Hook! 🍋
Was the lime chosen because Hook is sour and awful and sometimes lime-colored?
1.off the top of your head: notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you (personality traits, important connections/dynamics, voice)?
I stand by my affirmation that he is the easiest Constructicon to understand.
He thinks he's above it all, a true gift of Primus to these simple-minded fools who can't even calculate the bending momentum of a beam in their heads or fix a nanoship. The worst part? He IS good, and you'll be forced to hear it because he won't hold back from praising himself or correcting YOU. Hook should always have an opinion on everything; just because he's a talented engineer and medic, he's all of a sudden the bearer of all knowledge.
He is good at pinpointing flaws but has no introspection. He sweeps his own flaws under the rug (his lack of social skills) or undermines them (his failure to stick to deadlines, which ruins projects and puts people in danger).
Not a guy of many friends, obviously, but who cares? He only respects those who have done enough to earn his respect (as in, have enough skill to match him).
I love his G1 voice. Neil Ross was inspired when he did his bad Gregory Peck impression. IMO he should always be a baritone. My personal voice claim for him in my fan cont. is THE Robert Goulet... That man... That voice.
2.adjacently—do you think fandom does the above traits justice? why or why not?
LOLOLOLOL.
Just because he's the easiest to understand doesn't mean people are making the effort to do so.
I'd separate the weird takes into two fields: the gleeful mischaracterization and the infinite glaze.
The gleeful mischaracterization is the more notorious and numerous one. I genuinely do not get people's wishes to pick Hook to write and make him an incompetent medic. Or make him a smiling buffoon (if I see your Hook giving genuine grins, it's over). I won't even mention [REDACTED], since I've become public enemy number one of those guys, but Hook would NOT do that, no sir.
I'll get something out of my chest. I do get an uncomfortable feeling that some depictions of Hook come from veiled classism. Mostly influenced by the "functionism" of the IDW-verse, but has taken a new form in fanish depictions. Do tell me, what is this obsession with making Hook a medic (or even an engineer) with no certification? Hook, who in IDW canon would've been a lower-class bot. Why, in G1-adjacent verses, isn't he allowed to be on equal footing with the likes of Ratchet? You do know that in G1, it doesn't matter if he isn't an ambulance, right?
I don't think a degree makes someone worthy of respect, but most of the depictions I see portray this as a genuine insecurity of Hook's, and most of them implement the fictional racism written by white people who loved The Green Book (hm).
OK, enough of that!
The infinite glaze field is composed of people who may write Hook in character (yay!), but forget half of his character to give him the biggest junk of all the Constructicons. I genuinely don't understand why people fail to remember the fact that his perfectionism literally slows their job down; this guy's a menace.
3.throw this character at any other character of your choice to bounce off each other as outsider pov to each other— regardless of timeline or logistics (crossovers allowed if you're interesting about it). why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?
Again, one of the more asocial Constructicons, but it doesn't mean he can't be paired with characters he'd hate being around with!
He's so fun to make dynamics for; I especially love pairing him with the meatheaded 'Cons... Like Blitzwing or Nitro Zeus (he exists in my fan cont.). I just need to see him losing his mind, or better yet, running his mouth and getting chased around.
Also, related to my StarScrap dynamic... I think Starscream would gleefully antagonize Scrapper's team, aaaand... Hook is the one who'd crack first and have the funniest reaction.
I imagine Hook, in all his wisdom, underestimating who Starscream truly is, "what is a seeker next to a Constructicon?" and when he feels what the real seeker commander is, well... He's getting thrown around, folded, and thoroughly verbally humiliated. Do not mess with the SiC, he's the SiC for a reason!
Hook threatening to kill Starscream while Starscream dgaf about the jobber
"And Hook? Remember to refer to me as 'sir', in that velvety tone I've taught you." / ref
4.how do you think you would react to this character in real life and vice versa? would you prefer be a million miles out of range, be amicable classmates, or fall desperately in love? (bonus: arrange a hypothetical date between yourself and this character. getting silly with it is encouraged (fakedate them! escape a dinner date through a bathroom window!))
I'm punching holes in his wheels and scratching his paint job with the same screwdriver. YOLO.
5.ideal flavor of rotating for this character? crack them open and dissect them— do you want them tormented, pining, or being loved + comforted? do you have any specific scenarios you like to think about?
You've seen it already. I don't outright torture him, but I love putting him through some Looney Tunes antics, 'cause he's so fun to annoy!
And yes, SOMETIMES, I like to see him being cared for by his team, BUT only after many, many probations. Hook, these people may love you, but I don't. Work your ass off.
6.weave a web of dynamics through the cast for this character: which dynamics are you most interested in? both canonically and through extrapolation/speculation— which dynamics are the richest to you, and why?
THE CONSTRUCTICONS.
IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE CONSTRUCTICONS ARE THE MOST VALUED PEOPLE IN HIS LIFE AND THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN STAND HIM.
NO EXCEPTIONS, NO FAVORITISM.
I'll mention Bonecrusher, but ONLY because he's so similar to Hook in the ways that matter, and people ignore it because they do not understand the GOAT.
7.do you have particular niche takes on this character? defend those takes. (openly controversial takes are permitted, but also: hyper-specific headcanons which you believe in and no one else has considered enough to disagree with yet. pick a hill to die on.)
Oof, definitely!
First of all, I ignore canon and don't make him the second in command of the Constructicons, but that's negligible, considering my Constructicons are far from being a hierarchy.
Second, he comes from an impoverished background. He got lucky in life but is still viewed as uncouth and an intruder in the Decepticon army.
I also like making him very loud and opinionated; this is something I don't attribute to his background (BC is also a lower-class person and prefers to stay silent); he's just like this, naturally. This behavior makes him become antagonized in every setting he's in, much to the Constructicons' chagrin. Hook doesn't agree with their right to be annoyed because he isn't sheeple like them, who bow their heads to every pile of junk around.
I have other HCs, like the bowling thing, but I talk about Hook a LOT on my blog. He's very fun to write. These are just the more... Contrarian takes.
