Flowers in the attic (2014)
Tag: cathy and chris
“Patience. I colored patience gray, hung over with black clouds. I colored hope yellow, just like the sun we could see for a few short morning hours. Too soon the sun rose high in the sky & disappeared from view, leaving us bereft and staring at blue.”
― V.C. Andrews, Flowers in the Attic
I ship cathy and chris but I kind of feel like if their family had never gone into the attic they wouldn’t have been romantic. Like I think the experience of the attic is kind of what drew them together romantically. If they had just stayed a family then I’m not sure they would have gotten together then.
Hi, Anon!
I understand your point of view on this, but I honestly disagree. I guess there’s no way to know without doing cruel experiments, but I don’t think any given brother and sister in Chris and Cathy’s position would have fallen in love, or even had sex. They could have spent all of their imagining being with people once they got out, but instead they turned to each other. And let’s not forget, once Cathy and Chris were on the outside again, they had plenty of chances to move on from each other but they never did.
Also, in the prequel book (which, granted, was written by VC Andrews’ ghostwriter), their grandmother notices the way that Chris is looking at Cathy and compares it to the way their father and mother were with each other. That was the very night when Chris and Cathy arrived at Foxworth Hall.
I wrote more on this subject here.
Five things you would change from the Flower in the Attic series. Also, is there any element from the 80s version that you would add to the lifetime ones?
Ooh, fun!
I don’t know if you’re talking about the book series or the Lifetime movies, but I’m going to go with the movies, because I don’t even know where I’d begin with things I would change about the books!
I’ll take part 2 first. I don’t know the 80′s version that well. I saved some Chris/Cathy clips and rewatched those last year but it has been a long time since I’ve seen the entire movie. That being said, I can’t remember or think of anything that I would have liked to have seen in the Lifetime version. (Though I would love to hear thoughts from others on that subject. I know some of you prefer the darker/moodier tone of the 80′s version, though I can’t say I do. I like the glossier look/feel of the Lifetime one.)
What would I change? Hmmmm. These are not changes for quality, these are changes for what would thrill me.
1. I would have Jory be Chris’ son and for everyone to know it and be okay with it.
2. I would have more Bart/Cindy interaction in If There Be Thorns. Exactly the same kind of interactions like we saw, just a lot more of it. Enough to make their relationship feel very significant right from the start.
3. I would also have Cindy be Chris and Cathy’s child? I feel kind of bad about this and that’s a lot of incest babies but I can’t pass up the chance for actual biological siblings Bart/Cindy. Even though three generations of incest is a really bad idea. (Bart/Cindy should definitely adopt!) This would automatically change the ending, since Bart and Cindy couldn’t get married. I would also, as an alternative, like it if Cindy was adopted when she was 2.
4. I would like to spend more time with Chris and Cathy (and Chris Sr. and Corrine) before Chris Sr. dies. I’d like to see more of Chris and Cathy as totally normal siblings (with a hint here and there that maybe they are not-so-normal), and then to see more of happily married Chris Sr. and Corrine.
5. Flashbacks of Chris Sr. and Corrine falling in love.
6. Bonus! I would like Cathy to be less into Julian.
Thanks for the ask, Anon! Now I’m in a dream state.
what do you think is the best example of happy-ish canon incest? maybe not necessarily your favorite ship but maybe the ship that’s closest to having (or actually has) a happy and healthy ending where they are together without the incest being such a big deal anymore, if that makes sense?
Hello, Anon!
I would definitely have to say Cathy and Chris from the Dollanganger series. (Flowers in the Attic) This applies to the books as well though they have a slightly more harmonious relationship in the movies. They live very happily as husband and wife for 20+ years during the final two sequels. (There’s lot of drama in their life but not in their marriage.)
Chris does die in a car accident WAY TOO YOUNG, but he was in his 50′s so he was not a young man, and Cathy dies not long after.
There are a couple of characters who know about the incest and still make a big deal out of it, but between them they don’t think it’s a bid deal any more. (Especially in the movies they defend their right to be happy together.)
If anyone has any other ideas, I would love to hear!
I didn’t ship Chris and Cathy in flowers in the attic bc I felt it was unhealthy (after all he raped her) but I think once they escaped the attic and got to know each other better outside of “you are the only person I do not have to worry about hurting me or taking care of” they realized there were actual feelings there, even if some of it was still a bit of unhealthy codependency. I mean, when you’re 15 and there’s only one girl, do you really think they love each other or will have any1? (Cont
but when they escaped the Attic, they met other people, explored a bit, and realized they had actual feelings for each other. but, the only thing that throws me off is how Cathy will occasionally say it was to make Chris happy. I think that is just part of the mental abuse their grandmother ingrained into their brains, though. personally, in the films, I kind of think Carrie had a thing for Chris, too (not in the books, though). Cathy tended to like relationships that were controversial, anyway, such as Paul, who was years older. I think she liked being protected. What do you think? (Sorry about ranting on and on lol. This is the last part)
(Long messages are always welcome, Anon! The more you have to say the better!)
