#the potential this squad has is crazy like we’re seeing glimpses of it

[thiagodasilva]

the kids might be alright after all

[rockboywonder]

dabi is todoroki touya: the proof

This is gonna be a long one.

Ever since Dabi showed off his Quirk in the Training Camp Arc, a particular theory began cropping up. It’s arguably the largest fan theory in the entire BNHA fandom, and with good reason. At the point we’re at now in the story, it’s almost like it’s not even a theory anymore-- it’s just something we’re waiting for Horikoshi to make canon with one panel. The theory of the day is: Is Dabi a Todoroki?

Today, we’re going to lay out everything that points to Dabi being the estranged brother of one Todoroki Shouto, and if you didn’t believe it before, hopefully you will now.

Let’s take it back to the beginning-- if Dabi is a Todoroki, who the Hell is he? After the Calvary Battle in Season Two, Todoroki reveals the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father to Midoriya and introduces the idea of “Quirk marriages;” Todoroki was the perfect blend of Endeavor and Rei’s Quirks. And in a flashback during Todoroki and Midoriya’s battle, there’s a shot of Todoroki’s other siblings, or Endeavor’s failures, playing in the background as Todoroki is dragged away. Soon, we’d come to know the names of the children-- Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Touya. 

What we knew about Touya at that point in time was that he was small and presumably physically weak, due to how easily he falls while playing as Natsuo laughs at him instead of helping him out. And from the way that Todoroki family genetics work, it can be assumed that he has fire power, due to his red hair. He’s also the oldest of the four, despite being very short.

Touya is the only named Todoroki sibling not to appear and interact with his family. Fuyumi talks to Todoroki in season two, and although Natsuo has not made his proper anime debut, he eats with his family in later chapters. That’s kind of weird, right? I mean… Unless Touya has been interacting with the main cast the entire time, and none of them have realized it.

Enter Dabi, a villain who desires to change the integrity of the hero world. Dabi has interacted with both Todoroki and Endeavor-- the two members of his potential family the least likely to recognize him. Todoroki because he was kept away from his siblings and forced through individual training (abuse), and Endeavor because he was neglectful of his failures. But we’ll get into that later.

The first time Dabi speaks is when he’s brought before Shigaraki under the pretense of joining the league. When Dabi insults Shigaraki’s judgement if he plans on letting Toga in, he retorts that at least she told him her full name, and that Dabi only gave him a moniker. Dabi says that he will tell them his name when the time comes. Even now, Dabi’s real name has not come from his own mouth.

The next time he takes centre-stage is as one of the antagonists of the Training Camp Arc and the leader of the Vanguard Action Squad. Then we get a glimpse of his Quirk-- blue flames. Other than Midoriya’s father, the only characters with fire Quirks up until this point were members of the Todoroki family. Dabi’s is different in the way that it’s bright blue-- the same colour as his eyes, which are given a close-up as he uses his fire. Which are, coincidentally, the same colour as Endeavor’s, and one of Todoroki’s. Is there any significance in the flame colour, other than aesthetic? Yes, actually. Scientifically speaking, blue flame is much hotter than orange flame, which seem to be what Todoroki and Endeavor primarily use. But it’s not the first time we’ve seen this colour-- Endeavor himself uses blue fire to fend off a Noumu during the Hero Killer Arc. Even then, he comments that it raises his body temperature to a dangerous level. Dabi seems to be, under the assumption that the colour is more than just aesthetic, operating with flames hot enough to damage him. And would you look at that, he’s covered in scar tissue, all over his face, eyes, neck, appendages, and back. These scars will be important later.

After Compress has secured Bakugou and the villains make a plan to rendez-vous and abscond, Midoriya, Todoroki, Shouji, Uraraka, and Asui attempt to jump into the fray to rescue both him and Tokoyami. When Aoyama, bless his heart, catches Compress off guard with his Naval Laser, both Todoroki and Shouji jump to retrieve their kidnapped compatriots. Shouji nabs Tokoyami, but just as Todoroki is about to grab Bakugou, a patched hand snatches him away. “That’s sad, Todoroki Shouto,” is what Dabi says as he lifts the compressed Bakugou out of reach. While it’s not strange that Dabi knows the name of the runner-up in the highly publicized U.A Sports Festival, it is a little odd that he would refer to him by full name, in such a mocking tone, in the middle of this tense situation. The dramatic lighting as the two move in different directions almost screams “this is a scene you need to pay attention to.”

