The murderer of Richter's mother is Shaft.
The series is an adaptation of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and as shown in the trailer, the vampire who killed Richter's mother is a Scary Black Man wearing a purple suit and a Sickly Green Glow in his eyes. With Shaft being a major antagonist in Rondo, with a dark skintone in his sprites, wearing purple robes, and utilizing green crystal balls in combat, the vampire's similarities to Shaft cannot merely be a coincidence.- Averted, the production team has revealed the vampire who killed Richter’s mother is the Netflix take on classic Castlevania foe Olrox, who is set to play a significant part in the story as a vampire who does not agree with Bathory’s grand plans and may be forced into a very uneasy Enemy Mine situation with Richter.
The final season will be an adaptation of Symphony of the Night, with Alucard returning to stop a corrupted Richter from creating a corrupted clone of Dracula.
The series will take more than just its antagonist from Bloodlines
The French setting could potentially allow for the France mansion stage from the same game, and maybe Eric will show up and receive his spear from Alucard.- Confirmed: Drolta Tzuentes, the person responsible for Elizabeth Bartley being around to begin with in Bloodlines, also makes an appearance, albeit as a vampire. No mention of the Lecarde Clan or the Alucard Spear yet, though...
Varney-Death will be revealed to have pulled himself together and be manipulating things behind the scenes to kick off Bathory’s plan as a redo of what he wanted from Dracula in the Trevor era.
Dracula was seen last to have walked away from his insanity, plans of genocide and ended the series at peace with Lisa. Death on the other hand has no inclination to change and if he/it managed to reform after hundreds of years its believable he would want to go right back to where he left off and with Dracula off the table instead use a different Vampire proxy-pawn as a way to cause murder on a enormous scale. Olrox will be characterised as a sort of Anti-Alucard
Promotional interviews have suggested that Olrox is not onboard with Countess Bathory’s plans and might have an uneasy alliance with Richter to oppose her. A vampire working with a Belmont to stop a greater threat echoes Alucard working with Trevor and Sypha but the setup with Olrox might be designed as a foil to Alucard’s everything.Alucard was a literal teenager in a adult body when everything went to Hell, had a pretty happy life before Dracula's breakdown and his dynamic with Trevor rough start aside was pretty solid, they gave each other grief but could laugh about it and they were at the end of day friends. Plus Alucard's objections to Dracula's war were based in moral terms and the understanding his mother wouldn't have wanted the genocide of humanity carried out in her name.
Olrox, by contrast, is an adult vampire of likely no small power since he killed a magic capable Belmont one on one. His motives for said murder are apparently personal revenge over someone he cared about being slain by said Belmont. Given that he killed Richter's mother in front of him, and openly remarked he would kill Richter himself one day, any alliance against a bigger threat is likely to be a lot tenser and fragile than what Alucard had with his friends.
While we haven't got confirmation on why Olrox objects to Bathory's ambitions, perhaps to complete the reversal from Alucard's moral stance, Olrox's objections will be more in line with Striga and Morana seeing the flaw in Carmila's plans, ie the Undead going loud and making a play for world conquest is going to radicalize humanity against vampires and become an unending costly struggle. Maybe Olrox is perfectly happy with vampires living their unlives in the shadows and has no qualms about killing as many humans as he needs to.
Stuff for recounting adventures of past Belmonts
Since Nocturne is skipping directly from Trevor to Richter.- A bigger deal is made about Leon being their ancestor, because he was a French nobleman.
- People keep forgetting about Christopher, as an oft-forgotten Belmont.
- Simon is the most famous ancestor, and there might be several flashbacks or paintings of him, each in different outfits and hair colors, as a reference to his constant redesigns.
- Juste Belmont designed their house. He might even be alive as Richter's grandfather who takes him in after his mother/Juste's daughter is killed by Olrox. This ends up being confirmed, somewhat. Juste doesn't take in Richter after its revealed he's alive, as he's too far gone in his Despair Event Horizon after losing his wife and best friend to be any help there, but his appearance and the drama following it does help Richter end up relearning his forgotten affinity for magic.
- Mention might be made of an American cousin named Morris.
The Belmonts in Richter's time will be noblility, and suffer from Hero with Bad Publicity
- They're not just nobles during the French Revolution, their imagery would look rather suspect by Revolution standards.
- Their hereditary weapon is a whip? The audience knows it's for slaying vampires, and from the scene where Cho toys with a samurai, the flexible whip can't be broken as easily as a sword. Revolutionaries might see it as a symbol of oppression.
