Assorted thoughts about the lesser known/mentioned Circle members (I didn’t have a character essay in me alas.. but these are some interesting fellows)
(Edit: I fucking lied)
Emil & Anson Pangborn
Wanted to pair these two together because it’s interesting to have siblings in the Circle!! Was there pressure on the younger brother to join? Was he convinced or threatened? I sound like I have an agenda here because Emil is kind of a freak, I wouldn’t put it past him to torture his younger siblings. Emil speaks to Luke like they were once very close, leading up to the Accords; did they ever discuss what it was like having a sibling, or swap advice?
It’s evidently a big deal when even one family member is scandalized; I almost see Emil trying to impart an attitude of, “You’re only half of what you do, the other half is them, so you’d better hold onto a short leash and remind them what’s at stake. Or they’ll squander your greatness like a parasite latched to their host” (I have this feeling Emil also tortured bugs. He talks a lot this way)… Luke shook off the cruel mindset but after becoming a wolf and having the door slammed in his face, starving and cold and sisterless - he might have wondered if he was an “Anson” to Amatis.
To wrap up, I wonder to what extent Anson was involved, or aware of the other’s involvement… Emil and Blackwell are like Lackey #1 and #2, so they’re in the know about Valentine’s survival and post-Uprising plans. Anson isn’t mentioned I think, so maybe he was caught in the middle and heavily surveilled. One slip of the tongue and he was done for. Taking this a step further, the weight of conspiracy and deadly secrets thrust on him at a time when most of the scattered Circle were in hiding or trying to rebuild, could have slowly poisoned his closest relationships. Causing someone like his partner to resent his dishonesty, and assume a personal betrayal like infidelity. Emil, of course, took great pleasure in watching it happen. Yeesh!
TL;DR It’d be really interesting, and pretty tragic, if he was a Circle member who felt cornered long before he was hunted.
Charles Freeman
“Freeman” is a compound name that catches my eye because this is historically the new surname chosen by - take a wild guess! We don’t see many POC in the inner Circle and I won’t say none overall, because I feel like I’m blanking. If this happens to be the case with Freeman, it’d be interesting to see how members like him interacted with the Circle’s elitist and purist beliefs. This is not a group led by those lacking privilege and so (you could argue, as a result!) their politics morphed into something hateful, other-ing and lesser-ing the “enemy”. In contrast, POC radicalism is often based in community and uplift.
Freeman could have joined believing in a promise that wasn’t delivered on, and there is likely an extra layer here, that on some level he knew this (because just look at the people around him), but it was better than remaining completely passive. At least the Circle was stirring the pot, asking brand new and bold questions - all of these, anyway, veiling the “return to our glory days” position that doesn’t really bode well for most.
