Latest Posts by cunicularia - Page 13
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Here’s so art I did of Twice!
He’s the love of my life, my muse as of late
omg who gifted him that shirt
the camera does not do these colored pencils justice !! huge thanks to my bff for letting me use them >:3
some friends trying to help hold eachother together in these hard times
todoroki family brunch: fuyumi doing the catering like the older sister she is, natsuo suicide baiting their father 30min into this brunch, rei is on the balcony tanning, shoto has no idea what’s going on, and dabi feeds hawks a concoction of all alcoholic beverages that were on the table, just to see what happens with someone whose quirk probably makes them a lightweight, happy sunday.
But Hawks has always lived with what seems to be a sheet of glass between the people around him and himself. Too many lies and misdirection to be real. The League, in comparison, are raw, gaping wounds in the open. Everyone can see the hurts because they wear them on their sleeves as badges of honor. There’s no hiding who they are or their real natures. And that’s why he suspects the connections are deep as they are. It’s something Hawks can’t really replicate. Which poses a problem, of course. If the early bird gets the worm, then Hawks needs to sow seeds of doubt and discord between Jin and them now, not later, if he wants to keep him.
- Chapter 4 of Irreversible, a canon-based Jinkei fic. Read the newest update here.
“because we’re both birds!”
I remember that Hori referred to Hawks (and Ochako) being a 'light of hope' in 2021. It's also interesting that it was Hawks who commented on Ofa and how it connects people's hearts. Do you have any thoughts on this?
I think that arc was very dark for Hawks specifically and the anime's rendition of it is very dark. However these chapters... in 323-325 it is a bit different. It's where I think Hori was honest and where I do think Hawks and especially Ochako are at their brightest, narratively. So, uh, to go back to my writing for Graduation Day, I remember debating whether to analyze this scene because I thought it was relevant. I eventually decided that six thousand words is enough and to spare y'all, but let's get into it because I think it confirms my thesis that vulnerability is needed for connection in BNHA.
Ochako's first panels in 324 have her saying, admitting actually, that she cannot reassure people. She acknowledges they're all scared and worried.
This was the best thing she could have done.
The deification of heroes was something that led to the system they have now. Somewhere in the glitz and hero rankings people forgot these are regular people.
We see this repeatedly as an issue of identities - why Toshinori seems a shell of himself outside of All Might, most of Enji's issues boil down to him not knowing how to be Enji versus Endeavor and screwing his family up for it, and Hawks is...well, everything about Hawks is about being a Hero rather than a person, which is why Horikoshi had him kill someone literally named "humanity".
Ochako doesn't allow this to go on. She makes it clear they're all scared, they're all people who want safety, comfort, and want to be clean from mud and dirt, same as any other. It's why she's one of the Savior Kids; she's geared to try and humanize the other side. It's why she's paired with Toga. See below, as she thinks of Toga while giving a speech.
Essentially she reached the people in that crowd by reminding them who Deku is - a kid with way too much on his shoulders, a person just like them. Not a symbol, not a quirk, like AFO is treating him as. A boy. Or "regular high school kid" - yeah, I should have put this in Graduation Day, lol.
Symbols aren't meant to be fragile or have to come out from the rain. Deku does because he's a person.
So what about Hawks?
This isn't the last time Keigo is going make metaphors about One for All. Remember the line so many people read in bad faith about him comparing Endeavor "linking" people together too? He was talking about connection, pure and simple, realizing that much of his own motivations and Inasa's are connected through Endeavor, or their perceptions of him.
Truly, it's just him remarking that seeing society as holistic, as a whole rather than a part, is the key to solving their issue.
I think the emphasis on showing your soul, ugliness and cracks and all is one of the keys to reaching the villains. Something that doesn't position them as moral superiors, which is where Keigo failed drastically with Jin. He didn't give him a good choice at all. He also wasn't willing to be fully vulnerable with him. But I also think there's another dimension to this. More and more I think Horikoshi is actually criticizing individualism and the idea of "the great man". In his depicting of bystander system that has become an issue from society delegating acts of kindness and heroism to an actual career, I think he's critiquing the idea that one person can shoulder that burden.
