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And to mark this occasion we’ve planned a special tribute to the most powerful super being ever to walk the halls of Sky High... me!
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~ Gwen's most famous quote while revealing herself as Royal Pain.
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I take you back my dear commander to your senior year at Sky High. A time before anyone knew what a technopath was so a brilliant yet misunderstood girl named Sue Tenny was written off as a science geek and stuck in sidekick class. She hatched a plan SO DARING, SO VISIONARY to start her very own supervillain academy and raise a generation of heroes from scratch as villains! But first she had to destroy the very institution that DARED TO SPURN HER GENIUS! And now so many years later that plan is complete, my only regret that this may be the finest supervillain speech ever given, and you don't even know what I'm saying.
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~ Royal Pain's monologue to the pacified The Commander.
Susan "Sue" Tenny, later known as Gwendolyn "Gwen" Grayson, and also known by her supervillain alias Royal Pain, is the main antagonist of the 2005 superhero comedy film Sky High.
She was a legendary supervillain once thought to have been destroyed by Steve Stronghold, a.k.a. the beloved superhero known as "The Commander", but made an unexpected grand return many years later during which she seduced the latter's son Will as part of her revenge plot on Sky High and all of those who had wronged her. She is the arch-nemesis of the Stronghold family, most especially the Commander's son Will Stronghold.
Starting off as a teenage girl named Sue Tenny in the 1970’s, she was known to hold the power of technopathy when she was enrolled in the superhero high school called Sky High. Despite her abilities, she was underestimated by the school, who then assigned her to the "sidekick" class. Through both The Commander and herself, it stemmed from the school's lack of knowledge and understanding about the potential in technopathy at that time.
Upset and torn by this event (as she also implied by The Commander to be mistreated for being a technopath due to him referring her as the weird one), Sue planned to destroy Sky High by creating a new weapon called The Pacifier, which can turn any person into a baby. Taking on the name Royal Pain, she planned on using the Pacifier to turn all of the superheroes in Sky High into babies and open up her own supervillain school to raise them as villains. However, she was caught in the midst of her plan by the superhero couple, the Commander and Jetstream. During the fight, the Pacifier exploded while she was still holding it and many presumed her to be dead. However, the Pacifier had turned her into a baby and she was taken in by her minion Stitches while the Commander took the Pacifier as a trophy of his accomplishment.
Ever since then, Stitches took Royal Pain under his care, raising her as his daughter and hiding her identity away to ensure of another comeback. Taken under the name Gwen Grayson, she plotted to make a second attempt to destroy Sky High.
Sky High[]
As a teenager, Royal came back to Sky High as Gwen Grayson, effectively working up to become Student Body President for the next few years, and gaining three supers (Penny Lent, Speed and Lash) to help her in her dirty work. She first appeared welcoming the new students and later took an interest towards Commander and Jetstream's teenage son Will (the protagonist of the film), even offering to have him as a date for the upcoming Homecoming dance. Her interactions with Will start to alienate him from his best friend Layla Williams, who decided to go out to the dance with Will's enemy Warren Peace (whose father was a supervillain that Commander locked up years ago).
Gwen slyly tricked Will into throwing a huge party at his house, where she manipulated him into showing her his parents' trophy room. To that end, Gwen secretly had one of her cohorts to steal the Pacifier away successfully. She then proceeds to drive off Layla by insulting her and proclaiming that Will doesn't want to see her again, which left Layla in tears. Upon seeing this and being upset that his relationship with Layla is now ruined, Will angrily berates Gwen for driving Layla away and dumps her out of spite before telling everyone to leave immediately.
Despite her breakup with Will, Gwen is finally glad that she got the Pacifier and repaired it for the homecoming dance. In the meantime, after looking through his father's school yearbook, Will soon catches up to the Pacifier's disappearance and Gwen's identity, believing that Sue Tenny was her mother. By the time, Gwen finally revealed her identity to the staff and students of Sky High, and started shooting the Pacifier at everyone, turning them (including Commander and Jetstream) into babies.
As Stitches loads up the babies into the Sky High school bus, Gwen gloats over her victory until Will confronts her. She then revealed that she was Sue Tenny to begin with because she was turned into a baby when the Pacifier exploded, making Will gripe in disgust that he actually kissed an "old lady". Will and Royal Pain then engage into a fight, while Layla, Warren and several sidekicks deal with Stitches, Penny, Speed and Dash. Will (having inherited his mother's flying skills and his father's strength) manages to defeat Royal Pain by beating her down, but she had one last trick on her sleeve: she rigged the school's anti-gravity device, which would make the school fall into the ground. However, Will uses his abilities to save the school from falling, messing with her evil plan.
The heroes then reconfigure the Pacifier to turn everyone back into normal while Royal Pain and her minions are locked up inside the detention room to prevent them from escaping (since the detention room disables his/her powers). In the end, it's revealed that Royal Pain, Stitches and her minions were sent to jail for their crimes and she cried out to be put into solitary confinement to no avail.
Personality[]
Gwen Grayson is a very beautiful and charismatic teenage girl, but she's also a calculating liar and a violent narcissist (The Commander even described her as a complete and total psychopath), whose lack of confidence from her past led to lack of empathy as time went by. She's Will's ex-girlfriend and Layla's arch-rival. She also underestimates Will and his friends, something that proved to be her own downfall; When she start to boasts her victory against Will, Will himself awakened his flying powers at the same time and his friends were able to save Sky High as well.
She also held a strong grudge against Sky High due to its occupants ridiculing her potent technopathy from the past, which started her career as the supervillain she is now. In a twist of irony, she becomes exactly what she hated: a popular student in the Hero class who picks on sidekicks.
Powers and Abilities[]
Technopathy: Royal Pain is known as a technopath which means she has the power to make technology with her mind. She can build or create almost anything, from simply fixing a hi-tech gun to Pacifier.
Intelligence: In her previous life, she was already a genius, something that she retain even after being de-aged having all her old memories and being top of her class. Royal Pain's intellect extends mostly to being good at working with gadgets and manipulating people.
Manipulation: Given her real identity as Sue Tenny, she deceived almost everyone, not just those from Sky High, into believing her at first as being a sweet and charming girl.
Commander: Royal Pain is a girl? Royal Pain: YES I'M A GIRL YOU IDIOT! HOW I EVER LOST TO A FOOL LIKE YOU I'LL NEVER KNOW. NOW PREPARE TO BE PACIFIED! Commander: Do you honestly think you can kill me with that little toy gun of yours? Royal Pain: My dear commander who said anything about killing you?
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~ Royal Pain before pacifying The Commander.
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Will: Look I'm sorry that my parents destroyed your mom now put my dad down. Gwen: No one could defeat Royal Pain. When the Pacifier was exploded I wasn't destroyed I was merely turned into a baby. Stitches took me away and raised me as his daughter. Stitches: DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL! Gwen: I told you to never CALL ME THAT! Lunatic... That's right Royal Pain wasn't my mother, Royal Pain IS ME! Will: Oh my god... I made out with an old lady!
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~ Gwen explaining the truth about her identity.
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And there goes your last hope of stopping me.
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~ Royal Pain to Warren and Layla after thinking she killed Will Stronghold.
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You're flying? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!
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~ Royal Pain, shocked to learn about Will's flying ability.
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I went through puberty twice... FOR THIS?!
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~ Gwen after her defeat.
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I'M BEGGING YOU! SOLITARY!
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~ Gwen in jail.
Trivia[]
Royal Pain's new civilian alias "Gwen Grayson" is likely a shout out to the iconic comic book characters Gwen Stacy (from Marvel), and Dick Grayson (from DC, a.k.a. the first Robin and Nightwing). It's also likely supposed to reference the aliterative names common with comic book characters.
Ironically, both apparent derivations are normally on the good side, whereas Royal Pain herself is a villainous being.
Numerous instances in the film foreshadow that Gwen Grayson is really Royal Pain:
When she witnessed Will's first moment of using his super strength, she responded with "Super strong." in a rather enigmatic tone, which gives the impression that she had found out that he inherited his father the Commander's superpower, who is her sworn archenemy.
