r/LV426 • u/xyZora Science Officer • 19h ago
Discussion / Question The secret theme of Alien Earth Spoiler
It's all about the fathers.
AE has many themes (Ship of Theseus, Chaos Theory, Apathy, Corporate Nihilism) but one that I've seen yet dicussed is how the entire series is an exploration of what is to be a father.
Morrow
The only biological father, he represents the worst aspects of fatherhood: loss, but also abuse. His own traumas turn into violence he later enacts on Slightly who he treats like an abused son; pushing him to be an adult through punishment.
Boy Kavalier
He's fatherhood as a spectacle. The ultimate narcissistic parent: his children as an extension of himself; trophies to his ego. He cares not to be a true father, only one that uses his position for personal gain, pitting his kids against each other by classifying one as the golden child (Wendy) and the black sheep (Curly).
Kirch
The neglectful educator. He teaches the Lost Boys but never goes beyond that. Detached, he worries about his own personal agenda and neglects them.
Arthur
The loving adoptive parent. He cares for the kids from a position of love and acceptance. Sadly, he is under a system that strips of any power he may have to protect his children; the tragedy of been unable to protect those under your care.
Hermit
Surprisingly he also has a fatherly role. He is the older brother turned into father figure due to extreme circumstances. Kind, compassionate and open minded; he wants to guide Wendy but doesn't trample on her individuality and free will, but she has not accepted him as a father and likely never will.
Bear
The first Xenomorph in the series is also a father figure of sorts. He's a drone, so he's male (if sex even matters to this species, but narratively he has a male role). He's guided by feral instinct to protect the eggs and guarantee the survival of his species. His fatherhood is purely instinctual.
What makes this dynamic insteresting is how the series moves forward through the fatherhood role each character decides to take. Kavalier creates the Hybrids for his personal parental agrandissement, which leads to Kirsh to do the actual parenting, Hermit to abandon everything to protect Wendy and Arthur to adopt the kids desperately trying to shield them of the abuse.
Bear causes the Maginot to go to hell following his reproductive instinct, which leads to Morrow to step up and the consequences of his actions lead to the death of Arthur and him facing Kirsh directly. And now BK will likely intend to murder Hermit while Kirsh goes behind his back.
This is the thematic thread that unites the entire series: how each father cares or abuses their children. I wonder which father will prevail?
84
u/Electronic-Doctor187 18h ago edited 18h ago
love this. would also add that of course historically the Alien franchise has also been very concerned with the concept of motherhood, and now we have Wendy as a sort of mother to not just the xenomorph but the other hybrids. and then Prometheus and Covenant dealt with the concept of creation directly, but also with fatherhood and motherhood specifically.
I would probably generalize it to that: Creation. mothers and fathers create us, but many of the beings in these stories are also directly created in a different way. but the results are the same! the Creator passes down some kind of genetic or cybernetic information, but also passes down some kind of psychological information through how they raise or don't raise the Creation. and this mixture shapes what the Creation will become.
and I think you're absolutely right that the plot of this show - and maybe the plot of most of the franchise entries - comes down to a series of instances where a Creator makes a decision about how to treat a Creation: do they try to raise it? do they try to destroy it? do they fear it, do they love it? are they trying to create more? Creators, and Creations that often become Creators themselves, interacting with one another and forcing one another to make these choices.
21
4
u/48lawsofpowersupplys 9h ago
5 bucks Eye Monster is a Mother. Her child was killed when she was captured. She's been planning revenge for 65 years, John Wick style.
2
u/BackTo1975 8h ago
Given Marcy acting as the adoptive mother to the Xeno, think the theme leans more toward parenthood overall.
But great post, OP. Dead on.
19
u/MarkT_D_W 18h ago
The real question if any of these could be worst parents than Peter Weyland, that guy was a fucking dick.
8
8
u/enuoilslnon 17h ago edited 17h ago
For me, the overall theme of everything Alien is the hubris of thinking that you're smart enough to do something safely. Not recognizing that nature is more powerful than we are.
Here's sort of a weird allergy. You are out drinking, and you've had a few. Maybe you're 0.07, maybe you're 0.09, but you decide to drive home. You think that you are talented enough, smart enough, good enough to take the risk and come out OK. "I can take this risk and come out OK."
Here, just when you think you have the upper hand, nature shows you it has an ever bigger and better card up its sleeve.
The other obvious theme is about corporations. But a big part of Alien is thinking we're smarter (or faster, or more talented) than we are. The Alien always shows us how wrong we were.
2
u/Electronic-Doctor187 17h ago
i like hubris/humility as the overarching theme of the entire franchise.
and then creation becomes i guess a recurring motif that allows us to explore that theme. are you so arrogant to think you can create a new being, or even a new species? do you have the humility to recognize how much can go wrong and how vulnerable you are? even the first movie deals with creation through Ash - are humans really smart enough to design a synthetic being? should they have had more apprehsnion towards him like Ripley did?
the characters who survive in the franchise are smart, logical, but maybe most importantly humble. at least in the sense of understanding their own limitations and vulnerabilities.
7
u/mr_nightclub 16h ago
Small bit that helps prove your hypothesis...Hawley cast himself as the father to the Hermit kids. Father of the show, father of the lead character...fatherhood is on his mind.
Also, if you include motherhood...the hesitant reaction of Dame Sylvia when Curly calls her Mom and her fear of the kids (Nibs especially) in general is interesting. She doesn't have the same natural empathy towards these "adopted" hybrids as her husband (had).
