#blame that friggin ova

[bittertomato]

Cause I’m following pato’s trend Amanda 1-15 :3

LSDFJKLDSFJSDFLJ OK

1. how long have i known about them

So before I started watching LWA one of my friends told me to look forward to a few things, like Constanze’s mecha and Amanda’s “Dark Souls tier fighting sequence.” So I knew of Amanda before I started the first episode sometime in late May.

I feel kind of bad because I ended up skipping episodes 15-18 because I wanted to jump straight into Diana wearing pants XD

2. whether or not they’ve ever made me cry

Nah.

3. whether or not i have any merchandise/objects with them

Only the LWA Chronicles book unfortunately. There’s no nendo for Amanda either.

4. what about their personality i like

She seems like an aloof bad girl but she’s actually really sweet. Not only was she worried about Akko when Akko was missing, but she also felt bad for bluntly mentioning Akko never coming back and upsetting Lotte. And compared to Diana’s uptight nature, Amanda’s super chill.

5. what about their backstory makes me emotional

I’m actually not super knowledgable about what information Trigger gave about her. If I remember correctly, she’s rebelling against her family by doing so poorly in Luna Nova? Or did she attend Luna Nova just to get away from her family’s expectations? I forget.

Either way, sucks that she feels the need to act out just to spite her family. Shame on them.

6. the moment of theirs that made me the saddest

In the Satou Keisuke manga, she took the entire blame for stealing the test results so that Akko wouldn’t get in trouble. I guess that’s less sad and more admiration. I can’t really think of a specific moment that made me sad XD

7. the moment of theirs that made me the happiest

Phew.

8. something about them that made me laugh

Her friggin weird ass tulip hair.

9. my favorite canon outfit of theirs

THE APPLETON SUIT.

10. my favorite moment with them in canon

Gotta be the entire episode 17.

11. my favorite relationship they have with another character

She and Akko are good bros. I’d like some more direct interaction with Hannah though.

12. what i like about the way the fandom portrays them

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone get her character entirely wrong, so at least characterization is good. Also she’s so often in pants yes.

13. what i dont like about the way the fandom portrays them

Sometimes fandom goes way too overboard with the butch to the point where there seems to be a “male role” assigned to her character. Which is fine if it was headcanoned as transitioning, but I don’t often see any tags indicating being trans.

No I’m totally not thinking about that one art of Amanda as a cis guy.

Though for the most part, fandom’s alright with Amanda imo.

14. what i liked about the way canon portrayed them

The truant delinquent with a heart of gold? Good. Also GIRL. IN. SUIT. Also she can sword fight. Canonically, yes. Like damn.

15. what i dont like about the way canon portrayed them

Amanda seemed more... risque in the OVA. But it is part of her character, so that’s less of a complaint and more of a personal preference thing. I didn’t like most of what the OVA did tbh.

#tomato replies #cam #i said i was going to wait til i went home #but i'm feeling better now #cwjhunt

[lethesomething]

Bakugou and his dads

Still not a dream daddy post.

Midoriya is far from the only character who gets a lot of mentoring help throughout the BnHA series. So let's talk about Bakugou for a(nother) moment, shall we?

I don't know what it is about middle school in Japan, but it seems to really suck? In every high school anime I watch, all the drama always happens in middle school, and the teaching staff is highly lax, if not completely irresponsible. They certainly didn't do much to quell a young Bakugou's more violent tendencies, or help a young Midoriya with what is very obviously a bullying problem. It's fairly safe to say that until he goes to UA, Bakugou basically lacks in authority figures, which is one (not all) of the reasons he got to act as bad as he did.

Since the start of the series, he's gotten a bit better. So let's examine his dads (and one mum).  

How to contain an explosion

The first time we see an actual authority figure reign in Bakugou, is when he hits UA. And in this case you can take that quite literally.  

That person is, of course, Aizawa. Now I friggin love Aizawa because he is one of the most underrated characters in the series and I will shout that to the rooftops for all eternity but also, Aizawa is, for his students and specifically for Bakugou, a constant source of lowkey support. His teaching method is very much hands-off, letting his students make mistakes and figure out solutions for themselves, which seems to be the go-to for all anime mentors everywhere, but his support is definitely there. Because, and this is important, he looks beyond posing. Beyond attitudes and images. He has reason to, of course. Aizawa looks and acts like a drunken hobo half the time, but he is actually one of the better teachers and heroes as UA. He knows a thing or two about appearances.

And honestly, it is very much needed. UA and the entirety of the story are, remember, utterly brutal to Bakugou and his self-esteem. It's a pretty classic 'break him down before you can build him up' sort of theme. But Aizawa is not part of this. He restrains the kid exactly twice. Once, when he was about to (possibly) murder Midoriya, and a second time when he was blatantly breaking UA rules. Aizawa does not belittle Bakugou, he does not fear him and most of all, he does not underestimate him.

He knows him, advises him. He defends him.

He will scold him, but mostly he has a certain amount of respect for the kid. He trusts him.

I think for Bakugou that is incredibly important. Because Aizawa is someone he respects. Here is a pro hero who has taken the time to get to actually know him.

Aizawa is someone who puts down clear boundaries and then gives him the freedom to stay within them. Whether out of disinterest or fear, that middle school teacher way back in the first episode wasn't even trying to stop him from hurting Midoriya. That sort of shit would not fly in Aizawa's class. But he's also not going to lay it out for him.  He trusts that Bakugou will, in fact, sort himself out. Once your core is on the right track, the rest will follow.

We are shown, in a very real way, that this is how you get the best results with Bakugou. Horikoshi does this by showing us how NOT to do it. For instance, while Best Jeanist certainly has the intentions and the authority as a Pro Hero to mentor him, he goes about it all wrong.

Because what he does is exactly that: micromanage, completely make over the outside, not the inside.

You can't just expect the kid to change his entire being like that. Certainly not because it's fairly clear that Best Jeanist, well-meaning as he is, is not exactly trying to understand Bakugou.

Manga spoilers under the cut

In a way, Best Jeanist is allowing himself to be led by the image of Bakugou on that podium at the Sports Festival. The same image the League uses when they decide to kidnap the kid. The very same one, also, that causes everyone else to be really worried that the villains now have an Evil King of Explodo Kills in their ranks. And Aizawa shuts them the hell down.

I love that scene, because it's the friggin second time that Aizawa has to stand up and defend Bakugou's character and intelligence against people who misinterpret it from his attitude. It's the scene that shows, again, how much better Aizawa understands this kid than almost everyone else, and it has far reaching consequences. One: it gives Bakugou hope while he sits as a hostage in the League of Villains headquarters.

Look at that reaction. He was hoping, expecting even, that Aizawa would act like this. Because he *knows* deep down that Aizawa trusts him and considers him decent at heart. He's not about to let that man down.

Two: it is also this scene that is later brought up by his parents.

  The Bakugous

Let's talk about them for a minute. Because while Bakugou's problems run deep, he does have two caring parents. Sadly, both of them are badly equipped to deal with a kid like him. It's hard enough to raise a rebellious teen who hangs out with the wrong friends. Now imagine if that teen could literally burn down the house if he had a bad day.

We're shown that his mother has his general disposition, turning any conversation between the two into a shouting match. His father, meanwhile, is a bit too mild of a character to stand up to his son. One lacks attitude, the other lacks authority and you can imagine this brewing and festering for YEARS, making his home life less than ideal. In the words of All Might, they're dysfunctional.

Which doesn't mean they're bad people. It's fairly obvious to me that they love their son.

It's interesting to note that they realize their issues, are even willing to own up to them, in a roundabout way. Specifically his mother is adamant about getting what's best for her son. She knows he's been spoiled. She is very aware that not many people in his life have really tried to get under Bakugou's skin the way Aizawa seems to be able to.

