History Headscratchers / Castlevania

** Barring that, their offspring may have been designated Belnadeses. In ''Judgment'', Sypha comes across as feminist, and Trevor implies that he may, in fact, [[IncrediblyLamePun be whipped]]. But not even that justifies Juste. Hmm... maybe the guys got to be Belmonts and the girls got to be Belnadeses?

* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaI''

* ''Headscratchers/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow''

** Complete FanWwank incoming, but maybe a person using the whip reinforces the connection somehow, renewing it and keeping the dilluted bloodline from being a problem. So, Trevor can initially use the whip because he's Leon's descendant, but Simon retains the ability not because of Leon's connection to it, but Trevor's. This could also explain why Johnatan Morris was able to use the whip with fewer issues than his father John had. The only problem with this idea is the 200 year gap where no Belmonts wielded the whip, and Julius being able to use it just fine.

*** Sorry. MarySue Belmont, She of the Green Vinyl Jumper, Traveling Huntress without a Past, Bishie-Banger, Spellslinger in a Time When Grinding Herbs was Witchcraft is no more by omission and commission.

* Why can't some of these characters settle on a hair color? Dracula and Alucard can be partially explained, but what about the others? Simon has been portrayed as brunette, blond, and black-haired in various games, and now official art suggests that he has always been a fiery redhead. Eric Lecarde's hair switches from blond to deep green in-game, and this doesn't explain [[spoiler:his dark hair color in ''Portrait of Ruin'', or the fact that his daughters have purple hair.]]
** Simon can be explained by the fact that, for years, no one really cared what his hair colour was. Eric's blonde-to-green is probably due to sprite colour limitations on the Genesis, though I've got nothing on [[spoiler:the dark hair in ''Portrait of Ruin''. I'm inclined to blame it on no one on the dev team actually PLAYING ''Bloodlines'' grumble grumble ''Rondo''-worshipping bastards grumble grumble.]]
*** The [[spoiler:purple hair]] can probably be explained because they're [[spoiler:vampires]]. The flashback NewGamePlus is kind of hard to explain one way or another, so you can assume a whole bunch of things to explain the hair.

*** [[spoiler:It's possible that the girls got the purple hair from their mother.]]

* How the hell does Dracula have a niece? It might have made sense before ''Lament of Innocence'' came along, but now, it's just impossible. Unless for whatever reason, [[spoiler:Mathias]] had a brother who also ended up a vampire had a child around that time, but then, that'd make Elizabeth Bartley a dhampir. So... how?

** [[spoiler: Ladies and Gentlemen, Gabriel Belmont defeats Satan and then become Dracula. Obviously, the beatdown of Satan by Dracula is now canon in at least one alternate timeline.]]

* If Sara is the Vampire Killer, then how come she's not acknowledged by the recent Belmonts or the others, or the franchise itself? It seems rather odd that she's just forgotten like that, considering she sacrificed herself to create the weapon the Belmonts would be using to hunt the night? So yeah, why is she such a wasted character?
** It's entirely possible that Leon didn't want to tell anyone, even his own vampire-killing children, because "Hey your Mom died and now she's a whip and I need you to slap her mercilessly against Dracula's bum" is probably a weird conversation to have.
** Or the clan just, kinda, forgot a lot of it's history over the course of a thousand years. It's not that hard for oral tradition to get changed or lost. Since the art of fighting evil doesn't look to have advanced much between Lament of Innocent up through Order of Ecclesia, it's safe to assume not much got written down or passed on effectively. The Belmont clan is also a mess to keep track of so it may have just been passed on to a branch family at some point or maybe a Belmont died before he could pass on the secrets to the next one. There's a lot of explanations.
* Similarly, why doesn't Mathias as Dracula, just destroy the Vampire Killer whip? There's no given explanation that he can't. In fact if you think about it... shouldn't Dracula consider Sara as his greatest threat or sworn enemy. Sara as the Vampire Killer whip can allow anyone to use her, by either proving your worthy, or by being inherited. Proof you don't need the Belmonts to wield her.
** Occam's Razor says "magic whip" plus "power of love" plus "kills vampires" equals "can't be destroyed by a vampire/the guy who betrayed me." We also don't know how alchemy works so maybe the base spell on it makes it indestructable entirely.
* About Whip's Memory from ''Portrait of Ruin'', why did it still have Richter as it's recognized owner? Shouldn't that be John Morris instead? He harnessed the power of the Vampire Killer before so Lecarde and Morris must have done the same ritual years ago to unlock the whip's true power. They [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot wasted]] so much great small scene and plot. Imagine Jonathan's father testing him if he's really up to the job and responsibility of wielding the whip.
** The Vampire Killer allowed itself to be used by John Morris but it was slowly killing him the entire time as it didn't actually accept him as an owner. John didn't teach Jonathan how to unlock the whip's full power to protect him from the same fate; Jonathan doesn't know this at first and resents his father until Eric Lecarde reveals the truth.

