#i'm going to fix it

[scarlet-streak-rambles]

I’m Going to Fix It: BakuDeku

Hello, and welcome to a series where I take things I see in media I like and repair the issues I see with them. I’m going to preface this by saying that this isn’t necessarily about the romantic ship–it’s more about the dynamic and relationship between the two characters where we’re supposed to believe a genuinely terrifying bully and his victim managed to put aside years and years of issues in less than a year. While this is going to incorporate a lot of my headcanons, I’m going to be pointing to specific spots in canon where these headcanons would make sense to fill in the blanks. If this feels like something that’s going to upset or anger you, please just scroll past? 

Since this is going to have plenty of triggering content, it goes below the cut.

The first thing I think is important to cover is the reason behind Bakugou’s bullying of Midoriya. In the show, we’re led to believe that it’s simply because Midoriya is quirkless and offered to help Bakugou, which in his eyes meant Midoriya was looking down on him. This, of course, makes little to no sense, especially when coupled with how he still responded to Midoriya after he inherited One For All. Specifically, Bakugou became angry not at the idea that Midoriya could be more powerful than him, but at the belief that Midoriya had hidden this power from him for years, accepting up his bullying without a fight and lying about being quirkless just to mess with him. In short, Midoriya potentially lying to him long term and having had the ability to fight back and defend himself from Bakugou’s abuse this whole time was the thing that angered him most, which doesn’t match up with the initial reasons he was bullying Midoriya.

It’s worth noting, for the second point, that Bakugou’s bullying started around when they both turned four. This would be when Midoriya was officially diagnosed as quirkless but also when Bakugou gained his quirk and was praised by his parents, teachers, and peers about how strong and powerful he was. This little kid found himself at the top of the food chain with nobody who could equal him in power. We also know that this was when Bakugou talked about how All Might was his favorite hero because he always won his fights and when he himself fought and beat a group of fourth graders for bumping into him. This is an extreme reaction of self-defense to a perceived physical threat and an idealization of heroes always being able to win against threats, which is what Bakugou still maintains is the best kind of hero. In short, for the first time in his life, he had the ability to (in his mind) successfully defend himself from any physical threats–more specifically, an ability born from being able to finally fight back and win–and he latches onto it completely.

Now that I’ve explained the particular behavior that came from his quirk’s manifestation, I want to cover a potential reason for that in his home life. After the Kamino arc, we see All Might and Eraserhead talking to Class 1-A’s parents to convince them to allow the students to move into the dorms. When at Bakugou’s house, all of the following things are done by his mother in the short span that his teachers are there:

- She physically hits him, causing him to become more angry and try to threaten her back

- When he shows that he’s trying to fight back, she raises her hand at him again, and he retreats, visibly shaking at the threat

- She blames him for getting kidnapped because, even with his powerful quirk, he was still too weak

Basically, his home life is not a very warm and fuzzy experience. Even taking those as just normal, if a bit extreme parenting, his approach to changing the behavior of the kids during the remedial classes to obtain his Provisional Hero License removes that potential entirely. His suggestion is to tie up the leader of the children and force the others to throw rocks at said leader(a physical attack) until the child realizes that they’re weak and powerless. When the other students present express concern about this plan, Bakugou insinuates that this was how he was raised and he turned out just fine. In his mind, physically abusing a child until their self image breaks down is a perfectly logical course of action for a caregiver to take, and that would make sense with his mom’s behavior. They obviously don’t follow this plan, and Bakugou ends up learning that it’s ok for him to have weaknesses and getting help/support from others isn’t something to look down on, something that we actively see him trying to follow in the rest of the series. For example, in the season 4 OVA (Make it! Do-or-Die Survival Training) even though he doesn’t outright ask Midoriya to help him walk, he gives him permission to be his cane, effectively admitting that he can’t walk on his own and needs the other’s support.

