#oedipal subtext

[fluffycakesistainted]

One of my main questions about Frankenstein (2025) was why GdT aged the Frankenstein brothers up to make William an adult and engage him to Elizabeth, and this YouTube review/discussion just cracked it for me in a sentence: It's to form another layer of Claire and Elizabeth being equated within Victor's Oedipal subtext. William "blocked" Victor from both--from Claire/their mother by his birth causing her death, and from Elizabeth by being her intended husband.

[fluffycakesistainted]

"Hershel sees Maggie's relationship with Negan as a very big issue because of his own relationship with his mother. The only person standing in the way of that, in Hershel's mind, is Negan. He has a lot of malice and a lot of hate towards Negan because he's in the way of Maggie, and he just wants Maggie to be free of him." "Hershel kind of constantly thinks about Negan, because he knows that he’s the only thing that’s really in between his relationship with Maggie. And [he thinks that] if he was gone, then all these other problems would be somehow resolved." "Ever since he was little, she would always focus on Negan. […] Hershel's view on Negan is the only way to get Maggie to really let go completely is to let Negan go from life. … Then he'll have a happy life with his mother." --Logan Kim (ScreenRant, TV Insider, Collider)

Geez, the Oedipal vibes, lol (esp considering my interpretation of negan as a pseudo godfather to hershel). Anyway, I really like that Dead City gave Hershel his own perspective on and feelings about his and Maggie's connection to Negan and his own relationship with it, instead of just keeping it an extension of Maggie's, like when he was little. As he never got to know his father and wasn't around for the events of his murder--apart from his father's absence he only knows about all that completely second-hand--I totally buy that he would've reckoned with and processed it by now, in his own way, so that that's not the crux of his beef with Negan, actually. Actually his issue is that man taking up way too much of his mom's emotional and head space "rent free", lol (as Negan himself called Maggie out on in early s11 of TWD). Which then puts him in Hershel's mind rent free, and sheesh, what a cycle.

The fact that this whole show basically boils down to these three characters trying to reckon with and figure out how to live with this surreal bond they share is truly something... Even the fact that Hershel is such a major part of it, which I was not at all expecting before I started the show. Then turns out he's like, the lowkey centerpiece, the link that connects the tethers between Maggie and Negan (he'd hate to hear it, lol, but it's true). It was Hershel the Dama and the Croat used to lure Negan to NY, so it was Hershel that got Maggie to reunite with Negan. Now Negan's saving him from certain death left and right so he's gotta be putting 2 and 2 together that Maggie must be back in NY, too.

[fluffycakesistainted]

The rest of the time… The rest of the time, mother was mine.

--Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein (2025)

The fact the only woman he’s ever seen is his mother–you know, whether she really did look like the same person, we don’t know, because he’s the one telling the story. I suspect she didn’t. But, in his mind, it’s her and so the milk was an extension of that.

Also, this is someone that’s very put together. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t do drugs. He’s not, you know, smoking opium. He’s not that kind of person. In fact, he does something very wholesome. He drinks milk. But the reason why is a much sadder, deeper reason–when he gets nervous or when he needs comfort, he looks for mother’s milk.

--Oscar Isaac - How Guillermo del Toro, Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi made the horror movie of the year (The Independent)

[fluffycakesistainted]

Was rewatching s1 of The Morning Show, and damn, the writing was on the wall in 1x03 for Cory to fall in love with Bradley when he told her she reminded him of his "awesome" mom.