i dont get why people think that, with the possibility of hawks’ wings regenerating, that consequences are suddenly not an option for him because of his position as an important character. or, for lack of better words, he’s getting off lightly.
we’re going to ignore the fact that for now, we don’t know if his wings are growing back. if they are, we don’t know if they’ll be the same as before. we dont know how long they’ll take. we dont know if they’ll be able to be used in the same way as before, or anything like that. even forgetting the fact that 299 isn’t officially translated or out. ignoring the fact that yes, a lot of people in this fandom tend to overreact, and tend to jump on the boat of a black or white mentality towards characters a little too quickly, no matter the action.
but characters dont need a physical consequence, that is not how all character arcs work. giving a physical consequence is not always good writing, and does not always give the ‘character development’ you think it will.
(this is also something you can use in regards to deku, where people think he should lose an arm “for consequence of reckless actions”. or for endeavor, who should die “for consequence of the abuse he put his family through”. neither of which are true, because having these things happen does not automatically change them as characters. it does not automatically make up for what they did.)
does hawks need to face some sort of consequence for killing, regardless of who it was and regardless of his options? yes. but stripping his wings away, for a character like hawks, is not going to be consequence. hawks’ is a character who has had much stripped away from him, including his own identity as a child. he was given the name hawks, because of who ‘keigo takami’ was connected to, so was made to discard part of himself for the better of who took him in..
if his wings were stripped away… exactly what consequence would this give him, on top of everything else happening?
hawks would see himself as a free man. he already sees himself as a ‘free man’, because of the hero commission currently crumbling, struggling to stand. he already has to feel the weight of the war lay across his shoulders. of the countless civilian deaths. of the heroes who hightailed it out of there because they could not bare the weight of hero society’s sins. of the remaining civilians looking at him in a new light. a distasteful light. one where he may not be considered so much a hero towards them.
and i know there will be people saying, “but nameless civilians don’t matter!”… when they do.
its a hero’s job to protect them. and hawks, as a hero, the number two hero, failed. it does not matter if they were nameless. it does not matter if they were not characters we knew. they are not simply objects within this story. they are not simply pieces of cardboard that can be replaced - these are lives. regardless of matter within the story, hundreds of lives. hell, maybe thousands, were affected directly by this war. if it be with the loss of life or home, every life does matter on the conscious of a hero.
it does not even matter if hawks was not within reach to save them himself, that still sticks on a hero’s conscious, as we’ve seen with several heroes affected by death in this series. and the fact that they were not there to help. even the students, like uraraka and iida, have voiced before a guilt for not helping more. a guilt for not being there to help, of not being able to do anything, despite things being out of their control.
hawks, like endeavor, will be frowned upon. hawks may never be trusted again. not to mention, hawks does have to carry the conscious of knowing he killed a named character - twice. someone who he tried to offer a better life to. he has to carry that with him, and the fact that civilians know what he did. he has to carry a death he committed, something that will forever stain who he is as a person.
and truthfully, we have not seen everything, mha, as a series, and i feel like so many people forget, is still ongoing. there are consequences and scoldings and being viewed in the wrong that take place over many chapters. he should not just receive consequence in one chapter and be done with it.
for example, look at endeavor. endeavor, as a character, should not die as consequence. that is not good character writing, and it is not good story writing, no matter how much you think it does. endeavor dies… and then what? what consequences does he face? because if he is dead, endeavor can’t face what he did. he cant face knowing he was in the wrong. he cant face knowing how much he screwed up. he cant face knowing that he, a hero, did that. its a waste.
thats why endeavor’s arc is one of the best ongoing character arcs in the series. because he is not dead. because he is forced to face his past and see what he did. he cannot run away from that. he cannot run away from part of who he was and still partially is. even atoning, that still stains his history.
in a similar vein, something similar can be applied to hawks. even if he gets his wings back… he still took a life. he still, no matter his involvement, could not stop hero society crumbling. he could not save those many people who lost their lives and homes and who now look down upon heroes for not doing enough. he still is to blame. and that, is consequence on a more mental and emotional level, which would affect hawks a lot more.
if he lost his wings, his character would be more focus on the fact he lost them. it would not be focused so much on his actions, and how terribly things turned out. it would not give you the revelation you’d so desperately hope it does. because hawks would not change overnight. losing his wings does not make up for what he did. but going through that journey of having his identity tarnished, of being frowned upon, of having that guilt weigh on his mind, and giving his character itself a journey does.
losing his wings does not create an automatically ‘better’ story… you want to see him suffer for what he did. but seeing someone suffer physically does not equal good writing, and does not equal a good character. and suffering physically does not always mean a good, or the best, consequence.
titsay
2087
turnnoffyourmind
theartofmadeline
