@jaspxr ok a lot of people leave a lot of great comments in the tags but this one takes the cake…
hotch is so willing to accept that this is his responsibility when it was gideon’s decision to convince like an emotionally immature but highly intelligent overgrown child into the bau and what they have to deal with every day. and to reid’s credit, he does great and he’s good at his job and he likes the work and he sticks with it for years bc he really does love it. but that doesnt mean he was ready for the burden it came with.
and gideon’s the one who should’ve been there for him!! gideon was the one to bring him in and gideon is the one spencer follows around like a lost puppy. “you look like a professor and you look like his student” its really gideon that spencer looks up to and tries to emulate. but gideon isnt capable of supporting and encouraging that kind of personal growth. he means well, but he has his own issues and hes never been that type of guy.
its just yet another responsibility thats fallen to the sidelines that hotch has to pick up the slack for. hotch is already juggling all the other shit gideon dumps on him (unintentionally, but still) and something like helping someone develop mentally to prepare them to deal with insane amounts of trauma is already a difficult enough task on its own. its hardly something hotch knows how to do himself. but hotch knows its up to him because as much as spencer loves gideon and follows gideon and learns from gideon, hotch is the one who’s actively involved in developing the skills needed for this job—even small mundane things like training at the gun range for his firearms exam. hotch knows if he doesnt do it, gideon certainly wont. and he knows that from his own experience as a young profiler growing up under gideon’s guidance (or lack thereof).
i think you said it perfectly: anyone can play chess with him, he can (and has) learn about profiling from books or others or even just time. but the things that require actual help and instruction and patience are all left to hotch. and hotch, even though he tries, isnt all that great at it either.
Exactly! And thank you :)
I usually just put the emphasis on the first part (and that definitely didn’t come across in my angry-frenzied tags lol). It kinda sucks that everyone (including Hotch himself) just holds Hotch up to a higher standard for no real reason. He may or may not* be good at it, but at least he fucking tries! even though he doesn’t have to and even though this definitely isn’t in his job description. He LEARNS and tries and fails better. The other one just quits.
*and this is kinda subjective and very dependent on your HCs about him, Spencer, and the rest of the team...
