#bakugou suffers consequences

[kacchanot-fucking-deal-with-this]

i was just trying to write a cute fic about bakugou touching izuku's hair and it's already double the intended word count and only about halfway finished

[sugarlywhispers]

viking!b.katsuki x fem!reader

a.n; i wanted to give viking!bakugou a try, and honestly, this is all @imaginationmess fault for feeding me fanarts of bakugou and his dragon🙃 luv you tho🤍

Viking Bakugou Katsuki who rides the biggest and most terrifying dragon that has ever existed.

A legend said that his dragon in particular had been going on for generations in his family, no one willing to risk their life to tame it. Until Katsuki’s uncle, Bakugou Kudo, did it. He had been the first in generations to ride this dragon. Yet he understood that the bond between dragon and riders was not consolidated between them.

When Katsuki was eight, the little shit escaped the hut and went towards where the nests were. Kudo almost had a heart attack when he saw the brat far off and almost there. He sprinted as fast as he could, a tragedy already displaying in his head –the kid being incinerated, turned to ashes, and his sister cutting his dick off for being a sorry ass uncle. Fuck, and he would had deserved it. Because even though he had tamed the beast, it was still very unstable to let anyone close to it; one of his own men had suffered the consequences of trying to get close, more than half his body had been burned. He was no longer part of their battles.

However, Kudo saw in first person how a dragon’s bond was created. Between his terrifying dragon and his little nephew.

It hadn’t looked much from his perspective, yet he felt the magical aura surrounding them. Katsuki laughed as he touched the dragon’s snot like it was a mer pup, happy and excited while climbing its leg with such ease until he was up on its back, right behind the head. The dragon himself helped the kid to reach the place. Kudo noticed then the beast’s eyes shining a very resplendent gold. Yep, that was definitely a bond.The kid was anything but scared, as he caressed the dragon's head, hugging it even.

Kudo smiled, shaking his head, hands over his hips as he took a deep breath, relaxing. The dragon was only letting him ride it because it knew that Katsuki was his bonded rider and Kudo was related by blood to the kid.

As years went by, the bond only became stronger and deeper. Kudo would ride it in battles, but once at home, the brat and the beast were like one. When Katsuki turned eighteen, Kudo retired from battles and settled down with a wife and kids at the village located next to that of where their family originally came from. From that day on, the brat became the dragon’s one and only owner.

Katsuki was the only human being able to control, care for and command this massive dragon, also becoming the nightmare of most villages in the world. Both, dragon and rider were vicious, deadly and feared.

You still remember the day Bakugou Katsuki landed on your lands. The bright blue sky suddenly turned dark, the huge dragon he rode clouding the sun above. Everyone knew what it meant. Destruction and chaos, the end of their peaceful lives.

The Leader of the village, your dad, didn’t waste time in trying to negotiate a truce between them.

And that truce is you.

You are forced to marry him, to leave your family, friends and life there and go with this barbaric man. You are a bit afraid he is some sort of savage. Rumors told how violent he was, how scary he looked with his scars and aggressive attitude towards everyone. Now that you have said man in front of you, you agreed with all of them.

You were expecting him to manhandle you, to treat you like another woman he picked to use for his own pleasure. Yet all you received since you stepped foot in his village, in his home, had been nothing but coldness and distance. He has kept to himself, doing his stuff and trying not to get in your way. Least to say, it has been completely awkward since the ceremony.

When you are getting ready for it, his mom enters his-your hut. She smiles, a sincere feeling in her eyes, “Being the daughter of a Leader sucks, ain’t it?”

You look down, a slight smile on your face that agrees with her but eyes filled with tears you’re holding back. “It does.”

You feel her hand on your shoulder, and the little squish she gives it in reassurance makes the knot in your throat tighter.

“My son is not a charming prince; however, I know the kind of man I raised him to be. You’re gonna be okay.”

You don’t say anything in response. You don’t even look back at her, but you think she didn’t expect it either as she walks out, leaving you alone. As you walk towards the entrance, fully knowing that once you cross it, your soon to be husband will be waiting at the end of the aisle, all you can wish is that Ms. Bakugou is right.

When the ceremony reaches its end, the old lady of his village drawing the symbols of union, love and family in your foreheads, Bakugou extends his hands for you to lay yours over his. You still haven’t looked him in the eyes, but you do what's expected for the ceremony. When your hands touch the skin of his, you can't avoid thinking how warm they feel. Big calloused, rough and strong hands surround yours, and you don't hate the feeling. On the contrary, it’s quite comforting. The old lady ties a beautifully white and gold silk ribbon around your hands, symbolizing the union of the souls.

While everyone cheers, you finally decide to raise your eyes towards him. Deep red eyes collide with yours, making a shudder run your body at their intensity. Surprisingly, it isn’t a bad feeling, but it is something you have never felt before.

A tingly feeling swirls in your stomach as you realize Bakugou Katsuki's face is getting closer and closer to yours, his intent clear. He is going to kiss you. Your first kiss. You close your eyes instinctively and his lips touch yours in a quick and short peck. Yet it feels like all the tingles in your stomach exploded, sending warmth throughout your whole body.

That has been the only close and physical interaction you have had until today.

Bakugou Katsuki decides to give you space to accommodate and get to know his village and people around.

It doesn't mean he doesn't want you. However, he never makes any sort of move towards you.

Until one day…

Bakugou got back that morning to the village after being away for almost four days with the victory of conquering another village, so you decide to bring him some of the sweet bread you have cooked as a welcome back. You have to admit, this time with him since the marriage ceremony hasn’t been bad. Civil, even. Despite his distance and cold attitude, he has never disrespected or forced you to nothing. Not even that first night as husband and wife. He didn’t even try, he simply picked one of the pillows and clothes to make a bed on the floor, closer to the entrance door, and slept there. You have been very confused. Your mum had previously told you everything of what was expected from a woman on the night of the ceremony. You expected even a fight between you two, because of course you didn’t want that to happen with a complete stranger like he was still to you.

Nevertheless, he never hovers over you. But you do feel his eyes on you whenever he’s around. He always makes some sort of sound for you to acknowledge that his presence is close. Katsuki is attentive to your reactions whenever you are both alone and doesn't even raise his voice at you. Ever.

Then again, he is his ruthless self with everyone else.

You tried looking for him around the village, but couldn't find Bakugou anywhere. So you walk towards the woods where you know the dragon's nests are, where they rest. Even though Bakugou has explicitly forbidden you to go near there, due to the danger their dragons were most of the time, even for the riders.

You are confident Katsuki will be there, so probably he will see you from a distance and you wont need to get that close. But when you arrive, you come face to face with the massive beast: Bakugou's dragon, Cweorth.

You have seen it at a distance, but having the beast up close is a completely different experience. Its whole body is red, with golden piercing eyes that feel very much like Bakugou’s itself. Its wings are huge as they spread in a stretching movement up high, almost taller than the big trees that surround the woods. You can even see some flare of gold in its scale that actually looks mesmerizing. Majestic.

Your basket falls to the floor in shock when the beast finally looks down at your small, minuscule being. It watches you intently, with a scowl on its face –like beast, like owner. But far away from feeling scared by it, you feel intrigued. You feel enamored even as you stand there, looking at such majestic creature.

Bakugou is actually several meters away, taking a bath in the lake close to the nests, cleaning all the blood and dirt off his body before going to the hut he shares with you. He has some scratches and cuts from the fights, but nothing deep or worrisome. He is very proud in saying he is the fucking best out there.

When he's walking through the woods back to the nests of their dragons, he sees it.

His whole body freezes. You are standing there, your arm and hand stretched upwards. His own dragon, the one who eats men like candy at Katsuki's own command, the one who has burned villages in seconds with his strong fire, the one who hates anyone’s touch or closeness that isn't Bakugou himself... His dragon has his snot close to you, letting you pet him with its eyes closed, enjoying your affection like a small puppy dog.

And he can not fucking believe what his eyes are seeing.

Of all the women he has had before you, none were brave enough to even look at the beast. They had all been afraid to death.

And there you stand, looking even fascinated by it. Eyes shining and smiling as you feel for the first time what its skin is like under your touch. You look… beautiful. Gorgeous. Heavenly sent. Fuck. You have him in your hands already.

Bakugou Katsuki then decides:

He will fucking kiss the ground you walk. He will give you everything you ask of him.

You want certain clothes to wear? He will search for them for you. You want certain foods? He will fly his dragon to wherever they are made or grown on. You want a land? He will fucking burn every single thing or life it takes to give it to you.

You want him? He will gladly give himself completely to you.

Well, he already is.

[andypantsx3]

walk with me here:

seeing boyfriend bakugou hard at work in your kitchen and being unable to resist a drive-by butt pinch, cooing "my cute little stay-at-home wife," and then suffering the consequences

[animegirl3476]

Another day, another discourse comparing and contrasting Shoya and Shoko’s relationship in A Silent Voice with Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship in My Hero Academia.

At the end of the day, you’ll never get a 1:1 comparison with these two cases due to the fact that 1) They belong to vastly different genres, 2) One is far longer than the other and 3) One is a grounded character drama and coming of age tale.

But…

I think that A Silent Voice provides a fairly good basis for judging the way MHA handles the relationship development of two characters, where one used to bully the other and an arc of atonement occurs. More importantly, comparisons to A Silent Voice highlight the shortcomings of Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship development and allows me to understand and actually communicate what I don’t like about the way the story handles it.

In my opinion, what sets these two stories apart in the way they handle the atonement arcs of their respective bullies is the way they portray consequences. The big “C” word tends to elicit a hostile reaction from certain fans, who assume that your idea of consequences must necessarily involve the bully character being gratuitously punished and made to suffer as retribution for their past actions. But a consequence is just the “result or affect of an action or condition” and can range in severity, it can have many different effects.

A Silent Voice uses social consequences to prompt change from its main character. Shoya’s bullying results in him being shunned by his classmates and friends, and the story goes to great lengths to show how his actions not only hurt his victim, but that they also hurt people he cared about. His mom has to reimburse Shoko’s mom for the damaged hearing aids (when she is already short on money) for example. Furthermore, the knowledge of his past is something that impacts the way others perceive him, and that change in perception is essential to his arc.

More importantly, A Silent Voice makes it clear to the viewer/reader that despite Shoko generally being a kind and forgiving person, the bullying still hurt her deeply enough to leave a long lasting impression. Shoko is receptive to Shoya’s will to change, but the story doesn’t ignore that Shoko suffered greatly and that the bullying made her sad, frustrated and even angry. Her negative emotions are not overshadowed by her desire to see Shoya become a better person.

The thing that holds me back from enjoying Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship development is the lack of consequences Bakugou receives for his bullying (which is directly connected to the way the narrative denies Izuku both agency and introspection) The hard truth is that Bakugou faces little to no consequences for his past behaviour, and one would think that such a topic would have to be brought up at some point because, ya know…he goes to a hero school. A HERO school, a place where people train to be role models, help people on a large scale and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

The first scene we see with Bakugou depicts him as the opposite of a hero. A mean bully who beats up people weaker than him, and this is emphasized by the fact that he targets Izuku, who has no means of defending himself. Despite this, he gets into UA, which isn’t necessarily a problem because it communicates a major flaw in the system that cultivates heroes (Overlooking certain problematic traits in favour of innate talent and strength) BUT, the information that he used to be a bully never comes up among his classmates in any major or lasting way. We saw his classmates, and even his new friends discuss or think about how much they abhor bullying. The students of class 1A do not like it when people abuse their strength to pick on those weaker than them…yet that never seems to connect back to Bakugou’s past as a bully.

This issue is exacerbated by the lack of attention given to Izuku’s side of the story. In stories that involve the atonement or redemption of a bully, it is CRITICAL that the victim’s side of the story is treated as something equally important to the bully’s side. It’s not something that can just be overshadowed by the bully’s side, it must be focused on in order for the atonement arc to work.

It’s disappointing that Izuku lacks the introspection that Katsuki gets, and very unsatisfying that it effectively lets Katsuki off the hook for literally every bad thing he’s ever done. The ways the bullying might’ve impacted Izuku for the worst is hardly ever discussed because every time the narrative approaches the topic, it always pivots to Izuku praising Katsuki for the things he did right. This is a big problem, because it silences any discussion that focuses on Izuku’s feelings and shines the spotlight on Katsuki instead.

Before I end my little tangent, I also feel the need to say this: Pointing to any instance of Katsuki’s suffering throughout the series IS NOT EVIDENCE OF CONSEQUENCES! Any bad thing will happen to Katsuki and people will proceed to say: “SEE?! Did you see that?? Katsuki HAS faced consequences! How can you say that he never faced consequences for his actions? Why do you want him to suffer?” It’s so disingenuous and it’s a terrible argument that refuses to criticize the text.

[kywaslost]

Hello! How are you? I hope things are getting better for you, at least a little bit. Is it okay if I can get Aizawa with a student reader who holds their breath when they cry? It’s a habit that I’ve had since I was little and I have no idea why. You can choose whether it’s a scenario or headcannons, I don’t mind at all! Thank you so much! Remember to take care of yourself xoxo

Watery Breaths - Aizawa

A/N: Hi! I’m doing alright. I think I’ve pushed myself a bit too far the past few weeks and am now suffering the consequences, but that’s alright. I hope you’re doing well! Take care of yourself as well! And for the sake of this fic, UA had the dorms before Bakugou was kidnapped. Sorry this is so rushed, it’s been a rough day <3

It first happened when Aizawa was sent to the hospital after the USJ attack. Much like his other students, you stood by his bedside when he was well enough to have company. Several of his students were crying, mostly tears of joy, but none of them held their breath like he thought you were doing. He didn’t think much of it though

The next time it happened was when Bakugou was kidnapped. You were there to watch him be taken away from you, and you did nothing about it. Or, at least that’s what you were telling yourself. Except you didn’t start crying until Aizawa placed a hand on your shoulder to lead you back to safety. You immediately began to sob as he gently pulled you away from where you last saw your best friend.

Not much later you had stopped making sounds, but AIzawa could feel how hard you tried not to cry. You had momentarily stopped breathing. He thought it was because of the intense scent of smoke surrounding the camp so he didn’t say anything until he got you and the remaining students back to UA where you’d be safe and sound.

You didn’t sleep that night. In fact, you didn’t even go to bed. When you returned to UA you settled into the corner of one of the couches, curling into a ball and burying your face into your knees as you began to cry again. You were left alone as your classmates dealt with this trauma in their own ways. Some went to wash away the day in an extremely long shower while others returned to their rooms to be alone.

