Vain Sorceress: Difference between revisions

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So, by studying magic or [[Witch Species|through being extraordinarily gifted genetically,]] you've managed to acquire the power to cast flashy destructive spells, [[Brainwashed]] people ''en masse'', and pretty much bend the whole of reality to your will. What is the first thing you do?

* Alcyone from ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' -- the normally polite-to-a-fault Fuu (who even addresses monsters as "Monster-san") seemed to make it a point to ''always'' point out her not being young.

* Evangeline A.K. McDowell from ''[[Negima]]'' normally has the appearance of a 10-year old girl (being a vampire, she doesn't age), but switches to a [[Sexier Alter Ego|sexy]] [[Older Alter Ego|adult woman]] form if she wants to be taken seriously - at least by adults - or wishes to flaunt her adult form's sex appeal (particularly to [[Shotacon|10-year-old Negi]], and often while '''naked'''; she seems to like seeing his flustered and embarrassed reaction).

* Princess Vina in ''[[Dragon Half]]'' uses magic to make herself look like a beautiful teenage girl... not because she's old (she really ''is'' a teenager), but because in her natural body she's a small purple slime.

* Tsubaki the Dark Priestess from ''[[Inuyasha]]'' wanted the Shikon no Tama to keep her power, youth and beauty, and as a strike for not being chosen as its keeper despite her abilities. She tried to steal it from Kikyou, with less than positive consequences (Kikyou ends up cursed, and in the anime her little sister Kaede [[Eye Scream|loses an eye]] in the fight).

* ''[[Grimm Dowa]]'' (aka ''Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics'') had an episode, "The Crystal Ball", where an evil witch murdered a beautiful woman and stole her identity. To keep herself beautiful and young, she keeps a beautiful princess trapped in her castle, and performed an unholy ritual every night where she bites into her neck and drains her off her lifeforce, and leaves her a rotting corpse. For reasons unexplained, the princess revives within a matter of seconds after the ritual is performed. When the murdered woman's sons find out what is going on, she turns two of them into animals, but the youngest escapes and is able to destroy her.

** In the English and Hebrew Dub, the scenes with the biting were removed, and she simply switches ages with the princess. This is actually closer to the original story. The Spanish changed it to drinking her youth, but showed the biting.

 

 

** Note that it's not a case of merely natural aging; if she goes too long without a [[Life Energy]] fix, she starts to revert to her true age-- of about ten thousand years or so. Dust to dust.

** It's implied that her Good Counterpart (or at least Less Evil Counterpart) Emma Frost uses her psychic powers to appear slightly more beautiful than she already is. Considering she's one of the few comic book characters to admit to plastic surgery, it doesn't take too much effort.

* Subverted in ''[[Fables]]'': Frau Totenkinder is one of, if not ''the'' most powerful sorceress in existence. Part of this granted her eternal life and beauty, but she ''intentionally'' aged herself to become an old lady, so that she would not be distracted by her youth. Or by handsome princes who she wanted to curse/not fall in love with.

** Similarly subverted in the original ''[[Shadow Man]]'' series by [[Valiant Comics]] - when the hundreds of years old voodoo housekeeper Nettie (who normally looks about 70 or so) is super-charged by a potent increase in magic in the world, she reflexively reverts to the young (and devastatingly beautiful) appearance she had when she was in her 20s. The subversion stems from the fact that she reveals she was ALWAYS capable of making this change, but never wanted to - in fact, she's incredibly annoyed by her youth and just wants to go back to being old.

 

== [[Film]] ==

** In an [[wikipedia:The Legend of Snow White|anime adaptation]], she wants to [[Grand Theft Me|steal Snow White's body]] instead. And it's revealed that she's not actually the Queen, but stole ''her'' body instead when she was a child. She (or even 'it') may have spent ''generations'' [[Body Surf|Body Surfing]] from beauty queen to beauty queen...

** In some of the earliest versions of the tale, the Wicked Queen fears Snow White's maturing beauty because it symbolizes her impending death due to an ancient mythological trope that a person's child is his or her replacement -- and she is Snow White's biological mother (not step-mother). So her efforts to kill Snow White are not based on physical vanity, but on a desperate hunger for immortality.

** In fact, just about ''any'' evil sorceress in any show, (especially those who use a forbidden, "sacrificial" form of magic to maintain their appearance) will wind up becoming old and wrinkly -- or turning to dust completely -- once their power is broken.

* The witches in ''[[Hocus Pocus]]'' spend all their time looking for children to suck the life out of to make themselves look younger, with the added impetus once they've been resurrected of ''having'' to do this or they'll turn to dust. At one point, the 8(?)-year-old heroine says, "It doesn't matter how young or old you are. You sold your soul! You're the ugliest thing that's ever lived! And you ''know'' it!"

* ''[[Return to Oz]]'' features a witch who collects pretty female heads, and swaps between them like another woman changes dresses. (The idea came from the novel ''Ozma Of Oz'', although the character was far less malevolent and more ditzy.)

* ''[[Countess Dracula]]'', a 1971 Hammer horror film based on the legends surrounding the "Blood Countess" [[Elizabeth Bathory]]. The Countess restores her youth and beauty by [[Blood Bath|bathing in the blood of murdered virgins]]. While in her rejuvenated state, she takes the identity of her own daughter; a plan that gets complicated when her actual daughter returns home.

* The 1985 film ''[[Rainbow Brite]] and the Star Stealer'' featured one of these as the primary antagonist.

** Azkedellia's true nature is eventually revealed as {{spoiler|a victim of [[Grand Theft Me]]. Although the evil witch possessing her is likely to be very old (possibly the Wicked Witch defeated by The Grey Gale) Azkedellia herself still retains her perfectly natural youth. She's roughly the same age as the protagonist, after all.}}

* In the ''[[Hugga Bunch]]'' TV Movie from the 80s, Witch/Queen Admira keeps herself young looking with the use of "young berries" which the 8-year-old heroine tries to procure for her aging grandmother. Of course, in the end she gets her karmic comeuppance when the key that unlocks the glass case in which the young-berry tree is kept gets left inside the case, after which time the sorceress [[Rapid Aging|rapidly ages]] and dies.

 

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** Although when Magrat marries the king, she briefly muses that she might have to become a Witch Queen, which probably involves [[Stripperiffic|wearing revealing clothes]].

*** Then again, considering Magrat doesn't exactly ''have'' much to reveal, it's probably for the best that she settled for a more sensible look and prefers ruling as a rather benevolent, if slightly too liberal and modern, queen.

** During the Sourceror's reign, many UU wizards initially tried to youthen themselves with the more powerful magic. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, it didn't take too well, and having fifty years of aging coming back and suckerpunching you in the gut will ruin anyone's day.

** Lady Lilith, Granny Weatherwax's evil older sister, looks pretty much like Esme would if she were fifty years ''younger''. This is due to a highly dangerous use of mirror magic.

* A rare case of male character is Gerald Tarrant in the ''[[Coldfire Trilogy]]'' who systematically uses his magical powers to keep himself neat, well dressed and handsome. Although Damien frequently makes fun of his vanity, he also notices that it has a very practical bonus- Tarrant is ''always'' at his best appearance, and this helps him to make quite an impression.

* In a subplot of ''Never Trust a Dead Man'' by [[Vivian Vande Velde]], [[Deadpan Snarker]] mentor Elswyeth (a witch) spends much of the book collecting ingredients for a spell to make herself young. This is mostly an [[Averted Trope|Aversion]], however, since her motives are practical rather than aesthetic (fewer aches and pains, a longer lifespan) and her young form is not particularly attractive.

