Sophie Hatter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fortune_sought) wrote2010-04-25 08:14 pm
fortune_sought) wrote2010-04-25 08:14 pm
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luministi
Player Name: Megumi
Player LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kmegumi2
E-mail and/or AIM: kmegumi2@yahoo.com
Timezone: US Central
Current Characters: None
Character: Sophie Hatter
Fandom/Series: Howl’s Moving Castle (Books)
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Used: The books Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air. Also, some information about the world and minor character points have been taken from its sequel House of Many Ways, although Sophie’s canon placement is before this book.
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Appearance: Sophie is a pretty young woman with reddish-gold hair and blue-green eyes. She prefers to wear simple dresses, particularly in blue, with proper petticoats beneath. After recent events in her life, however, she has become more willing to branch out.
As this is the book version of Sophie rather than the movie and her appearance reflects that, her PB is Alicia Witt.
Personality: Sophie spent most of her first 18 years feeling resigned to her role and destiny--that is, as the eldest of three, she would be doomed to fail the earliest and the worst if she ever set out to seek her fortune and that she would, therefore, spend her life working in her family’s hat shop and eventually take over the business.
Only after her father’s death and the departure of her sisters did Sophie begin to realize how dull and discontented she was with that ordinary life. Still, she remained unwilling to even attempt to change her circumstances, believing herself doomed to them--until the Witch of the Waste cursed her, changing her into an old woman. At that point, Sophie was forced to leave the shop, and it was then that she finally began to come into her own. Sophie used her new form as an old woman as a chance to reinvent herself. This started out as a necessity, as she styled herself a cleaning lady in order to stay in Howl’s castle. However, Sophie quickly found that having to adopt a new identity gave her the freedom to speak and act out in ways that she never had before. At first, she blamed her changed demeanor on being an old woman, but she soon realized that she was finally taking control of her own life and really being herself. She was no longer consigned to a preset role.
As an old woman, Sophie discovered just how strong-minded and take-charge she could be--and she enjoyed every minute of it. Over time, she grew from a self-conscious and doubtful girl into a confident, headstrong young lady who is quite willing to speak her mind about anything to anyone. These days, if you get in her way, you can expect a piece of her mind for your trouble.
But her headstrong nature aside, Sophie is, and has always been, a kind and compassionate person. She cares about others and is happy to help them, even when they are complete strangers or not people at all. When she found a dog trapped in a hedge, her fear of dogs didn’t stop her from freeing it. She even felt compassion for an old scarecrow, stuck in a hedge, which she propped up so that someone might see it and return it to where it belonged. She also made up a presumably-fake spell for a young man who was about to take part in a duel in which he was clearly outmatched. She didn’t expect the spell to work, but she felt for him and wanted to boost his confidence at least.
That kindness and compassion extends even more to those she loves. Sophie cares fiercely and has no qualms about taking risks for her loved ones. For example, she put herself in a tricky position by trying to see Lettie so that she could warn her against Howl, which she was only able to do at the same time that Howl was visiting--and with Michael in tow. When she realized the terms of Howl’s and Calcifer’s contract, she decided not to break it because she was afraid that it could kill them both to do so, even though she knew that meant that her own curse might never be lifted. Also, despite her jealousy and her fear, she attempted to rescue Lily Angorian from the Witch of the Waste herself because she believed Howl loved her. In short, Sophie will do anything for the people she loves.
Sophie can be a bit of a neat freak and likes things clean and tidy. Her claim to be a cleaning lady was not hard to believe, as she set into cleaning Howl’s castle with a vengeance. In general, Sophie does not shy away from hard work in the least and is quite willing to get her hands dirty and get down to business in any way that is needed.
Now that she has come out of her shell, Sophie has no shortage of bravery. Even when she was more timid, she was willing to make a deal with the fire demon, Calcifer--arguably in part because she felt she had nothing left to lose. However, since then she has shown herself to be determined and unyielding on her own. She risked visiting Lettie at Mrs. Fairfax’s at the same time as Howl out of desperation to protect her sister from him. And despite her reluctance, she spoke to the king--twice, as it accidentally turned out--on Howl’s behalf. The best example of her bravery was when she faced the Witch of the Waste alone to save Lily Angorian.
This particular action is also an example of how rash Sophie can be. She is capable and willing but sometimes overeager and impulsive. She has a tendency to create messes with her brave--or perhaps headstrong--meddling. She feels bad when her actions do more harm than good, but her attempts to make up for them have a tendency to cause even more trouble, such as accidentally enchanting one of Howl’s suits to charm ladies and then accidentally enlarging the other.
Sophie is level-headed and clever. Although she has a temper and a sharp tongue and can be emotional in that respect, she is not easily given over to panic and has a talent for being able to think things through even in difficult situations. When she was first cursed, she took the change very calmly and immediately made plans for what she could do as an old woman. She did get upset later, once she was safely inside the castle, but not before then. She also did not just accept the curse. When she ended up on the castle’s doorstep, she did not run away but instead turned it into a possible opportunity to rid herself of the curse. She also came up with the idea of being a cleaning lady to protect her position in the castle and later came up with the cover of selling flowers while they were hiding from the Witch of the Waste, both of which were spur-of-the-moment but clever plans. She does tend to jump to conclusions and sometimes put rash solutions into action, but she does not do this out of panic--rather, it is out of her determination. However, Sophie is afraid of heights, and that is one area in which her generally unshakable demeanor can be shaken up quite easily.
Sophie likes to talk, especially while she works. As she spent much of her time alone in the hat shop after her father died, she developed a habit of talking to inanimate objects. Now that she knows this is how her magic manifests, she is more careful about what she says, but it is still a habit for her to speak her thoughts out loud.
Sophie has a tendency to ignore and misunderstand her own feelings. She also has a very sharp temper. She often lashes out in anger without realizing how unfair she is being. While she typically regrets these outbursts later, even if she realizes what she’s doing in the moment, she has a hard time controlling that anger. Sophie has recently stopped concealing the majority of her desires the way she did when she worked in the hat shop, but she is still struggling to understand--and believe--that she is more than just an ordinary girl and is actually beautiful and talented in her own way. She also had a difficult time accepting that she had fallen in love with Howl and spent a very long time in denial about it, but she has since admitted it--both to herself and to Howl. She is not yet sure where she should--or wants--her life to go from here, except that she knows it will be with him and, now, with their son.
