#alucard and maria are great mentors

[prying-pandora666]

I weep for your reading comprehension. I blatantly said a platonic relationship would be great, simply not this creepy daddy/daughter crap. Stripping Maria of any authority?

My sibling in Dracula, what do you think positioning a strange man as her father is doing!?

A father figure isn’t a buddy. A father figure isn’t a good friend who sometimes mentors you. A father figure is explicitly someone who has authority over you! The very point being made is that demanding Alucard become Maria’s “father figure” as a way to remove any uncomfortable optics due to their age difference only makes the very situation they’re trying to correct worse!

Maria is not 6. She is 16. She has lived her whole life up until now without a father. After losing her mother so traumatically, what makes you think this girl is suddenly going to want to run to a strange man she’s never met to guide her and tell her what to do? Fathers don’t just hang out with you, they raise you, they have a hand in molding you. The Maria we meet in the show is independent and fights against authority—notably patriarchal authority too—and you’re telling me she’s suddenly going to rush to a stranger and want him to be her daddy?

The only way that makes any sense is if this adult man took advantage of her vulnerability after losing her mother to inappropriately insert himself. Something Alucard would never do and Richter would never allow. Why doesn’t the fandom want her trusted brother figure to play the role of father?

Tell me, what is the harm of a fantasy story about a fictional girl and a vampire anyway? They’re not real. So what is the issue? Is it actually harm to the fictional characters or to the audience who is watching and real? Is the problem that we are actually concerned about the well being of an imaginary drawing, or is it for the real girls who might have this sort of relationship normalized for them?

Because if it’s the latter then teaching them that strange men showing up to position themselves in an uneven power dynamic with you, such as in a “fatherly” relationship which requires you to be beholden to them to a certain extent without being able to question their authority on equal footing (because a parental and child relationship is inherently NOT an equal relationship), is a FAR worse example to set! This is how groomers operate. They present themselves as harmless and caring, often as peers or parental substitutes, and once they’ve slowly manipulated you into surrendering your sense of agency against them, once you’ve come to trust them rather than your own instincts, even learned to punish yourself for doubting them, that’s when they strike.

How in the world is that an acceptable dynamic for Alucard and Maria to have even if his intentions were 100% pure? How is it at all appropriate or healthy for this strange man—who she undoubtedly will find attractive because he’s a friggin dhampir designed to be—to be acting as an unquestionable authority figure in the life of this teen girl, even with those undertones of attraction? This is such a dangerous and exploitable dynamic.

And what irony to see you defend this crap on tumblr of all places! A website which has an unfortunate history of minors being groomed using these exact “I’ll be your dad” tactics! Seriously look it up!

Why is this better than them being friends? Friends who can be on equal footing. So Maria can stand up for herself and set her own boundaries rather than have Alucard decide them for her as her “dad”? What possible benefit is there to this strange, unequal but inappropriately intimate power dynamic between a strange man and a teen girl vs letting them be friends and colleagues who respect each other?

It’s not Bella Swan slander you ridiculous person. Edward stalks Bella long before she expressed interest in him and even sneaks into her room to watch her sleep at night. He’s controlling and holds all the power in their relationship, to the point Bella wanted to end herself when he left her because she had become so co-dependent on him. Hell, Edward removes the engine from her car—limiting her mobility against her will—because he decided this was best to “protect her”.

None of that is a healthy or equal power dynamic and if you think it is then that says everything about your judgement on this matter.

As I said in my original post, Alucard being a platonic friend with her is always an option. Nothing romantic will happen unless they commit to the time skip because that’s what happens in the games and there’s no way Netflix is going to do worse on this front than decades old games did. This was never an issue until the fandom made it one.

On Alucard and Maria

Are there actually fans advocating for Alucard to be written as Maria’s father figure in the new season of Nocturne? Like that would be a good thing and not infinitely creepier? I don’t think they’ve thought this through.

