CastleVania (Netflix)
 

https://i.ibb.co/9h1QCR9/castlevania-season-3.jpg

So season 3 is out now. Anybody watching? I dug the first two seasons, despite a lack of Grant DaNasty.

Eh, apparently Alucard has a lot of sex with dudes this season?

This is a show that at one point in my life I would've been super jazzed about. But now I had a hard time getting through all of the season 1 talking heads. Now I read this and ...eh... I'm out.

I met and interviewed Warren Ellis at Chicago Comic Con once not quite a decade ago now. This was during his Aparat Comics venture. He was a nice guy to talk to, although I found that a lot of people don't share my opinion on that. I definitely feel like his GI Joe project was a lot more compelling than Castlevania turned out. I usually like his material.

A lot of sex with dudes?

Did you watch it?

Alucard's storyline felt a bit forced this season, and I'd have just as soon left him out than see that. Oddly, in a show populated by literal demons from literal Hell, immortal vampires, and teleporting castles, I found his to be the farthest stretch.

I do understand why it was done. And if you're wondering if this is some political agenda move, it's not. It's a gruesome and dark take on the whole matter. Few of the characters escape the story without some darkness showing through. Those who don't find their moral alignment a liability more than an asset.

This is definitely felt like the second act in a play. It ended on an extremely morbid down note.

If you're a fan of the games or pop culture in general, I'd tell you to watch it but be prepared for some really unsettling plot elements. The smattering of awesome references from Tolkien, Lovecraft, Vonnegut, and Dante Alighieri are really well done.

Also, Isaac's story line is worth it.

4 stories happened over 10 episodes. Everything could have been condensed. Alucard’s story went nowhere. What is the point of the two Asians turning on him and the backstory of the Asian vampire queen now? Not much.

The female vampire seducing the guy to be his slave all could have been done in half the time too. I am surprised they showed bare breasts though, it felt like I was watching some kind of hentai for a second. Since when do they allowed animated porn on Netflix?

The rest of the season was ok. Everyone talks real slow in the show so 5 lines of dialogue take 10 minutes. Best line was “What the **** is toilet paper?”

Bare breasts were in the Symphony of the Night (kinda).

Naw, not yet.

Maybe that's supposed to be Vampira.

It's a bit disappointing that they're still dicking around with Trevor. I was hoping they'd jump on to Simon Belmont by now. They've spent 2 seasons doing Castlevania III, and Curse of Darkness (that's what this season is adapting, right?) isn't really worth a season.

This is how I felt about season 1 and why I've had a hard time coming back. It's like there was a lot of content with snarky talking heads and not much else in what is supposed to be a fantasy action franchise.

HA! LOL yeah... little, sprite, pixel monster boobies. Amazing game.

Curse of Darkness. Bought it back in the day. Played a few minutes and never went back. Loved, loved, loved Lament of Innocence though.

The anime only loosely reflects the games now, it's basically its own thing. It feels like a licensed show that uses the bare minimum of familiar Castlevania concepts but is pretty much its own thing. Which makes sense, the old Castlevania games never had much of a story to begin with, they're 2D sidescrollers with the bare minimum of plot.

. . . Hector is FAR from his Curse of Darkness counterpart. I'm dying for him to get on that. The man's eaten enough crap over the past two seasons to last a lift time.

Isaac's story, however, is worth the weird stuff the season makes everyone else go through.

Simon's going to be difficult, since his stories were always solo.

I'd imagine we'd get more of the metroid-vania adaptations as time goes on. Potrait of Ruin, Harmony of Dissonance. . . those have more to work with, even though they're less popular.

My guess is we get Rondo of Blood into Symphony of the Night before we're out. But it's going to be weird with Dracula being so humanized. There's kind of a weird plot twist at the end of this season that really makes me wonder if how Drac is going to respond to the whole resurrection thing. . .

Not only.
18+ warning

An adaptation of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest seems feasible. Like episode 1 would be the end of the first game, then the rest of the season is him dealing with his curse, going all over town and the land getting all the pieces of Dracula to resurrect him and finish the job in the season finale.

You think they'd touch those? Maybe. I'd rather see them eventually get to and explore "Castlevania: Bloodlines." It's got a pretty cool premise. The son of Quincey Morris from Bram Stoker's Dracula teaming with a spearsman from Italy against a resurrected Dracula AND Elizabeth Bathory, with stops all over the world.

Yeah, that will definitely be covered. The way they Symphony of the Night-ed Castlevania III tells you very much what their favorite Castlevania game is.

