‘My Hero Academia’ Hints at Dabi’s Dark Past

The latest chapter of My Hero Academia featured plenty to process, including a hint of fan favorite Dabi’s dark past.

Spoilers incoming for My Hero Academia Chapter 191: Dabi/Hawks/Endeavor, so if you haven’t read it yet you’ve been warned.

Dabi is one of the more mysterious characters in My Hero Academia, but this latest issue provides a few clues as to his guarded past, and they don’t paint a pretty picture. The first comes in the midst of his battle with Endeavor and Hawks, both of whom are beaten down from their previous fight with the Nomu.

Early on in the chapter Endeavor says “you are the one who murdered Snatch, or so I hear.” To that Dabi says “Sna-who? Doesn’t’ ring a bell.” Dabi fought Snatch during the Internship Arc, ultimately killing him.

It isn’t actually until towards the end of the issue that Dabi elaborates on Snatch. In a moment by himself, he says “Aah! Oh yeah, Snatch! That guy!” During that moment a bloody tear drips down from his eye, which is followed by a flashback to the fight with the hero where he says “Have you never stopped to think about how their families feel?!”

Dabi wipes the tear off his face and says “Haha…I thought so hard about it I went crazy.”

Some have taken to mean he was somewhat regretful of killing him, but that isn’t really in line with Dabi’s portrayal in past chapters. He isn’t really the sentimental type when it comes to being a true villain, so this seems more like him having a bodily reaction to a memory from his past, and it’s probably quite dark.

When he says “I thought so hard about it I went crazy”, could he be talking about his own family? Snatch brings up specifically the world families, so perhaps Dabi’s view of family is profoundly different, either from a screwed up upbringing or something he did to them?

The second moment comes during the fight as well. As Shoto watches his father try and mount a fight against Dabi, he remembers one particular memory from their first meeting. Shoto recalls Dabi looking down at him saying “How Pitiful, Todoroki Shouto”. The next panel clicks it into place for Shoto, putting together who is on his television screen.

At the time Shouto had never met Dabi, but Dabi already seemed to know who he was, and there’s no answer as to how quite yet.

Lots to process there, and we’d love to hear what you think about it all!

For those unfamiliar with the My Hero Academia juggernaut, the series was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers but he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 15 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

What did you think of the latest issue of My Hero Academia? Let us know in the comments!