crowbarb:

reason #658345 izuku is going to not just surpass katsuki but make him eat shit: izuku trained to be able to handle empowered physical blows with less blowback and has at least a mild understanding of martial combat since he’s had to change up his style to “make his quirk his own” and is way more keenly aware of his limits and how to safely balance OfA through his whole body

katsuki is very smart and even has advice for izuku’s way of fighting, but he continuously does nothing but train himself for his quirk. he gets creative with it, sure, but he still is only focused on exploding shit. and when he has to do literally anything else, he falls short. he got fairly soundly whooped during the meaningless fight when it turned to close quarters, and it took very very little addition of power for izuku to surprise him with his speed and begin to overwhelm him entirely. izuku literally only lost bc he went FUCK IT and punched kat square in the face with his dominant fucked up hand in the most predictable (but im sure VERY satisfying) move, so of course katsuki just grabbed him and pinned him with zero effort. that’s an extremely basic move.

but i esp see it in the provisional training. he can’t do shit when he can’t use his quirk. shouto is able to make all this rad shit and help others but katsuki. all he can really do quirkless is give advice, and everything i said here makes what he told that egotistical kid all the more poignant.

he spent too much time looking down on others instead of even entertaining the idea that anyone of his peers could match his power, and now he’s got a horrifically outstanding weakness and no way to make up for it. and he knows it.