#the addition of him being married and having a child in his bio is actually the weirdest thing to me

[pynkhues]

Wait why would he take out Good girls off his Bio wasn’t that like his break out role or something 😭😭😂. And is that like a normal thing to do to take work off your résumé?  I don’t know anything about Hollywood lol but anyways, very interesting. 😂👀 ☕️ also thank you for answering my ask :) I’ve been trying to find more about the short film but I couldn’t find anything. Do you know anything about it!!? Cool that they’re both working with such a stacked cast That’s awesome.

Mmm, I'd say Graceland would probably have been his breakout role as it seems to me to be what saw him transition from guest roles to series regular roles, but it's definitely his most significant recent role given Mayans was a one-season arc and his roles in Westworld and All American were so small.

He's still got Good Girls on his resume, but to drop it from his bio and replace it with a project that's not even out yet (Ironheart) [how can you be 'known' for a role no one's seen you in yet?] and an older project (The Mule) is definitely a Choice and I think likely indicates that he's trying to distance himself from the role and the show. It happens, but I think it's a pretty interesting choice given he doesn't really have many upcoming projects outside of Ironheart which has been delayed to 2025.

But yes! I haven't found much about the short film either! I'm curious as to what it might lead to. Given the number of people in it, I lowkey wonder if it's a proof-of-concept short for a bigger project, but who knows. Guess we'll just have to wait and see :-)

[peterxwade24]

Meant for Greatness

"Not Such a Normal Girl"

For Maribat March 2021 day 20 prompt Speed Force (if you squint hard enough).

This is a bio parent au, so if you don't like you don't have to read.

This is also incredibly late but it's the first chapter in a new multi-chaptered fic so, yay?

Anyways, enjoy?

Wally had always known that there was a piece of him missing. He couldn’t explain why but he had this sinking feeling in the bit of his stomach that a part of him was out there. Wally wished he knew why he felt like that but he couldn’t pinpoint the source. Nonetheless, Wally had had this feeling for several years now.

---

Linda Park-West had made several mistakes in her life. However, after marrying Wally and having Jai and Irey, her biggest mistake and her biggest regret was giving away their first child. In Linda’s defense, they were young and had barely started dating when she got pregnant. She had made sure that their baby, a little girl named Minji, went to a loving family. She can’t believe that she just gave away her baby but at the same time, Linda knew she wouldn’t have been able to raise her baby on her own. She could only hope that her baby was being raised right, and that her baby was loved.

---

Marinette had always been a hyperactive kid, almost too hyperactive, and her parents had taken her to several psychologists and psychiatrists before she’d finally gotten a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a prescription for Guanfacine.

Marinette was a normal girl, with a normal life, or, she claimed to be. Marinette wasn’t even the only kid in her class with ADHD, she was just the only kid in class with ADHD with a prescription. Marinette was always getting into things, she always needed to know everything about everything.

Her parents had encouraged her to sign up for several extracurriculars, including but not limited to a science club and a free running club. They wanted her to get out as much of her excess energy before she got home as possible because they weren’t always the best suited to dealing with her so they kept her as busy as possible while she was awake.

Marinette thrived in her extracurriculars, but she didn’t have many friends in them. Sure, she was friendly with everyone in her various clubs and activities but no one put in the effort to actually become friends with her. However, things would change with the addition of Chinese lessons.

---

Marinette was ten when she found a flyer for Chinese lessons being given by an elderly Chinese man who lived a few streets away from the bakery. She simply had to show her parents the flyer and suddenly she was taking Chinese lessons. She excelled in her Chinese lessons, learning more and more as she continued to visit her teacher, who she called Master.

What Marinette didn’t know, was that she was learning more than just Chinese. Master Fu, her Chinese teacher, was teaching her a much more ancient language as well as Chinese. He was training Marinette to take over for him when he passed. She didn’t know that by the time she turned thirteen she would know more about the beings she was being taught about then he did, she didn’t know that by the time she was thirteen she would be in charge of the beings she currently thought of as simply an ancient legend.

---

Marinette was sitting in her homeroom waiting for class to start, the seat next to her was empty like usual because she was usually very distracted and had a habit of distracting whomever sat next to her. She didn’t mean to, she just couldn’t focus.

Mlle. Bustier, her homeroom teacher, was standing in front of the class with a smile on her face. Mlle. Bustier clapped to get the students’ attention. “All right everyone. This year, things are going to be a little different. First of all, everyone’s switching seats. Yes, I do mean everyone.” Mlle. Bustier surveyed the class and saw the disappointment in their eyes. “It’s for the best, it builds character. Now, everyone up.”

The class stood up, their belongings in their arms and frowns on their faces. They paired up differently than they usually would. Mylène, who would usually sit with Ivan in the back, was now sitting beside Sabrina in the front while Ivan was sitting with Max diagonally behind Mylène. Sabrina’s usual seatmate, Chloè was sitting beside Alix across the aisle from Mylène and Sabrina, with Sabrina and Chloè in the non aisle seats. Kim, who usually sat beside Max or Alix, was seated beside Marinette across the siale from Max and Ivan with Max and Kim in the aisle seats. Juleka sat beside Nino behind Kim and Marinette while Rose and Nathanael were sitting together at the desk behind Max and Ivan. This seating arrangement left the back two desks for any new students but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be rearranged at some point.

What Mlle. Bustier hadn’t thought through was sitting the two students with ADHD beside each other.

Marinette, despite her prescription, was still extremely distracted but her brain seemed to go a hundred miles a minute. She did however, get all of her work done and then immediately start on something else for one of her other classes and suddenly before she knew it the bell was ringing releasing her from her homeroom. She collected her belongings and made her way to Chemistry, however it seemed as though she just blinked and she was there.

---

After school, Marinette has her Chinese lessons. She loves her Chinese lessons, because she can go off on a tangent and learn new words associated with her tangent.

So, Marinette skipped to her Chinese lessons merrily. She couldn’t wait to find out what she was going to be learning today.

“Hello Master Fu.” Marinette called as she entered the massage parlor and slipped her shoes off.

“Hello Marinetta.” Master Fu called from the back room. “Come in and take a seat. We’ll begin in a minute.”

“Yes Master Fu.” Marinette quietly walked into the main room and took a seat beside the table. She noticed that the Gramophone which usually sat on a side table against one of the walls was proudly displayed in the center of the table.

Master Fu joined her a few moments later, a smile on his face. “I know you were expecting to learn Chinese today, but I had something else in mind. I think it’s time you met some friends of mine.” Master Fu pressed some of the buttons on the side of the gramophone and suddenly it was opening and an octagonal box was rising out of the base of the gramophone. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng, may I introduce the Box of Miracles and the Kwamii.” Master Fu opened the Box of Miracles and smiled.

Seventeen small, animal-esque, creatures flew around Marinette with smiles on their faces before they all turned back to Master Fu and it seemed like they forced their smiles.

One of the creatures, who looked like a ladybug, seemed to step into the roll of the leader. “Master Fu. She’s a child. Surely you can’t be thinking-”

“Tikki. I am an old man. I needed a successor and the Universe brought her to me.”

Marinette could only stand in shock. Maybe she wasn’t such a normal girl with a normal life, maybe she was meant for greatness.

[sayuricorner]

Miraculous Ladybug salt x Jojo’s bizarre adventure: “Biodad!Jonathan Joestar” AU

Headcanons part 1

Warning: English is not my first language so sorry if it’s confusing.

Warning 2: This AU content salt don’t like don’t read!

Warning 3: For the Jojo character’s palettes colors I use the anime palette colors as reference.

If you want to use this AU you can! just credite and tag me in return please! :)

----------------------------

So, in many ML biodad AUs Marinette’s bio dad is most of the time someone like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark, but how about:

                                 Biodad! Jonathan Joestar AU

I mean when you think about it both Marinette and Jonathan are alike in looks and personnality!

Appearance:

-Both got blue hair

-Both got light blue eyes

Personnality:

-Both are kind souls

-Both are selfless and think about others before themself most of the time

-Both got a strong sense of justice

-Both are very smart

-Both are combative when needed

-Both don’t hesitate to put themself in danger to protect others

-Both can over-react when they’re carried away by their emotions

And just imagine the story possibilities with this AU!

“But Sayuri! Jonathan Joestar is from the Victorian aera and Marinette is born in the french modern aera how Jonathan would be Marinette’s bio dad in this AU?”

Well the same way which make Giorno, Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel Jonathan’s kids:

Yep! In this AU Marinette is another child born from Dio’s one night stands!

Now I know that make Marinette Dio’s daughter too and I know Giorno, Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel are mostly know as Dio’s children but to be honest I consider them more as Jonathan’s kids than as Dio’s because honnestly outside of the head the rest of the body is Jonathan’s.

How Marinette’s conception happen then? Well here’s how:

Years before Marinette’s birth, a young adult Sabine Cheng was on a trip in Egypt, she meet Dio in a bar one night, he seduced her and they got a one night stand, with Dio having the intention to suck Sabine’s blood after, but at one Dio got a brutal crisis.

Normally anyone would get afraid and run away but instead Sabine, being the kind person she was, had done all she can to calm down Dio with all the tenderness she can give. And without being aware of it this actually saved her life.

After helping Dio to calm down both fall asleep, Dio woke up later in night while Sabine was still asleep.

Remembering the warm and familiar kind feeling he experienced during his “episode”, a feeling he didn’t feel for a very long time, he decided to spare Sabine under the pretext he wasn’t in the mood to suck her blood anymore before living to go back to his mansion.

In the morning Sabine wake up only to notice Dio left and never see him again after that night, she go on with her trip and when she go back to France she found out she was pregnant.

She decided to keep the baby, times later she meet and fall in love with Tom Dupain, both end up marrying to each other and Tom adopt Marinette and became legally her father.

The Dupain-Cheng couple also decided to give her a middle name “Joanne” in memory of one of Tom’s aunts with who he was close, making her full name “Marinette Joanne Dupain-Cheng”

Does that mean Marinette in this AU had the Joestar birthmark? Yep, she does! And she also got the Joestar genes when it’s come to body shape: as a kid she look like a shrimp but when she will be older she will get rather tall and will got more muscules to her peers’s surprise.

Did she had a stand in this AU? Yes!

Her stand is called [Viva la vida], a reference to the Coldplay’s song, this stand had the power to create miracles like making plants grow, healing illness and bad injures or being a big source of luck she also had a big affinity with plants and animals. But her powers had limits for example while her miracles allow her to bring back someone to life it’s only possible if the dead person isn’t dead for a too long time and make a powerfull miracle drain Marinette energy and she end up knocked out for a time.

When Marinette is Ladybug, [Viva la vida]’s miracles powers are stronger.

[Viva la vida] isn’t a stand know for her strengh but she’s very fast which allow her to make a lot of punches and kicks at the same time.

Stand’s appearance: [Viva la vida] is an humanoid stand with beetle features, her color schemes are black white and pink, she had beetle wings, big rond blue non-reflective eyes and her head is rond with two anthenas and is a head smaller than Marinette.

But if [Viva la vida] is a cute stand when Marinette is a civil, when the young girl took her Ladybug form, her stand took a more imposing and majesting appearance, she became taller, more muscular, her eyes smaller and almond shaped, her whole body get more armors features and her colors scheme change to black and red with black dots and she emit a rather intimidating aura.

Stand’s behavior: [Viva la vida] is a very expressive stand and very sentient and is a friendly and playfull stand. She’s very curious by nature and had the habit to examin in curiosity when Marinette meet new people or stands. Her being very sentient allow her to sometimes act as a conscience to Marinette.

She also love to eat cookies baked by Marinette.

When Marinette is Ladybug, [Viva la vida] is more serious and a more combative behavior.

Stand’s cry: “Mira!” a reference to “miraculous” and to the word miracle.

AU additional details:

-Class salt

-Bustier salt/bad teacher Bustier

-Adrien salt or Adrien sugar(it’s up to whoever use this AU)

-Lila salt

-Chloe redemption

-Class redemption, a part having a redemption or none of them having a redemption(you choose)

-Permanent miraculous user Luka

-Permanent miraculous user Kagami

-Stand user Luka

-Not everyone die AU/temporary death AU: if some Jojo characters like the Pillarmen, Caesar, Kakoyin, Avdol and Iggy are alive but others like Buccellatti, Abbacchio, Narancia and La Squadra are still dead but will not stay dead(You’ll see).

-Good father Jotaro

-Marinette's closed friends/loved ones calling her "Jojo" in reference to her middle name "Joanne"

-Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel adopted by the Dupain-Cheng

-Protective siblings Donatello, Giorno, Rikiel and Ungalo

-Marinette being the baby sister of all Jonathan’s and Dio’s kids

-[Viva la vida] being a cute stand

-Marinette, Giorno, Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel not acknowledging Dio as their dad

-Protective Joestar family

-Jonadad

-Good parents Sabine and Tom Dupain-Cheng

-Permanent miraculous users Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel

-Badass Marinette

-Scientist Gina Dupain at Speedwagon Foundation

-Diavolo and Doppio getting differents boddies

-Akumatised Marinette with her stand being corrupted and turned into a sentimonster.(You’ll see! ;) )

-Temporary Ladybug!Giorno (You’ll see! ;) )

-Diavolo still stuck in the death loop(’cause it’s only canon if Diavolo die!)

-The Pillarmen knowing about the miraculous

-Shipping:You decide the ship you want just not Adrinette please

Arcs for this AU:

The bizarre origins arc:

This arc is about the origins of Marinette’s birth, her growing up and getting a stand, becoming Ladybug and learning to accomplish her duties as Ladybug while learning to control and use her stand and meeting others stand users.(ex: Luka)

The bizarre USA adventures arc:

Take place times after Lila’s return, the liar keep her word and little by little Marinette’s friends turned their back on her and the fights against the akumas are always very hard to not say harder especially ever since she became the guardian.

Seeing their daughter’s moral so down Sabine and Tom decide to send Marinette to Gina to the USA for summer break. After making sure to had Kaalki with her to teleport back to Paris when an akuma attack, Marinette go on a trip to the USA with her grandmother.

But what should have been a normal vacation trip will take a bizarre turn when Marinette will learn about Gina’s job at the mysterious Speedwagon Foundation which will lead to a meeting with four ancients Aztec gods of fitness, getting informations about stands and her mysterious lineage and a meeting with three american unknow brothers.

(In this AU the Pillarmen aren’t dead after Battle Tendency but they’re detained by the Speedwagon Foundation)

The bizarre mass resurection mystery arc:

A lot of things happened in Marinette’s life, things she didn’t expected whatever in good or bad.

Finding out about her grandmother’s job at the Speedwagon Foundation, learning more about her stand, finding about the existence of three brothers and having said newfound brothers being adopted by her parents, her friends isolating her thank to Lila and learning she by Bustier she and Chloe were banned from the class field trip...

So she decided with to create with other classmates from the school a trip club and after some successful fundraisers the club get a trip to Italy.

And since Hawkmoth seemed to not have attacked for a time there isn’t any problems to go on that trip.

In Italy, on Giorno’s side the part 5 events happen just like in canon while on Marinette’s side she and the trip club get a good time in Italy until a particuliary violent stand user akuma attack the country. He was akumatised by Hawkmoth ‘cause Gabriel Agreste was on a business trip in Italy and thought creating a akuma in the country would attract Ladybug and Chat Noir and give him an advantage since the akuma attack in a unfamiliar place.

The fight was very hard but in the end Marinette and her allies were able to beat the akuma and with her miraculous powers combined with her stand powers she revert any damage... it’s even worked for damage/injuries/death by stands leaving Marinette knocked out for a time since she use a lot of energy while using her stand’s miracle powers.

On Giorno’s side after he beat Diavolo and became the boss it was noticed that Buccelatti, Narancia, Abbacchio, the whole La Squadra were bring back to life.

Even Doppio was back but in a boddy of his own.

Everyone thought at first this was the work of [Gold experience requiem] but it was reveiled later this was the work of another stand which will put Giorno, his gang and even Jotaro with the SWF on a big infestigation which will lead them to the stand user resposible for this mystery and unknowly to them and to Marinette to one big bizarre family reunion.

The bizarre family arc:

With everything which happened in Italy, Marinette not only had to deal with Lila, Hawkmoth, the akumas and her guardian duties but also with the discovery of an extended families and horrible and disturbing informations about “one of her bio fathers”.

And one day Lila took things too far leading Marinette to unleash all her frustration, stress and anger making her akumatised and it will be up to Giorno as a temporary Ladybug holder, her true friends and her family to saved her from herself and from Hawkmoth’s influence.

But the task will be hard with not only Marinette being akumatised but also with her stand [Viva la vida] having being unconsciously corrupted by Mayura while trying to corrupt Marinette turning her into a sentimonster.

The bizarre final showdown arc:

A alliance between Hawkmoth and a mysterious priest will lead the miraculous villain to his ultimate plan by helping the priest to resurect a powerful man, a man infamous for being a curse to the Joestar family and to the world, with the promise to achieve Heaven and to gain a power which will allow Hawkmoth to do all he want.

It will be up to Marinette, her friends, allies and her new found family to put an end to Hawkmoth once for all and to beat this priest before the worst happen with the resurection of the infamous Dio.

But bizarre chains of events will lead to another resurection, the resurection of a man very well know by the Joestar family and who’s tightly connected to Marinette, Giorno, Donatello, Ungalo and Rikiel.

[ayuuria]

Yashahime Translation: Animage December 2020 Issue (Part 1)

Please do not repost this translation without my consent! This includes screenshots. If you wish to share this translation, simply link to this post.

For more information regarding the use of my translations, click here.

This month’s Animage article was quite loaded with 6 pages of content. It consisted of an illustration with Kohaku and Hisui (2 pages), an interview with Kimura Ryōhei and Urao Takehiro (2 pages), and an interview with Uru (2 pages). That being said, this translation has been split into two parts.

Part 1: Interview with Kimura Ryōhei and Urao Takehiro Part 2: Interview with Uru

Click Here to read Part 2

The Demon Slayers Have Arrived!

While butting heads with each other, the strength of unity between Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha slowly increases. Watching over and supporting those three girls are the uncle and nephew demon slayer combo.

Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha return to the feudal era from the modern Reiwa era. Lately, they have been slaying more demons together. In episode 5, they defeated one of the “Four Perils”, Tōkotsu; in episode 6, they subdued the demon cats nesting in the old temple. Each has a different goal: Towa’s is to break the spell of the “Dream Butterfly” cast upon Setsuna, Setsuna’s is to fulfill her duties as a demon slayer, and Moroha’s is to defeat demon bounties in order to pay off her debt. However, from spending time together, their teamwork seems to be slowly improving.

Supporting the girls’ efforts are demon slayers Kohaku and Hisui. The two of them show concern for Towa and the others by doing things like taking care of Towa who came from the modern era or providing hints to Setsuna on demon subjugation. Especially Kohaku who has relations with their parents in that he joined forces with them to defeat Naraku. Given that, that could be more reason why he pays attention to the girls. Starting from the reason why the Tree of Ages requested the three girls to “Defeat Kirinmaru and Sesshōmaru” to the existence of Rin sleeping within the Tree of Ages, the circumstances surrounding the three girls is full of mystery. Surely Kohaku and Hisui’s existence will become of help to the girls as they overcome trials.

(Character Bios)

Kohaku When he was a boy, it was said that he “Wasn’t suited to be demon slayer” but now he serves as the head of the clan. He was the one who accepted Setsuna as a demon slayer.

Hisui Miroku and Sango’s child and a demon slayer who fights with Hiraikotsu as his weapon. He did not know Setsuna was a half-demon until he was told by Kaede in episode 3.

Higurashi Towa In order to free her younger sister, Setsuna, from the spell of the Dream Butterfly, she returns to the feudal era. Due to having lived in the modern era for so long, she is somewhat hesitant about fighting demons.

Setsuna A demon slayer who had her sleep and childhood memories stolen by the Dream Butterfly. While she pushes away her elder sister, Towa, who for some reason involves herself with her, she also seems to be concerned for her (Towa).

Moroha In order to repay her debt, she bounty hunts. When she puts on rouge, she becomes “The Country Destroying Beniyasha” and displays unparalleled strength but she falls asleep less than a minute later.

Miroku A monk who previously traveled with Inuyasha. Defeating Naraku, the Wind Tunnel in his right hand disappeared. After the battle, he married Sango and became the father to three children which includes Hisui.

Sango Kohaku’s older demon slayer sister. She previously traveled with Inuyasha and her weapon at the time was Hiraikotsu. She had three children with Miroku: Kin’u, Gyokuto, and Hisui.

That Kohaku Became a Dignified Adult

The Role of Kohaku: Kimura Ryōhei “Kohaku is a character that also appeared in “Inuyasha” but he matured well. When one’s impression of him changes this much, I don’t have to keep Akko-san (Yajima Akiko who voiced Kohaku in his boyhood) in mind so he’s easier to play which is nice. As of now, he has the impression of an adult who doesn’t get into a tight spot or loses composure. They handle him with dignity so I think I can play him without worry.“ (translator’s note: Not sure if I translated that last sentence correctly…)

Kohaku During His Boyhood

Sango’s younger brother. He lost his life to Naraku’s trap but was revived with the power of the Shikon Jewel shard. At first, he was being controlled by Naraku but he regained his memories later on.

Kohaku and Sesshōmaru’s relationship

In the story of “Inuyasha”, Kohaku was always in danger of demons targeting the Shikon Jewel shard. At one point, Sesshōmaru saves Kohaku who had been captured by Byakuya of the Mirage and afterwards, Kohaku accompanies Sesshōmaru on his travels. Normally Sesshōmaru does not get close to others but he did not object to Kohaku travelling with him. It could be that to Sesshōmaru, Kohaku was someone that he could allow to stay near him.

What Did He Inherit from His Father, Miroku?

The Role of Hisui: Urao Takehiro “While Hisui is a little older than Setsuna and the others, he has quite a calm impression. It’s just that he is still young, so he has an unknowing and inexperienced side to him. His uncle is teaching him in that regard. I think Hisui’s strong personality resembles his mother, Sango. The lecherous side of his father, Miroku, hasn’t appeared in Hisui yet so I wonder what I’ll do if he has that kind of a side to him (laughs).”

The Reliable Uncle and the Inexperienced Nephew

— From the start, what sort of impression did you have of the work, “Inuyasha”?

Urao: I’m definitely part of the “Inuyasha” generation. I think I was in upper elementary school when “Inuyasha” started broadcasting. I really liked it and I would watch it every week while eating dinner. The first CD I ever bought with my own allowance was V6’s “CHANGE THE WORLD, Inuyasha first opening song” too.

Kimura: I think I was in high school at the time, so I was right on the cusp of the age for watching anime on a daily basis. I felt it was about time I moved on. It’s just that in regard to “Inuyasha”, it left the impression that it was a work that could be enjoyed not just by kids but also by high schoolers and older. In addition to it being the work of Takahashi Rumiko-san, the creator of my absolute favorite “Ranma ½”, I was working in the industry at the time but I enjoyed it as a viewer.

— Which character left an impression on you?

Urao: My favorite was Shippō. In any case, he’s cute. At the time, I was a real scaredy cat so whenever the demon battles began, I would always look away from the screen (laughs). Within that, Shippō was a comforting existence. I also liked the romantic comedy, so I enjoyed watching the exchanges between Miroku and Sango.

Kimura: The one who left an impression on me was Naraku. At a glance, he didn’t really feel like a final boss. When you look at Sesshōmaru, you know “This guy is strong”. But with Naraku, it’s like “Is this guy strong?  What?!”. He could probably win in a fist fight but that air that he has of not allowing you to punch him is something I actually found creepy.

— The current work continues the world of “Inuyasha” but apparently, you were offered the role rather than auditioning for it.

Urao: I was extremely happy. I knew the work, “Hanyō no Yashahime” was being created before it was discussed with me so I was looking forward to it as a regular viewer. It was then that I was asked to play Hisui and I was really surprised and honored.

Kimura: I didn’t know that they were moving forward with this work so I was all the more surprised (laughs).  It’s not often that you get to be involved in an anime that you watched as an average viewer during your childhood, so I was happy. I had a connection with Rumiko-san from a previous work called “Kyōkai no RINNE” so I’m thankful that I get to have another connection via this work of completely different nature. If I had to say, though they’re the same in that they’re works by Rumiko-san, “Ranma ½” and “Kyōkai no RINNE” left a strong comedic impression. However, I was very excited to take part in the fantasy adventure world that is “Inuyasha”.

— How did you feel about the concept of “Continuing the world of “Inuyasha”, drawing the story of the next generation”

Kimura: Continuing a great work is exceedingly difficult so I don’t think it’s something that should be done at a moment’s notice. It’s just that “Inuyasha” was a big hit work that was drawn by the famous artist, Takahashi Rumiko. It was watched by many and loved for a long time. If the staff who created a work of that level decided to do a continuation, there’s no way they could create something half-hearted. Upon receiving talks, I just reminded myself to that level on my own and thought “It will definitely be okay!”

Urao: The generation that watched “Inuyasha” in real time are now adults and there are some that have children. That’s why I think “Hanyō no Yashahime” is a work that can be enjoyed by two generations. Adults can watch a new story together with the kids while explaining to them “”Inuyasha” was this kind of story”. I’m hoping I will be able to assist that kind of work. Actually when episode 1 aired, my high school senpai contacted me saying “I’m about to watch it with my son”.

— That’s a wonderful story. When playing the roles of Kohaku and Hisui, do you keep in mind Kohaku’s boyhood days in “Inuyasha” or Miroku and Sango who are Hisui’s parents?

Kimura: Actually, I don’t keep that in mind one bit.

— I see.

Kimura: For example, even if I were to keep Akko-san (Yajima Akiko who voiced Kohaku in his boyhood) in mind, if asked if I could come near that, the answer would be no (translator’s note: not too sure I got the translation of this sentence right). It’s just that when I was told that Akko-san said “Oh my~ he’s become a fine man”, I was relieved. I’m glad she didn’t think “Tsk!” (laughs).

Urao: I completely mindful of that! Especially in episode 2 when shouting while throwing Hirakotsu; I recorded the voice of Kuwashima Hōko-san (the role of Sango) saying “Hiraikotsu” and the whole time I was riding the train, I listened to it and did image training.

Kimura: I see. It certainly is something like a signature move.

Urao: First, I thought I needed viewers to acknowledge “Hirakotsu!”. Also, since the image of Miroku being able to calmly assess and explain the situation was strong, I’m really conscious of that in explanation scenes. I rewatched the anime and researched the way he spoke.

Kimura: There’s a lot of scenes where Kohaku and Hisui give explanations on demons while splitting lines (amongst themselves).

Urao: Indeed.

Kimura: Kohaku and Hisui probably meet up beforehand. Something like “I’ll explain up to here” (laughs).

Urao:  Responding “Then I’ll explain the next (part)” is something they might be doing (laughs).

— How do you view each other’s characters?

Urao: Kohaku has always been a person who’s known that he was being manipulated and yet still moved in secret; but I also got the impression that he had a strong heart. It means that Ryōhei-san is playing someone like him and it’s really reassuring. As an average viewer of “Inuyasha”, I’m deeply moved that “He’s become a reliable man!” and as Hisui, I feel that “He’s a reliable uncle.” Calling him “Uncle Kohaku” felt kind of fresh (laughs).

Kimura: The impression I got from Hisui was “He’s a good young man.” Although I can say the same for the main three and not just Hisui. At the beginning, I wondered how Kohaku and Hisui would balance out but thanks to the scenario, lines, and Urao’s acting, it became “While he’s gaining experience as a demon slayer, there’s still a part of him that’s inexperienced.”  That’s why I was able to grasp the balance between the two naturally instead of being strangely conscious of it. I became convinced of this in episode 2 in their first appearance scene.

He Can’t Use Any Other Weapon? Hisui Is Still in the Midst of Growing (as a demon slayer).

— Next, please tell us your impressions of Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha.

Urao: Even though they were raised in the feudal era, all of them have some “modern era girl” touch to them. Like the chattering ambiance (laughs). Also, I think each of them has an aspect that they inherited from their parents. Setsuna is the daughter of Sesshōmaru; you can feel that Moroha is Inuyasha’s daughter; Towa’s easygoing aspect gives you the sense that she was raised by Sōta.

Kimura: In a sense, Towa is the hardest to grasp. I think that gives her that protagonist feel.

— You feel she is hard to grasp?

Kimura: She’s full of energy and has an overflowing sense of justice but she has moments where you don’t know what she’s thinking. There, other characters and the readers get tied up… I think you see that a lot in protagonists of thrilling shōnen manga. I think Towa has that sort of precarious aspect. Heck, a modern middle schooler going back to the feudal era; that’s when you think something’s wrong with them (laughs). However, the story won’t progress if you don’t have that and it’s because they’re like that that they can remain the protagonist. Setsuna is cool and of few words but it’s easy to see what she’s thinking. I think the energetic Moroha is the easiest to understand.

Urao: My favorite of the three is Moroha. I can really feel that she inherited Inuyasha’s blood. Like how she’s a little hasty and the way she talks.

Kimura: The way Moroha’s voice actress, Tadokoro-san (Azusa), skillfully plays her is nice. Listening to her talk at a nice tempo feels good. Also, the voice actress for Setsuna, Komatsu-san (Mikako) is able to properly incorporate a sense of inexperience to a character that is prone to appearing boorish; I thought that’s her for yah. With this work, this is my first time working with Matsumoto-san (Sara) who plays the role of Towa and she’s good at acting! During today’s test recording when she said the line “Setsuna!” she got directed once, but the “Setsuna” in the actual recording came out sounding good like bam! I feel something like a synergy effect as the three work each other up which I think is splendid. It seems that the three cast members get along really well too.

Urao: The three of them act wonderfully don’t they. Just, I wonder why Setsuna is somewhat cold towards Hisui (laughs). As of now, Hisui calls Setsuna’s name the most but she looks away from him a lot… I hope they can close the distance between them moving forward!

— Kohaku and Hisui’s role is sort of like a guardian to Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha right.

Kimura: That’s right. It’s like the two of us are watching over the three girls.

Urao: We are sending them to slay demons after all. Hisui should’ve gone with them (laughs).

— In episode 5, due to Hiraikotsu not being effective on the demon they were taking on, Hisui had to stay behind.

Kimura: You know, Hisui is a pro so make him be able to use other weapons! What is he going to do when he doesn’t have Hiraikotsu on hand! (laughs)

Urao: You’re right (laughs). He might get more from here on. He is in the middle of growing (as a demon slayer)!

— Hisui’s development from here on is something to look forward to (laughs). Today (at time of the interview) is right after the televising of episode 1 but Urao-san was posting live on social media. You reacted to the line “Don’t cry Hisui~”

Urao: That’s the line that Hisui’s older twin sisters (Kin’u and Gyokuto) said. Hisui was still a cute baby!

Kimura: They seem strong if they fight as twins. I wonder when the grown-up sisters will show up. Could it be that they’re part of the demon slayer team?

Urao: I’m sure they will make an appearance. The content within episode 1 made “Inuyasha” fans very happy. You could feel the “Inuyasha”-ism everywhere. For example, the program sponsor background image, heads mercilessly flying off, and the background music that makes you go “When this music plays, the demon can be defeated”; everything was nostalgic.

— Yasumura Makoto’s role as Miroku was a topic of discussion as well.

Urao: I was moved. He played the role he inherited from Tsujitani Kōji-san (played the role of Miroku in “Inuyasha”) with great respect. He made me think it was actually Miroku and as his son, I got fired up even more.

— Lastly, please give us your thoughts on the illustration of Kohaku and Hisui published in this month’s issue.

Kimura: Both of them look so reliable!

Urao: Yeah, they look cool. When I see them like this, they really look alike. Uncle Kohaku has a big scar on his nose but I wonder if the one who gave him that scar will make an appearance in the future? The freckles he had as a kid are gone too which is impressionable.

— In the future, is there a situation you would like to see in a copyright image?

Kimura: This is a staple but Kohaku and Hisui in swimsuits?

Urao: (laughs) For me, I want to see the whole family lined up. Like a family photo with the parents, Hisui, the older sisters, and Uncle Kohaku.

Kimura: I like that! The family getting together doesn’t seem like something we’ll get to see much in the actual show. Also, I might want to see the two’s desperate expression. As of now, Kohaku and the others have an air of composure about them; it would be nice to see their forms in action. I’m sure something like a strong enemy will appear and the figures of them fighting valiantly will be drawn in the show. However, there are three protagonists, so our turn probably won’t be for a while (laughs).

Which scene up to episode 6 left an impression on you?

Kimura: Mistress Three Eyes that Nabatame-san (Hitomi) played was scary. She was a formidable foe. She looked just like the demon that first appeared in “Inuyasha”; it was amusing that they continued that.

Urao: Apparently, she’s the grandchild of Mistress Centipede.

Kimura: That confirms a second and third generation. The part where “That thing also had children!” is surprising too though (laughs).

Urao: For me, it had to be the scene where Hisui and Kohaku make their first appearance that left an impression. To think the day would come where I could ride Kirara and throw Hiraikotsu… I was deeply moved like we’ve crossed over eras.

Kimura: Even if you encounter a wonderful new work, it’s not often that you get to experience the same things the people playing the characters in the wonderful preexisting work felt.

Which character are you curious about?

Urao: Kirinmaru who has that mastermind aura. How is he going to move from here on?... There’s a person named Kirin Osamu-sensei in the modern era too so I’m curious as to the relationship between that.

Kimura: There’s no way that that’s the only screen time Hosoya-san (Yoshimasa who plays Kirinmaru) is getting. There’s this feeling of expectation that he will appear again.

Urao: Yeah

Kimura: Not only is there a chance that his existence is connected to the feudal era, but maybe there’s a possibility that he’s actually someone’s descendant? Well, we know absolutely nothing about the scenario ahead so we can just say whatever about the (plot) progression from here on (laughs).

[nyanberri]

I've finally finished the first set! It's the same kids again tho, lol. But next time will be never before seen characters! So I wanted to get everyone drawn in the Omniverse style so I could visualize it all properly and it also made for a good opportunity to tweak designs as needed. They're all heavily referenced from official art so I could get it perfect and it made for great practice too! Of course I added some personal touches to the art style too cuz if I didn't it would have bothered me too much, lol.

Anyway, below the cut are finally proper profiles for all the kids and some additional info as well!

M'kay, so before we get started on the kids' bios, it's important to specify this is an alternate universe. And I don't mean it's an AU of the Prime Dimension. This is quite literally another universe within the omniverse. It's a mostly untouched one that even Paradox, Eon, and Maltruant have never been to and therefore a lot of things are different while a lot of things are still the same tho. It's unofficially called the Feniverse cuz Fen is the main character, but it does have a more official name. I'm just, uh… not aware of what that name is yet, lol!

Anyway, the Ben in this dimension branches off from the development of Prime Ben. Anybody remember the fact that the very first Ben 10K episode said Ben became the way he did in the future cuz he killed Vilgax by ripping him to pieces? Yep! That's what this Ben did too! But obviously he doesn't end up exactly like that Ben 10K. But so this dimension's Ben is therefore officially labelled Slayer Ben since some people refer to him as 'The Vilgax Slayer'. And that experience did definitely screw him up pretty bad, which is why he's so different from both Prime and 10K.

So from left to right:

Name: Fenrick Fih Rook-Tennyson

Age: 13

Height: 5'1

Voice: Todd Haberkorn

Bio: Fen is Ben and Rook's son. He has always been known for being quiet, surprisingly wise for his age, and quite the troublemaker. In actuality, only two of these things are true. Fen is more calm than he seems and as a young child he wasn't much of a talker, giving people the perception that he's quiet. Unfortunately, Fen also has many great ideas that end up badly. However, his ideas always come from the desire to help someone or solve a problem, but he always gets caught when his plans fall apart, making it look like he causes trouble. Some people even accuse him of trouble he didn't start, not helping his reputation. And as the son of Ben 10 of all people, he tends to be held to higher expectations. His wisdom never ceases to amaze people either. Even Ben and Rook get surprised at the wisdom he recites, wondering where exactly he learned it all. Due to that, he tends to put up a fight whenever himself or someone else gets wronged. He especially defends his friends and fellow alien kids in town. Although his only true friends seem to consist of his childhood friend, Millie, and his cousin, Sven.

At the age of 13, Fen discovered his ability to transform into a couple dozen of Ben's aliens. He quickly aspired to become a hero like his parents, much to Ben's disapproval, who worries about his safety. Despite that, Fen wants to form a hero trio with Sven and Millie and become the next generation of heroes in the galaxy.

Developer's Notes:

Fen's almost always been the same since I first created him, with just a few design and character tweaks done to him. He used to have a talent for jewelry making but that was switched out for him being wise for his age. He was also a bit more generic as far as the upbeat and reckless young male protagonist with famous parents archetype goes, but he's been adjusted enough that he now stands out from that archetype. Or, at least I hope, lol. Also, funny thing to note, Fenrick is not a real name! The closest name there is is Fenwick and iirc, that's a last name! I considered changing it to Fenwick or even Fenick but Fenrick is too special to me. His, uh, unfortunate name even has an impact in-universe with him being embarrassed by it and some using it to make fun of him. Also in-universe, I chalk it up to Ben having a dumb moment by misremembering the name Fenwick and Rook not knowing any better to catch Ben's mistake. Also, if you think his hair style is stupid, good. That's the point. He wanted it like that when he was seven and Ben and Rook were like 'sure' and it's been like that ever since.

Name: Millicent

Age: 13

Height: 5'0

Voice: Jennifer Paz

Bio: Millie is Ester's daughter. Her biological father is a human who decided he didn't want to be a father and Antonio soon stepped up to fill the father role when he and Ester got married. She has been friends with Fen and Sven since they were all babies. Millie is the level-headed one of the group and has been noted as being oddly emotionless. Her tone of voice is almost always flat and she usually keeps a straight face when not looking nervous. She never intends to be rude, but she will bluntly say whatever comes to her mind to her peers. At the same time, she can be nervous about making bold decisions and hates being a part of any decision making. She either refuses to do anything, or apologizes profusely for making a decision even when nothing bad happens.

Due to being more human than Kraaho, Millie is perfectly capable of handling the temperatures of Bellwood. However, she is still a bit sensitive to cold temperatures and needs to bundle up more than others during the winter. She sadly cannot handle the heat in the Hot Spot for very long either. Much to Millie's dismay, she was not born with the Kraaho's stretching ability. No one can figure out why, but it's simply something she can't do. As a result, she considers herself a normal human and has resigned herself to the fact that 'normal' is simply all she will ever be. Despite this, she has taken up quite a big secret that contradicts her decision and expresses who she wishes she really was.

Developer's Notes:

Millie only ever had one design change with her outfit and slight adjustment to the way her hair works and she's been the same ever since. Since the beginning she was always calm and stoic and I've always worried that she doesn't have much of a presence or purpose, but now I feel like she plays off Fen and Sven well enough that she stands out thanks to them. I've always flipped back and forth between Fen and/or Millie having a crush on each other, but I've finally settled on them both just seeing each other as near and dear loyal friends. It ultimately works out better that way and doesn't cause conflict with Millie's personal story or Fen's real love interest(and the one other character with feelings for him). Her name also used to be Mina, but since I've now taken that as one of my own names, it felt really awkward to keep her as that. I used to have a habit of naming characters with names I wanted before realizing I could change my name in the future, lol.

Name: Sven Elijah Levin

Age: 12

Height: 4'8

Voice: Wally Wingert

Bio: Sven is Gwendolyn and Kevin's son and Jenny's older brother. Sven is a rather unfortunate boy. He is constantly terrified of everything to the point of running millions of 'bad ends' through his head. He can barely talk most of the time without being a stuttering mess and always thinks he's going to be in trouble for anything and everything he does. Everyone is certain he either has severe anxiety or paranoia, or likely both. Perhaps even more. Who knows. Sven tends to cling to his cousin, Fen, who he looks to for guidance and advice, most of which isn't anything Sven should actually be following. Because he is a grade below Fen and Millie, he's often left alone to deal with problems in his own classes, or really just panic about them. He does, however, have a close relationship with Zed and likes to be the one to take her out on walks in the afternoon. And not many people know it, but he's actually a pretty decent artist.

Even though he is an Osmosian thanks to being Kevin's son, no one knows what ability he may have. It doesn't really matter though, since he wants to stay out of any potential trouble that having powers could bring him. Regardless of that, he has an interest in magic thanks to Gwendolyn's expertise in it. He even sneaks peeks at her spellbook and the strange bag she keeps in her office that he can hear a voice coming from at night.

Developer's Notes:

Now Sven is a character whose personality has always been pretty much the same while his design was never consistent until reaching his current one. He was originally very anime looking and in a gaudy orange outfit that I regret even thinking about, lol. He looks much better in neutral colors. I guess there's not much to say on him though, which makes me worry he's a tad unremarkable, but perhaps it's just since I'm leaving out the things about him that are better left discovering on your own… if I ever get to finishing that fic that is… ahaha.

Name: Saki Boulais

Age: 13

Height: 4'11

Voice: Stephanie Sheh

Bio: Julie and Hervé's daughter, one of the more popular girls in school, and the most deceptive in town. Saki has gone her whole life, since the first time she told a successful lie, tricking people into thinking she's a completely innocent little girl who's never done anything wrong. This allows her to get away with anything she wants, and she especially enjoys getting Fen in trouble when they butt heads with each other. The two have even been enemies since they first met at age three and Saki pulled Fen's tail, he pulled her hair in return, and she managed to get away with claiming he started it. Their feud has even turned into murderous intent, which Saki refuses to hide.

On a lighter note, Saki always has the company of her two best friends, Rachel and Diane, who will gladly join her in her tormenting of others. Saki even greatly admires the most popular girl in school, Fiona, and whoever the mysterious new hero girl, Miracle-M, is.

Developer's Notes:

Yes, Saki was always meant to be That Bitch in the cast. I feel like it's unrealistic to have all next gen kids be friends and get along with each other. It's perfectly believable to have some of them dislike, and in Saki and Fen's case, even hate each other. It makes it more interesting with them being Ben and Julie's kids respectively too. Adds good drama, lol. But anyway, really the only thing that's changed about Saki is her hairstyle and some other slight design tweaks like her necklace, shorts, and shoes. I also just recently changed her colors from purple and blue-ish purple to just blue so that isn't not all three girls here wearing purple. She also looks better in blue and it contrasts nicely with Julie's pink imo. I suppose I do worry about her being disliked since she's so antagonistic and with her being Julie's daughter, I really hope her character doesn't send the wrong message since I genuinely love Julie a lot. It really is just For The Drama Of It All. I think it's really fun to watch her go into full 'Murder Fen' mode too. Very fun to write, lol. Oh right, also Boulais is my headcanon last name for Herve. I just wanted her to have his last name but he doesn’t have one! So I had to pick one for myself.

Name: Jennifer Elizabeth Levin

Age: 10

Height: 4'6

Voice: Brina Palencia

Bio: Jenny is Gwendolyn and Kevin's daughter and Sven's younger sister. She is surprisingly serious and stoic for her age. She gets annoyed by her family's constant 'abnormal' status and wishes everyone could just act normal with no weird events happening. She throws herself into school work as a means to keep herself out of it and tries to keep her personal life at school with friends far away from her life involving family. She seems to have a quick temper, but really she just acts that way to get what she wants since she knows it works and in the hopes that she can use it as an opportunity to vent her frustrations. She hates getting involved in her brother and cousin Fen's antics, but sometimes her no nonsense attitude is needed to resolve a situation. She has a strange obsession with eating bread, finding it the perfect food and almost always exclusively eating something with bread involved. Gwendolyn definitely worries about her diet, but Kevin finds it harmless.

She may not have the spark like her mother, but she doesn't dare confess that her status as an Osmosian became very apparent just recently. As a result, she has a stash of broken objects stuffed under her bed and cracked floorboards that she covers with her rug.

Developer's Notes:

Jenny went through a decent redesign. Character wise I feel like I still don't have some things etched in stone for her as I still haven't gotten to the point in my writing where she does anything of interest. She could honestly probably end up pretty different from her bio here if I'm not careful, lol. The characters write themselves as they say after all! But I definitely prefer the newer Jenny compared to the previous way I envisioned her character, which was designed to fit a character type I actually hate just cuz I felt it worked for her. Thankfully I can avoid it tho with the big overhaul I did after returning to these characters. And I do like Jenny cuz I like writing her dialogue, but it still feels like her character is still that of a person I would not wanna be around, lol.

Name: Bevel Tennyson

Age: 20

Height: 5'9

Voice: Dee Bradley Baker/Yuri Lowenthal

Bio: Bevel is the youngest of the Big Chill offspring born twenty years ago. They were in an accident involving a passing spaceship on their way to Kylmyys that damaged their right wing to the point they could no longer fly. It's suspected the wing has severe nerve damage, making Bevel unable to unfold it as well. Their siblings helped them make it the rest of the way to Kylmyys, but over the years, the dangers of Kylmyys left the siblings with only Bevel and the eldest two, Emboss and Curve, remaining. As they got older, Bevel could never forget their only memory of their parent, who the others didn't remember. A desire to reunite with their parent caused Bevel to make the lone decision to explore the universe in search of their parent.

Bevel is a very cheerful and sweet person, but their secluded upbringing and lack of knowledge about Earth makes them very naive. They will believe anything they are told and have a very black and white moral view due to not understanding nuance. They have strange habits that appear unnatural in their attempt to act human and have an intense craving for Earth candy. They have also taken up being a mercenary to get by after leaving Kylmyys and once they join the Tennyson family, Rook suggests they use the skills they've picked up to become a Plumber, but that's an idea Ben isn't fully onboard with.

Developer's Notes:

Right off the bat I want to shout out that his old human design used to keep the Necrofriggian antennae. I still think it's a cute design even tho it wasn't canon compliant with the antennae. The only things that have changed about him too are just that, his hair style, and his shoes. Plus I stuck bunny ears on his hoodie recently as a shout out to those antennae he used to have. Otherwise he's always been the same. And I guess I haven't explained why he has a human form, but that's also an answer to discover later. I didn't draw his Necrofriggian form tho cuz we should all know what the UAF design looks like(and yes I am screwing with art style difference bullshit cuz OV Big Chill is not real and you cannot convince me otherwise). And I also just realized his pronouns aren't matching up in this section so I should add his official pronouns are he/they, but characters refer to him by he/him and narration uses they/them. He is still a Necrofriggian and therefore doesn't do the whole gender thing after all. Which is why he's fine with anyone viewing him as whatever they want to too. He just goes with it. That's also why he doesn't get what's weird about him calling Ben 'Mother' after he learned the word, lol.

[hello-nichya-here]

Rough Draft of Fire Warrior (Fake Kemurikage) Headcanons

Note: Hi Nichya! I am currently writing a long fic dealing with how post-Imbalance Avatar would go for the Fire Nation Royal Family and their close friends and I was wondering if you could please look at my headcanons and critic them? Cause I don’t want to engage in the usage of stereotypes, or bad writing in general, especially since I am writing about characters with mental illness. Also, I have been trying to send you an ask about lighting bending for the past couple days, and it keeps on not getting through to you. Considering my asks only had trouble getting to you around the same time you very recently IP banned that one dumbass who tried roasting you for liking Azula, could it be you accidently banned me as well (I am using a coffee shop to upload this)? If so can you please unban me for your answers to my asks have enriched my understanding of Avatar greatly. Thanks!

Here is the ask: How would you write Azula and/or The Fire Warriors teaching Zuko lighting and smoke bending (as part of their reconciliation/rehabilitation) while Zuko teaches them the true meaning of fire, the dragon dance, and the philosophy behind lighting redirection? Cause I thought part of Azula’s and Zuko’s reconciliation would have been teaching each other the bending/skills the other one was lacking, uplifting each other instead of trying to compete with each other or hurt each other. But canon is what it is.

Anyway, my headcanons are down below

Starting from left to right I am going to list the names, backstory, and mental illness(es) of the non-Azula Fire Warriors:

Beam (DID plus avoidant personality disorder)

Born in 84 A.G., as the second child of three, and the only daughter of an upstart noble and a stay at home mother, Beam was expected to marry into nobility considering how well her father had done selling steel to the Fire Nation Navy and the fact that she had inherited her mothers’ good looks.

But Beam, for a lack of better words, was often detached from reality and quickly became a source of shame for her family. For Beam would often drift out of reality into her own little world whenever confronted with large amounts of stress. 

And what causes stress in Beam? Being around strangers, especially large numbers of them like parents’ hosted one of their frequent parties in an attempt to move up in Fire Nation High Society.

In fact, Beam started wearing her distinctive hairstyle plus dye in an attempt to avoid having people come to her much to her brothers and parents displeasure. And when that didn’t work, she started to wear masks such as those based on the dark water spirit or the dragon emperor.

On a side note, the only thing that really helped Beam was firebending, where she had a natural gift. However, due to her performance issues, whenever her brothers and/or parents came to watch, she always messed up her routines, leading them to cancel Beam’s lessons when she was 16 in order to focus on making Beam marriageable. 

This caused Beam to despair and undergo a nasty episode in which she wholeheartedly believed she was the dark water spirit and almost killed her older brother, who was “obviously” the Dragon Emperor. Said brother also happened to be the one who suggested her parents cancel the firebending lessons and make Beam a proper woman since he was going to get married soon and didn’t want his fiance’s family to revoke the marriage contract once they better got to know his “weirdo” of a sister.

The above incident was the last straw for her parents, who had her involuntarily committed after coming to the “conclusion” that nothing would fix their “madwomen” of a daughter.

Aiko (Clinical Depression)

Born in 87 A.G. as the unexpected last daughter of a merchant and a very low level noblewomen, life has always been a struggle for Aiko. Her mother had her in her early 40s after unexpectedly getting pregnant and giving birth to Aiko prematurely. Aiko and her mother barely survived but her mother ended up suffering from postpartum depression, hurting their mother-daughter bond.

Aiko grew up seemingly loved, but in reality she was always sad. And no amount of gifts, such as some of the best firebending tutors in the land, could ever make Aiko happy for it appeared from Aiko’s pov that her mother never wanted to do anything with her while she happily gave her love and time to her oldest two kids, who were both boys and going to join the war effort. 

That and she was relentlessly bullied in school for her demure size; one day she tried standing up for herself by getting into an impromptu fight with her main bully, but she accidently badly burned her due to being actually quite skilled in firebending. While Aiko managed to avoid jail or getting into trouble, the trauma of almost killing some made Aiko withdraw further into herself much to her parent’s grief.

Her brothers were the main positive thing in her life, for they were understanding of her and didn’t really push her that hard…except in firebending where they were the only people she felt safe enough after her incident.

However, things took a turn for the worse when her brothers finally joined the army and died in the very same maneuver that Zuko talked out against as a 13 year old. And in her grief, Aiko tried hanging herself though the noose broke just before it went taunt and she ended up knocking herself out.

And when she woke up, she found herself in the asylum….

Chyou (Bi-polar disorder)

Born in 84 A.G. as the adopted child of two low tier Hu Xin Provinces (colonial) nobles who were unable to have kids of their own. Her parents tried their best with Chyou, but she was a very difficult child to raise, for, in their perspective, one moment Chyou was a hyper energetic girl who was all too willing to do anything to achieve her long-term goals and whims. Goals that included being the best firebender in her school and being a proper noblewoman. And whims including a desire to shave half her head though that particular fulfilled whim didn’t really harm Chyou for she liked the hairstyle and kept it much to her parent’s dismay. 

But in other moments, Chyrou was a heavily depressed girl, who couldn’t even be bothered to get out of her bed no matter how hard her parents tried to encourage/bribe/threaten her. 

However, these “cycles” were just subtle enough that with her parents covering for her, Chyou could pass as a normal kid…that is until one night, she overheard a conversation between her parents talking about how much Chyou looked like her mother’s sister. Confused since she thought she had no blood relations with either of her parents (they told her she was adopted from a young age since Chyou doesn’t share that much in common with either with her parents), she confronted them and the told Chyou her true origin.

Chyou was in fact the love baby of an Earth Kingdom soldier and a Fire Nation noblewomen who was Chyou’s “mother’s” sister. While the Fire Nation is progressive in terms of gender roles, it is against the law for Fire Nation noblewomen to copulate with the males of the other nations. 

For Sozin’s reasoning was that the strong men of the Fire Nation could civilize the demure women of the other nations while the barbarians’ uncivilized blood could easily overwhelm the wombs of their wombs. Wombs that were needed to make sure their great nation would never lack loyal citizens. In reality, due to the patriarchal nature of inheritance and property ownership, Sozin feared the colonized enemy would marry into Fire Nation nobility and basically overthrow him once their numbers reached critical mass.

But getting back on track, it wasn’t discovered that Chyou’s real mother was having the baby of an Earth Kingdom soldier, let alone she was going to elope with him. So the Fire Nation tried to capture the soldier and kill him, but he ran off. However, after allowing Chyou’s true mother to give birth, the Fire Nation had her killed off. But, Chyou’s Aunt and Uncle took pity on Chyou and successfully begged the authorities to let them raise Chyou as their own kid.

Chyou’s Aunt and Uncle begged for Chyou’s forgiveness and she gave it to them…though she later had a manic episode that caused her to sneak out of her Aunt’s and Uncle’s house to search for her father, hoping she would get to meet him.

It took several weeks and all of the tracking and survival skills she learned in school, but she found the last place her father inhabited. But when she knocked on the door, her bio grandma opened the door and, once Chyou explained who she was, told the “lying ashmaker to get away from me and never come back unless you want to die” in addition to telling Chyou that her father died during General Iroh’s march to Ba Sing Se. 

For Chyou’s bio grandma never knew about her son’s relationship with Chyou’s mother, let alone that he was going to have a child with her and thus thought the young firebender was punking her…not that it would have made a difference for after she couldn’t even bury her son due to him being completely burned to ashes, she developed an intractable hatred towards the Fire Nation and especially firebenders. And that hatred wouldn’t dissipate even if her own granddaughter was one of those “ashmakers.”

Heartbroken at the rejection, Chyou then fell into a serious depressive state and was going to kill herself until she was apprehended by June and returned to her family, who had been paid by Chyou’s parents to find her before the colonial authorities did. For if the “mixed breed” had been found going “back” to her Earth Kingdom family, Chyou would have been killed for her “genetic disloyalty” caused by her parentage.

And when Chyou kept uncontrollably talking about her failed trip, Chyrou’s parents made a hard decision and had her temporarily involuntarily committed since they would rather have her suffer at the asylum (as well as get help for her myriad of issues) than have her rambling expose her “genetic disloyalty” and have her brutally executed, making all their pleadings to allow them to raise her pointless.

However, bigoted political hardliner healers in the asylum saw her history and decided unilaterally that she was a threat to society and so manipulated her record to make so she had died, leaving Chyou’s Aunt and Uncle (who were pretty old) heartbroken to the point they died within a couple of months of each other and turning Chyou’s temporary stay into a permanent stay.

Chyou, depending on whether she is having a manic episode or depressive episode, oscillates between believing her Aunt and Uncle haven’t given up on her and believing that they have finally given up on account of being a disgrace due to her mental issues and bloodline.

Zirin (Oppositional Defiant Disorder with mild Conduct Disorder)

Born in 85 A.G. as the only daughter of some minor nobles who live in Caldera City. She has ODD, which manifests in her explosive temper, which her parents tried solving by doing everything, including getting her training in firebending, which Zirin has a natural aptitude in considering she became a master by 16.

But despite her parent’s best efforts, her anger still didn’t really subside, leading up to an incident where she burned a highly sought out suitor for rubbing her the wrong way, leading her reputation to sink and make her unmarriageable, making Zirin worthless in her traditionalist parents’ eyes.

Zirin offered to join the Fire Nation military so she could be useful, but her traditionalist parents said no since the military is not the proper place for a young noblewoman. So they had her involuntarily admitted to the asylum…

Ting (Schizophrenia)

Born in 82 A.G. as the daughter of a minor Fire Nation noble and an Earth Kingdom commoner (that her father took a liking to) who lived in Yu Dao, Ting on the surface supposedly lived a charmed life. But her life was anything but charmed, for she didn’t not inherit her mother’s slim face and body, but had the stout body and face of a typical Earth Kingdomer. Meaning that it would be next to impossible to marry her off to another noble family for even in the colonies, there was a preference for Fire Nation traits among the nobility.

Not helping was just after Ting was 6, she would suffer periodically from hallucinations of her father whenever she messed up in school or in court, often having her speech deteriorate into “incoherent” babbling (ex. Ting asking “him: to stop hitting her) and often fighting back against a person who wasn’t there.

Obviously, this was just another thing that made Ting a massive disappointment in her father’s eyes.

So upset as his “mistake” Ting’s father often beat up his wife and daughter and seeing how Avatar takes place in fantasy land 19th century Asia, there was no one who they could turn to. In fact the only reason why Ting was “tolerated” was because she was an elite firebender, who naturally excelled at Sozin Style firebending due to her rage and self-loathing caused by her “madness.”

Thus, even if Ting was unmarriageable, she was likely going to have a good career in the Fire Nation Army. That is until one night when Ting was 16 witnessed a really bad argument between her drunk parents that ended up with her father breaking her mother’s arm.

Enraged and having enough, she fought her father and ended up badly burning him in public as he tried to escape her. 

The authorities then restrained her and tried to put her on trial, but horrified at what she had done, she had a severe episode that made the authorities doubt her sanity.

So sensing an opportunity to save face and not have his dirty laundry aired, Ting’s father authorized the colonial authorities to ship Ting to a homeland mental asylum for “treatment” damn well knowing they would most likely never let Ting out. And he had authorized Ting’s involuntary committal at the dead of night so Ting’s mother could not disapprove.

Gamon (Higher Functioning autism)

Born in 83 A.G. to two high functioning autistic former soldiers living in Hama’s village, Gamon would have been raised in a loving family. That is until her parents one night disappeared during a full moon and never came back (they were captured by Hama and tortured to death but the little shred of humanity left in Hama caused Hama to leave the baby alone despite wanting to spite Gamon’s pleading parents). So Gamon was given to her next of kin, who were mid tier nobles. 

It turned out that Gamon’s mother was once a noble, but renounced it so she could join the Fire Nation Army due to her special interest being the military alongside firebending. This had caused Gamon’s maternal grandparents and Gamon’s Uncle great shame and had also caused them to disown Gamon’s mother. And the sad thing was that despite Gamon’s mother wanting to reconcile, her parents died just after she got pregnant.

So when Gamon’s Uncle and Aunt got a hold of her, they promised that they would raise her into the proper noblewomen Gamon’s mother should have been.

And they were very harsh in doing so, making sure Gamon took to heart what her tutors told her what was necessary to do to be the perfect noblewomen. However, lightning struck twice, and Gamon developed a special interest in both firebending and military history, which she hid from her Uncle and Aunt by practicing firebending in the morning before either of them woke up and reading military history at night after they had gone to bed.

Gamon managed to hide it until she was 15 years old, where, after being suspicious of Gamon knowing an obscure military battle that took place during the start of Azulon’s reign while also giving pointers to a boy she was courting, they had one of the maids spy on her and report to them.

This, combined with Gamon’s symptoms such as her stimming (she likes to rub her knuckles because she likes how they feel) plus her social awkwardness (no matter how hard they drilled her, Gamon always floundered in noble get togethers), made her guardians give up her.

And not wanting a repeat of what happened to Gamon’s mother and the resulting loss of face, they had her involuntarily committed to the asylum and washed their hands of her.

***

1 - I absolutely loooooooooooove the idea of Zuko and Azula teaching each other, and it could start with Zuko playcating Azula by letting her bend again (which he knows she desperately wants) by making it clear she’s going to have to do it his way - seeing fire as a source of life, not just death. They’re likely to end up fighting a few times because of course, but it would mostly work out as intended, and Azula would then teach him what she knows.

2 - Zuko sharing what he learned from the dragons (while still keeping the secret) with the people who needed to learn it the most is what he should have done from the begining, especially with his sister, and it fits with his new goal of guiding his nation towards peace and showing them that this idea that war and destruction is “the Fire Nation way/culture” is absolute bullshit.

3 - It’s hard to say how “accurate” your portrail of mental illness is since I’m seeing just “your notes” so to speak, but it looks like you’re in the right path. Just be sure to remember that, while mental illness and disabilities do play a huge part in someone’s personalities that is not ALL of their personalities and you’ll be good to go.

4 - I recommend you either retcon some of the most ableist bullshit the comics pulled (like Zuko straight up abandoning Azula and not thinking about her until he needed something from her, not noticing the clear signs of abuse she was showing, all the times he and his friends physically assaulted her when she wasn’t doing anything, and him taking her on a mission knowing nothing about her condition) or make the characters realize just fucked up that was and then genuinely trying to be better.

[wickedgxmes]

&&. cauldron above, ( johnathan “nate” dubois ) was just spotted in the fae lands — word has it ( he ) is affiliated with ( the night court ). ( he ) is a ( 350 / appears 33 ) year old ( high fae ). it’s been said that ( he ) resembles ( daniel sharman ). ( he ) has been said to be ( cheeky & charismatic ) but also quite ( conniving & cocky ). ( he ) is currently serving as ( captain of the guard ).

basics:

Full Name: Jonathan Dubois

Nick Names: Nate/Nathan

Sexuality: Pansexual

Family Relations:  Former Duke and Duchess of the Night Court (both deceased), Older Brother (Jacques Dubois) & Younger Sister (Jacqueline Dubois) 

Place of Origin: The Night Court

bio:

Tw Abuse, Tw Murder

Since birth, the late Duke of the Night Court, had made one thing clear- each child had a role to play. Jacques, the eldest, was the apple of his father’s eye. The Duke’s attentions were always placed upon him for the boy was the one who carried the weight of their family legacy. Jacqueline, the youngest, with her beauty was looked at as a pretty doll and nothing more. Their father had never had much appreciation for what was born by chance and felt Jacqueline showed little promise, casting the girl off to the care of the Duchess. While, Johnathan, the middle child’s, role was a bit more... complicated. One might say he was the one to be feared? From birth, the servants used to whisper throughout the halls how he was born not-quite right. A happy homicidal maniac if you will. But, for the most part, his role would have probably been the one who was forgotten.

His father despised him more than Jack, but less than Jacqueline. The time the Duke spent taking his anger out on Nathan quickly subsided with the birth of his baby sister. While, his mother, for the most part, shied away from him, recoiling at the boy, who took his pain out on those around him and harassed the servants, touch. 

Unlike his older brother, Nate rarely gave his studies much thought, preferring the art of story telling over anything. He was fascinated by the way faes communicated, often mimicking those around him as a small child, and his interest in literature only grew from there. He could recite poetry like it was nothing and could spin a twisted web of lies that often times sounded more real than the truth itself. He’d scribble short stories while he supposed to be learning about the complex history of the Courts and charm others with his tales of great adventures he had never actually taken any part in. Storytelling was his version of painting or music that his siblings so adored. But, as much as he was skilled in the pen, the young lord was skilled in that of a sword. 

His brother would become the next Duke, while his father had expecting to marry his sister off to advance the Night Court’s position within the realm. While Nate was expected to claim his own place of worth at Court. The Dubois were an ambitious and, one could even say, power hungry family and Nate was no exception. Quickly setting his eyes upon the position of the Captain of the Guard, he worked to climb his way up the ranks over the years. Happy to look over the other guards and keep outsiders from entering the fairly private court that was their home.

While Jacques is the glue that holds their family together, Nate is often the one to aid in it being torn apart. He often partook in the rifts and the backstabbing that seemed normal within their family. While, his brother seemed haunted by their actions the night of their parents death. Nate stood by his sister side, edging her on. They then came together to clean up the bouts of mischief that they’d all been up to, pretending like they were a united and together front and not the tragically messed up family their parents had molded them into only to end in their downfall. 

At first glance, Nate is whomever you want him to be. He can be found often molding himself to fit the conversation, becoming the man he believes you might prefer to meet. But, deep down, Nate is as dark and twisted as his other siblings, being one keep the interests of himself first and foremost.

additional facts:

Nate was Dove’s former lover for a period of time. The two met at Court and he swept the newly made lady in waiting off of her feet. Only, when he discovered that the girl he was starting to grow found of viewed him as a stepping stone, he chose to beat her to the punch and break things off first. The ambitious young lord/new guard tossed her aside for a higher more affluent fae. He broke her heart and made her believe love was a lie, only to drop the higher more affluent fae shortly after just to prove a point.

He also sometimes can be caught singing or humming to himself when he thinks no one else is around since Hunter Parrish was on Broadway and I couldn’t not incorporate it at some point :O

[morrigan24601]

More Family Context

So my last post about my oldest stepson and daughter-in-law expecting made me realize that I have never really talked about my stepsons on here before, even though my boyfriend/partner and I have been together for almost 7 years? So I figured I’d do a post about that. Sorry in advance for this - there’s a lot of drama involved, unfortunately.

CW: divorce, custody issues, homophobia/biphobia, manipulation, abuse, parental alienation

Also, obligatory disclaimer that I do not give permission to ANYONE to share this story without my express consent. (I’m doing this because I’ve seen personal stories get shared from Reddit onto YouTube and whatnot and I really do not want that to happen here.)

Looooooooooong, looooooooong post.

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...

...

...

Years ago, long before I even met my dude, he went through a supremely nasty divorce. His sons with his ex-wife were very small at the time (youngest son was still just a baby/toddler). There was a lot of emotional and verbal abuse on her end. He didn’t talk about it much because he didn’t think anyone would believe him. 

Things gradually got worse instead of better after the divorce, unfortunately. As soon as she found out that he had started dating men after the divorce, she began spreading rumors among their mutual friends/acquaintances that he had always been gay (he’s bi), that he had never loved her (he had), and that she had just been a beard for him and this was why they had gotten divorced (it was actually because he had stuck it out for as long as possible and couldn’t handle her abuse any longer). She got very weird about him dating men - like, ultra-homophobic, ridiculous, “I don’t want my sons being molested by your gay boyfriends because I think all/most gay men are secretly pedophiles” weird. She began refusing to let the boys come over to his place as long as he was in a relationship with a man. “If you date women instead, I’ll consider it.” 

In hindsight, he absolutely could have fought this in court because they had joint custody and there was no way she should have been able to do this and get away with it. Unfortunately, the state we live in has always been extraordinarily conservative and this was the early-to-mid 2000s, and he worried that he would face additional homophobia/biphobia in court. He also worried that fighting her over anything in court would make everything exponentially worse for both him and the kids. So he just let it go and saw the boys at her place or a neutral location whenever he could.

Eventually he moved out of state to try to make more money. His ex-wife remarried and, almost immediately, she and her new husband began harassing him about giving up his parental rights so that her new husband could adopt the boys and they could “have a real dad”. He was obviously not okay with this, but the manipulation went on for two years. At one point he ran into some temporary difficulty paying child support, and she jumped on this as “proof” that he was a terrible deadbeat dad who didn’t deserve his children.

So finally, after years of his anxiety and depression being exploited by his ex-wife, he finally began thinking that maybe his boys would actually be better off without him, that they’d be better off with a “real family” with a dad who was married to their mom. He drove back to home state and signed away his rights, and it was, he’s told me, the absolute worst day of his life. 

She didn’t bother to show up to the hearing where he signed the papers. He found out shortly afterward (and this almost sounds like a bad movie plot, but it’s true) that she had recently divorced the man who was supposed to adopt the boys and hadn’t bothered to inform him of this fact. 

She refused to let him see or contact the boys in any way after he signed the papers, and legally, there was no longer anything he could possibly do about it. He attempted to contact them through her quite a few times, but always in vain and he eventually stopped trying because it was too painful. She eventually remarried again and this time her new husband actually did adopt the boys. 

Years went by. He and I met and started dating. He told me about the boys on our first date, when I told him I had kids and asked if he had any. “Yes...and also no,” was his somber response. He was...remarkably restrained while talking about his ex-wife that first time. “She’s a strong woman,” he said, “and I hope she’s been a good mom.” I only learned later how abusive she had actually been to him. He sort of...handwaved a lot of it, even when he did tell me. I actually had to tell him “that was abuse. She abused you. Like...hardcore.” 

I asked if he ever thought about contacting the kids after they turned 18. He said he definitely wanted to, but he was sort of scared about it. 

Fast forward to about 2 1/2 years ago. His oldest son was over 18 now. He was contacted by his oldest son’s girlfriend on Facebook. The message was something along the lines of “Hi, are you [son’s] biological dad? [Son’s mom] and [son] told me some stuff about you, and I thought I’d find you and talk to you about it, because a lot of it seemed really...off. [Son’s mom] said that you were gay and that this was why you divorced [son’s mom] and that after you signed the papers you didn’t want anything to do with the kids, that you never wanted to call or talk to them or anything, and [son] totally believes this because that’s what she’s been telling him his whole life. That seemed weird to me though and I wanted to find out the truth.”

He told her the truth. She was sort of floored, but not overly surprised, because she’d had her own emotionally abusive run-ins with her eventual mother-in-law. There were a lot of conversations over the course of the next year, a lot of her trying to convince oldest son to talk to his bio dad and a lot of resistance from oldest son because of everything he had been raised to believe by his mother. My partner wrote his oldest son a long message at one point explaining some things and telling him how much he loved him while trying to stay as neutral as possible about his ex-wife/son’s mom in order not to stir too much up. Total radio silence from oldest son. We kind of accepted at this point that we might not hear from him for a long time (if ever). Still, partner was still in contact with oldest son’s gf (who at that point had become oldest son’s fiancee), and she and oldest son got married last year. She apologized that they didn’t invite us to the wedding; there was still a lot of hostile awkwardness on oldest son’s part. We understood, and didn’t fault them for it at all.

Finally, a few months after they’d been married, DIL (daughter-in-law) said she wanted to come over, and we agreed. Unexpectedly, she brought oldest son with her, having finally convinced him to come at the last minute. Oldest son was super polite to both of us, and to my kids, but we found out much later he actually felt super awkward and angry and was just hiding it really well. Fortunately after repeated visits he realized his bio dad was a pretty cool guy and that his mom was, to get right to the point, full of shit. There’s been a lot that we’ve found out from oldest son about his mom’s behavior over the years, which is really unfortunate and honestly backs up everything my partner told me. We thankfully have a great relationship with oldest son and DIL now. 

Youngest son is now 18 as well (almost 19) but, unfortunately, has much the same outlook as oldest son once did and currently wants nothing to do with his bio dad. However, oldest son and youngest son recently went on a roadtrip together and had a very long talk about the whole thing, and youngest son apparently got sort of thoughtful. We’re hopeful that he will eventually come around too. 

Hopefully none of this has sounded like some kind of weird misogyny on my part while talking about my partner’s ex-wife. I just...have zero tolerance for bullies and abusers and she honestly blows my mind. I wanted to believe for a long time that a) there are two sides to every story and the truth of this particular situation possibly lay somewhere in the middle, and b) that maybe she had mellowed over the years and maybe felt at least a twinge remorseful and cooperative about things, but according to oldest son, that is absolutely not the case. She is still holding on to a lot of anger and bitterness and insecurities from her own abusive childhood and she constantly projects those insecurities onto people she’s supposed to love and care for, including her children. She was apparently livid when she found out that oldest son had cultivated a relationship with his bio-dad, because her carefully-constructed narrative of “the father of my oldest children was a terrible person who never wanted his kids” was suddenly in serious jeopardy. DIL has overheard her shit-talking the situation to friends, and oldest son has gotten more than one earful of “how could you do this to meeeeee, I raised you and protected you” which is just...ARGH. (On the flip side, she apparently got this shocked Pikachu face when oldest son told her about me - a woman, in a loving, long-term relationship with the man that for years has been the subject of her “he divorced me because he isn’t into women” narrative. That gave me a really good laugh!) 

Anyway, that is the saga of my bonus sons and their unfortunate alienation from my partner/their bio dad, and the reason I wasn’t able to help raise them in their teens (I so wish I could have). I love them and my DIL so much, more than I honestly ever thought possible to love kids who aren’t “mine”, but like...they are. They’re my kids as much as my bio kids are. I felt that way long before I met them. My bonus sons are part of my partner, part of his heart, so they became my kids in my head immediately, and DIL became my kid immediately too. So I love them. It’s automatic for me. And I love my grandbaby-on-the-way with all my heart too and I can’t wait to meet that sweet little bean. 

[countdown-to-destruction]

Inuyasha Sequel: a rant

Put this up this earlier on a post I re-blogged, tried to edit a part or two where I didn’t like the way I had phrased it, and ended up messing up the whole format I wrote this in. Luckily I wrote this as a draft earlier anyways! So I did a some fixing and now I’m just copy-pasting it again and making it a text post instead. This will be very long and a little nit-picky but I wanted to make a post ever since I heard about the upcoming sequel to Inuyasha, Hanyō no Yashahime. I did put a TLDR at the end for those who don’t want to read everything. Not sure how many people in the fandom still follow me and will see this, as it's been a long time since I was actually active in the fandom, but it's hands-down both my favorite manga and anime of all time and I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately so I had to post something. Before reading this be sure to read all of the translated character bios for Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha so that this makes sense.

When I first heard that Inuyasha would be getting a sequel I was excited! But after reading up on it, to be completely honest I'm not feeling this sequel anymore. I know it’s an unpopular opinion but hear me out. Firstly, it seems like Rumiko is mostly involved in the character design aspect and the writing is up to Katsuyuki Sumisawa. The music will be produced by Kaoru Wada which is great! And from what I’ve seen and read online a number of others who worked on the original series will reunite so hopefully the story will go well. However, knowing Rumiko isn't personally writing and not knowing how much input she has or will give makes me unsure about watching. The original Inuyasha anime followed and was based off of the events in the manga, and there was no manga prior to this for it to be based on. Depending on what happens this could be an alright sequel or a total miss. Unfortunately sequels in general are known to be disappointing in some way. 

Secondly, if I hear anything about Rin being the mother of Sesshomaru's twin daughters I'm out. This part will be a SUPER long and in depth explanation on why I think this way, feel free to skip if you're not interested. Please don't come for me on this, I'm here to explain my thoughts and feelings on the sequel and the theories around it so far, not start an argument. I'm more than aware that there's plenty of controversy out there on this pairing and personally I do not support it. I never saw their relationship as more than a friendship, or something akin to child and guardian as Sesshomaru and Jaken are basically Rin's caretakers up until she goes to live in the village with Kaede. He definitely cares for her deeply but I can't see it in a romantic way, being that Sesshomaru isn't even a character focused on romance to begin with. He learns compassion through Rin's second death but that doesn't mean he loves her romantically. As a reminder his main goal is to seek power and be powerful, and it's stated that he needed to learn compassion and grief in order to mature. It's what helped him learn to wield the Tenseiga at its full potential. In addition, she was really young when they first met and still was when she went to live with Kaede. The idea of Sesshomaru (an adult) having romantic feelings for a kid under ten years old (around eleven at the end of the series, and still a literal child in all ways) and waiting for her to age with the intention of marrying her sits totally wrong with me. Age wise I realize that Inuyasha is decades older than Kagome and that his father was much older than his mother, Izayoi, as well. The difference here is that Kagome was a teen when she met Inuyasha (who not just physically, but more importantly mentally was also a teen) and clearly Izayoi was old enough to conceive Inuyasha and give birth. As far as the audio dramas (more specifically "Asatte") go they're generally considered as an outtake reel and are essentially parodies, or a form of satire. Some will debate on this but realistically there’s plenty of reasons this is true, and those who take the time to properly check them out understand that. For me I've always had a headcanon that at some point in her teen years Rin would inevitably develop a one-sided crush on Sesshomaru and that he would ultimately set boundaries and reject her, seeing her as more of a close companion than a love interest and wanting her to live with someone she can grow old with. He gave her the choice to follow him and it's most likely that she would, but I think that once she began aging he would want her to have somewhere to settle, given that he enjoys roaming and seeking out other powerful beings to battle. It's strange to me that they decided to give Sesshomaru hanyō/half-demon children in general but based on the artwork we've seen it's fair to guess that they might have made Sesshomaru and Rin a pairing in this sequel.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I want to clarify that if you ship them together I'm not writing this here because I want to hate on your ship for no reason, or in order to create an argument on if the pairing makes sense, these are my thoughts and opinions on the matter and I’m voicing them because it’s what I believe. I already know that somebody won’t like this and will take it personally. People usually say that once Rin is an adult the pairing is acceptable but I disagree. I find it quite creepy that someone would think it would be alright for an adult to wait around for a kid to grow up with the intention to marry and/or sleep with them. Watching from a distance is the same exact thing, after making an impression on the child... let’s not normalize this. In this situation it would be grooming. We all have our own opinions when it comes to our ships and fandoms and I try to respect that but I can’t get behind this one.

Next we have the apparent lack of parental figures for the heroines. Where are the original Inuyasha characters at? Moroha's character bio says she barely knows her parents (Inuyasha and Kagome, our former main protagonists) and has been alone since she was young! It makes me think either something has happened to them or some kind of bizarre event separated them. And sorry, not related, but why does she transform by PUTTING LIPSTICK ON?? That part threw me for a loop.

When it comes to Setsuna and Towa their parents are absent too. I find it difficult to believe that Sesshomaru wouldn't keep track of his children given how he treats Rin and reacts to her going missing in any capacity. Especially if he happened to be fond of whoever their mother is. One daughter works as a taijiya/demon slayer for Kohaku and the other mysteriously transports to Kagome's era and is raised by Sota (I thought we had finished with the time jumps when the well closed but apparently not. When the Bone Eater's Well closed after Kagome's return it gave a sense of finality and closure to the story, and showed that Kagome had chosen where she was most happy and felt she belonged. I think that bringing the theme of time travel back into the sequel makes it feel repetitive, like something right out of a predictable fanfic. Props to Sota for taking in and raising a child who showed up out of nowhere though).

Another thing that came to mind when I read these character bios was why Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter and Sesshomaru's daughters are the exact same age. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. It only struck me as odd because suddenly everyone is having kids at the same time. And so far there's no mention of other characters like Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Jaken, Kaede, or Miroku or Sango's three children or where they are. One might expect that a story focused on the children of some of the original Inuyasha's main characters would feature appearances from those who had important roles in the previous series and their children. Which brings me around to wondering what made twin daughters a trend? Two sets of twin girls is a unique choice (Sango and Miroku's twin daughters. For such a small group of parental characters, what are the odds of two sets of twin girls? Where is the creativity and again why the repetition?).

Lastly, Sesshomaru's daughters lack some of the common yōkai/demon characteristics we see on Inuyasha and other characters. Their ears are human, and they have no markings or otherwise (that I noticed) with the exception of Setsuna's mokomoko/fur which is similar to Sesshomaru's. So perhaps they take more after their human mother? Given that Inuyasha seemed to inherit strong genes from his father it's interesting that they did not. Their ages also interest me as they appear to age the same way as humans do. Yōkai/demons are known to have a longer lifespan than humans and appear to slow down or almost stop aging at some point. Perhaps this confirms that the slowdown in aging occurs once they reach the equivalent of a human teen? 

Overall Inuyasha was a fantastic manga and great anime on its own, and I never got the feeling that it needed a sequel. As a stand-alone it was everything it needed to be. I thoroughly enjoyed both formats of the original, though I do have a tendency to disregard certain parts of the anime. I always preferred the manga more when the anime dragged out certain scenes (Shichinintai/Band of Seven arc for example) or straight-up excluded, changed, and added others. Taking that into consideration the sequel might end up being the same for me in that way, but rather than one scene that plays out for too long or an excluded, altered, or unnecessary added scene, if it’s not any good I’ll simply disregard it altogether. When the anime comes out I certainly plan to try watching it out of loyalty to the fandom, and due to the fact that it's "technically" canon (without Rumiko being the writer I don't necessarily consider it canon, much like how some folks do or do not consider the movies canon) but I get the feeling that I'll wind up giving up on it in disappointment.

TLDR; Overall I'm left questioning if the sequel is worth watching (for me) given what I've read and heard so far, but nonetheless I will give it an optimistic try! I'm currently wondering how much we'll see of the original Inuyasha characters, if we get to find out what happened to them, if the number one pairing I'm not fond of will make an appearance (and cause me to drop the whole thing), and questioning parts of the character backstories and designs (why is there a repetitive and recurring theme of time travel and does it end up hindering or ruining the story, why do the protagonists all lack parents, and why do the hanyō/half-demon characters lack common yōkai/demon traits and does it make them more human than demon?).

[scardoherty]

BASIC  INFORMATION.

FULL NAME: Scarlett Marina Doherty Kaufman When she moved away from home she changed her last name as a symbolic cutting off her family.

NICKNAME: Some call her Scar, much to her irritation. It’s not even a cute nickname.

OCCUPATION: Personal Shopper/Stylist

AGE: 36

DATE OF BIRTH: January 16, 1984

NATIONALITY: American

GENDER & PRONOUNS: Cis female, She/Her

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual

RELIGION ( or lack thereof ): Agnostic, but was raised Jewish.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION.

HOMETOWN: San Francisco, CA

PLACES LIVED SINCE: Oakland, CA

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Portland, OR

LANGUAGE(s):  Fluent in both English and Russian, but English is her first language. She also can have conversational French. Conversational tagalog also.

SOCIAL CLASS: Upper middle class.

BASIC EDUCATION: High school diploma.

COLLEGE EDUCATION: None.

DEGREE(s): High school diploma.

MOTHER: A trophy wife mom -- Adina Kaufman.

FATHER: A sociopath father--Vadim Kaufman.

SIBLING(s): None/.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER(s): Scarlett has only ever had one serious relationship when she was 25. He was the definition of the perfect boyfriend, everything she thought she should want but nothing seemed right. Two years into their relationship, he proposed and impulsively she accepted believing she was in love with him. Just days later she regretted her decision. thinking she would catch wedding fever, she stuck to the engagement and continued to plan out the wedding but emotionally became distant from her fiance. A year into their engagement they were married, and just six months after they finally wed, she decided she was going to divorce him. she met with an attorney and was near ready to serve the papers when he told her he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. he fought for 7 months. She’s harbored a substantial amount of guilt knowing that as he was dying, she wanted to leave him.

Nothing else is worth mentioning. She usually keeps her relationships casual, hardly sleeps with anyone more than twice, and even that’s pushing it.

CHILDREN: No, thank God!

ADDITIONAL FAMILY: None--although it’s very possible she has half-siblings out there somewhere due to her father’s extramartial affairs.

PET(s): None--she had a goldfish once and that was a lot of responsibility.

RELATIONSHIPS.

EVER CHEATED?: No, not at all. She would never do that to someone because she saw the damage her father did from his multiple affairs.

BEEN CHEATED ON?: No. Other than her three year relationship, she hasn’t been in a relationship serious enough for it to get to that point.

LEVEL OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCES: She doesn’t date, but she frequently has one night stands.

STORY OF FIRST KISS: Her first kiss was with her best friend in 8th grade during a sleepover when she suggested that they should kiss since Scarlett said she was bored.

STORY OF LOSS OF VIRGINITY: It’s nothing exciting. In fact, it’s quite cliche which she hates. She lost her virginity the night of junior prom with a guy she had AP bio with.

A SOCIAL PERSON?: Superficially, yes, but she’s very particular with who she deems as a close friend.

MOST COMFORTABLE AROUND: A bottle of red wine.

HOW DOES SHE THINK OTHERS PERCEIVE HER?: charismatic, witty, beautiful.

HOW DO OTHERS ACTUAL PERCEIVE HER?: brutal, pretentious, beautiful

PHYSICAL INFORMATION.

DOMINANT HAND: Righty.

ACCENT + INTENSITY: No accent--she can be super loud though.

TATTOO(s): No tattoos--no tainting her beautiful skin.

SCAR(s): She has a scar toward the back of her neck, right below her ear from trying to cut her own hair when she was nine years old. Her mother was less than pleased, to say the least.

PIERCING(s): She got her bellybutton pierced in high school and her earlobes are also pierced. 

GLASSES: Doesn’t wear glasses.

STYLE OF DRESS/TYPICAL OUTFIT: Scarlett dresses in very trendy, designer clothing. a casual coffee outfit would be a cream colored blouse with dark wash skinny jeans and a pair of brown booties, with her hair in a messy bun and gold hoop earrings. On a night out she would dress in a black skinny strip body con dress with black strappy heels with her hair down and a gold collarbone necklace.

UNIQUE MANNERISMS: She’ll lick her lips almost every time she takes a sip of coffee. when she’s drinking wine, she likes to tap her index finger just below the rim.

ATHLETICISM: She’s not into fitness, like at all. She loves to eat and she loves to drink. Her main source of exercise is walking for miles in her heels and running around stores.

HEALTH PROBLEMS: none.

CHARACTER PERSONALITY.

POSITIVE TRAITS:

NEGATIVE TRAITS:

BIGGEST FEAR:

BIGGEST REGRET: Not telling her husband the truth before he passed away.

WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT? SEX or INTIMACY?: Sex--plus sex is intimacy.

ARE YOU A LEADER or A FOLLOWER?: Leader.

ARE YOU SPONTANEOUS or DO YOU NEED A PLAN?: Need a plan.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN TRUE LOVE?: She knows it exists--but she truly doesn’t think she will ever find it. Not because she’s insecure or anything, but because she knows the whole being in love thing just is not for her.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE?: Nope.

DO YOU CARE WHAT OTHERS THINK OF YOU?: Absolutely not---in some regard. She is... very aware of her physical appearance.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH STRESS?: Drinking and eating.

WHAT IS A SONG YOUR CHARACTER RELATES TO THEIR LIFE?: Independent Women Pt. II by Destiny’s Child

VICES & HABITS.

DO YOU SMOKE?: She used to--she quit a little under a year ago. 

DO YOU DRINK?: Heavily. Just kidding, but it’s definitely one of her favorite hobbies.

DO YOU DO DRUGS?: No.

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADDICTIONS?: Yikes--she would never admit that she is addicted to junk food and addicted to alcohol...

DO YOU HAVE VIOLENT TENDENCIES?: No.

DO YOU HAVE ANY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES?: Not that she is aware of.

MISC CHARACTER QUESTIONS.

IF YOUR CHARACTER COULD CHANGE ONE PHYSICAL DETAIL ABOUT THEMSELVES, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Her eyes. Her right eye is green-blue and her left eye is a hazel color. She’s rather just have green-blue eyes.

WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S FAVORITE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY? Walking. And sex, lowkey.

WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S LEAST FAVORITE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY?: Anything involving any type of exercise. But running and push-ups are awful. YOUR CHARACTER CAME FACE-TO-FACE WITH THEIR WORST ENEMY. WHAT IS THEIR FIRST REACTION? Passive aggressive smile and then comment about how ugly their shoes are.

WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S FONDEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY? The day she met her Lolo and Lula--who she wishes were her real parents.

SOMEONE ASKS YOUR CHARACTER TO DESCRIBE THEIR FAMILY. HOW DO THEY ANSWER? What family?

IS YOUR CHARACTER A MORNING PERSON, A NIGHT OWL, OR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY? Definitely not a morning person--she’s more a night owl.

WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? Brown.

A STRANGER MAKES A CRUDE COMMENT TO YOUR CHARACTER. HOW DO THEY REACT? “Fuck off, motherfucker!” Then she flips them off.

[famous-aces]

Zenobia of Palmyra

Who: Septimia Zenobia Augusta (born Septimia Btzby [Bat-Zabbai], changed it to Septimia Zenobia, the name I gave as her "full name" is the name she chose as her regnal name. The name "Zenobia" basically means "child of Zeus" so just by meeting her she made her divine origins and importance clear.)

What: Empress

Where: Palmyrene (modern day Syria, potentially Arabic, Aramean, or Jewish. Active throughout the Middle East and Turkey)

When: c. 240 CE - c. 274 CE

[Image Description: coins from Emesa (now Ḥimṣ, Syria) from 272 CE. The front of the coin shows shows a portrait of Zenobia from the shoulders-up, surrounded by Greek letters.  She has a stern sharp profile with a long large nose and round chin. She has extremely curly hair that seems to be braided in the back. She is wearing a diadem. On the left (the back of the coin) it shows a full body portrait of the goddess Juno is holding a scepter.  She has her peacock and a star beside her There are more Greek letters around her. End ID] 

The coolest conqueror you have never heard of.  The asexual Alexander the Great. Warrior queen. Rebel against Rome.  Badass. In under two years Zenobia swept through the Roman East, took over, and set up her high culture court, a place where diversity and intellectualism were highly valued.

Zenobia came onto the historical stage as queen consort to the Ras Odaenathus. But then he was until assassinated, at which point his throne passed to their son, Vaballathus. Vaballathus was too young for the crown so Zenobia was appointed regent. And she pretty much took over. She had big plans for the Palmyrene Empire.

This is going to be a longish bio, like with Bessie Coleman and Joan of Arc I have been totally taken in by Zenobia's story. And I had never heard of her before a follower recommended looking into her! (Thank you whoever you were!  I didn't write down your name I am so sorry!) 

Zenobia's origins are extremely mysterious and there are a bunch of different versions of her story. She has fascinated people since her lifetime. Many different cultures, historians, and writers have given her bio/life their own unique cultural quirks. Plus there's the whole being an enemy of Rome thing, that never ends well for your legacy. I am going to try to stick to the facts rather than the legend, either the one attributed to her or the one she concocted for herself (she was very good at propaganda, too).

She has been linked to Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba, but probably wasn't related to either of them.  She was the one who claimed to be descended from the Ptolemaic dynasty, specifically Cleopatra, of course. But odds are not even she actually believed it. The claim was a political maneuver to make her Egypian takeover look legitimate, she was a ruler coming home rather than an invader. Her actual ethnicity/ancestry is unknown. All of the ethnicities I mentioned -- Jewish, Arabic, Aramean -- have all been floated by various scholars over the centuries.

We don't even know what she looked like, really. The images that remain are idealized portraiture from her own coins. No statues or portraits have survived, potentially destroyed by the Romans. Everything else has been made long after the fact. She has been adopted as a patriotic symbol of Syria and was used as a symbol of Syrian and Arabic pride, she has been made both valiant hero and tragic damsel in the West, some say she was an idol of Catherine the Great, thanks to Egyptian magazines in the early 20th century she has become the quintessential female ruler. Some describe her as unbelievably beautiful, others describe her as a mannish tomboy. She is sometimes described as stereotypically emperor than empress in behavior, which really just means she was a very good ruler because women were supposed to be too frivolous and stupid for the crown.

[Image Description: a S£500 note from 1998. It has a green creasant on one side and a profile portrait of Zenobia on the other. She is shown with a long straight nose, curly hair pinned up, a square chin, wearing a diadem and a robe. There is a faded drawing of ruins in the middle. The bill is mostly in a green pallet. End ID]

But, what follows is the most likely story.

She was a well educated polyglot, highly intellectual, enjoyed hunting, and was probably of some noble origin, especially if she had those hobbies before marrying Odaenathus. She was apparently also fond of wrestling, less high class than the hunting thing. We know little about her family aside from the fact that she was the result of a second marriage. During this time she is often described as taking part in more male activities, like the aforementioned hunting and wrestling against boys, as well as enjoying a far better education than most, which seems reflected in her rule.

As a teenager she became the second wife of Odaenathus marrying him around 255.  Odaenathus was a loyal subordinate of Rome, and was created King of Kings and Corrector Totius Orientis (Governor of All the East) by the Roman Empire in addition to his royal titles within his own domain. He went to battle for Rome, and although the record on Zenobia is vague, at this point there are accounts that she joined her husband on campaign where she became familiar with the troops.  This friendly relationship would help her later on when she took command. It would also mean she was knowledgeable of battle and strategy and familiar with the battlefield.

Ultimately in 267 her husband and his elder son (from his previous marriage) while away from the capital. The story goes that within the day the crown went to Zenobia and Odaenathus's 10-year-old son, Vaballathus. The fact it happened so quickly would suggest she was nearby, helping her husband on the battlefield. Zenobia had no objections to her son being King and she herself remaining Queen Mother/Regent, but his title was nominal, she was the power behind the throne and everyone knew it.

She was a huge fan/patron of the arts, learning, and philosophy. Her court was one of high culture and discussion.  Zenobia was a fair and tolerant ruler, she maintained a steady, stable, and safe multi-religious, multiethnic, and multicultural kingdom and eventually that extended to her Empire. This included protections for minorities, religious or otherwise. The leaders she interacted with never objected to or were hostile toward her person, reign, rule, or court. People, including the military and her governors, liked and/or trusted her.  Any complaint about her reign comes from later sources. 

In 269 Vaballathus got the title of Persicus Maximus (Victor of Persia), implying a military victory there (certainly actually Zenobia's since the "King" was only 12 at the time and she was well known as a strategic mind, she may have even marched with her troops). And that was the beginning of the end of Zenobia's Roman loyalty.  That year she began expanding out of Vaballathus's allotted lands and into Roman territory. She wouldn't formally secede for quite some time, but she started attacking the Hell out of the fringes of the Roman Empire and Zenbodia had made it increasingly clear to her Roman connections in the East they would need to pick a side (ahem, hers) even before her campaign began.

Rome was, at the time, stretched thin and weakening.  The Emperor was fighting off Germanic threats in Italy and the Balkans, closer to the Roman center. Her reasons for ultimately just going for it in 269 are not really recorded. Or a lot of them have been put forward. It may have been she wanted more direct control over the lands she had been promised. It may have been that she felt encroached upon and undermined by Rome. It may have been concern for her country's trade routes as Rome made diplomacy sticky.  It may have been that she saw the Pax Romana weakening as the centralized Roman authority did. In the absence of direct Roman leadership she wanted to keep the region stable and prosperous. 

In the spring of 270 she marched into Provincia Arabia (Rome's Arabic Province). Between 270 and 272 she took over much of the Roman East with domains extending from Palmyra up to Antioch (Ankara, Turkey), over to Dura-Europos (Salhiyé, Syria), down to Mada'in Salih (Al-`Ula, Saudi Arabia), over to Centralish Egypt, down to the Red Sea. This encompassed important historical cities such as Aleppo, Tyre, Tripoli, Jerusalem, Petra, Memphis, Alexandria, and Baranis.  Really, conquest was a matter of months. A little over a year after she entered the Provincia Arabia, in August 271, the year was counted as "Vaballathus V" all the way in Alexandria, Egypt. In a year she had taken over most of the Roman East through brilliant military strategy, loyal followers, and a well implemented propaganda campaign.

[Image Description: the Palmyrene Empire at its height. End ID]

It was also in August of 271 that she started printing coins with her face on them throughout her Empire and she began using the title of Empresses, including adding on some Roman titles she hadn't been given. This was very open rebellion and Rome wouldn't ignore her anymore. The fairly newly crowned Emperor Aurelian had settled things enough in the West that he could afford to turn his full attention to the Empress in the East. Now, fresh from military victories of his own, Autelian marched the full might of Rome Eastward.

Faced with one of the largest and best trained armies in the ancient world, plus Rome's many loyal subordinates, it is unsurprising her Empire fell as quickly as it rose.  

In May 272 she was defeated at Emesa. She had been on that battlefield leading her troops, away from the capital, but managed to escape to it. This was the beginning of the end, however, the Romans marched on Palmyra, but Zenobia had prepared for the siege. After negotiations broke down she and Vaballathus snuck out of the city and attempted to escape to Persia to try to assemble some kind of alliance. She didn't get that far. A year after she declared herself Empress, August 272, she was in Roman captivity.

Her fate is told a few different ways from there.  She may have killed herself enroute to Rome so her captors would not be able to do what Romans always did, publicly display and humiliate her.  She may have been taken to Rome, displayed as a traitor, marched through the streets, and humiliated. From there she was either executed by the Romans or married a Roman nobleman, retiring to a villa with an as of that point unrecorded daughter. 

Her most likely end is probably the most tragic one: humiliated in Rome and then executed. It is unlikely Emperor Aurelian would have allowed her to live seeing as she committed treason, unlikely she would have married one of her captors, unlikely she had this random daughter only mentioned in this epilogue. Also damning, she doesn't turn up in the record again. Her son, Vaballathus, the only one of her children we know existed, also disappears from the record in 274, which doesn't look good for either of them. Although Aurelian occasionally went easy on his opponents, allowing them to survive in defeat and humiliation, considering that he completely obliterated Palmyra -- razing the holy sites, smashing government buildings, burning it to the ground, and literally massacring civilians -- odds are he was similarly unkind to its leaders. So, while her fate is unknown, my bet is that Zenobia and Vaballathus were executed or at least imprisoned. 

[Image Description: Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra by Harriet Hosmer (you may remember her as one of the artists Edomonia Lewis hung out with), carved after 1859. It is a marble bust showing a woman with a stern expression, maybe a little judging. She wears a crown and her hair is mostly pulled back except for two strands hanging down her shoulders. She wears a robe. Her features are definitely too Caucasian given her actual ancestry but this is unfortunately largely the case. Any ancient images of her besides her coins were destroyed. End ID.] 

Probable Orientation: Asexual (unknown romantic orientation) 

Zenobia's story has been told over and over and over again through the centuries from many different perspectives, many of them telling us as much about the historian's society as it does about Zenobia. There is one thing that remains consistent however, Zenobia didn't have much sex. Likewise Zenobia was a propagandist. She crafted her image. She could be anything, but that one detail stood out enough that everyone takes note of it.

We don't know her ancestry. We do know she avoided sex whenever possible.

She did get married, this is obviously true, but she was a noble. As I expounded upon with Elizabeth I nobility has obligations and this stretches back to the establishment of an aristocracy. If your continued power relies on blood relationships, making a baby is vital. Even if she wasn't a noble before marriage she was wanted by a monarch, that is not something anyone could turn down. If she wanted more power or authority marrying a king is a great way to do it and that means babies. 

But it was said at the time and onward that she had no interest in sex. She kept her room separate from his. After marrying she said she would only sleep with her husband for procreation, some say that she only had as much sex as she did children, which may be as few as once.

There are some who say she had other kids, but we only know one of them for sure, Vaballathus. Some other kids have been attributed to her because they have no recorded mother others, like that daughter who supposedly integrated into Rome, exist in only one account and may have been fabricated. There are modern historians who argue that her chastity is just sexism, robbing powerful women of sexuality. I would argue that is just aphobia. An allosexual woman is not more powerful than an ace one and the historical record is consistent on her disdain for sex. Some say this may have been for propaganda's sake, but I don't see any evidence of that. It seems she really just didn't want to have sex. Many male historians have turned it into a focal point. People refuse to just allow her to be ace, there must be some reason, some point to it.

Once she took over she ruled alone. It doesn't seem she was looking for anyone to rule with her nor did she have anyone on the side. No Antony to her Cleopatra.

"She would not even know her own husband, except for the purpose of conception. For when she had lain with him, she would refrain until the time of the month to see if she was pregnant; if not she would again grant an opportunity of begetting children."

-Trebellius Pollio

[image description: Queen Zenobia Addressing Her Soldiers by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo c.1725. A bright painting showing (again a very white) Zenobia on the battlefield and in armor directing her troops who listen intently. End ID]

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome (again) to the Order of the Phoenix, Amos!

You have been accepted for the role of non-biography character MAURICE CREEVEY with the faceclaim of Tom Sturridge! We really enjoyed reading through your application! The idea of a Muggleborn character who is actually not all that excited about going to Hogwarts is awesome! He’s resentful that he was taken away without a choice - resentful that he can’t go back and be the same person. We’re so thrilled to have him as an addition to the cast!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Amos

AGE: 22

TIMEZONE: GMT

ACTIVITY LEVEL: You already have a pretty good idea of my activity. There is also plenty of time when I’m around and could be writing but I am either caught up on Fab or don’t have quite the right muse for him, so hopefully this new charrie can fill those gaps!

ANYTHING ELSE: nope

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Maurice Creevey

AGE: 24

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Male, He/Him, Homosexual. Gender isn’t something he’s really ever thought about. He’s pretty content in that respect. He is quite unapologetically gay though.

BLOOD STATUS: Muggleborn

HOUSE ALUMNI: Ravenclaw

ANY CHANGES: This is where you can request a FC change or a change from something in the skeleton bio.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY: 

To sum Maurice up very concisely, he’s angry. He hasn’t always been. He was a relatively happy go lucky child, full of endless energy and enthusiasm. Then he was plucked from his life and sent away to a school to learn magic. At first that was pretty cool, after all, every 11 year old wishes they had magical abilities, the difference being they get to grow up and forget those wishes and live normal lives. He has to live with his childish fantasies for the rest of his life. And apart from that, he appears to be in a world where muggleborns are being hunted and killed by an evil wizard and his crazy cult. To make things worse, they can’t escape back to their muggle lives because of all the damn secrecy laws. So yes, he’s angry, and a lot of his actions are fueled by that. Make no mistake though, Maurice is no Gryffindor, he doesn’t use his anger in brash reckless ways, he is more calculated. You may catch it crackling under the surface occasionally, but it would take a lot to make him properly explode. Even slurs like ‘mudblood’ would only make him roll his eyes and perhaps give a snarky retort.

Maurice is a Ravenclaw. He is a big believer that knowledge is power. He did fairly well at his subjects in Hogwarts considering he didn’t try all that hard. He did not choose this path and as a consequence, resented it. He would often get his brother who was a few years older, to send him muggle textbooks when he’d finished with them. He was fascinated by science and maths and history. Of course he had some curiosity for his lessons at Hogwarts, and the things he and his magic was capable of, but the element of choice was important for him. It felt like by attending Hogwarts, a whole area of understanding was suddenly off limits. As anyone knows, forbidden knowledge is the most desirable.

He likes to ask questions about as much as any other Ravenclaw, but he is also a big observer. He likes to take time to gather information before jumping into a lot of things, especially interactions with other people. He by no means stalks people, but a few minutes, to watch, take someone in, before starting a conversation is quite usual for him. It’s all about making informed choices.  As a consequence, unexpected interactions can throw him, making him more awkward than he’d like.

He can be arrogant, he has a conviction in his beliefs that can come across as condescension if viewed the wrong way. He can get frustrated when someone is not following his thinking quite as quickly as he’d like, which is why he’d make a terrible teacher. However, this works equally in the opposite direction. His frustration can be palpable when he doesn’t understand something, and these moments are when he is least in control. A lot of his acts of protest come from anger, sure, but also the frustration of not being able to fathom how things got so bad, why they can’t just make them better now, why people can’t see it for themselves. But usually he is quiet. Unless he is invited to speak, or is so damn angry the words won’t stop, he can keep his thoughts to himself until someone is listening and his words can have an impact.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY: 

Until the age of 11 Maurice grew up in a very normal, working class family in the midlands. His mother was a typical housewife, loving but somewhat distracted, staring out of windows whilst doing the washing up, leaving the dinner in slightly too long when listening to the radio. Maurice didn’t mind, he barely noticed, and she was excellent at bedtime stories, so what was there to complain about? His father was a miner, a tough, but humorous man. He worked hard, and he always came home dirty, but played football with them in the garden the weekends.

He has one older brother. Not the brightest bulb, but the kindest person Maurice knows. Maurice always thought him brave, in a quiet way. There is no one Maurice has ever looked up to quite like his big brother, even if they squabbled and scrapped as much as any other loving siblings.

Perhaps this happy set up, along with glowing school reports and a nice bunch of friends, was why he has always resented being ripped from that life and that path. 

When he was a child, he dreamed of being an astronaut, an archaeologist, a doctor, a lawyer, and what’s more, none of these were stretches for him, with his brain and desire for learning, he could have done it, he could have gotten out of the rows and rows of back to back terraced houses that he and his family were confined to. He could have taken them with him. But he was torn away and sent to Hogwarts, and his parents only vaguely understood, were proud, but in a distant way. His brother became a milkman, a job he enjoyed, but not one that paid well. He married young, his school sweetheart, and they are expecting their first child. They all seem happy enough, they have the things that matter, enough food to eat, a roof over their head, love, but Maurice can’t help but feel he could have saved them. The terror of living paycheck to paycheck, the mundanity of their terraced hells, or just never being able to treat yourself to that little bit extra. He remembered as a child, when his father would be on strike, the unspoken fear that filled up their home. He had wanted to save them from that.

When he would return home for the summer, he would act like nothing had changed, he wouldn’t speak of Hogwarts, or of his magic. He would pretend like he was no different from them, but something had changed and something had broken, and eventually he realised that something couldn’t be fixed. Getting his Hogwarts letter had been the beginning of the end for Maurice. He hated it when summer would end and he’d have to go back, but he also hated going home in the first place.

OCCUPATION: 

Maurice works as a sound engineer at the Wizarding Wireless Network. It was not something he expected of himself, more something he fell into. A job at the Ministry would have gone against all his principals. A deep hatred for ‘the man’ but also the wizarding world in general, he wasn’t about to go work in a place trying to keep it all ticking over, and bore himself to death in the process.

He considered more academic positions, but he’d had a hard enough time concentrating at Hogwarts. Trawling magical forests for new flora and fauna, or raiding tombs and breaking their curses had no appeal to him. Which largely left working class positions or the arts. It was not a tricky decision.

The newspaper was an option, but the fact that the Daily Prophet seemed to have a monopoly on journalism in wizarding Britain didn’t sit well with Maurice. Without another widely available newspaper to oppose their horribly biased reporting, what was the point? He would not be a puppet for their propaganda. For a while, he tried to write his own pieces, publish them independently, but that wasn’t entirely successful. The pieces were convoluted, preachy, and he had no audience, no one to either agree nor criticise him.

Eventually he wound up at the Wizarding Wireless Network. Again, it irked him that there was only one major company broadcasting, but at least they had a bit more variation, and whilst they did broadcast the news, the purpose leaned towards entertainment. It’s not a cause Maurice is particularly passionate for, but it’s not one he opposes.

As a sound engineer, he’s around for recordings and broadcasts, cleans up pre recorded audio, fixes equipment, just whatever needs doing that seems like it fit within his job title. Most of it he learned on the job, but it was fascinating enough to capture his attention, and similar enough to muggle radio not to infuriate him. It also introduced him to the world of pirate radio.

About 2 years after he started at WWN, his friend and mentor quit, and in his last few days, confided in Maurice that he was leaving to start his own show. Technically WWN was the only official broadcaster on wizarding radios, but if you knew how to get a frequency, you could broadcast whatever you liked. He and some friends were setting up a station out of someone’s garage, mostly to play the music the WWN spurned.

The idea lit a flame in Maurice. Of course, the fact that it was ever so slightly against the rules, and possibly the law, made it exciting. But the idea of broadcasting whatever he liked, even if there was no one listening, putting something out there, finite and unique.

So that’s what he does with his evenings at the weekends, he broadcasts late into the night and the early mornings. The Order gives him a focus, not just long rambling opinion pieces that sounds like the inner thoughts of a paranoid conspiracy theorist. He has found a purpose now. His show, it helps spread news, it helps spread information, it helps spread hope. Of course there is the tricky business of making sure the wrong ears don’t hear it, but he’s a smart guy, there’s a way around everything.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER: 

Maurice joined the Order with best friend, Daisy Hookum. He was at the same Squib’s Rights March, right in the middle of the rioting, and landed square in the Order’s gaze because of it.

Maurice has always been an activist, even before graduating Hogwarts, he would hold small demonstrations, conquering whatever stage fright he might have for the greater good. Standing up on tables at breakfast to make impassioned speeches, chaining himself to statues and refusing to go to class, he even came very close to slashing a painting once before the painting’s occupant managed to talk him out of it.

Maurice has taken a lot of inspiration from muggle strikes and demonstration techniques. He remembers picket lines from his childhood, and grew up with the punk movement. He even had a bright red mohawk once before Daisy told him it really didn’t suit him.

These energies are what he hoped to bring to the Order. He recognises that Voldemort and the Death Eaters are the main enemy, but in his eyes, the Ministry are accomplices, and he feels just as violently about them. The Death Eaters may be the ones directly killing people, but the Ministry are letting them do it, even helping them to a certain degree. The fact that so many squeaky clean Ministry employees come to the Order to ‘do their part’ indicates to him, that there are just as many who are going over to Voldemort for the same reason. He wishes more of their actions were against the Ministry directly, but he can also do that in his own time.

Day to day, Maurice is generally a pretty good foot soldier, he isn’t crazy about the actual violence part, but he’ll do it if he has to. He’d like a louder voice at the table, but he knows how these things work, and he knows too many cooks spoil the broth. The fact that they are organised is enough for him. There is a system, and if he ever feels he needs to take something to the top, then he knows how to do that.

He has also brought his pirate radio platform to the Order. It’s a good way to spread news to people such as those being helped by the dissendium task force, and a good way to organise large groups of people. And also quite simply, it can raise spirits. Assuming that people tune in to listen. Maurice doesn’t think it’s quite being used to its full potential, but it’s getting there. The Order function on secrecy, whereas Maurice wants to inform the masses. There is clearly a conflict of interest. 

(I see this radio show as being very similar to the Potterwatch of the second wizarding war, and if it isn’t quite at that structure yet, then building it up to that during the game.)

I think although he is happy to fight with the Order, and be on the front line of the fight against You-Know-Who, his main motives are doing something about the International Statute of Secrecy, even if he is a little distracted by other things and other causes, it all really comes back to him having the choice to fight, to flee, to live his life where he pleases, taking the elements of both cultures and combining them. And he wants that choice for others as well. A lot of his anger and frustration is on a very personal selfish level, but he does recognise that he’s fighting this cause for people other than himself.

SURVIVAL: 

Being both muggleborn and publicly vocal in his opinions, does put a bit of a target on Maurice’s back. He’s had a few close scrapes in the past, but luckily that’s as much as they were. Making enemies with a lot of purebloods perhaps isn’t the most efficient way to survive this war. He doesn’t move around a lot, thankfully he’s never been traced to his home address and he wants to keep it that way. He rents a little place in Muggle London, clean and comfortable enough, but out of the way and non-descript. He wards it heavily, and takes great lengths to make sure he isn’t followed home.

He isn’t too bad at dueling, but it isn’t his greatest strength. Mostly he relies on quick thinking rather than brute strength. And paranoia. He’s seen what the other side is capable of, and he’s heard enough of Moody’s lecture like speeches to know how to watch his back.

Still, he can lay awake many nights, realising there that if he continues to fight like this, there is a large chance he won’t survive the war. Is it worth it? He usually falls asleep before reaching a conclusive answer. Needless to say, as a 24 year old, he is terrified of dying. He is just also too angry to let that stop him.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Daisy Hookum: Friends since first year, he and Daisy have a special bond. There are very few people who know him as closely as Daisy knows him. Even his family, who he loves dearly, can’t understand him the way Daisy does. They may have been brought together by class timetables and group projects, but what bonded them was their shared views of the world. Particularly as they got older, they could talk for hours and hours about their politics. They didn’t always agree on every point, but respected each other enough to hear the other out. Of course this wasn’t the only thing that kept them friends. They could have fun together, let loose, forget for a little while that things were so bad, forget how angry they were.

They joined the Order together, as they did so much together. But then Daisy left for her year in the muggle world. Since then the relationship has been strained. He understood better than most what she was trying to do, but the reality is still that he felt abandoned, and jealous, that she could go off and live her ‘muggle’ life. It’s become obvious since her return that Maurice’s idea of activism is now split from hers. She wants to take a more passive role, and Maurice couldn’t bear that.

Caradoc Dearborn: Caradoc is someone Maurice begrudgingly looks up to. On the one hand he is everything he despises, wealthy and pure blooded. But the way he conducts himself is something that Maurice admires. He can’t help but want to be in Caradoc’s good books. If he had an issue within the Order, he would most likely take it to Caradoc.

Mary MacDonald: Mary is a more recent friend. They were a few years apart at Hogwarts and so only got to know each other after they both joined the Order. A lot of Mary’s politics match up with Maurice’s, and apart from that they are very compatible on a personal level. She is one of the lucky few Maurice has let in. Of course it helps that she is muggle-born as well, he feels that with so few of them inside the Order, they really have to stick together.

He has never been the most social of people. It is not that he doesn’t enjoy company, more that he doesn’t settle. If he is going to spend time with someone, properly invest in them, he wants to be sure they are the right person. He does not do this consciously you understand, but he is constantly assessing and reassessing the people in his life. First impressions, as he’s found, are often misleading, but that doesn’t mean doesn’t heed them. He’s more inclined to search out the red flags than give someone the benefit of the doubt. The people who slip through the cracks however, get the best of him. The warmth, the wit, everything he’s been desperately been bottling up waiting for the right vessel to pour it into.

Generally, Maurice is going to feel some animosity for the richer, pure blooded members of the order, but he’ll tolerate them. He’s also going to be fairly uninterested in those who aren’t as active in the cause, or any cause for that matter. So maybe he’s made a few enemies within the Order, or at least brushed some people the wrong way. Or perhaps he’s been pleasantly surprised by others.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: No ships or antiships, I’m really open to anything. I do see Maurice as gay, so I think relationships with women would be unlikely, but I’m a sucker for some unrequited love plots, or maybe some confused one night stands. Basically anything is on the table.

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Well Maurice is a white male, so let’s start with that. I don’t think feminism is high up on his rank of causes, or racism, simply because I don’t think it’s played a huge role within his personal life experience. He probably doesn’t even realise a lot of the privileges he has as a white man.

He’s also gay, and whilst he is quite unapologetic about that, his sexuality seemed to be more of an issue in his muggle life than in the wizarding world, so it isn’t something he feels the need to fight about all the time. Again there are more important causes right now.

As a person who grew up in a working class family, he generally just resents the wealthy, and he won’t give them much chance to prove themselves to him either. This definitely stems from growing up poor, but perhaps if he’d been able to make his own fortune and save his family from their poverty, then he wouldn’t feel as strongly. In that sense it’s quite hypocritical. Now it’s also tied to the fact that the wealthy are the ones in control, both in the Death Eaters and their reign of terror, and at the Ministry, making and enforcing the laws that keep them all trapped and helpless. It hasn’t missed his attention that most of the wealthier wizards are pureblooded, so he’ll often lump them in with his disdain.

This works the other way as well. He’s willing to overlook a lot of shit that his working class/muggle born acquaintances get up to, forgive a lot of their sins. I don’t think he realises he does this, but it certainly happens.

He doesn’t necessarily hate the people who work for the Ministry, even if he has a dislike for the establishment and the way it’s run. He understands everyone has to work, and most don’t get the privilege of doing something they like or agree with entirely. There is a bit of time though where he’ll figure out their motives before he really trusts or likes them.

Law enforcement isn’t particularly in his good books either, but that is perhaps more linked to his view of how muggle police act towards protests and demonstrations.

When it comes to the issues of half-breeds, he’ll go along to the marches, he’ll sign the petitions, he’s probably up to date on all the latest views and opinions, but again, it’s not at the top of his priorities.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? You already know I love this roleplay. I’m looking forward to being more active hopefully, interacting with a wider range of characters, playing someone who is quite different to Fab as well and stretching those writing muscles.

PLOT DROP IDEAS: 

I would love to see his pirate radio show have an effect somehow, either positive or negative (but maybe more positive at least at first, I’ve already done a lot of disappointing the Order with Fab).

I would love to see how his bloodstatus affects him. If he is genuinely more in danger for being a loud annoying muggleborn, it might be nice to work that into the larger plot somehow.

ANYTHING ELSE? I haven’t put whether he’s low level or mid level in the Order, I’m happy for either, wherever you think he’d fit best.

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS:

PAST: 

Maurice Creevey grew up in the midlands, part of a typical working class family. His mother was a housewife, and his father a Miner. The strikes and picket lines his father was a part of were some of his first experiences with activism, and the spark didn’t stop there. Maurice was rudely torn from his happy muggle life by the revelation he was a Wizard and the letter ‘inviting’ him to study at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. With no choice but to follow this path, Maurice has resented it ever since. He didn’t waste his time there by any means though. This was when he got his first taste for activism, protesting in the great hall and demonstrating in classes. These habits followed him faithfully into adulthood, developing until he found real urgent causes. At the top of his list, was tearing down the Statue of Secrecy that traps all muggle-borns in the wizarding world whilst an evil wizard and his cronies are attempting to pick them off one by one, and also prevents the muggles from fighting back on their own terms.

PRESENT:

It’s his activism that brought him to the attention of the Order. He is a good soldier for the Order, willing to do what has to be done and follow orders dutifully. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own intentions. Maurice works for the Wizarding Wireless Network, and a few nights a week he hosts his own pirate radio station. Sometimes his broadcasts can get hundreds or thousands of listeners, all scared but hopeful, wanting to hear what no-one else is telling them, the news the papers won’t print, the the stories the WWN won’t air. The Order value their secrecy, but Maurice knows information is power, and knowledge gives you a choice. He knows he can use his show to the Order’s advantage if only it’s given a chance.

FC CHOICES: top choice is Tom Sturridge, I’m not very good at fcs so if you don’t think he fits I’m happy to go with recommendations!

[nunonabun]

If you don't mind answer (Since I'm loving you digging into other answers you give!) What do you think about the show's seemingly Anti-Adoption standpoint? Even when it's for the best interest of the child, or the mother's insistent on it, they seem to do everything they can to convince the mother otherwise. Even when the mother couldn't afford the child at all, and had a home lined up for them, they talked her out of it.

Thank you for the question! Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply to, I wanted to attempt a thorough answer but I had a lot going on, so it got a tad forgotten in the drafts.

Your ask is quite a toughie. I don’t know that I’d actually characterize the show as having an anti-adoption viewpoint, I think the show is often trying to be conscious of the way class and other social structures interacted with the adoption system at the time, while also trying to deal with other issues adoption raises. I think sometimes they do well with that, but sometimes, while trying to shine a light on one thing, they manage to fall into other biases. I’ll put the rest under a ‘read more’ as this did get a biiiit long.

Class had (and has, really) a big role in adoption, and views of who “deserved” to be a parent often had harmful impacts. It’s a complicated and difficult subject, and there are lots of factors that can come into play in each case, but shame and other pressures were often usedto essentially force poor and/or single mothers to give up children. Some children were outright taken from the biological mother (or couple, in some cases, though overwhelmingly judgement landed on single women) that wanted them and were trying to keep them. The choice wasn’t really a free choice as they often weren’t given the support they would need in order to make keeping the child a viable option for them, nor were they given support in thoroughly thinking through all of their options and deciding what they truly want. Also, young, single, working-class women were generally condemned for becoming pregnant and were often pressured to give the child up so that they could be given to a ‘better’ family (i.e. middle-class straight couple. Having a British background & being Christian did also come into it).  

Another aspect of portraying adoption is contending with the bias that a ‘real’ family is biological; that there’s some kind of innate bond between people who are biologically linked that is not present between those who aren’t (I’m going to call this the ‘biology bias’ for convenience’s sake). The elements of classism and biology bias (and bias against single parents, homophobia, racism, etc.) can interact in complex ways. Trying to realistically portray negative aspects of the adoption system that aren’t often talked about can result inseemingly playing into the ‘child should stay with their real family’ prejudice. Or it can both critique the class bias and buy into the biology bias. The latter case often takes the form of ‘well I guess the adoptive couple is providing a promising future for the child, it’s just a shame that it comes at the cost of a deeper/truer love, as the child would have had with the bio family’ in media portrayals. Or sometimes the inverse can happen (undercutting the biology bias but accepting the class bias) and you get an attribution of blame instead of an examination of how people are constrained by their situations in a way that couldbe resolved with good social supports, à la ‘those (lower-income) people were just bad parents who don’t deserve a child, the child should be given to a good (middle-class) couple.’ And plenty of other complex issues arise when the axes of race & nationality, physical & mental differences, gender, etc. come into play. It’s really a hard thing to navigate and communicate all of the elements that are wrapped up in adoption, and I’d say portrayals are often in the grey zone.

To disentangle the elements in CtM’s portrayals of adoption, I’m going togo ahead and take a little look at all of the examples of adoption in the show and try to examine what they’re aiming for and what I think they convey. Please feel free to point out if I’ve missed one or if you think I’ve missed elements of one portrayal or have misconstrued things. Strap in guys, this is hecking long. Or jump down to the Tl;dr, that’s fine too.

First, in 1x02, we have Mary, the Irish girl who came to London, was taken advantage of and pressured into prostitution and became pregnant. Jenny tries to help her, but as she is single, poor, still a child herself, and a prostitute, the child is removed from Mary (and in episode 4 we discover that that has seriously mentally scarred her, resulting in her taking someone else’s child in an attempt to regain what was taken from her.) Here we see pretty much exactly what I was talking about above. Society saw Mary as morally unfit (as being poor, a prostitute, and single & pregnant were judged to be personal failures/sins, and there was additional prejudice against Irish people), so there was no safety net for her, no public services provided so that she, even as poor and young as she was, could realistically raise the child if she wanted to. You could say it might be unjust to leave the child with Mary, given her circumstances, but I think CtM is showing that her circumstances didn’t have to be what they were. If she wasn’t judged so on a moral basis, she wouldn’t be condemned to continue in those circumstances and she wouldn’t have had her child taken from her against her will. If she had been given a free choice and support in making it and carrying it out, she may have kept the child or she may have given it up, but either way, the outcome for Mary wouldn’t have been as terrible as it was.  

The second case we see is Doris Aston, in 3x02. Doris is married and has a few children already, and reveals that her current pregnancy is likely the result of an affair with a black man. Obviously, her husband (who is white) will know she was unfaithful when the child is born, and she and the child will be at risk as her husband is abusive (it’s revealed throughout the episode that he is controlling and aggressive, even prior to learning of his wife’s infidelity.) In the end, the child (who Doris names Carole) is taken out of the house, with the husband threatening to kill Carole if she remains. Carole is taken to the Turners’ to foster and then sent on to her middle-class adoptive family.This episode is meant to shine a light on another pressure that results in women not having a free choice in life, particularly around sexuality and children. Divorce was heavily stigmatizedat the time, and it wasn’t easy for a woman to get a divorce from her husband if he didn’t agree to it, especially if the couple already had children together. Therefore, if a woman was unhappy in a marriage, or even suffering abuse, there wasn’t much recourse for her. Yes, in this situation Doris did cheat, but the circumstances of that are complicated. What’s more, as a result of it, she doesn’t really have a free choice in whether to keep her daughter (and sons) and leave her husband (which she wanted) or stay and work it out either with or without Carole. The only real choice she has is to give the child up and hope her husband a) doesn’t find and hurt the baby, b) isn’t violent towards her as a result of him learning about her infidelity, and c) that she can bury her emotions around Carole and essentially pretend she never existed/died at birth. So the episode is seeking to portray the way women, especially working-class women, were unjustly constrained; forced into choices they would not freely have made. Race is touched on only briefly, in that it’s the element that renders Doris’ infidelity evident, and also a mixed-race child is more difficult to place within the adoption system. This isn’t really explored much, as Carole is quickly adopted and we don’t actually really see how her being mixed affects this.An element of this episode that I think they mishandled was buying into the ‘true family is bio family’ prejudice via their attempt to portray the injustice Doris faced and sympathize with her. This mainly comes in near the end of the episode, where they reinforce the idea that Doris is Carole’s ‘real’ mother. Doris herself worries that Carole “won’t know I’m her mother,” and Sister Julienne says “If Carole searches for her mother one day, hopefully records will bring her to us,” Here I think the norm of just saying “mother” as though the adoptive mother Carole will have isn’t really her mother, is partially just because they’re showing that Doris does feel she is Carole’s mother and doesn’t actually want to give her up, however it does play into the biology bias. This is deeply reinforced when Vanessa Redgrave chimes in with a “[Doris] trusted in God that Carole would have a good life with good people who would give her the future she couldn’t. More than anything, she wished she could have kept her because whatever anyone else might feel, it couldn’t be what Doris felt. Her daughter was of and from her. They were a part of each other and always would be.” That could generously be interpreted as Mature Jenny just conveying what Doris believed, but even so, there’s a heavy narrative buy-in to that message, and the message is clearly ‘Doris wanted to keep her daughter and ought not to have been forced to give her up. Biology and gestation result in an inherent, unbreakable bond that cannot be replicated and it is therefore regrettable that Carole had to be given to a family that - though financially secure, potentially kind, and distant from the threat of violence - lack that bond.’ That message again seeks to convey the injustice of Doris’s situation and sympathize with her pain, but in doing so, it implies that adoptive families lack this deep, automatic bond forged via biology and are therefore inherently weaker. They may provide a more materially promising future for the child, but unfortunately, they aren’t as ‘true’ a family as a biologically linked one.Furthermore, Jenny says “[The adoption agency worker] spoke as though Doris had no link at all with her baby,” and notes that the adoptive parents requested no ongoing contact. These elements reinforce the portrayal of the adoption as cold and insufficiently recognizant of how the baby is ‘actually’ the biological mother’s. This bit is difficult, as Carole is not not Doris’s, and it’s totally fair for Doris to grieve for the loss of her daughter. Also, cutting off contact, not allowing any connection at all to the child’s birth family was commonly done and can be a very harmful practice. The adoption agency (and society at large) certainly thought Doris had no moral right to see Carole, as she chose to have an affair and is therefore a Bad Woman and a Bad Mother, and that is justly critiqued by the show. But I think, in this episode, the show is rather clumsy in its portrayal of this complex situation, and manages to imply that the adoptive family (and mother in particular) are kind of interlopers who are only a solution to a problem as opposed to being a potentially very loving family that is just as true of a family as a biological one. Where this reading is a bit shaken is that this is the start of the foreshadowing that the Turners will end up adopting a child, and their fostering of Carole for the night before she is adopted is shown in a very positive light. The whole scene is loving and sweet, and positive comments are made about Carole’s adoption (though sympathy is also extended to Doris.) So it’s a bit of a mixed bag, this episode. Overall I think that it does a good job with the class and sexism elements, but a poor job with handling the biology bias.

The third time adoption is portrayed (3x06), it’s more of a subplot that serves to introduce Shelagh and Patrick to the idea that adoption could be the answer to their desire to expand their family. Colin Monk, Tim’s friend, is revealed to be adopted. Learning this immediately prompts Shelagh to propose that she & Patrick pursue adoption to continue building their family. She comments: “I really don’t believe I’d have to carry a child inside my body for it to feel like ours. If I felt that, it would mean that loving Timothy has taught me nothing.” This is a firm rebuttal of the biology bias and it nicely links step and adoptive families, explicitly espousing a positive perspective on both.The episode does touch on the class & religious aspects too. Shelagh says that the adoption charity she went to was the Church of England Childrens’ Society, and notes: “I think they quite like the idea of us, a GP and a retired midwife. (…) As the lady [at the adoption agency] said, the children have already got off to a sorry start in life, they need the very best parents the agency can find them.” So, again, the show is bringing up the normative judgements around parenting, and the idea that a (straight) professional couple where the mother stays home is deemed morally deserving of children.The end of this episode also sees Patrick getting antsy about the conditions of adoption, correctly foreseeing that (in 3x07) his mental health struggles will cause the agency to deem him less deserving of a child (so here’s ableism coming in to play too.)Overall, I think these episodes did a good job with the adoption plot. They push back against the biology bias while also subtly highlighting who is deemed socially worthy of children in terms of class and health.

Fourth there’s 3x08, wherein the Turners adopt Angela. Here, the portrayal is overwhelmingly positive, with pretty much all of our excitement and sympathies going to the Turners, who are meeting their daughter for the first time. They’re excited about the news that they’re going to become parents in much the same way we see people on the show excited about an impending birth. Holding Angela for the first time (particularly with respect to Shelagh) is treated as having as much weight and love as any parent being handed their biological baby. Particularly, In The Mirror plays, a musical theme that has been used to score previous momentous transformations in Shelagh’s life (and Patrick’s, as those changes are often linked), Patrick says “here’s your mummy,” and Shelagh says “we have a daughter.” For me, that is slightly undercut by Shelagh saying “This is the closest I’m ever going to get to giving birth.” This implies that the experience is kind of a consolation prize, as close as they can get to what they’d ideally want; for Shelagh to carry and give birth to a child that is biologically theirs. I don’t think that’s necessarily what they meant to imply - especially given all the talk before and in later episodes about loving Angela as much as if she were biologically theirs - but that’s how that line read to me. But again, that is largely overwhelmed by the positive tone and emotions portrayed in that scene.Switching into the consideration of the other end of the equation, the biological mother, we have a very interesting choice to comment on the deeply uncomfortable situation that led to Angela becoming a Turner. When Patrick asks what she knows about the situation, Shelagh says: “Hardly anything, just that the mother is only 16 and she was meant to be taking the baby home with her, but at the last minute her parents changed their minds.” Timothy, always involved in the family building (another strong element of the portrayal) says “That’s terrible,” and Patrick reprimands him with a slightly curt “Tim.” Shelagh says, “That’s why they want a speedy settlement, to spare further trauma for those involved.” We, the viewers, are excited and happy about the Turners adopting, and then we’re hit with this slight insight into the other side of the equation. Though “our” family is getting its happy outcome, that results from a terrible thing having happened to a young, single girl (‘Miss Jones’.) We don’t know the class differential here, so there’s not much to work with, analysis-wise, on that front. Here, it’s more that Miss Jones doesn’t really have the option to contradict her parents in this society, which results in her being forced to give up the child she wanted to keep. So again the show highlights the lack of choice women (and girls) had, and hints at the moral judgements around who is worthy of being supported in their parenting project. Interestingly, this actually puts Shelagh (and Patrick, to some degree, though the whole plot really focusses more on Shelagh’s motherhood, which is a whole other discussion) a bit in the moral grey, as her (their) desire to have a child causes them to kind of callously brush past the injustice their daughter’s biological mother faced. Though that is slightly tempered by Shelagh noting that it’s felt that doing this all quickly is the least traumatic option, having her convey this information as they’re all rushing to pick up Angela really gets across how the injustices on the bio mother’s side of the picture just kind of get glossed over in the focus on joy of the adoptive family. We don’t take that bit more time to consider what actually results in the best outcome for all involved. That’s an interesting counterpoint to 3x02, where the adoptive family’s love and joy is glossed over by our focus on the sorrow and pain of Doris Aston. I would say though that 3x08 does a bit better at integrating all these elements, as the hurried discussion of the bio mother is, I think, clearly meant to bring us up short and make us consider that there are elements of injustice in this situation, whereas 3x02 doesn’t really give us much positive about the adoptive family. The following episode does give us some balance too, showing the Turners worrying about Angela’s biological mother while still clearly maintaining that Angela is as loved as she would be if she was biologically theirs. Shelagh and Patrick reflect on this together and with Timothy, and the ensemble decision is to send a letter to Angela’s biological mother (though administrative structures make it uncertain that the letter will reach her), giving her some closure as to what happened to the child she gave up. This serves to send the message that communication in the process of family-building is important, while also remaining grounded in a time where it was generally held that the best thing to do in an emotionally difficult situation was to not talk about it.

In the following episode, the Christmas special, we get the mother and baby home, which switches gear firmly into focussing on the judgement placed on unmarried women who become pregnant (especially young women) and the abuses these women (and girls) faced in the institutions they were sent to. First, there’s the fact that these institutions existed, largely tucked away to reinforce that falling pregnant outside of marriage is shameful and needs to be hidden. Then there’s the medical neglect within the home, the only staff being the Nonnatus volunteers and the drunken matron who runs the place. We see one case briefly where a baby is basically ripped from a young woman/girl who was not yet ready to say goodbye. Of our two main cases, we have one woman who decided to keep the baby though she was initially aloof and uncaring, and one who was totally comfortable giving the baby up and does so. I think a strong point of the episode was pointing out that whole Mother & Baby Home system is a result of and in many ways a reinforcement of the shaming and punishment of young, often poor, unmarried mothers for what was deemed a personal failing. We see this explicitly with Tim’s comment about “moral contagion,” wherein he’s voicing/testing out/subtly criticizing the mainstream view of the time. In England at the time, society operated on the idea that treating these women like any other pregnant women would be endorsing their sin/personal failing, and that would lead to a whole epidemic of this sort of thing, which would obviously be bad. So the episode as a whole is bringing that to light and critiquing it and the actions that resulted from it.On to the two main cases. One is a young woman/girl who decides to give her bio son up for adoption, saying that she’s happy to think that he’ll have a good life with people who love and want him and it’s the right choice for both of them. She is shown to have a supportive mother, indicating that sometimes, the choice was freer. The narrative is telling us that there were cases where - in spite of wider social prejudice against unmarried mothers - keeping the child would have been a viable option, but the bio mother decided that wasn’t what she wanted/what she judged to be the best outcome of the situation, and this is a perfectly fine choice to make.My feelings on the portrayal of the other young woman/girl are a bit more mixed. On the one hand, yes sometimes someone is totally set on giving up a child but their mind changes when confronted by the reality of the newborn. However, this storyline is a bit of an iffy trope and I think using it requires some delicacy. It’s very easy to fall into the ‘it’s your child and you will and ought to have a unique, automatic bond with it,’ which places a judgement on women who don’t automatically feel that bond, whether or not they want that child and whether or not they ultimately decide to keep that child. That normative view of bonding downplays the work that goes into bonding with a child and implicitly judges those whose bond is not automatic, as well as implying that there is a sort of bond that is exclusive to the person who gives birth to the child. On the plus side, that storyline directly contradicts the idea that these young women/girls don’t deserve to be mothers, and that is a point in its favour.On the whole, though I disagree with the ‘automatic bond’ portion of the one storyline, the episode benefits from having multiple storylines highlighting different elements within the overall focus on pregnant, unmarried young women/girls and the injustices they suffered as a result of sexism.

Sixth, we get the case of Marnie Wallace and Dot (and Eugene) Spenlow. Marnie and Dot are cousins, the former is poor, the latter is more middle-class. Marnie is pregnant and her husband has died fairly recently. She’s struggling with how she’s going to provide for this child as well as the children she already has. The main option is to give the child to Dot and her husband, who very much want a child but cannot have one biologically. This gets uncomfortable as Dot offers Marnie financial support on the condition that Marnie gives them the baby when it’s born. Marnie does this but is clearly unhappy about it. When we see Dot and Eugene with the baby, they seem fairly uncomfortable with caring for it/aren’t going about it as Marnie would, though they are happy. Marnie decides she can’t live with this and takes the baby back, and though Dot and Eugene are upset, they come to accept this and give her all the stuff they bought for the baby. I’m not entirely sure what the episode was going for. There’s the theme of poor women being forced to give up children out of financial necessity (lack of resources & support made available to them), and there’s the theme of family pressuring a woman to make certain decisions about her children. I think they were trying to highlight class dynamics, and that resulted in the episode portraying a more middle-class part of a family directly preying on a poorer family member and taking her child. My discomfort with that (and I think it’s a discomfort that many viewers had) is not around Marnie not deserving to have the support she needs to raise a child that she truly wants. Portraying class struggles has always been an important element of this show and a praiseworthy one. The reason this episode drew some criticism (at least, on tumblr), I think, is that the portrayal of the couple who cannot biologically have children feels malicious. It feels like the message being sent is that there’s something virtuous about being able to have children even when you “have nothing but love,” whereas the barren couple is materialistic, not naturally good at parenting like someone who can bear children and inherently unable to provide the love that the bio mum could give the baby. That Dot practically bribes Marnie to give her the baby borders on a caricature and makes me question why it was written this way, as opposed to, say, having Dot and Eugene being portrayed more sympathetically (i.e. not bribing Marnie, offering her help) and perhaps having Marnie struggle to communicate with them that she feels pressured into a choice that she’s not comfortable with. While the situation that was portrayed isn’t wildly out there in terms of things that could and probably do happen within families, the predatory portrayal of the Spenlows seems to condemn them for being unable to have children that are biologically theirs. And that’s not a super great message to send.Oh yeah, and Tom has some feelings about the fact that he was adopted. That part of the episode felt quite tacked on. I think they were trying to communicate that a person who was adopted may have complicated feelings about the circumstances leading to their adoption when they grow up. How do you process a situation in which your biological mother was forced to give you up, but you love and were & are very happy with your adoptive family? What if you just don’t know the circumstances in which you were given up but fear they were traumatic for your biological mother/family? I think those are all very good questions to explore and I would love to see the show do a good job of exploring them. This episode wasn’t it. Putting Tom questioning those things against the backdrop of Marnie and Dot, the negative message of their story casts a shadow over those questions such that, instead of really exploring them, you’re left with the feeling that the show is saying ‘yeah, that was probably a bad thing that you weren’t raised in your biological family.’ I think they tried to provide balance to this by having Tom maintain that he loved his family and had a very normal childhood and he didn’t even think about the fact of his adoption, but I don’t think it worked. I also think that positioning ‘I didn’t even question that I was adopted and never thought about the circumstances of my birth & bio parents’ as the sign of a positive outcome of adoption is problematic. A person can be curious about and care about their bio family and the circumstances that led to their adoption without that being a slap in the face of their adoptive family or a sign that they were/are unhappy/unsatisfied with their adoptive family. Overall, though there were a few good elements to this episode… it was a bit of a trainwreck.

Seventh, there’s the 2018 Christmas Special. In this episode, we get the case of Anthea (Tillerson) Sweeting, who was abused by her father throughout her life and was then turned out by her family when she became pregnant as a result of the abuse. She subsequently formed a family of her own composed of some children who are biologically hers, as well as some who are adopted and some who she (and her husband) are fostering. There is also the case of Linda & Selwyn, a couple living in a caravan who are preparing for the birth of a baby who is not biologically Selwyn’s. Their arc largely involves Linda escaping the cycle of self-blame and accepting that the man she loves and who loves her is fully committed accepting the child as his and continuing forward as a family. With both of these cases, the biology bias is directly contradicted. With the Tillerson/Sweeting situations, we compare a family where the biological father was abusive and the biological family as a whole failed to protect the children (though there are nuances as to the mother’s responsibility in a situation where she too was suffering abuse) to a strong, loving family where the degree of biological relatedness varies. Then with Linda & Selwyn, you have a family where the biological father is not in the picture and the non-biological father is shown to be loving and supportive and very likely a good father. The episode as a whole strongly communicates that it is the choice to love and the continued commitment to one another that makes a healthy family.  

Eighth and finally, we have the 2018 Christmas Special. I’m not going to go into the whole of May’s situation and its portrayal because there’s much to go into about fostering and, while fostering is related to adoption, it’s really a whole topic of its own. There’s also a discussion that could be had about religious institutions and their role in adoption, but that would really go into the role they have in childbirth as well and that is just a whole big other conversation we could have about the show. Also, frankly this reply is long as heck already and a million high fives to you if you’ve stuck with me this far. In this episode, we go to the Nonnatus Mother Ship House and learn that apparently, they run an orphanage. Sister Winifred has a nice storyline with a boy who has disabilities and is therefore unlikely to be adopted. It is shown that children like this were often pushed to the sides and not given the care they needed to flourish. They were also far less likely to be adopted because they have different needs from children without disabilities, so they’re not what people seek when adopting (or hope for when giving birth.) This was a strong point of the episode, as it highlights the ableism in society more generally and specifically within family-building and childcare. Then we have May, who is part of a group of orphans from Hong Kong whose adoptive parents do not show up to pick her up because the prospective father gets TB, so the Turners decide to take her to live with them as a foster child. We learn that May’s biological mother was a prostitute and struggled with addiction and that though she tried to keep May, in the end she couldn’t manage to care for her in the situation she was in. There’s lots going on here in terms of class, addiction, sex work, and international adoption (especially, in this case, the power differential between Hong Kong (a British colony) and the UK (the colonial power in this equation.)) Later in the episode (or possibly in the series), it’s mentioned that May isn’t fluently anglophone and the Turners will have to work on her English with her, but other than that, questions of race, culture, etc… aren’t really touched on. I hold out some hope that these will come up in the upcoming series but I think they could have been introduced a bit in this episode/series. Also on the subject of international adoption, we have the sad (and sadly mishandled) story of the Australian home children. These children were sent to Australia (and other Commonwealth countries) for adoption, but were actually treated more as a source of free labour on farms. We actually did see this mentioned at the end of a much earlier episode (4x01), where four children were left mostly alone in conditions of abject squalor due to a neglectful mother (that was pretty much played straight, we don’t really gain much insight as to what her story was) and after Nonnatus helps them, they’re sent off to Australia where they suffer further abuse. And this is repeated here, the pregnant woman in question loitering around the Mother House trying to gain the courage to enter the last place she was happy as a child and talk about the abuse she suffered when she was sent out from the orphanage within this program. I think there’s a positive to this, in that it’s shedding light on a dark aspect of history, but it seems like there may have been a larger point/concern they were trying to make about international adoption programs and the positives and negatives therein that just didn’t land.So overall, there was a lot going on in this episode, some positive elements around tackling ableism in adoption and orphanage care, and some missed elements in relation to international adoption programs.

Tl;dr (and it’s perfectly fine if you jump down here bctbh I wrote a whole freaking tome up there): Dismantling the notion that someone isn’t a “true” parent or isn’t “truly” a person’s child because there’s no biological link is massively important, as is dismantling the notion that you have this instant “natural” connection with your biological child (in terms of what that implies about non-genetic families, the judgement it holds about people who don’t bond instantly with their biological child, and that it erases the work of bonding.) Dismantling the biases about biological connections is helpful in pushing back against a variety of harmful views both within the context of families and family-building, and more broadly. (I’ve actually done some research into essentialist biases around genetics/”blood” and have some interesting papers on it, so please message me if you’re curious and would maybe like to nerd out about it.)

That being said, it’s also important to remember that not all of the choices around adoption are made freely. As with any form of family building, the social structures surrounding it shouldn’t be ignored. At the time, and even now, class, what is considered morally acceptable in a society, and family structure ideals all play into why children are removed from birth families, and which adoptive families they are placed with. They play a large role in who is given support in making, growing and sustaining a family, and who isn’t. Those structures largely favour(ed) straight, Christian, middle-class couples of British backgrounds and judged as worse or less deserving (or completely undeserving) gay, single, non-Christian and/or working-class people of non-British backgrounds.

It’s a really tricky subject, and trying to communicate that biology isn’t what makes you a parent while also showing how harmful the adoption process could be and how rooted it was (is) in unjust social norms & structures is important. I don’t think CtM always nails it, but I think the show benefits from tackling the subject multiple times, from some variety of perspectives, and with efforts at nuance.

[polarishq]

Meet INGRID PELLETIER. They are of UNKNOWN age and origin. Ingrid embodies the star, STERRENNACHT. They use she/her pronouns. Their faceclaim is LILY COLLINS.

Sterrennacht reminds me of hair ribbons, grease and dirt caked beneath trimmed fingernails, an emergency bag packed next to the door (just in case), the inherent trauma of being a first-born daughter, an elaborate tea collection, peterpan collars and mary janes, anachronisms, the sting of a lost childhood, clothes carefully chosen to hide scars, please and thank yous, and always knowing where the nearest exit is.

BIOGRAPHY

Before we begin, it would be negligent of me not to warn you about the misfortunes that follow the Pelletier family. While many in the magical world are lucky to have childhoods filled with joy, a stable household, and shoes not worn through from running, that is not the case here. I urge you to turn back now, lest you be plagued with the recap of the Pelletier siblings’ lives.

It wasn’t always spent constantly looking over their shoulders. On the contrary, the circumstances of their birth are rather extraordinary. First came Ingrid, then her brother, and a few years down the line they were completed with another sister. The Pelletier parents were a well-off family, in a well-off time and place that has long since been forgotten by their children. They still remember their parents faces and their father’s laugh lines and their mother’s contagious laugh, but small details like their ages and hometown were lost along the way.

While all of the children were bright, polite, and pleasant to look at, each possessed their own unique interests in addition to their star mark. For Ingrid, this was in the fomr of an inquisitive mind that worked by breaking down the things around her to their most basic structures. She was, and remains, an inventory, focused on what she can contribute to make people’s day-to-day lives (and, by extension, their overall lives) easier.

Some time in her early adolescence, by a serendipitous (a word which here means lucky without intending to be) turn of events, Ingrid and her siblings were down at the beach when their lives went up in smoke. Up In Smoke is usually a metaphor referring to a disaster, but in this case it is both metaphorical and literal. A long-time family acquaintance met the children at the beach to inform them their their family home had caught fire with their parents still inside. In an instant, the Pelletier children became the Pelletier orphans, setting off a chain of events that none could have ever wanted.

They founds themselves in the custody of a man who claimed to be a distant relative, though none of the children had ever met him before. He had no intention of raising the children, and instead put them to work and only provided them with the bare minimum to survive. Through researching and digging behind his back, the Pelletiers discovered that he was biding time until he could collect their large family inheritance, something he planned to ensure by ultimately marrying Ingrid. They managed to thwart his plan but before the man could be locked up, he escaped, and the children were shuffled to a new home.

This too proved to be a tragic home. The man who was after their inheritance was a master of glamour spells, effectively making himself invisible to most adults. He followed them from home to home, a new disguise every time and leaving the Pelletiers’ latest caregivers in body bags. The details are far too grizzly to go into, and won’t do anything but make you want to settle down with a cup of calming oolong tea while reading a story much happier than this one (might I recommend Curious George?) Eventually, the Pelletier children were framed for crimes they did not commit and went on the run altogether. With no adults to protect them and their magic just coming to fruition, they only had each other and their own resilience to depend on.

Their series of unfortunate events had them traveling far and wide (through questionable academies, half-completed hospitals, travelling carnivals, and even to icy summits) and meeting many people along the way, both friend and foe. Eventually, their final encounter with the man landed them on an island, where he succumbed to death by a combination of a very fungal disaster and a wound from a harpoon gun.

One would think that with their nemesis gone, it would be nothing but clear skies ahead for the Pelletiers. And in a way, it was. In the time they spent escaping his clutches, Ingrid had turned old enough to receive their inheritance and their family was able to form some semblance of sanity. All is well that ends well, yes?

No. For while the Pelletier children were finally safe and financially secure, they had still spent many of their years not knowing if they would life to see the next day. Ingrid in particular, being the oldest, has utilized her skill set to continue protecting her younger siblings long after their biggest tormentor has died. Her learned suspiciousness coexists with the kindness taught to her by her parents, and the two often go toe-to-toe in her brain.

When a child learns a lack of trust at an early age, it often persists. Ingrid was somewhere inbetween, young enough to cling mistrust yet old enough to process her trauma as an outlier. Rationally knowing this, her choice to move their family to Polaris was born out of a want to reclaim their own lives. Not as the Pelletier orphans, three children who had dealt with danger after danger. But as the Pelletier siblings, each resilient and good and strong in their own merit, capable of moving forward.

Rather or not Ingrid has actually begun to move forward is up for debate.

INCLINATION

Sterrennacht cares not for what element a witch users, but rather what they are able to do with that magic. Its been known to gift scholars and innovators; the magical historian who proposed the name did so believing that Van Gogh himself had once been gifted with it. Sterrennacht gives it users the ability to see limitless possibilities around them, breaking things down to the bare bones and recongifuring them. They are often highly skilled in transfiguration but physical mechanics also come naturally to them. They do tend to struggle with more abstract forms of magic, such as Charms and offensive magic. In addition, Sterrennachts often get stuck with a bad case of tunnel vision, and can hyper-fixate on one task longer than necessary.

CONNECTIONS

Younger Siblings: Ingrid’s younger (by a small number of years) brother and her baby sister. They had a close relationship during their childhood and depended on each other all throughout their misfortunes, and Ingrid will do whatever she needs to protect them. However they view her is entirely UTP!!! While Ingrid is based on Violet Baudelaire and I would love her siblings to be reminiscent of Klaus and Sunny, itheir personalities and interests are also entirely UTP!!! Just let me love them!!

Survivors Stick Together: Another person (or group!!! lbr this is implying the Quagmire Triplets!!!) who the Pelletiers met a few times over the course of their lives, including some dire situations. There’s a particular bond that exists between people who experience difficult situations together, and while they may not have had constant contact prior to remeeting at Polaris, Ingrid considers this person (or family) an extension of her own.

idk this bio took entirely too long and my brain is hungry i’ll edit this with a third one later but i’m posting it anyway

Penned by Jeanne ★

[flightysquip]

OH SPEAKING OF, when you’re feeling up to it, do you writing little bios of the Idol family and a really loose explanation about the AU (and how it ties to BMC), which I could follow up with some thoughts? I want to have a quick ref to give to people who wanna know more about the family.

I took some creative liberties here, which of course means some details are absolutely up for interpretation and okay to be changed.  

The Idolodulia family as a whole is a broad network of interconnected biological, adopted, and politically tethered clusters of individuals with overlapping goals of power, unity, strength, and efficient domination.  While going into the lore, history, customs, and minutiae of the entirety of this family would frankly take more time than we have here, I’m going to specifically focus on the main branch, the Godhead line itself, the absolute, bordering on monarch head of the branches as a whole.

This is a very loose BMC au, in which the Squip is the human heir to the dynasty.  While much of the dark elements are left up to interpretation and implication within this document, this family has a sordid history at best.  Warning moving forward for elements of: rape, grooming, incest, patricide, abuse (physical, neglect, psychological, sexual), fetishization, forced marriages, and the brutal cycles of continued trauma.  

Some glossaries of terms and abbreviations:

Idol: casual abbreviation of the chosen surname of the family.  Idolodulia sounds like an artificial name, and that’s absolutely because it is.  It was chosen many generations back.  It’s also a serious mouthful and can get tedious to talk.  I use the full last name and the abbreviated Idol interchangeably, there’s no distinct difference between when I choose one over the other.

Godhead: The anglified term used to denote the head of the family.  Some branches use the term for their own house patriarch or matriarch, but it will be used only within that house’s walls, and only in the lowercase.  The capital G Godhead is the actual ruler of the Idols, and is in charge of maintaining order, creating new family laws, keeping track of rituals and customs, and is, of course, expected to produce at least one heir.  It’s not unusual for the Godhead of the family to simply go by this title once they take control of the family and forgo use of their actual given name.  

GH: diminutive abbreviation of Godhead.  Can be used as an affectionate nickname, but generally is considered a sign of disrespect for a subordinate to shorten the title in this way.  Rules have grown more lax about this over generations, however.  In this document, I will use Godhead when speaking about the position in a general sense, and GH when I am referring to The Squip specifically

Bride: the most commonly used vernacular to refer to the Godhead’s primary/heir-producing wife.  Bride is a recognized gender neutral term within family lore.

Heir: the child chosen to carry on the family line and take over the position of power.  Usually the first born, most often male, typically heavily trained up until the time they usurp the outgoing Godhead’s position of power.

Aunts and Uncles: general term for any non-direct adult relative to the main family.  An Uncle is not necessarily a sibling of the patriarchal head

Cousin: general term for any non-direct minor relative to the main family.  

FH: unofficial term referring to the outgoing Godhead of the family.  Stands for Fatherhead.  It’s not his actual name or title, it’s just funny and sort of stuck as unofficial shorthand to refer to GH’s (the Squip’s) father.

MH: unofficial term referring to the outgoing Bride of the family.  Stands for Motherhead.  It’s not her official name or title, it’s just funny and sort of stuck as unofficial shorthand to refer to GH’s mother.

gFH: unofficial term, used to mean “grandfatherhead”.  Basically a fancy way of me saying “this is the grandpa of the current generation of kids”.

gMH: unofficial term, used to mean “grandmotherhead”.  Basically a fancy way of me saying “this is the grandma of the current generation of kids”.

Traditions/Customs within the family:

The traditional path of an heir taking over as Godhead is through patricide (or, in the rare cases of a female Godhead, matricide).  This is known and expected by the current ruler, and it’s a high honor to have trained a child adept enough to best you through homicidal means.  This position requires a cold, calculating, detached sensibilities.  Proving this through bringing death upon one of your lifebringers is a sign of the type of amoral, practical, goal-oriented thinking that is highly valued within this society.  

Ritual incest is not only commonplace, but lauded as a necessary custom within the family as a whole, and the main ruling class in particular.  Entire parties and holidays are centered around the use and defilement of the Idol young.  These holidays often serve as a vehicle to show off the youth of the family who can be married off or bartered for special favor or political intrigue

Speaking of incest, marriage is often kept within the family lines as well.  It is a custom that’s neither highly encouraged nor discouraged, it’s simply one of many options.  It’s not unusual for a Godhead to have many sibling or cousin wives, in addition to a Bride who may or may not be biologically related

The death and physical dismemberment of children is commonplace, especially as a tool to harden an heir through example

Adoption is a common tactic to diversify the family line and add a “flavor of the exotic” for parties, holidays, and intrigue.  The more unique the adoptee, the more impressive the family looks as a result.  Adopted children cannot become heirs or godheads, though they can reach other high levels of prestige and power within the family once they’ve come of age, and of course can become Brides.

It’s not that showing affection is disallowed or even really frowned upon.  It’s just that the concept of family devotion extends beyond the typical moral lines of protection and affection, but rather involves maintaining traditions, showing strength and discipline, and seeing a much broader picture than simply caring for an individual.  You can love your children, you can love your Bride, you can love your siblings.  But to put that love above your devotion to your duty and the rituals of your title is unacceptable and must swiftly be snuffed out.

The main family line of the current ruling class:

gFH: Abram Idolodulia (likely deceased), a cruel and stupid man.  While he had the sadism of a traditional Godhead, he lacked the discipline to truly be considered Great.  Abram sired many children (16 confirmed pregnancies carried to term with his first Bride, Kana, and an additional 7 unrecognized offspring by various lower wives.  He also had two adopted children), though the vast majority would not survive to adulthood due to his careless homicidal inclinations.  He cycled through 8 potential heirs before Archelaus was ultimately selected.   He was usurped as acting Godhead by his son, Archelaus, upon Archelaus’ 17th birthday.

gMH: Kana Idolodulia (deceased), Abram’s first and only officially recognized Bride.  A soft spoken former teacher, she was not born into the Idol bloodline, but was considered desirable and forcibly married by Abram.  She had an extremely close relationship with her child Archelaus (who she cycled through a variety of petnames to refer to, and often called Archie) until her death by Abram’s hands, a death calculated with the intention of removing any softness from this heir.

The Father: Archelaus T. Idolodulia (FH), current acting Godhead, the patriarch of the ruling Idol family.  An extremely intelligent, calculating, and sadistic man, his lack of empathy and eye for detail has lauded him as one of the most well regarded of all Godheads in modern Idol history.  His bounds for cruelty are composed but thorough, a tactic used to control, to train, and to entertain.  His favorite of his children is his youngest, Christopher, and his cruelties towards him are escalated due to his sense of love and genuine affection.  FH’s relationship with his Bride is playful and mutually beneficial, though devoid of any sort of traditional sense of romantic love.

The Mother: Lilith Idolodulia (MH), current acting Bride and the mother of the current Godhead’s offspring.  Cold, bitter, and hateful, her distaste at lack of an acceptable daughter only fuels her annoyance at her lot in life.  Lilith is the first cousin of her husband.  The majority of her direct relatives (including a prior fiance) were slaughtered to prevent a coup and to successfully take her as a Bride.

The Original Spare: Kristophe Idolodulia is Archelaus’ twin brother and one of his few remaining living siblings.  He was kept in isolation for the majority of their shared childhood together.  Archelaus’ affection for his brother manifested in graphic acts of torture in their few moments together.  Upon taking power, Archelaus married Kristophe to a lower level Uncle.  They do not correspond or keep in touch.  Kristophe is likely extremely psychologically warped due to his upbringing and continued torture at the hands of his husband.

The Heir: Christian “GH” Idolodulia, the eldest son and current heir to the Idolodulia family.  Upon announcement of his heir status, he was quick to stop answering to any uses of his given name and already insists (at least upon his siblings and any cousins) on being referred to as Godhead exclusively.  As far as ties to canon, GH is the humanized version of the Squip.  Raised to be cold, his life is a constant battle of suppressing his compassion for his siblings in order to fulfill the duties of his family and title.  A sickly child, medicine and unhealthy levels of personal discipline help him maintain a facade of strength that he knows all too well is easy to fracture.  His main goals in life?  Kill his father, take the throne, and find a suitable Bride to carry on his legacy.  

The Spare: Lucifer “Luci” Idolodulia, the twin (triplet*) brother of GH, who has spent the vast majority of his life in a lonely cage in a dark basement.  A gentle, gender-confused, faith-driven sweetheart, his kindness proved too detrimental to ultimately consider for the heir role, despite his stronger physical health, and thus was banished to try to prevent any continued emotional ties between himself and GH.  

The Disposable: Isaac “Isa” Idolodulia*, the triplet sister of GH and Luci, and an unacceptable female child by Lilith’s standards. Much like Luci, she was kept in solitude for the majority of her childhood, though under less rigid guard, and in an attic rather than a basement.  Nurturing by nature, but ultimately a complete death fetishist and kinkster, she and GH have a strong, albeit dangerous, chemistry, due to his desire for power, and her extreme masochism.  

*Isa is sometimes depicted as deceased at birth or earlier in development, depending on the nature of the narrative being crafted

The Novelty: Moses Idolodulia, the adopted younger sibling of the household, chosen because of his looks, physical strength and health, and gender to appease Lilith’s urge for a daughter.  A trans boy, Moses, likely due to his outsider upbringing in addition to his inherent personality, is a voice of rationale and reason, as well as a source of surprising warmth and compassion despite the cruelties this life brings them.  Often tasked with caretaking for Christopher and, to a lesser extent, GH himself.  Strong contender for a potential Bride, which also played a role in his adoption.  In terms of canonical connection to BMC, Moses is the humanized characterization of Rich’s squip.

The Pet: Christopher Idolodulia, the youngest of the household, and FH’s favorite.  Being the favorite certainly doesn’t give him any sort of leniency in terms of treatment, of course, because the Idol standard of showing love is not a gentle one.  Due to a variety of chronic health conditions, Christopher primarily uses a wheelchair.  Quiet, autistic, and externally stoic in his mannerisms, Christopher idolizes (no pun intended) GH, and is devoted to Moses.  A sweet chronic biter hiding behind a frown and a pile of stuffed animals.

This is just a basic overview.  If anyone actually read this and has any questions or comments, my ask box is always open!  I tried to keep this as toned down as I could, because some of the details are pretty, well, sad and gross and tragic, but if this triggered anyone or caused any distress, I do apologize for that as well!

[thecloserkin]

book review: C.J. Hauser, Family of Origin (2019)

Genre: the most literary of fiction

Is it the main pairing: yes

Is it canon: yes

Is it explicit: kinda

Is it endgame: no

Is it shippable: if you’re into unhealthy ships

Bottom line: i hate literary fiction. ok i don’t hate fiction obviously i just hate when it tries to be too literary?? u feel me fam

Two estranged half-siblings spend a week tying up loose ends on the remote island where their father died (it is unclear if he committed suicide). The “loose ends” are that they had sex once, as teenagers, and now it’s weird. The island is populated by cultists and nut jobs who are convinced it’s the end of days and evolution is going in reverse. I have… many equivocal feelings about this book. On the one hand there are so many lines that just peel me like an orange, lines like “There was nothing more humiliating to Elsa than her own desires” or “Elsa was never surprised when someone killed himself. She was only surprised by her own animal perseverance day after day.” Plus I think this book really gets the dynamic where they’re constantly needling each other and every interaction is doused in fifteen gallons of repressed attraction. I think this is a novel that accomplished everything it set out to do with assurance and aplomb; I’m just fundamentally uninterested in what it’s trying to do. It’s about damaged people who learn to heal but the problem is the healing is much less engaging than the hurting.

Here’s the difference between speculative fiction and literary fiction: SF/F presumes zombies are literal zombies. Instead of assuming the zombies metaphorically represent something abstract, you just take them at face value ok? You spot a time machine or a vampire, you take it at face value and you add additional layers of meaning later. Which puts me in a pickle because Family of Origin is decidedly not a genre book, so what am I supposed to think about Famous Bigshot Biologist Ian, Elsa and Nolan’s dad, and his reasons for relocating to this island? There’s no cell phone service; it is quite literally removed from civilization. When I said nut jobs I mean it’s populated by secessionists, survivalists, doomsday preppers, anti-establishment types of all stripes. And they have some kooky theories about ducks. Which Ian apparently subscribed to. If this was SF/F I would just go along with it because maybe Elsa and Nolan, having arrived on the island, will finish Ian’s life’s work and find this elusive duck and prove Charles Darwin wrong haha??? But it’s fucking literary fiction which means I have to look for SYMBOLISM gahhh kill me now.

C.J. Hauser knows what she’s doing. Her bio says she’s a creative writing instructor and you can see why. It sucks that “what she’s doing” only glancingly aligns with “what I want her to do,” but c’est la vie. I was immediately taken with her choice of island setting (remote islands breed intimacy!) and the familiar configuration of type-A older sister paired with a younger brother who begs for a scrap of notice or attention. From the get-go Elsa’s priority is control. Nolan’s is acceptance. This quote sums it up pretty handily:

The problem was that Nolan wanted answers, and Elsa wasn’t sure what she would do with answers if she found them.

Like, I personally identify more with Nolan than with Elsa, because there’s this sense of learned futility that I find kind of charming in him but everyone finds annoying af in me:

Nolan wished he could return to a time before anyone had any expectations for him.

Elsa, otoh. Here is Elsa thinking about her ex, a relationship she clung to well past the expiration date merely because he loved her more than she loved him back, and she wasn’t willing to give up that bargaining position:

As long as his side of their love had more ballast to it, she felt in control and like he would not leave. Everyone left Elsa, so she had to be sure.

Nolan and Elsa are certified disasters. They’re both so burnt-out, and twisted up inside with shame and guilt and impossible desires, and the island is the ideal backdrop for them to resolve their issues:

There was so much that was not allowed that the island seemed willing to permit. Things underwater. Things offshore.

That night, they made no pretenses about the sleeping bag and slept cupped like shells in their father’s bed.

Jesus Joseph and Mary this woman can write. I’ve even seen lines from this novel quoted in those tumblr compilation poetry posts.

Anyway Elsa and Nolan’s dynamic is they do not get along and they’ve never gotten along. It starts with Elsa’s resentment at being displaced by a new sibling, which was compounded by Elsa’s mom being divorced and replaced by Nolan’s mom. These kids have spent all their lives probing at each other’s weaknesses and I am reminded of a very apt line from a book that has absolutely jack shit to do with incest: “When siblings spar, the true cause is proximity.” This seems to apply to Elsa and Nolan’s situation more potently than most.

Will you just LOOK at this god-tier sparring though:

Nolan touched a drop of rain that hung by her ear, letting it spill onto his fingers. Elsa smacked his hand.

Don’t— Elsa began, but Nolan, dirty water dripping from his fingers, grabbed Elsa around the ankles and shook her, groaning, Graaghh! like some B-movie Swamp Thing from the deep, ready to pull Elsa into the pool. Elsa considered Nolan’s hands around her ankles.

It’s one part goofing off, one part competitive banter, and one part violent sexual tension . Elsa takes meticulous mental inventory of every instance of skin-to-skin contact and I’m like—girl you know it only means something if you let it? Who the hell pays that much attention every time their brother accidentally brushes shoulders with them?!

There was a knot between Elsa’s shoulders that twisted taut when she saw him.

Nolan is shiftless and aimless, doesn’t even have the balls to break up with his girlfriend, his internal monologue is a constant refrain of “Nolan wished there was some more-adult adult whose job this could be.” Child you are TWENTY-EIGHT years old and need to start owning your choices. I think this hypothesis that’s sorta floated in an early Elsa POV is pretty conclusively disproved in the course of the novel:

But people didn’t change. They just ran away from everyone who knew them too well so they could start over and do a better job of obscuring the worst parts of themselves.

Because they do change, both of them change and mend their ways and they become a family again and ok here’s where I have a problem with C.J. Hauser: Her idea is that you have to choose—Nolan is either Elsa’s brother or her lover:

And he understood then that he could have kept Elsa as a sister or slept with her. It was a choice, and what he’d just done was to have given her up.

It seems her whole motivation for seducing him was as a big fuck-you to their father. I’m not saying she was not attracted to him I’m saying her field of vision is dominated by Ian:

Everyone here is insane, Elsa said.

They have their reasons, said Nolan.

They have stories, not reasons.

What if you’re my story? What if the story of why I’m on this island is you?

What’s my story?

Your story is Dad.

Go to sleep.

Tell me a story.

Which is really sweet and I am a fiend for these callbacks that deliberately echo the older sibling interacting with the younger one as a baby, but Ian’s stature is such that he takes over everything?? We find out that he wasn’t that great of a scientist. That he wasn’t a great dad was clear from the start.

So the really interesting thing from a craft perspective is the climax of this book occurs in the middle of it instead of at the end. The only other novel I can think of that does this is Cloud Atlas but that has a very unique structure. The film The Talented Mr. Ripley also kind of does this?

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

It’s revealed that Elsa isn’t Ian’s biological child. Her mom had an affair and when Ian found out he divorced her and married Nolan’s mom. When Elsa learnt the truth, she took the radical step of sleeping with Nolan to prove a point, I guess? To wit: If she wasn’t Ian’s daughter then it wasn’t actually incest. If Ian was troubled then it must be because she was his daughter:

But you are this kid, her mother said. You’re so totally his kid that you think biology is the only way you can be his kid.

I’ll admit that the “they’re not related” reveal does in this instance actually serve a purpose, unlike in some other books (yup this is a Wasteland callout post). And it ties into the theme of biology, and the stupid elusive ducks that supposedly inhabit this godforsaken island:

”We’re no longer good at adapting to things in the natural world because it’s too hard to tell which parts are real anymore so we don’t know what to adapt to.”

So there you have it. Family of Origin is not a book that spoke to my soul but it is a devastatingly exquisite book, and it has a number of really shippable scenes even if the relationship taken as a whole is not one I was rooting for. Here’s Nolan trying to get laid at college:

He didn’t know what to do because there had only ever been Elsa that one time before and Elsa had known what to do.

And then he has a breakdown so bad that he calls Elsa??? For emotional support??? Even though she’s at least 50% of the reason he’s so broken. When Elsa shows up she says ”I drove over two goddamn hours so you could yell at me in person” lolololol every single line of dialogue is so on-point. Oh oh and Elsa biting his ribs and his neck while they’re lying half-naked in bed is another pearl of a scene.

I saved so many quotes from this book and half of them have nothing to do with incest but they’re SENSATIONAL so I’m going to end this review with an assortment of quotes:

that she was afraid to ask for small things like this because the need in them did not seem big enough to draw attention. That she was afraid her small needs would go unnoticed, and so she made plays at bigger ones instead.

Whatever inner thing guided normal people in their choices … Elsa’s was broken. Nolan had been her first wrong choice, years ago, and as much as she’d have liked to pretend she was different now, that it had been a stupid teenage mistake, there was too much other wrongness that came after. Dozens of dubious choices that all seemed to bloom outward from that first moment.

But no, there was a difference between realizing how wrongly he’d been made and the moment the wrongness actually happened.

Because it wasn’t perfect. Because she couldn’t tell the difference between unconditional and infallible.

Maybe the sooner Elsa stopped trying to hunt down some class of people who had all the answers—adults, scientists, Mars missions, Ian—the sooner she could stop the cycle of trying to win. Could look around and decide what kind of game might actually be worth playing.