On Death’s Door

Chapter 293 solidified for me that bkdk is always gonna stay winning, no one can ever convince me otherwise at this point. To be fair, you wouldn’t have been able to convince me otherwise before, either.

But let’s get down and funky with our little gremlin boy and all of his complex emotions relating to Deku, yeah? Cause 293 gave us something phenomenal, and that was Bakugou essentially realizing he had a quirk evolution spurred by the fact that Deku was about to die, and he needed to save him.

I’m gonna focus on these two first cause they’re the big boys.

He states that his explosions were never like that before. When he was facing death, about to witness someone so important to him about to die, his power changed. It became faster, stronger, more of what he needed in that moment for him to save Deku. His need to save Deku made his quirk stronger, and it was because it was Deku.

“Like being on Death’s Door”

That’s the line to beat, folks. Bakugou wasn’t at death’s door in that moment, Deku was. So then why would Bakugou feel that way?

“In total crisis”

A crisis indeed, but for who? Again, Bakugou wasn’t the one in imminent danger, but just witnessing Deku about to die made him feel like he was. It was enough to make him feel like he, himself, was on the brink of death.

Because one can’t exist without the other. Just as Deku can’t envision a world without Bakugou, we now know that Bakugou can’t envision a world without Deku. So much so, that he threw his body in the way to make sure Deku didn’t die. He would have rather ended up the one dead, than to have a world without Deku in it.

And on top of all of this, now we have Bakugou CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING TO REMEMBER THAT MOMENT in order to gain that strength from before. That desperation and urgency.

We went from a boy who couldn’t comprehend anything other than the desire to win, to having him act without thinking to save Deku, to now CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING to put himself out into harms way in order to save someone else that he cares about.

Because remember, Bakugou is close to fatally wounded. In fact, if he keeps it up, the situation could end up really dicey, as much as I don’t want to think about it. But he isn’t thinking about that right now, he’s thinking about saving Best Jeanist and the people important to him.

HE’S THINKING ABOUT SAVING.

In all of my time spent watching anime and reading manga, I have never encountered a character with such brilliant and beautifully written character growth and development. Horikoshi has done something truly outstanding with Bakugou’s character, and I will forever be grateful for that.

But it can’t be ignored that the entire reason for this growth and development is DEKU.

Every way Bakugou has changed and continues to change is because of Deku, and I absolutely refuse to acknowledge anyone that can’t see that.

Like, we seriously just witnessed this boy have an entire quirk evolution because his feelings for saving Deku were so strong. Do you know how powerful that is? That’s not just ‘oh he’s my rival’ kind of feelings. That is fucking LOVE.

Say it with me now;

L O V E

And this love for Deku he has is changing him, it’s allowed him to understand how it feels to want to save someone, and he uses the idea of losing Deku as a way to push him forward to do that. Which..in and of itself is so fucking monumental I don’t think I can even properly express how it makes me feel.

All I know if that we went from this;

Bakugou subconsciously rushing forward in order to save Deku, to this;

CONSCIOUSLY RUSHING FORWARD TO SAVE BEST JEANIST WHILE THINKING OF DEKU IN DANGER IN ORDER TO GAIN THE STRENGTH TO MOVE FORWARD

Mind you, this is all happening within the span of 8 chapters. I don’t know how quickly a lump sum of you want Bakugou to change, but I would think this is pretty damn fast, if you ask me.

But anywho, my entire point is that Bakugou’s incredibly strong emotional connection to Deku was able to not only cause a quirk evolution for him, but also enough to show him the vitality of needing to save someone.

And that’s on being in love. (✿◠‿◠)

Bakugo Breakdowns

I think an underrated part of how Bakugo seeks out Deku when he’s having a breakdown is that he expressly doesn’t want Dekus help.

He doesn’t want Deku to comfort him, try to fix anything, or make it all better. He has no motive to seek Deku out, someone who compulsively tries to help others.

He goes to Deku with only one goal, to be seen

He wants this, even though for most of the series he’s under the impression that Deku looks down on him, with that in mind he still can’t stop his need to bare his soul to him

He confronts him ‘knowing’ he’s probably giving Deku more ammo, and with very loud intentions of not wanting pity or anything from Deku

Katsuki doesn’t have a lot of emotional intelligence which leaves him not thinking about his reasonings for things he does, he just follows his gut and doesn’t question it. Despite everything his instincts are always to trust Deku

So he goes to the person he trusts most and says “I’m hurting, and I need to feel seen, even just for a moment, just until this weakness passes. Pease just see me, acknowledge that I’m someone still, that I’m not as alone as a I feel, validate my hurt without trying to change it please”

And Deku does, he sees nothing but Kacchan and nothing ever changes that. No matter how grande and powerful, no matter far off and lost from the heros path he has strayed, Deku still sees Kacchan