Beware of unmarked spoilers further down the page.
This page deals with the characters from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
For the other characters, see below:
- Castlevania: Bloodlines: Wind (Eric Lecarde)
- Castlevania – Dracula: Dracula
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Jonathan Morris
Voiced by (Japanese): Takahiro Sakurai
Voiced by (English): Liam O'Brien
"We can take on anyone. No problem!"
Hotheaded son of John Morris and childhood friend of Charlotte Aulin. Jonathan dislikes his father for just teaching him the basics of combat, then leaving him to investigate Dracula's castle. However, he meets the ghost of his father's friend Eric and learns the truth behind his father's death and comes to respect him. He and Charlotte saved Eric's daughters from vampirization, and fought the memory of Vampire Killer (in the form of Richter Belmont), earning him the right to wield the Vampire Killer. Eventually, he confronts Brauner as well as Dracula (and Death at the same time!) and beats all three of them, with assistance from Charlotte.
- America Saves the Day: How odd that the two games where the main hero is American occur during World War I and World War II...
- Badass Family: He has to take care of the Belmont legacy.
- Badass Normal: Jonathan relies primarily on his honed fighting physique and insane skill with an equally insane amount of weapons.
- Berserk Button: Mentioning how his dad could use the whip and not him will get a reaction out of him. Once he learns the truth behind the whip, however, he gets over it.
- Catchphrase: "No problem!"
- Heroic Lineage: Like most of the other Castlevania protagonists, he's a Belmont descendant, but in order to claim the Ancestral Weapon, Jonathan has to literally face down and defeat (the memory of) one of his heroic ancestors, Richter Belmont. That's intimidating.
- Hot-Blooded: SHOWTIME!
- Improbable Weapon User: Some of his sub-weapons qualify for this: namely the paper airplanes, cream pies, and darts.
- Informed Ability: The manual says he has a sense of humor, but we don't really get to see it. It also says he's Brilliant, but Lazy, but we don't get to see that either. He does show a cool, calm confidence, however, which may imply he's not taking it fully seriously. Additionally, there's a quote at the very end which is telling Charlotte to just relax or something. It's close, but not fully defined.
- Like Brother and Sister: "[Charlotte]'s like my kid sister!"
- Locked Out of the Loop: In regards to the Vampire Killer. Because it contains the soul of Sara Trantoul, the intended betrothed of Leon Belmont, the Vampire Killer is rather picky of who gets to wield it. If they're not a full-blooded Belmont or at least a dedicated vampire hunter, the user will end up having his life force drained. Even if they are a dedicated vampire hunter, using the whip at full power will shorten their lifespan. John wanted to protect Jonathan from this fate.
- Multi-Melee Master: There is no melee weapon — be it sword, whip or spear — that Jonathan cannot expertly wield. The sole exception is, ironically, the Vampire Killer, which he can only use as a normal, very weak, whip, at least until he proves himself worthy.
- "Reason Why You Suck" Speech: Gives a real good one to Brauner.Jonathan: Being family means being connected by the heart. Ties of blood and soul are insignificant. When I learned of why my father did what he did, I understood. You used a curse to manipulate your "dear daughters"! Now THAT'S sad!
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Charlotte's blue. Dressed in red and has the temper to match it.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Around Charlotte, whom he views as a little sister.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Brauner declares how the deaths of his daughters drove him mad, Jonathan brutally tells the vampire that there is no excuse for his cruelty, and how kidnapping and brainwashing someone else's daughters after losing his own fully shows how truly pathetic Brauner has become. Brauner does not this take this well.
- Took a Level in Badass: When he fully masters the Vampire Killer.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hates his dad at first for not letting him use the Vampire Killer, but in the end, he's something like this.
Charlotte Aulin
Voiced by (Japanese): Yumi Kakazu
Voiced by (English): Stephanie Sheh
"I'll be with you, so relax. You'll be fine."
A Cute Witch deployed from the church to assist Jonathan in his task. Charlotte mostly acts as the intellectual foil to the hotheaded Jonathan. She eventually learns a spell that proves to be vital in curing the vampirization of Stella and Loretta, and later helps Jonathan out in defeating Dracula.
- Badass Adorable: A cute teenage witch with very powerful magic.
- Badass Bookworm: Between her and Jonathan, she tends to act as the brains.
- Berserk Button: "Jonathan! Stop treating me like a child!"
- Black Magician Girl: Most of the spells she learns are offensive in nature.
- Brainy Brunette: Has brown hair, is noted to have read many books, and is well versed on magic and Dracula's castle that Jonathan has to ask her to "Translate into a human language".
- Church Militant: Works for the Church to battle the forces of evil.
- Cute Witch: No hats, but the broom is spot on.
- Death Glare: Every time her Berserk Button is pressed.
- Improbable Weapon User: Uses books. That have weapons inside them.
- Incompatible Orientation: She can No-Sell the Charm spell used by one of the bosses of Portrait of Ruin. Presumably, this is because Charlotte is straight, and said boss is female. Confirmed in Harmony of Despair where Dracula's third form uses the same spell and it does work on her along with any other females she's with.
- Just a Kid: Thinks everyone ridicules her as this, and she doesn't like it. Brauner, of all people, is the only one who doesn't comment on her age, while Vincent marvels at how young she is to already have her reputation, and it's clear Jonathan saying she's "like [his] kid sister" is a statement of how much he values her.
- Marilyn Maneuver: If the Persephone enemy has a vacuum cleaner and gets close enough, Charlotte's skirt gets caught in the gust, making her push her skirt down to protect her modesty.
- Older Than They Look: She is a 16 year teenager, though her short height and skinny figure make most characters assume she is little girl. This leads to plenty of Just a Kid comments, much to Charlotte's chagrin since she already gets a lot of them as a magical prodigy.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Jonathan's red. She is dressed in blue, uses long-distance magic, and is the one who usually analyzes the situation before acting.
- Spell My Name With An S: At least one instance of "Charotte Aulin" is in certain copies of the game, which is a leftover from the original Japanese release. Her name is also spelled as "Charlotte Orlean" in early preview material.
- The Tease: Not really a core part of her character, but hold Up long enough when using her and she'll twirl around, face the screen, place her arms behind her head, and strike a pose before asking "Well, not bad, huh?" She does it even better in Harmony of Despair, where she sounds a bit older and opts for a more flirtatious-sounding "You like that?"
- Teen Genius: Her reputation implies she's at least past her prime, but she's only 17.
- True Blue Femininity: She's the female protagonist of her game, and she wears blue.
- White Mage: Also has some healing abilities (though mostly towards ailments) and stat-boosting spells. Throw in a time-stopping spell, a spell that negates projectiles, and some offensive spells, and she becomes more of a Red Mage.
Stella and Loretta
Voiced by (Japanese): Mariko Suzuki
Voiced by (English): Karen Strassman (Stella), Stephanie Sheh (Loretta)
Brauner's twin vampire daughters (not really) who appear occasionally to antagonize the duo.
- Action Girl: They're both powerful vampires. They're also shown to be pretty strong even before they were vampires in their own mode.
- Anime Hair: Stella's hairstyle is rather complicated to pull off.
- Badass Adorable: Loretta is a powerful vampire (not originally) witch and considerably cuter than her older twin sister.
- Blow You Away: Stella's attacks seem to be wind based. One of her attacks is called "Hurricane", and her Furious Wave appears the same as Shanoa's Pneuma Glyph which is also wind based.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Courtesy of Brauner.
- Climax Boss: The two of them are fought late in the game, and how you deal with them determines what ending you get.
- Daddy's Little Villain: They play with the trope due to being Brainwashed and Crazy while they deconstruct the Daddy's Girl trope, since them rushing to help their actual father was what caused them to be vampirized.
- Dual Boss: The second fight has both sisters fight alongside each other.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Loretta's clothes look more fitting on a doll than on a human, but she looks well enough in it.
- Expy: Of Suiseiseki and Souseiseki from Rozen Maiden.
- Foregone Conclusion: Sisters Mode occurs before Jonathan and Charlotte arrive at the castle, and reveals just how they came to be under Brauner's thrall.
- An Ice Person: Loretta's attacks all involve the use of ice magic.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Stella's Pimped-Out Dress, which doesn't seem that practical considering her sister's preference for ice magic.
- Japanese Sibling Terminology: In the Japanese audio, Loretta, the younger twin, addresses Stella as "Onee-sama," which is extremely respectful. In the English localization, she alternates between calling Stella by name and calling her "Sister."
