Derpderp, nothing much to see here. :P This is just my personal space where I reblog: artwork I find compelling or inspiring / #art or #anat or #animals other art/writing references and tutorials / #writing or #art ref miscellaneous things I find amusing / #amusing or #lol stuff for photoshop / #textures or #fonts or #photoshop fangirl ramblings on my writing over my current brainrot of interest #Castlevania Nocturne Find me also on Ao3 as shingie!
About: So...I revived my 10 year old fangirl tumblr blog as a corner to vomit my Castlevania Nocturne feelings. I'm so fucking embarrassed to find out people went through my blog lol, so I guess I should tidy up around here bc I have followers now I guess oop
I. Published Written Works:
This Moment Between Us (Annette-focused)
The Distance Between Us (Richter-focused)
Yours Truly (Annette/Edouard, Dual POV)
The Incredibly Infamous, and Utterly Incorrigible Belmont Reputation (Richter/Annette, Richter-focused)
Holding on and Letting Go (Richter/Annette, Edouard/Annette)
II. Character Analysis/Essays:
Edouard Character Profile and Analysis: A deep dive into the life Edouard might have lived, in context of historical Saint Domingue's theatre culture and society
Richter Character Profile and Analysis: The deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction of an archetype of a hero.
A Rant on Annette's Inclusion in Castlevania Nocturne: How Annette is best girl, but also, a very long rant about the discourse surrounding black female characters/representation in historical fantasy setting
Nonsensical headcanons, ramblings:
"Haitian Vodou: Life and Survival" - How Cecile's lesson to Annette embodies the tenet, spirit, philosophy of Vodou
Haitian Maroonage - Saint Domingue Population Demographics
Annette/Edouard: thematic writing inspirations, on headcanons on the "ship" (i.e., whether it was romantic or platonic), green scarf
Exploring the Narrative Significance of Edouard's Blue Eyes
Continuing Annette's personal character arc and growth and how it relates to Richter
But seriously, a huge thank you to anybody who has taken the time out of their day to read my nonsense, I'm so grateful. All this time I've been pretty lonely rambling to myself for the most part. (╥﹏╥)
... post to be updated with more to come, hopefully! Thanks for stopping by!
I've been dealing with a certain loneliness when it came to writing and developed a crippling unhealthy rejection sensitivity. The advice I hear all the time is find your fandom friends, but it seeing others interact with each other only reminded me of how alone I was.
I think the worst time was when I had published a Nocturne fic that sat at zero hits for nearly two weeks before it achieved a single click. So I deleted everything because having my fics up was a constant reminder of how much I felt like a miserable failure for being so deeply invested in these characters and laboring effort into thoughtfully researching the history and culture of the Haitian Revolution, Vodou/African Mythology, Saint Domingue,
Something changed when I published the ATLA fic out of nowhere. I worked on it for five months, having that constant intrusive and pervasive cloud in my head: no one's going to read your writing, no one's going to read your writing -- I almost gave up on it midway, but I kept going. And in a way, writing a story where Aang was stuck mentally and unable to move helped me move on.
In the end I'm still in the same place where I started, alone. And I'm going back to write Nocturne fic and it really hurts knowing that the hit count will still be at zero. And I think in spite of that, I've accepted the reality of being alone, have always been .
Why? Why was I writing? I guess some part of me hoped that it would reach someone, that the feeling being expressed would be understand or resonate within the writing. I think I know better to not chase the ideal anymore.
So, I'm still alone, but… I'm still writing. But I guess now the difference is that I've accepted the reality that nobody is going to read my writing. But yet some part of me I think, will always continue to hope.
Note in practice and everyday use, this idiom is not used in a romantic context. Instead, it evokes a dynamic of friendly rivalry or parallel striving in which each participant pushes the other toward growth and innovation (i.e., sports or academic settings). If one advances, the other surges forward in response in reciprocal motion. Sometimes one is ahead; sometimes it's the other. The cadence of 你追我赶 makes me think of leapfrogging, tagging each other, in continuous overtaking and counter-taking.
In many ways, I feel Aang/Azula dynamic embodies this, as much of their interaction in the show is framed around the chase (hunts, evasions, tactical positioning). But beneath the literal hunt lies narrative potential to evolve -- by swapping between whoever is the moving target, it becomes a synergy between ideological opposites, catalysing escalation.
What I’m intrigued by is exploring how this dynamic across different stages of their respective lives. The “chase” becomes less about literal capture but how chasing each other pushes the other’s character’s growth and development.
你追我赶 is the dynamic that underpinned my writing process: two forces locked in movement, defining one another through pursuit. And I think there’s more to this I’d like to tease out someday.
Dao De Jing (道德經;), Chapter 12
The lines that Aang is reciting during meditation comes Laozi’s (老子) Dao De Jing (道德經;), Chapter 12 and then by the conclusion, the remainder of the verse is recited.
Colors blind the eye.
Sounds deafen the ear.
Flavors numb the taste.
Thoughts weaken the mind.
Desires wither the heart.
The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.
The gist of this message can be condensed to this: when you allow external or internal stimuli to overwhelm you out of balance. By learning trust and be guided by your honest self, you can allow yourself to be open and navigate the world with balance.
The sky metaphor is one I feel is a close personification of the Master achieving the Dao (道). The heart open as the sky is not one who feels nothing, but it's the heart that has the capacity to hold everything, like the sky does. The sky is an endless canvas that can receive the lightning, turbulent storms, the changing winds, bright sunshine -- each shift in the weather does not affect the previous one. The open heart does not resolve desire, it allows desire (or grief) to arise and be wholly experienced, but also when time comes, wholly pass through. Out of all characters, Aang has the biggest capacity to hold almost boundless empathy and heart (but he is still human at the end of the day).
I should qualify that the original Chinese text for “The Master observes the world / but trusts his inner vision. / He allows things to come and go. / His Heart is as open as the Sky.” is actually 是以聖人為腹不為目，故去彼取此 which literally translates to “Therefore the master acts for the belly (腹) and not for the eyes(目); thus he discards that and takes this.” My personal interpretation is that belly akin to the gut: the truest and most honest source of sustenance; whereas eyes can be prone to superficial perception. While Mitchell has gotten criticism before for changing the original text, it served better for my story’s pacing.
I really like how this passage line descends from the physically observable (sight, sound, taste) to deeper within, abstract (desire, thoughts) -- I took inspiration and applied this to my story structure as Aang and Azula start to make deeper digs at each other.
One thing I hesitated quite a lot on is intermingling Taoism and Buddhism, as Buddhism and its many branches have their own unique philosophies and concepts.
