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Yeah there's a particular focus on the cross being burned and melting in the flames when Maria kills her father, and her portals already mirror Chaos. It's fascinating.
Assuming the symbols themselves still have holy power, then it shows just how strong Maria's corrupted powers are.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Jan 21st 2025 at 8:10:39 PM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"Yeah, I've noted that Maria is already mirroring a lot of Mathias. And the themes of the Sorrow games would actually match what this show has been doing with faith and deities.
Chaos would make a very neat contrasting sequel antagonist to both Sekhmet and Death, since he's one part of the Balance Between Good and Evil, and fully on board with his host being evil since Chaos can FORCE Soma to become Dracula against his will.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"The Shadow seems to mix and match traits of Chaos and Shaft, we've cited how it's a deity like Chaos, has some connection to evil and spreading it around, and the fact that it's shown possessing people is something both Shaft and Chaos pulled off.
I personally think Maria will go dark side willingly, but the shadow will assume direct control for some of her worst actions, and/or even later on in the plot so the heroes can redeem her.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I'm against this. Maria was never evil. This is just edge. There's absolutely no grounding for....
<Remembers that cut SOTN ending where Shaft possess Maria>
You may be on to something here Red. I guess the only question is, how far will they have Maria go? I still don't know if I'm totally on board with taking one of the most purely good characters in the series and going all in on turning them evil for real, but I also wonder if it'd be a copout to have her pull back at the last moment.
At the very least, in order to save Maria, it's gonna take a lot. Not just Richter and company calling her out, but also seeing things that contrast her hatred of the church (which might be hard), and maybe seeing that the Revolution isn't as good as it appears to be.
One Strip! One Strip!I mean, Maria in the show is already less innocent and more brutal than her game self, she calls Richter a wanker, murders her father in cold blood, and is happy to see rich people die, plus the show has already shown they are willing to do different things with the characters.
Besides, if Maria actually goes to the dark side, it's INCREDIBLY likely that she'll get some redemption moment after a fight with Richter or Alucard. This is the show that gave Dracula redemption from being evil.
Hell, as I said to you before, Alucard already had a discussion with Maria about love and redemption so there's already foreshadowing for Maria's inevitable arc.
But hey, if Maria does somehow go full villain, and becomes more like game Dracula than this show's version of him, I'd approve. It won't fucking happen tho.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I do wonder what will pull her back.
And as I said, how far is she going to go?
That's a lot of anger and hate to break through.
One Strip! One Strip!Probably lots of rich families, maybe a few perceived traitors who are actually innocent, but no way is she going to go on a mass murder spree. Unless......
But for real, don't worry Rob, she'll get a redemption arc and be turned back to the light side by Alucard who she has a crush on, and Alucard can feel happy that he succeeded in stopping someone from going evil for once in his life, then boom, relationship.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"Alucard: “I should have been the one to fill your dark soul… with LIIIIIIIIIIGHT!”
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Yeah. I know you're right.
That being said, I'm always gonna kinda regret that we didn't get silly ass Maria kicking the shit out of Vampires in a pink dress while being the most upbeat person in existence and everyone else is swearing up a storm and trapped in darkness and shit.
Like, it would have made a great contrast to the dark setting....but I get why they didn't. That's real easy to get wrong and make her annoying instead.
One Strip! One Strip!They don't have the space for SILLY GOOFY OPTIMISTIC MARIA, because this is a show for GROWN UPS, see? There's some drunkards talking about fucking a goat after Dracula mass murders a bunch of people in graphic ways.
We can't have happy optimistic children characters because they aren't realistic in this show about vampires.
So here, have your swearing Maria who supports the reign of terror and murdered her dad.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Jan 22nd 2025 at 12:17:44 AM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"Fine. But I'm gonna have a stern discussion with the manager about my swearing maria who supports the reign of terror and murders her dad.
The really funny thing is, I'd have actually liked it if Maria acted more like her game self....while also swearing.
Because that contrast....
