Eric the Cavalier was essentially shoehorned into his characterization by standards and practices because they required that the group have one dedicated jerk to show all the impressionable kiddies out there the value of teamwork, conforming, and being obedient to your elders. The show's writers took a dim view of this. So while Eric was an utter snot on the surface, his griping usually masked some very pertinent questions about Dungeon Master's abilities and motivations. One of the recurring questions would be "So if you had that power/if you're all-knowing, etc. why don't you just send us home?" Kind of a reasonable thing to ask when you've been hijacked from your home dimension and pitted against an all-powerful sorcerer who wants you dead, but DM always side-stepped by vanishing or causing some mishap to make Eric look ridiculous. DM looks even worse when we find out that the last group of pupils he corralled into going up against Venger died and it's implied that Eric and his friends are just the new crop of canon fodder. (The show is really very interesting to watch when you go in with the POV that the seemingly benevolent guide has some seriously sinister motives.) Also, a good amount of the time, Eric's snarking turns out to hold the key to solving the dungeon du jour and the times when he's called into the leadership role, he actually does really darn well (including the unproduced finale, where he essentially causes a mutiny and kinda kicks Hank's butt). I appreciated those little bits of subversion once I knew to look for them.