#he'll have the time to meet his bro post-HoD dw

[the-crow-binary]

So i've been thinking about where on the chronology i could put Benedict, knowing i didn't want him to be too close to the modern times... I've looked at every Belmont from Trevor to Richter, and after quite some time, i came to this conclusion:

It would work very well if he was Juste's big bro. And here's why:

It makes a very neat contrast beetween the two. Juste is very talented at magic, so much he relies on it more than on the Vampire Killer. But it's the "good" kind of magic, in the clan's eyes. The same kind of magic Sypha used. Meanwhile Benedict has the worst kind of magic you could possibly have (if i go by Isaac's one dialogue, when talking about Devil Forging: "The most forbidden of arts"). And he is just like Juste, unfortunately, in the sense that he is born naturally talented (and only got stronger and stronger).

There's something... poetic in having your first child born with incredibly dark powers, and the second one being the total opposite. Juste would be the "blessed" child while Benedict is the "cursed" one, in a very obvious way. One is pure and the other is tainted. (Juste literally has WHITE HAIR. It's like God asked "how pure do you want him to be ?" and the parents just went "yes")

It's also quite funny that the parents choosed those names for their children. Benedict meaning "blessed", and Juste "righteous". Like those people really wanted their offspring to be morally perfect, didn't they ? (and then you realise they called their second child "Juste" because the first one was, in their eyes, destined to be "evil" and it makes it actually dramatic. They were clearly desperate for a "good" child)

There's also this obvious parallel, of Juste wishing he could escape his family's fate, while Benedict only wish he could belong to it. Benedict wish he could wield the whip, and Juste only feels like he's forced to wield it, even though he would rather use magic (the VK is a very strong "your family is cursed to hunt the night forever and so are you" reminder to him, while magic and interior design gives him an "escape route", but that's just my interpretation).

Also, Benedict being Juste's bro means Simon is his grandfather. Benedict would be born in 1720, making Simon 51... yeah we can safely assume he was alive. And it's nice, because then we can imagine a very strong "oh shit" moment for him when the baby's born very obviously "cursed"... i mean HE HAD SUFFERED A CURSE HIMSELF IN THE PAST. Granted, it wasn't anything like Benedict's, but still. You can bet he had a moment of panick, wondering if Dracula's curse on him somehow had a different, lasting effect that ended up affecting this child, even though it hadn't done anything to his children. Like it was some kind of twisted game of "okay you can rest now- SIKES YOUR FAMILY'S ACTUALLY CURSED LOL" Anyway i'll tell you right now: the two incidents have no correlation (Benedict is just built different y'know). And Simon will understand it soon enough and calm down eventually, but i still like the idea of giving him a little scare :3

Now regarding how neglected and excluded Benedict will end up being by his own family, one might think that it would be OOC of Simon to be part of this big problem. However: Simon being one of the oldest, he knows more than anybody how dangerous "dark beings" can be. He knows how destructive a curse is, having suffered from one himself before. Of course he would have try to see how to "cure" Benedict, but with no success because you can't just "cure" a power. Eventually he just gave up, cuz he can't "save" him, but he has to protect others (even tho he's getting old and tired), but also, well, he can't just kill him. And then Benedict would slowly stop talking to everybody, or, very little. He would naturally distance himself to everyone because he doesn't feel loved nor accepted. And Simon would be know even less what to do.

AND ALSO JUSTE WOULD BE BORN. And it's so much easier to take care of him than it is for Benedict. There's no complications, no moral dilemma, he can just enjoy his second grandchild's company and help him grow.

Talking about him, since i already established Benedict's younger sibling would've secretly meet with him regularly and learn things from him... wouldn't that be interesting if Juste really was them :3 Little Juste, asking questions and being interested in the dark arts when he was young... :3 Only to be traumatised by it (when Benedict almost killed their dad) and growing to hate it but still thinking fondly of his big bro who he misses very much but can't even talk about. I also think the whole "erasing Benedict" thing would've start before the... incident. With his parents forbidding Juste from talking about him to Lydia and Maxim, for example. The less people knew Benedict outside of the clan, the less shame they would have to suffer.

And then Maxim turns "evil" and Juste has trauma flashbacks :33 We can even take it farther and make him think Benedict was behind Lydia's kidnapping and the apparition of two identical castles (at first), making him ready to face his own bro once again at any moment... but it never happened. At least, not in-game

So anyway, just a few things i've been thinking about... uwu (and i'm not yet finished thinking about it)