Qing Ting-An

"Come at me if you dare"

- Ting, taunting

Ting An Light (or Ting, which only Addy is allowed to call her) is the successor of princess Makemnoit from “The Light Princess”. As the next villain of the story, Ting is as knowledgeable and passionate as Princess Makemnoit is known to be. Unfortunately, she also knows what love is, unlike her predecessor, and finds it difficult to curse the Light Kingdom to a definite period of drought. Ting identifies as a roybel, someone who is stuck between both sides of the conflict.

==Character==

===Personality===

The first thing people notice about Ting An Light is her quiet charisma. While Ting avoids making loud public displays and campaigns, one can see her passion for fairytale children’s rights when she speaks. Eloquent and persuasive, she is capable of swaying even professor Rumpelstiltskin from giving detentions to the three billy goat kids.

This is not to say, however, that Ting is a person who only makes flowery speeches. Far from it. Ting tends to be an impatient person, and she is outraged at the injustice in the world, where some fairytale children have to go through horrific human rights violations because of their story, or even worse, without any reason. Ting sees herself as the stalwart defender, a knight, who fights with words against the injustices that happen to her charges.

This self-confidence (almost bordering on arrogance, really) is not unwarranted. Ting was gifted at philosophy since young, and raised in an environment which encouraged her to learn as much as possible in order to prepare her for her role, she grew up expecting only the best results from herself and people around her. Under the tutelage of the philosophers, she also learnt to be discerning (judgemental) of others.

In her formative years, Ting believed that she was the only person who had common sense in the kingdom, but as she matured, she recognised her flaws, and began to demand the best from herself too. An introspective person, Ting aims for constant self improvement and recognises that her judgemental nature is unfair to people around her. While she does try to actively fight against her critical instincts, she has difficulty changing her preconceptions. (She probably refuses to admit this to herself, but one reason for her difficulty is that she is quite proud of her discerning judgement, and finds it hard to accept that her opinion is wrong)

Unfortunately, while Ting recognises that she shouldn’t impose her high standards on people around her, she doesn’t seem to be aware that her perfectionism is detrimental to her personal wellbeing (or she rationalises that she can handle the demands). As a result, Ting occasionally experiences periods of burning out when she feels like she hasn’t made progress, and the responsibility falls on her cousin, Addy, to take her mind off work.

Ultimately, what one can say about Ting An Light is that she tries. She tries her best in every endeavour she applies herself to, and strives for constant self-improvement. Is this healthy? Not necessarily, but as long as she accomplishes her goals, she’s content.

===Hobbies===

Ting is passionate about the protection of children in fairytales. She keeps an eye out for fairytales who are supposed to be bullied during childhood. Ashlynn Ella might pretend that she’s fine with her destiny, but her remorseful gaze into the forest says the opposite. Growing up, Ting witnessed how the king and queen firmly rejected the court philosophers’ cruel suggestions on how to cure Addy’s curse, and Ting learned that one should not harm kids.

When she learned that her destiny involved causing a drought in the kingdom and causing babies to lose the ability to cry, she was upset and guilty. These feelings intersected and drove her into advocacy, which the queen encouraged (and the king financially supported). The philosophers didn’t support Ting slacking on her studies but let her be, since the monarchs support her ventures. Addy doesn’t follow Ting’s cause, but tags along because she finds the activities fun and that Ting needs her help.

She thinks that destiny is flexible (because of her own and how it’s been carried out for her), and that what counts as “fulfilling the story” is up to interpretation. hence, she thinks that violence against the innocent is unnecessary, and there should be a committee in charge, or that society should change so that children do not suffer in stories.

On a more light-hearted note, Ting is talented with her fingers and (tries to) teach Addy how to tie knots. She occasionally works at poppy o hair’s salon as a hair stylist who specialises in intricate braids.

Ting also tries to spare some time to watch debates in Ever After High, though since Raven Queen’s rebellion, the topics and arguments have become stale.

While Ting loves philosophical arguments and debates, she’s also very interested in magic. While she isn’t innately powerful like Faybelle Thorn or Raven Queen, she’s capable of using tools to help accomplish her goals — keys to unlock the possibility of magic, rust to catalyse the magical reaction, a bowl of water as a medium to focus her intent (and more)

===Appearance===

Ting An is extremely tall, taller than Cerise Hood and nearly as tall as Hunter Huntsman. Her forehead is quite large. She’s pretty tanned, since she often follows Addy out to the lake.

Ting wears brown coloured contacts, as her eyes change colour to reflect her mood, and she feels uncomfortable revealing her emotions to others. Unfortunately, wearing contacts so often gives her dry eyes. Ting also has pretty bad vision from reading too many books in low lighting as a child.

==Fairy tale – The Light Princess==

===How the Story Goes===

A king and queen had a daughter after many years, and the king forgot to invite his sister, Princess Makemnoit to the christening. Unfortunately, Princess Makemnoit is a spiteful and clever woman, and after arriving without an invitation, causes the princess to lose her gravity.

“Light of spirit, by my charms,

Light of body, every part,

Never weary human arms—

Only crush thy parents’ heart!”

As the princess grows up, she never cries and is unable to see the seriousness of situations. The court philosophers are unable to propose any solution which the king and queen would adopt.

Soon, it was learned that the princess regains her gravity in water, which led to the proposal that the curse would be broken if the princess cried. In the meantime, a prince came across the princess swimming and thinking that she in drowning, tried to rescue her. The princess scolded him for doing so, and the prince falls in love with her. The prince and princess go swimming constantly.

When Princess Makemnoit learns that the princess loves the lake, she sets to drain it, as well as all water in nature. As the lake drains, the princess becomes sickly and despondent. It is later discovered that in order to stop the lake from drying up, a living man has to block the hole the water is escaping from.

The prince volunteers on the condition that the princess accompanies him while the lake fills up. While initially unfeeling, the princess eventually desperately saved the prince after he almost drowns. She brings him to her old nurse, who is a wise woman. When the prince finally awakens the next day, the princess falls to the floor and cries. The curse was broken and it rained, filling the kingdom once more with water. Princess Makemnoit died when lake water flooded the cave she lived in.

=== How does Ting come into it? ===

Due to an unfortunate accident, the princess Makemnoit of Addy’s story, the king’s younger sister passed away years before Addy was born. The king and queen knew that without any other royal family in suitable positions, there was nobody who could take on the role of princess Makemnoit. Correspondingly, the court philosophers were tasked with looking for a child who was capable of learning the philosophy of gravity and witchcraft.

Finding a suitable child took many years, so by the time they were able to procure a capable child, Addy was born. Desperate to continue the story, the queen contacted headmaster Grimm to help curse Ting.

Ting An wasn’t able to start the first part of her destiny (which was to curse the baby), and to ensure that she followed her destiny as well as to create a family connection between the next princess Makemnoit and the next light princess, she was brought into the royal family.

=== Ting’s views on her story ===

* Ting doesn’t really want to follow her destiny and doesn’t want to drain the lake (and everyone in the kingdom) of water, because she knows this will greatly impact others in the kingdom (she’s essentially causing a drought) and the kids — babies can’t cry anymore = serious physiological damage??

* She might also die in her story, but tbh she’s confident in her skills to save herself from drowning to death.

* She just wants everyone to survive by the end of the story

* Teacher Heng and teacher Guo are both extremely traditional people, so they imposed upon ting a strong sense of responsibility. Even though Ting thinks that her role might harm innocents in kingdom, she still feels like it’s her duty to go through with her destiny

* this won’t, however, stop her from finding ways to twist the words so that her spell won’t be as strong

==Trivia==

* Ting An’s name is written as 婷安, which means “beautiful peace”. Her name can also be read as 停暗, which means “stop dark”. This contrasts with Makemnoit (make dark)

* Ting is terrified of snakes

* She’s an INFJ

==Quotes==