can we talk about "pick up the sword — you're making a scene"? that line really hurt to read. it's heartbreaking. like max sets these unrealistic expectations on elias, the "favorite" child, then chastizes him for not automatically knowing what to do. it's a wonder max's treatment of them doesn't cause sally & her sibling to resent each other.
It really is unfair to Elias. I think this issue is a good display of how Max seems to care about his family’s image than being a good dad
Like, his firstborn child is back, so what does he do? Put him in charge! Because Elias is supposed to inherit the throne, right? Except he was never raised to be king, and this life is completely new to him. But Max doesn’t have time to train Elias properly, he just wants to keep up appearances and make the kingdom look stable
I think that’s really the core of Max’s problems. Both Bollers and Penders make it seem like Max struggles with this... impotent rage? He was completely horrible in his partially crystallized form, and that got written off as Naugus mind control, but I never bought that. He was much better for a while under Bollers, but now he’s starting to act a bit like that again since the incident where he was paralyzed. I get the vibe that Max is very insecure about people perceiving him as a flawed ruler, so when things are going poorly for him, he wants everything around him to be run EXACTLY according to plan to compensate. And when his orders aren’t followed perfectly and there are people around to see, he gets MAD
He’s also, you know, an authoritarian dad, which inherently makes him an emotionally distant asshole who just wants to boss his kids around. He’s like the kind of dad who gets mad if his kids talk back at him in public
(We should also remember that there was a timeskip of a couple months shortly after Elias was given the throne, so Elias’s anxiety as a ruler has been building for quite some time now)
