#not them implying hawke dating her is a burden on hawke

[solitaireships]

Anders' writer may not want to handle him being bipolar with care but I have decided I'm taking over here

[fmbishop]

*  I'VE   GOT   MY   VEINS   ALL   TANGLED   CLOSE . 

                       *      ╰         chicago’s   very   own  𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐡 𝐛𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩  has   been   spotted   on   madison   avenue   driving   a   1960   vintage   jeep   bronco   ,   welcome   !   your   resemblance   to   𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒚𝒔𝒐𝒏   𝒅𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒏   is   unreal   .   according   to   tmz   ,   you   just   had   your   twenty   -   first      birthday   bash   .   your   chance   of   surviving   new   york   is   uncertain   because   you’re            𝒄𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉   ,   but   being   𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒇𝒂𝒔𝒕   might   help   you   .   i   think   being   a   taurus   explains   that   .      3   things   that   would   paint      a      better   picture   of   you   would   be         𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒅   𝒔𝒌𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒅   𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒑   𝒕𝒂𝒑𝒆   ,   𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌   𝒄𝒊𝒓𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔   𝒃𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉   𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅   𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔   ,   &   𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒔   𝒂𝒏𝒅   𝒑𝒂𝒍𝒎𝒔   𝒓𝒖𝒃𝒃𝒆𝒅   𝒓𝒂𝒘   .            (   i   cut   ties   with   my   best   friend   and   collaborator   because   i   was   secretly   in   love   with   her   ,   but   our   publicist   had   her   date   my   brother   instead   .   )      &   (   cis   male   +   he   /   him   )   +   (   ruby   ,   18+   ,   she   /   her   ,   pst   )


𝒊       .        𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒔       .

𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆   :   elijah   alexander   bishop 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔   :      eli   ,   e   .   from   his   loved   ones   ,   he   recieves   variations   on   ellie   ,   ugly   ass   mustache   head   ,   tony   hawk   ,   and   zumiez   employee   of   the   month   . 𝒂𝒈𝒆   :      twenny   -   won 𝒛𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒄   :   taurus 𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏   :   professional   skateboarder   and   youngest   x   games   gold   medalist   in   history   ,   brand   ambassador   for   several   skate   fashion   brands   ,   established   youtube   vlogger   ,   and   aspiring   filmmaker   . 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓   𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒚   /   𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒔   :   cis   male   /   he   him   his 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏   :   heterosexual   ,   heteroromantic 𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕   :   5’11 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒔   :   the   black   sheep   ,   the   despondent   ,   the   fallen   angel   ,   the   isolato   ,   the   intangible   concept   ,   the   dirtbag   ,   the   doryphore 𝒌𝒆𝒚         𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔      :      -   churlish   ,   emotionally   reserved   ,   hesitant   ,   resentful   ,   self   -   sabotaging +   steadfast   ,   benevolent   ,   chivalrous   ,   reliable   ,   down   to   earth   𝒉𝒐𝒈𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔   𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆   :      hufflepuff 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈   𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒔   :   that’s   on   me   -   mac   miller   /   obstacle   1   -   interpol   /   just   my   luck   -   marc   e   bassy   &   blackbear   /   EARFQUAKE   -   tyler   the   creator /   superfast   jellyfish   -   gorillaz   /   here   comes   a   feeling   -   louis   the   child   /   horseshoes   and   handgrenades   -   green   day  /   boys   don’t   cry   -   the   cure   /   SUGAR   -   brockhampton  /   slow   dancing   in   the   dark   -   joji   /   come   back   to   earth   -   mac   miller   /   swing   ,   swing   -   the   all   american   rejects  

𝒊𝒊       .    𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚    .

harold   and   lillian   bishop   welcome   the   heirs   to   the   bishop   throne   on   an   early   may   morning   .   ceo   of   the   multi-billion   dollar   bishop   industries   construction   empire   ,   and   partner   of   the   bishop   &   franklin   international   law   firm   respectively   ,   the   boys   enter   into   the   shadow   of   a   last   name   prepared   to   build   onto   its   own   legacy   .   eli   comes   into   the   light   moments   after   his   brother   ,   a   hand   firmly   grasped   onto   the   ankle   of   his   twin   ,   victorious   to   emerge   into   the   world   first   .   parallel   to   the   biblical   brothers   jacob   and   esau   ,   his   nurse   notes   ,   but   his   parents   pay   no   mind   .   on   the   whim   of   a   meaningless   sequence   ,   the   elder   twin   is   delegated   as   the   champion   of   the   bishop   legacy   ,   to   bear   the   weight   of   their   family   empire   and   its   subsequent   legacy   on   his   shoulders   with   pride   .

elijah   ,   on   the   heel   of   his   brother   ,      isaiah   ,   by   a   mere   fraction   of   a   second   ,   bears   the   weight   of   his   second-coming   due   to   such   a   christening   for   the   rest   of   his   upbringing   .

the   black   sheep   is   perhaps   too   delicate   of   a   phrasing   to   explain   the   conflict   stirring   daily   in   the   bishop   household   ,   a   family   of   perfection   —   and   elijah   ,   the   foil   to   them   all   ,   a   failure   by   definition   ,   perhaps   crafted   simply   to   emphasize   the   feats   of   his   twin   brother   .   he’s   smaller   ,   scrawnier   ,   slower   to   pick   up   school   work   and   requiring   relentless   tutoring   and   support   throughout   his   elementary   school   years   .   sensitive   and   introverted   ,   he   spends   the   first   decade   of   his   life   cowering   behind   isaiah   as   a   shield   ,   receiving   constant   critiques   of   not   enough   ,   not   good   enough   ,   not   close   enough   to   —

he   tries   not   to   focus   on   his   shortcomings   ,   as   plentiful   as   his   parents   may   convince   him   that   there   may   be   .   any   expression   other   than   a   stoic   compliance   is   seen   as   contumacious   ,   swiftly   corrected   with   a   ‘   i   wish   you   would   be   more   like   your   brother   .   ’      eli   withers   into   himself   shortly   after   his   12th   birthday   ,   the   onset   of   puberty   and   a   discovery   for   a   natural   athletic   inclination   giving   him   some   semblance   of   musculature   ,   his   jaw   sharpening   and   gaze   taking   a   similar   harshness   .   his   body   becomes   a   fortress   ,   the   only   protection   he   can   implement   as   his   brother   begins   to   split   from   him   ,   taking   on   more   responsibility   as   the   twins   are   brought   increasingly   into   the   spotlight   of   their   family   name   and   fortune   .

each   moment   harboring   a   critique   only   stokes   resentment   behind   each   clenched   jaw   and   tight   lipped   smile   eli   has   to   fake   .   he   knows   its   all   for   show   ,   his   brother   is   the   only   true   heir   written   into   their   legacy   regardless   of   what   path   he   chooses   to   take   .   bearing   the   weight   of   a   whole   family   tree   of   disappointment   ,   eli   takes   on   odd   hobbies   and   begins   to   compose   bits   and   pieces   of   himself   as   the   him   he   wants   to   be   ,   dismantling   the   illusion   composed   by   expectations   to   mirror   his   infallible   brother   .   by   13   ,   his   secretive   hobby   becomes   an   increasingly   viable   career   in   skateboarding   ,   by   17   ,   he’s   hired   his   own   agent   and   moves   out   on   his   own   to   escape   the   increasing   burdens   of   being   the   bishop   legacy   disappointment   .   his   parents   all   but   excommunicate   him   ,   and   he   spends   spans   of   month-long   silences   between   them   with   only   his   brother   to   bridge   such   gaps   .   eli   is   gnarled   and   hidden   away   from   the   glitz   and   glamour   he   had   grown   so   comfortable   with   ,   navigating   his   shattered   self-image   and   desire   to   amount   to   something   entirely   on   his   own —   but   at   the   very   least   ,   he’s   free   .

it’s   a   tabloid’s   dream   ,   the   black   sheep   of   the   bishop   family   ,   reuniting   with   his   herd   for   their   move   to   new   york   .   eli   is   resentful   and   bitter   at   the   idea   of   uprooting   himself   ,   but   it’s   his   brother’s   impassioned   pleas   of   a   reunion   that   soften   eli’s   resolve   and   cause   the   young   skateboarding   sensation   to   follow   the   rest   of   his   distant   family   to   new   york   .   his   brother   assures   him   with   honeyed   promises   of   a   family   reunited   ,   a   change   of   heart   of   their   parents’      callousness   ,   a   desire   to   see   the   bishops   as   one   .     their   father’s   upcoming   retirement   and   a   supposed   reflection   on   the   cruelty   imposed   on   his   brother   are   all   cited   as   reasons   why   eli   should   just   come   with   them   .      and   eli   ,   hardened   and   bitter   to   all   but   the   implorations   of   his   brother   (   and   perhaps   a   gnawing   desire   for   some   sort   of   familial   validation   after   a   lifetime   of   being   dubbed   the   disappointment   ,   )   begrudgingly   follows   through   .

their   parents   do   not   .

it   awakens   a   particular   emotion   within   eli   to   see   his   parents   for   the   first   time   in   nearly   2   years   and   be   received   with   the   same   coldness   he   had   been   seen   off   with   at   their   last   meeting   .   backhanded   compliments   follow   fronthanded   insults   and   it   ends   with   eli   and   his   father   in   a   screaming   match   ,   fingers   jabbed   dangerously   into   chests   and   tempers   on   full   blare   .   the   betrayal   comes   not   from   a   set   of   parents   who   didn’t   want   him   —   eli   knew   it   was   entirely   too   good   to   be   true   to   be   taken   as   the   prodigal   son   .   the   betrayal   ,   he   laments   ,   is   in   the   falsities   told   by   his   brother   ,   the   one   person   who   had   spent   so   long   protecting   him   and   had   now   allowed   him   to   walk   without   guard   into   the   lion’s   den   .   eli   knows   his   brother   had   nothing   but   the   best   of   intentions   and   keeps   him   as   the   sole   bishop   contact   :   this   is   the   last   he   talks   to   his   parents   after   years   of   torment   .

