A bit more background speculation: children's first role models (to imitate or reject) are usually their parents. Ishka is a financial genius, has great will power, is in many ways the ideal Ferengi - but she's a woman. Of Keldar, we only know that he was "good with family", bad with finances, and that both Ishka and Quark compare him to Rom. So basically in terms of traditional Ferengi values, Keldar was a "bad" Ferengi, yet their society also is structured in a way that means he's supposed to be head of the household and the ones for Quark and Rom to look up to. Rom seems to have responded by indeed modelling himself after Keldar and enjoying a good relationship with his mother, and let's not forget, he's the one who got married and had a child (though the marriage failed, we later hear more about why and how it ended). But despite that, until Nog wants to go to Starfleet he also never tries to strike out on his own (or live on Ferenginar with his mother), instead, he seems to have followed Quark into space, spends his life with his brother instead of going his own path, and submits to him, occasional attempts at bar gaining schemes side, until, again, Nog and Starfleet. Meanwhile, Quark seems to have solved (or not) the conflict between the reality of his parents and what their society tells him they should be like by picking the Nagus as a paternal role model instead, leaving home at the first opportunity and staying away if he can. BUT he also takes Rom along (or brings him in later after Rom's marriage ends, canon isn't clear on that) and tries to be the übercontrolling head of house hold (without ever trying to marry and have a child himself). And while we never through all the seasons hear Quark say anything critical about his late father, I think at least some of the "idiots" throwing at Rom's direction are channelled and unadmitted Keldar resentments.
A bit more background speculation: children's first role models (to imitate or reject) are usually their parents. Ishka is a financial genius, has great will power, is in many ways the ideal Ferengi - but she's a woman. Of Keldar, we only know that he was "good with family", bad with finances, and that both Ishka and Quark compare him to Rom. So basically in terms of traditional Ferengi values, Keldar was a "bad" Ferengi, yet their society also is structured in a way that means he's supposed to be head of the household and the ones for Quark and Rom to look up to. Rom seems to have responded by indeed modelling himself after Keldar and enjoying a good relationship with his mother, and let's not forget, he's the one who got married and had a child (though the marriage failed, we later hear more about why and how it ended). But despite that, until Nog wants to go to Starfleet he also never tries to strike out on his own (or live on Ferenginar with his mother), instead, he seems to have followed Quark into space, spends his life with his brother instead of going his own path, and submits to him, occasional attempts at bar gaining schemes side, until, again, Nog and Starfleet. Meanwhile, Quark seems to have solved (or not) the conflict between the reality of his parents and what their society tells him they should be like by picking the Nagus as a paternal role model instead, leaving home at the first opportunity and staying away if he can. BUT he also takes Rom along (or brings him in later after Rom's marriage ends, canon isn't clear on that) and tries to be the übercontrolling head of house hold (without ever trying to marry and have a child himself). And while we never through all the seasons hear Quark say anything critical about his late father, I think at least some of the "idiots" throwing at Rom's direction are channelled and unadmitted Keldar resentments.
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