Alucard is the single most popular character in the franchise. He’s also probably the most shipped character. And yet he has only had one canon love interest in the decades since he’s existed. It’s Maria. And you’re telling me that you think that because he’s 300+ and she’s 17-18 when they started living together in the games, that it would be grooming. However, somehow him inserting himself into her life at age 16 when she’s just lost both her parents wouldn’t come off like grooming!?

Does this man look like he should be picking up random children!? He’s literally terrified of his own cursed blood. Maybe LISTEN TO HIM.

I’m convinced fandoms have forgotten what that word means. Grooming has specific features. It doesn’t just mean “older guy and younger girl.” A relationship with an age gap or an uneven power dynamic can be exploitative or abusive without being a case of grooming. Grooming specifically refers to the process of forming a relationship with a child with the intention of leveraging that relationship and trust to train and prepare (aka brainwash) your victim for the harmful activities the groomer wants to normalize. The relationship Alucard and Maria have in the games is in no way grooming. You know what would be grooming though?

Coming into a 16 year old’s life when she’s vulnerable, traumatized, and recently orphaned only to insinuate yourself as a new father figure. This is so highly inappropriate and a huge red flag. Consider what you’re actually asking for here. These characters do not exist in a a vacuum. They have a long history together as each other’s only canon love interests. You cannot fully extract them from the games, art, interviews, audio dramas, animations, and more where they’re depicted as a couple. There are decades of this precedent and you are asking Netflix to knowingly take the characters with an established romantic dynamic that the audience is already primed to see as romantic and instead portray their meeting as him trying to be her new daddy?

“Oh look! Alucard and his… daughter? Yikes.” This is an official advertisement btw.

THAT is grooming! Think about the optics of this! It would be abysmal! No it would NOT fix the problem of their age gap to make him act like a groomer and get in good with her as a dad. You just cannot completely extract them from the legacy of their relationship in the source materials. It will be incredibly creepy and textbook grooming if you get your way.

Is this really what you want to associate with an “adoptive father Alucard”? Because the art we create doesn’t exist in a vacuum. All the old content—official and fanmade—is still going to exist.

What is so objectionable about the original dynamic anyway? It’s a pretty fun subversion of the tired and problematic vampire trope of “vampire man stalks teen girl and coerces her into being his”. Instead in their original relationship, Maria is the one who pursues Alucard! It’s the young woman who takes initiative and is given the agency to go after what she wants. She courts and woos him. That’s part of the fun!

Yes, Alucard is 300+. He’s also a fictional creature that doesn’t actually exist IRL and stays eternally young. There are no actual people who will ever have his problem of staying 20 forever so it’s rather silly to say he can’t date any humans because of course he will have an age gap with any of them.

The only real problem I have seen people bring up is Maria’s age, but from what I can tell, the show’s already fixed this. Check it out.

In The Games

Rondo of Blood: Maria is 12. She and Alucard do not meet. Richter is a brother-figure and not romantic.

There is then a 5 year time skip.

Symphony of the Night: Maria is 17. She and Alucard meet to save Richter. At the end, Alucard says his goodbyes and intends to return to a life of solitude. Maria goes after him because she has developed feelings for him and doesn’t want him to suffer a life alone.

Maria is given agency to pursue what she wants and prove herself even against Alucard’s resistance and hesitance to let another person into his life.

They spend a year together before we get the audio drama.

Nocturne of Remembrance: Maria continues to try to get close to Alucard. They end up saving each other’s lives and in the end he finally confesses his romantic feelings for her. She is an adult and perfectly able to make her own choices. She chose him. He admits he returns her feelings.

How fandom can look at a story about a young woman subverting the trope and chasing the vampire to get what she wants—basically an anti-Bella Swan—and still find a way to disempower her just so they can pearl clutch? I couldn’t tell you.

So now let’s look at what the show did.

In The Show

Nocturne S1: Maria is 16. She’s been aged up from 12, probably to give her a more active and believable role. But this also means she’s within a normal age to start feeling attraction and expressing her wants. Within her society, she’s even considered of marriageable age. However we are spared the discomfort of our modern values clashing with her contemporaneous ones because Maria in this season isn’t interested in romance. She’s interested in revolution, equality, justice. They’ve portrayed her with so much love and strength. There is no indication they’d betray her by writing her as the child victim of a male suitor. In fact she only meets Alucard in the final few seconds of the season and the two do not even speak a single word to one another.

Now let’s remember the games had a five year time skip. The show only needs two years to get Maria to the adult age of 18, but assuming the follow through with the timeline and go for the full five?

Maria will be 21.

21.

Fan concept for adult Maria. Credit:@esp-art

Are you telling me a 21 year old woman is not old or mature enough to make her own decisions? How is this not a total infantilization of women? Do you think a 21 year old badass vampire hunter needs protection from the ace depressed dhampir boy who just wants to sleep and has in no way tried to pursue her until after she expressed consistent and persistent interest in him?

It is not “grooming” to meet someone when they were younger and then meet them again years later as an adult. That’s a thing that happens! In real life! Adults can still make decisions for themselves! It is only grooming if Alucard behaved in a way that would manipulate teen Maria and put her under his control and authority before she can consent. There is no indication that Alucard in the show is going to do this. And yet the fandom is basically demanding it by saying he should make her “his baby girl”?

And what of Maria’s feelings in all this? She just lost her mother and was betrayed by her father shortly after discovering he even existed. She has lived her whole life without a father. She is in no desperate need of a new one. And if she does need a family member, she already has one! Richter is 19 and is her trusted adoptive brother. Why wouldn’t she go to him over a total stranger she just met and who is half vampire - literally a predator creature that feeds on humans!?

Yeah, hi, Richter Belmont still exists. He and Maria consider each other family. Why would you want her relying on a strange man she just met as a “father figure” rather than her trusted and loving brother?

Have none of you even considered how Maria would feel if Alucard even tried to fill the paternal role? He’d have to force it on her through manipulation and coercion. No way she would want to view him that way. Especially considering she is 16 and likely to be as attracted to the sparkly 20 year old looking sculpted marble beauty as anyone else!

Don’t mind the beautiful eternally young man who looks made of pure porcelain and light. No teen girl has ever been attracted to this, right? No way it could be exploitative and creepy for him to present himself as her new daddy, giving himself authority and influence over her as his child to mold as he wishes, right? Oh yeah, this is MUCH better than Maria pursuing him of her own volition once she becomes an adult, right guys?

We are truly in the stupidest dark timeline.

Frankly, I don’t care if Netflix has them get together or not. They would work just fine as friends too. I just sure as hell hope they’ll ignore the fans clamoring for a creepy daddy/daughter dynamic. Dressing it up as “concern” won’t hide that for some it’s a fetish, and for others they’re just useful idiots who haven’t thought it through.

I implore you to think it through.

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #786: King Dad (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

4:12 p.m. at Smash Mansion's Dining Hall.......

Ludwig: (Sighs While Watching his Father and All of his Siblings Joyfully Spending Time With One Another From a Distance)

?????: Ludwig?

Ludwig's eyes suddenly begins to widened as he quickly turns to see that it was none other than his two mentors, Alucard and Maria, standing behind him.

Ludwig: ('Sighs in a Bit of Relief') Oh.... It's only you two....I take it you were only passing by before?

Alucard: Somewhat. We just happened to notice that you've been staring at your family for a few minutes now.

Maria: (Frowns a Bit in Worry) Is everything okay, dear? Why aren't you spending time with them?

Ludwig: I just wanted my siblings to have a chance to spend time with father, since it's Father's Day and whatnot. That and....(Sighs While Frowning a Little Himself) Our relationship with one another hasn't really been the closet throughout the years.....

Maria: What makes you think that?

Ludwig: Well, for starters, my father was frequently busy in my younger years. Whether it's trying to orchestrate a plan reign supreme and kidnap the princess, command our army and troops, or simply keep my younger siblings out of trouble of any kind. Doesn't help the fact that he gave my role of "Second in Command" to Junior once he came into the picture. Granted, I was able to get over the petty jealousy I had of him afterwards, our relationship as father and son hasn't really changed in the scheme of things........('Sigh') I know I'm the oldest and.... probably not as fun or amusing compared to all of my siblings.....But I still wish that father and I would spend time together more often...But that's only if he actually wants to spend time with me however....

