#twice meta

[gradelstuff]

Twice's character pages in the Ultra Age fanbook

[dynamightmite]

Hawks and Twice; Identities and Foils

Part one, lol

Okay, season six is fully out so I can finally talk about the Hawks killing Twice scene without tagging it as spoilers because. Listen. I love you guys, but some of the takes I’ve been reading about it are just maybe not the scalding hot read you think they are. So... let’s talk about it.

There are a few things that most people have picked up on and that I’d like to reestablish so we can all move past them to the nitty-gritty stuff. First is that, yes, Hawks is in the wrong for killing Twice. Narratively,  it is considered by everyone (including Hawks himself) to have been a bad thing to do. There’s so much grief surrounding Twice’s death, and everyone involved is badly affected by it. That’s the point of the scene. You aren’t supposed to have the takeaway that this was a righteous act, or that it was fair; it’s supposed to feel brutal, and wrong, and disgusting. You are supposed to come away questioning a lot of preestablished “truths” of the series. The main one here, of course, being that the roles of Heroes and Villains may not be as clear-cut as previously shown.

HOWEVER. The continuing takeaway is not really meant to be that Hawks is evil, or that the villains were actually in the right all along. Sure, you can personally dislike Hawks and/or his actions, but narratively speaking, this scene is not supposed to reframe him as somehow worse than the actual villains. What this scene is mean to accomplish is a deconstruction of the concept of heroes, villains, and the ties that bind them to better understand their similarities as much as their differences.

Identity is a prominent theme throughout the story, and the way Horikoshi plays with both the concept of identity and roles in this scene is really interesting and very well done. 

To start with the easier stuff, the first two “identities” that are immediately flipped on their heads are the titles of Hero and Villain. Both within the story and as an audience with our own external culture, we can recognize that Heroes are supposed to be 'good' and Villains are supposed to be 'bad'. That's a presupposed fact, and it's not hard to see that, while this has usually been true in the context of the story, suddenly it's not so clear—how can someone be a Hero when they're acting the way Hawks does? How can that be ordered by the people in charge of the Heroes? Sanctioned? Approved of?

The obvious answer that I'm sure you're telling me to get to already is that the heroes aren't always 'good', and that Hero society is, in fact, worse.

The art emphasizes this beautifully (seriously, the art in this scene is so good); Hawks the Hero stands shadowed and coldly predatory, while Twice the Villain is on his back, belly-up on the ground, trembling and crying. Hawks mocks Twice for being too trusting, Twice tells him that he had to be, because it was kind. And he can’t imagine not being that.

And this polarity reveals why it is so important that these two, who superficially have very little in common, undermine the dichotomy between Hero and Villain. Because Hawks and Twice actually have one very specific trait that connects them: the desire to help people.

Now, they obviously show it very differently and have opposing definitions on who, exactly, they believe deserves help. That’s what makes them foils. But the gut-wrenching string between these two men is that they are both trying to protect people. That’s their underlying goal, the one fundamental principle they both have that they will not waver on; unstoppable force, meet immovable object. They are, for this one moment, the same person. Because it’s also not as simple as just their desire to protect people—it’s that they both were inevitably going to end up in this stand-off. 

Something I don’t see talked about very much is how both Hawks and Twice are being used. It’s pretty obvious with Hawks, having been essentially bought as a child and manipulated by the HPSC to become the perfect hero and do what’s asked of him on the basis that, again, he wants to help people. He was a kid who was so alone and so desperate to be good, and then the HPSC, seeing how much potential he had, swooped in and offered him the resources and ability to make his dreams come true. He is a good person whose trust and sense of compassion have been manipulated so that he commits reprehensible acts because he is both told and genuinely believes that they will save people’s lives. And the really fucked up part is that they’re right— but more on that later.

For the people saying— “but that’s not like Twice at all. Twice is working with the League. They’re his friends. He loves them”—yeah that’s my whole point. What is the one thing Twice desperately wants, more than anything? Companionship. The feeling that he isn’t alone. Love. He’s been by himself almost his whole life, and his every choice has been reflective of his desire to have meaningful connections. He wants to be surrounded by people who accept him, and he wants to accept them in turn. and the League take advantage of that.

