#dabi meta

[gradelstuff]

Dabi's character pages in the Ultra Age fanbook

[katsdynam1ght]

the power of touya "copycat" todoroki

hello to my beloved friends, acquaintances, and enemies:

last week, after watching the pro-shot of the west end production of next to normal with my good friend caro (@peternumber4), we rewatched a certain episode of mha (s7e157, "i am here"). it was during the streaming of this episode that a thought occurred to me—one that i have not seen mention of before, although in hindsight it seems rather obvious.

i'll admit here in advance—i could be stating something that everyone else has already understood and summarily dismissed as unimportant, but in the event that no one else has connected these dots, my good friend pink (@pinkedify) has prompted me to make a post on the matter.

but enough with this introduction—let's get down to business.

i think it's clear enough that, aside from his raw talent, one of touya's best skills is his ability to mimic what he sees. we see him in an earlier episode (s7e146, "two flashfires") watching videos of endeavor in an effort to learn his moves:

which then make an appearance later (in his life) in s6e124, "dabi's dance", in which he attempts to use "flashfire fist: jetburn":

given that a large part of touya's character is his obsession with endeavor, it's no surprise that he's able to mimic his moves. (and if you ask me, mimicry is a big theme in mha as a whole—characters like izuku, toga, touya, monoma, shinsou, twice, and plenty of others play into this theme quite well.)

(it also continues to strike me in the image below that he burns off the same arm endeavor lost in an effort to mimic him. it's their right arms, which is also relevant due to endeavor's use of it to signal his victory over the high-end nomu at the end of s4. he mentions in s5e89 that all might uses his left arm, which is now all that the two of them have left... interesting. screencap below is from s7e157)

in my opinion and personal headcanons about him, touya is someone who is very good at copying. anything he sees, he can mimic—but as twice's quirk proves, a copy can never be quite as good as the original. with no formal training, everything touya is capable of is absolutely incredible, don't get me wrong—had he been given proper training and support, i am absolutely willing to bet on him against most of the adversaries in this show. i'm not at all denying the sheer raw power he has.

that said, his mimicries lack the precision and coordination possessed by someone with refined skill, someone who's been taught to hone their abilities in a practiced environment. this, just like his mimicry of endeavor, is no surprise.

so what is?

see—something else happens in season seven. in the episode "i am here", we witness something absolutely extraordinary (and viscerally devastating): touya's quirk factor is not built solely upon enji's fire, but also upon rei's ice. this is his quirk awakening—an evolution of power catalyzed by extreme conditions, just like katsuki's ability to produce explosions all over his body (as witnessed in s7e149, "light fades to rain").

touya's manifests with ice bursting from his heart, the core of his being, in the moment when he finally has his father in his hands.

"but kats," i hear you saying, "we know this already. what's your point?"

my dear, fellow fans.

in the same episode where we receive more of touya's backstory in his battle against shouto (eleven episodes previous), we also find out about shouto's special move, "phosphor", which he uses in that very fight:

"phosphor", as he describes it, is "difficult to maintain", and he "can only count on it for short periods." it is also, as he states, a manifestation of his right (ice) and left (fire) sides at the same time. both quirks "converge over [his] heart" and circulate blood through his body, balancing him out. i could go on at length about what this means for him and his quirk, of course, but that isn't the point of this post. you see—

after shouto appears to win their battle, we receive approximately two shots of this (s7e147):

and later, in episode 150:

(and one from 157—)

touya mimics phosphor.

touya todoroki, barely alive, beaten by his youngest sibling, mimics a move instantaneously that not only took shouto (who had proper training) months to master, but required the co-circulation of both fire and ice. a move that is reliable only for short periods, and yet touya manages it for the remainder of his battle, all the way up until he is finally defeated in episode 157.

this is a move that touya should not, under any circumstances, be able to replicate at all. this isn't his quirk. it's not a move he knows. he doesn't know how it functions, much less how to maintain it for such a long time, and at the point he manifests it, not even he is aware of the ice power within his quirk factor. when that ice fully appears in his fight with endeavor, his mind is so far gone that he's calling out for natsuo of all people. he shouldn't be able to do any of this.

and yet—what could possibly stop him? touya todoroki, who has lived on hatred alone for years—perhaps it's wrong of me to be so surprised.

so yes. he copied phosphor. but from the lack of discussion i've seen regarding that fact, i'm not sure anyone has fully processed what exactly that means.

he isn't just mimicking flames—he's mimicking a quirk that isn't even his.

it's a little terrifying when you sit down and think about it. jack of all trades, really.

enji todoroki, you could have had your perfect son. there's nothing that boy is incapable of. you just had to give him the chance.

you just had to look at him.

