Monday, December 31, 2012

The Fate of Marie-Grace Gardner

For the past year, I have pretty much decided that the character of Marie-Grace is so pathetic and underdeveloped that I can no longer make her stay true to her "canon" self. There's so little I can do with her. AG really wasn't paying attention when they approved the NOLA project. A girl in New Orleans who wasn't born there and has very little personal connections to it, supposed to be in the same friend circle as a girl in a totally different racial, cultural, and social class? Part of the time, at least? Otherwise, she spends her time volunteering (living) at an orphanage while being completely ignored by her father. Her father is a doctor, by the way, so...why are they so painfully middle class?

In any event, I suppose I could have her predictably be "adopted" by her aunt and uncle and ultimately live with them in Belle Cheniere, but then her story just kind of fizzles and ends.

I think Marie-Grace is one of the most unique and beautiful dolls ever created by American Girl, and it is completely unfair that she got the shaft. She has a hairstyle that scares many people off, an obnoxiously pink Meet outfit, and a terribly un-graceful name. Well, I think she is destined for much greater things in life.

My first thought was to rename her Lydia Gardner and bring her to 1850s New England. I live in New England, and we have yet to be represented by an American Girl. Plus, before we knew her story, I was hoping that newly released Caroline Abbott would have more to do with the actual ocean and sailing. So, Lydia could definitely fill that role nicely. Her father would be a wealthy captain of a whaling vessel, and Lydia would live in a beautiful house with a widow's walk overlooking the vast grey sea. I would like this family to live in Cape Cod, specifically, especially if I can get my hands on some good sources to find out about Cape Cod in the mid-19th century.

Lydia among her nautical tools in Cape Cod.

Another idea for Lydia is that she could very well still be a singing ingenue from New York from a slightly later era, maybe the 1880s or 1890s. But that era may well be reserved for "alternate Molly," or as I just imagined her this morning, Victoria Holmes.