Buddhism and Meditation
I used this ("Detailed Samatha Instructions") reddit post to help me jump into Aang’s headspace when he's trying to meditate [side note: I gotta laugh at myself for doing all this research on meditation for fanfic purposes and not actual self cultivation lmao].
The Riddle Tree depicts Samatha (tranquility) and Vipassanā (insight) as key messengers that go hand-in-hand for consciousness to receive undistorted, "true" information drawn from concrete sensations and physical experience -- and that this accuracy is what leads to unbinding. You will notice how this is distinct from how Laozi describes sensation in relation to the self.
I enjoyed this essay clarifying the two subtypes of desire as defined by Buddha, taṇha and chanda. Prior to this, I was only familiar with the absolute connotations associated with “desire is the source of suffering, therefore by detaching oneself, etc.” in the future I hope to draw more inspiration from the different subtypes of desire ("Skillful Desires"), and we can manage them to enable transformation into another (i.e., as ascribed in Vajrayana Buddhism)
Others:
I used this image as inspiration for the tapestry Aang is observing, mostly because of the composition of a central figure surrounded by diminutive ones, and the one hand on the earth position in bhumisparsha mudrav (this becomes relevant at the climax, heh).
@atlaculture post (Cultural Architecture: Air Nomad Architecture) about the real life inspirations for the Southern Air Temple to help describe the temple in depth.
Concluding thoughts:
Whenever I had observed Aang/Azula discourse, people had pointed out the disparity/imbalance of how Aang is supposed to forgive Azula to allow her to grow. I thought it would be fun to challenge myself where the roles are flipped, but within the constraints of how uniquely Azula would be.
If there's anything I learned, I really enjoy going back to where I've documented my thought process / understanding of things at the time, only to see my understanding of characters and concepts evolve over time.
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If you managed to read all of this, hello and thank you! It’s been a minute, hasn’t it?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Summary:
Aang achieves a renewed level of post-nut clarity.
Inspired by Azulaang Week 2025’s prompt ‘Change.’
Rating: Explicit (NSFW warning)
Tags: Rough Sex, Erotic humiliation, Sparring as foreplay, Weaponized Vulnerability, Cultural Genocide Survivor's Guilt Character Study, Aang-centric (Avatar), Aged-Up Character(s), Post-Canon, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics,Unresolved Relationship Ambiguity
Author’s Notes:
(POV: its 2025 and you fall into a niche ship that pretty much already passed its peak back in 2020-2021 🙃 )
My (ungodly late) submission to @azulaangweek! Prompt: Change. Please note the tags and proceed with caution. I was hesitant to post considering this is the most degenerate thing I’ve ever written and I’ll probably be exiled for this... Welp, time to get canceled … goodbye to a fandom ship I never properly joined I guess.
Last note, I have not kept up with the comics so I’m fairly certain this does not follow comic canon developments.
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Writers' love go ❤
Thank youuu for letting me yap about my writing
This Distance Between Us (Richter/Annette)
I Dream of Ginen (Richter/Annette)
Holding on and Letting Go (Edouard/Annette)
Yours Truly (Edouard/Annette)
The Incredibly Infamous, and Utterly Incorrigible Belmont Reputation (Richter/Annette)
Nobody reads my writing so it makes me happy when people remember I exist <333
Here is my contribution dedicated to the select few (@ifishouldvanish) who have entrenched in completely unhinged brainrot territory regarding Nocturne.
People have already done breakdowns (see: @mysteryanimator has done so many but see this post talking about use of blue) regarding the subtle visual symbolic significance imbued throughout Nocturne's pertaining color choices in character design/shot composition.... but something that's I've encountered multiple times throughout my writing journey of Edouard/Annette vs Richter/Annette I'm inevitably drawn to comparisons when describing their eyes (actually, this shows up in my very first piece written back in Oct 2023...).
There's something just *~*there~*~* regarding the artistic choice to make Edouard and Richter both have blue eyes, but their eyes are always depicted with completely different in vibes. Edouard's eyes are often still, calm, tranquil, perhaps ethereal/ghostly; whereas the energy from Richter's eyes is no less expressive but exudes his drive/brimming with magic.
I can't exactly prove it, since there's nothing to substantiate this... something I've been thinking a lot about is why artists gave Edouard blue eyes and say not... olive green eyes... when Edouard's choice of color to wear is green, and not blue. Why? Why not make Edouard's design more cohesive or any other color?
The blue eyes mean both different things to their respective characters. For Edouard, it's the connection to his mixed heritage, to his humanity when he's a night creature, it's a visual indication of his melancholy, stillness/tranquility; whereas Richter's it's a nod to his generational legacy in its deep royal blue hue; it's a blue that becomes alive when he's determined to fight for his drive/purpose/fire.
...BUT...!! There's also the fridge layer of blue eyes meaning something distinct and unique to Annette; both contrasting, but wholly and uniquely distinct in their identity. Just like in how both were uniquely different but fundamental in shaping who Annette is and how she grew as a person because of their influence in her life... and how that visually depicted in their eyes. Edouard's eyes are unimposing; whereas Richter's gaze has his own will.
In any case, my brainrotted has severely rotted so I can't say if this was intentional; but I can speak to how much fun I have weaving this as reoccuring motif that I lean on a lot in my own writing, describing the differences in their eyes, their energy in their gaze, and what each person means to Annette.
And that concludes my completely sane and rational analysis and further proof that I have completely gone around the bend.
Excerpts from "Rituals, Runaways, and the Haitian Revolution Collective Action in the African Diaspora" by Crystal Nicole Eddins
Cambridge Core - Sociology of Race and Ethnicity - Rituals, Runaways, and the Haitian Revolution
Personal Commentary:
Through examining demographic statistics, as well as stuffed full of documented anecdotal events, it paints a vivid portrait and diverse portraits for how escaped slaves had to leverage ingenuity, and creativity to be able to survive.
This book was also extremely insightful to peer into what it might have been like to live in Cap-Francais at the time, especially what a escaped runaway might have lived or how they might have lived in order to avoid detection.
This book also illuminates how different the experience was for men vs women and what unique roles they might have played in shaping the demographics of Le Cap, as well as on the plantation.
I showcase some of the demographics data in this post here.
Demographics, and Skillsets
Men over the age of 16 were the majority of runaways, accounting for nearly 80 percent (or 10,000) of the 12,857 individuals from newspaper runaway advertisements sampled from 1770 - 1790.
Men were also more likely to occupy artisanal labor positions that allowed them a certain amount of latitude during the workday. Skills like coopers, carpenters, shoemakers, fishermen, and other artisans ran errands, apprenticed and were leased by their owner to other plantations, or hired themselves out to earn their own money.
Enslaved African women in Saint-Domingue were overrepresented as field workers and performed the most physically taxing jobs.
While creole and mixed-race enslaved women were likely to be
artisanal laborers or were found in the domestic sphere, most Africa born women were under strict surveillance throughout the workday and therefore did not have as much flexibility to travel beyond the plantation.
There is a disproportionately low number of women reflected in the runaway advertisements, with women representing only 14.45 percent or 1,800 out of 12,857.
Children: Plantation inventories show that boys tended to begin work around age eight, tending animals, working as domestics, or working in the field. Girls worked as nurses, domestics, and
field hands. Moreau de Saint-Méry observed that creole girls tended to have children at an early age, as young as 11 or 13, which temporarily delayed their entry into the workforce until after their first child was born.
When African women’s children fathered by African or
creole men were born in the colony, the children were called creole nègres, or blacks, When an African or creole woman’s child was a product of coerced sexual encounters with white men, the children were born bi-racial mulâtres. If a creole black woman had a child with a mulâtre, then the child was a two-thirds black griffe. Less common were quarterons, those who were one-quarter black.
Methods of Obtaining Freedom: Though a relatively rare occurrence, enslaved creoles could purchase manumission with their labor, and men could join the military and maréchaussée fugitive slave police. Duty in the armed forces was a way for colonial authorities to coopt marronnage, creating an option for legal emancipation. Similarly, mixed-race people described as mulâtres, griffes, and quarterons were few in number among runaways, since as a group they were more likely to be gens du couleur libres rather than enslaved. However, these findings nuance understandings of Saint-Domingue’s free population of color by demonstrating that not all mixed-race people were privileged by their white fathers’ wealth.
Continent-born Africans comprised approximately 62 percent of the runaway population and well over half of these were West Central Africans, which corroborates other historical data that indicate they were the majority regional group in late eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue.
An important part of the knowledge shared among the submerged networks of runaways was where one could hide once leaving the plantation. Sunday markets in the major towns like Cap Français were opportunities for blacks – free, enslaved, and runaways alike – to converge and interact, buying and selling food, exchanging services, and sharing information about issues pertinent to their lives, such as achieving freedom.
Skills and mobility: Most enslaved Africans and African descendants performed hard labor in the fields of sugar, coffee, and indigo plantations – tilling land, cutting cane, tending to animals, etc. However, larger-scale operations, especially sugar plantations, had a wider array of specialized tasks and positions that men mostly occupied, allowing them more daily flexibility than field hands. Select few were artisanal trade laborers or otherwise domestic workers who performed tasks that were specialized, which often allowed them to travel beyond their immediate plantation to run errands, or at times even learn to read and/or write a European language. Seamstresses, midwives, fishermen, hairdressers, shoemakers, carpenters, valets, coopers, sugar boilers, coaches, and commandeurs were just a few of occupationsthat were considered to have a higher rank in the enslaved labor force.
Enslaved artisanal bondspeople in more populated urban areas had contact with people of varying walks of life. Women tended to be seamstresses, hairdressers, and vendors. Merancienne, a creole woman from Martinique, was a seamstress and laundress who fled Le Cap in September of 1767, and was last seen selling eggs and poultry. Another female vendor was 18-year-old Isidore of Kongo, who sold herbs and flowers on the streets of Le Cap and escaped repeatedly in 1770 and 1772. Baptiste, a creole man, was both a hairdresser and a violin player who wore a blue vest and black culottes
Escape and Freedom, and Living Life as an Runaway in Cap Francais (Le Cap)
Free people of color provided refuge to runaways as well, although they risked losing their freedom for doing so. The neighborhood of Petit Guinée in Cap Français was a regular destination for runaways to find housing, lease themselves out for pay, and blend in with the growing population of free people of color. While many free people of color were wealthy slave owners themselves, manumitted slaves of the affranchi class maintained biological and social ties to enslaved people and at times offered them shelter, food, clothing, or work. In June 1786, colonial authorities flogged and hanged a group of maroons, enslaved people, and free blacks accused of theft in the public square of Le Cap; they whipped and sentenced others to the chain gang for forging free passes and renting rooms from a freeman named Larose.
One way runaways reimagined their status and identity was by passing as free. Before retreating from plantations, some runaways who could read or write in French or other European languages – a form of human capital that was valued in the Americas – replicated documents to declare themselves free.
Methods of Disguising or Passing as Free: Others found “fancy” clothing or otherwise disguised themselves to be considered as part of the population of free people of color. intentionality through strategic decision-making and conscious intentions to create lasting change for themselves. They appropriated material goods and technologies through looting horses, mules, or canoes to reach their chosen hideout quickly, or they took money, clothing, or food to consume or to exchange at a market.
The Value of Markets in Exchanging Information and Network of Connections
Le Cap was a rowdy city of 20,000, patrolled by fewer than 20 police officers – leading to the 1785 Chamber of Agriculture report about calendas and other gatherings of slaves.
Not only was enslaved labor exploited for no compensation, enslaved people were prohibited from financially benefitting from other types of economic activity such as trading food, sugarcane, or other commodities.
To counter being dispossessed of any economic autonomy, maroons gravitated to cities and town markets to participate in “market marronnage”. Enslaved people in the areas surrounding Cap Français were exposed to many of the luxuries available in the city, which attracted people from all walks of life, especially during the weekend markets. Urban slaves, African, and mixed-race individuals alike purchased their own freedom and in some instances went on to own businesses and real estate.
The Petit Guinée (“Little Africa”) neighborhood was composed of gens du couleur and affranchis and was a magnet for runaways, enabling them to socialize and rent rooms as they re-fashioned
their lives as free people. During a search of Petit Guinée in the early 1780s, police found over 200 runaways.
The complex strata of race, color, status, and class in Le Cap made these kinds of informal economic activities possible. The population density of the city and the ongoing interactions between enslaved people, free people of color, and runaways facilitated connections between them to circumvent colonial structures through rebellions, conspiracies, and other forms of resistance. Both enslaved people and maroons took part in informal trading of wares and illicit expropriation of resources to bolster a sense of economic independence and freedom.
Atlhough Le Cap was the most popular, Neighborhoods like Haut-du-Cap, Providence, Petit-Carenage, and Petite-Guinée or “Little Guinea,” a section of town with a significant enslaved and free black population, appear frequently in the Les Affiches advertisements as suspected havens for runaways living in Le Cap.
