My Hero Academia

I get why he gets under people's skin.

As pointed out, real life things like Bakugou's bullying are things that can actually happen, and tend to hit people much harder than the more fantastical elements.

Yes, he has gotten better, but for some the reality of what he's done pisses them off enough that they want to ignore that.

I'm not excusing Bakugo's behavior; I'm saying even with his obvious flaws calling Shigaraki "more mature" than Bakugo is stupid, because it is.

Edited by LSBK on Oct 19th 2018 at 11:06:13 AM

And Bakugou has made significant improvements, including with how he talked down the kid who was just like him in his youth without being a dick.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:09:12 AM

Shigaraki is so mature that he tracks down Izuku, grabs his throat, and threatens to murder him in broad daylight. Then he sits down on a bench with him and vents and whines and moans about how no one is taking him seriously and everyone's paying more attention to the Hero-Killer Stain than him, and how it's totally not fair and how Kurogiri keeps telling him to turn down his music, and it's such bullshit, man!

Basically this. Like, I'm not saying that Bakugo's behavior isn't often immature, but there really is no contest here, and it's strange that this even has to be discussed.

I initially said it more as an insult than anything. But then people started defendingBakugo being a little shit. I also said it in the context of why people hate characters like Endeavor more than actual antagonistic villains.

Although Bakugo seems strangely popular so who fucking knows.

Like, yeah, Bakugou is a dick. He's also a teenager. 67% of all teenagers to have ever lived on the planet Earth are, were, have been, and will be, dicks.

Endeavor is an abusive asshole who's driven all of his children away, turned one of them into a villain, and psychologically destroyed an innocent woman. He's also a grown-ass man.

Shigaraki is a murderer.

How are we having this conversation? How are we having this conversation again?!

and It's that really obvious but often ignored line between criticizing how a character is written and having a sincere personal loathing for someone who doesn't actually exist.

Edited by sgamer82 on Oct 19th 2018 at 10:15:29 AM

Hell Shigaraki's entire character arc is about him maturing.

Unlike everyone else including Bakugo he lacks conviction so the former needs to grow as a person.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:15:37 AM

Bakugou has been a shit, but it was a completely false comparison between the two and Bakugou has gotten much better. He reached his low point at the very beginning and had nowhere to go but up.

Yeah maturing into an Evil Overlord.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:17:54 AM

What can I say we all warmed up to the guy because he's got a well written character-arc.

We've long outgrown hating him.

Everyone's got ambitions, Shigaraki's is to become the fucking Godfather of Japan.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:19:53 AM

I'd say Bakugou's turning point was probably the licence exam and the subsequent fight with Deku

Speaking of which, I liked him talking to Izuku and All Might about One For All. I feel like we should have had a couple of scenes like that by now.

Well I'm not there yet.

It's like when Jaime was introduced trying to kill a little boy. People sid I'd warm up to him but I didn't believe them. And yet I did.

I seriously doubt I'll ever see Bakugo redeemed or like him but who knows. It's a good series with good writing so it's possible.

Edited by Nikkolas on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:22:48 AM

I cannot believe someone here is seriously trying to claim Shigaraki is the more mature one.

I think that any issues with characters like Bakugo and Iida not having gotten as many important scenes as they should have lately is due to the Overhaul arc being what it was. It was both long and pushed a lot of characters to the sidelines, meaning that there hasn't been a whole lot of progression there.

Like I said, it was just an insult at first, putting him down by comparing him toa guy whose whole character seems to be that he's immature.

Then people started bending over backwards to make excuses for Bakugo. I have the strangest suspicion nobody here makes similar excuses for the cast of Naruto or Bleach or Fairy Tail, even though they are also all kids. I certainly never saw any "but they're only 15!" talks in my years of being in those fandoms.

Sasuke was a teen AND had PTSD

Edited by Nikkolas on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:32:04 AM

Something interesting I have noticed concerning Bakugo is how people often want it both ways, so to speak.

They don't want him to have a "sob story" because that's "cliché" but him also just being a jerk for relatively mundane things is boring...?

Part of this is I feel is that people often equate explaining why a character is the way they are with somehow condoning their behavior, but also not wanting something mundane like "he's always been told he was the best since he was a kid, and it went to his head" as the reasoning behind why who is essentially the deuteragonist being who he is.

See, that's because you're taking acknowledging his age as an excuse for his behavior. When really all is being pointed out to you is that almost no one is the exact same person they are as an adult as when they are when they were 16.

Edited by LSBK on Oct 19th 2018 at 11:36:40 AM

Well we got some stuff recently like the make-up exam at least.

Hopefully next fight gives Iida a little more something, something.

And Sauce just became worse & worse as a person, your point?

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:34:27 AM

How Bakugo became who he is isn't necessarily the most interesting part about him (though I find it interesting, at least). What matters more is where he goes once he realizes that he isn't necessarily the best.

Probably because the ones Inuniverse making excuses for him continue to shill the likes of Sasuke till the end while Deku makes his dislike clear while also admiring his good qualities.

The Uchihas got excuse after excuse to justify any bad thing they did and shill them to the moon ie Reincarnation Bullshit, Evil Brain Chakra, etc. Bakugou doesn't and what influence was the product of his surrounding is actually lamented and his mom admits they should have done more to curb it in his youth. The rest is the product of him trying to live up to his own impossible standards and worldview and reacting when his ideals are shaken.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:39:33 AM

That's fair. I'm no Sasuke fan, at least after the timeskip. I just picked teh guy who gets tons of shit and no one gives him a break for his age.

Age shouldn'tbe relevant for fictional characters, at least not to this extent. What if we never see Adult Bakugo? Tons of anime feature characters who never get older than fifteen.

And I keep wanting to talk about Stephen King and his adolescent bullying psychopaths.

If Bakugo weren't making progress that would make sense, but he clearly is making progress.

I'm not going to tell you to like the character, but that's different from saying the murdering Manchild is somehow more mature than him, or ignoring how he actually has changed.

You're the one who made age relevant, by implying that it's somehow too late for Bakugo to become anything else besides like Endeavor. And also the fact that this story is literally about high school students and how much room they have to grow.

Edited by LSBK on Oct 19th 2018 at 11:49:24 AM

That seems like a rather arbitrary standard. Why shouldn’t age be relevant? It heavily informs his character, after all. This is a story about kids learning to become superheroes - of cours they all have growing up to do. I am asking you to take his age into account because the series is specifically about high school students - their age matters.

If we do see adult Bakugo, I imagine it will be in an epilogue, but even if we don’t, I do think he will be a very different person at the end of the series than when he started it.

Nikkolas, to be clear, where are you right now in the story?

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Oct 19th 2018 at 12:46:32 PM

The semester just ended. It was after Shigaraki chatted with Midoriya in the mall.Season 2in the anime.

But my point is, we can only judge what we see. Fiction is not like real life, we do not owe fictional characters the same "respect" we owe real people. IRL, sure, we can say "he'll grow out of it" because...well, it's real life. Time will make the person grow up.In fiction, that might never happen. If all we know is them as a teenager then that's all we are obliged to consider when discussing their character.

Do you disagree?

Edited by Nikkolas on Oct 19th 2018 at 9:54:01 AM