Dabi's death in My Hero Academia is perfect, until you realize its biggest plothole

From a storytelling perspective, Dabi, aka Toya Todoroki's death in My Hero Academia was perfection. His entire character arc, from start to finish, was perhaps one of the most well-written arcs in the entire series.

For those unaware, Toya didn't go out in a blaze of glory by taking his family down with him like he had planned. He died a slow, staggering death off-screen, accompanied by the very man who had unintentionally set him on the path to becoming Dabi - his father, Enji Todoroki.

However, like most things, the conclusion to Dabi's character arc (his death) has a major plothole - Eri. There may not be any apparent connection between the two, except when you really think about it, Dabi's fate, in theory, could have been reversed by Eri's Rewind Quirk.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the opinions of the writer.

Explaining how Eri could undo Dabi's death in My Hero Academia

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Before diving into this theory, let us first look at the full extent of Eri's powers. Her Quirk, Rewind, has the ability to reverse a living body back to a previous state. This allows her to not only make someone younger, but it also enables her to heal her target's injuries and undo bodily modifications.

When you think about it, Eri's Quirk is perhaps one of the most broken powers in My Hero Academia. After all, when her Quirk first manifested, she accidentally erased her father out of existence.

However, the strength of her power depends on how much energy she has accumulated in her horn, which is the source of her power. So theoretically, if Eri had built up enough power in her horn, she should have been able to reverse the damage done to Dabi's body, right?

Dabi as seen in My Hero Academia (image via Studio Bones)

Again, Eri's power is to rewind someone's body back to a previous state. This means injuries, wear and tear, even aging - all of that can be undone. It's also possible to regrow lost limbs and even lost Quirks by using Eri's power.

So, if Eri had stored enough power in her horn, she could have rewound Dabi's body and healed all of his internal as well as external injuries. After all, she was capable of restoring Mirio Togata's Quirk, which is quite a remarkable feat in itself.

Taking this into account, it should have been theoretically possible for Eri to save Dabi's life as well. Sure, he was in critical condition following the events of the Final War and was barely holding on to life, but his body still existed. He didn't vaporize to dust. There was something to rewind, so there technically was a way to save Dabi's life.

So yes, Eri could have, in theory, prevented Dabi's death. But just because she could have, it doesn't mean she should have. Anyone remotely familiar with Dabi's character would agree - the only resolution to his story was death. There was no coming back for him to begin with. Maybe even he was aware of that.

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Dabi isn't just a burned-up version of Toya Todoroki - he's who Toya became after a major trauma. In spite of a change in identity, he was still the same person underneath - a young boy pushed to insanity by an abusive and neglectful parent. And everything that he did afterwards - there's just no coming back from that.

Even if Dabi was saved - what then? Would he be able to re-enter society and live a normal life? Would he even be forgiven for all the death and destruction he had caused since becoming a villain? Probably not.

Dabi isn't a character you can save or bring back from the verge of death just to lock him up afterwards in hopes of reforming him. It would be a complete disservice to his character arc. His death had to happen, and Horikoshi wrote it that way.

The existence of Eri's power in this case is just a narrative inconvenience. After all, her power opens too many doors that interfere with storytelling. Sidelining her when her power gets in the way of major plot developments is probably more convenient than directly addressing it, and that's the direction Horikoshi ultimately decided to go when it came to Dabi's death.

Final Thoughts

The existence of Eri's Rewind Quirk in My Hero Academia presents the classic problem of an overpowered character getting in the way of the story - you could nerf them, sideline them, or just pretend they don't exist for the story to progress.

So, even if Dabi's death continues to be one of My Hero Academia's many plotholes, it's one we can overlook in this instance. Otherwise, it would completely undo the beautiful yet tragic ending of the Todoroki Family storyline. This is simply one of those cases where you have to suspend your disbelief for the sake of emotional payoff.