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Oedipus Complex: Difference between revisions
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Much of the time this presents as the son's aim of removing his father to further himself in the eyes of his mother, not necessarily into her bed. This archetype shares some themes with both the [[Messianic Archetype]] (rebirth and renewal) and [[Tricksters]] (out with the old, in with the new).
The female equivalent, of wanting to kill the mother and sleep with the father, was called the Electra complex by Carl Jung, but this term was rejected by Freud, saying that 'feminine Oedipus complex' sufficed<ref>a bit [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] since most modern Freudian apologists claim girls ''also'' want to supplant their fathers</ref>. This makes sense, since the character of Electra in the plays of both [[Electra
It's fairly difficult to use this trope explicitly, since the psychological aspects of the mother figure involved are usually lost to [[Freud Was Right|cruder imaginations]].
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Shinji Ikari from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is an interesting example. His mother is dead and he wants approval from his father, and resents him for not giving said approval. It would be a lot healthier for Shinji if he just straight up hated his father. And while he doesn't want to sleep with his mother, Shinji is {{spoiler|[[Powered
** [[Rebuild of Evangelion]] pretty much brings Shinji's Oedipus complex to the next level; {{spoiler|Shinji falls in love with Rei Ayanami, who is essentially a clone of his mother.}}
** The manga adaptation adds the additional spin of a reverse-Oedipus Complex; Gendo states that part of why he was such a terrible father to Shinji is that he resented the fact that after Shinji was born he no longer had Shinji's mother to himself.
* Ayato Kamina from ''[[
* Baki from ''[[Baki the Grappler]]'' starts off wanting to beat his father to make his mother happy, then because he figures out his father is out of his damn mind after he does crap like getting one step from killing an important governmental figure just to prove he can and {{spoiler|killing his mother.}}
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', although Ed and Al both have [[Freud Was Right|crushes on mother figures]], Ed is the one who seems afflicted with the full Oedipal syndrome complete with a love-hate relationship with his father, whom he emulated to become an alchemist (originally ''to please his mom'') but also repeatedly insults and beats up (the fact that he also suffers from a bad case of [[Parental Abandonment
** In the anime, {{spoiler|the homunculus Envy's goal in life is killing Hohenheim. At the same time, he's immensely jealous of Edward because he is Hohenheim's ''real'' son -and, presumably, because he is the most similar to Hohenheim and [[Fan Nickname|Hoju]] in appearance and personality. In the movie, he even succeeds not only in killing Hohenheim before Ed's very shocked eyes, but also in ''not'' crying "Daddy, why don't you love me?". Interestingly, Ed looks absolutely shell-shocked for about ''two minutes'' and he later doesn't seem to care much, which might or might not mean a lot about how he really feels towards his old man. Then again, he doesn't seem to care much about Alfons's death either and [[Canon Dis Continuity|maybe the movie never happened]]}}.
** In the manga, {{spoiler|Greed also has issues with his dad and seems complacent about his role as 'daddy's rebellious son', even going as far as to tell him something along the lines of "Father should be the one who understands best, ain't I the manifestation of his greed?". To be honest, though, Father is one hell of a tyrannical father}}.
* Seishiro Sakurazuka of ''[[X 1999]]'' had an... interesting relationship with his mother, Setsuka, who was one disturbed woman. {{spoiler|Setsuka implies that her soulmate was her own son. The relationship, however, was one-sided, as Seishiro's soulmate was very obviously (and reciprocally) Subaru. The non-reciprocated soulmate theme also appears with Tomoyo and Sakura in [[
* Dr. [[
* "Syaoran" of ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' has been recently revealed to have this, being in love with what appears to be an ''alternate universe clone'' of his mother. Played with a bit in that instead of wanting to ''kill'' his father, he wants to ''be'' him. To the point that he's been going by his father's name since he was seven {{spoiler|his real name is Tsubasa}} and for several years (until it was revealed that he was the ''son'' of Syaoran) he was thought to ''be'' his father by most of the fandom, as he looks exactly like him, acts similarly, has identical abilities, etc.
** The problem has later been justified or muddled, its hard to tell, by the fact that his father is apparently [[My Own Grampa|his clone]], and his mother is a clone of his own Sakura.
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* [[Mahou Sensei Negima]] may very well have this is the basis for lead Negi's need to chase his father (or it could just be a [[Parental Abandonment|traumatic need for love]]) Also {{spoiler|if you want to take the hints seriously, Negi may very well be getting paired with ''all'' of his mother/[[Cool Big Sis|big sister]] figures}}.
** And on the subject of people who love their parents, almost disturbingly, we have Yuuna and her feelings for her father. This is taken to a disturbing level in the most recent chapter; when Haruna brings up the subject of "deep, passionate kissing" (supposedly for Pactio purposes), Yuuna remarks that [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v28/c253/11.html she wouldn't mind if it were her dad.] The other girls are quite [[Squick|Squicked]] by this revelation.
