Daryl Cavendish

**Daryl Cavendish** (ダリル・キャベンディッシュ, *Dariru Kyabendisshu*?) is a character in *Little Witch Academia*. She is a witch from the House of Cavendish, the younger sister of the late Bernadette Cavendish, the sister-in-law of Diana's late father, and the maternal aunt of Diana.

## Appearance

Daryl is an elegant middle-aged British woman with a fair complexion. Like her late older sister, niece, and daughters, she has blue eyes and blonde hair with tea-green highlights that she tied in a ponytail. She usually wears a green suit over a white shirt, a yellow tie, and a blue skirt that covers her feet.

In formal situations, she wears an elegant aquamarine dress, a scarf with black feathers, a necklace, and long white gloves.

## Personality

Daryl is an ambitious and greedy white British woman. Unlike the rest of her family, she feels very little respect for the traditions, giving importance solely to money, being able to sell away her family's priceless artifacts. By belonging to a prestigious family, she treats people of great repute with great respect and manners while looking down at ordinary people.

In spite of being a Cavendish, Daryl's opinion on tradition and history of her family was very low, a trait which became apparent when attempting to sell the House of Cavendish's most valuable treasures, a belief that she instilled to her daughters. Her greed made her metaphorically blind to the importance of her family's legacy in that she had no remorse in tarnishing it and outright antagonizing anyone that questions and opposes her (like Akko and her niece Diana). Worse, Daryl didn't realize that her hubris and self-destructive behavior would only bring nothing but harm not only to her whole family but also to herself as she and her daughters ended up exposed to the curse for attempting to interfere the ascension ritual and would have likely perished had Diana not saved her.

After she and her daughters' defeat, Daryl realized how wrong she was in managing her family and accepted Diana's wish to become a better head of House of Cavendish. While still having some differences with her late older sister, Daryl stated that all Bernadette and Diana wanted is for the best of their family and better it.

## Plot

### Background

Daryl was born as the second-born daughter of the House of Cavendish, being her older sister, Bernadette, the heiress of the family. At some point, she had her two daughters, Maril and Merrill with an unnamed man, whose also her older sister's brother-in-law. Daryl was never at all in agreement with the actions of her older sister as head of the family, considering that she placed too much importance on traditions and magic. When her older sister passed away, as her niece Diana was too young to inherit the leadership of the family, Daryl became the unofficial leader of the House of Cavendish. During this time, Daryl was forced to face the decline of family resources due to the increasing disappearance of magic in the world, which led her to fulfill her ideals of putting money over family traditions.

### TV Series

#### Cavendish

Daryl appears for the first time when Diana returns to the Cavendish Manor, receiving her worried by a sudden new presence in the manor. After a cold chat with her, Daryl vanishes in the shadows.

Later, Daryl receives with her daughters to Paul and Andrew Handbridge that had invited to the manor. When seeing Akko with them and then discovering that she does not come from a family of witches, Daryl is indignant at this and demands to leave but Diana demands that they let him stay. During dinner, Daryl reveals that the reason for inviting the Hanbridge was to sell them some of the family heirlooms, including a magic chess set, a mermaid flake candle, and the Beatrix tapestry. When they reject them, Daryl tries to make them change their minds, unleashing a discussion with Diana, leading her to reveal that she would become the head of the House of Cavendish that very night.

#### Intelligence and Sensibility

When Diana heads to the sanctuary to perform the ritual to become the new leader of the family, Daryl sends her snakes to catch her to prevent him from carrying it out. After this she meets with her daughters, informing them of the success of her plan. After Akko releases Diana, Daryl and her daughters try to stop them from reaching the sanctuary, only to fall victim to the curse that protects the ritual, slowly being turned into trees. Diana finally decides to save them, at the cost of losing the opportunity to perform the ritual. When Diana returns to Luna Nova, Daryl expresses to Anna the similarity between Diana and her mother, stating that Diana could re-establish the glory of the House of Cavendish.

#### Tree of Leaves

Daryl is seen next to the rest of the House of Cavendish, giving their Fuel Spirit to Akko and Diana during its battle against the missile.