You were still crying when Aizawa returned to the dorms late into the night. He was startled to still see you in the same place he had left you. Slowly, he lowered himself beside you as he pondered how to comfort you. That’s when he noticed your strained sobs again. It sounded almost as you were holding your breath.

“Y/N,” he said gently, placing a hand on your shoulder. “Take a deep breath. I’ll do it with you.” Aizawa inhaled deeply, encouraging you to do so as well. You nodded, drawing in a shaky breath and then exhaling it, breath quivering. But then you held your breath again.

Aizawa was unsure why you kept holding your breath. You couldn’t be embarrassed, he’s seen you aggressively burst into tears over the ending of a TV show you were finishing late one night in the common room. You weren’t afraid to cry in front of your homeroom teacher. So why are you sounding so strained now?

“Honey,” he cooed softly. “Keep breathing. Stop holding your breath.”

“I’m sorry,” you choked out as you took another shaky breath. “It’s a habit I’ve had ever since I was little. I always hold my breath when I cry.”

Aizawa smiled slightly as he ruffled your hair gently. “Well, stop it. You’re going to make yourself light headed.” He then proceeded to lead you through a few breathing exercises to calm you down. He made sure you were alright before escorting you up to your room to turn in for the night.

Now that he knows that you force yourself to stop breathing everytime you cry, Aizawa’s got more breathing exercises on hand to help you breath again. All you have to do is find him :)

[doodlegirl1998]

hey have you ever made a post about what changes you would make to bnha to make the story more cohesive and less *gestures vaguely*

Hi @trulyisawesome 👋,

Great question! Please be aware that there's some spoilers below and that some of what I have to say may be an unpopular opinion.

It is also rather disjointed as this became a bit of a rant / brainstorm.

So here's a list of what changes I would make to MHA.

Give Bakugou proper consequences - such as having Aizawa expel him right away as soon as he makes to attack Midoriya. It would highlight the message straight away that bullies and abusers can't be heroes as well as the fact that power isn't everything.

Change Izuku's hero name to Dekiru - not Deku. I know some people like the reclaimation of this insult but I'm not one of them. Having Bakugou's insulting nickname meaning 'worthless' be instead changed to Dekiru meaning 'you can do it' fits more with Izuku's character. How he is an underdog who despite the odds never stopped trying with his dream.

Make Shigaraki Tomura the 'rival' as well as the 'villain' of the story. Think about it. What are rivals in these Shonens meant to do? To challenge the Protagonist and inspire them to become stronger. Bakugou in canon just tears Midoriya down relentlessly calling him "Deku" and calling the OFA holders "worthless nobodies" there's nothing inspiring about that. However - Shigaraki. He definitely could challenge Midoriya (both in views and power) and inspire him to become stronger. He's also shown to think of Midoriya constantly (separate to AFO's influence which is huge) so Midoriya could easily challenge (both views wise and in terms of power) and inspire him. Plus more interactions between these two would have done them wonders.

I would have Midoriya be the one to be kidnapped by the League rather than Bakugou. With Shiggy constantly thinking of him I believed this would happen, that Shig would try and fail to recruit Midoriya upon finding out he's a 'late bloomer'. It would also make a contrast between that moment and Izuku trying to save Shigaraki later because at that point they've both reached out to each other. And the whole narrative of 'saving Shigaraki' feels less forced.

Build up Shigaraki either as the main villain taking up AFO's villianous legacy like how Izuku is taking AM's heroic legacy or build up his redeemability by having him question what he was taught by his 'Sensei.' Either of these routes would be better than the inner child that is crying B.S. It neatly sidesteps all of the fact that Shigaraki canonically does not feel remorse or wish to change for any of deaths he caused. It is poor writing to try to redeem a character by throwing a pity party for them because they have suffered rather than addressing 'Do they want to be saved? Do they want to do better and change?' With Shigaraki, he wants to be saved from All for One but does he want to change or feel regret? Canonically, no. He uses Nomu's with no guilt. He kills people with no guilt. All he wants is destruction.

Don't redeem Endeavor - here's the thing. When Hori went down this route several things went wrong. Shoto lost his relevance as a main character and it became 'the Endeavor Show.' So instead, I would explore Shoto's POV growing separate from his Dad as well as reconnecting with both his siblings and his mum again as well as exploring their autonomous POV's. In canon, Hori scapegoated both Dabi and Rei to shift blame off of him which was a mess and muddles the messaging. Endeavor is meant to the symbol of the corrupt heroics 'redeeming him' undermines that.

Make Stain have a point. A controversial opinion but Stain in theory does have a point because there corrupt heroes (*cough* Endeavor *cough*) however the heroes Stain is shown to hurt do seem to be those he should like I.e Tensei Iida (who in the Spin Off Vigilantes is shown to be a good hero.) Give Stain targets that make sense I.e make a hero who is being corrupt, doing bad and being bad and have Stain hurt them. At the moment he just appears to hunt those that aren't All Might and dont emulate him.

Show Heroes / The Hero commission being corrupt more. Sure we have 'the optimist and murderer' Hawks as an example, Nagant who is in a few chapters but this corruption is meant to be a systemic issue. How the HPSC ruled and how the heroes have to bow to them is never fully explored I hate that (I actually wouldn't mind these guys being the actual bad guys of the series and the villians being the ones speaking out against them.)

I would establish Nagant as a character earlier. I would have Izuku be a fan of hers and I would have Hawks be mentored by her to support her place in the story and the impact of what happens to her by showing established characters effected by her and care for her. Since canonically it feels like Hori dropped her in the story out of nowhere.

Don't make Geten a Himura or reveal this earlier. Again. What was the point of this revelation? I could have seen this and been more open to it if it were revealed in the MVA arc. I would either have Geten rant maniacally about the purity and strength of the Himura Ice perhaps to parallel Endeavor's lust for power while Dabi stares at him shocked or not go down this route at all. Since now, it feels out of place and shoe horned in out of nowhere. And the incest stuff... I get that this sort of thing would happen in a world of quirks but what does it add? Rei is now canonically a product of incest - and what does that do? Narratively wise it nothing at all except give Rei's situation a whole other layer of ICK.

I would not give Dabi ice. What was the point of that revealation? His whole suffering comes down to the fact that he wasn't born perfect. That through Endeavor's quirk marriage he was born with a quirk that didn't suit his body and constantly harmed himself with his fire. Yet even so Touya used and continued to train his fire because Endeavor built up his sense of self as only his successor / how good he was with his fire then tore that away. Giving Dabi ice as a reaction to his near death state does what narratively? Shows Endeavor should have kept hurting / training Dabi when his quirk starts to hurt him? The whole point of Dabi's story should have been that he shouldn't have to be born "perfect" to be worthy of love yet the narrative robs him of that.

I would also either erase Dabi's kill count entirely or I would have it so that he accidentally killed those in the orphanage with his escape. And counted them in his 30 kills. This move I feel like would make him more sympathetic. It feels like Hori gave Dabi a kill count of random civilians to undermine him / his point against Endeav. Having him blame himself for the deaths of those in the orphanage (and them be a majority of his 30 kills) helps his redeemability because it proves despite his words that he still feels things and is in fact emotionally repressing things due to trauma.

Build up Toga Himiko as a sympathetic villian from the get go instead of a "Blood Yandere" or just make her a full irredeemable villian. With Toga from the start I would give her internal conflict about killing others, give her guilt about taking lives to feed her addiction to blood, make her try not to take lives /her killings accidental before she loses more and more of herself to the thirst for blood which then Ochaco could 'save' her from by reminding her what she wants is genuine connection/ help. Or I'd have her be a full unrepentant villian that needs to be stopped.

Explore the full consequences of Twice's death on the League and proper rammifications for Hawks. Or Don't kill Twice - redeem him instead. I like Twice, I feel like he's one of the best and most sympathetic villains Hori has ever written. Therefore I am miffed that canonically the League's feelings (outside Toga's) haven't been explored on Twice's death when they all, even Shig and Dabi, seemed to be fond of him at least. I am also annoyed that Hawks isn't even looked down on for this decision and didn't lose anything. No one is sideyeing him for deliberately stabbing a mentally ill man in the back? He gets his wings back despite Dabi burning them off? Or instead of killing Twice I'd have him be captured by Hawks instead and receive therapy.

Explore the process of the creation of an intelligent Nomu. I would either make Shirakumo 'alive' somehow being making Kurogiri an alter of him which the Doctor tortured out of him then brainwashed. OR I would explore Kurogiri's internal thoughts realising that he is a sentient corpse and exploring a full identity crisis for him, still wanting to be a hero and reconnect with his old friends but also wishing to save Shigaraki from AFO. That would be more powerful than what we got.

Give Nedzu, Momo and all the intelligent characters back their brains. Hori doesn't write intelligent characters well, everyone does what he wants them to do for the sake of plot. I would have them tackle the problem and put their characters first when they think things through and make the plot bend to them rather than vice versa.

Make AFO a proper threatening villain and a consistent threat or replace him as the main big bad. - Not sure how to elaborate but some of AFO's decisions in the recent arcs have been laughably stupid to the point of extreme annoyance. So I would either write him off after Kamino or keep him a consistent threat.

I would also explore Dr Giraki / Ujiko as a big bad alongside AFO and the horror of the Nomu condition. These are puppeteered corpses! People's dead bodies! And yet the heroes even upon knowing this are still kicking them around like volleyballs. There's no attempt to save the High ends even after realising Kurogiri's condition. So I would change that. I would have the heroes want to treat these creatures with respect. And only kill as a last resort.

Make Nedzu an actual character. Nedzu has a very interesting premise, a creature, who hates humans, with a very high IQ in charge of a school. Why is this? Because Hori said so in canon. I would actually explore why - does he actually want control and influence over how some of the most powerful heroes will turn out like - I think yes. So I would explore his morally grey tendencies and flesh him out.

Allow all the 1A girls to be both useful and intelligent. Momo especially has an OP quirk, an OP intelligent stat yet Hori never allows her to be as useful or intelligent as she should be. Jiro, Hagakure and Froppy also have OP quirks - yet they are under utilised and unexplored in what capabilities they could do.

Make Aizawa less of a bad teacher and more of a hardass with a heart of gold. (This will be an unpopular opinion.) I am firm in the belief that Aizawa's methods are deeply flawed and canonically he is not a good homeroom teacher at all. I would remove his 'expulsion record' (doing that would literally ruin lives even with the retcon of it only being on paper because that black mark would stay there.) I would change it instead so he moves the classes he deems to have no potential to Gen Ed so that there is no black mark nonsense and the students with potential could earn their way back into the course via the sports festival. I would change the "logical ruse" nonsense which would only breed trust issues in his students IRL to him being straight forward with the goals but having the activities have secret targets too (like the whole concept of hero points in the entrance exam.) I would also erase him falling asleep all the time because that doesn't support the notion that he cares about these kids. These changes would lead to him being a better teacher and would make more sense canonically as his teaching methods are meant to come from his trauma around Oboro's death.

I would either erase Aizawa's mentorship with Shinsou entirely or I would have Shinsou get further into the sports festival and earn his way into 1A that way. Canonically we see Eraser help and mentor Shinsou more than his own students (even the ones who actually need help!) So I would change this by removing the mentorship entirely or having Shinsou join 1A having earnt a spot via the sports festival and having Aizawa help him catch up with everyone else.

Shinsou. I would have him actually be treated as a villain in his backstory. I know we are all used to fanon Shinsou but canon Shinsou isn't abused. Isn't even really bullied bar from a rather justified wariness of 'that quirk is great for a hero. Just don't use it on me, ok?' Which doesn't inspire sympathy if anything it makes you wonder if Shinsou had believed he could coast into the hero course on his powerful quirk and is bitter that he couldn't do that. So I would have him be literally called a villain (literally have his quirks similarities to that of the villain Dictator be called out), I would also have him train outside his quirk to make him more sympathetic. Izuku did with his analysis. Shinsou canonically didn't train at all.

Tone down or Erase Mineta's perversions. I get this is a shonen so there is nearly always a character like this however with Mineta's 'comedy' Hori always goes too far and makes him appear like a budding sexual predator (thankfully he seems to be growing out of this in the later arcs but still.) I'd turn it into him trying and failing to flirt rather than groping people.

Have Midnight only make saucy comments to her peers - this I don't feel like needs further elaboration but the fact that Midnight had said she was turned on by things the students did (even though it's a persona) felt ick to me especially as this character is meant to be a teacher. I would explore her deeper as a character and juxapose her off duty 'more reserved' character vs the hero 'saucy' persona. And have her warn the girls about sexualisation in the hero industry 'women need to use their bodies / sex appeal to get ahead.' Which this new generation of heroes could change that.

I would either not kill Midnight at all or give her a heroic and impactful death. I hated how Midnight died off screen by a meaningless mook, only to be mentioned once again by Mic for Aizawa to shut him up about it. I hated how from here her relevance in the teacher OG friendship group essentially ended as Hori shifted focus hard to KurOboro. I hated how the impact of her death on the students that found her wasn't explored. Midnight died grievously injured and on her knees, Hori didn't bother to even give her a death scene. I would either not kill her at all or have her sacrifice herself heroically to save her students and fully explore the impact of this on everyone.

Explore the UA teachers / how they teach outside of Aizawa and All Might. The series is meant to be 'my hero academia' - So where is the academia? I would have some of the other teachers teaching styles explored as well as the students learning things that come in useful for hero work other than fighting. I.e first aid, villain psychology, quirkless hand to hand fights - all things that would come in useful as a hero other than being good with their quirks. I would also explore these teachers more as characters because I'd love to know more about Vlad King, Mic, Midnight, Thirteen, Ectoplasm and Nedzu.

I would have Endeavor always remain second to All Might. Endeavor in my opinion never deserved the number one spot, he instead deserved to fall from grace after being outed as an abuser. I would have All Might after losing OFA go full 'Iron Man Might' and remind Izuku that he showed Toshi how great of a hero he was without a quirk so Toshi is now taking inspiration from him and showing the whole of Japan how power isn't just from Quirks. It would show AM and Izuku's mentorship and the bond between these characters nicely.

I would either erase Nighteye from the story entirely or change his personality entirely and have him bond with Izuku over being an AM fan too. This I'm not sure if it needs explanation but Nighteye being a bad friend to AM, a bad mentor to Izuku wasn't needed. Aside from his role in Mirio's life and saving Eri he wasn't needed in general- especially not to bring down Izuku's already critically low self esteem.

