A Timeline Definitiva de Castlevania

After a long day of producing high quality content like memes about "What is a Man", Master Alucard got bored and decided to browse the internet. It was then that a video caught his attention... WAZZUP MAH FRIENDOS! This is Mr. Azulard, today’s video will tell you the complete and true story of Castlevania! Didja know that Alucard backwards is Dracula? That story is told in the Baitflix series! There is also Trevor, who is Alucard's son with Sonia Belmont from Castlevania Legends. But according to IGA, Sonia isn't part of the canon because he's a prejudiced egotistical bigot! Everybody

knows that the story of Legends doesn't contradict anything! "Didja know that according to this questionable timeline, Castlevania 64 is canonical? It also says that Kokoro Belmont is Julius Belmont's sister and stopped an alien invasion!!!" "All canon, I swear on my mama! But canon is overrated and nobody cares about the story anyway, so check out my collection!" Master Alucard: "W-wha- what.... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" I can't sit here and wait for someone else to do this right anymore. Time to take matters into my own hands! Master Alucard: "Librarian! Come with me!" Mário Santos: "I told

you to keep quiet in the libra-" Master Alucard: "THE TIME HAS COME!" Mário Santos: "What are we waiting for? Duty calls!" "So Master Alucard set off toward his destination, gathering artists with a mission never seen before - to write the best timeline video ever." [IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE]"Vamp, Lean, Butia, Berimba, Bardruid, Jucas, Skilled, Dumb, Junki..." "Dracula's castle beckons to them. Will they come out of this victorious?" Salutations, my friends. My name is Master Alucard and I often work with the Castlevania series on Youtube. Since 2017, I’ve made a personal mission to play all the games

on the Belmont Saga, making analysis videos with personal criticism and humorous takes about all of them. When I least expected, I was completely absorbed by the community, which received my work in a very positive way. I owe my current job here on Youtube to this wonderful series created by Konami. During my playthroughs and writing for the channel, I was very vocal about the Castlevania storyline Something that for me comes second after my love for the gameplay, atmosphere and charisma the franchise has. I never played these games primarily for the plot, thus I never gave it

much thought before. thus I never gave it much thought before. That started to change as the years passed by and ever so slowly I became more knowledgeable about certain events, about some characters’ adventures and about the franchise’s general background which, in all honesty, isn’t that easy to follow if you only play it casually. Castlevania is a lore rich series, but that lore is dispersed across bad localizations, instruction manuals, forgotten interviews, japanese magazines and about almost everything you can imagine. Konami hasn't done a good job adapting all the feats and adventures that the Belmont Clan offer

when they brought the series overseas, something that has influenced the perception of many fans. There’s a lot of information, theories and events that become clearer if translated directly from the Japanese media - many of which were written or supervised by Igarashi and his team. This information is unfortunately not easy to consume, as it requires more research, reading and interpretation. With these difficulties in mind, I decided to work on something I should have done a long time ago, but didn't feel ready for: a video telling the real story of Castlevania, in a detailed way so that

you, [the viewer], can better understand this universe. The information here will be condensed in a way so as to lose as little as possible, but also so that it won't become boring to watch. For this I will be enlisting the help of Mário Santos, a well-known pixel artist who is currently directing the fangame Castlevania: Seal of the Eclipse, which you should check out if you haven't seen it yet. Mario participates in the community under the alias of ThePlotTwist, contributing a lot with translations of Castlevania texts advanced research into certain events, hypotheses regarding the past and

future of certain characters, and many other things that have kept the discussion going for many years. If there is one person in Brazil who understand Castlevania lore, it is him. Trust me. And as a bonus to this whole thing, this guy is also a phenomenal pixel artist, an extremely intelligent person, a dear friend, and a guy with great taste, as you can see there on the screen. [Shanoa's booty blesses us all] He will be helping me with the writing and research for this video, because there is so much to do here that no writer can

do it alone. In addition, I will be bringing in the channel artists who I’ve been working with for the past few years - Vamp, Bardruid, Lean, Juquinha and many others, so that together we can deliver a video that is fun to watch, with unique, high-quality illustrations of interesting moments from this franchise (Please comission them as well! Links in the descryption) More than five hundred artworks were produced exclusively for this project over a period of more than four months. We tried to illustrate and perhaps even romanticize certain events with wonderful illustrations. Given that this here is

basically a feature film, when one of the artworks appears on the screen, you will hear the following sound: [PAPER SOUND] That way, if the video is playing in the background, you will know when there is artwork to admire and illustrate the situation. Speaking of which, during this video, a lot of not commonly known information will be discussed. When I say, for example, "Simon Belmont was supposed to be called Peter Dante, this happens: [SOURCE APPEARS WITH A SOUND] These unique-sounding little sources will appear to show you where the information being referenced at that moment came from,

especially when the source of the information is a separate product. But sometimes, just one source is not enough. When that happens, a note will pop up on the screen. Like this: [NOTE APPEARS WITH ITS RESPECTIVE SOUND] These little notes will give more context about what was said, also with a unique sound. They will go by very quickly to maintain the flow of the video. So, if you are interested in them, I recommend pausing the video the video to read them. All good? No need to worry about missing anything. All games have been separated into chapters,

which can be viewed within the video itself. This way you can return to look up certain information easily. Também quero adicionar que este vídeo está I also want to add that this video is subtitled in both Brazilian Portuguese and English to reach an even larger audience. Some jokes and comments will be adapted, or possibly removed in English but if you have a friend who lives abroad, he can also watch it as long as he doesn't mind my narration in Brazilian Portuguese. With this project I want to correct some past mistakes and challenge once and for

all the old notion that Castlevania has no story. But before that, we have to define one thing. What is the Castlevania canon? The bible. No, not that one. This one. In the first centuries after Christ much debate took place about its books. Then, in the 5th century, it was established that the set of books present in it as we know it today would be considered "canon". This word has become important in modern times where, in order to interpret a work, contradictory texts are ignored or excluded to preserve their flow. The Dragon Ball canon, for example,

recognizes what happened in the classic manga the Z-saga manga, but does not recognize the Dragon Ball GT anime because it does not originate from the manga. Castlevania has a similar situation, with its notorious "timeline". This saga has had many developers over almost 40 years, some with different and even conflicting visions of the storyline. The games generally recognized the first three Castlevania games from the NES, but their worldview could vary wildly depending even on which Konami division developed them. With the arrival of Koji Igarashi in the series through Symphony of the Night, a definitive timeline began

to emerge, to the joy of many and the chagrin of some. During the development of Alucard's legendary game, a timeline that was created to serve as an internal reference ended up published accidentally. Igarashi explained that the team had no intention of making it public for fear of limiting the series. Eventually, he became Castlevania’s producer, and that timeline began to solidify around the time of Lament of Innocence's release, made made accessible via an official guide or over the internet, and putting an end to the story troubles until then. The goal of this video is to bring

Castlevania’s story following the most recent form of this timeline, adding content recognized as part of it, such as both the Curse of Darkness manga or Order of Ecclesia. It is well known that the American Castlevania material contributed greatly to the confusion among western fans, either by omitting important details, or even by completely altering the impression of the plot because the people in charge thought Castlevania should be more satirical. Therefore, Castlevania being a Japanese creation, our research primarily referenced the official Japanese content. When the English version is right, we'll put it on screen, but every time

the Japanese original says something else, we'll show it with our own translation to go with it. So, no Pirate Grant, no Poltergeist King, no jokes about being dead or about heart attacks, and no canon Circle of the Moon and Castlevania 64. But don't worry, both of these titles will also take part in this video. We’ll also try to convey this story in an objective and non-critical way, so as not to make this project longer than necessary - a funny thing to say, given the size of this thing, right? There may be some earpulls for some

of the Igarashiness we’ll see during this video when Mario isn’t looking, but don't tell him, okay? Finally, there is always the possibility that a new director will create a new timeline that makes this video outdated. While that hasn't happen - and I hope it doesn't, for heaven's sake Konami - - cut us some slack because this is one big bad boy. We open the tale of Castlevania with Lament of Innocence, the adventure that depicts where it all began - The origin of the conflict between the Belmont clan and Dracula, the mighty whip belonging to the

family, and their millennial struggle against the eternal night. We follow in the footsteps of Baron Leon Belmont, a European knight who wove his fame by protecting the domain of nobles. Due to the expanding influence of the church in the 11th century, the blondie also served as a sword of God against heretics, generously being called the protector of peace. According to reports, his skills in combat were second to none. Leon was friends with a skilled strategist named Mathias Cronqvist a powerful, intelligent, and above all, formally educated man, since the people at that time had little access

to schooling. Thanks to their combined effort, the company the company which they were a part of gained prestige and influence solidifying their trust in a lasting and true friendship. But this story could not really begin without some kind of tragedy, and the one affected at this time was none other than Mathias: His wife, Elisabetha, suffers a tragic and sudden death from an undescribed illness, sending the strategist spiraling into depression and sadness, which prevents him from partaking in the activities of his order. Even in the absence of his friend, Leon - being the absolute boss that

he is - keeps brotherhood activities running for another long year. Strangely enough, his territory begins to be attacked by an army of monsters, towards which he cannot retaliate without the permission of the church, which is still focused on its war against heathens. Then, one day, Mathias, gathering his strength, reveals amidst these events that these monsters are connected to a castle owned by a powerful vampire, located in a forest called Eternal Night. But it gets worse: Sara Trantoul, Belmont's betrothed, has been kidnapped and taken to this place during his absence, the day before their wedding. With

no other choice, Leon renounces his possessions as a noble warrior of the church and heads into the forest, alone, armed only with his fists and guts. Upon entering the forest, he meets Rinaldo Gandolfi, an alchemist who lives on the outskirts of the castle, and who helps hunters brave enough to face the vampire who rules the place - Walter Bernhard. This mighty and prideful being of darkness likes to toy with his prey before killing them, and Rinaldo's help serves to make his game e more interesting. The old man also reveals that he has a personal beef

with Walter, and, knowing that he is in the company of the well-known Baron Belmont, decides to help armando o rapaz com um chicote, que a esta altura do campeonato, é chamado simplesmente him by arming him with a whip, which at this point is simply called the Whip of Alchemy. [3D RENDER] This whip is built on principles hailing from forbidden studies sponsored by the Cronqvist family - the same as Mathias'. Rinaldo reveals that this knowledge now resides in a book, and few people know about its existence surprising even Leon. The conversation ends with the young man

ready to storm the castle, now armed and better-informed of what waits for him. While investigating the place, Blondie finds out about a lot of interesting information, which reveals how deep the rabbit hole goes. Not only is the place infested with demons, but some of them reveal important things and everything starts falling into place: The gorgon Medusa brings to light that the Whip of Alchemy is not yet complete, Joachim - a vampire imprisoned by Walter - lets it be known that there are two magical stones, and Rinaldo reveals more about them both, named Ebony and Crimson.

How these stones work is very important to Castlevania's lore, since one of them explains the vampire's relationship with the night, and the other is the origin of Dracula's powers. The Ebony Stone - which chose Walter as its owner - is responsible for the eternal night surrounding the castle - it covers the vampire's domain in a kind of lunar protection, blocking the sunlight so the forest is unaffected. In a 2 for 1 deal, this stone also guarantees that the night protects only its master and no other vampires. The Crimson Stone, on the other hand, offers a

more abstract contract, but no less powerful or important. Whoever possesses it will gain eternal life and the powers of a vampire, but will also inherit their curse. This one seems a little better, don't you think? Rinaldo says that these stones are the greatest treasures for those who seek to become the King of the Night. In the meantime, Leon also learns about Rinaldo’s unfinished business with the lord of the castle - Walter has turned his daughter into a creature of the night, and she slaughtered the rest of his family, forcing the poor man to create the

Whip of Alchemy to resolve the situation, which includes defying that arrogant redhead himself! Aaaaand he fails miserably, since the latter still roams around stealing other people's wives. And speaking of betrothed women, Leon soon meets Sara, on his first run-in with the bloodsucking bandit. The rumors of this big shot being a snark who laughs at the misfortune of others soon prove to be correct - After a completely failed strike from the Whip of Alchemy, Walter mocks the noble hunter by returning his beloved in a clearly afflicted state, which is visible in her dead-fish expression. He also

mentions a certain knight, but its probably just me reading things wrong. They flee the scene in an attempt to seek help from Rinaldo, but Sara is abruptly stopped by some sort of force field, revealing terrible news: Her soul has been tainted by Walter. Little by little, Leon's betrothed will lose her humanity and turn into a vampire, just like what happened to Rinaldo's daughter. Her kindness, her smile, and her innocence will be lost to the night, and there is nothing that can be done to stop this but to take the life of the one who has

tainted her - something that has already proven unfeasible. Faced with an impossible situation, Rinaldo raises a spark of hope: Complete the Whip of Alchemy to defeat Walter. For this to happen, it is necessary to use a tainted soul that blindly trusts the one who is partaking in the ritual. To be transformed, the weapon must strike down the sacrifice, merging the essence of their spirit with the strength of the bearer's will. Before despair completely overwhelms Belmont, Sara, who heard everything, willingly offers herself to complete the sacred weapon. Hesitantly, Leon accepts, and the ritual begins. All is

one, representing the infinite The tainted soul will be one with his heart Undesired and cursed soul His blood accepts your hate And now become one in infinite power. Now! Use the whip in Sara! I promise! No one will suffer like you ever again! Thank you, Leon... [RITUAL CUTSCENE ENDS] The Vampire Killer, the Belmonts' ancestral weapon, is born. I will take this opportunity to relay some trivia about the whip: The ritual formed a contract between the blood of the Belmonts, and the hatred of the tainted soul. Sara's soul went to rest, but her hatred remained as

a weapon against the night. The whip ritual is found in Mathias' own alchemy book - somewhat ironic, if we take into account that this weapon would become his core weakness. If weakened, Dracula can be defeated in various ways. But once revived in his complete form, only the Vampire Killer can keep him at bay, as we shall see in the future. The whip has additional powers, such as acting as an evil detector. Picture the medallion from The Witcher, if you want a comparison. The Morning Star is an upgrade of the Vampire Killer based on the spiritual

strength of the user wielding it at the time. Same whip, different form. With the whip in hand, and a widower before he's even married, Leon prepares to give that red-headed bastard a spanking, and although it has no plot relevance, remember that Leon "too pure for this world" Belmont is the one who delivers this line: [I'LL KILL YOU AND THE NIGHT!!!] Literally the best Belmont. As expected from our hero, Walter is successfully defeated. He is a powerful vampire, but still just a vampire. Before he kicks the bucket, a certain talking skeleton appears to take his soul

away: our friend Death. Upon seeing the skeleton, however, the bloodsucker wails about some kind of betrayal, making it seem as if the skeleton pulled a fast one on him. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Death offers the vampire's soul to the mastermind of this entire scheme, because he who possesses the Crimson Stone, has a contract with the reaper. From this event appears Mathias Cronqvist, Leon's personal friend, who has been behind everything that has happened so far. Mathias was enraged at God after the loss of his wife, taking possession of the Crimson Stone to

obtain eternal life - something that breaks the principles of nature itself, since everything that is born must die. As the stone transforms those who possess it into vampires, the noble strategist took no issue in abandoning his humanity, and used his allies to achieve his goal of taking revenge upon the Almighty. Using his wrath to convince Leon to adopt his views Mathias finds himself confronted by an adverse resolve - While his pain drove him to commit all these horrible acts, Leon's suffering and empathy gave him the strength to overcome any challenges, even at the cost of

his beloved’s own life. Without options, Mathias flees, leaving Death to look after his friend, in the first battle between a Belmont and the reaper. Now is a good time to better introduce the role of the famous skelly in Castlevania, after all, how the hell did the Grim Reaper come to serve Dracula in the first place? So, human beings are bastards. We have lots of negative feelings inside of us, like anger, envy, pain, the works. And there are days when we just want to watch the world burn. These feelings give rise to chaos, a spiritual force

that has existed and will exist as long as humanity endures. Chaos is a strong force, and is the source of power for many of the creatures in Castlevania - including Dracula and his minions. When they get killed, they sink back into Chaos, where they regenerate until their next go-round. Death is a god born out of chaos. The reaper gets this name not because he is the concept of death itself, but because he is born from human death. His role is to enthrone the predestined demon king and, as long as there is a chance of that

happening, he will return again and again and again. Now you know why the reaper simply doesn't cause the Belmont clan to pop out of existence. Even with this plethora of information, Leon still gets the better of the reaper, showing showing that the power of the whip is even greater than that of a divine entity. Before vanishing, Death receives Leon’s message that the Belmont clan will use his powerful weapon to destroy whatever Mathias has become. [THE BELMONT CLAN WILL HUNT THE NIGHT!] That concludes the adventures of Lament of Innocence, but kickstarted a war that would last

for millenia. Before the fun is over, though, a voice in the credits informs us that Mathias has fled to a faraway land, proclaiming himself king of the night - in this case, king of the vampires, not of a cabaret or something. In Japanese, the meaning becomes more macabre: Mathias becomes the demon king. Many years would pass before the two families would meet again. Lament of Innocence's ending brings us to one of the most mysterious time periods in the Castlevania franchise. We can call it... "The Lost Years". There are more or less 400 years of scarce

information between Leon and Trevor Belmont, this being the biggest gap between events in the timeline, and also the one we have the least amount of consistent information to work with. We don't exactly know what specific end Leon and Rinaldo met and what they did with their lives after escaping from Walter's castle, at least not in detail. With Leon, you can guess - he took a new wife, and continued the Belmont lineage probably splashing out a few goons here and there to keep himself in shape. In Rinaldo's case, however, it is complicated to figure out, since

his name did not echo through eternity like some other families we will come to know. After the events of the timeline's first game, the Gandolfi simply disappeared. The real mystery comes in post-Lament, where facts are blurred and data is poorly worked out. What is known comes from Igarashi's interviews and comments when he was the head of Castlevania or from information gathered from official guides. All this may end up changing one day if Konami explores this part of the timeline, which can easily fit 5 games, if not more. Even so, in the meantime, it is known

that the Belmont clan kept hunting vampires and other creatures of the night, probably trying to prevent a situation similar to Sara's from happening to other people. The exact number of family members that existed during this period is unknown, but using other centuries as an average, one can imagine that there were a good five to ten Belmonts that we didn't meet. This also raises the question of what Mathias was up to in the meantime. He called himself King of the Night, slowly changed his name to Dracula, and then what? And then, according to Igarashi, we learn

that the guy simply... went on living his life, or rather, his unlife. Despite eventually adopting the name of Old Scratch, Mathias didn't go around setting churches on fire or anything like that - remember that he was a great strategist before he was a vampire, and because he abandoned his humanity and identity, he also abandoned everything he was known for. His isolation from the rest of the world served to slowly build a community of people dissatisfied with the word of God. Judging from the state of his kingdom in the era of Castlevania 3 and Curse of

Darkness, we know that he took in a number of society's rejects in this period, maintaining his pride and dignity but increasing his influence and dominance. To note, an interesting detail is seen in a timeline released at the time of Portrait of Ruin - when Iga was still heading Castlevania. According to it, each vampire killed at that time gave more power to Dracula in a seemingly literal way - His power increased with the death of others like him. The reliability of this timeline is uncertain since it says some strange things and does not exist in Japan,

but I like to imagine that the guy grew even more powerful by the day. We can also assume that the vampire kept studying the dark arts, since he had already been educated in alchemy by the time of Lament. I assume that immortality gave him more than enough time to seek knowledge of forbidden spells and techniques, and perhaps pass these on to those who came under his tutelage. The important thing to know about this whole litany is that, at least up to the current point in this video, Dracula didn't bother humanity much, he took advantage of

the time to grow his domain, and lived in relative peace, since in the surroundings of his castle there were villages of residents of which he served as protector. Gotta live up to his title of Lord of Wallachia, right? This would all change with the arrival of one of Castlevania's most important characters. Alucard's mother is a figure that often doesn't get enough attention in Castlevania - she first appeared in Symphony of the Night and is mentioned here and there in a guide or instruction booklet, but in general, this is an important piece from the timeline that

often gets left on the sidelines, which is rather curious, given her importance. Before we go into further detail about the character, we need to first acknowledge that she is the biggest retcon in the history of this franchise, since the vampire's original motivations back in Castlevania 3 did not involve revenge for his wife's death. Igarashi and his team sought to deepen the vampire and also Alucard by creating a contrast through this human who was like the Virgin Mary in terms of purity. Back in the NES game, Dracula was evil just because. Vampires are evil, and that's

what vampires do - scare little children, steal their candy, yada, yada, yada. Lisa's introduction back in Symphony of the Night makes us sympathize with the events that took place at that time, making Dracula more interesting. Lament of Innocence showed that creatures like Walter have no humanity, but this didn't stop Mathias - now known as Count Vlad Tepes - from opening the doors of his castle to Lisa, a healer whose image closely resembled that of his late wife, Elisabetha. By the way, you can't have Elisabetha without "Lisa" in the middle, can you? This idea picks up

from Coppola's film, where Dracula also lost his wife, who was also named Elisabetha. Lisa rekindled the lost flame that existed within the Count's dead heart - basically reversing the process of vampirism with her love. There is no other person in the story of Castlevania who has accomplished such a feat. This raises an interesting question: the big reason that Mathias declared war against God's law was the death of his former wife. Are you telling me that this motivation went down the drain just because he met a kind and pretty blonde? At the end of Lament of

Innocence, we are presented with an image of a crimson-colored egg, which gradually begins to crack. From this egg, a vampire is born, who would become Dracula in the future. You can interpret this scene as the rebirth of the character - this being is no longer Mathias, he is a different creature with different ambitions. His goals are even bigger. A sentence in Symphony of the Night's instruction booklet gives room for this interpretation, saying that the only woman Dracula has ever loved is Lisa. Dracula and Mathias are different beings who have loved separate women. This unlikely love

gave birth to Adrian - a half human, half vampire child, also known as a dhampir. He would inherit much from his parents, from learning about magic, to an appreciation for humanity. The solitude of eternal life had become a distant memory for the Count, now with two precious gems worth more than any magic stone... Little did he know that a second tragedy would strike when he least expected it. Sometime in the 1470s, Lisa was invited to a barbecue, not knowing that she would be the coal to fire up the grill. Accused of witchcraft, she was betrayed

by humanity, and burned at the stake, regardless of her actions as a healer. Her last words, addressed to Adrian, were: "Do not hate humans - If you cannot live with them, at least do them no harm, for their suffering is already great. Tell your father that I will love him for all eternity." A speech that certainly helped Adrian not to follow in his father's footsteps. Thanks to this little trolling, Dracula loses his mind, and also his soul, declaring war on humanity. Welcome to Castlevania 3. [Castlevania 3 boys A.K.A the best one] It is funny to

recognize the importance of the third game to the story of this franchise, since it is a game released back in the days of the NES - where games were primarily made with kids in mind. So one would think that there is no story here, right? Wrong. Thanks to the Western localization of this game several misconceptions about Castlevania 3 persist to this day. The fuss going on here is that Dracula lost his marbles - he was the protector of his kingdom, serving sentences and punishments to humans who deserved them, and lived in relative peace alongside his

wife and son who, as I mentioned earlier, were the joy in his life. With Lisa's execution, the vampire is overcome with immeasurable pain and, blinded by a flash of rage, he declares war on humanity, making a pact with darkness to bring forth an army of demons who will slaughter everyone in their path. In Castlevania 3, Dracula Vlad Tepes officially becomes the Dark Lord - the demon king with terrifying powers, who rules over the forces of darkness. There is no more humanity or compassion left in his heart. It is at this point that another thing of

great importance takes place The contract with the Demon World had a one-in-a-non-lifetime discount for special customers, and thanks to this, Dracula's castle officially turns into a creature of chaos. This explains why its appearance and structure change from game to game. Hence comes the title of this chapter: "Akumajou Densetsu" or "Demon Castle Legend". Shortly after enacting his plan of genocide against mankind, the Count finds resistance in the one he least expected: Adrian, who wished to follow through with his mother's last request. Unfortunately, his abilities are no match for the Demon King, forcing him into hiding until

any help arrives. As an act of defiance, Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes changes his name to Alucard, showing disgust for his father's actions. In the meantime, those who were alive sought to strike back at the forces of hell through an intervention coming directly from the church. After confirming that Dracula was a vampire an army was organized by order of the Pope and sent to Wallachia to stop his expansion throughout Europe. By the way, it was like pouring a glass of water into a forest fire - a futile attempt that resulted in a total slaughter of countless humans,

who, after being killed, were turned into evil minions. The result of this encounter was so negative that it led the Pope to seek other ways to confront Dracula, no matter the cost. He then sought help from the secret arts, contacting Sypha, of the Belnades clan, to oppose the great evil threat. Sypha was trained by the church and is a powerful elemental witch - a real one, unlike poor Lisa. As a child, the sorceress had her family executed as targets of the witch hunts that were taking place at that time, encouraged by children of the night

influencing mankind to hate these people, who, like Dracula's wife, often used pagan knowledge for good. Despite the weight of the execution of her family and others like her, upon hearing that the land of her memories was being violated, Sypha sets out on a journey to defeat Dracula's forces, carrying nothing but a cloak to hide her true identity, a staff for spellcasting, knowledge of the dark arts, and a sense of duty for her homeland. Unfortunately, Sypha Belnades fails in her mission after being surprised by a Cyclops, a monster with the ability to turn others to stone

