Raised By Wolves: What The Show’s Title Really Means
Ridley Scott’s new HBO show, Raised By Wolves, challenges traditional family values and connects these plot elements to the show’s mysterious title.
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WARNING! Spoilers for Raised by Wolves episode 1 ahead
Executive producer Ridley Scott and creator Aaron Guzikowski teamed up to challenge traditional family dynamics and the exploration of religion in HBO’s new TV show, Raised By Wolves, which connects the show’s plot to the title in an interesting way.
At the center of the action on a far-distant planet, Kepler-22B, two androids—Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim)—are trying to build their own colony by raising human children. In the series premiere, “Raised By Wolves”, their family dynamics are explored with Mother and Father both taking traditional roles with raising, educating, and keeping their family of six safe. However, trouble is soon afoot when the children start to grow older and have more questions about existential wonders like the existence of a God, the practice of prayer, and the concepts of religion. Mother and Father are proud Atheists, which is frowned upon in Raised By Wolves’ futuristic society, and they work tirelessly to try to give their children that upbringing rather than indulging in their other interests.
Also, as androids, Mother and Father both seem to lack many of the human characteristics that their children grow to embrace and are increasingly curious about; this poses numerous problems, and also comments on the classic debate of “nature vs. nurture”, which has been explored in psychology for decades. One of their children in particular, Campion (Winta McGrath), is quite interested in religion despite it being all but forbidden by Mother. Father admonishes him for praying, and warns him against doing that where Mother might see, though seems content to keep his secret. The dynamic between Mother and Father—who seem more like colleagues than romantic companions—as well as how they relate to their children is very much the focal point of the series, along with ongoing questions about religion and the greater questions that humanity has long-pursued. But how does this relate to the title?
After Father’s death, Mother is tasked with raising Campion alone; they are the last two survivors of their family. Campion is also something of an endangered species, as humanity has largely become extinct, and many of them live on an Ark, which draws immediate parallels to the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. Mother is not at all a traditional maternal figure; she lacks empathy, warmth, compassion, and many other traits that are attributed to humanity and motherhood. It’s through this unorthodox parenting style and detached emotional capacity that translates directly to the HBO show’s title.
The concept of being “raised by wolves” has been explored through other fictional media before. One of the most well-known and iconic instances of this is in Rudyard Kipling’s book, The Jungle Book, which became a beloved Disney animated movie and eventually got a live-action feature adaptation as well. In The Jungle Book, Mowgli is a young boy who is literally raised by wolves and other animals in the jungle. In Raised By Wolves, Campion and his siblings are raised by two androids—a relationship that, according to Father and Mother is seen by some as “a sin”. Androids are clearly not considered viable parents for human children, though whether this is due to their nature being different than humans or their Atheism remains to be seen; likely, it’s a combination of both.
Not only is the title of Raised By Wolves somewhat literal in that human children are being reared by androids, but Mother is revealed to be a vicious, effective killer in episode 1. She quickly dispatches numerous humans who temporarily land on Kepler-22B after Campion sends out a distress signal; she also goes to the Ark and kills many more humans, then takes some of their children back with her to raise them as her own. This sort of indiscriminate violence was done to protect Campion, in a way, but the question of her programming being defunct was also raised. Is it possible for a vicious killer to effectively raise children? That’s one of the biggest questions in Raised By Wolves—whether something innately lethal can positively contribute to a developing person without also turning them violent.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/raised-wolves-show-title-meaning-explained/