Castlevania Was Better Than It Had Any Right To Be

INTRO:

I recently rewatched the first season of Netflix’s Castlevania with a friend, and oh my god I forgot how much I love this show. Trevor being Trevor. The fourth season came out… nearly a year ago, wow. So I am very late to the party on this. Not to mention that since I’ve never played any of the Castlevania games, I felt a bit apprehensive to talk about the series, given I felt I couldn’t add much to the conversation. But dammit, I really love this show, and I wanna talk about it. Even if I am 84 years late.

What I’ve adored from the very beginning is the character writing of this series. I may have some issues with the pacing, especially in the final season, but what’s always gotten me through the show were its well-rounded characters. The show always gave me a deep understanding of their motivations and backgrounds, and as such, I always feel compelled to follow them on their adventures. That, and the realistic character interactions always give me the vibe of, “Oh, I would absolutely be this sassy in this kind of situation.”

Now before I begin, I do want to acknowledge the allegations towards creator and writer Warren Ellis of abusing his power to coerce many people over the years into having sexual relationships with him. I know it can be difficult to confront this given Ellis wrote the whole project, and knowing the creator of something you love has done terrible things can cause a kind of dissonance that leaves you unsure of how to feel, or denying a reality you wish wasn’t true.

However, it’s also important to remember that this is commonplace in every industry. Where there are power imbalances and hierarchies set in place, exploitation will always follow, and the atmosphere created by these systems are designed to be hostile and skeptical of any victims daring to come forward. As such, I’m going to leave links about the situation, as well as a website created by Ellis’ victims, So Many of Us, in the description.

“We are a group of over sixty women and non-binary individuals whose utmost concern is the safety and protection of others like us. Our aim is to dismantle the systems that allow people in power to abuse that power for the purpose of serial predatory corralling, emotional manipulation, and grooming. With this goal in mind, we are sharing our stories about a man who abused his power. This statement was written with the involvement of all who have signed it.” (So Many of Us)

I highly encourage you all to take a look, because these people’s stories deserve to be listened to. Today’s video isn’t about all of that, but it’s far too important to sweep under the rug. Unfortunately, terrible people can still be capable of making great art. It’s one of those weird things about humanity that we’ll never understand.

With that out of the way, let’s shift to a lighter note: these three fuckin’ goofballs. “Eat shit and die.” “Yes. Fuck you.”

THE TRIO:

These three? Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard? They’re essentially you and your D&D group going on epic quests while also stopping occasionally to complain about how hard it is to coordinate dinner plans, while also arguing over who gets to be the least braindead of the day.

“Such a merry band we are…”

These three on their own are wonderful characters. But put them together, and you get some iconic banter that will be forever immortalized in YouTube compilations and memes galore. And that’s the goal when you have a large group of characters, isn’t it? To give them interesting dynamics that immediately grab the viewer and make them go, “SAME,” especially if you’re trying to figure out which character you are within your own friend group. Personally I like to think I’m a Sypha, but that’s just my opinion.

But friendships also seem to be difficult for new writers to portray. Most of the time, the characters themselves are fine, but there’s no spark when they’re in a scene together. It kinda just feels like you forced a bunch of characters into a room together, and held a gun to their heads as you made them talk about how much they care about each other. Hell, it’s even the case with a lot of shows. Looking at you, RWBY and Sailor Moon Crystal.

To properly pull off friendships, or any kind of dynamic, you first need to understand each character on their own so you can see how they might react with others. And Castlevania does a great job when it comes to character depth, so let’s talk about our leading three for a bit.

“Would you please leave my testicles alone?!” (S1 ep 2)

Trevor is part of House Belmont: a notorious vampire hunting family that has found themselves persecuted by the very people they’ve tried to protect, to the point they were wiped out by the Church - the main antagonist of the first season aside from Dracula’s forces - and had their historic home ransacked. It’s because of this that Trevor has been forced to basically raise himself since he was a teenager. He’s a loner and a cynic, with no real attachments to humanity aside from honoring the duties of his family… and a pretty strong hatred for zealots, which is understandable.

