Work Text:
Disclaimer: I'm relating very hard to Sophie so sometimes, I'm gonna tell things about me but most of the time I'm going to defend her without my pov. Also, it's alright when you don't like her character in general, but please don't say these things, but before that, a little summary from Sophie's life till chapter one in elysian:
0: THE LIFE OF SOPHIE ELIZABETH FOSTER
Sophie Elizabeth Foster, is born ca. 2000 in California, parents Emma and will Foster. Ca. Three years later, her parents got another daughter, called Amy rose Foster. Beside looking nothing like her parents, they thought she's their child. In the age of 5, she had a accident cuz she saw a boy (who was in the neverseen) by which Mr forkle unlocked her Telepathy. At the same day (or the week, I dunno) her kindergarden principal said she should skip to fifth grade (again: girl is five). We know also that when she was nine, she inflicted accidentally on Amy, forkle and physics wanted to gave Sophie limbium and she had an allergic reaction but it worked and her inflicting got set up again. At the age of twelve she got a stipendium for Yale but her parents didn't want to go her there (lil opinion: I don't think you should forbid a prodigy (even when she's twelve) to go on a school like that, most of the time she's probably better there and we all know: her parents said things like "why isn't she like her sister" or "she isn't normal". I know they probably loved her but still).
Okay, my head doesn't get the words so here's just the kotlc summary from fandom-wiki, the problem is that I need to literally summarise the whole plot and cuz I don't get that on it, here:
Book 1: Keeper of the Lost Cities
Sophie is an unusual 12-year-old child prodigy with the ability to read minds. Eventually, a boy named Fitz meets her and reveals that she is not a human, but an elf. She goes to the Lost Cities, where the elves live and learns about how Alden, Fitz's father, was searching for her. This eventually leads to her having to leave behind her human family to live in the Lost Cities with the other elves. Sophie starts attending a school called Foxfire where she makes friends and enemies. As she starts adapting to the Lost Cities, she starts growing closer to her adoptive parents Grady and Edaline. However, due to several dangerous situations Sophie finds herself in, Grady and Edaline cancel her adoption proceedings. Shortly after this, her friend Biana is revealed to have only become friends with Sophie due to her father, Alden's, pressuring. This leads to a fallout between the two of them, and Sophie runs away from Foxfire to the caves where she practiced alchemy with her best friend, Dex. Dex follows her there and the two end up getting kidnapped. After getting rescued, they find their way back to the Lost Cities, but Sophie ends up nearly dying. She and Dex were saved by Fitz, Biana, and Keefe after Sophie kept transmitting pleas for help to Fitz. Sophie wakes up at Fitz and Biana's house Everglen weeks later and repairs her relationships with Biana, Grady, and Edaline. It is revealed that she manifested two other abilities, Inflictor and Polyglot. Although she was on trial for things she did before her kidnapping, she was dismissed of all charges and chose to stay with Grady and Edaline. Her kidnappers, however, have yet to be caught.
Book 2: Exile
The first part of the book sees Sophie finding an extremely rare Alicorn. Throughout the book, they develop a special connection. Silveny, the alicorn, accompanies Sophie and Keefe when they travel to the Black Swan's secret hideout later in the book. In the hideout, Sophie is finally fully healed from her mental "malfunction" she got when she faded away in Keeper of the Lost Cities. At the end, she heals Alden's mind, discovering that she can accomplish this by herself.
Book 3: Everblaze
Sophie becomes closer to the Black Swan in this book, having meetings with them throughout. She discovers that Brant is a Pyrokinetic, one of her kidnappers and Jolie's murderer. The majority of the Council turns against her after she tries to read the ogre king's mind. She ends up with an Ability Restrictor, which Dex had built not knowing it would be used on Sophie. Her friends went with the Black Swan to Mount Everest and she soon joined them. At the end of the book, she leaves with Dex, Biana, Fitz, and Keefe to go join the Black Swan.
Book 4: Neverseen
In this book, Sophie and her closest friends from the Lost Cities go to join the Black Swan and find out about the Neverseen. The ogres, who have allied with the Neverseen, unleash a plague that infects the gnomes. At her time at Exillium, she meets the twins, Tam and Linh. They also discover that Alvar is a member of the Neverseen and that Fintan is alive.
