yes, yes, yes, yes!! deku is an underdog hero in a very traditional sense but the real reason heâs an underdog has nothing to do with his quirklessness or lack of finesse, itâs because in actual hero work heâd be dead in like a week. and heâd be dead in a week precisely because heâs not pretending to uphold the values of selflessness that hero society puts on a pedestal, he actually follows them.
and this is also why deku is such a fascinating protagonist, because a job where the job is to give up your life to save others isnât only extremely unhealthy and awful, itâs also completely unsustainable. if heroes did that, they wouldâve been wiped out before they even got off the ground.
hence bakugo, and all might, and the reality of heroesâthe real core of hero society in bnha is defeating villains, not saving people. and thatâs not to say saving people is on the backburner, bc it obviously isnât, but ultimately the top ranking heroes and the best of all time are the ones who contribute to great, awesome battles against evil villains and defeat them. every single hero who isnât combat-oriented who is high ranking is below the top 5, and the ones who are rescue-focused donât seem to get much attention at all even if theyâre the ones who actually save the most people.
this is what stain was talking about when he condemned hero society. itâs become a popularity contest, in which battles and violence and trauma are the currency and it doesnât matter who a hero is as a person, all that matters is how many villains they can defeat. and itâs only compounded by the fact that heroes can climb the ranks by being television personalities or through merch and endorsement deals. heroes are essentially just the violent version of commercialized celebrities and deku directly opposes that by actually, genuinely embodying the values theyâre marketed to uphold, which is why stain spared him.
but, at the same time, deku canât succeed as someone who saves people if he just throws away his life at the drop of a hat. as i said, heroes would be totally useless as an organized force if thatâs how they operated. enter bakugo, who is also very fascinating in this context because bakugo embodies the drive to win in a way that conforms to the values hero society upholds perfectlyâbut heâs incredibly unpopular. his personality, because he actually embodies the selfishness (drive to win/triumph against evil) that hero society rewards, is wildly disliked by everyone (except deku, interestingly). so, despite being exactly what hero society curates, bakugo directly opposes itâhe exposes the true nature of the hero world: a society that pretends to value saving people over all else and will reject anyone who canât play pretend, even if that person embodies the actual (much less venerable) values upheld by the system.
and this is exactly why deku & bakugo need each other. they both challenge the two key gears turning the problems in the hero worldâdeku its pretending to celebrate saving people, and bakugo its ugliness and vilification of those who donât pretend. this is also why theyâre both the main characters, rather than all might and endeavor or shigaraki (or stain). only they can challenge hero society because they both are genuine, uncorrupted personifications of the two things that make a real hero (and are the principles hero society was founded on): selflessness (saving people) and selfishness (triumphing against evil).
plus theyâre learning from each other, rather than other heroes. both of their character development is uniquely catalyzed by the other, and therefore their individual forms of heroism are slowly combining into oneâthe truest form of heroism possible.
2087
andulkaphoto
kaledo-art
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
theartofmadeline
vaporwave