Now that Sophie has broken out of her old life in the hat shop, she has become aware of how much she has underestimated and undervalued herself. She knows that, for a long time, she failed to appreciate her own abilities. As she has begun to understand what she, personally, is capable of--and that being the eldest of three has not consigned her to a life of dull normality--she has no intention of going back to being the “little mouse” that she once was. Sophie is, more than anything, strong-willed and determined. She will not be exploited, and her life will be her own to live--however she chooses to live it.
Strengths/Abilities: Sophie has quite a few domestic gifts, including cooking and cleaning. She is especially talented with a needle, both in relation to trimming hats and in terms of mending and even designing clothing. She also has an impeccable sense of style for clothing and decorating.
Sophie also has a gift for magic. Specifically, she can talk life into inanimate objects. This means that she can, for example, make a hat affect the appearance or the fortunes of its wearer, enchant a suit to be irresistible to women, make a stick act as a weapon under its own power, make thin mountain air gather so that it is easier to breathe, make walls impenetrable to sound, and even save a dying fire demon. She can also keep cut flowers alive for longer than they should be. However, Sophie’s current mood and will are as important as the words she uses, which means her anger has been known to have unfortunate side effects, such as killing flowers and turning fertilizer into terribly potent weed-killer.
Weaknesses: Sophie is human and vulnerable to anything a typical human would be. She is fit but not especially athletic, with no experience with sports. Recent events have built up her stamina and endurance, but she is still more suited to a life around the house. Also, she has no training for any fighting or weapons use.
History: A summary of the first book’s plot can be found here, but it’s very bare bones, so I’m including my own summary as well.
Sophie was the eldest child of well-to-do parents who owned and operated a lady’s hat shop in Market Chipping in the land of Ingary. Her mother died when she was two, and her father remarried to a woman named Fanny. As Fanny was often busy with the shop, Sophie did a lot of the work to raise her younger sister Lettie and her youngest sister, Fanny’s daughter Martha. Fanny was very kind to all three girls, and her father wanted the best for them. He sent them to the best school, which created very large debts for the family and the shop. When her father died unexpectedly, the debts made it necessary for the girls to leave school. Sophie, being the eldest and of age to leave school anyway, started an apprenticeship in the hat shop with the aim of one day inheriting it. From that point, she spent most of her time trimming and working on the hats and, occasionally, helping to sell them.
Her sister Lettie was apprenticed to Cesari’s, the local pastry shop, and Martha was sent to be an apprentice to a friend of the family--a witch by the name of Annabel Fairfax. The two girls, unhappy that Fanny had made these decisions without giving them a say, secretly switched places. Sophie discovered this on May Day when she visited the pastry shop and found Martha rather than Lettie. She also met the Wizard Howl that day, though she did not know it was him and as yet had no idea what an important figure in her life he would become. The encounter did make her consider her lot in life, as he called her a “little mouse” and seemed to feel so sorry for her that it made her feel ashamed of how dull and reclusive she had become, spending most of her time working alone in the shop.
The Witch of the Waste, a powerful woman left heartless by a deal with a manipulative fire demon, was prevented from finding out information to curse her former lover, the Wizard Howl, because her captive was too busy thinking about a girl he loved by the name of Lettie Hatter. She went to the Hatter family’s shop, where she mistook Sophie for Lettie and found, to her chagrin, that Sophie was (unknowingly) using magic to enchant the hats. In retaliation, the Witch cursed her into the form of an old woman--and made it impossible for Sophie to tell anyone about the curse.
After being cursed, Sophie realized that she would have to leave the hat shop and set out on her own. She walked as long as she could outside of town, and just when she grew resigned to the need to find shelter for the night, she found that Wizard Howl’s moving castle was coming toward her. She forced her way into the castle, where she met Howl’s apprentice, Michael, and Howl’s fire demon, Calcifer. Calcifer could see that she was under a spell, and he and Sophie made a deal that Calcifer would remove the spell on her as soon as Sophie broke a contract that existed between him and Howl--a contract for which he could not reveal the terms. He promised to give Sophie hints. In order to convince Howl to allow Sophie to stay at the castle, she claimed that she had come to be a cleaning lady for him.
Sophie quickly learned that the castle, while appearing large on the outside, was really quite a small building. It was, however, able to be in four places at once. The moving castle out on the moorlands that she had entered was only one of its aspects; it also existed in buildings in the towns of Porthaven and Kingsbury, as well as in a mysterious land known as Wales. Calcifer was the force who held the castle together and who directed it.
Over her subsequent time spent in the castle, Sophie did quite a lot of cleaning--usually to Howl’s dismay. She found that Wizard Howl was not evil, as the rumors back home had claimed. He was, however, as she herself later noted, selfish and vain, sly, and an impossible slitherer-outer who could not be pinned down to anything. He also had a habit of courting women--right up until they fell in love with him, at which point he would lose all interest and turn to someone else. She eventually learned that Howl came from the land known as Wales, where his name was Howell Jenkins. After Howl courted Sophie’s sister Lettie and--as far as she knew--succeeded in making her fall in love with him, Howl began to target Lily Angorian, a schoolteacher from Wales. Sophie was fiercely jealous of this relationship, though she did not recognize her feelings as jealousy at the time.
Meanwhile, the situation in their country of Ingary was taking a turn for the worse. The Royal Wizard, Wizard Suliman, had gone to face the Witch of the Waste and quite possibly been killed. When Prince Justin had gone after him, he too had disappeared. Howl sent Sophie to meet first with his old tutor, Mrs. Pentstemmon, and then with the king. Mrs. Pentstemmon revealed to Sophie that she had a magical gift that allowed her to talk life into objects--such as the hats she used to sell, as well as a scarecrow she had found on the road and even a packet of cayenne. The meeting with the king, in contrast, did not go so well. Although Sophie posed as Howl’s old mother and tried to convince him that Howl was quite useless, the king still enlisted him to find the prince and even appointed him as a new Royal Wizard.
