#given the mutant thing and the fact that we meet him as an established homeless kid at the same age reboot!kev ran away

[kariachi]

It just feels really important that the Reboot made it clear Kevin's home life was shit. After UAF tried to portray it as a problem with him rather than his circumstances that aimed him down the road he took, and OV didn't touch on the topic at all, having the Reboot come out and go "yeah, the implication in OS that he came from a bad home where he was mistreated is because he came from a bad home where he was mistreated" not only does a valuable job in sticking a pin in a piece of Kevin's backstory- something OV left in the air after it's retcons- but also solidifies a layer of the character. Fuck, it adds a whole new layer of tragedy to him.

Because in OS Kevin's situation is blamed on his parents having a problem with his being a mutant- something that unfortunately is very believable, especially with some of what we see of mutants over the course of the franchise- but we see in the Reboot that that's not the sole cause. Kevin was always doomed to be, from what we're shown, neglected and from looking at his poetry likely verbally abused at the minimum. Likely OG!Kevin just got it worse due to being a minority with seemingly bigoted parents. But you notice that even Reboot!Kevin cut and ran as soon as he had some sort of means to do so. And the fact he hasn't turned around and is just continuing to run around homeless...

Says a lot.

And again on the importance end of things- the Reboot not only backs up what Kevin says in OS, but at no point is he blamed for the shit he's dealt with. Fuck, even with the adults he deals over the course of the show he isn't blamed when they're shit to him, even when him doing bad is involved. Because they're the adults here, they're supposed to be better than that. That sort of thing is always important to have- a kid who has been and continues to be abused by adults, especially one who acts out and misbehaves, not being to blame for that abuse. Held accountable for their actions, yes, presented as the cause of their own problems, no. Especially after UAF went "oh no, his parents were just good people doing their best with a bad kid and did nothing wrong ever, his situation was always his own fault", completely removing the results of most likely straight up bigoted abuse from the backs of Kevin's parents by placing all that blame on him.

Just, it's good to see it.