I'm really sorry for the delay, but here are the answers finally.
Sending you a hug, and I hope the answers are entertaining. I’m going to tag @gaulnon because they recently told me some things about their original characters and I think this ask game will be really helpful for them. Also, shoutout to vico (@julietasgf) who, as always, is my co-writer on lore: VIIK alliance.
7. What about your character still remains a mystery to you?
This is a very interesting question, for me, everything is a mystery in a way.
When you have an original character something quite interesting happens to me and yes, I actually consider Julia to be an original character because, although her fate and place in the canon story are defined. Her entire inner life, personality, and backstory are things I have given her, plus the information we have about her is so few or non existing (like her name itself, since she doesn’t have one and each of us who has worked on our versions of Mrs. Snow has given her a name of our own).
I’m making this clarification because to me it’s different than when we talk about character interpretations. A clear example is my conception of Crassus; he isn’t my OC because he has several traits that come and are more clearly defined and stated in the text, I simply interpret him under a particular view of mine, still it’s my interpretation. I can argue for my ideas on Crassus but I couldn't say that he's the only real Crassus, but I can say which one is the only real Julia (but I couldn't say, for example, that she's the only real Mrs. Snow because that’s not true).
With that said, I’ll continue because I’ve created original characters from scratch before, and one thing I like about them is that they’re constantly subject to change. Even if you write them down, they’re constantly evolving; personally, I don’t feel this happens very often with character portrayals / interpretations. I’ll talk about Casca because he’s a minor character I’ve interpreted in a specific way, and my own interpretation has changed for example, through my rereadings of the text and subsequent discussions that took place long after my initial readings on my own yet, it’s not as if the change in my interpretation was too abruptly.
This is because Casca remains a well-defined character in the canon, and there are traits I must maintain. For example, my constant drama about how much I hate Crassus is a fundamental part of his story and characterization because it is, and I can’t change that!
*Quick note.
I know you’re not obligated to stick strictly to the text, especially in the world of fanfiction, and besides, what constitutes “canon” is something that will always be different depending on each person’s understanding of the text, right? At the same time, there are characteristics / traits that distinguish these characters, personalities and actions we can always return to when rereading, and while I myself have developed a writing in which a character do something improbable in a way that tries to feel authentic or consistent, but I've definitely pushed to the limits such traits and other things that constitute the vision of the character I share with others. Still, one of the reasons why I find writing fanfiction fun is the thrill of stepping into, so to speak, someone else’s shoes, finding instructions on how I should make the dolls act in the desk that leave me pondering, wondering how anyone could have come up with these as the rules on the first place, and trying to follow them.
But what I see with the original characters is that, while there will be constants in them (because I believe characters are defined by themes that you want to explore in a particular way), you also find yourself caught up in constant change. With Julia, there’s a clear goal of where she needs to end up (becoming the protagonist’s mother, marrying Crassus, and dying!) On why I remark on this, the aspect of her being an oc incorporate in canon / derivated from, because see there’s a path preestablished in her destiny by canon, and she’ll get there, but how she get there, who will be there, is something I’ve found has been transformed from that distant late 2023/early 2024 all the way to now!
As that wise song say, it’s the best of two worlds, to me at least, in the thing that I created Julia, there’s only one Julia that’s mine, but I still face similar challenges than with the more established canon characters, at the same time, I had a freedom, in explore her, and get out of the box, and vibe with the differences in her concepts vs the moment I wrote her, Julia it’s always a mystery to a certain extend because how canon and my interest crash, metamorphoses constantly.
I hope this makes sense, hehehe.
Before we move on to the next question, there will be some triggering content, as I’ll be discussing heavy topics. Not explicitly, but they will be implied: child abuse, post-traumatic stress, emotional incest, generational trauma, grooming.
8. Someone shows your character a photograph of themselves when they were five. How do they react? What is the picture like?
Julia's reaction depends on what stage of her life you ask her about, but let's talk about the type of photographs first.