Eri is too OP - it's narrative breaking. If she can rewind things why hasn't she rewound All Might back to his prime health? Why hasn't she given Aizawa back his eye and leg? Why has Eri only gave Mirio back his quirk? Can she rewind the dead? These are all questions Hori has left dangling because he couldn't be bothered to think of them before he thoughtlessly slotted her into the narrative. I would give her hard limits to her Rewind (such as only being able to rewind a few years or one part of the body at a time) and the drug that Overhaul uses be her power plus trigger to enhance it.

I would leave Mirio quirkless and have him be an awesome hero without Permeation. It would do wonders for the narrative if after losing his quirk Mirio kept working toward being a hero anyway. It would be interesting for both Midoriya and Aoyama to react to this. And for Mirio to have a big brother relationship with Midoriya.

I would give Izuku a proper support group. (I feel like this will be an unpopular opinion.) Class 1A should have been perfect for this role however Hori having them unite with Bakugou against Izuku in the 1A vs Izuku mess, Hori never bothering to develop 1A's friendships most people in 1A don't feel like Midoriya's friends. So I would change that and have them be more of a found family.

I would narratively foreshadow Yuuga as the UA traitor. Yuuga being formerly Quirkless and the UA traitor came out of nowhere. So I would foreshadow it by having him bond with Izuku over "being a late bloomer." I would explore his hesitancy to make friends through this too so Izuku and he would unknowingly bond over a shared Quirkless past. I would also have AFO explode him like he did with Nagant upon finding out Yuuga's treachery. I wouldn't kill Yuuga but this act would make the stakes much more personal for Izuku.

I would narratively develop Midoriya's family. We know so much of the Todoroki's yet so little of the Midoriya's it's criminal. So I would develop both Midoriya Hisashi and Midoriya Inko as people and show the impact of their parenting on Izu. Show Izuku calling his Dad 'overseas' . As well as drop hints about DFO (because I do like that theory but Hori hasn't built up to that well.)

I would tell the stories of the OFA holders instead of having them be plot devices. We know so little of the OFA holders, their motivations, their personalities it's criminal. So I would develop them and tell their stories of what it was like to hold OFA in their time as well as explore First as an actual character. What was it like for each of the holders in their time? Who were each of the holders to each other, all mentees and mentors or best friends, partners? Were any of the holders 'bad' or 'redeemed villains' it looks like everyone was all good which is a waste!!

I would give All Might a proper support group. Think about the people who know his OFA secret, Midoriya, Gran Torino, Nana, Nighteye, Nedzu, Detective Tsukauchi and Recovery Girl. Out of these people; Nana has tragically died in front of All Might, Midoriya is his successor and a child in need of his support and the other four (everyone else except Detective Tsukauchi) supports All Might poorly. (Especially Gran who AM is shown to be afraid of to the point of shaking!) Detective Tsukauchi is the only one who I think actually is shown supporting AM the most. So I would add more supportive characters to AM's circle (like Mic who is shown to be a very good, supportive friend and Inko who is Izuku's mum and is also shown to be a kind and supportive lady.)

I would keep the coherent clear problems in society such as Quirkless Discrimination and Mutant Discrimination shown throughout the story. Hori does a poor job with tackling his themes so I would show more how Quirkless (other than Izu and Aoyama are treated). I would also show Spinner taking offense when Dabi calls him "Lizard" as well as the Police chief taking offence when Shoto calls him a "Mutt." And have more instances like this.

I think this is all the ideas I have for now. Please let me know what you think.

[epickiya722]

Can I ask your opinions on these? For me, I disagree with both but what about you :

https://www.tumblr.com/punkeropercyjackson/757527121622155264/bakugou-couldve-slayed-so-hard-if-only-horikoshi?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/ilovereadingandstuff/758017636895522816/im-sorry-but-this-is-so-true-izuku-darling?source=share

Yes, you may, Anon!

Simple answer, I disagree heavily with both of these opinions.

For the first one, it just makes no sense to me.

"Actual consequences"? What actual consequences does a teenager need to have exactly? The most a teenager should suffer from to learn from their mistakes is what Bakugou went through. Heck, he suffered through even worse than your average teenager! You're telling me...

Getting into a class that first doesn't even like you, realizing you're not hot shit when you get into said class, chained down and muzzled on live television, kidnapped by villains, failing your licensing exam...

Isn't punishment enough? Bakugou needed to put in an environment surrounded by people who actually would have made him realize how wrong he was in the past.

When people be like "he deserves actual consequences", those same people then end up saying those actual consequences is him being expelled or worse. How can Bakugou learn and be better if he's dead?

And then in that post they pretty much bash Uraraka and Midoriya and saying they do nothing for Bakugou's story and saying Kirishima and Jiro would. Midoriya is the most prominent reason as to why Bakugou changed as a character. To say he did nothing for Bakugou's character is something I never thought I ever see, but I'm not surprised. Lately, it seems that certain shippers of a ship that starts with a K and I don't mean Kacchako or KamiBaku been coming out the woodwork again with their bullshit.

While, yes, Kirishima does something for Bakugou's character, it isn't as big as an impact as Midoriya would be. Midoriya is even the one to tell Kirishima to reach out Bakugou, so does that say about their relationship?

And Jiro? I say this with love for my Rockstar baby girl, but Jiro is the LAST girl in that class that should impact Bakugou's character at all. This is the same girl who will sometimes attack Kaminari. Granted, sometimes Kaminari does need someone to go "Whoa, hold on now". But there are times Jiro herself is unnecessarily mean to him, example being making fun of how he goes dumb whenever he overused his quirk.

I'm sorry, people will drag Bakugou through the mud for being mean to Midoriya, but don't have that energy for Jiro. I had someone, kid you not, tell me that Jiro being mean to Kaminari is consensual on Kaminari's part... HOW?! So her threatening him with her quirk after he tries to hype her up is consensual?! He looked frightened!

Again, Horikoshi would not have cooked with making Jiro in the place of Uraraka when it comes to Bakugou. Which makes no sense because it's not like Uraraka is trying to be besties with Bakugou! She literally has her own arc to deal with! So, why is OP of that post trying to make a competiton between the girls when there's no competition??

It felt out of nowhere to me to come at Uraraka and Kacchako. Like, what my girl do?

☆

That second one... oooh, boy. People still trying to drag the ending.

Well, guess what I recently learned? So we all know that the second movie was going to be the OG ending to the manga, but Horikoshi scrapped it and gave us a better one. Trust me, it is better than what I'm about to tell you.

So, I don't know how true this is, but I read that the original draft for the ending had Midoriya pass OFA to Bakugou (as he done in the movie), he never gets it back, and Bakugou goes on to fight AFO and Shigaraki and become the number one Hero. Meanwhile, Midoriya is just there...

Horikoshi decided that the concept of that ending, at least some of it, could go to the second movie. Great decision honestly.

Say what you want, but I do prefer the ending we got and it's a damn shame people are still trying to say Midoriya didn't learn anything and even now compare him to Togata and Knuckleduster.

Knuckleduster was still a Pro Hero with his quirk in his younger years. They must have forgotten that the man became a vigilante to find his daughter. Otherwise, had nothing happen, Iwao would have went into retirement and called it a day. If Lemillion didn't need his quirk to fight Overhaul, who doesn't have combat skills let's be real Overhaul ain't have no hands, then how come Lemillion didn't continue to try to be a Hero without a quirk? Right, right. Because he still needed one.

"He didn't do anything until his friends gave him a handout! He is still the same loser!"

Ah, WRONG!! They must have forgotten that Midoriya wasn't that confident in himself in the beginning. They must have forgotten Midoriya had firsthand experiences with villains and learned from them.

Midoriya isn't the same person he was in chapter one. Hell, small things will show that. In middle school, he barely could raise his hand. In UA? He is nearly standing out his seat to answer a question!

If Midoriya didn't learn anything then how come he became a teacher? Because if Midoriya was so hung up on not becoming a Pro Hero/not learn anything, he wouldn't pursue any career at all. It's not like he settled. He may have attended UA, but he would have still work hard to be a teacher there.

If he didn't learn anything, then how come he was able to encourage Dai to pursue his dream?

To call him a "loser" makes no sense because being a teacher at one of the most prestigious schools in Japan and still get recognized by people doesn't sound like being a loser to me.

Midoriya did become a hero. He, as a teacher, is a hero to those kids. He motivated one kid to pursue his dream. In his teen years, he fought in several major fights and became a hero to those who he saved.

Who said that Midoriya just stops working out? That Midoriya? Are we sure we're talking about the same Midoriya who definitely would keep up a workout schedule even after losing a quirk? I don't think that person actually knows Midoriya as well as they think they do.

They must have forgotten that Midoriya actually knows hand to hand combat so you cannot tell me during those eight years he bodies several purse snatchers.

Just because he has no quirk didn't mean he stopped being productive. He literally has a degree under his belt now. DOES THAT SOUND LIKE SOMEONE WHO ISN'T PRODUCTIVE?!

Midoriya didn't "give up" on anything. People must have forgotten what kind of society these characters live in. People may appreciated Midoriya and the others saving them but they're still judgmental. Midoriya pursing a PRO Hero career would have been harder for him because even though he would have support from his friends there would still have been others like overseers for exams to negate that.

Also, they would have to work out how to allow people with no quirk to become actual Pro Heroes. Especially, when quirks continue to evolve and get more dangerous. They would become very cautious of that.

So Midoriya, being the productive guy that he is (no sarcasm), did go on to do something with his life. In fact, him going onto being a Quirkless Hero will do a lot for Quirkless people. Yeah, his friends helped him with getting gear but it's not like he asked for it or he's not going to be thankful and work for it. He didn't wait on them to give him a handout. How could he if he actually didn't know about it?! How do you wait on something you don't even have a clue about?! Someone explain to me how!

Midoriya is only 25. He still has a lot of time to become a top tier hero... if he wanted. People forget Midoriya didn't care to be a popular hero. He just wanted to be a Hero. "But he wanted to be like All Might!" Who, yes, was popular so Midoriya is going to be like him and guess what? He does!

Midoriya ends accomplishing his goal of being like All Might, his hero.

It actually makes me want to throw up that people drag Midoriya for getting gear but are shush mouth about All Might using gear in his late 50s to fight AFO. Like, they act like having gear handed to you is so bad so where's that energy for All Might?

Him being Quirkless and a Pro Hero will show other Quirkless people who want to be a Hero that they don't have to not be vigilantes/hide in the shadows to do good. Him having the relationship he does with his friends will also show others with quirks that they can be better and support Quirkless people.

Simply put, they can be heroes for each other.

I think whoever wrote that post missed the point that a hero isn't someone who has a quirk, puts on a cape and flies around. You don't have to have a quirk to save anybody. You just have to be there for somebody and help them have hope.

Almost everyone in this story was a hero for someone. Yes, that would include villains. Tomura was a hero for the villains. He wasn't just some leader.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like people are being unfair to Midoriya. Scratch that. They always been unfair to Midoriya.

People will be like "I adore Midoriya" but I don't think so. I think you adore the Midoriya you conjured up in your head.

"He should have kept OFA!" No, the fuck he should not! OFA was a curse disguised as a blessing.

"He's still the same loser!" HOW?! He has a job, he does still have his friends, he was still considered a hero, he thinks better of himself now.

If one reads the last chapter with their eyes, they could see Midoriya already felt he accomplished his goal in being a Hero. He just decided to encourage others to reach their dreams.

I'm sorry, but a good 75% of this fandom just don't like Midoriya and if they do, they like whatever fanon version they came up with in their head.

[acerathia]

pink camellias || Chapter 9: red chrysanthemum

Chapter Summary:

red chrysanthemum: i love you

Wordcount: 4.5k

Read on AO3 || Masterlist

Pairing:

Bakugou Katsuki / Reader

Tags/CW:

royalty au, inspired by Mulan, war and its consequences, violence, childhood friends to strangers to companions to lovers (i am sorry), Angst, Acts of Service, Character Death (Major, and Minor), swordfights, misogyny, f!reader, kidnapping, implied torture, let me know if I missed anything lol

Note:

honestly, let's get it over with LMAO, might post a lil bonus someday tho

Nothing was working out. You almost cursed, but you retained some sort of dignity and remained silent. The only thing leaving your mouth was a sigh, indicating your suffering. And immediately you got scolded for moving.

You pinched your face at that. Because you understood that they were taking your measurements, but were you truly not allowed to breathe? Especially if these were going to be your future dresses? You wished you still could wear your older ones.

But alas, your older dresses were outfashioned now, and pretty revealing. And not only that, but you also could not afford to arrive at the victory party littered with scars. You had them, but it would be a disgrace to reveal them like that. So, there you were, standing as still as possible for the seamstress to take your measurements to make you a proper dress for the upcoming ball.

Time already slipped between your fingers and you had no idea how long you had been standing there, but even after you were allowed to move, you couldn’t indulge and throw yourself onto your bed, at least you could sit down.

The seamstress showed you some of her designs and fabrics, and you choose a couple fitting for every possible situation you might happen to be in. And if there was a certain shade of deep red you had chosen, then it was simply because it was in fashion.

After making all these decisions, she handed you an already finished dress, because you had been summoned to the palace today. And despite your house arrest, nobody could refuse such a summon, so your father had to let you go.

The seamstress left, promising you your dresses in time for the ball. The moment the door closed, the maids swarmed around the dress, admiring it and its cut and color. And it didn’t take long until you felt their gaze upon you, and you shivered in premonition.

Still, they were good at prettying you up, so once again, you were left at their skilled hands. First, you slipped the bodice on, before the corset. You always hated getting it tied, but you didn’t complain when a maid pulled at the strings. After that were the numerous petticoats layered on top. And lastly, the adorned but simple dress.

The dress closed around your throat and had longer sleeves. Your hands were covered by elegant gloves. After everything sat right, the handmaids began to take care of your face and hair, making you fit for the occasion.

In the end, they handed you a parasol in the same shade as your dress. Still, you couldn’t help but look into the mirror before you left the room, making sure that none of your scars were visible. And you were glad that your face had remained untouched by any marring.

The way in the carriage between the mansion and the palace was smooth and didn’t take long. Soon you were leaving the palace gates behind you and a knight opened the door for you. The face you saw was rather unexpected, so you took a moment to take his hand to exit the carriage.

“Hello, lady knight,” Denki grinned, donned with the armor of the palace guards. Immediately he paled slightly as if someone gestured for him to not be rude. “I mean, greetings my lady.”

You grinned slightly at this. “Hello Sir Denki. I see you have climbed the ranks.”

“Uh, yeah! They were very pleased with my service, there’s no other reason of course.”

You patted his shoulder. “Sure, you were great. Now, I have to leave. Have fun with your new occupation.”

You then entered the palace where a maid greeted you and showed you the way to the garden, where the queen was waiting for you. Still, you took some time to look around the halls, at the art hanging on the walls and the carefully carved statues. And from time to time a memory of your childhood could be glimpsed inside your mind. The taste of these bittersweet. Especially with the current date.

You averted your gaze towards the ground, feeling a faint ache in your chest. And you wondered how long it would take for it to go away. Did you even wanted it gone? Now that you barely remembered her face?

Something caught in the corner of your eyes, and some reflex prompted you to turn slightly towards it. But once you looked, it was already gone. How silly of you, to think you had seen him again, in this very palace.

With a shake of your head, you entered the garden and greeted the queen with a curtsy. She returned the greeting with a chuckle and invited you to sit in front of her. Once you did, she took your hand in hers.

“How are you, darling? It has been some time since you had visited me last,” she asked, her gaze wandering over your face.

You squeezed her hand with your fingers. “I’ve been well, Your Majesty. I hope you didn’t get too bored in my absence,” you smiled cheekily.

Another chuckle. “Well, what can you do, I’ve been doing my duties. Only if my son would visit me also. But alas, he has been busy with the war.”

You nodded a bit absentmindedly, as you tried to remember if you had encountered any prince on the battlefield or at the base. But as much as you tried, you couldn’t, the only memory resurfacing was the way blood had felt between your fingers.

A shaky exhale and you turned your attention back to the queen. To the slightly rowdy hair underneath the crown. Yet, she looked majestic. You supposed it made sense.

After that, you both continued with light talk, as the reason you both were there in the first place didn’t have to be talked about. Even if you glanced at the flowers around you, remembering that these were her favorite. The ones she could never enjoy, unless someone put them on top of stone.

At their sight, you just stopped the conversation, unable to keep talking without any silent sobs escaping your lips. While you tried to stop your low hiccuping, she put a hand over yours once again, comforting you with her presence. She, too, was grieving in her own way. So, you both silently lamented the ones who had been taken from you too soon, leaving you without a mother, and without a best friend, a confidante of the heart lost.

This situation never changed, every year you joined her for tea until one's emotion finally broke through, leading to the memories falling from your lips, and hers. And you loved to listen about the youth of your mouth, something you could have never heard otherwise, something to connect you to her once again.

That was, until someone barged into the garden, words immediately directed at the queen in front of you in such a rude manner, you couldn’t help but gasp in surprise. Yet, she remained calm, so it seemed like that was something she had to deal with regularly.

Following the shouts you looked over, only to stop in your tracks. The sun was covering his golden hair and his eyes were focused on the woman sitting in front of you, not a glance in your direction. This time, his clothes were clean, a cape fluttering behind him. And for a moment you frowned at its color, orange, like the sunset, like peaches, like a warm bonfire, and like the royal family. Why hadn’t you noticed that earlier?

Your eyes glanced at the queen, and you suddenly noticed how eerily similar they look. The realization punched you in the gut, yet you refrained from saying anything, especially as he continued to give his mother an angry rant.

A sigh from her and she began to berate him in the exact same tone he had given her. You didn’t quite understand what was going on, but you still felt like you were intruding into this moment between them and sunk a tiny bit lower into your chair.

“… Now, you’re being rude, Katsuki. And you didn’t even greet our guest.”

“The fuck you mean, our guest, I didn–”, he turned around to face you, only to stop, as several emotions swiped over his face, his mouth slightly agape.

You tensed your jaw as you stood up to curtsy in front of him. “Greetings to the future sun of the empire, the Crown Prince.”

His whole body seemed to tense at your words, but before he could say anything, you turned towards his mother, the queen.

“Excuse me, I think it is time for me to go home. It was wonderful here, thank you for this invitation.”

She waved her hand slightly. “No need to thank me, dear, I hope you come visit me again.”

With another curtsy towards them both, you left the garden, intending on going home. While you were walking down the halls, you thought that your reaction might have been a little rash, as you had never asked him about his life outside of the battlefield, hell, nobody had even the time to think about anything else.

Still, he had made your life a little bit more difficult than it had to be, all because of your status, only for him to be relishing in a greater privilege than you. Even after you both had started to find comfort in each other's presence, he didn’t even try to look for you or even send you a measly little letter. Now, maybe you should write him one, two words would be enough, but in consideration, insulting the royal family did result in death, as much as you wanted to tell him what you think.

A hand grabbed your wrist with its fingertips, careful as if you were about to break. You turned around and pulled your hand away. The moment you looked at his face, you were really tempted to not curtsy, but maybe doing one would unnerve him.

But the moment you grabbed your dress, he spoke up: “Don’t! I mean– Fuck. You don’t have to curtsy or do any of that noble stuff in front of me, at least not when it’s just us…”

You raised your eyebrows. “No? Well, then, fuck you, Captain Katsuki,” you intoned his name sharply.

He let out a breath, his shoulders minimally slumping. “Shit, I deserve that… Listen, ugh, fuck, I– uh, I wanted to talk to you, but not like this. This doesn’t feel right. I mean, it does, just, just I was, fuckin’ worried.”

“Worried? About what? Oh, is it because it would be too embarrassing to be seen with someone like me? A disgrace to every noble woman?” you scoffed.

“Fuck, no. Argh, listen, I didn’t want you to think differently… of me…”, he mumbled, avoiding your eyes as if in anger, but you could sense the anxiety radiating off of his posture. “You… You used to call me ‘Kacchan, and, and I wanted to show you a different, better side of me. As a knight, as someone who can actually protect you. Not that– that brat I once was…”

At this, you sighed, closing your eyes for a moment. Of course, you understood where he came from, it didn’t make it much better, though. Still, you ought to accept his reasoning.

“I understand. But it doesn’t make it okay. You’ve been targeting me in the camp, making everything much more exhausting than it had to be. And then we connected, somehow. I thought that maybe we could move on, be friends, or even… more… But instead of being honest to me, like I was from the first day on, you chose to wait, while I was thinking of a way to contact you. I understand you, I do, but the disappointment runs deeper,” you explained. “That means I cannot forgive you that easily. At least not today.”

With those words, you turned around and walked towards the exit. All while you heard him grumble, but not follow you. Once you sat in the carriage, a sigh escaped you. You felt worn out by this revelation and his reaction, your reaction. And you were aware that you were bound to meet him again, at the latest at the victory celebration. But at least you still trusted him enough to not issue any order regarding you.

And as much as you wanted to worry about the whole situation between you both, there was barely any time for you to even have free thoughts, as you were suddenly busy with managing part of the mansion and the preparation for the upcoming celebration. All while you still weren’t allowed to train, and only leave the house if accompanied by someone else.

The mere days until the victory celebration went like a breeze, and suddenly you stood in front of the mirror once again. This time not in a proper dress with tulle and beautiful stitches, but rather in pants and a fancy jacket with so many glittering buttons, a cape in the color of your house hanging over your shoulder gave the look the final touch. Your sword was hanging on your belt, visible for once, you realized as your gloved hand subconsciously gripped the handle of it.

Looking at your reflection, you saw a knight, something you had worked towards for many years of your life. Yet, you didn’t feel as accomplished as you thought you would, your fingers feeling sticky in a used sensation, your tongue coated with a taste of the living, barely hanging on.

You turned around, shaking your head slightly, trying to drive these ghosts of memories away. Taking a deep breath before you left your room and immediately went outside to the carriage that was supposed to bring you to the hall.

This time, you were alone in the carriage, the first time in a long time, as your maids couldn’t just accompany you to such a place, and your father intended to join the festivities a bit later.

For some reason, you did not look forward to it, but you didn’t have much of a choice, as once again, this was something organized by the crown, and you were inevitably one of the guests of honor.

Arriving at the hall, you let the butler at the entrance announce your entry to the festivities. There, you let your gaze sweep over the crowd for a moment, before you made your way to the buffet filled with finger food and drinks.

On the way, you greeted some people you were indirectly acquainted with, as they asked about the whereabouts of your father. You answered truthfully and chatted them up a bit, trying to ignore some of the glances towards you. You knew, it was because of your clothes, but you didn’t have much of a choice regarding that, considering that the royal family had sent these beforehand. Not that you’d want to wear something else in this situation. You fought and you deserved to be honored, as much as it seemed to bother these people. You continued to smile, aware that additionally to your honorable position as a swordmaster, you were also your father’s daughter, the heir to the title filled with power. They could not afford to demean or ridicule you.

With last goodbyes and promises to visit someday, you finally finished your walk to the table to grab a glass of juice. You took a sip of the cool liquid and let the taste drench your tongue. Looking around, you recognized some people you had fought side by side with, but you didn’t dare approach, aware of the difference in status, and the way it might affect their life, and yours. So, you changed position to stand close to a wall, observing everything and simply waiting for the highlight of the festivities, for it to be over and for it to be polite to leave.

At least the dancing hadn’t started yet, and before you could wonder why, the masses began to cheer. Looking towards the end of the hall at the heightened platform framed by two massive staircases you saw the royal family emerge. The queen started a speech, a flute in her hand to cheer after she was done. But you only listened with half an ear, as your gaze caught on the person beside her, not the king, smiling at his wife, pride clear in his face, but at the crown prince, Katsuki.

He was wearing a white jacket, its collars accented with black, yet the golden details complimented him much more. The color seemed to belong to him, the edges of his clothes set with it, the buttons and small chains glittering underneath the light. But there was nothing beating the cape, one in the same shade of his eyes, shifting into the orange of the royal family with every movement and light. You thought you even spotted a loosened red tie around his neck. The way he stood there, standing out in the warm lights of the chandelier, made him seem like from another world, despite the scowl itching his features. At his sight, your heart thumped against your ribs, and your free hand rubbed over it.

And then his eyes met yours, all explosions and blooming flowers, bursting inside of you, between you. Your brain told you to look away, but you couldn’t, being enchanted by him, by the way his eyes almost imperceptibly softened, the scowl melting into something closer to a smile.

He was the one to break the contact, his eyes shifting to his mother, and the twist of his mouth was back, even if his eyebrows seemed less pinched this time. You immediately lifted the cup to your face to drink and to hide your face, feeling heat creep up your neck.

For some reason you felt the need to change your position, so you began to wander deeper into the hall, occasionally bumping into someone you knew and having small catch-up conversations.

You stayed close to the walls, as the center of the hall began to fill with dancers and their partners, moving to the music in learned steps. And every time you were a moment alone, you watched them, your feet tickling you to join them. But as nobody asked you to dance, you couldn’t just jump into the fray.

Someone tapped your shoulder and you turned around, smiling and ready to begin the small talk once again. But then you met red, ruby red eyes and your heart stuttered, your movements stumbling slightly.

Before you could even attempt to collect the right words again, he spoke up, slightly bowing down with his hand reaching towards you.

“May I have this dance?” he asked, his voice serious, yet you noticed the slight edge in the corners of his mouth.

There was no way you could refuse him, for various reasons, like, he was the crown prince and nobody did refuse him unless there was a plausible reason, and maybe you did want to dance and talk with him. But that was something he didn’t know.

So, all you did was curtsy. “I would be honored, Your Royal Highness.” Straightening up, you put your palm in his.

His fingers carefully curled around yours before he dragged you through the splitting masses to the dance floor. You felt the heat of his skin even through your glove as you followed in his steps.

Once you both found a proper spot, he changed the grip around your hand slightly while his other hand found the dip in your waist. And you put your free hand on his shoulder.

The music began to play and you both started the memorized steps, each movement flowing into each other. He was the perfect partner, his steps fitting with yours like magic, the closeness between you diminishing with each step and ruffle.

You couldn’t help yourself but look up to him, only to see his eyes already on you, the usual furrows between them gone, a certain softness in his gaze, his features. You felt his breath on your cheek as he leaned a bit closer, on your neck.

“Let me make it up to you,” he murmured softly against the small space between his lips and your skin, and you were all too aware of it. His eyes boring themselves deep into yours, the red a dim yet a brilliant shade of red.

A sigh escaped you, feeling as if the tension suddenly had left your body, the one melting into his without any reluctancy. You wanted to respond, but words eluded you suddenly. Still, you tried, trying to distract yourself from the need to feel his lips cross the distance.

“Uhm. However you want to do that,” you answered in a hushed voice, ready to accept whatever he did.

A grin slowly spread over his lips, the exact same ones that were inching closer to your face. Your reflexes betrayed you as you involuntarily closed your eyes, your tongue darting to wet your lips nervously.

You didn’t know what you were expecting, but you felt the heat clump underneath your skin nonetheless the moment his lips touched your skin, the touch so light, almost like like hovering. He didn’t linger, even if you wanted him to.

Slowly, your eyes fluttered open, suddenly remembering where you both were, your body still moving in concentric circles. The heat intensified, and you barely could glance in his direction, even if you did notice the slight redness on the tip of his ears.

Soon, the dance was over, and you curtsied before him as he bowed, before you took longer strides than usual to get to the open balcony. The cool breeze outside met your flushed body and the differenc in temperature made it more real. You could still feel the lingering warmth of his lips against your skin and your thoughts slowly shifted into a almost ridiculous direction, picturing the way his lips would feel against your own, against another part of your skin. You felt your nape getting warmer and you began to fan with your hands.

You stepped closer to the railing, leaning with one hand against it as you looked into the horizon, trying your best to change your trail of thoughts. Barely noticing the presence now standing beside you. You didn’t think much of it, as people were allowed to this space.

Yet, despite the open space being empty, an arm brushed against yours, and you reflexively looked to your side. Only to once again gaze into his face, this time only highlighted by the soft shine of the moon. At this sight your thoughts wandered to the fairy tales of impossible beauty and charming elves.

There was something indescribable in his eyes as he let them wander over your features, over your clothes. He opened his mouth, no words escaping for a moment.

“I forgot to tell you… You look amazing this evening,” he finally rasped, his eyes immediately avoiding yours and looking to the glittering space in the sky.

And while you still felt hot, his words didn’t make it any better, but at least you knew him well enough to know that his ears would be hot to the touch.

