#history major posting about a nonhistorical show watch out everyone

[nobledragonflying]

The (Estimated) Timeline of Esther Finch

Hey everyone! The history of Esther Finch as shown in the show pissed me off a bit trying to figure it out, but I think I got something down to explain it.

What is known and my own thoughts are under the read more!

What we know:

Esther was one of the pioneers of Port Townsend

She was married

Husband, name is unknown. Has brown hair, beard and mustache. His eyes are a dark brown or black.

He cheated on her with a red haired, blue eyed woman

- Esther killed both of them by using her magic by putting them in the air and then dropping them

Esther summoned Lilith in some sort of ritual, allowing Lilith to make her immortal, but not have immortal youth.

Esther at one point got a giant snake that she feeds little girls to as a means to remain young.

She was chased out of town with pitchforks and torches because of the sacrificing of said little girls.

At some point she was able to return to town, as that is where we find her at the start of the show

She had also gotten Monty in the interim, her crow familiar, though there is no mention of how that came to be.

My ideas/theories:

Esther was probably a Protestant in her early life, based on the dull clothing we see her in during the animation sequence of S1 Ep8. Her hat was also out of fashion/date by the 19th century, with braids being far more in style at that time

Esther was probably born sometime in the early-mid 1820’s, based on the fact that American expansion to the west began in earnest around the 1840’s, with the California gold rush starting in 1848

She likely had many siblings, as was normal at time, though there isn’t any mention of them, so she likely wasn’t close to any of them. 

This is also in tandem with the fact that she was an original pioneer of Port Townsend, probably being one of the first people to settle the area. She would have been married to her husband at the time, with him mostly likely taking her out west with him for better opportunities

The woman that the husband had an affair with also wore a blue dress with a white apron over top, giving an interesting mix of Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The animation style does not help in this regard. 

When Esther does the ritual to summon Lilith, she appears differently to her in the animation than in her memories. Appearing to have grey-blue skin, long wavy blue hair, a blue “skirt” and gold jewelry around her neck, wrists, arms, hair and waist. This is either due to the memory being distorted, as it is the Cat King telling it, or Lilith appears differently to other people.

Esther also appears to be the same age as she looks in the show when she does this ritual, with the animation making her have more wrinkles and having the same actress play her in the memories.

The giant snake that she feeds children to is black and dark blue in the animation, while red in present day. This could be due to a number of reasons, up to an animation/communication error. It could also be due to:

The color being distorted be the characters imagining/telling the story 

That the snake's coloration changed overtime due to it being continuously fed children. 

It could have also not been fully grown in the past/at a different life stage, with its colors changing as it got older/moved to a different life state.

Esther was then chased away with pitchforks and torches, with the townspeople burning down any house she stayed in. I do not know why she chose to stay instead of going somewhere else, but we do know that eventually she is able to rejoin the town without any hostilities, even some people that seem to like her.

She also got Monty at some point, no idea when or how that happened. He seems to be her familiar in some way to her, though she doesn’t treat him well. 

An interesting detail to note about Esther is that she is friends with the police, with them. This goes in tandem with the fact that she kidnapped a black girl, which is one of the most likely types of people for police to not investigate or try as hard to find. 

Esther knew what she was doing and purposefully picked someone that is less likely to get the help needed to find her, certainly not by the police, who are friends with Esther. 

In conclusion:

Esther Finch's life is not really known, nor does it need to be for her role in the show. She is a villain and everything in the second section is speculation based on her character and how the show presented certain aspects of her life. Anyone can add on/expand on what they want, if that is headcanon or if they have a deeper knowledge of history than what was only surface level research that I did. 

This is just a show that is really good and this is just something to get my thoughts out on, not a thesis paper. Have fun, I hope you learned just a little bit of history and about the show that I have been able to compile. 

Also, a visual representation of the timeline that I put together!