One of the major antagonists of the anime series My Hero Academia, Dabi is quite famous. The badass vibe that he gives off has also stolen the hearts of many. One of the most famous traits Dabi is known for is his scar and his blue flame quirk.
So, let’s talk about his scar. How did a powerful character end up having such a big scar? We all know the severity of the scar. It extends from his ears to his leg. The remaining skin is attached to a metallic staple piercing.
Although many believe that he had the scar since he was a child, not many are aware of the exact story. The story about how he ended up with such a big scar is still not known well. First of all, let’s know more about our famous villain and his personality.
Do you know Dabi’s real name is not what he is known for?
Dabi: A-Rank Villian
Our famous antagonist is a young 24-year-old boy with spiky hair and blue eyes. Speaking about his physical structure, he is quite tall and has his face and body full of scars. He wears quite simple outfits that do not seem to garner much attention.
He wore simple outfits in the whole series. We do see some outfit changes but they are not quite vast or extreme. We can consider baggy and rough look to be his signature look. This proves he doesn’t care much about his appearance and having a scar also didn’t give him much image insecurity.
More talking about his personality, he is a perfect example of a villain. He is rude and argumentative with no sense of respect for anyone even his allies. We also see him as quite secretive seeing how he didn’t reveal his real name when introducing himself to Tomura.
Like Toga, Dabi also admired the ideology of Stains. He believes himself to be the one to fulfill Stain’s view of the world. So, he would go harm the people and the heroes. Well, he might believe that he is fulfilling Stain’s ideology but it was just an excuse for his violent actions.
Dabi didn’t understand Stain’s ideology. What Stain was trying to do was bring back the meaning of a real hero but Dabi was simply destroying the exciting society of humanity as a whole. So, Dabi’s actions were completely different from what Stain wished for the world.
He also hated the fact that he was raised among the heroes. Yes, you heard it right. Dabi’s father was a hero. Not only a simple hero but top hero Endeavour. He was the eldest son of Enji Todoroki, aka Endeavour. His real name was Toya Todoroki.
You might wonder how he ended up being a villain. We are going to talk about that later on in this blog. So, being the son of one of the most powerful heroes makes him the inheritor of great power. Although he didn’t grow up to be what many would expect, a hero.
The result of Dabi being a top villain is mainly because of his past. The scar is also related to that past. Stick with us, we are going to see how he got that scar.
Dabi’s Scar
Dabi, when he was still Toya, usually trained with his father, Endeavour. Later he was abandoned by his father. The reason for his abandonment was that his father didn’t get the outcome that he desired from his eldest son Toya. So, he completely ignored his existence.
So, Toya decided to train himself and went to Sekoya Peak training to make his father believe in him again. This led to him becoming obsessed with his father’s vision. This led him to despair and frustration. After his mother gave birth to the perfect son, Shoto Todorki, his father completely abandoned him.
He went to despair further and further and that didn’t stop him from being determined to become a pro hero and a No 1 hero. He used to train alone and was also able to unlock blue flame which depended on his pent-up emotions.
Seeing that he was able to create such a unique flame, he hoped his father would now acknowledge him. But it didn’t end up how he expected it to be. He asked his father to come to Sekoya Peak to see his new power but to his dismay, he didn’t come.
This disappointed Toya greatly and despised his father. His emotion of hate towards his father riled him up and created a big flame. Since the flame was controlled by his emotion, it burned up greatly and lost control of his power.
He also never learned to decrease the heat, it only increased more and more and ended up burning his whole body. The flames exceeded 3500Âş F which scorched up the whole body of Dabi.
So, this brings us to the conclusion that the scar that Dabi had, had come from his childhood. His quirk was the cause of him having such a big scar. But does the story ends with that? Until now many believed that is the reason why Dabi got his scar but that is not the whole truth.
The real reason why the scar stayed till now?
Spoiler Ahead!!!
Thanks to the manga chapter 350, it is revealed that Dabi was always targeted by All for One. His scarred face and body were the result of Dr. Garaki’s work preventing him from dying.
After going through the severe burn, many expected him to die at that moment. Since only the jaw bone of Dabi was found, they believed that Dabi was incinerated to ash. But that was not what really happened.
All for One and Garaki had planned to make Toya their possible disciple. Seeing that he possesses his father’s power they believed him to be the potential to have a powerful quirk. So, his burning body was pulled out by All for One, and that prevented him from turning into ashes.
The scars became permanent scars after Dr. Garaki tried to restore the burned body of Dabi. The whole procedure to restore his body took about three years. Garaki used artificial skin to restore his appearance. The procedure used to restore Dabis’s body was kind of similar to the way Nomus was made.
So, did Dr. Garaki keep the scars to make him look cool?
It would have been quite interesting if that was the case but that is not true. The scars on Dabi’s body denoted that his process to fully restore Toya was a failure. Him not being able to restore his body to its original form was a great failure. After the plastic surgery, Dr. Garaki announced that he would be able to live for just a month.
But seeing Dabi as a villain, it wasn’t true. The reason he was able to live was the pure hatred he had for his father. This allowed him to live past this expiration date.
Dabi’s Past
Dabi grew up in a toxic environment. When he was still Toya, he had a good relationship with his siblings and his mother. But on the other hand, his father was quite selfish and only desired to obtain his main goal to surpass All Might and become the No. 1 hero. So, he never experienced love and care from his father.
All Might was so popular and powerful during that time. So, there was no sign of success in obtaining the goal. Therefore he moved his goal toward his children. He was so focused that he tried to force his objective on his children. He married Rie Todoroki, an ice quirk holder just to create a perfect child who possesses both his fire quirk and his ice quirk.
When Toya was born he inhabited the same quirk as his father. Although he didn’t possess the power that his father expected him to have, Endeavour still thought he would be able to achieve it. At that time he was able to produce just red flame. Being the eldest son of the family, he had to go through abuse from his father to be powerful.
He had to undergo extreme training, but later in the manga episode 301, it is revealed that Endeavour stopped training Toya after his flame started hurting him. He got his first burn when trying to learn Flash Fire Fist. Endeavor lost his hope in him and abandoned him.
He did have a powerful quirk but not a powerful body to handle his power because of his mother’s quirk’s resistance to ice. This limited his use of the abilities due to his low tolerance for fire.
Seeing that Toya won’t be able to handle the power, he turned his focus to Shoto Todorki. The youngest son of Endeavour. Shoto also grew up with the same abuse and expectation that his father had towards Toya. Shoto was also never allowed to interact with his sibling.
So, Toya and Shota didn’t have a close relationship with each other. Toya hated Shoto because his father only cared about Shoto. This is why Dabi hated Shoto Todoraki and Endeavour.
Why does Dabi have Staples?
We all are aware of the staple around the edge of his scars. It seemed like the stitches were holding his remaining skin to his body. So, the question arises why staples are used to hold off the skin. There are other options available for the same purposes.
The reason is the quirk that Dabi has. He has a fire quirk capable of even burning himself. So, if stitches were made of plastic or rope then they would have burned off. So, to prevent that metal staples were used to hold his skin. Since metal does not get damaged easily by fire, it is the best option.
Was Endeavour aware that Dabi was his Eldest Son?
No, Endeavor wasn’t aware that Dabi was his eldest son. He believed that his eldest son Toya Todoroki had died when he was just thirteen years when he lost control of his power.
In chapter 290 of My Hero Academia, Dabi revealed him to be Endeavour’s eldest son. This comes as a shock to both the father and the younger brother Shoto Todoroki.
At the peak of the war between the hero and the villain, Dabi declares his real name to be Toya Todoroki when encountering Endeavour and Shoto. In the process of declaring his true identity, he reveals his pure white hair along with the blood test proving him to be Endeavor’s eldest son.
The revelation led Dabi’s father and brother to be frozen with shock. This proves that Endeavor was not aware of the fact that Dabi was his eldest son until he revealed himself.
Can Dabi be considered a Nomu?
Although it is not mentioned that Dabi is a Nomu, the procedure to restore Dabis’s burned body says otherwise. it is just a theory that Dabi might be a Nomu. So, to prove that theory let’s look at some similarities.
It is well known that All for One has access to medical technology to keep him alive and create Nomu that possesses multiple quirks at once. Nomu was created for dead humans and utilizing their quirks in them.
One of the great examples is Kurogiri, who has certain parts of Oboro Shikakmaru who died from being crushed by falling debris during the work-study. All for one was able to bring back a dead person, not in their original form but as a Nomu.
So, we can say that it is possible for All for One to bring Toya alive from the dead and simply name him Dabi. Like Kurogiri, it was possible for Dabi to have his own intelligence and personality. The main reason they were able to defy death was their strong base desires.
The base desired for Kurogiri was loyal and maintained his loyalty and Dabi has a strong desire for vengeance. So, simply this theory proves that Dabi might be a Nomu.
Since it is not mentioned in the anime series or in the manga, we cannot be sure. This is just a theory and we do not want you to believe it to be true. But just imagine planting the idea that his eldest son is a Nomu must be one of the cruelest things All for One can do.
What do you think about this theory? Does this theory really work? Do you believe that there is more truth to be revealed behind the origin of Dabi and his villainous tendencies? Let us know what you think.
