#one day i'll stop vomiting words about a character only 10 people appreciate

[beevean]

I always used the Media Factory manga to talk about Hector and Isaac, because it goes much more in depth (and it’s far easier to read), but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the Prelude to Revenge manga! It’s much, much denser, but it has its interesting moments too.

I like this exchange a lot, for example:

I’m glad that it’s been confirmed: Hector did try to reason with Isaac, asking him the very obvious question “how can you, a human, be okay with Dracula’s genocide?”... and he was rejected without any hope for conversation. It says a lot about both of them.

I talked a lot about Hector affirming his own humanity in the face of Dracula and the people who shunned him, but Isaac’s non-response is just as interesting.

Just to double check, in Japanese he uses the word 賢くない, the negative of 賢い, which means “wise, clever, smart​”. So Isaac is saying that he’s not as smart as Hector... And clearly he’s not talking seriously, because no way this guy would honestly admit to be inferior to Hector in any way :P

No, he’s dodging the question, and I think the English translation nails the point. Isaac is smart, his plan in CoD is well thought out, but he doesn’t want to think for himself.

Isaac is clearly happy to be nothing more than Dracula’s servant. No higher aspirations on his part, other than probably being his favorite instead of Hector. He doesn’t care about what he’s doing, really: he waves the deep question away with “if you have a good weapon, shouldn’t you use it?”. Question is, what is this “weapon” he’s talking about? Hector and Isaac’s powers, which should be used at their fullest demonic potential because, well, they have them for a reason? ... or Hector and Isaac themselves, for Dracula...? If Dracula has two talented Devil Forgemasters at his beck and call, why shouldn’t he use them to spread his reign of terror? And really, what does it matter what they personally think of it? It’s not like they can do anything about their situation. At least, from Isaac’s point of view, who likely finds unconceivable that someone could just leave.

Another point. Unlike his Netflix counterpart, who wouldn’t shut up for a whole season about how much he hates humans, Isaac rarely mentions his resentment against humankind.

And these pages depict the same moment: Isaac directly confronting Hector after he ran away. In this context, this is more of a way to convince Hector to give up. And of course, he doesn’t make a mention of it in CoD itself, when he was at the peak of his hatred and insanity.

(btw, while sadly we never see a full flashback of Isaac’s childhood, it’s implied that it was nearly identical to Hector’s, and ngl I buy “the whole village hated me and hurt me, including my own parents” over “my master abused me” as a motivation to become misanthropic. As a child he was already bragging over turning his back on God, so I think he has suffered something even worse than what Hector went through and I wish I knew what :( )

My point being, Isaac isn’t mainly motivated by misanthropy. It’s there, but it’s just... there. This is just a corollary to his principal motivation: serving Dracula. That’s all he cares about. Look at the MF version: he puts “they turned their back on Lord Dracula” before “they chased us away”. I could even say that he’s just repeating words that Dracula put in his head, and there is nothing in canon that contraddicts it.

I also want to bring back this great scene from the MF manga, that I analyzed at the bottom of my long rant against Netflix!Isaac and Hector :P Isaac is more than capable of disobeying Dracula to get what he wants, but even after going all the trouble to kill his own underlings to get his way, he’s still convinced he’s 100% loyal. He’s deep in denial. His identity is wholly wrapped around being “Dracula’s servant”.

I also think that Hector being the “favorite” influenced how they diverged. Isaac was most likely single-mindedly focused on keeping up with Hector, which frustrated him and made him double down to be as perfect as he could be for Dracula. Hector, from his “privileged” position, could step back, look at the situation, and think “what am I even doing? All this effort for this?”.

Also, also. I am just so fascinated by those three years Isaac spent alone after the fall of Castlevania. What did he do in the meantime, how did he survive? The PoR manga... doesn’t give us the best picture:

Pictured: Isaac Not Doing Well Alone.

And I recently noticed another detail. Look at that. Look at where he’s sitting.

Ruins.

He never left Dracula’s fallen castle.

If we take Kojima’s words (art) for it, Isaac rotted three years in what was left of Dracula’s and his old home.

This is just a complete refusal, if not inability, to move on.

He had the freedom to go as he pleased, to do as he pleased. He was free from Dracula’s orders, free from being under Hector’s shadow. He could have travelled outside of Wallachia, where he wasn’t known, and started over. In fact, had he had done that, he would have not died so young.

(this is not confirmed anywhere, but I suspect that this is where his misanthropy comes into play: why would he completely avoid human civilization, were he not still suffering from the trauma of being chased away? Hector embraced his humanity despite all. Isaac rejected it a long time ago.)

But freedom is so, so terrifying, for someone who doesn’t want to be his own person.

I just... really like the idea of Isaac being utterly alienated by freedom, a concept too vast to analyze and that would force him to reflect on how much of his life he has wasted, and retreating into his comfort zone, which is acting on behalf of Dracula. No thinking. He’s just a weapon, and he’ll be the best one he can be. Even if it means going insane for three years. Even if it means being used and discarded without any dignity.

In this, he’s both a great counterpart to Hector, who finds pride in his independence, and to Trevor, a natural born leader.

Isaac is a tragic, pitiful villain, and this is the hill I will die on.