- Luke, I Am Your Father: They are actually the daughters of Eric Lecarde, and are thus able to help Jonathan power up his whip and defeat the vampire menace.
- More Dakka: Loretta's method of attack as a playable character is to fire off ice crystals at a blazingly fast speed.
- Ms. Fanservice: Stella is a curvy young woman whose dress hugs her body, most of the official art (and even her in-game sprite) especially likes to emphasize her large breasts.
- Power Floats: The perks of being vampire twins. When playable, floating is their default movement — even though they're not vampires yet.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Stella is the more aggressive and emotional red oni to Loretta's blue oni.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Stella is relatively emotional and a swordswoman, while Loretta is a cool-headed spellcaster. Their outfits further draw attention their differing personalities; Stella the more physically active older sister wears a Pimped-Out Dress that allows for lot of movement and emphasizes her more developed figure, whilst Loretta wears a much more conservative doll-like dress that indicates both her greater innocence as the younger sister and her calmer personality.
- Single-Minded Twins: They are very focused on taking out Jonathan and Charlotte, and they wish to help their father by any means necessary. This is somewhat subverted by the fact that they have their own personalities though.
- Spanner in the Works: If you think about it, Stella qualifies as this: she drops the pendant that allows the heroes to realize that they're brainwashed and that they can be cured, which then allows her and Loretta to open the gate to Brauner.
- Stiff Upper Lip: Stella seems to believe in this, as they have a duty to carry out. When Loretta seems ready to cry over how Eric died before their eyes, Stella scolds her and tells her to remember their dignity. Not that it stops Stella from completely breaking down in the end.
- Sword and Sorcerer: Stella and Loretta, respectively.
- Sword Beam: Stella, especially during the first fight against her.
Brauner
Voiced by (Japanese): Hisao Egawa
Voiced by (English): Jamieson Price
"This... is ART!"
An artist whose daughters were killed during World War I, Brauner went insane from the grief and decided to become a vampire and Kill All Humans. He decided to use Castlevania as his base of operations for this purpose, but also decided that Dracula's failure rate was too great for the Dark Lord to be allowed to join in on the fun. So he used his paintings to keep Dracula's power sealed up and easily controllable (Death was not amused).
It is worth noting at this point that in the whole of the Castlevania series, Brauner is the only character to call out Dracula for dying so ridiculously often and never accomplishing anything.
Later, Brauner noticed an interloper within the castle halls. This interloper turned out to be Eric Lecarde. Brauner ambushed and killed him... just as Eric's daughters burst into the room, attempting a Big Damn Heroes moment. Brauner, noticing that they bore an uncanny resemblance to his own daughters, instantly concluded that they must be his own daughters reincarnated and vampirized them in order to convince them of the same (all while the dying Eric looked on helplessly).
When Jonathan and Charlotte showed up some time later, Brauner wasn't happy about it, but underestimated the heroes. Unfortunately for him, Stella and Loretta were a bit too loyal to his cause, and tried to destroy Jonathan and Charlotte themselves (despite his repeatedly telling them to stay back, out of harm's way, and let him handle the situation). This just ended up giving Charlotte and Jonathan the opportunity to cure the sisters of their vampirism and brainwashing.
When Brauner found out what had happened... well, he was rather upset. He promptly tried to destroy the heroes with his artistic powers, only to be crushed in battle. As he lay in his weakened state, he admitted that justice might not have been on his side after all, but adamantly refused to admit that his victorious opponents might have the moral high ground. That was all he got to say before Death showed up to finish him off and fully awaken the soul of Dracula.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Brauner is a delusional, hopeless wretch of a man by the time Death kills him, and his death is appropriately pitiful and anti-climactic. Even in the bad ending, where he lives, Brauner can't bear to fight the heroes any longer if it means putting his "daughters" in harm's way, and so he abandons his scheme entirely.
- Art Attacker: He uses his paintings to summon monstrosities during his boss fight. He also uses blood to paint traps that makes dodging the aforementioned monstrosities harder.
