#can we seriously stop the whole one true protagonist bs now

[what-do-1000-swords-look-like]

14x20 Ending = Two Main Protagonists Confirmed

Was rewatching 14x20 for reasons and this scene stuck out to me again like it always does:

Here, we see Dean taking the Equalizer gun (still a stupid name, sorry not sorry) to kill Jack after Chuck presents the suggestion as only he can. In the end, Dean doesn't shoot Jack, he and Sam confront Chuck, they learn he's the ultimate bad guy, and he basically sets them up for the ultimate apocalypse. One last ride.

And here's where we see the setup for the two main protagonists/heroes...because they have been the main two protagonists/heroes for a while. Dean and Sam = yin and yang.

Dean is the one taking the shot at Jack/willing to sacrifice himself; Sam is the one Chuck mostly interacts with & he figures out what Chuck is really doing

Chuck mentions the whole "father and son" thing when it comes to Dean and Jack; Sam calls Chuck out on what he's really doing

Dean tells Chuck to go to Hell & Chuck kills Jack; Sam shoots Chuck & Chuck starts the apocalypse

Dean makes the choice not to shoot Jack; Sam makes the choice to shoot Chuck

Dean was willing to sacrifice himself to shoot Jack who they think is the villain and save the world from him; Sam was willing to sacrifice himself to shoot Chuck who is the real villain to save Jack

Yin and yang.

If there was only one main protagonist, that one brother would have been the one to choose to shoot Jack & sacrifice himself, Chuck would have had his focus on & the most interactions with, would've been the sole father in that dynamic with Jack (minus Cas), would have been the catalyst for Chuck killing Jack and starting the apocalypse, and would have been the one to choose to shoot Chuck & sacrifice himself. The other brother would have just been a bystander if that was the case.

Another way you can tell that there are two main protagonists is that they knocked Cas out (literally and both times) of these important scenes with the two Gods (Chuck and Jack who will replace him) and the brothers despite his being an angel, despite his relationship with Jack, even despite his relationship with both brothers and the family they've all settled into. He has some lines, sure, but notice how he is not able to be involved in the decision making or really active in the standoff with Chuck. Not to diminish Cas and his importance to the story or to Jack or even Sam and Dean, but here we see that he is clearly not the main protagonist of the story. Same with Jack even though he becomes the new God in the next season, and they pulled the ol' switcheroo in this episode between him and Chuck. They literally played the shell game with the audience by having Chuck show up the way he did so it could all lead up to this moment: the Winchester brothers telling Chuck to eff off and the resulting final conflict (they're not only fighting for their freedom and to reclaim their narrative/lives but also the final boss) that will eventually reach the climax and final standoff. So of course there would be no Mary, no Bobby, no John, no Jody, no Donna, no Claire, etc in this scene and Cas would be sidelined.

It was always about Sam and Dean.

The two main protagonists.

[franeridan]

So I'm not the only one who noticed Kirishima and Bakugo have stopped interacting? I just saw in on your tags and it suddenly feels very real. I'm glad Bakugo is getting to interact with other characters (especially Kaminari), but isn't it weird that they literally haven't talked to each other in ages? I'm a fan of their friendship in canon so I noticed how odd it is. What do you think could be the reason? If you don't mind me asking. I'm really curious now that I know it wasn't just in my head.

Starting this off by pointing out that there’s absolutely 1000% the chance that actually nothing is going on at all - consider that Uraraka is supposed to be Deku’s love interest and they interact super rarely (though it is true that Uraraka is just generally around less than Kirishima and Bakugou are, even in the background), or that Todoroki and Deku and IIda are best friends but you see them all together rarely. That was the rational part of me trying to be less obsessive over this than I actually am. All things considered both interactions I mentioned have had more scenes than Kiri and Baku’s grand total of three, only one of which including exchanged words, since the end of the License Exam. Anyway they did interact with each other, which means they aren’t avoiding each other or anything, so what I’m saying is that it’s perfectly credible that nothing is going on at all and whatever I might say from this point on is just me maybe and most probably reading too much into stuff and also just being very sad my two favorite characters haven’t spoken to each other at all aside from once in about 80 chapters. Christ.

The reasons why I think something might be going on are two: 

first, before the license exam Bakugou and Kirishima interacted a lot. I’m talking about their interactions going down at least by 80%, I thought I was making it up but I reread the first 12 volumes and no, I’m really not. It is true that during these last 80+ chapters they’ve rarely been in the same place/being together the protagonists of the arcs, but stuff like Kirishima commenting on Bakugou’s behaviour or them just being close to one another or Kirishima being the character always used to explain what’s up with Bakugou to the audience, they’ve all disappeared too, which is weird when you compare it to how it used to be for the first 110 chapters (examples are Kirishima not commenting on the Baku vs Deku fight after the exam, nor making fun of him for having been suspended when other characters have and he was right there in the same room when it happened. Or Kirishima not mentioning anything about Baku being in the band/knowing how to play. Or latest chapter not commenting on what he said to Shinsou - this one especially, if you compare it to what happened with Shindou before the exam it’s just wierd, going from “dude, rude!”+”I’m sorry about him” to “whatever he’s saying I disassociate” is harsh.)

second, Bakugou was worried about Kirishima’s well being during the Raid Arc enough to stay up and be around waiting for him, he obviously heard him say he has a long way to go still and made the exact same face he made back when he was unhappy about Kirishima being unhappy the day they moved in the dorms, he was shown later unable to sleep even if we know usually when he says he’s going to sleep he does, the next day Todoroki mentioned something was still bothering him, and we to this day still don’t know what was up with that. Weird.

