I know you like Bakugou and all, but like...I wish he'd gotten off a little less easy for this, sorry. It's getting frustrating for me to watch him being coddled and all of his abusive actions being excused (a bad mental health day/week/month/whatever does NOT excuse the harm someone does to people) and him constantly getting off with a slap on the wrist or no punishment at all for bullying people. Kind of wish the school would just tell him they'll expel him if he doesn't get his act together.

Bakugou has been kidnapped, used as a hostage, all but molested (i mean, what else would you call what the Sludge villain did to him?) all at the age of 14, then he lost to someone he had a superiority complex over for nearly a decade and nearly (or did, depending on your point of view of how that scene went) had an emotional breakdown because of it, won the Sports Festival only because Todoroki couldn’t use his full power against him and Bakugou won in a way that was utterly unsatisfactory to him and felt like Todoroki couldn’t even bother to fight Bakugou at his fullest b/c Bakugou wasn’t worth it, went to Best Jeanist to train and instead basically wasted time and had his hair and clothes styled/changed for him, was forced to swallow his pride and work with Izuku to beat All Might which frustrated him to the point of tears (and he nearly gave up instead, which, for a boy who’s very model of what a hero is is based on Always Winning, this is a Big Thing), was kidnapped AGAIN by Shigaraki and was terrified out of his mind during it, was kidnapped IMMEDIATELY AFTARWARDS by AFO and had to be rescued by his classmates so he wouldn’t become a burden for All Might, and then blamed himself for All Might losing his powers and retiring, failed the Provisional Licence exam because of his bad behavior, breaks down again because all the guilt, the shame, the frustration to losing to Izuku, and confusion and struggle and everything, was finally too much for him to handle and he literally had no idea what to do until All Might showed up and explained everything.

from the very first chapter, Bakugou has been systematically punished by the narrative, over and over and over again. not specifically for his treatment of Izuku, but it’s not as if he’s been unpunished for his actions, either, and i’m sure that this is Horikoshi’s intent for having all of this happen to Bakugou in the first place.

Bakugou is going to apologize and make up for his actions towards Izuku, i know he will. but you can’t force him to do it because he’s not ready to as of right now. 

but he is going to make up for it somehow, because that is where the narrative is heading, and he’s already heading there as of the last chapter.

he’s giving Izuku advice. he’s framing it in an insulting way, but he’s giving Izuku advice on how to improve his fighting style. he never would have done that before all of this. 

the narrative is basically hitting Bakugou where it hurts constantly, over and over again, and forcing him to change and learn from his behavior, whether he wants to or not. 

i’m not excusing what he did to Izuku, because he did a lot of horrible things and he needs to make up for his actions. but in the span of just a few months, this kid has been through a lot and he has indeed been punished and put down by the narrative in many, many different ways that are specifically designed to hit him in the places it’ll hurt him the most

i’ve never excused his actions, but he’s just a kid, and kids can only take so much before they begin to break. god, he’s just a 15 year old child.

and again, it’s not as if he’s been unpunished by his behavior. he was absolutely punished for his bad attitude during the Provisional License exam by failing it, and he’s going to have to take extra classes in order to make up for it. if he were being coddled, he would’ve still passed regardless his bad attitude towards the victims. 

Horikoshi does him no favors.

he’s been punished enough by the narrative, and i do think that Aizawa gave them a fair punishment for their actions. their whole fight was framed as a schoolyard fight between two frustrated kids, after all.

it wasn’t really about the fight. it wasn’t about who beat who. the whole fight was there just so that these characters, these two children, could finally have an outlet for their emotions because they’ve never tried to talk to each other before, and this was the only way.

they’ve never tried to express their emotions to each other before. they’ve never tried to listen. this is something both of these characters needed.

being told that he’ll be expelled isn’t going to help his behavior. it’ll do the opposite, if anything. any more punishment than what they received would be overkill.

they acted like children, so they’re being treated like children. they’re doing chores and cleaning just like any kids who broke the rules would. 

