#he just. was deeply intimidated by dekus character and pointed out his weakness

[prettyboykatsuki]

fang i couldn't find ur meta blog but i wanted to ask ur opinion/analysis of bakugou's "what part of her was frail" from season one against ochako if u have any <3

@fangs-animereview thought i havent posted anything on it in ages.. rip all my half-baked hxh meta posts about shounen trope subversions

i dont know if i have any particular analysis of that but i do think that scene highlights an interesting element of bkgs character which is that he is decidedly not very shallow

i think often his arrogance or projected arrogance makes his fandom image a guy who is shallowly obsessed with appearances. but i think for him to say what part of her was frail kind of speaks to the fact that the opposite is true. that bkg doesn't see people as their appearance but measures them by what they're capable of

#return to sender #people always write bakugou to be this arrogant and shallow wad which is such an interesting projection of his character #because even at the worst of his arc at the beginning #his obsession with deku didn't have as much to do with deku being quirkless as it did with deku himself #bakugou used dekus quirklessness against him but i dont believe that it was really bc of that #he just. was deeply intimidated by dekus character and pointed out his weakness #but that speaks to the fact that bakugou is an immensely good judge of character #he sees people specifically for their quality and capabilities #and ochako isnt the first or last example of this #he does this with shindo yo and accurately assessing him as a fake and shallow snake. and again #when he's talking to kirishima pointing out how his greatest strength is being a wall and encouraging him #and again in season five where he utilizes the individual talents of his team to win the training match #bkg sees people as their qualities before he sees their appearances #so this projected idea that he would care about appearances is truly very bonkers to me lol #katsuki <3 #its one of those things about bkg i love very much tbh

[mysterylover123]

Todoroki’s Relationships Analysis: Part 2: Chapters 21-44 (Sports Festival

Onward to the Sports Fest

Chapter 22-23: Midoriya 

Todoroki first takes notice of Midoriya when he overhears Iida and Uraraka gossiping about Deku’s connection with All Might. This indicates that Todoroki sees Deku as a rival initially because of his connection with the #1. As Inasa later points out, Shoto at this point in his life seems to be always looking away to something he hates in the distance. He only sees the chance to hurt his Dad, and nothing else.

Right before the Sports Festival starts, in the prep room, Shoto walks up to Midoriya and tells him he’s better than him, but that since All Might has his eyes on Midoriya, Todoroki intends to beat him.  “I feel no need to pry into that” indicates that Shoto isn’t interested in Midoriya himself at this point, but only in the prestige of defeating All Might’s protege. 

He certainly isn’t.

Midoriya accepts his challenge and Shoto’s response is hard to describe...he’s basically just calmly accepting.

In the first event, Shoto instantly gets ahead of the  crowd. Momo and Bakugou both reprimand him for his arrogance in thinking he could beat them all so easily, as both of them are able to escape his trap right away. 

Cont below the cut

Todoroki probably expected them to escape - as established before, he has respect for Momo and Katsuki’s skills. 

His gaze is still focused on Endeavor. He also froze the robots on purpose to take people out, showing a disregard for other peoples’ safety. 

He takes the time to notice Bakugou catching up to him; Bakugou then proceeds to pass him and tell him he declared war on the wrong person. Shoto looks like he may be considering that possibility - remember, at this point he has expressed respect for Bakugou’s abilities, outside of any mentor figure or connection, but not for Midoriya’s on his own. 

Like in the Provisional License Exam Arc, Shoto gets distracted by a petty fight with a potential rival and leaves himself open to fail, focusing more on his angry and resentment than on trying to win. 

And then gets taken down from behind, by someone he stopped paying attention to.  When Midoriya surpasses him (and Bakugou stays ahead of him) he looks annoyed, even angry.

And as he continues to tie with the other two, he looks a little nervous. 

When he does in fact lose, his initial response isn’t shown, but his image in the results is almost in shock. While Shoto does have a tendency to come in second (the entrance exam, the Quirk Apprehension test), he directly challenged Midoriya, and then lost to him in the first event. He probably was not expecting to actually lose to Deku in the first round. Deku surprises him here.

CAVALRY BATTLE:

Kirishima mentions that Todoroki assembled his team pretty quickly.  We already know that Shoto respects Yaoyorozu’s capabilities.

 It’s possible, however, that he only picked these three, as he said later on, because they would ‘make the strongest possible combination’. He’s definitely buying into his own assertion about not being there to make friends. 