- Barrier Maiden: Played straight and subverted. He's placed his paintings around Castlevania with the intent of them all acting as a seal upon Dracula and to drain his power to use for himself. In other words, his presence is what keeps Dracula from fully resurrecting. The subversion is that he ultimately has the same goal as Dracula: kill all of humanity.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Apparently Brauner
became a vampire and had two daughters in World War 1. - Big Bad Ensemble: With Death for most of Portrait of Ruin, although the plot mostly focuses on Brauner.
- Calling Your Attacks: "BLOOD ART TECHNIQUE!!!"
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His own two deceased daughters, which caused his Start of Darkness, and — brainwashed or not — Stella and Loretta, enough so that he's willing to completely forsake his own goals in the bad ending to protect them.
- Fictionalized Death Account: The real Brauner lived until 1966. He's finished off by Death after Jonathan and Charlotte defeat him, 22 years early.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Invoked by Death personally in case of him, who was already waiting to off him and unseal Dracula from the get-go.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Brauner may be inspired by, or the Castlevania equivalent of Victor Brauner, except here he's planning on destroying all of humanity with Dracula's power.
- Kick the Dog: He does this to Eric in the way mentioned above.
- Large Ham:
- "A PAINTING OF THE SOUL!!!"
- "I'LL MAKE YOU MY MASTERPIECE!!"
- Looks Like Orlok: The pale features, bald head, vampiric designs — the overtones are obvious.
- Love Makes You Evil: His love for his original daughters was so strong that he was desperate to be reunited with them, even if it meant becoming a vampire and taking Eric's daughters as his own.
- Mad Artist: Duh. Thankfully, he doesn't have a Wax Museum Morgue.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: The trauma of WWI, specifically losing his daughters, drove him to hate mankind so much that he renounced his own humanity and hijacked Dracula's Castle to plot their demise.
- My Greatest Failure: His failure to protect his daughters is what made him a Mad Artist in the first place.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If he didn't allow Stella and Loretta to open the door to his quarters, then the heroes would not have been able to stop him.
- Pet the Dog: His concern for Stella and Loretta appears genuine. He tries to keep them out of harm's way, and during the bad ending, he shows up and begs you to stop hurting them. He then aborts his plan rather than endanger them further.
- Purple Is Powerful: Has a rather nice suit, and is one of the few antagonists to manage to outclass Dracula by sealing him away and using his power for himself. Not to mention that he managed to kill Eric Lecarde.
- Tragic Villain: Brauner differs from most of Castlevania's usual one-note Dracula servants/worshipers and vampires in that he's got a tragic backstory to rival Drac himself: Brauner's two beloved daughters lost their lives in WWI, driving him insane with grief and causing him to forsake his own humanity out of disgust with them. Even though what he does cannot be excused, Brauner is still motivated chiefly by the death of his daughters while fervently believing Stella and Loretta to be their reincarnations, even abandoning his own evil goals to ensure they're not harmed any farther in the bad ending. At the end of the day, Brauner's just a pitiable, insane wreck of a man whose unceremonious murder at the hands of Death comes off as ignominious and tragic.
Old Axe Armor
A Secret Character in Portrait of Ruin, unlocked by beating the game after killing at least 1,000 Old Axe Armors. It is your typical Old Axe Armor as a playable character, with most of the faults of playing as one.
- Ambiguous Gender: By the game itself, Old Axe Armor reuses the same voice clips as Jonathan, but all of the enemies with character-specific interactions treats them as a girl. Official artwork from Konami's website◊ confirms that the Old Axe Armor is a girl.
- Breakout Mook Character: Old Axe Armor is normally a minor recurring enemy, but now you can play as one, akin to the Axe Lord Armor in Symphony of the Night.
- Boring, but Practical: The "Upper Axe" technique has you holding your axe above you and nothing else. This is also your best damage-dealing skill as Old Axe Armor as it acts as a continuous hitbox, allowing you to chip away at enemies who won't move around.
- Joke Character: Old Axe Armor only has a short-range axe swing as a primary attack, cannot use items to heal and doesn't have a partner for assistance, and is overall weak compared to other characters. To beat the Old Axe Armor Mode relies largely on player's skill with the game itself.
- Ninja Log: Old Axe Armor's other sub-weapon is Puppet that works the same as Pupper Master's Soul in Dawn of Sorrow.
- Samus Is a Girl: Besides sounding like Jonathan and not looking feminine due to using the same sprite as other Old Axe Armors, the official art of them shows that she is indeed a girl.
