#anti nfcv

[legendarybelmont]

okay i need to bitch unreasonably im sorry for any nfcv fans following me here's your fair warning but every time i catch sight of nfcv alucard i Cannot.

what the fuck did they do to him why is his anatomy like that thats NOT his physique why is his face so long what the hell is up with his hair it looks greasy and dead also even just the colour scheme of his design is ugly like the shade they chose for how pale he is clashes horribly with the hair not to mention the scar?? and he's SHIRTLESS like WHAT. excuse me. WHY. why would you do that? why are you putting the gothic ethereal dhampir prince in a shitty, plain, low-necked white shirt or failing that not even a shirt at all like WHAT. excuse me. he's just such an eyesore on his own i think if i actually watched the show and heard the absolute mockery of alucards character coming up from that mans mouth i would simply keel over and die. what. What. Why did they fucking do this he's so ugly he's a travesty he's SO UGLY WHAT WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT. WHY THE FUCK ARE HIS PECS ALWAYS SHADOWED OVER THEY LOOK SAGGY IDK WHAT THE HELL THEY WERE GOING FOR WITH THAT. ITS JUST UGLY HELP

[beevean]

We live in a world where Guts can lose a hotness contest to N!Alucard

Kill me

You know what? Fine.

I will never understand why people slobber all over this guy. Game Alucard, I get it, he is angelically pretty and drawn as such. But N!Alucard? Where is the prettiness? He looks like a snotty horseman with spaghetti for hair! What are those body proportions? Why does he want to be ethereal and buff at the same time? What is that face???? Everyone in S4 gained a shovel chin, but he's by far the worst!

"ohhhh the boobas look at dem boobas aren't you so enthralled" shut up you gave him trevor's chest scar for the sole reason of making him expose his chest in the most blatant cheap manipulative fanservice way possible for a man, as if that would make me gloss over how much of an unlikeable piece of shit he is.

(I just noticed that his hair looked different in S1E4 than in the rest of the show. guess it was too hard to animate)

Anyway. If his fans think he's the most gorgeous animated man alive, I bet their eyes would explode at actual, elegant beauty:

Am I petty? Why, yes. Let me be petty for a while after seeing one of my favorite characters of all time being passed over for an asshole with hair worse than a PS2 model >:(

Like, bro, it's like comparing a puddle of piss to the Sistine Chapel.

[the-crow-binary]

A while ago, I sent the most polite ask to an NFCV fan who tagged one of their NFCV post with "akumajou dracula", asking them not to do that and explaining why (basically that it's a game only tag, the show never using that name, and that game fans use it to actively avoid NFCV content because the castlevania tag is flooded with it). Threw a compliment in there to be extra clear about my good intentions.

The response: "don't like it? block me or the netflixvania tag" (way to miss the entire point. Also i already had every netflixvania tag blocked.)

Today, yet another NFCV fan tagged a NFCV post (hating on a game to elevate their show) with akumajou dracula and was very kindly asked not to do that and explained why.

Only to get, basically, a "no, y'all are racists anyway, get over it" as a response. Way to deflect.

It's funny because they said "If people have an issue with [their "critic"] because they can not deal with someone being even midly critical of their beloved game, then I am sorry. They should not use social media." But when I told them to "oh fuck off racism affects both sides don't group us all with the racists and use it as an excuse to be an ass", they blocked me. ❤️ It was my one and only interaction with them, btw. Apparently being a little rude to them after they have been extremely rude to everyone is enough to hurt their poow wittle fweelings. 🥺

Anyway, this behavior baffles me. And if this is as far as their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills go... No wonder they're NFCV fans lmao. Or maybe their ego is just too big. I mean, seriously, is it that hard to NOT use the akumajou dracula tag?? When you were explained why and told it was annoying everyone using said tag?? What do you hope to accomplish by doing so? Do you WANT people to be angry at you, to get more attention from people who will hate your content? It just takes you NOT adding a tag to keep the peace. It's really not that hard. It's nothing worth calling people racist over lmao

[monochromatictoad]

Sometimes, I want to add a LoS perspective on certain arguments when it comes to NFCV vs. Castlevania Games, but by the time I'm mostly done with the post, I feel like I'm intruding on something that doesn't involve me (even though it technically does), so I delete it.

