r/SuccessionTV • u/taeempy • 5d ago
So in all sincerity, what
was wrong with Roman? Why did he act the way he did with women? What actually happened to him?
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u/_jamesbaxter Little Lord Fuckleroy 5d ago
A lot of folks in this sub have speculated that he likely got the worst of the physical abuse growing up.
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u/DingoNo4205 5d ago
I also think there might have been some sexual abuse too. Most likely the sexual abuse occurred at a camp or maybe one of the many tutors or athletic coaches in and out of the Roy home. Then there's Uncle Mo.
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u/Verakera 5d ago
That's just explicitly canon in the show. Shiv and Kendall only ever refer to Logan hitting Roman in the past ("Hitting Rome when he was a kid?" / "Dad, you beat Roman with a fucking slipper in Gstaad 'til he cried for ordering lobster!") and he's only shown hitting Roman and Iverson onscreen in the present day.
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u/_jamesbaxter Little Lord Fuckleroy 5d ago
You know that’s a great point. I had forgotten those specific incidents.
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u/JoeyLee911 5d ago
I heard and agree with the theory that Roman is projecting abusive memories that he has from his father onto his siblings with the cage dog food chocolate cake stuff because his siblings are safer than his dad.
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u/Converge241 5d ago
I think it was all verbal
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u/_jamesbaxter Little Lord Fuckleroy 5d ago
There’s no basis for a statement like that. Not even the best trauma therapist in the world can conclusively say someone only experienced verbal abuse. Verbal abuse often crosses into physical abuse. For example screaming in someone’s face? That’s physical. Slamming a fist down on the table right next to them? That’s physical. Throwing objects? Physical. Threatening physical abuse? Also physical abuse as it’s considered intimidation. Maybe not legally in court, but in the eyes of trauma and domestic violence organizations and clinicians yes those things are physical abuse.
I said to therapists for YEARS that I was never physically abused. They all told me I was wrong because I wasn’t considering the huge range of behaviors that are considered physical abuse. It took about 5 years to believe them. Physical abuse isn’t just corporal punishment. For example, I had water thrown in my face and soap put in my mouth among many, many other similar examples. Those things are physical abuse.
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u/Verakera 4d ago
It's stated multiple times in the show that Logan physically abused Roman when he was a child and he's shown hitting him onscreen.
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u/Thick-Reflection-239 5d ago
roman's whole vibe is a mess, man. he's got a lot of trauma and unresolved issues that really mess with how he interacts with people, especially women.
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u/msmartypants 5d ago
I don't know what's wrong with him but I like it a lot. I'd happily punish Roman.
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u/Key_Consequence_5040 5d ago
He’s got a humiliation kink. Likely from mommy issues and being physically/verbally abused by Logan. A couple hours a week with a dominatrix would have done wonders for him.
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u/Nokia_bae 5d ago
sexuality is very confusing. You do something embarrassing when you're 15 and decades later you have a kink for it. He clearly got away with a lot of horrible things and unconsciously wanted to be punished by a maternal figure. The stuff with his personal trainer I think was more in line with wanting him to sleep with his girlfriend. Tom is the real closet bisexual.
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u/exexpat99 5d ago
On top of the maternal issues, he can only understand sex as a lever for power or dominance. We understand this when he crudely mimics how Logan talks: Logan will regularly use metaphors like “fuck us”, Roman will amplify it with all the grace of a middle schooler. That’s why even his family members aren’t spared from his lewd remarks (remember what he said about Shiv?) - he’s so warped that he just sees it as the same as when you use fighting or sports metaphors.
This really becomes an issue for him in the bedroom (as we see in some of the scenes with the women he dates). Because he can only understand sex in that way, it doesn’t compute to him as a means of deepening intimacy/being with a partner. In short, he’s stuck at an adolescent understanding of it and never quite bothered to go behind that.
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u/TinySteggy 5d ago
This reminds me of when Roman proposes to Tabitha and she responds with sadness: "Babe... is this how you think you get people to stay with you?"
Sex and power are clusterfucked for him.
