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| This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. | ||
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| “ | In my absence, I expect you to make it fit for the Queens we are. When I return with our prize, all of us shall be young again. Never fear, my sisters. I will not fail. | „ |
| ~ Lamia to her sisters, Mormo and Empusa as she makes her journey. |
Lamia is the main antagonist of the 2007 film Stardust. She was the evil leader of the Lillim witches. She is based on the "Witch Queen Morwanneg" from the book.
In the film adaptation, she was portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, who also played Catwoman in Batman Returns, Eris in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray and Queen Ingrith in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Appearance[]
Lamia is very old with liver spots, her body a roadmap of wrinkles in its natural state, and what's left of her head hair is chalk white and thin, being around 500 years old. When she regains her youth, she is extremely beautiful, attractive and glamorous with long wavy blonde hair and smooth skin.
Biography[]
Book[]
In the novel, Lamia is not named and merely referred to as the "Witch-Queen". She states that her true name was lost when her homeland of Carnadine sank beneath the waves. At one point she employs the name "Morwanneg" as a twisted irony because Morwanneg means "wave of the sea". It is also implied that the queen is in fact older than the world itself. In the novel, the queen once boasts that the squirrel has not yet found the acorn which shall grow into the oak which will be cut down and carved into the cradle of the infant who will grow to destroy her. It is interesting to note that, after the witch's encounter with Ditchwater Sal, there is a brief description of a squirrel finding an acorn nearby. This implies that the witch-queen's days are numbered, though nothing more ever comes of it. This prophecy is not mentioned in the film.
The Lilim in the novel are hidden from the world and have been for centuries. Many believe that they are long dead. They live in a squalid cottage in a wood "so thick it was almost a forest". The wood is literally younger than the witches, as they were ancient before it had even surfaced upon the land and began to develop. In the film, the witches live in a decrepit castle in a gorge and no rumor of them being dead is ever mentioned. It appears that other witches knew of their existence, as Lamia displays her true identity to Ditchwater Sal in the film, who is at once terrified.
Film[]
In a canyon in deepest Stormhold live three witches collectively known as the Lillim. Lamia, the eldest, once ruled in Carnadine as a witch queen, but that was four centuries ago, before that city was lost, and is quite another story. Even now, though, living hidden from the world with her sisters Mormo and Empusa, Lamia remains the most powerful witch in Stormhold. Time has not diminished the Lillim's powers of sorcery but has destroyed their beauty and made them frail. Consuming the heart of a star can give them eternal beauty as the sisters know all to well, as using magic counteracts the effect. The last unfortunate star to fall in Stormhold did so four hundred years ago to their distress, there is very little of her heart left. If they are to gain youth and see the future in their lives, Lamia and her sisters will be needing another heart, which puts Yvaine in grave danger.
When Yvaine fell, Lamia of the Lillim was the first witch to see Yvaine. She woke her sisters Mormo and Empusa telling her a Star has fallen. She was going to use a Babylon Candle but she used the last two hundred years. With the animal information it said that Yvaine lay one hundred miles away. Mormo got the animals kidney, Empusa got the animals liver and Lamia got its heart making her the one to seek Yvaine. She used what was left of the last star making her extremely beautiful. She threw off her clothes making her sisters jealous. Mormo and Empusa gave Lamia a dress, runes and a knife promising she will not fail.
She meets the farmboy Brevis/Bernard and turns him to a goat and makes a chariot, after receiving information from him that one goat was simply not enough to pull her along. she later encounters Ditchwater Sal and gives her Limbus grass forcing Lamia to tell information of Yvaine. Sal or Semele realizing Lamia is the Dark Witch Queen she begs not to seek the star. Outraged, Lamia puts a spell on Sal/Semele to not see Yvaine, touch her, smell or hear her or not even see her even if Yvaine stands before her. Her runes to locate Yvaine were useless so she contacted her sisters Mormo and Empusa through a magic ring and communicated through a grand standing mirror for information that Yvaine was coming to her. Lamia made an inn as a trap.
When Yvaine came Lamia gave her a hot bath, food and water. When she offered her a massage she told Yvaine to close her eyes so she can rest, while secretly she would cut out her heart. Primus and Tristran knocked on the door. Outraged, Lamia attempts to poison Primus but he didn't want the wine. She murdered him by slitting his throat. She sets fire to the inn to trap Tristan and Yvaine for herself. While walking towards them to cut her heart out, she said "The Burning Golden Heart of a star peaces so much better than your frightened little heart even so, better than no heart at all". Tristan used the Babylon candle to teleport to the clouds. Before they left she attempted to stab them but broke her knife on the wall, she screamed in anger for her failure.
For days, she spent looking for Yvaine in Primus' carriage while her beauty faded. At one point she gets close when she realized that Captain Shakespeare's ship had landed near by but was to late. She put an animal curse on the trader when he tried to court her and took a wig with her.
Lamia finally meets Yvaine near the wall, kills Ditchwater, captures Una and Yvaine and brings them to her Lair. There she attempts to cut out her heart. Prince Septimus barges in with Tristran and Empusa throws the element of fire at him. Septimus uses a sword and stabs Empusa. Lamia gets a voodoo doll and drowns Septimus. Tristan goes into the fight when Mormo uses her physical strength to confront him but the animals are released by Tristan and they maul Mormo and eat her alive.
Lamia attempts to turn Tristran into a frog or tadpole but the protective flower protects him. Lamia telekineticlly bashes a vase against him but with the lightning from Captain Shakespeare blasts Lamia back. Lamia gets the voodoo doll and uses it to make Septimus's dead body fight with Tristan. Tristan cuts the rope and a chandelier lands on the undead warrior and with the rope swings up the staircase and lands on Lamia.
Lamia angrilly uses two daggers in a sword fight with him but instead of killing Tristan she lets Yvaine go. Lamia pretends to not want youth and beauty and breaks down as her sisters are dead and tells them to leave and as they are reaching the exit, she closes the door and laughs hysterically and uses her magic to smashes all the mirrors in the hall sending glass towards them forcing them to comeback to the foot of the stairs. The Witch Queen picks up a cleaver and walks toward them ready to cut the star's heart out as it was broken now its fixed. Yvaine tells Tristan to hold her tight and reminds him of what stars do and their love shines as Lamia is vaporized in a blinding flash of starlight into a million pieces dead at last.
Personality[]
Lamia was very obsessed about being young-looking and maintaining long life. To maintain the appearance of youth, she was prepared to do anything at the expense of anyone she would cross paths with. She was vain and self obsessed. She did most things wicked witches do, cackling, using powerful magic to her advantage and being very ruthless. Out of all the witches, Lamia showed the most selfishness and sociopathy in cheating her sisters out in a contest to pick who would search for the star, in killing princes Primus and Septimus- members of the royal monarchy, without hesitation or remorse. Additionally she killed the rival witch Semele whom she never forgave for drugging her and even after having cursed her days earlier, sadistically cackling as she died. She generally showed a cavalier, flippant attitude to other lives around her and used various people and animals of Stormhold to her own ends and discarded them after, often causing lifelong impairments and disfigurements with her spells if she didn't outright kill them.
Powers and Abilities[]
Lamia the Witch Queen is very powerful in witchcraft and had mastered a vast magnitude of magical powers as the Witch Queen. She can cast spells for transformation, voice manipulation, conjuration, potions, pyrokinesis and telekinesis, divination, aided magical teleportation, and voodoo reanimation. She is the most accomplished and powerful witch in all of Stormhold.
Trivia[]
- What makes her more evil than her sisters is the fact that she does not care about them. They were the only people that could be loved by Lamia. Instead, she enjoyed the death of her own sisters as she would have the heart of the star all to herself. This is also further proven in how she underhandedly cheats (by peeking) in the contest which the three sisters perform in choosing who should journey in search of the star by picking out parts of an animal's insides with their eyes shut.
- Though not explicitly stated, Lamia's ability to transform people into animals and the fact the witch sisters possessed an abundance of caged livestock in their castle, hints that perhaps the animals were once people who were unlucky enough to cross paths with the witches over the years.