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Fanservant: Frau Trude Gothel, Wicked Witch of the Fairy Tales(Caster)

Ascension Stages:

First Stage: Gothel is dressed in an elaborate dark ballgown that reaches all the way to the floor, the dress ornate with gold and silver accents. On her ring finger, a shining golden ring gleams in the light. Long pink hair flows down to the small of her back, topped by a black crown, and a pair of gleaming golden eyes shine as she stares down the Master.

Second Stage: Gothel’s outfit has changed to a more ‘traditional’ witch’s style, with long, flowing sleeves extending out from her robes, and a witch’s hat resting upon her head, replacing her crown. Her dress has shortened, revealing her long legs, and her hair has grown out to be much more wild and unkempt. Her sclera have darkened to become pitch-black, and a fiery aura has begun to surround her entire being.

Final Stage: Gothel’s form has changed from that of a witch to a true Devil. Out from her back sprouts black feathered wings, and her skin takes on a deathly white pallor. Her nails lengthen into demonic claws, and a pair of monstrous horns sprout from the sides of her head. The ring has been corrupted slightly, becoming immersed in hellish flames.

Theme:

Character Theme: Healing Song - Tangled

Battle Theme: BlazBlue CentralFiction - Walpurgisnacht (Nine the Phantom theme)

Fatal Battle Theme: 破壊神

Traits:

Class: Caster Alternate Class: Berserker, Alter Ego, Beast True Name: Frau Trude Gothel Source: Grimm’s Fairy Tales Region: Germany Alignment: Chaotic Evil Attribute: Earth

Known as: The Witch of the Story’s End, The Witch of the Tower, the Forest Witch, The Villain of All Fairy Tales, The Devil Incarnate, Diabolus Ex Machina

Voice Actress: Noto Mamiko

Deck: QABBB

Parameters: Strength: D Endurance: A++ Agility: B Mana: EX Luck: C NP: A

Passive Skills:

Territory Creation(Fairy Tale) C++:

As a Fairy Tale character, Gothel is uniquely capable of altering her environment, creating the backdrops of the stories to be told. Gingerbread houses, massive towers, fantastic castles, all can be made by Gothel with a mere wave of her wand.

However, as much as she is the creator of the world around her, the majority of her creations are simply temporary structures of illusions made to trap victims, meaning this skill is less effective than a true master’s handiwork. While her creations could be much more impressive if she chose to apply herself more properly, she’s content to lazily throw together false illusions to suit her needs and then smash them to pieces when she is done.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Arts and Quick performance by 10%.

Item Construction EX:

The power of one of the most famed witches to ever exist, and yet one of a witch who melts away among all the rest. Gothel’s ability to create fearsome cursed items and magical weapons is among the best among all Servants, thanks to her status as an offshoot of the legendary Baba Yaga. There are few Servants that could ever hope to match her raw talent in magecraft.

In at least one Fairy Tale, The Dragon of the North, it is even said that a witch-maiden held the power of King Solomon’s Ring, and knew of its incredible secrets. While this story is likely nothing more than a fantasy, it speaks testament to the incredible and fearsome powers that Gothel has at her beck and call.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Debuff success rate by 12%.

Wicked Witch of the Story’s End A:

As the Villain of All Fairy Tales, Dame Gothel reigns supreme as one of the most powerful Fairy Tale Servants alive, surpassed only by the Big Bad Wolf and the Persecuted Heroine, and matched only by her equal opposite, the Fairy Godmother.

Where there are stories to be told, a villain will naturally arrive to cause strife and pain.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own critical damage by 12%. -Increases own damage by 250.

Active Skills:

Devil’s Contract B:

While many in the world feared witches and blamed them for countless misfortunes and disasters that happened to them, few, if any, ever truly laid eyes on a witch and recorded their experiences. As few understood witches or how their powers worked, many associated their existence with that of the Devil, believing them to be Brides of Satan who had sold their souls to evil in exchange for power. As a Fairy Tale whose existence was based off of these false notions, Gothel has imprinted upon her a ‘contract’ with Hell itself.

This contract with Hell has granted Gothel incredible powers, and is the source of some of her more powerful magic. She can summon pillars of hellfire that can erase even a victim’s soul, drag victims off to the deepest pits of Hell, and summon monstrous creatures from the Pit to fight for her in combat. Her powers are effectively limited only by her sick imagination and sadistic cruelty.

Most notable of her powers is a form of pseudo-immortality. While her body can be destroyed by an enemy, she can resurrect herself each and every time, so long as the enemy she faces isn’t a god or similar divinity. It is through this power that Gothel has survived things like being burned alive by Handel and Gretel, dancing to death in Snow White, being hacked to pieces, and other similar fates.

No matter how often the villain dies, or how often the hero beats her, she will always return when the story begins anew, ready to ravage the lands at her leisure.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Debuff Success rate every turn for three turns. -Apply a state to yourself: Gain NP Gauge when attacking with Buster Cards (3 turns). -Apply Guts to self for two times, five turns.(Stackable with other Guts).

Wicked Transformation A:

In Fairy Tales of old, there were hundreds of tales of witches using their accursed powers to transform unwilling victims into horrible monsters, helpless animals, or inanimate objects for some reason or another. Whether it be envy of another’s virtue, punishing the wicked and foolish for incurring their ire, or twisting a victim’s wish into something terribly ironic, the ability of a witch to alter the forms of those she chooses is unlimited, and when these powers are unleashed, it is all too easy for Gothel to dispose of her victims.

If need be, Gothel can turn this transformation unto herself, shifting into the form of an eagle to fly through the air, an old beggar woman to disguise her appearance, a ferocious bear to fight off her enemies, and so much more, all with a mere magic word and a wave of her wand. It is through this power that Gothel gained her reputation as the Villain of All Fairy Tales.

However, as with all fairy tales, this ability does have a caveat. Each transformation comes with a condition that, once fulfilled, will release the victim from its binding. If a victim is able to escape from Gothel and find someone to free them from their curse, then they will be returned to their true form.

(FGO Effect:) -Inflicts Buff Block status for three times on one enemy. -High chance to Stun an enemy for one turn. -Gains Critical Stars every turn for three turns. -Increase Critical Damage for yourself for three turns

Mesmerizing Banquet of Cockaigne B:

Poisoned Apples.

Gingerbread Houses.

Irresistible Rapunzel.

In the fairy tales of old Europe, food and drink has often served as the greatest tempter of man, and witches like Gothel have preyed on these temptations for ages, able to prey on the hunger and greed of humanity by creating food that no human is able to possibly resist.

This power over food has only grown in power after Gothel has consumed the mythical Land of Cockaigne and further bolstered her power. The mere presence of her cooking is able to drive victims mad and lure them into the land of food and drink that is Cockaigne, abandoning all precepts such and former memories to become self-indulgent and hedonistic, like cattles to the slaughter.

Surprisingly, while Gothel can easily summon food and drink by means of her magic, she seems to have a preference for making her food from scratch. When cooking, a faint smile can be seen on Gothel’s face, even when not preparing a meal to deceive or hypnotize.

“Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble… Rampion flower on the vine… return to me what once was mine…”

(FGO Effect:) -Significantly increases NP Gauge. -Removes own Debuffs. -Low chance to lower Critical Resistance for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Buster Resistance for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to reduce NP Charge for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Attack for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Healing for all enemies for three turns.

