i think part of what makes the guide and nadja compelling for me is that i genuinely believe, deep down, past the annoying clingyness of the guide and nadja's casually cruel unobservant nature ....... a lot of their tension comes from the fact that nadja feels threatened by the guide. hear me out (below the cut)
nadja spends a lot of the series bemoaning her lack of close female friends. she hates how everyone assumes she hates other women, she gets so excited over girls night, she has that entire arc with jenna that is both 1) a sort of healing for her own past awkward lonely self and 2) a way to connect with and HELP a fellow woman. and yet, when the guide appears - another woman! another VAMPIRE woman! someone she can commiserate with, someone who provides her an out away from the boys, someone who is actually an equal to her unlike dolly or jenna or marwa - she rejects her with swiftness.
and sure, the guide is tight laced and annoying and neurotic. and sure, a lot of the show is a meditation on friendship, and it is clear that our main vampires value friendship highly and don't want to just give it to someone like the guide (a lapdog for the council that tried to kill them, not to mention a complete outsider with shitty people skills).
but the guide loosens up by the time season 4 rolls around! she actively helps nadja with the nightclub and defers to her as mistress! we learn she was SO crazy sexy cool the other vamps forced her into eternal servitude! and as for friendship, the guide is their friend! she tries to help them (nandor's worldwide trip planning, nadja with the nightclub/dolly getting laid, fixing the sleep hypnosis for some examples), she is there for multiple antics, she pays attention to their interests (the fencing scene with laszlo is genuinely so fun) and she clearly cares for them. as much as they dismiss her and pretend not to gives a rats ass about her, they LET her stick around and LET her help and even ask for it sometimes.
so why then does nadja keep pushing her away? the guide is no more annoying than nandor or laszlo or guillermo on a bad day, and quite frankly she tends to be a lot more useful.
but THAT is the problem. the guide is useful. she is powerful in her own right (mist power / fucking around with witch magic / old and wise and experienced, more so than our main vamps). she may be a servant, but she is one with at least SOME sway and connections to the vampiric council. and nadja is terrified and jealous of that.
cause of course she is, right? nadja, the only woman for decades with a group of egotistical men, constantly fighting to have her voice heard and respected - part of her growth arc for season four is her unlocking that killer scream power! it isn't subtle! nadja jumped at the chance to leader the vampiric council, and unlike nandor has no qualms over flexing her power to keep others in line. she was ecstatic to be offered a position on the supreme worldwide vampiric council.
and then nandor constantly undermined her and made a million dumb decisions she was forced to fix. and then the supreme council put her in a useless committee where no on listened to her. and then she came home and had to deal with her family hindering her nightclub plans. nadja is constantly disempowered by the people she loves and respects the most.
and then there is the guide. sure the guide isn't at all liked - but she is respected. she is trusted with important vampiric council duties from day one of seeing her. she has interesting and unique powers. she commands all the wraiths with barely a thought. she is knowledgeable and helpful. even when our main vamp family don't like her, they respect what she knows and what she can do.
in many ways, i think the guide has the kind of unquestioned power and respect that nadja craves - and thus nadja cannot help but be petty and jealous and intimidated, whether or not she is fully conscious of that. (and i don't think she is; dolly's flight from home proved that nadja is not always in touch with her emotions, even when they are intense and impactful to others around her).
and what is the only thing she has over the guide, her special something the guide can never have? her family, and her ability to connect with people. so of course she uses this against the guide. of course she shuts the guide out and makes her feel small and rejects her over and over ...... because secretly she feels LESSER than the guide, and thus wants to make the guide feel lesser.
it is about power, it is about control, it is about nadja never feeling like she has a purpose and meeting someone who has had a purpose for centuries and used it to become smart and powerful in ways she only dreams of.
and of course, the tragedy of it all is that the grass is always greener. the guide would trade it all for a family of her own - for close friends and companions who care about her, who like her, hell, who just acknowledge her! her 'purpose' is a punishment, quite literally! and of course, she doesn't see herself as particularly cool or powerful, so the idea that nadja's rejection of her is stemming from jealousy never crosses her mind. she is a lackey, an overworked servant, a lonely woman desperate for connection surrounded by literal ghosts.
the guide and nadja are of course very fun to look at through a toxic yuri/clingy woman and uncaring object of her affections lens but i definitely think it is deeper than that and, quite frankly, more compelling.
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