how do you think the conversation between Varian and his father went down when Varian came clean about becoming a traitor and lashing out at the royal family and helping the Sapporian's take over Corona? The show never gets into these things and it is frustrating. We see Varian and his dad on good terms through out season 3, and they were gone from the werewolf episode so they must have been away talking about things. But I can't imagine it initially went over well. Thoughts?
It’s hard to tell, because Quirin really didn’t get enough screentime to properly gage his reaction to Varian’s actions. However, it’s important to remember that Quirin had a whole lot of secrets himself to admit to his son. (ex: the brotherhood and his past dealings with the rocks) You can make the argument that it’s because Quirin never told him about his past, that Varian couldn’t grasp just how severe and dangerous the rocks truly were, leading Varian to act recklessly trying to get rid of them.
In all honesty, I feel like Quirin should be more upset about the fact that his son was abandoned by the kingdom and was forced to do something drastic just to have the royal family’s attention. Like, Quirin kept the king’s secret behind why the rocks were there, and what does he get in return? He hears that his son was vilified because Frederic refused to take responsibility for his actions.
Of course, there is the fact that Quirin showed some shame for Varian’s actions in the past and honestly his shame is lowkey justified with how reckless Varian was with his alchemy in his attempts to help. I’m sure that played a factor in his feelings for what Varian did. However, if he thought hard on the Varian’s circumstances, he probably couldn’t realistically figure out what else Varian could have done without him and the crown not only not helping, but going against him as early as Quest for Varian. Plus him getting manipulated by the Saporians only happened because SOMEBODY thought throwing the scorned teenage prodigy into the same cell as the Terrorist was a good idea.
So in short, while I’m sure it was a hard conversation for both of them, I would think Quirin cares enough about his son to not only acknowledge his own failings during the situation, but also be aware that the situation was stacked against Varian. Yes, maybe Quirin felt a bit of the old shake he had for his son’s actions, but by that point, Varian had been through more than enough, and was still suffering from the weight of his actions. I don’t think Quirin would have the heart to throw more shame onto that pile.