Deep down, Trevor is a good bean, but the hardships he’s been faced with and the lack of true connections have left him a hollow shell. Which is why his friendships, particularly his relationship with Sypha, are so important. Sypha is a magician and a member of the Speakers: a nomadic people who pass down their traditions and history through stories rather than writing, hence their name. Like Trevor, Sypha has found herself part of a group on the outskirts of society, continually misunderstood by the public, largely due to their being vilified by the Church, those assholes.

Sypha is an optimist. Though she knows the cruelties of the world, she still believes it’s possible to help others and fight back against Dracula to save everyone. It’s part of why she clings to Trevor initially: she believes he’s mentioned in a prophecy about a Savior who sleeps under Gresit. “I’m Sypha Belnades.” “I don’t care.” (S1 ep 3)

Sypha is compassionate, but that also drives her ferocity. She’s quick-witted and will do whatever it takes to do what she feels is right. Hell, her sharp tongue is partially able to break through Trevor’s apathetic facade. Like, “No bitch, you ain’t stoic, you’re a marshmallow.” And if you try to hurt someone she loves, or an innocent, yo’ ass is grass… or I guess incinerated… or frozen, depending on her mood.

“See? God hates me!”

Sypha’s spark of life is what’s needed to get Trevor to come out of his shell. To see that there are still indeed people who care for others and who are worth not only fighting for, but bonding with. They’re like two sides of the same coin: one jaded, one sanguine. She is the heart of the team; the emotional core.

*Sypha swearing in S4.*

I mean, there’s a reason why outta the three, Sypha’s always been my favorite. Ya know, aside from her being voiced by Alejandra Reynoso, the voice of Flora in the Nick dub of Winx, and her magic just generally being a visual highlight. Like, it’s just simple fire and ice yet it’s so stunning and always used in creative, intelligent ways. Now this is how you do simple magic.

But our trio would be incomplete without Alucard: the world’s prettiest man. The son of Dracula and his human wife Lisa. This gives Alucard an inherent connection to humanity that Dracula lacks, and is part of the reason why he works as a foil to his father. Though Alucard is stoic and a bit eccentric, he still has a curious love for humans, largely thanks to his mother being a woman of science and reason, dedicated to serving her community.

They do explore this air of loneliness that always seems to hang over his head, though. After Dracula’s defeat, Alucard is left alone in the old castle while Trevor and Sypha go off on their own adventures. And so was born a host of Alucard in quarantine memes. *Alucard talking to dolls* The way I adore this man. Though the trio being disbanded for season 3 and most of 4 makes me sad, it did feel necessary in order to explore other aspects of their characters, namely Sypha growing weary like Trevor and seeing the darkness within people - via the Judge - Trevor coming to terms with his perpetual aimlessness, and Alucard cementing that he is not and never will be his father.

Alucard’s story in season 3 follows him meeting two Japanese hunters named Sumi and Taka. Having escaped from the vampire lord Cho, the twins hope to learn how to kill vampires from Alucard so they can free their people, and potentially turn the tides in humanity’s favor. However, when Alucard refuses to teach them magic, the twins are convinced Alucard is keeping secrets from them. See, their own past is fraught with treachery, having been betrayed by people they trusted, and now they assume Alucard is no different.

And so after lowering Alucard’s guard - in a way where Alucard at least got to live his best bisexual life for 2 minutes - they attempt to kill him. Alucard saves himself, but is forced to kill the twins in the process, even leaving them out in front of the castle on pikes, similar to what Dracula would do to humans who trespassed on his land as a warning to others. It signals this potential for Alucard to go down the same dark, twisted path as his father.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he winds up making more connections in season 4, helping a nearby town that finds themselves besieged by Night Creatures, and even starting a romance with the village leader Greta, with whom she shares his past traumas to process them. Rather than allowing himself to simmer in his pain like Dracula did, Alucard takes the chance to reach out again, and that’s what ultimately saves him. It even ends with a little town being founded outside Dracula’s castle - this one lonely abode is now shaping up to be a thriving town, a visual for Alucard overcoming his own loneliness and fear of connection.

