#forgemaster theory

[123moiaussi]

SPOILERS FOR CASTLEVANIA NOCTURNE AHEAD!!!

So, I finished watching Castlevania Nocturne and oml it’s so GOOD.

Anyway, I was discussing with my partner what are the loose ends/ potential storylines for the next season.

Edouard

It’s left about open ended to where Edouard currently is. The ending of the season suggests one of two things.

1. Edouard has taken the forgemaster machine to Hell. This means that he can go to Hell but also manage to break out the abbey if the gang decides to open a portal to hell. They have the book and they have Annette.

2. Edouard is going to stay in the Abbey to get the night creatures to gain a conscious of who they were before they were turned. We know that Edouard knows who he is plus Jacques and one other night creature. I believe that Edouard could potentially repeat the actions of his previous life by creating solidarity between all the night creatures and potentially overthrow the Abbot. What this will also result in is a break in the creator- night creature loyalty bond and thus Erzsebet and the Abbot cannot control the night creatures, thus weakening their power. Also a nice little link between OG Castlevania and Nocturne is Edouard and the other night creatures gaining consciousness like the Philosopher night creature in season 3/4.

The Book

This is a bit of a crack theory but I do think the book connects to the OG series, so buckle up!

In the final episode of the OG Castlevania, Lenore and Hector have a very poignant and contextually important conversation about the direction of Hector’s life and his interest in not only forgemastering but also in vampire ethics and the sciences. Lenore suggests to Hector that he should explore the world and write a book which Hector agrees with.

Now, Drolta says in Nocturne that for night creatures to be made they need a human touch. The machine is implied to not have been built by the Abbot but to come from Hell itself. The Book also is old and includes instructions on how to open Hell as well as conduct forgemastering skills and seems to include lore around vampires and magic. It is implied that the Abbot himself doesn’t use direct tools to create the night creatures like Isaac and Hector. Therefore, the Abbot’s tool is the machine but he didn’t create it. Thus, the person that made the machine must’ve been a human that could forgemaster.

I doubt that Hector is undead/vampire but according to OG Castlevania and what happens in Season 4 there are two people that know how to open portals/get to hell: Saint Germain and Hector. Saint Germain knew because he was a time traveler and had a stone that allowed him to open portals/mirrors to hell and other dimensions. Hector probably knew how to get to hell due to his studies or his research with Dracula.

In conclusion, I think that Hector not only made the forgemaster machine, he also wrote the book that the Abbot now possesses. It’s the human touch that is required to make the night creatures. The Abbot potentially found this book in a church collection like Saint Germain did in the Season 3 or gained access to the book by making a deal with Dracula when he came back into the world with Lisa. Additionally, we know that the Belmont library could have also contained a book on dark magic as it implied in Nocturne that the Belmont family resided in France until about the mid 18th century.

These are some messy ideas but these are just a couple things off my head🫶

[alethianightsong]

I'm pretty sure Emmanuel got sold a faulty Forge machine

When Olrox is with Mizrak, he tells him that there are demons who you can barter with and laugh in their faces. Being a man of God, Emmanuel probably wouldn't have sought a powerful demon, but instead went with a lesser one, a demon that ended up being Hell's equivalent of a greasy car salesman. *slaps roof of Forge machine* "This bad boy can pump out so many monsters." Anyway, Flyeyes from the original series establishes that the Night Creatures can recall their past lives but don't try to rebel against Isaac. Because Emmanuel is using a secondhand Forge machine, his Night Creatures are able to remember their past lives AND regain autonomy. Not only did the guy trade his soul, but Emmanuel traded his soul for a shitty machine that makes disobedient monsters.

[alpaca-clouds]

About Forgemasters

Something that I have to wonder about the forgemasters in the Castlevania series is... how do forgemasters work? How do they learn? What is needed to learn?

We do not get much in terms of information on this. We know that vampires cannot forge. Because only human hands can reach into hell. Which is also the reason why Varney/Death need St. Germain to do the entire "bring back Dracula" thing.

But... Why are there not more forgemasters?

We get to know three of them. Hector, Isaac and Miranda. We know that Hector knows magic outside of forging. We do now know whether Isaac knows any of that. Miranda seems to have some other magic, though? Hard to say, given she has one scene.

And on one hand: Sure, we have established that the church is doing some witchhunts. Which is fair enough given that it definitely is around the historical times that the witch hunts started. But... that's the thing: They only started around that time. So it should not be that all the magicians are dead - including the forgemasters.

Of course... If we look at historical things we also know that anyone working with the dead was considered an outcast. So maybe the mixture of "clearly dark magic" (which was not punishable by death but outlawed) and "dark magic involving the dead" kept a lot of people away from it...

But not so many that there are only three forgemasters on the entire continent, right?

There might be a chance that the knowledge is rare... But that is something I do not buy. Because Isaac has the knowledge. Sure, Hector's father was an alchemist so Hector having had access to a book about forging? Fine, whatever. But Isaac who was a runaway slave?!

