#8 - Vesper

VESPER
THAT'S RIGHT! ISN'T HE GRAND?
BARON VON BRIAR THORN
HE'S SO EVIL AND I HOPE THAT HE KEEPS GETTING WORSE.
YOU CROSS HIM, I'LL TELL YOU WHAT WILL OCCUR
HE'LL PUT A NASTY SPELL RIGHT ON YA THAT'S THE END OF YOUR WORLD!
See ya later, Doc! Let me know if you need anything for that new stump. Bandages. Ointment. Lemon juice. (To the BARON and smiles like a school girl with a crush.) Are you ready for your “loyal” and “respectful” subjects, my handsome sir? Or should I just tell ‘em to bugger off leaving just the two of us?

BARON
And why would I want that?

VESPER
We could practice...(Striking an apparently seductive pose.) Incantations on one another.

BARON
(HE stifles a gag and waves to VESPER.)
Send in the subjects.

VESPER
Oh, Very well, Baron. Ingrates!! Enter!

Vesper is the very loyal servant of Von Briar Thorn. A witch by name only, she doesn't have any powers of her own other than her cruelty, and Vesper... she likes the Baron. She loves how vile and evil he is. Nothing thrills her more than when his temper flares and he starts blasting everyone and everything around him, even if it's her in the cross-hairs. She is much more like Smee than the Therapist - loyal to the very end no matter what. It fills her with such glee. Of course, the Baron has zero interest in this witch, but that doesn't stop a... um... "girl" from wishfully thinking.

Everyone has their thing, right? Some people have tastes that defy explanation. I hear conversations all the time that are something like:
"I think Amy Poehler is pretty."
"Ew! What?"
- or:
"Jesse James is sexy."
"Jesse James the guy who dressed up like a Nazi and cheated on Sandra Bullock?"
"...um... well, not because of that but... yeah, that guy."
"...Sure. Whatever you say."

It's opinion. Can't be wrong. Just really, really messed up sometime.
So, Vesper is totally into guys who fist fight the elderly and literally steals candy from babies. She thinks the guy is dreamy despite his utter-bad guy-ness. Maybe she's never tried dating outside her type (though that certainly implies that she's dated at all). Whatever her reasons, she knows what she likes and she's actually patient and determined enough to wait for his heart to sway in her direction. That is, of course, until the Baron gets the crazy notion to go and get a princess. Vesper isn't too thrilled with this development and is ready to take this blasted Princess Scarlet out and away from her dreamy and dastardly dude!

Vesper came out of nowhere as I wrote this show. I really don't know where the notion of this wicked lady with a penchant for bad guys developed from. She's certainly not an avatar of girls who go for the bad boy, at least not in a typical fashion, though I suppose that's what she is at her core. Most of the characters in the Princess Knight are versions or amalgamations of my favorite characters from every type of story. Vesper? She just sort of emerged from the story itself. As I developed the silly and complicated characters that fill our world, Vesper elbowed her way through my imagination and hopped out onto the page. And her large, ostentatious personality is one of my favorites in the show. She has so many opportunities to steal the show. Even better, she can be played by any type or age. I am quite excited to see the way people think Vesper can be portrayed...