at this point, it's well-established that rudy west was abusive, both physically and mentally, but i now want to talk about the more complicated facets of their relationship that i haven't seen anyone talk about or even mention.
to start with, it's important to understand that rudy's motivations and drive come from a place of deep-seated envy. as a child, he had a troubled relationship with his own father, which only further deteriorated with ira west's favoritism towards iris and the opportunities and accomplishments that she had because of this. as someone stuck in a dead-end career, rudy could never achieve the same on his own merit, and it was this want for power and control over his life that drew him into the cult of the manhunters and ultimately forms the basis to his relationship to his son. when wally got his powers, rudy perceived this sudden transformation as a threat to his authority as the man of the house, since it was now impossible to maintain control over an "all-powerful" son.
The Flash (1987) Annual #2 + The Flash (1987) #8
in addition, rudy had a fraught relationship with his wife that would would trickle down onto wally and have him latch onto the flash as an escape from his tense home life. rudy heavily disapproved of this new development as he considered it an unrealistic dream and, later on, would come to resent barry for his importance in wally's life over his own comparatively lesser position. in his childhood, wally would also be exposed to corporal punishment before his powers earned him a sense of "freedom" from the restrictive expectations of his parents.
The Flash (1987) #0 + The Flash (1987) #38
all this being said, it's important to note here that rudy did, genuinely, love his son, albeit in a manner that harmed him more than it ever did reassure or comfort. i think it says something that a man so aggressively sure of the pecking order of the universe and his own superiority in it, to the point where wally explicitly calls his rhetoric fascist, would on multiple occasions risk life and limb to try and protect a son that he fears and may even hate for a power he himself does not and will never have. it's more than accurate to say that rudy was a bad father and an even worse person, but i don't think that this contradicts the fact that he did, at least in some capacity, care for wally in his own way.
The Flash (1987) Annual #2 + The Flash (1987) #65
as for wally's perspective over this whole ordeal, well, of course it's complicated. in his childhood, wally despised his home life and his father's perceived lack of care for him and wanted desperately to live with iris instead. as an adult, he resents that rudy couldn't have been a better father for him and guiltily wishes it could've been barry instead, but feels that he can in some small part understand the position that rudy was coming from and has a decent amount of good memories with him. still, each time that wally reaches out to try and connect with him, rudy continuously proves that his own self-interest and potential to profit is more important than the world and people around him, something that wally can neither abide by or respect. regardless of how much wally wants to and in spite of himself does love his father, it ultimately means nothing in the face of rudy's inability to change for the better.
The Flash (1987) #21 + The Flash (1987) Annual #2
to sum it up, i think it's very easy to say that rudy's physical abuse is the be all, end all, over how to interpret his and wally's relationship, but i do believe that they care for each other despite it all. given, this care is only ever in a capacity that should and has canonically been maintained from a far distance due to their own conflicting morals, but it's there. and it never really mattered, in the end.
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