Okay this has been at the back burner for quite a while but I just have to address it. If you ever felt like something has change about the FMC in terms of writing or you are starting to lose interest in her and are confuse to why you feel this way (like me) this MIGHT be one of the reasons why.
Warning = Super long - this does contain 3830 words
Also gave up on inserting images
-Please don’t come after me it’s just my opinion
When it comes to red’s writing in nevermore I will and always praise her for creating an adaptation through poems and exploring the side characters personalities and the consequence of their actions especially when it comes to side characters since they aren’t seen as much or mentions as much as Lenore or Annabel.
But the one thing I have trouble with is the fact that Lenore our main character the person who has the most screen time, the most mentioned throughout comic, and having the most flashbacks as well. Is unfortunately the most unpolished character throughout the whole continuing seasons (I know what your thinking don’t worry I’ll get to it )
The Underdog character
In the beginning of Nevermore we see Lenore as an underdog, the misunderstood, the character that will prove everyone wrong. But what makes a character an underdog? How does the underdog make the audience/viewer gain satisfaction of their character in the terms of writing?
Throughout western and eastern media we see how the underdog is written.
They are a character that has a goal that they want to achieve.
They have something about them that makes them stand out from the others AKA the special something
In the beginning they struggle and lose over and over again throughout the story, and just when they give up. The thing that makes them unique whether it’s a characteristic or a special power helps them achieve their goal.
Not everyone believes in the MC will make it, because of x y and z but will believe/admire them later on in the story.
We then get to see the main protagonist face off the antagonist and use everything they learn to defeat the antagonist.
But it isn’t the fighting or the winning that gives the audience the satfication of good writing. It’s the losing, the struggling, the falling action where the MC is starting to realize that they may not be able to achieve their goal or defeat the antagonist.
The best example I can give when it comes to writing a good underdog that everyone has seen in west and eastern media is Mulan (there are others but im using her)
We see that in the movie that Mulan struggles with her identity (from the song reflection) and her actively trying to fit in and bring honor to her family by finding a husband through the matchmaker. Later on, when the war has begun and Mulan decides to take her fathers place instead of him. We see a similar thing when she tries to fit in with the men and fails to do so. Then we see her working hard to meet the expectations of Shang but still falling behind resulting in Shang telling her to go home. Yet she doesn’t give up and uses her determination and improvision to complete the difficult climb, making the other soldiers admire her determination; that’s her defining character moment.
With Lenore and her being the underdog, we see some similarities like,
Some people doubt her abilities and think she is way over her head. Along with her not have much advantage compared to the antagonist.
There is something about her character that she will take advantage of.
She struggles with helping herself and others (her friends) get through the trials
She proves to anyone that doubted her that things can be achieved
There is a moment(s) where she doubts that she will ever make it out alive during the stag arc.
She has all the things that make her a underdog until you realize she has a winning streak. In the Maze arc she was able to save not only her but her friends from being elimated, in the casket of armadillo arc she is able to save Duke. (which yes I am counting that as a win) and in the manor arc we see her ring the bell earning her a invitation to dreamland and merits (while others earned demerits ). Which leads to another problem, Strength gap -Lenore and her friends having equal footing when it comes to facing Monty. Monty and Will are suppose to have an advantage on Eula and Bee because they got there spectre during the maze. Therefore having an advantage to explore their abilities and essentially train themselves to defeat the monsters in the maze. Eula and Bee are new to the spectre they SHOULD BE struggling MORE, we see Eula struggle in the beginning before DEVOURING Monty’s spectre. ( not saying that Eula spectre shouldn’t have this but feeling like she should have attempted but failed IYKWIM)
We even see this again when it comes to Lenore facing the stag, she was able to equally face it in her new spectre form! While Ada and Annabel struggle and get withered by it. Just for the stag to then bow/submit to Lenore because that’s her special something. Do we see the problem/flaws when it comes to her writing as a underdog? The whole point of an ‘underdog’ is that they lose, struggle, and are misunderstood. Lenore is misunderstood but every time she struggles either her the people care about her helps Lenore by using their plot armor or Lenor’s own plot armor helps her get out of whatever crappy situation she in.
2.The lack of consequences of her actions Lenore’s “ living in the moment”
Throughout the comic we see Lenore constantly living in the moment.
-She can be revealing to her friends about the threshold while keeping her relationship with Annabel a secret (until the desperate letter made late minute)
-While having a relationship with Annabel and knowing her plan of using everyone as cannon fodder for them to escape together. Yet Lenore actively keeps the information of the threshold, the raven, and what happened in dreamland from Annabel. She promises both of them a new life, a fresh start. Yet she wants to save all of them, her ‘living in the moment’ and having this back and forth between wifey and friends not only contradicts her promise but it goes unreprimanded.
Yet throughout the story, we see most of the side characters face their consequences of their own actions- even though they have limited panel time.
Here are a few examples...
Duke is shown to use to be a reckless character. He puts his life on the line and potentially hurting his friends due to his ONLY plan of using the chandelier to hold the stag at bay. Causing him to get cut up and trying to escape as a last-ditch effort. When Pluto calls him out for this, he gets angry and becomes micro-aggressive towards Pluto, causing Pluto to push Duke away. Not to mention how his teasing and not taking things seriously throughout the series add more distrust in pluto’s perspective.
Eula is a kind, smart, and outspoken character who sees herself as good friend, we see her trying her very best to being good to her friends and not leave them behind. Yet we also see her pushing her beliefs on to others without considering their feelings about it. We see this with her asking Will to be her friend, she tells Will what she sees in Monty- she sees how friendship means nothing to him, how is nothing but a bad person who doesn’t care about others, and how he is nothing but a bully. Monty does not respond well to this. we see him becoming more unhinge towards Will, he becomes more manipulative, more aggressive in a very unsettling way when it comes to Eula stand up to Will.
Eula then asks Will to come along and to become friends, When Will tries to explain that Eula doesn’t understand, that Monty IS his friend. She denies it, she tells him her motto ‘friends don’t leave friends behind’ while actively telling him that Monty isn’t his friend and to leave him. Not understanding not only the hypocrisy but putting Will in a delicate situation. If he goes with Eula, Monty will go after Will more an ever since he will see it as a betrayal. His new allies will most likely not help him as well, Duke, Pluto, and Bee see Will as a coward who can’t stand up for himself. Not to mention that he helped Monty with most of his plans. Eula might help along with Morella but we also see them stand up for what’s right until the last minute or when its already too late.
Eula motto “friends don’t leave friends behind” works when she wants to prove that she is a “good” friend. She stands up for what’s right but she so laser focus on helping a friend. That she doesn’t consider their feelings.
We see this when she asks Will to be her friend and to tag along with them but she doesn’t consider Duke and Pluto’s feelings of letting Will tag along even though he was a part of the whole putting Duke behind the wall thing.
A similar thing happens to her and Berniece; she tries to stand up against Monty while who is worried about her concussion and a crowd forming around them. But she ignores her (not on purpose) and call out Monty ready to fright him again. Leading to Bee having to involve herself just to protect Eula. From the IMPOSSIBLE the UNSTOPPABLE … Will-the brain farting connoisseur.
The same thing can go with her flashback between her and her friends dream that they had in childhood and her becoming upset that her friends left her behind because they no longer believing in becoming paranormal detectives. Even though they have their own dreams she becomes angry with them and sees it as a betrayal.
Although we haven’t gotten to Eula facing the effects of her actions YET or Duke having to deal with his broken relationship with Pluto. We the audience see how it gotten to that point. Both Duke and Eula had this buildup of causal chain making their story much more understandable and easier to digest.
Now what consequence does Lenore face? What cause and effect does she have?
Well, we see that complying with Annabel’s plan puts Duke life in danger, but she doesn’t entirely blame herself for complying with Annabel’s plan, or when Pluto tells her something is off and she dismisses it. No, she blames Annabel. She blames Annabel for having this whole plan and feels betrayed by her.
Now, I can understand why Lenore might not trust Annabel since in public she asks all cruel, cold, and mean to Lenore while acting all sweet, warm, and caring during their stolen moments. But again, it gets address - Annabel addresses it more than once. And yet we get the same argument, no build up.