* In ''[[The Witcher]]'' world it's so common that it not only gets [[Lampshaded]], but outright [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]]. Virtually all the sorceresses are like this, at least in the Northern Kingdoms. This is due to the fact that while magical talent is distributed pretty evenly among population, it is, for all its [[Anachronism Stew|anachronisms]], a late Medieval period, when a woman's purpose in life was marriage and motherhood. So, only girls who had a chance to take up magic were the ones with the worst marriage prospects -- read, butt-ugly at best, if not outright cripples. Furthermore, there's a matter of prestige -- [[Weird Trade Union|Mages Guild]] couldn't allow its members to soil its image by their ugliness... [[Double Standard|Wizards mostly go for the respectable, wizened look instead]]. But then, Sapkowski ''loves'' to deconstruct everything.

* In [[David Eddings]]' ''[[Belgariad]]'' [[Prequel]] ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', a sorcerer's appearance seems to be connected to their mental image. While the original sorcerer Belgarath deliberately goes for either the old vagabond storyteller look or the hale and hearty old man appearance (and is still in remarkable physical shape, come to think of it, enough that ''many'' women find him ''very'' attractive), his daughter Polgara always looks quite stunning. She notes that an old women is called a "crone" for a reason, and cronehood isn't exactly her idea of a positive impression.

** Given that in this setting sorcerers shapechange simply by thoroughly visualizing their new body (no incantation or ritual), very low level leakage from the subconscious should make this a reasonable side effect of simply living for a few millennia. Probably explains the muscles, too - all that exercise accumulating without the atrophy (you notice the former happening more). May even explain the immortality.

** In the ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'' series, the Yellow Adept has, and occasionally uses, a potion to restore her youth. The difficulty of making it keeps her old most of the time.

* Dorian from ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' is pretty much the male poster for the trope, having expressed the desire to never age or show any flaws so he could stay young and be loved by everyone. His portrait became uglier and older every time he did something bad, while Dorian remained young and handsome.

* Ileana in ''[[Twitches]]'' who insists that other characters call her "Goddess".

* Mages (male and female) who obsess over looks and use their powers for cosmetic purposes sometimes figure on the fringes of [[Tamora Pierce]]'s books, portrayed with varying levels of sympathy. [[Lady in Red|Varice Kingsford]] from the [[Tortall Universe]] is part of the [[Big Bad]]'s court and considered a waste of time at best by the protagonist, but is last seen sobbing amid the ruins of the palace (sans makeup) and saying that she just likes pretty things, and does that make her a bad person? Contrast the fourth [[Circle of Magic]] book, where a pox epidemic is traced back to a mage (one Eilisa Pearldrop, whose very name inspires contempt in the sensible mage protagonists) specializing in beauty magic, who messes up a weight-loss spell and, rather than pay for her magical waste to be disposed of safely, lets it get carried out in the sewage system, thereby creating a magically strengthened disease. Very unsexy.

** Numair is ''literally'' a vain sorcerer, at least some of the time, but he doesn't fit into this trope very well, as he's a good person and knows when ''not'' to care about his appearance. One of his friends says he spends hours getting ready, then ruins his outfit by lying in the grass to watch meteor showers.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Another episode featured the beautiful owner of a cosmetics store who oddly enough for someone so vain avoids mirrors like the plague. {{spoiler|Her beauty is only an illusion and mirrors reflect her true appearance as an old woman. She tries to use a magic ritual that involves turning young girls into dogs and ''cutting out their tongues'' in order to make her youth and beauty real. In the end a mirror is used to break her power which saves the girls and [[No Immortal Inertia|causes time to return to her and everything she owns]] including her store}}. The storyteller's ending line says it all:

{{quote| In the end, all that was left of her beautiful illusion was dust, and a pile of ugly rubble.}}

* In the ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker]]'' episode "The Youth Killer", Helen of Troy returns to drain the youth out of unsuspecting perfect victims, sacrifices for the goddess Hecate, in her quest for immortality.

