#i dont think hotch gives a shit about rossi. if rossi wants protection he can hire someone w his millions of dollars ajksdlhag

[maschotch]

This isn't about the bingo but I was looking at your post from like two days ago about Hotch being paternal with the team and I would kill to hear your opinions about the different way he's protective of all of them. I think a lot of the reason hotchniss is so popular in this fandom is because she's really the one person on this team that doesn't interact with him like a father djdj but even still the way he goes about caring for Reid and Penelope as opposed to jj and Derek is sooo interesting and I hadn't really thought about it before. I'm not sure about Rossi, but he was even super protective of Gideon, who he saw as more of a father figure

the WAYYY that he’s protective of all of them… im gonna cry writing this out i just know it 

his protectiveness of reid is the easiest to describe i think. he understands reid’s struggles and the things he deals with that not everyone thinks about, so i think that kinship helps directly with that paternal relationship. sees him a little bit as himself, a little bit as a son, but mostly for who he is. 

it’s very very similar with penelope, but instead of seeing himself in her, he sees an optimism, a joy, a vitality that he never had. he doesnt want to extinguish that, but he knows she’s stronger than she thinks. not to put this in the cringiest way possible aksjldhg but he’s protective of her like a flower? protects her from external threats but knows that he doesnt have to handle her delicately—he can be a little rough w her to help her thrive. he sees what she’s capable of even when she can’t and that scares her a little

with jj it’s a little different. i think he recognizes that jj is strong in certain ways… i think he also recognizes that jj wants to be seen as strong in certain ways. unlike reid (who i think hotch really views as emotionally young), he’s willing to be protective from a distance. he’s still attentive and ready to swoop in when something becomes too intense, but he has a little more faith and a little more respect for her independence than reid or penelope

morgan’s a little harder bc he has to be sneakier with it asjkdlhga morgan himself is so protective that accepting the same kind of care is difficult for him. it’s just easier for everyone if they both pretend hotch is completely hands off. but i think hotch realizes that if anything he needs to be more defensive of morgan—particularly his emotions/state of mind. hotch knows morgan will push himself beyond his limits and while he doesn’t want to stop him (morgan’s independence is also something hotch encourages), he wants to make sure morgan will come out in one piece lmao 

ur right in that he has a really distinct dynamic w emily. they spend so much time protecting the team that by now he trusts her ability to take care of herself. he doesnt really need to do much askjdhl she’s got it handled. i think bc more often than not she’s the one protecting him that when she suddenly is in a precarious situation, it’s harder for hotch to maintain composure. like… morgan has his back: he’ll keep him safe. but emily supports him: she’ll hold him up. so when emily ever is in danger… hotch gets a little more desperate bc he knows the situation is serious. he's more likely to go a little too far

im soooooo fucking glad you brought up gideon because hotch is more protective of gideon than anyone else. it’s a fierce, unwavering commitment. bc hotch really does see gideon as a sort of father figure (he’s also aware that there are limitations on the reciprocation of that type of relationship) but he’s also aware that while gideon is an expert in certain areas, there are also other things that he’s not so good at. hotch is more than happy to supplement when needed, and he's studied him long enough to know the man better than anyone. so that’s the “care” aspect of the protectiveness, but what makes it soo different from the others is the fervid, fiery defense that’s uncharacteristically hotheaded for hotch. like the “watch your mouth” thing… how many times do we see hotch snap like this when he’s not dealing with unsubs (or abusive fathers)?? he’s so passionate with his loyalty.. a dedication that brings that aggression right up to the surface in a way thats just so fun <3

[maschotch]

The Web + The Eye for Hotch, please! 🤗

the web: what would your character least like to be forced or tricked into doing? what would it take to get them to do it?

i think it’s hard to trick hotch into doing anything, whether he wants to do it or not. he’s too perceptive and too “no nonsense” for that. like morgan, he’s more likely to submit to constant pestering with a fond, but begrudging, eye roll. he’s more likely to affirm boundaries, if only to uphold some half-assed attempt to cover up the fact that their boss is a complete pushover. but thats conditional and mood-dependent, so it’s a toss up at best.

