Line #59 Headscratchers/Castlevania


1	!Per wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
2
3	!! Entries with their own pages:
4	[[index]]
5	* ''Headscratchers/{{Castlevania\|1986}}''
6	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest''
7	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaBloodlines''
8	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''
9	* ''Headscratchers/Castlevania64''
10	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon''
11	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance''
12	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow''
13	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence''
14	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow''
15	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness''
16	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin''
17	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia''
18	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaJudgment''
19	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow''
20	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadowMirrorOfFate''
21	* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2''
22	* ''Headscratchers/Castlevania2017''
23	[[/index]]
24
25	!! The franchise in general:
26	* Why can't some of these characters settle on a hair color? Dracula and Alucard can be partially explained, but what about the others? Simon has been portrayed as brunette, blond, and black-haired in various games, and now official art suggests that he has always been a fiery redhead. Eric Lecarde's hair switches from blond to deep green in-game, and this doesn't explain his dark hair color in ''Portrait of Ruin'', or the fact that his daughters have purple hair.
27	** Simon can be explained by the fact that, for years, no one really cared what his hair colour was. Eric's blonde-to-green is probably due to sprite colour limitations on the Genesis, though I've got nothing on the dark hair in ''Portrait of Ruin''. I'm inclined to blame it on no one on the dev team actually PLAYING ''Bloodlines'' grumble grumble ''Rondo''-worshipping bastards grumble grumble.
28	*** The purple hair can probably be explained because they're vampires. The flashback NewGamePlus is kind of hard to explain one way or another, so you can assume a whole bunch of things to explain the hair.
29	*** Eric isn't one, though. Eh well, amazing technicolour hair is par for the course, and he still has it better than Simon.
30	*** It's possible that the girls got the purple hair from their mother.
31	* Isn't it a little unnerving just how easy, relatively speaking, it is to kill [[TheGrimReaper Death]]? Leon explained exactly why he could do so, but still. And aren't they a little too eager to do so? Juste repeatedly comments on how he "got away", and Jonathan effectively picks a fight with him. Twice. Don't these people know what happens when DeathTakesAHoliday?
32	** I thought the thing was that Death was just there on account of being Dracula's drinking buddy. The Belmonts kick his ass and he goes back to work instead of hanging out in Drac's castle and protecting his pal.
33	*** Death in the ''Castlevania'' verse appears to be a touch more malicious than normal. He also appears quite different from the traditional version of the Grim Reaper in that he doesn't seem integral to the process of souls passing on -- just things dying. He also seems to have relatively limited powers, otherwise he would just command the hero in question to drop dead. Furthermore, while Death is defeated with impressive regularity, all those who do so are inevitably heroic individuals of great spiritual power and stature.
34	*** Actually, I think Death being integral to the process of souls passing on but not things actually dying would explain why he can't just command whoever he is fighting to drop dead.
35	*** I think Death is just a demon in ''Castlevania''[='s=] mythos. He's just adopted the appearance of the Grim Reaper.
36	*** Leon states Death is divine, so he probably is the anthropomorphic personification of death. On the other hand, when you kill GHOSTS, their souls pop out, which is good evidence for a "Souls are immortal" universe. So my guess is simple: when Death "Dies", that's exactly what happens; his body is destroyed and he makes himself a new one later.
37	*** My theory is that since Dracula is the only person Death can't take the soul of, he feels obliged to help him out from time to time.
38	*** I think Death isn't really there. He just makes a shell that takes his appearance and place in Castlevania, and uses it like a puppet, which would explain why you can 'kill' him, and maybe why he just doesn't make the hero drop dead. As for why he doesn't go down there personally, maybe he just can't.
39	*** If it helps, in the original, Death is referred to as "shinigami", a pretty generic title of "Death God", and one that doesn't preclude there being multiples. If this is the case, Death could just be a particular shinigami who has sworn allegiance to Dracula, rather than representing the will of the concept of Death itself.
40	*** This Death, being clearly an agent of the Devil, through which Mathias make his deal with him, is therefore the Angel of Death Azrael as depicted in demonology (instead of traditional angelology and theology), making him a demon of death.
41	* What is this "Castle War" I keep on hearing the fanboys talking about in regard to the 1999 battle between Julius Belmont and Dracula? Every time someone "corrects" me when I say it doesn't exist, I hear the same thing: it was a huge battle with soldiers and the world's government pitching in and whatnot, yet the ''only'' hint that such a thing took place that I could find in-game are the mentions that two of the soldier enemies in ''Aria of Sorrow'' were part of the "Castle Wars", that's it. Hammer's reaction to being in the castle rules out any military or government involvement, as it's logical to assume that, ''had'' the military helped the Belmonts and Belnades fight off Dracula during that time, they would've briefed the soldiers they sent to investigate the return of Drac's keep in the sky about it before shipping them off. It's ''possible'', though highly unlikely to me, that the church would have an organized military themselves.
42	** Considering the location of Dracula's castle, it is possible that a military strike upon it could have been entirely European in origin. Hammer, being an American soldier, would not have been involved. However, this would not explain why Hammer would be sent to investigate this shrine without a briefing. Also, if American troops were not deployed, it would be kinda insulting to the fact that the clan responsible for winning the other Dracula battles in the 20th century, the Morrises, were ''Americans''.
43	** I've also heard the claim that the church covered it up. I have no idea if this is canon or not.
44	** The Army Fatigues armor item mentions a "Demon Castle War" in its description, which is likely where the fandom name for this comes from, but it doesn't go into any more detail than the Zombie Soldier and Officer descriptions, so we're back at square one.
