Serious talk: do you ever stop and consider how Carl and Frank Tennyson grew up with trust issues? I mean, a father always being away for work, hiding from them about space and aliens. A mother who was somehow cold, that looked like she expected something from her kids, something they couldn’t understand.
I imagine Frank being the “man” of the house and taking care of his little brother, cooking for him, having him dressed for school, etc. He had to grow up a bit faster.
And then, one day, they wake up before first day of college, their mother is gone and their father has to tell them the truth.
And they are just... mad. To both of them, for lying for hiding them the truth.
There’s no “it was for your safety” that can save them, and their relationship just breaks then and there.
I imagine they didn’t talk with Max for years, Frank had his first kid and somehow they met to talk things out.
I like to think Max promises to retire from Plumbers, just for the possibility to keep in touch with his kids and the families they were forming, to be part of their lives, show them he could be a good parental figure.
And they KIND of forget about everything, but can’t just forgive him.
Carl, especially, can’t forgive him, and every time he comes over and bonds with Ben, somehow he hates it, because he’s like “you were NEVER there for me and now you’re trying to “””steal””” MY son, why wasn’t I the one you taught how to ride a bike?”.
And Frank, who has a grudge with his mother, because she just left like “lol ur not special like me good riddance”. And he hates aliens and really, REALLY hopes his kids too don’t show any sign of being anodites, because that would mean they could leave too??
Both the Tennyson brothers are dead afraid their kids will leave them, just like their parents did. And that’s something that’s tearing them apart, but who can they talk to about it if not each other?
I have a lot of feels for these two men who live everyday wishing things were different from the start and hoping their kids won’t just forget about them and leave.
