CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, as well as aspects of When Nothing Remains and aspects of Usurpation of the Darkness.

Seriously, major spoilers here.

Assuming you wish to continue, read on…

Background: This is old, I'm talking created as far back as 2019. It's the second side-entry I put into writing way back when, and originally stemmed from a desire to get used to Thaw's character before writing anything big involving him in the future. It's not from his perspective, but just depicting him and his personality (albeit not fully formed, he's still a child) would in theory help me know what I'm working with.

That said, I knew even as I wrote it that this wasn't actually the right approach to take for Thaw, which it definitely wasn't in hindsight. Now in 2024 I see this as a fascinating and not altogether bad look at something that I still don't want to be canon. So I figured I'd share it.

Pearl was worried.

Oh, everything was fine. Her life was great, Ember was still, well, Ember, the same dragon she had fallen in love with and was still in love with. Nothing had changed on that front. The world was the same as it had been for a while now, peaceful and happy on the peninsula her new family called home. Her and Ember's son, Thaw, was not so little anymore, not even a hatchling, a fledgling in his third season-cycle now. He was at the age of misbehavior, a lot of talking, and generally being a loud, rambunctious fledgling.

That was the problem, in a way, and not in the way she had expected and almost looked forward to.

She nudged her son, waking him from sleep. Then she woke Ember, knowing he would not want to miss an early meal.

"Good morning," Ember mumbled, stretching on his way out of the cave, ushering Thaw along with his tail, guiding the sleepy fledgling forward. "You want to fish, or shall I?"

She shook her head, still thinking about her problem. "You can." Her mate was always considerate, even when he was still more than half asleep.

Ember nodded, leaping into the sky on sure wings. The idea that one was so good at something one could do it in their sleep, though a silly exaggeration at most times, applied almost literally to Ember. By the time he returned with more fish than they needed, he would be wide awake, but he always flew well no matter how tired or groggy he was.

She cast Thaw a sideways glance. He was looking up at the morning sky, apparently content to wait, still and silent.

Quiet. Still. Calm. Pearl shivered, remembering how she had been at that age. She had not fully listened to her Dam at any age, and that rebelliousness had saved her from being what her twisted Dam had wanted to create. But when she did listen...

Top on the list of qualities her Dam had tried to instill in her were shyness and laziness. Oh, Diora had always called them other things, like being polite, and calm, and enticing, for that was the whole point, to attract Claw–

She cut off that line of thought, and mentally burned it to ash for good measure. She was past that, and it was no longer a poisonous barb in her own memory, but the lingering effects of how she had been raised were never truly going to disappear, and she had no desire to relapse. That had happened before, and it was frighteningly hard to notice and snap out of. Falling into her own problems was never a good idea, but especially not now.

Right now, her attention needed to be on her son, and how he was scarily similar to how her twisted Dam had tried to make her and later Silva.

Pearl tapped her offspring with her tail, getting his attention. "Do you want to go play with Silva or Thunder today?" She really should have said Thunder and Lightning, but they were always together, so one implied the other.

Thaw shrugged her wing shoulders, not saying either way. He seemed fine, but he did not really care. Or he did not think he was allowed to care, to have an opinion–

She huffed and shook her head, driving that theory from her mind. She had not raised him like that! Ember had not, either. Thaw was surrounded by talkative, intelligent, kind dragons who would always listen to him… but he did not talk much at all.

Ember dropped out of the sky in front of them and tossed Thaw a small fish, before walking over to Pearl with the tailend of another fish sticking out of his mouth.

Pearl purred softly and took the fish from him, bumping his snout with her own in the process. The little things like that were nice. He liked to find small things like that, some funny and some sweet.

He was surely not the problem. If Thaw was being raised wrong, somehow, it had to be her. Ember had a good track record, having two upstanding and kindhearted sons. Surely he would not somehow drop the responsibility with his third. But he did not seem to mind Thaw's issues, like he did not see a problem there. He certainly had never mentioned it as anything other than just how Thaw was.

She watched Thaw eat, making sure nothing happened. Her son had choked on a fish before, which Thorn had reassured her was a common occurrence, and she would not let their guard down, even if Thaw was old enough now to know how to not choke.

"I suppose I'm going to have to get my own," Beryl remarked casually, walking out from the shaded darkness of a nearby cave and into the sunlight, his black scales and hide seeming to absorb the light. "Spark, you're fending for yourself."

"Good," Spark replied, following behind him. "I do not want to have to take fish from you like Pearl does from Ember." He gagged dramatically.

Thaw had turned around and was watching his much older brothers. He purred quietly at the joke, but did not participate. That was not so very worrying on its own, but with everything else, it felt like another stab at Pearl's heart.

How could she possibly be doing what she was trying so hard not to do? She never tried to force Thaw into anything, always asked him what he wanted to do, made it clear he had a choice at every opportunity, and that his voice mattered… but she still only rarely got to hear that voice nowadays.

She could ask Ember, but some part of her wanted to fix this herself. If she could not, then she would get help. Having support was nice, but she needed to remain self-reliant, now more than ever. Today was a special day, and one that would deprive her of Ember's help for a little while.

"I have not eaten either," Ember agreed, responding to the antics of his two older sons. "We will fish on the way."

"That is today, right?" Spark asked eagerly. "How long, again?"

"What did we settle on, five days?" Beryl asked Ember. "Two to get there, one for you to wander pointlessly around their nest, and two to come back."

"Yes, that's right." Ember spread his wings dramatically. "Ready to go?"

Pearl warbled happily, putting aside her other worries for the moment. "Have fun, and come back safely." Her mate and his two older sons were going to the closest No-scaled-not-prey nest, a full two days of hard flying away, so that he could do… whatever it was he needed to do. She did not keep up with everything he made in his little side-cave filled with No-scaled-not-prey things, though she was always willing to watch and listen as he worked in there, and she liked the idea of it. The names of all the little things he used in that form always escaped her. All she knew was that he wanted more of something he couldn't make himself, and that they would be gone for five days.

Five days without Ember, Beryl, or Spark. Thaw would be her sole responsibility, and she intended to use this time well.

Pearl nuzzled her mate goodbye, and set herself an internal resolution. When he returned, he would find a talkative and active son where before Thaw had been silent and still, or at the very least she would know more about why Thaw was as he was.

O-O-O-O-O

Pearl's first action with Ember gone was to do nothing at all abnormal. She had an idea as to how to coax Thaw into talking more, but it needed a little setup.

First came a walk around the clearing out in front of their cave. It was small, far smaller than the valley she had grown up in, but she liked that. There were also a few out-of-place sea stacks rising from the short grass to break up the open space, and one old, toppled mass of boulders.

That rubble had a sad story behind it, but that did not stop it from being the perfect playing place for fledglings, after the adults had thoroughly ensured nothing would shift any more than it already had. It was full of little nooks and crannies smaller dragons could hide in.

Pearl, with Thaw walking silently behind her, passed by the jumble of rock, and listened carefully. There was a small chortle from somewhere nearby, so she knew for a fact one of the fledglings was here.

Step one of her first, or more honestly, only plan. She knew Thaw did not speak any more with others his age than he did his own family, but maybe she could use another fledgling to prod him into being a bit more vocal.

For the moment though, she did nothing unusual. "Go find out who's in there," she suggested to her son.

Thaw obligingly ran off to check the rocks. He disappeared from sight shortly after, wiggling into a small gap that Pearl recalled led deeper into the pile. If she had not known just how thoroughly her own mate and Herb had checked all of this, she would be worried for his safety.

With no immediate concerns to think of, her mind went right back to what she must have done, somehow. What had she done wrong?

It could not have been anything obvious. Even if Ember had somehow missed it, Thorn or Herb would have intervened, had they noticed. Neither of them ever remarked upon how Thaw was, either. She had even sounded them out on the subject before. They both considered it a stage he would pass through. They did not truly know just how similar it was to what Pearl had escaped.

That was her best guess as to why nobody was worried. They had not lived what she had, and could not truly understand how bad it was. She envied them that, really.

Thaw emerged from the rocks, a light wing with the slightest silver glint following him. Silva, Pearl's own little sister. That would make this easier; Thunder and Lightning would not have listened to Pearl as readily as Silva would.

Silva barked happily and ran to Pearl, purring loudly. "Hi, Pearl!" she almost roared.

Another stab to Pearl's heart. Silva, despite being raised directly by Diora for moon-cycles, had shown no further signs of the behavior Diora wanted. Thorn and Herb had not messed up with her, for sure. It hurt that Pearl could not say the same with her own son.

"Thaw," Pearl requested, "could you run around the rock pile once, just to be sure Thunder and Lightning are not around?" She was pretty sure they weren't, but she needed to get Silva alone for a moment.

Again, Thaw did so without saying anything, running off. He would be back in a short while, longer if he looked carefully.

Silva looked up at Pearl curiously. She seemed to notice that something was off, even if Thaw had not yet. Or maybe he had, but wasn't saying anything…

Pearl shook her head, forcing herself to focus. "Silva, could you do something for me?"

Silva nodded agreeably. "If it is fun," she clarified.

"It probably will be," Pearl agreed. "Challenge Thaw to a contest. One that involves talking, like a story-telling contest, or something similar." She wanted to see if Thaw would come out of his silent shell with just another fledgling, if prompted.

"Why?" Silva tilted her head, chirping inquisitively. "He does not like to talk a lot. He will not want to play that game."

Pearl winced. "I know, but try to get him to do it anyway. Please?"

"Okay," Silva agreed. She began to jump on the closest rocks, making a small game out of leaping from one to the other without using one of her front paws, flapping her wings for balance.

Thaw returned, panting slightly. He shook his head, a silent negative.

"Play with Silva," Pearl said, phrasing it more as a request than an order. "I want to take you out into the forest later, but right now I need to go do something." She waited for the nod of agreement that was not long in coming, and then flew off, winging her way out of sight–

And immediately landing, creeping back over the rise that from the other side made exiting the tiny valley difficult, and slinking behind one of the stone pillars. Her son could not see her from here, but she was close enough to see both fledglings, if not really hear them. She would see Thaw talking for any length of time, if she looked closely, and all she wanted was to know if he would, not what he would say. This was a test, of sorts. Did Thaw only not talk around her? It would shatter her heart if that was the case, but she had to check.

They started with a simple game, chasing each other across the rocks. After a while Silva slowed down, and they both stopped.

Pearl leaned forward a little, sure this was it. Silva was speaking now, clearly proposing a new game. How would Thaw respond?

Thaw shrugged his wings, not looking that all that enthusiastic, and nodded. After a few seconds of nothing, he began to speak. As he continued, both he and Silva got into whatever story he was telling, and began to act it out instead, eventually devolving into play-fighting.

Pearl held in a whine, closing her eyes. Whatever the problem was, it looked like it might only happen around her… but she still didn't know what she was doing wrong.

O-O-O-O-O

Later, after a quick flight to try and clear her head, Pearl came back and picked up Thaw. She was not giving up; now she just knew a little more about what she intended to fix. Thaw would speak if asked by someone else. Or if she told him to. The latter would prove nothing, and this wasn't just about him not speaking. It was now about why he thought he shouldn't unless asked, or maybe about why he was afraid to offer an opinion.

If this was not so close to her heart, she would have been more confused than pained by the question itself. There was nobody around who could possibly have made Thaw this way intentionally, and Pearl herself was the only one who could have done it unintentionally, but she had been careful. She had made sure to think about how she approached everything! If anything, Thaw should be turning out more like Storm, totally unafraid to offer his opinion or do his own thing. That was what she wanted, though she was glad Thaw was not like Thunder and Lightning, either. Storm was an extreme, and her foster children only a little milder. There was a happy middle, somewhere Beryl and Spark were close to, along with Ember. That was what she wanted, and Thaw had three great role models to copy.

Pearl led Thaw out into the forest with those thoughts running in pointless circles through her mind. The forest was bright and shaded in turn, clouds swiftly passing in front of the sun.

Thaw liked the forest. Pearl knew that by how he grew more alert, how his ears perked up and his eyes widened in innocent wonder, though he had been here many times before. He roamed around her as she walked, never stopping for even a moment. It seemed he would circle every tree and bush in the whole forest if left to do so.

She had brought him here because he liked the forest. This was a good place to make him feel more relaxed. Maybe she could get some good responses here.

"Did you have fun with Silva?" was her first question. It was an easy one, and one that could be answered without speaking.

Thaw nodded eagerly, nosing at a tree almost immediately afterward. He rubbed the side of his face on the bark, clearly liking the rough texture. Pearl understood that; she liked it too.

"What did you and Silva do?" she asked.

"We played tag, then made up a story," Thaw relayed quietly. His voice was deep, resonating more than most fledglings did at that age. Pearl personally loved hearing his voice. Maybe that was just a biase any Dam should have towards their own children, but she didn't care.

She had gotten a response, but that too was to be expected. Thaw did not refuse to talk, he just avoided it unless it was absolutely necessary. Here was where she would hope he would elaborate. Fledglings were always proud of themselves; she would have told the story, were she in his place. But he did not follow it up.

She could ask about the story. He would probably tell it if she requested he do so. Then she could hear his voice again. But that was not the point; she wanted him to be comfortable starting conversations, comfortable with her. What had she done wrong?

"That's good," she instead replied, hiding her distress. This was usually a niggling concern at the back of her mind, but facing it all day today was different, and not in a good way. She had no idea how to fix it, and worst of all, she still didn't know what she had done wrong.

This was her fault. But she knew her faults, usually. Why was this one hiding?

She closed her eyes and lowered her head, searching her memory for what had to be the hundredth time, desperately trying to pull up even one incident that might be causing this, some choice or mistake that had traumatized Thaw in his infancy. Surely there was something.

A small paw poked at her head, and she opened her eyes to see Thaw, looking worried. He whined softly, wordlessly conveying confusion and worry.

She tried to make herself reassure him, but she couldn't do it. Instead she sat down and laid her head between her paws, staring at him. There was one more way to find out the answer, no matter how it hurt.

"Why?" She gave in, asking the real question she could not answer on her own. "What did I do wrong?"

Thaw tilted his head, visibly confused.

"My Dam was a terrible light wing," Pearl admitted quietly. "I wanted to be nothing like her." SHe had failed, somehow.

Thaw hummed curiously, sitting on his hind paws and perking his ears. He was interested, far more than he should be. Then again, she had never told him about her Dam. Why would she, if she was doing her best to forget entirely? He might never have heard of her own parents before now.

Another small mistake. She would fix this one, at least. She could fix this.

"She had plans," Pearl continued sadly. "Bad plans, ones that were not good for me. My Sire was no help, he was spineless."

That seemed to shock Thaw. He squinted at her, clearly not entirely convinced.

"He was afraid of anyone stronger than him, even his own mate," she added. "So he didn't do anything when she tried to make me into her idea of a perfect daughter." And a perfect mate to Claw, but Thaw was far too young to hear about that part of the story.

Thaw shuffled a little closer, entranced by this new information.

"She wanted me to be quiet, and spineless, never offering my own opinion and only doing what she said," Pearl continued. "I was not, but what she did… it was not good. It left marks on how I act. I never wanted any child of mine to suffer that."

That brought her around to her own failure. She moaned, unable to keep up any kind of front now. "I wanted you to know you can be who you want. To be loud, and rebellious, and confident. Nothing like what she wanted me to be. Where did I go wrong?"

She did not expect an answer. She would not have answered her own Dam had Diora somehow had a change of heart and broken down in front of her, and somehow, she was Thaw's oppressive Dam-

"Wrong?" Thaw's deep voice. "Why am I wrong?"

That hurt, too. "You are not wrong, I am! Somehow, I did what I was trying not to do!"

"I do not understand," Thaw whined, nudging her, having come close enough to do so at some point.

"You are quiet, like she tried to make me," Pearl explained sadly. "You only do what others suggest, just like she wanted me to do. I did something wrong, but I still can't see what!"

A moment of silence. Of course, there was silence. She was unburdening herself in front of Thaw; she was laying her problems on the one who was suffering from them! This at least was a mistake she could recognize, even if she could not stop herself from doing it.

"You do not like that I do not talk much?" A simple, quiet question that had no discernable emotion behind it. Thaw might be ambivelent, or he might be heartbroken; Pearl could not tell.

"It scares me," Pearl whined, being entirely truthful. "I was like that when my Dam was at her worst."

"But that is different." He made it sound like a simple statement of fact.

"Not to me," Pearl whispered. "To me, it just means I am failing you."

The wind through the trees was all that could be heard for a while. Pearl did not open her eyes or rise, utterly defeated by her own failure. Thaw was still standing in front of her; she could feel his body heat on her paws. She had no idea what he was thinking.

"Did you love your Dam?" he eventually asked. It was an oddly unrelated question, given what she had just told him.

"I wanted to," she admitted. "I tried to. But I couldn't, not without treating myself as badly as she treated me." That was what Thorn and Storm had helped her realize, so long ago now. She could not hold both herself and her Dam in her heart, not when one was so terrible to the other. Letting go of any hope that her Dam was somehow in the right despite it all had been a big step to healing, however imperfectly.

"But I love you," he said matter-of-factly. "I just do not want to talk if I do not need to."

"Why?" Hearing him say that was a small mercy. She had still hurt him, somehow, if he did not want to share his own opinion, to make his voice heard.

"Everyone else is interesting. If I talk, I miss things." Thaw sounded tentative, as if he had never really thought about it himself, and was only now digging up the truth behind his own actions, or lack thereof. "I do not want to miss anything."

Pearl opened her eyes, staring at her fledgling in disbelief. "But… why don't you give your own opinion?"

"I do when nobody else has already said it," he explained. "But that never happens. Sire, or one of my big brothers, or you, or somebody always says what I think. So I just agree."

"And you never ask to do anything…" Pearl continued quietly.

"What would I ask for?" Thaw warbled curiously. "I have everything I want."

That reasoning would never have occurred to Pearl. Fledglings just did not think like that. There was always something they wanted but could not have for some reason. They latched onto foolish things, like flying to the moon or learning to breathe water, things that could get them killed. Or they wanted things they could not have, like their own cave or…

Or her own rock in the shade, because anything was better than listening to her Dam. Maybe, just maybe, Thaw really did not want anything he did not have.

Could the answer really be that she was misjudging everything? That she had indeed raised her son so well that his contentment looked like passivity?

That seemed to be what he was saying. But she could not write it all off as just him being content. "You don't want to talk because you could miss something?" That felt wrong in and of itself, but in a different way, a way of incomplete understanding. It felt like something any fledgling might think, and swiftly be set straight about, no harm done.

"Yes." Thaw looked at her curiously.

"But… by not talking, we miss you," she explained, stretching her neck to nuzzle him. "I miss your wonderful voice and your ideas, whatever they are. We do not get to know you if you do not talk to us."

Thaw blinked, utterly blindsided by that way of looking at it. He tilted his head, staring intently at her.

"See?" she asked, her heart growing lighter as she finally saw the answer. "Ask me something. I get to know you better by how you say things, and what you choose to ask. I love your voice, and I would always rather hear you than have to guess what you are thinking. I am sure your Sire and brothers would agree if they were here." Ember and the others had taken this as just how Thaw was, and she had taken it as her own terrible failure as a Dam, but it was just a surprisingly subtle fledgling misconception, in the end. One that was by its very nature difficult to discern as a problem unless one asked the right questions, which she had done purely by chance.

"But I will miss things," he objected.

"Nobody notices everything," she answered. "And we would rather you miss a few things than we miss you." She would not force him to talk, but maybe if he understood that she would rather hear him than not, that everyone would…

"So I should talk more?" He did not sound entirely happy about that.

"Yes," she answered without hesitation, licking him across the face. "Even if someone has already said what you think. Even if you are happy with everything. We understand your meaning without talking, but talking helps us understand you."

He shook his head and pawed at his face, trying to get the spit off, but once he was done… "I did not like that."

"Why?" she asked, purring loudly. He was at least trying to talk more for the moment.

"It feels gross," he complained. "Like I was messy in eating and got fish slime all over."

"See, I would never have known that was why you did not like it if you did not explain," she remarked. "Personally, it reminds me of nothing in particular."

"But… you could have asked me, even if I did not say anything," he said, sounding as if he was truly trying to understand. "Why does me saying change that?"

"You get what you give," she replied solemnly. "When you do not speak, everyone else assumes you do not want to be spoken to. That is how we know not to bother people, and why when someone is upset and does not feel like talking, they will ignore someone else. By not talking, they do not let conversations start or continue."

"But I do not mind questions, even if I seem like I do," he said slowly. "I have been telling everyone not to talk to me?"

"Yes, you have," she confirmed quietly, making sure she did not sound mad about it. "Or, in my case, you have been telling me you are too scared to say anything, or do not think anyone will listen or care."

"I understand," Thaw admitted. "But I do like being quiet. If I tell everyone that it does not mean I do not want to talk, can I stay the way I am now?"

Pearl tilted her head to the side, considering it. "Maybe. But they might forget, and we still don't want to miss out on knowing you, remember? You can be quiet sometimes, but not all the time." She wasn't sure if he was resisting change or genuinely liked not talking. "Try talking whenever you would not say anything, all the time, at least for a few weeks. After that, if you still want to be quiet, you can be sometimes."

"A few weeks?" Thaw asked, aghast. "That is too long!"

Pearl stood, looming over her son… and laughed, savoring the fact that he at no point flinched, despite her menacing posture. He did trust her; she was nothing like her Dam after all. "How about until your Sire and brothers get back? Can you talk all the time for a few days?" That should be enough for him to confirm whether he really liked not talking, or whether he just thought that because it was all he ever did.

Thaw nodded, and after a moment of silence remembered to speak. "Yes, I can do that."

"Good," Pearl purred. "Now, what do you want to do for the rest of today? I have no ideas." This was going to be a great few days, and she felt light enough to float off the ground if she just spread her wings, like she was gliding on a strong wind. She had not failed her son after all!

Three days later, Ember landed in front of their family cave, flanked on both sides by his older sons, and burdened with plenty of supplies, his front paws gripping animal skin bags.

Pearl and Thaw were there to greet them, having seen them fly in. Out of the corner of her eye, Pearl could see Thorn and Herb, along with Silva, heading over. Storm and her children were nowhere to be found, and actually had been scarce for the entire time Ember was gone, but they were probably around somewhere, doing something they did not want widely known yet. Given Thunder and Lightning, that spelled trouble, but Storm would not let it get too out of hand.

"Sire is back!" Thaw yipped, rushing Ember.

Ember dropped his burdens and dropped onto all fours, nuzzling Thaw almost worriedly. "Is something wrong?" He was not used to Thaw speaking so casually, and took it to mean Thaw was far more excited than he actually was.

Pearl knew exactly what was happening, because it had taken her almost the entire first day after her talk with Thaw to get used to that adjustment herself. When a dragon who only talked when it was important suddenly started talking all the time, it triggered a lot of confusion at first. Hearing Thaw saying 'I am going to go relieve myself' was particularly disconcerting, because him announcing that made it seem very important to him, under his old reasoning for speaking.

"No, I am just talking more," Thaw announced. "Dam wanted me to."

Ember cast Pearl a wary look. She shook her head, delaying most of her explanation until later. "I made a little discovery. Thaw is fine, we are just trying something out."

"So…" Spark looked down at Thaw. "You actually say stuff now?"

"Yes." Thaw shrugged his wings. "Does it matter?"

"I like it," Beryl announced. "We don't get to hear your deep, impressive voice often enough," he added, sounding fairly serious.

"It is quite impressive," Ember agreed thoughtfully. "I would have loved to sound like that in my childhood."

Pearl was pretty sure he meant his No-scaled-not-prey childhood, given nobody but Thorn and Herb had been around to hear him in his dragon childhood.

"Thanks?" Thaw said, purring slightly. "What did you sound like?"

"You know what, my No-scaled-not-prey body still sounds the same," Ember answered. "So you already know."

"Nasally and sarcastic," Beryl agreed. "I would have it no other way."

"Ha," Ember retorted, shifting as he did, "ha." He crouched and grabbed both bags of supplies with his hands, and laboriously dragged them into the cave. Thaw followed, not at all surprised by the change. He was already beginning to pick up the language of No-scaled-not-prey too, though his voice did not have the subtle accent yet.

"I really do like it better this way," Beryl said seriously. "I thought he was just quiet. Was there something else going on?"

Pearl nodded. "There was, in a way. I don't think he'll be this talkative forever, but he won't go back to the way he was before, not entirely." She would take comfort in the knowledge that no matter what, Thaw was not hurt by some mistake of hers. She was nothing like her Dam, and never would be.

Author's Note: Yeah. Lots of little problems with this one. It's too sad for Pearl, requiring setup that strained credulity, framing Thaw's taciturn nature as a bad thing, tainting what I wanted to be a value-neutral personality trait with the sins of the past and present sorrow. It gave him reasons for something that I realized I didn't want him to have reasons for. It was helpful in that it showed me the right path by blocking out a bad one, but really only in that respect. Something akin to this might have happened in canon, but not to this degree. This isn't Thaw as he is in canon, it's someone who might have looked very much like him at one point.