darkestmetamorphosis - Tumblr blog

darkestmetamorphosis · 13 hours ago

Text

I feel the need to go on a rant about the Styrian Council, because I realized that they are the perfect encapsulation of the show's tendency to tell A and show Z.

Under cut because, as always, I write too much.

It started with me finally putting into words why I'm not a fan of Striga's design, despite in theory having all the elements I should like:

What do we get from her design alone? That she is a tall, buff woman with disheveled long hair, a long torn cloak, and a torn dress so simple, you might confuse her for a common peasant. But in reality, she is a queen of a kingdom.

She looks immensely out of place compared to her peers. The others in the council are very femme and strive to look elegant, while Striga here looks like genderbent Guts from the Black Swordsman arc lol

So, what is the impression one might get from her? That she doesn't belong, maybe. That, while she is a queen, she doesn't care to appear like one: substance over appearance. And most of all, that she's the brawn of the group, someone who doesn't care about using her brains to solve political issues but just loves to fight. A brute, in short.

But... that is not who she is. Well, I believe that she doesn't care about her appearance, but the rest is false. When you really think about it, Striga is the real brain of the gang. She is, compared to the others, actually smart. Carmilla, the woman formerly presented to us as a go-getter girl who is used to do everything by herself, has the asinine idea of turning a strip of land into a human farm, Lenore, the softhearted diplomat, spends her time using sexual molestation to manipulate Hector in a way that suggests it's more about her own amusement, Morana, the "organizer"... effectively does nothing until she proposes the idea of using mercenaries (I'll come back for her in a moment), but Striga is the one who actually stays awake in the middle of the day, brainstorming all by herself, to make Carmilla's plan work from a logistic standpoint.

In fact, she is the one who effectively makes Lenore's plan pointless, because she is the one who correctly concludes that using a Forgemaster, someone who uses dead bodies to build an army, is a ill-conceived idea for anything that isn't a Dracula-style mass slaughter. It's only the cowardice of the story that this plot point goes up in the air the moment Lenore "won".

Striga is not a brute! She is an intelligent, pragmatic general!

Even in fighting. Every vampire we see fighting is straight up brutal, using mostly their claws to eviscerate humans. Striga is not exactly delicate either, but in her one fight, you know what she does? Not only she uses a sword for better reach, but she built, with her own hands, a day armor to protect herself from the sun! She is not a mindless blood knight! Lenore calls her the "warrior" when she exposes the laundry list of character traits of the council, but everything in the story points to Striga being a strategist, instead.

So why in the fuck is she dressed like that? She looks like N!Trevor, like a depressed drunkard down on her luck that gets into brawls for shit and giggles. By all means, I think she'd look much better with a militaristic uniform, and perhaps letting her hair down only when she fights. It would convey her character much better, and most importantly her role, because the show tells us that she's a "warrior" and an unkept fighter, but it shows us that she is the true organizer of the four, and the only one actually putting in the work for the sake of Carmilla's plan and, in theory, the good of the group.

Even the idea that she's the odd one out in the clique is not true. We saw, time and time again, how Lenore is the one constantly getting singled out for her reputation of a soft stupid little girl. Striga is actually very well respected and generally in tune with the will of the council. So, again, why giving her such a drastically different design? Because she's the butch of the gang?

Oh, and while I'm at Striga.

I'm still waiting for an explanation for this line. What past?

But in terms of being "show don't tell", Morana manages to be even worse. She is, by far, the most underdeveloped of the four, but we do know two things about her. One, that she's madly in love with her wife. Two, this:

So, Morana is a sadistic bastard who enjoys violence for the sake of violence. Is that what you're saying, Lenore?

I don't know if she is deliberately lying, because Morana does not speak like someone who finds torture a nice pasttime. In fact, she is the one calling Carmilla out for doing this exact thing: torturing Hector to vent some steam!

