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ā | This is gonna be nothing more than a warning shot. We'll pull those false heroes down from their shining pedestals... And, in doing so, we'll create a bright new future for this world. | ā |
~ Dabi to the Vanguard Action Squad. |
ā | Oh man... I didn't expect this! I'm starting to have fun! I wondered how I could make you suffer. How I could ruin your life! Ever since I burned up, it's all I've thought about! As a kid, I didn't know why I existed. I'd cling to Natsu, bawling my eyes out. But you didn't know that, did you? At first, when I realized your little puppet Shoto was complete, I'd figured I'd kill him! But then you unexpectedly became the number one hero! Who would've guessed, huh?! I was certainly so invested in your happiness! Can you believe in Kyushu, I was actually afraid you were going to die?! I led Starservant and Ending to your doorstep. Did they make you feel like a big shot? Must have been a heavy burden to achieve your dream after so long. But you were soothed by public admiration, weren't you? Is that why you finally decided to try to bond with your children? "Just keep looking towards the future and you could be a better man?" What? Nothing to say?! Well, allow me! The past never dies! [...] You will reap everything you've sown! Enji Todoroki! Let's fall together! Come and dance with me in Hell, won't you? Well? Speak up, dad! | ā |
~ Dabi's monologue to Endeavor after revealing he was indeed Toya the whole time. |
Toya Todoroki, better known as Dabi or Blueflame, is the secondary antagonist of the My Hero Academia franchise.
He is a member of the League of Villains and leader of its sub-group, the Vanguard Action Squad, who seemingly follows Stain's ideology and concepts. In reality, he is the eldest son of the superhero Enji Todoroki/Endeavor, seeking vengeance against him for his mistakes in the past. He is the arch-nemesis of both his father Endeavor and his youngest brother, Shoto Todoroki.
In the anime, he is voiced by Hiro Shimono in Japanese, and Jason Liebrecht in the English dub, who also voiced Zeke Yeager in Attack on Titan.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- While the rest of the League of Villains, even Shigaraki himself, came to genuinely care for each other as friends, Dabi doesnāt hold any affection towards any of his fellow League members, often mocking them or ridiculing them for amusement. He only sees them as useful pawns to help him complete his goals and is even fine with them dying so long as he manage to accomplish his goals.
- Though he seems particularly close with Mr. Compress, reprimanding Twice for insulting him at one point, warning him to move before blasting at the heroes lying on top of him, happily fighting with him to kill Snatch, and enjoying chatting with him on several occasions, he still mocks him often and likely only defended him being insulted and protected him out of how he helped further Dabi's goals.
- He soon fully subverts any care he might have had for Compress by refusing to help him in battle and having Twice clones do it instead, and not caring about his defeat and arrest after the Paranormal Liberation War, despite Compress directly helping Dabi and the League escape in the process.
- He also appeared to be close to Twice, as he tolerates his teasing during the forest attack and later tries to save him from Hawks, this is just pragmatism to make himself look better (as he was filming the attack on Twice) when "saving" his ally and he happily uses his death to benefit himself.
- Though he seems particularly close with Mr. Compress, reprimanding Twice for insulting him at one point, warning him to move before blasting at the heroes lying on top of him, happily fighting with him to kill Snatch, and enjoying chatting with him on several occasions, he still mocks him often and likely only defended him being insulted and protected him out of how he helped further Dabi's goals.
- Despite the high heinous standard of the franchise, he still stands out for having less resources than villains like Tomura, Overhaul, All For One and Flect Turn, all of whom are leaders of criminal organizations or large terrorist cults whereas Dabi just has himself, his fire powers and his now-disbanded small gang of misfits.
- Plus, he has killed and disabled numerous people, forced several Pro Heroes into early retirements, destroyed the reputations of many heroes and got them cancelled on live television with one of them being his own father Endeavor (though he arguably deserved it), and has a high attempted kill count due to endangering a city full of people and nearly blowing up hundreds to thousands of innocents while trying to kill his family.
- While he has some comedic moments, such as his dance upon revealing himself to Endeavor, his carsickness when Spinner was driving the truck, and some of his interactions with his teammates (especially Mr. Compress and Twice), none of them detract from his heinousness, and all they really do is exemplify how much of a sociopath he is.