It doesn't help that most of these posts happen when I'm at work, so most have already moved past it by the time I can even look at them.

[castlephantom]

More I look to N!Alucard and looks like a cheep version of G!Alucard (like you want to buy something from Walmart if you get the joke)

Anti-netfixvania fans says that N!Alucard looks like a horseface, but...

More I look on N!Lisa, no wander why N!Alucard looks like a horseface.

[hypermascbishounen]

I honestly keep forgetting about N!Juste bc he's such a travesty, so wnv I get reminded of him I'm just as angry as day one, lol. I just mentally delete N!Juste every time I see him, like dragging a corrupted file to the recycle bin. Tbf he's easy to forget, bc he's also boring and the least of Nocturne's problems so far, but obv I'm going to dislike it a lot as fan of HoD.

What gets me most I think, is how most ideas I've seen of a post game Juste, have him in a mentor or at least respected ancestor role to Richter(if not just outright his dad, lol). Even with bad end Juste - in fact *especially* with bad end Juste - it's hard to imagine Juste being so checked out on his descendants. If anything, Juste having a controlling/overprotective streak, seems to be a possible thing with him, which you would think sudden catastrophic loss would actually make worse.

(imo a bad end Juste would react to Richter like Marlin in Finding Nemo, but forced to train him excessively instead of being able to shelter him. Especially when Richter *is so similar to Maxim, who he lost.* I think he would have every motive to try and ensure Richter has the best odds possible against anything.)

And this idea doesn't come from nowhere - A lot of elements of Juste (and Maxim) as characters, right down to gameplay, is backshadowing SoTN and Richter in particular. It's very much an implication that Richter inherits traits from the both of them, whether by blood, fate, or literally being trained by them, or relatives that already had been. Juste's connection to Richter in this way, was the only reason to even bring him into a Richter storyline in the first place.

And the Juste we know from HoD has an incredibly strong and distinctive personality. "Ooc" doesn't even really begin to describe how off N!Juste is. He's basically a reused stock archetype. He's the cookie cutter they used to make N!Trevor, thrown on the tray after they ran out of dough.

And tbh they didn't even need to do this, so it's baffling why they chose to. I can't claim to see into the genius peak minds behind nfcv, but my nearest guess is that not only do they not see No Legacy as a narrative problem for Richter, they see Legacy itself as an active threat. Bc Juste was genuinely their last Get Out of Jail Free card to give Richter a legacy and they wasted it, specifically to reinforce Belmont's as Useless. They actually could have had him just be a mentor to Richter that influenced him from a relatively safe distance in the script, while changing not a whole lot, imo.

The only other explanation is that they were just too scared have anyone as cool as game Juste or his friends anywhere near their watery product, lol. He is just full of too much prettyboy protagonist style while also being loaded to the balls full of magic power and having real Belmont swag. They could not have even a backstory version of this man that wouldn't threaten to upstage their constantly berated Richter, or their precious fanservice Alucard they just redesigned. He is too powerful.

Regardless, they felt the need to literally take away everything that makes Juste recognizable - his outfit, his powers, his friends, even his face!(that beard really is horrendous, it actually feels like it is there to hide his face istg). He can't even have his character flaws, they had to be replaced with ones that make him more suitably disaffected. All for the completely 0 pay off of another Useless Belmont.

[kachimera]

I literally left a discord group that I had been in for like, a week because that's what they called N!Alucard. Also because they wouldn't let me talk about LoS, only about NFCV.

I remember liking many of the fanart and fanfiction when it was just the first two seasons, and like a little bit with season three, but yeah, I noticed that as well in just about every fanfic I read. I tried to reread a lot of those fics and man, so many of them only focused on N!Alucard's trauma, and almost never any on Trey's, and it just got so boring after awhile.

