#tpn interviews

(Chapter 81 Bonus Sketch)

I usually prioritize ships over hard gender and sexuality headcanons so it’s like, “whatever facilitates the ship” + it’s fun to play around with multiple takes depending on what you're feeling on a given day. But this bonus sketch cemented the idea of trans wlw Gillian being the one to take Violet under her wing (with Violet in turn taking Gilda under her wing as a fellow lesbian during the search for Cuvitidala and the Seven Walls, specifically recognizing Gilda having [had] a crush on Emma [before meeting Ayshe because Gildayshe truther 💚💛]). Idk, I just like how welcoming and accepting and playful Gillian comes off here. <3

I prefer how the manga fandub handled the reveal of Violet's name in chapter 69, though:

(TPN Manga Fandub Episode 4: “The Forbidden Game” by @tpnmangadub [post here])

I don't interpret Emma's original comment as intentionally malicious at all, and we don't know for sure what Grace Field's as a whole or Isabella's personal stance was on education regarding gender and sexuality besides what's briefly mentioned in the first light novel:

(TPN Light Novel 1: A Letter from Norman - “The Day Emma Cried”)

But it's still just kind of, eh, odd for her, though since it never comes up again it's not a glaring issue. [Related thoughts on the farms' stance on trans children here.]

☆ I'm not as dedicated to these but I also headcanon Paula as nonbinary (she/they) and Pepe as genderfluid. No one in the Resistance is cishet though.

☆ My favorite/default ships within the Resistance are Oliver/Zack and Gillian/Nigel, and I also like Sonya/Barbara (only fanart I've ever seen of it courtesy of @matilsabell <3)

☆ I think it's stupid funny with Zack's favorite food being boiled eggs if he just. Will randomly lock eyes with Oliver, deadass stare, only to pop open his mouth to show he stuffed a whole egg in there. Just because Oliver likes eggs enough, but not to the level that Zack does, but it's one of his quirks and it can make Oliver laugh so Zack just keeps doing it. It's their thing. <3

☆ Zack's specialties are linked together because he fell off the windmill while repairing it at least once.

☆ He becomes an EMT in the human world, in part due to being an adrenaline junkie (incorporated from @officersnickers' headcanons)

☆ Also I talk about this on these posts but I love the full score trio regaining regaining an elder sibling relationship they lost when all the older kids at Grace Field were shipped out. Emma and Oliver get the most focus in canon because they share the mantle of leadership in their respective groups, and we were robbed of seeing Zack interact extensively with any of the Seven Walls Search Party, but I like to think he and Ray become closer. Zack never reaches the levels of aggravation early Yuugo brings out in Ray since he's not openly antagonizing him, but he's willing to push back on things like Ray insisting he's good to keep watch when he's tired/sick/etc.

☆ Norman and Ray ask Nigel for help when they're tinkering with larger projects.

(Chapter 4 | Questionnaire Translation Source | Chapter 121 – Last panel included just because I think this interaction between Nigel and the trio is precious)

☆ Nigel and Yvette bonding courtesy of @65thgames

☆ Gillian makes Don a Little Bunny patch to put over his heart (courtesy of @technikki [here and here] and @promised-daisy [here])

☆ I don't think Sonya and Barbara would interact much in the demon world since they're only in proximity to each other for less than a month, but once they're in the human world there's sort of an opposites attract deal going on. Barbara admires how Sonya is calm and collected and laser-focused in on the minutia of things, Sonya admires Barbara's boldness and honesty, even when it gets her into trouble.

This leads to some confusion prior to them getting together because if Barbara was really into Sonya she'd just ask her out, right? That's what Sonya tells herself when she starts catching feelings and overthinking their interactions , but really Barbara's just having her own internal crisis. Initially she started asking Sonya questions because she was genuinely curious about the answer in the spur of the moment, crowding into her space while she worked at her computer, but then it transitioned into her coming up with questions so she'd have more reasons to talk with her without coming off as completely stupid. Barbara worries about that, this perceived chasm between them because Sonya's smart, and Barbara's strengths seem better suited for the demon world. This eventually results in her blurting out half a confession and twenty seconds of her wishing the ground would swallow her up before she powers through the rest of it.

Barbara is totally the kind of girlfriend who breaks the high striker at the fair to win her girlfriend an oversized plushie.

Speaking of fairs, neither of them is the biggest fan of sweets, but when they're out at one of these they'll share a blue and pink cotton candy because those are *their* colors (and the pink streak of Barbara's hair makes me think of either that or the swirl of an ice cream cone).

