yes, yes, yes, yes!! deku is an underdog hero in a very traditional sense but the real reason he’s an underdog has nothing to do with his quirklessness or lack of finesse, it’s because in actual hero work he’d be dead in like a week. and he’d be dead in a week precisely because he’s 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 isn’t only extremely unhealthy and awful, it’s also completely unsustainable. if heroes did that, they would’ve been wiped out before they even got off the ground.
hence bakugo, and all might, and the reality of heroes–the real core of hero society in bnha is defeating villains, not saving people. and that’s not to say saving people is on the backburner, bc it obviously isn’t, 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 isn’t combat-oriented who is high ranking is below the top 5, and the ones who are rescue-focused don’t seem to get much attention at all even if they’re the ones who actually save the most people.
this is what stain was talking about when he condemned hero society. it’s become a popularity contest, in which battles and violence and trauma are the currency and it doesn’t matter who a hero is as a person, all that matters is how many villains they can defeat. and it’s 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 they’re marketed to uphold, which is why stain spared him.
but, at the same time, deku can’t 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 that’s 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 perfectly–but he’s 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 it–he exposes the true nature of the hero world: a society that pretends to value saving people over all else and will reject anyone who can’t 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 world–deku its pretending to celebrate saving people, and bakugo its ugliness and vilification of those who don’t pretend. this is also why they’re 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 they’re 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 one–the truest form of heroism possible.
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