dadpost (v minor spoilers) (Patreon)

I don't have a relationship with my dad. He is around, just not very invested in fathering. He lives about 5 mins away from me but we haven't talked in 5+ years, for the most part he is the kind of person that checks out and lets other people handle things, and left our family when I was in my teens. Even before that I don't really recall being "fathered." For a while I wasn't actually sure what fathering meant tbh. I knew what maternal behavior was from experience and media and knowing more moms than dads, but for a long time I didn't know what dads do... throw a football? help with homework? teach you to fix a car? no idea. Every time I actually needed my dad for something serious he actively removed himself from the situation, so I eventually learned to work with my other resources. 

Sorry so negative, but the point is that for a while, I had no idea how to write fathers either, haha. I finally noticed a few years ago that most of my fictional fathers are terrible people, and had to learn to rein myself in so I don't only write my subconscious weaknesses or bitterness over and over because that's not terribly interesting. I didn't retcon stuff I'd already set up in comics I'd posted online, so my oldest characters tend not to have parents at all and are raised by aunts/ uncles and stuff like that because I wasn't aware enough to stop myself before, haha. Older characters that stuck around (including Angora, Luca, and Soli) still have that generic dadless backstory still in place, though modified to fit their circumstances. 

We haven't gotten to some dads yet because I'm hiatus king but I drew out the ones we've encountered in the online stuff so far just for funzies. My newer dads are a bit nicer! Which I'm glad about. After many years of writing and rewriting I've decided that dads (and moms) aren't types of characters any more than men or women are, just types of people who are bad and good but more likely somewhere in between.

In the end it makes more sense to just develop a strong character with well-defined behaviors and backstory than it is to tack a personality onto an identity trope. If you're a dad, happy Fathers day, and if you're not, well, try not to be like my characters because I might drop some rocks on you.