Characters / Castlevania – Dracula

WARNING: Dracula is a Walking Spoiler due to his role as Final Boss or/and Greater-Scope Villain. Thus, this is a Spoilers Off page that'll spoil each and every installment in the main continuity, starting with the character description right below. You Have Been Warned.

Main Character Index > Dracula

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Voiced by (Japanese): Hiroya Ishimaru (Rondo of Blood), Norio Wakamoto (most games starting with Symphony of the Night), Nobuhiko Kazama (Lament of Innocence), Hikaru Midorikawa (Dawn of Sorrow), Mahito Ōba (Curse of Darkness), Joji Nakata (Judgment)

Voiced by (English): Wornell Jones (Perfect Selection Dracula album, Beginning track), Michael Guinn (Symphony of the Night, Castlevania 64), Harald Gjerd (Castlevania 64 as Malus), Crispin Freeman (Lament of Innocence), Douglas Rye (Curse of Darkness), Tom Wyner (Portrait of Ruin), Patrick Seitz (The Dracula X Chronicles and onwards), Charles Glover (Castlevania: The Arcade), Ric Dorr (Castlevania Tribute Vol.1 album, Vampire Killer track)

"Ha! Mankind. A cesspit of hatred and lies. Fight for them, then, and die for their sins!"

Good ol' Dracula, Lord of the Vampires you all know. While he originally started out as Vlad the Impaler, a typo of his age in an instructional manual led to him being much older. Before he became Dracula, he was Mathias Cronqvist — a genius war strategist from the Middle Ages. After his wife Elisabetha died while he was fighting in the crusades, he suffered a crisis of faith and decided that God was at fault for his wife's death. Mathias used his friend Leon Belmont to steal the soul of a powerful vampire named Walter Bernhard with the Crimson Stone, gaining the allegiance of Death. He reveals that he had forsaken God, who took away his wife, and will continue to curse Him for eternity. He retreats and changes his name to Vlad Tepes, while Leon swears that he and his family will dedicate themselves to his destruction.

He found a second chance at redemption after meeting a woman named Lisa. They bonded and Lisa gave birth to half-vampire Adrian F. Tepes aka Alucard. Unfortunately, Lisa ended up crucified for practicing medicine. Dracula snapped, declared that Humans Are the Real Monsters and decided to wage war against the world, and God himself. Thankfully for humanity, Leon's oath lasted throughout the centuries, and the Belmont Clan (with assistance from the Morris and Belnades families on occasion) have thwarted his undead armies every time.

Dracula's reign as the lord of Castlevania finally came to an end in the year 1999, when an alliance of various world armies, aided by the Catholic Church and the Hakuba Shinto shrine, succeeded in sealing Dracula away from his castle (the source of his power), with Julius Belmont finishing him off. At the moment, this has not been actually depicted in any game, possibly due to being entirely too awesome to do justice to.

In Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, he is reincarnated as Soma Cruz, who unsurprisingly doesn't want to fulfill his destiny. With the help of Alucard and others, his fate is successfully averted. Of course, that hasn't stopped him in the least. He always finds a way to come back, no matter what. It's gotten to the point where people see him as a god, or something of a god, as lampshaded by him in Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night.

He also now has his own Self-Demonstrating page.

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A-L

• Adaptational Badass: The original novel character that Dracula is based off of was a powerful supernatural threat to be sure, with control over animals and the weather, but he was still just a vampire whose armies consisted of Romani villagers, a small harem of vampire women and Renfield. Castlevania's Dracula on the other hand holds command over a massive army of demons and monsters that threaten the human race, has a carnival's collection of One-Winged Angel forms that he could take on, has access to both holy and unholy magic, and is said to resurrect every 100 years whenever he is killed.^note That last part was deemed an inaccurate folktale in Anniversary Collection, hence why the occasional early happens. Later games of the series would elaborate that he is the earthly envoy of The Anti-God Chaos, making him the setting equivalent of The Antichrist and an otherworldly beast of unfathomable horror in his own right.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed, as he's still a manipulative, blood-sucking vampire who wants to Take Over the World, but unlike Bram Stoker's version, the Castlevania Dracula is genuinely polite and respectful to his enemies and has a few people that he cares about.
• Adaptational Sympathy: The original Dracula from Bram Stoker's novel (or even the Universal adaptations that the games are inspired by) is a cold-blooded psychopath who actively enjoys the atrocities he commits and is given no deeper reason for his actions beyond his love of cruelty and power. This version of Dracula, by contrast, was Driven to Villainy through a series of traumatic events, genuinely loves his family, and is ultimately deeply unhappy with the life he's chosen.
• Affably Evil: He might be the lord of darkness, but he tends to be fairly formal with his enemies, if a bit smug, and he genuinely loves his son and late wives.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Dracula's defeat in Symphony of the Night is unusually sympathetic, as he expresses genuine remorse, laments his lost love, and asks her to forgive him. Grimoire of Souls reveals that even though he doesn't really want to, he is unable to truly rest in peace, as his Deal with the Devil is permanent, and he is seemingly forever stuck as the embodiment of humanity's capacity for malice. Unless humanity is completely purified of it's darkness, which is technically impossible, Dracula will keep coming back, meaning he can never truly be together with Lisa.
• The Antichrist: This is what Dracula is, despite being described as God's opposite. Dracula serves as the focus for physical connection for all of the evil in the hearts of man. In actuality, it's the force of Chaos created by human evil and linked to Hell that makes him Dracula. It is implied that only he (or his reincarnation) can truly sit in the Dark Lord's throne, no matter what many Big Bad Wannabes have to say.
• The Anti-God: According to Aria and Dawn of Sorrow, he's the Evil Counterpart to God himself. Although in this case it's implied that he's a foil to God and necessary as the focus of earthly evil. He isn't God's equal so much as the other half of the important equation between Good and Evil.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Of Evil. More importantly, he is more or less the incarnation of The Anti-God Chaos, an Eldritch Abomination born from every flaw of the universe, who fulfils a cosmic role but seems to lack sentience and needs him to manifest on the Earthly Planes
• Arch-Enemy: To the Belmont Clan and Alucard, and to an extent, Sara Trantoul (aka the Vampire Killer).
• Archnemesis Dad: Starting from Symphony of the Night, he's antagonistic towards Alucard, his hybrid son that he sired through his dead wife, Lisa.
• As Long as There Is Evil: He loves to give this kind of speech after his defeats. He's right, too. Grimoire of Souls suggests that not even he really gets a say in the matter. After he's defeated again, Alucard says he wants to believe that Lisa's last words got through to him and implores him to just rest in peace already. Dracula pauses for a moment before explaining that he doesn't decide when he gets revived, in terms that suggest he isn't particularly fond of the arrangement.
  Dracula: I cannot revive myself on my own. It's the greed of humankind that revives me. When the times demand my presence again, I'm sure I'll be there to satisfy the world's desire for an never-ending night. But until then... I'll enjoy a little peace.
• As the Good Book Says...: Recites Matthew 16:26 after his defeat at the end of Symphony of the Night (in the original PS1 localization at least) despite essentially being The Antichrist in terms of motivation.
• Attack Its Weak Point: In the 2D games, almost all of his non-One-Winged Angel forms can only be damaged by hitting his head. Possibly a reference to how classic vampires must be decapitated before they can be properly killed.
• Badass Cape: Most games, he wears a stereotypical high-collared vampire cape, though he has alternated with a Badass Longcoat.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: Dracula is the Dark Lord, a mandatory position that serves as the balance to God on Earth.
• Big Bad: He plays the part for the series as a whole. In Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Castlevania: Bloodlines, and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, he is more of a Greater-Scope Villain.
• Big Bad Friend: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is one big Batman Gambit by Mathias, manipulating everyone from Leon to Sara to Rinaldo to Walter so that he can obtain the power he needs in his fanatical battle against a God he believes to be wicked.
