I wonder if Ethan is genuinely scared of some rides or Emma just decides he is so she doesn’t have to go on them?
I remember on the cruise where she took him back to the room and missed the show because he was tired - when he definitely looked fine.
the way that she has enforced the "divide and conquer" tactic the entire time they've been at Universal, i get the impression that it's more because babs needs to film content for her #ad, thus she needs a child with her to feature in photos etc. babs hates rides, while erin obviously loves them, so while i'm sure she'd prefer to spend her days hanging out and "twinning" with the golden child, and have triple threat star in all her content, it would involve accompanying erin on rides, which she ain't gonna do.
presumably, she sees herself as being lumbered with ethan. he is "the chosen one" in terms of featuring in her Universal content, which means that babs dictates his entire day to ensure she gets the content
she wants, thus i assume he doesn't even have the option to go on the rides. it may well be that he isn't a fan of the bigger rides, but surely he would have at least enjoyed Hagrid and other HP rides, since he's such a huge HP fan? i may have missed it, but i haven't even seen babs take him on the Hogwarts Express.
the way steve and erin snuck out to the rides at 6am the other morning seemed as though it was specifically planned - as if babs demanded steve and erin leave the hotel super early, while ethan was still asleep. according to babs, he is usually the first one awake, so them leaving the hotel without waking him would have had to be pre-planned to ensure steve and erin were awake early, and involved a lot of sneaking around. i guess that way, when ethan woke up they were gone, babs could justify him missing out as "ethan was tired and overslept" - which meant he was forced to spend the day trailing around after babs, while she focuses on posing with characters, buying and eating snacks, taking photos of her Fanta, eating more snacks, visiting the shops
she wants to go to - because
duck ethan! - and cackling away as she focused on her phone and shared photos of endless creepy potential "colins", while the poor kid presumably wandered around dejectedly with his wand, missing out on all the rides and attractions that he would have loved!
i assume she's spending her days filming content for an #ad vlog, while steve and erin are actually permitted to enjoy the park - after all, the whole reason babs was forced to drag herself away from her beloved Disney - and we know she would have been reluctant - is because of the gifted tickets that were specifically relevant to ethan - SUCH an inconvenience
![Face with rolling eyes :rolling_eyes: 🙄](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f644.png)
![Face with rolling eyes :rolling_eyes: 🙄](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f644.png)
- thus it seems that after being allowed to fulfil his HP dream of the wand choosing ceremony, he now needs to work his little socks off posing in photos and featuring in all her Universal footage and serving as her photographer - i assume he was the one taking photos of her posing with beetlejuice etc - to make up for it. that, or "working" for babs to create content rather than being allowed to have fun with steve and erin - who are undoubtedly having the time of their lives without babs constantly shoving cameras in their faces! - was the agreement in terms of what he had to do to earn his wand "reward".
as with
everything, ethan is used as a scapegoat to justify avoiding situations where
babs doesn't want to participate - with no interest in what
he wants. ethan is tired so she has to take him back to the hotel and miss all the evening events, ethan is scared of big rides so only steve and erin will be riding them, ethan doesn't like to be adventurous with food which means babs is forced to stick with her usual bland menu. it's bullshit. if babs is tired and wants to stick to her toddler bedtime routine, she surely doesn't need to ruin ethan's holiday by using the poor kid as justification to go back to the hotel! she could let him stay our with steve and erin and actually have fun, while she returns to her pit - she just doesn't want to have to explain that to the babettes, so she uses toddler ethan. it's cruel that he is forced to miss out on so much just because it benefits
her.
![Pensive face :pensive: 😔](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/joypixels/emoji-assets@5.0/png/64/1f614.png)