Venom and the Parasitic Relationship
The moral case for finding a more balanced way to handle relationships.
We all have relationships that don't feel equal.
The one where you feel like you're putting in all the work and the other is just coasting. Or at some point your partner confronts you with the things they're lacking in the relationship. The kind of thing you may not even realize that you weren't giving them. It creates a strange imbalance in the relationship that you need to either re-balance or abandon as a way to ultimately survive and find your own equilibrium. However, there are the types of relationships in which some people simply don't care how they're affecting the other person. All they're after is their own personal gratification and general enjoyment regardless of the consequences.
It's not a stretch to call such relationships parasitic. Where the goal is to create or at least minimize a negative impact on a particular side while maximizing the positive impact on the other. To the point of the complete collapse of one side. But this way of approaching things can ultimately create a problem for the one who mostly benefits. Mainly in the fact that those around you are quick to realize how you might bring them down. This naturally leads to others avoiding you if all you're interested in is yourself.
Which isn't going to end well for the one who feeds off others. If your existence is dependent on your ability to feed off other people, and those around you end up avoiding you, the only outcome is that things end badly. The parasitic one therefore really only has two options, become less of a parasite or escape somewhere that will end up with new opportunities to feed off others. But looking for elsewhere will only continue to end badly, until there's no one else to attach yourself too. Creating a less toxic and more symbiotic relationship is the better long term strategy for everyone involved.
Venom at its core is about learning to find a balance between feeding off each other to one side's benefit and finding a mutually beneficial compromise. Eddie Brock, as played by Tom Hardy, is in a lot of ways the parasite for the people around him. He doesn't provide much in the way of benefit to others. To the point that everyone is abandoning him. It's only when he finally becomes the one being fed off through the Venom symbiote that he recognizes how bad he's been for other people. It's through his relationship with Venom that he finds a way to make himself a better person.
Rather than finding a way to rid himself of the alien menace which has infected him, they both manage to find an appropriate level of balance. A way in which they can work together towards mutual goals and overcome an actually parasitic entity.
Before seeing the sequel, which introduces a whole new level of destructive ideas, make sure to check out the first Venom movie on Netflix. You definitely won't feel like it's out to destroy you.
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