Line #24 Literature/Entwined


1	A 2011 retelling of the FairyTale ''Literature/TheTwelveDancingPrincesses'', by Heather Dixon.
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3	The Queen of Eathesbury [[DeathByChildBirth dies giving birth]] to her [[MassiveNumberedSiblings twelfth]] daughter, leaving the royal family distraught. As tradition dictates, they’re to spend the next year in mourning. This includes no dancing, which happens to be the princesses favorite past time. To make matters worse, at the time the girls need their father most, the King is pushing them away, leaving them feeling trapped and betrayed.
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5	One night Azalea, the eldest, discovers a secret passage in their bedroom fireplace that leads to an enchanted pavilion. The owner, who was magically imprisoned within the castle walls hundreds of years ago, known only as [[FauxAffablyEvil The Keeper]], invites them to dance there every night to their hearts content till mourning is over. But the Keeper isn’t doing it out of the goodness of his heart. He wants to be ''free'', and he's determined to make sure Azalea breaks the enchantment holding him there...
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7	----
8	!! The book provides examples of:
9	* AbhorrentAdmirer: The Keeper seems ''really'' fixated on Azalea. It's not his looks that make him repulsive though, but his empty eyes, his creepy attitude, and Azalea’s growing awareness that he's got ulterior motives.
10	** A few of the suitors. Viscount Duquette is noted as being handsome, but insufferable and ruthless in his pursuit of Clover. Mr Penbrook's eagerness and obliviousness to Azalea’s lack of interest completely put her off.
11	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Azalea finds herself quite attracted to Keeper at first, and her sisters tease that when he's released she’ll marry him. She quickly wises up though.
12	* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: Each princess is named after a plant, in alphabetical order of birth. Azalea, Bramble, Clover, Delphinium, Evening Primrose, Flora, Goldenrod, Hollyhock, Ivy, Jessmine, Kale, Lily.
13	* ArrangedMarriage: All the girls are resigned to the fact their husbands will probably be picked for them. Azalea most so, since when there are no male heirs, Parliament ''elects'' who'll be the next king.
14	* BigEater: Ivy has a never-ending appetite. It's considered a great compliment if she shares her food with you.
15	* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Lily comes into the world just as her mother leaves it. And to make matters worse, it's on Christmas.
16	* BlackEyesOfEvil: [[spoiler: Keeper]], although it takes some time for the princesses to notice them.
17	* {{Blackmail}}: Keeper steals the watch Bradford lent to the girls, as a way to push them into searching for the object that's imprisoning him. When he thinks they aren't motivated enough he steals their mothers brooch.
18	* BloodOath: The Keeper tells the story of how the High King drank a goblet of blood and made an oath on it to never truly die until he had murdered the Captain General. It turns out [[spoiler: he’s talking about himself.]]
19	* CannotSpitItOut: Lord Teddie has a hard time directly telling Bramble how he feels about her.
20	* ColdBloodedTorture: What the High King liked to do to people, and what he wants to do to the girls if he gets out.
21	* DeathByChildbirth: The Queen dies giving birth to Lily.
22	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Clover, who's regarded as the most beautiful of the sisters and has a lot of potential suitors eyeing her up.
23	%%* FauxAffablyEvil: Keeper. Note: please elaborate before uncommenting
24	* FieryRedhead: Bramble, although her hair leans more towards brown.
25	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Rampant. Eathesbury's violent history involving Harold the First killing the High King is frequently talked about, making it not all that surprising [[spoiler: when the BigBad is the High King himself.]] Also, anything involving silver.
26	** [[InvisibilityCloak “Wraith cloaks”]] are briefly mentioned when talking about how the kingdom used to be full of magic. Guess what Lord Bradford uses to find out where the girls are going at night.
27	* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler:Keeper, to no one’s surprise.]]
28	* EvilIsDeathlyCold: [[spoiler: Keeper always has an ice cold touch.]]
29	* ExactWords: The High King's blood oath. He swore never to die until he killed the Captain General. And since that's a title that passes from king to king, his spirit still lives on even though the man he was thinking of at the time long ago died of old age after killing him.
30	* FourthDateMarriage: Bramble, Azalea, and Clover are all in love and engaged in a relatively short time after meeting their respective love interests.
31	* GaslampFantasy: Eathesbury has both Victorian and Edwardian traits.
32	* {{Glamour}}: It's implied that Keeper is putting one on. [[spoiler:When the girls find a portrait of the High King in the attic he looks old and corpse-like, which is what Keeper reverts to after his blood oath is fulfilled.]]
33	** The entire pavilion. When Keeper no longer has need of it, it returns to being a storage room.
34	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Clover.
35	* [[IHaveYourWife I Have Your Mother]]: [[spoiler: Keeper reveals he's got the Queen's soul imprisoned, which he uses to blackmail Azalea into continuing her search for object binding him and to continue coming to the pavilion with her sisters. After he's free he reveals it was just an illusion.]]
36	* HumanSacrifice: Required for dark magic oaths.
37	* InvisibilityCloak: Lord Bradford inherited one, called a “wraith cloak.” As in the original fairy tale, he uses it to secretly discover where the princesses are going at night.
38	* LoveEpiphany: Azalea realizes she's in love with Lord Bradford, to much pain, since he's made it clear he has no interest in being King.
39	* MagicallyBindingContract: There's an old magic known as “swearing on silver” in which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin you swear on something silver]], making your promise unbreakable. Azalea discovers it after her mother makes her swear on a silver handkerchief to protect her sisters. The girls use it to make sure they can never tell the King where they're dancing at night, which eventually comes back to bite them.
40	* MasqueradeBall: Keeper creates the illusion of a depraved one to mess with Azalea after she refuses to dance with him.
41	* MassiveNumberedSiblings: As you'd expect from a story based on “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”
42	* MayDecemberRomance: Fairweller, although his age isn't stated, has got to be at least ten years older than Clover. Justified, as the setting has Victorian sensibilities.
43	* MissingMom: What sets the entire plot in motion.
44	* OnceUponATime: Fairytales in Eathesbury start with “in a certain country.”
45	* PromotionToParent: Azalea, after the Queen dies.
46	* RapidAging: [[spoiler: The Keeper/High King, when he's fulfilled his oath by killing King Harold. Within seconds he's nothing but dust.]]
47	* RoyallyScrewedUp: The ancient High King of D'Eathe, [[spoiler: Keeper]]. He liked to abuse people, using magic to torture them and trap their souls after their bodies gave out. He was eventually overthrown and killed by the current royal family.
48	* SoulJar: The entire castle is one of these, trapping Keeper within the very walls.
49	* StutterStop: Clover begins to stutter less after spending time with Fairweller.
50	* TallDarkAndHandsome: The Keeper, [[{{Glamour}} at least at first]].
51	* ThemeNaming: All the girls are named after a plant and in alphabetical order of birth. Probably to make it easier for the reader to keep track of their ages in relation to each other.
52	* TwistedChristmas: The princesses wake up on Christmas day to discover their mother died in the night. Christmas the following year is no better.
53	* UnnamedParent: The Queen's first name is never revealed.
54	* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Keeper.]]

Context Literature / Entwined