Mha Thoughtbunnies - Tumblr Posts
Eri’s princess’ guard
That was kinda uncool, Mirio. Especially coming from a senpai. Just look at this pained, fake laugh.
Inappropriate introduction of Monoma from Mirio aside, I like Monoma’s interactions with Eri because we get to see more of his character beyond its flanderization. During the sports fest, Monoma was quickly established as being a very observant and intelligent person... and then those traits got banned to the backseat in favour of his obsessive rivalry with 1-A.
Personally, I'm not too bothered by that shtick: I read someone's interpretation about how Monoma's "hate" of class 1-A, is just his love for 1-B that comes out in the most annoying way - but it's a pity, that the majority of his appearances got boiled down to mainly that.
However, Monoma has also been shown to be quite sensitive and considerate of other people’s feelings:
He elbowed Aizawa - a teacher who's well-known to be strict - when the latter phrased something in a very blunt manner, which might have made Eri sad. He's specifically the one who looked after Eri during the almost riot at UA's emergency shelters. Just like the rest of UA’s students, Monoma is a capable hero-in-training, and a good kid at heart.
Being around Eri gives him opportunities for his dramatics to find a more positive outlet, and to show a gentlemanly side worthy of his design.
Eri Claus' cuteness making people skedaddle over to her.
I found it very cute how Tokoyami’s eyes lit up, when Eri appeared at 1-A's Christmas party. There were five 1-A kids who came over to the door to greet Eri: Deku, Uraraka, Asui, Kirishima - all who were involved in the Shie Hassaikai raid - and Tokoyami.
I can see 1-A's resident emo-kid having a soft spot for children in general. But to me, his reaction here seemed almost like he and Eri had met each other before.
Ojiro, it's fine, really! Tokoyami will tell you that Eri's worthy of the sword's power.
Which makes me wonder about their first interactions: Eri is a very kind girl but she’s also a young child who was traumatized by thugs, who constantly wore plaque masks around her. On the other hand, the novels have shown Tokoyami to be a hit with another little girl, who got lost at the amusement park.
Tokoyami talks and carries himself like the plus ultra chunnibyou, but similar to Monoma, I can see his dramatic language being popular with young children. Tokoyami's also very kind and usually on the more patient side. I imagine he and Eri would've approached each other tentatively but became fast friends.
Tell me this isn't cute af.
To Eri, Deku and Mirio are her personal heroes and older brothers. But Monoma and Tokoyami are her fairytale prince and dark knight respectively.
...
And now I wonder about interactions between Monoma and Tokoyami. Monoma's 1-B vs 1-A shtick aside, I feel like those two might get along with each other well.
The girls of class 1-A
The pairs Uraraka and Asui, Yaoyorozu and Jirou, Ashido and Hagakure may be closest to each other each, but all of the girls get along with each other very well.
Yaoyorozu seems to be the most outwardly protective: She told the other kids to back off, when it seemed like Jirou might get pressured into singing at the cultural festival, without the latter wanting to. She also told the other girls off, when they were pressing Ochako about her crush.
Jirou displays similar protectiveness:
In Movie 1, she and Yaoyorozu gave poor Deku a bit of attitude, because Ochako felt distressed when they saw Deku with Melissa together. Yaoyaorozu and Jirou have also each hugged and comforted a crying Mina in separate instances (or because Hagakure does a shody job at comforting people? Jk jk).
Mina seems to be the heart of the 1-A girls and the most sensitive to all the crap that the kids have went through.
Mina’s hero training
Fanon often depicts Ashido with the Bakusquad (which personally, I think of as more of a Kirisquad). But aside from her bond with Kirishima, she doesn’t have many scenes with the rest of Bakusquad: She failed her practical exam with Kaminari, got herself invited by Sero to the boys’ room at camp, and tried to get Bakugou into Christmas gear…
His arms did end up inside the sleeves, so he did end up giving into peer pressure.
Horikoshi gave us one throwaway comment, that Ashido had Bakugou (and Todoroki) helping her with her new technique, in preparation for the final battle. I would have wanted to actually see that. I also headcanon an older brother younger sister dynamic between Ashido and Bakugou, because Bakugou could really need every single chill person, who’s willing to befriend him. And while Ashido already had her “great moment” in the war, more scenes of female characters receiving productive training would have been very welcome.
Imagine if she had more scenes training and fighting alongside the Bakusquad? Imagine acid-soaked tape that transports delayed electric shocks?
To have: Jammingwhey’s social intelligence
"...whaddaya doin', dunce-face?"
Horikoshi referred to Kirishima and Kaminari as class 1-A’s emotional cores. Out of the two of them, Kaminari flies more under the radar, due to lesser screentime.
How does Kaminari function as one of 1-A’s emotional cores?
Let’s start with a perhaps more unconventional example:
“Flaming crap mixed with garbage” is still one of the more creative insults that appeared in MHA. Alongside Asui, Kaminari took over the quite important job of making the shifting power dynamics between Deku and Bakugou visible:
Bakugou's unrestrained violence against Deku during 1-A's first team assignment, was enough to make the class lose respect for him.
While Bakugou is undoubtedly talented and powerful, he was also blind to the fact, that he was only a big fish in a small pond.
At UA, everyone used to be in the top of their middle schools. Some, e.g., Iida, came from much better schools than Bakugou himself.
Meaning, Bakugou had no reason to prance around the way he did - and it was at UA, where he got served his first humble pie ever: Firstly, Deku fighting back. Secondly, a show of Todoroki's power. Lastly, a very sober but cutting assessment of himself by Yaoyorozu.