Noble Phantasms:

Noble Phantasm: Die Teufelsmaske - Feed the Devil’s Fire Rank: A Maximum Targets: 1 Range: — Classification: Anti-Unit(Self)

A terrifying Noble Phantasm that removes all guises and illusion from Frau Gothel’s form to reveal who she truly is: The Devil, villain of Europe's very first fairy tales. In this state, she takes on the form of a terrible demon straight from Hell itself. Gnarled horns as red as blood pierce through her skull, her hair takes on a deathly pallor, angelic wings burst out from her back, and her teeth sharpen into deadly fangs. The world around her shifts and darkens, becoming a dense, foggy forest filled with dead trees and ominous winds, all isolating the devil and her victims from the world.

She is not the true Devil, but rather “Mankind’s Approximation of the Devil”, a false image who bears but a fraction of the true Adversary's power. Simply put, she is the ultimate evil for a hero to face in a fairy tale, a monster with the potential to become an Evil of Humanity itself.

It is not just her physical form that changes upon activating this Noble Phantasm, but her magical prowess surges to seemingly limitless heights, able to weave her own story and alter the world around her how she pleases. It was through this Noble Phantasm that the Hausmärchen Singularity Collective was born, where the Beast of Ignorance would attempt to consume all other stories in order to destroy Humanity to its very roots, and where Gothel would attempt to destroy the Chaldeans on her orders, by altering these beloved fairy tales and corrupting them with her immense power.

So ferocious, so dreadful is this power that even the nascent Beast of Ignorance, Red Riding Hood, didn’t dare face this monster head-on in combat, instead choosing to let the Chaldeans distract and weaken her so she could land a mortal wound on the demonic witch.

“Fufufufufufu… Do you understand now? I am not some mere ‘thing’ that goes bump in the night… I am not just the paltry scratches at your walls… I am the monster that all children fear. I am the evil that makes you lock your doors. I am the witch that lives just next door. I am Evil. I am Wicked. I am Frau Trude, and I am very real, child.”

(FGO Effect:) -Remove all Debuffs from self. -Increase Debuff Resistance for three turns. -Increases own critical star absorption for three turns. -Grants self On-Attack-Activate buff for three attacks, three turns. --Increases own Critical Damage for one turn when attacking with Buster Cards. -Increases own damage against ‘Fairy Tale’ or ‘Fated Hero’ enemies.

Noble Phantasm: Kleine Verlorene Kinder - Happily Never After Rank: A Maximum Targets: — Range: — Classification: Anti-Army

Dame Gothel has the ability to summon massive golems made of gnarled wood and hellish flames, each one standing over ten feet tall. These golems are nigh-immortal, soulless husks of incredible power, akin to the Olympian Soldiers of the Fifth Lostbelt. They feel no pain, are able to regenerate from nearly any damage, and will not cease until their targets have been completely and utterly eradicated. They know nothing but destruction and death, and wickedly relish in it any chance they can.

Truly, these must be monsters straight out of Hell, demons created from the darkest pits mankind has ever known. There is nothing else that could explain their sheer malice and relentless nature.

Alas… if only that were true.

In reality, these monsters are the children slain by Dame Gothel, the foolish and wicked children who disobeyed their parents. They strayed from the path and ended up caught by the wicked witch. Their bodies were killed and eaten by the monster in the woods, and their souls were left to burn in the Devil’s fire, fueling these monstrosities. What memories these creatures held have been long forgotten, and all they know now is to obey, a monstrous punishment for their foolishness in life.

Now, all these children have left is resentment and anger. Hatred for the ones who got away, who had a chance to escape the monsters of the world. It is unfair, they say, that they alone must suffer. So they will drag down anyone and everyone they can into the darkness, using their powers to twist and distort their victims into more of these monstrous creatures, until nothing is left behind but death and chaos.

Noble Phantasm: Rapunzel, Rapunzel - The Maiden in the Tower Rank: A Maximum Targets: — Range: — Classification: Anti-Fortress

The fabled tower in which Dame Gothel spent the rest of her days, and where the fair maiden Rapunzel was locked within. It is a prison akin to Merlin’s Garden of Avalon, a nigh-inescapable maze of hewn stone and wood. This tower serves as a great and terrible prison in which escape is nigh impossible. The tower itself is protected against magical attacks of all kinds, and is far sturdier than its appearance belies. The only way in or out is within a window high near the top of the tower, where Gothel herself lays in wait for anyone who would dare escape or enter.

Gothel can summon this tower in parts, summoning the walls as a bulwark against enemies and their attacks. However, the tower is at its most fearsome and powerful when the full structure has been erected, serving as the central lynchpin of the Hausmärchen Singularity where all Fairy Tales were forcibly distorted.

However, for those trapped within, there is a single thing to serve as a guide. A long, golden rope of hair, which can be seen throughout the tower. Despite the obvious trail it leads, Gothel does not do much as touch the hair, content to leave it be.

Voice Lines:

Summoned: Bow your head, human. You stand in the presence of Dame Gothel, the Witch of the Story's End. Hmm… So I have been summoned to serve Humanity, is it? Hah! What a joke. But I suppose I can spare you for now, Human. Though be warned. If I find you irritating, I will cook and eat you like all the rest before you.

Summoned(Clear Singularity “Hausmärchen - Land of Stories”): I see now… This is why I was called by the World to save mankind. How irritating... Does this world expect me to play the role of a hero now? But I suppose if that is the role the story asks me to play, I must play it out to my best. Don't think I'm getting soft though, human... I am Dame Gothel, the Witch of the Story's End, and a monster I will remain until the end of days.

Level Up 1: More fuel to the fire… Good, let the flames grow higher.

Level Up 2: Another ingredient to the cauldron... How delicious.

Level Up 3: Another offering for me? My, my, you're too kind.

1st Ascension: Ah, now this is more to my tastes. This is a dress most befitting a witch like myself. Fufufufufu… What do you think, human? Beautiful and fearsome, am I not? Perfect for the monster that I am.

2nd Ascension: You insist on pressing onward? Even if what you see may be frightening? I wonder... Would you consider yourself brave or foolish? I suppose time will tell.

3rd Ascension: Fufufufufufu... Finally, you see me for who I truly am. Do you understand, child…? You've strayed too far from the path of light, and now The Devil has come to make you pay for your sins. Tell me, was it worth it, selling your soul?

4th Ascension: Good and evil... Light and dark... They are but roles we are meant to play in the story. I did not choose the path I have taken, it was thrust upon me. The story dictated that I was to be the villain, and so I took upon that title with pride. I do not regret a single action I have taken... ...I wonder, did she think the same? Did she not once look back?

Fight Start 1: By all means, welcome to my humble abode… You’re not going to leave it anytime soon…

Fight Start 2: Well, well, well, it seems like a lovely little morsel has arrived. And just when I was getting hungry, too…

Fight Start 3: You know, you shouldn’t go walking around the woods by yourself. Who knows what monsters lurk in the shadows…?

Fight Start(Fatal Battle): Ah… Ahhh…! Rapunzel, Rapunzel…! Why…?! Why did you leave me?!

Skill 1: Double, double, toil and trouble…

Skill 2: Fire burn and cauldron bubble…

Skill 3: By the pricking of my thumbs…

Skill 4: Something wicked this way comes…

Command Card Select 1: Is that all?

Command Card Select 2: I suppose I haven’t used this trick in a while.

Command Card Select 3: This should be more than enough for the likes of you!

Noble Phantasm Select 1: It’s time we cast off this illusion…

Noble Phantasm Select 2: Tell me… Are you afraid?