I haven't seen any of season 3 yet but after 2, I figured every time he resurrects he will be "less human."

Anybody else disappointed we don't see any of the other Castlevania villains in this? Throughout the whole series, Death is like the #2 bad guy and he's a total no show (or does he pop into season 3?). And I can understand them not wanting to put Frankenstein's monster and the Mummy in the show... but why not Medusa?

[QUOTE=Andrew NDB;1839352]I'd love to see it, yeah. It's an interesting premise to have a Belmont trying to resurrect Dracula. The problem I see with it is the supporting cast. This series focuses on the drama between the characters. Simon was a solo story, and I'm positive they'd try to wedge Alucard or something in there.

Definitely. It seems right in line with what Ellis is doing.

That, and Castlevania 3 plays right into Symphony of the Night.

I want to see this, too. I'm used to him going full bat-demon when backed into a corner. I'd love a "behold my true form, and despair!" moment.

We've been getting a lot of lesser guys. , and some other background characters show up in this season. In some cases, it's super brief, but it's there.

The other monsters would be awesome. I wonder if there's some fear of copyright infringement? All the original bosses were Universal movie monsters. Even Olrox from SOTN is a misspelling of Orlock from Nosferatu.

I am dying (pun intended) for Death to show up. He's got to. It's Death.

I'd be OK with Alucard popping in to some capacity. Or just creating some kind of supporting cast for Simon.

The DS ones that take place in the future/near future could be interesting. Though the story descriptions I've read sound pretty corny.

Sort of. But if they just jump into it they'd have to jump over Christopher, Soleiyu, and Simon. I guess I'd be happy with some kind of extended montage covering all of that.

I liked the nod to Leon Belmont (it was Leon, right?) in season 1 or 2. The room Trevor found and you see his portrait.

Yes! It's not Castlevania if Dracula doesn't have at LEAST one super form.

Aren't those all absolved of copyright law/public domain? Like, can't anyone make their own Dracula movie tomorrow without paying a license to anyone (I did, sort of)? Same with Frankenstein.

He should be there. Maybe he figures into things when his resurrections start.

I fell asleep watching the first season when it first came out, I think my main attraction to the castlevania story was the lore of different belmonts having to kill dracula but that isn't a great story to tell, it's a fun experience to play. It's a basic story after all.


Castlevania has always had nudity even if it was background statue in the NES days, even the NECA figure from over a decade ago had a topless succubus based off the game.

You answer your own question.

[QUOTE=Andrew NDB;1839409]One complaint I've heard is that Alucard is overshadowing Trevor. Castlevania was, first and foremost, a story about the Belmont clan vs. Dracula.

While I don't think Alucard has done that, I would be wary of him being over-used as a character. If he becomes a constant through out the series, there is a risk of it suffering, I feel.


Those are straight up manga plot lines. At least Harmony of Dissonance and it's sequel are. If you've never played them, it feels a bit weird.


Damn. Most people just jump those. Castlevania is difficult. Gameboy games are difficult. I always avoided the melding of the two because it sounded like something you'd give to prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

That was bad ass.

Damn right.

I think so, but they may suffer from Disneyitis. In that, I can make a Beauty and the Beast movie, but I can't use Disney's depictions of them.

I'm hoping Isaac becomes Shaft.

Sympathy of the Night is my third fave Castlevania after IV being number 1, 3 number 2 and Sympathy being 3.

Watched episode 1 of season 3. Yeah, what's with them making up all these lower tier monsters when there's so many classic ones to choose from? Sure there will be some walking skeletons at some point, at least, yeah?

I felt that Season 1 was the best so far. Having the lowest episode count managed to streamline and focus the story arc.

Season 2 had some interesting concepts and some good banter between Trevor and Alucard, not to mention a brief hint of a possible romance between Trevor and Sypha. Bloody Tears in the hallway scene was a pleasant surprise

Season 3 felt like it existed purely to set up a season 4. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely the weakest of all the seasons so far

I have a feeling that they might not get to Simon, Christopher, Juste, Richter etc. as something tells me that Trevor's story might be it for the show

I'd love to be proven wrong though

I also feel like the show pretends to be smarter than it is. It's a good show but they act like the characters have all this depth when honestly they don't.

I guess it did.

At this rate, no way. They're playing in spaces that aren't that interesting, game-wise, and just making stuff up. Largely. Nobody was clamoring for a Curse of Darkness adaptation and this is barely/not even that.

And all of this, 3 seasons on Castlevania IIi... and no Grant.