Character Analysis: Hanzo Shimada.

lilyrosethedreamer:

lilyrosethedreamer:

So, I’ve been wanting to do a post on a character for a long time and well, there are so many things I’ve noticed about Hanzo. I decided “fuck it” and here we are.
Hanzo Shimada is a bit like Marmite for a lot of the OW fandom – you either love him (guilty as charged) or hate him (I can understand, everyone has different tastes). And Hanzo Shimada isn’t a one-dimensional man, he has a lot to show, which tends to be covered up under his usual masks.
Firstly, the most well-known things; he was born and raised in Japan under a traditional Yakuza family known as the Shimada Clan in Hanamura. They were a powerful force to be reckoned with and Hanzo was the first-born, therefore the next in line. He excelled in many areas, including business, swordplay and archery and wasn’t rebellious like his younger brother, Genji. It all unfortunately went horribly wrong when Sojiro Shimada (their father who we recently found out the name of) died and the Elders pressured Hanzo to “deal” with Genji. Now, the wiki description doesn’t quite make it clear whether they expected Hanzo to dispose of Genji or whether to just punish him, but either way, the brothers fought and Genji was horribly wounded. Hanzo believed he’d killed him and ran from the clan, distraught. Now he’s a wanderer, taking assassin and mercenary work as it comes and attempting to find redemption. Recently, Genji came back to reveal he lived in the Dragons short and Hanzo changed his look in the Christmas comic.
Now, while we all know without a doubt that attempted fratricide is pretty morally awful and illegal and will land you in jail or death row (depending which country you’re in), Hanzo didn’t just do it for no reason and he isn’t without remorse about it. In fact, as someone else pointed out not too long ago, he’s one of the few people in the OW verse to really regret and grieve over his past transgressions. But what made him snap in the first place? And why do so many people believe he’ll either join OW or Talon?
And while we’ll get to the first question later (that one has been discussed in the OW fandom a fair bit), the reason I ask the last question is because there are a few things I believe we may have been missing. The first thing people seem to miss is rather surprising, considering that this is canon as of today (and most likely will be for some time to come).
The fact is, Hanzo has joined neither. In fact, he seems to be fairly resistant to the idea of joining them in general (and while the canon is not in the actual game, the voice-lines do help us judge their characters, whether Blizzard likes it or not). When Widowmaker tries to tempt him with promises of restoring him to his true seat of power, Hanzo outrightly tells her “But at what cost?”
This leads me to believe he knows what happened to Widowmaker (at least the basics), due to rumours or info leaks from Talon (if Sombra isn’t involved in cheekily leaking info from Talon, I’ll eat my hat) and DEFINITELY does not want the same fate. However, from what I can gather, Talon (for the moment) seem to be offering him the chance to come willingly. But he has refused, so if he is interesting enough to them, it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to take him by force, as they did Widow. And this leads to my next point that we’ve missed. Why would Hanzo not jump at the chance to take back power, especially as he seems conflicted over the Shimada Clan and his once-empire still?
Because it means he loses control.
For Hanzo, his whole life has been about being under someone else’s control. From the MOMENT he was born, he was groomed and conditioned to do everything the Elders told him to for the good of the Clan. He was raised to believe that doing immoral things (like probably weapon-smuggling etc) was beneficial to the Clan as a whole and taught to be accepting of power and monetary gain. While he wasn’t conditioned the way Widowmaker was, Hanzo was still very much psychologically manipulated. Genji seemed to get away with more under Sojiro because he was the second-born and one Sojiro most likely could afford to spoil a little – I believe Sojiro was fairly tied as well, as respecting your elders has a stronger influence in Japan. Of course, Sojiro most likely spoiled Genji too much, but Genji was able to remain more outside the Elders’ influence in the process. Hanzo, on the other hand, had no chance of escape. Did he probably feel stifled and smothered? Did he most likely fear the Elders as well as respect them? Did he feel the pressure every second of the day?
I believe so, yes. And as the Clan were apparently traditional, honour and holding yourself up were most likely very strongly taught. Hanzo had no room to let himself rest – he needed to uphold honour. There is a really good post on Tumblr that describes more of this cultural attitude in Japan (I wish I could remember who made it but it is a fairly popular post in the Hanzo tag at least).
And I think when Genji defied and refused to listen to Hanzo’s pleas…it was the rod that broke the camel’s back, as they say. Of course, Hanzo was in the wrong. But the Shimada were an abusive family, despite Sojiro possibly trying to shelter them both from that. And abuse from your own family is pretty terrible. It’s a least a reason to understand Hanzo’s actions, not agree with them.
This all means that Hanzo fleeing the Clan took an act of great desperation, mental breaking and, dare I say it, courage. To run from people emotionally and mentally abusing and conditioning you is terrifying for anyone and Hanzo was still fairly young – in his late twenties at least.
And while Overwatch definitely does not have the same rep as Talon, Hanzo would still feel used and exposed, possibly under someone else’s control as a weapon. He can’t and won’t go through that again – I genuinely believe he has a phobia against that. Or at least deep-rooted trauma from his time in the Clan and Genji’s “death”.
So he doesn’t. He doesn’t join either.
And I believe Genji knows this, to an extent. In the Dragons short, while he does hint that Hanzo should choose the side Genji works for, he doesn’t pressure Hanzo. He doesn’t even stay to convince him. He just quietly and almost longingly tells him he has faith in him, then leaves him to think it over. He’s giving Hanzo the freedom to CHOOSE. He’s telling him “You are free, Hanzo, I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do”. Which is why it sort of confuses me when I see multiple fics where Genji outrightly CHASES Hanzo into OW when he’s never done anything of the sort in canon, nor do I think he would want to. His time with Zenyatta has most likely taught him empathy with what Hanzo went through and he cares enough for his brother that he doesn’t want to put him through any more of it. Will Hanzo seek to join his brother in OW one day? Perhaps.
But it will be his own choice, and HIS ALONE. That may even be something he can be proud of (I hope it is ;_;).
Hanzo is also traumatised enough that he can’t hold a sword anymore after Genji’s “death”, so it also confuses me when I see fics where GENJI is the one to give him a sword and be all “Hey let’s spar bro, nothing will go wrong, lol”, but I see the appeal in writing that scenario. It’s more likely Hanzo either gets over that hurdle through careful therapy and training, or in a desperate self-defence scenario where his bow is broken and a sword is all he has available, but I think the first is more realistic.
Hanzo is also stand-offish, defensive and possibly shy around social interaction, being quieter and less outgoing than Genji, but he has moments of humour and even loudness (there is one line where he literally shouts “I GREET YOU” and if that’s not a sign of flailing and a “shit what do I say to break the ice” scenario, I don’t know what is). Grumpy too, but I don’t think his grumpiness defines him. I think he’s the type to slowly warm up to someone the longer he knows them and he’d be a quiet, but highly loyal friend if you ever gained his trust (that would be a rarity, sadly and with good reason). I also think he sees Omnics as beneath him, but fairly neutral otherwise (an anti-Omnic feeling most likely bred within the Clan and not the same as Zarya or Torbjörn’s outright hatred and distrust) but that has been tempered a little by his wanderings. Numbani makes him uncomfortable, but not just because of Omnics relations there, but because of the warm, caring atmosphere. It’s not something he’s used to.
He’s also very intelligent and would absolutely be fluent in English and several other languages. He MIGHT not know every English saying or slang, but nobody knows every word in every language anyway, so that’s a moot point.
And with the obvious signs of trauma, depression and self-loathing to wrap it all up, I think I’ve said enough about Hanzo Shimada. I like to think and hope that the Christmas comic shows a small step in his healing, but…Blizzard is ultimately in control of his fate, whether we all like it or not. XD
I hope this was okay – just some musings I had regarding Hanzo. Any thoughts or disagreements, I’m happy to discuss! Sorry for any possible offence as well. I’ll happily add anything I might have missed.

Edit: Some additions to be made!
Firstly, @khrysm rightfully pointed out that the Shimada Clan were pretty subtle about manipulating Hanzo. They didn’t engage in outright abuse, like it’s written in many fics, but they needled, pushing little points here and there and built up the pressure until Sojiro died, then put the greatest pressure on Hanzo yet. While emotional manipulation and conditioning is classified as abuse, I agree that they wouldn’t have been heavy-handed about it. In fact, that leads to @doctor-q’s reply, which I think ties into this. It was very much normalised, sadly. Genji and Sojiro would be able to see it, Genji more so than Sojiro, but Hanzo wouldn’t.
@xxpyrosomniacxx , I totally agree with you too – I love how they show Hanzo’s humour and sarcasm. I totally think he would be the quiet one listening to the group laughing and then just outrightly comes out with something with a straight face. Everyone else would be in fits. X3 I also hope the brothers are reconciling a little, judging by recent voice line additions. ;_;