Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night

Good points indeed. I've looked it up again and apparently there were two trials held (in the span of like 5 days), so it's possible we're each talking about a different one. Some sources say she was present but not allowed to speak (or for that matter, nobody else was allowed to speak on her behalf), some say she wasn't, so idk.
I'm not familiar enough with Hungarian aristocracy at the time to comment on what possibilities they had and why they would potentially take the course of action they did. Spreading rumors that escalated into a trial (or rather using already existing rumors that stemmed from reality, ie. her being abusive towards her servants) seems like *a* way of doing it, though I don't know if it was the most practical one.
And yes, even if only a half of the current cultural perception of her is true, that's still terrifying.

You're right, it's speculation mainly based on the historical context and trustworthiness (or rather lack thereof) of the evidence and accounts. And in my opinion both possibilities are equally likely. Cutthroat aristocrats existed, and horrendous serial killers as well. We have examples of killers like Ted Bundy or Myra Hindley who did terrible stuff to their victims, it's not difficult to believe someone would do equally fucked up stuff 400 years ago. Especially in a time when people publicly cheered for and during public executions.
Anyway I just wanted to provide an alternative perspective, as I said I don't really lean either way. It's an interesting conversation to have but I think at this point there isn't much more evidence to uncover so we have to rely on the materials we have and make up our mind on whether or not they're trustworthy.

Some Hungarian historians believe that these accounts were actually people coerced (aka tortured until they said what was needed) by Bathory's rivals. The "physical evidence" was also apparently exaggerated, with unrelated deaths in the area being attributed to Bathory. They say that maybe she was abusive towards her servants, which wouldn't be unusual from a wealthy and powerful aristocrat, but likely not a serial killer. As for the trial part – a trial was held, without Bathory present and therefore unable to defend against these accusations. I mean, back then people were convicted for much lesser things with much less evidence, y'know, like witchcraft. I would be careful about believing politically motivated trials especially from 17th century Hungary, which was marked by tumultuous political and religious conflict and a really 'cutthroat' aristocracy.

Yup. And apparently the myth that Bathory bathed in the blood of virgins to keep her youth (which I guess was later twisted into her being a vampire) was spread by male aristocrats at the time/after her death because it was unusual for a woman to have as much wealth and power as she did. And also because she was really, really rich and they wanted some of that money for themselves. The original 'cancel culture'?

Oh I thought someone stole her card info, or just that her husband/kid used her card to buy it. This is way more hilarious.

Fair enough

It's been a while since I last visited the UK, and to be fair I only ever went there on school trips so we mostly had our own food, but my perception was that there's a lot of Indian and Asian places that offer good food for quite fair prices. Maybe it's only the case in larger cities?

Agreed. Tbh taking any mainstream media outlet seriously is laughable these days.
Edit: Just to clarify, by "these days" I mean like, *especially* these days. But it has been this way for some time.

Alright, bud. I'm an asshole for making a joke. Call the joke police on me.

Ah, the pillar of salt shows itself! Case solved ahahaha
Point is, many people nowadays can more or less do stuff like cooking and cleaning but can't do basic household repairs because they'd rather just call a repairman, but things like changing a light switch is easy and cheap. I felt like it too should be mentioned based on the context of the post and my personal experiences.

Shit, that's a brilliant idea! Why didn't I think of that? I bought a tennis ball instead ahahaha