thecarisboring | Background infodump

For my own reference and to kind of preclude my eventual essay on Why Ro Doesn't Trust People, I'm canon-dumping info about Ro's background here. ~~I had to fish around for the dates and I'm not sure they're accurate. Correct me if I got something wrong. Edited because I finally got around to asking Pell about this XD~~ Edited again because DAMMIT DCAU WRITERS stop that.

The Zeta Project indicates that Zeta abandoned his mission in 2041, which is the only date canon hands us. But if all other evidence and Word of God is right, it's 2057 in season 2. Sigh.

Rosalie and her older brother Casey - who was nine years older than her - were left with their maternal grandparents by their mother, and when their grandparents died they were split up in foster care. Ro was too young to remember, and all she had was a photograph of Casey. She didn't even remember his name, which she learned in the first ill-fated attempt to track him down.

Interviews indicate that if the series had a third season, Ro would be searching for her mother. Apparently her father was either dead or just not in the picture.

Ro's grandfather used to call her "Little Bulldozer" because she'd plow through anything to get what she wanted.

The earliest foster home Ro remembers is the Morgans in Hillsburg (aka "Hicksburg"). She was parted from her photo of her brother there when her foster sister Tiffy stole it.

Ro was placed with the Morgans when she was eight, and ran away some unspecified time later. She was caught, placed into another home, and ran away again.

Canon doesn't specify if the cycle repeated itself, but she wound up in a girls' home in Wood Valley, MD. Despite not having a rap sheet (in spite of the running away, she apparently didn't even have petty theft on her record), it was pretty much like a juvenile detention center.

Frustrated with the conditions and the other girls who bullied others (and the girls she stuck up for being too scared to reciprocate), Ro broke out of the home when she was 15.

She was picked up by a street gang, who had her stealing stuff - food, et cetera - as part of an "initiation."

Ro drew the line when they wanted her to participate in a holdup, not wanting to actually hurt anyone. When the gang leader was insistent, Zeta jumped in and saved her from getting shot.

Mostly for my own reference. Moving along now.