Man, where is the hating Alec option?
Like, I already wrote a post on this, but Alec was a shitty father at best.
There’s a lot of options where Ryder can go “we weren’t close” but where is the unapologetically hating Alec?
None of this “my dad” stuff; Alec isn’t a father to Ryder, he’s just Alec, and that’s the only thing Ryder ever calls him.
When he pulls you aside to talk about your sibling, you can’t say “s/he dies, and it’s on you” because he’s the one who dragged you to this galaxy in the first place.
When Liam says “you sound like your old man”, Ryder mutters “don’t insult me like that.”
And then you arrive at the Nexus, and Ryder’s just throwing curses, and wishing Alec was alive so they could punch him, and they just start yelling, “He fucking ignores me my entire life, and then pulls this shit?”
Or when Cora says “what the hell was he thinking”, Ryder can’t snap back, “I don’t know, he didn’t ask me” or “You know him better than I did Lieutenant” or make a bitter joke on Alec being hellbent on ruining their life, and later Cora says “he was right to make Pathfinder instead” Ryder responds “No, he wasn’t! This was my life, and Alec didn’t have the goddamn right to make this decision for me!”
Or later after Ryder Family Secrets, Ryder bitterly remarks to Cora after she talks about how great he was “You clearly have no idea what kind of man Alec really was.”
Drack pretty much earns their friendship for life when they criticize Alec for giving an AI that much access to their own child, and Ryder’s just glad to hear someone else say how fucked up it was for Alec to do that.
Vetra and Ryder bond over their fathers’ fuck-ups coming back on them, ruining their careers and making sure they weren’t welcome anywhere, and having to take care of their siblings.
Ryder wants to sympathize when Liam and Suvi when they talk about missing family, but they really can’t because they don’t know what it’s like to have a father who loved you.
Gil brings up “Alec died for you” and they snap “yeah, and then he hooked an AI to my skull, and I almost died anyway.”
When their sibling wakes up, and they ask “you’re the Pathfinder?” And Ryder mutters “Alec’s final ‘fuck you.’”
And then, shit, man, it’s a bad day to be kett or raiders when Ryder finds out their mother is alive, because SAM Node was almost reduced to circuits.
They bring their sibling to Ellen, and Ryder promises themselves that they will never be Alec and that if he was still alive, they swore they’d kill him, and there is no amount of saving them that could undo what Alec had done.
Just…where is hating Alec, because holy fuck, he deserves it.
I understand where op is coming from with this, but I have to say that ones opinion on Alec seems to stem from what one believes a good father to be.
You see, my father has always been a closed off man. He doesn’t often say I love you or share emotions at all and he’s a workaholic. Most of my childhood I would spend my time at his job with him, or he’d be gone working a tournament. To most that seems like a semi-abscent father, but my father was raised in the 50’s to him this is just what you do.
Even through this I knew my father loved me. He didn’t have to say it for me to believe it. Often times when he went out of town he’d come back with books he thought I’d like, sometimes he’ll send me random text with out of focus pictures of birds and asks me to identify them because it’s something we both enjoy, and just because he doesn’t agree with some of the things I do he still accepts me.
I feel like Alec is this kind of father, and to most people it isn’t what they see as a good father. For example, Ryder’s twin openly hates Alec. Often cursing him and his actions. Ryder seems to be a bit more understanding to me. Alec was doing his job; everything he did was for his family, even if it didn’t seem like it. When he sacrifices himself for Ryder and makes them pathfinder I think it’s a major show of trust. He knows Ryder is up for the task.
Just because Alec is distant and neglects to show a lot of affection doesn’t make him a bad father. Yeah, when he creates SAM and it ruins his kids careers it’s a horrible thing, but to me he is the person who would have hated himself for it, and when they came to Andromeda there is no real moment that says the twins didn’t decide to do it themselves. Not that I’ve experienced that is.
I think Alec is a different kind of father than most people expect. In my opinion I think he’s okay father, he could have done more, but he’s not horrible for it.
That’s just my opinion though.
Captain-Radioactive-Mentality 