Unlike enslaved men who traveled as valets, fishermen, or carpenters, women often did not venture beyond plantations for work-related tasks. Women were not as familiar with the colony’s landscape, in part accounting for their lower numbers as maroons. Instead, some women maroons fled into urban areas where they could participate in formal and informal commercial activities as “market maroons.” They bought and sold provisions, goods, and services, which allowed them economic autonomy and “their own insurgent geographies, fashioning an infrastructure of black
freedom . . . where they took up public space, created networks, and forged community.”
Free women of color were already known as entrepreneurs in Port-au-Prince and especially in Le Cap; that maroon women sought to assimilate into these social, geographic and economic spaces “was an open challenge to the racialized and gendered logics of slavery” that mandated enslaved women exclusively perform agricultural and reproductive labor. For example, Marianne, a 23-year-old mixed-race woman, was well known as a vendor at the Le Cap market selling fish, herbs, milk, and fruit. An unnamed Mina woman was often seen around the plantations of Haut-du-Cap selling bread
Code Noir and Regulations of Behavior for Daily Life of Enslaved
In Saint-Domingue and other French colonies, the Code Noir outlined royal dictates for enslaved people’s behavior and the status of their condition.
The Code Noir articulated the economic, social, and political apparatuses that bolstered the subjugation and enslavement of African people while justifying the brute force violence of the colonial plantation enterprise.
Though the Code Noir was in part written with the intention to “protect” the enslaved with guidelines for punishments, enslavers in Saint-Domingue generally disregarded top-down policies from the French crown and exerted physical punishments that exceeded regulations issued by the king.
The Code Noir implemented strict rules that were designed to constrain black people’s everyday behaviors and movements, with the assumption that access to freedom of movement, time, material resources and forms of capital, political power, and the ability to bear arms would contribute to rebellion.
The Code Noir barred enslaved people from congregating with others from different plantations for any purpose without the written permission of their owner, riding horses, or walking on the roads after dark; it prohibited them from carrying weapons in public, and in the aftermath of the Mackandal case, any enslaved person carrying a sword or a machete could face three months in prison.
According to Articles XVIII, XIX, and XXIV of the Code Noir, the enslaved could not sell any sugarcane under any circumstances, could not profit from the sale of commodities or foodstuffs at markets without the slave owner’s permission, and were not allowed to earn income for the trade of subsistence food on their days off.
Slaves belonging to different owners could not congregate for any reason lest they face the whip as a minimum punishment or death at most, since frequent violations would constitute grand marronnage. Owners were prevented from allowing assemblies of slaves and would be fined if held in violation.
The Code Noir’s limitations on enslaved people’s physical movement were also linked to disempowering them economically: slaves were not supposed hold marché de nègres or nègre markets and could not sell sugarcane, fruit, vegetables, firewood, herbs, or any other type of commodity. Their goods could be confiscated and returned to their owner unless they had a ticket from that owner. But given the overwhelming population of Africans and African descendants in Saint-Domingue, these rules were not always upheld or were outright ignored. For example, the marché de nègres were prominent features of city life in both Port-au-Prince and Cap Français. As discussed in Chapter 3, enslaved people were known to congregate in churches, at burial grounds, or on the outskirts of plantations to perform their sacred rituals and other cultural practices.
BEARING ARMS
Enslaved people were barred from carrying weapons in the colony but did so routinely, for instance, carrying mayombo fighting sticks at calenda ritual gatherings or when they were attempting to free themselves. They used work tools such as machetes and sickles, or stole pistols, hunting rifles, and swords
Africans used swords, battleaxes, spears, firearms like muskets, and poison-laced arrows in their fighting styles and would have made effective use of available tools and weapons as maroons and rebels. Sixty-four absconders, mostly Africans and other Atlantic creoles, prepared themselves by illegally carrying some sort of weapon like a gun or a machete, and were considered armed and dangerous.
They empowered themselves with militant actions by bearing arms such as guns, sabers, sickles, and other work tools as they prepared to endure the high-risk action of living in marronnage.
SHIFTING LANDSCAPE OF MAROONAGE POST 1750
Letters sent in 1775 described marronnage as a pervasive problem that had the capacity to undo the colony; one contributing factor cited was the dense, nearly impenetrable mountain ranges into which the maréchaussée and other hunters attempted and often failed to pursue fugitives.
Though Saint-Domingue’s mountains were increasingly occupied by coffee plantations by the mid-eighteenth century, maroons were adept to finding locations that were isolated and difficult to access enough to avoid capture. West Central African runaways especially would have been inclined to turn to the mountains, since the highlands north and south of the Congo River were more densely populated due to the hospitable climate for farming and fishing.
Colonialism also spatialized slavery itself, in that the institution of racialized forced labor was intended to exist singularly in the colonies, not the French mainland. France was thought to have been an entirely free nation regardless of one’s racial identity.
However, even this belief was challenged when in 1777 free people of color from the colonies were banned from entering the home country and claiming citizenship.
Generally speaking, France was a geographical space meant for free whites, and Saint-Domingue was a space designated for enslaved blacks.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the spread of sugar increasingly dominated Saint-Domingue’s landscape in the lowlands and valleys, and coffee plantations in the mountainous highlands.
In 1789, there were nearly 800 sugar plantations, over 3,000 coffee plantations, over 3,000 indigo plantations, and nearly 800 cotton plantations. Sugar plantation sizes were quite large and could cover between 580 and over 900 acres of land. But while sugar was produced in the plains, and the plantation presence expanded horizontally, coffee plantations in the mountains added a vertical dimension to sites of oppression. The looming presence of these plantations and the maréchaussée fugitive slave police operated in a panopticon-like fashion where enslaved people were under seemingly constant surveillance.
In the early eighteenth century, the mountainous towns east of Le Cap were renowned for the threatening presence of armed maroon bands who were known to rob and kill whites and attack plantations.
Another example of maroons’ usage of rival geography included their contentious occupation of mountainous zones that sat along the Saint-Domingue–Santo Domingo border, and their entanglement in geopolitical fights between the French and Spanish. After several decades of fighting, the Spanish finally ceded Saint-Domingue to the French in 1697 with the Treaty of Ryswick and maintained rulership over the island’s eastern two-thirds—the colony of Santo Domingo. Yet the agreement did little to quell rivalry between the French and Spanish crowns, nor struggles over property ownership at the border itself. These localized spats were reflections of inter-imperial competition for control and dominance over the slave trade, the enslaved, sugar production, and territory. For over a century, beginning in the late 1600s, enslaved Africans and maroons leveraged the conflict between the French and the Spanish to their benefit, turning on one empire or the other until the boundary between Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo was finalized with the 1777 Treaty of Aranjuez.
