#eos rambles

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD QUESTION AAA

fun fact, literally just - yesterday? the day before? i was rambling to a friend about an idea i had for Apollo getting. ah. sliiightly corrupted by Strand maybe. just a little bit.

Ari and Apollo would both be willing to use it, but my thoughts are that Ari has already HAD her Stasis corruption arc, so she'd probably know how to handle Strand. (Apollo never picked up Stasis, and even if he tried he would struggle with it exponentially.) with Strand, though...

i have so many fics to write/finish to fully clarify everything that's gone down but at this point in time Apollo has been through So Much Shit and has So Many Issues i feel like it WOULD be very likely that Strand could corrupt him. (i also am just. MUNCHING on the concept of how these corruption arcs could complement each other,,, Ari with Stasis and how Apollo saved her,,,, Apollo with Strand and Ari saving him,,,,, both of them only able to be tempted by the darkness in the first place because of how much they want to protect each other,,,,, the PARALLELS,,,,,)

obviously i don't know the specifics or lore of Strand yet, but until then? it's free real estate babey!!!!

But both of those things don’t work together. It can’t be some important, mutual rivalry of opposing natures because the relationship isn’t equal. it’s just making izuku responsible for his tormentor’s development- and in a class setting too where he has no choice but to take more abuse until he can reason with bakugou. For the final exams Aizawa says “they just can’t get along”, but that’s not the right thing to say- Izuku was always willing to put his problems aside to work with bakugou, and frankly it would be unfair to force izuku to work with his bully even if bakugou was cooperating. Instead, they make him be the one to teach his abuser at the risk of his own grades. Part of that may be excused by “well hero work just isn’t fair”, but that’s not how the narrative treats it- the story pretends it’s an equal affair and that’s what frustrates me

Then, when he’s not around izuku, bakugou is still an angry, mean person, but it’s in a setting with classmates who have no problem teasing him in turn and creating an equal environment and not taking his crap in general. Bakugou’s grown up enough (when not around the target of his childhood) and also lacks the power to bully anyone here and thus his bullshit is lighter, less hurtful and more funny. It’s the character that could have been Izuku’s angry self-declared rival in a story where he wasn’t a horribly vicious bully.