#i have a doc devoted solely to their relationship and so i've deduced probably beyond what horikoshi even meant to write

[spacejunk-tm]

I read last chapter and you write them as friends? Didn’t Kacchan bully him? I love your fic (sorry for bad english!)

your english is fine! i hope i will answer your question. 

Bakugou did bully Midoriya, I do not deny or defend that. I maintain my position that Bakugou and Midoriya were friends without parental guidance. 

What I mean by “without parental guidance” is that I believe that Bakugou and Midoriya’s parents had little to nothing to do with the fact that Bakugou and Midoriya are childhood friends.

I’ll explain. 

It is very common in bkdk fics and fanon to say that Mitsuki (Bakugou) and Inko (Midoriya) were once classmates or friends and that is why their sons were close. Although this is a nice theory, I’ve never seen a shred of canon evidence to support it. 

This has a lot to do with headcanons and my interpretation as a writer and reader so I can’t claim any real knowledge as my position is almost just as much fanon as the ones I just mentioned. 

Why do I think that? 

Well, let’s go all the way back. 

(from BNHA chapter 9)

As a writer and reader, this part really caught my attention. Midoriya flat out states why he and Bakugou were friends: 

Proximity. 

It would have been easy (perhaps easier) for Horikoshi to say that their moms/parents were somehow involved with each other and that meant they had to play or be around each other. It would have added to the power imbalance and control Bakugou had over the situation when he became a bully. 

But Horikoshi didn’t. Midoriya claimed they were friends due to the fact that they “grew up in the same neighborhood”. 

In fact, in almost all the mentions of Midoriya’s relationship with Bakugou, there is no mention of their parents that I can recall. 

Now, I don’t know if you’ve had to dive into a lot of BNHA lore and breaking apart certain Japanese systems along with the general grid and knowing where characters are from, I have (can’t say I’ve done the best job but I just write fanfic so oh well) My point is that Bakugou and Midoriya both grew up in the same houses, same neighborhood, of Shizuoka Prefecture. Which, for those that want to save a google trip, has a population of 3.7 million people in a density of about 485 people per kilometer (squared). For those that don’t wanna do math: it’s a lot of people. It’s about the population of Los Angeles, USA. 

But you might ask yourself: Road, why is the population important in taking into consideration why they are childhood friends?

Because it means there were a lot of kids growing up. They weren’t the only two kids in the entire playground. They weren’t the only two kids prowling around. They had other options. 

And I can hear some people already yelling about how Midoriya just stuck to Bakugou like glue and I’m going to shut you down right now and state that it’s (painfully) obvious that both Midoriya and Bakugou were in daycare long before quirks were involved and an imbalance took place. 

There is a certain element in that, yes, Midoriya did stick to Bakugou like glue. He refused to give up once on Bakugou. But again, note that Midoriya doesn’t only mention Bakugou as someone he idolizes. Bakugou is a childhood friend that Midoriya idolizes. 

Bakugou being Midoriya’s childhood friend (and, likely, best friend for them both) comes first. 

Here’s another thing: Bakugou never once denies being Midoriya’s childhood friend. He often regards Midoriya as being annoying or useless but Bakugou never denies that they were friends. He never flat out says that they didn’t have times they didn’t get along, and that they didn’t have moments where they were friendly. 

If anything, canon supports the idea that, without guidance, without quirks, Bakugou and Midoriya were friends before things went south for them. 

There are a ton of flashbacks regarding Midoriya and Bakugou’s relationship and what strikes me a lot of the time is that Midoriya and Bakugou were alone. Evidentally by choice, and playing with each other. 

As a writer, and a fic writer, I prey on this specifically because it allows for the phrase “They were once best friends” to be used and supported. Their relationship took a bad turn once everyone dehumanized them both and set a power imbalance that fed into Bakugou’s superiority complex, anger, and frustration along with pushing Midoriya down and kicking him there. 

My point is that I write them as friends that had something bad happen to them (I’d say more around age 8-14, 14 being the worst of their relationship) but they had a time where they were truly friends. Without parents telling them to get along, without outside influences, they enjoyed each other’s company and can’t deny their friendship. 

Bakugou did end up breaking a lot of that relationship, but it is that breaking that proves the depth of their relationship for me. If there was nothing, only idolization, Midoriya would not have clung to him so desperately. There has to be something to break in order for Bakugou to break it. 

tl;dr: Bakugou did bully him, but I see more into their relationship and recognize that they liked each other from an early age and sought friendship with each other before quirks or parents. Bakugou and Midoriya genuinely enjoyed/enjoy each other’s company and that is why BAL shines a light into what good must have existed before their relationship became volatile. 

#bakudeku #katsudeku #long post #analysis #meta #bnha meta #i really hope this made sense i have a killer headache but i so desperately wanted to answer #i have a doc devoted solely to their relationship and so i've deduced probably beyond what horikoshi even meant to write #but my point stands and i might be missing something #but i've never seen any evidence to suggest that they were forced to be around each other #if anything #inko would probably have tried to pull midoriya away from bakugou out of fear that he might hurt her son with his powerful quirk #and #because there are so many kids in the daycare #without them both wanting to be each others friend #their relationship would have dissolved #but it DIDNT #which means both of them had to actively seek to be the other's friend #i rest my case #i feel like a lawyer. #Anonymous #edit* #taking out a couple of mistakes i just noticed #just spelling/grammar stuff