Did Bakugo really hate Deku?
I know most people don’t think this but in my opinion bakugo never actually hated deku. Ever since they were kids, they had it instilled in them that a quirk made a person and having a strong quirk was basically what decided your place in society. There’s a reason bakugo became the leader of their friend group as kids – part of it was because he was so confident and capable, but because he had the strongest and flashiest quirk out of all of them, they naturally followed him because he was the strongest of them.
When it came to deku, they were definitely friends for a period of time, and we don’t know exactly when they stopped hanging out but we know it was sometime after they found out deku was quirkless. Now, bakugo always wanted to be the center of attention because he thrived on being praised for how cool and strong he was, but he specifically always wanted to be the center of deku’s attention.
He specifically wanted deku to tell him how cool and awesome he was and he wanted deku to be looking at him and not other people.
Even when they grew up and stopped being friends, when they started UA bakugo still always wanted deku looking at him. But the thing is, he was always looking at deku too. A part of this was probably because he was trying to figure out how deku had managed to hide his quirk from him all those years and then he started thinking deku had just waited for a moment to outshine him. But i think that another reason he was always watching him was because he wanted deku’s friendship back.
I think that bakugo always wanted to be deku’s friend but because deku was quirkless he felt like he wasn’t supposed to. Society told him that quirks were what made you great and since deku didn’t have a quirk it meant he was weak and useless and helpless.
This is what bakugo was made to believe and he was always someone who upheld society’s standards, the standard that put the strong at the top of the hierarchy and the weak at the bottom. So because the hierarchy divided them into strong and weak, i think bakugo felt like he shouldn’t be deku’s friend, and their “confrontation” at the creek really solidified that. Bakugo wanted to be the strongest so he wasn’t willing to accept any help from anyone, but especially not someone who was at the bottom of the hierarchy, who was supposed to be weaker than he was. So he took deku’s kindness as him looking down on bakugo and pushed him away
Then during the endeavor agency arc, we see this panel of fuyumi thanking deku for being shoto’s friend
I know a lot of people probably interpreted it differently, but i think the reason bakugo was looking at them here and pouting was because he wanted to be acknowledged as deku’s friend too. And we see this same pattern repeated several times, bakugo just looking at deku and watching him, almost like he wants to say something but can’t bring himself to. And my guess is that at this point he wanted deku’s friendship but he didn’t think he deserved it yet.
But moving forward to their training days, we find out that the reason bakugo actually pushed deku away because he was afraid of how selfless deku was. He could see that deku was willing to put his life on the line for others, but because he was quirkless (weak and helpless) it meant that his recklessness would just get him killed. This fear probably only got stronger when deku actually got a quirk that he could do something with, because now he had the means to jump into danger and get himself hurt.
These feelings didn’t just show up for bakugo in that moment. He obviously had them before, when he himself says that this was the reason he pushed deku away and bullied him. To me personally, this is all the proof i need to solidify that bakugo always cared about deku. he never hated him, he just hated how deku made him feel because bakugo was the first person who could clearly recognise deku’s heroic spirit and his willingness to put it all on the line for others, and that was something bakugo himself lacked.
When bakugo sacrificed himself for deku in ch 285, he did it instinctively and without thinking, because he cared for deku so deeply that he had to do something in that moment to help him. Those feelings of caring didn’t just suddenly appear in that moment, it was just that by then bakugo was aware and admitted to himself that he does care for deku and that his worried forhim.
But he obviously cared for him before too, because you don’t just do something like this for someone you kinda like. You do this for someone you love, for someone you can’t imagine being without.
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