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The Princess of Moss is a boss in Castlevania: Bloodlines. She appears at the end of the Versailles Palace stage.

Origins[]

Marie Antoinette - 01

Maria Antonia at the clavichord
(Franz Xaver Wagenschön, 1768)

The Princess of Moss takes on the form of the ghost of Marie Antoinette,[1] Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792.

Within the kingdom of France, a growing number of the population eventually came to dislike her, accusing her of being profligate, promiscuous, and of harboring sympathies for France's enemies.

During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal, accused of treason to the principles of the revolution and executed by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution on October 16th, 1793.

The phrase "Let them eat cake" is often attributed to her, although there is no evidence that she ever uttered it and it is now generally regarded as a journalistic cliché. This phrase originally appeared in Book VI of the first part of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's autobiographical work Les Confessions, finished in 1767 and published in 1782 ("Finally I recalled the stopgap solution of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: 'Let them eat brioche'"). Rousseau ascribes these words to a "great princess", but the purported writing date precedes Marie Antoinette's arrival in France. Some think that he invented it altogether.[2]

Description[]

At first, the Princess of Moss appears as the ghost of Marie Antoinette,[1] wearing an elaborated long dress fashioned in blue and gold. She enters the screen from above and hovers around, attempting to damage the player via physical contact. Looks can be deceiving, though, and the giant ripped-open cocoon in the background should give a hint on her true nature.

After sustaining enough damage, the Princess will stop floating and reveal a much less pleasant form: a gigantic moth that rips out of her back. The insect itself is the real identity of this fiend, with the human skin apparently being just a veil to conceal its monstrous nature.

Once transformed, the monster becomes more mobile and tends to fly out of the reach of most attacks. Its attacks include:

  • While remaining high above, the moth from one end of the screen to the other, expelling clouds of poisonous dust along its path. These clouds can be destroyed by hitting them with a weapon.
  • Occasionally, the moth will make a brief pause and then perform either a swoops or a direct dive at the player.
  • In rare occasions, while flying high above, the moth will constantly try to position itself above the player and start releasing eggs from the rear end of its abdomen. Shortly after each of these eggs land, it will hatch and release a baby moth that will start chasing the player. These newborn moths can be killed with a single hit.

Enemy Data[]

Cvbl-princess Qmoss
Name Alt. Name
Princess of Moss -
Location
5. Versailles Palace

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Her name is a mistranslation of "Princess of Moths" or "Moth Princess".
  • The Princess of Moss wears an elaborated 18th century long dress fashioned in blue and gold. Variations of this apparel are very common in many of Marie Antoinette's portraits.
  • The red pixels on her neck probably represent the marks of her decapitation at the guillotine.
  • Her final form's design and powder attack may be a reference to the famous kaiju Mothra.
  • The preliminary design for her final form had her resemble a long-haired flying skeleton with moth wings, legs and abdomen. The human-like face still remains in the final design situated between her compound eyes.
  • Other giant moths appeared later in following titles, probably following the design of this incarnation to some extent. The King Moth from Circle of the Moon is a common enemy that flies slowly and sprinkles poisonous dust on its path. One of the shapes that the Shadow boss from Harmony of Dissonance can adopt is the silhouette of a giant moth, which attacks similarly to the Princess of Moss by performing swoops and sprinkling poisonous dust.

See also[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Vampire Killer (MD) instruction booklet, page 13: "What is the ghost's true form of Marie Antoinette who attacks people every night?"
  2. Marie Antoinette in popular culture at Wikipedia.
Castlevania: Bloodlines
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