#which. obviously... bakugou isn't gonna do. but still. I want deku to just. let people help him. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bakugaykatsukii · 5 years

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I Talk About Bakugou Because I'm Bored

Bakugou. He's best boy. My son.

No, actually, I'mma explain in as few words as possible why I absolutely adore his character.

Oops this got long.

Okay, so it's the first chapter/episode (I'll go off the anime because it's practically identical and more widespread) and it opens with Deku narrating. This is to establish an immediate connection between the audience and the main protagonist; it conveys how important Deku is. Plenty of shows do this so it's not really a big deal, just common practise. HOWEVER, the second character we hear speak is Bakugou, who is insulting Deku.

This is framed in a way that's supposed to make us dislike him, and continues all throughout the first episode. He's presented as a four year old trying to beat up our main character, and then his next scene is being ten years older and Still Trying To Beat Up Our Main Character. This makes him seem rotten to the core, as his character hasn't changed whatsoever in that time, and as an audience we know very little information about him.

On top of that, within this first episode he is deliberately made to have no redeeming qualities, nothing that could make him sympathetic in any way. The Sludge Villain fiasco isn't until ep2, and in this one he literally tells Deku to kill himself, reaching peak middle school bully. He destroys something the Main Protagonist clearly treasures and is privelaged in every conceivable way, even his (later obviously intense) desire to be a hero is simplified to monetary gain, with "I'll be even richer than All Might himself!!!" (or something to that effect). Later on I'd explain such a line to be a result of young Baku trying to quantify his future success, something he never mentions again after the Sludge Villain.

In these first twenty minutes of the anime, he's been absolutely dragged through the mud. Not only is he this arrogant, selfish, mean bully, he's also the sort of bully we can all relate to having, making him even more dislikable! It's so easy for an audience to write him off as irredeemable almost immediately.

But then comes ep2. Seasoned anime watchers likely brush over some small details, but the fact that the Sludge Villain attack happens when Bakugou is 14? Wow. At this point no one likes him, and to many people seeing this happen could come across as a sort of karmic punishment, deserving and therefore less sympathetic. And so Horikoshi succeeds in continuing to make him dislikable but also adding depth to this character who so clearly believed he was invincible.

However, any such depth is pretty much ignored by the audience. I've watched many reactions, and, at this point, due to Bakugou's sub par personality, most people don't care about what happened upon first viewing. To be fair, it's treated as background until Deku steps in and proves himself a hero, at which point he's promised a quirk and That's all anyone can think about.

(also there's some symbolism in this ep because Bakugou and Deku were both attacked by the Sludge Villain and saved by All Might, showing they are actually equals in character and have a lot in common.)

Anyway, so for the first few episodes no one gives two shits about Bakugou because he's meant to be dislikable. He's set up to be as bad as possible without needing to be arrested/never being redeemable. Yet, he's also not clearly set up to be redeemed whatsoever. Let me explain:

Quick break from bnha to head over to atla, Zuko is the perfect redemption arc. And some of that can be attributed to his presentation in the first few episodes: where he's portrayed as antagonistic but still honourable, and has a tragic past. He's the sort of character you know isn't actually bad at heart. But Bakugou hasn't got any tragic back story to speak of, and certainly isn't honourable, so we don't expect a redemption.

That's so interesting to me, because it basically means his character could go in any direction but most shounen fans expect him to be the typical rival. He's mean now and will be mean later, nbd. Will probably betray Deku in order to gain more power. That sort of stuff.

But, as the first season progresses, we're shown that Bakugou (on top of all of his anger issues and cruelty) is also so incredibly determined, to the point where it's harmful. A lot of people, even in season three, expect him to accept the LoV's offer, but as early as ep7 he's shown to be dedicated to being the best on his own. He utterly fails at pretending to be a villain, and doesn't manage to work with his "villain" teammate. When the USJ attack rolls around, he fights alongside Deku.

I feel like I've just word babbled for a while so here's a picture:

Isn't that adorable? Anyway, I continue.

