#richter vs trevor

[autumnmobile12]

Richter’s character…I feel like they tried to do another version of Trevor.  And that’s the problem.  If I wanted to see Trevor, I’d go back and I'd watch the original, so I wish Nocturne had given us more differentiation between the two characters.

However, the big reason why Trevor’s snarky personality doesn’t work on Richter is the circumstances of their upbringings: Richter lost his mother at nine but seems to have lived an otherwise peaceful life barring the frequent monster hunts.  He lived in a stable home and was looked after by Tera for years and seems to have a good relationship with Maria.  In contrast, Trevor lost his entire family at twelve and lived as a drifter for years afterward without that kind of security.

So Trevor earned his cynicism.  On Richter, that same cynicism just comes off as mean-spirited and unnecessary bravado.  He’s an annoying teenager. “And you just happened to stumble upon it one day while you were out picking flowers?” - That line isn’t funny.  Like, really dude?  You’re going to talk like that to the woman who raised you?  That was an asshole thing to say.

So it was a little vindicating when Olrox appeared at the end of Episode 4 and Richter freaked out and showed that he's a shit-talker. (Remember Trevor's 'killing you was the point, living was a luxury' line?)  I'm hoping this is the starting point of his character growth, but so far, Richter is the sort of protagonist I really dislike. I don't hate him, but I'm also not going to continue Nocturne for him. I'll be sticking around to see where Alucard, Annette, Olrox, and Mizrak go.

[phoenixlionme]

[alucarddaily]

The first time Trevor's sarcasm made Alucard laugh vs the first time Richter's sarcasm reminded Alucard of Trevor

[ben-talks-art]

I really wish Castlevania would do more hero x villain interactions

It still kills me that none of the characters in the top row ever interacted with the characters in the bottom.

You ever wonder how interesting it would have been to see Sypha, a human who uses magic to fight evil, talking with Hector or Issac, humans who used magic to help evil?

Or seeing Alucard, a son trying to stop his father, an old man lost in his own madness, talking to Carmilla, a woman who despises old men stuck in their own madness?

Then we have Nocturne where, again, the characters on the top never exchange dialogue with the characters on the bottom.

It's crazy to me that Richter never talks with Erzsebet or Drolta.

I really wish these series would try to build up more a sense of rivalry and antagonism between the heroes and villains, because whenever they do (the few times they do), it comes of really well.

I loved the grudge Richter had with Olrox in Nocturne, I loved Maria's scene where she expresses her hatred for her father, I love Dracula going, "You must be the Belmont" 🧐 to Trevor and his whole exchange with Alucard during their fight about his motivation to fight.

I loved Terra trying to burn Erzsebet, I loved Trevor's banter with Death at the start of their fight.

And I'm particularly a fan of Drolta's grudge against Alucard for killing her during Nocturne season 2.

I like when the side of good and the side of evil clash! Not just with their fists but with words, with emotions, with history.

I like seeing an actual rivalry developing between the opposing sides. Whenever they do it, it comes out great, but they do it so little.

Sypha herself, I don't think had any history or grudge or fun interactions with any villains. I don't even remember if her or Trevor ever utter a word to Dracula.

This is all just my personal preference, mind you, but I really, really would love if the good guys and the bad guys had scenes where they developed their relationships.

One of the many reasons so many people love Kung Fu Panda 2's villain so much is because he spends so much of the movie interacting with the hero.

Similarly in Avatar, so many people prefer the Zuko vs Azula fight over the Aang vs Ozai one, because Zuko and Azula actually have an history together.

Creating a bond between the heroes and the villains creates a bigger sense of investment when they eventually come to blows, and I want Castlevania to make more use of this fact.

But that's just me.

[alpaca-clouds]

Castlevania and the Messy Politics of Personhood

There is a theme in the Castlevania show that is brought in both the original show, and Nocturne, and that I have seen barely discussed within the fandom. So I wanted to discuss it for a bit. The fact that this theme is reiterated on again and again to me reads as it being there on purpose, rather than being incidental.

The theme is of course personhood. And it is quite interesting.

Within the original series, we have this brought up several times. Because throughout Castlevania personhood is something that is often in doubt.

The most obvious example of this is of course humans vs. vampires.

We see several times that vampires in this universe do not consider humans to be persons. Instead humans will in the vampire language usually be reduced to animals. At times literally, with vampires calling humans animals, at times more through the word "livestock", that is especially frequently used by Carmilla and her court.

Meanwhile several of the humans in the show also will use similar language to doubt the personhood of vampires. Of course this is mostly done by our Belmont characters. Trevor in the original series quite often describes vampires as animals and monsters. Richter in Nocturne also uses the same language. Ironically, though, in the original series there is another character who uses the same language: Hector over the course of the series also will often compare vampires to animals, which is especially interesting in his case as yes, he uses this language to doubt the personhood of vampires, he means this as a positive attribute, given that he fears animals (and therefore vampires) less than humans.

Of course, though, this is not the only times the personhood of people is discussed. After all, slavery plays a large role in both series - though of course this is very much more elaborated in Nocturne (where through the historical context the topic is more important) than in the original series.

Isaac of course is mainly motivated by the fact that he had his humanity and personhood stripped away by being enslaved at a young age. This is what fills his anger and hatred against humanity, which makes him want to kill all humans.

Same with Hector, who obviously ends up getting stripped of his personhood by Lenore. This, obviously, is not fully explored the way it could have been through the rushed manner in which season 4 was put out. But it was another time this these was picked up.

There are some hints dropped here and there, that both Carmilla and Lenore in their respective pasts had their personhood stripped from them as well. Though this is never spelled out.

We see it too, a bit, in how the Speakers are of course verbally stripped of their personhood during the pogrom during the first season/prelude to the show.

Nocturne obviously leads into this theme a lot more, given how through playing around with the theme of colonization and class so much, it has ample opportunity to bring this up.

If you look into the anthropology of slavery, you will find that this is always a core principle of slavery. I know especially Americans are always tempted to think of slavery only as chattle slavery as it was done in the US history. But of course slavery was a thing long, long before this. In fact, we do know that slavery predates history - it was already an established concept in some ways even before humans started to write down stuff.

And a central thing about slavery as long as it was around was, that slaves were stripped of their personhood and were considered objects. While of course during most times slaves were capable of regaining their personhood (usually people were made slaves by depts, which they could pay off, or could earn their freedom in other ways), this was a concept that was core to slavery from the beginning.

Nocturne, of course, references chattle slavery specifically, as it is set in this time. Annette was enslaved in this, and she was stripped of her personhood not just by being made a slave, but also by people deciding that her race made her a non-person. This very much brings in something that is an important point in this discussion: The acceptance of someone's personhood is a thing, that often works rather randomly.

And yes, by making Annette and Edouard come from Haiti, they managed to bring this in rather well. Because Haiti was one of the places, where the part-white off-spring were considered people - unlike the fully white people. (In other places, like the US, everyone who had just "one drop of Black blood" was a Black and therefore a non-person and a slave.)

However, Castlevania the show also brings in one additional aspect, that it is very clearly interested in discussing especially during seasons 3 and 4 and then in Nocturne: The night creatures.

The night creatures are obviously based on the monster encounters in the game. In the game these creatures for the most part are not really explained in great detail. For the first almost 20 years of the franchise the franchise was never really interested in those creatures. They were just monsters that lived in the castle and served Dracula, because reasons. Curse of Darkness of course then explained that at least some of those "innocent devils" were created by the forgemasters, though even with this the games never have any interest in exploring these creatures as characters in one way or another.

In season 3 and especially season 4 Isaac starts to realize, that indeed at least some of the night creatures - who are created with human souls - retain indeed their personhood in some way. And he starts to wonder (undoubtedly after knowing what it is to be stripped of personhood) if it would be better if he allowed them to live as people.

Nocturne absolutely picks this theme up afterwards, by giving Edouard an entire story of being turned into a night creature, and through this being stripped of his personhood.

So far Nocturne Season 1 very well sets up the theme of the night creatures trying to regain their personhood and getting it recognized by other characters. We will see, where that theme ends up going during season 2, I assume.

I admittedly feel that - maybe mainly due to the rushed season 4 of the original series - this theme is never quite fully explored in a way that really goes into this. I have high hopes that Nocturne does it in the end, but of course that will largely depent on whether or not the creators get to actually make all the seasons they want to make. The crew (most of whom sadly have been let go, because so far no season 3 was ordered by Netflix) have been very vague about how many seasons they would have liked, though Sam and Adam Deats have spoken online about at least wanting a third season. But... I mean, we all know Netflix, right?

I personally would have loved to see that theme a bit more explored in a potentially differently paced seasons 4 and 5 of the original show, as because of the very breakneck spead of season 4, it never fully gets to resolve the issue. Which is too bad, because the fact that it is not resolved greatly dampens the outcome of the Styria arc, that built much more clearly on this theme than the stuff going on with the main trio.

It is probably one of the main reason why as a fanfic writer, I ended up writing so much based around the Styrian storyline, that explores this theme centrally. With both Striga and Morana needing to accept that Isaac and Hector are people (something especially Morana struggles with), while the same is true the other way around. While also the night creatures need to explore their own personhood and humanity, given they are literally monsters. My current multichapter in the series - The Angel of Silence - obviously is the story that most clearly challenges this idea, with Abel, whose personhood additionally gets doubted on the basis that not only he is a monster, but he is also disabled, having to deal with a vampire, who does not want to accept him as a person. While also dealing with the fact that he himself often does not fully recognize people as such.

[beevean]

@hypermascbishounen hope you don't mind if I save these comments because you explained very well one of the core, yet subtle issues with NFCV

I'm thinking now of all the interpersonal conflicts in NFCV; and they're all... lacking.

Dracula vs. the Church: the Bishop dies at the end of Blue Fangs. Indirectly, Dracula got his revenge, but obviously this amounts to little since Dracula is furious at mankind and the Bishop was ultimately small potatoes.

Trevor vs. Alucard: the idea is that they're rivals and foils in true CV fashion. The reality is that Alucard is a dry cunt to Trevor for petty reasons like "wah the vampire hunters hunt vampires :(" or "I'm insecure that I made the right choice :(". Anyway, this is resolved by the two fighting Dracula together, then Alucard is ditched until the end. Riveting.

Alucard vs. Dracula: as pointed out in the past, Alucard feels less heartbroken over having to kill his only remaining parent, and more displeased that the Science Man was pushed to be evil. I don't care if Dracula cries that he's killing his boy because we aren't even granted one flashback to flesh out their relationship.

Dracula vs. everyone: he's depressed and apathetic. If he doesn't give a shit, why should we?

Bonus: Dracula has no personal connection to the Belmonts. Trevor isn't even the one who kills him.

Hector vs. Isaac and Dracula: what relationship? They sit around calling him the R-slur, and he has no idea that they resent him so much. He himself only remembers Isaac exists when he needs him. Isaac has very little reason to hate Hector after Dracula's death, since Carmilla, Dracula and he did way more damage. (this makes their reconciliation in S4 hollow and forced)

Hector vs. Carmilla: unresolved. Lenore replaces her in S3, and Hector barely contributes to the final battle against Carmilla - he stays behind to coddle Lenore. Carmilla herself only sees Hector as a defective tool, and is barely concerned about him stalling.

Isaac vs. the Magician: who gives a shit? The Magician is nothing more than a deus ex machina to give Isaac what he wants.

Trepha vs. the cult that wants to resurrect Dracula: this one's a decent conflict, although the cult is more of an obstacle obviously.

Alucard vs. the twins: the relationship is superficially nice, but the betrayal comes so out of nowhere that it really feels like shock value. The indication that he would have fallen into misanthropy due to the trauma goes unresolved, he got better offscreen.

Hector vs. Lenore: as I said, Hector has no reason to oppose Lenore since he has no moral qualms about working for vampires and she would have given him what he wanted. She still tricks him for shock/humiliation purposes. The betrayal has no fallout whatsoever, the two become besties like nothing happened. Even Lenore's suicide comes out of nowhere, she expresses the desire with no gravitas, and he let her die with barely any torment.

Lenore vs. the Council: kind of? I am very generous in interpreting Lenore resorting to raping Hector because she feels insecure in her methods. She whines a lot about feeling sidelined in S4, but we see very little of it. Carmilla yells at her a bit, and she immediately spirals into "she lied to meeee :<". The two are actually excellent foils when it comes to their methods and objectives, but they don't butt heads about it.

Isaac vs. Carmilla: in theory they should have a personal reason to fight, since Carmilla was the one who eventually lead to Dracula's death. But the fight takes place after Isaac let go of Dracula, and is now simply playing hero stopping the villain from conquering the world. She, naturally, doesn't give a shit about him since the dude has the presence of a log in S2.

Trevor vs. Death: again, Death at this point is more of an obstacle than someone who matters personally to Trevor.

since you mentioned game Richter and his conflict with his family legacy: hey you know how Trevor has trauma over his family being killed when he was a kid because considered enemies of the Church? No? That's okay, the show didn't either, he finished his arc in S1 and that's it :D

To this, add another complaint I had, that friendships and romantic relationships are all banter (some of it even rather mean), no warmth.

It really is pathetic when compared to the gripping, interwoven relationships in the games. Juste and Maxim, Hector and Isaac, Shanoa and Albus, even Leon and Mathias for what little we see of them, they would all eat this for breakfast. The show pretends to be moved by characters, but honestly, it feels more moved by dialogue, which is very different.

(Nocturne is a little better. While Sun Thundercat is a pathetic villain and giving Richter the dead mom trauma is lazy as hell, at least we have more interpersonal conflicts: Richter vs. Olrox, Maria vs. the Abbot, Tera vs. Sun Thundercat, Annette vs. Vaublanc. The characters themselves are very paper thin, though)

[glorfys-glorioushair]

Story in the Castlevania Games

Buckle up this is a long one!

I understand that there is often a divide about which of the Castlevania game types are better (Classicvanias, Metroidvanias, and the 3Ds) but I think this is kind of shallow because they each offer a different perspective of style. 

Personally I love the Igarashi era because the first game I 100% completed was Symphony of the Night (I started with Super Castlevania on a SNES). I also connect with the style because I’m a terrible gamer and you can easily scrape through those (yes I went as mist throughout a lot of the inverted castle don’t @ me) as opposed to the classicvanias which make you pay for it (I like the tough concept and the reward, but I can’t tell you how many times I have screamed about falling off stairs). I haven't had a chance to play the 3Ds yet, but I have watched the Curse of Darkness cutscenes in 4K numerous times!

My own preferences aside, we all know that despite gameplay, every Castlevania game (the ones that follow the timeline, bc idk anything about the Lord of Shadows series) have the same simple plot with the sole purpose in defeating Dracula. And I sometimes see in the gaming community that their simplicity of plot is marked off as terrible and shallow. In a surface level view this can be true if you just play games to play games. But in regards to Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory that “emphasizes the idea that a writer should only reveal a small portion of the story, with the bulk of the meaning and emotion implied or hinted at”, the Castlevania games explore such deep concepts of love, human struggle, identity, gender roles, sexuality, good vs. evil, religion, and other philosophies. 

By having the same basic objective, the writers are able to explore the different avenues in going about the completion of the task of defeating Dracula and point to the ideas of what it means to be human. Some examples under the cut:

Symphony of the Night has the debate of how evil and even good can have radical ideology evident with Dracula obviously, but also in Richter who got so consumed with being the force of good he was manipulated by darkness. Thus Alucard, who is a product of both good and evil is the only one who can reinstate this balance and leave behind the quote from the Sega Saturn version, “However, you must never forget this: the one with the power to destroy this world is not him... Humans themselves possess this power.” The dialogue is actually good and complex in this game when you compare the different versions. 

CVIII: Dracula’s Curse is argued to have one of the hardest gameplays (outside of the original Japanese version) and couldn’t this have an impact on the fact Trevor Belmont and the gang are the first ones to take down Dracula? It had to have been hard for them to achieve such a feat! Also the different motives for all of the playable characters. Trevor and his family’s fealty to fighting the night and who was once Mathias Cronqvist. Grant Danasty who seeks revenge for getting temporarily turned into a monster and fights for his country’s safety. Alucard who wants to stop his father from tormenting humans. And Syfa Belnades who was a female magic user for the church in a time where that mysticism could be deadly, but was necessary to preserve humanity. I think Syfa is interesting in terms of hiding versus showing true identity (something Yoko Belnades eons later talks about). 

Curse of Darkness. Y’all this might be the most complete and obviously complex story (supplement material aside) that they have ever produced, yet it’s the one that’s the most sidelined. And for what?? Hector is an outstanding foil to Dracula even to the point of the goal is to use him as a vessel to resurrect Dracula. Like that is so interesting!! Even Isaac and Julia have great characterizations. If you want more stuff about this game, check out @beevean they have great content. 

My second favorite game, Aria of Sorrow explores how Soma is actually a reincarnation of Dracula and it’s a battle of the self, temptation, and his love for Mina that can defeat the evil within. Also Alucard’s change in terms of approaching the situation of defeating his father under the guise of Arikado Genya. Now that’s a can of worms right there.

Order of Ecclesia and the discourse of cults, Harmony of Dissonance regarding how the Belmonts are just as cursed as Dracula, friendship and more in CV: Bloodlines, Simon Belmont’s battle with outward and internal strength, Lament of Innocence and how the women are fridged for both good and evil, the list can go on.

Now I won’t say that every single Castlevania game achieves this well, most things are left to speculation and interpretation like deeper information of what happens between games and what the Belmont lineage canonically looks like. But the fact you can draw these intense and deep messages from pixels and gameplay is incredible!  

