Princess Holy Aura

Before anyone could speak, the red drained out, turned to white, and he repeated, in an entirely different, horrified tone, “Oh my God. My daughter is Sailor Moon.“

Princess Holy Aura is a novel published in 2017. It is Ryk Spoor's take on the Magical Girl—or mahou shoujo—genre.

Silvertail Heartseeker is tired of seeking out teenage girls to fight against the cycle of extradimensional incursions threatening Earth. This time he attempts something different: he recruits Stephen Russ, a mid-30s man down on his luck but with more than a few hidden depths. Together, they set out to craft a new life for Stephen as Holly Owen, recruit the other magical girls, and ward off the coming incursion.

Spoor compared writing the novel to tapdancing in a minefield and has outlined several of the issues he faced writing it on The Big Idea.

The tie-in short story "On-Site for the Apocalypse" can be read online. A follow-up novel, On-Site for the Apocalypse, has been written but is still awaiting publication due to Spoor currently (as of 2024) being stuck in publisher limbo.

Tropes in Princess Holy Aura

• Atlantis: Lemuria, the lost world that Silvertail lived in.
• Becoming the Mask: What happens to Holly/Stephen, which frightens them and causes a lot of emotional upset.
• Big Bad: Queen Nyarla, who sets out to try some new methods to defeat the Maidens.
• Bigger Bad: Azathoth of the Nine Arms, the source of the cyclical extradimensional incursions.
• Big Eater: Using magic burns a lot of calories.

The worst trial school currently presented was that they couldn't eat as much as they wanted to without making spectacles of themselves.

• Black and Nerdy: Seika, a black bookworm and computer nerd.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • "Current Memes" = Hot Topic
  • "DIY Home" = Home Depot
  • "Hearty's" = Friendly's
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Cordy has blond hair, Holly has black hair, and Tierra has red hair.
• Bookworm: Seika, who has her face stuck in a book when first seen.
• Calling Your Attacks: Circle of Fire! Volcanic Eruption! Tempest Blackout! Solar Lance! Combo Platter in a Box!
• Conversational Troping: Many examples, and both tropes and memes are much discussed. Jerkass Genie. Big Bad.
• Disappeared Dad: Tierra is raised by her single mother. She does not think well of him.
• Dual-Wielding: Several examples.
  • Radiance Blaze fights with a fiery chain in each hand.
  • Tsunami Reflection fights with a sword in each hand.
• Elemental Powers:
  • Tempest Corona is Air
  • Temblor Brilliance is Earth
  • Radiance Blaze is Fire
  • Princess Holy Aura is Spirit
  • Tsunami Reflection is Water
• Flaw Exploitation:
  • The Mirrortaint draws on and twists the desires of the people around them.
  • Nyarla's plan to defeat the Maidens hinge on Dexter's urge to be the hero.
• Fatal Flaw: Dexter's urge to be the hero.
• Gender Bender: Stephen and Holly.
• Genre Savvy: Silvertail consciously created many of the elements of the Magical Girl genre. Both Holly and Seika are very familiar with pop culture and its tropes.

“Do you think we’re idiots?” Holy Aura demanded, and Radiance Blaze finished, “The monster always gets back up for one more shot after you think it’s dead!”

• Going Native: Stephen realises that he needs to live as Holly Owen full-time in order to find the other Maidens.
• Good Parents: All the present parents care deeply for their children and are fundamentally good people.
• Hammerspace: Where Silvertail keeps Apocalypse Brooches, ID documents, and mobile phones, and other necessities of modern life.
• Healing Hands: All the Maidens have some healing power, but Tsunami Reflection is by far the strongest healer.
• Heroic Bystander: How Devika and Tierra are recruited to the Maidens during the battle against the Mirrortaint.
• High School: Set in a modern and rather realistically depicted high school in upstate New York.
• Jackass Genie: The Mirrortaint draws on and twists the wishes made to them.
• Kick Chick: Temblor Brilliance fights with a pair of big stompy boots.
• First Law of Gender Bending: Averted and then justified. Holly can turn back to Stephen, and does so in a few cases. In the final battle, Holy Aura consumes all of Stephen's body to get the energy to defeat Azathoth.
• Second Law of Gender Bending: Holly comes to much prefer her life as Holly over her old life as Stephen, and experiences body dysphoria in the cases where she turns back into Stephen.
• Third Law of Gender Bending: Partially, and justified in that the mystical template of Princess Holy Aura has been infused by many earlier teenage girls.
• The Leader: The role of leader switches around depending on the specific situation and needs.
  • Cordy is charismatic with good psychological intuition and empathy.
  • Devika is goal-focused. Planning in fights come naturally to her.
  • Dexter is the headstrong type.
  • Silvertail serves as the mastermind.
  • Stephen is the overall default leader, and is usually very levelheaded about it.
• Magical Girl Warrior: Five super-powered teenage girls face high school and Lovecraftian horrors.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Silvertail notes the need for greater soundproofing of Holly's room.
• Mentor Mascot: Silvertail's default form is as a small white rat wearing a crown.
• Memory-Wiping Crew: The OSC, the local equivalent of the Men in Black.
• The Men in Black: The OSC (Obtain, Secure, Protect), which serves to protect Earth from magical manifestations and monsters.
• Missing Mom: Stephen's mom died when he was ten, and Holly draws on these memories.
• Monster of the Week: Played with in various ways. The supernatural incursions they have to face accelerate to circa one per week as the story progresses, though most are just named.
• National Weapon: True to Devika's sikh origin, Tempest Corona uses a khanda.
• Old Master: Due to his lack of body mass, Silvertail does not have much raw magic power. But he was the most accomplished wizard of Lemuria, and has gained thousands of years of experience.
• The One Guy: Dexter asking to join the girls of the Steampunk Adventure Club roleplaying group.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Devika, still a sophomore but the captain and star of the school's basketball team.
• The Power of Friendship: The Apocalypse Maidens become good friends in their normal guises as well and comes to deeply value each other.
• Reconstruction: The story looks at some of the elements of the magical girl warrior genre critically and attempts to integrate that criticism in the story.
• Shout-Out:
  • The OSC draws much from SCP Foundation.
  • Holly refers to Silvertail the last Lemurian as Virgil of Mighty Max.
  • The movie Doomfarers Doomfarers is based on the novel Doomfarers of Coramonde by Brian Daley.
  • The OSC chief Sir John Covenant, introduced in "On-Site for the Apocalypse", makes martinis with a quinine-flavored aperitif, much like James Bond.
  • "On-Site for the Apocalypse" introduces a powerful weapon that is "a squat handled globe with cooling ports on the side and a massive barrel". It is a reference to the BH-209 of Schlock Mercenary.
• Sir Swearsalot: Seika says "fucking" more than the rest of the group combined, and does a good impression of Karkat from Homestuck.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Used and lampshaded.

Hey, it even let me get through that whole speech

• Transformation Name Announcement: Their Maiden names are announced at the end of their transformations.
• Transformation Trinket:

From apparently nowhere, Silvertail Heartseeker produced a glittering brooch, three inches across, of gold and silvery metal, covered with an elaborate pattern in gems. Even to Steve’s untutored eye, it was exquisitely made, the main body in the shape of a strangely broken-pointed star with a jeweled galaxy across it.