"Now it was just Father and I..."

this used to be a common knowledge

like with the peterkin situation; when sarah asked what was gonna happen to him after rafe shot her dead—he literally says “baby, nothing’s gonna happen to rafe.” and she’s like ???? he just killed someone..

she excepted ward to sacrifice rafe when it came down to it, but he didn’t. he literally couldn’t do it to him—and he even shows that with rose when she wanted to sell rafe out and basically come clean, especially if it came down to choosing between him or sarah, she admitted she was choosing sarah in the end because she knows how unstable and volatile rafe is.

but ward takes blame for the murder and fakes his death FOR rafe to protect him ( i think he truly did understand why rafe shot peterkin because he literally made him, and genuinely sees rafe as a mini him even though he hates to admit it because then that would mean he’s responsible for the way rafe turned out and how he ignored rafe when he needed help but now all of sudden he’s gone too far ..?)

and ward has also never actually had to question rafe’s loyalty or devotion to him. he knows rafe would snap on him AND for him in the blink of an eye. and the scene that’s so devastating but proves this is when ward was meeting with (idk if was a cop or not) that guy would was blackmailing him for money because he had seen rafe kill peterkin and had the murder weapon. after ward kills him, he goes to rafe for help and says—“i just feel like i need somebody to have my back” and rafe immediately stepped to him and said “i got that.” and ward was like “you got that?” and rafe said “all day.” ( shfsaiud im glitching bc why is this so f&:,$)

anywho.. now the contrast with sarah, i’ve talked about how ward only loves sarah because she validates his goodness and makes the family image look perfect. he tries to protect sarah from getting tainted by the rest of his life and actively drags rafe into it because he knows rafe isn’t a liability. and the second sarah became one—the second she started talking back and standing up for herself and calling ward out on his bullshit—ward says that he can’t trust her so he slaps the shit out of her and then after she obviously chooses the pogues over her own family, ward tries to kill her. ( do ppl forget ab this .. like ppl rarely mention it .. )

but what’s soo interesting is how sarah was so sure that ward was gonna pick her, probably because she was ‘the perfect daughter’ up until she started fighting back—but ward chose rafe that day on the tarmac when he decided to protect him because he knows rafe was genuinely doing what he thought was the right thing. but i dont think he would’ve sold rafe out anyway, i just don’t think he could because he knows deep down.

I might have too many for my own good! Their family dynamic is so complex and twisted I sometimes ask myself how was this part of a netflix teen adventure show. Not sure if you're referring to one specific pairing or camcest in general, but just in case it's the latter, I'll talk a bit about all of them and the way I interpret each one. Good chunks of text ahead:

Sarah/Ward | He's mad about her. In all senses. It's the daddy's little girl trope, but make it a hundred times darker. Even thought it is never confirmed in the show, I strongly believe part of his obsession comes from Sarah's resemblance to her mother, both in personality and looks. She reminds him of his wife and how she made him feel. Ward spent his whole life looking for treasures, but she was the most precious of them all. She's the one whose world always evolved around him, who always loved him, obeyed him and never caused trouble. She's perfect because she's not just a Cameron, she's his daughter, his treasure. And no one's stealing her away. She belongs to him, in all senses.

I don't think Ward has a conscious sexual desire for her, since he wants her to stay pure, but that if the inevitable day comes where she loses this purity (and deep down he knows it will), he wants to be the only one to take it from her.

Rafe/Ward | My favorite (to no one's surprise) and the most interesting in my opinion. Rafe loves his father more than anything and will do whatever it takes to be loved back. Is this love fraternal or romantic? I'd say it's a sick mix of both and much more! He must've seen how Ward was with his wife, his dangerous, obsessive feelings towards Sarah that don't go unnoticed, and he wants that desperately. He fights with Rose for Ward's attention and hates Sarah for always stealing their dad's love. To Rafe, they both are the 'other woman', and he wants to prove to his father that he's the only one he needs.

I believe Ward sees a lot of himself in Rafe, which is why he was never affectionate with him and doesn't want Rafe to take charge of anything in his life. He wants to keep the family together at all costs, but he needs to be in control, and Rafe, unlike Sarah, is a threat to that. He manipulates and neglects Rafe so that he's always needy and seeking for his approval, always under his wing and never willing to go against him - but also he can't stand the possibility of Rafe's life not evolving around him. In some way or another, he needs his son just as much as his son needs him. And he loves him more than he wants to admit.

And Rafe hates him for doing all this, deeply. But as Ward himself said: "I am you father, and you love me". And who's gonna love Rafe if not him?

Rafe/Sarah | I don't have nearly as much things to say about this one, but I can see where it's coming from and it does have some subtext in the show, particularly in that boat scene from season 2. Rafe had adopted his father's view of valuing family above all and treated Sarah as something that belong to him and he needed to protect I'll actually quote one of your posts because you summed it up better than I ever could "Rafe doesn’t see Sarah as her own person, he sees her only as a member of the family, which is why he believes it’s justified to harm her when she doesn’t live up to that role.". He believes he was the right to harm her, but also to treat her as an object of possession that's being stolen from him. She's his sister.

Happy House

no warnings. Not as in nothing bad. As in if you get it you get it and if you don’t, no damage is done. (I thinkkkk) [ 433 words ]

The old house ached and moaned over the nuisance of its intruders, feet too tiny to bend the floors to creak just yet. Two, four, eight?

Must be crawling, that one.

feel free to reblog with your ranking! some of the dynamics/tropes have wider or narrower definitions (for example, differentiated by gender or age) so you can decide how specific you want to be