Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 124

Dabi reveals who he really is and will shake their world to the core. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, a battle of wills occurred in the heart of One For All. Tomura Shigaraki, henceforth referred to as Tomura instead of Shigaraki, attacked Izuku’s mental world while being partially controlled by AFO aka Shigaraki the elder. Izuku got backup in the form of Nana Shimura and Shigaraki the younger, Shigaraki’s younger brother. They were able to force the Shigaraki’s out. Tomura, badly burned and exhausted, is advised telepathically by Shigaraki to bail and recover. Meanwhile, Gigantomachia is getting ever closer. Dabi tells Skeptic, the Paranormal Liberation Front’s tech guy, to prepare to destroy a corrupt hero. Uraraka is pulled aside by a disguised Toga. Toga wants to know where the line is for heroes and decided that Uraraka was the best person to tell her. Let’s get to it.

 

He's bringing enough denim for everyone.
It's much more sinister than it sounds.

We begin with a high-speed plane flying toward the sight of the action, someone inside urging the pilot to fly faster. Who? Best Jeanist. Yep, turns out that the body Hawks gave Dabi as a loyalty test was a fake and Jeanist had been hiding out as part of the infiltration plan. He is impatient to get to the field and help stop the Paranormal Liberation Front.

 

Looks like his healing factor is hitting a bit of a wall.

          After that, we jump back to Izuku as he and Tomura exited One For All’s mental plane. Izuku urges Tomura to just stay down as he passes out and drops. Shoto is able to grab him and throw him onto his pile of injured people before ice sliding to the ground and putting them down. Endeavor is overheating and exhausted, all Izuku’s limbs are broken, and he is also exhausted, and Bakugo is probably, definitely, bleeding out. Not a great day. Shoto prepares to do emergency firsts aid of his friends… just as Tomura drags himself back up. He’s still horribly burned and barely conscious but is still looking to fight. Shigaraki telepathically tells him to escape, but Tomura isn’t listening. He keeps himself aloft on spider legs made from the spikes Shigaraki favors. He’s shot down a second later by Nejire Hado, who announces she’s found them. Iida zooms in and tells Endeavor the situation with Gigantomachia. Iida tells them to fall back, as they’ve warned the other heroes fighting Nomu already. Nejire sees the badly beaten-up Ryukyu and clearly sets her resolve to fight. They’re mentor and student in case you forgot. Izuku isn’t willing to leave, as he knows Tomura is still after One For All and he’ll just track Izuku wherever he goes to get it. Shoto notices that Tomura’s healing is slowing down, so he and Nejire resolve to take him down while they have the chance.

 

We jump over to Uraraka facing off against Toga. She flings Toga off her and resolves to take her down. Uraraka knows she needs to touch Toga to un-gravity her, and that she needs to do it without getting herself cut and her blood stolen, and she has to do it fast… no pressure! Toga tells her that when she sees someone she “loves” she has an overpowering urge to drink their blood, to use her quirk to take on their appearance and live inside their skin. I really, really want this girl to see a therapist. She tells Uraraka about her fight with Curious of the Meta Liberation Army, and how that “mean reporter” called her an unfortunate child and that her quirk was wrong. And how she used Uraraka’s Quirk from blood she stole to lift Curious up and drop her to the pavement. She explains that if she loves a person, she can use their power along with their appearance and that makes her happy. Uraraka, freaked out by these admissions, flings her cables at Toga to try to restrain her. Toga knocks her back and notices Uraraka dropped the All Might ornament Izuku gave her as a White Elephant gift. Uraraka wants her ornament back, reaches for it but Toga dodges out of the way. She says that Twice was precious to her, like a brother. She claims that they’re the same, going so far as calling them twinsies, and points out the obvious that Uraraka has a crush on Izuku. Frustrated by this topic of conversation, and probably seeing her ornament being chewed on by Toga due to her oral fixation, Uraraka decides to take her out fast. She levitates a bunch of the furniture around them, Toga figuring out she touched all the stuff when she fell, grabs them with her cables and flings them at Toga. She calls this technique Zero Satellites. Toga drops the ornament. They fight. Toga says that trying to force back urges only makes them worse, so she should be allowed to act on them. Uraraka tells her that if she threatens people to do what she wants, then she deserves what’s coming to her. Toga, deciding that’s her answer, grabs some knives and prepares to throw them. She thanks Uraraka for the chat. Before she can throw them, Tsu arrives and knocks them away with her extendable tongue. I bet the taste of blood on those things is overwhelming. Toga calls her Tsu and Tsu says that Toga is the one person who can’t call her that. The two hero prepare to fight, but a tremor hits from Gigantomachia, distracting them. Tsu is prepared to fight, but Uraraka says she left after seeing her ornament. As Toga runs to catch up with Gigantomachia, she laments the fact she and Uraraka couldn’t bond over talking about romantic stuff like she planned, but she got her answer and is resolved now.

