#(again judging by lady nagant's account of the commission)

[potahun]

i don't think touya got it wrong exactly, when he essentially said that birds of a feather flock together about hawks and endeavor. i do think that it is in part because hawks has a dark past that he is faster than average in siding with endeavor, even after learning about the abuse that endeavor has done and despite not approving of it.

initially, his statement in The Hellish Todoroki Family Pt. 2 (S6E16) that "Even if what Dabi said is true about what happened in the Todoroki family, things must be different now" shocked me a bit, because it seemed like such a strange and huge leap of faith, based on little concrete evidence. For someone who's otherwise been shown to be as rational and analytical as Hawks, it seemed like a very strange, emotional statement to make.

There is his own ties to Endeavor from his childhood, but I think that's not all there is.

Neither do I think it's because he himself got abused by his parents and thus feels readier to forgive - we know Hawks has never forgiven his own parents, even his relatively passive mother. And that's his right, too.

I do think touya put the finger on something though, because if we are to judge by lady nagant's testimony of the commission, hawks must have been asked, like her, to do many terrible things by the commission in the past. the way his thoughts played out prior to killing jin, calm, methodical, describing the exact process that leads to killing, also sheds light onto the fact that none of it is foreign to him and he's killed before (and it's scary).

so touya is right in saying that endeavor and hawks are similar and bound to flock together, not that hawks and endeavor would team up to cause more harm, but hawks IS more likely than average to want to believe that endeavor could do the right thing moving forward. He would want, more than average, to believe that endeavor can become better, precisely because he himself still wishes to do as much of the right thing as he can, moving forward, despite having bloody hands.

this is not about whether what they do is wrong, i think there's no question that they've done terrible things. but psychologically, i'm thinking that hawks positions himself like that in relation to endeavor, i.e. in a position of support, because of this, which leads to his statement that "I want to support the man who is trying to do the right thing."