Castlevania (Netflix series)

The beginning of Symphony, aka his Motive Rant in Rondo is him giving out about how it was the idea of humans to bring him back.

Edited by Beatman1 on Nov 8th 2018 at 11:05:06 AM

Mankind ill need a Savior like him!

The way I'd run it is that this was the death of Dracula the man. What comes after is increasingly Dracula the monster. The historian, the philosopher, the academic, the husband, the father; all dead. What's left is the curse. Nothing more.

WHAT IS MAN A MISERABLE PILE OF SECRETS!

WHAT IS MANKIND!! A CEASE-PIT OF HATRED AND LIES!

FIGHT FOR THEM THEN! AND DIE FOR THEIR SINS!

HAVE AT YOU!

-gets bodied by Richter-

This is only tangentially related but Skulls and the Belmonts. Castlevania remixes done by the Megas, maybe.

Oh my gosh. We might very well see the "DIE MONSTER" scene animated XD

He said. "They talk about 4K and shadows and framerate and all this other nonsense, but no one really cares. The memorable games are those with memorable moments, with good stories. Or something that had a new mechanic."

Combined with the previous comment, he's clearly criticising people who put too much emphasis on better graphics, not games for having better graphics. This is something a lot of designers and indie gamers will agree on.

Dracula's origin in the games is super convoluted. Like, the actual Vlad Tepes died the same year Castlevania 3 and, and by extension, this series, is set. So he can't be that old of a vampire if he's the real Vlad Tepes. Except that according to Lament of Innocence, AKA the game with Leon the first Belmont, set hundreds of years earlier, he's probably not actually Dracula. The game ends with this guy Mathias Cronqvist, walking away with two uber-powerful stones that give super powers to vampires and implies that he's going to be Dracula. Except that the real Mathias Cronqvist was a person who lived at the same time as Vlad, and the two of them knew each other. So either Dracula isn't actually Dracula, or he's not a centuries old vampire, but one that's only a few decades old.

Edited by WillKeaton on Nov 8th 2018 at 12:33:55 PM

It seems a lot of people want a good, accurate Castlevania adaptation and don't particularly mind one way or another if the story and the writing associated with it is good.

I think that's what he's getting at. Let's be perfectly realistic: Castlevania's story, as presented in the video games, sucks. Any given Castlevania's plot has about 20 - 50 lines of dialogue that mostly just serves to push the gameplay along and justify you killing Dracula incarnation #25. Castlevania 3 barely has that - the extent of the protagonists' interactions is agreeing to go kick Dracula's ass, shaking hands, and moving on with the task.

Even in those games, the primary antagonist is somebody looking to resurrect or become Dracula, like Carmilla, Graham Jones, the lady from Dawn of Sorrow, Death, etc. Dracula is like that final boss affixed to most Final Fantasies that's largely deatched from the plot and just is at this point.

A truly accurate adaptation of this franchise is not going to make for good television. None of the games. Fans might like it, but this series probably wouldn't of been greenlit for a 3rd season if he'd stayed true to the basic bitch plot of 3 badasses beating Dracula up and watching a castle crumble afterward.

There needs to be some substance, characterization, villains, and stakes that aren't just carbon copy repeats of what the first 2 seasons'. I love the series for its gameplay, aesthetics, and music, but do we really, absolutely need to cap every plot of with somebody killing Dracula? Is it truly that important to your overall enjoyment?

Edited by Hashil on Nov 8th 2018 at 1:13:13 PM

To add to that I feel like some people expected or prefered the show to have had a more "anime"/Japanese feel.

The rather Western dialogue catches some off guard.

Edited by slimcoder on Nov 8th 2018 at 12:45:43 PM

Why? There's a number of Japanese-developed games that never get Japanese audio tracks. Resident Evil for instance.

They're still very Japanese in writing and tone. There's a lot of cultural differences in how Americans speak versus the Japanese that goes beyond the languages themselves.

I've heard the opposite , that it was refreshing to have American style humor and writing.

Heheh indeed it is.

Its just more of a thing I see in the anime community.

Edited by slimcoder on Nov 8th 2018 at 1:45:31 AM

As I said before: It flawlessly captures the same spirit of the anime dubs of the 80's and 90's.

So it turns out after watching a play through of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance that I was somewhat wrong about Juste.

He does...kinda...sorta fight Dracula, since the true final boss is Dracula's remains brought back via Maxim's evil side.

Though I'm still not sure if it 100% counts, but being that Drac's remains are in there, I'd say there's enough Dracula for him to still say he fought him in some form. It's definitely one of the weaker incarnations of Drac though.

But yeah, there's no Belmont that has never fought Drac it seems.

Except all the nameless Belmonts in between the 100 year Dracula cycle.

We just don't play as the Belmonts who don't fight Dracula.

Leon didn't. He beat Death and Dracula dipped

You know, as someone who hasn't played the game, the more you talk about Juste, the more I want him. I now have a Belmont in mind who is totally obsessed with learning and collecting rare stuff, so he decides to move in with Alucards (who isn't exactly pleased with his new houseguests) and annoys the heck out of him with his magpie habits.

Probably uses all his shampoo too

We need Taika Waititi to write it...somehow. Something akin to Team Thor.

Juste’s a good guy. He just really likes decorating. Probably why Lydie was into him.

Edited by Beatman1 on Nov 8th 2018 at 8:27:52 AM

I choose to believe that every Belmont has a hobby that they’re really into

Because they otherwise spend their lives training to fight Draculas and need the release valve

Agreed.

@ The western dialogue; I'm really happy that it's less anime-like. I watch enough anime for that. They took Castlevania's Anime influences where it mattered (IE, the Over-the-top powers and fight scenes) and did what they where better at for the other aspects of the show. I'd say it's a perfect hybrid.

If they ever get to Portrait of Ruin (About, what, 10 Seasons down the line?) I can see them just keeping Brauner as the main villain instead of the Dracula takeover at the end. We'll also likely see his daughters being brutally gunned down in the war, with them showing it as sort of a history repeats of Dracula's fall to evil.

I'd still want Dracula. Castlevania wouldn't feel right without its ultimate evil hijacker.

It's like trying to do a Zelda adaptation and killing off Ganon early on. Or killing off Bowser in a Mario adaptation. This isn't just a well-known bad guy that the heroes sometimes fight; he's the bad guy. He defines Castlevania every bit as much as the heroes do.