History Fanfic / HopeForTheHeartless

* BadDreams: Avalina gets these several times. In one of them she's included to the event of the Horned King creating [[DemBones the Cauldron-Born]] in the movie, which ends with her being killed by them. In another one, the Cauldon-Born are advancing unstopped throughout Prydain, killing one by one Mitternacht, Arran and Avalina's mother, with Avalina being killed by the Horned King at the end. It's revealed that these dreams are caused by [[DreamWeaver Arawn]] who's trying to keep Avalina's fear of the Horned King fresh. The Invisibles can drive Arawn away from her nightmares, but they cannot prevent natural bad dreams.

* MythologyGag: The Invisibles nickname the Horned King as "the ol'Bonehead". This is a reference to ''Creator/{{Disney}}'' animators' protest against [[ExecutiveMeddling the producers' renaming]] of their movie ''Basil of Baker Street'' into a more American-sounding ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective''. They wrote [[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/09/seven-little-men-help-girl.html a hilarious list]] of "new American titles" for past Disney movies, such as ''[[Disney/{{Cinderella}} The Girl with the See-through Shoe]]''. ''The Black Cauldron'' was renamed as… ''The Evil Bonehead''.

* SillyLoveSong: When Avalina rides with the Horned King to her secret ridge, ThePrankster Invisibles start singing loudly a parodied version of [[Disney/TheLionKing "Can You Feel The Love Tonight"]], much to the first Invisible's discomfort. The fourth Invisible joins in, leading poor Dusty to run with its ears covered.

* WholePlotReference: The story has more than one similarity to the infamous ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' story; a young smart peasant girl is imprisoned in a scary castle for months by a monstrous royalty who must earn a human's love to save himself from a FateWorseThanDeath. Slowly the [[MoralityPet prisoner]] and her [[LimaSyndrome captor]] grow closer, with a turning point being when the captor scares the prisoner into fleeing the castle on horseback and saves her from SavageWolves, nearly dying in the process. The prisoner then nurses her captor back to health.

''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10455567/1/Hope-For-The-Heartless Hope For The Heartless]]'' is a ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'' fanfic by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5180544/TheCacklingCactus TheCacklingCactus]], featuring as the main character the Horned King, the film's BigBad.

** The Horned King, while still completely ruthless against anyone else, eventually comes to treat Avalina, Creeper, the Invisibles, Mitternacht and the gwythaints as his {{Nakama}}.

Soon the Horned King gets an unexpected visitor during a stormy night: Avalina, a 14-year-old brush farmer from the outskirts of Prydain. He initially intends to kill her, but being reminded of the task the Fates have given him, he decides to let her live. Nevertheless, he keeps her as his prisoner to keep Prydain unaware of his return. During the long months the prisoner and her jailer spend time together, the Horned King's task may yet prove out to be possible to complete. But his old mentor, [[BigBad Arawn]] [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain Death-Lord]], is determined to drag him back into the darkness...

-->'''The Horned King''': No, Please No! Don't let...\\

'''Avalina''': I don't want to kill. I don't want to hurt people...\\

* EmeraldPower: The Horned King describes at one point Avalina's eyes to resemble sunlit emeralds. And given [[FertileFeet what she proves herself to be]]...

* FragileFlower: Avalina. She's so easy to bring close to tears.

-->'''The Horned King''': ''...she is anything but weak. Her strengths appear as weaknesses, but I have never seen or heard of a mortal so strong that they cry for their enemies, and call a... creature like me... a friend.''

* MythologyGag: The Invisibles nickname the Horned King as "the ol'Bonehead". This is a reference to ''Creator/{{Disney}}'' animators' protest against [[ExecutiveMeddling the producers' renaming]] of their movie ''Basil of Baker Street'' into a more American-sounding ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective''. They wrote [[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/09/seven-little-men-help-girl.html a hilarious list]] of "new American titles" for past Disney movies, such as ''[[Disney/{{Cinderella}} The Girl with the See-through Shoe]]''. ''The Black Cauldron'' was renamed as... ''The Evil Bonehead''.

'''Arawn''': But you have. You've already harmed her in more ways than you care to recount. Ripping her from her family was an impeccable start. So why do you balk now? She knows the location of the Pig-Boy. She can tell you where he lives. You could finally get your long-awaited revenge...\\
'''The Horned King''':...I value Avalina's company more than the blood of the Pig-Keeper.\\

'''The Horned King''': But she is anything but weak. Her strengths appear as weaknesses, but I have never seen or heard of a mortal so strong that they cry for their enemies, and call a... creature like me... a friend.

-->'''The Horned King''': You have the strength to show compassion and kindness to anyone you meet. Even... something like me. And child, that is... The greatest kind of strength. One I am sure many see as nothing more than a myth. I... believed it to be nothing but complete nonsense myself, all those pathetic stories of young maidens so pure even the most savage of beasts would eat from their hands like pets and I believed them so kind it was nearly sickening. I never even pondered the possibility of such a creature existing, so fanciful was the notion. But... here you are, right in front of me, something I believed to be nothing more than a foolish tale spun by feebleminded tramps. And... You are anything but weak. Or nauseating.

** When the Horned King first gets a good look at Avalina's {{green eyes}}, they remind him of [[FertileFeet forests and sunlight]].

* GreenEyes: Avalina's eyes are bright green with a rim of bright gold around the irises. When the Horned King sees them clearly for the first time, [[{{Foreshadowing}} they remind him of]] [[FertileFeet forests and sunlight]].

