#we're not getting into bart's autism and or adhd coding today

[radioactive-earthshine]

Let's talk about Impulse 1995 and the theme of fostering and family.

Reading Impulse 1995 as one long story about the challenges and heartbreak of being a foster child under unusual circumstances AND as a story about home, family and love in general really is an experience - not just with Bart as the main character but also his friends who also have broken homes and experiences involving deep loss themselves as they navigate a world as vulnerable teenagers with complicated homes. Specifically Carol and Bart's adjacent mirroring in their foster placement and experiences with home is quite interesting when examined side-by-side and it makes sense why they end up as best friends.

Carol's brother was put in a place through sudden tragedy with the loss of their parents to be the bread winner and caregiver for Carol and their little sister.

We never see the conversation that led up to Max taking in Bart - but as the result of several tragedies Bart was in a position where only Max was able to take him in as a mentor and a care taker, not a parent to start.

So we have these two teenagers who were orphaned in different ways with deeply contrasting back histories find each other as best friends.

Carol remembers her parents and their love - Bart never got this and only got a brief moment with his mother.

Carol is living with her brother because he is as far as we know the only family she has to rely on - Bart meanwhile has his Grandmother and his cousin through her (Wally) however they each are incapable of taking him in due to varying valid circumstances.

Carol is raised in a household of love - Bart is in (to start) a household of obligation where Max's initial intentions were never to actually raise Bart but to simply be a mentor and teach him how to use his speed and acclimate to the real physical world.

The circumstances around Bart and the affection he receives from Max do change dramatically as the series progresses (and Helen has a major part in that we cannot exclude her) and he finally gets to experience a home filled with love.

Then like Carol - it changes dramatically and he loses Max and Helen and he has to be raised by people he cares deeply for but are not his parents (though they eventually do say the love Bart like a son it doesn't start that way).

We also see more characters other than Bart and Carol as art of this unifying theme of home, family, love, fostering, obligation etc and each with their own unique place within it. Preston and his mentally ill mother who beat him brutally and his complicated feelings towards her. Wilfred "Evil Eye" Parker and his insistence on growing up to be a villain so he can finally get his father's (and grandfather's) approval. Mike Ringer and his own feelings of loss and redirected anger towards his own father when his mother died.

White Lightning and her very close loving relationship with her mother where they made a home on the road

And also how can we forget Max Mercury and his daughter Dr. Helen Claiborne and their fractured and difficult relationship as absent father and daughter and everything that led up to Helen existing in the first place.

Impulse 1995 is a compelling series about forgiveness, fostering, finding home and love when there was neither to start including loving oneself and forming a community around friendship with an unintentional unifying theme.

Naturally this is not the only theme within Impulse that takes the spotlight but it is the one we're focusing on in this post.