Attack 1: Burn, down to your very bones!

Attack 2: By all means, scream…

Attack 3: You are going to taste exquisite…

Attack 4: Crush them, Tower with No Doors!

Attack 5: Hell awaits you!

Attack 6: Do you think you can survive this?!

Attack 7: Bind them, Seal of Solomon!

Extra Attack 1: The final chapter has been written… It’s the end of your story!

Extra Attack 2: Oh, do you think you can escape…? How foolish!

Noble Phantasm 1:

Heeheeheeeee… Hahahahaaaaa…!

Now the real fun begins…

Now the feast shall commence…

Now, little ones…

It’s time.

Let. Me. In.

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Noble Phantasm 2:

The Witch’s Night has come and gone…

Now the Devil comes to play!

So run and hide, it’s all the fun!

NOW HAS COME THE TIME TO SLAY!

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Noble Phantasm 3:

Bolt your doors…

Hide your children…

For the witching hour has arrived…

Die Teufelmaske.

AHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!

Noble Phantasm 4(Fatal Battle):

I am a monster… I am the Devil…

I am a demon who holds no love for anything in this world…

Then why…

Why does my heart hurt so much?!

Rapunzel… Rapunzel…

It's all your fault!

YOU DID THIS TO ME!

AHHHHHHHH!!!

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Damage from Noble Phantasm: How annoying…

Regular Damage: Tch.

Defeated 1: If the story says so…

Defeated 2: I’ll come back another day, just you wait.

Defeated(Fatal Battle): No… Please… Just let me end this!

Victory 1: Unfortunately for you, there is no happy ending.

Victory 2: And so the story reaches the end. The hero has been slain, and the wicked witch claims another victim.

Bond Level 1: So, we really are doing this, hm? Very well, as per our agreement, I shall lend my aid in your task to save mankind. In return, the moment I get bored with you, or I grow irritated by your words, or I am offended by your presence, I can and will eradicate you, completely and utterly. This I swear. Such is the binding of our contract. ...fufufufufu. Congratulations, young Master of Chaldea. You've made a deal with the Devil.

Bond Level 2: What's with that strange look you are giving me? ...ah, I understand. You don't trust me, do you? Don't worry. I may be the Witch of the End, but even I understand the sacred nature of an oath. Even if it is an annoyance to me, I intend to fulfill my side of the bargain to the fullest. I expect nothing less from you. Otherwise... *snaps fingers* Your soul is forfeit. Do I make myself clear?

Bond Level 3: Ghhh... Must you insist on following me around like a lost duckling? Surely, there must be other Servants that you could bother aside from me? ...hm? Lonely? ... What a joke. I am a monster. The Devil Incarnate. Whoever heard of a creature like that being lonely?

Bond Level 4: Your presence... It's annoyingly familiar to me. You remind me too much of my daughter. No... That's not right. Unlike her, you truly do fear me, don't you? I can smell it. And yet, you still choose to approach me? How strange... Still, I suppose I can't begrudge you, given our contract. But stay out of my way.

Bond Level 5: What is it now? ...ah, I understand, a revision to the contract. Very well. I suppose we are due for some additions. First off, your terms wish for me to... be more open in Chaldea. Tch. What an annoyance. But I suppose it is an acceptable one. I do not promise to be kind, or to be sociable, or any of that nonsense. But I suppose I can make an effort to do more around here. As for my terms...? You are not allowed to leave. ...oh? Do I see hesitation on your face? Then allow me to explain. Your life and mine will become bound to one another. If you are to leave me behind, I will follow. If you are to die, I will put you back together. If you are to vanish from this world, I will use every bit of my power to return you to it. Your fate and mind will become connected for all eternity, until we both agree to annul this contract. Simply put? I will not let you abandon me. So... do we have a deal?

Dialogue 1: Tell me child, when you think of the villain of all Fairy Tales, who comes to mind? …eh? The Big Bad Wolf…? Tch. What a pain. It appears I’ve been slacking in my efforts.

Dialogue 2: So, you too are a dreamer? Feh, I should have known. You have that annoying air about you. One of hoping and dreaming…

Dialogue 3: Are you just going to sit there and gawp at me while I work? If you have nothing better to do, here. Get me these ingredients. What? You’re worried it’s too dangerous? Well, it’s not my problem. Now go!

Dialogue 4: The end is fast approaching… I wonder, what will you do when the time comes? Will you cower in fear? Will you fight? Or will you simply accept it…? No, that’s foolish of me to ask, I know the answer.

Dialogue 5 (If you have Pinocchio): Little Pilgrim Made of Pine… The boy has apparently got it into his hollow head that he is to be my ‘conscience’. …heh. Isn’t that funny? A monster having a conscience? I’d laugh if the boy didn’t seem to mean it with all his heart…

Dialogue 6 (If you have Cinderella): Ah yes, the Persecuted Heroine… She reminds me all too much of my dear child. Such a pity, though… To have all the fortune in the world and still be unhappy.

Dialogue 7 (If you have Red Riding Hood): The Beast of Ignorance… Yes, she summoned me to create her own Singularity. In exchange, she would give me the salvation I desperately wanted. I was a fool to think I could trust a wolf. Be that as it may… I don’t enjoy being tricked.

Dialogue 8 (If you have “Goldilocks”): Ah, it’s you… I was wondering for the longest time why you of all characters felt so out of place… To think that it would be that a fallen deity stood before me. …how irritating.

Dialogue 9 (If you have any “Angel” Servants): Have you come once more to mock me, angel? Fine. Make your jeers and your judgements, they’re all the same.

Dialogue 10 (If you have Beni-Enma): Have you come to cast your judgement on me, little sparrow? I suppose it’s only fair. But if you expect me to make it easy for you, then you are a fool.

Dialogue 11 (If you have Mephistopheles): Oh? The Demon of Faust is here as well? How interesting… What a shame that he is not a true demon, though. I suppose his trickery and deceit is entertaining enough. I wonder, clown. What tricks have you up your sleeves?

Dialogue 12 (If you have Oberon-Vortigern): You too… have lost something important to you? Ah, Titania… No, I sadly have never met a woman such as that. Have you by any chance…? No, I suppose you wouldn’t have. In any case, I wish you luck, Fairy King.

Dialogue 13 (If you have Kintoki Sakata): Golden hair… The son of a witch… And an annoyingly chipper outlook on the world. Ghhh… He’s clearly not the same, but still, he’s too familiar. I best keep away from him for now.

Dialogue 14 (If you have Nursery Rhyme): Hm? What do you want, child? …you wish for me to read you a story? … No, there are other Servants better suited to that-OW! Hey, stop pulling on my dress! Ghhh…! This is why I hate children!

Dialogue 15 (If you have Hans Christian Andersen): Hans Christian Andersen… I suppose I owe my existence partly to him. What a sad little man he is. Putting up a front of coldness and disdain, but he’s just a coward too afraid of intimacy. …hm? What do you mean ‘he reminds you of someone’?!

Dialogue 16 (If you have any other “Fairy Tale” Servants): It appears my reputation precedes me… Yes, all the looks of terror and fear surrounding me… Fufufufufu… Now this is my element!

Dialogue 17 (If you have Lostbelt Morgan): The Witch-Queen of the Britons, as I live and breathe. You may be from a time and place not of this world, but I can sense your magical talent all the same… How frightening.

Dialogue 18 (If you have any “Child” Servants): Well, well, well… Lunch has arrived. Fufufufu… Don’t worry, Master, I’m only kidding. For now, at least.

