Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 4: Thoughts and Feelings

[ysabetwordsmith]

This installment discusses the thoughts and feelings of Wednesday Addams in Wednesday.

Here is the character study:
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 1: Introduction
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 2: Ethnicity & Linguistics
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 3: An Outcast
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 4: Thoughts and Feelings
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 5: Relationships
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 6: Solitary Accomplishments
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 7: Trust and Betrayal
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 8: Connected Characters
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 9: Enid

See also:
"Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 1: Introduction


Wednesday Addams is logical rather than emotional, often seeming downright cold. She is brutally honest with a tendency toward inconvenient truths. She often responds to pressure by belting out things that people don't want to hear. She rarely considers other people's feelings, and considers her own a bothersome distraction. So she may not feel some things as intensely as other people do. Another possibility is that she simply spends so much time alone that she's not used to having anyone else around to consider in the first place, thus it doesn't occur to her that she should stop to think about how her choices will affect more than just herself.
This lowered feeling leads to blunted or flat affect, showing little or no emotion in most situations. Other times, it's incongruent affect, as Wednesday likes things other people dislike or vice versa, thus showing unexpected expressions -- like smiling at the "rain of blood" during the Rave'N dance. This is often called "inappropriate affect" but, if all emotions are valid, then that phrasing stigmatizes emotions simply because they are unexpected or uncommon in context. Wednesday has a right to smile at a rain of blood if she wants to, just as everyone else has a right to scream and run.
Quite likely, she's just some flavor of neurovariant. Several of the characters show various patterns of traits matching that field of personalities. It's one of the aspects of weirdness I love most about her. I really hope that the show continues to support it rather than trying to "normalize" how Wednesday feels, thinks, and acts.

Pugsley, emotion equals weakness.
-- Wednesday

"Emotions are a gateway trait. They lead to feelings, which trigger tears. I don’t do tears." (Ep. 1×02)
-- Wednesday Addams Quotes

"I cried my little black heart out. But tears don't fix anything. So I vowed to never do it again."
-- Wednesday Addams

Xavier Thorpe: You don’t know who your real friends are. I’ve been on your side since day one. I literally saved your life, I believed your theories when nobody else did, and what do I get in return? Just nothing but suspicion and lies.
Wednesday Addams: Fine. You want honesty? Here it is: Every time the monster's attacked, you've been right there. Starting with Rowan at the Harvest Festival. Then, on Outreach Day, you arrived just minutes after the monster disappeared, yet you say you didn't see it.
Xavier Thorpe: I didn't realize proximity was a crime.
Wednesday Addams: Then there's your drawing obsession. You have drawn the monster dozens of times, yet you've never seen it. Or so you claim. You even drew where it lived. Then, when Eugene went to investigate, you tried to kill him so he wouldn't spill your secret.
Xavier Thorpe: You think I would hurt Eugene?
Wednesday Addams: Let's not forget your oh-so-convenient appearance after Tyler had been attacked at the Gates mansion.
Xavier Thorpe: If I am the monster...then why haven't I killed you?
Wednesday Addams: [Hesitates] ...Because for some reason I cannot fathom or indulge, you seem to like me.
Xavier Thorpe: [coldly] What's to like?
-- Episode 7

Enid Sinclair: Are you kidding me? I've learned so much from you. Part of it is admittedly criminal behavior, but... most people spend their entire lives pretending to give zero effs, and you literally never had an eff to give.
This quote comes from a TV series ‘Wednesday’. The scene where this moment comes from is from Season 1 Episode 8, with the title of ‘A Murder of Woes’

This story’s about to take a dark turn. Usually I love dark turns, but not this one.
-- Wednesday Best Quotes

Wednesday Addams: I'll never apologize for trying to uncover a truth.
This quote comes from a TV series ‘Wednesday’. The scene where this moment comes from is from Season 1 Episode 6, with the title of ‘Quid Pro Woe’

3 Ways to Act Serious, Emotionless, and Professional -- wikiHow

Basic Tips To Write Better Geniuses, Scientists, & Intellectuals

Big Emotions
(won't save on Wayback Machine)

Gomez is a model train autistic. Morticia is a botanic autistic. Pugsley is a chemistry autistic. Fester is a maniac criminal, clinically insane autistic. Granny is a maths autistic. Pubert is a non-verbal, savant autistic. Wednesday is a touch aversion, no good with feelings, taxidermy, gothic literature and true crime autistic.
-- Writers Who

How do you write a brutally honest character?

How to Look Entirely Emotionless: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

How To Write An Emotionless Character (That Readers Love)

Main Character Style: Logical or Intuitive? -- Dramaticapedia

Netflix’s Wednesday Addams Probably Meets the Diagnostic Criteria for Autism. Here's Why That’s So Important.

The Neurodivergent Brain: Everything You Need to Know

The Only Time Wednesday Cries In The Show (& Why)

Understanding Inappropriate Affect

WHAT IS FLATTENING OF AFFECT IN FILM? (In the Entertainment industry.)


