#mha meta?? anyways bkdk canon

[izukatsude]

some people might have pointed this before when it came out but since I just have read the jp raws, I decided that it’ll be nice to point it out again!

and it’s about MHA chapter 403! especially this particular panel!

to begin with, I have a little knowledge about kanjis in japanese language since I’m still learning them but this particular line really really intrigued me.

which is this japanese line and its english translation:

when I first studied japanese, the common knowledge that I know was feelings, or thoughts translates to 思い in japanese, not 想い. that’s why it intrigued me. what does 想い mean? basically, it has the same meaning as 思い— feelings, or thoughts, which is why the direct translation was “feelings.”

however, that’s not the case in japanese language.

we know that different kanjis yet same word means different in japanese. for example: if it's hayai 早い, it means “early,” and if it's hayai 速い, it means “fast.” both having the same hiragana, はやい yet different meaning in different contexts.

so after researching (link), I found out that 想い is much more personal than the norm 思い. its much more deeper in the sense of “feelings” for someone special.

which is why we can conclude that during this panel of katsuki being revived, looking at izuku and izuku locking eyes with katsuki, “their feelings become one” is much deeper sense that only the two of them would know because it is something that only the two of them had shared.

time stopped. raindrops stopped falling. just them looking at each other. they are sharing the same heart and mind. (izuku implicitly telling toga that his idea of love is sharing the same heart and mind on chapter 348). and finally, their feelings become one.

[dekusleftsock]

I have to say that your post on Deku peddling a lot of casual homophobia and toxic masculinity across the manga, was really interesting and eye-opening. I mostly agree with you, except the part about bkdk supposedly being the endgame for this particular arc. I've had similar thoughts about how gender and sexuality is portrayed in MHA, for quite a while, but the conclusion I always came to, was more along the lines of "Reject Masculinity; Embrace Lesbianism". As I've just stumbled upon this blog, I must therefore ask: how do you feel about transbian Deku hcs?

Oh it’s so fun! Trans lesbian deku is awesome, I love all trans hc’s so much.

Unfortunately though, I am also a bkdk shipper and my opinions in that post are about my genuine thoughts that, yes, deku is a cisgender gay man, and there’s no real problem with that. Welcome to my blog though!

A lot of my posts do focus on bkdk and togachako (while mainly togachako for the past couple of months), so that’s just your fair warning! If you aren’t into that it’s like… kind of impossible to avoid that shipping on my blog. I often post fanart and metas/shitposts that focus on those two ships solely.

And I will say, I feel like the notion of “rejecting masculinity”, especially as a trans masculine person myself, does often fall down anti trans rhetoric and spaces, as lesbianism and masculinity aren’t even necessarily contrasting things to be. NB is an identity that can be stretched so far into so many spaces that it’s kind of hard to reject masculinity OR femininity without well… falling into exclusion.

I’m not sure if that’s what you mean though, however I do enjoy most if not all trans hc’s because they are amazing and so interesting when people really dive into a characters internalized issues having to do with that identity. Transgenderism is so maleable and can easily apply to so many different types of characters, even giving them a deeper sense of depth.

Canonically though, I think I like Izuku how he is. Because everyone has issues, and while cis men have obviously had a lot of stories where they are the center of attention, told from their perspective, Izuku is unique in his own right; because how often do we really see a short, androgynous, emotionally expressive, cis male character deal with things like the insecurity of crying, the unknown of if your identity (if it really is your identity) will be accepted in spaces where you have been pushed to be with, from your perspective, a platonic female friend? Because yes, izuku WAS bullied—rather indirectly with Katsuki sure—but the little comments made about being a crybaby, being creepy, being weak, they all build up. They build and build until, hey, the bully isn’t there anymore. In fact, the bully is you.

And really, I see why people don’t necessarily pick up on Izuku of all people having masculinity issues. When the viewer sees a momma’s boy who’s relatively soft and empathetic, they register someone who vaguely understands themself. They see him be self sacrificial and think, “that’s a man who goes against masculine stereotypes, so obviously he doesn’t struggle with fitting into the stereotype himself!” Because it’s not what we’re usually shown in our every day media.

A man with masculinity issues is someone who is SUPER masculine—he’s super buff, he screams a lot, he has anger issues, he—oh wait I’m describing Katsuki.

Yet, in reality, Katsuki actually DOESNT! Not as much as Izuku does anyway. In middle school? Sure, most definitely. He registered weakness and refused to accept himself, therefore his masculinity. The anger issues build and build on each other… except for the fact that we’re forgetting the key here.

Katsuki grew up.

Katsuki HAD to grow up because the way he expressed these anger issues (that I will say, izuku also shares, the crying is literally a symptom of that in a lot of cases) was much more prevalent. It stopped him from truly growing, and when he was humbled he was able to see all the mistakes he was making. And slowly but surely, he apologized. He sacrificed. He started to really, truly, care.

He always cared of course, seeing as he cared enough to try to stop deku from getting into UA, because he thought he was a threat. Hell, after the entrance exam at their first day of UA, he genuinely thought Izuku had enough heroics in him to make it past the entrance exam! He didn’t think Izuku even NEEDED a quirk to get in. He’s always believed in him.

Was that expressed through his insecurities? Yes, because he was a dumb 15 year old.

But now that he knows he cares, that’s allowed him to reflect on himself, and on Izuku.

Izuku ofc will change, he will grow up, he will get that character development, but he has to have that realization that, oh, Katsuki really won’t hate him for anything. Ever.

Whether Izuku has internalized homophobia simply because Katsuki isn’t a girl, or because he’s afraid of Katsuki’s rejection at Izuku’s weirdness, well, I guess that’s up to your interpretation.

Mine is personally on the second side though.

[dekusleftsock]

Hi, hello, I did a whole meta post on Izuku and now it’s katsukis turn! This is, how the mha fandom completely misunderstands a character. Stans or antis don’t really matter since they’re usually both wrong.

I only touched on this briefly in the other post, but this all stems from the complete inability to understand a story and character. Because it isn’t just Izuku, or Katsuki, or even Uraraka, it’s all of them. Everyone in the story is misunderstood when you can’t even get a basic understanding on storytelling. I don’t wanna destroy anyones fun, that’s bad, but I will say that if you can’t even get the bigger message by this point in a show, you seriously need to go do some research on storytelling. Because art is EVERYWHERE, understanding art is such an important thing no matter how much you wanna say it isn’t.

Not to mention the hate on art in general stems from nazi propaganda and the general alt right disliking art as a whole. A lot of art is political and most of it is left leaning. Stop it guys. Please, listen to your English teachers. For the love of god please just get it through your heads so that you don’t fall for nazi bs AT THE VERY LEAST.

Okay, this part of the meta is over, let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Katsuki’s possibly most misunderstood quality is the fact that he is the perfect mix between a superiority and an inferiority complex. Over and over again I’ve seen people use both terms for him, but it comes out in two ways: they either excuse Katsuki’s actions with deku, usually by either saying that it was bc he was insecure or through making up backstory that simply was not given to us. Like how in many fanfics, I’ve seen people “add” to bkdk by showing Izuku possibly being in danger, and that Katsuki was “protecting him” from other bullies actions. Even though this was never the case in canon because the entire point of Katsukis character is change and growth. Even in his apology, there is no actual excuse. It just happened and he realized he was shitty for doing it. He then apologized for his actions and has lived through the remainder of his first year (after dvk2) doing everything in his power to atone for it. He worked extra hard for Izuku to learn ofa, he made sure that Izuku was safe and even sacrificed himself. And that all built up to his apology.

But I ALSO see people who understand this, but completely miss the point or outright ignore it. They don’t believe that Katsuki will ever change, and if he tries then he’s still bad and bkdk is inherently toxic.

I wanted to fit this in somewhere, but I honestly don’t know where it would go so it’s just going here. It’s just important context that people often miss. In the very first chapter/episode, when Katsuki is introduced and we get that oh so familiar scene, people often see it as a glimpse into bkdk relationship throughout middle school. Even though, the whole point of this was to show the absolute worst thing that Katsuki ever did. It’s why it’s right at the beginning; if you’re at rock bottom, there’s no where to go but up. I’m kinda mad that two specific scenes that were made as extras alongside the manga were never animated, because it gives so so SO much context to deku, Katsuki, and uraraka. But I also kinda feel like it wasn’t animated BECAUSE of how gay it is? Anyway, not the point.

I really do recommend reading it, just look up “deku and bakugou rising part 1”. Anyway, this scene is soooo interesting. For one, it feels a little too real for bullying lol, but two, it completely encompasses their middle school relationship. I’ve seen people show a graphic story with Izuku and Katsuki’s relationship. One where Katsuki was a terror to Izuku in every way, that fully physically abused him.

But that just isn’t the case.

Katsuki is a middle schooler. A fucking kid. Not only that but he cares about Izuku, even if he tries to deny it. He would never actively burn him and leave him with scars. He wants to make deku get away from him, make him feel like shit too, but never outright HURT HIM. And this is proven even more in this panel!

First off, the translation is wrong so keep that in mind while I talk. But, there’s two things I wanna point out. 1, that this behavior is out of character for Katsuki, and 2, the soda can.

It’s ooc for him because the fingers kid is pointing out (pun not intended) that he wouldn’t normally go this far.

And as for the second thing, let’s take a closer look.

It’s hard to read the blurry image, but it says “lip service”. It’s a subtle callout on Katsuki’s words saying that Izuku “deserved it” for “getting in his way”. He knows deep down that this was wrong and is trying to cover it up with his normal “Katsuki attitude”.

Why am I bringing this up? Because it’s something that’s never pointed out, even though it’s the perfect argument to combat the people that think Katsuki is wrong. That he is bad in every way. That he will never grow up or improve because he just doesn’t deserve it. EVEN IF he SHOWS to have cared about Izuku, SHOWS that he’s grown, and SHOWS that he both regrets his actions and apologized for them.

Now, I think a reason of many as for why Katsuki is such a hated character even with development is because people project onto him. Simple as that tbh. He presents a very relatable and traumatizing problem for the mc, so people relate him to their own bullies. I can’t blame them either, I did too. Probably up until dvk2, and that’s just when I really looked into his character. So, yeah, he’s hated because he’s relatable.

But I feel like there’s another reason.

I mean, it begs the question: why is Katsuki so targeted by EVERYONE? I mean, think about it. Bullying is common, sure, but there’s got to be more to it if even bullies hate him. If the only reason for him being targeted is projection, then shouldn’t those bullies actually LIKE him? He’s a dislikable character! Half of those people are still like the edge lords from 2015. Of COURSE they’d like a problematic character.. right?

But I think it’s because Katsuki presents an immediate problem to the mc’s love interest. The girl. Uraraka Ochako. And it’s so blatant that even homophobic fans have to DEFEND it from being gay by either making up stuff that’s not in canon (like saying Izuku and Katsuki view each other as brothers), or by talking about how it’s a shonen and that would “never happen”.

EVEN IF both of these arguments are wrong and never really built on “real evidence” I feel like it’s still important to talk about. The brother argument is simply about perspective. Tbh it’s just as valid as any other way people view their friendship. All about the viewer until proven otherwise in the story. So, when people say that argument, it’s literally pointless because it’s SUBJECTIVE to how you view evidence. I saw my own sibling dynamics in them but I still don’t see them as brothers because I purely see them as romantic.

As for the shonen anime argument, yeah it definitely has some basis I’ll admit that. But that argument DID NOT work in 342 or 348, and it DID NOT work in the literal basis of the mc, and it did not fucking work when horikoshi made the female love interests “competition” a queer woman who’s not jealous and actually in love with both of them.

I and many other people still have that nagging thought in the back of their head, what if we’re wrong? What if the antis are right? But that’s why us on the internet, tumblr, tiktok, or any other social media you can think of, TALK about it! We’ll never really “know” until the author reveals it ofc, but it doesn’t change the fact that what we CAN CONTROL are our own personal thoughts and ideas? What can we make of the stuff given to us? That’s why I’m doing this. Partly for my own hope and sanity but also for the sake of others. That there IS hope, it does exist.

It looks like I’m gonna have to make a whole other post for him because I still have more to say, but Jesus Christ this has taken me almost a week to make and it’s ungodly long compared to my other metas. I want my stuff to be easy to consume and read but that kinda requires me to keep these things relatively short and worded as best as I can. So sorry for the wait sisbosndojsa ty all tho <333

(ALSO AI GENERATED BKDK PAINTING??? I THOUGHT IT LOOKED SICK AND IK I USUALLY PUT A MANGA COLORING OR SMTH AT THE END OF THESE BUT LOOK AT IT!!! ITS SO COOL!!!!)