personality.

[armbrustisch]

( replacement ) Throughout her life, Siegfried has in her relationship to her mother, the Queen, never been allowed to forget how she is only the replacement child that she had, because her parents lost her older brother to disease before Siegfried was born. Neither has she been allowed to forget that she forced her mother through an agonizing 49 hours of labour in her way into this world and that the Queen lay sick months afterwards, out of her mind in wake of the ordeal. This is also the reason that Siegfried is called by a boy's name, still sick from sorrow over the loss of her firstborn son, the Queen named her infant daughter in accordance with a dream she'd had of a second male child, Siegfried. As a result of this postpartum reaction, Siegfried's relationship to her mother has never been a close one and she has instead latched onto von Rothbart as a pseudo-maternal figure to educate her and guide her in life. The Queen remains on her pedestal and has taken the shape of something almost godlike to Siegfried.

( feminist ) As she grew up as a mere shadow of her dead brother, Siegfried slowly realized that although she was the sole heir to the throne, she would never wield the same power or hold the same privileges, have the same rights as her brother or any other male regent would have. This is a key issue for her and one that has her pursue many writings and books, though none give her a satisfying answer as to why it is this way. Although she wouldn't be familiar with the word and probably wouldn't like to label herself one, it's safe to say that in our terms Siegfried would be a feminist, believing whole-heartedly that women should have the same rights as men. Siegfried's own main question is always; why can a woman only be queen, when a man can be king and rule all? At the same time, Siegfried also believes in a more general equality. She holds the peasants of the nearby village in high regard and likes to come see the craftsmen at work and to dance with their daughters. In return, she is enthusiastically loved by them, because she treats them like equals, worthy of the same respect as the nobility.

( conflicted ) Caught between these two stances, the expectations and requirements made of her as future queen and her own more earth-bound inclinations, along with her gender-specific doubts, Siegfried is always in a state of conflict. After her father's death, she truly does want to take his place and become a queen her mother can be proud of, a queen of whom von Rothbart will approve, but at the same time, the role of queen comes at terms she finds it hard to accept. Most notably, her mother is trying to force her to find a suitor whom she can wed - the man who will be the new king and rule the country, as well as his marriage, Siegfried knows. She hesitates because she knows such a match will not be true to the person she is.

( lesbian ) Although it is not something she is consciously aware of until she meets Odette, experiencing her attraction to other women mostly in dreams and in brief encounters with a peasant girl or a young noblewoman, Siegfried is a lesbian and struggles with the idea of being married to a man with all that such a union entails. How she doesn't fit the mold of a feminine princess type is one thing, but everyone knows that she isn't only called by a man's name, she is often seen donning men's clothing when sword-fighting, riding and hunting, only crawling into a corset and a dress when it's unescapable protocol. She fits another gender norm, not that she thinks of herself as anything other than a woman, but she isn't a woman like the noblewomen are. She is different. This Siegfried knows. And when she meets Odette, she realizes that she has longed for a woman like her all along, she knows upon sight that she has found the person with whom she wants to spend the rest of her life, even someone who is better suited to rule than Siegfried herself. It is perfect. In her head, it is truly perfect.

( carefree ) The most core trait that Siegfried has is her tendency towards an optimistic carefreeness - she studies as she is expected to, naturally, learns multiple European languages as well as Latin and she enjoys it well enough, she does love to read, along the same vein, she also partakes in philosophical and political debate every now and then, but never truly gets engaged, because for Siegfried, she is never more alive than when she's sparring with Benno or hunting with the huntsmen or otherwise doing carefree and unladylike things, unqueenly things. She lives and breathes for the outdoors which is one of the reasons she feels such a strong bond to the peasants who farm the land. Fresh air is her medicine, the vast forests her native land. She never feels more like royalty than when she is alone in the wilderness and the grass must crumble beneath her feet. There she is free, there she can simply be herself. Besides that, Siegfried is also the ultimate party girl, she dances and she drinks and she loses herself in the crowd, gladly...

( kind-hearted ) Perhaps Siegfried's real problem in terms of behaving more like a future queen is that she's just too kind by nature. She doesn't feel like asserting herself or her position, because she doesn't truly believe she is Your Highness, rather she thinks herself on equal footing with everyone else. She has seen how much the workers do for the kingdom, she has seen how much power advisors such as von Rothbart have, why should a queen be perceived more powerful when she is upheld and supported by these human structures? If Siegfried could have her way, she would be granting favors and giving gifts to the peasants much more often than she is currently allowed, there would be something akin to democracy amongst the politicians and political advisors and the regents would solely function as role models and encouragement on a representative level. Siegfried is the princess who visits the shoemaker herself to order new shoes and pays him a little bit extra for his efforts, she is the princess who dances with two peasant girls at the party Benno has arranged after her father's death, uncaring about the difference in social status, she is the one who has openly told the huntsmen that if she could choose for herself, she would join their ranks and work with them. Such is Siegfried, at heart idealistic but beaten down by her contemporaries and thus, she has grown uncaring about the status quo that she can't seem to change, losing herself in her own dreams and games.