On Midoriya’s side of the equation, he has an absentee father and a doting mother. He sees all of his weaknesses clearly, but also has an immense appreciation for the support and help that those around him give him. This is an exact opposite to the kind of environment that Bakugou was learning from. When Bakugou’s quirk came in, he figured out that fighting back against physical and even verbal threats would make you safe, but shows of weakness would make it worse–he may have even assumed how his mother acted towards him was her form of love and teaching him this lesson. With two four year olds, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to guess that Bakugou would first try to model this behavior for Midoriya (fighting the fourth graders) and, especially after finding out his friend would be quirkless and therefore potentially too weak to fight back without practice, try to force him into situations where Midoriya would have to fight back against him. Instead, Midoriya saw a person who he idolized and respected telling him that he was worthless and useless and internalized all the insults and abuse as truth, while Bakugou saw Midoriya’s offering of help as Midoriya calling him weak in return. 

Little side tangent, but Midoriya’s startle reflex when a paternal figure raises a hand towards him and the visible shock on his face when said paternal figure embraces and praises him (see Midoriya and All Might’s conversation on the beach after the Kamino arc) does make me think his father may have been physically or verbally abusive towards Midoriya and/or Inko before becoming an absentee parent, which is something Bakugou would have witnessed and definitely could have influenced him to try to teach Midoriya how to stop it from happening.

He continually escalates the bullying until the point we see at the beginning of the series–when he tells Midoriya to dive off the roof. His friends even ask him later if that was maybe going too far, and Bakugou says he hates Midoriya’s optimism and is trying to teach him how the world works, which obviously hasn’t worked. Even worse (in Bakugou’s eyes), Midoriya still tries to save him from the Sludge Villain attack later that same day. This one’s a double hit–someone acting as if he wasn’t strong enough to save himself from a threat and Midoriya, the one who he’s been bullying and trying to get to fight back, willingly risking his life to save Bakugou. Fighting against a threat is something Midoriya hasn’t shown a willingness to do for himself but did without a second thought when Bakugou, his bully/threat, was in trouble. Bakugou’s bullying of Midoriya never reaches this particular level of intensity again, especially after Midoriya’s quirk is revealed–we already talked about the reaction Bakugou had to that.

Children mimic the behaviors they’re show by others, especially caretakers like parents, and I think that plays a really big part here. If Bakugou grew up thinking you show care and love by teaching people to protect themselves, he’d obviously try to do that for his best friend, especially one that is genuinely weaker than him and 80% of their society. Of course, this whole thing hinges on Bakugou having actual affection for Midoriya past the age of four, so I have one main thing to point out for that: Midoriya’s nickname for Bakugou.

Kacchan is a shortening of Bakugou’s first name attached to the -chan suffix. That particular suffix is an affectionate diminutive, expressing that the speaker finds the other endearing, cute, etc. It’s very childish and isn’t generally used for boys past a certain age, with high school definitely being past the social cut-off for non-family members. Despite this, Bakugou has allowed Midoriya to continue calling him by it through, as far as we know, the entirety of their friendship. To clarify, this is something that could actually be taken as an insult when used for someone who is too old for it/you are not familiar enough with, but Bakugou still allows it and Midoriya still uses it. This doesn’t say “Oh, so they were friends the whole time” to me–it does say that Bakugou cares about Midoriya and vice-versa.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Bakugou’s behavior and treatment of Midoriya were still obviously unacceptable, but we’re supposed to think that their relationship wasn’t unfixable. We’re supposed to believe that they somehow still care about each other despite everything we’ve seen, and I think that this is the way that makes the most sense with what we’ve been given.

[spa3rk-yay]

Do you remember when we were both younger

You pulled me aside in your sister's house

And showed me a photo of yourself

When you were young like me

Your cheeks were rosy and colored

Even I could tell with that black-and-grey filter

And I looked just like you

When I was in middle school I joined a club

It was a gardening club, we planted in front

Of the school and grew plants native to Texas

I went home with the knees of my pants

green and brown from the blood of the earth

You liked to garden, you told me once

Once we moved out of that trailer home

You planted plants inside the house and out

And let me help you massage the roots

And let me dig up hole for your store-bought plants

While you watered them daily and put fences around them

So that the chickens wouldn't kill them with their pecking

When I was younger, I liked to read thick books

I have a library now, on two shelves in my room

You don't know the types of books I hide in there

You told me once while I was reading something on my phone

(Not things I'd show even to Silvia)

