heyy, so i'm writing a fic where alby has a pretty important role: he's not a main character or anything but i just really wanna make sure i get him right. i love him but im not THAT invested in his character and well yeah, i don't want to mess it up. since you're one of the few people on here i've actually seen talk about alby, do you have any thoughts about how to characterize him properly? my fic is a modern au and therefor i don't know if he should have the same angry-guy-who's-actually-just-scared arc, but i also don't wanna just make him a nice easy going guy like the movies did??? sorry if this is a hard ask idk.
hiii, okay yay i love talking about albert so let's go.
This might sound a little bit too deep, but I think big part of understanding how to put Alby in different scenarios is understandin where the 'tough guy' attitude comes from. Yes, while it is something that comes as a coping mechanism in the extreme situation that is the Glade and the maze, there's a reason why it specifically shows up that way, which is the performance of masculinity.
Men in general are discouraged from expressing or even feeling anything but one emotion: anger. Anger is the manliest emotion out there, it is the way men are taught they should express themselves, especially when it comes to negative emotions. If you're sad, you must be angry, if you're insecure, you must be angry, if you're scared, you must be angry.
So, this is something that I like to keep in mind when thinking about Alby's character. Though obviously the Gladers don't recall what values they specifically were raised with, it's obvious each of them has different constructions of their sense of masculinity. They're a bunch of teenage boys, after all.
Alby has a bit of the toxic masculinities. He defaults to anger as his main emotion, which is why early into the first book he's either mildly annoyed with Thomas or yelling at him. He doesn't even really allow himself to show happiness, as we see in the scene where he smiles at Minho, because he probably thinks others will associate that with weakness. Alby uses anger to cover up other feelings, which later in the book are fear and depression that have been building up for years.
Okay, whatever Paloma, let's wrap up the deepness and let's get to the slop.
So how would I take this to a modern au where the Gladers aren't going through the horrors constantly? Mostly, I would just tone down the anger. Alby, I think, is a character that is somewhat insecure and uses this 'tough guy' attitude to deal with that. If they're still teenagers in your au, this is something that I also feel wouldn't be out of the ordinary, since young men try to seem really 'masculine' the most when they're insecure.
Of course, since you probably won't go suuuuper deep with Alby, this insecurity I'm talking about doesn't need to be shown..If he's a secondary character I'd actually avoid it because it might make him come off like, annoying. If he's a supporting character and he's mostly there in scenes where he's a friend to other characters, I'd try to show him as a more 'grumpy' rather than angry character. I also think he has somewhat of an attitude which mostly comes out with sarcasm, and if the au is more chill than anything maybe even let him be more relaxed and actually banter with other characters, which we see a little of in the first book.
If you ever write him for more 'serious' scenes though, I'd say just remember that he's kind of ass at emotions. One of my personal pet peeves in nalby fics (which is what i read mostly) is when Alby is like, really emotionally intelligent and mature when comforting someone or giving advice. If you pay attention to the way he expresses himself when under pressure in the first book, you'd see that's not really the case LOL. I wouldn't make him cruel though, just like kind of awkward and maybe kind of dissmissive, but still making it clear he cares, maybe more through his actions than his words.
In the end, this is all just my reading of the character and how I would approach it, I'm of course not the be-all end-all of Alby characterization lol. Good luck with your writing and have fun!