[trashformha]

Since this episode will inevitably stir up bad todofam discourse and I'm a clown who hopes to convince ppl to look at Touya's situation more critically let's look into it, shall we?

First off: Endeavor married Rei for her quirk not out of love.He had children with her because he wanted a successor and not children. This in itself already established that Endeavor is not going to be a good dad.

I mean sure in the first few years he wasn't abusive and things seemed alright. Rei was ok with the situation, Fuyumi was happy and Touya seemed really excited to train with his father but then Touya's quirk started hurting him.

Of course the most reasonable approach here was stop training him. This was not the problem. The problem was that Endeavor neglected him.

There is a reason we are shown this specific scene. Endeavor has a day off and instead of spending it with his family he is heading out. He didn't need to train with him but he could have at least tried to convinced him to do smth else together.

The reason Touya liked training was because he could spend time with his father, so the moment Enji stopped training him he also stopped spending time with his son.

So even if Touya's quirk wasn't harming him think about it: Touya might have surpassed his father but could he really surpass All Might? What would happen if he didn't manage to surpass him? Would Endeavor just start avoiding him? Would he really deal with the situation in a healthy/good way? How would Touya feel about his inability to surpass All Might after his father spend his whole life intoxicating Touya into this role? At the end of the day Enji would have doomed this family one way or another.

Back to the topic at hand. Touya could not be trained. As a result Endeavor had Natsuo and Shoto. This is an even WORSE slap to the face towards Touya. Because Touya might be a child but he is not stupid. His father stops spending time with him and now he has 2 new siblings? Even though their father doesn't bother to spend his free time with the 2 children he already has? Touya KNOWS he's being repalced. And for a child that's still so young and developing this gotta leave psychological scars. What Enji did was cruel towards Touya and it's why he ends up lashing out at Shoto.

Another problem was that Endeavor's attempts at stopping Touya from hurting himself were half-assed. He did not want to face the problem.

Every instance of him talking to touya is him saying to stop because he's hurting himself and to find smth else. He never bothered to sit down and talk through this issue with Touya because then he'd have to admit to himself how awful his behavior has been so far. How he spend years avoiding Touya and didn't spend a single second of his time with Natsuo and Fuyumi either. Natsuo literally describes Endeavor as a stranger despite having lived with the man in a house his whole life.

Eventually everything escalated when Touya makes one last plea to his father to watch him at Sekoto Peak and the later never arrived.

Endeavor was probably never physically violent to Touya in the way he was to Rei and Shoto but that doesn't change the fact that his treatment of Touya was cruel and that he had never been a good father towards him in any way.Touya wasn't born unhinged and evil and his accident at Sekoto Peak is a direct result of Endeavor's actions.

[arvandus]

Hello hello, I know you're not really talking about him recently but truthfully i feel like you understand Dabi's personality the most. So i wanted to ask what MBTI you think he relates to the most?

So, as per usual, the weekend was a bit busy with IRL stuff. But now I'm finally able to answer this!

First off, thank you SO MUCH, it really means a lot to me that you feel I understand him the most. That's very high praise because there are some truly amazing writers and meta-analyzers on here that also have amazing takes on Dabi and his personality.

Also, PLEASE talk to me about Dabi! I still love him so so much, I'll never get tired of answering asks about him, truly. I know I haven't written for him recently, but I don't love him any less.

Okay, back to your question...

So I've looked at this a few different ways... First, I went through and took the personality test as "Dabi"; i.e., I answered the questions the way that I think HE would answer them (this is different from how others may perceive him, btw). I used the test on www.16personalities.com, and the result that I ("Dabi") got was INTP, i.e., the Logician. I also looked at what was listed for him under the personality database website, which was ISFP, the Adventurer. Finally, I simply read up on what each of the categories were on Wikipedia, and thought about it. From what I understand and through my observations of him, I would label him as INFP, the Mediator.

