#bakugou's evolution

[kimbapkimbapp]

Katsuki is the definition of getting prettier on the inside makes you prettier on the outside

Like look at him now

[novaneondream]

Preschool Bakugou: what a baby (teasing)

Middle School Bakugou: cry baby (derogatory)

High School Bakugou: my cry baby (affectionate)

Adult Bakugou: hey baby (loving)

[denkisauce]

going through old sketchbooks and found my first ever bnha fanart and it was baby bkdk 😭😭💕💕

[meeko-mar]

I love leak night because we can go from sheer terror over the leaks dripping in, panel by panel and all lose our collective shit but as more context leaks out... We freak out because shit looks so bad, and then we slowly realize that shit is actually about to get REAL COOL

Bakugou gonna go from getting tossed around like a ragdoll by the guy who wants to kill him bloody to get a rise outta his boyfriend, to going right into The Zone, unlocking his inner Midoriya(and muttering a battle strategy), and most likely, unlocking yet another Quirk upgrade.

All in the span of less than 24 hours, we get this roller coaster. What an experience.

[simpgonium]

I have the most niche, crack-ass Bakugou x Reader au in my head rn lMFAO

[morssolamors]

2023/2022/2021/2020

I'm going to start using this art by my boy Bakugou to see how much I've evolved over the years, who knew that a random drawing I made at 3 am would become so important to me😊

I tried to keep everything the same way I changed the position of the head a little because I thought it looked cooler

I wonder how much will change in 2024

[rayshippouuchiha]

I remembered your idea about Grimmjow mentoring Izuku and I have world building/background.

Grimm got to the bnha universe because some idiots were trying to summon a demon to kill some heroes and since there aren't any in universe the magic spell outsourced. The idiots did not survive their stupidity. Grimm is really annoying because he's pretty sure it's going to take at least a year to get home.

Finding and starting to teach Izuku delayed his plans, but not by too much. Grim figures he'll just wait for the kid to die and bring Izuku's soul back with him. Classic Arrancar adoption tactics.

Inko is a little uncomfortable with a demon adopting her son with a plan of making him another demon, but honestly Izuku's just so happy these days that she's cool with it. She does the paperwork to make Grim a distant relative.

People in the bnha universe don't really have reiatsu but they still have souls. Grim just has to teach izuku to reform his soul so it's bleach style instead. He's pretty sure that any of the many mad scientists he knows would tell him it's impossible, but izuka did it anyways so there.

For paperwork they claim that it's a family inherited work that is super finicky and requires a lot of control and often doesn't activate without life or death danger or knowing how to activate it beforehand. Which it is true, using reiatsu for stuff more complicated than "be stronger and hardier," let alone kidou, takes decades of learning. Even if hollow style kidou is easier to learn, it's not by that much. Grim mostly focuses Izuku on learning the basics of combat and maybe sonido.

Izuku ends up good at kicking people in the face like canon, but he also has throwing knives and a tanto to complete the danger gremlin evolution.

He kicks Bakugou in the face and breaks his nose. Their relationship isn't great but it's not as awful as in cannon.

Grimmjow is setting up connections with the villain community one day when he hears about some mysterious, powerful fucker called All For One. He hasn't eaten in a while, and that seems like someone no one will miss so he eats out for the day. The villain underground immediately falls into chaos but that isn't his problem.

Coincidentally, Inko's deadbeat husband finally stopped sending money. (Whether he's AfO or just some asshole who died in the chaos is up to you.) She shrugs and moves on. She saved and invested most money he gave them anyways.

Grim ends up running a dojo. First he just needs space to teach Izuku but I firmly believe that despite his general misanthropic tendencies he actually likes kids, so the whole thing balloons pretty fast. He ends up with this weird teenager who calls himself Dabi as an assistant, since the kid already knew how to fight pretty well.

With an actual support system Dabi ends up significantly less burned and significantly more sane. He works as a vigilante, killing marital and child abusers. He's really uncertain about what to do about Endeavor, because he wants to kill him but the man also scares the shit out of him, and he doesn't want to free his siblings just to put them in the spotlight. Grimmjow is less than zero help, but Inko gives him a big hug and helps him start to set up a legal case if that's what he decides to do. He's like Izuku's weird, obnoxious older cousin.

Speaking of the lov, Kurogiri got out and took Shigaraki with him when AfO died. They end up picking up the rest of the league overtime. All the kids try to convince Kurogiri to reach back out to his friends from when he was Oboro. They might or might not be vigilantes.

What are you talking about, this isn't a fix it fic.

The UA staff are deeply baffled when they meet Izuku's guardians: the sweetest little lady you ever did meet and what Aizawa is pretty sure is an actual, literal demon from hell. In hindsight, though, it makes sense.

Thank you for the idea! Sorry for shoving this thing in your inbox.

Never apologize because this is fantastic.

[sorrowfulrosebud]

Soulmates are as common as quirks. Nearly everyone has one, including very anti-soulmate Bakugou. Can his evolution and character building prevent him from killing his soulmate indefinitely after years of bullying?

