#father-son hookfire relationship

[hannahhook7744]

Madhook kids moodboards part 1;

Neal Baelfire Cassidy, the 30 year old son of Milah and Gold. The kinda stepson/adoptive son of Killian Jonws and Jefferson Hightop (in this fic anyway). He is a former thief and a janitor, and the oldest of the kids.

Cassandra "Cass" Seraphina Gothel, the 16 year old daughter of Mother Gothel/Eliose Gardner. Adoptive Daughter of Killian Jones and Jefferson Hightop. She is the 2nd oldest and an adventure loving, bad ass warrior girl who can be seen as a stick in the mud at times.

Prince Edward of Andalasia/Edward James Encanted, the 14 year old step son of Narissa and the adoptive son of Killian Jones and Jefferson Hightop. He is the 3rd oldest and a sweet but slightly dimwitted boy who is the stereotypical fairytale prince for the most part.

Grace Priscilla Hightop, the 10 year old daughter of Jefferson and Priscilla Hightop. Adoptive daughter of Killian Jones. She is the 4th oldest and a hopeful, curious, playful sweetheart.

Liam "Lee-Lee" Jonathan James Jones the 3rd, the 8 year old son of Mother Gothel/Eloise Gardener and Killian Jones. Adoptive son of Jefferson Hightop. He is a slightly cowardly but intelligent and playful young man who wants to explore the world with his handmade grinning cat mask that turns him invisible at will when he's wearing it.

Alice "Tilly" Mary-Anne Jones the 2nd, the 8 year daughter of Mother Gothel/Eloise Gardener and Killian Jones. Adoptive daughter of Jefferson Hightop. She is an intelligent, brave, playful little girl who just wants to explore the world with her brother and her magic mask that makes her immune to memory curses when she's wearing it.

Ginevra "Ginny" Flower Gothel, the 7 year daughter of Mother Gothel/Eloise Gardener. Adoptive daughter of Killian Jones and Jefferson Hightop. She is a snarky and rebellious little girl with a mean streak who would do anything for her slightly younger sister, Harriet.

[im-up-to-shenanigans]

tumblr really is getting me in my hookfire feels today. just made a (slightly incoherent) post about this very thing a couple hours ago only to find this on my dash?????

and like... everyone in the tags are so right but kazzy is literally killing me dead. she put into words things i have thought for YEARS

guys go read her tags (they are everything)

i'm crying rn

[killianmesmalls]

I’m going to add onto an earlier post by @captregina​ discussing the idea that Wish Killian abandoned Alice, though I won’t hijack it as my thoughts are my own and all responses to the below should be responses to me and me alone. So, before I get started, this is likely going to get long and, I agree, likely uses some things that can be labeled as “headcanon” as it is not explicitly, 100% said in the show. However, there are some instances in canon that I believe are meant to be deduced based on our understandings of the character or seeing point A and point C and therefore having an idea of what point B should be. Under the cut for more (and, apologies to mobile users because Tumblr can’t figure its BS out <3)

To make this easier to breakdown, I’m going to go from what we understand about each character, then to the chronological order of their interactions together that we see. 

Killian Jones

We as viewers of seasons 2-6 are supposed to understand—and are given multiple mentions of this throughout season 7—that both versions of Killian share exactly the same history up until around the point of the curse. Now, the precise moment is up for debate, but those few days to weeks are not necessary at this point. We know he was born to Alice (headcanoned with others as Ailis, but I digress) and Brennan Jones, is the younger brother of Liam Jones, and was in relationship with Milah. Both versions lost their mother, were abandoned by their father, were raised as indentured servants on a merchant ship, bought their freedom through Liam’s sacrifice to Hades, went into the Royal Navy, lost Liam, joined piracy, met Milah, lost Milah, sought revenge, and killed their father in an attempt to get it. If you’d like to debate any of the above, we certainly can, but I do feel rather comfortable in my stance. 