- Their claim to fame is that they slew vampires? The audience knows that's real, but it's easy to interpret that as justifying their rule over peasants by claiming to protect them from imaginary creatures.
- On a non-revolutionary front, they're descended from witches and heretics. We don't see much of the Belmont fall from grace, but it would be interesting if the opening showed peasants ominously gossiping about the castle on the hill where the residents practice witchcraft... and it's the Belmonts.
Alternately, Richter is a distant relation of the French noble house of Belmont
- Someone theorized that Leon Belmont was a younger brother, because if he were the eldest, he couldn't go on Crusades. So even though Leon left to found the Belmonts in Wallachia, his brother kept the family title.
The final showdown with Bathory...
- Will see Richter riding on a horse-drawn carriage to her location, mirroring the opening to Rondo of Blood. Bonus points if the scene is accompanied by "Divine Bloodlines" a la Bloody Tears in the first series.
- Partially Jossed as of this moment in time: though Richter and allies do indeed attempt (emphasis on attempt here) to deal with Bathory in the final episodes of the first season, it isn't done in a way that mirrors the beginning of Rondo of Blood. "Divine Bloodlines" also doesn't play to accompany the moment, though the music piece itself does accompany Richter's relearning of his affinity for magic.
The True Big Bad is not Bathory...
- But a reincarnated, corrupted version of Dracula, thus following the original narrative in Rondo of Blood, where Richter must slay Dracula like his ancestors before him.
The greying blond man praying the sign of the cross who is briefly seen in the Main Trailer is the show's iteration of Shaft.
The future of the Belmont bloodline.
Based both on the original games and the information displayed in the series, supposing Annette (Afro-Caribbean, in the series) marries Richter (either in 1792 or in 1797) and they have a son, the developers may want to give him the name Victor Belmont, thus canonizing Victor Belmont, from the cancelled Dreamcast Castlevania, as the 19th century Belmont that could have been, but never was. Emmanuel’s Devil Forging is different from Isaac and Hector’s
From what we learn about it in the previous series, their magic works by summoning souls from Hell, binding them into service, and placing them into mutated, reanimated corpses. But Edouard and Jacques’ bodies are both animated by the souls of their owners. This opens up several possibilities. First option, Edouard and Jacques were damned, and got first dibs on their corpses. Assuming Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, it would probably be so, as Jacques was a French revolutionary and Edouard was part of an uprising lead by a Hollywood Voodoo priestess who explicitly “rejected the god of the whites.” If Dante’s Inferno has the right of it, they may have been sent to the first circle of Hell, where it is said all righteous non-Christians are interred, and the only punishment is not ascending to Heaven. Hopefully, Edouard’s homosexuality didn’t play a role in his inferred damnation. Fortunately, as Jacques suffered the same fate, we can probably rule that out. Second option, Edouard and Jacques both went to non-Christian (but not necessarily tormenting) afterlives, but Devil Forgemasters can summon souls from anywhere but Heaven, and then got dibs on their own corpses. Third option, Hector, Isaac, and the cryptic old man were just plain wrong about how the magic works, and Flyeyes was misinterpreted or lying. Fourth option, and the one I’m going with, is that Emmanuel’s necromancy is different, because it is an external ability he acquired through a Deal with the Devil rather than him being Randomly Gifted like Dracula’s lieutenants were. Where they summoned arbitrary damned souls, Emmanuel’s machine enslaves the soul of the corpses it reanimates, thus allowing the demon to give him what he asked for, while still twisting the request and adding to Emmanuel’s sins, as he is enslaving broadly innocent people rather than damned souls. He may or may not be aware of this. If Abbot Emmanuel is Shaft, we will see some version of Shanoa, possibly being sent in by the Vatican to help end Bathory’s The Night That Never Ends.
Assuming she isn’t a Composite Character with Maria, at least. Upgrades for the cast.
With Alucard now assisting them, the heroes can access the Belmont keep, and Castlevania itself. Upgrades would included new weapons, tactics, and possibly new versions of the Morning Star whip and the Cross that Trevor used, the former would be more in line with the Vampire Killer's appearance in Rondo, if not the actual weapons themselves having been recovered since the end of the last series.- Plus there's also another pertinent fact: Maria has only used 3 of her 4 animal summons in the first season to date—the red birds, the white tiger, and the black tortoise. All that's left now is the blue dragon, which will be her strongest summon.
Simon will appear in flashback episodes or as a cameo in season 2.
