Deku When He Needs To Beat Someone’s Ass :

now this is character development

Yeah .. if Bakugo is in his usual outfit , Deku will see the scar . Everyone take some time to think about this 🤚🏼

Omae: Complexity of Self-Expression and Intimacy with the Japanese “You”

The anime adaption of chapter 322 is rapidly approaching, so I wanna talk about something really interesting: as far as I can tell, Izuku is the only person Katsuki has ever used the pronoun omae (おまえ) towards in-canon. Furthermore, he has only used omae towards Izuku on three occasions.

The first time is after Deku vs. Kacchan 2 in chapter 120.

The second time is right after his apology in chapter 322. (Katsuki actually uses omae four times in a row in this scene.)

(We'll get to the third time later, just you wait.)

Why does Katsuki address Izuku differently in these scenes? To answer this, we’re gonna commit some language nerdery.

First, let’s be real about the fact that Japanese pronouns can be complicated. There are a ton of them. You learn the common uses—like you could say that, broadly, omae tends to be used by guys for their friends and romantic partners. But the reality is that in a high-context language like Japanese, pronouns can come across wildly differently depending on who uses it, to whom, with what tone, and in what context.

It is difficult to generalize real-life usage, so to be clear, I am talking about MHA as a piece of media. I could try to tell you that omae is rude but also friendly but also condescending but also comedic but also confrontational but also affectionate—and so on, but that wouldn’t help you understand what Katsuki’s omae to Izuku means and why it feels significant.

The thing is, Izuku and Katsuki can each say omae and mean completely different things, because their normal way of speaking tells us how to interpret their words.

When Izuku speaks, he is polite and considerate. He uses the boyish first-person pronoun boku (僕). In Japanese, avoiding second-person pronouns is the polite thing to do; you use the person’s surname and an appropriate suffix instead, and this is the tactic Izuku uses to address others. When he does say “you,” it is usually the familiar kimi (君) towards Katsuki.

We see Izuku use omae in only a few circumstances: he uses it towards himself during inner monologues when he is trying to figure out what to do or compel himself to act, and he uses it when he faces All For One.

Both of these involve what I think of as “tough talk”—Izuku talks tough to himself to push past his fears and be a hero. With AFO, he is talking to a villain, someone he has to defeat. From someone like Izuku who speaks with such politeness and humility, omae reads as aggressive and confrontational.

Katsuki, on the other hand, is always aggressive and confrontational. He uses the masculine, somewhat boastful first-person pronoun ore (俺) and the second-person pronoun temee (てめえ) towards just about everybody. Temee is an extremely rude, combative word; Japanese descriptions usually point out that it reads like fightin’ words—it’s what you’d call an opponent, someone you are confronting, challenging, or belittling. As mentioned, you’re supposed to avoid “you” words to be polite, so the fact that Katsuki whips out temee constantly and makes up insulting nicknames instead of using anybody’s real name is just like, damn, dude!

Unlike Izuku, Katsuki sounds like he is challenging everyone all the time. This means that, coming from him, omae actually seems gentler.

After Deku vs. Kacchan 2, he opens his sentence with omae, and Izuku looks startled by this.

They just had a huge, emotional fistfight, and Katsuki… isn’t addressing him as an opponent, like he always has before. For once, he is addressing Izuku not as his enemy, but his equal.

This scene is the first time Katsuki properly grapples with the truth of their mutual weaknesses and comes to an understanding about it. It leaves him frustrated and unsure, but he walks away seeing himself and Izuku as being on the same side.

Because he takes All Might's words to heart: they are two halves of what makes a hero. They need to learn from each other and push each other to truly reach their best—as rivals, not enemies.

In chapter 322, Katsuki talks Izuku through how he felt about him all these years. He goes over all the things he's had to face to see how wrong he was, to see his own weakness and Izuku's strength. The whole time, he uses the "you" word he always has: temee.

But when it comes time to tell Izuku his true feelings, he calls Izuku by his given name, apologizes, and then right away he says this:

This is a direct call-back to the core question that Katsuki posed to Izuku during Deku vs. Kacchan 2: "Is my way of admiring All Might wrong?"

The second half to that question has always been, implicitly, "Does that mean yours is right?"

Here, Katsuki acknowledges Izuku fully as All Might's successor and affirms that Izuku's path is not wrong, using omae to tell him so. And then he uses it three more times to convince Izuku to come back with them and fight together, "because saving people is how we win."

