Abigail!! It's Been Awhile Since I Drew Some Stardew Valley Fanart, So I Drew My Favorite Girl

Abigail!! It's been awhile since I drew some Stardew Valley fanart, so I drew my favorite girl 🦇

How do you feel about the fact that Katsuki’s apology and his death are not brought up again? I was really sad they never talked about it all. Do you have any headcanons for when/how/if they ever talk?

Dear anon, you've activated my trap card.

By which I mean you've asked me about something on which my feelings apparently vastly differ from those of most people.

To answer your question, I did not expect nor even want a scene addressing the apology again in-canon. Neither did I expect a scene where they discuss Katsuki's death, though I was less opposed to that.

But let me specify this right off the bat: there is a distinction between what I would enjoy seeing and what I think has narrative weight.

And I think that's fascinating to talk about. You asked me how I feel, so get ready!

When people say they wish Katsuki and Izuku had talked about his death, what are they wanting?

Do they want to see Izuku get vulnerable and choked up over Katsuki, shed tears for him? Do they want to see Katsuki see him like that, and watch him soften and let Izuku open up? Do they want to see him take Izuku's hand and comfort him, reassure him that they won, that it's over, that he's still here, and no one is gonna keep him from getting back up again? With the implication that getting back up again means standing at Izuku's side and helping him win?

I sure as fuck do!

But do I think that kind of scene does something for the story, themes, and development of them as characters that what we actually got doesn't do? Not necessarily.

See, stories are not driven by what the audience wants to see.

Stories are driven by what the characters need.

Not what they want, what they need. Often, characters are denied what they want because it does not align with what they need, and this is the very premise of their struggle. Katsuki is a great example of this, because at the start of the story, he wants to feel superior to Izuku, but what he needs is to accept his own admiration of him.

Fanworks exist to give the audience what they want, in a vacuum, totally separate from the linear structure of the narrative. You can just pop into a scene of Izuku crying and have Katsuki kiss him better and that gets us every time, doesn't it?

But in the manga, for a scene like this to exist, there has to be a need for it to address. So, what would that need be?

I think people ask for these scenes because they are under the mistaken impression that Katsuki doesn't understand how Izuku feels about him. And I cannot tell you how much I disagree with this.

If Katsuki didn't understand that Izuku cares deeply for him, then a scene like what I described would probably be intended to tell the audience that he needs to understand how Izuku feels and, up until now, he hasn't.

But that's not true.

Katsuki knows Izuku cares about him.

At the start of the manga, Katsuki is convinced Izuku looks down on him.

Chapter 10

We the audience understand this is projection. Katsuki's admiration of Izuku makes him feel inferior, so he rejects his own self-critical feelings and assigns them to Izuku. No matter how many times Izuku shouts that he thinks Katsuki is amazing, Katsuki's inferiority complex is unfazed.

He utterly ignores it, it doesn't even register for him.

Chapters 10 and 119

Instead he doubles-down on his own frustration and dissatisfaction with himself, engaging from a point of competition, as though Izuku had insulted him rather than complimented him.

This tells the audience that the problem does not lie with Izuku, but with Katsuki himself. Izuku cannot resolve this situation with words, we've seen him try. Instead, Katsuki needs to change his own perspective.

After Deku vs. Kacchan 2, Katsuki accepts—begrudgingly and with great discomfort—that Izuku does not look down on him.

Chapter 120

Even though Katsuki reconciles this, that doesn't change the fact that he is weak. He needs to grow as a person and as a hero. Now, his struggle is not just about his self-perception, but also his real progress.

Chapter 209

We joke about Kacchan being a tsundere, because he is, but part of the reason he rejects Izuku's appraisal of his progress is because he still hasn't met his own standards yet. Katsuki admires Izuku and All Might so much; he knows what they are capable of, he sees the gulf between where he is and where they are, and he is fighting like hell to close that gap.

He won't be satisfied until he does.

Chapters 362 and 409

I've seen people talk about this moment like it is a revelation for Katsuki about Izuku's feelings.

Chapter 359

And, first of all, lemme just say that no villain has ever said a damn thing to Kacchan that he didn't already know.

Chapter 358

ShigAFO's comment does not exist to confirm Izuku's feelings to Katsuki. It exists to signal to Katsuki (and the audience) that ShigAFO knows how Izuku feels, and he is prepared to use it against them.

