I totally hear you, but i just think the writers write by the seat of their pants. They don’t know where they are going, so i have a hard time believing that there is anything to analyze. I also remember those quotes, but i think the writers were writing a different Hook then, a completely different show then. A show, where Neal was still coming back in the future, he was still the guy that Emma was angry with, but had loved for ten years. That Neal was the connection between Rumpel and the family. Those strings were still being pulled in, so Hook might be there, but Neal was coming.
That is all gone now. They flipped an insane switch, ruined their show, and killed Neal and Hook took over as Emma’s love interest. Nothing about what the writers say now makes me think that what you are writing is what they are doing. That was what they were doing then, Hook was just fun in Vegas, but not now. Now, they intend for Emma and Hook to be romantic and for us to like it and accept it as romantic. Every time i see the writers get annoyed in an interview when people ask questions about Emma and Hook or the show in general that they don’t like is just proof to me , in my opinion, that they are simply bad writers. The mess that was 5A is proof enough to me that they have no plan. The beginning of that arc is completely unconnected to the end.
PS. Completely agree with Rumplesgirl. I also agree that i love your analysis, slurpeez. I hope you keep writing them. I just don’t see it as possible. There are too many outside factors, outside of canon, the way the actors and the writers behave when talking about the show, that i just can’t dismiss. That alone with their treatment of the LGBT storyline, their treatment of rape on this show, their treatment of persons of color, their treatment of women on this show. They don’t live in the real world. They live with their head in the sand.