Book 5: Lodestar
In this book, Sophie and her friends return to the Lost Cities. Sophie struggles to maintain her relationship with Keefe, now that he joined the Neverseen to work as a double agent. Under the assumption Grady and Edaline are in danger, Sophie forgets that she has another set of parents. She takes a journey to the Forbidden Cities, only to find out her parents have gone missing. When Sophie discovers her sister hiding in a closet, she is forced to break the law and take Amy to the Lost Cities to protect her.
Book 6: Nightfall
In this book, Sophie is on a mission to get her human family back. Her human sister, Amy, is hidden by her replacement guardians, Quinlin and Livvy. Sophie, with the help of her friends and the Black Swan and other unexpected members, go on the tough journey to gain back her family. They run into unimaginable beasts at the "second" Nightfall and a mysterious prisoner from Lumenaria.
Book 7: Flashback
In this book, Sophie is severely physically and mentally injured by the Neverseen who used Shadowflux, gaining more bodyguards and having training sessions. Fitz and Sophie confess their feelings to each other. Silveny gives birth to twins, who unfortunately were born underdeveloped, but are saved by being incubated in a troll hive. The Vacker Legacy is revealed; Luzia and Empress Pernille had been hiding modified, super-intelligent troll newborns, who cause the death of Umber and kill many other ogre soldiers. Lady Gisela forces Tam to join the Neverseen, much to Sophie's horror. Sophie decides to register for matchmaking for Fitz. She is, however, discovered to be unmatchable at the end of the book, because of her unknown biological parents.
Book 8: Legacy
In this book, Sophie becomes a part of Team Valiant and a Regent. Mr. Forkle restores her other missing memory and Sophie resets her abilities, and her Inflicting and Enhancing become much stronger. Sophie, Keefe, and Fitz ambush Lady Gisela in London, but Tam escapes with Gisela. Sophie and Keefe take over Fitz's project to search Cassius's memories and are able to recover two shattered memories. The two also find Alvar, whom they allow to escape in exchange for information on Keefe's Legacy. Sophie wants to find out who her biological parents are; after discovering Oralie is her biological mother, she decides to stop searching. She and Fitz have a fight, and they break up. Following finding a note from the Neverseen to meet them in Loamnore, Sophie creates a new plan to take the Neverseen by surprise. Keefe is forced to complete his Legacy and is put into a coma, so Sophie takes him to the Healing Center. Later, she and Fitz make up, but decide to remain just friends. Oralie promises to help Sophie recover the secrets in her cache, in hopes that they will help wake up Keefe
Book 8.5: Unlocked
In this book, Sophie unlocks Oralie's cache. She talks with Keefe after he wakes up, and he tells Sophie to stay away from him because of his new ability. Sophie goes to Candleshade and talks with Fitz and Lord Cassius. They decide to meet with Glimmer the next day. She leads Fitz, Sophie, and Biana to the Neverseen's Storehouse. Sophie collects Kenric's cache among a few other items and sets a fire to the storehouse. When the group returns to Solreef, Sophie gets reprimanded by Tiergan and Grady and talks to Mr. Forkle.
Book 9: Stellarlune
In this book, it shows Sophie's reaction to Keefe's note left at the end of Unlocked. Sophie finds Ro and they go to Lord Cassius's house to find out some info on where Keefe is. Cassius shows Sophie some of his memories of Lady Gisela, showing she is a Conjurer. Sophie eventually realizes it would do Keefe better if she left him in the Forbidden Cities. Sophie's friends are upset that she has burned down the Neverseen Storehouse, and they go confront Glimmer. Glimmer is revealed to be Rayni Aria.
Hope it was alright, but I'm a lil bad in summary lol
1: WHY SHE ISN'T A MARY SUE
So, people say that because she has like five abilities. I would argue that it's just her protagonist thing, it's the chosen one trope.
But for the people who really think that; she has subjects she isn't good at and where she struggles really hard (Alchemy, reading), people don't like her (I also saw that someone said they don't like how everyone who doesn't like Sophie is getting antagonised....uh, maybe cuz it's from her pov but okay....) sometimes, she isn't easily getting away with things, especially in the first four books. Yes, the last one not really anymore - cuz the council knows now that when they'll punish her, it'll prove black Swans point basically?