This is a threat. This is about instilling horror in us and bringing to painful fruition Katsuki's fears about being a weakness people can exploit to hurt Izuku.

But let's not bury the lede: Katsuki would not have these fears if he didn't understand that Izuku cares about him.

Chapter 82

Look at his face and tell me he doesn't know with every fiber of his being that Izuku would die for him.

You could argue that because Katsuki understands Izuku's heroic nature better than anyone, perhaps he doesn't consider Izuku's protectiveness of him unique. Maybe he doesn't understand that Izuku loves him specifically and, to him, this is simply an expression of Izuku's selfless, save-to-win mentality.

But that I counter with two points:

Katsuki is not dumb, guys. He is our most emotionally intelligent and self-aware character. We are shown on numerous occasions that Katsuki can read between the lines and understand someone's feelings without being told (unlike Izuku, who's a damn nerd).

The story arc of Katsuki and Izuku's relationship is predicated on the fact that Katsuki rejected Izuku, but they are both unable and unwilling to truly disentangle themselves from each other. This means that their interactions, across the whole of the series, generally focus on Katsuki accepting Izuku and his own feelings, thereby restoring their relationship. To do this, he needed to both accept himself and better himself.

As a result of the second point, the focus is not on Izuku demonstrating his love for Katsuki as the bridge of change. The fact that Izuku loves Katsuki and wants him in his life is indeed highlighted frequently, but it is often treated as a given.

I've said it before: Izuku's feelings are not the ones that change the most, Katsuki's are.

Now you might say, "Maybe Katsuki doesn't need to hear Izuku's feelings, but Izuku might still need to say them!" And you're right, that is a possibility! Even if it is a given to the audience, there could be something that suggests Izuku saying these feelings out loud would be significant or change something between them.

But that's not what the series tells us.

Izuku does not hold back about the way he feels for Katsuki. Whether he is calling Kacchan a stupid jerk or saying he is amazing, Izuku is not subtle about what he thinks—in fact, these are often his most raw, unfiltered character moments, and they are significant.

Chapter 119

The only significant time Izuku does not tell Katsuki how he feels is his image of victory moment at the end of DvK2.

Chapter 120

My conclusion about this is that Izuku has felt conflicted about his own behavior and thinks Katsuki would reject him if he knew about it, so he chooses not to bring it up.

However, there is still a narrative purpose of showing us this thought, and that is to demonstrate that while Izuku may feel conflicted, ultimately he still accepts his own feelings. Regardless of whether Katsuki accepts him or not, the way Izuku feels won't change, and he's not sorry about it.

This moment exists for a lot of reasons, but chief among them is so that we the audience can see the true shape of Izuku's heart.

And what we see is that he loves and admires Katsuki, no matter how he acts or even what kind of person that makes Izuku.

I liken it to Katsuki's All Might card moment.

Chapter 362

Listen, I would have loved to see my explody boy get his autograph, but the greatest impact of this scene is not in the question of whether he will get one, that's just the tragedy lying on the surface as we witness his death.

No, the most meaningful part of this moment is in how it makes the audience truly understand that he still longs for it, even after all these years.

I wanted Izuku to tell Katsuki he is his image of victory, but the fact that it doesn't happen signals to me that Izuku ultimately didn't need to say those words out loud for that moment to matter. Izuku reconciled the discomfort he felt about admiring Katsuki and embraced his positive feelings for him, and that's pretty damn important.

I can and will indulge in fandom to meet my heart's desires, and that's excellent. But rather than simply feeling disappointed by canon material, I think it is more interesting to allow both what happens in the story and what doesn't inform my understanding of it.

I have been planning an in-depth post about the apology and what I think people are missing when they say Izuku "didn't respond" to Katsuki, but let me just lightly touch on my objections to that line of thinking.

Many people in the English-speaking audience appear to have a very narrow range of actions they consider a "response," and allowing someone else to act upon you for some reason does not seem to count.

If you frame interactions only by what Character A does to Character B and see Character A as the only active participant, you are missing out on a lot.

For example, Katsuki catches Izuku, and we see that as a demonstration of his love, as we should.

But how is Izuku allowing himself to be caught not an action that expresses his feelings? How is the fact that he responded to an apology with his own apology not indicative of how he wants to connect to Katsuki in this moment? How does it not convey what he feels for Katsuki, what he has always felt for him?

