The dynamic duo Deku and Bakugo in the series of My Hero Academia(MHA) have a very transformative relationship that started from straight-out enmity and changed into something different over time.
Their relationship may be the most realistic one in the entire series.
The reason was, that they had to face many tests and trials to move forward which in turn changed the nature of their relationship or you could say mutated it.
Previously, their relationship was purely based on misplaced enmity and vain hope of reconciliation.
This phase continued almost in most of the series.
While watching the series, at some point most of you may have thought that relation between this pair of old acquaintances is going nowhere.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there was a slow but steady progress between them.
Those, who follow the series to this date know the process and steps Deku and Bakugo went through which did bring forth such a result that resulted in them overcoming their enmity with each other.
So here we will summarize the details of the process in which Deku and Bakugo overcome their enmity over time.
Table Of Contents
Why did Bakugo Start Hating Deku?
Before we get into the process of Deku and Bakugo overcoming their long-standing enmity with each other, we need to know, exactly why Bakugo started hating Deku.
In the duo of Deku and Bakugo, Deku(Midoriya Izuku) was more or less an average kid with mediocre capabilities.
On the other hand, Bakugo Katsuki was born special.
He could do things with ease, that other kids his age struggle with.
Be it winning in a fight with upperclassmen, his expertise in outdoor games, or being brilliant in class, there were many things he was good at.
These qualities were redeeming traits of his and the reason for his massive ego.
The icing on the cake was when he awakened a badass quirk called “explosion”.
According to his surrounding friends and adults(teachers) that was the most hero-like quirk they had ever seen.
All of the praise and admiration bloated his ego to the maximum along with his insecurities as nobody ever once praised or even tried to look for his inner qualities.
Only Deku admired him for his courage but that went unnoticed by him as he was too drunk on power.
On the other hand, Deku was unable to awaken any quirk so he remained quirkless and became insignificant in Bakugo’s eye.
But there was one thing about Deku that made Bakugo feel insecure about himself.
He was more of a hero material by heart than Bakugo.
Deku and Bakugo admired All-Might as a hero and wanted to become like him with different perspectives.
While Deku wanted to become a hero who could save a lot of people with a smile on his face, just like All-Might, Bakugo’s goal was to become the most powerful hero by defeating all the villains and eventually surpassing even All-Might.
So to pursue their goal they took different approaches, while Deku went on journalizing all the detailed analyses about all the heroes he knew about, Bakugo planned to make a mark of his courageous tale in his school life.
That’s why when Deku went on to help Bakugo out of concern in a troublesome event(FYI that wasn’t troublesome to Bakugo at all), Bakugo felt irritation towards Deku.
The reason for that irritation was, that he never once thought the quirkless and clumsy Deku, who he thought was beneath him all along, would come to help him from such an easy issue.
He was already feeling insecure after realizing Deku’s stronger drive to become a hero, this incident added salt to the injury.
For the above reason, Bakugo started hating Deku from that moment on.
Does Deku Hates Bakugo?
Before we learn how Deku and Bakugo overcome their long-standing enmity, we need to know, Does Deku hate Bakugo as much as Bakugo hates him?
Deku and Bakugo enjoyed a brief period of mutual friendship in their childhood until Bakugo awakened his explosive quirk.
After that, for reasons unknown to Deku or Midoriya Izuku, Bakugo started to bully him and outright deny his dream by trying to make him realize that his weak and insignificant self can’t afford to have such a grandiose dream of becoming a hero.
Though Bakugo became a bully after his quirk awakened, he shared the same dream with Izuku in his childhood.
Deku and Bakugo both dreamt of becoming heroes whom others admire and Bakugo was the only person Deku(Izuku) knew who could walk the talk.
Therefore, Bakugo was kind of a young and courageous hero to Izuku whom Izuku admired the most just after All-Might.
So, even though Bakugo named Izuku “Deku”, which translates as, one who can’t do anything right, for Izuku(Deku) Bakugo remained his adored childhood friend “Kacchan”.
