So, I've seen a lot of ppl on tt that comment on how Hotch's backstory was just hinted a few times and never mentioned again and I completely agree with them. I think it's a complete waste how they hinted really interesting glimpses of his past just to be thrown away and never mentioned again, so I wanted to make one of my own to try and make some sense of his backstory.
To write this, I'll build a whole new character around the little hints we've been given in the series and some deduction and personal opinions, which I'll explain later so you understand my POV of Hotch's past. But I would like to also mention that the series are very contradictory with each other, so I'll try to mend some data to make sense of both versions anyway, so sorry if something sometimes doesn't seem to make sense.
So- to start with my opinion of how Hotch was in his 16 to maybe 21? A bit older, idk. It's confirmed he was a troublemaker (season 9, I don't remember the chapter) but also that he thought of himself as a bit nerdy (idk neither the season nor chapter, but he mentioned he liked to collect old coins), so I believe he wasn't the bad boy or the jock, I believe he was something like a troublemaker but a good student, the type of guy you saw doing nothing and skipping classes but that somehow he always got good grades. I absolutely refuse to believe he was a popular guy, more like the one who got in fights with them and made fun of them. M' not saying I think he was an outcast, I'm saying I think he was that much of a mess his whole being was just purely chaotic. I think the general view of the character from other people would be like "that guy who gets in trouble", nothing more specific or vague. About the hc of smoking, I think he did smoked when he was young, but only in rare occasions or that he tried it and found it disgusting, not that he smoked like a fireplace, same thing with drinking and I don't think he ever did drugs, if anything, a joint just to spite his father some time.
But I do believe despiste his trouble maker tendencies and rebellious personality, something he kept for his whole life was that need to do something else for the others. I can absolutely see him letting someone troubled rant on him and just hearing. I also headcanon him as a childparent with Sean before he was send to the internship, but not in a deep marked way, more like doing small things that shouldn't be his responsibility, my main example of this is their father. The biggest and most forgotten hint ever is the fact Hotch's dad was abusive towards his family, and I think Aaron during a period of time was the kind to stand against his father to defend Sean and even reassure him after the abuse was done, but I can see him that, the more he spiraled, the more he mistreated Sean and that initial carrying nature faded away.
As for his mother, I think she was the kind to turn blind eye on the abuse of her husband but that later she was healing her children, asking Aaron to please stop fighting him or it'd get worse, thing that, of course, never happened.
Now- it's mentioned by himself that he eventually changed and got his business together, and from then on he changed to his current personality. But- hear me out, I think something happened to make him realize that he was spiraling out of control and either he relaxed or would lose it forever, my theory is that it was something that involved smth like a guy getting an overdose or similar, and he realized he would end up the same otherwise. I have a lot to say about this possible event, but my absolutely favorite is that he and some friends from the internship did something very stupid, name got into a fight in a bad or stole something or, in general, a crime. Most of the group was arrested but Aaron wasn't, and that's when he decided to change for the better, shaping him into the stern personality he had as an adult.
Anyway- I hope you enjoyed my hc and construction of character(?
