Annette (animated series)

is a character in the Netflix original animated series, Castlevania: Nocturne. Having been born as a slave in the Caribbean, she travels to Europe following advice from her mentor in seek of a man named Richter Belmont, and during her journey she ends up joining a group of revolutionaries.
She is voiced by Thuso Mbedu.
==History==
Annette is an Afro-Caribbean slave born on a plantation around Saint-Domingue. She is stated to have descended from divine African spirits called orishas; Ogun (Yoruba orisha of war and iron) from her father's side, and Orunmila (Yoruba orisha of divination, intelligence and wisdom) from her mother's side.
Annette learned of the true power of her ancestry after her mother had been killed for using magic wards associated with witchcraft, and years later when her vampire master ordered his workers to brand Annette. She used her abilities to form a blade from dust and metal particles, which she used to deflect the branding iron and escape. She then fled into the city, where she met Edouard, who helped her flee her slaver and took her to the heart of the revolution against slavery. She also meets a Vodou mambo named Cécile Fatiman within the revolution who becomes her mentor and teaches her about her magic and her ancestry.
Annette makes her debut when she and Edouard save Richter Belmont from a night creature. She states they had traveled far and that they were looking for a Belmont foreseen by her mentor that will help them stop the "Vampire Messiah". The group devises a plan to investigate the château for vampire activity and clues, and Annette creates a bridge with her magic to access the island. While there, Annette sees her former master, Vaublanc, who had joined the cult worshipping the Vampire Messiah and accidentally alerted the vampire to their presence, causing a battle between the groups. While attempting to escape from being overwhelmed, Edouard is attacked and killed while Annette attempts to recreate a earthen bridge to the mainland, causing her to break down in anguish over his loss after the remaining group crosses. Later, Annette witnesses Edouard's return as a night creature during a fight in town.
During a strategy meeting, Richter asks Annette if she would kill Edouard to end his suffering, and she replied she would if she had to. Attempting to sneak into the cellar of the abbey to find where the Edouard creature was being held, Annette and the group runs into the Abbot, as well as the vampires Drolta and the Marquis, and another battle breaks out. Annette finds the captive Edouard creature and intends to kill him to free him from his cursed fate, although his cowering at the sight of her blades stays her hand. The mission is cut short when the vampire Olrox appears, causing Richter to flee in terror due to his past trauma, resulting in Annette branding him a coward for running out on them and cutting their plans short.
The next morning, Annette berates the still absent Richter to the others and Tera begs her to be kind, as Olrox killed his mother right in front of him when he was just a boy. Annette attempts to leave to go back to the abbey, although she is stopped by Maria and Tera, and is only allowed to leave when she promises to not do anything rash, instead opting to commune with her mentor Cécile to gain insight. She tells Cécile that Richter was useless, as he ran away during battle, to which Cécile tells her that everyone starts off by running just like she did when she was a child.
Later that evening, she follows Drolta and Olrox to a cemetery and listens to them talk about the Vampire Messiah, after which she confronts a vampire which turns out to be Vaublanc. Annette uses her power over earth and metal to turn the bars of the gates into crosses and imprisons Vaublanc in an impromptu cell made of them to be incinerated as the dawn rises, avenging her mother and herself.
She is next seen on the balcony of Tera's home as she sees Richter return. Richter goes to her room and apologizes for running away earlier, to which Annette replies she knew that he would return and that she heard from Tera about Olrox. They comes to an understanding regarding their respective pasts and pains.
Annette is awoken early by the arrival of Mizrak, who informs them that Maria was captured by the Abbott and that she was going to be sacrificed. Annette heads out with Tera, Richter and Mizrak head to the abbey to mount a rescue attempt and also try to put an end to the Abbot's infernal machine creating night creatures. Inside the abbey, Annette fights many vampires and night creatures before descending to the cellar to send the machine back to Hell through a portal opened by Tera. En route, she attempts to rescue Edouard again, although he brushes her off and points her toward her true target: the infernal machine. Annette uses her powers over metal to try and push the night creature machine through the portal, but fails when the battle above in the abbey goes awry and the portal closes. Distraught, Annette is embraced by the now freed Edouard creature, who tells her to escape and that they'll see each other again.
