#opal lynch-parrish

Ronan names pets after power tools and badass things but I want to imagine that Opal either names them vaguely worrying things that make zero sense to anyone but her (THIS BUNNY’S NAME IS CEMETERY; FIGHT ME GREYWAREN) or the most basic names imaginable (we’re naming her Cowie because she’s a cow). Adam likes to name the animals cute, simple names but not super obvious (their new puppy is named Marshmallow or something like that). at any rate they have a house full of puppies and cats and bunnies and cows and goats (most of whom live in the barns, not the house, obviously) and they wake up to the sound of a rooster named M&Ms for Opal’s favorite actually edible snack. and I love them and their happy domestic life

I know this doesn’t *really* matter because of the-author-is-dead and because like honestly she really is a relatively minor character, but it’s still very irritating and frankly, fiction and fictional characters are important to real people, and so idk it bothers me. Like, what is it? The point is that she’s not their daughter? Fine, that’s OK, I can see the problems with calling her their daughter- that suggests she doesn’t exist independently of them, it’s a lot of pressure to put on two eighteen-year-olds to raise a kid, neither of them has any biological or legal claim to her, fine. It’s still messed up to call her a pet, considering the fact that both Ronan and Adam relate to her, care about her as more than just an animal companion, treat her like they would a human child (albeit one who eats sticks and understands nightmare worlds), etc. She, much like Matthew, is part of an illustration of how Ronan is capable of caring and being gentle for other people and their feelings and fears. Adam relates to her fear and compares it to how he felt when being abused. When she loves them and responds to their love and caring, it means so much about their characters, about how they are capable of loving and being loved and maybe being part of a family if you want to interpret it that way (which, as someone who loves and relates to these characters who have had such fraught experiences with family, and wants these characters to heal in their ability to have familial love- I interpret it that way). Calling Opal a pet just takes away all those major, important things. So no, I mean, I don’t care what the author has to say obviously, but I don’t like the insinuation and that kind of reading and how many people agree with it, probably because I care about these characters and project onto them too much.

Opal and Adam in flower crowns