She probably also realizes, even if she doesn't put it that way, that she and her husband have not been capable of providing him with whatever it was he needed to grow, to calm down, to find some form of inner peace. They're literally putting him in the hands of Aizawa and the UA staff, in the hopes that they can do what the Bakugous themselves couldn't. That they'll understand him.

So let's talk about All Might

Speaking of understanding Bakugou. You can't really talk about BnHA without involving All Might somewhere, because he's at the core of so much of the plot.   For Midoriya he is the hero that saves everyone and never gives up, while for Bakugou he's the hero that always wins. He's the big symbol of peace for half the cast, for others he's a rival, a prize, the only worthy hero or the only one worth killing, you name it. All Might is a canvas upon which other people project their own dreams and insecurities. But most importantly: he's Bakugou's hero, and the one who chose Midoriya as his successor. And once Bakugou realizes that, being the smart AF kid he is, it becomes a major source of pain for him.

So let's say that Bakugou's relationship with All Might is… complicated.

You see, mhile, Aizawa and Bakugou can sort of be cold and distant and Tsun As All Hell at each other, All Might is a very different sort of teacher/father figure. He's generally a softer, remarkably gentle person, even as a hero. He's warmer than Aizawa. He has trouble being stern and his standard mode is 'comfort. There's a reason his slogan is 'It's alright now'.

That is hard for someone like Bakugou, who is averse to touch, who is scared of emotion, to deal with.

But All Might’s demeanour translates into the way he teaches, too. He cares a bit Too Much. Which is lovely, but not always practical? I hate to say this, but he's terrible at being a responsible adult and if this wasn't a ridiculous shounen universe school, he'd have been fired by now.

For instance, he fails more than once to stop exercises that have gone WAY out of hand. From the first Villains vs Heroes exercise where Midoriya squares off against Bakugou, to things like the OVA above. Literal zombies have taken over a forest and Aizawa's all 'yeah we should get them out now' but then All Might persuades him to just let it go on as a 'survival exercise'. Everything turns out alright, of course, but you can't always rely on the power of shounen to assume your students will survive every time. All Might doesn't even stop the after curfew fight between Midoriya and Bakugou until it's run its course. He does this, of course, because he wants them to process their feelings and all that.

And again, it works. For the hero and the person of All Might, this was probably the right decision. But for a teacher, two kids sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night to beat each other up is a 'stop immediately' sort of thing, not a 'wait until they've opened up their hearts to each other' situation.

I don't know if it's the innate wisdom of All Might, like he just knows these kids that well, or if he's just lucky that his plans keep working out for the best. But the series does make it very clear that All Might is a human being, with flaws. He has a lot of baggage, he’s honestly quite a mess. I can't… really blame him for this.

This man is a pretty amazing character, who has been going through a lot lately, and as such he was, understandably, very focused on Midoriya. So focused, in fact, that he failed to see the effect on Bakugou until they were already rolling on the ground having a fist/kick fight.

And Bakugou really wants few things more in life than for the people he respects to make time for him. To understand him. For Bakugou, All Might's singular focus on the green haired kid only made things worse.

But All Might, like so many characters in this series, grows. He's starting to get some glimpse as to what the hell is going on between those two and he probably realizes that he has some role to play in that. He's becoming a better teacher, a better father figure, which is a really good thing because honestly, Bakugou can use all the help he gets, ok? Yes, he needs someone to understand him and place boundaries, like Aizawa does. But he also needs someone to understand him and offer hugs, whether he will admit that or not.

PS: I am in BnHA hell and I have a lot of these.

#bakugou katsuki #all might #aizawa shouta #bnha #boku no hero academia #just... hug bakugou ok #someone #wear like a fireproof vest #and hug the kid #all might also #he's a pretty tragic character #he deserves better