I’m with you on all of this, Anon. It summarizes a lot of the reasons why I prefer the Lifetime movie series.
When I first read FITA (and I was reading it for the incest), I was a mix of disturbed and disappointed. Cathy and Chris were definitely not among my favorites. I did ship it but it was not what I had wanted it to be. I agree that it was unhealthy, and it continues to be unhealthy right through Petals too, in different ways.
It’s hard to say about the attic, whether those were real feelings, or whether that just happened because there was no one else around. But then again, just because those feelings happened because there was no one else around doesn’t actually mean those feelings aren’t real. The end result is the same. But I agree that they had to be tested on the outside in order to show that it wasn’t a love of circumstance. Their relationship is a lot more meaningful if they’ve had the chance to be with other people and still choose each other.
They definitely got to know each other in a different way when they were out of the attic and had the freedom to do what they wanted to do, and that’s important. It’s all a part of choosing each other for real, which is something that doesn’t really happen until the very tippy end of Petals, or possibly even between Petals and Thorns, off the page.
I don’t think their co-dependency in the attic was unhealthy – it was the opposite of unhealthy, it was the only good thing they had, it was their means of survival. But their future relationship is on much more solid ground if it’s based on more than that.
Book!Cathy says a lot of crazy stuff. And I know what you mean about her saying something to the effect that she was with Chris to make him happy. I view book!Cathy as consistently being in denial though. Even towards the end of Seeds of Yesterday she still can’t entirely face that she’s living as husband and wife with her own brother. She says that she she has stopped thinking about him as her brother, or something like that. I don’t put too much stock in Cathy’s conscious thoughts, lol. There can be no doubt that she’s totally and completely in love with Chris and happy with him.
A lot of Cathy’s denial definitely comes from what their grandmother pounded into their brains, about incest being a vile sin. She does think it’s a sin, and on top of that, she doesn’t want them to become their parents.
I think what Cathy was trying to say was that she loves Chris so much she would do anything to make him happy, and that she probably would have gone to him eventually even if that hadn’t been exactly what she wanted to do. But Petals is basically the chronicles of her being in a messed up relationship with guy after guy until she finally realizes she’s just been running from her feelings for Chris this entire time. I think that does make her feel trapped, but it’s not Chris that’s trapping her, it’s her own feelings for him.
I don’t know what to make of those relationships Cathy had with those other guys. She kept insisting that she was independent and wouldn’t became an ornament like her mother had, but the guys she went all ended up controlling her life. Cathy definitely liked wild relationships with inappropriate men. But where are you going to go from incest, lol. I don’t know if that’s just the kind of person Cathy is, or if it did have something to with Chris, or, as I suspect, if it’s just V.C. Andrews being into that kind of thing.
The Lifetime movies are a much better love story, in my opinion, but I will say this about the books: there’s a lot more to discuss because half the time you’re wondering, “What the hell is going on here?”.
This is taken from one the articles about the casting of If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday. THEY’RE SO CUTE I’M DYING. I feel like whoever picked the photos for the article chosen them based on how cute they would look side-by-side.
Cathy and Chris touching | requested by wyattnash
i keep meaning to send an ask about this and forgetting to omfg — i was thinking about cathy’s line in if there be thorns where she’s says ‘you made me love him’ to her mom, and i think that it’s not as bad as it sounds re: her and chris? cathy is happy with chris, but she’s also aware of the fact that their relationship is undeniably heavily influenced by the traumas they both went through.
I’m definitely not a fan of the line, but I think you’re right, it’s not as bad as it sounds, or at least it doesn’t have to be. Like you said, it’s actually really important that Cathy is aware of the way that the trauma they went through has affected her and her relationship with Chris. The wider open her eyes are the better. And there’s nothing wrong with her recognizing that their shared trauma pushed them together. Factually that’s what happened, she’s just stating fact.
And the line is part of a declaration of love: “YES, I LOVE HIM.” Which is the important part, really.
And, at the same time, Cathy isn’t always 100% willing to accept the naked truth. She gets credit for seeing through Corinne in FITA, but I feel like she often spends the rest of the series in denial (particularly in the books). I can imagine that part of the reason she was able to make peace with the nature of her relationship with Chris was because she was able to blame it on the attic and on Corinne. She has probably chosen not to admit – if indeed this is the case, which I would like it to be – that their relationship might have been incestuous no matter what, or that the seeds of it already existed before the attic.
shipcestuous3 