45	** Hammer's reaction is no evidence either way. The game takes place in 2035 and Dracula was killed in 1999; unless Hammer has been in active service for 36 years (which, combined with the 18 years of age he would have to be in order to enter the military, would make him at least 56 at the time of ''Aria of Sorrow''), he wasn't part of the supposed strike on the castle.
46	** The Castle Wars are to Castlevania what the Elf Wars are to Megaman Zero: a piece of backstory that the events will never be truly covered.
47	* Why wasn't Hammer a playable character in ''Dawn of Sorrow''? Yoko, Julius, and Alucard were all present and resembled their counterparts from ''Castlevania 3'' (Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard again respectively), so why wasn't Hammer playable, throwing knives and axes and climbing on walls like our favorite pirate Grant?
48	** What were Grant's main advantages over Trevor, considering that Trevor could also throw axes and knives? And his jump was higher and easier to control. Modern protagonists can bend their jumps, and Julius has a triple jump. He can climb walls and ceilings? Since when did those kinds of obstacles appear in a {{Metroidvania}}? Sadly, thanks to modern design decisions, the Danasty acrobat style is largely redundant, and Grant was a ''weak'' combatant. All in all, Hammer would only be there for the fanservice. (Although, now that I think about it, he could have been successful and truer to his backstory if he played like Albus does.)
49	*** But Albus is broken, and if that were so, Albus would play like Hammer.
50	*** ''"He can climb walls and ceilings? Since when did those kinds of obstacles appear in a Metroidvania?"'' Since the release of ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' and the introduction of the spider ball. It's entirely possible for something similar to be implemented for a Grant-like character in a ''Castlevania'' game.
51	** They actually found unused text buried in the game that indicated that Hammer may have been intended as a playable character at some point early in development. There's no sound clips or animation, so they probably dumped the idea early on. Unless said 'Text' is also some troll's attempt at a joke (can't believe everything you read on the internet),
52	** I think it would have been fun. They could make him more like how Grant was in the original Japanese version, where he threw knives as his default attack (and you could have guns instead of knives, of course), and if you took away some of Julius' air superiority (some, not all, of course), you could put in Grant before you meet Alucard so you have to use wall-climbing to reach later areas of the castle before Alucard's bat form makes jumping redundant in any case. It would have just completed the connection to ''[=CV3=]'' they were making. Oh well.
53	** Well, hacking into ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair Harmony of Despair's]]'' sound files reveals that, besides Richter and Simon being possible DLC, Hammer might be making the cut in a future DLC release. [[HopeSpot We can only hope he gets through this time, because that would be awesome!]]
54	* How come there are Medusa Heads in installments where Medusa herself isn't present?
55	** Maybe the ''reason'' why she isn't present is that she's recovering from being decapitated.
56	*** Even in "RealLife", it was by being decapitated that she gave birth in the first place...
57	** Always regarded as a fan-theory, ''Portrait of Ruin'' finally proved that Medusa Heads are actually generated en masse by Medusa, shedding them like dandruff. After all, that'd be a lot of headless Medusa Bodies otherwise. (Hey, there's an idea for a future enemy...)
58	*** The real problem is that the proper plural would be "gorgon heads". There was only one Medusa. The manual to the first game seems to acknowledge this change, though, at least by implication, calling the boss the Queen Medusa.
59	* Why, if Dracula is supposed to be the "Dark Lord" with dominion over all demons, monsters, spirits, and other evil creatures under the sun, have minions with a ''holy'' Attribute? Wouldn't that be akin to, say... Superman building a Justice League with roughly a fifth of its members having Kryptonite-based powers? Similarly, why does ''Castlevania'' have a chapel in the first place? If Dracula has officially renounced God and started a war with Him and His creations, then such a place of worship (with the spirits of actually ''good'' parishioners and priests trapped in its confessional) would be useless to him.
60	** I chalk it up to [[LightIsNotGood holy/light not being "good"]]. Monsters can use something like holy power, but it's not the real deal. Alternatively, he could do it for the same reason he hides [[HyperactiveMetabolism instant healing slabs of beef]] [[RewardingVandalism in his masonry]], he gets bored.
61	*** Except that in Christian mythology (and let's not kid ourselves, the Dracula myth is based largely on this), holy/light really IS good. The ultimate good, in fact. A more likely explanation is that the Konami developers, being Japanese, viewed the Dracula myth through the prism of their own cultural upbringing. Shintoism and Buddhism are the two dominant religions in Japan, and both of them embrace the LightIsNotGood / DarkIsNotEvil tropes. The ''Castlevania'' developers were brought up surrounded by those religious tropes, so they put them in the game. And now that it's become an established part of the franchise, they can't get rid of it.
62	** About the chapel, Drac's followers need a place where they can worship the Dark Lord. As simple as that.
63	*** Not really, since at least one enemy in the Chapel is described as an ''angel''. And not a fallen one, either.
64	*** I'm certain the Amalaric Sniper (of Goth) has been described as fallen (in ''Portrait'', to give one example), unless you are thinking of another angel.
65	*** Was there a Chapel in Portrait, though? I know [=PoR=] is something of a contentious issue among fans anyway, but I believe the original idea of the Amalaric Sniper was it was after Alucard because he was a vampire, not necessarily because the Snipers served Dracula.
66	*** The chapel with the snipers is at the back of 13th Street. The game itself is completely canon; the only possible FanonDiscontinuity is that some Castlevania fans don't like the anime style and easy difficulty.
