A sarcastic comment followed by a legitimate question turns into disciplining. My goodness.
Let me put it a different way. I am taking “discipline” in its broader sense, as a form of power aimed at changing someone else’s behavior. Sarcastic commentary certainly can act this way, especially if there’s already a power differential at play. If I’m your boss, and you are my employee, and I make a sarcastic comment about what I consider your poor performance, that’s a form of disciplining. Your colleagues around the cooler will agree that I’m being a jerk, but there’s nothing you can do – I’m the boss. Similarly, a teacher or professor might make a sarcastic comment about a student’s performance — though, arguably, they shouldn’t — in order to highlight its poor quality or to put the student “in their place.” Similarly, a parent might chose sarcasm, over, say, yelling or punishment — as a form of discipline. My point was that Hook is an adult, so he is already in a position of power in relation to Henry. However, he is not Henry’s parent — or teacher, or boss, or, really, mentor. He’s there on Emma’s behalf, and on the sufferance of everyone else. Notice, for example, that Hook is the only non-parent in the group. When I say that Hook acts like a frat boy, I mean to say that out of the entire room of assorted heroes and villains, he is the only one who is essentially a 20-something entitled white dude, who’s so far only lived for himself. He doesn’t have children, he doesn’t seem to have a goal or a sense of direction beyond what’s so far been dictated by his hormones, he has never had to sacrifice his own goals/interests/desires for the sake of someone else. He’s self-absorbed and preoccupied with his own sense of identity. Most of the other main characters on the show have by and large grown out of this phase.
I guess agree to disagree. I mean, sure, certain people will use sarcasm to point out someone else’s deficiencies. Whether that is “disciplining” is just something I’m not sure I agree with. I use sarcasm all the time. Most of the time, to just be funny. But when I do use it to “make fun” of something or someone, I’m not really “punishing” them. If anything, I’m pointing out something they may not have seen, and instead of straight up telling them, I’m using humor instead. In this case, I honestly feel like Hook and everyone else were expecting something completely different based on what Henry said he would do. So when Hook says things like “a riveting story,” that’s his way of saying ok, lovely tail about the Charmings, but what happened to defeating Hades? It didn’t feel like he was “disciplining” Henry at all, even in the broadest sense I can think of. I don’t think he was doing it for power, or doing it to try and change Henry’s behavior. It was just a sarcastic comment, that simple.
Now no one else said anything because they are all adults and Hook still acts like a child sometimes. So I absolutely agree there. However, even though he is not related to Henry, I didn’t feel like Hook was really out of line here. These two know each other very well and he’s been dating his mom for awhile now too. And while it was a tad much on Hook’s part (he could have simply asked what happened to defeating Hades without the snark), he did say what he said, and he did put Henry down a bit, even though I don’t think he intentionally meant to do that and I think that’s just his character. But like, I still stand by Hook not knowing the whole situation that Henry failed to tell them about the blackouts and how he didn’t even write that. But Hook just saying it at all, does certainly say something about his character as opposed to everyone else.