#and I don't think that a departure from convention is bad writing or bad pacing lol

[obstinatecondolement]

me: I hate how creative writing has been so coopted by the language of the rise and grind hustle culture! I hate everyone who is prescribing how to write fiction Correctly in all these fucking blogs and books and youtube channels about writing. I hate that the prevailing advice is always to be strictly formulaic and to create your work in a rote, mechanical way! I hate it and it's the fucking death of art! not everything has to be ~optimised~ and part of a fucking paint by numbers system! also me: ah, what a beautiful spreadsheet I have created to track my progress through my story's outline (which I heavily employed the story graph and save the cat methods to make), complete with if statements and conditional formatting to see if I am on track to my estimated word count goal for each individual scene and for the project as a whole every step of the way. what could be better and a more natural extension of my creative process than this?

#the thing is though #these things can be helpful tools #but they shouldn't be considered mandatory #and writing processes are highly individual #and there are so many ways to tell a story that wouldn't play nice with your story graphs and your save the catses etc. #and I don't think that a departure from convention is bad writing or bad pacing lol #it's just so one size fits all and art is Not That #and I am very sceptical of the content-ification of fiction #and this feels very that #also I am spreadsheets georg who lives in a cave and makes 10‚000 spreadsheets for fun a day #and am therefore an outlier adn should not be counted when it comes to how natural a fit spreadsheets are as a tool for creative work

[opalroots]

Netflix's new Castlevania Nocturne is an indulgent, incredible mess - a review

Following up the original Netflix Castlevania series was never going to be an easy task. Though it had its shortcomings, Warren Ellis' Castlevania redefined what a video game adaptation is supposed to be, and it managed to entice rows upon rows of non-fans through its complex characters and incredibly flashy action sequences. It's a modern classic, and one of the best things to happen to animation in the last decade.

Along comes Castlevania Nocturne, a new series created by Clive Bradley set a few centuries after the end of the original series, already ladened with heavy expectations. Not only was it forced to carry on the legacy of the Castlevania franchise through adapting one of its most popular and beloved games, but it also had to live up to the expectations set by the original series.

I've only barely played the games, but the original Castlevania show holds a special place in my heart. So when the announcement of a followup series came, I was stoked. I read reviews, watched and rewatched trailers, all the stuff. And Castlevania Nocturne was shaping up to be incredible.

Did it live up to the hype? WELL-

I finished the first episode with a bad taste in my mouth- and not in a good way. It's filled with pacing that falters, dialogue that feels unnatural and preachy, and blatant references to the original series and the games that sound like they're going "hey! look at this! don't you remember This Thing That Was Important?"

I think this is a good point to mention that I'm not one of these "Wokelvania" "Netflix is shoving the homosexual agenda down our throats" people. The show takes place during the French Revolution, guys. Of course it has anti-establishment themes. People forget that in the very first season of Castlevania, the main antagonist was the Catholic Church.

In fact, I think Annette's backstory, which touches upon slavery and colonialism, is a very welcome aspect of the show that reflects historical events of this time that aren't as often brought up in media of this kind. Annette herself is also a very strong character in her own right, and while the writers do her a little dirty towards the end of the season, her arc is very compelling and she's an excellent addition to the cast. Don't listen to the racist weirdos guys.

That's not to overshade the other two main characters: Richter and Maria. Both have deeply complex personalities and backstories and the force of their characterisation is felt deep in the plot. Richter, in particular, is a fascinating and incredibly well-developed departure from his predecessor Trevor Belmont. Where Trevor was a tired, depressed man in his 30s, Richter Belmont takes on the more conventional "plucky young hero" archetype. Don't let that make you think he's shallow, though: Richter has a deep, rich character arc and his youthful naivety and lust for life is genuinely captivating. There's no better character to be driving this new plot forward: I fell in love with Richter multiple times throughout the season's runtime. And not just because he's hot.

