What is your interpretation/view on Steve's PTSD?
Canon-wise, it’s an odd mix of getting why it’s not presented enough but also knowing the reason they didn’t wasn’t for how they characterized Steve but because they seem to legit forget and only bring it up themselves when they want to add some Steve angst to an episode. It’s a lot to do with the way I guess I view...viewing. This might not make sense so I’m sorry in advance.
I understand that a show is a story trying to be told. Both episode to episode, but also in a season long arc. But I also understand that the writers and actors and producers are all different factions in a way and they don’t always...line up perfectly. So I understand...
That said, the way I view Steve he's had issues since his mother died as a kid. His relationship with John and then how his mind had to compartmentalize as he enlisted and rose in rank, it was just piling up traumas. While serving, he was very young and it was easier for him to push it all aside as he focused on the next op, on keeping his team alive, at making his country and superiors proud.
With Five-Oh, the speed is toned down. Five Oh still does a lot of high action stuff, but the constant ops of a SEAL like him changes. He’s no longer around other SEALs and their mentality of ‘it’s just part of the life’. His Ohana understands as best as their able of his military side, but they also know that it’s not all he is...and more so since starting Five-Oh. So it’s a journey...it’s a bridge Steve has to cross. A very dangerous one, full of traps and trauma, and even if Steve did his best to navigate through it, he never could get past the center of it.
It’s like a sort of limbo. Part of it is because the show never tackled it properly They teased it here and there. Any claims of them doing it is bullshit because if they cared about Steve and his ptsd they would have had it been part of it from the beginning. It’s okay if they didn’t want to tackle that story line as hard, but at least acknowledging it more...even if it was in him denying it, but Danny or others around him seeing signs? Talking to him.
I would have loved to see Steve go to group talks actually. But they didn’t. They gave Eddie’s ptsd more actual attention and just piggypacked the seriousness of Steve’s own issues to his dog. Which....speaks to ...I’m not gonna start that. I’ll vent forever about PL’s lack of care for the characters.
BACK TO MY INTERPRETATION!!! With the mix of what canon did, Steve is sometimes stuck by his ptsd. He can’t move forward completely because of his survivor’s guilt. There’s a lot of people he thinks should be there instead of him, he’s tormented by the people he couldn’t bring back with him.
The only reason he hasn’t crumbled and isn’t completely crippled by his depression and guilt over all of his losses is honestly Danny and his Ohana. On that metaphorical limbo bridge where Steve looks back to the decaying start where all of the ghost of all those he thinks he’s failed smiled at him, they point him to the other side, the side he technically belongs at despite wanting to run back to try in vain to save them all.
On the other side, the side of the still living, Danny and Five-Oh and all the others friends he’s made along the way who loves him for him, call his name...they urge him toward them! And even though each step feels like a ton to make, he makes it...each and every day that he wakes up...
Danny...stubborn, insane, loyal Daniel who is always breaking rules for him, is always running onto that bridge and helping him towards the side of the living.
So if he were ever to lose Danny, there would be no question. He would lose his battle against his ptsd and would run, without a second thought, towards the side of the dead....
He should be scared of how dependent he is of Danny to live but...that’s just fact at this point.
