My grandfather Killed Jews...So dad HATED That I Killed Rats and Bugs - The Strain (2014) Discussion

[–] aya-ar 8 years ago

Umm nope, his father didn't kill anything and hated killing because of the shame his grandfather had brought upon his family's name by giving in to killing those jews so Fenn's father didn't want him to kill anything AT ALL for living.

Aya A.R

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[–] General_Haberdashery 8 years ago

My mistake it was his grandfather (edited), and yes I got WHY he didn't want Fett to kill rats and bugs as I stated, I just think it's a stupid connection to make.

There is a significant difference between eliminating a roach infestation and shooting men women and children. Pest control is so far removed from that.

His father not talking to him for that reason is ridiculous and melodramatic.
Even weirder since his dad wasn't connected to the killings in a more direct way.

"My father collaborated with the Nazis killing Jews, so If you kill an ant you're dead to me!"

Come on.
That's an extreme over-reaction.

Fenn's father didn't want him to kill anything AT ALL for living.

Didn't he KILL his wife and himself, though? 

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[–] aya-ar 8 years ago

The father and the mother were both stung so it appears that they took themselves out willingly judging by their clothes and lack of struggle but either way they got stung as the professor said and the camera zoomed on the neck. (not sure the wife was stung too or not but I thought he implied so-- the mama/papa Fett story seemed a bit rushed tbh)

And yes, of course, comparing rats and roaches to human beings was indeed strange like it was 2 totally different things with whole different motives.

Aya A.R

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[–] General_Haberdashery 8 years ago

The father and the mother were both stung so it appears

Yes, but you're repeating things that we already know, the point is that the father had an aversion to killing even roaches and rats yet is afforded a 'special circumstance' when it comes to him killing someone.

Either he is extremely adverse to killing any living thing or he isn't.

You can't say you're against killing, even going so melodramatically far as to say an ant's life matters(!!), then kill your wife and yourself if/when you get bitten by a vampire.

😕

That's 'killing' too.
It's also quite hypocritical.
Whether they were bitten or just didn't want to be and chose this.

And yes, of course, comparing rats and roaches to human beings was indeed strange like it was 2 totally different things with whole different motives.

So you DO get my point.
Why'd we have to go around the world to arrive here, then?

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[–] DrGerbil 8 years ago

I agree that the connection is odd. Let me just throw an idea out there. Perhaps the father had a strained relationship with his son for other reasons, but blamed it on the son's choice to become an exterminator. Picking on the son's career is an easy way to distance himself and avoid dealing with more complex issues.

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[–] General_Haberdashery 8 years ago

I agree that the connection is odd. Let me just throw an idea out there. Perhaps the father had a strained relationship with his son for other reasons, but blamed it on the son's choice to become an exterminator. Picking on the son's career is an easy way to distance himself and avoid dealing with more complex issues.

Now THIS would make more sense and have some sort of standing in the real world. 👍

I always assumed the bad blood was something significant.

The explanation about killing Jews and the equating it to killing bugs just sort of gobsmacked me with how dumb that would be.

I hope you are correct and it is something more than that.

Trying to defend that while refusing to acknowledge how stupid it is would be a mistake in my opinion and if anyone is honest they will acknowledge how absurd that exterminator/Jew killer bad blood explanation is.

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[–] MisterFranks 8 years ago

THIS IS A STUPID SHOW.

Get used to the stupidity. It happens every episode.

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[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] General_Haberdashery 8 years ago

Have you ever seen any of the Nazi propaganda at the time? They literally (and yes, I'm using the word correctly) equated the Jews with vermin, particularly rats.

ONE:
Yes, and that's consistent with any propaganda. In Rwanda the Tutsis tribe were referred to as 'cockroaches' during the genocidal killing of 800,000 people. Dehumanizing is the first step. Everyone who wants to perpetuate a genocide has done this.

For them, killing Jews was nothing more than eliminating dirty vermin, IOW, pest control. So no, is not far removed.

TWO:
DID YOU READ WHAT YOU JUST WROTE?? 😨

I can't believe you just equated Jews with rats and rodents like a Nazi propaganda artist. You are essentially confirming that they are no better than pests.

Jews are NOT rats and rodents, and exterminating rats and rodents is NOT the same as the holocaust.

You are not supposed to agree with the propaganda, you're supposed to discredit it so saying a Jew = A Rat is highly offensive, beyond stupid, and completely absurd.

