Paternity

[MJ85]

I agree. I just don't think Carl deserves any noble accolades for it. He's merely being an opportunist, IMHO.

 

Oh yeah, I don't think he's deserving of any noble accolades any time soon...but I do think it's hard to really be an opportunist about it when your options are down to...pretty much one thing only. Give me a better idea on this...but, what other choices did he really have that would have any likelihood of working out?

[GLH]

Okay, so my political proclivities are showing once again. Though I started my political life as an enthusiastic Republican, the more I study history, politics and current affairs the more I abhor my shameful past and the further left I lean. That said, Virginia does tend to be a 'purple' state, but in this instance it went 'red' in 2000.

[Mark Arbour]

Okay, so my political proclivities are showing once again. Though I started my political life as an enthusiastic Republican, the more I study history, politics and current affairs the more I abhor my shameful past and the further left I lean. That said, Virginia does tend to be a 'purple' state, but in this instance it went 'red' in 2000.

 

I made the same political journey you did. No worries.

 

By the way, there are officially, as of this posting, 420 reviews of Paternity.

 

Pot smokers, it is your time.

[Mark Arbour]

With Chapter 54, we switch back to Will, and some considerable drama, in true Will fashion. I'm planning to post this one on July 27, so hopefully you'll be able to distract yourself enough from the Olympics to read it. Or not.

[Mari]

With Chapter 54, we switch back to Will, and some considerable drama, in true Will fashion. I'm planning to post this one on July 27, so hopefully you'll be able to distract yourself enough from the Olympics to read it. Or not.

 

 

YES! drama Is it Friday yet? sigh.

 

It's sad when I look back 12 years and see how my political views have changed. Not sure if that's a good thing or not anymore

[methodwriter85]

In 2000, I think my main concerns were about listening to Third Eye Blind's Blue album and making sure I saw Popular.

 

I would bet serious money that JJ knows the entire WB lineup by heart.

 

[mmike1969]

“No, I already do that,” I said.  He glowered at me again.  I gave him a slight smile, to show I was joking. 

You know, this line kind of threw me off since I do not think Wade is the kind of person who would be making this kind of a joke. Matt yes. But Wade?

 

[Canuk]

I made the same political journey you did. No worries.

 

 

 

somehow I moved the other way prior to 16 - conservative, 18-35 radical lefty 35 + slow drift to the centre-ish.

 

I see this particularly in my reaction to the antics of some of the characters,,,,,,

[Mark Arbour]

You know, this line kind of threw me off since I do not think Wade is the kind of person who would be making this kind of a joke. Matt yes. But Wade?

 

Good point. I think that I visualized trying to be a complete smartass, not taking it seriously.

[methodwriter85]

Wade doesn't really come off as a smart-ass the way Matt and Will do.

Edited July 25, 2012 by methodwriter85

[Mark Arbour]

Wade doesn't really come off as a smart-ass the way Matt and Will do.

 

You guys are right. It is a bit out of character.

[methodwriter85]

I think you might have mixed up Will with Wade for that moment.

[centexhairysub]

Well, the new chapter is up and magnificent is the only word that comes to mind... I just love Claire so much... I know at some point someone described Claire as enough to turn a gay man straight and Jack enough to turn a him back again... I think that is happening to me... I really am starting to question Brad's behaviour as much as Jeanine's in all of this...

 

OMG, I just can't wait for the next chapter...

[Westie]

I really loved the latest chapter. Interesting point to raise though....

 

Surely Will is the ONLY kid janine actually has parental rights with anyway... The others are Bitty's kids to whom she was the nanny. Brad is their legal guardian, and she is essentially the "help" who later had a kid with Brad. With signing over parental rights for the one kid that's actually hers, I'm not sure she would have any real rights left... To anyone

 

West

[rjo]

Over the last few stories my opinion of Brad has fallen to a all time low. Jeanine is sick, very very sick, maybe something she will not recover from. She needs to be put in a mental hospital now! Will has forced the group to look in the mirror and they don't like what they see. Brad and Robbie may joke about Tonto but they better not push Will. I think Will sees the world in black and white almost no grey. People like that are hard to deal with, but people like that change the world. Will has drawn the line in the sand. We will see what will happen. I'm betting on Will.