Unconsciously, your fingers had moved towards him, brushing his warm cheek to carefully pinch at his hot earlobe. Once your fingertips touched his skin, you noticed it rising in temperature even more.

He looked down on you, his eyes darkened by the heavy lidded look, and leaned his hand softly against the palm of your hand. You brushed your thumb against his cheekbone, his lashes fluttering with each move.

You felt his breath against your wrist before he slowly shifted, his lips meeting your skin, his teeth grazing your palm.

Your breath caught, you had to say something, lest your heart explodes against your ribs.

“And… you look beautiful,” you rasped, still captured by the way the moonlight seemed to catch on his lashes, spinning them into tiny stars.

A chuckle came out of him, a small grin against your hand. “Beautiful?”, he asked with a rough whisper, his hand grabbing your wrist to pull your arm over his shoulder, inevitably pulling you closer to him.

You opened your mouth, not resisting him moving you, feeling his other hand slip onto your waist. But no words came out of you, your tongue melting at the close proximity.

He leaned closer towards you, his eyes glancing between your lips and your eyes. “May I kiss you?” he rasped, his breath against your lips.

Your still slightly gaping mouth warped into a small smile, feeling a certain rush, anticipation tingling in your fingertips.

Yet, you were able to answer him. “You may,” you whispered, your own eyes landing on his lips.

Glancing back to his eyes, they had darkened some more before he finally leaned over the last distance separating you both, soft lips touching yours, caressing them. This tiniest of touches sparking something in you, your body tingling, moving on its own.

A small space opened between you, but you burrowed your hand into his soft hair, grabbing his shoulder with the other one to pull him closer to you, to meet his lips again.

He shifted closer to you, your back leaning against the railing as he leaned closer into you. But the moment his teeth grazed your lips, you pulled away, your subconscious still aware of the place you were in.

You barely could tear your eyes away from him, but you had to check if anyone was in the vicinity, peering through the windows. Those were covered by heavy curtains, and you sighed a breath of relief.

His hand found your chin, lifting your gaze once again to him. “Don’t worry, I like to be prepared for anything,” he murmured, a sharp grin pulling on his lips, before he dipped to kiss you once again, to taste you on his lips. His eyes told you that he would never be satisfied ever again, and you didn’t mind, because you doubted you could ever stop this craving after this.

Still, you avoided his lips, landing on your cheek. “I still think we should go back… Everyone would be looking for you, You–”

“Call me by my name when we’re alone,” he interrupted you with a hoarse voice, putting his forehead against yours.

You smiled at that. “As long as you show the same courtesy, Katsuki.”

And you allowed yourself to indulge for a few seconds, standing like this, face as close as possible, before you pulled away to fix his hair, and yours.

After you both made sure the other looked presentable again, he took your hand in his again, kissing your knuckles softly, barely a touch. “I look forward to seeing you again.” Then he whispered your name against your skin, like a present, only for him, something for him to hoard and keep, forever.

He let go of your hand, and entered the hall, alone. You had agreed on you waiting for some time, lest something scandalous got out, yet you hated it, you hated to see his back towards you as the shine of the chandeliers once again lit him up, caressing him and taking him back.

You knew that it would be difficult to be with him, you had always known, yet you couldn’t stop now, your soul irrefutably intertwined with his. So, you promised yourself, your heart and your soul, to at least try, even if it meant to spend a little bit more time with him.

A sigh, a moment, a wish towards the stars, and you entered the hall once again. Alone, the same way you left, yet entirely changed.

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

I feel like comparing Catadora and Bakudeku is a bit unfair in my personal opinion as someone who has seen the show.

Could the Catadora ship have been written better? Yeah no doubting that. But I feel what we were given compared to BNHA is a little better.

Because the main difference in Catra and Bakugou is that Catra actually suffers consequences in the form of losing everyone around her, and having some of the characters call her out on her bullshit. While Bakugou doesn't have any of that.

Catra actually apologizes and worked on improving herself unlike Bakugou who stayed the same throughout the series.

And yeah while the show does show her personal struggles and issues, it doesn't use it as a way to say the things she does is okay and still view her an antagonist. While BNHA tried to show us Bakugou's personal struggles but USING them as a way to get us to like him and be okay with the awful things he does.

I can’t speak on Catradora cause I’ve never seen the show those characters are from but you’re spot on about Katsuki. It’s honestly a problem that the series has in general. Katsuki’s, and to a lesser extent, Endeavor’s backstories/struggles seem to be there to try to convince the readers that they’re not all that bad. A good backstory explains a character’s decisions and their motivations. What have Katsuki and Endeavor’s backstories told us about how they’ve become vile abusers?

[justatalkingface]

Let's talk about the Bakugou Problem

Yes, everyone, it's finally time, what is probably my most requested rant: The Bakugou Problem. Or rather, the Bakugou problems, because there's two:

The first is the fact that he's an unrepentant asshole who is only now, at the end of the manga, truly starting to realize basic shit like 'apologizing'. The second is that, for all intents and purposes, the Bakugou the characters seem to interact with is a different person than what we're being shown.

There's been plenty of deep dives on his issues, so I doubt I'll propose anything new, but this should fun anyways, right? Let's start here:

I think, at the core, Bakugou's problem is he just never grew up.

Way, way back early on, we see some flashbacks to Earlygou, and in summary? Earlygou is an ass. Fun fact: for all that it's commonly held that Bakugou grew worse over time after getting his Quirk? He called Izuku Deku before that. He was just a bit ahead of the class, looked at Izuku's name, and saw 'Deku'. Boom, he starts saying it, and it's only further entrenched in his mind as he outperforms his peers physically, while Izuku lags behind.

Then he gets his Quirk. Let's quote what he's told: 'Ooh, another impressive Quirk! You could be a hero with a Quirk like that, Katsuki!'

I know we all think he got coddled for his Quirk, and later on he was, but that? That was just a teacher giving him the verbal equivalent of a gold star. Meanwhile, Bakugou?

'Makes sense. I'm awesome. I'm better than everyone else!', he thinks, while having this look on this face like he's being enlightened to a Fundamental Truth. He took some generic praise and ran off with it.

So yeah, Earlygou was an ass. Here's the thing: a lot of kids are assholes. It can be hard to remember sometimes, but kids, really young kids who don't get how the world works at all, do and think a lot of impulsive, assholish shit, not because they think the world revolves around them, but because they can't comprehend a world that isn't all about them.

Here's another thing: kids grow out of that. They realize, eventually, that other people matter, that their actions have consequences, and all that other stuff that makes people into functioning adults.

I don't blame Earlygou for being an assholish child. I blame Bakugou for never growing beyond that. And it's interesting to think about that, because his parents seem legit. His dad is quiet, sure, but he's solid and down to earth, and while Bakugou clearly takes after his mother, she also seems to have gotten the 'morals' message he didn't, and has concerns that he didn't do the same. They're not poor, and are working in fashion, and implied to be doing well enough that, if they're not rich, they're at the very least well off.

So... school, I guess? Here's one of the times where the setting suffers for its lack of lower level development, because I would love to see what non-Aldera schools were like. Everyone else in 1A seems like they wouldn't have a major problem with Izuku being Quirkless, or at least be mild enough in their prejudices to not spend their free time torturing him. Is Aldera different? Is it an age thing? Are they just the good eggs and would have had assholish classmates who would act like Aldera did? Would other teachers be OK with how Izuku was treated (my limited understanding of the depressing Japanese view on bullying says, 'yes', but fuck if I know, and honestly, two hundred years in the future, shouldn't they be better than modern Japan)? More than that, the public view on Quirklessness is, for understandable reasons (cough cough Bakugou), highly underdeveloped, so we don't know how much Izuku was treated was the normal, but I think part of the reason Bakugou got so bad is that he had Izuku near him, as this convenient target. By pushing down on the 'acceptable' target, all his peers approved him, cheered him on, which both fed his ego and his popularity, and combined with his high-status Quirk, this cycle continued swelling his head until we reached canon Bakugou, king of all he surveys. The kids follow him, the teachers suck up to him, his potential, his future, all are limitless!!!!

...Sigh. Before I keep going, let me touch on one other thing: Izuku trying to save Bakugou after he fell when they were children.

On the first take, it seems utterly unreasonable, how badly he responded to that, right? And the second, and third, it still seems the same.

Someone, somewhere, said this take in a comment in a fic I read and I've never been able to forget it: think about it from the view of a heroic saturated society.

Think about it from the lenses of MHA, where All Might is a few steps short of a god in the eyes of the public. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him, especially the kids, and especially Bakugou and Izuku.

Look at that scene again, how Izuku reaches down for him. Overlay him with All Might.

That is what Bakugou saw: Izuku making himself unto All Might. While Izuku just wanted to save him, of course, somewhere deep in his unconcious Bakugou took that symbolism and ran with it, and reached a completely (ir)rational conclusion: Izuku was looking down on him. It went, I imagine, a little something like this:

All Might is the strongest. All Might looks like that when saves other people, who are weaker than him. Izuku is channeling All Might, therefore he is saying that he is stronger than me.

Bakugou, in his child mind, saw Izuku, not as helping him, but T-posing at him. To him, that was Izuku trying to assert dominance.

And he never got over that. Never grew beyond that impression. Do you want to know the worst part about it, though, when you look at it that way?

Think about Bakugou again, and his motivations, with your Bakugou Logic goggles on: All Might is strong. Bakugou wants to be strong like All Might. All Might asserts his power over others by saving them. Therefore?

Bakugou wants to save people like All Might.

Can you imagine if Bakugou was built of that dynamic? Like, with Shirou in Fate, if that scene was etched in his mind forever, and he was obsessed with remaking it over and over, but on his terms, with him as the savior? Him as the one looking down on the weak?

Still canon-style Bakugou, still an asshole, still lusting for power... but when asked what he wanted to do with it, or why, he would answer: so I can save everyone.

And even if it was for the crudest, most self serving of reasons, even if it was only so he could feel good about himself and lord it over everyone else that he was the one who saved them; it would have been so much better than canon. There's so much fascinating complexity to explore in a character like that, as well as a clear path to redeem him: under that logic, Bakugou would, over time, learn to save people, not for his own satisfaction, but just because it's the right thing to do. Hell, even the way people treat him would make more sense, because even if he was an asshole, if his motivation, which he cheerfully shouts about at any given moment, was to save people, then suddenly his acceptance feels more realistic, doesn't it? Him being compared to Izuku as a rival makes more sense when both of them are in it to save everyone, that core of heroism, but each represent a different part of how modern heroism is expressed, with Bakugou as the corrupt, media saturated part of it, while Izuku channels the original, pure spirit of heroics.

Can you imagine that with me? What could have been in another life? It could have been beautiful.

But, sadly, that's nothing more than a dream, and we should return back to reality (though I might want to expand on that at some point, it really does sound interesting to me).

Change and Improvement. These are words that some hold in the air whenever Bakugou is judged harshly, and they wave them like talismans to try and banish others objections.

Let me tell you a truth: change and improvement are hollow words without context. They are a statement that something has happened, not a measure of how much it has happening. In many ways, this is similar to a unit of measurement, like inches, and a number of inches. If you're talking about something, and you say, 'it can be measured in inches'.... that is generally unhelpful. Saying that it is, say, eight inches long is far more useful information.

Still, these aren't exactly moral statements, and change in particular is distinctly amoral. If something has 'improved a little bit' it, you know that it's better, and generally how much. But is it good now? Was it good then?

Let me put it another way: say that, once a day, every day, I appear to you out of the shadows and force you to eat a cup of shit. Exactly a cup, every day, at 2:30 PM, without fail; nothing you do to protect yourself from me makes any difference, nowhere you go is safe. You can't run. You can't hide. I am inevitable. The shit is inevitable. You will eat that shit, no matter what you think about it.

Then, one day, I come with only a half cup, and from then on you are only forced to eat a half cup of shit a day instead of a full one.

Isn't that both a change and an improvement? It's literally half as bad; doesn't that sound like a lot better? Yet, while that may be true, is the situation actually better in a meaningful way, or it as firmly negative as it was before? Should you be mewling gratefully to me that I'm being less horrible to you, or can you still hold a grudge against me for everything I've done to you and continue to do?

What if I apologized, one day, after forcing yet another half cup down your throat? What if I told you that I shouldn't have done it, but the way you looked, the way you acted, that vapid, cow-like look of joy on your face... it was just so shitty that I had to, that you made me do it? Then I say this changes nothing, and that we're still on for tomorrow for your daily dose at the normal time.

Tell me something: do you feel better? Has my generous apology moved your heart? Are we friends now?

This is Izuku's situation in a nutshell. Bakugou's treatment has changed, has improved even. It's reached a point where there are actual differences in Izuku's daily life. That doesn't mean it's still not shit treatment, and it doesn't matter if it's served in a cup or a tablespoon, shit is still shit. And the thing is Bakugou treated him like shit, and he still treats him like shit.

Context matters. So let's talk about the context. Let's talk about what Bakugou did.

Well, first off, there's the Deku thing, but I feel a lot people don't get how bad that is, so let's spell it out in detail. Once upon a time, as I've said, Bakugou was a little better at reading than everyone else. He looked at Izuku's name and saw 'Deku' in this, and thought it was hilarious, and so he started talking about it.

Bakugou looked at his name, and saw Useless in it. He didn't just call Izuku that, he said, this is in your name, it always has been there, to the point that, all these years later, he physically struggles to use Izuku's actual name.

For Izuku's entire childhood, the one person truly on his side, who truly loved him, was his mother.... who gave him that name.

In other words, every time Bakugou called him that name, with that history behind it? Bakugou was telling him that, when Izuku was born, Inko looked at the child she held in her arms, turned to the nurse, and said, "I'll call him... Useless."

He called him this, every day, every time they talked, for over a decade. Saying that the real meaning of the name his mother gave him was useless.

But it's not just that, even. He led the school, his neighbors, effectively everyone Izuku knew in anywhere near his age group, to call him that. There were probably people in Aldera who didn't know Izuku by any other name. There were probably times Izuku thought of himself by that name, that his name was Useless. It's not that big a reach from responding to it as his name, after all, and by the time the story start's he was well trained in responding to it.

Then, there's the more 'basic' bullying; insults, taking his stuff, breaking his stuff, using his Quirk on him. Again, for years and years, until Izuku is beaten down into terrified compliance, where Bakugou blowing up his stuff, his desk, and him* in front of a teacher isn't something anyone even really notices anymore. And why does he do it? Because it's fun. Because he feels strong breaking things, hurting people, being the big man on campus. Because he wants attention, respect, glory.

