I... I Need It

I... I need it

And that is the end of Season 1, folks! Ahh, it's been such a good time! I loved writing this season, setting things up for later seasons. I want to thank everyone who has been reading my rewrite, and for all your support!

Special thanks to CatGirlBeast09 and Username1232 for commenting so frequently! It really helped me find my motivation to continue it!

As of now, this is the first long fic that I've ever completed, and the longest! So I really am grateful that people have been reading and staying tuned for so long.

Now, I am planning to rewrite the rest of it, so fear not. This is not goodbye - I have a lot planned out. Season two is where we'll really see the canon divergances, where more new things are introduced, further character development, and things I just felt were missing from VLD.

I am planning to go back and edit the past chapter, specifically the ones written two years ago, so if you see that I've updated anything past chapter 20, that is why.

That's all. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you in the next installment!

Sorry, I keep adding onto this, but I agree completely.

Bakugou didn't experience any actual development. Maybe if Horikoshi acknowledged the emotional abuse, there could have been something, but as it stands, I wouldn't like that as it would enable the Bakugou stans. It would make them go, "See! See! I told you so!", while completely ignoring that he inflicted abuse onto Izuku.

I'm not going to sit here and compare people's trauma. That's wrong.

What I will say is that, again, you're completely right. Mitsuki doesn't seem to gain any pleasure from hurting Bakugou, emotionally-wise, whereas Bakugou did. He grins and laughs and feels powerful, and it's awful.

He likes beating down people who are already weaker than him, just to feel stronger. And there is nothing to convince me that he's changed from this. He still fights with a grin, not because he wants people to feel safe like All Might or Izuku do, but because he enjoys beating people up.

Like I said, the issue is the fact that people use 'he was abused' as an excuse, rather than a reason. I could accept it as a reason, something that influenced him to take such actions, but it's not. Every time this is seen in fanfiction, it's only there to make his abuse towards Izuku feel less, as though it suddenly doesn't matter just because he was abused.

What I'm fine with is: he was abused, but that is not an excuse. It's only a reason. He still should not be forgiven immediately, because that's not a reason to do so. We see this in canon with the League of Villains, like Toga who was psychologically abused by everyone around her. There is a reason as to why she turned to a dark area, but she is not forgiven. Her actions are not pardoned.

This is why I don't like Bakugou stans, and why I don't like people saying he was abused. If written well, I can stand it. But it's never written well.

There was a fanfiction where 1-A is hit with a truth quirk, and it looked really good. Bakugou was revealed to have bullied Izuku visciously for years, and the class reacted by isolating him, and Ochako is particularly upset.

It was going fine until Bakugou revealed that Mitsuki also visciously abused him, and suddenly everyone is okay with him. It's fine to be horrified by that, but then Ochako is painted in a bad light, and everyone forgets that he bullied Izuku.

(I ended up dropping it - I'm not going to say the name, because I'm not that mean or petty. I'm still petty, but not to that extent. If you know what I'm talking about, please don't reveal it. The writing was good, I just didn't like Bakugou enough to stay through that.)

A good example of the type of character Horikoshi wished Bakugou was, is Teruki Hanazawa from Mob Psycho 100. If you don't know, he's introduced a minor antagonist who used his psychic powers to bully people and keep himself on top. Because of his superior powers and strength, he held himself above people. He did this because he was bored. It's not shown as well in the anime, but you can tell in the manga how dull he percieved his life as.

It's not until he fights Mob, who doesn't fight back because he doesn't like using his psychic powers for such means. Hanazawa is confused and views this as Mob looking down on him. His ego can't handle this and he ends up going too far, choking Mob out to the point that he believes he killed him. His victory is hollow.

Then Mob reaches ???%. In his unconscious state, he gets up and his powers get out of control. Hanazawa is initially happy that he made Mob fight back, until he realises that he screwed up. Mob decimates him and he apologises for everything. Up in the air, he has this moment of clarity. The world is large and he is small. His power doesn't mean anything.

He apologises to Mob, and that's the end.

The next time we see him, he's admonishing someone for using their psychic powers willy-nilly. The best part of it: I can believe it. I can believe that, in the time we didn't see him, he internalised the message Mob sent to him. Being powerful does not mean you are strong. Protecting the weak, rather than holding yourself over them, is the mark of the strong.

It's a simpe yet powerful message that Bakugou could never portray, because his arc goes against this message.

'Save to win, and win to save,' is such a bad message. Because saving people should always come first. He'll prioritise beating the villian instead of the child three seconds away from dying because he has to win. His mindset hasn't changed. He started off only caring about winning, and he still only cares about winning.