Annette makes it upstairs and watches in horror as Maria is injured and Tera was turned into a vampire by Erzsebet Báthory. Annette uses her magic to knock down a wall so that they can flee, as Richter carries an unconscious Maria out of the abbey. In the hills outside town, they are attacked by Drolta and a group of vampire cultists. Luckily, Alucard suddenly arrives and swiftly kills Drolta with his sword. He then introduces himself as the son of Dracula, to which Annette asks Richter who Dracula was.
==Appearance==
Annette is a young black woman of African descent, short black hair styled in locks which reaches her ears, and her locks are accessorized by golden tips. She has brown eyes and a self-inflicted tattoo of a Fleur-de-lis symbol of the escaped slaves from her plantation on her hand. Her main outfit consists of a yellow vest over a white tunic-shirt and cinched at the waist with a multi-colored sash, dark blue pants and brown boots.
==Personality==
Annette is creative and spontaneous in battle, although her short temper and unresolved anger issues often lead her to drag her friends into unnecessary danger, on one occasion even resulting in the capture and death of Edouard. Determined to eradicate her captors, Annette is unable to escape the shadows of her past, as she seeks justice and retribution upon those that enslaved her.
Despite her humble background, she is also prone to being hypocritical with her judgmental statements, unapologetically calling out others around her, including Richter, if they display any momentary lapse in resolve regardless of her own shortcomings. Her hardships have made her behave impatiently to the feelings of others, sparing little empathy for Richter's childhood trauma. After guidance from Cécile, however, Annette realized it was unfair to be so critical of Richter, accepting his apology for leaving the group behind and dedicating herself to work together with her comrades.
==Powers and abilities==
*Divine magic: Annette learned of the true power of her ancestry after her mother had been killed for using magic wards associated with witchcraft. Several years later when her vampire master ordered his workers to brand Annette; due to this traumatic event with the advent of her magic. Being Ogun's descendant gives Annette the power over metal and rocks.
**Earth manipulation: Annette was able to manipulate the rocks around her to form a bridge. She later used this ability to fight Drolta and to open a hole in the abbey's wall to escape.
**Metal manipulation: Annette can telekinetically manipulate the weapons and any kind of metal she creates around her, using it to fight Vaublanc and Drolta, and later to kill Vaublanc by imprisoning him with cross-shaped posts. However, but for now Annette seems to struggle to move bigger metal constructs, like the Infernal Machine.
**Constructs creation: Annette can use her inherited power over earth and metals to form any kind of weapon in combat. Her general technique for using magic is turning the metal or earth she's manipulating into sand particles before reforming those particles into whatever she requires.
*Vodou magic: Annette was capable of performing vodou magic to suture Maria's wound through a patch of her clothes. She is also well learned in the drawing and usage of vèvès to cast powerful spells, being able to open spiritual gateways on Earth to summon Papa Legba, Cécile and her other ancestors.
===Abilities===
*Expert swordsmanship: Annette undeniably polished swordsmanship, honed reflexes, natural agility, and above average strength allow her to battle and defeat opponents. As shown in a battle where she wields two swords against a vampire, and in another encounter where she conjured up a sword seconds before using it to slay a night creature much larger than herself.
==Appearances==
==Quotes==
*"We're looking for someone called Belmont?"
*"In Saint-Domingue, there's a mambo, a priestess, my teacher. She's a powerful sorcerer and seer. It was she who told me to find you." ("Horror Beyond Nightmares")
*"She said, "Something is changing out here in the Old World.""
