If you could replace Bakugo with any hero students from a different schools included as Midoriya's main rival who would you choose
oh dang, well. Ok, so, you'll have to take this with a grain of salt because I haven't actually caught up to mha in ages. So you might know some characters I don't / something i mention may no longer be accurate etc etc. But i'm gonna try so let's go! [Let's just take the porcupine out of the equation completely for a second. Assume he didn't pass his entrance exam and cannot exist as a classmate, only as setup dressing for izu's backstory.] Right away class 1a offers at least 3 really solid options for the healthy 'everyone benefits and gets stronger from it' genre of rivalry. IIda, Uraraka and Todoroki. Of course there's a lot of variation in between them, Todo's much closer to a more classic rival archetype- at least before the sports festival fight- whereas IIda and Uraraka are more so just pals with a good dose of friendly competition from the get-go. Then you have the other class students like Shinso , Monoma etc. Only noting those two in particular though because they fit the rival memo better, right? Welllllll... Monoma only became as hostile towards class 1a as he did BECAUSE of b_kugo. If he's not in the picture, aka noone provoked EVERY OTHER CLASS asserting they're better than them, he'd have no reason to be that petty. Probably still would be because he IS a theater kid but not enough to warrant a full rivalry I feel njsbnfj especially with someone like izu who's just. you know. a good person that doesn't mock and start shit with people for no reason. And Shinso did have a mini-rivalry-esque characterization in the festival but I wouldn't really count that because he was just trying to get into the hero course, means to an end, nothing personell kid. Then you have more similar situations with the provisional license students, but once again these characters are very minor and even the ones with the most screen time were still just trying to pass that exam same as anyone else. So generally, in my opinion, none of the background/secondary characters really works as a longtime rival to izuku. Partly because these are all students just trying to pass their exams, and partly because izuku is simply not a character that a rational person would just. Hate. For no reason. *cough*. A lot of other rivalries in similar media rely more on the protagonist themselves having flaws that may cause such a relationship to form. Being arrogant, reckless, overconfident and/or convinced they are or will inevitably be the best there ever was etc etc. That's not necessarily good or bad, always depends on how it's handled. Izu, however, is just not that type of protagonist. His main flaws lie more in being extremely self sacrificing, to the point where he can act without thinking, gravely injuring himself in the process, and stuff like that. Which means the only way you can really have that ClassicJackass™ flavor of rivalry is if the Other Person is a completely deluded asshole that sees breathing as competition. In a way forcing the protagonist into the dynamic in retaliation, even though it's not even remotely balanced and no matter what the emotional power imbalance will always be too big to ignore. You see where I'm getting at. Truth be told you cant really replace B_ku as a rival and have the same dynamic, because the dynamic REQUIRES someone that's as huge a piece of shit as he is. However that's just assuming we are looking for that specific dynamic. We don't have to be, and in that case any of the original three work perfectly well as friendly rivals. And if you're just looking for a meme answer instead of this whole spiel about what would work in the story, i'm going to say Ibara. I just think it'd be really funny.