✫彡 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕺𝖓𝖊

✫彡 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖜𝖔

✫彡 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

☆ 𝕿𝖆𝖌𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙☆

༺ 𝔓𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔰𝔢 𝔞𝔰𝔨 𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔱𝔞𝔤𝔤𝔢𝔡 ༻

@me1279 @billielizeth @eyesforbkg @animexholic @eris-rose-86 @troubledwithlife @cookieclimax @sageyrage @alishii @chrys23 @megumibabyyy @eris-rose-86 @ashreblogsnow @yynumaki @jlang2587 @chuugarettes @sikuthealien

[katsukikitten]

Waking up streamer Bakugou in the middle of the night because you love Pokemon but you've never been the best at identifying them past their cuteness and need help filling out a squad because of some little Pokemon quiz you took at four am.

"Why are you up?" His voice is groggy as you crawl into his bed with your phone, he wraps his arms around you. It makes your heart race but he's only this nice when he's half asleep.

"I need help."

"Mentally? Yea Princess I know." He yawns, okay so see he could still be a prick half asleep. You nudge him with your elbow, adjusting your phone so he could see.

"No I need help picking ghost Pokemon." He squints at your phone pulling you closer causing his body to press into yours. You swallow thickly as you tell yourself he's just trying to see.

"Surprised you don't just have six gengars." He sees you have two, one being in it's mega evolution. He tries not to take the phone from you, watches you scroll as he points out a few, "Whats this for?"

"I took a quiz and I got ghost type for my gym." You add banette and mismagus, "I wish I could have Blaziken..."

"Oh yea? Yer a gym leader?" He tuts thinks of your chaotic strategy the few times he's battled you or watches your play through on stream, "Balziken is a fire fighting so yea can't have em in yer gym, sides he's ass, his mega is only half decent."

"Excuse you, Blaziken has powerhoused through gyms I probably should have used a different type for but he's never let me down!" You tut adding spirithomb and giratina, feeling happy with your choices, "And yea a gym leader. I'm a good one too. This is what I look like."

You show him a little picture of you that you created and he rolls his eyes.

"Let me take this damn quiz." He reaches over and grabs at your phone, squishing you even more but it's pleasent, how his bare chest feels against your back. Warm even through your t-shirt and if you closed your eyes you were sure you'd fall right asleep.

You had any other time you crawled into his bed at some god awful hour.

Suddenly his warm palm is squeezing against your side, his deep voice soft when he speaks "Ya awake?"

"Y-yea." You rub your eyes not sure how long you were out but it was long enough he took the quiz, made his little character AND picked his Pokemon squad. Which for Bakugou it normally took ages.

"Got fightin." He shows you his squad, he's got Machamp, Mankey, Gallade, Marshadow, Lucario, and a Balziken.

Seeing your favorite on there makes your heart race.

"I thought Blaziken was ass." You quip and he rolls his eyes.

"He is." He crushes you to him, almost painfully before he adds, "But someone has to train your favorite Pokemon to be a champion."

[meteormind]

Bkdk on Ao3

Everyone: smut! Smut!! Smut!!! SMUT!!!

Everyone: fluff! Fluff!! Fluff!!! FLUFF!!!

Everyone [pounding table, impassioned]: ANGST! ANGST!! ANGST!!! ANGST!!!!

Me: what if i wrote a canon-remix exploring the evolution of bkdk's childhood dynamic over the course of 100k words

Everyone:

Someone: quirk accident where deku's dick gets bigger everytime bakugou compliments him

Everyone: OOOoooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOO

... all jokes aside, I really am writing a fic and am in need of beta readers (or just plain readers) if anyone is interested. It only has 5 chapters as of 4/05/23 but I'm updating every day this month for NaNoWriMo.

EDIT 4/09/23 : I have found betas! Thank you for the warm response.

Bkdk are kiddos in this fic (9 and 10, at least for now,) so no smut. But there will be fluff! Eventually! It's kind of at an angsty part right now. It's also canon-divergent in that Izuku has a quirk. (Sorry for any canon-verse purists.) If you were ever looking for a bkdk POV alternating, weak-to-strong fic, then please have a look. 💖

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Mitsuki, Bakugou Masaru, Midoriya Inko Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Canon Compliant, To a point, Pre-Canon to Canon, Worldbuilding, just a little, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Video Game Mechanics, author removes Deku's brakes, he wasn't using them anyway, Bakugou Katsuki Redemption, underline that three times, Bullying, Therapy, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Pre-Slash, for now, adding tags as I go, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV Alternating Summary: Izuku's party blazed through the mobs, plucking tails as they went, competent and assured in a way he could never hope to be in reality. He wished, not for the first time, that he could live life like a game. He wanted to exist in a world where he was setup to win, for once. In such a world, he could carve out a place for himself between 1's and 0's. Even if he started with nothing, as long as he put in the time and effort, he was guaranteed a happily ever after. And if only people were as transparent as a string of code. If only they told him what they wanted in plain words. If only the path into someone's heart was marked with waypoints and rat tails. If only they would follow you through the windy wilds, battle at your side through storm and cloud, never turning their back on you as long as you watched theirs. --- In which Izuku gets a quirk and Katsuki learns as he loses.

[barid-bel-medar]

I’ve been squeezing up brains to find Bakugou actual plot relevance… there’s so little that he may perfectly be absent. At least in the early stages. In the late late stages there’s some but for then the divergence may have fixed up.

