[tearsofthedrag0n]

Can’t believe we never got the backstory on whatever the hell Hotch’s thing with fire was.

Like it was clearly a thing for him, fire was one of the few things that made him lose composure more than once yet we never find out?

[hotchestokes]

This scene of Hotch understanding what to say to an abused child when no one else could get through to him, and, the following reactions of the team, lives in my head rent free.

They may have never outright mentioned Hotch’s childhood abuse after 1x8 but it was in no way forgotten.

[hotchestokes]

I will never be over this

[moo9395]

Despite the fact that after 1x8 Hotch being abused as a child is never mentioned again (a fact that annoys me no end) it is literally present in everything he does.

You can read it so clearly in the subtext:

Camera angles

His lines

The general character/ his personality

Body language

I could go on.

UGH ITS JUST SO GOOD

[nabakovian]

hotch and gideon never say anything to morgan about carl buford in profiler, profiled but the way hotch refuses to meet gordinsky's eyes as he walks away at the end and then watches him leave with pure hatred in his eyes.... the fact tht he was the one who figured out what morgan's secret was.... oh abused child solidarity.

[holoship]

[maschotch]

[vivienvalentino]

hotch really went on a stand and called the defense attorney a broke manlet

[vivienvalentino]

there are these moments in criminal minds when hotch figures something out but he never says anything, he just starts staring, like in 4x14 when he clocked cybill shepherd's husband and he just

like just confess at this point

[nabakovian]

was just listening to a podcast episode about nameless, faceless and it's incredible to me that there are people out there who understand foyet's interaction with hotch in that episode as sexual in nature but don't acknowledge it as rape. like rape being such a taboo subject that people would sooner call a character's relationship with the man who stabbed him 9 times and tormented him for months on end "enemies to lovers" than admit that it was sexual violence... actually makes me freak out

also like. not to point out the obvious but this show inflicts SO MUCH sexual violence on the female victims-of-the-week, so the fact that people get so squeamish about the idea that anyone could interpret something that happened to a main character as sexual violence is TO ME indicative of a deeply ingrained belief that rape is shameful to the victim and would somehow diminish that character.

[constellationskate]

autistic hotch is so important to me

holding intense eye contact to the point it’s uncomfortable with people he doesn’t know, because that’s what he was taught to do - look them in the eye. but looking at his hands or at the ground with his team because he’s comfortable enough to not have to assert that he can function ‘regularly’

hotch creating a script for small talk because no matter how hard he tries it does not come naturally

the way he’s the only person who can deep down read garcia and reid - ie, the two most obvious autistic characters on the show - and understand what the rest of the team may consider to be their ‘quirks’

his ties are assigned based on their colour/day of the week. he has a pair of each tie, one set at home and one in the go bag, so he’s always ready to wear the right tie on the right day

speaking of clothes, his suit is his safe outfit. that scene in the hospital? you know the one, ‘where are my clothes, please’ he is DISTRESSED being out of his own personal assigned uniform, specifically the fact that he was put there by someone else’s doing

i could literally go on about autistic aaron hotchner for HOURS

[criminalmindshyperfixation]

i could write a whole essay on how hotch gets quieter the angrier he is

[moo9395]

Despite the fact that after 1x8 Hotch being abused as a child is never mentioned again (a fact that annoys me no end) it is literally present in everything he does.

You can read it so clearly in the subtext:

Camera angles

His lines

The general character/ his personality

Body language

I could go on.

UGH ITS JUST SO GOOD

[criminalmindshyperfixation]

gideon was so soft with hotch. that fucking scene after he gets choked in s1ep8. the way he speaks to him so softly and comforting. and the way he kinda holds him. i’m crying

[lariloveshotch]

I'm a bully | Aaron Hotchner 1x08 - 2x15

[criminalmindshyperfixation]

hotch when the case involves children:

hotch when the case involves child abuse:

hotch when the case involves a family annihilator:

hotch when he thinks something might possibly be his fault:

[existential-flu]

there's something so fascinating about the physicality of Hotch. he's tall, strongly built, and he uses that, he's commanding. he's loud, his voice carries well, but he's rarely violent. he's a clean shot, he's steady. that drops when he's not in charge of a situation. his voice gets the softest of anyone on the team. he moves stiltedly. stands awkwardly, like he's trying to shrink - he makes himself look smaller. he fidgets but it's isolated to areas of his body, the rest of him freezes. when he loses control he tears down to bone. screaming in the face of fire, beating Foyet to death. inherent violence tamped down and down. and you know it's there, when he's physically commanding, but it's not far away even when he's not.

[thomascromwelll-deactivated2025]

Damian Lewis as Henry VIII Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light | Episode three 'Defiance'