We also at this point have an understanding of who this person is. He would sacrifice his life for two things: love and revenge. He’s self-sacrificing for those he cares about, and has repeatedly put himself in harm’s way for them. Now, this is the point where I can offer those who dislike s2-6 Killian to argue the above points, but I do feel that is another debate entirely and either we’d be forced to agree to disagree or it would otherwise be a very short discussion.

The only true argument I can see to the above is his abandonment of Baelfire, which has been agreed upon by many as his most regretted moment in the show. There is a lot to say about Hookfire, but I do think that both versions of Killian instantly regretted this decision and would vow to never commit such a betrayal again. 

Alice, however, is not Baelfire. Sure, Bae was Milah’s son and someone Killian very much cared for, but there are some key differences here. 1) Alice came after Bae and after what likely was something he’d vow to never repeat. 2) While Bae was Milah’s son, he was also Rumple’s son, and the whole 2x04 incident was still very much a sore subject to Killian by the time they ran into each other. 3) Bae wasn’t an infant, wasn’t alone, wasn’t at risk of immediate death, and could be reasoned to take care of himself. Though the experiences between Bae and Alice are not unrelated, they are also almost polar opposites, and what he did to Bae should not be used as strong evidence for what he would do to Alice. 

It is also this point where I’d like to mention to anyone who likes season 2-6 Killian and, for some reason, doesn’t like season 7 Killian that they were at the core the same person, and if you readily believe and love the fact that the person he is at his core is willing to sacrifice everything for a budding romantic relationship, why would this character also not be willing to sacrifice everything for an established familial one? You may not like the storyline of season 7 and this particular version of the character, which is your prerogative, but to believe this version would readily abandon his own child without exhausting every effort to get back to her strongly suggests that perhaps you do not understand the heart of the character. Killian Jones in any reality would do absolutely anything and everything for those he loves most. 

Alice Jones

Even I am guilty of describing Alice of being pure sunshine, rainbows, cupcakes and all things perfect. I mean, she is, but she’s also these things because of her imperfections. She’s impulsive, often naive, and does have a slight hint of her father’s temper. 

Which means, if she has imperfections, the very least she is capable of is responding in a human way rather than being Disney-princess level of compassionate and merciful. Again, human responses are not to be seen as flaws so much as we have this idea in our heads sometimes that, if a character is flawless, then that is equitable with being incessantly forgiving. 

Alice is capable of anger, sarcasm, and frustration (see 7x04 and her introduction to Rumple, 7x13 when she says “you promised me” to her father, 7x14 with Robin, to name a few). It is also then not a difficult leap to imagine that she is capable of holding onto these feelings should the underlying issues not be resolved, say for instance her feelings toward abandonment with her mother both as Tilly and as Alice.

However, her actions toward Killian across the board show a complete lack of anger or resentment. Their interactions are never those of an abandoned child and a neglectful parent. We know, as stated above, that she is capable of these feelings and freely expresses her thoughts without a filter. If at any point she truly felt abandoned by Killian, I have no doubt she would have been shown to show negative, albeit understandable, emotions toward him. 

Chronology

First, as he says in 7x07 when he decides to give up his entire life as he knows it and stay with Alice, “Abandoning people isn’t my thing.” Barring Bae (as discussed above), this has been shown to be the case. While we cannot use any of S2-6 Killian’s actions to back up this assessment, they are still at their core the same person, and have both shown that they are willing to sacrifice everything for those they care about. 

And, in this timeline, the only person left to care about is Alice. 

Most of us know the story now: he gives up his ship, life of piracy, revenge, and potentially even all the contacts he has in order to raise this newborn he was tricked into having. He is shown to harbor no resentment, merely full love and responsibility for this child. 

While I do wish we had been given more glimpses into their lives in those almost 11 years from her birth to his being poisoned, I do think they believe they have given us enough clues to discern the kind of relationship they had and the kind of life they lived in that time. 

