Awesome / Castlevania (2017)

Let's just give this one last go, shall we?

"When you get back to whatever steaming underworld shithole you came from, you tell them there are still Belmonts up here."

—Trevor Belmont reminding a demon why its kind feared the House of Belmont, The River

WARNING: Spoilers Off applies to Awesome Moments pages!

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General

• The reveal trailer. It shows someone plugging a Netflix cartridge into an NES and selecting Castlevania from a small menu of other shows, before it changes to jaw-dropping visuals of that all too familiar castle and a field of skeletons impaled on spikes. It also shows Trevor, Alucard, and Sypha, revealing that it's an adaptation of Dracula's Curse.
  Sypha: Who Are You?
  Trevor: The man who'll kill Dracula.
• The fact this is the first western produced adaptation of a game to gain a PURE fresh rating (91%) in Rotten Tomatoes. This shows how far makers have gone in trying to make a game adaptation that manages to please both critics and fans.
  • Furthermore, if you notice Konami's situation right now? It is great that those behind this adaptation know and give what the Castlevania fans wanted and not once did Konami's bad reputation sully the solid reception of the series.
  • This series is also an awesome moment for Frederator, who animated a rated-R series for the first time. And they knocked it out of the park.
• Let's face it: The idea that a whip would be the ultimate weapon against evil is pretty silly. You are much more willing to accept that in the games, with a heavy helping of Grandfather Clause. The series had to convince viewers that there was any sense in Trevor fighting with a whip instead of a sword or a mace or a spear or... Fortunately, the series passes that with flying colors. Trevor is shown using the whip with such agility and precision plus the creative uses of grappling things with the whip, you believe that is his weapon of choice.
  • Specifically, Trevor uses the whip more like a Kusarigama, alternating his range with the whip by wrapping it or hitting the length in specific places to change it's angles, being that Night Creatures tend to attack fast and at odd angles, it gives him much more versatility than, say, a sword.

Season 1

Witchbottle

• Lisa is dedicated to learning medicine and science no matter what, even if she's accused of being a witch and can't get materials for proper research. So what does she do? Walk RIGHT UP to Dracula's Castle (which on top of being an Eldritch Location also has dozens of impaled corpses out front) and demand to know the secrets of his knowledge, all so she can help people. She even calls him out for rudeness when he threatens to drink her blood ("You haven't even offered to take my coat"). One imagines Dracula fell in love with her for her bravery alone.
• Dracula's annihilation of Targoviste could damn well be the vampire king's Crowning Moment of Awesome across the entire Castlevania franchise. You fight Dracula's endless horde of demons in every game; in this show, you see him release his army for the first time as he sends them out to destroy Wallachia. In the games, you always see Dracula's power within the isolated confines of Castlevania; here, he unleashes his full power across an entire city and spares nobody from his hellish wrath. Also demonstrates how utterly fucked you are when Dracula starts getting pissy. Unless your last name happens to be Belmont.
  Dracula: One year. I gave you one year to make your peace with your God. And what do you do? Celebrate the day you killed my wife. One year I gave you, while I assembled my armies. And now I bring your death. You had your chance.

Necropolis

• The first time Trevor uses his whip against a pair of corrupt priests, severing one's finger "accidentally" and knocking another's eye out of his socket. He then proceeds to escape the attempts of those corrupt priests' comrades to arrest/kill him, taking several of them out with thrown knives and axes, while using a simple flaming torch to bar a mob of angry villagers from pursuing him.

Labyrinth

• Trevor killing a cyclops...a ten-foot cyclops.
  • How he kills the cyclops: spin-kicking his sword into its eye.
• Trevor has played the Reluctant Hero up to now, but the moment he embraces his family legacy of heroism is awesome.
  Priest: Look at you. You're a wreck. You stink. You can barely keep your eyes open. What do you expect to achieve against us?
  Trevor: Absolutely nothing.
  Priest: So you're going to die for nothing? For people you don't know?
  Trevor: I don't know any of you, but that doesn't matter, does it? My family, the family you demonized and excommunicated, has fought and died through generations for this country. We do this thing for Wallachia and her people. We don't have to know you all. We do it anyway. And it's not the dying that frightens us. [drops tattered old cloak to reveal his tunic with the Belmont crest] It's never having stood up and fought for you. I am Trevor Belmont, of the House of Belmont, and dying has never frightened me.
• Trevor giving the mother of all beat downs on the asshole priests and keeping the mob at bay at the same time. Basically showing how dangerous he really is. And also saving the Speakers by making sure they weren't there in the first place.

