Why Annette Is Black (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Readers, I think it’s safe to say that I wasn’t alone in anticipating the follow-up to the Castlevania anime, Castlevania: Nocturne

The original show was easy to get into even if you never played any of the games. And according to those who DID play the games, the show was incredibly faithful to them

/So a lot of fans of the franchise upon seeing that the new Belmont Nocturne would be focusing on was Richter and his entourage pretty much anticipated this sequel series to follow the same formula/

I personally fall under the “My only knowledge of Castlevania is watching a couple of GameGrumps let's plays” portion of the franchise’s fanbase, so everything I’ve experienced about both shows is relatively fresh.

And this also is in regards to one of the secondary characters of Nocturne Annette.

/Who I, like plenty of others across the internet since Nocturne’s release, have immediately deemed my favorite of Castlevania Nocturne and legit wish the show was about her./

...What? She’s currently more compelling than Richter right now, I’m sorry

Like, search your heart; you know it to be true

But, as you can imagine, not everyone agrees with that statement. And the ones who think that way usually share one of two things in common, if not both. I’ll let you figure out what those are; they’re not really that hard.

Unfortunately, I came to that realization AFTER I decided to ask the immediate question which was “Damn. What’d this version of Annette do to make these white folk so mad?”

The answer, despite being made to be 10 times better than how she was ever portrayed in the video games, was exist. BLACKILY. And I wanna go over why she does, and why she’s better because of it. Let’s begin.

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Hey, Readers. La’Ron here. Offering you analysis and perspective on your favorite bits of geek and pop culture media

If it wasn’t obvious from the intro, this video will in fact contain spoilers for season 1 of the animated series Castlevania Nocturne. It’s currently available to stream exclusively on Netflix, so give it a watch if you haven’t seen it yet, and don’t want me to spoil pivotal points of it for you in this video.

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That’s the syllabus. Now onto the lesson.

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Why do I love Annette?

Well, while there are multiple reasons why, one of the main reasons is how her newfound blackness is incorporated into her character and is reflected into the story thanks to its setting.

As I stated plenty of times before in regards to actors portraying characters in live-action film and television, if the character’s ethnicity isn’t a pivotal part of both their character and development, then traditionally no harm would come from an actor of color taking on a role that’s typically portrayed by a white performer.

This is the reason why Marvel’s Marvel Man -- a character that is traditionally white but has no racial or ethnic ties to him needing to always be portrayed as white in the stories he’s involved in -- can be portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in a Marvel Studios television show for Disney Plus that’ll end up getting shelved because they’re trying to villainize the solidarity between the writers and actors unions to the general public...

And why characters like X-Men’s Storm and the Black Panther T’Challa -- the former being the offspring of a Kenyan princess and a black american photographer from New York who gets back in touch with her Kenyan heritage after years of living the street urchin D&D Origin Trait in Cairo, and the latter being born and raised in the black monarchy of the fictional African country of Wakanda -- will always be black.

Annette in the Castlevania games and how she’s portrayed in Castlevania: Nocturne is a perfect example of the former. Annette in the games -- specifically the PC game Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and its 2007 remake for the PSP Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles -- is the white girlfriend of Richter Belmont, and pretty much becomes the Princess Peach to his Mario or the Beatrice to his Dante.

Dracula kidnaps her after being resurrected by the dark priest Shaft, and you as Richter have to either save her before fighting Dracula and Shaft in the original PC game, or depending on the decisions you make in DXC have to fight her as a boss because she’s become a vampire.

And Annette in those games is about as milquetoast as they come. Nothing about her is unique or compelling outside of how she’s fanservice-ly depicted when she becomes a vampire.

The only things the games tell us you need to know about her to be “compelling” is that she stays in the town that Simon Belmont liked to buy his Garlic and Laurels from back in the day, and her personality is “semi-subservient woman.”

And I say semi-subservient because while she does have a “pleasant personality and is nice to all,” she’s also “strong-willed and dislikes the unfair.”

(Whoopi Goldberg: Okay)

Annette in the games that she’s featured in is about as bland of a character as they come.

Just like how people claimed that the Green Lantern Hal Jordan had no personality for the longest time in DC Comics, the same can ESPECIALLY be said about Annette in the video games.

You know, until the point comes in the game where she gains a PERSONALITY.

So with the Netflix follow-up to the Castlevania animated series Castlevania: Nocturne taking Richter and the other supporting characters from Rondo of Blood/DXC and placing them in France at the end of the 18th Century, much needed creative liberties were made to make things gel well.

/Tera, instead of just being another villager that was kidnapped, was made Maria’s immigrant mother from Russia who fled to France to find refuge after vampires slaughtered their village and turned her sister. Maria is the Scarlet Letter lovechild of Tera and the umpteenth hippocratic catholic priest in this universe and wants to do a “One Day More” on the bourgeoisie./

And Richter... Richter we’ll talk about in a minute.

And as you can tell, Annette’s change was not only the most obvious, but also the most compelling.

/Because the series takes place in France in 1792 -- a time where France was just as invested in the Transatlantic Slave Trade as everyone else -- Annette was changed to be an escaped slave from the French-occupied side of Saint Dominigue right before the sparks of the Haitian Revolution began to kindle and 11 years before the nation of Haiti was formed with the French’s withdrawal from the island./

Both her mother and her father were able to find ways to keep their families connection to their West African spiritualism intact through the likes of wards and chants turned into lullabies.

This hits a bit close to home for those of us who are descendants of those who were forced into the Transatlantic Slave Trade, because for a good amount of us, anything about our spiritual practices was robbed from us when the indoctrination of Catholicism and Christianity was placed on them here in America, causing us to form a rather traumatic stockholm syndrome-like relationship with the religion from generations to come.

/Annette, however, thanks to having those connections and refusing to accept said indoctrinations, is able to claim dominion over earth and metal thanks to her parents strong connections to the Orisan deities Ogun -- god of iron and war -- and Orunmila -- god of wisdom and divination./

And with vampires being the majority of slave owners in this time period, /with hers Vaublanc being responsible for the death of her mother to add even more motivation for hunting vampires outside of wanting to rid the world of the Vampire Messiah, Annette now has more agency in Nocturne than she ever had in the games./

Changing her race after setting the story in this new time and location meant establishing her to a real-life event that was just as imperative to the timeline as the role that the French Revolution plays in Nocturne’s story.

And in doing so, she has gained a significant amount of culture, motivation, and depth to her character that blows her video game counterpart completely out of the window.

And I, personally, could argue that thanks to these changes and properly rooting her new backstory into her newfound blackness in ways that make it completely interwoven into her character at this point...

This allowed her character in Castlevania: Nocturne to be not just significantly better than her video game counterpart, but also significantly better...

Than Richter Belmont.

While both Richter and Annette have the tragedy of having their mothers killed by vampires in common, that’s about all they have in common in my opinion.

While I’m not making short of Richter’s trauma at all, there are some things that happened over the course of season 1 of Nocturne that just make me respect the way Annette handled hers WAY more than Richter handled his.

/And considering that Richter is supposed to be the main character, the creative decisions regarding how he came about both handling and resolving it make it kinda hard for me to give him my attention./

However, I think I know why that’s the case.

As we’ve gone over, Annette was a second generation slave to the vampire Vaublanc on the French colonized island of what would soon become Haiti.

After separating her father from her and her mother -- a common tactic even here in America’s history of southerners owning slaves...

/Vaublanc killed Annette’s mother after confirming that she was casting spells and passing down the knowledge of the Orisan deities./

Then when she was able to channel her powers, Annette ran away and was taken in by Edouard...

/An opera singer of mixed race more than likely due to his blue-eyed white father who was either a slave owner or a plantation warden who took advantage of his mother -- and joined the island-wide slave revolt that would spark the flames of the Haitian War./

Between the time she escaped and befriended Edouard to the revolt, she was trained in her power by a seer named Cecil, /who also has a strong connection to their west African ancestry that couldn’t be beaten out of her./

/And by the time the revolt happened, she, along with Edouard, returned to the plantation to face Vaublanc before he ran away to France to prepare the arrival of the vampire messiah./

The moment Annette ran away from Vaublanc’s plantation, she gained a support network in the form of Edouard and his boyfriend, and the seer Cecile.

