I find it surprising when I see some Bkdks defend 431 and think "hori is on our side" and "hori gave us hints for romantic bkdk", because horikoshi literally went out of his way and brought up two of our biggest and most accepted headcanons from back then, like hcs even some dudebros weren't opposed to, and turned them into a joke and rejected them. (1. bkdk agency, 2. Katsuki being weirdly special to izuku)
Romantic bkdk? That chapter even ruined their rivalry and the bond they had. It Took away any specialty the relationship had. The relationship was always the center of the series, the two pushing and inspiring the rest of the class, save and win plot line, the two being two halves of all might, the two sharing goals and pushing each other towards it, and the conclusion of that should have been the two having a specific type of impact on society, as a duo, as successors of all might.
In that chapter, all of that is gone. The relationship is treated like a side note, not the main focus. They go supposed separate ways in a disrespectful manner, where one's ideals and heroism are humiliated and he's portrayed in a bad image.
Big part of their relationship in the manga was about how their ideals of heroism clashed and there was progress on it and finally in final war they reached the "their feelings became one". But at last chapter is "hahaha forget about it, they go seperate ways". And while Katsuki is protecting and carrying the AM card that symbolized all might legacy, Izuku only look at it with nostalgia in his eyes, like sth in the past. I'm sorry but you can't write a character in a certain way the entire manga and then suddenly at the end be like "well he chose a seperate way" it needs buildup. The "well people change" NEEDS BUILDUP. you can't do it last minute and expect the audience to simply accept it. And buildup should start sooner than just epilogue.
And the rivalry? Izuku haven't reciprocated any interest in rivalry since dark deku arc where he became the strongest off-screen. Since then, every time Katsuki brings up the rivalry, Izuku either doesn't say anything or just laughs. That's all. So idk why hori would even force Katsuki's ending to be still wanting the one-sided rivalry.
The problem is you see it through romance goggles (which obviously isn't hori's intention, he literally said he never focused on romance), when if you see it through main duo/main rivals goggle, you realize how badly it was written.
mc and deturgenoist not having a single talk since season 3 after everything they went through together is ridiculous. And when you let them talk, you still make them have miscommunication problems and insert a 3rd party to translate it for them. And even worse, the talk doesn't address the unresolved stuff between them, it's some words that would be used later for mc's last minute romance. There are still so many unresolved stuff between them and the main relationship of the series did not get a conclusion, because the author just was on a rush and wanted to give the story a Shonen ending, lol.
Ppl are like "but they still are friends and can rival when they're patrolling together", well congratulations on them having the same relationship Katsuki has with oijiro. They're the main duo ffs, they deserve better.
And finally, you do realize how homophobic it would have been looked if hori actually had romantic intentions in thsoe scenes? Specially how it ended and some characters were treated. Seriously just think about it.
Aslo there are so many things wrong with how characters are written in that chapter, it's extremely inconsistent with teh arc they had in main series. It's not just a one chapter thing, you should consider all chapters and see if it makes sense for characters to behave like that or not.
prguitarman
theartofmadeline
dailybridgerton
amandla
titsay