After Will arrived at the Hero Class, Professor Medulla assigned the former to seat next to Gwen, in which she smiled at him when he’s selected to be her lab partner. This may show that she has got a catalyst she needed to enact her plans.
The first demonstration of her technopathic powers shows her instantly building a freeze ray during Professor Medulla's discussion. This could hint that she would find the Pacifier she lost as she grew up once more, and rebuild that weapon (as it got broken from the last time she had it) to use it again.
When both the Commander/Steve and his son Will entered their home after the "Save the Citizen" game, they found out that Gwen, who’s talking to Will's mother Jetsream/Josie, had already arrived before them. Although this could just be done when Will gave her his home address, this may also be a sign that she was spying on the Stronghold family right behind their backs all along.
During a conversation with the Strongholds while having dinner with them, Steve asked about what happened to Gwen's mother, in which she replied that her own mom "passed away when she was a baby". While said mother is, indeed, deceased, it might have happened after she got herself turned into a baby with the Pacifier after a fight with the Commander, whom she's actually talking with.
While she and the Stronghold family were looking at an old yearbook from Sky High, they checked out on an old student named Sue Tenny. From there, Gwen showed a rather neutral facial expression as that student was being talked about. This could mean that the name of that old Sky High student in question is actually her true identity, and that she tries to hide that secret by acting neutral to the superhero family while that was being discussed by them.
When she wished for somewhere for her and Will to "be alone" together during the house party of the homecoming committees, he led her to the Stronghold family's Secret Sanctum (even though his father told him about not bringing others besides the family inside the lair). There, she and him shared a kiss. Next to them, however, Speed entered the lair and stole the broken Pacifier in a flash. Since both Gwen and Will were inside that lair when the theft of the weapon occurred, this implies that she has been manipulating him all this time for her plans to fulfill, in which they involve a house party and a shared kiss.
Royal Pain serves as a dark counterpart to Will. Both were mocked by their superiors (Will, for not originally having superpowers; Royal Pain, for no one understanding what a technopath was at first) and got labeled as "sidekicks" as a result (though, Will was able to accept that label on him out of modesty, unlike Royal Pain). However, Will eventually gets his superpowers and realizes that it also comes with great responsibility, to which he earns the respect from his peers for his management of his own powers. Royal Pain, however, refuses to let go of her past humiliation and vows to destroy Sky High for mocking her in the first place. Royal Pain serves as an example of what Will might’ve become if he hadn’t learned to take responsibility with his powers.
She is also a considerable foil to Warren Peace (Will's former archnemesis), as both were too consumed by vengeance from others (Warren was initially meant to avenge his villainous father's defeat; Royal Pain's vendetta is due to her past humiliation), so much so that they behave with such genuine hostility towards them. However, Warren managed to completely let go of his vindictive attitude after he personally talked to both Layla, and later Will, rather calmly, while Royal Pain herself wasn't able to resist her own long-lasting aversive mindset that was rooted from her own past. She also demonstrates what would happen to Warren if he was able to continue in enacting his vengeful plans.
Another factor that makes them contradictory towards each other is how they were presented throughout the movie: Warren was introduced as a brutish student in front of others (partly due to his villainous heritage from his father), but it turns out that he's not completely evil himself; he was just too consumed by hate at first. Royal Pain, on the other hand, while under her new identity of "Gwen Grayson", was first displayed as being mostly amiable towards others, but this all turns out to be a facade that concealed her truly malicious nature from them.
In some ways, she acts as an antithesis to Layla Williams, as well. Both were associated with Will himself (Layla, for being his childhood best friend; Royal Pain, as his old crush named Gwen) and have expressed romantic interests to him. But, even if Layla did hatched a plan of making him jealous with the use of Warren Peace, her own feelings for Will were indeed genuine. Royal Pain, on the other hand, only made him fall in love with her for her own ruthless needs, directly confirming that she's not into him. Had Layla ever let her feelings for Will get the better of her, she might've ended up like Royal Pain.