• Blasphemous Boast: He gives quite a nice one before the Final Battle of The Arcade. Made all the nicer in that he has the power to back it up.
  Dracula: "You should bear that in mind. God is unable to help the souls of those terminated by my hand!"
• Bond One-Liner: Can give a few if he wins the Final Battle.
  In Curse of Darkness: "You die by my hand. You should be honored."
  In Judgment: "Insect. Did you forget who I am?"
  In Judgment: "Grovel in the dirt like the WORM you are!!"
• Boomerang Bigot: He despises humans even though (or because) he used to be one and is guilty of everything he accuses his former fellow men of.
• Breakout Character: He's the most consistent presence in the series and has gained the most dimension. In the "Lords of Shadow" continuity, they just dropped the pretense and straight-up made him the main character.
• Card-Carrying Villain: When yet another Belmont or their ally shows up at his throne room yet again, Dracula tends to appear with wine glass in hand or with a classy reservation for what's to unfold, knowing he's evil and they're the hero so he banters about their causes before commencing the fight. He may be a God of Evil, but he's not going to be inelegant about it.
• Casanova Wannabe: Every time a lovely woman winds up in his domain, such as with Richter's girlfriend and Shanoa in Order of Ecclesia, he offers her a chance to rule by his side for eternity. It's never worked. In all of his centuries on this earth, he's only ever managed to woo two women, and one's implied to be the previous woman reincarnated.
• The Chessmaster: You can always expect him to have plans set into motion, even when he's not at full power or not even around in the first place. Usually to plan his return or a way to expand his influence. This makes a lot more sense when he used to be an actual war strategist when he was human.
  • His Dying Curse in Curse of Darkness ensures that Transylvania remains a Crapsack World with his influence intact, with or without him, and that it cannot be lifted even by killing him again. He plays the same gambit again in Simon's Quest, but makes sure that his victorious opponent is targeted as well, hoping to get rid of the only line able to oppose him and to have a world ripe for taking over when he eventually returns.
  • In Belmont's Revenge, he fakes his death and waits for the son of his nemesis to come of age to capture and corrupt him, turning his foes into an asset, and uses four castles as a diversion.
  • In Bloodlines, he leaves his usual domain and takes profit of the chaos of World War One (orchestrated by his niece because being The Chessmaster runs in the family), to expand his influence all over Europe and establishes a bastion of evil in many countries.
  • Castlevania 64 offers one of his best plans to date, involving Hidden in Plain Sight, Master Actor, a Puppet King, and a hefty dose of Xanatos Speed Chess on the side. He has a servant posing as him as a decoy, while he uses the aspect of the child he was reincarnated into to pose as a captive who gets corrupted. He plans to go back with the hero after their job is apparently done to backstab them when the time is right, or in the Golden Ending crush them when his full power returns, and make it look like he was possessed at the last minute when they defeat him.
• Classy Cravat: Because he's Wicked Cultured.
• Creepy Child: As Malus in Castlevania N64.
• Crusading Widower: Whenever his wife or girlfriend is murdered or dies, and he believes that someone is responsible, he will Freak Out, turn evil, and start slaughtering people.
• Depending on the Artist: Looks different in almost every single game, which is perhaps justified if you consider his appearances to be "incarnations". Sometimes the same artist may design him in different ways; Ayami Kojima drew him differently in Chronicles, Symphony of the Night, and Dracula X Chronicles, even though those last two have have some overlapping story scenes (i.e. Richter's battle against Dracula). And don't even get us started on his transformations.
• Depending on the Writer: How evil and twisted Dracula is varies from game to game. In some cases, he's petty enough to kidnap people just to be a dick and other times cruel enough to slaughter the entire countryside for the hell of it, while in certain games he's Affably Evil and potentially even a downright Punch-Clock Villain. While a few games do give him sympathetic points, however, he is still the lord of darkness through and through. Part of this seems to stem from just how spontaneous yet another revival may be, while other scenarios seem to genuinely be a case of Motive Decay and basking in being a monster simply because he is.
  • One case of this is in the 64 titles, which are implied to be a fair bit of Broad Strokes on the continuity. There, he plays a more elaborate ruse than usual by hiding away as the young boy Malus and letting everyone pick each other off instead. Despite the main continuity having his two wives be much of the cause of Dracula's extreme vengeance, this version doesn't seem to think about that at all, considering the Bad Ending has him forcibly entrap Carrie into a future marriage, either for her soul or her Bernades lineage.
• Determinator: No matter how many times Vampire Hunters, Witches, and even his own son blow through his castle and kill him, he just will not stay dead and will continue with his war on humanity every time without ever giving up on it.
• Dimension Lord:
  • His existence as a Dark Lord is what maintains the Abyss, a realm consisting of 6 separate hells filled with tortured souls he uses to create the monsters that populate his castle.
  • The Chaotic Realm is the twisted, eldritch dimension made of pretty much every flaw of Creation, from which he comes from and where his essence returns when he is destroyed. It is the home of the Entity who annointed him/is incarnated in him, it is not very clear.
  • His castle itself can also qualify as its own dimension, as it's a symbol of not only Dracula's will, but the chaos within humanity itself.
• Dirty Coward: As Mathias, he was willing to let Walter kidnap Sara and direct his best friend Leon's failed rescue because he knew he couldn't take on the vampire lord himself. Even after becoming a vampire, he sicced Death on Leon rather than risk a fight with him. He seems to have grown out of this over the years, being willing to personally take on the heroes who wield the Vampire Killer.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind:
  • When he was still mortal in Lament of Innocence, he was only mentioned a handful of times and explicitly stated to be bedridden with grief following the death of his first wife. After Walter is defeated, he appears and reveals that he orchestrated the game's entire plot and played everyone like a harp, all so he could become a vampire as revenge against God for allowing her to die after devoting his life to serving Him.
  Mathias: If limited life is God's decree, then I shall defy it! And within that eternity, I shall curse Him forevermore!
  • In Castlevania 64, he masquerades as the boy the hero comes to see as a little brother.
• Dracula: You don't say!
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely loved both of his wives, and although Alucard has all but disowned him as a father, Dracula still holds a place in his hardened heart for his son. In fact, it is also implied that the death of his wives (the latter wife via witch-burning) was also the reason why he even became evil.
• Eternal Villain: Dracula will always resurrect, and no hero can keep him away for too long. In Grimoire of Souls he is even brought back AFTER being killed for good and reincarnated, by infusing his essence into a materialized echo of him from the past.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: He is generally associated with fire, especially his trademark triple fireball.
• Evil Genius: He was a genius scholar and tactician even before becoming a vampire, and he certainly did not lose it.
• Evil Laugh: Tends to do this a lot when he's fought in his first form.
• Evil Overlord: One of gaming's biggest examples. "Dark Lord" (alternatively "Lord of Darkness" or "King of the Night" among other variations) is his official title and occupation, even.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He's usually given a pretty deep voice. As Mathias, it was a low voice.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: As portrayed by Norio Wakamoto in Symphony of the Night.
• Faith–Heel Turn: When Elisabetha died while Mathias was out fighting in the Crusades, the grief-stricken man didn't take this well. With the progression of time, his renouncement of God escalated to new heights.
• Fallen Hero: Mathias was once a respected scientist and hero from the Crusades. Then his wife died and he started to Rage Against the Heavens...
• Familial Foe: Hunting monsters is the Belmont family hat, and each game features a Belmont taking on Dracula with the help of various allies.
• Final Boss: It would be easier to count how many games don't have him as this.
• Flaming Meteor: His Dark Inferno attack, where he sends out several small meteors from his cape.
• Foil: To the entire Belmont Clan. While each of its members is able to overcome the tragedies that befall them and their loved ones, Dracula threw a diabolical tantrum when his wife died and continues to besiege humanity because he just can't get over her (and Lisa's) death.
  • He is also this to God, which he is explicitly stated in the series to be a counter to. God is the all-powerful creator of the universe who is the ultimate force for good and by nature loves all and brings life. Dracula, on the other hand, is essentially a Deity of Human Origin who was once a mortal and flawed human being, willingly turned his back on the light, loves very few and hates most, and brings death and destruction while basically being nothing more than a pawn in the balance between good and evil empowered by the evil of humanity reinforced by the stygian powers of hell. It's even implied that for all of his hate and bitterness towards God, he is still serving God by being an example of how far a man can fall and a warning as to what happens when you forsake everything for power and vengeance.
• Freudian Excuse: His first wife Elisabetha died of unknown circumstances while he was away fighting in the Crusades, stoking his rage against God for abandoning him. When he married Lisa, she was later apprehended and executed by witch hunters for practicing witchcraft, even though she was only making medicine to cure plague victims. Is it any wonder Dracula became such a monster?
• Fur and Loathing: In Lament of Innocence, back when he was human, he wore a white/black fur mantle. He wasn't evil at first, but after his first wife died, the rest was history.
• A Glass of Chianti: Naturally the vampire-specific version, A Glass Of Blood. He'll often toss the glass and let it shatter on the floor just before he rises from his throne to whoop ass.
