#plus in a way she is like marge : sweet mom but an airhead who can be accidentally neglectful and only ever had her husband she adores

[ben-the-hyena]

Katamari is a fun happy colorful funny parodical franchise that should be taken as too seriously especially when it comes to the King's treatment on the Prince, it's like a cartoon/funny anime logic, scary and intense at times but the character is not that hurt or upset about it too long, it is probably just an overexaggerarion of the typical strict Japanese parent when their kid fail and put to literal cosmic proportions playing on their size difference, but the Prince should have died from the first laser beam and have all his bobes crushed from the first boxing blow and not be as happy as he is if it were that serious in-universe. It's like la chlanca for their species standards maybe. And for some reason those are much less bad and traumatizing than the bamboo scepter the Emperor used on him which traumatized him so much he refuses to touch it and would never use on the Prince ; same logic as the Addams Family surviving so many things that would kill them in real life and have fun about it and yet just being electrocuted would actually be enough to kill them and does worry them. Funnily enough, said bamboo scepter is so mighty and big it does ooze electricity too

Oh sure the King IS a jerk dad, you don't use physical violence or verbal violence on your kid when he fails, and he is a lazy bastard who has him work like a slave and rarely shows appreciation. But I don't see it as purposeful malice, he DOES love his son dearly and actually tells him at times, but the game is comical and satirical so exagerates things for humor without being meant to be serious like they would be in real life, like Homer being irresponsible and lazy and choking Bart but both having a good relationship over than that and Homer still passing as a loving but very flawed dad to us the audience which makes us find him lovable the same way we would hate him in real life. Because in real life it is serious but the narratives show it is not to be worried too much about and addresses whenever the kid is upset anyway. Whereas, the King's childhood WAS showed as serious and sad and that's why it's tragic. The magic of cinema and conveying feelings more than logic

Plus, comedy aside, we do see that like Homer the King tries to be better than what he had :

as said he does tell him at times he loves him when he is not cranky unlike the Emperor who never told him, there are RARE times he says he is proud whereas even when he won his father just told him "barely passing", outside of katamari related stuff he spends time with him and his wife as a family playing games and going on vacations all having great fun together and he lets him breathe as much as he wants except if there is an emergency and some katamari are also made just out of fun with no game over sequence and no stress like the snowball level because as he tells his son "katamari must be fun" whereas his childhood was only alternating between katamari and homework the Emperor considering playtime and breaks a waste of time that could be used for better and no fun allowed, even if he can be overbearing and even if it is often sounding critical and condescending he speaks much more to his son and teaches and tells him many things spending moments with him outside of katamaris while the Emperor not only never had "unimportant" chats with him whenever he spoke to him it was always an order or a criticism if not an insult and YELLED at that the punctuation indicates whenever he opened it it was always yelling, the King hopes that his son will attract girls and be popular while we saw the Emperor initially disapproved the King's then gf since love distracted him and we saw he grew uo alone with no friends, the Prince may look sad or very scared when the King is about to insult him or punish him it is only during game overs whereas the King always had his head low and fretted ready to jump or cover himselg at any motion from his father meaning he was never feeling safe with him at all, even if he can be annoying when nitpicking most katamari we do even when they are big like he asked or more it is clear it is not out of malice but his way to train his son to be the future ruler and tells him something that can be both condescending AND validating "I am sure you can do better" while once again it was anways just "barely passing" with no other piece of advise and real opinion sharing, sometimes he teases him which can be annoying but since his father never was joking at all I see it as him trying to be a fun dad, and as said when he punishes or insults him not only is it ONLY when he fails (I mean it IS too much already realistically speaking but his father would constantly loom over him with the bamboo scepter menacingly stressing him out and blow whenever he was showing weakness or did any mistake not even failing yet or at all like training time) but he refuses to scar him with the same weapon that scarred him meaning that in-universe it is worse than laserbeams, punching and pool balls

And while the Emperor only told the King he was proud of him and found him worthy essentially when he died (without even truly dying since again that series is satirical and light hearted more than serious, he just fell asleep for years), as scarce as real compliments and appreciation are from the King to the Prince there ARE rare times he actually shows him he is proud of him and loves him generally around the ends of the games while the Emperor kept secret from him he was proud and loved him to a point he didn't believe he cared at all and he found out only as a teenager by accident after having come as far as punching him and running away

Don't forget, the Prince is a Prince, the future ruler of ALL cosmos who has to be able to alter weather, change his size from human sized to able to hold a planet in his hand, fly, teleport, summon the Royal Rainbow, shoot lasers from his eyes, create catastrophes if he wants to, turn katamari into stars and planets, rearrange the universe and Earth however he wants, terraform, use the sun like his bitch and clog and unclog black holes. The Emperor then the King are GODS in that universe, and so will be the Prince. The Emperor was jacked, so is the King, because it is all VERY physical and it is needed to rule properly and be able to fix any problem. So in the King's mind, his punishments and insults when he fails may be harsh and his criticism and constant bossing around, "you can do better I know it" and making him do katamaris in his place while he lounges and comments may seem dickish, in his mind he is training him. You see Master Roshi in Dragon Ball who does care abour his students but has them work very very hard with harsh as fuck punishments and not praising them often as sympathetic as he is ? It is the same, the Katamaro series is a shonen lmao the hero is in training and on his way to have godlike strength and powers, and his sensei makes sure he will know every way to activate those as strict as it may seem for now because it worked for him, but he makes it considerably more bearable than he himself went through that scarred him forever as much as he pretends he is fine and genuinely wants the best for him without passing through the same things he did and tries his best to be a good dad but can't help want to catch up his lost childhood by just wanting to live a hedonistic life of fun and be lazy at last now he can and repeat some of the same things since he thinks that's how to dad and deep down was made to believe excellence is key like a lot if Asian parents (and even the insults and punishment are to a lesser extent !), and except in the game overs or when he is tired of his dad's shit telling him to fix his mess and taking his credit the Prince looks and sounds happy, loving his life and father and not traumatized, meaning that in-universe it may not be as harsh as we may see it as the player and those game overs are mostly made to scare US. The Prince may be eeny tiny, he is already EXTREMELY strong and tough barely flinching at rolling around the fucking sun, creating a moon and handling lasers and fists of the size of a country, so it just means he is in age to be able to handle this and his training thus can begin and has to be done seriously and thoroughly trying to do always better and better ubtil it will be perfect and he will be as ripped as his dad who tries to push him as far as he can to see to what extent he can work and make him progressively roll around bigger and bigger things and so learn the ways of the cosmos through missions he deems easy enough (probably rightfully so, we are not that species) to give his 6 years old without him risking his life or anything and he watches in case, he may be lazy and not want to do those at the moment those could also be very easy for himself so he is like "well they can be good starts for him, he can handle them" all while allowing him to have fun in between

Then he blames him for his own accidents, tell him to fix those as pretext for training and takes the credit because HE is the king for now, which all are dick moves and he is NOT the best father at all, he is a dick who deserves to be slapped at times XD

But a lovable one who does love his son and does what he deems correct and he believes and knows him enough to know he can do it, and he is not a monster or the worse like I see many call him. He is just a gigantic Freddie Mercury alien ripoff with a huge bulge, what was to take too seriously ?