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chroma-ki · 3 years

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Bakugou Katsuki, and the Value of Being "Genuine": An Analysis

I've been thinking about this concept for a while, and the more that I analyze Bakugou's character and his development, the more it stands out to me.

Bakugou Katsuki places a high level of priority on the idea of being "genuine", and it is often this attribute in another person that earns them his respect almost immediately.

I will go into more detail on this with a couple of particular characters, but it is this concept of "genuine-ness", or the ability of someone to be honest and truthful at face-value, that Bakugou values very highly. He is drawn to people who are "real"; people who don't put on false faces, spout false praise or put on a 'mask' for the benefit of others.

It could be argued that this thought process is hypocritical, as he himself spends much of his own time putting on a false image of confidence and bravado. However, it is something that he immediately spots in others and places in high regard.

As Bakugou is coming more to terms with knowledge about himself throughout the series, you can see him slowly beginning to surround himself with these kinds of people.

In his eyes, people that have the ability to be genuine and honest are people that he can trust - even if that genuine-ness does not always paint him in the best light. He gains immediate respect for these kinds of people.

Much of Bakugou's upbringing can be attributed to this need for honesty.

A majority of the social interaction he had been exposed to growing up can be read as 'disingenuous'. He was constantly praised for things that came to him naturally (his quirk, talent and intelligence), not things that were earned. This praise in and of itself is false, because it has no merit and compliments given in this manner - even if they are coming from a good place - serve no purpose.

For a long time, he based his own self-worth/image on these disingenuous interactions, building this idea of himself in his head that was ultimately incorrect and a disservice to himself as well as others. It was this thinking, based around a false sense of security in the social interactions he had experienced up to and through the beginning of the series, that caused him to stagnate/become complacent in his own abilities - which obviously resulted in a reality check when he came to UA and realized that the image he'd built up of himself and the world around him was false.

After his start at UA, the first two characters of note that prove themselves to be genuine with Bakugou are Aizawa and Kirishima (disregarding Deku, for the time being, who is an exception to the rule).

Aizawa is a 'no-nonsense' kind of man. He has little to no tolerance for bullshit and tells things exactly how he sees them. This is exactly what Bakugou needs in an adult/mentor figure. After the initial quirk assessment test in which the students are graded on their ability to use their quirks, Bakugou got his first interaction with Aizawa which was a straight-forward, somewhat brutal lecture about the hardships of the hero world as well as a test in which Bakugou needed to prove his worth. Then, after his fight with Deku during the battle training with All Might, Aizawa comes and out says this -

Though he is getting chastised for his poor behavior in this moment, you can see in the panel that even Deku is surprised by Bakugou’s quick acceptance of Aizawa’s judgement. In such a short amount of time, Aizawa has already gained Bakugou’s respect.

Kirishima, on the other hand, had his first interaction with Bakugou during the USJ attack while fighting together. In a moment of crisis, Kirishima immediately proved himself to be competent, as well as genuine. In fact, he starts out their conversation during the attack by chastising Bakugou and pointing out that they both made a big mistake by charging into the action.

Kirishima’s honest assessment and willingness to call him out on his bullshit immediately calms Bakugou down.

Slowly, there are more and more students from the class (Kaminari, Sero, Todoroki, Uraraka, etc.), as well as a handful of pros (All Might, Best Jeanist & Endeavor), that prove themselves to be genuine in one regard or another, earning Bakugou’s trust. As they get to know him, they show more and more that they are unwilling to deal with his attitude, point out his flaws to his face and still support him despite those things. These are the kinds of friends/support system that he needs; people who aren’t afraid to give him blatant, honest truth – even if it hurts.

Deku, however, is the one exception to this development over time – and that is simply because Bakugou has a misconceived notion of where Deku’s intentions/motivations come from in regards to himself. Essentially, he doesn’t believe any of Deku’s praise to be genuine. Instead, it just makes him angry.

Somewhere along the line (after the log incident), Katsuki stopped viewing Deku’s praise and attention as admiration and began to view it as mocking. Where, in reality, Deku was truly being genuine in his moments of praise and kindness, Bakugou saw it as disingenuous – and it isn’t until Deku vs. Kacchan 2 that Bakugou finally realizes he misunderstood Deku’s intentions.

