Dark Witch

The Dark Witch (Strega Nera), also known as the Black Witch or Black Queen (Regina Nera), is a villain in the Fantaghirò series, portrayed by Brigitte Nielsen. She is the main villain of Fantaghirò 2, and returns as a supporting character in Fantaghirò 3 and Fantaghirò 4, and briefly in Fantaghirò 5.

The Dark Witch is a beautiful but wicked, cruel, and scheming woman who wields black magic and hates everything that is good. She is initially the mistress of Bolt and Lightning, as well as the ruler of the Dark Kingdom, and soon becomes a sworn enemy of Princess Fantaghirò.

Fantaghirò 2


The Dark Witch hears news of the wedding of Princess Fantaghirò and Prince Romualdo and sends her young apprentice Bolt to spy on them. She witnesses their declarations of love and is disgusted, so she makes it her mission in order to destroy their love affair.

Her first act is to attack and kidnap Fantaghirò's father the King, who has been travelling the land since he passed his crown to Romualdo and Fantaghirò. News of the King's kidnapping arrives at Fantaghirò's kingdom at the worst moment, disrupting the wedding. Romualdo leaves with his army to bring the King back, while Fantaghirò leaves later in secret to help.

When Romualdo and his army arrive near the Dark Castle and make camp, the Dark Witch takes Fantaghirò's form visits Romualdo's tent. She tricks Romualdo into kissing her and he collapses. She then brings back to the castle where he sleeps, waiting until all memory of Fantaghirò has been erased from his mind. Once that is done, she wakes him up and he is completely enamored with her, calling his "mistress" and "beloved". The Dark Witch makes him her lover.

The Dark Witch allows Fantaghirò to enter her castle. Fantaghirò is forced to her fight her true love, who does not remember her anymore but now fiercely loves the Dark Witch. While they battle, Bolt and and her brother Lightning conspire against their mistress, tricking her into drinking poison that makes her fall asleep, and then releasing all of Romualdo's men. Fantaghirò and her friends overpower Romualdo and make their escape, but the Dark Witch wakes up just in time to stop Romualdo and Fantaghirò from leaving passing the borders of the Dark Kingdom.

The Dark Witch and Fantaghirò then have a battle of wits, where Fantaghirò appeals to her sense of pride, getting her to change into various forms. The Dark Witch falls for this ruse, transforming into a crystal statue that Fantaghirò smashes with her Come-Back-Again Stone. But unknown at the time, a piece of the Dark Witch survives, entering Romualdo's head.

Fantaghirò attempts to get Romualdo to remember who they are and their love for each other. Romualdo almost succeeds, and that is when he feels a terrible pain in his head and the Dark Witch reveals herself to have survived. She viciously transforms Fantaghirò into a new form in the hopes that Romualdo will never love her again. Then the White Witch appears and shoots a magical arrow, a transformed Bolt, which kills the Dark Witch.

Fantaghirò 3
Bolt and Lightning fetch pieces of the Dark Witch from where she had been destroyed. The broken pieces have turned into rocks that are darker and smoother than regular rocks. They bring the pieces to Fantaghirò, and with a little bit of cloud dust, revive the head so she can talk. Fantaghirò wants to know how to revive Romualdo, who has been turned to stone. The Dark Witch tells her that it needs an Impossible Kiss, which Fantaghirò needs to get from the one who cast the spell, i.e. Tarabas. Lightning quickly turns the Dark Witch's head back to stone once they get this information.

Later the Dark Witch is fully revived because Fantaghirò needs her help fighting Tarabas. Lightning and Bolt get all the pieces and then puts them back together with the magic dust. The Dark Witch agrees to help Fantaghirò in exchange for one vital piece that she needs, her heart, which Lightning is keeping hold of.

The Dark Witch then tries to train Fantaghirò in the ways of black magic, but she is too kind-hearted and good. The Dark Witch follows them on their quest to find Tarabas anyway, because she has always wanted to meet him, but once they find his lair she is shut out, because Tarabas only wants to meet Fantaghirò.

