I finally understood why I find the Lady and the Maw so interesting and maybe why everything about her is so, idk how to describe it? Staged? Ritualistic?
Everything about it , the way it’s framed is like the role was forced onto her even if she didn’t wanted, intended nor liked what she had become.
Right? It's a never ending performance. All of it is performative. I think the added layer of our beloved head of the Maw not being originally a Nowhere-born child makes it even more interesting, because it suggests that the performativity of it is a shield. Something she uses to protect herself from a population who, for all intents and purposes, was hellbent on hunting her down before she got into the position.
(Not that Nowhere children are treated any less harshly than their Visitor counterparts, if Mono and even the Pretender are of any indication... but digressing.)
The Lady herself is maintaining an image she cannot afford to let slip. Because, if it does... then what happens? They'll tear her apart. This world that doesn't make any sense will twist her up into something she won't understand... except that's what it did anyway, didn't it? And it was by her own hand. She got lost in the performance. And the worst part is that it didn't have to be this way.
When I think of the Lady and understanding her, I always come back to this particular quote in this interview:
A prisoner of her own ways.
And, look, I get that it doesn't seem like much of a choice. Because it kind of isn't, when the alternative is the dangerous unknown. But the environment itself is predatory. That's the nature of capitalism. It thrives on predation of the weak.
Like the Lady.
So it seems that she found a home in the performance. Didn't she?