In contrast to the kids at his old school - and aside from a traumatized Deku - neither Kaminari nor the rest of 1-A are afraid of Bakugou. Kaminari snarking at Bakugou is him letting Bakugou know that.
To repeat: At UA, everyone used to be in the top of their former schools.
I just feel taken back a bit, whenever fanon depicts Kaminari and Ashido as being dumber than bricks. The two of them are the academically lowest ranking students in class 1-A, of UA. Characterizing them as being overall stupid, is like saying the academically lowest ranking freshman at Harvard University is generally stupid.
Don’t get me wrong: At elite schools, there are many intelligent people - and plenty more dumb people, just like anywhere else.
But everyone who gets into the school, must've been smart and talented enough, in order to beat out the dozens of other applicants for one of the coveted spots.
Considering how real-life schools in Japan work, Kaminari too, was most likely in the top of his middle school: He casually references Hemingway, like he reads his stuff for fun... Which actually might be the case, because I don’t think that American author is commonly part of the curriculum in Japanese highschools.
Furthermore, Bakugou (ranked 3rd in the midterms) and Monoma (rated with a 5/5 in intelligence in the official data book) have canonically failed exams before.
In short: Just by themselves, academic scores don't mean jack shit, if you want to have an accurate picture of someone's intelligence and capabilities - not to mention, potential.
Whiny wannabe edge-lord Shinsou should be grateful that there are generously kind people like Kaminari. I wouldn't have the ducking patience.
Aside from letting a peer know that their crappy behaviour is unwelcomed, and next to the example above, Kaminari’s social intelligence also shines in other moments.
The light novels lampshade that trait at least twice:
When he makes sure to include Kouda, making room for the latter to voice his thoughts if he wishes too.
Another of the stories, narrates something along the lines of, ~he [Bakugou] had the feeling, that as long as Kaminari existed, Bakugou would never be alone.~
Kouda is one of the minor 1-A students. As such, he's often forgotten by the audience. But in-universe? They may not be close, but Kaminari Denki will never let anyone feel left out.
Even 1-A's snappy Pomeranian ends up appreciating him.
I mean, it starts with Kaminari running after Kirishima, who was following Bakugou. After a while, Kirishima and Kaminari trailed after Bakugou together. Since then, Bakugou has dragged Kaminari with him, and told the latter to "leave the rescue to the extras!" Thus, explicitly excluding Kaminari from 'those extras.'
And why wouldn’t you keep a good grip on such an awesome friend?
and have not: Jammingwhey's darkness
Kaminari has been portrayed as a light-hearted character, but I think there were a lot of interesting - and unfortunately lost - opportunities to explore the darker corners of his mind, similarly to what we got with Kirishima. We know that they exist, because we were shown a bit of his feelings of inadequacy, before he got his pointer shooter, and a bit of his fears, when we got the short ship scene between him and Jirou during the PLW. I appreciated those moments, but I would have liked to see much more of that.
Apparently, Kaminari seems to take a lot of comfort in Ojiro’s tail. According to BNHA’s wiki, he also confides in Ojiro himself. It isn’t known, what exactly he confides to Ojiro about. But apparently, Kaminari has some stuff to confide about...
For example, I was fine with Aoyama being the UA traitor. To me, that plotline did feel coherent. However, I’m also intrigued by fanon’s musings about Kaminari as the traitor. Especially the idea of Kaminari injuring Kirishima while fleeing, after he's accidently discovered by the latter. Juat imagine the potential of that drama! The KiriBakuKami trio being broken up! Bakugou feeling enraged and hurt! Jirou feeling hurt and enraged! The fallout of demoralization and emotional pain for all of 1-A!
Imagine a similar expression when !traitor Kaminari gets caught red-handed. And electrocutes one of his closest friends in order to escape.
I expected, then hoped for Kaminari' promotion to temporary main cast, similar to what Kirishima got during the Shie Hassaikai arc. Unfortunately, that hope remains unfulfilled.
...
I won’t get into the potential of his quirk because I’m not very well-versed in quirk-technicalities.
I do find this hypothesis from other fans convincing: At some point, Horikoshi noticed that the power potential of Kaminari’s quirk was too OP - which at some parts, could have broken the story. In order to prevent that, Kaminari never received any extended major screentime. In turn, we got deprived of Kaminari-focused character development.
Everyone, say "thank you, animators!" - A rare instance of Kaminari looking badass.
At the very least, I would have liked to know Kaminari’s motivations for going through rigorous training in order to become a professional hero. As far as I remember, we never learned about them.
Shouto and his adoptive sisters, part 1
I headcanon that Todoroki is especially protective of Uraraka (e.g. in Movie 1 he intentionally placed himself right in front of her) and Asui, because they remind him of his sister, who is both cheerful and caring, and to whom he couldn’t be close to in the past. Despite being the youngest Todoroki sibling, and the one who received the brunt of their father’s abuse, I think Shouto might still feel partly responsible for the distance between him and his siblings.
It seems like Todoroki joined Deku & co for lunch regularly, right after the back-alley trio returned from Hosu. I headcanon - especially since I've watched their background shenanigans in the BNHA stage plays (the plays are hilarious, go look them up on yt!) - that Uraraka started to uraraka-handle Todoroki around the place, just like she has been doing with Deku and Iida since the start.