I talked in the past about how this speech makes no sense because Morana should barely know anything about what she said. She can tell that Carmilla mistreated Hector, sure, but what's all that shit about his dreams and master? But I recently realized that, even besides that, this attitude is the complete opposite of someone who endorses torture. Morana seems to highly disapprove of Carmilla torturing Hector, her point being that it made him ineffectual, which is a common argument against torturing someone to make them comply.

Were she the sadist Lenore painted her to be, she should be high fiving her bestie and perhaps asking when it's going to be her turn on the new toy lmao. In fact, why isn't Lenore, the supposed softhearted diplomat, the one acting aghast at Carmilla's horrible actions, which would have been a good occasion to show how she thinks differently from all these warmongering bloodthirsty vampires? So, again, was it a deliberate lie to threaten Hector into clinging to Lenore for safety, or just sloppy writing?

Naturally, Lenore is far from being exempt. I've gone through her more times than I can count. An example pertinent to this post is when I pointed out how the show tells us that Lenore is treated like a little girl, but we never see her interacting with anyone in such a way. But, again, I noticed recently how her second scene, the one where we are formerly introduced to her and her alone, screams of first draft, as if they still didn't have a good idea of where to take her character (and clearly, never got it).

Lenore introduces herself to Hector by wearing a mourning veil.

This seems to be a vestige of her concept art calling her a "princess in mourning":

But in two seasons, the story did not establish once what exactly should Lenore be mourning. She does not act like a grieving person in the slightest. She's quite chipper and happy and confident until the end, not showing many moments of vulnerability until she decides in S4 that Carmilla's plan is inconvenient to her. That black veil never comes up again, although she incorporates black sheer parts in her S4 dress.

Is she mourning her humanity, maybe? The same scene gives us Lenore mentioning in passing that vampires eat human food.

Writing-wise, what is all of this supposed to convey?

The obvious: vampires can eat human food. They cannot survive on it alone, obviously, but it causes them no harm.

Second: Lenore calls human food "good things of life". Human food is tasty to vampires. They get some sensorial pleasure out of it.

Third: Alternatively, Lenore herself thinks human food is something worth experiencing in her unlife. Since we never see any other vampire even mentioning human food, it might just be her opinion.

And fourth: Lenore thinks that there's no point in living forever, if you don't indulge. This speaks of a somewhat shallow, hedonistic view, or that Lenore cares about the simple pleasures.

Now, question: does any of this become relevant at some point?

No. Nothing. Human food is never brought up again. It's clear from the rest of the show that the height of vampire hedonism is going on slaughtering sprees - not even to feed, just the enjoyment of dismembering human beings. Did Lenore only speak for herself, then, and passed her opinion as more common than it is? Maybe, but not even she is shown eating food after this scene, and she is mocked for many things, but never for eating.

In short, worldbuilding-wise, this information is completely pointless.

However, characterization-wise, the last point might be the one thing worth taking into consideration. Lenore is a queen, clearly used to a good life. She lives in a castle, with chalices of blood ready for the taking, and access to food that human peasants would kill for. She has no goal to strive for, except keeping her comfortable life through diplomacy. She is, by all accounts, a pampered little princess that doesn't have to face a hardship greater than "besties make fun of me :<". And then, the second part of her comfort is stripped away from her, she chooses to kill herself with frightening ease. She's not going to live forever if she can't live well. Not even with the man she allegedly fell in love with.

... buuuuut considering that, by that point, the framing around Lenore shifted so that she'd look tragic and sympathetic, I highly doubt they had this exchange in mind. This "spoiled princess" angle is never relevant to her character; when she starts whining and huffing in S4, we are meant to see her as endearing and vulnerable. Her suicide is infamously framed in a confusing way.

So no, this conversation leads to absolutely nowhere. Lenore never once grapples with her vampirism until it's convenient unsubscribing-from-life time. It would have been a much better way to make her sympathetic rather than "besties don't like me".

