“I intensely dislike (if not outright hate) Bakugo for a myriad of reasons. His first impressions aside, he does not come off as a good character. Note that I said “character,” not “person” (though you could argue he’s not great at that, too). For one thing, his character development is frustratingly inconsistent. His “start line” was at chapter 11, but he barely progresses until the start of the Final Exams arc in chapter 60. We’re told he can cooperate better following that arc, only for him to completely ignore his superiors during the Forest Training Camp attack. He almost fails to get his license due to this lack of cooperation (only resorting to it with a metaphorical back against the wall), and then actually fails due to not caring about the civilians. When he gets his license, he still doesn’t care about them, effectively making the whole ordeal seem pointless. During his Remedial Course days, he says not to look down on others. He then proceeds to look down on the UA student body (or at the very least two Gen Ed students) for daring to be uncomfortable with what’s been going on within the hero society hellscape. He hits Midoriya with his head piece and it breaks skin following their work study under Endeavor, because he’s still not comfortable with other people making progress. On another note, the sheer amount of wins he gets is detrimental to his character (and his losses are turned into wins in such a way that they don’t teach him anything). He loses the battle trial, but gets comfort from All Might and hints about OFA from Midoriya, which will later lead to him figuring out OFA. He wins the Sports Festival, instead of losing and thus forcing him to reconcile with the fact that he can’t always win. He passes the Final Exams despite being put out of commission. He wins his rematch with Midoriya, which either way is a logical dead end, because Midoriya winning proves Bakugo’s “might makes right” philosophy, but Midoriya losing maintains the horrendous status quo. He “wins” the cultural festival. He wins his Joint Training match, even though it’s been less than 100 chapters between DvK2 and his victory, with little character-building losses in between. He’s never allowed to lose in a way that could help him grow out of his boundaries. Instead, he frequently wins, making losing seem more and more unreasonable instead of a necessary part of growth. Now, let’s look at his apology. Something a majority of Bakugo fans and dissenters alike have been looking forward to. The result… fell flat. It was self-centered, more for Bakugo’s ease of mind then Midoriya’s. We don’t even know if Midoriya was lucid enough to properly register it, as it hasn’t even been brought up since. Even more frustrating is that Bakugo continues to lean hard into his old mannerisms. In the middle of a WAR. And even though he says he hopes nothing changes, the extent he’s willing to go to ensure it is… concerning. Which leads into his last problem: his aversion to personal growth. Or rather, his inability to handle discomfort. Bakugo has shown on a regular basis his lack of wanting to approach uncomfortable subjects. He was leaving UA in a funk as the reality that he was no longer king hit him like a pickup truck. He made Kaminari fry himself when they were moving into the dorms to get everyone’s mind off of Kamino, which he felt partially responsible for, whether he’d admit it or not. He yells at the Todorokis following the family dinner, and while the moment of the Todoroki drama is questionable, ultimately, it’s their house, and not Bakugo’s place to barge in to tell them to shut up about it. Bakugo makes it about himself during one of the OFA meetings, saying he’s beaten Izuku at flight, conveniently right after All Might admits that most of the previous wielders of OFA died young. That’s pretty much it. Aside from more obvious things, like his first impression, general attitude, and the “tell don’t show” approach to his narrative, this is how I feel about the matter.”