Annabel wants to create a division between the two groups so when they finally fight among themselves they can escape. She explain that everyone is nothing but fodder, and she wants Lenore to stay as a “nobody” so she doesn’t become a target. Although Annabel miscalculate several times with her plan. Its was still something that they both agree with, Lenore does get frustrated because she see’s the misfits as her friends. But She doesn’t give Annabel any info or plan to prevent it. She goes along with SOME of Annabel’s plan.
Then we get to the arboretum scene, we get the similar argument but worst.
When Annabel addresses what Lenore is doing to her friends– the secrets, lying, the betrayal that is going to happen. And what does Lenore do? Does she realize that what Annabel is saying is true? That ‘living the moment ‘ -this constant back and forth between the misfits and her wife is going to lead to more pain and betrayal. Like what happened to her? No, instead she projects on to Annabel calling her a monster, a madwoman, a betrayer, humiliating her in front of the Pluto and Duke that were just about to kill her. And after all this, she doesn’t get a consequence she doesn’t have to face the fact that she will hurt her friends, Annabel’s side of the argument never gets address after this. While Lenore’s argument of ‘you need to find friends’ does get address.
This build up between them was suppose to address both their flaws, both of their cruelty throughout the comic. But it only addresses one of them. Lenore’s ‘living moment’ happens so frequently that the audience knows that as soon as she is reunited with the misfits the whole “Damn the rest, if that’s what it takes.” Will mean nothing- until she has her stolen moments with Annabel once again.
3. Changing her character into a much more moral character than before.
Throughout this comic Lenore has stood up for others, risk her life for her friends, Annabel, and innocent people. And although we this as just moral. There is a much deeper meaning to why Lenore risks her life whenever someone else is in danger, and that is because of her survivals guilt. We have seen that in her flashbacks she couldn’t handle her brother’s death, we can see how much she blames herself for his death. It also doesn’t make it better when we get to see that her parents treated Lenore of less value compared to her brother Theo because she was a woman. Now, she is put into this game where everyone is getting hurt and she can’t help but to blame herself. Everything she does, she doesn’t JUST do it to be a good person she does it cope with her survivor’s guilt.
Another thing that everyone has notice in season 1 and the end of the stag arc was that is Lenore a spiteful person. A person that will get her vengeance to anyone that has wronged her or her love ones.
Yet we start to see a shift-
One of the contrasts between her and the antagonist Monty, is that Monty will hurt or kill anyone that will get in his way to earn a life. Yet when it comes to Will he is willing to save him, to protect him, instead of leaving him behind. Because Monty deeply cares about Will.
A similar situation was (suppose to be) created for Lenore and Annabel, Lenore would save anyone, protect anyone, but she would hurt or even kill anyone who hurts Annabel Lee. (Which why so many fans speculated that the cottage fire killed people.) Athlough, we get many parallels between them we don’t get this contrast between them. We instead get ep 158 where it’s revealed that Lenore didn’t kill the maids in the cottage during her escape. She waited until the holiday to burn the cottage. Even though in ep 106 she explained she had to hurry. How does a person hurry while waiting for the staff who did not treat you like a person to go on holiday? Again, throughout the whole comic she has threaten more than one person who has harmed her or her friends that they would regret the day they did. I mean her wife LITERALLY fears her because she IS a spiteful person who will hurt/kill you if you hurt her loved ones. Her Specter literally says “spite” And yet during a desperate situation where Lenore may never see Annabel ever again. Where she KNOWS that marriage is like DEATH for her. But she waits??
I understand it may take some time for her to learn how to walk on her own and to create a plan to make sure she and Annabel make it out alive. But WAITING? Until January does not make sense to me. Of course, you can say that she doesn’t want to kill ‘innocent’ people. Sure, until you see that all of her threats of hurting or killing her enemies never happens because her special something happens or she finally gets her friends back, or her wifey is hurt but not dead, so no need still be angry at the beast that killed people that you felt guilty about. (going back to living in the moment)
This shift into making her a morel character defeats the deeper meaning behind why she risks her life for others. It makes her and Annabel’s relationship seem almost one sided, Annabel (similar to Monty) prefers to eliminate her enemies but when Lenore is in danger, she is willing to risk her life to save her. Will, is willing to sacrifice himself by pretending to be Monty. Even though it’s revealed that he is nothing but desperate for survival. What does Lenore have? She saves everyone! Even people who don’t know or care about her. -Love makes you do crazy things. Things you don’t normally do for anyone. But with Lenore we don’t get that contrast because it either gets interrupted or scrapped in order to make her this moral character.
