#hypershock

|| CW for topics related to mental health, addiction (obviously, I mean its Hypershock I'm on about here), physical and mental abuse implications and suicide ||

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I feel like despite what lack of character we know about him, Hypershock is written to be a tragic character.

The base stuff we know is that he is an alcoholic with anger issues, but what exactly lead to him turning to addiction? And in most cases anger issues have a trigger of some sort- it makes me wonder what actually happened for him to fall into that state?

I definitely care more about this because I RELATE very strongly to Hypershock; I have and still do struggle with addiction (especially alcoholism and drug addiction) and have IED so he's such an interesting character to me for relatablity reasons mainly, although the general concept of his powers also greatly interest me and always have (we're here to talk about his life tho so I won't go over his powers in too much detail, although I will bring them up now n again)

Given his powers for a start, a lot of people do attribute his powers to his drinking issues and personality, which i do find pretty interesting of a concept- the idea of a supers powers somehow dictating them as a person is a neat idea and the idea of him using alcohol to negate any negative effects of his powers is also a pretty good hc I've been commonly plastered onto him.

Personally speaking, I could see a case where his powers did intact become the catalyst to his addiction and temper; maybe he accidentally harmed another super or a civilian while using his powers and that broke something in him? I think that could work especially because (very loose connection coming up) his NSA voice note drastically contrasts with his profile picture which gives me the impression that the photo for his file is old and was taken before an incident that pushed him into his addiction and affected his temperment. He does seem genuinely happy in the picture so it seems like a bit of an odd thing for the picture to not match up with the description or audio log.

I also see a case (and I do use this theory in my hc for him to some degree) where his powers caused him an injury that would cause him to turn to those. A brain injury or chronic pain causing injury could cause someone's temper to change drastically and can sometimes cause people to be more prone to addiction as a way to numb the affects of their injury. I've seen like 1 person on here take this angle for him (or imply it at least) which I do like a lot.

My personal take on this issue though includes his other traits such as requiring praise and stuff like that. That specific issue seems to be implying a bad experience in childhood to me, maybe the way he was raised could of been the cause of his addictive nature, hot temper and need for validation and praise?

Perhaps he was abused by family? Abused by someone close to him (i.e. a family friend, friends, bullies or anyone of that nature) which could of led to a need for praise, to know he's good enough and doing a good job.

Maybe he had a generally unstable childhood? Perhaps he was in a similar case to Thunderhead with mental health issues or neurodivergent that led to his younger years not feeling stable for him (again, I can relate to this angle heavily so I see it as a possibility, especially with the neurodivergent angle you could apply to him, and we already know HE IS mentally unstable to some degree, I mean, listen to his audio log and read his description- you cannot convince me that guy is in a good headspace at all.)

Moving on from prior to the hero ban stuff, I also wanna talk about how these angles could affect him leading up to his death at the hands of V.4.

Starting on a positive note, think the ban would give him time to actually improve his mental health- he has like a whole 12 to 13 year period where he can adjust to normal life (and hot take here- I think he would be one of the supers most likely to react well to the hero ban, going off his audio log in the NSA files and some throw away lines in the lego game he doesn't really seem to enjoy being a hero all that much and seems to view it almost like a chore except for the part where he helps and saves people). I think if he kept in contact with people he seems to be friendly with, like Mr Incredible (not all that likely with him tho) and Herb he would maybe be able to worm himself out of the hole he was stuck in, perhaps going to therapy for his anger issues and alcoholism (and generally any other addiction, given the time period the hero ban takes place and the fact he was a world famous super alongside the likes of Mr Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone I have reason to believe he could also be addicted to other substances such as drugs or smoking). Although then this raises the question, if he did get better and was generally happier after the ban, why would he go to Nomadisan island TWICE?

This leads me to the more likely option, where he wasn't able to or refused to work on himself for whatever reason and he deteriorated further after the ban. While I genuinely think he would prefer the ban originally, maybe he felt powerless knowing he couldn't help people the way he used to and he struggled to adapt to that lifestyle as time went on. That solves the motivation to go to the island option easily enough.

Another thing, and people apply this VERY HEAVILY to Universal Man in particular, but this could also work incredibly well for Hypershock given what we DO know about him; what if his death was intentional on his half? This is in the 2nd case scenario above where Hypershock further deteriorated during the ban. I mean, he beat V3, he definitely knew the Omnidroids were dangerous enough to kill because he's not stupid- he has a decent intelligence score compared to similar heros like Thunderhead or Universal Man, The Phylange and Meta Man for some examples; I genuinely feel like he would understand the danger he was putting himself into by going back to that island. So in this scenario, whatever happened prior ban and post ban could of directly played into his death, maybe he just gave up and let himself be killed (or even worse, went back with the intentional of killing himself). I feel like he could of had the motives to do that- as long as anything I've discussed here was intended for his character or could be intended for his character as we get more comics and animation related to the incredibles.

No angle turns out good for him, and although this post is very much headcanon being built up from fragments of canon information, the information we do have about Hypershock does imply something quite devastating about him if you look into it hard enough.

He is one of the supers who leans very heavily into the dark themes of the first film (even technically the second film too even though it wasn't as darkly themed as the first) and with those supers I feel they, and particularly Hypershock could be greatly expanded upon in upcoming incredibles media. There is so much you can do with these characters with what traits are already assigned to them and a really really REALLY hope the directors and anyone involved with the story of the Incredibles eventually decides to do something with them all.

It would be great if we could learn more about Hypershock in particular- I think I've made it very clear on multiple socials that I love this guy to bits so would love for him specifically to have some more relevance at some point or another. Perhaps in another prequel book or comic? Another unlikely to options is with the third movie or an animated series where he could be expanded upon to some degree, either through his eyes or the parr families eyes (primarily Helen and Bob but I feel like there could be a chance for maybe Violet to know him to some extent given her age).

Anyways sorry for the long ass yapping, I have been this characters biggest fan for 18 years now and I love talking about his character on a way more complex level than what was probably intended for him icl.