* What was Hammer doing in the shrine and castle in Aria? He said that he was ordered to investigate the shrine and then he suddenly came to the castle. Why would the US army care so much about this shrine? If they cared a lot, then they would probably send more people. There's a bit of FridgeHorror attached, too: If Hammer was an bystander who was suddenly caught up in the mess, then who else was there? You only see him, so you can't tell if any other innocent people got caught up in Castlevania...
** Maybe somebody in the army knew about the whole Dracula’s castle thing and had sent a OneManArmy who also already knew in an attempt to help, but somehow Hammer was sent by accident. So in that case, either fate or luck brought him there.

* In Lords Of Shadow, if [[spoiler: Zobek was under Satan's control, why did he kill Baba Yaga?]]
* In Lords Of Shadow, why does [[spoiler: Zobek need Gabriel to kill Marie?]]

* So in ''Order of Ecclesia,'' Richter's not around for whatever reason and the Belmonts aren't supposed to use the Vampire Killer until Julius's battle with Dracula in 1999. That's all well and good, but where are Maria and Alucard? While one might possibly HandWave Alucard as having returned to his sleep sometime after ''Symphony,'' it's implied that Maria is able to convince him to stay (and it's confirmed in the Japan-only radio drama, though that might not be canon). Maria herself should still be active, since she was eighteen in 1797, when ''Symphony'' takes place, and ''Ecclesia'' is set in the early 1800s.
** Considering that Dracula's Castle didn't actually rise until most of the way through the game, easy enough to say Maria was nowhere near it at the time. Indeed, if Shanoa fails, it could very well be Maria who heads out to see what's going on and deals with Dracula. Similarly, the Church is researching other methods of taking down Dracula. Even if Maria is still around, that doesn't mean you shouldn't bother working on other methods. Always good to have a contingency plan or eight, especially with Dracula.
** Maria is most likely dead by the time of Order of Ecclesia's events. Alucard is traveling the world looking for a way to permanently destroy Dracula.
** Most likely? There's no exact time period given for the game, it could be anywhere between 1797-1897, and most likely takes place around the early 1800's, as the first poster said. It's quite likely Maria is still alive.
** Perhaps, but I don't think so. We know that the Wygol Villagers are all that is left of the Belmont Clan (not counting offshoots like the Morris family), so Richter is definitely dead. And if he is, I would say Maria is most likely too. And even if she wasn't, she would be like an old lady or something. But that's just what I think.
*** If fanon is any suggestion, Alucard and Maria are busy in America [[DoubleEntendre founding the Lecarde Clan]].

* In the first game, how do I use my sub-item when ducking if I'm not using a keyboard?
** You don't, going by how a d-pad works. The developers probably didn't disable the function, because it wouldn't come up under a standard NES controller.

* How, if only the Vampire Killer, Dominus or Alucard can defeat Dracula, did [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon Nathan Graves]] defeat Dracula with only the Hunter Whip?
** And this is why Nathan got retconned.
*** At first. Circle of the Moon was put back in the timeline as a GaidenGame. That wasn't the reason for its removal anyway.
** Per some Zelda WMG on similar issues: Dracula wasn't at full power because he never got the sacrifice, just some of it from the ritual in the full moon. Due to his only partial resurrection, he can be killed by more mundane weapons. [[ItRunsOnNonSensoleum Alternately, same way you can kill him with just subweapons]].