These three are all compelling on their own, which is why their chemistry when they come together is so enthralling. There’s a reason why we have so many compilations of seasons 1 and 2 with these dunderheads reading each other for filth and teasing each other, because it’s by far the most fun part of the whole show. These three build a very realistic, sincere friendship that feels heartwarming. They are the heart of this series.

DRACULA & LISA:

If Alucard’s story is about overcoming loneliness and trauma, then Dracula’s story is a warning about what happens when you let them consume you.

It goes without saying that Dracula is that bitch in the vampire world. He’s a highly respected lord, but he mostly keeps to himself in his teleporting castle. He’s fascinated by the machinations of the world when it comes to science and culture, but when it comes to people… ew. Which is why his relationship with Lisa is so important. It’s similar to Trevor and Sypha’s relationship, where Lisa is the key to getting Dracula to come out his shell and warm up a bit. Lisa’s genuine interest in the sciences and devotion to helping humanity is what was so endearing to Dracula, and what created a foundation for their relationship.

You actually wind up rooting for them very quickly. In just the opening scene where they have a meet cute, you can’t help but adore these two’s chemistry and want them to be happy together. For her to achieve her dreams of helping people, and for him to stop acting like an angry cat and be more of a friendly cat. Let’s be real, Dracula has to be part cat with how he shifts around, wanders wherever he likes, and then lounges about threatening anyway disturbing his space.

And that’s why it’s so heartbreaking to witness the fallout. Lisa is punished by the Church for “heresy” - a.k.a. A woman dared to be an influential member of her community, and on top of that did a science. That’s at least three ticks on the “She’s a witch” counter. They burn her at the stake to make an example out of her, and all the while she pleads with them not to because she knows what the consequences will be, and she begs Dracula to be better than him. But unfortunately, it’s Dracula.

Dracula isn’t driven by some grand scheme to conquer the world or get a macguffin ro whatever else big bads are into these days. He just wants some old-fashioned revenge. It’s a simple but incredibly understandable motivation, and it drives him to some pretty horrifying ends. And interestingly, the show actually spends a lot of season 2 exploring how short-sighted that revenge quest is. This vendetta is driven not by logic or reason, but by the need for catharsis. Dracula is so lost in his own grief, in his anger, that he’s lashing out however he can to release that pain.

It’s why the vampire council seems so disjointed and unable to formulate a proper strategy. Dracula himself didn’t think that far, and he’s even told his advisor Hector a completely different strategy than what he intends, because he knew Hector would be onboard with a controlled culling of the human population, but would be against the complete and utter bloodshed Dracula craves.

The thing is, in a world without humans, vampires would be fucked. They need human blood to feed upon. I mean sure, they have pigs, but pig bloods are this world’s equivalent to Taco Bell, and some of us love ourselves enough not to subject ourselves to that kind of torment. But Dracula doesn’t really care about the world he leaves in his wake, because it’s not his problem. That idea that this is Dracula’s own way of dragging everyone down with him… it’s pretty on the nose, actually.

He wants a nebulous “other” to suffer the way he has suffered, and in this case, it’s humans. All of them. They’re the easiest scapegoat to use as a pretense to offload his pain. Nevermind that it was mostly the Church’s doing, nevermind the innocents like the old woman who paid her respects to their burned house who’d be caught in the crossfire, nevermind what will happen to the vampires squabbling for some kind of nourishment after humanity is gone - none of that matters. It is a short-sighted need for relief that’s far easier than actually unpacking and processing his trauma.

Salem wishes she had this depth.

Admittedly, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the ending where Dracula and Lisa are somehow brought back and are given a second chance. I don’t know if this is a reference to something from the games, but honestly… good for them. I honestly do hope they have a long, happy life together… but they also better visit their son at some point because good lord this family needs therapy.

