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OH MY GOD OKAY. LET ME MOVE TO MY LAPTOP FOR THIS.
ONCE AGAIN SPOILERS!!!!! FOR SEASON 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I am not a writer on the show nor have actually watched seasons 1-4 in a while, so this is all from my memory and past writings. I rewatched some a lot of episodes for screenshots and evidence.
Long ago in the pilot movie and season 1, I described Redson as awkward, prideful, and quick-tempered. This makes sense as their only real company was their neglectful mother and the bull clones. They wouldn't have had any outside influence as to how to talk to other people or how to form good connections with others. So them stuttering out of control and calling Mk and Mei names, makes sense. They basically have never interacted with anyone their age and MK and Mei are far from your average person.
Another thing to note is that Redson by this point has already been shown to be incredibly intelligent and powerful. Something that gets reinforced in later seasons as well. They are well-versed in magic, magical items, and mechanics. They have the ability to teleport between realms and on the mortal plane, fire concurring, and have the fighting skills to match it. The problem is that Mei is a literal dragon and Mk (that we now know) is a powerful reality-altering monkey demon.
Then we see the behind Redson usual demeanor at the end of season 1. Redson starts to grow weary of his dad and the bones. It's right before the fight between possessed DBK and Mk that we see another trait of Redson: their total lack of self-confidence. The want to prove themselves and their worth is what I assume most of their driving force has been and still is. They just stand there as DBK berates him and is about to KO them. They think of themselves so little, that they weren't going to protect themselves from getting hit by their own father. His mother saving him provides him with evidence that their mother does care for them, and doesn't want them to get hurt giving them the confidence boost to help Mk in the fight.
We then see a shift in their character development in "Revenge of the Spider Queen". Redson at this point is still awkward and prideful, but we see that they value their family so much more. They're willing to do anything for their parents, even after being treated so poorly. During the movie they're held against their will to work alongside Mk's team, saying that he'll go on ahead implying that they still feel that they're above the team. That being said, once their father is released, they still help the team by freeing Mei of his own accord. This is the first time Redson willingly helps the team. (Side note, in the movie we also see that Redson is at least semi-comfortable with Mei's physical affection. It's in season 4 that we see that Redson is uncomfortable with Mk hugging him/being called a hero.)
In season 3, we start to see less of him, but we do see something important-- Redson is working in the food service industry. No, I'm not kidding. Recall that in the second paragraph, I stated that Redson has little interaction with the outside world, well, guess what food service provides him with? Yip. This allows them to not only get closer to their dad but to interact with other people. More so, the stand lets them learn social cues and food service skills which may explain why they start to get less awkward as the series progresses. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, please tip your waiters extra.)
Now, this is where I start to have beef with the show and Redson's development. From here on out, all of Redson's actual character development happens offscreen. There isn't an episode where we see Redson get better at communication with other people, or one where Redson and their family reconcile, we only get snippets (which makes sense because Redson isn't supposed to be a main character.) The previous paragraph is simply speculation.
Later on, we see that they willingly save Mk, Mei, and Sandy. They obviously care about them in some fashion by rescuing them and providing them with food, water, and shelter. They go out of their way (albeit begrudgingly) to bring Mk a warm glass of milk and an extra blanket and save Mei's dragon plushie to give back to her later. However, the best part of that episode is how Redson reacts to hearing about the samadhi fire.
The face that Redson makes when hearing about the fire is that of horror and fear. It's not fully clear in the episode what exactly causes the fear, but it's most likely due to the nature of the flame and Redson's inability to wield it. The telling of the story feeds into their fear of not being good enough-- of not being strong enough-- and the thought of that scares them. They already lost their father twice and doesn't want that to happen again.
At the end of season 3, we get more information on how Redson feels about the Samadhi fire. First, we see that Redson knows a lot about the flame, going on to explain what it is and their theory as to why Mei can contain it. They seem to have trained for the opportunity to wield the fire again by mediation and creating/finding a guide to how to train those who wield the flame. Mei makes a quip about how Redson's hypocritical in their teachings about being short-tempered, to which Redson seems to respond genuinely, knowing that they're still trying to work on this part of themselves. Providing another shift in how they're starting to trust Mei more. Redson's flashback to having the Samadhi fire shows they understand what it was like to have no control over themselves, to feel overrun with power and destruction and they comfort Mei in that moment. Redson acts like they want to destroy everything in their path, but they want to do so out of their own strength and free will.
At the end of the training he fully believes in Mei, but still keeps her at a distance. In the speech they give to Mei, Redson seems to give up the flame stating that the samadhi fire is Mei's power and to not give up on him. In my head, I feel like these are words that Redson wanted to hear themselves when they were under the flame's control. If Redson actually felt okay with giving up the flame is another story.
In season 4, we again see how Redson is unable to protect their family from Azure and the scroll, which feeds into their fear of not being good enough. The ending of that season shows that the families seem to be on good terms and Redson seems to be more relaxed with Mei and Mk.
Now... season 5. Back to the off-development, Redson seems way more comfortable around Mei than before. Mei seems to have found Redson's number, but Redson isn't aware of this. (I'm assuming it's kinda like how Mei put surveillance cameras on everyone without them knowing.) If Redson had been communicating with Mei outside of this, I think I would feel a bit better about how Redson and Mei were interacting with each other.
The fear of not being good enough seems to still be within them, grumbling about not gaining back the samadhi fire. Super shout out to @salemontrial who wrote about a possibility as to why Redson isn't as enthusiastic about Mei, supposedly, losing the fire. "The power came from the might of both of his parents and he wasn't strong enough to wield it... he finds out that this girl who's been ruining his plans is strong enough so he helps her, but how he knows that [it's] possible to wield. He [truly] just wasn't strong enough. So... he does his best... trying to make a version he can control." In all, the grumbling comes from their pride and the fact that one of their biggest fears has evidence.
I think why Redson doesn't immediately yell at Mei is because they know they goofed up. They might be prideful, but when alone, Redson owns up to their mistakes: the hypocrisy about being short-tempered, releasing the LBD, and now owning up to making a fire sprite.
My quam? When Redson saves Mei with the line "I can't do this alone." THIS MAN HAS YET TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT ASKING FOR HELP. Most other things in that episode kinda line up, but Redson has yet to have any reason to have the confidence to outright ask for help. They seem to be getting along with their family more, but the fact that they're still looking for such a devastating weapon, instead of working on their own powers, brings me to believe that Redson has not learned how to believe in themselves. I know we had about 3 episodes in season 3 to see Redson grow more comfortable with Mei and in this season we had 1, but that doesn't mean that Redson's full trust in Mei didn't feel rushed or out of character. He’s inconsistent in this season and it bothers me.
I will say, the fact that Mei invited Redson to help save the world and Redson told Mei how to communicate with him, probably means that Redson is going to become more of a main character in the upcoming season, especially since we saw them training together at the end. Maybe that will help explain why they seem so close.
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