Anyway, i kind of found a couple and here are as aks:

Will Kamimari and Mina be affected in their academic progress by Bakugou not being there tutoring them?

Aizawa showed a huge bias towards Bakugou since the beginning. Is there any other student occupying that spot? Is he still salty about the top scorer being rejected for the new rule? Given Izuku early progress in handling OFA, is he less biased against him?

Thank you for giving me brainrot with your story. I kind of started a pilot fic with this trope thanks yo you!

Yeah it was the realization I had a number of months back that you can pull Bakugou out of basically all the early plotlines and it doesn't really effect things (hence FtE's entire existence). Even in context of the training camp attack they could have just as easily made a different student a target, like Izuku or Shouto. In contrast if Izuku isn't there, things change dramatically (which yes obviously he's the protagonist so that should be the case), including for Bakugou's own character evolution. If he succeeds when Izuku does not, his worst traits would have definitely gotten amplified and problems would have spiraled.

Like if Izuku wasn't at UA I think it's perfectly reasonable to write it that Bakugou wouldn't make it to graduation. He'd either get himself killed or expelled.

But to answer your other questions!

No, because I feel they would have found other students to help tutor them even if he wasn't there. It's just in-series it's a good means of explaining him succeeding in making friends/a social group that isn't followers ala Aldera.

There's presently not entirely a student holding that role though I would describe Aizawa as being grudgingly fond of Izuku and Neito despite himself. He actually wasn't really too salty over Bakugou's failure because he did get the point the Commission was making and it wasn't that unreasonable. His salt more related to him feeling Izuku got too many rescue points than anything else. I will say that in context of that, Izuku *wasn't* entirely wrong to suspect there was some fuckery going on with his practical score because Nedzu did want to make sure he got in and his rescuing of Uraraka made for the opening he needed. To some extent though it is also a different form of red flag the rescue points only since it does raise questions of potential martyrdom issues/lack of care of Izuku's own life versus the person he's trying to save.

Yeah Izuku's sense of heroism is utterly disconnected from Bakugou when it comes down to it. Even in the case of Bakugou his own desire to be a hero is disconnected from Izuku's existence, there's other issues specifically there (like the seriously concerning detail of how many of Endeavor's more toxic trait he happens to have when he's a kid; at least with Endeavor it's pretty clear those issues were more ones that started when he was older)

[pocketramblr]

AU where Bakugou isn’t invited into the OfA secret. He finds out about All Might’s secret quirk the same time 1-A does, Izuku’s letter.

Oh yeah see that's just the version that exists in my head so might be hard to think of hc for but I'll try

1- the meetings get more dadmighty. The favoritism is obvious and so is the attempt at secrecy. It drives Bakugou slightly crazy because he KNOWS Izuku isn't All Might's kid, but it's got to be something! His best guess is that Izuku had a latent strength quirk and All Might somehow recognized this during the sludge incident, because his is similar. Then he stayed in contact because the nerd was so helpless to figure out his own quirk, and the favoritism is just the result of knowing him longer. For a while he wonders that if Izuku wasn't there, that Bakugou might have had that attention, but that thought kinda fades

2- without Bakugou to yell and chase them off, some students like Kirishima and Ojiro straight up do not notice the favoritism. Like yeah that's just All Might man, don't know what to tell you. By contrast, Kaminari does notice more and is convinced that Izuku is some attempt at cloning All Might. He thinks after Black Whip that Izuku is some science project All Might freed and is protecting. He tells only Jiro this, and she does know what's going on but just tells him he's wrong. Some start looking nervously at the Nomu, but trust Izuku and All Might enough to not question it, and Todoroki loudly talking about his two quirks is enough to quiet those fears for everyone but Aoyama.

3- without Bakugou there making certain comments about the past users, All Might is a little more willing to pose possible theories to Izuku with less evidence than canon, though with plenty of caveats. This includes his confusion about the Fourth user: he died of old age too young, but All Might just doesn't know if it's because he was hit with an unrelated quirk, or if it was an effect of OfA for anyone with a quirk, or if it was a specific genetic problem in Fourth that only some people would have but would be hard to predict. They don't know, and they can't know! The information just doesn't exist. Izuku does not criticize this lack of information, but says they'll have to error towards caution: he'll be the last user. This leads All Might to treasure their meetings and the records he can find even more.

4- when All Might and Izuku ask Uraraka to train more with zero g, they do discuss telling her more. In the end, don't mention OfA, but they do say that they've been doing a lot of research on the weird happenings with his quirk and suspect his next evolution might involve that. She mentally swears to never tell Kaminari his conspiracy theory she overheard might be true, and helps them out.

5- when Izuku leaves them all the notes, it hurts a bit to suddenly know and also know they weren't trusted, but Uraraka points out how terrifying Kamino was, and All Might at least did have the duty to prevent his students from potentially becoming more targets for what they know. Bakugou disagrees- it was Izuku's secrecy, not All Might's. And Izuku's secrecy is in part because he couldn't trust his first friend, so why these new ones he hasn't known as long? Bakugou includes that in his apology during the class rescue mission.

[denkisauce]

every once in a while i login to tumblr, get a snippet of the chaos going on in the manga, and then never recover 😭😭 what are your recommended strategies in coping with bakugou's potentially permanent hybernation?

!! okok so my #1 coping mechanism is i like to look at things from a marketing perspective. they cant kill off bakugou bc that baby is a cash COW like the amount of revenue he brings in alone from merch and stuff?? the fact that he has been voted #1 EVERY YEAR -- imagine the analytics!! he can't be killed he's simply too popular it wouldnt be good for business. it helps me to look at things like a capitalist rather than a reader lolol

the other reason i dont think he's dead for good is it would just be too narratively jarring for him to die at that point in the story. this doesnt mean he's off the hook forever but if bakugou were to die (and i genuinely dont think this is just my shipper brain saying this) it would be in dekus arms. it would be dramatic, there would be last words spoken to each other, we would see reactions from other classmates/ time would slow down a lot more for that moment. and pacing wise it would not make sense for him to die forever right at the beginning of his fight with shigaraki calling him weak. it would not be without him making some obvious sacrifice or proving himself in a big way. what bakugous death here was is a catalyst. it was to kick off deku's fight with shigaraki, deku finally using the 2nd's quirk. narritvely it just wouldnt make any sense for bakugous death to just happen suddenly bc of quirk overuse and then the reaction being deku and mirio being like 'lets ignore this in favor of the fight at hand' if bakugou died there would be a lot more momentum to it, rather than his death adding momentum to something else if that makes sense? he's just way too important of a character

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part Three (Chapters 8-11): "Support" Gear and Dodging Death.

Well. You asked for this, so I deliver; upon your head be it.

So. We start off with talking about costumes... actually pretty interesting, though, with companies doing these costumes, I'm kind of surprised there's not brand names on them; All Might, Brought To You By Sony, or something. I guess that was a level of realism Hori wasn't prepared to deal with.... (Note Bakugou's costume comments; 'kill with my knees'?) but then we get to Izuku. And I can't help but feel jipped by this, in a couple of ways. Izuku ends up looking... well, like his mom made his costume, a sore, underdressed thumb compared to all the professionally dressed heroes... and he's also the only one whose face is entirely covered for some reason?

On the other hand, though, it is a nice touching scene, the family reconnecting, Inko admitting her mistakes and that she'll support Izuku.... but couldn't it have been done differently? As is, it feels like Inko is being used as a blatant emotional tool to make Izuku different, and that's rough since her character is barely existent in the first place, and quickly fades away into oblivion as time passes. In the same way that Izuku is the only one who can't actually use his Quirk, the same way he's the only one who is so completely unprepared for UA, he's now the only one who who doesn't actually have a proper costume.

I mean, I get it; on one hand, it's symbolic, and the way he eventually updates it shows his evolution as a hero. But at the same time, I've already made it clear what I think of Izuku starting off so behind, so I don't actually like that symbolism, and even if I was, the narrative feels like it's going a little too hard on the 'he doesn't belong' thing at this point. First time around, I was fine with how Izuku was, and even now my dislike of the starting situation is more on a meta scale than anything, despite the bad logic behind it, because it's written in so engagingly, but I never once liked the costume thing.

There's also the question of why she's OK with Izuku going to UA with either, A, no Quirk that she knows of, or B, a Quirk he just... randomly got, somehow, while applying? When, according to a literal doctor (Dr. Diabolus Ex Machina himself; is the fact that AFO's most loyal minion apparently was Izuku's doctor going to be relevent at some point or...?), that was never going to happen? Ever?

There's... there's a lot of questions she should be asking, here, and as far as we can tell, that just never happens. This whole dynamic here, there was all sorts of room to play with it, expand it, develop Inko as a character and Izuku's background more (and look at the fact that she found out her son was Quirkless and... got fat? Because she handled that guilt badly? The way they talk is like they never talked about Inko saying he couldn't be a hero until just then. Did they... did they really just never ever talk about this again until just now? The more you think about all, the more things don't make sense) and Hori didn't just drop the ball with this, he spiked it into the ground rather than use it.

I'm... sort of grudgingly OK with All Might being a not great teacher here, but not really. I mean, it's still in line with how his brain got ripped out of his head after Arc One, which at this point is something I have a well established history of being... not well pleased about, but it'd track that he wouldn't know how to train students in basic heroism, unlike exercising....

But that leads back to the question of, 'Then why is he a teacher if he can't teach?' Him doing something he explicitly has no idea how to do makes no sense. It's super double dumb though since, again, this is All Might's precious powered-time, and he's using it to... not just to teach kids when he could be saving lives, but teach kids badly, and again, that's stupid, and everyone involved, including Nezu, Super Genius, should realize this.

God, he's so badly shoe-horned into all this I'm actually wondering if he was supposed to die in Arc One and pass on his Quirk to Izuku that way, and him being in at all is Hori changing that plan at the last minute.

So, before I start on Bakugou vs Izuku... let's pause it here so I can go on a tangent: Bakugou's support gear.

There's several problems with it as an in-setting item, all focused around a simple fact: they're not there for 'support', they're weapons. Fundamentally, Bakugou's Gauntlets are just... giant explosive cannons, just like the literal grenades he gets, or the edgy machine guns in late story. No other hero's support gear we see are like that, pure weapons based only around harming others (I remember later, a Random Civilian gets his hand on support gear, I think from Detnerat gear, and that's a weapon, but A, that's from Detnerat, and so made to bring society to its knees, literally, and two, the entire point of that little scene was to show how stupid and helpless civilians are, and how they should dare get above themselves and try to defend themselves (which is clearly set up to support sheep narrative of civilians Hri loves to pull, while also making it make less sense since, if civilians doing anything backfires that badly, then yeah, maybe they're right to do literally nothing so they can't fuck it up) and so I am far from giving it the benefit of the doubt.)

I know later, Bakugou take one off and Izuku uses it, and so they're just... literally giant explosive guns, literally just a pair of guns he has strapped to his arms. Everyone else has gear that supports their Quirks, even Snipe with his actual gun (which enhances his Quirk, which is dependant on a projectile), while Bakugou alone has something that replaces it.

Thematically, that's weird and has bad vibes. On a more practical level, someone, somewhere, must have approved this thing, looked at this design with the more or less literal description of 'giant bomb', and said, 'Yeah, this is OK, let's do it'. This basiclly has no purpose other than to kill people or to cause massive property damage; there's no... safe mode, no limiting, it's just point and FIRE EVERYTHING!!! Why? Why did they just hand it to him? (And, as a side note, how was it full enough to use when Bakugou had just got it? There's no way he sweat enough to fill that thing; otherwise he would have collapsed from dehydration.)

So. Yeah. I have problems with that. And now the fight, and I find this fact distinctive:

Bakugou starts off this fight by proclaiming he's going to use this to beat up Izuku. I'm going to be honest here; if I was a teacher? I would absolutely respond to that, somehow, even if it's simple as, 'Bakugou, no, also now I'm watching you'. It's not exactly a reach to call that an obvious red flag.

(Side note; 'Rage You Damn Nerd' or 'Ferocity of a Fucking Nerd'? Really? What the hell is this chapter title.)

Flashback: Bakugou, as a kid, saying to murder those villains. God, really? Was nobody ever concerned about that?

And then Izuku counters Bakugou, and he just... loses it. Completely. Because of course; how dare Izuku fight back! How dare he resist Bakugou's righteous anger?!

And yet another reminder of the cringy fact that Bakugou was first place, despite the fact it's against his narrative set up of being the little fish, just because of how much Hori hypes him up.

Bakugou: I've been torturing you for all these years, and you've been sitting back and taking it. Clearly, you've been hiding your Quirk all this time, just so you could laugh at me!

Me: ????

Holy fuck, the ego on that comment. I've heard about 'everything being about you', but this is nuts.

Izuku builds up courage to face his fears/bully, and meanwhile Bakugou flashes back to how useless everyone else is, and how great he is, and how dare Izuku stand up to him, when he gave him the perfect name to describe how worthless he is? How dare he try to rescue him that one time when they were kids?! How dare he have concern?!?!?!

*leans back in chair*

Hoolyyy fuck, Bakugou, that is a lot of clusterfuck in such a small, three page sequence.

'Ah, Iida. What a wholesome palate cleanser', I think, more or less in lockstep with Uraraka. I love how his big plan is literally cleaning; I mean, I get the logic, but still.

Alas. All good things end.

So, for a lot of people, the big, defining moment of Bakugou's story and how bad they think he is is Chapter One and the suicide baiting. That's obviously shit, but to me, this is the big moment, the, if you pardon the drama (I can't think of a way to phrase it better), the 'original sin' of MHA as a whole: Bakugou tries to kill someone, and absolutely nothing happens.

This isn't an exaggeration, BTW; let me lay out the scene here:

Bakugou is armed with, as I said before, an insanely aggressive weapon, one that has no purpose other than to kill people or destroy things. He is given this weapon with, apparently, absolutely no comments about being careful with it, not to harm someone with it, or anything, and then takes it into an exercise with his classmates.

This exercise takes place in a building, one that can easily be damaged by the blast of that thing. As this is a multi-story building, even a blast not aimed at someone could easily get someone killed if part of the building collapses on top of them.

Bakugou takes this weapon, and he aims it at a human being. To top it off, All Might, who by all means should be an authority in, 'Yeah, this could definitely kill someone', explicitly tells him that, 'No, you'll kill him!' before he fires.

Bakugou's response? 'He'll be fine if he dodges!"

And then he fires.

And the fact that, not only does this happen at all, but this fight continues afterwords, is inexcusable. Blatantly, obviously, inexcusable. This is, unironically, Bakugou attempting to kill someone.

On tape, no less!

I mean, hell, with this one chapter, we have the means (the gauntlet), the motive (Izuku's... existence? The fact that he dares to stand against Bakugou?), and the opportunity (this entire exercise), along with witnesses watching him do it in real time. If this had hit Izuku, the trial against Bakugou would have been a cakewalk.

And the thing is? Everything before this, everything, is something that could be excused. Granted, it would strain the suspension of belief to the breaking point at times, but everyone could be that stupid and/or that biased, in theory.

But this? There is absolutely no way that this could happen, and be acceptable in the logic of this story. I don't care if All Might is literally missing his brain, I don't care if Aizawa just.... hates Izuku with a deep and unexplainable loathing (BTW, I think I forgot to mention last time that Aizawa sabotaged Izuku's scores? Well, considering how Izuku with his super toss was in a contest against a girl that only is invisible, there's no way he was in last place, so... yeah. Aizawa sabotaged him). Forget their heroic instincts, forget all of that; if they let this happen, everyone involved with this would have their lives destroyed. They can't cover it up, because at some point, Inko is really going to wonder, 'Hey, where is my kid at?' and the second she asks that everything crumbles.

That, and why would they try to cover it up? Bakugou's character is, in many ways, the cliche of the sports star from a small school, who the entire school, if not the town, bends over backwards to keep him in that position (which, ironically, never would have helped Aldera that much, because Bakugou, as is, would never give them credit, respect, or money. Bakugou, if he improved enough to give them that? Would give them shit for what they let him do instead. That plan was doomed from the start). The thing is? That tolerance only goes so far; sure, he can bully the nerd all day long, and hell, he can beat him half-to-literal-death if there's no one there of importance to serve as witness, but this? This isn't just attacking the nerd. This is chasing him in a car. And, when the nerd escapes into the school? The jock then drives into the school, and only stops when the car itself gets jammed in a wall.

There's a point, in other words, where all that tolerance ends. This is waay past that point.

That, and the fact that UA isn't a small school, with a sports department propped up by their one good athlete; UA is the school that athlete wants to go to. To UA, Bakugou the metaphorical athlete is completely replaceable; how many students were trying to get in again?

And all of that? All of that is assuming that every single one of them is, in fact, the absolute worse, trash, shallow self-serving shit versions of them possible, instead of being heroes, in a school for heroes, for whom there should be standards all over the place.

So the fact that he fires this shot, and that the flash-stepping All Might doesn't just bitch slap him out of it beforehand, or at least make it clear if he does his heroic life is over, and then afterwards he allows this fight to continue, and then after that, there's barely even a harsh word said in response to this, by anyone, much less any sort of consequences for it, school based or otherwise, shatters my SOD into dust.

The logic and foundation of this setting can not support this sequence of events. So... why? Why did this happen? Why was this allowed to happen?

Bakugou. The completely irrational, completely assholish Bakugou, who would do this, because this falls in line with his behavior from what we've seen of him thus far... if he was held to account for this? Given consequences, realistic consequences, for his realistically horrific behavior? He'd be gone, at least. Out of UA, out of Izuku's life (if only), and out of the story.

But... for whatever reason, even before all the polls came in (I think), Hori just wanted Bakugou to stay in the story. Why? Maybe there was a more proper redemption arc in the works. Maybe it was always going to be like it was now. Maybe Hori just likes Bakugou. Who knows?

The point is Bakugou, The Living Idiot Ball, is born into the story at this moment, a character who makes everyone around him their impossibly worse selves. His behavior will improve, somewhat, but the behavior of those around him won't.

Well, thankfully, the building doesn't collapse on all of them after that (thought maybe it should have? I'm not an expert, but that is a big hole there)... and here's something else that bothers me.

I can't understand All Might's motivation here for not stopping the match, as in I'm looking at his stated motivation for that, and it doesn't make sense.

In his head, he's talking about this will fuel Izuku's growth, basiclly. And, maybe it does, but that's not the problem here. The problem is Izuku could die, and is getting some serious injuries as Bakugou beats the living shit out of him; it's not worth all of that for some extra growth now, when he still has his entire school life to improve. And sure, we know that, in a meta sense, this is A, prep for the villains soon to show up, and that, B, Izuku does not, in fact, have his entire school life to get better. But All Might doesn't know that; All Might doesn't have any reason to think AFO is still alive, much less masterminding an attack. So... why the rush?

Before, he was rushing Izuku's training, but there was a concrete reason: Izuku needed to get into U.A. Well... mission accomplished; he's in. So why the push?

To give a somewhat in character reason, I guess, to try and excuse Bakugou, The Living Idiot Ball.

Meanwhile, all the characters can't stop talking up about how great a fighter Bakugou is, because it's not enough to excuse him from a murder attempt, apparently everyone needs to make sure the audience knows about how much of a 'beast' Bakugou is!

And, all of this, while Bakugou has this crazed sounding rant about how Izuku is 'looking down' on him, when until five seconds ago he thought he was beneath your boot. Even while they're fighting, Izuku can't help but talk up the person who single handedly ruined his entire life.

*sighs for forever*

Anyways, Izuku barely claims a win with teamwork, determination, and the magically ability to remember what his objective is!

(cue funny little omake where Mt Lady breaks her office with puns)

And... the last chapter of this arc: 'Bakugou's Starting Line'. Ugh.

Anyways, Bakugou beats Izuku half to death, but he loses. He loses, and has a mental break down because of that, and All Might is remarkably fine with this whole situation.

Then, Momo proves that she's smart and on top of things (enjoy that while it lasts), the other fights happen, which... brutally honest, I can't care much about, beyond Todoroki proving that, suprise suprise, he's actually the big fish in the 1A lake (enjoy that while it lasts as well! The nerfs are coming for everyone not named Bakugou or Izuku), which is yet more mental damage on Bakugou's oh so sensitive ego.

Izuku, unsurprisingly, ends up needing to be put back together after all that, and Recovery Girl has a rare positive portrayal where she says that Izuku getting beat to hell and back is, in fact, bad, which All Might agrees with like a sheepish child rather than an adult who has carried massive responsibilities for years now and who, need I remind you all, was not too long ago competent and did in fact avoid letting Izuku be permanently harmed... you know, the good old days.

Anyways, everyone is impressed by Izuku, cool, cool, and then... Izuku shits on it by telling Bakugou, 'This isn't my Quirk!', thus locking in his participation in late story stuff forever.

And again... why? Why does he feel responsible for this? Why does he need to make sure he's not... accidently, tricking Bakugou by letting him be an idiot and think he was just... holding back his entire life, and instead all but blows a secret of nigh incalculable value. To his bully. Because his bully felt bad.

*resists the urge to scream into my desk*

And, for a second time this sequence... why? Why would he do that? Why is he simping so damn hard for him?

*spreads hands*

Bakugou, The Living Idiot Ball, whom proximity to drives idiotic and irrational behavior into all.

And then Bakugou has tears in his eyes as he realizes he's not the top dog, and we're apparently supposed to feel sorry for him, and then All Might shows up, burning more of his precious time to talk to Bakugou, not long after his murder attempt, and rather than trying to... chastise him or anything, he rushes to tell Bakugou to cheer up!

I don't know about you, but if I could only give Bakugou one piece of advice, it would definitely be, 'protect your ego!'

Then Izuku affirms to the audience that Bakugou is still the standard he's chasing after, just in case we didn't get the message that Bakugou is the best, because Hori wants to make that very clear in our minds.

Finally: villians. ...Why is the mindless Nomu in the bar?

[dekusleftsock]

Did anyone see this? I feel like it’s a small detail in the pile of evidence for Izuku’s “control your heart” thing going on.

Hell, even Bakugou Katsuki Rising is referenced in the same chapter.

(Side note: me and my friend ended up spending 20 minutes identifying that flower, ty @the-real-loverboy for being my favorite flower nerd—regardless it’s called the Paris Japonica, a rare flower native to Japan that has the largest genome to our knowledge. Only problem? I can’t find any symbolism on this flower, and every source is written by white people in the west on how to care for the flower so. If anyone knows literally anything important about this flower, I’m very very interested. I know that it can bloom in the early winter and is more tolerable to colder climates, so maybe it’s a reference to rei/the general himura family? Who knows)

Going back to the original thought, I think the line “I wonder what changes we’ll witness… come tomorrow” has been kind of disregarded. And, as the newest spoilers have shown, the entire todoroki family is undergoing this evolution of the heart ALONGSIDE their own personal quirks.

Now, what does that have to do with bkdk and Izuku specifically? We have ofc, the plot line of Izuku not being able to control his heart for Katsuki, but what makes this situation unique is one for all itself.

Ofa, as I understand it, is a quirk closely related to romance. It’s surrounded all of Izuku’s emotions and close relationships, along with Nana’s signature line describing ofa as romantic. And, if we’re talking about near death experiences making these hidden parts of their quirks pop out unintentionally, then that would explain why Katsuki has a connection to ofa. From the ofa stars DURING Bakugou Katsuki Rising, to being able to meet and then talk to the Allmight vestige.

So, uncontrolled emotions, rejection of vulnerability, creates an intimate connection to anyone that Izuku the character, cares about.

On top of all of this, all of Izuku’s inner quirk stuff is so closely tied to his heart, that he doesn’t even need to be in life or death situations—it just has to feel like it. Anger so palpable, he literally unlocks blackwhip. Fear of his friends and fellow heroes demise so strong he unlocks float. And the list goes on and on, with him unlocking most of his quirks during his lowest low, his depressive episode.

Izuku doesn’t have to be dying like Touya does to lose control, he just has to vaguely feel like it.

And of the characters I feel have not evolved their hearts as much as their quirks, Katsuki and Izuku I feel will be the most passionate.

But I digress, here’s the people I believe will have this inner life or death quirk “awakening” because of their hearts: Toga, Ochako, Deku, Katsuki, Shigaraki, and the entire Todoroki family.

Now, controlling your heart and near death experiences, lets see—why are these two ideas so closely tied to each other? What makes them inherently unique in comparison to each other?

Or rather, a better question, what connects them?

I’d argue it’s acceptance. Pain could be another argument sure, but I feel like it’s way more common to just accept that your dying when you’re almost dead, than to actually register the pain from it.

And acceptance of the heart often comes hand in hand with those experiences—Endeavor knows he will die with Touya and he has accepted the fact that he was never enough for him as a father, but that if he can bring him to the sky, it will be okay because he can die with his son as penitence for his wrongdoings, while keeping the rest of his family okay. Probably better off without him because of his actions.