HECTOR & ISAAC:

As Dracula’s trusted human advisors, Hector and Isaac are cynics. They’ve each found themselves marginalized by society: Hector because he had a fascination with death and watched too much Pet Cemetery; and Isaab because… well, he was literally a slave who killed his master who had his love weaponized against him, and now hates people just as Dracula does.

In that sense, it’s actually interesting that Hector is the one that was fed the lie to go along with Dracula’s plan. His motivation is far more personal, whereas Isaac’s traumas are the result of systems of oppression, meaning Isaac is more likely to be versed in the cruelty of the world at large, whereas Hector - even though he was feared, even by his own mother - was still able to at least somewhat keep his head in the clouds. So much so he never bothered clarifying Dracula’s actual plan, and just assumed Dracula wanted to cull the population.

From season 2 onward, these two get a lot of time to shine, mostly because as humans, you wouldn’t expect them to side with Team Kill All the Humans. But their cynicism, particularly Isaac’s, explains why, and we even get treachery within the vampire court when Carmilla takes advantage of Hector’s naivete and doubts.

Hector kinda just remains Carmilla’s prisoner into season 3, then the quartet’s personal Forgemaster after he’s manipulated by Lenore - more on that later. But Hector is a character who was routinely taken advantage of for the innocence that he still carried with him, even into adulthood. Carmilla used him to weaken Dracula’s forces in season 2, and Lenore strung him along into serving the quartet’s needs in their own grand plan in season 3. It isn’t until season 4 that Hector learns to play the game and understand the motivations of others properly, and use that to further his own goals.

He knows Carmilla’s plan is… well, for lack of a better word, batshit. That it’s going to backfire, and that Lenore can be manipulated given she’s smart enough to see Carmilla’s dwindling grip on reality as well. Not to mention with the Slave Ring on Hector, Lenore’s guard is down, and she isn’t expecting Hector to be clever and beat her at her own game. So seeing Hector’s growth by the end and summarizing why Carmilla brought about her own demise is so satisfying, as well as his restored friendship with Isaac.

Isaac meanwhile basically gets his own show-within-a-show for the last 2 seasons. He’s sent far away by Dracula’s mirror, in Dracula’s attempt to save what he considered his last and only friend. Despite Isaac’s hatred of humanity, he really did love Dracula, and still does. Am I using that as a way to read Isaac as queer? C’mon, y’all know me, Isaac is best husbando demon lord, we have no choice but to stan a gay icon.

Gay tangent aside, Isaac starts to build his own army of Night Creatures in season 3 and make his way back to Wallachia, in the hopes of finishing what Dracula started. However, that all changes when he meets what has to be the most entertaining and fascinating shipmaster in all of creation. The people of the city were terrified of Isaac and his army, even though Isaac simply wanted to pass through peacefully, and it was this fear and the refusal to let them through that led Isaac to killing them all. But even after this, when Isaac threatens the captain’s life for his ship, he’s totally chill. He acts like he’s been through this shit before. “Ah yes, another demon lord threatening my life - must be Tuesday.”

He even uses reason and wit to save himself. “Sure, you can kill me, but how the fuck are you gonna sail your way to your destination when you don’t know how to work this damn thing?” “Sailing a boat cannot be hard.” Isaac, sweetheart, baby, darling, angel, I love you, but even in the era of YouTube tutorials, you’d be hard pressed to figure this shit out. I’ve seen enough Mr Ballen videos about arrogant captains going down with their ships to know where this is headed.

Honestly, the conversations between Isaac and the Captain are some of the best content to come out of this show. The captain’s unexpected insights and wisdom lead to an interesting dynamic between him and Isaac, and kinda wind up reviving Isaac’s faith in people. Maybe not all of them are shitheads who’ll kill whatever they don’t understand. And seeing the captain poke holes in Isaac’s plans to kill all people is some of the most cathartic shit I’ve ever witnessed. If only the captain were around for Dracula… well actually, I don’t think Dracula would be as inclined to listen thoughtfully as Isaac.

And it’s through this that Isaac winds up building his own kingdom. Again, interesting conversations, this time with demon boi philosopher about why Isaac does what he does. He has the Night Creatures bury the dead left by the Magician, hoping that one day this city can be resettled for others in the future. He’s focused on a future for all, rather than wanton destruction to avenge his past. And that is why he is Best Boi and I would die for him.

See, this is how you do conversations between characters, even in a visual medium. You have them discuss real shit. And we will be engaged 110%. Literally, I could watch a whole show just about Isaac and the Captain going on random misadventures across the world.

THE VAMPIRE QUEENS:

Now when it comes to the vampire queens, I gotta admit… I wanted more of them. Off the bat, I was most intrigued by them, cuz like… it’s four vampire ladies, all planning to conquer the world and fuck shit up. Hell yeah, sign me the fuck up. And while their story did make sense and was fitting for what they were going for, I really thought season 4 was gonna be this all-out war between the quartet and Isaac’s forces, with our trio caught in the middle. So when it was not that… yeah, I naturally felt disappointed. But putting disappointments aside, I do like what we got of these four, especially Carmilla, and ESPECIALLY Lenore.

As I’ve mentioned before, Carmilla’s goal for season 2 is to manipulate Hector into ursupring Dracula, and we learn in season 3 that this was the quartet’s plan to begin with. They saw Dracula’s plot for what it was: a short-sighted revenge quest built on nothing but emotion. They knew they could worm their way in and possibly take over the movement for themselves, establishing an empire for themselves the likes of which the vampire world had never seen, especially with women at the helm.

Carmilla’s anger comes from a real place. Even in the vampire world, women have often been underestimated, subject to the whims and emotions of men doing whatever they please, and targeted the moment they try and carve out a space for themselves. But with Carmilla, there is a distinction - as pointed out by Hector - between strength and power. Strength is real, rooted in your own capabilities and the connections and alliances you make. It’s something you can actually back up. Power, meanwhile, is illusory. It’s the aesthetic of influence, when really everyone kinda hates you and would gladly twist a knife in your back if given the chance.

Empires fall when they overextend their reach. When they try to control so much land after mindless expansion that they lose sight of what can actually be maintained, and the whole structure falls in on itself. Because it wasn’t built on real strength, but illusory power. And that’s Carmilla’s mistake. Rather than listen to the concerns of her sisters, she followed her ambition to her fate, more focused on taking things for herself and showing off her power than actually building alliances and creating strength - a strength the quartet already had in spades when they ruled Styria.

“You could always make new things.” “Why would I waste my time?” Carmilla’s actually got a lot in common with Dracula with focusing on short-sighted goals, but whereas Dracula wanted to destroy to offload his grief, Carmilla wants to conquer as a means of biting back at a world that has continually pushed her down. Hell, it started with her killing the vampire lord who turned her. She’s always fought back against men trying to control her and entrap her, breaking free of cages. But even when there’s no cage left, your brain - which is so used to living in captivity - can often deceive you into thinking there’s an even larger cage around you still.

Essentially, Carmilla is what I like to call a girlboss. You remember the days when Rachel Hollis and others like her made their fame on being influential capitalists with this avant garde brand of feminism, only to have their careers fall apart after being exposed for mistreatment of workers, fraud, and racism, among other things? It was the reliance on the structure of capitalism - the domineering of one over the many, where the fruits of labor are siphoned off to the people at the top - that was their undoing, and used feminism as a facade to make themselves look progressive.

Carmilla’s essentially the vampire world’s equivalent. So focused on recreating the same tired structures before her, but make it feminist. Or rather, make it a hollow brand of feminism where you’re still ruining plenty of lives - including women of color, queer women, and all the like - but you can at least fake looking progressive for a few years until you destroy your own life with some plagiarized Instagram captions, and a single TikTok. “What makes you think I wanna be relatable?!”

Lenore, meanwhile, is my favorite of the quartet, and in general one of my favorite characters out of the whole show. Each member of the quartet serves a distinct purpose, as explained by Lenore: Striga

If I had to boil down Lenore’s character, she is Carmilla’s antithesis. She understands the connections between people as commerce: give people what they want, and they’ll give you what you want. It’s a more effective alliance than just forcing people to do what you want out of fear, and it’s more practical. She knows how to read people, to get them to let their guard down to reveal what drives them, and then uses that to further her own goals. Conniving? Yes, but at least she’s more tactful about it.

“I’m a diplomat, Hector. I make peace. And because of that, people think I’m soft. People think I’m weak. You won’t make that mistake again, will you?”

This is how she plans to get Hector to do what the quartet wants. They need his abilities as a Forgemaster to create their own army of Night Creatures, but find that a difficult task given Carmilla… well, as Morana puts it, “Beat the shit out of him for several hundred miles after manipulating and betraying him, then tossing him in a tiny, dingy cell.” Carmilla’s worn out her good graces with Hector, which is where Lenore steps in, and Lenore is far more patient with Hector, and thus more effective at learning how he works.

There’s this sense that Lenore is, at least on some level, genuinely interested in Hector. She’s kinda fascinated by his story of being the hapless fool tricked by Dracula into helping him annihilate humanity, and she reveals that Hector’s assumption - that humanity would be culled - is actually the quartet’s goal. She’s promising Hector what he seemingly wanted in the first place. Ultimately, she doesn’t really view him as an equal, not in the slightest, especially given how she slips the Slave Ring onto him while they do the do, taking advantage of an intimate moment Hector’s probably never really had with anyone else before. Talk about a bad first time. “Shush. The real people are talking. You’re like my pet.”

But Lenore’s affect gives her the appearance that she does care. And maybe she does, deep down. I mean, someone who’d go out of their way for a spider of all things must surely care about life. “Is this going to be like the time you found a spider with one broken leg, and you tore the castle apart looking for something small enough to make a splint out of?” “No!”

It’s fascinating to see how much these two are able to play each other like fiddles in the last two seasons, though. They truly were made for each other. Which is why it’s so sad seeing Lenore despondent when Styria is overtaken by Isaac, Carmilla is dead, and her other sisters are nowhere to be found. Everything she worked for is gone, which is why she steps into the sunlight to turn to dust. She believes there’s nothing left for her, and she doesn’t want to end up like Carmilla, driven by spite in pointless efforts that ultimately destroy herself and everyone around her.

Striga and Morana, though? They deserved more. They’re just kinda there, not doing much of anything aside from organizing Carmilla’s war effort in season 4 and realizing what a terrible idea this all was. I do love them though, especially as lesbian vampire royalty - I just wish the vampire queens got more to do plot-wise. Again, would’ve loved an all-out war involving the main characters. The trio versus the vampire quartet? I will be forever pissed we were robbed of that.

Oh, I do love Striga’s day armor though. Raven Branwen is quaking.

CONCLUSION & OUTRO:

“If you don’t have your own story, you become part of someone else’s.” Truer words have never been spoken. And over the course of the show, we find it rings true with pretty much everyone. Characters who aren’t fully aware of themselves and the motivations of others are strung along, made into pawns for someone else’s quest for power. Characters who find themselves aimless and without purpose are sucked into unspeakable chaos. Characters driven by unprocessed trauma meet their demise, or are forced to grow to change their fates.

Castlevania works largely because of its characters. The character writing in this show is top-notch, always able to help you understand their motivations, what drives them and why, and let that organically guide the story forward. There may be some pacing issues, and I’m still not particularly fond of season 4 for… well, my own grand expectations. But that aside, I utterly adore this show. I may not know jack shit about the games, but that hasn’t stopped me from vibing with the trio’s nonsense.

Anyhow, if you enjoyed this video and would like to see more content like this from me, then be sure to subscribe and ring that bell for notifications because YouTube hates creators. And if you’d like to support myself and the channel, you can pledge over on Patreon, and/or check out my urban fantasy novel De Cineribus: From the Ashes!

I’m the Unicorn of War, and my heart is a shitshow after crying so much.