Untitled

Time for some housekeeping on the stuff I wrote:

Metas

Bakugou-centric

The influence of Midoriya and Kirishima on Bakugou’s arc

BakuDeku and the Todoroki family drama

Bakugou - Endeavor parallels

Bakugou and Aizawa - an important influence

Bakugou’s hero name

About Bakugou’s character arc

Eri’s smile and survivor’s guilt (Eri/Bakugou parallels)

Todoroki & his family family

Todoroki hero arc - symbol of what?

Canon vs Fanon Todoroki

My current Touya theory

by mysterylover123

So you might have picked up, if you’re following my posts, that I like BKDK. Katsudeku. Bakudeku. Izukatsu. Whatever you call it. Shipping Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo. I love this freaking pairing so much, but it’s always difficult to explain to people why that is. That’s why I often will point to meta, written by far more eloquent and organized people than me, to explain what about it interests me so much. So here’s a list (not comprehensive, I can’t read every BKDK meta ever written) of my favorite meta on the two’s relationship, and a shout out to my other lovely tumblr posters, organized in order of when the incident they’re covering takes place, how many spoilers there are, etc.

1. Ryokure  “Deku vs Kacchan”

https://ryokure.tumblr.com/post/147489960804/deku-vs-kacchan

Ryokure is one of my favorite BKDK meta writers - great at correcting some of the early mistranslations and analyzing most of the early arcs. The Ryokure meta only go up to about the training camp arc, and for some reason stopped after that. I picked this one as my favorite Ryokure BKDK meta, it’s a rare one that covers the Battle Trial Arc. My favorite line from the meta is the ending:  “On this point I’m like 80% sure that Mineta’s existence, Yaoyorozu‘s stupid costume (come on, she’s fifteen! it’s too early to be objectified!), etc are there so people wouldn’t think that this is shounen-ai.”

2. PunkBakugo: “Deku and Bakugo’s subconscious understanding: A Sports Festival Analysis”

https://punkbakugo.tumblr.com/post/169830270570/kacchan-dekus-subconscious-understanding-a

I’m currently rewatching the sports festival right now, and despite this being the big Tododeku and Izuocha arc, it’s pretty impressive how subtly pervasive BKDK still is in this arc anyways. This meta is very impressive, pointing out small details throughout the SF arc that showcase how central BKDK still is to the narrative, the ways in which Deku takes inspiration from BK, how BK fixates on Midoriya, and how they think in similar manners. It’s also quite well-written, and I recommend this poster if you’d like the POV of a non multi-shipper tumblr.

3. The-nysh “Episode 37 Commentary”

https://the-nysh.tumblr.com/post/165680156361/bnha-episode-37-commentary

The-nysh is another great BKDK poster, and I have at least 2 from them. The first is their very in-depth and image-heavy commentary on Episode 37 (they have another one on episode 61 that’s just as good), which provides some nice analysis of BKDK in this arc. The second is this one: https://the-nysh.tumblr.com/post/171252060116/whats-your-opinon-of-kiribaku-and-tododeku , which while it’s mostly about the poster’s opinions on the other two ships, has a few choice snippets about BKDK that I find helpful - one is also in connection with Ryokure, to quote: “Deku is such a super special case that if a fanfic has him and Kacchan in it - no matter the parings - and they don’t have some case of mutual obsession, I actually consider that OOC.” Definitely another good meta writer worth checking out.

4. Osakakitty “Vol 10 Katsudeku thoughts ramblings”

https://osakakitty.tumblr.com/post/167402985369/vol-10-katsudeku-thoughtsramblings

This one is a good analysis of the Training Camp Arc and Hideout Raid. Osakakitty has some very sweet BKDK meta and generally writes very close analysis of them, taking a more emotional stance on the pairing than some of the meta before. There’s a very raw quality to these, a feeling of reacting in time to the story as it unfolds and getting your heart broken. This one does a good job of outlining how deeply personal the Hideout Raid is to Deku, because it was Kacchan who was taken. Definitely worth a read. 

5. KiraElric’sInsanity: “What is your favorite Headcanon about Izuku”

http://kiraelric.tumblr.com/post/154543674203/what-is-your-favorite-headcanon-about-izuku

KiraElric was one of the first meta writers I encountered with BNHA, and really helped me get a grasp on the series. She has tons of great meta on the series and a really fine grasp of BKG’s character. There are lots of them worth reading, but this is one of my all time favorites because of how thoroughly in depth it is about Izuku’s feelings on the matter. Since Deku is unquestionably my favorite BNHA character, it was very important for me early on to determine who I shipped him with, how I perceived his relationships. And something about this meta helped me understand exactly why I liked BKDK so much. But if you want more of the other side of things…

6. KiraElric’sInsanity: “My Best Friend’s a Fxcking Nerd and an idiot God he pisses me Off”

http://kiraelric.tumblr.com/post/158423114578/my-best-friends-a-fucking-nerd-and-an-idiot-god 

This is BKG’s side of the coin. This meta helps contextualize a lot of BKG’s actions, in a way that made a ton of sense to me. This, and the one before it, both contain spoilers up to DVK2, so if you haven’t caught up just be aware of that. This meta does a great job of spotlighting how important Deku is as a force in BKG’s life, as someone to talk to and admit to feeling weak around, who cares about him unconditionally. These two meta together are great to read for getting an all around feel for each side of the relationship.

7. KrisPNatz “What’s in an OTP? Bakudeku”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay8TbIzMh-E

OK this one’s a video, not a tumblr meta, but it’s still an analysis on the relationship so I count it. It’s more of a funny one, joking and goofy in tone, but with a very sincere and passionate discussion of the relationship, what it means to ship something, how their interactions have evolved over time, and why the creator of the vid ships them. This one’s less analytical than the others, but still has some good insights into the duo.

8. Makeste reads BNHA: “Chapter 120 A Secret Among Three”

https://makeste.tumblr.com/post/181564960173/bnha-chapter-120-a-secret-among-three 

Makeste is my favorite BNHA liveblogger, going over the entire manga (she just posted Chapter 221 today, it’s pretty great). This is her reaction to Chapter 120, which she proclaims right away is her favorite chapter of the series. While it’s mostly a reaction post, it’s also interrupted with a few mini-essay meta on the nature of this relationship, going into some deep analysis of both characters’ feelings from a very attentive and clever reactor, whose absolute favorite character is Katsuki Bakugo. I recommend makeste to BNHA fans, the reactions are absolutely fantastic.

9. CuteIzuku “Izuku Midoriya’s Image of Victory”

https://cuteizuku.tumblr.com/post/178341507379/izuku-midoriyas-image-of-victory

This is a good meta on Deku’s classic “image of victory” comment from DVK2, going into some more depth about how Deku perceives Kacchan and what that means for the narrative. It also helps compare Deku’s perceptions of Katsuki and All Might, how Deku feels towards both, and what the differences are. It’s a nicely written piece and not particularly biased about the ship.

10. Mujoe-girl “The Way They Look at each other 

https://mujoe-girl.tumblr.com/post/148453703491/katsudeku-the-way-they-look-at-each-other

Another one that looks at both sides of the equation, parcelling out first how Deku looks at Kacchan, then how Kacchan looks at Deku, and acknowledging both sides and how they’ve changed over time. It’s pretty subtle and touches on various extreme expressions (one of my favorite things about BNHA: how expressive the characters are) from each character and what they mean. Certainly worth a read.

11. Riruru “The Choice of Wording Here”

https://rirururu.tumblr.com/post/181106272152/the-choice-of-wording-used-here-is-something-that 

OK, this one is getting into really recent manga spoilers - avoid looking over this, anime onlys. Basically this is a brief, but effective meta about Chapter 210, written after 210 came out and before the reveal about OFA. It talks about Deku’s reaction to Monoma’s dissing Kacchan, and puts it quite well exactly why this is significant to their relationship. This is a really recent development, and something that went over my head the first time I read it - certainly helped me understand more what’s going on here.

12. Makeste “The New BKDK Status Quo”

https://makeste.tumblr.com/post/184123732903/yes-the-new-bakudeku-status-quo-of-excitedly

Another one from makeste to finish us off - this one discussing the current status of BK/DK in the manga, up through Chapter 217. So again massive spoilers. Makeste, responding to a comment, talks about how the relationship is so much healthier these days, how the two have improved and how much better a friend BKG is to Deku now, post DVK2. It’s very sweet and a lovely place to end things off for now.

yesssss, my two good boys finally turning it around and starting to have the healthy relationship that I always hoped they would, and it’s finally happening, and they’re supporting each other and pushing each other and helping each other grow. and All Might is watching all :D and saying things like “you’ve got a good friend there” that sound absurd on a surface level, but he’s right though. Katsuki has not always been a good friend – has not always even been a friend, let’s be real; he was an absolute shit to Izuku for years and did and said some really fucked up things – but he’s grown and he’s changed (as shounen characters do!), and he’s becoming the person he always had the potential to be, and the more I see of that person the more proud and excited I am.

and the thing is that All Might and Izuku in particular have always been able to see that potential, and didn’t give up on him (and all the props in the world to Izuku for that, because he had every right and reason). and so yes, All Might is absolutely right, Izuku does have a good friend there now, because underneath all the scowling and bitching is someone who is

(1) treating Izuku’s secret with the gravity that it deserves and keeping it under wraps, and honestly taking it more seriously than All Might and Izuku are themselves (still can’t get over him chewing them out for discussing OFA right out in the open like six feet away from the rest of the class)

(2) worrying about Izuku enough that when his intuition told him something was up (”did something happen with One for All?”) he grumpily stomped over and made them fill him in. he didn’t have to do this; he could have simply ignored them both (”eh, it’s probably nothing”) and focused on himself. but he didn’t. I believe it was a Mr. Might in chapter 40 who said something to the effect of, “giving help even when it’s not asked for is part of what makes a true hero.”