Writing game: Post the last line that you wrote and tag someone for every word of that line. Tagged by @ifishouldvanish and @ruiniel
Pairing: Annette/Richter
And so Annette closed her eyes, and allowed herself to listen, to feel. To listen to his comforting, soft breaths as he slumbered beside her. To feel the adumbrations from her own heart as she recalled the image of Richter’s eyes -- that moment when that icy blue frost began to taper against the shuttering of his eyelids when he had looked at her, just right before he finally closed them.
Pairing: Annette/Edouard
Edouard instinctively tugged at his kerchief, its noose becoming suffocatingly cloying in its hold on him. It was some little silly, meaningless ritual that had started between them, really; nothing more than a mundane gesture that she would tie it for him every morning, and that he would let her for the reason being that it made her happy. Nothing more, nothing less.
Perhaps green was not his color, after all.
From chapters 2 & 3 of Holding on and Letting Go (https://archiveofourown.org/works/60480400)
Tagging @cabe0512 And also, @ahumanintraining and @fangirlingforeverz because we were literally just talking about this the other day xD
The Incredibly Infamous, and Utterly Incorrigible Belmont Reputation (https://archiveofourown.org/works/59590225)
No One:
Me: WELL let me completely go nuts on my very historically (in)accurate notes that one time I wrote a completely unhinged Richette crackfic
“Rights, huh? That I know all about.” Richter postured upright, held up two fingers with one hand, and placed the other over his heart in an impression of a pledge. “As was solemnly uttered in the Declaration of the Rights of Man: Men are born free and equal in rights. The fundamental rights to food, and to fuck.”
“That is not how that goes, and you know it.” Maria closed her eyes, her expression crossed with her arms folded. “God, you really are a dick.”
This line was riffed from Article 1 of the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789. This Assembly obviously came together to put forth and establish the founding rules and principles of what would be the french democratic republic.
The actual quote goes:
"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good."
(Source)
What's so amusing to me regarding this is that Richter is pretends not to know anything about the French Revolution, but is almost pinpoint accurate in citing something so specific and niche 😂 . My headcanon is that Richter was actually doing this to purposefully 'rile' Maria up, because I just KNOW Maria has completely gone OFF ranting unhingted to Richter whenever she comes across ideas of the French Revolution that inspires or angers her. (I actually think Richter is more well read than he pretends to be, he just likes to be a troll sometimes).
----
“Haven't heard that one before.” Richter grinned, completely unaffected. “Speaking of dicks -- I'll have you know, reports of my heroic conquests have been greatly under-exaggerated. Would you prefer to hear the version with or without clothes?”
This quote is riffed from what has been attributed to Mark Twain's 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated' which unfortunately wasn't relevant until 1897 but riffing off the line and modernizing the dialogue is seemed appropriate (Note: this is actually misquoted or misunderstood, which makes this joke even funnier to me that Richter is quoting something that is wrong). Totally completely historically accurate yep.
'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated is often used to humorously comment on a person’s absence from society or to refer to something that appears dead or hopeless but still has a slim chance of success.' (Source)
---
(Meanwhile, across the far reaches of the vast library, a soft chuckle floated amidst the dignified air of the institution. “Ah, the incredibly infamous Belmont reputation. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, I suppose.”)
Lastly, this quote is the famous saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same" which unfortunately was coined by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1848 but honestly it seemed for so fitting for Alucard to say considering he would have fought alongside many Belmonts across generations.
And that's all, folks! I hope you guys enjoyed my very historically ~accurate rendition of Richter and Maria debating the French Revolution. :{D
My very elaborate explanation for Edouard's pet name for Annette ('petite') that nobody asked for but I just have so many feelings about these twooo 🥺 Petite is obviously what you would call someone in French 'dear' or 'little', a diminutive pet name.
On the topic of Edouard being a little subconsciously patronizing but affectionately doting on Annette, I just think Edouard's gentle and easygoing nature he's so used to handling her moments of her stubborn streaks (and prior to Nocturne S1, he probably was one of the only few that knew how to handle her)… so he uses the pet name especially a little for moments to tease her when's she's being so stubborn. But also, because he was so easygoing and kind with her and treats her stubbont moments as endearing, Annette's bullheaded and stubbornness continued.
This is really corny and self-indulgent cliche, but you know what I totallly write Edouard with smooth AF flowery pickup lines that are poetic because ya girl has been reading too many 90s harlequin romance novels 🤭 🤭 🤭
Now I'm thinking about NightCreature!Edouard calling Annette 'petite' still, because now relative to him when he's a large creature now, she really will be petite (!!!) compared to him AHHHH~~ Them just... being gentle in their exchanges with each other in a way that is uniquely them 🥺🥺🥺
And additional headcanon courtesy of @cloudpalaces... maybe there's a part of her where if like if there’s anyone annette lets herself be small and a bit lost with it’s edouard. part of her is always going to be that scared teen who stumbled into his dressing room and found the first person who was ever able to really protect her.
“I think… you just need to be patient, Annette.” He reaches down and grabs a lavender plant stalk, tearing it from the root. He circles the tip of the herb around the chin and then taps her nose with the end. “It takes patience and a strong heart.”
Annette chuckles as she takes the stalk from his fingertips. “Patience is not something I am known for.” She returns the gesture, tapping the plant on his forehead.
“Ah, so you finally listen to me and realize I was not speaking out of my ass?”
She laughs as Edouard takes the plant back. “I’m serious.” The lavender touches her forehead before a pair of lips replace it. “You’re bold.” The lavender touches Annette’s nose, and her blush deepens as another kiss occurs. “You’re valiant and sincere.”
The stalk strokes both her cheeks and the singer whispers another set of words.
“Passionate.” Kiss. “Enduring.” Kiss. “Kind.” Kiss
Annette took the plant from his hand. “And I think,” she replies, “that you are describing yourself, my dear Edouard.” She lays the lavender against his lips before leaning forward and delivering a peck.
The man chuckles again before placing his forehead against hers. They stare into each other’s eyes, enjoying the quiet moment between them. "Warriors in arms, Annette. Family in hearts."
Sobs I love everything about this... I've been in rarepair hell for these two and nobody's ever dedicated or created something for me (except @cloudpalaces for their Edouard/Annette ship meme) so this means SO much to me.
