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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* ''WMG/{{Castlevania|1986}}''
6* ''WMG/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest''
7* ''WMG/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''
8* ''WMG/Castlevania64''
9* ''WMG/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow''
10* ''WMG/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow''
11* ''WMG/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin''
12* ''WMG/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia''
13* ''WMG/CastlevaniaJudgment''
14* ''WMG/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2''
15* ''WMG/Castlevania2017''
16** ''WMG/CastlevaniaNocturne''
17[[/index]]
18
19!! The franchise in general:
20[[WMG:The player is [[AGodIsYou God]] or at least [[MessianicArchetype His earthly envoy]], like Dracula is to Chaos.]]
21In the ''Sorrow'' games the Dark Lord is stated to be the opposite of God as a being of Evil to God's good, now while God hasn't been seen doing divine smiting on Dracula and his forces, someone else has... ''The player''. While the player characters have been changing with the generations, the player has been a constant, like Dracula himself; a timeless force of good that resurfaces to fight Dracula's evil every time. This explains, for example, why you play Soma while he's a hero, but can no longer play as him if he becomes the Dark Lord, or why your ''only'' interventions in the ''Castlevania'' universe are to fight supernatural threats.
22* Given how NintendoHard some of the games can be, this adds some credence to the idea of Dracula and Chaos being TheAntiGod (a role that implies being God's opposite ''and equal'').
23
24[[WMG:The Morrises inherited the Vampire Killer Whip so the Belmonts can cleanse themselves of the taint left by Dracula after Richter's {{Brainwash|ed}}ing in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]''.]]
25While it can be argued that Soleiyu was the first Belmont to be corrupted by Dracula in the series (or, before then, Simon with his curse), Soleiyu had ''just'' come of age to inherit the whip, and had not been given it when he was turned (and Simon didn't turn evil through the curse, it just tried to kill him); Richter was the first Belmont to be a full-fledged Vampire Hunter, whip and all, to fall to the Dark Lord's thrall. Also, [[spoiler:the Whip's Memory you fight in ''Portrait of Ruin'' -- which was the memory of the last master the whip had -- is Richter, not any of the other Belmonts]], meaning that the Morrises gained control of the whip sometime after ''Symphony'', soon enough for Richter ''not'' to be able to give it to his heir in between. The only explanation for why the Belmonts would give the whip to the Morrises for safe-keeping for so long, is that the events of ''Symphony'' corrupted the line to the point where they ''couldn't'' wield it properly, and needed to cleanse themselves of the corruption before they could be "accepted" by the whip again.
26* Or Richter could've been the end of the Belmont bloodline. He doesn't strike me as the "having kids" type. And he looked rather dashing in that unbuttoned high-collared shirt with his loose, blowing brown hair.
27** Where did Julius come from, then? Plus, in ''Portrait of Ruin'', it outright says that the Belmonts are prophesied not to use the whip until the Final Battle in 1999 -- a statement implying a continued existence.
28*** There are alternative theories on the Julius part.
29** Also, Annette Renard would like to have a word with you.
30*** ANNETTE PWNZ J00. *cough* Seriously though -- even if Richter didn't have kids (unlikely, in that time period, for this to be the case) -- does anyone really truly honestly think the family doesn't have ''any other'' candidates besdies Richter's theoretical kids to pick up the whip, per generation? It's the 1790s, Richter probably has a bunch of siblings. The whip could be taken up by one of their kids. So, too, would Leon have had a ton o' siblings -- and he ''cannot'' be the firstborn son of his family, because if he were, there would be no way in hell he'd have been crusading! We only ''see'' one Belmont at a time, but given the family's, uh, fortitude... they're probably pretty prolific too. There's probably several kids per generation who can use the whip, but it's the guy (or girl, depending on if you're pro- or anti-IGA; this troper is ambivalent but has seen giant [[FlameWar flamewars]] oh god) who is the most skilled and has the most clout with the subweapons and so forth who goes to kick Dracula in teh harbl. tl;dr Families back then ''were big''. The only Belmont who's real likely to have been an only child by birth is Julius. The others may have had siblings die, or whatnot, but the Belmonts we see in games would ''not'' be only children. In the time period we're talking, Fridgery aside, that didn't really happen so much. People took the 'be fruitful' business very seriously back in the day!
31** Richter being the last Belmont is definitely Jossed by ''Order of Ecclesia''; [[spoiler:the villagers you save in the game are direct descendants of the Belmonts]]. However, [[spoiler:they ''have'' been kept hidden for at least 50 years (Richter's last appearance was in 1797, and ''Order of Ecclesia'' takes place somewhere in the mid-1800s)]], so it's likely this WMG is viable.
32*** This troper always assumed it was a "not until the destined battle, slow down there Rick-box" kind of thing. Like, the Belmonts ''can't'' use it as dictated by destiny until blah blah blah fishcakes.
33*** This (JET-programmer of a) troper hopes that ''fucking godawful tedious shitwagon'' sound drama monstrosity is never ever made anything like canon, because it's like they found some Japanese teenybopper's badfic and made it into a script. Richter's an emotard, Maria's a damsel in distress, there's some bunch of Gary Stus running around, and it's generally utter shit. This troper loves her some IGA, don't get her wrong, but between that and ''Judgment'' (it's only sold like 4000 copies over here lolsob), she wants to beat him with his hat. At least the Pachi-Slot game is pretty. :(
34** Hehehe. You said "taint".
35
36[[WMG: The "Castle B" in ''Harmony of Dissonance'' is in Hell.]]
37For one, just look at the backgrounds of the first area of Castle B that you see: a Red, Volcanic landscape, and it's established to be a metaphysical place, fabricated through Maxim's mind, going through his own personal hell for the duration of the game.
38
39[[WMG:The events of the proposed game ''Castlevania: Resurrection'' caused a temporal paradox in the timeline, and the series retcons are an effort to resolve it.]]
40While the game was never released, information about the storyline is still accessible to us. Apparently there was a battle against a countess and Dracula in the year 1666 that was stopped by two Belmonts: Sonia (a 15th century Belmont introduced in Castlevania Legends) and Victor (a 19th century Belmont who attempted to flee the family duty, and who had a passing resemblance to Tim Curry). Unfortunately, such events do not stand up well in the space-time continuum, and a paradox was inevitable. The only way to save the timeline from imploding upon itself was to ensure that it could never happen. Specifically, by removing both characters from history. Thus, the events of Castlevania Legends ''no longer happened'', and the question of how the Belmont line got its start was resolved with the introduction of a man by the name of Leon. Meanwhile, removing Victor from the 19th century led to the complete absence of the Belmont clan from that moment forward, so other families were forced to fight Dracula in their place. (How Julius managed to reemerge in 1999 is not explained.) It can also be noted that these actions also removed every moment in the series in which Death stood on two legs, but this may just be coincidental.
41
42[[WMG:There was no "Castle War" during Dracula's final defeat in 1999.]]
43There was a battle, but in no way was the world's governments or military involved in it. The official storyline for ''Aria of Sorrow'' doesn't specify who Julius and his gang brought with them against Dracula, but it seems unlikely that any of the world's governments or military would believe in the threat of Dracula or his minions enough to help. The church may have formed some sort of army against the Dark Lord, but that's about it. Plus, there were plenty of unrelated armed conflicts going on around the area for Dracula to forge his own army out of, so the undead soldiers you fight in the game aren't necessarily military personnel specifically sent to fight Dracula. There's also the behavior of Hammer when you meet him in the castle; he seems genuinely surprised at all of the weird goings-on around him, like he wasn't briefed at all about Dracula or his castle; if the military ''was'' involved with Dracula's 1999 defeat, and they saw his castle reappear, you'd think that they'd give their soldiers a short disclosure on what to expect before sending them out to investigate.
44* It's possible the army sent in a small detachment (judging by the grenade-wielding Soldier Zombies, though those could have come from an earlier war) and is keeping things secret from Hammer, knowing that he could handle himself (since there's evidence he was supposed to be a playable character at one point).
45** The descriptions on the Zombie soldiers and officers make it pretty clear that they died in the last battle. It's never explained exactly what happened before the final battle, so it's possible that Dracula was able to gain enough power to be an open threat — in which case the world's governments would have sent in the troops simply because of the threat, even if they didn't believe it was a centuries-old personification of Darkness in the form of a Vampire. The reason they sent Hammer in alone could have been ''because'' they didn't believe the reports of the survivors (indeed, there might not have been any), and sent Hammer in for an initial investigation.
46*** I don't buy it; whenever Soma is told an account of what happened in 1999, the only things that are mentioned definitively is that Julius, Alucard, and a Belandes (probably Yoko's mother) took down Dracula and the Hakuba Shrine cast a spell that sealed him and his castle up in the eclipse; there's no mention ''at all'' of any "Castle War" or soldiers helping them, just them three and the Shrine. In fact, the ''only'' evidence that there was, in fact, a Castle War going on is in the descriptions of ''two measly zombie enemies'', and that's hardly conclusive. I maintain that, [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} like the cake]], the Castle War is a lie, and the final destruction of Dracula really was caused by three Vampire Hunters and a Japanese shrine. A quick read-through of the actual dialog within the game corroborates this.
47*** The zombie soldiers are a ContinuityNod to ''Symphony of the Night'', which had Eastern Church soldier zombies from a similar, medieval attack on Castlevania. That, combined with ''Castlevania III'' talking about Dracula's attempted conquest of Europe, shows that he's not all that concerned with keeping up TheMasquerade. Sure, the final destruction was really ''caused'' by the heroes, but that doesn't mean the government didn't also stage a military operation against this demonic castle that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. There's no doubting that there were modern soldiers who died in Castlevania: it's likely that [[MilitariesAreUseless they just didn't do any good]], and after the massacre the world still had to rely on Julius to do the job right.
48** What if the zombies were actually just soldiers who were already dead in 1999 (or killed then) and resurrected to battle Julius and his gang? The "Demon Castle War" the description refers to is just the battle between Julius, his allies, and the monsters of the castle.
49** We know Julius, Alucard, and a Belandes were present at the shrine during the eclipse in 1999, that doesn't mean they couldn't have brought backup. Though I'm thinking they decided against bringing soldiers and called the Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}.
50
51[[WMG:Dracula doesn't come back every hundred years, he comes back when evil is waxing]]
52Early games have said that Dracula comes back every one hundred years. Of course, with sequals up the wazoo, and an attempt to put everything into a semi-coherent timeline, this theory, taken at face value, doesn't fly. However, if one assumes that the forces of darkness ebb and flow like tides, and that there is a cyclical pattern that repeats roughly every hundred years, then it starts to make sense. Dracula could, in theory, be resurrected at any time, but it's far easier to do so when Evil is at a high point. As well, every major appearance by Dracula is followed by a sequel a few years later. Evil may be waning, but it's still high enough to allow an easy resurrection.
53* This also explains ''Bloodlines'' and ''Portrait of Ruin''. Before those times, Humanity never had the capacity for such bloodshed and death in such a short time. So many deaths at once caused an unexpected 'jump' in Evil, letting Dracula come back early.
54** Really, after World War 1 and World War 2, the normally cyclic flow of evil was thrown off-kilter, hence his return in 1999.
55
56[[WMG: Julius is Richter under a new name, or Richter's son after temporal displacement]]
57* According to the new leaks given from ''Order of Ecclesia'', Richter has once again disappeared. I doubt IGA would have him BrainwashedAndCrazy again. And that thanks to the current canon arrangement, Richter is the last one to hold the name Belmont until Julius comes along a century later. So it's possible he disappeared out of his time and into the 20th century.
58** Another possible evidence is that they do have nearly the exact same shade of auburn hair (the other Belmonts tend to be blond or dark-haired, and Simon has a very different shade of red).
59
60[[WMG: Dracula is [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory Jesus]]]]
61He is resurrecting himself over and over again until he can be purged of his centuries of evil by being reborn as the pure-hearted Soma Cruz/Cross. This eventuality means the end is nigh.
62* It really doesn't help that Soma can walk on water in both games.
63* Neither does [[spoiler:Dmitrii crucifying himself (disguised as Mina) in an attempt to goad Soma into a towering rage]].
64** That was actually [[spoiler:just a dopplegänger that Celia intended to use to make Soma into the evil lord. Dmitri just possessed it to regain his body]].
65
66[[WMG: Saint Germain is the Meddling Monk from ''Doctor Who'']]
67Why not?
68
69He's not as malicious as The Master, and he's certainly no Doctor, so it's probably the Time Lord at work, trying to stop Hector's quest [[ItAmusedMe out of amusement]]. Not to mention the anachronistic, but gentleman's outfit does suit his character.
70
71[[WMG: Speaking of Time Lords, Near from ''Manga/DeathNote'' is Aeon.]]
72Oh, he ''was'' quietly amusing himself as different detectives (including L) throughout the ages, but his experience with {{Shinigami}} meant he was hired to clean up the "Galamoth Incident." The Time Storm that got him involved in meant he wasn't present during the Time Lord's erasure.
73** I was just about to propose that ''Soma'' is Near, because of the white hair and coat.
74
75[[WMG: Soma isn't really Dracula]]
76He's Tom ('Soma') Cruise ('Cruz') in GratuitousEnglish!!
77
78[[WMG: Dracula keeps losing to the Belmonts on purpose]]
79With the power of the Crimson Stone and Death as his personal servant, each demise-and-resurrection allows Dracula's soul to return to the Crimson Stone over and over, multiplying his accumulated power exponentially. This is the reason he becomes more powerful from game to game. It's all part of ThePlan to reach the pinnacle of his power, and either he finally acted on this seriously in 1999 and was narrowly and finally defeated, or even ''that'' was part of his EvilPlan and he's using Soma and the others post-1999 as {{Unwitting Pawn}}s to engineer his ultimate victory!
80
81[[WMG: ''Kid Dracula'' is a cutesey, overstylized retelling of Alucard's early days, when he still supported and worked with his father.]]
82Kid Dracula is made by Konami, and you are assisted by Death throughout the game. Though clearly meant as a parody in the style of ''Parodius,'' the general plot is still what actually happened. And the final boss being Galamoth leads to the next WMG...
83
84[[WMG: Galamoth wants to usurp Dracula and become the Dark Lord.]]
85Galamoth's bestiary entry in ''Symphony of the Night'' says that he has ambitions to rule the netherworld. The Frozen Halves (Halfs?) are also said to be loyal to Galamoth. Which is kind of odd. Why mention the loyalty of one standard mook, unless there's a possibility they aren't loyal to Dracula himself?
86
87This, by itself, isn't much, especially since lord of the Netherworld could mean many things. But as the above entry states, if ''Kid Dracula'' is taken as canon, at least the bare bones, that means that Galamoth has warred against Dracula and his son before, possibly able to usurp his rule and win over most of his minions, aside from Death.
88
89And, of course, in ''SOTN'', Galamoth is one of the toughest (relatively speaking) bosses in the entire game. So, Galamoth is a powerful Demon who wants to take over Dracula's power. Ever since Alucard took him down in his younger days, Galamoth has been kept under control by Drac, but he still plots and keeps his loyal Frozen Halves at the ready, looking for an opportunity to strike and become the next Dark Lord.
90* Aeon's recently announced storyline in ''Castlevania: Judgment'' involves Galamoth doing just this. That is, if a franchise crossover fighting game can be considered canon...
91
92And if we're going to discuss that subject...
93
94[[WMG: Galamoth is an alien.]]
95"Magical being" refers to his ability to use magic, not his origin. For that, you need to go back to ''Kid Dracula''.
96
97In both versions, you fight Galamoth for the first time after ascending a long vertical tube of mechanical platforms to a space-like vista. In the Game Boy version, his sword is replaced by a light saber, and his body turns out to be a robot piloted by one of the "alien people" from a previous stage. The Famicom version goes on to a flying ship complete with WaveMotionGun, and both versions go on to have boss fights against large robots, one of which is several screens tall. The final form of Galamoth has a head that vaguely resembles the titular villain of ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', and the Game Boy version has a series of similar creatures (even referred to as aliens in the manual) on the way to the final confrontation. In the Game Boy version, Galamoth even calls himself "the ruler of space".
98
99This is a bit too consistent to be a mere throwaway gag.
100
101Combine the above three [=WMGs=], and you are left with an alien invasion that took place before the end of the 15th century and was thwarted by Alucard. The perpetrator was forced into Dracula's service, but continues to scheme to overthrow his master. It's not very realistic, but hey, [[RuleOfCool who wouldn't want to have]] [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever a giant]] {{t|heStarscream}}reacherous [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot alien magician demon lizard]] stomping around?
102
103[[WMG: More specifically, Galamoth is a [[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Bacterian]], who had travelled through time and dimensions.]]
104Bacterians are inherently dark, "demonic" creatures. Now, possibly Galamoth, after several temporal displacements seeking to gain power, ended up in [[VideoGame/{{Otomedius}} Kokoro Belmont's]] universe. After being defeated by her, he went back in time to make the Belmont clan not exist by helping Dracula. However, he noticed he could be much more powerful if he used his nature as a creature "born from the greed of mankind" and become the Dark Lord, so Kid Dracula happened.
105
106[[WMG: Soma is not the only time Dracula has resumed a human personality]]
107Since Dracula is inexplicably stated to be Vlad Tepes in ''Symphony of the Night'' and the games starring the Morris family, yet in ''Lament'', he's Matthias Convqist, what does this mean?
