#The Principal

[addictedtoblami]

Do we know if Principal Niko purposefully added the clause which she used to get Edwin and Charles a free pass from the Night Nurse in ep 8??

[waywardsonsandaughters]

Niko. Keep tabs on her [The Night Nurse], till… yeah?

For sure. How exactly do I do that?

Charles gave Niko one job, and Niko was like “I got it. I’ll just become her boss.”

Job officially jobbed.

[namjinier]

ㅤ        ㅤ  ㅤ        ㅤ  ♡ ⑅ i want someone who understands

[ineffableigh]

So, Kashi. Who is he?

Kashi and his strange green lantern, which stands out in a set of overwhelming red and orange.

Huh. Wait.

Crystal's ancestors have a lantern too. The color varies by shot but in many it is distinctly... greenish, in a set of purples and golds.

Tragic Mick and his many lanterns of a very similar colour.

MUCH of the lighting in the Cat King's domain follows this color palette, even in adjacent lights that otherwise have no reason to be different.

I honestly wonder about Asha - she has this lantern going in her shop in broad daylight, in the same shot as what has to be the Evil Seagull™ rofl. Not the right color though.

The Aurora Borealis over wherever Niko is at the very end of the series.

Anyway, color and light is important in the show and we got a lot of Suspicious Lanterns: I think we're dealing with spirit guides in some way or form. Which might sound silly/obvious, and I'll have to do a deep dive into the timeline now that we Know that Niko is The Principal, but.

Mick gave Niko a polar bear figurine as a 'good luck charm'. His story of Sedna is based in Inuit traditions and mythologies, so I got to wondering what kind of polar bear related mythologies there might be, and came across Nanook.

This is based on very short research via DuckDuckGo search so take this with several grains of salt but

ALLEGEDLY

"The souls of hunted bears returning to [Nanook], potentially to be reborn or serve as spirit guides."

So. Crystal has her ancestors, Niko seems to have Mick before becoming a spirit guide of sorts herself after her death, so whose spirit guide is Kashi?

The eternally hyper positive upbeat Kashi?

Hm. I wonder.

[shaylogic]

Someone else already shared this theory [could not for the life of me find the tumblr post, so I apologize on not linking to it]

I just wanted to share the relevant screenshots

The original poster noted that The Principal was just gonna whisk the boys off to their afterlife until she sees that they solved Niko's case. Then she makes an abrupt about-face on her decision with them and says they should continue

There's a possibility she is somehow involved with Niko's storyline?!

[if the original poster of the theory, or someone who knows who they were could refer me to it, I'll happily add the link. thank you]

EDIT: I don't think this is is the post I originally saw, but here's another fan's post on this

[read-write-thrive]

soooo have we talked about how Niko doesn’t just Grow Up to be this character but is The Principal aka a non-human entity (I assume??) working for the afterlife ???? like how does one get that gig ?? is there an application process that younger her nailed and she grew up in this outside of time type thing ? did she grow up in the astral plane where we see her with Litty and Kingham ? did she get to take refuge in any of the other planes that exist in this universe (we know of hell and the lost and found department, but also the sandman canon and the more extended universe with realms like the dreaming) ?? how did time work for her???

im imagining the Lost and Found department existing outside of time from the mortal realm, so she could’ve grown up elsewhere (in whatever realms she got to trying to get home? hopefully not stuck in the artic-type place but maybe) and then when it came time for her to pass on Death goes “actually I have a job for you” since Niko has all this extra planar/different realms experience AND has these connections with the dead boy detectives (who I think Death has a soft spot for/knew needed someone to protect them) and then she’s the Principal ! which sets her outside of time (making her relatively immortal if that wasn’t already part of the job description) and allows for the time fuckery that has her as the Principal at the same time that she’s on this other plane with the sprites,,,

idk I just think we as a fandom could explore more of her having Adventures as part of her growing up in the time between younger her with the sprites and older her as the Principal, plus I think we could dive into how the Lost and Found Department works as a whole (are there other afterlife departments ? there must be, otherwise it wouldn’t be called a department, right?? is there an equivalent for adults? non-humans? beings from these other realms? I assume Death does the judging without a whole department behind her but idk maybe there’s more to it, especially if there’s more involved than the Christian esque set up we have here)

also omg Niko recognising the boys and assigning the Night Nurse to be in charge of them not only to settle the hell or not dispute (aka protect Edwin from ever having to go back to hell) but to also help them on cases 😭 she’s still looking out for her friends I will Cry oml

[mayhaps-a-blog]

OK but the Principal, she does pause on Niko's name in the boys' case files. She reaches, and she looks, and she looks... worried.

And then she allows them to keep working.

The Principal is in charge of the Lost and Found Department, and probably others as well. The Lost and Found of the dead. The organization of who goes where, when they've gotten off track.

She knows Niko isn't where she is supposed to be.

Niko is dead, yes? Outlook not so good! She was hit by a witch bolt, right in the chest, sacrificing herself for Crystal.

But she's also not, yes? The charm, the snow, the final scene.

Niko is not where she is supposed to be.

The Principal? The Lost and Found Department? Overworked, and with limited jurisdiction. Can barely open a door to Hell, and certainly can't go wandering around the other planes looking for missing souls.

But the boys

They'd go anywhere for Niko. Do anything. It's their job! Case not closed; a good detective does what they have to to solve the case.

Who better to set up to go after Niko than them?

[187days]

Day One

Well. It's my twentieth year of teaching. And I started it majestically... by tripping over my own two feet on my way to my classroom because my sneakers and the freshly waxed hallways didn't get along.

(I tripped like three more times throughout the day, twice in front of other people).

Buuuuut anyways.

In-service started with coffee, and The Principal's welcome back/welcome new people remarks. After that, we had four gloriously uninterrupted hours to set up our classrooms, but, if you've been following along at home, you know I did a lot of my set up when I was in for LT meetings last week- and I'm notoriously quick at doing many things anyhow- so I went and checked in with the teachers in my department. Then I started tackling the mess that is the English/Social Studies staff room. I didn't get very far on that, but progress is progress.

Lunch was pizza from one of the local restaurants. I introduced Ms. B and Mr. X to my Cacophonous friends, and they fit right in, which was awesome. A cacophony ought to expand and grow, after all!

After lunch, The Principal went over policies and procedures, new or continuing initiatives, and expectations for tomorrow's freshman orientation. He'd given himself an hour and a half, probably anticipating more questions than there were (I'd anticipated more), but only took maybe forty minutes. So everyone was free to wrap up the day however they needed to. I went over how to use PowerSchool and Smartpass with Ms. B and Mr. X, then went back to my classroom to fill out all the beginning-of-the-year paperwork I had to fill out.

I did text Mrs. T, too, to tell her it was weird to do this without her, but we're both in good places and doing what we want to do, so it's all good.

And that was that! Day one, in the books!

[fandoms-run-my-life]

The contrast between the uptightness of the afterlife workers and Death the Endless herself is hilarious. Everyone holding onto their sanity by a hairsbreath, having forms for every little thing and probably mainlining caffeine. They all probably cry at a scheduled time. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a designated room. Then, there is the Endless herself who wears a tank top and jeans and has the chillest personality. I need to see her interact with her workers. Just to see contrast. Especially since everything is shades of brown, and then she wears all black

[ravenofazarath2]

I have some honestly, absolutely unhinged Thoughts™️ on Niko’s whole situation that I just have to share. This is gonna be full of assumptions, mental gymnastics, and logical fallacies, and by the end, you'll probably think I look like this

This post ended up way longer than I planned, and I'm not even sure if it makes ay sense, but just hang with me.

Why is Niko in Port Townsend?

I don’t know about anyone else (and this could be because I’ve never been to the PNW), but I feel like it’s kind of random that Niko’s mom would send her daughter to a boarding school in a small town two plane rides and a ferry ride away. Wouldn’t you want your daughter in a more populated, easier to get to place? I know there’s bigger towns and cities. Based on Niko’s love for fashion, the family seems to be fairly well off, so it doesn’t seem like a money issue.

There’s only two explanations I can think of:

Niko’s mother cares so little about her, she wanted her as far away as possible.

There’s a reason Niko’s mom chose Port Townsend.

Now, I get it. That first one is super depressing. We don’t want to think about it at all. Who could hate sweet, little Niko? Thankfully, I feel like this one can easily be disproven.

Source

If Niko’s mom wanted her as far away as possible, why has she sent Niko so many letters? She clearly wants to have a relationship, to communicate. It just doesn’t line up with wanting your daughter out of sight, out of mind.

So that leaves the second: There’s a reason Niko’s mom chose Port Townsend.

Of course, this reason could be offscreen, unknown, unimportant.

Unless...

Oh, look, a tangent!

Most of the fandom thinks the Principal has something to do with Niko, whether she’s her mother or Niko herself. Personally, I’m in the she’s her mother camp. This post has a very great explanation on it. Plus, I just don’t see this show going timey-wimey.

This would make Niko half-supernatural. (and before anyone asks: No, I do not have an explanation why Niko couldn't see the boys before her near-death experience since she's already supernatural)

Instead of exploring what this means for the story (for now), I want to explore the assumptions inferences we can make about Niko's father.

*Pulls out a few papers and push pins*

Did Niko's father know?

The Principal seems to be the head of the Lost & Found Department, a department that's currently stretched entirely too thin by the excess of death caused by overpopulation. That lady's overworked. And considering her job, it's very likely near impossible to also keep up a charade of being a normal human to the person you're married to. So he'd have to know.

Let's make a teensy tiny assumption that Niko's father is also a supernatural being.