What may be my biggest frustration with Konami sidelining the Castlevania series is the potential of a complex story within a well-thought out gameplay and style. Grimoire of Souls may have failed with repetition and it being a gacha game, but the story was interesting because they explored what it looks like with the characters from different games comparing and contrasting themes. It shows that there are people in the writing room who still care about the games because of the story. But money seems to be the problem for Konami which is stupid because they would make bank with this game franchise imo

Anyways my real point here is that taking a minimalistic approach to the story-telling within a game isn’t a bad thing because there’s always going to be deeper meanings. Perhaps this is why I myself gravitate so much towards this series. For me it’s not always about how good I can get through a level or boss fight, but the subject of what speaks to the human soul.

TL;DR: don’t get hung up on what gameplay is better, pay attention to the fact that all the games share a simple plot in order to explore complex themes of humanity, saying that less is more.

[chibishortdeath]

Ok, I’m sick of seeing only Netflix posts lately so I’m ranting about Simon lol

Unfortunately I had some nice paragraphs written for this but tumblr crashed while I was writing so this is my second time making this post (TwT)

TL;DR with the rant under a cut for easy scrolling, I am deranged and have studied all of Simon’s outfits, here’s some fun tidbits and I guess kinda a guide about his fashion sense :3

Oh boy, where to start XD. Castlevania has a lot of intricately detailed usually gothic and/or visual kei inspired fashion designs, usually with some amount of historical accuracy, thanks to Ayami Kojima, that the series is known for. But before this, the character design style was very different. From the very 90s shonen anime inspired Richter, to Christopher being deadass shirtless in a skirt at one point, to John Morris being in basically casual clothes, there’s a lot of variety in it.

Well, being the silly Simon super fan I am, I’ve studied all his outfits a ton over the years I’ve been a fan of the series and oh boy they are INTERESTING :3. I’ve noticed a lot of elements are consistently reoccurring, specific to him, and some are very much not specific to him lol. Anyway, just trust me on this one, overanalyzing the closet of an NES barbarian to be able to make new outfits for him is FUN >:3c.

So, I’ve seen him not wearing pants thrown around as a joke before, but it’s actually the truth! Besides the Haunted Castle wedding suit (an outlier that should not be counted lol), I actually have never run into a design where Simon is wearing full length, proper pants. The closest he ever gets is black tights in Simon’s Quest and occasionally shorts, but on that topic, shorts aren’t even his most common choice! Let’s look at some of his oldest designs:

This one is really hard to tell, but based on the angle of the lines, the shadows, and context clues from other art for CV1, I don’t know if that’s actually supposed to be shorts 💀💀💀!

In both his cute little manual doodles and his almost more adorable teeny 8-bit sprite, his outfit is a belted tunic of some sort! So like, the equivalent of a really tiny dress or a long shirt XD. And really, his cover art design is kinda just a more detailed version of these. They both have a distinction between a top and bottom part of the upper half, they both have big belts, they both have the tall boots and arm guards, they both have teeny skirt part, and Fun Fact! They both have red in the hair! I color picked a nice high res scan of the CV1 cover art, and yes, there’s red in his hair!!! It’s like a nice mix of dark reddish blond, it’s a very fun hair color :3.

However, that’s not where CV1 ends in tunic vs shorts debate:

THAT’S A SKORT— DO YOU SEE THAT DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE HALVES, ONE IS DEFINITELY A PANTLEG LMAO. So yeah, skort Simon is also a thing thanks to this particular magazine scan lol, thus leaving us with the possibility that it is both a skirt and shorts on the CV1 cover that he’s wearing X,,,,D. Never change, Simon, never change.

Besides the tunic, there’s some other interesting details to his CV1 era designs! :D In a lot of depictions he has this neat cape, something that returns in some Simon’s Quest art and Smash Bros lol, but he’s never shown wearing it in game. What’s interesting is that Trevor actually gets a cape in his game’s opening as well as Christopher in Belmont’s Revenge if I’m remembering correctly. It’s very neat seeing Simon character design details rubbing off into other characters :3. I like to think lore wise that it’s the same cape that’s been passed down to Simon from those two.

He also has the headband! Iconic! But have you noticed the little ball shapes at the ends of the tails? They’re either knots or, infinitely cooler option, beads :D!!!!!!! And I wouldn’t be surprised if they were because that leads me to another design: X68000–

Now this one is one of my favorites :3. It’s kinda like a forward facing version of his original design but with some new details! And his headband gets this cool lookin, intricate distinctly metallic design on it, something I’ve seen a lot of artists simplify to a general crescent moon shape. But it is kinda similar to the shape on his belt buckle, something that I still have no idea what it’s even supposed to be. Also, his arm guards and the thing at the end of his necklace (which may or may not have vampire teeth on it, they could just be metal spikes though) are similar; it makes me wonder if it was an attempt at a tortoiseshell pattern? Filigree? Whatever it is, they’re all matchy matchy about it.

This design also gives him the staple left shoulder pauldron, of which has these huge stitches holding it on and an added belt that connects to his other belt armor. Get used to belts, he has a lot of those X,,,D. What’s really neat about this one’s belt is that he has both a hilt for the family sword but also one for the whip on the other side, and they’re on the wrong sides for drawing the weapon properly 💀💀💀💀. Which is also funny considering his CV1 cover art has the sword on the other side, which is kinda wrong too? Who knows, maybe he’s ambidextrous and just doesn’t care what sides they’re on lol.

The biggest thing I can say about this design though is that a lot of these accessories and armor pieces look homemade, like as if he just took teeth as a trophy himself and strung them on a cord or made a shoulder piece and put it on an already existing belt he had. Adding onto this, there’s also the possible beads on his headband and the cords around his boots (which could be an attempt at a certain actual historical type of shoe that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me rn, in which case would make these not boots and actually corded shoes with very nice big fluffy socks hehe, I am forcing you to imagine him with big fluffy socks—) and yeah! I can see him making his stuff on his own :3. Which is so cool! I love this idea so much, it makes for a lot of things to imagine him doing hehe. Also gives him a hobby??? Yeah :)

No indication of if he’s got shorts or not in this one, maybe I’ll count how many have skirts or shorts and put that at the end of this lol.

But shorts get another point again cause we’re looking at Chronicles:

Oh Chronicles. Well, the first thing I wanna mention is that, this is Ayami Kojima’s design for him, so here we are seeing a very interesting mix of the visual kei style and 80s barbariancore in a way that honestly slays (figuratively and literally). And, surprisingly, there is something historically accurate about this design, and it’s not what you’d probably expect. Based on the width, material, cross rivets, and the buckle on the front, Simon is wearing an actual dog collar. Like, for dogs. Like it’s dog armor used primarily for hunting dogs I just— Again, never change Simon, never change 💀💀💀.

We also see Simon preferring to put his armor on his left side again with the torn in half coat. It’s also somewhat similar to 1600s coats, not really of any specific country in fashion that I can tell, however the sleeve being that short is not accurate, leading me to believe that he probably tore that off too lol. Very Chrom Fire Emblem of you, Simon, and another example of him D.I.Y.—ing things. The basic elements still stay similar to past designs. Shorts, distinct upper and lower half of shirt, belts, armor on said belt, sword and whip hilts, arm armor and tall boots (shout out to the heels on this one), and armor on the left, unfortunately no headband though. But that distinct bottom half to the shirt part of his outfit in this one is defined with… a corset? Yeah!!! That’s a corset!!! Though the proper name for the time period might be a stay or a girdle, but Simon is straight up wearing a belt over a corset. And said corset over a coat. Half of one. Don’t question him—

But the main entries to his 80s bara-barian half of the wardrobe, let’s get to some knightly aesthetic outfits, of which he does have a good amount, starting with SCV4:

Simon’s knightly outfits are usually a similar silhouette as his original tunic look, just in metal this time and in various colors. SCV4 has his armor as gold on the cover, blue on the Japanese cover and manual art, and green in game! And they’re all pretty much the same with mild variations. On the cover art, his shoes are corded sandals with nothing under them, but in game and in most other artwork they are these metallic boots with the classic X shape of the cords baked into them. Some art gives his middle belt armor section this cross with snakes on it, which is an odd thing to be referencing here. It’s either a staff of Mercury, usually associated now with medicine but was an alchemical symbol before that, or something else I can’t find any info on. There’s also a big ab window because these are all proper half shirts lol. Straight up a metal breastplate with nothing under it, a pretty bad idea tbh 💀.

All in all, these are generally really simple, but there’s one more thing before I stop talking about SCV4:

I LOVE this design. It’s this really nice blend of the older CV1 era style and the metal armor of the later ones, very cool. Shout out to the eye creases and the dead stare shadow over his eyes too, they really conveyed the effects of witnessing the horrors well lmaoooo.

Again, tunic, belt, arm guards, headband, the usual, but, speaking of symbols, there’s something about this one that’s been driving me nuts forever: I cannot find out what that symbol on his paldrons and belt buckle is!!! It’s this upside down triangle with a bent rectangle missing the bottom line over it and it LOOKS distinctly intentional, but I can’t find it or what it means anywhere!!! I tried searching through lists of alchemical symbols, religious symbols, nothing so far has been close (TwT ). Regardless, great design, definitely in my top 5.

And what else is in my top five? Oh yeah babey, it’s Simon’s Quest time:

Ah, Simon’s Quest with his fuck ass bob and the stolen Ravenloft image— but unironically, that armor fucks fr. Again, similar silhouette! If there’s any take aways from this post, it’s definitely that Simon is a little shirt, little pants kind of guy. A severe lack of long sleeves and long pants legs until now, and even then, these are skin tight. Heck even his boots(????) are vacuum sealed, just look at those fabric creases by his ankle!

Now, it’s honestly really hard to tell if his “gloves” and “boots” are supposed to be in some parts metal due to the shading on them and the base armor being very similar. I personally like to depict the forearm and calf parts as metal and the hand and ankle parts as not, but eh. Like most things regarding Simon, I suppose this too is up to interpretation XD. There’s some variation in color in some scans having the underclothes be white, dark blue, or black, and the armor be any range of red to purple to brown too. But towards red and black is probably the most accurate due to his sprite being those colors.

But this is a shockingly rare case of Simon being fully covered in one of his outfits, and I’m inclined to think that there’s probably a reason for that. Not only does he have a rotting curse right now and drawing straight up gore on the cover of an NES game was just not an option lol, but he’s not letting his guard down anymore after being hit. Which would also explain the sudden change to all metal armor as that can’t be cut through as easily as leather.

Speaking of all metal armor, oh I looooove the detailing on his. The gold accents to his byzantine (a nice in between color of red and purple, a color that is also reused in Smash Bros again in the middle corset section of his outfit) are what I would call stylized floral patterns, kinda in the way that fleur de les don’t really look exactly like flowers but still are supposed to represent one. Not sure what kind exactly, but possibly some sort type of angel’s trumpet? Very neat regardless. The gems inlaid in it are all green on top and around the belt, but the center belt buckle is bright red. It’s a very jewel tones color scheme!!!

Well anyway, if tumblr will let me have more images, I’d like to show off a few other random examples of outfit elements he’s had before I close this off with something :3

This was a pretty recently found scan of Simon wearing get this: a pleated miniskirt. Probably Roman armor inspired, as some of his other magazine scans have depicted him as such. One ad for SCV4 and another (live action even) for Simon’s Quest has him even wearing like a Roman helmet and everything, it’s odd. Add helmets to the list of things Simon might wear. Hmm maybe I should make a tier list of things based on how often he’s worn them…

Moving on!

This one goes for the bold choice of giving Simon not only an expected tiny belted tunic, but side slits on the legs! And uh um a little too much detail but uh— It’s also this kinda white, kinda bluish, kinda silverish color? Add this to Simon’s color palette I guess lol.

Which reminds me that I didn’t mention colors very much until now whoops. Throughout all of hie designs he primarily seems to wear neutrals like various browns, greys, and metal tones. But he also has a lot of color. Like as in there’s enough different colored designs to make a whole rainbow of Simon outfits. Common combinations like dark green, gold, and wine reds; blue and silver; brown, gold, orange, and kinda purplish greys; etc etc. And his HAIR. Oh boy, would this guy love modern hair dye X,,,,,D. He’s had it various blonds, reds, browns, even black at one point, blue, green, unnatural red, pink, and in one concept design white! Personally, I like depicting it as a nice in between of red, blond, and brown, it encompasses the most I think.