(3) helping Izuku to stay focused on what he needs to do and constantly reminding him of what his goals are (and again, we know how seriously Katsuki takes his own goals, so him doing this for Izuku is a big deal). when are you going to make that power your own?? I’m improving, so you’d better not slouch if you want to keep up!

(4) sitting in on OFA Scooby Squad meetings and honestly being the most productive one like two minutes after he’s all caught up (I’ll talk about this more once we get up to ch 217, but both All Might and Izuku are veeeeery hesitant to talk about The AFO In The Room for obvious reasons, whereas Katsuki brings it up almost immediately, which, thank you)

(5) lastly, going out of his way to help Izuku train and try to master his new power, which is notable for several reasons:

this obviously cuts into his own free time which he could be using to eat or relax or train himself. we saw when they got back to the dorms that everyone was hanging out, and both of them were probably invited to hang out too, but Katsuki chose to train with Izuku instead, and until quite late at that (7 p.m., a mere hour before his bedtime lol)

rather than being jealous or insecure about Izuku’s new quirk, he accepts it without hesitation. like okay, so I guess he can do this now then. whatever. fucking quirks, man. wild

and lastly, branching off from there, my absolute favorite thing of all: that Katsuki is actually the most gung-ho of all three of them when it comes to Izuku’s new quirk.

unlike All Might who’s worried and hesitant and focused on training Izuku so that his new power doesn’t just come bursting out, Katsuki wants Izuku to embrace it. he wants him to bring it out! you’ve got this new quirk which is fucking sick and super powerful and apparently just the tip of the iceberg! great! bring it! own that shit! learn how to use it! don’t be afraid of it!

seriously. that last part is so, so important. ever since Katsuki realized the truth about OFA, that it was All Might’s power passed on to Izuku, he’s shifted from being afraid and resentful of Izuku’s strength to actively pushing him to become as strong as possible. “have you gotten any stronger?” “have you made that power your own yet?” he keeps asking him this. in chapter 108. in 120. in 168. and in 206. because the thing is, now that he finally understands, Katsuki wants Izuku to succeed. and perhaps even more importantly, he believes Izuku is capable. he’s never once questioned whether All Might made the right decision. despite all his tsuning around Izuku, he has faith in him. and so, when he learns about his new power, his response isn’t to worry about whether or not he can handle it; it’s to try and test it out. he’s even the one to point out, during their tea party meeting, that Izuku is the first person to unlock this shit. gives him all the credit. and he just accepts it. he believes in him. it’s your power! it’s there for you! of course you can handle it! and he has absolutely no patience with Izuku thinking otherwise. there’s actually a phenomenal amount of trust there. because Katsuki has long since learned his lesson about ever doubting him.

but I think a lot of people might not evenrealize that).I wanted to ask about the light novel translation - I notice thatwhile Katsuki says ‘Don’t just go getting caught’, which reads to me like he’sfrustrated that his mother is in danger, Mitsuki actually says ‘this happenedbecause you’re weak’. (I’ve read the Raws, and while she doesn’t say ‘weaklittle bitch’ she does call him よわっち, iirc? and insinuates blame on part of Katsukifor getting kidnapped). [2]

It’s subtle, but I think it’s a fairlyimportant difference - especially since Mitsuki is his parent, and no matterhow proud and capable Katsuki is, her opinion on him matters to him and sheshould be keeping that in mind. Doubly so if you’re right and he chose her ashis role model. What do you think? (Btw, which light novel was this in, if youdon’t mind my asking, and do you know if Horikoshi oversaw the content?) [3]

I also wanted to ask about the house, since youmentioned it and how successful the Bakugous must be to have afforded it. Suchfinancial success probably comes from lots of work. And given Japan’s workculture of long hours, do you think that Katsuki might have been left on hisown a lot as a young child? Do you think that this might have led to him actingout more to get attention from his peers (the over-the-top desk standing),since his parents might not have been available?

Btw, what are your thoughts on Masaru, or theconcept of ‘ijime’ and how that may have played into feeding Katsuki’s middleschool behaviour (maybe he turned the negative attention onto Izuku so that hewouldn’t be targeted as 'the nail that stuck out’)? Apologies for theAsk-Barrage, I find this whole discourse quite fascinating!

WOW.

This is the first time I’veever gotten an ask this long.

Erm, alright, well whereto start… The answer is going to be a couple pages long, so I’ll be puttingthis underneath the read more.

I can totally relate to the cultural whiplash, and you know, on the topic of cultural differences, it occurs to me that it might be a purposeful move on Horikoshi’s part to make All Might (and only All Might) comment on ‘the darkness’ of Bakugou’s family, given that he’s supposed to be like…. a caricature of American superheroes? Of some sort? I notice that Aizawa made no comment about it, even though both seemed to look on that scene with some hesistance. (Or that could’ve just been All Might again).

Thank you for the explanation regarding the Light Novels. Might I ask where you get this knowledge from, though? Not that I think you’re wrong, but I don’t think I know of a source that explicitly says all LNs are proofread/supervised by the original mangaka, and given that it’s still time taken out of their busy day, what makes LNs more supervision-worthy than the Spin-Offs, the movies or even the anime adaptation itself in some cases? Also, there’s another Quirkless person in the movie..?

(I have the same headcanon about Katsuki being the primary housekeeper. I mean… from the spoilers I’ve seen he seems so proficient at it? Like he’s used to doing it regularly?)

Horikoshi recently put out an interview and said that he actually helped out a lot with the movie when it came to directing plot and also says that he considers it similar to the Tsuyu episode in the anime - so kind of like a canon filler? 

I think both the movie and light novels follow this regard in which rather than saying that they’re completely canon, they’re more like “They don’t go against the canon.” I guess it’s something that you can say if you want to believe that it’s canon, then it is, but if you want to disregard it then that’s okay too. Both of them had Horikoshi’s input over basic plot, characterization, and general mood of the chapter, but I think it’s the author/director who adds a couple extra things (fanservice and such). Essentially the light novels exist to fill in gaps of things that are mentioned in the manga, but aren’t covered in the manga, such as Todoroki visiting his mother, Kirishima and Bakugou studying together and everyone else at Yaoyorozu’s house, bonding moments in the dorm, and the two days of cleaning that Bakugou and Izuku had to spend together. 

The spin-offs on the other hand, Horikoshi doesn’t seem to be involved in the plots (though Smash! doesn’t have any plot, other than humorous flanderization of the manga chapters).

(;agl;shgk;h, I’m so glad that you agree, Bakugou-housekeeper is just so hilarious to imagine because he’d probably be screaming curse words while doing it. Like “DIIIIIIIE, DUST BUNNIES!” “DRY, YOU FUCKING LAUNDRY!” “DON’T YOU FUCKING PUT THAT THERE WITHOUT A COASTER, I JUST DUSTED THAT!”)

Ah, now I see what you’re saying. I do remember that one scene where apparently two fourth graders picked a fight with first grader-Bakugou (though we don’t see who really picks a fight with who). You’re right; Bakugou was probably targeted by older kids a lot. I’d like to think that his “I don’t give a shit about your opinion” attitude came from the constant jealous badmouthing around him and he learned to ignore it as “extras talking” (sometimes I think that Mitsuki told him to think of it as “extras talking” because she also seems like the type to not give a damn about other people’s opinions). Not the best way to dismiss others people’s opinion, but he was like what, 6? 

I have a hard time thinking of him as a victim for bullying just because he seems like he’d easily be able to shut people up by backing up his big talk. I have an even harder time imagining that Bakugou ever thought of himself as a victim. Maybe that was the first incident he’d ever really encountered someone trying to turn him into the victim, and he decided that it was just another obstacle to overcome. 

One of Bakugou’s few best qualities is that he has the ability to keeping pushing forward even when completely frustrated with himself. He seems like the type to bury himself in self-improvement to chase away any doubts in his head. For example, even while under the burden of believing he’s the reason for All Might’s end, he also developed a new move (A.P. Shot), specially modified to minimize casualties. He’s not the type to sit and mope about the world or people hating him. He just… keeps going.

I’m not really sure if it’s a socially aware thing (because if he was really socially aware, he would know that delinquents and bullies are not what society approves of for to-be-heroes), but more like a one-track mind thing of where he firmly believes that he can be the best and he’ll overcome whatever he has to in order to make it true. Like a couple of older kids would stop him.

Something I’m actually really curious about is his integration into middle school from elementary school. I don’t know if they were in a escalator school, but considering that he had a lot of classmates who called him by his first name, he must have been pretty popular even if he pisses them off by calling them extras.

I have another headcanon that he “allowed” Izuku to hang out with him during elementary school, giving Izuku an illusion that they were still at least friends no matter how much he was picked on (Kacchan is the fucking Queen Bee). I say this because I have no idea why Izuku would willingly go to the same middle school if the bullying had already hit peak awfulness by then. 

But when they entered a new school he specifically switched to turning Izuku into the school joke for being Quirkless. It was a bonding activity of, “Hey, look here! Here’s a Quirkless freak who wants to be a hero! Everybody laugh at him with me or I’ll make your life miserable!” Pretty much a terrible power move that made Izuku’s life horrible, and finally switched Izuku’s positive admiration into grudging admiration and some hate. 

I’m not sure if he’d do this because he wanted to avoid other people bullying him, but rather he wanted to drive Izuku away from him. It’s been stated quite a few times that he couldn’t understand why Izuku followed him around no matter how much crap he gave him.

but I think a lot of people might not evenrealize that).I wanted to ask about the light novel translation - I notice thatwhile Katsuki says ‘Don’t just go getting caught’, which reads to me like he’sfrustrated that his mother is in danger, Mitsuki actually says ‘this happenedbecause you’re weak’. (I’ve read the Raws, and while she doesn’t say 'weaklittle bitch’ she does call him よわっち, iirc? and insinuates blame on part of Katsukifor getting kidnapped). [2]

It’s subtle, but I think it’s a fairlyimportant difference - especially since Mitsuki is his parent, and no matterhow proud and capable Katsuki is, her opinion on him matters to him and sheshould be keeping that in mind. Doubly so if you’re right and he chose her ashis role model. What do you think? (Btw, which light novel was this in, if youdon’t mind my asking, and do you know if Horikoshi oversaw the content?) [3]

I also wanted to ask about the house, since youmentioned it and how successful the Bakugous must be to have afforded it. Suchfinancial success probably comes from lots of work. And given Japan’s workculture of long hours, do you think that Katsuki might have been left on hisown a lot as a young child? Do you think that this might have led to him actingout more to get attention from his peers (the over-the-top desk standing),since his parents might not have been available?

Btw, what are your thoughts on Masaru, or theconcept of 'ijime’ and how that may have played into feeding Katsuki’s middleschool behaviour (maybe he turned the negative attention onto Izuku so that hewouldn’t be targeted as 'the nail that stuck out’)? Apologies for theAsk-Barrage, I find this whole discourse quite fascinating!

WOW.

This is the first time I’veever gotten an ask this long.

Erm, alright, well whereto start… The answer is going to be a couple pages long, so I’ll be puttingthis underneath the read more.

So I’ve seen a lot of people complaining that Mitsuki is excusing herself from why Bakugou’s behavior is the way it is.

I agree that she’s not taking the fault for her share of his behavioral problems, but I’m going to have to disagree about the praising thing.

She says specifically “Everyone else praised him for shallow stuff.” And while there are some watchers who are saying “Oh, so you’ve never praised him?” or “You’re lying, you just don’t want to admit you’re at fault too,” honestly, I can understand where she’s coming from. I have a cousin who has the exact same problem with her son.

So my cousin has a son who I call my nephew (he’s technically my first cousin once removed or something like that, but let’s say nephew) who is kind of similar to Bakugou because despite being around 4 years old, he is literally the biggest attention whore I have ever met.

He’s bigger than most kids his age and apparently he’s pretty athletic, so he gets a lot of attention from his classmates, particularly girls. He also reads above his age level and his classmates find it ‘cool’ that he can speak two languages (English and Chinese).

So of course, when you put together a need for attention plus a 4-year-old who doesn’t understand the concept of limits, you get a freakin’ daredevil that tries to do some crazy shit.

There was one Thanksgiving where the family gathered together. Within this family there were a total of three young couples. One of them was my cousin and her husband, and the other two (who are not related to me by blood) had yet to have children of their own, but they were hoping.

So of course these other two young couples doted on my nephew and laughed at everything he did. Including when he threw pillows at the TV, threw himself on the floor and accidentally kicked stuff off a nearby bookshelf, and waved around one of his grandma’s knick-knacks, screaming “I’M GONNA PUT THIS UP MY BUTT!” They laughed and laughed and laughed and my nephew ate it up. He loved the attention.

Then my cousin stormed in and told him no, stop yelling inappropriate things, don’t kick and throw stuff and think it’s okay just because others are laughing, this is grandma’s house and those aren’t yours so put them down, and please please please, stop encouraging him.

The other two couples thought that she was just being a spoiled sport because “You’re supposed to lovingly support your child! Let him have fun! He’ll grow out of it! He’s just trying to be funny!” And my cousin started fuming, took my nephew by the hand and put him in another room for a time-out.

When I talked to her later, she told me that my nephew had started to do some dangerous stuff at school for more attention, whether it was positive or negative. He had started climbing trees or high points on the playground to jump off them (fortunately he had gotten stopped each time by the teachers), started to eat rocks because his classmates thought it was funny, and he had yanked down his pants in the middle of naptime and made a huge fuss when the teacher tried to get him to pull them up. Worst part is that his friends have started to do those kinds of things alongside him because they want the attention he’s getting too.

She was so sick of feeling like the bad guy. She’s the one who always stops him from doing stupid things at home because her husband is old-fashioned and believes that “boys should grow up with some bumps and bruises” (which is fine, but that doesn’t mean that he should break a limb or swallow rocks). And he yells and whines at her all the time, claiming that he was just having fun and that she was ruining it. Whenever he does something like this at home and she tells him to stop, he always says, “But the kids at school thought it was funny!” To top it off, apparently she’s been getting accused by the other parents and teachers for not raising him right because he’s the ringleader of his group and how he acts also affects how they act.

It’s gotten to the point where she’s a bit sensitive because now she feels like people are accusing her of being a bad parent when she’s literally trying to stop him from choking on rocks or destroying things. She said, “When you’re a kid, it’s not the quality of attention you’re getting that’s important, it’s the quantity of it. And sometimes you just don’t care how you get it.”

That being said, what she said didn’t quite sink in with me until I was completely alone in the sitting room because everyone else was in the kitchen. I was just fiddling with my phone when my nephew walked in. He was all calm and quiet at first, but the minute he saw me he immediately flung himself on to the floor, yelling at the top of his lungs and flailing like a flipped turtle.

Out of curiosity because of the conversation earlier, I just ignored him and kept scrolling through my phone. When he saw that I wasn’t paying attention to him, he just got up quietly and left the room. Then I heard him hollering again and the other young couples laughing. That’s when I realized, Oh, he really is an attention whore. He actually goes and seeks it out.

It escalated when I was playing a round of poker with the other two couples in the living room. We were all gathered around a small table where we had also put down our drinks and stuff. In walks my nephew and the couples waved and said hi with big smiles, then turned back to the game. Then I watched as this kid actually frowned, grabbed a pillow, and then flung it at us and yelled “PLAY WITH ME!”. Luckily I actually saw him and grabbed all the drinks out of the way before the pillow hit the table. It skidded across the surface and pushed all the cards onto the floor.

I think that’s when it kind of sunk in for the other couples that they might have been giving a little too much positive reinforcement, but they felt too awkward to lecture him after laughing with him so much (“Well, I mean, he’s not our kid.”), so it fell on me to do it. I pulled him aside and told him sternly that he should never throw things at people (or at glass cups for that matter), and if he wanted our attention, he could have asked politely instead of demanding it. I told him that he should apologize to us for almost breaking the glasses and for ruining our game.

And of course because he’s 4 and no 4-year-old likes a lecture, he stuck his tongue out at me and wiggled out of my grip and said, “You’re like mommy. I’m just having fun.” And then he just left the room without an apology or even a backwards glance.

Everything finally hit its peak when we were all gearing up to go home. Most of us were in the foyer putting on coats, and down comes my nephew on the stairs. He was kind of grumpy, half because he usually didn’t stay up so late, and half because going home meant no more people to pay attention and laugh at his antics.

So I guess he decided that he could do one last hurrah kind of thing by standing at the top of the stairs and then yelled, “WATCH ME JUMP DOWN THE STAIRS!”

We all turned towards him, and one of the husbands of the young couples (stupid stupid stupid) went “Woo!” and pumped his fist because he thought my nephew was kidding.

That was all the goading my nephew apparently needed because this kid just beamed and then actually bent his knees to jump down the stairs. I panicked and was ready to throw myself forward if I had to catch him (those stairs were polished wood and he was wearing fucking socks), when my cousin’s “Mommy sensor” must have somehow gone off (or she just heard him yelling from the kitchen) because she came barreling into the room and yelled, “DON’T YOU DARE!!”

My nephew thankfully froze in place (apparently she doesn’t actually yell at him very often) and she stomped up the stairs and swept him up and put him in one of the upstairs bedroom for a very long, angry lecture of how he could have killed himself. Me and my family left before they came out so I don’t know what happened after.

So when Mitsuki says that everyone else praised her son except for her, I genuinely believe that it was probably something similar to this (though thankfully, my cousin has never hit her son). I do acknowledge, however, that it was a very vicious and trapped circle: If she laughed or reacted positively, she would be encouraging him and possibly lay groundwork for future bad habits. If she didn’t laugh, then he’d just go find someone who would. If she got mad and lectured him, he’d probably listen for all of two seconds and then tune her out and forget about it the next day (this was me as a child), and then again seek out others who would actually give him the attention he wanted. It didn’t help that he seemed to value everyone else’s opinion over hers.

Essentially, I agree that Mitsuki’s parenting style is shitty, but I do believe her when she says that “everyone else” praised him. She probably spent a long time trying to stop him from doing stupid, daredevil shit, particularly with that Quirk of his. And then he’d rebel against her, claiming that he could do anything because “everyone else said so”, and start calling her ‘old lady’ in retaliation.

