The Bakugou Experence(TM)

Ooh so that's why they made her prettier in the anime... and progressively toned it down in S3

💠 here and I just realized something about mha’s narrative is that these kids have no down time whatsoever. Like the narrative gives them no time to breathe, it’s always something that fowards the narrative. They want to go to the mall? Boom! Shigaraki has to be there. Training camp to be better heroes? Let’s just have one of these kids get kidnapped and let 5 other kids rescue him at the downfall of a mentor. Not to mention THE ENTIRE WAR ARC BECAUSE THESE ARE STILL FIRST YEARS (iirc on the timeline that they were first years during war arc). While I get why the writing is like this, shonen jump could've cancelled it at any moment, it just kinda rushes everything and leaves most of the cast to be bland/forgettable (most of 1-A) if not outright have their writing thrown in the trash (I still will not forgive them for throwing the Tenya and Ochaco dynamic with Izuku away).

Like the most they get is the sports festival, some of the training camp arc before it gets thrown out, the cultural festival and maybe the internships but Tsuyu is the only one shown to get a reasonable break in the anime exclusive episodes.

Like let me see Momo trying “commoner’s food”/street food for the first time and seeing how hard people work on the streets, let them having a day to go back to the beach Izuku cleaned up (because I don’t think they ever mentioned it after the early series), or a day where they all talk about updating their hero costumes or Izuku mentioning things about their quirks (kinda like how you were sprinkling in for the rewrite). Just GIVE THEM AND THE STORY SOME DOWN TIME AND LET THE CHARACTERS DEVELOP AGH.

NAH BUT LIKE FOR REAL!?!?

People can say what they want about filler or the obligatory beach episodes, but they were great! Just seeing these characters having fun, seeing how they act outside of high-tension, high-stake scenarios.

Who organises hang-outs? Who comes thirty minutes early, who comes an hour late, (totally not me, sorry guys), who always brings painkillers or lip balm or plasters/bandages? Who brings out a deck of cards, who cheats, whose poker face is terrible, who loses every game?

It's great seeing characters, especially teenagers, act their age. Not only does it serve to make the bonds between them feel a bit more real, a bit more strong, but it also allowed the audience to get attached to them properly.

See, I don't have an issue with Tomura showing up at the mall episode. I would have just liked to see the kids actually have fun before the sprinkle of plot development.

Show me Momo or Tenya or Shouto buying that trinket Ochako kept staring at but couldn't afford. Show me Mina beating everyone on DDR, and Tooru trying to compete like a fool. Show me Izuku or Mezou nearly breaking the punching machine. Show me Denki or Hanta making Momo and Shouto try crappy fast food and them actually enjoying it.

The timeline of MHA is ridiculous. Like, pace yourself please?? At least, show me what the kids get up to in the spring, summer, and winter breaks.

Downtime and breaks are extremely important, even in plot-heavy works. It's not just the characters who need a break, but the readers too. It gets exhausting reading about all this tragic stuff, maybe a gag here or there.

I guess Horikoshi may have been afraid that the momentum would be killed, but curbing momentum is what makes final acts feel so grand!

To compare it to a song or a musical number, you never want the score to feel stagnant. If a songs starts slow, the end will be all-out, only going down at the very end. See: It's All Coming Back To Me Now. Starts slow, ends with a massive note, and Celine Dion is joined by other vocals.

If a song starts high and up-beat, what composers will do is drop the melody, either cutting out the vocals or the beat, then let it all go out. Like... Uptown Funk with the toned-down bridge, segwaying into a powerful ending.

Stories work in the same way.

If you continuously build that momentum, without a break, it's going to peak early and feel stagnant the longer it goes. Horikoshi refused to give characters more than a chapter to settle down, and it made it all feel so same-y.

That's part of the reason by the ending of the Final War doesn't feel impactful at all. You're not left thinking, 'wow'. You're thinking, 'finally'.

Hori really does love rewarding characters who don't deserve it, while punishing those who actually give a damn.

Bakugou's a bullying, narcissistic, idiotic moron of an asshole who lived a golden spoon life of wealth and being spoiled (conformed by Hori himself)? The narrative and characters bend over backwards to accommodate him. Obviously he's this genius prodigy who inspires everyone, even though his behavior in the field would realistically get people hurt and/or killed.

Shinsou's a whiny scrub with a victim complex? He gets favoritism from Shota "I hate favoritism" Aizawa himself AND gets to join the hero course.

Endeavor's outed as an abusive person? Well, obviously the people criticizing him are in the wrong, and this is supposed to be kept within the family!

Nighteye is a creepy and pathetic control freak who uses teenagers for his own means and doesn't understand the word 'no'? He was coming from a good place, and he was right in the end!

All Might's been put on a pedestal for the past 40+ years and makes mistakes because he's a human being? No, he's an idiot of a mentor who gets criticized and villified for breathing.

