Mirror mirror, on the wall, who's the foulest of them all?
What's the work[]
Snow White and the Huntsmen is a re-telling of the classic fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but this time it's portrayed as a dark fantasy action film. It's sequel, Huntsmen: Winter's War is also a spin-off.
Who is the Canidate/What did they do?[]
Ravenna is first encountered, seemingly as an innocent prisoner of a mysterious dark army that threatened the kingdom of Tabor. After King Magnus and his army defeated the dark army, they found Ravenna, who played the part of a frightened woman. But in truth, she had already put Magnus under her spell... for Magnus had just lost his wife, Queen Eleanor. Taking advantage of the King's grief and depression, Ravenna, using both cunning, beauty, and dark magic, was able sway him intom falling in love with her. The following day, Revanna was married to Magnus, and met his young daughter, Princess Snow White.
However, that evening, Ravenna revealed her true nature when she murdered Magnus, and seized the castle with her true army, led by her brother Finn. All the guards were slain, and everyone else was either killed or imprisoned, Snow White was among those imprisoned, as Ravenna thought the Princess could be useful to her later. With the sole remaining member of the royal family imprisoned, and all the guards and soldiers loyal to them dead, Ravenna had no political rival and crowned herself Queen.
Over the next 10 years, Tabor suffered all manor of disasters including pestilence, plague, crop destroying storms and the people began to starve, or resort to cannibalism in order to survive. While Tabor became a Mordor like hellhole, Ravenna, like most versions of the Evil Queen, took it upon herself to remain "the fairest in the land", and did so by consuming life energy from young girls she believed could become more beautiful than her, and even bathed in milk. The only resistance to her rule, came in the form of Duke Hammond, a noblemen of Trabor, and his son William, who was a childhood friend to Snow White. Hammond and his rebel army did what they could, but their supplies were limited, and they suffered heavy casualties.
One day, while interrogating two of Hammond's captured soldiers, a father and son, she attempted to steal the son's life energy, only to find that her magic was getting weaker. In addition, he energy she stole from girls to sustain her youth and beauty were not lasting as long as usual, and Revanna began to grow old at a fast pace. Fearing her death, and knowing that unless something was done, she would wither and die, she confronted her magic mirror. The mirror revealed that Snow White, who was still her prisoner, was not only now the fairest in the land, but that her kindness and purity was starting weaken Revanna's power. The mirror then told the Ravenna that if she consumed the Princesses heart, she would remain young and beautiful for eternity.
Revanna immediantly ordered Finn to kill Snow White, but she escaped into the dark forest, and Revanna hired Eric, a huntsmen to hunt down the Princess and return her heart in exchange for ressurecting his wife. However, Eric changed his mind when both Snow White and Finn revealed that Ravenna would not hold her end of the bargain. Finn continued to pursue Snow White and Eric, while Ravenna's powers and beauty continued to weaken. After Finn was killed in an Enchanted Forest, Revanna finally lost patience.
She used what magic she had left to disguise herself as William (Who had rendezvous with Snow White and Eric) and traveled to the heroes camp. There, she offered Snow White and apple. (the real William had done so before) Of course the apple was poisoned, and the Princess died. But before she could consume Snow White's heart, Eric and William, along with the Seven Dwarves intervened. Still too weak to fight, Ravenna escaped and found her youth restored. With Snow White dead, Ravenna thought her troubles were over... but of course they weren't. Eric was able to revive Snow White via a kiss, and since they were at Hammond's castle, the rebel armies moral soared.
Revanna's castle was besieged, and while the army confronted Revanna's men, Snow White herself confronted Revanna. Eric, William, and the Dwarves were also able to reach Revanna's lair, but she used her restored magic to turn shards of marble into golems that could not be killed. She then gained the upper hand against Snow White and forced her to watch as her friends died. She then attemopted to finally steal Snow White's heart, but using a trick that Eric had taught her earlier, Snow White slew her Stepmother, and life returned to Tabor.