• God of Evil: Not literally, but he certainly functioned as this for a straight millennium. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow reveals that the Balance Between Good and Evil dictates that he is the evil opposite of God, and that if Dracula is no longer the Dark Lord that exists to oppose God, someone will take his place.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: When it is not slicked back, it's usually not combed.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Freshly revived and not having a patience for a would-be opponent like Shanoa taking him on in Order of Ecclesia, his second phase drops the familiar fireballs and teleports in favor of straight up unfurling his cloak, breaking into an Unflinching Walk and beating the shit out of her with his bare hands.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In many of the games, Dracula isn't an active threat until very late in the game, assuming he directly shows up at all. However, that doesn't mean people wanting to revive him won't step in for him.
• Hannibal Lecture: Gives one in the Castlevania Tribute Vol.1 album.
• Heel Realization: After Alucard defeats him in Symphony of the Night, he asked what Lisa's last words were, and Alucard told him while humans are flawed, don't seek vengeance against them. Hearing this makes him realized he acted against the wishes of his second wife, and apologizes to her before dying. Unfortunately, this doesn't stick after the events of SOTN.
• Hellfire: His most iconic attack.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Happens fairly often. After all, it cannot really be a Castlevania without a mano a mano against him at the end. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin are some examples.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He's partially responsible for the creation of the Vampire Killer whip and because he failed to slay Leon at the very beginning of his feud with the Belmonts, it's the primary weapon that has felled him time and time again.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: His rationale for destroying humanity. He's not entirely wrong, since humans wrongfully condemned his second wife for practicing witchcraft when she was only trying to cure plague victims.
  Dracula: "Your own kind called me forth with praise and tribute."
• Humanoid Abomination: In this series, he's really much more this than a standard vampire. In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, it's confirmed that he's literally the opposite of God.
• Hypocrite: Perhaps Dracula's most defining flaw. He is very quick to call out humanity for being violent and petty, but is himself causing mass destruction and death purely out of hateful spite. A lot of characters in the franchise lampshade Dracula's hypocrisy, especially Alucard.
• Ignored Epiphany: Despite his Heel Realization in Symphony Of The Night, he's unable to let go of his anger and would return again and again until he's finally put to rest in 1999. A bit of a Foregone Conclusion since Bloodlines was already released at this point and took place after Symphony timeline-wise.
• Jive Turkey: Courtesy of the Perfect Selection album, with his opening lines ending with a nice "Awwww Yeah!".
• Joker Immunity: No matter how often he's killed, he seems to always come back. The final battle in 1999? The one where he was killed so thoroughly he reincarnated? Grimoire of Souls shows that if all his energy and echoes of his past are gathered in one place, he can still be brought back from that.
• Killed Off for Real: Dracula's soul was finally put to rest when an alliance of vampire hunters sealed away Castlevania in 1999, letting Julius Belmont permanently kill him. With Dracula's soul released from the evil that had empowered it, it reentered the wheel of reincarnation and was reincarnated as Soma Cruz.
• Large Ham: Just look at some of his quotes! The Japanese voice track in particular has him be voiced by Norio Wakamoto, the king of hammy seiyuu.
  Dracula: "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!"
  • Mathias was Evil Is Hammy, managing to be composed, even while cementing himself as a Magnificent Bastard. All bets were off once he became Dracula.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • He manipulated Walter into kidnapping Sara, the betrothed of his own friend Leon, in the hopes that the warrior would be able to defeat Walter for him. Leon succeeded when Sara sacrificed herself to create the Vampire Killer, the very weapon that would be the bane of Dracula's own existence.
  • In a more twisted case, after sending Leon's beloved Sara to her doom, he tried to settle down with a new wife, Lisa. She was hunted down and killed, costing him the happy life he stole from Leon and Sara.
• Leitmotif:
  • "Dance of Illusions"/"Illusionary Dance" has become the iconic song for the battle with Dracula, having been used in Rondo of Blood, Dracula X, Symphony of the Night, Castlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness, Circle of the Moon, Judgment, and Harmony of Despair. It even shows up in Julius Mode of Dawn of Sorrow, when you have to face Soma as the new Dark Lord in a battle almost directly lifted from earlier battles with Drac.
  • In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he'll use "Nothing to Lose" and "Black Night" for each respective phase during boss fights against him in the World of Light, and in Classic Mode as Luigi, Simon, and Sephiroth. Richter's Classic Mode continues the use of "Dance of Illusions" as a Call-Back to Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. When fighting him as Pac-Man however, he uses the original Famicom Disk System arrangement of "Dwelling of Doom".
• Load-Bearing Boss: Once he's defeated, the whole Castle comes down with him. Justified in that the Castle is linked to him and depends on his evil power to exist in the first place.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He was this as a human.
• Love Makes You Evil: Lost two wives; one to sickness, the other to witch hunters. He did not take this well. In Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, It also might happen again, depending on whether Soma outlives Mina, and Mina's apparent murder is the trigger for his bad ending in Dawn.

M-Z

• Manipulative Bastard: He is said to manipulate those who want to Kill All Humans as much as he does. And he has a knack for exploiting the darkest side of his foes to manipulate and corrupt even those who can resist his evil influence.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: He's the page image.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Elisabetha's death drove him to hate God. Lisa's death drove him to hate man as well. No wonder the closest thing he has to a friend is Death.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Realizes he inadvertently denied Lisa her final wish by seeking revenge on mankind for her death when Alucard reveals that her final words had been to forgive humanity for their actions. Unfortunately, he isn't able to let go of his hate, and the next time he returns he's still the same old bastard.
• Motive Decay: Some games have him seeking vengeance for his wives, and others will have him making elaborate plots just to undermine and eliminate the Belmont lineage. Other games will simply have him at the end because he's not truly killable and he decides to pick a fight with whatever hero stumbled into stopping him this time. He still always wants to cause carnage and mayhem, but that's simply in his nature, and how much he decays tends to depend on how frequently he revives and/or how quickly he is confronted after his revival.
• Not Me This Time: He doesn't appear in Harmony of Dissonance, but his power does as "Dracula Wraith".
• Number of the Beast: He tends to have 6,666 HP in Metroidvania games.
• One to Million to One: Another depiction of his Teleport Spam, where he splits into several bats and reforms in a different location.
• One-Winged Angel: Most of the time since the first game. He drops it a few times here and there, notably in Order of Ecclesia, but still hellishly tough. Some of said games, it just gets replaced with Turns Red (OoE included, though it's more of a Unfurls Cape and Gets Belmont-Trademarked Pimp Walk). It's gotten to such a ridiculous number that a full list of them can be found here. Occasionally becomes Bishōnen Line.
• Orcus on His Throne: Despite being the leader of of a massive demonic army, Dracula never ever fights on the frontlines, opting to stay in his castle until someone inevitably comes to challenge him. Given how long it typically takes to reach his throne room, one has to wonder what he does in his spare time.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Really different, seeing as how he's more like Satan than anything else.
• Physical God: Since he draws his power from Chaos itself, he can be considered one. He can transform into demonic forms with godly powers when he unleashes his full might.
• Playing with Fire: His trademark form of attack, either with a flurry of smaller fireballs, pillars of flame, or a shorter series of larger fireballs.
• Pointy Ears: Most of the concept art depicts him with pointy ears.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Gives a few good ones, usually before going One-Winged Angel. Usually a variation of "playtime is over" or "behold my true form", but there are some more imaginative. His most famous by far is the Memetic "Enough talk, have at you!" from Symphony of the Night, retranslated in the page quote above.
  In Judgment: (after the Final Boss says he comes from 10000 years in the future) "Of course! And your next stop, oblivion."
• Pretty in Mink:
  • As Mathias in ''Lament of Innocence. Unfortunately, he became evil later on.
  • His reincarnation Soma rocks a fur coat in Aria too.
• Public Domain Character: One of the oldest.
• Puppy Love: Exploits this in the bad ending of Castlevania 64, where in the guise of the innocent child Malus, he pesters (actual child) Carrie Belnades to promise to marry him when grown up. When she vaguely accepts, he ominously states "Then we have a binding contract...".
• Rage Against the Heavens: His will to live forever is a big ol' Take That! towards God's decree of limited human life... Though in the end even that is turned against him.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Big Bad of the series, and he's usually garbed in this.
• Reincarnation Romance: It's heavily implied that Lisa is the reincarnation of Elisabetha. The implications even extend to Soma Cruz and Mina Hakuba, who's suggested to be the next incarnation of these two women (similar to how Soma is Mathias/Dracula), much like Mina Harker (note the similar-sounding surnames) from Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• Resurrective Immortality: Dracula is resurrected in most of the games, the better for the player to have someone to fight. The exact methods vary.
• Retcon: All indications suggest that Castlevania's Dracula was originally intended to be Vlad Tepes Dracula, as Dracula's Curse is the first time Dracula is fought and the game takes place in 1476, which is when the real Tepes died. Alucard also laments over killing his father, something he probably wouldn't do if he knew his father was just going to come back in a hundred years. But then someone screwed up Dracula's age in the Symphony of the Night manual, IGA decided to just run with it, and Lament of Innocence was produced.
• Satanic Archetype: The games treat Dracula as a stand-in for the devil.
• Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: In various games, old Vlad is resurrected when you assemble (some of) his body parts or possessions which contain pieces of his essence, which are usually held by various bosses and grant the holder various attributes (such as improved stats, immunity to poison or curses etc), namely his Eye, Rib, Bone, Nail, Tooth/Fang and/or his Ring.
• Slouch of Villainy: Every time a Belmont encounters Dracula, he's usually slumped over his thrones as if he's gone bored.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In Symphony of the Night, we learn Dracula's motivations for evil stem from his wife Lisa being burned at the stake for practicing medicine. Lament of Innocence reveals his first wife Elisabetha also died, which also motivated him to evil.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: As Mathias. As Dracula, his appearance varies from game to game, going from a young man (as seen in Rondo of Blood), middle-aged with dark hair, to old and grey. While not the Bishōnen Mathias is, Dracula is more often than not quite dashing. As of Symphony of the Night, Dracula's standard appearance is usually that of an older, moustachioed Alucard.
• Teleport Spam: A staple of all of his fights, with his depictions from Super Castlevania IV onwards having him disappear in a beam of light.
• This Cannot Be!: Many times when he's defeated.
• Throne Room Throwdown: He's traditionally fought in the throne room at the top of his castle. A few exceptions exist, such as in Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance, where you fight him in the center of the castle instead.
• Throwing Down the Gauntlet: But enough talk, HAVE AT YOU!
• Tragic Villain: Dracula can be interpreted this way. The whole reason he became a villain in the first place was because he lost his wife, and then he loses his second wife, bringing him to a Despair Event Horizon.
• The Trickster: As Mathias, he fooled Leon so he could get the Crimson Stone and become Dracula. Definitely a great example of a trickster.
• True Final Boss: In several games, beginning with Symphony of the Night.
• Underestimating Badassery: Despite his pretty much unbroken defeat streak to the forces of good, Dracula always seem to be confident in his supremacy, smugly waiting at his throne while sipping on some human juice as the hero-of-the-day (whom he never views as a Worthy Opponent) storms his castle and kills his henchmen one by one. There are some exceptions such as Rondo of Blood where he goes out of his way to attack Richter's village and sic Death on him on his way to the castle, but once that fails he still waits at his throne for Richter to inevitably come over and whip him back to the other world as many, many Belmonts before him did.
• Unholy Holy Sword: His strongest spell, the one hit kill Demonic Megiddo, is explicity stated to use holy flames. It still kills whoever he uses it on, be it Richter, Alucard, or Shanoa.
• Unknown Rival: He became an earthbound demiurge to defy, spite, and hopefully defeat the deity he purports to be the antithesis of, but in a fitting twist of irony, God pays him little (if any) mind and Dracula is instead defeated and slain again and again by the descendants of the friends he betrayed to become a vampire.
• Vampires Are Sex Gods: Even as Dracula, he had a beautiful, loving wife (although it's very possible that she saw the good in him). He also has a Mad Love Psycho Supporter in the form of Carmilla, a fellow evil vampiress.
• Vampire Vords: Only in Portrait of Ruin, possibly as a way to pay homage to Bela Lugosi's original film portrayal of Dracula.
• Villainous BSoD: Implied to have suffered a massive one by his final defeat in Symphony of the Night, when he learns Lisa's true last words.
• Villain Teleportation: And follows it right up with a triple fireball or a Dark Inferno.
• We Can Rule Together: Tempts Leon with the gift of immortality and the chance of serving as his right-hand man. Leon resists, Mathias sics Death on him. Also tries with his son Alucard, in the dialogue preceding the final boss battle Dracula states he will vanquish the human part within Alucard so his son can rule a world of darkness with his father, Dracula fails of course.
• White Hair, Black Heart: In every game that portrays him with having white hair, he is this.
• Wicked Cultured: Dracula may be a bloodsucking monster, but he's always well-dressed, has exquisite taste in wine, and can quote the Bible verbatim off the top of his head.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His main motivation for trying to ruin the world and go against God is because of his wife dying. Twice.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: He steals men's souls, and makes them his slaves!

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