a collection of thoughts on roman roy, his name, and his abuse.
logan named roman with a lot of thought. rome was one of the greatest empires in history (it's shown and obvious that logan studies and enjoys history, so he knows this well), and he was manifesting in a way that roman would turn out to be great through having a strong name like roman, while also being a roy. think about that name. roman, a citizen of rome, roy, the surname of one of the greatest capitalists in succession's universe. with a name like that, logan was manifesting a very strong man, son, and businessman.
roman turned out to be the opposite of what logan wanted in his eyes. while he obviously has a lot of great assets (very good at banter and being able to mesh well with younger figures in politics and business which leads to making deals and growing waystar, as seen through roman's connection with mencken), roman is weak. he makes crude and gross jokes at every turn because he's constantly avoiding and deflecting how things make him feel. he feels deeply, he gets hurt easily, and that is not an asset. that is a weakness in someone like logan's eyes.
there's a reason logan always calls roman "romulus". romulus means "little rome". he watched roman in real time go from the son he expected when he was born, the son he named with expectations of greatness, to someone weak. someone with very few assets and strengths. someone unworthy of the name roman roy. he sees roman as less than. logan sees roman as small, as not even half the man he wanted him to be. as little. he isn't roman. he isn't a great empire. he's little rome. he's barely even a roy.
i think a lot of logan's abuse stems from his expectations of roman. yes, he will always kick something to see if it comes back. he constantly tests and pushes roman to see what his breaking point is (or if it even exists), but he takes his anger out on roman too. this isn't just anger of his own, or anger stemming from his stressors and life, but it's anger towards roman for turning out the way he did. that's also obviously underlying anger towards himself for letting roman turn out that way. it's clearly logan's fault that roman turned out the way he did, he was extremely shaped by logan's abuse. his personality is one huge, walking trauma response. but i think he punishes roman to avoid punishing himself. he knows that he's to blame, but instead of looking into that deeper, realizing and understanding that all of his actions and his abuse of roman since childhood has shaped him so thoroughly, he just keeps doing it. he doesn't sit with those feelings and let them blossom into realizations, which would then make change a possibility or a necessity. he channels all of that into hatred of who roman became while simultaneously loving having a son who never gives pushback. a son who takes every hit with a smile. a son who will always come back. he respects kendall more than roman, but he doesn't love kendall as much as he loves roman. he respects that kendall has a backbone, as seen in the proud look he has on his face during the press conference in which kendall outs logan as being completely complicit in the cruises scandal. he loves roman for not having a backbone. as much as he hates who roman grew to be, someone far from his expectations, he loves having a punching bag. he loves having a dog he can always kick who will always come back.
romulus, little rome, the dog who will never escape his cage. his owner has long since died with the key still gripped in his hand.
