“Origins, Allusions and Symbols of Wayward Girl”

Chapter 1
“Origins, Allusions and Symbols of Wayward Girl”

Chapter Description: Just cracking open the inner meanings of this tale.

Warning, many spoilers ahead.

So, please forgive me if this seems self-indulgent but I am so happy with the story behind the collaboration Areg and I pulled together that I felt the need to share. To start the collaboration was a wonderful experience. Areg is a complete professional, skilled and inventive. Some of the story would not have occurred without his input. If you have hesitated to commission something from him, don’t hesitate any longer, especially now that he has a faster computer.



And now, on to the sharing.

Origins –

In the olden days of the AR Archive there was an author named Mistress Janice. She, along with many others, played the common ‘Mother turns Daughter into a baby’ concept. Most of these never sat well in my mouth because, well, the daughter rarely deserved it. In particular was the Janice story ‘Wayward Daughter’ in which the adult daughter suffers the fate of infancy for, gasp, having sex with a boyfriend and smoking weed!

So, turning that story concept upside down is where my ‘Wayward’ storyline began. In the initial concept, fleshed out by Lil Trip, the daughter regressed her mother and the scientist because they stole and did drugs, a fitting counter to the old classics.

For the Areg commission however, more came to mind. What if the mother truly deserved it, on every level? What if she had intended to do it to her daughter, as so many stories have played out, but fate intervened and flipped the script? The classic plot deconstructed.

And so the new plot came together, rather quickly, an oppressed daughter rising up and taking control over her mother. I then realized there were similarities with ‘Tangled’ and ‘Cinderella’ of all things. Maybe Candice isn’t wicked quite on the level of Mother Gothel of the Wicked Stepmother, but she ain’t far off. She is vain, self-centered, selfish and obsessed with youth while her daughter is good and true. Instead of aging into dust however, she gets more youth than she wants.

This is why Lucinda’s eyes are green and her hair blonde, just like Rapunzel’s. It is also why her hair grows when she gets older, and why the accelerator she drinks is yellow. It represents the sun magic that flooded Rapunzel’s hair. Candice’s eyes are a bluish silver and her hair is curly (granted not black), just as Mother Gothel’s is. In addition, one nickname for Lucinda is Cindy, which doubles for Cinderella.

Symbols –

The youth formula is green, a color that symbolizes life.

The yellow formula represents the sun, which grows things.

Lucinda is the name of the mythological Roman goddess of childbirth and giver of first light to newborns. In the story she indeed births children, including her own mother. And as for giving ‘first light’ she receives intelligence and growth from the yellow potion, again a symbol of the sun. Her name also means illumination, also a reference to knowledge which connects to…

…Candice, which means ‘sparkling’ in Greece and ‘shining’ in Latin. All she cares about is how she sparkles and shines, as you may have noticed in her dialogue. While she certainly thinks of herself as important, in the end however she is nothing without illumination, or knowledge, which her daughter Lucinda takes from her, diminishing her sparkle and shine greatly. Still, she had been able to dazzle the figure of

…Mari, which is short for the Hindu goddess Mariamman (Note that Candice did call Mari a goddess of science after all). To be specific she is a goddess of rain (the formula is a liquid, and her eyes are blue) fertility (sounds like youth to me) and is portrayed as a virgin mother goddess (Second childhood). She is also often portrayed as ‘Mother Nature’, another reason the youth formula is green. Remember that all the changes in the story actually come from her, or the ‘rain’ she brings. However, she was seduced, hypnotized, by the shiny sparkle and chose youth for herself, giving up any authority she had over her ‘rain’ to the only other goddess in the story, her new mommy.

Allusion and Foreshadow –

Panel 23 - The toast Candice gives states that they get what they deserve and desire. Candice desired youth, and she deserved to get too much. Mari desired friendship, and she deserved to experience it honestly and innocently.

Panel 25 -‘Unload our collective booty’. They indeed unload their collective booty’s, their adult ones at least.

Panel 55 – Mention of a sleepover, which Areg created in his work.

That’s pretty much it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the details as well as the story itself.

Oni