Monument

• Of all people and entities, it's a demon called Blue Fangs giving one hell of a verbal smackdown to the corrupt Bishop of Gresit who had Lisa burned alive and kickstarted Dracula's genocide, before brutally killing him. Adding to the moment, the various saints in the stained glass windows are seen looking away apathetically as the bastard dies a deservedly horrible death.
  Bishop: Who's that? Are the Speakers dead?
  Blue Fangs: No.
  Bishop: Well, get back out there! The Speakers have to die before the sun goes down!
  Blue Fangs: (Emerging from the Shadows) The sun is already down.
  Bishop: You... cannot enter the house of God.
  Blue Fangs: God is not here. This is an empty box.
  Bishop: God is in all His churches.
  Blue Fangs: Your God's love is not unconditional. He does not love us. And He does not love you.
  Bishop: I have done His bidding. My life's work is in His name!
  Blue Fangs: Your life's work... makes Him puke.
  Bishop: I... am the Bishop of Gresit!
  Blue Fangs: Your God knows that we wouldn't be here without you. This is all your fault, isn't it?
  Bishop: SHE WAS A WITCH!
  Blue Fangs: Lies? In your house of God? No wonder He has abandoned you. But we love you.
  Bishop: What?!
  Blue Fangs: We love you. We couldn't be here without you. Let me... kiss you.
• Remember the priest whose finger was "accidentally" cut off by Trevor? That same priest gets stabbed to death by angry villagers when Trevor reveals the truth behind Lisa's death.
  • Trevor's "The Reason You Suck" Speech delivered just before this deserves mention too, exposing the real reason for Dracula's Roaring Rampage of Revenge to the townsfolk. The townsfolk become more and more enraged by the truth until they turn on the corrupt priest before Trevor can even swing his sword.
    Trevor: (sees the Corrupt Priest) You.
    Corrupt Priest: Kill them! Quickly!
    Trevor: No. Just you and me. Come on. You're very big at telling people what to do, getting the people of Gresit to commit murder for you. Let's see how you do on your own.
    (Sypha's flames dissipate, priest begins to panic)
    Trevor: You and me. I can see you're carrying a blade. I wonder if the people of the great city of Gresit have ever seen a priest draw a knife before.
    (townsfolk mutter about his words and the priest's)
    Trevor: Your long knife, my short sword. Let's go. Come on, you had no problem beating an old man this morning. Huh? You had no problem lying to these people about the Speakers!
    Corrupt Priest: The Speakers brought this upon us!
    Trevor: No, they didn't, and you know it. The Speakers stayed here to offer aid. It was your bishop who brought all this down on us! Your bishop who started it all, by killing a defenseless woman! You would have made murderers out of these people, but the only one here who isn't innocent... is you.
• Trevor showing the villagers how to fight the Horde and leading them in battle. The demons that had been tormenting these people for nights on end are slaughtered in minutes. The impromptu training Trevor gave was so effective that the villagers turned from dumping human corpses to dumping demon carcasses in a mere day.
  • Special mention goes to the priest Trevor enlists to help them. After three whole episodes of the Church being anviliciously depicted as nothing but corrupt, power-mad, and greedy, the battle for Gresit is won because a nameless clergyman has the true power of faith to consecrate holy water that the townspeople could use against Dracula's forces.
• Sypha revealing her magical powers to protect Trevor from the angry mob, complete with a Badass Boast about not being a witch, but a sorceress for good.
• Trevor and Alucard discuss Theology and Philosophy before fighting. The fight is amazing. Their discussions are, too. At the end, you are ready for the three to go out and fight.
  • Not many people can look awesome while being outmatched by a stronger opponent, but Trevor finds a way. He gives a great fight against the Son of Dracula, armed with nothing but a leather bullwhip and a steel shortsword, human down to the marrow in his bones. He scores several good hits on Alucard, and it's clear that if he had the Morning Star, Alucard would have folded quicker than Superman on laundry day. Trevor even tries hand-to-hand with him, kneeing him in the groin and then headbutting him when that doesn't work.
    • This also gives a crowning moment to previous Belmonts, as Trevor is a half-trained years-long drunkard, and he still manages to nearly kill Alucard. Little wonder that the family is considered The Dreaded among the vampire community.
  • Alucard demonstrates the power of his lineage, as he seems to have Trevor on the ropes most of the time while in a fit of ennui. He doesn't react at all to being kicked in the groin beyond a snide comment ("Please, this isn't a bar fight, have some class") and then casually backhands him and sends him flying. He also uses a Flash Step ability in the sword duel.
  • If you look really closely during the sword fight, you might notice that Trevor keeps switching hands, using the left to parry and deflect and the right to attack. He seems to be doing it to give the illusion to Alucard that he's actually ambidextrous, making him more cautious and deliberate. Mind games.
  • And then, when Alucard has Trevor disarmed and at his mercy, Trevor defiantly shanks him with a dagger and tells him that he is perfectly happy to perform a Mutual Kill.
    Trevor: (without a hint of fear) Killing you was the point; living through it was just a luxury.
    • After the fight is done and Alucard has Trevor at his mercy, he addresses his adversary as "Belmont" with complete earnestness after earlier questioning whether he wasn't just a drunken impostor. The fight Trevor put up was enough to prove that he was the real deal.
  • Props must be given to the animators as well. A whip is an incredibly difficult weapon to animate and they nail it.
    • To cap off all the awesome in that scene, Sypha tells Alucard in no uncertain terms that she'll burn him to cinders if he actually bites Trevor because, Sleeping Soldier or no, it was Trevor who saved her life.
• Notice in the fight against the Blue Fangs and when the holy water is dumped on the ground, Sypha uses her magic to freeze and weaponize it into holy ice walls! In most settings where magic and holy things do not mix, seeing them being used in tandem here is badass!

Season 2

Old Homes

• We get to see the trio's specialties in action again as they fight off the monsters, and special props go to the animators for Sypha's fight as she forces the beast's fire to swell up in its chest until she forces it to implode.

Shadow Battles

• It's mostly overshadowed given the tragic nature of Trevor's solitary life at such a young age but it also shows unbelievably skilled he and his family are. Trevor guessed he was around 13-15 when his family died and he's in his twenties or thirties. This means that despite being at such a young age, Trevor has retained his monster-hunting skills despite not having his family to learn from and train with. And on the other hand, the fact that his family could train their members at such a young age shows they were a Badass Family indeed.
• The revelation of the hidden Belmont's archive of knowledge. A multi-floored, underground chamber containing enough books to be its own large library and enough artifacts and monster corpses to be a museum. It leaves no question just how the family manages to churn out such excellent hunters over generations.
• Trevor finds an old treasure chest in a hidden room. Inside he finds the upgraded weapon to his Leather Whip: The Morning Star Whip.
• Dracula intimidating Godbrand. It becomes very clear, very fast just why Dracula is THE top Vampire.

Dracula: I will not be questioned by you. I have told you how it will be. The humans will die. You. Will be taken. Care of. Little Godbrand... little vampire... little parasite. Little boat weevil, who delights in making noise and pretending he is important and dangerous. Are you going to continue questioning ME? Are you going to FIGHT ME, Little Godbrand?

Godbrand: …no.

Dracula: Then why are you still here, making your little noises? Get out before I slit you up the middle and bite out your heart.

• Godbrand confronts Dracula on how the plan to kill all humans might bring vampires to the brink of extinction. Dracula doesn't even really have a proper response other than to intimidate him with the above speech.

Godbrand: If you kill all the humans, what are we gonna eat?

Dracula: ... What?

Godbrand: It's very simple, Dracula. If we kill all the humans, where does the continuing supply of human blood come from?

• Carmilla establishing the Belmont clan as a legitimate threat to vampires. She certainly saw a Belmont as being at least as dangerous as Alucard, Dracula's own son.
  • Carmilla and Issac both call Trevor "a Belmont", like they're describing some kind of highly dangerous animal. The Belmonts are so terrifying to vampires that they don't even consider them to be human, but on another level entirely.

Broken Mast

• Issac killing Godbrand. Despite being a normal human, he's able to take down and easily kill a centuries-old vampire as if it was nothing with just a spiked belt and an enchanted knife. It certainly didn't help that Godbrand was foolish enough to turn his back on him.

The River

• The entire plan to trap the castle essentially means ripping a hole in the fabric of time and space to drag an ancient unknowable Magitek Eternal Engine through a mirror. And it WORKS.
• Trevor defeats the entire hit squad of demons sent to the Belmont home on his own, without a lick of help from Sypha or Alucard. First, he carves up a demon ten times his size with his sword, and then he slays a fire dragon with the Morning Star. A spear-wielding demon puts him on the ropes by throwing away the Morning Star, but Trevor kills the demon with its own weapon. He then dispatches a crow-like demon by essentially beating its head in and then impaling its skull. Finally, he’s forced to fend off a strange wolf-bat demon long enough to recover the Morning Star, with a broken knob of a stick, which he uses to slay the final monster.
  • There's a good reason why Trevor fought against the demons alone-he had to protect both Sypha and Alucard. Alucard had to control the mirror and concentrate on keeping the castle in view, and Sypha had to put together a partially finished spell to trap the castle. For Trevor, it was a Hold the Line moment; if he hadn't kept the demons away from the other two, the plan to trap the castle wouldn't have worked.
  • This is particularly noteworthy because after spending most of the season getting the Butt-Monkey treatment because of how comparatively Book Dumb he is, this was finally Trevor's time to shine and remind the audience that he is indeed a Belmont.
  • Note that he held off one with a broken stick and was kicking its ass long enough to retrieve his whip.
  Trevor: When you get back to whatever steaming underworld shithole you came from, you tell them there are still Belmonts up here.
  • Sypha encounters resistance when attempting to tamper with Castle Dracula's movement engine. She magically wrestles with an Eternal Engine refusing to obey the commands of an unfamiliar controller, causing it to Teleport Spam around the city, and eventually start physically spinning around as it chafes under her magical exertion. When she finally brings it to heel and teleports it to the ruins of Belmont Keep, she's positively giddy at her success, clapping merrily, before realizing that the underground Belmont Secret Vault probably can't support the sheer weight of the castle now on top of it. Meanwhile, back at the city, Carmilla and Hector, pretty much the sole survivors from the Vampire factions outside the Castle once it's gone, can only look on incredoulusly at the flailing castle as it wrecks the city, and are left slack-jawed once it's gone for good.
  Carmilla: What the fuck just happened...?
• Carmilla's plot: she's been manipulating Hector to follow her plans, setting up demons to get a go at the Belmonts and secretly ordering her forces to get ready to attack the castle and thus Dracula. She knows she can't win in a fair fight, so she tries to get an advantage. How does she do this? Get Hector to revive the Bishop that got his face chewed off, have him bless the entire river, and set up a situation so that the vampiric army would fall into it and immediately get killed. Say what you will about Carmilla, but the fact that she's using several vampiric weaknesses against Dracula and the opportunities to do so shows her levels of deviousness.

