And while I am no CS fan, I do think the ship is being written better than you do. But if you say that CS fans can’t hear anything negative about Hook, I think you could say the same for SF fans who are quick to find things wrong with Hook and dwell on them. It works both ways. You can’t say there is bias on one side and not on the other. My whole point was that other characters on this show get more passes, or at least their actions don’t get dwelled on as much as Hook’s, it seems. One example was when Hook took the book out this season and reminded Emma of who she was and that she can do anything she puts her mind to. Many fans were annoyed bc they felt it was just Hook being Emma’s lapdog again and only serving to act as her supportive boyfriend, when in fact, the scene was actually really sweet and continued to put Hook in a great light this year. But let’s say it was Robin telling that to Regina (like he did all the time and literally only served as her lapdog for years), many fans would have loved it. Robin was just as boring as Hook but people on this thread loved Robin and hate Hook. I had people tell me they shouldn’t have killed off Robin just bc he was poorly written and was boring. I was told that just because the writers didn’t flesh out his story and only used him as a support shoulder for Regina, that it didn’t mean he needed to die becasue it sends a bad message to families watching the show. Ok, well Hook is basically serving the same role here with Emma. Never once were people this annoyed over Robin’s role until AFTER he died. But with Hook, it’s completely different. And if you think that Robin getting a pass and Hook getting more scrutiny has nothing to do with inherent bias within the SF fan club who simply don’t care for Hook bc he’s not Neal, then I think we aren’t being honest with ourselves. And I think THAT is just one instance of the double standard Mike is referring to that can get quite annoying for people who are fans of Hook as a character.
I used to absolutely hate Hook but this season, I actually kind of like him. He genuinely apologised to Belle for what he did to her and even offered to help her out, not because it benefitted him in any way, but because he genuinely wanted to help. THIS is the Hook we needed to see several seasons ago before Emma got together with him. I think the main issue with CS is the build up. There was no reason why Emma would’ve gotten with Hook when she did, other events which should’ve been important to Emma were ignored such as Neal’s death because that should’ve had an impact on Emma, in general the writers were lazy with developing Hook and rather than show him progress, they just told us he was redeemed. Considering the way he was introduced, more effort needed to be put in to make his “redemption” believable. Also, in the early days of CS, it did seem like Emma was spending all her time exclusively with Hook and other people such as Henry got forgotten. In fact this season, I’ve actually liked Hook more than Emma. When Belle came into the diner looking for a room to stay in, Emma disparaged Granny’s rooms (which was uncalled for IMO) yet did nothing to offer Belle an alternative place to stay. It was Hook who actually stepped up and offered Belle alternative accommodation. For the past couple of seasons, Hook has kind of been Emma’s lapdog but this season he does seem to be moving beyond Emma’s vicinity so good for him!
Robin was a wasted opportunity because he never moved past being Regina’s lapdog. For me OQ was more badly written than CS. At least with CS in the episode “Tallahassee” you can see the chemistry. With OQ, Robin had just literally met Regina, we find out later that EQ was responsible for Marian’s death, and yet Robin is completely unbothered by the fact that Regina was the EQ. Even though the audience knows Regina has changed, Robin shouldn’t know that so it would’ve been more natural for him to show some initial distrust of her, at least until she saved Roland from the flying monkey. The relationship could then be built from there. As it was, Robin immediately fancied Regina and what made it look even worse was that Ginny was visibly pregnant in the first episode of 3B so it looked like Robin helped Regina up but left a heavily pregnant woman lying on the floor.
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of Felix