The Stepmother

The Stepmother is a woman seen only as a silhouette at the end of a long hallway that Pinocchio reaches by walking through a carriage door NA E1·02:05:07. Pinocchio calls her "Mom" and she calls him "my little Pinocchio" NA E1·02:05:41 NA E1·02:05:48. She tells him the Princess of Reverie will be very important and is being hunted, and that he must keep her safe and hidden; she says she is busy caring for his father, whom she married NA E1·02:06:22 NA E1·02:06:33 NA E1·02:07:16 NA E1·02:07:35. She tells him "You have been telling many lies, Pinocchio." and ends by saying it is such an honor to be his stepmother NA E1·02:11:48 NA E1·02:12:06.

In the second episode Pinocchio peeks into what he takes to be her old bedroom and finds two skeletons, one with no toe bones, one with part of its heel carved off; Brennan describes the bloody handprints of a stately woman devouring her daughters NA E2·02:05:09 NA E2·02:05:57. In the third episode her voice comes out of Pinocchio's mouth as he casts Hex on the Fairy Godmother, and she says "If it isn't the little slime that took that serving girl off my floor and made her a princess." NA E3·00:47:36 In the fourth episode, after his death, Pinocchio is pulled through space to her door, where she tells him she told him to keep the princess safe, and a missing doorknob lets a hole of light through the door NA E4·00:13:58 NA E4·00:14:19. She takes the doorknob, etching and knife he took from her old bedroom and snaps his nose off NA E4·00:14:35 NA E4·00:16:05 NA E4·00:19:07. She says "Great magic requires blood, Pinocchio." NA E4·00:20:25 She then sends a crow to him NA E4·00:22:18 and tells him to keep Rosamund away from eyes that search for her NA E4·00:26:57.

In the seventh episode she appears in silhouette in the doorway when Pinocchio uses a fairy candle to ask for his mom NA E7·01:30:16. She says "I did not summon you to speak to me!" NA E7·01:30:56 Gerard's thrown Sword of Truth casts the candle's light on her face, and Brennan says the wicked fairy screams in terror and tears out her own eyes NA E7·01:35:46. She throws strings onto Pinocchio and says "Now you have truly outlived your use." NA E7·01:46:27 As Pinocchio escapes through burning pages, she cries "Worse than death! Worse than the end of stories!" NA E7·01:48:37 In the eighth episode her voice is behind the door in the eyes of the crow, shouting "Get it! Get it now!" NA E8·00:51:30 At the episode's end she says "Shouldn't be leaving doors open." from behind the library door NA E8·01:50:35 In the ninth episode the party sees, in a mostly erased Cinderella story, a woman who asks Cinderella for help for her two injured daughters and is refused, and whom Brennan calls spiteful and cruel to Cinderella though she loved her daughters NA E9·01:53:53 NA E9·01:54:16 NA E9·01:54:42. The Baba Yaga calls her Wicked Stepmother, shows her she is in a story, and she stabs herself in the chest to give up her name, moves beyond the world into The Lines Between and grows vast, devouring the evil queen from Snow White's book NA E9·01:58:12 NA E9·01:59:39 NA E9·02:01:17 NA E9·02:02:33. She says "I'm not even really a person, right?" NA E9·02:02:28 She slashes the pages and ejects the party after Rosamund throws a poison apple at her NA E9·02:05:25.

In the twelfth episode Pinocchio tells Snow White that the Stepmother crawls between books and rips people's parents out and consumes them, and that one of the fairies saw her and scratched her eyes out NA E12·00:44:49 NA E12·00:45:03. Snow White concludes that the Stepmother and the fairies are at cross purposes NA E12·00:45:07. In the sixteenth episode her voice at the heart of Pinocchio, lying at zero hit points, says "I want you back, Pinocchio." NA E16·01:22:06 The Golden Goose says that learning her machinations is among the party's greatest problems NA E17·00:19:02. In the eighteenth episode Pinocchio finds her behind a door in the Baba Yaga's cottage, the place where she was last a mortal, holding Geppetto, and she says she will call them there and burst from the world they made to hold her and kill them NA E18·01:15:57 NA E18·01:20:10 NA E18·01:21:11. Pinocchio gives up ever becoming a real boy for a chance at saving his father, and Geppetto is lifted away from her in a hammock of string into The Lines Between, and a scrap of paper with the name Minerva floats out as the door's light fades NA E18·01:23:31 NA E18·01:25:49 NA E18·01:26:30. Brennan says that putting the Stepmother's name in the book puts part of her back into the Neverafter NA E18·02:03:52.

In the finale the Stepmother rises from the pages and asks "Do I strike you as a poor piece of writing?" NA E20·01:07:35 Pinocchio shouts her name, "Minerva", at her NA E20·01:30:01. Geppetto is lifted out of the battle in golden light, and Brennan gives the Stepmother disadvantage on saves from then on NA E20·01:30:08. She burns three legendary actions at once, and everyone within 60 feet fails a Wisdom save and takes 22 psychic damage NA E20·01:39:06 NA E20·01:39:55. She swallows Tom Thumb NA E20·01:49:43. At the end of Pib's next turn Brennan calls another round of Wisdom saves, after which Gerard is fully dead and Mira is gone NA E20·01:51:34 NA E20·01:51:55 NA E20·01:51:59. As Timothy releases his spell she cries "No, no, no! I was going to destroy them." NA E20·01:55:31 Cinderella drives her spear into her heart, and Brennan says she scrambles weeping up through the pages toward the Authors as they retreat NA E20·02:01:05 NA E20·02:13:08. Afterwards she shares Pinocchio's whiskey and bubblegum, saying "I don't deserve your kindness, but I will take your bubblegum." NA E20·02:14:37 She adds "I think I'm made of pages now" NA E20·02:14:55. In Pib's epilogue Minerva, with two daughters and a stepdaughter Cinderella, asks him to help marry her daughters off NA E20·02:29:12 NA E20·02:29:42.