An essay!
Whoo, so I finally got me some essaying done for my beloved little troll-child. This is mostly just to get my thoughs in order, because she's a bit... complicated. It's certainly not all I have to say, and I'm not sure how insightful any of it really is, but. It's good to have a basic... thing in case I want to do other... stuff.... some time.
RIGHT!
STEP ONE: BACK STORRRRRRY
So once upon a time, there was a mommy genius and a daddy genius and they both had little genius babies. Hal and Emma were born to different sets of parents' first respective marriages; and one day when this lady met that fellow, that's the way they became the Emmerich bunch. Hal was somewhere in the 13-15 range when they got married, and Emma was somewhere in the 2-4 range.
They stayed a family for two years, during which Hal basically raised Emma. Emma says that their parents were busy and Hal later admits that didn't have many friends, so we can assume that they were together most of the time. Somewhere in the two years that their parents were together, Emma's mother seduced Hal. Their relationship went on until it was discovered by Hal's father, who drowned himself in the family pool while Emma was swimming. Whether intentionally or not, he almost took Emma with him.
SO! Little girl has near-death experience and watches her step-father die. What is the solution to this? Kick the only person who ever loved her out of the house and tell her that he's willingly abandoning her. Yes. Awesome plan. We don't get a whole lot of info on Emma's childhood after that, but given the kind of person we can assume her mother to be, it was probably mostly just... being ignored. Really, really ignored.
Emma's behavior in the games is pretty consistent of a kid that has been neglected. For everything that happened, she doesn't seem have many mom-issues to speak of, at least none that she notices. Given that we know that her mother was more than willing to sexually abuse Hal, I don't think assuming that she was less than the ideal mother for Emma is too much of a stretch. So my theory is, Emma was mostly just ignored. Once Hal was gone, her mother went through the motions of raising her.
Emma never really had any friends and was probably smart enough to zip through school without anyone noticing anything was wrong. I think that when she was younger, Emma probably blamed herself for her loneliness, or assumed that she had done something to drive Hal away. Somewhere along the lines though, it occurred to her that being angry about her situation was a whole lot more satisfying than being sad about it. But always, always, it was Hal's fault. To this day, it has probably not occurred to Emma to be mad at her mother.
SO HEY, DOES SHE WANT TO BONE HAL OR WHAT?
This is a pretty complicated question! It's very clear from what Emma says to and about Hal that her feelings for him are completely inappropriate for the feelings towards a sibling, even a step-sibling you haven't seen in a decade. I think saying that Emma is in love, or even in lust with Hal wouldn't really convey what's going on here. So if she's not in love-or-lust with Hal, what is it?
I think there are a few main factors going in to how she feels about Hal. The first is how simply desperate she is for his attention. Desperate. She wants any attention she can get from anyone who will give it to her, but attention from Hal is the most important. He was really the only one who ever did give her attention. The only time in her life when she was really happy was all those years ago when Hal was there for her.
To Emma, happiness = attention from Hal. For this reason, she's completely obsessed over him. She lived her life for the purpose of being as close to Hal as possible. She worked for his enemies while leaking him tips. She intentionally repeated his greatest mistake. She worked of sketchy global conspiracies in exchange for information on his whereabouts. She names her parrot after him. Because Hal was the only person to ever make her happy, she just doesn't really understand how to seek happiness anywhere but Hal.
The second is, she seems to see sexual attention as the only real kind of attention. What? A teenage girl with no self-esteem seeking inappropriate sexual attention? Yes, shocking, I know. But stay with me here. In the game, we are basically limited to seeing Emma's interaction with three people, and given that Snake spends most of his time telling her (rightfully so) to stfu, we are more-or-less just down to her interactions with Hal and Raiden. So how does she interact with Raiden? She flirts with him as hard as she is able; the times when Raiden is flirting with her are unquestionably the times when Emma is acting the sanest.
When she is dying, Emma says to Hal "I just want you to see me as a woman." Not that she wants them to be a family again, not that she wants Hal to come back to her, but that she wants him to see him as a woman. Her last request is for him to call her by his full name. I think that's pretty telling that... of all the shit and loneliness and pain Emma went through, in the end the only thing she can think to ask for is her brother's acknowledgment. (Which he fails to give. lol Otacon.)