Likes: There’s no greater pleasure in this world than eating. If there’s one thing God has done right, it’s grant all creatures, great and small, the ability to eat and cook. And of course, thanks to my magic, I can change my appearance however I wish. In other words, I can eat as much as I want, and suffer none of the consequence!

Dislikes: Something I dislike? Children. They’re terrible little things, talking to you, invading your homes, taking things from you… Yes, what rotten, horrible things children are. Only good to be a meal, nothing else.

About the Holy Grail: The Holy Grail…? Hmph, do you take me for a fool? That thing is clearly cursed. To make a wish on it, one must either be desperate, or an idiot. No, my magic is more than enough to surpass that paltry little thing.

During an Event: Oho? Now what has come a-knocking at my door? My, it seems that some festivities have begun, and here I am without an invitation. This cannot stand… Come, let us go see what all the fuss is about. I happen to know a thing or two about crashing parties…

Birthday: What? Oh, you wish to celebrate your birthday with me, do you? Hmm… I suppose I can whip something up from scratch. It may be a bit of a rush, but I suppose I can indulge you just this once. Don’t expect me to make this a habit, though.

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Once Upon a Time, in a faraway land, there was a witch. Or rather, there were many witches. Monsters that stalked the dark forests, looking for children to kidnap. Women that had sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for fantastic magical powers. Tricksters that caught victims in riddles and traps for their own sick amusement.

These stories would eventually become fused into one, a witch who would symbolize the fear all children hold in their hearts, and the looming threat that lay beyond the walls of their home. One of the few named witches, who terrorized the tales of the Brothers Grimm told to children at night. Gleefully, she tormented those who walked in her forests, cooking children for her meals, burning wayward fools who entered into her hut, and tearing families apart, all to amuse her.

She was Frau Trude Gothel, the Wicked Witch, a monster who held no love for anything.

Bond Level 1:

Height/Weight: 176cm • 75kg Source: Grimm’s Fairy Tales Region: Germany Alignment: Chaotic • Evil Gender: Female

She was Frau Trude Gothel, the Wicked Witch, a monster who held no love for anything.

Bond Level 2:

The witch's cruelty comes in many forms, some benign, some sinister. Some overt, some subtle. In some stories, she is The Devil, extending a gentle hand to bind a victim within a horrifying contract, cackling as another fool sells their soul and loses everything to her. In other tales, she is a temptress, luring children into her home with promises of sweets or enticing mysteries to solve, only to kill these innocents and use them to sate her vile hunger. In still others, she is a vain sorceress, tormenting younger beauties in envy of their purity and goodness, forcing a hero to come and save the maiden from her monstrous cruelty.

However, on very rare occasions, the witch is not the villain of the story, but rather a guide and teacher for the hero to seek out. And at times rarer still, she is a mother, a guardian, and a protector, watching over her child with the rage of a loving parent. How strange it is, that this self-admitted monster can be so versatile, how a being who claims to be heartless can come to care for anything with true love.

And here, in truth, does the story begin in earnest.

Bond Level 3:

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, the witch Dame Gothel lived, laying deep within a forest by her lonesome, relishing in the fear and terror her very name brought to the land. Mothers locked their children behind their doors, fathers carried torches and pitchforks in the night, and all prayed to God for salvation from this monster. She was content with this, all too happy to be the monster she was meant to be.

One night, the witch heard a rustling outside her door, and found that a neighbor from a nearby home had ravaged her garden, stealing the rapunzel plants and placing them in a basket. Incensed, the witch accuses the man of theft, and readied to kill him on the spot. The man, in turn, fell to his knees and begs.

"Please, miss! My wife needs to eat these plants to survive! She is to give birth soon, and I fear that she is wasting away! For the love of God, have mercy!"

The witch stayed her hand at the man’s words, but her mercy was not bourn out of kindness. Rather, she came to a terribly wicked idea. A bargain that would drive the man to the deepest pits of despair.

"Very well, I shall spare your life, but in return, I ask for one thing: your child that is to be had. I should like to keep her, and in exchange, I will let you eat of my plants."

Desperate, the man agreed, and upon the child's birth, she was given to the witch, at both mother and father’s despair. Frau Gothel took the child with her to a tower with no stairs or doors hidden deep in the forest. She named the child Rapunzel, after the very plants that secured her imprisonment to Gothel, and locked the baby into the highest room of the tower, where no man could ever hope to find her.

Bond Level 4:

Dame Gothel never truly intended to keep the child for herself. She had no use for a progeny because of her immortality, nor did she particularly want one in the first place. Children were far too noisy and prying and irritating for her to keep, that much was clear. No, if anything, the child would suffice as a meal. Perhaps not as she was now, but in due time, the baby would serve as a meal, nothing more, nothing less. It was as she was named: Rapunzel. Merely an ingredient to be cooked in a stew or served in a salad, just like all the other children before her.

And yet...

As the years went on, the child grew and grew, and Dame Gothel couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness as she watched. The child looked her in the eyes with no fear, unlike anyone else who had met her before. She did not care of the magical power she held, or the terrible atrocities she had done. No, the young Rapunzel saw no evil in her mother's eyes, and in turn, Dame Gothel beheld something she had truly begun to love. Eventually, all thoughts of eating the child were gone, and in their place were a mother's protective heart. She would shield the child from the cruelty of the world, protect her within this tower with all her might. Nothing and no one would ever lay eyes on her precious daughter, and they would live together within this tower, just the two of them.

They would all live Happily Ever After.

Alas, if only it was meant to be.

Bond Level 5:

She did not know when the man came, nor how he came to find their hiding place, or even why he climbed the tower to begin with. But it was unmistakable, the stench of that 'prince' violated the tower, just as much as he had violated her dear Rapunzel. Gothel confronted her child, and soon, the relationship between mother and daughter began to strain.

"You... You let him in here?! Moreso than that, you bear his child?! How could you do this to me?! How could you do this to yourself?!"

"Mother, I love him! And he loves me! We are to be wed, and I will not let you stand in the way of our marriage!"

"Love?! Marriage?! Rapunzel, you are a fool! You've only known him for a few months, and you're talking about marrying him?! You're just blinded by your naivete!"

"Whose fault is it then?! You call me naive, and yet you're the one who locked me in this tower, never able to see anything beyond these walls! If I am blind, then it is because you are the one who has blinded me my whole life!"

"How... dare you?! I did this all to protect you!"

"No, you did this to keep me all to yourself!"

At her daughter's words, Gothel was overcome with a monstrous rage she had not known since taking in the child. In a fit of blind rage, Gothel cut off Rapunzel's precious locks, her golden hairs falling to the ground all at once. The two fell silent as mother and daughter looked each other in the eyes. Horrified at what she had done, Gothel could not even speak a word of protest as her child left the tower, never to return again. Silently, she extended a hand towards the one person she had ever loved… And did nothing as she faded away into the dark forest.

Extra (Clear Singularity “Hausmärchen - Land of Stories”):

Upon Rapunzel's departure, the Witch of the Forest remained in the tower waiting, hoping for the day that her child would one day return, and they would live out their lives as they always had. Just the two of them together. She did not eat. She did not sleep. She did not even attempt to leave her prison of her own making.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months turned to years, and yet neither hide nor golden hair of the child had made her way home.

