| “ | You're my daughter, and I, uh... ahem... I don't expect you to say yes but... if I didn't at least ask to walk you down the aisle, I couldn't live with myself. | ” |
— Joshua to Jo in I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime
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Joshua Parker was recurring character of The Vampire Diaries. He was a witch, the former leader of the Gemini Coven and the father of Josette, Malachai, Olivia and Lucas.
In a flashback, it is revealed that his son, Malachai, killed four of his siblings and attempted to kill his youngest twin siblings, Luke and Liv, to become the rightful leader of the Coven. In order to prevent him from gaining power, Mr. Parker trapped Malachai in a 1994 Prison World. He was killed, along with the rest of the coven, when Kai killed himself after merging with his brother Luke and becoming the new leader of the coven.
Joshua was a member of the Parker Family, and was also a member and former leader of the Gemini Coven.
Early History[]
He was presumably born in Portland, Oregon, as a member of the Gemini coven. Somewhere in the early 1970s, he performed the Merge ceremony with his twin to determine who would become leader of the coven, and he ultimately won, killing his brother and absorbing his twin's magical powers and possibly several of his personality traits. He later married his wife, with whom he had a total of eight children. In 1994, his oldest son Malachai killed four of the other children out of rage after he learned his parents had a second set of twins to prevent him from becoming the coven leader, as they believed him to be unsuited for the role due to his mental instability and his unique power that kept him from possessing his own magic. With help from Malachai's twin Josette, Joshua led him to believe that he and Josette would be performing the Merge ceremony, when in reality, he was trapping him in the one of two existing Prison Worlds as punishment for his crimes.
Throughout The Vampire Diaries Series[]
Season Six[]
In Fade Into You, Joshua was surprised at his home by Damon and Stefan Salvatore, and Alaric Saltzman, who were seeking out information about the Gemini Coven. Intrigued when he heard them talking about Kai, he quickly became horrified when Damon informed him that he had seen his son in the prison world. He then cast a cloaking spell over Damon and himself, taking the vampire into his home which also became invisible to Alaric and Stefan. Realizing that Kai had both the Ascendant and a Bennett witch with him in the prison world, making it likely that Kai would escape, Joshua assumed Kai would try to merge with Jo in order to become coven leader. To prevent this from happening, he cast a spell to kill his daughter from his home. At Whitmore, a dying Jo instructed Alaric and Stefan over the phone to find the knife containing her magic hidden in a tree stump in front of the house, which could be used to break her father's cloaking spell. Inside the house, Damon tried to stop Joshua from killing Jo, but he subdued him with a pain infliction spell. Stefan was able to enter the home, thanks to Jo's invitation, and managed to stop Joshua from killing Damon, but the witch simply cast another cloaking spell and disappeared.
In Prayer For the Dying, Joshua came to Whitmore to visit his two youngest children, Liv and Luke, at school for their twenty-second birthday, which is traditionally the age in which the twins of the Gemini Coven complete the Merge ceremony to determine who would become the next coven leader. During dinner, the twins tell their father that they had been training Jo in magic so that Jo and Kai could perform the Merge instead. However, Joshua was still convinced that there was no way that Jo could win against Kai and his ability to siphon a witch's magic, and instead begins to force the twins to do the Merge ceremony right there outside the restaurant. Before the ceremony could be completed, Liv's boyfriend Tyler intervened and knocked Joshua out. He woke up after Luke left to try to complete the Merge with Kai, who was the same biological age as Luke despite not being his actual twin due to Kai's time in the prison world. Once the Merge was finished, Joshua sensed that Kai had beaten and killed Luke and taken the position of coven leader from him. He immediately prepared to flee town, as he was sure that Kai's next move would be to finish off the coven, but when he tried to convince a grieving Liv to come with him, she was too upset to go, forcing Joshua to leave and go into hiding by himself.
In I Never Could Love Like That, Jo calls him and he asks her about the Ascendant and that they need to destroy it so the Heretics don't get out of the 1903 Prison World.
In I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime, he shows up at Jo's wedding and asks her if he can at least walk her down the aisle while Jo was getting dressed, Jo smiles and accepts. He does and just as Alaric and Jo are about to say the final part in the marriage ceremony, Kai stabs Jo in the stomach, killing her and the twins and causes everyone in the barn massive pain before destroying the place with a flick of his wrist.
In I'm Thinking Of You All The While, he awakes and seen trying to stop Kai with the coven, they start to perform the prison world spell but gets interrupted when Kai stabs himself in the neck and dies, which causes Joshua and the rest of the coven to slowly die. He calls out for his daughter, Liv as he can't find her. When Kai wakes up in transition, he licks some of Joshua's blood off and he then dies.
