#this is one of my favourite things to discuss about silva she's so silly and so in so much fucking denial ad also the most naive motherfuck

[acacia-may]

Thank you again for your ask, anon! 💖 I apologise that this has taken me a bit, but here are my favourite Black Clover characters narrowed down to 10. This was hard choice (part of the reason it has taken so long for me to answer this ask), but I allowed myself 5 female characters and 5 male characters in order to narrow it down! 😅

Note: This is list is in the order that they popped into my head.

Vanessa Enoteca

Charmy Pappitson

Finral Roulacase

Langris Vaude

Finesse Calmreich

Magna Swing

Noelle Silva

Charlotte Roselei

Gordon Agrippa

Henry Legolant

[Also worth mentioning: David, Dorothy, Grey, Leo, Letoile, Mereoleona, Rill, William, and Yuno...and so many others...This was difficult 💦]

This post ended up so much longer than I anticipated (I really should not be given license/encouragement to talk about my favourite Black Clover characters 😅) so I've decided to break the discussion in half and only talk about the first five characters here. The second half I'll have to add on later (as to not be too overwhelming 💦)

Discussion under the cut because it's long and contains some spoilers for the Elf and Spade Arcs. Also, some mild, vaugish discussions of certain characters' childhood tr*uma and mentions of past verbal, emotional, & psychological ab*se related to their tragic backstories.

1. Vanessa — Gosh, I love her! She might be my favourite character. There is just so much more to her than the token drunk, fan-service party-girl, that you originally see. She's the best "big sister" to everyone on her squad and has such a gift for building people up and encouraging them. Despite all of the pain and terrible experiences in her past, she chooses to be kind and still finds reasons to be genuinely happy, and what she wants more than anything else is to make everyone around her happy too. She's warm, intuitive, empathetic, a great listener, and one of the best at advice, and she loves her friends so deeply (with bonds so strong they can literally bring them back from the dead). I think one of my favourite things about her is how she is incredibly strong, independent, and capable as both a person and a mage, but she also gets to have her light-hearted, silly, and playful moments and gets to like more traditionally feminine things (which is not something a lot of strong female characters in media usually get to do, as if being feminine and being strong & independent are mutually exclusive 🙄 So it is really wonderful and refreshing to get to see all of those traits in her). Also, her character arc is stellar, in my opinion, and one of the best handled in the series. (That moment where she stares down at Her Majesty and tells her they have no bonds, gives me chills every time). She has grown so much, and it warms my heart that she has her Black Bulls family after everything she has been through. I want all the good things for her! 💕

2. Charmy — Charmy cracks me up! She always brings the brightest smile to my face whenever she shows up, but even more than that, I think she is a much better character than she is given credit for. I really love that oft-forgotten snarky, playful, a little bluntly honest, and a bit more intuitive side of her, so I try to bring that out when I write about her. I have a lot of respect for the role Charmy takes in her friendships too. In my mind at least, she isn't completely oblivious to what's going on with her friends, but for the most part, she chooses to takes this laissez-faire/'live and let live' attitude with them. She cares about them very much, wants them to be happy, and will make them all kinds of delicious foods to cheer them up if they're sad or upset, but she's a bit hands-off when it comes to what they decide to do with their lives (and doesn't feel it's her business to intervene unless she has to). If they want to share, I have no doubt that she'd listen (probably from the kitchen where she's putting a tray of cupcakes in the oven), but I really do think she personally is more comfortable showing support through feeding her friends rather than getting involved in their problems. (The issue being, of course, on those rare occasions, when her food doesn't work...). I've got a deep love for rare Charmy friendships--especially between her and Vanessa, and her and Finral (neither of which made it on my top 10 relationships but they'd probably rank as 11 & 12). My favourite future headcanon for Charmy is that she starts a bar & restaurant with Vanessa and marries Rill. 😊

