Spoilers for Curse of Strahdanya
(TW talks of misogyny, criticisms of the patriarchy, morality, the cycle of abuse between women, mental illnesses)
I was talking to a friend of mine about CoS and had said that I really love the complexity and characterization of Strahdanya, she is the perfect tragic villain doomed by the narrative, but I absolutely HATED her as a person. Which in my opinion that's when you know you have a GREAT villain. My friend then asked, half joking, if I would have liked her better as a man? I replied immediately: absolutely NOT! If fact I think I would have hated her even MORE as a man, because I am so used to seeing men do things like this I don't even care about WHY they are doing it, I just want them dead. Strahdanya as a woman provides a more complex and nuanced character, one you can empathize in some regards but also see how truly evil she is.
The cycle of taking away autonomy and hurting others, especially other women, to feel a sense of control is a very common thing seen in patriarchal ruled society. Strahdanya was a warlord conqueror as her father was and his before him. She was taught to rule as men do, take what they claim as their birth right, and rule over who they deem unruly. Her mother was told to give up her religion, of which she has practiced her whole life, for that of her husband's kingdom. When Sergei found out his mother HADN'T stopped her worship of the Raven Queen he was shocked and upset, saying how he had thought he had turn her "towards the light" but he will forgive her anyways. Strahdanya kept her mother's pin, perhaps not completely understanding the power it held, but knew it was an important piece of her mother's heritage. She wasn't looking to forgive her mother or seek forgiveness herself, she was just mourning.
Strahdanya had been heartbroken but ultimately accepting of the union of Tatiana and Sergei until she came to Barovia. After being tricked to enter the Amber Temple and enter the pact with the Blood Queen is when it all went downhill. Madness and rage and greed over took her but I still don't believe that is an excuse for her actions, I think it was an excuse for her to commit these actions. She is still AWARE of what she's doing, she knows it cause others pain, and she grows to enjoy it. Perhaps it is the influence of the Blood Queen in some way but then why spend so long fighting the whispers? The whispers of the Blood Queen has haunted Strahdanya ever since she turned yet she tried with all she had to ignored them. She actively seeked out a way to destroy them albeit she lost hope of it long ago. The whispers did NOT tell her to obtain brides, to chase after the reincarnation of Tatiana over and over again, and they certainly did not tell her to turn Myrtle into her daughter. The excuse of madness can only get you so far when you have done all these increasing terrible things for years. If she was possessed that'd be a different story but she wasn't.
In the end Strahdanya was marked since the beginning by Baba Lysaga but it was a doom made by her own hands.
Am I making sense or am I just having another manic episode 👀
I have a lot of options about this campaign 🫠
#legendsofavantris #curseofstrahdanya #StrahdanyavonZarovich #characteranalysis