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Relationships 101 – Cat & Darion February 26, 2013

Posted by sinefine in Characters 101.
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Usually I post a character profile on the fourth Monday of the month, but this month we’re celebrating love and romance on the SFF blog so let’s talk about a relationship instead of a specific character.  The most popular romantic couple out of all the characters in the SFF repertoire (according to a highly unscientific facebook poll where less than ten people voted) is Cat and De Carlo from Pandora’s Box.  They are played by the fabulous Margaret Olson and Chris Hutchens.


 Catalina Crims and Darion De Carlofirst met while they were both in training at the Cadets Academy.  Cat was fifteen and Darion was sixteen.  The Cadets Academy was basically a prep-school for teenagers who wanted to go into the army and had either the talent or pedigree (or money) to become officers.  They quickly became best friends and competed with each other for ranks and grades – usually Cat reached an achievement first but sometimes Darion did.  

Darion was the only son of an extremely elite military family – the De Carlos. For countless generations they have been one of the two highest ranked Generals and the only hereditary military position.  They have been personal bodyguards to the Empress in cases where her life was under immediate threat, and have been fiercely loyal to the Empire and the Empress for generations.  Tradition and the Army are everything to De Carlo. 

Cat, however, was the abused daughter of a rich merchant who wanted to belong to the Aristocracy and planned to use Cat to marry into that class.  She ran away when she was fourteen to join the Army and was able to test into the Cadets Academy after lying about her age and getting a scholarship.  Cat gets annoyed by traditions and prestige and hates wearing dresses and make up and looking like a doll.


They’re an unlikely pair in many ways, but they were drawn to each other from the day they met and became such good friends that Darion and his family helped Cat get away from her father when he tried to assert parental rights and take her back. They both became generals in record time.  For years they were always in each other’s company whenever possible and there were a lot of rumors that the two of them were in love.  They of course denied it, but eventually they both realized it was true.

    

There was a rule in the army that soldiers couldn’t date each – soldiers were all considered to be brothers and sisters so dating within the ranks was considered something like incest and was against the law.  If Cat and Darion had started dating while still in the army, than either one or both of them would be kicked out and put on trial, fined, imprisoned, and possibly even killed.  So they tried to ignore their feelings for each other.

One night when they were both seriously depressed about different things, they got roaring drunk and slept together.  Cat decided to leave the army at the point because she couldn’t stand killing people on the whim of the Empress or the bratty Princess Zarina.  However, because of the timing, Darion (and everyone else) assumed that she was leaving the army so that she could marry him.  He proposed to her and she refused, then she blew up the army headquarters and it was a big mess. 

The Empire put a big reward on her head and ordered Darion to hunt her down and kill her.  He was super mad at being jilted and betrayed so he was more than happy to do it (or at least try to).  Although this whole incident is brought up in Episode 12, there are a lot of details that you won’t find in the series.  I wrote a prequel story (fan fiction?) about how they went from being best friends to bitter enemies.  

They spent years fighting each other, and after Cat joined the rebels they became ever more bitter enemies.  Their friendship had turned to love, then turned into hate.  Darion, being the General De Carlo, loved the army and had sworn to protect Empress Zarina, so when the Civil War began he stayed by her side. 
 Zarina was verbally and emotionally abusive to him and he finally had enough.  He wasn’t ready to leave the army yet, so he switched to the other side – the Army Faction – and got into trouble there.  He ended up back with Zarina and bided his time until he could find the right time to leave her once and for all.  

He decided to join the rebels, since both the army and the Empress had let him down – and there was the delicious allure of being with Cat if he joined the rebels.  So in a dramatic episode he betrayed Zarina, saved Zarc’s life (Cat’s best friend), and joined the rebels. He and Cat were finally on the same side again, reunited at last.  



    




However, Cat’s kind of a bitch and considering everything that had happened between them, it didn’t take long for the sweet reunion to turn sour.  Cat and Darion started fighting constantly.  The situation was made more difficult because Darion was used to being in control as a general (although being subservient to a woman – the empress – was ingrained pretty deep as well).  When they were both in the army, they were both generals and were equal.  However, Cat was the leader of the group of rebels he joined and he had to get used to the idea of taking orders from her like everyone else. 

Eventually they worked things out and started dating.  They dated for a couple of years, then Darion proposed and Cat accepted.  They got married and remained with the rebels as Commander (Cat) and Second-in-command (Darion).  They settled into as nice a life as a rebel could have.

They were deeply in love and would do anything to protect each other.  Cat, who once thought she would never need anyone, came to depend on him and trust as much if not more than anyone else (possibly even Zarc).  However, they weren’t always mushy and had a tendency to still argue from time to time. 
When the final battle arrived and Cat and Darion were fighting for freedom in a massively co-coordinated attack, they ended up beside each other in the end.  Darion saved Cat’s life by taking a bullet that was meant for her and died in her arms on the battlefield.  His death drove her into a mad frenzy and joined him in death shortly after, killing as many soldiers as she could before she died.  (her death is sad actually sad and ironic, but we’re not going to go there).  In the end she would not have wanted to live without him.

 

In the TV show they have no children, however if I ever get the chance to make it a real national TV show with a budget and multiple seasons, or if I write it as series of books, they would have a son named Damien, but what happens to him and to Cat and De Carlo’s marriage after having a child is complicated so I won’t go into it.

Relationships – Allies & Enemies
Although there are several people around them that have a huge impact on their lives, there are three that have a profound impact on their relationship itself.
Diyara De Quoi is a druid who is believed to be the Chosen One and destined to fulfill a prophesy.  She does have some psychic talent including empathy and some telepathy (but only on certain days of the year).  When De Carlo kidnaps her and seriously pisses her off one day she invades his mind and forces him to feel the fear, terror, and pain of the people he’s killed, specifically the druids she helplessly watched him slaughter under orders from Zarina.  In the end, rather then drive him completely insane, she removes the memories and leaves him with only a faint impression of the pain he has caused.  This is a huge, life-changing moment for him because now he finally understands why Cat left the army, and is able to forgive her in a way because now he knows what she meant when she said she couldn’t stay with the army and had to fight against the Empire.  


Diyara also enjoys playing match-maker and is determined to get Darion and Cat together because she believes they are still secretly in love with each other.  She manipulates the situation whenever she can to get them together and is thrilled when they finally decide to get married.