(Poor Sypha T_T). Her journey tragically ends before she even arrives at the castle gates. Disgrace befalls other residents of Wallachia who try to offer any kind of resistance to the demon king's massacre. Families are lost, homes are abandoned, and people start to lose hope. Among those affected is Grant Danasty - a nimble and proud local resident who lost his family at the hands of Old Scratch. His thirst for justice manages to get him inside the castle, where he is confronted by none other than Vlad Tepes himself. Unfortunately, his stunts are not enough to get his

revenge, and thanks to this Dracula curses Grant, turning him into a hideous creature that would protect the clock tower. Defeat after defeat, mankind finds itself without options - The certainty of an age of darkness is all but confirmed, and Wallachia is completely taken over by demonic creatures. The lack of news from Sypha confirms that the worst has happened, leading the Pope to conduct a relentless search for a remnant of hope which resides in a family that has isolated itself from the world. It's interesting to note that centuries of fighting against creatures of darkness created some

kind of barrier between the Belmont clan and mankind - some even accused them of being vampires. Still, the only living member found at the time - Trevor - responds to the Pope's call, arming himself with his powerful whip and unfathomable determination. Here begin the events of Castlevania 3, which we see in the video game. [PRAYER by CHERNABOG] Canonically, his journey is handled in a similar fashion to that seen in the games - he helps Grant turn back into normal, reverses Sypha Belnades' petrification curse by killing the Cyclops, and is tested by Alucard who tries to

trick him by impersonating Dracula to see if this whip-crazy freak was a real badass. He wasn't disappointed. With three new allies by his side, Trevor storms the castle, smites all hellfire, and beats the crap out of Dracula Vlad Tepes -certainly with more drama and emotion than I'm going through here but I'll leave that to your imagination. After the vampire's death, Wallachia felt hopeful again, after all, the evil was slain at its root, right? One more thing: if this was the end, why the hell would there be more Castlevanias? Trevor killed Dracula, but that bastard always

comes back. What is the inconsistency here? Sit tight, it's story time. Before croaking, Dracula unleashed a curse upon Wallachia that would be present even in his absence. Famine would spread, deadly diseases would afflict the population, and the hearts of men would be stained with evil. The Count's defeat was just the messenger's death - the message had already been delivered. Moreover, Dracula is no longer considered a traditional vampire, like Walter, Carmilla or Olrox. The pact he made with darkness has turned him into a harbinger of evil - whenever the faith of mankind wavers, and the thirst

for destruction speaks louder, Dracula will be able to return through the efforts of his followers. After the crisis was over, Trevor sealed away the castle in an alternate dimension, the Infinite Corridor using his blood as a key to seal off the source of Dracula's power. Today we know that this didn't solve the problem for good, but this move bought enough time for fate to unfold. A little breathing room, but not much more than that. To bring closure to the events of Castlevania 3, Trevor and Sypha get married - apparently at her request, Grant decides to

rebuild Wallachia, by leaving behind the life of conflict, and Alucard, aware of his cursed blood, decides to isolate himself in an eternal slumber, coping with his pain and suffering in the comfort of his mother's memory. Dracula's death closed an important arc in the world’s story, and although there was still much to be done, the sun could rise again. What no one would have imagined is that, during all these events, a silent war waged between two of Dracula's lackeys. [Mangá] Following the game line, Castlevania 3 heads straight into Curse of Darkness. However, two prologue stories were

made for it: "Prelude to Revenge" by Ayami Kojima, and "Curse of Darkness" by novelist Sakurako Yamada, or, "Kou Sasakura" for those in the know. The former came as a pre-order bonus for Curse of Darkness in Japan, and the latter was sold separately as a two-volume manga. Both portray the same story, but Kojima's is shorter and less concerned with linearity, and Sasakura's is longer, and delivers a novelized format. So, which one is canonical? When discussing her version of the manga, Ayami said this: “This content was created in a hurry but I did my best to draw

it even with all drawbacks In no way it is supposed to be a full list of episodes, but a project that I hope works as a starting point for everyone's imagination. These are small pages, and we hope you receive it as such. While the [game bonus content] has restrictions of expression, there is a comic in Japan that has been established as its story handwritten by Kou Sasakura. I don't mean to be rude, but please read it too. This is how it worked on my end this time, and those who care about the story may be

confused. Each one starts from the same setting, and their expression and interpretation are different, but I entrust [Sasakura's work] with the task of being the true story…” So, these two volumes are the real version of the events. There were plans for a third episode that never saw the light of day, but the existing ones are enough for us to continue the story. Let 's get on to it! As informed previously, Count Tepes did not always want to strike terror into humanity - even before he met Lisa, he lived in relative peace, adopting pupils and creatures

interested in cultivating pagan knowledge. One of the teaching’s held at the castle was Devil Forging - students learned profane arts that were on a level far above traditional alchemy and sorcery. Its main specialty was the creation of magical tools and terrifying creatures, which served their will. These powerful and rare sorcerers were a part of Dracula's elite force - important people with abilities recognized even by the creatures straight from hell. In addition, they were also formidable warriors, being a perfect balance of unholy intelligence and supernatural strength. Having them under his wing was a great investment on

the vampire's part. Among the Demonic Forgers present in the castle, two stood out: Isaac, with a slender appearance and red hair, and Hector, a thoughtful and solitary man who wears hair as silver as moonlight. Thanks to their extraordinary skills and fervent devotion, these forgers became generals of the castle - a position more than respectable for ordinary human beings. This didn't stop Isaac from envying his counterpart, who fell into Dracula's favor for his astonishing ease in handling forbidden studies - a debt paid by his turbulent childhood. His powers have even been compared to those of Death

himself, who, I must remind you, is a divine entity. Hector knew that powers such as his required judicious use. A step devoid of sentimentality, justice in an objective way. Having this position led him into conflict with his lord: After Lisa's death, Dracula sent his generals to destroy Wallachia without discretion. Although he has been treated as an intruder since his childhood, killing innocent humans is not in character for the Demon Forger, who begrudgingly obeys his orders. When the earl finally hears about Trevor Belmont, Hector is sent to assassinate him before he reaches the castle. This never

comes to pass, since the silver-haired man resigned without warning, and disappeared. Concerned by the failure of his favorite general, Dracula makes the contradictory decision to send Isaac in search of his counterpart, lowering his guard without the two generals. Hesitant, the forger complies with the request, fearing the worst. In the meantime, the missing Hector meets Rosaly, a kindly nun who takes care of an orphanage. I mean, "acquaintance" is a strong word - she finds him, takes him to a church, tends to his wounds, and that's about it. The situation changes when a werewolf attacks the village

where he is hiding. With no other option, Hector is forced to use his powers to take out the creature, leaving a trail to be discovered by Dracula's troops. Noticing an opportunity to take revenge on his superior, Isaac kills his companions before they can break the news to his boss, and sets off to the village. Long story short, the two meet after Hector escapes from the church. The conversation between them is brief, and a battle starts, which is quickly interrupted by the worst-case scenario - worst for Isaac. In the absence of the generals, Trevor storms the

castle, does the Fortnite Default dance on Dracula's corpse, and ends the dreams of an era of darkness promised by the recently departed. Needless to say what happens to our little redhead, right? With a mix of hatred and guilt for what happened, Isaac is unstable enough to receive a lucky blow from Hector, causing him to stagger until he falls off a mountain. Injured, the white-haired man is found by Rosaly, who takes him back to the village to nurse his injuries. As fate would have it, Isaac also survives, the big difference being that he doesn't have a

pretty blonde to give him a massage at the end of the day. Frustrated and hateful, he swears revenge against his fellow general. Three years go by, and Hector starts to blend in with the humans he thought he would never belong with. With the support of Rosaly - who has now become his wife - and the love of the children at the orphanage, he finally realizes that his place is not with the darkness, and renounces his powers. Since nothing good ever lasts in this crappy place called Wallachia, we are reminded that Dracula's curse is still in

there, sullying the hearts of men with evil and ignorance. Then, one fine afternoon, Hector realizes that his wife called Wallachia, we are reminded that Dracula's curse is still in there, sullying the hearts is taking too long to return from the village to which she went to sell apples. On his way there, something quite ironic happens: Rosaly has gone through a selection process to die at the stake, being accused of witchcraft. Darkness has returned to Hector's life, and now he wants revenge. You have heard this story before, and it is about to be repeated. This prequel

ends with Isaac - the architect of the false rumors - watching the suffering of the one who humiliated him in the past. Curse of Darkness The popular Playstation 2 game follows on from the story we’ve just seen in the manga: After the loss of his wife, Hector discovers that Isaac was behind her wrongful execution, and goes after the architect of his misery. Upon finding him in the ruins of an abandoned castle, Hector, now seized by a rage never seen before threatens that he will have his revenge on the red-headed man. Unimpressed, Isaac retorts that this

will be impossible: Because he has renounced his unique powers, the prodigal forger is no more than a mere human who could easily be destroyed, something that, according to his words, would not be "enough" to pay for the treachery that resulted in Dracula's death. Blinded by rage and hatred, Hector follows a path similar to that of his former master, again adopting the powers of darkness to enter a spiral of revenge. Isaac’s plan involves the complete awakening of his opponent's powers, since, while exploring the surroundings a bit Hector comes across a dormant Innocent Demon with instructions to

awaken it. These creatures can only be created by Demonic Forgers, solidifying the hypothesis that the redhead wants a one-on-one battle. After succeeding in awakening the creature, the forger is surprised by Zead, a priest who seeks to rid the lands of Wallachia from Dracula’s curse. In his words, Isaac is the keeper of the evil spell, and as long as his heart beats, this land will continue to suffer. Like adding cheese to macaroni, this renews the protagonist’s motivation: Are you saying that I can get revenge on the red-headed bastard and also get rid of the plague that

the vampire has spread all over the world? No such bargain has ever existed! Heading into the mountains around the region, Hector crosses paths with a woman whose appearance is very similar to Rosaly's - his dead wife. Yes, yes, we already understand that Hector is Dracula 2. When questioned, the woman reveals herself to be an escaped witch from the western lands, who goes by the name of Julia. With Isaac as a common enemy, she is willing to help the forger if need be. It is also worth noting that she claims to have the ability to see

into the future - something that is not exactly very obvious in Curse's narrative. It's an old case of "God works in mysterious ways", where she helps the main character with dialogues just clear enough to motivate him. The chase continues, generating a few more curious encounters along the way. The first of these occurs with a mysterious man in a top hat who introduces himself as Saint Germain. In short, he is actually a time traveler who is part of some larger scheme of fate. Most of his conversations with this character in Curse of Darkness imply that he

already knows the events of this story - as if he has been here multiple times, or at least, as if he has already observed how things unfold in an esoteric way. He knows what happened to Rosaly, finds the forger precisely when he wants to, and seems to be on a personal mission to correct the flow of time. Being extremely brief, Germain requests that the quest for revenge against Isaac be halted without detailing exactly why. Confused and irritated, Hector ignores this request, since it comes from a complete stranger who refuses to talk further or elaborate. Next,

the forger also encounters none other than Trevor Belmont, the legendary hunter who defeated Hector's former master. They fight, and the noble warrior suspects that he is not facing someone who claims to be Dracula's elite. Whether out of kindness or pity, Hector is left alive to continue his quest. In the meantime, he runs into Zead and Saint Germain again a few times. They clearly try to manipulate him without giving specific details about their greater purposes, and it is a little difficult to explain these scenes without raising the magical curtain about who this priest Zead is, so,

one two three, heeeeeere’s Death. Yes, he is the scythe-wielding skeleton. The same one that came to serve Mathias. Dracula's famous nanny. Like Germain, he seems to be trying to influence the flow of events in Curse of Darkness to bring about the "bad ending" so to speak, which in this case is the resurrection of the Count. Death may have the some sort of ability to travel freely through time and space. The dialogues in Curse of Darkness convey that the rivalry between the mustachioed blond man and the bald skull is as old as time itself, implying that

when the skeletal entity tries to change the timeline, an observer will be there to intervene. This becomes clearer on one occasion where these time travelers finally meet. Death and Mustache top hat discuss each other's influence on the flow of these events, and Germain accuses him of twisting the rules to achieve his goals. Mustache top hat can't touch anything or talk too much, while Death only has to entertain Isaac’s plan. Hypocritical as he is, Death tries to reap his opponent, to no avail. Germain leaves the scene saying "I will keep returning, until the day you finally

surrender", which again indicates that the events of Curse of Darkness or even other Castlevanias have already been... observed in a similar way. Let’s reiterate that Hector understands absolutely nothing about what is going on, serving well as an avatar for the player. After much backtracking through the repetitive corridors of the abandoned castle, Dracula's destined servants finally meet for a round of kicking the crap out of each other. The brawl doesn't last long, Julia - the witch from before - shows up to interrupt the duel. We find out here that she is Isaac's sister, and that she

wishes to see his quest stopped once and for all. In her words, Isaac is being controlled by Dracula's curse, and only Hector can put an end to it - but not now, because he is not ready. This being one of the only times that the blonde exercises something close to an omen, we can understand in this scene that the protagonist's lack of preparation is not exactly in matters of strength, but rather of spirit - if Hector kills his opponent before the right time, the curse will take his heart. She doesn't want this to happen at

this time because he is still filled with the desire for revenge against Isaac, making him easy prey for the curse. The journey to regain his power continues, and again the forger is confronted by Saint Germain, who has fallen into a time trap by Zead, separating mustache top hat from the larger forces watching him. Death tried to nullify his powers so that the chase would stop, but guess what? This opens up an interesting opportunity: As the "rules" that bind Germain are no longer valid for a brief moment, Germain takes the opportunity to test the skills of

the uncontrollable madman - not because he wants to stop him or something like that. He just wants to buy some time. After a quick battle, the traveler comes to the conclusion that his influence has been enough - destiny should flow as it should, allowing his opponent to move on. Before leaving, he asks Hector to take a message to Zead, wishing him well. Following his advice, Hector marches onward, coming across a fight between Isaac and Trevor His interruption creates an opportunity for the redhead to escape, which is kind of annoying, isn't it? I want to watch

the fight!!! But think about the following hypothesis: If Saint Germain hadn't fought Hector inside the time trap, he would have arrived here before or together with Trevor, and together, they would have defeated Isaac. As we will see later, if Hector murders his tormentor, the curse takes hold of him, and Death's goal is completed. The trap from before ended up benefiting the mustachioed man in an accidental way. This becomes even more obvious when the big bad bald man decides to show his face after the vampire hunter leaves, regretting that the bloodshed didn't happen now. Hector relays

Germain's message, and guess what? Zead breaks down, despairing as he realizes the enormity of the situation: Mustached top hat won. Not all of Death's interference will guarantee the complete return of his master, but that won't stop him from trying. Just before he runs off, Zead informs him that Isaac can be found in a secret chamber on top of the abandoned castle from the start of the game, and without much choice, this is where the protagonist is headed. Upon entering, Hector finds Trevor, immediately informing him of the secret passage. This frustrates the vampire hunter, who understands

why Isaac briefly fought him - at the end of Castlevania 3, the good guys sealed away Dracula's Castle using Trevor's blood as a key, remember? So, the red-haired forger wanted just a few drops to free the castle from its dimensional prison. Without delay, Hector goes after him, ready for the final confrontation. During his stay in the mysterious dimension, the demonic sorcerer encounters Dullahan, the creature Trevor left to guard the castle's seal. Unfortunately, Hector is forced to defend himself against the headless warrior using his demonic powers, which release enough energy to break the seal. The dark

palace is back on the surface - an omen for the first return of the dark lord. In the midst of this mess, Isaac stabs Trevor in a moment of carelessness, taking the opportunity to sing praises about the Demonic Forgers and their 2-inches schlong. With this, his goal of bringing Dracula back into the world is almost complete, and now, with Trevor mortally wounded, only Hector can stop him. Before entering the castle, Julia stops by to give her final thoughts on the current situation. She asks Hector to be careful because demonic forgers are more susceptible to Dracula's

magic, and also informs him that Belmont barely survived but is incapacitated. Now it's all or nothing, and hopefully fortune smiles for the good side. The final battle approaches, and the two servants of the late lord meet again in the now resurrected castle of evil. After much suffering and intrigue, the fated battle finally begins and I'll let you imagine the iron clashing and dying demon noises that takes place during the fight. What matters is the final result, where Isaac got curb stomped by Hector. Taken by an overwhelming dose of rage, Hector leaps to finish off his

opponent, but Julia's words restore him to his senses. He successfully resists Dracula's curse, putting an end to Death's plans. I mean, sort of. Death appears shortly thereafter saying that even though the plan didn't go exactly as it should his master's resurrection is approaching, since he needs the body of one of the forgers to act as a host. Even though Hector is like a Ferrari compared to Isaac's Beetle, his body will do just fine, getting put into a coffin so that his body can be used in the ritual. While the process of resurrection takes place, Death

challenges the forger to a 1v1 on CS:GO, buying enough time for the resurrection to go """smoothly""". As previously mentioned, Dracula's generals possess power equivalent to that of the spooky skeleton, and the duel is soon settled. Unfortunately for Hector, his performance was not good enough to earn the three little medals at the end of the stage and the lord of darkness comes back to life, immediately asking him about his betrayal. As we already know, it is due to the count slaughtering humans indiscriminately, a subject that is too complex to get through the vampire's thick noggin’. This

brings us to the final battle, from which Hector emerges victorious. But then you think: Hey, how the hell does he manage to defeat Dracula? Wasn't that the Vampire Killer's role? Well, then. As I mentioned back in Lament of Innocence, only the Belmonts' whip can eliminate Dracula if he is completely resurrected. This is not one of those cases - The ritual was set up so that Hector would be the host, not Isaac. Because he is an inferior demon forger, and possibly because he is injured, the redhead cannot handle the vampire's full strength, opening up the possibility

of his defeat. Even in the face of his demise, Dracula is confident that his curse will continue to ravage Europe, not realizing that he has just been defeated by the best demonic alchemist around these parts. Before the plague can spread again, Hector undoes the source of the evil enchantment. With Dracula dead, the castle begins to crumble, and the silver-haired man flees at Julia's side, who claims that his debt to the world has been paid. The blonde leaves a final goodbye to her brother, who will have his body and soul consumed by the castle for all

eternity. This is the fate of those who die within the evil structure. A cruel end for a cruel servant. When the night dissipates, Hector finds himself free from his vengeance, having for the first time done something really good for the sake of humanity. Still, Julia says that even though the curse was extinguished it hasn't necessarily eliminated evil from the hearts of mankind for they have lived too long under its influence. There is work to be done until humanity's faith is restored. We are then reminded of Saint Germain, who speaks to the winds regarding his time

travel. His work in this episode is done, and the flow of time is back in place. There is no longer any need to revisit the events of the forger Hector's life, and thanks to this, Germain ruminates about the future. "Belive in the future" Beautiful Words. However, as a time traveller, these words are empty to me. Finally, the flow of time seems to have returned to its normal state. That being so Let us look far into the future from this point. Then, that battle takes place... The final battle Between Dracula and the heroic humans... Without today's

battle, that one may never have happened. Apparently, Hector putting down the vampire is much more important than it seems. As for the forger and the protagonist of this chapter? He'll be fine, as he chooses to live a life alongside Julia in the quiet mountains in which they met. Evil, for today, is vanquished, and there is still room for joy in the life of the man who saved Europe. The Adventure The time period between Curse of Darkness and The Adventure is another one that we don't know many details about All we can conclude is that thanks

to Julia's care, Trevor survived and had children with Sypha Belnades, injecting some magical affinity in their veins. Otherwise, it was about 100 years of quiet without the direct presence of the big vampire boss. This brings us to Christopher Belmont, one of, if not the least remembered character in the family. His adventure takes place in 1576, with the resurgence of the legendary castle. Although it is not an episode with much to talk about, it is known that Dracula had a little time to stretch his legs before being stopped by the hunter, given his attacks on some

villages in Wallachia. This changed when young Christopher took the whip from his ancestor, and entered the devil's castle to beat the crap out of him in his first centennial resurrection.This duel is what started the legend of the vampire Dracula returning once every 100 years, and that gives the game its original name: "Dracula Densetsu", or "The Legend of Dracula". It is also here that Christopher becomes the legendary hero of Simon's past. The battle ends, and the hunter emerges victorious, but ignorant: Before he croaks, Dracula uses the rest of his magical powers to turn into mist and

escape the fatal blow unnoticed - so, although the vampire has been defeated, it merits emphasizing that Christopher Belmont DID NOT KILL Vlad Tepes in their first encounter. Having no idea that his opponent has escaped, Christopher returns to his village and his family - bringing his short arc from the Game Boy game to an end. Before we go any further, there are two interesting observations that I would like to make: The first one is that, according to the official timeline, the Bartley family, the same as Elizabeth Bartley from Castlevania Bloodlines was possibly responsible for Dracula's resurrection

in this game. This creates a connection of almost 350 years between the two episodes, which is pretty cool. The other one is that the castle collapses at the end even though Dracula has been defeated. We know that the castle is gone only when the vampire dies but the explanation for this is in the plot itself: If Dracula used his remaining magic to escape as mist, and his castle is the source of his magic, then it is clear that the castle collapsed because the source dried up. Bye bye, Dracula! Belmonts Revenge After his legendary deeds in

the first game, Christopher became known in the Wallachian region, and was rewarded with a few years of peace so that he could raise and train his son Soleil, who would inherit the vampire hunter title on his 15th birthday. When the day to make it official arrives, the local villagers hold a kind of religious ceremony, celebrating the success of the future hunter, who now has the age and skill to look after the village along with his father. The rite of passage goes smoothly bestowing Soleil with great holy powers. But this story has a catch: For fifteen

long years, the Count has waited patiently in his cloudy form for his chance for revenge keeping his presence hidden from everyone and everything, and on the very night of the ritual, the young Belmont is manipulated by Dracula's spirit. Thanks to the evil one's influence, Soleil disappears without a trace. The next day, Wallachia finds itself covered by the shadows of four castles, created as obstacles in Christopher's path while Dracula plans to use his son's powers to fully resurrect his body. With no other choice, the legendary long-haired hunter, who is now older, more experienced and absolutely livid,

heads to these castles to save his son and put a complete stop to the cowardly vampire. How does this happen? By playing a damn good game! [Music] Between the introduction and the end of the story, Christopher manages to save his son, forcing Dracula to use the power of the spirits of the previously manifested castles to revive his body. In the end, father and son defeated Dracula together, the first and only documented occasion where two Belmonts fought side by side against the vampire. Or at least, so it says in the American version, which is much cooler

than the Japanese version. And no, the Smash Bros. trailer doesn't count. Victory is achieved once again, and now, Dracula is completely eliminated. However, we have to ponder about Soleil - a Belmont being overpowered by an evil spirit is not exactly something you want to pass on, right? This results in a kind of...record-burning, for lack of a better word. Despite defeating Dracula twice, Christopher ensures that only one of his victories - the first - is passed on in the family’s chronicles. The corruption of Soleil is not a singular episode, but that is a story for later.

It's Simon time, bitch! Back on the NES, this is where it all began. If we dig into the hidden details of this story, we find that the original developers had a plan for a larger storyline - for example, it is here where Christopher is mentioned for the first time, and a "record" of Dracula's past resurrections was already part of the story. I genuinely doubt that they knew how far this series would go. Even though it is more or less in the middle of the timeline, and contains the likely most famous and recognizable Belmont of all,

Castlevania delivers the textbook classic. One century after Belmont’s Revenge, in the year 1691, humanity finds itself again in a state of spiritual weakness - although they are celebrating the Easter holiday, people's true faith is tainted by envy and evil, making room for Count Dracula to return. During the festivities, a black mass is held in a monastery far away from the Wallachian villages where his servants pour human blood over a coffin with the count's remains to transform this decayed form into a discount Mumm-Ra. Lightning breaks through the heavens, announcing the return of the evil lord, along

with his castle of darkness. His return on the day of Christ's resurrection seems like a direct mockery against God, and also an irony of fate itself. This event only served to reinforce the rumor that the big bad vampire comes back every hundred years. The task of preventing evil from spreading falls to Simon Belmont - a man with a heart of gold and unrivaled determination, as well as a frame that would make the biggest bodybuilder jealous. He storms Castlevania all by himself, and, just like his ancestor, he tears the vampire apart, sending him back to the

Shadow Realm. Simon's victory turns him into a legendary figure who is recognized by all, with stories of his nobility spreading throughout the world. Unfortunately, the battle has left the hero badly wounded, and in his last breath, Dracula cursed the hunter, a curse which will force him to crack his whip once again before long. Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest Seven years have passed since Count Dracula's last return, and despite Simon's triumphant victory, things haven't exactly gotten better. The spell used before the vampire's death has reduced the regenerative capabilities of the pumped up blond's body - His wounds

won't close, leaving the hunter increasingly weak and vulnerable. To make matters worse, trouble seems to follow him wherever he goes - the evil enchantment that affects him is like a call to the demons of hell. Wherever Simon roams, misfortune follows. Thanks to that, towns close their doors at night, and the great hero who saved Wallachia is treated as an unwanted outsider wherever he goes. Helpless and isolated, Simon visits a cemetery on Angels’ Hill, a place used for his family's eternal rest. Is the flame of hope extinguished? Is this the end of his lineage? Through an

incurable inheritance from a past battle? Thoughtful and unmotivated, the holy warrior is surprised by a mysterious woman who encourages him: "fight against the forces of evil, for God will give you strength.” She informs Simon that Dracula has cursed him, and that this is the reason the wound on his back won't heal. Furthermore, the Count's body, destroyed seven years ago, would begin to regenerate at that instant, and when the curse reaches its peak and consumes Simon completely, Dracula would come back to life. The only way to stop this is to collect the five parts of his

body while the curse is weak and then burn them in the place the vampire called home: the ruins of his castle. If Simon doesn't get his hands on them now, in seven days he might as well dig another hole here on the hill. The funny thing is that the woman specifically points out that the vampire will be defeated forever if his five pieces are burned, a singular opportunity to cut the evil at its roots and end the war against hell once and for all. This is the only episode where something like this is mentioned as

a possibility, at least as far as we’ve seen. Feeling energized and with a new purpose, Simon sets out to put a definitive end to the legend of Dracula. The man’s motivation is so great that not even the bosses want to fight him. After much running around and dialogue boxes talking about horrible nights, the hunter collects the pieces of his enemy - Eye, Ring, Heart, Rib and Nail, which you probably know from Symphony of the Night. It is time to head for the castle. Positioning the relics properly and preparing for the wicked barbecue, Belmont finds himself

surprised by no less than a sixth piece of his opponent - his fangs, which were hidden in the ritual room. Simon fights a weaker version of the Count - a disembodied ghost that relies only on his dental power, 9 out of 10 dentists approve of it. As you can imagine, this battle was not as intense as the previous one, scoring one more victory for mankind. At least that's what he thought at the time. Despite succeeding in his mission to purify the evil enchantment and being the only Belmont to canonically kick Dracula's ass twice in a

row, Simon failed to eliminate the demon king forever. Was the woman who informed him wrong, or was it some bigger move of fate to keep this war going? Anyway, Simon defeated the ghost and broke the curse, saving himself from an early death. The Belmonts' respect - once almost lost - solidified again, resulting in the growth of a community that would become a village around where the family resided. In this environment, Simon begot heirs, who begot more heirs - among them, white-haired boy named Juste, his little grandson who would come to carry the whip. Harmony of

Dissonance is a rather interesting episode and also atypical within the whole Castlevania setting, since Dracula is not present here. Yet, although his remains were burned at the end of Simon's Quest, they would return in the adventures of his grandson, Juste. Still, this chapter is very important to show that even in the absence of the vampire's return, evil is still present, influencing those with shaken faith. If only a smidge of a grudge remains inside a human being, that's already enough for the darkness to prey upon This brings us to Juste Belmont, the family's prodigy who inherited

the Vampire Killer at the age of 16. Good guy, skilled guy, and most importantly, what a handsome guy! Forget the timeline, I want to know exactly what happened here: [May God have mercy on Simon's soul] Who did the Belmonts marry to add Aphrodite's beauty to the family DNA? I mean, I kinda wanted to know... But I digress - Juste is a skilled warrior who has a very unique advantage: he knows how to do lil’ magic tricks. We don't know exactly with whom the Belmont clan have been bedding down, but we do know that back in

the past, Sypha injected a little bit of magic blood into the family. It seems that the Belnades magical gene has only now manifested itself. This character's story begins after he inherits the family whip, taking on the mission to put an end to Dracula's remains. In the meantime, his childhood friend Maxim goes on a training mission to become as powerful as Juste, probably because the boy knows how to do this: [Kakyoin Noises Part1: Phantom Blood] Maxim felt inferior to his childhood friend, realizing that a wall was erected in between them after he became a hunter. His

training mission would bring down this wall. During his expedition - which lasts about two years - Maxim is guided by a mysterious voice that leads him to Dracula's relics, which have formed again for God knows why… Not understanding what trouble he was getting into, the young warrior comes into direct contact with the tools of chaos, and with this, he ends up generating an evil spirit. I should point out that this is not the spirit of Dracula, just a manifestation of the evil that his remains emanate, merged with the boy's negative feelings. Possessed without any awareness

of it, Maxim shuts down. His memories of what has happened are erased, and only the Chinfoot knows what he has done in the meantime. What we know for sure is that two castles were manifested using both of their powers - one for Maxim's spirit, and another for the evil spirit. Still under the influence of the evil spirit, Maxim uses his abilities to kidnap Lydie, a childhood friend from the village who works as a love interest for both youngsters. Fighting over the whip isn’t enough, right? You have to fight over women too. She will be used

as a sacrifice by the evil spirit to increase his own powers and erase Maxim's spirit for good, thus making his castle the only one that exists. This is the cue for the Juste's story to really kick off, when Maxim returns from his two-year training to inform him of the disappearance of his dear friend. They both set off on a mission to search for Lydie's whereabouts, and after a dense fog, *boom*, welcome to... Uh... Dracula 's castle..? Maxim urges Juste to go on alone because he is feeling a bit under the weather - great idea, right?

I know - and Juste goes on to explore the evil structure, which is where the game begins, back in the Gameboy Advance. During his search, the white-haired protagonist is faced with an unstable environment that seems to transition between different realities, the result of both castles coexisting thanks to the spirit possessing his friend's body. In fact, having two different structures and two different souls controlling things is something that our friend Skeletor does not like very much, and, like the two hunters, he is also present here on a personal mission. Interestingly enough, he ends up being the

entity that reveals the most to the young Belmont about what is happening. His goal in this place boils down to allowing the evil spirit to drink Lydie’s blood so that Maxim is erased and his respective castle disappears, allowing the remaining one to serve as his master’s dwelling. Juste also finds out that the defenseless blonde was chosen precisely because of her childhood connection to her kidnapper, making her sacrifice all the more powerful. The stronger the bond between the bloodsucker and its victim, the stronger the bloodsucker will become. The plan seems to be going smoothly, since Maxim

is having some trouble keeping control of his own body. He becomes more unpredictable, and his good side is increasingly overpowered by the evil spirit. It's up to Juste to go around collecting Dracula's remains to solve this problem. Thank goodness he is a very resourceful young man! [Kakyoin Noises Part 2: Battle Tendency] After a lot of back-and-forth between both castles, the two friends meet for the inevitable final showdown. Before the spirit can take complete possession of Maxim’s body, Juste saves the day by reminding him of the weekly barbecues and the happy hours. Without any options left,

the spirit snatches Dracula's remains for itself, taking on a physical form similar to how you wake up hungover on monday morning. While powerful, it doesn't even come close to offering the same resistance that Dracula would in his full form. During the battle, the spirit even points out that he underestimated a power he didn't know, proving again the ability of our white-haired young man. Even though he is defeated, the spirit savors the certainty that Juste's lineage will never rid itself of the fate of fighting darkness. Dracula will return. The three friends escape from the fake demon

castle, and that's about it. We don't know much about what happens to these characters after the end of the game... Except if you take on a bit of a gig as an interior designer and make this room here look really great. Then this happens: [Kakyoin Noises Part 3: Stardust Crusaders] Oh, no, hold on, wrong scene. This right here: The Kischine family disappears from the map, much like the Gandolfi from Lament of Innocence, and the only trace of their possible whereabouts is Maxim's sword ending up in Eric's hands in Portrait of Ruin. Whether they are related

or if it was just an artifact passed down to the Lecardes, I don’t have the faintest idea. From this point forward, we only have Lydie's hug to work with. This romance may have spawned the family continuity that would mark Castlevania forever with one miserable, poorly dubbed line. “DIE MONSTER” RONDO OF BLOOD You know Rondo of Blood, right? Ryu Beltmont and Sailor Renard’s game, two of Castlevania's most iconic characters that represent the 90's in its entirety. People often forget how important this chapter is for Castlevania's history, since it is the last time in canon that a

Belmont directly exchanges blows with Dracula before the legendary battle of '99. Shocking, isn't it? With so many Castlevanias released to date, it's kinda funny to remember that the family has only fought the big bad vampire 7 times through the entire series, at least as far as we know. Richter's episode kicks off the arc that ends the era of legendary vampire hunters, and hey...I'm glad it came with such a good game! But, I digress. About 100 years have passed since Dracula’s defeat at the hands of Simon, and the world is finally able to sigh with relief

after so much misfortune. It is this calm that opens the door for the agents of chaos to work in secret, and one of their most devoted priests - Shaft - sets out to bring his lord back to life through the sacrifice of a young lady, who is also blond. Hmm… I'm starting to see a pattern… Dracula is back, and he is pissed for having been in a forced coma for so long. To take revenge on humanity, he decides not only to set fire to the villages in the region, but also to kidnap some of the

inhabitants among them, Richter's girlfriend, Annette. An unwise idea considering the score so far. Interestingly, the first person to speak out against the forces of evil is not our discount Ryu, but a little 12-year-old girl, daughter of aristocrats, named Maria Renard, who shares a distant kinship with the family of hunters. During Dracula's attack, her parents were killed, but she survived. Although a young girl going after Dracula is a silly idea, Maria's bravery shouldn’t be underestimated. She managed to enter the dark castle all by herself, but fell into a trap thanks to her lack of experience and

powers. It then falls to Richter, who was doing God knows what in the meantime, to go there and solve the problems that the vampire lord is causing. Yeah, boring, right? Inheriting the family duty and so on. But, he does it right, rescuing all the hostages in the castle, including Maria. And get this: Instead of going home to watch her favorite Youtuber, the goblin decides to stay, so that together they can defeat the guy who caused this whole mess. Before getting rescued, Maria was the victim of some sort of ritual at the hands of Shaft, resulting

in the release of her hidden powers, represented through the form of the four divine beasts - Genbu, Byakko, Seiryu, and Suzaku. With this pocket zoo in hand, Teenage witch Sabrina proves essential in defeating the demons in Dracula's castle. Richter had help during much of his adventure in Rondo of Blood - in fact, you could even say that what happens there in Symphony of the Night if you lose the first battle serves as a more faithful representation of the events described here. Plot-wise, Richter did not defeat Dracula alone - he had help from the little goblin.

While we're on the subject of help and cooperation, did you know that Richter's blood type is B and Maria's is AB? Back in the days when memory space was a commodity, developers chose to list the blood type of characters as a way of detailing their personality and interactions in summary. Blood type for the Japanese works more or less like the zodiac for us, which is why we know that Richter is a jikochū, or "selfish", and Maria is kawarimono, "eccentric". Richter is a guy who works best alone, is creative and impetuous, and says anything that comes

to his mind. Maria is spiritual, sociable, and charming, but with a complicated temperament. Type B and AB are also called "Hunter" and "Humanist" respectively. The combination of both means that they will work very well together, as long as they don't get in each other's way, which reflects well how the game works, doesn't it? Who knew that Rondo of BLOOD had so many curiosities about blood, right? Anyway, the girls are rescued, Shaft is defeated not once but twice, the Count is sent to hell, and the two heroes return to their village, for there is work to

be done. Richter Belmont succeeded in his quest and Maria is taken in by the Belmont family. What he did not expect is that evil had a card up its sleeve. [After Rondo of Blood] The period that followed the Belmonts' victory was similar to the events that preceded Rondo of Blood - a well-deserved lull after a series of very dangerous battles. Richter and Maria are regarded as heroes, and peace reigns once again. Four years pass with no major events for any party involved in the previous battle. However, upon one cold night, Richter Belmont strangely disappears, carrying

his family heirloom with him. Maria desperately looks for the hunter, without success. He is gone. With no other option, the brave girl, now a young adult, sets out after her friend in a search that lasts a year. What no one expected is that during Richter's disappearance, Castlevania - Dracula's castle would resurface as an omen for the lord's return, defeated only half a decade ago. And guess what? The only one that could take him on is missing. WONDERFUL! But… As a defense against evil, a counter force was also awakened to investigate the strange event of the

castle's return. Symphony of the Night If you have made it this far in the video, chances are you already know the story of Symphony of the Night, right? The son of the devil enters the gates of hell to beat the crap out of his father. Just a normal day. We cannot ignore how this game changed not only Castlevania's gameplay but also its presentation style and aesthetics. This game here was the first in the series to present a 100% gothic narrative, with more serious characters aiming for a more adult audience. This is represented in many ways

- from the art style, by the hands of Ayami Kojima, to the ideas on the story, which deals with heavier themes such as patricide or the manipulation of painful memories of the death of a loved one. But, what matters to us at the moment, is that Alucard is the star of the show. The half-vampire decides to discover why the hell Castlevania is back on its feet, what the hell happened, and why the Belmonts didn't go and put an end to things. Fearing the worst, he takes his family relics, inherited from his mother, and moves on

to the castle. Alucard is greeted at the entrance by Dracula's sidekick Death, who was beaten so badly by Richter five years ago that he is now wearing a bandana to hide the crack in his skull. His existence in this castle confirms that this really is his old home, although it is different thanks to being a new incarnation. Skeletor demands that the boss's son drop whatever he's doing and go back to his coffin. Fortunately, Alucard woke up feeling a bit stubborn and insisted on continuing his crusade against his father, ignoring Death's invitation to leave the castle.

urned down by the vampire leads the skeletal entity to steal his heirlooms, adding theft to the war crimes committed by Dracula's minions. We already have arson, mass murder, impalement and torture, kidnapping, and now, theft. What a nasty bunch. Alucard moves on as he searches for more clues about his situation. This leads him to meet Maria Renard, the powerful girl who managed to enter the castle without being captured this time. Their brief encounters lead the girl to reveal that Richter is here, reminding Dracula's son of his old battle buddy from 300 years ago. This intrigues our

vampire, who soon has his first encounter with the hunter. He now introduces himself as being lord of the castle, clearly betraying not only his family principles, but also of humanity. We should take notice that Alucard doesn't know Richter, so although the plan to possess a Belmont is similar to what we saw in Christopher's adventure, there is a decisive differentiator, which is the fact that Richter is apparently the only hunter in the family alive in that time frame. At least Dracula’s son has Maria’s support, who knows the virtues of her former companion. In one of their

encounters, the girl clad in green tests Alucard's will, and after confirming that the vampire is indeed on her side, she points out that someone must be controlling Richter somehow, offering a sacred tool to break. evil illusions. This tool proves essential in the battle against the evil hunter - it shows that Richter was’t himself, but but a withered old man who should have died in Rondo of Blood - Shaft! The flying priest in purple robes took the opportunity that Richter was in an extremely weak state after the battle against Count to sort of parasitize on the

hunter, waiting four long years to take over his mind, and use him in a new ritual. the geezer's got some balls. Fortunately, Alucard has no trouble dispelling the old man's spell, breaking his mental link, and revealing his presence. Thanks to this lapse of control, Shaft reveals that during all this time, another castle had been manifested, and that's where he is. Exhausted both mentally and physically, Richter stays in Maria's care, probably with his eyes wide open, staying on guard against any clothing flying about. It's up to Alucard to see what's in the inverted castle. If you

guessed that the second castle contains Dracula's relics, congratulations! You won less text for me to narrate, because that's it. The evil parts that are now more present than the vampire himself are out there being protected by renowned old guards of the castle. Alucard takes the opportunity to gather the relics, in a quest similar to Simon's Quest with the difference that it is actually fun to play. fun to play. With everything in hand, the little vampire sets off to where he knows he will find his father. Once there, he bumps into Shaft, who forgot to die

again. How many lives does this guy have? In a rather intriguing dialogue, the sorcerer reveals that he made Richter the lord of the castle because having a skilled vampire hunter fighting on Dracula's side would be a very strong asset against future attempts to stop his resurrection. This makes Alucard state something very important - the power of the Belmonts is supreme among vampire hunters. The guy is basically admitting that there is no equivalent to the family of hunters, even more after so many hundreds of years studying techniques, spells and skills against the forces of evil. We

must remember that up to this point, the timeline is much closer to modern days than to the time of Leon Belmont around 1100 - there were practically seven hundred years of battles against evil in this period, where a single family was heading the business. They got good at it - very good - and that is why there are no equivalent hunters, be they human or half-vampire. Regardless of all that, the resurrection of the dark lord is not yet complete, and Alucard takes the opportunity to send the priest to the Shadow Realm - for real this

time. What he didn't account for was that this old fart had one more trick up his sleeve, which is is a little bit hard to understand if you don't pay attention, so PAY ATTENTION! Very well, you have made it here. Just as expected from the son of our lord. You are the one who was controlling Belmont. Certainly. I am the priest of darkness Shaft. I am the one who seeks chaos and destruction for this world. Why did you make him into lord of this castle? Vampire hunters have destroyed evil with holy power since ancient times.

But, what if they were to fight each other? The power of Belmont overcomes all others. Their power may be matched, but never defeated. Exactly. By manipulating him and placing him as lord of the castle, he eliminated anyone in the way of the ritual. But this is where this ends. Does it really? I shall offer your mortal half as the final sacrifice! [] Since the plan of using Richter went south, Shaft brought Alucard to the ritual site to use his human half as a sacrifice. His master's son is composed of two halves, and one of them

will serve perfectly as fuel. Dracula himself is interested in devouring the human side of his son, to welcome him back into the family as a full vampire. Father... Oh, look who is here... It's been a long time, my son. I would not meet you if I could avoid it... Now that we are here, I can't let you go any further. You are still in league with humans... You didn't forget what they did to your mother, did you? How could I forget? But my mother never sought vengeance against humans. You're still saying this nonsense? So be

it. This time I shall extinguish your inferior blood, and bring you back into my family. In my mother's name... Dracula, I shall defeat you again. [] Their meeting is nothing short of disappointing for both parties involved - the old man wanted his son by his side, and the son wanted his old man dead, a very healthy relationship between child and parent. A terrible family feud takes place Alucard must defeat his father, this time without the help of a Belmont and his firends from the past. Perhaps some of you are now wondering how this is even

possible, since Alucard is not wielding the Vampire Killer, and the answer is quite simple: Remember that Dracula needs a sacrifice? Dracula is not really resurrected - he is in some sort of "transitional state", and his son is accessing this situation in a kind of spiritual battle. If he loses, his human half will be sacrificed, and his father will come back to life. Should the Count be in his perfect form, such as that seen in Rondo of Blood,, Alucard would be completely slaughtered in a direct confrontation that would be no fair fight, because he has no

powers to face the one who gave him the light of life. Fortunately, the odds were in his favor, and good triumphs over evil, even more so if you use two Crissaegrims or the Shield Rod. What happens next is one of if not the most important dialogue from Dracula since his first banishment back in Castlevania 3. [] Go back to where you came from! Don't make my mother suffer anymore? How...how have I been defeated? Power can only transcend its limits when there is something to protect. When you lose someone you love and give up on your

ability to love, you've already lost... How...Ironic. What I lost in my search for power is the cause of my defeat. Alucard, tell me. What were Lisa's last words? Don't be angry with humans. If mankind is an unforgivable race, they will walk the path of their own destruction. Those who don't live in their world shouldn't touch them... And father, that she will love you forever. Lisa...was I wrong? Dracula, the literal demon king, Old Scratch, horned goat, all the devil nicknames you can think of… Felt regret. He realizes that he has screwed up. This is something decisive

not only for him, but also for Castlevania as a whole. Up to this point, Vlad Tepes was possessed by a blind rage against humanity - so blind that it made him ignore the heritage that Lisa left him - his own son. But it's no use - it's too late for the count. It wasn't just his foot that sank in despair, it was his leg, his head, his soul, and everything else that made up what had once been a man frustrated with God. Even if he realized that all he had done was spit on the grave

of the person he loved, he was gone. The thread of Dracula Vlad Tepes' conscience - the same guy reborn in Lament of Innocence - died here. Now you ask me - “But Master, what if…”, and I pass the question to Mario, who answers so I can pass it on to you - Dracula still comes back after Symphony. Wasn't he supposed to at least resist the influence of chaos, or try crying for help? No. As I said earlier, the man's soul is gone - there is no refund when you sell your soul to the darkness. Now

that Dracula has a pact with chaos, even if he doesn't want to be resurrected, his evil will is amplified by human evil, and it revives him on its own. in short: If he was evil before but still had a conscience, now he is just evil and nothing else. This "evil will of Dracula" will become quite relevant. in the future. In any case, his resurrection is prevented by his own son. Both castles follow the classic tradition of turning into a pile of rubble, and our heroes find themselves in front of the ruins. In this last encounter,

Richter appears to be extremely ashamed of everything that happened - it’s his fault that Alucard had to kill his own father, and had there not been this outside intervention, Dracula would have risen and got the better of him. Still, being sorry doesn't seem to affect our imposing vampire, who decides to isolate himself from humanity thanks to his demonic blood. In his last words, Alucard utters coldly: “We will not meet again.” Turning his back to both hunters, he leaves, certain that the world will be in good hands. Charmed by the vampire prince, Maria Renard sets off

after him. Thus, Symphony of the Night comes to a close, the most popular Castlevania of the saga. But our story is not over yet. Nocturne of Recollection Symphony of the Night is a story that ends very conclusively - Alucard runs off into the sunrise, Maria follows his tracks, and that's it. What many people forget is that there was a sort of direct "sequel" to Symphony of the Night, known as Nocturne of Recollection, released in 2008. Nocturne of Recollection was given life through the radio drama format - that is, a story performed by voice actors. Given

the limitations of this type of media, the actors have to work with a lot of emotion to express their feelings... Perhaps even to the point of exaggerating a little bit. Brace yourself for lots of: [Anime gibberish] No wonder it 's called radioDRAMA, right? Anyway, after the events of the last game, Maria goes to live with Alucard - kinda against his will, but thats life, i guess. Blondie still hasn't let go of her stubbornness seen back in Rondo of Blood. During one of her trips to a nearby village, Maria receives a letter from Richter, advising that

he was hired to eliminate a vampire who is specifically targeting women. Since the girl is living with Alucard, Richter advises her to sleep with her eyes open, because who knows? On the way home, she meets two "independent" vampire hunters: Alexis and Cyril, who advise her not to travel alone in that region, thanks to the attacks that have been happening. His advice soon proves to be true, since after they separate, Maria is attacked by a beautiful creature - an incubus. For those who don't know, an incubus is the "male" version of a succubus, i.e., it is

the dream lover for women. This handsome fellow is called Magnus, who apparently knows Dracula's son. He tries to manipulate Maria into believing that Alucard is keeping her around as a guarantee in case hunger strikes - something like a snack you’d eat on a night of desire. Outraged, Maria returns home, now suspicious of the one who sheltered her for over a year - can he really be trusted? Like it or not, there is cursed blood running through his veins, and one of these days, the guy could get up on the wrong side of bed. Her doubts

lead her to ask if Alucard has taken human blood in the past...and guess what? The answer is yes. The guy has tasted the forbidden nectar While the two engage in their little soap opera, we get a chance to see what our friend Richter is up to, which is basically what vampire hunters do. On one of his forays to a place that appears to be the vampire's nest, Richter meets up with the two hunters previously introduced - Alexis e Cyril. In an unfriendly exchange the hunters seem to doubt Richter's fidelity, since a year ago, he had

been working for the devil. This interaction coupled with the fact that rumors about the Belmonts are spreading serves to prove that humans are losing faith in the Belmont family: Those who were once bastions of hope are now seen as undesirable sorcerers. This detail will soon become much more relevant than you might think. Since we touched on it, let’s talk about Alexis and Cyril. These two random hunters here have adopted the profession the profession because the sister of one of them was a victim of them was a victim of that vampire on the loose. Then you

ask me: The Belmonts hunt with the whip, Maria hunts with the sacred beasts, Alucard hunts with a sword and shield. What about these guys? Well, apparently, they have an awesome Super Ultra Street Fighter 2 Turbo potion that, according to the instructions, will destroy any evil creature that it comes in contact with. Also, the formula for this stuff came via sleep telepathy, so you can trust it to work. There's just one thing though. After Alucard and Maria have their argument, the girl goes out on patrol, bumping into her fellow hunters. In this encounter, she realizes that

the miracle potion they are so proud of stinks of evil. She steals one of the potion vials when she gets the chance and smashes it to pieces. An evil mist is released, causing the girl to Instead of waking up in Skyrim, Maria wakes up in Alucard's house, bringing with her the sad news that the mist has inhibited her contact with the celestial beasts. That's right she lost her powers. To make matters worse Alexis has been kidnapped by Incubus. Furious, Alucard goes after Magnus, meeting Richter and Cyril halfway Before much dialogue can take place, the creature

reveals who was the vampire behind the murders: Lyudmil, a former servant of Alucard. So we dont take too much time, im gonna say it right away: Lyudmil turned to who he is thanks to our golden-haired boy, who turned him to avoid certain death when. he went to visit his home village. Lyudmil was Alucard's servant and a great admirer of Lisa, having respect for both the person and her legacy. You could even say that he was the closest to a friend our tragic prince ever had. Unfortunately, what happened happened, nobody is perfect. A battle between everyone

there takes place - Alucard is trapped in some kind of illusion by Magnus, reliving the memories of what happened while Richter and Cyril fight against Lyudmil. The situation was getting worse and worse, but fortunately Mary shows up to save the day, even without powers. When she is attacked, the celestial beasts manifest themselves in an intense light, buying enough time for Magnus' spell o lose effectiveness, freeing Alucard from his cursed dream, and Lyudmil from his control. Lyudmil immediately attacks his enslaver leaving room for Richter to make a decisive move against the source of Magnus' power: his

claws. his claws. Helpless and defeated, the Incubus meets his end by Alucard's sword. but of course, he goes to hell uttering that the forces of Dracula are really powerfull and everything they aways say. His plan to turn Alucard into the next dark lord has failed. Unfortunately, the bus on the way to hell had lots of free seats, and Lyudmil takes the opportunity to get a ride as well - something sad for Alucard, who finally managed to free his friend. At least he dies as a. free vampire. The novel ends without much flourish - Richter goes

his own way, and Maria chooses to live with Dracula's son for a little longer. How long? We don't know. What matters is that evil has been stopped once again. Nocturne of Recollection an example of that does not appear in the official timeline, but we include it here because besides having IGA’s oversight, certain details provide the closest we have to a glimpse into the future of these characters. It is apparent to me that this episode does not advance the overall plot that much, serving as a way to delve deeper into the world these characters live in.

I've skimmed over this part and, focused more on the main themes, but I suggest hat you search for it here on Youtube, because it is available in all its details. With all the Japanese screaming included. Pré-Order The post Symphony of the Night period is a winning time for Dracula, even if his son kicked his ass in style. In the early 19th century, Richter...disappeared. The available content reveals that he was leaving the post out of shame, due to the humiliation of having been controlled by the forces of evil. He leaves with Annete, leaving the whip in

the hands of a branch family of the Belmonts, known as the Morris. We don't know exactly why our heroic Discount Ryu retired, but one has to believe it is something to do with people losing faith in the Belmonts' ability. Such an event would certainly mark a warrior from a noble family, and the radio-drama revealed that his reputation was tarnished in the eyes of society. I know I've said this before, but had Alucard not interfered, Dracula would have got the better of him - victory was in his hands, and it only didn't come thanks to this

twist of fate, as if Lisa left her last gift to protect humanity. I guess you can assume that Richter would feel bad, right? Thanks to this, the name Belmont slowly became just a memory. And not just him! The whereabouts of people like Maria, are also unknown. There is no record of heirs, or what happened to the powerful manifestations of the celestial beasts. Alucard, on the other hand, went off in search of a way to complete Dracula's destruction, traveling the world as if he were a scholar. Unfortunately, there is no way to prove that Blondie accompanied

him, even though she chose to follow in his footsteps in both Symphony of the Night and the radio-drama. A pity, since she is a fan favorite character. With no Belmont in the area and no immediate replacement to cover their work, a certain desperation began to arise because with their disappearance, the main weapon against Dracula was also gone. There is only one option left to mankind: Work themselves to the bone! Enough of depending on just one family! Someone has to make a move and search for alternatives, and we have already seen that humanity is full of

resourceful people. Various organizations emerged in this new stage of the timeline, which sought to fight the minions of chaos so that the vampire would not return again. At some unknown time during this period, something different happened: Dracula's soul was sealed in a receptacle. By whom? I dunno. When? I dunno. He is the only one who knows, and he won't say why Konami kicked him out. All I know is that it happened, and that it is quite decisive for our next chapter of Castlevania, the first within the "Era Without Belmonts". Order of Ecclesia Order of Ecclesia

is an interesting case on the timeline, mainly because he is kind of the ugly duckling of the saga, you know? The odd one out. It features a protagonist who has no past or future connections to any known character - at least as far as is known - and also tells a stand-alone story that could be removed from canon without breaking down major pre-established pillars. This one was the last Castlevania with any kind of dedicated narrative that Igarashi worked on, so there are no absolute certainties of where he was going with what was shown to us

at this episode. What matters is that this is the chapter of the long-haired brunette with a stunning back that has awakened something irrational in the brain of every fan of this thing. Shanoa, of unknown origin and name, was raised from a young age by the Ecclesia organization - an institution that sought to , combat the forces of Dracula, since the Belmonts were no longer around. And yes, her name is unknown. "Shanoa" is only a codename, which reinforces how little is revealed about her origins. This organization’s trump card comes through what they call glyphs: basically, they

have developed a technique that allows them to convert the energy of objects, phenomena, and living things into pictures. This can be something as complex as a lightning bolt, or as simple as a meal. There is just one catch: these enchantments need to be manifested through some compatible catalyst, such as a book, a weapon or anything that could hold it. What sets our girl Shanoa apart is that she is basically a super catalyst in human form, needing no such deadly and weak instruments since her back can fit everything you want and then some. It is this

natural affinity that makes her a strong candidate to handle the most powerful glyph in Ecclesia, created by the founder of the organization to destroy Dracula. At some point between Symphony of the Night and Order of Ecclesia, the Count's soul was trapped in a receptacle - in this case, this cute gothic box. It is not known who entrapped him - it is only said that Ecclesia was a fairly competent organization, enough so that the receptacle’s destruction was entrusted to them. The founder, Barlowe. spared no effort in this task, using every spell and power Ecclesia possessed, whether

in the form of glyphs, hammering, boiled water or dynamite. Nothing couldn’t even dent the artifact. Finding himself out of options, Barlowe decided that only the power of the Count himself could defeat him, and went in search of his cursed relics to convert them into Dominus, the ultimate glyph that would bring about the vampire's final death. What matters to us is that they have finally found a way to contain the vampire’s power. I mean, sort of. The evil power his remains contained was so great that it could not fit on a single glyph, and had to

be split into three. They are kept in Ecclesia by Barlowe, who wishes to incorporate them into Shanoa, now a young adult of twenty years of age. Order of Ecclesia’s big plot begins when Albus - Shanoa's older partner and Ecclesia's lead researcher - finds about the old man's little scam - originally, Albus himself was to be the receptacle for Dominus' power, but after returning from an expedition, he discovered that Barlowe decided at the last minute that he would use Shanoa. A burst of rage leads him to betray the organization that has raised him, since the previously

established agreement has been broken. With his gun pointed at his former master, Albus steals the books containing the glyphs with Dracula's powers, interrupting the important ritual the girl was partaking in. This kinda knocks some screws loose in the girl’s head - she loses not only her memories but also her emotional capabilities. Despite her otherworldly beauty, Shanoa was kind of left with that blank expression emoji, and not even Symphony of the Night’s corny dialogue could change her expression. She is tasked with capturing Albus, following his tracks in an investigation around Wallachia at Barlowe's behest. Fortunately, he

isn't that hard to find - perhaps even on purpose - but after their first encounter, Albus loses a map, which the girl collects, discovering the location of a village. This village is a piece apart from Order of Ecclesia’s story, having an interesting historical factor that I will tell you about in a moment. When she arrived there, the place is completely empty, except for an old man captured in some kind of crystal, which only Shanoa could release by absorbing the glyph that serves as a lock. He informs Shanoa that the villagers have been kidnapped by Albus,

probably finding themselves in a similar state to the old man. It is up to her to find these villagers while searching for her foster brother. The thing about this village in the story of Order of Ecclesia is that they are distant relatives of the Belmonts - something like Maria Renard. Relatives of relatives, so to speak. Albus went around kidnapping these people because e believed that their blood would have some of that Belmont energy in it, and thanks to that, he hoped that this strength would help him resist the temptation and Dracula’s power taking over him.

Spoiler alert: it didn't happen. This power ended up generating a sort of second personality, similar to what happened with Maxim back in Harmony of Dissonance. Before changing into his channer form, Albus strangely gives Shanoa two parts of the Dominus glyph, keeping only the last part. At first glance, it looks like he is doing this out of pure camaraderie, but his motive was a bit more personal: He was trying to understand the technique his partner used in order to be able to absorb the last part, becoming the promised vessel. When he attempts this with the remaining

glyph, it completely backfires, causing him to lose his marbles for good, beginning to believe he is Dracula himself. This forces Shanoa to confront him - try to absorb Acerbatus mid-fight, okay? - and, upon defeating him, the opportunity to absorb Dominus’ last part finally presents itself. Thanks to that, Shanoa is able to access part of Albus' memories, revealing what we already knew: he was supposed to be the previous vessel, but Barlowe changed his mind at the last minute. What Shanoa didn’t know was that Ecclesia’s old-man had sent Albus on a fool’s errand to have the ritual

performed without his knowledge. As an extra, the girl's memories and emotions were sacrificed in the process, turning her into a doll that would do his bidding without question. He knew very well that this would happen, and chose to keep it a secret. It is thanks to this series of events that Albus stole the glyphs containing Dracula's power. Miraculously, the memories are not the only thing that came coupled in the Dominus: the boy's spirit still persists, albeit weakly, within the girl, and they both finally manage to talk to each other in a more convenient way. The

explanation for this event is quite interesting: During his search for the Belmonts' bloodline, Albus came across the people from that village. He believed that the power flowing in their blood would allow him to keep Dominus under control. This failed. However, when Shanoa absorbed the glyphs that imprisoned those people, she also absorbed some of the power Albus sought, which helped keep the boy's soul safe. Remember this: Shanoa is exceptional as a vessel: what's a tiny fraction of Belmont power next to the ability to handle the infinite evil of chaos? She is the perfect sponge for this

sort of thing, and the dumb ass boy got lucky in the end. Seizing the opportunity, Albus makes her promise not to use the Dominus, regardless of the situation, since it contains enough power to kill about two and a half Galamoths. With everything in hand, it's time to ask Ecclesia's boss what the hell he was up to. And would you look at that: The man was thinking about sacrificing a lamb to please the Lord, as if the lamb's name was "Shanoa using Dominus", and the Lord he would please by sacrificing the lamb, was Dracula. That's right,

another evil priest plotting to bring back the count. The two battle, and Shanoa wins, but not before Barlowe is influenced one last time to realize that he doesn't need Dominus to free Dracula. He could do it by sacrificing himself. And so he does, bringing back the vampire, along with his castle. Alone and completely desolate, Shanoa makes her way to the cursed structure to fulfill the goal she has prepared for: to stop the forces of evil. After beating the crap out of any demon that crossed her path, including this sorry excuse of bad enemy design and

one of the top 10 worst bosses in Castlevania, Shanoa finally arrives at the throne room, where she is welcomed in a very courteous manner by the bloodsucker. Even the King of Hell takes the time to recognize that this woman is hot. Based. That doesn't stop them from throwing hands, because...well, it's Castlevania and that's what you do in the end. As expected, Shanoa's own powers are not enough to defeat him, but... She has a trick up her sleeve, remember? That Dominus thingie. Shanoa breaks the promise she made to her brother, sacrificing her life to kill Dracula

using the count’s own power. About to die, Shanoa sheds tears, remembering the memories of her adoptive brother. Everything he did was for the sake of protecting her, and thanks to that, evil was defeated once more. But, her emotions and memories were sacrificed to Dominus. How was it possible for her to cry? Or even remember anything? At this moment, a voice brings her back to reality - in her subconsciousness, Albus informs her that he has restored Shanoa's emotions and memories, which were lost but left intact within the Dominus. Furthermore, her death can be avoided, since Dominus

requires only a sacrifice. Satisfied to do this for his sister, the boy fades away, being rewarded with a beautiful smile on his last moments. The adventure ends with Shanoa disappearing, and the events of Order of Ecclesia being forgotten to time. To the outside world, nothing ever happened here... almost as if larger forces were working to hide their negligence. It is interesting to note that even though this game was confirmed to be canon by Igarashi himself, it was not included in the official timeline that acts as the backbone for this video. Could this be a way

to reinforce that these events have been forgotten or perhaps even erased? Ecclesia is gone, remaining only as a memory in the minds of those who knew the organization back then. Dracula's forces keep appearing, evil priests keep kidnapping innocent women, and evil is always surrounding Wallachia, since it is the vampire’s land. So, after Shanoa, which Belmont will take care of things in this period? cTheoretically the village is made up of distant relatives, so maybe some sort of hunter came out of that crowd, right? Curiously, no. As stated earlier, the post-Symphony of the Night period does not

contain any Belmont family members, and it was up to humanity to learn to fend for itself, and without the whip’s power. But wait a minute! The whip! What happened to the Vampire Killer? It disappeared? We also made clear that Richter transferred the whip to another family: the Morris family. The Morris are a lineage of Belmonts who acted during the period when the land lost its protectors. They start directly from Trevor Belmont, borrowing a surname from Bram Stoker's classic book. This family has become more important to the timeline after the events of Symphony of the Night,

and they have combat skills equivalent to any Belmont! Richter hoped that they would keep the whip until the next generation of the main family could wield it again. At the time of this video's release, it is not known exactly why Richter "had" to get rid of his whip, but something more than just embarrassment happened, and at the end of the day the tool found itself far from its original masters. Alright. With discount-Ryu out of the picture, all that's left for humanity to do is to pray hard that the devil doesn't show up. And as you

may already know, this doesn't work at all. Between the time period of Order of Ecclesia and Bloodlines, we learn that the menace of Dracula has once again returned to torment mankind, being stopped by none other than Quincy Morris, a guy who is almost never remembered due to the fact that he never received his well-deserved game. Cue the silly voice: But Master Alucard, Quincy Morris is the guy from Bram Stoker's book, that famous 500-page vampire tale where 360 of them are letters or journal entries that would be better used as a napkin to clean up my

drool while I read this book. Does this mean that Castlevania is set in Bram Stoker's universe? Nope. No, it doesn’t. Igarashi canonized Bloodlines and with that he shed some new light on the series. If you can have freaking Dracula, why can't you have Quincy Morris that is from same book? He took what he wanted and ignored the rest, because the book is public domain and anyone can use it however they want. By canonizing the Texan, Igarashi also took the opportunity to enrich the way things work. Remember when I said that only the Vampire Killer can

kill Dracula? Well, that's right. So far, the rule still stands. But this weapon is a bit jealous, and would rather be used by its former owners. If some random scmuck takes the whip to beat up Dracula, he would be using a regular whip which is not exactly the most practical thing to use in combat This happens because its power only responds in the hands of the Belmonts. The only way to access it is through a Ritual performed by the Lecarde family, also descendants of the Belmonts, which I will talk about soon. Unlocking the power of

the whip comes with a dangerous cost for those who risk trying: Each stroke will drain some of the user's life energy, das if the whip itself is breaking the limits of the one brandishing it so that the person can do the same as the Belmonts. Prolonged use of the weapon will drastically reduce the life of the one wielding it, serving only as a last resort against the forces of evil. But hey, in this scenario, the Vampire Killer's power will be at 100%, and can defeat Dracula as if it were in the hands of a hunter

from the main family. I've said all this so far because it is not known whether Quincy died as a result of using the whip! The story says that the hero subdued Dracula, just like Konami does since they don't release new games, so that phrasing is not the best. He defeated the big bad vampire, okay, but did he use the whip all the time? Or was it mostly like this? [] How badass would a vampire-hunting cowboy be? A man can only dream, right? But, I brought up this conversation because the story itself creates the doubt as

to whether Quincy knew about the consequences of the whip - a question that was raised by his own grandson. If Quincy knew, why didn't he inform future generations? If he did NOT know, why didn't anyone wonder about his untimely death? A recently discovered fax of Castlevania Bloodlines provides a lot of interesting information, one of them being that Quincy died during the fight against Dracula. This would explain why he couldn't even tell future generations about the whip problem. But later, a certain character who must have been 5 years old when Quincy supposedly died, says that he

was "exceptionally strong, but kind". Either this character has photographic memory, or the story has been retconned so that Quincy has lived a little longer. The grandon's doubts - which go completely unanswered - and the memory of this other character support the possibility that the developers planned to develop this story better. It was not just a "Quincy is dead, that's it". Anyway, there was an episode where a member of the Morris family stopped the vampire from taking over the world. The information about this guy is quite scarce, but it is canonical. Little did he know that

his son would have to prepare himself for that very scenario years later. We finally approach a slightly more modern era in Castlevania, which I like to call "the dark ages" for this universe, since the Belmonts are still on vacation somewhere, and it's up to the Morris family to continue to hold the line so that everything doesn't go to hell. Castlevania Bloodlines - which you should play if you haven't - is the game that introduced the whole Morris and Lecarde thing, since both are the playable protagonists of this adventure. The story of Castlevania Bloodlines takes place

in 1917, its events kicked off thanks to a wretch named Elizabeth Bartley - a vampire claiming to be Lord Dracula's niece, who died in the early 17th century but returned in this era. If you’re wondering - “hm, I heard this name before”, it is because she is the historical Bloody Countess. Erzsebet Bathory herself, adapted for Castlevania, and with her name rocked by translation. The story also involves Drolta Tzuentes - a witch who dresses very similarly to a certain skeletal entity present in almost everything in Castlevania. She works alongside the vampire to carry out an absurdly

evil plan: to manifest the hatred in the hearts of men through the greatest war mankind had ever seen. To do this, she assassinated the Crown Prince of Austria in 1914 setting in motion the events we know today as World War I. She then went on an expedition to gather the souls of the dead as a sacrifice for her dear uncle. But why did she do all this? Well... If there is evil in the world, there is room for Dracula to return, right? After all, this is inevitable. So, imagine a world war with thousands of people

dying in every country, with chaos even beyond the eye can see - it's like throwing a party for the devil’s return. A perfect environment. This forces the Morris’ to once again charge headfirst into battle. However, since Bloodlines takes place 20 years after Quincy's chapter and he most likely died in the fight against the Count, this time it is not Quincy who serves as a wall for Dracula's forces, but his son John. So it's up to Morris Junior to bear mankind’s pain, and set off on a journey across Europe. But hold on! He is not alone.

At his side we find none other than Eric Lecarde, a hot Spaniard who wields a spear of rather curious origin. But who is this handsome man that would make even Vega from Street Fighter jealous? Like John, Eric is a descendant of the Belmonts. And he is here basically for a personal vendetta, caused by Miss Bartley herself... At some point after Eric left home to live his life as a sculptor, Elizabeth turned his fiancée into a vampire, much like what happened to Sara, Leon Belmont’s late wife. Eventually he returned home and, after a long trip, found

his bride vampirized. Horrified, Eric knew there was no way he could save her. His wife managed to exchange a few last words, dying peacefully at home some time later. Her death lit a flame within the Spaniard, opening the way for the lover of the arts to take the mysterious spear kept in his family's temple, and put on the mantle he had previously rejected: that of a vampire hunter. By the way, doing what the green-haired woman did would be more than enough motive for Eric to want to beat her up, right? Regardless of that, Eric would

come to work with John anyway because the Lecarde family holds the secret to releasing the power of the whip. His blood acts as a key so that the weapon can be used effectively by the Morris’. Does Alucard have something to do with this secret? Was it him who lent the spear bearing his name on to this family so that it could complement the strength of the whip, but for the moment let's assume not. [] This weapon is another one of Castlevania's great mysteries: During the era without Belmonts, the lance was handed down to the Lecarde

clan by the half-vampire himself. To this day it is not known exactly how much power this thing packs, but it can be assumed that it is no small thing. It would not kill Dracula, since that is not its role, but its power is certainly greater than any regular combat tool. United by similar goals, Lecarde and Morris travel across all Europe looking for clues to Elizabeth, following her path of destruction caused by the events of the First World War. One neat detail that I always thought was cute in Bloodlines is that the adventure begins precisely in

Dracula's old castle, where Quincy probably fought in the past. It's the most obvious place to look, right? But...no. Elizabeth, Death, and Dracula are found in England, the land of tea and random shankings in the streets. There are no greater details or explanations about how the battle officially played out - whether they both fought Elizabeth and Dracula, or whether they split up, however, as I've talked about in my Castlevania Bloodlines video, I like to imagine that Eric stayed behind to take revenge on the devil's niece, and John went ahead to whip the vampire back to hell.

I don't know if it matches Igarashi’s view on the matter, but seriously. Give blondie a little joy, will you? Make him plunge his spear on the green-haired bimbo. She deserves it, and so does he! What matters is that, at least up to the time of this video, the Bartley family has stopped being a pain in the ass, and the devil was sent back to hell. Morris emerges victorious, proving that his lineage is more than capable of standing up to the forces of evil. What he didn't expect was that one day the hangover from that trip

all over Europe wielding the whip would take its toll. BRAUNER E ERIC. [BIGA] John Morris is fucking dead. Dead, gone, adiós kid. Cause of death? The Vampire Killer Whip. He left a son - at least, that is known. Jonathan. We don't know the name of his wife, nor where and how he was buried. With Morris out of the picture, who's left to take care of our planet? The responsibility falls to old Eric Lecarde, who, fortunately, was able to enjoy a few years of peace and happiness, since he remarried and even had two little girls -

Stella and Loretta! Although Jonathan grew up for a time with his father, John unfortunately suffered the consequences of having used the whip. The most tragic part of this whole story is that neither of the holy warriors knew of the possible side effects the weapon would cause until after they defeated Dracula and realized that John was taking too long to recover. This raises some questions: What do you mean they didn't know about the effects of the whip? What about Quincy? As said before: If what we know about Quincy remains canonical, then he died in the fight

against Dracula and never passed on the knowledge, making John the first real victim of the whip's effects. So, only Eric remains. And on a horrible day in the middle of World War II, guess what came back to bother him? That's right! The devil’s castle. As if a supreme evil force in the world wasn't enough back then, right? What is different and even curious about this situation is that the castle kind of comes back in a weirdly quiet manner, if that makes sense - It mysteriously appears, but without that big flamboyant announcement singing praises for the

returning dark lord. Nope. It just pops up out of nowhere. This is thanks to the new monocle-wearing big bald villain- Brauner, a skilled painter who lost his life's treasure - in this case, his daughters - during the First World War. His rage awakened magical powers within him, literally turning him into a vampire through his sheer rage alone. It has already been proven in Castlevania lore that vampires can be transformed in multiple ways. The process of hate-based vampirism is just one more. And how cool would be to put on your resume: "I BECAME A VAMPIRE THROUGH

SHEER HATE" What a boss, am I right ? The surreal part of the whole story is that Brauner is not your run-of-the-mill vampire - the guy is powerful enough to take over Dracula's castle for himself, using his magic through powerful paintings. With the castle hanging around, again I raise the question: On whose lap this falls to? Eric’s lap, who can’t have a peaceful life. Leaving his two daughters at home, Eric grabs his spear and breaks into Dracula's castle to investigate what the hell is going on - a somewhat hasty but necessary move, since there is

no one else to do it. Once there, our long-suffering blondie suffers some more at the hands of Brauner, who is too strong even for the skilled spearman who a few years ago had helped defeat Dracula's army. Be it an irony of fate, or simply because the writers hate Eric, his two daughters disobeyed him, following their father when they realize that he is taking too long to return. This awakens an inexplicable madness in Brauner, causing him to believe that Stella and Loretta are reincarnations of his late daughters, leading him to make the decision to forcibly adopt

them. Eric Lecarde is then murdered in front of the girls, performing a ritual with the last of his strength in order not to lose his own will inside Dracula's castle - otherwise there is a high chance that he would become a haunted spirit. This traps his soul in the evil structure, preventing him from being able to cry out for help. Now, all that remains is to wait. With no Lecarde in sight, humanity can only entrust the Morris family with its hopes, waiting for them to emerge victorious. PORTRAIT OF RUIN [BIGA] Oh boy, talking about the

story of a good game straight to another is one of life's little pleasures that we have to enjoy, don't you agree? Because while we are here enjoying ourselves, Eric is there, trapped in the castle of the vampire bastard who refuses to die when he is killed. Damn him! But there is something different this time - Dracula's castle is back, his minions are roaming the region, but there is no sign that a dark lord is running things, even with the structure pulsating with pure evil energy. As we previously saw, this is happening because Brauner is the

one in charge - he has sealed the throne room through the power of his paintings, separating Dracula's control from the rest of the structure: something quite curious that shows that even the dark lord has a set of rules to obey. So as not to make more of a mess of things, let's turn our focus to what's important for the moment: Jonathan Morris, a young man by the age of 18, son of John Morris from Bloodlines. With the castle lying around and no one else to take care of business, it's up to him and his colleague

Charlotte Aulin - a distant relative of the Belnades clan - to take care of it. Young Morris inherited the legendary weapon from the Belmonts - just as his late father did, but he can neither use nor understand its power: for him, the Vampire Killer simply does not work, but acts like a normal weapon. To make matters even more complicated, Jonathan is led to believe that his old man died from wounds inflicted during the battle against Dracula, showing that the secret the Lecarde's carry is kept under lock and key and a very neat captcha. Still, the

duo shares a very heroic spirit that goes perfectly with the very energetic dialogues these two demonstrate throughout the game, que even if it means storming a demonic castle filled with evil creatures. And hey, who the hell is going to say no to Jonathan? John? [] But, the kids get along just fine. Charlotte is powerful and Jonathan is not far behind, since he has received combat training per his family tradition. As I mentioned before, Eric is trapped in the castle, and the duo soon find him in his little room. During the story of Portrait of Ruin,

our blond Spaniard who isn't so blond anymore ends up serving as a mentor figure mainly to Jonathan, helping him to perfect his techniques while revealing what he was able to understand of the whole situation. However, since he is stuck in the place where he performed the ritual, it is up to the youngsters to connect the dots as they explore the castle. As expected, during one of the expeditions through the place, Death shows up again. Do you know what’s the most surprising thing about this? For the first time he seems genuinely confused about what the hell

is going on, knowing even less than the very humans who broke into the place! He has no idea who Brauner is, and sets off on a mission to try and understand why the castle is standing without the big boss. Not to be outdone, Castlevania's version of Jessie and James head out to find out more information, soon coming across not only Brauner, but Eric's daughters as well, now turned into vampires. Their existence finally becomes known, and soon after, dangerous, since Stella even tries to send them blasting off ((again) Hehe) Being alone, the duo gets the better

of her, managing to snatch a mysterious pendant that the girl dropped. A photo inside the pendant reveals Eric with the girls - but only him - let's hope the poor guy hasn't lost another wife, because what an unlucky guy! When asked about it, he opens up, revealing his true identity to Jonathan, divulging Brauner's plan, and most importantly, he finally talks about the secrets regarding the Vampire Killer and its connection to John's death. The boy is confused, asking Eric why the Belmonts passed this bombshell on to his family. In return, he gets an answer involving the

prophecy about Dracula's return in 1999, stating that our fellow hunters cannot touch the whip until then. The ghost does not go into further detail, and the mystery continues. What matters is that, until then, there will still be evil minions pestering humanity and they need to be stopped. Only this raises another issue: The evil servants this time are Eric's two daughters, and they have both turned into vampires! Is this the end of the Lecarde bloodline ? Not on Charlotte's watch - During a search in the castle, the girl learns about a vampiric purification spell, something that

had not been seen before. One can believe she studied it, or believe she turned into a frog and found the spell inside a painting. Or not, maybe the purification spell is just a Hail Mary said with a lot of willpower, who knows. That doesn't matter, because it is time to put the two little vampires in their proper places. With a little teamwork, the spell works, and Stella and Loretta become human again, revealing that they know the ritual that unlocks the true power of the Vampire Killer. We remember that Eric also knows about it, but cannot

perform it on the accounts of the promise he made to his late friend, also because... Well, just look at him. As you already know, his father was a powerful hunter and Jonathan doesn’t want to be seen as a lesser to his late father. He embraces the idea of unleashing the whip’s big whip energy, finally revealing some of the mystery behind the ritual. By using the Lecarde girls' powers, young Morris confronts a memory of the whip that contains some kind of illusion of the last Belmont who wielded the weapon against evil. In this case, it is

none other than our boy Richter, who passed on the whip right before disappearing from the face of the earth. This is how we know that Richter was really the last Belmont since 1800. The ritual consists of a battle of skills between the two hunters, forcing Jonathan to prove himself worthy of carrying this powerful weapon. It is up to him to show that his heart is in the right place, and that his mind is sharp. Cream pies to the face are optional. Since we are talking about the kid who has the determination to put up with

Charlotte yammering in his ear from morning till night, it is more than obvious that Jonathan can overcome the illusion, or at least fight long enough to prove himself capable. In the words of Richter Belmont: “I’m counting on you!” With the ritual completed, it's time to break Brauner’s spell, who, so far, is effectively the master of the castle. But first, I want to clear up a question that may be stuck in the minds of some of you. Jonathan using the whip will also debilitate after prolonged use, right? Right! The answer is yes. Only in this particular

case, we have to remember that the boy basically gets the whip two steps away from the throne room. Even if the weapon uses some of his "life energy", this does not even compare to the great distances his father had to travel. Remember: John traveled all over Europe beating the crap out of Dracula and Elizabeth's minions. What compromised his health was the more than prolonged use of this weapon. Using a little bit isn’t that big of a deal. This logic doesn’t apply to drugs. Enhanced with uncommon strength and accompanied by Charlotte, Jonathan breaks through all barriers

imposed by Brauner, finally coming face to face with the one who has caused so much pain to the Lecarde family. As I said before, Brauner's motivation for doing all this is due to the loss of his daughters, and the despair has made him delude himself that Eric's girls are a reincarnation of his own. Jonathan takes down the old vampire fart, but the one who tells him to go paint himself is none other than Death, who shows up to steal the kill. With Brauner out of the way brings another problem: The throne room that was previously

separated from the rest of the castle, has its barrier removed, making it easier for Skeletor to summon the Landlord. The two youngsters rush off, finding the Stinking Skeleton backing up the Demon Lord. This wretched skull is finally living up to its title of protector, huh. The final battle takes place - which is pretty cool, in case you haven't played the game - and, thankfully, our heroic duo comes out on top. Charlotte and Jonathan manage to stop Dracula and Death by working together, proving again that the Morris family and their allies are fantastic warriors even when

compared to the Belmonts. The castle collapses, and the sunlight signals the victory of humanity. Eric says his last words to his daughters before finally moving on to the afterlife, and everyone goes in search of Vincent, a priest that I haven't told you about until now because he is as important to the story of Castlevania as the skeleton bartender that appears in a secret room (that makes him of utmost importance, don’t diss the bartender skeleton). Time for a well-deserved rest. Or not, since the world is still in the middle of WWII. Let's get to work so

that Dracula is not reborn again next weekend. Families Portrait of Ruin marks the last confrontation between heroes that existed during the absence of the Belmonts, and the Dark Lord Dracula. With the exception of Shanoa, what they had in common is that they were all connected to the legendary clan. Even when the Belmont family disappeared, their blood kept coming back in some form to oppose the darkness. So before we go any further, how about we take a brief look at the story of these guys? This will serve as a review also, in case you want to

refresh your memory of some previous topic. The first Belmont documented in the timeline was Leon, who lost his fiancée thanks to the vampire Walter. With the creation of the Vampire Killer, he was able to destroy the vampire, sparking the destiny that would follow his family for nearly 1000 years We don't know how his lineage continued, but the fact is that it did. The second known Belmont was Trevor. 400 years after Leon, he teamed up with three other heroes, and used his ancestor's whip to destroy Dracula for the first time. This feat restored the people's faith

in the Belmonts who, at that point, had been exiled out of fear of their powers. Trevor and Sypha had children, and this is where the Morris family begins. We DO know the names of these children, but since they are in a document that may no longer correspond to the facts, it is better to leave this part blank. We will get to the subject in a moment. The third notable Belmont was Christopher. A hundred years after Trevor, Christopher crushed the count's ambitions once again. Unfortunately, the nightmare was just beginning - remember the little bat that flew

off at the end? That was the vampire surviving the encounter. 15 years later, he manipulated Soleil - Christopher's son - to try to revive his body. History repeated itself, with the hunter going out to rescue his son, and finishing the job of kicking the vampire's ass- for real this time. It is during the era of this Belmont that the legend of Dracula is born. The fourth hunter was Simon. When the count returned, he stormed the demon castle alone - as his legendary ancestor did- and destroyed Dracula in the first fight. However, he was cursed, causing

his body to deteriorate, and making him a person hated by the people. Through his unbreakable will, Simon undid the curse, preventing a possible return of the vampire. The fifth Belmont was Juste. Described as a prodigy, he is Simon's grandson, and was the Belmont who inherited the whip the earliest - at only 16 years old. He was also capable of using magical powers thanks to the Belnades blood running through his veins. Juste did not fight Dracula, but by breaking the control of darkness over his friend Maxim, he effectively prevented the vampire from returning in his era,

a rare thing to see in this series. The sixth hero was Richter. The destined Belmont, famous for being the strongest of the clan up to that point in the timeline. He faced a perfect resurrection of Lord Dracula and, together with Maria Renard, subdued the demon. It is important to point out again that Maria tinha uhad a blood connection to the Belmonts, and after that battle, Richter welcomed the girl into the family as an adopted sister. Rondo of Blood was the first game in the series to introduce the idea of branching relatives from the central family.

After Richter, the whip was transferred to the Morris family for uncertain reasons, and the legendary clan disappeared. However, before we see any Morris in action, the events of Order of Ecclesia show us that the Belmonts' tree had MANY more branches than previously imagined. Nikolai, a priest, was guided in a dream to build a village in the middle of nowhere - and it is from this location where several people from various paths of life began to gather. 13 villagers, all drawn to the land where Dracula sleeps, thanks to their distant kinship with the Belmonts. Even without

knowledge of the whereabouts of the main lineage, we know that their blood stalks evil. Remember: it is thanks to these distant relatives that Shanoa was able to defeat Dracula, for their strength helped her indirectly. 100 years after Richter disappeared, Quincy Morris takes the mystical whip passed down to his family to stop Dracula once again. Quincy is the first Morris in the lineage started by Trevor Belmont that we have officially heard about. Remember I said that we even know who Trevor's children are? We owe that to the Bloodlines fax, the '94 document that we reference a

few times in this video It shows a series of sons, daughters, brothers and cousins that we have never seen anywhere else in the entire series. Even Van Helsing - yes, that one - would be a relative of the Belmont family! But although this is all very curious and interesting, it is as I said before: this document probably doesn't hold up as an absolute truth today, because some of these dates and relationships don't match what we know today. So, although it is extremely plausible that the Morris family started from the marriage between a Morris man and

a Belmont woman, we cannot say that they were Royde Morris and Ann Belmont. Sorry about that, "Gerhart who died mysteriously." His death will remain a mystery. After all this rigmarole comes John Morris, Quincy's son. He unlocked the power of the Vampire Killer and repeated his father's feat 20 years later. Despite the tragedy that befell him thanks to his death by the whip, the most interesting point of his story is the introduction of the Lecarde family, through the long-suffering blondie Eric, who is a key element for the whip's power unlocking. The first evidence we know about

the Lecarde family having blood from the Belmonts comes from an old Konami magazine that calls the Lecardes "distant relatives," sort of like the villagers in Order of Ecclesia. But in Judgment, their kinship seems to be more pronounced. Eric's conflict is his family not being chosen to guard the whip, as if, from his perspective, the Lecarde's are as important in the lineage as the Morris's. Unfortunately we don't know where in the Belmonts' tree the Lecarde lineage begins, but we know where it goes. While John had Jonathan, Eric had the twins Stella and Loretta. And, from one

of them, a line arose that led to another character, which we will discuss in a moment. John died, but his family carried on through Jonathan, his son. With the help of Charlotte Aulin, he was the third Morris to defeat the Demon King, and the last we have heard of. The chatty Charlotte is not related to the Belmonts, but to the Belnades family, qwho went their own way outside of Sypha, the same one who married Trevor. Igarashi only says that Charlotte is distantly related to the Belnades, but she is described as a "potential ultimate weapon against

Dracula", which left me quite incredulous when I read it. But hey, it just goes to prove that there is a strong hunter in that region. Finally, all of this brings us to the end of the Belmonts' lineage as we know it so far... After 200 years of sacrificing relatives, a descendant of the missing clan has emerged to reclaim his family's whip, and settle the score with Dracula once and for all. Time to talk about the most powerful Belmont of all time. 1999 [Introduction] "In the year 1999 and seven months, from the heavens will come the

great king of terror. He will bring back to life the great king of the Mongols. Before and after the war he will reign with happiness." This prophecy was made by Nostradamus, a real historical character, and it is the background for one of the most important events in Castlevania: the battle of the demon castle in 1999. There are very few details about this episode, which to this day lives only from references and lines of dialogue. Maybe the whole thing is so crazy that the technology to represent it does not exist yet. Unusually for this chapter, we

have chosen to comment on all the context around it before serving the main course. Buckle up, because this rabbit hole is WAY deeper than just "Dracula is dead and gone". 1999 is a chapter that is canonically first mentioned in Aria of Sorrow, but mentions of its existence can be traced back several years earlier - Igarashi's team had been devising the legendary war since at least the time of Symphony of the Night. The premise is simple: Nostradamus predicted that the demon Dracula would return in 1999 and there would be a final battle between him and humanity.

But instead of doing this chapter in a linear fashion, Igarashi's team traveled to the future, then to the past, but not to the damn battle, resulting in this ghost episode. As we already know, Konami kicked out our favorite moustached cowboy, and the most awaited point in the chronology was left there, becoming another fight that we didn't see. With this in mind, it's up to us to gather the pieces and assemble this stained glass window. Earlier we quoted Nostradamus, this wacko from the 16th century. He was an apothecary, a kind of apothecary who, instead of selling

painkillers, sold some homemade recipes and some dubious stuff. Despite his profession, he was really into forecasting, and not the type to say whether it will rain tomorrow. In 1555, he published a book called "The Prophecies", something so full of fancy that it looks like a cat walking on a keyboard to type random things. Only, of everything said there, one thing in particular is relevant to Castlevania's story: the prophecy of the "King of Terror". This passage, which was the reason for many children and adults wetting their beds in the late 90's, says that in the seventh

month of 1999, a great king of the Mongols will return to start a happy war and... Wait... What is this happy war about? What does Dracula have to do with the Mongolians? How does such a confusing thing end up described as the BIG prophecy of Nostradamus in Castlevania? Most of the world doesn't even know about it! Well, this old man is only the tip of the iceberg. It turns out that the prophecy, originally French, was translated into several languages in different ways - sometimes with several interpretations even within one language. War that reigns with happiness?

"Mars will reign with good fortune". "King of the Mongols"? It was "Angolmois", which sounds French, but is a made-up word... Much of what the guy wrote are words that do not exist, and that people squeeze out to try to extract some meaning from them. The guy gives me "Uvuvuwevwevwevwe", and God help us with every translator making stuff up on top of it. This brings us back to the point: What does anything here have to do with Castlevania? Well, more than you might think: that prophecy also found its way to Japan. Meet this Japanese author here

that you probably have never heard of. Tsutomu "Ben" Goto came from a Christian family that believed in Bible prophecy. He grew up, became an author and journalist, and at first lived a normal life. But the tables were turned when this guy became interested in writing about the occult, developing an interest in old Nostradamus - specifically the 1999 prophecy. So in 1973 he published a book about it, called "Nostradamus no Dayogen" or "The Great Prophecy of Nostradamus". Things are already beginning to look up, aren't they? Where there is smoke there's fire. This book was released at

a time when the oil crisis of 1973 stirred up concern in the Japanese people about the pollution of the environment, and he reinterpreted the prophecy to be precisely about this: Men's carelessness with nature and their obsession with nuclear power would doom humanity to extinction in 1999. The book was a best seller and had an immediate social impact, starting what was chamcalled the "Nostradamus Boom" in Japan, generating sequels to his works, reissues, and even a movie, which I have not seen yet and will not, because 1999 has already passed, and I am very much alive, thank

you very much. What matters is that this guy's work has influenced Japanese pop culture too much, and even today you can still find this influence... Finally, this brings us back to Castlevania, finally! It was already looking like a Discovery Channel documentary, wasn't it? In 1997, when the Castlevania developers first talked about the Battle of '99, the Nostradamus boom was at an all-time high. Their inspiration was not exactly the prophecy as written by Nostradamus, but Ben Goto's interpretation that became immensely popular in Japan through his book. And today this is not something we think, it is

something we know, because Mario has already gone there to check with Curry The Kid, a guy who had been involved with Castlevania since Aria of Sorrow. The problem is that Mario got so excited about being answered that he deleted his own question, but Mr. Curry's answer is still there for us to check out. And the book is not only about interpreting the prophecy. It says a lot of curious things, and towards the end it argues that it could be avoided through the practice of Eastern philosophy, as a counterpoint to Western Christian civilization. Hmmm, I wonder

how they interpreted this in Castlevania? I guess now it's time to serve the main course. Once upon a time there was the Land of the Rising Sun. There exists a legend about the sun goddess Amaterasu and a heavenly cave. Once, Amaterasu and her brother, Susanoo, competed, and she lost gracefully. The competition doesn't matter - what matters is that Susanoo went into a state of madness, celebrating his victory in a cruel manner. Among various perversities, he destroyed his sister's rice fields, and flayed a sacred horse alive, before throwing the beast's body into her castle. Amaterasu finally

went mad with rage, but instead of taking it out on her brainless brother, she decided to hide in a cave to contain her rage, blocking the entrance with a round stone, and depriving the whole world of its splendor in the process. With darkness covering the world and no other alternative, the other gods threw a party outside the cave to incite Amaterasu's curiosity. And that was it - when the goddess opened a crack to look outside, she saw her blinding reflection in a huge bronze mirror placed there by her brothers. Stunned, they pulled her out, sealing

the cave, and returning their sister's solar splendor to the world. This legend is an allegory for solar eclipses, their mystical ability to seal off negative emotions, and is the origin of the powers of a new family introduced into the Castlevania storyline: the Hakuba family. Going waaaay back, in the post-Symphony of the Night bit, I said that Alucard had gone out to find a way to destroy his father permanently, remember? Hey, there was this artwork right here in that part. Remember? During his travels he found the temple of this family, who had strong ties to Japanese

mythology, and knew of a way to control the gods through solar eclipses. Just as usual, there is nothing about how this contact happened or how on earth a vampire managed to convince a Shinto family to help in the hunt against Dracula, but what matters is that it worked. They agreed to hold a ceremony in Europe in 1999, the date Nostradamus had predicted for the return of the Great King of Terror, and when a war would occur that would be the end of mankind. The old man's prophecy was being taken so seriously that, besides the Hakuba

temple, a military force and the church were also involved in these preparations. The number of entities present to try to prevent or mitigate this war is large, almost as a reflection of the events in Castlevania III. However, there is someone else who also returned during this period - After passing down the whip to the Morris family and disappearing for 200 years, the Belmont clan resurfaced in a big way, in the form of a young 19-year-old badass named Julius Belmont. The Belmont clan resurgence is as much, if not more, a mystery than their disappearance, but still,

Julius has taken back the whip that had been kept by the Morris family for so long, to fulfill the destiny of their blood. With the presence of all these people and the advent of the solar eclipse, the stage was set. Just as Nostradamus said, the prophecy came true. Dracula returned on August 11, 1999, and this form- Hold up, August? [VINIL] But the prophecy said seventh month, and I haven't forgotten how to count. Or have I? Castlevania 1, 2, 3, 4, X…Oh. But that's just it - the seventh month. July, just like the name of the

Belmont this time. My god, what's this bullshit now Koudji Eegarashi? OK. Ahem, let's go. This is the last detour we are going to take, and this is a short one. You have already spent God knows how many hours on this video, so just stay cool and enjoy it. Nostradamus' prophecy does indeed say "seventh month", in July. But Igarashi's team thought it would be much cooler if the big final battle took place under this awesome eclipse, which really existed, was talked about all over the world at the time, and took place right on top of Romania,

the setting of this whole saga. Except that this eclipse doesn't occur in July, but on August 11. So what did they do? They justified that August 11 falls on the first day of the seventh month of the old Japanese lunar calendar, another fact that really exists. That's right - in the Castlevania universe, the seventh month Nostradamus is talking about is the seventh month of the Japanese lunar calendar. The guys don't miss anything, do they? They are just experts at making everything confusing. They did it again! With the presence of the church, an army, the Hakuba

temple, Alucard, Julius, and the advent of the solar eclipse, the stage was set. Just as Nostradamus said, the prophecy came true. Once again, the evil that feeds on the misery of humanity was incarnated. Dracula returned, and on August 11, 1999, the decisive battle between humanity and the forces of chaos was fought. Soldiers fought bravely against the infernal horde, until Julius Belmont, assisted by unknown companions, finally came face to face with the Demon King himself… [Cena do Julius vs Drácula] This must be the most anticipated battle in Castlevania. Since there is no game depicting this, we

unfortunately can only imagine the details. However, there are two assumptions that I want to comment on regarding this fight: The first is that it is very likely that the Dracula of this event was fully resurrected and at his full power. The Count Dracula that appears in Castlevania: Judgment is at full power, and was brought back from a period where he already remembers Eric Lecarde. In Portrait of Ruin, which takes place after Eric, we know that he was not at full power, so where could he have come from? That's right, from '99. I don't think it's

a coincidence that there's a solar eclipse hidden in his cape design, but that's just a guess anyway. If it is up to Judgment, Grant Danasty is not an acrobat, or a thief, or a pirate, he is a mummy. The second assumption is almost a certainty: Julius was the most powerful Belmont ever. Until a few years ago fans had this more as a suspicion, because things like this here. Or this total madness here that is described in the following as him HOLDING BACK. Just so you know, the man did this at the age of 55. This

old man was exploring the devil's castle UNARMED. These were hints of how absurd his power must have been at the height of his youth. But then Grimoire of Souls came out, and in it Arikado says that "the Belmont who destroyed Dracula in 1999 was the culmination of the strength of his clan's history”. I don't know about you all, but for us there's no doubt about it. Let's explore his powers a little bit? I think this way you can better understand the idea of this battle. Starting with Omnia Vanitas. [Julius using Omnia Vanitas] Not only can

he do everything a Belmont does, but Julius can also become completely invincible. But the real curiosity lies in the Japanese version of this technique. Check it out: [Julius using Omnia Vanitas in Japanese] "Shikisokuzeku" is a mantra that means something close to "Form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form." It comes from the "Heart Sutra", an important scripture that summarizes the whole basis of Buddhism. Remember what I said back there about Ben Goto's work influencing Castlevania? This didn't just translate into the presence of the Hakuba in 1999 - it seems that our bearded friend also

mastered oriental wisdom to face Satan. Another interesting power to look up is that super-powerful cross. The Grand Cross is the Belmonts' secret art that releases the sacred power within them. Julius is not the first to use it, however, the context makes his the most curious to watch. We have already explained that the eclipse of 1999 really happened. But what many people don't know is that it was part of a rare astrological event where Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and the eclipse itself, aligned, forming a cross with the Earth in the center. And what was the name of

this alignment? Of course: "Grand Cross". I am not saying for sure that it had anything to do with Julius' immense power, after all there is no game to confirm any of this. But after seeing these guys adapting a lot of real-world stuff into this story, I wouldn't find it strange if Igarashi and his team thought of this too. It is easy to understand why the developers could not choose which theme represented Julius best, and decided to put both of them together. They wanted to create a cool character. If we are right, Dracula was fighting a

man who, besides being the culmination of the Belmont family, had Buddhist wisdom and even cosmic alignment on his side. It is possible that Konami never made 99 because a Grand Cross from this bearded badass would destroy your video game. And speaking of destroying, we don't know how the duel between Dracula, Julius, and his companions went - but we do know how the whole thing ended: Julius used his family's mystical whip to separate Dracula's soul from his castle - the solidification of his magical powers - and then sealed the sacred weapon inside. With the demon on

his knees, the Hakuba family performed the ritual capable of sealing his evil house within the eclipse, nullifying the resurrection cycle that has lasted so many hundreds of years. In his final moments, Dracula released his magic like a wave of everything that's evil, and his powers spread out, finally letting his soul rest, and ridding the world of his presence once and for all. Well, we still have Aria and Dawn of Sorrow, we have Grimoire of Souls, maybe Judgement? So this story isn't really over yet, but hey. This is the first time we can say that Dracula

has been disconnected from the server. In the midst of all this, many soldiers died, having their souls enslaved by the castle and ending up sealed along with it. If you have ever wondered why there are zombie soldiers inside the castle in Aria of Sorrow, here is the answer. As for everyone else? Well, the church took care that this whole event was covered up, treating it as a secret. How you hide a war on this scale, I have no idea, but Dracula has come back God knows how many times, and everyone seems to be surprised when

he comes back again, so who knows. The Hakuba have returned to Japan, now with the implied responsibility of watching over the eclipse seal. No wonder there is that short-haired girl there in the GBA game - she is a descendant of these people, and knows some of the shenanigans that happened here. As for Julius, he fulfilled his clan's mission, proving once again that the Belmonts are still noble warriors who defend the interest of humanity. But we all know that no victory of this size comes without sacrifice: Every Belmont who defeated Dracula paid a price, and with

Julius it was no different. After the battle, he ended up in a coma and was hospitalized, losing his memory of all these events. For how long? We don't know. As for Alucard, who is the only other fellow we know who took part in the battle... didn't catch a break either. After eliminating his old man once and for all, he found out about a new prophecy, which said that in 2035, under a new eclipse, a new master would take over the castle and inherit all of Dracula's powers. I can only imagine his eyes rolling upwards, with

him thinking "Not this again". Fearing Castlevania's return, Rosemary's baby here did what any sensible man would do: he moved to the land of the rising sun, assumed a new identity to infiltrate the Japanese government, and began to keep a close eye on the Hakuba temple and what the future had in store. 1999, 2017 and 2035 form a trine of solar eclipses of the same cycle, all three taking place for real. The 1999 eclipse took place in Romania, as we already said, and the 2035 eclipse will take place directly above Japan, just like in the games,

Google it if you'd like. I bet there will be hundreds of Soma Cruz cosplays walking around the city when this happens. This was a conscious choice by Igarashi, to close this "chapter" of the Dracula saga with a great war, and take the series to a new generation. Okay, and what about 2017? Well... It is possible that this year's eclipse itself does not have much to do with this whole story, but an important character for this "new generation" of Castlevania was born exactly this year, and now we begin his chapter. Welcome to the new millenium. ARIA

OF SORROW The events of 1999 brought the real end of the mythical Count Dracula, the man who rebelled against God and decided to become the ultimate evil. This is a fact. It is also a fact that this is all bullshit, and Dracula, or rather the Demon King, may come back, but not in the way we imagine. With the castle sealed in the eclipse, humanity managed to have a few years of peace. I mean, if we ignore the pandemics, wars, famines, Konami releasing all this crap, yes, we did have a few years of peace, because cas

I mentioned earlier, the solar eclipse had a date set to return, ensuring that the castle would not be invoked until then. Fast-forwarding to 2035, which is closer to 2023 than to 2003, when Aria was released, it is time to cover what happened. So, remember all that talk about separating things, right? That 's right. Now separated from the evil that corrupted it, Dracula's soul has been purified and got reborn in 2017, as a boy named Soma Cruz. Only there's a catch: He does not know that Dracula's soul is inside him, and all his life he has

lived as a normal kid, although he is constantly being watched by forces beyond his knowledge one of them being Genya Arikado, our boy Alucard. Whether by irony of fate, or sheer control, Soma grew up befriending Mina Hakuba - a descendant of those who sealed the castle in the past. With the eclipse about to happen, the pretty boy decides to pay her a visit at her family's temple, so that they can witness the spectacle together. Unfortunately for the boy, he loses consciousness, waking up some time later inside the castle. And guess who dragged him inside? Alucard

himself! “DID YOU HAVE A PLEASANT NAP?” Shove it, Alucard, since when you’re that much of an ass ? That's right. Soma - and Mina, by proxy - are inside the castle - are inside the castle which is inside the Eclipse, which is the date prescribed by the prophecy handed down in 1999, and now it's up to the white-haired boy with extremely luxurious coat to understand what the hell is going on. Fortunately, Genya Arikado is there to explain - by defeating a frightening flying skeleton, Soma awakens part of his powers, because his soul possesses the Power

of Dominance, an ability inherited by default from Dracula himself. This power is used to absorb, control, and manipulate the souls of other creatures, and, in case you're a little lost because you've never seen Dracula use it, this ability is demonstrated in Portrait of Ruin when he absorbs Death’s soul to become MechaDracula or whatever the hell that ugly thing is. f you're a bit confused as to why Soma has this ability, I will try to explain it in an extremely simplified way, because even I get confused by it. Castlevania's cosmology divides beings into these three parts:

Body, spirit, and soul. Body is exactly what you think it is - the human shell with muscles, tissue and localized fat, mainly in the belly. Spirit is the "personality" - it's what was changed when Dracula became the incarnation of evil, and then when he reincarnated as Soma. They’re each a different person. The Soul is something more ethereal. This is the part that persists in the universe, like a flame that passes on, always constant. Bodies and spirits change, but the soul is always the same. Therefore, Dracula's soul never changed, what changed was the person who controlled

it and, in '99, this person was separated from the powers that corrupted him through an evil spirit or "will". We will explain this evil will later but, basically, Dracula's soul was reset to default settings in 1999. This can be a little difficult to understand for people here in the West precisely because of cultural differences. As Aria of Sorrow is heavily influenced by Japanese culture and the Buddhist and Shinto religions, it all seems very alien to those who try to understand the logic behind this thing, but just put yourself in the shoes of the guys for

a minute: Imagine being a layman in Christianity, which is still the largest religion here in the West, and going around consuming things inspired by this religion - you'd surely be wondering why the heck everyone wears a plus-sign around their neck, and how the heck this guys has the ability to walk on water. To us, this is accepted as the normality of the religion but, to a layman, it is confusing and far from reality. Remember when Castlevania was all about killing skeletons that threw infinite bones? I do. Good times. Anyway, having absorbed his first soul, Soma

gets a sweet taste of the power of throwing a spear in a small arc in front of him. Alucard informs the boy that he needs to go to the throne room to "understand everything", otherwise Mina will die. No pressure. Filled with determination, Soma begins to rediscover his old home, absorbing new powers and growing stronger in the process - almost as if this is something natural for him. As we already know, it's because it is. During his exploration, the boy meets Graham Jones, a totally reliable missionary who gives the boy a glimpse into the events of

'99 so that he can understand a little of what happened. There is a certain irony to it in Soma having the soul of Dracula inside him, and telling a person that he thinks the mythological vampire was just a made up tale. Another one who crosses Soma's path is Yoko Belnades, a descendant of the Belnades clan from Castlevania 3. She explains a little about the Power of Dominance that Soma possesses within himself, making it clear that the ability does not necessarily have to be used for evil. Just look at Alucard himself, who is a vampire who

uses his dark powers to do good. She also warns us to be a little careful with this Graham guy, who Soma has just met, because he is literally a con man, as if his appearance doesn't already tell us that, right? Besides Graham and Yoko, Soma also meets two other characters: Hammer, a soldier who was investigating the Hakuba temple, and J, an old man who needs no introductions, right? Or does he? Don't tell me you are listening to the video only? We prepared a lot of artwork for you to leave the video as background noise? YOU

CAN COME BACK AND WATCH IT ALL OVER AGAIN! And since you're already here, go ahead and subscribe. If this video doesn't deserve it, nothing else on this platform does. Anyway, J is Julius, now old and with no memory of anything that has happened. We don't know for how long the guy has been in a coma, but there are two possibilities: Either he has lived without memories and his presence in the castle is joggin' his noggin', or he has just woken up from a coma and lived his whole life in a bed. Either way, cruel fate

for Belmont. He talks to Soma a little bit about the prophecy of 1999, which is what brought him here. Apparently he works as a private exorcist, and his presence in this castle raises suspicions that he had involvement with the legendary battle. Little does Soma know, right? The search for the throne room continues and, in the meantime, the student discovers some more information while crossing paths with the people who are wandering around: from Graham, he learns about the theory that he might be Dracula since he was born at the same exact time as the vampire Dracula's

death, and from Yoko, he fully understands who is good and who is evil. Graham clearly considers Soma an enemy, since he almost slapped the boy when he found out about his Power of Dominance… Desperation and insecurity drive the missionary to a manic state, going on a spree of violence against other people - even poor Yoko gets stabbed when she tries talking to him. He fears that Soma is right, and that all that nonsense about his birth is pure nonsense. It's also worth remembering that Graham is a well-known figure by the time Aria of Sorrow takes

place - he is the leader of an extremely popular cult that relies on prophecies of the end of the world, much like what happened at the turn of the millennium and in 2012. Thanks to his status and fame, his ego is easily the size of Castlevania itself, and in his view, it won't be this little brat that will defeat him. Well, he is soon proven wrong - Soma arrives at the throne room to confront him after a brief encounter that reveals the truth about Julius Belmont, and they both decide to see whose blood is cursed

enough to command the forces of darkness. I don't even need to tell you who wins, right? But… Voilá! Killing Graham in the throne room creates a direct link between Soma and the castle, as if this awakened his true self - something that was already fated to happen, but was sped-up due to the circumstances (and Arikado's meddling). But it's not over yet: Although the teen is linked with Dracula's powers, he has not yet been possessed by the evil will that transforms him into the Demon King. Yeah, remember that we mentioned this "will" before? It was born

when Dracula was revived by humans with wicked hearts. It is because of this little thing that Dracula remained evil even after Symphony of the Night. And now it's returned, and wants back Dracula's soul - its better half. At the moment Soma is still Soma, but a tiny bit more likely to be banned from Steam for being edgy in chat, if that makes sense. Alucard then explains that it is important to cut off the connection with chaos so that this evil will does not take control. But there's a problem: That connection can only be accessed by

none other than Dracula himself, which is why the connection in the throne room needed to be made. With the castle recognizing the Soul of its master, the passage now becomes free for the chaotic root to be cut off. Except that another problem appears in the meantime - a bearded problem that was not present when that happened: Julius! Just before Soma defeated Graham, our friend J recovered his memories and remembered not only his identity, but also his purpose. When they parted, Julius went after his family's mighty weapon, which had been out of his hands for so

many years. Remember that it got sealed in the castle in 1999? But on his next encounter with the teen, Julius no longer finds a confused and innocent young man - he finds someone who burns with the powers of evil. Even as he tries to explain himself, Soma is forced to fight the Belmont family's older warrior. Fortunately, this encounter is more a test of faith on both sides than something really cruel - Soma realizes that Julius is holding back, and Julius holds back because he realizes that there is enough Soma left in this Dracula. The two

part ways, trusting that Soma will get the job done. Long story short, Soma enters the chaos that gives rise to the entire castle, and crushes the evil will within himself. The boy's determination to escape from the castle with his girl is so great that he is the one who truly eliminates Dracula's resurrection cycle. And nobody gives two shits about him, right? The game ends with the couple back at the Hakuba temple - away from the castle, which is still trapped inside the Eclipse, and most importantly, away from the direct influence of chaos. Soma managed to

prove to himself and to the whole world that having Dracula's soul within himself is not enough to unleash havoc. A strong negative intent must also be present - - the same that made Dracula sell his soul to the darkness, the same that is born from humanity and inherited by the vampire in his rebirth, the same that corrupts men like Graham. Thank goodness none of this is present in this 2003 boy band singer wannabe. But keep in mind that mankind cries out for Dracula. And while there is a chance that he may return, however small that

may be, there will still be people wanting him back. The work is never over. DAWN OF SORROW It's 2036 - one year after the events of Aria of Sorrow. In the meantime, Soma has been able to enjoy some relatively peace and quiet, even changing his style a bit - it looks like the graphical upgrade on the Nintendo DS cost him his old jacket, but whatever. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, his Power of Dominance went dormant when he left the castle, turning him back into a regular young man, apart, of course,

from all the slaughter he had to do with his hellish powers, but he seems pretty cool about it, since he is on a little date to talk about Hammer. Who the hell talks about Hammer on a romantic date? Is his bald head with the goatee really that sexy? To rain on their parade, a wild Celia Fortner appears out of nowhere in the middle of town, summoning monsters to attack the defenseless couple. This priestess is the leader and founder of a cult called "With Light". I'll let you try and guess what’s the purpose of the cult

of a woman who summons creatures from hell. You got 25 shots. If your answer is: she wants to try to bring back Dracula - bingo! Well, sort of. Celia wants to create a Demon King because, in her mind, the pain he brings leads people to God. Different from the cults in the 10 chapters we have already seen, this one reveres God, but thinks that for Him to be truly good, it is necessary to have an equivalent force of evil. It is like setting fire to a church to see if the city firemen still respond to

the call, only a little bit worse. Luckily for Soma, he has a guardian angel called Genya Arikado, who manages to intervene in time for the kid to defend himself against the attack. This awakens his Power of Dominance once more, since he absorbs the souls of his dead opponents. Alucard just showing up out of nowhere here might be a bit...huh...forced, perhaps? But it goes to show that Soma is constantly being watched, and probably will continue to be throughout his life. Like it or not, the boy has Dracula’s soul inside him, and the servants of evil are

constantly polishing their techniques to bring back the dark lord. Keeping an eye on him is nothing but fair. But this raises the question: Why did Celia decide to attack Soma instead of, I don't know, trying some kind of friendship? Call him over for a chat, buy him a cup of coffee, some chicken wings, hell, why not all of the above? So, there's something stinking about this, and Soma decides to go after some more in-depth information regarding the nature of this strange cult, even against Alucard's protests. With Hammer's help, they both head to the place that

is apparently the cult’s lair. Oh, and by the way, this marks the beginning of a side-arc I like to call “Horny Hammer”, where he developed an almost fetishist crush for the blond mage from the last game, poor Yoko Belnades. Can't say I blame him. Deciding to investigate, Soma discovers that there's a mission already taking place - both the sorceress and Julius Igarashi are in this region searching for more information about this cult, basically bringing the guys from 2035 back together for more trouble. Everyone's feeling a bit on edge about Soma, since he's basically a demonic

time-bomb dressed in school uniform, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to delve deeper into the place - his foot is already in the mud, no use in keeping his pants clean now, right? It’s with this attitude that the boy moves on through the base of operations of Celia’s cult, and soon meets up with her. If the cult has already shown itself suspicious outside, here it reveals its true, evil nature since, as I mentioned before, its goal is to recreate an ultimate evil. Alongside the priestess, we meet two morons - Dario and Dmitrii - who

are in a contest to see which of the two will become the next dark lord candidate, since, like Graham, they were also born the moment Dracula died, inheriting some of his powers. Dario is the guy with the average thug attitude - he inherited part of Dracula's fire powers and has pyromancy. At first this doesn't seem all that impressive, since casting fireballs was probably the simplest thing the vampire could do - See? Even Alucard can do it, and he's not even the dark lord, but... Redhead here should not be underestimated. Shaggy’s long lost brother here is

Dmitrii, an arrogant scoundrel with the ability to copy abilities used against him. Of the two villains, this one is the one who ends up causing the most trouble for the protagonist during his expedition, thanks to his modus operandi being closer to that of a spy rather than a firebending gorilla thug. A perfect example to showcase his powers is when Dmitrii is beaten by Soma, on one of the first boss fights of the game - first, it looks as if he is going to pull a fast one on Celia, and then he simply reveals his hand,

allowing himself to be absorbed almost on purpose by Dorakyura here (Japanese Dracula. You can laugh now). Besides being a rather suspicious strategy, it also left the boy a bit shaken - does this mean that the Power of Dominance can absorb human souls as well? But why on earth doesn't Soma receive any kind of new ability or strength from Dmitrii then? Not at all eyebrow-raising. At least Dario is an easier guy to deal with - I mean, sort of. As I said before, his powers are dangerous, it’s troublesome even for a legendary vampire hunter like Julius,

who cannot defeat him in direct combat. This is only possible because Celia attached the soul of a powerful demon named Aguni to the body of the pyromancer wannabe, greatly amplifying his combat capabilities. Since this demon's soul is in a parallel dimension, it is practically impossible for a hunter without prior knowledge of this to face him in a fair fight… But Soma is no hunter, he's Dracula with the Power of Dominance, and thanks to his abilities, he manages to sever the connection between Dario and the demon. Unfortunately for everyone watching at this moment, he survives this

whole mess by fleeing the scene. Hey, don't get angry yet! Save that anger because if Celia sees you, she will use it against you. That's more or less the idea of her plan when she realizes that her dark lord candidates have been defeated: "Since I can take nothing from them, I will take from that who took from them." And to do so, she uses a recurring creature from Castlevania that goes waaaaay back to the days of Castlevania 3 - a doppelganger - to take the form of Mina Hakuba, Soma's girlfriend. Since Celia caught them both

in small talk back in town, she knew that the girl held some importance to our little Dracula and, with that, she "sacrifices" the copy to enable the last candidate’s hatred to burst out. If we think about it, this is more or less what happened with Lisa and Dracula, isn't it? The symbolism of the girl stuck on that tree reminds us of the crucifix that Lisa was burned on - almost as if history was repeating itself. Only Soma came prepared - some time before this staged “sacrifice”, Alucard delivered a letter and a talisman from the real

Mina. Although the image of his beloved dying is painful to him now, the talisman holds back his anger long enough for Alucard to reveal the hoax. The problem is that although he can take the beating, there was still a strong emotion at this moment - hatred was encouraged, even a little bit, and soma's heart skipped a beat. This is enough for a strange dark energy to come out of the boy's body, possessing the doppelganger’s corpse. This dark energy is actually Dmitrii's soul - he allowed himself to be absorbed by Soma to read his memories, and

above all, touch his soul to copy his Power of Dominance - which for him, is the key factor that would make him the next dark lord. Dmitriii realized that all this talk of Dark Lord Candidates was baloney - the real heir to the throne is not someone who inherited powers from Dracula, but someone with a desire to rule over darkness. Everyone is taken by surprise by this plot twist, even Celia, who thought that Shaggy here had choked on a Scooby Snack. So, if plan A, which was to turn Soma into the bad guy, went wrong,

and now there's a guy with the same powers and more interest in the job, then we'll go with plan B, right? And that's pretty much what happens - Celia takes Dmitrii and flees into the abyss. It's up to the Mystery Machine meddling kids to put an end to this whole mess. To reach the abyss, an evil barrier must be broken. Julius had stayed behind to take care of this problem, but time is money, and they need time really badly now. Using up every bit of his energy, Julius unleashes his holy power to break the barrier

protecting the entrance to the Abyss. But this raises an interesting question: what the hell IS the Abyss? Celia's goal in Dawn of Sorrow is to recreate the dark lord so that he can justify the existence of a kind god. That’s fine and dandy. Except how the hell did she summon all the hellspawn in this region, being that she is the only one who has shown herself capable of doing so? She did so basically by opening a kind of gate in the depths of her headquarters, which leads into the what is called "Makai" - the Demon

Realm. Remember back in Lament of Innocence when we explained to you that demons are born out of chaos? The Makai is where these monsters live. They stay there and even have their own hierarchies, until some crazy kook like Dracula or Shaft takes them for a walk. But the interesting part doesn't end here: The main goons beaten by the Belmonts also end up here - in other words, the Makai is the vampire's vacation spot until humanity wants him back. Pretty easy to understand. Way back in Castlevania III, when Dracula started his war against humanity, he opened

a portal to this hell dimension, and it possessed the castle. That's how it became a Demon Castle and that's what Celia is trying to do with her headquarters. The gate to the Abyss that she opened acts as a bridge to the Makai, and its influence is slowly turning this place into a Demon Castle, like an evil plague shaping reality. And since Shaggy and the crazy lady decided to hide there, it is time to settle things once and for all. Soma reaches Dmitri, who neither fears nor hesitates to sacrifice Celia to contain the powers of Alucard,

who got here earlier because in this game he either arrives too early, or too late on every holy occasion. Ready to become the demon king, the slender man begins to emanate evil energy derived from his copy of the Power of Dominance - if ever you wanted to see a Dracula versus Dracula clash, it would be now. There’s just a tiny issue. Dmitrii doesn't have the X factor to control the ability he copied from Soma - which in this case, is Dracula's soul. It's as if he had copied a Windows program to run on Linux, you

know? The program is right, but the operating system is wrong. Thanks to thas, the Dark Lord transformation goes wrong, with the result being something akin to a Silent Hill reject. Have you seen this ugly monster? He is an amalgam of the demonic souls they managed to capture, but which turned against him. Dmitri simply lacked the ability to control this power. This skill issue ends up being an advantage for Soma, who can defeat Menace, practically within the realm of demons. The kid has already defeated the chaos of his own soul, and now, he has proven that

he can keep a cool head to defeat a super giant demon where the evil energy is really intense. Soma is the goat! Too bad he has the charisma of a dry mop. But hey, at least he is on our side. Alucard explains to the boy that Celia had somewhat of a point - maybe there is a need for a demon king to control the Makai, because God only knows what will happen if things gets messy down there. But this king doesn't have to be Soma. At the end of the adventure, everyone gathers around, and with

that, I can finally ask the important question: Why does the Succubus appear as Yoko Belnades? NOVELA DO DAWN OF SORROW Most Castlevania fans understand that the last point in the timeline represented by Igarashi's vision for the games was Dawn of Sorrow: It takes place in 2036, and kind of serves to show that Soma's life is going to be a constant torment of people nagging for him to become the dark lord again. What many people don't know is that there is one more chapter complementing this era of Castlevania, through the [KABUCHI NO TSUISOUKYOKU] novel, that's right.

Thanks Google. This piece of curio was supervised by Igarashi, and was released as a sort of addendum or supplement to the story in Dengeki Bunko magazine in November 2008. It is another example of media quoted in this video that is not included in the official timeline, but that we have included because in addition to IGA's supervision, it offers a deeper insight into the world while following the canon. Despite its inclusion here, whether it exists or not has little impact on things because...we don't exactly have a continuation of this part of the timeline to work with,

do we? If one day this is disassociated from the canon for some reason, it can be as easily removed as the Symphony of the Night novel. Oh, and before we begin: This novel was written by Ryugo Narita, known in Japan for flourishing his texts in a way that makes the Tolkien work look simple. I read a translation provided by Shiroi Komori, from Castlevania Dungeon, who did a nearly miraculous job in translating the novel to English, and let me tell you: I almost had a stroke reading this thing. If ever I felt DUMB reading something Castlevania

related, it was this novel. So I will try to simplify this episode for you, focusing only on what matters. It's better for you, it's better for me, and if I need to read one more time that a vampire personifies the dark depths of the seabed, I'm going to go on a rampage using an Oxford Dictionary. The artwork by Vamp here serves to help you better visualize the story as well. That being said… Once upon a time, 2037. Dawn is over, and another year has gone by. Soma Cruz is taking a walk, chillin' like a penguin,

when he realizes he is being watched, but this time, not by an ally like Alucard, but by Death, our favorite caped skeleton. Curiously enough, instead of wanting to slice the boy, he kindly comes over to ask with needy cat eyes if Soma doesn't want to become his new master - and I swear to you, upon being refused, Death simply sends that "understandable, have a nice day meme", wishing the boy to live his life in peace. He is eternal, Soma is not. Waiting a few years won't cost much. In the meantime, two vampire hunters named Curtis

Lang and Michelle Danasty are investigating the outskirts of Wallachia on behalf of the church, which continues to maintain a squad of trained specialists on the occasion of Dracula's return - something that has been going on since Castlevania 3, if you remember Sypha. The surname Danasty must also have rang a bell, and yes, Michelle is a descendant of the demon-stabbing acrobat Grant. Just like Quincy Morris, these two here don't have official art, so Vamp did some magic for us based on the description in the novel. If one day something official comes up - which I doubt

very much - please mentally adapt them for this story. Both hunters are investigating the disappearance of some children in the Wallachian region, shortly after a partial solar eclipse. And, as you already know, starting in 2035, solar eclipses will basically be the new chance for Dracula's castle to rise again. And get this: the castle actually returns, serving as a target for the two hunters to start their search. Unfortunately, this Curtis guy is a hot-head who does not want to sacrifice his friend, and thanks to this, he disagrees with her and goes on alone instead of waiting

for Yoko and Julius' reinforcements - the latter having become her master and mentor. The guy moves on, and as he explores the surroundings a bit, he comes across a large number of people in the place, who are apparently here thanks to some kind of cult. Curtis is not the kind of guy who kills humans, even if they are working for evil, and thanks to this carelessness, the young hunter is gunned down near the castle gardens, left for dead. In the meantime, poor Michelle has to go after him, alone. One nice thing is that the incarnation

of the castle depicted in this novel is exactly the same as the one as in Aria of Sorrow, so you can more or less mentalize the setting while reading based on the description provided. When Grant's descendant finally reaches her friend's body, it's the worst possible scenario - his vital signs are practically nonexistent, and he is one step away from paying a visit to the devil. And you already know what happens to those who die in the castle, don't you? Fortunately, a bald acquaintance shows up to save the day - Hammer! He learned about the castle's

reappearance, God knows how, and came straight here looking for Yoko Belnades, because he knew she would show up if such an event occurred again. I wanted to write a thread here about how much I want to smash a vase on the head of whoever turned Hammer into this old creep, but Mario made me promise that I was entitled to one critique per video hour and I already spent it all at the start of this section, so let's get down to business: the old man shows up, and saves Curtis with one of those magic potions that

you can only carry 9 of it in your inventory back in Aria of Sorrow. But, apparently, the contents of the potion have been mixed with expired tap water, because when the guy finally wakes up, he looks like the average Castlevania fan - gloomy, unspoken and weird. To add to the suspicions, Curtis now employs superhuman combat techniques, far beyond his capabilities. This draws Michelle's attention, who notices the different behavior of her partner. She even starts to lag behind as they get deeper into the castle, as Curtis takes care of just about every enemy that appears without

any trouble. In the meantime, Julius and Yoko finally show up, since they had to travel back to Wallachia. Stepping into the shadow of the Hell House, they already notice something very strange: the atmosphere is different, there are security cameras in the place, the presence of humans can be felt, and the behavior of the monsters is suspicious, as they seem to ignore the hunters' presence. Julius in particular quickly concludes that this is not Dracula's castle, but a copy made in some inexplicable way. Further investigation on Yoko's part also reveals a mass suicide by what appears to

be a cult, and if there is something that usually helps with evil energy, it is a bunch of people encouraging chaos in such a structure. I'll let you in on some info, the lord of this castle is none other than Olrox, who took advantage of a crack in the Hakuba seal to create a kind of copy of Dracula's castle. To do this, he needed the servants of the late Graham Jones, the antagonist from Aria of Sorrow. Their logic is quite simple: The dark lord returns whenever the castle appears, and since humanity has chaos within itself

and wants Dracula back, Then their promised dark lord - Graham Jones - must be about to return! Let's sacrifice ourselves! Taking advantage of this misguided group, Olrox uses the opportunity to conduct a test: If humans were to lose free will, would the chaos disappear? ...And yes, he is doing this as an experiment. There is still one more detail to this whole story that we will touch on in a moment, but the non-life is so boring that he wakes up one night wishing to do a moderate amount of tomfoolery with all these people. This experiment draws

the attention of Death himself, who springs up in the castle after being turned down by Soma Cruz. He explores the shabby structure, questions the imperfections and weirdness, such as Slogra and Gaibon not answering his call, and even fights Olrox himself when the curtain of the play finally falls. Now I ask for a little bit of your attention if you want to understand the order of events, otherwise your head will spin a bit: Death and Olrox fight. Death is defeated because Olrox was prepared. Death has his magic completely drained, but his soul is left to wander.

About to disappear, he possesses Curtis' body almost by sheer luck, as soon as he got shot. Curtis is nursed back to health with a magic potion from Hammer. Curtis is now no longer Curtis, but Death. This explains his superhuman abilities and strange behavior. Interestingly, at one point in the plot, the possessed Curtis faces a version of Death in one of the corridors, which is quite confusing - if Death is possessing him, who the hell is he fighting? The answer is simple, but a little confusing while reading, like almost everything else that happens: Basically, the Puppetmaster

from Dawn of Sorrow is present in the castle, maneuvering the monsters into their proper rooms. So they ignore everything and everyone. These monsters are nothing but puppets, and the fake Death is also included. As you may have noticed, these events occur at "different times", and drawing this inference while reading is very confusing, since the novel begins with the hunter getting shot. We have saved some of your neurons. What you need to know is that Olrox is behind it all, and Death has possessed Michelle's friend - his presence in the guy's body is so evil that

Curtis' own whip burns his skin. Death, now in human form, is determined to beat the crap out of Olrox, since he got a second chance, and when he arrives at the throne room, the vampire receives him with questions about the lack of a Demon King, and what he intends to do to bring him back. In order to streamline the story and focus on what matters, it is in this scene that Death points out that the name "Dracula" does not belong to anyone specific - as long as a human accepts the call of chaos, they are

already fit to be a dark lord. Therefore, someone like Graham could indeed be the lord of darkness. All that was missing was the right opportunity. Before the conversation gets too brainy, Michelle appears to help in the confrontation and a battle ensues. Meanwhile, Julius goes out to hunt Puppetmaster, who is the cause of the monsters infesting the place, and Yoko manages to rescue the kidnapped children. During the fight with Olrox, the castle's true appearance is finally revealed: A Granfaloon, or Legion. The entire structure was literally made up of millions of corpses amalgamated into an illusion. Olrox

had these people take their own lives to create his copy of the castle. Pretty gruesome, right? What matters is that the two demons keep fighting among themselves, making room for Michelle to fire a crucial arrow from her crossbow at Olrox. He manages to dodge it quite easily, but this lapse in focus is enough for Death to capitalize and slice him down with his scythe. The bloodsucker's final moments reveal that he has no regrets, since his rebirth is already assured. Vampires have the power to come back to life after a few years. So, for him, this

was just a little game. In his last breath, he questions Death's faith, who replies without much fanfare: as long as humans exist, there is still chaos to work with, and if there is chaos, he needs no unemployment insurance. Olrox turns to dust, and Skeletor's bond with Curtis' body is also severed, since the deal has kind of ended. Before he moves on, he reminds everyone that this was a fragile truce, and that in the next encounter, humans will once again become his enemies. With this, Curtis can finally rest in peace, since he had pretty much kicked

the bucket before the bond with Death. But wait! Actually, Death entering his body may have had a beneficial effect - his body was not yet 100% dead, and his wish to see Michelle safe had kept him on his feet. Since Death no longer wants his body, he can take over again. Whether this was his doing or not, we don't know: Maybe the skeleton didn't want to owe anyone anything. What a nice guy. That brings the arc to a close. Olrox was defeated, Legion and the Puppetmaster were defeated at the hands of Julius, and the sun

rose once again. The End. O FIM (Kinda) We have reached the end of Castlevania. Right? After Dawn there is nothing else, right? The 2037 novel marks the end of the important narratives that Koji Igarashi was involved in. Both it and the Symphony of the Night radio drama were released in November 2008, a month after Order of Ecclesia, and after that we had no more material directly related to the timeline. This does not mean that Castlevania was dead - Igarashi remained at Konami until 2014, and there were products of different scope being worked on and released

in the meantime, such as Harmony of Despair and Adventure Rebirth, which although not canonical, still had his involvement. But, a funny thing about all this is: During all this time, Castlevania's official Japanese website kept being updated. The funny part is that the official timeline contained on that site - which shapes the spine of this video - has been stopped since 2006, the year Portrait of Ruin was released. The novels? Order of Ecclesia? Anything from 2008? None of that went into it. Portrait of Ruin was the last thing they added. Who knows what happened behind the

scenes. Then, in 2017, almost a decade after Order of Ecclesia’s release and with Igarashi leaving Konami, this website was discontinued and removed from the internet, being accessible only by external platforms such as the Wayback Machine. Pages upon pages were lost, along with dedicated applications produced for Flash Player. Unless you do a lot of research, all of this has been forgotten, almost replicating the very end of Order of Ecclesia if you stop to think about it. This has left Castlevania fans with no official material about the actual timeline of the series, leading to doubts and confusion

about which events can or cannot be considered correct. Could Konami be rewriting the story again, as Igarashi did so many years back? It's Konami, guys. What do you think would come from them? A video like this one? Nah. In 2018, they resurrected a page of a similar nature... that showed only the dates of the games' RELEASES. No touching on the canon. Fans had to wait for the release of the Castlevania Collection, in 2019, to finally get some kind of confirmation about the state of the franchise's story. It came through the bonus material that can be

accessed from the main menu. And like getting socks for Christmas, this enclosed timeline also disappoints, covering only the games contained within the collection. In other words: we got half an answer. Our last safe haven came via the release of Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, that [Beep] of a game released for Android that died less than a year after being developed, only to be resurrected as an Apple Arcade game. Grimoire of Souls works as a celebration of the canon, clearing up some of the questions that have been hanging around for over ten years, reaffirming all the games

that existed in the original Japanese timeline, but adding some pretty questionable stuff. Under new management, Castlevania has received another canonical episode, 11 years later. And we are going to take a brief look at it. Very brief, because Castlevania is dead, and I don't have the necessary means to play it, since the game is only available for iPhone. Get on, I'll explain later. GRIMOIRE OF SOULS Allow me a little critique. I hate Grimoire of Souls - both its idea and its execution. A product made to celebrate the canon, but stuck in an expensive device, buried in

gacha mechanics, and that brings some ideas that don't make any logical sense. Are you telling me that THE Alucard of all people doesn't know Charlotte, or Brauner? He literally passed down his spear to the Lecarde family but didn't know that Dracula's castle emerged in the middle of WWII? Yeah, sure, that's okay. Thank you mysterious writer from Konami. Grimoire of Souls was originally published in 2019, for Android phones. As I mentioned before, this guy here has had a bizarre life cycle, but at least it's still playable for the 4 guys who have an interest. But this

game presents a huge problem for us here in the video: This one is probably the Castlevania with the most dialogue, story, cutscenes, and trivia of the entire franchise, and it is stuck on an expensive mobile model that is impossible to emulate. To make matters worse, the Japanese text HERE is extremely laborious to acquire. Simply put: All the hundreds of lines of dialogue in this game cannot be easily extracted from memory - they are sent over the Internet to the game as you play, and the only way to read them all requires you to decipher a

complicated font. The work to translate just this one game would be the work of this entire video. So, in this specific case, we will use the English version. But this won’t be a problem: The plot of this game is pretty straightforward, and what we get of relevant information presented by it we have already applied here in the script. It's just too much talking for not enough story, you know? Too many dialogues, but if you filter only what is important, you can reduce a lot. But to filter it, you need to consume it, and this game

is complicated to consume. So please forgive us for this part. But inaccessibility makes this episode harder than usual to work with. We will be using gameplay compilations provided by the following YouTube channels - so that we can have something to show you. With that in mind… Grimoire of Souls takes place somewhere after Dawn of Sorrow, and begins with Arikado receiving a mysterious letter, saying that "The grimoires have awakened and darkness approaches" - as if this poor guy's life isn't all about chasing darkness. After confirming that the eclipse seal has not been broken, Arikado discovers that

the letter was written by Lucy Westenra, a researcher for an organization called the Elgos, charged with documenting everything about Dracula's conflicts with humanity over the centuries in special books called "Grimoires" - each one documenting an era where Dracula's castle returned. She explains that magical cores have mysteriously emerged within these books, and are leaking out into the real world in the form of monsters, opening up a call to action for those who can stop this. She needs Alucard - a powerful royal warrior who has intimate knowledge of Dracula's castle - to enter the books using a

secret technique developed by Elgos, so that he can destroy the monsters inside them. and recover the magical cores, called Vital Souls. It is worth noting that Alucard did not know about this organization until then - even though he works for the government and has access to the most diverse contacts - but, sensing the imminent threat this could pose to the world, he agrees to help them. These raids on the books won't happen without help: Lucy has the ability to turn descriptions of the heroes who fought Dracula in the past into real people, able to talk,

and most importantly, to fight. Among these heroes are Simon, Maria, Charlotte and Shanoa, with others serving as secondary assistants such as Albus, Jonathan, Richter and even the magical girl version of Maria. Alright, we have our mission, time to work! During his expeditions collecting the Vital Souls, Alucard comes face to face with other figures. The first of them is the wretched Death, who immediately makes clear the importance of his intervention: If Death is around and can also get into the books, then the hole goes even deeper. A segunda cabeça a dar as caras é este nada

suspeito velhote, conhecido como Seward, o The second to show its face is this not at all suspicious old man, known as Seward, the head of the organization. It is from him that we find out that Elgos was created in 1999, and has been cataloging everything known about Castlevania ever since. They even managed to recover Ecclesia's research, which had been hidden by the leaders of the time to cover up their failure to destroy Dracula. The last person of real importance to be introduced is Hermina, a mysterious witch, who is accompanied by none other than Soma Cruz,

rewritten in a corrupted version of himself who searches for the Vital Souls. Hermina was a brilliant researcher from this organization who developed the technique of entering the Grimoires. However, one day, she went mad, and set out to destroy all her work, except for two Grimoires, of which she tucked under her arm and left. Elgos was helpless for a long time, until finally Lucy showed up. Her coven of witches dismissed her as incompetent, but her talents helped our little witch to find herself in Elgos, and restore much of the destroyed research, as well as completing a

few Grimoires in the process. With Hermina's return, Seward explains that the evil Soma Cruz working with her is not the same boy band member from Aria of Sorrow, but a conjured version of the books she stole - just like we saw Lucy do - and that this whole mess is probably her work. Considering that she and fake Soma are after the Vital Souls as well, they had better hurry up, because Soma could turn into Dracula, just like in the bad endings from Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. From this moment on, it is a race to

see who collects the Vital Souls first. And Seward's prediction proves to be right: The grimoires become more unstable with this back and forth of people coming and going, summoning and manipulating. Their magic begins to leak out again, and monsters that the organization had already destroyed in the real world began to reappear. Surely this is not something written to justify the players replaying stages they have already cleared, right Konami? This leads to a series of bizarre events, such as Grimoires being rewritten in real time causing the heroes summoned by Lucy to start disappearing. Thanks to Alucard,

these situations are averted, but always just barely. Time is running out. The conflict reaches its peak when, during one of the Vital Souls retrievals, Arikado and company are surprised by the evil Soma, who is working with Hermina in the real world to steal all the work collected so far. And you know what's worse? They succeed! Soma and Hermina make off with all the souls, leaving Alucard and Lucy to fend for themselves. The only silver lining is the fact that the castle remains trapped in the Eclipse, so they don't have to worry about the resurrection of

the Count....right? Seems plausible enough. But our reliable friend Charlotte reminds everyone that this is no guarantee, since back in her day a study of magic called mirroring was already being developed. Basically, when two magical objects are constructed identical, it is possible to transfer their contents from one to the other perfectly. In other words: Even if the castle described in the grimoires is just a handful of text, in terms of magic, it and the castle inside the eclipse are the same thing. Welp, we're screwed! In the meantime, Lucy finds out that Hermina and Soma have escaped

to the grimoire of 1797, the era when Alucard defeated Dracula. Time to go after them! Once in the throne room, Arikado finds Hermina...defeated. Before her, sitting on his throne, is his father, now resurrected. ‘Sup old man! Father and son fight each other again, which ends as quickly as it begins: this Dracula here is lacking in iron and vitamin C, looking more like a fragmented projection than the lord of demons. At any rate, Soma shows up, stops Alucard from retrieving the stolen Vital Souls, and absorbs them. He explains that such souls are actually the Dracula's solidified

power, and that he was just using Hermina for his own goal of becoming the complete Dracula. When Arikado tries to intervene, our favorite skeleton daddy who's been nagging our heroes for a thousand years shows up to protect the fake Soma, helping him escape with the stolen souls. Again out of options, the group drags Hermina into the real world, now it's time to get some answers… The sorceress explains that she antagonized the group because she believed that Arikado and company were trying to revive Dracula, after all this was the REAL goal of the Elgos organization they

are currently helping. At some point in the past, Hermina learned that this society was founded by Death himself for the sole purpose of recreating Dracula's castle in as much detail as possible, so that she could mirror the magic from within the eclipse into the castle within the grimoires, in the form of Vital Souls. Upon discovering that she was part of this nefarious plan, the researcher destroyed all her work and took off with the Soma Cruz-era books, seeking to ensure that the mirroring process was not completed. However, Elgos eventually hired Lucy, who rebuilt everything from scratch

and allowed Death to continue the magical ritual. Frightened, Hermina then decided to revive Dracula in his weakened form to destroy him before Death could carry out his plan, and to do so, she summoned the hero Soma Cruz, in a process similar to what Arikado and team were doing. Unfortunately, the castle's power had already infested the Soma related grimoires, turning him into an evil version, which betrayed her at the key moment of the execution of her plan. With only Hermina's two Grimoires and a group determination left, it is up to Alucard and his companions to prevent

this version of Soma from becoming the lord of darkness. In order for this to happen, Hermina and Lucy develop a spell that can separate Dracula's power from its user. It sounds like something out of the blue, but this idea was similar to what Brauner did back in Portrait, isolating the throne room from the rest of the castle so that he could overpower it. To represent the rising of the sun and the hope of mankind, this spell is called “Aurora”. Knowing that Soma is also in search of the remaining Vital Souls, Alucard and co. set a

trap in the book of 2036, using Gergoth's Vital Soul to lure the boy to them. After a failed attempt and a dangerous battle, Soma is finally separated from the Vital Souls he has collected so far thanks to the recently developed “Aurora”. This gives the group two advantages: A purified Soma Cruz, and a bunch of the souls collected so far, united into one. In the real world, Seward congratulates the heroes on their well-deserved success. They have succeeded in preventing Soma's transformation, and thanks to that, victory is theirs. Only one step remains: Send the power of the

Vital Souls back into the eclipse, from where it should never have left. But then I ask you, viewer who must be dying from watching a video of God knows how many hours: Who is missing in this story? If you answered internally that it's our favorite skeleton, bingo! Your prize is to watch me explain the rest of the plot now. Yes! Seward reveals himself to be Death all along, manipulating and watching the movements of his enemies closely so that he can react with ease if necessary. Hey, can you blame him? If this strategy worked the other

times he did it, why not use it again ? If it works, it works. Problem is: Silly Lucy delivered the Vital Souls before Death’s mask fell off, and with all this power gathered in a single place, Death flees to inside the grimoire of 1476 - The oldest book in the organization. Death intends to power-up Dracula with the stolen souls so that he will defeat Trevor and rewrite that story, causing the others to be rewritten as well. This way he will accumulate enough power to materialize out of the Grimoire, and absolutely livid. The task of preventing

Trevor's story from being rewritten falls to Alucard again. To prevent this from happening, the group puts their heads together and develops an interesting plan: Since Dracula is the embodiment of all of humanity's negative emotions, they must summon one last ally that embodies all of humanity's hope at that time - Trevor Belmont himself. Only that doing this with just the Grimoires is very difficult. Trevor existed far in the past, and his description is very vague - just like a little NES game booklet. They need more details! An alternative would be to invoke Trevor's memory using the

three Vampire Killers present there - that of Simon, Richter and Jonathan. There's just one problem: The whip memory ritual can only be done by a Lecarde, and there are no family members present at the moment. And, in a scene that I can only imagine the writer grinning at the corner of his mouth feeling clever, it is revealed that this Hermina is a Lecarde, and she knows how to summon memories. Talk about a Dracula Ex Machina, but okay, that’s fine. The ritual is performed, and the memory of Trevor Belmont is invoked three times, each time allowing

Lucy to complete the description of the legendary Belmont through his virtues, and with that, a version of the warrior is materialized for the group to go after Death. Arikado and co. go through the grimoire of 1476, reach the throne room, and find out that Death has got his wish: Dracula has been revived, and this time it's not that weak, lame Dracula from before - it's the real Devil, and he's about to trounce everyone present. With great difficulty, the group manages to offer resistance against the vampire, but before he can really die, Death - Yeah, I

know, it's getting boring already - sacrifices himself so that his transformation becomes complete. The battle is extended once again, demanding the utmost from all those present. After a long and grueling fight, Dracula falls to his knees, at the mercy of the hunters, who are also barely standing. At this moment, Lucy casts “Aurora” on the vampire, but he resists. Then Hermina joins her and together they strip him of his powers, bringing the chapter to a positive end. Before kicking the bucket, he reminds everyone that humanity will keep calling him back, and that the war will continue.

Alright, Dracula, we get it. With the crisis completely averted, the heroes return to the real world, victorious. The world is safe, but there are still traces of Dracula's evil power within the Grimoires, which need to be removed. With this, the summoned heroes live on, and the events of this story are concluded and recorded in a Grimoire, in a chapter known as... Grimoire of Souls. Amazing, right? Pós Grimoire The legend of Dracula is certainly a long one, as you have seen in all these hours of video. Although this story seems like a long list of "Dracula

came back and yadda yadda", it is a story about cycles, where the big bad vampire exists as the personification of the ills that humanity itself creates for itself. Hitoshi Akamatsu, Castlevania's creator himself, supposedly said, "The monster [Dracula] is born of the curse of man. In a truly peaceful age, Dracula would not exist." It is by its own hand that humanity dooms itself, and it is by that same hand that it saves itself, whether through a Belmont with unbreakable will, or through heroes who sacrifice everything to send Dracula back to hell. And even after he dies,

the legend continues. When Igarashi set up the timeline, he was trying to get somewhere with the whole thing, but the work left a lot of gaps that were not developed, such as the lost years, Quincy's battle, and even the final battle in 1999. And if Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night can fit into five years, who knows what else could have been done? ...Nevertheless, we have brought the story of all the heroes in the timeline. But, the castle still stands, watching us, and the night is not over. This is because the story presented

so far does not correspond to the number of games already created. The castle is also supported by pillars that exist outside the timeline, and are considered non-canonical. This is what the castle wants from us. It wants to give us work, and to know why these games are not in the timeline... ...Fortunately, we like to work. It is time for the final battle. It's time for Out of Line! FORA DE LINHA In this section, our goal is to explain why several games in the series are not part of the chronology. We will not discuss how a

game could hypothetically fit, but only why it doesn't. The stories of the games will be shortened in the next topics to keep a constant flow - but the important stuff will still be discussed. We will also avoid "gaiden" and "spin-off" discussions, terms that are quite common in Castlevania discussions. We will discuss things only in terms of the timeline. One last thing: A lot of people don't care about canon details, and consider that a game can fit into the timeline with its contradictions and all. We respect this opinion, but in our interpretation, it is kind of

contradictory to think that a game should be canon and, at the same time, think that canon doesn't matter. All good? Then, let's begin. Lords of Shadow We begin Out of Line's first topic with Lords of Shadow, the probably easiest chapter to de-canonize. Why do I say this? Since its conception, this game has not been part of the main timeline. I mean that literally - the first Lords of Shadow trailer didn't even have Castlevania in the name, and after its baptism under the franchise's waters, this was conceived as a reboot of the entire saga. As you

might have guessed, this incited some anger at the time, as it seemed that Lords of Shadow was made to replace the main canon. Even the main account at the time had already responded that this is an alternate universe. At the end of the day, this saga stood in its own little corner, and to this day, we await the conclusion of Gabriel Belmont's story as Dracula. I mean, I am waiting. Half the fanbase hates it. Half the fanbase has bad taste. Order of Shadows What the hell is Order of Shadows doing here? I know like 1

person who cares about this game in 2023, and I have already issued a warrant for their arrest. Well, it's a Castlevania game, and we want to get the uncertainties out of the way. This game here is set in the late 17th century, with Desmond Belmont and his two sisters investigating an organization that seeks to bring Dracula back. So far, so good. Thing is that at this same time, Simon Belmont would be alive, creating an inconsistency in the events of the main line. That's the possible reason the game is not canon, even though it references the

canon. Anyway, the devs themselves have declared it as such, leaving it only as a little mobile spinoff. Still, a cool piece of trivia about this game here is the mention of a character named Giovanni, who is a descendant of Rinaldo Gandolfi, from Lament of Innocence. This is the only mention of this family's name outside Lament of Innocence. At least you can see that the devs have played the Playstation 2 game. You may be wondering why this compilation of games depicting Simon's adventures is not canon. And the answer here is pretty simple, too: The first Castlevania

is the game that is given priority over the story of what happened to Simon, regardless of the fact that it is short and rather simple. When asked about it, Igarashi expressed that even if the other games contain basically the same script and could be considered the same story, the first game is the main foundation. It is possible that the only exception is Castlevania Chronicles, as it is the most faithful to the original game, but the timeline still gives the NES game main priority. It's like when someone takes Bram Stoker's Dracula and invents eighty-three new weaknesses

for the guy, just to be different from the others. It's still the same story, but the original is the one that counts. That’s true for Castlevania too. Except, one of these is truly different from the others, and I don't mean just because it's the worst one - Haunted Castle also wants to set itself apart in the plot, recounting Simon's story on its own way - While looking for blood, Dracula kidnaps Simon's bride, making the hunter go after him. No holy whips, no family legacy. This one is just non-canon, THANK GOD. Rebirth The Adventure Rebirth would

be an interesting chance to tell Christopher's first adventure in more detail - perhaps developing the origins of the Bartley family, which, as I talked about in the Adventure section, may have helped in the vampire's resurrection. Unfortunately, the game has virtually no story, and the original episode still stands as the canon one, mainly due to the fact that Dracula is defeated for real in Adventure Rebirth, and in the original, he escapes. Igarashi has commented on that too. To him, Rebirth is more like a totally new work than a remake, and its best to treat it as

an alternate continuity. We will see more of IGA's messages soon. Come to think of it, remember that back in in Simon's time people thought Christopher defeated Dracula the first time around? Isn't it funny that this is the game where this happens? Almost as if this is the version of events passed on to the Belmonts. But, I digress. That GameBoy junk still prevails. Dracula X / DXC Castlevania: Dracula X is a similar case to those seen so far - it's a retelling of the story of a canon game in its own way. Much of the original

Rondo of Blood tale is still present here - Richter is the star, Maria and Annete are in the game, and Dracula is the final villain. But, it doesn’t take long to see the inconsistencies. From small things, like Annete and Maria being sisters, to bigger things, like the complete absence of certain characters, like Tera, Iris, and even Shaft, the wizard who caused the original game’s events. No, this guy here is not Shaft. He is just a stupid wizard who docks your framerate. The game also takes place CENTURIES after Simon, creating an eras difference. Except that even

with all these inconsistencies, Dracula X is still included in the official timeline. Why? You ask me. It is to be believed that it is thanks to the larger presence of this title. The SNES had a bigger reach compared to the PC-Engine, and Rondo of Blood was a Japan exclusive for many years, until its remake, released on the PSP, finally helped it make its presence felt here, exposing Richter's original adventure to Western audiences. Only these are just details - IGA truly did treat it as separate continuity, and Rondo of Blood still got priority in the timeline.

So that settles it. But what about Dracula X Chronicles? Well. If we take a look at it, in terms of story, the PSP version doesn't add that much: There are more dialogues, and they are adapted more eloquently, as if to reflect the new costumes of the characters, but otherwise? Eh The story is the same, with the same characters, and one of the few differences is that here Maria was captured in the city and brought to the castle along with Annette, and in the original Maria went to the castle on her own to beat up Dracula,

getting imprisoned in the process. There are extra boss battles, like the one against the transformed Annete, but these just enrich the storyline without hindering it. This is a case here where both Rondo of Blood and Dracula X Chronicles serve the same purpose, and either way, you only stand to gain by playing both. Harmony of Despair I bet you didn’t expect to see Harmony of Despair here, did you? Despair has a little story, hidden in the game’s Help menu, That’s right, if you didn’t know, you were not alone. I myself didn’t until I did a review

of it over a year ago. It tells the story of a magic Grimoire, that tries to bring Dracula back thanks to the records about Dracula’s Castle contained within its pages. However, the heroes that stopped the return of the Demon King are also contained in these pages, so…. Yeah, it must have clicked already that Despair is basically a Grimoire of Souls beta, both in story, and in some gameplay aspects. With this, we can say that Despair is not canon because Grimoire of Souls made it obsolete. It’s basically the same story, but with actual work put into

it, with more characters. Simple as. Look at the miserable game that contains a world of possibilities, but none at the same time. Judgment is a tricky one, because once again, it exists in a space.... Outside of time. Furthermore, there is canon information in this game relayed in those wonderful cutscenes where everyone looks at each other with deadpan expressions, or in the endings of certain characters. Well, how can this game be canon and non-canon at the same time? Well... You have to know how to separate it. If all endings were canonical, there would be a lot

of temporal paradoxes, such as characters meeting each other before the time, or discovering their destinies before fulfilling them. Imagine the mess that would be the minds of these people, right? As Aeon explains, being in a sort of dimension beyond time also opens up the opportunity for impossible things to become possible, like Maria or Alucard defeating an ultimate version of Dracula, who probably came all the way back from 1999, or the presence of this guy here, that should be impossible. So all these things...didn't happen. What possibly did happen was Aeon's campaign, the protagonist of this game.

He doesn't appear in any other Castlevania, but he belongs to what Igarashi described as an organization of time-watchers who work to maintain the flow of history, which also includes this other guy here. Aeon is a being outside space-time, and his duty is to correct any temporal inconsistency that may escape what is already written. His campaign is the only one that involves a fight against all the characters in the game. He needs to defeat all the heroes and villains to get a key from each, opening the possibility to face the Time Reaper, sent from 10,000 years

in the future to reap the era where Dracula existed. First Leon wants to hunt an entire period of the day, now there's a guy who wants to erase an entire period of centuries. Castlevania only deals in extremes. Since Aeon is the first opponent that every character faces in the game, we could assume that the official version of the story is that they were pulled into this paradox, fought an white-haired emo, lost, and were sent back to their time wondering what the hell happened. The only story that seems true is that of Aeon, which only serves

to say that Castlevania Judgment did not exist. Crazy, right? But it doesn't end there: Do you know who the Time Reaper's boss is? Galamoth. Yes, the boss from Symphony of the Night, who has a 10,000 year plan to take over the Demon World. Now we can talk about him. Kid Dracula Time for the Chibi Alucard game, recently brought to the West to enjoy along with the collection, only to find out that it is a Megamanvania. Yes, there are people who dispute that this game is canon because of some very curious details. Long story short -

no, Kid Dracula is not canon, described as such even in the Dracula X Chronicles booklet as it is a parody of Castlevania as a whole. Dracula-kun is literally a cute and funny version of the Count's son, who slept for 10,000 years, and decides to take revenge on Galamoth for becoming the Great Demon King while he slept. However, due to some hints and references that have been sprinkled in the series - many of them made only as jokes for attentive fans - certain details raised some eyebrows. For example: This game is set in 11797, exactly 10,000

years after Symphony of the Night. Which boss in that game has a 10,000-year plan that is also in Kid Dracula? Correct, Galamoth - the giant dinosaur that casts lightning in the inverted castle. Galamoth is a being immune to changes in time who works with a lot of patience - he plays the long game, so to speak, and it is possible that his thousand-years plan to turn into the big bad guy involves time travel. One of his goons is the Time Reaper from Castlevania: Judgment, and the great thing about this guy is that he was sent

to erase the timeline where Dracula existed, ensuring Galamoth's complete dominance as the Great Demon King. But as we have already said, Judgment is complicated, and it opens up some possibilities, two of which we will discuss here, based on the available information. The first case is Chibi Alucard beating the crap out of the temporal dinosaur as an alternate line - exactly as we see in the game. Thanks to this, Galamoth sends the Time Reaper to the past - who gets defeated - and then decides to travel as well to settle things on his own. He ends

up in the wrong timeline, and dies at the hands of Alucard back in Symphony of the Night. It's a solid case. However, the other possibility is: We don't know exactly what happens 10,000 freaking years into Castlevania's future, because the last canon game in the official timeline takes place in 2036. So it could be that there is a Galamoth in the canon's future, which is separate from his Kid Dracula self, and deals with time travel. It's just that Konami had to make things even more confusing. Remember that timeline they released with the anniversary collection? It includes

Kid Dracula clearly marked as a Spin-Off, as the Dracula X Chronicles guide had already said. But what is this here? "Kid Dracula has been asleep for 10,000 years yet somehow his game seems to take place in modern times. He and Alucard couldn't possibly be the same person...or could they?" ...even when they are clear, they create another mystery. Now they cast doubt about Kid Dracula being Alucard, and about the rest of the game: Does this even take place 10,000 years in the future? For us, what's left is to do as Konami does: The Kid Dracula game

is a parody, and until there is a greater effort to clarify things, we will continue like this. Hold on, we made two intros, so let's use the other one here as well. Done. In Legacy of Darkness we play as Cornell, a beastman who had his adopted sister kidnapped as a sacrifice to Dracula. To save her, Cornell sacrifices his wolf soul. He loses his powers, saves his sister, and escapes alive. Awesome. Only we soon find out that this was all a plan by Death and Dracula's minions - they wished to sacrifice this soul to create a

new body for the Count to revive years later. In Castlevania 64, we play as Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez, a Belmont and a Belnades. Dracula has returned, and it is up to them to destroy evil. In the middle of their adventure they meet a mysterious boy named Malus who sometimes interacts with them and other times just runs away. Eventually they discover that this at first harmless eight-year-old boy is in fact Dracula's reincarnation, who is slowly regaining his memories, and has come to the castle to complete his transformation. It's up to the polygonal duo to stop

his return. Legacy of Darkness and Castlevania 64 were the first 3D titles in the franchise, and thanks to this, there was an expectation that 3D would bring a more serious plot and a more cinematic experience to the whip-snapping series. To give you an idea, these games were better received than Symphony of the Night when they came out. They were HUGE. So it's not strange that there was an official timeline including both of them. Yeah, remember how, like, hours ago when we mentioned that different divisions of Konami had different perspectives of the storyline? Castlevania 64 was

produced at Konami's Kobe division, which issued its own timeline containing these two games. However, around 2002, this division was dissolved, and with it, its timeline, leaving only that of Igarashi, now director of the entire series. Igarashi later said that both of these games were intended as separate worlds, already pushing themselves already pushing the games out of the way of any main trajectory that his team was planning. Since he worked on Castlevania and we didn't, we can only take his word for it, but just know that this mess still annoys fans of Dracula's first 3D adventure

to this day, and many of them believe that the game was unfairly removed and would fit perfectly into the timeline we have. Doe they really fit? Let's see what these games say. For starters, Reinhardt is a Belmont, regardless of his surname Schneider. So far, so good. Castlevania 64 takes place in 1852, more than 50 years after Symphony of the Night. At that time, we know that Richter disappeared with Annette, passing down the whip to the Morris' at the beginning of the century. So, what is a Belmont doing with the whip in 1852? Also, why is

the whip's memory of the last Belmont to use it Richter's and not Reinhardt's? Remember this from back in Portrait of Ruin? But then you might argue that these are later retcons, and I would agree... Were it not for the fact that we now know that the disappearance of the Belmonts in the 19th century is a notion that has existed since Bloodlines. It was not something that Igarashi came up with later, just like that, to annoy Reinhardt's fans. If we ignore this - which is no small thing - it can be said that the story doesn't

conflict so much with the rest of the timeline... Until Dracula starts talking. He says during the game that he is recovering his memories of a battle that took place 100 years ago. In fact, the introduction itself already informs you that he is waking up from a century-long enforced sleep, so this is not hyperbole. 100 years before 1852 is 1752, a time where we know the Count did not return. Rondo of Blood, which takes place in 1792, specifies that Dracula's last return had happened in Simon's time, 100 years earlier. He doesn't remember Symphony of the Night,

he doesn't remember Rondo of Blood, but he does remember a battle that never happened. Wat. The weird thing is that Konami Kobe itself put Rondo of Blood on their timeline. They recognized that game and its year as canon to them, but didn't realize that Castlevania 64 messed up the dates. Even Igarashi didn't want to contradict Rondo of Blood. Harmony of Dissonance takes place in 1748, between Castlevania 1 and Richter's Journey, but remember that Dracula does not revive in that game, and the castle that serves as context is explicitly stated to be a fake. But of

course, this is just to show that this conversation is more complicated than it seems. As we reported, according to IGA, Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness are non canon, even though they represent Castlevania very well. And hey, it's not our words, it's Igarashi's own, check it out. If IGA hated that universe, I doubt he'd have brought back Cornell to appease his fans. Take the chance to play Legacy of Darkness. It's a really great game. Circle of the Moon is another title that had barely been born and was already out of the canon - in the

same month that the game released, Konami's official magazine confirmed that this game belonged to a separate timeline unrelated to the main plot. End of story, right? No, I think we should take a look at the story anyway. 820. Dracula's return is prevented by three vampire hunters - two of them losing their lives in the process. Ten years later, in Austria, the Count returns again by the hands of Carmilla, one of his most loyal servants, but the ritual gets interrupted by Morris Baldwin, who stopped the previous previous resurrection, and his pupils - his son Hugh, and

Nathan Graves, son of Baldwin's deceased partners. Dracula swiftly gets rid of the two young hunters, and Morris is kidnapped to serve as a sacrifice to restore his powers. Here begins the trial of strength for Nathan, who must wield the Hunter Whip to save his master in the first Castlevania adventure for the GBA. Did you notice the immediate differences? This story makes no mention of Belmonts, of the Vampire Killer, the castle is not at Wallachia, and even the families are different! As far as dates are concerned, the separation of this game is even more evident. There

is no specific year that reveals the events of Ecclesia, but this part of the timeline took place in the mid-19th century. In this period, there was that whole issue of Barlowe researching ways to destroy Dracula's vessel, because with the Vampire Killer gone, there was a fear that the Count would become impossible to destroy. As we saw earlier, Shanoa was the only one who could do this, using Dracula's power against himself because no other weapon was able to hurt him. Circle of the Moon, on the other hand, deals with not one, but two resurrections of the

vampire - one in 1820 when Nathan's parents destroyed Dracula, and another in 1830 when he did the same. If Circle of the Moon takes place before the Order of Ecclesia, then what's all this talk about Ecclesia looking for something that could stop Dracula because the whip is missing? Nathan and his parents succeeded twice, without the whip. If Circle takes place after after Ecclesia, then how did Ecclesia that appeared in the early 1800s, proved their ability, received Dracula's receptacle, developed Dominus, and managed to raise Shanoa from a young age until she was 20, all before 1820?

Remember that Ecclesia talks about the Belmont disappearance far in the past - an event taking place early in the 1800s, as if it had happened a long time ago. It may not seem like it, but this is also a case where the story is more complicated than it seems, and a closer look quickly reveals that the game has no commitment to any other story in the canon. But hey. Circle of the Moon already removed itself from canon the same month it was released, so there you go. It's clear that this was the goal from the

start. Since we covered Circle of the Moon, I want to use this opportunity to comment on something that has been referenced a few times here in the video. More specifically, this timeline here, with the presence of these three little fellows in it. For some people, the presence in this official material implies that these titles have become part of the canon again, but we are confident that this is not the case, and we will explain to you why. This timeline was part of a 20th anniversary bonus of the series that came with a pre-order of Portrait

of Ruin at US stores like GameStop. It summarizes the canon and, overall, offers more hits than misses. But there is one important detail: It didn't exist in Japan, birthplace of Castlevania, and was left as something exclusive only for Americans. And this is where the problems start. When this bonus came out in mid-2006, the official Japanese line already existed since at least 2002, being gradually updated until it reached its final form. The main difference between the two is that the Japanese version does not include Circle, Legacy , or 64. It does not, and never has, in

its entire existence. Seems like the team leading Castlevania in Japan already knew that these games were not supposed to be canon from early on. And it seems that whoever produced the American line ALSO knew - isn't it a little strange how every game on the list has a little story, but these three specifically are ommitted? This timeline was released with Portrait of Ruin, and the Japanese timeline updated to include Portrait, but not these three. Why gives? Our guess here is "Demographic." These three games were big in the West. The 64 Castlevanias were critical hits at

the time, and according to IGN, Circle sold 300,000 copies in America alone in 4 months! Maybe it wouldn't be a good look to release an official material without including them. It is a business decision, not a lore decision, and therefore the plot of these games is not included here. But this bonus material was one of the FIRST contacts of the Western public with an official timeline. There are people thinking up to this day that Circle, for example, was born canon and got "de-canonized later". Even though it was announced as non-canon, even if it ignores canon,

and even if it has never appeared in the official Japanese timelines. That's what Wikipedia says even now! How do you de-canonize something that was never canon to begin with? It's not hard to assume that this timeline being in English made it very popular, contributing to confusion, sorta like how people still think Grant is a pirate thanks to the American official booklet. This timeline is the top result when you Google "castlevania timeline" in both English and Portuguese these days. Can you imagine that in 2006, when we knew less? Anyway... That's our guess. Remember what we said

at the beginning of the video? Castlevania is a Japanese production, so we prioritize what the official Japanese timeline says. And it stated four times (five, actually) that these games are not part of it. I guess that's enough, right? Although there are some interesting bits that can be referenced here and there, if we analyze it as a whole, we can't take this timeline as the final word for the path of Castlevania's story. End of story Before we go into the last topic, which is THE hardest of them all, I think it is worth making an honorable

mention of the Castlevanias that are non-canon, but that don't need a special space to be commented on. If we were to comment on literally everything non-canon from Castlevania in exhaustive detail, this video would release in 2050. So, while Mario went to get some ice cream for us to take on the heat from our last attraction, the following games and media are not canon: - CASTLEVANIA NETFLIX - The elephant in the room. A show adapted from Castlevania 3 that tells its own story, which fans love to say is better than the one seen here. If you

want to know my opinion on this, check out my Tier List video. -THE ARCADE - It is an alternate universe with three original heroes. - Each and every Pachislot, since they are exist to separate fools from their money. - The following manga and novels you see in this list on the right. - Belmont's Legacy comic books. - Encore of the Night. It goes without saying, right? - Moonlight Rhapsody. That thing hasn't even been released, so we'll disregard it for now. - These two girls that appear in other media are not, but I wish this one

was. - Lecarde Chronicles 1 and 2, because these are fangames, obviously. Hmmm... Well, theoretically Konami gave permission for them to exist, right? Hmmm... [looks around for Mario] No sign of Mario... And nobody to stop me… HEHEHEHEHE Time for a little trolling! Lecarde Chronicles goes straight into the canon! Mig: I understand you like my game, and I appreciate the admiration, but its story is unique and it is MY fangame! Do your job right, or I'll make you play Lecarde Chronicles 1 all over again. BLINDFOLDED. Silly vampire. Well, that was quite unexpected. - And to wrap it

up, the cigarette brand. Not canon. I think that's it. If there is something missing, it is either because the connection with the series is too small, or we did not deem it important enough. Now, to the grand finale. Castlevania Legends! The third GameBoy game that makes my heart fill up with sadness is that it is not as good as Belmonts Revenge. Only this fellow here is not remembered for its quality or graphics or music or whatever, but for the fact that it is the first game in the series to bring a Belmont woman into main

stage: Sonia Belmont! Sonia is a very cool character, and her design and story exude everything that makes this franchise what it is. But to be able to talk about this huntress and the mess she brings to the table, we first need to know her story, in as much detail as possible. Ready? It all started when a man with an unknown name decided to transform himself into the devil in order to gain eternal life. Classic. In 1431, he reveals his presence to the world as Dracula, and begins to expand his reign of terror across Europe. Somewhere

in this period, he has a child with a human woman, and from this relationship is born Alucard, a young half-vampire who shares his father's curse. During this time, in a probably more hopeful place, Sonia Belmont is born, a very special girl thanks to her magical powers, which grant her the ability to interact with supernatural non-human beings. Sonia grew up alongside her grandfather, who trained and taught her to be a selfless person. Her powers were not to be used for personal gain, but to protect others, after all, that is the Belmont way. It is now 1450.

On a beautiful night, 17-year-old Sonia meets Alucard, who is in search of his father. He has not seen his old man for a long time as they were separated from each other at some point in the past, but this event makes the gears of fate turn. Shortly after this encounter, Sonia finds her home being attacked by Dracula's minions, who have finally come to the area. Her grandfather, almost lifeless, informs her that it is time for her to put her powers to use. Taking the family whip in her hands, the young huntress sets out determinedly for

the demonic castle, ready to make the Belmont family name legendary. During her invasion of the castle, Sonia gets surprised by Alucard's presence, discovering that he has come to settle things with his father. He decides to test her to see if her strength is enough to defeat Dracula, and at this moment it is revealed that there is a love connection between these two, since before the attack that killed Sonia's grandfather. She passes the test, and it is now up to the girl to put an end to Dracula while Alucard goes into a deep slumber. Thanks for

the "help", Alucard. Legends ends with Sonia cracking the whip on Dracula's back, proving to everyone that the strength of the family should be respected. This victory creates renown for the Belmonts, making them legendary vampire hunters. Then, a secret ending shows that the girl has become a mother shortly after the events of the game. This child will one day grow up, face Dracula, and become acclaimed as a hero. All right. There you have it, this game's story, straighforward, within what you would expect from a Game Boy title. You can summarize it in two lines, with Sonia

starting the Belmont legend in 1450, defeating the devil and having a child with his son. For a simple game, it is a nice story. But if it's in Out of Line, there's something amiss here. And that something is... well... LEGENDS' ENTIRE EXISTENCE. As you may have noticed, Castlevania Legends was created to be the beginning of the battle against Count Dracula in 1450, before the events of Castlevania III, which already existed on the market, with a very similar story. It tries to do what Lament does 6 years later, and in the process stumbles over everything that

existed before it. If you are thinking that the problem is Sonia's son with Alucard... my friend, I have news for you: This hole runs DEEP. Circle, 64 and Legends form a controversial trinity: Some of their most vocal fans insist that they were arbitrarily removed, reinforcing that their stories fit seamlessly into the timeline. Do they now? As we saw before, both Circle of the Moon and Castlevania 64 were planned not to be in the line established by IGA, period. This should be the end of the story for Legends too, because even though Konami's official magazine included

the game in a timeline back in 1997, the next volume of the same magazine informs that there was a mistake, and Legends disregards that line. Later, this 1997 timeline was made official, and Legends was left out. Again the story should have ended, but many people were not satisfied and still aren't to this day... So we decided to take a closer look at the details. It's funny, isn't it? I doubt that you watching now came into this section thinking that Legends, of all games, would be so complicated to explain, but here we are! Out of honesty

to the game, we decided to compare core parts of its storyline to stories from previous games, disregarding games that came after its release. We want to prove that it wasn't removed just on a whim or whatever, but rather because it didn't fit with previous works. And we will start, of course, with what Legends says about Dracula. Fasten your seat belt, it's going to be a rough ride. "Dracula first appeared in the world as the Demon King in 1431" Legends' director said that 1431 was not the year Dracula was born as a human, but the year

when he emerged as a Demon King. This date matches the tombstone of the Count found in Simon's Quest. Only that here we also find the date of his death - 1476! If Legends tried to fit in, Dracula could not have died in 1450, which is when this game takes place. But there is more: In Castlevania III it is said that Dracula becoming the Demon King started his expansion across Europe, and this caused the church to send an army, Sypha, and then Trevor, leading to Dracula's defeat in 1476, according to Symphony, and matching Simon's Quest's tombstone.

Legends mentions Dracula's expansion across Europe, but ignores the Church, the army, Sypha, and of course Trevor. And, if Dracula died twice, it makes no sense for the tombstone to cite only the second death. "Dracula's motivation was to gain eternal life" The game says that he was a greedy human who sought to be reborn as the devil to obtain eternal life and receive great power, and we already know that this occurred in 1431. The text SPECIFICALLY says he was a human, not a vampire. Look. Castlevania III disagrees, suggesting that Dracula was no longer human when he

sought the power of Dark Lord. And guess what? Rondo and Symphony also disagree, saying that Dracula is about 800 years old in 1792. If you do the math, you will see that Dracula must have become immortal around year 1000, long before 1431. And, Castlevania III never mentions that the vampire's motivation for becoming the Lord of Darkness was "eternal life" - after all, it already had pointed out that the Count was no longer human. "Mankind's battle against Dracula began in 1450" Legends recites a few times that this is where the battle against Dracula began. However, Castlevania

III had already said in its own story that this is where the battle against Dracula begins, and Symphony of the Night only reinforces this. You can't retcon poor Trevor, right? "Alucard is Dracula's son with a human woman" This part is true in both Legends and Symphony of the Night. What doesn't add up here is another blonde that you may have noticed has not been mentioned so far, neither by us, nor by Legends: Lisa. According to Symphony, Dracula became the devil and started his attack because humans murdered his wife Lisa close to1476. Yet, Legends says that

the attack started before 1450. Unless Lisa exists only in Symphony of the Night, and Alucard's human mother is someone else in Legends, Lisa cannot have died at two points in the century at the same time. "Alucard rebelled against his father" Legends also features Alucard's rebellion, and after Sonia proves her strength, Alucard goes to sleep. Castlevania III shows that as soon as his father was transformed, Alucard changed his name and hid underground to wait for a worthy warrior to help him face his father, and according to Symphony of the Night, he went to sleep after the

battle was over. Both the NES and PS1 games have said that his rebellion and escape happened only once. "Sonia's baby with Alucard" Finally, we can talk about Sonia's little baby. The final scene of Legends points out that her baby will fight Dracula and become acclaimed as a hero in the future. Interestingly, two Belmonts carried the title of "legendary Belmont hero": Trevor and Christopher. In the early days, when there was little coordination between development teams, these two had very similar adventure ideas that were separated years later. If we assume that Legends ignores one hunter in favor

of the other, there is a loophole that the baby could be one of them. We already told you the issue with Trevor: Dracula turning into Dark Lord starts the events of his game, beginning the war against humanity there, not before with Sonia. But, if Legends ignores Trevor, and the baby is Christopher, guess what? Same issue: Christopher was created to be the first Belmont to defeat Dracula, and later got retconned to be the second. You can pause the video, check it out for yourself. So the baby can be neither Trevor nor Christopher. Another plto point that

doesn't fit, another legendary beating of Dracula that we didn't see. All of this was to show that Legends could not sustain itself without trampling over a lot of things that had already been set in stone. You can still ask me: "But Alucard, before Igarashi there was no timeline to contradict!” and until recently this would have been a plausible argument. Not unbeatable, but plausible. But recently, the Castlevania Bloodlines Fax, obtained by Mike Levy, confirmed that there was an idea for continuities even before Igarashi stepped foot in the franchise. Igarashi held respect to several ideas when he

created the final timeline, such as the disappearance of the Belmonts, the separation of Trevor and Christopher, and even the Morris story being a trilogy - this was all kept by IGA when he took over the director's chair. Game development is not a free-for-all - the next team is always following the guidance of the previous ones - Igarashi himself has already pointed out that he was close to the teams of several games that he did not work on...so we can assume that these people knew the inner workings of the company. I don't want to keep beating

a dead horse here, but look at what happens if we consider the games that come after Legends: [Long list of contradictions] When Igarashi said he removed Legends specifically for "story timing reasons," he wasn't kidding - this game is a mess. As mentioned earlier, it came out in Konami magazine that Legends ignored the timeline of the IGA team. So far, so good. But that didn't stop him from expressing what he thought about the game on different occasions: On one such occasion, he bemoaned its quality, citing that Legends lacked the guidance of the series' original designers. In

another especially controversial one, he was, to put it bluntly, CRINGE. In a 2003 interview, Igarashi supposedly expressed his opinion regarding female vampire hunters. First, he mentions the removal of Sonia. Then, according to him, "female characters are usually sacrificed," and it is "easier to create weak female characters," and that he would therefore consider whether Castlevania could have a female protagonist. Certainly an unfortunate comment. Thanks to this, the notion has built up that Igarashi is sexist, and just the brief mention of Legends not being canon quickly derails the conversation from the merits of the game itself. Initially

we felt the need to find the primary source of this interview because, although we believed it to be real, we only have second-hand references about it. But secondly, when you look at the earlier context of Igarashi's life, this interview comes off as very insensitive, and it wouldn't be the first time that what he said has been translated in a strange way. For those of you out of the loop, Koji Igarashi's career took off with this little game here. Tokimeki Memorial, a dating sim where he worked as a writer. Nowadays dating sims that are well written

are not necessarily novelty, but in his time, it was all about the horny stuff. What made TokiMemo stand out was precisely that it did not go down that route. It had complex relationships, and treated its characters with dignity and not as a hentai machines, encouraging the player to explore all the routes and get to know the unique personality of each of the students at Kirameki High. Its success was so huge and its impact so important that the dating sim market has never been the same. If you haven't had enough of watching Youtube videos longer than

two The Godfather movies, there is a 6-hour video from the Action Button channel explaining the entire visual novel and its social impact. I'll leave the link in the description, because it is well worth it. Oh, and without TokiMemo we wouldn't have this little underground indie game played by only 3 people. Yes, it was because of the success of the visual novel that Konami allowed IGA to join the Castlevania team, and off he went to revolutionize the formula once again. By dropping the macho world of Castlevania, and adopting a more romantic aesthetic with Ayami Kojima's delicate

aesthetic, IGA planned to make Castlevania more accessible, including for women. The rest is history. It is also well known that Igarashi's favorite title is Castlevania III, which includes Sypha Belnades, the witch who was essential in Dracula's downfall, and who was never retconned from the series. So you can see our surprise at this interview. The guy doesn't change the history of dating simulators by being sexist, and he doesn't keep the witch Sypha a key part of his timeline to then say that a heroine doesn't fit into Castlevania's past. After running after the source like two madmen,

not finding it, and finally pestering the interviewer Shane Bettenhausen on Twitter, it seems that the interview really existed, and there is no way around it. But do you know what we can do? Point out that this interview took place in 2003. That was a long time ago! After that, IGA produced Order of Ecclesia, and gave us one of the most compelling heroines of the entire franchise in the form of Shanoa, the only person capable of standing up to the ultimate evil when the protectors of humanity were gone. And at the end of the game, it

is her brother who dies, turning the cliché of the sacrificed damsel on its head. Bloodstained once again features a woman as its lead. This game certainly has its writing problems - jesus, how it has - but in my opinion, IGA has proven himself time and time again. Man, his right and left arms are women. And it's not a case of "OH, HE EVEN HAS WOMEN FRIENDS!" They've been with him since Symphony of the Night, and their personal touch has changed the perception of the franchise to this day. You know the Tragic Prince? Both music and

character? It's work of them both. But what about his comment? IGA posted cringe, yes, but he also said that there were story conflicts. We have shown this here in exhaustive detail, and I want to remind you again that Legends had already said that it was not committed to the Symphony timeline. That leaves one last point: Retcons. Retcons in franchises as old as this are more common than you think. Symphony of the Night, for example, did just that by creating Lisa, the most important retcon of the IGA era, which even altered Alucard's origin. So the conclusion

is obvious: If Igarashi can do it, why can't Legends? But ask yourself: how much do we need to remove, edit and chop up to make Legends fit into this timeline? Dracula doesn't fit, Alucard doesn't fit, the war doesn't fit, even Sonia's baby doesn't. How much can we take out before Sonia's story stops being Sonia's story? So, I want to raise another question: Does Sonia NEED to fit on a timeline? Does she need to be canon to validate the work of the team that created her? In my opinion, she doesn't. Not her, nor Nathan, nor Reinhardt,

nor Cornell. These stories are not loved because they are part of the timeline or not - they are loved because they embody the central conflict of Castlevania: vampire hunters of unbreakable will, against the demon that is born out of humanity's despair. Don't get me wrong, a timeline is important to have cohesion in the story that any series is trying to tell, and here it's no different - that's why we made this stupidly long and detailed video. But fetishism for timelines and what is or isn't canon can rob you of the chance to experience everything this

wonderful series has to offer, and it's enough that Konami is already doing that to you. By the point of this video, Castlevania Legends itself is no longer easily obtainable. As if having a cancelled sequel wasn't enough, a collection of classics translates Kid Dracula for the first time, includes the TERRIBLE The Adventure, a strong contender for worst Castlevania in the series, but doesn't include Legends, a game that is comparatively better, and offers a different perspective of the beginning of this saga, which is already full of different perspectives... Even between continents. They could have just included the

ROM as bonus, y'know? Wouldn't hurt. But... Y'know what? Whatever, man. Legends doesn't fit in the timeline? So what? It doesn't dictate Sonia's importance to Castlevania. She doesn't need a timeline to be a Belmont like Simon, like Richter, like Julius, and if Trevor was the first man to destroy Dracula, Sonia was the first woman to do it alone. She fulfilled the destiny of her name, and her story deserves to be appreciated, canon or not, as does every other in this video. This is how you pay respect to the teams that made these games. Don’t you agree?

[Seriously stop Legends hate. The game isn't that bad.] [CREDITS] Thank you for watching! Please, consider following the artists. Links in the description! If you want an english dub, please leave a comment talking about it!