@fffinger-guns replied to your post “I get increasingly more concerned as I see Horikoshi convieniently...”
I really really don't want to see Hawks lose his wings BUT if he do, I'm very curious to see how Horikoshi would handle writing a character going through such a tragedy as this. People in real life do experience debilitating injuries, which would make Hawks a character for them to relate to. Losing something like that is tragic, but seeing someone go through it and come back from it is inspiring. There's two directions Hawk's story could go and I'm sooo curious
Plus the only other character to lose his quirk so far is Mirio, and while it is tragic, I feel like it wasn’t quite as tragic, especially because it’s hinted that eventually Eri could give mirio his quirk back. If Hawks lost his quirk, he would also lose his career, which at this point is basically his identity
I enjoy the way that Horikoshi has handled All Might losing his quirk to a debilitating injury, and I think there’s a lot of parallels to be made there. Being All Might was Toshinori Yagi’s entire identity for years and years, and we see him being not that great at handling his inability to be All Might anymore! He gets stressed out at being unable to help, has a rough time adjusting to doing literally anything else other than pro-heroing, and has to learn how to be his own person rather than just a symbol of peace. I really loved Horikoshi’s take on ‘removing’ the obligatory Main Character Mentor Figure from his position of power without actually offing him, and I really enjoy seeing All Might reconcile himself with no longer being All Might.
That said, I think that this is an arc that makes a lot of sense for All Might, but it’s not one that I’d personally enjoy for Hawks. Hawks isn’t just someone that put his all into his identity as a hero, he’s also a child soldier and a child abuse victim. I really want to see him find freedom and person-hood without having to sacrifice and suffer even more in the process.
As a side note: A lot of folks with disabilities stand solidly on the ‘dnw’ side of the line with regards to being seen as an inspiration for living with a disability. I know a character like that can very well be inspiring for a kid facing something similar, and it’s not my place to say either way, but I wanted to at least bring it up as food for thought.
Hawks is interesting to me because of how he became a hero. Horikoshi could have just kept it entirely as him being a lucky talented kid. Specially chosen, straight road to success. Just born that way, into a fortunate heroes origin story. Because really, in today's world there are definitely those rich families. With a lot of connections, giving actual support to their children. Those kids having ways to get higher up the ladder in life. (1)
Heck, I hear about some opening their own companies in their freakin teens. All amazing prodigical feats when there's people without support who struggle and sometimes can't make the cut. They aren't lucky like that. But Hawks' story isn't entirely that. Sure getting to be the No.2 hero sounds privileged. He's getting recognized by the overseers of the heroic world, gets to be trained by them. Sounds like a great opportunity hard to come by. But that's not the truth at all. (2)
It wasn't a straight road to success. He started off in the bottom of society, in poverty. Alcoholic parents and a criminal. They aren't proud parent applauding him, this isn't some scholarship. It was totally other reasons. If U.A does background checks would they have accepted him as a student? I mean, in fics you always see so many issues about accepting Bakugo. Bc he was a middle school bully of all things. A kid related to a villain would be harder to accept no? (3)
Or do all Hero students come from safe family backgrounds. Not a mark on their record. Something so nice, simple and happy in their own character too. Easy progression, talks of inspirational heroic ideals. You can have people so idealistic, who adore heroism and are so loud and clear in what they strive for. Your classic shonen determination thing. Then theres Hawks, who does it out of necessity. Hes so quiet in it. Fast, getting the job done. Even kinda impatient and grumpy during patrols. (4)
It's such a stark contrast. Things weren't all shiny for him, but he works hard anyways. You'd think being a hero would just be a job, but he still cares so much. And for the students! For everyone to smile! Even with whatever caused his opinion on things to change so much through the years. He's doing good, saving lives. That what makes him an efficient hero, even if he can't put people at ease how he wanted originally. But he still thinks of that? When he accepted to be a spy? (5)
And things are about to get worse for him with the fallout of this raid. There's so much he has to shoulder by himself, really doesn't make the whole 'prodigy kid' story, sunshine and rainbows. Guess it's why I like All Might and Deku too, starting off at the bottom, having suffered, and worked hard to get to where they are. Their careers will and did make them suffer more, but they move forward anyways. And about being stuck in a system. Take the educational one for instance. (6)
