Random thoughts on Garth and Ayla.
Twins in the real-world tend to get heartily sick of the whole 'dress them identically, aren't they so precious' thing at a young age, and begin to define themselves apart from their sibling, wanting to be recognized and valued for themselves as individuals and not as 'unit 1 of 2' or 'the one on the left.'
In some cases, this turns into a situation where one of them becomes the 'outgoing, confident' one, and the other becomes the 'quiet, passive' one.
In the case of the Ranzz twins, Garth is being portrayed as focused, loyal enough to appeal to a girlfriend who doesn't have to ever wonder what her boyfriend is thinking and idealistic. He's clearly an optimist. Just as a lightning bolt is an impressive and flashy and focused display of otherwise unimpressive ambient electricity, Garth tends to zero in on something and expect the best situation, and the best from people (leading him to potential disappointment or missteps, such as his hasty signing of the UP documents).
Ayla is very much not an optimist, having a more cynical view of people, and, if one were to define her by her powers, seems to float like a feather on the wind through relationships, and through points of view. She's actively contrary, like trying to catch a dandelion seed, only to have it float away every time you snatch at it, pushed away by the air pressure from your hand. When everyone is pro-Supergirl, she's the one pointing out the negatives. When people dump her with the Kandorians / Rokyn / whatever, Ayla's the one saying, 'hey!' and disapproving of this as well. Growing up with Garth as a brother, she was likely the one who had to 'let him down softly' when he expected the most of someone and was disappointed, since she was more cynical (she would say more *realistic*) and didn't expect the best out of everyone. (I wonder if Mekt has anything to do with this attitude. Perhaps she was once trusting and loyal as well, and a family blow-out with Mekt left her unwilling to do that again.)
But, Mekt aside, Ayla most likely gets her attitude from growing up with Garth. He's the trusting one who dives into life full-throttle, and she plays 'big sister' and casts a wary eye on people, watching out for those who would not only hurt her, but her brother as well, since, in her opinion, he doesn't look so hard at the people around him. She's developed as a person to counter-balance him, and in so doing, encouraged him to go even further in his own direction. Like some twin-pairs, they end up occupying extremes, and being balanced out / moderated by each others 'gravity.'
Ironically, this train of thought of mine had nothing to do with the Ranzz's. I was wondering what sort of conversation occured between the three members of Triad after the incident with Element Lad. I doubt very much that they can keep secrets from each other, and yet I suspect as well that, like twins, the longer they remain in seperate bodies, the more 'apart' they grow. After they recombine, they equalize a bit, but once they seperate again, they quickly start veering back into whatever sort of individuals they are becoming. At some point, particularly if one of them begins engaging in acts the other two don't approve of, will the 'lone wolf' feel increasingly unwilling to recombine with her sister-selves?
It will be interesting to see if Element Lad can even tell them apart. It's been established that on their home-world, they all functioned as individuals, and that they *choose* to merge. They aren't a single person who can split into three, they are three people capable of forming into a gestalt, which begs the question of whether or not one, or more, of them is becoming less and less interested in being 'one of three' and wants to be an individual and live her own life. How will the other two react? What if one of them is emotionally co-dependent on her sister-selves and cannot deal with the 'seperation anxiety' / abandonment issues provoked by the notion of own of them leaving for good? These are girls who've been rejected from their own species, from the warm embrace of a 'family unit' like we can't even imagine, so it would hardly be surprising if one or more of them have enough 'issues' to stock a magazine rack...
Will it develop that everytime they have suggested to merge to settle something, like who had the 'best time ever' on their tri-date, or to resolve their 'rock, scissors, paper' impasse, it was the same 'sister' who wanted to merge, not because it was necessarily the best solution, but because she's most comfortable in the embrace of her sister-selves?
Will it turn out that one of them is the 'natural leader' who prompted them to learn coordinated martial arts techniques and team gymnastics and such? Is another a natural follower? Is one a wannabe individual, increasingly frustrated by her inability to 'get away' from her sister-selves?
At first, I would have suspected an easy 'Ego, Superego, Id' thing with Triad, but I see little evidence of that, which is kinda refreshing.
Shadow Lass and Ultra Boy and Shrinking Violet have the 'Id' thing covered, it seems.
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