Wrenne
We've done quite a bit of revamping the females of First Draftia. Let's review a bit, with a summary of what each of these ladies is like in the new version, and forget that the original happened at all.
Odette
Our villain. I like to think of her as not so much evil as "beyond regular emotion." She's the fantasy version of a mad scientist, who believes that her power and the obtaining of it is more important than anything. There's a certain amount of arrogance associated with that, which also entails a high degree of lack of empathy, and all of that can come off as inordinately cruel. It's not so much that she IS cruel; she used to be, when she and Odile were kids, but it's morphed into "I don't have time for your feelings" and less sadism. She's here to get a job done, and everyone who gets in the way simply does no matter, so what gets them out of the way also does not matter. It's why the ending works, because Odile demonstrates that empathy etc actually do have a significance, and explains that in a language she can understand. She tends to view others as mosquitoes at best, just annoyances that it's okay to slap dead without a thought.
Odile
Surrounded by high grade magic the way she is, both as part of the castle and her family, it would be quite natural for her to feel inferior or even resentful because of her lack of magical aptitude. This is not the case at all, in fact it's more an act of defiance that she continues to fulfill her duties as a royal ("nevertheless, she persisted."). Though her talents go more towards the administrative and scholarly than leading outright, she actually is indispensable to the efficient running of the kingdom. In this way she's quite a lot like Ferdinand, in the sense that she has a far stronger hand in things than she gets credit for. She is a victim of childhood abuse though, and she is constantly beset by reminders of that time in her life, most importantly the sight of her abuser (in swan form, but it's still her). More research is needed to see what this would do to her psyche, but I want to believe that she would reinforce that defiance every time, until she views that terrible time as happening to someone else, almost impossible to recall at all. We're talking years worth of memories, suppressed alongside her natural magic, so that when they finally come out all at the end, they work together to form a new kind of power previously undocumented in First Draftia's records: an aptitude for suppressing ambient and personal power in others, which nicely compliments Odette's talent for absorbing it.
From a royal perspective, this makes her a terrifying force as Queen. The previous rule was that if you want to be King, you have to duel the existing one and win, sort of like in a wolf pack. The way Odile's power manifests at last, there would be no way to fight her with magic. She would literally just crush it all down to nothing, or push it all down to a depth where it can't be reached, and you're left with two muggles facing each other, one of them with any idea this was coming. Since enchanters aren't known for their skill at fisticuffs, she could probably finish it with a solid slap across the face, which with enough witnesses, would have the same effect as a coup de grace.
Elise
In DnD terms, I'd call Elise the only divine caster in a whole family of arcane casters. Her power is magic, but its source is her own pure heart and thoughts of altruism and forgiveness, which is altogether too sappy to function and is the reason why she is only regarded as a dowager Princess instead of having any real political strength. The Cygnettes are not Borgias; having a pious person onboard does not mean the same thing. She pretty well signifies the heart of the "virgin" aspect of any three-part goddess, or a nun, or anything where her strength comes at the cost of her own self-denial. Politically speaking, she would make an excellent diplomat, as she would immediately put anyone at their ease, even if they were talking about something emotionally charged, or if she were trying to find a common ground between two enemies. At the end, she maintains a strong focus on her surroundings to make the library into a safe room, which is why Ferdinand can't act upon any of his more violent desires, and why Siegfried recovered at all. It's much more powerful than it looks--a high-level caster like Elise managed to create a space where death itself could not enter. While she certainly has the clout to challenge Rothbard, she wouldn't by nature even if she wanted the throne, and it would end in a standoff as both parties lost the will to fight.
A note, Elise is *also* a survivor of abuse, namely repeated rape over the course of months. It could be that this is actually where her power took its shape, a very "this will never happen again" sort of mentality that was ambient instead of personal. It could easily have gone the other way, and made her a direct threat to anyone who came within a certain distance of her body, but she was already a generous person before it happened. To her, the problem was the violent impulses in her abuser, not the man himself.
Wrenne
Wrenne's driving force is her duty to her kingdom, making her as much like Siegfried as Odile is like Ferdie. While she does have a good head on her shoulders and a solid set of morals, it's that duty which brought her to the kingdom of Astor, and her slow burn feelings for Sig second. Those feelings do exist, by the way, but they aren't love by a long shot. The two of them saw the need for their marriage, and mutually decided to at least try for a relationship, whether or not it worked out. Things were actually on a gentle upswing at story start; think of the budding romance that can only happen through a long-distance arrangement, as in online with two people who have never physically met.