Unfortunately for Howl, the Witch, being a jaded lover, had set that curse upon him, the terms of which were slowly being met. In order to avoid a confrontation with her, he moved the castle to three new locations, leaving only its aspect in his home of Wales unchanged. One of these new aspects was the house in Market Chipping with the hat shop attached where Sophie had grown up, revealing to Sophie that Fanny had sold the shop after her disappearance. Sophie suggested that they open it as a flower shop. Howl had set the location for the moving aspect of the castle to be in a field of flowers on the edge of the Waste because Sophie had asked to live near flowers, and they were able to use those to stock the shop. He set the last location at a fancy mansion in the Chipping Valley, in response to another suggestion Sophie had made earlier.
Lily Angorian arrived unexpectedly at the castle soon after and tried to take a guitar that Howl used to court women, claiming it belonged to her missing fiancé Ben Sullivan (Wizard Suliman). Sophie, jealous and angry, did not tell Howl about this meeting, not wanting to encourage him in his attempts to court her.
Howl soon arranged for Sophie’s family members to all visit the castle from several different entrances. She saw her step-mother Fanny again and learned that she had remarried, this time to the wealthy Mr. Sacheverell Smith, due to one of Sophie’s enchanted hats after Sophie’s disappearance. Sophie also saw both her sisters, which was exciting for more than just Sophie as Michael and Martha were in love with each other. Sophie learned that everyone knew about the curse by now--including Howl, who had been secretly trying to remove it, only to discover that Sophie was, unknowingly to her, causing it to persist with her own magic.
Lily Angorian also arrived during this reunion, and Sophie let her outside to walk among the field of flowers when she asked for fresh air. Soon after, the Witch of the Waste sent a message stating that she had captured Miss Angorian. The message purported to be for Michael to deliver to Howl, instructing the wizard to come to the Waste alone to save Miss Angorian. Sophie was fooled by this ruse and, to protect Howl, went to the Waste instead to rescue her for him. She was captured when she arrived there, but Howl soon came to her rescue. He defeated the Witch, but she, like Howl, had a contract with a fire demon. As Sophie had long since worked out, this meant that the fire demon had her heart in order to keep itself alive. Howl revealed to Sophie that the Witch’s fire demon was actually Lily Angorian, which was why he had been pretending to court her. When Sophie revealed that the fire demon had come into the castle and touched the guitar, he knew that it must be hiding inside it. They rushed back to the castle together. On the way, the very last requirement for the fulfillment of the Witch’s curse came true, giving the Witch’s fire demon the ability to take Howl’s heart from Calcifer.
Back in the castle, Miss Angorian was moving to take Howl’s heart and gain control over him--a process which would kill Calcifer. Sophie and Howl arrived in time, and Sophie used a stick that she had talked life into to beat Miss Angorian back away from the fire demon. Until this point, Sophie had not broken the contract between Howl and Calcifer for fear of killing them, but now she that knew about her magical gift, she was able to break the contract and use her gift to talk life into Calcifer as she did so. At the same time, the curse on her was broken and she returned to her normal age. She gave Howl his heart back, and Howl was able to seize the heart from the other fire demon, killing it and saving them all.
In the end, with the Witch gone, both Prince Justin and Wizard Suliman--who had together been the original source the Witch had used to set her curse upon Howl--were freed from the Witch’s magical attempts to separate them into pieces and combine bits of their bodies. Calcifer, now free, decided not to leave Howl, though he was thrilled to have the ability to move about on his own. The restored Wizard Suliman was free to be with his love, Lettie, and Michael and Martha could also be together without any fear of interference from Howl. Ingary was safe again, and so was everyone in it. But despite all of these developments, Sophie, restored to a young woman, and Howl, with his heart back, only had eyes for each other. It was at this point, just after Howl had declared that they should live happily ever after, that Sophie was snatched away to Luministi for the first time.
After leaving the town, Sophie did not remember her experiences there, so she simply lived happily ever after with Howl, which was just as eventful as she had suspected it would be. She and Howl were married, meaning she became Sophie Jenkins--or Sophie Pendragon, or whatever name Howl was going by at the time. She mostly continued to go by Sophie Hatter. It reduced confusion. Her sister Lettie was also married to Wizard Suliman.
However, life was complicated for Howl and Sophie, as well as Suliman and Lettie, due to politics. Ingary and the nearby country of Strangia went to war, and the king and Prince Justin made frequent use of both the Royal Wizards in securing as much as advantage through magic as possible. This made life in the castle quite busy for Howl, and as a result for Sophie, Michael, and Calcifer as well.
And things were about to become even more complicated when Sophie became pregnant with her and Howl’s first child. She hadn’t yet learned about the pregnancy, however, when only just after she was snatched again to the town of Luministi, not knowing what she might face there this second time.
When she returned, she again lost her memories of town, which was perhaps a blessing this time, as she unknowingly had to relive a large portion of her pregnancy. Ingary won the war against Strangia, and life continued mostly as normal. Only a week before Sophie gave birth, however, the djinn Hasruel came to steal their castle. Howl saw this event coming--and also that Hasruel would be going after the king’s daughter, Princess Valeria. They had only a half-day to prepare for the djinn, and while they did warn the king and send the apprentices away, Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer were all in the castle when the djinn arrived. In an attempt to protect Sophie, Howl turned her into a cat.
When the castle was taken, she was dropped into the mountains north of Kingsbury, where she soon gave birth to her son, Morgan, in the form of a kitten. Alone but hoping to make it to Kingsbury to find help--and to find out what had happened to Howl--Sophie joined two passing travelers, a man from Zanzib named Abdullah and a man who appeared to be one of the many defeated Strangian soldiers. The soldier immediately took to them both and was extremely protective of the kitten Morgan.
