History Headscratchers / Splice

* I think she already had one... [[SarcasmMode named Clive]]

* This is TruthInTelevision. (Excluding the whole sci-fi angle, of course)

** First, Dren is ''not'' a "terrifying monster" to Elsa and Clive, at least not by that point in the movie, as we saw (in at least '''2''' earlier scenes) that they will stand their ground if Dren tries to get out of control. Second, of course Elsa cares. She simply doesn't let her negative emotions take over her. Keeping her composure is part of her character throughout most of the movie.

* Listen to the last thing that Elsa said before Dren impaled the cat. "It's nice to have a pet." Dren's not stupid. She realises that Elsa is keeping her as a pet more or less in the same way that she herself wanted to keep the cat. She's directly challenging her own dehumanization at Elsa's hands.

* Why did Clive have sex with Dren? A few people have said that she was using pheromones to "seduce" him, but afterwards, he doesn't seem particularly disgusted or ashamed, or register how weird it is to sleep with his animal-hybrid pseudo-daughter. Even if it was more consensual than with Elsa and Male! Dren, but still. And yet, Elsa seems more upset by it than he does, and before things turn for the worse, he starts to care for Dren in direct contrast to Elsa becoming more abusive. So, how consensual was it on his part?

* Why did Clive have sex with Dren? A few people have said that she was using pheromones to "seduce" him, but afterwards, he doesn't seem particularly disgusted or ashamed or even confused, or seem to realize how weird it is to sleep with his animal-hybrid pseudo-daughter. Granted, it was more consensual than with Elsa and Male! Dren, but still, if a guy was brainwashed to have sex with his science experiment, I can't imagine him taking it well once it was over. And yet, Elsa seems more upset by it than he does, and before things turn for the worse, he starts to care for Dren in direct contrast to Elsa becoming more abusive. So, how consensual was it on his part?

Why did Clive have sex with Dren? A few people have said that she was using pheromones to "seduce" him, but afterwards, he doesn't seem particularly disgusted or ashamed or even confused, or seem to realize how weird it is to sleep with his animal-hybrid pseudo-daughter. Granted, it was more consensual than with Elsa and Male! Dren, but still, if a guy was brainwashed to have sex with his science experiment, I can't imagine him taking it well once it was over. And yet, Elsa seems more upset by it than he does, and before things turn for the worse, he starts to care for Dren in direct contrast to Elsa becoming more abusive. So, how consensual was it on his part?

* Listen to the last thing that Elsa said before Dren impaled the cat. "It's nice to have a pet." Dren's not stupid. She realises that Elsa is keeping her as a pet more or less in the same way that she herself wanted to keep the cat. She's directly challenging her own dehumanization at Elsa's hands.

So Elsa just wanted a child substitute that she could have total control of, that was loving and obedient to her...
[[FridgeLogic So, why didn't Elsa just get a pet dog?]]
* MadScientist complex.

* Technically, "evolution" simply means "change over time." Stellar evolution is not a process of natural selection or allelic variation over a population, but it's still called "stellar evolution." Now granted, the closer you get to biology, the less likely you are to start throwing "evolution" around when talking about a life-form. But it is a legitimate if... unfortunate word to use.

People keep saying that Elsa cut off Dren's stinger to "dehumanize" her... but a) that would make Dren more human (as most humans don't have tails, stinger or no) and b) she already looks inhuman enough to perch on the near side of the UncannyValley. Did the stinger have anything directly to do with it, or was it just the act of strapping her down like a lab specimen for the surgery that was intended to be dehumanizing?

* not so much that Elsa cut off her stinger, but that before she strips her naked and quite brutally removes the make-up from her face, just to make clear that she's nothing more than a lab rat.

** Because that isn't a specific error message for human DNA failure. It's an 'Add-Your-Own-DNA-and-Name-It' message. Basically: the machine tells them whether or not the combination was successful or unsuccessful, they put names to the DNA for logging reasons. In example: Monkey Ginger DNA Hybrid #---- - Unsuccessful. They just plug and play the names to specific DNA sets they've put together, the program doesn't automatically note that the DNA added to this batch is human.

* Presumably, it was because she was starting to turn male at that point, so her aggression levels were increasing.
* Act of rebellion. The cat was her ''own thing'' - everything else in her life was dictated or granted by her parents, but acquiring the cat was something Dren did all on her own. Elsa took the cat away for no good reason, except to say "I'm the one in charge; you can't do things without my approval" - and giving it back later basically says "You can have this now, because ''I'' have decided to grant you the privilege". Dren's response means: "Yeah? I don't even ''want'' it anymore".

So Elsa wanted a child substitute that she could have total control of, that was loving and obediant.
Why didn't Elsa just get a dog?

* I think she already had one...named Clive.
* That would be what we call a rational decision. Do you see Elsa as the rational sort?

** TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything, of course.

* Act of rebellion. The cat was her ''own thing'' - everything else in her life was dictated or granted by her parents, but acquiring the cat was something Dren did all on her own. Elsa took the cat away for no good reason, except to say "I'm the one in charge; you can't do things without my approval" - and giving it back later basically says "You can have this now, because ''I'' have decided to grant you the privilege". Dren's response means: "Yeah? I don't even ''want'' it anymore".

* Act of rebellion. The cat was her ''own thing'' - everything else in her life was dictated or granted by her parents, but acquiring the cat was something Dren did all on her own. Elsa took the cat away for no good reason, except to say "I'm in charge; you can't do things without my approval" - and giving it back later basically says "You can have this now, because ''I'' have decided to grant you the privilege". Dren's response means: "Yeah? I don't even ''want'' it anymore".

* Presumably, it was because she was starting to turn male at that point, so her aggression levels were increasing.

Why did Dren kill the cat? She seemed so enamoured with it and was heartbroken when Elsa took it away, so why'd she suddenly do a 180 and impale it with a PsychoticSmirk on her face?

** She ''did'' say "Oh my God!" with a horrified expression on her face, run out in disgust, and drive away.