Sonya eventually becomes Barbara's boxing manager.

☆ Lucas and Sonya cane buddies!!

(Chapter 106 | Chapter 111)

After Goldy Pond we see Sonya with a cane but there isn't a single panel of them using their canes together, it's tragic. I also like to think Sonya would be encouraging to Dominic and Chris as they learn to walk again after their respective injuries.

☆ I don't really have anything to add to what Shirai revealed during the 8th Anniversary Q&A but I think it's sweet how Paula and Dominic are close:

(The Promised Neverland Art Book World | Chapter 111)

☆ In addition to having her identification marker tattoo removed (outside of the Grace Field children I don't think any cattle children have a complicated attachment to their markers due to where they're placed, so they all eventually remove them [related poll here]), I think Paula would have some corrective surgery done on her injury, and only if you know they're there would you notice the faint hints of scarring. She still incorporates her bandanas into her outfits in some capacity though.

☆ I also like this headcanon by @puff-poff:

As the 35th heir to the Ratri clan a lot fell on his shoulders, making him view the majority of his relationships outside of it as transactional even from a young age. "Don't be unkind, but never forget who you are" was a sentiment that probably always lurked in the back of his mind and colored a lot of his interactions. In this semi-emotional isolation I think he would indulge in escapism and latch on to the romanticization of heroic escapades in fiction as well as the history he knew of Julius.

All of this contributes to him having a rigid sense of morality attuned to his social standing that he fully throws himself behind, to the point that Peter respected him more than either of their parents or any other figure in either world because of it:

(Chapter 173: "[James] was kind, smart, handsome, sincere and refined.")

It's also why he reacts so viscerally to finding out the truth about Julius and the promise (and not to the events in 2020 preceding WWIII, although they may have planted some seeds even if he was shielded from the worst effects).

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 7 - Series Timeline)

(Chapter 179)

The Ratris are shown to still have enormous prestige even after the world was overhauled in the wake of this war. James threw away a life of wealth and comfort as part of his atonement, and while he wasn't willing to break the promise himself, he was willing to stand behind the cattle children if they did.

(Chapter 72)

We don't know if there were already pockets of resistance among the scientists and other Ratri associates, but regardless, James is able to use his intelligence, charisma, and networking to not only suss out people open to his cause, but convince them the head of the entire clan was genuinely trying to dismantle the world order that led to him having his wealth and prestige and that this wasn't just a ploy to snuff out traitors.

Under this united front, that voice in the back of his mind is silenced, and while still somewhat isolated given the role he had to play between the two worlds, he's able to find some of the most authentic, fulfilling relationships in the last years of his life, in keeping with the theme of finding true freedom in dismantling or breaking away from oppressive systems. (Again going back to me being a JamesSmee shipper but one of these is with Smee lol, even if it's bittersweet with the way it ends).

But through all of this, he loved Peter dearly. After spending so many years as an only child, having a younger brother whom he could drop some of his walls around and dote on was the greatest gift his parents could give him.

(Chapter 173)

And that love would be his undoing.

(Chapter 73 | Chapter 173)

Peter was always a loose end as the one who witnessed James' revelatory breakdown that he'd never be willing to tie up. It's unclear how long he kept what he saw a secret from everyone not sympathetic to James' crusade, but it was at least a few years given how young he looks during the flashbacks we're privy to and that he's 15 when James is murdered. All of that time, if he ever gave any hints of wavering from what he told James about agreeing with him, James elected to ignore them, and I don't know if that's more tragic than him being completely blindsided by his brother's betrayal.

(Chapter 173)

But it's very telling that even knowing who ordered his death and everything else in play, his final thoughts were spent thinking of his brother and apologizing for being unable to save him.

A few headcanons:

☆ I think James' romanticism is part of the reason he never had children in any capacity.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 6 Q&A)

I don't think he was being pressured to start a family given he was still young and everything he had going on even before WWIII broke out, but with all the pretenses in his life I think he was holding out for at least this sort of relationship and commitment to be founded on authentic feelings that he could find refuge in as opposed to it being a box he ticked off to keep up appearances.

☆ We don't know how involved James was with Smee beyond that Smee was a Minerva supporter, the one who killed James on Peter's orders, and the one who took up the reins from James' afterword, but I like to ship them because of the James Hook-Smee connection from the original Peter Pan and then have the tragedy of Smee being tasked with killing James (for some reason). Another parallel with Norman but similar to how Ray is the only one allowed to see Norman's prideful and impish side at Grace Field, Smee's at first the only one who sees the cocky and impish side of James.

