#Problematic octobaby done ✨

[sherbet-shark]

The Ashengrotto Family Theory

  So you thought this was the last you’d see of Sherbet Shark’s crazed rambles HAHA. You assumed wrong, but now, I have other friends to help me, @rrasado, @hey-its-cweepy, hence the tiny squid in the right-hand corner and @luvielle

   This post is mainly speculation and, again, a theory. We do not intend these mad rambles to be seen as canon by fellow fans or content creators; these are just us brainstorming. By making this post, we have no intention to create hate for the yet-to-be-introduced side characters, mainly Azul’s parental roles (Mother, Father, and Step-father) and Azul’s Grandma. Again this is speculation and theories we concluded.  You can discuss this with us on our respective Tumblr blogs about this theory.

Tagging: @pianostarinwonderland​ here's the family theory- 

Sources Used: twist-archive’s Azul birthday story, Jade and Floyd Leech’s various card stories and chats, Spoilers for Floyd’s Birthday Boy Card, The Little Mermaid (lore), The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (lore), and The Little Mermaid 3: Ariel’s Beginnings (lore), Encanto (lore), The Little Mermaid by Christian Hans Anderson, Chapter Three information, Eng Twist and JPN Twist.

Trigger Warnings: Spoilers for Chapter Three, Speculation, Azul’s Birthday Card spoilers, Divorce (Azul’s Mom and father), Speculated familial pressure, Speculated cheating, Speculated Generational Abuse (Azul’s Grandma to Azul’s Mom), Speculated Azul’s Mom’s low-self esteem, Speculated brutal living of Northern Coral Sea, Speculated overfeeding and Speculated Parental Negligence

Word Count: 3.8k

While this following theory is not as concrete as my previous collaborative theory, we (Rras and I) still found it highly intriguing to theorize about the possible family dynamics and respective histories of Ashengrotto family members and their personalities. As of 2020 and onward, the JPN and the original version of Twisted Wonderland released the “Birthday Boy” cards and expanded on the Twist boy’s lore of their respective homelands and their families. These are ideas of what Azul’s Mother and his grandmother are like personality-wise and a wide variety of options we had developed in our discord server.

In Azul’s 1st Birthday card, we learn more about his hobbies, family, and more lore on their character. Yuu asks the dorm leader about any family the Octomer has, and Azul proudly states that he has a mother, a grandmother, and a step-father.  He later on, goes on to say that all the members of his family have magical powers, but his grandmother is particularly powerful. Azul doesn’t seem to be one to flaunter useless praise for his family, and he does seem genuine in his pride in his family and respects them. While Azul says that his mother has some magical ability, we can see Azul highlights his grandmother’s utter power, warmly praising his step-father.

The below points are the two of us making points of our ideas and evidence to solidify them. The different emojis and colored fonts mean the different authors. The crescent moon is Rras -> “🌘” , while I, Sherbet, am the shark emoji ->  “🦈” 

Also the italicized font with both of our emojis together is us giving unprofessional commentary xDD

First up, we have Point A, which is Rras’ department!

A. Azul’s Mother resembles Morgana, Ariel, and/or Governess Del Rey

       《🌘》There’s a very vague theme among the overblot victim’s families, how most, if not all, mirror the hero’s family in their respective series. (Riddle and Alice’s mothers, Leona and Simba’s fathers, Azul and Ariel’s initially single parents, Jamil and Jasmine’s parents forbidding them, Vil and Snow White’s fathers, etc.). In this post we’ll be focusing on Azul’s case, wherein his mother may be similar to Ariel (with the assumption of the grandmother being Ursula and Triton to be further elaborated on later on in this post.). We know for a fact that his family has many great magic users, but his grandmother is the most renowned in that department. Being the daughter of an infamous figurehead will, of course, affect how you’re raised. We thought of what if Ashen Mother was pressured by her mother to study hard, improve her magic, and help everyone- think of Encanto. 

