Well, going by the assumption that he’s definitely a Todoroki, he’s a really interesting character. He adds that something to the story that Stain couldn’t, even though their ideology was the same. The new perspective Stain brought into the narrative was thematic to bnha as a series, but he needed to be defeated easily, to cater for Iida and Todoroki’s character arcs, so in the end, even if the points he raised about corruption and lack of actual heroic values in the hero society were spot on, they were mostly lost. His arc was too early on, and too fast to really have an impact on the story as whole. Sure, he was charismatic and that showed when suddenly, people were selling villain merch; but his message didn’t stick, because we didn’t know Stain long enough to start to feel any empathy towards him. In the end, he was just another enemy the shounen manga protagonists had to defeat.
Dabi’s case is different.
I’m gonna assume that he’s a Todoroki, because if he wasn’t, he would be just another Stain. But if he’s indeed Todoroki’s missing brother Touya, that’d totally change everything. He wouldn’t be “just another villain to defeat”, because this time, his backstory would ring personal to the readers. Just as Shouto’s backstory makes the audience feel empathy towards him, the same would be true of Dabi. So that emotional power already brings more to the story than Stain ever could. Both were wannabe heroes who became villains because they were let down by their society, but Dabi would truly make Stain’s ideology stick and ring truer than ever could before, because he’d be a prime example of the corruption Stain was trying to address in the hero world. He’d have suffered that corruption first-hand, unlike Stain. He would make it all the more evident, and impossible to dismiss as easily as before.
Basically, he would bring consequences into action. He would be the catalyst for a real change in the hero world, reaching a goal that Stain wasn’t able to on his own.
The way things are set up right now, with Endeavor defeating the Nomu and replacing All Might not just as the number one hero, but more importantly – as Hawks put it – as someone with a back broad enough to put everyone at ease (the same way All Might could with just a smile, and isn’t that comparison incredibly ironic?), is the set up for a redemption arc. I’m not saying that’s what Horikoshi wants to do with him, I’m merely pointing out that from a narrative perspective, that’s how you redeem a character. But, still from a narrative perspective, it makes no sense to reward a character for something he hasn’t actually done.
Now, before everyone starts complaining. Let me explain.
Endeavor’s mindset has not changed. His temper doesn’t flare as much as before, but he’s still embodying the mindset of toxic masculinity that brought him to abuse his children. He still thinks that being someone who’s strong enough to punch up the bad guys is enough to be a complete hero and can make up for the nastier sides of his personality. He still doesn’t treat his peers or his subordinates with kindness, still thinks far too much about his image, and still thinks of Shouto as his heir. It’s true that he’s realized that he hurt Shouto, but feeling guilty and being a better person are not synonyms. He’s not asked Shouto for forgiveness because he wants the best for Shouto, but because he wants to be able to forgive himself. His concept of justice is still self-serving. He didn’t think for a second that forcing himself on Shouto when Shouto never wanted to have anything to do with him was still selfish, and frankly, unheroic too. Moreover, he still thinks that Shouto and Rei are the only ones he hurt and needs to make amends to, when he still had three more kids he blatantly neglected and abused, too.
So, what I’m trying to say here is this: sure, he might have not been able to defeat All Might as he wanted, but he still got the number one position in the end, so that doesn’t make for a great narrative punishment at all. It’s more of a narrative reward, actually. Bakugou’s been punished over and over a lot more for a lot less.
Not only that, but if he were to be forgiven by his family, his crimes would go completely unpunished, because no one else would be in the know about them. Let’s think about it for a sec: 1. Shouto just wants to be indipendent from him, but doesn’t wish him any harm. So I frankly doubt that he’d ever press charges against him. 2. Deku, Natsuo and Bakugou wouldn’t, either, because they feel like it’s not their place. Plus, Deku and Natsu support Shouto in his decision, so they wouldn’t act unless Shouto wanted them to, and Bakugou is an outsider in this conflict, so he’d be in no place to do anything, really. 3. Fuyumi is already set on sweeping everything under the rug if it means they can have a shot at being a family again. 4. Rei is still hospitalized, has no agency whatsoever, and has never moved the plot before, so I doubt she would now.
That only leaves Dabi as the only other person who knows and who has good reasons to want to expose Endeavor.