Okay, recap: Bakugou is presented initially as bad and in no way sympathetic, but throughout season one some of his good qualities do get highlighted.

The Sports Festival is probably when I was most on edge about who my favourite character was. Todoroki vs Deku vs Bakugou was a whole internal debate. We all know who eventually won though. Point is, this is the first time Bakugou is supposed to seem likeable.

Like, yes, he helped out at the USJ, but he was still reckless and angry about it. In this arc his flaws stop seeming so antagonistic (even though he's now more at odds with 1-A than he's ever been) and are framed humorously; if you think about it, the only times you're not rooting for Bakugou in this whole arc is when you're laughing at his antics. He stops seeming like a massive unforgivable bully and becomes a secondary threat behind Todoroki, even though he ultimately wins the Festival.

One of the first things he does in the season is tell people messing with their class go away, albeit bluntly, and is then complimented for it by Kirishima, who is the nicest guy in the class! No longer are we supposed to necessarily dislike him, as he's being developed after all of season 1. Him saying "I'm gonna win" as his speach is expected by the audience and laughed at- absolutely nobody watching was scared he'd hurt Deku in some terrible way due to it.

The cavalry battle demonstrates that he can work in a team after some adjustment time, and he gets his own antagonist (Monoma) who we all root against! This makes us closer to his character, as in a way we have a common enemy.

Then obviously the single battles are super interesting, his one against Uraraka especially turning people to his side. Since Aizawa, who as an audience we trust after his actions at the USJ, backs up Bakugou's actions, we accept them as the right thing to have done. Especially since Bakugou later calls Uraraka "not fragile", demonstrating that he can respect people and actually isn't as discriminatory as his earlier actions against Deku might lead one to believe. Everything about this fight is pure gold.

The rest of his fights are also very interesting, so let me go off on a little tangent. He's the only person to 1) be uninjured by the end of the festival (he did win tho so...) and 2) he's the only person to win all of his fights by forcing his opponent into submission. He knocks out Uraraka and Kirishima, goes to knock out Tokoyami but has him give up instead and then knocks out Todoroki! His fights are so much more violent than the others, who are primarily trying to win by pushing their opponent out of the ring or by immobilising them, which could make him come across as more aggressive (which he is). But it actually works for his character considering the way he demonstrates respect is by giving his all, therefore in order to show he cares about these fights he has to go for absolutely decimating the person against him.

Also, interesting side note to all that, out of our main three festival contenders, Bakugou is the only one who actually needs to use the festival for its intended purpose: impressing scouts. Todoroki, as the son of Endeavour, is already known throughout the hero community as a promising young talent, and could even get the No2 hero to coach him if he so wished. Deku even says himself that he doesn't necessarily need to get scouted when All Might is already teaching him. Out of the three Bakugou has the most incentive to actually show off here, no guilt/baggage required.

Anyway blah Stain arc blah. Bakugou picks Jeanist to intern with, which many might think makes him shallow. Their quirks are in no way similar and their images are almost diametrically opposing, and Bakugou only chose him because he's such a highly ranked hero. However, I believe the creators crafted this pairing in order to convey how good of a future hero Bakugou promises to be. BJ, in these episodes, is all talk. He's such a superficial hero that, in order to rectify Bakugou's foul personality, he gives him a haircut. He demonstrates the arrogant nature that Stain hates so much. Meanwhile, Bakugou ignores him and is still arrogant in his own way, obviously, but not for anything other than his own pride. He, when you break it down, spends all of his time working towards a genuinely good goal, just to prove to himself that he's worthy- no desire for fans or fame in there, he wants success but isn't actually looking for any of the perks that come with it. This, imo, makes him better than BJ. Also, Bakugou never actually says he is working with BJ due to his rank and could be doing it because their quirks botha require so much time, practice and effort.

Okay, so, now for the final exams. This is where I decided he was my favourite. He works with Deku etc and proves to the audience that he can work with him and won't necessarily become a villain, plus All Might lets loose a little and proves he too can be violent and mean.

What I really love is about ep24 s2 is actually the bit that makes a lot of people chuckle: where Bakugou bites AM's hand. This kid has been giving his absolute all, putting every ounce of strength into beating his idol, because, lbh, his self worth depends on his success here, until he literally cannot raise his arms to punch anymore. And yet, he still refuses to go down, despite every odd against him. Something about that tenacity is just so incredible to me.

It's almost 1am, let's have another break, shall we?

Idk I thought it was funny when it came onto my dash.

Btw, it's now I wish I knew how to hide most of a post lololol.

Season three is just Baku's season, ngl. Like,,, so many of his Stans got their start here, and it's not hard to tell why. A big reason why Bakugou felt irredeemable was because he had no reason to be so mean, but the narrative makes up for that by then putting him through so many bad experiences.

There's been a million metas on why he's so perfect in this season, and this is already abhorrently long, but ah well.

Okay so he's captured by the League through no fault of his own. As the audience when we find out Bakugou is missing we immediately think he's done the dumb thing and gone off on his own, but it's quickly revealed that he's already been kidnapped. Tokoyami is also taken, cementing that the LoV are looking for kids with some villainous feature, but also showing that their perception of what makes a child villainous is skewed, since we know Tokoyami is good.

At the hideout Baku is entirely restrained and silent, so clearly against his will. If we remember every other time he's been restrained (so goddamn many) we'll think back to the Sludge Villain, finding out Deku had a quirk, after his *win* against Todoroki and his internship with BJ. In this way, it's obvious to tell that this is all a Bad experience for him, as those were all very negative times in his life. There's no way he'll join them.

None of the pros even consider it a possibility. Aizawa defends him against the press (and, once again, we like Aizawa! So we trust him) and none of his classmates think he could be evil, they're all primarily concerned for his safety. Even BJ, who insinuated that Baku could easily become a villain, doesn't appear to believe he'll turn down that path.

Also Baku is pretty cool when he fights of the villain like I'm ngl.

And then, when he sees All Might? And his face screws up? With his lip trembling? It's undercut with a joke but he's so obviously just a scared/relieved kid in that moment and it's gut wrenching to remember that.

It's really getting late and I'm at 11% here so speed round through the provisional licence exam.

He can tell Shindou is two faced

Even though he's blunt he's still got the instincts and smarts of a hero

The class looks up to him

Aizawa has a lot of favouritism for this child, y'all, how did I not notice this?

His failure here is intrinsic to his character growth as it means he hits absolute rock bottom and we can move onto:

Deku Vs Kacchan 2

Where to even start. The guilt and pain he experiences has made me tear up several times just from thinking about them, and that GODDAMN VOICE CRACK AS HE YELLS nope it hurts too bad.

It's sort of the culmination of every emotional issue Bakugou has exhibited throughout the series. He can't find self worth without constant praise and pressures himself to be unimaginably perfect, to a self destructive point. He has no support system in place to help him with these issues. His anger stops being repetitive/funny/annoying and is finally, clearly shown to be more damaging to himself than to anyone else, as he feels the only way he can deal with his stress and hurt is by lashing out at those who try to help him.

In this fight we also learn why Deku, even though he's Baku's victim, still looks up to him so much. And the whole dynamic is so perfect I might cry rn.

I am annoyed, though, that further than that Baku's mental health has been pretty much entirely ignored for 200 manga chapters. Probably my only complaint about him.

At an entirely selfish level, I can relate to Bakugou. Obviously I'm not a teenage boy with explosion powers who bullies people in order to feel any self worth, but the high standards for himself? The pain at any failures? Being told through childhood how great you are only for it to be torn away in your teens? That's all so painfully relatable to me, and so I feel an even deeper connection with his character.