Soon the Horned King gets an unexpected visitor during a stormy night: Avalina, a 14-year-old brush farmer from the outskirts of Prydain. He initially intends to kill her, but being reminded of the task the Fates have given him, he decides to let her live. Nevertheless, he keeps her as his prisoner to keep Prydain unaware of his return. During the long months the prisoner and her jailer spend time together, the Horned King's task may yet prove out to be possible to complete. But his old mentor, [[BigBad Death Lord Arawn]], is determined to drag him back into the darkness...

Soon the Horned King gets an unexpected visitor during a stormy night: Avalina, a 14-year-old brush farmer from the outskirts of Prydain. He initially intends to kill her, but being reminded of the task the Fates have given him, he decides to let her live. Nevertheless, he keeps her as his prisoner to keep Prydain unaware of his return. During the long months the prisoner and her jailer spend time together, the Horned King's task may yet prove out to be possible to complete.

* AlliterativeTitle: '''''H'''ope for the '''H'''eartless''.

Has two small fan videos in YouTube. One is made by [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHTOP8ga0GGNzg1iCkGJMag Faerydae]] and is titled as "Horned King X Avalina Save Me". The other is made by [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCppEaBbA4UV96kTL4GEQHyQ Akemi Rain]] and is titled as "'Hope For The Heartless' Fanvideo".

-->'''Dallben''': Hen-Wen, from you I do beseech. Knowledge that lies beyond my reach. Truth from lies, and lies from truth, separate the myth from proof.

--->'''The Horned King''': The heart is the messenger from the soul to the body, and keeps the two bound together as one. When the body fails, the heart ceases to be, and the soul is released from the body and sent elsewhere. You can see this in your elderly, however there is another scenario. [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil After killing someone, the heart, the origin of all morality and emotion, begins to corrode. Slowly, but it is noticeable. The more one kills, the more difficult the damage is to reverse]]. [...] After one has killed so much that the heart is gone and no longer holds the life in them, they begin to decay on the outside as well, as the heart binds the body and soul together, and without the heart, the soul cannot function properly. You see this with anyone who has killed before. They are alive, but they are not, and their outward appearance begins to reflect what they have become on the inside, and what they leave in their wake. I look like this because I am the embodiment of all that I have become. My heart turned to dust centuries ago, taking all life with it, and left me merely in a state of existence, my soul unable to work properly without it, thus my appearance.

* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: The [[ByronicHero Horned King]] and [[PluckyGirl Avalina], respectively.

** Avalina towards the Horned King even before meeting him. One night (in the second chapter) she wonders what might have led him to become such a monster. The sympathy grows when she gets to know him over time, pushing away any hatred.
** After playing over the Horned King's death nearly every night for months and realizing how desperate the lich was at the time, Taran feels against his will slightly guilty for ruining everything the Horned King had worked for and given any value to.

* VillainousLament: During one rainy night, the Horned King reflects on his dormant memories, his choices, [[spoiler:his reawakened heart]], his inability to dream, Avalina and her purity. He feels that [[BeingEvilSucks he has lost much that he can't regain]]. While he doesn't sing, pieces of "Nemo" by Music/{{Nightwish}} have been added to the narration.

** After the Horned King scares Avalina to flee the castle with Mitternacht, they're chased by the Mad Pack. They're eventually cornered, but before the wolves can kill them, the Horned King teleports there and kills most of the remaining wolves. He does this because Avalina is his only chance to remain free from the Black Cauldron.

* WalkingWasteland: The Horned King. The ground and lake around his castle are lifeless, and the sun never shines there. Even after [[FertileFeet Avalina]] manages to bring some life there [[spoiler:(even an entire forest)]], any plants brought near him quickly die. When he teleports to a forest clearing Avalina's captors have camped in, even the trees die. [[spoiler:However, when he's made by Avalina to come to her garden for the first time, his presence doesn't kill off or scare any of the animals or plants.]]

* WhatIsThisFeeling: The emotionless Horned King is confused by the pleasant feelings Avalina wakes up in him. His memories about them are faded to the extend that he has to describe them to her so that she can guess what they are. At one point, when the lich has wine in his mouth, it feels strange. After the Invisibles confirm that they’ve done nothing to his food, they realize that he has regained his sense of taste.

--->'''Avalina''': You have the most genuine smile of anyone I've ever met. When you're happy, I know it's real. Not a mask, like I've seen other people wear.
* WholePlotReference: The story has more than one similarity to the infamous ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' story; a young smart peasant girl is imprisoned in a scary castle for months by a monstrous royalty who must earn a human's love to save himself from a FateWorseThanDeath. Slowly the [[MoralityPet prisoner]] and her [[LimaSyndrome captor]] grow closer, with a turning point being when the captor scares the prisoner to flee the castle on horseback and saving her from SavageWolves, nearly dying in the process. The prisoner then nurses her captor back to health.

** A group of bandits [[spoiler:(who happen to be the Horned King's former henchmen)]] kidnap Avalina and intend to sell her into slavery illegally. They have done this to numerous other children and even killed them. The bandit who kidnapped Avalina eventually gets fed up with her and is mere moments from stabbing her throat with a dagger when the Horned King arrives with Creeper and Addie to rescue her.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Avalina breaks down and decreases herself due to her physical weakness after being released from her sickbed she has spent time in after nearly drowning. The Horned King puts an end to it and explains to her that she has a different kind of strength (other than physical, mental or emotional) that's also the most uncommon version of it.
--->'''The Horned King''': You have the strength to show compassion and kindness to anyone you meet. Even... something like me. And child, that is... The greatest kind of strength. One I am sure many see as nothing more than a myth. I... believed it to be nothing but complete nonsense myself, all those pathetic stories of young maidens so pure even the most savage of beasts would eat from their hands like pets and I believed them so kind it was nearly sickening. I never even pondered the possibility of such a creature existing, so fanciful was the notion. But... here you are, right in front of me, something I believed to be nothing more than a foolish tale spun by feebleminded tramps. And... You are anything but weak. Or nauseating.

