Emma Barnes

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Emma Barnes</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

<label>Status</label><format>

Deceased

</format>

<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>Emma Barnes is the daughter of Alan and Zoe Barnes and the younger sister of Anne Barnes. Once a best friend to Taylor Hebert, Emma would later turn on Taylor and subject her to a brutal bullying campaign. Eventually culminating in Taylor becoming a parahuman.

Personality

Originally, Emma used to be a relatively nice individual, and was close with Taylor. However, an assault from ABB thugs traumatized Emma and changed her for the worse. Haunted by the traumatic experience, Emma became determined to be strong no matter what. Due to this, she had a great admiration for Sophia Hess, and, like Sophia, actively went out of her way to get rid of everything she saw as a weakness, including Taylor and her past friendship with her. When Emma took to bullying Taylor, she had taken much sadistic pleasure in doing so. Having once been Taylor's best friend and confident, Emma was very knowledgeable of Taylor's insecurities, weaknesses, habits, and secrets. She would use the information about her former friend to psychologically torture her, even going as far as using Annette's death to torment Taylor and even accuse her of being responsible for the death of her own mother.

Emma relished attention and was quite vain too, Her attractive appearance and charisma had allowed her to draw people to her with ease, and these traits would greatly aid Emma with her ambitions for popularity in high school. Emma also appeared to be quite sheltered and detached from reality, regularly using her father to shield herself from suffering any real disciplinary actions or consequences for her actions, and also diminished the suffering of her classmates who stayed in refugee camps as Brockton Bay was devastated by Leviathan, the Slaughterhouse Nine, and Echidna. Though Taylor was Emma's preferred target, she also bullied others (including a disabled girl at a photoshoot).

After Taylor was outed as Skitter, Emma was both shocked and horrified, and it is likely that her worldview had been utterly shattered. The reality that Taylor was a powerful supervillain (and thus vastly stronger than Emma and entirely capable of killing) had deeply disturbed Emma, and forced her to confront how close she was to goading Taylor into giving her a brutal and agonizing death. Emma was later reduced to trying to slander Taylor when investigators contacted people who knew Skitter's civilian identity. On several occasions, when she was stressed, she refused to leave her room for long periods of time.<ref name="I19">Interlude 19.z</ref><ref name="R1">Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref> This unhealthy habit would eventually lead to Emma's death during Gold Morning, as she had stayed in her room when Scion's rampage destroyed her family's home.

Relationships

Taylor Hebert

She was Taylor Hebert's best friend<ref name="1.1" />from grade one all the way through middle school<ref name="1.2" />. They alternated staying at each other's houses every weekend<ref name="1.2">Gestation 1.2</ref>. Alongside the Trio, she bullied Taylor mercilessly since the first day of high school<ref name="1.1" />.

As Taylor's life as a cape progressed, she felt herself grow increasingly indifferent and annoyed towards Emma and her shenanigans against her. Taylor contemplated attacking Emma at times, coming dangerously close to doing so when Emma attempted to bully her at Arcadia and used her mother to insult her. On that same day, Taylor took some pleasure in scaring Emma during the standoff with the heroes at Arcadia, using her to make a point to the heroes that they couldn't be entirely confident that she wouldn't hurt anyone. At the later stages of the standoff, Taylor looked upon the fearful Emma in the crowd, finding her pathetic and feeling offended by her mere presence. Taylor also contemplated killing Emma as well, before the heroes attempted to overtake her.

During Gold Morning, Taylor was surprised that Emma had died but wasn't very fazed by it. When Taylor came across the Barnes family in a refugee camp, she realized from the looks she was receiving from Emma's father and sister that they were placing blame on her for Emma's death. However, Taylor found this behavior to be very absurd, being under no such delusions that Emma's immediate safety was her responsibility more than it was theirs. She wondered why they were able to escape the destruction and Emma had not, then concluded that the Barnes family had most likely left Emma behind in order to save themselves. Refusing to humor the Barnes' belief in her being at fault for Emma's death, Taylor left without sparing a word.

The Trio

Emma was the informal leader of "the trio" consisting of herself, Madison Clements and Sophia Hess<ref name="1.1" />. She called Sophia her best friend,<ref name="1.2" /> despite Sophia's survivor philosophy leading Emma to assault one of her best friends from childhood just so Emma could prove her strength.<ref name="I19" />

Madison would later regret the actions she committed alongside the rest of the trio against Taylor, feeling responsible for the latter's descent into villainy and the people that had been hurt and killed as a result. It was likely Madison regretted her friendship with Emma to a significant extent if not completely.

Appearance

Emma was a tall, curvy redhead, who was pretty enough to do amateur modelling<ref name="1.1">Gestation 1.1</ref>. She apparently had a fairly developed body even at just 13 years old, with ABB thugs commenting on auctioning her off due to having 'tits'.<ref>Interlude 19.z</ref> She later dyed her hair blonde when moving to Arcadia High.<ref>Chrysalis 20.2</ref>

History

Background

During the summer before Emma started Winslow High, she was attacked by members of the Azn Bad Boys and was saved by Shadow Stalker after Emma fought back. After this traumatic event, she felt the need to purge everything about the old, "weak" her, which included her friendship with Taylor Hebert.

Emma then started bullying Taylor and used the psychological weaknesses Taylor had revealed to her when they were friends to hurt her. This bullying continued on for a year and a half before she, Madison, and Sophia started planning something big. After winter break, their plan was revealed to confine Taylor inside a locker full of used feminine hygiene products.<ref name="4.3">Shell 4.3</ref>

Emma made sure that no one tried to help Taylor out of the locker.<ref name="R2">I believe it comes up again towards the end of the arc. Emma pressured others to avoid the situation, not interfere or help or befriend Taylor. What Taylor took to be apathy on the part of the larger student body was actually more orchestrated behind the scenes. - Another Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

Story Start

The story opens with another act of harassment with Emma holding the door shut on Taylor while her friends douse the girl with juice.<ref name="1.1"/>

Post-Leviathan

She occasionally attempted to bully Taylor thereafter. She and her family were well off enough to flee the city.<ref name="9.6">Sentinel 9.6</ref> She also remained in contact with Sophia until her imprisonment.

Post-Echidna

In July Emma returns to Brockton Bay, and at her first day at Arcadia tries to bully Taylor. After everything she went through, including fighting the Slaughterhouse Nine and Coil, Taylor is able to ignore and resist Emma's taunts and instead manages to rile Emma up, to the point where Emma lashes out with physical violence. In the Principal's office, Emma is forced to contend with a principal who was already in Tattletale's pocket (though she and Taylor were both unaware), and Principal Howell looked through the records and discovered text messages Regent had forced Sophia to send, which outlined the years of bullying that Taylor had undergone. Howell decided to expel Emma from the Summer classes, and when Emma protested by saying that her dad was a lawyer, Howell simply responded that they would have many conversations. When the Wards led by Dragon and Defiant attacked the school, Emma was in the cafeteria when Dragon revealed Taylor's identity as Skitter. She became shocked upon hearing Taylor's confirmation, and afterwards when Taylor demonstrated her powers by making a centipede crawl on Emma's hand. When over 100 students sided with Taylor and tried to help her flee, Emma stood with her fists clenched muttering under her breath. Taylor couldn't waste effort to find out what she was saying, uncaring.

At some point, Director Tagg interviewed her and tried to persuade her to file charges against Taylor for an incident in which Taylor had punched her. While Emma's name was kept out of the media, word still got out of her involvement.

Gold Morning

Emma dies during Gold Morning<ref name="27.1"/><ref name="27.3">Extinction 27.3</ref> as a result of refusing to leave her room to evacuate.<ref name="R1"/> When Taylor encounters the Barneses at a refugee camp in Brockton Bay, Emma's father and sister look at her accusingly.<ref name="27.1">Extinction 27.1</ref> Later, Taylor visits Sophia in prison and tells her that Emma had died, but Sophia already knew.<ref name="27.3"/>

Fanart Gallery

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Image by Lonsheep
• Error creating thumbnail: File missing

Trivia

• The circumstances of her death have led some readers to speculate that Emma took her own life, but Wildbow says this is not what happened.<ref>Wildbow answering questions</ref>

References

<references/>

Site Navigation

Winslow High
Teachers	Mr. Gladly {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Mrs. Knott {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Mr. Quinlan {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Students	Taylor Hebert {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Greg Veder {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Sophia Hess {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Emma Barnes {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Madison Clements {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Charlotte {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}