Madeleine meta! I'm reading this on my phone, so I can't reply properly now, but I will come back to this tomorrow. I do think you've hit on some real insights, though.
I toy with a lot of different scenarios, but in all of them, she's angry. Sometimes vengeful, sometimes disillusioned, sometimes depressed, but always angry in some form or another. I suppose having "her" Section taken away from her would be, for her, the equivalent of what being recruited was to most of the other characters.Now I'm totally hoping for the fic you were contemplating writing. Lol. And I think you're right--post season five, if Madeline is alive and out there somewhere, I have a hard time picturing her as being anything but angry. Well, angry and depressed, in a way. Especially if she either can't figure out a way to take Section back, or has lost the inclination to do so. If ever my Some Things You Lose muse comes back, we'll eventually get around to original!Madeline, and the idea of her finding herself entirely at a loss as to what to do without Section in her life was actually what prompted the idea for the story in the first place, so... seriously, my muse needs to get her act together so I can write. *shirks all
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Or was she misperceived that way by others? Yes, this! I want to believe child!Madeline was so misperceived by others. I think that's what really shaped her life. And you bring up a good point, other than wanting the doll, does she really remember how she felt that day on the stairs? Memory can be so hard to grasp, especially childhood memories. Is it how you really feel or what people told you over and over you felt? How puzzling. In my personal canon for Madeline (one of them, anyway) it's why she became intrigued with psychology and profiling. Maybe she wanted to be the one influencing what others would remember.
Also, on an entirely unreated, fangirly note: Your writing is awesome, seriously. I spent about two hours going crazy the other night trying to find a particular scene in canon, getting incredibly frustrated with myself for not remembering the episode it was in... and then finally realized I couldn't findit because it wasn't canon at all, but rather a scene from one of your fics. Lol. *shakes head at self*
Her fics are amazing, aren't they? I say that way too much, but it's true. Actually, talking about Madeline's origins got me thinking about "Intersections," which I thought presented a very credible version of a teenage Madeline.
I seriously loved Intersections!Madeline. So very awesome. I swear, LFN and AW got me interested in Madeline, but reading Jaybee's fics is what got me obsessed to the point of writing fanfic and meta posts and being generally obsessed. Lol.
Oh my god, same here. *cringes* Yeah, I really liked "Intersections"--it was different from "Succession," but in a good way. The characterization of a 17-year old Madeline was *very* convincing, and that's hard to pull off. Although I would have liked more elaboration as to how she ended up where she was before Section recruited her; had she run away from home? Although I think that keeping a few things unknown might have been intentional on Jaybee's part. That entire series managed to explain a lot about Madeline without completely demystifying her, another really impressive feat of writing. I'll have to ask Jaybee about it at some point.
And yeah, I left some things unexplained on purpose. I guess I felt that if you take away all the mystery, you lose the essence of the character somehow. That shouldn't make sense (normally, you want to know *more* about someone to "get" who they are at their core), but in Madeline's case, the enigma is part of her very identity.
So there are some things about her background that I decided on, but only hinted around the margins in the story, and then there are others things where I refused to even make up my mind! I want there to always be mysteries to solve.
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Yes, this! I want to believe child!Madeline was so misperceived by others. I think that's what really shaped her life. And you bring up a good point, other than wanting the doll, does she really remember how she felt that day on the stairs? Memory can be so hard to grasp, especially childhood memories. Is it how you really feel or what people told you over and over you felt? How puzzling. In my personal canon for Madeline (one of them, anyway) it's why she became intrigued with psychology and profiling. Maybe she wanted to be the one influencing what others would remember.
And I second more young!Madeline from you. :-)
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And yeah, I left some things unexplained on purpose. I guess I felt that if you take away all the mystery, you lose the essence of the character somehow. That shouldn't make sense (normally, you want to know *more* about someone to "get" who they are at their core), but in Madeline's case, the enigma is part of her very identity.
So there are some things about her background that I decided on, but only hinted around the margins in the story, and then there are others things where I refused to even make up my mind! I want there to always be mysteries to solve.
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Oh no! That's pretty funny, but also really flattering! Thank you for saying this. *Blushes*
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