Moreover, Endeavor’s multiple and reiterated crimes being publicly unveiled would bring the exact kind of media attention and social change that – thematically – bnha as a story needs.
There are a lot of metas expanding on why a society that idolizes strength and encourages competition is BAD, so I don’t think I need to repeat it all, but let me just mention a few fucked up things in the bnha universe for argument’s sake:
1. The entire existence of the hero rankings is what made Endeavor idealize strength to the point of villanizing himself and traumatizing his own family.
2. it is also the reason why Bakugou bullied Midoriya.
3. Nothing good has ever come from the existence of the rankings, like, ever. They’re the reason why the mindset of toxic masculinity exists, but they’re only a symptom of the sickness of their world, not the cause.
4. the true cause is Quirk Elitism. The outbreak of quirks made the hero profession something that was open to everyone, but it also made the novelty of quirks real old real fast. To stand out, you needed to be exceptional. This is a conflict that’s thematic to bnha as a story. It’s been addressed times and times again, through different characters: Shinsou, Kirishima, Deku, to name a few.
So Dabi being a Todoroki would not only address point 1, but also get at the root of points 3 and 4.
Consider it. A hero (the number ONE at that) who was so obsessed with brutal strength, who so desperately wanted to stand out and be the best that he ended up giving birth to one hell of a villain. The implications to that would be endless. It would be even more impactful, narratively speaking, BECAUSE Endeavor is the number one hero. It would make his shortcomings all the more apparent and inexcusable. It would expose the fundamental wrongness of privileging unequaled strength and flashiness over true heroic disposition and values. Additionally, it would also shed light on all the other things that heroes overlooked, like the fact that painting everything black and white, light and shadows, makes everything else that doesn’t fit in either place fall through the cracks, opening up a path of villainy. Which is, you know, also thematic, as shown by characters like Shigaraki, Twice, and again, Shinsou.
So yeah. I think I got across why I think Dabi is a key character, and why I find him so interesting :’D he’d bring so much to the story tbh
I was just semi-complaining that I was still looking for a decent way to backup my +6k posts without having to use paid services or even just wordpress (which has an import from tumblr tool that asks for permission to access your blog and also make posts), when I decided to actually put some effort into my google search.
Results were positive: I have successfully backed up my blog*
*By which I mean: everything that I have ever posted. Not included: drafts, queue, likes, followers, following, comments, notes, chat.
I followed this method (word by word), and now have a 450 MB folder on my computer with the name of my blog on it containing:
1. Folder “Archive” (contains .html files listed by month) 2. Folder “Media” (contains gifs and images, mine has +1k files in it; might contain also audios but I have no way of confirming that because I’ve never reblogged an audio post from this blog) 3. Folder “Posts” (contains single .html files, each one a post; I have +4k files in it) 4. Folder “Theme” (contains only my avatar, but it might be a matter of if you have personalized themes or not) 5. .html file “Index” (by opening it it will give you the archive of your blog organized by month; clicking on a month will open up the archive for that month, and you’ll be able to read all the posts for that month as if you were on your blog**, except sans your theme graphic, with each page containing 50 posts)
**I can see gifs, links, embedded videos, tags, number of notes (but I can’t open up the notes, clearly), text is also correctly formatted.
So yeah, in case anyone wants a very quick way to back up their blog, it took me less than 10 minutes.
P.S. I didn’t have any issue, but to be on the safe side always check for spyware and virus threats before and after downloading anything.
fyi if you want this to go very very fast and more want a record of your text than anything else, the flag “-k” at the command line section will refrain from downloading images when backing up, which is mainly what would make it take a long time to do a backup + make said backup huge, data-wise. it makes the program link to the image files instead of downloading them
my archive would probably be several GB but instead it’s just several MB this way lol
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater by Andrew Eccles
A look at acclaimed photographer Andrew Eccles’ impressive body of work with The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; one of the most powerful dance companies in the world.
His classically composed, technically flawless style showcases the majesty of the human body in all its glory, capturing the dancers in performance, behind-the-scenes, and in stunning portraits.
Please stop diagnosing yourself with autism just because you FEEL weird or random or quirky.
Autism is not a quirk or gender you can just assign to yourself. Autism is a very real and serious mental condition that can cause a lot of struggle and pain for people who truly have it.
