#Unlike much of what comes after... Which doesn't even seem particularly well outlined

[thyandrawrites]

Am I the only one who finds it pretty awesome how Dabi did what no one else could in his family, not even AFO, which is to strike true fear in Endeavor's heart and break his heroic resolve. Do you think Endeavor would still fear facing Dabi off in battle ? because he's under the assumption that he has been captured and now he can try to look after Toya and continue to atone for his actions, and how cathartic for you was chapter 290 of Dabi exposing his father to the world ?

I think it's pretty awesome that Dabi concocted the precise plan to actually damage both his father's reputation and deal a massive blow to his pride. You can tell that he's been stewing on this for years, working out the finer details, because every aspect of it is so well-thought out.

Coming back home at 16 made him realize that he would never get his father's attention if he just played his part as the wannabe hero son. Endvr had already moved on and would never look back; the only way to destroy that attitude was to meet him as an opponent, as one of the villains Endvr never shies away from confronting. And he was right. The trap worked perfectly.

Endvr judged him a lost cause at age 5. Not only did he miss the opportunity to witness the change in color of Touya's flames, but we now know he also overlooked Dabi's ability to make cold fire and thus work around what Endvr labeled a "weakness". THE weakness. The one that labeled Touya a failed pet project. The irony in that is excellent.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg. The thing about Dabi's plan is that it's effective on so many levels.

He knows that hero society functions on blind idolization of heroes and on the scapegoating of villains as the true source of everything wrong ever > exposes his dad's corruption not by simply stating "he's bad" but by saying "he made me", essentially exploiting that bias to make it impossible for society to ignore it or excuse Endvr's actions as righteous

He knew Endvr used his "death" as a moral justification to keep training Shouto and abusing the fam > he removes the entire concept of having died to make it clear that Touya had no part in abusing Shouto, however indirectly. That was all Endvr, and he can't keep scapegoating it onto his son to feel better about himself. This way, Dabi essentially found the one loophole to worm his way inside his father's walls and punch that pride directly where it hurts

He knew losing credibility wouldn't break endvr because his ego is only stroked by challenges > he made Endvr powerless to stop Shouto from getting hurt, powerless to stop the broadcast, powerless to control how people perceive him at all, underlining how volatile and out of reach that desire to achieve fame ever was. In doing so, he also gave his father a taste of his own medicine. Building him up only to take everything he always wanted from him and expose him as a failure, just like Endvr did to Touya

And the thing is... The individual parts of this plan, if used on their own, wouldn't work as well. The broadcast alone wouldn't have had resonance if Dabi wasn't a villain with a kill count and Endvr's son. Touya coming back from the grave wouldn't have worked on its own if he also hadn't mastered every technique of both his father and his brother, proving that Endvr buried him all too quickly.

It's just... Chef's kiss.

Dabi's revenge works so well to strike fear in Endvr not because Dabi's hopelessly evil, or a menace to suppress with brute strength like AFO, but because he's the type of opponent you can't just put down with a fist or a self-righteous one-liner.

So yeah, seeing Dabi exploit his knowledge of all the weak spots of the system to give voice and resonance to his pain was hella cathartic. It seems like a paradox, but getting a stage to speak about those things, setting off the collapse of much of that hypocrisy from the second it was exposed, was the closest thing to actual justice I think his character will ever get. It was a victim getting the chance to say "what you did to me wasn't excusable" and, for once, getting only guilty, ashamed silence in response

#Ali replies #Bnha #Dabi #My post #To this day I still think bnha peaked in chapter 290-94 #And never got close to that level again. The set up/payoff there was so well done #Unlike much of what comes after... Which doesn't even seem particularly well outlined