108
109Perhaps it means after a certain time, a Belmont had kicked his ass for good, but the Powers That Be decided to let Dracula be reborn as a human -- namely, Vlad Tepes. However, circumstances worked against him for becoming a decent human being -- between being a political hostage as a child, and the death of his wife... ''again'', he manages to find Death and reforge their agreement. Thus, becoming a vampire again.
110
111Later on, in a failed [[ThePlan plan]], he is reborn as the child prodigy Malus, to gain more power and to trick the Belmonts to trust him, possibly spurning yet another chance at redemption.
112
113Soma is the fourth time he lived as a human, and the third time he's been reincarnated. So far, he has yet to meet a blonde beauty with some variation of the name Lisa, so he may actually stay Good.
114** Or how about this -- ''Legends'' did happen, but in 1431, not 1450. It hasn't been that long since Lisa died and Matthias declared war on the world. Alucard has just defected. And, as part of his campaign, not-Dracula-yet has recently finished the work meant to make him a true Prince of Darkness who will, one way or another, keep resurrecting. However, it doesn't ''work right''. Sonia Belmont kills him, and he reincarnates "normally" as Vlad Dracula, born in that year. As twisted as he gets, it still takes a blood sacrifice to really kick off the spell -- not just any sacrifice, but his own. Thus, in 1476, when Vlad is killed, he finally resurrects "properly" and picks up his battle with humanity, leading directly into the plot of ''Castlevania III''.
115** I thouight the explanation was that Matthias started calling himself Vlad Tepes some time after the real one's death to freak everyone out. An, "Oh, ''shit'', he's back!" type thing.
116*** That's what the translations at armster.org indicate. "Dracula" is a pseudonym. Because, let's face it, Cronqvist isn't a very scary surname.
117** In response to the bit about Soma staying good -- it's pretty clear that it wouldn't take much to turn him evil. The moment he thinks Mina has been killed, the sheer volume of his hatred calls forth the dark power and makes him the new Dark Lord, and let's face it, it wouldn't be hard for someone to ''actually'' kill Mina if they were powerful enough to be ''Castlevania'' villains to begin with.
118*** Every time there has been an assassination attempt against Mina, Genya has been there to intervene. Not even the most powerful ''Castlevania'' villains have any history of defeating him.
119*** Also, recall that in the good ending of ''Dawn of Sorrow'', Soma mentions, in so many words, that his confrontations with the Dark Lord candidates had all but convinced him that the return of the Dark Lord was inevitable. It's likely that when he confronted Celia, Mina was in fact the only reason he thought he had left to stay human.
120*** If Mina getting hurt is the catalyst for Dracula's return, I'd hate to see what happens if [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking someone cuts him off in traffic, takes the last Fudgsicle, or he's been in a lineup for two hours.]]
121
122[[WMG: Lisa/Elisabetha is a construct that's part of [[TheGrimReaper Death's]] GambitRoulette to create a never-ending battle between good and evil]]
123
124Since ''Symphony of the Night'', it has been stated Dracula's main motive is [[LoveMakesYouEvil the death of his beautiful wife]], the first from a plague, causing Matthias to RageAgainstTheHeavens and make [[DealWithTheDevil a deal with Death to become Dracula]], the second by [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the hands of the very humans his wife tried to heal]], turning Alucard temporarily against humans, and cementing Dracula's [[KillAllHumans genocidal tendencies]].
125
126Notice the women looked exactly alike; they even have very similar names, since Lisa is a shortened form of Elizabeth. This can't be just concidence, and who would benefit from tearing out the Vampire's non-beating heart and stomping on it repeatedly?
127
128Maybe it's his boney bosom buddy Death. Death is one of the few constants in every game, and always at hand. Notice he has nothing to say to Dracula's reincarnation Soma, though you would expect him to.
129
130Why? Perhaps he orchestrated the repeated doom romance to manipulate Dracula to do evil, downgrading Drac to UnwittingPawn and elevating Death to TheManBehindTheMan.
131** In that case, perhaps he spends his ''Sorrow'' time patiently waiting for someone to kill his latest construct, Mina.
132** The Elisabetha/Lisa thing is probably IGA fanboying his face off at Coppola's ''Dracula'' film. Ditto Mina. But this theory is quite badass.
133
134[[WMG: Mina Hakuba is the {{Reincarnation}} of Elisabetha/Lisa]]
135Mina Harker, Mina Hakuba, whatever. Note that if anything [[MoralityChain hints at killing her, Soma turns evil]] without even bothering to stick by and check if she's actually dead.
136* Well, all three of them are interlinked in a way. Elisabetha died of disease -- Lisa is a doctor. Then Lisa was executed as a witch -- Mina is a Shinto shrine maiden. If you look at this way, the way they died influences the type of person they become in their next incarnation.
137
138[[WMG:Death is actually the Philosopher's Stone]]
139Maybe.
140
141Consider what we know about the Philosopher's Stone. It grants eternal life to the person who possesses it. Failed attempts to create it have resulted in the Ebony Stone and Crimson Stone. It's surprisingly well-known, defined, and named for something that doesn't exist. Almost as if it's been created before, right?
142
143Now, look at Death. He serves Dracula faithfully because he has the Crimson Stone. He was also working with Walter Bernhard up until his betrayal, which just happened to occur moments after Leon Belmont destroyed Walter's Ebony Stone. Clearly, he is connected in some way to both stones.
144
145...but... he hasn't been much of TheGrimReaper at all. His appearances have largely consisted of attacking Dracula's enemies (with no visible success) or finding a way to revive his master. With one exception, every time we have seen him kill a character, it led directly to his causing the victim's soul to be reincarnated as Dracula. And that exception is Rosa from ''Castlevania 64''... and ''she'' winds up reincarnated as a human! It's almost like he's ''not ending lives at all''! If anything, he's just reorganizing life!
146
147Not to mention he may be responsible for all the ZombieApocalypse and DemonicInvaders. Both are a result of giving life to things that previously did not possess it.
148
149Funny, that. He has more control over life than he does over death. And his owner possesses eternal life beyond that afforded to most vampires in the series.
150
151Wasn't there a certain artifact heavily associated with granting life? And isn't it plausible that such an artifact could bestow life upon itself? And, if it decided to hide its true nature, would it not think to pose as the exact opposite of its true purpose?
152
153[[WMG: Death is just a reaper from the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' universe that Dracula binds to him through black magic every time he comes back to life]]
154
155It would explain why Death can be killed in each game, since season 3 shows that Reapers can be killed (demons tried to kill 2 of them to break one of the 66 seals in season 3)
156* That was actually season 4 :D, and I approve of this, but maybe Death does like being binded to Dracula.
157
158[[WMG: The Poltergeist King is Rinaldo Gandolfi]]
159
160Thanks to ''Lament'', we apparently have two origins for the Vampire Killer. One is that the Belmonts had the whip blessed by a Poltergeist King, the other in Lament is that it was an Alchemy-created Whip given more power by Sara's self-sacrifice.
161
162What if over time, the family records got destroyed so the family had to come up with a plausible source, or perhaps they hid the truth using the Poltergeist King as a front to prevent the creation of a second Vampire Killer for some reason.
163
164Or maybe someone in the family thought [[RuleOfCool it just sounded cooler than "Some old Alchemist made this whip"]]
165** Variation: It ''was'' an Alchemy-created Whip, but Rinaldo returned as the Poltergeist King after he died and powered up the whip even further with his blessing.
166
167[[WMG: Saint Germain is Belthasar from Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross]]
168The Chrono continuity is ''just'' loopy enough for that to be possible.
169
170[[WMG: Saint Germain is the same Saint Germain as Yarbro's]]
171Or he's an Expy. Snappy dresser, genteel, affable, refined? And given Zead's clear dislike for him, he's not so much mortal, methinks. it's likely he's a vampire as well.
172
173[[WMG: The Confessing Lady and the Wine-giving Priest Ghosts in Symphony of the Night were killed by the Murderous Priest and Psychotic Lady Ghosts Respectively]]
174Notice for each side of the confession both, there's a friendly, and evil ghost sitting on the other side.
175
176[[WMG: ''Kid Dracula'' takes place in the far future, and the title character is neither Dracula nor Alucard.]]
177The initial evidence is sparse, but it fits together. The manual for Kid Dracula says that he is 10,009 years old. In ''Judgment'', the Time Reaper serves Galamoth, and comes from "10,000 years hence". This is not a coincidence.
178
179Dracula knew that 1999 would be the final battle, but did not know if he was going to win or lose. As a safety precaution, he found a woman and sired a second son, one he hoped would be more loyal than Alucard. When he was killed, the mother hid the baby, who slept for a very long time.
180
181It is said that Kid Dracula woke from a long sleep at the beginning of the first game. Very long. More than ten thousand years, and he remained prepubescent. Galamoth had become the Dark Lord by this time, and Death served him as the Time Reaper. But Dracula's son knew his lineage, and fought the dark lord to reclaim his throne. He succeeded.
182
183Galamoth knew that this child was Dracula's son. Thus, his backup plan was to send the Time Reaper back in time to kill Dracula and prevent him from ever being born. This caused the events of ''Castlevania Judgment''.
184
185When the Time Reaper was defeated, he became loyal to the new dark lord, "Kid Dracula". When Galamoth made another attempt at the throne, he helped his new liege defeat him. This explains why he appears in the Game Boy game, but not the original. And, of course, this explains all the [=UFOs=], robots, wave beam guns, Statues of Liberty, and other things that would not have been expected in the youth of either Dracula or Alucard.
186
187[[WMG: Dracula and Death are [[HoYay lovers]], and for centuries he has been a proponent of social change.]]
188Dracula and Death seem to have a very close relationship, as the reaper is always around when the Dark Lord and his castle reappear. With such a relationship being condemned as an abomination by the Church, this is the perfect reason for him to renounce God. The entire 'dead girlfriend' explanation is a cover-up by the Church, and the Belmonts are [[HeteronormativeCrusader rampant homophobes]] intolerant of Dracula's very gay existence.
189
190Which also means something must have happened in 1999, as when Dracula-reincarnation Soma enters Castlevania, Death attacks him with the swift remorselessness reserved for Belmonts, and does it again in ''Dawn of Sorrow'", in a castle that isn't even the real thing. This must mean Dracula and Death had a nasty split in 1999, and had his resurrection privileges revoked.
191** Death is a dude? First I'd heard of it.
192*** Death is a hermaphrodite. There's a reason why the Japanese keep referring to death as "shi".
193*** ''Really'' lame joke aside, Death has a distinctively male voice. He is constantly referred to as male in ''Harmony'' and ''Portrait''. Alucard calls him "old man" in ''Judgment''. And then there's Zead. While many game manuals take care to leave out gender-specific pronouns when referring to Death, it's not hard to tell to which gender he most closely identifies.
194
195[[WMG: Death is Dracula's familiar]]
196
197As an alternative explanation to the closeness above, Death is not the "real" Death, just a familiar spirit who resembles a grim reaper who is bound with Dracula.
198
199[[WMG: Death lost his mind after Dracula is killed in 1999]]
200
201Notice Death, one of the more talkative bosses in the series, never speaks or mentions anything to Soma. I think he has become little more then another lost spirit under the sway of Chaos's power by this point.
202
203* Alternately, Death lost his mind as a consequence of feeding his soul to Dracula in ''Portrait of Ruin''.
204
205[[WMG: The story of ''Judgement'' is merely a LotusEaterMachine set up by Galamoth and the Time Reaper to trap Aeon and control time.]]
206
207Which is why none of the characters look like themselves. They are actually illusions of themselves created out of Aeon's mind by the Time Reaper to give Aeon hope in finding the "Chosen one" who can destroy the time rift and save time. Thus the game takes place over a millennia or so while Aeon keeps sending the false characters into the rift to fight the Reaper, possibly while Galamoth is already ruling the world in the ''VideoGame/KidDracula'' era. Every time a character goes to fight the Reaper, Aeon is sent back to the beginning of the scenario and has to play it out again.
208
209When Kid Dracula defeats Galamoth, Aeon is freed and time and history reasserts itself, stranding Galamoth in the ''[=SotN=]'' era where he is put down once and for all by Alucard.
210
211[[WMG:Death is actually [[Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic Death of Being Whipped to Death by a Belmont]].]]
212[[http://irregularwebcomic.net/653.html Who do you think collects all those zombies and demons?]] However, he has [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/657.html Been Whipped To Death By A Belmont]] so many times that I wonder how he hasn't yet been demoted to Death of Sneering at Nazi Science or something.
213* Although he does indeed collect lots of souls, and perhaps the problems he causes to his boss by being killed are the only thing that prevents him from being promoted.
214
215[[WMG:The Laura in ''Order of Ecclesia'' is the same vampiric Laura that is [[LesbianVampire Carmilla's]] Servant/Lover.]]
216* Does that mean Carmilla seduced a girl of Belmont blood? Clever woman.
217** Oh god TIME PARADOX! This theory is cool, but the timeline kind of knees it in the groin in this respect, a little. Plus, Carmilla's design (the mask, etc.) is a direct reference to the Carmilla of Sheridan Le Fanu's story; Laura is the narrator of that one, and Carmilla has the hots for her. Laura is not sure if want. 'Vania Laura seems to have decided 'do want', but is still fond of pretty mens. She sure smooches Richter with vigor and candor.
218*** TimeTravel. It's already been pointed out that the stuff in ''Ecclesia'' doesn't exactly make sense timeline-wise anyways. (And a great deal of other games for that matter.)
219
220[[WMG:Saint German, Aeon, or perhaps some other Time Watcher, is responsible for the Stopwatch.]]
221''Lament of Innocence'' explained that most of the Belmont Legacy Weapons, aside from the Vampire Killer, were other weapons that Leon picked up from fallen adventurers during his travels. The only exception is the Stopwatch. Where did such a powerful tool come from? Who else but those with power over time, and who are capable of freezing time by themselves. While they don't directly interfere, it's still within character to leave the Belmonts a tool to aid them in their quest.
222
223[[WMG:Sonia Belmont was a narcissist.]]
224Ok, not a WMG so much as my attempt to re-canonize ''Legends'' by explaining away all the discrepancies as being due to semantics and an UnreliableNarrator. The actual timeline of the Belmont/Dracula feud goes as such:
225* In the eleventh century, the events of ''Lament of Innocence'' occur. Leon Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist are [=BFFs=], but then Mathias's wifey croaks and he gets depressed. Leon goes to save HIS wifey from the vampire Walter Bernhard, creating the Vampire Killer whip in the process. After icing Walter, however, Mathias reveals his [[ThePlan plan]]. After the death of his wife, he cursed God and became a vampire, then manipulated Leon to get the Ebony Stone, making him an even more powerful vampire. Mathias and Leon messily part ways, Mathias disappearing over the horizon and Leon vowing that he and his descendants will hunt vampires forever.
226* Lisa Farenheight, Alucard's mum and Mathias's second wife, is convicted of witchery and burnt. Having lost another SO, Mathias takes things up a notch, declaring war on humanity and thus becoming the true Dracula, Lord of Darkness.
227* Sonia Belmont's grandpappy dies whilst fighting Dracula's minions, and the young Miss Belmont takes up her inherited Vampire Killer whip and goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the Lord of Darkness. She succeeds, technically becoming the first Belmont to fight and defeat Dracula, and later develops several of the vampire hunting tactics that will be passed down the subsequent generations (read: the subweapons).
228* Sonia Belmont gives birth to Trevor Belmont, whose father was a normal human totally unrelated to anything else whom Sonia met decades after the events of Legends.
229* Sonia decides to tell the story of her fight against Dracula but, being a very vain person, she ends up telling a stilted narrative starring a very MarySue version of herself. She de-emphasized the tale of her ancestor Leon Belmont, making it sound like she was the first Belmont to encounter Dracula (which was technically true). She also made up a very {{Narm}}-y romantic subplot between her and Alucard which read like bad fanfiction (in reality, they knew each other, but while Sonia was crazy for Alucard, he didn't want anything to do with her), going so far as to suggest that Alucard was actually Trevor's real father. ''Castlevania: Legends'' is this story, rather than what actually happened.
230** Sounds pretty good, and it is, after all, what a legend used to be. (If you think Sonia is something, just go back to your lit classes and pick up some greek classics! Beowulf (the character) is good for that as well.)
231* If I recall, the problem with Sonia's tale is that her story takes place before Lisa dies. Then again, I don't know if they ever gave a date, directly, or indirectly, for Lisa's death. (I think it may have been extrapolated from Alucard's age.) Either way, Dracula didn't declare war on humanity until Lisa died. And thus, Sonia's story didn't fit. Perhaps the story is even worse. Sonia claims to have fought Dracula and met Alucard, when the truth is she was simply hunting a lesser vampire lord, as I believe the Belmonts do when Dracula isn't around.
232** The unofficial timeline in the Castlevania wiki states that Legends takes place in 1450 and Lisa didn't die until 1470, but they estimated that assuming Lisa had a normal human lifespan she almost certainly must have died before 1450. Your idea explains it pretty well too, though. Perhaps the truth has simply been lost to the misty mists of time...
233*** If Alucard is about 400 in 1797, he'd have been born in the late 1390s or early 1400s. Just sayin', not confirmin' or denyin'.
234*** Sypha's ending in ''Judgment'' mentions a woman being executed as a witch in the Wallachia region a few months before Dracula's rise, justifying her decision to disguise herself. TheLawOfConservationOfDetail would suggest that this refers to Lisa herself. In that case, it counts as ingame support that the early events of ''Dracula's Curse'' occurred months after her death. (Of course, this is post-retcon justification, and comes from a game that deliberately dances on the line between canon and noncanon.)
235
236[[WMG: Hector and Isaac are Dracula's effort at making people equivalent to the Belmonts on his side.]]
237There's no way in hell they're mortal. In Kojima's 'Prelude to Vengeance' manga, Hector gets lanced through the lungs by Drac's talons and thrown off the keep, and lives. Isaac gets slashed across the gut and upper thighs, and lives. (In the other manga, he gets [[DisneyVillainDeath cliffed. From a considerable height.]] [[SubvertedTrope And lives.]]) Dracula has an intense distaste for Mortals, and judging from his attempt to jab Trevor in the eyeball, he's tired of these Belmonts up in his grill already. Therefore, what better way to get them OUT of your grill than setting up someone who's as capable and tough and etc. as they are, only, you know, loyal to Drac? One gets the feeling that an awful lot of work went into making those guys what they are. There's only two of them, after all!
238* They use the hearts to feed their beasties too. Nice way to cut off someone's mojo supply. Trevor "WHO TOOK OUT ALL THE BLASTED CANDLES, YOU SUCK" or something.
239* Apropos of very little, this troper keeps ignoring the retcon in re: that eyeball jab -- Trevor seriously has the same eye colour as Lisa, and if Dracula noticed that in battle, he'd know jolly well where the hell Alucard was sneaking off to at night, and go ballistic. Seriously, why his eye? That was CALCULATED.
240
241[[WMG: Julius isn't a Belmont.]]
242He was the one who took up the Vampire Killer in 1999, but he was from a branch family and wasn't a true descendant of the bloodline at all. Alucard had been unable to find a pureblooded Belmont descendant, but he had seen the other branch family members successfully defeat Dracula before, and his plan revolved around unrelated magical means, so he gave Julius the go-ahead. And it worked.
243
244Unfortunately, between his destroying Dracula and succumbing partially to his use of the whip, he was left without any memory of his past. Decades later, through contact with Soma, he did not truly recover his memory, but he was able to recall the events of 1999. Thus, he jumped to the conclusion that since he was the bearer of the Vampire Killer, he must have been a Belmont. The others didn't have the heart to correct him, especially since he was in no physical condition to produce offspring and continue the bloodline. Still, with the whip in hand, he was useful to them.
245
246His defeat at the hands of Dario was not only the result of his age, but also increased weakness from continued use of the whip.
247
248[[WMG: Hammer is an absolute badass, he's just [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass somewhat modest and silly when he's not in combat]].]]
249In ''Aria'', you find Hammer in the library. Right after a BOSS. And he doesn't act at all like he needed to be rescued or anything. And he sells various weapons he happens to find lying around the castle, implying that he's capable of handling the monsters. If he was an [[ShopliftAndDie Easily Angered Shopkeeper]], I'd bet he'd pull an RPG on Soma (or the Positron Rifle) if he tried any funny stuff.
250** He was meant to be playable in Dawn of Sorrow's Julius mode going by some dummied dialogue (the text dump on gamefaqs has it). He may or may not have been the Grant analogue, made redundant by Alucard's bat transformation and Julius's triple jump.
251*** Or perhaps Julius was given the triple jump because Hammer had to be discarded?
252** As a result, this means that like Yoko is to Syphia and Julius is to Trevor, Hammer is a decendant of Grant Danasty.
253
254[[WMG: Vlad Tepes, son of the Dragon, never returned from his Turkish imprisonment]]
255Rather, he was killed there by Matthias Cronqvist, who then replaced him and lived out his life as The Impaler (which is why he was so vicious a ruler -- he needed the blood to live, but didn't want anyone to know he was a vampire). Matthias had decided that he needed to settle down and rule his own country, and poor Vlad was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Matthias snuck in, killed him, took his form, and returned to Walachia under his name. He then met Lisa, fell in love, and the rest is history. He kept the nickname of his alias as his title because it's so much more threatening than "Matthias Cronqvist".
256
257[[WMG: Taking a cue from a vampire movie they haven't ripped off yet, the Belmonts couldn't hold the whip because they were tainted.]]
258The reason the Belmonts couldn't use the whip for a century is because a Belmont was turned while trying to [[Theatre/TanzDerVampire rescue the beautiful daughter of an innkeeper who, it turns out, didn't want to be rescued]]. The Vampire Killer would have obviously smelled something wrong, but a naive young adventurer blinded by puppy-love infatuation wouldn't see a succubus under his nose if you dressed her up in a chicken suit. I hear it takes a while to purge vampirism from the blood.
259* Wait, wasn't it the brainwashing from ''Symphony of the Night'' that left the taint? It ''is'' rather shortly after that, chronologically, that we start getting other heroes covering for the Belmonts....
260** Is it then? What an illogical way to taint an entire bloodline for two-hundred years. =(
261** To clarify, Soleiyu/Soleil/Slay-you was brainwashed and it had no adverse affect on the bloodline. If anything, it might be related to the curses Simon and/or Trevor inherited after beating Dracula.
262*** Based on the timing, it's gotta be something Richter did -- he was the incumbent at the turn of the 19th century, and only 50 years or so later, Shanoa is covering for the incumbent Belmont. Furthermore, in ''Portrait of Ruin'', the Memory of the whip's last owner is of Richter. Maybe something Richter ''did'' while brainwashed tainted him, and consequentially his testicles and any children produced, with dark thingy?
263*** Think about it this way. When Soleiyu was brainwashed, Christopher went to save him with the Vampire Killer in hand. Logically, Soleiyu didn't have the whip at the time of his corruption, and thus he wasn't in a position to be rejected by it. But Richter ''was'' holding the whip, so...
264*** MoreThanMindControl, perhaps? They never established that he was ''not'' too obsessed with killing vampires for his own good.
265*** Richter ''was'' the lord of Castlevania for an undetermined amount of time. Mind control or no, he probably had to absorb and wield some ''serious'' dark magic while there.
266*** Either that or he's just that badass that he doesn't NEED dark power to control the joint -- frankly if I were Slogra or Gaibon, I would not be questioning the authority of someone who very recently spanked my boss into the ground.
267*** A lot of the monsters need dark magic maintenance -- zombies, for instance, need regular necromancy or you run out; demonic beings need summoning to stay or even appear on this plane (Malachi/Cthulhu, for example, is so loosely tied he disappears into a portal; it can be presumed that other demonic beings are similar but better summoned). And the castle itself ''is'' dark magic -- hold the title of Lord, and you'd absorb dark magic even without doing anything.
268
269[[WMG: Soma Cruz is a descendant of the Harkers]]
270This came from a game idea for "Bram Stoker's Castlevania", a Castlevania-style retelling of the original novel. Anyway, the idea was that Soma is a descendant of Jonathan and Mina Harker, from the original Dracula novel. Due to what Drac did to Mina, the bloodline is, regardless of Dracula's death at the time, still "tainted", and unlike the other Dark Lord's candidates, Soma's blood is linked to Dracula's, making him the perfect candidate for his reincarnation. And heck, it could've [[GambitRoulette been planned all along as a backup plan in case things went badly for Drac in 1999]]. Though, it still didn't quite go to plan...
271
272Still, it would also help in making the "exchange student" thing from the translations easier to swallow, and otherwise, the period, chronologically, between the novel and the Sorrow games, it isn't unreasonable for the descendants of the Harkers to have moved to Japan in that time.
273
274[[WMG: Vlad Tepes stole Mathias' powers.]]
275Another theory as to why Vlad goes by Vlad, and is never thought of as Matthias. In short, Vlad isn't Mathias Cronqvist. Mathias had the powers of the Crimson Stone and Ebony stone, but never really did much of anything with them. Somewhere along the way, he met and made deals with Vlad Tepes, who betrayed him and found a way to steal/claim Matthias' powers for himself. And this time, he took a more active role as the Dark Lord. The love of Lisa held him down for a bit, but then her death sent him spiraling head-on into Dark Lord territory.
276
277[[WMG: The Vampire Killer Whip was warded over time to keep anybody from using it.]]
278As a safety precaution, knowing that even Dracula can get servants of goodness working for him (Amalaric Snipers), members of the Belmont Clan, somewhat paranoid, steadily increased the wards and protections on the Vampire Killer Whip. They, rather self-assured, didn't even consider the possibility that a Belmont may end up using the whip for evil deeds, as Richter did. Thus, the Belmonts ended up unable to use their own whip, and it took considerable scrambling to find a clan close enough to the Belmonts to be able to use it, but even then, the cost of using it would be high, all because of the wards slapped on over five-hundred years.
279* This explains nicely why, exactly, it took close to 200 years for another Belmont to be able to use it -- that's how long it took for the dark taint to be gone enough to not trigger the wards.
280
281[[WMG:Soma's sudden jarring shift into Dracula in [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow Dawn of Sorrow]] was due to Dmitrii's Soul]]
282Soma seems to be primarily a good person, but as soon as he sees the visage of Mina die, he starts to turn evil immediately. Incidentally, he doesn't just become wrathful, he dives into Dracula's personality instantly. The powers of Chaos and the darkness he absorbed were strong, but it seems that his dark emotions subsided after Dmitrii left his body. Dmitrii definitely has the capability for darkness, and his soul affected Soma enough to make him enthusiastically evil.
283
284[[WMG:The Dark Lord is not necessarily evil]]
285Dracula abused his powers because of his own grudges with humanity and God, and if [[spoiler:Soma]] would willingly become the Dark Lord, rather than being manipulated into it, he could [[DarkIsNotEvil use his powers without being evil]]. The evil [[spoiler:Soma]] is a direct result of outside influences pushing him to be evil -- [[spoiler:the first was Dracula's spirit, the second was Dmitrii's Soul or just trauma]]. (It also follows that Chaos was evil only because of Dracula and not the other way around.)
286* It helps that as far as we can tell, prior to ''Dracula's Curse'', Dracula was a highly powerful God-spiting vampire lord who had the grim reaper and the forces of hell at his beck and call... and a beautiful human love interest and a son, and absolutely no qualms against humanity aside from whatever he needed to do to stay fed. The existence of ''Kid Dracula'' does nothing to hurt that interpretation.
287** It should be noted, he was still rather dickish to Leon.
288* Dracula not being entirely eeeeevil also ties into some esoteric stories about the devil being what he is by choice -- he doesn't necessarily WANT humanity to fall, indeed it's quite the opposite -- but damn it the little bastards just keep going [[TooDumbToLive DUR OKAY]] to every suggestion he makes--!
289
290[[WMG:God is evil.]]
291[[GodIsEvil God is really evil]], and Dracula was actualy doing the right thing the whole time (be it misguidedly by also blaming humans). It would be amusing if the final boss in a third Sorrow game was God or another holy being, since all the others have dark-aligned final bosses. Also, what kind of good God can only be good if there is a Dark Lord to offset him?
292* Law of opposites. In order for good to exist, evil has to as well. So, by comparison, a mysterious, unpossessive God can be Good simply because His plan is beneficial in the long run; and a pandering, manipulative Satan can be Evil simply because his plan is to use others and then dispose of them once their usefulness is gone.
293** That still implies God somehow NEEDS evil to be good or to exist, which calls into question how good or god-like He can be if He requires evil to be that way.
294*** Let's say you asked a friend to loan you a dollar. If he did, then you would consider it a good thing. Specifically, because he had the option to not give it to you. If asking for it automatically made him give it to you, then you would consider it "business as usual" and wouldn't make any moral judgments.
295*** That merely implies neutrality not evil, plus having a choice to be evil and having a opposite evil being are two different things. A friend can be good without having a jerk evil friend to compare him to.
296** Only one cult leader made this claim. Thus far, there's been no proof to suggest God can only exist as long as Dracula does.
297* Alternatively, said God is actually Ahura Mazda of Zoroastrian faith. Unlike with God, Ahura Mazda has an equal and opposite number, [[GodOfEvil Angra]] [[TheAntiGod Mainyu.]] Maybe it's something like that; granted, [[FreudianExcuse Dracula]] is a far nicer version of Angra Mainyu than [[CardCarryingVillain in Zoroastrianism.]]
298** Also, in the true ending of ''Aria of Sorrow'', Arikado ''also'' claims that a Dark Lord is needed for God to be good. This is a year ''before'' Celia enters the picture.
299
300[[WMG: On the opposite end, [[GodIsGood God really is good]].]]
301Celia and Arikado are just too jaded to believe in a totally good being without there being some sort of catch.
302
303[[WMG:Lisa was executed because she was becoming a witch.]]
304Consider the best ending in ''Simon's Quest''. Simon defeats Dracula, and "his blood and sweat have penetrated the earth and will induce magic and happiness". Seeing how Dracula is the one who was buried, clearly they're referring to ''his'' blood and sweat. Now consider Lisa. Since she has a son, we can safely say that Dracula penetrated her at some point, and the transfer of sweat and/or blood is certainly a possibility. We also have evidence that her life with Dracula was one of happiness. This implies that she would have also ended up with Dracula-induced magic. The kind of magic that the townsfolk could not tolerate...
305* I, uhh... well, [[InsaneTrollLogic that is]]... [[FlatWhat What?]]
306* So what you're saying is, being boned by Drac makes you magic?
307** VampiresAreSexGods. *nods sagely*
308
309[[WMG:Dracula was really on God's side the whole time.]]
310For someone that apparently hates God, he has a rather large cathedral and occasionaly has angels running around in his castle. Or maybe...
311
312[[WMG:Dracula has no control over how Castlevania manifests]]
313Wall meat? Random useful items laying around randomly? A gothic cathedral? Angels? Alucard once said that Castlevania is a "Creature of Chaos" in reference to how the castle is never ther same. I assume he wasn't simply being poetic. Chaos is [[spoiler:the final boss in ''Aria of Sorrow'' and the true source of Dracula's power]]. Perhaps Chaos changes the castle on its own, and even leaves a way for the Belmonts/heroes to win despite Dracula's best intentions.
314
315[[WMG:The kidnapped women in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo]]''/''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles Dracula X Chronicles]]'' were supposed to be a means to resurrecting Lisa.]]
316Annette, Maria, Tera, and Iris represent the four main qualities Lisa is most known for: being the most important person in someone's life, having absolute faith in humanity and the triumph of good over evil, having an unshaking faith in God, and being a practitioner of medicine. Given Dracula's OMGBFF status with Death and his penchant for mucking around with Alchemy, it's not entirely far-fetched to speculate that he had one hardcore EquivalentExchange sacrifice in mind.
317
318[[WMG:Dracula cursed Simon to die in order that he might use Simon as his GrandTheftMe resurrection vessel]]
319This one's a blast from the past that originated shortly after ''Rondo of Blood'' became known to a few hardcore fans willing to import it. The opening cinema of ''Rondo'', featuring a {{human sacrifice}} as the catalyst to Dracula's resurrection, led people to speculate that the same thing was supposed to happen to Simon in ''Castlevania II'' -- either the townspeople were going to all jump him at the moment he succumbed, or Dracula would just elbow his soul aside and take the body for his own when the curse came to fruition. I've seen this one passed off as canonical (people assuming fanon to be canon since it was relative [=BNFs=] from the early days of yon internet fandom who talked about this theory a lot), but it's more than likely just speculative. ''Curse of Darkness's'' plotline lends it some plausibility, though.
320* The rather crap kids book Worlds Of Power: Simon's Quest used this idea in one form or another.
321** Huh, I (the troper who's responsible for listing this WMG) did not know that. Learn something new every day!
322
323[[WMG: Eric Lecarde is the descendant of Maria and Alucard]]
324Another old one, and not unique to NA fandom either. Japan beat us to it, but people have been speculating over here about Eric's connection to Alucard since it came to light that he wields the Alucard spear (which funnily doesn't appear in the games again until ''Symphony of the Night's'' Sega Saturn port) and that 'Alcarde spear' was [[BlindIdiotTranslation blind idiot antics]]. The spear is the first hint as to what's up with his ancestry, and it's not the only one. He's skilled with magic. He's a lot more agile than Jonathan. Also, he's absurdly bishounen, with long wavy blond hair and so on -- the way he looks is a very possible combo of Maria and Alucard's appearances. His surname, too (whether you call him Lecarde or the Japanese Ricardo), could be a portmanteau smush of 'Alucard' and 'Renard' (and it still works if you use Learned as Maria's surname).
325* Ooh shit. That might explain too why his spear ''impales him when he dies'' in the JP and NA games -- trying to prevent his latent vampirism from coming out to say yo what's up? Yeah, there's some distance between him and the source, but Dracula is a jerk that way... Either that or he's trying to keep Elizabeth Bartley from snacking on him.
326* ...This here? This makes Judgment's dumb-assed toy ship really frigging ''twisted.''
327* Also, the Japanese language has the whole L/R switching thing, and if one makes Renard into Lenard, and combines it with Alucard, one would get Lecard(e). So yeah.
328* I noticed something else. E. Lecarde. Elecard. Alucard?
329
330[[WMG: The Morris Clan are the descendants of Maria and Alucard]]
331One of the few constants of the ''Castlevania'' canon is that Dracula is left-handed. In addition, those who use Dracula's powers or are related to Dracula in some way are left-handed. Alucard, [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow Soma]], and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Shanoa]] are all left-handed, as is the possessed Richter Belmont. The only time this wasn't true was for the Game Boy games, and since Sonia's been retconned out, this leaves Christopher Belmont, who has been retconned into being right-handed as of Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth. However, both [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines John Morris]] and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin Jonathan Morris]] are left-handed, the latter coming out well after Dracula's left-handedness was noticed. Obviously, neither could handle the full power of the whip because they were descendants of Dracula!
332
333[[WMG: Creator/BramStoker's ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' is a result of [[CameBackWrong coming back wrong.]]]]
334
335''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' links the ''Castlevania'' mythos to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Which is confusing, as Dracula in that story didn't have a castle full of deathtraps and armies upon armies of demons and undead at his beck and call. Nor did he have many of the powers he has in CV history. Most have assumed that only the most basic of Stoker's tale is true. At the very least, there's a Dracula, and a guy named Quincy Morris who kills him. But suppose the story is canon? How could that be?
336
337Almost every ''Castlevania'' game has Dracula needing a boost to get resurrected. Needing the body of a Devil Forgemaster, the spirit of a werewolf, collecting his remains, etc. Even the 100 year resurrections required assistance. ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChronicles'' and ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles Dracula X Chronicles]]'' show a {{virgin sacrifice}}. (Well, a sacrifice of a young girl, at least.)
338
339So, what happens if nobody's around to perform the ceremony? Perhaps it is true that Dracula will never stay dead, but if he tries to come back on his own power, he loses a lot of it. Hence Bram Stoker's tale having a single Dracula with a few vampires and some brainwashed servants, rather than his army. Given the absence of Death, perhaps Death had to give up his power on the mortal plane in a last-ditch effort to bring Dracula Back.
340
341Or, perhaps...
342
343[[WMG: ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'' is a result of Shanoa destroying a good deal of Dracula's Power.]]
344
345A big deal is made in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Order Of Ecclesia]]'' that Dominus is the only thing that can destroy Dracula besides the Vampire Killer whip. (And Alucard.) It even plays out that Dracula cannot be destroyed by Shanoa herself. Dominus is also Dracula's Power directly channeled. Perhaps, because of this, the direct use of Dominus on Dracula did far more damage than just putting him down until he gets resurrected again. Given that Dominus is likely related to the Power of Dominance talked about in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'', it seems that Dominus destroyed Dracula's ability to control all his minions, as well as Castlevania itself, leaving him with only a crumbling castle and a few human and vampire servants in Bram Stoker's tale.
346
347Elizabeth Bartley manipulating events to start World War 1 and carting Dracula's remains around Europe wasn't just for giggles and a resurrection, it was the only way to reestablish Dracula's Power of Dominance. A single soul was good enough before, but now he needed tens of thousands to fuel his return.
348
349[[WMG: Shanoa using Dominus on Dracula "cracked" his soul.]]
350Enabling his powers to be separate from his Id. This is why the 1999 Castle War was able to seal his power in the eclipse, and release his soul into human reincarnation.
351
352[[WMG:The real reason Richter wasn't around to help [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia Shanoa]] kill Dracula in the 1800s) was because...]]
353He was chasing after another [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Richter]] that stole his first name. I was always wondering why Richter couldn't help out since he was still technically alive (1800 or so is just a few years after SOTN, so...).
354** No, Richter got killed by a zombie unceremoniously because he's a bloody useless character. Maria was the only one who was any good in the first place.
355** That and whoever was aware of what Barlowe was planning was too lazy to get a Belmont on the job like they did with Trevor ages ago, so yeah.
356** I think he wasn't there because he was drinking with a werewolf that suspiciously never moves when you look at him...
357
358[[WMG:Maria, as portrayed in ''Judgment'', is an anime character undergoing metamorphosis into realism.]]
359Look at her portrayal in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo of Blood]]''. Anime artwork, blatant TokenMiniMoe, [[CuteClumsyGirl sliding and rolling all over the place]], wielding the power of TheFourGods, etc. Despite being ostensibly European, her character is ridiculously Japanese. She's largely considered a LethalJokeCharacter.
360
361Now look at her portrayal in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]''. Mature, realistically drawn, and seems to fit well with the other characters in the ''Castlevania'' series. She's practically a different person altogether.
362
363Her character in ''Judgment'' comes from halfway between the two games. See where this is going?
364
365She's changing. Her Obata artwork can only be described as an anime character drawn in a realistic style. Her moves include both awe-inspiring magic and ridiculous cartoony effects. This is a difficult time for her, and as her mind is still largely anime-based, she latches onto the ACupAngst mentality during the process. And, in the end, it's a fitting metaphor. She's developing, not only in front, but mentally and artistically as well, until it will be impossible to tell that she was ever an anime character.
366
367[[WMG: The Belmonts founded the fighting style used by Ryu and Ken.]]
368
369Notice how Richter has a lot of ''Franchise/StreetFighter''-like moves in ''SOTN''? That's beacuse he invented them.
370
371After ''SOTN'', Richter fled to Japan to get as far away from Dracula as possible. He then took a new identity and decided to train two brothers (Goken and Akuma) in his fighting style. The dark side of the style (like the Raging Demon and immorality) came from when he was brainwashed by Shaft. He was able to live long enough to have Julius as his son beacuse of the immortality thing Akuma has. This would also explain why Akuma and Goken are so badass.
372
373** So Richter invented the Cross that Simon, Trevor, Leon, Christopher, and (maybe) Sonia were using some time before? I'll probably give you the whip jump, but really. Plus it sounds more like "Everyone with a fireball and jump punch are Ryu ripoffs". Furthermore, the spin kick thing was DummiedOut. And another, where was it said that the Murder Wave makes you immortal? And I'm sure Gouken and Akuma were born in the 1940s, so unless they're as ageless and immortal as you purpoted Richy to be (Or if you misplaced the "he trained two brothers" part) then this is probably a poorly thought out WMG.
374*** Err... wow dude. It was obviously a joke WMG. No need to tear it apart so viciously.
375
376[[WMG: Maria is either a younger Princess Peach, or a relative of sorts]]
377
378I blame the fact that she has the same colour scheme as her in ''Rondo of Blood''. Oh hell, every little girl was doing the blonde hair and pink dress those days.
379** We can blame Toru Hagihara for merely deciding to copy said colour scheme.
380** We can blame the artists for making her look like a Japanese anime loli.
381** We can blame Annette for choosing the dress.
382** We can blame Shaft for his dumb fetishes.
383
384[[WMG: The difficulty of the Metroidvanias is proportional to the strength of the protagonists.]]
385* ''Symphony of the Night'', undoubtedly the easiest game in the entire series. This is because Alucard is one of the strongest characters in the series, being Dracula's son and all.
386* ''Circle of the Moon'' was a huge jump in difficulty, because not only do we not play as Alucard, we don't even play as a Belmont! On top of that, Nathan uses a cheap imitation of the Vampire Killer. There is no substitute for the real thing, hence the game's difficulty.
387* ''Harmony of Dissonance'' has fairly average difficulty, due to Dracula's opponent being the usual adversary; a Belmont.
388* ''Aria of Sorrow'' is slightly difficult because Soma is just an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent, but not as hard as it could be, due to him being Dracula's reincarnation. If you obtain the Chaos Ring and manifest Dracula's Full Power, then the Game becomes dreadfully easy since you could literally become invincible permanently.
389* ''Dawn of Sorrow'' is much easier than the GBA installments (barring maybe ''[=HoD=]'') because Soma has gained combat experience and familiarity with his powers since ''Aria''. Ironically, obtaining the Chaos Ring no longer gives true infinite mana, but you can still cause the game to become insanely easy anyway.
390* ''Portrait of Ruin'' is hard because the protagonist isn't a Belmont nor does he have any special powers, but isn't as hard as ''Circle of the Moon'' because he at least has the real Vampire Killer.
391* ''Order of Ecclesia''. Shanoa has to resort to using a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to defeat Dracula, but who could blame her? This is easily the hardest Castlevania game since ''Circle of the Moon'', after all.
392** Except that Julius is the strongest Belmont yet (even in his age), armed with the Vampire Killer, and teamed up with Alucard ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Yoko]]) in the ''[=DoS=]'' one and his mode is far far harder than ''[=PoR=]'' (mostly due to the lack of healing outside of checkpoints...).
393*** But remember that Julius doesn't have to seal away the bosses as Soma does, instead defeating them outright which is probably much harder.
394
395[[WMG:The Time Reaper is the result of the romance between [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Susan Sto Helit]] and [[Literature/ThiefOfTime Lobsang Ludd]].]]
396Unfortunately, since both of its potential purposes were already filled by other {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s in its universe, it had nothing to do until Galamoth came along. It's just killing time.
397* Now that, my friend, is a great bad {{Pun}}. Congrats.
398
399[[WMG: Either Rosaly is a clone of Julia, or vice-versa.]]
400Ruling out "they're relatives", it's the only way Julia could look ''exactly like'' Rosaly.
401
402[[WMG: ''Lament of Innocence'' was the victim of a total rewrite and / or severe timeline error.]]
403Ok, ''Lament'' is set about 400 years before ''Castlevania III''; thing is, this creates a massive hole in the timeline. I think it's possible the intent was to set it ''slightly'' before ''[=CV3's=]'' time as the origin story of Dracula. Mathias "Cronqvist" was probably going to be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Corvinus Matthias Corvinus]], who once held Vlad Tepes as his prisoner; this presumably would have been the useless-in-the-final-plot Joachim character, with Matthias being a hybrid of the Mathias Cronqvist and Walter Bernhard characters. This would explain the odd duplicate love-life of Dracula; presumably, "Elizabetha" and ''Symphony's'' "Lisa" were at one point supposed to be the same character, rather than him falling in love with two women called Lisa ''both'' of whom die tragically and make him turn his back on the world.
404* It was rewritten, because if the plot had originally went as planned, the designers would've had to account for ''Alucard.''
405
406[[WMG: The ''Legends'' retcon never truly took place in-universe.]]
407Going off some other bits of info here -- Trevor's eye colour is the same as Lisa's, and at some point, the only way to destroy Dracula is with his own power; the Belmonts and in-laws never had to bother with Dominus. Sonia is the first known Belmont to destroy Dracula, but due to a lack of Tepes blood, couldn't hold him down for long (though it should be noted that defeating him at all was quite a feat). Her descendants had a bit more luck.
408
409If nothing else, this troper is curious as to why Simon (or Judgment!Simon, at least), a supposed full-blood human, would have ''red'' eyes.
410** Because Judgment's character design ''sucked''. Also note that grey eyes aren't really that uncommon. I have grey eyes, but I'm not quarter vampire.
411*** And how do we know you're not? [[ParanoiaFuel How do we know you're not sneaking up on us right now, ready to drain our blood...]]?
412
413[[WMG: Maria is somehow of Chinese descent.]]
414Well then how else can she summon TheFourGods (or at least cuter versions), let alone know their names?
415** Because TheFourGods are very well known in Japan, too, and she uses the Japanese versions of the names (Genbu instead of Xuanwu for the Turtle summon) in ''Symphony of the Night''
416** Given that the setting is somewhere in Europe in the 18th century, it's probably isn't that common for most people to know about TheFourGods at all. Maria's ancestors were traders on the Silk Road or something.
417
418[[WMG: Dracula is a Pokémon.]]
419Might not make much sense, allow me to explain.
420* Dracula is obviously Dark type but with a lot of Fire abilities (like how many pure Water Pokemon get Ice attacks). Dark because of all his evil balls and shit he fires (Dark Pulse?), and Fire type because of his hellfire abilities and fiery attacks (likely mini Fire Blasts). He also knows Teleport inherently. Soul Steal is kind of a mix between Giga Drain and Pursuit.
421* He also has several OneWingedAngel forms, each of these are likely split evolutions? Think about it. We have the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood'' form, we also have the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' form, and the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'' form to name a few. I theorise after being owned by the vampire killers he doesn't die or anything, he just faints, and then each time he comes back a Max Revive is used on him, but he somehow de-evolves as well (not sure how to explain this yet).
422* Dracula's evolution methods are usually getting owned enough (maybe canonically he "gains experience" and levels up, then evolves mid-battle as he's a cheat). However, in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'', he only evolves with Death's power - maybe it's an alternate method of evolution, like how Death becomes a "held item" and is used up on evolution, akin to Gligar or Sneasel's evolution methods.
423* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'' is one of two things - either he is holding an Everstone (and has levelled up more without evolving, hence the bat and wolf attacks, which are likely new moves not named yet), or after half of his health is depleted, he goes into daruma mode (Hihidaruma anyone), and gets insanely strong. After that, he uses his Demonic Meggiddo, which is a new Reversal type attack which is useless at high health (in this version anyway, in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' version you only need to hold the Death item to do it well). Dominus is basically like Explosion (hence why it "kills" Shanoa), but Shanoa is holding the Albus item which allows her to survive at the end of the game.
424* As for the times where Dracula is "not fully revived?" Isn't it obvious - only normal Revives have been used on him, and not Max Revives. And the times where you have to get his body parts? They're alternatives, as Revives are hard to come by sometimes. As Dracula's castle can exist without him being revived, Brauner can just use the castle and his power and just be like "not using my revives on Dracula." Or Dracula was revived but Brauner handily beat him in a Pokémon battle.
425* Dracula's final defeat in 1999 is where he whited out, and so can't be revived as he is back in the Pokémon centre.
426* Soma as Dracula (in [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow Dawn of Sorrow]]) is like what Staraptor is to Pidgeot -- like an expy of sorts. Dracula doesn't come back as normal Dracula as he isn't available in this generation! Soma has similar powers, but his new soul powers (he even has "ability" souls) are what sets him apart competitively. This allows him to evolve and still use soul powers. Soma as a playable character is just restarting and levelling up and learning all his different moves again, and he is holding the Mina Talisman (Everstone) to stop him from evolving into Dracula (looks pretty much the same, like how many Pokemon don't really change much on first evolution, then change drastically on final evolution, which in this case is the re-use of the [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo of Blood]] final form, but again, another expy).
427** Dracula's various true forms are Mega Evolutions.
428
429[[WMG: ''Lords of Shadow'''s God Mask is bad news.]]
430(Yes, yes, game hasn't come out yet, but...) The God Mask can resurrect people, [[CameBackWrong but in all the ways you can think of that aren't good.]] If this holds true, then the game's good/best ending would require piecing this information together and rejecting the Mask. (Zobek is unaware of this catch, or else he wouldn't have mentioned this to Gabriel.)
431
432The Devil Mask may have similar powers, but the alternate final boss(?) it produces looks like it escaped from a [[Franchise/SilentHill different Konami series]].
433
434** Now it has, and no it's not. It [[spoiler:can't resurrect people or do anything it's touted as able to do. All it does is let the wearer see through the eyes of God]]. I expected a CameBackWrong, too, but no dice.
435
436[[WMG: Julius was the mightiest Belmont of all time, perhaps harnessing the power of all of the Belmonts before him.]]
437This would explain his role in the "final" sealing of Dracula's castle in 1999. As an added bonus, it might also explain why the first phase of Death in [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow Aria of Sorrow]] was just his scythe -- Julius beat him so badly that even 36 years later he was having trouble manifesting on the physical plane, and thus had to possess his scythe since he couldn't properly focus his power.
438
439[[WMG: As a variant of the above explanation, Soma's presence allowed or convinced Death to remanifest.]]
440Dracula was "permanently" gone. What reason was there for him to hang around? Even when the castle returned in the solar eclipse, there was still no reason for him to make an appearance... until Dracula's reincarnation showed up. The scythe portion of the battle was meant to test him, and once Death was convinced that he was dealing with his old master, he returned in full.
441
442[[WMG: [[spoiler:Gabriel is the Dracula who is sealed away in 1999.]] ]]
443[[spoiler:In the TrueEnding of Lords Of Shadow, Gabriel is told by Zobek that his suffering will be over soon... in a very modern setting. It's an AlternateContinuity altogether though.]]
444
445[[WMG: [[spoiler:The creature that Dimitri tried to gain dominance over in The Abyss was Satan]] ]]
446
447[[WMG: {{Death}} wasn't present in ''VideoGame/HauntedCastle'' because he was busy doing his job.]]
448Specifically, making sure that people who die go to the afterlife like they're supposed to. This actually works to Dracula's benefit, because Simon can't die more than a few times before his fate catches up with him.
449
450[[WMG: [[TheIgor Igor]] was once a time traveler, but is now RetGone.]]
451He travelled between various time periods, stealing Dr. Frankenstein's plans for the Creature and bringing it to Count Dracula during the 17th century. During the events of VideoGame/CastlevaniaJudgment, however, he was lost in the time rift and went RetGone. His involvement against Simon Belmont and with Dr. Frankenstein no longer exists (as is evident by VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV and the Mary Shelley novel), though schematics for The Creature were recovered by an early incarnation of Dracula.
452
453[[WMG: Galamoth helped the heroes in the battle of 1999.]]
454As we all know, Galamoth wants to usurp Dracula, and of course, the Belmonts, Morrises, Belnades, and the other Dracula-fighting families wanted Dracula to stay dead permanently. Together, they went into an EnemyMine situation and fought Dracula together to seal him away, thus fulfilling both their goals. Then one of the following things happened:
455
4561: Galamoth decided that the heroes had [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived their usefulness]] and attempted to kill them, and was slain in the process
457
4582: He chose to lay dormant until the events of Kid Dracula or another future Castlevania game
459
4603: He is actively watching for the possible resurrection of Dracula and helping whenever he can (probably for his own reasons)
461
462It also might explain the presence of his soul in ''Aria of Sorrow''.
463
464[[WMG:Dracula is a misandrist.]]
465"What is a man?", he may ask. But he doesn't have nearly as much of a history of hating women. Even past his deceased romantic interests, he shows a definite bias. Why does he keep a large stock of Draculinas around, while the game where de Rais was impersonating him was the only one to feature male vampire minions? Why does he have a harem in his castle in several games? Why does he ''hit on Shanoa'' when she comes to attack him?
466
467He's still looking for love, it seems, and the ladies have done little to anger him. It's not implausible to think that he'd be happy slaughtering all the human males and keeping the females around. This may lead to a decreased gene pool, of course, but you know him and eternal unlife.
468
469[[WMG: Sypha really is a man]]
470
471[[WMG: Chaos is actually a [[VideoGame/RType Bydo.]]]]
472A bit of OutOfGenreExperience, but let's examine it. [[FridgeHorror A Bydo can (theoretically) travel to any point in time]] before its birth in the [[TimeyWimeyBall 26th century.]] Let's say it decides to stop by the 11th century, where Matthias made his debut as Dracula. Using Matthias' angst as a medium, the Bydo shows itself as Death to make a {{deal|WithTheDevil}} after the death of his wife, which transfers the command of the Bydo from other times over to him. Evidence? In SOTN, Dracula's final boss seemed much more like a Xenomorph, attacking with [[WaveMotionGun triangular beams of light.]] Dracula's [[EldritchLocation castle]] seems to be [[WombLevel organic]] in some of the games (and don't get started on the paintings). Finally, [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow Chaos']] true form itself seems a bit too otherworldly. Now, why do the Bydo let the Belmonts win? They have their own battle to fight, and they're just bored.
473
474[[WMG: Juste is suffering from some kind of OCD in regard to interor decorating]]
475The reason Juste starts decorating a room in an unknown castle, while Lydie is missing and Maxim is acting strangre is because of his OCD, if he sees a tasteless room, he simply must start decorating it, and pick up oddly placed funiture.
476Maxim, being his best friend, knew of it, so when the castles is created from his will, the castle also create a bare room and spread funiture across the castles, in a effort to stall Juste if he should come to the castle.
477
478That, or he isn't taking the trip seriously at all.
479
480[[WMG: The Belmonts were the bad guys]]
481Dracula wanted to change the world for the better, but the Belmont Clan are a bunch of far right wing conservatives who don't like change. So they kill Dracula everytime he wants to bring up a new era of change in Europe.
482
483[[WMG: The castle is literally a ''creature'' of chaos]]
484That is, it's a living, flesh-and-blood being that just happens to look like a castle. That's why whipping the walls gives you meat; you're actually ''carving the flesh off of it''. You're ''eating the fugging castle''.
485* So... Does this mean we need to start taking the phrase "Wall Meat" ''literally?''
486
487[[WMG: ''Symphony of the Night'' was made to atone for the ''Captain N'' episode "Return to Castlevania"]]
488My guess is that someone at Konami must've seen that episode of Captain N and shuddered "What did they do to Alucard?!" So he went on to suggest that Alucard be made the protagonist of ''Symphony of the Night'' and everyone else agreed. And it worked to overshadow Alucard's appearance as a punk rock teen.
489
490[[WMG:God gave Mathias [[MyGreatestSecondChance a second chance]] in the form of Soma.]]
491[[Tropers/X2X I]] already brought this up on the page for ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'', but it really belongs here.
492
493[[ItWasHisSled As we all know]], Soma is the {{reincarnation}} of Dracula. If you compare him to his previous incarnation Mathias/Dracula, it seems as if fate went out of its way to ensure that Soma didn't turn to evil as well.
494
495''Lament of Innocence'' [[StartOfDarkness is the domino that tipped over]], leading to the chain reaction that gave us the current Dracula. Mathias' beloved Elisabetha dies; [[FaithHeelTurn Mathias renounces God]] after years of fighting in His Name. Mathias then whips out the {{magnificen|tBastard}}ce and plays one hell of a BatmanGambit to manipulate ''[[UnwittingPawn everyone]]'' involved in ''[=LoI=]''. When he reveals himself as [[TheChessmaster the man behind the curtain]], Mathias tempts Leon to [[WeCanRuleTogether join him against God]]. Leon ([[ThePromise thanks to]] [[ThePowerOfLove his strong bond with Sara]]) refuses; Mathias sics Death on him, effectively ending his [[HeterosexualLifePartners friendship]] with Leon and culminating in Leon's [[BadassCreed resolve]] to hunt Dracula for all of eternity and have his descendants take up the mantle should he fail. Later on, his SecondLove Lisa (implied to be the reincarnation of Elisabetha herself) is tried for witchcraft and [[BurnTheWitch executed]]. Drac then promptly goes into full-on RageAgainstTheHeavens mode and never looked back.
496
497[[RuleOfSymbolism Compare this to Soma.]]
498
499The first difference would be in their appearances. Mathias is a raven-haired {{bish|onen}}ie who dresses predominantly in dark colors. Soma is a white-haired bishie known for his white [[BadassLongcoat longcoats]]. In Western culture, dark colors (''especially'' black) imply [[DarkIsEvil something more sinister]], while white denotes [[LightIsGood virtue and purity]]. Symbolically, Dracula's soul has been cleansed and Soma [[RefusalOfTheCall rejects any attempts to be made into the next Dark Lord.]]
500
501Also of note is that he ''values'' the bonds he's cultivated with his allies (including the descendants of the two clans that took up arms against Dracula the most as well as Dracula's prodigal son). When Mathias succumbed to his anger at God, he hastily threw away any and all of his previous relationships in his fanatical quest to spite God. Of special note is his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance relationship with Mina]]. Mina is heavily suggested to be the next incarnation of both Elisabetha and Lisa, much like Soma is Dracula. Destiny seems to be perpetually making these two attract like magnets. However, whereas it was Mathias' love for Elisabetha/Lisa [[LoveMakesYouEvil that turned him evil]], it was Soma's love for Mina (and vice versa) that ultimately ''spared'' him from this very same fate (as best seen in ''Dawn'', where it is his thoughts of Mina that allow Soma to suppress and expel the numerous souls invading his body, thus preventing them from overwhelming his body and turning him into the next Dark Lord).
502
503Just because Dracula thought that God was an [[GodIsEvil omnipotent]] {{jerk|assGods}} who couldn't spare his dying wife the time of day doesn't mean that God actually ''is''. [[GodIsGood God forgives, after all.]] Heck, I bet that He probably would have done so ''much'' earlier had it not been for Drac's [[TakeThat middle finger]] in the form of eternal life thanks to the Crimson Stone.
504
505As such, we see Dracula [[EarnYourHappyEnding getting a reprieve]] via [[AvertedTrope a reversal]] of BookEnds.
506
507[[WMG: Shanoa is a Belmont descendant herself.]]
508While she may not be a direct descendant, she has enough strength in it to not get consumed by Dominus, and the villagers' power further augmented this ability. This also explains how she can easily use glyphs.
509
510[[WMG: Why Soma Cruz wasn't in Judgment.]]
511Aeon, during a battle with himself, might say that two of the same person in the time rift could really mess things up. Since Soma is Dracula, and Dracula is already there, things would mess up.
512* This raises questions as to what happens with ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair''. One of the things Soma can do? He can absorb Dracula's soul. Multiple times. And the 8-Bit Version too. [[TimeyWimeyBall Oh dear.]]
513
514[[WMG: ''Lords of Shadow'' takes place snugly with the others]]
515[[spoiler:Gabriel Belmont, after defeating Satan, became Dracul and holed himself up in a church.]] Meanwhile, some years after the charade, Leon Belmont (who may or may not be related to Gabriel) went after Walter Bernhard (who either demolished the Vampire's Castle in the mountains and had it rebuilt in the Forest of Eternal Night, assuming it was his, or just got another castle) who had kidnapped Sara Trantoul for kicks. It turns out [[spoiler:Mathias Cronqvist, perhaps related to Gabriel (I think it's stated that Gabriel might be a bastard of the Cronqvist clan), had set up a plan to take revenge on God over his wife. Mathias becomes Dracul'''a''', and later launches his war on humanity.]] The Belmont Clan (Leon's) deals with Dracula over time, while [[spoiler:Gabriel, aka Dracul, idly waits in an old Church.]] Come 1999, [[spoiler:Dracula AND Satan resurrect, though in different areas. Zobek and Gabriel/Dracul deal with Satan, while the Belmont Clan deals with Dracula and Death, who is unrelated to Zobek. Satan bites it again, Castlevania is sealed, and Dracula/Mathias is dealt with for good.]]
516* It follows that [[spoiler:Gabriel]] is still alive and kicking by the time Soma turns down the position of Dark Lord, which [[spoiler:Mathias]] managed to get because [[spoiler:Gabriel]] had never done anything with it. Presumably Alucard/Arikado is going to try to pressure [[spoiler:Gabriel]] into finally taking up the mantle he's been refusing for the past millenium, trying to guilt him into it by saying that if he keeps shirking his responsibility like that, Soma will go the way of Mathias.
517
518[[WMG: Dracula's power began to wane after the events of ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'']]
519In every single game in the timeline afterwards (besides the ''Sorrow'' series, since he's dead), Dracula has had trouble with his OneWingedAngel transformation.
520* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'', he doesn't transform at all.
521* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'', he needs Drolta Tzuentes to distract you while he transforms.
522* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'', he has to [[DevourTheDragon absorb Death's soul]] in order to transform.\
523Also, he was killed in the Demon Castle Wars. The question is, was it Julius' badassery that took him down, or was Dracula finally weak enough to be killed?
524** At the end of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', we do see Dracula starting to question his purpose and existence. "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul?" He never shows this to anyone other than his own son, though.
525
526[[WMG: Dracula is fed up of the eternal fight.]]
527Alternatively to the above, it might be that Dracula is simply going through the motions. After SOTN, he might have got bored and fed up of his long feud because it doesn't seem to be helping him much, constantly getting revived and beaten into the ground every time, questioning who he is. He may also show true regret and want it all to be over. The problem is people keep resurrecting him. They are often manipulated by Dracula. Maybe he's trying to revive himself so someone can kill him for real? He's just keeping up appearances, and in ''Ecclesia'' in general, he doesn't seem to take the fight with Shanoa that seriously, only not playing around when he decides to use Demonic Meggido. He may want to finally be ended so he can die happily and/or be reincarnated into a better life (read: Soma), as opposed to generally getting weaker (though he might be, if he is questioning his motives).
528
529Failing that, he might want to only die for real in a worthy way -- against his old adversary, the Belmonts, as a sort of a post-humous thank you. He's just biding time until the next Belmont comes, in an "only he can kill me" situation. However, Shaft's possession of Richter might have fucked up the Belmonts' ability to vanquish Dracula and resist the darkness (hence the 1999 destiny), so he fucked it all up and now Drac has to wait even longer to be redeemed. One would imagine the 1999 game, if ever made, would have a TearJerker ending for Dracula, regardless of how it happens.
530* Perhaps the people who try to resurrect him aren't being manipulated by Dracula himself, but his dark power. It has been said that Dracula can never truly be defeated due to the evil in the hearts of humans. Even if Dracula wanted to, he simply can't die for good. The forces of evil will find some way to bring him back, time and time again. Even Death is driven by duty to see Dracula resurrected, even if Dracula doesn't want to be. This is especially the reason Dracula is so sick of the endless cycle. He can't stop it himself.
531
532[[WMG: A 3DS or Cafe game will finally show what happened in 1999]]
533The main character will be Julius (natch), but it will be like Julius mode in ''[=DoS=]'', a homage to ''Castlevania 3'', and star the following characters:
534* Julius: duh, uses Whips
535* Alucard: duh, uses swords
536* Charlotte: [[{{Irony}} Now hates being called "old"]], possibly using magic to be physically young.
537* Lt. Hammer: A GenerationXerox of Hammer, finds love during the game to account for Hammer's birth in 2001, uses knives, guns, and throwing weapons, playing like Grant in the [[DifficultyByRegion Japanese version]] of ''Castlevania 3''. Is among the military force that make up the Zombie Soldiers, possibly sole survivor. May be a GenderFlip.
538
539Jonathan shows up partway through to deliver the Vampire Killer.
540
541If for Cafe, Harmony of Despair (with Hammer and Young Julius playable) will be included as multiplayer.
542
543[[WMG: Julius has a sibling, who the Belmont line continues along]]
544The reason they weren't the hero of 1999 is not that they were younger, but that they wanted a quiet life as [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance an interior decorator]] instead of trying to stop demons from killing them.
545
546[[WMG: ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' is orchestrated by the Time Travellers.]]
547St. Germaine and Aeon. Okay, this is kinda obvious, but it had to be said.
548
549[[WMG: The Time Travellers are trying to redeem Death, and are starting "new" fights with Dracula back in time to get at him.]]
550Heck, St. Germaine was even trying (rather annoyingly) to talk Zead into surrendering in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness Curse of Darkness]]''. The problem is, Death only has a personality when Dracula is around. (Hence his silence in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow''.) They won't let Dracula die, TimeParadox be damned, heck, even if he already reincarnates into a good guy, until Death is dealt with.
551
552[[WMG: Death hates {{Time Master}}s because they keep taking his favorite spot]]
553Even in the early games of the series, the ClockTower was a recurring landmark, and usually ThatOneLevel at the same time. The minions Dracula placed in charge have varied from game to game, from generic bosses such as mummies and werewolves to named characters such as Grant and Annette. In fact, Death was only the boss of the clock tower twice in the early days: ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaDraculaX Dracula X]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/{{Castlevania 64}} 64]]'' (even then, only if you were Reinhardt).
554
555Starting with ''Aria of Sorrow'', this changed drastically. Since that game, there have only been three games with clock towers in which Death was ''not'' the boss: ''Dawn of Sorrow'', ''Curse of Darkness'', and ''Judgment'''s story mode.
556
557Who were the clock tower bosses in those games? Zephyr, St. Germain, and Aeon. Apparently they got first pick of the spot because of their connection with time. This made Death bitter.
558
559(In fact, consider how easily he set a trap for Germain. He ''knew'' he would go back there.)
560
561[[WMG: Harmony of Despair did happen in the "real world", in the characters' dreams or a dream-like world.]]
562The events of the game are basically "characters in a book chronicling the Castlevania 2-D games suddenly come to life within the book and help/fight each other." However, the "spark" of each character's soul served as an extension.
563
564[[WMG: Harmony of Despair is the TimeCrash because of Soma's rejection of being the Dark Lord.]]
565Alucard said reality would pick a different Dark Lord if it wanted one, it didn't have to be someone in particular. Well, reality isn't confined by space and time, and decided that it STILL wanted Dracula; even though it couldn't touch Soma's Free Will. So it smashed all the timelines together and made the old Dracula the current Dark Lord; causality be damned. Soma dominating Dracula caused reality to try and pull candidates from even further back; "The Count" at the height of his power; and then the Demon Dragon King; Ryukotsuki.
566* Soma dominating Retro Dracula causes the alternate 3-D Game Dracula origins.
567
568[[WMG: Harmony of Despair was caused by Galamoth, who wanted to take out some rivals.]]
569This time he had Time Reaper stay behind the scenes. Not only would it TimeParadox Dracula, but it also led to the destruction of some rival Demon Lords in Hell; Beelzebub, Legion, and Ryukotsuki.
570
571[[WMG: The Castlevaina series takes place in the same 'verse as the original NES VideoGame/NinjaGaiden series]]
572It would explain the incredibly similar gameplay of the NES games.
573
574[[WMG: Death is actually testing Soma.]]
575It's been indicated that Death doesn't follow Dracula's goals, only Dracula himself. Perhaps Death, in both the Sorrow games, appeared in order to test his reincarnated master, so Soma would have the skill and power to face greater challenges ahead?
576
577[[WMG: Galamoth is really Barney the Purple Dinosaur]]
578His ambition to become the dark lord, his affiliation with space (Barney went to space once) and his sorcerous powers are all evidence for this shocking theory.
579
580[[WMG: The monsters escaped after ''Castlevania'']]
581This explains why there are no monsters in Dracula's Castle in Simon's Quest, but they are everywhere else; they got away from the castle. Dracula's influence is needed to make monsters, but they don't die with him; if he dies, the monsters gain free will, and so, they got away, and spread around Romania, to be destroyed by Simon when he looked for Dracula's remains. Without Dracula's influence, no monsters could be created in his castle, and he was re-killed so quickly, that he had no time to make monsters, this explains why he's easy. Next, the monsters in Harmony Of Dissonance were creations of [[spoiler:Maxim's will]], and since Castle B is more or less a creation of his mind, he has more control over its monsters; the Merchant is also a monster, but made with [[spoiler:Maxim]]'s good side. In ''Symphony Of The Night'', [[spoiler:Richter's brainwashing gave him the same will to do this; this is why he could summon the monsters in the Arena]]. Monsters in Aria Of Sorrow are leftovers from the battle of 1999, and when we get a game featuring the battle, the bosses who were left over shall be {{Optional Boss}}es. Dawn Of Sorrow has the souls from Soma released and they go to the closest to Castlevania they could find, the so-called replica.
