#so make the characters experience loss and grief that AREN'T related to the game's resident messianic archetype

[woodchipp]

This is the wildest rewrite idea I came up with so far (and the biggest one in terms of departure from canon), but here goes nothing.

I think Kel and Hero’s mother should’ve died of complications from giving birth to Kel. I like this idea mainly because it’d make their relationship an “inverse” of sorts to Sunny and Mari’s - in the latter’s case, the younger sibling would resent the older one whereas in the former’s case, the older sibling would resent the younger one - and IMO that’d give it a bit more flavor.

Perhaps their father would lie to Kel that his mom passed away due to natural causes or an accident (and never specify the kind of that accident), but Kel would slowly start suspecting something else at play because of how distant Hero seems to be at times. Hero would see his little brother as the single largest reminder of what he lost, and that’d put a strain on their relationship.

I think this idea would necessitate changing the way the friend group came to be. Maybe Aubrey would be the first person Sunny and Mari befriend, then she’d bring Basil in, and that would be followed by Hero joining, probably after meeting Mari herself. He’d spend time with them because he wants to get away from his home, which he regards as a grave for his mother. He can’t stand seeing pictures of her, he can’t look at the bed she used to share with his father and he wants to detach himself from Kel somehow.

Then, some time later, Kel decides to follow his older brother and meets with the friend group too because he wants to spend more time with him. He’d hit it off with Sunny immediately, and Mari wouldn’t see anything wrong with letting him in, but Hero would for obvious reasons. Of course, he couldn’t simply chase him away - what kind of big brother would do that? Maybe he’d take inspiration from Mari and make himself the group’s “dad”, try to take care of the kids and keep himself together until-

Well.

I think this idea would also lay more solid groundwork for Hero’s complete shutdown and subsequent outburst at Kel. His beloved girlfriend killing herself while he’s still reeling from the loss of his mom wouldn’t be a cakewalk, after all. And hey, that outburst could even confirm Kel’s aforementioned suspicions 🙂

Finally, it’d make Hero’s pursuit of a degree in medicine more tragic. What if he wanted to honor his dead mother’s wish the best he could, but also had this irrational feeling he wouldn't be doing right by her if he were to become a doctor?

A doctor’s job is to save people’s lives, right?

So why couldn’t the doctors save his mother?