Eugene, Roy & Football (SOD spoiler!)

[Aveline]

Anyway, for me it has always been clear that
1. interest in me as person (which my parents REALLY REALLY SHOWED to great extent!!)
and
2. interest in my hobbies (a little here and there)
are very different things.

In short, I have always known my parents to love me and care for me, because they cared for my emotional wellbeing, but I would have never tied that into them being interested in my interests.

It is, really, interesting to read that appearantly that is a thing, though.
Good to remember when raising children, as well.

Again, the scene that maybe was supposed to portray Eugene as a selfish liar (the sports scene) just didn't do that to me, personally.
For me, Eugene HAD important stuff to do: his past came back to haunt him, and he made the decision to fend it off from his family. And in true Hollywood manier, he promptly then lied to his family "to protect them from his troubled past" ("plane of water").

This isn't absolutely universal, but parents/guardians are often the main source of a child's validation. Children need guidance, and before long they may come to expect it in some form and, hopefully, seek it out. When someone fails to live up to the responsibility of guiding their child, it can feel like a betrayal, and the child may feel that they can't count on the guardian.

My reading of the soccer scene was that Eugene was consistently failing to be an attentive father, and regardless of whether he had a legitimate excuse on this occasion, it had come to be an expected pattern that he wouldn't be involved in his son's life. Sara had a whole speech prepared.

It's not that the soccer game in and of itself is what was important to Roy (although Roy clearly was working hard to carry his team to victory); it's that Eugene didn't care no matter what Roy did if it wasn't wizardry.

That doesn't make Eugene a saint at any rate, but my impression was that the scene(s) were meant to paint Eugene in more shades of grey, if you get what I mean.
Like Sara said: Eugene did, at times, focus his energy on being a good father.
And to Eugene, this might have been being the perfect wizard example, and enable such life for Roy.
After all, that's the example his father gave to HIM, showing absolute disinterest in his books.

This, I admit I have a hard time following. Are you suggesting Eugene consciously chose to be cold to his son, due to his relationship with his own father? Because if any connection can be made, the one I see is that Eugene is a smarmy intellectual whose fighter-phobia exceeds his minimal love of family.

And not every common real stuff will be applicable to you.

I think Mightymosy's understanding of this fact is implicit in that he made a thread to ask whether or not the "sports trope" is common real stuff.