As mentioned before, Todoroki has no reason to recognize Dabi, or Touya. But Dabi certainly knows Todoroki.

Later, when the Pros break into the bar to rescue Bakugou, the police read off the real names of the villains-- but Dabi’s is never mentioned, almost like they couldn’t find out what it was. 

Here ends Dabi’s adventure through questionable heritage-- at least, for what’s in the anime. Luckily for us, there’s over one hundred chapters that have yet to be animated, and it’s within these pages that Dabi being a Todoroki becomes less of a theory, and more of a given. So if you’d like to keep as spoiler free as possible, I recommend you opt out now.

During the Overhaul arc, Toga and Twice are the only members of the League directly involved with the raid. Dabi accompanies Shigaraki on his mission to confront Chisaki, and during the course of this, he catches the attention of the Pro Hero, Snatch. During their battle, Snatch asks Dabi if he thinks about the families of those he kills, and how they feel. Soon after, Compress traps Snatch inside one of his marbles with Dabi’s fire, which kills Snatch.

The next arc Dabi shows up in is when the Todoroki connection stops being subtext and just becomes, well, text.

Dabi shows up in front of Hawks and Endeavor with the intention of getting into a fight. He only greets Endeavor, and hesitantly at that, saying “nice to meet you, Endeavor, I guess,” or something along those same lines. It should be mentioned that all of 1-A is watching this fight transpire via the TV, and at this point, it focuses in on Todoroki’s face, who recalls the name “Dabi” and we’re treated to a flashback panel of the “How sad, Todoroki Shouto” bit from the Training Camp Arc. Endeavor recognizes Dabi as the one who killed Snatch, nothing more, and Dabi doesn’t even seem to remember the life he has taken. Before leaving, Dabi refers to Endeavor as “Todoroki Enji--” his full name. This occurrence is a little stranger than Dabi knowing Todoroki’s name. Pro Hero names aren’t typically publicized in the same way U.A students’ are. It’s weird for Dabi to know and/or use the name Enji unless he has a personal relationship with him. Such as… If they were family.

After his meeting with Hawks, Dabi leaves on his own. He then remembers Snatch, and recalls how he asked if Dabi cared about the families of his victims. Dabi laughs, and then the patch of burned skin below his eye starts to leak blood, which drips down to his chin, implying he’s started to cry. He wipes away the blood tears and mumbles to himself; “I thought so hard about it I went crazy.” Dabi has put a lot of thought into families, it seems, and thinking about it drove him mad.

The next few pieces of evidence relate to Touya, not to Dabi, and the things that happened to him. After his battle with the Noumu and Dabi, Endeavor returns to his home, only to be roasted by Todoroki and snubbed by Natsuo, which is perfectly understandable. Natsuo gets up to leave, not being able to stand his father’s presence. He yells at Endeavor, not being able to forgive him in the same way Rei and Fuyumi can, and not ready to make nice with him just because he defeated one villain. He says: “You completely neglected us, and left us to listen to Mom screaming and Shouto crying. Not to mention what happened with Big Bro Touya [...]”

Well, Touya is finally mentioned by one of his siblings. And it seems like whatever happened to him, it wasn’t good. The way it’s framed makes it seem like Endeavor was responsible for what befell Touya, such as pushing him too far in training. The reader is left to wonder: maybe Todoroki wasn’t the first trainee under Endeavor’s wing. Maybe something went wrong with one of the other children.

But all we have to go on is Natsuo’s cryptic words, after which Todoroki claims: “I’ve never seen Natsu get that emotional.”

Until, we get more insight into Todoroki’s abuse during the Joint Training Arc. In a flashback, we see Endeavor yelling at a young, vomiting Todoroki, saying: “Quit pretending to be so frail! Touya’s case was regrettable. He possesses even greater firepower than mine, and yet… He inherited Rei’s weak constitution. He… was almost perfect. Almost.”

So, now the idea of Touya that we have is that he had very strong flames, but his body wasn’t able to handle it. He was almost perfect, but this fatal flaw made it so that he could not succeed Endeavor. Alright.

During Todoroki’s fight against Tetsutetsu, Tetsutetsu claims that the other’s flames won’t work, because Tetsutetsu’s strength was obtained by overcoming his limits. These words trigger a traumatic flashback for Todoroki, where he remembers Endeavor shouting at him to surpass his limits-- there’s no way he can’t do it, he’s just not trying hard enough. Trying to pull himself out of the flashback, Todoroki repeats Midoriya’s inspirational words to himself, and then cranks his flames up to eleven, so hot that they begin to melt the cameras. Because of the black and white nature of the manga, we can’t tell if the flames are meant to be blue or white, but one can assume they’re no longer orange. Todoroki notes that the heat is causing him to become dizzy and sluggish, and that he needs to stop or he’ll burn himself. Burn himself, huh? The heat, in combination with the debris, causes Todoroki to pass out before doing any permanent damage to himself.

So, we have Todoroki, who has acknowledged that his fire can hurt him if he overdoes it. Then, we have his brother Touya, who has more powerful fire than Endeavor, and presumably Todoroki, who is pretty weak to fire. Don’t you think that combination would lead to, I don’t know, burn scars all over one’s body?

Let me paint you a story. Granted, it’s not based on much, and if you have more theories, let me hear em!

Rei and Endeavor have had their first child. At age 4, he manifests his Quirk-- a fire Quirk. Endeavor immediately starts training him to surpass All Might, but Touya’s hesitant with his Quirk, because he’s sensitive to it. After Todoroki is burned by his mother, in the lull where he’s not at his greatest, Endeavor returns to training Touya. Just like what he did with Todoroki, Endeavor screams at Touya to surpass his limits. The stress causes Touya to unleash his full potential-- blue hot flames, which has severe physical repercussions, burning his entire body. Endeavor freaks out and tries to speed along the recovery as fast as possible, because Touya was almost perfect. Going by hair colours, neither Fuyumi or Natsuo have the firepower, or strength of firepower, that Endeavor wanted. Returning to Todoroki, Endeavor casts Touya aside. The experience completely traumatizes Rei, who breaks down. Bitter, Touya runs away, buys some hair dye, and begins to hate everything hero society stands for. He was violently abused by the Number 2 Hero, who is revered by the public. And so, he begins to go by the name Dabi-- Cremation. He does not create fire. With it, he wants to destroy the way things are.

In Todoroki Shouto: Origin, as Todoroki is being pulled away from looking at his siblings, where Touya appears to be alive and well, he has no burn on his eye. When Endeavor is telling Todoroki about how Touya’s case was regrettable, the burn mark is there. Meaning, something happened to Touya in between those two scenes.

I initially wrote this during the Meta Liberation Army Arc-- when the villains were getting more depth, but each time it got to Dabi, the narration pulled away. I thought maybe we’d get an answer at the end. But now, as we’ve entered a new arc that seems to have Hawks and Dabi as main players, perhaps we’ll finally get the info we’ve been craving.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Birds of Prey Review

Well... Birds of Prey is pretty darn good. Which is surprising given that it was saddled with the fucking idiotic subtitle And The Fantabulous Empancipation of One Harley Quinn. Now there’s a subtitle all but guaranteed to ensure that a huge share of the potential audience just wouldn’t bother to turn up- fuck, the only reason I didn’t miss out on this one is because I have a plastic rectangle of awesomeness that allows me to see movies for free. But yeah, baffling titling and marketing decisions aside, this film actually sort of rocks.

Now, obviously, an enormous part of its excellence is Margot Robbie (who, of course, stars as Harley Quinn). Robbie visibly just loves being in movies and is having a blast in this one. The more ridiculous and impractical the thing she’s being asked to do is, the happier she seems and it’s a joy to to watch her in action. Whether she’s shooting people with a shotgun loaded with glitter and coloured smoke, roller-skating after a speeding limo while attached to a motorbike via a whip thing or just trying to protect an egg sandwich while people shoot at her, her glee at getting this nonsense up on screen is infectious. I found myself grinning away and laughed out loud on more than one occasion.

The way the character’s written is just as important as how she’s played, however. A bad version of this film would have turned her into some sort of cooler-than-everyone else post-feminist cypher with only superficial flaws. But this is the good version of this movie, so she’s just as crazy, violent and self-destructive as you’d expect the Joker’s former ex-girlfriend to be. This film pulls literally zero punches when it comes to Quinn’s characterisation as a total nutbar. As the audience, we’re rooting for her because she’s entertaining and sympathetic and likeable not because she’s some personality-less omnicompetent badass. Although, she is also a badass, let’s be clear: there’s a bit where she sets a dude’s beard on fire that will go down in history as one of the most gloriously over-the-top kills in a certificate 15 film ever.