And then there is, of course, the core of the scene, which is Lenore savagely beating Hector into submission after he half-heartedly attempted to threaten her. Not only it is ridiculous how Lenore effectively acts like Carmilla but she's rewarded for it (I guess being better at DARVO plays off lol), but it completely flies in the face of her whole concept as a manipulative "diplomat" who can obtain what she wants through sweet words. I get that Lenore snapped due to Hector underestimating her, which was just established to be a sore point for her, but there are much better non-violent punishments for bad behavior: for example, abandoning Hector to the mercy of the guards without food or water, until her return where she pretends to take care of him. That would have worked much better to create the connection between her and "safety" in Hector's mind, rather than her just telling him to be a good boy to her.

Then again, this is the same diplomat who apparently couldn't convince the stupidest man in the country to accept her perfect deal so she resorted to her pussy because that's a woman's ultimate weapon, so I guess she's just not that good.

It's a shame because, going again to the matter of design, I utterly adore how well Carmilla and Lenore are one the mirror of the other!

I could make a whole post about the way they contrast each other. The way Carmilla is all sharp points and edges while Lenore looks very soft, even donning an unnecessary fur coat that looks fluffy. Carmilla's pointy chin, bold make up and icy eyes vs. Lenore's babyface, gentle blush and warm reddish brown eyes. Carmilla's long claws vs. Lenore's human fingernails. Carmilla being overly sexual, occasionally exposing her cleveage, back and legs vs. Lenore being pretty modest and even covering herself (ironically as she is the one using sex as a weapon). In S4, they even have a more obvious red oni/blue oni color scheme lol. Carmilla screams "I am more than you can handle, get out of my way", while Lenore screams "I'm harmless :) trust me :)"

So, with all of this being said, why does Lenore act pretty much like Carmilla does, especially in S3? She's smug, in control, sadistic, condescending, a dominating femme fatale, and uses similar manipulation tactics as Carmilla did. It not only cheapens the story, since it's not fun watching the same plot unfolding twice and only working because the protagonist is written to have the intelligence of a lobotomized sponge, but it ruins the character I'm supposed to be intrigued in. By S4 she mellows out, but the main difference between the two is only that Carmilla wants power while Lenore wants stability.

Well, I suppose this leaves Carmilla. In her case, her design is not really dishonest, far from it, and what you see is what you get: a bold, aggressive woman who feels entitled to have power because she doesn't think anyone else deserves it. There are some "show don't tell" traits with her, like this thing that Morana says:

I love when my friends talk to each other about my PTSD because it's more convenient to tell us rather than showing us! God forbid we see one instance of vulnerability from the #girlboss!

But the problems with her writing are slightly different: for example, how horribly her friends treat her after one (1) slight breakdown, despite the group allegedly being tight-knit and remaining stable for centuries. Or how the story has more pity for "wife died, imma commit genocide" Dracula than "i've been mistreated by men for most of my life, now i'm compelled to madly grab everything within my reach to never feel as powerless again" Carmilla. I'm not even a fan of her, but this is simply baffling.

More importantly, I have mentioned that Carmilla in S2 is portrayed as someone who doesn't trust others and is more than willing to get her own hands dirty to seize control of a sinking ship, as exemplified by her radfem rant in S2E5; but in order to justify the existence of the council in S3, Carmilla is suddenly reduced to a visionary, "the dream" to the others' "body", as if she's only good to have ideas and the others are the ones actually scrambling to make them work (and by others I mean Striga, the only one actually putting in the effort). And then by S4 she's suddenly portrayed as being batshit insane and such a terrible queen for the country that an ex-slave whose only skill is killing people could do a better job than her. peak.

Then there's also the fact that Carmilla swears that "there are perhaps four other women in this castle and they all glare from the edges, either disempowered by posturing man-children or too paralysed by sheer fucking rage to do anything", but the story, somehow, fails to even show us any singular instance of misogyny - in fact, Dracula is way more tolerant of her than of the male Godbrand! - because the other two women in the council (you know, the WOCs) do nothing but stand there and look pretty without once displaying any resentment or displeasure at being oppressed by the men around them, making accidentally Carmilla look like a massive liar who victimizes herself out of nowhere... speaking of feminism, you know.

anyway tl;dr writing bad and the only way you can enjoy these characters is to write fanfic in your head

17 notes · View notes