Now, before anybody gets mad, yes, the League do actually care about each other. Their relationships are complicated to say the least, and not really the found family that I see cropping up sometimes in Fanon, but they have each other’s backs, and they take care of each other. They don’t mind Twice’s eccentricities, and in fact even praise him for them. 

Which is sort of the problem. On his own, Twice is, at best, an unstable man willing to steal and ignore a lot of societal rules for the sake of his own comfort and happiness. But he isn’t naturally violent. In fact, the first time he experiences real, visceral violence, it traumatizes him so badly he gains an entire dissociative disorder. 

But that’s okay! He doesn’t mind that so much, as long as he has friends. He just wants to be helpful. And oh boy, does the League want his help. 

For people who do (in my opinion) genuinely care about Twice, they also ask him to do a lot of fucked up stuff (like kidnapping, and murder, and other general terrorist stuff). Because it benefits them. What other organization does that, I wonder?

Oh. Right.

Twice is dangerous. I’m sorry to all the people that like to infantilize him and act like he wasn’t about to run out of the door and murder and/or severely injure a bunch of heroes/civilians, but Twice was, canonically, going to go do that.  Because he believed that that was the only way to save his friends. That’s part of why this scene is so horrific and well written, because either way it went, someone was going to lose. And the unfortunate reality is that if Hawks didn’t stop him, Twice was going to go commit some unforgiveable crimes to a lot of people who didn’t deserve it, and he was never going to go quietly, because that’s not the kind of person that he is. Which Hawks understands; he’s the same way. But it’s also awful because neither of them should have ever been put in the position to have to make this choice. 

A big part of what the story explores when it comes to identities is how they are defined, and who gives them to you. Hawks and Twice both actively struggle with this, being two people who don't feel (rightly or not) that they've had a lot of agency in their lives.

Hawks wants to help people, but he feels stifled by the role of Hero, which was chosen for him, and whose expectations he chafes against. For as much as he supports the HPSC and upholds their goals, he has a lot of doubts and critiques of how hero society works. He is a Hero because somebody else saw him and thought he should be, not necessarily because he decided to be all on his own, regardless of his own twisted view of his past. But he doesn't always like what is asked of him, or the restraints that working for the HPSC puts on him. It's heavily implied that he feels like his personhood has been lost to his Hero identity (Hawks, as opposed to Keigo), and doesn't know how to reconcile his own actions with the public's perception of him.

Twice, similarly, had his role chosen for him at a young age (hitting a guy with his motorcycle and spiraling afterwards) and actively dislikes the label of Villain. He's not someone who craves violence or cruelty, but rather someone who gravitates towards it because he's run out of other options. And if the only people who are kind to him are Villains, what does that say about Heroes and their so-called goodness? Twice doesn't know that he, or any of the League, should be called Villains. How can they be worse than the heroes when basic decency is too much to ask of the people you're meant to idolize?

They're both caged by the way the world sees them versus the way they want to be seen, as well as trapped by the choices they've made in relation to the people they wish they were. Because, to be clear, they do both make choices. That's how they end up where they do, both wishing they were somewhere else—or maybe someone else.

Twice is a killer who never set out to be a killer. Hawks is a killer who never set out to be a killer. Twice is a Villain. Hawks is a Hero.

They’re in a room alone together. Outside are all the people they want to protect. Someone has to blink first.

In this moment, they are the same. 