That you used to like to read as well

I once told you a summary of a book I wrote

A poorly executed argument over

And you told me to find you a Spanish version for you to read

I told you

It's a play, I don't think it'll be easy to read

And you said

Oh well, either way I like to read

I think I'll buy you the Spanish version if I find one

And give it to you on your birthday

Instead of a plant or lotion or perfume

You once had a cat named Minina

She was a Siamese cat, and you loved her

I have a cat named Kit-Kat

She's not any particular breed, but she's the

Daughter of the cat we brought that were

Meant to kill the rats eating our chickens'

Eggs, and who we thought were both males

She sticks to me like clingy child

And you've told me she gets sad when I'm not around

You sometimes call her Minina too

And she also follows you into your room

And sleeps in your bed when you're not feeling well

I think she also suspects the same thing as me

And she thinks we are copies of each other

Sometimes I wonder if one day when I'm older

I'll look just the same as you

I'll have the same wrinkles and lines

And I'll have the same voice and tone

I think then I'll feel sad

Because by then you'd be gone

And I don't think I can handle that right now

So I'll leave this stanza as it is

Am I foil to you? Am I what would have happened

If instead of living your life as you did

You had lived my life with more opportunities

Do you think that as well

When you see me getting ready for college

When you saw me going to high school

When you listen to me speak English like that's

My native tongue and not Spanish

Do you feel bitter? If you do, you hide it well

I can hardly tell, and I'm scared of losing your love

We are both tired

I sleep when you sleep

After school and after work

I think we're both sad

And that's why we're tired

So many expectations

And hopes and dreams

And none will come true

I'll make them come true

I'll do it for you

I am your copy

[nipuni]

Ten! my love 🥰

A speedpaint video of this will be available at my Patreon on Jan 1st!

[faggotvivisection]

is the fact that my blog theme is slightly more yellow than my pfp bothering anyone

[krysmcscience]

Call this the Whoopsie AU (it's barely an AU)

I mean. Narinder never explicitly SAID the Lamb would stay dead... :3c He probably should have been more specific. >:3c

Part Two:

Well. The Lamb tried, but...sorry, Nari, the crown hates you now. Shouldn't have been so quick to lend it out, I guess. :D

Aaaand Part Three:

'Isn't he just adorable?' -The Lamb, probably, while their followers smile and nod and internally scream at the brand new hellcat they now have to share living space with...

Anyway, nothing says 'Dead To Me' like following a person around to loudly remind them of how dead they are to you. Right? Right. Narinder's got this all figured out. <:]

[pineapple-frenzy]

Book 2 au: sparring sessions and short hair katara

They like to have sparring sessions in order to keep their bending skills sharp. They allow themselves to go all out and not hold back at all cause they know if anyone got hurt, Katara could just heal them

But anyways, wouldn't it be kinda funny if Zuko accidentally burned Katara's hair tho? Aofkqldkkajfjd

The "I think we can save the hairloops" line is from @linnoya-writes thank you for that!! :>>

[egophiliac]

*shaky thumbs up* I just finished ch5...... y-you were not kidding about it being a heavy one.....

:)

(how's that going so far, Mal)

[shaniacsboogara]

liking dnd is so funny because yeah you play the actual game sometimes but mostly you just think about the game and watch other people play the game and slowly go insane thinking about how much you wish you could play the game and hoping that buying more shiny rocks will fix everything

[bamsara]

I have a INPRINT shop now! You can get my art as prints and posters here in many different sizes and materials.

Not all my art is on there, but I'm slowly getting my other pieces ready. You can use the code '0WXYC1' on order over $30 to get 15% for one week, plus the sitewide discounts currently going on. The discount will end 7/09/24.

If there are any art pieces I've done you'd like to see as a print, please let me know! (Also heads up! I have no way to remove the white border that inprint adds onto the fine art prints, but 'canvas' and other options do not include the white border that they add! Feel free to cut off the borders if you prefer!)

[nosnexus]

Case Closed.

[lawvno]

I was searching for this on my blog and I realized I never posted it 😭

[bluevelvetea]

So start by saving me, Itadori.

(Find my reference here)

[sainz100]

2024 Brazilian GP | x

[barghest-land]

ata tu corazón, mi amor, y arrástralo por la tierra

[nipuni]

Ten and Missy! Our Halloween costumes 🥰

[miralyk]

another orbit around the sun finished...! here's to continuing on 🎇