Lady Turquoise
33 years ago - Princess Turquoise is born to House Turquoise of Gemworld.
32 years ago - 1-year-old Princess Turquoise's house allies itself with Dark Opal after the fall of House Amethyst.
21 years ago - 12-year-old Princess Turquoise parents are killed by Dark Opal's forces. She becomes the new Lady Turquoise, and begins secretly preparing her house for rebellion against Dark Opal.
17 years ago - 16-year-old Lady Turquoise meets Amy Winston when she comes to House Turquoise to unite the houses of Gemworld. She allies their houses, becoming Amy's trusted lieutenant.
16 years ago - 17-year-old Lady Turquoise leads her house in the assault on the castle of Dark Opal.
14 years ago - 19-year-old Lady Turquoise is Amy Winston's maid of honor.
7 years ago - 26-year-old Lady Turquoise adopts Donal as her ward and squire.
1 year ago - 32-year-old Lady Turquoise's house is attacked by Eclipso, inflicting heavy casualties on her armies. She & Amy Winson journey deep into the heart of Gemworld to unlock its hidden elemental magic.
I've made references in a few places about how much I think the characters of Gemworld would have been an incredible line of toys. Some of them would probably have worked out better than others, but I am dead-certain that of all of them, Lady Turquoise would have FLOWN off the shelves. This character was incredibly cool, and I actually don't think even the comics managed to really do her justice.
Lady Turquoise's Comic HistoryWe met Lady Turquoise in issue #7 of the original Amethyst Maxi-Series, when Amy & Lord Garnet show up at the wedding of Topaz & Sapphire. She's one of the many attendees of the wedding, visibly fed up with everyone's blind allegance to House Opal and drowning her frustration in wine. Also, she wore a dress that featured plate armor to a wedding. When Amethyst appears she IMMEDIATELY announces her intention to join her, crying "I will stand with you my princess! Let Lady Turquoise be your strong right arm!" As the series continues, Turquoise is just that, a pillar of unfaltering strength supporting Amethst cause.
One of the biggest changes to happen when the story of Amethyst & Gemworld transitioned from the original Maxi-Series to the following ongoing series in 1985 was that Amy was often disconnected from the other characters on her own adventures, which meant changes in many of the relationship dynamics. The biggest of these was Lady Turquoise, who was set up as the new romantic foil for Topaz as the series tried to steer away from the problematic Topaz/Amethyst pairing. Turquoise was suddenly and jarringly depicted very differently, in long flowing diaphanous gowns and quietly weeping in longing for Topaz. There was still the occasional appearance of her classic persona, but they read more like references than anything current. |
Our Lady Turquoise StoryIf our version of Gemworld and it's characters are going to try to live up to the potential for what they felt like they could have been, then Lady Turquoise should really be one of the most important of Amy's supporters. In the 2020 Amy Reeder series, Amy describes Turquoise as her best friend, and that really is what she should be; and absolute rock for our hero and an unwavering champion for her best friend. By not sidetracking the character into a completely different personality, we can keep her original role.
In the 1987 four-issue Giffen/Newell miniseries that takes us briefly into the future of Gemworld we meet the children of Turquoise & Topaz, one of whom is the young heroic lad Donal. Because our timeline is going to feature Amy's daughter Amaya, we thought it would be fun to give her a few supporting characters of her own, and Donal seemed a very good option. We've made him the adopted son and ward of Lady Turquoise, because the idea of Amy & Turquoise's children becoming best friends just felt like it had the perfect Leslie Knope & Ann Perkins energy we wanted. |