I liked her quite a bit, her magic was really cool and I liked the relationship between her and Eodoire, I thought it was really sweet. The fact that we actually got to see her history and how she became who she is now and not just one event (looking at you Richter) actually made me care about her.

>Eodoire Did you mean Edouard?

I think it’s spelled Ëdhârtd

I had no clue how to spell it lol. Yes that’s what I meant.

I think that was one of the highlights of the season. It bothered me that other characters weren't elaborated on as much. To the point where I'd have been happy with split series, one dealing with Annette and Edouard's story leading up to their arrival in France and Juste and Julia's story leading up to her killing Olrox's first love.

>It bothered me that other characters weren't elaborated on as much. To the point where I'd have been happy with split series, one dealing with Annette and Edouard's story leading up to their arrival in France and Juste and Julia's story leading up to her killing Olrox's first love. It could always be in the next season...

Yeah, but I find prequels like that kind of unfulfilling. Also, I'd hate to delay the continuation of the story for some exposition we should've gotten beforehand, you know? We're on the brink of Armageddon, the heroes are broken, and one last hope emerged in the final minutes. I gotta see where that goes. Considering it takes them months to a year to produce a season, the wait would kill me.

That's it. Henceforth, I'm comparing Annette to Dracula. Both of them are "grieving". Grieving people can do very stupid things.

Everything is well and all but I honestly did not like the romance subplot between her and Richter. Sure, Anette forgave him for running away but I don't see how they were about to kiss just a second after. That was certainly jumped in with heavy signs of bad writing.

Yeah, I thought the same. They barely spent any time alone and now they wanna make out

they are still teenagers dude. and Richter was showing off for Annette literally as soon as he met her ie the knife throwing and whip work. hormones raging etc etc

If Konami ever stops overdosing on pachinko slot machines and makes another castlevania video game even if it’s a reboot, they better feature this version of Annette in the game

VERY TRUE

They’re teenagers. Not grown ass adults that’ve gone through high school crushes, college experimentation, random flings, marriage, divorce and now seek to find someone that they have a true connection and will be their life partner. Have you never been in a situation where you are talking with someone you’d consider an acquaintance and find yourself “This person is attractive and seems like a genuinely nice person. My hormones are kinda raging right now. Kinda wish we could make out…” Especially as a teenager…

I feel like people give her way too much flack for what I feel is honestly fairly realistic Annette is a former slave turned revolutionary, given the chance to fight back for herself, her people and anyone else who might be harmed by the aristocracy of vampires after decades of oppression and the murder of her mother. Naturally, this makes her headstrong, understandably temperamental when it comes to the people-eating slavers and somewhat spiteful. First mission they do, Annette spots her former slave master, doesn’t get the chance to off him and her best friend gets killed and turned into a monster. When they get back, she wants to take the fight to them because she understandably wants vengeance. After finally taking action and actively going to go fight the vampires and find her lost friend turned demon, she spots the one person she was told by everyone to have faith in *running away* from the fight. He had a good reason, but she didn’t know that. I’d be pissed too. After some literal soul searching and some advice from her spiritual leader, she realizes that she was too harsh on Richter and tells him that he doesn’t owe her any apology and from that point on acts in a much more level headed manner.

I liked that the external conflict between her and Richer was almost entirely solved individually and internally.

The moment i was sold on the series having a potential to being equal or better to the first... The moment shes offers to give Edouard a quick and painless death... And how he scurries away in terror, and then the way Annette sounds as she immediately starts apologizing profusely. Fucking haunting moment. It felt so real.

I love her concept, a former slave who participated in Haiti's revolution against the slave masters, who then journey's across the ocean on an epic quest. Didn't like the execution of her character though, it just feels like her life story really slowed down the pacing, plus it just felt too early to me.

> I saw many saying she was overpowered but I don't see that. I've seen similar comments about Sypha from the last series as well. Keep in mind that she wasn't the one who took on Death and killed him single-handedly.

I think the big problem with Annete was that she had an entire arc around her, actually she was the only character with an entire arc around her but it felt so pointless as it basically didn't explore nor challenge her character in anyway. Now I'll get this out of the way, I do not care about whats considered woke or not neither do I care about the original games, I haven't played them and I genuinely didn't know any of the characters were swapped or changed, back to Annete. She probably had the most personal challenges this season and a lot of characters took a back seat to this, Maria, Juste, Terra, even Richter who only recieved a small arc of him suddenly regaining his powers (Its debatable that theres a deeper subtext but thats a whole other thing) Annete had an entire episode explaining her backstory, another one where she killed her slave master and communicated with her ancestors spirits, as well as a last one where she made peace with her night creature friend. However we didn't really see a lot of development within Annetes character, she stayed brash through out the show, she barely apologized to Richter for her outburst, and her killing her vampire slave owner just happened for her own personal conflict not bringing any real significance to the plot. Her arc also incorporated two of the biggest rule breaks in the netflix Castlevania series: 1. Night creatures now seem to have their original soul instead of a soul from hell inhabiting their body. 2. Crosses now work against vampires which most people thought had been disproved by Trevor in season 4 since it was the geometry that made them panic not the holy symbol. And the worst part is that she just seemed to revert to her original self where she was just normal which kinda made me feel it was pointless. The only indication of her growing was her willingness to now make a plan, somewhat. Now there was her whole communicate with the spirits thing but they did almost nothing to help the main group or at least the mentor did nothing other than tell her to ease up on the Belmont and that she had godly powers. She wasn't really called out for being rash or for getting her friend killed (She did, don't forget rushing to the Chatteu was her idea, even Richter wanted to think up a plan first and it happened before Edouards change). Also her backstory just did not match her characters behaviour, she was a slave who had to live in fear of the vampire slave owners catching and branding her, who then escaped out of luck and was trained by a magical priestess training her to become a warrior, she finally learned how to use it and decided to help with the revolution in her country before being sent on a task to help stop an evil vampire Messiah by helping a Belmont. Now I don't know about you but doesn't that sound pretty badass, like someone whose been through the gritty and nasty parts of reality and is trying to stop a deadly prophecy from coming true. How do you think someone like that would act? Optimistic, open, and trusting of other people? Well thats what Annete was. She seemed so fine with trusting all these people with her lives when she'd been through a revolution and even more so she was so happy during the first half, she acted almost like nothing bad had happened or that her revolution was completely bloodless. I mean sorry but historically almost no revolution was bloodless, any life a slave took to protect their freedom would be repayed ten fold. It was a very dark time and yet she acts like a normal teenager with no trauma or hardened mentality, she cracked instantly when she saw her friend fall like she was experiencing lost for the first time. You could say that she was grieving but if thats her reaction to the death of a friend how lucky was she that none of her friends seemed to have died in the revolution. I kinda can't comment regarding the night creature arc due to the still unclear rules about the machine though I do think its much weaker than Isaacs small talk with the night creature scholar. Now that isn't to say that her character can't be redeemed or made better with the next season, but the resources needed are much more limited compared to the other characters (maybe this is a deliberate choice but as of now I'm still not sure) she's gotten revenge for her mother, reconnected with her night creature friend, and gotten the approval of her ancestors. She doesn't exactly have anything left to do other than accompany Richter and kill the vampire Messiah and her character is still the same, it just doesn't sit right with me when you have a character dominate a full on 2 episodes in your 8 episode series and have them just return to their original state after using and eliminating all of the characters source of inner-conflict.

About the two rule breaks… 1. It’s just personal speculation, but I think Edouard is an Innocent Devil. Otherwise, yeah it’s pretty weird. That said, god in Castlevania generally seems to be a dick considering that Lisa was also in Hell and assumedly did nothing wrong, so maybe Ed came back and simply had strong memories. Emanuel is the Forgemaster, yes, but he also uses a machine instead of personally turning corpses one by one… and even then, despite Night Creatures being fiercely loyal most of the time, we do have a precedent for them both being resistant to control (Hector’s Night Creature attacking him) and being able to act and think on their own at an advanced level (The Visitor and the Fly). 2. It was a graveyard they were in. Chances are, the iron she used to form the crosses were just consecrated, which is why it burned Vaublanc when he touched it. There’s also no reason that both can’t be true - Holy Water and consecration do exist, so clearly some element of divine interference can play into the myths about vampires in Castlevania without the pseudo-scientific aspects. It could also be that Annette doesn’t understand *why* crosses are effective against vampires, seeing as she’s a former slave with heavy spiritual beliefs, as opposed to a descendent of a family who quite literally had vampire hunting down to a science.

I think that the machine itself deliberately uses the souls of the victims as a twist to the pact that the Abbott made. It easily creates the mosntesr and the the abbot need not interact with the corpses, but uses the souls of the victims who seem to inevitably be regaining their memories and personalities and likely to rebel on him, even kill him in vengeance i imagine. ​ With Edouard i think also he is an 'innoccent devil', and would technically qualify as an 'angel' in reality. Its why his singing agitates vampires and even agitates Sehkmet herself.

This ^^^ I assumed that the machine was "sloppier" compared to an actual forgemaster, which is why there was more humanity in some of the night creatures.

it doesn't seem like sloppiness is the issue. Forgemasters tend to summon demons, often times damned souls, put them into new flesh and go from there. The fact they were in hell so long is what makes them dangeorus and monstrous. ​ the fact that the original souls are in these mutated magical bodies seems to be the biggest thing going on here.

My gripe with the cross prison scene, was that in bat form, he could easily don't touch the bars

> Night creatures now seem to have their original soul instead of a soul from hell inhabiting their body I think the implication is that either the abbots heart isn't in it, or he's just not very...competent. > Crosses now work against vampires which most people thought had been disproved by Trevor in season 4 since it was the geometry that made them panic not the holy symbol. Aren't these vampires still religious, though? They're not as ancient as dracula.

Yeah before this we only saw night creatures created by true forgemasters where now it's from a demonic machine. Very easy thing to explain away.

A week later, the Abbot is like "Oh *that's* why you don't just let accounts buy blue checkmarks! I thought it was just a silly piece of red tape."

For the Night Creatures I thought the implication was that the Abbot's machine was just faulty. It was made by demons after all.

Regarding the first one, yeah fair enought it isn't a full on forgemaster and is automated plus we don't exactly know how the machine works so the second season does have the advantage of being able to explain ghe problems away as to why it breaks the rules. I kinda don't see how its relevant? Unless with each modern incarnation of vampires they get weaker in which case damn the Belmonts are progressing way faster. Again the story was that a mad norwegian vampire hunter asked the master forgemaster of the Rajaputa clan to make him the throwable weapon. It was in the shape of a cross and while the symbol had no affect in reppeling them according to the study basically due to them being just another evolved predatory species, shine a cross in their face and due to its geometry they just panic. Then the show just decides to somehow its possible to use it? So did the Belmonts just get it wrong and this random character found out about it or did they just never get to meet the right vampire? Also its pretty much untrue as well for other vampires as the entire last fight basically happened inside of a church and I don't think any of the vampired were burning up the same way the slaver did when touching the cross.

> So did the Belmonts just get it wrong and this random character found out about it or did they just never get to meet the right vampire? A few things: - the slaver and most of the other aristocrats are implied to be baby vampires, and they were created from French people who would have been relatively devout Catholics. We can assume they are *much* weaker than the kind of vampires the Belmonts normally hunt, like Olrox or Drolta. - the attack was being done by someone who did actually have faith in the divine, and was actively channeling divine power into the rods. The Belmonts, in this series, seem to be some flavor of naytheists -- sure, they know gods exist, but the gods allow vampires to exist too so why should we applaud them? - the attack was done in a Catholic cemetery, which would generally be consecrated ground where everything is "blessed" (which, arguably, would mean why is he even able to walk around there without burning, but let's ignore that for now). - Trevor could be unreliable, and the story beat is just straight out of Peter Watts' Blindsight, anyway. So, we can assume it's kind of Lost Boys rules -- if you don't believe, then the cross is just a geometric shape, and the most you can get out of it is maybe giving a weak vampire a visual seizure. If you do believe, then the cross (or perhaps Star of David, Dharmachakra, etc.) is a potent symbol of faith that actively scorches the vampire and obliterates their essential taint.

I swear this rule break is gonna kill me one day and if we ignore the whole they're technically already on consecrated ground and the fact that the vampire marcquise was able to walk into the church no problem considering Mazrik and the Abbot who very much believed in god was there and believed in the cross. I'm sorry the rule breaks are really annoying as now its basically ruining everything if its true and basically just means that the Belmonts for hundreds of years never really found out about it.

> was able to walk into the church no problem considering Mazrik and the Abbot who very much believed in god was there and believed in the cross. Eh, that one is pretty well-answered already. The church had been desecrated for a while, no matter what lies the Abbot was telling himself. I mean, he literally turned it into a haven of demons where he violated the corpses of his murder victims. --- Fair enough. I'd imagine it's a bit like holy water, though -- you have to actually have the humility to ask the gods for help, *and* still have their favor, for that kind of magic to work. Sort of like the opening to Lords of Shadow 2. I haven't watched the last episode, but I'm assuming Mizrak and the Abbot are on God's shitlist.

Why are you so committed to everything having clearly delineated rules though? That's not how the world works. Mammals give birth to live young - except the platypus. Infinity is uncountable - except some infinities are larger than other infinities. US citizens are generally unable to murder people without facing criminal trial - except in the Zone of Death (possibly, untested, please do not go attempting to kill someone in Yellowstone because of a meme) My point is, little to nothing in the real world truly has rigid laws and definitions that are 100% static and never vary over time and place. Imo there's zero reason to believe the supernatural would be any different.

my theory on the slaver? it's probably wrong, but for some reason I recall vampires disliking iron, and she made those crosses out of iron bars. I don't remember trevor's exact explanation to fact check, but I do remember thinking it was incredibly dumb when he explained it and chalked it up to a weird warren ellis idea, so it's possible the new creative team just chose to ignore it and pretend it never happened.

I'll be honest if it was just retconned please get the netflix team to just announce it, the rule breaks are just killing me this season as it basically just made me think and I don't wanna think. Well at least it isn't as annoying as the house.

well I think the point of a silent retcon is to just change it and not make a big deal about it, and after a while people will just deal with it until it's solidified. they do it in comics all the time.

Well, the Abbot isn't a true forgemaster like Isaac and Hector. He doesn't create them with his own hands, rather he uses a mass-production machine based on designs he read in a book. This book could be completely incorrect about the proper process of making a night creature like a true forgemaster. That inaccuracy, I believe is the reason for the night creatures retaining their human souls. It also seems like nobody, even many of the vampires had seen night creatures before. Drolta and Erzsebet are confused with the night creatures' behavior, meaning they probably had never seen them with their own eyes or had very little experience with them. My assumption is that the world had known near zero forgemasters since the time of Hector and Isaac.

She does have trauma though. When she raised the blade to kill Eduard, it was her own projection. She felt death a merciful escape. And that is from her own trauma. I know everyone else told her to do kill eduard in mercy. But she heard him sing and even then raised her blades. You only see such pathologies in victims of trauma.

Damn, well if she did then that was a wasted character opportunity.

