#Alucard the true ally we need

[bloodied-velvet]

It’s hilarious that on the record we have Alucard telling Richter to essentially stay out of Black folks’ business

[beevean]

https://gizmodo.com/castlevania-nocturne-interview-spoilers-alucard-annette-1850892875

This is an interview that for once is not only with Deats but with Clive Bradely as well, Nocturne's writer and Ellis' replacement.

Before I start, I love how they talk about *that* ending like it's the hypest thing to ever hype. They know. They know what the fans only care about.

It ends with a clear and ready indicator that team is ready to tackle arguably the most iconic Castlevania narrative of all time, Symphony of the Night, as Richter and his allies find themselves bolstered in the darkest hour by the arrival of a familiar face… well, to us, at least, even if our young heroes aren’t as up on their Castlevania lore as gamers are.

Fucking peak. I love it. The gang is ready to tackle the SoTN story because even though they were about to die badly, after losing Tera, Alucard is there to save the day. Goddamnit if you suck his dick any harder you'll vacuum it off his body.

Also lol and lmao they cannot adapt SoTN at all. Where is Richter grappling with the fear that after killing Dracula his life is now done, making him easy prey for Shaft's manipulations? None of this can happen. Dracula isn't even around!

The character of Annette, trapped in a castle, made me think of Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame—this extraordinary woman who sweeps into France. It seemed an obvious step to make Annette a revolutionary from St. Domingue/Haiti on that sort of model.

This... sure is a train of thought. I'll just say N!Annette fucking wishes she had Esmeralda's charisma.

Later we had a Haitian adviser on board, Cècile Accilien, who helped us with aspects of the history and culture. We wanted it to be as authentic and grounded in reality as possible.

oh god no spinning i'm wheezing

If i was Mrs. Accilien I'd be offended by how the character named after me can't even be a proper wise guide without degenerating into "your entire self is rooted into being a slave" and "those stupid frenchies will never understand our pain, so don't bother expecting empathy from your boo", but what do I know

also yeah sure it's realistic how Annette uses the power of her gods to run away from slavery

I just loved the idea of Richter’s grandfather as this bitter old guy who’s been through hell, lost his magic (which at the point they meet is also true of Richter)—kind of the opposite of Richter, or an image of how Richter could end up if he doesn’t evolve into the hero he needs to be.

Fuck off. I've already ranted about this. My poor man Juste deserves better than being "that one stupid asshole that exists as a warning".

I just wanted to add that Juste is a really special inclusion in the series for me, and Clive brought him into the show in a really great way that resonates really well with the Castlevania fan in me.

"wah i'm so glad juste was included in my story as a cynical fuck to be bullied, for meeeee 🥺 i'm such a big fan guys 🥺🥺🥺"

I don't like Deats. I know it's mean of me, but the more I read him talk, the less I like him as a person, he's just so conceited. I don't know who is the bigger hack between him and Flynn now.

So there’s almost a bit of a debate about Alucard’s design and whether he has intended to have pale blonde hair or white hair in Symphony of the Night based on the artwork of him and even his character’s sprite in the game. At the time of designing him in the original series, though, I decided to lean towards the pale blonde hair in order to invoke his mother, which was appropriate to the story. His hair got more saturated during lighting/compositing than I had ever intended, though, which was a constant frustration of mine. But even back then I tinkered with the idea that if we were to jump forward in time, to show how time has passed by leaning more towards the white haired direction (this also had the added benefit of not being something we would have to worry about getting over-saturated during lighting!).

Well, there you have it. N!Alucard's hair got lighter in-universe. I wonder if he changed color naturally or he decided to change his appearance.

for Nocturne, we wanted to invoke his SOTN look while also reflecting that this is a version of him that’s been awake and fighting for 300 years

Mhh. So I was right. He did live on for 300 years and witness his friends' death, abandoning his castle and village and Trevor's descendants to fight by himself. I'll make sure to judge this decision once S2 comes out.

[duhragonball]

Battle Tendency Liveblog: JJBA Ch. 65-66

This is the start of the “Ultimate Warriors from Ancient Times” arc, but I want to focus on these two chapters because they feature Mark.   I’ve got a lot to say about Mark under the cut, but the short version is that he’s a lousy Nazi and he deserves everything that happens to him.

A large chunk of Chapter 65 is just Caesar hanging out in Joseph and Speedwagon’s hotel room.   They try to play cards, but they’re both cheats.  This wouldn’t bother me at all until Speedwagon points out that he’s been here for eight hours, and never bothered to explain why.   You’d think Joseph would have demanded an answer a long time ago, since he’s not known for patience.  

As it turns out, Caesar’s been waiting for Mark, a buddy of his in the German Army.   Stroheim was in the German Army too, and he told Joseph that the Nazis had discovered three other Pillar Men in Rome.   That’s why he and Speedwagon came here, after all.    Well, Caesar’s an Italian, and Italy and Germany are allies, so Caesar managed to persuade the Germans (through Mark) to let him take a look at the Pillar Men.    So in this chapter, Mark rolls up in a car and drives them over to the site. 

But we already know what happened at the site in Chapter 64.   The Pillar Men have already reawakened, and all the Nazi soldiers stationed there have been slaughtered.   When Mark leads our heroes into the catacombs, they find the remains of the Germans, while Mark bumps into the Pillar Men themselves.  (Note: the above image is not to scale).

The thing is, bumping into the Pillar Men is hazardous to your health.    We saw that vampire grab Santana and large chunks of his body were completely absorbed.   The same thing happens to Mark, only faster, because Wamuu doesn’t even slow down as he walks past him.    He just walks right through Mark and half of his body is gone.  

So when I first watched the JoJo anime, it was right after I watched the Hellsing Ultimate anime, and I got a kick out of seeing two completely different anime takes on vampire lore.   Let’s face it, the Pillar Men are presented as something beyond mere vampires, but they’re basically just super-vampires, not so different from Alucard in Hellsing.    And both make use of the Nazis, except in Hellsing, the Nazis are the villains, while in Battle Tendency, they’re kinda sorta allies.  Stroheim is clearly a bad guy, because he killed his prisoners and tormented Speedwagon, but Mark is presented as a completely sympathetic person.   He’s got a sweetheart back home, Caesar’s the one who introduced them, and he’s planning to get married the next time he goes back to Germany.   And for his very brief appearance in JJBA, he’s completely friendly and helpful to the heroes.   We’re supposed to feel very sorry for him when he gets killed here.  