So, the Witch of the Story’s End did something she had never done in her long years of life: she prayed. Clasping her hands together, Dame Gothel, who had sold her soul to the Devil, who wickedly defied Heaven without remorse, begged Heaven for a sign, an answer from God that her beloved daughter would come home to her, that her family would be made whole once more. After many sleepless nights of prayer, Heaven would eventually answer Gothel’s prayers, sending an angel from on high to speak to the monstrous witch.

"Dame Gothel, wicked and cruel tormentor of mankind... You dare ask God for intercession? You, who has torn apart countless lives, murdered hundreds of children, now beg for your own child to return? Do you not realize that your daughter left you because you refused to give her happiness? That you marred her own beloved just to selfishly keep her in your tower? ... You disgust me. The only reason why I do not damn you to Hell here and now... Is because I see that no punishment could ever surpass your torment here and now. So lay here and rot until the end of your life, Dame Gothel... Forever knowing your daughter is far happier now that you are gone from her life."

Upon the angel's words, Gothel's heart had shattered into pieces. The wicked witch, who had gleefully tormented families and left them in despair, was now trapped within her own sorrow, having lost her dear Rapunzel. She had nothing to live for, nothing to smile about. Without Rapunzel, she was left as nothing more than a living corpse, left to waste away until nothing remained of her.

Never to regain her Happily Ever After.

The End.

#fate #fate fanservant #fanservant #fate grand order #fgo #fate oc #dame gothel #frau trude #the wicked witch #writing and other stuff #behold! my second fairy tale fanservant!#I've got six in total in mind #and yes this is me indulging in my love of witch designs in fiction #i liked the idea of having an unrepentant monster as a servant #and yet they still do have someone they cared about despite that #and dame gothel was honestly the best choice for that #witches in fairy tales are almost always unrepentant eaters of children and complete monsters #but dame gothel was somewhat of an exception #with there being a lot of ambiguity in the story if she truly loved rapunzel or was an abusive parental figure like many other fairy tales #i decided to lean towards the former #which made an interesting writeup to juxtapose with her being... well an evil witch who ate children #and i like how it turned out #hope y'all find it interesting too

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gainprincess · 10 months

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Idea: The vorny food pyramid post except it's an actual pyramid filled top to bottom with an enormous variety of prey for Kama and Kiyohime to 'defeat' to join back up with the rest of the farming party.

This Singularity is a bizarre one but I have faith they can make it.

"Oh dear, Kiyohi...It looks like we've been trapped in this Singularity...All these bloated, waddling, heavy meals, and some monster snacks to cleanse our palettes with...Whatever shall we do to free ourselves of them?"

She has no idea who even sent them here to begin with; She suspects either Kiara or BB, but the latter seems...occupied, so she'll go with Kiara. This seems like her gimmick.

"Oh my...you're quite right, my love...What can we do here...?"

A hand goes to her swollen, soft gut, hanging down past her knees as a result of all the food she's been stuffed with (in addition to...other substances, of course). She kneads it with the plush palm, licking her lips as she stares out at the feast laid before them.

She's not nearly as experienced as her dear Kama-sama when it comes to the act of vore; Maybe that's why every meal here looks so different, even though Kama just categorized them all as 'food' in a single statement.

Something about that makes her loins drip.

There's Servant Shadows, of their comrades and friends...just Shadows, though. There's random civilians from all manner of Singularities and Lostbelts. There's soldiers, female one and all, but varied nevertheless. Many different sizes, shapes, and delectable points to them...

Kiyohime can feel herself drool.

"Well, sweet beloved, my one and only, my most cherished and loved companion in this second life and all ones beyond..."

Kama's bloated ball of a gut jiggles and sloshes as she HURRRPPPs into her fist, the gassy goddess's smile as pure as driven snow as she gazes upon her lover. Kama really does adore Kiyohime. At first, it'd just been an amusement, a whim to pass the time, when she started spending out with such a love-flooded individual.

Now, a world without Kiyohime...is a world that Kama would burn to cinders.

"I think we have our afternoon snack. We can figure out where to go when these meals are nothing but bulges squirming desperately in our stomachs, yes? After our greedy, hungry stomachs are sated~?"

Her heavy, sweaty, singular monolith of a gut gurgles bassily.

Her sagging, triple-rolled, utterly unrepentant fat-churner of a belly churns hungrily.

No more words are said as they press their tubby faces together for a kiss, chins mashing up against each other.

Their hunt begins~.

GWWWWWWULLLPPPP!

"Whrrrp...ugh, what lame meals. At least be enough to bloat my half-ton tummy. Even a hundred of you basic snacks can barely manage to make me hard.~"

Indeed, her painfully large girlshaft is rising up under her gut, hefting it up slightly as the massive tool throbs lazily. She went for the smallest prey first, but discovered soon that eating someone that was only 200 pounds did nothing for her immense hunger, nor her lust. At most, her balls are churning and gurgling a bit with need, ready to blow a load all over Kiyohime's backside when the time comes.

She moves on to the larger meals once the shortstacks are completed, smacking her gut to inspire yet more desperate thrashing as drool leaks from her lips.

"More."

She lunges.

"How...BBBBBUUUURRRRRRPPPPP...disappointing."

Kiyohime continues her own rampage, plucking up soldiers and civilians alike with her flabby hands as they practically fall into her mouth. Compared to Kama's organized manner of eating, Kiyohime is haphazard and indiscriminate in her meal choice. She just cares about staying in her half, and the rest is fair game. However, she seems a bit disappointed with the quality of meals, given her frown, perhaps considering them inadequate despite their heft.

"Meals. Need. More..."

"MEALS!~"

And so it is.~

#muse: kama and kiyohime #readyplayerziggy #they'll be at it a while #I can write the rest if you really want.~

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fatedtime · 3 years

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hello i wrote this at 2am in a feral haze. the premise: confessing to Servants who would be Difficult About It until their master starts breaking down in the Lostbelts.

I'd like to do more but for now here's Bedivere and the Phantom of the Opera.

Bedivere

Oh, he breathes, and his face reddens from the effort of restraining tears because he is so, so very unworthy.

He knows it is neither dream nor trick, because the air is too sweet for a nightmare and you are far too sincere for those sorts of childish pranks. He cannot fathom what must have possessed you to say something like that to him - I love you, Bedivere in a voice that drowns in honey - and he plays dumb because Bedivere is such a very well-practiced liar.

How wretched that he wants you, he numbly thinks as you stutter and stammer before him. How horrible it is that he is such a greedy man.

(As if he is worth even kissing his Master's feet. He is a steward. A servant. A knight. How dare he let such desires bloom within him? How dare he feel as such for his lord?)

It is art, the way he avoids your confession. It's such a fine line to balance - he must not refuse you, because to do so would break your heart, but he must not accept you, for to do so would invoke upon you only shame. He hides in the shadows of plausible deniability, of being the dense, airheaded, gentle and pure Bedivere whose humbleness blinds him to the feelings of others.

He feels no pride when he brushes the topic away with an offer of tea and chocolates and ever more servitude, and you let the subject drop.

When had it happened, he wonders? What had he done? Bedivere is not an audacious enough man to think that he had seduced you, but he knew what a burden you held on your shoulders, and he knew that sometimes feelings of reliance and gratitude could be mistaken for... other things, feelings with a similar palatable sweetness.

That had to be it, he was certain. A mistaken, misallocation of emotion. Because if not, because if otherwise --

(His most important and sacred duty was keeping you safe and how could he do that if he shattered you to pieces? And of course he would, how could a man like him not end up doing so, it was his failure that had turned the King of Knights into the Lion King, his selfishness, and if you let him into your heart like that he knew he would do the same to you, he knew it he knew it and that could not be he would never let it be.)

