So question for consideration - .
Do people think there will be actual combat/fighting or not in the present?
Because I don't think any of the themes of the aftermath and the consequences of trauma, mental and physical would be diminished by the threat being a threat.
I would disagree.
If there was a clear and present danger, if the Team were actually under attack, it would be simple. It's easy to justify uprooting your life or reforging old bonds to combat a threat that is physically in front of you. It's easier to get whipped back into shape if you are being pushed and challenged.
Eve is trying to get the band back together based on nothing but the word of her cat. That creates doubt. From the perspective of the rest of the team, Eve could just be lying because she wants go back to her glory days. Or maybe she snapped and is imagining the whole thing. She wouldn't be the first to have a nebulous grip on reality as a result of what they went through.
Even if it's true, the deadline is uncertain, the scale of the threat unknowable. Do they really need absolutely everyone? How much of their lives can they justify burning to face an intangible threat? If there is no obvious danger then it's much easier to bow out and let someone else handle it.
The tension comes from the uncertainty, and uncertainty is a core part of being an adult. Adult threats are almost always vast and nebulous, and there's always the urge to say they are someone else's problem.
"I'm not seeing any real difference in temperature, so global warming can't be that bad."
"I've got work tomorrow and my budget is tight, I can't afford to drive six hours for a protest."
Part of becoming an adult is realizing the majority of your enemies won't be obviously attacking you, and you can't just win a big victory and go home.
It's easy to convince people to fight racism if assholes in white hoods are breaking down doors. When it's silent, institutionalized discrimination it's an uphill battle just to convince people there's a problem.
There's probably a reason that in the case that Grant is that level of garbage that the mind behind going for lungs filled with acid during speeches will probably be:
- Still in hospital care/observation
- Across the Atlantic Ocean
- Unable to transform
Look if it was Esme and Brigid handling events I'm not saying they'd kill Grant and bury the body. I'm saying they'd kill him and dissolve the body.
But it'll be Eve handling the immediate reaction. And she's much less prone to murder.
I think I'm going to echo what others have said and guess that Riley's husband isn't going to be obviously or intentionally abusive. It's just too easy.
Going with what I said above about unseen threats being more thematic and difficult to deal with, Grant causing harm accidently or ignorantly seems more likely. It means they can't just punch him or spirit Riley away. Riley has to be convinced there even is a problem, and that it's bad enough to justify throwing her whole life into the wind to resolve.
Thematically, I'm going to guess (based on absolutely nothing) that Grant is actually a pretty nice guy. He probably even thinks he's a "good guy", and most of the people in his life would agree.
Riley seems like a rock. If someone hits her, they're going to break their hand. If she's moving, she'll crush anything in her way. But she isn't moving. She's stuck, and like a river through a mountain Grant has slowly worn her away. Not with insults or cruelty, which she could deal with, but with kindness.
"Don't get up, sweetie, I got it."
"Are you sure you're up for that?"
"I don't think that's a good idea. Think about how hard it will be with your leg."
Grant met her when she felt helpless and he treated her like she was helpless. Not out of malice, but out of ignorance. It was easier to let him help, to agree that she needed help, than to push him away when he was just trying to be nice. And Riley followed that easy road all the way to where she is now, because every time she pushed back she was the bitch snapping at people who were "just trying to help".
I agree he's probably not the best husband or father, but probably not out of malice. If Riley asks him to do something he's there in a flash...but he never volunteers. She always has to ask, and eventually she stopped asking.
He never says anything against her past or about other queer people, but he doesn't speak up when his family or work buddies break out the slurs.
He goes to church every Sunday because it's the church he was raised in, even if he doesn't necessarily agree with everything the pastor says.
He's got a pickup with a "Back the Blue" bumper sticker (if those are even a thing yet), but only because his brother is a cop.
Unlike his father, he'd never lay hands on his kids, except the one time he spanked their oldest for running away with Riley's prosthetic after she'd been up all night trying to care for their littlest. He felt horrible about it afterward, and Riley had to reassure him that he did the right thing. It was one spanking, after all, and he was doing it for her.
Riley isn't isolating from her friends because he'll get mad. She's isolating because she knows they won't understand. They won't see or care about the extenuating circumstances. And maybe she is miserable, but so what? All parents of toddlers are miserable, and so are all amputees. Maybe the spark is gone (if it was ever there), but that's what separates long-term relationships from flings.
And what, is she supposed to abandon her family because her husband is too nice to her? Because he was raised a bit too traditionally? Because he messes up sometimes? Her children would hate her forever, and they'd deserve to, because she abandoned them and a decent man who loves her...to do what? Go chase women like she did when she was a teenager with two legs and delusions of invincibility?
How can she go fight the Dark Queen? What good is she with one leg? She can't even hold a job, much less fight.
Besides, last time they were at their peak and still got torn apart. This time she has a family to think of, something her old friends wouldn't, couldn't ever understand. Her kids would grow up without a mother and only know that she was found dead in a ditch in a city she never should have been in in the first place.
It's so much more complicated and so much more interesting if Riley's husband is just a man who means well but is smothering her out of ignorance. It plays into the themes I mentioned above, helps highlight that bad relationships don't always come with screaming and violence, and points out that sometimes finding happiness means everyone is going to think you're the villain.