And Katsuki, during his death, has accepted his fate. But while doing so, he has also accepted that he won’t catch up to Izuku, that he truly has been a dorky fan of Allmight, that he can die loving him. (Love doesn’t have to mean romantic in this example, like yes I do believe they will be canon, but love is a loose term here because of what his death truly meant) Because that death meant accepting his care and his admiration of Izuku, that he’s always been looking behind him.

And this circles back to Izuku, with parallels between Rei chasing Endeavor into the fire paralleling Izuku chasing Katsuki into fire during the sludge villain fight, because endeavors death is—while poetic—ultimately only harmful. Yes he is saving the city and Japan, he is dying as a hero and protecting his family, but as Shoto said, they have to do it together. This isn’t Endeavor healing his heart, I would argue it’s meaningless sacrifice born out of guilt. Rei SHOULD help, Natsuo SHOULD help, Fuyumi SHOULD HELP! Shoto shouldn’t have tried to fight dabi on his own, because Enji and Shoto both feel entirely responsible for what Touya has become, when they aren’t!

People forget that Touya is a fucking adult. He’s a serial killer and an arsonist because he chose to be. That doesn’t mean he’s forever going to be the worst person in the world, but no one person is responsible for his actions other than him. And that’s a reality we have to accept with our trauma, our parents can exponentially fuck up and make us terrible people, but you as a person have every opportunity as an adult to change what they have made you become. Touya could have gotten a job if he was that mad at his dad, he could have just fucking knocked on the front door of his house, he could have chosen at ANY POINT in his life to say, “No, I shouldn’t do that.” But he simply didn’t.

And not Endeavor, not Rei, not Natsuo, not Fuyumi, and certainly not Shoto are responsible for that. Dabi is selfish. I love his character but that’s a fact. He is selfish because of his trauma yes, this is all born out of an innate childhood need for his fathers attention yes, but that doesn’t make it justified.

“But Sock what about what you said earlier about saving him together!” I still stand by both my points.

Dabi can both need to be saved AND can also be selfish for needing to be saved in the first place. Those aren’t opposite ideas, they can still coexist. And they can coexist because Dabi is a character written well! He’s not a “villain with the right ideas taken too far”, he’s a complex person with an interesting backstory who has still killed people. (Fun fact dabi has committed several war crimes under the Geneva Convention LMAO)

MHA describes heroics as oftentimes “sticking your nose in places where they don’t belong”, meaning even people who don’t necessarily want to be saved. Dabi can still be selfish and wrong while still needing to be saved and supported.

There’s this line in a fanfic I read, something about human beings sometimes not having enough time in their life to become a better person. For person A, maybe it takes a couple months and a few simple ideas. For person B, maybe it takes your whole life and then some to understand the weight of your own actions. And that doesn’t make person A or person B incapable of change, they can still just need a proper opportunity to understand, or practice to implement a new idea into their mind.

Maybe person B just needed better luck, maybe person A was just a teenager growing up, but they both can still change.

Tangent over about the Todoroki family, back to Izuku. Like Endeavor in this instance, Izuku is often the type to have this martyr mentality, but unlike Izuku, Endeavor is the one currently in the fire, or more rather, he is the one currently dying. Like Katsuki.

Katsuki has accepted his death in this war, that ship has sailed. He has come close to death and then actually died, and the todoroki’s are currently going through the process. So that leaves Izuku. (And technically Toga too, maybe ochako, but that’s for another meta one day maybe)

Will Izuku have to come close to death? I’m excited to see.

Idrk how to end this meta, I think I had other thoughts and ideas I wanted to share, (along with a better conclusion), but I forgot those ideas and stuff about half way through writing this.

[class1akids]

The only thing UA's float team did was save Bakugou... But was there even any need for him to be dead in the first place? The only people around to see it were Aizawa and Izuku and none had thoughts on the matter past its discovery and it was immediately undone in one of the dumbest ways possible. IMO the whole thing was handled terribly.

I was not a fan of the whole death fake-out, nor how it was handled in the end in terms of emotional pay-offs.

I think the biggest tangible purpose was to escalate Tomura - which gave him a new Boss-Form for Izuku's arrival, and I think will play into his saving in the end. So the purpose is to have Tomura see how far the heroes are willing to go to save someone who seems dead, broken and beyond saving, how they are willing to sacrifice several lives to save Bakugou, and how unfair it feels for Tomura/Tenko, who needed very little in comparison and got no help whatsoever

It reinforces in Tomura the wrongness of society - how the heroes will go into great lengths to save their own kind, but turn a blind eye to a child like Tenko.

It's very similar to Touya's "why not sooner" kind of escalation and Toga's feelings of rejection being reinforced to the point it's hard for them to listen.

So Tomura confronted by all this unfairness is escalating where he wants to destroy everything - but it also creates the ground for his saving - when he will see how far Izuku will go for him (just like Ochako did for Toga, or how Toya saw his family come together for him).

From Bakugou's perspective, I think the death didn't matter so much compared to being just knocked out. I guess near-death gave him another quirk evolution, and there is some symbolism at play: his old self fully dying, getting that moment of clarity of what is his biggest regret (not asking AM for an autograph - so it's not about praise or validation for himself, but about appreciating openly the person who inspired him the most), and being "reborn" with a new perspective, a new appreciation of life and the people who are helping him, who let him live - the whole new network of power idea.