These boundaries were necessary. He was supposed to protect you, among all other things. If you loved him, he could not protect you with everything he had, because the wounds sustained during that protection would wound you as well.

...He may not even be able to give up what was necessary, at the end, just like with the king he never wished to die, because the idea of a future with you would be too tantalizing to ignore.

And that is why he would lie to you, and suffocate this wretched flower blooming in his heart. Thorns pierced him as he smiled and bowed his head before you. You had lead him to a victory he had sought for over a thousand years, and in his cowardice, he would wield his sword for you forevermore.

***

You were breaking down, and he was watching it happen.

He wondered if this meant that he had learned from his prior failures with King Arthur, that he had even noticed it, or if you simply were too honest of a person to conceal your grief. Neither thought comforted him.

He did what he could to ease your burdens as you tore reality after reality between your fingers, condemning them while fighting for your own version of history. For all of his flaws, he was an astoundingly loyal man, and his trust in you never wavered once.

But still, he kept his distance. Though those words you'd said that day haunted him daily (and sometimes, nightly as well) he always asked himself this: what use was that sort of love under the weight of all your sorrows? You had far more important matters on your mind than pining after a ridiculous fool like him, he was sure and he told himself that his rejection had meant nothing.

Changed nothing.

Even though there were ever so many things he wanted to do, so many moments when he had to practice such restraint. He did not take your hand when the two of you walked side by side, even though - unoccupied - your nails drew blood from your palms. When you stood in the snow-fields of the Kingdom of Beasts, he waited behind you, watching as the wind stung your cheeks and never broaching that gap. How would a hug from him then change anything?

Would it have kept the warmth in you from slipping away?

One day, you looked up at the sky, and began to muse about the relationship between gods and men.

That back then, it had felt so easy to be defiantly human, but more and more you wondered about the righteousness of your cause. Did it even matter? Did this suffering, this agony even matter, or was it something that you long ago should have thrown away? You felt so far removed from other people now, so distant, and you wondered if this is what gods were like - deciding who would live and who would die.

"What separates me from the Lion King?" You cried, slamming your fist against the wall with your teeth bared into a pained snarl. "Preserving my desired humanity at the detriment of everything else in the world? Perhaps, back then, I was nothing but a hypocritical fool."

It was at that moment that Bedivere snapped.

Everything you were saying - he rejected it down to his very core. You were nothing like the Lion King, you could never be anything like the Lion King because you were so wonderfully, beautifully, terribly infuriatingly human and the things you fought for were flawed, broken, illogical, and human just the same. He wanted to scream at you that because you worried about these things proved you were nothing about that imperial woman, that your feelings mattered simply because they existed - that even if feeling was shitty it was also right - but he found that things got a little twisted when it came from the 'putting thoughts out of the mouth' department and, instead, got a little more direct.

More specifically, his mouth on yours.

When his brain finally caught up to his body, he had his teeth on your neck and his hands in some very unknightly places. He would have shoved himself away, apologized, gotten on his knees and begged that you behead him for his impropriety, but the parched soil of your spirit greedily drank in any affection he had to offer and, at this point, you could hardly let him go.

The partitions of distance had worn you away, left you chilled and frozen, and so fervently did you seek touch, warmth, honesty, especially from your trusted ally and the foolish man you happened to love. After tasting it, there was no turning back for you, and quite honestly, none for him either. Barriers had been torn, and in his arms, you cried for how vehemently you felt human once more.

Your mutual search for 'something perfect that will cause no pain' was a doomed one from the start, and wiping frozen tears away, he murmured, "Once more, I fear that I have kept you waiting."

Still, at the end, he faced his own cowardice, and it was enough to hold together a fractured heart for just a little longer.

Oh, there is joy, yes. There is such impossible warm joy, a radiant magma spilling through the ugly, malformed rot of his insides. It's the sort of rabid delight that drives a man to madness, and he sings to choke it down, sings of your beauty and your purity and your praises to the sun and moon and stars alike. It is how he disguises the disgusting urge within him to take you into the dark so he may envelope himself utterly in your light.

Phantom of the Opera

I'd say that you're going to destroy this entire man's career, but the truth of it is this: you are this man's entire career, and that is why the melodious lilt of those words devastates him so utterly.

...It’s not that he mistakes you for her -- Christine, that is, the songstress that he did such terrible things in his desire to claim. He knows you are the Master of Chaldea, and that the entirety of human history is the stage for your song of salvation. The power of your voice - your existence, and your ability to enforce your will upon the world - shall transcend time and space to stand against the Incineration of Humanity.

It’s more accurate to say that you are his Christine, the thing that defines his existence, because what would the Phantom of the Opera be without a Christine to love?

Oh, he knows his love is a terrible thing. Oh, he knows he is ugly because of it, and so wretchedly he wishes that he could be unrepentant like Kiyohime, could be unabashed like Serenity, could be fanatical in his desires like Minamoto no Raiko. But he knows what will happen if he does that, doesn’t he? He knows what will happen at the climax of this performance if he does not stretch the first and second acts into eternity.

You confess to him, this man that wishes he was truly a monster and not a monster of a man, and he wants to weep from the agony of it, of how much he wants to TAKE.

But he cannot do that. This is why he sings. For if the performance is still ongoing, he can stave off its terrible end, for he does not want to do harm to you, his light, his love, his foolish, glorious master. In the wake of your confession, he takes your hands with hands not meant for it, balancing your fingers on those delicate blades, and responds to it with an aria of how much he adores you in turn.

He may not be able to accept your love, because to do so would lead to him drowning you in the depths of his monstrosity, but the Phantom of the Opera will pour his soul into ensuring that you know that he loves you, he loves you, always and forever it is you, it is you, it is you --

(Even if that mental corruption twists it, and all he can say is Christine, Christine, Christine -- )

And so, he keeps the mask of monstrosity on. This is the part he has been summoned to play.

***

The distance torments him, the dance destroys him, and he recreates the illusions of his existence in a thousand new phantoms as he simply tries to survive as ‘another performance’ in your glory.

He loves you but will not be with you, this man who must admire you from afar. He has his role and you have yours, and the two of you are not lovers, even though the love you each bear for each other is aching in its desperation. Distance defines him, like the negative space in a photograph, and he cannot broach that barrier without the ruination of everything he so rigidly clings to.

This is how things are until the Lostbelts.

What is the difference between singing and screaming, he wonders, as he watches you condemning another world to its fate? What separates those distinctly raw vocalizations of agony? Because it still sounds like music to him, your wretched sobs as he watches you cry, and he can already see the ending to this tragedy, so crisp and clear like a stanza written in blood.

“Why do I have to be so human?” You had asked him, fingers tightening in his cloak. “It seems all I am destined for is the folly of human mistakes.”

It almost breaks him again, when you grab hold of him and nearly beg him to take you away, because he must be wrong, he has to be wrong, for you are not angelic or glorious or a light that will rise boldly forth to protect the world. If he still wants a thing as wretched as you, then he should lock you up so you can incinerate no more worlds underneath the force of your conviction.

“It might even make you a hero,” you breathe into his neck and - no, it does not almost break him, it does break him, but not in a way he ever could have hoped to expect.

The Phantom of the Opera knows that to keep you would be one of the greatest joys he could ever know. He would find some way to do it, and in that prison, he is certain he could return you to a state of glory untainted by the monstrous guilt weighing on your own heart.

