#imagining scenarios where it makes sense to prove me wrong doesnt erase the existing work in which it makes no sense.

[delku]

also, something i've generally realized about A LOT of work about born-with-a-quirk izuku is that they rarely fail to mischaracterize inko in order to force izuku back into the misfit box. time and time again, i see au work where the author says, "sorry inko, i know you're not like this, but you need to be for my story to work." what is your problem? seriously, think about what you're doing.

you're so eager to make sure your complete abberation of izuku's character reads even remotely like his true self that you forgo any consideration of why he's an outcast in the first place, of why he behaves the way he does at all - destroying inko's characterization to get there won't fix the holes you poked in the boat by removing that fundamental form of pressure. you can't seriously believe child abuse, or child neglect, or both would manifest the same way in him that anti-quirkless bullying did.

it's a completely different ballpark of abuse. when izuku faces bullying, he can come home to his mom and exist in a place where he is loved unconditionally, even if she doesn't have all the right answers to his frankly pretty existential and emotionally raw questions. if he can't come home to a loving family, he's going to grow up to become someone that acts pretty different.

do we know of any characters that went through that? coming home from school, where they were treated more or less amicably, to a home of terror? anyone at all? has he got red and white hair?

not to imply all child abuse scenarios play out as physically violently as shouto's did, but that's not my point. look at how shouto turned out. cold, withdrawn, reluctant to make friends, and deeply spiteful (but not necessarily hateful). some of that is likely inherent to shouto as a person, but a good portion of it likely isn't.

when you imagine izuku in a scenario where he gets no love or affection from his mother (with whom he lives), his character changes fundamentally. how is he going to trust other people when he can't trust his own mother? the way he trusts people in canon is weighed by his experience; he doesn't really trust aizawa at all at first and he has no reason to after what we saw in middle school.

he's a character who wants to see the good in everyone, and who wants to help everyone. we see him playing with his mother and how she cheers him on when he saves her. she helps him prepare for the UA test with the meal plan without even understanding why he needs it! is he really going to be the same person when you have her turn on him? is that characterization of him still going to be recognizable when you take such a big anchor from him?

but moreover i've talked before about how smearing (et al.) inko is misogynistic. it also just sucks in general and makes you look like a hack. "my story doesn't work unless i fundamentally change the main character's upbringing" is essentailly a barefaced admission that you're writing about an oc (especially in this series when we see the upbringings fairly often and they're completely foundational to their respective characters), and the extension "by making his mother abusive/neglectful" is further dragging yourself under that admission. you've swapped the character out for someone who looks the same and has the same name, who has a vague facsimile of the source characterization, but is entirely different otherwise. it's a changeling, and not only have you focused your energy onto a false pretense of an existing character, but you replaced his mother the same way.

ultimately, no matter how you write born-with-a-quirk izuku, he's going to be ooc. his quirklessness is absolutely fundamental to who he is, and changing that is removing an entire section of a domino sequence. now i want to be clear: changing inko to make deku seem more "in-character" is only going to make the situation worse. you're deviating further by doing this. there are better ways to make deku a misfit, trust me. doesn't he have some other eccentricities that people find bothersome? doesn't he keep detailed notes about people? doesn't he have a muttering habit? ...anyways.

also if you write some shit where she's nice to him like canon until he gets into UA and then she turns on him (for reasons out of his control) like. that shit sucks in particular. you know there's no goddamn reason for that when you write it. i've seen shit that isn't even aus do this. genuinely bottom of the barrel trash writing that makes phantom planet dp look like god's gift to series finales, like it sucks so bad it's unreal.