THANK YOU THANK YOU *glomps you across the screen* I can't speak to how much this means to me
Their teasing familiarity with each other!! The way their relationship straddles between the platonic, familial, and teasing on romantic vibes sometimes
The lavender!!! THEIR connection transcends alll. Thank you for all the research you did into this
How patient and gentle and teasing Edouard is always with her, counterbalancing her hotheadedness
BRB may run off with this to take it to E-rated territory LOLOL
More Richter/Annette rambling as I work through my writing process, because what else am I doing here really
Sobs I received my first in-depth comment on my Richette oneshot where someone FINALLY noticed all the love and labor I poured into depicting the multiple dimensions of Annette. At the time, it was important to me that depict Annette as flawed (and that Richter loved her anyway!).
It makes me really sad when I see people so openly talk and joke about how they didn’t care for Richter/Annette in S1, but of course my brain had to completely hyperfixate on Annette back then. I loved her grief, her anger, her shortsightedness and her eventual soft side -- all these parts are equally valid parts of her and I loved how much the show gave her space to express it unapologetically. Something about her character journey to not see beyond black-and-white judgments, to grow her perception of the world through a more nuanced lens, to question and look deeper within herself instead of just being fueled on on her anger-driven trauma, to be kinder to herself and others, to learn to listen to understand holistically -- there were so many elements that captivated me back then to write for Annette and she lived so vibrantly in my brain... and I wonder when I will be able to move on, because everybody else will quickly move on and I will be in the same place as I was Fall 2024, with Richter, Annette, and Edouard so vividly continuing to occupy my brain .-.
I was venting to a fandom friend in DM about how fucking embarrassing to hyperfixate on unpopular side characters like Annette and Edouard. And coming to terms of swallowing the bitter reality that the reasons why I continue to write for Richter/Annette aren’t things anyone want to read about. Ultimately, I just gotta own up to what I’m hyperfixating on and write for myself.
As I study Vodouism further to analyze what elements did or didn’t make into the show (esp. any inaccuracies), I realized how much of Annette’s journey in S1 and S2 is a visual metaphor of going deeper into the ounsi initiation process (receiving a potèt from Ogou which is likely her Met Tet, being guided by Met Kalfou rather than just Papa Legba, becoming a chwal for Sekhmet, home being synonymous with interconnected). Despite its limited depictions or any inaccuracies, at the heart of it the show captures the “spirit” or thematic element. Noticing especially where they look creative liberties informs potential approaches that I could take.
My latest Richter/Annette (written before S2) oneshot reflects my first attempt to incorporate Haitian Vodou philosophy and wisdom, although I did creative liberties. In my last post (“Vodou in Haiti: Way of Life and Mode of Survival”) I explored how Cecile’s message to Annette in S1 hits on the fundamental tenets of Vodou philosophy and wisdom.
Remember, Annette -- no matter where you are, as long as you allow yourself to feel, to listen - you will be able to feel the Iwa that connects us all. Whether the stirrings of a single blade of grass in the wind, the breath of an animal taking its last, or the rumblings of the soil beneath you. Even the whisperings from the ones you love, when they are no longer with you. All around, everywhere, within you; it is here, and it will be over there. The threads that connect us all, no matter how big a beast or small of a drop of rain; these are the connections, the connections that transcend beyond the realm of our earth.
This excerpt written by me is a condensed phrasing from Michel’s paper on Vodou being interconnected, spinning some creative liberties. I’m really proud of myself of how I was able to end the oneshot. It ends with Annette allowing herself a peace of mind that she couldn’t before in Richter’s presence, therefore wholly integrating for the first time, what Cecile was trying to tell her.
And so Annette closed her eyes, and allowed herself to listen, to feel. To listen to his comforting, soft breaths as he slumbered beside her. To feel the adumbrations from her own heart as she recalled the image of Richter’s eyes -- that moment when that icy blue frost began to taper against the shuttering of his eyelids when he had looked at her, just right before he finally closed them.
Something I’ve thought about a lot, especially as I work through my existing WIP is how Richter can inspire Annette’s character growth or why she might be drawn to him. And in completing this oneshot, I think I answered my own question. That sometimes, it’s a matter of the right person, the right time, at that certain phase in your life of learning the lesson you need to. It really is that simple, really.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Pairing: Edouard/Annette
Rating: T
Prompt: Pining/Jealousy
Chapter-Specific Author commentary:
Uh... originally I just wanted to write a simple, fluffy oneshot of Annette in a karabela dress (this draft pre-dated Season 2 so I at the time, I wasn't even sure if Annette would even wear a dress, since S1 her dress seems to be more on the practical side). However, as I began writing, I began questioning the logistics of what was or wasn't available while Annette and Edouard were living in the mountains, or how maroons lived in general, really.
The original *~*~vision~*~* was to have Annette wear this dress and perform in the Vodou ritual and Edouard watching Annette dance and he falls madly smitten for her oop, but of course that got shot when I did more research and there's an attire you're supposed to follow. However, I got way too attached to the idea of cute Annette in a dress to scrap the entire thing, so here we are...
I did take some creative liberties on what materials were and weren't available, as well as postulating what their sleeping quarters might have been probably more nicer than what it actually was.
I've done a lot of reading of Haitian maroonage and demographics since then... and here are some elements that made it into the fic (there's so much more I have, just couldn't fit it all in!)
...
General Location and Geography
Annette mentions 'being taken to the mountains.' As established, Cap Francais is the city that Edouard was in (the Comedie Au Cap theatre), and the eventual location of the August 1791 slave revolts (as depicted in the show), If we examine the topography, a 1784 map shows Cap-Francais surrounded by mountainous terrain.
P.S. For the exact location of the Comedie Au Cap. If you zoom in, you can see right next to the government building, the Salle de Spectacle, or Performance Hall.
Sunday markets in the major towns like Cap Français were opportunities for blacks – free, enslaved, and runaways alike – to converge and interact, buying and selling food, and exchanging services. Note that Cap-Francais due to its dense urban population, were known for blacks to pass as free people of color (forging their own freedom documents), as well as serving as "safe houses" for runaway slaves to take refuge in.
In the map (left), it is readily apparent the relative concentrations of how many slaves escaped to Cap-Francais. For example, the neighborhood of Petit Guinée in Cap Français was a regular destination for runaways to find housing, lease themselves out for pay, and blend in with the growing population of free people of color.
The Bois Camain Ceremony, which is the Vodou ceremony we see represented in the show. Historical accounts of this ceremony note it was led by Cecile Fatiman (depicted from the show) and Dutty Boukman, both priestess (manbo) and priest (oungan). I decided to namedrop Dutty in just for fun, only because it didn't feel right to pluck a random name from the slave runaway advertisements.
Note the actual exact location is still up for debate. Many accounts point to somewhere near northern town of Morne-Rouge (present-day Vaudreuil, Haiti). Present-day, the contemporary Bois Caiman historical site in Vaudreuil, Haiti is ~10 km west of Cap-Haitien.
Population Demographics
At the peak of the revolution, Saint Domingue (later Haiti), which had 500,000 slaves, 32,000 whites, and 28,000 free blacks (which included both blacks and mulattos). Slaves made up 9/10ths of the population, with 500K+ african slaves being imported to Haiti alone in the last 50 years leading up to the revolution.
Enslaved Demographics
Men disproportionately made up the escaped reported runaway slaves and the maroonage.
Men were also more likely to occupy artisanal labor positions that allowed them a certain amount of latitude during the workday. Examples like coopers, carpenters, shoemakers, fishermen, and other artisans ran errands, apprenticed and were leased by their owner to other plantations, or hired themselves out to earn their own money.
Conversely, enslaved African women in Saint-Domingue were overrepresented as field workers and performed the most physically taxing jobs and under constant supervision. Because of the relative mobility enslaved men could have, this partially explains the overrepresentation of men for escaped slaves. Skills enslaved women acquired usually include seamstresses, laundress, and acting as market vendors selling goods.
In a study of 12,857 slave runaway postings, men made up 80%, or ~10K. Nègres - African mother + African or Creole man; Mulâtres - biracial (often coerced relations between white men); Griffe - 2/3 black. Quarteronne - 1/4th black.
There were many facets which may partially explain why women were so underrepresented as runaways, as women often had work within the constraints of society to pass as free, as well as the reproductive burden enforced on them.
Maroon Life and Struggles
The tl;dr -- trying it rough it out there in the wild was tough as shit and Maroons had to get creative in navigating the geographic topography and utilizing the terrain to their advantage. For example, one group of the maroons situated themselves in the mountains within the cusp of Saint-Domingue and Saint-Domingo (the portion of Haiti owned by Spain), such that they took advantage of murky ambiguities of "who's problem is this" territory. Retreating in the mountains also obviously disincentivized slave catchers to trek up there.
Due to the difficulty of accessing finished goods (clothing, glassware, etc) and weapons to arm themselves, maroons across the Caribbean had two ways of sustaining their supplies: engage in skirmishes/raids against plantations, or choose to engage in trade. Maroon settlements also tend to have varying success regarding based on how well-established/populated they were (some settlements were like, as little as one person in a swamp); some even forming agreements with governments to form peace treaties or even partake in catching runaway slaves to sustain themselves. The more established and successful settlements were able to cultivate crops even and keep domesticated livestock for food.
In the late 18th century, following the 1750s, the growing demand for land to support plantation agriculture, driven by the booming sugar and coffee industries, made it increasingly challenging to find and establish maroon settlements (see: the figure where in the last 50 years leading up to the revolution, over 500K african slaves brought to Haiti). This expansion encroached on existing settlements and threatened the safety of any remaining secure territories.
Daily Life and Personal Items
Archaeological dig sites efforts across 3 Haitian Maroonage sites yielded ~9000 artifacts in total, with the most common being pottery shards (making up 30-50% of the finds), porcelain, glassware, tobacco pipes fragments being the most common. It is likely that finished goods like imported pottery suggests that they were purchased by slaves from local markets, hinting that slaves did travel to markets to procure the needed finished goods not readily available.
Domestic animal bones that were also uncovered like pig, cow, sheep/goat, wild bird, and fishing weights/marine shells also hints at hunting. fishing for sustenance depending on the geography.
Other materials like hand-made-bricks, mortar, and nails.
Other less common items were uncovered, such as items for personal adornment or leisure/craft activities. Instances hinting to clothing fragments atypically in possession by the enslaved (i.e., a button belonging to a gentleman's sportscoat or frock) were also discovered.
Maroons were known to make hut-like structures from mud and leaves.
Other random things that came up in my fic
Zabeth is a name I sampled from a runaway slave advertisement who ran away alongside someone else Cecile. (Probably not the same Cecile Fatiman, though!)
The maréchaussée were the police responsible for catching runaway slaves, and was required by free men of color to serve a three year draft; or a passageway for mobility/options for free men of color who found themselves otherwise strapped for opportunities. I can only imagine, if Edouard was indeed subject to the draft, how that must have hurt his soft heart!
Ounsi temerè (fearless ounsi) is the highest degree that a Vodouist can reach without actually becoming a priest or priestess.
How Did Edouard Fit Into the Maroon Life?
While writing this, I had to do a little bit of speculation/guesswork on how Edouard might have fit into the maroonage life, based on what skills Edouard might have possess already, within the context of what skills men/women had and contributed to maroon life. I speculated based on some additional details on belonging we see in the flashback:
Detail #1. Everybody is wearing white during the Vodou Ceremony, Edouard is not.
The presence of white clothing suggests a Rada Rite; the ounsi (the vodun initiates) wear all-white robes at Rada ceremonies and make up the choir. Note that many of the depictions or historical accounts of the presence the blood of a sacrificial pig during the Bois Caiman ceremony seem to suggest it is a Petwo rite. as Pigs are sacrificed in the Petwo rite but not in the Rada rite.
Now realistically, the artists/animators decided to depict them wearing simple garb and white clothing may just be the fact that realistically, they weren't able to procure more fancy clothing.
In addition, it's also possible that this was just an animator oversight and the animators chose to depict Edouard per his character art reference sheet. Still, this tells us that Edouard was not initiated in the Vodun religion, which may hint that he might not have been as intimately tight-knit and integrated.
Detail #2. Edouard is singing by himself. No one joins him.
In the aftermath of the revolt, Edouard is showing singing Il mio tesoro intanto and he's pretty much clearly alone singing and while everybody is really chill about, I just found this detail funny because if there ever would be some celebration in a group, they would be singing creole songs as a community and it's unlikely anybody would be able to join him here since only he would have this super niche classical opera knowledge.
However, the more likely explanation of this is that whoever was directing this scene (that one opera fan) wanted their vision actualized and that the piece selected adds to the thematic elements. Still, I decided to leverage this detail into my writing when thinking about how Edouard might feel about how he fits with the other escaped slaves.
Sources and Further Reading:
Eddins, C. N. (2021). Rituals, runaways, and the Haitian Revolution: Collective Action in the African Diaspora.