From that point on in the series, he actively attempts to change his interactions with Deku and comes to respect him a lot more. However, a lot of his reactions to Deku at this point are based on old bad habits and reflexive tendencies toward seeing Deku as a threat, so it’s hard for him to break those habits and tear down those walls, even if he now understands Deku to be genuine.

There are also noticeable moments of Bakugou blatantly calling other’s out on their ingenuity. Shindo, during the license arc, is the most notable instance, however there have been others. He just doesn’t have the time for that shit, and I honestly don’t blame him. He’s got bigger and better things to be worried about than entertaining others who want to spout nonsense.

I think the concept of “genuine-ness” is a driving force in Bakugou’s acceptance of others due to the blatant lack of it in his younger days. He’s now spending his time trying to rewrite the way he sees others, himself and the world around him and it’s just no longer important to bother listening to anyone who can’t prove themselves to be honest and straight-forward.

As someone who is constantly trying to better themselves, whether it be physically or mentally, Bakugou simply does not have the time to deal with the ‘lip service’ (as he would put it). Either give it to him straight, or don’t give it to him at all. He’s got bigger fish to fry.

#long post #bakugou katsuki #kacchan #character analysis #bnha #mha #my hero academia #bakugou #seriously this post turned out way longer than intended #but he is worth talking about

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class1akids · 3 years

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While seeing 2nd holder being Almost!Bakugou is more exciting at least than the last couple of weeks, I just want to remind everyone that the fandom is intrigued by him only because he resembles our!Bakugou - a character we’ve spent a long time being invested in and learnt to root for.

And whatever almost!Bakugou’s deal is (ancestor, or alternate universe Bakugou Ni. Katsuki or Same-Face cosplayer of on the nose parallel), the attention he gets is all earned by our!Bakugou. His story is relevant mostly in relation to our!Bakugou.

Because this dude is dead and as a character, his development is for all purposes is done (while our!Bakugou is dealing with a ton of shit somewhere out there and I frankly want to see what he’s up to!!!) And this is why I’m really getting worn out by the 7-quirk OFA plot.

Long rant under the cut.

We are treading water in Vestige-World, with Deku’s new dead friends. They are not characters we are invested in, because in order to do that, we need to spend time with them and watch them struggle and change and learn and grow. But that’s not feasible within the span of the story - so we just get a short-hand explanation of their history - but they have no depth and only very surface personality.

Banjo is the loud Good Guy. Nana is the hot thighs Good Guy who happens to be Shiggy’s granny. En is the quiet Good Guy. First is the original Good Guy who looks like Shiggy. 4th is the Good Guy with the scar. 2nd is the tsundere, almost!Bakugou Good Guy. 3rd is the BFF to second Good Guy. Like the seven fucking dwarves.

In the end, they don’t really have distinct motivations. All these supposedly “randomly” chosen people are good and heroic and they do their best and now that AFO somehow pulled them out of the core of OFA, they sit around on their cushy chairs, breaking themselves to be helpful to their cute little kuhai.

Because it is all so shallow, Deku gets no development from it either. We are visibly trying to speed through this thing so much that smokescreen is unlocked off-screen, Deku learns everything in a week (undermining everyone else’s quirk learning curves)- but there is no process, no learning, no struggle, no change.

Sure, there is a change of design into Badass!Bunny (Mirko still wears it better), but how did the vestiges IMPACT Deku? What did he learn other than new skills? What perspective did he gain?

It feels like Deku is the empty cup, they keep pouring their skills into, and he just stands there as always, with eyes wide, as our one-way mirror into vestige!world, which itself is just a bunch of asspull, make-it-up-as-we-go-along type of lore.

Deku has very little agency in this OFA-business. Things happen because of external factors: because of “singularity”, because AFO tried to take it, because the vestiges decide to “show up”, because First gives a pep talk to 2nd and 3rd. They give him live instructions on how to use the new toys, so he’s not even figuring anything out. Ironically, it feels less and less like Deku’s quirk and more like OFA Hivemind using Deku’s body.

And because obviously the objective is just to give Deku more powers, well the powers themselves are also under-developed and uninteresting.

In BNHA-universe, quirks are established as physical abilities with limits. They require a limited resource, or have a downside or they are on a timer. No power is limitless.

Yet the OFA-extras don’t seem to have any of these things.

