I think I need to help some people understand Rogers, his relationship with his daughter and exactly how his poison heart actually worked. Because I’ve seen a lot of people (you know the lot) spreading misinformation to others, which isn’t a surprise since they openly admit to not paying any attention to most of Season 7 and only actually watch the scenes that they personally like and accept.
Let’s start with Rogers motive for trading places with Original Killian in Episode 2:
Actions speak louder than words.
Rogers did indeed, brag to Killian that his plan to was to steal Emma and he mentioned to Tremaine that he had left Killian to die (of thirst) so that he could take his place. However, for all he talked about doing this, all Rogers really did was knock Killian unconscious and leave him untied on the middle of an open cart in the middle of an open street where anyone could have found and help him. Or where he could have recovered in his own time and then given chase (you know, like he literally did!). There is absolutely no way this could have been a murder attempt. He clearly was a guy who was just talking big to seem more intimidating and just needed Killian temporarily out of the way in order to get True Loves Kiss from Emma to cure his heart.
Why he only started searching for Alice after his meeting with Killian and Emma:
He was a miserably depressed wreck. Right up until he met Killian and Emma. It was only after Emma gave him a second chance by saving his life, and also gave him her own little hope speech, that Rogers was able to pull himself out of his depression. Emma’s kind words gave him the inspiration and the strength to put himself together and continue his search for Alice once again.
Why did Rogers stay away from Alice and not just stay on the other side of the room:
Because that wouldn’t have worked. We see many instances where even being in the same room as Alice causes him a great deal of pain and physically pushes them apart.
It wasn’t a case of touching Alice made his heart weaken. It affected him when she was so much as even near him (as Gothel herself says when she’s explaining it to them right after she originally poisoned him). Being across the room from her would literally just mean that a child Alice gets the utter horror of watching her father slowly die while in constant and steadily growing agony.
Why he didn’t die by her side anyway so as not to leave her alone for so many years:
Because after he was dead, Alice would still be trapped in the tower. Oh and THAT WOULD BE A BLOODY MESSED UP AND TRAUMATIC THING TO DO TO YOUR OWN DAUGHTER!
Why did he just run off to get drunk:
At first, he didn’t. Rogers spent many years searching for a cure for his heart as well as a way to get Alice out of the tower. It was only after years and years of failing that he became depressed and let his depression get the better of him.
Now I can somewhat understand why some people might still dislike him for this. (Though it does bring up the question on how sympathetic they are to people with depression…) However that still doesn’t mean he just shrugged and went drinking the moment he was poisoned like some claim.
Because the poison would still have eventually killed him. The way the poison works is that it gradually made Hook’s heart weaker.
Just so we’re clear:
Rogers heart didn’t weaken when Alice was around and then strengthen back up once she was gone again.
What the poison did was steadily make his heart weaker after every encounter they had. The pain he received may have eased over time but the damage it did to his heart did not. It stayed with him and eventually his heart was simply going to be weakened too many times and it would just have given out and he would have been killed.
You know, like it was doing in the same scene where Rogers is far away from Alice and with Robin instead. He’s still dying and struggling so much that he can’t even stand straight for long periods of time. Because his heart has taken so much damage from just being near Alice that he is literally dying (albeit slowly) in this moment.
Why he didn’t use True Loves Kiss with his daughter:
He couldn’t get near Alice. Every step towards her was causing him utter agony and began killing him! When they did, somehow, manage to rush a hug - they barely had a chance to fully touch one another when the poison quite literally propelled Rogers away from her.
Why Alice didn’t have True Loves Kiss with Robin:
Because Alice wasn’t the one poisoned.
Rogers was.
That’s why he was the one who needed TLK.
(Emma kissing David while Snow was under the sleeping curse wouldn’t have woken Snow either.)
Why Rogers didn’t send Smee or someone else to look after Alice for him:
This was never canonly stated but I feel like there are a lot of reasons as to why Rogers never got help. The most obvious being that he had no idea where Smee and the crew were (they were sailing the seas somewhere and Rogers no longer had a ship to chase them). However I also always thought that Rogers knew no one would do it.
Smee was willing to take his ship because Smee (as well as the rest of his crew) are pirates! They want to sail seas and be free. Smee respected Rogers as his captain, sure, but not enough to give up his entire life to babysit for him.
Not to mention that pretty much all of Rogers’ crew actually gave up their loyalty to him in favour of Blackbeard anyway.
Because. Again. They’re PIRATES! Aka, BAD SEA PEOPLE!
Otherwise I believe that Rogers didn’t trust anyone to watch Alice. And honestly, why would he? He’s been tricked twice by Gothel now, so I imagine he knew he couldn’t find anyone else because (apart from just generally not knowing anyone else who could) he also couldn’t trust they that were genuine and not another Gothel scheme in disguise.
So in summary:
Rogers was not an evil man.
He wasn’t trying to steal Emma or kill Killian.
He didn’t abandon Alice the moment he was poisoned.
He couldn’t have ignored his poison or worked around it.
He’s not a perfect guy, but he’s not a terrible father, either.
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