Below the cut I'll show the personality test results, and discuss them by comparing them to the other results. Beware though, both anime and manga spoilers will be present because I use some specific examples to explain the results.

So, from the 16personalities test, here is what Dabi got:

Here's the rest of the descriptors for INTP-T:

I think for the most part this is accurate for him, at least for how he perceives himself. But I think there are going to be some key differences between how he sees himself and how we, as observers, see him.

Let's start...

Introversion:

We definitely can't deny that he's introverted, and that's clear across all three personality types that were assigned to him. He's never meshed well with others, especially on first meetings, thanks to his abrasive personality and very thick walls. This introvertedness may not seem as obvious when one thinks about how badly he wants the attention of his family, and his willingness to go public with his past, etc. But think of those moments... of him recording himself, of him dancing in front of Enji as he revealed himself... think of those things as a performance. Think introverted theater kid. And even then, it wasn't exactly for the purpose of the public's attention, but for his father's attention. His broadcast? Pre-recorded, not live. His face-off with his dad? He didn't give a shit that others were there and watching; his focus narrowed like a singularity; it was only him and his father in that moment.

Another helpful thing to keep in mind is that Introversion doesn't mean you don't want to be around others; it just means that you recharge best when you are by yourself. Dabi still definitely wants to be seen by his loved ones, but I think he is naturally an introverted person in that isolation is something he enjoys as a way to rest and rejuvenate himself. I see him finding most people exhausting to be around.

Intuitive:

This was the one of the portions that differed from his MBTI on the personality database, and I actually agree with the test result more. I see Sensing/Observation as "the scientist" and Intuition as "the philosopher," and I definitely feel that Dabi is more Philosopher than Scientist. Whereas Sensing/Observation is more literal, in the now, and taking things at face value, Intuition is not. That's not to say that Dabi doesn't observe; he absolutely does. But he does so through the lens of his ideals and how all of these individual pieces fit together into his belief system.

Wikipedia describes Intuitive as "imagining the possibilities of how things could be; notice the big picture, see how everything connects; enjoy ideas and concepts for their own sake, and likes to describe things in a figurative, poetic way." While I don't necessarily see him as figurative or poetic, I do think he's a bit of an idealist. He's someone who looks at the bigger picture, who's able to extrapolate a lot of information through observation, more so than what's immediately in front of him. He's a bit of a creative genius in that way, and it's shown by how quickly he was able to develop his quirk through watching his father's battles, and later with his brother, with practically zero practice. Additionally, he's a dreamer, always wanting more for himself, even when he was young, which was why his inability to meet his father's standards was such a huge blow to him. He could see the big picture of heroism and what it meant to society, his family, and to his father (and by proxy to himself) and to not be able to see himself as a part of that picture was incredibly damaging for him. Now, this intuition isn't necessarily something he's utilized for positive gains, at least not positive for others; his focus is very selfish/self-centered in this regard. But he's still able to idealize, imagine, and extrapolate. I also think he'd enjoy deep conversations about morals and hypotheticals, and enjoy playing devil's advocate quite often. He never takes things at face-value, always looking at what's underneath.

Thinking:

This was an interesting one, and the one that I think I wouldn't exactly agree with as an observer of his character. BUT, I think Dabi would believe that he's more thinking than feeling. We know that he's incredibly ruled by his emotions in his decision-making; and I think he embraces those emotions a bit more openly once his big reveal finally happens and he's able to fully pursue his conflict with his father (and by proxy his brother). But, I think Dabi fancies himself as someone who thinks 'logically,' who is smart and isn't swayed by the hearts of others. We see this in how he keeps others at arm's length; at how he keeps a level head during the summer training camp arc, etc. But, at the same time, later on, we see more of his vulnerable side. His strangely kind gesture and words towards Toga was spurred by his care for her. His reaction to Twice's death heavily impacted how he battled Hawks. And of course, we see how emotional he really is with regards to his family.

