thelastsliceofcake

[thelastsliceofcake]

A perspective on fandom reaction to MHA ending (Part 1/?)

I think it's funny that this is my first post on tumblr, but at this point I have a lot of thoughts that I need to get out of my head. (mha spoilers, obviously)

There's been a wide variety of reactions to the recent epilogue chapter of mha (some positive some negative), but what I want to focus on in this post is the relationship between Midoriya and Bakugo and how the fandom views it online.

First, I want to preface this by saying that at the end of the day, you can ship/headcanon anything you want. No one can tell you what to think or write about, you do you. With that in mind, a common sentiment I've seen online is that the story should have ended with Midoriya and Bakugo getting together romantically. Even outside of that, many believe that the ending was (to a degree) character assassination for the two of them (Mido in particular). With how vocal the community has been (though it might also just be a vocal minority), I recently decided to read through the entire manga, start to finish, as well as the School Briefs light novels to see what supports this conclusion with fresh eyes. Here are some of my thoughts and answers to certain takes on this relationship.

1: "Midoriya rejecting Bakugo's offer to join his agency is OOC, they've been wanting to do it since they were kids!"

This one is pretty easy to address, so I'm doing it first. They do mention wanting to work together in an agency, true: when they're four, before they've gotten their quirks (or lack thereof). Besides that flashback, there is never a single moment where they mention wanting to work together in this way, even after they've made up (and by made up, I mean Bakugo stopped taking out his inferiority complex on Mido, and Mido stopped just taking his shit. They still don't exactly hang out and do things together, even by the manga's end). The closest we get is Bakugo saying he wanted to compete for the rest of their lives (while an admittedly touching scene and showcase of his development, not inherently saying they need to work together), and a translation of Bakugo vs AFO where he calls himself "Kacchan of the Bakugo's!" (later translations I read just had it as "That's Kacchan Bakugo to you" or something like that). The last one isn't even related, aside from an acceptance of his childhood nickname. Them working at an agency together was a childhood dream destroyed by the inherent inequality between the two and their feelings (mostly Bakugo's) on this. Even if they're both better now, it doesn't mean the bad blood just vanishes, and even then, priorities change. Midoriya's not the same bright eyed kid who thought he and Kacchan would take on the world together forever, he's a grown person with new thoughts and a sense of responsibility towards the next generation.

"But if that's the case, then why did Bakugo offer?" There's a pretty simple answer to this. Consider: He wasn't sure what Mido planned on doing now that he was back in the game; did he wanna go full time, or stick to teaching? By this point, he's feeling remorse for the crap he did pre UA, so he wants to support him to make up for it. So, he asks about Mido's plans. If he wanted to go pro again, he'd let him join his agency to get his feet back on the ground. If he didn't want to stop teaching, he'd let it go. Mido chose to stay a teacher, so he accepts it and moves on without mentioning it (Kirishima is the one who brings it up). And that's fine. Midoriya not joining his agency doesn't automatically invalidate the growth of their relationship; they can still be friendly, and they are! Midoriya even invites Bakugo to come help teach, so it's clear he wants him in his life still. Again, these are personal thoughts, maybe I saw things differently than others, so take from this scene what you will.

2. "He spent 8 years trying to revive Mido's dream, how could he just be rejected!"

Similar in nature to the above, this is a big argument for why they should have gotten together. To this, I have a simple counterargument: No one is entitled to be loved, no matter the grand gesture. If that doesn't work, then here's another: He did do that, after having spent a literal decade being a horrible person for a shitty reason, destroying Mido's self-esteem and dreams. At best, the suit makes them even, a net neutral.

On a related note, there's a certain idea going around that Bakugo was such a huge contributor to the suit that he practically single-handedly funded it (hopefully a vocal minority, but then again the internet isn't renowned for its intelligence). All I have to say on that is, with how famous (and likely wealthy) the other members of the class are, by the time he got enough money to fund it to that degree, the rest would have done it several times over (his income can't be that much higher than 18 other high ranking pros combined, plus however much Mei, Melissa, and All Might added themselves). It's an interesting idea for fanfiction, but for the main story? Eh.

3. "They had so much more development and chemistry, why didn't they get together?!"

This is technically true, especially in regards to other relationships in the series (notably Izuocha, which admittedly could have been a lot better). This is actually a particular favorite argument of mine, because there's a great in-series quote for it: the final exams arc, where All Might says something along the lines of "Someone who starts at level 1 will grow a lot faster than someone who's level 50". Yes, Mido and Bakugo do have a lot of development. Because their relationship is absolute dogshit at the start of the series, and it tries to end at somewhat friendly at minimum. That takes a lot of big moments and conflict to get through smoothly, so it's natural these two have so much more than anyone else. By comparison, most other relationships Mido has (except Todoroki, which also begins somewhat antagonistic and as such has more development than most) are much healthier and usually friendly. We don't exactly need a 3 chapter section on Mido and Uraraka working through their issues with each other because, from the start, they're friendly and supportive of each other. They don't have any particular problems with each other, so not much happens (though I do think there needed to be more between them).