A pest control workers is NOT the equivalent of a Nazi executioner.
Jewish people also work in the pest control field I wonder how they'd feel to learn that they are basically nothing more than Nazi's killing rodent versions of Jews. 

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[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] RaisingRlyeh 8 years ago

Just thought that I'd add that Count Orlock, from nosferatu, looks almost exactly like some of the anti-Jew propaganda art of the time. The rodent like features, as you said, were really common.

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[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thotuknew 8 years ago

It may be an extreme overreaction, but it happens in real life too. Parents disown children for being with or marrying someone they don't approve of. Don't forget those wonderful parents who put out their baby girl for getting pregnant at 15. Extremely ridiculous yes, but it still happens.

faith begins at the end of your comfort zone.

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[–] shriase 8 years ago

Yeah it is. By leaps and bounds. "My grandfather was a Nazi collaborator which caused a serious breech with my father over me being a city exterminator" sadly doesn't just go all the way to actual farce.

('It all started when I got an after school job at the local supermarket. In the deli. As a . . . butcher. Well butcher's assistant, but he just kept yelling about how Nazis butchered people. My folks were have a hard time then anyway. He'd found out Hitler was also a vegetarian, so he had just switched to an all roadkill diet. Then my Mom roach bombed the apartment when we went on vacation. 'Gassed' them he screamed. I really thought he was going to divorce her over that. When he found the rat poison under the sink I took the blame for her. It was worse than when he caught me watch Hogan's Heroes, and playing Yahtzee. He beat me so badly my accent never recovered. ')

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[–] sandifay62 8 years ago

Fet's father hated him because he saw Fet as a disappointment. He probably used Fet's job title as a way of further tormenting him. Like many emotionally and verbally abused kids, Fet believed it.

It doesn't mean that Fet or his father saw Jewish people as the same as bugs.

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[–] shriase 8 years ago

It wouldn't matter either way. Whether Pa Fet was deluded, or abusive we spent screen time with grandpa Fet, and the conversation was with the concentration camp survivor leaving us effectively with: "My daddy never let me dress up for Halloween cause granddaddy was in the KKK, Dr.King. ". Maybe the next episode can touch on Dutch having poorly conceptualized body image issues somehow relating to her mother once having stayed at the same hotel in Rotterdam that Setrakian was at.

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[–] sandifay62 8 years ago

I was referring to the OP thinking that they were implying that killing bugs was connected or compared to killing Jews. Fet's dad was using Fet's job title to shame him as deeply as possible. Fet was deeply affected by it and thought that was the real reason his dad hated him.

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[–] MisterFranks 8 years ago

Do you really imagine that there is some father on earth who is such a moron as to shame his son for working at Orkin killing vermin??

Why are you killing your brain cells thinking about this stupidity???

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[–] sandifay62 8 years ago

Those type of fathers and mothers exist in real life. Those kind of parents shame their kids for anything and everything; especially if it pushes the kid's buttons.

Look it up, pretend genius.

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[–] MisterFranks 8 years ago

You work at Starbucks, and coffee raises blood pressure, thus giving heart attacks to thousands of people. I hate you son, for killing people with coffee.

I hope those people stopped existing in the 1800s.

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[–] General_Haberdashery 8 years ago

You work at Starbucks, and coffee raises blood pressure, thus giving heart attacks to thousands of people. I hate you son, for killing people with coffee.

LOL!

😂😂😂😂

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[–] sandifay62 8 years ago

That's a funny comeback, good try. It proves you have nothing more to say. But I don't even like coffee and have never or would ever work in a place like that. Lol

Based on your attitude I figure you are in some kind of institution and come here after your nurse gives you your meds and changes your diapers. How you manage to get to their computers, I don't know. But drink more coffee, please.

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[–] MisterFranks 8 years ago

With your sense of humor, I am guessing that the one who gets her diapers changed by the Haitian nurses that do not speak English is you.

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[–] General_Haberdashery 8 years ago

I was referring to the OP thinking that they were implying that killing bugs was connected or compared to killing Jews.

I didn't imply anything. I didn't need to.
The show stated this.

Stop putting the blame of that on me.

Fet's dad was using Fet's job title to shame him as deeply as possible.

Yes and the reason stated by the show was that Fet working in pest control.
THAT'S WHAT THE SHOW STATED WAS THE REASON BEHIND THE BAD BLOOD!

It's not just me stating this mind you, it's also reviewers of the show.
I didn't just pull the concept out of thin air.

His father was worried that his father's sickness/darkness has been passed down to his son. Hence, he never approved of his job as a rat exterminator.

- ibtimes

How could Vasiliy’s father even accept his son being an exterminator when the very name of that profession conjures up the image of his own father systematically murdering Nazi prisoners?

-denofgeek.com

Oh and this one...

I’m not sure the connection between Fet’s father feeling guilty about his father’s actions during WWII and Fet’s job as an exterminator is as impactful and relevant as this episode seems to think it is.

- AV club

...makes my exact point.

As I said, it's an extreme overreaction and completely absurd for his father to cut his son off because the grandfather killed Jews and now he kills bugs and rats. Whether this was because he didn't like the title of 'exterminator' or not, it's not reasonable or rational. It's a very poor and weak excuse.

Fet's dad was using Fet's job title to shame him as deeply as possible.

The basis for the shame was that his father killed Jews, and now his son kills bugs and rats, according to the show. This is the connection his father made.

Fet was deeply affected by it and thought that was the real reason his dad hated him.

You are personally creating something that doesn't exist in order to fill in the absurdity gap, as opposed to going by exactly what the show itself claimed was the cause. Unless you're a writer for the show and plan to have this theory featured in an upcoming episode I'd suggest you stop saying it with such conviction.

The conclusion was that he hated the fact that his son exterminated bugs and rodents because his father exterminated Jews.

It's a very unreasonable stretch.

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[–] everymanaking6488 8 years ago

LOL

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[–] degrimstead-1 8 years ago

I think you may be over-thinking it. It's simply the idea of exterminating. The Word "exterminate" would have held all kinds of horror after experiencing the Holocaust.

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[–] curious_and_confused 8 years ago

It's the idea of extermination and killing that the father had a problem with. He tried to get as far away from it as possible in his life's pursuits. I'm sure he would have had a problem if Fett just joined the military or police. To some people killing is killing, whether it be other people or other creatures. The act of killing itself darkens the soul no matter what u kill.

🐬 ma ink

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[–] veil182 8 years ago

It was a bit silly, but I saw it as mostly symbolic and also just the tip of the iceberg. Obviously Fett wasn't an exterminator for a good 20 years of his life, and his relationship with his dad seems to be a lifelong thing. So there is a lot more going on there.

As for his job, I wasn't 100% paying attention, but for all we know Fett took it and rubbed it in his dad's face, or his dad was more bummed out by the "lowly station" angle of it, and only mentioned the "you kill for a living" bit on occasion.

It was interesting to see Fett and the doctor in this light ... unfortunately, I can't outright say it was very good.

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[–] Jessical1992 8 years ago

I thought this connnection was dumb too. It's like the writers just had to find a way to connect fet with the Jews. Idk. It was stupid.

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[–] FreewheelinVertigo 8 years ago

This show is full of (sadly typical for the US media) absurd re-imaginings of what went on in Europe and how was it explained. Just like white people will never comprehend the black slavery, the Americans at large will never understand what WWII (Western front) actually was. Captain America started that comical representation of Nazis as cartoon villains, and it never stopped. That's why the media has no problem with also throwing occult into that scene. The concept of "all-encompassing", almost absurd "evil" is very prevalent in American culture, so why not also throw vampirism and occultism into the mix, - you can't possibly make Nazis even MORE evil with any of that.

Anyway, in the second book, I think his grandfather was one of those turncoats who actively worked in the camps. Don't forget that the USSR was fighting Germany for their personal freedom, not ideology. Hitler promised to not attack Russia, and broke the promise. The Anti-Semitic, Anti-Intelligentsia element was a part of Russian thinking since the Pogroms (late 19th-early 20th century), and the fact selected people chose to aid the Axis wasn't that surprising at all.

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[–] firstwinsgop-1 8 years ago

They were not "turncoats". The "USSR" was Russia plus a bunch of other countries that Russia was occupying. Ukranians (like the Fets), Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians were all conscripted in to the Soviet Army against their will and forced to fight for the country that was enslaving them. When they were captured by the Germans, it was only natural for them to volunteer to serve the German War effort. Germany and the occupied Soviet Republics shared a common enemy.

You also have to bear in mind that 80%+ of the Soviet Secret Police who oversaw the massacre of millions of Ukrainians and Baltic Peoples during the interwar people were Jewish. So while Western Propaganda portrays them as "innocent Jews", to the Ukrainians and others living under Soviet occupation, these were the people that murdered their family members and took away their freedom.

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