Y'know, Amethio was not wrong when he called his father a weak man. Even if Amethio thinking of him as such was at least partially influenced by Gibeon and his distaste for Cervantis, it's really true. Because if the recent episode confirmed anything about Cervantis, it's that he is genuinely a weak man. He's completely spineless.
It's obvious that his spinelessness is why he was a deadbeat in Amethio's life for so long, and why he couldn't stop Spinel from ousting him as CEO of Exceed. And he showed how spineless he is by his words to Liko and her friends by being all defeatist and apologetic, like "I'm sorry I couldn't be much help" and how he kept talking about how powerless he is and how he can't do anything.
It felt really good to see Amethio actually call him out on his spinelessness and cowardice and not mince words about it. Amethio even yelled at him in doing so. Amethio is usually pretty cold and curt in his demeanor even if he does lose his cool sometimes, but this is the first time he outright yells at someone. It seems Cervantis from here is gonna have to learn to stand up on his own two feet and face things head-on instead of running away in fear of facing things.
This is speculation but I wonder if Gibeon could tell that Cervantis was spineless and that's why he didn't like the man very much. I suspect that he wasn't fond of the idea of his beloved daughter Maria marrying such a spineless man. He couldn't palate the idea that Maria would choose him of all people. Yet as this episode confirmed, Gibeon himself was the one who made Cervantis CEO of Exceed, and looking at this I would guess that Gibeon's love for Maria was stronger than whatever reservations he had about Cervantis and his spinelessness. He might have trusted that Maria saw something in him (and perhaps she wasn't wrong, Cervantis is someone who genuinely believed in improving the lives of people and Pokemon), and gave him such a position accordingly.
But yeah, the man is truly spineless, and it was good on Amethio to call him out on it to his face. Actually give Cervantis the strength to take that first step.