The supporting cast is also great, both in terms of acting and characterisation. I particularly like how Huntress is played as a gawky, possibly emotionally-autistic dork (who just happens to be an insanely proficient assassin) rather than the unlikeable murder-happy Batman wannabe of the comics.It’s a refreshing take. I also enjoyed the fact that Victor Zsasz might just be a repressed, self-loathing homosexual in love with his boss (Black Mask) in a Smithers-y sort of way instead of just a run-of-the-mill psycho. This version obviously isn’t as good as Gotham (the TV show)’s version of Zsasz, who was probably the coolest person ever captured on film, but that’s okay: living up to that fucking performance was never going to be on the cards anyway and the version we get is more than serviceable.

Speaking of antagonists, main bad guy Black Mask is kind of great. Normally, in these female-empowerment-driven genre fiction exercises, the main bad dude is evil because he’s a man and that’s the only explanation we get. However, Birds of Prey is smarter than that so here we get just enough hints about Black Mask’s past that we feel there’s a logical reason why he’s like this. He’s clearly the product of a toxic combination of emotional neglect and unearned privilege and so his increasingly unhinged and murderous behaviour seems both apt and in character.

Now, I’ve spent a lot of time dwelling on characterisation, and that’s because its the single most important factor in ensuring this movie lands. However, since it’s a DC movie, you also know the sets are going to be well-designed yet weirdly real-world-y, the fight scenes are going to be meaty and brutal in a way that other movies dream of being and there’s going to be all sorts of weird, unexpected cameos (in this case, my favourite is Harley’s pet Hyena, who reminds me a lot of my dog).

The big concern I had going into this film is how the fuck it was going to handle the split between Joker and Harley that gets everything moving. Since the audience has to be on-side with Harley, it was a real concern that the Joker’s unknowable brand of cackling supervillainy would be reduced a more hateable, day-to-day species of douchebaggery, which would be doing the character a massive disservice. Mercifully, Birds of Prey knows not to go there, and the Joker has no physical presence in the movie: everything we know about the split is from Harley’s narration, and we know she’s not a reliable narrator, so there’s a degree of mystery to it. The Joker hangs over the film, remote and uncaring without ever being glimpsed physically. It’s the right choice. That said, it might have more to do with the fact that Robbie really, really doesn’t want to work with Leto again after Suicide Squad than any respect for an iconic character. Hard to say. Either way, it panned out well.

So yeah. I don’t know what to tell you. This film shouldn’t have worked, but it does and it’s really worth your time. Go give it a watch.

[makeste]

oh shit you guys I finally caught up

I feel simultaneously accomplished and noooooo-why-did-I-do-that-now-I-gotta-wait-a-week-for-each-new-one-like-a-damn-sucker lol.

here are some rambling thoughts and impressions, since I’m not gonna be able to just refrain from commenting on all this for the next 4-5 weeks or however much longer it takes for me to get the recaps all caught up.

I’m so fucking glad this (221) is the chapter I caught up on. it just worked out really nicely. I didn’t have to end my 7-month (!!) journey through this series on a chapter as momentous as this one. but things just so happened to line up in such a way that my slow burn binge ended on a chapter that felt (to me) like a goddamn event. it was just very satisfying.

we are like four chapters into the Detnerat arc and already this is like a top 3 arc for me. not exaggerating. we’ve got worldbuilding for days, character development I’ve been waiting for like 100 chapters (provisional licenses! KACCHAN JOINING THE ONE FOR ALL SCOOBY SQUAD), League of Villain character development, fucking Dad for One all over the damn place, and to top it all off, insanely ominous plot developments that are hinting at huge things to come. I don’t even know where things are going to go from here but honestly this arc would have to drive itself straight off a fucking cliff from here out to not still end up as one of my favorites. there’s so much hype it’s ridiculous.