The final thing I wanna mention is the Smash Bros design, which I unfortunately can’t show because I’m on mobile and have met the 10 images limit whoopsie— (_ _ ;). This design is really a good culmination of a lot of elements. Not really definitive or anything, but very good :3. And it has something I didn’t mention earlier that I’ve noticed in some Simon designs: random belts or metal around his upper arms and thighs lol. The Smash Bros design in particular has the arm band things on both sides, Chronicles has it on the not half coat one, but this is another thing I’ve seen other characters (Christopher in particular, but his are just gold rings) have. The leg thing is less common, but yeah, that exists lol. Thank you Simon for uh bending two pieces of metal around your leg…? It’s cool XD. The corset also makes a return, as well as, once more, the same basic silhouette with the armor only on the left side, the belt armor pieces, etc etc. He’s very particular about that—

Well, anyway, Simon definitely has a vibe going on, but here’s a brief summary of things he seems to like:

Skirts, tunics, long shirts, and shorts (and skorts I guess), but nothing past about half his thigh, generally over the knees.

No long sleeves or pant legs (unless it’s tights when absolutely necessary).

Armor primarily to the left, unless it’s metal, in that case usually a full plate or paldron set.

Belts, hilts, belts on his arms, and neck, and hanging off of things, and legs, yeah belts—

Boots/tall socks, corded or not, and something on his forearms or wrists.

Headband! Seriously out of every Belmont he is the most dedicated to these lol.

Necklaces and beads and other little accessories and adornments are also cool.

Alrighty then, have fun Simon-ing and I encourage you to look through his or other characters’ designs and pick them apart a bit sometimes, even if it’s just through what’s on the wiki :3. If anything, I think it’s a good exercise in character design and consistency! But yeah, I wrote all this late at night and can’t think of anything else rn. If I do I’ll do a sequel I guess hehe. Either that or I might rant about another character hmmmmmmm—

[andreanlee]

Annette’s & Richter’s feats that certain people don’t want to acknowledge:

Annette being a vessel for Sekhmet’s 3rd soul(just one soul) & surviving is a feat because no other mortal from Castlevania or from Castlevania Nocturne would have survived being a vessel for Sekhmet.

Annette surviving all 3 of Sekhmet’s souls in her body all at once is a feat & no other mortal character from Castlevania(Trevor & Sypha or any other mortal character) or from Castlevania Nocturne(Richter, Juste, Alucard, & Maria or any other mortal character) could have done what Annette did by being a vessel for Sekhmet’s 3rd soul, surviving all 3 of Sekhmet’s souls in her body all at one time, & at the same time her soul is fighting against Ammit(The Devourer Of Souls) the entire time & she beats Ammit all on her own being another feat. Also while Annette’s spirit was was in the Egyptian Spiritual Realm she’s feeling all the pain & stress from her physical body(that Sekhmet is using as a vessel) & at the same time is fighting 1 vs 1 against Ammit(The Devourer Of Souls). THIS ALL SHOWS HOW POWERFUL “Annette” TRULY IS & ITS A “FEAT” NO OTHER MORTAL COULD HAVE DONE!!!!!!!!

No, Richter did not give Annette literal power. But Richter’s magic & voice reached in to the spirit realm to give Annette the drive to continue fighting Ammit after already being so exhausted & to guide Annette’s spirit back home to her body.

Also Richter going past his limits to protect Annette in the final fight against Drolta in hand to hand combat was a feat for him because not even Alucard or Olrox could damage Drolta to the level Richter did, and Richter even adds fire, ice, & lightning magic to Alucard’s sword to cut Drolta in half(Alucard & Olrox could not even fatally hurt Drolta).

And no, Olrox helping Richter did not make Richter weak. Olrox helping Richer was symbolic because instead fighting to try & kill Rather(like how Olrox killed Richter’s mother) Olrox helps in the fight against Drolta making the beginning of Castlevania Nocturne Season 1 Episode 1 & in the final of Season 2 Episode 8.

Richter at the point has surpassed all the previous members of the Belmont Clan(including Juste) by the end of Castlevania Nocturne Season 2 at 19 years old all connected.

[bicokun]

So a season 3 for Castlevania: Nocturne isn’t out of the question at this point, and I’m wondering how they would handle that at this point. The adaptation of Richter’s story is extremely loose, even compared to how they’re handled things with Trevor’s generation. Still, I think they’ve set the story up for something like Symphony of the Night, which the directors have said they’d really like to adapt. After all, Alucard and Maria are set up as still in France while Richter and Annette will be in the Americas, which is a pretty easy place to disappear. They could definitely have a plot that involves Richter being taken and made the master of a revived Castlevania. I don’t know if they’d bring Dracula back as a protagonist given they resolved his character arc in the first series rather than have him keep coming back for revenge, but I could definitely see Shaft being a major threat if they tweak him a bit. Heck, he could even find the reformed Dracula and brainwash him like he did Richter to still have the Alucard vs Dracula fight. Regardless, I really hope somebody does the “die, monster” speech at some point and also that Alucard gets a fairy familiar.

[autumnmobile12]

Predictions for Nocturne: III

I've made a few posts speculating on Nocturne; some silly, some serious.

Out of all of them, I legitimately hope to see Alucard, if he shows up at all, have to fight the 'dark magic' version this trio. No idea how this would be set up with the plot or who would even have the power to summon specters this specific, but given these three are a boss in Symphony and tormenting Alucard is a norm for the writers, it seems almost within the realm of possibility.

Or just Richter's group vs the original cast would be interesting in itself and Alucard is mercifully left out of the fight.

Probably hoping for too much, but fingers crossed all the same.

...

Bonus Speculation that I think would be hilarious:

There is a bizarre sequence in Lords of Shadow where Gabriel Belmont is shrunk down to the size of a mouse in order to chase a tiny creature through the gears of a music box.

Seems a little closer to Disney humor (thinking Onward,) but I'll still laugh.

We gotta have some humor amid the soul-crushing moments, right?

Right?

...

Ultimately, though...

...really...

...really...

...really hoping Nocturne is good. Everybody hates it when a good thing is ruined by a bad sequel/spinoff.

[renatogpadilla]

Things I hope to see in future Seasons of "Castlevania Nocturne" in no particular order:

(SPOILERS AHEAD!)

- Richter learning more spells.

- Juste flashback or any excuse for him to wear his old outfit.

- Juste throwing a SHITLOAD OF KNIVES!

- Acknowledgment of Juste stealing Dracula's furniture.

- Maria crushing HARD on Alucard.

- Alucard learning to smile again thanks to Maria and Richter.

- The Phantoms of Trevor, Sypha and Grant Greta showing up as a boss fight for Alucard like in SotN and all the old cast reprising their roles.

- Dracula. OBVIOUSLY. Hopefully Graham McTavish comes back!

- "Die Monster!" The whole thing. Please. I'm BEGGING!

- Maria's green ninja outfit (probably made using Eduard's old clothes?) and "Rock Daddy" Richter.

- Quincy Morris and how he and Richter become friends.

- Juste and Richter tag-teaming somebody.

- Alucard maybe learning about Summons from Maria, and thus getting his Fairy companion from SotN.

- More game music! That "Divine Bloodlines" Remix was EVERYTHING!!!

- Somebody singing "I Am The Wind" from SotN, wether it's Edouard or Maria or Anette or whoever. I NEED IT.

- Alucard quoting the Bible before a kill.

- Alucard vs Olrox.

- EXPONENTIALLY MORE Himbo Richter.

- Alucard's Vision where he kills another succubus. (Tera??)

- Richter getting the Vampire Killer, hopefully. If not, the Morningstar is fine too.

- Post Timeskip Maria and Alucard.

- "Al Lecarde" and the Lecarde family. Eric MIGHT be too much to hope for...

And finally,

- ANY Mention of the other protagonists. Maybe something about Simon, or maybe something about Shanoa or the boys from Circle of the Moon or the Morris Clan from the time Richter dissapeared.

- Richter giving up the whip to the Morris Clan and leaving to live his life happily ever after.

Needless to say, this Show has me HOOKED!

[sweetlyfez]

Definitely one of the things that strikes me about the protags of nocturne vs the first castlevania series is that Richter and Co. are *kids* in a way Trevor and Sypha really weren't

I don't have any further analysis but I have feelings abt their youth

[bnomiko]

Spoiler-free Nocturne ramblings

(Guess everyone's all worked up about Castlevania again because "Under the Milky Way" gained like 28 kudos and 1000 hits in 5 days, yay : D )

Just finished watching Nocturne. I have thoughts, but in the interest of keeping things SPOILER-FREE (because yes I got spoiled on things because people can't bother using a spoiler tag, thanks a lot you wankers), I'll keep this as vague as possible.

Olrox: far and away the best character thus far. I can see why everyone's hot and heavy for the guy already, and the smut fics are apparently already rolling in. I would not be mad if they simply shifted this to Castlevania: Olrox and sent everyone else home. More, please! How about some merch too? I'd buy the shit out of it, dude is straight up hot.

This is not my Richter. I expected this:

... and got this:

(Yes that's Joseph Joestar, not Richter. The point is, sexy brunet hot-headed asshole vs. plain white bread. Richter needs more asshole points, less nutritional void.)

Since Richter is 19, that'd make Maria 12, going by the Rondo of Blood timeline (apparently she's 16 in Nocturne but she doesn't look it). For those who get why I brought that up, marinate on that, y'all. A very long marinade, maybe another 5, 6 years...

I... actually don't mind Annette. I didn't know how I'd react to her, but I have no complaints.

I rather like Edouard.

I noticed Mizrak right off the bat. Thought to myself, now there's a cutie. I'm not the only one who noticed ^_~

Um, trying to figure out how to word this without doing a reveal ^^;... Thanks for throwing us a bone, sorta, on what's probably the most well-known Castlevania threeway relationship prior to the animations? Is that vague enough?

Uh.... honestly don't have much opinion on anyone else. I predicted a much higher body count by this point and people I thought would be dead aren't, and vice versa, but I'm sure the numbers will start climbing next season.

Things I wish would've happened:

A little closer compliance to game lore, as Richter has a good amount of game lore to reference. If they skip the entirety of the SotN storyline I think that'd be a mistake since it's obviously the best-known game of the franchise.

I'm not necessarily mad at the throwing away of the Vampire Killer's special clause (that only direct line male descendants can use it) as it's patriarchal and outdated but I would've liked to seen mention of that not being the case, first, before it got flung out the window.

A LOT less crying. I know Alucard was a faucet in the original animation, but the crying jags in this are ridiculous. I'm pretty sure even the horses were crying. Tera running off sobbing like an anime girl, complete with hands over her face? Ugh. Everyone just standing around and watching Annette cry her heart out, without even a hand on the shoulder in sympathy? Uggggh. No those aren't spoilers, as everyone cries at least twice, if not more.

Original animation vs Nocturne, and the lack of camaraderie and banter:

I guess what I miss most in this series so far vs the original animation series, is the lack of teamwork and camaraderie. Trevor, Sypha and Alucard were yes, forced by circumstance, to stick together, rely on one another, and build up a rapport (they spent the majority of S2 locked in the Hold together), to the point that they could work as a team without having to verbally communicate. There was something really refreshing about that, ya know?

The protagonists of Nocturne thus far... mostly do whatever they want? There's so little interpersonal dialogue. The only character relationship thus far that feels organic at all is the one that started as straight up sex - there's an honesty to that, at least.

Also I miss the banter, a lot more than I thought I would. Even with a serious storyline I like a bit of humor in my shows / stories. How else would we have learned that Sypha has icy cold feet, Trevor can't fucking read, or Alucard is triggered by the word "the"? I came away with zero new trivia factoids about Richter, Maria, and Annette.

[beevean]

Anyway this is where you feel the difference between Ellis and the Deats bros

Ellis didn't give a shit about the franchise, so his changes felt like snobbish "I can do better than this mess of pixels" attitude, he pretty much even admitted it

But the Deats have indeed played the games, they're long time fans, they DO know the lore....but they're fanboys about it, they have a faulty read on things and blatant biases, some of the changes they make are due to them misunderstanding the point. They know Alucard is a man between two races but put the emphasis on the wrong one because vampires are cool I guess. They know Richter should feel conflicted about the consequences of him being a Belmont, but they've lost themselves too much on making the Belmonts "funny himbos" that are easily liked by social media for that to really matter, not to mention that their fanboying for Alucard had its own consequences on the matter

Pretty much, yes. You know I have zero respect for Ellis as a professional and as a person, but I will give it to him that he's very honest. He never once cared to approach the games more than skimming the wiki articles, and he's not ashamed of admitting it. He wanted to write his own story, with elements that he liked, even if they didn't fit the setting in the slightest. Not surprisingly, S3 and 4 were the seasons where he was free of the yoke of the original plot, and it's when the show went completely off the rails in terms of character focus, story, setting and morals.

It is much more frustrating to see the Deats brothers swear and double swear that they're game fans and they care about wanting to respect them. I know they played them. I know that Adam Deats worked on the PoR official guide. They have creed. But I just don't see this respect in the proper story bar some superficial references - I don't care if y'all gave Juste the obscure Aurora Ring, if you still allowed Clivey Brades to write him completely out of character compared to what we can glimpse from HoD and then you shoved him in the role of Maria's babysitter, instead of allowing him to build a connection with his own Belmont grandson!

Speaking of Alucard, you can also tell the difference between the two shows through him. Sure, the dude was given the big emotional climax of S2 while Trevor went to fuck himself, but Ellis very clearly didn't know or care about him afterwards. After all, Alucard went to sleep post-CV3, so he had no frame of reference anymore. So, his plotline in S3 is the most egregious waste of time in a season still remembered as feeling like filler: Ellis quite plainly cared more about Isaac, through which he could expose his intellectualist and misanthropic views, and the Styrian storyline in general, because ooga booga dommy mommy fetish. And S4 just barely fixed matters: the most I remember about Alucard in that season is his gaudy, god awful outfit, but he... doesn't really do much, does he? He gets a new gf to fix his PTSD, and that's about it. It says a lot that the real climax of that season, the equivalent of Alucard vs. Dracula, feels to be the end of the Styrian story, Isaac vs. Carmilla, while Death is given to Trevor as some sort of consolation prize.

But in Nocturne, ohhh boy. The Deats knew full well that the viewers wouldn't give a single solitary shit about the new cast unless they could project the beloved Trephacard dynamic, and in fact, what is the most memorable moment of S1? (aside from WHEN I'M LAID) Alucard saving the stupid Belmont's ass at the very last minute! And S2 definitely gave him quite a lot of screentime - sure, he was ultimately useless to the story because it had the focus of a goldfish on drugs and tried to juggle too many characters and ideas, but his attitude was not of a secondary character :^) the way he carried himself around, alternating between smug and Deep, it's like the writing was well aware that he was the main attraction.

Meanwhile, Richter kept rotting, only sometimes piping up pretending the story cares about his issues and his legacy. The Deats keep insisting they respect him as a character and want to honor his arc and I will never forgive Sam for dredging up his dead father to shield himself against the valid criticism that S1 did not treat the character well... but the show is still not about him. S1 was about Annette, and S2 was about Drolta. In the same vein that NFCV was not about Trevor except from the very beginning and the very end.

Ellis doesn't care about anything except his own genius. The Deats mainly care about appeasing the fanbase - see also how Drolta skyrocketed in importance after she became a fanfavorite. I think that's the main difference between the two.

[blissandvoid]

Castlevania is back. But in Paris during the French Revolution

Castlevania: Nocturne Review

When Warren Ellis’s Castlevania ended back in 2021, I was sad it ended but if felt like we have a good story and ending for our protagonists and it doesn’t need a sequel. Who wants to see Trevor and Sypha raising a baby anyway?

Then Castlevania Nocturne happened 2 years later. Now created by Clive Bradley instead. It had a lot of similar vibes as its predecessor. But somehow, I still kinda miss Trevor’s banters.

Our new heroes are Richter Belmont and Maria Renard from the Rondo of Blood game but their designs are from the PSP remake Dracula X Chronicles especially Maria’s pink ensemble, while Richter kept his shorter hairstyle from the original.

I like the backstories for a new character, Anette, who was a minor character from the original, into a former slave girl turned revolutionary with the power of earth and steel. Olrox, another character from Symphony of the Night, was changed from a typical vampire to a vampire with Aztec origins from the New World (the first series was set in Europe so mostly vampires then were pale and white with some Asian looking vampires mixed in so the change to Olrox is welcome). We also have a speaker (mage) and a demon forger character and a paladin type character. They add flavor to the story, I’ll just say that heheh.

For the villains, Dracula is no more, stuck in the corridors of hell from last we saw in the origseries. We have vampire/succubus type character. Morrigan and Demitri from Darkstalkers can never char. Then the new big bad is Erzsebet Bathory, a fusion of the historical countess/serial killer and Sekhmet, Egyptian goddess of war. Idk how that works, does vampirism make your bronze skin pale? Idk.

The combat scenes are ok, they’re good. I like how Richter can fuse magic with his whip, that kinda feels like something Nathan Graves from Circle of the Moon does but who cares. Maria retained her powers summoning cute versions of the shijin (Suzaku, Seiryu, Byakko, Genbu) and idk how she learned that, was she secretly Asian? Well the original game is made in Japan, so that’s the reason probably. There isn’t a fight scene that’s epic like from the original series, like that fight of Isaac vs the Magician and Legion, and the fight with Trevor vs Death. Maybe, they’re reserving the epic ones next season? If we have another one heheh.

Also, I audibly gasped after the final scene. That scene alone warrants a next season.

Overall, i liked it. Has a lot of potential.

3.5/5 ⭐️