seawasp: (leela)
seawasp ([personal profile] seawasp) wrote2006-03-14 07:24 pm

A new Perspective on "The Incredibles"

I was musing on this wonderful movie this morning, when it occurred to me, suddenly, that the entire movie's main plot could be viewed as driven, not by Syndrome, but by the Machiavellian maneuverings of Edna Mode.

Consider:

1) Where did Syndrome get his costume? Yes, he COULD have made it himself, but if there was, in fact, a "costumer to the stars" for the Heroes, Syndrome would know. And as a would-be hero, he'd go to her. And he's exactly the sort of guy to peeve Edna enough to get her to make him one WITH a cape.

2) Edna's dissatisfaction with the Status Quo is clear. "I used to design for GODS!" She's annoyed in the extreme.

3) Edna is a perfectionist. She COULD have repaired Bob's suit well enough to be unnoticeable even under pretty close inspection.

(one of the most telling points)

4) Edna didn't tell Bob about the tracking beacon. Edna knew that Bob was sneaking around doing Hero stuff. Unless she had ulterior motives she had no reason NOT to tell Bob about the features in the suits. Instead, WITHOUT telling him, she went ahead and made the suits for the rest of the family.

5) She was clearly WAITING for Helen to call. She could have called her any time, but didn't.

In my theory, this is what happened:

Syndrome finds Edna; convinces her to make him a costume, but makes such a pill of himself that she deliberately makes it with a cape, hoping something will happen to him.

Shortly afterward, supers start disappearing. Edna knows a lot of them even in civilian identities, obviously. Eventually she makes the connection.

Edna is already utterly put out that her entire career was derailed by stupid lawsuits. She wants things back the way they were.

So when Mr. Incredible shows up, clearly the next target of Syndrome, she finally has the perfect setup to put her plan into action. She knows Bob married Helen. She knows -- none better -- that the two have been trying their best to stay "normal". She also knows that with Bob keeping it secret, there is one obvious deduction Helen might draw from Bob's sneaking around.

So she doesn't tell Bob about the beacon or Syndrome. She sews the repair Not Quite Perfect and waits for Helen to call. She leads Helen to figure out Bob's been out behind her back, lying to her about the "job", and then hands her the tracker, knowing the family will confront Syndrome -- almost certainly publicly -- and usher in a new era of the Supers. And give her back her proper place.

All that has transpired here has done so according to my fabulous design, dah-lings.

[identity profile] groblek.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
That hang together entirely too well - now I don't think I'll be able to watch the movie quite the same way again...

[identity profile] filkerdave.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh my, that's brilliant.

May I link this?

[identity profile] ross-teneyck.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
Hah!

I can definitely see Edna as the secret mastermind; but I think the plan as you've outlined it leaves way too much to chance and coincidence. Edna would do better than that.

What I wonder is if the Feds weren't quietly backing Syndrome in his ongoing effort to wipe out all the supers. The supers were expensive to keep in hiding, plus you never knew when they might take it into their heads to start being activist again; clearly they were much better gotten rid of... discreetly and with deniability, of course. It wouldn't have been hard for them to find out about Syndrome; you don't build a secret high-tech lair like that without leaving some kind of invoice trail.

Hmm. Maybe Mirage was the government agent in his organization. No real evidence for that, but it's an interesting possibility.

By the way, did David Brin ever post an essay describing how Syndrome was really the good guy, trying to make superpowers available to everyone and combating the evil elitists "superheroes" who thought they were better than everyone else because of their genes? Because I can't believe Brin would miss out on an opportunity to deconstruct popular entertainment in a contrarian way.

I

[identity profile] shana.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
It's obvious! Now that you explain it.

Edna is my idol. :)

[identity profile] almeda.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
There's an extra on the DVD that includes the line, delivered from Edna to Syndrome, "And for you, dahling ... a *cape*." With what we know to be menace on that last word.

[identity profile] von-krag.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 05:25 am (UTC)(link)
What the heck? Are you and Steve den Beste going to ret-con more? SDB BTW did a very good ret-con on the Matrix trilogy @ http://denbeste.nu/Chizumatic/tmw/TheMatrix.shtml

[identity profile] folkmew.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 11:56 am (UTC)(link)
Hee! I always KNEW it in my heart but it is good to see it spelled out so clearly! :-)

[identity profile] guyelfkin.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh! You are *so* right

Teddy
mneme: (Default)

[personal profile] mneme 2006-03-15 03:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure -- given the way Edna manipulates the family, that some of this isn't -text-, actually.

[identity profile] tarkrai.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
You know, Edna's rant when Helen gets all middle-aged-wifey makes SO much more sense now! SO much was dependent on Helen playing her role, and she was never a shrinking violet... and here she is in tears, with... with... SNOT! EWW!

She expected Helen to be angry that Bob was doing superstuff- it never occurred to her that another interpretation could be placed on Bob's extracurricular activity...

[identity profile] fireskin.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course she is the mind behind all their success. And did you know her voice is done by the writer and director of the film?... hmmmmmmmm....

[identity profile] jimtbari.livejournal.com 2006-03-15 03:36 pm (UTC)(link)
This is old news, I swear....

I don't remember if someone pointed this out to me or if I figured it out for myself, but I remember having this discussion (at the very least offline, with my wife) while the movie was still in theaters. (Note that "I remember" doesn't mean "this is what happened:" it's not a very clear memory).

[identity profile] stormydragon.livejournal.com 2006-03-16 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
One big flaw with your theory:

It all hinges on Edna Mole designing all or most of the supers costumes, such that she was THE only logical choice for Syndrome to go to.

But the fact that some many of the supers wore capes suggests that most didn't go to her. There is at least one other designer out there who DOES like capes.

And considering this one or more designers seem to have designed for far more supers than Edna did, it now seems hard to say that Syndrome necessarily must have gotten his suit from her.

[identity profile] valancy17.livejournal.com 2006-03-17 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I think I love you.

[identity profile] prodigal.livejournal.com 2006-03-30 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Holy crap. That makes a terrifying amount of sense...
thebitterguy: (Default)

[personal profile] thebitterguy 2006-03-30 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
So was she also designing the outfits for all the other Supers Syndrome was using to test his robots on? In which case she's cold blooded, as well as Machiavellian.

[identity profile] cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com 2006-03-31 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
Meh.

I'm sorry, Wasp, but meh.

Once again, you've taken something that was good and simple and fun (and meant to be that way by the creator, IMO) and added another layer of complication... why? To show everyone how clever you are by twisting the facts to support an entirely different conclusion? Because complexity itself is beautiful (fractals, nebulae, microscopic vistas), and therefore More Complexity is Always Good? Because you proceed from the assumption that people are manipulative and dishonest?

I'm not buying it, just like I didn't buy your last pet theory. Lucas may have stumbled as a storyteller, but I think it's pretty clear what story he was trying to tell. Same here with Bird.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.