As for chemistry, that's also technically true. But chemistry, much like relationship development, isn't inherently romantic. There's a lot of moments where their dynamic is interesting and well written, and that lends itself well to shipping. But, and I speak having the entire manga fresh in my mind, there are zero moments where I saw romance even subtextually between the two of them. Neither ever mention physical or emotional attraction, blush around the other/while thinking about them, or even express interest in doing anything besides heroics together. Bakugo regularly insults Mido for his general personality and Mido (surprisingly enough) regularly snarks at and insults Bakugo's personality back. They're never shown doing anything like small talk in the dorms or classes, or just hanging out. They barely have friendly chemistry, let alone romantic. Maybe I'm blind when it comes to this, but I also didn't see much romance in other relationships either, so who knows?

4. "Bakugo literally died for Midoriya, how is that not romantic"

This argument is the one I like least, because its a great example of a thing I personally hate: taking great moments that showcase character growth or relationships and making them about love. This doesn't just apply to bkdk, other relationships have the same issue, but for now we're talking Bakugo. So here's my interpretation of his death scene: a bit before it, Shig4One beats the shit out of him and effectively tells him that "compared to OFA, you're just a bit extra who'll never measure up". For Bakugo, who has the defining character trait of constantly trying to be the best, this is something he can't let stand. Even when the others are telling him to retreat, he keeps pushing himself forward in pursuit of his goal, and at that moment, the image he has of strength is Izuku (just like Izuku's image of victory is him). He starts doing the same things he knows Izuku does (mumbling, a self destructive method of fighting) and realizes first hand just how hard Izuku worked to get where he is. Recognizing this, he wonders if he can pull ahead again before he takes the fatal blow.

This is a great scene, showing how Bakugo has grown to respect Mido for his talents and hard work, and trying to emulate him the same way Mido emulated Bakugo. It's a "bit extra" trying to surpass the legends of his world with all he's got, even if it kills him. Because he's Bakugo Katsuki, the man who'll be number 1 no matter what, who'll never give up. Making this scene about him being in love with Midoriya cheapens Bakugo's greater character arc (his acceptance of help from others and learning to respect his peers while handling his relationships in a non-abusive way), and is part of a general issue bkdk has:

5. Everything Bakugo does has to be about Midoriya

Bakugo can't just die reaching for his dream, he has to die for Midoriya's sake. Bakugo can't just want to make up for his lack of support in the past, it has to be a confession of love. Bakugo can't just respect Midoriya and want to work with him again, it has to be deep love. Bakugo can't just be friendly with Midoriya, they have to be life partners forever in everything. For better or worse, these two are treated as a package deal. A lot of this also applies to Midoriya too; for example, Midoriya can't just be pissed that someone he is somewhat close to is dead/grievously injured, it has to be because it's Bakugo and he's in love with him! I honestly believe that both the Jaku "Get down Mr. President!" moment and the death on the sky coffin moments would play out the exact same for Midoriya if say, Iida was the one who got hurt there instead. Bro cares a lot, feels a lot, and gets real angry.

6. Final thoughts

I wanna end this off with a general personal opinion on the ship and what I think when I read or see fics about it. Again, ship/headcanon as you please, I can't dictate what's "right" for you to like. With that in mind, I dislike bkdk for a lot of reasons, but here are two of them:

Reason 1: Because at its core, it's a ship about putting an abuser together with their victim because the abuser "got better". This doesn't inherently make it unshippable to me, but it makes it a hard sell. It's also a solid reason for why they don't have much of a romantic relationship in the main story: Why would they fall for each other after all that?

Reason 2: Most fanfics don't sell "Bakugo" dating Midoriya, they sell something called Bakugo doing it. A lot of the time, he's wildly different compared to how he is in the main series (gentle, a real softy, kinda tsundere but otherwise nice). Again, nothing wrong with this, but most of the time he's just like this without any reason given for the differences. If you need to change a character this much to make a ship work, I don't think it's that good a ship (Related, I actually think Kiribaku is great because of this: you don't need to make Bakugo not an asshole to make it work). Of course, there are exceptions, and even without them, there's nothing wrong with writing what you like or want. This is just my personal opinion on the ship and why I can't get into it.

Thank you for reading my mammoth of a post. This took like 3 hours to make and you can really tell by how the quality dropped in the end (or maybe that's just me). Once again, I'd like to reiterate that no one can tell you what to ship or headcanon, these are just my own thoughts and interpretations on the whole shebang. Feel free to come up with your own ideas and do your own thing. I might do other posts on other things I have strong opinions on later, though.