Reiziger's Sounding Board · 7:23pm Jul 26th, 2014
At this point in Besides the Will of Evil, it's fair to start wondering why Reiziger continues to keep Trixie around. After all, it can be argued that she's outlived her usefulness. She did just get named his High Priestess, but realistically, that's a duty that could have fallen to one of his new changeling servants. Why persist in allowing her beside him?
Some of it can be chalked up to Reiziger's previous comments about loyalty. He does genuinely reward loyalty, at least at this point in his ambitions. Trixie had multiple opportunities to obey the unsettling feelings in her heart and stop helping him while he was still a 'guest' of the circus, but she persisted. She was the first of his new servants, and though she has had some misgivings in her heart, in practice her loyalty has not wavered- so neither has his.
However, the more I write the two of them together, the more I begin to realize that one of Reiziger's primary reasons for keeping Trixie around is to have someone to talk to. Reiziger, like many villains, loves the sound of his own voice (and it is rather magnificent, at least in my head). He thinks he is terribly wise and clever, and he thus relishes all opportunities to put that wisdom and cleverness on display in his remarks. Yet he is not the sort of creature to talk to himself. He needs someone to bounce his words off of, someone to bear witness to his greatness and reinforce it.
That's where Trixie comes in. The newly-promoted Metamorph also serves that purpose, but as we'll see, he's not much for scintillating conversation. Trixie is rather clever and well-spoken herself, and though she addresses Reiziger from a position of mingled terror and worship, she nevertheless tends to know what to say in response to her lord's remarks. Everybody likes good conversation, even a dark lord. Indeed, I'd argue that a certain type of dark lord (of which Reiziger is one) loves conversation especially, and that, for him, would be reason enough to let Trixie stick around.
By the way, I've paid attention to the guesses in the comments of the story about what Reiziger sounds like. Benedict Cumberbatch and Clancy Brown are my two favorite suggestions I've seen thus far. I'll add to those a voice I don't believe has been recommended yet: Cory Burton doing his Megatron voice from Transformers Animated.
I think it fits.
Trixie is here to prevent Reiziger from the disastrous monologue, it all makes sense now.
What blasphemy am I listening to? Corey Burton as Megatron! There is no Megatron but Frank Welker!
Still, I appreciate a definitive answer as to how Reiziger sounds like. You seem to have put much thought into the reason why Reiziger continues to keep Trixie around.
Keeping with the Transformers theme, I still would have like to have seen Chrysalis stay on as sort of Reiziger's Starscream, but it seems she didn't have Starscream's patience, or his willingness to lower himself to save his head until the right moment.
I'd all ways imagined Reiziger to sound like the puppet master form Ghost in the Shell, only more sinister/evil sounding.
His voice starts at around 2:18
I keep hearing him as Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Just something about his insanity that leads me to it.
Not going to lie... whenever I read his lines, only one voice comes to mind: Keith David.
2318407
And now, that is the only voice I can imagine Reizigar having.
Please accept my thanks in the form of this 'stache.
I get thinking of this guy's voice instead.
Failing that... David Kaye.
You know, if I was in the villain business I'd want somebody to talk to as well. But I'd monologue the ears off everyone within a hundred miles.
That Megatron voice is now Reiziger's voice in my head. Can't imagine it otherwise. It was older and more gnarled (metaphorically speaking) than I at first envisioned, but that only made it fit better.
As long as he doesn't take to ending his sentences with the word "YES!!" like David Kaye did in Beast Wars, whatever he does with his lackeys is fine with me.
I actually assumed he was still in the Ponies are animals mindset and just keeps her as a pet.
(That's what I'd do with Trixie.)