Furthermore, I see a lot of people take for granted how silence is a choice, and it carries meaning. Much like with what does and doesn't happen in a story, there is meaning in what people say and what they don't.

Japanese as a language values indirectness; it is not a bug, it is a feature. This is partly to avoid forcing yourself onto others and causing them discomfort, but another part is trusting others to understand who you are and how you feel without beating them over the head with it.

But you'll have to wait for my full post to hear the rest of that idea.

I dunno if this is what you were expecting out of your question, anon, but I hope you enjoyed the ride all the same!

🌝

I heard that the japanese fans saying that bkdk was implied is it really true? Can you please explain?!! (I was pretty happy with the ending already, but if it's true I would be ecstatic 🧡💚💖)

I'm not really sure how to answer this. First, I'll direct you to this ask I answered previously about bkdk in the Japanese fandom.

And if you're talking about the same tweets from jpn fans I saw getting shared around, the majority of the comments clearly used emojis, euphemisms, and algorithm-disrupting nicknames for Katsuki and Izuku, which kind of immediately suggests the user is already a bkdk fan. So, I mean... do you go into shipping fan spaces, see people shipping, and decide that means everybody thinks those characters are dating? Probably not, right?

But now that we've got an ending, lemme say outright that bkdk is implied by the base structure of the story. By the characters' thematic arcs. By their words, values, goals, and actions. Regardless of what language they speak, no reader can walk away from MHA without understanding that Izuku and Katsuki are profoundly important to each other.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Izuku loves Katsuki. And by the end of his character arc, there is no way to read Katsuki's actions towards Izuku and not see love, either. The exact nature of that love is up to individual interpretation; this is common for stories outside the romance genre that have complex character relationships, and I encourage you to feel secure in your own reading without external validation.

But if you want to talk about validity, the fact that we don't see either of them say the words "I love you" out loud does not diminish a romantic interpretation.

Just for fun, let's talk a bit about some important history of "implied" romance in shonen manga.

(Spoilers for Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2.)

Takahashi Rumiko, one of the most successful and influential manga creators of all time, famously ended two of her heterosexual romantic comedy plotlines while denying readers a spoken, reciprocated "I love you."

In Urusei Yatsura, Lum spends the entire series actively pursuing Ataru and in the finale, she threatens to erase everyone's memories of her and her fellow aliens if he does not tell her he loves her. The situation makes it impossible for him to win and stop the memory erasing without saying it.

And he still refuses to say it.

He keeps trying to win and avoid losing his memory without saying it; she recognizes his devotion to her when she sees that all this time, he has been carrying something that reminds him of her.

Oh, look at that. I wonder who else spent a long time holding fast to something that represents the time they spent with their loved one?

Lum finally relents and allows Ataru to win, so everyone keeps their memories.

Each of them affirms the intention to be together forever, without using the words "I love you."

WOW I WONDER WHO ELSE WANTED TO BE LOCKED IN A COMBATIVE ENTANGLEMENT OF PURSUIT WITH THE PERSON THEY LOVE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

In Ranma 1/2, Ranma and Akane have been engaged to be married for the whole series, and at a pivotal moment, Ranma thinks the words "I love you," though he does not say them aloud.

Afterwards, Akane finally agrees to let the wedding take place with this as her reasoning:

And Ranma completely objects to having admitted this.

Akane is fucking right, fyi--ignoring everything else that happens in the series, Ranma rescuing her and crying over her injured body while yelling her name might as well be a confession.

Due to ensemble cast chaos, the wedding is postponed again at the end of the manga.

It is worth noting that these series are both in the romantic comedy genre, so their plot devices surrounding love are much more explicit, even if the final execution toys with our expectations. It makes the characters' real feelings obvious while keeping them true to their nature, because that's the core appeal of the relationship to begin with.

As I said, in manga that are not romances, these bonds are often more subtle.

When I said 424 was as good as a confession to me, this is part of why.

Katsuki says he thought they would be together for the rest of their lives. Izuku promises what he can, which is the time he still has the embers of OFA. He may think Katsuki is simply mourning a future where Izuku has OFA, which he can't get back.

In direct response to that exchange, for our finale, we find out Katsuki spent eight years arranging for Izuku to be a pro hero without OFA.

Katsuki beckons Izuku to his side, using the name that used to be an insult, but has since become Izuku's hero name. He reaches out his hand to Izuku, which the reader knows he has wanted to do for so long.

