Hanzo Shimada loved Genji and I'm tired of pretending he didn't.
I get him. I truly do. I also come from a family that was broken. Where (in my case) my dad wasn't around, and I had parents and elders and people to keep happy who hated each other and fought nearly every day. Who may not ever have explicitly stated expectations, but they were very much still there. Where I pulled myself in EVERY direction to try and keep the peace, to try and pick up the pieces and make it WORK even though it clearly wasn't. THAT is what Hanzo has done his whole life.
And gods, the anger that came with it. Anger, that no one else seemed to be trying as hard as I/he was. That if THEY just put in the effort, as I had been, everyone would be happy again.
Hanzo must've loved Genji more than the stars and the world itself. He never stopped. He never stopped loving his brother, even as he cut him into bloody pieces. Because even though Hanzo would break the world for Genji, Genji would not have done the same for him/his family.
In Hanzo's optics, Genji never cared. In Genji's optics, Hanzo cared too much. Both were correct and incorrect in deliciously angsty ways. But to say Hanzo "never truly loved" Genji? Means you don't understand his character on a fundamental level.
He was parentified and had to be an adult before he could even deal with the grief of his mother. And then his father, his abuser, also died. But it also left him with no one.
Hanzo Shimada (for as much flack as I will get for this) did VERY LITTLE wrong, with the cards he was dealt. The only mistake he made was breaking and giving into the anger and hurting Genji (misplaced), whereas he could've left the clan with him instead.
Sunk cost fallacies are hard to get out of, especially when you've been abused and are practically in a cult.