582
583[[WMG:Eric Lecarde fought Elizabeth Bartley to hold her off while John Morris went to battle Dracula.]]
584A relatively minor theory for how the events of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' played out. Namely that while the two fought together in chasing Bartley throughout Europe, when it came time for the final battle, Eric challenged Bartley and held her off so John could go ahead and battle Dracula. It also fits in that while John would be dedicated to Dracula's demise, being the heir of the Vampire Killer, Eric would have a bigger beef with Elizabeth for turning his girlfriend into a vampire.
585* Hey, it makes perfect sense, so I don't see why it wouldn't happen.
586
587[[WMG:The playable Old Axe Armor in ''Portrait of Ruin'' is a suit of armor possessed by a perverted old man that has been symbiotically attached to a young woman who wanted to be a Hero.]]
588It explains the reuse of Jonathan's voice and Maria's portrait. Those are just substitutes to censure what's actually being said and what the woman actually looks like. Other than that, just wanted to throw this out there as it makes sense to me.
589
590[[WMG: The Castlevania is, in fact, the Scholomance.]]
591No, not the Scholomance from VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}. This is the one from old European lore. The Scholomance was a super-hyper-mega-ultra-secret school where the Devil taught ten cultists at a time black magic. The price was that one of the ten would have to remain forever afterwards as a servant (whether as a professor or some lesser staff member is not mentioned). More importantly, the castle of both Walter and of Dracula ''are the same Scholomance''. Not only does this explain how the place gets festooned with all manner of horrors as soon as it arises (the demons were there from the beginning, the witches are there for beginning lessons, etc.), it also helps explain its highly variable form without really messing up the bookshelves. It was varied ''by the students' experiments''. After Julius trapped Dracula's castle inside an eclipse, demonkind simply got to work on constructing Scholomance #2, which proceeded to become With Light's main base of operations.
592
593[[WMG: About Joachim Armster]]
594So, we know from ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence'' that Joachim Armster, the vampire who is imprisoned by Walter for attempted rebellion, was once human. So what caused his current predicament? There are two possible theories:
595* First possibility is that Joachim was like Leon, except of course, unluckier. His girlfriend was kidnapped by Walter, so he attempted to fight Walter, but lost, losing his girlfriend and his life. But for whatever reason, Walter decided to vampirize him just ForTheEvulz, and that's how Joachim became a vampire.
596* Second possibility is spoileriffic: Joachim ''was the kidnap victim''. [[spoiler:Remember what happens to Sara?]] Perhaps Joachim was just some scholarly lord or something, with a BattleButler as his guard or so. So Walter somehow decided to kidnap Joachim, forcing the latter's guardian to try to reclaim his master, but he failed. Besides, considering that [[spoiler:Walter vampirizes Sara before Leon even meets him face-to-face]], it's also possible that Joachim was vampirized the same way. But anyway, Joachim's guardian failed to save him, and Joachim then tried to off Walter with his newfound powers, but failed and got imprisoned. The theory of Joachim being the kidnapped victim due to possibly being a NonActionGuy stems from his fighting style; rather than trying to go melee against Leon, he uses shielding magic and [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]] (well, okay, Walter never bothers punching Leon during their fight either, but Walter is the self-proclaimed lord of the castle, so he feels he's above brawling). Also, Joachim seems to know quite a bit about [[spoiler:the Ebony and Crimson stones]], thus he might have been a scholar instead of a knight.
597
598[[WMG: Dracula's curse is the Bubonic Plague.]]
599I was watching a documentary the other day, and it briefly talked about the Black plague, and said it was in the 1400s. Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse takes place in the late 1400s. It then hit me: Dracula's Curse IS the plague. Considering the fact we really don't know much about the curse since it's pretty much just in the title, it could be the plague. The next chronological game, Curse of Darkness's, opening narration talks about how, even after Dracula died, his curse rages on, but this time it goes more in depth about the curse. It's plaguing the land, AND the people. Dracula's curse left the land to rot while poisoning the minds of its inhabitants, who pillaged and scourged it without remorse. Sounds like a plague, doesn't it? It is also said that during Castlevania 1, right before dying, Dracula put a curse on Simon, and is said to have non-healing wounds and cursed the land just as he did in [=CV3=]. One of the effects of this curse, as shown in Curse of Darkness, is the dark sides of humans. The villagers "help" in Castlevania 2: Simon's quest may have been trying to genuinely help Simon, but the curse made them give cryptic or pointless info. Also it is possible that Simon could have had the plague as well as the curse. This makes Simon Belmont EVEN MORE BADASS. Also even if I am mistaken about that Dracula could have caused the plague, he certainly could have benefited from it, seeing how if the world is in a very miserable state, Dracula could potentially be revived earlier than 100 years.
600
601[[WMG: "Death" is not the actual Grim Reaper.]]
602"Death" is actually a Tzimisce Schlakta created by Gabriel Belmont out of the remains of the Forgotten One. Gabriel also created the Crimson Stone to bind his servant to him and any childre he would sire.
603
604[[WMG: Gabriel Belmont sired Mathias Cronqvist.]]
605While keeping watch over the remainder of his bloodline -- one of whom was Leon Belmont -- Gabriel sired Mathias Cronqvist into Clan Tzimisce to save him from his illness. Mathias later orchestrated the confrontation with the Malkavian Walter Bernhard in an attempt to share his power with Leon. Mathias used the power of the Crimson Stone to psychically diablerize Walter, giving him Walter's Malkavian traits.
606
607[[WMG: Vlad Tepes Dracula is a thin-blood, and diablerized both Mathias Cronqvist and Gabriel Belmont.]]
608In the early 15th century, Gabriel Belmont and his childe, Mathias Cronqvist, settled in the province of Wallachia in the guise of the wealthy Ruthven family. Gabriel took the name Tabak Ruthven, the "head" of the family, and Mathias took on the role of his "son", Lambach Ruthven. After Mathias Embraced Vlad Tepes, he discovered that Vlad was a thin-blood and abandoned him. Vlad, coveting the power of the Crimson Stone, tracked his sire down and diablerized him, gaining not only Mathias' power, but also Walter Bernhard's Malkavian abilities. He then used his new power to cripple and diablerize Gabriel so that his control over the Crimson Stone could not be disputed. Until 1999, the four personalities--Gabriel, Mathias, Walter, and Dracula--had been warring with one another. This also explains how Dracula was able to conceive a half-vampire son with Lisa, as some thin-bloods have been known to possess the ability to reproduce, whereas normal vampires cannot.
609
610[[WMG: Zobek's warning of Satan's return referred to the Demon Castle War of 1999.]]
611Gabriel Belmont had managed to claim Dracula's body as the dominant personality, and he instantly went into hiding so he would never again have to face the members of his bloodline. After Zobek sought him out, Gabriel went to prevent Satan's return. Satan managed to enter Dracula's mind and destroy the personalities of Gabriel, Walter, and Mathias so that only Dracula was left. Afterwards, Zobek sought out Julius Belmont to slay Dracula one final time and destroy the Crimson Stone.
612
613[[WMG: Pumpkin is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.]]
614Very plausible for his innocent devil counterpart. He isn't aware that he is actually fighting very evil dark forces of nature, as evidenced by his jolly singing, dancing, and playing about. Apparently, he thinks that this whole Dracula scenario is just a game, somewhat as the same as the player does. In his mind, there is no conflict going around, everyone is just simply "playing" with each other. When he is fighting (like he is in Lament of Innocence), he in reality is just playing much like [[Manga/DragonBall Majin Buu (fat)]].
615
616* Alternatively he is a ''PsychopathicManchild'' of the good kind.
617
618[[WMG: Pumpkin is an important facet to the Belmont Legacy.]]
619Explaining why he is always in the more important Castlevania games involving the Belmonts (excluding fanon, cell phone manga, handheld games, and comics). Even though he has only been seen in two of these games, those games are the only real important Castlevania games that place heavy emphasis on the Belmonts.
620
621[[WMG: The "Julius"/Mr. J seen in the Sorrow games is not the real deal]]
622He is instead [[VideoGame/MetalGearAcid another]] amnesiac [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Snake]] clone, who shared his ancestor's fear of Dracula. The events gave him Julius's memory (and possibly hunting skill). How his name starts with J, I don't know.
623** Big Boss' true name is [[spoiler: Jack]]. Presumably, whoever cloned Snake had a sadistic sense of humor and named the clone [[spoiler: Jack]].
624
625[[WMG: Carmilla will resurrect and be the BigBad of a future game]]
626
627[[WMG: ''The Munsters'' is the result of a failed attempt to resurrect Dracula]]
628It might be a stretch to include this in canon, but if the Bram Stoker novel can fit... and they more or less made it clear that "Grandpa" was supposed to be THE Dracula...
629
630Anyway... shortly after his defeat in [=PoR=], someone attempted to bring back Dracula, but it was simply too early. The result was a partial resurrection of a kindly old man with only a small degree of powers and limited vampirism. While we know Dracula had one son, it's quite possible he'd sired other children over the years, especially a daughter who may have been raised outside of Dracula's evil, but knew her lineage. With a damaged memory, Dracula sought out Lilian, who had married Herman Munster (himself being Dr. Frankenstein's monster). With practically no memories and no need to drink blood, with only limited ability to change form and no aversion to sunlight, he was seen mostly as harmless, and Death and the others left him alone while they worked on the means to complete the process. Meanwhile, he took up the first name "Sam" and took up odd science as a hobby.
631
632Until Alucard located him. Maybe he wanted to protect his now sane father, or maybe he wanted to destroy Dracula while he was weak. Either way, Death knew this would be bad... and sent the entire Munster family forward in time by roughly 20 years (the time warp that led to the 1980s series ''Munsters Today''). Alucard lost track of Dracula and Death had 20 years free to work on the process without having to worry about Dracula being killed or turned forever from evil. Eventually, Death succeeded in finding a means to restore Dracula's powers, memories, and evil nature, which led to the events of 1999.
633
634As to what happened to the family... perhaps they were wiped out when Death came calling, or perhaps they simply found "Grandpa" missing one day. They may still be around, perhaps unaware that Soma Cruz is Lilian's father resurrected and Alucard sees no reason to tell them. Or maybe they do know, but see no need to meet with him as he'd have no memories of them.
635
636Of course, that's one workable theory... another is that, during one period of resurrection, a second Dracula was created out of "junk" material, which was left to wander around. He THINKS he's Dracula but has no idea about the Belmonts or anything else, in which case he's not even the real Dracula, but a leftover copy made of qualities that Dracula wasn't gifted upon rebirth (and also avoids any conflict with anything that could explain the events of 1999 or what led to them, should they ever be revealed). Either WMG could explain why Grandpa, who was supposedly Dracula, didn't display most of the usual vampire traits or even any of the same behavior as any of the Castlevania versions, or even the Bram Stoker or Bela Lugosi versions.
637
638[[WMG: Dracula's castle/Chaos is made from The Forgotten One/Beelzebub.]]
639So, that wall meat you're eating? Straight from his bones.
640
641[[WMG:The rise of Dracula is a big plot point in the new continuity, if not The Biggest]]
642Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate revolves around both Simon and Trevor, apparently through time. Konami has said that Lords of Shadow 2 will be the last of the Lords of Shadow arc, which leads to the thought that this is the last one to do with [[spoiler:Dracula's Origins]]. If Simon and Trevor are thrust into this time, logic would dictate it's a big deal. Why not just use Gabriel again if it wasn't?
643
644[[WMG: Dracula invented fast food to kill humanity with obesity.]]
645Just look at all the hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream etc. just lying around that castle! Clearly Dracula dominated the soul of a demon chef in order to make these culinary concoctions. That's why he is often so confident he will eventually win, because, since the heroes themselves have fallen pray to these traps time and time again, he already has...
646
647[[WMG: All three Lords of Shadow will be bosses in Mirror of Fate. (Lords of Shadow spoilers)]]
648[[spoiler:After becoming Dracula, a newly revived Zobek (who's pretty much immortal) approaches Gabriel offering an allegiance. Gabe accepts, and by combining Zobek's mastery of Necromancy with Gabriel's immaeasurable dark power, they revive and enslave Carmilla and Cornell, which has the added benefit of taking control of their respective armies. As for who, how and when they are thought, it maybe doesn't matter too much, but because of the timeline, Simon and/or Alucard are the probably the most likely to fight them, due to Trevor being probably dead and all.]]
649
650[[WMG: Multiplayer mode in VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair represents all of space-time breaking as a result of the massive time paradox.]]
651"Great, Soma absorbed the soul of his previous incarnation (twice over, even), and now there's six of him running around and zipping through walls!"
652
653[[WMG: Castlevania has unlimited continues and save points because Dracula is a DeathSeeker]]
654It's pretty obvious in multiple games that Dracula doesn't have much of an interest in (un)life and only pops back up when there's enough concentrated evil to manifest him, usually against his will. He's been in suicidal despair since the death of Lisa and been looking for a WorthyOpponent to off him for good (and if they fail, he gets to destroy all life -- either way, he sees it as a victory). Therefore, even in the NintendoHard games, whomever is trying to kill Dracula gets infinite retries to do so -- Death is the Dark Lord's servant, so if Boss Man says to resurrect the idiot who got pushed into a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} by a Medusa Head (again), well...
655
656Later games got save points because their protagonists either had a more personal connection to Dracula (Alucard, Hector, Soma, etc.), or the Belmont blood line has thinned out so much that Dracula thinks he needs to give them a better fighting chance (Juste, Nathan, Jonathan, etc.).
657
658The "Despair" in VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair refers to how Dracula feels -- he's gotten so desperate to die that he breaks the rules of time-space to collect a vampire-killing dream team and showers them with weapons and abilities.
659
660[[WMG: The Church has no problems with WhiteMagic in modern times ''because'' Dracula is such a classic CardCarryingVillain.]]
661Dracula finds pretending to be an Angel of Light insulting; so he ''never'' sugarcoats BlackMagic. It's obvious from the get-go that the covens within Castlevania itself are diabolists. He never shows any favoritism to communities that condemn white-magic users; in fact, given his disgust in humanity and what happened to his wife, he probably targets them ''first''. Centuries of this after Sypha's time, and the Church is more than willing to have WhiteMagic witches like Charlotte and Yoko as members.
662
663[[WMG: Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' is actually a romanticized version of actual events.]]
664Let's think things over very carefully here.
665** One, Bram Stoker was well-known among literature critics at his time as a hopeless romanticist, and most of his work outside Dracula is in fact, rather romantic in their tone. Even some of the most terrifying stories he wrote (Such as "Burial of the Rats") had romantic overtones.
666** Two, if Dracula and Bram Stoker both exist in the same Castlevania continuity, then that means Stoker wrote a book based on a group of Vampire Killers who went after Dracula after he attempted to dominate jolly old England.
667** This leads us to three. In actuality, Harker, Van Helsing, and the others were actually friends to current owner of the Vampire Killer, Quincy Morris (Similar to Sypha Belnades, Alucard, and Grant da Nasty to Trevor). However, Harker and Stoker were actually friends, so Stoker decided, since popular opinion would not believe in things like some evil vampire, to write it and sell it as fiction. And then he took some artistic liberties, writing most of it from his friend's account with some input from a few of the other survivors.
668** In addition, the Vampire Killer and the history of the Belmonts and Morrises was excluded at Van Helsing's request. He felt that because the Morrises were already in great danger thanks to "zat [[PrecisionFStrike fockink]] vhip", publishing a book that reveals the connection the Morrises and Belmonts have would further jeopardize them.
669** Finally, Stoker wrote that Quincy Morris was
670*** A) a suitor for Lucy.
671*** B) killed by Dracula.
672** This is only half-true:
673*** A) If memory serves me correctly, Quincy had gone to live in New York before visiting England and falling for Lucy. John Morris' bio reveals he is from Texas. This might mean the reason Quincy moved from Texas to New York is that he divorced John's mother.
674*** B) He was not killed instantly, but sustained such horrendous wounds that he understood his time was near, and decided to retire back to Texas where his son and first wife lived, so that he could die among his loved ones. So technically, [[TearJerker John did watch his father die, but not before Quincy patched things up with the missus.]]
675
676[[WMG: ''Lords of Shadow'' timeline was created because Galamoth succeeded in ''Judgment'']]
677Aeon failed to prevent Galamoth and the Time Reaper from killing Dracula and creating a TimeParadox. Without Mathias to take his place as the Dark Lord, the world was recreated into one where Gabriel Belmont would be the one to take the place of the Dark Lord.
678
679[[WMG: Adding to the above, Galamoth was reborn into the new continuity as the Daemon Lord]]
680A large, powerful monstrous demon that is still capable of speech who was defeated by Dracula, only to come back years later, surrounded by witches, with intent to overthrow the new dark lord, yet who keeps getting defeated by Dracula's child instead, despite their common enemy? Sounds familiar. Granted, his appearance is completely different and one wonders how Galamoth would respond to being mechanically reconstructed... unless it had something to do with that robot in the Game Boy ''Kid Dracula''...
