I'm actually really curious about Mare.. Where did the idea for her come from? Are there any characters that have influenced her growth and development as a character?
Ohohoho, story time! A loooooong time ago in the ancient year of 2018 (Jesus Christ), little 14 year old BackSet (going by Linkara at the time, not knowing that was already a guy), not yet aware he was trans, said to himself he said, "What if I did an ORAS Nuzlocke and then wrote a fanfiction about it"
So I tried and I did not get very far. I got sad when my Pokemon died. And also I wrote slower than I played and my memory wasn't the greatest even then. But, I gained something important from the experience, Mare. So named because I had the bright idea at the time of "letting my character and her Pokemon name themselves" by closing my eyes, typing in random keys, and then inserting vowels. Early Mare was both similar and different to today Mare. She was a short tempered, short statured, 17 year old girl, who had just escaped an abusive situation with her mom. She didn't have her Aura powers yet but she could understand Pokemon for no explained reason because that's what you did in a Nuzlocke fic back then. She also had inklings of her whole hero complex thing but that was more just how Pokemon plot conventions worked (she had to fight the bad guys because I did) than anything.
Fast forward a year, it's 2019 now, I'm 15, I'm really into forum roleplaying. I create a Pokemon roleplay on a forum I'm no longer on. I decide to transfer Mare over to that. I kept her understanding Pokemon but now I had to justify it. So I gave her Aura Powers, with no intent of doing anything crazy, it was just going to be the talking to Pokemon and some Aura Senses and super strength. This was also the first time I used Sapphire as her faceclaim, which is the reason she has fangs. Also, yes, that means she used to have fair skin.
Fast forward again. I try to write a few more fanfics with her, whatever, not important. It is now 2023. I am 18 (and would be turning 19 that year), I have just started college, I still do not know I am trans, and I've just gotten really into the Pokemon IRL subculture. I also joined Tumblr literally a month earlier. I already had one blog in the space, but I decided I wanted to make another. This would become a trend for me but that's a story for another time. I decided to make a blog for Mare called aura-acolyte, now @aura-acolyte-archive. You can read through it if you want, though, I'd advise against it, I said and wrote a lot of things I regret for a variety of reasons.
I hadn't really changed anything from her previous appearances. She was a short tempered, short statured, 17 year old girl, who had just escaped an abusive situation with her mom. Sapphire was still her faceclaim, and her Aura Powers were still limited to just talking to Pokemon and Aura senses (and super strength). The way I had it originally was it had been 6 months since the Delta Episode. Her journey had been a lot more canon compliant at the time. Her team composition had completely changed from what it was originally. I had also put the title "Chosen of Rayquaza" in her bio because I thought it sounded cool. And that. Changed. Everything.
One day, I had her post, in-character that she didn't know what Chosen of Rayquaza meant as a joke. I got a response from, I believe it was Blake (formerly @pinkhairandpokemon, currently @pinkpoweredpunk) who, funnily enough, has also been rebooted and archived. Anyways, Blake explained what Chosen meant in their case, in summary: a person granted superpowers by a Legendary for one reason or another. And thus, the wheels in my brain started turning. I don't know the exact sequence of events that followed but, obviously, I retconned her asking what Chosen meant because that didn't make any sense with the lore I established soon afterwards of her getting cool superpowers out of the deal. She only had the Rayquaza markings when she was in Marequaza form, though.
I want to take a brief sidebar to bring up the fact that, while I didn't come up with the concept, I did maybe accidentally popularize it. A lot of Chosens popped up after Mare got superpowers and, being blunt, most of them weren't really very good. Like, some of them were, but a lot of them also clearly jumped on the concept without thinking farther than that. Or added it to their pre-existing character. And that would end up contributing to some things later.
Somewhere along the line I decided I didn't like that she had fair skin and made her a woman of color. Also, somewhere along the line, she went from being 17 during her journey to 12 and the timescale went from six months since her Journey to five years which kinda screwed things up but that's fixed now.
As for her Hero Complex, that happened because I'm really bad at being mean. I'd intended to play her as a mean character who would eventually grow into a nicer person but I was bad at it. And eventually it evolved into her being probably one of the nicest people you've ever met who still has a bit of a temper and can be abrasive sometimes and who also had a hero complex a mile wide. Also, a lot more focus on her abuse-related traumas.
Stuff happened, I randomly decided to give her a crush on Zinnia as a joke, then it became not a joke and an actual relationship happened and now that's a core part of her character. Some other stuff happened with some people who turned out to suck and I have long since cut ties with, if you see the names Victoria Gonzap or Byrd Normansson come up during your backread of Mare's old blog, I want it on record I no longer associate with the person who runs/ran those blogs. Honestly, I've forgotten a lot of what happened because I was depressed for large swaths of it.
To make a long story short, the status quo by the end of OG Mare's blog's lifespan was she was a short statured, short tempered, 19 year old (dang, she didn't even make it to 20) whose very non-canon-compliant journey ended 7 years ago and who had gone on many adventures since then, being a seasoned hero with a "seen-it-all" attitude and a hero complex a mile wide she was learning to deal with. She'd also largely overcome her abuse-related trauma, it wasn't gone but she was handling it. She had Aura Powers that gave her super strength, a healing factor, Aura Vision, the ability to understand Pokemon, basically the entire Learnset of Lucario as of Pokemon ORAS (when it came to any Pokemon-related things, they always operated on ORAS rules), and caused her to become more powerful the more damage she took like in Super Smash Bros.
She had indomitable will and an unwavering faith in the inherent goodness of humanity despite having seen the worst of it, believing anyone can change but only if they want to. Also, she was in a loving relationship with Zinnia. The suite of blogs she interacted with was very different from what they were at the start and I was a very different person from who I was at the start (by that point I'd discovered I was Gender-Fluid and had just broken off a toxic friendship that I was still kinda reeling from). I also tried my hand a few times at writing a fanfic version of Mare's origin story but burnout and depression and some things just not working kinda put an end to that.
Thus, in 2025, I, BackSet/Zinnia/May/Rose, at my current age of 22, made the decision to shut down and archive Mare's blog (and any blogs related to it, I ran a lot of blogs) and reboot her, new, improved, and without clutter. That was the only way I could effectively move on. If I kept Mare's old blog and old (now very messy) canon, I'd be stuck in the past and stuck in a rut. aura-acolyte became aura-acolyte-archive and a new blog, @chosen-of-rayquaza was made. Mare Birch was dead, long live Mare Birch. If that all sounded very confusing and hard to follow, congratulations, you've been given an accurate depiction of my headspace at the time. But, we're at the present, I'm going to slow down now. Deep breath.
My intention with new Mare was to get back to basics. I threw away most of the confusing and contradicting lore that had been built up over the years, most of it was already invalid anyways because it came from parties I no longer associate with, and started over. I kept the hero complex, the Aura Powers, the Chosen of Rayquaza bit, and the abuse-related C-PTSD, now explicitly C-PTSD though I haven't said that anywhere. That had all become fundamental to Mare's character, I couldn't change that.
I could still bring her more in-line with the original intent, though. I returned her to having been 17 during her Journey, now putting her at 18 during the time of the blog (funnily enough, the same age I was when I originally started, parallels) with about a year passing since her Journey ended. Which makes everything make so much more sense, I do not know how or why I ended up making her 12. It also paints Rayquaza in a much better light because by the time Mare became Chosen of Rayquaza, she was more or less already an adult. She didn't lose any of her childhood because of being a kid hero, the blame lies solely on her biological father. Which is good because I really did not want Rayquaza to be the bad guy.
Which brings me back around to the true, original intent of Mare's blog. And, perhaps, the real answer to your question. The intent was subversion. Pokemon IRL likes to deconstruct the idea of a Pokemon Journey and becoming Champion and saving the world. Exploring the trauma and burnout that can come from that. And I respect that, I like that, it's very cool and interesting. But I wanted to do something different. Rather than a character who was traumatized by her journey, I wanted to write a character whose journey healed her trauma.
When she came to Hoenn she had C-PTSD from the abuse she'd suffered by her father and, as a result, was very angry and distrustful because of it. But also, had a strong desire to protect other people because no one had been there to protect her. And, while on her Journey, she slowly learned that not everyone in the world is out to get her, she doesn't need to be so angry all the time, and her drive to protect people was cultivated into more than just a trauma response, but a genuine desire to protect and help the planet and people that she loves. That last one will cause problems later down the line because she'd overdo it and suffer burnout from the physical, mental, and emotional stress, but she'll figure that out and learn to take better care of herself.
Subversion #2, which came later but I now consider part of the original intent by proxy, this is Mare's choice. I'm definitely not gonna bash prophecies and destinies and all that, those are time-honored tropes that Pokemon itself uses from time to time. But I didn't want to do that. I wanted all of this to be Mare's choice. Mare is a hero because she chooses to be. More importantly, Mare is the Chosen of Rayquaza because she chose to be (characters choosing to be heroes is a lot more common than them choosing to be Chosens, even if there's no destiny involved, it is most often portrayed as something the character has no control over, the Legendary chooses them and they have to deal with it). Rayquaza says to her "Hey, do you want to be my Chosen?" and she says "Yes, I would like to do that." and then they go and fight Groudon and Kyogre. And once that's over, Rayquaza goes to her and says "Hey, there's not an active crisis going on anymore, you're not under any stress, would you still like to be my Chosen?" and Mare says "Yes, I very much would like to do that."
Rayquaza doesn't even decide it wants her as its Chosen until pretty late in the game, too. It doesn't notice her until she starts messing with Aqua and Magma's stuff and once it does it watches her for a bit, and only decides it wants to Choose her after figuring out that she does, in fact, meet its very specific criteria. There's legit no destiny involved. Heck, she's basically the back-up, Rayquaza had a candidate in mind but she died.
Which leads into subversion #3, which also came later but is an extension of #2 so it's part of the original intent now. People really like to make Legendaries evil. Like, Arceus gets it the worst, because people keep thinking it's the Christian God even though it's not and Giratina also gets it bad because people keep thinking it's Satan even though it's not (listen, it was the bad guy in Legends Arceus but that was one time, it's not anymore). But pretty much all Legendaries get this at some point or another. I'm gonna try not to be too mean to anyone, if you want to project your religious trauma onto a Pokemon, that's fine. We all cope in different ways. I just, you know, I like most of the Legendary Pokemon, so I wanted to make a world where they were nice and maybe not always helpful but generally didn't have ill intent. Like, they were eldritch and alien but they weren't evil (even Groudon and Kyogre are more just really mad all the time than evil). So, you know, nice Rayquaza who respects Mare's autonomy and also just really likes her. She's its special little guy.
There are other smaller changes I made too, in addition to the larger, more sweeping ones. I'd already given her permanent Rayquaza markings by the time I shut down her original blog, but I've made them scales now instead of just permanent tattoos. I think it's very good thematically because it represents that she and Rayquaza are sort of bonded as kinda partners who make each other stronger, as opposed to the tattoos, which feel more like brands that represent ownership, which isn't what Mare and Rayquaza's relationship is supposed to be at all. I also changed her first name from Marie to Maribel because I just liked it better. And just generally gave her a redesign from "Dark Skinned Sapphire" to "Original character who just takes design cues from May and Sapphire." Which I guess is a bigger change but whatever.
Also, I wasn't able to fit this in anywhere but Superman has been a big inspiration for her ever since I gave her powers. If you watch James Gunn's Superman, you can get a pretty good idea of what she's about. She's shorter, angrier, and more aggressive than Superman but the principle is the same. It's possible for someone to be as powerful as Superman and just use their powers for good and help people because they like helping people and it's the right thing to do. We don't have to do evil Superman anymore, guys. We can stop doing that.
As for characters who've influenced her growth and development as a character, I'll start with the fanfiction side (characters either created by or controlled by me) and then end with the RP side (characters controlled by other people in roleplay) because I'd like to end this with some shout-outs.
So, fanfiction side, I think it would be accurate to say most people she's met have influenced her a little. The restoration of her faith in humanity is the result of her meeting many, many people who help others and are kind and are good people. It's why I have Mare take sidequests and detours in Ultimate Emerald, so she can meet these sorts of people, as well as establishing that she really is a hero, helper, and protector who does more than just punch ecoterrorists. Which, speaking of, Archie and Maxie definitely influenced her because she spent some time with them and learned that they were more than just one dimensional bad guys and, thus, most people are probably more than just one dimensional bad guys. Zinnia, surprisingly, actually doesn't influence Mare much. Mare influences her much more than she influences Mare. Which is true of a lot of people, Mare tends to influence the people around her. I think the biggest influence Zinnia has on Mare is a meta one in that she's the reason Mare's a lesbian at all. She was not originally gay, she was straight, which is mind boggling to me now.
On the roleplay side, just so I can get them out of the way, I'll mention that certain people I have long since cut ties with played a very big role in Mare's development as a character and establishing some of her most iconic traits as well as a lot of lore that I had to scrap after I cut said ties. They may also be the reason Mare's original blog got popular in the first place due to events that shall not be discussed. Okay, that's out of the way, people I actually want to shout out.
I already mentioned Blake, who is basically the entire reason Mare is what she is today. She literally would not have Superpowers without them. There's also Cerise (@normal-paldean-student) who Mare was in a sorta odd situationship with because of doomed yuri reasons, it was great, they're great narrative foils for each other, Cerise's mod kinda went on hiatus for a while which was the reason I felt comfortable rebooting Mare's blog at all (at the time that was the only plot point I had going on with another person, so I didn't want to suddenly cut that short, and once I felt confident that, at the very least, it probably was gonna be on hiatus for a while if not indefinitely, I figured I could reboot without having to worry about abruptly abandoning anything with anyone) but its back and we're doing it over again. It's also very funny because the entire relationship happened because I made a joke and then we were like "What if?"
I don't think Sidon (@water-pokemon-appreciator) really had that big an effect on Mare as a character but she and him had a very fun dynamic so I wanted to shout him out for that reason and also just because I admire how his mod has matured and grown as a roleplayer over the years.
@sneasedtomeetyou and @professor-amaryllis do not interact with Mare on a regular basis but I am obligated to shout them out because their mods helped me get out of that toxic situation and have just been good friends to me so neither me nor Mare would be where we are today without their help. Thanks guys, I do not appreciate you enough.
If I missed anyone, I'm so sorry, a lot's happened, but that's everyone I can think of. I think the best way to end this is with some self-advertising. You probably know this but I am rewriting that old Mare origin story fic to align with the new lore with intent on actually finishing it. I've switched to first person instead of third, which really helped. You can read that here. Note that the fanfic is canon to the blog but the blog is not canon to the fanfic.
Good lord that was long. I need a break.
