User:SecretCircleMegaFan/Sandbox:Ethan Wate

"Maybe you don't have to be a Caster to have power. Maybe you just have to fall for one."

- Ethan, admitting his feelings to Lena.

Ethan Wate is the main protagonist and narrator of the Caster Chronicles series from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. As a teenage boy who grew up in the little Southern town of Gatlin, a town where nothing ever happens, his only dream was to escape and travel the world. Member of High School basketball team with his best friend Link, he was very popular among the students, but he always hid his true opinion on the town's behaviour and his desire not to be stuck there like many inhabitants were.

But when Lena Duchannes, the niece of the town's freak Macon Ravenwood, arrives into town, a strong attraction begins to grow between them. He also recognizes her as the girl he dreams about; the girl he tries to save from dying. Soon enough, the secrets about this mysterious girl and her family tend to be revealed, and Ethan is forced to enter her world... Especially when she seems to be threatened by some dark forces of the Caster world, and herself.

The more he helps Lena deal with her destiny, the more he uncovers about himself. The son of Lila Evers, a former Keeper at the Caster Library and soulmate of Lena's uncle, Ethan is more than meets the eye. Able to kelt with Lena, many people thought he was more than a random mortal - and were proven right, when Ethan is revealed to be a Wayward. As a Wayward, Ethan is said to be a "compass in the caster world" as well as the "bridge" between the Mortal and Caster worlds, being able to find and show the ways.

But as the One who is Two, Ethan must correct the wrong made by Lena's bargain with the Book of the Moons. To protect both the Mortal and Caster worlds, he is forced into sacrificing himself in order to restore the natural Order Lena had broken. He therefore throws himself off the town's water tower, completing his own destiny.

But he didn't completely die. In fact, his soul stopped in Limbo, meaning he has a task to complete in the world of the living. And while he is happy to meet with his mother and his aunt again, he still is determined to reunite with Lena and the ones he loves, and on his quest to live again, he discovers more and more about the reason why he died in the first place, and the trap in which he had fallen. Ethan will stop at nothing to defy his enemies, even if it means fighting against the only person in the world that can control Destiny...

Physical appearance
Ethan is described as being tall at 6'2 and having dark/medium hair that fall into his brown eyes and a good physical and masculine build from being on the basketball team.

Early Life
Ethan was born to Lila Evers and Mitchell Wate. He grew up in Gatlin with his parents and his nanny Amma who grew to be like a second mother to Ethan. Ethan's mother, Lila, died a year prior to Beautiful Creatures and his father, in result, locked himself in his room assumingly writing and left Ethan to be fully cared for by his caretaker and nanny Amma. He soon became known as "the boy whose mother died," which often annoyed him. Ethan grew to be very popular in his school having gone on a date with one of the most popular girls Emily Asher in school and being on the basketball team, but despite his popularity, Ethan often feels like an outcast. He met his best friend Link on the school bus in kindergarten when Link gave him a Twinkie that fell on the floor (later admitting he just made that part up) and didn't tell him until after he ate it and had been best friends with him ever since.

Ethan always played on the basketball team having enjoyed the sport and has read anything from comics to classic novels (though keeping the latter part a secret from everyone). His favorite book is Of Mice and Men although he often found the book tragic. Ethan's lifelong dream since childhood is to escape Gatlin and to explore the world (something he's kept a map to do even having his dream locations highlighted) and not become stuck there like many of residents of the town, who have been there for decades or their whole lives.

Meeting Lena and falling in love
Ethan and Lena's relationship is one of the main primary plots for the novel series. Before meeting in person, Ethan had seen Lena, as she did him, in dreams they both shared of Ethan desperately trying to save Lena from death. However, due to how these were just dreams, both Ethan and Lena just assumed they were just that, dreams, and that the other was not an actual person. Ethan later sees her in person when she moves to Gatlin and they see each other for the first time when Ethan was at the basketball court and Lena passes by in her family's car (with Lena describing see him for the first time that she "nearly crashed the hearse"). The two officially meet in person when Ethan narrowly misses hitting Lena in the middle of a heavy rainstorm.

The Sixteenth Moon
During Lena's Sixteenth Moon, Sarafine had showed up; determined to make Lena go Dark in order to save herself (since if Lena were to choose to go Dark then those Dark would be saved whereas those Light would die off). In order to ensure of her daughter's decision, Sarafine made a proposition in exchange for Lena going Dark...a future with Ethan, confusing both Lena and Ethan.

This leading to Sarafine revealing how Mortals and Casterworld beings cannot share a life together due to the different species and genetics and that if the two species were to engage in any form of sexuality, the mortal would not be able to physically handle it and die during the act of it. Thus cutting off any chance of a future with marriage and children. Lena, enraged upon realizing this and that Macon was not intending on telling her until after she Claimed herself, sets off a tornado, earthquake and hurricane-like storm; releasing a battle between her and Sarafine.

During the midst of the fight, Sarafine (intending to provoke Lena into going Dark by making her lose control of her powers) stabs Ethan; killing him.

Lena, in heartbreak, makes time stop altogether. However, Amma is immune to it and offers Lena the only way to make it possible to rssurrect Ethan. The two then make a trade with The Book of Moons; Ethan's life for someone else's. At first, Lena believes it failed to work until Ethan wakes up and says her name, clearly revived. Despite this, Lena is horrified to discover the life taken in order to bring back Ethan's...Macon. Ethan comforts a grieving Lena, unaware of how he was murdered and revived.

Outstripping from Lena
See: Beautiful Darkness

As a result of Lena's trade with The Book of Moons hoping to resurrect Ethan, the trade being Ethan's life for Macon's, Lena is left emotionally damaged beyond repair; being drenched in guilt. which drives the events of the sequel Beautiful Darkness. Lena begins to act strangely; no longer writing in her journal, keeping to herself, even blocking Ethan out of her mind. Ethan starts to gravely worry about her (unaware of the events involving his death and not knowing he was ever dead at all), wondering what has brought all of this on.

When Lena eventually takes off with John Breed and Ridley, he follows her. Completely determined to find out what is going on.

Saving Lena
In Beautiful Darkness, when Lena is captured by Sarafine and Abraham, Ethan and everyone must save her and rely on Macon's family in order to do so.

In order to help the teenagers fight off the Incubuses and Dark Casters inside the Sea Cave, Leah Ravenwood, Macon's Succubus sister, goes with them. Inside the cave, John Breed can be seen an holding an unconcious Lena. There are also a lot of Vexes, powerful demons of the underground, who are sent back once Amma, Arelia (Macon's Mother), Gramma (Lena's Grandmother) and Twyla (Macon's Aunt) arrive. Quickly, while the others are fighting, Ethan helps revive Lena. Lena claims herself as both Dark and Light, killing off both Twyla, a Light Caster and Larkin, a Dark Caster (also Lena's cousin) since on her last birthday, Lena had learned that if she was to turn Dark, then all the Light Casters in her family will die and if she turned Light, all the Dark Casters in her family will die.

Reuniting with Lena
One night after the previous events, Lena sneaks into Ethan's bedroom wearing one of his oversized t-shirts that ends at her middle upper thigh and shorts underneath and crawls into his bed next to him. After lying together, she emotionally and tearfully begs for forgiveness. Ethan does without hesitance. thus proving how much he truly loves her. Theythen make up kissing passionately (before Ethan must pull away before suffering too much of the physical effects of kissing her) before falling asleep together, once again reunited.

Sacrificing himself
After Ethan was ressurected in Beautiful Creatures, his spirit was brought back "too fast" and in result, he suffered a severed soul as he was revived; one part of him in the mortal world and the other in the spirit realm. After Beautiful Darkness and Lena had ultimately claimed her as both Light and Dark and the balance of the Caster/Mortal worlds was thrown off course, Lena and Ethan came to the conclusion that a sacrifice must be made in order to balance things out once again; The One Who Is Two.

After Ethan and Lena were trying to determine who was the One Who Is Two, Ethan has a vision of himself in a dried up grain field, watering it and making things better. After putting two and two together, he realizes what was being said to him...he is the required sacrifice. After demanding his loved ones being left alone and released from any promises they made in the past for his sake, he reveals his doomed fate to his friends and family the next day; horrifying them all. After spending his final day alive with Link, Liv and Marian, he goes to visit Lena for his final and last time. He writes her one last message on the wall of her bedroom reading, "I will always love you - Ethan."

He soon finds her at Greenbrier, sobbing and hysterical for his required death. She recalls the moment she realized that she was falling for him and despite her emotional and hyterical pleas not go through with the sacrifice needless of the consequences, Ethan insisted he had no choice in the matter; leaving her devastated. He gives her the map of all the places he dreamed of going to in the world as a token to remember him by and in exchange, she gives him her necklace. They then hold each other as Lena continues to sob into chest and Ethan silently telling her that he loves her. After this, Lena cries herself to sleep.

Ethan goes to Amma to confront her about her having known the whole time he was going to die. She says she has a way worked out to spare him even though he knew there was nothing to do to save him. He then goes to the water tower to commit the sacrifice, being joined by John Breed as moral support for him, and finds Amma there who attempts to intervene to save Ethan, however her efforts are shown to be futile as Macon arrives on the scene knowing he'd be needed. Amma tries to get Ethan to leave, but he says he had no other choice but to go ahead with the sacrifice. Amma blames Macon for the outcome of things that resulted in Ethan's required death and vows never to forgive him for it.

In one last attempt to save Ethan, Amma calls on the Greats to try to prevent Ethan's death but they turn their backs on her (literally) leaving Amma in despair weeping on the ground. After Macon promises to Ethan he will take care of Amma, Ethan climbs on top of the water tower to commit the sacrifice.

After he gets to the top and goes to the edge to throw himself over it, he is dragged back by his other half. The other half of him tries to stop Ethan from throwing himself over and they fight and battle. Ethan clutches the other half of him and as he looks into his eyes; he knows that they both knew they were going to die. They then roll over the edge of the water tower and fall to the ground. As Ethan falls through the air and hits the ground he only thinks of one thing...Lena.

Personality
He is shown to be a nice and friendly guy having a kind personality who is popular yet feels like an outcast. Despite being popular in school and being more than liked by several beautiful and popular girls and accepted by everyone, he is only closest to his childhood best friend Link and his caretaker Amma, who raised him after his father is a shut in, this all before meeting Lena. Also before meeting Lena, Ethan was a bit of a pacifist. He would even watch someone being bullied and not be able to have the courage to intervene. Despite this, Ethan is very loyal, well-meaning and totally selfless as well as very protective of his loved ones such as Lena, Link and Amma. After meeting Lena, Ethan began to evolve as a person; becoming more outgoing, standing up for her and being more open with his thoughts and voicing his opinions and speaking his mind more.

Despite his nice and friendly side, Ethan can sometimes be rash and stubborn in his decisions and choices. He is also harsh and can be cruel towards those whom he dislikes (particularly John Breed during the second and third novels), but always has the best intentions in mind always putting his friends and loved ones ahead of himself without hesitation. This is greatly shown in Beautiful Chaos when he discovers he is the required sacrifice in order to save Gatlin and the caster world and doesn't hesitate to kill himself in order to save his loved ones.

Powers and abilities
It is discovered in Beautiful Darkness through Marian that Ethan is a rare type of mortal called a Wayward, when seeing he could do things (such as kelting) that normal mortals cannot do unless they aren't a "regular" mortal.

A Wayward is an extremely rare type of mortal who "marks the path" or "guides" others to find the right path to take in the Caster world. Waywards are told to never come along often, only showing up once maybe every 100+ years and even then are usually never found and are extremely hard to come across due to being so rare in the caster world. But when they do show up, it is firmly to be noted it is never by accident. Waywards are told be mortals that hold "great purpose" similar to that of a caster and exist to guide Casters who hold "great meaning". So henceforth, Waywards are each individually connected with a specific caster in the most powerful of all ways and are meant to guide and lead them (the Caster) to their destiny, the Wayward will then find his or her own destiny afterward. However, Waywards fates are sealed and they do not have a say in what their destiny is to be. This all meaning that Ethan exists for a reason and holds great purpose all his own in the caster and mortal world; though this purpose is to either be "Great" or "Terrible". When Ethan is confirmed to be a Wayward, he is warned to be very careful in what he decisions he makes from there on out and that he has a destiny all his own, similar to Lena's case as a Caster.

There have been hints at Ethan not being a regular mortal before this discovery and further facts backing up this fact. Such as when Ethan and Link and Liv were lost in the tunnels and he knew which way to take; confusing Link and Liv as to how he was so sure of himself. But nonetheless when they got out and found the way they were looking for, they were further confused as to how Ethan knew the way in a place they had never been to before. He also was able to walk and cross through doors and entrances others, including Lena, could not; them being blocked and denied entrance that Ethan was freely granted. (An example being when Liv and Ethan attempted to cross through some sacred doors in Beautiful Chaos and Ethan was allowed entrance whereas Liv was denied it and forced behind while they allowed Ethan through.) Or they were unable to open the door or entrance until Ethan touched it and it soon opened sometimes surprising the group (this happening at least twice, once with Liv and the second with rest of the group, in the third novel). Another case being Ethan leading and finding Macon's private study no one knew of, surprising both Marian and Liv since no one knew of it. All of this further substantiates the fact that Ethan is no regular or normal mortal.

Quotes

 * “I was lost before I found her in my dreams, and she found me that day in the rain. I knew it seemed like I was always the one trying to save Lena, but the truth was she had saved me, and I wasn't ready for her to stop now.”
 * ”Yeah, that would get me out of trouble, around the same time the sun exploded and the solar system died.”
 * “The right thing and the easy thing are never the same.”
 * “I’m a freak, you’re a freak. Your house makes rooms disappear, my house makes people disappear. Your shut-in uncle is nuts and my shut-in dad is a lunatic, so I don’t know what you think makes us different.”
 * "By the way, can you simplify 7x – 2(4x – 6)?"
 * “I needed to touch her, like I needed to breathe.”
 * “I can't read your mind, you idiot.”
 * “Butterflies in your stomach. That was such a crappy metaphor. More like killer bees.”
 * “As I looked at her, my knees started to buckle,which was starting to become a familiar feeling. She was so pretty it hurt.”
 * “The ways I could hurt her and hurt myself. Those two things were intertwined somehow. It's hard to explain, but when you were as closed off as I was the past few months, opening felt as wrong as stripping naked in church.”
 * “The days without you bleed together until time is nothing more than another obstacle we must overcome.”
 * “You're so full of crap, you could pass for a toilet.”
 * “I never loved you any more than I do, right this second. And I'll never love you any less than I do, right this second.”
 * “It’s crazy how much you see when you aren’t looking”
 * "Wake up, L. You can’t leave me now. Not like this. I need you more than she does."
 * "Don’t try. I was pretty sure my grave would say something different."
 * "The bell rang and lunch was over. Just like that, I not only had a date to the winter formal, I had a girlfriend. And not just a girlfriend, for the first time in my life, I had almost used the L word. In the middle of the cafeteria, in front of Link. Talk about hot lunch."
 * “You can’t jump off a cliff when you’ve already fallen off a bigger one.

Film portrayal

 * See also Ethan Wate (movie) and Alden Ehrenreich.

In the upcoming adaptation of the first book in the Caster Chronicles series, the role of Ethan Wate was to be portrayed by Jack O'Connel, as announced on February 7, 2012. However, due to scheduling conflicts, Jack O'Connel had to leave his role to Alden Ehrenreich.

It is shown that quite a few fans were upset or wary of Ehrenreich being cast as Ethan with many fans saying how they thought he was too old to play the role of a high school student and teenager. However, other fans were shown to be content with the choice of him being cast while others said they would not give their opinion until they have officially seen him on screen in character. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl though have given their opinions on the cast and have expressed how they couldn't be happier with the choices of the cast and assured fans that they will not be dissapointed with the way the film adaption of the novel turns out.