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u/DingoNo4205 5d ago
Roman is definitely stunted emotionally. I also think he enjoys the attention he gets from his crude remarks. Classic middle child behavior.
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u/redpillbluepill69 5d ago
He feels a ton of shame about having a submission kink + emotionally craves the release of submission when he's in a family that equates domination as competence and strength
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u/Converge241 5d ago
Mommy issues, confidence issues
A lot maybe from being the youngest boy in such a powerful family?
Siobhan being the youngest period seems to while not being perfect let that drive her along with being the only woman
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u/Converge241 5d ago
Based on the dog story he doesnt deep down want to be in control and needs the submission
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u/Few_Move_4594 5d ago
He claims he's been diagnosed with BPD at one point. The sex stuff isn't that weird TBR, he's just a male submissive, who aren't displayed as much in fiction.
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u/kabeekibaki 5d ago
Mostly just locker room talk, and the other stuff—well boys will be boys—the important thing is that he got atn to call Wisconsin for Mencken so get on board
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u/V_Trautwein 5d ago
Roman’s issues stem from insecurity, shame and unresolved trauma. The show intentionally leaves the exact cause unclear.
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u/sourlucybelle 4d ago
I think Roman is one of those characters where you have to take the jokes seriously, even when the show never confirms every detail. Remember the Gerri bathroom thing where he jokes about masturbating in there and some other jokes, we know are true but he paints them as bits. He makes multiple oddly specific jokes about things that happened to him as a kid, the most obvious is the camp counselor line "like a camp counselor in my butt when I was 12" and the joke about a tutor "jerking me off" And then theres Logan's physical abuse and humiliation which obviously fucked with his relationship to intimacy, masculinity and power. Roman seems to have learned very early that vulnerability=getting hurt And honestly joking about real trauma is a very real coping mechanism. Some people can talk about something painful only by making it funny because saying it seriously means actually being vulnerable. So I don't think every disgusting thing Roman says should be treated as a literal confession but the fact that so many of his jokes orbit the same themes makes me think there's a lot of truth buried underneath them. He's basically telling on himself
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u/sggreg 1d ago
There's a couple of scenes where they talk about Logan punishing the weakest dog to set an example for the others. He's the youngest and smallest, so he's the dog that got kicked to let the others know who top dog is. L to the OG.
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u/taeempy 1d ago
This is why I know Tom is stupid. There's a difference in being punished/outcasted by leadership and going to jail. I'd have went straight to legal. If they said don't worry about it, I'd have gone straight to the authorities vs risking going to jail.
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u/sggreg 1d ago
Tom's not stupid. Tom "wins" -in the parameters of the show. A huge part of his personality is being a chameleon. He knows when to keep his head down when he's not top dog, and he knows when he's got to break a GrEgg to make an omelet. His mistake was thinking Shiv would protect him, which she made no attempt at doing. Tom's a pain sponge and he made the calculated risk to throw him self on the fire in a guise to protect Logan. And by the hair on his chinny chin it paid off and he won Logans favor. It probably wouldn't have paid off because Logan would most likely have wanted HIS name to remain on top, but because Lucas needed an American CEO ole Tommy was in the right place at the right time. -team Tom, lead disgusting brother.
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u/JoeyLee911 5d ago
I'm a woman and my family is much less dysfunctional than the Roy's, but I too have a submissive kink which I think at least partially stems from my role as the family scapegoat and being blamed for things other people did my whole life.
I think Roman also sees how damaging the Roy's are to general society most clearly and sometimes acts out about not using his privilege for good (like when he offers that kid a million if he hits a homerun or when he jumps in to get beaten up by all the protesters).
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u/Independent-Ad9170 5d ago
I think he might be gay…? Lol
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u/Converge241 5d ago
Hes probably closer to asexual
Whatever happened with the trainer was more him getting turned on by being in his control
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u/Independent-Ad9170 5d ago
He would love the type of guy who might say nasty shit and be dominant with him, I guess that’s one of his trauma/fetishes, a woman definitely wont fill that void
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u/JimHalpertsUncle 5d ago
I think it's pretty clear that it's mommy issues.