i was thinking about my nudge-centric rewrite idea and how i changed a lot of the plot in order to highlight her character, and it got me wondering how i'd rewrite MR with any of the others as main characters. so here's how i'd rewrite the beginning of TAE with each of the other flock members.
angel: i don't think much would change with her, since the inciting incident is already her getting kidnapped. there would just be more of her at the school i guess. tbh, a lot of the plot throughout the series already centers on angel anyway lol. she's literally got 2 of the books named after her.
gazzy: there would be more emphasis on his feelings about angel getting kidnapped. he and iggy would still be left behind, but he'd convince iggy that they should leave and go after the others. shenanigans ensue. he'd probably also play a bigger part in getting angel out of the school. (i know he sorta did in canon, but i also think it's bullshit that he and iggy didn't get caught AND max didn't even mention it, and that the whitecoats just happened to drag the others outside in time for iggy and gazzy to show up with those hawks, etc. so i'd change that whole part.)
iggy: ok i definitely need to put more thought into this one bc iggy is a very complex character, he's just not written as one. there'd be a LOT more attention on max's (and other's) ableism against him, and he'd probably have an outburst about it pretty early on—but i'm not sure if that outburst would actually make everyone stop treating him like a child, even if they say they're going to treat him more normally. he'd contemplate leaving, but also be scared to bc obviously he doesn't have anyone else, and he was never actually taught how to function as a blind person out in the world. (he's gonna get a cane. i think he should have one.)
but i think a rewrite with him would go kinda the same way as gazzy's plot-wise where they both end up going after the flock even before the erasers come back for them again, and they have their own shenanigans before reuniting with the others.
fang: plot-wise i'm not sure if much would change. emotionally, i think he'd be more pissed at max for leaving him and nudge when they're all supposed to be on a mission to save angel. he'd also be more stressed about being responsible for nudge, and probably have a heart attack when she tries to go find her parents because they're supposed to be lying low lol. he'd still outwardly act pretty stoic, but it would be super interesting to actually have him as a narrator.
nudge: i don't think i ever posted my plot ideas for hers, actually. hers has some more extreme changes and sends her on her own adventure: she gets kidnapped instead of angel, and becomes friends with some of the other experiments at the school while she's there. the flock takes a pretty long time to get to her, though, and she later finds out that it's because they were, uh, kind of procrastinating on it. (this is how i think the canon characters would act, not the fanon versions.) she gets pretty upset about it, and when she eventually escapes the school, she goes off on her own with her new experiment friends.
if i thought about it more, i could probably come up with more drastic changes for all of them that would highlight their character arcs more, but these are the kind of surface level changes i'd make (except for nudge, which i've put a lot more thought into, obviously).
