#and was thinking how Alpheus’ parenting might differ to Ant and Fontaines

[headfullof-ideas]

Unrelated to my HTTYD/The Deep story, but I have a hot-take that might be an unpopular opinion for all the Alpheus fans out there. I like him too, he’s not my super favorite character, but he’s fun to write and work with. HOWEVER, I’ve been thinking, and I came to a conclusion that some people might not agree with.

Alpheus wouldn’t be the best dad. Hear me out.

He’s not the WORST, he’s not abusive, he’s got an idea from Proteus and the Guardians on how NOT to raise a child…but he’s not dad-of-the-year either. He’s not super involved. He’s got paranoia from the Guardians and Lemuria, and a tendency to pry and eavesdrop on business that he has no business knowing. He is a young adult in the show, and would be older as a parent, so he’s grown a bit, but I also don’t really see him going to therapy and fixing a lot of his internalized issues because of a repeated mantra of ‘what if someone breaks into the therapists office and steals all their notes on our sessions, what if it’s over a call and someone plants a bug, that’s something I would do, so why wouldn’t anyone else?” And also, what therapist is going to believe half of the stuff he talks about? Sea monsters aren’t real.

He’s not the worst. He’s not abusive. But he’s not great either. He assumes he knows everything about his kid because he softly stalks them when they’re away from him, maybe reads through their journals or diary when they’re not at home, because he never learned healthy communication skills and just falls back on what he knows to learn about his kid. And if they’re dealing with something bad on the inside, have insecurities or doubts, anything like what he felt with the Guardians, well, he has to know, he’s their dad. But he doesn’t actually talk with his kid about it. He might have some controlling tendencies due to paranoia about the Guardians or the Nektons, or any legal body that he pissed off in his youth coming after him years later, and so he has to know where his kid is at all times, via trackers on their phone, and frequent updates on when or where they are or have left.

He’s half helicopter parent and half barely present at all, because he doesn’t have a good reference for healthy communication and won’t go to therapy for his issues due to stubbornness and paranoia. He assumes the worst about everything, and if his Benthos attracted-to-the-water-like-their-cousins-the-Nektons expresses any interest in the ocean or a field in that area, he shoots it down, because he doesn’t want his past with Lemuria, the Nektons, and the Guardians to catch up to him and land on his kid. Only, he doesn’t tell them this at all, he insists that it’s just for the best. He doesn’t tell his kid anything important, habitually keeps secrets and information from them because in his mind, they deserve to be a kid and not worry about it. Only he can’t tell the difference between actual I’ll-tell-you-when-you’re-older stuff and stuff that actually involves his kid that they should have a say in. He might be slightly controlling, because he wants his kid to have a normal childhood, not like he did, but it twists into him assuming that, as the adult and parent who’s been through everything, he knows how everything will go and so therefore knows what’s best.

He’s not the WORST parent…but I don’t see him being the BEST parent either. He’s got too many issues and not enough like someone who’d go to the necessary lengths to fix those issues for me to think he’d be the best parent.