User blog:YukaSylvie/Pure Evil Proposal: Grande

I'm back. Here's a modified version of my Complete Monster effort post on TV Tropes.

What's the work?
Tweeny Witches is a dark but idealistic magical girl anime series produced by Studio 4°C. The premise is similar to Little Witch Academia, a newer anime series produced by Studio Trigger (which happens to include former Studio 4°C members), in that the protagonist is a young, energetic Japanese girl who follows her missing role model's footsteps by challenging the traditionalism of the real witches with the belief that magic should be used For Happiness. In this series, Arusu has a vision of a mysterious masked figure who sends her to another dimension called the Magical Realm. As Atelia arranges for her to live as an apprentice witch, she embraces the local lifestyle alongside her native housemates, Sheila and Eva, who must recapture the fairies she has released back to the wild for the Grand Master of Witches to dispel the Curse of Eternal Youth, which has been given to the two girls as punishment for failing to supervise the human girl. During the second half of the series, the warlocks begin their attack on the Witch Realm in search of the resources they need to use dark magic, a forbidden spell which Grande intends to destroy the Human Realm for his species to escape the eventual destruction of the Magical Realm. In order to save both dimensions, Arusu, the prophesied savior, must find a way to cast the magic of light, the legendary spell said to be the only thing that can dispel dark magic.

Who is Grande? What has he done?
Grande is the main antagonist of the series, as well as the leader and general of the warlocks. He continues an over 2-century-long persecution of the wizards (the traditional subgroup of his own people), forcing them to live in the barren Miche Village since the establishment of Wizard Kingdom (the technologically-advanced capital city of the Warlock Realm) and seeking to wipe out their dying culture.

Before the beginning of the series, Grande began planning to destroy the Human Realm with dark magic in hopes of making a new home for his species to escape the eventual destruction of the Magical Realm. He knew dark magic would drive every living thing to despair if his final line in the Japanese version is any indication, but he didn't care and/or underestimated its destructive power anyway. "Lennon's True Identity" implies that more than 14 years ago, this caused the warlocks to steal the True Book of Spells from the Grand Master of Witches, who then ordered Atelia to fight alongside the wizards in Wizard Kingdom to get it back. One day, he found Jidan, the future father of Lennon and Arusu, trapped in the Magical Realm. Jidan insisted on his innocence, saying that he just wanted to know the truth behind the magic the human always admired, only for Grande to imprison the human as a callous rejection.

At the beginning of "The Warlock Sigma", he (or at least someone who spoke on his behalf) is seen basically telling a prophet (who was likely his advisor) that dark magic is the only way to save the Magical Realm. When the prophet disagreed and foretold the coming of a savior, he had the prophet swallowed whole as punishment for disobedience in front of the prophet's young son, Sigma.

After a hydra fairy's attack on the Witch Realm, the warlocks discover that all the captive fairies have already escaped from the Witch Realm. As a result, he orders the military to attack the Witch Realm in search of two of the resources they need to cast dark magic; each one of the 100 fairy species and the True Book of Spells. When the warlock police capture an inept apprentice witch named Eva for invading Wizard Kingdom, he realizes that her inferiority complex makes her capable of casting dark magic. Afterward, he shows her a vision of a mysterious old man encouraging her to stay hopeful, helping her become strong to make sure that she will later do anything to get her magic back.

After the destruction of Wizard Kingdom, he takes over the Witch Realm by siding with the special task force, a trio that has replaced the Grand Master of Witches and the Three Sages as a new government. Long after Eva grows weak from the mystical plague that has taken her magic away, he offers to give her back her magic with the True Book of Spells. As the unwilling caster of dark magic, she turns into a tormented monstrosity made of herself and each one of the 100 fairy species. He spends his last screen time about how dark magic will spread despair (darkness in the North American translation) for the Warlock Realm to live on and for him to be the ruler of all.

Heinousness
He's by far the most heinous character in the entire setting. Not only the actions of the warlock military are traced to him, but also his plan to destroy an entire dimension gives him an enormous attempted body count that not even Jestor from the The Adventure episode "The Secret of Dragon House" (who planned to kill everyone in the Witch and Warlock Realms by sending small drones to every single house) can hope to reach. While some of the other villains are guilty of attempted murder and death threat, he's the only character in the entire setting who killed a subordinate, which happened in front of the subordinate's young child — who would spend most of his screen time secretly working against him to get justice for his father. He also manipulates a desperate girl into almost destroying everything with the evilest spell known to her own people.

Mitigating factors?
No Freudian Excuse is ever mentioned. He claims to be making a new home for his dying species, but his final line reveals that he's actually a not-so-well-intentioned extremist who only believes that despotism justifies the means. His lack of care for his own people is already hinted by the continued oppression of the wizards under his rule and the fact that he was willing to kill his advisor for disagreeing with him. He has a full understanding of good enough to manipulate Eva behind the mask of a wise, helpful old man. Last but not least, nothing suggests that he regrets his actions upon seeing the true extent of the damage dark magic has caused.

Final Verdict
I'd say yes.