Gruff Man and Child: My Favorite Duo in Storyelling
The theme of parenthood in storytelling is one that, when done right, absolutely delights me. It’s a compelling narrative force, and parenthood is at the center of many of my favorite stories. To Kill a Mockingbird is probably my favorite book. The Last of Us is my favorite video game. Saga is my favorite comic. I consider myself as having a good relationship with my folks, and that relationship has definitely influenced my taste in media. I still have fond memories of my mother reading books to me before bed, and to this day, I love digging through old comic books with my dad. But it goes deeper than that. Parenthood allows us to explore characters at their most vulnerable: as flawed but well-intentioned human beings, caring for another human being. Now, parenthood is too broad of a topic to talk about on its own, so I’m going to be focusing on some very similar, very specific examples. For the last ten or so years, there’s been a trend--a sort of snowball effect, if you will--that