When the story ends, almost everyone in Gold Crown Town forgets that their lives had once been turned upside down by a story, that there had ever been a girl named Duck at all. But when Duck herself begins to forget, Fakir finds himself forced to write a story that costs him dearly.
This Pendent Heart is a Princess Tutu fanfiction written by LunaSphere and illustrated by Mangaka-chan. It is a sequel to the anime, with all the characters trying to navigate what a happy ending means.
It can be read here
on fanfiction.net, and here with illustrations.
Relevant tropes:
- The Atoner: Autor after screwing up big time.
- Creepy Crows: Well, given the source material... But their more "trickster" aspects are pointed out, and it's also given that they were not the bad guys in some of the older stories, that was Drosselmeyer's doing in "The Prince and the Raven".
- Dark Is Not Evil: Having the raven's blood flowing through their veins doesn't make Rue or Mytho evil, nor do Rue's "darker" emotions, such as pettiness and jealousy make her evil. In the end, when she dances as the Raven Princess once more, she does not call for the evilness of the Creepy Crows from Drosselmeyer's story, instead she dances for the wildness of the raven, and accepts that it will always be a part of her. She also has command of ravens in general, including the baby ones Mytho kept bringing back to their room. Those aren't evil either.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite several mistakes and nearly dooming the town again, by the end of the story everyone is even happier than in the anime.
- Emotion Eater: Much like evil-Mytho wanted hearts, evil-Fakir wants to feel others' despair, though for him it's to numb his own despair.
- Equivalent Exchange: Explored a bit in Chapter 3.
- Fan Sequel: Written as a third season to Princess Tutu.
- Gilded Cage: The fairy tale kingdom palace is this for Rue in the beginning.But really, [Rue] felt herself trapped in a cage as completely as she ever had when she thought the Monster Raven her father. [...] Now the cage was much more beautiful-not just gilded, but pure gold bars as fine as spidersilk, but bars nonetheless, festooned with chains of precious gems, a perch lined with seed pearls, a cage nonetheless. She loved Mytho. But human girls cannot live entirely in fairytales even if they have found their fairytale princes.
- Hope Spot: Like in the anime, this is a recurring problem.
- Insult of Endearment: Fakir, towards Duck."Moron," Fakir said, which was somehow supposed to mean You could never be a burden to me. "Idiot," he had added for good measure, not sure if he was insulting her or himself anymore. Both probably.
- Love Epiphany: Duck towards Fakir when she realizes just why he wrote that story to give her humanity in the first place.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Fakir. When he realizes that Duck is forgetting her life as a girl (and him), he decides to give her a shard of his own heart to let her be human again. The part he gives her? His humanity. Then it gets worse as he starts giving up the rest of himself until Duck shows up to give it back.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Fakir, after he accidentally stabs Duck. It snaps him back to normal, at least.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- The Bookkeepers really mess things up by trying to destroy the story Fakir had started. Then we find out Autor messed with the story before they did out of jealousy for Fakir's powers, also messing things up.
- Also, Mytho shows up early to the climactic fight, thus necessitating a fight since Duck didn't say what she wanted to yet.
- Official Couple: Mytho/Rue, as in canon. And in the end, Fakir/Duck, as well.
- Ret-Gone: Twice over. There's the Ret-Gone at the end of Princess Tutu that makes everyone forget about Duck, and then there's another one when Fakir gives his humanity to Duck, and no one remembers he ever existed. Not even Duck, at first.
- The Wise Prince: Mytho though he still has a few of his "didn't think that through enough" selfless moments.
- Utopia: Mytho's homeland- or so it seems. In reality, it's a stagnant place where everything is perfect, but no one creates or moves forward thanks to there being no ravens there. In the end, the ravens return, and the land begins to move forward again, with art and sorrow and moving forward.
- You Fool!: Fakir calls Duck this when she tries to restore his heart:Fakir: You...little...fool!