* [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Andrei Smirnov]] utterly loathes his father, who he blames for the death of his mother.
** In the same series, [[The Hero|Setsuna]] is attracted to Princess Marina Ismail on account of her resemblance to his mother {{spoiler|whom he killed, along with his father, while a [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] [[Child Soldier]]}}.
* [[Person of Mass Destruction|Nataku]] of [[Houshin Engi]] has some serious daddy-issues surrounding the nature of his existence, and his mother is more or less his [[Morality Chain]].
* Tsuna from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]''. He develops a huge crush on Kyoko, whom he [[Shallow Love Interest|hardly interacts with]] or [[Extreme Doormat|knows much about]]. One thing is very noticeable about her, however: [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/katekyo_hitman_reborn/v14/c123/15.html she looks] ''exactly'' [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/katekyo_hitman_reborn/v14/c123/12.html like his mother]. Even their ''personalities'' are very much alike. In addition to that, he's ''very'' uncomfortable with talking with his father (who was pretty much a [[Disappeared Dad]] for a lot of his life).
* Seto Kaiba's competition with his adopted father forms his [[Backstory]] in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga and is given its own arc in the anime version.
* Kaiba's third [[Expy]] on ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', Edo Phoenix, also undergoes this when he duels his adopted father in revenge for killing his biological father.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Gankutsuou]]'': The manga implies that Albert is looking for a father figure in the Count because he has issues with his authoritarian real father. He also has an interesting relationship with his mother.
** There's also Andrea who takes this to the logical extreme: {{spoiler|although he doesn't kill his father, "only" gives him a poison that destroys his mind, he has sex with his mother and tries to rape his half-sister.}}
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* In ''[[FLCL]]'', Naota's father Kamon is constantly making passes at Haruko and Naota keeps catching them in [[Not What It Looks Like]] situations. Meanwhile Haruko is aggressively flirting with Naota. In the fourth episode, Naota snaps and accidentally kills Kamon, but it turns out to be a robotic duplicate of him, and his actual father is a decaying corpse in the closet. He comes [[Back From the Dead]] later in the episode and they make up.
* In [[Gun X Sword]], we have [[Alliterative Name|William Will Woo]], {{spoiler|who ended up killing his own mother when he tried to kill his father while he was a kid (She jumped in the way of the blade).}} Because of this, he seeks redemption by blindly following his father ( {{spoiler|Who is [[The Claw]]}}) to [[The Atoner|to atone]] for what he did, telling [[The Hero|Van]] he did it all 'for his sake'. Is of the 'worships his mother to extreme levels' type, which allows him to use [[The Power of Love]] in his battle against [[The Hero|Van]], although it's debatable whether it's lust or love, as he is seen naked around her portrait most of the time.
* In ''[[
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** Actually, Luke doesn't seem to have much of a problem with this. He does ask Leia briefly about his mother, but he doesn't seem particularly attached to her. And once he learns Vader is his father he wants to save him, rather than kill him.
** Anakin Skywalker is a much better example. He's practically obsessed with his mother. He marries an older woman who looks like his mother. His mother's death is one of the things that drives him to the Dark Side. He supposedly doesn't have a biological father, but Palpatine is hinted to have used the Force to create him and acts as a father figure. Obi Wan is also a father figure to Anakin. Guess what happens to both of them.
** Perhaps this is [[In the Blood]], since in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] ([[
* ''[[Back to The Future]]'' has a lot of fun with this, but most obviously comes down on the side of 1inversion; neither Lorraine or George are aware that 'Calvin Klein' is their future son Marty, but Lorraine wants to get very close to Marty (much to his horror), and rather than supplanting his father Marty has to do the exact opposite and build him up to make sure that his family fortunes end up okay.
* Amusingly mentioned in [[Analyze This]]:
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== Literature ==
* [[Hesiod]] made a plot of this in his ''[[
* A recurring theme in [[Dennis Lehane]]'s [[Kenzie and Gennaro Series]]. [[The Hero]], Patrick Kenzie, hates his abusive father more than anybody else on Earth. Also, the first book features gang leader Roland Angeline and his father Marion Socia, who end up waging a brutal gang war against each other. And the third book subverts it by featuring {{spoiler|[[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Trevor Stone waging a war for control against his psychopathic daughter Desiree}}.