How can it be rare and yet accessible to a runaway slave/street kid?

Which makes me think that the reason might be another one. That the issue is not the accessibility of the knowledge but actually something else you need to master it.

What if... only people with big trauma can actually learn how to forge? Because it clearly is what ties Hector and Isaac together - being abused as children. And what if that... is somehow a prerequisite for mastering the skill?

Just a thought.

Alternative: You just gotta be autistic, I guess.

[beevean]

I feel the need to go on a rant about the Styrian Council, because I realized that they are the perfect encapsulation of the show's tendency to tell A and show Z.

Under cut because, as always, I write too much.

It started with me finally putting into words why I'm not a fan of Striga's design, despite in theory having all the elements I should like:

What do we get from her design alone? That she is a tall, buff woman with disheveled long hair, a long torn cloak, and a torn dress so simple, you might confuse her for a common peasant. But in reality, she is a queen of a kingdom.

She looks immensely out of place compared to her peers. The others in the council are very femme and strive to look elegant, while Striga here looks like genderbent Guts from the Black Swordsman arc lol

So, what is the impression one might get from her? That she doesn't belong, maybe. That, while she is a queen, she doesn't care to appear like one: substance over appearance. And most of all, that she's the brawn of the group, someone who doesn't care about using her brains to solve political issues but just loves to fight. A brute, in short.

But... that is not who she is. Well, I believe that she doesn't care about her appearance, but the rest is false. When you really think about it, Striga is the real brain of the gang. She is, compared to the others, actually smart. Carmilla, the woman formerly presented to us as a go-getter girl who is used to do everything by herself, has the asinine idea of turning a strip of land into a human farm; Lenore, the softhearted diplomat, spends her time using sexual molestation to manipulate Hector in a way that suggests it's more about her own amusement/need to feel powerful; Morana, the "organizer"... effectively does nothing until she proposes the idea of using mercenaries (I'll come back for her in a moment); but Striga is the one who actually stays awake in the middle of the day, brainstorming all by herself, to make Carmilla's plan work from a logistic standpoint.

In fact, she is the one who effectively makes Lenore's plan pointless, because she is the one who correctly concludes that using a Forgemaster, someone who uses dead bodies to build an army, is an ill-conceived idea for anything that isn't a Dracula-style mass slaughter. It's only due to the cowardice of the story that this plot point goes up in the air the moment Lenore "won".

Striga is not a brute! She is an intelligent, pragmatic general!

Even in fighting. Every vampire we see fighting is straight up brutal, using mostly their claws to eviscerate humans. Striga is not exactly delicate either, but in her one fight, you know what she does? Not only she uses a sword for better reach, but she built, with her own hands, a day armor to protect herself from the sun! She is not a mindless blood knight! Lenore calls her the "warrior" when she exposes the laundry list of character traits of the council, but everything in the story points to Striga being a strategist, instead.

So why in the fuck is she dressed like that? She looks like Trevor, like a depressed drunkard down on her luck that gets into brawls for shit and giggles. By all means, I think she'd look much better with a militaristic uniform, and perhaps letting her hair down only when she fights. It would convey her character much better, and most importantly her role, because the show tells us that she's a "warrior" and an unkept fighter, but it shows us that she is the true organizer of the four, and the only one actually putting in the work for the sake of Carmilla's plan and, in theory, the good of the group.

Even the idea that she's the odd one out in the clique is not true. We saw, time and time again, how Lenore is the one constantly getting singled out for her reputation of a soft stupid little girl. Striga is actually very well respected and generally in tune with the will of the council. So, again, why giving her such a drastically different design? Because she's the butch of the gang?

Oh, and while I'm at Striga.

I'm still waiting for an explanation for this line. What past?

But in terms of being "show don't tell", Morana manages to be even worse. She is, by far, the most underdeveloped of the four, but we do know two things about her. One, that she's madly in love with her wife, and this is the most we see of her, her sweet side with Striga and not much else. Two, this:

So, Morana is a sadistic bastard who enjoys violence for the sake of violence. Is that what you're saying, Lenore?

I don't know if she is deliberately lying, because Morana does not speak like someone who finds torture a nice pasttime. In fact, she is the one who called Carmilla out for doing this exact thing: torturing Hector to vent some steam!

I talked in the past about how this speech makes no sense because Morana should barely know anything about what she said. She can tell that Carmilla mistreated Hector, sure, but what's all that shit about his goals and master, why should she care? But I recently realized that, even besides that, this attitude is the complete opposite of someone who endorses, let alone enjoys, torture. Morana seems to highly disapprove of Carmilla torturing Hector, her point being that it made him ineffectual, which is a common argument against torturing someone to make them comply.