Aoyama's forced into being the traitor because of his parents and clearly hates doing it? Bye bye, he's leaving the hero course and getting replaced by someone who didn't care to actually TRY to prepare for UA.

Izuku operates within the law and tries to work with his bully? No, HE'S the one in the wrong and he's not allowed to be at least slightly resentful when he's screwed over by those around him. Not to mention, he's seldom been apologized to by those who wrong him.

The journalists rightfully call out UA on coddling Bakugou and doing a shit job at protecting their students? Obviously it's a smear campaign against UA, and who cares if Aizawa didn't even answer the journalist who directly called him out on not doing his job as a teacher and getting Bakugou's head out of his ass.

I'm so glad I dropped this series, because what in the actual fuck was Hori on while writing it?

It's such a pattern of rewarding shitty behavior that it's actually gross. And you know what? It exactly perpetuates what the narrative was trying to call out before Horikoshi changed everything. He literally actively wrote against his own thesis. That's got to be some kind of cruel irony right?

Time to shit on Bakugou

I've seen so many takes of "oh Endeavor is meant to be a parallel showing what Bakugou could have become if he never improved"

Where once again the actions show he has not fucking changed.

Also, why wouldn't he want to be like Endeavor? The guy by the end of the series retired as the number 1 hero, is fucking rich, tons of support, including the now HPSC president Hawks, Deku indirectly calls Natsuo unkind for not forgiving him, Rei is seen pushing his electric wheelchair even with three young able-bodied heroes right fucking there. Everyone who criticizes either of them is always casted as wrong end of story

Shoto is for some reason his friend, just like Deku and the Bakusquad, despite the fact that he treats all of them like shit. And the only punishments he ever get is either shared despite the other person not doing shit to deserve it (He forced Deku to fight him, and Shoto was literally being attacked by Isasa), or oh he's not the number one hero because he's just that mean to the press

The narrative never lined up with Bakugo, in that nobody ever responded to him naturally as their characters should have.

How they should have responded based on their own personalities and beliefs.

Stain, Dabi, Aizawa, kirishima, Mina, Iida, Shoto or even ochako.

All of them should have had big issues throughout the series with Bakugo for many reasons.

And even if one ignores all of this and focuses strictly on Bakugo, the delivery on his personal "growth" never really culminated in much real change either.

Because the final chapter shows he's still in the same place as he was during the provisional license exam, his attitude not being great with the civilians he's saving/protecting.

He was failed in the exam for this attitude and skated by through the make-up test.

(By being able to calmly talk to a single kid once I guess?)

Then nearly a decade later, he's still doing the same thing! 😆

It's kind of ridiculous when you look at all of it, like: "Where were we going with this??"

There is such a profound difference in the way Tanjiro's trauma is handled compared to Izuku's.

Tanjiro's pain isn't ignored. It's part of him, and the narrative goes out of its way to acknowledge that he's still affected by it even when he's smiling. Even in this scene where it's a villager internally acknowledging his pain, it's still Tanjiro's expression and gestures that are communicating with us.

Izuku is so disconnected from his trauma. To the point where we never even get to know how he feels about it. We hear speculation from All Might, talking to his abuser no less. Izuku isn't even present in this scene, he's off to the side.

You can see who actually cares for their MC as a character and who just uses their MC whenever it's convenient

Stylings

When queer media is actually censored Proshippers/dead dove: I cannot see nor care When abusive material and media is gratifying to parafiles gets censored Proshippers/dead dove: FACISM!! COPS!! DISGUSTING PURITANS!!!

Australia: commits genocide and does actually facist shit Proshippers/darkshippers: eyes closed Australia: Arrests woman/other people for being attracted to minors and making media where children are abuse and its portrayed as hot and sexy Proshippers/darkshippers: FACISM !!!!

*When CSA/SA victims commit acts and promote material that furthers the abuse cycle and contributes to rape culture* Proshippers/dead dove/"Anti harassment": YASSS QUEEN/KING, KEEP DOING THAT AND PUTTING YOURSELF AND OTHERS IN DANGER!!! **When CSA/SA survivors admit to the healing process being messy and some coping mechanisms not being healthy, and are against the creation and distribution of gratifying/glorifying material of their shared experiences** Proshippers/dead dove/"Anti harassment": YOU DISGUSTING WHORE, YOU DESERVED EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TO YOU, HOW DARE YOU NOT ENABLE US AND THE RAPE CULTURE WE LIVE IN!!! GO ENTER THE TRAUMA OLYMPICS YOU FACIST PURITEEN

Annie: There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death; conjuring spirits from the past...and the future. In ancient Ireland, they were called Filí. In Choctaw land, they called them Fire Keepers. And in West Africa, they were called Griots. This gift can bring healing to their communities. But it also...attracts evil....

Sinners (2025)

First attempt at drawing him