Edward Scissorhands/Headscratchers

• Just why exactly did Edward wind up with scissors for hands? I understand that the inventor never got around to building Edward proper human-like hands, but why the hell would he put scissors on him in the first place? Even if Edward was supposed to be a gentle soul, building a Frankenstein-like artificial human with deadly metal blades for hands is a pretty big risk for an inventor to take--what if he ever went rogue? And if he just didn't have time to build hands, wouldn't it have made more sense to give him grasping claws that he could actually hold things with? Or better yet, he could've just not bothered with putting anything in place of hands until he was ready to give Edward the real thing. As we see in the movie, scissor-hands are very handy for cutting hair and bushes, but they're pretty much useless for anything that you would ordinarily use hands for. It seems like the scissor-hands caused much more trouble than they were worth.
  • Edward started out as a (presumably mindless) machine used to cut things up. When the inventor built that, he never intended to eventually make him into a human/android. Eventually he got the idea to do just that, but again, it's not like he started out creating a human robot and kept the scissor hands for the lulz. He did intend to give him regular hands, just died before he could do it.
  • They actually show the hands Edward would have gotten; but the scientist dies literally on Edward's hands; and Edward can't do anything to help him and may have in fact killed his own father; the hands are shown to have been damaged well beyond repair and the film is not clear on just how much time has passed between that accident and the current day; but it's safe to assume it has been years and years; we are shown at the end that Edward doesn't age and is still very functional.
    • I'm not sure where that was stated in the movie, but it would explain Edward's supernatural haircutting and hedge-sculpting skills.
  • Don't forget that while he may be a kind mad scientiest, the inventor is still a mad scientiest.

• Was anyone else bothered by Edward killing Jim? Yeah, he was a dangerous, dangerous Jerkass, but Edward stabs him, gives him a cold stare, then throws him out of a window. Is that not a little overkill?
  • Beware the Nice Ones. It was shown earlier in the film that Edward has a darker side that comes out when he's angry. It could be argued it was a case of "him or me" since Jim seemed willing to kill him.
    • Jim was actively trying to kill him. Edward didn't seem like he was really trying to fight back until Jim hurt Kim, but I think it could easily be considered self-defense.

• So in all the years of the town living down below, nobody ever visited or was even curious about the highly visible creepy mansion on the top of the hill?
  • It's possible that a few people came up to the creepy mansion, but screamed and ran away at the sight of Edward.
  • Simple: The big creepy mansion is private property. They don't go up there because they're not invited.

• Why did Edward never see a doctor? It was mentioned several times in the film that he should see a surgeon about getting prosthetic hands, and one time he actually said he'd like the name of one when offerred, but we never saw any follow-up on the subject.
  • One possible explanation is that there's a theme of misanthropy throughout the film. The townspeople are happy to be entertained by Edward, but they never truly try to help him, they just condescend to him, and then feel better about themselves for it like they just did him a favor by acknowledging he exists. They want to look compassionate without being compassionate. It's easy to mention you know a doctor, it's quite another to see about actually putting Edward in contact with that doctor.
    • And in all honesty, if you were Edward, would you be roaming around asking people for a surgeon? I think not.

• Here's one that's bothered me. The ice blocks Edward uses to create snow, where did they come from?
  • Water and below-freezing temperatures.