they   stay   in   new   york   together   and   fill   their   time   with   work   and   the   occasional   youtube   video   at   the   behest   of   their   management   ,   random   vlogs   that   surprisingly   take   off   .   the   bishop   twins   become   something   of   an   internet   sensation   —   isaiah   a   charming   and   composed   law   student   ,   eli   a   brooding   and   unkempt   skater   boy   ,   with   a   dynamic   that   viewers   are   quick   to   fall   in   love   with   .   they   turn   out   content   on   a   regular   basis   ,   building   a   fanbase   through   their   vlogs   that   begs   for   collaborations   and   ‘   linking   up   .   ‘   they   go   through   the   motions   of   collabs   until   one   particular   set   of   youtubers   have   a   chemistry   with   the   twins   that   their   fans   eat   up   .   quickly   hired   to   the   same   management   team   ,   the   bishops   create   a   mini   vlog   squad   with   their   friends   ,   a   dynamic   that   finds   eli   more   emotionally   invested   than   he’d   care   to   admit   .   but   forever   the   self   -   saboteur   ,   he   keeps   himself   from   admitting   these   feelings   to   their   collaborator   ,   repressing   them   until   an   email   from   their   publicist   reveals   plans   to   have   her   date   isaiah   for   the   sake   of   views   .

eli   ,   despite   having   kept   his   feelings   from   practically   everyone   in   his   life   ,   takes   the   move   personally   and   cuts   off   all   work   with   their   collaborator   ,   the   ensuing   drama   being   enough   to   keep   his   publicist   happy   despite   whatever   happens   between   her   and   his   brother   .   their   group   goes   back   to   being   a   duo   ,   a   secret   for   eli   to   keep   perhaps   to   his   grave   ,   and   he   pushes   to   forge   on   with   creating   a   name   for   himself   out   of   the   shadow   of   his   family   .

(   um   for   context   slash   anyone   who   knew   version   one   of   eli   we’re   gonna   say   he   got   sick   of   the   celeb   world   and   went   backpacking   through   southern   asia   w   no   phone   n   no   outside   contacts   ,   just   recently   returned   to   ny   after   the   past   2   months   of   isolation   !   )

𝒊𝒊𝒊       .       𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

i’m   so   excited   to   bring   eli   back   .   …      i   love   wealthy   sm   lemme   give   y’all   a   few   bullets   for   the   rundown   of   the   uglie   mean   sk8r   boi   that   u   should   all   say   ‘   see   u   l8r   boi   ‘

as   the   bio   implies   ,   he   had   a   really   tough   upbringing   in   the   shadow   of   his   perfect   brother   .   a   lot   of   his   parents’   cruelty   resulted   in   the   personality   he   has   now   .

eli   is   most   known   for   his   resentment   of   wealth   and   fame   .   in   the   celeb   world   ,   he’s   always   known   as   the   one   who’s   just   a   normal   guy   .   super   down   to   earth   and   constantly   critiquing   ppl   who   let   the   fame   get   to   their   head

in   a   way   ,   he   gets   this   weird   sense   of   superiority   that’s   super   hypocritical   ?   like   he   thinks   he’s   better   than   the   rich   ppl   bc   he   doesn’t   act   boujie   ..   .   .   .   but   ?   he’s   rich   too   ?   just   bc   ur   chinos   r   ripped   doesnt   make   u   better   than   anyone   else   u   dumb   bitch

super   ,   and   i   cannot   emphasize   this   enough   ,   SUPER   emotionally   constipated   .   he   acts   like   he’s   above   it   all   to   serve   as   his   defense   mechanism   bc   on   the   real   he’s   terrified   of   being   rejected   by   people   the   way   his   own   parents   rejected   him   .   his   solution   ?   if   u   act   like   u   don’t   give   a   shit   ,   nobody   can   hurt   u   .

if   he’s   not   angry   ranting   ,   he’s   honestly   p   stoic   .   nobody   knows   what   he’s   thinkin   or   feelin   which   is   how   he   likes   it   .   it   gets   real   annoying   when   he   keeps   playing   the   cool   disconnected   guy   n   ur   like   ‘   what   do   u   want   for   lunch   ‘   n   he’s   like   ‘   i   dont   give   a   fuck   ‘   n   ur   like   ‘   we   know   dumbass   edgelord   we   still   gotta   EAT   tho   ‘

on   that   ranting   note   ,   he’s   usually   pretty   reserved   and   calm   during   things   like   interviews   or   talking   to   fans   .   when   he’s   in   touchier   situations   ,   his   defense   mechanism   is   to   switch   to   his   hairpin   trigger   hostility   .

ig   he   feels   like   he   has   something   to   prove   by   being   the   tough   guy   so   he   just   ?   gets   mad   super   easily   instead   of   processing   his   feelings   like   a   normal   person   ?   he   detaches   himself   from   his   emotions   bc   he   has   a   really   fucked   sense   of   self   -   worth   and   has   an   eternal   belief   he’s   not   worthy   of   happiness   so   he’ll   sabotage   himself   to   no   end

shockingly   sensitive   and   will   hold   onto   his   pain   as   if   to   fuel   him   .   he   takes   disloyalty   personally   and   will   often   hold   onto   abandonment   or   slights   that   happened   years   ago   because   they   genuinely   affected   him   ,   even   if   he   didn’t   show   so   at   the   time   .

in   terms   of   the   celeb   life   :   he’s   p   low   key   .   isn’t   much   of   a   partier   bc   he   has   social   anxiety   sdfsd   but   he’s   comfy   sipping   a   beer   on   the   patio   as   long   as   everyone   else   stays   inside   lmao   .   he’s   cool   w   hookups   but   isn’t   actively   sleeping   around   ?   like   he   could   prob   live   like   a   fuckboy   but   rlly   surprises   u   when   he   doesn’t   do   the   fuckboy   thing   ..   …   .   it’s   the   sensitive   boy   in   him   or   somethin   idk..   .   ..   mayb   he   just   can’t   care   enough   ..   ..      it’s   the   apathy   …   .

when   he’s   not   seeing   red   ,   he’s   rational   man   meant   to   BUST   everyone’s   stupidity   .   usually   the   only   mfer   w   common   sense   in   the   squad   to   plan   ahead   n   shit   but   if   someone   pushes   his   homies   ?   eli   comes   out   SWINGING   n   then   avoids   all   the   tabloids   about   him   sloppy   fighting   in   the   club   like   he’s   mariah   carey   n   can’t   read   or   somethin

cannot   flirt   for   the   life   of   him   ,   says   dumb   shit   like   ‘   u   smell   nice   ‘   and   hopes   his   muscles   do   all   the   talking   lmao   fuckin   BEEFCAKE

on   the   real   ,   when   he’s   calm   n   collected   he   can   be   surprisingly   sweet   and   this   is   when   the   down   to   earth   comes   in   .   doesn’t   get   attached   to   many   but   to   the   few   he   does   ,   he   defends   to   the   end   and   is   the   type   to   sacrifice   whatever   it   is   to   protect   them   .   this   mans   LOVES   his   friends   and   ppl   are   surprised   to   see   how   kind   he   can   b   bc   he’s   usually   masking   his   kindness   with   his   brutishness   lmao   .      

he’s   also   ?   surprisingly   funny   ?   we’ll   see   abt   that   tho   bc   most   of   his   shit   is   deadpan

most   of   the   time   :   just   fuckin   .   mean   as   hell   sdfsdf

anarchist   mfer   !   he   said   FUCK   the   system   ,   it’s   a   big   skate   energy   and   he   tries   to   be   as   creative   and   undefined   as   possible   .   follows   random   whims   as   he   learns   to   be   less   self   conscious   bc   now   he’s   his   own   brand   and   doesn’t   have   to   always   think   about   ‘   whats   best   for   the   family   ’   and   all   that   bs   !   he’s   rlly   passionate   abt   skate   culture   and   originality   and   is   a   really   big   outspoken   feminist  /  social   activist    bc   what’s   more   punk   than   dismantling   the   patriarchy  and  other  oppressive  power   structures  ?

on   that   note   .   lowkey   .   a   simp   KWHRJWE   he   acts   hard   and   won’t   let   any   man   come   after   him   but   he’s   afraid   2   be   mean   to   girls   n   lets   most   of   his   female   friends   bully   him   while   he   does   the   office   stare   in2   the   camera   .

i   always   stick   random   blurbs   downhere   but   the   mans   is   vegan   ,   cares   more   about   his   car   than   anything   ,   spends   most   of   his   time   in   his   ratty   skate   clothes   that   barely   get   washed   bc   they   ‘   hold   the   energy   better   ’   (   nastie   )   ,   if   it   aint   sk8   shoes   its   socks   w   sandals   n   he   doesn’t   get   whats   wrong   w   that   ,   he’s   a   hufflepuff   n   a   ISTJ-T   myers   briggs  (  The  Logistician  )   ,   n   tbh   he   really   just   appreciates   the   little   things   in   life   ?   thats   eli   my   lil   meat   head   .

[teyrnacousland]

Where does it say the Hepler hated Anders and wanted to make him unlikable. I hear that a lot in the fandom but I can never find a source. Not that I don’t believe it because it the only explanation for his horrendous oof moments.