But you're right. Celiakardo, from what I've seen of it, seems like a ship that I could get down with, but N!Trevphacard (I don't actually remember the ship name) just has a huge dynamic imbalance that overshadows what would've made the ship at least decent. And this is coming from someone who literally ships the entity within the castle of LoS with Gabriel. Honestly, N!Syphacard seems like a better ship than any with Trey in it.

(I ship N!Trevor with happiness and emotional stability)

Lmao noooo💀. But srsly,if a group or server is gonna focus exclusively on nfcv then they should've added that as a disclaimer, otherwise its just rude of them to not let you talk (and yes ik that the fandom in general has a hostile past w LoS too).

And yea, the fandom flanderized both n!Alu and Trey into the pwoor sad sexyman who has fat tiddies n cries, and into funny stinky drunky trauma-y man who is dumb and has sex w the sexyman respectively.

And the thing is that, you can have an unhealthy ship w a power imbalance! But you just gotta be aware that there is an imbalance there and were all that happening irl it would be a problem (even my beloved maleon ship is has its unhealthy elements. Leon bestie ilu but that mans is trouble). If there is no awareness of those elements it can come off as if they're being brushed under the rug or as if there's no actual unhealthy situation to begin with, which is hmmm :/. Ofc im not saying all ships must have a problematique disclaimer nor that all trephacard shippers are onboard w insulting your partner's murdered family, just that if there's no awareness of all that i find it uncomfortable.

And its funny you mention syphacard bc precusely one of the fics i vaguely remember was uhh, Sypha n Alu getting together while Trey anguished over it (iirc it was partially bc he hit or yelled at Sypha while drunk. Idk i do like that it addresses that alcoholism is not all funni silly jokes and it has devastating consequences both for the person and their loved ones but it also felt a bit mean to dump all the wrongdoings caused by Trey's poorly healed traum in front of him while n!Alu is the nice bf here despite his Behaviour. Im going here by memory tho so) and like Trey. Treyey. My buddy pal. Ik most bitches in a 10 mile radius want to lynch you but srsly dont simp like that you're better on your own

[glorfys-glorioushair]

With how much I loathe Netflixvania, I am on my knees begging that they stop after Nocturne with Castlevania adaptations because I don't want to see them massacre any more of my precious, already well-designed children. It's akin to a predator destroying the whole bloody food chain just because it thinks it's better than everyone else.

Can you imagine if they messed around with Shanoa and Albus? Or even worse, Charlotte and Jonathan? My soul shudders at the thought.

[skaruresonic]

"I won't forget the time another games fan admitted on my old Twitter account that the current fannish climate was such that they were going to limit their Sonic discussion to private channels."

Funnily enough, something similar happened to me on Twitter. Someone contacted me in private because they wanted to talk about CV with me, but "I didn't want to message you so publicly because there are some people who don't like you that follow me"

And my reaction was... cool? Thanks for telling me? I'm not even super active on Twitter and I can count on one hand the amount of times I complained and attracted discussions. I just felt sad that this person treated me like a clandestine. It reminded me back when I was in high school and my friend back then was like "don't help these people, they talk shit about you" - what am I supposed to think, other than "oh :("?

And the CV fandom is all but dead, even the NFCV fandom is certainly more active but currently resting. The Sonic fandom, especially on Twitter, is an absolute nightmare. People really do pounce you for any reason they deem justified, and all sorts of petty discourse is pushed in front of your face for the sole reason of making you angry.

Anyway, I say already what I said: for a fandom who will call you all sorts of names if you don't have the right wholesome opinions on minor characters, they sure have zero mercy for real life minors whose crime is complaining in their corner of the internet. Silly you, daring to have an opinion!

Funnily enough, something similar happened to me on Twitter. Someone contacted me in private because they wanted to talk about CV with me, but "I didn't want to message you so publicly because there are some people who don't like you that follow me"

It reminded me back when I was in high school and my friend back then was like "don't help these people, they talk shit about you" - what am I supposed to think, other than "oh :("?

Might be missing some context here, but honestly, that sounds a little backhanded. Best case scenario, they're worried about inadvertently shining a spotlight on you, which just raises questions of why they're hanging around folks who'd dogpile people to begin with.