Julia is an only child; she has no close relatives, since her mother isn’t in the picture; her father has friends but is reserved, and at least when she was little, he tried to stay within the Capitol as much as possible. Even so, he had to step away, and although he would sometimes take her on trips, the custom was more to leave her with her nannies (there’s a constant turnover of them) and the staff at the Dorrance house (who can speak; I think I’ve mentioned that Julia at least knows Avox until she visits the evil Snow Department).
The photos always feature Julia as the star, the sheer number is somewhat absurd, but they were usually taken when she went out to play in the park with her father, or when he took her to the zoo, the theater, cinema, restaurants, the planetarium, or someplace in the Capitol. Sometimes in the photos you’d see a part of Julia’s father’s body, a figure who never drew attention to himself, nor had any intention of appearing in the photographs but sometimes there would be photos of them hugging or sitting side by side, which always refocused on her, since her father didn’t liked appear on pictures but liked had memories from Julia, that could kept as a testament of her youth and a remembering of better days when set a part in some travel far from her due to work.
Also, on Miss Julia’s birthdays, there would be a myriad of pictures. Birthdays, in particular, were a very important and special occasion for Julia, they were usually a big celebration. Her father, who was normally very reserved and serious, seemed genuinely excited about her birthday and would throw a somewhat lavish party, even if it was a small gathering, since the guests were basically the servants forced to eat cake, clap when she opened her numerous gifts and at times, a professional photographer would sometimes be hired to do a photo shoot of Julia, as she would usually choose a theme for her birthdays (This changes once she grows up, but since we’re focusing on her childhood, well, yes, there are birthdays where she was a princess, then a fairy or a mermaid, etc).
I have explained the content because, although Julia’s father does not appear directly in most of the photos, as you can see, he is the one who arranges most of them or even takes them himself (such as during their visits to various parts of the Capitol). The photos are, so to speak, tangible and clear evidence of the many moments they shared together and of her father’s apparent love. This matters because if you asked Julia, for most of her life, she would have been genuinely excited to explain and talk about the photos, trying to reconstruct why it was taken, what she was doing, and simply telling an anecdote that she undoubtedly wanted to share with others, after all of those years.
Unless we ask Julia, after her little worm became two-year-old, because she’s actually tearing up the photos apart in that moment, ah, and refusing to tell anything.
The reason is a long story, but indirectly, the main culprit is her own conscience and maybe Aelia but let's take it one step at a time. Sorry for the little rant about them that’s coming (?
I find Aelia and Julia pretty funny because they’re such an unlikely duo, but one of the main conflicts with Julia is that she’s constantly infantilized and shattered, treated as if she’s so fragile she might break, this bothers her, it frustrates her greatly while at the same time she feels comfortable with it, benefits from it at the same time suffer from this and she really has a low tolerance for being treated differently. It's one of the reasons why the bastard’s horrible behavior seems strangely appealing to her. On one hand, it’s the normalization of misogynistic violence (which she’s been taught to see as romantic and something she must tolerate) while, from her perspective, it also represents honesty; a treatment as an equal that no one else has ever given her, something that confuses with respect when there’s none.
The reason I mention this is that, aside from Crassus, the only other person who ends up showing her anything close to respect and recognition as an equal is Aelia (again not that Crassus really do any of that but from Julia’s pov she believes this to be the case) though it takes her a while to get there, it happens. And the fact that this respect reaches Julia in a way that’s free from the violence and judgment she’s grown accustomed to causes her to question her view of the world and what she actually considers normal.
But as I said, it takes time to get there, and there’s something curious and complicated about Aelia, since she’s actually a bit of an odd case within the Snow family when it comes to her relationship with Tigris’s father. It’s not an ideal relationship, and it’s true that compared to the Snows’ “lavender” marriage, anyone else would look better by comparison, but it’s also true that Aelia enters into a relationship that’s apparently unusual within her family, in the sense that the power dynamics that exist elsewhere don’t really exist in hers (even if again she’s still in a fucked relationship).