[B1ue]

Surely Will is the ONLY kid janine actually has parental rights with anyway... The others are Bitty's kids to whom she was the nanny. Brad is their legal guardian, and she is essentially the "help" who later had a kid with Brad. With signing over parental rights for the one kid that's actually hers, I'm not sure she would have any real rights left... To anyone

I imagine she does, actually. After Bitty's death, the logical thing for Brad and Jeanine, and possibly Robbie, to do would be to get shared court-ordered guardianship over Darius and JJ. This would be simply so they could sign school and medical forms, and ease the legalities of both boy's lives, and to erase any ambiguities that the boys should go somewhere else (doubtful in any case, with Bitty already having given up her parental rights). She may have formally adopted JJ since then, and Darius, depending on how paranoid they were about Darius's father or Nick showing up out of the woodwork and making issues.

 

A fair number of family court judges in LA during the early nineties were pirckly conservative (to my perception), which is the only reason I hesitate to include Robbie. Even unmarried, Jeanine and Brad would probably be an easier sell, especially if they already have a child together. They'd not lie about Robbie, the social workers involved would NOT have been idiots (if overworked), but I doubt he'd be brought up, and everyone would present Jeanine and Brad as common-law husband and wife with a straight face without actually ever saying so.

 

I have a fair bit of personal experience on this topic, due to one of my sisters being a fairly close analogue for Bitty. The only niece no one has formal custodianship over lives in an area where my mother is on first name basis with the local sherrif, most of the cops, and every single social worker and judge in the county, and that my sister would have trouble even locating on a map.

[methodwriter85]

Well, technically this would have been in the mid-90's as If It Fits took place in 1995 and the legal adoption process probably would have occured in late 1995/early 1996, but yeah.

 

I think Will sees the world in black and white almost no grey. People like that are hard to deal with, but people like that change the world. Will has drawn the line in the sand. We will see what will happen. I'm betting on Will.

Will's black and white view of the world makes a nice foil to JJ's view, which I think is more grey. I don't think JJ would do absolutely anything to get ahead in his sport, but I bet he'd do a lot, and he'll probably get more grey the further along in the sport JJ gets. Still, I think at JJ's absolute core, he wants to win because he's the best, not because his rich daddy bribed the judges or his rich grandpa had someone taken out. I do imagine that, if Will stays involved with figure skating as a spectator, he's going to be likely to start pushing against the whole "figure skaters can't be openly gay" deal, and probably pushing JJ to push against that as well. Whether JJ goes along with that, or he goes with the status quo will be interesting as the decade unfolds.

 

Also, I think Will is totally going to get into environmental rights. If he's really the next Tonto, I think some kind of activism has to be in his future, because fighting for what's right was a huge part of Tonto's personality. I think the Gulf Oil spill would be a nice thing to cover. He'll be 23, so just out of college and full of that early twentysomething idealism. I can totally see him sending a bunch of angry Tweets and pictures in Louisiana while trying to help. I can also see him getting involved in Prop 8 protests and "No H8te" campaigns, but his love of the ocean and marine biology would make me think he'd be more inclined towards protecting that. His black-and-white view of the world would be a perfect fit for environmental activism.

 

I just do not get the direction Will's side of the story keeps taking. The characters just feel wrong. I also have never understood stories where 14-15 year old characters were always right and the adults a bunch of useless idiots and bad guys. It just isn't very believable to me.

Well, you gotta keep in mind this is from Will's viewpoint, a 14-year old who can't view the grey in situations yet and has (fairly and unfairly) marked his parents as the enemy. Of course they're going to seem like big bad monsters to him.

 

But it kind of feels like, barring the Tony freak out incident and the realization that John was not his life partner, Will has more often than not always been right about things. It kind of feels like Mark's written Will as his Golden Boy character who can do no wrong, which is fine but I find it hard to relate to. Will was at his most enjoyable to me when he was having fun with his Harvard-Westlake friends and just being a teenager.

Edited July 27, 2012 by methodwriter85

[MJ85]

You know...not too long ago there was talk of Jeanine being the one to be killed in 9/11.

 

But...who says, she even needs to live to see 9/11?

[Hermetically Sealed]

It kind of feels like Mark's written Will as his Golden Boy character who can do no wrong, which is fine but I find it hard to relate to. Will was at his most enjoyable to me when he was having fun with his Harvard-Westlake friends and just being a teenager.

Yeah, that's where I am at. I don't relate to "Golden" characters. They come off as too contrived and Mary Sue'ish. To me, the only time Will seemed like a real character with an interesting story to tell was while he was at the river. I really wish his story had been more of that, and less of this sexed up Parker Lewis with family problems.

 

Wade's story, on the other hand, is everything I have loved about the CAP story. Complex, witty and sexy but with still flawed and relateable characters.

