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 03:25 pm (UTC)I wish they'd explore it more because I think that would add more layers to Steve.
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Date: 2011-11-21 03:28 pm (UTC)And, ugh, I was sure it was John ^_^. But nooooo.
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Date: 2011-11-21 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-21 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-27 08:31 am (UTC)On his headstone, which we see at the end of ep 104, Lanakila, when Steve & Mary are having the picnic by their Dad's grave, it says "John McGarrett" along with his dates of birth & death (the date of death is the same as the date of the S1 premiere... September 20, 2010); so John is is given name.
His nickname is "Jack", which is a normal nickname for men named John (President John F. Kennedy was also referred to as "Jack", for example). That's also the name Chin--who'd been trained under & partnered with Steve's Dad at HPD, so he'd have a familiarity with him--uses for Steve's Dad in ep 102, Ohana. Chin says something like "Jack McGarrett considered any day Steve McGarrett played at Quarterback a day off" (maybe not a direct quote from the ep, but at least a paraphrase of the line), when Steve expresses surprise at Chin's previous revelation that he & Steve's Dad used to come watch his HS Football games.