And no, their friendship doesn’t consist of Todoroki buying her expensive shit with his father’s credit card. Todoroki was someone who rejected his father’s instructions for years, even though it would have benefitted his hero training greatly (makes 100 % sense from the emotional angle, and 0 % sense from a sheer utilitarian angle). I headcanon that he also refuses to ask his father for money for anything. Fuyumi took care of that, otherwise Todoroki might have just walked around in clothes that he's grown out of, just because he didn't want to ask the old man for anything.
I also don’t think that Uraraka would accept huge amounts of money/monetary gifts from her friends, no matter her own financial circumstances. Even - or rather especially - if she'd thought that Todoroki's spending his father's money on her to piss of the latter. I think Uraraka would have an outlook like, “Don’t do things mainly to oppose someone. Do things for yourself!” which redirects Todoroki’s actions away from his father but turns his focus towards himself.
Uraraka would grab Todoroki and their friends, and they would go to the nearest playground. Each of them teaches Todoroki how to play their favourite (and entirely free of costs) childhood games. The games he wasn’t allowed to play, when he was younger.
He will catch up on them now. Together with his friends.
...
In my mind, this was canon:
For sure, Uraraka's first impression of Todoroki is of him being an awkward oddball... which I headcanon is one of the reasons why she went out of her way to befriend him.
Shouto and his adoptive sisters, part 2
Would have loved to see an actual team-up between these two: The guy who thought his quirk works best without teammates around him, and the girl known for being one of the most versatile battle comrades you can have.
Asui is the older sister to two younger siblings. I headcanon that she talks to Todoroki like how she talks to them: Encouragingly and patiently, without any condescencion.
They got closer after Asui cried in front of him and the other kids, who sneaked away to Kamino. Todoroki was reeeally sleepy, but he still felt bad about having partly caused her distress, so he tried to talk to her more afterwards.
When the weather turns cold, Todoroki and Asui often end up sitting close to each other: First on the school bus, then anywhere else. Todoroki gets some comfort out of seeing how his fire side, which he had rejected for so long, can be helpful to others even outside of combat - be it to keep Dark Shadow obedient to Tokoyami, or to keep Asui from involuntary hibernation.
Headcanon: Todoroki intentionally chose the spot in front of Asui and Uraraka. He wanted Deku and Iida to join them but before they could, Aoyama and the other girls placed themselves around 1-A's pretty boy.
I saw a fan comic once, in which Asui brought Todoroki a cup of tea and he accidently refers to her as “nee-san”. I headcanon that this has happened more than once. Todoroki’s cheeks turned rosy the first couple of times. Then Asui asked that he call her “Tsu-chan”, and he felt even more embarrassed by that.
As such, Asui remains “Asui” when they are with others. She doesn't correct him, because when she’s alone with Todoroki-chan, she gets to hear “Tsu-nee-san.” Todoroki ends up calling her that nonchalantly. They also ignor that he's actually a month older than her. Considering how he doesn’t use honorifics with any of his other classmates, Asui feels rather special.
Todoroki really does emit youngest child vibes sometimes.
It seems like, barring Deku and Bakugou, most of Todoroki’s classmates didn't know anything about his family drama, until Dabi broadcasted it to the whole nation.
For example, I’m don't think Iida ever picked up on anything prior to Dabi’s dance. He's probably Todoroki’s closest friend (alongside Deku), and he cares a lot. But Iida also tends to be blind to emotional undercurrents. In one of the light novels, he accidentally pisses Todoroki off by telling him off for how he refers to his father. When he visited Todoroki in his room on Troy, he also made a well-meaning but misplaced comparison between their families.
However, a few of them did take notice of Todoroki’s complicated family life, e.g. Kirishima (Todoroki didn't hide much in BNHA's supplementary works). I headcanon that Uraraka and Asui were also among those, who at least picked up on the fact that Todoroki had grown up in a very strict environment. Thus, they tried extra hard to include him in their conversations and activities. This might have contributed to Todoroki warming up to the rest of the class much faster than he might have done otherwise.
Shouto and Fumikage: Cold Hams of 1-A
Tokoyami and Todoroki chillin' in the middle of rubble.
In one OVA Todoroki indirectly refers to the relationship between himself and Tokoyami as “friends”. It may not mean anything deeper than them being classmates, who care about each other’s well-being, but I like to headcanon that they do spend time with each other outside of class - be it in smaller than class-sized gatherings, or even one-on-one hangouts.
A closer look at this dynamic would have been great, because these two angsty drama kings have solid comedic potential together.
They would just repeat one sentence to each other over and over again. No one knows why they're doing this. It drives the rest of 1-A crazy.
Remember Tokoyami’s overdramatic declaration of leaving it in Todoroki's hands to make-up for Tokoyami's own loss against class B? And Todoroki’s confused, almost annoyed, “Why are you telling ME this?”
In the gag comics, Dark Shadow also takes on the form of a little girl. Apparently, on Dark Shadow's "list of likes", Todoroki ranks only second to Tokoyami himself, and she ends up "stalking" Todoroki for a bit. Todoroki doesn't mind this, and even seems to enjoy her company.
In short: We needed more interaction between Todoroki and Tokoyami.
I headcanon, that their comedy duo stage name would be "Cold Hams" - courtesy of Kaminari.
Otherwise Tokoyami would have named them "The Laughing Mad." Which would've still been better than Todoroki's suggestion: "TodoToko."
Why Tapeman is an awesome guy and a great hero
Class 1A-kids: "Sero is an obviously great influence on Todoroki and has a free pass to sass him for the rest of their lives."
I agree.
Seroroki is one of the more popular background friendships in 1-A, as it's heartwarming to see socially stunted Todoroki making friends.
However, it should also be popular, because their friendship is proof of what a cool guy Sero is:
Your standoffish, rudish classmate encased you in hundreds of meters of ice, just to unload anger, that had nothing to do with you.
In a world where impressing the crowd is almost essential if you want to make it as a hero, this turns you into a tagline, that will follow you.
You hold absolutely no grudge, you even befriend the guy = You heart is huge and open.
You also make it your duty to tape up the class pervert, in order to keep him from sexually harassing others = Your head is screwed on right.
...
Sero's skills don't fall into the same category of huge offensive fire power houses, like the New B3 have. But he's just as versatile as Asui, who is often held up as a great example.
My favourite examples of Sero's versatility are his team-ups with Uraraka: The two of them working together with Deku during the license exam, and then with Mineta during Movie 2, was really entertaining to watch.
One of my favourite music moments: "All Might with U. A. students" playing in 3x17. The notes were timed perfectly with Sero zooming across and Uraraka following up.
During the joint training with 1-B, praise was heaped upon Bakugou for doing the absolute minimum for team work to be possible.
Sero demonstrated quick and shrewd thinking. He should have deserved some of that praise for his observational and tactical skills.
Sero’s a great asset to have almost in any kind of team, or in any kind of environment. And definitely in any friend group.
Tapeman: Always ready to catch you!
The parents of class 1-A, and their favourite kids
Parenting is hard: Trying to keep their stupid impulsive kids from getting themselves killed.
Let's be real, while I can see parents usually loving all of their children equally, most don't like their children equally.
Iida and Yaoyorozu’s mutual favourite child is without question, Asui. She’s the kid who helps out with the other children the most, courtesy of being an older sister within her own family. Iida also listens to Tsu-chan-kun, whenever she tells/signals him smt like: ~Dad, it’s okay. The others aren’t toddlers anymore, they should do/know/learn it by themselves. ~
And Yaoyorozu always worries about her, whenever the weather turns cold - the memory of Asui collapsing in that frozen room during the license exam, remains fresh in her mind.
Parenting is hard: Both are parents, who would be tearing up themselves, when they see one of their kids being in pain.
Iida has another favorite child: Tokoyami-kun.
Class Dad went from telling his goth son off for sitting on, instead of at, the latter's school desk, to being in awe of him, telling him how he's "so wise" (ty, Michael J. Tatum for the awesome line delivery).
A couple of outings with Class Dad.
Not to mention, Class Dad internally praising Fumikage for being the only one out of his boys, who has proper sleeping manners. The light novels have a few stories in which Iida and Tokoyami are hanging out, and mainly interacting with each other within smaller groups (I think Iida might have been vocal with his praise, when Tokoyami “saved” a little girl from getting lost in the amusement park).
I don’t think there are many kids in 1-A (I can only think of two. Guess who?) who wouldn’t be able to hold some kind of at least semi-enjoyable conversation with any of their classmates, at any given time. However, I wouldn’t have expected Iida and Tokoyami to spent a noticeable amount of their very limited leisure time with each other. I found that dynamic to be a sweet little surprise.
Parenting is hard: ... but Iida definitely enjoys his role to a certain extent.
Yaoyorozu also has another favourite child. Although I picture it more as a favourite younger brother: Kaminari-san.
I might expand on this some other time.
Parenting is hard: The class reps totally deserve a vacation away from their children... but then they wouldn't be able to relax, because they would be away from them.
Sometimes, at the end of a long day, choke-full of classes, hero training, and whatever trouble 1-A members have managed to get themselves into, Yaoyorozu makes a large pot of tea to bring over Iida, who has already spread out markers and sheets of paper over the large table in the dorm's common room.
Class rep positions may not mean much in a lot of places in our real-life world, but UA is not a normal environment. Since moving into the dorms, Iida and Yaoyorozu’s (admittedly, many of them self-imposed) responsibilities have only been increasing.
Thankfully, there is a lot of trust and appreciation for each other between 1-A's co-parents class reps.
Which makes it easy to sit down and work out an elaborate plan of action for illnesses in their home, together.
Because having this many kids in such close living quarters, means being guaranteed an in-house germ factory when flu season inevitably arrives.
...
Where are the class 1-A during COVID quarantine fics? Gimme pls.
Why 1-A's loving Class Rep is the best
I understand why people are disappointed that Iida took a backseat after the Stain arc. And since the story shifted from the original trio to the New B3, and with the manga nearing its climax, the chances of Iida getting more focus again, are pretty much nil.
You could check out the stage plays for more Iida, though.
But let's keep in mind, that Iida has come a long way: Remember how condescending, rigid, and selfish he was during the entrance exam?
I appreciate Iida a lot for how willingly he acknowledges his mistakes, how he always internalizes his learned lessons, and how he does his best to do better.
And I love how supportive he is. He assures Uraraka that her motivation of becoming a hero to gain financial stability for her family, is just as perfectly respectable as any motivation, that is based on idealism. He calls Asui “Tsu-chan-kun” because while he's uncomfortable with calling her “Tsu-chan”, he wants to respect and accommodate her wish as much as he can.
The hero Ingenium: Always running to help lost children.
One of the funniest and simultaneously most heartwarming Iida-scenes to me, is when he tells Aoyama to “never stop twinkling – whatever that means.”
Aoyama stands out as an oddball, among oddballs, and none of his classmates has any idea what he's talking about - including Iida. But Iida's completely sincere with his statement: "Yes, do your best to go after your calling - I'll support you the whole way!"
Look at my son. He loves his friends so much.
Let’s be proud of what character development 1-A’s Class rep has achieved until now, and just headcanon a dozen of joyful varieties of the rest of his journey.
Iidachako friendship
Iidachako is a friendship that I like a lot. I understand why the New B3 overtook precedence over the original trio story-wise, but I would have loved to see more the original trio - and also more Iidachako.
Partly because more media portrayals of positive, platonic, and close friendships between guys and girls are always welcome, and mainly because I really liked their dynamic specifically.
In my opinion, Horikoshi could have easily included Uraraka in the Hosu incident.
... WHY DIDN'T YOU, HORIKOSHI?!!
Uraraka could've been there for Iida, just like how Deku had been. I don't think that her being there would have taken anything away from Todoroki bonding with the other two boys. In fact, he could have bonded with her too.
It would have been also interesting to see Uraraka dealing with the inner turmoil of facing a zealot who is so against heroes receiving renumeration for their work.
Deku kept the empty mochi bag after he finished its content
You know he did.
It's wiped clean and everything.
He thought about laminating it, but that would've changed its structural integrity. Instead, the bag has been put in a document sleeve and stuff, for safe keeping.
Deku's a collector.
He's also a damn nerd, who has received his first gift from his cru dear friend.
Uraraka finds out about this, someday.
Class 1-A band
One last band reunion... before they're all shipped of to war.
I have wondered about this group’s dynamic:
Kaminari, Jirou, and Yaoyorozu first established a bond through surviving USJ together.
After that, Yaoyorozu and Jirou are often seen together, and the two of them might be each others closest friend in 1-A.
But Kaminari is probably the only one, who's friends with all of the band members:
I don't think I need to elaborate much on Kaminari and his electric bond with Jirou. Semi-canon shipping aside though, they're definitely friends.
Same with Bakugou. To him, Kaminari's probably the second real friend that he made in his life. (Or rather, Kaminari made himself Bakugou's second real friend.)
Tokoyami and Kaminari apparently got closer to each other through the band. Tokoyami's thoughts during Kaminari's big (that should've could've been more elaborated on) badass scene during the Gunga Mountain raid, outright stated, that he views the latter as a very good friend.
In one of my previous posts, I headcanon that Kaminari is one of Class Mom's favourite children. Canonically, Kaminari and Yaoyorozu are actually depicted as laughing with each other in the background more than a few times. I find KamiMomo to be an underrated background friendship, as I can see them being good for each other: Both are sensitive souls and often try to encourage others.
Kaminari also was the one, who immediately interupted Yaoyorozu, when she attempted to give 1-A and 1-B the "you are not obligated to fight against a lethal opponent with me" - speech. He instead assured Yaoyorozu that she would not face off against Gigantomachia alone.
But the rest of them? Aren't really close to each other.
...
Let's move from the most easy-going to the most difficult 1-A band member. In contrast to Kaminari, I feel like Jirou, Yaoyorozu, and Tokoyami would have a more “normal” reaction to the snappy Pomeranian.
As in, backing away and leaving it tf alone.
Because most people can't/ don't want to put up with unwarranted anger and disrespect repeatedly – understandable, especially if there's little to no positive feedback ever.
After the cultural festival arc, Bakugou and Jirou were put into the same team during the joint training arc. In which they were not shown to interact in any manner, that could be interpreted as significant to the relationship between them. No, I don’t count Bakugou saving Jirou by stepping on her, as a sign for a budding friendship.
I headcanon that Bakugou feels slightly uneasy around Yaoyorozu, ever since her assessment of him at the start of the school year. I don’t think that he held a grudge against her for that. But Bakugou is a very proud individual, even after his extensive character development. Having someone - especially someone who’s not a senior but a peer - rip apart that superior self-image he had of himself with such laser-sharp accuracy and soberness, seemed to have been… kinda traumatic to Bakugou and his gargantuan ego. I feel like he would subconsciously avoid being alone with Yaoyorozu. As in, if they happen to find themselves alone with each other in the common areas of their dorms, he will try to leave quickly.
Beyond each other's battle prowess, I don’t see Bakugou and Tokoyami having much respect for each other. Or to put it more mildly: Neither of them has patience for the other's antics.
Tokoyami is not amused. Funnily enough, in the gag comics, Dark Shadow - in the form of a little girl - made a ranking list of who/what she likes the most: Apparently, Bakugou ranks third, just behind Tokoyami himself, and Todoroki.
In short: Kaminari gels with everyone. Bakugou gels with no one... except those, who just blend out the majority of his verbal abuse.
No surprises here.
What about TokoJirou?
These two don't interact a whole lot, but the drama CDs gave us Tokoyami accompanying Jirou to a haunted house alone (Kaminari chickened out). It includes Jirou asking to hold onto the hem of Tokoyami's uniform and him reassuring her fears. (It's all very cute, go look it up on yt!)
Main media-wise, Tokoyami and Jirou had a moment of joint badassery during the final war. From that sole interaction, I’d say his dramatics and her snark go well with each other - be it directed towards each other, or united against the big bad.
Aside from that, we haven’t gotten much of Tokoyami and Jirou together, unfortunately. However, I believe they get along well. Based on the drama CD, it could even be inferred that they are friends, and most of their friendship just never made it on-screen.
What about TokoMomo?
We know that Yaoyorozu's self-confidence took a critical hit, after she lost against Tokoyami in the sports fest at lightening speed. She seemed to have been very shocked about how the match play out. We could assume, that she had been relatively self-confident previously. But we actually don't know, if it used to be more stable. And while Yaoyorozu's match with Todoroki against Aizawa gave her back some self-confidence; from then on, we're privy to more of her thoughts - most of them centered around self-doubt.
So either she'd never encountered a roadblock before losing against Tokoyami, and their match was to her, what her own assessment of Bakugou was to the latter. Or, Yaoyorozu has always been prone to second-guess herself a lot after encountering setbacks.
While he probably didn't pay half as much mind to his quick victory against Yaoyorozu as she did, we know that Tokoyami can be quite observant. I would have find his thoughts about their match, as well as the resulting consequences for Yaoyorozu's self-confidence, interesting.
How would these two interact, if they were to be alone with each other? How could they become closer friends?
During the festival, Tokoyami called Yaoyorozu "Yaomomo", using the affectionate nickname given to her by their classmates. Albeit not close, this might suggest a warm relationship between them.
Tangent: In contrast, Tokoyami still uses "Asui" instead of "Tsu-chan", despite Asui calling him "Tokoyami-chan". On the other hand, "Yaomomo" doesn't sound as intimate as "Tsu-chan". Thus Tokoyami might feel more comfortable using one nickname, but not the other. - Tangent end.
1-A’s most popular girl
Horikoshi may have put an underaged girl into the most inappropriate “hero costume” in BNHA and gotten her tons of... admirers in real-life. Uwabami’s commercial may have gotten Yaoyorozu legions of fans in-universe. But the most popular girl within class 1-A?
This one.
Jirou’s the female classmate who has been seen interacting with the most of 1-A guys: According to the BNHA wiki, if you pay attention to the background events, Jirou is seen talking and chilling with each, Sero, Ojiro, Satou and Kouda, quite often.
Admittedly, all these guys easy to get along with in general. All of them are also who Bakugou would refer to as extras... but they still count!
I still stand by my previous post about how - except for MomoJirou and KaminarixEveryone - the band members aren't really friends with each other. However, to Bakugou and Tokoyami, two of 1-A’s moodiest kids, Jirou is probably still the female classmate each of them is closest to (well, Ashido might have the same degree of closeness to Bakugou that Jirou has).
Tokoyami's surprised and Bakugou has one of his many grumpy gremlin expressions on. However, both boys don't seem to be in a hurry to escape from her hold.
At the very least, Jirou is comfortable with manhandling these two.
And we all know, how Kaminari feels towards Jirou.
Or at least Tokoyami does.
And now I headcanon Tokoyami as being that person, who's usually the first one to be aware of who's crushing on who.
Kyouka: Friendzoned and friendzoning
So. Jirou seems to be the female classmate who the majority of 1-A's guys are most comfortable with.
However, contrary to my headcanon about the most popular 1-A guys, I feel like most of them aren't romantically interested in her.
It might sound a bit sad, but I headcanon that her miffedness about Mineta not naming her among those female classmateds that he wanted to perv on, is not entirely unwarranted... although, having Mineta salivating over you, is probably not something that anyone with self-respect should desire.
I can see her having gained some male admirers outside of the hero students, after the cultural festival.
At first sight, it might seem that Hagakure and Ashido are the most romance-focused girls in 1-A. However, supplemental and canon materials have depicted the tomboyish Jirou as being conscious about the male gender, the most:
During 1-A's practice match against Togata, she was the only girl who completely freaked out over his nudity.
In one of the drama CD stories, she made a big deal inside her head about holding onto the hem of Tokoyami's uniform, when they visited a haunted house together.
In one of the gag comics, she thought that Bakugou was self-conscious about holding her a girl's hands, when he wasn't actually. She basically just self-projected onto him.
In several of the gag comics, Jirou has been depicted as being self-conscious around Kirishima: One example has her perving on him in his costume. Another one, that retold 1-A's trip to the mall before Deku got accosted by Shigaraki, has Jirou imagining being on a date with Kirishima, when the kids paired up to look for Deku... and be pissed, when Kirishima dropped her at the first sight of Bakugou.
Ironically enough, she displays none of that awareness around guys who were hinted as having some interest in her: Kaminari (and I think, I've read something somewhere about Kouda liking her since their practical exams?)
Oh Jirou. You're definitely among those 1-A kids, who have the most growing up to do in the romantic department.
...
I just noticed that, except for Togata, all of the examples above include guys with whom Kaminari is explicitly friends with.
And now I headcanon poor Kaminari getting friendzoned by Jirou until at least until graduation.
The irony of 1-A’s resident flirt being canonically the first one out of all of 1-A’s boys who recognizes that he had fallen for someone: The girl, who just goes through successively crushing on all of his close friends... Now who's the flighty one, huh?
Yes, I imagine the unrequited love switcheroo trope, where Jirou won’t be able to recognize and acknowledge her own feelings for Kaminari for a while. She starts to consciously takes notice of him as a romantic prospect - juuust right when he's about to move on from his own feelings for her.
Drama ensues.
Eijirou's POV on the dynamic between Bakugou and Midoriya
Kirishima and Deku share quite a few significant characteristics: Both of them are among the sweetest kids in 1-A. Humble about themselves, but very open about their admiration for others. There is little doubt, that they also hold strong admiration for each other. Along with Uraraka and Asui, the two boys had to keep their involvement in the Shie Hassaikai raid a secret from the rest of their class for weeks. They prepared for the operation together, and went into the raid together.
However, I’m not sure where to place Midoriya from Kirishima's POV regarding their biggest commonality: Each of them has a significant personal tie to Bakugou, but very different ones.
Bakugou haters and apologists alike, have argued about class 1-A’s hypothetical reactions towards the true extent of Bakugou’s bullying of Deku (as well as whether those hypothetical reactions would be warranted or not) to death. I have no desire to get into that.