Okay. Oooookay.

I going to have to revise my opinion of Mitsuki a bit.

I waited to put this part 3 out until after the episode aired because I wanted final confirmation on how the anime would portray her. For the record, I do not trust Mangastream and their “weak little bitch” translation. I listened very carefully and I know the words for “weak little bitch” in Japanese. She doesn’t say that, period. As a matter of fact, Bakugou doesn’t actually curse that much either anyway. He does curse, just not as explicitly (I don’t even know if Japanese has an equivalent for that amount of explicitness).

But after very carefully listening and watching, I can finally say that yes, Horikoshi did not mean for us to take this moment in a comical way. At least, not completely. From a meta sense, it’s actually kind of brilliant.

I mentioned in my 2.5 post that I’ve been wondering if Horikoshi is actually targeting the flaws of Japanese parenting through using Todoroki first as a base and then linking Bakugou through it, as demonstrated through chapter 165. Yes, physical discipline and constant belittling is pretty common in Japanese families. And no, it’s not considered abuse, it’s considered “discipline and humbling”. In Japan, the biggest sin is (loud) pride. That’s why Bakugou breaks a lot of typical Japanese preferences in behavior. It may also be why he’s so popular.

And yes, I know. Culture is not an excuse to abuse. Let me put this a different way. Culture changes the way that people look at abuse. What is abuse to one culture is not in another. That’s just how it is. Definition in every culture is different.

Considering how much Horikoshi has pointed out flaws in society as a whole in previous arcs (which is why Shigaraki and Stain’s resonated with so many people because their arguments are convincing, even if their methods are fucking terrible), I’m wondering if this whole series is filled with conversations that he’s had with himself, arguing about morals. Hell, I do the same thing with my fanfictions sometimes. As an author, I think I can kind of see what he’s trying to say; it may also explain why All Might is so based off of America. Not current America, obviously, but the idealism behind America.

Anyways meta-talk over, back to the episode.

So I noted a couple of things, some of which could be taken kind of ambiguously in the usual ‘violence slapstick’.

First slap was completely unwarranted. Finally could confirm this with my own eyes when Bakugou was actually sitting very quietly next to her, probably out of respect to All Might and Aizawa. If he had made an insulting comment or was making a sneering face, then I could kind of understand. Not that I’d smack him, but I’d probably tell him to stop.

Bakugou’s little tremors. Granted, we’ve seen him do those before when he’s in full rage, so it’s ambiguous because it could either be his usual anger or it could be fear.

During the little sequence where Mitsuki is pulling on his cheeks (which, I will admit, was a nice touch that wasn’t in the manga), I noticed that while she was raising her hand to slap him again Bakugou had also lifted his hand. I couldn’t tell whether it was to catch hers or if he was actually trying to slap her back. The animation was tiny so it was hard to tell. All I can say that Mitsuki is definitely faster than him (which is actually kind of impressive).

Bakugou’s voice. I actually put my ear up next to my speaker and listened very carefully, but as far as I could tell, there wasn’t a shred of fear in it. I listened very carefully for voice cracking, oddly high notes on certain syllables, or general “holding-backness” that I would expect from fear mixed with anger, but all I heard was anger. That’s kind of fucked up in its own way considering that he screamed that he’d kill her (and yes, I know he didn’t mean it. Most of the time he never means it).

Bakugou is confirmed to actually be taller than his mother by two centimeters, but I noticed that – whether it was on purpose or not – they animated him to actually look smaller than her. I know that he slumps his shoulders a lot, so he usually looks smaller anyways. But could it be… Is he shrinking from her…?

Now, there is one thing in particular that I was waiting for in the anime to confirm for me before I made any hasty judgements about how Horikoshi was trying to portray her. Annnnnd, I got it.

The sound of the slaps.

You might think I’m kidding, but I’m really not. Sound adds a whole other dimension to anime. It can make or break a serious moment. And sometimes it can leave little clues.

The sound of the slaps are realistic, and the animation flashes are not over the top. That spells a problem.

If this was really meant to be taken as a comical moment, the sound would be super overdone and, if Horikoshi told Studio Bones to be consistent with his style, then we’d get little written onomatopoeia. Something along these lines:

But these moments with Bakumom are nothing like that. I’ve laughed at Izumi Curtis nearly punching Edward Elric through a wall. I flinched at this.

I’m still not going to throw the word abuse around liberally and label her an abusive parent because, frankly, I have no right to. I’ve never been abused and my parents, while Chinese, are fairly easy to conform to the environment. If I had been raised in Asia, then… actually, I wouldn’t be thinking any differently, since again “discipline and humbling” are normal. Hm. Maybe they haven’t conformed at all and I’m just blindsided by personal experience. Hmmmm.

I still think some of my arguments from earlier posts still have legs to stand on: Bakugou choosing his mother as his role model, initial benign neglect changing to karmic parenting, and that Bakugou and his mom do care about each other, they’re just damn terrible at showing it.

TLDR: Yup, Bakumom is meant to be a bad mom for sure. Horikoshi is pulling a really, REALLY BOLD move. I’m wondering if his editors actually caught on. Would they have actually agreed with him on his views? Or am I overthinking this and this was really meant to be an actual family slapstick? I have no idea. These are just my views.

So I was talking with my college best buddy yesterday and we ended up discussing Mitsuki. Neither of us think that she’s abusive though we do think that hitting him is too much. I told her that there were people on Tumblr who believed that Bakugou is the way he is because of Mitsuki. My friend disagreed, saying that Bakugou being the way he is just the way he is. She’s an elementary school teacher and she’s dealt with so many kids, and some of them are just bratty by nature. That’s when it hit me, where the main difference between Mitsuki-fans and Mitsuki-antis lay.

It’s a case of Nature vs. Nurture. Most of Mitsuki-fans are pro-nature and most of Mitsuki-antis are pro-nurture.

And then I realized that the entirety of Japan’s culture is based off of pro-nature. Maybe all of Asia, because my friend is Korean and I’m Chinese and a lot of Mitsuki-fans I’ve seen on this site seem to be Asian. But I’ll only be talking about my personal experiences.

Growing up, I’ve always believed that I always have choices and that I’m in control. I get to choose what I like, I get to choose how I behave towards people, and I get to choose what kind of people I surround myself with. If I’m being rude, it’s because I’m choosing to be rude, not because my parents influenced me into being rude towards others (they definitely didn’t, I’d get scolded for that). In other words, I hold responsibility for all the actions I take. This means that I never blamed my parents for any decisions I make. They’re my decisions, my responsibility.

I’m lazy because I’m choosing to be non-productive, not because something-something happened with my parents and I ended up being lazy as an end result. At the same time, if my parents ever try to tell me what to like or who I should be friends with (and they have), I get furious because it feels like they’re disregarding my opinions. And in a way, they are.

That is to say, that doesn’t mean that experiences don’t help shape a person; they do. Particularly if the experience is something completely out of a person’s control. People have no control over other people’s personalities or actions. With Todoroki’s mom, Endeavor’s behavior towards her was out of her control, but that doesn’t mean that he physically made her pick up a kettle of boiling water and pour it over Shouto’s face. That was her. (Judging from Shouto’s attitude towards the incident, I feel like he’d be pro-nurture since he blames his father more for her behavior despite it being her action.)

It’s the person’s nature that decides how they take the experience. One person may see a failing as something they want to push out of their mind and forget while another person may have the exact same failing but thinks of it as something valuable and keeps it close to them.

This matches up with Japanese culture promoting early independence (try watching the “First Errand” show, about tiny toddlers running errands on their own without their parents. Doable only in Japan) and thought processes. It also explains why my parents usually leave me alone even when they know I’m making bad decisions. They’ll nag me, of course, but they never force me into anything. It’s an idea of “Oh, well, she’ll learn it the hard way then.”

It’s why a lot of manga/anime depict obviously abusive parents as being people who force their children into doing things for them. Like Endeavor, who forces Shouto to fulfill Endeavor’s dream without actually thinking about what Shouto himself would want. A parent in Japan is supposed to let a child go on their own way. They can worry, warn, or be outright against it, but a lot of the times they’ll stand back and let the child make their own mistakes (although the whole “I told you so” game is pretty strong in Asian parenting for sure).

It’s also why there are so many characters who are so quick to blame themselves right off the bat whenever something misfortunate happens. Like All Might in the latest anime episode who had no idea that Shigaraki and his master were related but he felt so tremendously guilty anyway. He didn’t have any control, but some part of him believed that he should have.

So back to Bakugou. If we met a kid like him in real life, one who shoved others around and bullied them, pro-nurture people would probably think, “Wow, that kid’s a real brat. Where are his parents, and why haven’t they taught him better than this?” Pro-nature people would probably think more along the lines of “Wow, that kid’s a real brat. He must be a real handful for his parents. I hope they have some control over him.” Pro-nurture are more likely to believe he’s acting out because of some issues at home are affecting him psychologically while pro-nature are more likely to think even if this kid is experiencing problems, he’s still choosing to bully others even though he could be expressing his rage differently.

It’s why pro-nature people like Mitsuki because they view her as someone who can actually put Bakugou in his place, while pro-nurture people are more likely to blame her for him having that kind of behavior from the start.

