Tehemai
Member
- Oct 9, 2017
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To be clear, I'm not trying to say Martin's secretly a good guy. I'm saying he just comes off as more mentally ill than the mastermind asshole they paint him as. His actions don't improve his life whatsoever. He's obviously just miserable and spiraling. And the biggest hint we have as to why he's spiraling is something he thinks the women in his life did to him. If the source of the pain in his life is something like infidelity, everything clicks into place. Why a controlling man would threaten her to leave instead of threatening her to stay. Why he still cares about a son that reviles him instead of beating him too. Why he hates all the women that were allegedly nothing but sweet to him. Why he would cripple a man that inflicted this relatable pain onto the only person he still cares about before dying.We don't know enough about Martin to assume that abstinence from alcohol, medication and therapy would really help him. My assumption is rather that he would use that as an excuse and justification for his behavior if there were real consequences in order to hope for a lighter sentence. Let me remind you that he sent his son's ex's new boyfriend to a wheelchair. I frankly don't remember if this new boyfriend knew that this girl had a boyfriend at the time or not, but even if he did, that doesn't justify what Martin did.
For Becca, on the other hand, the situation surrounding MC is something that has had a lasting impact on her life. My argument for this: the situation surrounding her second daughter, Lucy. Her second husband gave her a choice: Abort Lucy or he's gone. She still had huge feelings of guilt and therefore made the only right decision. It also caused her to never be in a relationship with a man again (until MC showed up and they patched up their relationship, but I dismiss the sexual dynamic between her and MC as pornology). And even then, the scars were still there and she was very hesitant, the first cat jokes she made to Lucy (and which no family member ever meant any offense) were only after Lucy had also moved on from her trauma.
Was it rational how she acted? Definitely not, but very few people who go through a marriage like her first one would be able to do so in such a situation. The fact that there was no support from her mother and sister was just the icing on the cake. She definitely needed psychological counseling, I think. The problem is that a) it is difficult to get appointments and such things tend to fizzle out and b) there are always huge negative prejudices against psychotherapy and people who seek it and c) not every person who works in this field is really competent
I more or less agree with you about Elaine. As the matriarch of the family, there was no one left to tell her clearly when she was going too far, the only one who did that was her late husband. Theoretically, Becca could have tried that, but since her sister said yes and amen to everything Elaine decided, that would have undermined her point. Apart from that, Elaine reminds me, especially at the beginning, of the mother of a former work colleague: she was totally against his wife and when he did marry her, he was practically dead to her. She also never had any contact with her granddaughters or, and I find this really tragic because it happens rarely enough, with her great-grandson.
Imo, his actions come off uncontrolled anger impulses born from deep resentment he's been drowning in alcohol. But due to the nature of the game, we kinda just assume everything he does is purely because he's a demon without rhyme or reason to his madness. That he's taking advantage of everyone, even as he has no advantages to show for it. All the while we take everything being said by LIs as undistorted truths because we want to sleep with them. Despite their stories not really adding up to a coherent chain of events. And the tidbits from Martin's ramblings actually plugging many holes in their story.
Also, if we don't take Becca at her word which is probably what she shared with Lucy and Sandra, then the second husband's story also makes a lot more sense. The fact that she even has a husband so quickly raises nigh unanswerable questions. But if she selfishly started this relationship while still with Martin, it absolutely does. It explains both why she could marry him so quickly and why Martin spirals. It explains why she could move on and improve her own life to such extremes even as she leaves her child with her abuser. It explains her uncharacteristic sexual depravity which correlates with infidelity.
The fact that this new husband also freaks out on her with an abortion ultimatum may have less to do with Lucy's appearance. And more to do with what the genetic testing prompted by her appearance leads him to discover. The same thing Martin discovered that mades him believe women are whores. There is even a dialogue that mentions how strange it is that both sisters are redheads when neither of their parents have red hair. Reminiscent of the blond hair scene from game of thrones that reveals Cercei's infidelity.
I do believe it's a coincidence. A series of poorly stitched oversights born from needing to give MC a bunch of sexy siblings to pursue. But at the same time if I'm judging characters at face value, it would be very odd to just presume the bad excuses Becca gives to justify the terrible thing she did is exactly how it all played out. And I think there's a better chance at redeeming a mentally ill violent person than a mother that immediately abandons their helpless child with said person to live a sweet life in a fancy mansion.
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