One of the things I hate most about Izuku’s treatment in the BNHA narrative is this insistence that he’s in the wrong for not relying on others (adults) more.
Because it’s a legitimate issue, that Izuku takes on too much responsibility and needs to trust others more. But like, why would he?
Just by the sheer number of ways that adults have failed him, both in the past and at UA, he has no reason to trust them
Literally, one of his formative moments was when he was four and a doctor told him to give up on his life’s dream
He then spent over ten years being mercilessly bullied while adults either did nothing or actively enabled this behavior
He was full witness to Bakugou nearly suffocating to death while surrounded by adult heroes who barely even tried to help him
then he was scolded for ‘taking unnecessary risks’ despite the fact that their inaction literally made it necessary for him to do something if Bakugou was going to have a chance to survive
Afterward, he started training with All Might, and like. I love the man, but his first instinct for Izuku faceplanting in the dirt was to demand to know if he was slacking off
This one is a bit of an outlier since it’s not Izuku actively being let down by an adult’s carelessness or inaction, but he also had front row seats to Aizawa getting his face bashed in on like, the first week of school. Aizawa might not have done anything wrong, but that doesn’t change the fact that Izuku’s seeing, first hand and painfully, that adults can’t always take care of things
You also have the sports festival, where Izuku manages to break himself again and Recovery Girl says that she’s not going to keep healing him. Which is it’s own medical fiasco, but like. The intent may have been to tell Izuku that he can’t keep breaking himself, but I’m pretty sure that Izuku, with his trust in adults and his own self-esteem basically shattered under years of abuse, would have heard something closer to ‘If you keep on bothering me with your shortcomings, I’m going to stop helping you’
There’s the whole thing with Stain - you know, where all the adults were (understandably) busy, so he went off to find Iida on his own. And found him and Native about to be murdered. And sent out a mass text for help, which netted him exactly one teenaged classmate who was any help for the fight.
Also after he and two of his teenaged classmates managed to take down the serial killer, Izuku promptly got snatched out of an entire crowd of heroes.
I’m going to repeat that: Izuku was bodily snatched out of an entire crowd of heroes, and the one who ended up saving him was the tied up, formerly unconscious serial killer. And yes, I know that Gran Torino at least was making a solid effort to do something, but you know what? Izuku doesn’t. Regardless of what he believes the heroes might or might not have done, what he knows is that he would have been at the mercy of the Noumu if it weren’t for the serial killer who tried to murder one of his best friends.
The thing with the police is a little anomalous because aside from the inherent stupidity of a law that doesn’t make exceptions for self-defense or the defense of others, the adults didn’t actually do anything wrong. Unfortunately, part of that included punishing three heroes for losing track of their interns, which then implies to Izuku that he can very easily get adults in trouble for his actions if they’re even remotely involved with him
Just… the entire final exam fiasco, starting with the fact that the adults in his life made the damned call to pair him with Bakugou, continuing with the fact that none of them did anything with the recorded proof that Bakugou punched him in the literal face without justifiable reason, and ending with the fact that they and the narrative itself seem to think that Izuku is (partially) at fault for Bakugou’s atrocious behavior.
spoiler alert he isn’t, but telling Izuku otherwise is a great way to make him feel responsible for other things that also aren’t his fault
it’s also a great way to make him feel like he needs to address these issues independently, because that’s literally what the teachers made him do
The summer training fiasco is another one where like, the adults didn’t do anything wrong, but just by the nature of the situation Izuku had to take care of a lot of things without adult help. Also, considering the flak Aizawa got for authorizing them for quirk use in self-defense, Izuku gets yet more proof of how involving adults in his life can get them unfairly punished for his actions
Kamino is another weird one, because on one hand, you have the adult heroes making a serious and concerted effort to save Bakugou to the best of their abilities, but you also have the fact that five kids recklessly went out to help how they could without adult supervision, and they were ultimately the ones who saved him and helped to protect the fragile state of society
Also there’s Aizawa telling them that, if it weren’t for societal upheaval, they all would have been expelled for saving their classmate
this one is kind of messy, because Aizawa’s not entirely wrong, but I don’t think he’s really right either. Like, yes they were reckless and kind of flirting dangerously with the law, but they also went in with very clear intentions to put themselves in as little danger as possible, and they made a big enough impact that you can’t really disregard the role they played in stopping All for One - literally, the only reason All Might could finish that fight was because they made the opportunity for him to do so
also its another incident that tells Izuku that involving other people, no matter how tangentially, in his plans puts them at serious risk of being punished because of his actions
Okay, like… as much as I love Izuku’s and Bakugou’s fight after the provisional license exam, I kind of hate it too - specifically because Izuku gets punished again for the fact that Bakugou would have punched his face in if he didn’t try to fight back.
this one is more on the narrative, though, because of the specific way that the fight was framed - namely that hori specifically chose to have patrol robots keeping track of things, but apparently didn’t decide to give them microphones to pick up on sensitive conversations. Such as, you know, the fact that Izuku literally tried to de-escalate the fight before and after Bakugou literally launched himself towards Izuku’s face
it’s still frustrating regardless, just because the adults should know better. There hasn’t been a single time in the entirety of the series where Izuku has fought Bakugou without being actively threatened, but for some reason, they still think that Izuku is equally responsible for this BS.
Nighteye. Like, he’s a good guy, but he did absolutely atrociously by Izuku. He didn’t even know Izuku, but just assumed that he was unworthy of OfA because he wasn’t Mirio and didn’t have perfect control of this quirk after an entire six months - I’m just saying, that’s really not the kind of adult that would inspire me to trust others
RockLock, in a similar vein, kind of just automatically assumes the worst of Izuku and the other interns by virtue of them being not-adults. And like, we know that it was because of his concern for these children, but like… Izuku doesn’t know that. He mostly knows that RockLock was criticizing him for ‘letting Eri go’ despite the fact that he specifically went against his sempai’s orders to try and keep her safe immediately.
Okay, part of the entire reason for this monster post is the thing with the school festival, where Izuku once again decides to tackle the problem on his own and gets scolded by the teachers. It’s one of those things where I get where it’s coming from, but at the same time, no?? Like, what did you expect him to do? He already knew about the ultimatum, that any disturbance considered to be a threat would cause the entire festival to be shut down, and he wanted to keep it open for the sake of a tiny, abused little girl. He’s not being reckless for no reason here, and he has a very limited window to work with. This is literally the only thing Eri has shown any sort of desire for, outside of seeing Izuku and Mirio, but none of the adults even acknowledge that Izuku was fighting for this. It’s just yet another scolding for not trusting adults when, even outside of the circumstances that made it difficult to ask, Izuku has very little reason to trust adults.
Look, the narrative isn’t wrong about the fact that Izuku needs to trust others more, and to share responsibility with others - it’s just that it focuses so much on this one particular issue that it ignores all the extenuating circumstances that have directly contributed to Izuku’s problems. Instead of acknowledging the fact that basically all of society has beaten this mistrust into Izuku from a young age, the narrative frames the entire thing as a problem with Izuku’s character.
It’s not. It’s a survival instinct, born from repeated trauma, that tells Izuku that it’s a waste of time and energy to depend on others for help with his problems.
And sure, part of it is probably influenced by Izuku’s innate character, but if the adults want to see any change in this behavior, then they need stop telling him to trust adults and think more about why he wouldn’t
But like, the narrative doesn’t bother. Why would they?
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