What Joseph did to Isabel was absolutely fucked up. And this is far from the worst thing he ever did.
After a long months of inactivity in Fandom due to lack of motivation, I finally come back with a proposal of a former NPE villain (who is also my first ever proposed character and initially approved).
What's the Work?[]
The Ancient Magus' Bride is a fantasy anime/manga series writtened and created by Kore Yamazaki. Our protagonist, Chise Hatori, decided to sold herself to the slave auction in order to find a purpose to live after losing her parents and little brother and her extended family discarding her. She was then purchase by a Thorn Mage, Elias Ainsworth. He brought Chise to his home in London and wished her in becoming his apprentice and future bride.
Who is he? What has he done?[]
Joseph, also commonly referred as Cartaphilus by most other characters, is the main antagonist of season 1 of The Ancient Magus' Bride. He has a history of committing heinous acts, such as dismantling bodies of humans, animals, and dragons alike, as well as creating chimeras.
Season 1[]
In the past, he murdered a woman who showed kindness to him after seeing lying in the alley, then takes her body parts.
Some times later in Ulthar, he mades a deal with Matthew that if he kills hundreds of cats, he could help cure his wife Mina. Unlike Matthew, Joseph is aware that these cats in Uthur are sapients. In addition, he didn’t do this out of good of his heart, he only did it so he could use Mina as a test subject. After finding out that her husband Matthew had butchered hundreds of cats to create antidote, Joseph forced Mina into drinking the antidote, which caused her to explode. Although he did not intend on killing her, he showed no remorse for her death and leaves Matthew in despair, leading.
In the present day, he attempt to gain Ruth for his test subject. He attempted to kill Alice in order to silence her for talking too much info about him, but ended up having his chimera stabbed Chise instead. After stabbing Chise, he taunted Elias that he could easily find and purchase another Sleigh Beggy. After chasing the gang, he revealed that he mutilated Isabelle (Ruth's late former owner) into parts as his chimera.
Next time we see Joseph, after learning that Stella developed close friendship with Chise, he placed some sort of magic onto Stella and possessed her so he could get close to Chise. He would also kidnapped two Dragon Whelps (who are pretty much puppies) and one of them and has the other one watch in horror.
After getting caught by Chise when possessing Stella, he blackmailed Chise into trading her curse for his, or he will kill her best friend Stella. After trading one of his eyes with hers, he attempts to take Chise’s Dragon cursed arm. But was caught by Chise and she starts looking his past and figuring out why the way he is. More on his backstory on the next section, but after reliving his dreadful past, he furiously tried to take Chise's arm by force, only to be saved by Elias, Ruth, Titania, Mikhail, and many more. He then summons hordes of chimeras in attempt to kill all. He would then run out of his hideout to a fountain in London where he was cornered by Chise, Elias, and Ruth. He attempted to kill Chise one final time by impaling her, only to be defeated by Chise's lullaby.
After his defeat, he was place in a well close to Elias' home to be supervisioned.
Season 2/College Arc[]
Although his role is much smaller than the previous season, he still has an effect in the story. In Alice's flashback, he blackmailed her mentor Rendred into working for him by chopping his left arm, which explained why Renfred and Alice antagonized Chise and Elias during the Ulthar curse incident.
When Chise visited Joseph in the well, asking him what was in her head when she killed a Nuckalavee in self-defense, Joseph manipulated her that the voice in her head was actually her herself, attempting to corrupt her.
His Inconsistencies[]
| NOTE: Please read this section very, VERY, carefully! As this is the main reason he got removed from NPE. |
"It hurts... it hurts! MAKE IT STOP!"
First off, his backstory: During his time a mortal, he heavily abused by his fellow villagers for being a gravedigger. When he found Cartaphilus stuck inside the ground, he helped him out and took the latter to his home. He tried to help Cartaphilus in easing the enternal pain caused by God as punishment for throwing a rock at Jesus. But Joseph's efforts were futile so in desperation, he fusing himself with Cartaphilus and he payed the huge price for it. He physically suffered due to Cartaphilus’ immortality, eventually driving him insane and leaving him in an "And I Must Scream" fate. His tragic backstory is so horrifying that Chise had to vomit after seeing his memories. After finally remembering his past, Joseph let out a mental breakdown of suffering all those pains due to immortality that Chise sheds tears.
His defeat is also played too sympathy as he ran into the fountian as he was cornered by Chise, Elias, and Ruth. After Elias and Ruth trapped him in his place, Chise sang a lovely lullaby in order to not only to put Joseph into deep slumber, but also to help him ease the pain that he had been suffering for so long. This sympathic moment was not brief, it lasted for quite a while. And since NPE wiki had gotten scricter with tragedy and sympathic moments, this is too severe in my opinion.
The last prevention is much more minor than the previous two, but still worth noting. As the College arc had ended, Chise visited Joseph in the well, telling him about she had done during the Sargant House incident as well as expressing her guilt about the casualties she had caused. Joseph gave her a Pet the Dog moment by laying his head over hers. This shows that, despite still hating her, he does have a soft spot for Chise.
Overall, despite not being truly redeemed as he never really change his ways, he is too sympathic to count for NPE.
Other Mitigating Factors?[]
While he did show to be a caring young man towards Cartaphilus as he was trying to help him ease the pain. He eventually subverted this caring side of him after merging with Cartaphilus and losing his memories in the process.
Is he taken seriously?[]
Absolutely, while he does have two minor comedic moments (the first was when he teased Matthew about his love for Mina in a rather snarky teenager way, another is when Silky tripped him with her magic for being rude to her), but those two moments are too minor and brief considering that the first one was before he revealed his sinister self and second one was during his cooling-off period.
Heinous Standard[]
Easily passed as there are not many characters in The Ancient Magus' Bride to be considered heinous, let alone evil. There is, of course, Lizbeth Sargant who physically and mentally abused her granddaughter Philomela for over a century, ordered the Werewolf couple to massacre the entire Webster family (leaving only Lucy as a sole survivor), and forcing Philomela to sap the magic out of the students and staffs in the College. We also have the Werewolves previously mentions, but they are just the extension of Lizbeth's evilness. Finally, we have Philomela, who just BARELY passed the heinous standard as she merged the book that was used to sap magic as well as doing the sapping thing longer than her grandmother had expected.
However, these characters pales in comparision to Joseph, as he had lived far longer than all of the characters mentioned due to his immortality. He manipulated Matthew into killing of hundreds of sapient cats (which Matthew was not aware of them to be) just to make an antidote for his sick wife Mina. He kidnapped two Dragon whelps (which is the same term as puppies) and mutilated one of them and has the other one watch in horror. This is honestly the single most evil thing any characters in this anime had done (only rivaling Lizbeth abusing Philomela and attempting to sacrifice her).
Final Verdict[]
I would say yes. While he is nowhere near as redeemable as Philomela, he is still too sympathetic to be NPE. But I will let you guys decide.