One last picture to finish off:

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mrm64 · 3 years

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hello! i know it's a bad idea to engage in any shipping discourse but for the sake of constructive criticism, i asked an sns shipper if she thinks there's atleast potential in ss if ever sakura had that capacity to stand up to sasuke and if she wasn't as much fixated on him during shipuuden and the war arc. i even brought up the wasted opportunity of sasuke vs sakura that was shown in the game. the sns shipper gave a very structured and well-versed answer and i do agree with some of her points. i'm not even anti-sns and i understand the support this ship gets. but this person really hates sakura. so her answer to my question if ss has potential is straight up NO. hate is an understatement. she explicitly said she DETESTS sakura and ss xD. granted, her hatred is valid since sakura's writing is very flawed and inconsistent. what i didn't like was when she said why am i trying to change sakura's personality (her standing up to sasuke whether physically or verbally) when "she's constantly on heat when he's around". gosh, i really wanted to retaliate here and say it's called freakin character development. i mean, that's what she's mainly hated for right? the fact that she's obsessed and a pushover when it comes to sasuke. having that change especially during the war arc doesn't mean she's out of character, it means development. but gah, sakura haters are really hard to argue with so i just stayed silent.

to briefly summarize, her main point of argumentation is that sakura was toxic to both naruto and sasuke. sasuke's relationship with naruto is more defined than whatever he had with sakura. she brought up ss's pt.1 moments and said that sasuke would do the same to naruto, if not even better. as for naruto's case, sakura was a mean bitch and was so unfair to him throughout the series. simply put, even if sns has questionable elements, they are more organic and healthy than sasusaku.

this got me thinking. between sasunarusasu and sasusaku, despite both having toxic elements, i think the reason why there are relatively more sns shippers is because there's balance. compared to sakura, sasuke has shown more consideration towards naruto and we all know naruto cares for sasuke just as much and he isn't afraid to stand up to this guy.

idk what i'm even trying to ask here. i guess i'm just ranting lol. i've always seen your comments in youtube vids defending sakura and ss and i know you have an extensive knowledge of the naruto manga in general. you could only imagine how shocked i am when i found out you're a male. it's really rare to find someone like you. :)

anyways, i just feel so disappointed and pressed lmao. ss shippers couldn't catch a break from haters. like yea, some of us know it has shit writing in the canon and explanations regarding their relationship in the series is very limited. i already accepted the fact that they are underdeveloped and was borderline toxic. but then, between kishimoto's pitiful inability to write female characters properly and SP's biased treatment towards sasusaku plus the manga's main narrative focusing on naruto and sasuke, i just feel like it's kinda unfair for antis to shit on ss shippers when in reality, most of us just hold onto it because of nostalgia. most sasusaku shippers came to be when they were very young. i even found comments saying they started shipping them when they were 6 or 7. in my case, i was 12 lol.

it's kinda unfair since sns has the upperhand bcoz the series is mainly about them. naruhina has retcons and SP and what does ss have? small pt.1 moments, headcanons, fanons and to top it off SP's biased ass shitting on it. the ss fandom isn't perfect and has its fair share of immature stans as well, but i'm still glad that didn't stop authors and artists from making content. ss has got some of the best fanfictions, fanarts and doujinshis. i just wished antis won't attack them as much.

anyways, i'm not even asking a specific question. i just ranted. i just needed to get this out of my system. sorry for that 😅

Hey! It's been a long while since I got asks like this lol! Once tumblr went all anti-nsfw a few years ago, we all kinda migrated to Twitter for our SS/Anime cravings tbh but I'm glad and flattered you decided to ask me on my thoughts! :)

I won't write long as again, tbh, I'm kinda retired from debating/arguing with antis on things of SS/Naruto/Etc (unless I'm simply too triggered to let it go lol. You've already probably seen my long Sakura video so I won't go too much into details of what I already covered with Sakura's character. But to answer you, I'll keep it to the point.