Like bruh, this is video games fandom, not an illegal gambling ring lmao. Saying "I can't reblog from you because you have cooties" would be more emotionally honest.

To some extent, though, I do have to wonder how much of this is a modern-day fandom culture thing and isn't confined to just Sonic, because patterns seem to repeat across fandoms. Half-Life has settled down AFAIK, but that was after virulent tourists literally called the cops on fic writers for shipping a ship and caused the old guard to disperse. The Silent Hill Reddit, likewise, refuses to hear any criticism of the SH2 remake because you're harshing their buzz. And hey, anything Konami offers us must surely be better than nothing. "Technical limitations" is similar misinformation that gets passed around via games of telephone a la Shadow mandates. I don't need to tell you how Sonic fandom treats unpopular opinions. Don't know what to call it. Toxic positivity? Consumerism? Anti mindset? Clout chasing? Social media-fuelled outrage? All of the above? Whatever it is, it's becoming more prevalent in fannish spaces. Maybe it's because I'm more invested in Sonic fandom than the others, but there I've noticed that there's definitely this added layer of superciliousness to Sonic that just makes the usual fandom wank even more obnoxious. Yes, the HLVRAI stans might lie and say your ship is pedophilia, which is incredibly unfortunate, but nobody was giving them the microphone and saying they ought to be taken as an authority on all things Half-Life. In fact, the old guard pushed for AO3 to separate HLVRAI and Half-Life in the tags for years for this very reason. We weren't all suddenly like "hmm yes, maybe Gordon really was a ~secret pedo~ who thinks of grown-ass Alyx as a child when she flirts with him in-game" because we knew that was fucking ridiculous. But for some reason, we're all supposed to think "IDW!Sonic is Games!Sonic" lest we bu run out of town with torches and pitchforks, I guess.

The worst part is it's hard to tell what people want anymore. You can't say things they don't want to hear even in your own space. You can't say it politely, you can't say it rudely, you can't say it to your friends or to people you're arguing with, you just cannot say it at all without risking a ton of fans going "well you said it, therefore you deserve what you get." And, frankly, fuck that lol.

[beevean]

Rewatching NFCV with @woodchipp and @the-crow-binary has been miserable so far.

Not because of them, of course: we all need each other to bear the Peak. but holy shit I forgot how mindnumbingly boring the show is. it's way worse at a second watch because now I know how much it falls apart! We're only at S2E3 as of this post!

S1 is the best season, and even that is largely forgettable, especially S1E3 which wastes 22 minutes of my life to say "here's the bishop. he's proof that CHURCH BAD". But S1E1 may be the best or second best episode of the whole show thanks to Dracula and his performance... and isn't that sad, that the show peaks at the very beginning? The rest of the show is just... Trevor doing his stuff (while the framing mostly makes fun of him), talking, some fighting, and CHURCH BAD. As positives, I still like Trevor's mini-arc in this season, and the vague effort to be faithful to CV3 (Sypha being petrified by a cyclops, falling down a chasm to find Alucard).

S2 is terrible. Yes we're still less than halfway through. I already hate everything.

I hate Alucard becoming a legend to the point that the Wallachians name his Alucard (as in, Dracula's opposite) after only a year - why couldn't he name himself Alucard? Why complicate matters so much? Isaac calling him Alucard, and Dracula recognizing the name, makes absolutely no sense: how do they know about it? Dracula lost contact with his son one year ago and I doubt Wallachian human legends have reached him. And Isaac was in the Sahara until sometime after Lisa died!

I hate Alucard himself. He's a cunt. He does nothing but insult Trevor and the Belmonts without provocation, and it's not funny banter, he's mean! He's genuinely cruel! He hears that Trevor lost his family at 12, and he can only say "lol and lmao I had more of a childhood than you. anyway they were mentally ill and child killers, they sacrificed chickens and hoarded dead cats". And this piece of shit is the most popular character of the show??? he's not even pretty what are y'all seeing 😭

(it's also weird how he's all angsting about killing his vampire father, but he hates the Belmont for being vampire hunters. bro. bro you're also about to hunt a vampire. why are you defending a race of monsters so staunchly. not even a hint of, I don't know, a Belmont hurting him when he was a child because he was confused for a full vampire? Remember that logically, a vampire child is a child turned into a vampire, we have no other indication that dhampirs are running all around the world. I know that in the games he seems fully on board with "vampires bad and me bad for being half vampire", but you have the chance of making it better and you squander it?)

Sypha is also ruder than I remembered. I think she suddenly became more cheerful in S3 and that's why I liked her, but also girl, you keep criticizing Trevor for being rude and not consoling you, but you look at him with a perpetual resting bitch face and insult the Morning Star calling it an "ugly thing"? Why does Trevor even bother with the likes of you? How is Trephacard the most popular ship in the franchise?

I hate Isaac. Oh, I gave him the benefit of the doubt back then, because I really wanted to understand why he became the fan favorite. But now? No, I'm sorry, he's overrated as fuck. He's so damn pretentious, his speech about how he wants a pure world without love is terrible from the lens of him being a Muslim who is devoted to the Devil, and his backstory is so tryhard and historically inaccurate that I almost prefer Hector's past being exposed through voiceover.

Oh, and Hector, I hate his scenes. Because he's actually treated with dignity. He's fine! I actually like the guy! I like the scene where he rebukes Godbrand (who as a character only exists to attract infodumps and to question Dracula) because "I have to work" - he sounds actually proud of his role, if not even competent, perish the thought. Also by reading the scripts online I forgot that he was the one who yelled "you do not question my loyalty!". Which I like a lot? I can hear the real Hector protesting like that out of pride, even if in private he would admit that he disagrees with the bloodshed. And the scene where he soothes the newborn Night Creature... yeah, this character used to be written with respect, and knowing how he gets tortured and disrespected and used for rape apologism by a sex pest hurts even more. Also, in retrospect, the scene where he stares at the fire while reminiscing about the day he set fire on his own childhood home doesn't go anywhere, even as the finale of S3 echoes it :^)

And Dracula, oh my poor man Dracula. He's already being presented as an ineffectual depressed old man spending his time staring at a fireplace, who can't even command his presence in the war room, who allows Carmilla to insult him and Lisa in front of everyone - it's so embarrassing how he gets the Red Eyes of Fury and then he simply... lets her go after he gets the flimsy explanation of "yeah I humiliated you because everyone is asking themselves the same question. I wanted to help <3" girl (Dracula), she's a mere regional ruler, as she herself said??? why do you need her so much that you allow her to do this shit??????? oh but then you posture to godbrand, he gets to be threatened because... he's not relevant to the plot i guess. fucking pathetic. what have they done to my man.

(and I hate Carmilla. but that has never changed. annoying smug ass #girlboss with the charisma of spoiled seafood. her way of manipulating Hector isn't even manipulation, it's just her telling him very plainly what she wants him to do. She and Lenore utterly suck at their job, and they only get their way because muh plot)

And then there's the infodumping. Oh my god these people won't shut the fuck up. Godbrand is like "why should we listen to two humans?" and Dracula dumps twice that he trusts Hector and Isaac for their human nature (which, again, it's a decent reasoning, but it goes on and on and even they should know, I get it). Alucard dumps about the apocalyptic scenario where Dracula wins and rules over a world without humans... but he only describes it as we look into his ugly face, instead of doing something more creative like actually showing what would happen. Hector gets this random flashback-through-sound, shoved there as if Ellis didn't know where to put it in the script; later on he explains to Carmilla the origin of Night Creatures, as if ever remotely matters. Isaac dumps about his jihadist philosophy about how by killing humans he and Dracula will create a pure world. Carmilla randomly reveals her Tragic Backstory after kicking Godbrand down the stairs, another scene I can't stand because it's all about what a #queen she is and how she's better than Dracula. At one point they seriously discuss about the myth of vampires unable to cross running water, which is a moot point anyway because Carmilla resorts to using a zombie bishop to bless the river!! No I will never let it go!!!