* This is killing me: what the hell does Dracula's ring do in ''Simon's Quest''? Presumably, it has ''some'' kind of function since the other four parts do (eye: seeing hidden objects in breakable blocks; nail: whipping through breakable blocks so that you don't need the otherwise fairly useless holy water equipped; rib: shielding you from fireballs; heart: gaining passage to a new part of the map from the ferryman), but what ''is'' its function? Does it have some subtle effect on your stats or...what??
** Aside from being needed to resurrect Dracula, it has no purpose. At least all the guides I've read have never suggested it does anything. Might be theories that it increases heart drop rates or something, but most people are pretty sure it doesn't do anything.
** I just read at a wiki on the game that wearing the ring is what allows you to break through the enchanted wall in front of the castle ruins, where as the magic cross is what allows you to actually enter the ruins themselves. But can you get through if you wear the ring but don't have the other four parts?
* Death appears and steals your equipment in SOTN, and doesn't appear again until the inverted castle, so, where is Death all this time? You'd expect to meet him somewhere along the course of the game, but where is he before the inverted castle? Also, why is the Alucard equipment scattered? Wouldn't Death have carried them around to stop Alucard from using them against him?
** Perhaps Death was busy helping Shaft with Dracula's resurrection and had to spend all his time in the Inverted Castle. As for Alucard's equipment, he was too busy to carry them around and guard them along with whatever else he was doing, so he just scattered them around so they wouldn't all be in one place and easy to get at.
*** This then raises the question of why he handled Alucard's monogrammed necklace in the manner he did. It's been planted deep in Galamoth territory, and duplicates can be found in the possession of Galamoth's most loyal and powerful witches.
*** Not to mention that Galamoth is meant to be Dracula's enemy, according to Kid Dracula and the backstory to Judgment.
* How, exactly, does the whole "collecting Dracula's body parts" thing work in SOTN? Apparently, Alucard has to do so to ''stop'' Shaft from summoning him? Despite them being key to his revival in prior games, and how he is only successfully summoned ''after'' Alucard gets them?
* Something's been bothering me for a while now: Elisabetha has only been mentioned in Lament of Innocence, right? Then Lisa came along and Dracula's pretty much forgotten about his first wife. Is this truly the case? And if it is, then is it possible that he's forgotten about his past as Matthias Cronqvist?
** TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget. Dying as often as he does can't ''possibly'' be good for his memory either.
** There's 400 years between LoI and CV3, dude. Drac got over his loss and fell in love again after a few centuries.
** Given the reincarnation angle introduced in the Sorrow games, it's quite possible that Lisa was the reincarnation of Elisabetha.

* If the succubus from [=SotN=] didn't know that Alucard was the son of Dracula, how did she create that scenario with Alucard's mom?
** Probably just a translation issue. In the PSP version's re-recorded dialogue, she says something like "You really ''are'' Lord Dracula's son", implying that she knew that already.
** In-story, it could be that Dracula told the Succubus about that part of Alucard's past to screw with his mind, but left out the little detail that it was his wife they burned, only referring to Lisa as Alucard's mother.
** I got the impression that, as an enemy who specializes in manipulating dreams, she was just summoning his worst memory as a nightmare, without really knowing the details herself.
* This is a bit of a silly question, but in 2035 and 2036, did cellphones go obsolete? If Soma had a cell phone on him, reaching him would be easy! We don't have any evidence of the Sorrow games setting restricting the use of electronics (like Harry Potter and Hogwarts), and I'm sure Arikado would know how to use a cell phone.
** Castles in remote snowy European villages might not get very good reception. Neither would the inside of a solar eclipse.
* Were there other members of Order of Ecclesia ''besides'' Shanoa, Albus and Barlowe? I don't believe there were. That makes for a rather small group that's supposed to be fighting Dracula.
** What, a single Belmont isn't too few?
** Order of Ecclesia doesn't have any Belmonts.
** You missed the point. And the joke. [[DontExplainTheJoke Lone Belmonts have never been criticized for being "too few" to take on Dracula.]]
** No matter what the goal is, three people does not make an Order. Is that what the question is asking?
* Why doesn't Shanoa cut her hair so that she doesn't have to lift it up every time to activate her glyph? Excluding RuleOfSexy.
** Well, there was her nun-themed redesign in ''Judgment'', complete with a habit and shorter hair (due to [[NoFlowInCGI the complications presented by her]] RapunzelHair, but still). The fandom doesn't like to talk about ''Judgment'', though, so...
* How is it that Albus gets a fully automatic flintlock pistol?
** Well, according to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handgun an article]] on Wiki/ThatOtherWiki, pistols were first around in the 15 century, and his pistol has been enhanced with glyphs, allowing him to have [[BottomlessMagazines infinite ammo]].