The last image we see might as well be them skipping off into the sunset together, side by side.

Am I supposed to see that as something other than love, just because all their friends are there, too? That seems kinda silly to me.

MHA emphasizes the collective, but that doesn't diminish the individual bonds within it. It goes out of its way to tell us this moment is possible because of Katsuki, because he wants Izuku beside him. We may not get our handhold here, but it is plain to see that Izuku accepts his invitation.

I'm not saying Horikoshi was directly inspired by Takahashi, but her works are an important piece of the narrative language of love within the shonen genre.

Art always reflexively harkens back to what came before it. Whether the creator intends it or not, the audience is reminded of what they've seen before in the cultural landscape of media. Whether or not Horikoshi intended for us to see bkdk as romantic is simply irrelevant to how any given reader is going to see it.

So, if you want permission to think Katsuki and Izuku are in love, you've got mine. tumblr user bakuhatsufallinlove sanctions this epic gay love story. Plus Ultra. You're welcome. <3

Somebody asked about my perspective on the bullying aspect of bkdk, so.

I want to talk for a minute about bullying in Japan. I mentioned in this post that Japanese people are generally socialized to avoid direct confrontation. This means people may not intervene in bullying or public mistreatment; there is also an element of social shame in being singled out. A teacher or concerned adult interfering with bullying may end up making things worse for the bullied child, because now, the child is a victim, separate from everyone else in the class, and they may end up being shunned by their peers (ostracization is also a common form of bullying).

Peers may also fear retribution for objecting. You see this in English-speaking countries as well, where a bullied child being defended makes them and any peer who objects a “weakling,” a “kiss-up,” “tattle-tale,” “teacher’s pet.” In fact, often a whole group gangs up on the victim and participates in bullying. We see this in the very first chapter of MHA, Katsuki mocks Izuku for wanting to take the U.A. entrance exam, and the entire classroom laughs and sneers at him.

Additionally, sometimes the non-confrontational approach and no-singling out incentive also mean that everyone in class just kind of pretends that the bullied child is “In on the joke,” and they laugh along or do not object. Onlookers may view the mistreatment as a private issue between the bully and the bullied that they must resolve on their own.

No culture has a solution for bullying. We all use our cultural context and our personal beliefs to discern how to respond, and this often manifests in unhealthy ways. In the US, a young boy protagonist being bullied in school and “learning to fight back” is an extremely common narrative. The lesson from American culture is that we must defend ourselves, even with violence—that learning to hurt other people is necessary and part of “becoming a man.” In Japan, a collectivist culture, the lesson might be closer to “don’t stand out and don’t bother others.”

I highly recommend everyone read this article about ijime in Japan.

Note the statistic that two thirds of all Japanese children report being bullied. Simultaneously, nearly half (46.9%) report having both been bullied and also bullying others. MHA takes place in a fictional Japan, but it is worth knowing that this is how things are in the real-world society MHA is published in. Suicides related to bullying are a prominent topic and the Japanese Ministry of Education has been trying to reduce bullying rates for years. Bullying is understood as a serious problem, but it is also known to be very common, something many people both experience and perpetuate.

Now, let’s talk about how Izuku personally feels about the way Katsuki treated him.

Izuku has an extremely strong sense of self. He is a determined, stubborn person, and we know this to be true even before he gets OFA: despite the entire world telling him he cannot be a Hero because he is Quirkless, he still plans to enroll in the Hero Course at U.A., even before he meets All Might. Since nearly all villains are going to have Quirks, this is… a horrifyingly dangerous path to walk, but Izuku does not care and is not dissuaded. Katsuki says that Izuku has always been self-sacrificing and not taken his own safety into account—this comment and the river memory suggest to me that this trait is unique to Izuku as a person and his own convictions, so I don’t think it is the result of Katsuki bullying him.

Izuku also sees Katsuki and his actions clearly. He doesn’t hesitate to describe Katsuki as an awful guy (嫌なやつ, iyana yatsu, you could even translate this as “asshole”); he notes Katsuki’s terrible qualities and his continued path down the road to being “bad.” In Japanese, he insults Katsuki several times with バカ野郎 (baka yarou, stupid jerk). Izuku has never been in denial about what Katsuki is like.

