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Got inspired by the fic “When you accidentally marry your worst enemy” by the amazing stormysilverfox

lions are like transgendering lol

Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt.

— Meša Selimović

Let’s take a look at society.

       BNHA | unofficial scans | meta 

Huh. So, this started as a casual Hawks study, but it ended up as a analysis of how heroes and villains are perceived, the concept of dehumanization, among other things.

So, you know?

I kind of have a pet peeve when it comes to the phrase “Hawks would do anything for the Hero Comission”.

Because, well, I look at it, and I’m completely sure that its’s not true, that it’s not expressed correctly. Hawks didn’t let civilians die during the High End even when the HPSC told him that he could ignore casualties. And then, he went to Dabi, put a sword in his neck, and said this:

He was, in a way, protective.

Thing is, I didn’t knew how to correct it. The phrase isn’t completly wrong, it’s just on the wrong direction, because there is something that he would do everything for. It’s been implicated that Hawks knows that there’s something wrong with the HPSC or Hero Society, so I don’t think that he is particularly blinded in that sense. He isn’t surprised when they tell him to ignore civilians, only disgusted, and then a few months later, with Twice, he proceeds to talk about the cage he is in. So, he still goes against their orders, therefore… he isn’t completely resigning to them. 

Which means, that the possibilities of doing everything for them is low, a generalization. My chances were in the fact that he could only be attached to the HPSC because their interests align.

And one week ago, when I read the same phrase it came to me, and I don’t even know why I didn’t think about it before because… it’s so simple, and yet I’ve never truly saw anyone mention it.

It’s not “Hawks would do anything for the Hero Comission.”

It’s “Hawks would give anything for the society.“ 

or “for the sake of the society”, which is just slightly different from the HPSC one, “for the greater good”. 

But instead of focusing on doing what’s necessary for the greater good, he gives the things that are part of him for the greater good, because I believe that taking is his last priority.

He doesn’t usually takes from others. He gives from himself.

Hence, his name, or his desire of being free. A part of his morality (feelings related to it, depends of how you interpreted it), when he felt the need to commit a homicide, or when he had to lie to everyone because of his mission. But despite his own feelings, he just kept pushing himself harder.

Willing to corrupt himself in the process if it’s necessary, when he doesn’t have any options left.  Being a hero even if he feels trapped… Caring so much about society that he can’t stop doing these things. All of these are personal decisions.

Hawks giving everything of him for the sake of society, I truly believe that’s what his character is about. The type of self- sacrifice, of selflessness that he represents. The kind of tragedy he represents, in a way, because to this point, he’s rejecting himself.

It’s what happens when you are so willing to do something that you would corrupt yourself for it without even doubting it. Like a mother who would kill for his daughter, or an adult who is starting to steal so he can gain something for his family.

Selflessness is something that tends to be admired. But, as humans, we tend to forget that being selfish is important. We need a balance to function properly.

But, hey. 

When I say society, what does it mean?

It means, civilians. It means, heroes. It means everyone else, but villains.

The guys Hawks has to protect the others from. It makes total sense, because, well, villains are criminals. The people who need to be stopped, and heroes can’t really accept that because stopping them is their job. Without heroes, the world would be a darker place, and without villains, there wouldn’t be any heroes.

I have to mention that there is a reason why villains are outcasts of society after all.

They were rejected, they escaped, or maybe they never really belonged. The League of Villains, the victims who became the perpertrators, the ones who are creating destruction, are a good example and the one I will be mentioning the most.

I covered the words, because it’s not necessary. Just focus on how gruesome is everything now because of the battlefield. And this is just a part of Machia’ doing after Shigaraki’s order. I don’t enjoy how Horikoshi is putting this here and a lot of people ignored it, but I understand why since emotions were running wild during this chaper. In this perspective, heroes motivation to stop villains must be clear.

Dehumanization of heroes

I’m using the term dehumanization in almost every part but I think there’s a better one. I’ll correct it if I remember it.

Society, conformed by civilians and heroes, what Hawks protects and what he is so willing to sacrifice for. And while other heroes have different ideas, if simplified, they have the same ideals.