     Now I’d like to bring attention to Azul’s mention of how Octopus mer were rare in arc 3 (38). It implied the octi presence in the sea population around that area, so this may bring in the possible scenario of how the Grandmother may also have partially pressured the Mother into finding fellow octopus merfolk to be with. Here is where the Ariel connection presents itself. Suppose the Mother had been gaslighted into this convoluted idea of love where it became more objective than subjective. What do you think she’d feel towards the first octopus merman who showed some sort of interest in her? The same way prince Eric had unknowingly entranced a young hopeful Ariel with his antics on that ship.

But Azul specifically stated in the TWST EN translation that “Betentecled mermen like myself aren’t common around these parts,” emphasizing these parts. Based on the map shown in the sequel to the Little Mermaid, when Morgana gave Melody a map to Atlantica, I believe that they live farther from where Azul went to school as a child. (that and they mentioned the ice that fosters on the water during winter “up north”). Suppose we spare a glance towards the ice lair in the sequel. It bridges us to our following speculation, Ashengrotto’s Mother is Morgana.

We’ve seen talks around the fandom about how Azul may be more like Morgana or how someone else in the Ashengrotto bloodline may stand in as the twisted incarnate of Ursula’s overlooked sister. So to compare Azul’s supposedly infamous mother, who owns an equally renowned ristorante in the depths, to Morgana seems far-fetched, right? Let’s go back to what he says about her in his first birthday interview.

“My mother is the one who operates the restaurant. In the beginning, she ran it herself, and it started small… When I could understand more about my surroundings, the restaurant had already grown to employ a large staff of professionals and became the most famous restaurant in the Coral Sea.”

《🌘》We can already speculate many things based on this one answer alone. One is that Azul’s mother had started her business before or when Azul was born. Second is the possible background to this business. Let’s say she was pressured. She’d had to have some sort of coping mechanism as an escape. What if it was cooking? It started as a pastime, something her mother can’t outright criticize since it was, for the most part, harmless (and even beneficial if we assume they really did originate up north where food may or may not have been scarce.). Morgana hated being criticized, so connecting her to Ashengrotto’s Mother, who finally had an outlet she could safely call her own, meant she finally did something for herself. This business grew and grew until word of the ristorante had spread all over the area, reaching the Coral Sea’s ends.

Suppose Azul's words are to be trusted, and their family really does house many great magic users. In that case, I can only assume the Grandmother constantly compares her Mother to their relatives who display a great attitude toward the art. We can tie all this to Morgana representing her life growing up, Ariel representing her love life, but what about motherhood?

I momentarily turn our attention towards Governess Del Rey from The Little Mermaid: Ariel's beginning, someone who yearns for something more yet can't go due to their position and constant words from a higher part (Sebastian). It’s like a balance between the two aforementioned ladies wrapped into one. We know she met Azul's stepfather during the divorce process, yet, what of the time before that? Surely she's already begun to feel some sort of loss towards her child's other parent, but unlike King Triton- she took that responsibility for herself. 

     Azul greatly respects his mother, but unlike every other Overblot Victim who had mentioned and even showcased their immediate family within their memorial flashbacks, only Azul became the exception. Why so? Perhaps it has to do with negligence. You'd think she'd be there to comfort her son who's being bullied, but we have to remember that, around this time, her Ristorante is beginning to be famous. The stepfather is a lawyer, so the lack of presence in his OB memories may have had something to do with the Mother's own negligence experience, which will be further expanded by the next point below.

B. Azul’s Grandmother resembles Ursula and King Triton

     《🦈》Now, you may be wondering where I got to this point in theorizing. Well, admittedly, we do have sparse information about the matriarch. We know that Azul has impressive prowess with her magical ability and “graciously” helps out her neighbors just like her grandson, and perhaps he learned from her and the Great Sea Witch’s “compassionate” actions. It could be plausible for him to draw inspiration from his grandmother and a literal historical figure that he admires, as seen at the end of chapter three. Azul admires the Great Sea Witch’s ability as he draws upon their similarities in the past yet different techniques for coping with their histories.

As seen in the previous point, we can assume that Azul’s grandmother is a prideful, theatrical, arrogant woman that’s confident in her powers and herself, much like Ursula. But to this, we see a softer side to the con-woman, as seen in her relationship with her eels. We believe that Grandmother possibly was brought up, and the mindset she grew to have, and her overall personality, had ultimately created a distance between her daughter and herself.

As seen in the previous point made by Rras and the canon information we have, his grandmother is strong, perhaps stronger than her grandson. Due to her presence as a strong witch, she had garnered a reputation and, if our theory is correct, thrived on it but possibly felt pressured by her neighbors and her ideals. Perhaps Grandmother felt the need to push her daughter to extremes to help the community, much like how Abuela pushed her family to the brink. The constant drive for perfection not only as herself but maybe as a representative of the Oct-merpeople. From the previous point and via canon information in Chapter Three, part 38, in the central Coral Sea, Octo-merpeople are scarce, but what if that’s the case across the sea?

Maybe grandmother felt the need to show her fellow merfolk that they are good. We do not know that Great Seven is universally seen and recognized as good figures from other nonplayable characters. All we know is that the Great Seven, in the eyes of the prominent cast members their influential and are not necessarily seen as good. Back to Grandma Ashengrotto.

Her overwhelming demeanor and status created a vast shadow her daughter was trapped in due to other variables. She was unable for the mother-daughter duo to properly understand one another, much like how King Triton couldn’t understand his daughter Ariel. One of these variables is that Grandmother and daughter have different hobbies, preferences, and possibly a vast difference in their magical prowess. The mother is most likely loving, well-known among the masses, and has no problems conducting her magic. While I believe that Azul’s mother doesn’t have strong magic compared to her son or mother and is the daughter of a renowned be someone that isn’t as remarkable. Sounds familiar? 

   This dynamic is reminiscent of Mirabel's overall experience and dynamic with her family. Her family and the community initially perceive Mirabel as magicless because her other family members are blessed with gifts. Shining stars, if you will, while Mirabel didn’t have any. As we can see, the young girl wants to prove herself to everyone and implies low self-esteem because she was taught that her powers would determine her worth, much like how her sisters, Lusia, most notably. But still, despite her daughter’s speculated lack of being a powerhouse. Grandmother forced ideals on her daughter either of her protective stances over their Octomermaid status or as a parent.

One such thought that occurred to Rras and I was that maybe Grandmother had an arranged marriage to a fellow Octomerman with the idea of procreating with their kind. It is not as far-fetched because if we look at the mentioned information, it would be a logical yet pessimistic way to look for ‘love.’ If this is a fact, maybe this promised couple had met before. Azul’s mother ‘fell in love with him because of what she saw and not him as a person and the fact her mother told her daughter she must marry a fellow oct-mer to keep their bloodline strong and their overall population numbers tame. Mayhaps the grandmother had organized this marriage and told her daughter these fanciful details, making the naive yet tired daughter believe them, and when they met, Azul’s mother fell in ‘love’ with him.

《🦈》But perhaps, Azul’s mother would commonly swim to the surface to gather the ingredients for her hobby. The Octavinelle Trio has informed us that living up north is brutal, so the idea that food was also scarce. Mother’s adventures made Grandma tight grip with every secret because she feared losing her daughter and exposing herself to humans. Once more, we do not know if respect for the merpeople was universal among humans, other races, and vice versa.

We also have concluded that it’s in the realm of possibility that Azul’s mother, while she was young, swam away from home up north, where Azul says that’s where they live. Mother couldn’t stand the pressure of being the “let down daughter,” her own mother’s pushed ideals, and being unable to connect as two people for their respective desires.

Encanto and the Little Mermaid have already been spoken for and connected to our theory. 2021’s movie, Encanto, shows the reputation of this family was stressful. Thus, the matriarch pushes everyone to have unhealthy ideals and push their desires to the wayside. In Disney’s The Little Mermaid, King Triton is strong-willed, fiery-tempered, and protective yet caring for his family, as seen in this franchise branch. The king of the sea demands from his royal courtier. The sea dragon announces that he doesn’t know where the youngest princess is, nor does he know where her guardian, Sebastian is.

As the movie concludes, the king sees firsthand that his daughter is happy with Eric and utterly in love, and she is with the human. His hate and displeasure quickly dissipate, showing his parent development from the beginning to the end and Encanto’s Abuela. Suggesting that the supposed damage and pressure on Azul’s mother is still instilled in her, but their relationship is now somewhat stable after many trials and tribulations.

C. Azul’s Paternal side

      《🦈》We don’t know much about Azul’s biological father in canon. The dorm leader says he can’t remember his father either due to being too young or being protected from his father by his heartbroken mother. Still, basing the Encanto example between Mariano and his father’s two male side characters. We have theorized that his father was also an Octomerman and in the arranged marriage by possibly other family members for the idea of procreating. Perhaps, we think his family told him too many good things about his future wife, and he too was led to this artificial love, and whilst on paper, the coupling was perfect and did produce an Octo-merchild, wasn’t ‘true love,’ or the chance is that it was never there. 

      This lack of love may have led to an affair on his part. From the source material and its darker original tale, we have concluded that Azul’s father cheated. The prince is, as Christan Han Anderson wrote, the prince and his betrothed, the unnamed princess, as a genuinely in love couple, with the young princess as a kind, innocent, and very in love with the prince. At the same time, she doesn’t mind the relationship the prince and the mermaid have, in stark contrast to Disney’s version, with Vanessa’s mean-spiritedness, vanity, and jealousy. We’re not sure what we prefer, but we know that his background and reasoning are not right no matter what. While it may help us understand, it doesn’t make things better than what he did.

《🌘》Perhaps the affair took place during a time the biological father was being greatly pressured from all sides. We can only loosely speculate what Azul’s biological father was like and his father’s family. One can even word it as him drowning in the pressure, similarly to how his fiancee and then future wife were also being pushed. Being smothered with the idea of a perfect pair, he most likely tried to step away for a single moment, just a short period of freedom away from the dictative people around him, much like Prince Eric. The latter deliberately chose to celebrate his birthday on the ship because he knew what sort of restraint he'd face once he was back home. 

   The pressure pulled him deeper and deeper, and as much as the Ashengrotto Mother tried to help him as someone in the same position as him in this arranged love. He saw someone else giving him a long-due peace; based on the original tale, he saw another woman sweet and caring whom he soon eventually fell in love with. Unlike the artificially cultivated "love" He had with the Mother, this one felt real, real enough for him to quite literally abandon ship and go with this other woman despite the already formed family he had with the Ashengrotto.

《🦈》Onto Azul’s step-father, we had learned through Azul’s Union Birthday card that his step-dad is a lawyer and that his mother had met him when she was filing for divorce. As we’ve said before in this post, his step-father is intelligent and quick-witted but treats Azul’s mother well with love and respect, and the young boy respects him. For some reason, their meeting reminds me, Sherbet, of how in real life, Maria Reynolds and Aaron Burr met

(《🦈》Yes, we’re Hamilton nerds. Deal with it /J 《🌘》Does this make Mama Ashen Eliza?-/LHJ).

《🦈》 While this duo did not marry and was strictly a business relationship. I found a funny connection between the two. His step-father isn’t mentioned anymore, but Rras and I believe his step-father is a regular merman rather than an Octomerman, as we speculate. Grandmother didn’t want her daughter to marry, much like how King Triton’s attitude changed at the end of The Little Mermaid.

   Perhaps originally, Grandmother still wanted her daughter to be with her first husband but then saw how incredibly happy her daughter was with this merman, explaining why Azul doesn’t have any siblings. Among the reasons that they’re both busy people with high-stress jobs and raising a son. Cross-breeding from different species could be very dangerous for his mother to try to have another child or look with a lighthearted lens. They were satisfied with having Azul and felt they wanted to slow down and focus on their respective occupations.

“He is a kind and honest man at heart, but when it comes to his work, he’s sharp as a tack. He often teaches me about law and contracts. And he has a wonderful relationship with my mother. He is a very respectable stepfather.” – Azul Ashengrotto’s Birthday Boy Card.

(《🌘》Addams Family dynamic??? /LH 《🦈》YUS.)

