Diana Cavendish

*This article is about the **Diana Cavendish** character. For articles that share the same name, see Diana.*

## Profile

### Hair Color

Platinum blonde hair with tea-green highlights

## Professional Status

### Occupation

Witch
Student

## Relationships

### Parents

Unnamed Father †
Bernadette Cavendish (Mother) †

### Other relatives

Daryl Cavendish (Aunt)
Maril and Merrill Cavendish (Cousins)
Beatrix Cavendish (Ancestor)

## Voice Actors

### English

Laura Post

**Diana Cavendish** (ダイアナ・キャベンディッシュ, *Daiana Kyabendisshu*) is a teenage girl who comes from an ancient family of magic users in Britain and is a famous student at Luna Nova Magical Academy.

## Description

### Appearance

Diana is a very beautiful young witch with pale skin, light blue eyes, and platinum blonde hair with side-swept bangs and tea-green highlights.

### Personality

Diana is serious, composed, and erudite. Being descended from a prestigious line of witches back to ancient times, she is exceptionally devoted to her magical studies and to the tradition and history of magic. Her status as Luna Nova's best student cannot be solely attributed to heredity — she has a self-disciplined and maturity far surpassing the average teenage girl.

She is confident in the superiority of her philosophy of magic where it differs from Akko's, one of the reasons Akko considers her to be her rival (although Diana never did). Like most students, she claims Shiny Chariot to be a fraud, but in actuality is hinted to have been a fan of her. This was confirmed in "A New Beginning" where she was in the midst of the crowd in the flashback and in "Cavendish". In "Intelligence and Sensibility", as Akko expresses her feelings of hope that Diana will be able to achieve her goal for her mother's wish and love her and the academy with all her heart, Diana starts to feel comforted and understood at that moment. In the following end, she and Akko became friends at that moment.

Despite appearing to be callous and condescending, Diana is not heartless nor arrogant: when she chastises other students it is not out of malice but frustration, she cares about the success of others studies and not just her own. This concern contributes to her dependability, she is willing to help out other students to her best ability whenever they ask.

Due to her pride in her own abilities and a strong sense of responsibility, she refuses to take credit for other's doing and always admits her mistakes, although she's unable to speak up to teachers due to the trust they have in her (such as being unable to tell Ursula that she was the one to free the dragon in the first OVA, and being unable to tell the teachers that it was Akko who awoke the Pappiliodya in the second episode of the TV series).

The extent of Cavendish's selfless sense of duty is revealed in the eponymous episode — she is ready to leave her beloved Luna Nova Magical Academy and give up the remainder of her childhood to preserve her family's legacy. She holds no contempt for Akko for being chosen for the role she sought to fulfill all her life and wishes her nothing but success. Her behavior at Luna Nova is seen in a more noble light— she didn't brag about being descended from one of the Nine Olde Witches and kept her orphanhood secret, wanting neither unearned respect nor pity. Despite her seeming to be very prideful, she has insecurities: even with her prestige and high social standing at school, she is too embarrassed to admit anything less than contempt for Shiny Chariot. This could explain why she surrounds herself with sycophants, although she does not let Hannah and Barbara praise her excessively.

## Etymology

* "Diana" is probably derived from an old Indo-European root meaning "heavenly, divine".
* 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".
	+ "Cavendish" can also be interpreted as a joke on her characteristic blonde and green hair, as Cavendish is a common strain of bananas that were popularized in Britain.
	+ Cavendish is a British noble family that has been one of the richest and most influential aristocratic families in England since the 16th century

## Trivia

* Despite being British, in the English dub, she lacks an actual British accent, having more of a mixed accent instead. This is because her voice actress, Laura Post, is not of British descent.
	+ Laura Post also voices Ragyō Kiryūin. Similarly, Akko and Lotte's English voice actress, Erica Mendez and Stephanie Sheh, also voices Ryūko Matoi and Nui Harime respectively.
* Diana's birthday of April 30th coincides with the Germanic festival of Walpurgisnacht, or Walpurgis Night, which celebrates the start of summer. In German folklore, it was when the German Christians prayed to God through Saint Walpurgia to protect them from witchcraft.
* Diana's personality in first and second short films contrasted to what later established in anime, as she shown more snobbish and arrogant. In fact, she called Akko names and belittled her for being Chariot's fan and even made fun of her alongside Hannah and Barbara while in the series she was more reserved and merely criticized Akko from a genuine point of view. Though not confirmed, said change is likely done to so she and Akko can gradually become close friends, making the character' anime iteration much more likable.
	+ On a related note, during the short film's development, Diana was originally intended to be a downright bully as bad as, if not worse than Hannah and Barbara and therefore and not a top student as in final versions.
	+ Ironically, Yō Yoshinari regretted toning down unpleasant and immature aspects in Diana's character for her TV Series iteration and wished he made them more prominent than they were. Moreover, he also wanted her and Akko quarrel more prior of becoming friends as all of it made her too perfect than intended.
		- This could be attributed to her portrayal in [[Keisuke Satō manga adaptation of the series and The Nonsensical Witch and the Country of Fairies where she is shown more antagonistic towards Akko albeit not to the same extent as with in short films.
* According to Yōko Hikasa during Studio TRIGGER's promotional livestream of *Chamber of Time* when inquired about Diana's future after Luna Nova, she proposes that Diana would embrace her childhood dream and then combine it with her current dream and become a traveling performer dedicated to sharing her family's magic around the world.
* Two short comics revolving drawn by Shiori Miyazaki which she originally posted at her Twitter account before it was no longer online (one about Diana mildly envious by improvement on Barbara and Lotte's friendship, and another revolving the heiress preparing cakes for everyone prior to Akko's first flight) impressed Yoshihiro Miyajima that he decided to make them canon to the anime TV series in his Twitter post in 28 June, 2017.
* In November 12, 2020, Yusuke Yoshigaki posted an image depicting Diana in her iteration of Shiny Chariot costume in his Twitter account which, unlike Akko's that featured in *Enchanted Parade* movie, sports elements found in typical phantom thieves, most notably the red domino mask.