Part 2 is my favorite, but I think this stands out as it’s biggest flaw.   I get the idea.    Hellsing was dealing with a lot of dark themes, and the protagonists were horrifying in their own right.   So Kouta Hirano used the Nazis as villains to humanize his vampire characters.    By contrast, Hirohiko Araki seems to be using the Nazis to dehumanize the Pillar Men.   They’re so evil that even the Nazis look halfway decent by comparison.   At least the Nazis are human, with human loves and fears and honor.    The Pillar Men kill Mark without even noticing him, and Speedwagon likens this to a human stepping on an ant.     I get what Araki is trying to do here, but it rings hollow.    Fuck Mark, and fuck his Nazi fiance.  The first time we see him, we get a close up of his Iron Cross medal, with the damn swastika in the middle of it.    We’re supposed to buy into the idea that he’s “one of the good Germans”, and it’s 1938, so World War II hasn’t officially started yet, so somehow Mark is supposed to be cool.   But no, I don’t buy it.

Let me go off on a little sidebar and try to explain how we got here.   Battle Tendency was published in 1988.   Back then, Hitler had been dead for decades, and Germany had been partitioned into two countries, East and West Germany.   The Nazis seemed to have been consigned to the dustbin of history, and as time passed, pop culture grew more comfortable using the Nazis as historical villains in stories like this one.    There was a sense that yeah, the Nazis were really bad, but they were gone now, and they would never come back.   I think there was a similar mentality surrounding the Soviet Union after the U.S.S.R. dissolved.    By the 2000′s there were all sorts of internet memes about Nazi stuff and Soviet stuff and it was rationalized as harmless envelope-pushing. 

The problem is, it doesn’t seem so harmless in 2021, when Russia is a autocracy that meddles in U.S. elections, emboldening white nationalists in the process.   The “alt-right” fanatics who marched in Charlottesville in 2017?   The rioters who stormed the Capitol building this past January?   Those assholes probably wouldn’t call themselves Nazis, but neither did the Nazis.   They called themselves “National Socialists”, because they were trying to make their ugly policies sound more legitimate.   The same holds true for “alt-right”, “economic nationalist”, “Qanon”, “truther”, and so on.   They’re just new labels for the same old horseshit.  

I don’t want to judge Battle Tendency too harshly, because it’s the product of a different time, an era when people could at least pretend that Nazism was one of the few problems that we didn’t have to worry about any more.   The same mentality can be found in Hellsing.   The Nazis in Hellsing are definitely villains, but the conceit is that they’re all immortal vampires or werewolves, because that’s the only way the Nazi menace could possibly exist in 1999.    Otherwise, they’d all be dead of old age.   Battle Tendency is set in 1938, so it takes the liberty of presenting sympathetic Nazis, because we already know they’ll be defeated in the end, right?   We might as well see what makes them tick.  

Araki may have thought that using Nazis in a story set in the 1930s would be no different than using Napoleonic French soldiers in a story set in the 1800s.  And in the long run, that might be true, but I don’t think we’re there yet.   In the here and now, it’s aged rather poorly.  

Of course, just because Caesar and Joseph feel bad for Mark doesn’t mean I have to.   And Araki may have been more self-aware than I’m giving him credit for.    Nazi Germany wanted to set itself up as the Master Race, and in this fictional world, the Pillar Men have come to do the same thing, only they’re much, much further ahead of the game.   I think part of the point of Stroheim and Mark was to contrast the Nazis’ supreamcist attitudes with Kars’ ambitions.   For all of Stroheim’s boasting, he’s helpless against Kars’ might.   But at the same time, for all of Kars’ power and brilliance, he’s ultimately chasing the same pipe dream as Hilter and his followers.  

Let’s get back on track.    While the good guys react in horror at what happened to Mark, the Pillar Men just stand around nearby and discuss their situation.   They completely ignore our heroes, just like they ignored Mark.   Kars wants to locate the Red Stone of Aja, because it’s the secret ingredient to the mask he designed that will make them immune to sunlight.   Esidisi doesn’t understand how the stone helps their plan, but he’s totally on board.    But as they head out, Wamuu suddenly attacks Kars, because Kars stepped in his shadow, and apparently Wamuu just lashes out at anyone who does this, friend or foe.   

Wamuu is deeply sorry for this, and begs to be punished, but Kars apologizes instead, because he knows about Wamuu’s whole shadow thing and he feels that he’s the one who made the mistake here.  I really love this exchange, because it defines the Pillar Men so well.    As indifferent as they are to human lives, they respect one another a great deal.   Kars is the leader, but he still treats the other two guys like close associates.    He needs Wamuu’s sharp senses and keen warrior instincts.   Meanwhile, Wamuu and Eisidisi practically worship Kars like a god.   They’ve literally followed him around the world and across thousands of years in pursuit of his vision. 

So yeah, if the goal here was to use Mark’s suffering to make me hate the Pillar Men, it doesn’t work.  The Pillar Men are evil, sure, but they’re pretty cool bad guys.   On the other hand, Mark looks ridiculous here, with Caesar holding and talking to half of his body.   This looks like something out of a Tex Avery cartoon.   

I mean, let’s set aside the whole Nazi thing for a moment.   Why should I feel sorry for Mark?  Because he’s in pain?   He got cut in half!   He should have died instantly!    Because he was going to get married?   We only met this guy one chapter ago!   Because he’s Caesar’s friend?  Well Caesar’s kind of a jerk too.  

Anyway, Mark begs Caesar to kill him and end his suffering, so Caesar uses the Ripple to stop his heart.    Or the half of it that’s still there, I guess.   

Okay, so the whole point of Mark’s death is to really get the good guys fired up to battle the Pillar Men, right?    Okay, Caesar tries to take them on, and he opens with the Bubble Launcher, the same move he talked about earlier.   It didn’t beat Joseph, but Caesar’s Hamon power does hurt Wamuu’s skin, which is more than Joseph managed to do against Santana.  

The Bubble Launcher is supposed to surround the opponent with dozens of soap bubbles charged with Hamon energy.  Wamuu can’t escape without touching them and getting hurt.   But Wamuu just sprouts all these long braids from his head and clothes, and swings them around with superhuman precision to know the bubbles away without hurting himself.  

As it turns out, these Pillar Men are familiar with Hamon.   Santana was surprised to encounter Joseph Joestar’s powers, but Wamuu and the others have fought Ripple users in the past.    And Wamuu’s more intrigued than worried...

Oh, as one final aside, on the car ride to the catacombs, Speedwagon asked Caesar if he tried to use the Ripple to destroy the Pillar Men before they woke up, and Caesar explains that it didn’t work while they were in their dormant state.   Remember, at the very start of this story, Speedwagon called Straizo because he wanted someone to use the Ripple to destroy Santana before he could wake up.   Now we see that even if Straizo had agreed to his request, it wouldn’t have done any good.   Sunlight doesn’t seem to kill the Pillar Men so much as it makes them turn to stone, and the Ripple only hurts them while they’re flesh and blood.   So the only way to kill them seems to be by using Hamon in a direct confrontation, and that’s a tall order...

[darkspellmaster]

I've never played the games but I'm curious to know if there really is a significant difference between game Alucard and show Alucard. The reason I ask this is because some of the criticisms I've seen in regards to S3 is how some people didn't like how they've butchered Alucard's character and that they fear that the writers are going to turn him evil at some point due to the trauma. I don't think he will because that would royally tick off the fans of the games but who knows at this point.

I’m so late on replying to these because of my job! 

So this is an interesting topic to me because of how the character of Alucard evolved and what he’s become in regard to Castlevania and it’s history, and the history of known dampirers in general. And how Warren Ellis tends to tell stories, since he’s the one writing this story. 

I suppose I should start all the way back with who Alucard was and where he came from. 

The character of Alucard, at least within the Castlevania lore, really started way back in Castlevania III and was no where near the character we know and love now. This was back in 1989 and Castlevania was still going on the theme of Universal Horror monsters of the 1940s and 1950s. So way back when in 1943 Universal put out a movie called Son of Dracula, where the main character was the son of Dracula named, you guessed it, Alucard. (However in this case he’s not really Dracula’s kid, rather he’s Dracula himself.) It’s pretty clear that Konami wanted to use the idea of dracula having a kid for this game, but I digress. 

So the first version of Alucard was from the game and was designed by  T. Fujimoto and I. Urata.

Alucard in this case was designed to be a mirror image of his father and a vampire. The idea here was to create a character that while a monster was someone that could be seen as an ally as well. During this time his personality was still sort of not fully created as his main goal was the opposition of his father and the other members of those that served him by infiltrating the underground. In Castlevania III Alucard’s personality is shown to be far more amiable and warm. 

His tone here is very different. He’s more invested in dealing with with father, befriending Trevor with a handshake, and later versions of Alucard are more quiet and calm, this one is ready to go and get his father. So early forms of Alucard show him to be a more open and warrior character, but also at the end of the game on Alucard’s route, it’s clear that he feels guilty about killing his father, which brings up one of the aspects of him that moved into the later versions of the character. 

The next version of Alucard that comes up, and leads into the Change of Character is the 1997 Symphony of the Night. The design of his character took a drastic change in the hands of  Ayami Kojima, who restyled Alucard into the blonde gothic character we have now (of note, this was her first big gig, and Captain N gave him the blonde hair in 1993, though that is non cannon), which mirrored the change in Alucard’s personality. 

Gone was the more stylized monster movie look of the smirking character that you see above, instead Director/Producer  Koji Igarashi changed up his personality. While Castlevania 3 Alucard was more or less a “Let’s go get him” possibly upbeat person, Igarashi turned him more into a brooding, bitter pessimistic person who believed his blood was cursed and that he was doomed to forever fight and deal with the actions of his father. While his aloofness and coolness come off as curt, it’s holding back a more traumatic personal history that he doesn’t want to burden on others. He’s quick to throw away allies to keep them safe, and at the same time, takes on challenges to protect those he loves. He tends to be very antisocial at points for fear of being hurt again, yet, he’s willing to save humans and befriend them as his mother’s words stuck with him. 

Alucard in a lot of ways is the dark brooding trauma guy with the heart of gold. This is how most people see him, since Symphony of the Night became a huge deal for most people and how they percive Alucard. As a character he’s someone who loves and cares for others, and wants to protect humans, and sees those who act like his father as dangerous and in the wrong. 

The major differences in Alucard in the Show and Alucard of the game fall down to a few things. 

1. Alucard in the games is less innocent than Alucard in the show. He’s far more cunning a person. He’s a Batman type, having a plan for everything and being alive a lot longer than what he is in the show. Where as Alucard in the show is far more of an innocent person who is only a late teenager, maybe 20 years at most coming up, and has not experienced much in the world yet. The indication, unlike game Alucard, is that Lisa helped raise him until recently. 

2. Unlike game Alucard, Show Alucard seems to be more against the idea of Humans hunting monsters. The problem is that as a character, he tends to find the monsters of the world vile, and rather see them dead than alive at all. While the show does keep true to his guilt issue, it seems more like Alucard in the game is far more invested in the death of his Father and understands that it needs to be done because Dracula in the games is a far more sinister figure than what we have now in show, who seems more based on his later Lament of Innocent’s game depiction (a man that is pushed to chose to do something horrible in order to punish what he believes is the one that wronged him in taking his wife away). So there is a key difference there. 

3. The biggest one. Alucard in game would not pike someone. Again as a more cunning person, and more pessimistic, he would be suspect of the two new hunters. He’d never allow them to get that close until he knew what they were up to, and even then he would not sleep the way he does in the show. Even if they attack him, he’d more likely use magic to send them flying out of the castle. Not to mention the fact that the castle is a living thing in the games, and changes based on who is in control of it. So naturally it would not allow for anyone to harm the son of it’s owner (Dracula) so it would have kicked them out, and Alucard would know that. Alucard is a person who sees the good in humanity, preaching it to others who see them as monsters. He feels they have a hard lot in life and that because of their shorter life span they should be pitied and felt more sympathetic towards. Above all, Alucard would not use his father’s tactics. Rather he would probably bury them in the ground over displaying their corpses for all to see. 

This is where Ellis’s writing comes into play. To make it make sense for why Alucard would go to sleep for 300 years, he needed to give him a reason. What better reason then being traumatically assaulted and harmed  by those you think care for you. My guess is that Warren probably will play up the “tempted by darkness” trope and then in the end comes back to the light, only to seal himself to make sure that he never is hurt again. 

The reason why so many are worried about Alucard is because of how this last season is making him look. Not only foolish for being so trustworthy, even though in the last two seasons he wasn’t, and then allowing himself to follow his father’s belief. This is in conflict to the mirror image that Dracula and Alucard are supposed to hold up to one another. Alucard should not become a monster, he’s a hero, and needs to be seen that way. 

[diabolikmosquito]

Just-Watched Thoughts on S3

Alright time to write this while I’m still here recovering so I can go to bed already. I might add more/clean this up once I get some proper sleep. Tagging it but putting Castlevania Season 3 spoilers under a cut just in case people haven’t got tags hidden and such. Here goes-

Overall I’m honestly just kinda shocked? I think it’s because a lot of things were easy to predict (that the cult might be trying to bring back Dracula, something was up with the Judge, Hector was obviously gonna fall for Lenore’s bs, etc.) so when things happened I didn’t see from a mile away.. 

When I was only like an episode or two in, things actually felt a little stunted to me? Something about it felt like “This is what people liked from before, right??” particularly with certain action or such, but I feel like it picked up pretty quickly from that. I’m still kinda in winding-down-emotions mode so I can’t really definitively say what storylines I liked and which ones I disliked for the most part. I liked Isaac’s, and the design of the... Hivemind Magician? Was all pretty sick. It felt like the first thing that was actually a massive challenge for him, and nearly overtook him, but he overcame it and even came out of it thinking through what he wanted for the future. It’s a nice change from seeing him steamroll anything that came his way. 

I like that Trevor and Sypha’s storyline ends up with them not getting their heroic grand time like they did last time. Yes, there were sacrifices made, but before it still felt grandiose: they’d worked together to kill Dracula, something the world didn’t even think possible for the most part. This time, they sacrificed a lot more and ultimately didn’t win a thing other than their own lives, and were helping a hidden monster in their process of killing other monsters. What a crushing thing for them to have to go through, and I think Trevor’s conversation with himself before (and later with said monster, ironically enough) about missing parts of his old non-heroic non-adventuring life was pretty somber and interesting. 

The whole Lenore/Hector route was exactly what’s expected from the beginning, but it was done well for what it was, and I don’t think they were trying to fool anyone with the direction it was headed. Carmilla’s plot was.. eh, more or less not much seemed to actually happen, but it did introduce us to the awesome vampire sisters so I’m more than down with it. I wish we got a little more about Saint Germain’s whole deal with that portal and such, who he was looking for and how he knows they’re still alive in there, but I assume that’s a next-season kind of thing. I’m gonna ramble if I write anymore so here’s a more concise/clear list:

Things I liked -  Trevor and Sypha’s chemistry! I thought it was good the first couple seasons (which apparently puts me in the minority?) but they felt much more compatible as a couple this time around. The little exchange about the “taste for rougher things in life��� is wonderful, and I definitely snorted when she sleep-bapped him in the face. - The tidbits of funny dialogue! Seems to still be a show specialty. Some of them were understandably a bit funny (using “Nope! speedwalks away” in place of “shut it” is pretty good), and others weren’t funny but I just found it hilarious (e.g. Morana’s repeated fancily-stated things that boiled down to “... Lenore, seriously, TMI”) - The soundtrack! Not really any surprise, despite it not being the famous Symphony of the Night tracks people clamored for trust me I totally get that and despite it still not being released even from season 2 much less 3,  it was very nice to listen to.  - The vampire sisters! While it was obvious from the beginning Lenore was the “cutest/nonthreateningest-looking of the scary bunch but actually the scariest” one I liked the energy they all had, especially Striga and Morana and their relationship. I liked that we got to see Carmilla��s attitude bouncing off of other vampires who (while respecting her skill) also called her out for it from time to time. - The references! I’m sure there’s more and I’m a dumbass who only spots the obvious ones, but... the fact there’s demons that’re exactly ones out of the ol’ Symphony of the Night game again, like the Malachi and Fire Demon. It’s so dumb but I love shit like that, especially since they obviously stray far from the game canon and don’t have to do that but do it anyway. - Some of the action scenes. I cannot mention what I like without mentioning the parts that made me go “... Okay, yeah, that was badass.” You know the ones! When Cho busted that sword with her hands, when Sypha chopped that angel-like demon into pieces. ... A lot of the stuff Sypha did, actually, I’m glad she got some more epic moments to kick ass this season. I thought the earlier action scenes of the season were just alright, but by the last fight it was definitely starting to feel like that awesome dynamic fight style we saw in season 2. - The fact Dracula saw an opportunity to return and didn’t want to. Not much to say here other than the obvious - I feel like that’s extremely fitting, and I’m glad they made it clear without bringing him back and having him be angry/regret it or something like that. Without any dialogue, even. - The ending.. somewhat. It destroyed me a little on the inside, but I actually like that nobody really had a happy ending. Particularly if there could be another season, it feels really fitting. I’ve seen some people complaining “They ended up where they started! Trevor and Sypha are back on the road, Isaac’s traveling with his army, Alucard’s alone in the castle and Hector is a slave” but I couldn’t disagree more. Of course if you boil it down to the words themselves, it’s “the same,” but did ya see the sheer trauma literally everyone was put through? Obviously some had it worse than others (and we’ll fucking get to that) but nobody came out unscathed. Everyone’s now had some belief challenged or retreated further into a fear/mistrust that already existed - previous events planted the seed for it and the hell the cast went through gave it growth. 

Trevor and Sypha are going to have to challenge their goal they’d been following since working together/getting together: they can’t just go headlong adventuring and fixing people’s problems, because things like this can happen. Their new allies and the entire town were slaughtered or trapped somewhere, and the man they’d trusted and been helping this entire time was a serial killer, particularly of children. Alucard is drifting into a state of consciousness not unlike his father before he met Lisa, but potentially in a worse place since he’s witnessed and felt true kindness, but has retreated away from it even so due to the betrayal he’s suffered at an already-fragile time for him. Isaac has to reconsider what he’s going to do once he has his proper army, and even if it’s worth it to get his revenge or to carry out Dracula’s original plans. Saint Germain.. I mean, he’s in psychodelic hell searching for that person and presumably a way out, I assume it’s tragic. Hector’s learned a hard lesson in trusting and is going to have to figure out if his freedom is worth risking pain or death. Likewise I think the characters grow this way. Even if it was a happy ending, or an ending where everyone “wins” some small victory somehow, I think it’d ultimately have been worthless if nobody was fundamentally changed by the end of the season.

Things I didn’t like - The sex scenes. I’ve seen a lot of people like “If you’re gonna put in gratuitous sex then actually include Trevor and Sypha??” and I’m gonna have to disagree with that. While I love the ship and all, I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt and say sex scenes weren’t thrown around randomly or just to flex the rating - they were only tied to actual story, hence why I’m down with the bedroom stuff of the show’s main ship only being alluded to. However, I gotta say that the long broken-up sex scenes mixed with battle/action was not the way to do that. I think I know what they were going for (it definitely drove my anxiety up having those scenes back to back with intense action/violence, I can tell ya that!), but it just wasn’t a good idea. Yes, they were obviously made to be uncomfortable (particularly since I’m pretty sure one of them was dubious consent at best?) but that was reflected well just in a few key frames/actions - it didn’t need to be drawn out and mixed with the action. It made me want to skip through (I didn’t out of fear I’d miss battles, which isn’t really good design) and I’d like to bet parts of the finale are unwatchable for some. For the record, yes you could say “well they got into an adult-rated show, deal with it,” but the fact of the matter is up until now sexual violence/discomfort wasn’t heavy-handed and in-your-face like this. Non-sexual violence was definitely all over the whole series, but it’s still a bit like whiplash considering. Also, the fact people think the scene with Alucard was at all chill. I see it from a story standpoint (though I honestly think their motivations were weak and there’s other ways to betray someone/get their guard down), but I think the people going on about “power bottom” and this and that are forgetting that the absence of a no is not a yes, particularly with someone severely emotionally damaged after spending months alone not only without a support group but without any contact, immediately following the death of his father by his own hands. I’m no expert but I don’t think that’s someone in the proper state of mind to consent to anything sexual, even if there were a couple weeks or whatever of spending time with these new friends. He very well might’ve been on the way to a stress disorder before they turned his world upside-down and frankly I’m wondering how he’s going to be faring come the next season (assuming there is one.) That’s more of a fandom gripe than the show itself I suppose but it’s worth a mention. - The pacing. It’s hard to pinpoint it, but something about it felt off, especially in the first half. The best way I can describe it is when you pump the gas and brakes because your brakes aren’t working great and you’re loosening them up - maybe it was necessary to get things going, but it’s a bit destabilizing/odd for anyone in the car. I think it’s what contributed to that stunted sense I got until things picked up a little more. You can see it more in just how packed with stuff the latter half is, some things which could’ve been planned a bit better through the whole season. - Sumi and Taka. I honestly felt that they wanted to get in a way to have a punch-in-the-gut arc with Alucard (not a bad idea, I am one for tragedy), wanted to kill off some characters who were actually important, and decided to do these both with one stone. I don’t think they were successful on the second part, because these two absolutely contributed to the stunted feeling I had about some of the season. They had a good start in terms of backstory, and the idea of two people working together to fight vampires without having some big legend tied to their name to drive it (e.g. Speaker magicians, Belmont legacy, Alucard’s heritage), as well as a connection to/fleshing out of one of the nameless generals, sounded like a great concept. A great concept, but it was rushed I felt, to the point that their motivations for turning on him were so packed and squished in they just weren’t believable if we’re supposed to believe these two were sane. They had some sort of mental/trust issues due to their backstory - that’s fine, and could contribute some emotional problems. However if their distrust in Alucard had been given more time to fester and grow, more little comments of Alucard’s brushing off their attempts to learn about specific things, and more cues from him that could be misinterpreted by them as him causing trouble and lying (not just them not believing him by itself), it would be more believable that the past and misinterpretations of the present get into their head and poison their thoughts of him. You can plant a seed of doubt but just like any other character bonds, it has to be given time to grow. Alucard’s rapid bonding with them could be attributed to his loneliness, trauma, and need for a support system, but you can’t make that excuse for Sumi and Taka’s motivations going from “Hm.. I wonder what he isn’t telling us” to “We need to emotionally gut him and then kill him” basically overnight. Edit:

I forgot to add a conclusion last night, so I guess the TL;DR is season 3’s a good 7.5/10 for me, -1 for the overall pacing, -1 for missing a bit of the punch from before, and -0.5 because the last few episodes jumped me with a bat and I let it happen.

[spicynbachili1]

Review: Castlevania (Season 2)

Let us go out this night for exposition

(Note: This is a spoiler-free review of the first six episodes of Castlevania Season 2, however, there will be spoilers for Season 1)

The first season of Castlevania was a surprise that I’m not sure many people were expecting. It was a solid, albeit short, four-episode season that did everything you would expect from a Castlevania animated series. There were dozens of monsters that needed to be killed, a Belmont, and a pissed off Dracula that wanted to exterminate all human life. Still, its short length really hampered any enthusiasm I had for the season. Just as things were started to get good, the season was over. It felt more like a proof of concept than anything else. 

Thankfully, we have a second season that gives us eight episodes and expands the story way more than the first season. If the first season was all about action and grizzly entertainment, then season two is more determined to get across the plot and character motivations. Unfortunately, this approach means that the series never hits the same high points in action as the first, though makes up for it with a deeper examination of Dracula, his cause, and his chosen allies.

Castlevania (Season 2) Showrunner: Adi Shankar Release Date: October 26, 2018 (Netflix)

The second season picks up immediately after the first season, with Trevor beginning his journey with Alucard and Sypha to stop Dracula once and for all. Trevor still isn’t the biggest fan of Alucard, partly due to him being Dracula’s son and mostly because Alucard just tried to kill him, but they’re going to have to put their differences aside for their upcoming battle. Meanwhile, Dracula is assembling his army of vampires, monsters, and human sympathizers to lay waste to the human world, not realizing that his eradication of all humans may cause some dissent in his ranks from monsters that need humans to survive. 

I know that there were some comparisons to Game of Thrones that could have been thrown at the first season, but now the Game of Thrones comparisons are front and center. We spend more time this season dealing with military planning and possible GoT styled betrayals, garden scenes included, than actual action this time around. The majority of the second season is centered on expanding on the cast of characters and their relationships between each other, which I’d normally be for, but when the first season was so focused on over-the-top action instead of telling its story, it makes the second season really feel like a different show at times.

Not to say that any of that is bad, given how excellent the voice cast is. Graham McTavish and Richard Armitage, who play Dracula and Trevor Belmont respectively, deliver their lines with such impact and conviction that I don’t mind hearing them exposit their backstories and histories. Most of the season is dedicated to delving into Dracula’s state of mind and how he’s just tired of everything that happened with his wife’s murder and his desire for vengeance. We get the sense that Dracula feels no joy in what he’s doing, but his hatred is the only thing that’s keeping him going. I could listen to Graham McTavish explaining how lonely Dracula feels and how apathetic he is about his own war for days. 

As for our heroes, we spend a fair amount of time just watching them travel together and see the chemistry between the three of them. All three of them gel together very well, especially when they’re just given time to sit around and talk to each other. Alucard and Trevor’s relationship in particular is pretty damn funny, with the two of them throwing insults at one another yet being forced to play nice just to get the job done. Sypha is usually the mediator between the two of them, but she’s just charismatic enough to hold her own with the two boys, despite how little screentime she has compared to the two of them.

As for the action, I wish that we had more than we got. When the action happens, it’s just as bloody as you would expect it to be. Heads get crushed, people get stabbed, hearts get pulled from still living bodies, monsters get burned alive, and Dracula lives up to his Tepes name with pride. Those fantastic moments are so few and far between though, with an entire episode going by without any major action set pieces. When they do appear, they’re usually brief and are too short to fully appreciate them. When you have an army of vampires laying waste to the countryside and drinking the blood of their victims for fun, you should spend more than a minute and a half showing off the massacre is all I’m saying. 

The animation and art style hasn’t changed all that much from the first season, and that’s a good thing. I enjoyed a lot of the character designs and the new characters fit in right at home. The weirdest thing that I noticed as I watched the first six episodes was that all of the vampires have super long fingernails. Like, almost as long as their actual fingers. It’s an odd little detail, and I don’t know why it was so memorable to me, but it stuck out like a sore thumb to the point where I noticed it every time a vampire appeared onscreen. 