Zarina is a very important part of what stands in their way and ironically she ultimately is responsible for them having a chance to get together by being such a bitch to Darion that he finally leaves her and joins the rebels.  As Princess, then later Empress, she commands De Carlo’s loyalty.  He swore to protect her and when they’re on the run from the Army Faction after Zarina has been kicked out of power, he tries to help her become a better person and be the kind of leader someone could respect instead of the bratty, bitchy, selfish child she is.  If she didn’t insist on blaming every single failure on Darion and constantly abusing him verbally then he might never have left.  She pushed him too far and (in an episode that was written but sadly never filmed) she even orders his death.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise to her that he leaves.

    

In the end, she’s grateful to him for leaving because she would never have gone through her own metamorphosis, met her mentor, or become a stronger and more powerful person (and somewhat more likeable…somewhat) without his leaving her.  Of course then she declares she loves him and tries to come between him and Cat and that just doesn’t end well.  Also, she wins in the end because she orders the death of all the rebels. (and in the books she kidnaps their son and raises him as her own **shudder**)

Zarconia Gold is by far the most important ally for their relationship and has the greatest impact on both their lives.  Cat first met Zarc when she was running from Darion who had actually succeed in almost killing her.  She was close to death when she crawled into a cave to die.  Zarc, then only eight years old, risked her own life to keep Cat hidden and throw De Carlo off her sent.  She sent Darion on a wild goose chase and found a druid who helped heal Cat’s wounds.  Zarc literally saved Cat’s life – if it hadn’t been for her Cat and Darion would never have had the chance to work things out and be together.  Zarc also helped Cat join the rebels and stayed by her side for the rest of their lives.  

In public, Cat treated Zarc somewhat harshly and they pretended to get on each other’s nerves because Cat didn’t want the Empire or Darion to find out they were best friends, fearing for Zarc’s safety if they did.  Eventually, of course, Darion found out and kidnapped Zarc in order to lure Cat into a trap.  He ended up falling back on that plan numerous times, kidnapping Zarc to trap cat, or make her do something she didn’t want to do. 

In the show he kidnaps her twice, but it’s implied in Episode 11 that he’s done it more than that, and in the fan-fiction? stories it happens about three other times.  Zarc got tired of it (everyone got tired of it), and the last time he kidnaps her, he ends up saving her life and was only able to join the rebels because Zarc vouched for him.  If Zarc hadn’t forgiven Darion for everything he did, then Cat would never have forgiven him.  Darion earned her trust and Zarc’s trust in him enables Cat to trust him again too.

Darion was Cat’s best friend for several years, and when they turned their backs on each other then Zarc became Cat’s best friend.  It made Darion jealous, seeing Cat do anything to protect Zarc, but it also gave Darion and Zarc something in common – they both loved Cat, just in different ways. So Zarc was able to understand Darion better then Cat could in some ways.

Once Cat and Darion started fighting and arguing all the time after he joined the rebels, Zarc was the only one who could put a stop to it.  Darion respected her and Cat actually listened to her.  This resulted in her playing mediator to their fighting and she finally got so tired of being in the middle and trying to calm them down that she went to drastic measures to put a stop to it.  

She held them at gunpoint and locked them in a room, telling them to either work things out or kill each other, and not really carrying which one they decided to do at that point.  After several hours they fought, talked, then kissed and made up.  Zarc locking them in the room directly led to their being able to date each other.
Zarc is like a little sister to Cat and Darion becomes a sort of big brother to her (brother-in-law by default I guess).  They are both over protective of her and would do anything for her.  She continues to be a major player in their relationship after Darion proposes, because Cat would never marry him if Zarc didn’t want them to get married.  Zarc is actually a little worried at first, not sure if Darion is quite good enough for Cat (she’s over protective of Cat too), but she gives them her blessing and is Cat’s maid-of-honor at their wedding.  

Even in the last episode, Zarc is the one who interrupts their final snuggly moment with an annoyed “break it up!”.  And it’s Zarc’s death that drives Cat into a fit of rage born of grief that leads Cat into a position where she doesn’t realize how much danger she’s in and results in Darion saving her life by throwing her out of the line of fire and taking the bullet for her. 

Cat and Darion are definitely my favorite couple and I’ve had fun over the years drawing some “fan art” of them, so I figured I’d share it here. 

I also recently commissioned a drawing of Cat and De Carlo on fiverr.com and purchased this fantastic drawing from Paulo J. Hernandez. 
For more information on this very talented artist visit his website.






Characters 101 – Asarai January 30, 2013

Posted by sinefine in Characters 101.
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Each month this blog will feature a character from one of the SFF productions.  This month we’re taking a look at one of the few female villains – Asarai from The Dragon & The Unicorn, played by the amazing Annamarie MacLeod.

 Asarai is on the surface a dark, sexy ancient vampire who has been aliveish since shortly after the dawn of time (the breakfast of time?).  She’s deliciously wicked and delights in torturing people and playing games using her considerable intelligence.  However, she’s evil because she was born to be that way.  In a battle between Light and Dark she was made to embody the Dark.  Sure the perks of living forever, brilliance, and immense wealth (not to mention the minions) are great, but after several thousand years it gets boring and a little lonely. 

History

Asarai’s origin is very mythical.  A goddess toyed with the affections of two gods and they fought over her, killing each other.  As punishment the other gods cursed the goddess’s offspring – twin daughters – to fight each other until one of them destroyed the other.  The infant sisters were cast out of the heavens and left alone on earth.  A shepherdess named Dotalia (aka Dottie) found them and raised them as her own, only later did she come to learn about the curse and discover her own role in it – to raise and teach the sisters throughout time as they fight each, to make sure they are equally matched. When Dotalia learned this from a messenger from the gods, she was given two magical amulets – one with a dragon and one with a unicorn, as well as two magical daggers that would become their ceremonial weapons.  The dragon was given to Asarai and the unicorn to Leona.  Asarai was born alive but when she died at nineteen years old she was resurrected by the curse and forced to live an undead immortal existence.  Her sister, Leona, could die but was resurrected a hundred years later to continue the fight.

 For a long time Asarai loved the gig, being consequence free and doing whatever she wanted.  She was even worshiped as a minor deity in some places.  That changed when she fell in love with a Roman soldier named Julius.  She took him into her cult and he joined her willingly, but she did not turn him.  She loved him too much to make him a vampire and trap him into her cursed existence.  


She tried hard to keep him away from her beautiful sister, fearing they would fall in love and he would get trapped in the curse.  One day her fears came true.  Julius meet Leona when she came to challenge Asarai.  She and Julius fell in love and got married which permenantly tied Julius’s soul to her own and his fate to theirs – they were destined to fight over him as their fathers had done over their mother.  Asarai begged Leona not to marry Julius, but she refused to give him up. 

 For the next three hundred years Asarai refused to fight Leona, because Julius was reborn as well and he and Leona always found each other again.  Asarai couldn’t stand the sight of either one.  Eventually she was finally able to fight them again and did so with a vengeance.  She used whatever means she could to destroy both of them and make each suffer – especially her sister.  During the Renaissance, Asarai managed to poison Leona and Julius promised her his life and servitude if Asarai would save Leona and let them live a happy life – she could collect him when he died. Asarai quickly agreed, but Leona tried to stop it by killing Julius before the deal was complete.  She failed and both she and Julius died.  Julius was resurrected as a vampire and for the next six hundred years he stayed by Asarai’s side.

Each time Leona is reincarnated, Dottie finds her, gives her the amulet, and trains her to fight Asarai.  As soon as Leona puts on the amulet, Asarai can find her.  When Asarai tracks down Lily- Leona’s reincarnation in the movie – she immediately sees that Lily is different from her past lives, she’s special somehow.  Asarai knows the final fight is coming and whoever wins this fight will be the eternal victor.
Appearance
Asarai is a little over five feet tall, with dark curly hair, pale white skin and sort of gothicy make-up.  She primarily dresses in black, gold, and shades of green, and always wears her amulet – she never takes it off.  Sometimes she wears red, and of course she often adorns her clothing with dragon motifs.  She has been alive for thousands of years and has built up a considerable amount of wealth so she likes to look elegant, dangerous, and sometimes sexy.  She has a flair for the dramatic and likes to incorporate fashion styles of the past into her modern wardrobe with vests and poufy shirts and such.
Personality
She is brilliant, beautiful, bad, and bold.  She loves to make trouble and cause mischief.  But petty little games of turning people against each other only hold her attention for so long.  What she loves is making up complicated plans that lead whole kingdoms into war.  She adores games that require both strategy and intelligence such as chess, senet, and go. However, she has a softer side as well.  She doesn’t kill children unless she sees that they will have a miserable life and then she kills them to save them from the suffering – ie that she wishes she could escape her fate and been destroyed as an infant.  

She punishes stupid people when they fight over dumb things – like men fighting over women or women fighting over men, etc.  Ironically she ends up being one of those stupid women fighting over a man when she falls in love with Julius.  Although she’s officially the Evil One, she has the benefit and wisdom that comes with living for thousands of years which allows her to see the big picture when all Leona can see is the small one.  When Asarai falls in love with Julius she is smart enough to realize that he’s in danger just because she loves him – the curse threatens to engulf him.  She tries to protect him but when he and Leona decide to get married she begs – literally begs Leona to let him go and live life together without being married.

Even when she wins Julius’s soul and resurrects him as one of her undead minions, she still loves him.  She treats him like crap sometimes, but still loves him.  In the end she is just tired of being alive and has come to realize that the only way to end the curse is to stop fighting the only way fate will allow – by letting Leona kill her.  She waits until she finds a Leona she doesn’t mind losing too basically, and throws the fight.  Asarai is inside a wounded, scorned lover who has always been second best to her perfect sister.  

Abilities
 That’s pretty much already been mentioned – she’s brilliant, brave, resourceful, a great fighter, and a heavy drinker.  She survives/exists by eating and drinking human flesh and blood, and converts people into vampires to build a minion army so she always has plenty of people to mail packages for her and do the dishes.  She very persuasive and she has a gorgeous voice that can lure men to their doom like a Siren.  She has studied alchemy and chemistry and can make potions and poisons.
Additionally she has the magic amulet she was given when she was a little girl – the Dragon pendant – which sustains her life and keeps her cursed.  She can’t take it off, only Leona can tear it off of her.  She also has the ceremonial dagger, which is the only weapon she can use to kill Leona, no other weapons will work.  Her dagger is made of silver and steel and is encased in a green and gold scabbard.

Relationships
Normally this is divided into Allies & Enemies but one of her enemies is sort of an ally and one of her allies would rather be an enemy.
Leona is her twin sister and is the younger of the two by a few minutes.  Leona is quite literally the Good sister and is some of her lives gets very moralistic with Asarai which irritates the Evil One.  Given their cursed existence, they have a natural animosity which is compounded by the sibling rivalry that is to be expected, especially when one sister is a wicked hooligan and the other is seen to be perfect.





Lily is the current (and last) reincarnation of Leona.  She is the first and only version of Leona to reject her fate and try to get out of the curse without fighting.  Of course she can’t and Asarai ends up bullying her into the fight by killing her adopted parents.  Lily is born with all the knowledge and experience of her past lives once she is trained in how to access the memories, so she is the first Leona in a long time to pose a challenge to Asarai.  She’s also younger than most of the Leona’s that Asarai has challenged and defeated.  Because of all that, especially the fact that Lily tries to fight her fate, Asarai ends up feeling a strong respect for her and decides that this time their fight will end the curse once and for all. 


Julius/JJ is the love of her life.  Once he fell in love with and married her sister, Asarai tried to hate him, but she couldn’t.  She hated Leona, but was never able to hate Julius.  When Julius was reborn he would always be given a name that started with a “J”, such as Joseph, John, and Jeremy.  So Asarai just ends up calling him JJ as a nickname.  The reason she fell in love with him in the first place is because he was the first man who really saw who she was – he didn’t see her as evil or wicked or wanton, he saw her as a woman who just wanted to love and be loved in return.  They both knew deep down that ultimately he would never love her like she wanted to be loved or deserved to be loved and that he would never love her as much as she loved him.  He was far more interested in her a friend then a lover – which was strange to her – and being a very intelligent man he was a match for her intellectually as well.

When they made a deal and she won his soul and his servitude forever, she tried to make him love her but they both knew that it wasn’t something that could be forced.  She abuses him physically and verbally a lot because she’s frustrated that all they can ever hope to be is friends –not that it’s okay to abuse anyone, but she is supposed to be the embodiment of Evil remember.  He takes it with good grace and unlike any of her other minions, he knows what to say and do to calm her down.  When she is angry or upset he’ll tango with her to take her mind off her worries.  So they have a very complicated relationship.  If he wasn’t the man who broke her heart they would be best friends.


