Okay theory time!! I think these parents (some of them, fuck you Chase’s dad) actually care about their kids. I don’t see them as pretending, for now
I mean, they’ve all got issues, some serious issues. Some VERY serious issues, but they (save Victor Stein) seem to truly love their children.
The Yorkes seems to really demonstrate this out of all of the parents, but the Wilder’s definitely love and care for Alex too (which we never really saw on Geoff’s part in the comics. It was more of a “behind-the-scenes” affection, but here, he jokes with his son, is interested in what he is doing, even with his video games and his and Nico’s relationship).
You’ve also got Janet Stein who wants to make sure that if/when she leaves her husband (that was my understanding of her scenes with Robert, I might be wrong) that Chase would not deal with the consequences from Victor.
As for Tina Minoru, it seems to be the case of her being much closer to Amy than Nico, and now that Amy is gone, Nico feels like and is treated like the “unwanted”, and her Dad is trying to help and is stressed to Tina that they may end up loosing Nico too if the situation doesn’t get any better (which is won’t if he and Janet cheating on their spouses, but that’s a meta for another time).
The Deans are a little bit harder to pinpoint. We haven’t see Frank really interact with Karolina at all, and from what I can gather from Karolina and Leslie’s relationship, Karolina is so used to believing and following what her mother says and thinks is best, that rebelling is a totally new concept to her, but she’s also frustrated that her mother doesn’t see what’s really going on with her.
The Yorkes, as I said above, are probably the best out of all the parents. They’re the typical weird, embarrassing, loving dorks that obviously love their girls. I also see the sense of guilt they have toward Molly (because whatever they said to the Hernandez’s put them in danger in the first place), but from the lines said by Stacy Yorkes, the Yorkes and the Hernandezes seemed very close, so it’s no wodner they were the couple to reach out and adopt Molly into their family.
Honestly, I have a lot of feelings about the parents, and I know a lot of people are saying they are focusing WAY too much on them, but what? We got 1 out of the 3 episodes (so far) focusing solely on the parents, and honestly that’s a good thing. As much as I love the original comic, the Pride, while not one-note, weren’t exactly explored (we only got two or three lines from Victor and Geoff saying how they really felt about their sons, and a few from the Hayes’ and the Deans’ but that’s about it).
The Pride are way more in-depth this time around, and so far, I’m really liking that, and I’m really excited to see how their relationship becomes after the kids finally run away.
