Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha

Template:Infobox character**Lucinda**, **Ruby**, and **Martha** are a group of witches from the Serena Valentino novels *Fairest of All*, *The Beast Within*, *Poor Unfortunate Soul*, *Mistress of All Evil*, and *Mother Knows Best*. They are the antagonists of the stories, being responsible for the sufferings and corruption of the titular characters.

## Background

### Personality

The characters are shown to be extremely manipulative and also extremely sadistic, reveling in twisting people's lives while making sure those they cursed were permanently cursed. This is especially evident with their corruption of the Evil Queen as well as how they tried many times to sabotage Beast's chances of ever undoing the curse. They also have no qualms about manipulating or even harming their own family members, as evidenced by tricking their sister Circe into conducting a fool's errand as well as later putting her into a coma specifically to prevent her from interfering with the Beast's spell. However, they are civil to some degree, as they abhor hostility or even disrespect to themselves or close ones, which led to them cursing those responsible.

### Physical appearance

The characters are described as being "doll-like", having porcelain skin, almost a wooden texture to them, as well as having huge eyes and black hair, wearing paint that covers most of their faces. However, there are variances to each of the three. They are apparently immortal, or at least have an extremely long lifespan, as it was mentioned that their corruption of the Evil Queen occurred "years" before.

## Appearances

### *Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen*

The sisters are first seen attending the wedding of their cousin, The First King and his new wife, the Evil Queen, who finds them very strange upon their first meeting.

They introduce the Evil Queen to the practices of alchemy and potion making. They leave her many of their magical possessions, such as spell books, a cauldron, and various ingredients as presents for the Queen.

They also give the Queen an enchanted mirror which contains the spirit of her deceased father. They give an incantation to the Queen for her to recite to the mirror when she wants to summon him. Eventually, The Queen grows annoyed of their random appearances at the castle and forces them to leave. Shocked, they leave in despair, with a newfound dislike for the Queen.

### *The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince*

The sisters have a more major role in the sequel, also being given names. Years after their corruption of the Evil Queen, they proceeded to encourage their youngest sister, Circe, into cursing the Prince after he coldly dismissed her for being a commoner. They accompany Circe to the Prince's castle to place the curse on him that will turn him into a beast. During the curse, they spy on the Prince through the Enchanted Mirror, and also send their cat Pflanze to spy on him as well.

Although Circe felt bad about the curse, Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha harbored no remorse for the curse and fully intended that the Prince remain cursed, despite it being against Circe's wishes that they not interfere. To this end, when Belle fled the castle, they sent the wolf pack after Belle to kill her, knowing full well she stands a chance to break the curse. Though this ironically ensured Belle and Beast's love for each other grew stronger when the latter saved her from the wolves.

In order to ensure Circe didn't stop them during this instance, they also send Circe on an errand to bargain Ursula for the Beast's former beau's life in exchange for a deal the sisters had made with the sea witch. When Circe returns, the sisters trap Circe in a coma to keep her from causing more trouble. Afterwards, they then have Belle return to her father but she ruins their plans by revealing the Prince's cursed existence to the town. So they manipulate events to have the Beast killed by his former friend, Gaston, and swaying the Beast into releasing him to ensure Gaston stabs Beast in the back before dying. However, Circe awakens and manages to undo the curse just in time when Belle announces her love for the dying Beast, much to her sisters' horror. Circe then threatens her sisters to never ruin Belle and the Prince's life ever again, or she will sell their voices to Ursula, at which they reluctantly comply.

### *Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch*

The sisters are first seen receiving a visit from Ursula, in her human guise of Vanessa. She requests their help in disposing of her brother King Triton, and in exchange she will help them locate and contact their estranged sister Circe, as well as give them Ariel's soul for a spell.

Throughout the novel, they get more and more worried about their deal with Ursula because of a message that was given to them by Maleficent, that told them to cut all ties with her.

They eventually go to the Morningstar castle, the home of Princess Tulip (the Beast's fiancée prior to Belle), where they learn from Tulip's nanny, a fellow witch, that Ursula has no intention of keeping her end of their bargain because she is keeping Circe as a bartering tool in her garden of souls.

The sisters then display a moment of heroism as they recite various incantations to help Prince Eric defeat Ursula once and for all and kill her. They succeed in doing so and saving Circe in the process, however the magic takes it toll on the Odd Sisters placing them in a deathlike slumber.

### *Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy*

The Odd Sisters play a much smaller part in the fourth installment of the series. They are still in a deathlike slumber, like Princess Aurora, whom they torment and tease throughout their entire stay. It is revealed they own a book of fairy tales that tells history in the form of prophecies. It is also revealed that Circe isn't their much younger sister (as they always told her), but their daughter.

Maleficent and Nanny have a past with the sisters. They foresaw Maleficent's future of becoming evil and did nothing to prevent it.

### *Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch*

The sisters appear in the fifth book having met their match in Mother Gothel, with whom they have a strained relationship with.

They first meet Gothel, hundreds of years ago, offering to help save her older sisters, Hazel and Primrose, from death in exchange for access to information on her mother’s magic. Gothel immediately places her trust in the sisters, however, her protector Jacob, becomes suspicious of their motives. When Gothel finds a way to save her sisters with the rapunzel flower, they try this, only to discover that one flower is not enough to save them and Hazel and Primrose suffer a horrible and gruesome death.

The Odd Sisters then place a heartbroken Gothel in an enchanted sleep for many years, with the flower maintaining her youth and Jacob watching over her. When Gothel wakes up, unbeknownst to her, the sisters found a way to enchant the barrier separating the dead woods from the Kingdom of Corona, so the that the King’s soldiers can claim the flower to save the ailing Queen’s life.

The sisters then help Gothel settle into a new home, with a new housekeeper named Ms. Tiddlebottom who is oblivious to Gothel’s past and what she plans to do. After getting settled, Gothel never sees the sisters again for many years, as they have become preoccupied with more pressing matters involving Circe. When Gothel begins losing faith, she catches them trying to steal the last remaining rapunzel flower so they can use it heal Maleficent, to which Gothel refuses and begins to hoard the flower for herself. Gothel sees the odd sisters again on Rapunzel's eighth birthday, when they try to resurrect Hazel and Primrose, using the magic in Rapunzel‘s hair, only to be interrupted by Ms. Tiddlebottom.

The sisters, under orders from Gothel, place Rapunzel in a dreamlike sleep and wipe her memory of Ms. Tiddlebottom and the cottage, and they wipe Ms. Tiddlebottom‘s memory of Rapunzel and what happened.

The sisters, who by this time are in the dreamscape, then try to help Rapunzel realize that she is the lost princess, by manipulating Flynn Rider to break into the tower with the stolen crown thus starting their romance. However Circe orders them to stop interfering and takes away the mirrors that they have been using to spy on the events.

### *The Odd Sisters: A Tale of the Three Witches*

Aside from appearing in Serena Valentino's main Villains series, it has been announced that the Odd Sisters will get their own book/series after book 5 in the Villains series is released. Artist Pablo Santander will be working with Valentino, and providing illustrations of the Odd Sisters.

## Trivia

* The presence of the Odd Sisters in these books indirectly connects several Disney stories/kingdoms together.
* It is unclear exactly where they live. While *The Beast Within* suggests they live in the same kingdom as Belle and Beast, they could very likely live somewhere else and teleport to the kingdom when they place the curse on the Beast.
	+ It is revealed in Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch that their house is mobile, and is transported to new locations through magic; it's last known location being sent back to the void where it was created, with Circe and Snow White trapped inside.
* Due to being related to Snow White and her father, who are both royalty, it is possible that the sisters and Circe are considered nobility or royalty in Snow's kingdom.
* It is mentioned in Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch, that The sisters corrupted Cinderella's evil stepsisters Anastasia, and Drizella, and up until now it was unknown Lady Tremaine was corrupted as well.
	+ In the The odd sisters book, it's mentioned they corrupted several others in forms of jewelry and totems and other clothing called *items of power* such as Hades' skull garment, Dr. Facilier's talisman, Queen of hearts earrings and Cruella De vil's earrings.
	+ they are several items that were already known to corrupting people including The Magic Mirror, Ursula's necklace, Mother Gothel's earrings, Cruella De Vil's earrings, and Lady Tremaine's Brooch
		- There are several other jewelry and items, that have not yet been identified, though through guessing includes, Jafar's jewel turban, Madame Medusa's earrings.

## References

Template:Reflist

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ [2]