<- back to index

Plural representation

dragon - 2020-02-25 20:23:56

I started a list of canonical plural characters for reference, and thought others would want to see and add to it. I sorted it into categories, since things like magical/biological fusion aren't as representative of real life plurality as other cases, and there are also some instances where it's only sort of multiple people in one body.

Post other examples below, and I guess I can edit them in? If it gets too long we may have to start a googledoc or something, idk

Sapphire (ey/em)

Simple plurality

Gollum/smeagol in Lord of the Rings

Jekyll and Hyde

Amber/Amazigirl in Dumbing of Age

Shallan the Stormlight Archive

Bowman/Kestrel in Firesong

Phoebe in FRIENDS (this might be more of a headcanon)

United States of Tara

Eddie/Venom

Legion

Fight Club

Mr. Robot

Jeannette/Therese in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Lots of superheroes probably

Magical/other mechanic

Dark One in Once Upon a Time

Aubrey/Sylvain in The Adventure Zone

Steven Universe fusions

Trills in Star Trek

Irene/Kardala in the Adventure Zone

Cyberman Doctor in Doctor Who (don't remember the episode name, but it's matt smith)

DoctorDonna in Doctor Who

Curse mark Juugo in Naruto

Possession

Cassandra in Doctor Who

Jinchuuriki in Naruto

Demons in Gate of Ptolemy

Toby/Satan in Doctor Who

Cyrus in Tabletop Champions

Weird edge cases

Hemalurgy in the Mistborn trilogy

Time lords in Doctor Who

Rumplestiltskin/Neal in Once Upon a Time

Blitzwing in Transformers Animated

Madeline/Badeline in Celeste

Sanders Sides

Triad in Legion of Superheroes


The_Flock - 2020-02-25 20:50:38

(I'm super glad for the inclusion of Trills, they're what helped me realize some median stuff :3)

The United States of Tara, for all its flaws, is a show entirely about a woman with DID? Good things include: depictions of factives, littles, and co-consciousness. Flaws include … eh. It was kinda mediocre plus i hate every character except Tara, her daughter, and this one artist lady.

But it's canon and it's plural!

I'd also add Eddie/Venom as a system and in a relationship with each-other. And there's Legion, from Marvel comics, who canonically has DID and each member of the system has different powers.

Fight Club and Mr. Robot definitely count, I'd say.

There's some other fiction actually about plurality that I'll go find and report back with, too.


cryptonomica - 2020-02-26 01:00:18

Blitzwing from Transformers Animated is basically a median system! Its three literal faces with three distinct personalities, but theyre all Blitzwing


[archive note: post redacted]


cryptonomica - 2020-02-26 02:11:00

[archive note: quote redacted]

Luckily he has also stated that hes happy that folks with DID (and the rest of us) see ourselves happily in the sides so hell yeah


Anomaly - 2020-02-26 02:20:41

We'll toss in Triad from Legion of Superheroes(1994)! She's an alien species that can triplicate naturally, but for Triad their three selves are more like different people which is very unusual for the species and has caused problems for her on her planet (and they actually portrayed it really serious and realistically). She was actually kind of the character who helped us accept being an endogenic system, which is why we talk about her so often.


The_Flock - 2020-02-26 02:51:54

Oh! I forgot another canon plural, but SPOILER WARNING for Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Jeannette and Therese Vohrman are canonically a presumably traumagenic dual system. It's actually really kinda relatable afa how realistic it is? But HUGE content warning for potential headmate death, vague but very violent descriptions of CSA and revenge murder, and all the other stuff that goes with the game.


[archive note: post redacted]


dragon - 2020-02-26 05:13:39

[archive note: quote redacted]

I don't know if there's necessarily evidence of phoebe being multiple people herself, but there's one episode where she shares the body with another person, and another episode where she refers to voices in her head. So not multiple fronters, except for the one episode

Sapphire (ey/em)


Cipher - 2020-02-26 19:04:58

I'm not sure whether you'd put this in the "magical/other" category or the "weird edge" category, but in the Matthew Swift book series the main character is fused with a plural entity called the "angels" which are an amalgamation of life magic. Throughout the series it becomes more and more evident that Matthew (the human) and the angels are extremely interconnected to the point that they naturally alternate usage between I/we narration without noticing it themselves.


Anomaly - 2020-02-26 20:43:43

We should have included a warning for ableism and trauma ack, Triad is the version in the reboot which we were talking about specifically, but every other version is Triplicate Girl

also it makes us so happy to see someone else talk about legion of superheroes hi!!