Mapping. (2022, November 2). In The Streets of Le Cap. https://streetsoflecap.com/mapping/
Lockley, T. (n.d.). Runaway Slave Colonies in the Atlantic World. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.5
Explore the sites. (n.d.). National Museums Liverpool. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archaeologyofslavery/explore-sites
Haiti: The Bois Caiman Meeting of 1791. (n.d.). http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/caiman.htm
Duffy, J.-C. (2021). Early accounts of the Bois Caïman ceremony. Miami University - Empire and American Religion. https://sites.miamioh.edu/empire/files/2022/08/1791-Early-accounts-of-the-Bois-Caiman-ceremony.pdf
“Demographics of Saint Domingue,” LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY: EXPLORING THE FRENCH REVOUTION, accessed January 31, 2025, https://revolution.chnm.org/d/500.
Bromley, C. J. (n.d.). Resistance and the Haitian Revolution. Slave Resistance: A Carribbean Study. Retrieved January 31, 2025, from https://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/san_domingo_revolution/individual_essay/jason.html
Phelipeau, R. (1784). (Cap-Haïtien) Plan De La Ville Du Cap Francais. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc. Retrieved January 31, 2025, from https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/49958/cap-haitien-plan-de-la-ville-du-cap-francais-et-de-ses-env-phelippeaux#
Hebblethwaite, B. (2011). Vodou Songs in Haitian Creole and English. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/12835.
Maroons and their Communities in the Americas. (n.d.). Politika. https://www.politika.io/en/notice/maroons-and-their-communities-in-the-americas
Thank you for the tag @ruiniel! I enjoy stalking learning more about you 👀👀👀
Last Song: Berenstein - The Band CAMINO (it was a Ekko/Jinx edit that got me into this song SOB)
Fav color: Red!
Last book: (I umm... read nothing but brainless smutty romance novels oop)
Most recently completed - When I Think of You by Myah Ariel (Goodreads)
Most recent favorite aka brainrott - A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf (Goodreads). My in-depth rambling review for this book is here.
Last movie: Um... haven't watched any movie in a long time.
Last tv show: Castlevania Nocturne S2... what else 😂😂
Sweet/spicy/savory: Everything!
Relationship status: Married! <3
Last thing googled (or duck-duck-go-ed): dance on the volcano by marie vieux-chauvet (... and it's related to Saint-Domingue theatre... to nobody's surprise LOL)
Looking forward to: improving my writing! :D
Current obsession: Edouard/Annette from Castlevania Nocturne! <3 I think about them all day, everyday. Everyday I gotta reset my daily sperg counter for them to zero (nervous sweating).
just read your post on your feelings about richette and it was interesting. i wont lie i am surprised that you ship edouard and annette since he has that implied romantic relationship with that bass player guy. but still interesting to see how other people might view pairings. i know you’ll probably never write for richette again but i thought i’d hop into your inbox and say i loved your fics and the themes you explored :)
Wauuughh thank you!! <3 That means a lot to me. I put an intense amount of thought into writing Annette and Richter as individuals, so the fact that the themes I'm exploring is noticed by a reader makes me so happy!
Well, when I say I "ship" Edouard/Annette, it really means exploring the themes from a storytelling perspective. Edouard/Annette has nuance, subtlety, and depth that Richter/Annette will never have. At the heart of it, I'm most interested in exploring the facets of Annette's character growth -- and Edouard being pivotal in shaping who Annette is today that is slept on. [Going to stop myself here because I could yap about Edouard/Annette all day]
Do not fear! I *am* actually still writing for Richter/Annette, but this time from a different lens of my existing fic. It's a subtle character study that explores the nuances of why Edouard was the wrong person/time for Annette, and why Richter ultimately is the right person, the right time for Annette; but both were equally uniquely important to shaping the Annette I love. Even though readership is nonexistent because it's not the kind of story people want to read about... But I'm going to keep writing it -- for me, and for Annette!
I'm still reconciling my personal complicated feelings about Richter/Annette, but I'm glad there's growing interest and so many people are now writing and reading Richter/Annette fics!
Thank you for stopping by! =D THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! Let me know if you want to chat more!!
(but also, how I basically became that one obsessed Edouard/Annette shipper lmfao)
What the fuck lol my Richter/Annette fanfic This Distance Between Us totally blew up… I can't believe the view count more than doubled (!!!) in less than a week lol. That's unreal lmfao.
I've been processing a lot of feelings™ that started way before S2 aired. I realized how much I soured on Richter/Annette over time, and how much I wanted to delete everything I wrote. And then S2 aired, which totally shot everything I had ever written for them. Lol. But I realized I kind of did that to myself, having imagined a certain dynamic that never came to be. All the feelings and themes -- things that awakened me to write, which I never did before -- all the complexities to explore in Annette's character, or how Richter and Annette end up interacting… all of them ended up not being relevant at all.
With S2 Richter/Annette canon, everything I ever fell in love about writing for the ship -- about Annette, isn't actually a thing -- and it's clear to me now, the disparity of seeing the things people fawn over the ship aren't the same things I had wanted to write for, meaning that they're not the same things people want to read for.
It's… a bitter pill to swallow, because seeing people demand more Richter/Annette fanfiction, only for me to realize that it was because it wasn't my Richter/Annette fanfiction people wanted to read, I guess. And now I understand why.
Been thinking a lot -- and reading a lot, too. Thinking about how to navigate the challenges and complexities of writing an interracial romance in a historical setting. And how much my understanding has so significantly changed since then with all the additional research I've done. How I wish I could have written things differently, knowing what I know now.
I remember so vividly, how much of it was a struggle to bring myself to post This Distance Between Us, knowing that everybody had moved on from the show, and when I did post it, I was right ;_; People really had moved on from Nocturne. I usually vomit words to "debrief" with myself at the time of writing to help me process my thoughts at the time, but it'd be nice to revisit my writing again.
One thing I am deeply grateful for, is how much Annette and Edouard inspired me to write, to read, to research so intensely in a way I hadn't before.
It's fun, to look back on your 2023 musings and see how your perspective and interpretations have shifted over time. How I actually ended up falling for Annette and Edouard more…. It's quite funny. I didn't consider Edouard initially until I started looking into who Edouard was in relation to Annette when developing her character conceptually. Over time, I've realized how much more nuance and depth Edouard/Annette from a storytelling lens that I'm vastly more interested in exploring and writing for, even though it's a dead ship o_o;
I'm not sure where I want to go from here. I still need to finish rewatching Season 2 and re-evaluate if I feel differently about Richter/Annette, and Annette as an individual character how they turned out in canon.
LIFE. *throws self on ground* @xshingie - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
