Castlevania (Netflix series)

It could have been given to him in the bargain with whatever demon he made a pact with to become a forgemaster.

Speaking of Emmanuel, last year someone made fanart of young Shaft and he looks almost exactly like the abbot.

The resemblance is uncanny. Emmanuel really does seem like this show's take on Shaft.

Having just finished SOTN I decided to get around to Nocturne. Was neat to see Olrox be promoted from rando boss to major character with deep ties to Richter. Surprised that Tera lasted as long as she did. I thought moms just existed to die for their kids' motivations. Annette was cool, and I was almost left wishing her story was the focal point. Very funny to see how the heroes just kind of lose all the time. My main complaints were Maria suddenly trying to win over her dad when he's done nothing to win her over bar a very token plea for her to not be killed and Alucard coming out of nowhere. Juste was right there. Oh well, guess I'll just have to live with the best character being back earlier than I would've thought.

I gotta say Emmanuel is the biggest fumbler since Mordecai from regular show. God gave him a 10/10 baddie like Tera and he screws it up.

Smart, sexy, wise, caring, has magic and can cook. Yet he thought it was "God's will" to continue being a priest.

Emmanuel is right when he says "he's blessed by God". Because the man is giving him so many chances to not screw up and fix his destroyed family life.

I can only think what the big man was thinking when he saw Emmanuel watching on as Tera was being turned into a vampire.

God: You had ONE JOB, EMMANUEL!

Edited by FKJ10 on Nov 4th 2023 at 2:36:01 AM

Don't forget getting Tera pregnant and making her a single mother.

Edited by DoubleOG on Nov 4th 2023 at 9:33:45 AM

Emmanuel is doing a great job of representing his faith.

Emmanuel being such a massive hypocrite and yet showing some humanity is why I like him as a villain more than the Abbot from the previous series.

Dude fucks everything up and knows that its 100% his fault.

I'm just wondering when Netflixvania will have an Abbot/Bishop that isn't a complete piece of shit.

Wonder if we'll ever see Simon in this show.

Probably never. We have Mizrak at least for more positive church representation who doesn't just show up for one scene. But I think the series will always have villainous church characters.

I feel like if they ever get to Soma, they'll have Graham Jones be part of the Catholic Church.

Hah. That sounds right.

He ran a cult or something, didn’t he? I don’t think a lot of information was given about it in game

Yeah. Not to be confused with Celia's cult, which is apparently completely different.

You know, I never got to this, but in addition to making Tera Maria's mother, they also took another character tied to the Church (a nun) and deliberately separated her from that, just like they did with Sypha.

It's so weird when you remember that the Church was the Belmont's greatest allies in the games.

I don't think it's particularly weird? The games were Japanese, using Christianity as exotic set dressing to help heroes is an old tradition in Japanese media.

America (and every other Western country tbh) has actual experience with Christianity and thus is going to have Opinions (TM) about the Church/Christian religious authority. Given how widespread secularism is, particularly amongst artists, those opinions are naturally always going to have a decent chance of leaning in a critical if not outright hostile direction. A positive depiction wouldn't be unsurprising but averting it is a pretty normal thing.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Nov 5th 2023 at 3:20:08 AM

Granted the other issue is this castlevania is way more gritty than the games.

Like both games and series are edgy but castlevania like all anime are more...stylish so to speak, for how the chararter look, to "what is a men? a miserable piles of secrets" while the series is gritty, part of it was warren ellis writting but stuff like "I wanted to said something cleaver....fuck it" both feel the kinda clever writting you expect in a edgy series but in oposite direction.

" yet showing some humanity is why I like him as a villain more than the Abbot from the previous series."

Funny thing I find it just melodramatic that their way to show humanity is to conect to the protagonist somehow.

I'm not sure that's a great defense when it can be stated as, "America has a long history of prejudice and thus is justified using it against Catholics." Particularly since it feeds into the Far Right's slander against them.