Heroes are protectors of society, they are supposed to help what would be main victims, and those are civilians and/or other heroes, from villains. Things like attacking the route of the problem should be recognized by bigger organizations, per se, HPSC or the Goverment, because heroes are only there in case of damage, either to prevent it or stop it, when it’s at the hands of villains.

Because, while some say that the villains are victims, heroes can’t allow themselves to dehumanized the people who have suffered in their hands. 

Heroes are scrutinized, too.

They have the popularity of being the helpers, the ones who have to be a shining light for everyone, always winning, with a heart of gold and always ready to extend a hand. A hand to everyone.

With those expectations, when that narrative shatters a little, civilians are really quick to judge, because heroes are always expected to be perfect. 

This is a mentality that, in my opinion, can even be appreciated in villains when they blame heroes for not saving them, even unconsciously. But, theorically, heroes aren’t supposed to intervene in a lot of situations, they are simply expected to because of how popular the concept of heroes being always there to help has become.

This post gives a good explanation about hero celebrity culture and how it affects the heroes. 

And these images are an example of how heroes are easily judged and dismissed once they fail.

There is an standard for what a hero is, and for what a villain is, even before they become that. We noticed this with characters in the manga, too.

Bakugou and Shinsou are great examples.

And then we have Shinsou, whose quirk used to make others put him in a box.

People whose value was determinated by their quirk, at least once in their life. We can include Toga, Hawks and Dabi by this definition.

The way quirks are treated… seems pretty similar to how beauty is perceived in certain places, maybe?

There’s also a standard for how a battle between these two should be. Flashy, interesting, fun, but at the same time, an easy job.

The black and white thinking or polarized mentality is something that in my opinion, civilians have.

So.

Society. Civilians. Heroes. Outcast of society. Villains.

There is a structure in their society. Two, actually, I would say.

The first one is how everything is perceived by civilians, and the second one is based on the list of priorities of heroes. I will only touch the first one for now.

I forgot about graphs. Everything. I will study graphs again after this, but for now, just see this.

So, there is a line. The further apart you are from the middle, the more expectations are placed over you. This would represent heroes and villains, who are two extremes. While vigilantes are in between, either rejected or accepted in society because their influence fluctuates, villains are refered as someone who is bad. 

Common civilians are in the middle, but, for the moment, there’s stability. There are expectation of civilians but those are a mix and it depends of how your quirk is perceived. 

The plus and minus symbol are wether you are perceived in a positive or a negative light. The equal symbol is because you aren’t stricly perceived in a good or bad light.

I think that the difference would be that, while heroes deal with these expectations in the form of pressure from the public, villains tend to lack that since the public doesn’t know villains in that level.

My guess, is that quirk discrimination is what most of these heroes and villains suffered from at some point in their lives, but they had different reactions, situations, and their metality varies.

Now that I’ve talked about this, let’s think about Tartarus.

Tartarus

If heroes are considered angels, then the villains are demons.

There are villains that are sent to the Tartarus, right? Let’s look into that. 

We have a lot of interpretations of this place, but the basics are the same.

The original idea of afterlife is that once the soul is separated from the body, it goes to what is called the Greek underworld. The Greek underworld is something only made for the dead. Here, good people and bad people would separate in, basically, two places:

The Elysium, that is on the Island of the blessed. Good people go here, when their soul is pure. Once there, an easy life is guaranted.

And then there’s Tartarus, when you are considered a bad person. Here, you will receive your punishment. Tartarus, in Greek mythology, is a deep abyss, used as a place of suffering or torment, or as a prison of Titans. This is the place where souls are judged after death.

Tartarus, in the original wiki, describes their criminals as those whose death won’t be enough. 

Tartarus, then, for the outcast, the villains, the ones who could have suffered much, but who have wronged in a great level, is supposed to be a place worse than the death.

You aren’t supposed to escape from Tartarus, because you are already dead. You are dead, or hated, and therefore just more of an outcast. Someone who never existed.

The possibilities of the LOV going to Tartarus, if they aren’t arrested… probably high, considering the actual situation. Of course, I actually don’t think it will happen at 100%. Maybe, the plot changes, there are more advances in story, prejudice and maybe there’s going to be a different prison, too. Who knows.

We have to remember that even though this is based on greek mythology, it doesn’t mean that it will follow it to the letter. I don’t think it is that bad, because Tartarus is a high-level prison. I do believe, however, that it shows how the worst villains are perceived. 

We also have to keep in mind the crimes that these villains have committed.

Villains that we know that are in Tartarus, include: Overhaul, All for One, Stain, Muscular, Moonfishn and Kurogiri.

Moonfish appears to be awaiting for death penalty. I’m not sure how Law in Japan works for mentally unstable people so I won’t comment on this.

The idea is that since the criminals in Tartarus are a danger to society, they have to stay here. 

Heroes’ priorities

Now, let’s talk about heroes, and their priorities. This is based on the concept of victimization.

Of course, it’s just about when the victims become victims, about when their experiences started or ended. I won’t count indirect pain or emotional one. The list is related mostly related to disasters, villain attacks, quirk discrimination, or just bad circumstances that could have changed someone’s life to great levels. 

It’s also inconsistent. Sorry.

Future victim: a person who hasn’t become a victim, yet. Civilians are mostly included.

Present victim: a victim who is currently under constant danger or a form of oppression. We can include heroes and heroes in training.

Past victims: Victims whose experiences ocurred in the past. It can be divided in two: 

Passive past victim: Those who let go or try to let go of their experiences. Victims in the process of healing and who reintegrated in society. Better examples would be Midoriya, with bullying, and Todoroki, with domestic abuse. With time, they become future victims or present victims.

Active past victim: Victims who internalized their experiences. These ones didn’t heal correctly, either because they didn’t knew how or didn’t try to. The experiences of this type of victims mostly inspire their future decisions. Most villains or vigilantes are examples of this. These are the ones who end up becoming perpetrators.

So… when it comes to the saving, it would be like this:

Future victim  > present victim  >  active past victim

(passive past victims here)

Future victims and present victims could be interchangeable and hold at the same standard depending of the situation.

I think that the best way to express this is with Hawks and Twice battle, actually.

Hawks was in a situation where he was against two villains. One with a dangerous quirk that represented a threat to society and appeared to be willing to act upon it, namely, Twice, and one who had a quirk that represented a threat to him since he was weak to fire, or specifically, Dabi. Under the assumption that Twice (active past victim) was going to hurt civilians (future victims), he decided to eliminate him, at the cost of himself (present victim). So he put the future victims over himself and the active past victim, that was Twice.

The responsability of a victim

There is a phrase that I read in an article related to this, while investigating s topic. Sadly, I can’t find it, but it goes like this:

“When we have the courage to deal with our pain, we have the opportunity to assist others with theirs. Our heartache can become the source of our hope.“

I think that this is something that should be mentioned and it is often ignored. Probably, most of us know that your circumstances of the past, even when they give an understanding of your actions, they would never justified what you are doing now. That includes good ones and bad ones.

Which means. As someone who has suffered, it automatically becomes your responsability whether or not you take care of yourself or internalize the feelings that acted when you experienced on x situation. Especially as an adult.

I can notice how this can be perceive as something unfair. It feels unfair, because you probably weren’t asked to be put into that situation, and for the most part, it’s not even your fault. It is not a child’s fault that their parents ignored their needs. It is never a person’s fault that they suffer from sexual assault. It will never be your fault that someone bullies you in school, and yet, when you are experiencing it, it probably feels like it is. Once you are out of that cycle, the things start to make more sense, but your feelings and mentality could get in the way of your recovery.

The problem is that you are the only one who can decide if you take care of yourself. The only one who can try, and this translates as a responsability.

In my opinion, everyone can be redeemed. Everyone can change and decide to become a better person, even those that would even be considered inhuman because of their deeds. If someone else wants to forgive them, it’s on them. The problem is whether you want to change or not, and whether you are willing to live with the consequences or not. I think Endeavor, who I would categorize as someone who didn’t take care of those feelings and proceeded to become a perpetrator to his own family for two decades and then had an atonement arc, could be included in this specific case. It doesn’t matter if you perceive this in a bad light or a good one, because I’m just showing how someone who doesn’t takes care of their feelings could end.

