“ | I must go and welcome my mother and father, who are waiting in Hell. | „ |
~ Philomela after being merged with the Grimoire. |
“ | No more talking. I can't stand it. You've always been so certain that you're right. So strong, and decisive, and straightforward. Being with you makes this one feel pathetic, and foolish, and utterly worthless. Rian, I hate you. I've always hated you. | „ |
~ Philomela to Rian. |
Philomela Sargant (フィロメラ・サーガント) is the deuteragonist of season 2 of the anime/manga series The Ancient Magus' Bride, alongside Elias Ainsworth. She lost her parents when she was a toddler. Now she only has her grandmother, Lizbeth Sargant, and her artificial familiar, Alycone, to raise her. She attended the College as the student. She serves under her in order to please her as well as in hoping of bringing her late parents back to life.
She is voiced by Maki Kawase in Japanese and by Jill Harris in English.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
- After Veronica Rickenbacker chose her to be her apprentice, under her grandmother's order, she enrolled the College (the same one that Chise Hatori happened to enroll in as well) to intent to sap the magic out of her fellow students and professors, causing them to have either severe pain, comatose, or even in death.
- During the College camping trip, she used the Testament of Carnamagos, given by her grandmother, to sap Lucy’s (Chise’s roommate) magic. This caused Lucy to be a comatose and could even killed her if Chise had not offer her some of her magic, due to being a Sleigh Beggy.
- Back in the College campus, she sapped Simeon Paladilhe’s (the music professor whom Elias recently befriended) magic out of him, leaving Simeon in a comatose as well.
- After feeling ill after Fabio's combat training, Chise intended to take her to the nurse's office. But Philomela told the latter to take her to her dorm room, likely because she did not want Alexandra to check on her health or the nurse might discover that her magic is linked to the Testament of Carnamagos.
- Being pressured by her grandmother, she began sapping many more students, including Jasmine St. George, leaving them in noticeable pain and gradually rendering them unconscious.
- This goes on for a bit until the Grimoire attacks Chise through one of the afflicted students and gets more than it bargained for, causing its connection to the students to burst and everyone to suddenly get well again.
- During the Christmas festival, she completely snaps and starts merging with the Grimoire and mutates into a pitch-black abomination and starts rapidly absorbing the magic of every student she comes across and rendering them comatose instantly, starting with her roommate Veronica, later sapping several students' magic, then finally her childhood friend Rian Scrimgeour while choking him to near death.
- She threatens Principal Liza into unsealing the College so she could leave and go back to her grandmother, or she would sap many more students and teachers’ magic in the process.
- She attempted to kill Chise and her friends for at least two times while being merged with the Grimoire.
- While Joseph and her grandmother Lizbeth had done far worse, Philomela still manage as to stand out as she used the Grimoire that could have killed the people in the College who were affected more severely, and the Grimoire was continuing to sap them of their energy even after they were initially attacked due to still being inside of them.
What Makes Her Inconsistent?[]
- To say that Philomela is a tragic villain is an understatement:
- Her parents had died when she was a toddler as her grandmother sent a group of assassins to kill her mother Iris and causing her father Adam to commit suicide.
- After being captured the assassins and taken to Lizbeth's mansion, she had heavily been so horrible abused by her grandmother physically, verbally, and psychologically by her whole life that her self-esteem became nonexistent and she essentially had no will of her own, to the extent she did not feel she had the spine to disobey the orders people like her and Veronica gave her. She was so mentally unwell that she could not even drink the bottle of water that Lucy gave her.
- She is a villain-by-proxy as she was manipulated by her grandmother into thinking it would allow them to bring her parents back to life.
- While she mostly served her grandmother out of fear, she was still genuinely loyal to her and was trying to do anything to earn her love and approval.
- She also felt immense remorse for what she had done or even witnessed, like when she felt horrible when Webster family were slaughtered by the werewolf assassins and expressed her condolences to the people she knew nothing about.
- Even her transformation into an abomination being the result of a mental breakdown from the pressure she was under is portrayed to be sympathetic.
- She has numerous people that she genuinely cares about:
- Her parents: Although her memories with them are blurred because of Lizbeth, she still remembered them as loving parents and they are the main reason why Philomela is sapping the magic out of students and teachers in the College.
- Alycone: Initially she only viewed Alycone as her guardian. After her redemption though, she expressed joy of reuniting with her and even sobbed into tears for her death by Lizbeth.
- April and May Atwood: It's subtle (as she barely has any screentime with them), but she was shown to have affectionate with the twins as she put them in bed comfortably.
- Rian Scrimgeour: Although her relationship with Rian is a bit complicated. She even saved Rian from a plant-like scorpion during their time in the waste tower. While she did state that she hated him for being so straightforward and bold, it was mostly due to her being envious for having those admirable traits and it was something that she lacks. Once the College incident was over, she apologized for nearly killing him.
- Isaac Fowler: She still considers him as a friend all the way back during their childhood. In their shared inner thoughts, she even tries to comfort him when Isaac felt miserable for being a failure to his family.
- Lucy Webster: She felt terrible for what happened to Lucy during and after the Webster incident that she made up for it by asking her near dying grandmother on why she tasked the werewolf assassins to kill the Webster family while Lucy was unconscious at the time.
- Chise Hatori: While Philomela initially viewed her as a major obstacle to her task in sapping the magic out of students, she developed a genuine bond with her over the course of the College arc. In fact, Chise is the major reason why Philomela is able to stand up to her vile grandmother.
- Because of Chise, Philomela is able to fully redeem herself and helps getting back the Testament of Carnamagos that was inside of the god entity Treader of the Dust, so she can undo the ritual cast and banishing the god entity summoned by her grandmother, which cures all the afflicted people at the college, with her now free to live a much happier and healthier life.
Trivia[]
- She is the only The Ancient Magus' Bride character to be Inconsistently Heinous.
- She is one of very few Inconsistently Heinous characters to also have Pure Good status, sharing this trait with the likes of Mika Misono from Blue Archive and The Collector from The Owl House series.
External Links[]
- Philomela Sargant on the Villains Wiki
- Philomela Sargant on the Heroes Wiki
- Philomela Sargant on the Pure Good Wiki
- Philomela Sargant on the Ancient Magus' Bride Wiki