#rivers rambles

I… actually don’t really know where this comes from since we know diddlysquat about Leo’s relationship with his parents beyond the fact he mentioned he was kind of annoyed at his dad’s hopeless optimism over getting Michella’s legs fixed. I’ve only seen one fic where Leo’s a victim of abuse a while back and it was written kind of blunt-force-trauma, so if this is a growing trend I’m with you on the whole “wait what” side of things.

I think a possible explanation is that some writers will interpret that abuse went on in the Watch family  because Leo is very self-depreciating and has low self-esteem (coupled with the fact that we never see him communicate with his parents).

It’s an interesting angle to explore after all; especially for those who deal with similar problems as Leo that can stem from abuse and it can’t entirely be contradicted by canon because, well, we know diddlysquat. Fic authors have always used characters to explore heavier issues that may never even be so much as implied in canon because, well, that’s what writers do. Whether it’s done well or not is generally hit or miss (usually miss from what I recall of the days of slogging through edgy tryhard Omi/Nagi dubcon - yes I was a fan of Weiss Kreuz when I was fifteen, yes I knew it was literally the anime equivalent of the New Kids on the Block cartoon, yes it was awful, yes I am very old, no I was not ashamed).

But back on topic: you’re not missing anything. There is no mention of abusive parents in the manga and certainly none in the anime. I always figured that Leo’s self-depreciating nature stemmed from his guilt over what happened when Michella went blind and he didn’t feel he could face his parents after what happened. As of volume 1 he says it was six months since the incident and he doesn’t know she’s engaged and living with Toby until volume 10 (which probably puts the story roughly a year - a year and a half after he got the eyes). I can’t see him leaving her alone for even a fraction of that time if anything remotely shady was going on in the household, whatever his guilt. But that’s my interpretation from what we can glean from canon. Others are probably gonna see it differently.

Oh gosh I’m way jealous of you right now - pls honour me by eating one in my name because lady fingers / broas are delicious (enjoy those tasty pastries!)

I saw this just as I opened up my word document. Chapter 6 is pretty much mostly done so here’s a glimpse under the cut: