Characters / Castlevania (2017): Dracula

Castlevania (2017) Character Index
Protagonists | Antagonists (Dracula, Dracula's Army, Styrian Council) | Other

---

Vlad Dracula Ţepeş

Voiced by: Graham McTavish (English), Naoya Uchida (Japanese), Carlos Segundo (Latin American Spanish), Klaus Dieter Klebsch (German)

"I do this last kindness in her name, she who loved you humans and cared for your ills. Take your family and leave Wallachia tonight. Pack and go, and do not look back. For no more do I travel as a man."

The Big Bad of the series and the "King of Vampires", Vlad Dracula Ţepeş. A powerful vampire whom secluded himself in his castle before being visited by a woman named Lisa, that event would end up changing his life forever. Unfortunately the Church got a hold of his wife and burned her at the stake after condemning her as a witch. Consumed by sorrow and pure raw rage, he now seeks vengeance on all of humanity for his loss, condemning them all to genocide...

---

A-E

• Abusive Parents: He scarred Alucard when his son tried to reason with his father that they shouldn't kill all of humanity. Later it's revealed to be completely averted in regard to him and Lisa raising Alucard. By all accounts from the second-to-final episode For Love, Dracula dearly loved and still loves his son, commenting that it was both he and Lisa that painted his room and made the toys that child Alucard played with. In fact, just being in Alucard's room is enough to snap him out of his Unstoppable Rage and push him into My God, What Have I Done? territory. Dracula is so utterly devastated when he realizes what he was doing and filled with shame that he willingly lets his son kill him to end the horror that he has become.
  Dracula: [Lisa's] greatest gift to me... and I'm killing him.
• Adaptational Badass: Despite being just a Vampire Monarch rather than an Eldritch Abomination. In the games Dracula is routinely defeated by the Belmonts and was once beaten by Alucard. In this series, Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard all working together still couldn't beat him, even when he's half-starved and weaker that he should have been, and he would have WON if not for his Villainous BSoD.
• Adaptational Heroism: He makes a Heel–Face Turn after being brought back in the finale.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: A downplayed version. Dracula is still the Big Bad with a history of killing humans for petty reasons but he's not as bloodthirsty or cruel as most interpretations of his character. Helping this is the fact that the show goes into depth about how his most recent rampage is a result of outside forces.
• Adaptational Villainy: Via Adaptation Expansion: while Dracula has never been a paragon of virtue, in the game continuity, he never terrorized humanity until after Lisa's death. The worst he ever did was manipulate circumstances and people behind the scenes (which, unfortunately, led to a loved one’s death) and oppose God. What he did in the interim between Lament of Innocence and Dracula’s Curse is left to the imagination (besides marrying Lisa and fathering Alucard, of course). Our introduction to Dracula in this continuity is countless skeletons impaled on spikes. Right on his front doorstep.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • A somewhat downplayed version of this trope is in play for this version of Dracula. While he is indeed a force to be reckoned with, the loss of Lisa and implied abstinence from human blood as left him pretty weak by the time Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha fought him.
  • In the games, Dracula is an Eldritch Abomination more than a simple Vampire Monarch. He's tied to hell through his connection to Chaos which is the primal well of all evil and destruction that both collects the evil of existence and spreads it. The game version of Dracula has dominion over all dark forces on earth and all monsters or evil creatures are subservient to him with him being capable of feats up to and including Reality Warping. The castle in the game is also a Genius Loci and Eldritch Location that changes every time it appears with some of the parts of it being separate dimensions apart from the normal world as opposed to a highly complex Magitek construct.
• Adaptation Distillation: His first wife Elisabetha Cronqvist is unmentioned in the animation, which makes Lisa "the only love [he] ever knew", even though Elisabetha was the reason he chose to become a vampire. His backstory in general is not mentioned much beyond a generations-long rivalry with the Belmonts, starting with Leon.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Played with. Pre-Ayami Kojima artworks had him with black hair, but Kojima-drawn artwork has his hair color as platinum blonde. It's black in the series.
• Adaptation Name Change: Dracula introduces himself as "Vlad Dracula Ţepeş", while in the Japanese dub this is "Dracula Vlad Ţepeş", the official order in Japan. The English version of Symphony of the Night had it as "Vlad Ţepeş Dracula".^note Since "Dracula" means "Son of the Dragon" ("Dracul", meaning "dragon", being the title of the real Vlad the Impaler's father) and Ţepeş is actually a common word meaning "impaler", Vlad Dracula Ţepeş is likely the most culturally and grammatically accurate.
• Adapted Out:
  • His One-Winged Angel forms are not adapted.
  • His vitriol against God is notably absent in this version (Although, dialogue from some of his forces at least imply that he and God are not on friendly terms). His hatred seems to be directed squarely at humanity. Sure, he attacks the church, but considering the sort of people running the establishment, it's hardly surprising.
• Affably Evil: While his demeanor and Kill All Humans plan may prove otherwise, Dracula has the capacity to show respect, kindness, and love to those closest to him.
• Alas, Poor Villain: His death is played in a completely tragic and sombre manner, and his own son and executioner grieves for his death.
• Amazon Chaser: The misanthropic Dracula immediately takes a liking to Lisa because she is not scared by him as easily as most other humans, she does not immediately assume that he is the devil that the likes of the Belmonts and the church believe him to be, and her belief in a better future through science and medicine over superstition.
  Dracula: I think I might like you.
• Ambiguous Start of Darkness: It's left unclear exactly when Dracula descended into the feared vampire lord he was when he met Lisa. While the series focuses a lot more on Dracula's weariness of humans, Leon Belmont's cameo appearance in a portrait and alluded history hint that he still might have backstabbed him in return for vampirism in this continuity.
• And Then What?: Justified. Lisa's death drained Dracula of any kind of affection for life, even that of his fellow vampires, and even his own. Dracula's ultimate goal of killing all of humanity serves no practical purpose other than taking out his anger on those he believes have wronged him, uncaring that this act will cause vampire-kind to starve. Several of Dracula's inner circle even point this out to him, but Dracula doesn't care, admitting he's "tired" and just wants it all to end. Carmilla, Hector, and even Godbrand express frustration over how overwhelmed Dracula is with apathy; the very obvious flaws in his plan going unaddressed causes a few of the vampires to openly discuss finding a way to remove him from the equation.
• The Antichrist: The exact origins and purpose of Dracula's immense power and authority over vampirekind are unknown, but most vampires revere him, and some were eagerly awaiting the day he would lead them into conquering the human world. However, though they get do get their wish, a select few express their disappointment that what finally motivated Dracula to wage war on humanity was the murder of a human wife, and that becoming a shell of the man he used to has caused a nihilistic Dracula to campaign for mankind's extinction rather than its subjugation.
• Anti-Villain: Downplayed. While it has been noted In-Universe (from Alucard and Trevor) that Dracula's anger at humanity for unjustly killing his wife is understandable, they both also point out his Kill All Humans plan is insane, and he needs to be stopped.
• Apologetic Attacker: Nonviolent example. When Isaac prepares to die defending Dracula from the heroes, the vampire lord apologizes for going against his friend's wishes before sending Isaac away from the battle.
• Archnemesis Dad: To Alucard. His son attempted to talk his father out of his plan to eradicate all of humanity, but it only resulted in his father scarring him. And now, Alucard is prepared to fight his father, even if it results in the latter's death.
• Ax-Crazy: Dracula is an unstable genocidal vampire that wants to kill every last human on earth. Before controlling his armies from afar he often enjoyed making the humans suffer and personally burning down their cities by himself along with brutally killing whatever merchants he could get his hands on. Though he normally attempts to keep his cool nowadays to lead an army, but a small trigger can let out his homicidal tendencies.
• Badass Boast: After he finally loses it in his fight against the main trio, he charges Dark Inferno while letting loose with this:
  Dracula: I am no ordinary vampire to be killed by your human magics... I am Vlad Dracula Ţepeş... And I have had ENOUGH!
• Back from the Dead: The main motivation for many of his followers (except Carmilla's side) is to bring him back to life after he dies, though all the attempts to do so end in failure...except the last one, when he and Lisa inexplicably come back alive without repercussions in the final episode.
• Badass Cape: Dracula wears a long, red and black cape.
• Barehanded Blade Block: He catches Alucard's sword between his fingers when he tries to impale him.
• Beard of Evil: A pointy, sinister Van Dyke type.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • Played straight with Lisa. Besides standing up to the Vampire Lord himself and not being easily cowed by his intimidation, Dracula also fell hard for Lisa because she didn't assume he's the devil when they first meet and treats him like a normal person.
  • Inverted. Dracula didn't spare the elderly woman he warned as his "last act of kindness" because she was kind to him. He spared her because she was the only person to pay respects to Lisa after her execution as a witch. Dracula thus warns the respectful woman to take her family, leave Wallachia, and not look back, and her life will be spared.
  • Of his generals, Dracula is closest to Isaac because of the latter being the consistently and genuinely loyal to him without any pretense.
• Berserk Button:
  • Cruelty and rudeness. Dracula's main reason for hating humans in the first place was that they were so cruel to each other and disliked any who attempt to enter his castle. Though after he met Lisa, he attempted to see the brighter side of humans but after his wife was killed for attempting to be a doctor by using science and accused of being a witch by the bishop he finally lost it.
  • He doesn't like it when someone questions his methods or his orders as he shows absolutely no tolerance for his generals bickering about what he has placed for them to do. He'll often shout at them or express a small bit of his power to submit them but when Godbrand attempted to call him out on this face-to-face Dracula looked as if he was ready to tear his head off.
  • When Carmilla asks why Dracula never turned his wife Lisa Tepes into a vampire, she assumes that he might've wanted to keep her as a "pet."
• Beyond Redemption: Alucard tried to reason with him and talk him out of his plan to Kill All Humans after Lisa was burned at the stake. Alucard kept insisting that while he grieves with his father over Lisa's death, Alucard will not allow him to commit genocide on humanity for the actions of a few. In response, Dracula attacks Alucard, and puts him in a coma for a year. By the time Trevor and Sypha find him and wake him up, Alucard has concluded that Dracula can't be reasoned with and has to be killed.
• Big Bad: It's Dracula; he's the main antagonist of the entire Castlevania series. He's given much more understandable motivations than his video game counterpart, but he still unleashed the hordes of Hell upon humanity, killing countless people for the actions of a few.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Carmilla in Season 2. Carmilla joined Dracula’s vampire army as one of his generals to exterminate humanity, but also planned to overthrow him. Dracula, however, knew about her treachery and waited for her time to strike.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Dracula has thick, black eyebrows.
• Bigotry Exception: Dracula has a hatred for all humans. Except Lisa. And later on, this extends to Isaac and Hector, notably the former.
• Bigot with a Crush: Dracula is well known throughout the world for his hatred of humans, but he fell deeply in love with and then married Lisa, a human woman.
• Blood Knight: In his past, Dracula reveled in the violence he caused to those who have seemingly wronged him.
• Boomerang Bigot: Downplayed. While Dracula hates humans for killing his wife — who was also human, making their son half-human — he does not have much respect for his fellow vampires, either. He chooses two human friends as leaders in the war effort over his Council of Vampires, trusting Hector and Isaac since they have emotional stakes in the war and an Undying Loyalty to him, while the vampires are only looking out for themselves and serve Dracula because he is stronger than they are, seeing the humans as nothing but cattle to be herded and controlled. His end goal basically amounts to a Taking You with Me merely as an after-thought, killing all of humanity and starving the rest of vampire-kind in the process (including himself).
• Born in the Wrong Century: Dracula has lived in times where modern medicine was seen as an example of witchcraft. He, himself, has learned all the modern sciences that humans have disregarded. He also is neither sexist nor racist.
• Brainy Brunette: Dracula has black hair and has been constantly noted to be genius scholar.
• Broken Ace: He's the top of all vampire-kind and his intelligence could've changed the world. But he went mad with grief.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: He's a Broken Ace recluse who is extremely cynical while Lisa is an All-Loving Hero who believes in the best of humanity.
• Brought Down to Badass: After Lisa's death, he has abstained from feeding with the intent of succumbing to his hunger and dying along with humanity and the rest of his kind. Even in his weakened state, he is still more powerful than everyone there, being able to effortlessly shrug off Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard's combined attacks and only dying when he lets his son stake him in a Villainous BSoD.
• Classical Movie Vampire: Tall, aristocratic, black cape... he checks the boxes nicely, and even goes the extra mile by combining the look with that of Bram Stoker's original design (the long hair and beard) and Count Orlok (the pointed ears, the hooked nose, the long face, and the claws) for good measure.
• Crusading Widower: A villainous example; his Reign of Terror begins after his wife's unjust execution.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Dracula spent many years as a recluse and has killed presumably thousands of humans. Then, he met and fell in love with Lisa, whom he had a son with. Tragically, his beloved wife was burned at the stake per orders of the Bishop because of her "witchcraft". And then began Dracula's Kill All Humans plan.
• Dark Is Evil: Zigzagged with Dark Is Not Evil. The major antagonist, a vampire, and predominantly wears black clothing. However, while there's no denying the genocide plan is abhorrent, but even he doesn’t seem that fond of the idea; Dracula's actions are guided by how he passed the Despair Event Horizon. Prior to the death of his wife, he was genuinely in love with her, freeing slaves, and reshaping his worldview in a very positive way. He even goes as far as to save the life of Isaac, who was perfectly willing to sacrifice himself to defend Dracula. This is the polar opposite of conventional villainy. This isn’t a series about a For the Evulz type of bad guy. We're watching a broken individual destroys everything around him out of grief. Even at the moment where a weaker story would have him keep trying to kill Alucard, he instead has a mental breakdown upon realizing what he's doing and lets Alucard kill him.
• Death Equals Redemption: In the finale he says the second after he died might have been his first sane moment since losing Lisa.
• Death Seeker: It's established in Season 2 that he knows killing all of humanity will give him nothing to feed on anymore, yet he does not care in the slightest. Alucard straight-up called his war the longest suicide note in history. Even Godbrand picked up on it. When he has a Heel Realization that he is trying to kill his own son, he just lets Alucard literally put him out of his misery.
• Despair Event Horizon: Lisa's death didn't just destroy whatever was good in him, but also deprived him of caring about anything else. His minions note that his genocidal campaign lacks any tactical or strategic direction and it's just him lashing out aimlessly at mankind. Dracula himself admits he doesn't have the willpower to come up with fancy ways of killing humans like he used to before — all he cares about that they all have to die. This is the key reason why Carmilla wants to overthrow him — she believes his bitterness and resentment is stiffing everyone and he shouldn't be in charge. He finally comes to the realization he is dead inside and doesn't fight back when Alucard kills him. Overlaps with Driven to Suicide.
• Despair Speech: He has a pretty gut-wrenching one once he hits his Heel Realization and lets Alucard put him out of his misery:
  "My boy. I'm... I'm killing my boy. Lisa, I'm killing our boy. We painted this room. We... made these toys. It's our boy, Lisa. Your greatest gift to me... and I'm killing him. [beat] I must already be dead."
• Disappointed by the Motive: Though many vampires are glad that Dracula is leading them to war against humanity, many are upset that it was the murder of a human woman that finally motivated him to do so. Likewise, a few that are clever enough to pick up the hints and brave enough to speak up about it are also disappointed that Dracula is ordering the extinction of the entire human race, which would leave vampires with nothing but animals left to eat.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Even though he's the Big Bad who started the extermination of humanity and acts as the Final Boss in most Castlevania games, he — somewhat surprisingly and rather suddenly — meets his demise by the end of Season 2, and the remaining two seasons deal with his former allies such as Carmilla, Isaac, and Death's attempts to continue Dracula's legacy in one way or another.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • He has every right to be angry for Lisa's death. Even the heroes admit as such. But extending his vengeance to the entire human species is still said in-universe to be insane. Alucard even begs his father that if he were to take revenge, he should find the ones directly responsible rather than condemn the entirety of the human race for the actions of a few.
  • There was also one time before he met Lisa where he laid waste to an entire town, killed 40 men, and stuck them on wooden spikes to terrorize the surviving women and children simply because the merchants offended him.
• The Dreaded: The other vampires are terrified of him. Godbrand states that even in his current weakened state, he still wouldn't want to test out trying to take Dracula on, and Carmilla refused to openly make any move against him. This later gets verified with how easily Dracula tosses around Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha who, just prior to this confrontation, had ran through his generals with relative ease. Flashbacks at the start of Season 2 showed that even Lisa was afraid of him, fearing what he would do if she were ever murdered.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Unlike his video game counterpart where he had a Heel Realization upon that he acted against Lisa's wishes in her final moments, this version revives along with his beloved, and decide they should live in an abbey in England so they can spend their peaceful lives together.
• Elemental Motifs: Fire. It's his man offensive power (i.e., his huge flaming in the first episode, the giant fireball in his fight against the trio, etc.). Even though he tries to defend himself, he's shown to be somewhat impervious to Sypha's fire magic. During the bulk of season 2, Dracula can be seen in his private study, forlornly staring at the fireplace. A flashback of his war-like personality shows a number of fires. He summons a demon army from Hell, a place known for its' fiery nature. And in his death, Sypha kill his last remains with fire.
• Establishing Character Moment: Dracula's first scene has him using his vampire powers to intimidate Lisa, and then after she proves to not be some person trying to trick others, he then proceeds to share his knowledge with her. In short, he lives up to his name as a Monster Lord, but also shows that he has the capacity for kindness.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • He was deeply in love with Lisa and her death destroyed him.
  • He truly loves Alucard, but is so blinded by grief and fury, he has trouble seeing it until the end when he realizes how far he's gone off the deep end.
  • Of his generals, Dracula has the most affection towards Hector and Isaac, especially the latter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the fifth episode of the second season, he tells a tale of when he very much enjoyed murdering humans, but he states he only harmed those that offended him, and he even set a fire so the wives and children of the men that offended him would escape as he murdered the 40 men. Though he did impale their corpses to horrify the women and children.
  • In the Season 4 finale, he even feels somewhat guilty for having taken a hapless bystander's clothes and money. Even if it's something innocuous and ultimately harmless, he's not big on wronging those who he personally feels are innocent.
• Evil Counterpart: Dracula manages to act as one to all of the protagonists, as he shares with each of them a similar backstory, personality, and/or skill.
  • To Trevor — A similarly misanthropic, condescending, and temperamental noble scion with ties to black magic, but one who chooses to express his dissatisfaction towards the human race who wronged his family by exterminating it instead of just leaving it alone.
  • To Sypha — Both are magic users with the ability to summon and control fire as a weapon. But Sypha is a scholar of magic who uses her powers to defend against evil, while Dracula is an Evil Sorcerer who used his magic to summon an army of demons to Kill All Humans.
  • To Alucard — Both are vampires (with Alucard being a dhampyr) who lost the same loved one to ignorant humans, but while Dracula resorts to Kill All Humans, Alucard pleads with his father to not commit genocide. Alucard even notes the humans' name for him, being the backward name reflects their belief he is the opposite of his father.
• Evil Is Bigger: The main villain of the series, and noticeably taller than all the non-monster characters and most of the monsters. In Season 2, he uses his size to actually bully his general Godbrand by calling him "Little Godbrand".
• Evil Overlord: After his wife's death, he embraces this trope completely by sending forth hordes of monsters and demons to annihilate everything in their path while sitting inside his massive and sinister castle.
• Evil Sorcerer: He uses a sizable amount of magic, ranging from summoning The Legions of Hell to Playing with Fire to a host of other purposes.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Dracula has a pretty deep, husky voice, courtesy of Graham McTavish.
• Excessive Mourning: After Lisa was murdered, he became a hollowed-out shell of his former self whose sole interest now is wiping out the human race entirely for the crime that the Corrupt Church committed. He even attacks and imprisons his son for trying to stop him going through with this, until he realizes he's been trying to kill the only meaningful thing he has left of Lisa. When he isn't attending his War Council in relative silence, he spends most of his time in his study sitting and staring into the hearth.

F-P

• Fantastic Racism:
  • He had a pretty low opinion of humans, which was alleviated somewhat with Lisa's presence. After Lisa dies, his opinion on humans instantly takes a massive nosedive and plummets even further than it was before, reaching truly genocidal heights and sticking him right back into this trope (save for his kind treatment of Isaac and Hector).
  • This actually extends to his views on vampires as well. Whether it be by being alone, living with Lisa, or traveling the world at her suggestion, he cut himself off from vampire society. With them back in his employ, he'd still rather associate with Isaac and Hector. His war strategy, as noticed by everyone, seems to be to cause as many casualties to everyone as possible, and even if it were a success, he plans on either letting the vampires starve to death or killing them himself. Outside of Alucard, Isaac, and Hector, Dracula is done with all societal species, more from disappointment and betrayal than hate.
• A Father to His Men: All things considered, he's actually a pretty nice guy. He doesn't keep slaves. He grants an audience with pretty much all his leader subordinates, regardless of how loyal they are. His human supporters are people he rescued, and support him out of their own free will. At one point, a loyal follower prepares to sacrifice himself to defend Dracula, who removes him from the battle entirely, to save the follower's life. Further reinforced when he suffers an emotional breakdown in his fight to the death with his son.
• Fisher King: Whenever he is enraged, his eyes turn blood-red along with the moon.
• Five Stages of Grief: At least at first, part of his dialogue had him demanding to know where the church had taken his wife, implying some semblance of hope that he had to time to save her. Since then, he's most definitely been stuck in a mix of anger and depression after Lisa's death. He leads a genocidal rampage against all of humanity and attacks Alucard for trying to dissuade him against it. Throughout Season 2, it becomes steadily clear that he's lost the will to live and doesn't care if he or every other vampire would starve to death, or even how the humans were killed off as long as they all died. His depression comes to a head when he stumbles into Alucard's room while beating him to death; eventually, he stops fighting against the heroes and allows them to put him out of his misery.
• Flying Brick: Dracula's fight with Alucard devolves into the two of them flying and smashing through the castle.
• Genius Bruiser: Besides his high intellect, Dracula is possibly the physically strongest character in the show.
• Good Parents: Before Lisa's death, Dracula loved and doted on Alucard, teaching him his knowledge from a young age, making him a lovely room, and even making toys for the child together with Lisa. Unfortunately, Alucard not being quite as enthusiastic in genocide provokes a violent reaction. At the end, though, Dracula remembers how much he truly loves Alucard and his final moments are their acknowledgment of this fact to one another.
• Guilt by Association: How he justifies killing not just the people who killed Lisa, but also everybody else. Interestingly, this paints him in a light not entirely dissimilar from Trevor at the start of Season 1.
  Alucard: If you loose an army of the night on Wallachia, you cannot undo it. And many thousands of people just as innocent as her will suffer and die.
  Dracula: There are no innocents! Not anymore! Any one of them could have stood up and said "No, we won't behave like animals anymore."
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Dracula has shown to have a very bad temper as he would oftenly lash out at others whenever he was irritated. Though it causes some to question his authority as he is wildly unfocused when faced with certain obstacles and will throw himself into a rage as the situation is out of control.
• Handicapped Badass: Surprisingly so. It's made note that Dracula hasn't fed in a long while after Lisa's death, to the point that he is visibly weakened. Still, no Vampire challenges him to a direct fight, and when the protagonists show up to fight him, he is easily able to mop the floor with them. Dracula even shrugs off the effects of Trevor's Morningstar, which was an effective One-Hit Kill weapon, and easily bests Alucard in their confrontation. It's only due to Dracula's Heel Realization that he gives up the fight.
• Happily Married: Though not fully shown, he and Lisa apparently had a loving marriage. He traveled the world as a man at her request, and even though she missed him deeply, she was still happy of the things he taught her.
• Heartbroken Badass: Dracula loved Lisa deeply. When he learned that she was killed as a heretic, he damned humanity as a whole and sent his legions out to commit wholesale genocide.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the series finale, after being brought back to life along with Lisa he's completely at peace and free of his wrath.
• Heel Realization: Experiences this in the final battle while fighting Alucard, they end up crashing into his childhood room and he realizes that he is trying to kill his own son, and broken with shame, he gives up fighting and allows Alucard to put him out of his misery.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He completely towers over Lisa, as she's barely towards his waist.
• Humans Are Bastards: Dracula barely tolerated humanity when he met Lisa. But after she's killed for being a "witch" by the Catholic Church, all bets are off. Dracula makes exceptions for Hector and Isaac, the only two humans among his ranks, because they are bound by loyalty rather than thirst and bloodlust like every other vampire. But even then, both Hector and Isaac share the idea that they need to Kill All Humans. Dracula says as much to Alucard during a moment of rage, when Dracula says that Lisa was "the only reason for [him] to tolerate human life".
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: When he first meets Lisa, he tries to scare her, but she despite being visibly shaken she refuses to falter. When she composes herself, she tells off the Monster Lord for his rudeness. It's no wonder Dracula fell for her.
• Immortal Genius: A bit point is made of the vast amount of knowledge Dracula has gathered over the years, including technology and science lost to humanity. Isaac cites this as the reason he follows Dracula (aside from his misanthropic tendencies), considering him the most important person in the world, and both Alucard and Sypha mourn the loss of Dracula's knowledge when they set out to kill him.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He wasn't called 'Vlad the Impaler' for nothing. This is also his ultimate fate, as he's stabbed with a wooden stake through the heart by Alucard.
• Interspecies Romance: He (a vampire) would fall in love, marry, and have a child with Lisa (a human).
• Irony: Dracula was well known (and feared) throughout the world for his hatred of humanity. Two of the people he was closest to were Lisa and Isaac, both humans.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • The heroes openly admit that Dracula has every right to be angry for what happened to his wife. Even Alucard says that Dracula should "find the one who did the deed" instead of blaming all of humanity for it. But Dracula won't be talked out of it, and his plan to kill every human being alive for the actions of a few is still said to be completely insane.
  • Calling him a Jerkass for openly distrusting his War Council might be a bit of a stretch, since they're all barbaric vampire lords. The reason why Dracula trusts Isaac and Hector over his own kind is met with criticism from the Council, notably Godbrand. Dracula then points out that the former two joined out of loyalty while the others only came because of their hunger of blood. His statement is proven right when the Council do plan a coup against him with Isaac being the only one by his side while Hector is being tricked by Carmilla to join her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yes, Dracula is a misanthropic Big Bad who has a history of violence he committed, but he's also capable of genuine respect and love.
• Kick the Morality Pet: When Alucard tried to reason with Dracula, the latter's response is violence. And he still battles his son in their fight in Season 2, but has a Heel Realization and allows his son to kill him.
• Kill All Humans: His goal is to have his legions wipe out humanity in revenge for Lisa's death.
• Large and in Charge: Easily the tallest character, just like in the games. If he wants to intimidate anybody, all he has to do is walk right up to them and he towers over them. He leans down to mock the already tall and burly Godbrand when he steps out of line.
• Lightning Bruiser: Dracula is perhaps the most physically powerful character in the series, having it all: The brutal strength to casually massacre normal vampires and humans by impaling them with his bare hands and ripping out their hearts and smash hard objects with ease. The tremendous speed and agility needed to instantly scale down walls and blitz humans and slaughter them in moments and dodge projectiles nonchalantly. Alucard, himself a powerful Lightning Bruiser stood no chance against his father in his prime, being instantly beaten and scarred so bad he had to rest for a year before he can even unsheathe his sword. Even weakened by months of not drinking blood, he is still strong and fast enough to casually dominate Alucard and Trevor, downing and stunning them with blows, and badly injure and toss around Sypha, breaking through her defenses, with casual hits. He is also so resilient nothing they try can deal much damage, a punch from Trevor that can take down werewolves not even fazing him and Alucard barely staggering him at all. Even being hit by the Morningstar Whip doesn't keep him down for long and then his own fireball gets reflected back at him and he still has more than enough physical prowess to beat down Alucard while tossing him through the castle and breaking it down. By the end of it, Alucard is barely able to stand and breathing hard while Dracula is still pretty fine.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Downplayed. His imposing figure and scowling face makes it hard to see, but Dracula does have some handsome features. Plus, his raven hair appears to reach his shoulders.
• Love at First Sight: Downplayed and implied, given his smile during his exchange with Lisa near the end of their meeting onscreen.
  Lisa: They won't live such short, scared lives if they have real medicine. They won't be superstitious of how the real world works.
  Dracula: Why should I do that?
  Lisa: To make the world better. Start with me, and I'll start with you.
  Dracula: (bows) I think I might like you.
• Love Makes You Evil: The death of his beloved wife is what caused Dracula to want to wipe out humanity.
• Love Redeems:
  • A subversion. Dracula did attempt to understand humanity for his wife's sake but ultimately could not, especially after they murdered her.
  • Played straight in his fight with Alucard. He undergoes a Heel Realization that he nearly killed his son, the greatest gift Lisa ever gave him. Because of this, Dracula allows his son to stake him.
• Mad Scientist: Dracula is portrayed this way in the series. He is described as a scholar and a scientist that has gathered such advanced knowledge that his highly technological castle appears to be magic. And after Lisa's murder, he uses that technology to lay waste to Wallachia. His own son laments that he could have used it to change the world.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: A presumably rich aristocrat who dresses in elaborate wardrobe and the main Big Bad for most of the season.
• Mayfly–December Romance: He is an immortal vampire who fell in love with and married a mortal woman. Lisa dies before him but only because she was unjustly executed by humans.
• Misplaced Retribution: Whilst his grief and fury at the Church murdering his wife is justified, what isn't justified is that instead of specifically exterminating the Church for revenge he instead seeks to exterminate all of humanity with extreme prejudice.
• Monster Lord: Dracula is the king of the vampires for good reason. Given how vampires believe in Appeal to Force and Might Makes Right, Dracula is most certainly the most powerful by a wide margin. When he fights the heroes, he pulls off feats that put him into Person of Mass Destruction territory that so far outstrips the other vampires you have to wonder what Carmilla was thinking by betraying him. This was all after Carmilla and Godbrand had both pointed out he was weakened from not feeding, but was still far too strong to attempt to take on.
• Morality Chain: To Isaac, with significantly more emphasis on "chain". Dracula provides Isaac with outlets for his misanthropy. The loss of his master corrodes Isaac's sense of restraint, until he's massacring anyone who angers him with glee.
• Moral Myopia: Alucard straight-up tells him that his plan to Kill All Humans will also slaughter people who had nothing to do with Lisa's death and are just as innocent as she was. Then Dracula furiously shoots down the notion of there being any innocents anymore after her burning.
• The Mourning After: He has not gotten over Lisa's death one year later. Didn't help that the Catholic Church called him the Devil himself and mocked his wife's death.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: Combined with Interspecies Romance with Lisa. While she's a normal human trained in medical science, her husband, Dracula, is a Monster Lord who has centuries worth of magical knowledge.
• My God, What Have I Done?: It dawns on him at the end of Season 2. He has a realization at the end of his fight with Alucard, as well as being hit with the sudden sight of Alucard's childhood room, with the decorations and toys he and Lisa made together for him, that he's trying to kill his son. This hits him so hard that he breaks down whispering this, then he just stands there and lets Alucard stake him with no further resistance.
• My Greatest Second Chance: After both he and Lisa revive, they decide to start their new lives together, and live in an abbey in Whitby.
• Mysterious Past: His childhood, relationship with the Belmonts, how he became a vampire, and anything regarding his earlier life is not touched upon.
• Naked on Arrival: The last episode implies that he and Lisa were naked when they came back to life because it's mentioned that they had to steal clothes.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Does this to Trevor, Sypha, and especially Alucard in their final battle. They only "defeat" him because Dracula decides to commit suicide out of depression and self-disgust.
• No-Sell: The heroes' initial attacks barely dent him, if they hurt him at all. The only attacks that injure him in meaningful ways are Alucard's attacks or piercing his heart with a stake.
  • Trevor scores a direct hit with the Morning Star, but it just barely brings him to his knees and momentarily knocks the wind out of him. By comparison, the same weapon can one-shot any other creature of the night, even Dracula's own generals.
  • Sypha unleashes a barrage of flame directly into Dracula's face. This does cause him some pain and temporarily blinds him, but the attack would have killed most vampires. The only time she did actual damage was when the fight was pretty much already over and Dracula was slowly dying.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: A surprisingly poignant case of this trope. He has most of his War Council convinced that vampires will get to rule the world unchallenged after they exterminate the human race, whilst both his Forgemasters are respectively convinced that Dracula will create a better world free of all the human cruelty which said Forgemasters have known throughout their lives. In reality, Dracula's crusade is nothing more than the Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum of a broken man waiting to die, and he wholly expects his own kind and then himself to follow humanity to the grave.
• Obviously Evil: Deconstructed. He has all the tropes that paint him as being this; a giant vampire, with fangs, clawed hands, a red and black color scheme, and a stereotypically evil beard and moustache, he lives in a large and haunting castle and he commands the Legions of Hell to Kill All Humans. But his backstory and motivations show that he is much more complex and sympathetic than the one-dimensional villain his appearance would suggest.
• Odd Friendship: With his human servants Isaac and Hector, even when you account their extreme misanthropy, it's truly saying something that he respects them more than he does his fellow vampires.
• Omnicidal Maniac: While he hates humanity with a passion, he's also just genuinely tired of life in general. It becomes clearer in Season 2 that Dracula knows that killing all of humanity will starve him and all other vampires too.
  Dracula: It doesn't matter... So long as they all die, that's all. They all have to die...
• One Head Taller: Dracula was a full head taller than his wife, Lisa.
• One-Man Army: When properly motivated, he can be this to scary effect, such as one time he laid waste to a town because its merchants offended him and he killed everyone that stood in his way pretty effortlessly.
• Opposites Attract: Dracula was noted to be The Dreaded among humans and monsters, had a deep racism and cynicism to humanity (sans a few), and would go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge if greatly angered; Lisa is an All-Loving Hero with a deep need to help humanity and is quite forgiving. And the two were Happily Married.
• Orcus on His Throne: Deconstructed. The fact he seems to be just lazing around with leadership, and sets a vague goal of just wiping out humanity with no clear plan, leads to friction within his generals. Many of the vampires under his command feel as if Dracula is just a depressed old man lashing out over the loss of his wife. Dracula is perfectly content to let his armies go into the world and destroy mankind however they see fit, knowing that Alucard and a Belmont are out there. Yet Dracula does nothing because they don't really concern him.
• Our Vampires Are Different: He's a vampire for sure, but how exactly his condition works is still not completely known. The traditional vampiric weaknesses of running water, sunlight, holy power, and others are either displayed or mentioned along with vampire powers like turning into mist, super physical abilities, controlling beasts, etc. are shown, nothing is depicted about how the condition is spread and the fact that when Dracula died, it looked like a miasma of lost souls comes spewing out of him makes things more mysterious. In fact, he seems to be this compared to other vampires. He's far stronger than even the other vampire lords, to the point that he survives a direct hit from the Morning Star even while severely underfed and weakened. He also has control over demons and monsters that most of the other vampires don't; this is partly because Hector and Isaac are about to craft them as Forgemasters, but he also seems to be able to summon them from... somewhere. He seems to not be merely a vampire, but a demon as well.
• Pet the Dog:
  • His "last act of kindness" within minutes of learning of his wife's death is to an old woman who pays her respects at the ruins of Lisa's home. In Lisa's name, Dracula warns the woman to leave, take her family, and flee Wallachia before his mass slaughter starts.
  • Dracula also genuinely cares for Isaac, considering him the greatest of humanity and embodying its virtues (loyalty, friendship, self-sacrifice etc.). So Dracula spares Isaac's life by teleporting him away, rather than letting his friend lay down his life for him.
  • Subverted when he first appears before the mob who killed Lisa. He tells them that they have one year to either flee or get their affairs in order before he wipes them all out. It turns out that he's not waiting a year out of any sense of mercy but because he needs a full year to build up an army large enough to begin his war of extermination.
• Playing with Fire: Dracula has tremendous power through fire. He can teleport in a pillar of flame and he sends his message to his wife's killers by causing the fire from the stake to erupt into an effigy of his face. He also used the Dark Inferno attack just like in the games.
• Politically Correct Villain: In late medieval Europe, Dracula agreed to teach Lisa, a woman, science without judging her based on her gender. And one of his top enforcers, and most trusted friends, is the very black Isaac.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • In the past, he was once rebuked by some human merchants in a city and he decided to repay them for this insult. He started fires in the city, knowing the merchants would send away their wives and children before leaving last with their treasured trinkets. Then he killed the forty merchants who rebuked him and any who tried fighting him, leaving their remains on spikes outside the city. He didn't touch the surviving family members.
  • In seasons 1 and 2, Dracula defies this trope. Once upon a time, even at his worst, he'd have to leave survivors because he needs human blood. After Lisa's death, Dracula is essentially committing suicide "the long way around" through his plan to Kill All Humans. The fact that this will lead to vampire starvation is brought up to Dracula several times, and he never so much as attempts to address this obvious flaw in his plan; all he cares about is that humanity has to die.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: His grief and anguish over Lisa's murder is what drives his desire to Kill All Humans. It gets pointed out to Dracula several times that the glaring flaw in this plan is what happens after that, but Dracula doesn't care.

R-Y

• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Dracula is not lord of the vampires because he won it in a lottery. He is, hands down, the most powerful being on the show and it takes Trevor, Sypha and Alucard fighting all together to so much as stand a chance, even though Dracula has not been feeding for some time. Even then, things only end when Dracula allows Alucard to stake him.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He is the main antagonist of the series and his outfit consists of red and black clothing.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When sufficiently angered, blood fills Dracula's sclera, dying them red. Which also turns the moon red as well.
• Redemption Equals Death: Has a breakdown during his fight with Alucard when he realizes he's killing his son. He crouches down muttering "I'm killing our boy" until Alucard stakes him.
• Redemption Failure: Dracula was on his way to turning over a new leaf after he met Lisa. Unfortunately, the Bishop decided to execute Lisa and even went as far as mocking her. Needless to say, Dracula did not take kindly to that.
• Relative Button: Mocking his late wife Lisa is a sure-fire way to get on his bad side. Killing his wife was one thing but berating her by calling her a witch really drove him over the edge as the bishop found out when he was met with Dracula's fiery appearance to punish them. Especially when Carmilla compared her to a pet and questions why she wasn't turned into a vampire, and you can just see the boiling rage that is rising within Dracula when his subordinate goes too far.
• Renaissance Man: Has great knowledge of many things magical and scientific. Alucard describes him as being a man of science, a philosopher and a scholar. Which makes him all the more dangerous because he's also now insane.
• Resurrective Immortality: Downplayed; Season 3 involves a cult trying to resurrect Dracula from Hell, and they very nearly succeed, while it is shown that Dracula and Lisa are still existent beings in Hell. The only issue is that Dracula has absolutely no ability on his own to revive himself nor does it seem that he wants to be resurrected anyway, and would be forced to rely on outside help to return to the Earth.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: A downplayed version. Lisa's presence is what encouraged him to help humanity and "walk as a man". However, dialogue from him after her murder, referring to Lisa as the "one thing to justify human life", and the fact that the two humans he was close to were as misanthropic as he was implies he could never truly get over his hatred for humans, with Lisa being the notable exception.
• Resurrect the Villain: Narrowly defied and subverted in Season 3, where a Religion of Evil attempts to use sorcery to open a portal to Hell and resurrect Dracula. In Season 4, Death successfully pulls this off but Trevor puts a stop to it with little help from Saint Germain before it can go any further. In a rare example of this trope, Dracula himself is content to stay in Hell with Lisa and does not wish to be resurrected.
• Retired Monster: Implied to have been this before he met Lisa, given Leon Belmont's pursuit of him. Dracula was also shown as massacring forty merchants who wronged him, making a bloody and fiery spectacle of it while he did it. After retiring to his castle, Dracula never really stopped hating humanity or being the King of Vampires; he just mellowed out a bit. And when humans killed his wife, he wasn't retired anymore.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Dracula's reaction to Lisa's murder was to Kill All Humans. He gave the people of Wallachia one year to run, and when they scoffed at this, Dracula unleashed the hordes of Hell on them all.
• Shattered Sanity: The transmission mirror that Dracula used to talk to the people of Wallachia is made up of several smaller mirror pieces that split apart when not in use. Just after he finishes making his genocidal threat after the church burned his wife at the stake, we see the mirror pieces brielfy pause before shattering apart while Dracula's reflection is in them, symbolizing his newfound insanity.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Before meeting Lisa, Dracula had a castle that was capable of traveling anywhere...yet he didn't, having been content to simply live in self-imposed isolation from the outside world.
• Shrouded in Myth: Lisa came to Dracula's castle because the stories she heard about him said he possessed knowledge found nowhere else, and the Mayor of Targoviste understandably freaks out when he appears after Lisa's burning, saying that he thought Dracula was just a story made up by heretics, while the Bishop outright refuses to believe Dracula is real, calling him "a fiction that justified the practice of black magic". He's so shrouded in myth that according to Trevor, nobody even knows what he looks like.
• Straw Nihilist: While he was not exactly an optimist in the first place, he soon gave up on humanity's (and by extension himself and his fellow vampires) right to live on this Earth after Lisa's death.
• Strong and Skilled: Dracula has an animalistic yet honed sense of fighting style thanks to his years of experience.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Dracula was a recluse before meeting Lisa, had No Social Skills, and could intimidate nearly anyone with his size, power and reputation. However, he was capable of showing tender love and affection to those he was closest to.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: What his Kill All Humans crusade boils down to in actuality. Unbeknownst to most of his allies in his crusade, Dracula wholly expects the vampire race to follow humanity, whom they're dependent on for blood, into extinction. Alucard declares to his father's face that Dracula himself is just waiting for someone to put him out of his misery, and that his entire rampage is "history's longest suicide note".
• Superpower Lottery: He's far beyond every vampire in the series, displaying a level of power none of them could hope to match. In a fight he's an outright Lightning Bruiser that can tank blows no matter how strong and has an intimate knowledge of powerful sorcery. And this is after he's resigned to starving himself, meaning he was possibly on the level of Story-Breaker Power before that.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Dracula was Lisa's science/medical teacher when they first met. Their relationship would transform into love, marriage, and the birth of their son.
• Tears of Blood: After finding out that Lisa was burned at the stake, he cries bloody Manly Tears. He does it again during Episode 7 of Season 2 before he dies.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Downplayed. Dracula was already evil to begin, even when he gave up staking humans, but he fully embraced his hatred of humanity when they murdered Lisa.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: It takes Alucard staking him, Trevor cutting off his head, and Sypha burning him to ashes to put him down for good. While he lets them.
• Together in Death: He's shown together with Lisa in Hell in Season 3.
• Tragic Villain: His wife being burnt at the stake sets him off to his latest villainy. Trevor even admits that he can see why Dracula snapped and wants to Kill All Humans, though Trevor still thinks that Dracula needs to be stopped.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • When he learns of Lisa's death. He has an even tone with the woman he told to leave Wallachia and the people of Targoviste he declares war upon. Averted immediately after those scenes, when he's seen smashing up his laboratory in a fit of rage.
  • In Season 2, when Carmilla questions why he never turned Lisa into a vampire, he grows visibly livid and appears ready to blow up. He still keeps his volcanic fury in check.
• Troubled, but Cute: When Dracula isn't being an intimidating Vampire Lord and gives a genuine smile, he shows his handsome features. He's also a recluse with a violent past and went mad with grief when Lisa was murdered.
• Unexplained Recovery: The concluding scene of Season 4 reveals that he and Lisa came Back from the Dead after being shoved into a host hermaphrodite body and then having that body bisected by Trevor and their souls released to the wind. How they physically regained theirliving and undead respective bodies is not exactly obvious.
• Unstoppable Rage: During the final battle against Alucard and his companions, Dracula is seen visibly losing himself in the heat of the fight as he goes completely berserk when fighting his opponents while taking out all of his rage and grief towards those who stand in his way. Literally nothing can stop him now as he's so filled with anger to where he has no qualms about killing his own son.
• Uptown Guy: Implied. When they first meet, Lisa had no last name while Dracula lived in a castle and was known as the Vampire Lord, implying some degree of wealth.
• Vampire Monarch: He is considered the top dog of vampire society and has enough authority to summon others to carry out his will.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Inverted. As Season 2 goes on, it becomes clear that his ongoing genocide of the human race is not making him any happier, and he knows it won't do anything to make him feel better if he succeeds. But he just wants it all to end.
• Villain Has a Point: Alucard is right that he can't kill all humans for what one person did, but Dracula makes the point that anyone could have stood up for Lisa, but nobody did. Whilst Dracula is way out of line with his desire to exterminate humanity as a whole, it's hard to fault him for wanting to slaughter those responsible for his wife's death. Trevor and Alucard both agree that they can see why Dracula is lashing out the way that he is, though they're still hellbent on stopping him.
• Villainous BSoD: A subtle, tragic one. Upon realizing he's trying to kill his son to carry out revenge for his wife, Dracula nearly breaks down in tears, recognizing how far he's fallen, and offers no resistance at all to his death.
• Villainous Crush: Zigzagged. When he met Lisa, he was already a recluse and didn't terrorize humanity like he did prior to meeting her, but fell for her nonetheless.
• Villainous Friendship: With the two Devil Forgemasters Isaac and Hector, whom he almost always expresses respect and appreciation. In fact, during Season 2's climax, he saves Isaac's life by sending him to a distant desert through a magic mirror because he genuinely treasures his loyalty.
• Villain Protagonist: Considering everything that occurs or is set in motion is directly due to his actions, a strong case can be made for Dracula being the main character in Seasons 1 and 2 as opposed to heroes like Trevor or Alucard.
• Villain Respect: A bit towards Trevor probably due in part to Leon his ancestor and his family. Perhaps also because the Belmonts are the only hunters they have continued as a clan successfully killing monsters for centuries.
  Dracula: (after being struck full on by the Morningstar Whip) The Morningstar Whip... Well played, Belmont.
• Wicked Cultured: He's the Big Bad and is also well-educated in many fields that would classify him as a Renaissance Man.
• Willfully Weak: Much as he is committed to the genocide of humanity in his rage, he is not so committed about his health and has steadily refused to feast for months by the time the heroes fight him and is in no interest to feed any time soon after had he survived the battle, weakening himself severely in the process and lacking any form of commitment to actually putting up a fight comparable to his prime. It still doesn't prevent it from being a complete Curb-Stomp Battle where the heroes barely are able to stand back up against him let alone actually stand together. In the end, they completely fail to even best him in combat, as Dracula only allows himself to die after having a realization that he was murdering the last living trace of his wife he had left in his rage and couldn't continue going on like this.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Downplayed. Besides having a low opinion of humans, Dracula also killed many of them prior to meeting Lisa. But her unjustified death at the hands of the humans she sought to help destroyed any sympathy he had left for the species.
• Worf Had the Flu: Godbrand speculates that Dracula has gone for a long time without feeding, potentially weakening him. Whether or not it's true, Godbrand still advises against fighting him, and Dracula is plenty strong as he is.
• World's Strongest Man: Dracula is confirmed to be the most powerful monster and creature on Earth without exception, his power being compared to that of the devil or a force of nature. Even in a weakened state, his powerful generals cower in fear when he's angry and it was specifically acknowledged he could kill them in a split second if he wanted to. It takes the combined effort of Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha to actually take him on and do any major damage while he's in a weakened state (due to starving himself from blood), and while it's unclear if the trio could have actually won, it's clear even had the fight continued, he would have still been a serious challenge. Ultimately, he allows Alucard to kill him to put an end to his misery, and it's implied that if he were in prime condition, he would have won the fight. Even Death himself could be defeated by the heroes, whereas Dracula in the end just allowed the heroes to beat him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Inverted come late Season 2. With Carmilla and Hector having betrayed him, and the rest of his forces wiped out, Dracula is down to only Isaac as his sole remaining loyal soldier. Isaac is prepared to lay down his life to defend Dracula from Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha. Dracula decides to reward Isaac's loyalty by actually teleporting him away from the castle so that he would actually survive.

---