Guess Who?
Character Name: Jareth
Alias: Jeremy Quinn
PB: David Bowie
Character Age: Unknown
Alignment: Neutral
Fandom: Labyrinth
Instant Messenger Contact: AIM: adriengriffon
Bio: In the middle of a vast, overgrown Labyrinth stands a ramshackle, rotting Goblin City. The castle that overlooks it is a relic from a former era, when the Labyrinth was new, and everything seemed possible. Now, like the Goblin City, those dreams are tarnished, dirty, and faded. The mischief of the common folk of the Underground, the goblins, has devolved to stupid, childish pranks.
The goblins themselves are twisted and hideous mockeries of humans, as their city is a twisted and hideous mockery of the world outside The Underground. Born of children abducted as infants from human mothers by the Goblin King, their purpose is cruel mockery and mischief for their own childish entertainment. Their feet are twisted, scaly claws, and many sport rams' horns or long tails.
Jareth has been the Goblin King for as long as any of the goblins can remember (which might be 4 seconds on a good day). He created the Labyrinth, centuries ago, in a heartfelt wish to escape. He surrounds himself with illusion and dreams, until even he cannot tell the difference between dream and reality. Illusions are so complex they become reality, through his will, of course, and nothing is more complex than his Labyrinth. He uses it like a board game, an elaborate game of chess, and the stakes are usually life or death. His stakes are his own boredom, his fear of stasis, and his fear of aging, the end of his dreams. He is a creature forever yearning for change, and forever terrified of the form it takes.
Such as the form it took when Sarah Williams entered his Labyrinth to search for her brother, Toby. After wishing the Goblin King would take him away, she came to regret her decision, and undertook the dangerous quest to rescue him. In the time-ravaged ruins of the castle, with a gray-haired and tattered Jareth begging her to stay, to listen, to do anything but what she was doing, she kept on, determinedly, and changed both their futures. "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City," she said, "to take back the child you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great..." Here she stopped, until she came to realize the truth, "You have no power over me." And thus the dream was shattered, and Sarah found herself safe in her own home, Toby unharmed in his crib.
That was six years ago, and the Goblin King hasn't been doing well since then. Unable to cope with the change that Sarah brought about, he escaped back into his Labyrinth, rebuilding it with tattered remnants of dreams. Now, with time an uncomfortable reality that he refuses to acknowledge, and the goblins as mind-numbingly stupid as ever, he remembers the outside world, and a particular part he used to play well.
Years ago, Jareth played the part of Jeremy Quinn, the handsome actor that Sarah's mother, her real mother, co-starred with. And ran away with. It was Jeremy's flattering and his gifts, his quick wit and his mystery that changed the course of Sarah's life, and Jareth's. And yet, now, years later, Jareth finds himself again seeking the stage, the casting of a far different sort of illusion for a far more intelligent audience than the goblins of the Underground.
About Jareth: It is obvious from the movie that Jareth is nothing like the goblins he rules. He looks nothing like them, he is smarter, and he possesses magic that they do not. It is unclear whether he was human at one point from the movie. He possesses many of the qualities traditionally associated with fairies, however. Like fairies of legend, his magic is that of illusion, able to make things appear like other things (the crystal turning into a snake, then a scarf, then a goblin being one example, the “As The World Falls Down” scene being another). Like some fairies of legend, he is able to shapeshift (into a barn owl, as seen in the beginning and end of the movie).
There is much more about the similarities on the Jareth's Realm site, but I will hit a few more of the highlights. Like fairies of legend, he is attracted to a young mortal, and he also steals a child. Like Fairyland of legend, The Underground operates under a different time than the “real world”. Though thirteen hours pass in The Underground, it has been only three hours in the “real world”. Also, the peach is much like fairy food of folklore. Upon eating it, Sarah forgets about her mission and would have been trapped in the dream bubble with Jareth, had she not seen the clock on the wall.
**Note** He is very tight-lipped about his race and his history in general. In the movie, it is very mysterious just who and what he is. It is obvious that he is not like the other goblins, but whether he is human or otherwise is never discussed.
**A few things have been changed since Jareth was at Tenebrae Nostro last. Nothing major, but I found the novelization of the movie and it answered SO MANY questions, so it has been incorporated into Jareth's character. Most notably, Jareth's "real life" alias is Jeremy Quinn, an actor that, years ago, caused Sarah's parents to get a divorce, as Sarah's actress mother ran away with him. He has fond memories of Sarah from that time. Jeremy's gift of a ball gown and stories of life on the stage made a very young Sarah eager to follow in her mother's footsteps and become an actress. Jareth is now, slowly, returning to that role of Jeremy Quinn, venturing out of the Labyrinth in a desperate bid to save his crumbling kingdom and his own crumbling dreams.
Canon Timeline: Jareth is being played six years after the movie, in between the movie and manga-verse.
Additional Details: A few sources I found for Labyrinth and Jareth
Jareth's Realm
Jareth on Wikipedia
Labyrinth: A Novel
So yeah, I'm going to try to be around more, now that I've moved away and I'm starting to get settled. Things are starting to calm down in real life and I'm starting to get my head on straight after everything that's been happening. Looking forward to getting back into writing more.