Now this is what I think might be happening on Bakugou’s side: he could be feeling at least in part guilty for what happened to Kirishima during the Raid, and might also be feeling like he needs to get his own license so that he can stand on par with him before he tries to do anything about it 

Why guilty!! you might say - because Bakugou was the one to tell Kirishima that as long as he refused to go down he was strong. And that mentality nearly had him killed. He told Kirishima all he needed was to be unwavering, and Kirishima built his ultimate move around it, and with it his confidence in the fact that he was strong, and as I mentioned a while back because of this Kirishima spent a while feeling strong, confident and bright and at the top, enough to challenge Mirio heads on, pester Amajiki into helping him get an internship, follow villains around and throw himself in front of Aizawa to protect him during the raid, Kirishima felt like he was strong enough for that because he had Unbreakable, and Unbreakable made him strong because Bakugou had said so. And then he comes back after having fought to the point of turning into a living bandage, having refused to go down like Bakugou had said, and all he has to say is “I still have a long way to go”. Compared to how on top of things he felt before, that’s… like, okay, I might be reaching a whole damn lot here, I probably am, but if I were Bakugou I’d kind of like to kick myself for it

And to add to that Bakugou isn’t even in the same stage as Kirishima anymore. Kirishima is how many steps ahead of him, now? From Bakugou’s point of view I mean - between the license and the internship he’s got so much on Bakugou, he might be feeling like before he can have any right to confront Kirishima about all of this he needs to first catch up to him

Kirishima on the other hand… I think the fact that he thought about Bakugou both before successfully using Unbreakable against a villain the first time we’re shown the move and right after breaking against Rappa does have a meaning - he thought about Bakugou saying “if you refuse to go down” and he did, but then he didn’t and he thought about it again, and together thought “I’m still like [in middle school]”. He might be feeling like he let him down/disappointed him. Bakugou said “didn’t you say you’d be unwavering?” like he fully believed Kirishima’s ability to be, but then Kirishima wasn’t, and you know in Kirishima’s mind his failure to be wasn’t detached from that conversation, he failed and he thought back on it, so it’s a possibility he might be feeling like he isn’t as good as Bakugou assumed he is/isn’t worth whatever opinion Bakugou has (had?) of him

We know that he’s been working hard to improve himself and taking it seriously enough that he questioned whether having the cultural festival was a good idea at all, so, again, maybe, he’s trying to become as good as Bakugou assumes he is because right now he doesn’t feel like such

THAT SAID

this doesn’t explain why their being kept apart started before the raid, nor why they’d still do stuff like sit together or spend the cultural festival together if they were feeling, I dunno, awkward with each other or whatever - the thing is, as I mentioned yesterday, I just don’t understand why cut on casual interactions like this but not cut it completely, it feels like Horikoshi is telling me “no no, they’re good, here see? they’re sitting on the same couch/ spent the day with each other, they’re still friends I just don’t feel like showing it on page” why would he do that

A lot of people think it’s because Hori is focusing on other Baku and Kiri relationships, but that doesn’t make much sense to me - you can do it without cutting so much on Kiri and Baku being best friends, you know?

Anyway, if I’m right and they’re having that sort of problem about the Raid, there’s totally the possibility that they’ll solve the problem off screen. As in, Bakugou gets his license and feels like he’s on Kiri’s same level again, Kiri gets some new cool move and feels like he’s strong again, they never talk about it and they’re good. Totally possible, I’d believe it if someone told me it was gonna happen. Well, whatever, we’ll have to wait and see

Ah, since I’m already here spewing unfounded theories all over the place, one that’s HIGHLY IMPROBABLE but that’s still my favorite on this topic is the possibility that Bakugou told Kirishima right after he failed his exam to keep his mother henning at bay at least till he got his license. Like, “I rely too much on you filling in for my shortcomings because you’re there and I expect you to be all smile at the camera and apologize for me if needed, but that obviously isn’t always gonna fucking work as my failing this bs exam proves, so until I can get the license for myself just. Don’t do that.” or something on that line. So now Kiri isn’t always there being Bakugou’s carer as he used to be, because he was asked to not do it since the fact that Bakugou relied on him to be like that while he kept on being an ass is the reason why he failed

Farfetched? Definitely! Probable? Not at all! Entertaining for me? Hell yeah.