These two travelers had a genie in a bottle with them that was actually Howl, enchanted by the djinn. However, because of the enchantment, Sophie was unable to perceive the genie, and Howl was unable to reveal his identity to anyone. The travelers had also been in possession of Calcifer in the form of a magic carpet, but they had temporarily lost him, leaving Sophie unaware of his fate as well. Then, still in the form of a cat but without her son, Sophie was snatched away one last time to Luministi, where the spell was temporarily broken upon her arrival.
Canon Point: Sophie is taken from after the middle of Castle in the Air. Howl is missing, and Sophie has been turned into a cat by his spell. She just recently gave birth to their son Morgan in the form of a kitten, and the two of them are currently traveling with Abdullah and the apparent Strangian soldier as they move through Ingary on their way to Kingsbury.
First Person Sample:
[hmphs in annoyance, then steps forward, tapping on the vidscreen in the corner] And how do I respond to you, hmm, mayor whatever-your-name-is? Ah! [notices the buttons along the side of it and pushes several of them, but this only succeeds in making the frozen image of the mayor disappear. groans] Confound it! [mutters] I should have had Howl show me how those magic boxes work. Am I in Wales, then? It must be somewhere much fancier than where Howl’s family lives if I am...
[lips pursed in a thoughtful pout, she eyes the box a bit more before sighing] Well, nevermind that. I can find out where I am on my own. [wanders about the room, opening drawers and checking for belongings] Not occupied, then... But very neat and tidy. Not a bit dusty. [heads out into the main room, spotting the bike and the gift basket. raises a skeptical eyebrow] Hospitality from a kidnapper? What next! [goes over to the bike first, moving it gingerly back and forth] Some sort of cart? But what pulls it? [explores further, leaning down to finger the spokes and push the pedals a bit. straightens slightly to examine the rack attached to the back, then stands back up to touch the handlebars, squeeze the brakes, and ring the bell. jumps at the sound, but then fingers the bell again, addressing it] Well, at least you’re just what you look like, even in a strange place like this.
And what else... [moves on to the gift basket now, removing the contents one-by-one and looking over each one as she does] Fresh flowers. This was set up recently, then. And there’s food, at least. That’s a start. But lions! What sort of town keeps lions!? [shakes her head, setting the T-shirt aside. picks up the paperweight, turning it over with a scowl before she sets it aside as well. then she picks up a strange silver device. jumps slightly as it seems to hum in her hand] Oh no, I’m not having another curse already! [sets it aside a bit shakily, eyeing it dubiously for a moment before she’s satisfied that it’s not going to do anything. goes back to the basket, picking up the set of papers, which succeeds in distracting her from the strange device. she reads them over, giving out several snorts and hmphs as she does so] And not a single word of why I’m here! I’ll just have to find out for myself, then.
[turns, eyeing the entryway and what is clearly an exit. hesitates just for an instant, still very uncertain--and annoyed--at the situation. then she clinches one hand into a fist, raises her chin, and strides forward determinedly out the door and into town]
Third Person Sample:
Flowers, Sophie decided, made much better companions than sly, unscrupulous wizards. They didn’t complain when you arranged them, nor even when you performed small tasks to make their homes a bit neater. They didn’t slither out of listening to you, and they were even generally obliging toward your suggestions. All you had to worry about was not pushing them too far when you were in a temper. Otherwise, flowers were the perfect companions. There were, Sophie decided, an undeniable host of reasons to prefer their company.
And it was, of course, because of that preference for flowers that she was still in the shop. It wasn’t because she was trying to avoid a certain wizard. Not at all! She just had better things to do. After all, if she didn’t coax these flowers properly, they wouldn’t be fresh enough to sell tomorrow. And she had several gardening experiments to tend to, as well. It’d just been too busy of a day, and that was why she was here after hours.
Sophie looked at the flowers she’d just arranged--for the third time--in one of the seven-league boots. She tilted her head and considered their positions. The flowers offered no opinion. Sophie sighed and blew the strands of hair out of her face. “Drat him!” she cried out, bringing down one annoyed fist on the table. “I knew happily ever after would be like this! I knew it!”
The flowers didn’t reply. Good, she decided with a definitive nod. She preferred it that way. Yet another reason why flowers were better companions.
However, the pleasant silence was then interrupted by the creaking of a door behind her. Sophie whirled around, sharp words ready to roll off her tongue, but she quickly bit them back when she saw who it was. “What is it?”
Michael had just begun to crane his head very nervously around the doorframe, leading Sophie to wonder how long he’d been listening to her. He jumped when she spoke and creeped back a step. “Sophie?” he said gingerly. “It’s getting late.”
“Well, of course it is!” she snapped.
Michael’s face very nearly disappeared behind the door as he took another step back. He seemed unsure of what to say for a moment and instead just watched with his one visible eye as Sophie glowered at him.
Sophie, for her part, got tired of glowering and turned back to the flowers. “I’m not needed there,” she said grumpily.
It must have taken Michael a moment to decide whether or not it was a good idea to admit his real motive, as there was another awkward pause before he, very tentatively, spoke up again. “I can’t make dinner if you don’t come back.”
At that, Sophie snapped her gaze right back to him. He had taken one step around the door and into the room while she wasn’t looking, but he immediately froze.
“Why not?” she demanded. “Even if Howl won’t do it, he can at least talk to Calcifer for you.”
The door shifted as Michael squirmed uncomfortably. “Howl’s not in.”
This, if anything, made Sophie even angrier. She put her hands on her hips, causing Michael to half-disappear around the door again as she leaned forward toward him. “And just where has he gone off to now?”
Michael shook his head, his eyes wide. “He just complained about...about nothing...and left.” The fact that he averted his gaze in the middle of speaking told Sophie exactly what “nothing” must have been.
“About nothing, hm?” she snapped. “Well, I’ll show him. Come on, Michael.” She turned around, picking up the boot full of flowers. She briskly set it on a shelf and dusted her hands off before she strode over to the door and right past the young man. “We’re going to have a hot dinner, and if Howl wants some later, he’ll have to make it for himself.”
Michael nodded, not entirely sure what he had just started, and hurried after Sophie as she stalked across the steps and through the door back into the castle.
Did you read the rules? Yes.
Player LJ:
kmegumi2E-mail and/or AIM: kmegumi2@yahoo.com
Timezone: US Central
Current Characters: None
Character: Sophie Hatter
Fandom/Series: Howl’s Moving Castle (Books)
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Used: The books Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air. Also, some information about the world and minor character points have been taken from its sequel House of Many Ways, although Sophie’s canon placement is before this book.
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Appearance: Sophie is a pretty young woman with reddish-gold hair and blue-green eyes. She prefers to wear simple dresses, particularly in blue, with proper petticoats beneath. After recent events in her life, however, she has become more willing to branch out.
As this is the book version of Sophie rather than the movie and her appearance reflects that, her PB is Alicia Witt.
Personality: Sophie spent most of her first 18 years feeling resigned to her role and destiny--that is, as the eldest of three, she would be doomed to fail the earliest and the worst if she ever set out to seek her fortune and that she would, therefore, spend her life working in her family’s hat shop and eventually take over the business.
Only after her father’s death and the departure of her sisters did Sophie begin to realize how dull and discontented she was with that ordinary life. Still, she remained unwilling to even attempt to change her circumstances, believing herself doomed to them--until the Witch of the Waste cursed her, changing her into an old woman. At that point, Sophie was forced to leave the shop, and it was then that she finally began to come into her own. Sophie used her new form as an old woman as a chance to reinvent herself. This started out as a necessity, as she styled herself a cleaning lady in order to stay in Howl’s castle. However, Sophie quickly found that having to adopt a new identity gave her the freedom to speak and act out in ways that she never had before. At first, she blamed her changed demeanor on being an old woman, but she soon realized that she was finally taking control of her own life and really being herself. She was no longer consigned to a preset role.
As an old woman, Sophie discovered just how strong-minded and take-charge she could be--and she enjoyed every minute of it. Over time, she grew from a self-conscious and doubtful girl into a confident, headstrong young lady who is quite willing to speak her mind about anything to anyone. These days, if you get in her way, you can expect a piece of her mind for your trouble.
But her headstrong nature aside, Sophie is, and has always been, a kind and compassionate person. She cares about others and is happy to help them, even when they are complete strangers or not people at all. When she found a dog trapped in a hedge, her fear of dogs didn’t stop her from freeing it. She even felt compassion for an old scarecrow, stuck in a hedge, which she propped up so that someone might see it and return it to where it belonged. She also made up a presumably-fake spell for a young man who was about to take part in a duel in which he was clearly outmatched. She didn’t expect the spell to work, but she felt for him and wanted to boost his confidence at least.
That kindness and compassion extends even more to those she loves. Sophie cares fiercely and has no qualms about taking risks for her loved ones. For example, she put herself in a tricky position by trying to see Lettie so that she could warn her against Howl, which she was only able to do at the same time that Howl was visiting--and with Michael in tow. When she realized the terms of Howl’s and Calcifer’s contract, she decided not to break it because she was afraid that it could kill them both to do so, even though she knew that meant that her own curse might never be lifted. Also, despite her jealousy and her fear, she attempted to rescue Lily Angorian from the Witch of the Waste herself because she believed Howl loved her. In short, Sophie will do anything for the people she loves.
Sophie can be a bit of a neat freak and likes things clean and tidy. Her claim to be a cleaning lady was not hard to believe, as she set into cleaning Howl’s castle with a vengeance. In general, Sophie does not shy away from hard work in the least and is quite willing to get her hands dirty and get down to business in any way that is needed.
Now that she has come out of her shell, Sophie has no shortage of bravery. Even when she was more timid, she was willing to make a deal with the fire demon, Calcifer--arguably in part because she felt she had nothing left to lose. However, since then she has shown herself to be determined and unyielding on her own. She risked visiting Lettie at Mrs. Fairfax’s at the same time as Howl out of desperation to protect her sister from him. And despite her reluctance, she spoke to the king--twice, as it accidentally turned out--on Howl’s behalf. The best example of her bravery was when she faced the Witch of the Waste alone to save Lily Angorian.
This particular action is also an example of how rash Sophie can be. She is capable and willing but sometimes overeager and impulsive. She has a tendency to create messes with her brave--or perhaps headstrong--meddling. She feels bad when her actions do more harm than good, but her attempts to make up for them have a tendency to cause even more trouble, such as accidentally enchanting one of Howl’s suits to charm ladies and then accidentally enlarging the other.
Sophie is level-headed and clever. Although she has a temper and a sharp tongue and can be emotional in that respect, she is not easily given over to panic and has a talent for being able to think things through even in difficult situations. When she was first cursed, she took the change very calmly and immediately made plans for what she could do as an old woman. She did get upset later, once she was safely inside the castle, but not before then. She also did not just accept the curse. When she ended up on the castle’s doorstep, she did not run away but instead turned it into a possible opportunity to rid herself of the curse. She also came up with the idea of being a cleaning lady to protect her position in the castle and later came up with the cover of selling flowers while they were hiding from the Witch of the Waste, both of which were spur-of-the-moment but clever plans. She does tend to jump to conclusions and sometimes put rash solutions into action, but she does not do this out of panic--rather, it is out of her determination. However, Sophie is afraid of heights, and that is one area in which her generally unshakable demeanor can be shaken up quite easily.
Sophie likes to talk, especially while she works. As she spent much of her time alone in the hat shop after her father died, she developed a habit of talking to inanimate objects. Now that she knows this is how her magic manifests, she is more careful about what she says, but it is still a habit for her to speak her thoughts out loud.
Sophie has a tendency to ignore and misunderstand her own feelings. She also has a very sharp temper. She often lashes out in anger without realizing how unfair she is being. While she typically regrets these outbursts later, even if she realizes what she’s doing in the moment, she has a hard time controlling that anger. Sophie has recently stopped concealing the majority of her desires the way she did when she worked in the hat shop, but she is still struggling to understand--and believe--that she is more than just an ordinary girl and is actually beautiful and talented in her own way. She also had a difficult time accepting that she had fallen in love with Howl and spent a very long time in denial about it, but she has since admitted it--both to herself and to Howl. She is not yet sure where she should--or wants--her life to go from here, except that she knows it will be with him and, now, with their son.
