My Hero Academia

The belt has to be mitigating something detrimental, otherwise Aoyama couldn't have gotten a permission to wear it during sports festival. Young Aoyama was apparently upset by the fact that he's "different" from everybody so I'm guessing Navel Laser by itself has a crippling drawback that actually meddled with his daily life and not just Quirk usage. He got that belt way before he came to UA, despite how costumes and support items that help enhance Quirk usage seem to be controlled by government and is off-limits from general public other than licensed heroes or heroics students. Some people saw this as a possible motivation/hint of him being connected to a villain but I saw this as him having something of a Quirk disability and having had access to state-approved equipment to help deal with it.

Maybe he's like belly Cyclops.

Wasn't he able to do concussive force with his Quirk

Hi yes just would like to mention that Bakugo sucks yes thank you bye

Bakugou is the Boku no Hero shut your mouth.

I'm just sitting here, being neutral on Bakugo.

If you die I'll tell your wife you said "hello"

Any particular reason why you don't care for Bakugo?

Very Melon mentioned it before in the thread

I probably wasn't here for it.

Hey Deku got a figurine.

http://www.ign.com/videos/2017/12/11/unboxing-loot-animes-december-izuku-midoriya-figure

I hope Stain gets one.

I wonder if there's some sort of irony, that Deku is definitely going to be the number 1 hero in story but Bakugo keeps entrenching in his number 1 spot in terms of popularity...

Character Bakugou is more likeable than Actual Person Bakugou.

I never gave a precise reason for it, and to be frank it rather hard to put one down. Until now I've just said he didn't interest me, but the precise reason why is because I don't find anything about his relationship with Deku or his worship of All Might compelling. The guy was a school bully, which while bad and capable of resonating with the audience isn't something I think makes for a strong or engaging foundation for a rival character. Worse is that it feeds into his love of All Might, which is the opposite of interesting compared to Deku's.

I admit he gets character development, but since that would involve the toning down of his most controversial traits that still only leaves me with lukewarm feelings towards him.

See, I think being a (former) bully towards Deku was a great foundation towards their rivalry as it does give it some weight. It falls apart for me though when Deku still pretends like they're friends despite that however and most observers seeing their relationship as "rocky" rather than Bakugo just being a complete fucking dickwad.

Granted, it's probably related to how Japan views bullying in general compared to other countries, but it's still extremely jarring even when I go back to it now.

Makes sense with Deku's personality

Yea, but it makes him come off as stupidly naive.

At the very least, repressed

bakugo is probably never going to say sorry

Being a bully could have been fine for me, but the way it was used never interested me.

Deku HAS mentioned a few times that he does hate Bakugou, it's just that Bakugou is such a natural at nearly everything and so damn bull-headed when it comes to following his dreams that Deku finds that inspiring

Yeah, Izuku knows they're not friends. Though I don't think he would mind going back to being friends if Bakugo just calmed the fuck down.

edited 12th Dec '17 6:35:55 AM by LSBK

I think what makes Bakugo great is a combination of factors; he's basically a cross between Asuka from NGE and Calvin from Calvin And Hobbes, the former providing the really interesting "self-esteem is tied to success" dynamic that powers him through everything and the latter providing the sort of arrogance hiding behind loneliness that gives his character room to grow.

Normally characters with character growth can end up being uninteresting or annoying in the interim but Bakugo has the benefit of being really fun to watch when he fights. I don't think there's a single fight that he's in that's not entertaining in some way. Look at the tournament. Every single one of his fights is great while other characters have some fights that are throwaway or flat out don't work.

Most of all, I think, and the factor that makes him the most nuanced is that the creator wisely decided not to cop out and so didn't give Bakugo a Freudian Excuse. He has an explanation for why he's like the way he is but it was his choice to basically be so arrogant with that; he could have turned out perfectly nice had he, well, been a nice guy. All of his success and failure comes from one person, himself, and that's pretty compelling to watch in my opinion.

I'm not sure who this person we are talking about is, but said person sounds controversial.

If Deku had a rival, it would probably be this mystery person we are speaking of.

Authors Note: Man of my word.

I thought Deku's rival was Todoroki

I remember there was this big to do about it and the most climatic fight in a tournament arc

To further Sigil's point, I also find his dynamic with Deku to be pretty interesting. Deku essentially being inspired by Bakugou's unrelenting drive to win making Bakugou Deku's image of a "winner" as opposed to his view of All Might as a "Hero" and him emulating certain aspects of Bakugou when he wants to win as much as help people is a fun characteristic for Deku. Contrast Bakugou who sees All Might as a "winner" for always coming out on top of the villains, and you get an interesting foundation for Bakugous drive to be a hero with a contrast toward Deku's and a further contrast with how All Might inspired them.

Now, Bakugou is still a relentless asshole for much of the early stuff and at best remains a hostile dick even after his early development, but I personally like that because it's nice to see a character who has a whole bunch of legitimately positive traits that nevertheless is not likeable on a personal level in the slightest. I feel as though the Deku vs Bakugou fight at night was meant to be the true beginning of his and Deku's rivalry, since while Bakugou is still his usual abrasive self, he seems to (at least as far as I've seen) have gotten over his baggage regarding Deku that plagued their interactions earlier in the series. Everything between them prior to that was buildup to establish both of their baggage and contrasting world views with one another.

edited 12th Dec '17 7:58:03 AM by Alfric