[methodwriter85]

The other time Will felt like a real character and not Mr. Golden Boy Prince was when he was explaining to Tony all the interesting marine biology stuff. By having Will be in the right all the time, it's hard to think of him as anything but Mark's fantasy 14-year old son. Seriously though, aside from thinking he was life partners with John Hobart when he wasn't, when has Will ever been clearly in the wrong? Even when Will trashed his parents house and ran off to Hawaii, we were supposed to feel sympathy for him and believe that Brad and Robbie deserved it, and everyone fell over themselves trying to make Will feel better about himself.

 

I still like and enjoy Will's character, but not as much as I did before the Hawaii escapade because it became, like you said, a sexed-up Parker Lewis with Family Problems, and less about an openly gay teenager enjoying his accepting friends in early 2000's California.

 

From Tim's review:

 

This is minor drama in the annals of the CAP Clan. The only issue I have is that I think Brad would have been more supportive of Will and talked to Will about all that was going on. I think he learned that lesson when Will ran away.

I don't know, I kind of feel like Brad's character integrity took a major hit with Millennium, and has never quite recovered. I kind of feel like in order to make Will the hero, Brad had to serve as the villain of some sort. Not to the extent that Jeanine has, but Brad needs to do things that piss off Will over and over again in order to demonstrate Will's reasons for rebelling against him.

 

Before Millennium, Brad and Robbie had a solid 15-year partnership and had raised three happy, healthy sons. Then that all just went to shit somewhere and somehow, to the point where neither of their two youngest sons relate to them anymore.

Edited July 27, 2012 by methodwriter85

[Mark Arbour]

It kind of feels like Mark's written Will as his Golden Boy character who can do no wrong, which is fine but I find it hard to relate to. Will was at his most enjoyable to me when he was having fun with his Harvard-Westlake friends and just being a teenager.

 

In your immeasurable wisdom, did you ponder that maybe Will isn't right? Just asking.

[Mari]

Will IS right. He is using common sense along with decent morals to make the point that his family IS in the wrong. Before anyone jumps on me, he was wrong to run away and wreck his parents belongings. I don't get that people think he's too mature for his age. Kids develop at different paces. He grew up in an adult world and is very bright. I knew kids like that when I was that age, in fact, I know kids like that NOW that are my son's age. At 14 some kids are more childish, like JJ and some are blowing into the adult world, eager to grow up, like Will. Doesn't anyone have a friend in their 20's, 30's, 40's that is so immature that you shake your head in amazement? It works both ways.

[Daddydavek]

In the latest bruhaha, Claire is in Will's corner. I'd say that means Will isn't too far off base. I think the last episode has sealed it for her. She has gone from asking Will to get along with Jeanine, to telling him he can always come live with her. Somehow, that should give Brad pause. Stefan like Brad likes to keep things private in the family. In this case he was wrong as well.

 

Jeanine is a loose cannon and Michael is evidently a complaisant cohort which could be a portent for more problems.

 

Mark certainly know how to keep it interesting!

[Mark Arbour]

I really loved the latest chapter. Interesting point to raise though....

 

Surely Will is the ONLY kid janine actually has parental rights with anyway... The others are Bitty's kids to whom she was the nanny. Brad is their legal guardian, and she is essentially the "help" who later had a kid with Brad. With signing over parental rights for the one kid that's actually hers, I'm not sure she would have any real rights left... To anyone

 

West

 

Don't forget Maddy!

[samjones1]

In your immeasurable wisdom, did you ponder that maybe Will isn't right? Just asking.

 

I have pondered that maybe Will isn't right. On the one hand, he clearly has a good point in insisting that his family take steps to protect him from a clearly deranged mother and her sidekick (i.e. Michael). On the other hand, he's using blackmail to make his point. He's also biting the proverbial hand by continually lashing out at Stef, one of his biggest supporters in all these problems. I think, in this case, that Will is overplaying his hand. Has he considered the implications of reporting his family to CPS (the acronym we us out where I live)? Is he considering that all the wonderful benefits he gets from being a member of a rich and powerful family come with strings attached, and that all could be lost through his truculence? I don't think he's thinking of anything but himself...something which is at once the beauty and the scourge of youth. At a certain point, people can and will stop feeling bad about their wrongs because you're also wrong. I think he'll look back, later in life, on these times of severe self-absorption and feel a certain sense of shame, even if he can convince himself of his "rightness"...being "right" doesn't mean that you can't be so for the wrong reasons.

 

I'm reminded of JP and his lecturing of Stef about the duties of the wealthy and their obligations to society and their family. I think this is one of those situations where JP needs to swoop in, instruct Brad and Stef in the error of their ways, and the explain the realities of life...the wealthy life...to Will.