Notice–  I’m in no way excusing what an abuser do. They still have total responsibility for themselves and their decisions. The biggest test starts when you are facing the consequences of your actions. However, in addition to this, victims also have a responsibility, and that is taking care of themselves. Not doing it can even result on becoming the one who hurts others, on hurting yourself and even gain a false sense of security.

I think Shoto and Dabi are, also, great examples of this, being both victims. Both internalized their feelings, but while Shoto changed, Dabi didn’t.

When talking about physical pain, we’re told to go to the doctor. But when the problem is psychological, common thinking you should just keep pushing harder and ignore it. And everytime that something like this gets ignored, it keeps getting worse. And then everyone is surprised or brushes it off, and it’s just bad luck, or the person was weak. It’s better to stop following the crowd. It is possible to get help anywhere, because everything could help, especially if it’s a professional. Terrible situations will happen but it’s possible to get better.

Someone can, also, greatly change once their mentality is settled, even in just a few days. This video of rapid personality change and psychological rebirth will explain this at depth, if you are interested in knowing more about it.

What I do believe is that it is a general, national responsability to give access to resources and things that are going to help during your recovery. This is just natural. No one knows the magic cure to all of our problems because we are pretty different from each other, especially those problems who belong to the heart, because we don’t tend to pay attention to this. I will mention that, I also consider a responsability to take care of criminals.

It’s not only about humanity, it’s about how these little actions can play when it comes to the fact of crime rates, because… If people are unhappy with something, you can choose to ignore them, or you can listen to them and evaluate their reasons. If a lot of people share the same reasons or the same background, then there’s a problem that has to be addressed.

For now, I don’t really believe that BNHA (in-universe) takes this into account.

But we can’t forget that even if the goverment should give the resources, whether the victims change or not is a personal decision. If they don’t, well, it’s only going to hurt people, stopping being victims and becoming the abusers.

Dehumanization of villains

First, I want to mention that dehumanization doesn’t inmediately translates to violence, brutality, and other synonyms. In this case, it’s more about the way they are portrayed and how heroes see villains as a first instict.

I think that the best way to describe a villain is someone who is tired of the conservative system.

In consequence, villains have caused so much suffering to heroes, hero students and civilians, that they are often perceived as people who act without a reason. People in this universe have personal reasons to not trust them. Especially during a battle, where emotions are running high.

Heroes can’t allow themselves to stay back and listen to villains, because then, villains will probably just cause more damage. If they do, then heroes run at risk of not fulfilling their mission, and that is to protect society.

I don’t think that a hero first instict is to fight villains, or to save civilians, but to treat the villain like a villain, and from there, expect everything. Detach themselves from the situation, be level-headed, analytical of what’s happening, and remember that innocents are a the top priority.  

Now, this is a double edged sword.

It helps heroes to capture villains without getting any attachment, and, in consequence, help civilians faster and efficiently.

Depending of the villain, it could bring ignorance to both heroes and the system to the reasons why villains becomes villains, since this seems to get ignored for the most part. This backfires on people that could probably go back to being criminals or just create more hate for the society.

Heroes have personal reasons to not trust villains. And hero students have suffered so much that I wouldn’t blame them, either. But, when it comes to the system, never trying to understand the reasons can bring problems when something is being managed.

Humanization of villains

The system doesn’t always perceive villains as the worst, and I think that it depends so heavily on their crimes and how the villain stops being a villain, that completely blaming the system would be wrong.

An example is when the villain surrenders. This is about Gentle, la Brava, and the police. I personally enjoyed this interaction.

The second one is when a hero gets their feelings involved when it comes to a villain. I can mention three cases of this.

All Might and Shigaraki 

Hawks and Twice.

Aizawa/Hizashi and Kurogiri.

Villains are, once again, perceived as people once feelings were involved or the fight is over. Heroes aren’t supposed to afford that, because they need to prioritize society.

This is what Gran Torino says to All Might, after his words:

As a hero, this is true. 

