You are demanding people.
But ask and you shall receive.
Let’s talk about Simon’s childhood. This is big and obvious one. He grew up in care homes, orphanages, and he wasn’t ever adopted. Obviously when he turned eleven/twelve (I’m not checking) he wasn’t able to get adopted because he went to Watford and a different home every summer. But aside from Simon’s obvious neglect (which I will get to later) can we talk about how badly he ws treated in homes? At the beginning of the book, Penny talks about how terrible Simon looks after he comes back from care homes. About how he always looks too thin and red. When he talks to Baz, Baz asks him if he ever believed in Father Christmas and Simon says no, that some care homes would have someone dress up as Father Christmas, but no he didn’t believe as a kid. And that just makes me unexplainably sad? Like Simon was completely robbed of a normal childhood? And he didn’t even have to be? Because Davy brought him into the world like that and then abandoned him? BUUUUT That’s something we’ll get into later. This is about little Simon. SO SECOND OF ALL—
Simon has communication issues. Simon has communication issues. SIMON HAS COMMUNICATION ISSUES. Why don’t we ever talk about this? Simon says it happens to kids like him in care. “Their parents never talk to them so they never learn how.” Simon never learned how to talk properly. Which led to him being emotionally articulate and we ignore this? Like I know we all love to talk about how much of a disaster Simon is but do we ever talk about why? No. SIMON HAS COMMUNICATION ISSUES BECAUSE NOBODY TAUGHT HIM HOW. Simon isn’t dense or stupid and I hate how the fandom treats him like that because he just has communication problems. This is the boy that said he didn;t see the reason is asking for what he wanted when he could just take it and how in care, he’d spent the summer “kicking walls and anyone who looked at me the wrong way”. As a human who, like Simon, is not good at speaking and with manners because of the people who raised them, Simon’s characterization in this way was really important to me and I feel like it’s important that we talk about it. LIke when Simon first started Watford, he felt bad because he wasn’t any good at talking and Possibelf would give him speech lectures that the MAge would sit in on and Simon never wanted to disappoint him.
Simon and The Mage. There is so much to this part. I hate The Mage. With all my heart, I hate him. He’s a terrible dad, terrible person. Like he created Simon, because he told Lucy who better than them to “raise our savior” but you didn’t raise him, sir. You abandoned him. Then picked him up later and acted like he was defective and needed fixing. The thing is, The Mage knew, didn’t he? That Simon was his son when he found him? I mean, I don’t think that it’s ever specified, but he must have known. He basically relieved himself of all the responsibilities of parenting Simon but kept the benefits of Simon being his. The Mage used him throughout the whole book, Simon’s whole life. But what’s worse, is Simon trusted him so much. He was loyal to The Mage. The Mage was the first person to give Simon any kind of purpose, but also to be kind to Simon in any way. So obviously Simon was going to trust him and be loyal to him because he gave Simon’s life an explanation and a chance for his life to mean something and Simon wasn’t going to hesitate to take it. Of course, it only got worse because everyone else he cared about hated The Mage, but even though Simon didn’t see The Mage as his father, The Mage was still an important part of his life that he didn’t want to let down. And Simon probably felt like disobeying or questioning The Mage would make Simon seem disloyal or ungrateful and he didn’t want that. Simon wanted to be enough for The Mage and felt like all he was good for was working for The Mage. But The Mage was just so bad to Simon. And the Simon says spell thought the only way to end The Mage hurting Simon was for The Mage to be dead. But imagine how Simon felt? Whether he realized what that meant or not (although knowing that killing The MAge was the only way to get him to stop hurting Simon is worse) he still killed his mentor. Well, he didn’t literally kill him, but if he hadn’t said what he said, The Mage would not have died like that. Simon obviously felt guilty for it because he killed his only mentor/father figure. Like that’s traumatic all on its own. But alas, Simon is full of lots of other trauma.
Simon’s inferiority complex? Should I call it that? Basically, Simon never felt good enough. He knew he had to be the savior but he never felt like he was doing it right. And everyone kept reminding him of what a fluke he was. He knew he was a terrible boyfriend to Agatha, but he felt like that was on him and didn’t break up with Agatha because that wasn’t “her fault.” He never thought about things because he was always going to do what he was told to. Simon felt worthless without his magic because he thought it was all he was really good for. He thought Baz only loved him because he was powerful. Simon felt like the whole purpose of his life was to do what everyone else wanted from him and never considered himself. Related to this isssss
Simon and Baz. So, first of all, I know we say poor Baz because he was in love with Simon who hated him and yes, I agree. But let’s also say poor Simon because his first year at Watford, when he was young and fragile and cried about a lot, he tried to be friendly with Baz and Baz took joy in tormenting him. And yeah we all talk about how paranoid Simon was with Baz, but Simon probably had trust issues anyway so the boy he was living with who was already the heir of the rival family threatening him all the time would probably cause Simon to not trust him very much. But what does all this have to do with Simon’s inferiority issues you ask? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Simon’s internalized homophobia/heteronormativity. Yes, you heard me. This isn’t a glaring issue, but I feel like it’s a strong undertone and it stays with me a lot. Simon was obviously under a lot of pressure to be the Chosen One that everyone wanted from him. He dated Agatha because they “made sense” together. Hating Baz was what was expected of them. Simon was just trying to go along with what made sense. He didn’t have to think or worry about his feelings because he knew things with Agatha made sense and he liked being with her. He didn’t need or want to open up to even himself because that could have meant disappointing people. When he leaves Baz’s with Penny and Agatha, he starts to panic about what Agatha would say. “You’re not even gay. And he’s not even alive. And that’s not even the worst part of this idea. What would The Mage say?” This one could be self-projection but my friends agree with me that internalized homophobia was a thing with Simon so thoughts?
Simon and magic. This is kind of a broad and straightforward one but it is important. Simon was in love with magic. It felt like the best part of his life, his reason for existence. But magic also brought all the problems in Simon’s life and no matter how much he loved it, he had to lose his magic in order to save everyone else’s. And that’s just really unfair to Simon that he spent his whole life surrounded by magic and with magic only to lose all of his and his personal connection to the magical world.
Conclusion: Simon’s trauma is somewhat downplayed by the fandom and he deserves better. He also deserves major healing in Wayward Son. Thanks for coming another one of my TED talks.
Comment your additions! Send me asks for more theories/opinions! I love analyzing characters!