Outside the main trio, however, the characters grow shallow. Tera, Maria's mother and a mentor character of sorts, has the personality of brown bread, and her purpose in the show's writing is essentially as a vehicle for plot exposition. Save for at the very end of the season (if you know, you know) there was not a single moment of the show where Tera was onscreen that I enjoyed. Her story together with the Abbott (another major character the writers want to pretend is complex) is insulting at best, and her backstory just feels unnecessarily edgy.

This shallowness extends to the cast of villains that the show presents. One thing that the original Castlevania was known for was its excellent antagonists: unforgettable characters like Dracula, Carmilla, and Isaac, who all had deeply human characterisations and complex reasons behind their actions. Compare this to characters like Drolta, whose name I'm struggling to remember not even an hour after the credits have rolled, or Vaublanc, who starts off as nemesis character of sorts for Annette but gets shafted halfway through the series in an admittedly cool but wasteful moment.

As of writing this, I'm not quite sure what to think of the series' main villain, Erzsebet Bathory. Unlike most characters in the show, this one has no allusion to the video games whatsoever: she is a wholly new creation on the part of Bradley and the writers. She's foreshadowed almost immediately as a "vampire messiah", a phrase that makes Bram Stoker spin like a centrifuge in his grave. When she finally appears, she certainly commands respect, but as opposed to the previous series' villains, there is not a single layer of depth to Erzebet's character. She's just evil for the sake of being evil, and that's a real disappointment. She's not bad at being evil- there's a moment at the very end of the season that left me in pure shock and disgust in the best way possible (IF YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW). She's just disappointing when compared to the masterfully executed villains that defined the original series.

The one exception to this rule of shallow antagonists is Olrox. He appears very early on in the show and acts as a nemesis of sorts to Richter. While not nearly as complex as, say, Dracula, Olrox had my interest early on and only got more interesting as the season progressed, eventually becoming an anti-villain of sorts, without sacrificing what makes him imposing. The effect he has on Richter is palpable and their relationship feels extremely real. As does the relationship between him and another character, Mizrak. And when I say relationship I mean they have gay sex with one another.

This brings me to one of my biggest irks with Castlevania Nocturne. Olrox, the series' so far most prominent and active antagonist, isn't just queer-coded: he's gay. Very gay. And on one hand, wow he's just like me, but on the other, it makes you raise an eyebrow when every single "good" character is either explicitly or implicitly cis and heterosexual. As a queer trans person, it bothers me that the only explicit representation we get is the vampire who murdered the main character's mom and who will probably play a very antagonistic role for the rest of the series. Everything about Olrox's queerness is doomed to fall into all the classic pitfalls we're so used to in media, and so far, we've seen no representation from the "good guys" to counteract it. Olrox isn't the only one, either: Erzsebet Bathory (you know, the woman who wants to Eat The Sun) is also ever so subtly queer-coded, though the show is too busy turning her into a lion to make her explicitly gay. Count your blessings, I guess.

All in all, Netflix's new Castlevania Nocturne is a show of breathtaking highs and devastating lows. The animation is just as on point as it always was, and the new cast of main characters are a fresh new addition to the Castlevania franchise. There are times when the writing feels deeply triumphant and powerful. Other times, it feels slow, repetitive, and at its absolute worst, downright lazy and sluggish. From a rough first few episodes, to a well-paced and exciting second act, to a weirdly staged but deeply engaging ending sequence, I often felt myself losing patience with Castlevania Nocturne. But, every time I did, the show pulled out all its stops to win me over - and it succeeded, every single time.

The series, as a whole, has a sense of incompleteness at its core. It's a first draft of an otherwise excellent brand new story in the Castlevania universe. And now that it's finally found its footing and been renewed for a second season, I'm hopeful future seasons will be able to better live up to the legacy of the original series, even if it'll never quite reach the original's icon status. Netflix please pay your writers.

Thanks for reading.

#castlevania nocturne #castlevania netflix #castlevania nocturne review #richter belmont #maria renard #annette castlevania #olrox castlevania #not but seriously richter is so hot how did I ever think I might be a lesbian #olrox too. lowkey transition goals #this took me too long. goodnight tumblr