The Story And Creation Of Gretchen Wolf: The Girl Of Tragedy
Here are some quick facts about the character before anyone proceeds further just to clear up confusion.
1. Gretchen is spiritual believer, she is not a Christian....In fact her religion is a fictional one I don't have a name for yet.
2.
Gretchen is not a minor just because she's slightly small in size. She
stands about 5'3, the same height of Nichol from Orange is the New
Black. The character she's somewhat modeled after looks wise.
3. She was created entirely out of my very own depressive state of mind.
4. She originally appeared as a background character in my prison graphic novel The Little Red Fox. But I became attached to her and gave her a bigger role.
The Lionheart sisters refer to her as "Gretchy" Or "Gretch" The God-fearing Girl Of Tragedy. Yes Gretchen was my spiritual battle character against evil. She is after all unpredictable and it's that unpredictability nature of her that often makes her appear brash in the face of danger. Having a mental illness.
Gretchen was first introduced in Raizen Fury The Little Red Fox Issue 2 as a support and background character. After awhile I started liking the character a lot and wanted to give her more parts. I knew she had quite the potential to develop into someone more important vs remaining a supporting character that appeared to give Emma advice on how to survive life inside Outer Heaven's notorious prison.
She kept a notebook of all the prisoners and documented their strengths and weaknesses in order to give Emma the advantage over them. Of course some parts of the prison story was botched very bad making Gretchen rather useless since Emma ended up becoming a prison bitch anyway even with her help on how to defeat the hardest inmates. Although Emma was also badly injured after the first book which is why I turned her into a prison bitch to begin with, protection reasons but it was still a very stupid and a shitty idea I want to forget ever existed. In fact I kept dreading if there were still copies on the web somewhere of that prison series, it would just ruin any desire for me to fix anything.
So I would like to forget how she was introduced back in 2020. In the remake version of the Little Red Fox story. Gretchen is not assaulted by Anita or Gloria whom she was cellmates with before the Warden offered her to Emma and the two developed a mother and daughter bonding relation.
In the remake I was preparing, Gretchen's introduction involves her being attacked in the prison showers by multiple Witch Hunter gang members instead. But one of them said "she's too ugly and mentally challenged to rape." Then she gets bullied and taunted by them, I didn't really like that concept either not because it was "mean" but because it wasn't good enough to introduce the character.
One of the other interesting things is that she rarely if ever relied on self defense and fought back in the prison story. In some of my newer recent works of art featuring Gretchen, you see her fighting foes ten times scarier than a group of prison thugs. That's because Shadow Hill is her natural habitat. It would be like taking a Lion out of the jungle and then having him roam around the city and there are certain animals that fear other animals regardless of their predatory or dominant status in their own environment.
Ursula isn't as easy as she looks to attack from behind...
I would describe Gretchen as a semi-hostile individual instead of a brave one for the number of dark forces she challenges in combat, most of the time she relies on none combative tactics against them. Although Gretchen has fought monsters in Shadow Hill and evil Witches,
she isn't quite self aware of what she is doing. In actuality she is terrified of the witches, and never actually fights them directly. The image above showing her coming to the aid of Elizabeth is just an illustration, but that never happens in the initial story of Shadow Hill itself. Ursula would have turned around and knocked her ass out of the air.
Regardless of how she approach each and every adversary she is not always successful at defeating them. There are a number of times when she was forced to retreat into a corner, cower in fear of evil she tried standing up against. Gretchen can underestimate the unknown but eventually learns to avoid certain threats altogether. She uses stealth maneuvers to observe the ugliness in those with sinister plans and deeds. This allows her to study them so that she may warn Claudia of their presence. Although there are some dark forces that Claudia has total control over herself.
But bravery wouldn't be the word I would use to describe Gretchen's willingness to aid a damsel in distress when she herself can often become one. Another reason is that the word bravery is overly used and have lost it's meaning over the years. Gretchen's willingness to engage dark forces with physical contact is something she feels forced into doing because of her strong connection to her faith, she is driven and determined by her faith to challenge dark forces. In the Silent Hill series we have seen countless ordinary everyday men and of course even Heather Mason face up against dark forces without any assistance from anyone to help them figure out the puzzle on dealing with them. You can call it an act of fighting out of desperation.
