BNHA ch 267 - Dabi & Caring
BNHA chapter 267 has one panel that has been polarizing. In one panel, Dabi tells Hawks that he’s never given a crap about the League.
However, this isn’t the first time Dabi has said something along the same lines. For example, in chapter 224, the League meets up in the outskirts of Deika City. Giran has been kidnapped by the MLA, and now the League is tryna rescue him. Dabi questions why he had to get involved in this, and Twice tells him to show some respect ‘cause Giran brought Dabi to the League, in which Dabi responds: “Like I care.”
Previously, in chapter 222, the League is preparing to challenge Gigantomachia. Shigaraki has told the League about his early childhood, and Dabi is the first one to break the silence. He tells Shigaraki that he doesn’t care about Shigaraki’s feelings, and that he isn’t gonna help the League with Gigantomachia since he has other things in his mind. Shigaraki is entirely fine with this. He tells Dabi that he’s looking forward to meeting this new ally who’s keeping Dabi occupied. So, technically, nothing or no one forces Dabi to do anything he doesn’t want to do.
Yet, in chapter 227, when Dabi sees Shigaraki pushing forward, he decides to fight against the MLA with the rest of the League.
If Dabi just needed a criminal organization to back him up and make sure that he stays alive as long as he needs to in order to accomplish his personal goal, why doesn’t he try to betray the League here and join the MLA? He ends up fighting against Geten, and this battle could’ve ended in Dabi’s death. As Geten points out in chapter 230, Dabi can’t fight for very long without getting burnt by his own flames. He still decides to fight ‘til the end, tho. A cold and calculative mastermind would retreat, but Dabi won’t.
In the same chapter, Dabi refuses to help Mr. Compress against the MLA, but this is not ‘cause he doesn’t care. Instead, Dabi spots an army of Twice’s clones and tell Compress to join them. So, essentially Dabi is making sure that Compress does the smart thing even when he’s tryna focus on his own battle against Geten.
The thing is that Dabi is not vocal about his emotions. More often than not, he’s not present when the rest of the League is just hanging out, and no one knows what he does. No one knows anything about his likes, and the only thing time he’s said anything about liking or disliking stuff without a manic smile on his face happens in chapter 240 where he tells Spinner that Spinner can have his sushi ‘cause he hates fish. One could even say that this is a peace offering since Dabi did insult Spinner in chapter 160 by calling him “Lizard”, and Spinner hated it. So, why does he make extra sure to inform that he doesn’t care about the League whenever he can?
To fully understand Dabi, you have to look at the situation where Dabi is in. This arc started around chapter 258 with a flashback. Hawks recollects how he and Twice became “friends”, and around chapters 258 – 259, it is revealed that the heroes are going to attack in two locations, the Jaku Hospital and the PLF hideout. So, at this point, the heroes are attacking the villains, and in chapter 263, Cementoss makes the first move against the PLF by tearing the mansion wall down with his quirk. The PLF assembles, but Dabi is shown to go the opposite way from them, and Toga and Compress don’t seem to join the rest of the PLF either, which indicates that none of them are on board with the PLF’s plans.
In chapter 264, Dabi is walking upstairs and approaching the room where Hawks and Twice are fighting. So, at this point Dabi must’ve been aware of Twice’s whereabouts, and sure, one could argue that he’s been keeping an eye out for Hawks ‘cause he looks like he’s so ready to kill Hawks, but him being thrilled about his plan coming together doesn’t mean that he can’t care about the League members. These feelings won’t contradict one another.
In chapter 265 Hawks tells Twice that he’ll make sure that the League will know what Twice said about the League before his death. Hawks is about to deliver the final blow when Dabi enters the stage, telling Hawks that there’s no need to deliver any messages and that he’d heard everything loud and clear. This is also where Dabi overpowers Hawks and stomps on his face. Chapter 266 begins with Dabi verbally defending Twice after Hawks has said that Twice is unlucky. When Dabi talks to the League members, he’s rude, but Hawks is an outsider, and Dabi isn’t having it. Dabi has nothing to gain here since he could encourage Twice later on if he needed to do that, and that’d be enough. But instead, Dabi speaks to Hawks, calling Hawks’ standard screwed up. This is not how “not caring” works.
The fight continues, and Dabi tells Twice that the others are waiting. He is referring to Toga and Compress instead of the entire PLF, and if Dabi’s only goal was to make sure that his side wins, it’d make more sense for him to tell Twice to go assist heavy hitters such as Geten. Toga and Compress are stealth fighters, especially Toga, so from a strategical POV, they aren’t the best people clone at first in such a strength-based battle where blows need to be delivered fast. And this also indicates that Toga and Compress lowkey know what Dabi is planning. Dabi even gives Twice a high five before they part ways, and this isn’t a cold and calculated move from someone who’s supposed to conjure fire from both hands. No, it was a brotherly move.
Everything goes wrong when it turns out that Hawks is faster than anticipated. The chapter 266 ends when Twice dies ‘cause Hawks managed to stab him from behind. However, one remaining clone of his manages to save Toga and Compress from the heroes before the clone melts away, Toga hugging him.
We don’t get to see Dabi’s reaction ‘til chapter 267, but boy, he is enraged. He usually likes to burn his enemies as fast as he can (like those street thugs in chapter 115 and Snatch in chapter 160), but right now, he’s being deliberately slow. He’s basically treating Hawks like his new favorite chewing toy, and he smiles this manic smile throughout the entire chapter as he continues to torture Hawks with his flames. At this point, Hawks has lost his wings, but Dabi is prolonging this fight ‘cause he wants Hawks to suffer for killing Twice. Again, an emotion-based move, and from a strategic POV, this isn’t the best idea. So, this highlights that Dabi cares. He wants blood and ashes ‘cause he fcking cares.
Now, to recap the entire situation, the PLF has been attacked just mere moments ago, and Dabi is in the middle of a fight, and he’s lost a friend. He’s never talked about his feeling except when he’s highlighting how little he cares about the League, but the thing is that if you don’t care about people, you don’t remember to bring them up. Dabi does. Every time. Sure, Hawks is kinda pushing it by asking Dabi if that’s a face of a man who’s lost a friend. Hawks says that he’s looked into the League’s backgrounds and that there was no info about Dabi or Shigaraki. This is where Dabi tells Hawks that Hawks should’ve focused on Dabi instead of anyone else – and this is also where Dabi says that he doesn’t care about the League. But the thing is that there’s absolutely no point in saying that if this that’s the case. Statements like that don’t achieve a thing, but they do have shock value, and when you are a criminal, you do have a lot of enemies. You wanna people to think that you care about no one ‘cause if people think this is true, no one will be held against you.
So, this is not “not caring”. This is trash talk coming from someone who wishes they didn’t care the way they do.
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