(pretend itâs not ages late)
I did say dif ppl would have dif readings of how right Hawks was portrayed to be. You interpreted it as enough in the wrong that you arenât bothered, though I wanna argue that while Hawks was portrayed as villanous from Twiceâs perspective, while in his own he was still some sort of anti-hero
Dark shadow, twisted angles, scary eyes, sketchy linework
Light, straight angles, conflicted eyes, clear linework
He is pained, yes, but as you said, itâs taken as a necessary evil. The narrative paints it as what needed to be done, instead of confronting him with other possibilities - for example: when Twice was (apparently) knocked out, Hawks wanted to take him in that way, so why did he not use the element of surprise to get the drop on Twice instead of revealing himself? (it canât really be atributed to repect when the alternative was... threatening his life)
Hawks is shown to want the outcome to be different, but it seems more like he wishes Jin would have accepted, and/or dabi not interfered, rather than thinking of what he did wrong. And his mistakes started way before the stabbing: he didnât consider that Jin, the person he wanted to save because he was too kind for a villain, would want to protect his closest friends instead of the society that basically wants him dead.
By the way, I was debating the meritis of bringing some muscle relaxing oil to sedate Twice, among other things, here
I donât personally think Hawks is an apologist*, but I also donât think an abuse survivor canât be one. Sometimes one can deny abuse that is (A) similar to theirs because they are in denial about theirs (âoh, thatâs how it was for me and I turned out fine!â) or (B) different from theirs because think calling stuff thatâs not like it abuse diminishes the weight of the word (âyou arenât getting hit or anything!â or any good old trauma Olympics) or (C) they somehow think it was justified (âoh he did that but that was because the kid was impossible to deal with!â). Iâm not saying they are more likely to be apologists, just that I donât rule this out.
*What I think do he is: someone who wished his abuser would change for very, very long, and is now seeing that his childhood idol, who caught his abuser, is doing exactly that. Who doesnât hope their Endeavor changes, at least until the rational brain shuts that down? Plus Hawks is the kind of person who thinks a member of a terrorist organization that plans kidnapping and mass murder would jump at the chance of redemption in the eyes of a society that hates him by abandoning his friends... why wouldnât he believe a father would change for the society that tolerates-to-likes him and his family that doesnât-want-dead-to-love him?
And about the villains doing unhealthy things - they wouldnât really be villains if they had 10/10 coping mechanisms, would they? Of course the stuff they are doing is wrong, but wanting and enjoying stories of them isnât. For example: if dragons existed, you probably shouldnât kill them indiscrminatedly, and maybe not try to domesticate them either, but both of those can make for really godamn cool stories, so we write that. And I can see why some people would get upset* when someone comes to point out that the stuff is wrong when they are trying to simply enjoy the parts of the story they like, especially if it happens often and/or in spaces dedicated to such.
*which is still not an excuse for personal attacks, dogpilling, or fucking death threats
I did say on another fandom discussion that I wish that when someone produces a piece of fandom content - meta, video essay, theory, headcanon, fanfic, fanfix, fanart, incorrect quote, music - someone else could criticize/expand on/debate, and then later the two metaphorically get a coffee and joke around. But I also know sometimes ppl just want to get their fix of the content they like, or create their stuff, or mingle with likeminded ppl, without complication. So itâs a lot of work setting boundaries between those two, but I think saying some variation of âyoooo people! who wants to overthink a bunch of pictures until we know more about them than their creator?â or âplease donât have this discourse attached to my content/this hashtag widely used by the opposite side of the fandomâ is easy enough.
Like, communication. It helps.