* In Julius Mode in Dawn of Sorrow, what was the point of traveling through The Abyss? You just end up in the throne room in The Pinnacle, which you already could have gone to anyway. The only reasonable thing I could think of is to shoehorn Aguni into the game, but that really wasn't necessary.
** Do you mean Aguni or Abaddon?
*** I meant to say both (I forgot about Abaddon earlier). Still not necessary though.
** Well, considering Soma isn't in the Pinnacle room when you first go there, it's obviously quite necessary. May be a Hellish Reflection that Soma kept because he found it stylish, or he only reveals himself after you've destroyed all his other minions.
** Ooh! Perhaps Soma, having awakened as Dracula, chose to return to his castle's throne room to recover his strength. You know, the castle that the game didn't actually take place in, but that the game's castle was intended to mimic. It would also explain why the only way to get there at that point was to leave the game's castle and go through hell.
* VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight. The inverted castle. As in, how exactly did it appear randomly out of the clouds? Why is there a second castle? Why is it upside down? Is this EVER explained ingame? At least ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'''s second castle is a reflection, and the two castles are sort of the extension of Maxim's will, so it gets a handwave. I know I'm asking for logic in a Castlevania game, but, you know, there is no plot justification for the inverted castle, especially the fact it's UPSIDE DOWN.
** I always thought Shaft cast some kind of spell. Can't think of any other reason, though.
** Considering that it appeared more or less the very ''instant'' Shaft was defeated, it was ''obviously'' him casting a spell, but I think we're supposed to assume he had it prepared in advance as some sort of last ditch diversion or means of buying time in case he failed. As for the backgrounds being upside-down along with the castle....
* Okay, I understand that Death and Soma didn't recognize each other in ''Aria'', but after Soma became aware that he was Dracula's reincarnation, he also got his old memories back (something that a villain mentions in ''Dawn''). So why didn't Soma even bother to talk to Death in ''Dawn''? I would have accepted Death saying something like "you're not my friend/master anymore" but I'm surprised that Soma didn't even tried to talk Death into backing down or letting him pass; they were best friends!
** Death and ''Dracula'' were best friends. Soma may have the memories of Dracula, but he is still his own person. (At least, a big deal of the games is trying to maintain his own identity in the face of holding such power and memories.) Still, many people consider it a [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot wasted opportunity]] that Death never says a word to Soma, despite how talkative and integral Death is in the plot of other Castlevania games. Read some theories as to why in another JBM on this page.
* ''Who or what the hell is Saint Germaine?''
** A time traveler.
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_of_St._Germain

* Why does Simon Belmont dress like... [[http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/EmperorCesar/belmont.jpg like]] [[http://www.biocrawler.com/w/images/9/93/SimonBelmont.gif he]] [[http://matteomazzali.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/simon-belmont.jpg does?]] The first game takes place in 1691, yet he looks like a barbarian. Even when he was being redesigned, it was only to make him ''less'' clothed.

* What's with the GameOver Screen in Symphony of the Night? It has a random demon-headed skeleton with a cross necklace in its ribcage with a quote that doesn't seem relevant to Alucard dying. What is it, a BigLippedAlligatorMoment as the death screen?
** I think it's supposed to depict what has become of the world now that you've failed and Dracula's forces have overwhelmed it. Don't ask me where the horned skeleton came from, though.
** Very few of the game over screens in the Metroidvania games make sense, the main exceptions being Dawn of Sorrow (Death holding what is presumably Soma's soul), and Order of Eccelsia's three game over screens. All the others are more or less unnconnected.
*** [[FridgeBrilliance You know how Alucard can occasionally turn into a large demonic-looking creature]] [[http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6846/alucardgargolaxq1.jpg when petrified...?]]
* In Dawn of Sorrow's Julius Mode, Alcurd has no reflection, but his breath shows up when outside.
** He's a dhampir, not a vampire, so it makes sense he has only ''some'' of the symptoms.
* In Dawn of Sorrow, you can get money in the form of coins by destroying lamps and chandeliers. Only, since it's in the present day, they're lightbulb powered. And the coins are worth between 1 and 100 dollars. Let me just reiterate that. You can find a coin... INSIDE of a lightbulb... worth 100 AMERICAN DOLLARS, in a JAPANESE reconstruction of an EUROPEAN Castle.
** There's nothing mentioning that the castle in [=DoS=] is in Japan. The outdoor section, along with the names of Celia, Dmitrii, and Dario indicate it's probably European.
** Promotional material put it in Europe, IIRC. Wasn't it Yen in the JP version? It could just counting the gold obtained in what it's worth in modern currency. As for why it's there, same reason candles have daggers, crosses, axes, pocket watchs and hearts in them. I think WordOfGod is that they are gifts from the trapped souls you are freeing.
*** I'd say it makes less sense in the modern context. But the idea of light-bulbs being filled with fairy-fire is badass, so I accept it.

