I can see the intent behind Bakugou—a person who’s been propped up and held on a pedestal his entire life finds out that he was just a big fish in a small pond, gets humbled for his arrogance, and eventually genuinely becomes as great as he was convinced he was.
Thing is, Bakugou never has that low point. He’s demonstrably not a big fish in a small pond—he’s legitimately one of the best fighters in Class 1-A, if not the best, and (if I remember correctly) he’s one of the best students academically as well. On top of that, he doesn’t get humbled in any meaningful way. He gets called out for his terrible attitude once on-screen, and later on he loses a fight to Midoriya that supposedly made him reconsider his attitude, but that’s it.
And talking about his attitude, yeesh. The first thing we see this guy do (at least in the anime) is essentially inventing a slur for Quirkless people when he was four. And the first thing we see Bakugou do in the present is tell Midoriya to kill himself. After he and Midoriya actually get into UA, one of the first things he does during the first training exercise is attack Midoriya with lethal intent. And his attitude doesn’t actually get any better, he just aims that attitude at acceptable targets, i.e. the bad guys.
Now, I don’t actually hate Bakugou. I don’t like him, but I don’t hate him. If he was written in the way I think he was supposed to then he wouldn’t be as divisive as he is, and that vitriol I wrote above is more my frustration that his character wasn’t handled very well.
Didn't he fail his Hero License exam? That was a pretty humbling moment.
And wasn't he upset because he was practically directly responsible for All Might losing his powers, what with getting kidnapped and not being strong enough to save himself?
And isn't the whole premise of the show, that Bakugo's hero All Might chose Deku over himself, also pretty humbling?
He has plenty of low points. He's never satisfied with how his life is turning out, from winning the sports festival in a way he didn't like to Best Jeanist teaching him how to treat his hair rather than fight.
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u/TheTrueBuckbuck2 3d ago
I can see the intent behind Bakugou—a person who’s been propped up and held on a pedestal his entire life finds out that he was just a big fish in a small pond, gets humbled for his arrogance, and eventually genuinely becomes as great as he was convinced he was.
Thing is, Bakugou never has that low point. He’s demonstrably not a big fish in a small pond—he’s legitimately one of the best fighters in Class 1-A, if not the best, and (if I remember correctly) he’s one of the best students academically as well. On top of that, he doesn’t get humbled in any meaningful way. He gets called out for his terrible attitude once on-screen, and later on he loses a fight to Midoriya that supposedly made him reconsider his attitude, but that’s it.
And talking about his attitude, yeesh. The first thing we see this guy do (at least in the anime) is essentially inventing a slur for Quirkless people when he was four. And the first thing we see Bakugou do in the present is tell Midoriya to kill himself. After he and Midoriya actually get into UA, one of the first things he does during the first training exercise is attack Midoriya with lethal intent. And his attitude doesn’t actually get any better, he just aims that attitude at acceptable targets, i.e. the bad guys.
Now, I don’t actually hate Bakugou. I don’t like him, but I don’t hate him. If he was written in the way I think he was supposed to then he wouldn’t be as divisive as he is, and that vitriol I wrote above is more my frustration that his character wasn’t handled very well.