Aizawa gives fair punishments. if he doesn’t think someone has potential, he expels them. 

and also, please note: neither Izuku or Bakugou were seriously injured from their fight. otherwise, Aizawa would’ve sent them to Recovery Girl. all they got were some scratches, cuts, and bruises. 

when Bakugou challenged Izuku and Todoroki, i wouldn’t be surprised if Aizawa was considering the idea of expulsion. however, Izuku and Bakugou were forced to be partners and, after a while, they were able to work together and pass the End of Term exam, so whatever might’ve happened otherwise was dropped.

but make no mistake, Bakugou’s behavior here was noted by Aizawa, and Bakugou was forced to move past this attitude and work with Izuku as punishment.

back to the events of the recent chapters, All Might even says that the events that happened between Bakugou and Izuku were just as much the adult’s fault as it was the kid’s. the children’s mental and emotional health is just as important as their strength and growth as heroes, and Bakugou seriously needed some help with that. 

and, not to mention, All Might let them fight it out. he eavesdropped long enough to know about Bakugou’s guilt, and let Bakugou and Izuku fight and express their emotions this way, because honestly, i don’t think they could’ve been able to talk it out in any other way. i’m not saying this is healthy behavior, because god knows it isn’t, but for these two it may have been the only way for them to clear the air. 

and it worked.

they’re both on their way to having a much, much less toxic relationship than what they had before. they might not be friends, but their relationship is much more positive compared to what it was before, because they finally let out all of those nasty emotions.

Bakugou and Izuku are much more calm, and are able to have a conversation now without it turning violent or angry. they got all of those complicated emotions out of their system and finally talked it out, if at least a little, and both are going to be better from it. 

hell, Bakugou even fully admitted that he threw the first punch. in no way is he blaming izuku for what happened. Bakugou is taking full responsibility for what he did. 

and again, Bakugou is giving Izuku advice. he’s helping Izuku in a very backwards, round about way, because it’s the only way he knows. but he’s still helping Izuku, something he absolutely would never have done before. 

Bakugou is growing. he’s learning. whether he wants to or not, he’s changing for the better, and he’s starting to realize that he is changing. that maybe he has to change. maybe he needs to.

he’s already showing a positive change after this fight. he’s taking responsibility for his actions, he’s not blaming Izuku, he’s giving Izuku advice, and he’s worrying about All Might’s secret getting out. punishing him for any more would be overkill, and it wouldn’t have anymore positive outcomes then what’s already been achieved.

he’s just a kid. he acted like a kid. he’s getting punished like any kid would be.

related metas:

Cute future image; Pro Hero Midoriya becomes a father for the first time. All Might comes to visit and after the tiny new born is placed in his large arms he asks what the baby's name is and Midoriya bashfully admits that he's named his child after Toshinori.

Oh my lord yes and then Toshinori just starts bawling and trembling and is afraid to hold his grandchild for fear of dropping or hurting him and AHHHHHH

Pt. One: Toshinori, Present Mic & Hawks, separately, fall arse over teakettle in love with a new teacher/Pro Hero but find out very quickly in their attempts to woo them that said crush, while they are not aromantic, is incredibly jaded when it comes to love and generally scoffs at the whole idea of romance as just a ludicrous mating dance humans do in order to fulfill the base need to pass on genetics...

Pt. Two: After several attempts the boys notice she even has a detailed broken heart tattooed on her left ring finger; turns out it represents her first love & first broken heart, her previous fiancée. (I chose the boys most likely, IMO, to either understand or be outrageous ‘I’ll win them over eventually’ flirts, haha!)

I’m sorry this took so long! It took me a while to get a feel for Hawks’ personality. I still hope you enjoy this.

Torshinori Yagi

You had finally made it passed the brutal training and interviews. Of course you understood why becoming a teacher at Yuuei was such a tedious process. You had to protect these kids with your life and villains were constantly targeting them. But you had finally made it in.

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