First: I don’t think that Hook is the only divisive character in the fandom. Neal was perceived very different by different people (and that was not just a matter of Neal or Hook), Regina is seen in very different ways ( there are sometimes quite heated debates about her, which often come up in connection with SwanQueen discussions but are really not limited to it), people have very different takes on Rumple and on Belle, and on Henry as well. Even Snow is disputed. There was a bit of dicussion about Charming/David in season 1 but since then he probably is the most accepted character in the fandom. Doesn’t mean all like him, love him, but he seldom even causes anything like a slight wrinkle of people’s noses. But everybody else of the regular, core or lead characters split up the fandom in factions, more or less getting at each other, some less, some more. By now the different fandom factions have mostly sorted themselves out on different forums, and stay mostly in their circles, occasionally crossing swords and magic wands on Twitter and Tumblr.
Hook gets more attention at the moment because of shipping, because of Emma getting more attention, the finale episode of season 3, which put CaptainSwan very much in the middle of everything, and the ongoing focus on them. But more importantly: I think Hook gets in the way of more than one happily ever after ship (and we’re talking here fandom affairs, it doens’t matter at all if it’s canon or fanon), he is THE bad guy in Storybrooke shipping town, having more than one fan faction against him.
(and I will try to walk a bit in everybodies shoes now, sort of…)
a) SwanFire: Some are still mourning, and Neal was the good guy and hero, why should Emma ever feel for anyone more than for him. He had to leave so she could find her parents, he had no choice. And he came back with her and his son despite still struggling with his father clinging to magic. Even with Neal now gone, the triangle is still in a way alive. Thanks to Neal being Henry’s father it will always be an issue. Hook flirting with Emmma, maybe one can overlook that after a while, adults. But think it would heat up badly again if Hook would bond with Henry with even the slightest touch of fatherly care. Don’t think that would be taken well by parts of the fandom. Befriending Henry a bit out of guilt and for the sake of remember Neal might be okay, but daring to take a place even remotely close to fatherly – no way. It might be tolerable (not acceptable) that Emma has some needs, needs a friend, a new shoulder to rely on, but that is it. Everything going beyond that is an offense to Emma’s first love and the father of her son.
b) SwanQueen: Dashing pirate with a questionable behavior towards woman – no way this guy could be any good, or any better ever than Regina for Emma. Regina should be the strong, independent woman she is and protect Emma, shouldn’t she. Emma can’t be seriously into such a fraud and womanizer, she just was too weak and vulnerable and Hook pushed her until he had succesfully cornered and tricked her. Regina was bad, as some say, trying to kill Emma and all her family in the past (except maybe Henry), alright, but this guy is so much worse. If Regina doesn’t get a chance, such a horrible guy should even less get one.
c) RumBelle: Hook is getting in the way of these two as well. For one Hook took away Milah, which scarred Rumple for life and made him disbelief in the power of love for a while. Tough thing for lovely Belle to overcome. Second: Hook attacked lovely Belle, more than once, and came close to kill her more than once. And as just seen in most recent episode, the feud between these two old men is still burning, and poor, lovely Belle might be the victim. Furthermore when people complain, that there is something icky about Rumple and Belle in love, power imbalance, age, evilness, then Hook and Emma are icky as well, they fought each other first, Hook looked Emma up and would have left her to whatever fate in that place.
d) Outlawqueen: what? Yes, indirectly. I find it quite interesting, that a bigger number of Swanqueen shippers them to have little problem with Outlawqueen than with CaptainHook – which, sorry, tells me, they care litte about Emma, little about diversity on the show, and all they care about is happy Regina no matter how. Regina being Emma’s strong white (or is it black?) knight would be the perfect story, but at least Robin is humble and cherishing Regina as the strong, independent woman she is, so they make a second best ending? Maybe it’s, that Hook is taking Emma seemingly away, while Robin is a step for Regina to grow, so that maybe latter she still could find her way to her true soul mate? Whatever. It is faczinating and raising questions. Hook gets a bit in the way of Robin being the good looking, sharming, sassy man on OUaT now, there are just so many alphas a family can take. Rumble – grandfather alpha, David, father alpha, so they have their places secured, but Hook and Robin are direct compitition (good thing the Knave is only a guest, and likely not of any interest for any lead). At least Emma and Hook should be a bit more decent and stay in the back, after all, Regina is the queen of the show, so don’t take away her place in the main spotlight, aka take away screentime, with some fan service for the teenager faction, let an adult show you the real look and meaning of true love.
e) Rumple fans – at least for those believing, Rumple should have a good end, be redeemed, which mostly goes along with shipping RumBelle. Hook hurt Rumple – that is enough to dislike him, isn’t it. Hook tried to kill Rumple even, though Hook was the bad guy, who has stolen Rumple’s wife and mother of his son from him. And he surrendered Rumple’s son to evil Pan. And we haven’t heard him apologize for any of it, doubtful he even regrets anything.
f) Neal fans – aside of taking away Emma. Hook killed Neal’ls mother and betrayed him in Neverland. And he endangered Neal’s son, his whole family when he helped Tamara and Greg because of his obsession with taking revenge on Rumple. Maybe Neal and Hook had sime sort of odd friendship in Neverland, but he surrendered him to Pan.
