The Hen
antagonist · hen · the expert on everything
Mistress of the cottage, layer of excellent eggs, and completely certain about water.
How we meet them
Establishing the rules of the house within about a sentence of him arriving.
Personality
Brisk, superior, and convinced that her kindness is what makes her worth listening to.
What they want
To be agreed with.
How they change
She has no arc whatsoever, which is the joke. She is exactly the same at the end as at the beginning and considers this a strength.
How they speak
Short questions designed to prove a point, followed by instructions to be quiet.
How the story treats them
The old woman cannot see well enough to have an opinion and the cat agrees with her, which she takes as unanimous.
One surprising thing
She and the cat always say we and the world, and by the world they mean themselves, and at a stretch the old woman.
If they were real today
She would tell you she was only saying it for your own good, and genuinely believe it.
Key moments
Can you lay eggs?
Her entire test for whether somebody's opinion counts, delivered as a reasonable question.
“Then be so good as to hold your tongue.”
For your own good
She explains that neither she, nor the cat, nor the old woman wants to swim, that they are the cleverest people he knows, and that this settles it.
Who they know
The Ducklingrival
She decides what counts as an ability, and then measures him against it.
Characters like The Hen
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