The age difference, being one thing, is that while I don’t believe, at least for the time when Julia (announced at 16/17 as a betrothed), there was another case as explicit as hers, it’s true that looking around, Aelia realizes that many women in her family, especially on the Snow side, were young wives (from my view of the Snow family, in fact the grandmother falls into this group of wives in their early 20s, with older men), and while, realistically, I don’t think Julia was an exception (because I believe there were several "Julias" in that hellish family tree) it does represent a hard reality check for her.
Because I think it’s a little different to know that a certain adult, whom you know as an adult, was once a young wife, than to see it with your own eyes, especially in a case like Julia’s (her own realization). Even so, she tries to be kind, and although that wasn't her intention, Julia interprets her kindness as an automatic invitation to be friends (worst view her as family as in sisterhood), something Aelia doesn't share (that Julia is her friend nor her sister) but she doesn't deny it because she doesn't want to be rude, and that is precisely what shows a kindness rooted in a bunch of horrible feelings if I’m being honest. At first, Aelia is moved by a lot of pity, she really feels sorry for her but there’s clear discomfort, because Julia is simply so immature, so childish that she’s unpleasant and annoying to be around, more for someone that doesn’t have the need to put with this off-putting awkward young girl, Aelia had a life of her own, friends, a lovely husband and even a child.
So really WHY SHE SHOULD.*
She means more to Julia than Julia does to her (and it’s pretty ironic that Julia didn’t like Aelia on first months neither LOL because she went against some of Julia’s super traditional ideas about respectability so in Julia’s mind, she was also being kind out of some bizarre sense of pity towards Aelia that was “weird”, not only did the whole taxonomy thing scare her, but “oh my gosh she’s a woman who has a job and takes it seriously,” besides, she thought the models have no self-respect, it wasn’t very mormon from Aelia’s part be one, Julia it’s INSANE, still what I mentioned it’s completely true because Aelia’s changes her life and to be fair Julia get over many of her ideas quite quickly because of Julia and her strange mix of contempt and admiration for the Snow women).
Even so, this matters because, although Aelia is initially one of the people (basically almost everyone) who treats Julia as if she were so fragile, once they become close later on and Aelia begins to accept her to a certain extent, she, as I said, is the one who truly treats Julia as an equal, which sometimes includes questioning her or confronting her, and this matters, it matters a lot when it comes to Julia and her father. Because there are simply so many things Julia never questioned about that situation, things she assumed were normal, and even though I think they had some discussions about it before Worm was born, Julia just covered her ears and started singing “lalala,” ignoring everything Aelia said to her, because, “hey, I think the relationship you had with your father it was super weird, haha,” it wasn’t something Julia wanted to think about, so Julia was like, blinking, hissing and acting as if she didn’t hear anything.
But it becomes especially hard to keep denying things, especially given that Julia would do things that would upset people, and she begins to question herself. There are things she can’t explain why she did them, but they feel terribly wrong now that she’s a caregiver to a child.
Without going into too much detail, much of the abuse Julia experienced was a major violation of her privacy (yes, the photos are included in this, because some were... weird and relevant data, the many pictures stopped as soon someone grow up), and suddenly, having a child, she discovers why others call her out for be doing strange things, at the same time, she simply feels terrible about doing certain things now that she’s in this position of being a parent that were super common for her when she was a child. This includes Aelia, because she’s the one who, I think, more or less points this out to her (although there are many people doing this, there's a full subject of Grandma and Julia because she's accused of ruin the child), and at least doesn’t judge her for it (not completely), but it’s when Julia starts questioning things, which, along with her flop marriage, makes her very angry once she makes her conclusions, because Julia really not a child, nor dumb, she can drawn conclusions, even if lack the language specific to named certain… experiences, and it’s torturous.
*In why she endure the weirdo around it's a long story of it's own.