As Deku had an unnaturally positive mindset, he always thought of Bakugo’s good sides, and while he remembered those he couldn’t hate him.
Yes, he hates Bakugo for his bullying and worst attitude, but no he doesn’t hate him as a person, as proof, throughout the series he always tries to reconcile with Bakugo and help him in times of danger and team up with him.
There was an instance where Deku before gaining All-Might’s quirk One-for-All, tried to save Bakugo from Sludge Villain.
If he held contempt in his heart for Bakugo, there was a chance he wouldn’t tried so hard to save Bakugo.
In conclusion, Deku doesn’t hate Bakugo.
Bakugo Started To See Deku As An Obstacle
Everything was going as usual between Deku and Bakugo, Bakugo was bullying Deku as usual.
However, something started to change after Deku got All-Might’s quirk One-for-All and applied for the entrance exam to enter UA High School, which both Deku and Bakugo dreamt of attending.
Seeing Deku in the exam venue and witnessing his achievement in the exam he was irked at some point.
His irritation started to increase as he learned Deku was accepted as a fellow student at UA High.
It was the same Deku he thought of as someone beneath him and ignored him, now he became one of many obstacles in the path of Bakugo becoming the strongest hero.
Deku started to get noticed by Bakugo for each miracle he performed, one of which was making a new record in the first test of throwing a ball at a longer distance than Bakugo after entering UA High.
Deku’s existence as an obstacle was etched onto his consciousness in the following event.
In the first class that All-Might conducted, he arranged a simulation training of hero vs villain battle in multiple segments including two pairs of students in each.
In one of those segments Deku and Bakugo came face to face in an intense battle.
In this battle, Deku(Izuku) finally accepts the slang name given by Bakugo, but positively, like, “Deku” is someone who can do anything.
He lost the battle but his team won the war against Bakugo’s team, Bakugo paid the price for underestimating him.
It was from then, that he started to see Deku as a bigger obstacle than he previously thought.
Bakugo Accepted Deku’s Strength
Bakugo comes to know a part of the strength Deku can muster and the unlimited courage he can display, in Deku’s fight with Todoroki Shoto in the School Sports Festival.
There Deku convinced Shoto to use the power of flame through his strong conviction to save him.
It was the same power that he promised not ever use again.
Although Deku lost the fight he etched his performance into the viewer’s mind as he fought with the number two hero’s son for all they knew.
But, when Shoto fought against Bakugo in the finals with half of his power, not using the flame again, Bakugo understood Deku’s strength in influencing others.
Deku and Bakugo had another chance to come together after that event of simulation class, that was the exam.
In the exam, the teacher assigned pairs of students who had to face a teacher and could only qualify either by capturing them with handcuffs or by escaping from them.
Their homeroom teacher noticed increasing toxicity between Deku and Bakugo after the School Sports Festival and for the sake of their learning experience, he teamed them up together.
This time they had to face their admired All-Might, one whom Deku couldn’t dream of fighting against and whom Bakugo planned to surpass someday.
Two different mindsets created a turmoil so big that they didn’t have time for strategies and All-Might came like a natural disaster.
Deku and Bakugo didn’t have any other choice but to team up and a reluctant Bakugo had to cook up a plan with Deku.
Deku was the first and the last person in the entire anime series up till now, to whom Bakugo lent his prized gauntlet for the sake of the plan they thought up together.
This shows how much he recognized Deku’s strength and brain, he even went the extra mile to match his fighting technique with the plan and Deku also trusted Bakugo’s strong instinct in this period.
In the final leg, Bakugo trusted Deku’s capability enough to throw him toward the exit to win, as only one of the pair needed to escape from the teacher.
Here we can see how Bakugo Slowly but surely started to accept Deku’s strength.
Why Did Bakugo Tell Deku To Stay Back?
Bakugo’s kidnapping, which happened in Summer Reinforcement Camp, where Deku and Bakugo visited along with their other classmates was a huge blow to Deku’s morale.