They conscientiously aided her in dealing with the trauma Vaublanc placed upon her through multiple forms of nurture, care and understanding.

/And while it took a while for her to hear them, Cecil gave her another outlet in training Annette in her power by teaching her how to access the spirit world of their ancestors to eventually hear from them as well. And the aid through said support network was so great that when she was able to confront Vaublanc again directly, she could properly end him. She may have briefly froze when she went on the scouting mission after meeting Richter and Maria and initially discovered he was in France, but she was immediately able to get back into the swing of things and assist in fighting back and retreating./

Richter, in a way, comes from a place of privilege.

/Even at 10 years old, he knows the importance of being a Belmont and believes his family to be untouchable, which is why he doesn’t understand why his mother Julia is sending him to France to stay with Tera and Maria when he should be fighting monsters. And while it may not be arrogance per say, that knowledge also allows him to think that despite being 10 years old, being told by his mom to get on the ship when Olrox appears, and only knowing the firebolt cantrip that he can actually help his mom. When, in actuality, because she now has to focus on his safety due to her being a good mother, Richter’s actions actually distracts her enough to allow Olrox to kill her right in front of him./

The trauma placed upon him after Olrox pulls a Beatrix Kiddo to his Nikia Bell causes him to not use magic over the course of the nine years he stays with Tera and Maria.

And I mean that analogy LITERALLY; it basically might as well have played out like this in the show:

(When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I’ll be waiting)

The thing about that though, is that the reason behind why he doesn’t use magic afterward is a bit weird because his vibes give off that he just refuses to since his mom died, but it’s also implied there was an actual block that needed to be penetrated later on in the show.

/However, also over the course of those nine years, he only told Tera and Maria the basic information regarding what happened to Julia while letting them know that he was fine through an older variant of the same type of confidence/arrogance that got his mom killed. All the while he keeps his trauma locked away to the point that when he DID encounter Olrox again, the first thing he instinctively does is run./

It also doesn’t help that the first person he ran into when he did run is his Belmont grandfather Juste, /who is just as closed off and secluded in his own trauma and mistakes as Richter is./

So closed off that not only does Richter not recognize him as his grandfather because Julia disowned him for just being that much of a deadbeat to her growing up, /but also that he can’t even understand the breakthrough Richter had to make to get his magic back./

Which, by the way, only took him so long and was difficult for him to accomplish because while Tera and Maria are an excellent support system on their own, Richter willingly played his game on the hardest difficulty possible because he refused to utilize the game’s obvious mechanic.

Like people who apply Nuzloke rules to Pokemon. Or people who apply harsher conditions when they apply Nuzloke rules to Pokemon. At that point, you’re not even playing Pokemon anymore; you’re playing a SoulsBorne game from FromSoft, you masochist.

This is the difference between Richter and Annette. Similar to the narrative of vengeance that Percy deals with in the Briarwood arc in season 1 of The Legend of Vox Machina, Castlevania: Nocturne uses both characters to highlight the differences between those who can’t benefit from the likes of privilege, patriarchy, and hegemonic masculinity and how those systems naturally affect ones decision making process regarding their trauma, versus those that do.

That means confiding in others who care about you, being told and understanding harsh truths, letting others in and being willing to be vulnerable.

/While Annette allowed herself to do all of this, Richter did not and still hasn’t, real talk./

Because looking at things closely, the only reason Richter got access to his magic and gained the courage to stand up to Olrox after initially running from him, wasn’t because he was willing to be open and vulnerable to the people he loves and cares for and want to help him overcome his obstacles.

/It was because right before he was about to die, Richter realized he has a hegemonic sense of duty as a Belmont to protect those that want him to overcome his trauma in a more healthier way, and can’t afford for them to suffer because doesn’t have the nerve to do what’s necessary./

The tragedy of Richter here however, is that this is what some of the current real world population might call “simply being a man.” When in actuality, it doesn’t have to be.