Teachers can be compared to heroes. They gotta follow whatever the education department says, they even gotta attend some training sessions sometimes. I remember my teacher being absent for those. Regardless of what they like or think, they can't oppose 'the higher authority.' When it comes to what to do with the students, or teaching plans, the way tests are done. There are no exceptions of any sort. And the heroes in bnha are probably the same. (7)
They shouldn't really question anything or go against it. They can't run things as they like. But you see Hawks questioning and disliking the Hpsc's decisions a lot. He digs around for information he isn't privy to. He still ends up following them, (granted, when we were shown, it was another necessity.) so I hope one day he does what he believes in instead of what others do. There's no way of knowing whether Hawks liked heroes as kid. He didn't like All Might when everyone did. (8)
But he did like Endeavor after he saved him. Which then turned into liking his perseverance. And I'm very curious to know why he does. After all, that keep striving attitude to get out of being stuck in a certain place is also what students from less fortunate backgrounds need to do to reach a good place like say, Med school. Which Hawks doesn't need to do anymore since he's already the No.2, but looking at a guy who used to be No.2 trying to do that. (9)
When he's already so high up, what would have happened if little Keigo tried to strive for something, did his best in school to get out of the poverty-stricken situation he was in. Ah but he won't have that question answered, the HPSC intervened so soon. Sorry this is a whole mess and I think I shifted from what I actually wanted to say a lot. Bah, Hawks just had to get my mind walking in circles. I could talk more if I try, but I feel bad for sending ten asks T.T tried to keep them few. (10)
I hope you don’t mind me putting this under a cut, anon, it was a delight to read but I feel bad killing people’s dashes with it!
I think you make a really good point - we have plenty of characters in the manga that resent others for being born with opportunities, like Shinsou says to Midoriya or how the League sees heroes like Hawks. Ironically, in both cases, the accuser is speaking to someone whose backstory they are unaware of and in fact turns out has suffered similar injustices or hardships prior to getting to where they are now.
This isn’t to say that they haven’t been blessed with opportunity - getting All Might’s Power or having a powerful quirk like Hawks does are both extremely integral to their success - but it does serve to highlight how even the seemingly quite successful individuals in BNHA have suffered at the hands of their society. I feel like a lot of the discussion we see with regards to BNHA meta is very oriented around the heroes versus the villains, but I’ve always kind of seen the situation as a doomed, mutually destructive fight of the status quo hero society versus the villains’ vying for domination and destruction where the intended “side” to rise up at the end isn’t either of those but rather the newest generation of heroes represented by Deku and the other students.
They represent hope, not only for protecting people from the likes of All For one, but for creating a hero society that is more genuine and less selfish than the one designed by the Hero Public Safety Commission. Because the current state of things does rely on people to be lucky, both in what they’re born with and who decides they’re worth anything, and that hurts everyone involved, not just those on the villainous fringes of society.
Probably because you don't really see a kid on the street or alley and immediately go and say 'from now on I'll provide for him and his entire family' as if you know whether or not his family needs that kind of support. Then again, there's also the idea that if they did do that. Approach a kid and try to convince that kid by making such an offer before actually knowing anything about the situation, well that's creepy. And the jolly way it was said in the viz version I can't find is like that.
Like I'm sorry, but that just screams to me of creepy adults or kidnappers going all 'aw hey there kid, you wanna see a puppy' or 'want some candy? Hey I'm your mom's friend, don't worry I can take you home from here!' Baby Keigo should have just decked the dude in the face with his feathers, adult Hawks with those giant freaking wings.
[re: this post about assumptions about Hawks’s family situation, where I mentioned in the tags that it’s interesting that people assume by default that the scene of baby!Hawks with trash in the background is his home and not an alley or something]
My thought about that had been that it was possible that after Keigo did his child-prodigy-rescue shtick during the crash, there were probably authorities that showed up afterwards. A lot of the time, people involved in accidents like that (especially to the degree that Keigo was) are asked to stick around for some reason, like to give a statement. It doesn’t seem entirely out of the question that that’s where the Commission members found Keigo, nor that the area would be trashed.