Because he can. Because it's fun.

(*And isn't that weird, when you think about it? Bakugou has been hands free with his Quirk on Izuku since they were, what, four? Why doesn't Izuku have burns?

Bakugou uses explosions. His hands can burn hot enough (probably as part of the lighting process) to burn clothes, and that's when he's clearly holding back with it. There's no way he's been careful enough, kind enough to not hit skin with that his entire life. So why doesn't Izuku have burns from all that?

Answer? There is no good reason. You can mention how MHA humans are, well, inhumanly strong, but we see heat resistant Shoto being burned with boiling water; it's not like they're immune to it. More than that, though, Izuku is explicitly Quirkless. He is a mortal in a world of magic. He wouldn't have that same kind of resiliency.

So Izuku isn't burned because, A, Hori didn't want his main character to be scarred over, both for aesthetic reasons, and probably for ease of drawing, and B, because that would make Bakugou look worse. Because even then, back when Bakugou had consequences, that would be too much consequences for him, that he permanently scarred Izuku, since the Heroes Rising was the original ending, and Bakugou was always supposed to be redeemed. Hori probably figured, if he thought about it, that that was too far for the readers to forgive him for, and finally, C, he just didn't think about the consequences of Bakugou's actions.

But let's be honest: Izuku would be burned. The fact he isn't is just the prettying up of the situation.)

This is where Bakugou starts from: abusing Izuku to the point where he doesn't dare protest out of years of deeply ingrained terror, doing his best to systematically destroy Izuku's life, while being careful to avoid going too far and damage his chances for UA, which judging by his comment on smoking, may be the only real internal check he has on his behavior.

Because that's the thing; he's cruel, but calculatingly so. He's not a wild animal. It motivates him, but he can think about his actions, think about the possible consequences of them, how they'll react... and as long as they won't harm him, he's all for it.

Then we go to UA, and when he realizes that 'Deku' has a Quirk? Much less such a strong one? He attacks. Viciously, instinctively he goes into attack. He's stopped, but no consequences are given (more on that later), so he doesn't stop. Why would he? All he's learned is this teacher won't let him attack Izuku without a motive.

And then he gets one. Bakugou walks into the Battle Trial planning what he'll do to Izuku. His first words in there are don't dodge... which is especially bad considering what he'll say in a little bit.

His plan? To beat the living shit out of Izuku, to vent all his frustration on him, but stopping just short of it being bad enough for the Trial to be stopped. And as Izuku defies him (by dint of not letting himself be beaten up), he gets angrier and angrier at him for the gall of it, for the audacity to not lay down and let Bakugou beat him up until he feels better, until it reaches the point where Bakugou brings out those gauntlets of him.

'Dammit, Deku, don't dodge me!' 'He won't die if he dodges!'

Yeah. He says both of these things in the space of the same fight. When Bakugou fires that damn gauntlet of his, he's finally reached the point where, for the first time we've seen, he's no longer thinking of the consequences even a little. He wants to kill Izuku, if only to prove that his Quirk, that he, is better (note this too; we'll talk more later about this) than Izuku and his Quirk.

Well, for obvious reasons, that doesn't work out for him, since Izuku's Quirk is the strongest in existence, and small fraction of it, badly used, is still enough to clap Bakugou's attack, enhanced by support equipment (who the hell approved that, by the way? It literally destroys buildings. It seemingly exists for no other reason than to cause massive collateral damage). Then he's forced into an existential crisis when Deku 'wins'. His arm is broken, he's beat up, but by the rules of the game he won anyways and because of that, Bakugou's world collapses.

This, more than anything, I think is Bakugou's true catalyst for change: not being saved by 'Deku', but losing to him. Granted, being saved is enough to force him to avoid him, but it probably helped that Izuku only bought him moments of air. He may have saved him, but All Might did the work, All Might the strongest, the greatest, his idol.

This though? This was Izuku surpassing him, and all on his own.

And I want to pause to consider something here: something that was stressed since the beginning of the story, and still is, besides the terrible mixed messaging at times, is that being heroic is more important to being a hero than sheer ability. Izuku was heroic with his complete lack of ability at the start, after all, while All For One is one of the strongest beings in the setting, and is the farthest thing from heroic. And when you look at Bakugou, as we're introduced to him? There's not a speck of that in him. There's no kindness, no mercy, no sympathy; Bakugou has no positive aspects to him. He has talent, talent for days, but talent isn't a person, a personality. He is a creature of pure ability, and nothing more, and that makes him a singularly unheroic creature.

But the story continues, and Bakugou is forced to confront his own weakness compared to his classmates... except, you know, he doesn't. Even as he does everything wrong, as picks fight with classmates, teachers, villains he should be avoiding... he faces no real consequences for it.

Because, as I've said? Bakugou used lethal force on Izuku. Knowingly. As a teacher tells him not to. That... that sounds like something that even a normal school would be concerned about, much less this elite school that is focused around being a hero, and whose student body is largely comprised of very lethal people, who they intent to unleash upon the world with minimal restrictions on their behavior.

I mean, forget the school; why is All Might fine with this? Aizawa? Nezu? Any of these teachers? How about all of their fellow students, all of who are heroic, and watched this happen live, and All Might's response, no less?

This is the second problem of Bakugou: what they see, talk to, and interact with, doesn't seem to match with the reality that we see, and these two problems are so intertwined that is hard to talk about them separately.

Because on Day One of school, Bakugou attempts to murder his fellow student, and no one cares. The worst he gets is a waggled finger. The fact that he isn't expelled is mind boggling beyond belief, when you pause for a second and consider that fact.

Aizawa talks like he just rough housed too hard or something, and the worse thing All Might mentions is failing the exercise.

This is something that many people have talked about, and at times have named many different ways. For this, I've decided to call it, 'Bakugou's Tsundere Field', because it makes other people act like Bakugou is tsundere, acting tough but with a kind heart, instead of just... acting like a shit person. You know, like he does.

Like I said, it's hard to realistically seperate that from Bakugou's general behavior, so I'm just going to keep going and point it out as I go along.

Next, let's talk about... the Sports Festival. The Sports Festival is where, if you need the reminder, Bakugou starts things off by insulting everyone else and making them hate his class. Twice.

First, by insulting the, admittedly vulture like crowd gawking over 1A's near death experience (I still don't like that), and the second as the valedictorian, where his 'speech' is his two sentence statement that he's going to be first... and yet, for some reason, Izuku watches this and marvels over how he's changed. Because normally, he'd do this but he'd be gloating. Izuku. Izuku. This isn't some mind boggling big thing to be in awe of.

Actually, let's chat about that a bit, because that's honestly such a big problem it's almost a third concern on it's own right: Izuku is our major narrator, right? So we get a lot of our views on Bakugou from his perspective, and... well, he's very much an unreliable narrator, whenever it comes to Bakugou. Every time he talks, there's this sense of awe in it that's been there ever since he was a child; it taints his narrative every time he talks about Bakugou, makes it always more positive than it should be.

Because, wow, Bakugou, that's different from before, an improvement, right? Well guess what? That shit is still shit, even if there's less of it. Izuku is just so biased, so traumatized, such... an abuse victim, that he he takes what Bakugou gives him and doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, because he, Deku, has no self respect, and Bakugou is the biggest and the baddest, the most beloved of their childhood, and it's something he never seems to get past. Even when he stands up to Bakugou, fights him, he still can't get past staring at him in awe, and barely ever complains about how he's being treated.

And because Izuku is our main viewpoint? This view on Bakugou taints our view on him, and it's easy to look at him with Izuku's admiring eyes.

But I digress. In the cavalry battle, Bakugou basiclly breaks the rules by flying off the horse, but gets away with it because of a technicality, which, you know, is great impulse to nurture: it's fine as long as it's technically legal! Sounds really heroic, right? Like something you want your law enforcement to live by?

Meanwhile, during this same fight, both Aizawa and All Might praises him for his ambition, and I just. Do you know what Bakugou says right before they think about that?

'I'm going to be Number One and leave piles of bodies in my wake!', he screams, while literally throwing a tantrum on national television and hitting the top of Kirishima's head like it's a desk.

...Wow. You know what? Maybe you two are mixing tenacity with bloodlust. That's one of the least heroic things I've ever heard in my life, and yet everyone just falls over themselves to praise him for it just because he's not content to settle for second place.

It's times like that I have to wonder: are they... are they seeing something different than what we do? Are all of Bakugou's most violent phrases and actions edited out for them? Did Hori add them for his fans? Or is it just The Tsundere Field(TM)?

Not even mentioning third stage where: he's praised for taking a woman 'seriously' for no apparent reason, and dragging it out when he would normally, just like he always does, just leap in mindlessly to attack, and this one time he really thinks it through it backfires when Ochaco turns it back around on him, only for him to just... over power it, with no ill effects. This comes with the double plus stupid on his part of him doing that because he's... what, afraid of her touching him?

Seriously? This entire post exists for me to call Bakugou out, but even I can't call him a coward. Every time he fights a villain, all of which want to kill him, and one who has Ochaco's power but lethal, he still charges in. Moreover, all it does it make you weightless; Bakugou's power explicitly gives him a way around that; if she tosses him, he can just fly back to the stage.

So... why is this a thing? This is a thing so, when the heroes, who at this point are symbolizing the audience's discontent with Bakugou, start complaining, Aizawa can step in, verbally slap them, us, and then explain how great Bakugou is, which get magnified by how casually he shoots down her plan at the end.

And here's the super special bonus problem with all of this: a hero's job isn't to protect themselves. A hero's job is to protect everyone else. Even if they, personally, are hurt, a hero is expected to risk their health, and lives, so that the general public is safe. You want to know what the problem is when protecting yourself and allowing the villain time to do things in the process? It means they get to do things. Like, say, set up a giant meteor shower that could cause mass casualties? You know, like what Ochaco actually did as Bakugou held back?

This is that plan that, need I remind you, Eraserhead was defending.

Then there's the fight with Shoto where, under the actual logic of the setting, according to Hori's very notes on how their Quirks work, Shoto should have froze him and thusly stopped him in his tracks, no fire needed, since it would stop Bakugou from sweating. But, instead, Bakugou powers through, somehow, and clinches a win anyways. And then, and this is after he eavesdrops on Shoto's conversation, BTW, which means he knows exactly why Shoto doesn't use his fire, he throws a fit that Shoto didn't use his fire on him anyways (which, considering he sweats nitroglycerin, means he would have exploded).

Now let's look at the Intern Arc, and I'll be honest: no matter how much a non-character Best Jeanist, I'll always be a fan of him for one simple reason:

When everyone else looked at Bakugou, and says, 'This kid is awesome', this is the one person in the entire setting who saw a problem. And as a bonus, he acts to do something about it.

In the same vein, I'll never forgive Hori for making him seem like such a pretentious twit, much less how hard he ends up cheering for Bakugou's every word later in the series. I'm relooking at these manga chapters, and his big attempt seems to be... jelling up Bakugou's hair, and... something like focusing the body and mind via the power of... tight jeans.

Wow. I mean, wow. The one time we get someone honestly, actually trying to change Bakugou for the better, to call him for what he is, and his big plan to do this is apparently giving him a new look.

Really? Like, beyond how much of a failure of an opportunity this is, beyond how it makes Best Jeanist look useless, it can give the reader that the impression that the reason why Bakugou is so wild and untamed is that those who want to reign him in are elitists who are wildly disconnected to reality, that he is right to be this way, because people following the rules are just holding him back.

And we come to... sigh. The Final Exam test. The fact that anyone who has spent five minutes with Izuku and Bakugou thinks that this clustefuck needs to happen is more proof of the terrifying powers of the TF. I mean, I just... when one person is constantly yelling, constantly aggressive, constantly swearing, constantly throwing fits, and this same person is constantly picking fights with another student, who, at worst, defends himself, and and more often just seems to take it..... what do you think they need?

Is it to be thrown together into a teamwork based, sink or swim test with seemingly enormous penalties for failure? Or is it to make one of them get therapy? And also detention?

Well, according to All Might, Aizawa, Nezu, and who knows who else....

*shrugs helplessly*

If only we could use Bakugou's powers for good, rather than making Izuku suffer.

But we can't. So the school locks an abuser and his victim together in a pseudo-deathmatch where teamwork is required to survive, as a form of therapy to treat the lack of cooperation that comes entirely from one party. Wonderful.

And, as anyone could predict, this promptly goes terribly. Bakugou attacks his teammate for the crime of... *checks notes* trying to work together with him against All Might, the strongest being in the setting. This is such a terrible crime because *checks notes again* ...Bakugou can totally take him.

Bakugou Katsuki, everybody. A 'genius' with the brain of a yipping chihuahua trying to fight a mastiff.

Recovery Girl watches this happen live and just goes, 'They're just absolutely the worst team, those two."

And oh, and I'm going to be honest, when you look at Recovery Girl she's kind of a piece of shit. She barely gets any scenes and any time they involve Izuku (a lot of that small amount) they are pure ass. But this? This just takes the cake.

Wow. They're such bad teammates, sure. Such heroic insight. Why, that's like saying putting Muscular on the same team with Kouta would be a bad team! That would have some truly terrible teamwork as well, right? It's something that is technically correct, but is just.... so heinously missing the core of the problem that you honestly have to wonder what in the actual fuck she's thinking. All Might and Aizawa, at least, have the excuse that they don't see that, at least as far as we know, but she deadass watches it happen, what the fuck.

And, as it has often been pointed out, Bakugou passes, after attacking his teammate and being carried out afterwards while Sero, who heroically sacrifices himself for the win and never once attacks his teammate, loses for exactly the same thing.

Simply marvelous.

Now let's move Training Camp Arc... where, when Bakugou is informed in the middle of an attack by villains that he is the target (and oh, we'll get to that in a moment). What is his first response to this? What does he do?

Le-fucking-roy right at them. Here's something that bothers me about how the story talks about Bakugou: he's so intelligent, he's analytical, all this stuff... but every time he gets into a fight? Or near a fight? His response is always, always to jump in. Needless to say, a heedless charge at the problem backfires, and he's captured. Surprise!

And back to Bakugou as target: the League of Villains watch him on TV and the first thing they thought about him is, I like the cut of his jib.

The worst people look at Bakugou and say he's clearly one of them.

