So I kind of played myself in a really stupid way in the end? My introduction to the series was the anime and I still haven't read whole stretches of the manga.
So I read The Tube Scene when scans dropped and yeah it made me real fuckin uncomfortable for personal reasons and definitely was the last step that turned Dabi into my fave but because it wasn't the anime I was able to push it to the back of my mind and Just Not Think About It for a long while.
And then the episode drops, making it "real" and inescapable as well as somehow significantly MORE grotesque than people were expecting so I've been having to work through the full brunt of grief, horror, and anger this past month that many of y'all have had time to come to terms with and make your own answers for it for like a year now
Agreed. I read the manga so I knew it was coming, but seeing and especially HEARING it made it SO much worse. Dabi is my favourite character and seeing him end up like this hurt really bad and even thinking about his character now just gives my that sinking, uncomfortable feeling and I hate it.
I obviously knew he wouldn't get a happy ending, but I REALLY wish he would have just died right after the fight with his family in season 7 episode 19 like Toga and Shigaraki did and getting to talk to them one last time, instead of keeping him alive and treating him like a tourist attraction when he is slowly dying, can't move, can barely breathe and can only stay awake and speak for a few minutes a day and looking like a skeletal corpse.
Hearing him gasp for air and crying while sounding really young hit me extremely hard and it makes me sick that he got the absolute worst and cruel fate among all the villains when even All For One got a much better and painless ending.
I've heard some people say that it's actually not that bad since he gets to talk to his family and is finally seen by his family like he always wanted + him likely choosing to stay alive like he did several times in the series, instead of giving in to death, but it still feels so inhumane and cruel to me.
Not to mention the MANY comments that bash and mock Dabi and that he got exactly what he deserved or that he should have gotten an even worse fate and claiming that he is just a brat with daddy issues that was born an evil psychopath and that he singlehandedly ruined the entire family for attention without anyone's influence smh.
I know it's dramatic, but I wish I could just forget that scene and pretend like it never happened.
I don't even look up his name anymore in fear of seeing pictures or mentions of his end state, which sucks because I love looking at fanart and collecting references from the show to draw.
This I wholeheartedly agree with. It hurt so bad seeing his ending. I haven’t even watched the anime because it left me feeling sick when I read it in the manga - despite that, looking him up exposed me to the scene and dear god, is it painful to watch. It’s so inhumane and cruel.
I wish they’d just killed Dabi and Endeavor in their last fight together, hugging each other, without the interference of the Todoroki family. It’s clear that’s what Dabi wanted, and it’s clear Endeavor was ready to die with him to atone. Like that, that right there, would have been the perfect ending for them - poetic cinema
But instead, that scene - dying together to atone and to show love and to be seen - that scene that was built up throughout the whole show and which would have been justified by both accounts feels ruined by the post-war hospital scene which just leaves such a sour taste in my mouth because it is clear Dabi did not want that. And it’s clear they’re using him only to lift up Endeavor because it serves only to give Endeavor the chance he wanted to make amends. Not that it didn’t add to Dabi in some capacity, but it’s clear that was not his end goal, and it only serves to make him suffer more.
That scene with Shouto was the only nice thing in that but that is it and I do not think, from a writers perspective, that justifies having the scene in the first place when you compare it to Dabi and Endeavor dying together.
CW: manga spoilers, violence (panels), child abuse mention
The final trailer dropped yesterday and it’s tearing me apart to see Tomura animated like this.
To be clear: I don’t excuse or defend his crimes. He caused devastation and he is responsible for that. But he was also a child abuse victim who was taught, repeatedly, that he was nothing but ruin. Both truths can exist at once. And instead of being reached, he was abandoned.
Tomura wasn’t “born evil.” He was shaped by a fake "father figure" who groomed him to mistake power for safety. When every adult says you’re only destruction, you start performing the only role you’re given.
I keep thinking back to when All Might found out Shigaraki was Nana’s grandson, he wanted to reach him. He wanted to try. And Gran Torino stopped him. That moment could have changed everything. At that point, Tomura wasn’t overpowered or “too far gone.” He was still reachable. That choice closed the door.
And then there’s his design versus his role. Early Shigaraki—sickly, grimy, brittle—reads as a neglected boy who never even got the chance to grow up healthy. If he was really just a “vessel” for AFO all along, it makes no sense. AFO, with his suits and vanity, wouldn’t have groomed a replacement who looked like that. It only reinforces the feeling that Horikoshi later reduced him to a plot device, instead of honoring what he’d built.
And so the message we’re left with is: characters like Shigaraki, Toga, Dabi—abuse victims—must die in order to be considered “saved.” That’s devastating to me. If the system won’t reach for kids when it matters, demanding their deaths later isn’t justice; it’s failure. Because what choice did Tomura ever really have?
Tomura’s the only part of MHA that still matters to me. His writing, his pain, his design—everything about him stays with me. Knowing I’ll have to see his fall animated makes my chest feel tight and my stomach sick. I still don’t know if I can even watch.
If someone had reached out then, we wouldn’t be here now.
Imagine Tomura and Dabi swap bodies and the whole time Dabi is like “Why is everything so hard to do? I just decayed my fucking phone.” while Tomura is like “This body is in constant pain and I can’t even cry about it.” and then once they get switched back they both have a silent respect for each other.
Rewatching season 6, and I don't understand how someone can see Touya's whole back story, from Rei and Enji's perspective themselves, and forgive Endeavour but not Dabi.. that shit it so painful to watch. That was a child. Endeavour was the worst parent ever. But not just to Dabi, but to Natsu, Fuyumi and Shoto too. And a horrible husband as well. Like Jesus Christ. All so that he can appease his ego and surpass All Might.
All Touya wanted was acknowledgement and to make his father proud of him and to prove that Enji can use him to fulfill his selfish goals. But he couldn't even give him an ounce of positive attention once he deemed him worthless.
Didn't gaf about Natsu or Fuyumi either.
And once he got his perfect designer baby Shoto, he put him through the same grueling training and wouldn't let him play with his own sublings.
Took out his hatred on the whole household.
That's why Shoto is awkward and reserved to date, all he was taught to be was a weapon.
It's so sad.
And guess who gets the redemprion arc.. Guess who gets to be picked up and supported by the family they abused after discovering the child they neglected and abused is alive?
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