Besides, how would a human and the eternal being in charge of collecting dead children have ever met?

*starts drawing connections with red string*

This may seem like an exquisite floor routine that would win an Olympic gold in mental gymnastics, but I can absolutely explain this.

Let's look at what Niko viewed as the most important advice her father ever gave her:

Source

On the surface, it's just innocent advice. After all, dandelions are symbol of resilience. And the dandelion sprites were just an accident. There's no way anyone could have known Niko would have been infected with them.

But if her father was a supernatural being, he likely would have known about dandelion sprites. He intentionally wanted to put Niko in danger if she needed a little bravery. How could a father, who we can only assume was a great one when looking at how much grief Niko feels over his new absence in her life, do this to his daughter?

Could the dandelion sprites be a part of it?

Source

If Niko's father knew that Niko would likely be jumped by dandelion sprites if she went traipsing around looking for courage, it isn't too far of a leap to see that the sprites might actually be in some way related to that courage.

We can actually get a bit of a glimpse of this connection when we look at Niko's death.

Source

I'll come back to the symbolism in just a bit.

After the shock not only the characters, but us viewers felt as well, Crystal, Edwin, and Charles discover that the sprites have left. Each one of us likely thought they just dipped out when we first saw this.

Of course, the last scene of the series shows us that's not true.

Source

One possible reason they go with her is because she was nice to them. “The good you do comes back around” and all. But the sprites are such assholes, it’s hard to believe they’d care about that (though I absolutely do).

Then perhaps it has to do with the way Niko died. She stepped in front of Esther’s magic to save Crystal. She sacrificed herself, gave up her life in exchange for her friend’s. Is there a more courageous way to die?

But how does the girl who’s so scared of death, she goes looking for courage in the first place into the girl who looks death in the face and says, “Take me instead.”? And what does that have to do with the sprites being there at the end?

Niko’s in need of some courage, so she goes looking for dandelions, like her father’s always told her to do, and she picks up the dandelion sprites. Because of course Niko was able to sweet talk her way through destiny or to Destiny? to end up with the exact people who can save her at the exact right time.

Niko, being Niko, decides to keep the sprites to teach them to be nice. Because they are mean. Their comments bite, they tear. They dig into her core. Tell her that she’s not a good friend, she deserves to be alone and abandoned, all because she’s scared. All because she’s not courageous.

But Niko knew better, deep down. So she did the most courageous thing she could think of. She died for someone she loved. She became courageous in order to prove the sprites wrong.

Because the sprites played a role in Niko’s arc to courage, (was that their purpose?) they’re now tied to her. Whether that’s willing or not is yet to be seen.

Back to Niko’s dad. If this is indeed the purpose of the dandelion sprites, then it’s likely her dad knew this and knew it would help Niko when she needed it most. We’re ignoring the fact that, if so, he set her up to be bullied for now

But what does this have to do with absolutely anything I’ve said?

*sprays paint on the wall*

Because it’s a clue to who Niko’s dad is, and I think we’ve met him.

Who do we know who’s an immortal being who has had different faces, says cryptic shit that leads to character arcs, shares so much kindness it comes around for his daughter’s friends, and would most definitely wear funny socks?

Source

Before you chain me up, let me finish.

It’s implied that there’s a lot of mystery surrounding Niko’s father’s death and afterlife. Her father being Kashi could explain this.

But why is Niko in Port Townsend?

Yes, I have finally come full circle. Niko is in Port Townsend because her father is Kashi. Obviously the Principal would know this. And maybe she knew he was just hanging out in Angie’s belly.

Perhaps the reason the Principal sent Niko to a remote small town that was difficult to get to is because she wanted her to be close to her father.

*takes a drag of a lit cigarette*

[waywardsonsandaughters]

I KNEW IT!! I called this MONTHS ago.

[flowerbloom-arts]

Hemulgust day 4

Number 13 was so much trouble for her.

[nymphlgy]

Album aesthetics: K-12

[idrawstuffo-o]

[mimi-0007]

Kelly Jo Minter (born July 14, 1966) is an American actress. Minter made her acting debut as "The Pilot" in an after-school short movie of the same name in 1984. She made her film debut as Lorrie in Mask (1985). She subsequently portrayed Denise Green in Summer School (1987), Maria in The Lost Boys (1987), Charlotta in Miracle Mile (1988), Yvonne Miller in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), LaDonna in House Party (1990), Cheryl in Popcorn (1991), and Ruby Williams in The People Under the Stairs (1991). Outside of film, Kelly has made guest appearances on a variety of television series including Hill Street Blues (1987), A Different World (1988), Martin (1993), ER (1996), Providence (2001), and Strong Medicine (2002). In 2010, she appeared as herself in the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

[mrdykes-blog]

I drew Highschool sweethearts Melanie Martinez in the principal outfit lol