#Baloo is his dad Becky's his mom Molly's his sister and Wildcat's his uncle

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Man I was waiting to spill this out in a video essay but my life won’t allow for that atm so I think I’ll just get some thoughts out here

I think anyone who ignores the found family aspects of Talespin are missing an extremely beautiful and valuable theme within the show - and a massive reason why I like the show so much. I’m not a cop - gods, no - like, y’alls can watch and interpret shit every which way you see fit, but what I’m saying is that you’re really missing out.

The characters of Kit and Baloo are massively benefitted by this theme. Their respective arcs in Plunder & Lightning revolve around the fact that they both, at the start of the show, believed that their lives were meant to be spent in solitude. They reveled in not needing anyone but themselves. This is especially significant for Kit, who was likely abandoned, regardless, orphaned, and was planning on making a life for himself at the age of 12. I think it’s partly why (the other part being that this is an episodic TV show and arcs have to happen pretty quickly) he ends up taking to having a family so quickly, because he fucking needs one. He isn’t an adult like Baloo, and he isn’t ready to be on his own. It really sucks that a major turning point in his arc, Home Is Where The Heart Is, ended up getting cut. It was the moment where Kit finally started expressing a desire for having a family (in the comic adaptation, he even cries during this scene). Kit beginning to see H4H as his family is what makes his sacrifice for their safety so significant, and Baloo beginning to see Kit as family is what makes his stubborn, painful, return to where he was at the beginning of his arc so significant. 

And obviously it doesn’t stop there - for Baloo, especially, who ended up taking more time to warm up to Rebecca and Molly, the themes continue throughout the show. Obviously its easier for him to take to Molly because he seems to naturally like kids, but if Stormy Weather was meant to point out that Baloo is still getting used to being a father, in general, Flight of the Snow Duck was Baloo having to realize that raising an adolescent and raising a small child are two very different things (as there are aspects of Molly that are absent from Kit, largely due to age in this episode, as opposed to personality, that Baloo has to learn to recognize and respect). I feel like it’s also worth mentioning that Baloo went from not wanting Molly in his life if Kit wasn’t there, too, in P&L, to being the first one to react to her kidnapping in Molly Coddled (I’m aware it was framed that way to set up a gag, but I love the gag for this reason).

As for his relationship with Rebecca, it’s important to remember that these two being in a romantic relationship of sorts isn’t something shippers just made up (and shipping doesn’t have to be canon-compliant so don’t let any of the following stop you), it was how series creator Jymn Magon intended for their relationship to be interpreted. The reason they never blatantly get together is because they needed time to develop (and it’s just. SO fun and lovely watching their respect and care for one another blossom through snark and sass and gentle moments), and Magon didn’t want to create a pre-relationship and established-relationship series divide. And it’s this fact that leads me to believe that all of the found-family themes are intentional, not accidental or otherwise a by-product.

And, because he’s my favorite character, I really do have a lot to say about how it relates to Kit’s character arc. I wish we ended up seeing a little more of Kit confronting his complicated feelings towards family, but what is often seen as the big kicker, Stormy Weather, combined with P&L, other episodes like It Came From Beneath the Sea Duck, Save the Tiger, a brief moment in A Baloo Switcheroo, and the comic The Long Flight Home, all work together to form a really touching arc. 

Kit started out alone, tried to find a place among pirates, ditched the pirates and decided to live alone, stumbled into H4H with plans to leave someday, decided he didn’t want to leave and that these people were worth making sacrifices to protect (P&L), realized that he wanted these people to like and respect him just as much as he liked and respected them (ICFBtSD), struggled with properly recognizing Baloo and Becky as authority figures but ultimately came to terms with the fact that he would eventually have to accept it (SW), ended up expressing a strong desire to keep the family together when Baloo finally had enough money to take the Sea Duck and leave H4H (StT), and by the late series, gave Becky enough authoritative allowance to ground him (which is a big deal when one considers just how abrasive to authority figures he is) (ABS).

That’s just in the show - The Long Flight Home, while only a supplemental piece of media, is just. GODS I need to talk about how much I love this for a sec. Kit runs away from home when he thinks the man who runs the local orphanage is looking for him. There’s a beautiful panel during the running-away process where Kit comments how hard it is to pack everything because he’s never owned so many things before (Baloo and Becky out here providing for him ♡♡♡♡). Molly casually throws everything out of his luggage and stows away behind his back because of course she does. Throughout the entire comic she insists that Kit is her brother, and even introduces herself as his sister, even though Kit is currently struggling to acknowledge H4H as his family (he’s trying to run away from them, after all. It would only hurt more to consider them family at a time like that. I say this because there’s a panel where they essentially show this thought process happening). She stows away because she doesn’t want him to leave, and does everything she can to make sure that, when he backtracks to return her to H4H, that he stays with her. She’s just. She’s so beautifully stubborn in this comic (in the entire series, tbh, but I just love it so much, here). There’s an acknowledgement that even though Kit had adults in his life that he was fond of, there was no one actually taking care of him or acting as a family with him until he found H4H. In the climax of the story Kit refers to H4H as his home while he’s hugging Molly close to him. Emaculate.

I think what I’m getting at is that Kit’s arc is that of an orphan boy who was convinced he was going to spend his life alone and never need anyone but himself, suddenly finding out that he not only needs but actually wants a family, and that, in fact, he’s decently family-oriented at that. It’s such a beautiful thing to me and a major reason why I love the character so much.

So yeah like. Ofc you can choose to ignore all this and interpret this show however the fuck you want, but Boy Howdy are you missing one lovely fucker of a side to this show if you choose not to see H4H as a found family.