Hey sorry for being AWOL but I just had some thoughts that I wanted to share.
Re-reading Gone (again) and something that I think we really missed out on was having our first introduction to Caine being through a POV who believes him. Because Sam immediately sees through the bull which means that we do too. So when we are then being told that Caine is a master manipulator, I struggle to believe it. I wish that we had been introduced to his character through Quinn so that we could actually see the charm in action. I think it would make Caine more interesting (and help us to understand Quinn’s motivations more.
I might write some more on this topic if anyone is interested but this was just a quick thought for now.
Eee yes I absolutely will be doing an Orc one. For Orc I am thinking I will probably give him his own analysis, a relationship analysis for Howard and Astrid and then maybe even one for all three of them?? I'm also debating doing an Orc and Drake comparison as I think their storylines oppose each other very nicely. I could talk about him for hours so he'll definitely be getting his fair share
As I'm changing up my approach a little bit, I thought I would perhaps lay out what my plans are for my upcoming analysis'. So far I've done Sam, Astrid, Caine, Diana, Drake and Little Pete and as much as these analysis were a pain to do I don't want to half-ass them so I think my plan is to continue with a few more characters and then perhaps do the minor characters together in one big piece??
I think further standalone characters would be:
Quinn
Edillio
Orc
Howard
Jack
Lana
Mary
And then I will maybe do an analysis of the Coates kids and and analysis of the Perdido beach kids separately. From here, I will start analysing the relationships that we see in Gone and then maybe I will do some little one-off pieces on topics that interest me.
Let me know what you guys think of this, or whether there are any characters you would like to see get their own analysis!
So, finally, here is my Little Pete analysis. This one was particularly hard to write because his characterisation (or should I say lack of) really really upsets me. This is now a Peter Ellison fan account because he just deserves all the love I can give him forever. That being said, I want to give a few disclaimers before I actually get into this analysis.
Firstly, I wanted to keep this analysis solely focused on Little Pete, with as little focus on other characters as possible. I’m going to be talking about the poor care that Little Pete received in this book (alongside the r-slur scene) and how this will have affected him. But, I am in no way blaming Astrid for this. Astrid was a child who loved Little Pete and who was doing her absolute best to take care of him. However, her effort does not negate the fact that Little Pete’s care was less than ideal and that this would have affected him severely. Because of this, it may seem like I’m blaming Astrid or making her out to be a bad person, but I promise I’m not. I just don’t want to be defending her every other line when I should be focusing on Little Pete. I will however be going into more detail on her side of things in a later post about their relationship.
Secondly, this analysis will not be as in-depth as my previous ones. There are two reasons for this. One being that I simply do not have the time and two being that I am not entirely sure that it is my place to do such an analysis on this character. I know that a lot of people have issues with MG’s portrayal of Little Pete and I do not want to take away from people’s concerns. That being said, I do not think that it was his intention to be ableist or to hurt anyone when he was writing this character. But intent doesn’t cancel out what he actually wrote.
Now, onto the analysis.
Old Opinion: Honestly, I didn’t really have an opinion on Little Pete. He seemed more like a plot point to me than a character and so that’s really just how I viewed him.
New Opinion: After re-reading the first book, I unfortunately still cannot seem to care for Little Pete. I wish MG had gone into more depth and written him as an actual character. There is just so much wasted potential.
How Little Pete is Viewed by Other Characters in The Text and in The Text Itself
This is a title that I haven’t done before in any of my analyses, but I thought it was important to do this for Little Pete as a lot of the issues that people have with his character stem from how he is treated by others, and how their actions seemed to be excused by the text. This will be a much shorter analysis than any other that I have done. One because there is not as much to analyse, and two because I feel like it is not my place to do a deep dive on a character who’s experiences I do not understand.
Something that I did notice quite a lot during my re-read of Gone (and my re-read of my re-read) is that MG seems to have done a pretty good job at researching the technical aspects of autism (trigger phrases, types of therapy, possible modifications needed), but he seems to neglect the actual thoughts, feelings, and emotions of autistic people. It almost seems as if Little Pete is a walking NHS page, instead of, you know, a person. But let’s first talk about the technical aspects.
The first introduction that we get to Little Pete, is through his environment rather than through any mention or meeting of the character himself. This occurs on page 17: “But everything was put away. There was nothing out that could be broken. The tables had little plastic cushions on the corners. The electrical sockets had childproof covers. In the kitchen the knives were in a glass-front cupboard with a childproof lock on the handle. There were child proof knobs on the stove.” Now while we don’t get confirmation until a few sentences later, we can already assume that these precautions have not been made for Astrid. However, my first assumption would not be that they are for a quiet, often unresponsive child – which is who Little Pete seems to be. Rather, I would assume the opposite – that this was for an unruly and destructive child, one who likes to grab and touch and move things. Little Pete is shown to do none of those things, in fact the only time that he is seen to be destructive when using his powers, and even then, he is only destructive in very stressful situations. So, to me, it seems odd that these measures are taken for Little Pete. They don’t seem to fit with his personality at all, making it seem like this choice was made based off of stereotypes, rather than made with the character of Little Pete in mind.
This does not necessarily mean, however, that the fault is with the writing. In fact, I quite like the idea that the reason the Ellison’s are making precautions that do not seem to align with Little Pete’s needs is because they themselves are ignorant to his needs. While the plot does not allow us to see Pete’s parents interact with Little Pete, we are given the impressions that they treat him as a nuisance more than anything else and this, paired with the time within which the book is set, makes it easy for me to believe that they have little interest in their son. This impression is also given when Astrid first makes reference to Little Pete’s powers, “He seems able to do a lot of things. Mostly we’re good, the two of us. Mostly he doesn’t really notice me. But once, I was doing his therapy, working with this picture book we work on sometimes. I show him a picture and try to get him to say the word and, I don’t know, I guess I was in a bad mood that day. I guess I was too rough taking his hand and putting his finger on the picture like you’re supposed to do. He got mad. And then, I wasn’t there anymore. Once second, I was in his room, and then all of a sudden, I was in my room.” (Page 133)
Why is Astrid doing these activities and not his parents? It seems like the parentification of Astrid began long before the FAYZ, and Little Pete’s neglect seems to be a huge part of his character. This, coupled with the fact that he himself is unable to communicate with the characters in any way that they understand, means that we unfortunately do not get as much of an in- depth characterisation as we do with others. This, of course, is something that Michael Grant had been criticised for many times. However, while it is not my place to tell people that they cannot be upset by this representation (because of course you can) I feel like I am able to bring about another perspective: that the reason Little Pete is written in this way is because this is how other characters see him. Seen as we can only see this world through their eyes, it makes sense that the impression we get of Little Pete is not one that is ideal.
Little Pete and His Importance to the Plot:
Now, to say that Little Pete is a character who is neglected so much, he is one of the main plot points within the novel. In fact, I would argue that especially in the first book, he is more plot point than actual character and here is why:
One – Little Pete is the driving force behind Sam and Astrid’s relationship, Edilio’s joining of the group and Sam and Quinn’s falling out.
Two – Little Pete is the reason that Sam won.
Three – Little Pete is the reason for the FAYZ in the first place.
If you ask me, those are three pretty major plot points that all come to be because of one character, especially a character who does not get a pov (only talking about the first book here). I’m not going into how all of these things happened due to Little Pete because that would be less and analysis of the text and more me explaining the book to you, which I am sure nobody wants. But my main point by including this section is that Little Pete is an intrinsic part of the text and so is the way he is written. If Little Pete is able to freely communicate with a people in a way that they understand then the book would have ended very differently, or maybe it would not have even started at all.
Essentially what MG has done here has used Little Pete as a structural device, giving his character the means to completely change the outcome of the story without giving him almost any say in what he does. While I understand how this can be upsetting to some people, I also think that this use of character is fascinating and adds an element of mystery to the story the likes of which I haven’t really seen before. Little Pete both controls the story and is barely present in it, and while I definitely whish that we could have learnt more about him as a person, I understand that with the way this story is written, that would have resulted in changes within the book that would have changed the story completely.
As always thank you for reading the ramblings that I have offered up to you. I am sorry that this analysis is so short, but I felt like I just needed to say what I wanted to say and not embellish. As I said before, I feel like it is not quite my place to give my full thoughts on this character, but I hope that what I have given has been enjoyable in it’s own way.
It's been a while since I even looked at this blog. I got so overwhelmed with what I was doing, especially seen as I was starting University at the same time. But recently, I found I've missed this community and I wanted to get back onto it.
I'm probably not going to be as active as I was, and I'm not sure how I'll go about doing my essays because they just took up so much time. However, I do want to start creating content again.
If anyone had any questions or ideas for anything they would like to see, please feel free to ask. I can't wait to interact with you guys again!!
I am a firm believer that Penny's arc would have been much more interesting if after the cliff, instead of retaining her crush on Caine, she had become a misandrist. Would have been fun to see her and Drake interact like this too
Sorry I keep asking so many questions but I just had a thought and I thought you'd be the perfect person to ask about it!! If Astrid really did get with Sam only for safety in the beginning, as mg tries to add in, how come she chose Sam over Orc?? Cause Orc already had power in the beginning. Not Sam. I can't remember if this is explained or not, but I certainly can't remember it.
don't be sorry!!!! i love answering your questions!!!
this is such a good question asjfhsjgk, legitimately i'm so flattered you thought to ask me about it!
it makes so much sense for her to go to orc instead of sam? like astrid, you want someone who's effectively the strongest person in the fayz politically and physically so that little pete and you will be protected, captain orc is right there...
granted, that obviously doesn't happen because sam is the protagonist of the series and astrid's actions inevitably have to tie back to him at some point. so i get it. but your thought makes a lot more sense than astrid trying to prop up sam as leader; i can only assume, in-universe, her attaching herself to sam (at least in the beginning) had less to do with calculation and more to do with sheer convenience, as she was overwhelmed by the adults poofing and trying to find little pete. but even later, if i had to conjure up a reason why she didn't go off and try to latch onto orc, astrid had less confidence in the idea that she could manipulate him, maybe, especially since he was still surrounded by his gang of bullies and was being influenced by howard. we even get semi-evidence of this when she tells sam that orc finds her intimidating, but she's not sure how much they can rely on that.
but yeah, even that feels a little unconvincing. after all, orc is leader of the fayz and has a preexisting relationship with astrid that is at least civil. he clearly respects her intelligence and she recognizes that. he'd be an effective protector! no one would dare harm her or little pete with him around! it'd be the the perfect solution for astrid's dilemma!
which makes me wonder--i'm still not sure--was astrid falling in league with sam in order to manipulate him a retcon?? because given the fact that orc was more powerful at the beginning of the fayz than he was, it sure would seem silly if it wasn't and that was mg's plan for astrid all the time.
i would honestly love an au where astrid did join up with orc instead. the potential that has!!! astrid trying to make herself indispensable to orc while feigning innocence to everyone else (mainly howard) so not to rouse suspicion as to her true motives, the sheer awkwardness of her having to hang around with howard and potentially the rest of orc's gang while having absolutely nothing in common with them PLUS having to deal with orc's budding crush on her...i love it!!! someone write that fic--i will pay good money!
thank you so much for the ask, feel free to send more!!
i. what do you think is the most embarrassing (in terms of mg’s writing) moment in the series?
ii. penny is creating an illusion that will psychologically cut to the core of a character of your choosing. who is that character and what is that illusion?
iii. instead of the fayz happening when the main kids are 14, now it happens when they’re 17. how does this affect how mg writes their characters/the series in general?
iii. choose a character who died in the fayz. if they survived, what would their future be like?
iv. how do you feel about the potential existence of sexually explicit gone fic? do you feel it’s unethical given the characters’ youth? justified because the characters undergo graphic violence also unsuitable for their age group? gimme your thoughts!
v. why do you think orc and drake had “unnatural” (as in not technically superpowers, not given by little pete a la taylor, and not being able to be used by gaia) mutations? do you wish mg had resolved that question in canon?
vi. a romantic pairing you personally hate?
vii. in a breakfast club au, which characters would fulfill the stereotypes of jock, nerd, princess, rebel, and outcast? how would the kids interact with one another in a closed-off, normal setting like high school detention (pre-fayz or post-fayz, your choice)? bonus points for describing why they’re there in the first place!
viii. as a reverse to a question in my previous ask game—choose a decade to set gone in that’s before the ‘2000s. what decade do you choose? what changes would occur to the characters/plot as a result?
ix. do you think any of the characters can sing/dance? what kind of singing voice do they have?
x. do you picture any characters with scars post-fayz? who? where are the scars located?
xi. where do you think astrid’s abstinence and diana’s promiscuity come, psychology-wise?
xii. au where the all the kids (including those you want to bring back to life) are shuttled into a special private boarding school post-fayz, including (gulp) drake. they can’t leave, there are no weapons, they’re all powerless/mutation-less, and they’re forced to live together in a fairly strict learning environment. how do the characters deal with living under adults’ thumbs again? how do they deal with a neutered drake? how do they cope with their trauma without the agency afforded to them by emancipation? how do their friendships/relationships deepen/grow strained? most importantly, what’s their gpa???
xiii. what do you think [character(s) of your choosing] secretly desire above all else?
xiv. which illusion would penny conjure up for [character(s) of your choosing] that would fulfill their (not necessarily sexual) romantic fantasies?
xv. which [character(s) of your choosing] shave pre-fayz? which don’t?
xvi. astrid and diana have switched stereotypes! now diana is the “good girl” and astrid is the “bad girl,” but their individual personalities remain, at their core, the same. what does this look like?
xvii. was sam justified in severing his relationship with connie?
xviii. gone is now being adapted into an anime! how do the characters look in terms of their design? feel free to post examples of shows you’d like the style to be similar to!
xviii. what death scene would you rewrite if you had the chance? describe your rewritten scene!
xix. who is the weakest major character, writing-wise, in the series? the strongest?
xx. what would make [a characteer you dislike] more interesting to you? why?
“she’s called the ice queen - too cold and mechanical for most, and yet the one person she loves most in the world, the person who she would do anything to protect, finds her too present” 🤯🤯🤯 brilliant analysis!!!
Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it!!
Just a quick update on my Little Pete analysis, my laptop should be finished sometimes this week so hopefully I will be posting it soon!!
2.) What, in your opinion, are Michael Grant's strengths as a writer?? Weaknesses??
Oof this is such a great question. I'm gonna get the negative out of the way first, and you probably knows whats coming but...
Romantic relationships. He just, for some reason, cannot seem to get the formula right. Sam and Astrid do not work together - they are both great people separately but all of their relationship scenes make me like them a little less. They should have broken up- but that's another post entirely.
Caine and Diana are slightly better - because they are written to be imperfect, but it's still not great. And all the other romantic relationships are entirely forgettable. It's a shame because one of his strengths is...
Platonic Relationships. Sam and Dekka?? Perfect. Sam and Edilio?? Perfect. Sam and Quinn?? Lovely - delves into the question of the longevity of childhood friends. Is it only proximity that keeps you together, or something more?? There's betrayal and redemption...amazing. Caine and Drake?? Interesting dynamic, lovely. Howard and Orc?? Again, so interesting, so complex. Dahra and Lana?? Beautiful. All of these relationships are so different and so complex and so beautifully written. It really is a shame he couldn't do the same for his romantic relationships.
And another strength, that I just have to mention because it is one of the many reasons I fell in love with this series. The way that Michael writes desperation is so heartwrenching and real and raw...it's honestly difficult to describe. Every time I read the scene in Gone where Lana calls out to her mother, alone and afraid. I get literal chills. Because every time I can perfectly imagine her pain and fear, it's palpable. It truly is amazing the way he portray such a complex emotion so effortlessly and it never ceases to amaze me.
3.) Which characters of your choosing do you think wear make up (at least pre FAYZ)?? Which don't??
Do:
Diana - Not much because I get the feeling that Coates doesn't allow it. Just some concealer and a bit of lip tint. Maybe mascara is she wants something off of Caine. She also sculpts her eyebrows regularly.
Taylor: Same as Diana really, concealer, lip tint. Not sure if this counts but I think she would wear fake tan as well.
Lana: Everything. Foundation, eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick. Her eyebrows are professionally done. She has to keep up with her Las Vegas friends after all.
Mary: She uses concealer to cover her dark circles so as not to draw attention to herself and she always contours her cheekbones as she thinks they never stand out enough :(
Dahra: Not sure why, but I get the vibe that she really enjoyed doing make up. She would watch make up tutorials for fun and try to recreate them.
Don't:
Brianna: Who has the time??
Dekka: She admires girls who can do make up but can never get the hang of it herself. It never seems to sit right on her face, luckily it's never been a source of insecurity for her.
Astrid: She tried wearing mascara once, forgot she had it on, and rubbed it all over her eyes whilst deep in thought. Since then she's avoided it. However she does have a 10 step skin care routine.
13.) Body type headcannons
Dekka is MUSCLY. She is heavy-set with big biceps and tones legs. She's probably quite tall as well - pretty intimidating to look at. Could be a Greek goddess in disguise.
Astrid is tall and narrow and sharp and pointy. She has a lump on her middle finger from where she holds her pen and multiple scare on her fingers from paper cuts.
Diana is pretty short- around 5"3. She's curvy with a short upper body and longer legs. The inside of her lips are torn up from where she bites them and her stomach constantly has a red line across it because, in private, her posture is appalling.
Mary is tall and skinny, although she, of course, doesn't see it.
Dahra is short and chubby, but her legs are very toned as she constantly is walking alongside Ewood as he trains for his running.
Sam and Quinn are relatively toned from surfing all the time. Sam (5"8) is shorter than Quinn (5"10) and he hates it. Quinn has a bit of baby fat on his stomach that he can never seem to get rid off. He thinks it makes him look unappealing - it doesn't.
I don't care what mg says, 15 yr old Caine Soren does not have a six pack. He is around 5"7 and he's toned but not muscly. His thumb is misshapen from biting it all the time.
Drake is tall. Like 6ft at 15 kinda tall. And he's so gangly. He doesn't know where to put his limbs and there are constantly bruises on his knees from where they knock together. He has long fingers that he cracks - constantly. If he started wearing eyeliner he would look like he belonged in a grunge band.
Orc is tall (5"10) and a terrifying mixture of fat and muscle. Howard is small (5"4) and barely has enough meet on him to last.
Edilio is average height and pretty stocky. He has broad shoulders and a thick body. This is a great source of pride for him.
17.) Hairstyle headcannons??
Honestly I don't really have any other than what is already stated in the books.
All I habe to add is that I think pre FAYZ Astrid kept her hair is a bob so that if Petey was ever relating, and wanted physical contact from her, he wouldn't be out off by his hair in her face.
18.) What would your ideal gone fanfic look like??
Honestly?? It would be a long fic with nothing other than Sam and Astrid talking out their issues, and settling on a compromise that can lead to a healthy relationship. Boring, I know, but it's what my heart needs.
the idea of evil!astrid getting into a relationship with albert is so bizarre but so fitting! what do you think her motive would be for that? would it be for manipulation purposes? would she just be lonely? what would their relationship be like?
Thank you for the ask!!
Honestly, I think the only thing that truly seperates Astrid and Albert are there difference in morals. And for evil Astrid??? Well that wouldn't really be a problem anymore. Albert's whole shtick is controlling the population through hoarding/ distributing necessities - something that I think evil Astrid would fully be on board with. So without the animosity there that is caused by their moral differences, I think there is definitely room for something else.
We know that Albert respects Astrid for her intelligence, using her as a confident when he is attacked by the cat. And I think evil Astrid would enjoy this. They would be able to help each other gain and keep control of the populous of Perdido Beach, growing closer over their mutual respect for each other. From this, they would both realise that they prefer each others company to being alone - maybe they would kiss a couple of times - and they decide to make it official.
Because if I remember correctly, a big thing with Astrid is that she sees her and Sam's relationship as a necessity to upholding the kids morale - and so with Sam out of the picture, she would probably want to replicate that. And I think Albert would just enjoy the novelty of being in a relationship. Having someone he can confide in, having someone to come home to. I think it would be comforting to him, and I think he would like to know that someone understands what he is doing. And that someone appreciates him for it.
And then finally, the most important reason honestly for me pairing evil Astrid and Albert together - I absolutely think Albert would be fine in maintaining a purely romantic relationship. They could openly talk about Astrid’s feelings regarding sex, and he would understand and would not pressure her in any way. Which is what she deserves.
Anyway these are just my thoughts towards the pairing - I always thought they had a really interesting dynamic in the series and that, if not for their moral differences, they could have made for really great friends if nothing more.
I've been thinking recently about how Drake's return in the Monster series seems boring and overdone, but at the same time I get why mg did it. And I was thinking how much better would it have been if Drake survived - but didn't go into hiding?? Because Caine's letter admonished EVERYONE of their guilt. If they found Sam and Astrid and everyone else innocent, they had to find him innocent right?? And I think it would have been really cool to see how Sam and Astrid live with that. How would they feel about the letter knowing that not only they are free, but an actual monster is too??
I also imagine in this scenario that Drake and Sam's step-father team up for a slander campaign against Sam. Like this man definitely wanted some goddamn compensation
This one took forever because I wanted to get her perfect, but I couldn’t decide how to do it. I feel like Astrid’s pride and superiority complex is less a result of her truly believing that she is better than others, and more of a defence mechanism built to protect herself because she knows that she will never truly fit in. She’s called the ice queen - too cold and mechanical for most, and yet the one person she loves most in the world, the person who she would do anything to protect, finds her too present. She can’t win. And so she distances herself from people, often resulting in her being blinded by her ideals of morality, as she can’t really see how her actions affect those around her.
I chose blue and black for Astrid’s colour scheme - paired with some chromatic aberration, to appear almost like she’s short-circuiting. I wanted to keep close to her original colour scheme but, as this is a series based on the sins , I decided to switch her white to black.
I've been thinking recently about how Drake's return in the Monster series seems boring and overdone, but at the same time I get why mg did it. And I was thinking how much better would it have been if Drake survived - but didn't go into hiding?? Because Caine's letter admonished EVERYONE of their guilt. If they found Sam and Astrid and everyone else innocent, they had to find him innocent right?? And I think it would have been really cool to see how Sam and Astrid live with that. How would they feel about the letter knowing that not only they are free, but an actual monster is too??
I'm not sure whether all of these are unpopular but here we go:
1.) Sam is a bland protagonist. And it's a shame because book 1 Sam has so much potential. He is one of the only male protagonists I have read in my life whose defining trait is kindness. And it's so nice and refreshing. But then Michael throws that all away in favour of relationship drama. Sam was done dirty :(
2.) Diana did not get a redemption. She never atoned for her actions or did anything to counter act them. Instead mg put her through HELL, made people feel sorry for her, and called it a day. And don't get me wrong, I love Diana, but you don't get to do shitty things, feel bad about the shitty things and then the shitty things you did be forgiven and forgotten.
3.) The same goes for Caine but I feel like that's not all that unpopular of an opinion.
4.) Penny was one of the best villains but to reach her full potential she needed to be more fleshed out and face more consequences for her actions. She sexually assaulted Caine and benefitted off of using Diana's body without her consent. And there are no consequences for that?? The cycle of abuse that she is perpetuating should have been addressed and looked into in more detail. I would also have like it if, after the cliff incident, she became more of a misandrist. Drawing parallels to her and Drake would have been really cool and I think it could have made both characters more interesting.
5.) Not sure if this is unpopular, but Howard's death was unnecessary and disappointing. It either shouldn't have happened or it should have been much more imapactful. Don't mind me but I'm just thinking of the absolute POWER mg could have had if he'd have paralleled Dekka's almost death. As Howard is dying he has a moment of panic, that he'll die and no one will mourn him. And so he confesses his love for Orc just as Dekka did to Brianna - but Orc isn't there and Howard dies alone. OR HE COULD HAVE LET HIM LIVE.
I probably have more but I can't think of them rn. Thank you for the ask!!
if astrid turned evil/more ruthless and ruled the fayz, what laws do you think she’d implement?
So sorry for the late response!! My mind has been everywhere lately so I've gotten absolutely nothing done. But here goes:
I think an evil Astrid would be highly reminiscent of characters such as Javert (Les Miserables) and season 8 Danaerys (Game of Thrones). She wouldn't know that she was the villain, rather she would believe she was just making difficult decisions all for the greater good.