Just some peppy random ass girl in a pink dress, kicking the shit out of every vampire with her animal friends, being all friendly, but still being as foul mouthed as everyone else would have been hilarious to me, and by default many other people.
Or complete bullshit. Who knows?
But Enough talk! (about Maria's characterization) We got what we got, and I do want to see what else we'll get. We more or less can guess how Maria's story will end, but that journey is gonna be filled with a lot of bumps (probably made up of the buried bodies of Vampires and a few humans).
Bring it Nocturne! Show Rob what you've got!
One Strip! One Strip!At the very least, I expect Maria's ideals to be challenged by the fallout of the French Revolution, and that she'd have to do some serious contemplation and soul-searching on what she believes to be just. She is still pretty young and naive, after all, and I would not be surprised if she has to face some pretty hard-hitting truths in the hypothetical sequel season.
Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jan 21st 2025 at 10:56:55 AM
"I squirm, I struggle, ergo I am. Faced with death, I am finally, truly alive."That's the thing, with her current mindset, it's going to take a lot for her to look at the Reign of Terror, and go "Okay, no, we are not doing that, we are not becoming the same kind of monster we fought against." Because the hardest people to convince are that they are going down a dark path, are those who are firm in believing they are morally just, and every evil they do is in service of a greater good.
So in that regard, Maria has inherited something from her dead old dad. I suspect she'll at the very least, see the initial stages of the Reign of Terror as justified.
Now, Alucard, and Juste are set to be the angels on her shoulder, while Tera(however unwillingly.) and the shadow are set to be the devils.
So I'm VERY interested to see how that dynamic plays out next season since she's a girl who is in an era of great change, and she's still young.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Jan 22nd 2025 at 12:52:52 AM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"I think what helps with this show is that it's clearly doing it's own thing. It tackles Castlevania with its own strengths and weaknesses in mind, own creative vision, and for Nocturne especially, it will never be Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and it knows it, because you cannot BEAT the 90's anime insanity that is Rondo Of Blood's cutscenes and music, so, knowing this, it's got its own energy it's bringing to the table.
...That being said, I'm not going to stop writing Maria Renard in fanfics as the Lethal Joke Character that I love so nearly and dearly, but... the show's getting into a more proper groove.
A more game adjacent Maria that fit the show’s tone would have BB Hood energy
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and
Agreed with this. Nocturne works because it's doing its own thing.
We'll still even get a Sorrow Duology adaptation.
Come to think of it, even though it's got nothing to do with Alucard, Portrait of Ruin would probably still work.
Brauner is trying to become the new Dark Lord, just like these last two season built up Erzsebet to be (before Drolta hijacked the role).
The implication that the shadow is Chaos and that it's actively scouting Maria to take up the role of Dark Lord means that having Brauner trying the same thing years later could work quite a bit.
As for Alucard, they could just imply he's working in the background and shit.
One Strip! One Strip!Plus Brauner's story in the games ties directly to World War 1, where he lost his daughters to conflict, and was a victim of Nazi Germany in later years if we can take his Nation of Fools as a hint to his past.
So he would be perfect for this show using RL conflicts as a backdrop for it's characters and story.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
For context, I agree with what Red said, and just chose a silly video to express it.
Also, since we're just going crazy with Maria anyway, give her her moveset from the Saturn port of Symphony.
Just go balls out nuts and have her both summoning and being a 18 Century Ninja who fires blasts of magical energy. She was pretty broken in that series, so you could use her favouring that moveset as a way to show how Chaos is corrupting her.
One Strip! One Strip!I think Ellis has stated that while he'd be an atheist no matter what, his hatred of religion is in large part due to the conflicts over it that wrapped up several of his friends in the Troubles and historically.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

It would be interesting if we could see someone with a proper blessing who could summon divine creatures in the series. I’d kill for religious zealots to see a Throne or the Seraphs, the fiery angelic serpents closest to God, and condemn said person. Because the easiest way to show their faith is hollow is to hate everything Jesus stands for.
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.