Franz K. Faust

Franz K. Faust [he/him] is the son of Doctor Faustus in Goethe’s Faust and Faustus’ young lover Gretchen.

However, unlike the character he's supposed to play for destiny, Franz is far from bored with the state of the world. On the contrary, practically anything takes his interest -- resulting in a lot of indecision and conflict.

Due to this, he has come to view himself as a tortured intellectual – as if he were some sort of Byronic Hero that wasn’t fit for this world. In reality, he’s actually just really, really emo.

Personality
It’s clear from the way he carries himself, the way he speaks and in the way he thinks, that Franz K. Faust clearly comes from an educated background. Having grown up at the University of Wittenberg (Writtenberg?), Franz has been surrounded by students and professors from a young age, and carries the spirit of academia within him.

He’s smart – that’s clear to see. Franz is filled with the brim with knowledge, both obscure and common, and is armed with a sharp, biting wit. A man of metaphors and a man of literary, Franz commonly inserts allusions and references in his speech.

Although he tries not to get to the point where he fails to be understood by people who know the source material, he actually has a terrible sense of what sort of source material most people even know. His upbringing came him a skewed view of people’s general understanding. Ever After High, of course, is a bit of a change from that, resulting in Franz often finding it difficult to relate to some of his fellow students.

Seemingly, without a doubt, Franz appears the perfect match of a Byronic Hero. Perhaps on the surface he seems defiant in the face of society – skipping class occasionally, reckless use of scientific equipment and generally in his own world, and perhaps inside he seems to hold a heart of melancholy. He gets easily wrapped up in his work, and is a critic of nearly everything (including himself. Hex, he even has a habit of wrecking his own work when he’s displeased). Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if he stepped right out of some emo teenage romance novel.

The boy struggles to form any deep emotional bonds with anyone, so much that he often relies on interests rather than anything else to maintain people’s attention. While he's desperate for emotional comfort, it's hard for him to get invested or keep such comfort,

Admittedly, Franz is kinda a dick. He’s easily irritable and has the tendency to brush off people who get on his nerves indelicately. Rarely does he make the effort to compliment people, except in a few exceptional cases. Any scorn and disdain however, tends to get voiced. His tone, when speaking to others, can be a tad sardonic, often resulting in him coming off as rude.

On one hand, Franz is desperate to strive. After all, those who strive and keep on striving, according to the Angels, according to the Word of God, are the ones who are able to earn redemption. However, such ambitious perfectionism causes him a lot of strife and dissatisfaction. No matter what he does, no matter how hard he works, he has the very real fear that he’ll never reach his personal best.

While accolades and honours are nice, Franz isn’t really all that desperate to be recognised for his work. To him, it’s not really about making a mark or some sort of impact on the world. It’s simply – as cheesy as it may sound – to achieve his personal best. For that reason, Franz exhibits no qualms about destroying his own work when it’s not perfect, or getting rid of any sort of history that demonstrates any ineptitude on his end.

Still, it seems futile to strive and strive but to no avail. For once, Franz just wants his life to slow down. A part of him is sick to death {with everyone’s expectations on him, working so hard, etc etc}. To become known as “God’s favourite scholar” is a lot of pressure – so much pressure that sometimes, he just wants to be content with the fact that perhaps he could be average, and perhaps he could happy to be average.

Academics are supposed to value innovation and change. Growing up at a university proved that belief time and time again. Hence, Franz feels guilty in how much he values normalcy and conventionality. It’s tiring, with all these deals with the devils, making God proud, making his parents proud, and working himself to death. He feels like he’s damned if he keeps going – he’ll waste his life, he won’t be able to appreciate the world he lives in. But he also feels damned if he stops – the gates of Heaven would be barred from him.

Such inner strife is very overwhelming, but at least he finds some comfort in the fact that it reinforces his Byronic aesthetic.

Appearance
For starters, imagine your standard Romantic Gothic novel. Okay, now imagine the angst-filled, perhaps brooding, male love interest.

Have you done that? Good.

That's Franz.

Interests, Hobbies, and the Likes
The thing about Franz is that he finds interest in everything. From philosophy to science to art to history-- he’s even into sports, but only when Germany is winning.

(Franz’s guardian and mentor, Johann Wagner, secretly wishes for Franz to dabble in alchemy and necromancy, partially because Wagner really adores their Kit Marlowe roots.)

How The Story Goes
Part 1 and Part 2. Wikipeda page for whole play

How does Franz come into play?
Franz is the son of the previous Faustus and Gretchen, the son who was said to be drowned in the nearby lake by his mother. However, he was rescued by Faust’s butler Wagner, who handed him over to his own son, Johann to raise in secrecy.

