Zak Adama the favoured son of William Adama. Agree or Disagree?

[Blue Banrigh]

I was perusing the TV Guide site and came across a profile of Adama saying he mourned the loss of his favourite son. This notion intrigued me (along with a conversation I had with Easter Lily on the Apollo Thunk thread). Since we've never seen the family dynamic before Zak's death so this is pure speculation.

How likely is it that Zak was favoured (favoured not whom William loved more, I think there is a difference) by Adama more than Lee regardless of his aptitude for piloting?

As Helen Tigh said, I think Lee is more his mother's son and Zak his father, he certainly sided with her more since Zak's death, even their positioning at Zak's funeral. Or was this decision to side with his mother more of a result from Zak's death and Lee's disillusionment with the military?

[CKO]

well watchin' acts of contrtion/ you cant go home again.

Spoiler:

we learned that Zak had failed basic flight (although Kara does pass him, she as his teacher allowed her feelings to get in the way as they were engaged... )

it could go either way, lee and his father have a strained relationship.

there's so much that we don't know but i'd have to say that he was.

[Dahak]

I don't think that Adama had a favorite. Lee certainly thinks so but he still hasn't come to terms with Zak's death. Also he has some HUGE issues with his dad anyway.
From Adama's POV things are different. The oldest often thinks that the parents care about younger siblings more since babies require more work than toddlers and so on. As a parent I know that you get used to checking on the youngest first because they are more likely to do something stupid. While my kids are still kids that is a habit that a lot of parents seem to keep.
Also from everyones POV including Kara's there is the fact that Zak is dead. Thou shalt not speak ill of the dead is a very common human trait. So people always talk about how funny Zak was or whatever and rarely mention all of his faults. That makes Zak look a lot better than he would have been when he was alive.

[Madeleine]

I don't think that Adama had a favorite. Lee certainly thinks so but he still hasn't come to terms with Zak's death. Also he has some HUGE issues with his dad anyway.
From Adama's POV things are different. The oldest often thinks that the parents care about younger siblings more since babies require more work than toddlers and so on. As a parent I know that you get used to checking on the youngest first because they are more likely to do something stupid. While my kids are still kids that is a habit that a lot of parents seem to keep.
Also from everyones POV including Kara's there is the fact that Zak is dead. Thou shalt not speak ill of the dead is a very common human trait. So people always talk about how funny Zak was or whatever and rarely mention all of his faults. That makes Zak look a lot better than he would have been when he was alive.

Agree with all that.

Also, as we get older it's no easier to please our parents, because they always make allowances for our youth so our first ever bicycle ride at four gets as much approval as will passing our driving test at 20 or as getting a promotion at 40. But our capacity to disappoint our parents is much higher in adulthood, where there is more scope for our actions to have dire consequences and where youth is no longer a mitigating circumstance.

So nowadays Lee will see his father be proud of him when he's done well, compare it with how proud dad used to be of Zak when Zak did good, and find little difference. But he'll see his father angry or disappointed with him and know that never did Zak provoke such negative feeling from dad, and it'll hurt. And Apollo will put it down to being the less-favoured child, even though the comparisons are probably all in his mind and not dad's.

[Easter Lily]

My feeling is that much of Lee's angst about his relationship with his father comes from Lee's own sense of insecurity. I don't suppose it was easy for him to grow up both in the shadow of his father's reputation and with the fact that his father was probably mostly absent from his life. My feeling is that he doesn't really know his father, hence, he doesn't know where he stands in that regard and little by little, he is beginning to find out that his father isn't the monster that he thinks he is.
Lee's problem also is that he thinks too much. He is envious of the free and easy relationship that Adama has with Kara
While Lee may be resemble his mother, I suspect, that in personality he may be more like his father. Isn't there a theory somewhere that suggests that family members that are most alike tend to clash on different levels? I don't think most parents favour one child above another so obviously like Denthor and Boromir but from my own experience, I think parents do gravitate towards the child that is unlike them because of their complementary nature.

[fair_nymph]

^^^
I agree regarding Lee's insecurity...good summary there EL.

Hmmm... I agree that Adama doesn't APPEAR to have an obvious 'favourite' son, but I think that if he did, it would probably be Lee.

IME, parents tend to expect more and be harder on the oldest child; they make be more affectionate towards the younger child, but that doesn't mean that they respect the younger child in the same way.

I would think based on Lee's academic and career accomplishments, plus him being very much like his father, that Adama would have more respect for Lee, identify with him more strongly, and quite possibly love him more. All the angsty issues he and Lee have wouldn't negate this, IMO, either.

[Dahak]

Also I am not sure how much Lee really wanted to join the Colonial Fleet. Or Zac for that matter.
Adama was a major war hero and eventually became a Commander (Admiral). All of the boys lives were spent on or at least nearby Navy bases. Most of their friend's parents were almost certainly military also. Families members would have bought the boys Viper II models and things like that for presents.
Now we know that their grandfather was not military he was a lawyer (which also explains Cmdr. Adama's disdain for military rule) so there wasn't any of the pressure like the families who have been in the military since as the saying goes "since Christ was a Corporal" but there would have been some.
However Lee did join the military and unless the Colonial Fleet is completely unlike every single military organization on Earth in all of history there would be some possiblity (unlikely with Adama being such a hardass) of nepotism or the perception of nepotism (very likely). Lee would have a chip on his shoulder about making his own way and when he thought that Adama had Zac passed for basic flight it would further have tied into all his questionable military feelings.