#i can be as salty as i want it's fun and it's healthy 🥰

[beevean]

Lenore: [Carmilla] showed me her maps. I made her angry, I think. She showed me maps of the world. Hector: I know, I know. A giant human pen from here to Braila. I've had the lectures. Lenore: Not anymore. Hector: She's been scheming. Lenore: And she showed me maps of the world, Hector. Hector: The world. Lenore: The pen was about securing our survival and safety for centuries to come. It was an insane idea, but we could stretch and make it work. But now she sees weakness everywhere. And we were a strong and stable community in a world that lost many of its vampire leaders at Braila. Hector: So what you're saying is if it's there, she's going to drink it. Lenore: She said she had one plan: to annex land from here to the sea. She promised me that was her plan, and then she was left alone, and then I made her angry and she showed me her maps. I think she lied to me. Hector: Just the way Dracula lied to me.

So this is another way S4 forcibly pushes a connection between Hector and Lenore for the sake of making us sympathize with her.

Lenore is panicking about Carmilla's new plan. I would say that she is worried about the kingdom's stability, or Carmilla's sanity, but as usual, she can't help showing her true self because she introduced this information by whining about herself: "But soon I'll have nothing to do. Nothing to offer. There's no diplomacy involved in making humans stand in line to be bled."

But for now this isn't really the point: the point is that Lenore, in her circular reasoning, somehow went from "we left her alone, and she started scheming beyond her original plan" to "she was lying to me, and only revealed the truth when I made her angry: if I didn't, she would have kept the lie". Now, this doesn't make sense in any way: why would Carmilla lie to one of her closest allies? Even if Lenore is useless, she is still an ally and a friend, and it would be both disadvantageous and impractical to keep her in the dark. The framing is very much that Carmilla went mad and got hungrier for power and her plan morphed in those six weeks between S3 and S4, and she just happened to choose that moment to rant.

(hilariously, the dialogue is extremely contrived too: Lenore just says "Please, would Dracula have kept [Hector] around in his own castle if he were that dangerous?" and that spurns Carmilla to completely forget about the issue of Hector behaving suspiciously and talk about the castle she didn't get, which wasn't even remotely Lenore's point. yeah no she didn't reveal the plan out of anger, but out of writing convenience lmao)

Now, I could concede this as the character being wrong. Lenore is allowed to be wrong, and the bias she's expressing make sense: the situation is making her feel insecure, unneeded and perhaps unwanted. Remember: this is the same scene where she appreciates Hector for not making her feel bad about raping him into slavery "wanting to listen to her", unlike everyone else in the castle. She is lost and confused and can't trust Carmilla anymore, and as I pointed out she is incredibly self-centered, so fine, I buy that she interprets her behavior as malice against her.

But the framing is not that. Because then Hector remembers he is a human being with a brain and says the only meaningful response to Lenore's rant.

lmao i can't take that frame seriously it's literally surprisedpikachuface.jpg

And this is bullshit.

The two situations are not comparable from this angle. Carmilla is being set to be Dracula 2.0, that much is true: an insane old woman who has lost her way, consumed by pain and hatred, and is no longer thinking about the consequences of her plan, risking the safety of her underlings. But that's the extent of it. Carmilla actually cares about her sisters, in her own way, even if she makes fun of Lenore for her love for animals. Lenore perceived Carmilla as getting angry at her, but in reality she simply got worked up, and had nothing against her if not her incompetence in making Hector work, which got resolved anyway.

We don't know how the other three got roped into her council, but there is zero indication that Carmilla ever used bold-faced lies like when Dracula promised Hector that they'd work to cull mankind when in reality he wanted to exterminate everyone, something he even admitted to do because "he's easy to lie to". He did not change his plan between his hiring of Hector and his death! He deliberately lied to him from the get-go!

Hector and Lenore have the similar situation of being considered the weaklings of the group for their softness. They could bond over that. But Hector's situation was still far worse: he got taken advantage of precisely because of his softness and his pathological need to be loved, something Lenore cannot share because, even with her soft façade, she is too cunning to be tricked, lives her comfortable life as one of the queens, and she was considered integral to the group until now. Hector was betrayed by Dracula, only the first of many instances: he got convinced that Dracula planned to kill him too, and we don't know if he would have done it, but the story seems to believe so. And that's not mentioning how this betrayal was the catalyst for all the hell Hector went through, which incidentally included Lenore. We see with our own eyes that Hector's reaction to being powerless is fawning and clinging, while Lenore's reaction to feeling powerless is exerting her power over creatures beneath her.

Tell me how can Lenore compare to Hector, just because her bestie is only now starting to go crazy - which, as I pointed out earlier, only concerns Lenore because boohoo she feels useless and not out of moral convictions like when Hector shouted that he didn't want to paddle in the blood of innocents?

You don't get to pull the 🥺 face on me, Lenore. You don't get to create a "you're just like me fr fr" moment by twisting the narrative to look more of a woobie than you are. Especially not right after you shushed Hector down when he dared to complain about being raped. You are not the victim here, you can't fathom the heartbreak Hector went through because of Dracula, Carmilla and you, and the relationship between you two is built on nothing but lies, both of your telling and of the disingenuous story itself which at this point is a bigger liar than all three of those characters.