* What happened to Dario in ''Dawn's'' third ending? He's straight up killed in the first one, killed by Julius in the AnotherSideAnotherStory mode following the second ending, but the third? Pretty much completely forgotten about after the boss fight.
** The easy answer is he just ran off, no longer interested in Celia or her crazy idea. Still, it doesn't answer a whole lot. Soma seemed to hint he lost his powers, but that doesn't make sense. Aguni was only recently bonded to his soul and it only enhanced his powers, it wasn't his source. By all accounts, he should still have fire abilities even after Aguni's defeat. Still, he's very much outclassed by Soma at this point, so it's likely that he said [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Screw this, I'm outta here]] and took off, possibly to be arrested later. Either way, Soma and the gang had to worry about Celia and didn't have time to chase some thug down.

* Something's always bugged me about Soma: he's the reincarnation of Dracula. Okay, cool. He's also a seventeen-year-old high school student. Okay, cool. Aria of Sorrow takes place thirty-six years after Dracula was KilledOffForReal. Um... how did Dracula manage to delay his reincarnation for nineteen years? The best theory I've been able to come up with is that it took a while because his castle was actually sealed away in 1999, and so it was like he woke up the next morning with a huge hangover and needed something like half an hour (or 19 years) to actually pull himself out of bed. Is there a canon explanation, though?
** Not that I know of. But, on the other hand, even when Dracula was killed in the past, only on rare occasions (''[=CV2=]'') did he come back immediately anyways. Most of the time, it took decades, if not a full century, for him to pop up. It's possible he could've come back immediately every time and just kept a low profile until he'd amassed enough power again, but if each time it took years to come back, then it wouldn't be out of place for it to happen again with Soma; in that case, the only difference here is that it's one of the few times we know exactly how long it took.
*** Ohh, good point. I was confused because Graham's (and Celia's, Dario's, and Dmitrii's) logic seemed sound in context ("I was born at the exact moment Dracula died last time, therefore I am Dracula"), but I never considered that they could be operating under poor assumptions and not actually taking history into account. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
*** Well, in retrospect, that bit throws a wrench in the works, because Soma, Graham, Dario, and Dmitrii without a doubt all had various powers from Dracula. Although we're not sure when those powers originally manifested for any of them, besides Soma. So it could be that something really ''is'' different with the resurrection process this time, but if that's the case, an easy explanation is just that the castle sealing was ''designed'' to screw his resurrection up in the first place anyway.
*** True, but Soma's power is clearly identified as Drac's supreme power from which all the others come, while Dimitrii's and Dario's look more like powers of high-level monsters. Beside, they (along with Graham) only inherited some powers while Soma got ''Dracula's soul''.
*** An alternate explanation is that Dario and the others did gain some of Drac's powers due to the sheer amount of dark magic that had to be bursting from the guy when he was finally permanently killed without his castle to contain it. Their powers are merely flukes brought on by sheer chance, while Soma received the soul when it was naturally re-incarnated two decades later.
** Alternatively, [[Tropers/NinjaSteve This Troper]] suggests the following: upon his defeat in 1999, Dracula ''was'' reincarnated... except that this reincarnation died the year Soma was born, and thus was reincarnated again as Soma.
** Where was Freddy Krueger during the ten or twelve years between his death at the hands of the angry mob and his first instances of stalking their kids in Dreamland? Training himself to manipulate dreams? Hanging out and knocking back a few beers with the dream demons? It's probably better not to know these things; they're quite unimportant, even if they may be a little intriguing. Dracula regularly spends upwards of a century out of commission (perhaps with his soul wandering helplessly like Voldemort's...?); he could do nineteen years standing on his head. (EDIT: Now that I think of it, Mr. P's Castlevania Realm has a HandWave for the "every century" thing saying that the longer Dracula waits the more powerful he is when he comes back (for instance, ''Simon's Quest'' was only a few years after [=CV1=]). perhaps how long it takes depends partly on how long it is before Drac gets confident and/or antsy enough to return.)
** Interesting to note is that the eclipse from Aria of Sorrow seems to be part of the real world Solar Saros 145 cycle of solar eclipses. The eclipses are spaced roughly 18 years apart, and three of those years are of note: 1999, the year of Dracula’s death, 2017, the year of Soma’s birth, and 2035, the year Aria occurs. The 1999 eclipse occurred over Romania, and, obviously the 2035 eclipse will occur over Japan.