With this in mind, I think most of her laws would be similar to the laws we have, with some alternations. I think her idea of a judicial system would be her acting as the judge and her council (who I imagine to be a select few people who she could manipulate) as the jury. She would justify this to herself by saying that she was the only one who knew what was best/ could see what had to be done, but really it would just be another way for her to gain control. The four punishments imo, would be:
Community Service: (For minor crimes such as petty theft, skipping work, driving without permission, hate-speech)
Prison Time: (This would cover anything from more serious stealing, like food or water, fighting, speaking ill of Astrid or her council to more serious crimes like manslaughter or unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of drugs and alcohol - I imagine Astrid would confiscate all handmade weapons when she comes into power)
Banishment: (I would see this as being her way to deal with most other crimes such as selling prohibited items, murder, assault, repeated crimes)
Death Penalty: ( I feel like this one would mostly filter down to whether Astrid felt like the person deserved it. The only crime I can see her giving the death penalty for every time is r@pe.)
I can see her trying her best to control people by any means possible, therefore prohibiting any criticism of the way she runs things. Because of this, new laws would be coming in all the time to suit her as and when it seems fit.
This is a bit of a tangent but I think a lot of the characters we know and love would be heavily punished by Astrid’s system, as they wouldn't fit into her very niche category of 'good'. My idea is that she would give everyone a chance to 'repent' and conform to her new ideals. If they do this, all past crimes are forgiven. If they don't.....
Orc is immediately forgiven. He repents, he gets clean, he finds his faith. He becomes her sheriff and is the only person, other than herself, who she really trusts. Howard is banished. He relied on Orc's dependence and Astrid knew this. They couldn't both manipulate him, so Howard had to go.
Sam, Dekka and Brianna are imprisoned. They refused to stop being soldiers. They all tried to talk sense into Astrid. Sam is completely broken by this.
Edilio and Quinn are given community service. They haven't outright done anything illegal. But they both continously voiced their displeasure at Sam and the others imprisonment.
Albert is a tricky one. I either think he and Astrid would become really close and maybe even begin a relationship (not a healthy one) or she would absolutely despise him and lock him away for life.
Dahra, Lana and Jack mostly keep to themselves and so nothing ever really comes of them. They mostly abide by Astrid’s rules and so she mostly leaves them be.
Caine and Diana. Again this is a tricky one. I think Caine would definitely try and strike a deal with Astrid. He and evil Astrid would have very similar ideas on control and on how to rule over the population, whether that deal would keep?? Who knows.
Anyway these are my thoughts. Feel free to contest them or add on and thank you for the ask!!
1. were there any expectations for plot elements, relationships, and/or character arcs you developed based on the events of the first book that weren’t fulfilled by the fifth?
2. what, in your opinion, are michael grant’s strengths as a writer? his weaknesses?
3. which characters of your choosing do you think wear makeup (at least pre-fayz)? which don’t?
4. which characters of your choosing do you think wear perfume/cologne?
5. what are the grooming habits of characters pre-fayz?
6. which job do you think characters would be best at post-fayz?
7. if you could soften one plot element of the series, what would it be?
8. if you could intensify one plot element of the series, what would it be?
9. which protagonist of the series do you think would be an interesting villain? vice-versa?
10. if you could take away one character’s powers and give it to another, who would that character be and what power would you give them?
11. what kind of books, movies, and tv shows do you think the characters would like?
12. you have the ability to change the decade in which “gone” takes place, but the catch is, it can’t be set anytime before 2007! what time period do you pick and why? what elements of the story would change based on this change of setting? how would the characters change?
13. body type headcanons?
14. how do you feel about how michael grant writes romance? if you had the opportunity, how would you rewrite the romances in the series?
15. opinions on drake’s misogyny?
16. gone is now a soapy high school drama akin to riverdale/skins/euphoria! who fulfills which teen archetype and why?
17. hairstyle headcanons?
18. what would your ideal gone fanfic look like?
19. if a tv adaptation does happen, what would be the worst possible change the showrunners could make to the plot/characters?
20. gone is now set in a high fantasy world full of fantasy races, magic, and political intrigue (think world of warcraft or dungeons & dragons)! what fantasy race (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.) do you think the characters would be?
The Gone Series Analysis @goneseriesanalysis - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