 

… She… really through Uraraka would want to talk about her complicated feelings toward her best guy friend with her… while fighting with knives? I really hope they send Toga to therapy when she’s finally captured.

 

Gigantomachia finally arrives on the battlefield. Shigaraki is thankful at the fortuitous timing. He reveals that Tomura’s body is at it’s limit from all the fighting, Izuku’s full power OFA strikes and Endeavors Flash Fire attacks have him exhausted and his regeneration at it’s limits. It’s so bad that “rivet stab,” the name of the Quirk that causes the spikes to shoot out, is auto targeting enemies to protect him. He knows they need to tell Gigantomachia to retreat with them. Shoto rushes Tomura, hoping to take him out before Gigantomachia arrives. He and Nejire attack him together, greatly injuring Tomura. Endeavor screams “In coming!” just as Gigantomachia attacks. Bakugo, being carried by Iida, tells him to put him down. He needs a complete victory, or so he says. Gigantomachia captures Tomura and asks for his next order. Spinner climbs up on his shoulder and notes how bad their boss looks after all the fighting. Endeavor mentally apologizes to Hawks, for triggering Gigantomachia and causing so much damage. He resolves to finish Gigantomachia off, but wonders how well that’ll work with a collapsed lung. He remembers his promise when he was officially declared the number one hero for Japan to “just watch” him be the best and refuses to back down.

 

You know it's a cool reveal when I already knew
he was Toya but was still impressed by the execution.

Dabi climbs up, a bottle of water in hand and greets Endeavor and Shoto. He’s excited to see them. Endeavor growls Dabi’s name at him. Dabi scoffs, telling Endeavor to not be rude and act like they never met before. He drains the water bottle over his head… washing out the black hair dye he’s been wearing all this time and revealing snow white locks. He tells Endeavor to call him “Toya. After all, it’s the name you and ma gave me.” Dun dun dahhhhh, Dabi is Toya Todoroki. Called it right away but moving on.

 

We’re shown Skeptic using his computer skills to hack the news broadcasts and play a video Dabi recorded sometime before the raid began. The recording has him shirtless, showing off his network of scars and blackened skin. He reveals himself to be Toya Todoroki and shows off a DNA test to show Endeavor is his father. Oh, and the whole time his mom is watching the video too. You know, for the extra knife twist. Dabi complains to his father and brother that they didn’t recognize him. He knows his face is rather gnarly now, but he thought they might. Izuku, watching, has a flashback to the dinner he had at the Todoroki house, where Shoto and his sister Fuyumi told him and Bakugo about their deceased eldest brother. We go back to the recording, Dabi revealing that he’s killed 30 innocent people. He explains that his father was obsessed with beating All Might, and because he couldn’t do it on his own, forced his mother to marry him and attempted to make a successor that could. He claims that he was a failure, that his father gave up on him and left him. As he confesses this, we’re shown the destruction Gigantomachia wrought in his sprint across Japan, and that pink haired kid that cheered Endeavor on during the Hood fight, looking disgusted.

 

Dabi tells his father and brother that they may have forgotten them, but he has never forgotten the family and has been watching them from the shadows. He says that of all the people in the world, Endeavor should be beyond reproach, and to break that ideal, he’s streaming his reveal to all the devices in Japan. Dabi claps his hands and does a little dance, admitting that he’s finally having a bit of fun watching his father’s reputation crumble. He admits that ever since he was “burned” that destroying him was all he thought about. We get a flashback shot to Toya as a child, his hair partially red and partially white, sobbing. He claims he clung to Natsuo for support and that he didn’t know why he existed. He reveals that he’d planned on waiting for Shoto to be “complete” and kill him right after to crush his father’s dreams, but then he became the number 1 hero and he saw a better opportunity. He reveals that he was actually worried that Hood would kill him before his plan was ready, and that he lead villains like the glass controlling dude and End to his home to build his rep. He screams at his father that the public adoration must have gotten to him and that’s why he tried to bond with his children after all this time. He claims that the past never dies and declares “Enji Todoroki, let’s fall together!” Shoto and Endeavor both look on at this tirade with looks of utter horror. He tells his father to dance with him in hell.

 

Father and son in better times.

Endeavor flashes back to the incident that he thought killed Toya. It was a cold and windy day when Toya seemingly was incinerated in a fire he caused. The fires were raging at over 2000 degrees Celsius, that they were assured that the heat had destroyed even his bones, and that all they recovered was part of his jawbone. We flashback a little farther, to when the first bits of white appeared in Toya’s hair. He asks if Toya dyed it or something but Toya denies it and instead insists his father teach him an ultimate move. Endeavor reveals in voiceover that he knew that Toya’s quirk had a greater potential than his own… but the change in hair color was a reveal that this was a sign that Toya hadn’t inherited heat resistance from him but instead cold resistance from his mother. But, he still wanted to raise Toya as a hero and kept training him. He reveals that he and Rei had more children in part because he hoped for a child with the right combination of their powers, but also because Rei wanted a big family. Fuyumi didn’t have the quirk combination he wanted, either, but at the time he was fine as he had Toya and planned on making his son the ultimate fire elemental. He believed that Toya could succeed where he failed, that in his jealousy and frustration and rage that his son could be better. We’re shown the mental image he always had of the back of All Might, a great chasm between them, but Toya with red hair walking across a bridge between them and Endeavor smiling evilly.

 

In the present, Endeavor says that his son is dead, and these are disgusting lies. Dabi, a deranged smile on his face, says that no, he’s very much alive. He taunts his father for not recognizing him and asks if it’s because fire Quirks are so common, he didn’t stand out. Meanwhile, Spinner and Mr. Compress are trying to wake Tomura up so he can give Gigantomachia orders. But they take a moment to be impressed with Dabi hiding this from them for so long, and Mr. Compress notes that their group has impressive lineages. Dabi offers to do a DNA test to prove it and admits to him he’s already done it and released the results. Cutting back to the video for a moment, he admits to his father abusing his children even after he got the hybrid he wanted in Shoto. We’re shown Fuyumi and Natsuo seeing the footage too and being horrified. The pink haired kid tries to defend Endeavor, saying that these are obvious lies, but Dabi then reveals that he got footage of Hawks stabbing Twice in the back to kill him. He claims that heroes working Endeavor are just as bad. It’s reveals that adding the Twice stuff was what Skeptic had been working on and he says it was hastily done but fine work. Dabi reveals to his father he did digging on Hawks. The video also reveals that Hawks “killed” Best Jeanist to win favor with them. Hawks, we’re shown, is heavily bandaged and unconscious in a medical tent. Dabi’s video claims that Hawks’ father was a petty criminal that had been arrested by Endeavor. It’s the reason why Hawks kept his own past a secret. He’s unsure if this was fate or if his dad just draws damaged people to him. He ends the video by claiming that the heroes are just protecting themselves. A friend of the pink haired kid says that people are going to believe this just because Dabi revealed it first and there’s no evidence against it, much to pink haired kids shock.

 

Dabi puts his hands to his ears as if he can hear the negative comments rolling out and then thanks his father for living long enough to see this day. He leaps at Endeavor, screaming his name. As he charges, Endeavor is having a mental breakdown. He thinks about how he searched for Toya after the fire, that he always believed he was alive. Shoto ignites his flames telling his father to protect Izuku while he and Nejire fight Dabi, but Endeavor is stunned. Dabi ignites his own flames and preforms a Flash Fire Fist attack, Prominence Burn. Before he can hit, though, Best Jeanist arrive and uses his power to control threads to capture all the League Members in heavy cables. He announces that as of this moment he’s back. Hell yeah!

 

This episode was great. Just amazing. I will admit, from the attack on the training camp I assumed Dabi was the supposedly dead Toya. Extremely potent firepower, the glee he seemed to take on beating Shoto (a kid at that point he should know virtually nothing about), his obsession with Endeavor, the reveal that Toya “died” in a serious fire, all these things point to the deranged fire user with mysterious burns being something more than a serial killer walking in off the streets. Oh, and this was probably only obvious in the anime where everything is in color, but he has the same shade of blue eyes as Shoto’s blue one. Despite expecting it, the presentation was amazing. Revealing, not outright lies but a heavily biased towards the negative, information about their family history to destroy Endeavor’s career is indeed a masterstroke from Dabi. He wasn’t lying to Hawks when he said that he really was the one Hawks should have kept an eye on. I also liked that we did see some of the scenes from Endeavor’s point of view and that again, while I’d never go so far as to say he’s a consistently good parent, I would say there was a point where he wasn’t awful. Maybe Rei’s perspective will refute it, but I got the vibe that he genuinely loved his children. Would he be happy if one got the power set that he wanted? Yes, but, I don’t know, that seems like it was and would have remained a secondary priority if Toya hadn’t started burning himself when he used his powers. Also, having Dabi use Prominence Burn to try to murder his father was brilliant. I don’t know why, but there’s just something so… viscerally wrong in a student/mentor fight when the student uses a mentor’s attack against them. It’d be like if when Vader fought Obi-wan, he had the articulation to use a high guard stance against him. Including all his family’s reaction to his return was a nice touch too. Props for showing that it looks like Rei and Fuyumi are shocked but it’s the Todoroki boys that are like, truly horrified by it. The fact that Endeavor was so stunned and overwhelmed by this that he definitely would have been killed without Jeanist feels right. I liked Uraraka vs. Toga too, it was a short confrontation, but it showed off how much stronger Uraraka’s gotten, and that Toga is conflicted about everything. Even after saying this helped her make a choice. Again, great episode. Next time, we’re finally doing Ant-Man 3. See you then. 

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