Alucard: Ah. Yes. I understand that feeling far too well. The only time father and I have a bonding moment with one another was when we fought each other to the bitter death. Even that alone felt hollow and depressing considering the outcome of all of it afterwards.

Maria: I have a distant relationship with my father as well. (Frowns a bit Sadly) But that was only because he passed away when I was a lot younger......

Ludwig: (Frowns Sadly as Well) Oh no..... I am so sorry for your loss, Ms. Maria.

Maria: (Gives Ludwig a Reassuring Smile) Don't be, dear. Despite the tragedy that occurred, I'm certain that my father lived a great live before then. And I am more certain that your father would be more than happy to spend time with you if you would just ask him.

Alucard: Maria's right, Ludwig. While I think his role of being a villain is questionable, we can tell that your father cares deeply about you and your siblings equally. Which is all the more reasons why you should take every opportunity to spend as much time with him before it unexpectedly vanish.

Ludwig: Yes. You're right. It wouldn't do myself any good if I keep worrying about this dilemma at hand....(Smiles a Little) I'll try and spend the rest of the day with father as soon as the others are finish with him. (Looks Back at his Family From a Distance) Though, knowing all them, it'll probably take a while for that to happen.....

Alucard: Very well. It seems we'll have to make time for ourselves until then.

Ludwig: (Turns Back to Alucard With a Bit of Surprised Look on his Face) You two want to spend time with me at this moment?

Alucard: Why, of course. (Gives his Apprentice a Playful Smirk on his Face) You didn't think we would actually let you sit here alone and wait for the opportunity to rise, now do you?

Maria: (Smiles Brightly) We should go out and seek some refreshing ice cream.

Alucard: If we could remember where it is this time.

Ludwig: (Gives the Couple a Deadpinned Look on his Face) You've already forgotten where it is?

Maria: (Smiles Sheepishly and Sympathetically) We're terribly sorry, dear. It's been so long that we've gone there that it never crosses our minds until now. Alucard especially.

Alucard: (Turns Away While Blushing a Little) I don't have the slightest clue of what you're talking about.....

Maria: (Giggles Softly at How Cute her Vampire his Being)

Ludwig: ('Sigh') I'll bring a GPS with us.....

Two Hours Later in the Living Room.....

Ludwig: (Sighs Once More While Sitting Down on the Sofa) Home at last.....

Bowser: (Smiles Brightly at Ludwig Beside Him) Hey, kiddo. Where you been all day?

Ludwig: Around town. I was taking my mentors out for ice cream.

Bowser: The vampire couple, huh? They already forget where it was?

Ludwig: Afraid so. It was mostly the reason why I came back here in this time of hour. (Turns His Head to the TV Facing Him) What are you watching?

Bowser: Some reality show called Big Brother.

Ludwig: Didn't think you would be interested in that kind of genre.....

Bowser: I ain't. (Smirks Evilly at the Screen) But seeing idiots being stupid and melodramatic on live television can be pretty damn funny at times.

Ludwig: I see.....(Turns Back to Bowser) You don't mind if I watch this with you, right?

Bowser: (Smiles Brightly at his Son) Not at all, man. Enjoy the show.

Ludwig: (Simply Nodded) Thank you.

Ludwig turns back to the TV for a couple of seconds before.....

Bowser: Oh and.... Ludwig?

Ludwig: (Turns Back to Bowser Once Again) Yes, father?

Bowser: (Frowns a Bit While Looking at the TV) I know I can be lazy, forgetful, and...even inconsiderate sometimes, but.....(Turns Back to his Son) If you ever wanna spend some one on one time with your old man sometimes, don't be afraid to ask, okay? I'll do whatever I can to make time for the both for us.

Ludwig: (Stares at Bowser for a Brief Second Before Nodding Again in Agreement) I'll be sure to keep that in mind for now on. (Smiles Softly) Thank you.

