You’re right, I do wish we’d had more of Alan interacting with his brothers but also,,,,,,idk I have thoughts that I’m about to just word vomit on you (sorry!)
I think what’s interesting about Alan in this film is how isolated he is, and for me that really underpins why he behaves the way that he does (even if that behaviour is objectively annoying and counterproductive)
Alan is isolated from his family, both by his age and by the fact he’s not a member of IR. We see this in the early scene where they’re having dinner together and his brothers are talking about all these experiences they’ve had together that Alan just can’t relate to.
Hes also isolated from them by virtue of the fact that he attends what’s implied to be boarding school, so he’s presumably gone for months at a time. They could call but I wonder how often they all speak to each other and how much of Alan’s interaction with his family is second hand through news clips.
He’s also isolated from his general peers at school, because his family are these cool basically superheroes but he can’t tell anyone that. He can’t relate to his peers potentially more normal dreams and aspirations because for Alan, he’s going to be a Thunderbird more likely than not but obviously no one believes him?
Then also imo he’s a bit isolated from TinTin and Fermat, TinTin moreso bc she obviously doesn’t go to school with the boys but both she and Fermat appear to have a good relationship with their parents, one that isn’t strained by the spectre of inevitable IR mission work. Like the contrast between Alan trying to tell Jeff about what they found on Thunderbird 1 and Fermat telling brains is like night and day.
Also contrast with TAG Alan who is homeschooled and allowed to participate in missions. He’s much more well adjusted to being left out of certain things because he’s allowed connection and participation most of the time! We see his brothers and Kayo supporting and encouraging him, but also keeping him focused on what’s important and showing him that there aren’t any shortcuts.
I think 2004 Alan is really hamstrung by his desperation to be a part of his own family, and it comes out as the inevitable teenage angst of struggling with self worth and wanting to prove himself. He’s so wrapped up in what he’s supposed to have with them that he’s constantly missing the opportunities to become closer to the people and activities around him.
That scene with Jeff is so interesting bc it does feel like the climax of a conflict that we as the audience haven’t seen. Like Alan is very annoying in that scene because he absolutely messed up and isn’t owning up to that properly BUT I think that scene exposes the real underlying insecurity in his relationship with Jeff in that he doesn’t feel like he’s important to his dad. He doesn’t feel like there’s anything he can do that’ll make Jeff happy with him! It seems like all they tell him to do is finish school but considering he’s at a boarding school it probably kind of sounds like “just go away until you’re older, then we’ll care about what you want” and idk that’s probably me reading too much into it
I do absolutely wish they’d taken a bit more time to acknowledge how Alan was feeling with someone and yeah the spy kids type plot didn’t give a lot of room for that, nor a lot of time to explore Alan’s competencies - like the main issue in the film is his attitude not his actual abilities most of the time and I wish there had also been a physical progression we could see with those but !
Tldr: 2004 Alan is going through it and while that manifests as him being annoying I think the underlying motivations of his character are very interesting and give a lot more meaning to the way he behaves!
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