And finally, Killer pronounces the words that really break Hawkins combat spirit:
“We fought through the impossible odds you foresaw, and we’re still here while you pissed yourself… and quit, fafa..!”
This is the phrase that really incapsulates the difference between the two. Even tho Killer is the one covered in blood, tired from the long night he’s living and with the mask cracked, at the end of the day his resolution is untouched. Sharper than ever.
Hawkins, while clean, virtually untouched and standing on the supposed winning horse, is trembling on himself. Cracking on the inside.
The battle was actually finished with this moment.
THE HARVEST
The Harvest. This is what everything was about: the cutting that separates the ripe from the unripe.
Killer, with his quick mind menages to turn one of Kid’s tragic losses from the past into the key for the victory (the left arm) and with his sharp Punishers slays Hawkins multiple times: his Scarecrow form before, his human arm then, his Strawman head later and Hawkins real body in the end.
Is also ironic how Hawkins tried (and failed) to end Killer with the Death card showed before, the same card that Killer seemed to embody during his assassin service.
But this is only a physical conclusion for their confrontation, the end of it, since the Harvest was a long and slow process that had already begun since the very beginning, since the initial crossroad that had divided them.
Hawkins comes to the realization of this when he draws the Tower (XVI card):
“The Tower card signifies great change, an uheaval of the estabilished order, its hidden meaning… indicates the opening of a new path”
Here is when Hawkins realized that the path he chose was not the one he believed to be, that the Emperors were not as invincible as he thought and that Killer’s path, even if hellish, was the winning one.
Suffering, spitting blood, going ahead no matter what, relying on the skill and believing in the dreams: this is what made Killer ripe, he survived the Harvest and is now the one holding the scythe.
Playing safe, undermining the others and himself, relying on the cards and never on his guts, throwing away hope and dreams: this is what made Hawkins unripe, he didn’t survive the Harvest and ended up being the straw.
*by rerere
