i feel like malcolm falls into the same category as edgar of characters that are often portrayed as the righteous paragon legitimate heirs who come up with clever well-thought-out plans to escape the danger they’re in and ultimately come back to win the day but in reality they’re both actual human disasters who are anything but natural leaders, genuinely have no clue what they’re doing, and are honestly just scared out of their minds
Malcolm 🤝 Edgar
getting accused of trying to/succeeding to kill their own father
running away when things go wrong
rightful heir to a noble title that’s taken by the antagonist
pretends to be something they’re not to avoid the main conflict and for self-protection
is only motivated to come back and solve the conflict when things get exponentially worse