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[armbrustisch]

AN ALTERNATE SWAN LAKE PLOT

if you're familiar with the ballet, swan lake, you already know siegfried's story, just make the prince a princess and the sorcerer a sorceress and you've got this tale down to a t.

if you're unfamiliar with swan lake, here, let me tell you all about it in this particular flavor:

the king of the country has just died and left the widow queen in a precarious position as their only child, princess siegfried, isn't yet of age and still hasn't struck a proper match in marriage. until siegfried turns twenty-one only a short time later, her mother reigns and the castle is shrouded in the black hues of grief.

on siegfried's 21st birthday, her friend benno brings two village girls to the castle to celebrate her birthday along with all of court, despite the queen having ordered a mourning period for the king. they all enjoy themselves and siegfried takes a liking to one of the girls, but at that time her mother arrives unannounced to the festivities and presents siegfried with a new crossbow along with a request; she will have to find a suitor to marry. quickly.

von rothart, siegfried's tutor, leads her away from the party and into the forest, asking that she go hunt for swans. left behind alone, she sees a swan move onto shore, but before she can get a chance to shoot it, it transforms into a beautiful woman. siegfried is enchanted and closes in on her from behind, but the woman sees her and keeps trying to escape. finally, she catches hold of her and siegfried introduces herself, asking who the woman is and why she is there at the lakeside. the woman explains that she is odette, a princess who has been transformed into a swan by an evil sorceress and can only take her own shape at night. it will be so until the day she finds someone willing to vow to love her eternally. siegfried immediately promises to love her forever, but odette shushes her, hearing the sorceress approach and when she tells her to, siegfried hides in the forest and watches the sorceress speak with odette. finally, everything falls quiet, odette has disappeared and the sorceress too, so siegfried makes her way out into the clearing. suddenly a flock of swans land on the lake, all turning into girls and odette appears, gesturing towards siegfried's crossbow, pleading with her not to aim at any one of the swan maidens. they share a tender moment, odette and siegfried, siegfried lifting the swan queen up with praise and odette surrendering to her a little more for each word. as their witnesses, the swan maidens look upon them as they hold out their innermost thoughts and fears and hopes to each other. when the sorceress returns again to herald the coming of dawn, odette may be forced to change back into a bird, but siegfried sees her off with a promise to love her eternally.

back home in the castle, the queen has arranged for a ball in siegfried's honor. she's invited princes from hungary, russia, spain and italy, but siegfried cannot concentrate on the festivities, she keeps thinking about odette. she has no interest in marrying some prince from a far-away land, she has lost her heart to this beautiful, cursed woman and she intends to set her free with her love. at some point during the night, after she has danced with all four princes and found none of them to live up to odette, von rothbart shows up with a princess in tow, clad in black, but otherwise looking just like odette. siegfried can't believe her eyes, she has to speak to this princess, dance with her, feel her touch to be sure that it's really odette who has come. convinced that it's the woman she loves, she declares her love publicly and faces her mother, the queen, who sees her happiness and her intent, accepting the match with a single nod of her head. siegfried kisses the black-clad odette's hands, promises to love her eternally, but von rothbart breaks them apart, laughing. in a flash of light, right before her eyes, odette loses all her charms and becomes someone else, an unknown girl that siegfried has never seen before and she tells her that her name is odile, she is von rothbart's daughter and now they are to be wed, because siegfried has promised herself to her. von rothbart and she leave, siegfried standing in the middle of the ballroom, devastated and horrified, she has betrayed odette, broken her promise.

running to the forest, to the lakeside, she finds odette hiding amongst the swan maidens. she tries to escape siegfried as the princess approaches, tries to avoid her, to get away, but siegfried follows, begs her forgiveness. once more their emotions collide and move on the same currents, but it is too late. the sorceress, who proves to have been von rothbart all along, will have her way, the spell will never be broken now. von rothbart shows up to break the two apart, but siegfried fights her in order to let odette escape. it is, however, in vain. as the sun rises, she morphs into her swan form once again, cursed to remain that way forever. von rothbart has a gloat over siegfried while the swan maidens take flight from the surface of the lake, finally leaving the princess in the wet dirt at the lakeshore. alone.

in the end, she returns to the castle and a wedding is hastily arranged, because siegfried did give herself to someone that fateful night, odile taking her vows with the same victorious expression on her face that von rothbart herself wears like a crown, knowing she is the one who indirectly reigns the kingdom from here on.