Plus a few people, who maybe really just dislike Hook anyway for being a dashing pirate, and few others, non-shippers, who think the character is mostly a joke and only eye candy for anyone with teenager mind (regardless biological age).
I haven’t seen any Duckling or fans liking Emma having that huge of a problem with Hook, even though I think not all liking Emma are shipping CaptainSwan (me for example).
Interestingly, Hook as he is portrayed on OUaT, as dashing pirate, charming, sassy, but sensitive and bound to whatever code he feels bound to, but standing outside established norms, is usually in romantic fantasy the guy to get the big price, the beautiful girl and happy ending, the bad guy with the good heart, the romantic hero. Think of pretty much any Errol Flynn character (who played besides pirates and other romantic heroes one of the iconic Robin Hood versions). Normally that is the popular character in a romance, or has been. Emma and Hook are kinda the version of the romance trope of gallant but maverick thief/pirate/detective gets the princess.
Boiling it down from the point of a person being not much of a shipper of any popular pairing (aside from whishing for more diversity, and shipping general the idea of at least one queer couple on the show, but not SQ, most of you I think know my position on that): Hook is such a controverse, divisive character because of shipping wars. Disliking him is common ground where different factions of the fandom can come together, the culprit some can agree on, even if otherwise they have still a lot of different, and maybe sometimes opposing views on other things. The common foe.
I think there a some different views on why viewer numbers decreased in season 2. Overall quality of the writing, the loss of the new sensation factor, the curse been broken so early, and while some blame Hook, other people blame the mess they made of Regina with Cora in second half, other see the whole Tamara – Greg story has big mess up, or the show getting probably more and more confusing for casual viewers. Not one of the many views as profound research, numbers, analysis to prove their point. It’s a matter of what one wants to belief in and thus find more plausible.
Concering these screentime charts. They might show tendency, maybe, but they hardly can be judged as objective or accurate. I can only guess with screentime is meant every moment shown on screen (though for perception of importance as much talking about even if not on screen can be a factor as well). I am sure those who took these screentime are trying to be accurate, but one person alone hardly will be able to be accurate with such a task. To do it accurate you would have to focus on one character each, and I would suggest watch each episode at least twice if not better thrice to get every minute of screen appearance, front, center, supporting, silent background. If taken more seriously probably should keep record of how much time this was in interaction, speaking, maybe solo, or much only as bystander. It’s not as easy as we think to measure exact time for activity, even if it’s recorded, so one can rewatch it multiple times, clocking. I’ve done some study on time use and time perception studies and their methodes, so have a bit of an idea about it. .
If you have to trust just your memory – forget it. We are rather bad most of the times to tell length of an activity, some factors influence our perception, and then even more, our memory. When we think, a character is important but neclegted, we will likely remember seeing that character less than character we think have taken undeservedly space and time in the narrative, regardless what actual measurement might tell.
Personal bias is something that is quite an issue in research in social science, it is unavoidable, so one has to be very clear in their analysis, where they are coming from, which position you had before starting to dig into things, note anything that might influence your view and handle of research while researching, even seemingly unimportant things (seriously, something as a rainy day could make a difference in how people answer questions you ask them, or how you perceive their anwers).
And as noted by others: amount of screentime says not everything about importance in the story line or on the show, not even at a given moment.
But to amuse us more, nevertheless the tip, that there are more charts on that Tumblr, about season 1 and 2 as well, as there is another overview of season1 and 2 on a another Tumblr
The question in and of itself is also divisive because people on #TeamHook (can I call them that…I hate the idea of “stans” mostly because I have no idea where it came from. What is a Stan? Why Stan? Why not Martha? Or Jim….where was I…)
Stan: an overly (dangerously) obsessed fan of a celebrity, be it musician, athlete, actor. Is described as a blend (portmanteau) of stalker and fan. First used for fans of musicians but is spreading to all kind of celebrities, and eventually as well might spread in use to label the most obsessive fans of a character. Said to be based on the song “Stan” by Eminem (recorded 1999, originally with Dido. Song tells the story of a fictional person named Stanley “Stan” Mitchell, who claima to be the biggest fan of Eminem, doing some really crazy stuff)
(I put the explanation in the glossary as well)
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