He doesn't care about saving people, as is the message of heroism. He holds himself over the weak. He looks down on people and thinks 'I'm stronger than them.'

This kind of devolved into a seperate matter entirely, but I stand by it anyhow. Even if Bakugou's abuse was taken seriously, stans needs to realise that it's just a reason, not an excuse.

(Sorry for continuing this already long rant.)

I need Bakugou stans to realise that it's not that I hate him as a person. It's that I hate him as a character.

A lot of my favourite characters are unrepentant assholes, or assholes who are set to or have already been redeemed. Vegeta from DBZ, Ouma Kokichi from DGR: V3, Dio from JoJo, Laxus from Fairy Tail, Greed from FMA: B, Bill from Gravity Falls, and the list that goes on.

If a character is a terrible person, that's fine by me. But if the author tries and fails to redeem them, yet still acts as though they are suddenly this amazing person, that's when I have an issue with it.

Bakugou was originally written to be a minor antagonist, and that would have been fine, if Horikoshi didn't suddenly go "I drew him crying so imma fix him".

Redemption is such a complex yet simple thing to do. So when you try to do it and fail spectacularly, um, yeah, I do not enjoy that character or your writing.

That is my main issue with Bakugou. I do not think he deserved any redemption, not because he's a bad person, but because there is nothing to convince me that he could change.

He gets one scene where he goes, "boohoo I lost and everyone is stronger than me" then cries, and that's supposed to be enough for him to become a better person? That is nowhere near enough.

There was no moment that made me believe he genuinely regretted and took accountability for the abuse he put Izuku through in middle school.

"He changed!" That's not my issue. I don't care that he's changed. I care that I don't believe in it. If there was a plausible reason as to why he changed, then I would be fine with it. Maybe I'd even enjoy him!

The fact that he's changed doesn't mean shit if it's not believable.

"That was in middle school!" Okay. This one pisses me off the most. That was a year pre-canon? Oh, wow, I guess that's completely fine! It's not as if characters are the way they are based on their past. Oh, Itachi killed the Uchiha clan before canon! Okay, maybe comparing a massacre to bullying is a bit unfair. Still, just because it happened a year ago, it doesn't mean it never happened. It doesn't mean that he's changed considerably.

"Izuku doesn't have any lasting damage and forgave him!" And? Just because your friend forgives their bully, it doesn't mean you have to forgive them. And, again, I do not believe Bakugou's apology was good in anyway. He was trash-talking Izuku, blaming All Might for Izuku's behaviour, and didn't accept any culpability for what he did to him. He didn't tell anyone else what he did to Izuku. Also, if Izuku really didn't have any lasting damage from the bullying, then why did Bakugou's apology make him calm down? If he didn't care about the bullying, then why is he so relieved by the apology? BECAUSE HE WAS AFFECTED.

"Bakugou was being abused!" ... NO HE WASN'T!! Mitsuki is not abusive. Yes, she hit him round the back of his head. After he threatened her. Anyone with Asian parents can tell you that her hit does not hurt. Not only is it somewhat normal in Asian families, but it also doesn't hurt. We have no evidence that she is abusive. Horikoshi knows how to set up abusive families, as seen with the Todorokis. This not that. Either way, even if she was, being abused doesn't mean it's okay to abuse others. You can hurt without hurting others.

"It's the school and teacher's fault!" No, it's not. Part of the fault lies with them enabling him, but Bakugou is already fifteen when the series starts. His mother clearly doesn't agree with his attitude. The school is only partially to blame. Bakugou should have learned by himself what is right and what is not. In fact, he clearly does know considering he doesn't want any of that stuff on his records in case U.A. rejects him.

Again. I don't care if he's a terrible person. I care that he's a terrible character.

So the next time someone says that I'm stuck in Season One, take a moment and think about what you're saying. Bad people in fiction are entertaining. Bad characters are not.

toshinori's character was supposed to encapsulate the idea that 'not everyone can be heroes, but everyone has the capacity for heroism'.

maybe you can't be a hero without a quirk, maybe you can't be a hero with strength.

but it doesn't change the fact that everyone can be heroic.

after all might's retirement, toshinori goes through a bit of an identity crisis, wondering who he is if he cannot be all might. and aizawa tells him straight up that he does not need to be all might. all he has to be is toshinori.

stain further exemplifies this, when he saves all might and tells him that it was not his strength that moved him. it was his actions. the all might statue built had been defecated, and this upsets toshinori. it makes him feel as though he failed in being a symbol of peace.

yet, when stain tells him that people loved all might for his actions and what he stood for, not his strength, a single person goes up to that statue and cleans it.

all might may have died, but toshinori lives on and that is all he needs to do. all he has to do is be himself.

...

all this gets thrown out with iron might.

iron might goes against what his character was building up to be, what his character was going to say.

'not everyone can be heroes, but all can be heroic.'

by giving us iron might, it erases that first half. because, while quirkless, toshinori is able to fight on using this suit to mimic quirks. which, while i'd accept if izuku did this at the start, or if a different quirkless character did, is just not good.

the whole point of all might dying was so that toshinori could live on. he shouldn't have to fight after everything that he's already done.

toshinori dying would have been trash, but i wouldn't mind it so much if he died an honorable and heroic death, such as saving someone from an attack, maybe having a call-back to izuku's 'my feet started moving on its own'.

he wouldn't be a hero in that moment, but he would be heroic, and that is what his character was supposed to say.

his character was supposed to show us that. we were supposed to gather that, even if toshinori is no longer a hero, he is still heroic.

supporting others, trying to reach out to izuku in his dark hero arc, dong whatever he can to keep morale up.

iron might is cool and all, but it goes against his own narrative.

horikoshi, once again, did him dirty. he does so many character dirty.

Hello, I’m the anon that apologized for implying that Keith was “spoiled”

I wanted to come back and talk to you because I wanted to discuss some points!

I made my Keith statements without really explaining what I meant and I wanted to try again.

I don’t want Lance to be the black paladin and I just need to state that now. However, I also didn’t want Keith to reside as the permanent black paladin.

I know that his color palate and clothing have black in them but shiro is also all black. In my opinion I would’ve preferred Keith to be the substitute black paladin.

Ryou (the clone) should’ve never been able to pilot the black lion because he’s just a copy of shiros face not him. Making Keith stay within the team and allura going to red (because I really don’t know how they thought allura in blue was a good idea, love her but what?)

(I want Keith to stay with the team and not go to the blades as I would prefer the paladins sticking together)

(Also because the plot line for the altean colony is ridiculous)

I would’ve loved to see ryou find out he’s a clone along with the paladins and not just kill him off. I think it would’ve also brought some realization into Keith about shiro and such.

The way I think of the paladins and their relationship to the lions is that the lions physically created the paladins.

The reason why it took 10,000 years is because earth doesn’t have quintestance, so the lions had to basically build their paladins from the ground up by creating generations of humans with it.

Because earth doesn’t have it, it takes a long time until there’s finally enough for the paladins now!

Which is why I don’t think Keith should continue to be the black paladin. Because he belongs with red just as Lance in blue, pidge in green, hunk in yellow, and shiro in black.

and because Shiro never gets to go back to being the black paladin his character gets reduced to cardboard.

which is the reasoning for my initial comments that I couldn’t describe clearly.

I didn’t mean to come off as a black paladin Lance supporter or that Lance was the best option. Because he isn’t.

There are things with lances character that I feel as though could’ve been worked so much better. (I saw a previous post of yours discuss lances having altean markings and your so correct, honestly they feel like fan service since the fandom goes nuts with altean Lance and honestly I can’t understand why)

I’m far more a shiro fan. In all honesty he has done a lot for me. I don’t like that he was just meant to be thrown away.

I mean the writers created an entirely new character for crying out loud!! Shiro didn’t exist in the other versions. Technically he is sven but sven was always the blue paladin.

Shiro has obvious PTSD and has a genetic disease that needs his arm forcefully removed from him. He fights so hard for his lion and his teammates.

My feelings on Keith are in fact very biased but it feels like a lot of Keith’s character completely erases all of shiros.

With ryou and the paladins finding out that shiro is in the black lion i would’ve loved to see them search desperately to find where the clones were made to see if they could bring Shiro back.

My thoughts are a little all over the place I apologize for that.

Hello again!

This is a bit awkward because I basically agree with almost everything here so there's not much for me to dissect haha.

If anyone's been reading my past, PAST, posts, you'll have probably seen my post as to why Lance never should have went to Red, and why it should have been Allura. I can understand why Allura is Blue and Lance is Red in the ORIGINAL series, but this is a rewrite where the characters are basically completely different.

Which also means that, no, I will not be using the original series to back-up my belief that Keith is a great Black Paladin.

Like I said, I basically agree with everything you wrote, except that I didn't personally care for Ryou. I felt sorry for him and was kinda shocked when they just used his body for Shiro's soul, but I didn't care about him.

