I actually answered this one just a second ago, but it occurred to me that maybe it would be better to separate the post since combining multiple fandoms in the same post might distract people. So here’s Hawks/Dabi by itself!

Hawks/Dabi Hot Wings:

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless /
hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

HAVE I MENTIONED I LOVE PAIRING HEROES AND VILLAINS??? Because I love pairing heroes and villains!!
I love pairing foes on opposite sides together so much that I could
probably just make a living talking about all my favorite foe yay ships.

Honestly,
I actually shipped this as a crack ship from day one based on the
ridiculous name they got here on tumblr, and I had no issues shipping it
even before there was actual canon interaction, just because that’s how
much I love heroes and villains, BUT THEN THEY GOT AN ON-SCREEN PRIVATE
CONVERSATION SCENE (poor Shigaraki hasn’t even gotten one of those with
Dabi yet lmaoooo) and it was all over for me.

Let it be known
that if there is one type of character I like more than any other type
of character, any other archetype, any other model or role in a story–I love, beyond life itself, double agent characters.
They’re just a breeding ground for all the things I love absolutely
most in terms of angst and drama: a terrible conviction to do what’s
right, inevitably clashing against their growing understanding for the
beliefs of the opposite side, the livewire of danger threaded through
every one of their scenes, the tense moments, never knowing when the
disguise will falter–worse, the constant questioning undercurrent of
whether or not the mask might become real… The delicious tension just makes my heart race in any good double agent scene I come across, and Hawks is no exception. He is in so, so, so much danger and you can tell he wants to do what’s right, he wants to
help people, but his own past and feelings about the responsibility
forced on to him because of his role as the number two hero might leave
him amiable or at least more susceptible to the League’s message that
hero society is deeply flawed and needs to be over-turned. Hawks
is a good boy who will do what’s right–but is his definition of “right”
really completely aligned with the hero system as it exists today?
There’s so much room for villain sympathizing here…

Not to mention
the whole question of whether or not Dabi is a Todoroki. I can’t really
see Hawks’ entanglement with both Dabi and Endeavor as anything but yet
another sign that Dabi is Touya–what would even be the point of
revealing that Hawks was an Endeavor fan as a child if not for
that admiration to one day be dramatically and horrifically destroyed?
It feels as if this whole thing is being very carefully and deliberately
set up: Horikoshi put the Endeavor fan hero directly into contact with
Dabi, whom most of us speculate to be one of the worst victims of Endeavor’s truly villainous behavior,
hidden from the public and fellow heroes alike. Dabi’s goal seems like
it might increasingly be to get his revenge not only on Endeavor but on
all of the uncaring, status-quo hero society that turned a blind eye to
Endeavor’s cruelty–in that vein, Hawks would be one of the people that Dabi hates the very most… Because the thing that Hawks like best about Endeavor is the EXACT THING that turned Endeavor into an abusive monster.

Hawks
admires that Endeavor was brave/foolhardy/determined enough to pursue
the spot of number one while all the other heroes just rested on their
laurels, content to remain in All Might’s shadow. Hawks seems, to me,
like a multi-layered character: on one level, he seems ambivalent or
even contemptful of heroism and the hero-ranking scales that puts
someone like him, who was groomed for the job, so high up. He says he
wants to take it easy, not have to fight, and that he would prefer to be
lower in the ranks so he’d be free to mess around. However, we also
know that he is probably one of the most hard-working young
heroes in all of Japan, that he rose up the ranks because of his own
actions, that he’s beloved of the public, and that he’s willing to put
his own life on the line, utterly heedless of his own safety, if it
means that others can remain good, unsullied people. He says one thing
(I want to take it easy), but does another (never stops working) and
deep down, what he admires most is Endeavor’s conviction to never
settle, to never accept being anything less than the best. It seems, to
me, that Hawks probably has some internalized issues regarding his role as a hero–likely
he feels that he was given something he didn’t deserve, fast-tracked on
the road to success he didn’t earn, perfectly trained and groomed to
become a hero-idol, packaged and marketable for maximum public appeal.
Externally, he claims he doesn’t care about the ranks; internally, he
fears that he doesn’t have the conviction or strength to be like
Endeavor, who never gave up in pursuing his goal to become number one,
who was never swayed by others’ actions, who never wavered from his
personal path. To Hawks, who has lived his whole life at the behest of
others, someone like Endeavor, who dedicated his entire existence to
chasing a purely personal dream, is probably the very definition of
“true hero.”

Which is going to make it so awful, so painful if/when Hawks finds out that Endeavor chose to live for his own dream at the cost of his innocent family. It’s highly likely that Dabi is who he is because
of Endeavor’s dream to surpass All Might which Hawks so admired. The
League is a group of broken people, victimized to various degrees and in
various manners by the world around them. Dabi is likely no exception
(and in fact might be one of the most direct examples of heroes being just as capable
of causing pain and suffering as villains). The angst potential this
idea has just gives me so much life… Imagining the shock and horror
Hawks will go through after finding out that his hero is a
horrible person who ruined the lives of his wife and children just to
further his pointless goal fills me with a sense of tingly excitement. I love seeing all my favorites suffer. XDDD It’s just so darkly poetic…

Friendly reminder that these panels are all on the same page in the manga… I love my dramatic sons…

The
idea that Hawks is poised in the perfect spot to be one of the first–if
not the first–to find out that Dabi is Touya Todoroki… and for Hawks to
have his positive view of his role model, as well as his tacit approval
for all of hero society, utterly destroyed by that reveal is
just so interesting to me. It’s a rare situation in which the reveal of
one character’s back story has the power to completely change the fate
and future of another character–but the way things are set up
right now, if the Dabi is a Todoroki theory is true, his back story
reveal could completely change Hawks’ behavior and role in the plot.
Right now, Hawks’ “Everything I do is for the League” is totally fake.
But if Hawks finds out what went down with Endeavor and Touya and it was
as traumatic as we all like to imagine… Well, who knows what course
Hawks might take then. (Worse, an even more fun imagining: if Hawks goes
sniffing for information and maybe finds out the hero commission helped
Endeavor cover up what happened with Touya?? HOO BOOYYYY…)

Obviously
a lot of this is predicated on the Dabi is a Todoroki theory being
true, but I just… I think there’s something meaningful going on in
Hawks’ links to both Endeavor and Dabi. This doesn’t feel accidental.
And if it isn’t accidental, the drama is going to be sooooo good. HORIKOSHI PLEASE.

Even
if the Dabi is a Todoroki theory doesn’t pan out, I still think this
ship would be cute–personally, I would love to see a situation in which
Hawks gets comfortable enough to tease Dabi like he teases Endeavor,
because if you don’t think that happy!Hawks is the most charming thing
in BNHA, I don’t even know what manga you’re reading, because it
certainly isn’t the same one I’m reading. Playful, quirky Hawks takes
broke ass Dabi out to dinner all the time and then yammers on for hours
about stuff that has nothing to do with their work for the League, while
Dabi stares on blankly, at a total loss for what to do with all this
energy and enthusiasm? Adorable.

I’m making a prayer circle now so that Horikoshi will deliver me some delicious angst and suffering.