i know nothing about prodigal son but your tags on the bird post truly speak to me
this is one of my biggest and stupidest pet (haha hh) pet peeves in fiction, when the writers/whoever are clearly focused on irrelevant stuff like “plot” and “people” and put in a pet, but then don’t actually care abt the pet or what the character should be doing in relation to the pet, if they’re not supervillain material
like, this is sunshine’s cage in pson, for reference:
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. the entire SHOW is abt how the titular prodigal son is not a serial killer like his father - and although i grant you, the fact that he chose to own a bird, nature’s own assholes, voluntarily, does make him MIGHTY sus, he is not the one who went on a stabbing spree at the end of the season, so - but this cage clearly says otherwise!!! and like, it sounds goofy as fuck but i seriously DO have to just. headcanon better animal husbandry in situations like this? he’s supposed to be an empathic person, he lets the bird out during the day or else i can’t believe that is in any way true!!!!!! malcolm bright’s rich person apartment has bird shit all over it and thats the that on that!!!
i actually run into this problem when reading romance novels what feels like a lot? the author clearly believes “giving MC a pet” is effective shorthand for the char being a nice person. until, you know, the pet disappears from the narrative for huge chunks of time and they never show the MC going “wow i need to go home and feed/water/walk/play with my pet”. i dont CARE if its irrelevant to the plot, so is the cat but you put them into the story, now show me this supposedly nice person giving a single shit abt their welfare! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