[redphlox]

Honestly, Twice and Toga have goofy, huge-age-gap sibling energy. Twice is the overprotective himbo older brother who lives in a crappy apartment across town and cares more about others than himself. Toga is the chaotic I'll-fight-God younger sibling who likes to run with knives because Mom told her not to. Their age difference is what makes their friendship special. Siblings with huge age gaps (10-15+ years) have a unique bond because the older sibling is in a unique place of being an authority-wielding, responsible, wise adult without being a parent. They're just a cool older sibling who happens to be an adult, so that means they can take you places and buy you food and toys/stuff and hang out with you. They'll protect you when your parents aren't around. They won't nag or lecture or ground you like a parent would when you confide in them, and that's exactly what Twice is to Toga. If Twice ever saw Toga with a cigarette he'd definitely tell her, "hey you shouldn't smoke, it's bad for your health" after taking it from her and inhaling deeply like the nicotine fiend he is because he wants to steer her away from harm while also not pretending to be perfect. He's not her parent, so he doesn't have to be the example of a healthy adult or whatever. He can be real with her and be silly with her, and he is.

Toga and Twice get along because they see themselves in each other. They are two people who had their childhoods taken from them. Twice lost his parents at a young age and was forced to grow up too fast, and Toga wasn't allowed to be herself and was rejected by her parents. She lived on the streets by herself for a while, facing the world much sooner than she should have. Being left to fend for themselves took away their opportunity to be childlike - goofy, mischievous, carefree, to establish who they are as a person without being judged. That's why they act so dumb together - they have a mutual understanding, much like siblings raised by the same parents even though the older one left the house years ago.

Twice doesn't judge or reject or lecture or scold Toga like her parents did, and Toga's silliness is endearing to Twice, who is a funny guy himself when he's not overwhelmed with his trauma and mental illness. Toga doesn't call him names or think he's a loser like the rest of the world does. They both just want to be happy and be accepted, and they know that about each other. That's why they feed off each other's energy. They each have 1 braincell but when they're together the braincells cancel each other out, bringing their total brain power to 0.

But Twice knows he's older than her and therefore has some sort of responsibility, just like an adult sibling does. An adult sibling feels like a parent sometimes because at the end of the day they're an adult, and yknow what? Sometimes parents want to feel needed by their children. Everyone wants to feel needed sometimes, but especially Twice because he's been alone for so long, without a friend in the world, feeling unwanted. And it's interesting that Twice felt like Toga, the only minor in the League, needed him especially. Not Dabi, not Shigaraki, not Spinner. Toga. She was the youngest and he knew that he, as an adult, could be there for her.

In Toga, Twice found the opportunity to be a teenager again, to be young and do dumb shit with his friends - two things that were taken from him when life dealt him shitty cards. In Twice, Toga found a caring older brother figure who encourages her antics but also looks out for her wellbeing like a parent would, something that she never had before. And just like a younger sibling, she gets annoyed over being fussed about after the battle in Deika city. In her mind, she's okay so what's the big deal? But Twice is grieving what could have happened - Toga almost DIED and it was too close for comfort.

Thinking about Toga and Twice's relationship really hurts considering what happens to Twice. These two needed each other. They gave each other the empathy, understanding, unconditional acceptance, and friendship they were desperately seeking in this world that had rejected them many times over.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

First, I ask everyone to check this amazing post.

And now, it's funny because we already know the type of villains Twice and Dabi find when they go out for recruits.

Let's take a look at some important facts:

The first villain attack of the League was the attack to the USJ. In that one, Tomura didn't care about who joined him, he just wanted a bunch of people to distract the heroes. Most of them got captured.

After that, Tomura contacted Stain and we saw what happened. They were not compatible, at all. Instead, they both fought and acted separated. From this we know that Tomura is not the best recruiting.

The first real team of the League of Villains was the one Giran put together. As we saw in the manga, Giran checked their criminal records and personally decided who would be compatible with Tomura. This is how a good recruiter sees like, kids.

We can see how well Giran's method worked, because the team stayed together after the Summer Camp attack, the Kamino attack, etc. The people who wouldn't be compatible with the team were gone (Mustard for being too young, Muscular and Moonfish for being to violent, etc).

That's when we get Dabi and Twice as recruiters. And that's when we see the process Giran went through before finding the correct people.

The major example of this is Overhaul. Yes, he was powerful and around Tomura's age, but he was also a piece of shit in general. We saw what happened between Overhaul and the League. And we can assume that the other people Twice found were worst than Overhaul or weaker than Overhaul.