The question then becomes what he did in that time between being poisoned and seeing Alice again in 7x08. As Gothel said in 7x13, the poison will corrupt his heart every time he gets near her. We see in 7x22 that this corruption not only means immediate pain, but long-term damage and deterioration, eventually resulting in death. Now, this is where this is somewhere between maybe implied and maybe headcanon: Killian had slightly aged in the almost eleven years between Alice’s conception and when he was poisoned. The rate at which he went from “silver fox” Killian to “Old Hook” is astounding. 

True, very little is said about the time between his being poisoned and when he met Storybrooke Killian and Emma in 7x02. We do know from 7x16 that he had hoped to barter a valuable map for a cure for his poisoned heart, and in 7x02 we know he roamed the realms seeking true love because he knew true love’s kiss was a potential cure. It is heavily implied Killian made many, many attempts at reuniting with Alice, and we see the extent of his deterioration as a result with Old Hook. That is not a man that simply looked up at the tower where his distressed child was yelling for him just after he was poisoned and decided to call it a day. That is a man that repeatedly tried to find a cure or gauge how close he could be to her, his heart getting increasingly “corrupted” and, as a result, his body aging at an exponential pace. 

When they reunite briefly in 7x08, as stated above, her reaction to him is not that of a child that feels abandoned. She’s happy, hopeful, and full of adoration for her father. Had he fully given up, I have no doubt that some of the frustration we have seen Alice show before would have been on full display here. We know from 7x19 and 7x20 that she’s capable of showing anger toward a parent that left. At no point is Killian the receiving party. 

Of course, we know their bittersweet reunion in 7x08 was again to end in heartbreak thanks to Drizella’s lie and Killian’s still-poisoned heart. Still, in 7x08 and 7x14, we know she repeatedly tries to find a cure, and we know his whole reason for joining with Regina and Henry was to have help in finding a cure, himself, though they consistently come up empty-handed. 

Regardless, she still desires to see him, especially on her birthday, and though she doesn’t make herself known, her, ��You look happy, Papa,” and subsequent sad smile show that, again, she harbors no bad feelings for him. It bears reminding that, at this point, the writers have revealed the cause of his poisoned heart, and in the previous episode, no less. If they’re going to write her feeling abandoned, this is the episode to do it in. Instead, throughout this episode, she is shown only to miss him deeply and have great reverence for him, telling Robin some advice he used to give her about how “all the best people are mad.” Furthermore, she doesn’t distance herself from him by calling him by the more formal, often-used “Father” but rather keeps to calling him “Papa”. 

In addition to knowing she looked out for him, it is established in 7x18 that he looks out for her. In spite of his poisoned heart, he gets as close as he can, keeps an eye out for her, and passes letters to her through the help of Robin (which I totally think was a matchmaking tactic, but...that’s a tangent that will end up being another 1000 words). We see very clearly that he’s willing to look after her even though she’s an adult with a budding relationship and a house to call her own, attempting to keep as much contact with her as possible. Why, then, are we supposed to believe he would abandon her as a lonely 10-year-old? He has the same problem in 7x18 as he does in 7x13: the poisoned heart. He’s willing to be as close to her as possible now that she’s an adult, therefore I truly believe he would have done absolutely everything to be close to her when she was just a child. 

When the curse breaks, again we see absolutely no resentment or feelings of abandonment. She loves him, and he doesn’t hesitate to risk his life and endure agonizing pain for her more than once. No second thought, no regard for himself, just him supporting her and wanting nothing more than to keep her safe and happy. 

So, while you may not be a fan of their story, saying he willingly left her immediately after his heart was poisoned is both ignoring him as a character and ignoring evidence to the contrary. 

[queen-mabs-revenge]

Do you think OG!Hook and Wish!Hook are the same, or is one better than the other?

I’ve been eying this for days now at this point and, let me tell you, I did not expect this question to send me whirring off in so many different directions, but long and short of it?

I think the Killian we see in S7 is the better iteration of Killian Jones’s story and I wish it were the one we got all along.

Parenthood is the main crux of this character’s conflict, both as the character of Killian Jones himself and as the concept of a version of Captain Hook, and I think that Killian’s redemption story needs to be centred around that concept in order for him to be fulfilled as a character. Which it wasn’t in his first iteration. I think that unless you’re tackling the idea of Captain Killian “Hook” Jones from the perspective of parenthood, you’re not going to be exploring and reconciling his story through his own lens, but through the lens and to the service of other characters. Which is unfortunately the case with Killian’s trajectory in S3-6 as his story became primarily and nearly solely focused on Captain Swan, but which is rectified in S7 with his role as a father and his relationship with Alice being his main focus.

Um, so this gets long? Under the cut we go!

Just think about it. Every important relationship we see in Killian’s life, and the vast majority of his flashbacks, showcases a conflict to do with parental figures. From S2 we know that his own father had abandoned him and meeting Brennan in S5 only highlights how terrible that betrayal was (plus introduces Liam II). His whole relationship with Liam is complicated by Liam taking on the role of parent and becoming a towering, untouchable Perfect Father in contrast to Brennan’s terrible example. His relationship with Milah starts with a family dissolving and, as Killian tells us more about their relationship in 2x22, we find out that there was this shadow third figure in their relationship who they talked about regularly – her son. And then our second ever flashback of the character relates to that son, Baelfire – and the placement of that flashback in the season finale as we enter into Neverland positions Killian’s betrayal as not only the worst sin he ever committed, but as the issue that should have defined the next chapter of his redemption (The Things We Do For Our Children).

So you have this character, positioned and defined by his relationship to those he sees as parent figures and those who see him as a parent figure, and I feel like because of that you have to go about defining this character’s redemption arc, not only through the resolution of the relationship with the person against whom he committed the deepest betrayal (the mirror of the betrayal his own father committed against him), but with his settling into a role of a healthy father figure. Like, that can’t be a tangential story - that has to be the heart of the matter. And it’s why they kept going back to it in nearly every single flashback: Killian and the relationship between Ursula and Poseidon, Killian and the relationship between Nemo and Liam II, Killian and the relationship between Regina and Cora, Killian and the relationship between David and Robert. This is the heart of Killian Jones’s character.

And as much as I mostly enjoyed Captain Swan at the time for what it was, looking at it as a whole, it wasn’t the true resolution of Killian’s past conflicts and issues, and I think that’s probably a big reason why it was so polarising. Yes, throughout it, Killian did work to become a better man, and I feel like he did have a successful redemption arc, but because that redemption wasn’t being grappled with through his defining relationship dynamic, the one fraught with different levels of failure, I can see why the narrative structure of the conflict and resolution would be a mismatch for some people. Killian Jones never had a fraught issue with being a supportive lover, and so the exploration of his redemption as a supportive lover clearly wasn’t about developing his character.

I almost feel like it would have been better had there been more focus on the Captain Cobra relationship as Killian’s way of redeeming his betrayal of Baelfire, and Captain Swan evolving from that – the two of them bonding over learning how to be role models to this kid. As it stands, the Captain Cobra relationship was way far in the backseat to Captain Swan. But it’s telling that some of Killian’s strongest moments are when Captain Cobra is in the forefront (the moments between them in S3 were amazing [and brought up Bae!] and 6x06 was another highlight). Had Captain Cobra been prioritised as the bridge by which Hookfire was reconciled and the relationship from which Captain Swan developed, you would have had a stronger base for a future that didn’t involve Killian becoming fully defined by his role as Love Interest.

Which he was, especially towards the end. It started with the derailing of planned Hookfire development in S2 because of :cough: extra-textual events, but the writers never really figured out how to recover Killian’s true track from there, and they were always afraid to go too far because to address Hookfire, you have to acknowledge that Millian existed. His story at that point becomes so fully defined by his relationship to Emma that it gets to where his final scene, the climax of his resolution as A Hero is literally taking on every aspect of her life as his happy ending. His story became defined by this amorphous concept of Being A Hero instead of the specific conflict of Being A Parent and I think his story arc suffered for it to the point where resolving him in terms outside of Emma wouldn’t have made sense, because they didn’t give him the opportunity to strengthen his individual relationships towards a resolution outside of her as well as alongside her.

When you get this specific character and strip him of his individual character arc, you get the “resolution” of him striving to ‘reach the bar’ as that vague concept of a hero instead of reconciling the past problematic parental issues of his past. You get a character whose complete purpose is as a vehicle to resolve his romantic partner’s trauma. And you get Lieutenant Sheriff Jones, which was always intended to showcase Killian’s unhealthy attempt to live up to his unrealistic ideas about Liam, and that fractured concept of a parent figure, S5 resolution discarded, being passed off as the happy ending that Killian Jones’s character should culminate in.

Which brings us to Season 7. Where they get a second chance at Killian Jones’s story and how to define his growth through his main individual conflict, and that’s why Knightrook is so important. By choosing to stay with Alice, he’s not only proving that he’s not Brennan Jones, but he’s making the right decision by prioritising his child’s welfare over his revenge and that goes to help start to redeem him from his terrible betrayal of Baelfire.

By raising Alice, he learns what being a parent truly entails and grows to understand Liam as a person rather than an untouchable perfect concept. The little family in that tower becomes the reconciliation of the life he and Milah talked about living by going back for Bae. All of the other acts of villainy that we see highlighted in his backstory are specifically addressed by him giving up his revenge for his daughter and learning how to become a good parent.

Also, meeting on the grounds of their parental failures and successes is really the only way that Golden Hook has a real and meaningful way of reaching some kind of non-antagonistic resolution. There is so much trauma between the two of them, that truly, the only way there could be a meeting would be in connection to their most important defining relationships and the relationships against whom they committed their most egregious sins. Which is part of the reason why the S6 Last Supper truce seemed so hollow.

Exploring Killian primarily as a father allows the progression of his redemption to reconcile the worst traumas he inflicted in the name of his revenge, and the worst traumas inflicted against him in his past.

(Interestingly enough, some of the resolution that SB Killian does get as a father is through a set up of S7’s Knightrook arc.7x02 opening with Captain Cobra and continuing with the CS pregnancy serves as a narrative device to set up S7!Killian’s moral dilemma, and to reveal the importance of the Knightrook story)

And this isn’t even getting into the idea of how Killian Jones as a version of Captain Hook needs to be centred around the concept of parenthood/fatherhood in order to be anything more that a namedrop of the Peter Pan character and a hook for a hand. I thought I was going to include that here, but shit, this is way too long-winded already. Short version: basically Captain Hook is traditionally played by the same actor who plays George Darling starting in the original play and continuing into a lot of film productions [oh god, the whole Milah as Captain Hook meta belongs here but…SO LONG!], and that idea of the real-world father being confronted via the fairytale father is a fucking neato way to explore fatherhood through a fairytale trope that is traditionally used for female characters (good dead mother v. evil stepmother). 

Deciding to eschew that in favour of making Captain Hook primarily a romantic partner takes away the impact of the “twisted original story with the roots exposed” idea that OUAT does when it’s at its best, and which S7!Killian’s story with Alice recaptures.

So basically yeah. S7 Killian is the best version of Killian Jones. Knightrook helps develop Killian’s redemption arc in the way that Hookfire wasn’t allowed to because of the fear it would conflict with S2-6 Killian’s narrowed role as one half of Captain Swan and the cure to Emma’s trauma. S7 Killian also fulfils the Captain Hook legacy as a character that deals specifically with the conflict between fathers and their children.

