Character Ages

[deird_lj]

Okay, lavastar, you've got me interested now...

A two-question poll for everyone:

[Poll #1433659]



Questions? Comments?

Comments

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Genuine cultural question:

A girl is born to an alcoholic single mother in a Boston slum, runs away from home while still a child, probably grows up in a street gang making a living through petty theft and having sex with wealthy older men.

Will there actually be detailed records of her in the system? How easy is it for such people to slip through the net and simply never show up in official paperwork?

[deird1]

Wait - that's your idea of what Faith's life was pre-Sunnydale?

Interesting...

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

Well, the alcoholic single mother is canon, as discussed below. Living in South Boston likewise (from FHT).

It's often suggested that Faith was a victim of child sex abuse; as an adult she shows serious trust issues related to sex but is also hyper-sexualised, taking it for granted that any two people interacting closely are sleeping together (she assumes Buffy and Scott are, for example), and that every man she meets will automatically want to have sex with her. My own take on that is that one or more of her mother's endless stream of "boyfriends" was the abuser, and Faith ran away from home to escape that.

She says in FHT that she dropped out of high school, but tells Robin that she missed school for most of the entire decade when she was growing up. Faith isn't a particularly good liar, but she does often lie, so either of those statements might be true. I'd be more inclined to say she was being honest in S7 rather than in S3. Early on, she wanted to fit in with Willow, Xander and Buffy and make herself out to be more like them.

Living in a gang and being a petty thief - just assumptions. She certainly has no respect for other people's property ("Want. Take. Have."), and I doubt that attitude came new after she became a Slayer (although her sense of entitlement to justify herself might have.)

As for the older men part - in 'Bad Girls' she's telling Spike about the "guy with the bullwhip", and her words about "granola dudes, horny cheerleraders and naughty nurses" sound like he's not the only one she's been with. Now, remember Faith is saying this after two years in a women's prison and another year in a coma - so she must have slept with these guys in S3 or even before she came to Sunnydale - in other words, before she was 18.

She may have been dating them, and lying about her age - and if so I bet she expected them to pay for meals and gifts, and maybe more. I see Faith as using her body to get what she wants because, until she becamke a Slayer, it was the only power she had - and see above re, being hyper-sexualised and not valuing her own self-respect or sexuality because of childhood abuse.

Note also what she's doing in 'Five By Five' - she apparently met Lilah in a bar and agreed to go back to her place, but was planning to rob her. Either instead of or possibly after they had sex. :-) I imagine pre-Slayer Faith doing similar things, but maybe pilfering a few valuables as she left in the morning rather than outright mugging her victims.

Why yes, I have thought about this before.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Unless her mother gave birth to her without anybody knowing about it at home (how do we know she was born to an alcoholic single mother? is that in AtS?), she'd have a social security number that the Council would likely have all sorts of shady access to.

And if she went to public school at any point (which...she did, because we only get mentions that she dropped out), she's in the system somewhere.

[next_to_normal]

how do we know she was born to an alcoholic single mother? is that in AtS?

From "Enemies": But Mom was so busy, you know, enjoying the drinking and passing out parts of life, that I never really got what I wanted, until now.

Pretty sure it's also mentioned that her father abandoned them (don't they all?), but no idea how old Faith was when it happened, or if it was before she was born.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Ah. Clearly I don't like to rewatch Enemies. :)

[next_to_normal]

Heh, I'll be honest. I knew she said it at some point, but I had to search "Faith%drink" in BDDB to find the quote. :)

[deird1]

And it's also mentioned that her mother is dead, and used to hit her.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

how do we know she was born to an alcoholic single mother?

"See, when I was a kid I used to beg my mom for a dog. Didn't matter what kind. I just wanted, you know, something to love. A dog's all I wanted. Well, that and toys. But mom was so busy, you know, enjoying the drinking and passing out parts of life, that I never really got what I wanted, until now."
- Enemies

"Dad may as well be a ghost and mum is a filthy drunk."
- No Future For You (in disguise as 'Hope Lyonne')


The lack of a father is more guesswork from the fact she never, ever mentions him,and seems to crave a father figure in her life. Pop-psychology suggests that maybe Faith's father was actually around in her youngest days, so she has a vague memory of being happy when he was there, but then he either died or left her mother. Or perhaps she never knew her father herself, but saw happy families on TV.

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

The alcoholic single mother thing is also in the comics.

[next_to_normal]

There'd probably be a birth record (assuming she was born in a hospital) that the Council could check to determine her age. But I'd imagine her school wasn't too concerned with tracking down truants and making sure they went to school, so there might not be anything on her after that.