It shouldn't be a person but a village, so to speak. It says a lot that the characters we know as villains are both seeking connection but also saying, in the depths of despair, that their individual will can change the world.
I still interpret this scene as Dabi deep in denial. Uh oh, he actually FELT something, time to double down and reiterate he doesn't give an actual fuck when truth is he DOES, he just doesn't want to. Otherwise he has to FEEL.
Anyway, the emphasis on the single person and single convinction is another one of those clues I think Horikoshi is leaving us about the "Great Man theory".
The great man theory is a 19th-century approach to the study of history according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men, or heroes: highly influential and unique individuals who, due to their natural attributes, such as superior intellect, heroic courage, extraordinary leadership abilities or divine inspiration, have a decisive historical effect.
I remember balking when I read this. Maybe it's because here in the West, there's little uhh agreement over Napoleon being heroic. Maybe it's because my history teachers were unsual but I've never really seen anyone seriously consider Napoleon heroic. There always seemed to be agreement he was a power-mad tyrant who took advantage of the Revolution to enact a military coup and then actual progress made by the Jacobins. So the fact chapter 3 of BNHA has Mic quoting him as a great hero was always weird. At the time of my first read through, I wrote it off as maybe Japan doesn't take this approach to Napoleon and the Revolution. One person's tyrant is another's hero, you know? But more and more I think Horikoshi has been debunking Great Man Theory with his manga. First off the premise of Great Man is usual that the Great Man is born, that his Greatness is congenital. That there's a natural aptitude for greatness, like superior intellect, etc. BNHA is absolutely refuting that, has from the first page. In fact the characters who get into the trap of believing they are born "anything" are shown to be trapped or not in a good way (see Redestro, or see Tomura and Keigo believing they are born to destroy/have dirty wings respectively). So much of who Deku has become is supposed to change this idea of biological predisposition to greatness.
Even Dabi, who has struggled against the circumstances of his birth, falls into the trap of believing some people are born with everything and are born to everything, essentially internalizing the worst of his father's own beliefs.
The story isn't kind to people who give us this rhetoric - that depending on others is wrong, or weakness. It's why Deku had his arc, after all.
Which brings us to my second point - the story isn't the triumph of individuals against evil. It's about people coming together. That's why Ochako and Keigo had their moments of realization in 323-325.
It's not about one person. It's about people.
Lastly, and this is conjecture, but there's a curiosity to the Great Man theory from a cultural standpoint. Now each culture has its Great Man to some extent. I've spoken about how All For One is likely trying to emulate Oda Nobunaga with his Demon Lord talk. But the emphasis on individual actions over collective ones, the commercialization of heroism, and the idea of competition breeding innovations/results are distinctively Western Capitalist ones. And in...a clumsy way, I think Horikoshi has been hinting at this being part of his own criticism.
Did you ever notice how the Japanese anime has them say "Hero/Hiro"? It's an imported word. Japanese has other words that mean hero, like yusha or eiyu, which have different meanings that all relate to the English hero as either a brave person (yusha) or a person of greatness/importance (eiyu). Why then use hiro, a foreign word as the title for this career?
Because the hero system is canonically imported. And so perhaps are the ideals it brought with it.
looking back at my initial reaction to this moment when it happened in the manga, i can't believe i didn't immediately realise that it wasn't supposed to be taken positively. as someone who's been preaching about shigaraki being an unreliable narrator for years, it's really weird that at the time i didn't realise that the contradiction in what hawks saying ('i had support') and what he's thinking about (his toy. he didn't have any real support, only himself and his dream) is intentional, and didn't notice that his speech-bubbles are shaky. he's not really fine or alright, but he's convincing himself that he is to keep going.
more hawks doodles <33 most of them r me playing with his design. first is based off a harris’s hawk. the rest..... tails are important for flight too yknow
The art i did for the @hawkszine 2018 (i think) better post this now or it will get lost on my laptop
