Things People Keep Missing About Midoriya & Bakugou: Essay 1
I’ve noticed a lot of people talk about Midoriya and Bakugou over the years. Sadly, I’ve also noticed that inflammatory commentary about their relationship has spiked up again recently. What’s particularly frustrating about this trend is the hyper-focus on only the most upsetting aspects of their dynamic and little else.
However, I personally don’t see the value in simply taking their dysfunctional relations at face value. In my opinion, this relationship has too much food for thought and fascinating subtext to not explore.
So I’ve decided to analyse the things about Bakugou and Midoriya that I think don’t really get enough attention. Let’s start with chapter one. The chapter that has the most baggage in the fandom’s eyes.
Cruel Truths & Comfortable Delusions
“People are not born equal. That’s the hard truth I learned at age four. But that was my first and last setback.“
A major theme in chapter one is the concept of “accepting one’s reality”. We explore this theme through a character study of our protagonist, Midoriya.
We observe him watching some heroes in action, excited, bright-eyed and smiling. His enthusiasm even draws the attention of a stranger in the crowd:
Midoriya merrily accepts the encouragement. But once he enters his classroom…
His demeanour does a complete 180.
The cheerful boy who just minutes before held his head up high and smiled so openly is now soberly hunched over his desk with his head down, looking as if he’s trying to fly under everyone’s radar. Why behave so differently in class?
Well, Midoriya wants to become a pro hero and save people, just like all his classmates. Problem is, unlike them, he has no superpowers. To make matters worse, he’s in deep denial about his situation. Somehow, despite the constant discouragement he gets, he holds onto the hope that his dream can happen… an absurd mindset that likely invites even more teasing and ridicule from others.
Now nobody likes being made fun of, but for Midoriya, the harsh scrutiny of his peers is especially painful; it represents a cold, harsh reality that he isn’t yet willing to accept. A cruel truth that one classmate in particular has come to embody for Midoriya.
Enter Bakugou, the same boy who beat Midoriya up on the very first page of this manga. Bakugou is more than just a bully at this point. Among numerous other things, he is a walking dispenser of unpleasant reality checks for Midoriya.
Time and time again, the two boys clash over the same sticky issue: Midoriya’s deep-seated denial of the fact that he can’t become a hero. No matter how horrible Bakugou or anyone else is to Midoriya, he still clings to his hopeless dream, to the point that he seems foolish and out-of-touch with reality to those around him.
Bakugou in particular is not only baffled, he’s infuriated. To him it looks like Midoriya is grossly underestimating how difficult it is to pass U.A. Academy’s brutally competitive entrance exams. To him, someone aiming for the top hero academy in the country shouldn’t be wavering, talking about merely “trying it out”.
Once class is over Midoriya begins to look cheery again. He eagerly checks the latest news, already beginning to lose himself in the world of heroes.
This seems to be a pattern. Midoriya looks happiest when he can retire from the company of people who keep reminding him he is quirkless and escape into his own little world. After all, in his mind and in his journals at least, he can entertain his fantasy of being a hero.
Cruel reality comes knocking on his door again in the form of Bakugou. He’s not done trying to drill the truth into Midoriya yet.
Once again, Midoriya is reminded of why his dream cannot come to be. It’s not just the fear of Bakugou’s wrath that shakes him, it’s the fear that what Bakugou is implying is actually true.
Then as if he hasn’t done enough already, Bakugou takes things way too far…
With high school entrance exams around the corner, Bakugou seems so determined to “cure” Midoriya of his delusions that he goes overboard. We’ll revisit this moment later on in the essay.
Midoriya is filled with frustration after this latest incident, and is reminded of other painful experiences involving his quirklessness.
Nobody believes Midoriya can become a hero. Not even his own mother can deny the truth.
But Midoriya doesn’t want to hear the truth, he even decided as a child to not accept his reality. He reaffirms himself and attempts to retreat into denial yet again.
And then cold, brutal reality decides to pay him another visit.
He’s reminded, yet again, how powerless and impotent he is.
He would have died had All Might not swooped in to save him. Once Midoriya is safe and has a chance to speak with All Might, we hear something interesting.