However, Wednesday is not wholly without feelings. Still waters run deep. Fandom calls this type of character a "clam." They refuse to show emotions most of the time, but occasional glimmers of hidden passion still slip out. One early example of this is Wednesday playing the cello with great feeling, in Episode 3. You can't give what you don't have, so it's all in there somewhere, just buried. Music is Wednesday's customary means of exploring and expressing her feelings. She just doesn't like wearing them on her face. On rare occasions, extreme pressure causes a "clameurism" when all the hidden passion comes spurting out. The most dramatic example of this in Wednesday is when Thing gets stabbed in Episode 7. Panicky and distraught, Wednesday runs with Thing to get help from Uncle Fester.

(The Thing got stabbed and is not moving...)
Uncle Fester: He's gone, Wednesday.
Wednesday Addams: No, he's not. Thing. If you can hear me... if you die, I will kill you.
This quote comes from a TV series ‘Wednesday’. The scene where this moment comes from is from Season 1 Episode 7, with the title of ‘If You Don’t Woe Me by Now’

'Wednesday:' 10 Surprising Times Wednesday Addams Showed Emotion

How Do I Make Myself Sound More Passionate In My Music

Panel: Clams and Curmudgeons: We Love Our Dysfunctional Guys

Rage-Breaking Point

Repression Never Ends Well

Wednesday Addams powerful violin\Cello Badass Classical audio music\Jenna Ortega violin music #2

What does it mean to "play with feeling"? -- No Dead Guys

What is Musical Feeling? -- Simplifying Theory

Writing Emotion in Fiction: 3 Powerful Methods with Examples

Comments

[see_also_friend]

>>Another possibility is that she simply spends so much time alone that she's not used to having anyone else around to consider in the first place, thus it doesn't occur to her that she should stop to think about how her choices will affect more than just herself.<<

Her most common playmate in most installments is her brother (in this series a few years younger). Beyond that, she seems to get along well with her father and uncle. However, if she doesn't commonly have same-age playmates that would affect her social skills somewhat.

>>This is often called "inappropriate affect" but, if all emotions are valid, then that phrasing stigmatizes emotions simply because they are unexpected or uncommon in context.<<

I think of "inappropriate affect" as a social/cultural thing: smiling while apologizing or cheering at a funeral are inappropriate social behaviors in mainstream American culture, though they may be a perfectly accurate representation of someone's feelings in-the-moment.

>>Fandom calls this type of character a "clam." They refuse to show emotions most of the time, but occasional glimmers of hidden passion still slip out.<<

If emotional expression garners an unpleasant response from others, than the person may end up hiding them. Given Wednesdays unconventional interests and preferences, she may have just put most of her feelings where people won't use them as an excuse to bother her. (The whole "Women are good at emotional labor" thing can't be helping, either.)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Her most common playmate in most installments is her brother (in this series a few years younger). Beyond that, she seems to get along well with her father and uncle. However, if she doesn't commonly have same-age playmates that would affect her social skills somewhat.<<

Wednesday may also be used to her family accommodating her in ways she doesn't really notice, until other people don't and relations break down as a result.

>>I think of "inappropriate affect" as a social/cultural thing: smiling while apologizing or cheering at a funeral are inappropriate social behaviors in mainstream American culture, though they may be a perfectly accurate representation of someone's feelings in-the-moment.<<

Exactly. They're entirely about other people's expectations. Folks like Wednesday, who rarely match anyone else's expectations, are highly prone to say, "Fine, fuck you all, I'll stay alone where I can be myself."

>> If emotional expression garners an unpleasant response from others, than the person may end up hiding them.<<

Very true, although Wednesday doesn't seem to struggle with repression the way most people do with that approach.

>> Given Wednesdays unconventional interests and preferences, she may have just put most of her feelings where people won't use them as an excuse to bother her.<<

Possibly true, although look at how she handled Nero's loss: deciding not to cry because it didn't change anything, rather than because it made her a target. That also strongly implies she doesn't experience emotions the usual way, since most people find crying a relief of pressure -- that's why it exists.

>> (The whole "Women are good at emotional labor" thing can't be helping, either.) <<

Yeah, that premise lasts a fast 5 seconds in Wednesday's presence. Or mine. Well, I'm not a woman, but people often think I am, and then are surprised and disappointed when I refuse to do or am glaringly bad at things I told them so. Or when I jump up and hit things.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

>>Wednesday may also be used to her family accommodating her in ways she doesn't really notice, until other people don't and relations break down as a result.<<

Possible.

>>Exactly. They're entirely about other people's expectations. Folks like Wednesday, who rarely match anyone else's expectations, are highly prone to say, "Fine, fuck you all, I'll stay alone where I can be myself."<<

One needs to be able to interface with other people enough to get one's needs met, and most people will try to nerf some emotional impulses to make loved ones feel loved/safe/whatever. But it doesn't mean that one's own needs should be inevitably suppressed!

Or in other words: my needs don't need to be triaged to the top of the list, but they do need to be on, and *stay* on the list.

>>Very true, although Wednesday doesn't seem to struggle with repression the way most people do with that approach.<<

Some people have a high threshold before their emotions actually express at a high enough level to be outwardly perceptible.

>>Yeah, that premise lasts a fast 5 seconds in Wednesday's presence. Or mine. Well, I'm not a woman, but people often think I am, and then are surprised and disappointed when I refuse to do or am glaringly bad at things I told them so. Or when I jump up and hit things.<<

I can do emotional labor, but I don't consider myself an expert.