He's not a scumbag. I've watched the series from episode one and have a few episodes left to go in season two, but throughout the length of that viewing experience I haven't seen any one character I would call and just dismiss as a "scumbag", except maybe Pax.
But this decision on his part is not one I can agree with. I'm talking about the decision to treat it in a fairly laid-back, easygoing, cavalier manner as if it's no real big deal if it takes years to find your mother who is potentially trapped, imprisoned, enslaved, or in any other form of mortal peril. I don't like the way it was handled in the show and it felt very mishandled, at least in the way it told this part of the story and relayed it to the audience, or made his feelings on the matter clear, which it simply didn't do. I felt as if the season finale of season one and this entire emotional momentum they sought to end and capitalize on really just amounted to a bait and switch.
Because his entire motivation for getting over a throwback to the psychological state of his former life (as the person he was back in our world/Earth), over a seemingly almost-insurmountable psychological and emotional hurdle, getting out of bed and taking a step forward, having the courage to face the outside world again after suffering another trauma - That motivation was portrayed to be the absolute vital imperative and necessity of finding Zenith, as if it was the single-most important mission in the world, naturally accompanied by an unspoken sense of urgency. One he was willing to "get over" his fears, depression symptoms, and self-loathing enough to at least set out on a new adventure, risking his own relative safety and comfort hunkered down in his shell for.
And then? When season two started the placing of that level of dramatic weight on it just seemed like it was never really revisited and suddenly it transformed into something which it somehow became okay to take this casual wait-and-see, "If it takes another five years, who cares?" approach to. Really didn't like that and rubbed me the wrong way. Definitely one of the weakest points of the series and one of the major details which would contribute to my not giving it too high of a score when rating it. I really don't appreciate when series do this type of thing as it's not just about the character's decision, but the way it's actually written about and framed feels leading and dishonest. Like the momentum built up around it at season one's end was just a blue balls-style cliffhanger without sufficient payoff. If he wasn't shown to care about finding Zenith to begin with, that would be one thing, and one could ridicule and condemn the character for that, but it would be no fault of the show and may, depending on how well-explained and well-executed, even prove a brilliant artistic decision. But instead they had those season one finale scenes all to fizzle into a tease.
With that said, purely from the in-universe character perspective alone and not creative writing choices, as far as Rudeus' decision about it, his relationship with his mother would not be the same as any other character's or any other person's in the real world, for that matter, at least if realistic considerations were taken into account. "Mother" or "Mom" is not just an abstract concept where it always fits or conforms to some ideal, or where it's all equal enough to be interchangeable between different sets of people. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt of assuming that his relationship with her is just as unique as any other character's/person's in relation to another, and that his feelings are messy and complicated. So while I would want to move heaven and Earth as quickly as possible, he's not me or anyone else. Then there may be someone he shows greater kindness to or interest in who I wouldn't give a second glance if in the same situation. That's the way of the world.
The other major aspect which I found one of the only main (main as in, ones I actually care about) weak points of this show to date, is how this entire subplot started around the time of and was intertwined with the whole Eris drama. Well, not that it was, but, to clarify, I mean the Eris drama itself was weak in conception and overly frustrating for no reason, because it was built on very beaten to death and stereotypical BS anime miscommunication/no communication-based misunderstandings. I can't stand those or how they've proliferated so. As beautiful as that episode was where they had their union of the flesh and key moments especially, the entire melodrama which came out of that soured me on the show for a bit. I got over it as something that happened in a now past, older episode, so that it doesn't detract anymore from newer and current episodes. But anytime it's still brought up in the show and we're forced to revisit that event, like in the conversation with Ruijerd at the new house in Sharia, it temporarily disrupts all the positive the show is otherwise doing and has done since, and brings that acrid taste back to my mouth.
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