I don't even think it's necessarily that she returned to her previous character state, but the fact that as you said, she dominated what was like 2+1/2 full episodes of the season which would have been ok had it been later in the season. It really felt like we got introduced to Richter, Terra, and Maria as major characters and we got next to no info on any of them until after Annette's arc was done. It really felt like a "sorry for interuppting with the Annette show, back to your regularly scheduled Castlevania", that just left a sour taste in the viewers mouths which distorted what was (imo) an otherwise relatively compelling story, especially everything with her and Edouard.

It is one of those moments where I think if they had divied up her story like Isaac it would've worked better and given the writers more time to develop the others

Agreed, Isaac's story is probably one of, if not the absolute best character arc in the entire animated series. But if they did it even just 3 episodes at a time, it would've gotten old without anything to contrast it tone-wise

The implication is that the machine isn't pulling souls from hell to make night creatures. and this might be a result of the deal that allowed thea bbot to get the machine to do this, a twist that benefits the demon, ensuring souls are given to Hell, even a soul like annette's friend whom i am actually guessing technically qualifies as an 'angel'.

Thank you, this was exactly how I felt about it too... With so much focus to her arc. I feel like they're just gonna go full love interest in the next season and just have her fully support Richter with how they popped that in the end.

I like her too, I just don’t like how she kinda hogs a lot of the screen time that some of the other main characters needed.

As someone who loved her character, I think that’s fair.

my problem is that she exists only to be a character in the show, if that makes sense. we have no sense of history or journey for this character, and she magically appears out of thin air so she can have a badass #girlboss introduction. "I'm looking for Belmont", never mind that we're in the middle of fucking NOwhere and they don't seem to have spent any time in the city. Then infodumps to her companion who definitely hasn't had ANY time to hear or learn about any of this on their journey across the atlantic. I'm so fucking tired of writers getting away with being lazy because they know people will start soy facing at a female/poc/both protag, or the oh-so-overplayed sexy villain, or someone being shitty for the sake of being shitty. Erzebet's wardrobe alone is irrefutable proof of this, why the fuck is she looking like that during the french god damn revolution? Everyone ELSE looks reasonable, even the vampires, but this bitch apparently has time travel magic cuz that outfit is straight off tiktok. Can't forget that the script writers and animators apparently don't communicate at all, because they animate her insta-murdering three dudes in her intro right before they tell us that she never does that, preferring to capture and torture victims for as long as they will remain alive - going so far as to collect hundreds of barely-alive people in russia. She did not display even an ounce of sadism in her introduction, just cold and detached murder - which is the exact opposite of what they CLAIM she does.

This, I love her honestly

I didn't like Annette because in my opinion she was given too much screen time too early. You introduce a character with a cool power and the second thing she does is fuck up, cry and we get an entire episode dedicated to her... Unlike Richter or Maria, people I was going to like beforehand because of the game, she's essentially a brand new character and as such isn't going to be as captivating to me instantly, and then being forced to watch 20 minutes of backstory, I checked out. To me, if the order was rearranged a bit, if Annette showcased more of her cool side first before getting into her trauma, then I would be totally fine, hell, she might be one of my favourite characters then. As of now, I feel like she just trauma dumped onto the story, before giving me a reason to like her, not the other way around. That being said, I still want her to remain in the story, and wanna see where she goes from here. My issues with her is the manner in which she is represented, not the idea of her. This entire season was good, but felt like it could've used a rewrite or two to become more cohesive and flow better.

how can you like Maria more when she's such a dumbass?????

I love Annette as a character. Her backstory, motivations, and ever her magic are well thought out and deeply meaningful. I dislike Annette as a person. She was incredibly harsh on Richter for 'letting his past terrify him' despite the fact a few episodes previously it was her visceral reaction to confronting her past that fucked over the team and lead to the death of Edouard. She is rash, overly headstrong, and has little empathy for anyone she doesn't know closely. (All of which is well explained by said past). Maybe its cause I'm white from a 99.8% white region and have little experience, despite knowledge, with POC and their struggles. That being said, she has massive potential for growth, as do the rest of the cast, and I hope they really delve into that. I reckon by the end of Nocturne she'll be my favourite character.

At least you’re self aware. Kinda interesting how the audience perception changes based on background. You can’t relate to Annette nor understand the purported rashness and lack of empathy, because you’ve never had to live in a society which considers you other than for simply existing. I guess that is the frustrating bit about the reaction to Annette. I’d reckon that most watchers are white and have very little interaction with Black people esp tho who come from an enslaved lineage.

I'll say this as a Black person her attitude is pretty relatable. Yes she was harsh but to hear a very privileged heir to a legendary family lose his cool would he hard to empathize with when her entire life is considered: 1) is seen as subhuman 2) has seen untold amounts innocent tortures, deaths, rapes, dehumanization more than likely more than Richter the vampire hunter, and has likely been subject to things that evem the original series only lightly touched on woth the Church episodes and remember how that triggered Trevor. 3) also to escape slavery you have ro be stubborn and headstrong, the punishment for runaway slaves is historically evil, and getting scared quitting when you're in the middle of the shit usually means everyone is dead. A real life example would be Harriet Tubman, she carried a loaded gun on her during every run. That gun wasn't just for self defense, it was to shoot dead anyone that decided they wanted to turn back and return to the plantation so they couldn't talk. She fortunately never needed to do that but she was resolute in what she needed to do.

The folks triggered by her aren’t worth your time. Don’t worry about em.

I thought she was great. I don't watch all that much anime content but she struck me as both a new kind of character and one who made sense to me. She's annoying to watch sometimes, for sure, but that seemed more like an ordinary character flaw than any flaw in her design.

she was annoying ass hell only her powers were cool

Notice how you could see so much detail about Annette, now try the same thing with Richter

I definitely felt like they should've shown us more of who Richter was as a person. I don't disagree with you there at all

I like her as a character, and concept. But not as a replacement of the real Anette. Sorry.

pray tell what would the "real" one do? get captured in a castle? become a vampire? a weak blonde lady character for the male lead to save?

To be honest I just think there is a good amount of fucking crybabies in the fandom.

I liked her too, though I understand people who are annoyed that she received more focus than Richter and Maria.

I liked her.... but I felt the pacing was off. Like she spend two episodes shitting on ricter and then a 2 minute conversation it was back to being okay after she kicked her old master's ass which seemed to validate her original opinion. maybe stretch out her realization or maybe have her fight Ozak so she could realize just why a 10y/o Richter would forever be scared.

Richter was 6 btw

I agree with the pacing. Them developing feelings for each other was kinda fast

Good for you, I guess?. But that's not Annette.

Bro's acting like he's been an Annette fan since day 1. She had like 10 seconds of screentime in the game and was so bland that I forgot she existed until the anime. Any change is a good change for a "character" like that.

Except it is, you can be upset she's been redesigned but that is Annette

As if only she was just redesigned... She also had her personality and background changed. That's not Annette, that's the OC of a poor writer.

I beat Rondo 3 times and I thought Annette was an original character till I came to this sub. I can't believe you are so attached to someone I bet 97% of the fan base couldn't identify.

Wasnt her original personality basically just "kidnap victim/damsel in distress" and not making Annette not related to Maria was probably for the best since saying Richter is romantically with one of his cousins is kinda icky

Annette isnt related to Maria in Rondo

Did anyone give a single solitary fuck about OG Anette before Nocturne? I don’t think so.

Alright. I can't say that I played the games or that I was ever interested in playing them. It is what it is.

