Rudy pepper, a bad or good father?
In my time of enjoying Lackadaisy I’ve always looked for the more obscure and interesting topics. One such topic, or character i should say is Ruby, Ivys father. To me he’s always been a more distant character both while reading the story and its cannon. Specifically with Ivy, as the one thing I and many others found interesting about Ruby is how he actively distance himself from her. Today we will explore the reasons on why he does this. Is he really a loving father? What causes him to do this? Is he a bad father to Ivy? All and more in another Lackadaisy analysis…
(disclaimer: as always, this is just me yapping for fun, not trying to play armchair psychologist or anything. These are purely just what I’ve observed)
From the Lackadaisy Ingenue short we know Ruby is very involved heavily in Atlas’s gang. It seems he’s as much involved as Viktor or Mordecai considering he partakes in shake downs and robberies. This could be why Ruby distances himself from Ivy, not wanting her to get involved in a life of crime. Now I could just wrap it up here, but of course it’s not that simple and I found some information that tells a different story…
Now if Ruby didn’t want to her involved in the gangster life why would he take her to meet the very gangsters he works with? Although wanting his daughter to stay out of that life could be apart of his distance relationship with her, this detail seems a bit contradictory to that point. Now in the second pictures we can see that Ruby makes an effort to appeal to her, after Ruby says there not keeping the car he states that they’ll be taking the train back and mentions how she likes the train.
In this frame we actually see the look on Rudy's face when he noticed ivy’s disappointment in not keeping the car, it’s important to note as this is only for a brief moment. Only after this look does Ruby bring up the fact that she likes the train. Showing that he does care for her well being. Activity making an effort to make the trips they take more to her liking.
Now with all the information we've gathered on Ruby we can conclude that he both try’s to spend time with her and keep his distance as well. It seems a bit odd, both of these things contradict the other so what’s going on? Well I think I figured it out. I believe in a certain way Ruby feels unworthy to care for Ivy. This would make sense as to why he says so far away from her while still trying to make a little effort to at least cheer her up. He wants to be a good father but can’t as his gangster life gets in the way of his fatherly nature, and the thing is he can’t chose between them. He wants to stay in the gangster life as that’s where all his friends are, it’s how he puts food on the table, but he also wants to be present in Ivys life as well but he just can’t, choosing to focus on his gangster life. So he ends up growing distant from Ivy so much so that, by the time of the comics, Ivy actively doesn’t care for seeing him and makes an effort not to, as seen in the panel below…
So in conclusion. we’ve found that Ruby is likely not a bad father, nor is he not loving to Ivy, but he is unfortunately a man who can’t choose between his daughter and his profession. Who in his attempt to keep his daughter safe unknowingly drives her away further.
Thanks for reading another installment in my Lackadaisy analysis series! If you have read the other to there up on my blog. For those who are returning thank you for your patience, a lot of research goes into these but to me that’s always the fun part. Im happy I finally got a reason to talk about Ruby as he’s always been a mysterious character. If you have any thought feel free to ask me or leave a comment. Thanks again, bye!