I do think it would have been interesting to see Ryou be a little stinker and try to manipulate everyone, due to him being a sleeper agent. Like, in canon, when Ryou apologised to Keith, he says "I'm sorry I had to step in there" instead of "for stepping in there". He's still putting the blame on Keith. He says sorry without truly saying it, if you get what I mean.

Then, one day, he goes a little too far. Like, I dunno, he calls Lance useless or Hunk cowardly or something, and Keith immediately goes: wait. That's not right. Suddenly, Keith's a lot less willing to take Ryou's 'advice' to heart and things pile up until he realises Ryou is a clone.

I think that kind of story line is much more interesting that what we got. Of course, if you care about Ryou and are horrified at his death, there are others ways. Ryou slowly learning he's a clone and hating himself until the paladins make him realise that it's not his fault and he can choose to be his own person. Heck, he kind of already is.

Of course, another option is just to not kill Shiro off? Like, put him in a coma or reveal that Haggar yoinked him from Black with quintessence magic and he's been captive this whole time. Keith would still have to pilot Black but, because Shiro isn't a clone, when he gets back Black opens up immediately.

The thing is, Shiro and Keith's style of leadership is different. Very different, meaning that they're suited to lead different kinds of things, with varying efficiency. What I think would have been cool to see is them changing the roster (Shiro leads, Keith in Red/Keith leads, Allura in red) depending on the mission. Which can mean that, if you decide to keep season eight for some reason, Shiro or Keith can lead them into the final battle. Shiro leading them might make more sense.

I've heard a lot of people say that Shiro is boring and it's like– why do you think that? I kind of wanted to see more of his character arc, wanted to see Keith, Coran and Allura take care of him when he's too high strung. I wanted to see him be there, actually there, when Pidge saves Matt. I wanted to see him accept that he may have been hurt, but he is not broken.

I think that those people who think Shiro is boring just weren't watching the same show, or only remeber him from season 7-8 where he does basically nothing. Season 1-2 Shiro are great. He feels so human, scared of the world but pushing himself through for the sake of others and to not seem weak. He makes bad gun noises, immediately denies Coran trying to feed him like a baby with "no. Just– no.", displays some dark humour when he's alone with Keith and bleeding out. He's terrified of being seen as broken, because that's exactly what he thinks of himself.

So. Yeah.

Either make Ryou more interesting or don't kill Shiro off. It would still let Keith become his own Black Paladin, and it would let the group change members depending on the situation, which would make it less jarring if Allura was the one to pilot the Atlus, as was originally planned.

I can understand why you believe Keith's character erases Shiro's. Because, in all honesty, it kind of does. Of course, that is mostly DreamWorks' fault because they just can't give Shiro any sort of happiness? Like, Keith has also been hurt over and over again, but at least Keith has his mother.

Shiro was supposed to gain the ability to teleport. HE WAS REPLACED BY KOSMO - HE WAS REPLACED BY A DOG. Shiro didn't even get to end Sendak! Even if I adore Keith, I was so baffled when Keith made the finish blow, because that was Shiro's fight! Shiro has nobody to go home to, only returning to find that his ex-fiancé is dead, and it's just– I know that gay characters tend to suffer the most, but come on DreamWorks! Give him SOMETHING!

From my perspective, I've always noticed the difference between Keith and Shiro's leadership styles, and just in general. But DreamWorks is so allergic to giving any of them anything, so they wrote in the Broganes bond, tore it apart, then played a darts game to decide their traits after Shiro's death. It makes it especially worse when they decide to make Keith go through development off-screen, so he comes back when he's become more mature like Shiro, but it gets no explanation so it feels like he was just given more of Shiro's traits.

Alas, we get no explanation, so it is jarring. Which is another reason why making Ryou unable to pilot Black, or Shiro still being alive, would have been much better. Keith had a point about leaving, but Shiro, the real Shiro, never would have let him leave, and Keith wouldn't leave if Ryou couldn't pilot Black.

I would still make it so that Keith stayed with BoM just for the sake of meeting Krolia, but nothing else much.

So. Yeah.

I do agree with basically all of this, only I wouldn't have Keith be just a sub for Black. I think he and Shiro should have used it interchangeably, or at least provide an explanation for why the real Shiro, the one who bonded with Black the most, couldn't pilot her.

AND SCREW KOSMO– GIVE SHIRO HE TELEPORTATION BACK! GIVE HIM HIS RELEVANCE BACK!!

(Sorry if there's any mistakes, I just woke up haha)

(Also, Keith's colour scheme fits Black more than Shiro's did, mostly because of the accent colours that Keith had. Other than that, yeah. I agree.)

It's really funny seeing all those 'ao3 is down' posts because it always happens when I'm fast asleep