#chapter 954

fears death, but Hawkins also seems to believe 100% that everyone else will do anything not to die. It’s pretty wise thinking to my mind, but that’s not how heroes are made in the OP world, and selling out your allies to save your own skin won’t win awards for bravery in most places (that are not corporate-level business).

We haven’t seen Killer’s past, but Law’s stated from a young age that he’s not afraid to die, and Killer below basically says that Hawkins regrets the decision he’s made to follow Kaidou because:

of this fear of death, and he and Kid and the Kid pirates are still alive and kicking (though not without their wounds) because they had some hope for the future, despite the odds against them. They might have died because of this tentative (or not) belief in a possibility of change, but it would have been somewhat on their terms.

Killer’s sympathy for Hawkins might be sarcastic, but I think it gives good insight to what they were all up against and the routes the Kid/Hawkins/OnAir Pirates took or could have taken. Hawkins was betrayed too.

So, above, where Hawkins says that Law has no hope in his future plans, it wasn’t really that Law held no hope, but that Hawkins didn’t, right? Law was the one who took a gamble by saying he’d kill Hawkins along with his men (and Kid and Killer also took a gamble, in not aligning with Kaido) and Hawkins was the one who could not gamble that Law was bluffing. The stakes (his own life) were too high for him. 

Of course this all intertwines with Oda’s fate or not fate / roles to create / roles that are given, etc.  themes (Kanjuro...hmm).

For Hawkins, in either case, the final result was at the end of a blade:

(Did the cards show you that, Baz?)

And dismembered.

And then One Piece “dead”.

I think it’s “Strength” up there in the Killer frame where he slices Hawkins, the one with the lion. That’s fitting (especially with that hair).

Anyway, the outcome—other than a splitting headache and a possibly dead supernova—of all of Hawkins’ efforts can probably be summed up in these two expressions:

Of course it’s totally Killer’s turn and time to shine, especially considering 

 all that Kid and especially Killer have gone through, 

But I hope that the Hearts get to extract a bit of revenge somewhere along the line (unlikely, but we’ve had more Hearts time than I expected, so who knows).