As for Heather Mason she was driven by hatred and anger after her father was murdered. Therefore anger and hatred is what drove her to deal with the demons. When Vincent said the demons were really people that Heather was killing, she was shocked and upset but also very disturbed by Vincent's sick joke. I honestly hated Heather though and wanted Claudia to end her. Heather expressed fears in seeing these monsters in the beginning, she even said "not even a child could believe this," when she first encounters one of the monsters in Silent Hill doing something disturbing to one of the Nurses.
Heather isn't trying to flee from the town to escape it's horrors, she still has to face the evil manifesting within Silent Hill. Gretchen Wolf understands the monsters but is terrified of them and because Shadow Hill is also her home, it's not just some abandoned town where people go to seek answers because it called them there. Gretchen is also never really alone, she has the help of the wild at her side, Wolves that are a symbol of the family. They aid and accompany Gretchen on her adventures through the dark and foggy town of Shadow Hill. Having these furry companions to lend a hand reduces the fear level to some degree.
Therefore it is not "bravery" that drives her to fight demons, witches, and other monstrosities in Shadow Hill. But like anyone else she fears these encounters, sometimes will even run away and hide from them until they go away.
But how did this interesting religious young woman come into development you say? Well It wasn't until I watched Nicky Nichols on Orange is the new black that I had this idea in mind for a young red headed girl that looked like someone who would fit a lost individual with psychological disorders but was still stable minded enough to transcend a complex world of the unknown.
I was also going for a 1970s traditional country girl appeal so even before I knew anything about Orange is the New Black, there was The Sound Of Music, Little House On The Prairie, Pippy Longstockings, and Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman where I was taken by the pioneer days appeal of how well mannered the womenfolk as they would say were back in those times. It then occurred to me quite clearly that I wanted a character of suffrage but someone who is also balanced in how they approach dangerous encounters.
I expressed to a few artist how the more imagery and movies of traditional women I exposed myself to, the more drawn I became to those kind of women. Though when people use all these words like Women and Girl. I usually like the term girl when referring to a younger woman who isn't above the age of 30. When I say girl I usually mean someone who is under 25.
The word "Woman" just makes them sound much much older than 18 and above 21. Although Slushe.com had an issue with this because they are an asshole. So when I said Gretchen was a girl instead of referring to her as a woman they assumed she was underage and decided to harass me over this asinine nonsense including how she was dressed in a few images. Like they never seen an adult woman wearing clothes before that look like someone under a certain age would wear it...That's what drove me to stop posting there.
Certain outfits tend to make her look younger than she appears. Regardless I wish we had a lot more creative freedom, because the lack of it is part of the reason I intend to retire sometime this year. Anyway I have never really sat down and watched any full episodes of any of those shows or movies I mentioned. I would go through them searching for inspirations and I always found something that peaked my interest.
I guess as I get older I become more drawn to traditional things. But there was a lot of historical information on the web, traditional photographs of traditional women, There were all these images of young enchanting ladies throughout Europe in areas void of modern day Western influences. You know like what we see today that makes me repulsed about the Western world and it's fall from grace (not religion but reputation).
So what kind of girl is Gretchen? She is a traditional family loving farm girl that enjoys gardening, milking older women, farming, and playing in the open fields naked. When she was only 5 years old her mother built a small garden in the yard for her to play in because she always admired the Garden of Gerda, a devious old nasty Witch in the outskirts that lived with her two wretched sisters. Gretchen's curiosity often lead to trouble and the witch terrorized her away. Because of her fascination with flowers, Gretchen's mother would often refer to her as her little flower girl. She would then surround her bedroom with flowers and vines hanging from the ceilings to make it appear as though she slept inside an indoor garden.
