Margaret Burton

**Margaret Burton (マーガレット・バートン, *Māgaretto Bāton*)** is a main character in the Madlax anime series, and, along with Madlax, the main protagonist.

## Description

Margaret is in high school and is 17 years old. She has blue eyes and brown hair. In the early episodes she is most often seen wearing her light pink school uniform.

Margaret does not remember her parents, nor she have any memories prior to 12 years ago, when she was involved in a mysterious plane crash.

She possesses an ancient book of Elies characters called Secondary. Margaret Burton is one of the few humans who possesses The Talent.

## History

Twelve years before, Margaret and her mother were flying in a plane that was involved in a crash. Colonel Richard Burton, who left to independently search for his wife and daughter, also went missing and never returned home. Several months after the plane was declared missing, Margaret showed up at the Burton's residence without any memory of the accident or of what she's been doing for the last few months. She even forgot how to speak and communicate like a normal five or six year old. The only thing she remembers is the word "Madlax".

Episode 20 reveals further information. When Madlax is looking at the Thirstary, Margaret gazes at her Secondary, and the two girls see the same flashback. Twelve years ago, in a ruined city that looks much like the other world, Margaret was reunited with her father. However, a second five or six year old girl--clearly Madlax---appears and shoots Colonel Burton, killing him. In episode 21, we learn that Magaret's plane got caught up in a storm of magical energy caused by Friday Monday opening the door to The Other World. The plane crashed and the only survivors were Margaret and a boy named Poupee. The two children tried their best to survive in an area that had suddenly erupted into a violent war-zone (thanks to Friday's wish for war and chaos). Sadly, however, Poupee died protecting Margaret. She was reunited with her father, but only minute later, he was shot and killed by Madlax, who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

The next several episodes are very difficult for Margaret as she loses Vanessa and Eleanor, falls under Friday's mind control, and comes to hate Madlax. However, she finally learns the whole truth in episode 25. There was one more piece of her memories missing. While Colonel Burton was happily reuniting with his little daughter, he didn't realize his enemy, Friday Monday, was still nearby. Friday used the words Elda Taluta, Sarkus Sark, and Ark Arukus on Margaret's father, which caused him to try to kill his own daughter. Margaret didn't want to die, but she also couldn't bear to shoot her father. So her soul split into three pieces. One piece stayed with her, and she became the ditsy, spacey Margaret we know today. The second piece of the soul became Madlax, who was given a body thanks to the magic coming in from The Other World. Madlax took it upon herself to do what Margaret could not, killing Colonel Burton. The third piece of the soul became Leticia, who took her name from the doll that five year old Margaret always kept with her.

Once she learns the whole truth, Margaret decides to recall Madlax and Leticia back to her soul, meaning they cease to exist as separate entities, but live on as part's of Margaret's personality. Now that she is whole, Margaret can use The Talent to open the Door of Era and make a wish. She ends up wishing for Madlax and Leiticia to reappear, this time with genuine human bodies. Madlax reappears and after finishing off Friday Monday and Enfant, she drives off into the sunset with Limelda Jorg taking care of her. As for Margaret, she asks the human Leticia to come back to Nafrece and live with her as her little sister. That way, neither of them are alone. Leticia is happy to accept. It's possible that Margaret made more than one wish. Since the chaos and fighting that had broken out in episode 25 is completely gone by the end of episode 26, it could mean that Margaret wished for peace in Gazth-Sonika.

Some fans question why she didn't wish for Eleanor and Vanessa to come back to life, but we don't know if resurrecting humans is something The Other World can do. It may be that the trope is present where it's possible to recreate a body but not a soul. Leticia and Madlax's souls came out of Margaret, so that's why they could return to existence. Even if that's not the case, it seems clear that Margaret wants to take responsibility for everything she's done, and accept life how for how it is, so not resurrecting Vanessa and Eleanor seems more in her character. In contrast, she owed it to Madlax and Leticia to give them back their lives, since she was the one who took them.

## Margaret's Relationships

* Eleanor Baker is Margaret's legal guardian and household maid. The two seem very close, and Margaret depends on Eleanor a lot. Some fans suggest that there is romantic attraction between Margaret and her devoted maid, but this is never explicitly stated or shown.
* Vanessa Rene is Margaret's neighbor and former tutor. At first, Margaret can't remember Vanessa, but regardless, the two start getting along very well in a short time. Margaret thinks of Vanessa almost as a parental figure, and enjoys spending time with her.
* Madlax is meets Margaret at the end of episode 18 and seems to like her at once, though Madlax isn't very amicable. In episode 20, Margaret states she cares for Madlax (anato wo suki), and doesn't believe Madlax is just some heartless mercenary. The young Ojou-sama's feelings start to change after she sees a flashback of Madlax shooting her father twelve years ago. After tragedy strikes in episode 22 and Margaret loses a friend, she blames Madlax, and shoots her. She shoots Madlax again at the start of episode 25. However, when Margaret finally learns the whole truth and the reason why Madlax killed her father, she once again finds it in herself to care for the mercenary girl. After all, Madlax is a piece of Margaret's soul.
* Carossur Don becomes fast friends with Margaret in episode 13 when they discuss Secondary and the fact that both of them are missing memories from before twelve years ago. Margaret says she and Don are "nakama," meaning comrades or two of the same kind. Carossur Don had been going out of his way to protect Margaret since episode 8 when he lied to Friday Monday, and as the episodes progress, it becomes clear he is very attached to the young Ojou-sama. He calls her "my cute little angel," in episode 20. When the truth of Don's past is revealed in episode 21, his affection for Margaret makes more sense. His original self, Poupee, had been in love with Margaret, and died protecting her from a bullet. Margaret doesn't cry when Carossur disappears, but she seems like she's in a daze or in shock in episode 22..
* Leticia seems strangely connected to Margaret somehow, but although the two girls see each other in dreams, they don't ever interact in reality. Not until the end, that is, when the truth about Leticia is made clear. She was another piece of Margaret's soul who took her name from Margaret's beloved doll. Reborn as a human in episode 26, Leticia decides to live with Margaret and become her little sister.
* Anne Morey was friends with Margaret before she killed herself in episode 4.
* Kiara (last name unknown) is one of Margaret's friends from school.
* Charlie Winston eventually comes to be Margaret's friend since they're both searching for Vanessa.