*"I held my mother's lullabies in my heart. The songs were ancestral calls, connecting me to African deities beyond the plantation, beyond ocean crossings and mortal flesh." ("Freedom was Sweeter")
*"I could not be caged. No matter how many times they tried to take me. I was always plotting an escape. But the slave drivers; eyes were always on me. I was 16 when they tried to brand me but I was not going to be branded. I'd inherited from my father's bloodline the power of the god of war and iron, Ogun. I didn't know what was happening, but my guiding spirit heard my calls when I needed him the most." ("Freedom was Sweeter")
*"Edouard believed singing was the soul's way of speaking. That's why, from pauper to statesman, everyone is drawn to music. He'd say that when he was on stage looking out to the audience, he could see the colors of everyone's soul. Mine was pink. He was wrong though. Green is my favorite color."
*"I am not a revolutionary leader. I am a girl who used to be a slave until slavery could be endured no longer. We lit a spark, a few of us at first hiding in the mountains, but the sugar and tobacco fields had dried out in the sun, and the spark lit a flame, and then the flame was an inferno, and all their power and cruelty crumbled before us."
*"We all have nightmares. The first time a slave runs away, they're branded with this mark on their shoulder. Second time, they're hamstrung. Third time, killed. When I was a girl, I was taught to be frightened of people on our plantation with this mark on their body. Troublemakers, But after I escaped myself. I saw them differently. The people with this mark, they're the people who know intimately how much freedom can cost. They wear it every day. So I do too. If I'd let my past terrify me. I'd never be free of it." ("The Natural Order")
*"The sun is rising. Devouring the darkness. It always does. This is the natural order." ("The Natural Order")
*"Have courage. There is light in darkness" ("Guilty Men to be Judged")
*"We are afraid. It's not always bad. It just means we have something to lose." ("Blood is the Only Way")
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Annette is stated to have descended from the Yoruba orishas Ogun and Orunmila. Ogun is associated with war, iron and other earthly elements, which explains her innate ability to manipulate metal and earth.
**In "Guilty Men to be Judged", she is seen on the ground inside the stones circle to commune with Cécile in the spirit world.
*Unlike her games counterpart, who is depicted as Caucasian in all of her incarnations, this Annette is black and of Afro-Caribbean descent instead.
*Annette sports a yellow outfit, the same color of the shirt used by her original game counterpart in Rondo of Blood, which could be a nod to the character.
*Annette's favorite color is green."Freedom was Sweeter" (S1E03)
**Most incarnations of Annette in the games wear either a full green dress or skirt, which could be a reference to the original character.
*The magic symbols Annette draws or summons when casting more powerful spells are known as vèvès, religious symbols commonly used in different branches of Vodun throughout the African diaspora. The vèvè acts as a "beacon" for the lwa, and will serve as a lwa's representation during rituals.
*During her incantations, Annette (as well as Cécile) can often be seen invoking Papa Legba, a lwa in Haitian Vodou who serves as the intermediary between God and humanity.
**During her flashback in "Freedom was Sweeter", Annette is seen and later Papa Legba's real life vèvè.
**When invoked, Papa Legba manifests as a man made of golden energy wearing a broad straw hat with burning candles and smoking a pipe. Sans the flames, this design loosely matches typical historic depictions of Legba.
**Papa Legba is also associated with dogs, and in the series, he can be seen accompanied by one. This particular design could also be a reference to the Dead Mate, although this is unconfirmed.
*Annette and Edouard join a group of escaped slaves mobilizing a resistance called the Maroons. The Maroons were real life descendants of Africans in the Americas and Islands of the Indian Ocean who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. One of these groups led a six-year rebellion against the white plantation owners in Haiti that preceded the Haitian Revolution.
*While in the series it isn't explicitly stated the date when the slaves rebellion of Saint-Domingue takes place, the real life Vodou ceremony of Bois Caïman and subsequent first slave revolt of the Haitian Revolution took place in 1791, while the main events of the series' story take place one year later, in 1792. This would correctly match with the chronology of the series timeline, including Annette's apparent age during the flashback.
==See also==
*Annette
==References==
==External links==
*Annette (Netflix's Castlevania) at the Heroes Wiki
Category:Female Characters
Category:Humans
Category:Protagonists
Category:Vampire Hunters and Huntresses
Category:Witches and Wizards
Category:Nocturne Characters
Category:Nocturne Season 1 Characters