lowkey im terrified of posting yeehan fan art in this server im in because i know theres people who have a negative opinion of the ship in there and i cant help but feel like they fucking hate my guts when i do
My headcanons, once again. Warning for talk of amputations, gore-y details (no pictures, just writing), and manipulation.
I'm a firm believer in Hanzo having lower leg (below the knee) prosthetics, no matter what Blizzard says. He would have gotten them after the battle with Genji, with the clan working together to have them made and be top-of-the-line with fancy internal circuitry and silencing and everything they would need to upgrade his abilities.
(Side note: I also refuse to believe that Hanzo fought with his brother who was also trained in the various martial and sword arts together for years - even if we acknowledge Genji may not have attended many of them, we know that Genji was still an incredible swordsman and warrior - and didn't receive any sort of lasting physical damage like scars. Man has flawless skin for no reason.)
A thought (some angst food) that had only just crossed my mind was, "What if his prosthetics weren't actually necessary?"
What if he had sustained injuries that were not grievous enough to warrant a complete below-the-knee amputation? Perhaps muscles and ligaments were severed, yes, but were able to be repaired to almost normal function with normal treatments, especially when you see the medical capabilities that modern/game time doctors have.
Hanzo might have been told that they needed to remove his legs completely because "the damage was too severe to heal normally", and he would have agreed because he was so far under their influence and would agree to everything they told him - he agreed to kill his brother, the closest family member he had since his father died, his brother! - and so underwent the surgery.
The clan would have thought out the pros and cons of removing their leader's legs. Hanzo would have a strange light cast on him; who took his legs? Who was strong enough, skillful enough, to catch the elder Shimada off-guard in a fight to lead to this? Cybernetics may lead to a weakness that could be exploited with the best hackers. On the other hand, cybernetic legs were stronger, more resilient, adaptable, changeable. He wouldn't have to worry about muscle strain or broken bones. Attachments and upgrades could be made at any time.
They could even hide the fact that they were prosthetics in the first place with a good outershell.
So the clan chooses to have Hanzo's legs amputated, even though they could have chosen to have him recover his flesh legs completely. Hanzo would be made into a better weapon, and he wouldn't even know.
In fact, no one would know. They were constructed so well, with the help of artists and prosthetic "architects", that no one outside of Hanzo and the inner circle of the clan would know that his legs weren't flesh.
When Hanzo joins Overwatch, he keeps them a secret there too. Dr. Zeigler knows, of course, but he refuses to walk outside of his room without them on and requests for a foldable wheelchair to be in his room so he can quickly tuck it under his bed when someone knocks on the door.
He hates his legs, maybe after he discovers some audio logs from the clan discussing his amputation - perhaps during an infiltration in Hanamura for an adjacent mission. He learns that he might have been able to keep his original legs, keep his body away from the clan's eagerness to turn him into more of a living weapon. It disgusts him, because he feels like he's hating Genji and Genji's body, which confuses him because it was Hanzo's fault Genji is like this now, and Genji is living this life with more than just his legs gone. Hanzo hates his legs but he feels his suffering is moot against what he did to his brother, so he sticks with them.
Somewhere inside he also knows that his legs kept him alive the decade he abandoned the clan, being chased by assassins and mercenaries and running around. He can't help but be grateful to what the clan did, and he thinks they made the right choice, even if he would never have agreed to it in the first place.
Speaking of the years after his life in the clan - Hanzo was unable to properly care for his legs while on the run and homeless. Sure, he was able to do his daily maintenance and figure out some things by himself, but when larger and more complex parts would fail, he just had to deal with it and find an underground repairer to hopefully fix it. There were a few times he was scammed and left without properly working legs (or worse), and most days were spent struggling to walk or in pain. One of the first things Overwatch did for him (even if there was a lot of tension and anger towards him) was completely tune-up his legs :)
