I said this somewhere else, but here goes for here, too. Being a Dominatrix is/was a job for Veronica. Assuming that whatever she draws on to play that role—and that's what it is—is at the forefront of her personality is neither fair nor very likely to be accurate. Someone who is actually a controlling bitch would, I suspect, have a problem, sooner or later, with playing the role because they'd get to into it and go too far. It's kind of like the 'Full Special" Kirk Lazarus talks about in Tropic Thunder "Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam." Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed." (Although in the Family Friendly dub I saw, he says "Full Special", which is actually funnier). In other words, if Veronica got that heavcily intop the character she played, she'd probably not be as successful as she seems to be, nor, perhaps, be able to take it as lightly as she does.
If you're going with the Freud Dude (pronounced Frood Dude), then I suppose to know Marten we must know Veronica. What do we know?
She's assertive, but not overly aggressive.
She at least claims Marten is an adult. In any case, giving him the lotion indicates she has no qualms with Marten being a sexual being, which I in turn infer to mean she doesn't think of him strictly as 'her baby.'
Can be fairly oblivious. Otherwise, one would think a sex worker would've spotted the signs Henry was gay. By that, I mean that at least Veronica should have been exposed to enough closeted and otherwise persons to have a clue.
Goes for what she wants, much more than her son does.
Is nurturing, as Is it cold points out. Contrast her to Hanner's mother, or Dora's.
She's a realist, or at least seems to take things in stride.
Put it all together and—Christ I don't know. But there it is.
I do have a suspicion now, though, about why Marten doesn't want Veronica to visit. She's a realist, and also seems to be a person who believes in dealing with things and moving on. I suspect (the Free Lunch Episode is a clue to this) that is exactly what Marten doesn't want to do. I've being thinking about various people carrying on about his lack of achievement and drive, and one thought occurred to me. Marten doesn't know what he wants to do, where he wants to go, or who he wants to be. The one thing he had, however, the thing everyone—or Tai, Steve, Faye, Hanners, at least—admired and wished they had was his relationship with Dora. It may very well have been his rock, the one thing Marten thought was actually working out in his life. Only he couldn't hold on to that, either, just like he couldn't have the relationship he wanted (or, to be fair, he at least thought he wanted) with Faye, and just like he lost the girl he followed out East.
God, that'd be enough to make me want to break down, and I don't think I could handle someone showing up in the middle of the smoking ruins and telling me "You have to deal with it and move on." That's exactly what I wouldn't want to do, because once I did, it would be completely, totally, over. More than that, now Steve has Cossette, Faye has Angus, and Hanners has that stupid damned pretend date. And I, the one they'd been envying, I'd have nothing.
Okay, I'm depressing myself now, and I'm just thinking about it. It's Marten's life. Is it any wonder he wants to crawl into a hole and pretend it isn't happening?
Now, time to take a break and remember this fellow only exists in Jeph's noggin. Because…