4.Poking holes in the story for the perfect moment (this might be controversial)
During the stag arc there were some backlashes of why Monty and Will two side characters had a kiss scene before Annabel and Lenore our two FMC. Red did later on explained and ask the fans to please be patient because her and Flynn are planning to make the scene just right.
Although I understand why R&F want to do that, I personally think them making the fans wait for this perfect moment for our FMC and second FMC kiss isn’t a good idea. The reason why is because of Lenore’s spectre reveal. When Lenore spectre was revealed, some fans were still excited but other fans not so much. Throughout season one every character (except Lenore) got their spectre and each design was not only amazing but very unique that added meaning to their character. Most fans such as myself, felt like Dukes and Ada spectres really created high expectations of Lenore spectre reveal. But unfortunately, the stag arc did kill the suspense of her spectre reveal. Due to each characters getting bits of flashback during the stag arc (although it was nice, I do wish there was more time for the characters before the stag arc) . And of course, hole pokes/time skips in Lennabel’s flashback that could have added more layers during the final scenes of the stag arc.
Now a similar thing might happen to Lennables kissing scene. We already see that Lennables flashbacks having many holes that will be brought up inbetween the subplots. That might kill the excitement and the suspense of the kissing scene. – While I understand and see the vision of continuing Lennable’s love story through there flashbacks. I personally feel that completing their love story without stretching this anticipation would be much better and the same thing goes for the kissing scene, kissbaiting Lenore and Annabel while fans have been on the edge on their seat for a long time will not turn out well. We can still continue their love story in nevermore instead of poking holes through their story before their death.
(this is where it gets MORE controversial)
5. Is there too much of Lenore?
Although Lenore is the FMC of this story, I personally cannot help but wonder why is she mentioned or is a part of the subplots as well? I mean think about it…
-The Raven a creature who has seen many students succeed and failed. Yet Lenore is the only student that speaks to him. Even though we do have other characters that are willing to talk to or even notice the Raven.
I mean we have Eula a paranormal detective who know a lot of stuff about the paranormal.
We have Will a character who has no roommate and is very lonely. Wouldn’t he be comfortable speaking to a creature so he wouldn’t feel so alone? Wouldn’t the Raven find his spectre to be entertaining?
Even Annabel Lee, who is a strategist, who knows that the Deans want something out of this game- wouldn’t she notice that there is only one bird in the sky? Who fly’s around the academy?
Okay what about the other subplots im sure Lenore isn’t involve with most of them right? Let’s see…
-Morella noticing the ring also involves Lenore
-Bee making a deal with Monty (and finds out that she can’t end the deal) involves Lenore
-Lenore is the only one who see the The gatekeeper (the mystery child)
-Lenore is the only one who has seen the deans beyond the “human form”
-Duke letter (it involves Lenore and Annabell)
- The future trial, where both teams need to plead their case ( to whoever) to save Ada and Lenore
The only subplot that doesn’t involve Lenore is…
- Monty and Will’s deal along side their relationship and Will clone thing
-Duke and Pluto’s relationship falling apart.
-Eula and Pluto’s future romantic relationship
This to me feels off, most main characters aren’t this involved in subplots especially when side characters are involved in these subplots in order to develop or explore more of their character and their dynamic with other characters.
Which leads me to...
6.how favoritism effects the story
Throughout the comic it is blatantly obvious that Lenore is Red&Flynns favorite characters. She is involved with everything, even when she is off screen we see she is mentioned multiple times by Annabell, her friends, and sometimes Monty. Even in flashbacks where we are suppose to explore Annabell as a character, Lenore is always there. Even now, when Lenore is in a LITERAL COMA, we are getting flashbacks of Lenore.
I understand that the authors need to finish Lennabels backstory, but at the same time R&F putting Lenore in a coma along side Ada is an advantage for them to expand more on the story instead of just briefly exploring it and moving on to another subplot (that will be also explored briefly).
I understand that writing isn’t easy and I can see R&Fs vison of the story and Lenore. But the biggest thing I see in their writing is how they struggle/don’t enjoy ‘boring writing’ like not giving other characters time to create connections with others or giving them time to see their problems and give them some character development. Instead of moving to the next action arc or some subplot. This and the favoritism of Lenore does negatively affect the story in terms of writing, especially where they have an advantage right know to explore & expand the subplots, side characters, minor characters, and lore of nevermore.
This is a really interesting take on the situation. I'm gonna write some thoughts out, and you can read them or not but I hope we can have some civil convo about this!
I think that a lot of people have different views on the situation with Lenore as the main character. Some people don't like her, and some want more of her. I think it's impossible to please everyone, so RNF are doing their best to tell the story they have written the best they can. I understand (though don't agree with) feeling as though the story has "stalled" in a way, but I think its a combination of things.
The first thing that I think a lot of us are feeling is the timeline of the story as a whole. I think it's canonically been like...a few weeks? maybe a month? And there are so many things going on, and lots of people are doing lots of things. The feeling as though Lenore is involved in too many subplots confuses me, because again, she is the main character. She is bound to be involved. And being upset that she appears in a flashback while she's unconscious, but the flashback is meant to give more context to her and Annabel's relationship, and their whole main plot situation, makes little sense to me. Narratively, there are so many reasons as to why we've gotten these flashbacks, and they do so much to further the narrative by deepening our understanding of Lenore AND Annabel, who are our main characters whether or not we personally like the side characters better.
I also feel that the point of them "poking holes in the story" might be an oversight. A lot of your comments contradict each other, with wanting more from the side characters and then also saying that the flashbacks for all the characters were too much. It's a little confusing to figure out what you are critiquing, or if you just didn't care for the pacing of that particular part of the story, which is super super valid! There are sometimes parts of stories that we just don't care for personally.
RNF have a lot of plans for the story, some they've shared, and some they haven't. I think that in their case, sometimes the holes are just things we haven't gotten to yet. Suspension of disbelief lets me believe that they have a plan for these things. And it is true that they have made mistakes, and corrected them, but I feel like accusing them of bending the story to make things easier from a narrative view is a little bad faith. At the end of the day, it is their story, and they know the characters better than we ever will.
The morality issue is very interesting to me. I think Lenore starting as a "I don't care about anyone but myself" type of character and then morphing into a "I need to save all my friends" type of character is so interesting, and shows character growth in the face of adversity. It would be easier for only her and Annabel to escape, but the desire to help multiple people to the detriment of her safety and her relationship with Annabel is a very interesting dilemma and I'm excited to see where it goes in the future. It is super valid to want to read a story about a morally grey or corrupt character, but I don't think that this was meant to be that kind of story from the beginning? But again, we could absolutely be interpreting things differently!
I think, again, at the core of this whole thing is the point that we just simply don't have enough information. We are not Red and Flynn. And as readers, we can either tear apart every single chapter and be disappointed because we've made ourselves upset, or we can trust in Red and Flynn to take us on the journey of their story as intended. It is hard when the story comes out in chapters every single week, so we don't have the whole story immediately available to analyze as a whole. We have to guess, theorize, and ruminate on the information that we have available, which inherently means that we are missing things, because we DON'T have all the info! Engaging with the story is wonderful and fun, but sometimes we veer into a category of being negative simply because we're bored or overcritical because of the wait.
This is in no way intended to start fights, or to accuse you specifically of anything negative, but I do feel as though this fandom has had the issue of people assuming a lot of things about the comic with not enough information. We are literally only like a third of the way through the story at absolute most. And the more that we tear things apart and engage in them negatively, the more we ruin the experience for ourselves. And I think that at the end of the day, RNF want us to enjoy reading their story that they're sharing with us, because they love what they create. Art is subjective in most cases, and that definitely includes comics.
Anyway, this was a little long and rambly, but I really have a lot of thoughts! As someone who really loves Nevermore and the story telling of it all, I really do believe in their story and want to see where it goes.