Nevertheless, I have wondered about Kirishima’s thoughts behind his canonical reaction towards Midoriya and Bakugou's interactions. Or more precisely, his lack of reaction throughout the series.
To contrast: There's one scene where Uraraka confronts Bakugou and point-blank asks him, why he treats Deku like dirt. I see this as a very brave act from Uraraka. Not because of who and how Bakugou is (crass at best, violent at worst, let’s not sugarcoat this), because I don’t think that he would have had physically attacked her for that, but because of the cultural context of Japan. It is very frowned upon to “meddle” in what people perceive to be others’ private business.
However, while I do share the opinion, that their relationship to each other is mainly Deku and Bakugou’s private business, I would not classify Uraraka confronting Bakugou with the negative connotations of meddling:
By being so openly hostile to Deku, Bakugou had already broken the social rule of keeping your private business, well, private, and not imposing your issues on others. His degree of unrestrained hostility towards Deku could have (or has it canonically?) very well disturb the entire group’s hero training overall.
In the present, Deku is Uraraka’s friend. And their mutual classmate is presently treating him like shit.
In my eyes, those two facts are reasons enough, for Uraraka to at least ask Bakugou a few questions.
One would think that those would be reason enough for Kirishima to confront Bakugou too. So why has neither he, nor any of the other 1-A kids done anything of significance in that direction?
Uraraka confronted Bakugou, and asked questions. To which he logically would have had to either be able to justify himself somehow, or cease his aggression towards Deku immediately. Naturally at that point, Bakugou does neither. He just leaves huffing and puffing. But people have to ask others such question, and not just as a throwaway remark (a half-hearted "Bakugou, calm down" doesn't count), to signal, that their treatment of others is not acceptable. Afterall, continuous disapproval can influence people to change their behaviour.
Even if one may interject that Kirishima is closer to Bakugou, than he is to Midoriya... that would only be more of an argument for Kirishima to intervene, as he has more emotional leverage over Bakugou than e.g. Uraraka.
And even with everything else aside, based on Kirishima’s overall characterization, one would have thought, that he would never be okay with his friend attacking another classmate repeatedly for no discernible legitimate reason.
The only tentative possible reason I could come up with, for why Kirishima never intervened here, is that to him, Midoriya had never seemed less capable than Bakugou from the very first day they all started at UA together. As in, Kirishima had never perceived any power disparity between Midoriya and Bakugou.
...
However, Kirishima and the rest of 1-A did witness, what Bakugou did to Deku during their first class assignment (All Might deserves criticsm for not interrupting that fight. He truly was a bad teacher... still isn't a good one). Even after that incident, Bakugou’s verbal aggression towards Deku still continued on for a while.
While Kirishima may not be emotionally intelligent to same degree that e.g. someone like Kaminari is implied to be, Kirishima is still sensitive to his peers’ feelings (see his reaction towards Tsu-chan's sadness after Kamino).
Furthermore, one must simply be blind and deaf to have missed Bakugou’s belligerency towards Deku - that lasted at least until they had beaten the crap out of each other and got grounded together.
As such, it can be safely inferred, that Kirishima (and the rest of 1-A) noticed that Deku and Bakugou had bad history with each other - and that the animosity came one-sidedly from Bakugou.
Either way. If I witnessed a peer being repeatedly put down by another, I would firmly and repeatedly tell the latter to knock it off, stfu, and get himself a therapist for his anger issues...
...
What did Kirishima see, when he looked at Midoriya, and everytime he witnessed how he was treated by Bakugou?
How did Kirishima justify it to himself, to not try harder to get his bestie to stop being a total dick to another friend/ a classmate?
After Bakugou apologized to Deku in front of all of 1-A, did Kirishima and the rest of the class ever wonder, what exact actions warranted such a gesture from someone as proud as Bakugou?
Katsuki and Izuku are not best friends, part 1
I have seen people refer to Bakugou and Deku as best friends, especially after Bakugou took the hit from Shigaraki for Deku.
I disagree. They are not best friends.
It’s all but explicitly stated, that within class 1-A, Kirishima is Bakugou’s closest bestie, while Iida is Deku’s.
For the majority of the time that they knew each other, Deku and Bakugou were not even on friendly terms. I'd say they would barely qualify as friends - not to mention “best friends” - even now (latest chapters at the time of writing this post).
It has been jarring (and heartbreaking at times) to listen to Deku call a person a friend, while he still had been actively fearful of them. My reading of that is, that Deku mainly refers to Bakugou as a childhood friend, because he has no idea how to describe his relationship to the latter otherwise. The fact that Deku didn't had a single real friend until entering UA might also factor into this.
Even during their childhood "friendship" stage, Bakugou used to treat Deku like a lackey, at best. But never like a true friend, because enjoying to make someone feel miserable, just to feel better about oneself, is not the same as enjoying their company as a friend.
A more charitable interpretation of their early “friendship” instead of leader and lackey, is that of siblings. Bakugou is the older, and Deku the younger brother: His whole life, Deku has looked up to Bakugou. On the other side, for most of his life, to Bakugou, Deku used to be that scary annoying thing that wouldn’t go away, no matter how much he tried to scare it off.
With not much age difference between them, the stage got set for the development of rivalry.
...
Oftentimes, siblings with this type of dynamic end up drifting apart and being rather distant - either for an extended period of time (in many cases until they reach adulthood), or even forever.
