a thread on bkdk as siblings, because ch 285 left me with no choice

if u are thinking of disagreeing with me, please first consider: i am right

at the center of my bkdk sib thoughts is the classic, familial “i love you but i don’t have to like you.” the i-don’t-care-for-your-personality-much-but-if-it-came-down-to-it-i’d-risk-my-life-for-you dynamic. see: katsuki telling izuku to stay back, the most recent chap, etc

the thing that really gets me about their relationship is how much they’ve both accepted the other in his life as an inevitability. izuku, admittedly, more-so — he’s been consistently committed to attempting to better their relationship.

obviously it would be easier to just give up with katsuki. it honestly makes more logical sense to. but there’s a resignation here — izuku, perhaps subconsciously, has always accepted that katsuki is a mainstay in his life. they’re inexorably tied together.

take their final exam: izuku’s exasperated. he knows that katsuki’s going to be a part of his life, somehow, forever — they might as well get along. did someone say siblings?

katsuki, up until recently, has shown this same resigned acceptance in subtler ways. take, for example, the way he’s never once out up a fight about izuku using a childhood nickname (he CLEARLY dislikes), even in a new high school environment. he knows there would be no point.

next point: katsuki bullied izuku so relentlessly because he took that love as a given — and while it very well may be, as the gap between them began to get smaller and smaller, that guarantee of unconditional admiration and devotion became not so guaranteed anymore.

when they were kids, it seemed as if katsuki could do just about anything to izuku and it never seemed like izuku harbored one bit of ire towards him. katsuki never thought to hold back, because his actions never had consequences.

but izuku nearing katsuki in strength and ability forces katsuki to reckon with the truth of the situation: love and support, even between brothers, is not automatically granted.

i think WHY katsuki has been able to atone is only because he has come to see his treatment of izuku for what it was — harsh, vicious tormenting. necessarily, he now views his own past behavior more harshly than izuku does, even now.

because even while izuku may be able to make excuses for katsuki’s past (and that may even be what’s best for izuku on his path to healing) katsuki has to confront it head on, in all of its ugliness. katsuki, in accepting izuku’s fated central role in the fight against AFO —

— is realizing that the only way he can be the best hero he can is through supporting izuku. some fun little side effects of this: 1) this process necessitates katsuki de-centering himself and essentially re-orienting the way he’s perceived his own importance his whole life.

while katsuki is experiencing that, izuku’s also having his world shift, as well. you know that troubling moment many younger siblings have when they come to realize that their older sibling is not perfect and that maybe they’ve surpassed them? how disorienting that is? yup!

second side effect: katsuki’s forced to reckon with just how deeply he cares about izuku, and always has, just as the horrific reality of OFA and izuku’s ultimate task becomes fully apparent. perfect priming for reckless self-sacrifice if you ask me! the stage has been set!

katsuki pushing izuku out of the way and consequently putting himself in harm’s way represents a lot for the growth of their relationship (obvs), but it also demonstrates katsuki’s acceptance that IZUKU is the key to saving the day. it’s the ultimate act in humility

consider: the juxtaposition of AFO through shiggy calling izuku little brother just as katsuki saves his own figurative little brother. put me in a home!

katsuki jumping in to save izuku isn’t in any effort to redeem himself. to think so, i believe, cheapens it. he’s not going through the self-involved thought process of determining how this would factor into atoning for what he’s done and earning forgiveness —

maybe he would, under different circumstances, but here he doesn’t have the time to. all he has the time to consider is the already programmed, instinctual, familiar: “i love you but i don’t have to like you.”

in conclusion, bkdk sibs supremacy. thank u for ur time.