3. Finral — It's probably obvious to anyone who has spent any length of time around my blog that I love the spatial brothers and could talk about them for ages (so I will try my best to keep it brief 😅). As much as I love him now, Finral actually annoyed me in the beginning with all of his excessive flirting (though my sister always teased me that he was my "secret favourite"), but I think that as the story goes on, we really get to dive into the why behind the way he is acting—that he’s really just starving for the unconditional love he never received as a child and that he has such a big, generous and kind heart and is looking for real love rather than just flings (like the usual “token flirt” character). Those kinds of wounds never really go away, and I think that inside Finral there is still a sad, lonely little boy just desperately waiting for, wishing for love that never comes and blaming himself for not being good enough to “earn” it. It breaks my heart—I just want somebody to scoop him up and hug him and tell him it isn’t his fault. And yes, it really is impossible not to love him after that—even if there have been many times when he as a character (and his arc) have frustrated me. I will say, I really think that Finral is at his best when he isn't trying so hard to be charming. Yes, he's a scatterbrained goofball, but he's a lovable scatterbrained goofball—and I personally find that extremely endearing. He wears his heart on his sleeve, is sensitive not only to his own feelings but also to the feelings of others, and he is incredibly sincere. It's rare that male characters get to be so soft and so vulnerable and get to have such big feelings without being a complete joke. (Sure there are some jokes about Finral being emotional, but for the most part, his emotions are validated and respected). He is also one of the most genuinely kind characters in the series, extremely generous, humble, and loyal to his friends. (He's also sometimes, begrudgingly, the voice of reason for them which is, honestly, saying something about the Black Bulls...). And, perhaps most importantly, he is all of these things even after of all of the horrible things that have happened to him in his life (which could have just as easily made him jaded, cold, and cynical like Langris). Finral has suffered a lot, but he still chooses kindness and forgiveness--chooses to see and to believe in the good in people (even in people who hurt him, like his brother who he never gives up on and always gives the benefit of the doubt). There is a strength in that kindness that he doesn't give himself credit for.

4. Langris — As much as I didn't particularly care for Finral in the beginning, I positively detested Langris for the longest time (because, of course, as soon as I start to really like Finral's character, Langris shows up and is nothing but nasty to him. I actually remember my sister and I, turning to each other saying, “Do we like Finral now?” “I think we like Finral now” right before we started the episode where Langris first appeared 💦). I never thought I'd be a Langris sympathizer (and certainly not to this extent), but I always got the feeling that Langris was a victim of the toxicity and abuse of House Vaude, too. It is a horrible, cruel thing for parents to withhold unconditional love from their children, and as much as Ledior and Liliane withheld love from Finral, they withheld it from Langris as well forcing him to “earn” their love by living up to unattainable expectations of perfection. Even though he was the "perfect son" and extremely successful, nothing he ever did was enough for his parents, leaving him a jaded and insecure overachieving perfectionist who is extremely hard on others but is even harder on himself. He is also, arguably, starving for unconditional love as much as Finral—the difference being that where his brother tries to fill that void with flirting & pursuing romantic relationships, Langris tries to fill it with his accomplishments, successes, and achievements (ultimately & unhealthily finding his entire sense of self-worth in them). I think what's really tragic here is that Langris has such a deep capacity for love--I have no doubt that when he chooses to care about someone, he will love forever. However, he has this crippling fear of vulnerability and rejection that prevents him from building meaningful relationships. He doesn't like games he can't see a possibility of winning and since he doesn't believe that anyone could actually love him, he counts himself out of the running and closes himself off to people--his brother included. None of this excuses any of the horrible things that Langris has done or the way that he has treated Finral, but it does make him a little more sympathetic and gives me hope for a brighter future in which he and Finral can make amends and begin to rebuild their brotherly relationship. My poor boys, I want good things for them. 💚💙

I know I have droned on and on already, but I feel like I've just roasted Langris without saying many good things about him 😅 so I'm adding some here. Langris is incredibly intelligent, forthright, dependable, responsible, and loyal. He can be snarky and a little too blunt at times, but I think for all of his attempts at being cold, curt, and detached, he actually has a secret softer, gentler side. In the companion to this post (about my top 10 favourite Black Clover relationships), I talked a little about Langris's friendship with Finesse and how that brings out this soft side of him. With her, I think, we get to see that he's very attentive and thoughtful, and that he can actually be very selfless. He genuinely wants her to be happy--even if that means helping his brother shape up so he can be a man worthy of her and take over their House (when, arguably, Langris is the one who wants to be the Head of House Vaude and has worked towards that goal for his entire life). And that is the Langris that I like--the Langris who cares very, very much, not in some big, grand gesture but in a cluster of small gestures that really boil down to being loyal, stable, and present when someone needs him and to being willing to make sacrifices for what's best for someone else. Say what you will about Langris (and there are a lot of negative and critical things to say about him), but when it comes down to it, I think he has grown a lot over the series and the person that he is now, has shown an admirable willingness to give up the things he wants for the people he cares about if he thinks that's what's best for them (not just in the example with Finesse and Finral, but he also gives up his greatest achievement, being Vice Captain of the Golden Dawn, to Yuno and basically admits in Spade that it's because Yuno is the better leader for their squad). He cares more than he's willing to admit, and though I don't think he'll ever be the type to easily express it with his words, his actions speak loud enough. And yes, I like him very much for that. 💖

5. Finesse — I suppose this is a good segue since I was just talking about her, but, yes, I know she is an out-of-the-box choice. However, I'm incredibly fond of her and think she is criminally underrated. I'll admit her appearance in media res did throw me for a loop for a bit and gave me some emotional whiplash at first, but that's not her fault (and is another story entirely). Even so, Finesse is instantly likeable. She might be the kindest person in this entire series, and she so generously and naturally gives to others without expecting anything for herself. She has such a gentle strength to her too--a beautiful example that even the smallest acts of kindness and encouragement can really make a hugest difference. What she’s done for Finral and Langris just by caring about them and offering them compassion and believing the best in them has really meant the world to them, I think (saying nothing of the fact that, in turn, both of the spatial mage boys would bend over backwards to make her happy--a fact that, I think, would genuinely surprise her as she's so humble, bless her heart 💕). I have no doubt that she genuinely cares for both Finral and Langris very much, and she is so good for both of her boys and knows them so well--sometimes, even better than they know themselves. I don't know the extent to which she understands the reality of how awful things are at House Vaude because, I imagine, both Finral and Langris are very protective of her and don’t want to "burden" her with their problems (though she wouldn't see it that way if they ever did open up to her, of course); however, I think she knows that things are difficult for them (i.e. that Finral is struggling with self-deprecation and was suffering emotionally before he left home and that Langris is much harder on himself than he is on anyone else and misses his brother very much) and decides to be this kind, warm, and gentle presence in both of their lives. She chooses to see so much good in them, even if they can't see it in themselves (when she tells Finral that she believes he's a true magic knight or defends Langris to the King even when he's gone on an elf-possession-induced rampage, for instance). No matter what, she selflessly wants what's best for her boys, and there's something very sweet about how she inspires them to become the best version of themselves--with Finral striving to become "worthy of her" and Langris bringing out that softer, gentler side when they're spending time together.

I think Finesse gets a bit of a bad rep for being meek, gentle, and “dull” (to quote a younger, dumber version of a certain someone who likely just didn't want to be in arranged marriage), but there really is a strength in consistently choosing to be kind, especially in the face of adversity. This poor girl is chronically ill and (arguably because of that) is forced into an arranged marriage which is, on paper at least, undesirable for her--marrying into House Vaude is definitely below her station as a member of the House of Kira, plus it's a literal hellscape of a vicious cycle of toxicity and abuse. Her future in-laws are genuinely horrible people who traumatized their sons with their cruelty, leaving both of her possible future spouses/romantic prospects with serious, unresolved psychological issues. Not to mention the fact that she doesn't even really know which one of their sons she's actually engaged to... Just luckily, Finral and Langris are decent enough people and either of them would be likely be a good husband and try his best to make her happy, but still... this is a lot for poor Finesse. And yet, she takes this all in stride, approaches the situation with dignity, grows to genuinely care for Langris and Finral, and shows them nothing but kindness, support, and encouragement (quite possibly for the first time in their lives). In fact, when Langris has all that elf-business and the King threatens to dissolve the betroval and punish the Vaudes, it is Finesse who comes to their defense rather than taking what is quite possibly her only chance at an "out," and there is something to be admired in that, I think. She just deserves a lot more love and a lot more credit than she is given, and she is genuinely one of my favourites. 💖

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end! 🥰 Many thanks again for the ask, anon. 💖 I think I will need to stop there for now. I will talk about the other 5 in another post as this one is already super long... 😅 Cheers!! 🥂