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Suzanne Blanchet is a witch who was a victim of the Burning Times and the primary antagonist of Spellbinder. Her spirit was unintentionally summoned by Thea Harman, and she used it as an opportunity to kill humans who reminded her of the torture she and her siblings went through. Fortunately, through the combined efforts of Thea and Eric Ross, Suzanne was sent back to the Other Side before she could kill any more people.
Background[]
According to a book in Grandma Harman's store, Suzanne was born 1634 in Esgavans on the day that bonfires were made for the peace between France and Spain. She was tried 1653 at Ron-chain, prisoner at the court of Rieux. She was charged for "bewitching men's corn, killing cattle, bringing hunger into the country, and strangling babies with her long hair." Suzanne denied it, so they tortured her by stretching her on the rack. She screamed that she was innocent of these accusations, but being more tightly stretched, Suzanne said that it was true. Because of this, Suzanne's ten-year-old brother Clèment and six-year-old sister Lucienne were tortured. Ultimately, they were burned alive, because the executioner wasn't paid enough to give them "the mercy of being strangled before burning." This was all done before Suzanne's very eyes. After she herself was consigned to the fire, Suzanne uttered several exclamations, crying out upon revenge.
Spellbinder[]
In the process of casting a spell to summon the spirit of Phoebe Garner to protect Eric, Thea is interrupted by Blaise Harman trying to stop her, mistakenly believing that she was summoning a spirit to attack her. During the brief skirmish, Suzanne's amulet accidentally falls in the spell's balefire, summoning her instead. She knocks Thea and Blaise down, before escaping to the outside world.
Eventually, Suzanne makes her way to Lake Mead High School. In the gym, she finds Kevin Imamura preparing for the Halloween party. The witch dummies and horror booths remind Suzanne of her torturers, so she killed Kevin by strangling him with her hair. Later, Thea and Eric find his body and alert the authorities of their discovery. The gym is effectively closed down, keeping Suzanne at rest until it is reopened for the Halloween party.
When Halloween comes around, Thea and Eric prepare a sending-back for Suzanne. The plan is to lure her to them by using Eric as bait, but Thea is taken away by the Inner Circle, forcing Eric to start without her. Thea manages to get away from the Inner Circle and makes her way to the desert, where she finds Eric fighting Suzanne. As Thea starts the spell to send Suzanne back, the spirit fights back and strangles Eric. Only by "calling upon her own power as a daughter of Hellewise", is Thea successful in sending Suzanne across the veil. Before she disappears, Suzanne tries to reach out to Thea.
Physical Appearance[]
An exact description of Suzanne isn't given, but she is said to be a woman "made of vapor, with arms and legs only suggested . . ." Thea states she looks surprisingly youthful, guessing that she is only a year or so older than herself. A notable feature of Suzanne is her long mahogany hair, which she can use as a weapon by strangling her victims to death. Additionally, Suzanne is described by Thea to have a "pale face and huge sad eyes."
Personality[]
Throughout Spellbinder, Suzanne displayed a deep hatred towards humans, which stemmed from the fact that their kind tortured and killed her as well as her siblings. She was more than capable of killing humans, even if they were innocent. Had Thea and Eric not sent her back, she would've killed the entire student body of Lake Mead High School.
However, it should be remembered that Suzanne was only a victim of the Burning Times, and the torture she and her siblings went through obviously affected her, as her spirit lingered on awaiting the day she could exact her vengeance. Furthermore, Suzanne appeared to regret her actions by the end of Spellbinder. Thea noted that her face had an "expression of infinite sadness . . .", implying a sense of remorse.
Powers and Abilities[]
Witch[]
- Spell Casting: Witches will use natural mediums (stones, plants, animal parts, etc.) and incantations in order to focus their power to achieve a specific goal. Also integral to spell casting is the intentions and emotional level of the witch casting it.
- Potion Making: Witches are able to brew special potions for a given aim. This can include truth serums and potions to make a person forget things. The more powerful potions are sealed and kept from most witches to prevent misuse.
- Crafting: Using a combination of spells, potions and gems, witches are capable of crafting talismans with magical effects.
- Precognition: A rare ability among witches is the power to see the future; this ability can vary and be either very weak or quite strong. As such, those that can, such as the Maiden Aradia, are revered. Those witches that possess this technique cannot fully control when their visions come.
- Retrocognition: A form of precognition but instead of seeing future events, witches can perceive events happening in the present.
- Mental Manipulation: Similar to vampires, witches can, even without touching a human, influence their minds, implanting new ideas and notions directly into the brain.
- Witchlight: Notably due to the rise of the Old Powers, witches have developed a power known as witchlight: the manifestation of energy in the form of colored flames that can be used as an attack technique. Noted colors have been orange and amber, although the spectrum and strength of such colors are unknown (though the only one unavailable to ordinary witches is blue).
Spirit[]
- Hair Manipulation: Suzanne's notable power is her ability to use her long hair as a means of strangling her victims to death.
- Intangibility: After being summoned, Suzanne displayed the ability to switch between tangibility and intangibility. She was seen escaping through a window "as if the glass didn't exist." Also, Suzanne's hair could shift between being "like a scarf of sub-zero wind" to "the tentacle of some alien creature with ice for blood."
Weaknesses[]
Witch[]
- Mortality: Due to having similar physiology to humans, witches are susceptible to many of the weaknesses humans are, including disease and old age. They can be heavily injured, and are also known to have allergic reactions to substances, including spells, as the Maiden Aradia had once been accidentally poisoned by a truth potion and suffered a near-fatal reaction to it.
- Iron: akin to wood for vampires, the element of iron acts like a poison to the bloodstream of a witch, and is extremely lethal to their kind.
Spirit[]
- Witchcraft: Spirits are vulnerable to the effects of witchcraft, as it can be used to send them across the veil to the Other Side - effectively banishing them from the living world.
Etymology[]
The name Suzanne (also spelt Susanne) is the French form of the name Suzanna/Susanna, which is derived from the Hebrew name Shoshanna, meaning "lily".
The surname Blanchet, usually spelt as Blanchett or Blanchette, is French and most likely derived from the word "blanc", which is French for "white".
Suzanne Blanchet's name could then perhaps be roughly translated as "white lily".
Trivia[]
- Suzanne is the first spirit to appear in the series.
- Interestingly, Suzanne shares some similarities to the character of Gary Fargeon.
- Both Suzanne and Gary were witches when they were alive; before becoming spirits.
- Both of them were called back to the living world by a Harman witch, albeit through different methods.
- They were the antagonists of the story they appeared in.
- Ultimately, both of them returned to the afterlife through the actions of a Harman. In Suzanne's case, it was being sent back through a spell performed by Thea. In Gary's case, it was finding peace through his cousin Gillian.
- Both attempted (and in Suzanne's case, succeeded) to kill humans; Suzanne killed Kevin and tried to kill Eric and the Lake Mead students in revenge for her unjust death, whilst Gary tried to kill David Blackburn so that he could inhabit his body.
- It is said spirits that are angry or have unfinished business in the living world don't go to the Other Side when they die; instead they are trapped in the between-place. This could imply that Suzanne herself was in that plane before being summoned by Thea.
- Suzanne does not have a traditional witch name, although some witches' names or surnames translate to mean "white" or "bright". Her first name - meaning lily - could also be seen as a traditional lamia name.
Appearances[]
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