For Love

• The Trio finally make it into Dracula's Castle, and their starting battle against his generals and the soldiers is not only an awesome sight to behold, but the whole thing is done with a remix of Bloody Tears, a staple song of the original video game series. To put that in context, this is the first time we hear a soundtrack from the games in the series.
  • The whole buildup to this scene is a moment of awesome. Dracula's and Carmilla's forces are fighting in the foyer, focused solely on killing each other, when suddenly everyone stops what they're doing mid-strike. All the vampires are suddenly looking in one direction. One of Carmilla's mooks even starts trembling. Then we see each one of them is giving their full attention to the three that just entered the castle, and it's clear the vampires can just tell that a Belmont and Dracula's son Alucard is in the room. The first few haunting notes of Bloody Tears fills the dead silence and everyone in the audience knows exactly what they're in for. What adds onto it is that the vampires stop fighting against each other and proceed to fight together if it means killing the hunters after them. With Trevor coming up with an elaborate battle plan as the trio approach the now-terrified vampires, Alucard starts things off with a particularly cool one-word Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
    Trevor: I terrify them, Sypha disorients them. Alucard goes over the top, and we support him.
    Sypha: Yes!
    Alucard: (levitates his sword ahead of him, and slowly removes the scabbard) Begin.
  • Trevor starts off by massacring a bunch of soldiers with the Morning Star; his first strike caused one of Draculas' troops to explode in midair and knock the other vampires aside. Then he kills a spear-wielding general by tying him up and feeding him the Morning Stars' business end, then kicks him towards another group of vampire knights in time for the general to explode, taking out the knights.
  • Alucard changing into a Wolf, splattering a vampire against a wall by biting his throat and throwing him against a wall, then killing another guy with his sword while still in Wolf form, slicing his arm off and then throwing the blade from between his jaws to impale the vampire through the neck.
  • Sypha gets her own moment by killing the Indian vampire general. First, she proves to be no slouch at defending herself in close combat when she parries his strikes with floating icicles. Then she kills him by luring him into running across an ice blade that she suddenly swings up and outward, neatly bisecting him.
  • There's also the point with Cho. When she seems to get cut by Alucard, she goes into Mist Form and proceeds to stay in it, attempting to kill them while in that form. However, it's called Mist form for a reason. Sypha freezes the mist, thus freezing Cho, and she proceeds to get shattered.
  • Also deserves mentioning is the last Vampire General who gets beaten. He gets knocked to the ground by Trevor, and then Sypha runs up and straight-up burns him to death at point-blank range. If you've ever played Dungeons & Dragons and used Burning Hands, the way Sypha burns him is similar, and just as awesome.
  • One has to give credit to one of the soldiers Alucard deals with. Seeing that Alucard is going for one of his arms, he seamlessly transfers his weapon to the other to defeat Alucard, before Alucard's finished his attack no less. If not for Alucard's magical sword, something he couldn't have predicted, that random vampire would've killed him then and there.
  • It should also be noted that Sypha killed THREE of the generals, while Alucard and Trevor killed one. One YouTube commenter summed it up perfectly:
    Just saying: Girl did work.
• Dracula's fight with the trio. Everyone gets an epic moment, but Dracula himself proves exactly why he's the vampires' leader. Every trick that the heroes have pulled off, he stonewalls. Every attempt to kill him like a normal vampire, he resists. Sypha lets loose a gout of flame at full blast directly into his face for several seconds straight, and despite the display of how strong her magic is in the Bloody Tears fight, he reacts like she's merely shining a flashlight into his eyes and she barely even scalded him after all that. Dracula is top badass for a reason.
  • At one point Dracula hammers Alucard with a double-fisted hammer punch to the top of the head that's so powerful it shatters the floor that Alucard is standing on.
  • And bear in mind, this is a slightly nerfed Dracula who's supposedly weakened due to heartbreak and not feeding in a while. Godbrand noticed this, but he made it clear he still wouldn't want to take on Dracula in a fight. Considering the Curbstomp Battle that Dracula unleashes on our heroes, he was totally right. It even stands to reason that even if Camilla actually managed to rise against Dracula, she wouldn't have stood a chance; even with her Sisters.
  • The thing that does work on him? Sypha piercing his foot with icicles and Trevor swinging the Morningstar at him. The impact causes an explosion that manages to bring Dracula to his knees and get his respect.
    Dracula: The Morningstar whip... well-played, Belmont.
  • It's important to note that Dracula took a hit from the Morning Star whip, a weapon that has so far guaranteed a One-Hit Kill on any vampire it touches, and not only does he not die, he then decides it's time to really start kicking the trio's collective shits in.
  • It looks like the trio are getting the upper hand on the old man. Then Dracula gets... annoyed.
    Dracula: But I am no ordinary vampire to be killed by your human magics... I am Vlad Dracula Tepes... AND I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! (Unleashes Dark Inferno down the hallway)
  • That fireball is then stopped and pushed back through the combined efforts of Sypha, who stopped it with her magic, Trevor, who supported her by pushing his back to hers to prevent her sliding back and add power to her barrier, and Alucard pushing the fireball back against Dracula by thrusting and charging into it with his sword.
• Make no mistake, our heroes did not 'win' the fight against Dracula. Even after taking all of their best shots and beating them half to death, it was clear that he still had plenty of gas left in the tank to keep kicking their asses. They only won in the end because Dracula gave up.

