Electra drives me insane she’s really like. This family tree is rotten and so I am rotten but the rot will end with me. And yes the father that lives in my memory is a fantasy and a stranger to the man that really lived but he’s dead and every memory of the dead is a fantasy. And yes my father did horrible things but he did those things because he had to, I have to believe he did them because he had to. And maybe if he had lived, he would have loved me and I am so starved of love that I will beg for it from the graves of dead men. Yes this woman gave birth to me and shaped me into the wretched form I am today. No she is not my mother. Yes I hate her. No I can’t remember a time when she didn’t hate me. Yes I am desperate for her to love me. No I would rather die than do something to earn her love. No I am nothing like her. Yes I look into the mirror and see my mother, and I hate her, so I hate me. Yes I believe my brother remembers and loves me and will come and save me. No I don’t know what he looks like or if he’s still alive. Yes I love my brother unconditionally. No I don’t really know my brother. Yes I know my brother intrinsically because he is the other half of my soul. No I don’t believe he’s coming. Yes I love him anyway because I am destined to love men who leave me behind in this house. This house that has been built on the bones of my murdered family, killed by my family, and their blood has poisoned the roots. Yes this house is my home. Yes this house hates me, and what does it mean when your home is also your prison? Yes I want to leave this house. No I will never leave this house. Yes this house has always been haunted. I am the thing that is haunting this house.
Earlier today, I said Jane might parallel a precursor to Li'l Ms. Marshmallow, and yes. She does.
@princess-adrienne reminded me I needed to look into Electra, Pokey Minch’s maid while he’s working as a consultant for Geldegarde Monotoli, and that’s in Mother2, aka EarthBound. Technically, she’s Monotoli’s maid, working in Monotoli Building, in Fourside, but she serves Pokey whenever he’s visiting.
Porky Minchi (Pokey Minch in the EarthBound localization) is “upgraded” to King Porky in Mother3, and Electra is the human precursor to Li'l Ms. Marshmallow. By the events of Mother3, Electra would have died, simply because so much time has passed. Porky doesn’t die when he becomes King Porky, simply because the prototype of Dr. Andonuts’ time machine keeps him alive, even though he’s aged considerably due to a fault in the prototype. While he’s “king”, King Porky keeps a robot as a maid, and she seems to be based on Electra, possibly as a reminder of her to him.
So, Jane is Electra’s parallel, as she’s working as a soldier/maid for Chris Heathfield at Heathfield Manor, in Yorkshire. Electra is the human precursor to Li'l Ms. Marshmallow (a machine), while Jane is like a (presumably) human precursor to Layla (an advanced bizarre doll). When Jane’s hair is down, you can see how she’s an older looking version of Layla but with a shorter braid. Forget age; the shorter braid makes Jane a precursor, as an adversary, and we encounter Jane first anyway, so she’s a precursor time-wise, too.
Annie (and to a lesser degree Ran-Mao) becomes the main parallel to Paula in this situation, even though I’ve already got other parallels to Paula in other Black Butlersituations.
I have to choose Annie over Ran-Mao for Paula because Ran-Mao’s drugs wear off quickly, whereas Annie has to be disconnected from the machinery and woken up.
According to the fandom wiki, Paula’s weakness is paralysis.
That leaves Mey-Rin and Ran-Mao as the parallels to Ness and Jeff here, since they are the ones infiltrating the joint to set the maids free, just like Ness and Jeff set Paula free. Ness is generally going to be a stand-in for Lucas when it’s a Mother2 parallel instead of Mother3, and whoever Ness is with is typically a stand-in for whoever is with Lucas at the time (which is usually Boney, the dog)… so Mey-Rin serves as a stand-in for our earl while Ran-Mao serves as a stand-in for Sebastian. Notice that Ran-Mao and Jeff Andonuts (Dr. Andonuts’ son) have the same short, straight, shiny, and very evenly-cut bangs. (His sprites in the game show his hair to be shiny.)
This makes Geldegarde Monotoli (new mayor of Fourside) the parallel to Chris Heathfield (baron of Heathfield Manor), which makes perfect sense, because Monotoli keeps Paula as a hostage, just like Heathfield essentially keeps all those maids (particularly Annie) as hostages in his basement.
Here’s Electra (for Jane), Monotoli (for Heathfield), and Paula (for Annie):
He’snot a strong enemy to begin with, but when Monotoli is released from Giygas’ influence, he’s very physically weak, and that reminds me of Ran-Mao beating Heathfield up before she’s added to the other maids plus all the released maids (minus Ran-Mao) beating him up again as soon as he shows up after their release.
Afterwards, Monotoli relinquishes the town of Fourside back to the previous mayor and becomes a low-level worker again. Heathfield is still a baron, of course, but Polaris reports that the guy was arrested.
Jane gets one last major parallel to Electra because, as @princess-adrienne pointed out, Electra specifically says she doesn’t really care about what Pokey Minch is doing – she’s not entirely swayed by his goals – but she will fight on behalf of whichever side seems stronger. And that’s very similar to Jane’s approach to working for Heathfield and the Aurora Society’s operations there, which she swears she doesn’t know much about. Neither Electra nor Jane is especially loyal to her respective employer/master.
The Electra Complex. Although named after Electra, she didn’t actually have the complex herself. In the original play by Sophocles, she was simply bereaved over her father’s murder; without any insinuation of the psychosexual dynamic whatsoever. It was only rendered as such, later, in the movie adaptations as as to align it with the psychological term.
Electra avenged her father Agamemnon’s murder with the help of her brother, Orestes. But in the end, when she finally got the vengeance she longed for, she didn’t know what to feel anymore. All that was left was this void, this emptiness where once the angst lied.
Greek Tragedy. Electra (Ηλέκτρα) film by Michael Cacoyannis, 1962.
~ Clytemnestra: “Father, father, father! Your perpetual excuse—Your father got his death from me. From me! That’s right! I make no denial. It was Justice who took him, not I alone. And you should have helped if you had any conscience. For this father of yours, This one you bewail, This unique Greek, Had the heart to sacrifice your own sister to the gods.” Electra by Sophocles.
Undeniably this is one of my favorite films, with splendid cinematography, the actors are also very charming, a must for all lovers of ancient Greek mythology and drama.
