#F CORRECTION FEED (CLICK TO SEARCH)
[1] Ada is consistently depicted as an innocent hybrid child, and audience sympathy is aligned with her vulnerability.
[2] The film portrays Ada engaging in human behaviors like eating at the table and wearing clothes, which fosters audience attachment.
[3] The biological mother sheep's distress is a central plot point that generates sympathy for her as the victim of theft.
[4] The Ewe's persistent presence and bleating are framed as a maternal plea, contrasting with Maria's actions.
[5] Ingvar is portrayed as a supportive husband who goes along with Maria's wishes to heal their shared grief.
[6] Ingvar's interactions with Ada are gentle, and he is not the one who kills the Ewe, maintaining his relative innocence.
[7] Maria's character arc is defined by her refusal to accept loss, leading her to violate nature's boundaries.
[8] Maria shooting the Ewe is the pivotal scene that shifts her from a sympathetic figure to a transgressor in the narrative.
[9] Pétur is introduced as an intruder who disrupts the family's isolation and questions the reality of Ada.
[10] Pétur takes Ada to a field with a rifle, intending to kill her, but ultimately cannot go through with it.
[11] Pétur attempts to coerce Maria into sex by threatening to reveal the truth about the Ewe's murder to Ada (or Ingvar).
[12] The Ram Man is a complex figure, initially seen as a threat but thematically representing nature's retribution.
[13] The Ram Man kills the family dog early in the film, establishing him as a dangerous presence.
[14] The Ram Man shoots Ingvar and reclaims Ada, an act often interpreted as the inevitable consequence of the humans' theft.
[15] Noomi Rapace and director Valdimar Jóhannsson have explicitly discussed the theme of nature reclaiming what was taken.
#C RELATED QUERIES
#01 What is the significance of the ending of Lamb (2021) for Maria?
#02 Does Pétur actually tell Ingvar about the sheep murder in Lamb?
#03 What does the director say about the genre of Lamb (2021)?
In *Lamb* (2021), audience perception is intentionally fluid, shifting from sympathy to horror as the characters' actions blur the lines between grief-stricken parents and predatory "colonizers" of nature.
Here is a breakdown of which characters the audience roots for and against, and the specific actions that drive those feelings.
### **1. Characters the Audience Roots For**
* **Ada (The Lamb-Child)**
* **Why:** Ada is the ultimate innocent. She is a bipedal human-lamb hybrid who does not choose her circumstances. Audiences root for her safety and happiness because she is depicted as a gentle, curious child who loves both her human and animal "parents."
* **Action:** Her "un-canny" but sweet behavior—wearing sweaters, eating at the table, and holding Ingvar’s hand—humanizes her and makes the audience protective of her, even as the situation feels inherently "wrong."
* **The Mother Sheep (Ewe 3115)**
* **Why:** Many viewers find themselves rooting for the biological mother sheep. She represents the "stolen from" party. Her persistent bleating outside the window is a haunting reminder of the humans' theft.
* **Action:** Her desperate attempts to reclaim her child—standing outside the house in the cold and staring through the window—evoke a primal sense of justice in the audience. She is the victim of a kidnapping, and viewers often feel she is the most morally "right" character in the first half of the film.
* **Ingvar (The Husband)**
* **Why:** Of the two human parents, Ingvar is often seen as the more "root-able" because he appears more passive and genuinely kind. He follows Maria’s lead out of a desire to see her happy again after their previous daughter’s death.
* **Action:** His tenderness toward Ada—teaching her to farm and showing her the landscape—makes him appear as a loving father figure. Unlike Maria, he does not commit the film's most violent act (the murder of the ewe), which keeps him more sympathetic in the audience's eyes until the end.
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### **2. Characters the Audience Roots Against**
* **Maria (The Mother)**
* **Why:** While the audience initially pities Maria due to her deep grief, she eventually becomes the film’s "true" antagonist for many. She is the architect of the family’s tragedy, choosing to ignore nature's boundaries for her own selfish needs.
* **Action (The Turning Point):** The audience begins to root against Maria when she **shoots and kills the Mother Sheep (Ewe 3115)** in cold blood. By murdering the biological mother to stop her from bleating for her child, Maria transitions from a grieving mother to a cold-hearted "predator." This action is the moment most viewers realize the human family is living on "borrowed time" and stolen happiness.
* **Pétur (The Uncle)**
* **Why:** Pétur is introduced as a disruptive, "freeloading" force. He represents the cynical outside world and is initially a direct threat to Ada.
* **Action (The Villain Reveal):**
1. **Threat to Ada:** Early in his stay, he takes Ada out into a field with a shotgun, intending to kill her because he thinks the situation is "insane." This immediately makes the audience root against him.
2. **Blackmail:** Later, he attempts to **sexually blackmail Maria**, threatening to tell Ada the truth about her mother’s death if Maria doesn't sleep with him. This cements him as an unsympathetic, predatory character.
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### **3. The "Ram Man" (The Biological Father/Nature)**
* **Perception:** The audience’s feelings toward the "Ram Man" are the most complex.
* **Initially:** When he is a lurking, invisible presence killing the family dog, the audience roots against him as a "monster" threatening the home.
* **By the Ending:** After witnessing Maria’s cruelty and Pétur’s sleaziness, many audience members view the Ram Man's final act—killing Ingvar and taking Ada back—as a form of **"Karmic Justice."**
* **Specific Detail:** The director and lead actress (Noomi Rapace) have noted that the Ram Man represents "Nature reclaiming what was taken." Because the humans "stole" from nature first, the audience often accepts his violent intervention as a tragic but fair conclusion to the "moral debt" the humans owed.
### **Summary of "Rooting" Logic**
| Character | Initial Perception | Final Perception | Action causing the shift |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Maria** | Sympathetic victim of grief | Antagonist/Usurper | Murdering the Mother Sheep |
| **Ingvar** | Loving husband | Tragic enabler | Passive acceptance of the theft |
| **Pétur** | "Creepy" outsider | Hated villain | Sexual blackmail of Maria |
| **Ada** | Innocent/Cute | Innocent/Victim | Being caught between two "fathers" |
| **The Ewe** | "Annoying" animal | Righteous victim | Her death at Maria's hands |
| **Ram Man** | Scary monster | Agent of Karma/Justice | Reclaiming Ada at the end |