They shouldn’t get their feelings involved. If a criminal is involved, the priority are the citizens and the criminal is supposed to go to jail. Once they are there, just go to the next problem and take care of it. You know, continue being a hero.

The problem is that depending of the situation (and right now I’m not talking about Shigaraki, but rather, more general circumstances because Shigaraki is a special case), it continues a cycle.

We see this with groups like the PLF or the use of trigger. 

When people aren’t getting any help, they get worse. When civilians aren’t getting answers, they get worse.

I’m not saying that heroes should take care of this, since I don’t strictly believe that this is their fault. But I think that the problem should be addressed by someone. Heroes can’t do it in battle and bringing it to the public would probably create a controversy. I believe that they can influence when the problem is presented, since my believe is that heroes can assist to these problems. Not that they have to, since the responsability isn’t really theirs. But doing it may help the system and could help in the future. Heroes were show to assist prisons like Tartarus, so minor ones shouldn’t be a problem.

As I stated before, heroes, hero students and civilians have every reason not to trust villains. They have suffered because of them, I just believe that it would be dangerous to keep this behaviour.

So… conclusions.

We notice a pattern:

Quirk discrimination. 

The prohibition of quirks.

Dehumanization of heroes.

Dehumanization of villains.

This is my personal idea:

Maybe, society needs to adapt, first. Maybe, the priorities shouldn’t be repress quirks. Since criminality has been controlled, it would be ideal to make a change.

The hero profession appeared along with villains so society could keep stability. All Might gave hope to people, and new times appeared. Now, quirks weren’t perceived as something bad or as a way of controlling others.

But this failed to adapt, both with All Might and the HPSC, and heroes ended up being portrayed as people who needed to be admired, too. With this, they have the attention of everyone.

Why is the HPSC so obsessed with the production of heroes? My guess is that it’s a reaction to how needed heroes are, and how quirks keep getting ridicously stronger. The prohibition of quirks have also attracted attention to the hero career and to how your quirk can contribute to a dream career, and this influences in how quirks are perceived. People probably feel the need to use their quirk, or they will simply lash out. Toga is a great example. This also translates to quirk discrimination and how important it is to either have an useful quirk or a flashy one. A “heroic″ quirk, we could say.

Twice also says this, and I think that it is important to include.

I believe that heroes and villains fights are ridiculous, in a way. 

It goes like this: 

The battle is portrayed as heroes vs. villains and it seems to me that most fans are seeing it like that, especially casual ones, but my idea is more complex than that.

Villains are fighting because they had a bad situation in the system. While a lot of villains that are represented have such unique situations, some of them can be translated to society as a whole. Toga, Spinner and Twice would be the only examples in my opinion, with slight differences. This doesn’t mean that they are doing this correctly or that they want the betterment of the society, as we see with the LOV, where everyone has different motivations. 

Dabi and Shigaraki goals appears to be revenge and destruction, respectively. Toga wants to be free, to be herself. Twice ended up lonely and wanted to be with his friends, Magne wanted to be accepted, Spinner had problems with self-esteem and was isolated, and we still know next to nothing from Mr. Compress. Mostly, they aren’t really focused on the betterment of society, but rather, a selfish decision made out of the damage created by oppression or reject of people around them. 

Then, we have Overhaul, who wanted a society that was a equal. He saw quirks as illnesses. This is an unique situation, but it’s what he perceived as something that would help to the problems presented.

Everything tends to fall into heroes, the ones who have to stop them. But this isn’t heroes fault, this is about the society and the character’s unique circumstances. Because you can be a victim without becoming a perpetrator. As I stated before, victims have a responsability, and that is taking care of themselves. The heroes don’t seem to focus on the problems of the society because heroes need to keep civilians safe of villains and because of bad experiences with villains that they are still having. Bad experiences that just keep repeating again and again. Helping villains is not their job, but at the same time, there is hardly anyone who interacts with villains as much as heroes during battle. Then, this situation should get fixed when villains are being prosecuted and they fall into the hands of the police.

You also can’t help a person who doesn’t want to help themselves, because change is a personal decision. 

