Masterpost

Buy me a Coffee

And this leads to the question of what exactly is Ansem doing that leads to him barely being there for his adopted son? Like yes he is both the king and a scientist, but like what could even be happening with Radiant Garden that involves him to have that many royal duties? The science front is even stranger because he has 5 other guys, including aforementioned son and co-parent, to help out with it, so like is he just really bad at time and work management?

So then what is Even doing during this time? Before Xehanort showed up, it seems like he was the apprentice who was mainly doing the research, yet as mentioned he also seemed to do most of the watching over Ienzo, including teaching him. Ienzo doesn’t have any memories of his parents, so he probably lost them when he was pretty young and likely got adopted around that time too. Unless Ienzo became an apprentice right off the bat, which honestly does seem like something Ansem would do as he does tend to make questionable choices but also that would be pretty ridiculous so I’ll give him the benefit of doubt and say he didn’t, there were at least a few years where Even probably didn’t have him tagging along during research. If that’s the case then I guess Even just did like 50/50 split as Even doesn’t seem like he would half ass his duties, whether it be research or childcare. Once Ienzo becomes an apprentice it was probably easier since Even could just bring him along during research as part of his training. Both of these would explain why Ienzo scampers off so often as he probably had ample opportunities to sneak out when things were especially busy.

Undeniably there was a pretty big gap in the amount of parenting Even and Ansem did. They also have a fun parent (Ansem) and serious parent (Even) thing going on, with Ansem being fun to be around but not there that often and Even being stern but still very caring. Ienzo doesn’t seem to hold anything against either of them as parents. The closest he has to anything resembling a grudge is calling Even a “devious researcher” in that one scene, but that’s it really as it doesn’t come up again.

I don’t even have a clue what went on parenting-wise once Ansem got sent to the realm of darkness. It may have been business as usual except with less ice cream and completely immoral research, instead of questionable light and darkness research. Going off of where they were lying when they were turning into Nobodies it does seem like Even tried to protect Ienzo from getting stabbed so he did seem to still care about his well-being.