Board Thread:General Grimm Discussion/@comment-98.117.68.195-20150503215639/@comment-24399666-20151124000014

Bheadr27 wrote: I don't see a bond between Nick and his son on this level. Too much 'Twilight' for my taste... But it still intrigues me, if we're gonna see Nick and Adalind talk about that incident. Adalind probably understood, that she was looking through Nicks eyes (seeing Juliette and Wu and the inside of Nicks house), but he wouldn't know he used Adalinds... For the record, what I'm thinking might be going on between Nick and Kelly is nothing like how Renesmee was written. They're alike in the sense that they're born with psychic powers, and that's it. In and of itself, this is not problematic. I'm envisioning Nick and Kelly being different from Renesmee in the following ways:

1) Renesmee develops psychic connections to everybody she touches, because that is her extra-special superpower that is so amazing and unique. Whereas, in my imagined case of Kelly unconsciously forming a psychic connection with his father while in the womb, this is because that's what all baby Zauberbiests do. I think psychic and empathic abilities distinguish Zauberbiests, just like telekinesis and magic distinguish Hexenbiests.

2) As I mentioned earlier, Renesmee was never problematic simply because she had this superpower. She was problematic because she grew up at an insane rate (thereby keeping Edward and Bella from the inconvenience of actually having to take care of a baby), magically understood right from wrong without ever having to be taught, magically understood everything without ever having to be taught, never cried, never had a dirty diaper, never inconvenienced Edward and Bella in any real way. This is because she was born a good child. As opposed to an evil child... described in these books for pre-teens as... well, the description of "evil" children sounds exactly like a normal RL child. But if you give birth to a good child or an evil child - this has nothing whatsoever to do with your ability (or willingness) to do the hard work of parenting. No, whether you give birth to a good child or an evil child depends entirely on whether they're born that way. And good children never give their parents any trouble at all, and will always be perfect dolls who will love you forever but never actually need you for anything, because above all, good children never require any real effort on the part of the parents. (And this was the image of parenthood that was presented to preteen girls.)

Renesmee's superpower does tie into this problem, because it's basically the conceit that gets her out of ever needing to be, you know, parented.

Contrast with an empathic link between Nick and Kelly - it's not something that teaches Kelly anything that it should be Nick and Adalind's job to teach him. It's not something that makes it so Kelly doesn't need his parents. It doesn't even do the job of toilet training him. Quite the opposite, actually - it's probably just something that evolved in Zauberbiests as an alarm system... a way to remotely cry for help and bring their fathers running. It doesn't negate his need for good parenting - quite the opposite, actually. Logically, it actually makes him more susceptible in many ways, particularly to things that hurt Nick.

3) Because Renesmee was born such a good child, she was able to wrap everybody else (including the bad guys) around her little finger. By manipulating their emotions. On purpose. And very cunningly. But also "innocently." Because she's so good.

Kelly, OTOH, is not doing anything on purpose at all. He's just feeling what he feels, and those feelings are getting broadcasted across a link that's already there (because, being an infant, he doesn't understand the concept of control, let alone have any), or perhaps taking bad feelings away that make Kelly feel bad (with the side effect of Nick's feelings about Adalind getting confused). Less like Renesmee, more like a very young Jean Grey (if mutants were born with their powers instead of it coming during puberty).

HTH. :) Sorry about the rant; Renesmee is kind of a sore subject for me, because I can totally see young women getting pregnant with a vague notion in the backs of their minds, of what babies, children in general, and especially parenthood, are "supposed" to be like, and child abuse resulting. Having fantasy stories with psychic babies is not the problem. Having fantasy stories with psychic babies who therefore need no real parenting, is the problem.