If you were looking for more Castlevania references that pop up during the season, then season two has you covered. There were references to the original game, Symphony of the Night, Super Castlevania IV, and even Curse of Darkness that will leave fans quite pleased. I know that I definitely geeked out early on in the season when a group of famous monsters appeared to cause some havoc for our merry band of vampire hunters and even when a few characters popped up that fans may know. 

The expanded episode count does do the series plenty of favors, allowing each episode to have its own time to breath and not feel like a rushed action movie, but there are a couple of moments of dead air between several characters, mostly Dracula’s generals. Several conversations between them just felt like they were repeated information that we already knew just so that each episode could pad out its runtime to 24 minutes. I’m all for more episodes to flesh out a story, but you need to do something with them to justify the added episodes. I was getting a lot of Preacher season 2 flashbacks where most of the season took place in one location with barely anything happening until the finale, which is unfortunately true here for both our heroes and villains. 

Castlevania’s second season still carries over the same Gothic atmosphere and its ultra-violent anime roots, but it’s a different beast in nearly every other aspect. The action is played down for more exposition, and character motivations are given the spotlight. For characters like Dracula, that’s fine and dandy, but when it’s spent on uninteresting supporting characters, it just feels like a waste of my time. If all of this was in service of having more eyeball goring action in the finale and future seasons, then a slower-paced second season is fine by me as long as the results are as satisyfing as the first season’s.

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      Castlevania Season 2 reviewed by Jesse Lab

7

GOOD

Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun. How we score:  The destructoid reviews guide

        from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/review-castlevania-season-2/

[cuprum63]

Pathfinders AN 3

Author’s notes for paragraphs 31-51 of Pathfinders.

P32:

I was the insult that broke her

Lucy was born into wealth and was turned into a vampire for no known reason. Cixi longed for eternal life, had a vampire for a teacher, and still wasn’t turned.

monster hunters that comprised the Yihetuan

The Yihetuan are the Boxers. In this universe, they were also legitimate monster hunters.

P33:

The conflict resurrected Dracula by the end of first month.

Circa early December 1899.

merchants who sold invincibility potions as late as 1748

Harmony of Dissonance: the merchant sells medicine jars for 10,000 gold.

the formula itself dates back to the mirage skeletons from before the First Crusade.

Lament of Innocence: the mirage skeleton drops the invincible jar relic.

P34:

Surprisingly, she wasn't in China because of him or the Boxers; she'd come in search of new recipes for her tinned foods empire.

Jonathan Harker wrote about getting recipes for Mina in Dracula. As he’s confined to Exeter by this point, she has to step up and get them herself.

The Harkers have diversified into canned foods by the time of the Boxer Rebellion. Mina’s idea is to see if any foreign foods were adaptable to British tastes. China happened to be next on her tour.

Her mission to build a teleportation node in Peking was a cover story to her own allies

Another parallel with Lucy. Mina’s not loyal to her own group.

she'd grown to hate Jonathan and their son by then

Again, Mina is the reincarnation of Lisa. Loving Jonathan and their son is betraying Dracula and Alucard. Loving at all is betraying herself. This is a reversal of Alucard’s words to Dracula at the end of Symphony of the Night.

I have to add that I wrote Mina and Lucy as two different aspects of Lisa. Lucy, until her turning, had Lisa’s personality and even her visage, but no skills. Mina grew up an orphan, acquiring knowledge and strength, but little of Lisa’s empathy.

and longed to feel the joys of adventure, battle, and good food once again.

A reference to Clan Murray’s motto. As for good food, check out all the food items in the Castlevania games.

P35:

section of her bodyguard

Lucy’s slipping into modern British Army terminology. Here, section refers to the unit size—around eight bodyguards.

only to find that every estate needed to be guarded and staffed

Ever hear of “lumpy assets”? This is a similar idea. You buy one thing and create so many other problems that you’re thrown all the way back to square one.

she employed even more servants and mercenary retainers from wherever they could be found

Mina’s solution, enabled only because of her marriage to Jonathan and the money she looted from Castlevania.

P36:

Unlike any hunter before or since, she infiltrated Dracula's hideout, evaded all detection, and slew him as he slumbered.

This is consistent with Mina’s secretiveness. She and Lucy started so many fires in their youth and were never caught. She taught Lucy a way to become independent. Mina even killed Quincey and covered it up. She’s a natural assassin.

Anyway, not the finest hour for Dracula’s minions.

P37:

She was fleeing up the Yellow River; I chose to outflank her at the Dragon's Gate.

There’s more than one Dragon Gate around; Lucy’s referring to the one in at Longmen. A Dragon Gate is a waterfall that in myths, Asian carp jump over…

old Chinese legend

The legend tells that a carp that successfully jumps the waterfall becomes a dragon.

P38:

one of their leaders neutralized

Pay attention of the word “neutralized.”

P39:

We shadowed Morris and Lecarde as they traveled across a war-torn Europe to eliminate Elizabeth Bartley.

Castlevania: Bloodlines, set in 1917.

one of the Draculinas was betrayed by her servant, Sandor,

Dracula’s Daughter (1936), meaning one of the Draculinas took an alias of Countess Marya Zaleska and was also plotting against Dracula.

At Dark Oaks, we prevented Caldwell from usurping Dracula's power for herself

Son of Dracula (1943). Dark Oaks was a New Orleans plantation and home to the Caldwell family. Katherine “Kay” Caldwell manipulated Alucard (Dracula) into marrying and biting her because of her fear of death. Obviously, in this universe, whomever she manipulated was neither of the Tepes men.

treasure hoard hidden on that Okinawan island

Among other things, the mythical M-Funds of Major General William Frederic Marquat. Here, the funds are named after Mina Murray, and they are not Japan’s property.

and on the mainland, the fifteen swords stolen with the help of Sergeant Cody Belnades

Sign Cody Belnades’ name in cursive. Compress and fudge the writing a bit. The ‘e’ looks like an ‘i’, the ‘n’ turns into an ‘m’, the ‘a’ becomes an ‘o’ if you end too high and especially if you mix it up in the ‘d’, the downward motion used for the vertical line in the ‘d’ looks like an ‘r’, and the ‘s’ blends into the end of the ‘e’ if it’s too small. 

His name becomes Cody Bilmore. He’s the one responsible for the Honjo Masamune’s disappearance, and the swords have never left Japan.

P40:

Schneider clan after they fell in with the Nazis

Reinhardt Schneider was a playable character in the noncanon Castlevania 64. Vampire hunting is still a type of genocide, and as his descendants were blond-haired, blue-eyed, tall, and strong, they embodied the Nazi ideal.

Holmwood LLC

Major antagonists to Arikado and crew in later fics.

Harkers felt our wrath in 1986

The first Castlevania was released in 1986.

elderly Quincey A.J.A.X. Harker's life

Quincey Harker was born on November 6, 1898 in this universe. He would have been 87-88 when he was killed.

His initials stand for “Abraham John Arthur Xavier,” as adding “Jonathan” would be redundant because of Seward. This is where Xavier Lecarde comes in: with his name, the X can be added.

AJAX, also called Typhoon is the name of another Konami game. From this game is the song “Command 770,” remixed as “Golden Bough” for Kokoro Belmont in Otomedius Excellent.

counterfeiting of the AH-64 and F-14

In A-JAX, you fly the Tom Tiger (AH-64) and Jerry Mouse (F-14). The A-JAX 2 Jerry Mouse is also a playable aircraft in Airforce Delta Strike.

P41:

Dracula had been vindicated, his evil surpassed many times over by other forces.

All the tyrants of the 20th century.

God's own flocks committed sins with abandon and still called themselves holy.

Look up any of the Abrahamic religions’ abuses in the 20th century alone, and how many people now belong to no religion. Mathias Cronqvist would be nothing unusual if he’d lived in modern Europe.

Church's crimes be revealed

Among these crimes was the war on Dracula. No matter how justified, the Church deployed a military force to assassinate a sapient being who had legally done nothing wrong. It sends a message that dissent will not be tolerated, and no matter where you run, you will be hunted down.

P42:

Madmen control nuclear powers or slaughter countless innocents while their lackeys gush at how wonderful it is to be creating their paradise.

Welcome to 2017.

Being weak or a victim has not only become acceptable, but desirable.

Tumblr in a nutshell. This is the same excuse used by the HIV+ to avoid being tested and therefore having to disclose their status. For that matter, it was the same mindset that Gandhi encouraged—weakness to invoke sympathy from others.

Meanwhile, people like me end up having to clean up their messes.

The masses have more tools available to improve their station in life than ever before, yet they are firmly committed to remaining ignorant.

You have computers. You have cell phones. You have the internet. You have search engines. Stop hiding in your echo chambers and use them.

P43:

Ecclesian who volunteered her unborn child to serve as the vessel for Dracula's reincarnation

In this universe, a baby receives a soul after birth.

She simply had to get pregnant with her husband from Japan seven months ahead of schedule.

Late April 2016, for a due date of late January/early February 2017. Shortly after the Iraqis retook Hit.

Japanese-Brazilian-American pilot

A clue to the Ecclesian pilot’s true identity..

who stepped up in late November.

Probably around Thanksgiving, if shooting for the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Also, this means Soma’s mother wasn’t the first choice.

Phoenix isn't one to leave survivors.

Survivors as in enemies or descendants.

P44:

San Diego hospital

The baby is automatically an American citizen by being born on American soil to parents subject to American law. The Japanese father means the baby is also a Japanese citizen, and while Japan doesn’t recognize dual-citizenship for adults, it does for minors.

P45:

This paragraph changes the meaning of a lot since P39.

Born into nobility, you died from disease and your husband declared war against God.

Elisabetha Cronqvist.

Returned as a doctor, you were burned as a witch and your husband went mad against mankind.

Lisa.

leave behind the drudgery of the match factory

Wilhelmina Murray from this universe.

You became a teacher, then a legal secretary,

Canon from Dracula.

then a vampire hunter and mercenary commander

Inspired by the Fury of Dracula board game and Mina’s role in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics.

Memsahib

A term for married white women in India during the Raj. Also from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and a hint of the Harker business empire’s composition by 2017.

established a crime family to uphold your values as the times changed

To be covered in the fic where Quincey Harker dies.

P46:

Dracula and his son fought against each other in your name, interpreting your memory according to their own beliefs.

Castlevania 3 to Symphony of the Night.

Your former coven sister and apprentice, the first Draculina, still has flashes of self-doubt even now, when she has grown more powerful than any Dark Lord.

Lisa, in this universe, truly was a witch.

The first Draculina is a dark reflection of the games’ vampire hunters. She serves as the penultimate boss of my planned fic series, and the battle is planned to last several chapters against the entire Sorrow crew at once before they end up being whittled down.

The final boss, in case you’re wondering, is a duel between the instigators of the entire series.

Without you, Van Helsing's coalition fell apart.

Also from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Without Mina, her team of Allan Quatermain and Orlando fell apart in 1969 and would not reunite until 2009.

P47:

You won the duel that day at the Dragon's Gate.

Inspired by two Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes, of all things. Like the duel between Solomon Muto and Arthur Hawkins or their grandchildren, Yugi and Rebecca, Mina had Lucy dead to rights and surrendered instead.

You spared me and chose to surrender your mortality and identity for my sake

Here, Mina finally shows where her true loyalties lie: with Lucy.

and like a carp that becomes a dragon, you were reborn into the power you deserved

This is where the legend from P37 is explained if you weren’t reading these notes.

Lucy isn’t saying that she turned Mina into a vampire, but that the Dragon’s Gate was a place where a chosen hero can absorb power. Or it’s one of those locations where you can pick up permanent stat boosts, like the HP/MP/Heart Max Ups from the games.

There’s also the issue that Dracula means “son of the dragon.” By defeating Lucy, Dracula’s last bride, Mina has become a dragon herself. Partially inspired by the Yakuza series, where one of the themes is that there can be only one dragon.

demi-savage hidden under layers of trained refinement .

The demi-savage comes from Clan Murray’s coat of arms. Lucy is saying that under her mask, Mina is a warrior.

your name will be known as the harbinger of the end.

Again, a point from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (volume 3). While Mary Poppins is fighting the Antichrist (Harry Potter), Oliver Haddo tells Mina that she is to be the harbinger of the apocalypse.

Lucy says “your name” because Mina’s new identity is Mina Hakuba. The kanji for Hakuba mean “white horse,” and a white horse is associated with the first horseman of the apocalypse. Adding to this is if Soma doesn’t equip Mina’s Talisman at the right time, he ends up reverting to Dracula.

P48:

Only my sisters—you and the Draculinas—have ever remained loyal to me, and now I must choose a side.

Lucy’s never been loyal to the Draculinas, as she said long ago in P1 and P10.

I can save you from sacrificing yourself at the cost of damning the world, or I can let you be reborn once again as a mortal and become your enemy in the future.

Mina is the last person on Earth Lucy loves. Lucy doesn’t want to let Mina kill herself to be reborn, but she knows she must.

P49:

There never was a choice, was there? This is still your path to walk, no matter my wishes.

Two meanings here: Mina’s life is her own choice, and Lucy is loyal to her.

Maybe in your next life, I will be the one to help you find your path.

They won’t meet until 2045, but Mina has been on Lucy’s trail since around 2038.

P50 & P51:

Farewell, Mina.

And welcome back.

Mina is finally named. Mina Harker dies and her soul is transferred into Mina Hakuba.

