Should there be other kids on the island than Diana?

[LordUltimus]

I'm pretty sure we've had this discussion before, but I'm opening it up again. Should Diana remain the only child on Paradise Island, or should she grow up alongside other girls who are the daughters of the adult Amazons? Or is it something that might be interesting in cartoons and alternate universes, but not the "mainstream" DCU?

[Gaius]

It's not an iron clad rule for me but I generally prefer Diana as the only child growing up on the island.

[Alpha]

Absolutely not. Diana is the child of the Amazons, the Idol of the amazons. The miracle in paradise. Her leaving Paradise Island isn't like any other amazon leaving. And a child should only be born after she leaves.

As for the complaints that Diana would grow up without any peers, yes, exactly. She should feel like she's the only girl in the world and constantly want to be treated like the other adults. And the Well of Souls is another way of doing what I've been hoping for years, that every few decades a few tortured lost female souls should find themselves on the shores of the Island and become amazons. Bringing with them knowledge of the forsaken world.

And some of them would arrive there while Diana is growinf up so she would have a romance with them, like Mala.

[Primal Slayer]

She should be the only child.

Something like Grails existence is fine since it was a dark secret and influenced by Darkseid.

[Sebastianne]

Not in Prime Earth... but hey I like the take in De Liz's WW, so is something to explore out of canon sometimes

[Fuzzy Mittens]

I think limiting the Amazons from having children is a dumb thing that comics went on to establish. The golden age stuff established other Amazons grew up with Diana and that every Amazon had the freedom to choose when they desired a child without having to get a man involved.

The whole 'their cursed to never concieve and all secretly pine for children' angle just never sat right with me.
Sure some writers were able to mine stuff from this like Simone establishing Amazons going insane with the desire for children and being put down lest their madness spread to others. Or writers like byrne and Hale using it to establish Diana temporarily winding up with a doppleganger who would temporarily grant her the joy of having a young companion for a matter of days before having them cruelly taken from her life.

But this is supposed to be a feminist paradise. Why hamper that with this need to add 'oh woe is me ive never known another child until i left the island' angst?

[Primal Slayer]

But this is supposed to be a feminist paradise. Why hamper that with this need to add 'oh woe is me ive never known another child until i left the island' angst?

Except thats literally Hippolyta and why Diana is created in the first place.

Diana may be Hippolytas daughter but she is everyones child to a degree. And later they have Donna who is a child on the island to help raise.

How are they having children? Are we going New52 where they are boarding nearby ships, sleeping with men, having babies and only keeping the girls?

[Fuzzy Mittens]

How are they having children? Are we going New52 where they are boarding nearby ships, sleeping with men, having babies and only keeping the girls?

Back in the golden age it was a thing that any Amazon could sculpt a baby from clay and Aphrodite would give it life.

[John Venus]

Yeah, the way it was done in the Golden Age, Diana being sculpted from clay wasn't treated as anything noteworthy. Aphrodite was like "Oh hey, you want a baby? Here you go."

[John Venus]

I don't mind Diana having a few kids of her own age to play around with when she grew up. Can't imagine the psychological impact of growing up with no other children around. Plus it was always weird to me that she grew up and had relations with women who would have known her since she was a child. Especially when characters like Io and Mala give off the vibe of being Diana's peer rather than senior. Diana should still be the first borne of the Amazons as that would keep her unique but afterwards Io, Mala and Nubia are born there and Donna is adopted by the Amazons.

I also wonder how willing mainstream culture is to allow the fantasy of a maternal virgin birth. People have always been able to roll with Dr Eldon Tyrell (Bladerunner), Dr Hamilton in JLU (Galatea) and any number of stories where a man creates a robot/clone/monster that they come to see as their own child. Even with WW alone there is this fixation on giving her a father figure of some kind. Even with Grail the emphasis is on her being Darkseid's child. The only example of a female character who gives a 'virgin birth' in mainstream popular fiction that I can think of is Wanda in Wanda Vision when she created both the twins and her own husband.

If it spares us anymore Amazon Baby Mama plot lines, I'm cool with the Amazons having developed technology or rituals that can allow them to have children but the process is specialized and can't be used all the time.

[Primal Slayer]

I don't mind Diana having a few kids of her own age to play around with when she grew up. Can't imagine the psychological impact of growing up with no other children around. Plus it was always weird to me that she grew up and had relations with women who would have known her since she was a child. Especially when characters like Io and Mala give off the vibe of being Diana's peer rather than senior. Diana should still be the first borne of the Amazons as that would keep her unique but afterwards Io, Mala and Nubia are born there and Donna is adopted by the Amazons.

I also wonder how willing mainstream culture is to allow the fantasy of a maternal virgin birth. People have always been able to roll with Dr Eldon Tyrell (Bladerunner), Dr Hamilton in JLU (Galatea) and any number of stories where a man creates a robot/clone/monster that they come to see as their own child. Even with WW alone there is this fixation on giving her a father figure of some kind. Even with Grail the emphasis is on her being Darkseid's child. The only example of a female character who gives a 'virgin birth' in mainstream popular fiction that I can think of is Wanda in Wanda Vision when she created both the twins and her own husband.

If it spares us anymore Amazon Baby Mama plot lines, I'm cool with the Amazons having developed technology or rituals that can allow them to have children but the process is specialized and can't be used all the time.

I think if anything, perhaps the Well of Souls "birth" Amazons from a young age so more of full reincarnation rather than coming out as full on adults. Best of both worlds. Diana is still the only child created on the island but can be given others that are reincarnated close to her birth.

[Alpha]

A few centuries ago you could easily find an only child growing up in a farm surrounded by adults and very little contact with other children until they were old enough to travel around. I don't see what repercursions it would have on Diana, since when she finally became an adolescent there would be young adult amazons appearing on the island.

[Guy_McNichts]

I prefer Diana to be the only child. I like that, as much as she's loved and accepted by her fellow Amazons, there is that element of separation to her. It also adds to Hippolyta's protectiveness of her--that even fully grown, she'll always be "the baby" to her.
All fuel for Diana's desire to leave.

I'm open to the Amazons figuring out a way to have kids or a new generation being born after Diana leaves. Would fit with the theme of her becoming Wonder Woman leads to new beginnings.

[Agent Z]

A few centuries ago you could easily find an only child growing up in a farm surrounded by adults and very little contact with other children until they were old enough to travel around. I don't see what repercursions it would have on Diana, since when she finally became an adolescent there would be young adult amazons appearing on the island.

"A few centuries ago" is a very long time and modern studies have pointed out that isolating kids from their peers can have a severe impact well into adulthood.

This isn't to say that it should be the case for Diana, but there is argument that it could cause problems.

[Psy-lock]

I prefer her to be the first child but necessarily the only one. There's no reason why Hippolyta should be the only one who's allowed to have a daughter.