* The power of one ''[[Smallville]]'' [[Monster of the Week|Freak Of The Week]] was to absorb [[Life Energy]] to retain her youth. Like most villains with this ability, [[Rapid Aging]] eventually caught up with her.

 

 

* Deneb from ''[[Ogre Battle]]'' willfully staves off aging using [[Grand Theft Me|underhanded means]]. ''Allegedly''. And if you're female, she taunts you and then tells you you'll get wrinkles if you frown. Averted in the same game by the great witch Mango, who is 120 years old and entitled "The Great and Beautiful", even though she looks like any other [[Palette Swap|old witch]] in the game.

** So allegedly that Deneb's "death quote" in both ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' games is more irritation than despair, and you can have her possess suitable hosts multiple times after dying in ''Tactic Ogre: Knight of Lodis''.

** Ravel, on the other hand, is a subversion; she keeps her ancient, shriveled hag appearance despite the fact that changing her looks is as easy as breathing to her. She does assume the appearances of your female companions to tempt you {{spoiler|and she reveals that she actually were three specific people you encountered at certain places in the Hive}} but resumes her old self after that.

*** The especially interesting thing about Ravel is that while she does have extensive shapeshifting powers, when she assumes the appearances of Grace and Annah it's only an illusion that doesn't extend past sight, as is revealed when she kisses you. [[Fridge Brilliance|Maybe she's making a comment on the nature of beauty.]]

* An odd male, more or less benign version: Anji Mito from ''[[Guilty Gear]]'', who greatly dislikes the mere idea of growing older. {{spoiler|One of his GGX endings has [[Magnificent Bastard|That Man]] [[We Can Rule Together|offering him]] the chance to join him and get his wish to stay young forever. Anji's reply is not shown, but later games show him to be working for That Man.}}

* Morrigan in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' seems to be one of these, though she's a little young for it to be apparent. She's certainly very concerned with being seen as sexy, and she's got [[Neutral Evil|the rest of the personality]] associated with this.

** Her MOTHER, however, fits this trope in the [[Grand Theft Me|body surfing]] variety.

* Kuja of ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' is another male character along the lines of this (though [[Viewer Gender Confusion|his gender isn't necessarily]] [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|obvious at first glance]].) He's quite vain about his appearance and while he doesn't specifically pursue eternal youth, this is probably because he mistakenly believes he's immortal; upon learning that he isn't, he has a [[Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum]] because he can't bear the thought of the world existing without him.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The double standard is fairly well pointed out early on in ''[[Errant Story]]''; female magic-users that show the slightest sign of aging are more or less expected to dedicate some of their power to maintaining their appearance. The main character hates this expectation, mainly because she's largely resistant to such magics.

** Said main character's mother sympathetic one, who's doing it so she'll still be at attractive to the main character's father, an immortal elf, {{spoiler|Too bad he's a [[Jerkass]] who doesn't care about her or his daughter.}}

 

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Lady Bane from ''[[Disney]]'s [[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'' used the "sucking the youth out of younger characters" method of de-agifying herself.

* Porcina in the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' episode "The Glass Princess" wants to turn everything into glass so she can see her reflection everywhere.

* Spectra in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', who drains the happiness of young people around her to make herself younger.

** Though in this case, the regaining of youth is presented as more of a side-affect of Nerissa's power boost (albeit one she's certainly pleased with) rather than her ''primary'' goal.

* Toyed with in ''[[Justice League]]'' - their version of Morgan Le Fay drains youth from random [[Muggle|Muggles]]...but it's not really a case of vanity, since her costume covers up her entire body except for her hands. Mostly it seems to be for the benefit of her son, Mordred, whom she cast a spell on to grant eternal life and eternal youth. Evidently, it fixed him at that age and can't be broken or altered {{spoiler|without causing him to [[This Was His True Form|instantly turn into a withered old man]].}}

[[Category:Vain Sorceress]]

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