Just pretending you have it with no real evidence does two things:
1.) It can give lots of people a wrong view of what autism looks like
2.) It can take resources away from people who are actually officially diagnosed with it and need the support for it more than you do.
So stop it because it’s incredibly destructive and incredibly insulting to people who actually have it.
What resources, specifically? I’ve never had any “resources”, so I’m not sure what’s been taken away from me by all these people. If anything, I’d think this would be a great case for curb-cutter effect.
That said, I think you’re talking about two different things. Self-diagnosis is not “pretending you have it with no real evidence”.
Back before she got clinically diganosed, one of my friends began thinking she might be autistic. She found a lot of things stressful that other people didn’t find stressful. So she talked to her doctor. And she got a referral to a “specialist”. Who asked her why she thought she was autistic, talked over her when she tried to answer, and informed her that since there’s no cure, there’s no point in seeking a diagnosis as an adult.
So, after that, she wasn’t even able to bring herself to call people. But she made a list, and I called a couple of other therapists, and explained the situation, and I got a therapist who said basically “I am pretty sure I know who your friend saw, and she’s not the only one with that story”, so I referred her there, and now she’s got a clinical diagnosis.
I’m hilariously-obviously autistic. The first psychologist I brought the topic up with dismissed it out of hand. Not even a hint of questioning about rationale, just “no, you’re not autistic”. He was, it turns out, completely wrong, because he know roughly jack shit about autism. In my case, I didn’t really think about it again until I was a couple of chapters into Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark and found myself trying to remember what was supposedly weird about the viewpoint character, because he made total sense to me. So I found an actual specialist and by the time I’d rewritten the intake questionaire so I had space to write answers and also could fix the typos, my interview wasn’t about determining whether or not I was autistic, but figuring out more about the specifics.
But in each case, we spent some amount of time (several years, in my case) having been specifically told by a person with a degree that we weren’t autistic, even though we were.
Which is to say, if we were to adopt your model, we would have been denied whatever “resources” were in theory available, even though we were actually autistic and needed them.
And of course, people going around saying we’re not autistic because we don’t meet their expectations can also give people a “wrong view” of what autism looks like.
Possible alternative theory: What if you stopped gatekeeping? I do not require your gatekeeping services. I would rather everyone try out accommodations and coping strategies which appeal to them, and use them if they work.
autism diagnosis is not a bowl of candy. it is not getting used up by people having one. the autism diagnosis bowl will not be empty before you get yours, op. calm the fuck down.
Autism diagnosis for working class kids is shit. [4]
And even if you can get a professional diagnosis, as an adult, getting one can do more harm than good.
It can open you open to medical abuses [5] and discrimination, particularly in custody cases if you have kids [6].
The only “help” or “resources” it affords you as an adult is usually as a legal defence if your boss tries to fire you for it [7]. And in most places, that still requires that you have enough money for the lawyer [8].
So, it’s incredibly difficult to get a diagnosis for most people, and getting one is usually of little use to adults at best and outright damaging at worst.
Time and time again, autistic adults say “the only thing the diagnosis got me was a community” and for some of them, it also cost them.
Gatekeeping actively hurts people who otherwise wouldn’t get the diagnosis – for perfectly legitimate reasons like maybe they’re divorced and don’t want their shitty ex to have the ammo to spitefully take away their kids – by forcing them to get one just to access the community.
The “I don’t wanna get diagnosed because then people with discriminate” excuse is probably the worst…
People don’t like what they don’t understand. If I’m acting weird and having meltdowns and my friends don’t know what the heck is up with me then they are more likely to ditch me. But if I have a clear cut explanation of what I have and why and have done the research on it then people are actually more likely NOT to discriminate. So you kind of have it backwards.
And who the hell told you that you can’t keep your kids if you have autism? My mother has bipolar Manic, depression, dyslexia, and ADHD and had 4 kids just fine. If people can get away with abusing their kids openly and post it to YouTube without having a custody battle, then I’m pretty sure you won’t lose your kids just for getting a diagnosis…
And as for resources, you’re forgetting job openings and financial benefits tailored specifically for people who suffer from autism, which can inhibit some (not all) from being able to keep a steady job, like me. That’s not an infinite resource because you only have so much money you can just give away.
You have a pretty ignorant view on getting a diagnosis and actually doing research on what you have.