/It’s Annette realizing this and reaching this realization versus Richter being the equivalent of an incredibly stubborn Taurus that would rather bloody his skull against the brick wall to take it down instead of finding an alternate way around it to cause less bodily harm that makes Annette, to me, the better character in Castlevania: Nocturne between the two./

And we wouldn’t have that if writers Temi Oh and Zodwa Nyoni didn’t incorporate what happens when one allows themselves to properly handle and learn from their trauma thanks to being willing to open yourself up to people in your life that care about you with the newly bestowed creative decisions, culture, and color that was bestowed upon the previously bleach bland canvas that is Annette.

So why don’t others appreciate that?

So while the short and simple answer is “because racism and sexism,” I still need these videos to be a certain length for proper ad placement.

Yes, it’s true that the hardcore fans of Castlevania that played the games that the characters in Nocturne came from would’ve known that Annette was race-swapped.

However, those like me who never would’ve known that this was a race-swapped character because the most they know about Castlevania is the theme song and the line “What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets?” never would’ve guessed.

/So much agency was given to Annette by making this change that I guarantee you she otherwise wouldn’t have had if anything else was done to her or if anyONE else facilitated it./

And it’s THIS fact that those who are “upset” about not only Annette’s change, but the presence of black and brown faces in this series.

/Whether they’re historically accurate, or lived for hundreds of years because anyone can be the fictional fucking species of vampires./

Not only is Annette black now, but she’s black with a healthy support network of her own before Richter ever came into the picture.

/She’s black and surrounded by people who both know what she’s gone through and know that the broken bone that is trauma has to be properly settled back in its natural place before the healing can truly start. Lest it won’t refortify itself properly because the alignment has been off ever since the bone was broken in the first place./

There are a lot of individuals out there with protruding bones because they didn’t have the people in their lives to tell them that they needed to go to the doctor to get it properly set and to get a cast put on their leg.

/And when they look at Annette, they can just TELL that despite having to put in a good amount of work herself to get to where she is, that the place she’s now in is significantly better than that of their own, and they HATE that./

So they resort to the blatantly coded and truly tired racist and sexist points. Like how they should’ve just made an original character instead of race-swapping Annette, or use the discussion points that we black americans have had since 12 Years A Slave came out about how a good chunk of us are tired of slave stories against us, or that her getting her powers from actual gods paints her in Mary Sue territory for the same reasons as Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, without acknowledging what her parents and grandparents had to do to make sure that connection was established within her in the first place.

And we only know these arguments and points are always steeped in racism and especially sexism if the character is a woman, because every time something new comes up and these “critiques” are taken into consideration, they’ll still look at the original black character that was born into nobility, utilizes the magic of the setting in ways that everyone else does, and is both just as susceptible to trauma and slow to fix it as everyone else, and go:

Not bad. But do you know what this character needs? To be actually WHITE.

And here’s the kicker; the character I just used as the example in this situation ISN’T the only original character of color that these insecure racists and sexists do that to.

Conclusion

Even though I said it multiple times over the course of this video, it goes without saying that I am so thankful for the writing team that fleshed out Annette’s character like this.

While it seems like Castlevania: Nocturne is still playing around with the idea of her and Richter being a thing like in the games...

/Which I mean, girl I guess; love is love, and all that shit. Just make sure he signs a prenup/

What Annette now represents just from what we’ve seen in the first season alone is why I enjoy her so much. And the fact that she already has haters BECAUSE of that reason is why I will protect this iteration of my character until the cows come home.

/Too long, didn’t watch, Annette’s black now and she has her fucking life together; die mad about it./

But I digress, Readers. Your homework assignment for the day:

Write in the comment section below what you thought of Castlevania: Nocturne season 1 if you’ve seen it.

Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, a character featured in something that you watched and enjoyed that was made better because their origins, background and culture was changed from how it was shifted in the source material.

Bonus points if the changes actively made the Bleach Bros mad

Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.

/A HUGE shoutout to my Patrons both big and small for helping make this channel possible.

Make sure you check out the card at the end of the video to join, or click the link to it or any of my affiliates in the description box below.

But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed./