Part 83: Cinderella Girl - Elizabeth - Part 2

Elizabeth 2



So, Elizabeth. For a Servant debuting relatively recently in the franchise, hailing from CCC, she's built up quite the pedigree, presumably for being someone Nasu really likes. In her first outing, she bounced between four different Masters, changing servitude between Run Ru, her original Master, Rin Tohsaka, Rani VIII, and finally Meltlilith, where she manifested as a Berserker-class. After her defeat as Berserker, Rin and Rani attempt to seal her away, but Elizabeth protested they should kill her, as, I've mentioned Elizabeth's claustrophobia. Finally, she joins forces with Hakunon temporarily, and at the end of the game, leaves to become an idol.

Then of course, she would appear in this game and Grand Order. Within Grand Order's story, she appears numerous times (sometimes bringing light to the fact she keeps popping up). She has three main storyline appearances: when the protagonist went to Hundred-Years War France, 60 AD Roman Empire, and 1789 America. She played, as she would put it, backup singer in each role.

And now we come to her other versions. Her first official variation was as a Caster-class Servant in Grand Order's Halloween 2015 event. Having obtained a fragment of France's Grail, she incarnated as a Caster-class Servant and created her own fun little pocket dimension, one with Cjeste castle and a very Halloween-like world map.



Basically, Elizabeth used a Grail to summon a bunch of Servants of her own, and had the protagonist fight their way through the castle so they'd be too exhausted to avoid hearing her concert in the throne room. When the protagonist finally made it the throne room, they didn't want to stick around for the concert and fought Elizabeth, defeating her and recovering the Grail fragment she had. However, "defeat" means nothing to Elizabeth, and after singing an encore song that KO'd the protagonist, and when they finally woke up, Elizabeth asks permission to come back to Chaldea, the human-history saving organization starring in Grand Order, a request which the protagonist grants.



In Halloween 2016, she would have another iteration. This time as Brave Liz, a Saber-class Servant. In this Halloween, Elizabeth incarnated as a self-proclaimed hero of justice (Elizabeth is a dope and equates a Saber-class Servant to being a hero of justice). In this form, she had been ejected from her castle by a band of mysterious Servants serving a new Halloween queen (in reality, Cleopatra and Ozymandias, assisted by Round Table knights Lancelot and Tristan). Along the way, the thrust of the story is Elizabeth learning how to be a responsible noblewoman and bringing a true Halloween to the people. Along the way, she acquires a backup band of Robin Hood, Nitocris, and Ibaraki Douji (also because she thinks an adventurer like her needs traveling companions. Halloween 2016 had a lot of references to, of course, Ghouls n' Ghosts world maps and really old RPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest).



Finally, at the end of the Elizabeth Halloween Trilogy, Halloween 2017, she would acquire her most bizarre forms yet: as a mecha girl. In this bizarre event, the pyramid that crashed into Elizabeth's castle the year prior hadn't been removed, and a new thing fell on top of it, none other than Himeji Castle, where the youkai Osakabehime lives. Elizabeth's attempt to recover her castle from all the Servants still dwelling her triggers the activation of Mecha Eli-chan, an Alter-Ego class Servant.



Things go more than a little bit off-track (with much of the event's aesthetics referencing kaiju movies), but eventually the castle is taken back and Mecha Eli-chan decides to join the protagonist once her role as a guardian deity was finished. It turns out there was an underground Eli-chan producing factory that had to be shut down to fix things. What adventures await Elizabeth Bathory in the future, that is not for me to say. Elizabeth's next outing, however, is against Nero's faction with Orchid 3 as a template. Oh yes, and "Void Dark", as you might expect, is Elizabeth's costume as fully corrupted by the Umbral Star. We won't be using it this playthrough, as we've seen it plenty in the main story.

Also the Servant known as Carmilla deserves mention. Carmilla, instead of being a character based on vampire from a story by French writer Sheridan Le Fanu, is instead the adult version of Elizabeth Bathory. As opposed to Elizabeth's relative innocence, Carmilla is a sadistic serial killer, one who has been happily murdering young girls for years. While Elizabeth has a sadistic streak, she's nowhere near as cruel as her adult self, who specializes in torture and enjoys the act. While Le Fanu never made any connection between Elizabeth Bathory and his Carmilla character, the geographical connection and choice of victims (young women) are very much in common between the two. The story of Carmilla would also be an inspiration for Bram Stoker's much more famous Dracula, which was published 26 years after Le Fanu's tale. It should be noted that Stoker didn't know much about the actual Vlad III and more or less just borrowed the dude's name for the antagonist of his book.






Elizabeth stage 2

Saber Regalia! You silly clown, calling yourself the Sovereign without my permission! I won't even use your blood to bathe with! I'll wring out every last drop of mana you have, and I'll throw it away in my SE.RA.PH's trash heap. I'm sure the roses you love so much will bloom there. And I'll toss your empty husk of a body away too!

Is that so...? That's rather inspired, Elizabeth. Abominable, yes, but with just a hint of romance. Hmm, you sounded like Emperor Heliogabalus in the last half of that, but whatever, that's your business. I see you bring complaints before my throne! So, you fail to find satisfaction within my new Rome! Very well, I shall accept your complaints. I shall take up my sword! And I shall let your fangs, nails and tail rain their blows upon me!

How very impertinent of Nero to compare Elizabeth to Heliogabalus. She's a much better fit for comparison to that hedonistic man.

Grr, I told you not to call me Elizabeth! My name is Dark Eliza! Or Dark Ellie is okay too! But I don't want to hear you anymore! Why am I even getting so mad?! This is way different than how I thought it would go! No, I'm not gonna put up with this...! The little squirrel is all mine now! I won't give her back to you! Get ready... I'll make you bloom in a beautiful burst of blood!



Well, Nero's not brave enough to fight us at the moment, instead using her guard dogs to fight. That's fine. Lu Bu and Gawain can have fun with each other, and while those two apes fight...



We can have our fun.



But it just doesn't seem right to let Lu Bu play center stage. He can't even talk. No, this is work the star has to handle.



He might be strong, but... He's just a big dumb ape, when you think about it. Elizabeth can't get too close.



Bait him into charging, then capture his heart with brilliant dance moves.





Mr. Knight is so slow~



He's...surprisingly hard to kill. I would thought Elizabeth's torture techniques would have easily defeated him by now.



Of course, a crushing victory. Well...it might have been a little close, but a real idol knows to keep her audience happy for the entire performance.

What...?! Sir Gawain?!

Who would've thought the Knight of the Sun could be defeated through brute force?! Impressive...!

Keep showering me with praise.



Stuck in ice is no place for an idol.



First Karna, now Cu Chulainn. No Lancer can compare to Elizabeth Bathory, after all. Neither of them had a genuine dragon lance, the only one of its kind.



Man, an idol's work is never over, huh? But this performance is for all the little piggies.



Finally~ Even Elizabeth gets tired every now and then. But then it's back to sucking mana out of her loyal subjects.



But before that, we still have to get rid of the tyrant. Nero is something of an idol herself, but obviously nowhere near as good...well, she's certainly energetic. Elizabeth is a performer, you see, and her swings and twirls, while enchanting, make it hard for her to steal the spotlight away from the Roman tyrant. You'll just have to wait until she's done performing to attack.





It's too bad Elizabeth and Nero have to fight... They should share a stage together. Someday.



It feels like more of a dragon attack when you fly into the sky.



Ugh. Dragons and fire don't go well together... Wait...



She is our rival, after all. We have to beat her with the power of Elizabeth's lovely music.



Aaaah!



W-Well...that's the role of a Master, right?



And a brilliant mid-air finish.



W-Well, could anyone have done it better? I don't think so!







Did you learn your place? I mean, we're so unevenly matched now, you and I. *laugh* I changed my mind! I was gonna suck all the mana out of you right here and now, but...! I'll let you go just this once. I mean, I'm so much stronger than you now, you couldn't even hurt me if you tried.

...I hate to concede, but...at the moment, I cannot even articulate a reply.

I know, right? Of course you're stumped! Must be frustrating, yeah? You were supposed to be my eternal rival, but look at us now! I actually feel bad for you, Saber. No, I guess I don't, but what I should say is... "I hope you learned your lesson!" ...You had everything. The little squirrel, a country, the Regalia, and a beautiful voice. But I stole all that from you. Except that glorious singing voice. That's all you've got left. ...Hey, so tell me, how do you feel?

...

Mmm-hmm, see, that's the taste of humiliation. Sour, isn't it? That's what it feels like to fall from grace, to be a loser! Oh yeah, by the way, I killed all your underlings, so don't bother looking for them. Oopsies! Okay, well, bye-bye for now. Maybe I'll run into you again someday, my "eternal rival".