Criminal Minds Headcanons (Meta): Aaron Hotchner
AS OF THE SECOND SEASON FINALE, PLEASE NO SPOILERS BEYOND THEN IF YOU'RE GONNA COMMENT.
So the thing that stands out to me most about Criminal Minds, besides the incredible, incredible way they handle other cultures, ideas, and concepts (as in: anything not straight, white, Christian, cis and American, although they haven't (probably wisely) really tackled anything to do with gender) are the characters. And I could ramble about characters all day. And I have my own interpretations of all of them? Especially the way they feel about each other, etc. So I'm gonna write up my headcanons I think! And post 'em over the next few days while editing/writing this fic that I promise is actually happening.
So, um. This is sort of kind of in order of favorites? But I love them all so much that the gaps between them are infinitesimal.
Aaron Hotchner
To me, Hotch is the textbook FBI Agent. He looks the part. He acts the part. He's collected, he's official, he's polite, but the overwhelming impression he gives off is that he is intense. If someone you hold dear has been murdered and Agent Hotchner is on the job, the murderer will be brought to justice. If your son or daughter is missing and Agent Hotchner is on the job, you will get your child back. That, especially. Any case having to do with children is a case where Hotch's intensity actually gets a little bit dangerous. It is the one place where he will break the rules (well, then and when his team is involved, and in my head his team is as much his family as his wife and son), and he will break them without question if he feels it is the Right Thing To Do. He is a little bit humorless and a little bit hard, too hard maybe sometimes, but he's got this incredible core of emotion that he sometimes lets slip through. When he smiles, the world lights up.
He has a deep understanding of and an incredible trust in Gideon. If Hotch can't do it himself, Gideon can. Often, Hotch thinks Gideon could do it better. He knows more about Gideon than the rest of the team does, but doesn't feel it's his place to share any of that information. He understands that trust must be earned, and values the trust that Gideon has in him enormously.
He's very protective of the Team in general, but probably most protective of Reid. Not because he doesn't think Reid can handle himself, but because he knows exactly when Reid can handle himself. He knows when Reid needs a push in the right direction, needs someone to break him out of his own head and get him moving. He knows what's going on with Reid, and he's decided to let him deal with it unless he reaches out to himself or Gideon. He wonders every day if that's the right decision.
In my head, Hotch is a little bit of a Morgan/Reid shipper. Not really in a romantic sense, but he sees Morgan as Reid's best shield, and the best friend he has on the team. He uses Morgan to keep an eye on Reid. Not as a spy so much as to know that someone's making sure he's okay when he can't do it himself. He doesn't even have to tell Morgan any of that. Morgan knows. Of all the team, though, Hotch probably has the least in common with Morgan - they come from very different worlds, and work in very different ways. However, they connect incredibly well on an intellectual level. Together, Morgan and Hotch can walk through a house and tell the resident things they didn't know about themselves, all the way back to their birth.
J.J, in a lot of ways, is Hotch's right hand woman. He holds no real illusions that he chooses the cases they take; he understands and respects the work she does in bringing the files to his desk. They're very similar in a lot of ways, and Hotch knows that. He knows how hard it must be for her to turn down cases that could very well get worse without their intervention, and completely respects her convictions. If J.J. comes to him and asks him to bend the rules, he's more likely to do it than he would be for anyone except maybe Gideon. Also in my head they have the same taste in women, and Hotch is the first one J.J. came out to at the Bureau. (Yes, my headcanon J.J. is gay. We'll get to that later.)
He thinks Garcia is unapologetically adorable, and holds a kind of admiration for her ability to pull off both that and the genius-level hacking that she does on a daily basis. She makes him smile with her flirting, more than anyone else on the team, and when she's done particularly well he sees no harm in rewarding her with some flirting back. While Gideon is completely clueless as to what Garcia actually does, Hotch understands enough of it to respect it even more.
Prentiss and Hotch got off on the wrong foot. He saw her as trying too hard, eager to get into something she didn't really understand the gravity of. He constantly struggles with the darkness and horror that he deals with every day, and seeing a promising young woman desperate to thrust herself into that world activated his protective instinct hardcore. By now, however, she has fully proven herself as far as he is concerned. She's one of His, and he'll do all he can for her. She also constantly surprises him, something he's grown to appreciate about her. She, also, is someone he knows he can trust with Reid's safety.
And lastly Elle. Hotch regrets letting Elle pull away as much as he did. He feels entirely responsible for what happened to her - not only because he sent her home, but because of the set of morals he feels she learned at his feet. The conviction to do what you think is Right, despite the rules. The idea that there are some things, things that you deeply care about, that are above the law, that should be taken into your own hands. And it scares him a little because he's not entirely sure he believes she was wrong. Out of line, yes, but those concepts are not entirely the same thing. He misses her, and sometimes he thinks about calling her but his sense of propriety as a married man won't let him without some sort of excuse.
