Also, sorry if you've explained this before and I missed it (there seems to have been a lot of discussion about it, so it's honestly very likely that I DID miss it). If you're willing to share and haven't already, how would you do IzuOcha differently? I haven't properly analyzed Uraraka and Midoriya for myself, and so the ambiguous romantic epilogue, if I were to choose the romantic interpretation, seemed okay to me. But if it's two cars colliding in your opinion, what would you have preferred?
I'd introduce a meaningful point of conflict in their relationship that lets them shine as individual characters and demonstrates what it is about each other they are attracted to. We ALMOST had that in the sports festival. Remember when Ochako said she was gonna view Izuku as a rival? Remember? Remember that?
"Wow," you say, "you sure do sound like a Kacchan fan!" DO I? DO I NOW? BECAUSE IZUKU HAS RIVALRIES WITH FUCKING EVERYONE ELSE, DOESN'T HE? Doesn't everyone LOVE Midoriya vs Todoroki? Doesn't everyone LOVE how Iida looks out for Izuku by expressly challenging him and racing to keep up with him? Fuck, the most REDEEMING ASPECT of Mineta is how he compares himself to Izuku and admires him and finds himself lacking and so tries to become like him! Ochako--
likes how he tries his best. That he tries so hard he destroys his body.
Who the fuck in this manga ISN'T TRYING THEIR BEST? Who ISN'T willing to get beat up? Fuck, by that logic, Katsuki is the most attractive man in the world when he dies from an open heart wound. You and I BOTH know there has to be more to her attraction than that. But then you try to look into it. Does she think he looks good? Well, she only ever calls him plain. Does she like All Might too? She's never highlighted in such a fashion. Does she like analyzing quirks? She seems a little creeped out by it and then feels insignificant in comparison, and then I guess she gets used to it off-screen. Does she want to work with him in the future? No, she sees her crush as an obstacle to her other dreams in life. Does she feel like he treats her special? Everyone on the planet knows Izuku doesn't know how to treat a person he likes special to save his fucking life, which is WHY KACCHAN HAS TO TELL HIM.
And that's where the insult comes in. Hey girls, why don't you wait until you're adults for the boy you like to realize he should treat you special if he likes you. Not special like on a pedestal, but just like, you know, someone more important to him than the villains he saves all the same. It's insulting to EVERYONE who ships Izuku with ANYONE. And even worse, WE NEVER ACTUALLY GET TO SEE IT. We get to see Izuku asking to hang out with her more. Does Izuku ever explain what he finds attractive about her? Well, he certainly comments on how cute she looks, which, whatever, that's fine, unless it's the ONLY THING HE LIKES ABOUT--
Oh my FUCKING GOD, IZUKU.
You may say he DID profess something else, that he finds her attractive for saving him! Which...no. That's not a scene about romantic attraction. You can't have that scene be about romance or it's all just even worse. It becomes manipulative, because Ochako is suffering in that scene and needs a friend, not a boyfriend. And "saving Izuku" is not something only Ochako has ever done, and it's quite insulting to think that Izuku only ever sees Ochako as the one who saved him and doesn't include the bajillion other people who all have done the same for him. Remember: saving people is NOT a sign of romance for Izuku, because he does it himself for EVERYONE, NO MATTER WHAT.
So all we have is basically that they get along. They get along. WOW. THEY GET ALONG. IZUKU DEFINITELY DOESN'T GET ALONG WITH ANYONE ELSE. HE DEFINITELY DOESN'T ALREADY HAVE THIS SAME RELATIONSHIP WITH 20 OR 40 OTHER PEOPLE.
Look, in real life, it's fine. It's fine in real life for that sort of thing. The problem is, this isn't real life. This is fiction. And in fiction, that shit is boring as fuck. IT'S BORING. IT'S. FUCKING. BORING. AND IF IT WASN'T BORING THEN IT WAS ALL OFF-SCREEN. Horikoshi said he can't write romance and he was right! Except he was also wrong, because he managed to put all the interesting elements that COULD have led to romance in ALL OF IZUKU'S OTHER RELATIONSHIPS AND IN OCHAKO'S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIMIKO. He was clearly too scared to put any complexity or depth into Izuku's and Ochako's relationship because he wanted to put Ochako on a pedestal and imagine an idealized version of himself into Izuku. And it's gross. As a woman with self-respect, I don't want to read that shit, at all.
So yeah TL;DR make Ochako and Izuku real characters in their romantic subplot