Black Whip is the worst offender. We don’t know what resource it uses, it has no timer, it can sprout from any body part, its strength is not connected to the strength of the wielder, yet it is apparently strong enough to keep restraining a Muscular level guy - it doesn’t even disappear after manifestation even though it’s not corpoeral. Like, BW has absolutely no limits.

It’s only known parameter is: whatever Horikoshi wants to draw.

Float is another outrageous quirk. Everyone else’s flight requires a resource, an active effort, or a trade-off between flying and fighting. Float is just a limitless air-movement with no downside or timer that completely leaves Deku’s arms and legs free to fight. And is a mostly passive ability? I guess? We don’t know... But it sure doesn’t look complicated since Deku unlocked and used it instantenously with no problems.

Danger Sense - I had so much hope for Danger Sense because finally a quirk that could have been troublesome, stretching Deku’s mental limits and teaching him something about trying to do everything by himself. While in the raid Deku blacked out from Danger Sense, within one week it developed into a power that can be used basically the same way as Sir’s prediction (which was on limited timer) to evade opponent’s move and also as a long-distance police emergency scanner to locate more danger. No downsides - no mental strain - no confusing input into the fight.

Smoke Screen - ok, we know nothing about this one either, other than it’s like BW - makes something out of nothing.

So here we are now. Deku spending time with his under-developed dead friends and using a bunch of extra quirks that he got as free candy. It’s all fight mechanics. Where are the emotional stakes???

7-quirk OFA undermined the uniqueness of characters like Sero, Froppy (BW), Uraraka (Float), Jirou, Shoji (Danger Sense), like we said it would. It shifted story-time from the characters we are invested in, and the bonds we care about, to have Deku interact with his under-developed and uniformly Good Guy dead friends. It gave him more powers, but none of it feels earned. He’s not challenged either by the power or the history.

There is no sense of accomplishment like there was when Deku figured out Full Cowl, or when Bakugou got his new explosion, or when Todoroki finally pushed his limits to get flashfire.

I’m not saying there was never potential in this plot. The vestiges could have challenged Deku more - some of them could have been a bit more grey (maybe 2nd will be just a bit), the powers could have been more challenging with more downsides, with bigger off-sets. Having so many people in his head could have stretched Deku psychologically.

But Vestige-land feels like a shiny, boring suburb where everyone is just so NICE and HELPFUL that it feels kind of fake.

And what did we gain? Yes, Deku got more powers and a wardrobe change, but no character development.

And what did we lose? Everything. We are losing out on seeing Deku’s friends, the meaningful bonds, their struggles, their resolve.

I’m sorry, but I’m a 1000 times more invested in seeing Bakugou and Todoroki (especially Todoroki! OMG! what an untapped drama potential) and Momo, and Mina and hell Aizawa, Shinsou - they all came away with so much pain and unfinished business. And the League - Dabi, Tomura, Toga ... so much potential.

Instead, we are getting an - what feels like - obligatory MC arc that tries very hard to pretend that Deku is the only hero left in the world (when we know that there is no way the others are not out there doing their best, and if they aren’t, that’s because some stupid plot asspull) who will fix everything by himself.

Because it’s blatantly untrue. We’ve spent years learning that there are other heroes who can and will step up when they need to, all the class, most of the pros, other students... I’m feeling such a whiplash and deep disappointment every time I open a new chapter with this peddling of the “new symbol! Deku stuff”.

And no cutesy fucking lunch-boxes are going to mask the emptiness of this crap.

And I’m baffled by the fandom reaction. There are so many people who say that oh, finally, because Deku deserves his own arc. Sure, but doesn’t it matter what kind of arc? Wouldn’t you want to see something more meaty than “omg our boy looks so badass!!!! squeeeeee!!!!”?

I’m hoping still that it is a build-up to something more interesting and Deku’s current obsession of doing it all alone and frankly grating martyr-complex is not going to be framed as a good thing (even though it looks right now that this is totally being framed as a good thing and a Mighty Boy origin story) and will lead to some kind of failure instead that will teach Deku to learn to rely on his friends and empower them and not just try to fix everything for them, which after 300+ chapters feels pretty fucking insulting on behalf of the “side characters”.

#bnha critical #bnha meta #bnha manga spoilers #ofa critical #bnha 310 #alt!bakugou #7-quirk ofa sucks so much #sorry for the rant #just felt like i needed to get it off my chest #this plot is so half-assed #even if you love deku #wouldn't you want something more compelling for him than this?

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