I keep not understanding what exactly are Lenector shippers seeing in their "dynamic". At least they agree that it had poor development, but then what is the appeal?

If you like the abusive, toxic, manipulative, imbalanced, BDSM, "good boy" part of S3, there's none of it in S4. Hector and Lenore talk like good friends, without a hint of their previous sexual tension, unless her puerile dick jokes are what passes as tension now.

If you like them as foils, if you see Lenore as the only person who has ever been kind to Hector, if you think it's romantic that the two want to protect each other in S4, then you have to ignore or justify Lenore's previous physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse of Hector.

And if the appeal is the "development" (which one of these commenters called "enemies/lovers", literally where, Hector was never Lenore's enemy, he was her victim)... then it sucks majorly. There is no development. There's a switch! Like someone changed the radio station! It's jarring! And there is no good way to fill in the gaps without downplaying the horrible things Lenore did to Hector, or without justifying them because "she only meant well 🥺 it was the best solution 🥺", which makes me want to tear my face off my skull.

In fact... Lenore really didn't develop at all. I talked before about Hector in S4, who regressed to the point where he'd want Dracula back just to feel better about his mistakes and never addresses his apathy towards humanity or his tendency to cling to people who give him scraps of appreciation, but a similar thing happened to Lenore. Remember these wonderful lines:

"Oh, shush, you were having fun."

"I'm sorry for everything you went through."

Lenore doesn't care. She doesn't care that she has hurt Hector, that she has used his feelings to lie to his face and force him into an arrangement he hadn't consented to. She doesn't apologize for her own actions. She doesn't even try to explain herself, only retorting Hector's understandable irritation at the ring against him - "well you got hard, what are you complaining about?". Because that's what relationships are in this show: nothing but "cute" banter meant to camouflage abuse.

Oh, she wants to "protect him"? Big deal. She still doesn't seem him like a person who can be hurt by her actions. She still fits the description of vampiric love Carmilla gave in S2. He's still her pet in her eyes, even if she does nothing with it. Nothing has changed. She has just lost sexual interest in him, because now it's no longer fun to put a leash on him and talk to him like a dog. She got what she wanted, so now there's no point in flirting and being nice to him :)

Lenore is nothing more than a power-hungry coward when you read between the lines, less interested in power over the world (which she dislikes) and more in power over singular people. She's happy to beat Hector to an inch of his life when he's weak and in a cell, to prove that she's not to be underestimated, but when she is in a cage, she won't attempt a damn thing to flee it or protect herself from Isaac. She stops molesting flirting with Hector once he gains more confidence, because flirting for her is a mere weapon to psychologically bend someone to her will. After she "solved Hector's problem", she does nothing but whine because she doesn't know what to do, because she feels useless - her spending time with Hector seems nice on the surface, but it might also be seen as her going to be a brat to the only one willing to tolerate her. And, of course, the dialogue frames her choice to kill herself not as her being horrified at her own nature and what it has lead her to do, because villains in this show get to be painted as tragic without doing the work to earn it (*coughcoughdraculaandisaac*), but as her wanting to flee her cage - her position of powerlessness. Not even spending a few more decades with Hector, the man she supposedly has grown to care about and who only wants her in his life, is worth not being in total control.

And the clincher? This doesn't sound bad for a villain! Selfish and pathetic at the same time, under a veneer of "kindness" or "good intentions": that's interesting! And if this had been intended, good job for not spelling it out like I'm stupid, allowing me to put the pieces together? Problem is, the story and its fans insist that actually Lenore is a great person and she really liked Hector no really they should have stayed together and married each other because aren't they so uwu and 🥺 and why couldn't the story give the abusive rapist a second chance 🥺

And I can't see it. I can't. The deeper I look into this story, the more rot I unearth. And it's definitely not because I don't like unhealthy ships; in fact it's precisely because of it that I think this example is terrible. I haven't even touched other issues such as how I don't care for the power imbalance because I'm prevented from caring for the lump of flesh in the shape of Hector in S3 lol.

And to be honest, the more I see fans complaining about the lack of screentime, the more I suspect that the appeal of Lenector is the same as Trephacard's: you get to make shit up in your head and ignore what the screen shows you. Which sure you can do that, but then the actual story doesn't deserve praise, does it?

