#i had to sort of learn to value emotional intelligence as opposed to pure logic. and i probably repressed some things kjabdfskj

[coffeebanana]

Sorry if some of these overlap a little/if I left out something obvious kajbdsjkd I tried my best haha. And that's why there's an "other" option!

[jngsjngs]

Can we have a little summary bit on how Bakugou feels towards reivv

hi welcome 2 my ted talk

ok not to be me but i want to start off with the fact that bakugou’s birthday is april 20th, which puts him on the cusp of aries and taurus. taurus are known to be inherently stubborn and meticulous about a lot of things, which i think he definitely is, but i’ve always personally considered him to be slightly better suited as an aries, so i’m going to use that in this response.

that said, rei is a pisces, which means they’re fire and water signs respectively. milkstrology on twitter has an aries and pisces appreciation thread and i think both highlight their personalities surprisingly well, so feel free to check that out if you don’t mind extra reading or are just interested in astrology and horoscopes and stuff, but i’ll mention some of the things covered in the essay (yes, essay) below.

first, “ARIES are incredibly imaginative people. They are the child and are endlessly curious about people/things they don’t understand. 🌿” (this is like the nicest possible explanation as to why bakugou feels so strongly towards midoriya; he doesn’t understand his motives and the only way he knows how to deal with that is through anger. but i digress.)

“they are short-tempered and impatient because they understand that time is of the essence and would rather be doing something to further utilize their time (i.e. working on long term goals or doing something exciting) than to waste it doing nothing at all… they are constantly doing something based off of their need for passion or success.”

“aries is bold and intense, without trying. they carry a particular aura about them that allows you to know they are a no-nonsense person. often though it is forgotten that they are extremely sensitive, even though they don’t like to portray themselves this way.”

“ARIES WILL TREAT YOU THE WAY YOU TREAT THEM, DON’T BE CONFUSED IF YOU THROW SOME BULLSHIT THEIR WAY AND WATCH THEM CHUCK IT BACK TWICE AS HARD. THEY DON’T WASTE TIME ON NONSENSE PEOPLE.”

“they must learn to be more cautious in trusting others and to not overshare who they are so easily to strangers. this is a strength that can easily be used as a weakness if they aren’t cautious enough. they are pure souls who are strongly misunderstood as callous… they will never say they need a thing, but often are forgotten because of this.”

now, “extremely in tune with the world around them, PISCES picks up on auras/vibes easily. they can read your body language so intently, that they’ll pick up on minor details that typically go unnoticed and are lost on many others.”

“they tend to struggle with fully immersing themselves in the world around them. they see so much, and rarely feel they are seen themselves. they are extremely sensitive and kind, and their mutable energy constantly has them exhilarated with what is new and enchanting.”

“people often mistake their kindness for weakness, and pisces is quick to remind them they are not to be fooled or played with. a pisces knows their worth and demands respect. but isn’t always extremely vocal about their demands. they can, in fact, be quite mischievous.”

“a pisces is so compassionate and picks up easily on the emotions of others, that this can leave them as prey toward emotional vampirism or manipulation. though they are intelligent, their empathic tendencies can overpower their logic at times. leaving them often targeted/drained.”

“appreciate their generosity and remember to ask how they’re doing/feeling for a change. don’t take them for granted, or you’ll be quick to miss them as they walk out of your life! they are the definition of ‘will treat you how you treat me.’”

bakugou and rei are totally the epitome of “i’ll treat you how you treat me,” but like their signs suggest, they do it in opposite ways. if bakugou thinks someone is looking at him the wrong way, they’re instantly on his bad side, and he’s not afraid to show it. that said, he doesn’t really treat anyone particularly nicely because the only ones who are nice to him can probably be counted on one hand. in contrast, rei tries to cater her personality to everyone she meets, treating them the way she feels they’d like to be treated based on how they act around her.

to start from the beginning, i feel like there’s a misconception that bakugou is immediately impressed by rei thanks to the !super badass! stunt she pulls on him when they first meet, but i have to point out that 1) she’s desperate, not showing off and 2) he has no way of knowing that, so to him it comes across less as a roundabout way of giving a pep talk and more like an attack or attempt at asserting dominance, which we all know is not something he’d tolerate (and he doesn’t, trust me when i say the explosion aimed at her head at the end of the second chapter isn’t intended to miss).

bakugou would never admit it, but what does impress him is when he says “don’t tell me what to do” and she responds by asking him to do it instead. that brings me to another misconception that bakugou is someone who needs to be “handled.” midoriya tries to placate him, iida tries to reprimand him, half the class sort of just laughs at his outbursts and assumes that no one will be able to deal with his temper; for someone like him, all of those things can come across incredibly patronizing, and that’s why he doesn’t really get along with them.

if she hadn’t redeemed herself later in the fight, rei definitely would’ve been on that blacklist—trapping someone in a block of ice just to get them to listen to you is imposing, not to mention downright humiliating, and in that respect she’s no better than the others in treating him like a child. that said, she’s also quick to realize her mistake, hence the decision to ask him to help as opposed to losing her patience despite the dire situation.

to put it simply, rei is one of the first and only people to address bakugou in a way that doesn’t demand some sort of compromise on his part, and i honestly believe that’s one of the things he values most in those he truly considers his friends. bakugou doesn’t want nor need someone to rein him in. he needs someone he can trust to watch his back when he’s looking forward (kirishima) and stand beside him even in the worst of situations (rei).

i think the reason why he works well with rei in particular is that once she has a grasp on his personality, she doesn’t try to change him at all. as a result, bakugou doesn’t feel the need to be on the defensive (like this is who i am what about it), and that gives them room to have genuine conversations. he recognizes her strength and isn’t afraid to call her out on things that others might not even notice (being too easy on herself or getting lost in her own head) and she does the same to him (telling him off for not eating as opposed to losing his temper, stuff that’s actually constructive and doesn’t just sound like a lecture).

the most important thing to take note of is the part at the end about how bakugou is “strongly misunderstood as callous” and “will never say they need a thing, but often are forgotten because of this.” bakugou! is! super! sensitive! like it said in the thread, he doesn’t like to portray himself in this way, so someone like rei who is “compassionate and picks up easily on the emotions of others” makes it easier on him because she just gets it.

in a similar vein, having such a large capacity for empathy can be emotionally draining, but as a no-nonsense person, bakugou never actually forces rei to have to assume how he’s feeling because he’s still the type to tell it how it is. people just never know how to interpret his intentions because they can’t see past his temper. rei can. there’s never any guessing or sugarcoating when it comes to their dynamic and that’s precisely why it thrives.

tldr

if you ask bakugou what he thinks of rei, he’d sort of just be like, “what about her?” (before or after “fuck off”), but the first thought that’d come to mind is that she’s capable of taking care of herself and has never not had his back, and those are pretty much the only things that really matter to him. the part that he dislikes most about her is probably how whiny she can be in the my life sucks kinda way because she tends to sulk for longer periods whereas he’s the type to bounce back fast and do something about it when things don’t go his way. after training together under edgeshot, i’d say their friendship is probably one of their healthiest relationships, though there is room for conflict in the future (been thinking about how rei would react if she ever found out he straight up told midoriya to throw himself out of a window pre-character development 👀)