Because of all the abandonment and neglect, Emma can't really see familial bonds as important; no one who shared a family bond with her has ever not treated her as crap or abandoned her. Add that to God-knows-what kind of role-modeling her mother did for her (Because a woman who bangs her stepson? Probably not too with the whole dating program in general.) and we get a girl who really doesn't know what healthy affection is supposed to look like. Hal is the only person who matters to her. The only kind of bond she can really process is a romantic/sexual one. So it logically follows that Emma would assume that her feelings for her brother are romantic or sexual.
So is she really in love with her brother? I don't think she is. But she thinks she is, and well, that's not terribly healthy either!
WELL, DOES SHE WANT TO BANG RAIDEN?
Yes.
FAIR ENOUGH. BUT IF WHAT SHE REALLY REALLY WANTS FROM HAL IS ATTENTION, WHY IS SHE BEING A CRAZY HARPY AT HIM?
The truth is, Emma has no idea what the balls she wants. Noooooooone. As we discussed up there, Emma doesn't really know what healthy affection is. She doesn't know what many other healthy emotions are either. There is a big part of her that's mad at Hal. Not as big as the part of her that's lonely and desperate for attention, but hey. Being angry is easy. Being angry feels nice. Being angry is a lot simpler and more satisfying than being lonely and scared and in pain.
So that anger is what she'll act on, and what she'll hide behind. But really, Emma is super insecure. For all her posturing and yelling, she backs down very easily when Snake calls her on her bullshit. She's trying so hard to convince everyone she's talking to on codec that she's smart and secure and believes the crap she's spewing, but as soon as Snake is like "You suck" she's like "well.... OK ._." and hangs up. This is not the action of the strong, independent mad scientist she would like you to believe her to be.
If she was ever being honest with herself, she would admit that she knows that her current situation is her own fault. It's her fault that Hal left. It's her fault that she was too dependent on him in the first place. It's her fault that she never had any friends. Snake is absolutely right to dislike her. She's not a very likable person! It's not unreasonable at all for Hal to want nothing to do with her, because she's a cowardly, selfish person. However, given how cowardly and selfish she is, of course she'll never admit this to herself. Instead she is constantly on the offensive, because as soon as people realize how worthless she is, they'll leave her, just like Hal did.
Questions? Comments?
RIGHT!
STEP ONE: BACK STORRRRRRY
So once upon a time, there was a mommy genius and a daddy genius and they both had little genius babies. Hal and Emma were born to different sets of parents' first respective marriages; and one day when this lady met that fellow, that's the way they became the Emmerich bunch. Hal was somewhere in the 13-15 range when they got married, and Emma was somewhere in the 2-4 range.
They stayed a family for two years, during which Hal basically raised Emma. Emma says that their parents were busy and Hal later admits that didn't have many friends, so we can assume that they were together most of the time. Somewhere in the two years that their parents were together, Emma's mother seduced Hal. Their relationship went on until it was discovered by Hal's father, who drowned himself in the family pool while Emma was swimming. Whether intentionally or not, he almost took Emma with him.
SO! Little girl has near-death experience and watches her step-father die. What is the solution to this? Kick the only person who ever loved her out of the house and tell her that he's willingly abandoning her. Yes. Awesome plan. We don't get a whole lot of info on Emma's childhood after that, but given the kind of person we can assume her mother to be, it was probably mostly just... being ignored. Really, really ignored.
Emma's behavior in the games is pretty consistent of a kid that has been neglected. For everything that happened, she doesn't seem have many mom-issues to speak of, at least none that she notices. Given that we know that her mother was more than willing to sexually abuse Hal, I don't think assuming that she was less than the ideal mother for Emma is too much of a stretch. So my theory is, Emma was mostly just ignored. Once Hal was gone, her mother went through the motions of raising her.
Emma never really had any friends and was probably smart enough to zip through school without anyone noticing anything was wrong. I think that when she was younger, Emma probably blamed herself for her loneliness, or assumed that she had done something to drive Hal away. Somewhere along the lines though, it occurred to her that being angry about her situation was a whole lot more satisfying than being sad about it. But always, always, it was Hal's fault. To this day, it has probably not occurred to Emma to be mad at her mother.
SO HEY, DOES SHE WANT TO BONE HAL OR WHAT?
