#Thank you tumblr user Bistic for indulging me and my barmy ramblings!! 🤍

[total-drama-brainrot]

Exactly what I'm talking about!

José having to balance his own innate need to be accepted by his family - since he's assumedly the middle child and therefore needs to accomplish more to stand out amongst his brothers (middle child syndrome hits hard) - and the detrimental effect his chronic overachievement has on Alejandro is a super interesting and, as far as I'm aware, unexplored valley of possibility to take his character down.

Which can be made even more heartbreaking if you portray José as being unaware of just how deeply Alejandro takes each outshining. He's an oblivious antagonist in Alejandro's life who only ever intended to be a good role model for his younger brother. What's more tragic than someone who unintentionally and unknowingly becomes a villain in the eyes of the person they care most about?

Having their personalities clash in such a way that they both end up inadvertantly hurting each other through the lack of mutual understanding, exaserbated by the conditions of their homelife and, as you mentioned, the impact of a "traditional masculinity" on their behaviour, is a much more realistic and interesting dynamic to write for the two than just having José act as a one-dimensional bad guy.

Because we see the impact of José's behaviour on Alejandro in canon; his inherent need to prove his worth by winning, his aversion to the nickname "Al" or other variations of his name, his poor reaction to losing (when he isn't throwing on purpose). But we don't see how José is impacted by Alejandro.

Imagine this. You're José. You try your best to be a good big brother to Alejandro, even if he doesn't seem to share your joking nature since he always ignores your teasing and generally meets your attempts to bond with a glower, but that's fine because you love him anyway and you're sure he loves you too. Sure, it hurts when your baby brother constantly rebuffs your affection, but you know that Al tends to be a lot more serious than you, so you try your best not to be sour over it. The only thing you two seem to really bond over is your shared competitiveness, which is something your parents (stern as they are) encourage between you two. So you engage in as many challenges with Alejandro as you can, spurring on a full-blown rivalry between the two of you, which - at least on your end - is mainly an excuse to spend time together. There's nothing more to it, just a friendly rivalry between brothers. But then you find out that Al doesn't see it that way. In fact, he hates you, and thinks you're dead-set on causing him as much pain and hardship as possible by consistantly outperforming him. Now, all of a sudden, every cold shoulder he's turned your way that you initially shrugged off as a standoffish temperament take on a new meaning. Every vitriolic insult he'd spat at you during whatever competition of the week you two engaged in is no longer just him getting lost in the heat of the moment, it's genuine resentment. A realisation like that has to hurt. What do you even do in that situation?

So now you have a José who's being faced with the consequences of his actions, despite how good his intentions were. Because from an objectve point of view, he was kind of an asshole to Alejandro, he just didn't realise or intend to be.

Does he struggle with a sudden bout of self-doubt... and perhaps even self-loathing, for inadvertantly hurting someone he cares about so deeply it made them hate him? Does he refuse to believe the reality of the situation and lash out against the idea of him being the "problem"? Does he try to apologise to Alejandro, only to be met with disbelief and scrutiny and (potentially) outright hostility?

I'm just saying there's a lot of angst potential there in what is essentially just a massive miscommunication plot. And it's the perfect excuse to explore José and Alejandro as characters and their toxic homelife.

I think it'd be a lot more tragic if José wasn't the antagonistic asshole we all assume him to be. At least, not from his point of view.

Could you imagine a José who is genuinely trying to be friendly with his baby brother in his own weird way; initiating meaningless competitions between them because he can see how excited Alejandro gets when his competitive fire is nurtured, playfully roughhousing with him as a form of bonding, trying to set a good example for his baby brother by meeting their parents impossibly high standards and encouraging him to do the same, so on so forth.

A José who's completely oblivious to Alejandro's hostility towards him, who perhaps makes himself too present in his younger brother's life because of how vacant his older brother Carlos had been to him. Who genuinely thinks that Alejandro shares the same perspective on their relationship - since their parents have all but banned healthy communication in their household, and the Burromuertos at large are in the habit of masking their true feelings/thoughts.

I just think it'd be interesting to explore things from José's point of view without making him some irredeemable villain. Plus, learning how Alejandro really views him from a reality television show of all things would beprime angst material.