#anyways long story short give that man complex emotional depth outside of fanon for once i beg

[iingeniums]

Reblogged a post on my main about how fandom sometimes forgets what’s a headcanon and what’s actually canon and it got me thinking about Aizawa’s characterization, specifically in relation to Class 1-A and how “dadzawa” just gets on my fucking nerves.

I think in general Aizawa isn’t someone who’s willing to step outside the bounds of a proper student-teacher relationship, he’s much more likely to remain aloof with a strict no-nonsense teaching style like what was seen in the first few U.A. arcs. I think it was simply external circumstance and the fact that Class 1-A is a bunch of bonkers wild high schoolers that made him take a step up from his usual style and offer more emotional support to the kids later down the line. He’s trained as a Pro Hero and a teacher, two jobs which require both mental fortitude and compassion for others, and Class 1-A just happens to be a group of students he meshed well with in the beginning, and as the series went along and things became more intense he recognized when those kids needed emotional support as well, but I don’t think it ever really crossed the line from how a teacher or hero would care for them vs how a parent would. I’m also willing to bet most of the kids whose families we haven’t seen are already fairly emotionally supportive. I don’t think very many of them are actively looking for a pseudo-parental replacement in Aizawa to begin with.

This isn’t to say I think all “dadzawa” fics or headcanons should be razed to the ground I just think people sometimes read an adult genuinely caring about a child under their care and protection and turn off their brains and close their eyes and slap the “dad/mom” label onto them far too often. Aizawa has Eri and while I think her story was also dropped too soon for as much emotional weight and narrative potential she has, I like to think she was his first real step into fully taking care of a kid who looks to him for support in all aspects of her life that he can’t just keep at arm’s length or be his normally-strict and coldly logical personality around.

You can add nuance to character relationships and personalities while also not straying from their core principles it doesn’t hurt I promise