- Despite seemingly showing disgust at the "fake hero's" and when Tokoyami saves Hawks, it's ultimately shown Dabi cares more about vengeance than making society a better place, as even after Endeavor's reputation is ruined, he keep on doing villainous deeds, proving he's motivated solely by spite, not out of extremism like Stain. Furthermore, he attempts to kill Tokoyami afterwards (as well as several other kids), proving he's not genuinely showing standards but rather finding another excuse to attack Hero Society.
- Furthermore, alongside the rest of the League, he's fully aware of Tomura's goals of essentially committing omnicide and is perfectly willing to assist him in accomplishing this, not even out of a desire to change society or help his friends but purely because it makes it easier for him to get his revenge, showing he's far worse than anyone he shows "standards" towards.
- He's ruthless compared to other villains (even the League), to the point where All For One himself points out the two of them share many similarities due to their sadistic personality, (seemingly) utterly sociopathic nature and willingness to use and manipulate anyone, even their own allies, so long as they can achieve their goals.
Past[]
- Even as a child, he was determined to be acknowledged by his father, using his flames while his entire family was gathered around and even attempting to target his infant brother. Although he was in emotional distress at the time and was only 8-years-old, this is still wrong for obvious reasons.
- While he was abused by his father, he took his frustration out on his innocent loved ones. Most of his victims did nothing wrong to him or have anything to do with his backstory. Arguably, his actions could count as abusive in their own right.
- He trauma dumped onto Natsuo and guilt-tripped him whenever he got tired of it. He also internalized his brother's words and believed they were failed experiments.
- He had sexist attitudes towards his mother and sister. He called them "useless" and dismissed Fuyumi's viewpoint because "a girl wouldn't understand him". Once, he threatened Rei when she tried to discourage his training, claiming "she didn't know anything" as she was sold off as a bride and partly blames her for his path.
- He gained a stalker-like obsession with his father Enji and blamed him for everything. He constantly stressed his father due to endangering himself and Shoto. Despite his son becoming a juvenile delinquent, Enji made numerous compromises, but Toya doubled down every time.
- He recklessly trained his fire quirk in a forest. When he was thirteen, he caused an accidental fire and it almost spread to a nearby town.
- When he awoke from his three-year coma, he recklessly destroyed the hospital that was holding him captive, not caring about the danger it put the fellow orphans in. This showed that even if All For One is the one that saved Toya from the clutches of death which led to him becoming Dabi, unlike the case of Tomura Shigaraki, Daruma Ujiko and Number 6, All for One can't be in any way or form have any sort of responsibility for all the crimes Toya will commit under the name of Dabi, something Ujiko himself confirms when stating not even All For One could take control of Dabi's obsession with pleasing Endeavor.
Present[]
- Led the Vanguard Action squad in attacking the U.A training camp to kidnap Katsuki Bakugo, leading to multiple students being seriously injured to the point of critical condition.
- Set an entire forest on fire, endangering the students at the training camp.
- Nearly killed Izuku Midoriya and Mezou Shoji by burning them alive.
- He kidnapped Bakugo while mocking his younger brother for failing to save him. This makes Dabi directly responsible for All Might's eventual retirement, as if he hadn't kidnapped Bakugo, All Might wouldn't have ended up using the rest of his power to save Bakugo and defeat All For One.
- He burned several thugs to death when he was recruiting new members for the League Of Villains. It's shown through dialogue with Twice that he frequently murdered potential recruits due to them not meeting his (ridiculously high) standards.
- He went on a killing spree, murdering more than 30 innocent people in cold blood by burning them alive.
- Assisted Shigaraki and Mr. Compress into attacking Chisakiās ambulance transport to the hospital so they mutilate his arms from his body. While doing so, he and Mr. Compress killed the Sand Hero: Snatch, with Dabi expressing nothing but glee that people are aware of the murders heās committed around the cities when Snatch asks him if he is aware of the families his murders might have ruined.
- Though he later sheds a bloody tear upon being reminded of Snatch's appeal to him, this doesn't mean he shows any remorse for his murders, as he comments "I thought about it so much it drove me insane", likely meaning he only shed the tear out of his own family-related insecurities.
- He was about to kill Endeavor and Hawks in a wall of fire, only to be stopped by Mirko.
- He sent out the High End, Hood, to destroy Kyushu as a means of both testing its capabilities and making sure to improve his father's reputation just to destroy it later on. But as he does this, Hood endangers multiple people and destroys a building as many start to soon lose faith in hero society as they have no true symbol to guide them in true danger.
- When going off to fight the Meta Liberation Army, he bragged how ā[heās] never been good at not killing peopleā, as he incinerated several members of the army and then tried to kill Geten.
- He refused to help Mr. Compress when he was fighting and pawned the effort onto the Twice clones, showing he doesn't care for him despite Compress seeming closer to him than all the other League members.
- He sent the two villains Starservant and Ending to attack Endeavor, the latter nearly killing his younger brother, Natsuo.
- Asked Hawks to kill Best Jeanist as a test of loyalty and showed sadistic glee when he saw the latter's supposed corpse.
- Although he saved Twice's life before Hawks killed him, it was only out of pragmatism, knowing that Twice would still be of great help to his plans.
- While trying to kill Hawks, he almost incinerated Twice in the process and Hawks had to save him. While Dabi claims he knew Hawks would be able to save Twice, not only was this still very reckless, Dabi also expressed Hawks was even capable of dodging his attack, indicating he was lying to Hawks to make himself look better.
- The only reason he shows any anger at the death of Twice is because it would make it harder for Dabi to achieve his goals, showing he doesn't feel any true friendship towards Twice even though he seemed second closest to Dabi behind Mr. Compress. Just moments after this he goes on a rant about how he doesn't have any regard for the League.
- Furthermore, it's shown throughout the series Dabi is actually capable of crying (usually via blood) yet Dabi is instead smiling while attacking Hawks, showing he's not genuinely saddened by Twice's death.
- He burned off Hawks' wings and nearly killed him, even calling him by his full name just to taunt him.
- He tortured Hawks by burning his back repeatedly, scarring his body as well as severely damaging his vocal chords.
- He was prepared to kill Fumikage and an unconscious Hawks by burning them alive, only interrupted by Geten's fight with the heroes.
- Helped Gigantomachia rampage and destroy many cities across Japan by holding off the student's attempts to sedate him with his flames. He then proceeds to burn Kamui Woods, which leaves him unable to save Midnight from her subsequent murder at the hands of one of Dabi's advisors, and Kyoka Jirou in the process, injuring one of the latter's earphone jacks.
- Through Skeptic's hacking, Dabi highjacked every channel in Japan, in order to broadcast his life story and accusations against Hero Society, getting Skeptic to edit the footage of Hawks killing Twice in a misleading way and making Hawks appear to kill a retreating villain rather then one about to use their quirk on a large crowd.
- This ends up becoming the biggest reason Hero Society in Japan ends up collapsing. Dabi ends up inspiring the public to be disillusioned with Heroes, causing many of them to retire, as well as take matters in their own hands. This leads to countless civilians losing their lives when they decided to personally clash with villains, which was one of the reasons why Midoriya attempted to distance himself from everyone in order to protect them. All of this was intentional as Dabi outright states how he looks forward to the chaos that will ensue once his plans are complete.
- He held no care for the negative effects and consequences the video would bring upon the rest of his family either, such as his mother's mental health and it's implied later on Fuyumi lost her job due to her relation to Dabi being exposed.
- It's also revealed that Dabi has sent his Paranormal Liberation Front soldiers to threaten Hawks' mother into leaking his connection with his father, who was a criminal.
- Him revealing Hawks' lineage was mostly an act out of spite, as he was an innocent child who had no part in his family's crimes.
- Jumped off of Gigantomachia and tried to incinerate Endeavor with Prominence Burn, only failing due to the intervention of Best Jeanist.
- He severely burned Nejire Hado, all while saying she'd been brought down by "Endeavor's flames", placing the burden for his actions on his father's shoulders.
- He took sadistic pleasure in seeing the agony his father went through, enjoying the shocked look on his face as he tried to burn himself and Shoto alive in a hug and wanting to inflict as much pain onto his father as possible.
- It should be noted that he was aware that Endeavor was remorseful about his actions as Dabi pointed it out before attacking them.
- When Midoriya saved Todoroki and pointed out that Dabi, not Endeavor, was responsible for his murders because it's Dabi's own quirk, he merely laughed at the hero for pointing out something so obvious and refused to be talked down.