## Relationships

### Bernadette Cavendish

Daryl disdains her deceased older sister's compassion and stubbornness, claiming it led to the Cavendish family's dire financial situation. She projects those feelings onto Bernadette's daughter Diana (her brother-in-law's daughter), who shows the same traits.

However, after Diana returns to Luna Nova, Daryl admits Diana has what it takes to restore the Cavendish's former glory, revealing a deep love for her older sister despite their differences. Her statement indicated that Daryl and Bernadette may once on the better terms (but not necessarily close) in the past until the burden of preserving Cavendish family's legacy as well as restoring it to its former glory, along with their differences in dealing it all ended up tearing the sisters apart in the first place.

### Diana Cavendish

Daryl and Diana share a cold and distant relationship. Daryl disputed that Diana is the future leader of the family, at the same time Diana reprimand that Daryl does not respect the traditions and pride of the Cavendish. Their relationship eventually becomes tense as Daryl revealed how cruel and sadistic she can be to her by violently attempted to deter her from performing ascension ritual twice that culminated with her and her daughters being exposed to the ritual's terrible curse. It took Diana saving them from the curse that Daryl realized her errors and they finally made amends in the end.

### Maril and Merrill Cavendish

Daryl has a close relationship with her daughters. Both of them are always with her and support her in everything.

### Akko Kagari

Daryl shows a great disdain for Akko to be a student of Luna Nova without belonging to a family of witches, affirming that the school must be losing his reputation by allowing such thing. Upon seeing Akko aiding Diana's escape, she takes no restrain from harming them. But nevertheless, her opinion changed after Diana saved her and her daughters from both the curse and self-destructive behavior.

## Abilities and Equipment

By belonging to the renowned House of Cavendish, Daryl proves to be a skilled witch, able to fly with her magic broom and carries a snake-themed wand in her possession. While her prowess in Revitalization Magic might be pale in comparison to Diana's, she nevertheless excels in other forms of magic, typically snake-themed, such as the Energy Serpent Spell and Shadow Magic that allows her to assume a shadowy form so as to navigate through poorly illuminated areas and even phasing through solid objects and walls.

Lastly, she can command at least three snakes familiars to attack and bind the enemies in their place.

## Etymology

* Daryl is an English name, a variant spelling of Darell, a given name derived from an English surname, which was derived from Norman-French *d'Airelle*, originally denoting one who came from Airelle in France. There are no longer any towns in France called Airelle, but airelle is the French word for huckleberry.
* The meaning of the name "Cavendish" is "Cafna's pasture", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Cafna", itself from "Caf", meaning "bold, daring", plus "edisc", meaning "enclosure or pasture".

## Trivia

* Both Daryl and her daughters have names ended with リル (riru?) in Japanese.
* Daryl's wand used in the episode "Intelligence and Sensibility", has a serpent interwind in the handle, this is likely a reference to the **Rod of Asclepius**, from Greek mythology, which is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, a deity associated with healing and medicine, which is the specialization of magic her family is famous for.
* Daryl was voiced by Jessica Straus in the American English dub, who also voiced Juri Han in *Super Street Fighter 4*, Blue in *Wolf's Rain* and Hitomi in *Witch Hunter Robin.*
* Daryl's Japanese-language voice actress, Shinobu Adachi, also voiced Drizella Tremaine in *Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True*, *Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time*, and *Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep*.

## Gallery

*For more images related to Daryl Cavendish, see the file category:* Category:Images of Daryl Cavendish*.*
### Official art

Diana and Akko's conflict against Daryl and her daughters by Arai Hiroki
### Screen captures

Daryl sarcastically informs Diana about the upcoming visit of acquaintance they know wellDaryl states that she's looking forward for their guests' upcoming visit on the next day

## References

1. ↑ CHARACTER詳細 『リトルウィッチアカデミア』公式サイト
2. ↑ Little Witch Academia Chronicles, Chapter 2, page 57
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/jessicasvoice/status/898428471881248769
6. ↑  *Daryl*
7. ↑  *Darrell*
8. ↑ Surname Database: Cavendish Last Name Origin
9. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0833767/