* [[Brave New World (
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Voldemort killed his [[Disappeared Dad|Disappeared Muggle Dad]]. {{spoiler|Barty Crouch was also killed by his son, although you'd never figure it by watching the ''Goblet of Fire'' movie.}}
** Adding to this, it is also apparent in his later years that Voldemort at least respected his mother for giving birth to him, while still despising his father. Even more interesting is that Severus Snape also hated his father enough for fans to speculate that's where his muggle prejudice stemmed from while attaching himself the name "Prince", taken from his mother, and being fond of Lily Evans who had maternal attributes. Then there's Harry Potter who practically married Lily 2.0, minus the green eyes. Not to mention he has showed much devotion to her memory throughout the series, a great deal more than his father. And although Harry never hated his father, he was disgusted with James's behavior in Snape's memory enough to wonder why Lily ever married him in the first place.
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* Nicholas Harpole and Alec Checkerfield from [[The Company Novels]] have a real doozy of a situation: {{spoiler|Once upon a time three guys were cloned, two died and became virtually undead, sharing the third body. Deciding to (a) claim their mutual girlfriend for himself, and (b) make sure that the two extra guys got bodies of their own, Edward takes over the body and arranges for Mendoza to bear twin sons and sticks digital Nick and Alec inside them. They grow up, again, with Edward and Mendoza as their parents. Remembering the whole time that "Mommy" is really their girlfriend. Yeah, issues much?}}
* An inversion occurs in ''[[Washington Square]]''--Aunt Penniman and Morris correspond heavily throughout the story (she fancies herself a match maker for her niece), and while she finds him attractive and charming, she also loves him like the son she never had with her late husband. Morris, on the other hand, despises her.
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene
* [[Haruki Murakami]]'s ''[[Kafka
* [[Older Than Dirt]]: The ancient Hittite story called "The Kingship of Heaven" tells the myth that may have inspired Hesiod's ''[[
* In the ''[[Twilight]]'' series, Bella constantly refers to Edward as a father figure and is cared for by him in a parental fashion (he holds her in his lap, carries her around, sings her to sleep, etc). Interestingly, Bella doesn't interact in any of those ways with her actual father.
* In-story example: in [[Tender Is the Night]], a group watches the aptly-named movie ''Daddy's Girl'' at the end of which a young woman comes back to her father. Although most of the audience is overjoyed by the ending, the psychanalist Dick Diver is described as wincing because of the obvious implications of Oedipus complex. Yes: somewhere, a psychanalist is wincing.
* In [[Devon Monk]]'s [[
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* ''[[Lost]]'' is chock-full of this. Nearly every character has some sort of paternal baggage, and {{spoiler|Ben kills his father; Kate kills her father; Locke gets Sawyer to kill his father for him}}
* Jim Profit, on ''[[Profit]]'', takes this archetype to the logical extreme --by murdering his father and having sex with his (step)mother.
* Possibly Matt McNamera on ''[[Nip
* Connor on ''[[Angel]]'', paralleling Oedipus to an unusually large extent -- to many viewers' disgust. No, Cordelia wasn't Connor's mother, but she did change his diapers. [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up|The previous year.]]
** It's lampshaded by the captured [[Manipulative Bastard|Angelus]]: "Doing your mom and trying to kill your dad. Hmm. There should be a play." Of course this taunt is clearly meant for viewers; Connor was raised in another dimension and has no idea what he's referencing, and in any case from his perspective has no reason to see Cordelia as someone maternal.
* In a rare maternal case, in ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' Charlie and Alan loathe [[Evil Matriarch|their mother, Evelyn]]. Although not shown or implied to hate their father(s), considering how many husbands she went through (at least four) during their childhood, it's not likely that they'd actually care about him/them, either.
** In one episode, Charlie dates a woman who dresses and acts eerily similar to Evelyn.
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' - {{spoiler|Arthur in ''Sins of the Father'' borders on this. He meets a (young and beautiful) ghost of his mother, who tells him that his father is to blame for her death. So he tries to kill Uther.}}
* In ''[[The X
* Inverted with Francis in ''[[Malcolm in
* The [[Monk]] episode Mr. Monk and the Three Julies had the [[Red Herring]] suspect, a schizophrenic man named Matthew Teeger, being almost completely obsessed with his mother, almost to [[Psycho|Norman Bates]] levels, once even severely injuring his stepdad under the belief that the stepdad was hurting her, and even taxyderming his mother after she died in order to keep people thinking that she was still alive, including himself apparently. However, despite these facts, it turns out that he's completely harmless, or at least not the person targeting the various Julie Teegers.
* ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'' features James Darmody, who is extremely close to his (thirteen years older) mother, Gillian. Eventually, we learn that {{spoiler|Jimmy slept with his mother while both were drunk. He then kills his father, the Commodore, in the same episode.}}
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== Theater ==
* Though ''[[Oedipus
** [[Euripides]]'s tragedy ''[[
* [[Harold Pinter]]'s plays. Though, to be honest, ''everybody'' hates ''everybody'' in the Pinter verse.
* ''[[
* Eugene O'Neill's ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' adapts a classic Greek tragic trilogy, the Orestia, relocating it to New England after the end of the Civil War. Incestuous undertones are a major motivation of the murderous actions of the characters--at the least, both of the children display unhealthy obsession with the parent of the opposite gender, and deep-seated dislike of the parent of the same gender.
* In ''[[Peter Pan]]'', Wendy had subtle undertones of an electra complex.
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* Hinted at with Sephiroth of [[Final Fantasy VII]] but [[Flanderization|completely exaggerated]] in the fandom. That said, he ''is'' obsessed with what he perceives as his "mother" and he absolutely ''hates'' his father, (even if he doesn't know who his father is) {{spoiler|[[Mad Scientist|Professor Hojo]]...}}
** Funnily enough, he doesn't seem to pay much attention to his birth-mother (well, of the regular kind), Lucrecia, most likely not even knowing she existed.
* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' (as noted above) not only features a streamlined (but ultimately less hostile) version of the Tidus/Jecht conflict, but has another example that you need to read inbetween the lines to uncover. [[Original Generation|Cosmos]] and [[Final Fantasy I
* Like Luke Skywalker, it goes for Lloyd Irving from ''[[
* ''[[
* [[Disgaea Hour of Darkness
** Mao spends almost all of ''Disgaea 3'' training to '''kill''' his father. Subverted when it turns out that {{spoiler|his hatred for his father came from Aurum's brainwashing, he actually admired him.}}
* Sasha Nein of ''[[
** Raz himself also has this going on, since he states that his father has him train constantly as an acrobat and rejects his attempts to use his psychic powers, as well as psychic gypsies cursing his family with [[Super Drowning Skills]], which leads to Raz's mental image of his father as a psychic-hating sadist. {{spoiler|Turns out at the end that his father is actually a psychic himself and was merely trying to help train Raz to control his powers, even helping him combat his [[Freudian Excuse]] incarnate.}}
** Coach Oleander, as a child was traumatized by the fact that {{spoiler|his father was a butcher who chopped up any bunnies that he kept as pets, which along with the fact that he's never been able to get into the military leads him to try and [[Take Over the World]]. The final boss in fact is a monstrous combination of both Raz and Oleander's mental images of their fathers.}}
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* The simplest way of describing the entire plot of the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' saga is this trope. For every major character in it. Yes, all of them.
** Bonus points to Naked Snake for having an Oedipus complex plot with a woman who is, biologically, unrelated to him.
* Electra complex in ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]''. "I love my daddy," indeed.
* A good part of the reason why {{spoiler|Lord Alvis of Velthomer}} from [[Fire Emblem Jugdral]] is so fucked up comes from this, since {{spoiler|his father Viktor was a philandering asshole who killed himself once he found out his wife Cigyun cheated on him with Kurth Prince of Grandbell, and said mother ran away in shame afterwards and never returned (She was pregnant with Kurth's child, and ultimately fell victim to [[Death
** But wait! There's more! It's pretty much all but stated in the Oosawa manga and side materials that {{spoiler|one of the reasons why he married Diadora was because of [[Replacement Goldfish|how much she looked like Cigyun]]. (And for worse? Diadora ''was'' the baby whose birth killed Cigyun. So yup, [[Brother-Sister Incest]] here too.)}}
*** [[It Got Worse]]. That was ''planned'' by a [[Complete Monster]] [[Magnificent Bastard]], and {{spoiler|the child that resulted from this union turned out to be the host for a [[God of Evil]]. [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|An "incest is bad" metaphor, much]]?}}
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* It's not explicitly stated in the story itself, but ''[[Akai Ito]]'' can be approximately summarized as [[Oedipus Complex]] meets [[Girls Love]]. Of the girls that the main character (a girl named Kei) can end-up living together with, two of them are as if mother to her. Another one come from a family of her mother. {{spoiler|Kei has the memory of killing her own father. The memory is real... [[Fake Memories|just not hers]].}}
* There's an interesting example in [[Metal Gear Solid]]. The members of the Cobra Unit all regard [[Action Girl|The Boss]] as a mother figure... including The Sorrow who would go on to become her [[Love Interest]] and the father of her child. This is, unsurprisingly, made fun of in [http://www.gigaville.com/comic.php?id=333 this] strip of [[The Last Days of Foxhound]].
* In ''[[
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* Walt from [[Futurama]]. It's supposedly what keeps him in line, although he's not especially bright in any case. Most worryingly, when he shamelessly admits it, his brothers actually smile in a manner that suggests they agree with him.
{{quote| '''Walt:''' ''(right after being insulted and slapped by Mom)'' "Some day I want to marry a girl like her."}}
* In an episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
* [[American Dad
** Hell, the episode's title is "Oedipal Panties".
* In ''[[
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