Here’s a quote from her from the now deleted Bioware forums:

“I think his romance captures a lot of the joy and pain of dating someone bipolar – he feels everything in a big way, so his love is huge and all-encompassing, as are his hates, including his self-loathing. It takes work to maintain a relationship with him, and ultimately, Hawke has to decide if it’s worth it, knowing that these are burdens that will always haunt them.“

The way she talks about him is incredibly ableist, talking about him like loving him is work, like it’s a burden, like it’s not worth it for Hawke. 

In the same quote she also said that in the friendmance “he is generally happier (more manic), and more convinced of his delusions, but is arguably a worse person (more willing to do bad things). The rivalry path is about making him see the error of his ways, so he ends up suffering more and tending more to the depressive side, but is arguably a better person who wants to make up for what he’s done.“

She’s talking about the rivalmance, where Hawke is abusive to him. Where you gaslight him and insult him and tear him down at every turn, and she thinks that’s better for him. This is the path she thinks is best for Anders, not love. Because he’s Wrong and Broken and Hawke obviously has to Fix him somehow, and the best way to do that is these abusive tactics, obviously. (sarcasm)

She calls him a “bipolar terrorist” in this interview.

In this tweet she says his romance "was about the difference between the "heal him with your love" fantasy and the actual caregiver experience of loving someone with mental illness." Again, talking about how burdensome and awful dating mentally ill people is, and implying that he’s something that you should want to “fix”. And saying that showing that you can’t “fix” people like him and that trying will only hurt you in the end was her goal. (Maybe that’s just my interpretation of this, but I can’t see how setting out to show how hard :( :( it is to date mentally ill people wasn’t meant to discourage people from doing it.)

(Also, I can’t find any quotes from her so keep that in mind, but I’ve seen a lot of people say she talked about basing Anders on a bipolar ex she dated. Which would mean she basically wrote Anders as all the things that made her leave her ex, just furthering the idea of her trying to teach players that dating mentally ill people is a chore and not good for you and not worth it.)

At about 35 minutes into this interview she starts talking about how her starting point for writing Anders was writing him as a terrorist. The way she talks about him throughout this interview very much upsets me so I can’t go through it again for specific quotes, but the general idea is that her goal with him was to tell a story of how someone ends up “radicalized” (as though not wanting thousands of people to be regularly lobotomized, abused, and murdered is a radical idea). She compares him to real life terrorists. His entire character for her was based around him becoming a “terrorist”. So it would be really weird if her goal was for us to like him. She wanted people to be sympathetic to him, but in a “smh it’s so sad, he used to be such a good guy what a shame” way. 

I can’t find the quote, but I remember someone from Bioware explained that for the banters, the character’s writer will write some and then the other character’s writer checks it over. I’d bet that the ones where Anders is put down and belittled and insulted by other characters were written by Hepler. Isabela’s “Maybe I just don’t like you”, Varric’s “You are no fun anymore”, and Aveline’s “I don't know if you're lying or crazy” all paint Act III Anders as someone who’s crazy and can’t be trusted, and whose friends are fed up with him. Which fits with the story Hepler said in previous sources that was trying to tell with Anders.

There’s also Faces of Thedas, which, while not written by Hepler or even Bioware, was reviewed and approved by Bioware. Anders’ section is entirely about how terrible of a person he is, how no one likes him and no one should, and how everyone who does like him is a “bloodthirsty fanatic” and also Anders hates you if you support him. Bioware approved this, which is more proof that people at Bioware hate Anders and want us to hate him too. (You can read my full rant on Faces of Thedas here, or just read the pages themselves here.) 

Basically, tl;dr, Hepler has stated that her goal in writing Anders was to write a terrorist, and also to show how awful it is to date someone with mental illness. With this as a goal there’s no way she also intended for us to walk away seeing him in a positive light. She wanted him to be sympathetic but ultimately unlikable as he went too far and became too much to handle. Because she’s also super ableist. 

[enigmari]

Oh my GOD Please infodump abt hatoful.... ive repeatedly tried to get into it but have no idea how/how to connect any of the lore. Thanos !

I SAW THE TYPO TOO LATE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO END WITH “THANKS”,

SKDFSKJSLKDFJ no worries anon, it happens to the best of us. Anyways, how should I start this…

So, if you’re totally new here, Hatoful Boyfriend is a visual novel dating sim whose basic premise is “what if cliched boyfriend archetypes… but birds?” And it takes this premise completely wholeheartedly, while still maintaining a comedic tone. You pick classes and club activities each in-game day to increase your skill points, and depending on your levels (and a few dialogue options) you’ll either successfully romance your birdie of choice or get a Bad End. Most of the birds make their interests/level requirements obvious from the start, and you have a bunch of save slots to work with if you wanna go the scum route. Pretty simple and straightforward.

(Actually, that’s a lie, it gets much more complicated later. Don’t worry about that right now.)

Most of HBF is framed through the perspective of the protagonist (I’m gonna use her canon name for convenience) Hiyoko, and she is… not the brightest bulb in the box. Especially in the first game, when events in one character’s route will be foreshadowed in other routes, she will rarely call them out or make note of them. Naturally, this also means some reveals will be spoiled depending on which order you do the routes in. You also unlock documents in the Archive section after completing each route, which adds another level of puzzle piecing to the mix. 

(No, this is not the complicated part I was talking about earlier. Sorry.)

In this next bit, I’m going to briefly run through the routes of the first game from least to most complex in terms of lore, as well as what things are foreshadowed when. I’ll also toss in the archive documents when I feel they’re most relevant to the information you have. We ready?

Okosan’s routes: Mostly joke endings, unless there is some greater plot significance to pudding that I’ve missed for all these years.

Ryouta’s route: Mostly about character building, the only real hint you get is that his mother is sickly and it’s implied he inherited this from her.

Azami’s routes: You could get here with the same stats as Ryouta’s route, but then you fuck it up by taking this job opportunity away from him. How rude, Hiyoko.

Sakuya’s first route: He opens up to you about his abusive and bigoted dad, and with some encouragement you encourage him to run away and become a musician like he always wanted. Mr. Le Bel is very important to multiple other characters in this game.

Sakuya’s second route (needs perfect stats/dialogue choices): Same conversation about his dad, but he chooses to live with you instead. Your big hint is at the end, when Yuuya sends you a letter saying there’s “something he’s wanted to tell [Sakuya] for a long time. Something important.” 

Yuuya’s route: You don’t actually get to find out what the "important thing" is, whoops. You do find out that Yuuya’s a spy for the Dove Party, Shuu is one for the Hawk Party, and the school has been increasingly influenced by the Hawk Party as of late. 

BAD END: You may have gotten it earlier, but now you have context as to who’s killing you when you fail a route- it’s the Hawk Party. The reason why is still unclear.

[CW for gore, child death, medical abuse, suicide, and attempted genocide from here on! This game is a trip!]

Shuu’s first route: Absolutely not a romance route and if you ship Shuu/Hiyoko please block me and tab out immediately thank you very much. You learn that Shuu has been killing students for medical experimentation, confirming Yuuya’s suspicions about the quills in the student store and the food in the cafeteria.

Shuu’s second route (needs perfect stats/dialogue choices): Same ending where Hiyoko dies, but he’s attached enough to her that he takes her head in a jar when he goes on the run. You do learn that Shuu doesn’t care about the Hawk Party’s politics, just that they can enable his personal experiments.

Archive Note 11: Someone (Shuu) knew that Yuuya was a Dove Party agent from the start. He also notes that some of the students are “fascinating”, which you know from his route means they’re good experiment fodder. You learn that he has reason to believe his victims won’t oppose the experimentation, but not the details.

Archive Note 10: Shuu makes notes about human “adaptability measures.” Given that Hiyoko is the only human at the school, you can guess that this will involve her in some way.

Archive Note 06: Notes about the Spanish Flu, how deadly it was to humans, and the connection to an “Avian Influenza.”

Archive Note 04: Notes about a “Goodwill Ambassador” for humanity, who needs a strong natural immunity to Avian Influenza. Hiyoko’s stats show that she has a base level of 800 Vitality, so you can guess that she’s the ambassador. This is why she dies when you fail a route- the Hawk Party saw she didn’t build a good enough connection to the birds, so they take her as a lost cause.

Archive Note 07: Shuu makes notes about “carrier capacity” in the student body, inducing it in some way in a “normal” individual. You can guess this is the details of his medical experimentation, but not who the victim is. You can also guess that the disease to be carried is Avian Influenza.

Anghel’s route: It’s not actually that complicated, but I think you need to complete Shuu’s route before the “mad love of a fallen angel” option is available. (EDIT: you actually just need to complete one playthrough to unlock this option. Even the Azami solo ending will unlock it.)  This ending seemingly undermines all the things we learned about Shuu right before, but this is just Hiyoko’s perspective.

Archive Note 01: A certain student (Anghel) has hallucinogenic properties that can affect bystanders, putting them in a trance-like state. This explains why everything went totally off the rails in his route.

Kazuaki’s route: Again not a romance route (no matter what he says about “waiting”, ew) because the whole point is that Kazuaki is afraid to open himself up to love of any kind. You learn he had someone he cared deeply about in the past but lost, and now he’s been soured from the experience. You also learn that he smells like bleach.

Nageki’s route: You learn that he’s a ghost, that he killed himself in the school some years ago, and that he doesn’t have all his memories. He disappears before you learn anything more, but he’s happy so it’s okay and why am I crying agai-

Archive Note 02: Someone (Nageki) writes about how they are trapped, and can’t remember what happened to them.

Archive Note 05: Nageki remembers he made a promise to someone very important, but he can’t remember who or what it was.

Archive Note 03: Nageki once woke up in a place that wasn’t the library- somewhere with bright lights and a white ceiling. He’s not as trapped as he first thought.

Archive Note 14: Nageki notes that he can move between floors, going from the library to the chemistry lab below. You can guess that the place with the bright lights is somewhere below these two rooms. This also reveals that Nageki knew the layout of the school when he was alive.

Archive Note 12: Nageki notes that after meeting Hiyoko, he feels fulfilled “just as he did back then.” He still can’t remember everything, though.

Archive Note 08: Notes about an underground facility, a fire, and a Subject 00 whose remains are in storage. You can guess that the facility is the place with the bright lights, and Nageki is Subject 00. You can also guess that Nageki set the fire, since he said that he killed himself.

Archive Note 09: Notes about Subject 00′s relative, whose remains are also in storage. You can guess that this is the “important person” that Nageki made a promise to a long time ago.

At this point, the only documents left are Note 13, which is about a terrorist incident at the Heartful House orphanage in which only two birds survived, and Note 15, which is about another terrorist incident some years ago in which the Ave’s High City building was bombed. Nothing in the main routes hints at these notes, so it’s a good time to move to…

Bad Boys Love route: This route is literally the length of the rest of the routes combined, so we’re doin’ more sections, baby!

Kazuaki’s lost loved one and Nageki’s important person turn out to be each other. They were the survivors of the Heartful House incident, and Kazuaki (real name Hitori) took care of his little brother by himself. Nageki was sickly, so he volunteered himself for a medical experiment at the school that could potentially cure him to take the burden off of Hitori. 

Unbeknownst to them, the Hawk Party was already in control of the school and their real motive was to investigate the disease Nageki was carrying- Avian Influenza. Shuu was specifically the lead for this project, and he also witnessed the Heartful House incident when it happened. At the time, he went by the name Isa Souma and was a medical researcher. He worked with Ryuuji Kawara, Ryouta’s dad, until Ryuuji’s death from disease.

Ryouta and Hiyoko were also there, because her parents were former human ambassadors too. Unfortunately, they became some of the casualties, which left the two kids heartbroken. Shuu, seeing them and recognizing Ryouta, offered to grant them a wish. They both wished for a world where humans and birds would never fight anymore, which Shuu took to mean “kill all the remaining humans so they can’t fight the birds” because… he’s like that. 

Shuu decided that the easiest way to kill all the humans would be to spread the Avian Influenza, and this is why he sought out Nageki. Nageki was forced to kill humans as part of the experiments, and this traumatized him so much that he set the lab on fire to stop it, trapping himself inside. Hitori witnessed this too, and swore to get revenge despite Nageki asking him to destroy his remains and live a happy life. He bleached his feathers and swapped identities with another bird to fake his death, and applied to the school as a teacher under his new name. 

Nageki’s plan didn’t entirely work, and the Hawk Party was able to store some of his remains for future experiments with Avian Influenza. This brings us to the timeline of the main routes, where Shuu took advantage of Ryouta’s sickly constitution to make him a new carrier for Avian Influenza. Yuuya tried to interfere on behalf of the Dove Party, but Shuu blackmailed him with the knowledge that he killed his real half-brother because he hated Mr. Le Bel and wanted Sakuya to live instead. 

The new strain of Avian Influenza that Ryouta carried was enough to make Hiyoko sick and kill her. The death of the Human Ambassador kickstarts the beginning of this route, and Shuu planned for the humans who would retaliate to also be infected. It doesn’t go as he planned, of course, but that’s laid out pretty well in the rest of the route so I won’t re-summarize it here. 

Aaaand that’s about everything for the first Hatoful Boyfriend game! I’ll gladly do infodumps/lore summaries for Holiday Star or the other side materials if anyone wants, but this took almost three hours to write as is so I’m going to give myself a break.

[beccalovesdarling]

Reach for the Stars Part 6

Oh boy. This sucker is long and makes you want to just squish Adrien. 

First

Previous

Adrien was miserable the next morning. By the time he had finally left Marinette’s it was after eleven o’clock. On the nights he patrolled he tended to stay out way later, but the emotional toll of finally admitting to another person that wasn’t Plagg why he was torn between the two girls was more of a burden than a reprieve. Plagg had belched out a few questions about why he wasn’t ecstatic that Marinette liked him. “Both of your lovebugs want you,” he had drawled. But that hadn’t been enough to ease his fears. He had tried explaining all of it after The Tower Incident, but Plagg hadn’t gotten it then so Adrien doubted he would get it now.

“Humans,” was all Plagg had said before Adrien tried to sleep a few hours before his morning workout.

His mind spun with worry. He never really got to the bottom of Marinette’s lies. She obviously had her own issues and he had not only dumped his problems on her, but also Adrien’s. But, since Marinette didn’t know Adrien was both guys, Chat had seemingly revealed things about Adrien that neither of them had any business knowing. He spent no less than thirty minutes wondering if she would treat Adrien different during class.

Class had him thinking of Alya. Would Marinette mention her meeting with Chat? Probably not. Marinette wasn’t the type of person to go blabbing about other people’s personal stuff. Then again, she had lied to everyone so did he really know her? And Alya was her best friend. Would their trust outrank his trust in her? He groaned as he thought over the next possible post on the Ladyblog and the smack Ladybug would no doubt give him.

Rolling over, he tried to find a comfortable spot. He was burrowed under his comfort and sheets, but he still felt cold. Plagg snored on the pillow beside him and Adrien scowled at the black cat before glancing out his windowed wall.

Staring at the Paris night, he had finally drifted into an uneasy sleep.

That uneasy sleep followed him all through school. When he saw Marinette, he kept hearing her voice from last night asking him what he needed. What Chat Noir needed. He had laid out all the reasons Adrien was bad for her and she had asked about him. He wasn’t sure what to think of that. She claimed to like Adrien, but she still cared for the leather cat. He flushed at his own actions. After he had confessed to her his confusion, he decided it was time to take his leave. He had kissed her forehead before wishing her sweet dreams. Once he was a block away from her mesmerizing scent, he could breathe and think a little clearer.

“You in, dude?”

“Huh?” With a shake of his head, Adrien looked over at his friend. Nino had a brow cocked at him and seemed to be expecting something. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

Nino shook his head with a chuckle. “You’re so out of it, dude. I said do you want to go this afternoon? The student council is asking for help to set up the spring fling tonight. I’m DJ-ing and Alya is writing a report for the school blog. Marinette’s student president so she kinda has to be there. You free?”

The Spring Fling had totally taken him by surprise. He’d seen the flyers posted, but he didn’t pay them much attention and since he wasn’t in the student council, he never had a reason to be involved. Of course, he also had his responsibilities as Adrien and Chat Noir to distract him. “Sure. I’m free this afternoon. Father was content with the photos from yesterday so we don’t have to do anymore right away.”

Alya squealed behind them. The two boys turned to her. “That means I get my Adrien Agreste interview!” She whooped and elbowed Marinette. “And Madame President over here can give me an interview for the school blog!”

Marinette blinked up from her sketch pad. “Why me?” She asked in confusion. “I wasn’t at the meeting. All I’m doing is basically helping set up.”

Nino hummed. “You did a lot, Marinette. Rose wanted a spring dance and you totally helped in scoring it. The whole class is super excited about it.” He quirked his brows at Alya. “And it gives me a chance to show off my mad skills in front of my lovely lady.”

Alya grinned. “Oh, hush you. We can’t talk about that in front of the children.” She smirked at Adrien. “Sunshine here is too pure to be sullied by you.”

Adrien felt his face heat as Nino snorted. “Oh please. My man is such a closet perv. You weren’t there when Ladybug was at his house. Home boy basically shoved me out of the way to-“

“Okay! Thanks, Nino!” Adrien shrieked as he glanced at Marinette. The poor designer was pale and refused to meet his glance. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, yeah, so where is the dance?”

The blogger grunted as she nodded towards Chloe. “Give you one guess, Agreste.”

“Right. Of course,” he nodded. “And the date?” He assumed it was soon since preparations were tonight. He mentally ran through his schedule for the rest of the week.

“This girl.”

“Alya!” Marinette shrieked, much the chagrin of their teacher. After a swift apology, Marinette glared at her friend. “Adrien meant date of the dance not that!” The reporter shrugged. Timidly, Marinette made eye contact with him. “It’s, um, Friday night. At seven. If you’re free.” She blanched. “I mean free to go. Not that I’m implying you have to go with me. That’s silly. I’ll be a bore. Student council and all. Not that it’s boring or you wouldn’t find it interesting. I-“ She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. “It’ll be fun. You should come.”

Nino snickered and Adrien side-eyed him. “I’ll check with Nathalie. I don’t think I have anything major.” He dropped his voice. Adrien still should be under the impression that she had a boyfriend. “So, um, is your boyfriend not coming?”

Nino’s snickers abruptly stopped and Alya watched Marinette like a hawk. The girl pursed her lips and tapped her fingers against her desk, her sapphire eyes downcast. “No,” she answered slowly. “But, I think I might have over-reacted. We talked a little last night-“

“Wait,” Adrien interrupted. “You talked to him? Last night?”

Alya and Nino glanced at each other and Nino shook his head at his girlfriend in warning. Alya pursed her lips, but kept silent as Marinette nodded. “Yeah. He stopped by really late. We didn’t talk much about the…thing, but I learned some stuff about him. And, well…” Her cheeks went pink and she looked away from Adrien’s hard stare.

Adrien turned back in his seat. She couldn’t….Surely someone else…Her words from yesterday came back to him. She had to be with this guy. He was her best friend, but she didn’t love him. Adrien’s insides burned and squirmed. Could she have been talking about Chat Noir? But surely he would know if he was involved in some arranged relationship, right? Was Hawk Moth forcing her to pursue Chat Noir? Had he seen their interactions? But why now? Why not target Adrien since Ladybug had shown interest in him? Why target Marinette?

He needed to talk to Ladybug. If Marinette was being used, he needed to protect her. He refused to let Hawk Moth hurt her.

Adrien allowed the self-hatred to burn through him as he laid his head upon his desk. He had been so stupid. If he had just treated her indifferent, Hawk Moth wouldn’t be targeting her. Please, he wanted to beg, target me. I’m Chat Noir. I’m the one you want.

“Adrien?” Marinette softly called. He couldn’t look up at her.

“I, um…” Lifting his head, he waved for his teacher. “I’m not feeling well. May I be excused?”

XXX

Adrien had never ditched school. But he went straight for the boy’s locker room. He locked the door behind him to keep everyone else out before coaxing Plagg out of his bag. The kwami floated lazily before him. “What now?” He whined.

“Hawk Moth is targeting her, Plagg!” His hands dug into his hair and it very quickly began to look like his Chat hair. “I have to let Ladybug know. We have to stop him before her hurts her! She clearly doesn’t want or deserve this!”

Plagg blinked slowly at his Chosen. “I believe she said she was supposedly best friends with this guy. She’s friendly, but I wouldn’t say you’re her BFF. You’re not even at Boo status. Maybe Bae.”

Adrien dropped his hands to his sides and gave him a blank stare.

“Come on, Boo, don’t give me that look.”

“Can you not be serious for one minute?” Adrien asked, exasperated, his arms flapping into the air and back to his sides. “Marinette could be in danger.”

The kwami rolled his eyes. “I doubt it. She handled herself well with the artist. Honestly, I think you’re overreacting. She’s probably just got a crush on both sides of you and is freaking out.”

The model backed against a locker row with a soft thud and slid down to the floor, a heavy sigh rattling his shoulders. “But, she said she had to be with this guy. With me. I don’t even think she likes me. She can barely talk to me. I’m obviously not forcing her, so who is?” He scrubbed his face tiredly. “Marinette could have met with someone after I left, but what are the odds?” He voiced his earlier thoughts. “Father was impressed with her designs, but I’m sure he wouldn’t force her to…to do something like that.”

Plagg drifted to his Chosen’s knee and perched upon Adrien’s stretched out leg. “Relax, Kid. I really don’t think it’s anything serious. This girl has some serious anxiety attacks sometimes. She’s probably just dramatizing or having an attack. She seemed fine today.” Adrien still didn’t seem convinced. “Your Princess is going to be OK. No one is going to hurt her,” Plagg murmured. “Try talking to her as Adrien. See if she tells you more later at the meeting.”

Adrien met his eyes and offered a small smile. “Thanks, Buddy.” He scratched the cat’s ear. He yelped when Plagg abruptly twisted his head and nipped his finger.

XXX

Le Grand Paris was a second home to Adrien. Nathalie had often taken him on playdates to visit Chloe when he was a child. Granted, it had more to do with their family’s social standing and a few shady business deals than any real bonding experience on the children’s parts. Regardless, much of the staff was friendly and familiar to Adrien and finding information about the dance was a snap. Many of the student council members had left school early to begin preparations and he found them in main ballroom. The walls were papered in a velvetlike paper that was a deep red crimson with burgundy spirals meant to look like flowers. The stark grey stone tiles contrasted strangely and Adrien wondered who had paired the two colors together.

Several boxes were piled by the doors he had just entered through and a quick glance showed them to be party and decoration supplies. Several council members were gathered around them and muttering about colors and themes. He recognized a few faces as being in his grade, but none from his class. He also didn’t see Marinette.

He approached the closest boy. He was blonde and maybe a year under Adrien with a red sweater and light jeans. He thought his name might have been Gaige. The boy glanced up from the box he was riffling through and burrowed his brows together, dropping the package of silver foil stars in his hands. “Can I help you?”

Adrien nodded. “Yeah. I’m looking for Marinette. Is she here yet?”

One of the girls snorted and Adrien glanced at her. She too was blonde and wore her long wavy hair in a ponytail. It paired nicely with her sky blue dress. “Of course not. Marinette could never be on time if her life depended on it. She’ll probably show up late after we’ve done all the work.” Adrien frowned as she snooped around in her box. “And of course she skimped and bought all cheap stuff.”

He opened his mouth to retort when a familiar voice called out from behind him. “Of course she did.” The group turned to see Alya standing in the doorway; her arms crossed and her weight popping out her hip to the side. “The budget has to last all year. Marinette thought it would be best to not splurge on this dance, but save some for the end of term dance. Plus, there’s other activities to prepare for on top of the requests she promised a few of the students. If you had read her budget report last semester, Noel, you would have seen how she had planned to use the money.” She cocked a slender brow at the others. “Any more questions?” Alya didn’t wait more than a second before continuing. “Now hang those paper stars. We all agreed to this theme, now get on it.”

Noel’s face was notably red as she grabbed a packet of stars and puttered to the opposite corner. Alya rolled her eyes before shooting Adrien a grin. “Yo, Agreste. Marinette and Nino are running over the playlist with Principal Damocles. They should be here in a few minutes.” She approached the boxes and swiped out a few black packages. “I hope those muscles aren’t just for looks, Sunshine.” She tossed him the packages and he fumbled for them awkwardly. They were plastic table covers. “I need the long rectangle tables moved to the left wall.” The blogger smirked. “I’m sure M wouldn’t mind to see you all sweaty with your muscles bulging.”

Adrien gaped at her like a fish; his pocket shook from Plagg’s silent chortles.

XXX

With the help of three other boys, Adrien moved the tables from the center of the ballroom to the farthest wall. He was smoothing out a table cover when someone clapped him on the shoulder. His friend chuckled at the way he jumped. “Hey, dude. I see Alya has you under her thumb.”

Adrien laughed. “She can be quite persuasive.”

Nino’s smirk grew to a grin. “Yeah, Marinette’s been watching you flex for the past five minutes.”

“What!?” He yelped; his voice embarrassingly loud and high as he sought her out. Sure enough, the girl stood beside Alya in the center of the room. Alya cackled raucously as Marinette attempted to hide her face behind the clipboard she clutched in her slender hands.

Snorting, Nino slapped Adrien’s back again. “I can’t believe you let her slip away.” He nodded towards the council president. “That’s probably why she was so upset yesterday. Alya told me what was said. Chloe’s nonsense aside, she’s probably trying to force herself to get over you and all this added attention to it is probably the last thing she wants.”

“What?” Adrien sputtered again. His head whipped between Nino and the girls. “Get over me? What?”

Nino ruffled his hair. “Dude, you’re so dense.” Adrien scowled as he attempted to fix his hair. It would be bad if someone recognized him with messy hair. “She’s had the biggest crush on you for the past year. And you’ve admitted she’s cute.” He shrugged. “Alya’s grumpy that she’s lost our bet, to be honest.”

“Bet? Crush?” His pocket vibrated again and Adrien wished the floor would open and swallow him or an akuma would distract them or his Father would demand he show up to a photoshoot or-

“Hey, Nino!” The two guys glanced at the girls. Alya waved majestically as all the students turned to her. “Marinette wants to test the sound system!”

“Right on!” Nino shot his girlfriend a thumbs-up before scrambling off to his setup in the corner away from the food tables Adrien had just prepared. Adrien watched as Alya snatched the clipboard away from Marinette, who attempted to protest, and then pranced after her beau. The blonde smiled as he watched Marinette shake her head and mutter. Shyly, she met his gaze and waved.

Adrien lifted his hand to return it, but she turned and made for the doors. Afraid she would leave and he wouldn’t get his chance to talk to her as Adrien, he ran after her. “Marinette!” He called a few meters away from her. The girl stiffened before facing him, a sweet smile plastered across her face.

He slowed to a jog and then stopped completely two feet away from her. “Marinette,” he started. “I wanted to ask-“

The thrashing bass, electric rifts, and violent screams of Jagged’s newest song blasted deafeningly in the circular room. The velvet walls did little to soften the metal cries of the music or the heavy thumping of the expensive speaker system the ballroom sported. Marinette yelped and covered her ears with a wince as Adrien mimicked her movements. The duo frantically looked at their friends in the corner. Alya thrashed her head at odd to the heavy metal as Nino steadily bobbed his head to the beat, his fingers dancing across this laptop keyboard. Marinette flew across the tiled room to them; her arms flailing as she desperately tried to stop them.

Adrien made to follow her, but Nino cut the music. The silence of the room left Adrien’s ears ringing. He saw the three talking before the couple waved her off with a shooing motion. Marinette turned on her heel and marched back across the room to Adrien’s side as the next song started up. It was a classical piece Adrien immediately identified. It was called In the Rain and it had been one of the first songs his mother had taught him on the piano. Though he had stopped playing after she had died, he could feel his fingers twitch at his sides to the phantom keys he knew so well. His foot tensed as if he was about to pump and his mind starting counting beats as the music swelled.

Props and decorations were immediately dropped as several council members paired off using any excuse to be near their crushes or dates. Marinette smiled wistfully. “I knew I shouldn’t have let Nino play around with the others here.” Adrien snapped out of his trained mindset and watched as Nino nodded to something Alya said beside him. His fingers flew across his keyboard as his partner seemed to read over the notes on Marinette’s clipboard. Marinette groaned. “Now we’ll never get finished! We’ve still got to-“

Adrien grasped her hand and pulled her along behind him as he moved further out to the improvised dance floor. Marinette stuttered as he paused and pulled her closer to him. His other hand placed her empty one upon his shoulder before resting upon her waist. He turned them in a small circle and, unbelievably, Marinette matched his steps despite her nervous expression. Her bluebell eyes were trained on his as she began to pull her lip into her mouth.

“Don’t do that,” he whispered.