When it comes to Dabi, we see how most people he found on the street are people who would love to beat to death someone in an alley. Definitely weak, but most important they have no manners at all, they don't fit the League.

Neither Twice or Dabi check the criminal records of the people, neither of them take the time to study their past and behaviors to check how can they contribute to the League. Just like Tomura, most things they find is trouble and people trying to kill them, which results in the "recruits" dying for challenging the League.

Later, both Dabi and Twice try to recruit Hawks on their own ways. Why? Because they see a man that can fit the League, someone young and more calm, not so violent and disruptive to them. Sadly, Hawks was just acting.

And the Meta Liberation Army only gets "recruited" after a big fight, so that's still not as clean as Giran would do it.

When people talk about Dabi burning recruits, they forget to see all of this. Dabi and Twice didn't count with a filtering system to put aside the too erratic or violent and choose the better candidates. They had to go and meet one by one, so of course most time this villains were willing to kill them.

Dabi would not let someone give away his position or the League's whereabouts, so he killed them to avoid them leaking information. Maybe he also killed them to save his own life (that prove they were weaker than him and not worthy for the League), or for just being general trash as villains, doing things not even the League would agree with.

Tomura, Twice and Dabi have encounter big problems while recruiting because they lack the methods of Giran. That proves they are not professionals, just a bunch of young criminals doing what they think is best and dealing with the consequences.

This is way the 20 kills of Dabi were probably not so innocent people, not so passive people, and the killing itselfs were not exactly just Dabi burning them alive. They probably tried to kill Dabi too, insulted him or stuff like that, was a danger for the League or couldn't get away with the information.

Without all these facts, you could make it seem like Dabi is some type of cold blooded serial killer when in fact the situations were very different.

[prince-liest]

Could Hawks have knocked Twice unconscious?

With how tragic and contentious Twice’s death was in the manga, I’ve seen this question floating around lately on multiple blogs (sorry if you’ve already had me pontificating in your notes about this), so I figured people might find it interesting to expand upon from a perspective of medical realism.

As usual, Horikoshi takes plenty of liberties with his medical accuracy (hey, Dabi, what’s it like to be a walking septic tank), so there’s no guarantee he took any of this into consideration.

short explanation: No, Hawks could not have knocked Twice unconscious for any useful length of time without a high risk of severe traumatic brain injury and death.

longer explanation: There are two primary ways that Hawks could have rendered Twice unconscious during their fight, barring the use of some sort of drug. The first is by choking him out via a choke-hold that blocks certain arteries in the neck that supply the brain with oxygen. The second is by knocking him out via blunt force trauma to the head. Both of these are highly likely to be deadly degree if they are used to cause unconsciousness for a significant length of time.

the choke-hold

The brain needs oxygen to function. A very easy way to stop it from functioning, and thus cause unconsciousness, is by depriving it of oxygen. This can be done by strangulation in which one presses down on the blood vessels in a person’s neck which are responsible for delivering blood to the brain. This causes unconsciousness very quickly - ten to twenty seconds without oxygen is sufficient. Conversely, the person will also regain consciousness ten to twenty seconds after you release the choke-hold and oxygen once again begins flowing to the brain.

If you decide to prolong the choke-hold for an extended period of unconsciousness, then you have to continue pressing down on the relevant veins and resign yourself to potentially causing brain damage or death. Brain cells need oxygen to function, and will start dying off after even one minute without oxygen. Exact estimates of timing vary depending on your source, but it’s generally agreed on that if the brain has been deprived of oxygen for over four minutes, the victim will experience permanent brain damage or even die. The longer you go past this mark, the more incredibly likely death is.

