From TES issue 21 (May 2003)

Series 5. Level 2/3.
AESANDRE
Juliet Henry-Massy played the part of Knightmare's last completely evil sorceress, who ruled the third level in series 5. Aesandre was a winter witch, and queen of the frozen land of Winteria, also known as level three. She wore robes of royal blue and had a sparkling stack of ice-hair. Her tone was always frosty and haughty, revealing a proud and disdainful character. As Aesandre made only four appearances on Knightmare, it is easy enough to sum her up - a powerful opponent and a reluctant ally of Lord Fear, but always very keen to prevent dungeoneers from entering the frozen wastes of her third-level kingdom.

Aesandre's first appearance was in episode 8 of series 5. Winning dungeoneer Ben had entered Winteria and was using a spyglass, through which Lord Fear could be seen asking Aesandre to bring a stop to Ben's progress. She readily agreed, and made an appearance in person in the next episode to do just that. Aesandre showed her confidence in her abilities and her haughty disdain as she spoke to Ben: "There is an uncomfortable warmth in here. It offends me; it disturbs me. Oh but of course, it is a dungeoneer. Have you magic, dungeoneer? You must of course fight fire with fire. Come dungeoneer, do your worst, or perhaps your best!" - Aesandre. She was defeated with the spell FREEZE - metaphorically fighting fire with fire, of course - which came from Hordriss.

Perhaps Aesandre was not that tough an opponent to beat when push came to shove, then, but she made two further spyglass appearances in series 5 and clearly showed her determination to keep dungeoneers out of Winteria. Chris III was tasked with releasing a firestone that Aesandre had frozen on level two, which was instrumental in his downfall by transforming into a goblin. When she and Fear were discussing this plan through the spyglass, Aesandre made it clear that she was only helping Fear because she didn't want another dungeoneer to infiltrate Winteria, and not because she felt subordinate to him in any way: "May I remind milord that I am not one of his creatures. I do no one's bidding; no one's! What Aesandre does is to please Aesandre." - Aesandre. Aesandre returned once again for the final episode of the series, and demonstrated the full extent of her power by freezing the entire Dungeon with a powerful spell. Although it was suggested that Lord Fear boosted Aesandre's power with his own on this occasion, dungeoneer Kelly II had to use the power from Aesandre's blue fire ("a fire that freezes rather than burns" - Hordriss) to be able to escape the Dungeon. Aesandre was therefore a pivotal part of the thrilling end to this series - the first of three major series-ending potential catastrophes - and proved her worth as a memorable and formidable evil power in the Dungeon.

Fear Factor: 8 Frosty and menacing.
Killer Instinct: 2 Helped with Chris's fall, and would have liked to do more.
Humour Rating: 2 Laughed at her own derisive taunts at poor Ben.
Oscar Standard: 7 Aesandre was a fair addition to the show as far as she went, but Juliet Henry-Massy could have perhaps done with more appearances to really establish herself in the role.

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Member of the Knightmare.com discussion forum. Aesandre joined in June 2004 and did not post. The account was deleted in 2009.

Aesandre was among the 'cosplay characters' seen at the Knightmare Convention in 2014. She was portrayed by Knightmare.com forum member FoxyLF and was a guest on Late Night with Lord Fear at the convention.

Aesstagg, who joined the Knightmare.com forum in September 2014, had a username inspired by two characters. This was illustrated by Aesstagg’s forum signature: 'With the ice-cold snap of Aesandre, and the cruel authority of Greystagg, your doom is prepared!' Aesstagg has made 4 posts to date.

[Earlier versions: 2014-05-31 20:19:44, 2007-02-22 23:46:00]

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