The King
antagonist · human · the one who faces no consequences
A pleasant man who threatens to kill a stranger three nights running and then marries her.
How we meet them
Making small talk with a miller, which turns out to be the most dangerous thing that happens in the story.
Personality
Affable, entirely reasonable in tone, and completely without imagination about other people.
What they want
More. There is no more complicated reading available.
How they change
From polite curiosity, to a bigger room, to a bigger room than that, to a wedding, without a single moment of self-examination anywhere along the way.
How they speak
Reasonable-sounding sentences containing death threats.
How the story treats them
Nobody in the story ever criticises him, and the tale never punishes him, which is either a flaw or the point depending on how closely you read.
One surprising thing
He escalates twice. After the first room of gold he thinks about it and remembers there is a bigger room along the corridor, and after the second he adds marriage to the terms.
If they were real today
He would ask you for one more small favour on a Friday evening and be surprised you minded.
Key moments
A thoughtful voice
Presented with a room full of gold, he does not thank anybody. He mentions that there is a bigger room along the corridor.
The offer on his way out
On the third night he adds marriage to one side of the scales and death to the other, and leaves her to think about it.
Who they know
He threatens to kill her three times and then marries her, and the story does not treat this as strange.
Characters like The King
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