Dottie is her mentor and was trained by the gods themselves in order to train the sisters to fight each other.  She’s also the only mother Asarai has ever known.  Leona, in all her various incarnations, has had lots of foster mothers, but Asarai has only ever had the one.  


In the beginning Dottie trained Asarai and Leona equally, training Leona when she found her current incarnation until she was ready to fight Asarai, then training Asarai once Leona was dead while they waited the hundred years for Leona to be reborn.  Eventually Asarai no longer needed Dottie’s training and even surpassed Dottie’s fighting ability in the end.  Dottie stopped training her and focused all her attention on the current Leona, and preparing for the next Leona to come. This naturally make Asarai jealous, but Dottie always tried to be involved in both their lives.  During the long decades between fights, Dottie and Asarai would often hangout and play cards or games, go to the movies, cruise to Alaska, etc.
Dottie is the person Asarai turns to when she has no where else to go and needs a shoulder to cry 
on.  When Julius and Leona 
fall in love, Asarai goes to Dottie for comfort and help.  She convinces Dottie to try to talk Leona out of marrying Julius, but it doesn’t work.  Dottie tries to warn Asarai that maybe this was always meant to happen – maybe Julius was fated to be a part of their curse and be fought over.  Asarai hates to hear that and tries to deny it, but in the end she realizes that Dottie is right.  While Asarai spends her three centuries in mourning, refusing to fight Leona because she can’t stand even looking at her, she goes back and forth between wanting to be alone and clinging to Dottie like a lifeline.
            
At one point Dottie became so over-protective of a certain incarnation of Leona that Asarai’s jealousy nearly destroyed all three of them.  Dottie challenged Asarai to a game, betting her own soul in exchange for Leona’s incarnation being allowed to live a full life and only fight when she was ready to die.  Asarai won the game, slaughtered Leona, and turned Dottie into a vampire.  However, since Dottie has a link to the gods above she was allowed to challenge Asarai again and win her soul and sovernty back.  This ended up becoming something they did several times, betting Dottie’s soul for minions’ freedom or a longer life for one of Leona’s incarnations.
    
Dottie is not just Asarai’s mentor and mother, she’s Asarai’s best friend and in many ways her source of comfort.  Dottie will be revived as soon as Lily dies or will be allowed to rest forever if the curse is broken. So when Asarai tries to quit in the middle of the final fight, Dottie forces her back into it.  Asarai lashes out in anger and stabs her, killing Dottie.  As soon as she strikes, she wants to take it back – there is a look of surprise on both their faces and Asarai’s expression quickly turns from surprise to remorse and she apologizes.  Dottie tells her to just “finish it”, and Asarai does.  


Eek & Squeak are two of Asarai’s oldest minions, having been vampires for two or three thousand years.  They were nicknamed Eek and Squeak for how they sound when startled.  They’re her faithful servants, but get a little silly and eventually senile after a while.

Minions are just fun.  And are sometimes boy scouts.  She likes to have servants and an audience so minions are a necessity for her.  However, they are not stupid and when the fighting starts between Asarai and Lily they disappear from the scene quickly.




Characters 101 – Esteban December 1, 2012

Posted by sinefine in Characters 101.
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Each month this blog will feature a character from one of the SFF productions.  We’ll start with one of the most popular characters in all of the SFF repertoire – Esteban from the Destiny Trilogy/Mini-Series.

 Esteban is a straight-forward, yet complex character.  I’ve been working on the novel version of the Destiny Trilogy for over ten years now, so it’s a little hard for me to separate the character as he was written in the movies/series from how he is now.   So I won’t.  In this character profile you will find out some things about Esteban you might not have known before. 

Overall, Esteban is a good guy in the classic sense of always doing what’s right, sort of.  Mostly.  Geez, he’s complicated.  You can’t make a blanket statement about him because there’s always at least one instance where he does the opposite.  I guess the way to sum him up is to say that he would do anything for his friends.  He’ll do whatever is in their best interest even if they don’t agree with it. 
If I could sum him up in one word it would be loyal.  He’s extremely loyal.

History
            Esteban is like his mother, Estelle, who was an exceptionally intelligent woman who was kind and considerate, but who understood how the world worked and knew her place in it.  She died giving birth to Esteban.  His insane father, Lord Geoffrey, decided that Esteban wasn’t really his son (that his wife had an affair, which she didn’t) since he didn’t look anything like him.  He actually tried to have Esteban killed as an infant, but a devoted servant stole him away and raised him in secret until he was old enough to be presented to his grandfather.  His grandfather adored him and tried to disown Esteban’s father, but died before he could.  In his will he made Lord Geoffrey’s inheritance dependant on Esteban’s continued good health, which is the only reason Esteban survived to adulthood.
Lord Geoffrey couldn’t hurt him without financial consequences, so he brought his bastard son Jeffrey to live with them and stirred up trouble between the two half-brothers.  Jeffrey was rewarded for hurting Esteban which made a happy relationship between the two very much not possible. I’m not going to go into all the horrible, mind-scarring years that followed and resulted in both brothers needed serious therapy they would never actually get.  

Although Esteban was a lord and the heir to a dukedom, he was rarely at court and when he went there he had no fun, mostly because he was shy and always had his head in a book.  However he was rumored to be one of the most intelligent men in the kingdom, a fact that King Ferdinand reminds Lord Geoffrey of when LG declares his intention to disown Esteban and make Jeffrey his heir. 

His whole life changed at the Baptismal Ball for the infant prince, Ketlan.  In a passive aggressive display of anger against Jeffrey stealing away any girl Esteban worked up the courage to talk to, Esteban broke a glass with his bare hand.  When he started to pick up the mess a woman offered to help him.  She turned out to be the queen, Lavinia, and she told him she had seen what really happened. 

Queen Lavinia invites Esteban to stroll with her in the gardens where she would listen to his woes.  The fact that someone – anyone, let alone a Queen – would take an interest in what he was thinking about or how he was being treated, made him extremely grateful and loyal to her for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, Lord Geoffrey and his cohorts – the bastard Jeffrey and Prince Gergio, the king’s brother – tried to dishonor the queen by saying she was having an affair with Esteban.  The plan backfired so dramatically that in the end Lord Geoffrey and his entire family – including Esteban – were banished from the kingdom forever.

 That night Lord Geoffrey committed suicide (not soon enough! Can you tell I hate that a**hole?) and Jeffrey (who later shows up as Balthazar) somehow is convinced that Esteban murdered their father and Esteban runs for his life.  Luckily, Queen Lavinia intercedes with the King to pardon Esteban – who had nothing to do with the plot – and make him the royal tutor to Prince Ketlan. 

For the next eight years Esteban is Ketlan’s tutor and he becomes a personal friend of both King Ferdinand and Queen Lavinia.  He adores the royal family and would do anything for them.  He also, not surprisingly, develops a crush on Lavinia but he hides it well and never lets anyone know.  

One night Lavinia tells Esteban that both she and the king are going to be murdered that night and begs him to not try to save them but instead to take Prince Ketlan and spirit him away to the kingdom of Liliya and raise him as a peasent until he is old enough to avenge his parent’s death.  Esteban doesn’t understand but his loyality is so firm that he basically gives up the rest of his life to protecting Ketlan and helping Ketlan take back his throne and become a great king.


 And this is a really long summary – suffice to say Esteban arranges a marriage between Princess Elaina of Liliya and Prince Ketlan in order to have an army to help Ketlan take back his throne.  Ketlan falls in love with Melantha, one of Elaina’s friends and Esteban arranges to have her banished from the kingdom in order to force Ketlan to marry Elaina.  That’s the most underhanded, backstabbing thing he ever does, but Esteban firmly believes that he’s doing to right thing and the only thing that will help Ketlan take back his throne.  Oh so complicated. 


Ketlan takes back his throne with Esteban’s help, marries Melantha, and becomes a great king.  Esteban eventually becomes the royal tutor of Ketlan’s children.  Esteban gives his life helping Ketlan rescue his children from the evil clutches of Balthazar (Esteban’s half-brother Jeffrey), and dies in a final confrontation with his nemesis. 


His spirit is released after having fulfilled his pledge to his best friends – King Ferdinand and Queen Lavinia – to raise Ketlan and make him a great king and a good man.  In death, Esteban is reunited with his friends, and is finally able to find a peace and tranquility that eluded him in life. Although, let’s be honest – the main reason Esteban dies is because Tanino Minneci really wanted to do a death scene.


Appearance
 In the novel, Esteban is described as a plain man of medium height and medium build, with dark brown hair and serious brown eyes, half-hidden behind round, wire-rimmed spectacles.  Obviously the description was heavily influenced by the actor who portrayed him in the movies – the amazingly talented Tanino Minneci.  In the movies/series, his younger self doesn’t wear spectacles but in the book he starts wearing spectacles when he’s seventeen. 

Personality
Esteban is quite shy socially, which makes him terrible at picking up chicks.  Jeffrey/Balthazar loves to swoop in and charm away any woman that Esteban shows interest in, so Esteban just sort of stops trying to flirt and gives up on the whole dating scene.  

One of the things that “Evil Esteban” (aka Balthazar in disguise) does that makes him suspicious to others, or at the very least seems very out of character for him, is that he suddenly becomes a ladies man.  He is surrounded by the ladies of the court and appears to be genuinely enjoying their flirting and attention.  Yeah, that’s the opposite of how Esteban usually is a public function.  He doesn’t really like royal parties and such but always attends them for the required period of time because he follows the laws of courtly etiquette as best he can.
He’s very serious and practical; he rarely laughs.  Erion, Molly, and May make it their personal mission to make him laugh whenever they can.  He can be kind and considerate and he has a good heart, but his general aura is serious and stern.  His manners are impeccable, having been raised as a lord and living at court for a large part of his life.  He knows his place and views himself more as a servant of the royal family, though he is truly their friend, which creates a big of a distance between them.  
Esteban is very guarded emotionally.  The closest relationship he has is with Prince Ketlan since he pretended to be his father when they were in hiding, and raised him for ten years.  He will do anything for Ketlan, even dress in drag in order to sneak on board and all-female pirate ship. 

Abilities
Esteban’s primary ability is his intelligence.  He’s exceptionally smart and very knowledgeable about pretty much everything, having spent most of his life reading every book he could find (and he’s a speed reader).  He is also a writer, keeping a memoir of the events of the royal family and his own life (which is why he is the narrator of the movies/series), and he plays the flute.

He is also a very skilled fighter, which is at odds with his calm, bookworm demeanor.  His father was one of the best fighters in the kingdom and Esteban learned to fight by defending himself against first his father and later Jeffrey/Balthazar who was taught how to fight by their father.  Esteban later teaches Ketlan how to fight but it’s made pretty clear that Esteban will always be the superior fighter, who bests his half-brother most of the time.
There is a moment in Destiny II (aka Episode 5) where he is teaching Prince Ketlan and is interrupted by Queen Lavinia.  The Queen tells him about how she is going to be murdered by his half-brother and Esteban carefully moves his books and stacks his papers neatly to the side, then opens a secret compartment in his podium and pulls out a sword.  He is the essence of a warrior scholar.

Relationships – Allies & Enemies
Allies
Prince Ketlan is the closest thing Esteban has to a son.  He raised from the age of eight and would do anything for him.  When Ketlan decides to turn down the alliance with Liliya by not marrying Princess Elaina, and instead goes after Melantha – determined to marry her, Esteban goes with him.  Esteban isn’t happy about it because he would rather fulfill his duty to the royal family by putting Ketlan back on the throne, but goes along with it.  In the end, he does everything he can to help find Melantha and reunite them because Ketlan’s happiness is more important to him than anything else.
They have a difficult relationship however, because once he told Ketlan that Ketlan was a prince, however, he worked hard to distance himself emotionally again and return to the role of servant rather then father, which no doubt caused some confusion and hurt for Ketlan.  However, even after he is the king, Ketlan still looks to Esteban for guidance.  When he wants to know about his parents, he turns to Esteban.  When his children are kidnapped, he turns to Esteban.  Esteban is Ketlan’s rock – the one true constant in his life – and Esteban loves Ketlan as both the child of his best friends, and as his adopted son. 

Queen Lavinia is the secret love of Esteban’s life.  Her intervention in his fate and her willingness to listen to his problems when no one else cared about him endeared her to him. Obviously it wasn’t long before he fell in love with her.  But he never told her, or anyone, and worshipped her from afar, so to speak.  She was one of the only women that Esteban never had trouble talking to (the others being Erion and the OOPS) and he always felt easy and comfortable around her, despite their difference in status.  He would do anything for her, even give his own life.  Although she warned him not to save her, he couldn’t help trying to.  His greatest regret in life is that he couldn’t – no, didn’t – save her.