She parted her lips and nodded up at him like an obedient child. He smiled sweetly down at her as they swayed. The familiar notes swelled and he could almost hear his mother humming. His steps slowed and Marinette nearly did trip this time, but his firm hold on her kept her upright. Would his mother be proud of him? Would she understand his motives behind protecting Marinette? Because he honestly didn’t understand them himself. Father had always called her hopelessly romantic and ceaselessly emotional. Adrien knew he took more after his mother than father. Was that why he was chasing two girls?

He stopped and Marinette blinked up at him. “Adrien?” She murmured timidly.

No, he decided, not two girls. He was done with Ladybug. He had finally seen her for who she was that afternoon on the Tower. And despite all his declarations of loving the girl under the mask, he realized he couldn’t completely love her. She was willing to die for a stranger. While it would normally be noble, he had seen the way she had treated Lila beforehand. Ladybug had been harsh and rude with the girl because she carried an obsessive crush on his civilian side. He hated to admit it, but Ladybug was shallow.

How had it taken him so long? She had never been interested in him while this sweet girl in his arms was too nervous to even hold a sentence with him. She had proven last night that she saw beneath his golden boy charm.

And whatever the reason or cause may be, he could never have her and he could not give her up. But he swore, no matter the cost, he would protect her.

Because he loved Marinette.

Adrien released her and stepped away as Nino faded the music out. “I’m sorry, Marinette.” He turned and bolted from the room, leaving a confused girl in his wake.

Buy me a coffee??

[fictionchronicler-blog]

Governess as Heroine

  NOTE: Illustrations and gifs are not mine.

“May we read the selected works of Edgar Allan Poe please?  I’ll be ever so good!”

“It’s 6pm.  I get off at 8.  Yeah.  Mom and Dad will deal with the nightmares.”

It's a staple of Victorian life and nowadays a job title that implies magical shenanigans will follow—the governess.  The 1851 England Census listed a whopping 25,000 women employed as governesses, women hired to teach the children of a household and see to their educational and moral needs, not to be confused with a nanny or nurse, who handled babies.  One of the only ways a woman could support herself in Victorian times, real-life governesses are a regular who's who of famous people—Marie Curie, Mary Wollstonecraft, and all three Bronte sisters (Emily, Charlotte, and Anne).  

Public schools and the ever-increasing demands of education have almost made the in-home governess obsolete, and yet stories still abound featuring a governess as the main character in every genre from horror to family musical.  Why?  I started thinking about this, and you know the face I make when the idea for a meta comes along.

The deranged hair, too.

So get ready for another history lesson that looks back at the position of the governess and the impact it has on pop culture.

Not Wanted: Plucky Heroine

Our image of a governess is probably a young woman, attractive, but not in a threatening or overly sexy way, teaching three or four precocious Victorian children in a cozy school room, bringing some whimsy into their otherwise repressed lives.  

We know now that the Victorians weren't quite as stuffy as they presented themselves as (someday I will do a Top 11 Why Victorians Were Messed Up list), but they really liked acting like they had no more pressing obligations than letter-writing or, if they were feeling athletic, fox-hunting.  I mean, these were people that hosted parties where unwrapping an honest-to-god mummy was the main event.  They were not about hard labor in the slightest.  Naturally, just as the lady of the house was not expected to do the cooking or the cleaning, she was not expected to take it upon herself to educate her own children. The family would therefore have to hire out, looking for an unmarried woman to educate the girls and the small boys (most boys went to a boarding school around 8).

Governess: You two! Go to the schoolroom and let your mother take her snuff in peace!

Mom: You’re hired!

How it would work is that mom and dad would put an advertisement in the newspaper to specialist employment agencies and girls schools.  The governess would be expected to teach the three Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic (and you have already failed as an applicant if you put “reading, riting, and rithmetic” on your application), as well as the “accomplishments,” which were the arts like foreign languages, painting (girls on watercolors only, oil's too manly), and the musical instruments of either the piano or the guitar because girls craning their necks or blowing into things is just a little too unseemly.  They would also cover a little history and “use of globes” (what I am presuming is very rudimentary geography).  A governess also had to set the moral example to the children since she would spend the most time with them.  She had to share the same religious beliefs as the family, so hiring a Catholic governess in England at the time was pretty much out of the question.  Also, it was an unwritten rule that you should hire a “plain” girl, lest the young men of the household become interested in slumming it.

“This sounds snooty.  Why would anyone do this?”

Well, women didn't have a lot of choices in the early 19th century.  The Napoleonic Wars had rendered Europe economically unstable, and that's just bad news for the middle class.  A boy could quit school at 15 and go into a trade without upsetting the family since it was always assumed he could earn whatever they had spent on his education and his family didn't have to support him.  A girl, though, could really only go into teaching or get married if she didn't want to be a burden to her parents.  Since being a governess meant you lived in somebody else's house and ate food you didn't have to buy or prepare yourself, that was a lot better than taking a hit to your dignity and becoming a laundress.  

If you met all these requirements, had nothing in your background that would make you seem to be anything less than a pillar of piety, and the family liked you, you would be hired on to teach their kids and follow their household's rules.

Sometimes that included going along with your Henry VIII delusions.

Constant OTJ Training

So now you're a governess, and you're going to learn pretty quickly that you're in for a lonely life with only rich people's kids for company. If you've ever watched the E! Entertainment Channel, you know where I'm going with this. Hint: you're not in for a lot of stimulating conversation and valid friendships.

Because most governesses came from middle class backgrounds in which they were educated, they were considered higher than most of the other service staff in the house. Cooks and maids were told to be deferential to the governesses, as well as the male equivalent, the tutor. And yet, you also weren't part of the family. You teach and entertain the kids all day long, but you don't get to sit down with them for dinner, for example.

“So who do you eat with?”

The mice in your school room, gentle reader. The mice in your school room. Depending on what genre of fiction you are in, you can make these mice your friends and sing to them about hoping for better days, or you can follow one up to the attic and find a dead body. Yes, the school room usually doubled as a sitting room for the governess, meaning that's where she was to hang out in the evenings after hours.  

Naturally, this kind of lifestyle doesn't lend itself to forming relationships, at least not with adults.  

“Couldn't you just invite the governess next door over for recess or something? Play date?”

Maybe, but if you were on a nice estate, the next-door neighbor was probably half a mile away or more, and if you are watching a lot of kids, you might need the carriage, which the dad has taken into town to talk with other dads about business and how silly ethnic people are while sipping brandy, so that's out.  If the family had a party, you were not invited to attend since it was your job to keep the kids in line. Worst of all, even if the family was outwardly nice to you, you were being watched like a hawk.

Lady McHighpants: (offscreen) Sir McHighpants!  Miss Drab is crying at the pianoforte because no one wanted to participate in music time!  Shall I have the lash to whip her hands for displaying such vulgar emotions in public?

Sir McHighpants: (offscreen muttering) Business things, business things, business things...

Remember, sexual harassment awareness was not a thing, and you're in a very Madonna/Whore society where you need to live up to men's expectations of a woman being pure and saintly at all times.  A book out there called Letters to a Young Governess instructed women on how to behave in order to keep their jobs and included this little gem:

“…if there are young men in the family where you reside, remember that your carriage will generally govern theirs; they will not presume, if you are discreet and unpretending.”

What this means is that if they made your life miserable, if they made personal remarks and you retaliated in any way, if they groped you, if they put you in a compromising position in any way, it was your fault.  And if you were fired for this, you wouldn't get a job elsewhere because now you're a harlot.  Anne Bronte entered the world of the governess in 1839 and eventually wrote an entire novel about her mistreatment in the field.  Agnes Grey depicts children who torture animals, lie, steal, and are generally unruly. The parents blame the governess, of course, as she has not established control.  On top of this is the wretched loneliness and lack of financial success.  Anne Bronte ended up never being a governess anywhere longer than five or six weeks as a result.  Things only got worse as she found a position for a male friend as a tutor who eventually had an affair with the lady of the house.  That went about as well as you would think, and the poor guy became a drunk. 

Original Stories From Real Life was a 1791 children's book by Mary Wollstonecraft about two girls and their fictional governess Mrs. Mason.  It is rare in that it champions the role of the governess.  Mary and Caroline, the two sisters, are orphaned and left to their governess, who slowly rids them of all their faults, the lesson being that proper education and care can create the balance between logic and emotions necessary for children to become rational, charitable adults. It's as dry as it sounds, but William Blake did the illustrations, if that helps.

Note this governess isn't the dark prude in the other paintings, but rather more like an angel, with her two devoted disciples on either side revering her. 

“Sure they aren't just coveting that really sweet bonnet?”

I'm sure.  Of course, this was 1791, though, and Mary Wollstonecraft was kind of a controversial figure, what with wanting women to be seen as equal to men and all.  By the 1830s and on, governesses were painted in shadow, wearing drab, mournful clothing, and sort of being the buzzkill. 

So it was a low-paying, tedious job that was mentally taxing and isolating, not to mention thankless.

When a governess' services were no longer required, she could stay on and be hired by one of the girls as a companion (read: ladies maid) or find another family.  The loneliness of the job continued into middle age, however, due to most of the men a governess would come into contact with were of the upper class and wouldn't be interested in a woman considered beneath their class.  So marrying out of the job was rare.  Also, since it was low-paying and required a few moves, many were impoverished by the time they reached middle age, the Governesses Benevolent Institution set up in 1841 to at least ensure these women got a pension.

Jane Eyre and a Rather Angry Fantasy

Rochester: Is this what existence is, Jane?

Jane: That’s the dog, sir.

