My Hero Academia: Will Dabi Become Good in the End?
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Out of all of the different characters we’ve seen in My Hero Academia, the one villain with a more complex past is Dabi, who we learned was Toya Todoroki the entire time. His tough past with the Todoroki family forced him to become a villain after his family thought he died as a child. That is why he went out to seek revenge against the Todoroki family, which led Endeavor and Shoto to vow to stop him. But will Dabi become good in the end?
Editor’s Note: This post was updated in January 2024 with the latest developments from the Final War arc.
Can Dabi Still Be Redeemed?
The recent events of My Hero Academia allowed us to learn more about one of the most popular villains in the entire storyline. We are talking about Dabi, who possesses the Blueflame Quirk and has the mindset of a madman because he doesn’t care about hurting and killing people as long as he achieves his goals and desires. He only aligned himself with the League of Villains to achieve a personal goal that wasn’t even aligned with the organization’s goals.
It was during the events of the Paranormal Liberation War arc that we learned more about Dabi’s history and personality. He was actually Toya Todoroki, the eldest son of Enji Todoroki, aka Endeavor. That means that he is the older brother of Shoto Todoroki.
Toya was believed to have died long ago from an accident involving his Quirk, and however, he survived that event but was barely clinging to life. It was the fact that he was awakened to how abusive his father was towards him, his brother, and his mother that Dabi ultimately realized that he wanted to bring Endeavor down and make him suffer.
It was Toya’s anger towards his family that turned him into the villain called Dabi. He used this new identity to wreak havoc throughout the entire country as a member of the League of Villains. And during the Paranormal Liberation War arc, he exposed Endeavor’s abusive parenting to the entire world so that he could bring down the number one hero in Japan.
Of course, we know that My Hero Academia’s characters are heroes who will stop at nothing to keep people safe by defeating the villains and locking them up behind bars. And after the Paranormal Liberation War, both Endeavor and Shoto decided to work together to find a way to stop Dabi because he was the responsibility of the entire Todoroki family.
We also know that Deku, responsible for Tomura Shigaraki because he was the only one strong enough to stop him, decided that he didn’t want to kill him. That’s because he believed his powers were given to him to save people instead of killing them. As such, he believed that Shigaraki could still be redeemed. So, does that mean that Dabi could also be redeemed?
It is unlikely that Dabi can still be redeemed. He is no longer redeemable because he has gone far down the path of the villainy of his own will and without anyone manipulating him to become as villainous as he has become. This is unlike the circumstances of the other villains, who only became who they are due to society’s problems or because they were manipulated into becoming evil.
For instance, Shigaraki, as evil as he may have become, was under the influence of All For One the entire time as the Symbol of Evil, grooming him from a very young age to become his successor. As such, Shigaraki’s entire psyche was shaped by the manipulative nature of All For Ones. This is why Deku wants to save Shigaraki, as he understands that it was only through All For One that he became as evil as he is.
On the other hand, Dabi became a villain on his own accord. It might be true that Endeavor’s parenting was nothing short of bad, and endeavor’s lack of attention toward Toya forces him to go down the path of darkness and become a villain named Dabi. But Endeavor, as bad of a parent as he was, never manipulated Dabi into becoming a villain.
Instead, Dabi’s actions were fueled by his hatred and desire toward his family, even though Endeavor was willing enough to atone for how he treated Toya years ago. As such, he has already gone too far down his path of hatred, and he can no longer be redeemed as he had already done too much for him to have a chance at redemption.
Will Dabi Become Good?
The truth is that Dabi could no longer be redeemed because he probably won’t be able to do anything to make up for all of the evil deeds he committed. But can he still be good at the end of the story?
Even after losing to Shoto in their battle in the Final War arc, Dabi refused to see the error in his ways. Instead, he decided to go after Endeavor because he thought he had a better chance at killing his father than Shoto. At that point, Dabi had already burned through a good part of his body after overexerting himself in the fight against Shoto.
The fact that he still had enough rage in his heart to go after Endeavor after losing to Shoto and becoming a walking corpse after burning through his body is why he is no longer capable of turning back to become good all of a sudden. Neither the words of his brother nor Endeavor’s actions would ever be enough to convince him to turn his back on his life of villainy because it was always his hatred that fueled his desire to keep on living even after his body had already gone to a point where it could no longer support his normal bodily functions.
Nevertheless, we are not dismissing the possibility of Dabi doing something good at the end of his life, especially because both Tomura Shigaraki and All For One are still very much big threats to the world and the family he turned his back on. It might be possible that he would end up opening his ears to his father’s words and see the error in his ways at the end of his life. As such, we are not dismissing the possibility of Dabi trying to go out with a bang in what could be his final act to try to make up for the thing that he did.
Dabi’s final words were insults to his family
During the Final War arc, Endeavor and Dabi engaged in an extremely long fight, with Dabi intentionally aiming to kill his father and avenge himself basically. Dabi confronts his father, Endeavor, revealing his plan to take everything away from him and charging towards him. Unbeknownst to Endeavor, Dabi has been accumulating thermal energy within himself, planning to explode in a nuclear blast. Dabi, consumed by Blueflames, loses sanity and attacks Endeavor, resulting in a devastating clash. As Endeavor attempts to save Dabi, he discovers Rei’s Frost Quirk within Dabi’s abilities. In a desperate move to prevent Dabi’s explosion, Endeavor decides to sacrifice himself, but Rei intervenes with her ice powers.
As Dabi continues to cackle, observing his family’s attempts to cool him down, he reflects on finally being noticed. In his thoughts, he wonders why it took so long for this attention. Meanwhile, Dabi’s heat sphere is minutes away from exploding. Just as Dabi is on the brink of self-destruction, Shoto arrives, having traveled from Kamino with the help of Ingenium. The two brothers exchange glances and Dabi contemplates the simplicity of his origin. Shoto pushes past his limits and unleashes his Great Glacial Aegir, engulfing Dabi in fire and ice and halting his self-destruction. Dabi is defeated for good, left crisped and partially frozen. Shoto acknowledges the crucial assistance from his family in cooling down Dabi, realizing that his powers alone might not have been sufficient due to the intensifying heat of Dabi’s Blue flames and questioning the notion that Dabi was the “masterpiece creation.”
Dabi’s body starts freezing internally, and in agony, he weakly implores everyone, including himself, to let him die. As Dabi lies incapacitated, a severely injured Endeavor crawls towards him, expressing regret for not going to Sekoto Peak. Dabi responds with hatred towards his father and family. Endeavor, emotionally shattered, pleads for Dabi to unleash his feelings and apologizes to Rei, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shoto for the pain he has caused them. Dabi refuses and says he wants them to die.
As you can see even inches between life and death, Dabi is completely unremourseful and sickened with Enji and his family, it’s extremely unlikely that he will change.
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