Eve

Bridal Chest

Victor Frankenstein’s miraculous act of life which defied heaven’s designs. He sought to create life in his image, breaking the limitations of what could be considered possible. With many numerous body parts crudely placed together in the form of a woman, he installed in her chest the very implement that would realize the miracle.    He called it the Bridal Chest, and he called her Eve.     While it could be considered that the Bridal Chest would be Victor Frankenstein’s Noble Phantasm, Eve wields it as such by necessity of ‘proof of existence.’ The Bridal Chest is installed within her chest, and rooted in her flesh and bones. Its most important function is to maintain stability in her body with electricity (a life-giving force), preventing her from merely rotting and collapsing.    The Bridal Chest can store incredible amounts of electricity, and ensures that no energy used by Eve is wasted. It is more suitable to say that the Bridal Chest is like Eve’s heart, and she doesn’t even need to think about calling upon it, in the same way one doesn’t think about breathing. That is how she naturally utilizes its power, electricity running along her in combat, smoothly breaking into fast dashes and powerful strikes in quick succession.    On the rare occasion that the Bridal Chest is broken, Eve would only have a few minutes left before collapsing. However, this does also mean that Eve can continue acting as long as the Bridal Chest is intact regardless of damage, and can be resuscitated through its repair.  

Blasted Tree

If the Bridal Chest is a Noble Phantasm that proves her existence, Blasted Tree proves her deeds.    Eve’s hands are wretched, stained. With the body made by her creator, she took those hands around the necks of his beloved. She is both his genius and demise. A twisted reflection of ego choking out ego.    Announcing this True Name unlocks the boundaries of her Bridal Chest, opening the internal circuit to include a target she is gripping. That target becomes exposed to the extreme electrical energies required to keep her body functioning, causing intense damage.    It is not a ‘discharge of power’ but ‘introducing a foreign agent’. Naturally, there are very few human beings capable of withstanding the mechanisms by which a monster exists.    This is her Blasted Tree. Viktor’s genius, wielded as a brutal and uncompromising weapon. 

Monsters are inhuman things. To be branded as a monster is a condemnation of existence, a statement, ‘You could never live like us.’ Eve understands this truth down to her very heartbeat.     She understands that she could never be human, and yet longs for it anyways. Often staring at the cold gaps between her fingers, Eve wonders how it might feel to hold, for once, bodily warmth. That gap, the distance, seems so impossible to cross. That is why she stays distant, ever-observant. There was never a moment in her life where she could be convinced of her belonging, and so she decides that as long as it is among humans, she cannot belong.    But she can’t stop dreaming of it. Eve is loud, emotive, and energetic. Her expressions are maximalist, even if she’s entirely alone. To her, those who have these faculties have a privilege of humanity, and failing to express those emotions, desires, dreams, is a complete waste of that humanity. This is how she grasps for that distant dream, that distant humanity. In the end, though, it’s never going to be enough.    Even if she laughs, she will never sound human. Even if she loves, it will never be a human’s love. When it comes down to it, she looks down on herself, her physical body with its discolorations and scars and proportions, with great disgust. It’s not something she will easily admit too, and has yet to even come to terms with. Some part of her believes that if she truly had a bride, someone like her, then she could live like a human. But it is still a naive, pure dream. 

Mary Shelley’s revolutionary novel Frankenstein needs no introduction. It is a story of bold scientific advancement, a modern day Prometheus who approaches the realm of god, and a creation faced with the horror of their own inhumanity. The novel addresses such topics as autonomy, progress, god, humanity, rebellion, and through its innovation has entered the public consciousness. However, the events of the novel are merely a telling of a story that happened, one version that has made it through the flow of time. The truth is…

“I remember when I took my first breath. I felt my own heart, jolt with energies, thrumming against my chest, and I instinctively opened my mouth to let in a gasp of air. In those moments I was incredibly weak, fragile. It was apparent to me, how the stitches on my body held everything together. How my own self struggled to find a natural state of being, as though that first breath was alien and unintended. I had yet to even open my eyes, it didn’t occur to me that such an act was possible in those first moments.    “I remember hearing someone cheer with great jubilance, ‘My god, it worked!’ Slamming against something else, rubber on metal, their voice shrill. ‘She’s alive! You’re alive! Why did I ever doubt myself?’ they said, ‘Of course it works! What brilliance! My device, the Bridal Chest, has truly brought about my own Eve!’    “My eyes opened then. Everything was blurry and red, blinding specks obscuring my vision. It took time for me to adjust to the bright lights, shone directly onto my face. I saw who I deduced to be the owner of that voice come into focus. A small, wiry figure, trim articles covering his body. I was able to quickly see that its color had been obviously tainted; the articles were pushed up his arms, and instead they were coated in a deep, deep red.    “I watched him. He was like me. Breathing. I looked at myself, and I saw my own limbs, and wondered why they felt so heavy. There was an article upon my body as well, a soft and formless material. I would later learn it to be a dress. I no longer possess that article.    “During all this the man had been blabbering. Victor Frankenstein, he said his name was. And I determined that he was my creator. My maker. He put me together, and through a miracle, I came to be. How wonderful. That sounded, although I did not exactly know the feeling at the time, extremely exquisite. That purposeful thought aroused a sense of joy in me. My purpose was to be created. How wonderful.    “But then, my Maker looked at me. Truly, looked at me. In the light. In my dress. In my whole. In my eyes, meeting his own.    “He screamed. I don’t know the words he hurled afterwards, because I was too shocked by the noise he made. But he screamed. He screamed and ran away proclaiming me…    “Monster.    “Aha, well, those words stuck with me, so to speak. It is how I understood myself. Even if I learned I was to be a human. Even if I learned I was modeled after Eve, one of the first humans. From the shadows did I watch your kind, mill about their activities, caring for each other, loving each other. I watched the ‘women’ I was supposed to match. But in the end, it was impossible wasn’t it. My Maker designated me to be a monster, yet he wanted me to be human.    “How fair could that be? How could that possibly be in my control? Nothing. Absolutely nothing was in my hands. From before I took my first breath, my path was decided for me. I would always look like this. And still he expected me to defy the way he made me. He expected me to be nothing but the woman he imagined.” 