having seen a glimpse of what’s in store for our heroes in the near future (11 more Hi-C Noumus! that could potentially be unleashed all at once! when merely one of these things -- and it’s safe to assume it was the weakest one at that, since it was a test run -- nearly took out both the #1 and #2 heroes at the same time! literally the two strongest good guy characters we currently have on retainer! all this, plus All for One’s personal bodyguard who fucked up Naomasa and Gran Torino and damn near killed the entire Shigaraki Squad! oh, and I almost forgot, potential mass production of Overhaul’s completed/perfected Quirk-Be-Gone bullets. all this plus AFO’s inevitable jailbreak! more at 11!), I would now like to weigh in once more on the "is Deku overpowered” debate: no. no he is not. if anything this poor sonnovabitch is grossly underpowered. can we maybe get him like a dozen more quirks, just to be safe. jesus christ.

continuing with this train of thought, I’d actually argue that at this point, Katsuki and Shouto might be more prepared to take on the new Noumus than Izuku currently is. the reason being that both of them possess attacks that might actually stand a chance of incinerating these things, which is the only way we currently know of defeating them. Izuku probably has a quirk locked away somewhere within his OFA Spirit Vault that would do the trick, but the kid doesn’t even have a handle on Blackwhip yet. and not Blackwhip nor Air Force nor even 20 or even 30% Full Cowl is gonna cut it against these things. the past Avatars are literally trying to save his fucking life here. Let Deku Power Up 2K19. I fully trust Horikoshi to avoid the boring and suspenseless tropes that everyone is so wary of. looking at how painstakingly he’s set all this up, I think he’s earned the benefit of the doubt.

it’s probably too early to say, but it’s looking like this will end up being our first League of Villains-centric arc. just, so far there doesn’t seem to be much tying Deku and the other U.A. kids to all this Detnerat stuff. on the other hand, there has been a ton of set-up to have this CEO guy be someone that Tomura ends up taking out instead. so right now I’m anticipating that we’ll continue to focus more or less on the LoV, and only occasionally cutting back to the U.A. kids to see how their December is going. there’s a lot of potential there for the kids to have little character development moments and to explore Deku unlocking more of OFA, while Tomura temporarily takes on the role of main protagonist just for the duration of this arc, much like Endeavor briefly did. which should be very, very interesting.

lastly, a quick rundown of some theories and their current likelihoods as estimated by me with no scientific or mathematical basis whatsoever:

AFO’s doctor is Izuku’s childhood quirk doctor/Kacchan’s friend’s grandpa = 100% CON-FUCKIN-FIRMED, FUCK ME. MY JAW DROPPED YOU GUYS.

Dabi is Todoroki Touya = 99%. just waiting for that canon confirmation. but I feel like at this point this is basically fact.

Dad for One = solid 50%. there has been some heavy foreshadowing lately. Izuku staring at his fucking hand and thinking “All for One’s power...” while his face is half in light and half in shadow give me a fucking break Horikoshi. we’ve reached the point where this is being deliberately hinted at, and if it doesn’t pan out, it’s at the very least intentional misdirection on Horikoshi’s part.

“Kacchan” is Kacchan’s hero name = 30%. I was so fucking sure of this one, and then he went and got his fucking provisional license off-screen. (which, by the way, congrats there kiddo. and you too Shouto.) and this is the kind of thing which I feel requires at least a little emotional build-up first (because Horikoshi is always good about making his character development feel like a logical progression, even when it’s sudden), and so that means that either they’re still going to hold off on the hero name reveal somehow, or we’re gonna get some really quick build-up/context for it, or else it’s going to be a different name. and I mean, I’ll get over it if it is. but damn it I hoped.

weird as-yet-unrevealed silhouettes in background of Deku’s OFA Avatar State dream are Kacchan and Kirishima = not sure. tbh when I first heard this I was like “lol what” and it sounded like crazy talk, but the more I think on it and look back on the panels, the more I wonder. well I don’t think the one is Kiri though, but the other being Kacchan is like a solid Could Be, Who Knows, I Sure As Hell Don’t. but I’ll go more into depth on this one in its own post pretty soon.

and that’s all the theories I can think of right now. aside from the traitor stuff, but we haven’t gotten anything new on that in a while. (but it’s Hagakure though. one day the shit is going to hit the fan and it’s going to be devastating, but I’m pretty sure we’ve got a while to go yet before that becomes a thing.)

anyway so I think that’s more or less everything I wanted to weigh in on for now. recap posts will hopefully resume on Sunday, it’s looking like? this week hasn’t quite gone how I hoped thus far but it could be worse. at least there aren’t 11 Noumus floating around in tanks waiting to wake up and unleash the fucking apocalypse on me or whatever sob.