Friday, August 15, 2008

Rokko's Dad

I've sinned a bit by creating a bigger back story and family for Rokko then I would've ever intended to. I figure that when you over complicate characters you loose some of the charm of them. When you create more family and more relationships you open it up for people to ask more questions. What works for Spongebob, as an easy hypothetical, is that it generically the same thing every episode, and doesn't really need the complexity to make it a good show. What works about Older cartoons like Betty Boop, Mickey, and Bugs is that at any moment the storyline and fit around the character, rather then having a storyline for the character to fallow. Over complexety really brings down the characters flexability.

So anyway here are Rokko's father and brother. Havn't really given them names yet, in tradition of all my other background characters. If I'm lucky I won't need to use them but for the geeks who must know, this would be the story. Rokko's family history is all about basturd children. Rokko never knew his father, and his father didn't know his and a good chance all the grandfathers before then didn't know who they belonged to. Rokko's dad met his mother when coming to shore one year, and from there I don't know how or why but she was so ashamed to have Rokko that moments after giving birth she dumped the poor boy over a bridge into a river and Rokko was discovered by Lon and Rokko never learns the truth of his parents until the 2000s.
Rokko's dad never knew about the girl he had a one night stand with had a child of his, he was several miles off shore down in Mexico by the time Rokko was around. Seven years later, and many countless girls along with it, he finally got tracked down by a Brazillian woman who had birthed his newest son. He could've easily dumped the child over board and the stress would be over, but with anger from not knowing his own parents (and this woman thinking she could just abondon her duties as a mother onto him) desided that he could raise this child to his likeing, and end the family line of basturds. Stranegly enough though, while Rokko grew up with spite for men/fathers, his brother grew up with a spite for women/mothers. Rokko was dumped into an orphanage and confused the whole experiance as to being apart of one large family where mother and father were so horrible they never had time for thier kids. He felt bad for his non-exsistant mother because she kept having child after child and leaving it for the older children to babysit them. He left the orphanage because he knew he'd end up like the older boys there, drugies, crooks, and in jail.

Rok's brother on the other hand, was upset that his mother never loved him. His father didn't suger coat anything for him, so alot of the harsh realities of life was tossed in his life, but in a more spoiledand sheltered method then what Rokko had to experiance on his own. Rokko lived the harsh realities of life, while his brother was safe on a boat listening to the ramblings of an old seaman who really didn't need a child anymore then the boys mother. I do have a good feeling that the boy never really had a possitive experiance with women to like them or treat them with respect. I did not intend him to be gay though, but it just seems like a possibility once he finds a girl he gets pregnant and forced to marry her, that he'd be looking for men to fool around with on the side.
The three of them meet up when Rokko finaly finds out the truth, which is hard to explain at the moment, because Lon is supposed to be dead in 2001. Rokko never gets a chance to reunite with him and understand why Lon gave his kids to Warner Brothers, or why Rokko was torrtured so horribly most of his life. With Lon's death Rokko finds himself in a halfway re-run state where nothing really important in his life happens that seem much different anymore then, but he's consious enough to see that his past demands some serious answering to. I'm not sure how or when he finds Lon's old sketch books and notes from the asylum but he discovers his real father and his birth story.

From there Rokko finds his dad's boat, and desides to join his fishing team rather then dropping the "you're my father" bomb right away. They stay in a LA harbor for a while until one day Rokko wakes up in a huge fog, and finds out they're in the middle of the Pasific Ocean and been traveling for Japan for some time now. Stuck with these two enimes for lord knows how many months Rokko comes to terms with his father's family side and finds the experiance releaving but sibling rivery raises up before Rok's brother figures out that they're related. While in Japan Rokko and his Bro have a night on the town, and his bro dares Rokko to a drinking match. 10 shots on Rokko and 3 for the bro, Rokko is still sober enough to keep his cool but soon after his brother stats explaining what women are good for (pussy and cleaning house) Rokko breaks his face in and takes him back to the boat to sail back home.
On the way home, Rokko's father explains to him the story about his brother and why he never knew about Rokko being born. Giving him some hard love he tells him that it's not hard to spot thier gentics, and if Rokko wanted to continue working for him now would be a good time to make up for lost time. Rokko only wanted to tell his father that he exsisted and had no need for his love and care anymore. Rokko needed to take care of his own family and after 3 more months traveling through the fog, ended back home to find out that his father and brother had died back in 1930 when they got lost in a fog and never returned. Even if Rokko wanted to see his father again, he couldn't but some stories need to be told just once. Closure is more important then just knowing the truth.