I want you to know that I tried but I truly cannot make sense of that perspective. I understand it, I get why it make sense to you but it just does not to me.
Genuine question, if you were to play WiAB again from the beginning, replay all content there is so far with this new knowledge, that only William and Leia are related, does it still feel natural to you?
The only way it does for me is if I assume Leia and Willi don't know that they are adopted. And if they don't know, if they were never told, were I in their place, for the rest of my life I would harbor nothing other than hatred and resentment towards them for hiding the truth for so long.
But if they do know, then I'm gonna be honest, nothing about the story so far feels natural or makes sense to me. Given how close Willi and Leia were they would always have this "us against them" mentality. If they had no blood bond to Katie, Dylan or Helen that feeling would naturally be 10x stronger. If they were not related to them I would not feel enough shame to just leave because Leia would always come first. Therefore I can not envision giving in to Katie's blackmail. I can not envision the same fear of disappointing someone I'm not related to no matter how much I love them/am thankful to them. And likewise I can not envision feeling the same guilt, enough to return all those years after. I would return for Leia. I would never consider returning for the rest of the "family".
I'm not saying I'm in the right here. And maybe there is something wrong with me, I'm not ruling that out. But the fact is, no matter how hard I try, I cannot, for a single second, even pretend that blood bond = adoption/guardianship.
I think this is where people's individuality comes into play. I don't know who my grandfather is. My dad doesn't know, and has no way to find out, my grandmother fled Europe during WWII and never mentioned him, died over 20 years ago. We've got his name on a birth certificate, to it's plausible these days to find out, but we don't know if that name is real. My dad cried when his stepdad died, despite how abusive he was towards my dad and his step sister. My dad and his stepsister got all the inheritance, and all their uncles and cousins are not on speaking terms, my dad and his step sister get on and keep in touch, help each other. My sister keeps egging my dad to find out, but he can't be bothered.
Family is complicated whatever form it takes. Would my dad have different feeling at his actual dad's funeral? We can't know. My dad was reacting authentically to the situation he lived through.
Back to WiaB, we're rating William's emotional responses as being inauthentic in on situation as another. He might actually be that affected, because that's the person he is - meathead in appearance to protect the parts of him that are raw. He might be crying for Helen on the phone, he might be crying for himself realising how he let things slide. All we see are tears. So yes I agree, there will be a different bundle of feelings and logic between natural child and adopted child, but it doesn't mean the feelings are stronger, weaker or whatever. Willi has had only one experience, he only has his lifeline. We're the one positing him in two different scenarios and putting his feelings on the scales. He's just reacting.
So yes, I can see his feelings as plausible, they are just with different composition, different memories. Things like Helen reading him to sleep or Dylan giving him his love of working out. The bond might be differnt, but the gratitude is personal, and William's not a complete asshole, just a buffoon. He's capable of gratitude and of care. Think about how he calls Daphne and how much he dreads it and how emotional he gets. He does wear his heart on his sleeve, even though he can be obnoxiously oblivious.
In the new paradigm, yes the tension between Katie will be heightened. I consider that a good thing. The bond with Leia, well, how self absorbed is William? That flashback shows he didn't really give as much though to Leia as she gave to him. I can belief he'd make an impetuous decision to leave, then ends up in the wrong place, ends up in prison, can't escape. He learns to be a bit more self reliant, less oblivious.
If they've not been told, yes, resentment can occur. Massively. No problem with that drama popping up once they're told. Future drama. If Leia has been told, that would explain why she keeps her distance about breakfast. They might have had to tell Leia after she had her breakdown and the doctors revealed it from the medical records. Who knows? Or they've grown up knowing. What's the best age to tell someone adopted from birth? Or, when were they adopted?
In your stance, your putting a one size fits all approach to adoption, essentially saying that all these potential scenarios have the same lesser weight. They all have a different bundle of emotions. Keep in mind that before Ocean mentions this change, William still didn't connect with his family after things settled down. He was prepared to let things slide. I'm suggesting his personality is very much like a bulldog, whatever is in his frame of vision he latches onto (but with the persistance of memory of a goldfish maybe when it comes to women
) but he can be very oblivious.
Regards dropping everything, William is impulsive, and is pretty much just hanging out having laser tag sex with Miru. He doesn't have a wage, he's a personal trainer and author. He can shift his schedule around, and might have had a slow week.
