#pika potentially overreacts with them strong feelings

[pikahlua]

Hi!

Kacchan and winning are deeply connected, and we all saw how he reacted to losing at the start of the story 😅

So, assuming there's going to be another sports festival or something (or any type of fight that's a bit low stakes, without the world ending) if, hypothetically, loses, against Deku or Todoroki (because let's be honest, anyone else coming close to defeating him isn't possible) how is he going to react, since he's a bit more mature now? Will he cry about it 😂 (affectionate)

Also, I just read Dragonheart and it's awesome. The imagery, the parallels and the characterization 👏🏼

I (lovingly) reject the premise of the question 😛

You and pretty much everyone else, through no faults of your own, have not read my extremely strong opinions about the sports festival because I...still haven't written them. That's on me. And I think it's entirely fair that you'd like to consider a what-if about the future regarding the sports festival/low-stakes competition and life after the main MHA story. It's just that my answer to the question may seem way too pedantic and serious for what really is a light-hearted question.

BUT, I AM ME, AND SO WE'RE DOING THIS.

First of all, here are my pertinent doubts:

Will the sports festival even exist in the future? Will UA and hero schools exist in the future? Will competitions soon veer away from comparing quirks back to comparing individual athletic ability and achievement? All of these things seem like distinct possibilities.

Does Izuku even end up with One For All at the end of this? Does Katsuki still have Explosion after the end? I hate to bring up the possibilities here, but I regret to inform you that they do exist.

Assuming UA does persist and we get let's say a sports festival, I'm sorry if this starts some shit but: Shouto doesn't stand a chance against Katsuki. I don't mean this derisively, but as I think about the narrative as it presents the relationship between Shouto and victory versus Katsuki and victory, Shouto very clearly always was meant for a different direction than exploring "victory" as a theme. Such low-stakes "victories" do very little to advance Shouto towards his goal of becoming a hero who puts others at ease. His truly important "victories" and "losses" really just serve the purpose of showing him the ways he should try to improve and develop. In many instances, "victory" would have actually hurt his character rather than help him. The competitive spirit and drive to improve will always be important parts of Shouto's character, but what he wants ultimately diverges from straightforward competition, and that's a weakness (in the sense of plot armor) when fighting Katsuki.

Building off of that, we must consider the narrative purpose of these so-called "low-stakes" fights. The stakes are determined by the story, and they are only low-stakes in the sense that no one's lives are on the line, but MHA always finds a way to hype up the stakes of these competitions. I bring up the narrative so often because I think that was a big piece of the sports festival that flew over many people's heads. The sports festival was never about determining who was the strongest--it was always about subverting that trope. We come away from the first sports festival unable to properly call any among Izuku, Katsuki, or Shouto the strongest, and that's on purpose. Indeed, all of these competitions in MHA come with a twist that results in how "finding out who is strongest" is truly a useless concept. And that brings me to Katsuki.

Katsuki's entire character revolves around the idea that this "complete, perfect victory" as he originally thought of it was the wrong thing to pursue. He could win a tournament or achieve the highest grade by himself and still it would not bring him satisfaction, but such arbitrary things don't prove much of anything in the end and don't get him anywhere closer to his goals. Though he is presented as a great obstacle for all the other characters and an opportunity for everyone else to face him and grow as a result, Katsuki himself is constantly denied the chance to achieve solo victory in one form or another.

So I have very strong opinions about this idea of Katsuki winning or losing a low-stakes competition with no nuance because I think such a straightforward situation would never happen. It is as you say: he's "a bit more mature now," which I take to mean that he's done seeking those meaningless solo victories he started out craving. Katsuki's relationship with "victory" has changed into something completely different now, and so I make the following claim:

What would Katsuki do if he loses a low-stakes match in the future? Simple. Even if he loses, he doesn't actually lose. I imagine that in any situation where Katsuki appears to "lose," it would ultimately serve some better purpose.

Katsuki is a lot more subtle than many people give him credit for. He helps things to happen from a distant vantage point such that people get to feel the results of their achievements without realizing Katsuki ever had any involvement. Take the cultural festival: he only brings to light the important obstacles that their class needs to overcome (the general studies students' attitudes) and pledges to contribute to the event as a supporter for the right cause. He inspires the class, but he doesn't do all the work for them. He directs them down the best path, and everyone gets to feel the satisfaction of their ultimate achievements as a group.

So if Katsuki were to lose in a competition, I think it would be in a way that's still somehow all according to Katsuki's plan. And if losing is his plan, then...he wins. He gets what he wants. And that thing he wants can only be more important than merely winning an empty match. It's like how Izuku wins by losing against Shouto in the sports festival. Katsuki has been observing Izuku for that very talent and has learned to emulate it in his own way.

So Katsuki's reaction to "a loss" in competition would be entirely controlled and in service of achieving his goals, even if that "reaction" is just him pretending to be mad about it.

tl;dr Katsuki Bakugou always wins

P.S. Oh god people actually read Dragonheart? [cries in cat memes]