my analysis of theo
theo is the first chimera. he was so young when the dread doctors kidnapped him. it was probably too easy for them to manipulate and deceive theo. if we can see him being easily manipulated by the dread doctors as a teenager, and by deucalion in 5b, can you imagine how easy it must have been when he was a child?
because even though theo has his own plans to get what he craves so much, which was power, he's still stuck with the dread doctors. and they made theo believe he would get a pack if theo did everything according to the dread doctors' plan. and the way he reacts when the dread doctors reject him, raising his voice and getting angry, gives the feeling that, behind this narcissistic persona that the dread doctors built on top of the younger version of theo, he still hasn't grown up since that time. he is still that same child from years ago. and regardless of whether or not theo calls or even believes in the dread doctors as his parents, the dread doctors are the parental figures he has. it's how an involuntary part of theo's mind sees them. because the dread doctors created him. they were the ones who gave theo false hope with chimera powers. they were the ones who taught theo his distorted view of the real world and turned him into a project, making theo believe he had some kind of importance because they kept him there when all other experiments turned out to be failures. so, naturally, theo would seek the attention and approval of the dread doctors. because, even though theo is not allowed to see and interact with the other dread doctors' experiments, when they say that an experiment is a failure, they don't just mean words. means they are useless. and if they are useless. they will die. and that was probably something theo knew. so he couldn't be a failure. and he forced himself to believe that he wasn't a failure.
and that makes perfect sense with his obsession with being a real werewolf, and why it hurts him so much that he is (in his words) a cheap knock-off, weaker, and a failure. because, deep down, i feel like theo feels like he's a failure because of this. which also ends up making sense of his obsession with power. because i feel that, in theo's mind, the more powerful he is, the farther from failure he becomes. i think just as he sees a real werewolf as perfection, he also sees power in that same way. and all this because of all the dread doctor upbringing. theo is this bitter and angry child because he sees himself as impotent. it's how he deals with it.
going back to that scene where theo explodes with the dread doctors, we see that theo is, yes, very angry. but we also see how scared and broken he is. as soon as he realizes that the dread doctors have stopped what they were doing to pay attention to his outburst, theo takes a fearful step back. and his eyes are watering even with all the anger he is feeling. which shows, again, how powerless he is in the face of the dread doctors. this also leads me to think, that if theo was scared by just the dread doctors' attention on him there, at that moment, how much physical abuse (because psychological abuse is already a fact about theo) he must not have suffered at their hands of the dread doctors for all these years (not counting the surgeries he underwent). because, at that moment, theo is already a teenager. and if he was acting this stubborn, explosive, childish way with the dread doctors as a teenager, imagine what it must have been like when he was actually a kid? and how much did it cost his mental health? the dread doctors aren't human. they're psychopaths who do illegal experiments on children. and in 5a, and when liam and hayden are kidnapped by the dread doctors, we see that they don't hesitate to use violence against anyone. so it's very likely that theo has had some bad experiences like that.
theo's obsession with control is a defense mechanism, because losing control (or making it visible to others that he has lost control) would lead to the feeling of helplessness he is so familiar with. and because, at the end of the day, he is alone. because theo was always alone. he had to survive that way. he was excluded because of the dread doctors. and that mindset would always put him ahead of anyone else, no matter what the circumstances. because theo doesn't know how to care about anyone other than his own survival. because that's what he's been doing his whole life. he knows nothing else. and he only comes to understand these things a little better after liam gets him out of hell.
also, i've seen several people with the headcanon that liam's biological father was abusive, and that because of that, he developed i.e.d. that makes sense. and what also makes sense is that this happened to theo. he took a lot of abuse from the dread doctors, and he has this angry behavior that we see more than once during the season (as well as liam) when things get out of hand for him. theo's response is anger and outburst. which is the same thing that happens with liam. so that's one more thing to add.
and, imagine, theo in his younger version, buried alive, forgetting who he is and everything, losing control, and getting violent (which is how we see the other chimeras react during 5a). everything this kid had to go through…fuck. he really is a survivor!
theo is a very interesting character to analyze bc he has so many layers and interpretations. i honestly could rant about it for hours. but after this huge text, i think i've said more than enough sjajsksjs
