My Hero Academia final season should give Dabi an anime original fate

My Hero Academia final season offers the perfect chance to revise Dabi’s fate and provide him with a more fitting anime-original ending. While it’s debatable whether Dabi deserves redemption, it’s clear he was a victim of circumstance, shaped by Endeavor’s blinded ambition, jealousy, and neglect. His downfall felt almost inevitable, which makes it all the more important for his story to be treated with care.

Although the manga gives him and his family some closure, his ending felt somewhat underwhelming, and even pathetic. With the anime wrapping up the story, now is the ideal time for Horikoshi-sensei to offer a revised version, one that gives Dabi a more meaningful conclusion.

Let’s explore why Dabi’s story needs that change and how the anime could be the ideal medium to deliver it.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the My Hero Academia manga and solely reflects the writer’s personal opinions.

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Exploring why My Hero Academia final season needs to redeem Dabi with a better anime-exclusive sendoff

Dabi confronts Endeavor in My Hero Academia season 7 (Image via Bones)

With My Hero Academia's final season set to premiere in Fall 2025, anticipation is at an all-time high as fans prepare to say goodbye to one of the most beloved new-gen anime. As the series nears its conclusion in the animated medium, it presents a timely opportunity for mangaka Horikoshi-sensei and the production team to refine and improve upon areas where the manga fell short, especially in the case of Dabi’s arc.

While the manga offered a form of closure for Dabi and the Todoroki family, it ultimately felt largely unsatisfying. Dabi ends up in a severely fragile state, barely conscious, dependent on life support, and only able to speak for a few minutes a day.

Dabi and Endeavor's reunion (Image via Bones)

His death is implied to be inevitable and comes quietly, off-screen, with little emotional payoff, much the same way as Himiko Toga. This seemed to serve more as closure for the Todoroki family than for Dabi/Touya Todoroki himself, making his end feel like a tragic footnote rather than a true conclusion.

Considering the complexity and emotional weight behind Dabi’s backstory, his ending deserves more care. A more fitting approach could be to let Dabi die on the battlefield, in the heat of confrontation, unleashing all his pent-up rage and pain, confronting his family in the heart of the conflict. After all, his entire life has been a battle in one form or another.

Allowing him to go out alongside those he called comrades would offer a far more respectful and impactful conclusion to his tragic tale. Such an end would honor the internal war he fought his entire life and provide a cathartic sendoff.

Alternatively, My Hero Academia's final season can take the chance to explore a more reflective conclusion, one where he survives the battle in a more stable condition to share genuine, meaningful final moments with his family, especially with Endeavor. Letting him confront his father one last time, not in anger but in raw honesty, would allow the story to fully address his suffering.

Dabi's end in the My Hero Academia manga (Image via Kohei Horikoshi/Shueisha)

Having Dabi survive in a better condition would also help ease some of the immense suffering he endured throughout his life, offering a small measure of peace before the end. Rather than leaving him in a near-dead, pitiful state as seen in the My Hero Academia manga, allowing him an on-screen, direct death would provide a more dignified, satisfying conclusion, one that brings proper closure to his character.

With the anime now in a position to retell his end with more depth, this is the perfect moment to offer a revised, anime-original ending that treats Dabi not just as a villain, but as a symbol of tragedy, pain, and the cost of neglect, giving him the proper closure his delicate character so deeply deserves.

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Final thoughts

Whether or not a villain like Dabi deserves redemption is certainly up for debate, but it’s undeniable that he stands as a deeply tragic figure shaped by his upbringing, specifically, by Endeavor’s relentless obsession with surpassing All Might and his failure to care for his own son. In that light, Dabi’s fall feels more like the inevitable result of prolonged emotional neglect and trauma.

While the manga ultimately offered a vague and largely off-screen conclusion to his arc, the final season of My Hero Academia now presents an opportunity to deliver a proper, anime-original sendoff for Dabi’s complex character.

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