Now that I think about it, the way they immediately went for Annabel once they got confirmed "the truce" wasn't happening was definitely premediated IM CRYING are you telling me that here

these two were fully discussing MURDER like "yeah yk what if there's no truce were fucking throwing her off the balcony" LMFAO9O

Okay but imagine if Lenore wasn't actually the first person who made it to the tower.

Like- before her, a random guy came in and Annabel was like:

Annabel: Good to see you've finally made it, pe- You're not my pet...

Random guy: 🧍‍��️no-?

Annabel: **fucking pushes the random guy off the tower and looks at him falling**

Lenore: **Finally comes** Is someone there?

Annabel: **Talking like nothing happened** Only me. Good to see you finally made it,pet.

My delusional ass thinks that's why she's in this position when Lenore came- 💀

"something floral": literature student blabbering about the usage of flower symbolism in "nevermore", how it ties to the theme of insanity and a little bit (a lot) about shakespeare.

from lenore's perspective, flowers are closely associated with isolation caused by her trauma and supposed "hysteria". floral pattern wallpaper accompanied her loneliness for days, months, even years. image of the flowers signaled that lenore's position would remain unchanged, that she was stuck, that she would continue to slowly loosing the clarity of her mind.

having torn the wallpaper off the walls, lenore believes that she will never see this image again, but flowers continue to accompanying her. lenore sees them again during her first meeting with annabel lee. and during the last one, too. she may have managed to get out of her lonely room, gain more strength in her legs, find a new friend, but lenore is still trapped. she's the daughter disowned by her parents, a stain on the family reputation that must be hidden forever. the image of flowers doesn't let her forget about it.

similar symbolism is also not alien to annabel lee. episode 66 is interesting in particular, because it directly quotes ophelia's monologue. I'm a big fan of shakespeare, it was he who instilled in me an interest in floral symbolism. a year ago, for a conference on foreign literature, I wrote an article about flower language of "hamlet". it's not available in english, but I'll list down some points that I considered relevant regarding "nevermore".

• rosemary can serve as a keepsake between lovers and also between the dead and the living. it could be seen at both weddings and funerals. in the old days it was also believed to be helpful in mental illnesses treatment.

• pansies, just like violets, symbolize innocence and devotion. ophelia doesn't consider the people around her worthy of violets, since she blames them for the death of her father.

• rue is a symbol of eternal suffering; grieving over her murdered father and the loss of her beloved hamlet, ophelia leaves some of the flowers for herself.

• the image of daisies has a close connection with the concepts of innocence, fidelity and eternal love. in shakespeare's tragedy, this symbol is overshadowed by the fact that in the world around ophelia there's no place for these beautiful things. for "nevermore" the symbol is also not so positive, since the readers are already familiar with daisies. they were on that wallpaper in lenore's room.

it's impossible not to note that annabel lee recites the monologue while in the bath, in the water. ophelia decides not to resist the river flow. her life turned into a tragedy: she was left without a father, her lover has seemingly lost his mind. her own sanity is also called into question. ophelia sings cryptic songs, goes into the field to weave a wreath, gives flowers to other characters. in the eyes of those around them, hamlet and ophelia seem crazy, while being the only sane and honest people among them. there's no place for tender, innocent ophelia in a cruel, deceitful world, so she drowns.

annabel lee also reflects on how both she and lenore are considered madwomen. her meeting with "leo" is accompanied by floral pattern on the annabel's dress. their madness is contextual, they both are perfectly sane, but don't fit into the system that could be leading to real madness with time. "all madwomen die twice. at least twice".

now about the arboretum. it obviously has a lot of flowers, but in my opinion this place is interesting in a different context. lenore and annabel visited the arboretum twice to discuss upcoming plans and such, and there are many parallels, both visual and narrative. not much time has passed since last time, but their situation has changed. they seem to look on their past selves from the upper level, having their conflict more acute now. I'll make a more detailed post about it later.

and now I'll just focus on how the characters in this arboretum full of roses behave as lost and confused as in the phobia-inducing flower labyrinth from earlier episodes. “the closer you get to beautiful flowers, the closer you get to their thorns,” says duke in episode 38. the flower imagery haunting the main characters doesn't let them forget that their sanity is always on a verge of slipping. and once a flower falls from its stem, it cannot be fixed.

p.s. guess which writer’s works I chose for a new article this year?

I am NOT ready for episode 90.. I already know I'm finna fucking cry just by the looks of the cover.

Her lifeless eyes bro... 🙁

I am by no means Ada’s best supporter but I WILL say that her accusing Annabel, resident girlboss lesbian, fer being into Prospero isn’t as bad when you remember like 99% of White Raven moments were done in secrecy between just the two of them- almost like that was the poinntt whooaaa- and also she’s having a super bad mental breakdown with clouded judgement right now.

Prospero has never treated Annabel badly and actually had some good moments of teamwork with her, Annabel is rushing to his defense right now, putting this limited info of two and two together and to be honest Ada jumping to the conclusion that Annabel was into him isn’t like, a GREAT guess, but given her super mega heartbreak mode that went so crazy it triggered her spectre yeaaaahhhh I can see why she’d jump the gun into delusioning Annabel’s heterosexuality like that.

That being said I will still absolutely clown on this repressed, closeted as all hell bisexual’s complete and utter lack of gaydar because yeah that shit’s funny as hell keep the memes coming <333

“Nuh uh”. “Fym Nuh uh”

I got inspired, my friend chose the outfits from insta

In my defense, this was just too funny

Also I hate legs, screw em shoes.

DIVORCE BEGIN *STARTS CRYING*

when the maze misfits finally reunite theyre going to have a LOT to talk about

The aro struggle of engaging with a fandom or reading a synopsis of an interesting book, movie, graphic novel and realizing how focused on the romance everything is when you're just here for the plot and the characters and the chaos

Some ideas on how I'd personally write Lenore. for future reference?

We keep the trait that she's the black sheep of the sisters, who don't take her and her job seriously. Maybe they don't even speak to her often, judging by Striga's ill-fitting jab about her supposed "romantic" nature. Perhaps we could see her act in different ways, tougher in the council and softer with Hector. This establishes her as a seasoned liar: we never know if she's sincere or not.

Unlike Hector, who seemed to be blissfully unaware of how much Dracula and Isaac looked down on him, Lenore is more than aware of being seen as "weird" and "weak". However, she prides herself on being needed, as a balance for the others.

We also keep that she is "compassionate" towards animals (and humans), and that she has experienced war as a child, which left her with a desire to be a benevolent ruler.

tl;dr: she is superficially kind, but has no empathy, and her priority is the council's wellbeing and desires. She and Hector share this trait of very misguided, ultimately selfish mercy. He needs love, she needs to feel good about herself.

We emphasize the implication that she clings on her humanity. She's shown eating food despite not needing it (maybe she feels ill?), she insists on the importance of diplomacy and how violence and conquest should be last resorts, and she seems fascinated by human culture, in the same way Hector is fascinated by vampire culture. However, she also comes off as condescending - think Rose Quartz when flirting with Greg.

(bonus: she struggles with her vampiric instincts. Show her resisting the temptation to bite Hector, not wanting to frighten him. Show her resisting the dark thoughts that he's nothing but meat to devour and a warm body to fuck.)

Hector falls for her diplomacy because she is (seems) genuinely kind. She's apologetic for his conditions, she seems really eager to help him as much as she can. She's not smug at all, although she points out the holes in Dracula's logic and tries her best to paint Carmilla as a better mistress. No pet play. When Hector attacks her, she does her stunt of leaving him alone for a week then acting scared around him, to make him feel guilty and dependant on her. In short: her manipulation is more emotional, and it hits Hector's weak spot, his need to be loved.

No rape. They never have sex. Lenore slips that ring as they're talking, and Hector accepts of his own volition to be loyal to her. He still feels betrayed, though, as that act confirms he'd been played again and Lenore is no different than Carmilla. Even worse if Lenore goes to gloat about her victory to the sisters in that "cruel vampire" way, bonus if we keep the "the real people are talking" line. She apologizes for speaking about him so rudely in private, but at that point he refuses to listen to her.

Their interactions at the beginning of S4 are awkward. Lenore tries to be friendly and even jokey (not in that childish "penis jokes" way), but Hector acts exaggeratedly professional, calls her "mistress" and is clear that he's full of resentment. Lenore is frustrated and asks what more does he want. Hector refuses to answer. No more will he shown weakness. Bonus if he makes a cruel joke asking when she's going to fuck him, since clearly he's nothing more than a toy. (to be fair, being the only man in the clutches of predatory women could put some fears in his mind... especially if he was abused as a child.)

Lenore's love language is being clingy and possessive. She won't leave Hector alone. She genuinely thinks that tying someone to you is showing care for that someone, much like Carmilla did. She's growing fond of Hector, his wit and his knowledge on black magic, and she doesn't understand why her affection isn't reciprocated. She's treating him well, isn't she? Why is he so moody?

We keep Lenore's fears about growing useless in Carmilla's big, insane scheme. Finally, she opens up about her worries to Hector, and this is what makes him warm up to her. He understands that she only acted out of loyalty, but now they're in a similar position: he understands, on his own, that it's no so different from his position as the unfavorite in Dracula's court. It's not enough to become friends, but the two now can at least be civil towards each other. They're the first to do so. Maybe Hector opens up himself about his past and how he now feels about Dracula.

When Isaac attacks the castle (Hector did not participate in that stupid plan to revive Dracula), Hector and Lenore decide to go stop Carmilla together. However, Lenore still wants to reason with her. Hector wants to kill her 🙂 he and Isaac do so. Whether Carmilla kills herself or not is honestly irrelevant at this point, but she's dead and Lenore, once again, feels powerless. Hector cutting his own finger hurts her even more: she wants to see it as him gaining the freedom he deserves, but her vampiric instincts tell her that it's him refusing to be with her.

When she effectively becomes Isaac's captive, she starts to understand why Hector never grew fond of her; she could never love that bastard who stole her home and destroyed her existence. She's horrified at the realization. She knew that she had to hurt Hector to give the sisters what they asked of her, but she understands that not only it was worse than she imagined... it was all for nothing. They never cared about her. She starts to wonder if she could ever be a good person.

The suicide scene is kept, but it's clear that it's because Lenore feels terrible about herself and her own nature, nothing about not wanting to be in a cage since in theory she could just wait for Isaac to die. When she suns herself, she dies horrifically just like Dracula did - behind her prettiness and good intentions, she really was nothing but a vampire at her core.

bonus: Hector, who has learned to appreciate his own humanity more, decides to travel and meet more people, so that he won't resort to beg for scraps of kindness anymore.

*throws an essay at you all*

i actually wrote this a WHILE back but forgot to share it on here, so here you all go. it is in regards to episode 66 :)

The use of "a dirge for her, the doubly dead, in that she died so young" is really interesting because it carries several meanings. Obviously it alludes to her paralysis and near-death, and her lack of freedom, but i don't think Annabel ever really viewed Lenore as insane. "All madwomen die twice" might also be referring to her loss of freedom, which truly drove Lenore mad. She lost her life the second that tree fell. It also makes me think of "the sweet Lenore hath 'flown before', with young hope at her side" because Lenore is shown to be crushed as she loses her life to her paralysis and the way she's locked up for it--she might have "lost hope" with her previous self (who "flew").

Lenore also says "and you, Annabel? How long have you been mad?" This ties back in, since Annabel hates the life she has, despising the way she lives and that she's expected to be a housewife forever (especially when she talks about the needlework). Also, the eyes--I'm reading WAY too far into this but i'm too deep in it to stop now. Lenore's eyes in this episode remind me of the way the eyes are shown in the embroidered scenes during Annabel's quick break when Lenore asks her if the life that's planned out for her is really what she wants.

ending note: this was originally a set of texts so my apologies if it sounds disjointed, a lot of these were separate thoughts.

Something something something Verna seeming to feel genuine remorse at having to kill Lenore, and making it so she goes as peacefully as she can---without fully knowing what's happening and in her sleep, just after being told the most wonderful story.

Something something something Lenore, the best of them, ensuring that the name of Usher may yet still leave a positive impact on the world.