🌙✨

they/she • 24 rabid for hawks

[transhawks]

anyway i was right keigo's not getting fierce wings back. Which is absolutely fantastic imho.

[ignislunae]

the icarus narrative is fulfilled. i can die happy

[super-paper]

Toga: Every night I have a dream where a red sparrow enters my body, and I can feel it dancing around inside me.

Hori: Ochako and Hawks will become lights of hope in the final arc

🤔

[super-paper]

Do you think Hawks will die to save Toga?

Personally, I wouldn't like it if either of them died. Like, the potential narrative payoff here would be strongest if both of them lived, imo. I would rather see a situation where Keigo donates just enough blood to stabilize them both, rather than a situation where one person completely exsanguinates themselves and leaves behind a rash of trauma and unresolved feelings in the person they "saved."

I'm definitely not the best when it comes to Hawks meta, but I'll try my best to break down my personal feelings on why I feel both Keigo and Himiko need to live in order to "break the cycle":

1. You Can Start Over. I'll Help You.

This one's the biggest, most obvious point in favor of them both living imo. Hawks made an offer to help Jin start over, but rescinded that offer and immediately went for the kill the moment Jin showed signs of resistance. This was Keigo's biggest failure as both a hero and as an individual, and something he has yet to atone for.

In turn, Himiko believes there are no second chances-- that her only options are death or being locked away forever. So, she chooses death. She needs someone to offer her a third option.

The set up is there.

There's also the matter of Keigo and Himiko both stating that they want an "easier world" as their core motivation, and both of them state that they want to be the ones who help make that world.

Their goals only sound simplistic on the surface and serve as a mask for their respective traumas, but... ultimately, a world that's easier for Himiko to live in (where she is consensually given blood by someone who loves her and she is allowed to give her blood back to the world in return) is a world where heroes can finally take it easy-- because it's a world that nips the endless creation of its own "villains" in the bud, through unified acts of compassion and understanding.

Both characters have caused others intense pain and hurt others in their attempts to take shortcuts to the creation of an "easier world"-- Hawks is the hero that's "too fast," and Himiko is also associated with her near-supernatural speed. They're both too impatient and want the quickest possible results. Having both Himiko and Keigo living and learning the "right way" to create their ideal world-- and then, getting to be a part of that world as they both continue to atone-- feels much more meaningful than having one or both of them die before they can see that future reach fruition.

2. The Big, Suicidal Elephant in the Room

The majority of the LOV members all struggle with suicidal ideation-- Touya wants to set everything Endeavor ever chose over him ablaze, and he wants that inferno to also serve as his funeral pyre. Tomura has got a dissertation's worth of issues regarding his own mortality and self-perception/identity, and his whole "let's-just-destroy-it-all/we-don't-need-a-future-actually-lol" schtick has always been a symptom rather than a legit proposal for a cure. Himiko wants to disappear into the identities of the people she loves, because the world treats her a little more kindly when she isn't "Toga Himiko." The LOV trio's arcs all revolve around "death of the self" to some degree. (That said... resurrection and rebirth are also heavy themes within Tenko, Touya, and Himiko's arcs, soooo....)

Keigo also struggles with suicidal ideation and places the worth of his own life far, far, faaaaar below that of everyone else.

This has already been said, and shouldn't really need to be said in the first place, but-- people have every right to feel uncomfortable and criticize a story that attempts to validate suicidal characters by portraying their suicide in a noble/redemptive light.

Next!

3. It's All About All Mi-- Err..... Tomie?

"I was fine with that-- not saving her, turning my back on her. Me, who claims he wants to help people." - Hawks, about Tomie.

"I tried to go about things the right way" is a good line that touches on one of the core conflicts of Keigo's character: He suppresses so much of his natural instinct to do good so he can do "right."

Keigo knows in his heart of hearts that "the right way" doesn't save people like his mother, it didn't save Jin, and it's not going to save Himiko. He's been groomed into upholding the society and status quo that caused him and Tomie to nearly fall through the cracks in the first place-- and I've always found it both fascinating and sad that Keigo seems to equate choosing "the right way" (i.e. becoming a hero) to abandoning his mother. Keigo effectively being *sold* to the HPSC is what took Tomie off of the streets and gave her a roof over her head-- it gave her "a chance to start over." But Keigo doesn't seem to view this as true saving. With that in mind, his attempt to "save" Jin by essentially giving him the same offer the HPSC gave Tomie was always doomed end in failure.

Keigo: "My mother feared punishment for harboring a criminal, so she took me and ran."

Tomie first ran out of fear of being arrested after Takami Thief was captured-- which led to both her and Keigo being homeless for an extended period of time. She ran again after Dabi/Touya threatened her for information on Keigo, this time out of fear of her son-- a son who had became synonymous with "the law" she feared so much in her eyes. She can't bear facing him after her betrayal and implicitly fears punishment/condemnation from him (even though Keigo had *no* intention of punishing her)-- Tomie readily leaves behind the "normal" home and "normal" life that Hawks obtained for her through "doing things the right way," bc the imaginary threat of punishment and condemnation is something that comes across as worse for her. This only further convinces Keigo that he failed to save his mother, even though he's the one who's being betrayed and hurt by her.

I can't help seeing similarities between Tomie & Himiko's decisions to run out of an intense fear of punishment/imprisonment, and how this inevitably ties to Keigo. Keigo subconsciously realizes that can't truly save people like Tomie, Jin, or Himiko as "Hawks" because "Hawks" is part of the problem. He longs to save others as himself-- as "Takami Keigo" (which is why the loss of his quirk kind of has me like "👀 👀 👀 whatcha gonna do next, turkey boy...,,..👀 👀 👀" )

As an aside, I seem to recall that transhawks made a few meta post where they talk about how there are traces of Jin's design in Tomie (esp her eyes, which have the same dead-eyed thousand yard stare) and that their resemblance is likely intentional (edit: link to one post pointing the resemblance out)-- It's not as overt, but imo, Himiko also resembles Tomie (just a little!) when she has her hair down.

Anyway! Both Jin and Himiko dying after A) Keigo has spent his whole life agonizing about how his own mother wasn't able to survive in their current society, B) expressed guilt about how he didn't even try to save her and didn't make attempts to involve himself in her life, C) talked at length about he wanted to be "more like Bubaigawara" and then proceeded to roleplay him, badly, for a good third of Act 3 (ohhhh boy ☠️☠️☠️), and D) demanded that Toga be killed immediately after she arrives in Gunga, only for Ochako and Tsuyu to explicitly challenge and reject the idea that killing was the only option available.... idk, Himiko dying while Keigo does nothing would just feel massively incoherent at this point??

TL;DR The resolution to Keigo's arc currently hinges on addressing his origin, his identity, his guilt, and his ties to these three characters. Keigo feels that he failed with Tomie, and he explicitly failed with Jin-- and I personally don't think his arc can have a satisfactory ending without addressing those failures through Himiko, or without him trying to right where he went wrong by helping her in some capacity. This is a chance for him to finally follow his innate drive to do good over doing what their society dictates as "right."

----

All that being said, if Hori did decide to have Hawks sacrifice himself: Hawks choosing to sacrifice himself because he wants to believe in the future that the hero kids are creating and wants to believe that children like Himiko have a place in that future feels WAAAY more tonally consistent with mha's themes than Himiko choosing to sacrifice herself because she doesn't think she has a future

One message is about healing and hope and belief, the other is about failing to truly save someone who was already suicidal from their inevitable self destruction.

MHA has been defining true saving as "going above and beyond" for hundreds of chapters now-- true saving means saving a person's heart, body, and soul. It means giving them a future. By mha's own definitions, Himiko choosing to kill herself means she wasn't saved. Pure and simple-- You can't save the heart but not the body/soul (Himiko), you can't save the soul but not the body/heart (Touya), and you can't save the body but not the heart/soul (Tomura). There's a lot more work to be done here-- but that's fine, bc MHA has never depicted true saving or true healing as some magical, instantaneous thing. (#recoverygirldni)

[sarah-dipitous]

I hope the person on tiktok who pointed out that the kids from shoto and bakugo’s remedial classes watch shoto in the same way he, bakugo, and midoriya used to watch all might knows that I’ll never be okay after reading that

LOOK AT THESE CHILDREN AND TELL ME THE LOOK IN THEIR EYES IS NOT THE SAME AS THOSE THREE IN THE ORDER I LISTED THEM

you can’t

[sarah-dipitous]

i can’t stop thinking about it. sorry. and now kids have that kind of faith in shoto. he has become the reassuring hero he wanted to be

[decayedbytomura]

WTF Dude, you're bleeding from your nose and the wounds you received from fighting AFO, you can barely even stand, you look as if you're about to fall on your ass, and not a few moments ago you just dragged your battered and bleeding body to hold your intern, and now even as you look so pathetic and cringe, you still pick up your sword to continue fighting. Seriously?!

Ngl when I first saw this image, my immediate reaction was like this:

[jabberwocky-92]

So is no one gonna talk about how he's so conditioned to keep fighting until he dies or...?

Cause my boy still standing on his deathbed because he doesn't want to be punished for being weak or failing when he returns to HQ

[transhawks]

It's not even punished - he's punishing himself. People like Keigo, who were abused so severely as kids and then insitutionalized essentially to be child soldiers, they don't know how else to live. Keigo's constantly having this thought in mind that he should be doing more, better, that he's worthless unless he's breaking himself to the bone. He can't lie there and give up when All For One just told him he's failed to save anyone, too. It's absolutely tragic because anyone more mentally healthy would sit down, catch their breath, but Keigo doesn't allow himself to do that. I've said for years while the characters aren't *their quirks*, and that the society itself is hurting people by dictating that (see the Tomura and Redestro convo), the quirks do represent their flaws/narratives. Keigo's entire quirk is him taking little parts of himself and giving them up to save more and more and more until he has nothing left to give. He's designed as a character to give up everything he has - his identity, name, body, work, humanity, morals, etc - that's how we're supposed to read him. The thing about Keigo is that the HPSC didn't really need to do much to make him like this. His parents sowed the seeds of who we see crawling and struggling right now. The HSPC just made it worse.

[haleigh-sloth]

Man, Touya is definitely his father's son, and Shouto is definitely his mother's son

Touya--has indulged in hopelessness the entire time. Felt that the family can't change, won't change, feels the only option left is for him to die and destroy what he can as he dies.

Enji--held on a little bit but in the end he also gave into hopeless, thinks it's too late for Touya both emotionally and physically, thinking that Touya can't stop or change at this point, won't stop, won't stop involving other people in his revenge, so he gives in and feels that the only option is to die with his son

Then we have Rei

Rei--jumps in despite the risks, jumps in to do what she couldn't do back then, not giving up and not accepting anymore loss for her family

Shouto--not giving up and doing everything he can to get to Touya despite his doubt, still going to his family

Shouto and Rei are mother and son, just as Touya and Enji sure are father and son. They are hopeless on their own, they are hopeless with just each other, they are hopeless without their family. They all need each other to make it out.

[class1akids]

I think also it's because Enji sees himself as beyond saving, and sees Touya just like himself, is why he can't fully believe in his heart that Touya is savable.

While Rei and Shouto have always been each other's heroes and represented hope and possibility beyond the toxic family narrative for each other.

[helga-grinduil]

exactly! the man's self-loathing ALWAYS played a huge role in how he viewed touya (who is so much like enji). he was always running away from being a parent because he didn't see himself as someone who can be one ('all i can show anyone... is the world of heroes'). he always wanted a child that would be just like him, but when he recognised himself in touya, it created even a bigger rift between them (on enji's side), because actually dealing with touya would mean dealing with himself and facing his own issues.

enji thinks touya is doomed because he sees himself as doomed. he was always dooming touya because he saw himself in him.

as this person said:

[helga-grinduil]

i’m not sure that some people understand that touya’s ice quirk got awakened only because he’s at death’s door? normally he would’ve never unlocked it, sadly.

saying that endeavor would’ve gotten the ice quirk he wanted from touya if he had been more patient and kept training him is factually incorrect.

the point is not and never was ‘touya was what endeavor always needed (quirk-wise), so endeavor could’ve had the fire-ice quirk he wanted from the very beginning if he hadn’t deemed touya ‘defective’ and stopped training him’. endeavor training his kids to achieve his own dream was never a good thing, even if touya liked it.

the point was ‘yes, touya couldn’t use his fire quirk and that was OKAY. endeavor should’ve realised that not everything is about his hero job, and find the time and a new way to engage with touya so he wouldn’t feel abandoned and replaced’.

p.s. it was never about endeavor thinking that touya is ‘defective’ either, he stopped training him because he didn’t want touya to burn and hurt himself. tragic irony.

[august-swing]

Here’s a thought: quirks in MHA are magic and Hori can make anything happen even if you think it doesn’t make sense.

[helga-grinduil]

no shit? i'm not talking about hori being able to make anything happen even if people don't think it makes sense. in fact, dabi's quirk awakening now makes perfect sense. that's not what my post is about.

it's important that his quirk awakening is possible only because he's close to death. him awakening his ice quirk is framed as a negative thing here. that's why endeavor seeing dabi's ice caused such a reaction from him - touya had the right quirk all along, but the only way to ever awaken it was being reduced to this state.

it's not about it not making sense, i'm talking specifically about people who are saying that because he got (btw, being close to death or undergoing a huge amount of stress literally are the canonical reasons of quirk awakenings.) his ice quirk NOW, he would've unlocked it back then if endeavor had kept training him. but no, he wouldn't have.

[hkartincolor]

Pro Hero celebrity merch series from the manga volume back covers

[deadboyswalking]

[transhawks]

[epickiya722]

I actually had no clue where Mineta was until this chapter and the reminder is hilarious.

Mineta: Why don't you steal my quirk?

AFO:

[transhawks]

did you see hawks’ exposed ankles in the newest chapter? the lines drawn there make it look like he has bird feet and no one is talking about it!!!

So in fairness this are likely socks. Now, as a former Hawks birdfeet truther, am I very happy to see this? Yes. I can ignore the fact it's likely socks to feed my delusions and wishes for M̵̡̨̙̜̹̲̦͙͈̱̫͊̇̌̈̈́͘̚͝O̴̧͈͔̤̙̼̹̝̺̪͊̂̂̓͋̔͌̚͠͝ͅŔ̸̛̰̓͗͝E̸̡̓͛͐͆͐͌̀̂̚͝ ̷̣̮̹̗̈́̀́̔̊͛̉͝B̸̟̮̰͚̺͕̿͌̊̈̒̓̓̋Ȉ̴̤̰̟̜̥̞̼̟̩̑̈̿̚R̸̻̹͇͍̝̭̹̈́̄́̈̏̓̄̑D̵̲̬̀̃̐̄̐͜. In truth we've seen his barefeet and they are disappointingly human. However, Horikoshi clearly likes adding to the bird effect through costume so this was probably a design choice to jokingly make him more bird through that. Coward. I wish he was more of a bird furry....

[ignislunae]

god hawks having bird feet would’ve been so cool because it could’ve added more depth to mutant discourse

[transhawks]

The whole point of this manga is that people are more than their quirks. That their quirks do not and should not define them. If you look at Keigo as finished in his narrative, as useless to the story without his wings, you are genuinely buying into the bullshit he has told himself about having to prove useful with his dirty wings. You are believing in the same idea that led him to manipulate and kill Twice because he was worried about the latter's quirk being so dangerous. You are agreeing with the idea that Tomura can do nothing but destroy.

That is not what this manga is about. It's about breaking the beliefs we have swallowed about ourselves or have been forcefed from society to abusers shoving them into us.

Keigo Takami has never tried to be more than Hawks. More than the Winged Hero. He believed that boy was a broken, dirty one who couldn't help anyone and was willing to put him aside for an identity groomed for him, because he is still internally the child being asked what good is he for by a neglectful and abusive mother.

But Tomie and the HPSC are wrong. Hawks was wrong. Even AFO remarks that Keigo's quirk is garbage. Losing his wings, gradually and now with this final removal, is actually Horikoshi making Keigo reckon with who he is as a person. And people are not their quirks. The whole point is that Keigo's cage was always, always himself.

Hawks can't trap him any longer. He has now face up to who he is outside of heroism, outside of his quirk. So this isn't the "end" to Hawks as a character because it was never about who Hawks is. It's was always about Keigo.

[aphrodaisyacs]

Anyways I think that nothing would be funnier than if Endeavor loses his Quirk next

[aphrodaisyacs]

I want to preface this by saying I’m not a Hawks hater but like. Him losing his Quirk is so based. I’m so fucking ecstatic over this development like yes!! Lose the one thing you’ve been defined your entire life by!! Lose your sense of purpose!! Lose everything to the point that you’re going to have to completely rebuild yourself from the ground up!! Cross that despair event horizon!! FUCK YEAH I’ve been waiting for this!!!!

[kingkacchan]

ppl misunderstand that the fundamental reason hawks stans want to see him broken is not because we think he objectively deserves it within the narrative but because *he* thinks he deserves it and has proven time and time again that he is too stubborn to let go of that notion enough to ever live a free life and so the only way for him to have any chance at obtaining genuine happiness and love and healing is for the masochistic martyrdom he is seeking to validate his existence with to be forcibly ripped away from him

keigo will never willingly walk away from being Hawks. the delusional fantasy that he has created to cope will not allow him. he said that himself. the only way to actually set him free is to take away the one thing shackling him to that fate. his wings.

[sparkles-and-trash]

Big MHA 385 spoilers ahead!

Okay but fr some reasons I think Hawks will not get his wings back BUT be okay:

Fantasy and winter Keigo has no wings (the white ones are just a part of hus coat) and short hair and in the fantasy one he looks slightly older, and in both he looks at peace

The Hori sketch here, where his feathers are in the air, but blowing out of frame, and his wings are gone, hair is short and he is smiling kinda weird, looking both happy, relieved and distraught.

He has always had a complicated relationship with his wings. Recently he has refered to them as dirty and a negative thing several times, and he obviously has some work to do with the whole Twice thing.

It was one of his own feathers that killed him, and I hope that with losing his wings, it will give him an opportunity to reflect on his feelings, and let go of the guilt and anger and the past in general.

Honestly idk at all ofc, but I just very seriously doubt he will have a sad ending.

Of course I hate seeing him go trough all of this, but honestly the others are going trough it, too, and I still choose to feel somewhat hopeful about the ending of MHA.