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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Philomela, I will no longer tolerate you wasting the chances that I give you. I have no home to provide a failure like you. If what you gain is something as silly as friendship, I will have to think of a way to deal with you. Otherwise, do what you are told. Carry out your role. If you wish to see your father and mother, you shouldn't have the time to whine. | „ |
| ~ Lizbeth, sending a message to her granddaughter via her familiar, Alcyone. |
Lizbeth Sargant (リズベス・サーガント) is the main antagonist of season 2 of the anime/manga series The Ancient Magus' Bride. She is a cruel sorcerer and grandmother of Philomela and mother of Adam who only sees them as tools. She served under the Rickenbacker family.
She is voiced by Sayuri Sadaoka in Japanese while her English voice actor is currently unknown, and as a young adult, she is voiced by Katelyn Barr.
What Makes Her Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- She is cruel and abusive towards her granddaughter, physically and psychologically abusing her for about a decade and would even lock her up in a cell over small mistakes.
- While she does want to bring her son, Adam, back to life, she never genuinely loved him like an actual son since she only views him as her necessary successor of the Sargant family. Additionally, she had the house nurse take care of her son instead of doing it herself and she only took notice of him when he did what he was told, effectively only seeing him as her trophy child.
- While there are sympathetic aspects to her backstory, such as being born in a household that has an extensive history of doing shady actions either for themselves or on behalf of the Rickenbacker family, as well as the fact that she was initially looked down on by some of her peers just because she didn't have a successor, this does not justify any of her horrible actions as once she had Adam, the pressure from her peers was no longer a factor and she even had an opportunity to experience the joy of being a parent. But instead, she continued to shut everyone out, only caring about commanding respect and ensuring her legacy passed on through Adam, as well as fully embraced the house's more immoral practices without ever morally objecting to any of it. Plus, there is no proof that her predecessors were even as cruel as she was, nor that they ever treated her the way she treated Philomela or did anything else to mold her into the person she became, further emphasizing that while she didn't start the cycle of cruelty, she is very much accountable for continuing it and turning out the way she did.
- She also doesn't seem to have maintained any care for those who came before her like her father and former mentor, only briefly remembering them while reminiscing on the circumstances that led to her having Adam and not mentioning anything about either missing them or being intent on making them proud, making it apparent all of her actions in the present are for the sake of preserving her own legacy.
- While she is loyal to the Rickenbacker family, she only serves them because she takes pride in the respect serving under a family of their status gives her. For instance, when young Veronica chose Philomela to be her apprentice to take her to the College, Lizbeth had no choice but to accept her decision as much as it displeased her.
- While Joseph had arguably done worse since he had lived far longer than Lizbeth due to his immortality, she still meets the Heinous Standard as she crosses multiple Moral Event Horizons onscreen.
Past[]
- It is heavily implied that she poisoned and killed her husband shortly after giving birth to Adam, showing that she only married him out of necessity to carry her legacy.
- After learning that her son Adam had ran away, along with his slave-to-wife Iris, she later sent a group of assassins to track them down and kidnap his newborn daughter Philomela when she had come of a certain age to force Adam to return to her. The resulting confrontation led to Iris being shot to death while defending her and Adam committing suicide, stating he would rather die than return to that dreaded mansion, before Philomela and her familiar, Alycone, were ultimately captured.
- After capturing young Philomela and Alycone, she tells the former to forget everything about her deceased parents. She also infused a curse into the latter so she can give orders to Alycone against her will, which also prevented her from being able to protect and care for Philomela for all those years that she endured Lizbeth's abuse, only being able to watch without knowing what to do and assist her with the tasks she was given.
- She hired a couple of poachers to kidnap the trio of cubs from a werewolf family. She would then blackmail the parents into massacring the entire Webster family (with Lucy and Seth being the sole survivors, the latter due to being disowned and leaving the household) to steal their spiders and forced Philomela to witness the entire thing.
- She manipulated Philomela with a half-false promise that she will bring both of her parents back to life.
Present[]
- She gave Philomela the Testament of Carnamagos and tasked her with draining the magic out of the teachers and students from the same College Chise Hatori is attending. This leaves many of them either in crippling pain or altogether comatose due to the book's presence continuing to remain within them and drain their magic even after initially being attacked.
- Addiitonally, according to Elias, magic power is the equivalent of life energy for those that use it, meaning those who were affected more severely, like Lucy Webster and Simeon Paladilhe, could have died had Chise and Elias not shared their own magic with them respectively.
- After learning that Lucy Webster is attending the same College as Philomela, she ordered the werewolf assassins to kill Lucy along with her brother Seth Noel outside of the College campus.
- Fearing that her plan would eventually be discovered by the College staff, she attempted to withdraw Philomela from the College.
- She left a pre-recorded message through Alycone where she harshly criticizes Philomela for potentially making friends and demands that she finish her task, otherwise risk never seeing her parents again.
- When the female werewolf returned and tearfully begged for her babies to be returned to her, she cruelly had her struck by one of her servants before seemingly agreeing to let her have them, only to then adjust the iron screws she had implanted in her skull so that she had no semblance of self and was in a feral state completely under control, then ordered her to be on standby to wait and help Philomela in escaping the College.
- It is strongly implied and even briefly shown that the female werewolf murdered a few homeless men in this state, making her responsible for this by proxy.
- After the book's link to the students gets severed due to the book attempting to attack Chise and absorbing too much magic, Philomela completely snaps from the combination of the pressure Lizbeth's been putting on her and the prospect of failing at her task, leading her to becoming corrupted by merging with the Testament of Carnamagos, after which she goes on a rampage and drains the magic of dozens of students, including Veronica Rickenbacker and Rian Scrimgeour, making her responsible for this by proxy.
- After Philomela returned with enough magic within the Testament of Carnamagos, she stayed coldly silent when she asked if this meant her parents were finally going to come back (alluding to her not intending to keep her promise) and ignored the terrible, deteriorating state her body was in while ordering the female werewolf and her guards to look out for and take out any intruders while she is preparing for the ritual to bring her son Adam back.
- After finishing make the ritual circle, she attempted to use Philomela as a sacrifice to bring her son Adam back, while summoning the summoning a god entity, Treader of the Dust, in the process. She even cruelly mocks Philomela when revealing this to her by congratulating her for being such a "good girl" all those years that she always did what she was told without ever questioning why. Fortunately, Chise and her friends were able to distrupt the ritual and save Philomela.
- Infuriated, she lets herself be merged with the Grimoire and attempted to kill Chise and all of her friends, during which she kills a freed Alcyone when she shields the female werewolf.
- In desperation, she attempts to emotionally manipulate Philomela in order to stop her from undoing the ritual and banishing the god entity.
- Before her death by the werewolf cub, she refused to tell Philomela why she ordered the werewolves in slaughtering the Webster, stating that fewer people know, the better.
Trivia[]
- She is the first and, so far, the only The Ancient Magus' Bride villain to be Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Lizbeth Sargant on the Villains Wiki
- Lizbeth Sargant on the Ancient Magus' Bride Wiki
- Lizbeth Sargant on the Hate Sink Wiki