I lied, this is the last of the reddit cross posts.

Izuku Revenge!fic Deconstruction

(Inspired by N/A)

Okay, so, let me lay it on you:

You know how there are a lot of revenge fics out there for Izuku, and by that I mean that Izuku becomes angry and determined to get his own back in Bakugo, usually by entering into U.A. and not taking any shit from anyone? These kinds of fics usually end up being excuses to inflict all kinds of character bashing onto people like Bakugo, All Might, Aizawa, and just about anyone and everyone, and have it so that Izuku becomes this edgy and mature kind of figure who refuses to tolerate any of the BS around anyone, usually acting rude and angry all the time to match. Imagine fics like Mean Rabbit, Heroes Never Die, I am not Done, and pretty much every villain!Deku fic out there. Fics where Izuku gains an attitude and acts rudely towards everyone around him for one reason or another.

Now, what if we were to write a fic that deconstructs that premise?

Imagine a fic that plays all of these points straight, where Izuku is the only person who's been changed and everyone else stays the same. No adaptable jerkassery for the rest of the class, only Izuku, where we portray him with the usual sass, aloofness, and bitterness that comes with fics like these, and have the characters realistically react to it.

Like, instead of people being drawn to him, they are instead pushed away by his attitude and demeanour and come to not like him, much like how Bakugo's attitude pushes people away as well. Meanwhile, in a lot of fics, it is stated that Izuku has begun to expect the worst out of everyone, but this fic would show how this is a bad idea, as Izuku, similarly expecting the worst out of everyone, refuses to cooperate with anyone, expecting them to treat him as disrespectfully as had been done to him in Aldera.

What's more, when he goes on to deliver his character bashing speeches to other characters, it turns out that they're actually not as bad as he (I.E. the fandom) think they are, and he's actually either not noticing the more nuanced aspects and deeper layers to their personalities, or is actively ignoring them. In fact, his attitude only serves to be self-sabotaging, and he is effectively worsening his own chances to be a hero by disregarding and berating the people around him.

Eventually, the fic ends with the consequences of Izuku's actions catching up to him, as his classmates refuse to work with him owing to his poor attitude, and when Izuku shouts at them for thinking his quirklessness makes him beneath them, he is shocked to learn that none of them actually knew that he was quirkless, and even if they did, they wouldn't have cared regardless. They don't like him not because of his quirklessness, but because he's acting like an arse to all of them, just like Bakugo.

And in the end, Izuku is forced to work either with Bakugo, the person that he hates the most, or on his own like he initially wanted, and finally realises that he has effectively ruined his chances to become a hero all on his own.

This fic was initially inspired by reading a TV Tropes page for an MHA fic known as Do It All Over While Beating Reality To Death With A Chair. I was reading through it, thinking that it was so far so normal, only for me to read on further and learn that Izuku murdered Mineta during the entrance exam and covered it up, and I was just like 'Okay then dick'. I then looked further to see if he suffers any kind of consequences for it, and, as far as I can tell, he gets none.

Another aspect of this idea was inspired by another idea that I had where I imagined a parallel story between Izuku, the hero by the time of the USJ, who slowly became the villain, and a villain who starts out as a murderer from the USJ and kills a classmate, only to be filled with regret and horror at themselves and end the story having redeemed themselves and become one of the most heroic figures in the entire story.