But that is the one thing that he must not do.

Taking his mask off, he removes with it his false monstrosity. He is human as he kisses you. He is a human who kisses you to know and be known, to love and be loved, and in the tide of his want, he will let you drown all of your sorrows within him.

You are not Christine, because Christine does not actually exist. But because you are lovely and righteous and kind, he will give his everything to you, for you are the thing he shall love till the end of every world and then his own.

“Know me now, both in body and in soul,” he asks of you in turn, for if the actor who plays the Phantom of the Opera wants any other sort of role, this is the price he must pay. He can no longer maintain his perfect devotion, that perfect idealized love held at an appropriate length, because only a human - a human born with the gift of possibility - could ever change his role as he wishes to do, change his story and with it, your own.

“I will recast myself in a role that can be by your side,” he whispers into the darkness, and he closes the curtain around you with a blanket that blocks out the light. "For you, I shall be a pillar in your grief."

{Your saga will not end in tragedy; this, to you, he swears.}

#fgo headcanon #fate grand order #fgo #phantom #bedivere #me: its christmas what do i want to write?#hurt/comfort that's what #how far i have fallen that i have been sucked back into the fate rabbit hole to want to blog and write about it but #quarantine sucks so i'm allowed some measure of madness i suppose #fgo headcanons

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thebookrose · 6 years

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Based on suggestions and my own ideas, I came up with a list of possible books we could read. Comment or message me with your choice! Below are descriptions of each: 1. The Red Queen This is a world divided by blood - red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. 2. A Court of Thorns and Roses Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price. Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever. 3. Crazy Rich Asians When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination. 4. Love and Ruin In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly—and uncontrollably—falling in love with Hemingway, a man already on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, Key West, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Ernest make their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man's wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart, and her own. 5. A Gentleman in Moscow When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery. 6. Alex and Eliza: A Love Story As battle cries of the American Revolution echo in the distance, servants flutter about preparing for one of New York society’s biggest events: the Schuylers’ grand ball. Descended from two of the oldest and most distinguished bloodlines in New York, the Schuylers are proud to be one of their fledgling country’s founding families, and even prouder still of their three daughters—Angelica, with her razor-sharp wit; Peggy, with her dazzling looks; and Eliza, whose beauty and charm rival that of both her sisters, though she’d rather be aiding the colonists’ cause than dressing up for some silly ball. Still, she can barely contain her excitement when she hears of the arrival of one Alexander Hamilton, a mysterious, rakish young colonel and General George Washington’s right-hand man. Though Alex has arrived as the bearer of bad news for the Schuylers, he can’t believe his luck—as an orphan, and a bastard one at that—to be in such esteemed company. And when Alex and Eliza meet that fateful night, so begins an epic love story that would forever change the course of American history. @bakerstreetshelves @abookblog @creating-the-home-library @studyingismyraisondetre @petsandpages @bird42megan @milliegirl20 @haileyreads @lostinabookbrb @magic-and-dreams @theserpentreader @a-peculiar-being @the-bookie-monster @just-another-book-review @multiverse-ofbookreviews @jacewasbornamazing @saharame @herwitchinesss @naomireads @irelandhoneybee @cassidylovesbooks @laustenjohnson

#books #book club

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muffinworry · 7 years

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Thoughts on A Darker Shade of Magic

Thoughts on A Darker Shade of Magic (full of spoilers):

***

I have such mixed feelings about this book. I tore through it, made about 5 of my friends read it, made my first ever cosplay for it, and, and yet…

It’s hard to think of another book that’s frustrated me quite like this one. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a light, brisk read through an engaging fantasy world. My problem with it, though, is really that it could have been so much more. It’s a case of a beautiful setting and interesting characters, rather let down by rather simplistic writing and /plot.

The setting:

Four separate Londons: Grey (our London, c. 1819), Red (a healthy magic empire), White (starving and corrupt) and Black (lost and long-forgotten). Only the almost-extinct Antari magicians can travel between them. Our hero Kell is a young Antari, adopted into the royal family of Red London, and with no memory of his early years. He carries correspondence between the Grey, Red and White thrones (I’ll come to that in a minute), and has a bad habit of smuggling magical curiosities between the worlds, for a price. He promises his foster brother Rhy that he’ll stop before he gets into trouble, but of course he can’t resist one last delivery, which goes horribly wrong. He crosses paths with Lila, a clever street thief from Grey London, and together they have to make things right before all four worlds are destroyed.

Schwab clearly loves London – our London – and the decision to set the story in the Regency period is a novel one. I can’t remember reading Georgian fantasy before. The image of Mad King George in his royal cell, writing letters to another world that nobody else believes in, is such a compelling one. So why, with that great set-up, does Schwab ditch any further investigation of Regency London? Another review pointed out that our Grey London character, Lila, could come straight from modern America. Her language and thoughts are entirely modern. There doesn’t seem to be much reason for the historical setting, except the costumes and sword fighting. It’s a pity.

Above all, I wanted more politics in the book, and more sense of the worlds we’re travelling through. It feels like such a wasted opportunity. It could have been a sprawling epic. To set the book in Regency London, at a time when England has just lost its American colony, and the French revolution is still fresh in peoples’ minds, at a time when the old order is being overthrown, and the idea of monarchy itself is being questioned, that’s fascinating to me. Why not take that as the backdrop, and contrast it with Prince Rhy, heir to a 1000-year-old empire, now at risk because he happens not to have been born with strong magic.

Let us really feel Rhy’s desperation, his need to prove himself and his fear of letting everyone down, that drives him to accept White London’s dangerous gift in the first place. And White London, where there’s no such thing as a dynasty, where the throne changes hands with violence every few years – show us the innovative ways that its citizens have evolved to make do without magic. Give me a White London that was forced to develop technology at a much faster rate because it couldn’t rely on its scarce magical resources. For that matter, what does religion look like, in a world where every new ruler promises to free the people, to bring back the magic? Where the people are desperate to believe, even though they’ve seen fraud after fraud? Red London abandoned White, centuries ago, and left them to starve, and White is understandably furious and sees themselves as entitled to take reparations in whatever way they can. There’s a lot that could have been written there about colonialism and empire, and the plundering of natural resources that leads to war. The book could have been a meditation on power and politics, and what it means to sit on a throne.

And against this backdrop of worlds in upheaval, you have a story of family and love and sacrifice. This is where the book is stronger.

The characters

Kell is the central character, the one whose point of view anchors the book. As an Antari, his rare magic makes him a target, a threat, or a prize for everybody, from his adoptive parents, to the villains. Kell is fairly well fleshed out: he’s good-hearted, but he has a temper; he can’t resist showing off at times, he’s prone to self-pity, he makes some very questionable decisions, and he can be violent, even cruel. He loves his family but feels trapped and used by them too, with some justification (and what a great scene where Lila scornfully tells him that at least he grew up with a roof over his head).

Prince Rhy, Kell’s brother, seems to be many readers’ favourite, and it’s easy to see why. He’s just immensely appealing; a charming flirt who nevertheless wants to do right by his kingdom, and worries intensely that he may not be up to the job. He wants to Kell to settle down, to stop risking himself, to fit better in into the royal family. At the beginning of the book, Kell is chafing at his family bonds; by the end, he’s longing for them. Rhy and Kell love each other, despite their flaws and it’s written so sincerely, that by the time Rhy is in danger, it’s utterly believable that Kell would sacrifice himself to save his brother.