To me, omae in this scene comes across with such softness. He's speaking with more humility than we've ever seen, both in what he's conveying and his word choice. (There is a whole other conversation to be had about Katsuki's word choice for "I'm sorry," but that is for a different time.)

This omae is not just a sign that he sees Izuku as his equal, it's expressing care for him. Katsuki sacrificed his life for Izuku, telling him, "Stop trying to win this on your own." He is trying so hard to make Izuku understand: Come back, I was wrong. Come back, I care about you.

Which brings us to the third time Katsuki uses omae: chapter 362.

That's right, the infamous "Can I still catch up to you?" / "Can I still reach you?" line uses omae.

Here's the thing that's unique about this omae: it's in Katsuki's head. This is internal monologue; he isn't talking out loud to Izuku, he isn't trying to convey something to him face-to-face, he is just thinking about Izuku.

The word choice isn't for anyone else's benefit or any external purpose: this is just how Katsuki sees him.

I can't overstate how soft, vulnerable, and sincere this moment is for Katsuki. And what gets me about him thinking of Izuku as omae is, it makes me wonder, "How long has he thought of Izuku this way?"

When did Izuku stop being temee in his head?

Changing how you address someone is a big deal in Japanese. Whether it's a name or suffix change (Deku -> Izuku) or a pronoun change (temee -> omae), it represents a significant shift in the emotional dynamics of a relationship.

It crops up a lot in media as a dramatic moment of intimacy, sometimes even being a part of love confessions. This heightened drama is exactly what we see with Katsuki's apology when he calls him Izuku.

Katsuki addresses only Izuku with his given name and omae, and in the whole run of the series, he only uses omae in a few select instances. I would argue that this is really important, subtle character writing.

Looking at the scenes, at least to me, each omae reads as progressively more honest and intimate. Each time Katsuki uses it, he is reaching for Izuku. Each time, it means more.

Midoriya: I have no idea what I did to make Kacchan like me, but…

Bakugou: *sleeping peacefully with his head on Midoriya’s lap*

Midoriya: Whatever it was, I must’ve done it well

Deku power >:D

If you know the person who made the original joke, please tell me. I happen to see this on my ig, and tbh that cracked me up jajaja, so here it goes I drew it!

I’m probably not the only one who thought that their sexual tension was so thin that I could literally cut it with a knife :’DDD

💥 authorized reprint for tumblr 💥 勝デク || artist: 鉛錫 (@Pencileyyyy) 🚫 do not repost/edit source! do not claim as yours! 🚫 commercial use is prohibited!

「じゃあ俺の憧れは間違ってたのかよ…！」

BakuDeku Analysis

First of all, they’re literally made to be two sides of the same coin, each others’ missing piece, successors of All Might’s legacy, and soulmates. Their relationship is extremely crucial to each other and the series in general. They are the Wonder Duo, who both win and rescue. Their hero costumes even have complementary color palettes. Even Bakugou and Midoriya’s mentor, All Might agrees. He has stated, “In the way that young Midoriya longed for young Bakugou’s strength, and in the way that young Bakugou feared young Midoriya’ spirit…your feelings are all out in the open now, and now…you both get it now, if the two of you can recognize each other and honestly raise each other up, you can become the best heroes, who both win and rescue.” (Honestly, that sounded like an officiant’s wedding speech) and “You’ve got a good friend in him.” They also share the secret of One For All with All Might and because of this, Midoriya only considered to pass OFA down to Bakugou in Heroes: Rising. Midoriya unlocked Black Whips after Monoma talked dirty about Bakugou and the previous One For All user advised him to “get ahold of his intense feelings.” Midoriya only refers to Bakugou as “Kacchan"and not once has he asked him to stop, even though ”-chan" is a Japanese honorific used to indicate a cutesy and close bond between friends. Midoriya refused to call Bakugou as something other than “Kacchan” even during a life or death situation, shown when he wanted Mandalay to warn the class about the potential kidnapping of Bakugou. “Kacchan” was an affectionate nickname used by their childhood friends to adress Bakugou. Even Kaminari had teased Bakugou with this nickname, when he seemed geniunely concerned about the well-being of the internship squad, which included Midoriya.