* MythologyGag: The Invisibles nickname the Horned King as "the ol'Bonehead". This is a reference to ''Creator/{{Disney}}'' animators' protest against [[ExecutiveMeddling the producers' renaming]] of their movie ''Basil of Baker Street'' into a more American-sounding ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective''. They wrote [[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/09/seven-little-men-help-girl.html a hilarious list]] of "new American titles" for past Disney movies, such as ''[[Disney/{{Cinderella}} The Girl with the See-through Shoe]]''. ''The Black Cauldron'' was renamed… ''The Evil Bonehead''.

* NeverMyFault: When Avalina is rescued by the Horned King, Creeper and Addie from the bandits, the one who captured her tries to kill her again, accusing her of leading the lich back to them. In reality, [[LaserGuidedKarma it's]] ''[[LaserGuidedKarma he]]'' [[LaserGuidedKarma who caused this to happen by kidnapping Avalina from the Horned King's lands in the first place]]. Also, she did warn them that she's under the lich's protection (they didn't believe her as they didn't know of his resurrection).

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Horned King does something beneficial to Prydain while saving Avalina's life multiple times. First he puts an end to the Mad Pack, the AxCrazy pack of SavageWolves that has terrorized the humans and animals for two decades. Months later, the lich kills (with Creeper and Addie's help) the children-kidnapping and killing bandits [[spoiler:who were his soldiers]].

* Literature/TheNightingale: This story is stored in one of the books of the library the Horned King provides for Avalina. It's written in a foreign language Avalina describes looking like chicken scratchings (probably Chinese, as the story is set in ImperialChina by the WordOfGod). The Horned King translates the story for her, and it becomes her favorite.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: When the Horned King and Avalina encounter Taran and Eilonwy by chance while reaching a beautiful lookout, [[UnstoppableRage the lich is consumed by his bottled up hatred towards the boy and starts beating him up severely]]. He hardly notices pushing Avalina and Eilonwy out of the way repeatedly when they try to stop him. He's interrupted only by a sudden earthquake.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Creeper assists his master and Addie in slaughtering Avalina's captors with his claws (as he doesn't know how to wield weapons), enjoying every second of it. He's as bloodthirsty as the Horned King, he just doesn't often get to show it.

** The Horned King and Mitternacht. The horse was called Death by everyone, as well as [[TheDreaded feared and hated]], believed to be a lost cause. Avalina proved that assumption to be unfounded while having a limited time period to do that, and the music helped in that. The third Invisible notes [[HisStoryRepeatsItself the similarities with Mitternacht and the Horned King's stories]]. Also, the lich becomes as [[PapaWolf protective of Avalina]] as Mitternacht.

** The gwythaint. It's revealed to be a female and quickly befriends Avalina. Avalina names her Taranau Adeon, though she's called Addie by everyone. It's revealed that the other gwythaint, which died at the end of the movie, was her mate and had [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy impregnated her before his death]]. The baby is born by the spring.

* OnlySaneMan: The first Invisible among the others. It certainly feels itself to be the only sane one in the castle at times.

** The Horned King describes himself as someone who doesn't believe in any sort of waste, especially when it pertains to him. For example, after saving Avalina from the Mad Pack, he's close to killing her out of fury but doesn't do it because then everything he went through to keep her would be for naught.
--->'''The Horned King''': ''[with his grip on Avalina's throat]'' I should kill you now, after all the trouble you've caused me.
--->'''Avalina''': Well, if you're going to kill me, then do it! There's nothing stopping you!
---> ''The lich tightens his grip, but after a moment he chuckles darkly.''
--->'''The Horned King''': After all the trouble I've gone through to keep you? ''[grins maliciously at Avalina while glaring at her face-to-face]'' Then ''I'' would be the fool, child. ''[releases his grip]''

* PsychoactivePowers: [[spoiler:Weeks after the incident with the Horned King's former soldiers, thick and thorny rosebushes grow on the borders of lich's lands, barring the area from the rest of Prydain. The only explanation the lich can come up with is that the phenomenon is a manifestation of Avalina's fear of intruders coming to hurt her again in her little haven.]]

* SavageWolves: The Mad Pack is a large pack of rabid wolves that has been terrorizing animals and humans of Prydain for twenty years, increasing in numbers over the years. The incurable disease they suffer from causes them to attack and kill anything that moves. By the time they're faced, their number is thirty-five.

* SecretKeeper: When the Horned King allows Avalina to return to her mother and brother for three days to say her farewells, she convinces them to keep all about her situation a secret. They reluctantly agree, both to prevent mass panic from erupting from the knowledge of the Horned King's return and because they can't possibly do anything without endangering Avalina's life. Months later, after Taran and Eilonwy's almost fateful encounter with the Horned King and Avalina, they recount it to Dallben. They eventually decide to remain silent for the same reasons as Avalina's family.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Taran is revealed to have had {{Flashback Nightmare}}s of the Horned King's death almost every night. While his friends seem to have moved on with their lives, his dreams have driven him to [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor regret his dreams of becoming a warrior]] or wishing that he had never been involved in the first place or even that he had thrown himself to the Black Cauldron instead of Gurgi. He continuously dwells upon the morality of his actions back then, never finding a comforting answer. He hasn't told anyone of his dreams, but he has a feeling that Dallben and Eilonwy know.

--->'''The Horned King''': I will never harm her!\\

* SongOfCourage: When Avalina and Mitternacht have to return from her family to the Horned King's castle, they're understandably sad. When they come to the border of lich's lands, Avalina starts to sing "Blowin' In The Wind" by Music/BobDylan. With its help, the horse and his rider are able to enter the castle, looking proud like soldiers.