[living-the-fastlife]

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and Bookish and hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl where we get a new topic for a top 10 list.

Happy Tuesday everyone. I hope you’re all having a great week. Now, I love a book that has a strong emphasis on friendship. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good romance, but friendship has some of the most interesting dynamics. So, here are my favourite platonic friendships in literature.

1. Lila and Alucard, Shades of Magic: Technically, he did try to seduce her, but that was purely a strategic move. The dynamic between Lila and Alucard was one of the highlights of this series, especially in A Gathering of Shadows, where Alucard cut her some liberties but also provided some hard truths. The banter between them is always entertaining.

2. Razor and Violet, Walk the Edge: It’s no secret that Violet’s relationship with the Reign of Terror is tumultuous at best, but if there’s one member she can always rely on it’s Razor. He kept her secrets, and also supported her when no one else would. The fact that she trusted him above everyone else has a lot of weight as well, and she is one of the many that want to see Razor smile again.

3. Kestrel and Verex, The Winner’s Crime: These two were thrown together out of political duty. It’s understandable to see why Verex resents her at first, but as they start communicating they both see that they are each other only ally. Together they bring a united front when it comes to navigating the political manipulations in Valoria.

4. Cinder and Thorne, The Lunar Chronicles: These two were outlaws on the run for most of the second book in this series and from that, they became great allies and friends. Thorne’s comedic disposition was a great counter to Cinder’s moments of doubts and the banter between them is on point.

5. Jase and Tim, The Boy Most Likely To: Tim is a guy that is trying to follow the straight and narrow path. However, life seems to enjoy throwing curveballs his way. Fortunately, his friendship with Jase keeps him grounded as Tim faces his toughest challenge yet.

6. Garrett, Logan, Dean and Tucker, Off-Campus Series: If you want a friendship that will make you cry from laughter, these guys are the ones for you. These four guys are comedy gold together but don’t think that it’s just the banter that unites them as these guys always band together when another is in need.

7. Blue and her Raven Boys, The Raven Cycle: One of the most iconic friendships in YA literature. The fact that Blue lead a life without her Raven Boys seems unfathomable.

8. Khalid and Jalal, The Wrath and the Dawn: This is one friendship that I wish we got to see more of, especially in the second book of this duology. Jalal is one of the only men to see beyond Khalid’s killer reputation. He’s the only one that has always had his back, which is why I was so disappointed when we didn’t get to see the reconciliation between them in Rose and the Dagger.

9. Perry/Aria and Roar, Under the Never Sky: Let it be known that Roar is one of the best friends you could ask for. He is Perry’s brother of the heart, and while they’re both headstrong and stubborn at times there is always that strong sense of brotherhood between them, which makes Roar’s friendship with Aria, Perry’s love interest, so poignant. Aria and Roar have the best platonic friendship. They faced their own trials and tribulations, but their experiences strengthened the bond between them.

10. Karou and Zuzana, Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Only Zuzana would willingly strut through a crowd of monsters just to see her best friend. Zuzana provides some of the most iconic comedic scenes in this series. She takes the revelations of Karou’s true persona in stride and remains a loyal friend to her right to the very end.

What are your favourite platonic friendships?

  Top Ten Tuesday: Best Platonic Friendships Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and Bookish and hosted by 

[beevean]

https://movieweb.com/what-the-castlevania-adaptation-got-right/

Babe wake up. It’s time for the regular Netflixvania dick sucking

Reply:

Oh, this is a recent one. Usually dick sucking articles were mostly written around S2. Nice.

Castlevania is from Warren Ellis. Ellis is a prolific comic book writer known for his dark, gritty, and violent stories. 

... do I need to add what else he’s famous for?

and the beginning of a beautifully crafted love story 

Bro, the games did not do a stellar job either, but Lisa literally appears for a whole minute before dying c’mon

As the series progresses, the audience is introduced to the idea that Dracula is not some crazed madman interested in destroying all life but is instead merely a lover whose heart has been broken. Dracula is still the monster audiences know him to be, terrifying and powerful, but his motivations are now deeply rooted in relatable human emotions.

True. But this is straight from the games. We see Dracula’s sorrow for Lisa’s death way back in SoTN. The difference is that Dracula in the games isn’t shown angsting on a chair.

One of the best character arcs in the series is from Alucard, son of Dracula. Alucard is a half-vampire, half-human, born from Dracula and his human wife, Lisa. Alucard's story is that of loss, grief, and pressing forward. Alucard begins his arc by losing his mother, a moment shared with his father, Dracula. The character's reactions are completely opposite to one another and show how grief affects people differently. Some lash out at the world, like Dracula, and some bottle it up as a burden, like Alucard. Alucard never fully gets over his loss, and, despite recognizing how hard it would be for him, he joins Belnades and Belmont to kill his own father. Eventually, Belnades and Belmont leave Alucard behind. Alucard is then forced to live alone in the place he once called home. The loss of his family haunts him, and his psyche begins to break down as phantoms from his past bring him to tears.

oh my god you’re just praising SoTN the idea of Alucard reacting in the opposite way as Dracula comes from SoTN just admit you’re praising SoTN

even the pain that comes at killing his own father is something mentioned in CV3! this is the bare minimum an adaptation that includes Alucard should do!!

As for the rest of his arc, lol and lmao. ah yes, peak character arc, Alucard’s friends ditch him, he gets so lonely that he becomes ripe for manipulation, he gets raped, and he shows trauma for a whole two episodes before reverting to his old self. writing.doc

its melancholy portrayal of the effects of grief

yeah i sure was grieving what good writing could have been instead of endless CHURCH BAD and HUMANITY SUCKS and PISS JOKES and rape apologism

Castlevania's ability to adapt its source material from an action platformer with little dialogue to a four-season-long story-driven epic filled with brilliant character moments and jaw-dropping action

Yeah, which is why the show stopped pretending to be a CV adaptation halfway through before shifting into a generic Game of Thrones clone.

Also I need to see those brilliant character moments. Perhaps they’re in the same version of the show where Trevor, Sypha and Alucard have polyamorous chemistry, instead of being Trevor, Sypha and that asshole no one likes

I’ll give one point though: this guy does not need to shit on the games to suck the show’s dick. But this is clearly because he never played them in the first place - the only mention is this one:

Castlevania is an adaptation of 1990's Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Dracula’s Curse and 2005's Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. It featured a simple singular story that involved the player moving throughout the country of Wallachia recruiting allies to kill Dracula.

which to me implies that this is yet another case of “dude who may have heard of CV3 when it came out and then never revisited it” - he mentioned CoD but didn’t even bring up its elements, and SoTN is nowhere to be seen despite being a huge influence on Dracula and Alucard’s portrayals

anyway tl;dr: yeah the action’s cool but that’s about it