Rather than setting up Maria and Richter to be hyper-capable carbon copies of their predecessors, as popular generation-spanning anime likeare wont to do, the show instead opts to underscore how their inexperience puts them on the backfoot during nearly every deadly encounter in the show.
After all, Richter is only 19 years old and hasn’t been tasked with saving the world as often as his ancestors have, so it’s to be expected that he’ll have some growing pains as a hero.’s greatest strength is how it allows its heroes to be vulnerable. While Trevor’s sardonic swagger incomes as a result of him weathering years of failure and pyrrhic victories, Richter’s haughtiness derives from his fear that he won’t be strong enough to save the ones he loves.