Basic Info: Full name is Maria Ngozi Ibekwe, Mixed Yoruba/Igbo, about 17-18 years old, star sign is Pisces-Aries cusp, pansexual bigender girl (she/her pronouns), Blank/No Elemental Specialty, character motif is magical girls.
Family: Molly is one of the middle children of a pretty big family, consisting of her father Uzochi Ibekwe, mother Kayin Ibekwe, older brother Chiemeka Ibekwe, older sisters Amarachi and Krystelle Ibekwe, older sibling Funanya Ibekwe, twin brother Taiwo Ibekwe, younger sibling Ayodele Ibekwe, younger brothers Chidubem and Ikenna Ibekwe, and younger sister Alea Ibekwe. Uzochi works a pretty high-up office job, Kayin is a homemaker, Chiemeka is 27 and works as a medicinal scientist, Amarachi is 25 and teaches science at a prestigious university, Krystelle is 23 and is a musician who’s become something of a rising star in the pop music world, Funanya is 21 and a professional tennis player, Taiwo is the same age as Molly, being her twin, but graduated high school a year early and is currently studying at a prestigious college, Ayodele is 15 and a high school freshman, Chidubem and Ikenna are 12-year-old twins in middle school, and Alea is 9 years old and in elementary school. Molly loves her family to bits and pieces and they love her right back, but being the solely average child in a family of prodigies and geniuses often makes her feel like she holds them back and they’d be better off without her somedays—especially as she unintentionally tends to fall to the wayside because of her siblings’ business and achievements. Of all her family though, she’s closest to her twin brother Taiwo, who has been her closest friend and confidant since she was young.
Personality: Sugary-sweet and always with a smile on her face, Molly is your archetypical girl next door. She’s laid back and friendly, always quick to approach other with a smile and a hello, and enjoys the simple pleasures in life. Even if she’s not particularly the strongest or smartest out there, she’s always willing to lend a helping hand and tries her best to help however she can. She’s incredibly humble, not the person to make a big fuss of herself or her abilities, even with one as rare as hers...
Though, there’s a bit of a harsher side to that. Years of people outside her family ignoring her in favor of her more talented family members and constantly being compared to them have seriously eroded Molly’s self-esteem. She’s firm that there’s nothing special or praiseworthy about her talents because in her eyes, she’s nothing special, just an ordinary girl who drags down the more talented people around her with her plainness, and she’s quick to give up on herself and beat herself down for even making the smallest mistakes. Oftentimes, she wishes she was someone grander than who she currently is, someone completely different than this plain and ordinary girl she calls herself.
Life on Earth: Molly had always grown up living in her siblings’ shadow. Though her parents tried her best to be there for her, the demands of her siblings’ occupations and schedules meant that oftentimes, she was unintentionally pushed to the side—there was always a concert to go to, a meeting to attend, or just time spent catching up after someone was away doing big things with their lives. And outside of her family, Molly faced constant comparison to her family members. Half the time, her name was only brought up in reference to her sibling’s achievements. To most, she was little more than “The younger sister of Krystelle Ibekwe, the pop star adored nationwide,” or “The older sister of that kid who’s playing at concert hall at only twelve years old,” and if she ever tried to pick a hobby or something similar up for herself, her skills were immediately brought to comparison.
And years upon years of being little more than an afterthought to your family’s talents takes its toll on a person by far. She gave up on the things she tried and loved—after all, what good is trying to sing or play an instrument or do sports when your siblings are so much more talented than you are and everyone knows it, being all the more content to rub it in your face how much better they are at it than you? What’s the point in celebrating getting a good grade when your teachers are quick to bring up how your siblings were already skipping to college at your age? What’s the point in wanting to do things for yourself when there’s concerts to worry about, college arrangements to be made, conferences and lectures to attend for everyone else, things someone as ordinary as her had no right to disrupt? Before she knew it, Molly had grown used to fading in the background, taking her peers’ words to heart. To her, she was someone so plain, so ordinary, she had no right to call herself a member of the Ibekwe family!
Arriving in Skylands and Life There: This came to a head on Molly’s birthday—it would already be quite a busy day, filled with concerts and events for the rest of her family, but for once in her life she might’ve been able to squeeze something in for herself after years of birthdays being overshadowed by other things... Then out of nowhere, Taiwo’s dream university had called him back, telling him he had been accepted and that they wanted to do further procedures right then and there. Not wanting him to miss his chance at achieving his dream and burden him, she rejected any insistence to celebrate with her instead, and sent her family on their way. After all, she didn’t want them to get upset over her! She didn’t deserve to want that! But as she laid in her bedroom that night, Molly couldn’t help but feel disheartened, and not just from her botched birthday. Compared to her brilliant and talented family, she was just some ordinary girl, the kind of person people wouldn’t even think twice about passing by. What was someone so plain and ordinary like her doing in such a brilliant family? Why couldn’t she be as amazing as they were? Was there something wrong with her?
Laying in her bedroom with tears in her eyes, Molly made a single birthday wish—she wanted to be someone extraordinary, someone amazing, anything other than who she was now! It was then that a portal appeared before her, promising her everything she wanted. And with such an enticing offer, Molly couldn’t refuse! She entered the portal and arrived in Skylands, where she was found by an aged mabu couple who told her about Skylands and portal masters and the rifts that had been plaguing their world. They had just advised her to seek out Master Eon when a bunch of chompies swarmed the village, and Molly herself had went into hiding when one had found her and tried to attack her... But just as it did, the natural world around her responded to her cries for help and attacked the chompies back, stopping them in their tracks! Molly was utterly baffled as to how this could have happened, but luckily she didn’t need to be for long—a team of Skylanders investigating the sudden appearance of a rift, and took Molly back to their base of operations. There, Master Eon told Molly that not only was she a portal master, but she had an incredible gift! Portal Masters could control any of Skylands’ elements, but the others all had aptitudes for one each—Molly, on the other hand, had an aptitude for none, meaning she could harness all of the Elements’ powers freely! To help her channel this gift, Master Eon gave her a necklace made of beads infused with elemental energy and a staff that could channel them. Molly was amazed that such a power had been laying dormant in her all this time, and vowed to try her hardest to master the elements and use their power for good... Even though she messes up quite a bit.
Powers: Being a portal master with no elemental alignment means that Molly can harness the powers of any of the elements as she pleases—not the full extent someone who specializes in those elements can, mind you, but with decent enough skill nonetheless. To help her out with this, Molly can take one of the beads from her necklace and place it in her staff, which temporarily imbues both it and her with the energy and magic of that element, making casting spells from it that much easier. She also has a decent grasp of regular magic spells for when she can’t call upon the elements’ powers.
Relationships:
Bruno: She and Bruno are fairly tight-knit friends despite their contrasting personalities, and she thinks of him as being a bit like a younger brother to her. He, in turn, is surprisingly protective of her and generally the one person he takes himself seriously around.
Adriana: Adriana was the first one she really bonded with, as Adriana was the one to show her around and also immediately won over Molly’s heart—in fact, she’s not ashamed to admit that she did, indeed, have a bit of a crush on her when they first met.
Nine: Nine and Molly had first met by chance, when Molly began her studies in magic. She’d been struggling and close to giving up when she bumped in Nine, who took her under their wing and taught her in the ways of not just regular magic, but the Magic Element as well. At first she thought of them as being more than a little eccentric, but their kindness and charms won over her heart... And before she knew it, she’d begun falling for them.
Dante (OC): Molly was charmed by Dante from the moment they first met, thinking of him as being like a prince straight out of a fairy tale, even with the strange sadness she always saw in his eyes. She grew closer to him by the day, but quickly came to realize that there was more to him than the princely image of his she had envisioned, for underneath lied a terrified and cynical boy left overwhelmed by the pressures of life and its future. From that day, Molly vowed to know the real him, and be there for him no matter what. And after that, the two fell for each other more than ever.
Cassidy (OC): Molly has been Cassidy’s biggest fan since around the time they first met—after all, Cassidy was everything Molly herself wished she could be, so talented that she aced everything she did and adored by all. Though, she finds it a little odd that someone as talented as Cassidy considers her a friend, or why Cassidy shies away from every bit of praise Molly gives her and downplays it.
The other Portal Masters: Molly’s a bit less close to the other portal masters by comparison, but still considers them good friends and often studies the elements with them. They, in turn, think of Molly as a valued member of the team, even if she tries to downplay her own skills.
Eon: Thinks of him as a respected mentor and teacher, and often comes to him for her portal master-related issues. He in turn sees a lot of potential in her as his pupil, but wishes she wouldn’t put herself down and count herself out so much.
The Skylanders: Respects them and works with them about as much as the others and thinks being able to hang around a bunch of fantasy monster people is cool, but isn’t too close to most of them. She and Spyro are pretty good friends, however, as he was the one who found her first and had been her guide when she was getting the hang of this whole portal master and living in Skylands thing.
Trivia and Voiceclaims:
- Molly has a bit of a complicated origin. I initially theorized that George’s younger sister would be a playable portal master in the future, but since I had slotted her with a group of junior portal masters, I created Molly to essentially fill her slot in the main group, complete with designs for whatever element she may have ended up being. However, I got way too attached to her concept, so I melded it together with another concept I’d been toying around with—a blank/non-elemental portal master who fully utilized the “Jack of all trades” aspect of being non-elemental—to make Molly who she is today.
- Her skill icon was actually drawn by me, unlike the others who reuse canon skill icons.
- She’s technically my only main Ring of Heroes portal master oc who is wholesale original, as opposed to the others who all have roots in Skylanders canon—Dante and Cassidy’s designs were based on the old customizable portal master avatars, Qamar was based on the protagonist of a Skylanders TV show that never went past the initial pitch, and Aviva is technically a fan interpretation of George’s younger sister, a canon character.
English Voiceclaim: Anairis Quiñones
Japanese Voiceclaim: Megumi Nakajima
Korean Voiceclaim: Jeong-Hwa Yang
