Amy ‘Pansy’ McGray Headcanons
Let’s start off the headcanons with arguably the driving force for the series, as without her and the tragedy, the subdivision would never exist, beware, some spoilers for the later books, but I’ll add spoiler before those, so, without further ado, I give you, my Amy ‘Pansy’ McGray headcanons:
I don’t think Pansy was ‘possessed’ by the devil before the tragedy, not sure what caused her to snap, but I don’t think it was supernatural, I think it was more likely some sort of mental health condition, maybe psychosis?
I also think she said ‘Tis the devil’, as of course, mental health was not as much of a thing then, and if you were mentally ill, you were insane, so she probably fed the culture of the time of people thinking mental health was caused by a demon, or the devil,
Pansy’s behaviour since the tragedy I think is related in some way to PTSD, or something similar to do with trauma, and McGray’s constant visits to her at the asylum are a reminder of what she did, and what happened.
Joel Ardglass murdering the nurse near the beginning of book 2 has added to Pansy’s trauma, the rooms are next door to each other, and asylums at that time weren’t known for being calming and relaxing places, so the screams from the fellow inmates will likely trigger thoughts of that trauma with Joel,
Before the tragedy, Pansy was definitely a daddy’s girl, James would have done near anything to keep his daughter happy, though I don’t think she was 100% spoilt,
If the tragedy had never happened, I think Pansy would have become quite a forward thinking young woman, and possibly been quite scandalous with her ideals,
If Frey still ended up in Edinburgh without the tragedy happening and Elgie came too, I could see Pansy and Elgie getting on like a house on fire,
SPOILER FOR BOOK 4 - Dr. Clouston threw the bottle of loch water away because he believes Pansy has been through enough with Adolphus’ obsession with the occult finding a cure for her, and I don’t think Clouston believes her condition is due to the occult,
Pansy, if the tragedy hadn’t happened, would turn many a young man’s eye, and you know if any of them messed about, they could expect a broken limb or two from McGray,
SPOILER FOR BOOK 6 - I think that there is some sort of relationship between Caroline and Pansy, I’m not sure what kind of relationship, but the end of book 6 got me thinking when she went to visit her. Maybe Caroline feels some sort of kinship with Pansy?
SPOILER FOR BOOK 6 - I thought the inclusion of Pansy again with the witches was interesting, and the fact that Pansy was able to get them the clue about Marigold shows she can make some progress, how far that progress would go is a different story.
SPOILER FOR ALL BOOKS? - I think in the end, Pansy will never be herself again, certainly not the Pansy pre tragedy. I think Oscar has planned her ending, with possibly her dying, or not being cured. I remember him asking on twitter a few years ago how fans would feel if Pansy was never cured.