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| Fan made illustration By Bethany Jennings |
13.1 Pitch Assignment
(From College)
Title: The sword of the White Knight
Premise: Angela’s desire to become a Knight opens more opportunities than she would have expected. The Prince spends lots of time with her (in her servant identity) and she also gets to fight alongside the knights like she had always wanted. However as a new knight comes onto the scene and she starts falling for him she realizes that with her dual identity neither of the men she loves know both sides of her, and if faced with the decision to chose between them what would she do?
Message: Love can be found where you least expect it.
Central Question: Question: Will Angela ever be accepted for who she truly is?
Character Arc:Character Arc: As a dual identity Angela finds she has much more courage when she is the white knight than when she is Angela the servant. When the prince is captured and taken prisoner while on the battle field Angela decides to use her courage and tell the knights who she truly is so she can infiltrate the enemy camp face the leader and rescue the prince. And as if telling her own friends who she is weren’t enough, Angela is faced with another pressing decision… Tell the whole kingdom as well at the King himself who she really is or risk losing the one she loves
Setup
Part
Act 1
Angela Stine, an 18 yr old young lady with very little memories of her childhood, finds herself on the endless cycle of being traded from slave trader to slave trader. The few memories she does have of her childhood were happy and she has no clue how she ended up this way. Her first clear memories date back only a few years earlier. Since then she has been bought and sold, worked hard and beaten, primped up and paraded by numerous owners and slave traders. Finally after the 25th trader, a very dispirited Angela finds herself back in a kingdom that holds vague fond memories for her.
Filled with a touch of excitement (since she dares not hope too much) she strives to put her best foot forward as her and the other slaves are dressed and paraded in front of the King. The King’s son, with a look of disdain, steps down from the thrown and without giving the slaves a second glance he walks down the row of them pointing and shouting directions. Stables, he tells one and kitchens he tells three; then with a pause he asks the traders if any of the slaves know how to tend rosebushes- His mother’s garden has long been without a keeper. As none of the slaves respond Angela tentatively puts up her hand. Prince Daniel points to her and after inquiring loudly as to what all of the servants were waiting for, the chosen servants hurry off and the sale is concluded.
A few days later, while tending to the garden in the courtyard, she is stopped by one of the knights who command her to bring a stack of swords to the great hall. She finds a dueling lesson for Prince Daniel being held there and stops to watch, fascinated by the swords. However she draws attention to herself as she accidentally laughs as one of the pages trip during his face-off with the prince. The Prince stops and reprimands her by telling her that she should not laugh at what she does not understand unless she thinks she can do better.
For some reason the feel of the swords in her arms seem to beckon her and give her courage she did not remember she had. Angela tells him that she knows she can do better because their fault is that they are embarrassed to fight him. Taking insult to her words, the prince commands her to try and duel him. Foggy memories of sword practices flit through her mind and she agrees to his challenge. After she beats him he jokingly declares that it is too bad that girls can’t be Knights.
That evening the king approaches her as she is once again working out in the gardens. He tells her that if she would tell her teacher to present himself to his majesty that he would be honored to have such a skilled fighter defending his country. However, still unsure of herself she decides against it.
After the prince gets over the fact that she beat him he starts watching Angela in the gardens as she works. One day, absentmindedly caught in a daydream, she was practicing some dueling techniques with a wooden pole as the prince walked into the gardens. Taking a second pole that was leaning against the garden wall he surprised her by joining in on her battle. The battle ended in a truce between them as they both sat on the grass to catch their breath. He asked her if she would mind practicing with him so he could better his skills and from then on they began practicing daily becoming better friends.
(Plot Point 1) It was not long before invaders once again began to threaten the countryside and with the prince’s encouragement Angela finally agreed to have ‘her teacher’ present himself to the king to request knighthood. Angela disguises herself as a man in a white uniform, hood and mask and presents herself as a ‘him’ to the king. ‘He’ is daubed the “White Knight” and is introduced to the rest of the knights.
The White Knight is soon sent to defend one of the kingdom’s farther outposts with the rest of the knights. During the battle the White Knight is taken by surprise as she recognizes the very enemy leader who destroyed her family home. As memories of that horrible day and how she came to be in the hands of the slave trader’s came flooding back into her mind she is taken off guard and wounded by an enemy sword.
As the battle is won the White Knight falls to the ground unconscious from the loss of blood. She wakes up back inside the castle in a soft bed. After finding that her man’s uniform has been changed by the physician and that she is now in a dressing gown she reaches up for her mask to discover that it has not been removed. She tries to sit up but the pain in her side is too much and as she falls back on the pillows the prince sitting across the room comes to her side. The prince assures her that her personal identity has not been revealed even though it is now known that she is a woman… and Angela falls back unconscious.