## Personality

Margaret is generally a kind person, faithful to those she loves, often very absent-minded, and absorbed in her own thoughts. As we see from episode 2 and episode 6, she frequently sleeps in class or stares out the window. She also experiences vivid dreams, flashbacks, and hallucinations that make her seem "out of it." The strange and colorful dreams easily trouble her. In episode 2, Margaret zones out while at the dinner table and suddenly remembers a flashback; while it's happening, she's completely unaware of reality around her. She sometimes says things that don't make much sense, like saying she can't stay at school because it's going to rain, or that she feels like Vanessa is right beside her when in reality she's in another country (episode 12). When she returned from being missing twelve years ago, Margaret lost more than just her memories. She forgot how to talk and communicate, again showing a tendency to mentally dissociate easily. Because Margaret so readily loses touch with reality, she quickly falls under Friday Monday's mind control in episodes 23 to 25.

Sometimes, Margaret believes in the goodness of others when there is no real reason to think so. For instance, in episode 4, Margaret remains convinced that her senpai Anne was a kind person, even though she ended up killing her own father. In episode 8, Margaret keeps believing in the goodness of Eric Gillan, even though he doesn't contact her about the book she requested. When he finally sends a letter saying how he won't be able to find the book, Margaret can tell he was crying when he wrote the letter, and doesn't think of him as a swindler, which is what Eleanor called him. Even though she had every right to be suspicious of such a powerful and cunning man, Margaret warms up to Carossur Don quickly in episode 13 and continues spending time with him even after finding out he was originally going to take Secondary from her by force. In episode 20, Margaret is insistent that Madlax isn't some cold-hearted war machine, but rather, "a kind killer." Even in the final episode, she says she believes Madlax is in deep emotional pain every time she has to kill people, and she could never enjoy it. The facts say otherwise, but Margaret holds to her beliefs.

Despite her general air-headedness, Margaret sometimes shows keen intuition about people or about certain dangers. For example, she doesn't trust Moreas Lopez when she meets him at the party in episode 6. She senses danger at the hotel in episode 9, when there is a sniper nearby. She was only in a half-conscious state when Naharu tried to steal Secondary in episode 13, but when Margaret sees Naharu again in episode 14, she instantly knows she's the one who came into her room, and the one who's been watching her. In episode 19, the young Ojou-sama refuses to let Madlax look at the Secondary because she senses that Madlax might cease to exist. Early on, Margaret seems to realize that she's missing memories, which is why she treasures the picture book and why she was obsessed with red shoes in episode 2. She intuitively knows these things are related to her mysterious past.

Margaret's eerie intuition about things, and the way she always seems out of it, may be due to her closeness to the other world. She frequently sees Leticia and Poupee in her dreams, and in episode 9, she sees Leticia's spirit in the woods. Carossur Don says in episode 16 that Margaret is much closer to "that place," than him.

At her best, Margaret is a sweet, caring, wise, and imaginative person. She would do anything for the people she loves. She's willing to go to Gazth-Sonika to find Vanessa even if it means risking her life. Because she cares so much about her loved ones, though, Margaret can "snap" easily when she loses someone. She finds herself wishing Madlax would die after discovering in episode 20 that Madlax shot her father. Blaming the loss of Vanessa on the mercenary girl. Margaret shoots and genuinely attempts to kill Madlax in episode 22. She tries again in episode 25 and shoots Madlax five times. All the while, she is under the spell of Friday Monday, and calling him "father."

Thus, at her worst, Margaret is a vengeful, murderous person as well as someone who tries to escape reality by mentally dissociating. Madlax's creation twelve years ago happened because Margaret couldn't find the courage to shoot her father, even to save her own life. She lost her memories because she couldn't cope with the truth. Margaret apologizes for these tendencies of hers at last in the final episode. In the end, she does more than enough to make it up to Madlax and Leticia.

## Trivia

* Margaret's full stats, according to Enfant, are shown in Episode 20. From this screencap, her info is as followed:
	+ Her birthday is July 16, 1992
	+ Her age in the series is 19.
	+ She's around 158 cm in height, making her 5 feet.
	+ She weighs 45 kg, making her 99 lb.