#⦓ james hook ⸢ dyn / harry hook. ⸥ ⦔

[pariendae-a]

@belovedstars​ sent  might we have hook’s Thoughts and Opinions on his children 🎤 

     oh boy, what a question. and it’s the kind of question that has been causing me grief since i set up this blog. hook, in general, has a very negative opinion on children. he simply doesn’t like them. especially boys, after all his trouble with boys, it’s easy to see why. on the other hand, as a pirate it’s easy to be superstitious when it comes to girls too. women aren’t meant to be brought on board a pirate ship. so while, in theory, he prefers his daughters over his son he’s also of the opinion that their place isn’t on the ship but on the shore. 

     this leads to some interesting problems. because harry has been nothing but a thorn in his side. he had been genuinely excited once at the prospect of having someone to train and raise in his image, raise to be a captain etcetera etcetera. 

     except, point one, he hates male children. and point two, harry is hardly the ideal. for hook there are a few important aspects he’d want in his children. a quick wit, a classical education, a propensity for the family trade, obedience and good form. and harry doesn’t seem to have any concept of the latter two (and depending on headcanons, often not the education aspect either, though i would say hook is the kind of person to push his children to learning, as someone who attended one of the most prestigious colleges in england). 

        despite hook’s anger issues and his inclination towards violence he does like to focus on having good form, he’s a classic gentleman and he holds himself as such and he holds his children to the same standards. harry’s lack of good form and unwillingness to listen to hook in all things makes him an unsuitable heir. add to that his relationship with uma and you have a recipe for hook in a bad mood. harry chooses to follow around someone smaller than him, someone who, by all accounts, is significantly weaker. but the kicker is that harry is choosing to follow anyone around at all. sidekicks are useless is a lesson he has long since drummed into his children. you can’t count on anyone but yourself. and then harry goes and contents himself with being first mate on a ship run by a woman who isn’t even of a pirate lineage and it’s pretty much an affront. 

          adding to this the canon of harry having been working for hook in his shop and stealing from the register, hook has essentially disowned harry. he doesn’t care for him, probably never will. to add insult to injury harry looks like hook himself, his eyes and hair a constant reminder of a youthful james hook. and he carries his father’s anger issues with him too. harry reminds hook far too much of himself to be comfortable with. and it’s all the bad bits, with none of the good. if hook sees himself as having any redeemable features, he can find none of them in harry. 

           on the opposite end of the spectrum, harriet is perfect at pretty much all of the things he wants in a child. she’s strong willed, self sufficient, a born leader. she seems to understand the concept of good form and- at least while she’s young- of behaving in hook’s presence. on top of this, she’s spent her entire life doing him the fantastic service of keeping his other children out of his line of sight unless he wants to see them. 

          harriet would be the perfect heir, if not for the one small issue of having been born a girl. and as previously mentioned, sailors and pirates have an antiquated view of women even stepping on board a ship, never mind captaining one. so harriet is somewhat relegated even in hook’s mind to the role of ‘primary caregiver’ and not much else. he sees her talent for leading, for swordsmanship, for piracy and there is some part of him that is proud of what she’s accomplished because it’s what he’d want for his children. for them to have their own ships and crew. for them to have a life of their own, worthy of the name of hook. 

          so while he doesn’t particularly like any of his children on a normal day, harriet is probably the favourite growing up, at least until she starts being confident enough to talk back. to throw his life back in his face. to stand up for her siblings. and while he’s still relatively pleased with the ferocity of her anger, he doesn’t want it turned on him. i wouldn’t  go so far as to say he loves her, but he does internally acknowledge that her actions can bring something other than shame to the hook name where his other two children are failing miserably. 

           calista jane, being the youngest, is something of a sore subject. he didn’t really raise her, harriet did most of that. canonically, though, he shared with her stories of his exploits and tales of adventure. and she wants that too. which would be admirable as a goal, but once again he is lumbered with a child who doesn’t fit into his idea of what a good heir should be. cj is loud, she’s confident, she deliberately causes a ruckus wherever she goes and always leaves some kind of mess in her wake. she barely seems to care for anyone or anything but herself and her wants, and though it’s clear she got that from her father there’s something about her that strikes him as being closer to his worst enemy than she is to him. 

           she’s brash, mischievous, self-centred, adventurous and loves to swing around in the rigging as if she could fly. she’s a leader who won’t take no for an answer, who always places herself in charge no matter what. and when hook sees her acting like this, it’s as if the very ghost of pan has come back to haunt him. she’s the worst parts of his history following him even onto the isle of the lost- and he cannot escape her. she might outwardly want to be more like her father, but he already knows what she is, who she is. this keeps him on edge around her, more than anything. 

           hook does not hate his children, though they reflect parts of him and his past that he does not care to be reminded of. he doesn’t like them either. they are a constant reminder of his own weaknesses, his own frail humanity, and the constant passage of time outside of neverland. but they are still his children. they represent his name, his legacy- and he will do anything he can to protect that legacy. from stringing up people who hurt them to trying to bring them back in line when they’re out of it. hook will always want what’s best for himself, and in some instances that means aligning himself with his children. he remains forever trapped between wishing they had stayed at an age where they didn’t argue with him, and wishing they’d grow faster so that he no longer has to see them anymore.

       when things are good he is capable of being good. he will teach them how to play piano, he will read passages of literature, show them how to use a sword or tie a knot. he is capable of it. but when things are bad, when he looks at them and sees nothing but the demons of his past coming back to haunt him, then is capable of true anger and blinding hatred- not aimed at them, but at himself. he just cannot see the difference. this is where they experience violence by his hand (or hook) and heated words. and the longer he spends trapped on the isle, the deeper he spirals into his own head and the more his children appear like haunting demons instead of human beings he helped create and shape. the closer he gets to hating them for existing.

#belovedstars #⦓ james hook ⸢ headcanon. ⸥ ⦔ #⦓ james hook ⸢ dyn / harry hook. ⸥ ⦔ #⦓ james hook ⸢ dyn / harriet hook. ⸥ ⦔ #⦓ james hook ⸢ dyn / calista jane hook. ⸥ ⦔ #long post / #this is so long and rambling and i don't even think it covers everything