I actually love the trope of a younger partner who's still (naturally) inexperienced and insecure about how to handle certain challenging issues, thinking that maturity is dealing with it alone. They believe that way they won't burden the other person and it can also prove to both themselves and their partner that they're mature.
Not that it's a fully harmful approach, but there's still so much nuance and intricacies to navigate when it comes to communication, support and responsibilities in relationships. Personal boundaries, asking for help or expressing your needs, sharing aspects of individual hardships without it meaning that you use someone else to avoid making difficult choices which help you grow as a person. Acknowledging when the other person has to be involved to some degree because your choices affect them too and generally allowing a forgiving environment that doesn't shy away from mistakes, but it also doesn't condemn you for them, as long as you make genuine efforts to improve.
In the additional context of being a queer person (a gay man in this case) within a homophobic family with strict expectations that are catching up to you, I think it's such a great theme to explore and I'm excited for next season, as much as I dread the angst.
I actually love the trope of a younger partner who's still (naturally) inexperienced and insecure about how to handle certain challenging issues, thinking that maturity is dealing with it alone. They believe that way they won't burden the other person and it can also prove to both themselves and their partner that they're mature.
Not that it's a fully harmful approach, but there's still so much nuance and intricacies to navigate when it comes to communication, support and responsibilities in relationships. Personal boundaries, asking for help or expressing your needs, sharing aspects of individual hardships without it meaning that you use someone else to avoid making difficult choices which help you grow as a person. Acknowledging when the other person has to be involved to some degree because your choices affect them too and generally allowing a forgiving environment that doesn't shy away from mistakes, but it also doesn't condemn you for them, as long as you make genuine efforts to improve.
In the additional context of being a queer person (a gay man in this case) within a homophobic family with strict expectations that are catching up to you, I think it's such a great theme to explore and I'm excited for next season, as much as I dread the angst.