Now that Sophie has broken out of her old life in the hat shop, she has become aware of how much she has underestimated and undervalued herself. She knows that, for a long time, she failed to appreciate her own abilities. As she has begun to understand what she, personally, is capable of--and that being the eldest of three has not consigned her to a life of dull normality--she has no intention of going back to being the “little mouse” that she once was. Sophie is, more than anything, strong-willed and determined. She will not be exploited, and her life will be her own to live--however she chooses to live it.
Strengths/Abilities: Sophie has quite a few domestic gifts, including cooking and cleaning. She is especially talented with a needle, both in relation to trimming hats and in terms of mending and even designing clothing. She also has an impeccable sense of style for clothing and decorating.
Sophie also has a gift for magic. Specifically, she can talk life into inanimate objects. This means that she can, for example, make a hat affect the appearance or the fortunes of its wearer, enchant a suit to be irresistible to women, make a stick act as a weapon under its own power, make thin mountain air gather so that it is easier to breathe, make walls impenetrable to sound, and even save a dying fire demon. She can also keep cut flowers alive for longer than they should be. However, Sophie’s current mood and will are as important as the words she uses, which means her anger has been known to have unfortunate side effects, such as killing flowers and turning fertilizer into terribly potent weed-killer.
Weaknesses: Sophie is human and vulnerable to anything a typical human would be. She is fit but not especially athletic, with no experience with sports. Recent events have built up her stamina and endurance, but she is still more suited to a life around the house. Also, she has no training for any fighting or weapons use.
History: A summary of the first book’s plot can be found here, but it’s very bare bones, so I’m including my own summary as well.
Sophie was the eldest child of well-to-do parents who owned and operated a lady’s hat shop in Market Chipping in the land of Ingary. Her mother died when she was two, and her father remarried to a woman named Fanny. As Fanny was often busy with the shop, Sophie did a lot of the work to raise her younger sister Lettie and her youngest sister, Fanny’s daughter Martha. Fanny was very kind to all three girls, and her father wanted the best for them. He sent them to the best school, which created very large debts for the family and the shop. When her father died unexpectedly, the debts made it necessary for the girls to leave school. Sophie, being the eldest and of age to leave school anyway, started an apprenticeship in the hat shop with the aim of one day inheriting it. From that point, she spent most of her time trimming and working on the hats and, occasionally, helping to sell them.
Her sister Lettie was apprenticed to Cesari’s, the local pastry shop, and Martha was sent to be an apprentice to a friend of the family--a witch by the name of Annabel Fairfax. The two girls, unhappy that Fanny had made these decisions without giving them a say, secretly switched places. Sophie discovered this on May Day when she visited the pastry shop and found Martha rather than Lettie. She also met the Wizard Howl that day, though she did not know it was him and as yet had no idea what an important figure in her life he would become. The encounter did make her consider her lot in life, as he called her a “little mouse” and seemed to feel so sorry for her that it made her feel ashamed of how dull and reclusive she had become, spending most of her time working alone in the shop.
The Witch of the Waste, a powerful woman left heartless by a deal with a manipulative fire demon, was prevented from finding out information to curse her former lover, the Wizard Howl, because her captive was too busy thinking about a girl he loved by the name of Lettie Hatter. She went to the Hatter family’s shop, where she mistook Sophie for Lettie and found, to her chagrin, that Sophie was (unknowingly) using magic to enchant the hats. In retaliation, the Witch cursed her into the form of an old woman--and made it impossible for Sophie to tell anyone about the curse.
After being cursed, Sophie realized that she would have to leave the hat shop and set out on her own. She walked as long as she could outside of town, and just when she grew resigned to the need to find shelter for the night, she found that Wizard Howl’s moving castle was coming toward her. She forced her way into the castle, where she met Howl’s apprentice, Michael, and Howl’s fire demon, Calcifer. Calcifer could see that she was under a spell, and he and Sophie made a deal that Calcifer would remove the spell on her as soon as Sophie broke a contract that existed between him and Howl--a contract for which he could not reveal the terms. He promised to give Sophie hints. In order to convince Howl to allow Sophie to stay at the castle, she claimed that she had come to be a cleaning lady for him.
Sophie quickly learned that the castle, while appearing large on the outside, was really quite a small building. It was, however, able to be in four places at once. The moving castle out on the moorlands that she had entered was only one of its aspects; it also existed in buildings in the towns of Porthaven and Kingsbury, as well as in a mysterious land known as Wales. Calcifer was the force who held the castle together and who directed it.
Over her subsequent time spent in the castle, Sophie did quite a lot of cleaning--usually to Howl’s dismay. She found that Wizard Howl was not evil, as the rumors back home had claimed. He was, however, as she herself later noted, selfish and vain, sly, and an impossible slitherer-outer who could not be pinned down to anything. He also had a habit of courting women--right up until they fell in love with him, at which point he would lose all interest and turn to someone else. She eventually learned that Howl came from the land known as Wales, where his name was Howell Jenkins. After Howl courted Sophie’s sister Lettie and--as far as she knew--succeeded in making her fall in love with him, Howl began to target Lily Angorian, a schoolteacher from Wales. Sophie was fiercely jealous of this relationship, though she did not recognize her feelings as jealousy at the time.
Meanwhile, the situation in their country of Ingary was taking a turn for the worse. The Royal Wizard, Wizard Suliman, had gone to face the Witch of the Waste and quite possibly been killed. When Prince Justin had gone after him, he too had disappeared. Howl sent Sophie to meet first with his old tutor, Mrs. Pentstemmon, and then with the king. Mrs. Pentstemmon revealed to Sophie that she had a magical gift that allowed her to talk life into objects--such as the hats she used to sell, as well as a scarecrow she had found on the road and even a packet of cayenne. The meeting with the king, in contrast, did not go so well. Although Sophie posed as Howl’s old mother and tried to convince him that Howl was quite useless, the king still enlisted him to find the prince and even appointed him as a new Royal Wizard.
Unfortunately for Howl, the Witch, being a jaded lover, had set that curse upon him, the terms of which were slowly being met. In order to avoid a confrontation with her, he moved the castle to three new locations, leaving only its aspect in his home of Wales unchanged. One of these new aspects was the house in Market Chipping with the hat shop attached where Sophie had grown up, revealing to Sophie that Fanny had sold the shop after her disappearance. Sophie suggested that they open it as a flower shop. Howl had set the location for the moving aspect of the castle to be in a field of flowers on the edge of the Waste because Sophie had asked to live near flowers, and they were able to use those to stock the shop. He set the last location at a fancy mansion in the Chipping Valley, in response to another suggestion Sophie had made earlier.
Lily Angorian arrived unexpectedly at the castle soon after and tried to take a guitar that Howl used to court women, claiming it belonged to her missing fiancé Ben Sullivan (Wizard Suliman). Sophie, jealous and angry, did not tell Howl about this meeting, not wanting to encourage him in his attempts to court her.
Howl soon arranged for Sophie’s family members to all visit the castle from several different entrances. She saw her step-mother Fanny again and learned that she had remarried, this time to the wealthy Mr. Sacheverell Smith, due to one of Sophie’s enchanted hats after Sophie’s disappearance. Sophie also saw both her sisters, which was exciting for more than just Sophie as Michael and Martha were in love with each other. Sophie learned that everyone knew about the curse by now--including Howl, who had been secretly trying to remove it, only to discover that Sophie was, unknowingly to her, causing it to persist with her own magic.
Lily Angorian also arrived during this reunion, and Sophie let her outside to walk among the field of flowers when she asked for fresh air. Soon after, the Witch of the Waste sent a message stating that she had captured Miss Angorian. The message purported to be for Michael to deliver to Howl, instructing the wizard to come to the Waste alone to save Miss Angorian. Sophie was fooled by this ruse and, to protect Howl, went to the Waste instead to rescue her for him. She was captured when she arrived there, but Howl soon came to her rescue. He defeated the Witch, but she, like Howl, had a contract with a fire demon. As Sophie had long since worked out, this meant that the fire demon had her heart in order to keep itself alive. Howl revealed to Sophie that the Witch’s fire demon was actually Lily Angorian, which was why he had been pretending to court her. When Sophie revealed that the fire demon had come into the castle and touched the guitar, he knew that it must be hiding inside it. They rushed back to the castle together. On the way, the very last requirement for the fulfillment of the Witch’s curse came true, giving the Witch’s fire demon the ability to take Howl’s heart from Calcifer.
Back in the castle, Miss Angorian was moving to take Howl’s heart and gain control over him--a process which would kill Calcifer. Sophie and Howl arrived in time, and Sophie used a stick that she had talked life into to beat Miss Angorian back away from the fire demon. Until this point, Sophie had not broken the contract between Howl and Calcifer for fear of killing them, but now she that knew about her magical gift, she was able to break the contract and use her gift to talk life into Calcifer as she did so. At the same time, the curse on her was broken and she returned to her normal age. She gave Howl his heart back, and Howl was able to seize the heart from the other fire demon, killing it and saving them all.
In the end, with the Witch gone, both Prince Justin and Wizard Suliman--who had together been the original source the Witch had used to set her curse upon Howl--were freed from the Witch’s magical attempts to separate them into pieces and combine bits of their bodies. Calcifer, now free, decided not to leave Howl, though he was thrilled to have the ability to move about on his own. The restored Wizard Suliman was free to be with his love, Lettie, and Michael and Martha could also be together without any fear of interference from Howl. Ingary was safe again, and so was everyone in it. But despite all of these developments, Sophie, restored to a young woman, and Howl, with his heart back, only had eyes for each other. It was at this point, just after Howl had declared that they should live happily ever after, that Sophie was snatched away to Luministi for the first time.
After leaving the town, Sophie did not remember her experiences there, so she simply lived happily ever after with Howl, which was just as eventful as she had suspected it would be. She and Howl were married, meaning she became Sophie Jenkins--or Sophie Pendragon, or whatever name Howl was going by at the time. She mostly continued to go by Sophie Hatter. It reduced confusion. Her sister Lettie was also married to Wizard Suliman.
However, life was complicated for Howl and Sophie, as well as Suliman and Lettie, due to politics. Ingary and the nearby country of Strangia went to war, and the king and Prince Justin made frequent use of both the Royal Wizards in securing as much as advantage through magic as possible. This made life in the castle quite busy for Howl, and as a result for Sophie, Michael, and Calcifer as well.
And things were about to become even more complicated when Sophie became pregnant with her and Howl’s first child. She hadn’t yet learned about the pregnancy, however, when only just after she was snatched again to the town of Luministi, not knowing what she might face there this second time.
When she returned, she again lost her memories of town, which was perhaps a blessing this time, as she unknowingly had to relive a large portion of her pregnancy. Ingary won the war against Strangia, and life continued mostly as normal. Only a week before Sophie gave birth, however, the djinn Hasruel came to steal their castle. Howl saw this event coming--and also that Hasruel would be going after the king’s daughter, Princess Valeria. They had only a half-day to prepare for the djinn, and while they did warn the king and send the apprentices away, Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer were all in the castle when the djinn arrived. In an attempt to protect Sophie, Howl turned her into a cat.
When the castle was taken, she was dropped into the mountains north of Kingsbury, where she soon gave birth to her son, Morgan, in the form of a kitten. Alone but hoping to make it to Kingsbury to find help--and to find out what had happened to Howl--Sophie joined two passing travelers, a man from Zanzib named Abdullah and a man who appeared to be one of the many defeated Strangian soldiers. The soldier immediately took to them both and was extremely protective of the kitten Morgan.
These two travelers had a genie in a bottle with them that was actually Howl, enchanted by the djinn. However, because of the enchantment, Sophie was unable to perceive the genie, and Howl was unable to reveal his identity to anyone. The travelers had also been in possession of Calcifer in the form of a magic carpet, but they had temporarily lost him, leaving Sophie unaware of his fate as well. Then, still in the form of a cat but without her son, Sophie was snatched away one last time to Luministi, where the spell was temporarily broken upon her arrival.
Canon Point: Sophie is taken from after the middle of Castle in the Air. Howl is missing, and Sophie has been turned into a cat by his spell. She just recently gave birth to their son Morgan in the form of a kitten, and the two of them are currently traveling with Abdullah and the apparent Strangian soldier as they move through Ingary on their way to Kingsbury.
First Person Sample:
[hmphs in annoyance, then steps forward, tapping on the vidscreen in the corner] And how do I respond to you, hmm, mayor whatever-your-name-is? Ah! [notices the buttons along the side of it and pushes several of them, but this only succeeds in making the frozen image of the mayor disappear. groans] Confound it! [mutters] I should have had Howl show me how those magic boxes work. Am I in Wales, then? It must be somewhere much fancier than where Howl’s family lives if I am...
[lips pursed in a thoughtful pout, she eyes the box a bit more before sighing] Well, nevermind that. I can find out where I am on my own. [wanders about the room, opening drawers and checking for belongings] Not occupied, then... But very neat and tidy. Not a bit dusty. [heads out into the main room, spotting the bike and the gift basket. raises a skeptical eyebrow] Hospitality from a kidnapper? What next! [goes over to the bike first, moving it gingerly back and forth] Some sort of cart? But what pulls it? [explores further, leaning down to finger the spokes and push the pedals a bit. straightens slightly to examine the rack attached to the back, then stands back up to touch the handlebars, squeeze the brakes, and ring the bell. jumps at the sound, but then fingers the bell again, addressing it] Well, at least you’re just what you look like, even in a strange place like this.
And what else... [moves on to the gift basket now, removing the contents one-by-one and looking over each one as she does] Fresh flowers. This was set up recently, then. And there’s food, at least. That’s a start. But lions! What sort of town keeps lions!? [shakes her head, setting the T-shirt aside. picks up the paperweight, turning it over with a scowl before she sets it aside as well. then she picks up a strange silver device. jumps slightly as it seems to hum in her hand] Oh no, I’m not having another curse already! [sets it aside a bit shakily, eyeing it dubiously for a moment before she’s satisfied that it’s not going to do anything. goes back to the basket, picking up the set of papers, which succeeds in distracting her from the strange device. she reads them over, giving out several snorts and hmphs as she does so] And not a single word of why I’m here! I’ll just have to find out for myself, then.
[turns, eyeing the entryway and what is clearly an exit. hesitates just for an instant, still very uncertain--and annoyed--at the situation. then she clinches one hand into a fist, raises her chin, and strides forward determinedly out the door and into town]
Third Person Sample:
Flowers, Sophie decided, made much better companions than sly, unscrupulous wizards. They didn’t complain when you arranged them, nor even when you performed small tasks to make their homes a bit neater. They didn’t slither out of listening to you, and they were even generally obliging toward your suggestions. All you had to worry about was not pushing them too far when you were in a temper. Otherwise, flowers were the perfect companions. There were, Sophie decided, an undeniable host of reasons to prefer their company.
And it was, of course, because of that preference for flowers that she was still in the shop. It wasn’t because she was trying to avoid a certain wizard. Not at all! She just had better things to do. After all, if she didn’t coax these flowers properly, they wouldn’t be fresh enough to sell tomorrow. And she had several gardening experiments to tend to, as well. It’d just been too busy of a day, and that was why she was here after hours.
Sophie looked at the flowers she’d just arranged--for the third time--in one of the seven-league boots. She tilted her head and considered their positions. The flowers offered no opinion. Sophie sighed and blew the strands of hair out of her face. “Drat him!” she cried out, bringing down one annoyed fist on the table. “I knew happily ever after would be like this! I knew it!”
The flowers didn’t reply. Good, she decided with a definitive nod. She preferred it that way. Yet another reason why flowers were better companions.
However, the pleasant silence was then interrupted by the creaking of a door behind her. Sophie whirled around, sharp words ready to roll off her tongue, but she quickly bit them back when she saw who it was. “What is it?”
Michael had just begun to crane his head very nervously around the doorframe, leading Sophie to wonder how long he’d been listening to her. He jumped when she spoke and creeped back a step. “Sophie?” he said gingerly. “It’s getting late.”
“Well, of course it is!” she snapped.
Michael’s face very nearly disappeared behind the door as he took another step back. He seemed unsure of what to say for a moment and instead just watched with his one visible eye as Sophie glowered at him.
Sophie, for her part, got tired of glowering and turned back to the flowers. “I’m not needed there,” she said grumpily.
It must have taken Michael a moment to decide whether or not it was a good idea to admit his real motive, as there was another awkward pause before he, very tentatively, spoke up again. “I can’t make dinner if you don’t come back.”
At that, Sophie snapped her gaze right back to him. He had taken one step around the door and into the room while she wasn’t looking, but he immediately froze.
“Why not?” she demanded. “Even if Howl won’t do it, he can at least talk to Calcifer for you.”
The door shifted as Michael squirmed uncomfortably. “Howl’s not in.”
This, if anything, made Sophie even angrier. She put her hands on her hips, causing Michael to half-disappear around the door again as she leaned forward toward him. “And just where has he gone off to now?”
Michael shook his head, his eyes wide. “He just complained about...about nothing...and left.” The fact that he averted his gaze in the middle of speaking told Sophie exactly what “nothing” must have been.
“About nothing, hm?” she snapped. “Well, I’ll show him. Come on, Michael.” She turned around, picking up the boot full of flowers. She briskly set it on a shelf and dusted her hands off before she strode over to the door and right past the young man. “We’re going to have a hot dinner, and if Howl wants some later, he’ll have to make it for himself.”
Michael nodded, not entirely sure what he had just started, and hurried after Sophie as she stalked across the steps and through the door back into the castle.
Did you read the rules? Yes.