Just wanted to put this out there because I’m starting to wonder if this really is a cultural difference thing. Asian culture has a lot of positive points like believing in early independence and responsibility, but it has an equal amount of negative points in self-blame and hiding feelings (there’s a reason why Japan has an incredibly high suicide rate). At this point, I’m wondering if Horikoshi even realizes what a stir he’s causing in the American fanbase because from what I see in Japanese blogs and forums, nobody seems to give Mitsuki’s behavior a second thought. They say stuff like “Wow, Bakumom seems really strong!” and “So Kacchan can be controlled after all lol.” The closest thing to disapproval I found was one person saying, “Bakumom, that’s a bit too much!”

If this is a cultural difference thing and Horikoshi is aware of it, then Horikoshi openly addressing Bakugou’s ‘violent upbringing’ in comparison to Todoroki’s abusive upbringing in chapter 165 is a fucking bold ass move. That’s targeting something deeply ingrained in Japanese culture right there.

Alright, so last time I closed off on my last post on Mitsuki with the TLDR line of how I do think that she’s a bad parent, but not necessarily an abusive one. I noticed that no one quite seems to draw a borderline between ‘bad’ and ‘abusive’ anymore… There is an actual difference between them. A bad parent can still love their child dearly but make a ton of mistakes; because no matter how much you genuinely love your child, there are indeed some people who are just not meant to have kids. Not in the abusive way, but in the irresponsible/inflexible/bad role model kind of way. I have met plenty of those kinds of parents. I used to teach at summer school.

Continuing on, here’s the thing; I am pretty sure that Bakugou chose Mitsuki to be his role model.

Bakugou inherited her short temper (and basic temperaments are, in fact, inherited) and, probably from watching her as he grew up, learned that aggressively striving for his goals and not giving a damn about what others’ thought was what led her to success. And some pretty damn great success too, judging from that fancy house they live in.

We’ve been given a short description about Mitsuki and how when she first met her now-husband Masaru, she was instantly attracted to him and came on to him super strongly. So we know that she’s aggressive in her social life, and Masaru was, yet again, a goal that she attained from her aggression.

We’ve also seen that Masaru seems to be a pretty meek and ‘normal’ kind of man who probably gives in to his wife a lot. He seems like the type who would go with the flow (and, frankly, he looks like Bakugou might start looking more like him later in life). If Bakugou grew up admiring ‘overwhelmingly strong’ people like All Might, he would most likely gotten this ideal of ‘might makes right’ from watching his mother and picked her over his mild-mannered father to be his immediate role model, possibly disregarding any successes that Masaru had accomplished because he just didn’t stand out as much.

So as promised, let’s talk about the Boku no Hero Academia first light novel, appropriately titled “Parents’ Day”.

A little clarification is needed: The first light novel is about the students and teachers prepping for the parents coming to the school for the day to watch their kids at classes. It’s something that’s only usually done in up to middle school normally, but since this is a hero school where the students also depend on their parents’ support to become heroes, they make an allowance.

(In case you’re wondering, Fuyumi volunteers as the Todoroki representative.)

During the actual Parents’ Day, all the parents are captured by a villain and it’s up to the students to save them… If you think this sounds familiar, the anime season one OVA sort of follows this plot, so you know where this is going. The students, of course, have absolutely no idea and fully believe that their parents are actually in trouble.

And okay, we need to talk about this: You know how Mitsuki ‘blames’ Bakugou for being kidnapped? How most people use that as proof that Mitsuki is abusive?

Bakugou does THE EXACT SAME THING TO MITSUKI. While she is being held hostage. And keep in mind, this is directly after the Sports Tournament, way before Bakugou gets kidnapped.

(Also, people say that since Masaru seems to ‘ignore’ his wife’s behavior that he’s also abusive. And I’m like “UH, HOW ABOUT AIZAWA AND ALL MIGHT WHO ARE LITERALLY RIGHT THERE?” Sometimes I still think that Horikoshi tried to make this a dysfunctional family slapstick joke at first via One Piece’s Garp and Luffy but because of Todoroki’s abuse existing the American discourse blew up and then he decided to make it a plot point at chapter 165.)

Here’s the pages, and then the translation of the pages.

Build-up: The villain is giving a long monologue when Bakugou interrupts, pissed off. Just as he’s about to use his Quirk and charge over, the villain stops him.

“Careful now, don’t forget that I have hostages.”

“Eek!”

The man grabbed the closest person to him – Bakugou’s mother – and pulled her towards himself. Seeing that, Bakugou muttered, “Tch!” and hesitated. Izuku well understood the slight hints of impatience on his face.

“Don’t just let yourself get caught, you shitty old hag!!”

Bakugou’s mother’s face was frightened from being grabbed by the man, but at her son’s words her expression immediately changed.

“How many times have I told you to not call me a shitty old hag?!”

Her angry bellow suddenly broke the tense atmosphere and, in that instant, all eyes were on her.

“… Whoaaa, as expected of Bakugou’s mom.”

“This isn’t the time to be impressed, shitty hair!”

Now, as hilarious as this scene was to read, it did tell me a couple things.

 Bakugou seems to legit believe that his mother is too strong to be caught (it makes me wonder if she was his combat teacher or something).

Bakugou, battle-hungry as he was, immediately stopped when his mother was threatened. He even yelled at Kirishima for not taking the situation seriously.

Izuku understood that the impatience on Bakugou’s face meant that he wanted to rescue his mother, like how Izuku definitely wants to rescue his own mother (at least, that’s what is implied).

Mitsuki seems to immediately react negatively to the ‘old hag’ comment no matter what kind of situation she’s in. Bakugou has probably been calling her this for a long, long time, even when she was in her twenties (she’s 38 and Bakugou’s 16).

This honestly makes me think that they belittle each other like this on a daily basis. It’s not something one-sided on Mitsuki’s part. If anything, I think that Bakugou is trying to surpass his mother. Admittedly, it’s not really a parent-son relationship at this point, it’s a burning rivalry between two very stubborn and short-tempered people. They’re constantly trying to outdo the other and clearly both of them hate to lose.

So I don’t think is genuine verbal assault, I think this is… the way they banter…? Like, it’s their thing? It’s been noted a couple times in the series (“That’s Kacchan on neutral.”) and the light novels (but particularly the third one) that Bakugou still tends to say offensive things but without any heat behind it when he’s in a mellow mood. This might be something that Mitsuki does too. The conversations that would make at home…

And remember how I said that Mitsuki doesn’t understand why Bakugou is the way he is? Here’s the reason why. After they rescue their parents…

Nearby, the Bakugou mother and son pair were quarreling.

“Why do you have such a bad mouth?!”

“It’s because I’m just like you, you hag!”

“You’re the one who provokes me into it!”

Seems to be a case of chicken and the egg…? Mitsuki might actually be using her experience of when Bakugou was still a fairly tame kid and they didn’t argue as much back then as they do now. So when he did start cursing (because bad role model) she started cursing back and they start nitpicking over who started it first leading to more arguments.

From what I can tell about her so far, I think she actually wants Bakugou to be more like his father because she tells him to be polite and not curse. So maybe she does actually realize that he’s picked up some bad habits from her. She just doesn’t want to admit it because hey! Bakugou rarely ever wants to admit that anything is his fault either (except All Might and admitting that out loud broke him). I guess this is where he gets one of his many issues from.

TLDR: Bakugou does care about his mother, and I don’t think he would if she were really abusing him. We’re talking about Bakugou who can hold a grudge over a tiny river incident for years. We’re also talking about the same Bakugou who is incredibly precocious and rebellious and proud; there is absolutely no reason for him to stay in an abusive home when he could run away and likely survive well enough on his own. Bakugou already argues and name-calls and talks back to her so we know that he’s not afraid of her.

So after reading a bunch of discourse on Bakugou Mitsuki and asking if she is abusive or not abusive and how it’s Asian parenting culture and tough love, I’m honestly still not sure where I stand on all this.

I’m Chinese and the second child. My parents were the type of people who believed in spanking but they stopped that pretty early. I think the last time I was spanked was like 6 years old? And I don’t even remember or care about it. My parents mentioned that they were spanked a lot as kids so I guess it’s more of a generational teaching thing that gradually died out or something. “Old-fashioned parenting” as they say, though these days it sounds more like an excuse.

I also grew up in a household that yelled a lot because my dad is fully deaf in one ear and my mom’s hearing is also starting to go. So we all yell at each other a lot, not because we’re mad at each other (most of the time) but because we’re trying to make sure that everyone can hear. Because of that, I’m pretty good at looking past volume and getting to the context instead. I could tell apart happy yelling, sad yelling, angry yelling, goofy yelling, concerned yelling, etc. To be honest, when I first learned that people actually thought that the act of yelling itself was abusive, I was genuinely bewildered. I didn’t understand why they didn’t understand that it’s the words that are being yelled that are abusive, not necessarily the actual yelling. Quietly disappointed words cut a lot deeper in my opinion.

People have told me that others have yelled at them and in general they break down in cry just from the yelling itself, even in just a video game. I have no idea how they wanted me to react but I can definitely say that I wasn’t impressed.

In fact, I’m pretty sure the reason why I like Bakugou is because I can get past his yelling. Apparently not a lot of people can, even though I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re supposed to do with his character.

People all grow up and handle things differently. It’s something I never really gave much thought to because I was reclusive and didn’t talk to a lot of other people. I also didn’t go on social media (minus manga websites because I was always on those) at all until I got to college and then started my Tumblr in 2013. I guess the social reclusiveness is why I’m pretty set in my own ideologies since I’ve had them for so long without being influenced by the experiences of others.