The most famous fictional governess may very well be Jane Eyre, the titular heroine of Charlotte Bronte's 1847 classic.  Jane Eyre could be its own college course, so it will be a challenge for me to keep it concise and applicable to our topic.  The basic plot is that Jane grows up in a school from hell and instills in her two conflicting longings for kinship and independence (she's a passionate, thoughtful type).  Can she gain purpose and love without sacrificing her integrity and who she is at her core?  Thornfield Hall may provide the answer as she becomes a governess to Edward Rochester's French ward Adele.  Rochester is a little weird—okay, he's very weird—but he falls in love with Jane, she falls for him, and that's only about halfway through the book.  I can't tell you the big twist or how it's resolved, but the whole thing is very Gothic and you've got disembodied voices on the moors, beds on fire, out-of-nowhere family members—the whole thing's an intellectual trip.  

Okay, now, first of all, Jane Eyre received very mixed reviews from both men and women.  Those who hated it despised the idea of Jane not fitting the mold of the Victorian heroine.  Most heroines in the time period were completely self-sacrificing and passive, being the moral inspiration for the rest of their family members and basically being beautiful, sweet angels rather than characters.  If your heroine was smart and capable, she was also most likely an old maid, like Marion in The Woman in White.  If the heroine had any sexual side at all, she was presented as a tragic figure like Nancy in Oliver Twist or Tess in Tess of the D'Ubervilles.  

Jane was a more well-rounded character, very headstrong and independent, a firm believer that women should not be forced into the domestic life; this is fitting since Charlotte Bronte hated being a governess.  But Jane also craves companionship.  She is “plain and little,” a stark contrast from the unbelievably beautiful heroines who would always wind up just a wife, usually to a man not worthy of her.  Jane, however, wants an equal, someone who will love her for who she is rather than what society has prescribed them to view her as.  

Rochester: I've been standing in this position for hours waiting for you to come by.  

Jane: I work here.  And live here.

Rochester: Ah, Jane.  There's that wood sprite's wit I so love. (seriously, read the book.  He says things like this)

From a governess' perspective, this is both a fantasy and also perhaps a cautionary tale.  While Jane is happy at Thornfield Hall and rather lucky to have a friend in Mrs. Fairfax, a well-behaved kid in Adele, and an employer that, well, doesn't think she sucks, she feels something is missing.  She and Rochester are intellectual equals, but her low income and inability to properly socialize with the other women who visit keeps her at a lower status.  She has to actually ask for money to be able to travel to visit her own family (even though they're assholes and she's only going out of obligation), and, since she is reserved about this kind of thing, Rochester sort of one-ups her whenever he can to get some kind of rise out of her, to include dressing up like an old gypsy woman at his own party.  If you're like me, that's when he stopped being fun and a few red flags went up.  So while Jane has meaningful relationships, she knows deep down she still isn't being all she can be.  

I say it's a fantasy also, because, well, remember what I said everyone was afraid governesses would do with the men in the house?

Reenactment

The idea of your male boss falling in love with you might be flattering, hot, and an easy way to worm your way into high society if he's a widower, but no one would turn a blind eye to this kind of thing. Marriage was big news, especially when it came to the upper crust. There would be no way a rich gentleman could marry a governess and not cause a scandal.

“It's not exactly smooth sailing in the book, what with uninvited guests and what's in the attic.”

Well, Jane also discovers that having only independence and moral superiority is no life for her, either, as it deprives her of love and passion. Between a rock and a hard place, am I right? If you hooked up with a man in the household, odds are he was just using you, would brag to his friends, his parents/wife would find out, and then you'd be kicked out with no references or nest egg for these rainy-day occasions.

Jane Eyre was written at a time when a lot of what was considered common knowledge was seriously being questioned.  Were women really better suited for the domestic stuff because of biology?  Could the bumps on your head really give insight to your inner character?  Are crazy people actually sick and in need of help?  And, should we really be treating our governesses like crap when they have already suffered so much?

“Being a Governess Sucks” Lit

As people began valuing education more, the role of the governess changed from Debbie Downer to just an unfortunate turn of events for your average young woman.  Little Women, Emma, and Vanity Fair all have characters who either hate being a governess or hate the idea of needing to become one.  The latter, in fact, is kind of a humorous take on every respectable aristocrat's worst nightmare of a bitch in governess' clothing swooping in and just taking over.  Becky Sharp, you magnificent bastard!  I've read your book!

In 1898, Henry James decided that the loneliness and potential powerlessness a governess could have would be an excellent fit for a different genre of literature—horror.  “The Turn of the Screw” is one of the best novellas EVER and has been adapted into one of the best horror movies period, The Innocents.  This governess doesn't even get a name, and we don't even get a full picture of what's going on since this is one of those frame stories where someone else is narrating to us what happened to someone else. Is this a case of an unreliable narrator?  Is the governess cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?  Are the kids possessed?  Are the kids just clever little shits?  We don't know!  

The story is that a governess has been hired to care for a man's nephew and niece, Miles and Flora, the former having just been expelled from school for talking to the other boys about some very inappropriate things.  The governess learns that their former governess and the gardener had a relationship, were jerks, spent a lot of time with the kids, and are both dead.  The kids start acting weirder, the governess starts acting paranoid, and I can't even tell you the strangest stuff because that would be giving away spoilers.

You ever watch an old movie and think the set would be the perfect haunted house?  And then come to find out it actually MIGHT be a haunted house?  Welcome to The Innocents, folks.  Popcorn and adult diapers both strongly recommended.

The film version spells things out just a little bit more than the story, but it in no way gives the viewer a clear answer that explains what is happening, if this is a haunting, a possession, or people losing their minds.  Either way, the governess (played by Deborah Kerr, who we will also talk about later) is in way over her head here.  That's the thing.  Somewhere along the line, men decided that two things were incredibly easy—house cleaning and child care, and if you've ever had to do either, you know how wrong that is.  But no, from the Victorian period on, there have been slogans for newfangled appliances being “So easy a woman can do it,” moms doing chores in their pearls, and cartoon animals helping out with dishes and sewing.  Somewhere along the line, someone decided that people who look after children can work long hours and be given only the thinnest shred of authority, and yet pay them very little for it. This woman has no resources.  She has an illiterate servant who can give her back story, but that's about it, the uncle she was attracted to at the beginning won't answer her letters asking for advice, and there aren't that many neighbors around.  And when kids decide they're not going to listen to you, they're not going to listen to you.

One has to wonder if the story would be a little more clear-cut if it wasn't a governess in the position.  If it was someone with a job that usually inspired images of competence and intelligence, like a doctor, would we be more inclined to think the events were real and not just someone going crazy?  

“Um no, Deborah Kerr was a little off her rocker before even showing up to the house.”

Very true.  The ambiguity is tantalizingly frustrating, and the movie just adds so much atmosphere that it's impossible not to watch it while on the edge of your seat.  I don't think I'm spoiling anything, but here is an image of her seeing one of the supposed ghosts:

The black and white doesn't diminish the terror at all.  Look how ambiguous and shadowy that looks!  And there is this really neat scene where Flora insists she doesn't see the woman all in black staring them down across a field...  

“It's governess vs. governess!”

That's another thing to touch on.  Miss Jessel, the deceased governess, is implied in a few places to have taken part in things with the kids present that kids really shouldn't be present for, if you get my drift.  Was she as depraved in life as she's purported to have been?  Or was this a lonely, desperate woman who either sought out companionship or was forced/manipulated into something?  How much do the kids actually know?  Because they talk and carry themselves like little adults, let me tell you.  You will not find creepier kids who do so little to come across as creepy.  Any other scary-movie child seems to be putting an effort into it whereas it just comes that naturally to these two.

So this is kind of a worst-case scenario for the life of a governess?

“She gets plagued by ghosts???”

No, she has children with issues that extend well outside her expertise, has no support system to help her cope with that or help the children at all, and ends up suffering the consequences of said issue worse than anyone else.  If Anne Bronte had little psychopath kids in her care, then others did, too, and if the parents wouldn't do anything and you have no friends to help you, you have one of two choices—quit your job and start worrying about how you will eat, or put up with it until something really bad happens.  

Weapons of Magic or Song (Sometimes Both!)

Into the 20th century, people valued education more than ever before and began respecting educators more for it, although female teachers were still seen as intellectually inferior to men since they only taught little kids while men were learned professors. Oh, add another thing to things men think are easy—house cleaning, child care, and teaching little kids the right way to hold a pencil.

There was a resurgence of the governess as a heroine in the late 40s that extended well into the 60s, a time when people wanted more conservative messages and clearly-defined heroes and villains in their stories, but also when people were challenging the establishment. Rodgers and Hammerstein were those people. Their musicals might have some whimsy to them, but they deal with some very real subject matter, like Carousel addressing domestic abuse and South Pacific dealing with racism.

In 1951, they adapted the memoirs of Anna Leonowens into their stage musical The King and I, which became a movie in 1956. The real Anna did indeed go to Siam (now Thailand) to teach King Monkut's 39 wives/concubines and 82 children, keeping a correspondence with Prince Chulalongkorn, the heir to the throne, well into his adult years. However, there probably wasn't as much sexual tension in real life, King Mongkut known to regard Anna as difficult to work with, and since he was known to be a laid-back, nice guy, most Thai people find Yul Brynner's eccentric, temperamental performance offensive.

Once again, this is kind of a fantasy playing out. Anna, in the story, gains some political clout, is yet another governess who has the head male of the household crushing on her, and miraculously gets 82 kids to not only sit still, but participate in musical numbers.

But on the other hand, The King and I deals with culture clash, sexism, and racism.  Anna and the King engage in as much sexual tension-laden situations as Jane and Rochester, but his inner conflict with sticking to tradition vs. branching out makes it an impossible relationship.  Anna herself is portrayed almost without flaws, the epitome of grace and mental/emotional resolve, very similar to Disney's Belle.  The Asian characters, well, most are portrayed sympathetically and the King and the supporting players are three-dimensional characters, so that's pretty progressive for 1951. Again, though, this is kind of an angry fantasy as Anna is influential and gets to go on this amazing adventure, but the women who would ordinarily be her peers are her students, there is a ton of pressure on her as the only representative of Western thought and ideals (that is portrayed as superior in most productions), and she and the King can never really act on what's sizzling between them.  