And also he’s a muffin and I love him.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

I disagree with your statement that "Killian's redemption arc needed to involve fatherhood." No. Children aren't a redemption tool. Parents need to get their crap together before they have kids. Killian did things the right way. He was inspired by Emma to be a better man, and he worked his butt off to prove he could change. That's why we love him. He wasn't raped, handed a kid, and told he gets instant redemption. He became a hero first. And only then did he get married and become a father.

Same anon as the last. Call this 2/2. A big problem with Fake Hook is that he’s a terrible father. The guy knocked up a stranger in a tower where he knew an evil with lived. He created a kid with (1) an evil rapist for a mom who was (2) trapped in a tower with no future. Then he got his heart cursed, abandoned her, and wandered around drunk. Meanwhile, Killian has given his child an amazing mother, a home, a future. Objectively, Real Killian is the better father and the better man. Always.

Ok, 3/3, b/c I’ll defend my Killian to my last breath. The center of Killian’s story was losing his brother and first love and abandoning being a hero (Lt. Jones) for revenge. His redemption needed to come not from having a kid forced on him, but through being inspired by love to give up revenge, to become a hero again. This is why Wish Hook isn’t catching on w/ most Killian fans. That vital part of his story-finding true love & becoming a hero-needs to be earned. Only then should he be a father

Ok, 4/4, I think this is the last. I thought of one more way to express it. Killian didn’t become a villain because his dad left. He became a villain because he was betrayed by royalty and lost his brother. He lost his belief in something bigger than himself. He lost his belief in being a hero. That’s exactly why his redemption story needed to come through Emma, a princess and a savior, even if they’d stayed platonic. He needed someone to make him believe again. Emma (and Henry) gave him that.

I’m not sure why you’ve decided to write all of this without reading the meta this is supposedly in response to?

My entire argument hinged on the idea of Killian’s betrayal of Baelfire being his most egregious crime and that needing to be his main relationship on the route to redemption. That relationship was sacrificed because the writers didn’t know how to deal with both it and positioning Killian as part of the Captain Swan relationship.

Again, Killian didn’t need to learn how to be a supportive lover through Emma’s magical princess love or whatever you’re arguing here. He had a decade long relationship with Milah that ended with her in a position of command on the ship, and them both ready to sacrifice their lives for each other’s wellbeing and safety. Using that as the vehicle to achieve his redemption and hero-story doesn’t serve his character because it’s not something he needed to heal and learn from.

Like again, I’m not going to restate every word of what I wrote, but first of all, he didn’t become a villain after Liam died. He became a pirate as political rebellion. Milah’s death was what started his revenge trajectory (his introductory episode was intended to explain the Hook/Rumple antagonistic history, and to explain his family connection to Baelfire through his love for Milah). The most information we get from him about his own backstory is when he tells Baelfire the story of him being abandoned by his ~*~drumroll~*~ father. He abandons Baelfire in turn, and that’s the story we leave Season 2 to set up Season 3 with. Like IDK what to tell you, but these are canon facts.

Season 2 frames Killian as a failed father figure. He turns his ship around because of his love for Baelfire – Milah’s son, the kid he cared for – who he has just learned has died without his having been able to amend the awful betrayal he committed against him. He literally is set up to identify with David (“The things we do for our children.”)

The fact that you (and I do mean you. The minority who have a hate boner for any Killian development without Emma) can’t envision a story centered around his role as a father without it being his biological CS offspring (love that Henry thrown in there in brackets like the afterthought I argued that he is to the CS story) is just a testament to how much his character was stripped down and made into a prop for that story instead of following what he was literally set up in S2 to be.

(Unfortunately they lost the opportunity to tell the Hookfire redemption story in the first iteration, so they had to tackle the concept of Killian’s (yes Killian’s but lol cling to that ‘fake’ thing, sweaty) parenthood in a different way for S7.)

Also, again, if you bothered to read the original meta, I address why Lieutenant Jones isn’t Killian at his peak, but as someone wearing a mask. Because he’s trying to live up to an untouchable example. Unintentionally set by Liam. His father figure. Like I wrote it with actual words.

I mean, I don’t know what to expect from someone who is blaming Killian for the circumstances of Alice’s conception and Gothel’s secret motives for conceiving a child. You know who else is a terrible parent? Emma – she got knocked up by someone she knew for a few months, created a kid with someone who (1) skipped town and left her in jail as a father who was (2) put up for adoption and adopted by the evil queen who cursed her entire family. Then got out of prison, abandoned him instead of looking for him, and wandered around as a thief.

Oh wow, yikes, see how shitty it is when you try and blame someone for the circumstances imposed upon them? But, sure, you do you, pal.

[transgenderism-horror]

Okay, adding more:

— Flirty mess × Flirty mess is the best duo. The flirtatiousness levels are so huge that it needs to be paired with another to be controlled (this is simply science).

— It's so weird for both of them! Like, If Killian hadn't abandoned Neal in Neverland, they probably would create a father/son bond or something. But that didn't happen! That connection didn't develop and Neal isn't that kid anymore. He's not even Baelfire anymore. There's years of difference between that kid and Neal Cassidy. Like, is there still some Baelfire in him? Yes of course. When we grow up, we don't simply lose all the requests of our previous selves. But again, there is a big distance. And I would love to see Killian noticing that.

It doesn't matter what Killian said in that scene. In fact, Neal isn't really the same boy. He's a grown man that Killian didn't have the opportunity to get to know (and that breaks my heart).

Okay, I derailed from my point. Also the fact that...uh, you know, the Milah thing. It would be even weirder. Imagine Killian trying to deal with the guilt of falling in love with the son of the woman he once loved. Imagine Neal trying to reconcile the conflicting feelings against his own mother and trying to deal with the fact that he was in love with the man who was almost his stepfather. Like, imagine every time Neal sees Killian without his clothes and his eyes flicker to the tattoo that Killian made in her honor. Which is also a promise of revenge against his father (who killed his mother and was responsible for cutting off Killian's hand). It's a lot of guilt to deal with. A lot of baggage for human beings to bear while trying to develop a relationship with each other.

It's sad and beautiful. Beautiful because....yeah, have a lot of pain. But there is also a good side. Neal would never have had the opportunity to teach Henry how to sail if it weren't for Killian. Neal wouldn't know how to map the stars. He wouldn't have learned a lot of things if he hadn't meet Killian on that age.

And I really think his little self genuinely admired that pirate he knew as a child. Who saved him, smiled at him and taught him these little things that are really important. Who saw himself in him and understood his pain. That admiration returned when Neal realized that not everything had been a lie. That that pirate really could be a good man.

They're bittersweet, they're cursed, they could be immensely unhealthy or sweetly healthy. They could be so many things. If only the show treated Neal as a real character, and not a pivot to character development. If only they gave time for hookfire actually talk about their past and not throw them in that love triangle meaningless trash 😩

I'm horrible at explaining why I ship a ship (romantically, in this case) but anyway, I'll try because I was thinking on hookfire and now I want to talk about them. I think one of the main reasons I ship them is the past! It's complicated, sad and tragic and generally that's one of my biggest reasons for liking a ship. Because most people doubt that people with a background like that could genuinely fall in love with each other. But I believe that nothing is impossible (with the power of fanfiction). I'm not much of an angst lover, but the sadness they cause me is another reason for me to ship them. There's something beautiful and melancholy about falling in love with someone you've deeply failed. In looking at the person you love every day and remembering that a large part of that person's suffering was caused by you. I have similar feelings with swanfire (I don't know if it's just me, but I can draw parallels). It's just deliciously painful.

I also think their personalities match. They would be silly and funny, and Neal would make Killian laugh freely with ridiculous jokes and he also would get really exasperated every single time (because he might have chosen someone worse than himself). They would compete every moment, for no reason, like two children. They would be a mess and they would be really wonderful while being a fucking mess.

The last reason it's because they're sexy. End of discussion.