Before kidnapping Deku and Bakugo together with some other of their friends tried to fend off the attack of the Villain Alliance, but in a moment of carelessness, Bakugo was snatched away.
It is at this moment, that viewers get to see, just how highly Deku values Bakugo, with even his broken hands followed by excruciating pain, he went on with his planning about the possible ways of saving Bakugo.
But their plan was for naught, as they were bluffed by the villain that snatched Bakugo but was presented with a slim chance to save him by Aoyama Yuga, which they, unfortunately, missed again.
At the moment of being taken away, Bakugo told Deku to stay back, there is only one reason we can think of.
The reason is, that Bakugo has accepted Deku’s strength and sees him struggle to save him as described above, so he doesn’t want to disappoint Deku by showing his weak self since Deku holds him in high regard.
Deku And Bakugo Faught Against Each Other
Now let’s fast forward a bit(lot), after the incident of All-Might’s fall following Bakugo’s Kidnapping, both of which are directly related to Bakugo’s character’s Evolution, made Bakugo react different than before.
After all this, when he also failed the hero licensing exam, he became distant from others, with a different nature than he was at the time he entered UA High.
He realized the Deku who used to follow him around behind him despite ridicules, is no more.
He transformed into someone who long surpassed him.
The dynamic of Deku and Bakugo crumbled over.
He stopped involving himself with Deku.
But, after he learned the truth behind Deku’s power and All-Might’s secret he became more serious about his current condition.
He felt abandoned and betrayed as he wasn’t the one that All-Might chose, but Deku.
He challenged Deku in a secretive fight but at first, Deku wasn’t ready to fight.
Later Deku accepted his feelings and indulged in the fight, Deku and Bakugo fought a fierce battle against each other.
As a result, Bakugo won against Deku and started to complain why Deku but not him.
All-Might answered him, Deku had more conviction than any other but was weak than any other, that’s why he helped him.
Bakugo said he is also weak and that’s why he was the reason for All-Might’s fall.
Here he learns to embrace his weak self which will help evolve his character further.
He also started to sympathize with Deku as he took him as his worthy rival at this point.
Did Bakugo Ever Care About Deku?
It is past the point where Deku and Bakugo only had a bully and bullied relationship, Deku isn’t even a roadblock in the way of Bakugo anymore.
They have formed a somewhat healthy rivalry spiced up with Bakugo’s harsh attitude.
It was such a time when the Paranormal Liberation War started, and all the heroes had to face the most dangerous villain in the largest number possible.
Deku and Bakugo and the team had to face Shigaraki Tomura and his Villain Alliance in this war, and in an instance to save Deku Bakugo’s body moved on its own and got impaled by Tomura.
Deku started to rub off on Bakugo in a good way, but that didn’t end well for Bakugo, as he was at the death’s door.
But, he adopted Deku’s way to be a hero and saved Deku which proves that he started to care for him.
Again we will fast forward a lot.
It was the time after the end of the Paranormal Liberation War, that Deku took it upon himself to clean the road off of escaped inmates of Tartarus while running away, as All-for-One was after his quirk One-for-All.
He didn’t want to involve his classmates including Bakugo in his war.
Yet again Deku and Bakugo Combi were split apart, but students of 1-A were stubborn and managed to stop him from running away alone at some point.
It was at that moment, to relieve him of his insecurities Bakugo talked of his own insecurities and the reason he bullied him all along, which will be a major step in his character’s evolution.
Bakugo even went the extra mile to bow down to apologize to Deku, just not to make him feel better but to tell him that he also understood his struggles.
At this point, it will be a lie if we say he doesn’t care about Deku.
Yes Bakugo Care about Deku.
Deku and Bakugo came a long way from their plain bullied and bully relationship to Deku being a worthy obstacle, then a rivel, and finally someone Bakugo can sympathize with.
This entire journey was spread thin throughout the series, sometimes with more intensity sometimes less.
This was the whole process, how did Deku and Bakugo overcome their enmity over time?