So it wasn’t until college that I actually met abuse victims, rape victims, people in bad relationships, depressed people, and more. And if any of my middle school classmates or high school classmates had been in these kinds of situations, I sure as hell didn’t know. So college was my first time really actually getting to hear these stories firsthand.

So with all the backstory for my thought process out of the way, here goes…

I think I’m still on the fence on calling Mitsuki an outright abusive parent, but I can attest that she’s a bad parent. To me, an abusive parent is someone who hits or verbally assaults (I don’t want to say yell) or punishes their child for themselves. Like the parents do it to make themselves feel better, relieve stress, search for scraps of superiority that they don’t get in their social life, or – in the case of Endeavor – forcefully living vicariously through them. They hold no love for their child other than what the child can do for them, rather than actually loving the child as an individual person they are raising.

I’m not saying that as long as they love the child, that makes hitting or verbally assaulting them okay. That is not what I’m saying. Frankly, if you have to hit your child to actually make them listen to you, that says so much more about you as a parent (and person) than your child. But children are sensitive to emotions (before they become adults and learn to block them out) and knowing that your parent genuinely loves you makes a big difference in mentality. It changes the way that the child would think of things.

If you need a comparison, I’d say that Molly Weasley from Harry Potter fits best with Mitsuki. Both Mitsuki and Molly Weasley are pretty kickass women with fiery spirits, but they’re not stellar parents. Ron Weasley has a crippling inferiority complex, not made better by his mother’s constant fawning over his best friend who is not her child. I mean, it’s cool that she wants to provide Harry with a mother figure, but shoving aside your other child is not the way to do it. She also sent a Howler, meant to publicly humiliate her already humiliated son (adding even more insult in the movie where the Howler stops in her tirade partway to praise Ginny). Molly also plays clear favorites with her children and used it as a sort of punishment, excessively praising a successful child in front of an unsuccessful child (usually Fred and George) and then ignoring them. All in all, Molly Weasley isn’t a good parent, but I’ll be damned if all her children and Harry would not rise to defend her till their last breath.

Because they know that she genuinely loves them all and is concerned for their futures. So they love her, bad parenting and all. That’s what I mean by genuine love changes the mentality of the child. It leads them to accept things that others in a similar position but with no parental love at all would not accept.

I have no doubt that Mitsuki does not believe her own behavior to be abusive and I know FOR A FACT that she does not understand what a huge impact she has on Bakugou’s personality as a whole. But Bakugou himself clearly understands. It’s actually something detailed in the first light novel, taking place directly after the Sports Festival, which is Mitsuki’s first canonical appearance, though she wasn’t given a name at the time.

(Horikoshi, why do you leave all the important details in the light novels only, askflehgaklkah)

I can also tell that Hirofumi Neda, author of Boku no Hero Academia SMASH! is not so hot on her either from the one chapter Mitsuki has a guest appearance in, but Bakugou sometimes mentions her in other chapters in a more positive light.

But I’m also pretty sure that Mitsuki genuinely loves her child and is worried for his future. And Bakugou, despite all his complaints about her, loves her back (something once more detailed in the first light novel). And she does actually seem to understand him pretty well about his behavioral problems and judging from what she says to All Might and Aizawa-sensei, it’s possible that Bakugou was initially a victim of “benign neglect parenting”. A term coined by Rosalind Wiseman, writer of Queen Bees and Wannabees which inspired the movie Mean Girls.

“Benign neglect parenting” is essentially what it sounds like. It means that the parent themselves are exhausted from whatever is going on in their lives (usually work) which leads to children often managing to slip under the radar whenever they do something shitty. It’s very likely that Bakugou had gotten away with bullying others for a long, long time before his parents caught on. It’s very likely that after she did discover that he was bullying others, that she was horrified and immediately switched to “karmic parenting” (a term possibly coined by me) where she adopted a “If you bully others, I’ll bully you” with a genuine hope that Bakugou would realize how shitty it felt to be bullied and would lead him to stop and apologize (most likely to Izuku). 

Of course, Bakugou is a stubborn little shit who has at that point gotten away with so much that he doesn’t ever apologize and their mother-son relationship continuously gets worse and worse as he gets older. 

Okay, so this post is starting to get really long, so I’ll cut it off here for now. I’ll be writing a second post with more details of my thoughts and headcanons, plus some translated stuff from the first light novel about Mitsuki and have it out by maybe tomorrow or at least within the week.

Hm, this is something I’ve talked about in the discord before, but I think his lowest ranked one would actually be the worst one. It has the shortest section in his kidnapping notebook, and it’s the one he’s least willing to talk about.

Warning, this gets pretty triggery. I know a lot of Katsuki kidnappings have been decently lighthearted, but this is a bit of a darker take on the whole situation.

This one is his lowest ranked one, not because the kidnappers were bad at kidnapping (though they kind of were), but because it’s the one he hated the most and while he tries not to think about it too much, he still found every little flaw in it afterwards to justify it being the lowest on his list. He hates thinking about it, he hates talking about it, and even the memories sneak up on him from time to time.

As fucked up as it is, Katsuki could handle all his other kidnappings. Violence, people refusing to respect him when he says no, having to fight for his own freedom and right to choice, all of that is comfortingly familiar to him. If anything, escaping his kidnappings often made him feel skilled and powerful. But not this one.

This one isn’t one that’s discovered by the heroes. They might learn about it afterwards, but they aren’t the ones to discover it. This one is discovered by the villains.

Katsuki’s been kidnapped for a second time, only this time it’s by the new and improved league of villlians. They’ve got a lot more people running around now, and rescuing him and/or him escaping is going to be a lot harder. The PLF even has some of Katsuki’s former kidnappers helping out, and they’ve learned their lessons with him. Honestly a lot of the league is a bit freaked out when they find out how many times Katsuki has been kidnapped and how young, but he’s mostly just pissy/proud of it. He’ll talk shit at his former kidnappers running around, he’ll bitch at the league members, he’ll spit in Tomura’s face. Kid’s not scared of anything.

Hawks is hanging around and keeping an eye on Katsuki, but despite being horrified, he can’t do anything without blowing his cover. All he can do is watch Katsuki from a distance and pray the kid makes it out okay. Dabi’s pretty impressed with Katsuki overall, while Tomura’s mostly frustrated that he’s not getting his way. This goes on for a few days, and then someone new comes to visit Katsuki.

This guy’s been with the PLF for awhile, and he isn’t particularly high ranking but he is considered decently powerful. He’d mentioned having met Katsuki previously, but nobody in the higher ranks thought much of it. None of them really knew him or had a strong opinion on him. When the guy comes down to visit Katsuki’s cell, Dabi’s already down there, mostly just annoying Katsuki since it’s fun, while Hawks is watching them from a safe location. The guy saunters in, greeting Katsuki with a smirk on his face and saying it’s been awhile. Katsuki’s prior kidnappers have visited him before, and it was never a big deal, but something’s different this time.

Katsuki freezes up as the guy enters him and gets unnecessarily close to him, and then goes feral trying to get the fuck away from and/or deal some damage to the guy.

Dabi kicks the guy out near instantly after that, stepping out of the cell himself to catch his breath and give Katsuki a second. Hawks is confused and really worried because he has never seen Katsuki react to someone like that. None of them have.

After taking a minute to collect himself and think what just happened over, Dabi gets a murderous mood about him that he takes a few deep breaths to control, before he steps back in the cell. Katsuki is obviously relieved to see him (and only him), although that quickly fades to fear/aggression completely unlike anything Dabi (or anyone else for that matter) has seen from him previous. Sure, Dabi’s been playing the big bad villain game with this kid for awhile, all of them have been poking at him and making various threats, for fuck sake the kid is obviously in a dangerous situation, but up until this point Katsuki had been handling all of this decently calmly. He’d faced them down without a hint of fear, but all that guy did was show up and he lost his shit.

Dabi pretty much already knows what happened. He wishes that he didn’t, but  he knows the signs. Katsuki hasn’t been afraid of any of the shit that’s going down. Violence and pain don’t scare the kid, which leaves very few things left for a kidnapper who needed him alive to have done. It’s obvious in how Katsuki is now watching Dabi’s hands extremely closely, in how he’s curled up and his teeth are bared, and how he’s staying as far away from Dabi as possible. The guy didn’t just scare Katsuki, but his presence fundamentally shifted the situation and made Katsuki scared of Dabi because of what Katsuki now considers possible. It sickens Dabi to his core.

Still, he asks anyways.

“What the fuck did he do to you kid?”

“Fuck off. It’s none of your fucking business.”

Katsuki’s shaking, it’s a fine tremble, but it’s there.

After weighing that statement for a moment, Dabi sighs.

“Kid, you’ve had prior kidnappers in here day in and day out and the most you’ve done is bitched them out. Fuck, I’ve kidnapped you before and you were more pissed off than anything else. Yet that guy just walks in and you lost your damn mind.”

A beat passes, and more quietly he adds, “Listen, kid, I know we’re the bad guys and all that, but there are some fucking lines you don’t cross. Ever.”

Then he tilts his head to catch Katsuki’s gaze, blue holding red steadily, so the kid can see that he means it when he asks again,

“What’d he do to you kid?”

