What if Hawkeye had Social Anxiety Disorder

Hawkeye: An Original Avenger

If Hawkeye had Social Anxiety Disorder, that really incredible final battle at Rockefeller Plaza between him, Kate Bishop, and The Tracksuits would never have happened. 

For an Avenger like Hawkeye to have Social Anxiety Disorder, we would miss out on some really cool action scenes. Although using a bow & arrow is badass, being Hawkeye means using strategy to find his targets and complete his mission. Even if that strategy requires him to be more social. Yikes!

Choose your weapon! Who wouldn’t want to master the bow & arrow after watching Hawkeye on Disney+. The storyline tied into Barton’s run as Ronin from Avengers Endgame, while bringing closure Black Widow’s death.

The introduction of two new heroes (three if you count Yelena) Kate Bishop and Maya Lopez, creates excitement for the future of MCU movies, particularly the next “Avengers” type of movie. And of course, seeing the familiar face of one of the six original Avengers is always capturing as it brings interest and, dare I say, nostalgia to MCU fans. Not to mention, Hawkeye on Disney+ debuted a Broadway show about The Avengers’ battle of New York from 2012. Not sure why they named the show “Rogers” when it was all six Avengers battling Loki and the Chitauri. Seems like a bit a favoritism there, huh? The point is Hawkeye is a really cool show giving us tons to look forward to into the MCU timeline. 

Things to know about Social Anxiety Disorder before continuing 

Before we get into the whole “what if” thing, let’s make sure you know what Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is. Click here to learn a thing or two about how annoying SAD really is and why it can wreak havoc on people, including superstar Avenger, Hawkeye.  

If you’re going to remember anything about what SAD can do to you, just remember the two worst things it can cause the Red Face: 

1. Bright red facial blushing 

2. Heavy, profuse sweating 

Both of which are so extremely embarrassing, especially in front of a lot of people. And if someone notices you blushing and sweating and calls attention to it in front of others, you’ll just end up blushing even redder and sweating even heavier. It’s so uncomfortable, ugh!!!! 

The Social Anxiety Scene that would never have happened 

Show: Hawkeye (Disney+, 2021) 

Scene: Episode 6, Eleanor Bishop’s Christmas Party in her skyrise luxury NYC apartment 

Anxiety Provoking Event: Hawkeye attending a formal holiday party with many people whom he doesn’t know and likely to be “judgmental, uppity, upper-class snobs. 

If Hawkeye had SAD, that incredible final battle at Rockefeller Plaza between him, Kate Bishop, and The Tracksuits would never have happened. 

In the final episode of Hawkeye on Disney+, Clint Barton and Kate Bishop find out that Kate’s mother, Eleanor, has been doing business with the mob’s Kingpin, Wilson Fisk. Anticipating that Kingpin was going to instruct his boys, The Tracksuits, to target Eleanor for betraying him, Barton and Bishop go to her rescue. They identified the event in which The Tracksuits would attempt to eliminate her is at her annual holiday Christmas party at her luxury NYC skyrise apartment. And like all superheroes, they were spot on. 

Barton and Bishop arrive at the Christmas party, and like always, Barton does what he has been trained to do: assess for potential threats. Right across the street from the holiday party is one of the leaders of The Tracksuits, Kazi, looking through the scope of his sniper rifle. His original target is Kate’s mom, Eleanor, but he quickly adds Clint Barton to his target list once he notices him looking out the window. Luckily, Barton notices the sniper scope’s laser red dot and manages to evade being shot. 

After some insane fighting scenes and a death-defying fall onto the magnificently large Rockefeller Christmas tree, Clint Barton ends up landing on the famous ice-skating rink (thanks to the sharp archery skills of Kate Bishop freeing Clint from the tree). It’s here that Clint and Kate finally got on the same page and became the team we’ve been waiting for. They just balled out with trick arrows on the ice-skating rink under the beautiful lights of Rockefeller Plaza. With the super cool arrows (including shrinking arrows…thanks Scott), it was awesome to watch the Tracksuits get beaten and embarrassed. That is a scene worth re-watching over and over again. 

If Hawkeye had Social Anxiety Disorder

If Barton had (SAD), he would never have gone to Eleanor’s Christmas party, especially one filled with judgmental, upper-class snobs. Someone with Social Anxiety Disorder does not like being at large social gatherings, like parties. The amount of people there, most of which he doesn’t know creates a feeling of anxiousness. The fear of saying or doing something that might cause you to be judged negatively by others takes control. Fear eventually turns into anticipation, which gets so bad, that it causes the dreaded bright red blushing and profuse sweating. In other words, Clint wouldn’t need to say or do anything at the party. He would just start turning into a sweaty tomato for no real reason. For this reason, Clint Barton would not have attended the Christmas party. 

With Barton’s absence at the Christmas party, Kazi (Tracksuit leader) would not have seen him. Therefore his only (and original) target would have been Eleanor Bishop. That means Kazi would have shot Eleanor with his sniper rifle and went home. He and the Tracksuits would not have pursued Clint inside the apartment building, where he fought them off. There would not have been any scene on the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza. So we wouldn’t have seen Hawkeye and Kate finally work together using a bunch of cool trick arrows. That amazing scene wouldn’t have happened, and we would have all been the unfortunate ones not to see watch it.