That said, I do personally figure that it was his house! The patterning on the flooring seems like it would most easily correlate with somewhere indoors, and I don’t think the Commission would take him somewhere that Horikoshi deliberately drew as messy.
I think the jolly way they said it is reflective of a lot of people’s approaches to speaking with young children in general, which... yeah, that’s plus-ultra levels of creepy in this particular situation. Golly gee willickers, kid, wanna become a child soldier!?
Oh shit. Bellamy wait, chapter 244 look at the floor! It matches the one in 192, huh. Gotta say if the hpsc really did approach Keigo on the streets of all places. Then dare I say, AFO to Tenko parallels????
Ahh, man, if they did approach him on the street, the amount of trash and such in the background means Keigo was probably in some dirty alley, too, which is exactly how All For One found Tenko after his own moment of exceptional quirk usage. Yet another item on my list of reasons to froth at the mouth and flail around my, “They have the same exact backstory!!!!” poster board.
That said, I think tile flooring (whether it be concrete outdoor groundwork or the polished indoor tiling we see at the HPSC building) is very common in general, and it’s hard to derive any true conclusions from it.
Hawks is basically in bnha what the results of some in real life low-class, talented kids are. Focusing on their studies not having much to build their own identities, managing to climb their way to a well-paying or high-status career, by their own desire for whatever reason or due to parents demands. Then finding themselves disillusioned by it. so depression hits, no real joy. your not really living. Your entire life has been lost by this and all the pain it took to get there and for what :(
Y E P. Honestly, I can... really relate to a lot of that, though I think have had a good outcome in terms of emotional health. I don’t think I’ll become disillusioned with medicine and I’ve turned out alright, but the entire process of ‘gifted child becomes anxiety-ridden mess under pressure’ is something I find deeply relatable.
Anyways, my own personal life aside: I read that Horikoshi himself acknowledged that Hawks was based off of Messi, a famous enough football player that even I’ve heard of him, who also has a similar ‘child star pressured by circumstance into prodigal success’ story. I can’t speak for Messi, but I think that Hawks does believe in the fundamentals of heroics, but is in the process of becoming disillusioned in the state of hero culture. It’s kind of like how some people go into medicine wanting to help people, but get burned out by the bureaucratic red tape, the hospital prioritization of the bottom line, and the messy politics. Heroics in BNHA have the exact same problem, where the commission in charge of heroics itself has stated to Hawks’s face that the actual safety of individual people is an acceptable casualty for the sake of taking down the League in the way that the HPSC has determined to be best - and it has been very clear how much the HPSC prioritizes popularity and money.
I think that’s what Hawks is burning out on, what makes him wish for a time when heroes are no longer necessary. The actual part of his job that involves saving people, I think, is the reason that he’s stuck with it for so long in the first place, though! He started out with such high, genuine hopes, and has ended up in a situation where it’s all been twisted almost beyond recognition.
About your "Stiles is still a Nogitsune " theory, I'd like to add that Stiles's name has been added on the blacklist (4th season) ! It seems strange when we think about the fact that Stiles is not supposed to be a supernatural beast anymore. Also, his look in the 5x05 trailers makes me think A LOT about the 3B season... like REALLY. Nogitsune is coming back ? The rules have changed, right ? ;) I wouldn't be that surprised tbh ! Have a good day !
I hate to reply this after so many days but I wasn’t aware of this message!! Thanks tumblr… ¬¬
Anyways yeah, but I like to think that there wasn’t any real Nogitsune, or at last, that it was Stiles in a 90% in control of the situation. Hints that he’s more powerful that we first believed are everywhere right now.
And I believe this time is the Kitsune story to tell, so Kira is totally going to the dark side.
A desert wolf is a coyote. I know there is a were-coyote. It's Malia. Desert Wolf is possibly Malia. I love your theory (:
It just slapped me in the face watching the last episode.
I know if it’s true, it would be weird to see that the real relationship between her and Peter was totally different BUT the clues are there. I might be wrong, but one of the things I don’t get is why she was in Eichen House.
