In the process of thinking of male characters, especially "alpha" males, don't always assume that they were raised by alpha male dads. More than likely, with some of the most successful men on the planet, they were raised to their maturity and success by their moms, alone, and not by their fathers.
Fathers, who, traditionally, are fully obtuse and ignore their children, until they do something or become something they want, for their own paternal pride, can breed rather cloying, hyper "see me, see me, see what I can do dad, am I doing what you like, dad" men: General Douglas MacArthur, David O. Selznick, every Kennedy brother of the John F. Kennedy clan generation, George W. Bush, and such.
Ambition and the success it can generate, and the "manliness" to handle and govern other men, as in politics and in war, doesn't need a blood father who raises and goads the boy into manhood.
Can any of the men mentioned above surpass--and some have actively tried--the ancient success, as men among and above men, ruling men, as Big July, Julius Caesar, and his grandnephew / adopted son delicate, fay Octavian Augustus Caesar, Emperor of Emperors of the extensive state of Rome? Or Temujin, Genghis Khan who formed the formidable Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history?
Nope.
--Neale Sourna