* HeroicBSOD: Avalina enters this mode several times. One of the most notable ones is her weeks-lasting depression after the Horned King becomes angry with her for ruining his revenge on Taran. She avoids him out of fear, spending most her days either in her room or with Mitternacht and crying constantly. She can barely eat or sleep and weakens physically. She’s temporarily pulled out of it by her above mentioned EurekaMoment, but goes back into it after hearing the Horned King saying (thanks to [[ManipulativeBastard Arawn]]) that she means nothing to her. Mitternacht and her snowfight with Creeper help her to her feet, but she gets fully past this only after the Horned King saves her from drowning and apologizes for his behavior.
* HisStoryRepeatsItself: After hearing Avalina's story of how she met and tamed Mitternacht, the third Invisible notes how her situation with the horse back then is {{not so different}} from her current situation with the Horned King (or the horse's situation back then with the lich's situation right now).
* HoldingHands: After the Horned King has told Avalina of how his actions made his current appearance, she senses again his downcast existence. For the first time she comes next to him voluntarily and takes his hand. After the initial shock, he returns the gesture. It's not many days after this that [[spoiler:his heart comes back to life]].

* InfiniteSupplies: The Invisibles can conjure things out of thin air, even stuff that shouldn't exist in the setting or timeline the story takes place. They are always vague about where they get the stuff. When they disobey the Fates, they're confiscated of this ability for a while several times.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: The Horned King (who's over a thousand years old) and Avalina (who's 14 at the start of the story) slowly form this, though the lich shows shades of a ParentalSubstitute.

* IronicEcho: Before Taran and Eilonwy start telling Dallben about their almost fateful encounter with the Horned King and Avalina, Taran makes him promise not to tell anyone about what they're about to tell him. Dallben is shocked of it sounding similar to [[ContinuityNod what he told the boy when using Hen-Wen's oracular powers in the movie]].
* {{Irony}}: At one point Avalina has to puncture an abscess in Mitternacht's frog, but she has never done that before. The contradictory information she gets from books makes her unsure, as she doesn't want to hurt her horse. The Horned King advises her to trust her own judgement about what alternative would be best and not let doubt, second-guessing and the opinions of others to hinder her decision making. It turns out that this is exactly what the Horned King’s former master Arawn had told him centuries ago. That advice had helped him to become [[TheUnfettered both a powerful warlord and such a monstrous being]].

* KickTheMoralityPet: After Avalina convinces the Horned King to spare Taran, the lich is angry at her. After the argument that involves the above mentioned ArmorPiercingSlap, he seethes at her for weeks, prompting her to avoid him out of fear, cry daily and weaken physically. He hardly tries to rectify the situation out of anger and pride, and the situation worsens when [[ManipulativeBastard Arawn]] prompts him to say out loud that Avalina means nothing to her and that he should have killed her long time ago. The lich realizes her presence only after saying that. The situation is resolved after the Horned King saves Avalina from drowning and he apologizes for his behavior.
* KilledOffForReal: All the thirty-seven wolves of the Mad Pack die either while chasing Avalina and Mitternacht or while fighting the Horned King. Later the bandit group of over twenty men [[spoiler:(who are all former soldiers of the Horned King)]] who kidnap Avalina are slaughtered by the Horned King, Creeper and Addie.

* LighterAndSofter: The Horned King was bad in the movie, but the [[CharacterDevelopment exploration of his character]] makes him less menacing. While there are no musicals in the movie, this story provides many songs (both sad and happy ones).\\
[[WideEyedIdealist Avalina]] and [[PluckyComicRelief the Invisibles]] also lessen seriousness of the pace. While the Horned King's past as a ruthless warlord is reminded of and some darker elements have been included (like the [[AxCrazy Mad]] [[SavageWolves Pack]] and [[AncientEvil Arawn]]), the story is overall more idealistic than the movie.
* LightningBruiser: The Horned King proves himself to be this during his fight against the Mad Pack. Not only he has SuperStrength (see below for more information), but his normally slow and deliberate moving hides deceptively well that he has snake-fast reflexes. He also receives multiple wounds from the wolves, losing much of his black substitute for blood, but he nonetheless keeps fighting and [[PostVictoryCollapse passes out only after killing all the wolves]]. It should also be noted that he wasn't at his best at the time, having received [[WeaksauceWeakness water]] on his face earlier, and having to use the [[TeleportationSickness teleportation]] spell twice to get there.

---> "Hen-Wen, from you I do beseech. Knowledge that lies beyond my reach. Truth from lies, and lies from truth, separate the myth from proof."

* {{Mordor}}: [[WalkingWasteland The Horned King's]] lands. The sky is permanently in red clouds, the lake's water is lifeless and poisonous, trees are dead, nothing green grows in the soil, and no animals of any kind appear. Despite this, Avalina tries to tend a garden there. She starts by the fall and gets results in the spring, making this trope subverted. See the FertileFeet section above for more details.

** When the Horned King first hears Avalina playing piano and singing, he notices that it has a soothing effect on him. He makes it a routine for her to play him music for an hour daily. It helps Avalina to get under his shell in the long run.

* MusicalChores: While tending to Mitternacht the day following her arrival to the Horned King's castle, Avalina sings a slightly altered version of [[http://music.sjtucker.com/track/ravens-in-the-library S.J. Tucker's "Ravens in the Library"]].
* MythologyGag: The Invisibles nickname the Horned King "the ol'Bonehead". This is a reference to ''Creator/{{Disney}}'' animators' protest against [[ExecutiveMeddling the producers' renaming]] of their movie ''Basil of Baker Street'' into a more American-sounding ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective''. They wrote [[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/09/seven-little-men-help-girl.html a hilarious list]] of "new American titles" for past Disney movies, such as ''[[Disney/{{Cinderella}} The Girl with the See-through Shoe]]''. ''The Black Cauldron'' was renamed… ''The Evil Bonehead''.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: The Invisibles are instructed by the Fates to obey the Horned King regardless of their own opinions. However, they can't harm anything on his orders or help him in harming them (but neither they can stop him from harming others by his own hand).

