You guys are hilarious. I love this topic, despite not loving Hook.
Okay, so I don't hate Hook as much as I used to, but I still haven't forgiven him for what he did to Belle. Not loving that he's with Emma because he was a shooty-mc-shooterpants and that's just Not Cool, Yo.
@Katie: I sorta used to feel the same way you did about Hook...and Regina, and Rumple, and ...well, most of the baddies in OUAT, but I've since come to accept that the writers love to redeem villains either partially or completely, aaaand since I don't take the show particularly seriously anyway, it's fine with me.
The way I see it, each of the evildoers in OUAT has one or more "fatal flaws" that overshadows their nobler nature. For Rumplestiltskin it's fear, for Regina it's wrath, for Peter Pan it's selfish entitlement, for Cora it's greed for power/prestige, for Zelena it's envy, and for Hook it's vengeance. Generally, the way the writers separate out the redeemable villains from the irredeemable ones is to give each baddie one or more chances to choose love over his or her fatal flaw. By this metric I'd say that Peter Pan was actually the most malevolent baddie in the series, because he's wholly without love, except for himself. Zelena had a chance to be happy and loved, but she eventually let jealousy and paranoia get the better of her. Cora was pretty much rotten to the core, but she DID love Regina inside that ripped-out heart of hers...buuuut she died before the plot gave her a chance to redeem herself, so...yeah. Hook seems to have taken his chance at redemption-via-love, and Regina and Rumple keep on going back and forth.
Now, in the REAL world, choosing love wouldn't give you a free pass on all the bullshit you pulled in the past. But in OUAT-land, they play by different rules. Love trumps all for whatever reason, and the characters are seemingly so accustomed to crazy psychotic behavior that they're quicker to forgive past wrongs if the perp genuinely regrets his or her behavior. 
At this point, the way I assess OUAT villains is to look at their motivations and past actions and try to determine how big of a future risk they pose. Hook? I think Emma will be able to keep him in line. I honestly don't think he poses that much of a threat to the people of Storybrooke. Ergo, I have no problem with the other characters forgiving him. (Plus, let's be honest...as far as villains go, he's just fun).
With Regina, it's a tougher call. She changes alliances more often than I change socks, and because she has so much spite and anger in her heart, I can't think that her future path will be easy. However, I really, REALLY hope the writers don't use the Robin Hood/Marian thing as an excuse to retcon all the progress Regina has made, because it would be stupid for her to go all Evil Queen-y again just because her new love interest didn't work out. Her love of Henry should trump any romantic disappointments, given the amount of time that's been dedicated to building up the mother-son bond. Unfortunately, she's said herself that she doesn't regret any of the bad things she's done (because it led her to Henry), so that doesn't exactly bode well 
Mr. Gold is another animal entirely. On the one hand, he was willing to freaking DIE to redeem himself in the eyes of his son. On the other hand, he lied to Belle about the dagger and used her as an alibi so that he could get away with killing Zelena. I honestly don't think it's possible for Rumplestiltskin to ever truly be a good guy because of one simple fact: he's the friggin' Dark One. Even if the human part of him becomes a goody-two-shoes, he will ALWAYS have that darkness deep down. It's just the nature of the beast, if you'll pardon the pun. (On an aside, I actually liked what the writers did with the whole duplicate-dagger thing. Rumple's actions were simultaneously devious and just - just because he swore to avenge his son and, as the Dark One, always follows through on his deals, and devious because he manipulated someone who trusted him in order to do it. Of course, I'm SURE it's going to come back to bite him in the ass. It's too bad, too, because I think in a perfect world Rumple WOULD entrust Belle with the power to control the Dark One. My guess is that he's afraid Belle won't be able to keep the dagger out of less trustworthy hands. It's that damn fear thing again, ruining his relationships... Sigh).
As for his physical appearance, I shall bow to your expertise, since my experience with physical attraction is extremely limited. When I see Hook I see "fairly symmetrical with socially acceptable facial hair and the light eyes/dark hair contrast" which deems him attractive in my head categories of how men get classified. Add in pirate leather and that makes him rogueishly attractive. This is how I must go about life to try and understand how others view guys. Yay asexuality.
I am a sucker for the eyes/hair contrast, I'll admit 
It just looks so friggin cool, on both guys and girls. Plus, in Mara's weird little fantasy world, any man wearing pirate clothing gets a +10 to his attractiveness score. I just love the aesthetic. It's SO BADASS 
(In all honesty, though, a huge part of the reason I like him is because of the constant snark. Flirtatious sassing makes me so happy).
Go get him! I shall cheer from the sidelines, after I rescue Belle from her own morally grey romantic interest.
I'm guessing Belle is your favorite character? I actually identify more with Emma, who was herself a thief and ne'er-do-well in the past, so "morally grey" doesn't particularly bother me 
~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =
