Penance Adair/Amalia True

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Pairing
Pairing: Penance Adair/Amalia True
Alternative name(s): Truedair, Trudair, Truepenance
Gender category: F/F, femslash
Fandom: The Nevers
Canonical?: Non-canon
Prevalence: Popular (within the small fandom)
Archives: Penance Adair/Amalia True tag at AO3
Other:
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Penance Adair/Amalia True, also referred to by the portmanteau Truedair, is a non-canon femslash pairing in The Nevers fandom. They were partners in running Saint Romaulda's – a repurposed orphanage – where many of those who developed abilities, referred to as turns in canon, lived. Fans of the pairing shipped them practically from their first shared scene and the popularity of the pairing within the small fandom grew throughout the season.

As the show's cancellation came after the final six episodes were filmed, various new story-lines were introduced that were not fully resolved by the season finale. This included having a last-episode conflict between Amalia and Penance, which would have set them up to be in opposition for season two if it had occurred. Some fans felt that there were indications that an eventual romantic relationship between the pair was being set up for season two.

The majority of fanworks for the pairing are canon compliant or canon compatible, including missing scenes, scene continuations, and canon-divergent works.

Canon

Penance Adair and Amalia True were partners in running St Romaulda's Orphanage. They sought out, protected, and rescued other people with extra abilities or 'turns' – people with turns are called the Touched in canon – and offered them safe haven at the orphanage. They had a close relationship, with flashbacks revealing that Penance was one of the first people to join Amalia at St Romaulda's. Both took on roles of responsibility for others at the orphanage, albeit with two very different approaches in-keeping with their personalities.

Ann Skelly: I love Penance and Amalia’s relationship, I love exploring all the potentials and the fact that the friendship can just go deeper and deeper and deeper and expand further off that.

Ann Skelly, The Wrap interview [1]


In the fifth and sixth episodes, a minor conflict occurred between Amalia and Penance, with them taking different positions on how to best move forward with the growing hostility towards the Touched. However, even with this disagreement, Amalia was shown to look out for Penance by asking someone she trusted to protect her during her mission.

After their closeness was established throughout the first half of the season, the growing tensions in London and the subsequent events of the second half of the season led to multiple attempts by Amalia to push Penance away or otherwise keep her at a distance, particularly as Amalia struggled with the interaction of her turn and her PTSD. The season ended, after the tragic deaths of multiple characters, with Amalia and Penance at odds over how various events played out, including how many more people were given turns by the Galanthi – the creature from Amalia's future who caused the Touched to develop their additional abilities in the first place.

The final scenes saw Penance go to Augustus 'Augie' Bidlow, who had been positioned as her potential canonical love interest early on in the season and who – known to the audience, but not the characters – became a secondary antagonist by the final episodes of the show. As the show was cancelled, this meant that Amalia and Penance ended the show divided.

Fandom

From the very first episode, fans were drawn to the chemistry between Amalia and Penance. The show also seemed to give fans plenty to work with, as the opening scene of the pair together started with what would become a much referenced back-and-forth between the two characters both in canon and in fanworks:

Penance: (greeting) Mrs True.

Amalia: Miss Adair.

Penance: You look very fine today.

Amalia: I think so, too.

alright so i started the nevers and amalia and penance are definitely a couple[2]

Most of the 100 fanworks for the show on Archive of Our Own as of May 2024, have the romantic or platonic relationship between Amalia and Penance as the focus of the work. The pairing is also equally popular within the fandom on spaces like Tumblr, where meta and GIF sets are more common. The personality types of the pair are well suited to the trope of the Grumpy One and the Sunshine One, which also drew fans to the pairing.

Shipping Fuel

There are a number of scenes and aspects of canon which fans suggest indicated that the show might explore a romantic relationship between the pairing. While other fans were not convinced they were hinting towards a canonical relationship, they were more than happy to use them as shipping fuel for the pairing and, as a result, some of these scenes feature in many fanworks.

