#the shigahawks agenda lol

[linkspooky]

Can I Be a Hero?

Shigaraki and Hawks are two children who started with the exact same dream, to become a hero only to take completely opposite paths in life. One raised from childhood to be a hero by the hero association, and the other raised by AFO to become a villain. 

These two characters are written in parallel, as intentional hero-villain foils. They’re destined to meet in canon one day and just keep barely missing one another so until then let’s explore more of their relationship under the cut.

1. The Same

First, there are several similarities in both their characters and their origins. 

They both come from abusive households. In Hawks’ case it’s only implied but, one he lives in trash and squalor with a beer bottle in the background. The dysfucntion in Hawks’ household life from an early age is obvious, to the point where having his life uprooted by the hero commission is considered a privilege because they promised to pay for everything. 

Shigaraki came from what seemed on the surface to be a healthy household. His father was a succesful businessman, the family owned the house, even the in-laws were happily invited to live in the house. Hawks is implied to have grown up in isolation, whereas Shigaraki grew up surrounded by people. However, Tenko suffered from a quieter, and subtler more insidious form of domestic abuse where he was the scapegoated child of an otherwise “Happy home.” Tenko was treated as the problem child and made constantly to feel bad for suffering his father’s abuse like he provoked it by breaking the rules. 

They both were born into a sort of lineage. Hawks is most likely related to the Great Theif Takami who Endeavor captured, and Shigaraki is the grandson of Nana Shimura. 

They’re both adversely affected by the circumstances they were born into. Hawks’ household was probably in that condition because his father was a villain, or his father was captured and he was living on his own. Shigaraki was targeted by AFO because he was Nana’s descendant, and Kotaro carried his feelings of Nana’s abandonment with him for life and this eventually turned him into Tenko’s abuser. 

They both have an event that sets them on their life course.

Tenko’s quirk activates on accident killing his whole family. 

Tenko sees a truck accident and uses his quirk to save several people. 

As a result of these incidents they are “saved” from their abusive households. It’s important to notice the difference, Hawks conforms by being offered a chance at education and a better life if he decides to become a hero. However, Shigaraki destroyed the household that demanded conformity from him in the first place. He becomes outcasted as a result to the point where nobody even notices him suffering on the street. 

They’re both saved by predatory people who take their original names away:

Takami’s name is suppressed and he’s given a hero name instead. He’s literally renamed as a hero.

Tenko is renamed with AFO’s last name. He’s literally renamed as a villain. 

On a third note they are both children who you would never look for if they went missing: Hawks was poor, Tenko was literally neglected in the middle of the street in broad daylight allowing AFO to kidnap him. 

That’s even literally brought up by All Might and Gran Torino. If they had ignored Nana’s request, and actually monitored her child Kotaro and his family then Shigaraki never would have happened. 

They’re both defined by their quirk, to the extent that their whole lives have been defined by it. 

Shigaraki was born with a quirk suited for destruction, and this is what several characters insist that’s all he’s capable of. Shigaraki is then raised to be a symbol of fear who lusts only for destruction. 

Hawks was called a genius for his quirk, and raised as a prodigy hero. His quirk is ideally suited for saving people and he’s done so his entire life. His own wish was to become a shining light that inspires everyone the same way Endeavor inspired him. 

This is where they start to diverge. There’s more details I could go on about with all the differences, but I’ll summarize it like this. They present themselves as literal opposites. That is, the character they show to others. Their image. Etc. 

Shigaraki is regarded by everyone he meets as a man child. He has visible scarring on his face that he hides. He’s frank and honest, and always tells everyone exactly how he’s feeling. 

Hawks’ thing is being “The Man who goes too fast.” If Shigaraki never grew up, then Hawks grew up far too fast. Hawks is deceiptful, never shows his true face even though he doesn’t wear a mask. He’s considered traditionally attractive, does modeling, and is extremely popular and well liked. 

2. But Different

If there’s one way to summarize the main difference between Hawks and Shigaraki it’s this. Shigaraki externalizes everything, every feeling, every little bit of trauma he has, instead of holding it all inside of him he pushes everything out. Hawks internalizes he has a rich inner world, but everything on the surface is vapid, it’s shallow, it’s just a performance for him. All of his trauma is inside of him, and he keeps it there. His real self is hidden somewhere in a cage deep within. 

The reason they rely on these different strategies of expression is entirely to do with how they were raised. Hawks was raised inside of the system, and was taught confromity. Shigaraki was raised outside of the system. He was taught the exact opposite, to never conform to anybody’s standards. 

They both grew up inside of an assigned role. Shigaraki was told it was his job to destroy whatever he likes, Hawks was told it was his job to save people. However, Hawks is not a better person, or a better victim than Shigaraki. Interanlization is just as bad of a coping strategy as externalization, and just as unhealthy. They are both characters who are barely coping with a lifetime worth of the trauma as being raised as literal child soldiers and exposed to so much violence a young age they’re both desensitized and numb to it. They’re hurting all the time, but also they’re numb. 

They’re so similiar down to the fact that they both have the same internal desire. Shigaraki longs to be free from all of his trauma, and Hawks longs to be free from the weight of his responsibility, but it’s still the same longing. 

But they are different. 

It would be easy to say that Hawks is the more selfless character because he devotes himself to saving others, whereas Shigaraki is the more selfish because he lashes out at the world from his trauma. However, there’s no such thing as a perfectly selfless person. Hawks is capable of shockingly great feats of selfishness. Shigaraki is someone who can be selfless and do things for other people. 

Hawks will go out of his way to destroy people too, just like Shigaraki.  Hawks will destroy his own friends. 

There’s a marked difference in the way Hawks and Shigaraki both treat Twice, someone who is a victim with many things in common with the both of them. Twice is someone who did not get saved and fell through the cracks like Shigaraki. Twice is someone who grew up in abject poverty and had to rely on his quirk to survive like Hawks. 

Twice is constantly more of a burden to the league than an asset. He’s the reason Magne died, because his too trusting nature had him invite someone like Chisaki without knowing the risk. A normal villain would throw Twice out for his incompetent mistake, but instead he’s comforted. 

Shigaraki says the two of them can work together to fix his mistake. Instead of being thrown out, he’s told he’s needed. He’s asked to stay together with the league for everyone’s sake. Twice at this point is still too traumatized to use his quirk properly. Afterwards, he fails even to duplicate Chisaki’s special bullets. However, Twice has value to the league no matter what his quirk can do. He’s valued as a person. 

He’s humanized, both by Shigaraki’s and Toga’s actions together. 

However, Hawks reacts differently. He dehumanizes the people who need his saving the most. When he’s at his most vulnerable, Hawks corners him and rutlessly mocks him. 

Look at the opposite way they show their faces. Shigaraki shows his full face for the first time to Twice when Twice, whereas when Hawks reveals his true intentions his face is almost completely obscured. 

Hawks dehuamnizes twice in two regards. One, he insists that Twice conform to his black and white standards. Hawks divides people into good people worthy of saving and bad people who are not. Every member of the league is a victim like Twice. However, Hawks only considers one of them a good person, and one of them is worth saving. Even when Twice says they’re all his friends, Hawks demands Twice betray all of them for the sake of himself. Of course Hawks would, Hawks doesn’t even know what it means to have friends. 

The second way Twice is dehumanized is that Hawks only sees him as the potential damage his quirk can do. Twice is not a three dimmensional person, with reasons for what he’s doing, thoughts, and feelings. Hawks only sees him as a time bomb about to go off. This also relates how Hawks sees people in general, he always, always, always strips them down to their worth to him. Endeavor is someone he can position to be the next number one hero. Twice is someone to use to get closer to the league, and then destroy because he’s too trusting. Hawks only got close to Tokoyami because he wanted information about Class A, even though he did grow a little bit more fond of him. 

Twice makes mistakes over and over again for the league, but he’s never thrown out. Even when Twice is the reason the raid is happening, Dabi rushes as fast as he can to save him, Toga almost loses herself avenging him. Twice’s life had value. 

Except to Hawks. 

Here we strike upon the difference between them and it’s almost entirely in how they treat the people closest between them. They’ve been raised all of their lives as tools, but Shigaraki doesn’t treat other people as tools. Shigaraki accepts people and gives them shelter, Hawks throws them out. 

Shigaraki also used to be like this. He used to throw away all the recruits that AFO gave him and waste them on stunts like the UA Invasion. However, it’s something he grew past.

Which is one more difference between them. Shigaraki has this great capacity for change that Hawks has not shown us so far. They both long to be free, but Shigaraki is the only one of the two of them that actually fights against something for that freedom. 

Shigaraki will always choose to make his own decisions, to be his own person. 

However, Hawks is given that same choice and chooses the opposite. He wants his decisions made for him. He wants to remain inside the cage because it’s safer there. 

It’s not just that though - it also extends to how they treat other people. Shigaraki liberates those he interacts with. Twice, Himiko, Dabi, Magne, Spinner, Mr. Compress (whatever his issues are) are all given a place of belonging within the league. 

However, Hawks will take away the freedom of other people too. He does so to Twice. He possibly did so to Best Jeanist. He pushes others to conformity, believing that is what saves them because it saved him. 

Utlimately what’s different about them is the choices they make despite their circumstances. Hawks was given a choice to be free. He’s given the oppurtunity to get better but doesn’t. Every time Shigaraki fails he learns from his lesson. Shigaraki is rising up, and Hawks is spiraling downward entirely because of the choices they made. Shigaraki has friends, Hawks has none. (Because he murdered the only real friend he did have). 

That’s not to judge on whether they’re good or bad people. It’s just the direction their arcs are taking them. Shigaraki has always been on a self improvement kick, getting better with every failure. Hawks tragically is consumed by his failures and gets worse and worse, hence why there are so many references to Icarus in his character. 

It’s been built up for a long time now that Hawks is going to meet Shigaraki at some point. In fact his desire to meet Shigaraki is what caused the hero raid on the PLF in the first place. 

Those two are destined to meet in a Javert / Jean Valjean fashion. However, the question is what will Shigaraki do now? Hawks is someone who at least had a chance of Shigaraki sympathizing with him before because Shiga takes in all kinds of strays. However, now with Hawks chosen action to kill Twice who genuinely sympathized with him - he must have murdered off any chance of that.

Either way the two have so much in common that they have to meet. At which point Hawks’ fate will be left in Shigaraki’s hands. It’s likely even if Hawks is to be saved, it will be Shigaraki’s job to do it, because Shigaraki is the character with the most in common with him. 

Either way their meeting has been building for a long time, and when they do finally meet something will change about both of them. That’s how integral both of their parallel stories are about one another. 

#hawks #takami keigo #shigaraki tomura #shigahawks #the shigahawks agenda lol #tomura shigaraki #tenko shimura #lov meta #league of villains meta #league of villains friendship #mha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory

[thyandrawrites]

M, N, U and V for the fanfic ask meme? 👀 sorry there's so many but these are good questions XD

Dhjsjs you went right for the juicy ones

M. got any premises on the backburner that you care to share?

Kind of? I have this old idea (over a year old now) for a futurefic where Dabi is reintegrated in society and reconnects with his family (with all the hiccups along the way). I originally had an outline of random disconnected scenes I wanted to write for it, but I recently reopened the doc and realized I want to take it in a completely different direction now. Knowing me it would turn into a multichapter character study fic though and right now I lack the committment for such an idea so I've been putting off developing the concept more

N. is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

Lol, a part of me wishes someone would write the aforementioned story for me because I mostly just want to read it. However, I am extremely picky about my Dabi + Todofam characterization, especially one set in the future, so I would never trust someone else to write exactly what *I* want to read XD

As for more general ideas, I wish someone would write me some quality shigadabihawks but alas, it seems this will remain a rarepair with limited content

U. a pairing you might like writing for, but you haven't tried yet

So. Many.

Like, I'm not even kidding. There's two that have been on my mind lately (shinkami and shigahawks) because of two ideas buzzing in my head, but in general there's so many ships I ship that I would love to write for. There's mirudabi, miruyumi, todobaku, shigadabihawks, ochamina... There's also two pairings (shiganatsu and shigadabi) that I have explored before but that I wish I could write more for. So many pairings and so little creativity in my brain... *Sobs*

V. a secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fic?

I haven't really been hunting for fics about her (yet) because I lowkey don't wanna scroll past 5 pages of unrelated things that crosstag her... But I'd go with Lady Nagant. I'm surprised I haven't seen any content about her and the League yet (and I mean Shigaraki's league, not... Whatever is going on in canon). She basically fills the role Hawks was initially supposed to evolve into and I don't think many fans have realized that this was the perfect set up for her to join the League or cooperate with them somehow. But aside from my villain stan agenda, I'd just love to see more Nagant content aside from that one popular ship (that I dislike) or headcanons of her having a bond with Hawks (that I don't share). Just more Nagant content. Pls. She's such an interesting character but canon introduced her only to make her plotline absolutely irrelevant and I'm still mad about that

[Fanfic ask meme]

#Ali replies #Ask meme

[pbjamas]

I think it would've been interesting if we had a rivalry between Shigaraki and Hawks instead of with Dabi because they're on opposite sides of the "raised to be a hero/villain" spectrum by the two highest overseers of each side. And I think we can squeeze in your "Hawks has siblings" agenda into this by giving him a family like how Shigaraki has one, though idk what happened to them. More parallels.

+) Hawks has spent this entire manga trying to meet Shigaraki, was it too much to ask for them working against each other?Instead of Dabi's over-the-shoulder hug of intimidation, we could've have smart, strategic boi's and hidden messages in their conversations and more mind games and tension and snark and false pleasantries. He'd probably know Hawks was a spy, but he'd also know WHO Hawks is.

(+) Since AFO would've told him about Takami the same way he taught Shigaraki about Overhaul and the Shie Hassaikai. And thus, use that to his advantage to make sure Hawks has no way to make it back to the heroes. Maybe him and Dabi could coordinate together and we get our exposed vid on his side a little sooner so the HPSC have to publically announce him a traitor, (they still work with him though) Hawks is now trapped in the League and has to find a way to secure a win for the heroes.

(+) (+) And just MAYBE we can get to saving the League a little earlier and booting AFO into the stratosphere and oh gosh this is a whole fic lol.) This isn't even what I was thinking when I said "working against each other" how did I get here. When I say these two gotta open their eyes already, I mean Hawks needs to stop being a lone bird and realize he's got allies willing to help him reform society for the better and he doesn't need to cooperate with the Hpsc and overwork himself to do it.

+) He can't be fast enough alone. And Shigaraki needs someone to help him with his depression and destructive tendencies, giving into AFO isn't gonna help him feel like he's been forgiven, you've got the Lov who care about you, so give up villainy and I promise you can get help before you get to the point of no return, also your father was a scumbag so pls stop internalizing what he says and get into the OFA realm with Deku and have an honest conversation with Nana. It's ghostly therapy time.

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thank u for coming back to gush abt shigahawks even after the hawks/wash.

YES to all of this. I’m especially in love w the idea of AfO teaching shig abt takami and such..... that’s the GOOD SHIT. so, like, they are AWARE of the parallels even. yes yes yes.

yes see my siblings agenda makes sense????? YES

and hm yes, hawks getting exposed and now being like. completely stuck in the league. so he doesn’t have the public’s trust, but also the league knows he’s not quite with them either, just very trapped.

i can’t believe hawks and shig haven’t even met?? crazy. and it’s not gonna happen for a bit bc.......AfO taking over shig’s body and hawks being uh.....BUSY.

But what i’m crossing my fingers for here is shig being the main villain, and bc hawks has SO many parallels and is the perfect foil to him (even more than deku!) that we get to see more of him as well and they finally get to INTERACT!!!

#SO many thoughts #asks #shigaraki