On Steve and his dad
Nov. 21st, 2011 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
delicatale(Last call if you want a postcard from LA - Leave me your address here!)
I am watching Warrior - during my commute, so I am about 45 minutes in right now, and it's bad quality but urghl, I am an impatient, terrible person so whatever. And, well, watching this is making me think about Steve's relationship with Papa McGarrett.
Canon, we don't know much about it. We know Jack McGarrett was a cop, and sent his kids away - to protect them, however he did not tell them that when he did it. We also know that Steve and his father didn't speak often.
In my head, I blame Papa McGarrett for most of Steve's issues. In my head, they didn't have a good relationship. I imagine a kid, looking up to his dad and wanting to be just like him, but a kid that waits up for his father to say goodnight to him, only to be disappointed, over and over again. I imagine an empty seat at Thanksgiving, Mommy McGarrett working hard to keep her kids entertained, and give them an actual Thanksgiving dinner. I imagine Jack McGarrett to be a man that loved his kids, and to kiss his son's brow at night, when Steve is asleep, but I also imagine him married to his job, distant, busy.
I imagine Steve growing up into puberty and his teenage years and growing disappointed, full of delusions about family values and fatherly hugs. I imagine him thinking he's not good enough to get his father's attention, his mother dying and his father sending him away the last straw. I imagine Steve throwing himself into military school and the Navy and BUD/S to make himself feel worthwhile, to maybe do something worth of his father's attention. I imagine Steve's hero complex and I-don't-deserve-nice-things issue stems from his relationship with his dad.
And knowing that his father came to all his football games, or called the base to kn ow how he was doing in training won't really change years and years of Steve telling himself his father just couldn't deal with them, that they were too much for him, his own kids.
I wish we knew more about his mother. Knew how she was with them, how she acted with Steve and Mary-Ann. Maybe it'd balance things in my head. As it is, I blame Jack McGarrett.
- feel free to totally disagree with me, as long as you don't just tell me I am full of shit ^_^.
I am watching Warrior - during my commute, so I am about 45 minutes in right now, and it's bad quality but urghl, I am an impatient, terrible person so whatever. And, well, watching this is making me think about Steve's relationship with Papa McGarrett.
Canon, we don't know much about it. We know Jack McGarrett was a cop, and sent his kids away - to protect them, however he did not tell them that when he did it. We also know that Steve and his father didn't speak often.
In my head, I blame Papa McGarrett for most of Steve's issues. In my head, they didn't have a good relationship. I imagine a kid, looking up to his dad and wanting to be just like him, but a kid that waits up for his father to say goodnight to him, only to be disappointed, over and over again. I imagine an empty seat at Thanksgiving, Mommy McGarrett working hard to keep her kids entertained, and give them an actual Thanksgiving dinner. I imagine Jack McGarrett to be a man that loved his kids, and to kiss his son's brow at night, when Steve is asleep, but I also imagine him married to his job, distant, busy.
I imagine Steve growing up into puberty and his teenage years and growing disappointed, full of delusions about family values and fatherly hugs. I imagine him thinking he's not good enough to get his father's attention, his mother dying and his father sending him away the last straw. I imagine Steve throwing himself into military school and the Navy and BUD/S to make himself feel worthwhile, to maybe do something worth of his father's attention. I imagine Steve's hero complex and I-don't-deserve-nice-things issue stems from his relationship with his dad.
And knowing that his father came to all his football games, or called the base to kn ow how he was doing in training won't really change years and years of Steve telling himself his father just couldn't deal with them, that they were too much for him, his own kids.
I wish we knew more about his mother. Knew how she was with them, how she acted with Steve and Mary-Ann. Maybe it'd balance things in my head. As it is, I blame Jack McGarrett.
- feel free to totally disagree with me, as long as you don't just tell me I am full of shit ^_^.
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Date: 2011-11-21 11:50 am (UTC)It is so skimmed over. Do we even know his mum's name for sure? Did White mention it was Jo (I was unsure because that is HIS name...)
I do think that Danny's devotion is a device used to directly oppose/mirror what Steve's experience was. Steve: Sent at least 6 hours flight away by his father. At the time he didn't know why AND his mother had just died. His world as he knew it was gone. Danny: Moved clear across the country so he could be a father. Because without Grace, his world as he knew it was gone. And Steve had known Danny 2 days when he bought a dolphin hotel ticket because he knows how important this is, not just for Danny but for Grace.
It seems kind of simplistic to think that His mum couldn't make up for the lack of paternal nurturing/guidance/overt 'love'. But I know for myself how much it hurts when your dad doesn't tell you he is proud of you. And I'm a girl so... We remember the negatives and the voids for some reason.