(also I love that in the one occasion where Alucard has the chance of describing his childhood, he retells the tale of Lisa meeting Dracula, something we've already seen and he was also obviously told about, not something he experienced himself. They couldn't even come up with another anedocte to actually tell us what kind of mother Lisa used to be. so lazy)

This show is half people sitting in a circle and talking, and half average fight scenes. Yeah at this point not even those impress me anymore. I'm serious when I say that Knuckles' fight scene in Divergence, also animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios, is of a better quality than what the show has offered.

And this is why I'm so reluctant to watch Nocturne. If the best seasons of this highly acclaimed show are so painful to sit through, how are we going to survive a sequel series that not even the fans liked it as much?

[beevean]

https://fandomwire.com/i-wouldnt-even-know-how-warren-ellis-had-the-most-realistic-reason-for-not-consulting-the-castlevania-video-games-and-it-wasnt-because-of-wikipedia/

I have no words

I can genuinely believe that a 50 something person may be shit with technology, my mother can barely use her iphone, but an accomplished writer who most definitely should know how to write using writing programs in pretty advanced ways? Who even used to run his own online blog and website?

Are you seriously telling me that he wouldn't know to look on Youtube on how to use a fucking NES and GBA emulator?

The writer and co-showrunner of Castlevania, Warren Ellis, is the man responsible for bringing the dark vampire-filled world of Castlevania to the anime universe and making one of the best video game adaptations of all time. However, the shocking fact is that Ellis has never played the Castlevania video game in his life.

I'm gonna be blunt: it's impossible to write a good adaptation, let alone "one of the best adaptations of all time", without experiencing the source material.

If you like NFCV for its story and characters, as its own thing, it's a different conversation. But it is not, in any way, shape or form, a good adaptation. It's the equivalent of AI mashing together information it randomly finds on the Internet. Ellis and his crew took elements from the wiki and then smushed them without understanding their significance: things like Trevor's scar, Lisa's last words and her relationship with Alucard, Hector and Isaac's entire backgrounds and outfits, the Belmont legacy and the importance of the Vampire Killer. It superficially resembles the games in some details, but the core of the lore and the messages was twisted beyond recognition.

And clearly, the Deats' creed as fans hardly mattered, since the show's idea of being faithful to the games is random easter eggs like the wall meat or Gergoth or the Glyphs in Lenore's book or what have you, but they allowed the story to derail so much, Nocturne can't even be considered an adaptation anymore.

I also can't pity Ellis much, when the writers of Captain N, in the '80s, resorted to describing to each other on the phone what they could see on their discolored TV. Nowadays we have Youtube. It's the absolute bare minimum one can do to understand a game. Even my grandma knows how to use Youtube by now. We're not even talking about behemoths like The Last Of Us: an average playthrough of Dracula's Curse is 1:40 hours long, like a movie, and Curse of Darkness' cutscenes make for a 40 minute video. Fucking hell you might as well read the scripts on the wiki if you're that lazy.

Imagine doing this for books. Imagine refusing to read a book because it's too hard and just skimming the wikis for information before turning it into a movie. Book fans would riot and reject such a shallow adaptation. But it's okay when it's videogames, right? They're just a bunch of pixels anyway :^) good enough to use as a springboard for your edgy Berserk/GoT ripoff, not good enough to be understood, right? :^)

[beevean]

"NFCV's portrayal of Dracula is a masterpiece, it finally gave depth to the character! His sorrow is sympathetic, he's not just an evil guy for evil guy's sake! He's deep, nuanced!"

Is he? Is he, though?

The more I think about Dracula (the games one obv), the more it angers me how the show treated him. In its best seasons, to boot.

Because yes, they certainly put a lot of focus on his grief, and took care to humanize him. And that's the issue.

The idea, on paper, is wonderful. Dracula is a monster moved by human emotions. He's a danger to the entirety of mankind, God's direct enemy, but at his core, he's a man bereft for the loss of his wives.

The very first episode nailed it! He makes an utterly terrifying entrance in Targoviste, as a pillar of fire threatening the people to move out in a year lest they face his wrath. They don't believe him. He keeps his word. He does not hold back.