Delilah (Lila) Bard, the street thief from Grey London, suffers from a case of “I’m not like those other girls.” She scorns dresses and corsets, and yearns to be a pirate. She’s rash and outspoken, confident that she’ll win in every situation, and spends most of the book exasperating everyone she comes into contact with. Rather a cliché. I can see why many readers find her insufferable. Personally, I think she has just enough charm to get away with it, but only just. My biggest problem, like I said above, is that she doesn’t seem at all connected to 1800s London. More worryingly, she’s the only female character given POV chapters, and the book sorely needs more women interacting. As @danceny pointed out in their review, the Queen, Kell’s foster mother, says virtually nothing in the entire series. (For that matter, what’s the role of women, as a whole, in Red and White London societies?)

Lila also responsible for this line that made me grit my teeth:

“Tell me, do you underestimate everyone, or just me? Is it because I’m a girl?”

Note that at the time, Kell is trying to persuade her not to fight Astrid, who is not only female, but also older and much more powerful than Lila. It’s a nonsensical outburst from the streetwise Lila, and feels like an example of Schwab trying to prove how not-sexist her hero Kell is, rather than building a comprehensively egalitarian world.

So Lila reads less like a strong female character and more like a Strong Female Character ™ but I will say that her primary motivation is to get her own ship, and while she undergoes some character growth, she stays focused on her goal, and the book doesn’t derail on a forced romantic plot, for which I’m eternally grateful.

Athos and Astrid Dane, the twin rulers of White London and absolute monsters, whose only redeeming quality is their fierce love for each other. I would have liked more about their relationship, and how it could be contrasted with Kell and Rhy’s.

Disclaimer: I was reading about Les Enfants Terribles right before I read ADSOM, and Kerry Greenwood’s description of Jean and Jeanne Bourgoint as “Doomed, inseparable, morphine-slender and golden" definitely coloured how I saw the Danes. I don’t know if Schwab intended it, but right from the beginning, I assumed that the Dane twins are dying, that the cancerous magic they have to use to hold onto the throne is rotting them from the inside out, and that’s why they’re so desperate to break through to healthy Red London.

It’s a testament to Schwab that she created a pair of villains who drink blood and tile their palace with the bones of their enemies, and still manage to be frightening instead of laughably over the top. I’ll be honest: I love how much fun they have in the book. In every single appearance, they’re having the time of their lives. I love a gleefully unrepentant villain. The scene where they get Kell drunk is horrifying and hilarious.

Holland, the only other Antari (that we know of...), is a servant of the White throne, and we find out later, is actually soul-bound to obey Athos Dane. If the Danes are glorious monsters, Holland is the other kind of villain, the one with the tragic backstory and the possibility of redemption. We get Holland’s history through Kell, and we don’t really know much about Holland’s own thoughts and feelings. He exists to hinder Kell and Lila, and to be a living warning to Kell about the dangers of power and ambition. It’s a another good moment when Kell finally sees himself through Holland’s eyes, and realizes just how young and naïve he must seem to the other Antari.

Magic

Hmmm. I really like the idea of magic as a sentient natural resource that can be compelled, or pleaded with. The scene where Kell has to beg the magic to open a door for him is great (and highlights the importance of the word please). Magic as a dangerous commodity, a bit like nuclear energy, something that has to be handled with great care, something that society is founded on. It makes a great deal of sense in the book, which is why the reveal in Book Two was a bit disappointing to me, but I’ll talk about that in another review.

Plotholes

I’d love it if anyone would like to clarify these, because it’s entirely possible that I missed out on something, but, plotholes that threw me while I was reading:

- The Coup

- Kell in White London

- What was in those letters

The Coup: What exactly is the Danes’ plan? And why doesn’t it have more fallout?

So. The twins find a broken stone from Black London, and realize that they can use it to tear down the doors between the worlds and seize the Red throne. Half of it needs to go to Red London, to do that. They don’t want to send Holland because if he’s caught, it’ll be obvious that it’s their plot, so they trick Kell into carrying it home with him. Fine. So far so good.

But.

Why then, do they immediately send Holland after Kell, to murder and set fire to Red London while he chases Kell in the world’s least subtle chase? Astrid already has Rhy under her control; why send Holland at all?

For that matter, Kell is convinced that it can’t be the Danes who slipped him the stone, because as power-hungry as they are, they’d surely never let go of it, which is a good point, so how are the Danes unaffected by the stone? Kell and Lila are both terribly tempted by it, but the greedy and possessive twins aren’t?

Finally, the coup fails, but not before Astrid compromises the entire royal family and half the nobility at the ball, and the palace guards. Combined with the black magic plague, this should have terrible ramifications for the stability of Red London society and politics. Yet by the end of the book, it seems to have been largely hushed up.

Kell in White London:

The timeline seems off here. Kell is 22(?) or thereabouts? He’s been to White London several times; he met Holland and the old king before the Danes took the throne. But the Danes have been in power for nearly 8 years (in a world where the throne usually changes hands every 1-2 years, per canon). Was Maxim really sending his young teenage son to run his errands in a warzone? And when Astrid sees Kell, she says “let me see how you’ve grown,” which would make sense if she hasn’t seen him for years, but Kell’s been there often enough that the populace knows him, and we know there’s a regular correspondence between White and Red London. It’s a small point, but it brings me to my biggest issue, which is,

The Letters:

What is in that correspondence between the thrones? We’re told that the letters to Grey London are simple formalities, due to George III’s failing health, but the ones between Red and White London are “constant and involved” and leave King Maxim worried and stressed. People (apart from Kell and Holland) can’t travel between the worlds, nor can goods, so what, exactly, is there to talk about? Why does Maxim even bother to correspond with the murderous and borderline insane twins? What do they write about? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Writing

So. Love and sacrifice, freedom vs. safety, and the cost of power, are the themes of the book. They’re never really explored in-depth, though, and the book reads more as older YA than as an adult novel. A more literary book would have strengthened these themes, and shown rather than told us about them. The jumping between characters’ POVs is unsettling because so many minor characters get chapters of their own, and it feels unnecessary, like it’s a crutch to get information to the reader that we should really be inferring through the main characters, Kell and Lila. I’ll also note again that Lila is the only female character to get her own POV (where is my Astrid chapter??). The characters tend to explain their motivations out loud, in simplistic language, and their actions tend to be predictable.

I think, on balance, the characters are just charming enough to get away with this, but others have disagreed, and I understand why.

The writing is lovely at times; at others, it made me grit my teeth in annoyance. There are some subtle bits I enjoyed on second reading (“Rhy” sipping tea while waiting for Kell to wake up, and wearing a mask instead of his usual crown) but for the most part, the language is simplistic and repetitive.

What Schwab does very well is write visual scenes. A few things I can’t wait to see in a tv adaptation:

- The blood-red Thames

- The “stone forest” in White London

- The scene in the Grey London pub, with Kell showing off for Ned

- Lila and Astrid fighting, both in Regency men’s clothes, one in black, one in white

- The soiled cathedral of White London’s castle, all vaulting marble beauty and bloodstains.

- The masquerade scene because I am such a sucker for a masquerade ball

- The costumes, oh my goodness

- Kell’s coat

Anyway. A few scattered thoughts. I didn’t mean to ramble on quite this much. It’s a good book, I have a soft spot for it, and I’m looking forward to reading the third when it comes out in February. I just think that it could have been so much more.

#adsom

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