Marc Ombre

It’s the way Bakudeku is the origin and onus for most of MHA’s themes and motifs: handholding/reaching out for someone, childhood imagery, redemption and goodness within villainy. Our introduction to all these things in the show is BkDk. With BkDk as a consistant source of compelling writing, I think it was a great idea to start shifting the overall plot towards these ideas they embody.

Oddly enough, I like the MHA epilogue from a Bakudeku context (but from that context only). It really strongly serves a romantic reading of their relationship. In the chapter that alludes to Izuocha getting together we have Bkg getting rejected by Dk in a scene that is meant to directly relate to the Izuocha one. The way the two of them can know each other so well, can know what the other is thinking by a look in the eye from miles away, and yet in the car scene are separated by a physical wall and require an intermediary to properly communicate. This to me relates back to how Dk is canonically oblivious to love and romance (spoken through Bkg’s very words in calling him a damn nerd). This sort of confusion and rejection between the two of them being the ending point of their relationship frankly seems incomplete. As though an ending in which they aren’t romantically together is meant to be incomplete. And it would be so easy to give them a happy platonic ending in this chapter where Dk just doesn’t reject Bkg (Bkg doesn’t even need to invite him to join anything), so the decision feels intentional to me.

Something I love about bkdk’s relationship is how Bkg had signaled Dk out of the bunch even before their quirks/lack of quirk were revealed and before the creek moment as well. Bkg’s childhood psychology to me reads as him constantly being praised by everyone for how talented he is next to Dk who has none of that talent. He doesn’t understand how Dk can be so bad at the things so innate to Bkg, and what’s more he doesn’t understand why he feels inferior to an untalented kid. Even before the moment where Dk reaches out to him Bkg could sense and see some level of heroism in him that had him wanting to challenge him as it was a heroism he didn’t have. Oddly enough, Bkg saw Dk’s potential from the very beginning and it was so potent he was terrified by it. I like what this means for their dynamic and Bkg’s development as well as how Bkg’s fear affirms Dk’s potential from the very start of the show.

I like to imagine Deku’s blackwhip is physically incapable of hurting Bakugou. Like if he were to have a freak out moment like when the quirk first awakened and Bkg was around the quirk would fully avoid and go around him even while it’s lashing out mindlessly. I’m just rocking off of how in tune blackwhip is with Dk’s emotions and how it only ever goes ballistic in the canon when Bkg is involved and hurt in some way.