End Times

• Isaac is met by a group of cannibals in the desert. He, however, does not care about what they can try. He effortlessly kills them all, ripping one's face off, and decides to build his own undead army.
• It's drowned by the general mood and the fact that it does not end well for him, but Hector deciding to resist Carmilla is notable. After having had enough of her taunting, mocking, and manipulating him, she finally tells him absolutely, firmly that he will work for her. How does he respond?
  Hector: GO TO HELL!
• Alucard takes up the throne of Dracula's Castle, and Trevor permits him ownership of the Belmont Hold.

Season 3

Bless Your Dead Little Hearts

• Trevor and Sypha completely dish out a Curb-Stomp Battle to the monsters that "ambush" them on the road. Sypha displays creative new ways to use her magic - She uses ice midair as footholds and even flies using fire from her hands as thrust. Trevor displays his cunning and skill even when disarmed. When he is forced to fight close-quarters in the woods with a werewolf (which has a clear advantage in raw strength,) he turns the tables by punching it in the throat, and repeatedly stomping on its right leg, breaking it. Trevor then grabs the beast's head and forces it backward until its neck breaks and the flesh around his throat tears open. Trevor is a force to be reckoned with, armed or not.
• The introduction of Saint Germain, where he shows incredible social savviness. Even though he fails, he then simply pays up for his apples with no hard feelings.
• We meet Carmilla's sisters, who are cool in various ways. Morana in particular shows herself to be far smarter than Carmilla, Striga's towering height and muscular frame belie her tactical mind, and Lenore's demure and soft-spoken disposition betrays her nature as a schemer.
• The hilarious and awesome reveal of Sypha and Trevor's Relationship Upgrade: Trevor, after mentioning that beer is "Better than Sex", finds himself on the receiving end of Sypha's annoyance.

The Reparation of My Heart

• The Captain not only manages to charm Isaac (who had just finished slaughtering an entire city with his night creatures) into sparing him and his crew, but also successfully bargain Isaac into paying for passage to Genoa (as opposed to slaughtering the crew and commandeering the ship).

Investigators

• Hector doesn't fall for Lenore's tricks initially, showing the very same spirit he did when Carmilla threatened him. He grabs Lenore by the throat and threatens to kill her. While it doesn't end well for him, it's nonetheless a display of unexpected bravery and ingenuity on his part.
• Lenore gets her own by completely kicking Hector's ass in under a second, reminding him that despite her demure demeanor, she's still much stronger than he is.
• The Judge and his local militia managed to fend off a demon attack using salt and shit. Very impressive for a group of normal soldiers. Even Trevor compliments the Judge's tactics. One trio of militiamen give a good display of teamwork, two of them pinning a night creature's hands to the ground with their halberds leaving it open for the third to cut its throat with his sword.

I Have a Scheme

• Isaac, after offering mercy to Genoa, ends up cornered. The guards continually threaten him, until he finally dishes out a hell of a speech and unleashes his horde to kill them all.
  Isaac: You know... One day, the last one of you will ask me: "Why did you work with Dracula himself to murder all the people?". And you know what I'll say? "It's because you're all so fucking rude".
  • It was stated back in Season 2 that summoning night creatures via forging takes a long time to do. Isaac shows how much he has mastered his craft by instantly being able to turn people that he kills with his magic dagger into his minions.
• Saint Germain manages to deduce the nature of the Priory via alchemical knowledge.
• Sypha outsmarts the Priory's cultists, and even delivers a veiled threat to one of them as she and Trevor leave.
• Via Sumi and Taka's flashback, we get to see a full fight scene featuring Cho against a samurai. Even as she curb-stomps him and dances around him with utter impunity, he never stops trying to fight. Between both combatants, it's a glorious fight.
  • Considering that Cho had been doing this for centuries, the flashback also highlights just how powerful and competent Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard are, as the three of them annihilated Cho and the other vampire generals in a matter of seconds, blazed through their accompanying armies, and then went on to beat The Lord of Vampires in a single day.

Worse Things Than Betrayal

• Trevor dukes it out with two Monks of the Priory in a gorgeous fight scene in which he displays his skill at hand-to-hand combat and utterly destroys both, even killing one.

What the Night Brings

• Eagle-eyed viewers will spot a certain sword in Dracula's castle, that sword specifically being Rebellion. Whether it's just a cameo or a hint of something more, it's a pretty cool Easter Egg.

The Harvest

• Isaac and his army raid a town controlled by a dark magician. In an absolute Wham Shot, the magician assembles a ball of corpses in the sky, forming them into Legion. Isaac then proceeds to take on Legion and kill the magician.
• When Isaac finally confronts the wizard himself, the old man attempts to brainwash him into becoming another one of mind-controlled slaves. Isaac, however, manages to fight off the spell's influence long enough to break it before driving his blade through the wizard's heart.

