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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.

Dabi: Give a man fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life

Kurogiri: That's not how it works

I feel like when I say ‘relatable’ what I really mean is ‘resonant.’ I don’t want characters who I feel are like me, I want characters who have emotions so strong I can feel them through the page.

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

Thinking abt immortality and how meticulously you’d have to keep track of all of your shit so some nosy historian didnt spot your old journal or coat or copy of a book and call an infuriating time-based finders keepers

“It’s two hundred years old” they say. “It’s essentially public property” they say. It’s a letter you sent to your friend and it’s in a museum now and you’re screaming

gamer bfs <3

Help the Pataxó people fight for the right for their land

I’ve made a few posts about this but they may have been a bit confusing, so after a few days of tourmoil of emotions and stress, I’ve decided to take some time to talk a little more in-depth about what’s been going on with the Pataxó people in Brazil and how we can help them prevent an immense injustice that’s just about to unfold

First off, an introduction!

The Pataxó inhabit the areas of the Brazilian states of Bahia and Minas Gerais, and nowadays have a population of about 13.000 people. The Pataxó were one of the first peoples in Brazil to come in contact with the Portuguese settlers, along with the Tupinaky’ia, Poti’wara, Tupinambá, Tabajara and others, and have been resisting colonization and genocide for over 500 years.

in the picture above, you can see a picture of the Awe ritual at the Coroa Vermelha reservation, 2006 taken from the website https://img.socioambiental.org/v/publico/pataxo/foto+20_+AWE+SARAH+MIRANDA.JPG.html

After centuries of colonization, the Pataxó, like many of the other first contact nations previously mentioned, have suffered many losses to their culture, including land sovereignty, language fluency, the right to practice their religion, the right to name their babies with traditional names, and many others. 

But like the aforementioned nations, the Pataxó have been doing an amazing job going back their traditional lands, getting to teach their children their traditional language, the Patxohã (pah- tsho-han) language, strengthening their ties to their spirituality, culture and land.

this a video of the IX Pataxó games, featuring competitions of traditional sports and practices

The most difficult part about fighting for their land when you’re a first contact nation in Brazil though, is that, as you can see torwards the end of the video, our traditional land is the coast, the beaches and the forests that sorround them (Mata Atlântica). And the thing with the Brazilian coast, is that it is heavilly disputed by multimilionaire hotel companies and construction companies, gringos and rich Brazilians wanting to build summer houses and buy private beaches, basically EVERYONE has their eyes on this land. Because having a hotel in the brazilian tropical coast, or building summer houses by the beach to rent is pretty much guaranteed to bring in a LOT of money. It’s all about money.

this is a traditional build (kijeme) destroyed last year in results of a conflict with white land owners. many other builds were destroyed in the occasion. The criminals destroyed them in the middle of the night and no one even saw them. Picture posted on the village leadership Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

So there are enormous and lengthy legal conflicts between the Pataxó people and the big business owners and private land owners (because of course the Brazilian government doesn’t give a shit) over the land. And of course, like all indigenous people, the land is SACRED and fundamental for the Pataxó’s lives. But sometimes the Pataxó are able to kick out invaders and rebuild villages* on their regained land. 

in this video, Pataxó youtuber Tukumã Pataxó shows us traditional body paint done by artist Janarô Nuhay 

SO HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED A FEW DAYS AGO

An aviation club owner (we still dont know his name) claimed that the entirety of the Pataxó village Novos Guerreiros, which is a part of the Red Crown reservation to be his, somehow arguing that he owned the land before the Pataxó reoccupied the area. This process is called Land Repossession.

The village were notified out of the blue that there had been an judicial ruling against them and that they will be FORCED TO LEGALLY AGREE LEAVE THEIR LAND IN FIVE DAYS. So of course everyone is absolutely angered and has started a big campain to fight against this judicial ruling.

Today (27/08/2020) was the deadline the federal police gave them to peacefully leave the land. But of course they resisted and said they weren’t going anywhere. After an entire day of arguments between the caciques (chiefs) and village leaderships and the police, the Pataxó were given a week to leave their land, under the threat to face police brutality. But obviously they still aren’t going anywhere.

Pictures of federal police on Pataxó land earlier today

OVER 2.500 FAMILIES LIVE IN THAT AREA. CHILDREN, ELDERS, PREGNANT WOMEN, PEOPLE WHO WERE BACK TO THRIVING ON THEIR TRADITIONAL LAND. THEY’RE ALL GOING TO BE HOMELESS AND HAVING TO BEG FOR FOOD BECAUSE THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO HUNT FOR FOOD OR HAVE ACCESS TO THE FOOD THEY CULTIVATE. LAND LOSS IS AN IMMENSE LOSS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.

“Pataxó people againt land repossesion! Land Sovereignty NOW“ picture taken today, posted on Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

AND WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP??

There are a few things that the caciques and village leaderships have asked us (who are not Pataxó) to do:

First, spread the news so that everyone knows what’s going on, cause the traditional Brazilian media doesn’t care to notify this

Second, SIGN THIS PETITION: https://t.co/0fqeoifqIs?amp=1

Third, send this e-mail to the judge who ruled the order against the Pataxó land sovereignty (all info is in the google document): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sygR9_utO214UneqYCxHcjyCBTbW4fXuf5SWk2YmXI0/edit

Fourth, and this is optional, you can donate to their gofundme (originally created to help fight covid-19 related issues). Keep in mind that dollars and euro are worth A LOT in Brazil, so donating 2 dollars is SOMETHING lol: https://gogetfunding.com/pataxoyouth/ . 

You can keep up with the news through the twitter account https://twitter.com/PataxoYouth/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP AND TIME! PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THIS!

*village is a rough translation of the portuguese “aldeia”, which is pretty much our equivalent to what you call in North America a “tribe”. But the direct translation of tribe (tribo) is considered offensive to us. Anyway, just clarifying.

character-centric stories you can write in 1K or less

where did they get that shirt they wear in that one scene?

what is their typical morning routine?

what song got stuck in their head when they were in the grocery store just now and how do they feel about that?

what would happen to a houseplant in their care?

they're talking a 5 hour flight in economy class and they paid to choose their seat - which one do they go for?

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how do they behave when they have a bad cold? allergies? a migraine?

they have accidentally caused a fire - how did they do it and how do they react to it?

they are at the club - is this a good situation for them?

what is their opinion of street performers?

which social media platform(s) they use and which they hate

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what kink did they learn about by accident on the internet, and they don't have it but they get it

who is their celebrity crush?

who is their small-time personal nemesis, separate from any big bad in the show (think neighbour, coworker, mail carrier etc.) and why do they hate them so much?

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what have they been putting off forever, even though it will only take 10 minutes?

This song is wonderful, and I love the video.

Curly and Care Root sharing the umbrella just makes me squeal a little. Cute Boys being cute!

And Wallflower Blush!!! She looks so awesome!

Curly Winds' hair!!

And Bon Bon and Lyra!

Just. 😍