Yet it seemed that not even death could stop Revanna. Seven years after her defeat, her magic mirror (which contained her soul) was brought the castle of Freya, the Snow Queen, and Revanna's younger sister. Freya was able to ressurect Revana who immediantly began to plot her revenge against Snow White, but with her army gone, she turned to Freya and her army of Hunstmen for said. However, Eric (who was trained as a huntsmen by Freya as a boy) returned and was naturally shocked to find that Revanna was back from the dead. Revanna tried to kill Eric, but was stopped by another huntsmen named Sara, who was also revealed to be Eric's wife.
With the heroes imprisoned, Revanna and Freya decided that they would have to be killed, but Eric and Sara were able to get the Huntsmen to have a change of heart and turn on Freya. Freya however, refused to fight back as she saw the Huntsmen as her children. Enraged by her sister's compassion, Revanna turned on Freya and it was revealed that years ago, when Revanna and Freya had seized a different Kingdom in a similar mannor to Tabor, Freya fell in love with a Duke, and they conceived a daughter. However, the Mirror told Revana that the child would become fairer than her... and Revanna killed the baby by possessing the Duke into killing her. This drove Freya into a grief stricken state, and she killed the Duke.
Now realizing that Revanna had killed her baby, Freya attacks her sister, but Ravenna kills her. Eric than confronts Revanna, and with dying help from Freya, is able to destroy the mirror. And since the mirror contains Revanna's soul, she finally, and permanantly, dies.
Fraudian Excuse[]
If there's anything I could say for Ravanna, it's that she does have a tragic backstory. She was the daughter of a powerful sorceress, who taught her to use dark magic. But one day, a peasant king killed the sorceress. Vowing revenge, Revanna, along with her brother and sister (whom she also gave longevity to) were able to sway the King into falling in love with Ravenna, and kill him, and drain his Kingdom dry, including starving innocent people who had nothing to do with their rulers crimes. And it didn't stop there. The movies show that she's repeated this cycle on numerous Kingdoms, through "many lives", and these Kingdoms had nothing to do with the death of her mother, but she still ruled and destoryed them, just to keep herself alive and beautiful, and even seek the "fairest in the land" to give herself immortality. She also seemed to care for her brother and sister, but this is rendered hypocritical when it's revealed that she murdered her neice as a baby,
Heinous Standards[]
Revanna an utter meglomaniac who will stop at nothing to remain young and beautiful forever... even if it means she must become a parasite on both girls, and even Kingdoms. While Tabor was lucky, the other Kingdoms were not as they all suffered the same blights as Tabor, but never recovered from. She drained those Kingdoms dry of both resources and people until there was nothing left. This shows that Ravenna is more dangerous than any standard version of the Evil Queen, who is only a danger to Snow White alone (sometimes the Dwarves as well, but you get the idea), but Ravenna is a danger to entire Kingdoms, maybe even the whole fantasy world. the movies are set in. She is also after Snow White not out of fear of not being the fairest, but out of fear of death. So she cared more about her own life, and didn't care if she had to become a parasitic witch in order to do so. And, we must not forget that at her first scene, she used Magnus's own grief and depression over the loss of his wife to control him, marry him, and murder him. That's more than just emotional abuse, it's emotional abuse that leads to murder. She even used the same on her own sister, when she framed that Duke for child murder, and was able to make Freya think that love was a weakness. This also shows that Ravenna has no concept of true love or kindness, and it's the love and kindness of Snow White that causes her downfall, symbolizinf that the Princess is not only fair in appearance, but fair in heart.
Final Verdict[]
Revanna may seem like the fairest in the land, but she is a blight upon the land, and everything she touches withers, and dies. She is guilty of emotional abuse and manipulation, tyranny, murder, and all in a vain attempt to live forever young and beautiful. She might show some humanity when it comes to her brother and sister, but I think that those emotions are not real, even to her, as she has no qualm with murdering her own neice and step-daughter.