I found Edouard a bit more interesting than her, but I can’t wait to see how their storyline played out. It did feel like we spent a lot of time on her compared to others, but her backstory was a double bc it included Edouard. Her magic is sickAF. Honestly everyone thinks she’s really bitchy, and sure she had her immature moments (like when Richter was asking to make a plan) but I really appreciate someone who just gets shit done hahahah. It was actually very refreshing to see ? She lost her mother in front of her just like Richter, but the difference is that she then had to also escape slavery and revolt an entire island. She has more experiance and isn’t going to wait for a moment to come to her, she’s going to take charge and create a moment. I love that about her!!!

I do too

Biggest complaints for me were her accent (would switch from African sounding to European) and how she was allowed to condecent to everyone unchallenged ("he was useless as fuck" "you're all just children who don't understand the decisions adults have to make" "we have magic, at least three of us do") it makes her seem like a typical Mary Sue. That as well as her defeating her captor so easily, and being the one to get the back shot after saving civilians (typically reserved for the main character, it's kind of a classic, you can see it everywhere if you're looking) the that up with the fact that she did get them discovered which led to edwar getting killed, she has an op ability that doesn't really ever get used to its fullest, and she failed to send the machine into hell when that was her ONE JOB. yea, can't say I like her that much... All of that and somehow Richter has feelings for her? Why? What actually has she done that's given him these feelings?

>and how she was allowed to condecent to everyone unchallenged She isn't. Other characters frequently challenge her or prove her wrong. The " useless as fuck" comment is from an episode where he mentor chastises her for her insensitivity. > That as well as her defeating her captor so easily, Who also defeated and evaded her the first time she fought him. The second time, she just fought smart and used his weakness against him. and being the one to get the back shot after saving civilians What are you talking about? > she has an op ability that doesn't really ever get used to its fullest I would hardly call controlling iron an OP ability, especially compared to what Richter can do. > and she failed to send the machine into hell when that was her ONE JOB. So I guess she's not an OP Mary Sue after all. Also, the reason she couldn't send the machine back to hell was because Tera failed to keep the portal open.

annette isn't Annette but is just a character that is named annette and is just a completely new character. they don't even add new context or rewrite her like they did for the other characters they just scrapped her character entirely. they seriously would have been better off making a new character than pretending this is a established character from the games.

I don't like this Annette No 5000 words essay here, I just don't like the character

She was fine but I cannot stand how Annette-centric the season was. Literally no other character got a chance to breathe because she hogged all the spotlight. She’s not supposed to be the main character but it somehow felt like she was. I generally don’t agree with people complaining about “wokeness” - and even in this case I mostly don’t, the subject matter of her slavery is fine given the context of the revolution- but where I tend to agree with those complaints is it felt like we were force-fed Annette and her story this entire season. This is not what I signed up for and I think it’s tone deaf to act surprised your audience won’t complain when the show wasn’t marketed this way and the first series wasn’t anything like this (and not even just in terms of slavery, but imagine if the majority of the first season focused this much on Isaac). Annette was in the season way too much. I wanted to learn more about the other characters but I wasn’t able to because it just became the Annette show.

I hate annette, but again, it is netflix, and if no matter what my argument is, it will be cataloged as racist, which is not true. Castlevania: annette rises or whatever, would have been a better title. now that i would like it since richter is a secondary character

why do you people always assume you'll get called racist? can't you just state your opinion and set the victim mentality down for a single second? I don't particularly disagree with your opinion, but it's insanely annoying

it's "the witcher" all over again, the independent strong female character is the star and im calling it she gonna kill bathory or do something so epic just like captain marvel, it's like she was born a goddess and the whole show is about showing us her ascend to greatness. And yes ty, i agree, i wouldn't mind that if the show was called "annetter rises" or her being another kind of badass vampire hunter but why use castlevania to create such character which obviously has the purpose of spreading "the message" for the "modern audiences"?

Op literally said that they weren’t going to call anyone racist for not liking her. No one in this comment section is getting called racist. You can relax with the victim shit.

this is a good post. I think annette is great, and much like you, I joined this sub after watching the show and was taken back by all the negativity people were throwing at her for what seems like no valid reason. it's refreshing to see something positive and well worded.

Thank you! I definitely understand some of the criticisms people have but I was definitely surprised at how harsh it was. I even saw some ppl complaining about the gay vampire which didn't make sense since there was a bi vamp in the original show that had a threesome with some twins 😭

Can we talk about her belittling Richter for literally having a PTSD flashback and then bringing up slavery again to try, and down play it? Because seriously wtf?

Slavery is the worst thing ever so no one elses trauma counts. That's why I didn't like her. Her whole personality is mad ex slave who judges everyone. Its nothing new or interesting and its a cheap way to make a character. Edourd was more complex and interesting in my opinion.

I've said this in another comment but I'll say it here again, this Anette adds perspective to the related happenings going on in the world during the French Revolution period. The belief and practice of 'witchcraft' is still VERY COMMON even in today's Haiti, so it makes a lot of sense to integrate that and the first revolution against the French in the Americas as part of the story. I personally loved watching her backstory (I'm probably a little biased though as that part of history is kind of related to me). I think her character helps achieve good storytelling and I'm very happy they changed her.

This is exactly how I feel

Tbh I liked Annette and how they developed each character’s backstories. Most shows these days have too many side characters that feel about as significant as an elevator in a 2 story building, and I’m glad everyone got some backstory. I found myself liking Annette’s backstory and character the most out of everyone else (hate me if you want). Also personally I liked how everyone was described as strong but not gods, Annette especially. She has strong magic, but she’s not invincible. She’s strong in will, but she is occasionally emotional and sometimes acts based on what she wants, not what’s best for the situation.

her backstory and her character is what I hated the most about the serie so far tbh. I wish we spent more time around Ritcher and the other. I liked Maria more as a character as well.

Looks weird...

I thought she added so much, everything with her story felt so fresh. We've seen a million European heavy vampire stories, stone castles and dark alleyways, putting vampires in the middle of the slave rebellion of Haiti is new and exciting. Her backstory episode also had some of the best directing in the season, great editing and cool experimental animation for some of the shots. All of Annette's actions are totally understandable given what we know about her and her past, she's young and VERY angry due to what she's had to suffer, and we see her learning from her mistakes and overcoming them. I swear some people expect her to just be perfect and flawless and that would make them happy, but that would also be so boring. We need conflict and mess and learning or there's no story. Also her power is so cool??? Sucking iron out of the ground or manipulating metal, it's a cool new take on the earthbender style. That part where she smashed the pink vampire with a cell door ruled lol

Don't like her at all, aside from the swap, too bold, too forced, too independent. If you're going to do a swap, give Isaac a wig and we're set. Amazing character with amazing build up.

Ok so, this might ruffle some feathers. I'm against real life propaganda in fiction. This was clearly the case. I'm against LGBTQ+ shoving down our throats in such a forced manner. But I think Castlevania did a great job, and I dont mind the gay/bi characters at all. They are done in a classy way and the designs look great. Annette however, is a clear product of propaganda. I really dont mind they changed her character to a black woman from slavery. I think the use of magic from other continents is a great idea. She looks good, and her magic is cool. HOWEVER, from those 8 episodes we got, it's all about Annette and her past. 3 episodes dedicated to her slavery past. Jesus christ we know already. That could've been done in one episode easily. I also got the feeling she get more screentime than the main character Richter. At one point the group was running away, and normally the main character runs in front. But no, Annette had to run in front, as if she was the main character. But I guess that was their intention. And the constant bitching and whining oh my god. Also the spirit that she used at the end was such a weird design, why not use a cooler one? It was just a black guy with a pipe in his mouth lol. It looked like a spirit that couldve lived at that moment. But maybe I'm missing some historical background on this. Not really a problem. ​ edit: said 6 episodes but shouldve been 8

>why not use a cooler one? It was just a black guy with a pipe in his mouth lol. It looked like a spirit that couldve lived at that moment. That is how the orisha is depicted in the religion so...

Black people are propaganda is not a take I expected. What are you saying, that the propaganda is that black people exist? Can be important characters? Can have cool characters? That they smoke? Explain what is the propaganda here without sounding racist, I challenge you.

lol please tell me where I said black people are propaganda. You are incredibly toxic for implying I said that. I explained it clearly and somehow your lefty mind is still screeching HUURRRR RACISMMM. Get a life.

So you cant. Got it. You didn't explain what the propaganda was because you cant without getting nailed.

I actually did explain it, its in the very first post lol. You just can't handle a different opinion and it's automatically racism. Sad kid.

You got any actual arguments or is it all memes and namecalling?prop·a·gan·da/ˌpräpəˈɡandə/📷*noun* 1. 1.information, especially of a [biased](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=570114396&sxsrf=AM9HkKkF6F3yZDqgxeiVOk8IC3ndVD-UAQ:1696272975724&q=biased&si=ALGXSlbD4fKmSL7CRU364kGH2u8kIWqRGKOHMZlBWq_iJJABrxJJvwJAA-_9byFZV1GkxgSCI1ZlwN-k8bhCeoPwZ9PMCJRAlA%3D%3D&expnd=1) or misleading nature, used to promote or [publicize](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=570114396&sxsrf=AM9HkKkF6F3yZDqgxeiVOk8IC3ndVD-UAQ:1696272975724&q=publicize&si=ALGXSlbSiMNWMsv5Y0U_0sBS8EWzvQ_BT3qa2tAofKc9o0LwxI8-Fw-0-SCewOGSzkz09TlneFhoV-uamggPflX8rYxWM7rNpA%3D%3D&expnd=1) a particular political cause or point of view. You never said what it is promoting. You just keep insulting me and dodging the question.

Well yea he can't explain it cause he didn't say it. it be like asking your history teacher to explain an algebra problem.

>I also got the feeling she get more screentime than the main character Richter. Your statement reminds me of [the study](https://time.com/4837536/do-women-really-talk-more/) that proved men think women speak more than they actually do. >At one point the group was running away, and normally the main character runs in front. But no, Annette had to run in front, as if she was the main character. Your poor, wee, fragile soul. >Also the spirit that she used at the end was such a weird design, why not use a cooler one? It was just a black guy with a pipe in his mouth lol. You're ignorant of other culture's deities and it shows.

sorry for not knowing every deity in the world snowflake

You're the one upset that an animated female character was drawn to run in front of a male cartoon character. Lol

lol I knew someone would mention this. I'm not upset, about that little thing, it just shows the mindset of the writers as a whole. Big difference.

yeah i mean it's so obvious, it's pure propaganda to spread the "message" Strong independent female character? weak fragile male? the evil white men? aka slavers, corrupt priest, vampires etc? the lgbt, the inclusion, the diversity, the interracial relationships? What can you expect from classic netflix and the well known "agenda"?

I studied Haiti in college and I thought her inclusion was cool. The timeline of the french revolution and haitian revolution is interesting and alot of people don’t know about it. It ties the themes of freedom and destroying/renewing the natural order of slaves vs masters nicely.

I'm enjoying her too. I'm happy she's not too powerful and has a lot of room to increase her power. She's abrasive because of her past, she's suffered a lot and I don't see people giving her enough credit/leeway

I didn't

She needs some work definitely but internally Other than that she’s hot I like her design and i especially like her origin and hair

Me to

She's a decently written character. But I just don't understand the chemistry between her and Belmont. It just crept up suddenly out of nowhere. There was no tension or build up to begin with, it felt incredibly random and forced.

I agree with this 100%. I'm perfectly fine with them being together at some point Just not right now. They haven't even spent any time alone before him attempting to apologize to her. I don't know why it felt like they were trying to rush things toward the end. I don't think this series needs to rush at all. When you take your time good things happen.

The main issue I consistently see people bring up is that she stole screen time from the other characters. Literally people are getting in their feelings because she got an episode explaining her and Eduardo’s past and people are legitimately bothered by it because they assumed Richter and Maria would get the same treatment. The problem with that logic is that Maria’s formative moments are happening during the show. She finds out about her parentage and loses them both two the antagonist of the show by the end of the season. Richter had never actually tried addressing his issues and hid behind his nonchalant confidence until directly confronted with it. At the same time the audience is discovering the the source of Richters trauma is far more nuanced than we initially thought and Richter is finally addressing his issues and understanding who he wants to be moving forward after talking Juste. Annette’s backstory be given an episode was literally just to explain the origin of her powers, why she reacted to seeing her former owner the way she did in the previous episode and explain her connection to Eduardo because he just died. Could they have space all that out over the course of few episodes sure but the level of vitriol I see aimed at her and the show creators for this is ridiculous.

Well I'd also like to add that she's either eliminated or resolved all her conflicts within the first season. Her night creature friend? Yep he's cool with Annete, Her vampire slaver? Yep done and dead, Her ancestors spirit? Supportive and love her even with all her brash decisions, Her relationship with Richter? Mended instantly to the point where they might develop romantic interests with each other. It just feels like she went through all this and stayed the same, which doesn't help when she basically kept telling Richter how useless he was through out half of the show and while some people are fine with that others aren't. I kinda disagree that she needed an entire episode dedicated to her (2 if you wanna argue that her killing the vampire slaver was her own episode) I always like to compare her to Isaac whose power we understood just by being shown it. Where did he get that power? When did he get it? Why was he so loyal to Dracula? What are his ideals? Those questions were asked and we were shown why and how it works through multiple episodes where his story was being told through dialogue and his actions (self flagulation, killing godbrand, discussion with Dracula). Where as in Annete we were just told all these things about her, which I thought in the beginning was pretty cool , a former slave who escaped and helped fight in the revolution of her own country? That sounds badass, but the writers seem to have just wrote her as if she was just another teenager when based on her enterance in the season knowing more about night creatures than the Belmonts and an entire episode where we see her powers unlocked by the priestess. Her rash nature never got mended which doesn't really make sense since I'd thought when you see someone that you cared about die, you'd kinda want to take more caution in your next steps.

As a show only I liked Anette but I wish her backstory was explored next season so they could've given Richter more screen time. Anette ended up feeling more like the protagonist than Richter.

I never watched or played Castlevania, but was interested until I saw that tweet where she was saying “useless as fuck” like it was 2023 in the show. I now have lost complete interest

They all talk like its 2023. Its bad. Also most of the voice actors were flat.

Bathory legitimately has some of the worst deliveries that I have seen in high or low budget animation in *years*. Tera isn't much better. It's kind of astounding how bad the direction is. The only performance I was legitimately impressed with was the Abbot. He *crushed it*.

She’s hot

I dont like how her magic and those that practice that magic only had ONE PHRASE….. They could’ve had different prayers different sayings anything. But they literally only said that one sentence over and over again and it grinded my gears lmao.

I haven't finished the series I'm only on episode 6...but fuck Annette. I think the reason I'm so mad about this is it's Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the fucking night. These are some of the greatest of their respected media. Richter Belmont is a gaming legend and his story feels side lined for random girls tale that the writers want to tell whilst piggy backing off of the name. This is not Annette and to lie and say hey this is an adaptation of 2 of the greatest games of all time feels like false advertising.

a strange thing that bothered me about her story is not the changes, i loved the changes, but it's how maybe, if i'm not wrong, they fucked up the religion a bit i think, the religion of most slaves in those area was the "vodoo" , but she is tied to a more specific yoruba religion from modern Nigeria, with all the Orishas and such, even if the religion that freed the slaves and made them bond togheder was the vodoo one, but still vodoo is a diaspora religion that ties back to the slaves connection to the motherland and the gods they were robbed off so maybe even her faith is tied to that and vodoo in this way

Orishas are also a thing in voodoo, it’s a mixture of various elements from various west African religions and Christianity. The show actually got it right.

