You do not have to agree with any of the following content! I was just inspired by the fact that Gwen (justdagirluwant) posted recently about this and I thought hey I'm gonna do the same.
Firstly, I think that Dashi is firmly Australian. No offence to the people who have grown up with and love the US version, but some things just don't make sense. Now, I'm biased of course, I'm Aussie, but still. Why would Dashi and Koshi just randomly be on holidays to the outback?
Also her archetype fits very well with the Aussie stereotype. Calm, strong, surfer, beach-loving and not scared of animals or fires. Coz all of these things wouldn't be new to her.
Also I am so picturing her as a Sydneysider, living a really nice life with her loving family, dreadfully missing Australia when she first started moving around the world with the Octonauts and using her photo album to reflect on all of that.
Shellington helped Dashi through this, they'd stay up some nights before they started dating, and she'd tell him all about her life in bright, sunny Australia. She'd also been through some pretty hard times, though, and she'd tell him about fires, floods and heatwaves.
Once they started dating, Shellington was a really cute, perfect boyfriend. He'd ask the Captain privately if they could go and visit Sydney, and hang out on one of the beaches of the central coast, which were famed for their blinding white sands and brilliant green seas (I've been, it's amazing).
That's where Dashi first learned to surf, and she's been doing it ever since.
Dashi also loves to go camping. She looks fondly back on the days when she, Koshi and her parents would go out into the bush with nothing but a four-wheel-drive, some tents, a small stove and basic sets of clothes. Every now and then, she, Shellington, Tweak and occasionally Kwazii will go out to the Australian bush to have that sort of fun.
Like most Sydneysiders, Dashi is thankful that the train network in Australia is much more extensive than say America. But she still gripes about the delays.
Dashi dislikes intense amounts of rain. She's fine with fires and deadly animals, but floods terrify her. One day, she woke up to find half her neighbourhood under three metres of water. Her house, on the top of the street, was fine, but the recovery efforts were still traumatising. Nobody died, but plenty were injured and Dashi can't get those memories out of her head no matter how hard she tries.
Dashi laughs at Kwazii being scared of spiders. As an Australian, and one that loves camping, she's pretty used to waking up, bashing her shoes and finding a funnelweb in there. Alternatively, there have been multiple occasions where Dashi goes to the bathroom and walks out completely fine, while knowing that three or four redback spiders were living there.
Same deal with snakes. She's respectful of their sheer strength and deadliness, and she knows not to get too close. She's quite good at identifying them as well.
Dashi also likes cricket. She's tremendously terrible, but enjoys watching it all the same. She, Inkling and Paani can get quite competitive over it, actually.
Those are my headcanons for Dashi. Let me know which ones resonate with you!
