58 pages • 1 hour read
Hannah Nicole MaehrerAssistant to the Villain
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Manor
The manor is Trystan’s home and the office from which he conducts business. Located deep in the dark, enchanted forest near Evie’s village, the manor has earned the nickname Massacre Manor because of the many alleged deaths that the Villain has caused there. The moniker is yet another way in which Trystan’s character seemingly represents The True Definition of Evil. Like his own nickname (the Villain), the manor has an epithet that is suited to the evil label that the king has imposed upon Trystan. Unlike “the Villain,” however, the manor was not given the name through any official channels, which shows how labels and images take on lives of their own once they are widely accepted as truth. The Villain is known for his terrible deeds and horrid treatment of those he captures, so it only makes sense for his lair to have an equally horrific name, and this serves as a feedback loop of validation. The people accept the villainous image that Trystan has been given and then affirm those beliefs by embellishing them, thereby making it less likely that Trystan will ever overcome The Damaging Power of Expectations.
The manor itself is a combination of crumbling ruins and well-maintained rooms. One wing serves as the business side of Trystan’s operation, and the other contains his personal quarters. In Assistant to the Villain, the author only ever describes the business side of the structure. The undisclosed nature of Trystan’s private accommodations enhances the mystery of his background. The business side is largely an open office where Evie, Becky, and several other administrative assistants and interns perform tasks that keep the operation running. As Trystan’s assistant, Evie uses the desk that is closest to his private office. This arrangement has the added benefit of letting their working proximity fuel the romantic plotline between their characters. The manor also contains several things not found in a standard office building, such as torture chambers, and the author employs such colorful details to utilize the manor as a humorous version of the typical office workspace. Rather than the stereotypical cave or other darkly terrible dwelling given to villains in fairy tales, the manor has windows, a breakroom, and other comforts that make it seem like just another place to work.
The Enchanted Knife
The enchanted knife that the blacksmith uses to wound Evie plays an important role throughout the novel. From the beginning, Evie complains of the constant pain that the knife wound causes her. Although she received this wound a month before the events of the Prologue, the wound has not healed, and this issue illustrates the magical properties of the dagger and represents Evie’s unprocessed trauma. When she and Trystan visit the blacksmith, Evie discovers that increasing her proximity to the dagger increases the pain of the wound, and this pattern suggests that confronting the past before coping with its traumatic effects often causes new pain that is not so easily banished. Only after Evie kills the blacksmith with the dagger is she free of the pain and the psychological hold that he has had over her. Rather than being a liability, the dagger becomes the tool that Evie uses to move forward, as well as a reminder of all she has endured and survived.
In addition to causing Evie pain, the dagger wound also glows whenever Evie is afflicted by other physical pain, which makes it a beacon of her discomfort and a metaphor for how pain compounds over time. By not dealing with the wound, the dagger’s hold over her, or the blacksmith’s power to affect her, Evie lets the pain and wound fester, which keeps it from healing, much like the results of unmanaged trauma. Then, whenever Evie is stricken with a new wound, that wound brings back the pain of the dagger wound, and the glow becomes a physical manifestation of all the pain she is feeling. In addition, because Trystan’s magic allows him to detect the wound when Evie is affected by the dagger, this dynamic demonstrates that such deep pain cannot remain a secret, especially when Evie is confronted by the source of her original pain.
Ink
Trystan’s sister has specific magic that allows her to infuse ink with magical properties, and the color of the ink dictates those properties, allowing Trystan and others to use it for various purposes. Due to the secretive and delicate nature of his work, Trystan requires his guards to take an employment oath that is bound up in green ink. This oath takes the form of a green ring around their finger, and if one of them betrays him, the ink will turn to poison, seep into their blood, and kill them. This measure ensures that Trystan’s guards cannot double-cross him without dire consequences, and it represents Trystan’s matter-of-fact approach to villainy. He understands how much danger a rogue guard could put him in, and because he is not inhibited by a moral code, he has no problem requiring such an oath of his guards. Trystan also has Evie make a similar oath, but rather than green ink, he uses gold for her. After inking his own skin with gold ink from the same vial, he forges a link to her that alerts him when she is in danger. When he initially had the ink placed, he knew only that he had a strange connection to her and that he wanted to keep her safe. As the story progresses and Trystan’s morals start to shift, he recognizes that not telling Evie the truth about the gold ink means that he has bound her to him without her consent. This method is not dissimilar to the green ink that he uses on his guards, and both situations make ink a symbol for Trystan’s practicality, as well as the ways in which he changes throughout the novel.
In the book’s final chapters, Evie learns that her father has been spying on her through the magical properties of the blue ink he gifted her shortly after she started working for Trystan. Unlike green or gold ink, the blue ink does not bind people together. Instead, it allows someone to read anything written down with ink taken from a given vial. Evie uses the ink for all the notes she keeps about the workings of Trystan’s office, and since her father kept some of the ink from the vial he gave her, he gains the ability to read everything in her notebook. This allows him to remain outside the circle of suspicion until the very end of the book, and it also leads to Trystan’s capture, the event that will fuel the sequel. For Evie, the blue ink represents symbolizes the issue of trust. Evie has always trusted her father simply because he is her father, and she wants to believe that he would never do anything to hurt her. This trust turns out to be misplaced, as her father has been harming her since long before her employment with Trystan began. Spying with the ink is one in a long line of things that her father has done to harm her, and Evie uses this realization to break free of his influence and embrace her own self-worth. She ultimately decides that she is worth more than what others think of her or how someone mistreats her.