And he caps it off with this chilling, yet tragic speech:

Kill everything you see. Kill them all. And once Targoviste has been made into a graveyard for my love, go forth into the country. Go now. Go to all the cities of Wallachia: Arges! Severin! Gresit! Chilia! Enisara! Go now and kill. Kill for my love! Kill for the only true love I ever knew. Kill for the endless lifetime of hate before me.

This is Dracula. This is the Devil himself who is absolutely destroyed by the loss of his love, knows that he will never be able to move on, and by all the forces of Hell, he will make everyone feel his misery.

Season 2, by all means, should have capitalized on this. Imagine the great contrast it would be: one scene shows Dracula, in his firey form, sending his forces, the Night Creatures that he forced Hector and Isaac to make all night, to raze an entire village to ashes... and the next, he retreats to his quarters to slump in his chair, speaking in a soft and broken voice, and suddenly, he is a man again. It would show his duality so well.

But the show simply forgot the first part.

The entirety of the plot in S2 is that Dracula has stopped being a villain. This is the crux of the conflict! Dracula spends his entire time moping in his chair, and he's so Depressed™ that he literally loses control of his forces... which allows Carmilla to more or less replace him.

There you have it: Dracula's entire arc in S2.

Dracula gets nothing but "humanizing" moments. He speaks civilly to Carmilla after she makes a fool out of him. He commiserates to Isaac about how no one is his friend anymore, taking care to sit by his side like they're buddies. He doesn't care about anything anymore, thus allowing Carmilla to run amok and play Hector and Isaac like recorders (I would say "like a fiddle" but that would imply talent). His plan gets described, multiple times, including by his own son, as nothing more than a suicide mission that will accidentally take down everyone with him. Most importantly, Dracula is painted as being simply a shortsighted fool, who lied to Hector to hire him and then he's surprised that he's distancing himself, who never thought ahead when it cames to blood perserves, who really, why didn't he just turn Lisa into a vampire, is he stupid?

(he's literally doing a :( face. i cannot make this shit up)

Once again: his death scene, which is at its core him being taken down by his own emotions, is brilliant in a vacuum. But in context, it breaks down spectacularly: Dracula has done nothing but feel sorry for himself for 7 episodes now. Where is the guy who made guts and man-eating demons fall from the sky? This is such a blatant attempt to defang (hehe) an iconic antagonist for the sake of 1) propping up an OC, and 2) because we are such good writers and we will fix the shallow games by giving Humanity to our antagonists, to the point where they're not even So Bad After All! (also 3) because woobiefying the dilf will make our horny fans happy)

But like. You can show Dracula's humanity without painting him as such a sad meow meow.

It is said that there was a deplorable incident. Those who did it, those who saw it, those who didn't stop it, the one who created the world, all are equally guilty.

The pain of loss  Distorted overflowing resentment Unquenchable sorrow  The claws of a trembling fist pierce the palm  Becoming a bloody hammer of violence

Gaining what was lost A power as big as sadness A person who rebels against the creator of an existence that will never be lost

One page has the narration describing Dracula's "unquenchable sorrow" that turns his fist into a "bloody hammer of violence"...

"Please, I beg of you, I’m human too!"

"My nourishment is human life and mistakes. I will disappear when humans perish…"

And the next one will have Dracula severely punish his General for daring to question him in his cruel plan for revenge.

And he'll still show some vulnerability to Isaac, but apparently he was okay with him killing Hector and bringing his head back.

And then there's the ending of SoTN, where Dracula finally asks Lisa forgiveness, but not after nearly killing his son and even swearing to wipe away his "vulgar blood" in Japanese. And then there are the implications, most obvious in Grimoire of Souls, that even Dracula has grown tired of being forced to come back over and over, but shows no sign of remorse.

[...]

It may not be shown in depth as NFCV does, but even if more is left to imagination, the games do a much better job at walking the line between "Dracula is the Devil incarnate, a spiteful monster who only desires death and destruction" and "Dracula is the former shell of a man who was broken by grief and cannot let go of his pain".

So yeah. I'm not impressed by the show trying too hard to make me cry for its ineffective, pathetic, pitiful version of Dracula.