681
682[[WMG: The Monsters in the castle are made by the Devil Forgemasters.]]
683The monsters from myth and lore (Like Cthulhu, or the Greek monsters, or the Oz monsters) were simply recreations made by Dracula, Death, and the Devil Forgemasters using souls and their magic to... Uhh... Forge demons, based on folklore and their own knowledge, as to better convey fear and submission on mankind through familiar faces of their lore. Like, for instance, to attack Brazil, Dracula would require many Curupiras (A prankster spirit of sorts in my country's folklore), and would demand that Death and the Devil Forgemasters create them and used them as artifices to better convey fear on a region through their specific cultural knowledge. That would also explain why they are submissive to Dracula (He controls souls, and since the monsters are made from souls, yeah...) and why are they so weak compared to their fictional counterparts. They are made to be powerful, indeed, but most importantly, visually threatening. They cannot be as powerful as they are in their home fiction simply because it would require a WALLOP of souls to reproduce such power. So they try making them *strong*, enough to execute supernatural/strong/magical feats.\
684Dracula's huge library was one good evidence for such extended cultural and fictional knowledge being used as a base for his ever growing army (which came to encompass even Cryptozoology). Proof of this are creatures that were never even hypothesized to exist, not even through legends, created exclusively for fiction, like Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow, or Cthulhu, or The Creature, or Chronomage.\
685And let's not forget that Devil Forgemasters learned their trade from Dracula himself. On [=CoD=], their power is said to rival Death, so I assumed that it was most logical for this to be one of Death's jobs -- to create an ever-growing army for Dracula using the souls he reaps. (And the explanation for "no more Devil Forgemasters on the franchise" is that when Dracula had two, very early on his first attempt at terrorizing mankind, one of them failed miserably in serving him, and the other was used as a vessel, but was too weak to withstand him, leading him to not trust humans as his so-close partners because they would fail again, prompting him and Death in making the legendary monsters by themselves.)\
686This doesn't explain how he has access to Cthulhu before Lovecraft was born though, but I'm inclined to believe in a "timeless" library of sorts... Or the souls composing one of his Cthulhus simply influenced Lovecraft in a nightmare or something... Or Death can see in the future, maybe?...\
687The most common monsters (Zombies, Skeletons, Animated Armors, Bats, Lesser uncategorized demons like Imps) would be just products of necromancy/mind control/magic mutation/wild creatures controlled through instinct, explaining why Dracula has such a big array of experts in the dark arts.\
688Obs: not My WMG, it belongs to "ThePlotTwist" from the Castlevania Mugen (by Serio) Forum
689
690[[WMG: [[GreaterScopeVillain Chaos]] is Death's true master but still sees Dracula as a friend, but he will serve any Dark Lord]]
691Despite being "that which governs death", Death seems very eager to obey the Dark Lord, regardless of whom it may be. In the end of his story in ''Judgment'', it goes as far to say "Death, unconstrained by mortality, pursued every possible means of reviving his master. He sowed the seeds of evil by weakening the faith of man. Why would such a being serve Dracula so loyally? Perhaps there is some greater force at play behind it all..." This greater force is none other than Chaos itself. As the ultimate evil of the Castlevania universe, it's the only creature with the power to always order Death. As Chaos' main purpose is to choose a Dark Lord, he assigns Death to their service to safeguard the Dark Lord to maintain the balance between a being of absolute good (God) and absolute evil (The Dark Lord). In ''Lament of Innocence'', Death betrays Walter despite him being a master vampire and the Lord of the Castle in favor of the mortal Mathias. This was because Chaos sensed the hatred of God and utter despair within Mathias' soul, and decided this made him a better candidate for being the Dark Lord than the arrogant and [[WhoWantsToLiveForever bored]] Walter, and thus assigned Death to safeguard his ascent to becoming Dracula, and to assist him whenever he resurrects and even take the means himself to resurrect Dracula if he knows how to (such as when he was Zead).
692
693However, his dialogue throughout the games makes it very clear he does have respect for Dracula. This is especially true in ''Portrait of Ruin'', where he seems genuinely upset that Brauner is usurping Dracula's position as Lord of the Castle. Not only is he trying to overthrow his friend, but he is not the Dark Lord and as such has no claims to Death's loyalty, unlike all the other monsters of the castle which are all loyal to Brauner.
694
695This is why he is hostile to Soma Cruz in ''Aria'' and ''Dawn of Sorrow''. He is aware that this is Dracula's reincarnation, his old friend, but he is not the Dark Lord, and as such will not serve him. Graham seemed to be the most likely candidate to become the Dark Lord at the time, and under Chaos' instruction fought on his side. However, should the Bad Ending occur and Soma succumb to Chaos and become Dracula, he will serve Soma until Soma is finally killed for good. Likewise, however, if Dmitri or Dario became the Dark Lord, he would fall under their service as well, despite Chaos being dead (unless the creation of a new Dark Lord also heralds the creation of a new Chaos, whom he will also serve).
696
697[[WMG: Mathias Cronqvist isn't Dracula. Gabriel Belmont killed him and stole the Crimson Stone.]]
698The Game itself never says he's Dracula himself, remember! Gabriel Belmont on the other hand, did. Soma's goodness is a result of [[spoiler:Gabriel's goodness in seeking the destruction of Satan as God's Chosen One]]. Lords of Shadow 2 takes place ''after'' Soma's lifetime upon which Death/Zobek awakened/ressurected him.
699
700[[WMG:The Crimson and Ebony Stones are the sealed versions of [[VideoGame/{{Contra}} Red Falcon and Black Viper]].]]
701It's a Creator/{{Konami}} game, and there's other evidence of a shared universe (in other theories and even in canon - [[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Zelos Force]] menaces the world of ''VideoGame/{{Contra}} Rebirth''), and crimson and ebony are specific kinds of red and black. It's easy to theorize that instead of the aliens being summoned by stealing the [[ArtifactOfDoom Relic of Moirai]], they were [[SealedEvilInACan unsealed by disturbing it]].
702
703[[WMG: The glyphs in ''Order of Ecclesia'' are actually [[VideoGame/{{Suikoden}} runes]].]]
704And the Ecclesia specializes on them. When everyone else besides Shanoa casts a Glyph sorcery, the Glyphs appear in the air for a while, just like what the runes on Suikoden would do.
705
706The Dominus Glyphs could be actually one of the True Runes. True Runes choose their owner and cannot be obtained simplistically like the original runes, and they have their own will and have been said to be godlike.
707
708Who did the Dominus Glyph choose? Shanoa herself. It's Dracula's power, and he's actually an evil god. And most of the glyphs that Shanoa uses has a similar counterpart on Suikoden's runes.
709
710[[WMG:Elizabeth Bartley targeted Eric Lecarde's girlfriend Gwendolyn as an indirect way of getting back at Alucard.]]
711Elizabeth from ''Bloodlines'' is the Dark Lord's niece, and [[DaddysLittleVillain Uncle's Little Villain]] at that. Naturally, this means that she's Alucard's cousin, although the two have never interacted and we know virtually nothing else about Elizabeth (particularly, which side of the family she hails from). Alucard is at least 560 years old, given the window between [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse his first chronological appearance]] (1476) and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow his latest]] (2036-37); presumably all vampires (Elizabeth included) are gifted with such longevity/immortality, given Walter's presence in ''Lament'' and Mathias/Dracula not meeting Lisa until a few centuries after the end of that same game. By that logic, Elizabeth might have grown up alongside Alucard, or at least had some sort of off-screen association with him prior to the events of ''III''. If the two were indeed close, Elizabeth might have reacted to his actions in one of several different ways, none positively. Maybe she was disgusted that Alucard would (help) kill his own father and hated him for it. Or maybe she wanted Alucard to take her away into hibernation with him, and felt betrayed that he'd abandon her like that. While the rumors of the Lecarde family's possible origins in Alucard (and Maria) have yet to be addressed, Eric ''did'' inherit the Alucard Spear. So, centuries down the road, an embittered Elizabeth decided to work out her grudge by screwing with Eric's love life [[RevengeByProxy as an affront to her memory of Alucard]].
712
713[[WMG: Sypha and Trevor had a SolomonDivorce]]
714That's why Sypha is considered the matriarch of the Belnades clan despite being married to Trevor, and why the clan still exists at all. They had lots of children, but half of them took the Belmont name and half of them took the Belnades name.
715
716[[WMG: The distant relatives to the Belmont clan and the main house are all equally descended from Leon...]]
717But the ability to use the Vampire Killer is unrelated to being descended from Leon. Well, not Leon specifically. It depends on being descended from the prior users. Say that Leon had two kids, Alice and Bob. Alice gets the whip and passes it to her son Aaron. Meanwhile, Bob has a daughter named Barbara. Aaron and Barbara are equally descended from Leon as his grandkids, but Barbara can't use the whip because she's not descended from Alice. Things might get a bit messy when non-Belmonts use the whip and die before they can have descendants. That would render the whip unusable, unless it only matters if you're descended from a majority of the users.
718
719[[WMG: Soma's Power of Dominance is responsible for his level ups]]
720He gets a tiny bit of soul from every monster he kills. Explains how his BagOfSpilling worked; he is said to lose all of the souls he gained. Works for why he has no special abilities, but if he got stronger from the souls as well...\
721As for why he didn't bring his absurd weapons, maybe he lost his luggage on the plane? And he wasn't carrying his stuff around in the intro.
722
723[[WMG: Dracula's reincarnation WAS born the moment that he died]]
724Except for whatever reason, said reincarnation died on the day Soma was born. Or...
725
726[[WMG: The reason why Soma was not born at the same time of Dracula's death is because his soul was being processed]]
727Dracula's power was taken from him and given to Graham, Dimitri, and Dario, and presumably some other people. Removing all those powers from his soul took time, and when his actual soul was brought back into the world as Soma years had passed. Soma still got the Power of Dominance because whoever was doing the processing figured that giving him one power wouldn't hurt. Or it was too hard to remove.
728
729[[WMG: Leon is the Poltergeist King]]
730Leon died and came back as a ghost to keep an eye on his descendants and make sure that they're a) doing all right and b) still killing the night. Somehow the Vampire Killer got lost, and he had to pick it up and get it to Trevor. Leon is also the Oracle in ''Simon's Quest''. Since he's so androgynous, Simon mistook him for a woman and Leon never bothered to correct him.
731
732[[WMG: Hammer was in the Navy]]
733Just to make the parallels with CV III more fitting. He's not a pirate, but a sailor.
734
735[[WMG: The Crimson Stone gave Mathias the Power of Dominance]]
736For this WMG, these facts are known.
737* The Crimson Stone gives the user power over Death.
738* The Crimson Stone is the reason why Dracula is so powerful.
739* The Crimson Stone requires the soul of a vampire lord to be created.
740* The user of the Crimson Stone becomes a vampire.
741* The Power of Dominance is the only power passed on to Soma, Dracula's reincarnation.
742* Death can be absorbed with Dominance.
743What if the Stone gave Dracula the Power of Dominance, which was meant to be used on Death? Dominance over the Succubus soul makes the user bite like a vampire, maybe Dominating a vampire turns the user into one? Dominance is probably Dracula's most important power, because it was the only one Soma got.
744** Question: How could Soma have inherited a power that Mathias gained artificially? Furthermore, what the heck happened to Walter's soul?
745** How about this: technically, the Crimson Stone only grants power over Death (and turns the user into a vampire), but then Death taught Dracula Dominance.
746
747[[WMG: In Julius Mode of Dawn of Sorrow, Soma Dominated Dario, and found a way to bring back both him and Dmitrii]]
748They're both fought in Julius Mode, but neither have any dialogue. Given that Julius would probably want to take them in, it's pretty strange that no one acknowledges that. Perhaps stealing their souls also steals their free will?
749Dmitrii allowed himself to be Dominated by Soma after their boss fight, which was the start of a chain of events where Soma became Dracula in the Bad Ending. Somehow, Soma found him, stripped of all his power, kicked him out and/or Dominated him properly, and forced him to guard the spot where Soma fought him. Dario just ran off after fighting with Soma. But Castlevania is a huge place, and OffscreenTeleportation didn't work out for him. Soma tracked him down, killed him, Dominated his soul, and then made him guard the spot where they fought.
750
751[[WMG: Hector and Isaac made all of the weapons, artifacts, and armor found in the Metroidvania games]]
752Hector and Isaac are the only confirmed Devil Forgemasters. They made all sorts of stuff. That's why there are so many weapons lying around that none of the bosses ever use. Both Hector and Isaac were careful to put their weapons away, but the ChaosArchitecture scattered them all over the castle. The castle probably doesn't bring all the loot out every time, which is why the place still has stuff even after several people grabbed everything they could find.
753The weaker things are probably failures or ones they made as apprentices. Not all of the weapons in the games are found in Curse of Darkness, but that can be Hand Waved as stuff they made offscreen, before the game. Hector can't make those weapons in the game because he's strapped for resources, as opposed to the resident Dark Lord giving him what he needs. Several hundred weapons is a rather tall order... but we don't know how long Isaac's been at the forge (Hector spent about four years).
754
755[[WMG: In Aria, Hammer had a mission to track down someone]]
756He says that he was supposed to guard the shrine, which seems pretty unlikely for not only a soldier, but an American soldier in Japan. He mentions a mission that he abandoned, so maybe the mission is classified. It seems pretty suspicious that he was assigned to a shrine. He was probably sent to spy on someone.
757* Graham: Member of an apocalypse cult and Yoko is already investigating him. The US military took an interest?
758* Yoko, Mina, or Soma: Unlikely, because Hammer doesn't seem to recognize them.
759* Arikado: Super suspicious guy who hasn't aged for a decade, no background and suddenly appeared from nowhere.
760* Julius: Amnesiac, maybe Hammer's superior knows him and wanted to find him?
761
762[[WMG: The Dark Lord Candidates (and Graham) in Dawn had the souls of monsters inside them]]
763Somewhere on this wiki, someone said that the powers that those who were born at the same moment when Dracula died less resembled Dracula's own powers and more resembled in-game monsters. What if after Dracula died, all the souls that he had left him and latched onto children? Dario got Aguni, Dmitrii got a Doppelganger, and we don't know what kind of powers Graham got.
764After killing Aguni, Soma's claim that he stole Dario's power seems less like he removed his power boost from Aguni and more like he took Dario's original fire powers. In other words, Dario received Aguni's soul when he was born. Celia's magic made the connection stronger instead of summoning Aguni and somehow forcing it to give Dario its power.
765The scene where Dmitrii survives being Dominated by Soma by using the Doppelganger's body makes a bit more sense if Dmitrii and the Doppelganger were more closely related.
766
767[[WMG: Some Dracula theories]]
768* First is that meeting Lisa actually mellowed him (under the alias of Vlad Tepes) out for a time but her death really got things going. Though this begs the question of if there was an ulterior motive behind Lisa's trial by one of Drac's supernatural allies (and thus it's where Issac got the same idea of doing that with Hector's wife)
769* He took the name after the original passed on in some sense and inspired him to take up the name, and used his time to try out a few things without drawing too much attention but found that the good done even with such harsh methods felt good.
770* Post Sot N, Dracula the man once known as Matthias actually did give up after fighting Alucard. However, Dracula the Dark Lord/avatar of evil kept on reviving, resulting in a silted personality and issues with his One winged angel forms (admittedly from a previous WMG, but it fits well enough). Then after the final defeat, the former's soul was freed to reincarnate into someone not locked to the path of evil.
771
772[[WMG:Dracula isn't Dracula]]
773So Castlevania the location is alive and it always has a master. The Theory is thus, If you are the master of castlevani for a long enough time then you become Dracula. Dracula is a persona worn by the master of the castle created by the castle itself. That handilly explains how Mathias and Vlad Teppes can both be Dracula. anytime "Dracula" is brought back to unlife that is merely the last body he used becoming the host.
774
775[[WMG:The August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse marks the birth of Soma Cruz]]
776In 1999, Dracula was defeated and his castle was sealed within a solar eclipse. In 2035, another solar eclipse marks his attempted revival and the beginning of Soma's involvement. 2017 happens to be exactly halfway between those two years, and in addition, since Soma is 18 years old in 2035, he must have been born in that year as well.
777* As an added wrinkle, the 1999 solar eclipse took place in Europe, which is where Dracula's castle would have been at the time. The expected total solar eclipse in 2035 will hit Japan, justifying that bit. As for 2017's eclipse... it is centered over the US. Maybe Soma Cruz really ''is'' an exchange student after all!
778
779[[WMG:Richter Mode in Symphony of the Night is what Richter THINKS he's doing while he's being controlled by Shaft]]
780So from his perspective, he's back in Castlevania and fighting his way through to defeat Dracula again. Then Alucard arrives and frees him from Shaft's brainwashing, at which point he realises what he's ACTUALLY been doing and freaks out.
781
782[[WMG: The [=DSvanias=] each have a hint on how the 1999 games would go, or an important piece used to kill Dracula for once and for all.]]
