Moppet

Moppet on the cover of Return to Labyrinth IV. Art by Kouyu Shurei.

Moppet is a major character in Return to Labyrinth, and is an ablation formed of Sarah's discarded dreams.

Events prior to the manga

Gradually over the course of the series, Moppet is revealed to be an ablation created by the sorceress Mizumi at Jareth's bequest. After Sarah's defeat of him, Jareth began to lose his powers and started to believe that the only way they would be restored would be by having Sarah returned to him. As he could not have the real Sarah, he ordered Mizumi to create an ablation out of the part of Sarah he feared most - her dreams.

Moppet's story is played out in flashbacks, and Jareth is shown to have travelled to Mizumi's kingdom to collect her following her creation. Moppet was passive and obedient, only asking Jareth 'what is home' when he tells her he is taking her back 'home' with him. Jareth tells her it is whatever she wants it to be, and leads her away.

Once back in Jareth's Kingdom, Moppet was given a beautifully decorated room garlanded with flowers. Moppet had a wardrobe full of luxurious dresses, and also had a copy of Sarah's music box. Moppet's existence was a closely guarded secret, and she spent her days in the castle locked in her room. Jareth is shown to have gone to Moppet's room and begged her to love him, however she was unresponsive and appeared unhappy.

After many years, Jareth realized he would not be able to make Moppet love him and abandoned her in the Junk City. Without any memory of what had happened to her, Moppet was found by one of the Junk people and kept as a slave until she is given to the Major Spittledrum as payment for unpaid taxes. She is made Spittledrum's servant, and is seen in this capacity upon her introduction in the first volume of the series.

After becoming Spittledrum's servant, Moppet inadvertently intruded on a meeting between her master and Jareth. Jareth was startled by the sight of her, asking if she remembered him before sending her away. Jareth leaves abruptly, but not before telling Spittledrum to give Moppet an enchanted peach if she ever mentions anything about him or a locked room.

Role In The Manga

Moppet is introduced as Mayor Spittledrum's servant. Although she is human, she wears a goblin mask in order to fit in. Spittledrum constantly berates her and is very demanding, and she has to carry out her tasks in accordance to a strict timetable. She first sees Toby as he is being arrested and taken to the castle by Candlewic's forces. She has no conscious knowledge of Toby, but somehow knows he is in danger and tries to get him out of the Kingdom.

Upon Toby's inheritance of the Goblin Kingdom, Moppet establishes herself as a assistant to Toby despite the fact she continues to Spittledrum’s servant. She does not trust Mizumi, who wishes to tutor the boy in magic skills. Still bitterly jealous of Moppet, Mizumi tries to humiliate her by absorbing her mask but Toby stops her before Moppet's face is revealed.

Moppet forms a friendship with the fairy Hana, and tries to help Hana find her wings. They come across a locked room, and upon hearing the melody from Sarah’s music box Moppet has a flashback to her imprisonment in the castle, the memory startling her.

Meanwhile, Mizumi's daughter Drumlin takes it upon herself to kill Moppet. Drumlin chases Moppet and Hana onto a ledge on the exterior of the castle. Hana stops Drumlin by tricking her into swallowing a water pipe, making her absorb all the water and expand to a massive size. The ledge they were all standing on crumbles under Drumlin's weight, and they all fall to the ground. Toby uses his instinctive magic to save Moppet, but she loses her mask in the fall and is revealed to be an exact double of Sarah.

Moppet in Volume 4 of Return To Labyrinth.

Moppet and Toby learn the truth behind her existence from Mizumi and Spittledrum, and Moppet is deeply hurt when Toby only appears concerned with making Sarah whole again by returning the stolen part of her that she embodies. Moppet runs away, taking the peach Jareth gave to Spittledrum with her as she returns to the Junk City. Once there, she takes a bite from the peach and enters a dream-trap where she dreams from Sarah’s point of view, imagining an idealized existence where her parents are still together. Mizumi sends her forces to try and kill Moppet, but Moppet is protected by Toby.

When Moppet wakes up, she sets off with Hana and Mizumi’s other daughter Moulin to find the real Sarah who has been lured into a dream world by Jareth. They briefly team up with Ludo and Hoggle in their quest, and eventually reach a gallery that contains a sealed passage that leads to Jareth and Sarah. Moulin is sacrificed by Mizumi to open the gateway, and Mizumi and Moppet advance only to find a dead end. Mizumi explains to Moppet that she and Sarah are connected (as they are both parts of the same soul), and therefore Moppet can reach Sarah if she wills herself to be by her side. Moppet does so, and reaches Jareth and Sarah. She tells them that the Labyrinth is on the verge of destruction, and Sarah manages to persuade Jareth to return them to the Labyrinth. Sarah and Moppet link hands and Moppet becomes part of Sarah once again, and is finally able to experience the sense of completion that has always eluded her.

Appearance

Moppet appears to be an adolescent girl, and is identical to Sarah with the exception of her colouring. She has blonde hair, blue eyes and her skin is of a darker tone than Sarah's, although her skin colour on the cover of Return to Labyrinth Vol IV is significantly lighter than it appears to be in the interior art. She appears not to age between her first appearance in flashbacks and her appearance for the main sequence of events in Return to Labyrinth.

She is mostly seen wearing a half-mask fashioned to make its wearer appear like a goblin. Moppet finds the mask in the junkyard shortly after being abandoned there by Jareth. For much of the series, she is seen wearing tattered, ragged clothes indicative of her low social status. She wears a beautiful gown to the ball at the climax of the first volume. Moppet dons an extravagant dress she finds in the tower room in the castle that was formerly her prison towards the end of the second volume.

Personality

Moppet is a dutiful and obidient young woman, who is shown to carry out her duties with scrupulous care. She is humble and accustomed to rudeness and disrespect, accepting Spittledrum's complaints without questioning him.