He admits to Iida that he has a vow not to use his heat side, the first time we see him admit this to someone. 

His target is Midoriya, like most of the other teams. Deku has 10 million points, so he basically has no choice. He also probably wants to surpass him after losing to him in the first round. 

He tells Midoriya firmly that he’ll “be taking that”, challenging him about halfway through with a carefully thought out plan. 

We see that Shoto generally works well with Yaoyorozu. However, as she puts it later, she mostly just follows his orders here. He’s the boss, she’s the secondary teammate (as are Kaminari and Iida), the subordinate to his state of being in charge. 

Todoroki is kept at bay for almost the entire Cavalry Battle thanks to Midoriya exploiting his weakness. This really pisses Shoto off. He calls Deku a “bastard” for exploiting his weakness here - another sign of Shoto effectively 

His response to Deku coming at him with his fire power is one of real terror. He reflexively activates his fire side in this fit of terror. (OFA full power can bring down a building, he’s not wrong).

He’s horrified that he let his left side activate, and looks nearly traumatized afterwards. He blames Midoriya for cornering him, and corners him before lunch to explain why he won’t use his fire side.

BACKSTORY TIME

So Midoriya is the only person Todoroki has so far given the details of his backstory to. I’ve always found the question of confidence to be an important one in determining who to pair up, becuase it indicates who the character feels they can talk to about their personal problems. So far, though, Shoto hasn’t shown much warmth or fondness for Midoriya, so confiding in him here feels differently from Ochaco confiding her backstory in Iida and Deku, or Deku telling Kacchan about OFA, or even Bakugou crying in front of Midoriya on several occasions. As shown above, he begins this confidence glaring at Izuku with a “cold” sort of intimidation.

He explains his own reasoning for why he used his flame side and makes a reasonable guess, but not a correct one, about Izuku’s origin story. 

He tends to be looking away from Deku in this scene as he tells him about his origin. Looking off, as always, into the distance, at something not immediately before him. 

Here, he finally gets a little emotional and admits something tragic and uncomfortable, ending with his complete pledge. Izuku declares war right back at him, and Todoroki says basically nothing. He has no response. 

Honestly, I’m not really sure why Todoroki chooses to tell Deku his backstory. My best guess is that it’s his way of justifying holding back against him. He has an inkling that maybe that’s the wrong thing to do, but he needs to reaffirm that his tactic is correct. 

DEKU VS TODOROKI

Todoroki in general here seems genuinely scared of Deku’s power.

He’s rightfully horrified at how far Deku is willing to go (this translation is so weird). Todoroki genuinely doesn’t seem to understand at this point why anyone would go this far to win. It’s hard for him to empathize with this mindset, because he’s used to being the best and winning pretty easily.

He is not without empathy for how much pain Deku is in, of course. He apologizes for hurting him, which Deku probably interprets as condescending to him. He feels bad that his own power is hurting someone - his usual ‘apologies’ catchphrase indicating that he’s apologizing for his op-ness.

Deku calls Todoroki out for refusing to actually look at his opponent and fixating on some offscreen foe.

He still can’t seem to understand why Midoriya would do this.  To someone like Todoroki, who’s used to being able to win without having to take any real damage himself, the idea of breaking your own body to win an exhibition match is probably completely incomprehensible.

The only way he can explain it to himself is by assuming Endeavor rigged the match, once again fixating on his old man at the expense of everything else. 

As Deku gets crazier and crazier Shoto flashes back to his recital of his ‘trivial’ motivation. Deku then starts bawling Shoto out for refusing to give it his all. 

Shoto’s response to this is to tell him to Shut up and start flashing back to his own traumatic backstory. He’s overwhelmed by his ice side and starts falling apart, afraid to use his fire and aware that that might be the only way he can win. As I mentioned in my meta on his ‘Shipping Problem’, this is an issue between Deku and Shoto: Deku is very argumentative and confrontational, Shoto is not.

It isn’t until Deku says something constructive that everything changes. This reminds Shoto of something All Might said, and something his mother said. This prompts him to use his fire for the first time. 

This smile (the first time we see Shoto smile) can be read in a number of ways. Mainly, of course, a feeling of freedom, of being able to let loose. Fighting Sero earlier saw Shoto essentially just cut loose with his ice powers and nearly hurt someone. Shoto’s core fear seems to be becoming like his father and harming those around him with his power. But there is an argument that quirks demand to be used, that people need to be able to utilize their abilities. Freeing Shoto up to do so means that Izuku saves him from feeling torn about this. Even the most dangerous and terrifying powers demand their use (ie, Toga’s backstory) and repressing them mentally hurts people in BNHA. 

He  starts crying about unleashing his powers this way, as Endeavor screams his name at him and yells at him that he’s “living up to the reason he created him”. So, now that Izuku has given Shoto the words he needed to make better use of his quirk, what does he think of Deku now?

a

Well he’s not wrong. But it does seem that Shoto thinks Midoriya is crazy. Something about him just unsettles him and he can’t seem to understand what motivates Izuku to act like he does. 

However, he’s still grateful to him for his support.

He’s borderline stunned when he wins and left deeply conflicted about what to do next. He can only say that Deku distracted him from Endeavor enough that he “forgot about him”. Deku made him use his left side in order to win. He doesn’t use his fire against Iida and seems back, almost, to his old ways - winning fast with only ice and a quietly mumbled “apologies”. 

Now we come back to Bakugou. Now, Todoroki, as established before, does have some respect for Bakugou’s abilities. He isn’t completely dismissive of him. He’s not afraid of him (his face when challenging him is never as scared as he looks fighting OFA Deku), and he generally just kind of stays calm around him.

While preparing for his match, Todoroki is thinking about Midoriya’s words. He has probably been considering tactics and that he might need to use his fire to beat Bakugou, which would have led him back to considering what Deku said and his conflict with his mom.

When Bakugou bursts in, Shoto looks a little surprised but immediately goes back to contemplating his hands. Bakugou doesn’t like this and, like Deku, demands “Where are you looking?” A moment of continuity between the two rivals.

Shoto asks Bakugou all about Deku, showing some interest in learning more about the guy and maybe even some guilt for how Deku went out.

Bakugou kicks the table over and demands that Todoroki pay attention to HIM, not his family problems or Deku or anything. This is a Shoto analysis post, not a Bakugou one, so I won’t go into Bakugou’s motives here. Shoto looks annoyed with him after he says this and even a little angry. 

He starts his match with a very all out ice attack. To quote from my friend ido100, about Todoroki’s fights here “Against Sero, I think the "apology" was meant to say something like "I need to flip the bastard off, and I'm sorry I have to release the rage on you".Against Bakugo, I think when what went through his mind when Midoriya encouraged him was "Why am I holding back? Endeavor doesn't matter. I'll show him. The only thing that matters is the battle!" Retaliation- "But... It's... not right. Is it?"And during the battle against Bakugo, the comment of the ice being more focused indicates his mind was cleared more into the battle. “

Shoto conitnues to try fighting with only ice, enraging Bakugou when he refuses to fight him with fire. 

Aizawa points out that he’s basically lost his energy after fighting Deku. He’s not sure of anything anymore, not sure whether he should use only ice or use both. Before he was unstoppable because he had a clear goal. Now he’s had to compromise his plans and he just can’t go all out either way. 

This line is really interesting - Todoroki didn’t feel guilty about not giving Midoriya an all out fight at first, even though both demanded as much from him. His mindset has changed. He doesn’t suspect Bakugou of being paid off by Endeavor. Instead, he feels bad about hurting him.

Midoriya cheers him on from the stands and for a moment Todoroki decides to  go all out and use his fire. However, the flashbacks to his past return and in the end he puts the fire out and loses, devastating Bakugou.  A part of it may indeed be just as Bakugou fears, that Todoroki doesn’t think he’s a big enough threat to merit an all out fight - after all, he’s a LOT more intimidated by MIdoriya, despite Bakugou throwing freaking Howitzer impact at him. 

Afterwards, he’s still thinking about Deku and why All Might took notice of him. Based on Deku’s...advice?...he decides to go make peace with his mom so he can be a better hero in the future.

Sports Fest Shoto starts off madly resolved on winning with just his ice side. He notices Midoriya as All Might’s protege and challenges him, he acknowledges Momo and Bakugou’s strength to some degree, but he’s mostly preoccupied with screwing over Endeavor. He’s forced out of that sort of fog when Deku starts going crazy and berating him. He feels free to let loose for a little while, but remains conflicted and ends up hurting Bakugou’s feelings. The arc leaves him in a state of confusion and ambivalence.

#shoto todoroki #tododeku #todobaku #todomomo #bnha sports festival #sports festival arc