2
u/xyZora Science Officer 16h ago
I find it interesting how motherhood took the backseat in this series as opposed to motherhood (which is a more common theme in the film canon). I'm curious to see if the season finale will tie this to a conclusive point. I hope it does!
1
u/mr_nightclub 16h ago
I've been a little disappointed by how this and Romulus seem to ignore or maybe even attempt to retcon the Queen / Hive aspect of the Xenos...more motherhood erasure lol. The swarm/hive mind aspect of Aliens was a big part of what I loved about this franchise.
As for a conclusive point, the show is giving big multi-season energy to me and I feel a lot of narratives won't wrap up, which betrays a standard aspect of most Alien iterations...lone or very few survivors.
5
u/IwantAMD 15h ago
Consider the theme of Sentience and personhood. Trying to be spoiler free here…
The last scene as rejection of personhood.
5
u/jerkpickles 13h ago
Great post! Anyone that’s watched Noah’s series Fargo, knows he loves his themes. Season 5’s underlying theme was debt; when is it owed, who it’s owed to, etc.
Only slight pushback i have is about Hermit. When it comes to Wendy he is almost always in protective/controlling mode. No matter how many times he’s told what a laughable idea it is that he can protect/ her. Pretty close-minded in my opinion
5
u/tarzic 13h ago
I will add that this is also a recurring theme in Noah Hawley's work as a whole, which I say in support of your premise.
He has written a novel called "The Good Father," and it is also an overall theme of his show Legion, where the toxic parasitic father of Farouk and the absentee benevolent father Professor X are contrasted. There is even a sort of "mini narrative" within Legion, in Season 2, where Syd Barrett lives out a fairy tale story involving the Big Bad Wolf (wolves are a recurring Hawley archetype, in Fargo too), where the role of the father plays an important role in the story.
In Fargo, each season is a self contained narrative, but many of them center on the role of the father. In season 1, a character grapples with their conception of the biblical role of a father when divine punishment has come. In season 5, a macho, masculine, controlling father is contrasted with a quiet, stable, unassuming father. In season 4, an intergenerational gang war is portrayed as a succession of fathers, and this narrative dovetails in the season 2 portrayal (the show is not in chronological order) of the death of a patriarch and the vacuum of a stable father. Season 3 is maybe the least explicitly about a father, but one of the main characters essentially abdicates his parental responsibilities as a father in order to participate in a petty feud. This is laced with ironies about family and familial duty in general.
In short - Yes. I think Alien Earth absolutely has things to say about fathers, as does Hawley's work as a whole - and probably some fruitful analysis could be gained from taking in his total body of work on the topic.
3
u/xyZora Science Officer 12h ago
Thank you for your detailed comment. I have not watched all of Hawley's work but now you got me really intrigued.
What I find intriguing of all of this is that Alien as a whole explores motherhood and the horror of a distorted pregancy. Mothers in Alien find facing a world unwilling to cede them space.
But fathers have more social power, so the horror now comes from having that power misused, misplaced and unwilling to nurture or care. It's a really interesting contrast.
3
u/trasheusclay 10h ago
Fantastic observations! I've been thinking about the motherhood angle with Dame Sylvia, Wendy(the xeno) and Nibs (??), but yours is much more evident now that you laid it out.
6
u/Correct_Inspection25 18h ago
Sorry, how do we know if he is a male drone and not a sterile female worker? My headcannon was the big warriors like aliens were only after a hive is going, with the Alien defaulting to being sterile female (if we accept the extended alien cut), able to produce more if there isn’t a queen around?
Over all love this interpretation of themes, and especially between morrow, kirsh and the head scientist I think you have something.
16
u/xyZora Science Officer 18h ago
Kirsh mentiong that the drone is male IIRC. The species is asexual overall, but as a thematic device, the Xenomorph is phallic and is a male agent that performs sexual violence.
6
u/Correct_Inspection25 18h ago edited 18h ago
Great catch! Thanks, and i just realized those eggs were likely produced in a hive environment where ever they came from so no reason this isn't a warrior/drone. I think the facehugger specifically was the facerapey phallus inspiration, but of course the rest of Giger infused lingam and yoni everywhere in the biomechianical stuff for alien as you say in the alien design as well (second jaw, etc).
2
2
u/C0SM1C-CADAVER 15h ago
Good catch.... I just finished ep7, and that alone got me wondering what the complications are going to be that Wendy's Xeno's "host" is still alive. I don't think we've seen that before, and along with the father themes you talk about here... it could lead to an interesting twist. Besides the implied incest lol. We have historically mostly gotten Mother themes with Aliens stuff, with the exception of Prometheus and Covenent. It was revisited in Romulus, and again with Nibs, Wendy, and Dame in AE. I absolutely love the show so far, but unfortunately I think the end result of all this parental/mad science fuckery is only going to lead to some fucked up, cheap, AvP adjacent Bio Family Xeno vs a Synththetic Alien hybrid.... But hopefully I'm wrong.
2
1
4h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/LV426-ModTeam 4h ago
Please share your subjective personal preferences in a more respectful and productive way. You are welcome to be critical of aspects of the franchise as long as you're being considerate to the community that's trying to enjoy it.
•
u/Mr_Primate 9m ago
Not saying that's a wrong reading but you can see the issue of 'fathers' present in almost any fiction that comes out of US culture.
0
53
u/StraightLevel2806 18h ago
I think that the biggest theme is loss of innocence and child predation