Read on Twitter
These two panels have had me thinking. In Izuku’s POV, he seems small, shrinking as the kids (Bakugou in particular) are towering over him. In Bakugou’s POV, Izuku’s size doesn’t change at all, but what we do see is Izuku in Bakugou’s shadow. Bakugou is shown as-
villainous in both of these panels. He’s using his quirk as a way to show that he is above others, a quirk that is powerful as hell and can pull off anything he wants it to. A quirk that’s earned him the title of “villainous” as seen by -
his Best Jeanist internship, the people’s reactions at the sports fest, and his kidnapping by the villains who singled him out for that very reason (Mr. Compress even says that his talents would shine more on the villain’s side). We’ve seen it mentioned before in the manga -
how there are people who have quirks that are seen as villainous, like Shinsu and Monama, and Bakugou is no different from them. Only, he was on the brink of becoming that villainous person. Take the first episode as an example, where Bakugou turned around and flashed his quirk-
in order to scare Izuku into backing down when he threw his notebook out of the window, or when he blew up his desk right before he stood over him in those panels above. He sees now what the people were talking about. He was using his “villainous-seen” quirk for villainous-
reasons, all to pursue a dream in which he tramples over others to become number one (using them as stepping stones). There’s a reason that this panel comes after a particular word choice and the thought that comes after it
A “cursed power,” and after that we see Bakugou using his quirk to be above others, followed by Allmight using AFO to bring peace and smiles, to do good for the world and the people. Bakugou is shown here from that beginning panel because that’s what he could’ve become
Take a look at the wording at the top, what Bakugou said to Izuku about OFA and AFO. “This makes you the same as him.” Bakugou was doing exactly what society was doing to him, Shinsu, Monama, etc. A seemingly villainous quirk that makes you the same as the villains, but we can-
see from the picture with Allmight that he was wrong, he’s not villainous because of the quirk, he’s not “the same as AFO” or the villains, he’s using his quirk to do good for the world. Then we see Bakugou, the boy with the seemingly villainous quirk DOING villainous acts, -
contributing to that stereotype, contributing to the problem of hero society that based worth on quirks. Perhaps this is where he sees himself as villainous, seeing what people were talking about when they said his attitude and ways of aiming-
for the top needed to be checked and kept under control, seeing why Shigaraki has targeted him that day after seeing him use his quirk at the sports fest just to be tied up and publicity humiliated, seeing why people were telling him to grow up and not waste his potential-
into becoming a hero because of his pride leading him onto a villainous path. He could’ve become like AFO or the other villains, he could’ve been that person to trample on others for have been categorized by his quirk as villainous and shunned from society. But instead, he got-
he help he needed, all due to the heroic boy that he feared the most because of his heroic heart. The boy he couldn’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard he tried to. The boy who stopped him from going down that path, little by little and making him face his insecurities-
and weaknesses. The boy who saved him, and the boy who’s throwing himself out there right now, looking beat up as the words he declared to this almost villainous person that he was going to “always do his best!” shines over his badly busted body -
So when he goes to save him, he thinks of them and their journey. From him declaring that he’d surpass Allmight, to Izuku waiving him, to have voicing his insecurities, to him talking again to the very person who promoted these insecurities, etc. To eventually his eyes-
that Izuku saw, the eyes that said to Izuku “I need saving.” So when he jumps purely out of care, out of worry for his friend, out of fear that he could die, with the instinct to SAVE without thinking of selfish desires, did he finally make that change into becoming a true hero-
and displayed those same feelings that Izuku had when he went to save him. His fear of what he couldn’t understand, the fear of his weakness, was gone now. He didn’t think, he acted. His feelings drove him, and before he knew it, he pushed him out of the way and took the hit. He-
looked back on his villainous path and let that propel him forward, let himself move past that and become the hero he was afraid of being, leaving that villainous person behind and saving the ONE PERSON who saw him as a hero, becoming HIS hero in the end.
(I’ll do a thread about him being Izuku’s hero at another time lol)