But if the society keeps producing unhappiness, then there’s obviously a problem that probably should be addressed. I think that the biggest criminal organizations are the best examples of this, even if the methods they use are less than ideal.

Heroes don’t need to strictly care about villains, but rather, the system. Or the system needs to notice it itself. I believe that in the most common cases, it all comes to the prohibition of quirks and how advertised heroes are.

The idea of helping a criminal, an adult who purposefully wants to keep being a criminal is kind of ridiculous, to me. So the best way is to prevent this. If we prevent this, maybe things are gonna get better. It may even help criminals, making then stop going back to the same life, or making villains surrender on their own. Toga could be an example of this, now that I think about it.

There is people who really had bad circumstances in life. Sometimes they change, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they are saved by luck. Sometimes they are ignored. 

There will always be someone who isn’t going to be saved. But that person is the only one who can decide if they’re going to change or not. Real life criminals are actually a great example of that, I guess.

Hmm, maybe that’s what life is about, actually.

but that’s just my opinion, I guess. 

if cats aren't meant to be kissed on their heads then what's that little space between their ears for

Finally got inspiration for the day 7 of inktober

Just two dads in roadtrip with their kids ❤️

Thinking again about how Aizawa saw the greatest tragedy of his life as a cautionary tale about hero work. Thinking about how losing Shirakumo propelled him to teaching in order to save Shirakumo in ways he hadn’t been able to by teaching his students how to survive. Thinking about how in the end he always believed that death was the ultimate ending for anyone in herowork. Thinking about how this changes when he starts getting too invested in his class and has to believe that there’s a bright future for them that doesn’t end six feet under. Thinking about how he takes up Shinsou and suddenly the greatest tragedy of his life that turned into a cautionary tale has flipped once again and becomes a story about how his friend helped and inspired him to be a hero and how he wants to do the same for Shinsou. Thinking about how when he gets Eri suddenly death as his ultimate ending is no longer an option and now there’s a future he needs to actively stay alive for and maybe love was the ultimate ending. Thinking about how Aizawa’s character arc is going from “passive resignation to cruelties of life” to “desperately clinging onto hope and love despite his better judgements and the pains of his past.”

A Thin Veneer: BNHA 374

As dedicated readers of BNHA and meta for BNHA meta would know, the way characters drawn and depicted, the way certain scenes are framed, all of that is crucial to points Horikoshi makes about his characters, the plot, and the themes he wants to convey. Something to note is expression and how people are drawn. On the subject of Hawks, we know from in-text reactions to him that he is seen as conventionally attractive, and typically has a cheeky or happy-nature in his expressions. It's alone or in tense movements that we see something else.

What we do have is faces that break the Uncanny valley, like the famous image pre-"attacking" Best Jeanist, or getting confirmation about the raid where he very much show-cased his heteromorphic side, or the frightening image of him from Jin's pov as he was shrouded in shadows and looked very much like a predator.

What's consistent in these images is 1. Hawks was in control at of himself when he makes those faces 2. They usually don't *take* away from him in terms of find him "palatable" even if he's frightening. And there's a point to this.

Hawks isn't unflappable; there are plenty of moments where he loses his facade and cool, and we can argue those faces were truer to his inner nature than the bubbly cheeky personality he puts on a lot of the time.

But facially, it's interesting that he was so solemn as a child, and when alone and comfortable with himself, he seems to be mostly blank-faced and not very expressive. Perhaps that is the "default" Keigo.

Why all of this talk of faces and how Hawks is drawn? Because with 374, something has changed, and it means something very heavy is coming up with Hawks in the future.

First off, let's read about a certain trope

If a character is deranged or has just lost it for a moment, one eye is drawn as being very different than the other. Commonly, the Mad Eye (or its iris/pupil) is much larger than the other. Can also double as an unspoken Oh, Crap! moment. For extra effect, may be paired with Twitchy Eye.

Consistently, Dabi has been shown to be drawn with this trope time and time again. It's featured in promo art, in his battles, and this example up top. Dabi is clearly mentally unstable, openly and not unlike his friend Twice. The "Mad Eye" trope is meant to be a visual indicator of mentally instability. There's nary been a time where we've seen Hawks drawn like this. Even when he was drawn smirking before "killing" Best Jeanist, the eyes were the same.