Izuku says during Deku vs. Kacchan 2 that normally, nobody would hang around a person who insults them all the time. He acknowledges all the bad parts of Katsuki, but then insists that Katsuki’s brilliance, his amazingness, is even stronger. Izuku sees all these incredible things about Katsuki more than he sees his terribleness.

Izuku has known Katsuki since they were little, since before Katsuki’s Quirk manifested. Katsuki was a cocky kid who liked to show-off, but he was not a bully until he manifested his Quirk and was suddenly exalted for his “incredible power,” while also developing his whole inferiority complex about Izuku being “better” than him. Izuku knows Katsuki has good inside him and that being an arrogant bully is not all there is to Katsuki, because he has seen it firsthand.

In my opinion, if Katsuki’s behavior is viewed by outsiders as a private issue between the two of them, then Izuku himself views it as Katsuki’s issue, not his own. “This is just how Kacchan acts.” Izuku is definitely hurt by Katsuki’s cruelty, but I do not believe that he internalizes this as a reflection on himself necessarily. I think Izuku has felt hurt and angered by Katsuki’s behavior because he hates that this special person he admires and cares about so much could stoop that low. We see this in chapter 62 when Izuku punches Katsuki for saying he’d rather lose than accept Izuku’s help—Izuku isn’t offended by the put-down, he is furious that his image of victory could be so petty that he would accept defeat.

Izuku had already forgiven Katsuki before chapter 322. I think Izuku never expected an apology, and in his own head, he didn’t really need one, because all he wants is to be able to stand next to Katsuki. Izuku wants to be the number one hero, so he does want to surpass his image of victory, but… he also just really wants to be with Katsuki. He wants to talk with him and spend time with him, he wants to fight by his side and see him be amazing up-close and personal. Because Izuku loves Katsuki. He just does. Whether you view it as platonic or romantic, it is pretty hard to say that the depth of emotion Izuku feels for Katsuki isn’t love.

For better or worse, as human beings we tend to forgive the people we love for things we would never accept from anyone else. We give the people we love second chances, and we see the best in them even when it is hard to, when no one else can. Izuku knows Katsuki has done unacceptable things, but he still sees Kacchan in there, and that matters more to him.

Both Horikoshi and Katsuki’s voice actor, Okamoto Nobuhiko, have repeatedly said that Katsuki was terrible and unlikable early in the series because of how he treated others, particularly Izuku, and that he is only became likable because of his humanity. Because he changes, matures, and tries to redeem himself. Horikoshi directly said that despite Katsuki’s character having improved, he still needs to apologize to Izuku, and in chapter 322, this is what we get.

That Izuku does not hold a grudge against Katsuki is precisely what makes Katsuki’s redemption so meaningful. The impetus behind Katsuki’s atonement is his own conscience. Sometimes, people forgive us even when they probably shouldn’t. They give us a second chance, even when we probably didn’t deserve one. Katsuki knows Izuku doesn’t resent him, but he wants to do right by Izuku, and that means being a better person, being there when Izuku needs him, protecting Izuku when no one else will. It means admitting what he has done and truly apologizing for it.

I wanted to talk about the severity and frequency of bullying in Japan not to downplay Katsuki’s actions, but to emphasize that this is both a societal issue and a personal one. If people believe that Katsuki can never atone for the cruel things he did as a little kid and a middle schooler, if you think he will never be anything but a bully, then… half of the population of Japan is also irredeemable. How are young people in Japan supposed to feel if the moral of Katsuki’s story is “once a bully, always a bully”?

If we can’t see value in the redemption of a fictional character from a story about prejudice and social inequality, how can we forgive real people for their mistakes? Nobody has to like Bakugou Katsuki as a character, but I do find the way his story is talked about pretty troubling.

MHA is fundamentally about discrimination and social strife: Who is a villain? Who is a hero? When the world treats us a certain way, are we to blame for how we react? Do you turn a blind eye to people who are inconvenient to you, who you think don’t belong in society, who seem irredeemable? How can we even begin to change a world like this?

Izuku says repeatedly that having done wrong does not mean you can never be good again. Atonement is not denial of wrongdoing; it is the resolve to make restitution and do right by others. This is why Katsuki’s story is important, and why his bond with Izuku is both well-written and genuinely beautiful.

I don’t know why people see Sebastian as this cool bad boy I just see him as a antisocial loser who has a cool motorcycle 😔