I love you guys.
It’s Once day, it should be a good day with a finale and all, and we have a lot to look forward to. Hope that everyone enjoys it no matter where they watch or chat or avoid or whatever. (I have no idea what I’m doing yet – principal side of me says “say what you want to say” and the trying not to start a fight says “keep dreaming”). So one last thought before the wonderful finale starts and we’ll be too busy fangirling!
WE know and appreciate the bread crumbs that have been there all along and that all the interviews and things that have been said fall into place and make perfectly logical sense. They wanted him in S1, the pre-S1 sketches of Emma included her pirate jacket, they fought to get the rights to Hook who was the ONE character they wanted in S1 but didn’t get.
The way the season was set up, there were lots of compelling ideas of stories that people latched onto for various reasons, all of which could have been the ultimate way to go.
- SF – reason for and breaker of the curse
- SQ – caster of and breaker of the curse
- WS – two lost FTL children who grew up in the real world (similar to SF in that regard)
- Gremma – Emma getting a fresh start with a good guy who hasn’t done anything to hurt her & gives her a flicker of hope that things won’t always be that way (JMO has actually said Emma had a flicker of hope with Graham and then was starting to with Hook…just saying)
All of these things were set up in S1 when they didn’t have the rights to the character they always intended to have. Romance has never been Emma’s total focus, so it was ok that while ideas for ships involving her were all over the place, nothing was set in stone at this time.
Then comes S2 – they finally have the rights to Hook. They “always” intended him to love Emma and tested him out in his first 3 episodes and specifically wrote into Tallahassee all the ways they’re similar and “kindred spirits” and loved it so much and it worked out how they wanted to so they upped him to a regular before we even saw his first episode aired (there goes fanservice).
Then we have a large gap between Tallahassee and Manhattan. By then they knew that they could continue on with what they always planned to do which is CS. By the time Manhattan rolled around, they were blatantly paralleling Neal/Emma to Milah/Rumple (almost verbatim) and making a point that maybe they were meant to have been together for something (namely Henry) and that was it. That was in there from their very first reunion (along with JMO’s interview right after that episode aired that made it clear that Emma wanted him in Henry’s life but that she wasn’t going back to him. Pretty sure JMO has to know that kind of stuff to play it accurately, just like I’m sure Colin’s scripts almost always have something about staring longingly at Emma. They have to know what their character is up to and already knows, much like JMO knowing who Henry’s father was in S1 even though others didn’t.)
They’ve set up the foreshadowy bread crumbs from the start of S2 when they first tested out and then went full speed ahead with Hook and Emma. He may not have been around in season 1, but he was ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO BE. They have maintained all along that they wanted him there from the start, and that they had a specific purpose in mind for him and that that hadn’t played out yet.
Past/Present, Fire/Water, it’s all been there for ages. Even though we didn’t see Hook in S1 which was not their fault, we’ve seen Emma surrounded by water motifs, and even in Tallahassee, the episode they set they specifically put in the kindred spirit stuff and really kicked this whole thing off that made them realize they COULD continue with their original plans, Emma’s request was that they go somewhere near water (2 hrs away isn’t what she had in mind I’m sure).
As for the “villain” stuff, I love that in 3×01 Emma didn’t group him into either villain or hero categories. He was off to the side, his skills as a pirate were valued, and that was that. He’s never really been a “villain” unless he was just a very bad one. He’s always been presented as more of an anti-hero/byronic hero. He’s the only villain I can think of that we actually saw a big chunk of that transformation in his debut. Yes he was already a pirate at the time, but he didn’t become the revenge-hungry Captain Hook until the episode was over, after we watched Rumple kill the woman he loved who died in his arms. We saw what changed him, whereas people like Regina and Rumple who have at one point in time or another been outright villains, were introduced as such and then their backstories that seek to explain this are sometimes hit and miss until more has been explored.
I don’t know why I bother trying to explain this anymore, since apparently people who disagree are all-knowing and were inside their heads from the start, but I never once thought we were watching the Emma/Neal show from the start. Emma’s a main character but it’s always been an ensemble and covering a lot of stories. Again, like that list above, there were a lot of compelling ideas of ways they could go from back in S1 as far as the ships go, and they all make for great story ideas, but the one they always WANTED to go with is only up to them to say. NOBODY can definitively say that it was always about ___ and that’s what a lot have been throwing at us lately, as though it’s our fault that things were changed.
What the writers have said recently just confirms everything we’ve said all along. We didn’t make this up out of thin air. Tallahassee aired far enough ahead of Manhattan for them to say “ok, we’re going with Plan A then because it works and we wanted it all along” and they set things up accordingly from thereon out. That’s why a lot of CSers have always said when he came back into the picture that that’s where we have a lot of our problems stemming from. WL proved that even with horrible pasts, someone can be redeemed enough to be forgiven and loved by the one they hurt badly (and that was within a few episodes!) but on the main show, they redeemed and forgave him, but never put Emma into a position where she was going to take him back (I think the last gifset I posted shows a lot of that particular sentiment based on what she was and wasn’t willing to sacrifice and we’ve discussed her post-Neal “death”/death life ad naseum, I’ll be so glad when we can stop mentioning him again because he served as her past and shaped a lot of her issues but Killian is close to breaking through those walls, thank goodness).