King Ferdinand is one of Esteban’s best friends, despite their difference in status.  The king turns to Esteban for support and guidance, and includes Esteban as part of the royal court even though as a simple tutor he shouldn’t be.  His faith and confidence in Esteban is unshakable and Esteban returns that trust with unwavering loyalty.  Ferdinand and Lavinia are the first people in his life to really believe in him, and Esteban sees Ferdinand as the best example of good man and a great king.

Erion is Lavina’s fairy guardian who mostly appeared around Esteban in the form of Lavinia’s personal companion and royal lady-in-waiting. However, Lavinia saw a loneliness in Esteban because he never felt that he could bridge the distance in status between his royal friends and himself.  Lavinia worried about him and so she sent Erion to watch over him and befriend him in disguise. 
Erion first appeared to Esteban in the guise of Ned – an inept thief who sneaks into his room one night and paints his floor blue and is then caught by Esteban.  Somehow from this bizarre beginning a friendship forms.  Ned becomes one of Esteban’s best – and strangest – friends and his/her wacky sense of humor makes Esteban smile (which is rare).
In their last conversation, Lavinia tells Esteban that Ned is really a fairy named Erion.  Although he meets Erion again as one of the OOPS, he doesn’t recognize her.  When Ned shows up again suddenly in Esteban’s room twenty-two years after they parted ways, he immediately understands that Ned is Erion and Erion is a magical fairy.  He doesn’t even blink, he just accepts it (of course he has a killer hangover at the time).  The trust and friendship formed between Esteban and Ned remains between them even though Ned never truly existed.  Erion is one of the very few women that Esteban is comfortable around, because of Ned, and he looks to her for guidance and support in helping rescue Ketlan’s children from Balthazar.
Ali-Jinjil is Esteban’s best friend of all.  

Ali views Melantha as a daughter in the same way that Esteban views Ketlan as a son, which gives them something in common right there.  Both men have suffered tragedy and loss, and overall both men are intelligent and serious, although Ali becomes less serious over time.  They get along very well and Ali is the only man that Esteban views as a true equal because they are both wise men of equal status.  He is of noble birth like Esteban but is no longer a ruler in his own right, and he spends him time helping to set slaves free.   They have similar personalities (although Ali is more light-hearted in the end) and a lot in common.
 This is made very clear when they are reunited at the beginning of Destiny III (aka Episode 6).  Esteban goes into the library for some quiet reading time and finds Ali already there, reading a book. Ali didn’t arrive with the fanfare that Elaina does, and just heads for the library.  Their greeting is one of old friends reunited and when Esteban is in trouble after Balthazar knocks him out and boozes him up, Ali is the one to help him back to his room and takes care of him.  

The scene that really gets me towards the end (the only that really makes me tear up) is when Esteban says farewell to Ali and tells him to take Prince Rowan to safety and protect him while Esteban stays to deal with Balthazar.  There is a sense in the scene that it is their final parting (even though Ali is there for his death in the end) and is just a really poignant scene.  After Esteban dies, Ali finishes his memoir for him and takes over as the narrator.  Ali is a warrior first and a scholar second while Esteban is a scholar first and a warrior second. 
On set there were a lot of comments made about Ali and Esteban both being gay and possibly having a relationship.  For the record, their relationship was completely platonic and Esteban is not gay, he’s just shy around women.  Ali-Jinjil, however, is gay.
Melantha is like a daughter-in-law to him, however he doesn’t seem to interact with her much due to his shyness around women and their difference in status.  However, when Ketlan is being a jackass and orders Esteban to lock Melantha in her room to prevent her from going after the children on her own after they are kidnapped, he refuses.  He politely tells Ketlan that Ketlan is being a jerk, and says that he will do anything for Ketlan, anything except that.  He refuses to lock up the Queen, his pseudo daughter in law and comes to her defense.
Princess Elaina and Esteban don’t really have much of a relationship.  They’re polite to each other but Esteban’s shyness around women and their difference in status prevents Esteban from trying to become friends with her.  He has a great respect for her and admires her, but they don’t really talk much.  
That’s one of the biggest clues that the Esteban who shows up at the ball (Destiny III/Episode 7) is really Balthazar in disguise – he starts chatting with Elaina and actually tries to chat her up a bit.  He suddenly seems very comfortable and confident around her.  Elaina is confused by his actions and words and senses that something is off.

Prince Rowan & Princess Telana are Ketlan’s children, and therefore are sort of like Esteban’s grandkids.  However, because of their difference in status Esteban acts like more of an uncle or chaperone around them.  He is their royal tutor and is one of the few people who can stop them from bickering.  Of course he is one of the people who rushes to their rescue after they are kidnapped by Balthazar.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Molly & May are an amusing duo that confuses Esteban while still making him laugh.  He doesn’t really know Molly & May as a duo separate from the OOPS trio since they split up shortly before Erion leaves with Esteban, Ketlan, and Ali to go rescue the children.  Molly & May basically see their function around Esteban as comic relief and compete to see who can make Esteban laugh more.
Queen Catherine is an ally that Esteban seeks out to make a marriage of alliance between Prince Ketlan and her daughter Princess Elaina.  It’s not in the movies but she was a friend and ally of Queen Lavinia and King Ferdinand which is one of the reasons Esteban goes to her for help.  After Ketlan publically humiliates her daughter by choosing Melantha instead, she gets a bit testy and presumably she doesn’t really have much to do with Esteban after that in a personal sense.


Enemies
Jeffrey/Balthazar is Esteban’s half-brother and nemesis.  They hate each other.  They were raised to hate each other.  The only reason they ever met and were forced to grow up together is because their father wanted them to hate each other. 
Balthazar is the opposite of Esteban in pretty much every way – he’s handsome, charming, smart but not learned, selfish, vain, morally confused if not defunct, and a total ladies man.  But despite Balthazar’s far better social skills, Esteban always seems to be more beloved and endeared by the king, queen, and court.  Probably because he’s a genuinely nice guy and Balthazar is a murdering bastard.   That could be the reason.
Esteban was smart enough to realize that his father was using Jeffrey/Bal as a weapon against him and he didn’t really blame Jeffrey or truly, deeply hate him.  He understand that Jeffrey was just a pawn in their father’s game.  That’s one of the reasons why Esteban couldn’t bring himself to kill Jeffrey, even if it meant saving Lavinia’s life.  He saw in Jeffrey a reflection of what he could have turned into if he had let his father control his life like Jeffrey had.  Esteban pitied his half-brother who he saw as not being as strong willed as he was.  He let Jeffrey live and regretted it for the rest of his life.
 After the King and Queen were murdered and Esteban took Ketlan to safety, that’s when Esteban started to hate his brother.  He hated Jeffrey for killing his friends and hated himself for not being to kill Jeffrey when he had the chance.  He saw that as a weakness and was determined to kill Jeffrey if he ever had the chance. 

Of course I didn’t know the history between them when I wrote the first movie, and in fact the scene where they struggle at the bottom of the staircase was added later on after filming began.  It’s a terrible scene that shows Esteban being easily defeated and sending Ketlan to go kick Balthazar’s ass while he nurses a glorified paper cut.  Boo.  Not good, but I didn’t know the back story then…because I hadn’t written it.  Ah well. 

Needless to say, I make up for that in Destiny III by having the two of them fight whenever they meet.  

Seriously, they fight a LOT. 
And I tried to make it clear that they are fairly evenly matched.  
In a fair fight, Esteban will always win, but Balthazar never fights fairly so in the end Balthazar is victorious and kills Esteban. 

Lord Geoffrey is Esteban’s father who loves to rape, pillage, and murder and things that because he’s a Duke he can get away with it.  In the end he pushes his luck one too many times and screws up a half-brained plot to discredit the Queen in his ego-maniacal bid for power and gets booted out of the kingdom.  Not able to face the disgrace of banishment (or his debt collectors) he kills himself.  But not before he harasses Esteban for well over a decade and bits his sons against each other.  
Esteban hates him.  They really don’t have a relationship.  They barely have a truce.  Lord Geoffrey is also a totally f-ing jerktastic a**hole.  Seriously dude, he’s the number one worst character I have created and I hate him even more then I hate Namtaru from the Cursiverse. 

Prince Gergio is an interesting character, because he appears to love his brother and get along well with his sister-in-law, but he is secretly plotting to overthrow his brother and take the throne for himself.  He and Esteban are not friends per se, but they know each other and Gergio tries to form a sort of false friendship with him since he is so close with the King and Queen.  


Wow.  This was a REALLY long post.  Remind me not to pick such a complicated character next time. 





Characters 101 – Zarconia Gold October 23, 2012

Posted by sinefine in Characters 101.
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Each month this blog will feature a character from one of the SFF productions.  We’ll start with one of the most popular characters in all of the SFF repertoire – Zarc.



Zarconia Gold, known simply as Zarc is the young, spirited Underworlder known as the Queen of Thieves. She joined the rebels shortly before Cat did and saved the rebel’s life. Although she is impish and carefree, she does have a serious side that is most often apparent when her foster family comes to call.


Zarconia Gold
played by Virginia McCreary


History

Zarc is the orphaned child of one of the four rulers of the Underworld – an organization of criminals divided into four groups – Cutthroats, Bandits, Beggars, and Thieves.  Her father was the King of Thieves and when he died she was taken in by the others Royals and tossed back and forth between them whenever they were too busy to bother with her.  Zarc ran away when she was eight and joined the rebels who were working to overthrow the Empire because she had nothing better to do. 

After joining the rebels she met a woman – Cat – who was on the run from the army and Zarc helped her escape to safety and join the rebels.  Cat became a leader in the organization and eventually lead the largest unit, with Zarc by her side.  Zarc basically grew up with the rebels, but still worked with the Underworld whenever necessary.  She was still the official Queen of Thieves, but didn’t have to take her place as a ruler in the Underworld until she turned eighteen.  When the series starts she’s sixteen and has been with the rebels off and on for eight years.  Although she lives with the rebels she often points out that she technically isn’t a rebel at all – she’s an Underworlder.

She didn’t really hate the Empire or the Army Faction, being with the rebels was just something to do that kept her busy and away from the Underworld.  That changed when the Army Faction used her to get to Turlo by having an undercover officer named Phil seduce her and make her fall in love with him.  The revelation of the man she loves being a traitor, and then seeing him killed while trying to save her life leads her to hate the Army Faction.

Appearance

Zarc has long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a big smile, and an impish demeanor.  She almost always wears red and black striped tights, a mix of bright colors, and lots of jewelry.  She always stands out.  However, her appearance changes more than any other character in the series because she starts the series as a teenager and is an adult by the time it ends.  This change is most evident in her clothing.  

At the start of the series she wears short skirts and vests in patchwork, stripes, or plaids, and short-sleeved shirts in bright colors that sometimes clash.  In the middle she wears mostly longer skirts and more pastel colors and fluffy shirts.  By the end an older, more serious Zarc is mostly wearing pants, in more muted colors and more functional clothing in general. 


Personality

The best word to describe her is probably impish or mischievous, although she loses a little of that as she gets older and more serious.  Zarc is full of energy, overly dramatic at times, and loves shiny, pretty things which is one of the reasons she’s a kleptomaniac.  She is extremely loyal and very smart although she pretends not to be in the beginning.  As she grows older she goes through a romantic phase of reading romance novels.   There is a general air of loneliness around her after the other rebels start pairing up.  She falls in love twice and gets her heart broken twice.  After the second time she is so upset and depressed that she contemplates leaving the rebels. She decides to stick around in the end, but she is more serious and less carefree from that point on. 

When asked about her character Virginia McCreary said, “I thought my character was a very interesting type of person. Someone I don’t think you’d often meet on the street.  Someone with lots of inconsistencies.  For instance she’s a complete kleptomaniac and yet the nicest person in the world.”


There are also some big inconsistencies in her personality due to how the episodes were written.  In the first few episodes she is cowardly and easily frightened. “She couldn’t fight very well in the first few episodes,” said Virginia.  However, we later learn that she was raised by the Underworld Royals including the King of Cutthroats so there’s no way that she was raised without knowing how to defend herself.  The cowardice in the beginning must be a ruse, although it obviously never stated as such.

 Zarc is generally feisty, funny, compassionate and kind, but has a temper and if pushed too far can become quite violent.  She can be rather arrogant too – she’s good at what she does and she knows it.

Abilities

She is a thief – the Queen of Thieves by virtue of her birth.  She loves to swipe stuff, especially jewelry, and can never quite get over the urge to steal. She can pick pockets and locks, untying knots, overcome security systems, and swipe things off counters unnoticed.  Obviously she’s very good at stealing, but we only see her steal a few times in the show – mostly her talents are talked about and rarely seen. 

She knows how to fight but rarely seems to.  In episode 12 we learn that she has perfect aim when she’s pissed off.  She’s also a good actress, appearing to be a cute, harmless, cowardly kid when she’s anything but.

Her greatest asset to the rebels is the fact that she seems to know everyone.  She has connections and allies in all the major organizations and seems to be able to talk almost anyone into helping out the rebels.  As Cat often says in the beginning “she’s annoying but useful.”  She is a very good judge of character unless her own emotions are involved. 


“The thing I liked most about my character,” said Virginia, “was her ability to recover after any situation.”  Zarc is a lot tougher than she looks – inside and out.  Her greatest ability is her resilience. 

Relationships – Allies & Enemies
The Rebels
Catalina Crims is her best friend and they would do anything for each other.  They’re like sisters.  Zarc seems to be the only one who can yell at Cat, point out when she’s being a stubborn idiot, and actually have Cat listen to her.  She’s also protective of Cat, especially when De Carlo is around.  When De Carlo and Cat start dating Zarc isn’t happy about it because she’s not sure De Carlo’s good enough for her.


Diyara DuQuoi is also one of Zarc’s best friends ever since they ended up in the same prison van together.  Zarc takes the priestess under her wing when she first joins the rebels, reassuring her that Cat’s bark is worse then her bite.  They get along great until Zarc and Diyara both fall in love with Turlo and he ends up picking Diyara.  Eventually she and Diyara become friends again but their relationship is never quite the same after that.

Turlo Mason is one of her best friends and her first love.  It’s made clear from the beginning that Zarc and Turlo have known each other long before the start of the series, but how they met is never really revealed.  They fight a lot at first, but Zarc is the one who takes Turlo’s side against Cat when Cat wants him thrown out.  She becomes his lab assistant because she likes cool looking things and they test out gadgets together.  They seem to have an older brother/younger sister relationship, but as Zarc gets older she falls in love with him. Turlo still sees her like a little sister and doesn’t return her feelings, falling in love with Diyara instead.  Obviously that damages they’re relationship a lot, but eventually Zarc and Turlo become friends again and go back to the sort of sibling relationship they had before when Zarc gets over her feelings for him.

France Wah & Aggie are also good friends and Zarc hangs out with them a lot.  She seems to understand and enjoy France Wah’s zaniness and can translate France Wah speak for the other rebels.

The Underworlders
Zarc tends to exploit her relationship with the Underworld, using them to help spy on the Empire/Army Faction and supply them with goods.  It puts a strain on her relationships within the group.
Cordero, the King of Cutthroats, is the closest thing Zarc has to a father.  He helped raise her in the Underworld and often worries about her.  He’s the only one of the Royals who can talk with her and not give commands and is really the only Royal who cares about her.  They have a very strong familial bond and would do almost anything for each other.  


Zurielle, the Queen of Bandits, is the second Royal who helped raise her and would be her enemy if Zarc wasn’t the Queen of Thieves.  They can’t stand each other and Zurielle thinks Zarc is an irresponsible brat.  She resents being used by Zarc to help the rebels. 

Qadra, the Queen of Beggars is the third Royal who helped raise her.  There doesn’t seem to be much of a relationship between them, as if they neither like or dislike each other.

Qadim, the Prince of Beggars is Qadra’s successor and a good friend of Zarc’s.   They get along well and seem to have a sort of cousin bond. 





Gregor is an underworld thief who helps spy on the Army Faction for a price.  She doesn’t really trust him and implies that he has betrayed her before.  After Zarc officially becomes the Queen of Thieves he becomes very loyal to her.

The Empire/Army Faction
General Darion De Carlo starts off as an enemy – kidnapping her twice – but ends up an ally when he joins the rebels.  As Cat’s best friend, De Carlo sees Zarc a weapon he can use against Cat at first, but then as someone he needs to get on his side.  The way to Cat’s heart is apparently through Zarc because if Zarc doesn’t trust him, Cat never will.  After he kidnaps her the second time, then helps her escape and turns traitor, joining the rebels, Zarc trusts him a lot more than the other rebels do, suggesting that she sees something in him that the others don’t.  She becomes a referee between Cat and De Carlo and is instrumental in getting them to work out their differences and come together.  De Carlo eventually becomes like a brother-in-law to her and trusts her completely.  


Zarina, the former Empress, and Zarc mostly know each other by reputation, only a few times in the series.  The only time Zarc meets Zarina as “Zarina” is when De Carlo kidnaps Zarc to steal a secret weapon for Zarina.   

They later meet after Zarina fakes her death and returns as General Mira Mernecky.  Zarc and Mira meet twice – the first time Mira reveals that the man Zarc loves is a traitor who was just pretending to love her in order to get information.  Obviously that doesn’t go over well.  The second time and final time they meet, they end up in a fight that results in Zarina shooting Zarc and nearly killing her.  Zarina despises Zarc but sees her as a weak link that can be exploited, and Zarc sees Zarina as a spoiled brat and a bully, but doesn’t have any reason to personally hate her.  Mira, however, manipulates Zarc, which is something Zarc can never forgive. 

Philemon Orion/General Phil Gamon is the love of Zarc’s life.  She meets him as the lone survivor of his rebel unit.  He’s a technical genius like Turlo and he and Turlo become great friends.  Diyara distrusts Phil from the beginning, but Zarc is so taken with him that she just thinks Diyara is being a bitch. Zarc falls in love with him and he seems to fall in love with her, but after he gets both her and Turlo to help him recover and repair a powerful weapon he hands it over to the Army Faction, revealing that he’s a traitor.  

Suddenly he seems disgusted by Zarc, but after she gets hurt he bandages her arm and tells her that he’s a soldier on a mission and never planned to fall in love with her but he did.  He’s broken her heart and her trust so she doesn’t believe him at all.  In the end, however, he rushes in to save Zarc from an insane Turlo and gets killed in the process.  Zarc mourns him, realizing that he really was in love with her after all since he risked his life to save her.  

 Other People

Horace Gandergelder is a ghost that inhabits the theater the rebels use as a base.  He is accidentally summoned by Turlo and quickly takes a liking to Zarc, seeing in her a spirit that reminds him of his own daughter which he had neglected.  He is determined to help Zarc and make her happy by manipulating the situation so that Zarc finds out that Turlo and Diyara are in love, breaking Zarc’s heart.  Horace apologizes, admitting again that he was a terrible father, and warns Zarc that her heart will be broken again.