Each month this blog will feature
a character from one of the SFF productions. We’ll start with one of the most popular characters in all
of the SFF repertoire – Zarc.
Zarconia Gold, known simply as Zarc is the young, spirited Underworlder known
as the Queen of Thieves. She joined the rebels shortly before Cat did and saved
the rebel’s life. Although she is impish and carefree, she does have a serious
side that is most often apparent when her foster family comes to call.
 |
| Zarconia Gold played by Virginia McCreary |
History
Zarc is the orphaned child of one
of the four rulers of the Underworld – an organization of criminals divided
into four groups – Cutthroats, Bandits, Beggars, and Thieves. Her father was the King of Thieves and
when he died she was taken in by the others Royals and tossed back and forth
between them whenever they were too busy to bother with her. Zarc ran away when she was eight and
joined the rebels who were working to overthrow the Empire because she had
nothing better to do.
After joining the rebels she met
a woman – Cat - who was on the run from the army and Zarc helped her escape to
safety and join the rebels. Cat
became a leader in the organization and eventually lead the largest unit, with Zarc
by her side. Zarc basically grew
up with the rebels, but still worked with the Underworld whenever
necessary. She was still the
official Queen of Thieves, but didn’t have to take her place as a ruler in the
Underworld until she turned eighteen.
When the series starts she’s sixteen and has been with the rebels off
and on for eight years. Although
she lives with the rebels she often points out that she technically isn’t a
rebel at all – she’s an Underworlder.
She didn’t really hate the Empire or the Army Faction, being
with the rebels was just something to do that kept her busy and away from the
Underworld. That changed when the
Army Faction used her to get to Turlo by having an undercover officer named
Phil seduce her and make her fall in love with him. The revelation of the man she loves being a traitor, and
then seeing him killed while trying to save her life leads her to hate the Army
Faction.
Appearance
Zarc has long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a big smile,
and an impish demeanor. She almost
always wears red and black striped tights, a mix of bright colors, and lots of
jewelry. She always stands
out. However, her appearance
changes more than any other character in the series because she starts the
series as a teenager and is an adult by the time it ends. This change is most evident in her
clothing.
At the start of the
series she wears short skirts and vests in patchwork, stripes, or plaids, and
short-sleeved shirts in bright colors that sometimes clash. In the middle she wears mostly longer
skirts and more pastel colors and fluffy shirts. By the end an older, more serious Zarc is mostly wearing
pants, in more muted colors and more functional clothing in general.
Personality
The best word to describe her is probably impish or mischievous,
although she loses a little of that as she gets older and more serious. Zarc is full of energy, overly dramatic
at times, and loves shiny, pretty things which is one of the reasons she’s a
kleptomaniac. She is extremely
loyal and very smart although she pretends not to be in the beginning. As she grows older she goes through a
romantic phase of reading romance novels. There is a general air of loneliness around her after
the other rebels start pairing up.
She falls in love twice and gets her heart broken twice. After the second time she is so upset
and depressed that she contemplates leaving the rebels. She decides to stick
around in the end, but she is more serious and less carefree from that point
on.
When asked about her character Virginia McCreary said, “I thought my character was a very interesting type of
person. Someone I don’t think you’d often meet on the street. Someone with lots of inconsistencies. For instance she’s a complete
kleptomaniac and yet the nicest person in the world.”
There are also some big inconsistencies in her personality due to
how the episodes were written. In
the first few episodes she is cowardly and easily frightened. “She couldn’t fight very well in the first
few episodes," said Virginia. However, we later learn that she was raised by the Underworld Royals
including the King of Cutthroats so there’s no way that she was raised without
knowing how to defend herself. The
cowardice in the beginning must be a ruse, although it obviously never stated
as such.
Abilities
She is a thief – the Queen of Thieves by virtue of her
birth. She loves to swipe stuff,
especially jewelry, and can never quite get over the urge to steal. She can
pick pockets and locks, untying knots, overcome security systems, and swipe
things off counters unnoticed.
Obviously she’s very good at stealing, but we only see her steal a few
times in the show – mostly her talents are talked about and rarely seen. 
She knows how to fight but rarely seems to. In episode 12 we learn that she has
perfect aim when she’s pissed off.
She’s also a good actress, appearing to be a cute, harmless, cowardly
kid when she’s anything but.
Her greatest asset to the rebels is the fact that she seems
to know everyone. She has
connections and allies in all the major organizations and seems to be able to
talk almost anyone into helping out the rebels. As Cat often says in the beginning “she’s annoying but
useful.” She is a very good judge
of character unless her own emotions are involved.
“The thing I liked most about my character," said Virginia, "was her ability to recover after any situation.” Zarc is a lot tougher than she looks - inside and out. Her greatest ability is her resilience.
Relationships - Allies
& Enemies
The Rebels
Diyara DuQuoi is also one of Zarc’s best friends ever since
they ended up in the same prison van together. Zarc takes the priestess under her wing when she first joins
the rebels, reassuring her that Cat’s bark is worse then her bite. They get along great until Zarc and
Diyara both fall in love with Turlo and he ends up picking Diyara. Eventually she and Diyara become
friends again but their relationship is never quite the same after that.
Turlo Mason is one of her best friends and her first love. It’s made clear from the beginning that
Zarc and Turlo have known each other long before the start of the series, but
how they met is never really revealed.
They fight a lot at first, but Zarc is the one who takes Turlo’s side
against Cat when Cat wants him thrown out. She becomes his lab assistant because she likes cool looking
things and they test out gadgets together. They seem to have an older brother/younger sister
relationship, but as Zarc gets older she falls in love with him. Turlo still
sees her like a little sister and doesn’t return her feelings, falling in love
with Diyara instead. Obviously
that damages they’re relationship a lot, but eventually Zarc and Turlo become
friends again and go back to the sort of sibling relationship they had before
when Zarc gets over her feelings for him.
France Wah & Aggie are also good friends and Zarc hangs out
with them a lot. She seems to
understand and enjoy France Wah’s zaniness and can translate France Wah speak
for the other rebels.
The Underworlders
Zarc tends to exploit her relationship with the Underworld,
using them to help spy on the Empire/Army Faction and supply them with
goods. It puts a strain on her
relationships within the group.
Cordero, the King of Cutthroats, is the closest thing Zarc has
to a father. He helped raise her
in the Underworld and often worries about her. He’s the only one of the Royals who can talk with her and
not give commands and is really the only Royal who cares about her. They have a very strong familial bond
and would do almost anything for each other. 
Zurielle, the Queen of Bandits, is the second Royal who helped
raise her and would be her enemy if Zarc wasn’t the Queen of Thieves. They can’t stand each other and
Zurielle thinks Zarc is an irresponsible brat. She resents being used by Zarc to help the rebels.
Qadra, the Queen of Beggars is the third Royal who helped raise
her. There doesn’t seem to be much
of a relationship between them, as if they neither like or dislike each other.
Qadim, the Prince of Beggars is Qadra’s successor and a good
friend of Zarc’s. They get
along well and seem to have a sort of cousin bond. 
Gregor is an underworld thief who helps spy on the Army Faction
for a price. She doesn’t really
trust him and implies that he has betrayed her before. After Zarc officially becomes the Queen
of Thieves he becomes very loyal to her.
The Empire/Army
Faction
General Darion De Carlo starts off as an enemy – kidnapping her
twice – but ends up an ally when he joins the rebels. As Cat’s best friend, De Carlo sees Zarc a weapon he can use
against Cat at first, but then as someone he needs to get on his side. The way to Cat’s heart is apparently
through Zarc because if Zarc doesn’t trust him, Cat never will. After he kidnaps her the second time,
then helps her escape and turns traitor, joining the rebels, Zarc trusts him a
lot more than the other rebels do, suggesting that she sees something in him
that the others don’t. She becomes
a referee between Cat and De Carlo and is instrumental in getting them to work
out their differences and come together.
De Carlo eventually becomes like a brother-in-law to her and trusts her
completely. 
Zarina, the former Empress, and Zarc mostly know each other by
reputation, only a few times in the series. The only time Zarc meets Zarina as “Zarina” is when De Carlo
kidnaps Zarc to steal a secret weapon for Zarina. 
They later meet after Zarina fakes her death and returns as General Mira Mernecky. Zarc and Mira meet twice – the first time Mira reveals that the man Zarc
loves is a traitor who was just pretending to love her in order to get
information. Obviously that
doesn’t go over well. The second
time and final time they meet, they end up in a fight that results in Zarina
shooting Zarc and nearly killing her.
Zarina despises Zarc but sees her as a weak link that can be exploited,
and Zarc sees Zarina as a spoiled brat and a bully, but doesn’t have any reason
to personally hate her. Mira,
however, manipulates Zarc, which is something Zarc can never forgive. 
Philemon Orion/General Phil Gamon is the love of Zarc’s
life. She meets him as the lone
survivor of his rebel unit. He’s a
technical genius like Turlo and he and Turlo become great friends. Diyara distrusts Phil from the
beginning, but Zarc is so taken with him that she just thinks Diyara is being a
bitch. Zarc falls in love with him and he seems to fall in love with her, but
after he gets both her and Turlo to help him recover and repair a powerful
weapon he hands it over to the Army Faction, revealing that he’s a
traitor. 
Suddenly he seems
disgusted by Zarc, but after she gets hurt he bandages her arm and tells her
that he’s a soldier on a mission and never planned to fall in love with her but
he did. He’s broken her heart and
her trust so she doesn’t believe him at all. In the end, however, he rushes in to save Zarc from an
insane Turlo and gets killed in the process. Zarc mourns him, realizing that he really was in love with
her after all since he risked his life to save her. 
Horace Gandergelder is a ghost that inhabits the theater the
rebels use as a base. He is
accidentally summoned by Turlo and quickly takes a liking to Zarc, seeing in her
a spirit that reminds him of his own daughter which he had neglected. He is determined to help Zarc and make
her happy by manipulating the situation so that Zarc finds out that Turlo and
Diyara are in love, breaking Zarc’s heart. Horace apologizes, admitting again that he was a terrible
father, and warns Zarc that her heart will be broken again. 
No comments:
Post a Comment