This is a pretty complicated question! It's very clear from what Emma says to and about Hal that her feelings for him are completely inappropriate for the feelings towards a sibling, even a step-sibling you haven't seen in a decade. I think saying that Emma is in love, or even in lust with Hal wouldn't really convey what's going on here. So if she's not in love-or-lust with Hal, what is it?
I think there are a few main factors going in to how she feels about Hal. The first is how simply desperate she is for his attention. Desperate. She wants any attention she can get from anyone who will give it to her, but attention from Hal is the most important. He was really the only one who ever did give her attention. The only time in her life when she was really happy was all those years ago when Hal was there for her.
To Emma, happiness = attention from Hal. For this reason, she's completely obsessed over him. She lived her life for the purpose of being as close to Hal as possible. She worked for his enemies while leaking him tips. She intentionally repeated his greatest mistake. She worked of sketchy global conspiracies in exchange for information on his whereabouts. She names her parrot after him. Because Hal was the only person to ever make her happy, she just doesn't really understand how to seek happiness anywhere but Hal.
The second is, she seems to see sexual attention as the only real kind of attention. What? A teenage girl with no self-esteem seeking inappropriate sexual attention? Yes, shocking, I know. But stay with me here. In the game, we are basically limited to seeing Emma's interaction with three people, and given that Snake spends most of his time telling her (rightfully so) to stfu, we are more-or-less just down to her interactions with Hal and Raiden. So how does she interact with Raiden? She flirts with him as hard as she is able; the times when Raiden is flirting with her are unquestionably the times when Emma is acting the sanest.
When she is dying, Emma says to Hal "I just want you to see me as a woman." Not that she wants them to be a family again, not that she wants Hal to come back to her, but that she wants him to see him as a woman. Her last request is for him to call her by his full name. I think that's pretty telling that... of all the shit and loneliness and pain Emma went through, in the end the only thing she can think to ask for is her brother's acknowledgment. (Which he fails to give. lol Otacon.)
Because of all the abandonment and neglect, Emma can't really see familial bonds as important; no one who shared a family bond with her has ever not treated her as crap or abandoned her. Add that to God-knows-what kind of role-modeling her mother did for her (Because a woman who bangs her stepson? Probably not too with the whole dating program in general.) and we get a girl who really doesn't know what healthy affection is supposed to look like. Hal is the only person who matters to her. The only kind of bond she can really process is a romantic/sexual one. So it logically follows that Emma would assume that her feelings for her brother are romantic or sexual.
So is she really in love with her brother? I don't think she is. But she thinks she is, and well, that's not terribly healthy either!
WELL, DOES SHE WANT TO BANG RAIDEN?
Yes.
FAIR ENOUGH. BUT IF WHAT SHE REALLY REALLY WANTS FROM HAL IS ATTENTION, WHY IS SHE BEING A CRAZY HARPY AT HIM?
The truth is, Emma has no idea what the balls she wants. Noooooooone. As we discussed up there, Emma doesn't really know what healthy affection is. She doesn't know what many other healthy emotions are either. There is a big part of her that's mad at Hal. Not as big as the part of her that's lonely and desperate for attention, but hey. Being angry is easy. Being angry feels nice. Being angry is a lot simpler and more satisfying than being lonely and scared and in pain.
So that anger is what she'll act on, and what she'll hide behind. But really, Emma is super insecure. For all her posturing and yelling, she backs down very easily when Snake calls her on her bullshit. She's trying so hard to convince everyone she's talking to on codec that she's smart and secure and believes the crap she's spewing, but as soon as Snake is like "You suck" she's like "well.... OK ._." and hangs up. This is not the action of the strong, independent mad scientist she would like you to believe her to be.
If she was ever being honest with herself, she would admit that she knows that her current situation is her own fault. It's her fault that Hal left. It's her fault that she was too dependent on him in the first place. It's her fault that she never had any friends. Snake is absolutely right to dislike her. She's not a very likable person! It's not unreasonable at all for Hal to want nothing to do with her, because she's a cowardly, selfish person. However, given how cowardly and selfish she is, of course she'll never admit this to herself. Instead she is constantly on the offensive, because as soon as people realize how worthless she is, they'll leave her, just like Hal did.
Questions? Comments?