The way Gretchen communicate is different from other characters I have created, I tried coming up with a fictionalized romantic sounding dialect fused together with the Romanian language.It's also easy to make mistakes when designing a character, after awhile I figured she would do just fine without the additional dialect since I didn't want anyone assuming she was from the Deep south because of the way she used specific words when communicating.
Yes Peppermint Patty is Gretchen's cousin.
Who do you think taught her how to properly Milk a Mature Cow? -snickering-
Gretchen's cousin Alyssa, and Shirley don't speak in the fictional dialect, they are from the Eastern side of Shadow Hill which is more of a cross between a Gothic town and a modern victorian town in terms of architecture. She is also related to Peppermint Patty, yes the character from Peanuts (Charlie Brown, see image above)
There was always something about the 1970s that gave me ideas to work with just as much as there were a lot of great cultural things throughout the 1980s and the 1990s that gave me great ideas for creating characters of interest. I spent a lot of my free time observing three of the greatest decades. If you studied the eras well. You see exactly what I mean.
The early 2000s offered a slight of encouragement with other characters I have made but not very many since I prefer the 90s and earlier decades. When you watch the first Children of The Corn you think of Gretchen, Little House On the Prairie you think of Gretchen, when you see the first exorcist movie, you think of Gretchen. Spending a lot of time on this character and studying 1970s cinema, television, and fashion (not the disco stuff) reminded me exactly why I have become so smitten by women of the three major eras that most of my work is highly influenced from other than Shadow Hill having some Renaissance elements connected to it.
Nichol's character gave me an idea on how I wanted Gretchen to look because of her wild unkempt hair. Judging from what I read on the character Nichol she's known for being a jokester, is rough around the edges, and has a sensitive side and struggles with her past life as a drug addict. And though I know very little about Orange is the New Black to make any kind of judgement of the characters from the series itself. Based on what I've seen of the show bit by bit, they have some characters I find interesting enough.
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Gerda displays motherly characteristics by using
Gretchen's fear of abandonment against her.
Although Gretchen isn't a jokester, or a drug user she is extremely serious about her religious beliefs, and believes greatly in Claudia's paradise. Gretchen is withdrawn and easily attached but isolates herself from large groups except for when she's around Emma's gang in Raizen Fury since she is also part of it. Unlike other girls who seem to understand sex, Gretchen discovered sex late but was very distant from it in her adult years.
Her mother told her about it but was also very protective and shielded her from it because she was afraid her daughter would lose her innocence. Because of this Gretchen was overprotected even as she became old enough to make her own decisions about these things. But in Shadow Hill a mother holds right and authority over their own as long as they are alive and living. If the mother objects you obey and that is the end of the discussion. And because Gretchen is very respectful of her mother and would never do anything to upset her. She was willing to safeguard her innocence until her mother was willing to let her give it away.
Gretchen however is what I would call a very careful individual that will do everything in her power to avoid disappointing her mother and mother figures who were often a step-parent to her during her mother's absence for 3 years. She was sexually active only with inanimate objects like dolls, and stuffed animals, but was very afraid of such encounters with an actual person until Emma performed on her in prison. This however led to guilt, and fear of betraying her mothers trust, which she failed to tell Emma.
This trust gave her mother the assurance she needed to know that her only daughter even at the age of 18 she would still aggressively defend her virginity and avoid sexual activity unless she was permitted. But this was almost destroyed a secondary time because of Gerda's predatory ways when she nearly tricked Gretchen into violating her law of chastity which she attempted by nearly performing penetration sex on her. To do this she simply exploited her fears of abandonment and manipulated her weakness.
Gretchen is withdrawn and becomes sexually aggressive only when she's thirsty for breast milk (which she gets from draining older women) or if she feels agitated by something. Other than that, she is passive and obedient to the dominance of much older women but takes leadership during the plotted escape from Echidna Asylum since none of the women she escapes with understands the layout of Shadow Hill better than the towns very own Gretchen Wolf.
Other fascinating things about her personality is her unhealthy relationship with abuse. Gretchen gets off on real severe abuse that causes bruising and scarring. She has a constant desire to inflict self harm onto herself instead of on others and is sensitive to inner suffering but believes she deserves her own pain. She can often be seen as a mother figure herself to her cousin Shirley T. Wolf whom she is always scolding if she forgets to say her prayers.
When it comes down to loyalty and commitment, her loyalty is unquestionable because she stands firm against any form of betrayal and deception. This would explain why she have a high disdain for promiscuous behavior and believes that anyone that betrays someone's love is unworthy of love, grace and mercy at all. She also believe that daughters should always respect their mother no matter what and should never challenge their authority for any given reason. Some would say she is quite naive although her mother is extremely wise and rarely wrong about anything.
If Shadow Hill was a movie and I was planning to direct it, or even The Little Red Fox, Natasha would be the person I would call up and ask to do the role for Gretchen to see if she have what it takes to pull off the characters likeness. I believe she would be able to do it. I also always thought that Natasha Lyonne could easily portray someone in a psychiatric ward just as well as she was able to portray a prisoner in Orange Is the New Black even though it's a comedy and not something serious like Prison Break, Oz, or that crappy overrated Australian edgy one, Wentworth.
And while Natasha is slightly much more older than Gretchen she would have to be a 30+ year old version of the character. Gretchen is 18 years old but Natasha is a short woman just like Gretchen is short, around 5"3 so she would be a perfect match if she dyed her hair redder and put it in the same pigtail style. Except I don't think her hair is anywhere near as long as Gretchen's. But still when I saw the character Nicole in OITNB I said "That's my Gretchen!" And I just laughed, and ever since I wanted to meet the woman even though I'm not even a fan of that series.
But I still wanted to tell her that her character on that show was an inspiration for me creating Gretchen since I'm sure she doesn't walk around with her hair looking unkempt like that outside of her role as Nicol. Quite honestly I like her like that compared to images I saw of her with her hair well done. Her Nicol look reminds me of how beautiful and natural most average women were in the 70s, she definitely reminds me of the 1970s a lot.
What makes Gretchen one of my most treasured and beloved characters that I've been doing a lot of artwork for lately is that she plays a larger role in the Shadow Hill series because she is related to Claudia Wolf. Like her aunt she is extremely spiritual and close to her faith even though she's unusual, and quite strange. Gretchen is still faithful, overly protective and a gentle creature unless you are a live toad or an insect, her two favorite meals. She is known to pray at least four times a day and only once or twice before bed to make sure that her voice have been heard.
She spent 3 years locked away in an insane asylum after her mother disappeared leaving her to take care of herself, but without a mother to guide and tell her what to do. Gretchen felt lost and frighten and grew extremely attached and clingy to one of the nurses despite she is scared and terrified of nurses and usually runs or flee whenever she sees them especially after witnessing some of them doing disturbing things to patients in the hospital she was admitted to.
Gretchen coerced into to performing a 3 hour long exorcism ritual by extracting the cursed seed from a Demon possessed woman among Motherhood Order Cultist that will drink and inherit the power of their God.
She also possess similar powers to Claudia Wolf in some ways including having powerful skill sets of her own, such as forcing a woman to have a soul sucking orgasm until she almost killed her. Gretchen can even summon and talk to spirits although this ability is extremely limited since she is nowhere near as skilled as Alyssa at doing this.
There was a tragic incident that still haunts her that involved a mortifying death. She accidentally drowned and killed a pregnant woman and murdered her first born infant she attempted to baptized after a demon had possessed the child and the mother. But the current in the angry waters was too deep, and Gretchen was unable to dive in to save them. These tragic events keeps her trapped inside a world of mental torment, regret, suffering, and pain as she is constantly begging for forgiveness for the horrifying events and even believes her own father killed himself because she drove him mad after he left.
Gretchen studied the art of exorcism because she believed that it would protect her and her loved ones from demon possessions. She only partially mastered the technique and succeeded at defeating lesser demons but struggled up against much greater forces of evil. The dramatic incident of her past traumatized the girl, and she was even blamed for the deaths and told she was not worthy enough to exorcise demons from others. This devastated her greatly but also encouraged her to study the art of Exorcism even more despite numerous failed attempts due to her severe learning disability that interrupts her ability to learn comprehensive and complex skills. Although she is still intellectual enough to get through life's toughest lessons.
Gretchen can be seen as a submissive person to much older women that possess a mother complex due to her inability to live in a world without being mothered, protected, and sheltered which is something she grew very accustomed to around her own mother that disappeared.
She is also infantile in certain ways and suffers from borderline personality disorder, and battles against a severe case of schizophrenia even though some of the things she can see and hear aren't always just voices in her head. There are dark forces she have truly encountered and experienced with her own two eyes and in physical combat thwarting their plot to conquer the hearts of the victim.
Although there are certain scenarios and situations where Gretchen has done sinister deeds to accomplish an objective. Part of it can be contributed to her disorders or lack of self awareness that the deed was questionable or devious.
One of her other unique traits is that she is able to crawl upside down and backwards like someone possessed by demons, in this phase her eyes fade to solid white and she can be heard chanting in a ritualistic tone. It's also unexplained how she even managed to scale up walls and can hang from the ceiling without attaching to anything. Her inhuman like behavior terrorizes others around her often making them uncomfortable in her presence. She can be jealous and stingy when it comes down to sharing the love of someone she has grown extremely attached to which is why it's harder on Emma to be affectionate toward her sister and cousins whenever Gretchen is around.
She can be seen as a challenging spokesperson using her religion as a weapon to fight off evil spirits, demons, monsters, or even attacking anyone she considers to be a wicked person with evil intent even though her own methods of punishment are quite abnormal. It is because of this behavior she is quite unstable and difficult around other people but is also calm, unpredictable, quiet, and communicative as long as she doesn't view the person as a threat. Threatening individuals draw out her hostility and aggressive nature that is a wild flaming challenge to tame. Gretchen admits to being possessed by demons at some point or time in her life. In order to keep them from coming back or talking to her she surrounds herself with demon repellent red candle lights that she crafts herself with special ingredients from forbidden sources.
Gretchen is seduced by the Eldest Witch Gerda to reveal secrets of her aunt's hidden Book that could break the seal that keeps the Witches trapped in the Southern Region where they have been imprisoned for the betrayal of The Church. Gretchen has a very unusual relationship with the exiled witches.
Regardless they are the enemy of her family. Of course Gerda is aware of her weakness and takes full advantage of this. Gerda exploits Gretchen's needy desire to be mothered and promises that if she can help free the Witches she will grant her access to her garden forever. Gretchen however almost falls for this ploy but Alyssa prevents her from being fooled when she warns her to stay away from the Southern region outskirts and the Witches will kill Claudia first chance they get in order to please, Rosaria. Claudia's jealous sister and Gretchen and Alyssa's very own aunt.
Another thing that make the character fascinating to me is that she is one of the first tragedy characters I ever worked on with real life like disabilities and mental disorders. She is fascinated with self harm and abuse due to the loss of her father and because he use to whip her when she would do something to upset him. In the town of Shadow Hill only mothers were permitted to strike their daughters but not their sons. One day Gretchen had spilled hot tea all over her father's lap and severely burnt his writing hand. Frustrated, he balled his fist and punched her in the face knocking the girl unconscious.
After engaging in an argument with his wife about it whom he would raise his hands to and strike, he decides to leave seeing how his daughter became a burden to raise. One night he disappeared from home and never returns. A week later his body was discovered in an old abandoned hotel without the upper limbs attached and his eyes removed from their sockets. There was blood written on the walls and a strange note left behind "He that raises thy hand to strike down the innocent shall have parts of himself removed to never strike again." This enrages Gretchen even though her father paid little attention to her anyway, she still loved him and blamed herself for his death after believing the entire time he had committed suicide.
When Gretchen finally confronts the one responsible for her fathers death she is disturbed by it's terrifying appearance but attacks the monstrosity in a fit of confused rage before learning of it's origin, a demonic creature that punishes abusers. It became the very first monstrosity in Shadow Hill she first encountered and fought in physical combat. Gretchen became reliant upon punishment for wrong doing and even developed an unhealthy relationship with various forms of self abuse to deal with her own past. Whenever her mother punished her, she would lock her inside the shed.
Inside the shed she found a toad in one of the flower pots. It is known that she copes with her fear of abandonment in various ways by doing strange and unusual things. She became so fascinated with these amphibious creatures that she started cultivating and eating them alive. Cultivating frogs became one of Gretchen's most addictive hobbies. This also makes it easy to lure, manipulate, and trick her into doing things against her own will.
Because of these exposed weaknesses Gretchen is not difficult to mislead. In one of the stories I wrote but never released, Gretchen is lured into a trap using frogs as live bait. She finds a plate full of frogs inside of a kennel and attempts to eat them. The cage closes and she is trapped inside by a strange hunched-back figure that tempts to keep her as a pet and a slave. It is revealed that this bizarre monstrosity lures in homeless street urchins on the street and performs rituals on them aside from other dark and brooding deeds. This would also explain the existence of the Shadow Urchins with dark eyes without a nose. Gretchen refers to these little humanoids as "The Ones Without A Face that wear mask". When it finds out that Gretchen is just disturbed with the mind of a lost little girl. Her captive threatens to kill her in a Brother's Grimm fashion.
Her many talents allowed her to defeat opponents physically as well as mentally in a number of unique ways. Whenever neighborhood bullies harassed her, she would terrify them by eating live frogs in front of them, biting off the heads and showing them the remains in her mouth imitating the croaking sounds they make to disturb them even further. The color of her eyes also resemble that of a frog.
Because of her unusual and bizarre demeanor she is mostly alone and have a hard time befriending others but is accepted among Emma and the Sisters Of Maiden as one of their most complicated combatants to defend against using a series of vicious leap and flipping attacks making her a dangerous and difficult opponent to deflect.
Some would say her fighting style is very similar to the praying Mantis as she often stands in a praying mantis like position or crouches and crawls like a spider using a series of complicated contortionist movements to bend her body in ways you have never seen before.
I came up with Gretchen's fighting style after playing as Zafina in Tekken 6 and I kept thinking how I wanted a character of my own that fought in a very similar way but only in Raizen Fury, a series that explores martial arts. I owe it to the likes of all those 80s and 90s movies like Bloodsport for inspiring me to come up with Raizen Fury but those films weren't the only factors behind me creating that series. In Shadow Hill Gretchen relies on the old method of fighting, steel pipes, axes, or whatever tool that can harm a threat, if all else fails running away is another good option.
She did however make friends with two elderly witches that were kicked out of the Motherhood for refusing to turn against Claudia. They treat Gretchen like a granddaughter and are always thrilled to see her visit them. When she comes over they always have a plate full of frogs for her to eat. Despite her cruel ways of eating frogs alive, she still have a sensitive side to other animals in the wild but is very hostile toward aggressive beast like chimps and hates them.
When a band of wild diseased ridden chimpanzee's got loose from an circus encampment after killing their owners. The wild chimps attacked a group of students along the foggy road. Gretchen fell out of a tree trying to avoid them spraining her ankle. The chimps spotted her and she was chase through the woods trying to escape but the wild chimps were viciously attacked by a pack of wild wolves. After the Wolves killed them Gretchen rounded their corpses into a wagon and brought them to the Eldest Witch in the forbidden outskirts region. Gretchen delivered the Chimp corpses to Gerda as a trophy in exchange for food from her garden, which she admired.
Even though Gerda often chases the girl away and sometimes threatens her with violence because of the number of times she sneaks into the garden and steals food for herself. Seeing the dead chimps in a wagon with their faces bloodied and torn amused the old hag. She laughed harder than she ever laughed before until her eyes were filled with tears of joy. Gretchen admitted she hated chimps, Gerda agreed smiles and offered her inside for a meal but after what Alyssa told her, she refused and returned back home with a bag of frogs as a reward for making Gerda laugh.
"When a monster goes to war with a demon, let them both fight to the death."
