So here's my current understanding/hypothesis:
Tomoe, a woman who values her lineage and perfection, has really high standards for whoever will contribute to her family line by fathering a daughter for her.
Eventually, she meets a guy that seems adequate, and they have a daughter together. But something happens to the father—maybe he died, or maybe he left—symbolized by the leafless bonsai tree when she's discussing men. Either way, Tomoe's perfectionism leads her to write off the whole relationship, and the daughter it led to, as a failure because of this.
(It could potentially be the cause of her high standards for romantic relationships, or just reinforce in her mind that nobody will be good enough.)
So then Gabriel comes in with "Just use dark magic to will the perfect child into existence. It worked for me!" And since it's a solution that doesn't require a relationship, and doesn't include mixing her lineage with anyone else, she takes him up on it.
So, using the Peacock Miraculous, Tomoe creates a daughter. She has no father; the only DNA she's made with is her mother's. What more could she have ever wanted than a child just like her? No surprises, surely her daughter will do whatever she wants because she'll be the exact same sort of person, and want the same things. Tomoe gives her a name meaning "mirror" because whenever she looks at her, she just sees herself staring back at her.
How fitting then, that the price to create this child was her eyesight.
Meanwhile, her elder daughter, having been old enough to understand the rejection, develops mother issues. She tries changing the relationship multiple times. Would things work with this mother? What if I was a different person? How about this mom instead? Maybe the separate mothers are all related to The Kingdom, maybe they're just people she's conned, but it's not fulfilling enough for her. Especially not when she can see her mother giving all her attention to her other daughter—her favorite.
Of course, it's because Tomoe keeps tight control over every part of Kagami's life, but all Lila sees is Tomoe actually caring what happens to Kagami, but not Lila. She didn't care to tell Kagami she has a sister, or invite Lila to the Diamond Dance, or anything.
So Lila looks at her life. No matter who she's with, no matter who she even is, she's not happy. She's run out of solutions on a human scale. And she decides the only way to get that feeling is to take a miracle for herself.
janainaart
kaledo-art
stormborns
gummygunk
blakekathryn
snowghoul
ellievsbear
yousharknotpass
