i, i am not over how Fate explains the family situation to little Vivio. Like. the show was trying, so hard not to be gay, while still having Fate and Nanoha... be Fate and Nanoha... aka, uh, life partners. sharing a bed. when no one else was. for. no necessary reason.
and. and then they, they, they invent a Whole New Way of being gay
what does it MEAN when a women says "It's my job to watch over you and your mom". this is.
Fate's not their bodyguard? literally she is not. she's Nanoha's very ridiculously close friend, she's taking on the role of being Vivio's mama with Nanoha... I... her, her 'JOB' is to watch over them both??? she's, she's assigning herself that role?
she couldn't just say they're friends and leave it at that???
and Nanoha's sitting next to her on t h e i r B E D smiling and nodding along with this, she's calling Fate "Fate-mama" around Vivio, beaming when they snuggle each other like mother and child, and, im sorry, but
LIKE. they don't even have the excuse of LEGAL reasons- Nanoha's the guardian, but it's just a given? that Fate?? Will be Vivio's mother too????? BECAUSE SHE. LOOKS AFTER NANOHA. SHE. IS HERE TO SUPPORT NANOHA. SHE'S NANOHA'S.... WHAT???? PROTECTOR? she's just casually admitting part of her life revolves around Nanoha, and now Vivio, and
(and then of course she turns out to be the softy parent of the two)
i can't believe my head is still exploding over this almost twenty years later. Fate. what kind of lesbian move was that
"it's my job to watch over you and your mom" good gods help me
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there are virgin homophobic actors who freak out at the idea their characters might be queer and then there are chad based allies like yukari "i hope in ten years they're married and nanoha is pregnant with fate's child" tamura and nana "i feel like fate's super mega gay" mizuki
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You can look at Nanoha's first reaction to Vivio being "we need to find this kid's real mom" / "but I'll look after her meanwhile" / "but we still need to find her ACTUAL mom"
compared to Fate's history with Caro and Erio of
"I'm not old enough to adopt them so my adopted mom will sign the paperwork until I can be their legal guardian" and Vvio "legally I'm just Nanoha's friend but I am also the 'fate-mama' to our newly adopted daughter" and then with former enemy Lutecia "so her mother is still out of commission and that means I'll be her guardian until things get better"
you could say, that's just Fate being kind softhearted Fate, and Nanoha being stubborn like usual, but the thing is, it tracks so well with both their experiences AS children WITH their families
Nanoha's childhood was lonely sure, but never because her birth family didn't love her or try their best to care for and support her. She values the way she was raised- repeats it with Vivio later on, giving her freedom and responsibility, focusing on teaching Vivio how to stand up on her own after getting hurt, letting her have the tools and chances to make dangerous mistakes and learn from them. Even (spoilers for Vivid) even when her kid has a completely messed up leg after fighting in a tournament for FUN, Nanoha says she's proud of her for that, for Vivio following through and putting in her all, and helping her new friends and competitors grow as people along the way
All of that Nanoha got from her parents and her family, the ones she was born into.
So when she first meets lost and abandoned Vivio, she thinks, where is this girl's family? It takes a while for Nanoha to sink into the idea of Vivio not being born into a family that cares or can care for her. It takes time for Nanoha to decide, actually, maybe SHE could be Vivio's family now. Maybe she already is
And Fate- it's easy to joke about her running around adopting every kid she sees- but a lot of people I know who WERE happily adopted later in life are like that too. It's not universal. Still for people who know what the difference can be and how GOOD it can be, some of them end up like Fate, they end up repeating what their own adopted family did (Lindy her mother, and Chrono her big brother, looking after Fate while she was still facing trial, asking her very gently if they could all be a family together) and when Fate sees other kids being abandoned or locked away she also repeats what her family taught her by immediately reaching out. She offers to be there for Erio and Caro and deals with figuring out HOW to do that afterwards, accepts making that her job to study up on and get advice about while already knowing that it can work. She's been living proof that a family that's made by choice can be wonderful- just as good or better than the one she lost before.
But she also knows how much a parent can hurt a child, even without whips involved. Fate is soft with her kids, worried about them and for them and how they feel about her, never wanting them to think for a moment that she doesn't care or would be okay with them being hurt, and it's a reaction to her birth mom Precia, sure- (her memories of how a kind mother could be be so cruel to a child she didn't love)-
it's also just as much a repeat of Lindy's gentleness with Fate, too. Lindy who signed that paperwork so her teenage daughter could split time between her new career and two different kids who needed her. Fate wanted to be there for children who had no one, and Lindy made it work.
So when Nanoha finally decides to try being Vivio's mom, even though she wasn't Vivio "real" mother- Fate is already settled into them all being a family. She's there and ready to make this work.
I just always really like the writing in that. How you start off with these nine year old magical girls, and when you check back in with them 10-15 years later, everything they lived through at age nine has shaped them into the people and parents they end up being together today.
It's very sweet. I love that for them, for all of them.
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