Honestly, This Is SO Cathartic.

Honestly, this is SO cathartic.

I won't pretend I'm happy with the recent maga leaks, nor will I pretend wishing death on a child it's ok despite how many messed up shit he has pulled, but this essay right here, still perfectly valid and applicable to Bakugo despite being written back in 2020, it translates why I'd prefer if he had stayed six feet under and far, far away from Izuku, who, mind you, still uses useless as his hero name. Yes, Uraraka changed the meaning and we love her for that, and yet it doesn't take away the fact that he's traumatized enough to, just like everyone else, overlook the direct effect his abuser has over his life.

I absolutely despise Bakugo Katsuki, and I hope he'll face consequences.

Also, the apology was shit.

oh and also, while I’m here? I hate the way this fandom treats Bakugou and his bullying. Bakugou is one of the most popular characters in the fandom and people will fall over him, gushing about how good his character development is. Meanwhile he has never been punished by the narrative for his bullying, and his growth has never been tied to learning to respect quirkless people and those deemed ‘worthless’ by society, which is what he should be learning. There is a massive, glaring flaw in his character development, and people will just ignore it.

And then they proceed to ship him with Izuku, whom he viciously bullied for 10 years, because uwu their dynamic is so ~interesting~, or Uraraka, one of Izuku’s best friends, as if it doesn’t fucking suck to see someone who’s hurt you for a decade date your friend (and as someone who’s actually been in the situation where my best friend had a crush on my bully, let me tell you, it isn’t fun). 

And then they’ll write about Bakugou’s mental health issues and trauma and the way he was failed by adults, jumping at the slightest chance to absolve him of his responsibilities. Oh, sure, Bakugou was failed by the adults around him, that much is true; they should’ve taught him to regulate his arrogance, that he isn’t special, etc. But you know who else was failed, and much, much worse than Bakugou? Izuku. Somehow, I feel infinitely less sympathy for the guy who bullied someone for 10 years than the guy who was bullied. 

And obviously Bakugou has mental health issues stemming from the way he was treated as stronger, better than everyone else for his life, including his superiority/inferiority complex, and yes, adults have overlooked those mental health issues out of the assumption that Bakugou is strong bc of his quirk, but like? None of that absolves him of the crime of bullying someone for a decade? None of that makes it better? Am I supposed to give a shit? Maybe have him face actual consequences for his actions and I’ll start caring about how sad he feels.

And then people will absolutely insist that the reason he bullied Izuku was because he was abused by his mom, and? It fucking wasn’t? The reason he bullied Izuku was because he was convinced he was better than him. Not because he had normalized violence in his head or whatever. Mitsuki isn’t even canonically abusive; while that’s a perfectly valid read of canon, considering the fact that hitting your damn kid is definitely abusive, we know how Horikoshi frames abuse, and this isn’t it. Mitsuki is aggressive and mean because Bakugou is aggressive and mean. It’s a joke. It’s a bad fucking joke, because it’s not funny to see a child get beaten and berated by his parent, but it’s not canon abuse, and it’s not the canon reason he bullied Izuku. 

And the reason I care about people acknowledging that ‘Bakugou Mitsuki is abusive’ is an interpretation of canon rather than actual stone cold canon is because the ‘abused bully’ is a massive trope. From the top of my head, I can think of the bully from Bridge to Terabithia, the bully in the first The Magic Thief book series, arguably Clarisse La Rue from PJO, and the bully from Trollhunters who all fit this stereotype, and there are many, many more. The easiest way to make a bully sympathetic is to make them abused. It neatly sidesteps having to figure out why they are bullies, because obviously, they are just externalizing the violence they learned at home. It also makes them very easy to redeem, because it’s pretty goddamn hard to stay mad at a kid when they are being abused. It’s a cheap tactic to gather sympathy for a bully, and it fundamentally misunderstands why bullying happens. Bullies don’t exist because they’re all secretly abused at home. They exist because society tells them it’s ok to hurt people that are weird, worthless, or otherwise bad. And those people also often just so happen to be minorities, whoops. 

This is the one thing that BNHA got right about bullying. Bakugou bullied Izuku because he believed himself to be superior, because that’s what the adults around him kept telling him. This is why people bully others in real life, too; it’s ok to hurt them, they’re weird, they’re annoying, they don’t matter. It’s the one thing that BNHA got right, and you motherfuckers want to throw it out of the window because it’s easier to woobify Bakugou if he’s just another abused bully. Interpreting Mitsuki is abusive is obviously fine, again hitting your damn kid is definitely abusive, but then ignoring the actual, canon reason why Bakugou bullied Izuku to substitute it with something that’s easier for you to excuse is fucking horrifying and I hate every single person that does it. Fuck you. Bakugou being abused has no bearing on why he bullied Izuku, none, whatsoever. 

And don’t even get me fucking STARTED on the many ‘oh no what if Izuku jumped, wouldn’t Bakugou feel sad :(’ posts/fics/aus or the fact that what you guys think would be a good consequence for 10 fucking years of viciously bullying someone (including physically assulting them, destroying their property, and suicide baiting them) is like, a scolding from Aizawa and maybe being transferred to a different class (rather than, you know, being fucking expelled from hero school). I hate all of you.

Bakugou’s canon arc and his treatment by the fandom is so indicative of the way people view bullying as something kinda mean but ultimately minor, rather than, you know, something that can severely traumatize you. People are so eager to jump on any chance to ignore or smooth over Bakugou’s actions, fail to examine his character development critically, and will ship him with his victim or think it’s a good thing that they’re being made ‘friends’ in canon. 

This is normally the part where I’d say it’s ok to like Bakugou as long as you do xyz, but you know what? I don’t need to soothe people’s fucking feelings. I hate Bakugou, and I hate that he’s so popular in the fandom, and I hate how he’s treated by the fandom. Obviously I’m not saying you cannot like him, I’m not the arbiter of what characters you are or are not allowed to like, but I’m not here to soothe your fucking feelings if this rant made you feel bad. Block me if it bothers you that much. Also don’t bother debating me or sending me asks or whatever, I don’t care, my hatred for Bakugou is based in personal feelings and no amount of ‘but what about this thing in canon -’ or ‘what if this happens in the future -’ or ‘but i like bakugou for xyz reasons’ is gonna make me change my mind lmao. Bakugou Katsuki is a terrible person with terrible character development and that’s that on that. 

In conclusion:

Fuck Bakugou Katsuki