Do I think Ochako and Izuku will end up together as we end the manga? Probably.
Does it change a single thing for me as a BKDK shipper? Absolutely not.
I’m not deluded enough to think bkdk will become canon. This is a classic Shonen manga. Japan isn’t that progressive. But I’m sorry, you can’t tell me Horikoshi didn’t know what he was doing with the volume 37 cover. You can’t tell me Horikoshi didn’t know what he was doing with that Jump GIGA cover.
Does he ship them? I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like it. A lot of times it feels like it. Katsuki getting stabbed to save Izuku. Izuku losing control of blackwhip whenever someone speaks ill of Katsuki. Katsuki nearly killing himself to get to Izuku when he can barely move (MULTIPLE times). Shigaraki going after Katsuki because he’s the most important person to Izuku. Katsuki CRYING over Izuku’s lost quirk in the hospital. The list goes on and on.
And with that being said, honestly, it’s no wonder so many ship them. Their relationship is so much more fleshed out than the Izuku x Ochako relationship could ever hope to be at this point. Even if the entirety of the epilogue is IzuOcha confessing, it still doesn’t erase the entirety of what’s happened between Katsuki and Izuku. Horikoshi isn’t great at writing well-rounded female characters, at least in this story, and I think this also contributes to the sheer number of BKDK shippers. It’s so much easier to ship two fleshed out characters. Add in a rivals/enemy dynamic and you have the the makings of many of the most popular M/M Shonen ships.
And I understand people’s issues with the BKDK, though past a lot of homophobia and a refusal to acknowledge people (especially teenagers) have a great capacity for change, I’m not sure where the intense hatred of it comes from.
I loves these characters. I love this ship for so many reasons. And if IzuOcha becomes canon that won’t change. If anything, my resolve that BKDK should be canon will only be strengthened.
I’m not under the illusion that I’m adding anything new to this discourse. The shipping wars will continue no matter how the story ends. But I don’t think BKDKs should be blamed for coming to a conclusion the story has, up until this point, so clearly led us to.