one of the things i’ve always found interesting about thk that i’ve never quite been able to put into words is the way “father/son” dynamics are played with in the show. and i put father/son in quotes because 2/3 of the relationships i’m talking about are actually brothers but in both of those cases you have the older brother acting like a paternal figure for their younger brother (kant/babe, fadel/bison).
those dynamics in particular are interesting to compare because kant essentially IS babe’s father. he had to take up the role of caring for babe since he was very much a kid himself - he RAISED babe, babe says it himself explicitly. and yet, to me, their dynamic feels a lot more brotherly in nature than fadel and bison’s. it’s not to say fadel and bison don’t feel like brothers at all, they certainly have their moments! however, a lot of the time fadel does come off more like an overbearing father to bison than an older bother.
and i think a lot of it does come down to the different situations they’re in and thus the different ways they handle their brothers as a result. like, the two of them have the same motives throughout the show: protect their brother. but where kant wants babe to have freedom, to have a life, to accomplish his dreams because he is babe’s sole caretaker, fadel tends to squash bison’s dreams in way of keeping him safe from their mother and from the law.
and then there’s the jay and style dynamic which, funnily enough, is the one i think feels least like a normal father/son dynamic despite it being the only ACTUAL father/son relationship in the show. at least not in the proper direction, because a lot of the time it comes off more like style is taking care of jay than jay is taking care of style. not that jay doesn’t have his moments, but often it does feel more like style is the “father” between them. which, knowing style’s mom died when he was a teenager and that he had to step up in that way, it makes sense!
like, one of the moments in particular that stands out to me with regards to jay/style feeling more like the reverse of what it should be and kant/babe feeling more like brothers despite essentially also being father/son is the way kant/style handle telling babe/jay about fadel and bison being in prison.
babe is implied to be fully aware that bison is locked up and is even sending him books about prison breaks to read, while jay is completely unaware fadel is in prison after several YEARS of him being there! like you would think kant would be less likely to tell babe because of how young babe is and wanting to protect him from the knowledge of what bison did, and yet he seems to have no issue telling babe! and you would also think with how close jay and style are and just who style is as a person that he’d feel comfortable being honest with his dad about it. and while it’s entirely possible he didn’t tell jay because he wanted him to keep a good opinion of fadel, to me at least it comes off like it’s more out of protection.
idk i just find the way those three dynamics parallel each other and are weaved into the story so very interesting.
