#;;character study

[spideystark]

Peter's taste in men: clueless smart idiots

Peter's taste in woman: could kill a man

[oficytheft]

Leonard: I’m a criminal, I don’t give a shit. Leonard: I’ll kill someone if they annoy me. Leonard: Bullet right to the head in half a second. Leonard: [a muse under 30 follows him] Leonard: i’M mOTHER, nO dRAMA

[specthrum]

Intention matters; Why proto-Katsuki is just as bad as his canon counterpart (possibly even worse)

note: I am talking about my own interpretation of the prototype of Bakugo Katsuki. Not much is confirmed about him or his personality outside of an Omake in which Horikoshi notes he was originally meant to be a natural genius who is condescending towards his classmates. There’s also some sketch work that hints at other personality traits (such as more proper attire than his canon counterpart) but without confirmation from the creator as to the meaning, all analysis is open to interpretation. 

My point being that most of what is ‘canon’ to my proto verse is not canon in general and may not apply to other portrayals. Other people may have similar ideas, they may not. I’m in no way trying to force my headcanons and you, the person reading this post, should not develop expectations of other portrayals to follow my ideas. Cool? Cool.

So I've talked about this a little bit before but only in vague terms, such as referring to Katsuki as ‘the worst’ or a ‘manipulative piece of shit’ and while both of these statements are true, they don’t exactly provide context as to why I find him so detestable; and more importantly, why he serves as a minor antagonist/rival in the same way his canon counterpart does at first.

Katsuki doesn’t bully Mikumo, doesn’t physically abuse him or tell him to take a swan dive off the roof. He doesn’t go all out and try to explode his head off during the second day of classes. In fact, he actively protects Mikumo from other people who may mistreat him and is careful never to cross a line in which he may physically harm Mikumo. So what’s the big deal? Why does it matter that Katsuki isn’t being sincere when the end result (Mikumo not being bullied) is the same?

Because the end result isn’t the same; because the intention isn’t the same. Abuse isn’t just physical, it’s emotional and psychological too. Katsuki may not seem to have a lot of control over Mikumo’s life now, but he has in the past and that past continues to effect Mikumo’s relationships with other people and Katsuki is continuing to manipulate and use others in the same way that he did to Mikumo.

There’s a difference between inadvertently being over protective of someone different and thus implying that they are incapable, and wanting them to be incapable so that you can look and feel good by being there and providing for them. And it’s something abusers do a lot, they essentially get their victim to believe that their only chance at a meaningful connection is with their abuser. 

And this is something Mikumo does believe even as he grows to hate Katsuki, he doesn’t form relationships with other people and instead chooses to be alone because he genuinely believes the only alternative is to be friends with Katsuki. I’ve said the Mikumo self isolates but this is only partly true; because it started way before he developed his current attitude problems.

Katsuki prides himself in being Mikumo’s only friend when they’re kids. With Katsuki’s parents frequently away, and Mikumo’s parents being dead, they often only have each other. Except when it comes to school. At first, Mikumo is reluctant to bond with the other kids out of fear and Katsuki just wants him to feel less lonely. But this develops into something more sinister as even when Mikumo is ready to reach out, Katsuki prevents him from doing so under the guise of ‘protection’. Meanwhile he freely develops outside friendships. Katsuki has many friends, but Mikumo just has Katsuki. This gets even worse as they get older and Mikumo begins to show his intellectual abilities and own heroic nature. Katsuki doesn’t like this change in the status quo and will do just about anything to keep Mikumo in his place, such as purposely getting the other boy in trouble and even sabotaging his relationships with other students so he veers away from ‘not friends’ and into ‘enemy’ territory for the other kids. He’s not bullied, because Katsuki is there to protect him, but he knows they don’t like him and if Katsuki wasn’t around he’d be alone. This is different than if Katsuki genuinely was the only kid who accepted him regardless of having a quirk, because he’s intentionally creating this situation. He’s intentionally making Mikumo’s life harder because it makes him feel like the hero for being there. This dynamic of Mikumo only serving to bolster Katsuki’s ego and being essentially nonexistent to Katsuki outside of that context; is what causes Mikumo to self-isolate when he gets to UA. He’s aware Katsuki is trying to manipulate him, but that doesn’t mean that Katsuki’s not still getting what he wants.

And that’s who Katsuki is at the beginning of the story; someone who doesn’t genuinely care about anyone, who uses people for his own gain, not caring who he hurts along the way. He never raises a hand against Mikumo but that does not mean he is better than his canon counterpart. 

[valerenova]

ok so here’s the thing;

If you take Izuku out of Ochako’s life, friendship and/or crush, she’d be mostly the same character/person. She does admire him and that does play a role in her character arc but it’s completely plausible to write around that. There are plenty of other dynamics she has and could have that could drive her to become more competitive, in fact we see her worked up prior to the sports festival just on merit that it’d be a good opportunity to show her stuff. If you just take the crush stuff out then...virtually nothing changes, her platonic feelings towards him and her views of him as a rival are independent of her romantic feelings.

However, if you take Ochako out of Izuku’s life; even just on a platonic level, his life would be vastly different. He may not have gotten into UA, may have even died during the entrance exam. If he did get in he wouldn’t have that first friend that helped him open up and make other friends, he wouldn’t have someone to change the meaning of ‘Deku’. Someone to be a constant source of positive energy and build him up. He’d be nervous, shy, and likely isolated (not that the other 1-A kids are /mean/ but it’s hard to initiate contact with someone who’s Like That and w/o knowing the reason behind it they’d likely just give him his space) even if he did open up it’d be a lot slower and there’s no telling what would happen in the meantime. Izuku of course has his own character growth that is a result of his own effort, but Ochako is a big part of it and he’d be a substantially different character w/o her influence.

Ochako has already proved her worth as a character definitely, Horikoshi made sure to introduce her character, background, motives, personality, and goals before the crush plotline even came up. the final exam arc is the first time it's even mentioned. And every time it is mentioned, it’s mentioned within the context of Ochako and how it effects her.  

Which is why I don't think Horikoshi is going to make her "just a love interest" because he'd have to literally retconn everything he's done so far and that's so weird. All the groundwork is there to finish out a good character arc and yeah it could still be botched but i’m gonna hold out hope

[valerenova]

Also also

1. Sorry to point this out again

2. This is my last point and then I’ll shut up for the night

But while we’ve had repeated confirmation of Ochako’s feelings for Izuku we have not had confirmation that they are returned. We know what he thinks of her as a friend, as a classmate, as a rival. The story goes out of its way to consistently highlight that the respect and platonic affection to their dynamic is mutual.

Whereas characters point out that Ochako is behaving as if she has romantic interest in Izuku, vice versa does not happen. They imply he’s interested in Camie, Melissa, even Tsuyu in the OVA. But not Ochako. And there’s an excerpt from Ochako’s character analysis page from the original character book in which Izuku says something along the lines of having a friend who’s a girl makes him nervous sometimes, but he’s glad to have her in his life. Pretty much cementing her platonic status in his book.

So I’m just saying; Ochako having a crush does not automatically make her a love interest and I think there’s a reason why the implications are that the romantic feelings aren’t mutual

[valerenova]

On Ochako’s costume upgrade:

I’m hoping for more details in upcoming chapters, the kids seem to be getting ready for some sort of in class training which means we’ll get to see it in action pretty soon. Hopefully.

For now, the more I look at this cover image the more I agree with @herosname​ about the wires she mentions being  grappling wires.

There are strange looking holes/exit points on her new wrist guards and on her new belt. Plus, considering the way she’s positioned and the flow of her hair, it looks like she’s in the process of being launched through the air rather than simply floating upwards as her quirk would naturally.

So far there are only a couple of flaws with this theory; -If there are wires in her belt as will, why is she positioned sideways -The way her hand points behind her rather than in front implies she’s pushing herself forward rather than pulling herself forward; which is more likely to be jets of air than wires. -On the page in which she’s talking about her upgrade, she states that the presence of the wire is so she can nullify the weight of her wrist guards. 

Although this may just be a translation issue since that doesn't actually make much sense seeing as she needs to touch it with all five fingers to use her quirk, and the entire guard (wires and all) would be around her wrists

[valerenova]

also honestly? I think romance is a good catalyst for Ochako’s character development (assuming that i’m correct about it being for emotional build up) teenage crushes are intense and it provides conflict with her current goals. If her internal struggle was with confidence or with controlling her quirk like other characters; this would align perfectly with her goal of becoming a hero. What I mean by that, is solving those problems would bring her closer to that goal. There would be no need for her to prioritize or re-evaluate how she sees herself in relation to other people; in particular, her tendency to form her behaviors and even desires around other people’s needs.

A crush is something that at the very least has the potential to distract from that goal (becoming a hero to provide with her family) it introduces a conflicting desire. Something that has nothing to do with her current dream. This opposition is what makes it a good catalyst. It’s not maintaining the status quo it’s setting her up for change. It’s not impossible that there could be other catalysts that have nothing to do with crushes or romance but it honestly wasn’t a bad choice writing wise.

provided that i’m not just reading too much into things.