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- I assume you've heard this before—and who knows how many times—but I'm sure I meant it each and every one of them: I'm proud of you, kiddo.
- —David, to Maddie[1]
David & Maddie is the family ship between David Kim and Maddie Kim from the Pantheon fandom.
Canon[]
David with Maddie in her infancy
Maddie Kim was born on April 4, 2007, in Sacramento to David Kim, a prominent researcher and programmer for the technology company Logorhythms, and his wife Ellen. Maddie was closest to her father, and the two developed a strong bond. David raised Maddie on the internet, fostering in her a strong proficiency with technology and computers, as well as an inquisitive and strong-willed personality. The two often played video games together, such as Reign of Winter, and browsed sites like 4chan. Once, he told the young girl that chaos was scary to some people and, as weird as it sounded, they felt much better believing there was someone behind the scenes controlling everything—a secret society, an evil government, or even an alien force.
Maddie witnesses David and Ellen discussing his upload, though she remains unaware of it
When she was in seventh grade, David was diagnosed with cancer and was later approached by his colleague Peter Waxman, who offered him the opportunity to undergo a destructive mind-uploading procedure. Despite Ellen's protests and Maddie's obliviousness, he underwent it. While the procedure was only partially successful, David’s family was told it had failed—and he was used as a slave labourer in digital form by the company for the next two years. Because of David’s constant memory erasure and severed connection to his family, his productivity as an upload remained slow. To counter this, Waxman placed a family photo in David’s virtual office. The image prompted David to recall his former life, triggering the events of Pantheon.
Season 1[]
Maddie is first contacted by David
Pantheon[]
In "Pantheon", David reaches out to his daughter after breaching the Svalbard data centre's security systems. He makes contact by infiltrating the security cameras at her school, observing her being bullied by classmates. When she returns home with her mother, David contacts her with emojis. The next day, he turns her school bullies against each other by redirecting private messages. Back home, Maddie is overjoyed at his actions but confused when he says he knows her mother. When Ellen inadvertently overhears this, she is shocked to hear David recite a line from her favourite poem and calls Waxman in search of the truth, who then calls his boss, Julius Pope, who pulls David’s network access. Soon after, Laurie Lowell—the first Uploaded Intelligence—launches a DDoS attack on Logorhythms demanding David's release.
Cycles[]
Maddie and Ellen receive a call from David
In "Cycles", Ellen explains that David is uploaded to Maddie, insisting that his upload is not the "real" David. With Ellen planning to terminate the copy, Maddie meets with Lowell and her husband at a mall, retrieving a "bracelet" that will provide a backdoor to Logorhythms' network. When the two arrive at the company's headquarters, Julius Pope asserts that David is their intellectual property and that Ellen holds no authority over him. Maddie activates the bracelet, allowing a cyberattack to be launched that costs Logorhythms millions. Forced to hand over David, Pope allows them to leave, with Maddie rushing home to transfer him to an encrypted server, where he can run freely. An unknown number calls, with the voice of her father appearing, much to Maddie's joy and Ellen's horror. David surprises her with a game of Reign of Winter, asking her if she is ready to finish the adventure. Wiping tears from her eyes, she obliges.
Reign of Winter[]
In "Reign of Winter", Maddie plays the eponymous game with her father, calling for him as she struggles with a chimera. David arrives, helps his daughter finish it off, and states that he was looking for Laurie Lowell. They set out, with David commenting that Ellen has not talked to him since he was freed. Just then, they are attacked by another party, but David hacks the game and kicks them. Maddie berates her father and expresses fears that he could be banned or hunted down by the NSA. She tells him to act like he does not exist, to which he says his wife already thinks so. At school, Maddie insists that her parents will stay together and plans to trick them into doing so. Soon after, Ellen gets a call from David at work and hangs up immediately. That night, Maddie prepares dinner and sets her father up on a laptop in a chair. She calls down her mother; when Ellen walks in, she walks over and closes the laptop. Maddie berates her mother, but she insists that David is not her husband. At her boyfriend's house, his electronics are hacked and a fight ensues between the two, ending their relationship. Returning home, David and Ellen meet in virtual reality; the two break up on good terms while Maddie cries in the hallway.
The Gods Will Not Be Chained[]
Maddie and David in his digital office
In "The Gods Will Not Be Chained", Maddie logs onto Reign of Winter and finds David at the edge of the playable world, asking him where his server is. He answers Oregon. She asks him what he looks like outside the game, receiving a link to a replica of David's office. With Maddie using a Mii-style avatar, and David appearing as a two-dimensional figure, Laurie Lowell appears. She accuses David of something, attacks him, and kicks out Maddie. In a panic, Maddie contacts Caspian Keyes—another teenager investigating Logorhythms that she had previously ghosted— although he does not know anything about the Lowells. Soon after, Cody Lowell barges into their home, and though he is pepper-sprayed by Ellen, offers insight into why Laurie had attacked David; she had been different since breaking David out, having done so in the first place because of what he supposedly did.
In his office, an unstable Laurie forces David to break past his constraints by attacking him, beating her back only through his unwavering love of his daughter. At the Kim residence, just as Cody is about to shut off Laurie's server, the three are notified. Entering virtual reality, Maddie sees David in three dimensions and hugs him with haptic gloves. David reveals that his server has been combined with Laurie's, and that there is a flaw in the upload process that causes her mind to decay over time the faster she runs. Maddie realises he has it as well.
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Season 2[]
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Quotes[]
- “Chaos is scary for a lot of people. And as weird as it sounds, they feel much better believing that there’s somebody behind the scenes, controlling everything, even if that somebody is a secret society or evil government, or even alien force controlling the world.”
- — David, to Maddie[2]
- “You are the only reason I’m still here. So if my going means you keep going on, that’s good enough for me.”
- — David, to Maddie[3]
- “I'm kind of the alien force controlling the world now. ”
- — Maddie, to David[4]
Fanon[]
While David & Maddie lacks the sheer enthusiasm of Caddie—which has received dozens upon dozens of pieces of fanart—it is a very popular ship within the Pantheon community, second only to the one mentioned earlier. Several stories on AO3 feature the ship, but none are solely dedicated to it, as the tag does not actually exist.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Maddie Kim tag on AO3
- David Kim tag on AO3
Trivia[]
- The ship bears resemblances to Cooper and Murph from Interstellar: both portray a father unconditionally loving his daughter across space and time, with extreme chronological dissonance between their stories—culminating in the daughter being much, much older than her father in the end.
Gallery[]
Media[]
Canon[]
