Dabi vs Kurogiri: Whom Had The Better Academia Reveal?

Quite personally, I am not happy with the latest reveal in My Hero Academia. It was painfully obvious that Dabi was a Todoroki. There was no way around it. Even the fans speculated there was something going on with Dabi. The fact that Dabi had a flame based quirk, added with hair style and eyes to Shota Todoroki gave it all away. Also, considering that the Todoroki family had a messy backstory, it was bound to come up one way or another.

In many ways, I feel let down. I expected something much more sinister and much more in depth. In my honest opinion, it comes off so bland in Dabi’s reveal. I can imagine all My Hero Academia fans whom argued over Dabi’s true identity are now going, “We told you so!”. For those whom doubted the Dabi/Toya Todoroki connection, I can state for the record, those same people are now eating their words. All of the clues were set in stone by Kohei Horikoshi himself. How hard could have it been for someone to have missed it?! In all honesty, there was no need to reveal Dabi as a Todoroki. We all knew it.

Endeavor’s abuse of his own family in surpassing All Might was bound to cause problems. And it wasn’t just, for instance, with Shoto Todoroki’s angst, or Rei Todoroki’s mental breakdown either. With Dabi, we have now seen the end result. Though I am not proud of Dabi’s reveal, I am however pleased with Dabi’s origin story coming to light. Sure, it may sound contradictory, but it is perhaps a realistic depiction of a villain origin story.

Now the question remains: what is next with Dabi? Since revealing himself to the world as the son of Endeavor, it seems that Dabi’s victory has been assured. Dabi has revealed Endeavor’s mistreatment to his family and himself. Thus, ruining any chance the public had at seeing Endeavor as a decent Number One Pro Hero.

Yet, back on Dabi’s ultimate reveal. This pales in comparison to the reveal regarding Kurogiri. I was in complete shock that Kurogiri was once Oboro Shirakumo. When it was said that Kurogiri was once a classmate of Present Mic and Eraserhead, it really unnerved me. At first, I was under the impression that Kurogiri was a former U.A. High student whom had gone astray. Yet, upon learning that Kurogiri was merely the demented creation of Doctor Ujiko, has left me divided.

On one hand, Kurogiri’s origins depict how depraved Doctor Ujiko is as a villain. Turning a former pro hero student into a Nomu can enable us to see Doctor Ujiko more heartless than imagined. However, it would have been more interesting to see a hero student becoming a villain. After all with the high standards of U.A. High, it would have been more interesting to see a student becoming corrupted.

Despite all of this, I am not sure there is much more that can be done with Kurogiri. Considering he is locked away in Tartarus prison, Kurogiri’s role is over as of now. As with Dabi, we do see a chance for something new to be done with him. Now that its revealed that Dabi is, indeed Toya Todoroki, now we can see an opportunity for Horikoshi to do something fresh.

Now I know this will irk many readers, but what if Endeavor’s new mission was to save his son? Yes, a hero bringing a family member corrupted by evil back to side of good has been done before. (Here’s looking at you, Darth Vader!) However, when considering the darkness in Dabi’s heart, could Rei Todoroki be the key to his redemption?

Various fanfictions and fanart have depicted Rei embracing Dabi. After all, since its been revealed that Dabi is a Todoroki, we may just have Rei hugging Dabi in My Hero Academia while we are at it. Now this is not to say Rei embracing Dabi is a bad idea. As long as its well written, there should be no problems. In the end, this is all up to Kohei Horikoshi if, he ever decides to, enact a rescue or redemption of Dabi.