The Lady

## Voice Clips

**The Lady** is the main and final antagonist of both *Little Nightmares* and *Secrets of the Maw*. She was the proprietress of the Maw and was said to cast the spell that keeps it running. She is the main antagonist of The Lady's Quarters and The Residence chapters.

## Website Description

> *With graceful restraint, The Lady casts the hypnotic spell that keeps the engine running. Amidst the chaos of the world outside, The Maw is the only place that makes sense, and now this rumor of an escaped child threatens everything. Nothing can be allowed to interfere. The Guests must eat. The Maw must survive.*
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## Appearance

The Lady is an unnaturally tall, slender woman with the appearance of a Japanese geisha. She has raven-black hair that she keeps partially wrapped in a bun. She is adorned in a long dark brown kimono, which seems to trail moderately behind her when she walks. Her face is perpetually covered by a white porcelain mask similar to a Japanese Noh mask, through which two lifeless black eyes stare out. In spite of nearly all of her body being covered, the skin tone on her neck seems to be a pale demitasse color.

## Personality

Like the other characters in *Little Nightmares*, the Lady rarely speaks, but her personality is shown through her actions. She elegantly glides across the Maw with unnerving grace and serenity, though she appears to be highly vain and narcissistic, calmly brushing her hair in her bedroom to keep up appearances despite sitting in front of a broken mirror. Running the Maw only fuels her vanity and corruption, as she is perfectly willing to allow the ugly Guests to gorge themselves on meat from questionable sources, with no sort of empathy towards any of the innocent children she has imprisoned and fed to her customers.

It is presumably because of her vanity that she has children kidnapped and slaughtered; the Lady is determined to be the only beautiful person in a world full of hideous monsters and seeks to eliminate the natural beauty she sees in the children brought to her ship, perhaps feeling threatened by it.

In contrast to her narcissism, or because of it, she appears to be unwilling to look at her own reflection, hence her mask and the various shattered mirrors around her living quarters. In the Residence, it is revealed that her reflection appears incredibly deformed, most likely leading her to hate her own appearance.

## *Little Nightmares*

She is first seen at the beginning of *Little Nightmares* in Six's dream, standing in a dark haze before slowly turning around, which causes Six to awaken in a gasp of terror.

When Six observes a surveillance Eye in the Lair, one of the videos show the Lady brushing her hair in front of a broken mirror.

In the Guest Area, she can be seen observing the arrival of the Guests from a deck high above the entryway of the dining hall, her mask simultaneously emotionless yet off-putting in the pale daylight.

While the Guests feed, she retreats back to her private quarters, where she proceeds to stroke her hair and gaze at her reflection in a broken mirror, humming an eerie melody over and over. When Six smashes a vase in order to acquire the key to a peculiar locked room in her quarters, the Lady is startled and vanishes. It seems as though she is nowhere to be found, until Six uses the key to unlock the room and begins to explore its perimeter, only for the door to slam shut behind her with a sudden gust of wind. The Lady materializes from the murky darkness, hovering toward Six at an unnatural speed and voiding a frightful shriek at her. As she rapidly approaches Six, Six narrowly escapes through a small grate in the wall, which takes her to an abandoned room full of mannequins. The Lady, unable to follow, vanishes in a puff of smoke.

After Six uncovers the Lady's one unbroken mirror, hidden away behind disintegrating wooden boards blocking a lonely room, the Lady is seen awaiting Six amidst the mannequins, her back turned to the girl but well aware of her presence. Upon being approached, she vanishes once again, and a darkness consumes the room save for a few spots of light fading in from an unknown source. Six stands in these spots with the mirror as she faces off with the Lady who circles around the girl, intent on finding a suitable chance to strike, but is driven away with a scream of pain each time she gazes upon her reflection. The Lady continues to hover around the child, appearing and disappearing numerous times, watching the girl's every move, and attempts to catch Six off guard by appearing behind her to grab her when she least expects it. This proves to be her undoing, as Six once again turns her reflection against her, causing the Lady to wail in agony as the mirror explodes into shards of glass, knocking both herself and Six into unconsciousness.

When they both awaken, Six finds the Lady panting weakly on the floor, her mask broken from the impact but her face still concealed by the long hair that has come undone from her bun. Overcome with her growing hunger, Six approaches the dying woman and, to the Lady's shock, sinks her teeth into her neck, consuming her flesh while she is still alive. With her death, her powers are transferred to Six, who becomes immersed in a thick black mist swirling all around her.

## *Secrets of the Maw*

### The Hideaway

The Lady's only scene is at the end of the second chapter, when the Runaway Kid ends up on the roof of the elevator she is in. As the camera zooms out, the Lady raises her head up to look at the ceiling, seemingly sensing the Kid's presence.

### The Residence

After sneaking into the Lady's Quarters unnoticed, the Runaway Kid manages to sneak past the room the Lady is currently in. As the boy sneaks past her, the Lady can be seen preoccupied playing with a doll, stroking its head while listening to the calming melody of a music box.

After recovering 2 out of the 3 statues needed for his escape, the Runaway Kid returns to this room, the Lady is gone but the Shadow Kids await to greet him. After the Runaway Kid escaped them, he finds the Lady gazing at herself in a full-body mirror from the seclusion of her personal abode, seen for the first time without her mask. Strangely, this mirror appears to have no ill effect on her, and does not burn or blind her like the mirror Six uses to defeat her. Although the Lady appears to be young and beautiful, her reflection in reality, depicts another self: a hideously deformed old woman with white hair and sagging, melted-looking skin, bearing a physical resemblance to the Wax Bellman or the Granny.

Noticing the Runaway Kid trying to sneak behind her via the mirror reflection, she screams an inhuman shriek, causing the lights to go out and the mirror to shatter. When the Runaway Kid recovers, the Lady is nowhere to be found. As the Runaway Kid flees, the Lady reappears with her mask back in place, she stalks the Kid in the shadows. The Runaway kid soon discovers an unlocked door leading him into a a dark hallway. As he continues his escape, he suddenly levitates, and the Lady reveals herself. She begins to distort his anatomy with magic, the lights start to flicker and the room blacks out. As the room brightens up, the Lady is nowhere to be found. The Lady leaves the Kid, now as a Nome, alone in the Residence.

## *Little Nightmares* (2017 comic series)

### Issue 1

The Lady can be seen waking to her quarters. After arriving, she takes off her mask while the frame zooms in on her right eye, which transitions to The Ferryman rowing to the Maw.

### Issue 2

The Lady can be seen at the end of the comic facing away from Six, who appears to be sneaking into her room through a vent.

## Powers and Abilities

The Lady possesses supernatural powers, which she learned during her residence in the Maw. Prior to her death and the absorption of her powers by Six, she is the only being in the Maw who is shown to use magic. Interestingly, the Lady's presence brings a deathly cold aura, as Six and the Runaway Kid can both see their breath in her midst.

* **Teleportation**: The Lady is able to vanish in a plume of pitch-black smoke and reappear anywhere of her choosing - regardless of distance or blockages, such as rooms whose entryways are locked. Despite this, she seems unable to follow Six through a small grate in the wall and can be seen using an elevator in both the main story and DLC, suggesting this power may have its limitations.
* **Telekinesis**: She can control matter with her mind by gazing at the person or object of her intent and reaching a hand in its direction, as displayed when she lifts Six and the Runaway Kid off the ground on two separate occasions. She also uses this power to hover opposed to walk, blowing out all nearby light sources and casting entire rooms into darkness in the process.
* **Darkness camouflage**: The Lady can seamlessly blend in with the shadows of her surroundings until she chooses to strike. After Six kills and eats the Lady, the lights of The Maw's dining hall can also be seen flickering and breaking, alluding to the Lady having the ability to blot out nearby light sources.
* **Life absorption**: Although never directly seen, it is heavily implied the Lady can steal the life force of other beings, as Six acquires such an ability after devouring her. This ability manifests as trails of wispy black smoke enveloping the corpses of victims.
* **Piercing shriek**: The Lady can create a scream capable of causing the lights go out and powerful enough to shatter mirrors.
* **Nome conversion**: The Lady can rearrange the anatomy of children to turn them into Nomes, as demonstrated with the Runaway Kid. It is also speculated that through this process, she may be able to consume their youth.
* **Spell casting**: The Lady is said to have cast the magic spell which kept the Maw operating, showing she was proficient with casting of spells and enchantments.

## Strategy

The Lady is the strongest enemy in *Little Nightmares*. As with all enemies, she will notice Six if she hears her or if Six gets too close. However, she is unique in that she will immediately catch her on her own.

Six must grab the small intact mirror located in an abandoned dressing room and reflect it in the direction of the Lady, who will soar around the girl and merge with the environment to approaches her by surprise. Six will have to reflect the mirror, under a peculiar source of light, six times. The mirror shatters after the sixth time, leaving the Lady to weak to stand.

In the *Secrets of the Maw* DLC, the Runaway Kid will have to sneak past her several times without making any sounds to alert her attention. Near the end of the DLC, after the Runaway Kid's presence is noted by the Lady through the reflection of the mirror, the Kid can only run to evade her.

## Theories

* It is unknown exactly why, but the Lady is seemingly weak against the mirror that Six wields against her, knocking her back whenever she stares at her reflection. However, in the Residence, the Lady is shown to be able to look at her reflection without harming herself. While the Lady mainly lurks in the darkness, she is also not weak to light, as the DLC shows her to be illuminated in natural lighting as she looks at her reflection. It is currently unknown why the particular mirror Six uses against her is able to harm her.
	+ One possible explanation is that the mirror Six used (which had a darker look than the other ones) was made out of obsidian, due to obsidian mirrors having a mystical approach in various cultures.
	+ Another explanation is that Six received aid during her fight against the Lady from whatever it was that provided the light to shine the mirror. Due to the obscure nature of the lights movements, as well as there being no ceiling lights within the room, a third presence is suspected to have been involved in the final battle.
	+ The Lady's aversion to mirrors may be connected to *Little Nightmares* (2017 comic series), where they are established as showing each viewer their deepest wish; on account of the Lady already achieving her desire through magic, this effect may be reversed for her, showing the Lady her greatest fear instead: unable to gaze at her own beauty as she grows old and monstrous.
* In the Residence, the Runaway Kid comes across many old portraits, statues, and dolls depicting various versions of the Lady's image, long since hidden away in her private quarters. These works of art appear to have existed for quite some time, as they are covered in cobwebs or are broken (indicating that for the Lady to still be alive, she would have to be equally as archaic as these compositions of her). They presumably show the Lady at a time long before her current state, and this can be supported via a large painting at the heart of the Residence which shows the Lady as a human woman without a mask; frowning, pale-skinned and eerily beautiful, matching the appearance of these other artistic likenesses of her. This seems to strongly indicate that the Lady was once greatly revered for her beauty and was a muse for painters and sculptors, until something happened that caused her to be forgotten.
	+ The Runaway Kid also comes across many secret passageways and hidden rooms in the Residence; interestingly, all of these rooms have their own libraries, with books strewn about the floor or left open on a particular page, and are not part of the library that Six travels through as she attempts to escape the Janitor. When asked about the Lady's powers in a PlayStation interview, Tarsier Studios responded: "The Lady has been in The Maw for a long time. She's learned all sorts of unpleasant things during her residence. It's best that we don't scratch the surface." This could indicate that the books in the Lady's private collection are what allowed her to teach herself magic, at the cost of paying a terrible price.
	+ This is further supported by the fact that one of the books in the Residence has a white mask depicted on its cover, bearing a heavy resemblance to the porcelain mask the Lady herself wears as well as those worn by the Shadow Kids she creates. It's possible that the Lady wearing her porcelain mask is what grants her magical abilities or allows her to tap into the magic coursing within her body, and prevents her from being able to look in mirrors while donning it since a white light will blind or burn her. When the Runaway Kid sees the Lady staring at her true reflection, she is not wearing her mask and the mirror is not harming her, unlike the mirror Six uses to defeat her when the Lady *is* wearing her mask; this may mean that mirrors possess some form of magic properties which can be used to repel dark magic like the Lady's.
		- Contrary, the white mask is suspected to be the symbol of her title as governess of the Maw rather than an item which grants her magical abilities as Six is never seen attempting to acquire the mask for herself near the end of the *Little Nightmares* and is instead seen acquiring the Lady's power after killing her. Rather than protect her from any sources of white light, the mask helps protect her from gazing at her full reflection on accident as she conducts her duties as Lady of the Maw. It is only when she chooses to gaze at her reflection in solitude will she remove her mask in front of an intact mirror to verify if her reflection is still hideous. The book with the same white mask is considered her personal book of incantations, with the shadow children being part of her own personal creations.
* The Lady may serve as part of an endless cycle of the Maw, draining the Guests of their essence whilst trying to prevent the "next in line" from usurping her and acquiring her powers. This "successor" theory may be supported by numerous portraits and beheaded statues of young girls and geishas, as well as a portrait in the Lady's Quarters of four other "Lady-like" women seen surrounding the Lady in a circle, possibly alluding to there having been other Ladies throughout the Maw's existence. A similar situation may or may not apply to the Thin Man.
	+ This cycle may involve the Lady being usurped by a young girl who dawns a yellow raincoat as evidenced by the many portraits and pictures seen throughout the Guest Area and the Lady's Quarters, depicting the yellow raincoat.
		- A portrait found in the Lady's Quarters that features a Lady in the center with two Lady's standing on either side of her, their faces being blurred, leaving speculation that the Lady is the fifth Lady to reside within the Maw.
	+ According to the head writer of *Little Nightmares*, the residents of the world have no real motivations or goals in life and instead are fueled by a corrupted base desire or instinct, leaving the suspicion that the Lady may not reside within the Maw to sustain her youth and beauty and is instead there for entirely different reasons. Although she is known to belong within the Maw and has lived within it for a long time, it's speculated that the Lady never attempted to leave the Maw because she had no other choice but to stay, as it was her power which allowed the Maw to survive. This is supported by game descriptions stating that her power kept both the Maw and its engine alive, but never describing the reasons being for her own personal gain. It's unknown what would happen to the Maw if she died, though if her power was the only thing that was necessary to maintain the Maw's life cycle, the Maw itself would likely be doomed to die after her passing and as Six took her power away from the confines of the Maw near the end of the game.
* In the Residence, the Lady turns the Runaway Kid into a Nome. It can be assumed that she is responsible for creating many of the Nomes in the Maw. Her reasons for doing this are unknown, though it's possible that all of the children turned into Nomes are children who saw her without her mask, and therefore were transformed by the Lady to prevent them from revealing to anyone what they saw.
	+ In an interview with Tarsier Studios, when asked "Who came first, The Lady, or the Nomes?", Tarsier responded with "Out of those two? The Nomes." This could imply that the Lady may not be the first to create them, and that there may in fact have been other characters with similar powers before her. This would also explain the existence of the Nomes in the Nest and the Pale City.
* It is possible the Lady may have once been an inhabitant of the Pale City, as her official website description refers to her viewing the world beyond the Maw as "chaos". This may indicate that the Lady fled the mainland and went out to sea because of the Thin Man's extensive influence.
	+ This is supported in *Little Nightmares II* by a secret apartment room Mono can enter via crawling through an open window in the Pale City. Within this room, several noteworthy details suggest the Lady may have once lived there, or is related to whoever resided in this apartment. A dresser located at the far right of the room has a small portrait of the Lady propped on it, and one of the Lady's glass statues (like those Six can find all aboard the Maw) rests on the center of the floor. Several posters written in Japanese, decorated with the symbol of an eye, can also be seen scattered throughout the room.
		- Contrary, the apartment is speculated to belong to a resident of the Pale City who's belongings are meant to signify just how well known the Maw and the Lady are in various parts of the world. The Lady herself is suspected to have originated from another part of the world which had fallen into similar disarray.
	+ It is likely the Hunter and the Lady either have some relation to one another or met at an unidentified time in the past. Various details within the Hunter's Cabin imply his connections to the Lady of the Maw.
		- Several smashed mirrors can be seen throughout his attic, similar to those in the Lady's Quarters. However, the mirrors alone can also be interpreted to be his own as various other residents of the world go to similar lengths to break and hide the mirrors within their own home and space.
		- If the player owns *The Nome's Attic* DLC, they will encounter a Nome hiding in his attic.
		- If the player completes *The Nome's Attic* DLC and reaches the exit through the wall, they will find a poster of the Maw on the floor before completing the DLC.
		- The Hunter's Cabin contains similar portraits observed within the Maw.

## Trivia

* It takes Six exactly 6 times to defeat the Lady with the unbroken mirror.
* The tune that the Lady sings in her quarters before facing Six is titled "*Lure of the Maw*" in the *Little Nightmares* soundtrack.
* In The Residence chapter, the Runaway Kid can come across a secret room (close to where he first enters the Lady's Quarters) by placing two books next to each other that depict the Lady's mask. Inside this hidden room, a large reddish-orange portrait depicting several tortured, screaming faces hangs on the middle of the wall. A table with a glass vase atop it, decorated with the symbol of an eye, rests at the center of this room; next to this table are three petrified children, similar to the children petrified by the enchanted eye in the Prison. If the Runaway Kid climbs on the table and pushes the vase to the floor, it will shatter to reveal that it is actually an urn, as ashes will float across the room upon it breaking. The player will then earn the achievement "Ashes to Ashes". It is unknown whose ashes these belonged to.
* There is a photo in the Lady's Quarters of the Lady standing in front of four other geishas turned facing her direction. Not much is known about this photo.
* The Lady is the enemy that is present in the most chapters. She is seen in a total of six out of eight chapters when including the DLCs.
	+ The Kitchen and The Depths are the only chapters she doesn't appear in.
* In the concept arts for Secrets of the Maw, when the Lady looks into her reflection, the reflection would have shown the Lady's whole body enlarged and distorted. In the official release of the Residence DLC, only the Lady's face and hands are shown to be visibly distorted while the rest of her body remained relatively thin and covered by her kimono.
* Throughout her final battle against Six, the Lady will raise her hands to shield her eyes from the mirror after each blast, implying that the Lady needed to look directly at the mirror in order for it to take full affect against her.
* In the chapter select screen with The Guest Area selected, turning the camera with the arrow keys or a controller towards The Lady's Quarters, The Lady can be seen behind an open doorway with her mask off.

## References

1. ↑ Found in *Little Nightmares*' files.
2. ↑ On the official website.
3. ↑ https://www.thesoundarchitect.co.uk/littlenightmaresinterview/#top
4. ↑ https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/little-nightmares/little-nightmares
5. ↑ [1]
6. ↑ https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2018/02/21/little-nightmares-creators-answer-your-questions-about-the-latest-expansion-to-its-ps4-puzzle-horror/
7. ↑ [2]

Noone • The Counsellor • The Candleman • The Workers • The Prisoners • The Tall Woman • The Child with Gooey Hair • Cici • The Bathers • Jester • The Merchants • The Shopping Mall • The Counsellor's Professor • The Performing Children (Rusty) • The Man in the Purple Suit • The Carnival People • The Dummy • Nomes • The Naughty Kids • The Balloon-Headed Man • The Puppet
Animals • Children • Unidentified Characters