It's interesting that his expression and eyes were relatively stable through out the process leading up to killing Bubaigawara Jin. But in the same panel where he kills him (right in the image above), half his face is obscured. Still, there's still an element of control here. I, and many other meta writers, have written about how control is a specific element in Hawks's character. His skill is in his technique, where he lacks in pure power, his skill in using his quirk in extremely adaptable and creative ways shows that he has an intense amount of control over it. And essentially his quirk is in that - controlling feathers do the various things they're capable of (sensors, listening devices, controlling their movements, flexibility, hardness, etc).

When being in control is so crucial to Hawks's quirk functioning, and being out of control so crucial to his narrative (the frequent caged bird references), it's interesting that most of the time Keigo is control of himself, even if he isn't in control of his circumstances. It's what made the HPSC make him a spy and what makes him, in my opinion, an interesting character.

By interesting, I don't mean "good" or "bad", moral or immoral or amoral, etc. I mean interesting in that he's complex and there's still mystery to him. It's very hard to understand Hawks because Keigo's story and personality are layered and presented to us in a way that it's difficult to get a full picture.

So what do we see in this chapter?

Keigo losing control.

He's been remarkably poised this war arc. He started by immediately trying to assassinate AFO without hesitation: While he's had emotional moments, one of the most striking things is that in earlier chapters against AFO, he's been repeating something that shows where his mindset is:

This whole fight Hawks has been telling Endeavor to keep a cool head, to not be provoked, to regain control of himself. He also keeps trying to play the circumstances - delaying so heavy-hitters like Enji can get a shot in, making sure everything it together.

Something else to notice is Hawks is wounded over the left side of his wave, and there's blood drying over his eye. However, there are numerous pictures of him in this state where his eyes are open at the same time or half-closed and there's no indication that he can open more than other.

As you can see here, this is Hawks with the blood over his eye in various expressions. Even when stressed, his expression never gives us indications of the "going mad" trope as the most recent chapter does. Thus, whatever is going on cannot be explained as due to his wound - it hasn't been shown before.

Why make so much of a single panel?

Because it's important.

We have Hawks, known for being very in control of himself and who tries to be in control of situations around him, and we have heavy build up by Hawks being the one to remind Endeavor to not lose it.

And yet....

This is not like anything we've seen from him so far. The mere sight of Twice alive again, the knowledge that what he did was for naught, heck, All For One is provoking him just on that basis:

"Time to learn how it might have turned out if you hadn't made his death your top priority back then."

Hawks's extrajudicial assassination of Twice became a viral moment, and don't forget it was drawn that way in the same time Japan had started undergoing protests for police brutality in 2020 due to viral videos of local beatings going viral amongst Japanese social media and twitter. Hawks has had to face immense scrutiny and criticism over his choice to kill Twice for the past few months, and his reaction to it has been to publicly apologize that he couldn't find another way to deal with him and to privately tell Best Jeanist that he admired the person he killed and wishes to be like him.

There's been no real show of regret, no reflection. And suddenly, with the appearance of Twice once more, we see a crack in this veneer:

Hawks's first words at the sight of the man he killed is to scream that the clones have to be killed immediately. Hawks's first expression at sight of Twice is one not of collected focus, nor even his usual anger or frustration.

He's drawn as if he's fucking crazy.

Horikoshi doesn't do panels like this for nothing. The way the panel beautifully lines up with one of Dabi's back covers, and the fact it's the first time Hawks has been drawn with the "mad eyes" trope is significant. It's showing us that Hawks, for the first time that we know of, is losing control of himself. And for a character whose narrative has been about controlling what people think and know about himself (and letting others do that for him), that's elemental to breaking down all we know of him.

This panel promises to show us another side of Hawks, a side he cannot hide away, or charm and joke his way out of. Naked, raw, and with no ulterior motives to control the situation, this face promises that we might finally hear what Hawks thinks of his actions and the reaction to them.