[beevean]

Carmilla: rants about there being discrimination against women in Dracula's court

Meanwhile

Dracula when Carmilla insults him and his dead wife in front of everyone: Well ok I'll let it slide

Dracula when Godbrand makes a valid point: The fuck did you say to me you fuck!?

Well there's discrimination all right

clearly, Dracula jugs that Respect Woman Juice because he's such a loving husbando <3 /s

I'll never be over Carmilla's out of nowhere "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"

one, there are only three women in the castle, Carmilla being one of them. two, ah yes, the sheer fucking rage of the most tragic victims of sexism in the story, these randos right here

I remember when they were about to save the day, but the Evil Penis-Endowed Men told them to shut up and cook blood in the kitchen because they're just women <3

well I would remember, if they bothered to be characters.

Then again, NFCV's idea of showing Carmilla's abuse at the hands of a man is a flashback that only depicts her killing her master like a true #girlboss, because god forbid we see her in any other light. Why bother actually showing us the pain she went through and fuels her ever-growing rage, when she can just talk about how she deserves to take stuff from stupid old men like the most shallow parody of a radfem? 🙃

something something the abused woman is always shown in a strong light and are only told in passing of her weak moments such as her having nightmares (?), while the abused men are humiliated and fetishized. gotta do the big think on this 🤔

[beevean]

Netflixvania discourse be like

"I can accept the shattering of trust and consent during sexual intercourse, but I draw the line at potential incest!"

A long, unnecessary dialogue about goat fucking is fine

A woman snarking that she wants to make a man drink her piss by telling him it's beer is fine

Soldiers fighting by rubbing shit on their spears is fine

A whole subplot dedicated to a vampire forcing petplay on her prisoner is fine (I guess because the vampire is a hot woman, the same demographic would have turned up their nose with inverted genders)

A sex scene that only serves to further humiliate and imprison a character is fine (also it's not rape because the man consented! Under false premises and after a long process of mental subjugation, but he was still having fun so we can jerk off to our leisure :D)

But a threesome that involves two potential twins and the vague hints of a man getting penetrated? good god the vulgarity of this show has crossed all the boundaries!!!!!!!!

r/castlevania is a magical place

(ofc they aren't the only ones. Deats confirming on Twitter that the Japanese not-twins are in fact not twins when they look literally identical, therefore accidentally looping back into old school racism, because promoting the idea that Asian people all look the same is preferrable to two fraternal twins deranged enough to murder a man out of paranoia using sex as a trap together, will never not be funny to me)

[beevean]

Calling it now: Lydie will either be another vampire hunter or another speaker magician

That's the two main slots in which to fit female characters in this show

Pick your poison: Lydie is GirlBossifed and fans praising the show for improving her, or she is kept as a non-action girl and fans using her death as proof as why women must be KickAss otherwise it's sexist. Because as we all know there Sassy GirlBoss and Fridged Woman are the only roles female characters can be

Putting these two asks together because they caused me the same amount of psychic damage :^) (also the coincidence was funny lol)

Real talk, no, Lydie will be badassified. After all, the nameless lady St. Germain simped for and who was fridged more unceremoniously than Lisa had zero personality other than "badass girlboss". It is that imperative that women in NFCV have to fit the prepackaged mold of either "sassy woman who keeps her stupid man in check" or "dommy mommy who slaps stupid men around".

Yeah, I vote for another Greta. I'm also expecting her to be a bitch looking down on both Juste and Maxim, but in a way that we're meant to see as "quirky".

[beevean]

the hallmark of Peak Fiction is shoehorning a very serious conversation about a very serious past conflict in an unrelated scene, in the form of snarky banter played for laughs, so that the writer can pretend they listen to audience feedback, while not needing to fully think of addressing the issue and fully sweeping it under the rug because it would be inconvenient to paint the involved characters as dumbasses/vile. Bonus points if it literally goes nowhere and it can be removed from the scene without affecting the flow of the dialogue.

And if it makes me want to eat my own bones because I feel the urge to beat the involved characters to death with a nailed bat, that's just a plus :)