67	*** Amalaric Sniper ''did'' appear in the Sorrow games, though, and it's doubtful that they would attack Soma prior to him "awakening".
68	** I've assumed that while some angels can fall far and become demons, other holy beings can be lured by Dracula's power and work for him while still keeping their 'holy' natures.
69	** In regards to the chapel, back when I first played Symphony, I just took it in stride - Vlad Tepes was a religious man, so even after becoming the Dark Lord, it didn't seem too off -- trappings from his former life. Now that he's Matthias, though, it's a bit weirder... maybe he's doing it to mock God? After all, having a church just so that all your demons can tramp through it all the time sounds like a good way to try and tweak the big guy.
70	*** I can see that. I also kind of wonder if Lisa didn't have a part in the one in ''Symphony''. She was fairly religious, wasn't she? Maybe Dracula had it built as a sanctuary for her.
71	** I had a WMG about that... I assume Chaos controls how Castlevania manifests, and Dracula really has little control over the details. Hence why the castle has elements that don't fit or even help the heroes. It is a "Creature of Chaos" after all.
72	** Here's a bit of real-life Catholic theology: Satan was once one of the greatest of angels, if not ''the'' greatest. Even after his failed rebellion against God, during which he and his followers were cast out of Heaven, they did not lose any of the glory which God imparted to them as His creation. As such, Satan still maintains the full glory of his angelic nature, even though he now stands opposed to God (ironically, given that he has separated himself from God, that he retains the glory given to him by God means that Satan suffers as much as everyone else in Hell, if not more). So yeah, it's possible for Dracula to have minions who have a holy 'essence' without a similar morality/ethic/mindset. After all, it has been said that the Devil will appear as an angel of light if it serves his ends...
73	** Power of Dominance. Only probable reason he has angels working for him is that he killed them and now they're his slaves.
74	** It's amazing how unnecessarily elaborate [[FanWank fan wanks]] can get when the real solution is both simple and perfectly obvious. The labels like "dark", "holy", and "hit" are not literal descriptions that are built on the world's mythology but, instead, just convenient ways to divide up the differing effects that certain attacks have on certain enemies. If you have both fallen angels and possessed vampire hunters in the same game, then, unless you want to value semantics over reasonableness of design, you're going to be stuck having to call them both "holy" due to the slight overlap, for want of a better word, just like the highly ambiguous word "dark" can be equally useful to create a smaller number of categories of attack power in a castle where ''every'' enemy can in some sense or other be called "dark". In short, all "holy" means is that the enemy has something about their origin, nature, or attacks that is associated with holy things in some way.
75	** Or alternately, it pleases Dracula to have a "sarcastic" chapel, a place filled with evil that ''looks'' like a place for servants of God to rest. It's the ultimate mockery of God. As to how he managed to fill it with creatures that are holy-elemental, he ''knows'' his son is out there and wants him destroyed. Setting a trap that will stop other vampires from coming after him would be high-priority enough that he would devote a lot of time and effort to finding a way.
76	** I've always liked the idea that maybe Dracula has personal issues. Either the "can't let go of his religious beliefs" thing another person suggested, or perhaps he is partly suicidal?
77	** Or, since the castle itself is alive, perhaps it produces these things without a care what its inhabitants think. Maybe it even sees its inhabitants as an infestation and is trying to kill them?
78	* Why by the storyline are the Belmont males uber, but playing as anyone else makes the game much easier? I mean, Richter is slow as hell and can hardly jump for crap (particularly stupid as, in ''Aria'', Julius Belmont is 60 years old, but MUCH faster and more agile than Richter was during his prime!). If you have to play as an ordinary Belmont, the game is going to be much harder than, say, playing as a little girl who can cast spells, or a high school student who can use monster's souls. Which makes no ***ing sense whatsoever. Also, the Vampire Killer is supposed be a powerful legendary weapon, the best for defeating Dracula, but most of the mid-game weapons in ''Aria of Sorrow'' dramatically outclass it. The Alucard sword makes it look like a piece of crap. What gives? It's always been a pet peeve of mine how old-school platform characters seem really sluggish and unathetlic.
79	** Short Answer, GameplayAndStorySegregation. Soma gets a free pass due to the whole Power of Dominance/being Dracula thing, but you do have a point everywhere else.
80	*** An alternative answer is the fact that individuals like Soma, Shanoa, etc. etc. are either highly powerful individuals, or highly TRAINED individuals, with the additional factor that their abilities aren't something endlessly reborn monsters led by an immortal vampire are used to. Dracula knows how to, if not beat a whip user, at least stand up to one a hell of a lot better than he knows how to stand up to someone chucking fireballs or swinging a massive sword, and, in turn, the games are harder when you're a Belmont.
81	*** At least ''Dracula's Curse'' had Trevor be (in most situations, at least) [[JackOfAllStats the most balanced, useful, and tough fighter of the four playable characters despite all the others having their own individual advantages]].
82	* Why is it that, aside from boss characters, we hardly ever fight vampires as common enemies?
83	** You're the dark lord. You have a bordering-on-irrational grudge against humanity. You can steal men's souls. You've got what seems to be the entire population of hell on your side. And you have a tendency to be killed soon after you are revived. How often would you think about giving people eternal undeath? And even the few times that you do, why would they be weak enough to serve as average enemies? (''Castlevania 64'' is an exception, but that was most likely de Rais's doing, not Drac's.)
