Very nice character study. I like that Winona isn't perfect but that she actually TRIED, which is a benefit of the doubt that most writers aren't even giving her. It's a lot easier to make her a monster who never loves her kids than show that people who want to be good parents can still mess up. Really excellent writing :)
The name Frank comes from the novelization of the movie by Alan Dean Foster from a conversation between Sam and Jim - although they call him "Uncle Frank", I believe. Someone correct if I'm wrong.
Lol, that makes sense. I know there's a novelization that talks more about their childhood--I'd like to eventually pick it up!
I don't get why people make her out to be a monster--what we see of her is that she definitely wasn't, at least before George died. Of course, she might have become one, but I doubt it. I tend to believe she's like a lot of other working parents who are made victims by people like Frank... it happens on both sides. I know a lot of men who have found out, very late, that their wives were abusive to their kids.
In her darkest moments, Winona thinks that Jim’s insane, dysfunctional existence would have been an acceptable sacrifice for a life in which she had never woken up to a universe without her husband. *** Yes.
She still doesn’t know the true depravity of Frank’s actions; she actively tries not to know, but it is too late to undo them. *** More yes.
But survival is its own burden; the experience serves to split her children apart and the elephant in the room when they are together makes it easier for them to avoid being together at all. *** Even more yes.
I haven't pursued the reset 'verse canon enough to know anything about Winona or Sam beyond the movie. But this was an excellent character study nonetheless. You've intrigued me about this woman, and given me a picture of her as perhaps not the most brilliant mother, but certainly not a failure, either.
Thanks! There isn't much out there. I finally picked up a copy of the book while at Barnes and Noble and skimmed this section a bit... but this was written before that. I think I did this based on other writers' portrayals. I just wanted to establish that she WASN'T a bad mother by any means. I've known mothers who have not been able to be great moms after suffering a loss, and that is what i wanted to show of her, you know? Plus, she was a working mom, and it just turned out that she left her kids with a lousy step-parent.
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The name Frank comes from the novelization of the movie by Alan Dean Foster from a conversation between Sam and Jim - although they call him "Uncle Frank", I believe. Someone correct if I'm wrong.
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I don't get why people make her out to be a monster--what we see of her is that she definitely wasn't, at least before George died. Of course, she might have become one, but I doubt it. I tend to believe she's like a lot of other working parents who are made victims by people like Frank... it happens on both sides. I know a lot of men who have found out, very late, that their wives were abusive to their kids.
Thanks for the comment!
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***
Yes.
She still doesn’t know the true depravity of Frank’s actions; she actively tries not to know, but it is too late to undo them.
***
More yes.
But survival is its own burden; the experience serves to split her children apart and the elephant in the room when they are together makes it easier for them to avoid being together at all.
***
Even more yes.
Perfect.
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