After years of speculating and theorizing, we finally got some answers about Dabi’s character. There are a couple things I was always curious about that Ch. 290 finally provided some insight into, and I thought I’d share my key takeaways from this chapter.
Dabi’s existence begins and ends with Endeavor: We already knew Touya’s main goal was to destroy Endeavor, but now we know it’s his only goal. He doesn’t just plan to kill his father, he plans to die alongside him. His need for revenge is the only thing that gets him out of bed and keeps him moving forward. He would have given up a long time ago without it.
Touya keeps track of the number of innocent lives he takes: A man who truly doesn’t care wouldn’t keep track of the ants he steps on along the way. There’s still a part of him that feels guilt and knows what he’s doing is wrong. He’s already previously hinted at this.
Disassociation from his misdeeds: Calling his flames ‘Endeavor’s flames’ and saying the reason he killed people was because of Endeavour shows his lack of accountability. To him the end justifies the means, and distancing himself allows him to cope with everything he’s done.
Touya was a failure, and Endeavor made sure he knew it: Endeavor praised Shouto for his strong quirk but degraded Touya for his weak body. Touya likely went from being the center of Endeavor’s attention to being tossed aside and shunned the second Shouto’s quirk manifested.
Sure Touya probably felt jealous of Shouto, but even worse was that the second Endeavor gave up on him, it meant all the pain and suffering he went through was for nothing.
Touya grew to resent Shouto in the past just like Rei did: They both hated Endeavor, and had been through so much trauma, that they viewed Shouto as an extension of Endeavor with his strong quirk and future potential. Touya revealed his early plan of wanting to kill Shouto (to hurt Endeavor) but it’s interesting to think whether he could have gone through with it, and if he did, would he have immediately felt grief and regret the same way Rei did when she hurt Shouto? Does Touya really hate Shouto at all? Probably not.
Touya loves his mom: The live broadcast was his way of telling his own story, but he still chose to mention how this all started with Rei, and how Endeavor used her for his own personal gain before he started using his children. Touya wanted to make sure people knew his mother had also suffered. We still don’t know much about Touya and Rei’s relationship, but I think it’s fair to assume they loved each other.
This is just my own interpretation of events. Feel free to disagree! There’s still so much we don’t know. I’m hoping we get the full Touya backstory we’ve been craving soon.
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