It’s unlikely that Hawks could have choked Twice out to any useful effect because he would have had to maintain the hold to keep Twice unconscious, and had a really narrow window of time to do anything while Twice was unconscious.

the ‘knock out’

Blunt-force trauma to the head can cause impact to the brain that is severe or shocking enough to result in a loss of consciousness. This loss of consciousness is typically fairly brief in most cases of accidental head trauma. However, if someone has hit their head and is unconscious for a period of time longer than a minute or so, it’s often indicative of the kind of brain injury that they’re not going to just walk off like a groggy action movie protagonist. They are likely going to experience some degree of amnesia, and longer-term repercussions on cognition, balance, memory, or more that will take weeks to months to recover from. It’s even possible to go blind from a concussion!

It’s also very difficult to judge how much damage you are causing a person by hitting them in the head. Some people have survived gunshots to the head while others have died from tripping and falling. The latter is a lot more likely to happen, and it’s impossible to decide how severe the brain damage you’re causing when you hit someone in the head is.

It’s unlikely that Hawks could have knocked Twice out long enough for that period of unconsciousness to be useful without giving him a traumatic brain injury or killing him, and it would have been impossible to judge how badly Hawks would be hurting Twice while doing it.

In the end, both options would still likely result in, well... 

[prince-liest]

"he doesn't actually have a mental illness that exists outside of this quirky fictional context to aesthetically match his superpower." - I've been thinking about this for so long now! His illness is supposed to "complement" his quirk and people don't realize that. It plays little to no role to his place in the plot and Horikoshi definitely didn't consider how people would take it, which is on him. (sorry, I hope you don't mind me quoting you!)

I totally don’t mind - actually, I’m glad you brought it up, gives me an opportunity to expand on this on my actual blog! For reference, here’s the full thing I said, which was in response to the whole ‘anyone who likes Hawks is a bootlicker who supports cops killing the mentally ill’ hot take:

I reblogged something that touched on this the other day but one of the other things that bothers me about this point of view is how much emphasis there is on Twice being mentally ill and how little acknowledgement there is of the fact that he doesn’t actually have a mental illness that exists outside of this quirky fictional context to aesthetically match his superpower. Not only is [his mental illness] not narratively relevant to his death but it’s not actually a real mental disorder.

The person to criticize here is not Actual Fictional Character Hawks and the people who enjoy one (1) bird man, but rather Horikoshi, who decided not only on extremely inaccurate representation of mental illness but also that that guy had to die in this particular way. We’re so busy attacking a character that doesn’t exist that we forget that this is a fictional story that wasn’t hatched out of some vacuum.

Like, I don’t know, it just strikes me as strange that people focus on criticizing characters within a fictional context rather than taking a step back and analyzing the work in which these events took place and why the author may have portrayed these things in the way he did. Horikoshi does not have a good track record with respectfully portraying women, people of color, trans people, or the mentally ill. While certain aspects of Twice’s experience can be relatable, his character as well as his fate originate from an ableist perspective, and that matters.

[prince-liest]

Many people have been discussing how CH264 is a turning point for Hawks in terms of making an important, character defining choice - but I want to talk a little about how I think the chapter was actually set up for Twice to be the one making a defining decision.

Because Hawks is right - Twice is clearly capable of empathy and doing things for the good of others. However, that doesn't change the fact that Twice had also done a lot of killing, has hurt a lot of people, and is working with an organization whose leader has very explicitly stated that his goal is mass murder and destruction.

And Twice can't continue to be seen as a redeemable character or see his actions as justifiable if he's willing to participate in a plot to literally destroy the world, no matter what his roots and motivations are.

Meanwhile Hawks, who it seems now is in a lot of ways a direct mirror of Twice in terms of beliefs about society, is willing to give him this opportunity to stand for something other than death and destruction, to get back on his feet and start over as something different.

I'm not surprised Twice says no, because the situation is really rubbing all of Twice's insecurities about his found family in his face, and he feels betrayed by both Hawks and himself, but it still very much feels like a defining choice for Twice: continue using the ways he's been wronged as justification for hurting others, or stand up and try to change the world for the better?

That question is a recurring theme among both the villains and the heroes in BNHA, so it makes sense to me that it's the key point of Hawks and Twice's arc.