As Bakugou and Deku ended up in the same class at UA, the new environment shifted their dynamic instead:
Deku formed connections with other people. While Bakugou and All Might remain the biggest influences on his life, he gained the physical and psychological strength to stand up to Bakugou during key moments and high-stakes situations.
The "From now on, Deku will be the name of a hero!" - moment of awesome, where Deku announced himself unwilling to be Bakugou's shoe mat any longer, was basically the start of his emancipation from the latter
To Bakugou, this declaration from "loser Deku", their new classmates’ warm reception of Deku, and their cool reception of himself - the opposite of what Bakugou had been used to up until this point - made it apparent to him, how up until then, he had been swimming in a very small pond.
Bakugou reacted to his own feelings of inadequacy and the disillusionment that threatened his self-image, like the mature, self-reflecting person that he was:
With more misdirected resentment, and more violence. Alternating between distancing himself from Deku and seeking him out.
Like the mature, self-reflecting person that he was, Bakugou also didn't talk to anyone about those inner turmoils.
Instead, he let them boil over; culminating in him forcing Deku into a nighttime rumble to sort through his own emotional baggage.
The positives that came out of it, were that they reached some sort of a mutual understanding, and Deku gained his own secret keeper. If I had to pinpoint a starting point of their "friendly" terms era, it would be that scene.
But that alteration didn't make them best friends. Neither did other significant "BakuDeku"- moments that followed.
Katsuki and Izuku are not best friends, part 2
Evidently Bakugou and Deku got closer over the course of the story.
Spilling your thoughts and feelings to someone, getting inducted into an exclusive circle of secret keepers, and gaining the ability to LISTEN, can foster closeness.
But this closeness is not defined by feelings of like. Bakugou doesn’t like Deku. For the most part of their acquaintance, he actively disliked him.
And in contrast to Deku’s explicitly self-admitted hate for parts of Bakugou’s character, it is also not certain whether Deku actually likes Bakugou or not. There’s no doubt that he admires the hell out of the latter. In terms of who Deku looks up to, Bakugou is just right behind All Might. But I wouldn’t be able to confidently state that Deku likes Bakugou overall.
Let’s look at three types of examples that, while significant for the development of themselves and their relationship to each other, are not necessarily proof of a close, or even existing, friendship:
Type A: Risking their lives for each other
Deku had been established as someone who wanted to save other people from the very beginning. Deku would even take huge personal risks to attempt to save people, whom he's discouraged from saving. Thus, I'll mainly discuss Bakugou’s POV here:
For the most part, to Bakugou saving people had been mainly a side-effect of living out his blood knight urges of competing, fighting, and winning.
Bakugou jumping in without any thoughts (of victory) and letting himself get skewered like a kebab to save Deku, was a major divergence from that.
However, it’s more of a signifier of Bakugou’s personal character development, than a signifier for a budding friendship.
It signals Bakugou’s ability to be self-less and serves as proof for his potential to become a “true” hero. It signals Bakugou gaining empathy for Deku’s behaviour. It reiterates Deku’s importance to him. Reiterate, because Bakugou and Deku have always been important to each other.
None of those aspects mean that you are automatically friends.
Type B: Being candid about themselves with each other
Deku has let Bakugou know repeatedly that he admires him. He told him that he got his quirk from someone else, even under explicit orders from All Might not to share anything about OFA with anyone. Bakugou broke down in front of Deku twice. He publicly apologized to Deku for all the years of abuse.
None of those instances occurred out of a desire to confide to the other because they trust each other.
Both of the times Bakugou broke down in front of Deku, didn't happen voluntarily, but because he couldn't keep it in anymore. They certainly didn't happen because, he was fine with Deku seeing him like that.
Both of the times Deku told Bakugou about OFA, he didn't do it for himself. If Deku had wanted a confidante to share the emotional burden of keeping that huge secret... I'm pretty sure, he would've picked someone else. It happened, because he felt the urge to do so for Bakugou's benefit.
When Bakugou apologized to Deku, it was him basically returning that favour. He thought that Deku really needed to hear those words (which he did), so he expressed them. In part, Bakugou may have also felt that he needed to openly verbally acknowledge his mistakes, in order to move forward himself.
One of the most beautifully written scenes of the entire series.
However, neither of them would voluntarily be candid about themselves, if there aren’t higher stakes involved.
It’s not surprising.
I'm not sure even our all-loving hero Deku would ever feel entirely comfortable with sharing his worries with a guy who used to torment him for years. And even if said guy has changed much for the better, he’s still much more abrasive than the average person - not exactly your primary choice for a confidante.
On Bakugou's part, his emotional constipation was so severe that he probably couldn’t even share his feelings with his own bathroom mirror. Character development notwithstanding: Casually showing “weakness” to the kid your humongous inferiority-superiority complex has been fixated on since your pre-school days?
Yeah, I don’t think so.
My point is: There's too much mutual and individual baggage, for either of them to be fine with casually showing vulnerability around each other, if it doesn't serve a higher purpose.
Both aren’t - and might not ever be - able to provide each other with unrestricted emotional safe spaces.
And is seems like both of them have sensed and recognized this.
Who got Bakugou to wear a tie?
My money's on Iida.
I headcanon that Bakugou didn't wear it, because Iida wore him down. The latter only asked him once.
But Four-eyes looked like the embodiment of "worried sick," when he explained that their class should present themselves as responsible and united in front of the principal.
So Katsuki wore the damn tie, just to give Four-eyes a modicum of peace of mind: The feeling of being able to control, or rather to influence, things, people, outcomes... hopefully, a dear friend, who lost his way home.