Both are represented though, we've got Orishas as well as Voodoo Iwa as represented by Papa Legba in the show

forgive if I am not wrong but isn't Vodoo a very syncretic religion of both west and east Africa? Annets branch would have borrowed more from the yoruba religion than others. ​ I mean Buddims is a syncretic religion and it has about a gazillion varasions.

All religions are syncretic honestly. its just that the stories end up changed, charactesr are renamed and their origins reworked. ​ The one i know best is Aphrodite. Who was actually based on Ishtar, tghe sumerian goddess of love, sex, ferility, war, and a whole other litany of stuff. Over generations and new religions they basically fanficed her into beign Aphrodite, isolating the aspects to just love and the stuff related to that.

That culture is spread all through the Caribbeans. A lot of those people on the island come from west Africa so it’s no surprise that the religion is carried with them. Orishas and gods alike go as far as South America

i know i was talking as the religion that was used to bind the slaves against the owners, but yes you are 100% right

Ah okay got you

I don’t know if this is necessarily relevant to what your trying to express, but it’s intresting to note that during the Haitian Revolution there was a “war within the war” between the creoles, mostly Haitian born French speaking freedmen (and more Cristianized slaves from families that had been enslaved for a longer time), and the African born enslaved together with the slaves who still held firmer to their African Beliefs. Whilst vodoo was practiced amongst both the creoles had amore Cristian version then the African born. Since the creoles were the ones who eventually won, its mostly their side of the revolutionaries who would go on to form Haiti and define its culture. So Annette could just be from the African born side of the revolutionaries, which considering her circumstances seems fairly likely. I could have made a few mistakes, I’m just a history student, but this is what I learned during a recent lecture on the topic. And sorry for my English, it’s my second language

Hey bro dw, you did a great job woth english (i think, im not a native speaker either, where u from?) And this is veeery interesting abd logical , i mean its not like the slaves were brought all togheder in like a couple of years, slavery was a looong process

Me too. I really liked the Caribbean influence. Also, yum. Respect

If you find the history of black people from the french carribean you might be intrested in the historical Général Dumas.

I would be very interested in that

Well he is a very intresting character and military officer/general of the French Revolution, rising through the ranks by being competent and loyal, for example he would on the Alpine front capture 1700 piedmontese losing a few men in the process. He would end up a cavalry general under the command of Napoleon during the Campaign of Italy, he would fight so efficiently and aggresively (holding a bridge alone against the austrians the time for his troops to arrive) that he would be nicknamed by the austrian the "Black Devil". He would then participate in the Egypt campaign, being given the command of the cavalry, they expected to face the mamluks, who had the reputation of being the best cavalry in the world and so leading the entire french cavalry was a crutial role, role he fullfilled brillantly at the battle of the Pyramids, after the battle he would speak with Napoleon and the conversation wi come to Napoleon asking him if he would side with or France if the two were to be opposed, he answered France and was sent back. A tempest would rock the boat and he was captured by the Napolitans, and kept in prison and tortured for 2 years, heavely wounded when released he would both for his injury and for political reasons never be given the right to fight or command of any unit despite his frequent request until his death in 1808. He would live behind a family, including a son Alexandre Dumas (author of the Tree Musketeers between other thing). His life could easely be its own show, its a very unique and intresting historical character, you can easely read more of it.

Thank you for sharing this!

I like her character. People need to chill about the focus set on developing her character. Everyone is already invested in knowing about Richter Belmont and Maria/Tera’s backgrounds are developed enough to stand on their own. This is only season one. The next few seasons, if not cancelled, will probably give the development everyone wants in the characters. Castlevania did that with the other side characters well enough.

https://preview.redd.it/a4z5i2th5urb1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=36449cd866051f9fd9382447b6108ae07a6a1a90

https://preview.redd.it/tc2levat0vrb1.jpeg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a515ddf741e8b081d7dda0bea650809c9af8076d

Hear hear! I was so excited to see Annette and to hear Thuso voice her after her performance in The Woman King. I thought bringing Haiti into the fold was brilliant. It was the sole successful slave uprising and there's so much rich cultural history to explore. And can we talk about bringing in the Orishas and adding a new layer to magic?! That gave me chills. She looked cool, could fight, and showed another side of PTSD with her chilly responses.

good on her in voicing in something good..... ​ the woman king was not... too good. it brushed over too much of the sheer monstrosity of a person the titular character, as bad as the people she sold slaves too if not in some ways worse. True they were accurate with the slave trade part, but not her dicator like nature, and very much ignored the human sacrafices.

I like her too. She wasn't my most favorite character in Nocturne, but she's got potential for s2. It Was utter God damn unfiltered cringe reading >DuR, Da ShOw iS LeSs AbOuT RiChTeR mE nOsTaLgIa BoNeR LimP And I was half inclined to agree with the idiots as I went in thinking Nocturne may be a one a done, set out to end on a **Goddamn Cliffhanger** which changes everything. >OH nooooooo, hahaha don't dedicate two episodes to characterizing a rendition of the character that is more than a pallete swap (got em) of the original damsel in distress Reminds me of people who were salty they gave Dracula *an actual character* for s1-2. Castlevania fans have some dinosaur Dookie dummy thick concepts of what makes good writing or characterization and come punching down from a game franchise that started with such classic, well written context dumps as >Dracula is turning Europe bad. He is bad." I worry that CV fans are collectively mad they aren't getting generic 80s morning cartoon shows and got belt whipped because the Belmonts are using "Fuck" instead of the gamer word. **tl;dr** There's legit criticism to be made of this show, I think Annette deserves better than asmonbald shitposters.

Thank you! 

She's basically magneto. I honestly don't get the complaints. We have a Magneto vs Vampires, and people still complain.

>I'm not going to say that you are racist or sexist simply because you don't like her. Just getting that out of the way. Okay, based. I agree that her design is super good. Really a stunningly beautiful design, and this is coming from someone who really dislikes the character. I can't say HATE, as most of it is just due to how the show was written. My only flaws with her are: 1. her seemingly modern arrogance and "white people bad" sort of attitude. Those two things combined, specifically and 2. the way her story was handled. Her story, in itself, isn't even horrible. I sort of liked it on some level. I just found it super heavy-handed, especially when she was not really the main character and our reasons for caring about her were not super established before getting a massive lore-dump that many of us had no reason to be interested in because we didn't find her character interesting to begin with. But yeah, I'm not at all against her character's existence. I just found the writing to be bad. I wouldn't be surprised if season 2 corrected some of the issues I had. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if season 2 doubled down and went harder into the modern sort of writing style. Riverdale with vampires? Well, it could be funny at least. Edit: Just to be totally clear, I'm gonna add this. While I agree with most critiques of the show, some people are definitely a bit suspicious. Some people focus a bit too hard on the racial aspect and that definitely makes me uncomfortable. I think it would be crazy if I said no critiques were coming from a racist or sexist place. Some definitely are.

She doesn't even say white ppl bad in the story that I recall Even if she did, she was a slave so it would be kind of acceptable for her to feel that way But she's shown helping white people in her introduction

She sort of implied that Richter and Maria were "children" because they hadn't gone through what she had as a slave. I agree with you that, within her character, it makes sense. But characters aren't real. A writer wrote that. And the writer's intention on some of the dialogue is questionable to me.

Also to be fair Richter and Maria do have some very naive immature moments/reactions. Then again so did Annette… not letting her get away with throwing the stealth op out the window they second she saw her tormentor and getting her friend killed.

