why do you think hanzo stayed alive for so long after everything with genji? like it’s obvious he doesnt want to be here anymore but he kept trudging on for 10 years and i thought it was so he could mourn genji year after year but now that he no longer has to do that, whats keeping him here?

mysteryprof:

I’m so glad you asked me this bc I’ve been tryin’ to figure out a way to word a post for this all day

It’s kinda hard to put together the pieces bc the only insight we have into Hanzo after meeting Genji is his One (1) panel from Reflections. However, that panel is Very Important. 

and we’ll get there, but let’s talk about pre casual pre Genji at Hanamura Hanzo first.

Hanzo’s character arc – at its core – is about self worth and redemption.

Right off the bat he’s born into strict expectations and at the mercy of the Shimada elders who would shape and groom him into having his ideals reflect nothing but their own. He would live to be the powerful and proud Kumichō of the Shimada-gumi in his father’s image and those before him and that would be it. Until it isn’t. 

Hanzo has to kill Genji and his world falls apart because for the first time in probably a long time his ideas don’t coincide with the elders’. I say that because like any normal kid growing up, kids have Wants whether it’s something like a toy, a pet, a piercing, the list could go on and on. The point I’m getting at here is that Hanzo has most likely been repressed to hell as a kid because the heir of THEE Shimada-gumi cannot waste time on such “frivolous pursuits” as Hanzo puts it. This plays into Casual Hanzo later when he goes all out and gets his piercings and does the very symbolic cutting of his hair, but we’ll get there. I swear on this long ass ride of an essay we’ll get there. 

His leaving after killing Genji is a really important denouncement. It’s the first time he’s really gone against everything he’s known. Granted, he’s still rooted in some traditions he can’t let go, mainly like wearing his kyudo-gi and some beliefs, but it’s his First Step. For the next ten years he avoids the assassins sent after him, but his actions are not driven by them. What Hanzo does is of his own will and yet, he’s not really Living per se; he’s just Existing. 

He roams the Earth and does only what I can assume is bounty hunting or maybe even picking off members of the Shimada-gumi from what we can get from, “With every death comes honor. With honor, redemption.” He WANTS to redeem himself for his actions. He knows that what he’s done is fucked up. But for a man like Hanzo (at this time) I don’t think he’d ever deem himself worthy of deserving what he wants.

So Hanzo must live with the burden of his actions and be perpetually haunted by them until the day he dies, because I think

Hanzo thought living was the greatest punishment he could give himself.

Offing himself? Too cowardly, too easy, no pride in it, no honor. 

Like, to put it bluntly: Hanzo is a big ol’ Mess. He’s got 28 years of brainwashing and grooming under his belt, PTSD extreme enough that he can’t even wield a blade anymore, and he was more than likely raised to be exceptionally well spoken (probably in multiple languages), but man, alone for ten years on the run being a recluse, that’s gotta do some shit to your social skills. With the Shimada-gumi assassins coming after him? Doubt is his closest friend and he has to distrust everyone down to a single, wrong sideways glance.
I also absolutely cannot go without talking about his depression, and that he probably drinks to cope. I don’t think he drinks habitually, but more when The Mood™ is right during a night and he drinks to Forget.

Despite everything, Hanzo is a stubborn bastard who would be the last person to forgo his pride to reach out for any kind of Help. The better question would be: Who would Hanzo go to for help? 

SO FINALLY- Enter Genji. Hanzo has the biggest fuck up in his life right before him and Genji forgives him?? That he should forgive himself?? That he has hope in him that he’s gonna do the Right things??? 

So now Hanzo is Stuck. But also this is AKA the thing I’m dying to see come from Blizzard one day. I feel it’s so important to see the transition between this Hanzo who’s probably in the midst of an existential crisis of having his world take ANOTHER 180 with a very not dead brother and Casual Hanzo. For Hanzo it begs the question: Does he feel like he deserves forgiveness? Does he feel like he deserves to have a second chance? Is he worthy of it? Everything he’s been doing for the past ten years has lead up to these questions that he thought he’d leave forever unanswered and yet, here he is. 

So back to the original question at hand: What exactly does Hanzo have to live for now? 

and the answer is-

Himself

Casual Hanzo is completely unhinged, aligned to no organizations, and feels free enough to do what he wants because for once in his life he feels like he’s deserving of them. I have no doubts that it was a slow progress either. He probably took baby steps. A piercing here, a small purchase of jacket and pants – probably separately – there, and then the haircut. It was the slow and final departure from the roots he had remaining in Shimada traditions, but also! Not to mention the whole damn cake he was gonna buy in Reflections. That is a man who is finally treating himself and he’s damn happy about it!

Thanks for coming to my Hanzo analysis TED talk