No, I don’t have it backwards, because YOU DON’T NEED A DIAGNOSIS TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOUR FRIENDS.
That’s what self-diagnosing is literally for. I mean, I explained this on another reblog.
I Linked A. Article About Autistic Women Being Unable To Keep Their Children.
This is a very common concern for autistic adults. Like, good for your mother, but her experience is singular and doesn’t speak for every disabled person out there.
This is a problem that has been talked about time and time again. It is one of the cornerstones of disability advocacy. But, you know, I suppose if your personal experience counters that, we should all pack up and go home?
No, I’m not forgetting job benefits and financial benefits. They… aren’t available to self-diagnosed people? Like, you literally can’t get them? And no one is suggesting that you should be able to?
My point is that not everyone has access TO those resources. In fact, the majority of autistic people (with paper diagnoses like mine) can’t access them. You’re right, they’re not an infinite resource. In fact, they are so limited that you’re really taking a gamble as to whether or not you get them when you go for a diagnosis, and given that an adult diagnosis can take years if you don’t already have a large chunk of cash to pay for it privately… Well, what the fuck are you supposed to do in that position? If you need the financial resources, but know that it can take years before you’re even diagnosed?
Which brings me to my first point, which you have conveniently ignored and which I provided links to research to back up, the fact that minority groups are frequently cut off from getting a diagnosis?
What are they supposed to do about their friends abandoning them when they have meltdowns? Suck it up?
And I’m sorry that last part is fucking laughable. I’M ignorant and haven’t done my research?
I Provided You With Links To Said Research!
Links I have taken from my master’s research on this topic!
You came back with “well, in my experience”. Like, good for you. I am also autistic, and my experience doesn’t line up with yours.
And I’m Not The One Using My Experience To Be A Dick To Other Autistic People.
If you’re going to gatekeep, come back with stronger arguments. Otherwise, I’m going to keep reminding everyone that
Self-diagnosed People Are Welcome In The Community!
In addition, we use the term Autistic Community to refer inclusively to people who have been identified by professionals as being on the autism spectrum and to those who are self-identified. We recognize that there are many reasons why a person may fall into one group or the other, and we respect the right of individuals in our community to make their own choices in this regard. Many Autistics were given a diagnostic label in childhood or sought a formal diagnosis in adulthood to obtain services and accommodations. Others have not done so for reasons that include financial barriers, lack of qualified professionals in a locality, obtaining sufficient accommodations on an informal basis, or the political view that our community should not have professionals as its gatekeepers. ASAN believes that all of us can and should work together in solidarity to accomplish our common goals.
Being anti-self dx is like standing on a rooftop and waving a flag that says “I’m ignorant and privileged”
Ding dong op is wrong
Yikes, OP. Like… the federal government literally admitted that they’d been unfairly discriminating against disabled parents. That isn’t a secret.
peter parker, expressing his affection as any teen would: thor i would die for you 🙂
thor, gripping his shoulders with the intensity of ten thousand burning suns: i would never let that happen
peter parker, later that week: i would die for you loki
loki, looking him dead in the eye: you will.
drax: [really bad joke]
peter parker: mr. drax? I would die for you
drax, with a pause spent determining that peter is probably joking and then a hearty guffaw: but my muscles and fighting power is several times your own! your death would be meaningless!
peter parker, in the middle of battle with no regard for his own safety: i would die for you
t’challa, who has lived with shuri long enough to know exactly what answer peter is looking for: then perish
Peter parker, jumping in front of steve: i would die for you mr. rodgers
Steven Grant Rodgers, a known idiot, somersaulting over peter: not if i die for you first
Peter Parker, one night over dinner: I would die for you aunt may
Aunt May, a worried mess and 100% done with this shit: not if you’re grounded for life you won’t
Peter Parker, out of the blue: I would die for you
Bucky, tired: oh not this again
It got so, so much better.
Peter Parker, casually speaking: Mr. Stark, I would die for you.
Tony Stark, who is Tony Stark: Kid, please don’t. You’re worth more than that.
Then according to the chart you should introduce them to DnD.
I think most of us graduated from DnD to larp. We had the opportunity to game but also dress up as avant garde vampires, it was the gayest possible decision to make at the time.
I respect that, I respect you, and I’m deeply jealous.
Solfege Navigator 