Moving past her love life, Wrenne has a quiet authority that can be seen as either dignified or cold, depending on your point of view.
Odette
Our villain. I like to think of her as not so much evil as "beyond regular emotion." She's the fantasy version of a mad scientist, who believes that her power and the obtaining of it is more important than anything. There's a certain amount of arrogance associated with that, which also entails a high degree of lack of empathy, and all of that can come off as inordinately cruel. It's not so much that she IS cruel; she used to be, when she and Odile were kids, but it's morphed into "I don't have time for your feelings" and less sadism. She's here to get a job done, and everyone who gets in the way simply does no matter, so what gets them out of the way also does not matter. It's why the ending works, because Odile demonstrates that empathy etc actually do have a significance, and explains that in a language she can understand. She tends to view others as mosquitoes at best, just annoyances that it's okay to slap dead without a thought.
Odile
Surrounded by high grade magic the way she is, both as part of the castle and her family, it would be quite natural for her to feel inferior or even resentful because of her lack of magical aptitude. This is not the case at all, in fact it's more an act of defiance that she continues to fulfill her duties as a royal ("nevertheless, she persisted."). Though her talents go more towards the administrative and scholarly than leading outright, she actually is indispensable to the efficient running of the kingdom. In this way she's quite a lot like Ferdinand, in the sense that she has a far stronger hand in things than she gets credit for. She is a victim of childhood abuse though, and she is constantly beset by reminders of that time in her life, most importantly the sight of her abuser (in swan form, but it's still her). More research is needed to see what this would do to her psyche, but I want to believe that she would reinforce that defiance every time, until she views that terrible time as happening to someone else, almost impossible to recall at all. We're talking years worth of memories, suppressed alongside her natural magic, so that when they finally come out all at the end, they work together to form a new kind of power previously undocumented in First Draftia's records: an aptitude for suppressing ambient and personal power in others, which nicely compliments Odette's talent for absorbing it.
From a royal perspective, this makes her a terrifying force as Queen. The previous rule was that if you want to be King, you have to duel the existing one and win, sort of like in a wolf pack. The way Odile's power manifests at last, there would be no way to fight her with magic. She would literally just crush it all down to nothing, or push it all down to a depth where it can't be reached, and you're left with two muggles facing each other, one of them with any idea this was coming. Since enchanters aren't known for their skill at fisticuffs, she could probably finish it with a solid slap across the face, which with enough witnesses, would have the same effect as a coup de grace.
Elise
In DnD terms, I'd call Elise the only divine caster in a whole family of arcane casters. Her power is magic, but its source is her own pure heart and thoughts of altruism and forgiveness, which is altogether too sappy to function and is the reason why she is only regarded as a dowager Princess instead of having any real political strength. The Cygnettes are not Borgias; having a pious person onboard does not mean the same thing. She pretty well signifies the heart of the "virgin" aspect of any three-part goddess, or a nun, or anything where her strength comes at the cost of her own self-denial. Politically speaking, she would make an excellent diplomat, as she would immediately put anyone at their ease, even if they were talking about something emotionally charged, or if she were trying to find a common ground between two enemies. At the end, she maintains a strong focus on her surroundings to make the library into a safe room, which is why Ferdinand can't act upon any of his more violent desires, and why Siegfried recovered at all. It's much more powerful than it looks--a high-level caster like Elise managed to create a space where death itself could not enter. While she certainly has the clout to challenge Rothbard, she wouldn't by nature even if she wanted the throne, and it would end in a standoff as both parties lost the will to fight.
A note, Elise is *also* a survivor of abuse, namely repeated rape over the course of months. It could be that this is actually where her power took its shape, a very "this will never happen again" sort of mentality that was ambient instead of personal. It could easily have gone the other way, and made her a direct threat to anyone who came within a certain distance of her body, but she was already a generous person before it happened. To her, the problem was the violent impulses in her abuser, not the man himself.
Wrenne
Wrenne's driving force is her duty to her kingdom, making her as much like Siegfried as Odile is like Ferdie. While she does have a good head on her shoulders and a solid set of morals, it's that duty which brought her to the kingdom of Astor, and her slow burn feelings for Sig second. Those feelings do exist, by the way, but they aren't love by a long shot. The two of them saw the need for their marriage, and mutually decided to at least try for a relationship, whether or not it worked out. Things were actually on a gentle upswing at story start; think of the budding romance that can only happen through a long-distance arrangement, as in online with two people who have never physically met.
Moving past her love life, Wrenne has a quiet authority that can be seen as either dignified or cold, depending on your point of view.