When thinking about characters in canon to reimagine, we came up with a list to narrow down to our interests. We talked individually about each of the characters, what they are in Fate, and the kinds of things we would like to reimagine about them. None of those options resonated so strongly with us as Frankenstein's Monster.    We agreed to hold true to the original premise of her character in canon: What if Victor had built a woman instead of a man? This topic lead us towards many directions, which all were held together by this theme about the body.    Writing Eve, that was my focus. I wanted to interrogate societal expectations that are represented by Eve's circumstances; she is a woman that was constructed, deliberately, by a man. It's sort of like a loveless Pygmalion and Galatea, creation for the sake of ability. Victor decided everything about Eve without even considering her potential personhood, and he ran before she even said a word, disgusted with the appearance he gave her.     But I also wanted to focus on Eve's own perception of her body. Overwhelming feelings of discomfort in her own skin dominate her internal conversation. I felt that her wanting a different body, one she could actually control and make her own, is a natural step from that. In a setting like FGO that would be comparably trivial thanks to the various Servants present, but I imagine typical Grail War stories would likely focus on that aspect as a point of development.    With something as deeply personal as the 'body' in mind, I hoped to tell a story through Eve that resonates with many people. The feeling of hating the body you're born in is certainly not alien to a lot of people, nor is the feeling of being an outsider to what should be a normal populace. Fate has an interesting narrative in regards to 'monsters', talking about those born as monsters and those who have become monsters. To me, Frankenstein's Monster occupies an incredibly interesting space, as we can easily argue whether the Creation was born a monster (due to appearance) or fell into monstrosity (due to actions). This was also in mind when writing Eve.    Hopefully this was an enjoyable character write-up! This reimagining of canon characters is really fun, as it lets me analyze the themes of the stories told in Fate, and use that as context for what the writing of the characters in those stories are saying.

Character design is meant to be a visual tool to help inform the character that is being depicted. Personally, I get none of that from FGO's Frankenstein. She is a "monster" only because we are told she is one. The machinery on her head meant to inform us of her inhumanity fail to do that when comparing her to the rest of the FGO cast. While I think that Frankenstein's design is appealing in and of itself I feel like in the context of the character it falls flat.    When designing Eve, I kept the question of "What if Victor designed a woman rather than a man?" Eve is meant to be a monster who appears human, hauntingly beautiful from a distance. As you approach her, you notice the bluish tint of her skin marred by lightning scars, the bolts and screws keeping her joints in place, her fingers which are a longer than they should be, as well as her Bridal Chest, the large copper spike bursting through her chest. Her discolored teeth and sclera contrasted by her bright electric eyes are meant to unnerve the viewer.    Though FGO's universe allows (and even encourages) artistic liberties when costuming characters I chose to take a more historical approach to it - the novel was published in 1817 during the Regency era (though I found out the novel's setting is during the late 1700's - the regency era doesn't begin until 1811.) and I enjoyed the naturalist and formless silhouettes regency era dresses have. I thought that the loose shape informed the character better - when seeing her from a distance, her loose and tangled hair along with the dress make her look wraithlike.    Compared to FGO's Frankenstein the "horn" is placed on the chest rather than the forehead - before the modern understanding of neuroscience, humanity and the soul was often believed to be located in the heart. Eve's character is meant to reflect that - her heart is on her sleeve, and she expresses herself with as much vigor as she can muster in an attempt to claim humanity for herself.     When sketching out the craft essence, I chose the moment when lightning is about to strike and bring Eve to life. It is important to note that at the time, lighting was believed to be a kind of liquid as well as the source of life. Craft essences are usually meant to be a focus on an object or scenery - who is the object in this situation? Is it the lifeless body of Eve? Is it the Bridal Chest that powers her body?     I hope that this design achieves what I intended for it and that you all enjoy it!