Now granted, he would most definitely put a 'logical' decision that will get him the result he wants over someone else's feelings, in most cases. When it gets down to it, his feelings will take priority over others' feelings, 9 times out of 10. But that doesn't mean he's a Thinking type; that just means he's selfish, and that if anyone's feelings are going to be listened to, it'll be his own. This doesn't surprise me considering his history of being emotionally neglected, let alone all of the other things that happened to him. Typically, a Feeling type would have a strong sense of altruism for others because they can easier empathize with them... and I think a part of him does empathize with his league comrades, which was why he behaved the way he did with Twice and Toga. But I think overall for Dabi, his Feeling is turned more inward, as he's empathizing with himself. It's a form of self-preservation, a way for him to protect his damaged ego. It clouds his judgment in the sense that he thinks he's not emotional because he's not easily moved by others; and yet, he's very emotionally moved by himself and his own pain.

Perceiving/Prospecting:

This, along with introversion, was consistent across the board of all three methods I used to analyze Dabi. The definition alone from the test describes Dabi to a T; good at improvising and adapting; flexible noncomformist, valuing novelty over stability. Need I say more? Also, Wikipedia describes it as: prefer to leave your options open; see rules and deadlines as flexible; like to improvise; spontaneous...

By contrast, Judging is much more rigid/structured, which doesn't really fit Dabi at all. Judging is all about planning, organizing, staying on task and meeting deadlines... I think Dabi is far too ADHD for that (Shh, I'm not projecting, I swear!).

Just think of it this way: if Dabi had the perfect upbringing and never became a villain, what kind of job would you picture him having? Would he have a desk job, pushing papers and sitting through meetings, doing the 8-5 grind? Or would he have something a little more spontaneous, more flexible, something that would mentally (and likely physically) engage him?

I rest my case.

So, I'd say that there are two answers to your question. If you're really looking at what would Dabi identify himself as, I would say the test would be the most accurate: INTP. (he'd also really like the title of the Logician; it would totally stroke his ego!).

BUT, if you're looking for more what his "true" personality would be, I would say INFP.

Now, the irony of this is that I'm an INFP. Actually, I used to be an INFJ, and that's what I thought I was while writing most of this up. I retook the test earlier today because I was curious if my results had changed at all over the past few years, and apparently they did, and it just so happens to align with what I was assigning Dabi. This could either mean that me assigning INFP to Dabi is due to implicit bias, as I see a lot of myself in him and vice versa, and it's possible that the two have gotten muddled a bit. Alternatively, it could also mean that I'm able to write him so clearly because I understand his character and his personality in a very, well... personal way.

Anyway, I hope that helps! Let me know what you think and which MBTI type you think fits him best! 💕

[bluefuckboy]

Okay but what’s so sad about this is he had no choice. He obviously didn’t want to die on Sekoto, but now everything has been taken away from him.

He’ll never be able to master his quirk. He’ll never be good enough for Endeavor. Even the people who saved his life said he wasn’t good enough.

Clearly he’s been suffering for so long. The physical pain and trauma is obvious. But imagine the mental anguish he’s gone through. Not to mention being in a coma for 3 years during years that are pretty crucial to child development. Age 13 to 16 are critical years, especially when it comes to social and emotional development.

All this to say, if you still think Dabi is a psychotic arsonist who just enjoys killing people for fun, check yourself. And get out. Door’s over there.

[commander-revan]

So I finished reading through the Naruto manga for the first time last night, and I had some thoughts about how similar parts of Obito's and Touya's stories are. They have very different pasts and different reasons for becoming 'villains' in the worlds they live in, but they do have several things in common.

When they're younger they're both bright, energetic, and determined kids that both have a goal of becoming an important person in their communities (hokage/hero). While Obito didn't really have family or parental figures in his life, given that he's Uchiha there's most likely a sense of legacy he's trying to live up to similar to Touya, and they're both working towards their goals so they finally feel seen by those around them. They both feel ignored by the people they consider important (Rin and Minato/Endeavor) in favor of those who are seen as more skilled than them (Kakashi/Shoto), so they train harder and harder in an effort to finally be noticed.

Both of them 'die' tragically young at the age of thirteen, though in very different ways. Obito dies with Kakashi whom he had finally bonded with, and Rin whom he loved though he still didn't have the courage to tell her his feelings. While Touya 'dies' alone, waiting for a father who won't show up for him until he's already gone.

However, they're both saved by a major villain that was thought to be long gone They're revived and healed using rather unethical science (White Zetsu/Nomu). And they both come out of the experience with weaker power than what they once had, and scars covering a large portion of their bodies.

While Touya never buys into AFO's plans and immediately breaks out and runs home, Obito has to stay and recover. Part of him even feels indebted to Madara, even though he is a bit creeped out by him and his philosophy. Eventually, though, he gets out too with the 'help' of one of the Zetsu's. However, when they both arrive to reunite with the people they're trying to get to, they see something that sets them on their dark paths.

They come to different solutions for what they want to do (Infinite Tsukuyomi/getting revenge on his family) but they both spend time walking the world and see how more than just their personal situations are fucked up. They see how much injustice there is in their societies, and how the people up top that are supposed to protect others frequently harm and use them. (The world of Naruto is quite a bit more fucked up than MHA, but the point still stands.)

After that, they both go by an alias (Tobi and Madara/Dabi) and start setting their plans in motion, eventually teaming up with the villain who saved them. Later on, they both fight their past loved ones (Minato and Kakashi/Endeavor and Shoto) who don't realize who they're fighting initially. Though once they do finally get it, Obito and Touya point out how they should have realized it sooner.

(This is a minor one that I didn't quite know where to put, but they do both show up to the final battle with white hair and outfits.)

They both end up fighting and losing to the one that they've always envied (Kakashi/Shoto), but they get back up and do something violently self-destructive that has the power to kill a lot of people that neither has complete control over at first.

During this, and the pain they're experiencing, they both start having flashes of a life that could have been. A life that should have been so simple to have.

That's about where we leave Touya, he's down, but he hasn't been completely saved yet. Meanwhile, thanks to Kakashi and Naruto's efforts, Obito begins to realize that there is hope still in the world, and that not all of it is hell. And he ends up fighting with them to take the bigger threat to the world down. Until he eventually sacrifices himself in the end to save Kakashi (and Naruto), just like he did during his first death.

If Obito, who did way more heinous things than Touya has ever done, can be saved and redeemed in the end, then I believe Touya can too. But, unlike Obito, I think he's going to get to live afterwards.

[rainygirl2399]

how much self-awareness does dabi have?

Sorry for the late reply anon, I am trying to catch up with all the asks that have been sent to me over the past few months. I had a lot of school work to complete for college.

Anyway, regarding Dabi's self awareness, I would argue that he is one of the most self aware characters in the entire manga.

The entire theme around the Todorokis is "to see" and acknowledge each other as a family but also acknowledge the awful truths and problems they have that are rooted in Endeavor's awful decisions.

Examples of Dabi's self awareness are shown multiple times throughout the manga:

Dabi scouting Hawks yet also getting background information on him and his past by tracking down his mom and releasing his real name and past to the public just in case he turned out to be a spy. Even Hawks acknowledged how much he underestimated Dabi as a threat.

The next example would be how he called out his mom Rei's hypocrisy when it came to family expectations, he was that aware and he was only 13 years old.

Basically he tells her he knows her situation with her family and how she had no choice but to choose her marriage with Endeavor to fulfill her family's expectations of her and that is something he is doing too.

When she tells him to look beyond he tells her in his own way that she chose this path too and if she gives that advice to look beyond the hero world then she's basically a hypocrite who regrets her marriage to Enji and thus regrets having him to begin with.

Rei was being a hypocrite here as she was basically telling Toya not to do what she did but he knew she didn't care enough about him to stop having kids to replace him in Endeavor's ambitions and never took her own advice once in her life. While Rei was in a powerless position she acknowledges later on that she didn't .

The best example imo would be how he copied Shoto's Phosphor move because he has owned his battle intuition and quirk all for the sake of vengeance.

Toya always has to work an uphill battle against his own quirk and against others who underestimate him. While the case here is not that Shoto is weak but Toya is just stronger and willing to do anything to achieve his goal and Shoto is a hero who refuses to go all out it it means he'll hurt people unintentionally.

His awareness is not limited to simply gathering intel from heroes but battle intuition and learning moves and how they work by simply looking at them.

Heck even Ujiko commented on his good eye for noticing things.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

How sad is that Dabi is aching because he was a failed experiment and Tomura is suffering because he is a successful experiment.