and hotch has a lot more bullshit that he has to say “no” to. he’s given up trying to tell whether the requests are genuine or just to annoy him—mostly because he’s afraid of the answer. no, you cant run gambling ring at the round table after hours. no, we aren’t doing “booty short friday,” please go change. no, you cant play paintball in the bullpen. no, we're not installing a speaker system or rave lights in the jet.

ok i brought up scratch in the last ask and tbh now thats all im thinking about lmao. ig this is technically a horror ask game, so lets get into ttrue emo shit: what is the thing he is most afraid of doing? hurting his family: jack and the team. think of how much guilt he has any time one of the team is injured. he’d go to any lengths to protect them. we already saw that the initial fear scratch explores is the team dying in front of him. the concept of actually hurting them? terrifies him to his core.

i love to imagine what scratch made hotch experience before the team arrived, and one of my favorites is a nightmare of hotch as his father abusing jack. i’ve said it before and ill say it again: i think hotch tries so so hard to be the opposite of what his father was. he never wants jack to look at him the way he looked at his own father. and hotch is so so gentle with jack, taking care not to raise his voice or speak in anger or move quickly in a way that could startle him. an unexpected but welcome bonus scratch wasn’t anticipating is that hotch has already had nightmares of this exact situation. the thought of hurting jack in any way… it cripples him.

i dont think anything would convince him to willingly do it. even if someone held a gun to jack’s head and said they’d pull the trigger unless hotch kills one of the team, he wouldnt ever make a move to hurt his family. it’s a line he absolutely will not cross. it’s something that’s physically ingrained in him at this point: when scratch tries to get him to shoot at his team under the influence of drug-induced delusions, hotch—even though we’ve seen that he’s susceptible to the drug—still doesnt do it. he’s incapable. and nothing is as heartbreaking as the fear in his voice when his trembling hands give the gun to rossi, begging “take it,” with the most distress and genuine horror we ever hear him speak with. its either because he’s still drugged and the command to shoot at the team remains, implying it really was an extreme mental feat to defy the order. or its because he’s so afraid at how close he got to actually doing it, showing how even the thought of hurting them was so debilitating it almost broke him.

the eye: what does your character not want anyone to know? how would they react to people finding out?

oh my god. his homelife. what else could there be? we get absolutely ZERO information about his childhood. and its not like the others are exactly keen on sharing the secret parts of their lives, but it comes out in one way or another. not so for hotch. he keeps that shit locked up tight.

everyone has their own take on hotch’s childhood but we can all agree he’s been abused in one way or another. because it’s something that hotch never says a word about, you know it has to be brutal. i want to keep the response relevant to the question, so i’m not gonna go into the specifics of what i think happened. but whatever it is, he wants to keep it far far away from the team. its an era of his life that he wants to leave firmly in the past—not something he ever wants to acknowledge.

it kills me that we never got an episode that drags them through hotch’s past, bc honestly i cant even imagine how hotch would react. there are just… so many options. is he away from the team, like morgan was? is he there as they piece it together, like with emily? is it something he actually has to tell them about bc theres no other way around it, like reid? whatever the sequence, the end result would be the same: he wouldnt fucking talk about it again. “embarrassed” or “upset” doesn’t quite cover it.. he would be ashamed. not that its anything they would shame him for, but its something he’s kept secret for so long that its unsettling for anyone else to know about it.

im just thinking about how he has no one in his life now who knows anything about his past. even the people he’s known for a long time, like haley or jess, don’t seem to know the extent of it. sean was too young to remember. everyone else on the team has someone from their childhood that they interact with at least occasionally (if we wanna get more specific, everyone else has parents they interact with at least occasionally). but hotch is worlds away from his past. i guess it just worked out that way, but its also probably at least somewhat intentional. and i think thats why its so distressing for anyone to find out. because not a single living person knows.

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