#because i love hawks

[vaguely-concerned]

the fact that irving canonically survives through the end of asunder to be at wynne's funeral is so fucking funny to me. nothing but love and respect for MY unstoppable cockroach morally grey machiavellian mage dad!!! he's survived in his position through multiple attempted rites of annulment and blood mage plots popping up left right and center around him. the chantry keeps trying to stamp him out but his dodge game is simply out of this world, divine. civil wars, political machinations and minefields, chantry atrocities, this wily old motherfucker is dodging and weaving his way through it all, not-quite-no-hits-taken-running-it-but-honestly-close-enough-under-the-circumstances style. if solas does succeed in tearing down the veil I would fully believe that one of the like three people still alive at the end of it all would be a very weary 90 year old first enchanter irving going 'oh this shit again huh'. the maker has cursed him for his hubris and his paperwork is never finished (affectionate, it's fine he canonically loves paperwork)

[midnightrings]

MATT BOMER and JONATHAN BAILEY as HAWKINS FULLER and TIM LAUGHLIN

-> FELLOW TRAVELERS 1.02: 'Bulletproof'

[elfcollector]

Did you think you mattered, Hawke? Did you think anything you ever did mattered? [...] You're a failure, and your family died knowing it.

[fisherrprince]

back on my bs

[moosu]

Anders' flowers

[ricky-mortis]

Howdy hello- guess who made a wings au :)

More to come with this eventually- I’m working on my designs for other characters at the moment, but for now we’ve got Red-Tailed Hawk for Curt and Eagle Owl for Owen.

For DMA I had Barn Owl wings because a) Barn Owls are beautiful and I wanted to draw the wings for them, and more importantly, b) Owen would probably want to disguise his wings, and it would make sense if it was as a different type of owl. I just assume he’d dye his feathers in some way or another. Look- just don’t think about it too much.

[jackdaniel69nice]

Does anyone else think the bird jokes are overused and redundant :/

Like people reduce Tokoyami’s whole personality to a single physical trait and I just think it’s weird. In mha canon not a single (good) person makes jokes about tsu, shoji, or Tokoyami’s heteromorph traits. Tokoyami doesn’t even exhibit any bird traits (except the perching), that’s all headcanon. The only one who brings up his avian appearance is hawks. There are only 5 instances I can remember someone saying something about mutant appearances (excluding the direct assault against shoji and ordinary woman)

Mineta calling shoji octopus, which he then apologizes for after finding out how rude that is to say

Jiro saying “that damn bird” when dark shadow blocked her attack. It felt more like a statement of her frustration than an insult.

Bakugo calling tokoyami bird brain, which is normal for him

Dabi calling spinner lizard, and spinner getting offended and yelling at him (I don’t remember if he continues to do it afterwards)

Shoto calling that police chief a mutt, there was no excuse for that, that was just racist

And still I think these are pretty tame compared to how the fandom treats heteromorphs!! The stereotyping of Tokoyami and hawks is absolutely insane. I love when people come up with headcanons for them having more avian traits but when those traits become the butt of the joke it’s extremely distasteful. If I see one more cannibalism joke about eating chicken I’m gonna hurt something. You guys do realize birds eat other birds all the time right???? There is a reason “chicken hawk” is a name. A hawk literally tried to attack my chickens yesterday, they love chicken. That is the reason hawks favorite food is chicken. I can see why tokoyami would want to hide his avian traits because if people in mha are like ours he would have been bullied to hell.

I know people making bird jokes are just having fun, but it’s just really weird to me. It’s important to see the comparison between real life racism and the heteromorph racism in mha. There is a reason horikoshi adds the mutant rally in the final war arc, the lesson there has flown over so many people’s heads. I hope this post gives you more insight to look beyond appearances and actually try to understand these side characters a bit better.

[bardengarde]

I JUST COMMISSIONED THIS BEAUTIFUL AND TENDER BEEJHAWK PIECE FROM MY FRIEND @doodlehistory PLEASE BE INSANE ABOUT IT WITH ME

[emloafs]

thinking about how hawk joined miyagi do instead of eagle fang in s4 after the two dojos split again just because he's in love with demetri demetri asked him to

[confusedlucifer]

i've been replaying DA:O and. thinking so much about how much death and horror Tabris has seen by the time she's 23, and how many of her family and friends are dead or gone by the time she's in her mid 40s. how much time she's spent putting herself back together and becoming a leader, Warden Commander worthy of the title. how she accepted the position of Left Hand of Divine Victoria after the gay sex reform to Chantry doctrine. how despite the vast network of Chantry spies and agents continuing to search for the cure, she's content to live out the rest of her days by Leliana's side.

[vaguely-concerned]

I'm playing through Dragon Age 2 again and I just can't get over how... idk how to say it exactly, but the way you feel, in every moment of this game, how much Varric loves Hawke. It feels entwined with everything, it breathes through every part of the narrative, it blooms diegetigally through the integration of story and gameplay, makes you a co-conspirator in that love in a way maybe only a video game could.

It's in the way I don't think this story is a defense of Hawke only -- or even primarily -- directed at Cassandra, but at Hawke themselves. Beneath everything else going on there's the quiet, utterly unshakable refutation of Hawke's worst fears: Did you think you mattered, Hawke? Did you think anything you ever did mattered? . . . You're a failure, and your family died knowing it. Rising through the story as Varric tells it there's a fiercely tender voice saying: Yes, you did matter. In tragedy or in triumph, for better or for worse, in love or in hate, you always mattered. The ultimate tragedy of Hawke is always right there in the open before the story even starts letting you in on telling it; they couldn't fix anything. They couldn't stop the downward spiral Kirkwall was set on -- the real truth is that no one person ever could. And yet the point of DA2 is that it matters that they tried, and it matters that there were people who loved and were loved along the way, however badly it all failed in the end. Hawke is the Bioware protagonist who succeeds the least, and they're the character who matters the most, to me. (This is also why the Absolution reveal did not shake me in the least haha, my love for Hawke has nothing at all to do with whether they succeeded or failed at anything.)

What Varric is saying, in the only way he seems to be able to say the really real things -- through stories -- is so simple and so fundamental. You were here, and I loved you. There's the emotional heart of it, at the end of it all, that love and grief and recognition. It's so dizzyingly intimate. There's so much distancing, layers upon layers of obfuscation, to be able to say it. It drives me insane!!!! It makes me feel the same way that 'Poem' by Langston Hughes does:

I loved my friend.  He went away from me.  There's nothing more to say.  The poem ends,  Soft as it began,— I loved my friend. 

He loved his friend. They went away from him. What more is there to say. (Many, many, many things, when you're a compulsive liar and storyteller, but hey sometimes you have to deploy a whole armada of lies to tell one simple truth, I understand, I'm a writer too lol)

[teapetal44]

The state of the league of villains during act 3 is so sad man. Compress literally gave his ass for the league, got arrested and nobody gaf. Twice’s demise amounted to nothing, nobody cared. The whole discrimination arc Spinner was involved in was a mess. Suddenly Hori decided he cared about realism in his story so Toga dropped like a fly from a simple blood transfusion. Dabi is forced to sit and listen to Endeavor whine and yap about how sad he is about being an abusive pos, all the while nobody actually cares and he never got any real repercussions besides his family being (justifyingly) mean to him. Shigaraki was sidelined for a boring villain and was stripped off all his autonomy and agency.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

I said I wasn't going to get started on the topic of Aveline ruining Carver's chances with the guard but I lied okay, it's Carver Hawke defense hours.

Here's the thing; it doesn't matter if you believe Carver was or wasn't fit for the guard. That's a different debate that I'll get to. What matters is Aveline's in no position to tell the guard not to accept his application. Why does she think that's her right to judge whether or not he's fit?

Carver should've had the chance to prove himself one way or another. If it turns out he's not a good fit, then let him fail. Let him learn from it.

"Oh but failure could mean lost lives-"

Aveline doesn't get to talk shit about failure and the people. Plenty have died on her watch yet she still believes she's a good guard and Guard-Captain.

"maybe Aveline's protecting him, Carver could die while on patrol-"

Carver could die working in the Bone Pit, or serving as a templar, or when he's running around with Hawke. Carver could trip and fall down a set of stairs and die. In fact, he can die in the Deep Roads, somewhere he wouldn't have to go if the Hawke's weren't desperate.

Either Carver fails as a guard, or more likely, he succeeds and proves himself worthy of it.

But let's be real, Carver probably kept getting rejected due to being a Fereldan with a past of smuggling/mercenary work and Aveline only reaffirmed the decision, either because they asked her what she thought or she stuck her nose in unprompted.

But what irritates me is that she admits to telling them not to accept his application, and then has the balls to call Carver too proud to take up a trade or find another line of work.

Carver tells her, "And who would take on a Fereldan apprentice? Maybe in another year I could work my way up to pissboy." He has a good point here. Aside from the guard, the only other place Carver could work and use his skillset is with the Templars. Or go back to mercenary/smuggling work.

And Aveline doesn't even have a real answer for him. No suggestions, no encouragement, nothing. Just "Fine, let's crawl down some holes. Good bloody luck for your sake."

Also, if you do the Mark of the Assassin DLC in Act 1-

Aveline: You should see if any of the noblemen are looking for new men-at-arms. Carver: Are you trying to get rid of me? Aveline: It's a role with some autonomy. A good fit with your training and... tendencies. Carver: After serving King Cailan? You want me to suffer some poncy git who needs two servants to wipe his own ass? I'll find my own way, thanks. Aveline: I wish you would.

You wish he would?? Aveline, he was trying to find his way into the guard, a position he'd make a good fit for, and you helped deny him of it because YOU didn't think he would be good enough, I just-

If I haven't made it clear yet, I firmly believe that Carver would've made a great guard. He wants to help people, to be a protector. He's loyal, and despite what Aveline claims, he can follow orders and take his duty seriously. We see him do incredibly well with the Grey Wardens, after all. If he were a guard, he wouldn't have to go down into the Deep Roads with Hawke, and I think he would've been okay with that! He's so hurt and bitter when you leave him behind because that effectively tells him, "I don't need you." Carver's spent the whole first act telling you he wants to go on the expedition aka that he wants to be needed.

But if he were a guard, he would be needed elsewhere. He'd be in training as a recruit. He'd look after Leandra while you go. He wouldn't be backed into a corner with no income and only the templars left as his chance at forging his own path and providing for his family.

He doesn't get that opportunity, though.

By the way, if he becomes a warden, you can get this banter:

Aveline: I'm glad you found a place with the Wardens. Carver: Well, it's not the city guard, but it'll do. Aveline: Carver... it wasn't the place for you. Carver: No, it's all right. It is. It cost a lot, but I get it. I really was a bit of a tit those days, wasn't I? Aveline: Well...

This banter makes me want to scream.

Aveline's just... she's so insistent that she's right. She's someone who will double down rather than entertain the idea that she's wrong and it's not just with Carver and the guard, it's with everything. The "my beef with Aveline" list gets longer and longer every time I replay da2, I swear.

Say what you will about Carver, whether you think he would've been a good fit or if Aveline's right and it wasn't for him, he was denied a chance and it cost him so much in the end. He either dies, or he joins the templars where he deals with Chantry's bullshit trying to brainwash him with "mages aren't people" and "magic is a cancer in this world", or he's infected with the blight and becomes a Grey Warden, forced to serve the rest of his life fighting darkspawn, tormented by voices and nightmares.

I will never not be bitter about this.

[beybuniki]

So, if dabi was allowed to live a normal life after all this mess, do you think he'd introduced himself as touya or dabi?

i think that highly depends on whom he's talking to and I find it so interesting that there are valid reasons for him to use either name :) I personally prefer dabi because that's who he is in the present, so somebody like endeavor or hawks referring to him as Touya doesn't sit right with me because in their case, it reflects a rejection of how dabi is now, whereas sb like shoto or toga refers to Dabi as Touya out of love and genuine understanding <3

like I think dabi would hate to hear hawks utter his government name because who does he think he is lol, I think he would insist on hawks keeping his childhood name out of his motuh (though i doubt they're interested in talking post-war)

I like how he vacillates between both names, like while he is not 12yo touya anymore and people have to accept him as dabi because that's just who he is whether people like it or not, but Touya is also his origin and people musn't forget that!!!!!! so yeah it depends on the interpersonal context i think

[mourn-and-watch]

merrill dragon age isn't The Character in terms of being the guy with the juiciest backstory details or protagonist material but she is The Person. The Heart. she was working on one of the most important researches of elven history and no one believed in her. not her keeper, her teacher and mother figure. nor her clan, the only family she's ever had. nor hawke's friends, the only people who were surrounding her for six years. the only person who can actually place their faith in her is hawke but if they don't she won't mind. she is used to it, being on her own. and, despite everything, she believes in people. she knows it matters. better than anyone.

she has never heard a nice word from fenris, but she still tries to cheer him up from time to time. she has never heard a nice word from anders either and she still feels for him. varric annoys her when he tries to distract her from the eluvian, but she appreciates it because she knows he means well. aveline refers to her work as senseless and potentially dangerous for the city, but she is still happy for her when she falls in love.

if hawke sides with mages in the last straw merrill is the first to support them. "I believe in you, hawke", she says, when everyone else is consumed by doubt. and then she's the only one who openly suggests sparing anders. so he can put things right.

she knows the feeling. when you're on your own and everyone thinks you're beyond salvation, undeserving of compassion or understanding. and this is the best she can offer for people she cares about: her unconditional faith, her sympathy, a second chance. the things she was desparately looking for and never had. she believes in people because she knows: there's no one else to believe in them

[withclawandvine]

i think hawks would probably be wayyy too lax with your kids

after being taken in by the commission, every part of his day had been planned out to the hour. there were rules for everything — lights out no later than 22:00, and no sleeping in. stand up straight, only speak when spoken to. doors without locks, scheduled mealtimes. no questions, no backsass.

far from the carefree, joyous childhood he wanted to foster for his own children. he wanted them to have everything he didn't.

which means you'll often find yourself saying things like, “baby, you can’t let her get away with talking to you like that!” or “keigo, bedtime is not just a suggestion.” and hearing “go ask your mom” from the other room every time he needs to say no to something, but doesn’t think he’ll be able to resist that pouty lil face