Personality[]
While he was leader of the Gemini Coven, Joshua seems more concerned with the coven's well-being more so than his actual family, as evidenced by the fact that he tried to kill his oldest daughter Jo when he learned it was likely that Kai would be able to escape his prison world. Further evidence was his constant mistreatment of his oldest son Kai while he was growing up, referring to him as an abomination because of his inability to possess his own magic and going behind his back to have more twins to prevent him from being coven leader, which ultimately led to Kai's subsequent breakdown and mass-murderer of his siblings. He later sentenced Kai to an eternity of solitude in a prison world, a punishment that only a Ripper vampire who was believed to have killed 3,000+ people had warranted in the history of the coven. He has also been described as a strict and stern leader from his other children, as Jo guessed that her father would try to kill her even before he had done so, and Liv has made comments on several occasions about how she was expected by her father to serve her duty to her coven and nothing more; revealing that he does not care about most of his children, as he only cares about the well-being of the Gemini Coven.
Physical Appearance[]
Joshua Parker is a man of tall structure, who stands around 5'11" with ash-gray hair and dark brown eyes. He looks to be a very mature man, aged in his early sixties. He has mildly wrinkled skin and a slightly over-average build, and is rarely seen smiling. It is unknown how exactly the Merge works, but some of his physical characteristics could have been derived from his deceased twin.
Powers and Abilities[]
Joshua has proved himself to be a powerful and capable witch, which is one of the reasons why he was the leader of the Gemini Coven; he presumably became even more powerful after performing the Merge ceremony and absorbing his twins magic. He easily performed a cloaking spell that could hide an entire building, and was even able to decide from whom to hide the building based on a criterion. Joshua also easily held his own in a fight against both Damon and Stefan, and was shown to be able to conceal himself from people with very little effort. He also demonstrated a great amount of power by easily channeling a massive celestial event - the solar eclipse - in order to banish his son to a prison dimension created specifically for him. One of his other stronger spells is a death-inducing spell that he easily performed on his daughter, Josette, despite them being 3,000 miles away from each other. The spell took effect instantly and had it not been for Elena healing Jo with her vampire blood, she would have died from her father's curse.
Weaknesses[]
Joshua had the typical weaknesses of a witch.
Relationships[]
Josette Parker[]
Not much is known about the relationship between Joshua and his eldest daughter, except for the fact that she fled from her family with the Ascendant after she helped put Kai in his prison world. Joshua was even willing to kill Jo to prevent Kai from Merging with her after he broke out of his prison, even after Damon suggested that they just kill Kai instead. This seems to suggest that Jo feels resentment toward her father for his callousness regarding her life. But, Joshua has said he is proud of her though. Just before Jo's wedding, he asks if he can walk her down the isle, Jo seemed overjoyed as she thought she would never see her father again.
Malachai Parker[]
He seems to hold contempt for him since he was young child. He and the Gemini Coven sealed Kai away in the 1994 Prison World for his crimes killing his siblings. It is shown that he is afraid of his son for his power and wanting to merge with Jo, trying to kill her so Kai wouldn't be able to. He soon vanished after Kai and Luke merged.
Olivia and Luke Parker[]
Joshua loves his children, though it seems that Liv might be his favorite as he visited her first on her and Luke's birthday. Despite this, he put their lives on the line for the Merge, just so Kai wouldn't get his chance. It's also shown that he tried to get Liv to go with him after Kai succeeded, but she didn't. It is possible that he wanted Liv to win the Merge because when Luke said that he was stronger than Liv he seemed surprised. He gets along with his son, but like Liv, he did try to force both of them to Merge so Kai wouldn't be able to. Even though Luke died in the Merge with Kai, Joshua didn't seem that much saddened by his death. Later, while he and the other coven members were dying, in I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime, he cried out for Liv but couldn't find her.
Appearances[]
- Do You Remember the First Time? (Mentioned)
- Fade Into You
- I Alone (Mentioned)
- Woke Up With a Monster (Mentioned)
- Prayer For the Dying
- The Day I Tried To Live (Mentioned)
- Let Her Go (Mentioned)
- I Never Could Love Like That (Mentioned)
- I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime
- I'm Thinking Of You All The While (Death)
Name[]
- Joshua, from the Christian Bible, means "a savior" or "a deliverer".[1]
- Parker is an English family name and means "keeper of the park" from Old French.[2]
Trivia[]
- He told Damon that the coven is more important than his family.
- In Woke Up With a Monster, Luke explained that Joshua was "pissed" after Luke told him that Liv was training Jo in preparation for their Merge ceremony.
- He came to visit Luke and Liv on their 22nd birthday, and tried to force them to Merge when they told him they wanted Jo and Kai to perform the ceremony instead so they could live a normal life.
- Joshua seems to favor Liv over Luke, as he wanted to have some extra time to spend with Liv privately before they met with Luke for dinner.
- It is unknown what kind of father he was before Kai killed his siblings. However, Kai claims that he always put the coven over family and treated Kai terribly.
- With the Other Side's collapse and destruction of Hell, he either found peace or went to a dimension similar to Hell, if one exists.
Gallery[]
References[]
See also[]
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