Millicent and Isbeth's relationship
(As always, this is me rambling. This post is my own interpretation of what read, you are free to disagree with me and I am free to disagree with you)
I have the theory that Millicent was raised by Isbeth herself and that she always knew that Isbeth was her birth mother. Plus, I believe that Millicent grew up more like Sera, fully knowing that she would have to fulfill her purpose as the maiden. Since I came up with that theory, I have this idea stuck in my head that I would absolutely love to read about: Millicent and Isbeth's mother-and-daughter relationship. I think the path to do that was already settled so it wouldn't be a topic coming from nowhere. I would love to read that while Poppy had Coralena as her mother, Millicent was raised by her birthmother, Isbeth. I want that to be developed as an internal conflict in her character. I think it would be interesting to read a character that is torn up between loving her mother and hating the monster that she was. And while other mothers in the series such as Coralena, Caliphe or even Eloana wouldn't fit the characteristics needed for this conflict to happen, Isbeth ticks all of them. Let me explain:
topics:
1.why would isbeth and millie fit the characteristic for this internal conflict to happen? 2. Their relationship In the war of two queens
2.1 their conflictive relationship
2.2 their affective relationship
3. why wouldn't other mothers fit this trope?
why would isbeth and millie fit the characteristic for this internal conflict to happen?
First of all, it is needed to understand why would be Millicent and Isbeth good and interesting characters to have such a relationship. As I said before, I want Millie's character to be torn between hate and love, so how this would be possible with a character as unlovable as Isbeth? this would be possible for how Isbeth's personality is presented out to be. Isbeth is in fact cruel, she is the worse kind of evil. In the story, Isbeth cares little for anyone but herself, she held hostage and tortured Casteel, Malik, and Ires in all the possible ways, she hurts Poppy, and she is a liar, self-centered, and manipulator. Basically, she is awful BUT that is not all about her. (I won't go too deep into Isbeth's personality in this post because I have one here called "Isbeth and redemption" going deeper into her personality if that is what you are interest in) Isbeth has dim glimpses of humanity throughout the series. She is shown to care for her daughters. (DISCLAIMER because I hate to be misunderstood: I am NOT saying that isbeth is innocent or any less guilty for the things she did, I believe she is fully aware of how harmful she was to everyone but I believe the lines were blurry to her in some situations. does this make her less guilty? no. Let's keep going) To my opinion, Isbeth's character knew what good and evil were, she knew what she did to Casteel, malik, and Ires was abuse, but I don't believe she fully realized or could tell apart between love and abuse or healthy love and toxic harmful type of love. Examples of this are:
The fact that she kept poppy away from living her own life because she wanted to protect her daughter, and apparently, she also did all this maiden thing to Millicent too
the fact that she kept poppy from knowing her true identity by hiding basic information about her such as who his parents were, if she had siblings, etc
another example is when she tells to Casteel that she does not want to have a war with her daughter and yet she is talking to her daughter's heartmate whom she kidnapped after he offered himself to save that same daughter's lives that isbeth herself was about to take.... I mean
Despite I do not believe Isbeth ever got to care for Malik, she favored him in some way or another after he convinces that he was on her side. There is a dialogue when Malik says fuck you to isbeth and isbeth replies making a reference that neither he nor she have wanted to fuck in a while. This dialogue in insolation seems harmless but in the story's context Malik is a prisoner, he never wanted to actually have sex with her, he just wanted to survive, and also it is known from Casteel and isbeth herself that she does not care much about consent. What I'm saying is that I believe that Isbeth was at some point convinced that Malik was intimate with her because he desired her, because he choose to be, and not because he felt he had to.
With that said, I believe that Isbeth could tell apart between wrong and right but I do not fully believe she knew how to healthy love someone. Even her love for Malec seemed like an obsession.
Their relationship In the war of two queens
(disclaimer: maybe there are more examples, I will just talk about the ones I remember)
their conflictive relationship
According to Malik, Isbeth was not much different with Millicent than she was from everyone else. Isbeth abused her daughter, physically or mentally is unknown yet, but he said that she was destroying Millicent. It does not come as a surprise since this is a common behavior in Isbeth.
Even when there are only a few interactions between them, one thing is completely clear: they don't get along. Examples of this are:
Millicent not following her mother's beliefs or supporting her plans in taking over the realms she even fights against her during the final battle. The fact that she did not agree with her mother probably created a strained relationship
Isbeth making comments about Millicent's height/her appearance. Based on Poppy's description of the situation, Millicent does not like her short height to be pointed out and she was displaced by what her mother said.
Millicent seems to care about the habitants of Solis. I say this because back in the crown of gilded bones (I think it was that book at least) when Poppy was absolutely ready to tear Solis apart to find Casteel, it was Millicent the one that stood between Poppy's anger and Solis, she was the one ready to fight Poppy and die trying to protect that people. I have the feeling that Millie will be with the people of Solis like Sera was with the people of Lasania, I have the feeling that she cares for them and even when she can do very little for them, she will try to protect them. On another hand, it is more than clear that Isbeth cares very little for the people of Solis, she took away their children, held the rites, didn't care about poverty, health or education, etc. This is also another reason why they could have a complicated relationship.
Isbeth couldn't care less about hurting Millicent as a revenant. When she was showing Poppycas what revenants were able to do, Isbeth did not hesitate when it came to hurting her own daughter. While, for example, Malik was literally having a crisis, Isbeth just kept on talking.
I already mentioned this so I won't explain further, but isbeth was an abuser and not only to Millicent herself but also to the ones she cared for, such as Malik. An example of this is when Isbeth explains that malik "learned to make the situation easier for himself" and Poppy (who narrates this scene in twotq) describes "a burst of acid anger, quick punch from Millicent". That is another reason for Millie to dislike her mother
their affective relationship
Yes, but I did not say anything that was not obvious but, again, bear with me. Millicent and Isbeth already have a conflicting relationship BUT there is also love in this relationship. As I said the interactions were very few but still there is something there:
(Disclaimer bc I would hate my words to be misinterpreted: These are fictional characters, they do not exist. I do NOT mean this in real-life situations, abusers are abusers no matter what role they have in one's life. Thank you)
Isbeth does not hate her daughters. She is sick and twisted and monster, but she loves her daughters in that sick, twisted, and monstrous way of hers. We do not know anything about Milie's past besides that she died and was turned into a revenant so I'm going to be referring to what is known so far.
After Millicent died, even when she failed, Isbeth couldn't lose her. She couldn't lose her precious daughter. Isbeth was so desperate to not lose Millicent that she used old primal magic to bring her back. She didn't care that Millicent would not be a god and therefore useless to her revenge, she wanted her daughter with her
Isbeth gave Millicent a position of authority among revenants and her soldiers. I believe this despite it is not said because Millicent would always be with Isbeth, she was also leading the group that intercepted Poppy, Kieran and Reaver on their way to Solis, Millicent was also the one that intercepted the Poppycas team in Oak Amblr, etc. I believe Millicent was not just another soldier or handmaiden, but she had like a high position among them (This comes straight up from my interpretation and imagination, I can be completely wrong because, again, this is not mentioned in the books but is how I interpret those situations)
They also have this weird domestic interaction after Poppy killed someone (I don't remember who) Millicent laughs and Isbeth threats her saying that because of that she will have to clean and Millicent is like "yeah whatever". I bring this up to point out the familiarities between them, and it is also intended to be like that because Poppy even points out that the interactions between Millie and Isbeth are weird (this is before she knew millie was her sister), the way they behave between them is clearly different from the way they behave toward other people.
This last interaction is actually the one why I believe (And hope) Millicent was raised by isbeth and knowing that she was her mother. The relationship and interactions between Poppy and Isbeth are very different to the Interactions between Millicent and Isbeth. Millie and Isbeth have much more familiarity than Poppy and Isbeth, Millicent knows what makes her mother mad and knows very detailed things about her such as that she is a strict person when it comes to manners and cleaning. The relationship between Millie and Isbeth seems different even when Poppy also spent time with Isbeth when she was a child and according to Poppy Isbeth aka Ileana was a kind person to her. So I think this difference in behavior appears because Poppy grew up loving and then mourning another mother, Cora was her mum, and Isbeth was her queen, a friend of her mum but not her mother. While Millicent on the other hand, grew up knowing that isbeth was her mother.
why wouldn't other mothers fit this trope?
I would try to keep this last part short. Basically, I believe this because of what I said about Isbeth's personality before. She loves her children but he does not know how to love her love is harmful and confusing. Let's take Caliphe for example (Sera's mom), Sera wanted to be loved by her mother but she clearly did not care about her daughter, she did not love sera. There is no debate in there or internal conflict, Sera wants to be loved but she knows her mother does not love her. Calliphe never trained her right or mindfully, she was just mean and used her. Then there is Eloana which is the opposite and that is, again, why there is not much conflict. Eloana loves her boys, and that is the end of the story, whatever she did mistakes or not as a parent, does not take away the fact that she loved them and tried her best to be a good mother. Casteel speaks fondly of her, she cares for their safety, worries for them respects them, she is not violent towards them, etc etc. And last, there is Coralena who, despite she is just a memory in the books, she loved Poppy enough to risk and lost her life for her, Poppy was her daughter and she loved her.
Author's note: I do not know what this post is anymore, I genuinely have no idea if this is a theory, an analysis or.... I don't know but something it is, I just have no idea what. Anyways, as always I hope you enjoy and please feel free to share your thoughts
