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MHA: Hawks fell off


MysticMage10

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So it wasn't until I saw clips of the current season that made me step back and realize just how different Hawks as a character is now. Any sort of charm or charisma he had is completely gone. Granted you can claim that it's because the heroes just took a massive L and I can understand that, but even with the recent manga chapters, he seems more of a former shell of who he used to be and has been relegated to being Endeavor's cheerleader rather than a "light of hope" as Horikoshi claimed before. He's now just this generic good hero character now, not that it's inherently bad for him to be like that, but the thing is, doing this completely removes any sort of potential of seeing moments of him wrestle with himself regarding issues like Twice's death and how he couldn't save him.

 

We don't really get to see much more of what he's thinking or how he's feeling after the war because the story then shifts back to Deku and his classmates by the end of the season. The season spends a good portion of having the story centered around Deku working with the pros, and you're telling me there couldn't have been a moment of him reflecting on his fight with Twice or the commission? While I don't believe Hawks was in the wrong in that situation, especially after watching the anime, and regardless of how you might feel about his actions, it still doesn't take away from the fact that Twice's death was sort of overlooked. It's SHOULD'VE affected whether he's actually killed before or not. He mentioned it maybe once, showing slight remorse, but we don't see him ponder on it for long, and eventually his whole story, and reaction to his idol also being an abuser like his father was is just skipped over. He asks Endeavor if he's responsible for Shoto's scar and finds out it was actually Shoto's mother, and the guy just thinks about how HE'S in the wrong for apparently "abandoning his troubled parents. 

 

That's another point I'd like to bring up. Why is Horikoshi writing Hawks to feel any sort of guilt over leaving his abusive household? In what way does that make Hawks a selfish or weak person? So basically, Hawks' has been stripped of everything that made him cool and interesting, being to be a cheerleader for Endeavor, and is for some reason having to deal with the 'guilt' of leaving his abusive parents behind. Like, I'm sorry but wtf happened to Hawks?

 

Going back to my first point regarding his shift in character, I know many fans will say shit like "That wasn't the real him" or "He's a changed person" but I call BS. All these posts made by Hawks stans talking about how he's no longer 'Hawks', but 'Keigo' instead is kind of lost on me. The hope he feels after the war that apparently shows the "real" him has always been there. This isn't anything new. The real him IS the laid-back smart-ass who wants more time to himself, it's his goal after all. I highly doubt he lied about his ultimate goal since he even shared his deepest desire with his idol, telling Endeavor he wants to live in a world where heroes have "too much time on there hands." I know the anime gives these "visual hints" I guess, like giving his eyes that light glint to it now rather than his usual half-lidded eyes with no glint, but I find a bit unnecessary if you in turn want to add emphasis to his eyes during scenes that benefit off that little detail like for example the recent episode where he he's taken aback by Uraraka's speech and the reactions of the angry mob. 

 

Some people wanna state that he's an optimist and his laid-back personality is just an act, but was he ever an optimist lol? Sure as hell wasn't introduced as one. Like he always hoped to be free, but there was always some cynicism deep down. They could have done a great story to have him come around to *why* he's developed into an optimist, but he basically came out of the darkest moment of his life just expecting the best out of people.

I personally never really read him as “big optimist”. Like, wasn’t he very specifically atypical in his initial characterisation? He talked shit at the top 10 presentation, his goal was to not have to do anything. The one time he was outspoken about his “beliefs”, Endeavour thought it was out of character and something he normally wouldn’t do, which was true. 

That doesn’t really come across as “virtuous and altruistic Hawks, peak optimist” to me.

 

This is more of a petty complaint I'd like to mention is how annoying it is to see his simps infantilize him in the recent episodes (makes it worse since, Idk if it's intentional or not, but he does look younger now which is a fat no for me, dog) but then again, this issue can be seen with A LOT of characters in the series, it's just become more noticeable for Hawks because of how badly he's been nerfed.

 

Another petty complaint I'd like to add uhhhh his new look?....I don't like it. Typically, especially in shounen/action series when a character suffers battle scars it tends to make them look grittier and cooler. But Hawks, like I mentioned in my previous point just looks...younger? I don't get where all these people are coming from saying the guy looks "waaay better than he did before" when that's a whole ass lie. There's a reason why his character design was my favorite in the series, but he just looks so tacky and nerfed it's hard to even look at him now. I'm willing to go as far to say the manga made him look better, the anime makes him look like a chump.

 

Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say with all this piss is that I'd prefer to see Hawks as more than the one note character he's turned into in the anime and has been for quite some time in the manga. An interesting character stipped down to something generic, what a waste.

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