Abandon All Hope

• Trevor and Sypha fighting back to back against demons in a massive battle. This includes such badass feats as Sypha mixing lightning with water to kill a demon and Trevor dual-wielding his old leather whip and the Morningstar.
• Saint Germain ends up saving the day with some epic Xanatos Speed Chess; he susses out that the Priory's captive Night Creature is what's keeping the portal open, and uses his charm to switch the portal away from Hell so Dracula can't get through. He then switches it to the dimension holding the lost person he seeks in the Infinity Corridor, with Trevor providing the finishing blow to close the portal for good.
  Saint Germain: Show me what I want to see, you fucking bastard! (slams his charm into the Creature's forehead)
  Trevor (stunned): He really is a magician!
  Saint Germain: Belmont! Kill it! (falls through the portal)
  (Trevor kills the Creature)
  Saint Germain: I'm closing the Corridor! Get out now! Thank you! Thank you both! I'll see you again!
• A particularly dark example, but still: The Judge tricks Sala into running away to his death. Unfortunately, it's soon cut short by the reveal that he is in fact a monstrous Serial Killer.
• While what comes next isn't at all awesome on her part, Lenore completely succeeds in her plan to force Hector into the service of Carmilla's court, even giving the court complete control of the monsters he forges, circumventing their weakness when it comes to him. At first, the way she shows it off is pretty badass due to the sheer effortlessness with which she handled it. Unfortunately for both Hector and the audience, this awesomeness passes very quickly and Lenore reminds us all just how monstrous she is.
• While, like most things in this episode, the end result is tragic, Alucard uses his sword to kill Taka and Sumi after they betray him. He then puts them on pikes as a warning to all outsiders. Horrifying and tragic, but a demonstration of how badly the two underestimated their mentor.
• While most characters end the season having failed in their goals and ending up with a tragic fate, Isaac comes out with a complete win, even at the cost of his own soul.

Season 4

Murder Wakes It Up

• Trevor and Sypha are shown doing what they do best: killing monsters and vampires and evil wizards while rescuing people. There is a spectacular montage of six weeks of combat, with them working together to overcome six different groups of enemies with more implied to happen offscreen. Yes, they're getting visibly more tired each week but that doesn't stop them.
  • During one encounter where Sypha and Trevor are surrounded by multiple large demons, Sypha takes them all out single-handedly at once by freezing the rain into a giant razor wheel around herself and Trevor and using it to cut all the charging demons in half.
  • One week later, the two stop a vampire from sacrificing five people to a necromancy spell that wouldn't have worked anyway. Trevor reels him in with the Morningstar while Sypha provides him with a sharpened piece of wood, and the bloodsucker gets staked in one fluid, coordinated effort.

Walk Away

• Striga going beast mode when she takes down those who were killing the other vampires by cutting open their tents all in the daylight while wearing protective armour.
  • Credit to the people who boldly came in with minimal weaponry. They used a strategy that was a legitimate threat that Striga and Morana would have died to had the first shot caused more than just a small burn and warn them.
  • Striga also proves in the aftermath that she's nothing like Godbrand: she realizes that none of the attackers were proper soldiers, but just farmers. And she understands that this would only be a prelude to all of the endless battles she would have to fight for Styria if Carmilla insists on her crazy schemes.

You Must Sacrifice

• Alucard coming to the rescue of Danesti.
• Saint Germain's friend's introduction: when a man attempts to grope her, she breaks the bottle he's holding and then breaks two of his fingers.
• His descent into villainy aside, Saint Germain has the guts to talk back to Dragan, a feared vampire general, and even slap him across the face. He knows that for all his posturing and the fact they can't stand each other, Dragan can't enact Saint Germain's plan without Saint Germain.

Back in the World

• Alucard leads the people of Danesti to his castle, dispatching multiple night creatures of different shapes, sizes and powers along the way. At night, no less.
  • Greta also proves she's not all talk either, as she kills more than a few with just a sword and a hammer. She also encourages her fellow villagers not to be intimidated by the monsters.
• Sypha has taken Trevor's advice to heart about them needing to act instead of just reacting. She starts conducting the survivors of Targoviste into reestablishing their city properly and shoots down Zamfir's noble nonsense in the process.
• The episode ends with Isaac declaring the attack on Carmilla's castle. He starts by having the traveling mirror open in midair above the target. The night creatures are gonna have fun...