I’m just completely baffled that when BOTH sides say they have a long list of evidence as to how it was always going to be ____ as a couple, and then the show goes one way and the writers say they always intended for that couple to be it, that the fans somehow know “better” than the writers, that it was always going to be something else and attack us for it not happening that way. (And don’t get me started on writer hate, nothing makes me more furious than seeing them be told that their characters are messed up or they screwed up the story. That’s not to say I always agree with them, but it’s their story to tell. Goodness knows we all have stories we want to scream at writers about because we think they’re blind and made a bad choice, but in this particular case, the bread crumbs were there the whole time and knowing now officially that they were essentially “testing out” Hook in those early episodes and after 2×06 was shot and locked they upped him to a regular, it actually makes things make a LOT more sense.)
Think of it this way – what if they wanted Hook and Colin had somehow been…lackluster? (Ok let’s say that actually they just cast someone else by mistake cause Colin is perfect as Hook and of course didn’t mess it up! After all he was told going in that there was a bit of PB in him and he even did the voice in 2×04 – it was always part of his character to be compared to Westley/DPR!) So let’s say that whoever was in his place failed MISERABLY and they were dreadful together but he was already introduced as Captain Hook so that was just over and done with, shall we? (Yes it’s depressing but let’s go with it a second)
- They spent a season building up how much hatred Emma has regarding Neal and their past
- Hook was supposed to come in and be her love interest but have to test things first
- Parallel her past to her present to make sense of why she’s reacting the way she is (ie: too afraid to trust him because she’s been burned before)
- THEN IT ALL FAILS
So what happens?
- They would have set up a somewhat sweet/bittersweet tale of SF from the past which makes Neal a *viable* option that they could fall back on (that kind of story CAN be sweet, we saw it work beautifully on WL and there are always couples that we root for that have that kind of history)
- Hook would have still been out to get Rumple who obviously wasn’t going anywhere
- Hook would have been gotten rid of a la Cora at some point in S2 and therefore would never have been a regular etc
- And they had the perfect fall back plan with 7 episodes between Tallahassee and Manhattan to rework the SF reunion and everything after that
It could have gone that way if Colin hadn’t worked out. It could have, and it would have been realistic and not gone against what they set up even with Emma having a lot of bitter feelings for a long time because she didn’t know what happened and it COULD have been approached in a different way.
But that’s not what happened because what they always wanted to happen was able to happen and still worked perfectly with everything they set up. A LOT of us CSers have had issues more with what happened in NY onwards, and not just the jail thing. We get the jail thing and Emma has forgiven that and understands now at least and has closure on that no matter how painful it was, so that’s a non-thing. But all of those massive problems with the way he was written in Manhattan onward WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if they went that route, but they knew after Tallahassee that their Plan A was a go and went forward accordingly.
It was a nice idea that COULD have been great if written in a way that was meant to make us feel that way. I LIKED THE IDEA BEFORE S2. (Yes I just said that.) It was an interesting idea, I could see the appeal. And this is why I try to let things play out before I get excited about things….
As for the anti-Hook stuff in general (other than him being in the way of another ship and the enemy of a beloved character) comes from certain triggers and if half of them were actually true about the character I wouldn’t like or approve of him either! He gets a bad reputation because he’s a pirate who talks big but he didn’t “take” Milah, she chose to run off with him (she was a lousy wife and mother, but that’s all on her). He was antagonizing Rumple into fighting but again, Hook is the mask he wears.
He has NEVER been shown to be a rapist so I wish people would stop acting like he is one just because he’s a pirate. He charms his way wherever he needs to go, and he is at his core an honorable man who has spent hundreds of years avenging the death of his love. THAT is what his story is. And don’t even get me started on the misogyny reputation! He ADMIRED Milah and let her act like she owned the place and was running point on HIS SHIP. He protected her from Rumple, acting like she was dead and was willing to DIE for it. He let her handle things the way she wanted to on the ship. Women aren’t usually even ON ships because they’re considered bad luck.
From the beginning with Emma, he has openly ADMIRED and been genuinely IMPRESSED BY her and telling her that constantly. When she doubts herself and others are putting her down, he is the one that is building her up and following her lead and going along with her plans. Yeah he must really have a problem with strong women. He treats EVERYONE the same and anybody who gets in his way is fair game, man or woman.
Just so tired of having him ganged up on. Glad I never saw that thread!
In answer to a question, my tumblr can be found here: I tend to reblog a lot of stuff and occasionally meta there. Nice little hideout bubble.
Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Once night and that we have a lot of stuff to fangirl over very very soon!
Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.