So the thing that stands out to me most about Criminal Minds, besides the incredible, incredible way they handle other cultures, ideas, and concepts (as in: anything not straight, white, Christian, cis and American, although they haven't (probably wisely) really tackled anything to do with gender) are the characters. And I could ramble about characters all day. And I have my own interpretations of all of them? Especially the way they feel about each other, etc. So I'm gonna write up my headcanons I think! And post 'em over the next few days while editing/writing this fic that I promise is actually happening.
So, um. This is sort of kind of in order of favorites? But I love them all so much that the gaps between them are infinitesimal.
Aaron Hotchner
To me, Hotch is the textbook FBI Agent. He looks the part. He acts the part. He's collected, he's official, he's polite, but the overwhelming impression he gives off is that he is intense. If someone you hold dear has been murdered and Agent Hotchner is on the job, the murderer will be brought to justice. If your son or daughter is missing and Agent Hotchner is on the job, you will get your child back. That, especially. Any case having to do with children is a case where Hotch's intensity actually gets a little bit dangerous. It is the one place where he will break the rules (well, then and when his team is involved, and in my head his team is as much his family as his wife and son), and he will break them without question if he feels it is the Right Thing To Do. He is a little bit humorless and a little bit hard, too hard maybe sometimes, but he's got this incredible core of emotion that he sometimes lets slip through. When he smiles, the world lights up.
He has a deep understanding of and an incredible trust in Gideon. If Hotch can't do it himself, Gideon can. Often, Hotch thinks Gideon could do it better. He knows more about Gideon than the rest of the team does, but doesn't feel it's his place to share any of that information. He understands that trust must be earned, and values the trust that Gideon has in him enormously.
He's very protective of the Team in general, but probably most protective of Reid. Not because he doesn't think Reid can handle himself, but because he knows exactly when Reid can handle himself. He knows when Reid needs a push in the right direction, needs someone to break him out of his own head and get him moving. He knows what's going on with Reid, and he's decided to let him deal with it unless he reaches out to himself or Gideon. He wonders every day if that's the right decision.
In my head, Hotch is a little bit of a Morgan/Reid shipper. Not really in a romantic sense, but he sees Morgan as Reid's best shield, and the best friend he has on the team. He uses Morgan to keep an eye on Reid. Not as a spy so much as to know that someone's making sure he's okay when he can't do it himself. He doesn't even have to tell Morgan any of that. Morgan knows. Of all the team, though, Hotch probably has the least in common with Morgan - they come from very different worlds, and work in very different ways. However, they connect incredibly well on an intellectual level. Together, Morgan and Hotch can walk through a house and tell the resident things they didn't know about themselves, all the way back to their birth.
J.J, in a lot of ways, is Hotch's right hand woman. He holds no real illusions that he chooses the cases they take; he understands and respects the work she does in bringing the files to his desk. They're very similar in a lot of ways, and Hotch knows that. He knows how hard it must be for her to turn down cases that could very well get worse without their intervention, and completely respects her convictions. If J.J. comes to him and asks him to bend the rules, he's more likely to do it than he would be for anyone except maybe Gideon. Also in my head they have the same taste in women, and Hotch is the first one J.J. came out to at the Bureau. (Yes, my headcanon J.J. is gay. We'll get to that later.)
He thinks Garcia is unapologetically adorable, and holds a kind of admiration for her ability to pull off both that and the genius-level hacking that she does on a daily basis. She makes him smile with her flirting, more than anyone else on the team, and when she's done particularly well he sees no harm in rewarding her with some flirting back. While Gideon is completely clueless as to what Garcia actually does, Hotch understands enough of it to respect it even more.
Prentiss and Hotch got off on the wrong foot. He saw her as trying too hard, eager to get into something she didn't really understand the gravity of. He constantly struggles with the darkness and horror that he deals with every day, and seeing a promising young woman desperate to thrust herself into that world activated his protective instinct hardcore. By now, however, she has fully proven herself as far as he is concerned. She's one of His, and he'll do all he can for her. She also constantly surprises him, something he's grown to appreciate about her. She, also, is someone he knows he can trust with Reid's safety.
And lastly Elle. Hotch regrets letting Elle pull away as much as he did. He feels entirely responsible for what happened to her - not only because he sent her home, but because of the set of morals he feels she learned at his feet. The conviction to do what you think is Right, despite the rules. The idea that there are some things, things that you deeply care about, that are above the law, that should be taken into your own hands. And it scares him a little because he's not entirely sure he believes she was wrong. Out of line, yes, but those concepts are not entirely the same thing. He misses her, and sometimes he thinks about calling her but his sense of propriety as a married man won't let him without some sort of excuse.