* Exactly where did the whole "the Vampire Killer will suck my life away" thing in ''Portrait of Ruin'' come from? I guess that I could see that maybe nobody who wasn't as superhuman as a Belmont could do well with its unlocked powers, but it still seems like little more than a bit of pointless angst for Jonathan (not that he wasn't already pretty good at that already). Why is such a holy weapon so dangerous?
** GoodIsNotNice and/or LightIsNotGood. Might also have to do with the soul powering Vampire Killer not being able to connect as well with people who aren't direct descendants or something.
** Maybe Miss Trantoul gets a bit upset when the in-laws start telling her what to do?
** Hmm, a WMG just came to mind thinking about this. Namely that over the years, the whip was warded and upgraded from "hurting evil" to causing injuries or not working in the hands of any non-Belmont. At the time, they weren't expecting a Belmont to become corrupted, and thought that it was a safe bet.
** Another WMG idea could be that Shaft somehow cursed the whip while controlling Richter in ''Symphony of the Night''. After all, with the whip so close, why not add curses for future generations to succumb to? And the whole "not until 1999" was waiting for the curse to wear off, but it didn't quite dispel when Julius used it, causing his memory loss.
*** Assuming a "pure" Belmont can handle the whip without concern, it might simply be because the 'impure' branch families don't have the same supposed power of the Belmonts, and so the power of the Vampire Killer has a kind of degenerative effect on the life force of those with "insufficient power" to handle it. It would also serve to explain why a second family (the Lecardes) are needed to help unlock the full potential for a non-Belmont, who otherwise wouldn't have the spiritual power to handle the weapon.
* What was up with all the re-incarnation talk in the ''Sorrow'' series? Every other game takes place with a (very loose) Christian mythology stating that Dracula's refusal to stay down was part of his rebellion against God Himself. Was the "reincarnation is natural" thing added as part of the attempt to appeal to Japanese gamers or just a mistake?
** That, and the fact that very few Japanese actually know or understand Christianity (which seems appropriate since very few Westerners know or understand Japanese mythology). That's why you have tropes like NunsAreMikos and why we have a JBM page for people who mix up Makai and Hell. Japanese developers see things from a very Shinto/Buddhist perspective where stuff like reincarnation seems perfectly natural, then they throw a smattering of Judeo-Christian seasoning on top of it. That isn't necessarily bad, but it can be a little jarring to a Westerner when we see things like reincarnation, evil creatures wielding holy power, and other such cultural anachronisms.
*** Not possible. Japan has been using Judeo-Christian mythology, despite not understanding it, for decades (see Neon Genesis Evangelion). Check out the epically-pedantic explanation of Adam and Eve in [[Franchise/MetalGear MGS3]] for a prime example, when the characters, for all intents and purposes, should know the story back to front.
** Oddly, the earliest invocation of reincarnation in the series was arguably based on ''an American work''. Specifically, the Coppola-directed ''Film/BramStokersDracula'', which introduced the Dracula/Mina love story (absent in the novel) and argued that she was the reincarnation of his previous love interest, Elizabetha.
** Because of the FantasyKitchenSink.

* I've been playing some ''Portrait of Ruin'' lately and was playing through the boss rush with Richter and Maria, and does it strike anyone else as profoundly messed up that they sent a 12 year old girl armed only with birds and cats to fight against the forces of Dracula (which includes Werewolves, Frankensteins monsters, dragons, giants, undead dinosaurs, and a ''giant balls of human corpses''). Am I the only one who imagines Maria may have needed some therapy after all that crap (or even a stay at an asylum, if I may be so bold).
** Well, I'm not sure if [=PoR's=] Boss Rush has any sort of storyline to legitimize her being there, but in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Rondo of Blood]]''/''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles Dracula X Chronicles]]'', she wasn't ''sent''; when you rescue her as Richter, she basically tells you "I'm going to help you save Annette, and if you disagree, expect a seiryu up your ass! :D". So when it comes down to it, any therapy she ends up needing is kind of her fault in the first place.

** Or, since in ''Aria'', Dracula’s power is explained as coming from Chaos, and his castle is a creature of Chaos, every resurrection, either after a full century or by somebody bringing him back early, aspects of his appearance and power may change. For example, even without transforming, Dracula usually has a variety in his design from game to game, does he have white hair, or facial hair? It depends on the game, so do his transformations, so the “true” form statement is either inaccurate in some way, or it’s the true form of his current resurrection. He literally goes from having black hair and no beard in 3, and in ''Call of Darkness'', set soon after, he looks more like he did in his artwork from ''Symphony.''

* Why doesn't Death show a interest in Soma? Soma is the reincarnation of his boss.
** This one gets a lot of FanWank. Theories I've seen include: Death won't acknowledge him unless he achieves full power. He's testing him. Dracula's power has returned to a chaotic form, and Death obeys it, making him chaotic as well. But most likely, the game simply wants Soma to be able to summon the iconic small sickles without going into the ramifications of claiming the soul of an intelligent character who has had dialogue. After all, when Soma absorbs Dmitri's soul, it's supposed to be jarring.
** I've always thought that Death never considered Soma the real Dracula, just the vessel of his soul. He fights Soma in an attempt to take his soul; being Death, he probably knows some way of restoring Dracula's soul to its "proper" evil self.
*** That may not be too far off. Death ''probably'' (not necessarily) knows who Soma is, but even if he does (and it's possible he doesn't), he must be disappointed in his old drinking buddy for losing his way and may figure it's time to give him another shot at reincarnating himself successfully.
** I think that the writers were trying to go a "lighter", more shonen-anime type feel with these games. They were so big into this that they forgot to include some of the more important details.
** I think Death lost his mind when Dracula kicked the bucket, becoming another mindless monster that haunts the castle.
** '''Death served Dracula because he held the Crimson Stone.''' Destroying the Crimson Stone is an implied pre-requisite to killing Dracula. Since no one holds the Crimson Stone, Death is free to do whatever he wants, and the embodiment of death is probably interested in harvesting powerful souls whether they're Dracula-related or not.
* So Gilles de Rais was the servant (the fake Dracula you fought) that the real Dracula (Malus) spoke of. So what was the point of Drac's appearance in Cornell's story? He said that he accomplished his purpose when he was defeated, which I assume was getting Cornell's beast form.
* The battle against the giant enemy crab in the lighthouse in ''Order of Ecclesia'' makes me wonder: why would the builders put platforms and stone barriers in an elevator shaft with a working elevator?
** Obviously as a backup in case the elevator stopped working. That or the masonry and everything just wore down -- considering that they aren't actual stairs or anything, it isn't a stretch that the lighthouse was in fairly severe disrepair from having a GIANT EVIL CRAB in it. You could even hazard that said giant crab damaged things in just such a way on purpose, to make killing intruders easier, though that borders on WMG territory.
* So, if Soma is [[spoiler:Dracula, and therefore a vampire]], why does he [[spoiler:cast a reflection?]]
** Has Dracula ever stood in front of a mirror to even know whether he has a reflection anyways? Either way, it's probably just a case of OurVampiresAreDifferent.
** Soma isn't a vampire... yet. Keep in mind that Dracula, being the ultimate evil, had a lot of powers aside from just being the No. 1 Vampire. Soma is the reincarnation of his spirit and has his Power of Dominance, but that doesn't mean he's actually a vampire. It's questionable if he even turns into one if he does accept the powers of darkness.
** The idea of vampires not casting a reflection comes from the belief that the mirror reflects a person's soul (which is also why breaking them is considered bad luck), and thus vampires, considered soulless is many mythologies, would not have a reflection. Since it's been established that vampires in the CV universe do have souls, this is basically a non-issue.
** Soma isn't a vampire, he's a human being who's a reincarnated ''former'' vampire.
** Arikado doesn't have a reflection. Just putting that out there.

* The Alucard Spear is meant to be used alongside the Vampire Killer, right? So why does Wind give it to Jonathan to use, thus forcing him to settle for one or the other? Sure, there's the obvious answer: the Lecardes are unavailable. But you'd think he'd suggest passing it on to one of them after Charlotte saves them.
* And on that note, since he has no problem wielding it and it isn't going to kill him over time, why not put away the whip, use that spear, and save himself some trouble later? ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation In canon, not gameplay]].)
** He's already been using the Vampire Killer for a while. It's probably too late for switching weapons to save him.
** Doesn't the Vampire Killer need to be activated in order for life to be drained?