#seeing how they all fit together to compare/contrast is like dang...turning our brains to mush ahaha

[the-nysh]

Its interesting to me how at the "peak" of the idea of power, when Bakugou was the "top" in his school and now Deku who has the most quirks on the "good" side, they are at their "worse" and their most heroic qualities manifest in ways that hurt others out of fear. Bakugou strive to be the best, making him fearful of Deku so he kept trying to put him down. Deku strive to save everyone, making him fearful of anyone getting hurt causes him to treat them in a way that looks down on their strength.

While this is probably what you sort of said in the tags I do like that the fear that Deku will hurt himself feels like it plays a part in both times we see Bakugou stand in opposition to Deku's actions (with the backing of the class), while in 1 it was more a selfish fear with some undercurrent of fearing for what Deku tries to be and in 319 it is selfless fear of what Deku is being. Just that "If you are hero, you will hurt yourself" has remained consistent.

Ah, referring back to this post!? :O It’s amazing, the way Hori plays with all his parallels like this is so fascinating, I love it. To compare & contrast with what's come before, connected even all the way back to the literal beginning (ch1), to both look at things in hindsight with newly revealed context, and to highlight just how much things have presently progressed/changed since then too.

We see the extremes from how both their 'types' of heroism have ended up hurting others, yes. :O That without any moderation or learned balance, the two extremes they embody are both ineffective & unsustainable at properly being a hero alone. (All Might knew this) Even if they completely flip sides, role-reversing the other's main defining trait, people still end up hurt (both indirectly, and directly including themselves). So the best balance of them meeting each other in the middle still has yet to be achieved (which we're waiting for~)

What's interesting about what's currently happening, is that yes, there is that common 'fear' element at play (Deku fearing more of his loved ones getting hurt - indirectly hurting who’s left behind/disregarded, and for Kacchan, the fear of Deku's potential, and the fear for Deku recklessly hurting himself), that's been a consistent driving factor behind their actions. Kacchan's especially (both for selfish/prideful & selfless/concern reasons), in the both times we've seen him lead the class in confronting Deku.

Which has consistently been about: him knowing/fearing (& before - not fully understanding) Deku's inherent selfless nature (which is a heroic quality, quirkless or not) by never taking himself into account, will naturally lead to Deku's death as he recklessly destroys himself for the sake of others.

Preventing that process from happening - once to stop and discourage quirkless Deku from ever becoming a hero outright, even thru the cruelest means possible (but Deku still couldn't be stopped/discouraged; he kept following and pursuing this once impossible dream, so Kacchan's attempts to keep him back never worked), but now that Deku's literally empowered and driven by the strongest quirk (OfA) to go even beyond what he could do before...holy shit, Kacchan intervening so Deku doesn't crash & burn, derailing like a speeding train and needlessly killing himself from the combined overburden & his own selfless nature - is of utmost importance. D: (Which is actually a very relevant real world lesson about the urgency and importance of self-care; to not needlessly destroy yourself from the extremes of overwork.)

And now...what a clash of both their worst fears brought to the forefront!! Deku actively pushing himself to extremes over the fear of his loved one's (including Kacchan's) safety, while Kacchan actively intervenes to prevent his worst feared outcome from happening: this time, Deku outright killing himself over this...GAHHH!! What drives them both is like seeing an unstoppable force meet an unmovable object, but here Kacchan's brought the very reason (all their classmates) that Deku's claimed he's fighting for...so what if Deku hurts those he's sworn to protect!? Will his entire motivation/ideology collapse under the paradox or what! Ahh!! I'm eager to see what becomes of Hori's aftermath.