It's ok of course to say Kishi's writing is flawed, I mean he is human and we know Naruto has holes. Every manga/story does of course. When it comes to SS, I personally bring it to this: Sasuke and Naruto's relationship is NOT Sasuke and Sakura's relationship. And that's (imo) ok. Sasuke and Naruto obviously have a bond only they have. Both lonely and orphaned, rivals with each other, haters to brother, you know it all. But Sakura is different. She's simply a normal, head-strong and caring girl. Kishi wanted to write a normal girl, and he did a darn well good job, because just like normal girls (or people in general), they're imperfect. That's why she first appealed to me.

Anyway, to the point, SS is pretty easy to follow. Sakura likes Sasuke....what's the problem? Where's the toxicity, lol. Sure she fangirls over him as a 12 year old girl, but again, Sakura is normal. Most girls I knew that age did the same thing. Most BOYS I knew were super...*cough* ready to be with girls (*cough cough*, puberty, everyone, *cough*). Sasuke is cool and confident. Sakura lacked confidence, so naturally she was drawn to Sasuke. Sasuke at first found her annoying (as he did with Naruto too) but as the became a team, she bonded. SS' bond is NOT NSN's bond. SS's bond is built upon a simply caring basis. Sakura always cared for Sasuke, and Sasuke always was protective of Sakura. Forest of Death, Sand Invasion, etc...add in the angst of Shippuden (nobody can tell me one was better than the other during Shippuden, Sasuke was 'bout to axe everyone while in darkness lol), blank period bonding, and then Boruto. There it is in SIMPLE terms.

As far as "standing up" to Sasuke...not sure where this person is coming from....again, NSN is NOT SS....Sakura has stood up to Sasuke at times. In the FOD where she indirectly called him a coward, when she pleaded with him to not fight in the Prelims and threatened to tell the proctors of the curse mark, trying to stop him from leaving Konoha., etc. If she was a "doormat", she would have said "Ok Sauske, you do whatever you want, it's all ok my love!" That was chapter 3 Sakura. A LOT of haters can't move beyond that chapter tbh...moving on. The main thing is, she wasn't STRONG enough to stop him by FORCE. She wasn't written to. Sure I woulda liked some angsty moments of them fighting, TRUST ME, you already know. But Kishi wanted the fighting to mostly be between Naruto and Sasuke, as most battle Shonen go. It's Goku and Vegeta, Deku and Bakugou, you name it. She was written to LOVE him unconditionally. And despite Kishi's misses here and here, it's clear as day to many people that they do indeed, love each other. Sarada is a product of years of redemption, forgiveness, and understanding between SS (which is....literally some of the themes of Naruto....Zabuza...Haku...Gaara...Pein...Obito....list goes on...).

And of course Naruto and Sasuke's relationship got more spotlight. They're essentially the Shonen "duo" like I explained before with Goku and Vegeta. It's a common tope which can be a bit annoying imo since other characters get shafted, but they're gonna be seen more by the public. At the end of the day, Kishi modeled NSN after his relationship with his BROTHER....that was one of Naruto's main story plots. AGAIN, OF COURSE it's gonna be pushed and seem like it's more "balanced"...it's a battle Shonen, not a love story lol. The love stuff is sprinkled in. This isn't a Shojo. If it was, SS would be the main focus (or...I guess NSN if Kishi WANTED to go that route).

So to finish off, you're right with the SP thing. But it can't be helped. If people wanna say NSN has more "development", let them. At the end of the day, they're shown more to the viewers because they're the Goku and Vegeta of Naruto. They push the narrative, not a romance. They're Kishi's go-to boys. They're the essential main character and rival. It's nothing new. But you know what else? They're. NOT. A. COUPLE. SasuSaku is, and again, romance is SPRINKLED in. It's N O T a Shojo and not the main focus. Honestly...the arguments that NSN shipper used are a bit weak knowing full well that SNS represent Kishi's brother and himself.

I mean...tldr, I could just say "Kishi and his bro are Naruto and Sasuke. SO nah bro, NSN has no romantic development. I wasn't meant to lol."

Typed longer than I thought, but I hope this helped! At the end of the day, ship SS in peace. We have an amazing fandom for the most part with wonderful content and we ain't stopping anytime soon :)

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