After Fantaghirò obtains the Impossible Kiss, the Dark Witch agrees to bring it to Romualdo to revive him. However, she breaks her promise, keeping the Impossible Kiss to herself, and only offering to give it back in exchange for her heart. The Dark Witch gets her heart back and eagerly swallows it.

Fantaghirò 4
The Dark Witch is living underground in Tarabas' former lair, trying to regain her dark powers. They have not come back to fullness because she had helped Fantaghirò, and every spell she tries somehow turns out good by accident. The Gnomes taunt her for this, which makes her very angry.

The Dark Witch discovers the remnants of the evil witch Xellesia, the White Queen, inside the furnace where she had died. Xellesia promises to help the Dark Witch regain her powers, in exchange for helping revive Xellesia back to life. The Dark Witch agrees, and the two fly on brooms to travel together to find Tarabas, who is working together with Fantaghirò investigating the mysterious Black Cloud.

Fantaghirò 5
The Dark Witch, still stripped of most of her magical powers, hopes that killing someone so good and noble (performing any act of extreme evil) as Fantaghirò can let her retrieve them with this. She captures Fantaghirò and plans to execute her, but the princess escapes from her dungeon to another world.

Physical appearance


The Dark Witch is tall, buxom, and very much aware of her beauty. She wears dark and revealing dresses that emphasize her attractiveness and stature, which fits her role as a seductress. In Fantaghirò 2 her headgear is either a black helmet shaped like an bird's head (with no hair visible) or a tall silver crown over long red hair.



In Fantaghirò 3 her look changes. At first she is literally in pieces, and Lightning revives her head so that Fantaghirò can ask her some questions. As just a head, the Dark Witch has a golden helmet with a straight horn in the front, with no hair visible. Later when she is fully revived, her costume is a long dress with a large collar, and a headress with a horn worn at the front of short, black hair. This same costume returns in Fantaghirò 4 and Fantaghirò 5.

Relationships


The Dark Witch initially has two apprentices, Bolt and Lightning, that she attempts to train in the ways of evil. When she discovers that Bolt has been keeping flowers she is appalled and immediately ruins them by magic. The Dark Witch uses Bolt and Lightning as spies and sidekicks, since they can fly and have some magical powers. She realizes too late that they have a change of heart and want to turn over a new leaf, and in Fantaghirò 3 she scolds them for betraying her despite being "good".

She also has a persistent relationship with Fantaghirò. It started when the Dark Witch targeted the Princess as an enemy, hoping to destroy her life and love affair with Romualdo. Their battles are mental and emotional, with the Dark Witch casting a spell on Romualdo to make him forget Fantaghirò, and then when Fantaghirò uses her cleverness to trick the Dark Witch into changing into a form that she can destroy. The Dark Witch remembers Fantaghirò as being responsible for her death. When the Dark Witch is later revived, she refuses to help Fantaghirò defeat Tarabas, but is blackmailed into doing so. This further tightens the relationship between the two despite the Dark Witch's resistance, and her magic is negatively affected by this "friendship". The Dark Witch finds out she is lustfully attracted to the handsome Romualdo, which comes to her own surprise. After he falls under her spell and in love with her, she clearly enjoys as they begin kissing very passionately, and possible then more (the scene ends abruptly).

Powers
The Dark Witch has no powers in Fantaghirò's kingdom, but within her own land she is a powerful witch. She can bring toy soldiers to life so that they can serve her as an army. She successfully hypnotizes both Romualdo and the King to forget who they are and become loyal only to her. She can transform into many guises, including a black bird, a bush of roses, a crystal statue, and even another human being (which she did when she pretended to be Fantaghirò).

When the Dark Witch is revived after her death, her powers do not return to full power. She can perform smaller spells and fly from place to place. She does not have the ability to stand up to Tarabas, which she claims she could not do even when she was at full power. Due to her helping Fantaghirò face Tarabas, the Dark Witch's powers are reduced further and everything evil she tries to do by some way or the other turns out good instead.