In addition, there is no doubt that Bakugou is honestly obsessed with Midoriya. He mentions him and thinks about him all the time. He talks about him with other people even when they haven’t brought him up in the conversation. This could be said the same for Midoriya, who would always be there to save Bakugou no matter what despite all that the former has put him through. It could be interpretated as a symptom of Stockholm Syndrom, but in reality Midoriya is just able to see the good in Bakugou without excluding the negatives as well. “To the same extent as all of your unpleasant traits, your sheer amazingness at everything you do was so brilliant to me, it was blinding!”, “You, who had so many things that I never had…to me, you were an amazing, inspiring person, who was even closer to me than All Might!”, and “You’re my symbol of victory.” Midoriya admires Bakugou the most (even more than his idol, All Might who he has said to be his favorite hero and multiple merch of) and has stated that he is one of the most important person in his life. Bakugou exposed his feelings and broke down in front of Midoriya, 5+ times in fact (when he was a child, when he was kidnapped by the Sludge Villain, when he told Midoriya he’s not going ot lose to him, during their final exams, and during their second fight.) He only wanted to fight Midoriya in order to let off steam. Midoriya only charged in to save someone from the Sludge Villain when he realizes that someone is Bakugou. He’s willing to risk his life for him.

Even Kirishima sees how much they care for each other deep down. “…Because I’m betting this is hurting you more than the rest of us.” This happened after Midoriya got devasted about not being able to save Bakugou from getting kidnapped by the League of Villains his eyes broke and he was screaming with his bloody arms. He was yelling “Kacchan!” through blood and tears while Bakugou whispered a worried, “Stay back, Deku.” Midoriya can’t stand the thought of Bakugou being taken away from him. Todoroki and Uraraka have commented about their relationship, too. Todoroki has said to Bakugou, “You’ve been friends since you were kids right?” Uraraka has said to Bakugou, “It’s almost like…you’re scared so you want to distance him and so you act all menacing like that…I mean, you were childhood friends, and now you’re in the same class. So I want you to stop yelling at each other and be friends again.” She has also described their relationship as, “the fated battle between rivals/ men.” Toga has described to Uraraka what loving someone entails, “And you’re always thinking about how you want to be like him, aren’t you? Keep in mind, Uraraka is Midoriya’s hinted love interest. However, I think Uraraka is only in love with the idea of loving Midoriya. Midoriya as her possible romantic partner as only ever crossed her mind because someone else mentioned it. Whenever your classmates tease you about liking someone, don’t you get flustered as well, even though you don’t even like them? But Midoriya also admires Bakugou a lot, to the point where he copies his movesets and acts like him because he’s his "image of victory.” They inspire each other to be the best versions of themselves. Bakugou only wanted Midoriya’s attention on him when he was about to win and rescue during his joint-training battle with Class-1B, even if a sexy girl like Tokage was right in front of him.

Currently, they have frequent tea time meetings with All Might about One For All. Midoriya had commented on his life after getting One For All, everybody who helped him get to where he is now, and his newly healed friendship with Bakugou as being blessed. Yes, Bakugou did bully Midoriya in the past. He did act abrasive, mean, and told Midoriya to kill himself. However, their relationship is improving. Bakugou is improving. This ship is based on their chemistry, development, drama, angst, and everything else in between. On the other hand, I don’t understand why people shame Bakugou for hurting Midoriya, but not when Jirou stabs Kaminari with her earjacks all the time and makes fun of his stupidity. Don’t get me wrong, I ship KamiJirou too and I know they were not as toxic as BakuDeku, but these are double standards. Anyway, people can choose to interpret their relationship in a healthy way or not, but it’s no one’s right to tell others what they can or cannot ship. They’re not harming anyone. In fact, BakuDeku is a lot of people’s comfort ship and OTP. The BakuDeku fandom is one of the largest, full of supportive people, and produces tons of content. Bakugou and Midoriya’s relationship is the most central to the plot which means they frequently get content together. Everyone knows there’s no way BakuDeku would ever become canon. But just because they won’t, we can’t ship them? We can’t imagine what would happen if they did get toegether? We can’t have fun? Personally, I don’t like shipping canon ships because it’s boring. There’s no hope that motivates you and the author already decides their dynamic for you. Fanon ships and rarepairs are my favorite because you are in charge. You get to explore the dynamics and possibilities of every ship. In conclusion, BakuDeku is my OTP.

What if Tomura Shigaraki becomes a vestige and annoys Deku for all eternity, the comic