  • In one of the early episodes, both Penance and another character, Mary Bright, are kidnapped by Maladie, one of the antagonists. While Mary was kidnapped because of the potential power of her turn, Penance was kidnapped specifically because she was known to be the most important person to Amalia, even by her enemies.
  • Amalia was severely injured during the events of Penance and Mary's rescue and there was an emotionally charged scene when Amalia was being treated for her injuries between Amalia and Penance. The scene ended with the pair lying in each others' arms on the bed.
  • During one mission, an opium cart was set alight and Penance inadvertently inhaled the fumes, leading to her talking in nonsensical statements and being much more physically demonstrative with Amalia than usual, including caressing her face. This scene in particular has been the basis for a number of fanworks for the pairing.
would pay actual real human dollars for a fanfic that is just the continuation we deserve of Penance being high and adorable and fully unable to stop herself from being way too gay at Amalia who is fond ugh can you tell this is my favorite trope????[3]

  • Despite Amalia and Penance being at odds over whether to save Maladie's life or not in episodes five and six, Amalia still made sure that someone she trusted – Su Ping Lim – went with Penance, with explicit instructions to protect her.
  • There were numerous scenes where Penance was the only person who could support Amalia with her anxiety and PTSD, with Amalia being portrayed as becoming visibly calmer and grounded when she received physical contact from Penance. Penance was also the character who noticed small changes in Amalia, including that her turns were changing and that her PTSD symptoms were increasing.
  • In the mid-season arc, when Amalia reached the Galanthi and it would not communicate with her, she became angered and shouted at it, including the line, “I left my heart to come talk to you, talk to me.” With the canonical framing and events preceding this scene, the only person it made sense for Amalia to be calling "my heart" was Penance.
Amalia even refers to Penance as her “Heart” when talking to the Gahlanthi. She never refers to anyone else that way. TruDair is true love! ❤️❤️ and I REALLY hope the show takes it that way!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️[4]

  • In the episode based in Amalia's original timeline – where she is referred to by her military role, Stripe – it was established that telling someone your real name was a deeply intimate and personal act, so much so that Stripe informed another character that she was married to two people and did not tell either of them her name. She then told Penance her real name, Zephyr Alexis Navine, in episode six (which is set back in the main Victorian timeline). In episode eleven, there was a call-back to this moment, further establishing the value placed on telling someone your true name in Zephyr's time.
  • In episode eleven, during a scene where Mary told Amalia, "We never really know what we're living for until we know what we'd die for", the scenes of Mary and Amalia talking were intercut with scenes of Penance.
  • The only time Amalia tried to change the outcome of her turn was to save Penance's life in the season finale. Prior to this, Amalia accepted that the visions of the future she saw would always come to pass. As a result, she deliberately changed plans to avoid Penance being where Amalia's visions showed Penance's death occurring, resulting in Amalia taking Penance's place and sustaining fatal injuries. While Amalia was ultimately survived, through intervention from the Galanthi, she did not know that would happen so willingly sacrificed herself for Penance.
  • When Amalia was dying, Penance spoke the following as a final goodbye while holding Amalia's hand, "I'll hold you in my heart for as long as it's beating. And until my last breath. I'll tell everyone your name who comes after. If that's alright. Zephyr Alexis Navine. Who laid down her life for her friends. Death shall have no dominion. Not for us."[5]
  • Promotional tarot cards for The Nevers were commissioned by HBO, illustrated by Rachel Jablonski. Amalia and Penance were the moon and sun cards respectively. Throughout various forms of literacy and media in history, the sun and moon have been used as symbolism for love.

Common Tropes in Fanworks

  • Injuries or being in danger as hurt/comfort - Canonically, this happens multiple times, so it is no surprise it translates to fanworks. Amalia getting injured or Penance being at risk of being harmed both crop up, and GIF works and fan vids often include the scenes from canon where Amalia is injured and Penance is in danger.
  • The Grumpy One and the Sunshine One - This one is fairly canonical as well, with Amalia True's gruff and trouble soldier playing the foil to Penance Adair's optimistic and sunny outlook; these characterisations features heavily in fanworks.
  • Queerplatonic - Given the way the relationship is portrayed in canon, this crosses over into fanworks, with a number of works focusing on a relationship that is not easily defined as romantic or platonic and is left to the reader's interpretation.

Example Fanworks

Fanfic

Fan Art

Fanvids

GIF Sets

Archives and Communities

References

  1. ^ ‘The Nevers’: Laura Donnelly and Ann Skelly on Amalia’s Origin Story, That Galanthi Vision and Part 2 Plans - The Wrap
  2. ^ theredrunnaway on Tumblr
  3. ^ unresolvedresolute at Tumblr
  4. ^ sinfulsaint34 on Tumblr
  5. ^ The Nevers 1x12: Amalia is dying (Laura Donnelly/Ann Skelly/TruePenance) by mosovanhe
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