harukamitsuki

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What am I doing with my life?

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Sorry, I Keep Adding Onto This, But I Agree Completely.

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.

Sorry, I Keep Adding Onto This, But I Agree Completely.

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