- He seriously burned and nearly killed his youngest brother, Shoto, in their fight, only stopping because Endeavor had been knocked out and because he wanted his father conscious to see Shoto die, proceeding to knock Shoto unconscious with Flashfire Fist: Jet Burn.
- His childhood bonds with his family have almost entirely fizzled out and he considers them as mere pawns to hurt his father. Upon learning that Ending had nearly killed Natsuo, whom he'd relied on for emotional support and cried to every day, Dabi actually said it was a shame that he hadn't been killed because that would've made Endeavor suffer more, and when Shoto claims he's insane, Dabi doesn't even attempt to deny it, fully acknowledging his villainy, his lack of feelings for anyone and his delusional and psychotic breaks from reality where he believes the previous him is dead and he is reborn.
- Unlike Toga and Spinner, he didn't care about Shigaraki's suffering from being possessed by All For One or the fight with Star and Stripe, only caring about when he'd get the chance to kill Endeavor.
- Gave Toga some of Twiceās blood, which could cause major damage due to how her Quirk works, after having burned down her abusive childhood home to encourage her to fight solely so he can user as his pawn for a fallback plan, while admitting burning down her home was mostly for his own personal catharsis for his own past and rage-filled quest against Endeavor.
- Toga was eventually able to make several clones of Twice during the second war, causing major trouble for the heroes.
- Threatened to murder Endeavor's allies as the second war started and then tried to burn him to death with a large wall of fire before Shoto intervened.
- During his fight with Shoto, he burned All Mightās memorial statue as an act of spite to the heroes.
- Tried to murder Todoroki and the heroes helping him with Hell's Spider. While fighting his brother, he mocks Shoto by calling him a worthless mix of ice and fire, stating he would never be a hero.
- Seriously injured Endeavorās sidekicks Kido and Onima by incinerating them and then called out to Skeptic to find Endeavor, so he could kill him too, desperate to achieve his revenge even if it costs him his life, rejecting Shoto's offer of redemption and stopping his evil ways.
- Rather than kill Shoto and bring his body to Endeavor to break the latter, he simply decides to head to Gunga Mountain and kill his father, accompanied by two Twice clones, being transported there by Kurogiri.
- Builds up internal heat and set himself to explode in a 5-kilometer radius to take Endeavor down with him, knowing it will threaten the lives of not only many civilians underneath trying to evacuate UA, but also his fellow League member Toga and his entire family. It's later shown that the rest of his family members have permanent burns thanks to this, with Endeavor outright losing both of his feet.
- Even at the brink of death, despite all his family apologizing to him for their failures to help him, he still insisted he hated all of them and stated that everyone should die, alongside him.
- He doesnāt show remorse for his crimes once imprisoned and still uses what little life he has left in an effort to mock his family for seeing him like he was a ātourist attractionā.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is ultimately too tragic and sympathetic to be Near Pure Evil for the following reasons:
- His backstory is extremely tragic. He was born solely to surpass All Might as Japan's Number 1 Hero, but when it turned out his Quirk was harming him due to not having any fire resistance, his father Endeavor stopped his training and started neglecting him out of fear his son could hurt himself or even die. When Shoto was born as a replacement with a far superior Quirk, he felt betrayed and discarded, having an existential crisis over not being able to fulfil his one reason for being alive, on top of Endeavor slowly becoming abusive to his family. When his attempts at gaining his father's love back failed due to Endeavor refusing to see the progress his son made, he had a mental breakdown where he severely burned himself, only surviving due to All For One's intervention. After spending three years comatose and escaping the orphanage that planned to transform him into a Nomu, he returned home only to see that his family thinks he's dead and that Endeavor is continuing to abuse Shoto. Believing that even his "death" didn't change his father (not knowing he was affected by it heavily), Toya renamed himself to Dabi and swore to destroy Endeavor's reputation, kill his whole family, and then himself.
- While this doesnāt justify everything he did, it is still treated with a large amount of sympathy and pity by the narrative and other characters in-universe to the point where it is made clear that Toya would have never become a supervillain and ruined countless lives (including his own) if he grew up in a healthier environment and better family. He also grew more sympathetic over time as his family did more and more to try and stop the monster he became, with it eventually ending up with everyone broken from the end as a result of him on life support and eventually dead.
- He has insecurities that are strongly played for sympathy, as his obsessive hatred of his father stems from a feeling of inferiority in not being able to live up to his goals. He felt that his father favored Shoto over him and could make him proud while he could never no matter what. Indeed, much of his demonstrations of power come across as a twisted attempt to impress his family with his mastery of his abilities despite the self-destruction it wracks on his body.
- This is shown when he remembers Snatch asking him if he thinks about the families who he might have ruined with his murders. Though he shows no remorse for that, he shed a tear of blood because Snatch's words reminded him of his family trauma.
- His defeat and offscreen death is played for sympathy. Despite it being self-inflicted and arguably deserved ā after attempting to end his life and take hundreds down with him by exploding ā he regresses to a childlike state of mind before eventually regaining his cognitive functions. He's then placed on life support, with only a few months left to live. Even Endeavor, his abusive father, shows genuine sadness and takes responsibility for creating the monster Toya became. In a poignant moment, Toya's underlying humanity, which he claimed to have discarded, is revealed when Shoto discovers they shared the same favorite food, soba. While Dabi doesn't redeem himself, only apologizing to one person and continuing to hate his father, his arc ends on a bittersweet note and his eventual death is mourned, not celebrated.
- His backstory is extremely tragic. He was born solely to surpass All Might as Japan's Number 1 Hero, but when it turned out his Quirk was harming him due to not having any fire resistance, his father Endeavor stopped his training and started neglecting him out of fear his son could hurt himself or even die. When Shoto was born as a replacement with a far superior Quirk, he felt betrayed and discarded, having an existential crisis over not being able to fulfil his one reason for being alive, on top of Endeavor slowly becoming abusive to his family. When his attempts at gaining his father's love back failed due to Endeavor refusing to see the progress his son made, he had a mental breakdown where he severely burned himself, only surviving due to All For One's intervention. After spending three years comatose and escaping the orphanage that planned to transform him into a Nomu, he returned home only to see that his family thinks he's dead and that Endeavor is continuing to abuse Shoto. Believing that even his "death" didn't change his father (not knowing he was affected by it heavily), Toya renamed himself to Dabi and swore to destroy Endeavor's reputation, kill his whole family, and then himself.
- After his defeat, he feels remorse for almost killing Shoto, apologizing to him once imprisoned. He also learns that he and Shoto share the same favorite food, which makes him realize he wasn't completely different from him and suffered in the same way he did. This realization makes him break down crying, causing his tear ducts to function for the first time since he was a kid.
Trivia[]
- His Japanese voice actor Hiro Shimono plays Zenitsu Agatsuma, a Near Pure Good. This is one of the most famous character VA jokes due to how wildly different they are in both voice and personality as Dabi is a sociopathic, deep-voiced sadist who wants to destroy his family while Zenitsu is a cowardly, high pitched, demon slayer who has some bouts of heroism. And before he got put onto here, they were also foils in NPE and NPG before Dabi became IH.
- He seems to be set up as a foil to Hawks in almost every way, such as Hawks becoming a hero despite his villain family, while Dabi was born to a hero family, but became a villain; their fighting style are inverted, with Hawks' power coming from his skills while Dabi has to rely on the strength of his flames; both were impacted by Endeavor in their childhood, however, one grew to resent him and the other grew to admire him. They even have a contrasting main color, with Hawks being yellow while Dabi is purple. Though ironically, while Endeavor arrested Hawks' abusive father, he wasn't aware of his saviour's own abusive history. And like with Zenitsu, Hawks is NPG, and Dabi was NPE for a long time.
- He's also a foil to Shoto, since while they were both abused by their father, Shoto managed to let go of his hatred for Endeavor and forgive him, while Toya never moved on from it due to his insecurities. And yet again, they were once NPG and NPE respectively, before being approved as PG and IH respectively once the manga ended (which means they share the same moral scaling respectively as fellow archenemies and foils Izuku and Tomura).
- Dabi has many similarities with a fellow IH villain Azula. Both Dabi and Azula are siblings who want attention from their abusive parents, have blue fire powers, are jerks to even their own allies (although Azula does care about her friends unlike Dabi), are willing to kill their siblings to accomplish their goals and end up being hospitalized by the end of the series (although while Azula only loses her mind, Dabi is fatally burned).
External Links[]
- Dabi on the Villains Wiki
- Dabi on the My Hero Academia Wiki
- Dabi on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- Dabi on the Shonen Villains Wiki
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