So is this what the life of a governess is, wherever she may go, always stuck in an odd place between progress and repression?  

Rodgers and Hammerstein made a governess their main character again in 1959 with a little show of theirs called The Sound of Music, in which yet again a real-life governess' life is slightly fictionalized.  Again, a woman is brought in to teach a brood of kids (“only” seven this time, though), clashes with the dad, and ends up a heroine in a oppressive society.  It's a little more in-your-face than The King and I, which purposely kept things vague or only in subtext, when your governess is pitted against freakin' NAZIS.  

Maria's more free-spirited answer to goose-stepping was doing the Charleston in floral-print

Maria is an interesting character mainly because she's a slightly more somber free spirit type.  She could fit right in with Lucy Ricardo or in a Katharine Hepburn screwball comedy, but she has an intensely spiritual side and can be both well-spoken and passionate when sticking up for her beliefs.  She can relate to the children so well because she too knows what it's like to feel you're not good enough when you're a vivacious, outgoing person in a restrictive society that demands you be something you're not, and it's this refusal to just shut up and color that attracts Captain von Trapp to her in the first place.

“Where's MY brooding, handsome single dad who will eventually come to learn life lessons from ME?”

Alas, it's a lot more common for women to inspire men morally in fiction than the other way around, and this does seem to be becoming a trope, doesn't it—the governess having a relationship with the dad.  It doesn't seem to end well in real life (see Jude Law and a couple of other celebrities), but these movies rarely focus solely on how the governess impacts the children, and she NEVER influences the mother, if there even is one.  It's always the dad, and maybe that's just because most of us are suckers for a good romance, but there has to be more to it than that.

Cuz so many single dads out there really dig the top-button, long-sleeved governess apparel.  Rrooowr.

Captain von Trapp's back story is that he was a Navy man and a musician in his spare time, but when his wife died and left him with seven kids, he decided no music and more marching would be his parenting style.  Maria, who by now has struck up a strong bond with the kids, chides him for not being emotionally available to his kids, and it's when he hears them sing—which she taught them to do—that he realizes she was right.  Now, fortunately the musical doesn't drag this out for longer than it has to and the couple will soon have Nazis to worry about, but what is the fantasy here?  Did governesses desire marriage, and, if so, did they desire a marriage to their employer?  

There's really no way to find out, but I can see it both ways.  On the one hand, marriage was a viable way to escape bad situations back in the day.  It's similar to the Cinderella situation.  You're trapped in a miserable life until a guy with the right resources volunteers to take you away from it.  Cinderella doesn't want to go to that ball so badly just because of plot reasons; she's looking for a way out of her terrible family life and has run out of all other options.  A governess didn't meet that many men, she didn't have many friends, and if the strongest relationships she formed were with the kids that she was already mothering a lot more than their biological mother was, maybe it's not too much of a leap to assume that, if the dad was single, he might marry her and make her lady of the house so she is doing the same job of nurturing the kids she already loves, but now with the added perks of financial security and adult companionship.  

But, then again, I'm certain just as many of these bosses were jerks and there is no way in hell the governess would want anything to do with them.  There is that cliché of liking the bad boy so you can be the one that changes him, but...

Governess: Mister Smith, young Master Winthrop had these matches in his pocket.

Mister Smith: Goodness gracious, Miss Governess!  How dare you stifle and coddle this young explorer of mine!  The other boys will think he's a sissy!

Governess: But what if he burns the house down, sir?

Mister Smith: Then you're fired!

Governess: Mister Smith, young Myrtle was dangling her undergarments in front of the boy next door, and I thought I should bring it to your attention.

Mister Smith: Have you not taught her basic decorum?  What books are you giving her?  Not too many, I hope!  I'm sure she saw you do that.  You're the only one she could have learned that from.  Her mother hasn't shown me her undergarments for the last six years!

Governess: Mister Smith, I've received a letter from my sister that our mother is on her death bed, my father is now crippled, and the pig ate my brother's hand.  Could I have a week's advance on my salary and five days off to see them?

Mister Smith: Good God, Miss Governess!  You can't leave at a time like this! Winthrop is a little arsonist and Myrtle's one step away from becoming a whore!  We need you!

You see where I'm going with this?  I get when the bad boy at the playground pulls your pigtails because he likes you, but even very young governesses would be able to pick up on the fact that the dad just never has her back.  There is that stereotype that women like guys who treat them badly, but, come on.  If you work for an asshole, you know it.  

Not that Captain von Trapp is an asshole.  He opposes Nazis, is a veteran, seems to be a decent fellow once he loosens up a little, and led his kids across the Alps so they wouldn't have to be in Hitler Youth programs (not in real life.  They just got on a train).  But what is it about changing the dad that makes for such a popular story?  Certainly there is more going on with Maria than that as she changes the whole household.  

One word: power.

Maria may not crave power in the conventional sense, but this is the one way the governess could legitimately wield a ton of power—influencing the family.  She already influences the kids. They spend more time with her than with anyone else.  But if she can influence the parents and maybe even befriend them, she's really got a good thing going.  Jane Eyre doesn't fall for Rochester because he's rich, but rather because he likes having her around!  They talk, they bond, they talk about each other's pasts and problems (albeit not all of them, at first).  She has adult companionship, a friend. This means she isn't just the lowly governess.  She's a valued member of the household, someone people would miss, not because of the services they render, but because of who they are.  

Maybe that's why there are so many stories of a governess being able to do magic.  Magic is power.

“I thought it was knowledge.”

Pretty sure if you can do magic, you're at an advantage, too.  Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the more recent Nanny McPhee feature middle-aged, single women caring for children that aren't theirs, changing the kids' lives for the better, the former actually using her witchcraft to battle Nazis.  They just can't get away from all the supernatural tomfoolery, can they?  Miss Price, played to perfection by Angela Lansbury, wants to learn magic to help the Allies win World War Two.  Talk about influence.  Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) may have things on a smaller scale, but she plays just as pivotal a role in the lives of the family members she works for, her mantra, “When you need me, but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, I have to go.”  

Influence might just be what every governess wished she had more of, and so we come now to the governess of a story that allows her to change the very dynamic of the family she serves.

Originally a children's book series that lasted from 1934 all the way to 1988, it was adapted by the Walt Disney Company into a masterpiece of a film in 1964, and one that can and should be its own meta.  It went through development hell, and one of the aspects Saving Mr. Banks got right was the importance and success of the movie hinging not on the character of Mary Poppins saving the children, but saving the father, who is too much of a workaholic to spend quality time with them.

This has kind of been done to death, the dad so wrapped up in his work that his family life is passing him by, but in no other movie I know of is it done so poignantly.  Mary Poppins waltzes in with her no-nonsense attitude, basically hires herself, and when she is about to be fired, she actually masterminds a field trip for Mr. Banks to take the kids on that will have nigh-miraculous results.

I'm of the opinion Mary Poppins (and also Bert) is not quite human, but it doesn't really matter.  The lesson of learning to take in life's simple joys is illustrated so beautifully in the haunting “Feed the Birds” song, an amazing scene between Bert and Mr. Banks when Bert sort of spells out what Mary Poppins has been doing this whole time, and a gorgeously-filmed sequence when Mr. Banks walks to the bank, expecting to be fired himself, and reflects on all that has happened.  It's not really the kids learning life lessons from Mary Poppins, as they're in reality good kids who are just bored and in need of some attention.  Mr. Banks is the one who is just a little too set in his ways and can't be bothered to give his own children any warmth.  What stops this from being too cutesy or too preachy is Mary Poppins' practical attitude.  She's not an ice queen, but a firm, stubborn woman who denies she does anything magical.

But she gives the kids cough syrup that tastes like rum and dates homeless guys.

The governess aspect of Mary Poppins may be the most believable. See, for all my snark, I find it hard to believe that every single governess suffered. Teaching today is underappreciated and underpaid, but people still do it because it is so rewarding. They are shaping lives. They are an adult kids can go to for help and look up to, maybe even emulate. The job of a governess was to nurture young people, and while some kids I'm sure hated their governesses, there had to be some out there who really loved theirs.

The “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” sequence never fails to make me cry because it's the whole point of the movie. As Mary Poppins watches as the happy family goes arm in arm to the park, it's a bittersweet moment, but isn't it also the best-case scenario a governess can hope for? She did what she went there to do—save this family by teaching them to make time for each other. Realistically, she's not part of the joy, but she is responsible for it. It has to be a little sad for a teacher to watch his/her students move on to the next grade, but it is what is supposed to happen. It's a sign he/she has done a good job. The entire scene is so moving because it really brings everything home. Mr. Banks gets his job back along with a promotion, proving you don't have to sacrifice your family to move up the ladder. Mrs. Banks puts her suffragette sash on the kite, literally making it “come out of the closet” and be acknowledged by her family as something she is passionate about. The kids can look forward to outings with their parents and a lot more warmth at home. All of it is done by Mary Poppins without a thank you, or even a goodbye.

That's why I think the governess as a heroine persists and is a popular choice for storytelling. There is a risk-taking aspect to this woman, no matter how prim and proper she may seem, for she is venturing out on her own with a specific purpose, and it's a noble purpose. The people around her in the story change because of her. She is making things happen, things that have to happen for children to mature. She might find love, she might fight off ghosts, but the woman is a hero for encouraging and persevering, all with very little expectation of credit. Just to give you a real-life example as my conclusion, here is a photo of Anne Sullivan with Helen Keller: