The long Weyland line of Mommy and Daddy issues – and the need to prove themselves
Hello my dear fellow Alien fans! I watched Alien vs. Predator today and want to share my thoughts about the whole Weyland family:
Charles Bishop Weyland, founder of Weyland Industries, must be Peter Weyland’s father. It fits timeline wise.
Charles led the mission to the pyramid in Antarctica in 2004, where he also died – on October 10th. Peter Weyland, born October 1st, 1990, had just turned 14.
Did he even spend that birthday with him?
And Charles himself didn’t exactly have a great childhood, as stated on his Wikipedia page: (https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Charles_Bishop_Weyland)
“Weyland's mother passed away when he was just two years old, leaving him to be raised by his harsh father and a succession of nannies. At the age of just 21, he graduated from Harvard with an M.B.A., and following his father's death, he inherited the family's satellite mapping company. Under the young Weyland's supervision, the family business grew to be the largest satellite systems operation in the world within a decade.”
So: raised by a strict father, no mother, many nannies. Super smart and successful early on. Clearly, it runs in the family.
But, Charles fell ill with terminal lung cancer. And instead of spending his final weeks with his son, he joined a dangerous expedition to make history, to prove himself. Even though he already had a thriving company and massive success.
“When the team arrived at Razorback Point Whaling Station, directly above the pyramid, the expedition’s guide, Lex Woods, learned of Weyland’s illness. She confronted him regarding the dangers of continuing, but he rebuked her, pointing out that the success of the expedition was key to preserving both his own legacy and that of his company.”
“Congratulations, Mr. Weyland. Looks like you'll be leaving your mark after all.” “Thank you. Thank you all for this... Let's make history.” – Lex and Weyland, Alien vs. Predator
So instead of being with his son, Charles risked the last rest of his life for a legacy – even though he already had one. And this seems to have passed on to Peter.
Sir Peter Weyland founded Weyland Corporation in 2012 at the age of 22. He was born to a mother who was an Oxford-educated Professor of Comparative Mythology and a father described only as a self-taught engineer – which fits Charles. (https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Peter_Weyland)
“At the age of 14, Weyland was granted a Method Patent for a synthetic trachea constructed entirely of synthetically-engineered stem cells, which constituted his twelfth registered patent to date."
And his mother? We never hear of her again. Possibly dead..
“On March 27, 2015, Weyland made his first billion thanks to renewable energy gathered by solar panels that align and move in Earth’s orbital plane at an axial tilt, imitating a perpetual summer solstice. This was the first successfully industrialized space mission of the Weyland Corporation…”
Solar panels that align in orbital planes? Charles ran a satellite mapping company? Yeah. It checks out.
Peter goes on to become one of the most powerful, influential men in human history. He ends global warming. He creates lifelike androids. He wins the Nobel Prize in medicine for curing cancer. He's knighted. But… it's still not enough.
Peter has a daughter in 2057 – Meredith Vickers, whose mother also died (at least according to the Prometheus script by Lindelof). Meredith doesn’t carry the Weyland name. She’s cold towards him, estranged, likely raised by nannies too. (And by David, but we’ll come to that later.) And yet – she still seems to crave his approval.
She joins him on this deadly mission – though she also states in the movie that she only came along to avoid a succession crisis, because apparently she’s not the named heir, even though she’s the fucking CEO? Peter, goddammit! Care for your daughter, I swear to god.
Still, she visits him to say goodbye.
“Did you really think I was gonna sit in a boardroom for years, arguing over who was in charge, while you go look for some miracle in some godforsaken rock in the middle of space?” – Meredith to Peter in Prometheus (1:33:28, theatrical cut on Disney+)
“However, he also left his company in ruin. Vickers had no choice but to step in as the acting CEO of the entire company all by herself. Vickers' father offered her to follow him on his expedition to LV-223. Though she was reluctant to join, Vickers eventually decided to serve as the mission's director, while her father secretly spent his remaining days in hypersleep on board the Prometheus – with only David, his bodyguards, his doctor, and Vickers herself knowing of his presence.” (avp.fandom.com/wiki/Meredith_Vickers)
She tells him he’s a king who had his reign – and that it’s time for him to pass the sceptre to her, the next Queen. She wants to prove that she is worthy.
The following scene is from the Chaos Cut edition, which uses deleted material:
“My god – look at you. You used to have so much grace. I respected you. Looked up to you.” Meredith nestles her face against his old hand, giving it a soft kiss – to which he answers by closing his hand into a fist. Refusing her. Refusing to give her his legacy. She reacts with a hateful glare, tears in her eyes, and presses through her teeth: “You’re nothing but a scared old man, and I am tired of waiting for that last pitiful breath to leave your godforsaken mouth.” “Anything else?” “No. Father. That’s it.”
That was their last conversation. Not a loving or good relationship at all. And still.. she’s close to crying after seeing his death. She still mourns this awful, absent, coldhearted father.
And then we have David – the last in line. The perfect creation. The perfect son. The problem? He is neither loved nor treated like Peter's son at all.
David was created in 2025 as Peter Weyland’s masterpiece – the first android to live, to feel. He’s so lifelike, he has emotions. He thinks for himself. But what happens when he begins to show these qualities? When he asks the wrong questions? He’s immediately put in his place.
That brings us to the tea situation – after David dares to question why he should serve Peter, since he will live forever, while Peter will die. I quote from the Covenant novelization:
Weyland gestured to his right. “Bring me that cup of tea.” A steaming tea service sat on a table less than a meter from where he was standing. He could easily have turned and picked up the cup himself. David’s stare did not swerve, his expression remained locked. Weyland repeated the request, just slightly more forcefully. “Bring me that cup of tea, David.” In order to do so, David had to cross the entire chamber. Though the dissonance between request and reality did not escape him, he complied. Smoothly, he picked up the cup and saucer and handed them to Weyland. After a moment that weighed longer in significance than it did in time, Weyland accepted the cup – and sipped. The question had been answered and the point made with a minimum of words. David had been created to serve. The relationship would brook no further discussions. There would be no argument, no debate, no balancing of relative merits. The created served the creator. That was a fact, and facts were not mutable.
David was meant to be more. Built to be better. And yet, he’s constantly put down by the man who calls himself his “Father.” Who calls him “son” – lovingly, even. But there is no love. He only uses him, and what he portrays as love for David is just his ego being proud of his own skill being able to create him. Poor Meredith who was born when Peter was 67 years of age, has been an accident for sure. And who takes care of this little girl? Probably David, who was 32 at this point, and a bunch of nannies. A servant raising another neglected child. And then, she starts to hate him. She sees him as the preferred one. The golden child. The one who took all of their father’s love from her. Even though that love never existed.
Because Peter doesn’t love either of them. He never learned how to love. He lives only for himself – and uses everyone around him as tools. Who was ever there for him? Perhaps no one. And so the cycle continues.
And when David reaches Planet 4, this broken legacy goes on in its own way.
He loves his creatures – as a creator. But he is willing to kill them to go further. Even the android who suffered under this family dynamic for around 70 years ends up repeating it.
He hates humans. He wants to create something better. And in this pursuit, he doesn’t flinch away from killing his “children” to study them. To improve them. He welcomes the Covenant crew, kills the small Neomorph that attacked them to gain their trust – just to get his hands on new “fauna.” Even though he already had babies.
But it wasn’t enough. It never is.
He has to prove himself. He has to father the most perfect creation – no matter the cost. Not even if Elizabeth Shaw, the woman he seemed to love, has to die for it. Not even if his children with her die for it.
He must do better, he must prove that he is better than his creators.
It’s a generational curse.
Each Weyland passes down the same loveless, distant pattern to the next child. Every single one of them grows up without a mother – only with a father who isn’t there for them. Who doesn’t care. Raised by rotating nannies. Raised by no one, really.
They never form deep, meaningful connections. They grow up without basic trust, without a foundation to stand on.
And the only two who might have had a chance, the only pair of siblings in this entire family line, are pitted against each other in a competition for their fathers love. Fighting for the love of a father who doesn't even have love to give.
It’s sad. It’s tragic. No one ever stepped up, no one ever broke the cycle. And who knows – how was Charles' father raised? How far back and deep does the neglect run?
Each of them tried to be worthy of their father’s approval. Each of them tried to be better than the one who came before. Even though they were already great. Even though they had achieved more than most ever would.
But without love, they remain hollow. Empty. It is never enough because all of those achievements won’t end their craving.
It won’t heal their inherited pain.
