An Izuocha Analysis: Deku's POV
Episode 170 showing Deku telling his story through one of his \"Hero Notebooks\"
WARNING: LONG READ INCOMING
Since Episode 171 came out, I've seen a number of people with mixed feelings concerning the "Green Tea Couple". It's understandable where some of their takes come from, like how the romance "seems forced" or "is one-sided", but I can't help but feel differently. So I figured that sharing some of my own thoughts on the matter could be helpful in spreading good vibes about the pairing!
First, I think it's worth saying that this is just my interpretation of the story. I don't know the first thing about how Horikoshi thinks or what he intended as he wrote this series, these are just my personal observations and ideas. Also, if it seems like I'm missing details or events while summarizing things, I apologize! I'm not the best at writing out analyses, so feel free to comment if it looks like I'm overlooking something!
So with that said, I wanted to address the big question that's been floating around the fandom: why does Deku all of a sudden want "more" with Uraraka, when he's never expressed any love for her before Episode 171?
It's true that Deku never EXPLICITLY states/articulates/shares his romantic feelings during the main story. There's no concrete exchange with anyone. Not with his friends, his mentor, his mother, not even with himself during an inner monologue sequence. Just no clear "I love Uraraka" moment from the guy.
By contrast, Uraraka's own feelings were made clear as far back as Season 2 & 3 of the show. Although she doesn't use the "L" word to describe her emotions until her fight with Toga in Season 7, it's fairly obvious that Uraraka holds love for Deku for most of the story.
So we get her side of the romance, but her feelings stay locked away due to:
- Her habit of forgoing the things she wants (poverty, am I right? ☹️) so she can focus on "earning her way up" to the things she needs, in this case becoming a successful pro hero.
- Her desire as Deku's friend to support him and to not burden people with "unwanted emotional baggage", even if it hurts her to do so. 😭
And after what happens to Toga, there's probably a great deal of survivor's guilt holding her back from sharing her full feelings, as well. She just HAS to live for others' sake, especially for Toga, and so CAN'T have a romance of her own. All that is to say that her emotional state is pretty clearly laid out for us throughout the pre-timeskip story, the only thing missing is the payoff for it (prior to Episode 171, at least).
With Episode 169, her mask falls and she finds herself able to open up to Deku about her deeper feelings (specifically her pain and regret surrounding Toga), but she's still unable/unwilling to reach for that romantic connection. And Deku, for his part, doesn't seem aware of her love at any point before or during the timeskip. And so for all intents and purposes, we're left with a "one-sided" love story with Deku's feelings being absent until the 11th hour... unless you consider how his Hero Notebook from Episode 170 plays into the series.
The final regular episode of the series confirms that "the story of how I became a great hero" is being retold/reflected on by the current version of Deku via one of his "Hero Notebooks". I find that if you think about MHA from an in-universe narrative perspective, Uraraka and Deku's love story actually takes on a very sweet, almost nostalgic connotation. Because this isn't just "the story of how we became great heroes" as Horikoshi is telling it to us, it's also DEKU'S retelling of THEIR story for the world of MHA; it's Deku's Narration as told through this Notebook, his "Autobiography". So all of these descriptions/perspectives/recollections of their time at UA are meant to be tied to Deku's thoughts and feelings as an adult.
His childhood with Bakugo, his training under All Might, his struggles with OFA, and his fight against AFO/Shigiraki... We can tell how he feels about all these occurrences by the way he frames them in the story. For example, with Shigiraki and the LOV, Deku wanted us to empathize with and understand them on a deeper level. Instead of writing a story where he just defeats some bad guys, we get Tenko Shimura and company's complete, horrifying histories. The story (i.e. Narrator Deku) wants us to care for the individuals behind the monsters, and that's why we get the story we do about them.
Deku's personal feelings helped shape the narrative all throughout MHA, and you can tell a lot about Narrator Deku by how he portrays the people of his story. So given the way Deku writes for Uraraka, it appears as though the guy is falling for her/deepening his feelings for her the entire time he's writing about her! 😂
He never SAYS he's in love with her (and I mean, why would he share that with hypothetical readers before telling her? makes sense to me!) but he sure does SHOW his love for her throughout the narrative! And when you consider that Deku is actively wrestling with his feelings for her all this time, his affection for her becomes obvious in how it bleeds into the storytelling. Some examples of his obsession with her include:
- The "shoujo bubbles". Basically anytime the story (Narrator Deku) presents her in a new outfit/costume there's a long, lingering camera shot of her where the background is replaced with these "romcom bubbles" and all the attention is on her. Deku goes out of his way to portray her as the most beautiful part of the scene, and Uraraka is pretty much the only person he does this with because she's "the only person Deku has eyes for". Is it shallow of him to fixate on her like this? Maybe, but it is funny to think of Narrator Deku getting all hot and bothered because he can't stop himself from thinking of how attracted he was/is to her!
- Flashbacks of her. There are many moments where past Deku thinks about someone and a storm of memories come racing across the screen (as presented by Narrator Deku). This isn't unique to Uraraka, of course, but it is interesting what Deku seems to remember about her. Like with Deku's final showdown with AFO where he remembers what she said about "Deku" as a hero name, or during Uraraka's rooftop speech where Deku reflects on her keeping him from falling at the entrance exam. The past and present Deku are both thinking about her, but it's Narrator Deku who chooses to emphasize these moments with full on flashbacks. It goes to show how much Narrator Deku appreciates their shared history, even in the present-day.
- Flustered moments. Anytime Deku loses it over being "too close" to her or we see them in some other cute scene together, that's Narrator Deku deliberately choosing to highlight their closeness. He didn't NEED to show how Uraraka teaming up with him at the Sports Festival made his face/heart squeeze, or how he blushed and freaked after talking to her on the phone following The Hosu Incident. Him and Uraraka just were close like that, but Narrator Deku now has the chance to reflect on these sequences one-after-the-other in a way that past Deku might've overlooked. He included these scenes in the story because those moments meant/mean something more to him and he can't help but dwell on them in the retelling as his feelings take form.
- Her story. Deku makes it clear during his confession in Episode 171 that he has great respect for ALL of his classmates. That's the reason he spends so much of MHA covering their stories in addition to his own. Looking at the narrative as a whole, 3 of his classmates get a lot more screen time than the others: Baguko, Todoroki, and Uraraka, his closest friends and allies during the conflicts that shaped the story (RIP I guess Iida 😅). As the narrator, Deku didn't HAVE to focus on any of them to the extent that he did, but he values their presence in his life so much that he COULDN'T HELP but write about them. And Uraraka especially! He wanted to share her origins, her goals, her personal struggles, and her triumphs because he admires her so much. Because she's his hero.
- Episode 169. Similar to the other points, Deku didn't have to touch on such a private, personal moment the way that he did. He chose to, presumably with Uraraka's blessing, share the details of their talk on the cliff because it was important to wrapping up his story and touching on it's core themes. He wanted to show how their failure and pain shaped them, how they only started to heal after reaching for each other, how they both found a new goal to strive towards in saving the next Toga and Tenko, and how they had hope that they could save people's smiles together. This and the lost boy being saved by "Granny" was the last significant event Narrator Deku covers in the story. After we get a highlight real and the timeskip, and Deku begins closing out the story with his final thoughts. He didn't choose to write about losing OFA, or becoming a teacher, or anything else in much detail for the time-skip sequence. Instead, he wrote about her and his feelings stemming from her on heroism. In short, this story wouldn't have happened the way it did if not for her; without Uraraka, there is no Deku! 🥲
So to sum up, all the importance Deku gives to Uraraka over the course of this series is just another piece of their overall love story. It's subtle, a slow burn, but all of Deku's reminiscing and reflecting, him thinking about how important Uraraka is to him in his story, and realizing more and more that he feels something special about her (both in the past and present) are important things to consider when talking about Deku's perspective.
Deku may not have been full on in love with Uraraka back at UA, or at the very least, he might not have been aware of/able to articulate it. Honestly? That makes a lot of sense to me. I've always felt that between the two of them Uraraka was always more emotionally mature and in-tune with her heart. But it seems to me that after graduating, Deku's feeling for her began to take shape/grow as he became a teacher and shared his stories with the world. The more he wrote in his Notebook, the more he reflected on their first year together, and the more he thought about their ongoing friendship, the more he found himself thinking about her and wanting "more" with her.
So that's where Deku's side of the story comes into play. In a sense, all of MHA was him realizing he's in love with her through the retelling. His feelings were always there, just less obvious than Uraraka's. With Episode 171, then, we got to see how the two sides of this romance could finally come together. All it took was the right timing, a multi-billion yen Power Suit, the ghost of a serial killer, and a little courage for them to find their moment! ❤️
Thank you to anyone who read this all they way through! I hope it made some sense to you, and that it helps you appreciate the ship in a new way. 😄