Sometimes it seems like half the Addams Family fandom want them to be totally harmless and the other half want them to have no standards whatsoever when neither of those have been true of any version
Like, Iâve seen 60s show fans objecting to the 90s films because âitâs no fun if they KILL PEOPLE!â when there were plenty of references to the 60s Addamses being willing to kill people (Fester wants to shoot people in the back all the time, Gomezâs only objection is that itâs not honourable but heâs fine with killing people in a fair fight).
On the other hand we get nonsense criticisms of the Wednesday show like âWednesday would have LIKED that Tyler turned out to be a murderous monster, sheâd have been into it!â likeâŚI do not think the 60s OR 90s Addamses (or any other version I can think of, since the musical versions are also explicitly anti-bigotry) would like a *bigot who committed what were essentially a fantasy version of hate crimes against a marginalised group*, Wednesday in particular has been very strongly established as against all forms of bigotry. (Also Tyler tried to kill Eugene, someone sheâd already been established as caring aboutâand no, itâs not OOC for Wednesday to care about people, sheâs always cared about her family and sometimes a few other people tooâand who is only 13âŚeven the 90s films decided to show Amanda alive at the end after people working on the films decided murdering a child was too far for the Addamses.)
And I just donât see why people keep taking things to either extreme when I feel like itâs always been the case, for any version of the Addamses, that what they are OK with and what theyâre not can be surprising/not easily predictable/seem skewed from a ânormalâ personâs perspective, but itâs never been either âthey think every single bad thing is wonderfulâ or âtheyâre actually totally harmlessâ.
Though I do feel like some things are overall pretty consistentâŚ
1) Killing bigots is fine (whether thatâs the racist adults at the summer camp, or Laurel Gates, or even the fact that Morticia and Gomez were members of the Nightshades back when it wasâin Morticiaâs wordsâa âdeadlyâ solution to oppressionâI was rather surprised by the number of people Iâve seen claiming that the Wednesday show versions of Morticia and Gomez would never be willing to kill anyoneâŚthey joined and were high-ranking members of an entire secret society that apparently considered it very much a valid option.) BEING a bigot is never acceptable (ignoring a few throwaway lines in older media where it was the writers fucking up and unintentionally making a character sound bigoted).
2) Setting piranhas on bullies is fine, even killing them would have been OK (yes, thereâs concern for how it would look on Wednesdayâs recordâbecause Morticia wants Wednesday to get a good education and, if the âcollege firstâ line in the 90s films is anything to go by, go to university, which is hard if you keep getting expelled from schools and are potentially getting in trouble with the lawâbut no-oneâs actually horrified by it or sees Wednesday as a bad person for it)âby extension, BEING a bully is not OK (Wednesday in particular has hated bullies in all versions, whether the 60s show, the 90s films, or the Wednesday showâŚthere was even a deleted line in the script for the 90s films about her planning to kill and taxidermy a school bully).
3) Killing an unarmed person is dishonourable, and something Gomez in particular is personally very unwilling to do (even when the person was armed and trying to kill him moments before, shown on multiple occasions including the 60s show and the 90s live action reboot showâso Wednesdayâs comment about how he wouldnât have had it in him to simply stab an unarmed Garrett Gates as he was initially accused of is a pretty accurate assessment), but itâs not an unforgiveable crime (as shown by the fact Fester is at least willing to do so and to shoot people in the back and the other family members discourage him but donât see him as some kind of monsterâalso, in general, they seem quite welcoming and forgiving towards non-bigoted murderers even if the murderer in question has done something that the Addamses might consider too far to do themselves.) And even Gomez will break that rule in certain circumstances (he was pretty clearly about to kill Tullyâvery much justified imo given that Tully nearly tore the family apart with his actionsâand did also eventually kill Vladâhis reluctance to kill an unarmed man there pretty much evaporated as soon as Morticia made it clear that she wasnât interested in Vlad and therefore that Vlad had just kissed her without consent.)
4) âTorturingâ family members etc in a fun way is totally normalâFester even cut open Gomezâs head and removed his brain when they were kids and they still clearly care about each other and saw this as just a bit of funâbut actual abuse is not (Gomez and Morticia are horrified by the suggestion of hitting or even otherwise harshly punishing their kids).
5) Death is not nearly as serious and horrible a thing as many ordinary people see it, partly because they know the afterlife is real and ghosts come back regularly to talk to them, so they donât really fear death much and will do very dangerous things for fun, but they still donât want their lives to be over all that soon (well, Gomez has attempted suicide more than once but itâs always been depicted as likeâŚthis is bad and the rest of the family are worried and donât want him to do it) and will generally be concerned to some degree at the idea of one of the family dying (Morticia is worried about the idea of Gomez being killed in a duel in the 60s show and shows some concern for him when he comes to her rescue in the first film as well, and sheâs clearly very worried and sad when heâs dying in the second film, Wednesday and Pugsley are worried about Debbie killing Fester, in the 90s live action reboot show Wednesday gets quite protective of Gomez and tries to stop his cousin Vlad from killing him).
6) In interactions with ordinary humans who havenât done anything bad or made an enemy of them, they might do things that could get someone killed, but generally donât seem to understand that it wouldâe.g. offering someone cyanide in their tea with apparently no understanding that that would harm themâthough Wednesdayâs spent more time around ordinary humans than her parents and sometimes seems to be a bit more knowledgeable about them e.g. in the musical. If someone DOES get killed, it can be seen as a bit unfortunate, but not a huge disaster (âthat poor girl [âŚ] câest la vie!â). (Note: in any version except possibly the original comics, they are not just going around randomly murdering people like your average cliche serial killersâtheyâre far more interesting than that. That being said, if they meet someone who really is that murderous, theyâll usually be welcoming to them and even fascinated by themâat least as long as that person isnât a bigot or similar.)
7) Piracy, robbing the rich, âswindling the rich and notoriousâ, etc are very much encouraged. Being greedy in a way that hurts poorer people, less soâalthough Thing did steal a dress from a small shop and apparently has picked peopleâs pockets in some previous versions⌠but Thing aside (do hand-creatures have the same concepts of property as humans?), that one episode of the 60s show where Gomez is robbing the neighbours while sleepwalking treats it as something he wouldnât normally do, in any version except the comics they consider it important to treat Lurch well and donât take kindly to classism or their one relative who mistreats her âhandmaidenâ, Gomez is very generous with money and Wednesday in the 60s show convinces Pugsley that when they get given multiple of the same present at Christmas they should give the extra ones to charity.
8) They at least sometimes eat people, but it doesnât seem to be that regular, and does seem to be people who were enemies/a threat to them in some way rather than just any random person (the motto is specifically âwe gladly feast on those who would subdue usâ, an ordinary visitor to their house never seems to be in any danger of being killed and eaten).
And I feel like the Wednesday show overall sticks with most of those fairly well?
I donât get why we have people on the one hand going âWednesday shouldnât be solving the murders, she should be committing the murders! She should like Tyler MORE for being the killer! Itâs OOC for her to care about anyone!â and people on the other hand going âthe piranhas thing was Too Far and makes her too evil!â.
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