The thought came to my mind and sparked some curiosity, so I wanna know(if u feel comfy sharing!!), what's your take on why Zico and Zeca live w/ Zé? By the looks of it, I imagine he's their legal guardian, so you can't help but wonder what happened to make it end up that way.
My personal headcanon for it is that the twin’s mother wasn’t the best parent, but something happened that made her completely snap, which eventually lead to the twins being taken away by CPS. Zé was informed of this, and while It took a lot of thinking, he decided to adopt the kids. He didn't want them to suffer their whole life in a foster home, or be with somebody who might not even love them like a real parent should, so he stood up and took responbility. At first it was hard, as the people who had Zico and Zeca were hesitant on giving the kids to him. Everyone was, I mean, the guy has a reputation for being extremely lazy, how could he take care of not only one, but TWO kids? He fought in court, and proudly won the case, becoming their legal guardian.
(Bonus hc: Panchito and Donald helped a TON w/ raising the boys, once they learnt Zé had taken custody, they immediately rushed to Vila Xurupita to help. They were there for 2 weeks, but once they had to go, Nestor immediately showed up, boxes filled to the brim with supplies needed to take care of toddlers, ready to help Zé just has much as his partners did.)
Sorry if I started to ramble, I rlly like getting deep into things like lore and general hc’s😭😭
Hi there!! Thanks for sharing your headcanon, it was an interesting read!
And yes! By the comics, José is Zico and Zeca's legal guardian! He attends the twins' school festivals, parent-teacher meetings, cooks their meals and it's pretty much the only adult shown being responsible for them (having been threatened more than once with having the twins taken away from him as well LMAO). There is no mention of their mom or dad and weirder yet is how, despite the twins refering to Zé as "uncle", Zé is more than once said to be an only child!
I do love the idea of Zico and Zeca not being blood related to Zé, so that's a headcanon that I do consider canon compliant (at least for now). At the same time, I'm not a fan of José being the sole caregiver for the twins or that their parents are completely taken out of the picture, as the comics insist on doing! At least that's my take in regards to their mother.
Single mother households make up a significant proportion of Brazilian families, especially in favelas. So I think it would be cool for this aspect to be represented using these characters as well! I like to think Zico and Zeca's mother is still present in their life but, unlike Zé, she works all kinds of crazy hours to provide for her kids. Zé helps her out by staying with the twins while she's out and he's some sort of godfather to them, hence the uncle title 😌
I do think it would be a funny gag for her face never to be shown, at least to kind of keep the tradition the comics have of never refering to Zico and Zeca's parents. I guess it would be some sort of middle ground XD