D. The problem child himself– Azul Ashengrotto

   《🦈》 Azul Ashengrotto is the most fleshed-out character within this post, as we all know. But, still, I do find it an interesting idea that possibly, as Rras has illuminated in her first point that perhaps, Mother Ashengrotto knew of her negligent actions toward her son and didn’t wish for a drift like how her mother and herself experienced. Showing off the one thing she’s truly proud of is feeding him a lot of food to show her love and if food gathering is, as we speculate is, scarce, this can be taken as an ultimate show of love.

      I would also like to add that Mother Ashen’s inactions may not have been on purpose and as things stacked up for her. His mother’s events, discovering her crumbling marriage, managing her ristorante, raising a son, family bonds, and slowly falling in true love with a merman that loves all of her. I do not want to defend her potentially harmful and neglect her son, but I find it vital to see the situation through these theorized lenses.

  As we know from Chapter three, we see that Azul had been mercilessly bullied by his fellow peers, and to our knowledge, at least, the teachers either didn’t see this or didn’t care to come to his aid. But we also know that his mother owning a ristorante had made him in tune with food preparation and a keen tongue from his step-father’s hardworking job as a lawyer. Azul, however, does state in his card stories and his Birthday interview that his mother is interested in the Mostro Lounge and that Azul doesn’t like his family’s eatery. Maybe, his mother is competitive with her son to the degree that he’s not sure if his mother wants to take over for herself, or perhaps he has too many bad memories of eating too much and being bullied there.

As Rras has stated, perhaps his mother’s negligence also plays into this displeasure? But again, this may beg the question, if Azul praises his step-father so much in his Union Card, wouldn’t it be logical to assume that he’d try to make his stepson comfortable and safe? Well, I, Sherbet, believe I have the answer.  Because of his job as a lawyer and need to adjust to his new life, he’d also tried to make his stepson comfortable, but we don’t know their whole dynamic and if it’s formal and perhaps awkward on his step-father’s part? Azul does say that he respects his relationship with his mother and him as a person not, particularly as a parental figure.

《🌘》That same possible negligence is likely what led to the lack of parental presence during his memory flashbacks after his overblot. As I’ve pointed out in the first segment of this post, Azul is unique to the rest of the Overblot victims due to not showcasing immediate family within his memories, which- honestly felt off considering how the family of the movies’ heroes (Ariel and Melody).  Along with Ursula and Morgana (sibling jealousy), all still tied to the greater matter, and yet why is it that the one person with a supposedly good respectable relationship with both present parents didn’t appear in his most vulnerable moments?

Sherbet had speculated that it might’ve been for show. Personally, I believe this was plausible considering how seemingly blunt the Mother is with her child. Speaking from my own experience- my own Mother tries to tell her not-so-good experiences in hopes of me learning from her, so what if this was the case with the Ashengrotto family? Let’s hypothetically picture a now-grown Azul finally hearing of his mother’s experience with love and the likes, both to her own mother and her marital status.

As her only child, Azul doesn’t seem to want to add to that unfortunate history of hers, so for the sake of his own mother’s happiness, he tries his best to get along with the man that made her happy, sure it may not be a close, warm father-son bond but he definitely succeeded in not instigating bad blood among their family. Azul has shown to care for her and, by extension, the rest of his family, one he’s proud to be a part of regardless, as stated in his first birthday interview.

《🦈》 I can also attest to my parents advising me of their histories of heartache in hopes that I would not fall for their mistakes and as a lesson for me to learn. When I ask about their personal lives before, they’re quite open with their experiences. Another interesting tidbit is that while Azul seems indifferent to his mother’s business, he genuinely cares for the staff members working at his mother’s establishment when he receives a picture of them smiling and happy staff. Azul’s Union Birthday story card hints at a possible deeper relationship with the people working there. Floyd’s Birthday Boy card story says that Azul cares about his staff’s appearances at the Lounge and how he presents himself if there isn’t anyone around. Azul couldn’t care less about what his Octavinelle Students do, and he could’ve picked up this habit from his mother’s demeanor.

That’s all of our rambles. Thank you for reaching the end of our theory post, and we hope that this has been a fun read and a way to think of the Ashengrotto Family! We hope you have a great day or evening, and please check out our respective blogs for more content!!