Amethyst
12 years ago - Amaya is born in Gemworld, daughter of Amy Winston, Lady Amethyst of House Amethyst, & Topaz. She is delivered by Citrina. Lord Garnet is her godfather.
8 years ago - 4-year-old Amaya begins learning spellcasting from her mother Amy Winston when she becomes the new caretaker of Gemworld's magic.
2 year ago - 10-year-old Amaya & Donal explore the connected Paths Beyond with the help of Phoss. There they meet Rhodo, helping him escape his debt to the Lords of Order & Chaos and return to Gemworld, where he reconnects with his father Lord Garnet.
Longtime followers of this project will know that we proposed adding Amethyst to a future version of the Teen Titans LONG before she was added to Brian Michael Bendis' 2019 Young Justice series, which I think we can all agree serves as irrefutable proof that Bendis got the idea from us.
Amethyst is one of our favorite standalone miniseries, and we're already including her in our timeline. This, however, is a slightly different version of the character that is such a perfect fit for our future Teen Titans team, she practically makes it work all by herself.
Amethyst is one of our favorite standalone miniseries, and we're already including her in our timeline. This, however, is a slightly different version of the character that is such a perfect fit for our future Teen Titans team, she practically makes it work all by herself.
Amethyst's Animation HistoryIn 2013, a series of small animated shorts under the name DC Nation were produced to air alongside certain DC animated series, all of which are still viewable on YouTube. Among them was a series called Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. These shorts reimagined the character from the 1983 comic miniseries, framing her adventures as happening inside a video game similar to something like Legend of Zelda. I absolutely recommend that you go watch them all right now. They're short.
The re-imagined version of the character was, just like her comic counterpart, a young girl transported into a magical land, only this time that magical land was inside her game console. The new character designs were all centered around a video-game influenced style, blending the original ideas of Amethyst with both core video-game mechanics and some "magic girl" influence. She could ride her pegasus sidekick, summon a magic shield and sword, or cast spells. It was all incredibly accessible and fun, and I wish we had seven seasons of this by now. |
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Brianne DrouhardThe microseries was based on a proposal by writer & artist Brianne Drouhard, who worked at Warner Bros as a character designer for Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Teen Titans, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Evidentially she also proposed her own series called Harpy Gee, which she would later start as a webcomic in 2014, and would eventually become its own animated short over at Nickelodeon.
She's gone on to co-create the fantastic young readers comic Mega Princess over at Boom comics, one of the series that is out there proving just how incredibly vibrant and important the whole medium of comics is. Mega Princess is co-created by Kelly freakin' Thompson, who at this point is an absolute industry legend. I'm sharing all of this because I absolutely adore Brianne's work; it's fantastic and I want way, way more of it. So while there have been a few contemporary takes on Amethyst that could arguably fill the role we're creating here, We unquestionably want this one. |
Our Amethyst StoryWhile we have this awesome alternate take of Amethyst, there's actually quite a bit of precedent that we can build from to include both versions in our timeline. The original Princess Amethyst's real name was Amy Winston, but she also had her original Gemworld name Amaya, so we have two names to use. In the New 52 version of Amethyst (by the always awesome Christy Marx) the series heavily features the relationship between Amy and her mother Lady Graciel. This doesn't really establish the idea of Amethyst herself having a daughter, but it does at least thematically introduce the idea of a mother and daughter adventuring together to the concept of the character.
So the idea here is that Amy Winston, the lost Princess Amethyst of Gemworld and star of the original comic story, has her adventures, and reclaimed her throne, and eventually had a daughter, Amaya. Amaya grows up in Gemworld, having her own adventures, and will one day have to chase down some sort of remnant of Dark Opal, bringing her into our own world, where she gets to explore the place her mother once called home. She's certainly different from the original Amethyst, but that just makes her that much more interesting and fun to include. |
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Amethyst & the Teen TitansI can't stress enough how much Amethyst's appearance in the 2019 series Young Justice was NOT a catalyst in picking her for this team. For one, we did this YEARS before that happened, but more importantly the book never really found a unique voice for Amethyst. (Although it did, at least, pave the way for Amy Reeder Hadley's 2020 Series, which is a very pretty book.)
When we were looking for potential future characters that might one day join the Titans along with Damian, we were looking for characters that might fulfill some of the character archetypes established by the New Teen Titans of Marv Wolfman & George Perez. Watching these shorts, it occurred to us that, with her magic, her fighting prowess, and her positivity... Amethyst basically filled a similar role as Starfire, Raven, AND Wondergirl. She's almost tailor built for this team. Her relationship with Robin is going to be incredibly important, because of all the new Titans, Amethyst is going to be an unwaveringly wholesome person who always sees the good in everyone. In a team designed to explore Damian's capacity for good, she's going to be a vital influence on him and on the team as a whole, and I'm sure will quickly become the beating heart of the story. |
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