Milah: the villain behind Hook

[Marty McFly]

Milah: the true villain behind Hook…….

She was the one to bully everyone and I bet she made Hook become the bully that he was. I bet she was too much of a coward to leave her married life and run away with the pirate, so she devised a plan to get rid of her husband, by having her pirate friend propose a “fair duel” and killing her useless husband. (well, he WAS useless to her. he wasn’t able to bring customers anymore because now he was branded The Coward)

she didn’t want to become the village tramp, she wanted a clean getaway. kill Rumpel and marry Hook. good plan, until Hook decided not to kill him, but just throw him off the ship or rather Rumpel decided not to duel… either way, she didn’t get what she wanted, but still made Hook feel like he was only MAN if he bullies others. which is why he bullied the crocodile before he knew it was the DO

[RumplesGirl]

Milah is by no means my favorite ONCE character. She might be ever so slightly below Pan on my list of most disliked.

But I think blaming her and calling her a villain is *easy*

And nothing on this show is easy. Just like everyone is a shade of gray on ONCE, so is Milah. She is neither 100% horrible nor 100% good. The biggest issue with Milah is *shock* the writing. We are given very little insight into Milah’s mind and how she thinks because she is such a one off character. She’s there to give Rumple a tragic backstory to elicit sympathy for him. But we’re never really given an explanation for her rapid change in character from loving wife to shrew. We just have to accept that’s what happened because the writers are working in a limited amount of time on a TV show.

I don’t like the idea of saying that Milah made Hook into a bully because I’m fairly certain that Hook is a grown man who makes his own choices–be they good or bad. We make our own decisions in life, no one dictates for us. It’s like saying Rumple is at the root of everyone’s problems–but they all made choices to act a certain way and do certain things.

Screwball Ninja has an interesting essay on Milah and how we have to take certain key factors into consideration when we think about these less colorful (in terms of development) one off characters. It’s well worth the read.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Phee]

She was the one to bully everyone and I bet she made Hook become the bully that he was.

He was a pirate before meeting her. He was a womaniser before meeting her. So I’m inclined to think that he was already plenty corrupted, and Milah didn’t have to influence him in that regard, (though she certainly didn’t discourage those qualities in him).

I’ve seen some comments in various places now and then about how it would have been an interesting twist if Milah herself had been the one to become Captain Hook vs Rumple’s Crocodile.

[obisgirl]

I bet she was too much of a coward to leave her married life and run away with the pirate, so she devised a plan to get rid of her husband, by having her pirate friend propose a “fair duel” and killing her useless husband. (well, he WAS useless to her. he wasn’t able to bring customers anymore because now he was branded The Coward) she didn’t want to become the village tramp, she wanted a clean getaway.

I wrote a fanfic about this, that Milah was hiding below deck somewhere when Rumple arrived and the duel happened.  Milah was listening to what was going the whole time, to see how Rumple would react to her leaving and see if he would fight for her.

I don’t think she intended for Killian to kill Rumple, just see if Rumple would fight for her.  I think that might have been the deciding point for Milah, if Rumple would prove that he’s not a coward.

[ozgrl]

 Milah was listening to what was going the whole time, to see how Rumple would react to her leaving and see if he would fight for her.

I don’t think she intended for Killian to kill Rumple, just see if Rumple would fight for her.  I think that might have been the deciding point for Milah, if Rumple would prove that he’s not a coward.

This reminds me of what Pan had Bae do to Rumple when he joined the lost boys.  All Rumple had to do was ask Bae to come home with him, and Bae would, but he didn’t, he took action.  With Milah it seems that action was what was needed, instead of words and he failed there; with Bae it was words that was needed and he took action.  He seems unable to read his family properly and know what they need of him.

[Marty McFly]

because action would have been suicide as someone who never dueled before to try and take on a professional pirate

and words would be useless because he couldn’t possibly trust Pan to keep his word never to come after Bae.

so in both cases, doing the opposite was a lose/lose situation

[obisgirl]

Milah was listening to what was going the whole time, to see how Rumple would react to her leaving and see if he would fight for her.

