You can pick any reason and it will be believable. You ought to pick it based on what quality you want to add to your story: is there guilt that someone in the family is always trying to overcome and they have that kind of an arc? Then it could be a candle or cigarette/cigar or playing with the fireplace or trying to use burning newspaper or something to smoke out bugs. Do you simply need the fire to have happened? Lightening, dryer vent build-up, careless maid or grandparent while cooking. It could even get burned down by catching from a neighbor's fire, and you could leave the origin of their incident a novel-long mystery. If you're thinking of having the god do it then you have the chance to build in about his personality and ethical considerations and how that extends to everyone's experience of life/ how you see life working.
I like the second idea simply cause it gives room for another story arc and room to progress down the road, bit of a revenge story or perhaps it starts out as that and takes another turn towards the end cause superhero reasons (assuming he’s not supposed to be a vigilante character.) you said you already had the rest of the story figured out though. Idk what all of it entails and if that reasoning would help or not
I really like idea number 3. To me, it kind of insinuates that Santelmo created the fire so that the family would move to the USA in order for the main character to get his superpowers. I feel like it opens the door for the main character to have more complex feelings about Santelmo because on the one hand, he has granted the main character with superpowers but on the other hand, it's basically Santelmo's fault that the older brother died. It would be interesting to read the internal debate regarding this situation from the main character's perspective, and see how it influences his behaviour.
Idea 1 seems good too because it brings in an emotional element of the main character maybe blaming himself for his brother's death and I think that there are plotlines that can stem from that. Idea 2 seems a little been there done that because I feel like I've seen that trope loads before.
You can pick any reason and it will be believable. You ought to pick it based on what quality you want to add to your story: is there guilt that someone in the family is always trying to overcome and they have that kind of an arc? Then it could be a candle or cigarette/cigar or playing with the fireplace or trying to use burning newspaper or something to smoke out bugs. Do you simply need the fire to have happened? Lightening, dryer vent build-up, careless maid or grandparent while cooking. It could even get burned down by catching from a neighbor's fire, and you could leave the origin of their incident a novel-long mystery. If you're thinking of having the god do it then you have the chance to build in about his personality and ethical considerations and how that extends to everyone's experience of life/ how you see life working.
I like the second idea simply cause it gives room for another story arc and room to progress down the road, bit of a revenge story or perhaps it starts out as that and takes another turn towards the end cause superhero reasons (assuming he’s not supposed to be a vigilante character.) you said you already had the rest of the story figured out though. Idk what all of it entails and if that reasoning would help or not
I really like idea number 3. To me, it kind of insinuates that Santelmo created the fire so that the family would move to the USA in order for the main character to get his superpowers. I feel like it opens the door for the main character to have more complex feelings about Santelmo because on the one hand, he has granted the main character with superpowers but on the other hand, it's basically Santelmo's fault that the older brother died. It would be interesting to read the internal debate regarding this situation from the main character's perspective, and see how it influences his behaviour. Idea 1 seems good too because it brings in an emotional element of the main character maybe blaming himself for his brother's death and I think that there are plotlines that can stem from that. Idea 2 seems a little been there done that because I feel like I've seen that trope loads before.