My Hero Academia has finally pulled back the curtain on the mystery surrounding Dabi, the League of Villains’ pyrokinetic psychopath. (SPOILERS) It’s been revealed that Dabi is in fact Toya Todoroki, the son of Enji Todorok/Endeavor, and the eldest brother of Shoto Todooroki. While revealing himself to his father and brother, Dabi also amplified the pain by broadcasting the truth of his identity out across the airwaves of the entire country. Part of that broadcast involves Dabi recounting his personal origin story to the world – and part of that story comes with the reveal of a limit to the twisted villain’s fearsome power!
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Warning: My Hero Academia Manga Chapter 291 SPOILERS Follow!
As many My Hero Academia fans theorized, Dabi’s look isn’t just Goth punk masochist purely for aesthetic reasons. Toya Todoroki was Endeavor’s first attempt to create a power superior to his own – one that could rival No. 1 hero All Might. Toya Todoroki had a flame that was more intense than Endeavor’s (hence its blue color), but there was a severe drawback: the genetics of his mother Rei’s ice powers made Toya’s body vulnerable to being burned by his own fire. While we still don’t know exactly what happened after Toya’s apparent death, but we do know that by then his father had moved on to the other “experiments” of making Toya’s younger siblings.
Looking at Dabi now, his appearance is a tale of unimaginable suffering and tragedy. Unless his affiliation with All For One and the League of Villains allowed him to be “cured” of his weakness, then every time Dabi uses his flames it costs him horrible pain and scarring – and yet, he still uses it frivolously to murder and maim, regardless.
There’s still so much backstory to his character to learn, such as who performed the various skin grafts and stapling to keep Dabi together (Dr. Garaki?), and what the exact status of his power is, now. This war arc has revealed just how advanced All For One and Dr. Garaki were with transferring, copying, and mixing quirks – so who knows what may have been done to “Toya” to fix and/or enhance what was broken. One gruesome detail we do know: Toya’s jaw was recovered from the massive fire that served as his “death” – hence the skin-grafted jaw that Dabi sports.
This limit to Dabi’s power may be a key detail now that he’s about to battle Endeavor and Shoto: with the kind of heat Dabi can generate, Endeavor’s only hope may be the defense of Shoto’s ice, and the limits of Dabi’s endurance…
My Hero Academia is in production on season 5 of the anime. Online chapters of the manga can be found HERE.