This... this is something that's never really discussed. There's a press conference, Aizawa basiclly says he's too heroic to ever join them (ironically, since Bakugou's argument isn't about heroism or villainy, but that they're losers), and this just... never comes up again. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about anything after Eraserhead gives him that support

No one is concerned that, hey, maybe he did actully join them. Or the man with ten-thousand Quirks did something to him, brainwashed him, and honestly? That's not even a reach. That is actually what AFO was planning to do to him. This is a setting, need I remind you, where actual brainwashing Quirks exist, much less whatever the fuck happens to the Nomu and no one is concerned, after they all agree that there is already a mole, that Bakugou could become another mole, or maybe even was that original mole in the first place. No one goes, 'Hmm, well, the scum of Japan think he's one of them, maybe this is something we should be concerned about?'

I mean, fuck, no one just sits Bakugou down and tells him to pull his shit together, your image is ass and the media is probably going to be watching you until you die, ready to stain you with the accusation of villainy, and they can make your life hell if you slip up, and so far you don't seem even seem to care. Also, your heroic career, that you're oh so concerned about, is never going to get off the ground if everyone thinks your a villain, and a villain will never be Number One.

There's just... nothing. Bakugou is made out of warning signs, one the entire fucking setting ignores at times, but this is just... fuck.

Alright. Bakugou vs Izuku Two; Wank Bakugou Harder!

Actually, no. Before that... let's talk about one of the major lead ups to that: Bakugou finding out about OFA. Why? In part to force him into the plot, sure, but a large part of it is Izuku feeling... guilty. He feels guilty for lying to him, guilty for seeming to have a Quirk of his own; I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just want to talk about how fucked up that mentality is, that he felt he owed Bakugou that. He owes Bakugou nothing. Bakugou isn't his friend, isn't even his acquaintance, he's his abuser. Bakugou doesn't treat him in a way that deserves such sympathy, much less information on one of the greatest secrets in the setting. If Bakugou wants to assume that Izuku somehow hid that he had a Quirk for his entire life? Allowed himself to be constantly beat down, insulted, and mistreated, and for what? For this one gotcha moment of surprising Bakugou? Let him. If he's too stuck in his own idiocies to think of anything else, let him wallow in his own ignorance.

Anyways, BvI2: also known as that time Bakugou pulled his frequent victim aside to attack him and both of them got in trouble for it.

And this is billed as this big thing for Izuku, but he fights against Bakugou, metaphorically, all the time, and he's already had this big moment of physical defiance in BvI1. This fight isn't about Izuku, on any level. This fight exists solely for Bakugou. It starts because he starts it, he starts it because he feels upset and violence is apparently how he sorts through his emotions, and he wins it because he needs to.

But not just because he needs to win, oh no, there's more to that. Thematically, you see, this is important for Bakugou's growth. Or rather, the idea of his growth that never seems to persist between his growth moments. You see, thematically, Bakugou stands for victory via force, but him winning this fight doesn't make him right, doesn't give him All Might's approval, and to him, that's almost a paradox; that paradox is needed to move beyond who he is.

But that's the thing though. Bakugou needs it. Bakugou needs to win for Bakugou's growth. This growth is, both literally and thematically, at the expense of Izuku, because Izuku? If he won this, just... out matched Bakugou in a fight, no tricks, no technicalities, no crippling injuries, none of the things from their first fight? That would have been huge for him, for his confidence. It would have been Izuku, heroic Izuku, finally and truly eclipsing his old bully in every possible way, and that would have been great for him, for his confidence, for his self respect. Moreover, though, that still would have been good for Bakugou, because even when he loses, he never loses, and he could use an actual, humbling defeat to help screw his head on straight.

But Bakugou loses all the time, I hear people say? He lost in their first fight, true, but that's a technicality; anyone looking at them would know who won combat wise. He won the Sports Festival, even though he bitches about how it wasn't 'right'. He loses against All Might, sure, but All Might is the strongest man on the planet; that loss means nothing. Moreover, he wins against him through the goal of the exam at the end anyways. He loses to the villains, sure, but it was a bunch of them against him; it wasn't a fair fight, which is the whole reason him picking it was stupid in the first place. And now, here, he could have finally had a real loss to give him some perspective... but he doesn't.

Moreover, Hori just... hypes up Explosion as a Quirk more than it really deserves. Is it a good Quirk? Strong? Sure. But let's be honest here: he sweats nitroglycerin. Literally, his Quirk is his two parents mashed together into the best possible option, and it's basiclly lazy ass chemistry via genetics. There is, by the very definition of the substance that he explicitly makes, a cap to how much it can do with a certain volume; that's why new, more explosive explosives were made to replace it

One For All, all the heroic thematics aside, is literally just pure power. All Might changes the weather with a punch on accident; I'm convinced if he punched the ground and meant it, he could actually fuck up Japan as a island. The cap with OFA is yes. There is no way, under the logic of the setting, that Bakugou can ever contest that.

Like, look at Endeavour: when he wants more fire, he makes more fire. It's bigger. What the fuck is Bakugou going to do, rain his sweat on people? What happens when he dehydrates, because again, this is his sweat, which comes from his body? Cluster doesn't even make sense, really, that he somehow super concentrates it to make it more powerful, and AP Shot is literally him making a circle with his fingers before blowing up a bomb in it, yet somehow it makes, like, a laser?

The thing is that more loose Quirks, like Endeavour's, again, aren't as limited to science as the more 'realistic' Quirks like Bakugou's, so there's nothing really saying he can't just... make more flames. He could damage himself, sure, but since he already pulls that shit out of nothing, Endeavour increasing the volume of his magic ass firebending isn't hard to accept. Hori wrote himself into a hole here because if Bakugou just made explosions by magic? If he just... conceptually made explosions? A lot of this stuff would make sense (except AP Shot; fuck AP Shot), and it feels like that's how he treats it sometimes. But that's not what he did: it was his Dad's Acid Sweat with his Mom's Glycerin which means he sweats explosive sweat. And then, when it's convenient, he has shit like the Gauntlets, and basiclly all the rest of his support gear, that are explicitly filled with his sweat.

Bakugou's powers are basiclly whatever the fuck Hori wants at any given moment, and it's honestly frustrating when he tried to play so much of this setting's powers so seriously at first, and Bakugou's Quirk in particular is explained more than almost anyone else, and yet he tosses it the moment he thinks of something that sounds cool.

...But I've gotten off topic. The point is, OFA is OP and Izuku should have just won that on pure ability alone.

Anyways, after all this, the teachers finally come, once it's settled in Bakugou's favor, and they're both in trouble. For a fight that was 100% Bakugou's fault.

So, throughout all of this, Bakugou has changed, yes, but beyond the first couple of days, the changes have been grudging and glacial, and the reasons why are best exemplified in the License Exam where we find out that, for all intents and purposes, Bakugou is incapable of showing basic empathy. I mean, fuck, he fails to show that when, with any amount of logic, much less that of the genius Bakugou, would say that now is the time to fake it. An actual, factual sociopath would do better than him, purely because they would know to act for their own betterment.

(And the fact that his teachers look at this, explicit proof that he is seemingly incapable of actually trying to save a person, but do nothing with this information speaks volumes.... mostly about how bad Hori is at writing Bakugou and the implications of what he does constantly. Surely there's no way that, without the Author hyping him up, they'd just let that slide, right? ...Right?)

But, then, hope on the horizon! He has a make up exam, and it's apparently centered around pounding basic morals/how to deal with civilians into his thick skull! Surely, this is the time Bakugou will finally, finally, get the point, right?

And that's the thing: he does. There's this, probably to other people, touching moment where he sees himself in this asshole kid and talks about how you can't just look down on people. And it's like... finally. Finally! The switch has finally been flicked! He gets it! Change, improvement, development, fina-

Then the second he gets out of it he promptly goes back to calling everyone extras.

That dynamic in many ways is the perfect embodiment of Bakugou's development, and it's... It's like watching someone fighting off a disease. There's an infection, right and symptoms increase. Sometimes the symptoms appear out of nowhere, sometimes they increase over the span of several days. They peak, finally, then they fall back down, again either dramatically, or over the span of several days, and then you are back to normal.

Bakugou makes changes. He makes realizations. He gets 'humbled'. He has a single moment of heroism that the narrative hypes up, sometimes with a bit of build up before hand for a few chapters, and with people sometimes reacting to it for a few chapters afterwords.

And then it passes, like he's just finished fighting off a case of Morals.

You see, Bakugou is well liked. And, honestly, I get it. The asshole can be therapeutic to root for, at times. The problem is that he's too popular, and that this story is too about people being good. So Bakugou, to keep the fan base, to keep the sales, has to stay Bakugou, stay the unrepentant asshole constantly telling people to die.

But, at the same time, Bakugou is an anti-hero, basiclly, and this is a setting that just... can't handle the complexity of an anti-hero, in how people react to them, what they do and the morality of it, how it would affect society and so on, and so Bakugou can't stay as Bakugou, has to grow and be better and become a hero proper.

So... Hori goes, 'Why not both?' Thus, Bakugou gets his moments of 'development', and a slow, slow, slow trend to the better, and the fans get to see him do his thing, even though he's 'changed'. And it's easy, when you just sit back and accept the narrative, to believe that. But if you don't....

All of that? It makes his character empty because after a certain point, it's clear that Bakugou won't change, in so many fundamental levels, even if everyone around him acts like he does. Like attacking his teammates, like blindly charging the enemy , like constantly insulting everyone around him is just different because he's The New Bakugou now, like it's just fun and games, even when this was a dead serious problem early on. He didn't stop, he didn't change, or dial it back; everyone else just started acting differently when he does it. The same way in day one he attacks Izuku for having a Quirk, far later on he throws his metal... hair thing at him for daring to talk about his Quirk. And it, like, impales him, but haha! It's just funny now, it's so funny, that we can apparently see Izuku's brain! It's funny that, when Izuku is seriously thinking about his predecessors, Bakugou just instantly insults them for not being famous! Look at how patient Izuku is dealing with him as he acts like a bratty five year old child throwing a fit, look how fond All Might is as he insults his beloved teacher that he probably has deep seated trauma about regarding her untimely death!

In the War Arc, where Bakugou 'Rises'? Maybe ten minutes before his 'Rise', he was threatening to attack Izuku for daring to ask why he's following him. In a war zone.

The entire story, Bakugou has been described as a creature of instinct, a natural born warrior with a talent for battle. All of that is to contrast him with Izuku: where Izuku, instinctively, has the urge to save, Bakugou has the instinctive urge to fight. This is fundamental to him, a core characteristic, one of the (many) ways it's explained about how good he is at fighting.

And yet, suddenly, when Izuku is in danger, he moves without thinking (aka instinctively), but it's not attack Shigaraki, which, you know, he was shouting about doing not too long ago, it's to save Izuku.

And. And am I supposed to believe that?

I mean, fuck. In the FInal Arc, he has a Big Speech in response to SFO: about being 'way over fear and rejection since long ago', which SFO was talking in the context of how they create inequality in society, and how he wants to fix it... which, doesn't that mean Bakugou just doesn't care about them? Because being over them doesn't actually solve them, genius, it just means you, personally, are beyond them, and even now, he still treats everyone like they're unequal to him. Bakugou has always been the one to profit from inequality in society, between his Quirk, his talent, his well off family, so honestly all of that rings hollow.

He talks about how he has friends now, who are willing to move beyond them, and OK, that works a bit better, except when he still doesn't treat them like friends, in fact not too long ago he yelled at Momo for getting his stupid ass chuunibyou name wrong.

Or, maybe a minute later, when Bakugou gets a power up and/or realization about how SFO moves or something, and you know what he does? He instantly charges in blindly, alone, and is killed over it. Right after this speech about teamwork, while everyone was just... cheering his determination, and prissy Best Jeanist says, with a straight face and actual awe, 'Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight'.

And then when he sees Bakugou get smacked around, Eraserhead's first thought is to scream, desperately, 'Save him! Save him so he can try and become the Number One Hero!' in the middle of all this shit that is happening.

All of this is presented to us as this... thrilling thing, with music that is going to be swelling in the background when its animated, and everyone cheering him on, right before he's tragically struck down for being too stupid to live (no, seriously, SFO actually lampshades this. Before this big 'dramatic' moment, he says that getting up close to him is pure idiocy, and all that it will do is allow you to get get smashed by an All Might like power. Then, you know, Bakugou closes in, again, because he had bitchslapped Bakugou before, and then a second time during that boast, and it goes exactly as SFO said) and we're supposed to mourn him. Again, actually, even though this is a blatant set up for him powering up, since this is literally the same set up as the War Arc.

All of this work, all of this emotion, and all of it rings hollow because, well, it's Bakugou, and no amount of trying to hype up teamwork battle is going to make it work for me when the second the Big Moment is over he reverts to his normal asshole routine.

That Tsundere Field, guys. Too strong, too broken.

While I'm at it, let's talk about Bakugou being Quirkist, because, well, he is. It's a big part of his early character: the reason he rags on Izuku so hard, so successfully, the reason he's so big and important as a child, is about Quirks. When they get introduced the past users? His first comment is that they have weak Quirks.

Izuku saves him and he still doesn't think much about him; it's only later when he starts actually acknowledging Izuku.

When he has a Quirk.

And it's not just a Quirk, it's more than that: it's a strong Quirk, powerful. Enough for him to defeat Bakugou. All the respect Bakugou builds for Izuku? And while it stagnates for awhile, I do have to admit he does respect Izuku more than he did originally... and it's not because Izuku is kind, or heroic; he still hates that. No, he starts respecting Izuku because he is strong. His respect isn't about Izuku as a person, it's about Izuku's Quirk. All his respect, slowly built up throughout the series, comes from the corrupt foundation that Izuku is worth respecting only because he has a Quirk. Later, this gets worse because he learns about OFA and starts valuing Izuku as important, but it's only because his Quirk is important. It's All Might's Quirk. His second fight with Izuku is because of it's All Might's Quirk. He starts training him (that one time, and apparently never gain) because it's All Might's Quirk. When Izuku goes 'rogue'? And when he heroically goes to hunt him down? One of the first thing he does is talk about how he's so great because he has One For All, and then calls him an All Might wannabie*.

And you know what? I just talked about Class A hunting down Izuku recently, but let's talk about that more, because I hate it so much.

I really, honestly wonder if Hori is blind to the parallel he set up here, or if he invoked it on purpose, to try and show how Bakugou has 'improved'.

Look back at the first chapter, where we first see Bakugou. Think about that dynamic: Izuku, beaten down, on one side, while on the other, Bakugou. Strong, proud, with minions at his back, all of them ready to throw down at his command.

The thing is? The first time is shown as clearly villainous in nature, a cruel bully against someone who is weak but heroic. The second time, everything is the same, but it's shown differently. Bakugou is being shown as heroic for doing this, heroic for leading Izuku's friends to hunt him down, heroic for attacking him.

*And ah, Bakugou the Hypocrite. Let's finish this up by talking about Bakugou's name. When we first talk about hero names, Bakugou's naming sense is much like it is for his final name, and Midnight promptly shoots down every one of them because, well, they aren't heroic, and the story pokes fun at him a little because he clearly doesn't get it.

Then it's the War Arc. Bakugou has 'grown', there's all this hype for his big heroics moments, and he announces his new name... Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. And I'm just wondering... am I getting punked? This is the the same shit as before! No, actually it's worse than that, it's bigger, longer, and more ridiculous.

The universal response is that it's tacky. Nejire thinks it's disgusting. Mirio literally thinks it's a joke.

But the story itself treats it seriously, and over time? People start accepting it, taking it seriously as well, treating that stupid name with respect. What the fuck kind of hero name has the word murder in it? What kind of hero calls himself a god?

And finally, it's Dynamight. Which resembles All Might, the Greatest, Most Beloved Hero, the one Bakugou has always considered the best and viewed as his goal to surpass.

And yet he says that Izuku, who is calling himself Deku, is the one viewing himself as an All Might wannabie.

[class1akids]

When you look at it there doesn't seem to be a single character who hasn't both failed and also succeeded. Even Bakugo got that shitty arm injury

Yeah, also he did technically die first, forcing his team make huge sacrifices to bring him back. I think with Bakugou it feels less bad in the sense that his win comes after his initial fail, which is the more normal way to write a hero battle, and also the consequence is "only" physical, which in MHA are hardly ever a permanent setback.

The others suffered deep-rooted personal losses - and for Izuku this is compounded by the loss of his quirk and for Shouto it's piling onto a mountain's worth of preexisting trauma - and with just one chapter left, it's hard to see how the story can leave them in a good spot.

(But I guess this is what fanfic is for...)

[kacchanot-fucking-deal-with-this]

*rolls a joint as the mha intro plays in the background*

[sapphic-agent]

Like many have said, there is a clear disconnection between Izuku and 1-A, and he’s only really friends with like four of them (five counting Bakugo, unfortunately…). Everyone else is an acquaintance to him at best. Yet the Dark Hero arc wants us to think they are all close friends.

I just wish that the series focused more on Izuku’s positive friendships and gave him more, rather than just focusing on his toxic friendship with Bakugo, which has the consequence of reducing the other classmates’ screentime. We were robbed of so much (actual) character development.

You really hit the mark with this.

It's one thing that really gets on my nerves. The only meaningful relationship Izuku can have in the story is with his childhood bully who still takes every chance to insult and belittle him.

Barely any time with Iida and Todoroki who were the only ones concerned about him during Overhaul.

Barely any time with Uraraka who was his first friend.

Barely any time with Aoyama, who took it upon himself to offer empathy and friendship.

Barely any (one-on-one) time with his mentor/father figure.

Barely any time with Eri, who loves and admires him.

Barely any time with Mirio who cares for and supports him.

Izuku has so many relationships that could be explored. But the only one Hori cares about is shoehorning Bakugou into every arc and the only way he can do that is through Izuku. He needs Izuku as a tool for Bakugou's development.

And it's sad because I probably would have liked Bakugou's redemption a lot more if Izuku didn't have to suffer for it to happen

[andypantsx3]

some barbarian bakugou thing idk | sfw | gn reader | 1.3k words

It's cold.

The fire crackles at your back, sending warm licks of heat up and over your spine, but it's not enough. You shiver, trying to settle deeper into the hard ground, drawing your cloak up over your nose where it's beginning to grow cold.

Normally, you'd be snuggled deep in your bedroll by now, but you'd stupidly tied it too insecurely to your pack this morning. It had come loose just as your group had forded the river on Kirishima's back, the redhead wearily but gamely shifting into his dragon form to get you safely across the rushing water.

As he plodded across, splashing loudly, your bedroll had tumbled into the icy water, and you'd watched mournfully as it had been immediately dragged under and carried downriver.

It was another day from the nearest town, another day before you could replace it.

When you settled into camp, Midoriya had chivalrously offered his own bedroll—which you had declined, as the loss of yours had been your own fault—and Uraraka had offered a warming spell—but you could see the exhaustion around her eyes and mouth since the battle yesterday, and she still looked pale and peaky. You thought another spell might finish her off for good.

But now you almost wish you'd taken either of them up on it, their discomfort be damned.

Almost.

Suffering the consequences of your own mess was the least you could do for them, really. You owe them everything for saving your life time and time again, starting when they'd first happened upon your village under a bandit raid, you the only survivor.

You've tried your hardest to repay them, stitching up wounds and mending torn clothes, taking over the cooking and fire tending whenever you make camp. Once you'd even talked a merchant down from chopping off Kiri's hand when he'd gotten a little too me dragon, must hoard over a ruby necklace at market.

You won't put everyone out over something as stupid as a lost bedroll, not when you owe them more than you could possibly ever give.

A cool wind whispers through the trees, and you can't suppress another violent shiver. You inch loser to the fire, barely caring if the sparks catch on your clothes and light you up in the night if it means you can be warm now.

You roll onto your side, facing the flames, and shudder again when the cold creeps under your cloak at the movement.

The heat feels good on your face, dry and blistering. But your back is suddenly freezing, and you fight down a groan of frustration.

You'll never get to sleep at this rate.

As soon as this thought occurs, there's the barest whisper of a bootstep behind you. Before you can turn, a hand claps over your mouth, and a hard body slides up against your back, an arm hooking decisively around your middle to pull you back against your assailant. The scent of ash and the sweet, floral oil he uses on his leathers gives away his identity immediately.

"Don't fuckin' scream it's just me," Bakugou growls low in your ear.

You blink dumbly, mouth pursing against his rough palm. "Fwuuh?" you say.

Bakugou Katsuki is notoriously standoffish, the member of your party you'd learned the least about in your weeks with them. A barbarian from the steppes, he's got little time or patience for your people's mannerisms. He seems to like very few things—his dragon Kirishima, his broadsword Hearteater, and the opportunity for a good fight being the exceptions—and you seem to be one of the things he tolerates the least.

He'd been the one who'd run his sword right through the bandit about to kill you, but since then he's acted like it was a mistake. He barely looks at you when you clean his wounds, he never accepts any of your rations when you offer them, and he's recently taken to combat training you, maintaining a harsh commentary on all of your best efforts.

It's a shame he's also so handsome and charismatic, as it makes it difficult for you to discount him entirely.

"Could hear your fucking teeth chattering from the other side of the campsite," Bakugou growls, his hand lifting off your mouth. Something heavy settles over you, and you realize he's arranging his cloak over you both, the fur trim tickling your nose. It's heavy and velvety and soft, and so nice and warm.

You know you need to protest but the heat of him at your back is so deliciously good, you want to relax into him like a warm bath.

"Bakugou—what is this?" you splutter out quietly.

"What, you wanna freeze your ass off?" he demands, his words a harsh breath into your ear. His arm shifts over you, pulling you tighter as if daring you to attempt to escape.

"No," you say, trying to scrape your thoughts in order. "No. But you—is this okay for you?"

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Bakugou growls into the side of your head.

"Well you don't exactly like me," you tell him, too exhausted to be circumspect about it. You know he doesn't like it when you talk around things either. "I didn't think you were cuddling type, exactly."

Bakugou huffs a dismissive laugh into your hair. "You always fucking decide shit on your own," he mutters. "You decide you owe us shit, you decide what's best for Deku and Uraraka to do with their magic and shit, you decide you think you fucking know everything. 'S fucking annoying."

You start, not realizing he'd cottoned on to your thinking process.

"Well I've also decided that you don't much like me," you say. "And I...I do owe you guys. You've saved my life countless times these past couple of weeks."

Bakugou makes a snorting noise behind you. "You fucking village people always think that's how the world works. Owing. A favor for a favor. Trading and bartering and stupid shit. That's not how it works out here, brat. There's no equal exchange. You stay alive if you're strong enough, or if someone likes you enough to keep you alive, and that's it."

His voice is even raspier than usual, you notice. He's tired. You can hear the impatience in the clipped sound of his words, and you know his exhaustion is why you're even getting this much out of him.

You're tired, too, the heat of the fire at your front and Bakugou's hard body at your back both lulling you into a lightheaded sleepiness.

"And you like me enough to keep me alive?" You can't help but ask dubiously.

"I like you well enough even though you're fucking annoying," Bakugou says, his breath stirring the hair at the base of your neck. "But I won't if you keep fuckin' talking."

You can't help but smile at that, a little tired grin touching your mouth.

"It'll be another thing I owe you for," you say, settling back into him at last. You know you will have other thoughts about this in the morning, but for now you can't help yourself. If he's fine with it then there's not much to protest.

"Y' can repay me by shutting the fuck up," he says, before he lets out a heavy exhale, as if he too is being lured into sleep by the warmth of your own body.

You decide to leave your questions about this for the morning. It's too much to contemplate what this means for your relationship to Bakugou. Too much to contemplate that he wants, for some reason, to keep you alive.

His hand presses to your abdomen, securing you even more firmly against him, and you close your eyes again. His breathing evens out, his grip growing slack, and you can feel your own body mirroring him.

Too easily, and without another thought on the debts you're accumulating to him, you slip down into sleep.

[my-rewrite-academia]

Do you have another forms of consequence for Bakugo? I always thought Bakugo would suffer from isolation by not having every single person be on his side. I always thought it would be interesting if the students, pro heroes and the citizens of Japan weren’t instantly founded by him. Maybe Bakugo would have difficulty getting people to do what he says when nobody likes him and they go of on there own. Maybe his horrible behavior(ACT 1) gives him bad publicity that would affect his future as a pro hero and his goal of being the No. 1 hero. Aizawa’s constant defense for Bakugo’s attitude and actions is not enough to win the hearts of people of Japan and gives no support for him to be the future No. 1 hero

Ex.

Imagine in the joint training arc in (Match 4), Bakugo’s teammates get fed up with his attitude and treatment towards especially after he helped in the School festival Arc. After Bakugo’s GREATNESS, Jiro, Satou and Sero decide to form their own plan and ignore their plan. The trio’s plan goes incredibly well to the point where they prove that those considered as EXTRA’s can handle any situation with the help of some overpowered hero. Meanwhile Bakugo is alone and/or gets captured by 1B. This results in his former teammates saving him and 1A would win the match without the help of Bakugo. So not only does WONDERBOY get to look like an idiot he gets to like an even bigger asshole infront of the whole hero course.

Hello!

-

As of now, Bakugou is already suffering from isolation - since Day One, really. He didn't make a good impression on anyone, but still expected people to flock to him as he was used to. But, nobody went to him.

More than that: they actively avoid him and aren't afraid to call him out. He's been slapped in the face by the realisation that he's no longer the top dog. He was a small fish in a smaller pond, and he became so arrogant as a result.

He's been threatened with expulsion by Nedzu, and has been banned from participating in the lessons he was most excited for - combat.

And, most of all, Nedzu outright labelled him as a villain. His parents didn't disagree with this either.

He spent his entire life trying to become a hero, and he's looked at as more of a villain than anything heroic.

Bad publicity is something he already has, especially since he'll be the only heroic student to be barred from even attempting the Sports Festival, meaning he has no choice but to either go with the back-up heroes, or nothing at all.

He will continue to face consequences, as it's only when a character faces them that they can grow from their mistakes. And he's made far too many to suddenly redeem himself anytime soon.

You're idea of how the Joint Training arc could go is a good one - I wish it happened in canon. That arc won't happen the same in my rewrite. It may not happen at all. Either way, Bakugou's character will actually develop by then, so the scene may something else entirely.

-

Thanks for the ask!

[nutzgunray-lvt]

I will forever be salty that Bakugou's behavior at the Sports Festival was rewarded with him not only winning the whole thing, but also getting the second highest amount of offers of anyone in Class 1A.

Hori could have gone any which way with it if he wanted to make Bakugou's "redemption" or "character development" actually believable, and I've seen so many better ideas on this damn website:

- Bakugou losing to Todoroki and getting second place (which given Todoroki's ice and the fucking drawbacks of Bakugou's Quirk that we mysteriously never see applied, realistically SHOULD have happened).

- Bakugou losing to Ochako, since he not only clearly didn't take her seriously throughout the fight (he literally says so right after Aizawa's bullshit sermon about how the Pro Heroes shouldn't be Pro Heroes for... *checks notes* calling out Bakugou for being a cocky asshole?), but Aizawa then brought attention to Ochako's plan to trick Bakugou into giving her a lot of debris to work with (which, again, strange how we see him using his Quirk so much and he never once gets dehydrated from sweating or suffers from hand cramps - the canonical drawbacks to his Quirk)

- Bakugou losing in the Calvary Battle, since he demands that his team focus all of their attention on Monoma for calling him out on being an arrogant asshole. Monoma's teamwork would be rewarded, and it would give him an early start into his character development.

- Bakugou fighting Shinsou in the first round and losing to him. His temper would make that fight a walk in the park for Shinsou, and it would also show some criticism from the Pro-Heroes that Bakugou's temper will only get him into serious trouble out in the field if he doesn't get a hold on it.

Any one of those instances could have had Bakugou (maybe Aizawa as well) realize that, hey, maybe I'm not as hot shit as I thought I was. He could still get some internship offers because of his "aMaZiNg QuIrK" and Best Jeanist could still take him on in hopes of getting Bakugou's head out of his ass. Then Bakugou could slowly and surely develop into a not nearly as horrible of a person as he used to be.

Or because some people will never chanfe no matter how many chances you give them, Hori could have made Bakugou double down on his attitude and throw multiple hissy fits (as seen in canon), alienating other Pro-Heroes from him and having Aizawa's teaching be called into question further (maybe even have Mic call him out like "dude, why haven't you nipped that kid's God complex in the bud?). Maybe have someone else bust Bakugou for accosting Izuku (again, canon) and accusing him of helping his opponent win against him, getting him officially punished or reprimanded. Have this start alienating him from the rest of Class 1A.

But nope, that would mean Bakugou actually facing consequences for his actions, and we can't have that happen.