#i just can't understand the people who think *rich//ter* is a dick but ann//ette is the best character

[beevean]

What did you think of Annette from Castlevania: Nocturne? Personally, her altered background did nothing but add even more filler nonsense on what is already a cramped season. And even then, her character arc took up more attention than Richter's, which is quite appalling since her arc had nothing to do with the main storyline (all it did was drag the show even more).

Not to mention, she spent most of the season hating on Richter for no reason, calling him a "child" and "useless as fuck" on certain occasions. I also can't forgive her for chastising Richter as a coward when he ran away at the sight of his mother's killer, when she literally blew their plan at the Chateau and indirectly killed Edouard when she saw Vaublanc, her mother's killer. And even then, no one blamed her for that, which makes it even worse since she constantly makes everything about her and her tragic past as a slave.

So the sudden hint at their romance was both cheap and forced as their chemistry is non-existent throughout the story. I still remember how Steve Stark, a background designer for both Netflixvania shows, fighting against the fans for this decisions, claiming:

"Go complain about something that matters."

Which by itself is a self-own. If it didn't matter like you claimed, why go through such lengths to change her entire character. Surely it must matter to you.

N!Annette should've been an original character while the original Annette is left well enough alone (to which I'm trying to do in the rewrite). And to dunk on the people who would say that game Annette had no personality and is pointless, need I remind you that Rosaly from Curse of Darkness never appeared in the game at all yet the writers behind the manga dedicated their time to flesh her out in the manga itself. So it's not the characters that are the problem, it's the writers.

Sorry about that whole rant. Caught myself blabbering there.

She is not a character. She is discourse bait, and as such, I don't engage with her or the discourse surrounding her seriously.

You pretty much said everything. Annette is insufferable because in theory her flaws make sense. She's brash, angry, has little patience for anyone, wants to do things her own way, maybe even looks down on "privileged" people out of mistrust and bitterness: all behaviors that I can see stemming from the background of a runaway slave. Her breakdown indirectly causing Edouard's death? We have a decent conflict here! (ignoring the fact that Edouard is also not a character so I don't really feel anything for him.) But then she becomes utterly infuriating when the asshole dares to make fun of Richter for his lack of magic, when he all but told her that he lost his powers due to his mother's death - or at the very least, he told her that his dead mother could do magic and maybe that would be a sore spot for him! And the worst part is, Maria and Tera are standing there with no reaction! Tera, you useless idiot, this stranger that already proved herself unreliable is pushing your adopted son's trauma button! Do something!

Same when Ricther runs away, she is all too happy to insult him, call him "useless as fuck", and you think that Cecile would knock some sense into her and be like "hey girl you also ran away from the man who hurt you and killed your mother, maybe don't be so quick to judge", but noooooooo we need to talk about how Annette's character is literally "ex-slave" (hey she says it, not me), culminating in her saying "as if those french people could ever understand us!" woman what is you doing could we please talk about Annette now and stop coddling her????????

And you can look around and think, oh, maybe they're right. Evil, violence, and oppression everywhere. Even these French with their high ideals. What do they know about what we've suffered? And what do they care? They'll build their new world, but it won't be freedom or equality or brotherhood for us.

You were drawing a parallel and trying to teach her empathy for someone that, before being a white European, is a victim of vampires and evil just like her, and you end up telling her that no one else will have empathy for her??????????

And remember: Richter likes this asshole so much that the memory of her is what unlocks his magic! Not his mother. Not his grandfather. This stranger who has been cordial at best, and antagonistic at worst. what's with these shows and having the most godawful romance stories this side of twilight

So the sudden hint at their romance was both cheap and forced as their chemistry is non-existent throughout the story.

Annette suffers from a similar problem as Sypha and Isaac: they're stuck in the role their videogame counterparts have, even when it makes no sense. Sypha bullies Trevor as much as Alucard does, and in fact she seems to like the latter more (when Alucard is a cock to Trevor and he understandably lashes out back, Sypha tells him to grow up, the absolute fuck), but oh wait, she needs to fuck Trevor as per canon! So she travels with him and they're suddenly all cutey and lovey. Isaac is forced to resent Hector for his "betrayal" of Dracula, when if you watch the season, Isaac should only blame himself for being an utter negligent dumbass in regards to Carmilla, who was the real mastermind and he knew it. Annette is nothing but scornful towards Richter, but we need to push them together because hey Annette was meant to be the love interest, and the writing is even worse here because at least Trepha takes two seasons to become canon, but here we go from "stupid Belmont, useless as fuck" to them blushing together in the span of, like, seven episodes?

If it didn't matter like you claimed, why go through such lengths to change her entire character. Surely it must matter to you.

And this is what I mean with "discourse bait". Nothing about Annette is genuine. She is a stereotypical, safe, flat character, she's both the "tough girlboss who is mean to nearly everyone but we swear she's kind inside!" and the "tough black woman with a slave past, tragic enough to make her badass but without more questionable parts like her for example betraying fellow slaves to save her own skin" (so that you get called sexist and racist if you don't like how much of an ass she is! How convenient. Even though I'd argue is much more racist that she freed herself with god powers rather than her own human ingenuity...); and on top of that she's derivative from a game character, a fairly minor one too, so that if you don't like that she has "replaced" the original you can be told that you are, once again, racist, and anyway the original Annette was bad anyway so why would you care, you stupid purist? They did the same with Isaac, before he became the Gary Stu of the story.

And this is why the genuine racists who don't have a better argument against her than "muh wokeflix, how dare they have black people in my fantasy series" piss me off. You are poisoning the well. Stop it. Get better arguments.

And to dunk on the people who would say that game Annette had no personality and is pointless, need I remind you that Rosaly from Curse of Darkness never appeared in the game at all yet the writers behind the manga dedicated their time to flesh her out in the manga itself. So it's not the characters that are the problem, it's the writers.

You can make the same argument with nearly every character in both shows. The hints of personality are there, they only need to be fleshed out! Rosaly was fleshed out into being more than a "kind girl": she became too kind, and stubborn and naive and suffering from loneliness, and that made her interesting while still keeping true to her general archetype and role! They could have deduced from the games that Trevor is a charismatic, friendly individual with a hotheaded streak, instead of turning him into the most cliché cynical drunkard! They could have deduced from the games that Annette, despite her role as damsel in distress, has a lot of courage, from the scene where she nearly kills herself out of spite for Dracula, instead of a generic badass with godlike powers! But no character is kept faithful, there was no respect or care for anything, nothing but inflated superiority that they can do better (with fans sadly agreeing), everyone is just a bunch of OCs masquerading as canon characters for the sake of being clapped for "fixing" the stupid writing of the games, even when said characters were already fleshed out enough like Alucard or the Devil Forgemasters so they really had no "muh 8-bit game" excuse (and if they couldn't keep Isaac's flamboyant personality then they're just homophobic cowards)

tl;dr i don't like annette and i can only hope that alucard hijacks the story so much that she'll have minimal screentime. i mean he's hardly better, but at least i can call him a cunt without risk of getting doxxed or shit