A Bookworm & A Lurker

It's time for the passing year!

✨🌟✨Happy new year!!✨🌟✨

Wishing you the best as always, health and success for you through 2026!

First post of the year.

It's the first use of the word "companion" in the movie. Victor is the one to say it. Coupled with the observation many have made, that there is a resemblance between the Dark Angel's features and the Creature's (including the crack in the wood on the Angel's forehead, and the pattern of the scarring on the Creature's), it does put Victor's loneliness into perspective.

Death took his mother and his father, him and William were separated, and then he dedicated his life to conquering death through science. Leaving aside how his father's will drove him to the medical field, intellect became what made him special, what in his eyes put him above everyone else. It's so obvious during Victor's disciplinary hearing when he performs for the crowd, calling for students to disobey and not follow dogma: he visibly basks in their attention. William says it at the dinner table, how Victor was "always one to harvest attention"; it was through rebellion against authority (his father) that Victor felt less lonely, because that was the only way to be looked at. As he makes it clear to Harlander later too, he thinks himself brilliant and wants to be admired for it. But the thing is, if you place yourself above everyone else... on that pedestal, you're alone.

It's why Victor becomes less interested in death when meeting Elizabeth. He thinks he found a kindred spirit and the love of his life, one special like him due to her intellectual pursuits. When he confesses to her, he says "I have a belief in the marvelous and so do you." But Elizabeth's interest in science doesn't stem from a want to control. Where Victor wants to understand the workings of Nature so he can conquer it, Elizabeth wants to understand Nature so she can commune with it. So of course Victor drives her away. And then, the pinnacle of Victor's life-long work, the product of his intellect that should be just as special and perfect as he is, is... not. The Creature is painfully human. He's not a genius from the moment he's born, he's not the equal Victor might've envisioned on the pedestal next to him. He's all the things Victor doesn't allow himself to be, so Victor can't help but see him as a failure.

This interaction really touched me the first time I heard it and still does. There are so many kinds of intelligence, so many ways to show affection, so many ways to make sense of the world. It really resonated with me for neurodivergent people, always being pushed to fit into some mold just because it’s what’s expected and what’s considered “normal”. The second you step outside the dotted line, you’re “defective”, a “problem”, or “something that needs fixing”.