So before I actually start for real on this I want to explain why I think Amiya and Wis'adel relationship is so interesting to me. And also talk about a thing I rarely see discussed about them, they are meant to be kind of mirrored characters in a way.
They are both girls who were given an identity by Theresa and expected by her to carry on her fight (one which W initially does not fulfil before character development), who were "broken" by her death setting them down the paths that eventually lead to them shouldering her ideals together, thereby being more equipped to succeed than the "perfect" Theresa. Two broken, imperfect people who can be more whole together than the "perfect" person they looked up to, and therefore surpass her.
But they had very contrasting ways to get to that end point and very different approaches and coping mechanisms with their problems.
While Amiya desperately tries to live up to her image of Theresa, and hates herself for failing. W gives up on Theresa's ideals and hates herself for that.
Amiya thinks she HAS to be worthy of Theresa's trust in her and live up to her. While W feels that Theresa was just special, one of a kind and that nobody can ever do what she did.
Amiya is crushed by her idealism and haunted by the deeply buried fear that she is naive to think she could ever make those ideals reality. While W is drowning in her own cynicism but also can't fully numb herself to the pain because somewhere deep down part of her still clings to Theresa's ideals.
I should also try to explain what I think each of them has for relationship to Theresa before starting for real too. It is something I have touched on before many times but I am not sure I have ever written anything dedicated to that so... I guess this is part 0 of the rabbit and the devil, what is Theresa to the two of them? And what are they to Theresa?
And this is one where I feel even more than the other parts I need a major disclaimer that this is just my read on it. Because I think this is an area faaaaar more open to alternative readings than a lot of things.
Popular readings are that Theresa is a mother figure for both of them (whether this makes Amiya and W like sisters or not is something people seem split on even within this reading though), a popular one for W is that she and Theresa were romantically involved, some see Theresa as almost a figure of worship for them, etc. For Amiya everyone largely agrees that Theresa is Amiya's mom, which I do as well, but I personally disagree with the idea of her being a mother figure for W. Or more specifically I do not think W thought of Theresa that way. But I do think that Theresa thinks of their relationship as a mother/daughter one (wrapped up in how she thinks of herself, as the king of sarkaz, in a sort of "mother of the sarkaz" kind of role. Royalty wrapped up in parental imagery). Also I really do not think Amiya and W think of each other as sisters, I don't think it is an invalid reading but I do not believe it myself.
Anyway here I almost went on a big tangent about Theresa's motherhood theming and how that ties into her feeling shackled by her heritage and duty. Which is not super relevant here (well it kinda is in that it plays into her relationships to a lot of people but I should stay focused on Amiya and W). But it is a big topic in its own right and I feel after reading some other people's writings that I should probably go and learn more about Confucianism before I get really into discussing how arknights handles themes like motherhood considering AKs anti confucianism streak.
I think that W does not actually know *what* Theresa is for her. And I think that is actually important. I like to think she had something of a one sided crush on her, but I don't think that is necessarily intended. I think that W not really being emotionally equipped to figure out what Theresa really was to her is part of the tragedy of her background. She does love Theresa in some capacity though (getting back on this in chapter 13-14).
But I also think both of them make Theresa into sort of a larger than life, almost divine figure in their heads. So much of chapter 14 (which I will get to later in this series) is about dismantling that image of Theresa and having these two see her for what she always was, a person. A person who loved them but who was flawed and had many different conflicting priorities in her life that often clashed and lead to her having to do harm to people she cares about.
So, as I mentioned I think Theresa thought of both of them as being her children in a way. So important context here is that Theresa is a terrible terrible mom.
This can be most clearly seen in how Theresa and Theresis fucked up Manfred and Ascalon, but this is not about them and also I am admittedly not the expert on either of those two.
(I desperately want to bring up Kal'tsit and compare and contrast her unwillingness to change who a person really is with Theresa's approach to parenting but... on topic).
Theresa has this really bad habit of trying to shape anyone she sees as her child into whatever she needs them to be, instead of letting them figure out who they want to be. Which is like, the whole thing about her forcing the black crown on Amiya and her expectations of Amiya carrying on her ideals and all that.
(Here I was about to put a long tangent about why Amiya was the one person Theresa wanted to get the crown and how that is influenced by Theresa's thoughts on Kal'tsit, because it is suggested in a few places she always intended for Amiya to get it, just not that she would get it when still a child, although some of that may be due to altered plans and leftovers from a time when the reasons for Theresa's choice where different I will admit).
But an interesting thing here is how W kind of desperately wants to have an identity. And Theresa promises to give her one, to help her think of a name. And W tries to shape her identity around fighting for Theresa. But Theresa does not make good on her promise before her death. And in her death she forces an identity on Amiya.
Theresa forces an identity on Amiya, but she did not give W the identity she desired. This is kind of the root cause of why Amiya feels like she has to live up to and kind of become like Theresa, because she thinks Theresa is the only one who can do this. Meanwhile W goes off on her own and spirals into more and more destructive behaviour for a while because without Theresa she has nothing and there will never be anyone like Theresa.
This is the starting point the two of them have once chapter 1 hits. Which I will save for the actual part 1.