Johann Wagner was a mere boy of eighteen then, fresh out of Ever After High and about to start university. With some help from his mother and any datemates he had, he managed to raise the child, Franz. Had it not been for the new paternal role bestowed upon him, perhaps Johann would have managed to graduate as a dux or proxime equivalent. Despite so, he has little ill-will towards his adoptive son.

By the time Dr Faustus finished his destiny and been received into Heaven, Johann had graduated, and was working on obtaining a professor role at Wittenberg. Faustus' office at Wittenberg had been given to Johann, and from there, he continued raising Franz.

Franz was never formally told about his destiny – he had worked it out himself. There was no epiphany, no grand realisation, only daunting slivers of facts accumulating into undeniable truth. Due to this, Franz finds no shock in his destiny – it's merely something he grew up with.

Opinion on Destiny
Franz doesn't really have many strong feelings about his tale as a whole. In fact, he only seems to have strong feelings on specific events and whatnot that occur in Goethe’s play, but is overall Neutral towards the whole thing.

Fausts don't have to follow the tale dialogue-to dialogue, small-scene-to-small-scene. In fact, to keep the main themes of the play intact, every generation’s rendition is often modernised. For instance, Faustus’ father was known for curing the plague. But in this generation, Franz’s father helped develop a vaccine for certain diseases.

The strongest option Franz has in regards to his tale is about Gretchen and Helen of Troy, which will be expanded upon in the section Relationships, under Romance.

He also intends on aiding the next Mephistopheles, Gabi, in fixing the slut-shamey elements of the play. That, or the two intend on finding ways to kick the arses of those who do slutshame.

He thinks Goethe is a fantastic writer, he thinks the play is definitely the more favourable rendition of Faust, and is thankful his legacy is no longer defined by the Marlowe (which, of course, would result in him being dragged screaming to Hell).

One thing Franz knows for sure is that he wants his ending. Heaven being barred to him is something completely unthinkable. If he can't reach heaven, he'll never be able to reunite with his love -- and it'll also be proof that all his striving was for naught. Furthermore, in heaven rests his parents, and he is desperate to meet them, and perhaps get the confirmation that he did them proud.

Parallels

 * The reasoning behind Franz’s name (see: Trivia) is rife with reference to famous German-speaking men. Likewise, Goethe’s Faust is rife with allusions to and pride in his native Germany.
 * It's worth noting that part of his appearance was inspired by Franz Kafka.
 * Although this parallel was not intentional, a meaning of the name Franz is “one from France”. Faust was very forward in his first meeting with Gretchen, so much that Mephistopheles likens him to a Frenchman.
 * Franz is frequently compared to other Faustian figures from literature. Furthers the deep allusionary aesthetic of the play.
 * Two of these references in particular, Icarus and Bellerophon, is a nod to the (literal) marriage of Greece and Germany (symbolised by Helen and Faust) in Part II.
 * Additionally, Faust is compared to Icarus in Marlowe's version of the Faust mythos.
 * Also Faust's son with Helen, Euphorion, perishes in a way reminiscent to Icarus.
 * Lord Byron and Goethe were on close terms, and in great admiration of one another. Franz is described as a Byronic Hero.
 * The two most popular renditions of the Faust story is Goethe’s and Marlowe’s, both of which are plays. Hence, Franz has an interest in theatre and other plays.
 * The Mephistopheles in his rendition, Gabi, often sneaks him liquor. Parallels with the first shenanigan Mephisto and Faust get into: Mephistopheles pulling a prank on some drunk students.
 * Franz is often referred to with the epithet of “God’s favourite scholar”. While the character Faust is commonly associated with the Devil, this is the epithet he had at the beginning. I thought referring to Franz with this epithet rather than one referencing Mephistopheles was more suitable, due to Franz’s academic leanings and the importance theme of redemption in the Marlowe.
 * The University of Wittenberg, Germany, is the University Kit Marlowe assigns Faust to. Despite following the Goethe, it is the university in which Faust and Wagner are associated with.
 * The German city of Halle is a 24 minute train ride away from Leipzig, the place where the bar scene takes place.
 * Religion-wise, Franz identifies as Lutheran. That said, although his basic outfit contains a cross, he is not super religious.
 * The University of Wittenberg is also associated with Martin Luther, hence that specific denomination.

Trivia

 * Franz is named after two eminent German-speaking men: Franz Liszt and Franz Kafka.
 * Ironically, neither of the two are German-German.
 * Liszt wrote the Faust Symphony -- a beautiful orchestral composition based on Goethe’s Faust.
 * Kafka was a famous surrealist writer. Faust II was quite surrealist in theme, which is fitting.
 * Franz’s middle initial, K, was embedded into his name, so that when read aloud, Franz K. Faust sounds like Franz Kafka.
 * The K is for Kant, after the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant.