if it was Bob who died when Ben was six, rather than Caroline
Ooooh. *ponders* Some of the emotional distance between Bob and Benton could be paralleled by an estrangement: I'm picturing, wee!Benton wants to be a Mountie and Caroline is set against it, so he does his thing and their relationship is strained throughout his young adulthood. He would still be striving to be Super-Mountie (living up to an idealized dead father not so different from living up to an absent, legendary one). But in some other ways he would be more well-rounded, maybe less odd.
no subject
Ooooh. *ponders* Some of the emotional distance between Bob and Benton could be paralleled by an estrangement: I'm picturing, wee!Benton wants to be a Mountie and Caroline is set against it, so he does his thing and their relationship is strained throughout his young adulthood. He would still be striving to be Super-Mountie (living up to an idealized dead father not so different from living up to an absent, legendary one). But in some other ways he would be more well-rounded, maybe less odd.
What fun to play with these ideas!