84	*** If he's willing to let the gardener of his hedge maze be unkillable....
85	** Two other theories tossed around: The power of the Crimson Stone (I think), which grants Dracula the power of a vampire, gets more powerful the more vampire souls are in it. Thus, aside from a few noteworthy individuals, Dracula tends to destroy any vampires he meets or makes to power himself up. Secondly, early ''Castlevania'' instruction books stated that even when Dracula is gone, the Belmonts keep themselves busy hunting down other vampires, so they probably keep the vampire population in check.
86	* Okay, maybe I just don't know the whole story, but how can there be a separate Belnades clan if Trevor and Sypha married? Carrie Fernandez and Yoko Belnades are "descendants of Sypha Belnades," yet apparently they're not called Belmonts. How does that come about?
87	** ''Judgment'' tries to justify it with its near-fetishistic use of the word "house", suggesting that not every Belmont begets the next one. This is an imperfect solution, considering the lack of multiple Belmonts per generation (aside from ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfShadows Order of Shadows]]'', which no one played) and the argument that Sypha ''did'' beget the later Belnadeses. Not to mention just what causes the Schneiders and Morrises and whoever else to branch out.
88	** Barring that, their offspring may have been designated Belnadeses. In ''Judgment'', Sypha comes across as feminist, and Trevor implies that he may, in fact, [[{{Pun}} be whipped]]. But not even that justifies Juste. Hmm... maybe the guys got to be Belmonts and the girls got to be Belnadeses?
89	*** Sonia Belmont. Then again, IGA took her out of canon because "GURLZ CANT BE BELMONTS LOL"
90	*** What does that have to do with anything? Sonia wasn't Trevor's daughter. (If anything, one should wonder why the star of ''Dracula's Curse'' wasn't Trevor ''Tepes''.)
91	** It would be ''utterly unrealistic'' to expect all the descendants of a person to share their last name. That would mean no branching out in the family tree whatsoever over the course of centuries and centuries -- every child a male or an unmarried female for all that time.
92	** Perhaps Trevor and Sypha got a divorce, and half the kids took the Belnades name instead of Belmont? Or some other family issues. The Schneiders and Morrises are probably the descendants of Belmont women who took their husband's surname. Why they can't use the whip even though they're also Leon's descendants, no idea. Juste is clearly the product of incest... except really, with over two hundred years of separation, it's really not that big of a deal.
93	** Simplest answer: Sypha had a brother. The Belnades descended from him.
94	* How the hell does Dracula have a niece? It might have made sense before ''Lament of Innocence'' came along, but now, it's just impossible. Unless for whatever reason, Mathias had a brother who also ended up a vampire had a child around that time, but then, that'd make Elizabeth Bartley a dhampir. So... how?
95	** Adoption and/or HonoraryUncle.
96	*** Adoption would make Bartley his (adopted) daughter. The second... I don't think it'd work that way.
97	** If his brother had a daughter, he'd only need to bite her, right?
98	** Or she could've been brainwashed to think Dracula was her uncle when she became a vampire. After all, it happened to Stella and Loretta in ''Portrait of Ruin''.
99	** We could possibly be making the mistake of assuming Elizabeth is Dracula's niece ''by blood''. For all we know, Elizabeth is Drac's niece through Lisa and her side of the family, who was then turned into a vampire at some point in life by her uncle (by marriage).
100	* If Dracula's OneWingedAngel form is his 'true' form, as he loves to loudly announce, why is it always different? (Actually, I can think of a few answers, but I want to hear what others say.)
101	** My theory is that his true form is infinitely morphic, and he is constantly trying to upgrade it. Alternately, his true form changes with every resurrection.
102	** Has he ever ACTUALLY announced he was going to his true form when doing these metamorphoses? If it helps, his dialogue when going to the bat form thing in ''Rondo''/''[=SotN=]'' was "Grant me power!" in Moonspeak, and if there are any other instances where he says something about a true form in American localizations, I could probably check out if that was in the original text/voicing.
103	*** Strange. I can't seem to find it right now, but I know I've heard a sound file of Dracula screaming "Behold My True Form, And Despair!". But even without that, Dracula's second form is referred to in the monster cataloug as 'True Dracula' many times.
104	*** Dracula says "Behold my true form, and despair" in [=SoTN=] in the last battle.
105	*** The PSP ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles Dracula X Chronicles]]'' Drac calls his third form his true form. An odd case, since it's entirely optional, and his second form is a greater transformation. In his third form, he looks basically the same as his un-transformed self but with his cape becoming wings.
106	*** He's just trying to put the scare into you. He's a poseur. I haven't kept up but the only time I know of when Dracula said anything about his "true form" was at the end of ''Symphony'', and there he was being completely full of shit as always: you can tell he's just making that thing out of his cape. I mean, he's sitting right there in the middle in the same form he was in before. As for the giant blue... thing he ordinarily turns into, in the same game he announces the transformation by shouting "GRANT ME POWEEEEER!" (It's a little garbled so I can understand if anyone missed that). So in other words, the blue thing is what happens when the Devil tries to bail his sorry ass out of trouble for him yet again.
107	** If we are to apply [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Vampire: The Masquerade]] logic, since Dracula is canonically a Tzimisce, his transformations could be him using Vicissitude on himself.
108	*** Tzimisce? Vicissitude?
109	** If you look at SOTN's true form, the three heads slightly resemble Chaos' first form from Aria. It's possible that his true form is actually merged with Chaos somehow, which would naturally look different each time, although I am not sure if any other form besides the SOTN one counts as a "true form".
110	** Or, since in ''Aria'', Dracula’s power is explained as coming from Chaos, and his castle is a creature of Chaos, every resurrection, either after a full century or by somebody bringing him back early, aspects of his appearance and power may change. For example, even without transforming, Dracula usually has a variety in his design from game to game, does he have white hair, or facial hair? It depends on the game, so do his transformations, so the “true” form statement is either inaccurate in some way, or it’s the true form of his current resurrection. He literally goes from having black hair and no beard in 3, and in ''Curse of Darkness'', set soon after, he looks more like he did in his artwork from ''Symphony.''
111	* So, where WAS Death during Christopher Belmont's time? I know in reality, [=CV=] lore wasn't quite as nailed down back then, so Death wasn't as important to the overall story as he is now. Still, it'd be interesting to see them address the issue, since technically, those games are still canon.
112	** ''The Adventure'' is the only game in the series in which Dracula is the final boss and he isn't destroyed. There might be a connection.
113	** An amusing theory comes to mind after the UpdatedRerelease. Death was apparently hanging out in the clock tower (he does that a lot nowadays) when Christopher stormed the castle. And since Chris apparently didn't head that way back in the monochrome era, our reaper missed the entire battle. Oops.
114	*** Reminds me of the story in ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' One for the GBA if you play as Alpha Cody. Supposedly, in a dream, he remarks when going through the Industrial sector (that wasn't in the original SNES games) that he didn't remember this area. He took a shortcut, he said, an interesting handwave for the lack of an entire level.
115	* Where's [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse War, Famine, and Pestilence]] been this whole time? Did Death say something to piss them off?
116	** Unincarnated. They don't have to hang out with him until the end days, and Dracula owes them no favors.
117	** Also, they have no major investment in the battles. It's generally a OneManArmy vs. Army thing, so it isn't really war. Food is generally plentiful, as the castle doesn't go on burning crusades against crops. No disease is particularly associated. On the other hand, when the Castle appears, it ''does'' kill a lot of people, and the Belmont Of The Era ''does'' massacre the inhabitants en masse, plus, Dracula managed to cheat Death out of his due for almost a millennia. Death has motivation and a stake in the matter, the others don't.
118	*** Although War might have been involved in The Castle War of 1999, seeing as how it is implied in a monster bio or two to have actually ''been'' a war. We don't really know much about the Battle of '99, so he ''could'' have been involved then.
119	** What, no mention of Conquest? (Hey, wait a minute. Some apocalyptic theories interpret Conquest as the Antichrist. Conquest. Cronqvist. Interesting.)
120	*** That's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Corvinus "Corvinus"]], though. It seems that the original idea might have been for ''Lament'' to take place directly before ''Castlevania 3'" with Matthias as Walter and the entirely useless Joachim as Vlad Tepes. Why they threw that out and decided to set the game four hundred years earlier is not clear, much like why they set it before the crusades had started when the crusades having started is a key plot point.
121	*** But in the final version of ''Lament'', it was Cronqvist (regardless of how little sense it -- or anything else in the plotline -- made), so the Conquest link is still pretty cool.
122	* The fact that ''Castlevania'' is sexist. That bugs me. Actually, I don't really care about whether it's sexist or not, I just want Sonia Belmont to be canon.
123	** How is it sexist if the main character of the last game released is female? Iga said he removed Legends because it said Alucard was Trevor's father.
124	*** Certainly there are plenty of female characters throughout the series. None of them are Belmonts however, because no woman could ever be a true Belmont. (Then again, in ''Rondo of Blood'', Maria is way, way stronger than Richter, so there you go.)
125	*** Sorry. Belmont, She of the Green Vinyl Jumper, Traveling Huntress without a Past, Bishie-Banger, Spellslinger in a Time When Grinding Herbs was Witchcraft is no more by omission and commission.
126	*** Wasn't the Spellslinger thing explained eventually by Sypha having found a sanctuary with other witches? Granted, that was brought up in Judgment, which is largely not accepted as actual canon, but it makes sense. I don't think they ever marginalized how seriously the public at large took witchcraft (poor Lisa), so it's a bit more acceptable since it's balanced with the idea that if you wanted to hone your skills in magic, you had to have a serious degree of determination.
127	*** I can't see much point in having a female Belmont other than to 'shake things up', but it certainly wouldn't change anything beyond every female fan rallying behind her because she's female rather than interesting.
128	*** Worked like a charm among male fans with Sonia.
129	*** Isn't it a little cynical to say that all women will be behind a female Belmont without caring about her character? Granted, that's bound to happen more than once, but it's a little much to say "every female fan." I'm a female, and I honestly don't care much for Shanoa (or Sonia, really) despite them both being women.
130	*** I'm kind of curious where the mentality that a woman can't be a "True" Belmont came from. What do the Belmonts do? They get trained to murder the crap out of demons, using whip and holy power, and fight Dracula to the death. Just as there's no point in having a female Belmont, there's also no point in not having one. Sonia needed to be removed due to IGA's timeline, I get that. But his statement about why there aren't more female main characters was fairly sexist and Shanoa is an appeasement to the fans (an admittedly enjoyable one, but that's not the point). We've seen plenty of powerful women in the series but ruining the "Pure" (read: Male only) Belmont bloodline, obviously doing it a disservice. Amazing.
131	** Yeah, this really bugs me too. I don't think it should be Sonia, but seeing a female Belmont would be nice (and realistic, since there's bound to be a girl in the family line somewhere that wasn't a Belnades). I don't see how it's so pointless/impossible for there to be balance in the offspring. It also bugs me that Shanoa was ''such'' an obvious appeasement. I sort of find it insulting.
132	*** Bear in mind that most of ''Castlevania'' games takes place in medieval. It was only natural back then that men were doing all the physical work. So, no, it wouldn't be realistic.
133	** I have one problem with Sonia Belmont: if she is Trevor's mother, and Alucard, a dhampir, is his father, then that would mean Trevor would have vampire blood. So how could he wield the Vampire Killer while he's one-quarter vampire? In light of what is shown in ''Portrait of Ruin'' (it slowly killed John Morris and would do the same to Jonathan if he unlocked its full power without defeating the Whip's Memory of its last Belmont wielder, Richter Belmont), it would probably start burning his flesh away if he touched it. If they came up with another female Belmont to wield the whip, or came up with another guy to be Sonia's baby daddy, then hell fuck yes I'm on board for that. No problem with a female Belmont starring in her own game, just a problem with Trevor being part-vampire.
134	** There might not necessarily be a problem, actually. In ''Lament of Innocence'', the Whip of Alchemy became the Vampire Killer when Sara willingly offered her soul to Leon's weapon. Miss Trantoul herself was already slowly vampirizing and close to completely losing her humanity at that point, so it's possible that [[SoulJar her tainted soul within the whip]] would unquestionably recognize the legitimacy of the whip's next wielder so long as they were worthy and held the blood of (the main branch of) House Belmont within them. (Presumably, the holy whip's natural inclination to [[GoodHurtsEvil harm creatures of the night]] is overridden by Belmont blood, never mind that there's a loophole in Sara being a vampire, plus the fact that Dracula's influence on the bloodline would eventually lessen to minuscule fractions with each generation.) Additionally, [[http://shmuplations.com/symphony/ Igarashi intended for Alucard to have holy blood of his own due to Lisa being descended from a holy lineage, hence why Al can use holy weapons and subweapons.]] (Thus, Trevor would likely end up with major Belmont/Fahrenheit blood and minor Tepes blood.) Furthermore, there's the whole bit in ''Order of Ecclesia'' with Dominus--the power of Dracula--being [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} super effective]] against Dracula himself, instantly killing him when everything else Shanoa threw his way failed; a Belmont descended from the Tepes line could be unknowingly drawing upon that power and using it in tandem with the Vampire Killer for extra whipping power. Having the Belmonts be of Dracula's bloodline would actually serve to add a layer of FridgeBrilliance and emotional turbulence to their eternal fight against the night: not only would there be dramatic irony in that Dracula's greatest enemies were both directly and indirectly spawned by him (with both sides largely being unaware of the blood connection), but it may partially explain the persecution of the "supernatural" Belmont clan aside of Leon renouncing his title as a knight prior to ''Lament'', though this would largely apply only to Trevor, who was only welcomed as a hero in Wallachia ''after'' he and his party whipped Drac a new one, since he'd be 1/4 vampire if he was the son of Sonia and Alucard.
135	* So, what is the Vampire Killer Whip? In the earliest games, it shifted between a leather whip and a morning star. No problems there, early continuity is always sketchy. It gets odd, though, when Lament of Innocence has the whip's origins as a leather alchemical whip, while most other games ([=HoD, AoS, DoS, PoR, etc.=]) show it consistently as a morning star. Will they ever answer how it changes, or if it changed, or what? For that matter, will they ever address why Simon had to buy whips in ''Simon's Quest''?
136	** See the speech made in Literature/TheFifthElephant about how an ancestral axe is still the same axe after getting parts removed. Presumably, over the years, Vampire Killer's had coverings added and removed, whip cores replaced, handles replaced, and whip sections replaced wholecloth. The magic still works anyway, because it's magic, and it is still the same whip, just with a new part. As for Simon buying whips, maybe he was buying whip sections to add on to the handle (presumably having damaged it in the last game), and the multiple choices were a matter of him not being able to decide what kind of Vampire Killer to leave to his kid(s).
137	*** Note that the Vampire Killer is an ''alchemy'' whip. We don't have much knowledge of how alchemy works in Castlevania. Here's another theory I've thought about - the whip can change forms magically through the wielder's power. This works with how Jonathan Morris wasn't able to use the whip's power initially, and the earlier games changed its form as power-ups, and also accomodates the flame whip. It's quite possible that Dracula's curse prevented Simon from being able to change the whip on his own.
138	** Personally, I think that the Whip is bound to Castlevania/Dracula. As such, whenever Dracula and his castle appear again, the whip changes form along with it.
139	** Perhaps the Vampire Killer is a leather whip when dormant, but in close proximity to evil it changes shape into the more powerful morning star form.
140	* Considering the presence of items like "Satan's Ring" that seem to suggest that Satan does exist in the Castlevania verse (the description even says that Satan is said to have worn it), why the need for Dracula as the Dark Lord?
141	** For that matter, who was the Dark Lord before Dracula came along?
142	*** I think those two questions answer each other rather nicely.
143	*** Now that you mention it, yeah. That would be neat to see in a future game. Dracula [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu kicking the devil's ass]].
144	*** Wasn't the previous Dark Lord Walter Bernhard from Lament of Innocence?
145	*** Walter was a powerful vampire before that game, but was not necessarily the dark lord. He did have influence over the night, but he certainly didn't work with souls in the way Drac does.
