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fandomsecretsthere was a FMA secret about Hawkeye (#109). The secret itself was basically to the effect that Hawkeye was the secretmaker’s favorite female character ever and they hated people who bashed her. The comments, sadly, centered around how the anime treats the series female characters amazingly and the manga makes them dependent and clingy. (Barring the fact that I find it very difficult to view either Winry or Hawkeye as clingy or dependent in either version, one of my problems with the anime is the roles of the female characters in the anime as compared to the manga, though the anime still does better there than most other anime. But that’s not the point.)
Among all the bashing came the latest manga chapter.
Ok, am I seriously the only one who didn’t read the Hawkeye and Mustang parts of the chapter as “Hawkeye can’t live without Mustang” but as “Mustang can’t deal with the prospect of Hawkeye being dead because of him”?
They (Hawkeye, Ed and Scar) were in a situation where Mustang had to be stopped. The options were to kill or seriously injure him, or to threaten something major enough to get through to him. He’s one of the best weapons they have right now, so the first option is out, and while Scar doesn’t know Mustang well, Hawkeye and Ed know him well enough to know that that will take threatening to kill something he cares about, and convince him that you mean it. The available options are Scar, Ed and Hawkeye. He won’t care if you kill Scar, but Ed and Hawkeye, no matter how you view their individual relationships with Mustang, are the two lives that arguably matter the most to him. You can have Scar threaten one of them, but we’re back to someone dying, and it’s unlikely that you could convince him that Ed or Hawkeye will kill the other, or that Ed would kill himself.
But Hawkeye? Hawkeye has stood by his side through the worst time of his life and never wavered, and stayed there ever since. In addition, she’s the reason he has the power he has, and follows him because she views him, and anything he does with that power, as her responsibility.
Hawkeye never said “if you die, I’ll kill myself.” She said “if you force me to kill you, I’ll kill myself after.” The only reason Hawkeye would kill Mustang is if Mustang became something worse than what he was fighting, if he abused the power she gave him, and she would hold herself partially responsible for what he became. It’s the same mindset that makes parents blame themselves if their child becomes a killer. It’s not an assigning of responsibility that I agree with, but is a psychological reaction that I understand, and find very interesting in fiction.
The scene, however, is never a question of whether or not Hawkeye will kill Mustang and then kill herself, it’s whether or not the threat of that will pull him away from the line he’s about to cross. It’s a psychological gambit, and it’s one that she wins. If either one is dependent on the other there, it’s Mustang who is dependent on Hawkeye. She can handle the consequences of his actions. She can handle his death, and hers. He can’t. He can deal with his own death, but he can’t face the possible consequences of his actions, especially if one of those consequences is Hawkeye dying as a result of his actions.
Is Hawkeye emotional there? Yes, of course she is. Mustang is too far gone to think clearly, but Hawkeye is completely aware of the consequences. She knows what’s at stake, and how easily it can go wrong. And unlike Mustang, Ed and Scar, she’s the one who knows if she’ll pull the trigger, and how many times she’ll do so. And, honestly, if Hughes were spouting the same lines, do we really think he’d be called sickeningly dependent?
fandomsecretsthere was a FMA secret about Hawkeye (#109). The secret itself was basically to the effect that Hawkeye was the secretmaker’s favorite female character ever and they hated people who bashed her. The comments, sadly, centered around how the anime treats the series female characters amazingly and the manga makes them dependent and clingy. (Barring the fact that I find it very difficult to view either Winry or Hawkeye as clingy or dependent in either version, one of my problems with the anime is the roles of the female characters in the anime as compared to the manga, though the anime still does better there than most other anime. But that’s not the point.) Among all the bashing came the latest manga chapter.
Ok, am I seriously the only one who didn’t read the Hawkeye and Mustang parts of the chapter as “Hawkeye can’t live without Mustang” but as “Mustang can’t deal with the prospect of Hawkeye being dead because of him”?
They (Hawkeye, Ed and Scar) were in a situation where Mustang had to be stopped. The options were to kill or seriously injure him, or to threaten something major enough to get through to him. He’s one of the best weapons they have right now, so the first option is out, and while Scar doesn’t know Mustang well, Hawkeye and Ed know him well enough to know that that will take threatening to kill something he cares about, and convince him that you mean it. The available options are Scar, Ed and Hawkeye. He won’t care if you kill Scar, but Ed and Hawkeye, no matter how you view their individual relationships with Mustang, are the two lives that arguably matter the most to him. You can have Scar threaten one of them, but we’re back to someone dying, and it’s unlikely that you could convince him that Ed or Hawkeye will kill the other, or that Ed would kill himself.
But Hawkeye? Hawkeye has stood by his side through the worst time of his life and never wavered, and stayed there ever since. In addition, she’s the reason he has the power he has, and follows him because she views him, and anything he does with that power, as her responsibility.
Hawkeye never said “if you die, I’ll kill myself.” She said “if you force me to kill you, I’ll kill myself after.” The only reason Hawkeye would kill Mustang is if Mustang became something worse than what he was fighting, if he abused the power she gave him, and she would hold herself partially responsible for what he became. It’s the same mindset that makes parents blame themselves if their child becomes a killer. It’s not an assigning of responsibility that I agree with, but is a psychological reaction that I understand, and find very interesting in fiction.
The scene, however, is never a question of whether or not Hawkeye will kill Mustang and then kill herself, it’s whether or not the threat of that will pull him away from the line he’s about to cross. It’s a psychological gambit, and it’s one that she wins. If either one is dependent on the other there, it’s Mustang who is dependent on Hawkeye. She can handle the consequences of his actions. She can handle his death, and hers. He can’t. He can deal with his own death, but he can’t face the possible consequences of his actions, especially if one of those consequences is Hawkeye dying as a result of his actions.
Is Hawkeye emotional there? Yes, of course she is. Mustang is too far gone to think clearly, but Hawkeye is completely aware of the consequences. She knows what’s at stake, and how easily it can go wrong. And unlike Mustang, Ed and Scar, she’s the one who knows if she’ll pull the trigger, and how many times she’ll do so. And, honestly, if Hughes were spouting the same lines, do we really think he’d be called sickeningly dependent?