The oneshot bent or broken, it's the family tree
is a The Hunchback of Notre Dame fanfic that explores an Alternate Universe where Djali is Esmeralda's son.
At sixteen, Esmeralda was married and she had her son soon afterwards. When Djali was five, her husband Pierre died. Left widowed, Esmeralda struggles to raise her child on the streets. At age twenty-six, everything changes when she meets a soldier named Phoebus.
The premise of the story came about due to Phoebus' line "I didn't know you had a kid". It's a joke referring to a baby goat (which are called "kids"), but the story takes it more literally.
This fanfic provides of:
- Alternate Universe Fic: Esmeralda is a single mother, with her pet goat now being her human son.
- Adaptation Species Change: Djali is changed from an adult goat to a human child.
- Babies Ever After: The story ends a few years later with the birth of Phoebus and Esmeralda's son Zephyr.
- Mama Bear: Esmeralda protects her son at all costs and gets livid when someone man-handles him.
- Mythology Gag: Esmeralda getting married at age sixteen references her age in the original novel. She's only sixteen in the book. In addition, Djali's father Pierre is the name of the novel-exclusive man who ends up marrying her and keeps the goat Djali after her death.
- Patchwork Fic: The fic mixes the Disney film with the original novel version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. More specifically, Esmeralda married Pierre at sixteen, like in the novel.
- Related in the Adaptation:
- Djali is Esmeralda's human son.
- Clopin and Esmeralda are siblings.
- Struggling Single Mother: Esmeralda struggles to raise her son as a poor single woman in the 1400s. It's even more trouble than usual because she's a part of persecuted minority.
- Teen Pregnancy: Esmeralda became pregnant around age sixteen.
- Titled After the Song: The title's lyrics come from "Beautiful Tree" by Rain Perry.
