I’m rewatching Succession, and there’s a moment that really stands out to me. In the first season, when they have the vote on the Sura motion for Logan and Kendall loses, Ewan travels all the way from Canada to vote in favor of his brother even though they don’t talk, even though every time they see each other they throw all the dirt possible at each other, even though Ewan can’t stand him and thinks he’s a total bastard, even though Ewan can’t stand the family, even though Ewan is fed up with everyone, he still travels to vote for his brother. Because, as he tells Kendall, his brother might be the worst bastard in history, but he’s still his brother.
Meanwhile, Roman chickens out and can’t bring himself to vote in favor of kicking out his father. I mean, he can’t vote for Kendall’s plan. And that’s really interesting in terms of family dynamics, because throughout the series we see that the Roy siblings never really get anywhere and never achieve their goals. That’s because, even when they temporarily unite, they always betray each other. They have such a need for validation that their father never gave them, that they need to validate themselves individually. They always have a very self-centered and self-indulgent view of their successes. They don’t understand success through unity, they see unity as a means to achieve success. And that’s what always brings them down.
Meanwhile, Ewan and Logan, who are brothers but had to go through poverty, had to make themselves and had to work together to survive, are incredibly dysfunctional, have a terrible relationship, and a very broken dynamic but when it comes down to it, when Logan needs his brother, his brother is there for him. And he’s never going to betray him. He can insult him, humiliate him publicly, say all the things no one else dares to say but he’ll never betray his brother. And that’s a law. I could beat up my brother and break his teeth, but no one else can beat up my brother and break his teeth.
In contrast, the Roy siblings beat each other so hard that not only do they break each other’s teeth, they destroy each other entirely and devour one another. And that’s something their father taught them, something he instilled in them so that they would never be united enough to overthrow him.