Maybe it’s easier because Katsuki doesn’t care what Dabi thinks of him. Or maybe it’s easier because Dabi kicked the guy out earlier. Or maybe Katsuki is just that fucking tired. Regardless of the why, Katsuki tells Dabi a secret he hasn’t told anyone else. Hasn’t been able to tell anyone else because of overwhelming shame and wanting to forget it ever happened.

He doesn’t spell it out for Dabi. He doesn’t need to.

“I was 11.” And those three little words mean so fucking much.

“He said I was pretty for a boy.”

There’s venom in his tone, hatred and fear mixing together.

“I was already in chains and on some weird fucking drugs.”

Katsuki spits out the last line, and doesn’t say anything else. He can’t. His body is shaking with long suppressed trauma, and Dabi really wants to fucking hug the kid but he knows damn well that that’s an awful idea, so instead he takes a few deep breaths to push down his own murderous rage, and moves a bit closer. Not close enough to scare, but close enough to murmur soothing words as Katsuki sobs silently. It takes a bit for Katsuki to calm down, but Dabi waits with him until the tears have been shed and he’s quiet.

Outside the cell, watching on a camera system perhaps, Hawks is shaking too. Mostly with rage. He waits though. He waits until Dabi gets the kid calm and steps out of the cell.

While Dabi was inside the cell, he’d been soft and calm, rather unlike his usual self. Outside the cell he’s still calm, but it’s a deadly, near demonic calm that falls over him. He doesn’t say anything, just gestures for Hawks to follow him, and Hawks does without comment or hesitation.

Dabi pauses just long enough to shoot off a quick series of text messages, and then he’s on the prowl. People scrabble to get out of his way as he makes his way through the base. These people have seen Dabi in dangerous moods, but it’s nothing compared to the sheer rage surrounding him now. Nor have they ever seen Hawks embracing his predatory hero name quite so thoroughly.

Now, let it be said that Hawks has never believed in murdering people in revenge. But he’s playing the role of a double agent, and sometimes that means doing morally dubious things. The Hero Commission told him to do whatever it takes after all.

That’s his excuse anyways as red feathers fly out from his wings to pin the guy down the moment he enters their line of sight. He doesn’t smile. He takes no pleasure in watching what happens next. But there’s no sympathy, guilt or remorse in his heart as he watches what happens next.

The whole event is bloody, public, it takes near and hour before the guy is dead. Tomura shows up near the end, having been busy elsewhere before he got Dabi’s texts. He cleans up the body without a word, vanishing the mess without a trace left behind of what just happened. Then he turns tp the shell-shocked crowd with disdain in his eyes, and in a few words, he makes the PLF’s stance on those that take advantage of children extraordinarily clear. With that, he thanks Dabi for taking care of the situation so promptly, and more quietly asks him to offer his apologies to Katsuki that such a man was ever allowed among their ranks, let alone then allowed to interact with Katsuki again. Obviously, Dabi is more then happy to do so.

When he goes back to Katsuki’s cell, he doesn’t tell Katsuki that he killed the guy. Honestly, he would’ve let the kid have a go at it and kill him himself, but Katsuki’s still got that whole hero thing going on, which means he’s got an issue with murder, so he figured the less emotional trauma on him the better. Instead, he tells Katsuki that the man has been removed from the PLF’s ranks in a tone of voice that says a lot. Katsuki doesn’t ask any questions, and he doesn’t thank Dabi for it, but he stops flinching back when Dabi moves in his cell, and his eyes lose that fearful edge to them. That speaks volumes on it’s own, and as far as Dabi’s concerned, it’s a victory.

I’m not forgetting any of that, they’re all things that have been taken into consideration and either aren’t important to the situation, or are part of what I’m talking about.

To break this down,

1)

I don’t care if she thinks that UA “understands” Katsuki, her child was kidnapped and held hostage for 2 days, and forced to fight for his life multiple times against several adult villains. The only thing that stopped the villians from murdering/torturing/turning Katsuki into a nomu/etc, was that they decided not to during that 2 day period. Even if she’s willing to forgive UA/Aizawa and understands that the situation was bad by all accounts, she could still show at least a little concern for her child’s physical and mental safety after he was kidnapped. The idea that she really believes a school “understanding” Katsuki and not praising him too much is more important then the fact he got kidnapped for and was held by villains for 2 days, speaks volumes on it’s own.

Also, it’s worth noting that Aizawa and UA do not understand Katsuki. They fail him multiple times, and call out in canon that they did so. Including; The Sports Festival, The kidnapping, & the aftermath of the kidnapping. Even going so far as to say that they neglected his mental health, in canon. They’ve messed up with him multiple times, and while it’s good that Aizawa doesn’t let him get away with bullshit, that doesn’t mean that they’ve done much to help him either.

2)

Yes, Katsuki got a lot of praise as a child. I could talk for ages about gifted child syndrome and how that built up unrealistic expectations on him such that he believes he’s not allowed to make mistakes and takes responsibility for way to much as a result. However, this isn’t something I forgot in my original post. In my original post, the point was that Mitsuki acts/talks about it in such a way that implies that just sort of happened, when in reality that is on her and Marasu for not parenting Katsuki correctly. If they had raised him better, taught him to be kinder to others, put him into anger management/therapy, taught him how to handle his emotions in a health way, etc, he would be a much different person. But they didn’t, yet she still talks about it like she had no hand in it.

Also, again, as I said in my original post, a big part of this is timing. If this was just a PTA meeting or something, I’d have a very different opinion on this entire thing. But that’s not what this is. This is a meeting right after he got kidnapped, at a point where he likely still very shaken from the experience, and where he’s likely being dealing with a lot of negative media attention online. If there is any point in his life where he needs support from his parents, this is that time. I don’t care if he’s been a shitty kid in his life, right after he just got kidnapped is a time when he needs love and support from his parents. Not them talking about how shitty he is to his teachers while he’s still trying to recover from that.

3)

That really has no baring on the conversation, at all. Was Katsuki telling Izuku to jump off a building unacceptable? Yes. However, neither Katsuki’s parents, nor Aizawa/All-Might have any idea that that event transpired. It’s called out in canon that what happened that day was unusual for Katsuki, that was not a normal interaction between him and Izuku. It was also something that happened when Katsuki was 14, ~2 ish years prior to the conversation I’m talking about.

Katsuki was an asshole, particularly to Izuku, when he was a kid. He still has a lot of those tendencies. That in no way negates the fact that after he was kidnapped is a wildly inappropriate time to start ragging on his flaws, alongside blaming him for getting kidnapped in the first place. Instead, that’s the sort of thing to be worked on through therapy and teaching over time. Or just, to be talked about at any other time besides right after he got kidnapped. 

Also, it might be worth reflecting on why he was an asshole, where he learned to behave that way, and why he considers his own words/actions acceptable. Because as it turns out, kids don’t develop those habits out of thin air.

4)

Here’s the thing, you can say that Katsuki would be laughing if it was anyone but him chained up at the sports festival, but I’d argue that he wouldn’t, because nobody else would ever be chained up at the sports festival. Neither the school, nor the author, could ever get away with that for any other student in class 1-A. If Shouto had refused to use his fire on Izuku, causing Izuku to win the fight and Izuku to follow him out of bounds in frustration and reject the first place medal, we all know damn well that he would’ve been allowed to walk away from it. Hell, we actually see Ojiro resigning after round 2 because he felt like he hadn’t earned his win, and he was allowed to do that without any issue. The only one who isn’t given the right to say no, and the only one who would ever be chained up to that podium is Katsuki.

And that comes down to the fact that because Katsuki refuses a lot of things, both on a character and reader level, people stop caring about whether or not he consents to things. They get used to forcing him to do things, and so that becomes normal and acceptable. He’s seen and portrayed as inheritable violent, uncontrollable, and “bad” which means they treat him in ways that would never be acceptable for other characters, and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as he sees himself that way. This happens on every level, be it touch, the sports festival, izuku following him around, etc. Katsuki is basically never respected when he tries to say no to something unless he steadfastly enforces that boundary through physical force.

That’s why Aizawa calls out what happened at the sports festival as a failure on UA’s part. Because that’s what it was.

That’s also why we see Tomura with the photo of Katsuki at the sports festival, and why Tomura thought Katsuki would join him. Tomura understands what it’s like to be seen and treated as monstrous, to be seen and treated as fundamentally destructive and dangerous, and he assumed that Katsuki would want to join him to be free of that.

When Tomura has restraints taken off Katsuki when asking him to make his choice, it’s because he understands how Katsuki’s been treated, and he’s playing to that. He explicitly says that they need to treat Katsuki as an equal, and to prove that he means that, the restraints have to come off. He also calls out that he’s not worried about Katsuki fighting back, because he believes Katsuki is smarter then that (which was a miscalculation on his part, not because Katsuki isn’t smart enough to know not to fight back, but because he underestimated Katsuki’s convictions and personal morals).

What Tomura is doing there is a very significant and important demonstration. He’s showing Katsuki through actions, that he is willing to treat him like a human being, even if the heroes aren’t. Tomura is showing basic respect for Katsuki, however undermined by the kidnapping it may be, moreso then his teachers/the heroes did, by allowing him his freedom when making a choice. Perhaps even more important, he’s showing that he sees Katsuki as capable of restraining himself, and of being non-destructive. What he’s really offering Katsuki there is proof that he is willing to treat him better then the heroes did, and that’s why he believes Katsuki will join him.

Anyways, the long and the short of it is that no, I did not forget any of that when I was making my prior post. I did consider all of those things on some level, and they don’t change my opinion that how Mitsuki behaved after the kidnapping is indicative of her being a bad parent, and that were this another character or if the gender roles of the situation were reversed, then I feel strongly that this wouldn’t even be a debate in the fandom.

Shouto misheard/misunderstood the Miso soup marriage proposal, and he thinks making Miso soup for someone outside your family/outside of a restaurant setting is basically the same as asking them out/declaring you’re a couple now. Since he was so isolated, this idea was never corrected.

Katsuki has never made Miso soup for anyone at the dorms before, because Kirishima only eats like, protein shakes for breakfast and there’s nobody else who can convince Katsuki to cook for them. The only reason Katsuki did it for Shouto is he had a really rough time the day before with family drama, and as a result he slept in late. He realized Shouto wasn’t going to have any time to cook for himself, and they had a big training exercises later that day, so he threw together some Miso for him and pretty much shoved the bowl at him when he finally stumbles downstairs. Since he’s vaguely trying to be a better a person, he said something meant to be somewhat kind/encouraging because he knows that shit is hard on Shouto, but you know, through a Katsuki filter.

Shouto, who has very weird ideas about dating (and honestly everything) that never got corrected, and who also has had a crush on Katsuki for the past however long, decides this must be Katsuki’s way of asking him out. Obviously Katsuki must be too shy/reserved to talk about his feelings directly. It only takes him a moment before he decided to accept the soup, and says something in reply that in his mind confirms they’re dating and that he likes Katsuki back.

Katsuki is slightly confused by whatever he said, but shrugs it off because Shouto is clearly still sleepy and kinda weird in general so he just assumes it was a compliment/gratitude for the meal.

After that, the half-relationship ensues.

That morning, Shouto walks with Katsuki to school. Katsuki allows it ‘cause he knows Shouto had a rough night. Sure, Shouto is walking awful close to him, but whatever, the guy’s still half asleep. The relationship confusion isn’t helped by the fact Shouto isn’t great at romance in general, and he doesn’t want to overwhelm Katsuki. He starts hanging out with Katsuki a lot, and Katsuki’s kinda confused by it?? But whatever? Guy’s not the worst company?

Sometimes it’s nice to study with someone who actually knows their shit. Katsuki ends up making Miso for Shouto most mornings since Shouto asked him to nicely, and what the hell, he does actually enjoy cooking. Shouto starts inviting him places fairly regularly? Just the two of them? Weird, but Katsuki figures that Shouto just wants to explore these places without Izuku being super over the top. They’re all places he wanted to go anyways, so it’s fine by him.

The first time Shouto kisses him is maybe a month in to the ‘relationship’. They’re sitting on Katsuki’s bed working on homework, there’s sunlight streaming in through the window, and Shouto looks up to see Katsuki smiling faintly as he slowly makes his way through a problem, pencil moving to the slow beat of the study music Katsuki has on. It’s transfixing and he stares for nearly a full minute before Katsuki finally catches on, and Shouto just wonders how he got so lucky. Katsuki looks up at him and raises an eyebrow, before he can say anything though, Shouto asks,

“Can I kiss you?”

Katsuki is totally taken aback and confused because if it was anyone else, he’d think they were making fun of him or making a move on him or something. But Shouto has always been weird and doesn’t really get a lot of social boundaries/rules. Shouto sees he’s hesitating so he quickly adds,

“I’ve never kissed anyone before, but I think I’d really like to now.”

Because he’s also bad at social situations, Katsuki takes that as a ‘oh this is a practice kissing sort of thing’ and he shrugs and says,

“Sure, why not?”

The words have hardly left his mouth before Shouto leans over and kisses him softly. It’s a bit awkward, but surprisingly nice. Katsuki’s a bit confused by the motive behind it, but they go back to their homework afterwards so he assumes that’s that. After the first time though, Shouto starts requesting more kisses and other forms of contact. Not too often, he’s being very respectful of Katsuki’s need for personal space and avoiding any PDA. He never asks for a kiss in public, and they don’t do handle holding either b/c of Katsuki’s quirk, but he finds other ways to be sweet. Mostly it’s little stuff, Shouto sits next to Katsuki when he can. Shouto makes sure to invite Katsuki along (and help Kirishima convince him to come) to group stuff. When they study or hang out together, he’ll lean up again Katsuki. Sometimes he’ll rest his head in his lap or convince Katsuki to do the same.

All of this is weird to Katsuki, but it builds up slowly enough that he’s able to rationalize it as Shouto’s lack of social skills/touch starvation/need for affection and he can justify indulging it for the same reason.

About two months in, Katsuki realizes he has a crush on Shouto and Panic follows promptly. He’s got a crush on the guy whose so socially inept that he’s kissing Katsuki even though they’re barely friends, and Katsuki has No Idea how to ask him out. Plus he’s 99% sure Shouto would say no if Katsuki asked him out. Obviously there’s no way Shouto would want to go out with a guy like him? Right?

Meanwhile, Shouto is so happy with how their relationship is developing. Katsuki will train with him, lets him steal kisses and little forms of affection, and is usually willing to go almost anywhere for a date. While Katsuki usually won’t initiate contact and never initiates kisses, he has started planning out dates for them and sometimes he’ll do soft/small forms of contact when they’re alone. It’s just such progress from where they started ,and Shouto is honored that Katsuki has grown to trust him this much.

By this point, Shouto has told the entire Dekusquad about them dating. However, the Bakusquad has absolutely no idea, though Kirishima does know Katsuki has a crush. Izuku is the only one who vaguely is worried Katsuki might not be so on board with dating Shouto. But even he has to admit, there’s no way Kacchan would mistake kissing for anything but romance. The entire Dekusquad has sworn to not tease or even ask Katsuki about it, because Shouto’s really scared of Katsuki ending up ashamed and calling the relationship off. He also asks them to keep it quiet, because they’re not really ready to be public yet.

Jirou has heard Shouto is dating Katsuki from Momo, she has also heard that Katsuki has been making friends with Shouto from Denki. After asking Katsuki a few vague questions, she figures out exactly what’s going on. She then decides in true Chaotic Lesbian Fashion, she’s not going to do shit about it and instead she’s going to fan the flames as best she can.

Somewhere in the 3rd month there’s a fake dating plot-line. Namely, Shouto asks Katsuki to some formal + fancy event as his plus one, even though Shouto really doesn’t want to go because his father will be there. Shouto asks Katsuki if it’s okay for him to tell his father that they’re dating, mentioning that it’s going to piss him off. He also warns him that the if they do go together, the public might find out. Katsuki misunderstands the request, thinking Shouto wants him to pretend to be Shouto’s boyfriend for the event to piss off Endeavor. After all, who could be a more ridiculous and inappropriate boyfriend for Shouto than him? Clearly, he has to say yes. He’d never pass up a chance to piss off Endeavor. Sure it’d be weird if the public finds out, but he doesn’t really care what people think, and they can always fake a break up or whatever.

They go to the event and Katsuki is juggling his crush and being an obnoxiously perfect Pretend Boyfriend to Shouto so Endeavor can’t start shit. All while Shouto is having a very nice evening with his Real Boyfriend and also pissing off his father. Katsuki is even extra affectionate and down with PDA that night! It’s a closed/smaller dinner event so none of this leaks to the general public, so Katsuki assumes it was a one time thing and things go back to “"normal”“ afterwards.

By the 4th month, Katsuki is slowly trying to work up the nerve to ask Shouto out, and Shouto is slowly starting to plan for Katsuki to meet his mother. Then  there’s some villain attack and Katsuki gets mildly injure. Honestly, he’s more disoriented than he is hurt. Regardless, Shouto swoops in to help him, very worried for his boyfriend. Seeing this, the villain taunts Katsuki about needing his boyfriend to save him.

Katsuki spits back, “He’s not my damn boyfriend”

And Shouto is S H A T T E R E D.

Why on earth would Katsuki say something like that??? Izuku and Uraraka are nearby and super upset to hear that tooo.

Katsuki launched himself back into the fight by this point, takes out the villain and rejoins the group But? All of them seem to be mad about something?

They arrive at UA after a tense journey back in silence and Shouto confronts Katsuki in the common room. He says he’s trying not to be upset but Katsuki had said he was okay with being out to the public (he had asked about that for the dinner event) and he doesn’t understand why Katsuki had to respond with so much venom?? Is he ashamed of Shouto??

Just about everyone is there for this argument. The Dekusquad is pissed off because they think Katsuki is being an asshole to Shouto. The Bakusquad is trying to figure out what the hell kinda drugs Shouto is on and where can they get some.

Katsuki takes like a minute to process what Shouto’s saying and his brain just turns into a super mario question block ???

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You said I wasn’t your boyfriend when you were facing down that villain!”

“You aren’t???”

Shouto of course takes this the wrong way,

“So you’re breaking up with me? Why?!”

“I can’t be breaking up with you, we’ve never dated?!!”

“Do these last four months mean nothing to you?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Finally, Jirou takes pity on them and steps in to stop this from turning really ugly.

“Hey, Todoroki, I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding. When do you think you and Katsuki started dating?”

“Four months ago, he asked me out!”

“And Bakugou? When do you think you started dating Todoroki?”

“I didn’t?? I never asked you out??”

And then the whole story slowly comes out from there with both of them being Dumb and Misunderstanding Things.