#lol. jump on here after months and just vomit out jenna thoughts

[septimusheapheadcanons]

i really love the take on jenna as an adopted kid in the original series

like she noticeably looks very different from everyone else in her family. once she becomes princess, she lives somewhere different than her family, and there is a very clear difference between her as a royal and her parents as Not.

and yet whenever anybody makes any sort of comment about it or insinuates that this means she is not really a Heap, she gets so fucking mad.

like only in book 1 does she get angsty about it, and nicko very quickly lets her know that nothing has changed just cuz she knows who her birth mom is now, that she's obviously still One Of Them

and after that. she is rude to people who insinuate. she's passive aggressive and firm and she won't hear any of it once she sees where the convo is going. her dad helps her shut it down. it's so good!!!

and it's very obviously conveyed as "ugh, [x] person is doing that 'you're not a Heap' thing, they're so dumb". rather than being something that actually makes jenna feel sad or question her position as a Heap. because after that first time, we know as well as she does that this isn't a fact that's up for debate. yeah she looks different. yeah she has birth parents. what about it? why would any of that change the immutable fact of her being part of this family?

it also gets interesting when you consider the septimus paradox. what makes him a "real" Heap if she is not? if they're not "really" siblings, which one is the Heap? the son who carries their blood but who doesn't know them, wasn't raised with them? or the daughter who carries different blood but from her first day of life has been the youngest sister in the house?

the answer obviously presenting as: they're both! flyte even confronts the fact that while he is the lost child, jenna is more of a Heap than he is and maybe will ever be, and it makes him uncomfortable.

the original books so unequivocally say that it is absurd to consider adopted kids anything other than a genuine part of their family, and it's so refreshing how they do it. i love that jenna gets frustrated, rather than angsty. i love that her and silas make fun of the royal planner woman for suggesting she's not a Heap, because isn't she being so silly? she's denying basic reality! it's just all such a good take on it and i love her