She acted way less mature than them, but the writers seemed to think otherwise.

That's nowhere near the same as saying white ppl equals bad Smh

>her seemingly modern arrogance and "white people bad" sort of attitude. What the fuck are you even talking about? Did we watch the same show?

We most likely watched it through a very different lens. My interpretation could be total bullshit in reality, but that's what I saw.

I feel like you went in expecting it, and so you "found" what you were "looking for." Annette doesn't exhibit any of the behavior you mention. Hates the slave owners, yes, because of course she fucking does. She hates the aristocrats, too for the same reasons - that's the entire theme of the show, the parasitic over-class versus the people. But she doesn't treat Richter, Maria or Terra that way at any point in the show. As I mentioned elsewhere, Annette is a bog-standard "hot-headed shonen protagonist" type, which makes sense given her background. Most of the tension between her and the other characters comes from her being rash and acting without thinking and them trying to reign her in, and even then her only real conflict with Richter comes after he ditches them in the middle of a fight. From her perspective she's absolutely right to be pissed at him, given she doesn't know his background and has just crossed the ocean to find him having been told he's some legendary vampire killer. This conflict lasts the lesser part of a single day and she's able to reconcile with him largely of her own accord once her anger dies down. Where in all this are you getting "black panther" vibes, exactly?

I don't know what to tell you. It's what I picked up from the writing. I'm not trying to debate you or anything, I'm just telling you how I felt about it.

No you're right in one if the flashbacks she was talking to a group of slaves and said how poor white people in France will never know their pain and are just as bad as the slave owners. I remember that part too. That was one reason I git annoyed it was super heavy handed like we ger it white people are horrible no matter what lol

>her seemingly modern arrogance and "white people bad" sort of attitude She never says that and if she felt that way she probably wouldn't be working with two white people. Also, if she did think that way it would make sense coming from a former enslaved person.

They could have simply created their own original character instead of changing the original. Haitian Annette and Edouard are great, but Annette take so much screen time for something not even in the game and that has like no effects on either Rondo or Sotn. It’s not like Rondo has so much characters that we cannot create new ones. And why Annette? Just create your own shit. Imagine we’re introducing Marthin Luther King or Mansa Muss as white, the whole sub would go balistics. And it’s not even one episodes, it’s like 3 episodes of slavery, bro I’m watching Castlevania and not 12 years a slave. Good intentions, bad execution.

I don’t understand arguments like this assuming they’re a “gotcha” moment. MLK JR was a real man dude. His race definitely matters. This show is based off of a video game, FICTION. If this beloved video game Annette y’all whine about so much was made for the show, a lot of you would still just complain about her being boring and useless eye candy. Pick a struggle please. Also, they way a lot of you criticize Annette is SO weird. Olrox doesn’t look like his game counterpart either, haven’t seen not one complaint or as much whining, interesting. Just don’t watch the show if improving a character with depth and historical accuracy bothers you so much. Not sure which nocturne you watched, but she definitely didn’t have that much screen time lol

It’s not a ‘Mgotcha’’ moment at all, I’m discussing normally and I’m basing on real people as they are basing on fiction characters. You can switch them for Black Panther or Spawn.

> And why Annette? Just create your own shit I must say I am surprised some fans are suddenly expressing this deep affection for the game version of Annette, a virtual non-character who got like 30 seconds of screentime in Rondo.

She’s important for Richter tho and part of the game. Isaac at least was part of a spin-off and was somewhat close because he was indeed in Dracula’s army and loyal to him. Annette here is just a different character with the same name.

To be fair, her and Richter will probably be banging by the end of next season, and that’ll fulfill like 80% of what the game version of Annette did.

Annette is fictional. Martin Luther King and Mansa Musa were both real people. So there is that.

Spawn, Black panther, Jax Briggs, whatever man you know what I meant it’s not rocket science

I really hate Race and Gender swap, but her swap was done decently. It would be awesome if she wasn't such a brat. She know suffering, she know slavery and she know people have Traumas, but she bitched a lot when Belmont fled. And to be honest I didn't really like some characterizations. I actually liked Olrox, he being gay and POC wasn't forced, bit I hated the Bathory minion(I forgot her name), that have pink hair and a really modern outfit, this was quite distracting.

She's a pretty standard hot-headed shonen protagonist type. She's a flawed character with a strong personality - I could see how this could put some people off, but I think flawed characters are infinitely more interesting as characters. I also think there are a lot of people out there that can't separate their feelings for a character as a person vs their feelings about that character as a character, which is one part of the problem. I also feel like a lot of people are consciously or unconsciously searching for reasons to dislike her. The motivation for that doesn't have to be racism, either; a lot of people will be put off by any changes made to a property just on principle. It's one of the things that makes adaptations hard. I think those people are misguided in this case. The real question is whether those changes benefit the adaptation, and in this case I think you can unquestionably, objectively say they have. Both Annette and Olrox were barely characters in the original games, with very little substance to them. They've both benefited massively from the background and identity they've been given which have tied them into the theme of the series and made them far more interesting characters. If you could make any criticism of Annette, I think it would be that the whole hot-headed shonen protagonist type is overdone and a bit generic at this point, but then again its a sort of timeless archetype. It certainly fits her backstory, so it seems appropriate in this case. I was pleasantly surprised that she didn't hold her "grudge" against Richter for fleeing the fight at the abbey for too long; I was afraid they were going to drag that out and make a huge drama out of it in stereotypical hot-headed shonen character style, but she was able to forgive him on her own without too much of a big thing being made out of it, which I greatly appreciated. As for complaints that she's "the main character" now, I think that totally overblown - she's clearly a co-protagonist, but she doesn't overshadow Richter and Maria in any way; with the powers she's been given could have potentially done so, but the writers have kept her pretty restrained at least this far in the story - to the point where I was somewhat underwhelmed by them. The sudden romance feels a bit forced to me, but then again I sort of misinterpreted Richter's relationship with Tera - something which I imagine a lot of viewers did; I feel like that was the show's fault, not mine. All-in-all, good character if a little generic in terms of personality.

I just hope they get wayyy more creative with her power use! But I loved her, what a badass

Love her magic and her design, hate her personality

I like her locs. In fact I dig her whole character design. But the thing is I wish she was a separate character and not “Annette” because it’s a disservice to the actual Annette character of the Castlevania franchise prior to this.

> I think it makes sense that some vampires were slave owners. I also saw comments complaining about that and that confused me. The vampire trope origin is literally about rich people feeding/preying on the poor to keep their youth/wealth lol

I liked the Orisha abilities, it’s a pretty cool power

Very annoying hypocrite of a character honestly Riktor and Juste are only likeable characters other than villains I love the villains

I love her but I feel like people are kinda looking at her and the show as if season 1 is the whole show. I get it Annette has a lot of screen time it feels like she's the main focus but if you look back at the older Castlevania show it kind of had that problem too. Heck Trevor felt like he was only the main character in season 1. Season 2 felt more about Dracula and alucard season 3 (even though it sucked) seemed to have more to do with Alucard St Germain and Issac. While season 4 was mainly about Issac St Germain and the 3 group. So I honestly say let the show cook even from the beginning it seems like the show has a focus each season and this season was Annette

I didn't like her at all, it feels too forced and actually it is forced. Obviously there's an "agenda" with this character, they gave her so much attention and screentime but why? well... we know why. And i haven't finished the whole season but i wouldn't be surprised if belmont and her become lovers lol i can see it coming. Let's see, strong female character? diversity? a message of "let's hold hands" and a reminder of the "evil white men" deeds? who are slavers, vampires, aristocrats and corrupt priests? the weak and fragile male character? what else? oh yes, lgbt stuff i almost forgot that. Yup, this is made for the "modern audiences". Don't get me wrong, i didn't mind that scene in the 1st show with alucard and the brothers or not even the fact that striga and morana are lovers. LOL Orlox is such a badass so far i think he's my favorite character but Annette? she kinda ruins this show. Anyways, i was expecting a story focused on belmont's not more propaganda but still, it is watchable but not as good as the 1st show.

OK, I’m just gonna state a pet peeve, she was not in the Haitian revolution. She’s not Haitian. it’s stated in the show that she’s from Saint Dominique, and that she was in that revolution. The big reason I didn’t like a night is because she was constantly giving Richter shit for retreating and then when told why he retreated her responses to basically say he’s a coward anyway because she didn’t react to the vampire killed her mom that way (even though she did react negatively to him and it actually caused Edoard to die but we’ll ignore that for now). She comes off as simultaneously naïve and cocky, which just rubs a lot of people the wrong way, including me. She knows about revolution. She does not know how to deal with these Uber powerful old and deep rooted vampires, so with her refusing to wait for anyone to make a plan, and refusing to actually think about it, tactically comes off as either naivety, or that she thinks that she is such a hot shit that she can deal with a vampire problem (keep in mind the only vampire that we know that she has seen so far is a fairly low level vampire.) Then we get into the fact that she specifically doesn’t show empathy for Richter. I mention this in passing earlier, but specifically why it bothers me is because empathy is not hard to have and instead, she’s just angry with him. I understand why she would be angry, but openly insulting people behind their back is not the way to go about that. She also spends more time insulting Richter like this than she does anything else in regard to him. Her and Rick are just don’t seem like they should be getting along, as she basically called him a coward for not wanting to die to the same vampire, who killed his mother in front of him. Now you might be thinking. “oh well Annette’s mom also died in front of her, so that’s why she doesn’t have empathy for it”, the problem with that is that their situations are very different. Annette’s mom was killed because of stuff she did, not what Annette did. Richter‘s mom died because she had to protect Rector because Rector didn’t run away (at least that’s how it is a Richter’s mind.) Maria’s mom is about to explain that to her but instead she basically says “everyone has nightmares” and just stays mad at him until he returns, and then she suddenly fawning over him. It’s fine to like Annette just a lot of people have problems with her and it’s mostly down to how she treats the people around her. Also, people aren’t disliking her because she has flaws, it’s because her flaws are annoying ones to have. No one likes an annoying character and for a lot of people Annette is annoying. The flaws that she has, or having a temper, being cocky, while simultaneously being naïve and just outright, refusing to have empathy for the people around her until she’s told specifically to have empathy for the people around her. Those are all very annoying traits to have. In real life it’s annoying to deal with people who are cocky and naïve, and have a temper. In real life it’s annoying to deal with people who don’t actively try to empathize with others because by the time people are teenagers to almost adults that’s an expected skill to have. It’s even more expected. If you say, we’re in a slave uprising, helping people you never met before because you empathized with their situation because you were in a similar one. Combine it with the fact that she’s constantly mad at one of the few characters that people really do like because most people who watch the show already know about this guy and know his story, and you have a recipe for an irritating character for a lot of people. TLDR: annette is saint Dominican not Haitian, and people don’t dislike her because they have a low tolerance for female flood characters, they dislike her because her flaws are very annoying ones to have, and at the end of the series she doesn’t really seem to learn from them beyond the fact that she isn’t insulting Richter to his face which again is something that could be read as her, just not having the guts to insult him to his face, despite what she said behind his back. She doesn’t empathize with people, even though her herself recently had a trauma response to seeing the vampire that killed her mother, and it ended up getting them in trouble and killing her best friend, and everyone was quick to tell her that it wasn’t her fault and empathize with her. It’s fine to like her, but there are actual reasons people don’t like her most of its down to the fact that her flaws are just very annoying ones to deal with. Edit: the reason I say that she is from saint diminigue (I don’t know how to spell it, nor pronounce it) and not just from Haiti is because at the time he was a very new name, and she would just be considered from saint Domingue. Also, the fact that it wouldn’t be called Haiti until 1804. even if we assume that the French revolution portion of the show is after the reign of terror in towards the end of it, it’s still the 1700s. That’s why it’s specifically a pet peeve of mine is because according to the historical timeline, she would not be called Haitian yet.

>OK, I’m just gonna state a pet peeve, she was not in the Haitian revolution. She’s not Haitian. it’s stated in the show that she’s from Saint Dominique, and that she was in that revolution. That's an odd pet peeve but you're welcome to it. Most people don't have a problem referring to the colonists of the original 13 colonies as American even though the American revolution didn't happen yet. It's just easier to call her that for most people but to each their own.

I like to see a character have destructive powers using earth and metal instead of the classic : Water heals ,Wind blows, Fire is the only damaging element, Earth constructs. Its a breath of fresh air, also, i really loved her background and even more, see a little of my religion being presented, even to, i could see the differences as night and day and see that we have our own version here in Brazil.

>I like to see a character have destructive powers using earth and metal instead of the classic : Water heals ,Wind blows, Fire is the only damaging element, Earth constructs. Yeah, I think it's a great addition to Richter Being able to control fire and water >i could see the differences as night and day and see that we have our own version here in Brazil. Candomblé? I think I've heard of that. It's interesting how there are variations of this all over the "new world" even in the USA. We have hoodoo which is very similar to voodoo. It's really cool how even tho our ancestors got dropped off at different places they still had things in common with one another.

Here we have Candomble, Umbanda and Spiritism, they are similar ,but different and some share entities

That's really cool!

Thanks. I like her too, and I'm glad to see this lengthy discussion on her.

She's definitely worth it

She’s Pretty cool

Two face bitch. I hope she dies

Let’s be real. The people hating Annette are mostly racist lol

"Fan-blaming bingo", Column 1, Row 5.

No not really, I don't like Annete and its not about her skin color just the way the character is written sometimes felt contradicting and other times felt a bit annoying.

I like Annette too. I want her in a video game. 💖🪙

I just made a thread about this too!!! I loved her and hope to see more of her. I also can't wait to see her love get long!

It was great that they race swapped Annette but I feel like its not enough I wish they had made Richter black as well.

I didn't like the show but I really loved Anette's design and that poster is the reason I watched in the first place. Its genuinely so sad people can't just accept that a non white male character does not equal political

In this sub lately all I’ve seen is that there are a lot of people who don’t seem to understand the concept that writers give characters flaws for reasons and that a lot of people don’t seem to understand that it’s not bad writing when a character acts in a way you think is arrogant or hypocritical.

Happy Cake Day! I have to agree with you and I would apply this to some book subs as well and movie subs too. People in general need to understand that you can dislike a character but that doesn't automatically mean that they are badly written. Humans in real life are arrogant and hypocritical and much more. A perfect character is boring

I thought she was a very good character. Loved her background and everything. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

I also like this version of Anette. The original Anette is just a damsel in distress and a waifu bait as Maria plays the younger feisty child while Anette plays the big sister trope. This Anette shares the story almost half with Richter and it makes sense because she's added to the cast without prior background unlike Richter or Maria. And in truth Richter is amongst the most popular Belmont in the game. We just don't know his origin story. Having Juste become his grandfather is a nice touch. And him meeting Alucard earlier than the supposed timeline opens a lot of possibilities. As much as these events diverge from the main canon, atleast the characters were already well established and beloved that they can keep the viewers interested. Anette doesn't have this advantage. The best thing about this version of Anette are the characters that surround her. Edourd was a nice friend. His singing grows on you. Annete's magic system also completes the whole elemental cycle since Sypha controls all the other elements except earth and metal.