As one of the more famous Belmonts after Trevor and before Richter, he'll be considered such a legendary hunter that anything he used makes other vampires have an Oh, Crap! reaction. Our Reluctant Demon getS to live
Edoaurd has already touched the hearts of two other Night Creatures (one of whom is unamed, has no backstory & does not follow the Beauty Equals Goodnes rule, which is promising for all the others). With Emmanuel's faith so thoroughly shaken, he may not even try to fight them on their independence. And its unclear if the vampires know or care about the secret exit, or if the vampires in the streets would much care about Night Creatures walking the streets, sneaking off to say the woods, when the time comes to be leaving.- He may even reunite with that young man he left in Haiti. Might be accepted as he is.
- Perhaps Jacques and the others might be able to get some shred of their old lives back, or else forge new ones.
Maybe the Forgemaster's machine because is still there because has a role to play?
Now, in a proceeding season, or series even. (depending on how many of the later we have)- I think that you have described a case of Chekhov'sGun !
Certain characters from the original series will appear in this series to play a plot-relevant role
Considering how the original series ended with some degree of ambiguity regarding whether Dracula and Lisa were both somehow physically affected by their brief time trapped in the Rebis body, perhaps we will get to see the spoilered characters coming back in this series to make a major impact, even if that appearance is short and not exactly long-term.- We might even get the return of Isaac's proposed kingdom where his night-creatures, including Flys-Eyes, live in peace. Maybe that could be a Chekhov's Gun carried over from the previous series?
- We also haven't heard about Striga and Morana. Given that they're so in love with each other that they abandoned Carmilla because the latter's megalomaniacal plans would deprive them their time together, they likely would sympathize with Olrox if they ever meet him, and there's also their potential reactions upon meeting Alucard even though they never interact with him the last time.
- After Drolta is killed by Alucard, maybe Erzebeth will plan to resurrect another powerful follower as The Dragon. Carmilla in this case. However, knowing Carmilla, she doesn't want to obey another one. A woman named Laura will play a relevant role with her redemption.
Alucard is still going to get called "The" Alucard
Even after 300+ years since the days of Dracula, he'll still never be able to shake other people, if not vampires, calling him "The" Alucard. For humans, it just makes him facepalm. Vampires just die faster at best. The village of Belmont, or some artifact or individual from there, will play a role in this sequel's next season
(Oh, did I say Belmont? I meant to say Treffy.) Jokes aside, though, maybe something from the Belmont Hold or even from Castlevania itself will prove to be important in the ongoing fight against the vampire horde next season. Not counting the proposed weapons/skills upgrades mentioned a few WMG entries further up on this page. Alucard is done with the Belmont clan... Cause after centuries of seeing them get beaten by some vampire or other it's causing him a realization that Trevor was special
And he can never ever forgive them for it. Emmanuel got the Night Creature Engine from Galamoth, the next Big Bad
It's explained that only a great power in Hell could create such a machine, but the source of that power goes conspicuously unnamed. The post-coitus scene between Olrox and Mizrak implies Emmanuel had to bargain with a demon for it, and some demons were once worshipped as gods. Olrox himself was a minor and somewhat forgettable sub-boss in Symphony, while Drolta was essentially the Succubus in all but name. That's two Symphony of the Night bosses given major reworks for the show. Galamoth is tied to Alucard, having been in both his games and is a character Castlevania has always loosely implied was meant to be a big deal, having designs to rule the Underworld and being responsible for the plot of the Wii fighting game (not that he was in it). His Symphony of the Night design also had Aztec influences, which could further tie Galamoth to Olrox as well. Maybe Galamoth was worshipped as a god by the Aztecs, hence Olrox trying to get that information from Mizrak. If the show moves to do Symphony of the Night after Rondo of Blood, then I propose Galamoth will take the place of Dracula in that story, as Bathory/Sekhmet is doing for Bloodlines in Nocturne. He might even trap the soul of Abbot Emmanuel, thus ensuring there will be an analogue for Ghost Shaft in the story as well. Olrox's love was not so innocent
He may be A Lighter Shade of Black, but Olrox himself still eats randos off the street, albeit well dressed randos rather than the poorer sort. His lover, despite his high minded ideals, was likely the same. Something happened to the Vampire Killer Whip that depowered it over the years.
The whip was able to kill monsters and vampires with ease during Trevor's time, or cause some damage to the creature it was used against. Come Richter's time, it doesn't have the same power it did when wielded by Trevor. Season 2 might shed some light as to why it doesn't seem as powerful.Akmodan and Astarte will join Bathory's court in future seasons
Taking note that this continuity gives Bathory some Egyptian background (having the power of Sekhmet), it's worth noting that Egyptian influence is rather rare in the franchise, which is understandable since most of the entire franchise is set in Europe at least several centuries after the last time history has heard about Ancient Egypt. Thus, it would be such a waste to not utilize what little Egyptian influences the franchise has in this series so that Bathory is not the only "Egyptian" in her court. Akmodan will represent the mummies, a common boss in the franchise (though maybe this time Akmodan will be a pharaoh commanding mummies instead of an actual mummy), while Astarte will remain her Charm Person self who seduces Mizrak, Richter and even Alucard to make things hard for the heroes.The Order of Ecclesia will make an Adaptational Early Appearance
The Order of Ecclesia was established to invent alternative ways to combat Dracula after the Belmonts went missing, and its secret weapon is the Dominus Glyphs, powerful magic derived from Dracula and rivals his own might. Given how powerful Erszebet Bathory is in this continuity, her enemies likely will try to find any means to get even with her, and maybe someone heard of the most powerful vampire in history, Dracula, and sought to emulate as much of his power as possible to give the masses the slimmest chance to combat Bathory.Admittedly there are several wringers to this WMG:
- Given Dracula's peaceful nature in this continuity, it does seem odd that anyone would or could have the chance to study his sorceries without getting past Alucard (who is unlikely to allow anyone to sully his father's name by practising dark magic based on Dracula's powers). Even if somehow the Order was established by Alucard himself to teach a select few scholars about Dracula's powers and science, it would seem counterindicative for him to allow anyone to use a self-killing ultimate power for any reason whatsoever.
- Compared to Bathory, Order of Ecclesia has much weaker justification of having an Adaptational Early Appearance. In the games' continuity, Bathory was Dracula's niece, so even if that relationship isn't carried over to this continuity, it at least still tells us that Bathory is still a pretty old vampire (Real Life Elizabeth Báthory was born in 1560), hence it's not impossible for her to show up before WWI. In contrast, the games' continuity clearly mentions that Ecclesia was established as a response to the Belmonts going missing, which happened after Symphony of the Night period.
The Reign of Terror will serve as an explanation for this continuity as to why the Belmonts disappear from public eye after Richter's time
Considering how bloody the Reign of Terror was in history, it's probably not a stretch to think that it can be translated into Witch Hunt in this continuity, in that after the nobles and their vampire masters are ousted, the populace turns on the next most dangerous "threats": People with magical powers. This puts the Belmonts straight in the crosshairs, forcing them to flee for their lives. For bonus points, to align with the games continuity, the Belmonts, whose allies now include Annette who's from the New World, may flee to the Americas and either become the ancestor to the Morris family or a dear friend to the people who will become the Morris clan, thus explaining how the Morris somehow comes into possession of the Vampire Killer.
Emmanuel will be executed by the revolutionaries.
He's a Priest, and will probably become the revolutionaries' target during the Reign of Terror.Maria will get some character development since she helped the people who killed her dad.Dracula will return to stop Erzsebet
Like Bowser in Super Mario RPG .Alternatively...
Dracula will be brought back (possibly from the dead) by Emmanuel
To further (if not complete) his journey as Nocturne's apparent take on Shaft, Emmanuel will eventually be forced to admit to himself that he has no way of stopping or controlling Erzsebet, and that by helping her he has only made everything worse for the people of France, as well as the world as a whole. Unwilling to believe that Richter and his allies have a chance of stopping Erzsebet, Emmanuel will turn to more desperate measures and come to the conclusion that the only person capable of stopping Erzsebet is the one vampire believed to be more powerful than even her: Dracula.Assuming Dracula is once again deceased by the time of Nocturne (either now being susceptible to dying of old age due to the way in which he was brought back in the finale of the previous series, or choosing to once again be Together in Death with Lisa after she once again dies, this time hopefully of natural causes) Dracula will either be brought back wrong or it will simply be the spiritual embodiment of his power that is brought (back) to life by Emmanuel, leading to Erzsebet becoming the Disc-One Final Boss of Nocturne. Following this, Emmanuel will either learn for the final time that Evil Is Not a Toy or against all odds manage to successfully bend Dracula/Dracula's Wraith to his will and continue his plans to crush what he believes to be a disruption of the "natural order", this time with the powerful vampire completely under his control.