☆ Based on the chapter 173 cover art, l think he read to Peter a lot, be it bedtime stories or them being research buddies in the library of their estates.

I mentioned that I think he gravitated toward grand heroic escapades and probably favored ones dealing with ancestral duties to sort of explain how he subconsciously reinforced his own beliefs about the farm system being predicated on ancestral sin all cattle children inherited even 1000 years out from the original promise. I talk about this here too, but it's interesting to speculate on whether James still held onto this belief or if it made him reform his worldview entirely that maybe all people are entitled to certain inalienable rights regardless of their birth.

☆ He strikes me as someone who would enjoy parlor tricks. Initially he taught himself this to impress his parents, who weren't thrilled with it but they never dissuaded him from the hobby, and eventually even they had to admit how deft he was in his execution and timing during a few dinner parties when they were trying to ease relationships between themselves and other party-goers they wanted to remain on good terms with.

Peter also absolutely loved these as a child, and I like how it would play into him reflecting on James' creation of William Minerva as an adult. How his slights of hand evolved into such an elaborate deceit that threatened Peter's entire identity and lead to him losing one of his most foundational connections. How it made him question whether he ever truly understood his brother at all and if that was better than having known him once and him becoming unrecognizable.

☆ I omitted Mike from my general trajectory of how James' childhood went because I like playing around with how antagonistic he is toward the cattle children and I tie that up with who between James and Peter is his favored nephew, but if it's James, I think they bonded over alcohol (keeping the burdens of the gatekeeper side of things and the human world side of things within the family, James setting up contingency plans for cattle children who made it to the human through Mike without directly revealing his plans, etc.) to partially explain how James developed a high tolerance that he used to his advantage.

Ray always respected and valued Emma as an equal. Even if he found her naivety frustrating for how he saw it as actively working against her chances of survival beyond the wall

(Chapter 4)

she and Norman were both there to comfort him in any way they could, even when they couldn't understand what was upsetting their friend so badly and he couldn't articulate to them what was wrong.

(Chapter 181.1)

(2020 Exhibition Interview)

Ray believes if they can just get Emma to let go of this fantasy of taking everyone with her on the escape, she and Norman can make it in the outside world. He knows how capable they both are in their different methods of approaching things, has seen how well they complement and balance each other out. Norman will keep Emma grounded in the realm of possibility and temper her hopes, while Emma will push Norman to think beyond perceived limitations and save him from completely succumbing to cynicism.

It's why he's so pissed and riddled with worry when Norman acknowledges his plan is more sound but actively chooses to follow Emma's anyway.

(S1 Episode 2)

After Grace Field and having her and Norman shift his entire world view, humbled isn't quite the right word since he was never haughty about this, but he was willing to trust Emma's methods more now that he knew hoping "for a future that is like a dream" wouldn't be another blow to his heart and that striving for an ideal was genuinely viable.

If it's characters who are alive and people can mean anyone, then the Grace Field Demon Boss might count since his fate is unknown after chapter 177. The last we hear about him is that the royal demon guard arrested him after his head was lobbed off.

I also default to Mike Ratri knowing as the head of the Ratri clan with access to the database containing all the information related to the cattle children:

(Chapter 7 | Chapter 22)

I talk about this here, too, but it seems like Krone brought a dossier with information about the plant #3 children with her in order to confirm the veracity of Ray's bait note implicating Isabella's assistance in their upcoming escape due to knowing Ray was her biological son. If Krone had access to information like that, I don't think it's out of bounds for Mike to have it as well. Even if he isn't aware of it at the time the children arrive in the human world, if he's a point of contact with the cast to help them settle into the human world initially, I wouldn't be surprised if he delved deeper into information regarding children of note like the full score trio.

If we're including characters who have died, then the list looks like this:

1. Ray 2. Isabella 3. Grandma Sarah 4. Krone 5. Jessica 6. Matilda 7. Scarlet 8. Sienna

With the ninth person being up in the air, though as of right now I settle on Mike for angst in my own silly little headcanons and AUs.

Interestingly, there's also this line from the second chapter of the mystic code book:

"The farm authorities didn't want Isabella to suspect that Ray is her biological son" makes it sound like this was common knowledge among the upper ranks of headquarters (and something I like angsting about in posts like this one. If Isabella is off limits from being eaten due to being the youngest and most capable Mom the farms have ever seen, then eating her son is theoretically the next best thing).

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 1 and Chapter 7 Q&As)

But again, I'm not sure how much of this is tied up in the translation and how much of this is Shirai being potentially contradictory after a decade of being involved with this story.

Do you think Emma and Norman would figure out this fact all by themselves later?

I appreciate how you word this because I'm of the mind there is absolutely no way in hell Ray would ever willingly reveal this information to anyone without prompting from outside forces until his very late teens/early twenties at the earliest (see here for an extremely indulgent AU of mine that incorporates a throughline they discarded in S2 where Isabella goes after the kids as an extreme version of an outside force).

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 6 Q&A)

If he has any say in the matter, he's taking this information to the grave.

However, that doesn't mean Emma and Norman can't discern things on their own. After the events of the escape arc, if a fanfic author runs with the idea that Emma and/or Norman picked up on this but remain quiet on the subject because that's Ray's secret to keep or reveal (something I've seen before), I think it's reasonable, though I think it's less likely for Emma to rediscover after losing her memories and assuming she never regains them.

I'm also someone who likes to overthink about this panel from chapter 174 and Norman's incorporation in it. It could easily just be due to knowing Ray had a unique relationship with Isabella due to being her spy for years…but why not throw more angst in with him knowing the extra layer of gravity in this exchange between the two as another reason for his knowing and somber expression? (You could also extend this to Emma, but I focus on Norman just because we can see he's looking back at Ray whereas Emma's still looking in the general direction of Isabella). He had over a year in Lambda to reflect on his time at Grace Field and pore over all the oddities he noticed between Isabella and Ray but chalked up to other things at the time…and isn't that so incredibly like Ray to keep that kind of conflict and pain to himself, either to spare others or because he loathes pity. There's a sad fondness tinging the thought.

I also like to entertain the idea of Peter and Norman interacting more because it's one of the least explored protagonist and antagonist dynamics in the series. Even if it isn't prompted by having a familial connection with Norman that I touch upon here:

This is already long but a tangentially related conversation to this eventually comes up with Peter asking about Emma and Ray. On the surface, it's to connect with Norman and learn more about his life at Grace Field, but the ulterior motive is to see if there's any information he can glean about these kids to find and capture them quicker. Norman will give it to him for having the tact not to slip and refer to them by their numbers like he's sure he wants to do, but he's still incensed at their names in his mouth. There's also the chance that Peter might reveal a crumb of information himself about their status (because Norman can't see why he would be asking unless he had something to gain from it, so that has to mean their escape was a success and they were all alive. The alternative would kill him), so he entertains the conversation. --- #also it might seem counterintuitive to kill Emma and Ray if he wants to engender love for him in Norman #but the sentiments are Norman would have eventually outgrown them anyway so it's fine and he'll get over it lol

The full score trio are kind of like celebrities among demon nobility and humans at headquarters.

(Chapter 1 | Chapter 80 | Chapter 76 | Chapter 152 | Chapter 156 | Chapter 159)

So I could see Peter asking Norman about them to gain information, and maybe one of the things he brings up is Isabella's connection with Ray, possibly bringing up the note if he somehow managed to be privy to that information (maybe Sarah told him, maybe he stumbled across the note in Sarah's office during the transfer of power from her to Isabella as Grandma since Isabella most likely came across it among the treasures Sarah collected over the years, like the embroidered map of headquarters in the second light novel/Krone's bonus chapter, lots of contrivances to work with) to both see how Norman reacts to it and as a means to evaluate how trustworthy Isabella is in her new role.

Something I imagine for that earlier mentioned Isabella Raids the Bunker AU, but I think it's transferable to other scenarios as well, is Ray divulging that secret to Norman in light of the circumstances, and Norman revealing he put the pieces together because he had a lot of time to think at Lambda, citing a few instances that made more sense to him because of it, and in an echo to their exchange in chapter 13/S1 episode 5, Ray responds with something along the lines of "I really can't get anything past you, huh."

Norman's intelligence is one of the many reasons he's fond of and cares for him, how capable and attentive it can make him, but there's bittersweetness and grief tinging those words due to the situation in general and at the thought of him having been obvious about things back at the house that all circle back around to him loathing the idea of pity directed at him when roughly sixty of his siblings at Grace Field plant #3 suffered a worse fate under Isabella's care, a few of them as a direct result of his choices.