We discover an incredibly painful irony. Midoriya is able to appreciate the efforts of heroes as much as he does precisely because he can’t save himself. Yet because of this very same fact, he can’t become a hero and save others either.
Effectively, Midoriya is someone who cannot do anything. Still, he cannot accept it. He gets his hopes up one more time.
But All Might isn’t willing to entertain his fantasies either.
“It’s not wrong to dream.”
“Without power, can one become a hero? No, I should think not.”
Reality bursts Midoriya’s bubble for the third time that day. All Might’s words finally make the sad truth hit home. Of course, Midoriya is heartbroken.
Fast forward to after the sludge guy incident is resolved. Midoriya seems to finally accept his lot in life. The fact that All Might had to save him from certain death yet again made the ugly truth crystal clear. This time, he does not even get upset when Bakugou tells him off again for acting out while knowing he’s powerless.
But then something extraordinary happens.
“Fantasy… became reality.”
Ironically, it isn’t until Midoriya gives up on his unrealistic dream that it finally comes a reality. Now that he has faced the harsh truth head on, Midoriya is now fully able to move towards his future.
Hmmmm. It seems Midoriya isn’t the only guy acting a little delusional around here. But how can this be? Is Bakugou not the brutally honest guy who knows how the world works?
Remember Bakugou telling Midoriya to jump off the roof? We discover some interesting tidbits about him just after this incident:
According to his buddies, Bakugou’s comment was unusually harsh.
Bakugou’s reasoning gives us another clue.
And then we find out that Bakugou doesn’t even want to risk smelling like cigarettes in case that gets him in trouble. Very odd, considering he’d just recently suggested suicide to a classmate - which he could get in far more trouble for.
These details are more important than they first seem. In my opinion, there is a reason why Bakugou is particularly cruel to Midoriya on that day in particular. It’s no accident that the only reasoning he provides is the fact that Midoriya still has his head in the clouds. It’s no accident that Bakugou risked serious criminal charges - risked his entire future- just so he could crush Midoriya’s spirit on that day in particular.
Bakugou is threatened by the fact that Midoriya is also aiming for U.A. And why is he threatened? Anyone who’s aware of his backstory already knows the answer to that.
“I’m awesome. I’m better than everyone else.”
“Deku… he’s not awesome at all.”
“I know you’re looking down on me”
Over the years, from the time he was about four, he’s been constructing plenty of unrealistic expectations in his head right along with Midoriya.
It’s no accident that Midoriya and Bakugou were assaulted by the same villain.
Sludge guy was a wake-up call for the both of them. Using this villain as the common thread between them, we’re being invited (probably) to compare and contrast each boy’s reaction to being confronted by the harsh reality of how vulnerable they both truly are.
Both are reduced to a state of terror and even driven to tears. Both could not save themselves. Both had to be rescued by All Might. However, in the aftermath, their states of mind are very different:
Midoriya calmly accepts his shortcomings.
Bakugou furiously refuses to admit even a single weakness.
We end the chapter with one boy able to face his future after learning to live with the truth (and getting his heart’s desire), while the other is stuck running in place because he still continues to ignore reality.
In this first chapter Midoriya and Bakugou’s characters are used to explore how deep-seated delusion can cause dysfunction and unnecessary hardship, whereas acceptance of one’s reality, while perhaps disappointing, can bring balance and peace of mind.
Of course, this is only one of numerous interpretations of the source material where Bakugou and Midoriya are concerned; Horikoshi uses these two to explore a number of concepts. Their dynamic is woven pretty deep into the narrative, which is why I find it so disheartening to see so many people turn their noses up at them right away, because of what’s on the surface. It doesn’t help that this reductionist attitude towards their relationship is actively encouraged.
I chose to speak about chapter one specifically because it’s a huge stumbling block fro many people… which is a damn shame because this is a relationship between the two most important characters in the story.
For now, I’m very much interested to see what the relationship between these boys could turn out to be now that they’re changing. I hope this post will help others understand my feelings even a little bit. A lot has happened since chapter one, and the boys we have now are not the deluded fourteen-year-olds we met back at the beginning. It would be a delight to see them build something; no longer hindered by misconceptions and lies, but existing beside each other in earnest, open truth.
