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Saint Olga Blog Entry |
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April 12, 2024, 12:00:17 AM April 12, 2024, 12:00:28 AM 4/12/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is "Saint Olga" (real name never given), without garrison cap (top drawing) and with garrison cap (bottom drawing). She's a character too new to be on my "to-draw" list yet (sigh) though some backstory has emerged. She's a Red Army sniper whose single-minded motivation for revenge earns her the nickname St. Olga, after Olga of Kiev/Kyiv, who BTW is my 33x great-grandmother. There'll be more about her later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding her design, I wanted interesting/distinctive colors, these were inspired by the black/gold theme in some of St. Olga's art. Her hairstyle is loosely based on Roza Shanina's. TUMBLR EDIT: Saint Olga is more of an occasionally appearing character, I can't really call her a background character, so I haven't delved a lot into deep development for her. What little info is available is given by characters like Boris, who've heard stories that she lost her husband to the Germans, who tortured and killed him (a sticking point for Boris, who was himself tortured and assaulted by Sgt. Lange and his guys). Her husband was a Red Army sniper; following his death, Saint Olga took up the rifle and assumed the role. Thus her nickname. German sniper Lt. Ratdog, who isn't especially big on book learning, doesn't understand the relation, so Capt. Himmel, who IS big on book learning, fills him in: Olga was a Viking princess, wife of Igor the Prince of Kiev (I'm using the historic name rather than the modern Kyiv, this was in the state once known as Kievan Rus'), who, following her husband's assassination by enemy forces, engaged in a brutal campaign of revenge which killed thousands. "And they made her a saint...?" Ratdog inquires, perplexed; Himmel tersely replies, "The church can be forgiving." (And yes, this scary lady is one of my direct ancestors, through Anna Yaroslavna's/Anne of Kiev's marriage to Henry I of France, via a gateway ancestor of my maternal grandfather. Alas, I am not, so far, descended from Otto the Great...I'm descended from his sister Hedwig. *grumbles*) Olga makes repeat, brief appearances throughout the story, never sticking around for long. She's fueled by nothing other than hatred and rage. She has a run-in with Ratdog, who is actually not much different from her--he's motivated to take up his rifle as a weapon following the death of his son, which he incorrectly blames on the Americans (based on false info fed to him by Wehrmacht sergeant Udo Eisen--actually, his employer General Schavitz is to blame)--yet, even though he empathizes with her for this reason and avoids killing her, she expresses no such magnanimity in return--her shot misses when her gun malfunctions, but she vows that she'll kill him the next chance she gets. Ratdog has a strict honor code that prohibits him from killing others under certain circumstances; Olga has no such honor code. Cross her, and you're dead. Her relationship with other Allied characters is complicated in that she refuses to collaborate with them, and considers even some of them the enemy. Romani sniper Didrika is basically on her side, but Didrika is also German, and Olga despises Germans. Even worse is that Didrika, Ratdog, and Ratdog's companion PFC Klemper, despite being enemies, share a grudging respect for and occasionally even assist each other (Ratdog opposes the Nazi regime, and Klemper follows wherever he goes); to Olga, this makes Didrika a Nazi sympathizer, even though neither Ratdog nor Klemper is a Nazi. Lie down with (rat)dogs, as they say. Then there's Boris, a literal Red Army Russian. It isn't bad enough that he's taken up with Didrika. He did so after deserting the Red Army with some of his men, so although he's still loyal to the communist cause and hates most of the Germans himself, to Olga, he's no better than a traitor. Olga does give these two one pass, but just to give them a warning, that the next time they meet, they shouldn't expect any mercy. Didrika's reaction is much like Ratdog's; Boris, on the other hand, understands where she's coming from, and says that if he were in her shoes, "I would kill me, too." Olga's spite isn't limited to combatants, either. When a German target uses a civilian woman as a human shield, Olga shoots and kills both without a second thought. On another occasion, she opens fire on a public gathering and just misses hitting Leopoldine Jäger (Himmel shields her and is slightly wounded in the process). Ratdog and company even come across evidence that she set fire to a homestead, shades of what Lange's company did to Klemper's and some other homes; difference is, even Lange never gunned down the fleeing occupants. Olga? She has no such qualms. The Germans and even the Americans (who are equally unsuccessful in getting her to work with them) find her brutality breathtaking. Result of all this is that most of the other characters, Axis and Allied alike, are frequently mystified by Saint Olga's morals, since most of them have certain lines they won't cross, while Olga appears willing and ready to kill anyone at a moment's notice. There's no appeal to her better nature, no way to get on her good side, no means of working with her. She will either pass on by or consider you a target. Almost everyone learns to outright avoid trying to interact with her for this reason. Essentially, she's a chaos agent, and even the rest of the Red Army doesn't bother trying to rein her in. Olga pops up at random throughout the story to target...pretty much anyone, and throw everything in disarray, which occasionally helps one party or other depending on who she's targeting, though of course this is never intentional. She never succeeds in killing Ratdog though this is based far more on blind luck and his own sniper skills combined. She does ALMOST kill him one time when he declines to try the same since she's wounded, and is spared only when Klemper tries taking the shot instead; Klemper is not a sniper, so he misses, and Olga escapes to go tend to her injuries. Klemper scoffs at the rattled Ratdog, "Your heart is too soft." Olga eludes death numerous times, sometimes just barely, but at last, during a confrontation where Ratdog finally attempts to shoot her yet runs out of ammunition, someone else takes the shot--Olga lets out a small noise and drops to the ground. She's still alive, making it clear that her shooter isn't a sniper; Ratdog and Klemper hear bootsteps, and Maj. Jäger and Capt. Himmel appear. Jäger's gun is drawn--he's the shooter. The look on his face makes it pretty clear he hasn't forgotten nearly losing his beloved Leopoldine. He approaches the wounded Olga and looks down at her coldly. When he says, "This crusade you have, to avenge your husband at any cost; what exactly has it gotten you? Has it brought him back?" Olga, panting and bleeding, gives a weak laugh and replies, "You...you know nothing about family." Jäger stares at her a moment, then lifts his pistol and shoots her in the forehead. Himmel and Ratdog flinch at the report. They and Klemper stand by silently as Jäger holsters his gun and turns away from Olga's body, saying, "And that's how you take care of pests," heading back toward his vehicle. Himmel hesitates briefly before crossing himself and following. Ratdog and Klemper are left behind; after a moment Ratdog approaches Olga's body and kneels to look her over. He carefully removes the medals from her breast; Klemper comes forward now and asks, "What are you doing...?" "Maybe she has family somewhere," Ratdog muses, looking at the medals. "Maybe they'll want these back. Someday." Klemper is briefly silent before saying, "She's probably like us, and has no family anymore," and turning away. Ratdog feels a pang--thinking of just how many of them have no one left, why Saint Olga fought as hard and as viciously as she did--then stands, pauses a moment more (he feels like he should offer a prayer, except he doesn't believe in God and doesn't know any prayers, so all he can do is offer a moment of silence), and follows Klemper away. I don't know what becomes of Saint Olga's body. Some time after the war has ended, Ratdog--now mourning Klemper's death (by sniper fire) and going by his civilian name, Adel--at last has the chance to return the medals to Olga's cousin, the closest member of her family still surviving. He asks the woman what was Olga's real name. She pauses before replying that Olga is now her real name; her cousin effectively died when she lost her husband, so Saint Olga is who she became. Adel, who gave up his own name while his heart was full of hate, understands, and doesn't press further. Before she leaves with the medals, Olga's cousin pauses and addresses him by his German nickname, Rattenhund--this was the name Olga had used to refer to him, as an exact translation was lacking in Russian. She had mentioned her enemy and counterpart, the German sniper, before; while it couldn't be said that she respected him, still, she'd heard of the death of his son, and she understood him. "One thing that make you two different," her cousin says in stilted German, "she lose her heart for good...you get your heart back." She taps her fingers against Adel's chest. "Look after it," she says, thanks him again for the medals, and leaves. Adel, whose heart is no longer full of hatred yet is still raw from loss, finds he has no words left to say. [Saint Olga 2024 [Friday, April 12, 2024, 12:00:17 AM]] [Saint Olga 2 2024 [Friday, April 12, 2024, 12:00:28 AM]] |