, which I do expect after the latest chapter.

About your ask that questions you if you like the portrayal of heroism in bnha. Is that the league’s criticism to hero society? I thought it was shigaraki wanting to show the world how flimsy their justice is and some are stain followers. Weed out the fake heroes and all that shit. Which begs the question do people(stain) expect the heroes to be without human desires? Money,fame and glory?

I actually don’t think the league has a concrete idea and that’s probably going to blow up in their faces should they ever get what they desire. Kind of like UA students having many different motivations to become heroes, the villains in the League have multiple motivations and no concrete plan to bring out what they want because they don’t want the same things. Some want to overhaul society, some just want to fit in, some want power, some want to belong, some just want revenge and some want to be able to use their quirks:

And that’s an excellent point about Stain. To an extent as we see with Dabi and his grudge against Endeavor… Stain’s got a point. Then again, heroes are humans, and do their motivations ruin everything about them if like Uraraka they want to make money to help their families?

If BNHA has a quasi theme it would probably be emphasizing individuality, which we see with Deku’s arc being about being himself and not All Might 2.0. Therefore I think it’s fitting the league and the heroes all have different desires and motivations.

Heroes are human, and so are villains as we saw with Gentle and La Brava. If everyone needs a hero, so do villains, and that’s where I think we are headed in terms of All Might Deku and Shigaraki, and Endeavor Shouto and Dabi.