Alpha-17 kinda reminds me of an immigrant parent
Disclaimer: I am speaking as a Chinese-American so my thoughts reflect that background. Definitely do not take this as a comprehensive thought piece on immigrant parents, there are better and smarter writers than me on this topic
A common HC I see in TCW fanfic is that Alpha-17 had a hand in raising the CCs (Cody, Wolffe, Fox, Bly, and Ponds most frequently) beyond just training and graduating them from the ARC program. Like he was actively acting as an older brother figure and teacher from a very young age. The exact relationship varies, but common themes include him being extremely harsh during training but also very gentle with the baby CCs as well.
The way he's written kinda reminds me of immigrant parents. Everything they do in regards to their kids comes from a place of good intention. Immigrant parents want their kids to succeed and have a better life than they did just as Alpha-17 wants the CCs to survive the war and to successfully lead and guide their men. But immigrant parents can encourage their kids in very harsh and potentially traumatizing ways (tiger parenting comes to mind, given my background) leading to a lot of kids having tense relationships with their parents. I can imagine Alpha-17 doing the same with the CCs, where he's very harsh with their training (pushing them beyond their physical limits during training, verbally berating them, beating them bloody during sparring).
I can't say for certain, but I suspect it's a combination of the fact that immigrant parents often come from a cultural background where such parenting is the norm. Given that the Alphas were raised by Mando trainers and Kaminoan scientists, their view of what the appropriate way to raise kids is probably extremely skewed.
This leads to complicated feelings from the kids. As adults, we can usually understand why our parents are the way they are. We can recognize and be grateful for the sacrifices our parents made for us and understand why they were so harsh on us as kids. And there are plenty of good moments where it's clear our parents loved us. But we also remember the way our parents treated us in pushing us towards success. We remember them being hard on us to the point of tears and we don't want our kids to be raised that way.
I can imagine Alpha-17 and the CCs having a similar tenuous relationship. Alpha-17 were hard on the CCs because he wanted them to survive Kamino and the war. And the CCs recognize that. But it doesn't stop the CCs from resenting the Alphas for what they put them through during their training.
It's not an exact parallel of course. For one, immigrant kids usually aren't in a situation where poor performance can lead to their death like the clones were lol. And there's also a lot of nuances that I haven't covered like collectivist vs individualist culture (I can definitely imagine the clones having an extremely collectivist culture out of necessity), the effects of trauma, the fact that the Alphas would likely be kids raising kids, etc (i'm not that well-read on this kind of stuff and would not be able to write comprehensively on the topic. again there are better and smarter writers than some rando on tumblr yapping about clones).
But it's an interesting possibility to think about. I can imagine the clones not really having time to really think about their relationship during the war, more focused on their command, surviving the war, and more immediate relationships. However, in a post-war no O66 AU, there would be more time for them to think about their relationship with each other and work through their feelings, especially without a war backing their actions anymore.
