Milah: the villain behind Hook

[obisgirl]

I agree with both of you, @jenna_b and @rumplesgirl 🙂

She’s not really a truly fleshed out character on the show.  We’ve only had two episodes with her, both in Rumple’s backstory.  I used to think, it would be nice to know a little more about her in the show but I’m not sure it would be relevant now to the story.

I actually would not even consider Milah a villain since we know so little about her.  She’s more plot device than anything.  In the Crocodile, she was the tension builder between Rumple and Hook. Her death is what moved Hook towards his vengeance.

In Manhattan, the purpose was to show why the marriage between Rumple and Milah deteriorated as such. But even that, wasn’t done well because we saw more Rumple’s side of the story than what Milah went through when he was gone.

She’s also an incredibly trope-y character as well.

[Anonymous]

Milah was one of these one off come and go characters, she wasn’t supposed to do or be anything. Milah’s role within Once was to set up the revenge story between Rumple and Hook and also to give another addition to Rumple’s abandonment issues to show who he is and why he is like this.

[obisgirl]

Yes, you summed it up much better, @amy41

[RumplesGirl]

Milah was one of these one off come and go characters, she wasn’t supposed to do or be anything. Milah’s role within Once was to set up the revenge story between Rumple and Hook and also to give another addition to Rumple’s abandonment issues to show who he is and why he is like this.

Yes. And that’s why I think we can’t look at her as a villain in anyone’s story–Hook or Rumple. She’s a very colorless character that a catalyst for a revenge story between two other characters. That’s it.

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

[Anonymous]

If due to Rumple being controlled by the dagger causes him to act more like the Dark One he was originally then maybe we could see Milah and how the village shunned both of them paralleling Rumple’s need to prove himself and not be seen as a weak coward because we’ve only seen bits and pieces of this.

[Jenna_B]

I think that’s what bothers me about her so much – I just don’t get why Rumple was suddenly the ‘village coward’ and how this was so awful.  Yes, what he did wasn’t brave but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world either.  She seems to be the major catalyst in why Rumple thinks so little of himself and why he considers himself a coward.

I don’t think we need to see any more of her and will not be upset if we don’t!  I do like that she ties Rumple, Neal and Hook together – those connections, how they formed and why they are the way they are now are by far the more interesting stories.

[RumplesGirl]

I think that’s what bothers me about her so much – I just don’t get why Rumple was suddenly the ‘village coward’ and how this was so awful.

Right, she transitions from loving wife to shrew in a split second without letting us watch that happen in her head. I remember after Manhattan, we had a few threads trying to rationalize it: maybe she hated Rumple all along? maybe she had Post Partum depression? Maybe Bae wasn’t Rumple’s son and she felt guilty and took it out on him? ECT

 

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

[RumplesGirl]

Went and found the thread if you wanna see some people’s reactions right after Manhattan aired

Read HERE

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

[obisgirl]

I don’t think we need to see any more of her and will not be upset if we don’t!

I agree.

I do like that she ties Rumple, Neal and Hook together – those connections, how they formed and why they are the way they are now are by far the more interesting stories.

Yes, I love this too.  She is a sore spot but her name does provide interesting narrative when it’s relevant to the story.

[Myril]

Has been said, Milah was more of a plot device than a developed character on her own merits. Nevertheless I found it interesting, how harsh reactions were particular towards this barely developed character. If there is any character on the show I have the impression of actually being hated by a significant number of people it is Milah – and I don’t use the word hate in connection with person/character loosely, it’s not just dislike or not understanding her motives and thinking in her case, and it’s not about any shipping wars.

I think that’s what bothers me about her so much – I just don’t get why Rumple was suddenly the ‘village coward’ and how this was so awful. Yes, what he did wasn’t brave but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world either. She seems to be the major catalyst in why Rumple thinks so little of himself and why he considers himself a coward.

Rumple became a deserter – and for some that is a one of the worst crimes, making you not just a coward but someone betraying family, community, nation. No matter you were rightfully scared for life, might have had family obligations and good reasons to leave even – if you leave a battle, deserts, you’re the worst of worse. Rumple left in a war situation, left the battle. He betrayed his comrades in arms, their families (some of them for sure living in the village), his own family by not staying in arms to protect them. Sorry, but I very well can see, why Milah reacted disappointed and angry. Doesn’t matter if that war was objectively worth fighting for or only the Duke profiting from it, the villagers and people at that point seemed to believe it was necessary (Rumple for sure was excited to prove himself a worthy member of community and not a coward).

She seems to be the major catalyst in why Rumple thinks so little of himself and why he considers himself a coward.

Was she? By now we got to know his father, Malcolm, and that man did damage to Rumple’s self-confidence for a lifetime. Rumple struggled with the heritage of his father, then with the prophecy telling him, he too would abandoned his own son. I am not sure that Milah could have counteracted that even if she would have been as supportive to Rumple as she seemed to be at first, before he went to war. Milah first didn’t want him to go, while Rumple was all excited about being drafted. Rumple wanted to go into war to prove he was not a coward like his father – and Milah didn’t push him to do so, it was very much himself rushing for it. War changes people, Rumple soon experienced that it’s not the big man hero adventure he believed it to be. And then came the seer and told, he would abandon his son, and he started to believe her, when other things she had told him came true soon. Rumple became a (mental) mess, obsessed with staying with his son, with not failing him like his own father had failed him. There was no place for Milah in Rumple’s live anymore. Her first angry reaction was her own wrong, but what followed with Rumple, their marriage dissolving was not alone her doing.

Milah sure was no saint, she did Bae wrong by leaving him alone with his obsessed father, but wouldn’t classify that as villain. Rumple made his own bad decisions. And so did Hook. Hook became a pirate, and though he made it sound like having noble reasons for that at first, from how he acted in the tavern with Milah it looked to me like he already had lost most of that nobility before he met Milah. Think Milah might even have been the one to somewhat remind him of why he became a pirat in the first place, but that is speculation on my side. Could say she might have been Hook’s Belle in a way (which makes it even more interesting to look again at the time when they turned Belle into Lacey).

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