146	** I'm pretty sure I've heard somewhere that the references to Satan in those items were added in the English translation and weren't in the original Japanese. Nonetheless, I like the idea that Satan is an entity [[{{The Man Behind The Man}} behind Dracula]] that provides him with his power - he just can't manifest in the mortal world, so Dracula fulfils the role of Dark Lord in his place.
147	*** Another theory I've seen is that Death fills the Satan position. I know I've heard about him being called the "king of hell" in one of the games, but I can't find it on search.
148	*** I like to believe that Satan and Chaos, the being which Aria of Sorrow reveals is the source of all of Dracula's powers and the one who chooses which mortal inherits those powers and becomes the next Dark Lord, are in fact one and the same in the Castlevania world. Dracula made a deal with Chaos at some point after stealing Walter's soul and becoming a vampire, possibly with Death acting as their go-between, and this is how he acquired his Domination power and his ability to resurrect constantly.
149	** Ladies and Gentlemen, Gabriel Belmont defeats Satan and then become Dracula. Obviously, the beatdown of Satan by Dracula is now canon in at least one alternate timeline.
150	** Who else but Satan would Dracula have been talking to when he says "grant me power"? The implication is that Satan is the one granting Dracula his abilities but is either unable or unwilling to act directly.
151	* Recent games have tried to explain away the whole [[WithThisHerring "coming into Castlevania almost completely unarmed"]] thing, with some success. ''Portrait of Ruin'' is one such example, making a plot point out of how Jonathan brought the Vampire Killer and can't use it. But a question remains. What about Charlotte? She's supposed to be a skilled witch, yet she enters the castle wielding a magicless book and ''no spells at all''. And there isn't a word of explanation.
152	** I assumed that those two were following the old shonen anime adventure tradition of "making it up as we go". They were cocky enough to run straight to Castlevania wielding no weapons, armor, or supplies beyond the currently-next-to-useless Vampire Killer and simply hoped that Jonathan would figure out the trick to using it after they got to work. It was stupid, but their game does run off anime cliches only slightly less than the Sorrow series.
153	** Jonathan and Charlotte are Americans deep in Axis territory. They had a hell of a time getting to Romania, and carrying a lot of equipment might not be the best idea because:
154	*** Weapons and armor are hard to carry. If you're making a forest escape from the authorities after being woken up in the middle of the night, you're not going to stop to pick up anything you don't absolutely need.
155	*** Weapons are suspicious. It's bad enough that they're foreigners in enemy territory, but weapons could get them shot on sight. Charlotte's books are especially bad in this regard, since they're magic and terrifying. The Vampire Killer isn't as suspicious as a sword, because lots of people with horses use whips.
156	* What kind of accent is Gabriel Belmost supposed to have?
157	** Scottish. He's played by Creator/RobertCarlyle.
158	* Speaking of accents, isn't Eric Lecarde supposed to be a Spaniard? I don't care how the canon characters say it; to me, that last name will always be pronounced "Le-car-day", not "Le-card".
159	** His last name was intended to be Ricardo, but the translators got it wrong.
160	*** And his first name's Eric... Rick for short? "[[Series/ILoveLucy Bartley! You've got some 'splainin' to do!]]"
161	** It's a corruption of "Alucard."
162	* There is influence from ''Dracula'' (Bram Stoker's novel), but is the novel being included in the ''Castlevania'' canon?
163	** Yes, though according to CV, Quincey Morris had a son, when there's no indication that he did in the novel. The US manual for ''Bloodlines'' says that John Morris saw Quincey die after helping to kill Dracula, though this is probably not canon since John would have been a toddler at the time, and thus probably would not have been brought along. And, of course, the Morris family being related to the Belmonts is something the games made up.
164	*** It's worth asking who the mother is. Quincey was courting Lucy before her untimely death, after all.
165	** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' [[SugarWiki/NeedsMoreLove could certainly use a remake]] to help tie the two together better. Perhaps with flashbacks to key events in the novel?
166	* So why does Castlevania almost always manifest a clock tower? The castle's said to be a creature of chaos, but clockwork tends to be associated with order/law, and constantly manifesting the same locations with slightly different layouts isn't all that chaotic. One could say that Dracula can reshape the castle to his liking, but... where did he get the expertise to build a clock tower? He was apparently born in the early middle ages and spends most of his time dead. And if he really needs to know the time (if he can't go out in the daylight or whatever), he could just look out a window. It just seems inefficient to keep building complex machinery every time the castle rises, instead of dedicating that time to creating more skeletons or whatever.
167	** Death typically hangs out at the top of the clocktower; maybe he really likes it, and Drac shapes the castle to have one to make Death happy?
168	* Few players complained when Maria did some behind-the-scenes investigation to figure out the truth behind the castle's return before Alucard killed the wrong perpetrator. Or when Leon's vampirized love interest Sara sacrificed herself to provide him with the means to defeat the one responsible for her suffering. Or when Julia intervened on a psychological level to ensure that Hector's quest for revenge wouldn't consume him. Or when Mina provided the emotional anchor necessary for Soma to not succumb to his innate dark nature. Or when Charlotte accompanied Jonathan to help him cope with his insecurities and lack of expertise with his signature weapon. So why is it that when Albus, in a game released after all of the above, risked his sanity and sacrificed his soul to find a way for Shanoa to use Dominus without it costing her anything more than it had already taken from her, ''that'' is used as evidence of IGA's inherent sexism? Granted, there may be the implication that he doesn't believe a woman could do the job alone, but doesn't his body of work strongly suggest that he doesn't believe ''anyone'' could do the job alone, and that men and women supporting each other is a good thing regardless of who takes the lead?