Alias: Jeremy Quinn
PB: David Bowie
Character Age: Unknown
Alignment: Neutral
Fandom: Labyrinth
Instant Messenger Contact: AIM: adriengriffon
Bio: In the middle of a vast, overgrown Labyrinth stands a ramshackle, rotting Goblin City. The castle that overlooks it is a relic from a former era, when the Labyrinth was new, and everything seemed possible. Now, like the Goblin City, those dreams are tarnished, dirty, and faded. The mischief of the common folk of the Underground, the goblins, has devolved to stupid, childish pranks.
The goblins themselves are twisted and hideous mockeries of humans, as their city is a twisted and hideous mockery of the world outside The Underground. Born of children abducted as infants from human mothers by the Goblin King, their purpose is cruel mockery and mischief for their own childish entertainment. Their feet are twisted, scaly claws, and many sport rams' horns or long tails.
Jareth has been the Goblin King for as long as any of the goblins can remember (which might be 4 seconds on a good day). He created the Labyrinth, centuries ago, in a heartfelt wish to escape. He surrounds himself with illusion and dreams, until even he cannot tell the difference between dream and reality. Illusions are so complex they become reality, through his will, of course, and nothing is more complex than his Labyrinth. He uses it like a board game, an elaborate game of chess, and the stakes are usually life or death. His stakes are his own boredom, his fear of stasis, and his fear of aging, the end of his dreams. He is a creature forever yearning for change, and forever terrified of the form it takes.
Such as the form it took when Sarah Williams entered his Labyrinth to search for her brother, Toby. After wishing the Goblin King would take him away, she came to regret her decision, and undertook the dangerous quest to rescue him. In the time-ravaged ruins of the castle, with a gray-haired and tattered Jareth begging her to stay, to listen, to do anything but what she was doing, she kept on, determinedly, and changed both their futures. "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City," she said, "to take back the child you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great..." Here she stopped, until she came to realize the truth, "You have no power over me." And thus the dream was shattered, and Sarah found herself safe in her own home, Toby unharmed in his crib.
That was six years ago, and the Goblin King hasn't been doing well since then. Unable to cope with the change that Sarah brought about, he escaped back into his Labyrinth, rebuilding it with tattered remnants of dreams. Now, with time an uncomfortable reality that he refuses to acknowledge, and the goblins as mind-numbingly stupid as ever, he remembers the outside world, and a particular part he used to play well.
Years ago, Jareth played the part of Jeremy Quinn, the handsome actor that Sarah's mother, her real mother, co-starred with. And ran away with. It was Jeremy's flattering and his gifts, his quick wit and his mystery that changed the course of Sarah's life, and Jareth's. And yet, now, years later, Jareth finds himself again seeking the stage, the casting of a far different sort of illusion for a far more intelligent audience than the goblins of the Underground.
About Jareth: It is obvious from the movie that Jareth is nothing like the goblins he rules. He looks nothing like them, he is smarter, and he possesses magic that they do not. It is unclear whether he was human at one point from the movie. He possesses many of the qualities traditionally associated with fairies, however. Like fairies of legend, his magic is that of illusion, able to make things appear like other things (the crystal turning into a snake, then a scarf, then a goblin being one example, the “As The World Falls Down” scene being another). Like some fairies of legend, he is able to shapeshift (into a barn owl, as seen in the beginning and end of the movie).
There is much more about the similarities on the Jareth's Realm site, but I will hit a few more of the highlights. Like fairies of legend, he is attracted to a young mortal, and he also steals a child. Like Fairyland of legend, The Underground operates under a different time than the “real world”. Though thirteen hours pass in The Underground, it has been only three hours in the “real world”. Also, the peach is much like fairy food of folklore. Upon eating it, Sarah forgets about her mission and would have been trapped in the dream bubble with Jareth, had she not seen the clock on the wall.
**Note** He is very tight-lipped about his race and his history in general. In the movie, it is very mysterious just who and what he is. It is obvious that he is not like the other goblins, but whether he is human or otherwise is never discussed.
**A few things have been changed since Jareth was at Tenebrae Nostro last. Nothing major, but I found the novelization of the movie and it answered SO MANY questions, so it has been incorporated into Jareth's character. Most notably, Jareth's "real life" alias is Jeremy Quinn, an actor that, years ago, caused Sarah's parents to get a divorce, as Sarah's actress mother ran away with him. He has fond memories of Sarah from that time. Jeremy's gift of a ball gown and stories of life on the stage made a very young Sarah eager to follow in her mother's footsteps and become an actress. Jareth is now, slowly, returning to that role of Jeremy Quinn, venturing out of the Labyrinth in a desperate bid to save his crumbling kingdom and his own crumbling dreams.
Canon Timeline: Jareth is being played six years after the movie, in between the movie and manga-verse.
Additional Details: A few sources I found for Labyrinth and Jareth
Jareth's Realm
Jareth on Wikipedia
Labyrinth: A Novel
So yeah, I'm going to try to be around more, now that I've moved away and I'm starting to get settled. Things are starting to calm down in real life and I'm starting to get my head on straight after everything that's been happening. Looking forward to getting back into writing more.