You Don't Deserve My Blood

• Lenore tries to help Hector run, but he calmly rejects the idea. With an incantation, he seals her away in a cage. He talks to Isaac respectfully and without hesitation, reveals an escape route he had all along, is spared despite being willing to lay his life on the line to aid Isaac's vendetta, cuts his own finger off to help Isaac, and convinces Isaac to spare Lenore out of genuine kindness toward her. In no uncertain terms? Hector played the Council of Styria. In addition, by providing Isaac the path to Carmilla, he avenges his mistreatment and manipulation at her hands, ranging back to the events at Dracula's Castle. Now that's taking a level in badass.
  • Hector's calm, serene, matter-of-fact tone through the whole thing really sells it. He's worked his treachery so perfectly that Lenore, the very vampire who hopelessly bound him to Carmilla's service in the first place, is in the fucking room, can't do a damn thing about it, and can be seen quietly freaking out as if she's fully aware of that. He presents it as less a masterful piece of Chessmastering and more a bothersome chore he carried off with surprising efficiency.
    Lenore: You've gone mad.
    Hector: I've been mad. This doesn't feel like that. Maybe I've gone sane?
  • Not only that, but Hector's last statement to Saint Germain is "Don't trust Varney," indicating he's noticed something off about Varney, telling Germain to be wary and see him as a threat. He doesn't warn him about Ratko or Dragan— Hector specifically points out Varney as the one to look out for. Since Varney is Death, this makes Hector the only one to even come close to spotting Death, meaning he's completely shed the Horrible Judge of Character trait he once had.
  • Points to Isaac for his entrance in Hector's forge. He's been conducting the assault on Styria while simultaneously dispatching anyone in his way. Now he strides into the room, notices that the cage holding Lenore is in his way, and nonchalantly bends the energy bars aside with his knife so he can step inside. And Lenore noticeably backs away from him; she knows that Isaac isn't as soft as Hector.
• Isaac vs. Carmilla. Every bit of it. Isaac proves A Lighter Shade of Black who handles things calmly, but Carmilla proves her badass credentials by slaughtering his Night Creatures and fighting back no matter what, culminating with her most badass moment in the show: Obliterating herself to kill Isaac. While Isaac survives, which is awesome unto itself, it's indisputable that Carmilla deserves credit for holding out against him when it seemed from earlier showings that it would be a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  Carmilla: I'm Carmilla of Styria, and FUCK YOU. I win.
  • Isaac for his part shows utter calm while taking on Carmilla. His facial expressions change at the most to teeth gritting in exertion in contrast to her snarling like a feral animal. And even though he technically can't match her in raw physical abilities, Isaac uses his night creatures in a tactical manner to compensate. It's telling that while he wounds her multiple times with his knife, Carmilla fails to cut Isaac so much as once.
  • Because of all the night creatures Carmilla slaughtered while Isaac made his way to her, the battle takes place in room with floor absolutely covered in a shallow pool of blood. Carmilla at one point unleashes a massive roundhouse kick at Isaac, but his Incubus is there to block it. Carmilla powers through, knocking the Incubus aside (after it had already arrested the momentum of her kick, so already wow), but the force of the kick is so great it momentarily cleans the floor in its wake. An awesome visual representation of the raw physical power that is a vampire's to wield.
  • Speaking of said bloody floor, as the two fight every action they take has an effect on it, causing it to ripple with every step and shift of footing. ALL of this was animated BY HAND.

The Great Work

• Ratko gets fed up with Varney's grandstanding and rips into him with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how self-important he is, and that Ratko is better than him and all the other high-class vampires because he gets things done instead of posturing. Even more impressive considering Varney's true identity being that of Death. That's right; Ratko, a common vampire, essentially told Death to go and fuck himself.
  • Of course, the moment can be turned on its head knowing just who Varney is. His response to being insulted so utterly is to just sit there, initially entertained by the sight of a man defending his bruised ego from a shameless, rich drunk who's known for running his mouth pointlessly before just getting bored more than he was insulted once he knew where Ratko was going with his speech.
  Varney: Hahaha! Are you justifying yerself?
  Ratko: Eat shit. I fight wars. You have no idea, do you?
• In between their visit to Targoviste's underground catacombs, Trevor finds a couple of interesting artefacts, one of which being a sort of chakram with foldable blades he takes a liking to, and gets to be the one who explains things to Sypha for a change. Proving that before the destruction of his home, Trevor had been properly trained in the ways of hunting the supernatural.
  • The fact that this chakram serves as an adaptation of the classic Cross weapon that's been around since the first Castlevania title, and proves to be an effective and realistic weapon in its own right.

Death Magic

• Zamfir's Dying Moment of Awesome when while mortally wounded, she succeeds in killing the vampires who stabbed her in the chest.
• Take a moment to admire the courage of the unarmed mother and young daughter who, seeing the badass Hunter of Monsters protecting them is pinned down and about to be killed by a powerful vampire, manage to summon the will to step forward and shove that vampire and draw his attention to themselves. They are terrified and so clearly expect to die that they just hold each other afterwards instead of trying to fight or flee, but they did it anyways. Their audacity stuns even Ratko for several seconds, buying time for Zamfir to intervene and save them (albeit at the cost of her life) and Trevor to free himself and kill Ratko. If not for those two brave civilians, Trevor would have died and things would likely have gone very differently.

The Endings

• Trevor and Sypha reteaming with Alucard for the first time since the end of season two. The three of them don't even speak any words or make any brief strategies; they just get work immediately, and their teamwork is even more effective than it was in season two. You can really see how much all three of them have grown since then, and furthermore, the three of them working together completely overrides the Drama-Preserving Handicap (fatigue) that the three of them have been suffering all season.
  • Even when briefly splitting up to go to multiple battles, all three handle themselves against all kinds of opponents with only a few bumps along the way. And when they form up again, the trio takes down Dragan and his cronies, the last line before the Final Boss.
  • Credit's due where credits due, the invading army does not make things easy. Dragan and his Quirky Miniboss Squad in particular put up one Hell of a fight, with the squad pushing the trio harder than anyone not named Dracula has before and coming incredibly close to killing our heroes with their incredible powers. The thread using vampire deserves extra credit as she almost kills Alucard all on her own. It takes the trio changing targets to gain the upper hand and make short work of them. Dragan then proceeds to fight all three heroes on his own and actually hold his own, demonstrating incredible skill with his Epic Flail along with high durability to shrug off several attacks and put the heroes on the defensive. Even when he gets hit in the arm by the Morningstar, he immediately rips it off to use as a makeshift hand grenade against Trevor. They may have been the warmups before the final fight, but they did not go down easy.
    • Trevor also deserves a mention during the fight against Dragan's lackeys as he briefly goes in close to fight hand-to-hand with a vampire and clearly has the edge in that clash. Quite the marked improvement over his attempt with Dracula two seasons prior.
    • Fridge Brilliance sets in once you realize this is why he even attempted to punch Dracula - he must've done this before and fully expected it to work. It's just that Dracula was, well... Dracula.
  • One unnamed viking vampire deserves special credit. Seemingly just a Giant Mook, he opens the fight with a shoulder bash that pushes Alucard back before throwing an easily-blocked axe... then he teleports to where the axe is to give Alucard a cut on the arm, before using a combination of raw strength and skillful teleporting with his axes to give Alucard a visually impressive fight. He eventually loses due to a clever ploy By Alucard leaving his sword where he expected the viking to go to kill him, but not a bad showing for an unnamed soldier.
• Germain deserves some credit. Even if he was doing it for evil, he was on his way to create the Rebis, the Ultimate Work for alchemy. This act alone would make him the greatest alchemist, magician and scientist of all time, and he doesn't even seem to have any difficulties with it. His only struggles are in the pure logistics of how to get the raw materials he need, the creation of the Rebis itself is child's play to him.
• The Reveal that Varney is none other than Death himself.
• Death's plan is ultimately derailed when Trevor first breaks through his soul-barrier with the Morningstar, then Saint Germain in a moment of conscience shifts the portal to behind the Dracula-Lisa rebis and spurs the last Belmont on. Even as the floor erupts beneath him, Trevor douses the ring-blade weapon he took from Targoviste's underground with holy water from the same place and hurls it into the rebis, blasting it apart. Death can only roar in fury at the results.
  • Not just douse it - he throws the bag of holy water first, and then hurls the ring-blade through the bag, tearing it open and covering it in water before it hits the rebis!
• Trevor vs. Death is a huge one for the former. Trevor's bravery is indisputable even in the face of Death itself, and he wastes no time in trying to defeat the elemental personification of doom.
  • The opening exchange between Trevor and Death underscores how the latter is even worse than Dracula could ever be, and how the former isn't about to let that slide.
    Trevor: Oi. Death! I want a word with you.
    Death: You know me?
    Trevor: I'm Trevor Belmont, of House Belmont. Of course I know you. Finding things and recognizing things is what we do. And you are absolutely a thing.
    Death: I was put here at the dawn of life on Earth to feed on the last breath of every one of you fuckers. I'm a little more than a...thing.
    Trevor: No. You're only a thing. You're only an old killer. You don't make anything; you don't live. You just eat and hide.
    Death: Is there a point to this? Are you dictating your fucking obituary to me, Belmont?
    Trevor: It's time to give this place back to people who know how to build things. You and me, we're just killers of history. It's time for us to go.
    Death: And who's going to make me go? You? With your bit of string in your hand?
    Trevor: Probably not. (Trevor grins and brandishes the Morning Star) But let's just give this one last go, shall we?
  • And then the final part of the battle: Trevor's exhausted, left arm hanging limply by his side, barely standing on his feet. Death raises his massive scythe to finish him off, gloating about what he intends to do to Sypha afterwards, and brings it down... and then Trevor calmly sidesteps the giant blade. The Morningstar becomes a chain of fire that he pummels Death with, before running to the side while the ancient bastard's reeling.
  • That's when he starts putting together little trinkets he's been collecting across Targoviste the entire season, like when he'd been rooting around in "The Great Work" during Sypha and Zamfir's argument, into a magical dagger. Trevor leaps and stabs it into Death's skull, lighting up the whole area with the latter's explosion. And at the heart of it all, Trevor Belmont, last son of the House of Belmont, accepts his seeming death with a calm smile. Dying has never frightened him.
  • Considering who he's facing, it could be said that Death has never frightened him either.
  • It goes without saying that this episode has possibly THE BEST animation out of the entire show, and ALL OF IT DONE BY HAND.

It's Been a Strange Ride

• Sypha deciding to stay and make her own purpose in Belmont, echoing her role as a helper at Targoviste.
• Trevor survived his battle with Death despite all the odds.
  • Especially notable after Trevor explains what exactly the weapon was: a magic weapon made by a mad Wizard Blacksmith meant to enact a very one-sided murder-suicide pact with god. Meaning he knew full well what the weapon was, and that it would likely lead to his death, but used it anyway only to survive afterwards.
• The fact every main character in the series earned their happy ending — from Trevor to Dracula himself — despite the show's overall cynical and grim nature. Hector ends up free and at peace, Lenore chooses to die peacefully on her own terms after proving she really wasn't as much of a monster as thought, Isaac becomes ruler of Styria and regains some faith in humanity, Trevor, Alucard, and Sypha end up creating a new world, and a resurrected Dracula and Lisa get to live a happy life together as commoners. After all the pain they've been through, it's extremely satisfying to see them all happy.

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