And yes, this is a lie from the story, because this feels like a deliberate retcon! Lenore in S3 was a complacent cog in the machine. She agreed to help Carmilla, she admits in that scene in S4 that she saw the original plan as a way to secure stability which is what she cares about the most, and all of her gaslighting, manipulations and sexual abuse were for the sole purpose of turning Hector into the perfect tool to proceed with that plan (the pet part was just a nice bonus). There is the theory that she didn't like the plan much based on one frame where she frowns, but as usual, other expressions of hers betray her:

She seems quite happy with it! She just apparently didn't like Carmilla's "self-replicating food" joke, for reasons I don't understand - she too treats Hector like an animal, so I don't see why she'd be miffed at the dehumanization. Or maybe it's just her being not very amused at Carmilla's sense of humor in general. the joke was pretty stupid, tbh - all organic food is "self-replicating", your evil speeches need some serious work girl

The point is, she was not tricked into it like Hector! Unlike him who apparently didn't think much about the aftermath, she was fully aware of what it entailed! Carmilla just expanded her view later on! But of course, if we now say that Carmilla lied to Lenore and the story doesn't stop to remind us of what happened one season prior, Lenore suddenly becomes innocent, because see? She's better than mean Carmilla! She only raped Hector for his own good, but she didn't mean to harm mankind! It's literally the same logic that neutered the ring: everything must be sanitized to paint Lenore as this innocent, tragic figure.

Again, what irritates me is that the parallels are there. Carmilla is going insane like Dracula, yes, and she is endangering the kingdom. Lenore feels the black sheep of the group like Hector was (although he never realized it, even though Isaac always talked to him like he itched to call him the R-slur). They have traits in common! Use them! But no, this plotline is nothing more than the writers yelling "PLEASE FEEL SOWWY FOR THE WIDDLE RAPIST SHE DID NOTHING WRONG IN HER LIFE LOOK AT HER CUTE FACE 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 CARMILLA IS THE TRUE MEANIE HATE THAT BITCH NOT OUR LENORE WHO IS JUST A POOR GIRL AND NOBODY LOVES HER 🥺"

[acacia-may]

Hiya Acacia! For the salty ask game; may I ask for 1, 4, and 11 please 🥰? It can be for any fandom, but if you want a specific one it can be Black Clover!

Alright Lyra! Let's get salty about Black Clover ^^

Necessary disclaimer above the cut: These are just my own personal opinions based on my personal tastes, perceptions, and feelings regarding the series, stories, and characters and their relationships. I genuinely have the utmost respect and absolutely no ill will towards anyone who has a different opinion than me. In fact, I have always said that one of the greatest things about fandom is that we can all experience and perceive these amazing stories and characters in very different ways but still love them. Even some of my dearest fandom friends enjoy different pairings than me or see our shared favorite characters in wildly different ways than I do. I personally find it very rewarding to have respectful conversations about our differences of opinion, and I hope that my opinions will also be respected. Also, I don't vibe with just mindless bashing things, so even though this is about to get very salty and a little snarky, I'll try to keep it respectful and all in good fun. I am not tagging anything and am hiding my thoughts under the cut so you all don't have to be subjected to my hot takes and "Salty Acacia," if you don't want.

OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Yami paired with any of his Black Bull subordinates!! I mean I guess I get it if you don't see him as a parental figure to them, but in my mind, this whole group has Daddy Issues™️ and collectively adopted this man as their father-figure. The idea of adding romance in there just gives me the ick. Especially with Finral...It's just such a personal squick for me that I will just never understand it. Sorry not sorry.

Also, Langris x Mimosa. I do not vibe with that. It's not as visceral as the Yami x a Black Bull ships, but it's just not my cup of tea at all and I genuinely can't imagine them (as I personally perceive them) ever having a romantic interest in each other since she's kind of like a little sister to him in my mind. I know people, including friends, who ship this pairing and I respect that. I've actually read fics about them trying to understand it and the appeal, but ultimately I'm just never going to get this one personally. It's just not for me.

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

YamiFin. See above. I know a lot of people ship it, including people I know and consider my friends, and I know it is because they view their relationship in a wildly different way than me and do not imagine those paternal, familial vibes between them that I do. Like I said in the disclaimer, I respect their differences of interpretation and opinions, so again nothing against them. For me, however, I personally do not vibe with that ship on every possible level. Again, in my mind, Yami is just such father-figure to him that this is just viscerally a NoTP for me.

Vanessa x Yami is the same way but less intense(?) I guess because she has shown a canonical romantic interest in him at least back when he was the only man she had ever seen... (which doesn't seem healthy, so that's a really big nope for me. Also again with the father-figure vibes!!)

I guess Mimosa x Langris is a NoTP too, but it doesn't give me as much of the personal ick as the Yami ones and I don't think it's that popular, so it feels a little unfair to list them here even if I really, really don't vibe with that one. Still, it's a no for me!

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I'm not entirely sure who is unpopular in the fandom at large because I feel like we kind of have our chill, small corner of the BC fandom here and that's where I hang out. I guess I would say Langris because I think he is a pretty dislikable character and even though I feel like most people tolerate him a little more after the Spade Arc, he isn't the most popular when he's really one of my personal favorite characters in the series. I feel like he has a lot of depth to him, and he interests me. I don't excuse his bad behavior or the way he treated his brother, but I think I can understand the why behind his behavior and appreciate that he has been having a good arc. He isn't as terrible of a person as I thought he was in the beginning. Even I used to detest him, but now he's a favorite.

I'm not sure who else is unpopular? Um...I feel like Mimosa gets a lot of undeserved hatred sometimes because of the whole shipping war (which I also don't understand), and that irks me because I think she's actually a pretty cool character and it's not fair that she gets written off and/or disliked for shipping discourse outside of her control. If y'all are so obsessed with her gettting in a relationship with someone who isn't Asta just ship her with Yuno or something I guess??? It's really not that hard! I like her friendship with Klaus and Yuno and her cousin relationship with Noelle a lot. She's also had a good arc! (Sorry that's one wasn't very salty...😅)