god i really only remembered it & clicked it together when writing that but . rusty really refuses to help brisby w cloning . he turns down a lot of money & opportunity to help brisby w cloning, and this is before the clone thing is revealed & its all just chalked up to his father's research at that point but its really soooooooooo . they're his life work, and it's all just for his boys, its just to keep them alive & around & to let them live when theyre stuck in this life of constant danger and screw ups that rusty didnt want & when he's such a failure he cant even keep them alive so many times that they haunt his mind . its not his failure as a scientist that haunts him, its his failure as a father & how he can acknowledge his father as a brilliant scientist but a terrible father . but what is he bc he's doing what any father would do isnt he? wouldnt you do anything to bring them back? and you succeed in that but youre also haunted by the fact that youve let them die so many times & thats not a successful thing thats also failure .