But I come from a very different place than most where propaganda and conspiracy theory against Catholics is a real thing as well as violence. ^note There's a humorous note that I was Catholic before leaving the church due to the corruption regarding the sexual abuse scandals. So I'm probably being a hypocrite here.

Anyway, I wouldn't dislike it so much if it weren't for the fact that it's so one note and follows Warren Ellis' bias, who, is well, someone that needs some definite toning down.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 5th 2023 at 4:51:41 AM

It’s weird that Celia wasn’t just part of Graham’s cult. It seems like what little we know about them line up pretty well with each other and it would have contributed to it being a direct continuation of Soma’s story, in a worse coat

The Ellis seasons might have been one-note in that department, but as for Nocturne? The Catholic Church abetted the old regime, which was deeply unequal, including supporting a coup IIRC and promoting garbage doctrines like the divine right of kings. Criticizing them is pretty fair game.

And to be honest "The US is prejudiced against catholics" feels like a nonsequitur in this context.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 5th 2023 at 9:59:09 AM

True and I actually don't mind this version much, though it's also the Hollywood History version because the Catholic Church of France worked for the Revolution after the coup, becoming state employees.

Try explaining THAT, though.

I also wish we had someone like Isaac who showed the other side of faith, even though he was a half-crazy Forgemaster.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 5th 2023 at 5:03:03 AM

Clergy were pretty omnipresent in ye olde times so there could be dudes like Good Priest in season 1 who help Belmonts/protagonists out because monster stuff is happening where they live

The French Revolution is more thorny but there were priests that supported reform and then revolution because your average local priest saw all the money flowing uphill to the bishops and felt more sympathetic to the poor peasants.

The majority of the clergy estate even joined the third estate in proclaiming the National Assembly.

And a lot of clergy did accept every weird religious reform the revolution came up with. Although the numbers dropped when it got weirder

So it’s a lot more complicated basically

Edited by Bocaj on Nov 5th 2023 at 8:12:19 AM

For what it's worth, they seem to be leaving space for a redemption arc for our Shaft stand-in. Probably a deadly one, but if we're already getting a more nuanced approach to the church with the two most prominent clergymen in this series that paves the way for a more positive portrayal post revolution, too.

Edited by Hashil on Nov 5th 2023 at 8:48:12 AM

"t’s weird that Celia wasn’t just part of Graham’s cult. It seems like what little we know about them line up pretty well with each other and it would have contributed to it being a direct continuation of Soma’s story, in a worse coat"

Well Graham Jones' cult involved doomsday prophecies and the actual worship of the Dark Lord IE Graham himself since he believes himself to be Dracula. according to the bio, while Celia's cult worships God out of fear of the dark lord if that makes sense.

According to the bio for With Light, "It preaches that for God to be absolute good, there must be a being of absolute darkness. Rather than revering a dark lord, it believes in its presence, and reveres God out of fear of the dark lord."

So basically, they have conflicting views on Dracula. Celia herself certainly has ulterior motives given her interaction with Somacula and the bio on her.

Amusingly enough, according to the light novel, Graham's cult went on to worship Olrox or at least serve him, while Celia's cult didn't and remained leaderless.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Nov 6th 2023 at 3:52:29 AM

The Catholic Church is a powerful global institution with a long history of misdeeds, there is nothing wrong with a show criticizing it. Even harshly.

What matters is the context. For the first Castlevania it was a loose allegory for corrupt religious fundamentalism as a whole and for Nocturne it is a more historically grounded criticism of how clergy aligned with aristocratic violence. Both plot beats which are more then appropriate to make.

You're overstating things, some individual clergy were pro-revolution. They were the exception to the norm. The Church as a whole was a firmly reactionary institution, that's the entire reason that the revolutionary government was anti-clerical to begin with. The clergy made it very clear which side they stood on collectively.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Nov 6th 2023 at 2:55:35 AM