1, 8, 10, and 12 for the Kris/Winona and/or Wallace/Steven kids?

I’ll do the Wallace/Steven kids first since they’re more developed, but I’ll do the Kris/Winona kids as well in a separate post later!

01. What does your character’s name mean? Did you pick it for the symbolism, or did you just like the way it sounded?

Maia: This name comes from Greco-Roman mythology and is the name of two different figures. There is Maia of the Pleiades, the mother of the god Hermes, and Maia the Roman goddess of spring and growth. In-universe, Maia was named in honor of both May and Zinnia – the month of May deriving its name from the Roman Maia, and since it’s also the name of a star, in the tradition of the Draconids. (Additionally, the real-life Draconids meteor shower occurs in October, Maia and Jasper’s birth month! Though it happens earlier in the month, not at the end like their birthday is.)

Jasper: Jasper also has two different sources of meaning. It can be a version of the name Gaspar or Casper, which means “treasurer” and is often considered one of the names of the Three Wise Men/Magi from Biblical lore. It is also the name of a semi-precious gemstone, though the origin of the name is different (the stone’s name means simply “speckled stone”). At least one of Steven’s children needed a stone name, and Jasper is the lucky recipient! And fittingly, blue jasper, like his hair color, happens to be the rarest color for the stone. I like to think Steven had the blue ocean variety in mind when choosing a name for his son. For those who believe in the more spiritual and esoteric properties of gemstones, Jasper can represent and encourage comfort, reassurance, optimism, relieving fear, and living in the moment, said to be like having a good friend close to your side. All of these qualities, as well as the stone being associated with the autumn, I think perfectly exemplify Jasper’s qualities (or qualities that would bring him comfort in his harder moments), so it’s a very fitting stone for him to be named after.

Alphonse: This is a French name derived from Germanic origins, and means “noble and ready” or possibly “battle”. Unlike his older siblings, I mainly chose this name based on vibes alone, haha. As Maia was named by both of her fathers and Jasper was named by Steven, I wanted to think of what kind of name Wallace would pick for the third child, and an elegant, classy name like Alphonse just felt right. The meanings of the name do hint at his more combative and stuck-up nature, though.

08. What is, perhaps, their biggest flaw? Are they aware of this or oblivious to it?

Maia: Her stubbornness. Like the rock-types she specializes in, Maia can be unyielding and set in her ways to the point of obstinance. She’s fully aware of this but also doesn’t particularly care since she usually does whatever she wants anyways. And usually when she’s being particularly stubborn over something trivial, one of her friends or family will be there to smooth things over so she doesn’t have to take responsibility for being petty (since that’s what siblings are for, of course).

Jasper: His denseness when it comes to both his own feelings and others’. He can be remarkably emotionally canny when he wants to be but if that intuition tells him something he doesn’t want to hear he just pretends he doesn’t see it to the point other people are flabbergasted by it. He tries to stay upbeat and ignore his own negative feelings if he doesn’t want to face them, and has a habit of making up his mind about how others feel about them without always looking at the reality of the situation. This can lead to him doing reckless/self-destructive things without realizing the impact it has on the people who care about him, since he often assumes he’s not particularly likable when it comes down to it. He is aware of this flaw and is doing his best to use this awareness to circumvent it with the help of his therapist, but it’s been a long road to get to this point.

Alphonse: His raging inferiority complex. Alphonse can be downright nasty to others to hide his own insecurities, to the point of being a bully to his rivals and even a few cases of sabotaging their progress to further his own. He’s determined to succeed no matter the cost or if he has to tear down others on his way to the top, not realizing that this just ruins the spirit of competition in the first place. He places his family on a pedestal then rages when he can attain the too-lofty heights he’s assigned them to. He puts too much on his plate trying to become a renowned Top Coordinator and win the Pokemon League and look perfect and flawless as he does it and when he can’t reach the impossible goals he’s set for himself it just feeds his complex and makes him angrier and more prone to reckless acts.

10. Is your character more feminine or masculine?

Maia: I would say she’s on the femme end of androgynous. Think short-hair fitted pants-suit businesswoman style in terms of her fashion. She doesn’t really pay much mind to presenting in a particular way though, just wearing and acting in the way she thinks is the most fitting and professional for her purposes.

Jasper: Slightly more masculine, but like Maia he really doesn’t care much and is definitely the one who inherited Wallace’s more flashy and flamboyant fashion sense. He throws together outfits from a wide range of styles, often wears makeup, and generally does his best to achieve some kind of goth pirate martial artist look or whatever it is he’s going for.

Alphonse: Distinguished masculine. Probably the closest to Juan’s fashion sense out of any of his mentors growing up. He dresses to impress and present a certain image, but it’s not necessarily the style he’d use if he was dressing purely for his own preference. That’s something he’d probably have to spend some time figuring out once he gets to a point he’s comfortable enough just being himself and not the unrealistic perfect person he’s trying to be.

12. Is there some particular talent, skill, or attribute that they simply could not give up?

Maia: Her ability to think quickly and strategize! Maia often is overwhelmed by the complexities and seeming lack of logic involved in most interactions and occurrences in daily life, finding comfort in numbers, patterns, and solid constants, just like her beloved rock-types. She sees the world through a lens of endless probabilities and thrives in situations like battles where she can put her talent for numbers and pattern recognition to work via strategy. This way of thinking makes some parts of her life difficult, but she doesn’t care and would never be able to give up the way she sees the world.

Jasper: He’s talented in many ways (many that he doesn’t even realize), and he can certainly name a number of skills and traits he considers fundamental to his being, but the one he has the most complicated relationship with is his affinity for ghost-types and spirits in general. He feels that this talent of his is rooted in hardship and the stigma people with ghost affinities often face is challenging for him to deal with, but at the same time, he also considers it an intrinsic part of who he is, something he can’t give up even if he wanted to. Embracing the world of ghosts and spirits is part of Jasper’s personal journey and under Shouju’s tutelage he’s able to discover a side to it he hadn’t considered before.

Alphonse: His family! While they’re also his greatest burden in his quest to live up to them, Alphonse takes great pride in his heritage, both being the son of two champions, who also have robust and outstanding accomplishments outside of their champion title, and being part of an ancient clan with many traditions and rich history. At the end of the day, he simply wants to make his family proud and live up to their legacies even if he’s not necessarily going about it in the best way. Finding his own place among them rather than trying to surpass them is really the crux of his journey.