169	** It's mostly his clumsy explanation in one interview. It may have been a translation issue, but it seemed to indicate he believed women couldn't be Belmonts.
170	* I don't get why keeping the Vampire Killer out of Belmont hands for a couple centuries or so would be necessary to allow whatever happened in 1999 to happen. Why would the family avoiding fighting Dracula make any difference?
171	** It is generally assumed that the Belmont Family was tainted and unable to wield the whip, and they wouldn't be purged of the taint until, fortuitously, 1999.
172	* Anyone know why the whip was chosen as the Belmont's signature weapon?
173	** In the original timeline, the first game chronologically was ''Lament of Innocence''. The alchemist Rinaldo Gandolfi gives Leon Belmont the Whip of Alchemy, because Leon had no weapon when he went off to rescue his betrothed, Sara Trantoul, from the vampire lord, Walter Bernhard (Leon didn't have a weapon because his sword belonged to his knight company, and [[HonorBeforeReason taking it with him after leaving the military would be stealing]]). After the events of the game the whip becomes the Vampire Killer.
174	*** Oh, I know about the in-universe reason. I was just curious why they chose the whip in the game designer's point of view.
175	*** WordOfGod stated that it was because Franchise/IndianaJones was cool.
176	** For that matter, why did Rinaldo make a whip and not a sword? Maybe he was a horse driver or something and didn't know how do use a sword? He made the whip for himself but never got the chance to fight with it?
177	** This has always bothered me too, up until Castlevania a whip was never classical monster slaying archetype weapon, my theory is that it is a relatively unpredicatble weapon, which is shown to great effect in the animated series, a sword can only slash, stab and parry, and even well trained it has tells, however a whip, if very well trained with it, say... like a Belmont, can go in unexpected directions, and being concecrated/enchanted means it doesn't need an edge, also whips can lacerate due to its speed, this isn't showcased much in the games because they are (usually) side scrollers, and making a whip move in crazy directions was probably more than the tech and hardware at the time could handle.
178	** Gameplay wise, the whip does provide several advantages. Most melee weapons would either be very short ranged compared to the sprite, forcing the player to get dangerously close in order to hit anything. Either that, or the weapon would have to be gigantic when used, which might look comical and ruin the theme. A spear could provide reach, but then it'd look like he pulled a spear out of nowhere. A whip, however, gives the player considerable range, allowing them to keep a safe distance from enemies and cover a long area. It also can be assumed to be 'coiled up' when not swung, meaning it doesn't look weird when this long weapon isn't seen with the standing sprite.
179	* It seems as if anyone of the Belmont clan can use the Vampire Killer (before the whole 'taint' business started). But Leon lived a thousand years ago. By the the present day, wouldn't a sizable chunk of the world's population be directly descended from him? Assuming a generation every forty years, and every generation has two kids, that's over a third of a billion descendants or 1/21 of the world's population. That's a definite underestimate, given that back then people tried to have lots of kids early. Things like the forces of darkness purposefully trying to kill them and incest (stops getting squicky after enough time) would cut down the line, but that was factored into the purposefully small calculation. If the chosen descendant kicked the bucket early, wouldn't finding a replacement be relatively easy? After training, of course.
180	** Not everyone is going to know they're a Belmont descendant. Names of female descendants changing as they marry, others dying out, others just not wanting to get caught up in the vampire slaying business. There are all sorts of reasons behind it. Especially since it's unlikely the unknown descendants would all be interested in genealogy.
181	** Complete FanWank incoming, but maybe a person using the whip reinforces the connection somehow, renewing it and keeping the dilluted bloodline from being a problem. So, Trevor can initially use the whip because he's Leon's descendant, but Simon retains the ability not because of Leon's connection to it, but Trevor's. This could also explain why Johnatan Morris was able to use the whip with fewer issues than his father John had. The only problem with this idea is the 200 year gap where no Belmonts wielded the whip, and Julius being able to use it just fine.
182	* What makes the Belmont clan's bloodline 'purer' than the Morrises and the Schneiders? They're all Leon's descendants.
183	** Actually, it can be geneticaly explained quite easily. Basically, Belmonts are main (male only) branch of Leon's descendants, while Morrises, Scheiders, Lecardes and others are side branches (at least one female). Now, your gender is determined by two chromosomes known as X and Y. If you have two X chromosomes, you are female, if you have one X and one Y, you are male, if you have two Y chromosomes, you are lab-made mutant and will probably die seconds after being born. Now, let's consider that gene that enables Belmonts to use Vampire Killer without side-effects is on Y chromosome. Then every male descendant of Leon will have this special chromosome (let's call it chromosome BY, as in "Belmont Y"). As long as you are in male only line of your clan, you have exact same Y chromosome as every of your male ancestors, so every Belmont in the main line has the special BY chromosome. However, Y chromosome is male-only, so side branches of Belmonts clan (which all start from a female Belmont marrying non-Belmont) don't get it and instead have generic Y chromosome from male non-Belmont ancestor, so they can't use the whip. It's actually a good expanation, why according to Iga no woman can be Belmont...
184	** Either that, or Sara is a traditional 11th century gal who still clings of agnatic succession laws.
185	** I always thought it was as simple as the various side branches are all from people who married into the family and their relations, instead of being directly descended from Leon himself.
186	* Does the song "Bloody Tears" mean tears as in crying or tears as in "tears your arm off"? I always thought the first one but I'm not sure.

Context Headscratchers / Castlevania