hero academia chapter 290 post (with spoilers) (mostly todoroki-related)i’ll start by saying...

hero academia chapter 290 post (with spoilers) (mostly todoroki-related)

i’ll start by saying that i don’t like endeavor, i don’t particularly like dabi, and my feelings about shouto are middling. so i’m not very emotionally affected by all this, and the lack of attachment leaves me free to lean back and enjoy the ride. also i’ve been thinking about this all day at work because i’ve been doing nonverbal tasks with nothing else in particular to think about…

i can’t get over how silly this is: when dabi appears, he’s shaking a can. it’s not water; it requires shaking and has a label on it. he has planned his big reveal, and he Must let everyone know his hair is actually white, so he invested in a can of No More Tears™ Portable Fast-Acting Hair Dye Dissolver, to instantly show that his hair is actually white and his head is now wet. yowza! how shocking!

was anyone blown away by this reveal? that seems impossible. horikoshi-sensei has been PRETTY heavy-handed with the foreshadowing on this for a very long time. it was only a matter of time. the interesting part to learn will be what happened to touya to turn him into a dabi.

it’s not like this was going to reveal much about the todoroki family dynamic that we didn’t know either. all you need to know is what a “quirk marriage” is and you’ll understand that endeavor has done something bad. not that there isn’t more going on with the todorokis. but that’s kind of the crux of it all.

“these murderous flames of mine are endeavor’s flames.” i think you’ll find that shouto has something to say about that…

dabi talks about broadcasting his life story to the world, and then they show us skeptic sitting with his laptop, making it happen. like ok that’s obviously the only reason that guy was tagging along. he survived the rocky machia ride just so he could facilitate dabi’s big reveal.

please direct your attention to dabi’s little prance on the page where he’s front and center (page 15). what does this body language tell us? what is the purpose of the prance? is he still making his way down gigantomachia? is he pacing and posing for dramatic effect during his monologue? it strikes me as merely horikoshi-sensei clumsily trying out a fun page layout and a dynamic pose without actually having the pose mean anything. i really like dabi’s pose on his “THE PAST NEVER DIES!” page, but because he got there by doing a very silly little jig, it has less of an impact.

maybe he’s doing a little prance so he can surreptitiously shake his wet head dry

also dabi’s boots are kinda lame. never got a good look at them before. it seems like everyone in heroaca usually has great shoes, but dabi doesn’t. another mark against him smh

the number of panels of just endeavor and shouto looking shocked is so excessive lmao

here’s a fun ship. it’s dabi x skeptic. like picture this scene that ostensibly could have happened in the lead-up to this chapter. dabi’s like “come help me film something so i can broadcast it to the whole world” and skeptic follows reluctantly and they enter a room and close the door and set up a camera. then dabi takes off his shirt and skeptic’s like ?????! (but then they just film dabi’s shirtless confessional that we see in this chapter.) sometimes fun ships are between two characters i don’t particularly like. i couldn’t even remember that guy’s name all day long.

i will say that in terms of dabi’s potential for moral redemption, i’ve taken note of his confession to 30 murders, and his outlook isn’t great.

chapter 291 prediction:

dabi: well? you have nothing to say?
shouto: but… you don’t look like touya…
dabi: i JUST SAID my face isn’t what it was. what, you think i was born looking like this?
shouto: (realization gasp) (very seriously) there must have been a terrible accident…
dabi: yeah no shi–
shouto: …with staples…
dabi: with FIRE!???? an accident with FIRE, and the staples came later! if you think about it for ONE SECOND, given my quirk and everything about me thematically, it’s obviously gonna be fire! (looking to endeavor) you stake your hopes on this kid??
endeavor: (five more wordless panels of looking horrified)