'''[[CosmicEntities The Fates]]''': SILENCE!

** Played with. The Horned King doesn't actively despise animals, but they instinctively avoid him or go mad in his presence. Even the gwythaint which is used to his aura of Death won't let him come near her, but through Avalina's gentle urging, Mitternacht finds the mind to approach the lich and allow him to pet him. Eventually the horse even allows the Horned King to ride him. [[spoiler:When the Horned King seems to lose his WalkingWasteland trait and visits for the first time Avalina's garden, the animals don't seem to mind him more than they mind normal humans in general.]]

* EurekaMoment: After enduring weeks of cold shouldered treatment from the Horned King after preventing his revenge on Taran, Avalina is saddened at how [[spoiler:his recently reawakened heart seems to be dying again]]. She suddenly realizes from the word [[spoiler:heart]] that since the Horned King now has real emotions after centuries [[spoiler:due to having a living heart to receive them from]], of course his now stronger anger would overwhelm him.
* EvenTheRatsWontTouchIt: When Arran's friend Yale shows him the remains of the Mad Pack a fortnight after the pack's demise, the wolves' meat has been left untouched by scavengers. Only flies, maggots and gnats touch them.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: The Horned King is numerous times amazed at Avalina’s purity and her ability to call a monster such as him her friend, having never believed that such a gentle creature can exist. The same applies to Creeper.

* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: When Avalina finally finds the courage to ask the Horned King if his appearance is inherent or the result of something that happened in the past, he lampshades this trope beautifully (adding some AnatomyOfTheSoul traits to the mix).
---> ''The heart is the messenger from the soul to the body, and keeps the two bound together as one. When the body fails, the heart ceases to be, and the soul is released from the body and sent elsewhere. You can see this in your elderly, however there is another scenario. [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil After killing someone, the heart, the origin of all morality and emotion, begins to corrode. Slowly, but it is noticeable. The more one kills, the more difficult the damage is to reverse]]. -- After one has killed so much that the heart is gone and no longer holds the life in them, they begin to decay on the outside as well, as the heart binds the body and soul together, and without the heart, the soul cannot function properly. You see this with anyone who has killed before. They are alive, but they are not, and their outward appearance begins to reflect what they have become on the inside, and what they leave in their wake. I look like this because I am the embodiment of all that I have become. My heart turned to dust centuries ago, taking all life with it, and left me merely in a state of existence, my soul unable to work properly without it, thus my appearance.''

* FertileFeet: Avalina turns out to be this, having an extraordinarily strong aura of Life. She gets the permission to try to tend a garden on [[{{Mordor}} the Horned King's lands]] during the autumn. Slowly her work brings results; by the spring, some green grows, worms appear in the soil, some birds appear to eat them, and [[CueTheSun the sun shines a little bit through the permanently cloudy sky]]. [[spoiler:Suddenly an entire healthy forest appears in the place of dead trees in one night. The Invisibles had apparently put Creeper to fly with Addie and spread magical treedust all over the area to speed up the trees' growth. However, they say that Avalina had to first want the trees to grow.]] After Avalina's birthday, the lake's water becomes clean again, fish appear in it, and a deer herd briefly drinks the water. [[spoiler:More animals appear soon after.]] The Horned King wonders how Avalina's aura's effects have not been noticed before. The Invisibles theorize that because everything grew by itself where she lived before, her aura's influence wasn't needed.

* FingerTwitchingRevival: While being treated by Avalina after his nearly fatal fight with the Mad Pack, the Horned King twitches his fingers when he regains consciousness.
* FirstTimeFeeling: The Horned King doesn't have a beating heart and due to that, no emotions. He explains to Avalina that he feels only twisted, muted versions of the real things. However, after experiencing for months something resembling positive emotions, [[spoiler:his heart comes alive after centuries of being dormant]]. His emotions become stronger after this, both the positive and negative ones. After Avalina prevents his chance to have revenge on Taran, he’s angry at her for weeks. Eventually she realizes that because the lich hasn't had to deal with real emotions for centuries, of course he would be overwhelmed by them.

** After the Horned King nearly kills him, it's revealed that Taran has replayed the above mentioned scene without variation almost every night for months.
* ForeignLanguageTirade: After one of the Invisibles' infuriating pranks on him, the Horned King curses them under his breath in all the languages he knows, but retains himself from using English since Avalina is present.

** The fourth Invisible is the most sensitive and reserved one, observing the others' antics and being amused about them, sometimes even joining ThePrankster duo's schemes.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Avalina. The mere thought of hurting others horrifies her. This allows her to befriend Addie the gwythaint. She likes horses in particular.

* FriendlyTickleTorture: After [[spoiler:his heart starts beating again after centuries]], the Horned King develops the habit of giving these to Avalina at the end of their plays.

* FunctionalMagic: A distinction is made between a spell and a prayer made to the Fates; a spell's effects can be reversed unless otherwise noted (which is done rarely), while a prayer's effects can't be reversed by anyone else than the one who made the prayer in the first place.

* GoThroughMe: When the Horned King is about to finish what he [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown started on]] Taran, Avalina comes between them, pleading him to stop. Eventually the lich concedes after remembering how Taran saved Avalina from falling to the chasm created by the earthquake and leaves with her.
* GodsHandsAreTied: All that's made clear about the Fates' reasons for granting the Horned King a chance to redeem himself is that they're obliged to it by circumstances beyond their range of control and that they're not happy about that.

* GroinAttack: A tied up Avalina gives this to the bandit who captured her in an effort to try and escape. It angers him so much that he tries to kill her.
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Avalina is not a fighter or a magic user, but her aura of Life and great compassion even for the likes of the Horned King allow her to accomplish some things many people wouldn't even dream of, like befriending the lich in question, causing [[spoiler:his heart to reawaken]], riding a gwythaint and causing [[spoiler:an entire healthy forest to grow in a lifeless area]]. The Horned King himself lampshades this trope twice at least. In one instance he says it [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre to comfort Avalina during one of her moments of self-loathing]]. The other instance is when he [[ShutUpHannibal refuses to give in to Arawn's temptations]].
--->'''The Horned King''': ''...she is anything but weak. Her strengths appear as weaknesses, but I have never seen or heard of a mortal so strong that they cry for their enemies, and call a... creature like me... a friend.''

** The Horned King has to endure the Invisibles' numerous pranks without being able to retaliate physically.

* CharacterSignatureSong: "Yankee Doodle Dandy" seems to have become this for ThePrankster Invisibles. Later the Invisibles sing [[EarWorm endlessly]] "Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows". At the end of the 142nd chapter, the Invisibles ''[[UpToEleven combine]]'' [[UpToEleven the aforementioned songs]].

--->'''The Horned King''': Contrary to what you may read about in your fairy tales and even some misguided history books, there is no such thing as a [[KnifeFight knife 'fight']]. It will not be [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen a duel]], it will not be a joust you see civilized people doing or you may read about in stories. It will be combat, and chances are it will only last a few seconds. One uses a weapon against another not to fight, but to win, and if your opponent knows you have a knife, he will do everything in his power to prevent you from doing so. Your opponent will not be looking for a fight. He will be attempting to assassinate. As such, regardless of how quick you are, the odds are you will not have time to draw your weapon before you realize he has one. Therefore the absolute ''last'' thing you should do is try and fight him. Nor should you let him know you have a weapon. Keep it [[HiddenWeapons concealed at all times]], if possible.\\

* ComfortingComforter: When Avalina falls asleep while in the library, the room gets cooler. The Invisibles' can't provide her a blanket due to their conjuring abilities being confiscated at the time, so the Horned King has to give his fur stole.

** It's remembered that the Black Cauldron was left to the Witches of Morva, though it's currently situated right in the spot inside the Horned King's castle from where he used it.

** Taran asks Dallben to promise [[IronicEcho not to tell anyone about what he and Eilonwy are about to tell him]]. Dallben is shocked by being on the receiving end of his own words.
** When Creeper sees the Horned King diving in the lake in order to save Avalina, he remembers how Taran agreed to comply with the lich's demands in order to save Hen-Wen's life. That's the closest thing the goblin has witnessed to this scenario -- someone saving someone else's life with great personal risk.
** The Horned King reveals that he collected slain soldiers to form the [[AnimateDead Cauldron]]-[[DemBones Born]] for centuries before being even sure of the Cauldron's existence. It's a reference to what he said about them after they had been created; "all dead from centuries past". (The scene is actually shown in one of the BadDreams made by Arawn.)
** While Avalina is weeding her garden one day, she ends up finding one of the former Cauldron-Born. She realizes that the area around the castle's drawbridge is full of them, and there are probably hundreds of them. This event was written after the author remembered a certain scene from the movie: when the Black Cauldron's power left the Cauldron-Born, many of them "died" on the lands around the drawbridge. The Invisibles had removed the skeletons inside the castle and the courtyard when they were reformed, but since they can't go outside that circle and the area was restored to the way it was before, of course the skeletons would still be there.
** [[spoiler:The Horned King's former henchmen]] are assuming that the lich's castle was never destroyed. That's explained by the fact that [[spoiler:they fled well before the castle exploded]]. They also assume that Creeper and both of the gwythaints -- along with anyone else inside the castle at the time -- met their ends at the hands of the Cauldron-Born, like they witnessed happening to [[spoiler:some of their own]].
* CoolHorse: Mitternacht, Avalina's faithful mount. He is a black [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesian_horse Friesian]] that was originally the mount of a great knight (who happened to be Avalina's maternal uncle). When the knight was killed in combat, the horse became furious with grief, allowing no-one to ride him before Avalina. He's very protective of her and strong-willed, being the first known horse that hasn't lost its sanity for being near [[WalkingWasteland the Horned King]] for so long. He can even give [[DeathGlare humbling looks]] to the lich and scare away the spirit of ''Arawn'' from tormenting Avalina's dreams.

---> ''It could hardly even be called an emotion, this thing called Hate. It was more like a demon that took hold of you and consumed you from the inside out, leaving no room in your heart for anything else, until it eventually destroyed you. Your mind was not your own, given over to this demonic presence that mangled and devoured all it touched with as little effort as water freezing. Hate was impossible to control. The host was not the master. Rather, it was the opposite. There was nothing one could not do while under the influence of this malicious, wicked feeling. There was also nothing one could do of themselves unless Hate allowed them to do so.''

** The Horned King slowly shifts from a CardCarryingVillain to a NobleDemon.

** The Horned King can be one, especially towards the Invisibles. It's the only way he's able to compete against them with his inability to touch them physically. He may also qualify as TallDarkAndSnarky; he's taller than other characters with his height of about 6.5 feet, he's knowledgeable, and while he has no hair, he has a dark aura.

* DeclarationOfProtection: After the Horned King saves Avalina from drowning and she uses a prayer to the Fates to transfer his [[WeaksauceWeakness water]]-caused pain to herself and accepts his apology for the cruel treatment he has given her for the past weeks after preventing his revenge on Taran, he realizes how much he values her life over Taran's death and internally swears to protect her.

* DisappearedDad: Avalina's father died four years earlier.

** Arawn. He repeatedly torments Avalina through her dreams to keep her fear of the Horned King fresh. The dreams include the Horned King at his scariest, [[DemBones the Cauldron-Born]], and deaths of her beloved ones.
** The Invisibles are this as well, protecting Avalina from Arawn by changing the bad images he creates into positive ones. However, they can't alter natural nightmares.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The Fates tell the Horned King that he has to earn his freedom from the Black Cauldron like [[KarmicDeath he alone earned his demise]].

** After the Horned King saves Avalina from drowning and she uses a prayer to transfer his pain to herself, he apologizes for his lately cold treatment of her for preventing his revenge on Taran, admitting that he cares more about having her with him than having Taran killed. She happily accepts the apology. After this, Mitternacht also lets go of his ire towards the lich for causing distress in his rider for weeks.
* EatingOptional: Inverted. While the Horned King doesn't feel hunger like humans do, his body needs sustainment like mortal bodies. Since he cannot taste or smell anything, eating is not a pleasant experience to him. It's implied that he can require sustainment through other ways and eats only because that's the only option available currently.
* EmeraldPower: The Horned King describes at one point Avalina's eyes to resemble sunlit emeralds.

* EmpathicEnvironment: [[spoiler:Weeks after the incident with the Horned King's former soldiers, thick and thorny rosebushes grow on the borders of lich's lands, barring the area from the rest of Prydain. The only explanation the lich can come up with is that the phenomenon is a manifestation of Avalina's fear of intruders coming to hurt her again in her little haven.]]

''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10455567/1/Hope-For-The-Heartless Hope For The Heartless]]'' is a ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'' fanfic by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5180544/TheCacklingCactus TheCacklingCactus]], featuring as the main character [[TheDreaded the]] [[HornedHumanoid Horned]] [[OurLichesAreDifferent King]], the film's BigBad.

[[{{Continuation}} The story starts almost two months after the events of the movie.]] Following the Horned King's defeat and death at the hands of the pig-keeper Taran and his friends, his soul was [[SealedEvilInACan sealed]] inside [[ArtifactOfDoom the Black Cauldron]] and trapped into [[AndIMustScream endless suffering]]. However, [[CosmicEntities the Fates]] themselves unexpectedly contact him and set him free for the period of eighteen months. Before that time frame is up, he must perform [[ImpossibleTask a seemingly impossible assignment]]: he must earn a human's love in spite of all his sins. If he succeeds, he will deserve his permanent freedom from the Cauldron. Otherwise he shall be re-imprisoned [[FateWorseThanDeath for all eternity]].

* AdaptationExpansion: The world of Prydain from the movie is expanded upon. One of the examples is the role of Arawn, who was merely hinted to be the monstrous soul trapped inside the Black Cauldron.

* AlienBlood: The Horned King has thick blackish substance in the place of his life-force. It's only called blood due to lack of a better term, and it apparently hurts the Invisibles if they touch it.

* AncientEvil: Before his defeat and imprisonment to the Black Cauldron, Arawn existed at least centuries before the Horned King -- who's himself over a thousand years old -- came into existence.

* AxCrazy: We get the Mad Pack, an entire pack of thirty-seven wolves of these. They suffer from an incurable disease similar to rabies, leading them to kill humans and animals just for the sake of killing. They've lost all their reason and natural instincts to the point that they attack on sight ''anything'' that moves, even an undead creature such as [[WalkingWasteland the Horned King]].
* BadBoss: The Horned King is this towards Creeper as much as he was in the movie, but Avalina's influence causes this trope to become [[MeanBoss downplayed]].
* BadDreams: Avalina gets these several times. In one of them she's included to the event when the Horned King created [[DemBones the Cauldron-Born]] in the movie, the scene ending with her being killed by them. In another one, the Cauldon-Born are advancing unstopped throughout Prydain, killing one by one Mitternacht, Arran and Avalina's mother, with Avalina being killed by the Horned King at the end. It's revealed that these dreams are caused by [[DreamWeaver Arawn]] who's trying to keep Avalina's fear of the Horned King fresh. The Invisibles can drive Arawn away from her nightmares, but they cannot prevent natural bad dreams.

* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Avalina guesses that Creeper was turned evil with the constant abuses the Horned King put him through.

** Mitternacht (or Malwolaeth/Diafol Ceffyl, as he was called at the time) was viewed as a monster by everyone, but Avalina was able to see that he just didn't know how to express his sorrow over the death of his rider other than through rage.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: ThePrankster duo of the Invisibles. They're nearly all the time fun-loving and optimistic sidekicks squeezing enjoyment out of nearly every situation, no matter how bad it might be. However, [[BerserkButton if you touch something they care about, they instantly turn into something Mother Nature herself couldn't rival in vindictiveness and malice]]. The first Invisible lampshades it this way when the Horned King locks up Avalina after revealing his identity to her, being pretty sure that the twins might do horrible things to the lich regardless of the Fates' instructions.
* BigBad: Arawn, the Death Lord of Annuvin and the Horned King's former master who was sealed inside the Black Cauldron centuries ago. He becomes the main antagonist because he wants to have his former apprentice re-imprisoned with him so that he can continue torturing him forever. For that end, he's doing everything in his power to prevent Avalina from saving the Horned King's soul. He also qualifies as the NonActionBigBad because of his status as a trapped spirit.
* BigShutUp: When the Horned King starts begging for mercy when the Fates say that Arawn can imprison him should his RedemptionQuest fail, they silence him this way.

* BilingualBonus: The author has invented at least some of the characters' names from a website that has many names and their meanings in Celtic, Gaelic or old Welsh. (See MeaningfulName[=/=]MeaningfulRename sections below for examples.)

** As a brush farmer, Avalina has never had the best of education, but the Horned King recognizes her as a bright child and passionate learner. Not satisfied with the idea of such potential being wasted on meager tasks, the lich starts educating her himself.
** Avalina argues that Creeper has potential also and convinces the Horned King to educate him as well.
* BrickJoke: When the Invisibles first perform "Yankee Doodle Dandy" in front of the Horned King and Avalina, the girl wonders if she could get the sheet music. Many weeks (and several chapters) later, she makes the Horned King play with the piano a tune he finds faintly familiar. She reveals it to be ''that'' song. He's irritated by this and promises (unmaliciously though) to make her pay for that. Later (more chapters later), when they're spending time in Avalina's secret place, he catches her in the middle of their play, reminds her of that promise and gives her a FriendlyTickleTorture.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: The Horned King and Avalina, respectively.

-->'''The Horned King''': Contrary to what you may read about in your fairy tales and even some misguided history books, there is no such thing as a [[KnifeFight knife 'fight']]. It will not be [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen a duel]], it will not be a joust you see civilized people doing or you may read about in stories. It will be combat, and chances are it will only last a few seconds. One uses a weapon against another not to fight, but to win, and if your opponent knows you have a knife, he will do everything in his power to prevent you from doing so. Your opponent will not be looking for a fight. He will be attempting to assassinate. As such, regardless of how quick you are, the odds are you will not have time to draw your weapon before you realize he has one. Therefore the absolute ''last'' thing you should do is try and fight him. Nor should you let him know you have a weapon. Keep it [[HiddenWeapons concealed at all times]], if possible.\\

--> ''It could hardly even be called an emotion, this thing called Hate. It was more like a demon that took hold of you and consumed you from the inside out, leaving no room in your heart for anything else, until it eventually destroyed you. Your mind was not your own, given over to this demonic presence that mangled and devoured all it touched with as little effort as water freezing. Hate was impossible to control. The host was not the master. Rather, it was the opposite. There was nothing one could not do while under the influence of this malicious, wicked feeling. There was also nothing one could do of themselves unless Hate allowed them to do so.''

--> ''The heart is the messenger from the soul to the body, and keeps the two bound together as one. When the body fails, the heart ceases to be, and the soul is released from the body and sent elsewhere. You can see this in your elderly, however there is another scenario. [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil After killing someone, the heart, the origin of all morality and emotion, begins to corrode. Slowly, but it is noticeable. The more one kills, the more difficult the damage is to reverse]]. -- After one has killed so much that the heart is gone and no longer holds the life in them, they begin to decay on the outside as well, as the heart binds the body and soul together, and without the heart, the soul cannot function properly. You see this with anyone who has killed before. They are alive, but they are not, and their outward appearance begins to reflect what they have become on the inside, and what they leave in their wake. I look like this because I am the embodiment of all that I have become. My heart turned to dust centuries ago, taking all life with it, and left me merely in a state of existence, my soul unable to work properly without it, thus my appearance.''

-->'''The Horned King''': ''...she is anything but weak. Her strengths appear as weaknesses, but I have never seen or heard of a mortal so strong that they cry for their enemies, and call a... creature like me... a friend.''

--> "Hen-Wen, from you I do beseech. Knowledge that lies beyond my reach. Truth from lies, and lies from truth, separate the myth from proof."

--> "Oh Fates, please now hear my plea. Please grant me what I ask of thee. This pain that fills my friend so kind, I beg you, free him, and make it mine."

-->'''The Horned King''': ''[with his grip on Avalina's throat]'' I should kill you now, after all the trouble you've caused me.
-->'''Avalina''': Well, if you're going to kill me, then do it! There's nothing stopping you!
--> ''The lich tightens his grip, but after a moment he chuckles darkly.''
-->'''The Horned King''': After all the trouble I've gone through to keep you? ''[grins maliciously at Avalina while glaring at her face-to-face]'' Then ''I'' would be the fool, child. ''[releases his grip]''

-->'''The Horned King''': I will never harm her!\\

-->'''Avalina''': You have the most genuine smile of anyone I've ever met. When you're happy, I know it's real. Not a mask, like I've seen other people wear.

-->'''The Horned King''': You have the strength to show compassion and kindness to anyone you meet. Even... something like me. And child, that is... The greatest kind of strength. One I am sure many see as nothing more than a myth. I... believed it to be nothing but complete nonsense myself, all those pathetic stories of young maidens so pure even the most savage of beasts would eat from their hands like pets and I believed them so kind it was nearly sickening. I never even pondered the possibility of such a creature existing, so fanciful was the notion. But... here you are, right in front of me, something I believed to be nothing more than a foolish tale spun by feebleminded tramps. And... You are anything but weak. Or nauseating.

* RealityEnsues: As revealed in the 111th chapter, Taran has not survived witnessing the Horned King's [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath gruesome death]] without [[FlashbackNightmare reliving it in his nightmares]] months after it happened. This in turn has led him to [[WhatHaveIBecom doubt against his better knowledge if he's really better than the lich whose death he played a part in]]. Since he hasn't confined to anyone about this, these persisting thoughts have become worse.

* FictionalCounterpart: The author has invented the language of Mrenagy to substitute Germany.

* BilingualBonus: The author has invented at least some of the characters' names from a website that has many names and their meanings in Celtic, Gaelic or old Welsh. (See MeaningfulName/MeaningfulRename sections below for examples.)