Anyway, idk and actually don't care if that whataboutism but Keefe is lowkey the Mary sue (A male Mary Sue it's also called Gary stu just as fun fact i will call him mary sue the rest of the time) here.
Like, he skipped whole first grade, is getting every excuse, is nailing everything on first try/very fast and I could say so much more but we're skipping to the next point:
2: "PICK ME GIRL" OR GIRL HATE?
People say Sophie's a pick me cuz she doesn't like makeup and 'girly clothing' and is 'jealous'. Okay, makeup and more 'girly clothing is literally a personal preference - I also doesn't like it. But I have so hard respect for the girls that can do it - like Sophie. She adores her female friends and is like 'holy, how can you be so beautiful??'. By biana, Linh and marella. Her friends. And correct me if I'm wrong but I saw in book five (I doesn't have the books here, when I find it, I'm updating it) one scene were she was jealous - and she didn't do anything toxic and on seven thousand pages one time jealousy? That's a statistic Level saint!
3: BAD(DASS) LEADER
I've seen very often the argument that Sophie is a bad leader and....no.
the people around her are just idiots. She was every time a good leader and nobody listened to her, and as she got more though you could see more clear because they were a lil annoyed from being now really 'forced' to do that. I cannot say more lol
4: GOTTA SECRET, WHY SHE KEEPS IT?
"Sophie hates when people have secrets but she has her own"
Okay, I feel like Sophie had two times a secret:
One in book 4, hiding that Gisela was probably dead
And the other is her bio mum being oralie.
The first one was to doesn't give Keefe more sorrows. Yes, he had the right to lash out - but Sophie was understandable.
Second one is her bio mum needed to kept secret. her genetics. her 'family'. And she has it secret not only cuz of that, but also cuz it's better if it's secret.
The times they (black Swan, council) had secrets from her she was upset cuz most of the time it was personal for her. When we say Fitz can get upset in the 2. Book cuz his dad almost died/had a mindbreak, we also need to say Sophie can get upset when personal things get shut down for her.
Tbf I'll give you the Keefe-thing but not the other one.
5: GREAT-FOSTER-OBLIVION VS ANNOYING VS TRAUMA
when people call it obnoxious they need to know one thing: it's trauma. She got bullied in school till she got out of the Elvin world and by her own family she also barely felt good. Of course she doesn't think that they really could be in her. Her self-esteem is non-existent.
6: BAD FRIEND?
I heard that Sophie is a bad friend for Dex cuz she 'ignored him'. I don't think so. First: that are teens it's normal to have friendships that sometimes are more active, sometimes not, second: she had a functional depression in book six. Second he was also working this stuff. He didn't even have time!
7: FORSTER'S NEW ATTITUDE
I hate it being called attitude while it's literally trauma but I'll try to explain it:
She got in the eight book the information who her biological mother is and was OF COURSE upset and feeled betrayed. Her biological mother is a councillor, not only she's isn't allowed to have kids, but also she could do so much for her daughter or could step down from council and Sophie trusted her. And the trust got - and I need to say that word - abused. It sounds dramatic but the trust doesn't got protected, but killed.
When she burned down the storehouse, she tried to set a sign and got more baddass. That's the thing you can criticise though I love this scene.
She is harder now cuz there's no other option! Nobody listened to her, not the council, not black Swan - okay, they sometimes - not her friends. It's not an 'attitude' it's important!
8: STUPIDITY
I heard very often that Sophie is stupid. Okay, emotional intelligence is not her thing, yes. But it ISN'T intelligence. She had maybe one moment that wasn't smart - but in general, she is smart, like really smart. Just nobody is listening to her and it goes wrong.
9: THE FANDOM
I find it wild how the protagonist is underrated in her own series. Everyone is talking about Keefe and (tbh) Fitz but Sophie? At this point she's just a prise for most.
I find it really sad. She's such a well written character.
I have more stuff on this list but I can't get the right English words, maybe I'm making new points also when I get them in words, till then, you can bring your points in the comments, love y'all and if you read Percy Jackson....
Klick on this link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/87260301
It's a really good text <3
Luv y'all 💛