I think the portrait is of Leon, first Belmont to wield the whip. In the Netflix continuity, I believe he was the first to battle against Dracula, while in the games, he battled the man who would become Dracula.
Don't think the portrait is Simon as Simon is Trevor's descendant and game continuity-wise didn't fight Dracula until over 200 years after Trevor. What made him so famous was that he was the first Castlevania protagonist in terms of game release. His stories were not particularly plot heavy since he was from the NES era.
Pretty sure Trevor fought a Werewolf during the beginning of Season 3 before he and Sypha ended up in that one town.
Or at least it kinda looked like a werwolf.
One Strip! One Strip!I think it was just a generic night creature since, specifically in the context of Castlevania, anyway, werewolves are typically pretty powerful and important, what with being one of the original major horror properties the games were referencing. I could see one of the series going into detail about a werewolf with the curse of lycanthropy going through it and all, especially with one of the N64 games following a werewolf protagonist.
Edited by Hashil on Sep 11th 2024 at 4:47:06 AM
Yeah, but they're still stronger than, say, some rando night creature brought back to life. And we've got a werewolf protagonist to speak of. I don't know if Castlevania leans into it or not in his game, but there's also the (relatively recent?) lore thread of werewolves being opposed to vampires running through pop culture, so it's something they could run with if they're so inclined.
Even the werewolf protagonist was a unique kind of werewolf. And he was manipulated in his game into sacrificing his powers to Dracula to fuel his resurrection.. That game had a few generic werebeasts too.
In general, vampires —or Dracula specifically — is at the top of the supernatural pecking order.
Edited by M84 on Sep 11th 2024 at 9:17:39 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedHe does explicitly identify himself as Vlad Dracula Tepes, but the show implies he’s been around a *lot* longer than the early 1400s - setting aside the anachronism of the castle itself, he claims to have knowledge that humanity has “forgotten thrice over”. Could be timey-wimey-ness, could be that he’s had multiple names over the years and thats the one he chose when he settled down. But the show is fantasy history so I wouldn’t get to hung up on real world retails.
Netflix did tweet out this thing which claims he’s the first vampire
I personally like to think that, in the Castlevania-verse, Vlad III Drăculea existed separately from the vampire calling himself "Dracula", but the real "Son of the Dragon" didn't survive prison (whether in his youth as a hostage of the Ottomans or his political imprisonment by Matthias Corvinus as an adult) and the vampire stole his identity post-mortem.
"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's DictionaryI want so badly for Richter to really rock this season and come away looking like the coolest son of a bitch in Castlevania, because that is my background want for Belmont characters in general and the first series left that desire unrequited.
(Trevor's fight with Death was pretty cool, even if Death did feel like a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere who just showed up to give Trevor a cool final boss fight.)
But. It's Richter. The last of the great Belmont vampire killers until Aria of Sorrow who ends his career in disgrace and surrenders the whip to a branch family.
Like. They skipped all the cool Belmonts and went straight from Trevor to Richter. XD Alucard is definitely going to steal the show again.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 16th 2024 at 10:59:46 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.That is a shame. Hopefully, Richter at least gets to go out on a high point in this.
Skipping the other Belmonts can't be helped. Only Trevor and Richter have much of a supporting cast (though they still opted to leave out a member of Trevor's for some reason).
Simon only has a fiancé in in Haunted Castle, most barely remember Christopher exists (and he only has a son in the main games).
Juste made it in, and Lydie and Maxim even got name-dropped (man, that's still a shock), but that's it for him as well.
One Strip! One Strip!I suspect the bigger factor is which Belmonts Alucard hung out with
Forever liveblogging the AvengersOn the one hand, that's disappointing because only doing Trevor and Richter before going straight to Soma and Julius means we never get to see Belmonts at the height of their awesomeness. Alucard favoritism is clear favoritism.
On the other hand, Soma is arguably the single best Castlevania protagonist in the history of the brand, and his two games are pretty much Peak Castlevania. So.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 16th 2024 at 12:35:57 PM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

It's not like they couldn't update characters, like they did with Annette or create one themselves (if you believe their story that Gretta was original, and not a changed up Grant).
I wouldn't mind a modified version of Castlevania I/II with Simon and some created side-cast, but if not them, I would also like Order of Ecclesia, as it's my preferred Castlevania not centered on the Belmonts (followed by Portrait of Ruin, then Legends, and then the Aria Duology).