#TPN 017

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Something I've been thinking about recently- do you think the libraries at the farms had religious texts? I'm of two minds about it.

1) They seem like books that libraries would generally have anyway, and other books probably have religious references such that the kids would want to know what the reference Is. It's enrichment.

2) I could see the higher-ups wanting to reduce any potential risks (anywhere from arbitrary rule-making that affects the kids to an uprising that affects leadership), and I just have a really hard time with the idea that along with all the other books in the GF library, Ray read an entire Bible before he was 12. Like in a series full of fantastic images and feats, that's where my suspension of disbelief ends.

Back half of #2 is killing me thanks klfdjkl

I'm inclined to go with #1 though.

"The Day Emma Cried" story from the first light novel gives us the greatest insight into the scope of Grace Field library's offerings. There's multiple books on philosophy, and unlike the medical texts, there's no caveat regarding their contents. This could be due to finding a cure for Norman's bout of illness being the focus of the story so the range is immaterial in the moment.

(Chapter 17)

But between that, Alex's book, and the mythology book that Ray admitted to not fully understanding, unaltered religious texts seem reasonable. The demons are confident enough with Grace Field's geographical layout and crude (per Ray) tracking technology that any risk associated with them is negligible. The vast majority of children never reach the age where they would be perceived as capable of taking what they read and using it as a rallying cry to mount an uprising in the plants, and the small number of girls who did live past their preteen years almost entirely had the fight snuffed out of them by the harrowing conditions of headquarters.

(Chapter 23)

We also have the kids bowing their heads and giving thanks at every meal. It's not an action limited to Christianity, but with Shirai purposely choosing a European setting for the beginning of the story due to feeling it lent itself better to anachronism, it's not a huge leap to think they associate it with some understanding of that faith. Isabella could cite the text as an explanation for why they do these things or any references in books they don't understand and offer them access to it, with the expectation most children wouldn't be interested enough to extensively delve into it.

[fullscoreshenanigans]

I have a sad headcanon. The mothers aren't forced to stay after have brought the children to the gate. They can return to the house and let the children with the demons. Isabella make the choice to stay and watch everything until the end because she considers that she must stay until the end, that she can't abandon them at this moment after have took care of them for years. Also a part of her see that as a punishment. She is accomplice of this system, she chooses to live by sacrifing those children. And the most important is that she LOVES them. So she stays until the very end because she feels she deserves to suffer and that she must stay at their side until it's over.

Norman and Emma have seen Isabella spoke with the demons. It's because they are used to see her since it has been 12 years, almost 13, that she is doing that so their discussion seems to show that she is as much cruel than them.

And she seems to be indifferent and cold because 1) no way she show weakness to demons (and that's useless anyway) 2) she is horribly used to it so acting cold is more easy after all those years 3) closing her heart in those moments is the best way to doing that without breaking. 4) we see that she kept the toys of all the kids as precious memories. She could send it in another orphenages and forget about it but no. She kept all of those toys.

So i'm pretty sure that it deeply hurt her to see them die, but she watches it because she feel she deserve to suffer and must see everything because looking away would be even more betraying them.

(Really both the mother and the son are masochists :/)

is this even a headcanon it's canon as far as I'm concerned

There's the little room off to the side where theoretically a Mom can excuse herself to avoid having to witness the gupna ceremony. Maybe they claim they need to grab one last thing or sign some paperwork before the child can be driven off to their new foster home. "It won't take long. Wait in the truck, dear, I promise I'll be back in a minute."

Isabella's a queen at compartmentalizing though, so maybe she views staying until the very end, as she stresses to Emma and Norman in chapter 25/episode 8, as her bi-monthly penance for sustaining her life as long as she can.

Norman and Emma have seen Isabella spoke with the demons. It's because they are used to see her since it has been 12 years, almost 13, that she is doing that so their discussion seems to show that she is as much cruel than them.

I like to think after childbirth Isabella was granted the mercy of having some time to recuperate instead of immediately being thrust into being a Mom so it's less than twelve years (as general practice and because of her amazing potential becoming the youngest Mom in Grace Field's known history, you'd think a few months to avoid any potential health risks and finalizing her transition to plant #3 would be a worthwhile cost for headquarters), and because I'm a masochist, I like to headcanon that Ray, Norman, and Emma were the first children raised solely by her and not overlapping with the previous Mom of plant #3 (excluding the child who arrived between Norman and Emma who was unfortunately shipped out at some point before turning eleven), so I see her arriving at plant #3 sometime during November or December of 2033.

Still, that's roughly a decade of going through this with a minimum of sixty children, not counting any children Ray potentially caused to be shipped out early with his experimentation with the tracker deactivator. She might not have done it with the first few, maybe thinking it was potential evidence that could be used against her as an indication of weakness, but eventually it does amass to quite a collection.

(S1 Episode 6 | Chapter 17)