sarahhaley101:

First off, I just wanna say that I don’t pretend to know for even a second what Horikoshi has planned for this series and for these characters. All I have is general knowledge of how to build a character, and my own speculations. Also this is gonna be long because my thoughts are a little bit everywhere about this so please bear with me ahaha 

It has been ages since I saw the translation for the Prototype Kirishima page. My Japanese is not the best, and to make things worse, I’m really bad at reading handwriting. But I do know that, somewhere on this page, it says that Prototype Kirishima was originally supposed to be a delinquent who applied to UA just to try and impress a girl – for what are probably romantic reasons.

The girl’s identity is unspecified, but since he and

Ashido

went to the same middle school, fans have kinda put two and two together and assumed that

Ashido

is the girl that Prototype Kirishima was trying to romance. Although I do wanna point out that this is just an assumption, and has not been confirmed. However, because this assumption is so widely accepted in the bnha fandom, we’ll assume that this is the case for this post too.

Now, Horikoshi has stated before that he is not confident in his ability to write romance, so maybe he felt uncomfortable making Kirishima’s pursuit of Ashido so central to his character. But, lets say for the sake of argument, that this is still the route that Horikoshi intends to take in the future. What would have been some nice, subtler ways to hint at romantic interest, or even possibilities, between Kirishima and Ashido without making it a major focus?

Well… what happens in canon is not what comes to mind. Not even close.

According to actual canon (chapters 144-145), it becomes pretty clear that Kirishima applies to UA for reasons other than impressing Ashido. Her role in his backstory changed, and she no longer acts as a major inspiration for Kirishima applying to UA… However, she no longer act as even a minor inspiration, either. Nope, Ashido’s actions don’t inspire Kirishima at all. In fact, they have the opposite effect.

The very first time we see them in middle school, upon hearing from his friends that Ashido is applying to UA, Kirishima immediately compares himself to her, and wonders if he can even hold up to someone like her in the entrance exams. 

Even just seeing her around the school grounds reminds him of his own downfalls and insecurities, to the point that he even feels a little embarrassed about his aspirations to apply to UA.

But at this point, he’s still holding onto hope that he can get into UA. That is, until he sees Ashido stand up against the villainous figure while he can only stand frozen at the sidelines.

The shame that he felt for not acting like Ashido did, is what made his hope completely disappear. Thus, he convinces himself that he can never be a hero, or a man, and he literally crosses off UA as an academic option.

The only thing that finally convinced him to apply to UA was hearing words of encouragement from his idol Crimson Riot.

(at this point I feel like I must add: it is not Ashido’s fault that her bravery and badassery made some insecure, sad little boy cry…. sorry Kirishima, I love ya, but it must be said ahahah)

But the facts still stand: In his past, Kirishima had consistently compared himself to Ashido and allowed her actions to hold him back. Because of this, not only is Ashido not the reason Kirishima went to UA as Horikoshi had originally intentded, but she was part of the reason he almost didn’t even apply to UA to begin with. 

In this way, Ashido was detrimental to Kirishima’s character and growth.

In fact, Ashido herself mentions it when they see each other again at UA. She is unapologetic about her actions, but still recognizes that Kirishima has a tendency to compare himself to her and feel down about himself because of it.  Ashido knows that Kirishima was beating himself up over his inability to act as she was able to, and because of that, she sees herself as detrimental to Kirishima’s growth, too.

While these words of encouragement are certainly nice, they are words that Kirishima tries but ultimately fails to take into stride. Despite her words, he continues to compare himself to his classmates – even just a few days later, on the bus to the USJ…

… and throughout the sports festival with Tetsutetsu…

… and a couple other times throughout. Seems as though Kirishima’s insecurities are a hurdle that is going to take a lot more than one line of encouragement to overcome. Too bad Ashido never bothered to help him overcome his insecurities again. Not even once. Not a single solitary time, in all of canon thus far.

(Of course, it is not Ashido’s responsibility to make Kirishima feel good about himself. But, I have seen far too many fans add depth to their relationship that simply is not there and I wanted to address it.)

Although, in recent canon, Kirishima has gotten better about his insecurities. He was able to overcome them in several important battles, even debuting his new Unbreakable form. Wonder where the turning point was? Wonder who actually helps him overcome his insecurities when it matters most…?

Now, I’m not saying that this interaction between Kirishima and Bakugou is somehow romantically coded. I’m just saying that, if ya gotta give credit to one of Kirishima’s peers for inspiring him to overcome his hurdles of insecurity, ya might as well attribute it to the right one lmao

I guess my point is, there were so many ways Horikoshi could have written Kirishima and Ashido’s backstory with current or even future romantic interest in mind. 

Horikoshi could have stuck to his original Prototype Kirishima plan from the start. Horikoshi could have scrapped the explicit romantic interest and just made Ashido Kirishima’s main motivation to apply to UA by inspiring him to act heroically, rather than inspiring the opposite. Horikoshi could have let Ashido be even a secondary motivation in another way. Horikoshi could have written in subtle support in more recent interactions, just sideways comments here and there: “Who cares if your quirk isn’t flashy, it’s how you use it that matters” on the bus to the USJ, “That Tetsu guy from 1B’s got nothing on you” after the sports festival. Something. Anything.

Horikoshi could have done this, he could have done that, he could have, he could have, he could have… And he didn’t. 

 So, you know. Take of that what you will.

TL;DR: For some reason, Hirokoshi decided to change Ashido’s role in Kirishima’s backstory from that of a romantic love interest to someone who was actively detrimental to Kirishima’s growth, while simultaneously failing to use any opportunities thus far in canon to set this pairing up for romantic interactions in the future.