#the biddies

[arbitrarygreay]

I did actually take the time to sync these (using Fig side by side), so if they're not synced, try reloading

[anarthriticsimp]

Is it even a talder fic if the biddies don't give Sarah hell every single chance they get?

[motherland]

The Work connects them. 

[johannas-motivational-insults]

Native magic, the Biddies, and the Collar line

K I’m galaxy braining after midnight again, but hear me out.

I’ve been watching the “After the Storm” behind the scenes clips for Motherland and learning some very interesting stuff.

Spoilers under the cut...

So, the Cession is a region ceded to its original native tribes, an exchange that was made for a particular magic the US military needed. (It seems the Cession is not entirely independent from the USA, if witches from there are still required to serve in the military, but that’s another story. I haven’t actually spotted any native soldiers in the ranks, so perhaps they are exempt but not any other ethnic groups living on their land.) The magic they traded was the magic used to keep Alder young-ish by transferring some of her age to other witches, a.k.a. the Biddies.

Now, Raelle is from the Chippewa’s area of the Cession. (She said her family was there before the land was ceded, so I guess the Chippewa didn’t kick out any settlers in the area, just took back rule of the land.) We’ve seen her use magic to take on the afflictions of other people, a technique she learned from her mother, so it’s likely been in the family for a while. The method is also referred to as “unconventional,” so it’s probably pretty rare.

What I’m thinking is that the Collar line uses the same magic the military traded with the native tribes for, or something very similar. The biddies absorb age and all that comes with it, Raelle absorbs illness and injuries. Likely, since her family lived in the Cession, they picked up this rare and powerful technique from their native neighbors. No wonder they became a line of accomplished medics.

Eliot Laurence has done some amazing worldbuilding and I’m convinced these parallels are there for a reason. I don’t know if this connection will ever be spelled out in canon, but it seems too logical to be a concidence.

[sarahalders]

So this is something that I have been thinking about (and that has informed the drabble I just posted lol), but: I was reading an interview with Eliot Laurence (which I infuriatingly cannot locate now), where he discussed the origin of Sarah’s Biddy magic.

He said that the magic was actually linked to the creation of the Chippewa Session: that in the early 1800s or so, Sarah was dying, and the U.S. government, panicked by her mortality and desperate for her to retain her leadership, made a deal with some Native American peoples for a specific type of magic that could keep Sarah alive feasibly forever, in exchange for a large chunk of land where they could safely live. 

This makes me wonder how much of it was like, ~okay~ with Sarah. If she was on her deathbed and they signed away her eternal existence in exchange for her eternal service, was it something she ACTUALLY wanted? Of course at this point in her life it looks like she’s become attached to the power and influence that she has, but I wonder what the original conversation between the U.S. government and 1800s!Sarah would have looked like. Would she have hesitated? I don’t know. There are so many unknowns.

Sarah also seems to me to be, fundamentally, motivated by working toward the Greater Good: often times this also aligns with her own personal gain, as we see with her agenda for the Tarim, and I feel like the years and years of leadership in the military have condensed a lot of her emotions in a way that makes it look like she, well, doesn’t HAVE any. But I don’t think she is by any means evil or motivated by personal gain exclusively. If you ask me, I think her passion for serving in the military may have become bastardized over centuries (centuries!) of service because she is treated publicly like she has infinite power (and it seems has a sort of hero-worship following among civilians and witched alike throughout the country, if we’re looking at the promos they showed of monuments in her image) but really, behind closed doors, she is constantly roadblocked by people who technically rank higher than her but who, in her opinion, have only lived to see a fraction of the things she has. It would be impossible not to become arrogant in that context, you know?? Again, not excusing it: but I just think it’s very realistic writing for Sarah to have the attitude she has, given what we DO know about her past and her experiences. I just really wonder how much of Sarah’s actual agency was involved in the Chippewa Session decision, and how that informs her actions as we see them today. To go from having been so wanted two hundred years ago that America literally carved a piece of itself out and traded it for her immortality... to now, serving under a president who clearly thinks she’s been in power too long... it’s gotta be jarring! And like: she has been in power too long! Obviously it’s not a Good Idea for someone to be in a leadership role for literal centuries!!! But at this point she’s been part of the Machine for so long that she doesn’t even realize it. And she’s become such a central figurehead in American culture that not many others realize it either. Idk.

(I also see a lot of Sarah’s motivation stemming from her INability to save her sister and her family. It’s like she’s become obsessed with saving everyone she CAN save, but only in the larger sense. Again, everything has become bastardized by years and years of service in this military machine.)

Just some thoughts!! I don’t think the origin of the Biddy magic and the Chippewa Session is widely known in the fandom because so far I’ve only seen it mentioned in that interview, so I thought I’d post about it here and see what everyone thinks about our problematic fave.

[hellalesbiangirl]

I guess tally will be joining game night

[arbitrarygreay]

In 2x8, it's all about Wade. We first have the Biddies at their standard "outside this one building" location (even when Alder is at a different position, such as after Beltane when she was talking with Witchfather). Next, they notably have Dianne Adams standing forward from the standard line during Nicte's interrogation. Not sure why, maybe it indicates some sort of specialty, or some kind of special flanking of the VIPs.

Next we have the post-interrogation scene with Wade. All Biddies are arrayed in line, standing, giving us another look at ALTHEA KAYE THE CUTEST BIDDY.

Then, we have announcement aftermath meeting in Alder's office with Petra. In contrast to when Wade was there, Lillian, Dale, and Dianne are allowed to sit down. It seems that Alder has already been relieved of duties, as the Biddies are not doing any paperwork during the scene. While the chess table is set up, a game has not yet been started. (Another detail this set brings up: her chess set pieces seem to be metallic. 1x1 confirms that at least one side has a chrome/brass/bronze finish, while 2x8 shows that the other set is either all black, or mostly black with a silver/steel/aluminum finish.) During the scene with Petra, we do get one tandem hiss in, in reaction to learning that the program will be retired. I've waffled back and forth on if this sort of thing is voluntary/involuntary/commanded before, and all interpretations have interesting angles to explore on how the Biddies themselves felt about the situation. Unlike in the Tarim plane, Alder does not have them approach and comfort her once Petra left.

And finally, we have the hangar scene. Alder in her dress blues and the Biddies in their dress reds. The arrival formation seems to be sorted by height, giving Lillian the head point of honor. They are arrayed to the sides of the main stage during the scene. Unfortunately, I could not grab an adequate screencap of them leaving. It's unclear how the three on stage left regrouped with the rest leaving from stage right.

[arbitrarygreay]

Our next Biddy profile is the one played by Soheila Vatandoost.

As mentioned before, by the way she wears the same baldric (with the red patch), she is meant to be the same character as was played by Joyce Robbins in S1.

Redemptive Readings for Everything

For the final "S1 only Biddies" post (will not cover BJ Harrison at this time since she and Dianne Adams are meant to play the same characte

Beyond Joyce possibly dropping out of the production for her own reasons, the recast makes sense, given the significant South Asian presence we saw in the US witch military (Hilari, Gregorio, Glory). That said, "Vatandoust" as a surname is Iranian, and Soheila is a name of Persian origin! So in this case, Middle Eastern rep rather than South Asian. Now, the Middle East isn't really a region that MFS touched on, with the Proxy War era focusing on Liberia (and some known deployments to Turkiye). But there is a big question around how the emergence of witch militaries affected the Ottoman Empire. (Besides the questions of how witches going public affected other religions, especially major state religions!). And it also proves that the Middle East is not a major missing demographic in the US witch military, continuing to make the exclusion of Central/South Americans ever more intriguing.

IMDB claims that a Soheila Vatandoost was also the character Zeinab in the Snowpiercer TV series, but the characters look nothing alike, so I doubt that they're the same actor, and just share a name.

Not much to say about the Biddy character. She is unfortunately the one to get hit by the Witchplague dart in 2x9, and then spread it to the rest of the biddies.