Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 117

 Who IS Dabi?

Last time on My Hero Academia, Hawks attempted to take out Twice. The No. 2 hero revealed himself as the traitor to the Paranormal Liberation Front. He admits he’s taking out Twice now because he knows Twice is one of the most dangerous elements to the PLF. Twice, hating himself for thinking he caused another plan to fail, refuses to go down and tries to fight Hawks. Hawks almost takes him out, but is interrupted by Dabi. Dabi slows Hawks by burning his wings and freaks him out by using his real name, Keigo Takami. Despite this, Hawks does take out Twice. Twice is able to clone himself, though, and uses the last of his strength to free Toga and Mr. Compress from being captured before melting away. At the same time, Tokoyami helps Fat Gum and Amajiki to destroy an exit from the PLF lower level. Dark Shadow tells him that Gigantomachia is in the lower level as well, but Fat Gum tells him not to worry. This makes me worry, not going to lie. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Tokoyami giving us a brief summary of Hawks and his Quirk, Fierce Wings. Basically, he’s fast, cunning, and strong. Tokoyami at one point asked him what his weakness is, and Hawks reveals it is fire. … well… crap. He says that his method for dealing with fire is to take out enemies before fire is introduced. And he’s currently fighting Dabi. … Who’s whole thing… is big fire blasts. Oh my god, he is going to die.

 

Fataxi, AWAY!

We jump to Fat Gum using his doughy body to carry the four UA students from the frontline now that their tasks are complete. Honenuki asks if it’s really a good idea for them to pull back so soon, Kirishima adding they can still be helpful. Fat Gum tells t hem not to worry. Their big area attacks were indispensable at the start, but as they round up enemy combatants and the field shrinks, they’ll do more harm than good. Its at that moment when they see Dabi’s blue flames raging in the upper level of the villain, letting them know the situation Hawks is in.

 

This day pivoted on Hawks hard...

Dabi, meanwhile, is fighting Hawks and chastising him for killing Twice. Dabi sounds extremely pissed as he kicks Hawks around and yells at him for killing Twice… but Hawks notices he’s got the biggest sociopathic grin on his face as he talks about it. Mixed signals are so creepy in this context. Dabi tells him to shut up and reveals he can’t cry because his tear ducts are burnt shut. Dabi says that Twice was invaluable to the League of Villains, his life made Dabi’s “dream” seem possible, so his death has him absolutely furious. Hawks demands to know what his deal is, revealing that he was able to get details on every one of the members of the League of Villains except Dabi and Shigaraki. The man is a ghost, having no story before showing up at the League’s recruitment drive after Stain’s arrest. Hawks remembers that Dabi knows his name. He flashes back to when he was a child with an Endeavor toy, where he’s told to give up his name to be part of a special program to make him a great hero. Child Hawks agreed to it, so long as he could be made into a hero that makes people smile, like Endeavor did when he saved him. His own anger boiling over, Hawks demands to know who Dabi is. Dabi, shockingly, says his name. Both in the Anime and Manga, we don’t hear it. Dabi just mouths the words here, and in the manga the speech balloon was blank. But Hawks hears it, and the name stuns and terrifies him. Dabi tells Hawks that, more than Twice, more than on any army of villains, Hawks should have kept his attention of Dabi. He admits to not giving a damn about the League of Shigaraki, they’re a means to an end for him. He claims that a single person’s obsession can change the world and he will prove it by destroying the hero hypocrites and carry out Stains will. He further burns Hawks wings as he talks.  Hawks, somehow, flashes back to Stain’s big declaration that he’ll kill the fakes and hypocrite heroes and that only All Might is worthy of stopping him. Dabi tells Hawks “see ya” and that his death means nothing as he tries to incinerate him.

 

Dabi's almost done playing.

In the lower levels, Re-Destro tells his people to be calm as Gigantomachia holds his little radio up waiting for a signal. We cut to the command center where everything seems to be going well.

 

Endeavor and Aizawa meet up with Crust. His team are having trouble stopping the High End, as it can regenerate, but Aizawa cuts off his Quirk and Endeavor burns it, greatly weakening the High End. Crust tells them to go help Mirko as they’ve got this now.

 

Mirko is doing far better than a recent amputee should in a fight. She’s still running and hopping circles around the Nomu. Unfortunately, they’re speed is picking up and are getting harder for her to hit. She tries to make a break for it to take Shigaraki and Garaki, but the Nomu grab her, ripping her hair and injuring one of her legs. She says that every Rabbit knows that the keep to escaping is to focus on running. She makes it into the area with Shigaraki’s tube, but the Nomu stabs her with it’s tentacle, severing her right leg at the knee. She refuses to give up, though and follows through with her attack. Endeavor, Aizawa, Crust and his crew arrive, distracting the Nomu long enough for Mirko to start kicking Shigaraki’s tube.

 

They quickly take out two of the Nomu. The surviving High End, one that has the overall body shape of a woman, quickly deduces that Aizawa is the reason it can’t use its powers and that it’s likely vision based due to Aizawa’s gear. This one proves to be significantly smarter than Hood. They try to chase it down but it keeps dodging they’re attacks and regenerating if it gets hit. The Nomu that Endeavor has pinned starts to recover and stretches it’s tentacles to stab her again. Mirko plays through the pain, though, and sends cracks through Shigaraki’s tube. The process was at 74%, which causes Garaki to freak out. Mirko gets pulled back and into Endeavor. She’s missing her left arm, has huge chunks taken out of her side and both legs, but she’s alive. Endeavor starts cauterizing her wounds, saying she can’t die on him given how much he owes her. He’s interrupted by the lady Nomu arriving, saying killing the No. 1 hero will make it feel even better.

 

The others are still battling the Nomu. Mirko warns them over the radio that Shigaraki is in some kind of activation tube like the other Nomu. The tube was damaged by her kick but not destroyed. She warns them that he’s obviously more powerful now and that electricity would activate him. Aizawa knows Rocklock and other backup will be arriving soon, but the three Nomu they’re fighting are a problem for them, and the lady Nomu that escaped his line of sight is probably fighting Endeavor. Aizawa tells Present Mic and another hero to help. The High Ends try to stop him but they’re able to get away.

 

Garaki should count himself lucky Present Mic
is too much a professional to get payback right now.

Inside, Garaki is working to get Shigaraki online. He needs to wake him before more of the solution leaks out despite his reservations. He hits a button to do so, but Present Mic runs in and uses his sonic voice to finally, totally shatter the tube. Present Mic rushes Garaki, remembering Aizawa telling him that he’ll go along with him if he goes to fight. He punches Garaki to check to see if he’s the real one. The other hero checks Shigaraki but finds that he doesn’t have a heartbeat. Garaki reveals that Shigaraki was put into suspended animation to reduce the strain on his body from the modifications. The tube he was in was meant to revive him. Garaki sobs as his plan to see through have been foiled. Present Mic drabs Garaki off, to try to stop the Nomu, telling the other hero to handle Shigaraki.

 

As Present Mic carries Garaki, Garaki starts expounding on his Quirk Singularity Theory and now no one took it seriously 70 years ago when he proposed it except All For One. Present Mic, scoring a nat 20 on his history check, remembers that the scientist credited with coming up with the Quirk Singularity Theory, later dubbed the Quirk Doomsday Theory, disappeared shortly there after and would have to be over 120 by now. Okay, so we’re looking at My Hero Academia happening 130-150 years after the shining baby. Garaki pontificates how awesome All For One is. He reveals that he’s the reason AFO is still kicking, as his Quirk is called Life Force. It effectively doubles a person’s life span at the cost of physical strength. He even admits that what he has now is a copy of Quirk, having given the original to AFO. Okay, so that suggests that All For One works by taking a quirk and allowing AFO to make copies of any Quirks he’s taken in. Garaki asks if Present Mic is a friend of Kurogiri and admits that the accident that killed Oboro Shirakumo was actually meant for Aizawa, as he and AFO wanted Erasure. Present Mic calls him the most revolting monster he ever encountered.

 

So... it begins.

Meanwhile, Shigaraki wakes up in a kind of astral plane. He sees destroyed buildings, hands, and fragments of his memories floating about. He sees Hana, his mother and father. He disintegrates his dad almost immediately. He sees AFO in the distance, part of his face covered in black energy, calling him towards him. Garaki, in the physical world, reveals that AFO knew his time was limited so had entrusted everything to Shigaraki. He even had his own Quirk removed and replaced with a copy to transfer it to Shigaraki. Shigaraki goes for his master, but the memories of his family try to stop him, grabbing him like his hands used to, including Nana. Nana tells him to make sure he doesn’t forget. Shigaraki disintegrates them all, saying they will see him as he is. In the real world, a spark from a broken machine hits the fluid and sparks Shigaraki back to life. Oh, shit.

 

This episode has a lot jammed into it. Dabi’s ‘fight’ with Hawks is a bit of a standout moment, as I think we got more of his real personality in those five minutes than we’ve had in the dozen or two episodes he’s appeared in thus far. We see a very sadistic grin on his face as he talks about the death of Twice and of his “dream” to see Stain’s will fulfilled. Like, I’d be willing to bet there’s a few viewers out there that forgot that Dabi was majorly influenced by Stain given how little he’s talked about him or anything. He has a history with heroes, his offhand comment about them being the real bad guys, how its important to learn that before you waste time worshiping them, and the like suggest he’s intimately familiar with heroes. And his name. Again, at this point in the story we have no confirmation of who he really is, beyond that the man behind the name Dabi is incredibly dangerous to the hero system, somehow. I’d already figured out who he is by now, FYI, but I’ll save that info for when Dabi reveals it. The fight with the Nomus was super intense too. Just seeing the intelligence difference between the basic monsters and the High Ends was chilling. The lady High End figured out Aizawa’s whole strategy in seconds and nearly took out Endeavor with its superior tactics. The five of these things together could have probably killed all the heroes if Garaki had awakened them earlier. Oh, and the worldbuilding stuff is neat, like getting a definite age on Garaki and how long One For All has been operating. Garaki has been working on this project for 70 years, and Quirks have been a thing for over 120. I’d high ball it to say 150, at this point, giving Garaki at least a few generations to observe to come up with his theory. As I believe I mentioned before, Garaki was the Quirk specialist in the first episode that told the Midoriya’s that Izuku wouldn’t ever get a Quirk. There’s a fan theory that Garaki lied, Izuku did have a quirk, but it was somehow stolen at some point. While I do buy the idea Garaki used consults like that to track and steal powers, I prefer Izuku being not a victim in that. What? I like chosen one narratives as much as the next guy, but I think it’s a more interesting story if Izuku never had power at all than he was robbed of it. Shigaraki coming online is terrifying and it’s going to have MAJOR repercussions. But more on that next time, see you then. 

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