I don’t think she intended for Killian to kill Rumple, just see if Rumple would fight for her. I think that might have been the deciding point for Milah, if Rumple would prove that he’s not a coward.

This reminds me of what Pan had Bae do to Rumple when he joined the lost boys. All Rumple had to do was ask Bae to come home with him, and Bae would, but he didn’t, he took action. With Milah it seems that action was what was needed, instead of words and he failed there; with Bae it was words that was needed and he took action. He seems unable to read his family properly and know what they need of him.

I agree.

[Anonymous]

Yes Milah abandoned her son, and that in itself is wrong because she had a choice whereas most other parents on the show had to because certain situations forced their hand. I think that’s why she can be seen as evil because if anyone else had that choice they’d stay with their child. I always felt bad for Milah because she was compromised and put in a situation which she never thought would be possible. In regards to Hook, Milah had nothing to do with him, he just like every other character has a past that is messed up, for someone reason or other which has led him to make mistakes.

[Jenna_B]

I agree with you, @Amy41, in regard to Milah’s choices concerning Bae.  As a mother, I can’t imagine ever leaving my child behind, no matter how unhappy I am.  I wouldn’t stay in the relationship with the child’s father ‘for the child,’ because having experienced parents in an unhappy marriage who eventually separated, I can say with certainty it is never better to stay together ‘for the child’.

I also think she’s a little harsh when it comes to the ‘village coward’ stuff.  Maybe because we don’t get to see the village reacting to Rumple after he returns from the wars, but I don’t think it was necessarily the worst thing that any human did in the history of all the realms, like Milah makes it out to be.  I do think part of the reason Rumple becomes so incredibly weak after he returns and before he becomes the Dark One does have a lot to do with Milah and her treatment of him.

Um, yeah, so you could say I don’t like Milah.  🙂

Hook and Milah’s relationship is a little cloudier for me.  I don’t believe he was lying to Bae when he told Bae he could stay with Hook and they could be a family.  I think, being abandoned (because yes, I also believe he was abandoned by his father, and felt abandoned when Liam died), he probably had a lot of problems with the fact that they left Bae behind in the first place.  But what was he to do?  He’s not Bae’s father, the decision to take Bae with them had to be Milah’s – and she chose to leave him behind.  Maybe he shouldn’t have let Milah come with him…I don’t think Milah gave him the option to stay in the village and settle down because the reason she fell in love with Hook is because of his adventure stories.  But then, even if Hook left Milah behind, I’m not certain she would have returned to Rumple and Bae.  I also do have doubts that they would stay together forever because they were sooo in love…but that’s getting into a whole separate Captain Fire, Hook’s real reasons for revenge headcannon!

Is Milah a villain?  Are any of the main characters true villains (Pan & Cora aside)?  She’s no more of a villain than the Dark One or Evil Queen.  She’s terribly flawed, and (in my opinion, completely unlikeable!) but she’s not evil to the core.  I could see her turning into a ‘bad’ person like Dark One or Evil Queen, had she not embarked on the specific path she chose to take, or died so soon after taking that path.

[RumplesGirl]

She’s terribly flawed, and (in my opinion, completely unlikeable!) but she’s not evil to the core.

(bolded for emphasis)

And I think that was the point. It’s important to note that she wasn’t introduced in a Hook centirc as Hook’s TL/first love (whatevah…lol) and in fact she and Hook are on screen together in two scenes only, the small one as the fight between Rumple and Hook ends and then on the ship. We know nothing of Hook and Milah’s time together apart from “they traveled together”. Instead she was introduced in a Rumple episode, the shrewish wife of the sad!Rumple Peasant!Rumple that tugs at a lot of people (I recognize it doesn’t tug at everyone). Instead of billing her as Hook’s love, it was “this is Rumple’s wife who ran away from her life and left her son.” She’s there to make you feel sorry for Rumple. I would be really surprised if we ever saw her again in Hooks’ context. If we do see her again, it would be Rumple’s story again. They want you to understand her, but not go overboard with the sympathy–thus why each episode she has been in has been Rumple’s. And also, why I can’t them bringing her back for more (even if it’s Rumple’s story) because they showed how she began, how she changed, and how she ended.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

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