783Given how the series has currently ended (or on hiatus, not counting the Reboots) with the [=DSvanias=] being the latest ones, it seems plausible that the [=DSvanias=] each had a hint on how Dracula's resurrection can be stopped and to make Castlevania stop appearing. Befittingly (and somewhat sadly), it might've also been the last game in the Castlevania series as a whole.
784
785* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'': It's mentioned in the game that it was with the help of a Hakuba Shrine Priestess that Castlevania was sealed away. This would be one of the points of the game.
786* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'': Here, we're shown by Brauner that it's possible to separate Dracula from his power, effectively keeping him from resurrecting fully and being able to redirect it to one's own ends. Undoubtedly, Charlotte and Jonathan could live long enough to record and pass this information, making it one way to kill Dracula.
787* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaOrderOfEcclesia'': In the game, we're shown that Dracula can also be killed by his own power in the form of the Dominus Glyphs. Even though Shanoa was mentioned to have been forgotten in history, if ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' is of any indication with the Grimoire that keeps records of heroes who went into Castlevania and beat Dracula, she was evidently remembered and chronicled. She could've possibly passed on her techniques or knowledge to other Vampire hunters (or the Belmonts, if she lived the rest of her life in Wygol Village), which could be invaluable against Dracula.
788
789[[WMG: Chaos was the source of Dracula's powers due to the Power of Dominance]]
790Dracula gained the Power of Dominance via the Crimson Stone, but it was weaker and not enough to command legions of demons. Determined to gain strength to fight Leon's descendants; Dracula, Death at his side, ventured into the Chaotic Realm and fought Chaos... They won and Dracula took Chaos' soul which gifted him with immense power, allowing Dracula to build his armies and further improve his own abilities. This is why Soma's Power of Dominance seems much weaker in comparison, he doesn't have Chaos' nearly infinite supply of dark magic to make it stronger.
791* Furthermore, the dark orb in the final battle of Aria Of Sorrow is actually the Crimson Stone corrupted by Chaos. Chaos intended to use the Power of Dominance itself to control demons and become the new Dark Lord, but fortunately Soma is able to destroy the Crimson Stone AND Chaos itself before it was too late.
792
793[[WMG: Satan is the TheChessmaster]]
794It's rather strange that a series with a decidedly Judeo-Christian world has never (outside of the Lords of Shadow trilogy and a fan game) had the Devil appear or even mentioned that often. This is actually intentional: Satan is forced to stay in the background at all times since he is stuck in Hell, which is naturally his prison. So he manipulated events so that Dracula could come into being, essentially being Satan's unwitting puppet to wreak havoc on God's world and people. He even allowed one of his strongest servants, Death, to become Dracula's ally. Many events in the series can be attributed to Satan working behind the scenes as well: such as Lisa being burned as a witch and Richter succumbing to Shaft's possession. In the end though, God is the better chessmaster and Dracula is killed for good in the Battle of 1999. Satan tries to salvage his plans by leaving the Abyss and taking Castlevania for himself; but is stopped by none other than Death, who has since become more fond of Dracula as a master and wants to test the new young Dark Lord roaming the castle. In the resulting battle one of his fingers gets cut off, leaning behind Satan’s ring which ends up being found by Soma, Satan is then sucked back into Hell. Later he stirs Celia's cult, who are in fact satanists, into action in a last desperate attempt to create a Dark Lord... It fails and Satan devours Celia soul in anger when her soul enters Hell via the Abyss. He then transforms Dmitri into Menace to try and kill Soma out of spite... Thankfully that fails too.
795
796[[WMG: Jonathan is a draft dodger]]
797If he was enlisted, he'd have a hell of a time trying to explain to his superiors that he needs to leave the front lines/factory ''now'' so that he can take an unofficial mission deep into enemy territory, because he's the heir of an ancient Romanian family and needs to kill the villain of a classic horror movie. The Morris family is probably still rich from Quincey's time, and they might not want to fight their motherland or their relatives. Years after the war, he and his family was ridiculed as cowards for not fighting, unable to tell them what they were doing.
798
799[[WMG: The Forgotten One's name is completely literal.]]
800Walter got bored and decided to make a giant monster. However, partway through he decided that was also boring, and as such just kind of forgot about it. The Prison of Eternal Torture is sealed either because he did have a moment of awareness at the moment he got bored with it that he should probably lock it up because it would make a huge mess of the castle if it got out (whether or not it'd actually give him a hard time is debatable given that he was basically invincible up to Lament of Innocence's events), or because he thought it would be funny to waste some idiot hunter's time by leaving the Unlock Jewel so close to his position, and having them waste their time trying to figure out what it does.
801
802[[WMG: Also in Lament of Innocence, Joachim Mode is set in an alternate continuity where Leon lost.]]
803Joachim faked his death after being beaten by Leon, who went on to face Walter with the Vampire Killer. In spite of having the completed whip, he lost even after destroying Walter's defenses. Walter became enraged and killed the men he saw as responsible, Rinaldo (explaining why his cabin is vacant) and Mathias, taking the latter's Crimson Stone for himself and making Death his servant in the process. After cooling down he created the Joachim Doppelganger to replace the original and the Leon Fake in a sort of mocking respect to the man who almost did him in. The problem on his side, however, was that the Vampire Killer left a lasting hole in his defense, and Joachim either caught wind of this or chose to take a gamble and raided the castle. Using a new technique to cut down the Guardians including his Doppelganger and destroy the Leon Fake, he ultimately made his way to and defeated Walter and Death. He claimed the Ebony and Crimson Stones for himself as well as the Castle, and became both it and Death's new master.
804
805[[WMG: Dracula's castle is BiggerOnTheInside.]]
806
807[[WMG:Juste has a degree in interior design.]]
808Seeing as Dracula only revives once a century, he figured that he might as well make the most of his life and take up a day job instead of becoming nigh-useless once Dracula is gone. Hence why he takes time to decorate a random room even knowing it'll vanish along with the entire castle's owner.
809
810And that's why Richter was corrupted by Shaft; he easily milked Richter's "Well I kicked Dracula in the butt, what the hell do I do now?" worries to brainwash him.
811-> '''Maria:''' See Richter? I told you to apply at Wallachia-Mart, but ''no.''
812
813[[WMG: The doppelganger seen in ''Dawn'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was originally intended to be the real deal.]]]]
814Without disclosing who it impersonates to avoid spoilers, this specific doppelganger's behavior is completely contrary with other doppelgangers throughout the series; it's passive and able to talk, as opposed to most doppelgangers being silent and aggressive. This may be an artefact from a scenario scrapped during development in which it wasn't a fake.
815
816[[WMG: Dracula learned Dominance from Death]]
817Taking souls after dying sounds more like a reaper than a vampire. Dracula took an interest in how Death reaped souls one night, and Death taught him how to do it.
818
819[[WMG: A key event in ''Dawn'' runs on SchrodingersGun.]]
820Considering that there is no allusions in the bad ending that [[spoiler:Mina is a fake]] and that in Julius Mode, [[spoiler:Mina makes no appearance or isn't even mentioned.]] Namely, [[spoiler:if Soma doesn't have the talisman and subsequently [[FreakOut Freaks Out]], Mina is KilledOffForReal. If he does have the talisman, it was a FakeKillScare all along.]]
821
822[[WMG: The Soma Cruz copy inside the Grimoire in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' was corrupted because he took Dracula's (and 8-Bit Count's) soul. This represented accepting his identity as the Heir of Chaos.]]
823Which is why [[spoiler: he's a villain in ''Grimoire of Souls''.]]
824
825[[WMG: Lisa (and possibly Mina) is the reincarnation of Leon, not Elizabeth]]
826Admittedly, Elizabeth makes more sense, because the deaths of the same loved one drove Dracula further and further into evil. But Leon would make a plausible left-field twist.
827
828[[WMG: Slogra and Gaibon were originally enlisted to be Death's emotional support demons]]
829Something happened to Death after his role in ''Simon's Quest''. Whether it was his lackluster performance or the potential for Simon to ignore him completely, he seemingly lost all confidence in himself. Thus, he failed to appear in four of the next five ''Castlevania'' games (including the Famicom ''Kid Dracula''), and the one time he appeared in ''Dracula's Curse'', he had to be offered a comfortably nostalgic level for him to agree to it.
830
831This downward spiral stopped with ''Super Castlevania IV''. Death was not only given late-game boss status, but also a pair of minions who devoted themselves and reported specifically to him. And it worked. Death hasn't missed a game since, including the Game Boy ''Kid Dracula''. And while Slogra and Gaibon do not make as many appearances, he will still bring them along in times of need, particularly at times when Dracula isn't around to offer his own support.
832
833
834[[WMG: The REAL Dracula has only been killed six times in the whole Castlevania timeline and he always resurrected 100 years after each death]]
835Dracula was “Born” as a the lord of darkness in 1094 when Mathias Cronqvist fused his soul with the power of the Crimson Stone, from there he lived unmolested all the way to 1476 when he was killed by Trevor Belmont (Castlevania 3 for NES), exactly 100 years later in 1576, Dracula resurrected and challenged Christopher Belmont (Castlevania Adventure for Game Boy), Dracula lost his duel with Christopher but manage to escape with his life, 15 years later in 1591 Dracula kidnapped Christopher´s son Soleyu Belmont, and challenge Christopher to a rematch, this time Christopher truly killed Dracula (Belmont’s Revenge for Game Boy), exactly 100 years later in 1691 Dracula resurrected and challenged Simon Belmont, and lost dying again apparently a short time after his resurrection (Castlevania 1 for NES), my theory is that it took Simon Belmont a few months to prepare and travel all the way to the castle, and Dracula resurrected in the later months of 1691, so it was already 1692 when Simon Belmont killed him, for that reason the next documented resurrection of Dracula occurs in 1792, exactly 100 years after his death, this time Dracula challenges Richter Belmont (Castlevania: Rondo of Blood for PC Engine) he lost the duel but escapes with the help of the dark priest Shaft, setting the stage for fan’s favorite (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PSX) which takes place 5 years later in 1797, and this time is Alucard the one that puts old Dracula back into the grave. Now here comes an interesting turn of events, exactly 100 years later, in 1897 is when the events of the novel “Dracula” from Bram Stoker took place, in the novel Quincey Morris is the one that kills Dracula, this is consistent with the lore of Castlevania witch indicates that the Morris family is a clan of vampire hunters similar to the Belmont family, now the last documented resurrection of Dracula occurs in 1999, (And was apparently set to fulfill Nostradamus’s prophecy of the end of the world) since each resurrection occurs 100 years after the last death, I presume that in the Castlevania lore, it took Quincey Morris and his companions about 2 years to find and kill Dracula, finally in 1999 Julius Belmont killed Dracula for good by separating Dracula´s soul from the power of the Crimson Stone by sealing the Castlevania Castle inside the solar eclipse. In 2017 another solar eclipse occurs and the soul of Mathias Cronqvist now separated from the power of Castlevania escapes the eclipse and is reborn in earth as Soma Cruz, this last one does not follow the 100 years’ rule, because is not an actual resurrection of the being known as “Dracula” who was truly destroyed in 1999, but a reincarnation of the soul of the human Mathias Cronqvist.
836All the other Castlevania games have “Fake Draculas” as bosses, a “Fake Dracula” is created when Death or another villain tries to incarnated the power of the Crimson Stone in a human vessel to create a new lord of the darkness without having to wait for the 100 years’ regeneration cycle to conclude, for example, in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Death planned to use Hector’s body as a human vessel, but when that failed he settle for using Isaac’s body, this means that any human body that is 1. Strong enough, and 2. Corrupted enough with hatred, could be used as a human vessel to create a “Fake Dracula”, similar examples could be found in all the games not include in this list of proper resurrections.
837
838[[WMG: The real Soma will appear in Grimoire]]
839The one seen so far is from the Grimoires, and [[spoiler:is antagonistic]]. The realspace Soma will be recruited into the group, and comment on how strange it is to see another self.
840
841
842[[WMG: Arikado was right, for God to be perfectly good the Lord of Darkness is necessary.]]
843For God to be perfectly good he should always offer a chance for redemption, in his infinite goodness God will not abandon or destroy any single soul, he has infinite compassion and infinite patience and knows that every soul could be eventually cleansed and saved, but that cleansing requires genuine repent, and repent requires time, time to ponder one’s actions and decisions and decide by own free will change for the better, until that time comes, the tainted souls are keep safely contained in a supernatural “Prison” or “Reformatory” of sorts, this reformatory is “Castlevania” the “Lord of Darkness” is no supposed to be an enemy of God, his true role is more akin to a Custodian that should dominate all the tainted souls and keep them within the castle, so that they could work through their issues without being a treat to anyone else.
844
845[[WMG: Not all souls keep in Castlevania are “Evil”, some just have imperfections that keep them from moving to heaven, and some of the Belmont’s souls are among them]]
846Building on the premise that Castlevania is a “Reformatory” of sorts, not all the souls inside are there for being pure evil, some are just misguided or troubled or a little to obsessed with one aspect of their former lives, for example succubus may be women that were too attached to the pleasures of carnal love while alive and could not let go of their intense lust, zombies could be regular people that just could not accept their own death and thus their immortal souls keep clinging to their rotten corpses, Witches and Witch students were young girls that got captivated by their curiosity for the secrets of Dark Magic, Ghost Dancers were aristocrats so absorbed in enjoying their privileged life of dances and banquettes that they became literally incapable of noticing, much less empathizing with the less privileged people existing around them.
847Now about the Belmonts, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, tells us that Dark Priest Shaft used magic to mind control Richter Belmont, but to do so he exploited an already present weakness in Richter’s personality, he truly wanted to keep fighting Dracula forever, through his life of training he had become so absorbed in his role as a vampire hunter, that he wanted to keep fighting even after he had already won; now ¿is it possible that this over attachment has also affected other Belmonts before him?
848Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, presents us with two interesting gameplay pieces, one is the “Guest Star” apparition of legendary vampire hunter Simon Belmont in all his 8 Bit glory in the boss rush mode, the other is the completely optional quest to decorate an empty room inside the Castlevania, now both of these could be handwoven away as just History and gameplay segregation, but I have the theory that in his own time Simon Belmont became a little too attached to his job as vampire hunter, and that strong desire to keep fighting monsters prevented his soul from ascending to heaven, so his souls returned to Castlevania, were he kept fighting to his heart´s content, until he finally had enough and felt ready to move on to the next level of existence. This theory will also explain the apparition of Richter and Maria in the extra mode of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, now concerning the empty room, is a common joke that it made no sense for Juste Belmont to decorate it, since he knew, for the recount of the adventures of his own ancestors, that the Castle will crumble to pieces the moment he defeated Dracula, but what if, he decided to decorate that room, just in case is own soul desired to go back to Castlevania after his own death, this theory will also sort of tie in with the Dual Crush “Greatest Five” in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, an attack that summon the souls Richter, Leon, Trevor, Juste, and Simon Belmont to attack, so in conclusion, in his own way Castlevania is not only the home of Dracula, but the ancestral home of the Belmonts as well.
849
850[[WMG: Each "Simon Belmont" with different character designs was technically a separate Simon]]
851It was the Middle Ages. People were not opposed to recycling names ad infinitum. The Belmont clan probably overflows with kids named "Leon" and "Matthias" and "Trevor" and "Christopher" and "Simon" and so on.
852
853(What this means for the Simon who shows up in Harmony of Dissonance is anything goes. Take your pick of "heroic spirit", "ghost with unfinished business", "Juste's brother/cousin/whatever", etc.)
854
855[[WMG: The VK only doesn't kill holders when they are the reincarnation of Leon]]
856Sara is a one man woman. She recognizes only one true owner of the whip--Leon--and given that only her soul is in the whip that means she can only connect properly with Leon's soul.
857
858Given the Belmonts' close connection with the church, and the church's willingness to use sorcery so long as it suits their ends, I would not be surprised if shenanigans were being used to ensue that every time Leon is reborn, it's in the body of a Belmont descendant. (Or, the net gets cast wider and whoever the whip doesn't reject in that generation gets adopted into the Belmont clan.)
859
860[[WMG: Alternatively, ''Dracula'' only comes back as a threat when he notices that Leon's reincarnated]]
861Matthias could not get over being rejected by the man he loved like a friend and a brother (and however much HoYay you want to add to this). But he also knows that Leon's sworn an oath to chase him to the ends of the earth, so he makes sure that Leon has something to do when he's walking the earth again.
862
863[[WMG: In case of revisiting the IGA-verse, there will be a distant sequel, but...]]
864It no longer bears the name 'Castlevania'. It's a brand new setting taking place in the future (or a reset to medieval setting caused by an apocalyptical event), with new BigBad and Lord of Darkness. Why is that? Based on the ending of ''Dawn of Sorrow'', Alucard/Arikado claimed that if Soma doesn't want to be the Dark Lord, the world will choose someone else for the position. This theory is the realization of those claims: Even without Dracula, Belmonts and Vampire Killer, evil and darkness finds a way and a new group of good guys will find be there to fight it.
865
866This allows Konami to not be tied with the timeline created by IGA and gives more freedom for them. But I don't expect this coming very soon, not in the current turbulent era of video game development or their down-in-the-dumps reputation. But maybe there will be, one day. Or failing that, IGA does that himself (or turn ''Bloodstained'' into one, just as long as he doesn't directly reference the whole ''Castlevania'' series as backstory).

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