Bowser: (Smiles Back at Ludwig While Gently Ruffling the Top of His Hair) You don't need to thank me for all of that. I'm always here for you kiddos! I love you, son.

Ludwig: (Heart Begins to Melt in Happiness by his Father's Words) I love you too, father.

@keyenuta

@cyber-wildcat

@caleb13frede

@26shann

@albion-93

@ma-lemons

[arikad0]

If you don't mind me asking, why do you find every ship with Alucard weird besides Trevorcard?

I don't mind at all! I mentioned it in passing a few times before but I'll go into it a bit more

yeah Alucard may be immortal but the whole idea of someone dating their friend's kid/grandkid/great whatever grandkid just feels weird to me??? because of that I've always just personally thought that any Alucard x Belmont ship (besides Trevor) is kinda strange

meanwhile alumaria was written horribly and even though it's a very one-sided relationship in canon, that radio drama actively made Alucard and Maria worse characters because of the romance aspect of it. they were terrible to each other, especially Alucard, who was pretty misogynistic towards Maria throughout the whole thing (though that radio drama is almost definitely not canon, it still made me very iffy about that ship overall)

and Soma/Alucard is obviously just really gross. even if you ignore the fact that Soma is Dracula's reincarnation, Alucard is a father figure and mentor towards Soma and treats him like a child (cause he is one). if you find romantic subtext in a very obvious found father-son/mentor-protégé dynamic yeah I'm sorry but that's weird

but for the most part it's an entirely personal thing! again Alucard's immortality makes things a little complicated and I don't judge anyone who does like any Alucard ships (minus Alucard/Soma cause again. eww)

[divinesilverlove-a]

// Regarding Maria’s Relations + Additional Headcanons (under the cut)

Annette was probably adopted into the family after Maria was sent to live with her Mother in France - after the death of her father. Though the two were not related, Maria and Annette were very close shortly after Annette was brought in. Although Maria was her mother’s only biological daughter - and due to the discord in their family ties with one another - Annette was to be the new successor to the Renard name, despite being adopted.

After the raid of monsters and the death of her mother in 1792, Maria was officially adopted into the Belmont family as Richter’s little sister. Annette was still in very close contact with Maria, despite the possibility that she and Richter never married. Although Maria was upset that Annette wasn’t following through with the marriage to help continue the Belmont lineage, she was more than understanding as to why - that, and Richter was ashamed of the fact that he was manipulated by evil so easily.

Before all of this, however? Maria’s closest and tightest bond was with her father, a vampire hunter from Lyon, France, her first mentor and guide into the world of vampire hunting, along with her very possible distant blood relations to the Belmonts. As he laid in his bed, sick and dying, he promised her he would send guardians to protect her. During the raid of 1792, when Maria first learned of her powers, she quickly grew to believe - and, quite frankly, still believes - that her powers were indeed sent to her by her father, that his spirit had a special place in the form of her Guardian Spirit. The four celestial beasts, she assumed, were gifts granted to her by the gods.

When she first met Alucard as well, at first, she felt absolutely no connection to him. She found him handsome, certainly, but he felt hollow and empty. Maria is, by no means, a shallow woman. She seeks connections with people if she is to befriend them or, in very rare circumstances, fall in love with them. However, as she and Alucard kept meeting in the castle, Maria couldn’t help but wonder if her meeting with him was planned by her father as well, to give her a companion to be with aside from Richter and Annette. As their meetings kept happening, she realized that he, too, seemed to face a similar pain to hers. That, in turn, sparked the connection to try and convince Alucard to live among the humans - to be her friend. It certainly took a hell of a lot of convincing, but the two grew very close over the years. Eventually, Maria confessed having a romantic attraction to Alucard, to which the two agreed it probably wasn’t a good idea to pursue said relationship, but it was better for them to be honest more with each other and not hide their feelings.

All in all, aside from her birth mother, she shares a great connection with her family and friends. She truly does adore each and every person she holds a strong familial connection too, especially Richter and Annette. They were there to help her through her childhood trauma of being kidnapped and brought to a castle, and to this day, she remains very close to her current contacts.