Were she the sadist Lenore painted her to be, she should be high fiving her bestie and perhaps asking when it's going to be her turn on the new toy lmao. In fact, why isn't Lenore, the supposed softhearted diplomat, the one acting aghast at Carmilla's horrible actions, which would have been a good occasion to show how she thinks differently from all these warmongering bloodthirsty vampires? So, again, was it a deliberate lie to threaten Hector into clinging to Lenore for safety, or just sloppy writing? If only we saw Morana for more than five collective minutes, it would be fun to speculate, but like this it's just frustrating!

Naturally, Lenore is far from being exempt. I've gone through her more times than I can count. An example pertinent to this post is when I pointed out how the show tells us that Lenore is treated like a little girl, but we never see her interacting with anyone in such a way. But, again, I noticed recently how her second scene, the one where we are formerly introduced to her and her alone, screams of first draft, as if they still didn't have a good idea of where to take her character (and clearly, never got it).

Lenore introduces herself to Hector by wearing a mourning veil.

This seems to be a vestige of her concept art calling her a "princess in mourning":

But in two seasons, the story did not establish once what exactly should Lenore be mourning. She does not act like a grieving person in the slightest. She's quite chipper and happy and confident until the end, not showing many moments of vulnerability until she decides in S4 that Carmilla's plan is inconvenient to her. That black veil never comes up again, although she incorporates black sheer parts in her S4 dress.

Is she mourning her humanity, maybe? The same scene gives us Lenore mentioning in passing that vampires eat human food.

Writing-wise, what is all of this supposed to convey?

The obvious: vampires can eat human food. They cannot survive on it alone, obviously, but it causes them no harm.

Second: Lenore calls human food "good things of life". Human food is tasty to vampires. They get some sensorial pleasure out of it.

Third: Alternatively, Lenore herself thinks human food is something worth experiencing in her unlife. Since we never see any other vampire even mentioning human food, it might just be her opinion.

And fourth: Lenore thinks that there's no point in living forever, if you don't indulge. This speaks of a somewhat shallow, hedonistic view, or that Lenore cares about the simple pleasures.

Now, question: does any of this become relevant at some point?

No. Nothing. Human food is never brought up again. It's clear from the rest of the show that the height of vampire hedonism is going on slaughtering sprees - not even to feed, just the enjoyment of dismembering human beings. Did Lenore only speak for herself, then, and passed her opinion as more common than it is? Maybe, but not even she is shown eating food after this scene, and she is mocked for many things, but never for eating.

In short, worldbuilding-wise, this information is completely pointless.

However, characterization-wise, the last point might be the one thing worth taking into consideration. Lenore is a queen, clearly used to a good life. She lives in a castle, with chalices of blood ready for the taking, and access to food that human peasants would kill for. She has no goal to strive for, except keeping her comfortable life through diplomacy. She is, by all accounts, a pampered little princess that doesn't have to face a hardship greater than "besties make fun of me :<". And then, the second part of her comfort is stripped away from her, she chooses to kill herself with frightening ease. She's not going to live forever if she can't live well. Not even with the man she allegedly fell in love with. Because without the distractions of a "good life", she can no longer run away from the harsh truth that she, no matter how much she pretends to be human, is nothing more than a bloodsucking beast doomed to succumb to her own thirst.

... buuuuut considering that, by that point, the framing around Lenore shifted so that she'd look tragic and sympathetic, I highly doubt they had this exchange in mind. This "spoiled princess" angle is never relevant to her character; when she starts whining and huffing in S4, we are meant to see her as endearing and vulnerable. Her suicide is infamously framed in a confusing way, and before it, her vampiric nature never comes up if not to sing praises to the so-called "vampire culture".

So no, this conversation leads to absolutely nowhere. Lenore never once grapples with her vampirism until it's convenient unsubscribing-from-life time. It would have been a much better way to make her sympathetic rather than "besties don't like me".

And then there is, of course, the core of the scene, which is Lenore savagely beating Hector into submission after he half-heartedly attempted to threaten her, because "I make peace, and because of this, people think I'm weak". Not only it is ridiculous how Lenore effectively acts like Carmilla but she's rewarded for it (I guess being better at DARVO plays off lol), but it completely flies in the face of her whole concept as a manipulative "diplomat" who can obtain what she wants through sweet words. I get that Lenore snapped due to Hector underestimating her, which was just established to be a sore point for her, but there are much better non-violent punishments for bad behavior: for example, abandoning Hector to the mercy of the guards without food or water, until her return when she pretends to take care of him. That would have worked much better to create the connection between her and "safety" in Hector's mind, rather than her just telling him to be a good boy to her.

Then again, this is the same diplomat who apparently couldn't convince the stupidest man in the country to accept her perfect deal so she resorted to her pussy because that's a woman's ultimate weapon, so I guess she's just not that good.

It's a shame because, going again to the matter of design, I utterly adore how well Carmilla and Lenore are one the mirror of the other!

I could make a whole post about the way they contrast each other. The way Carmilla is all sharp points and edges while Lenore looks very soft, even donning an unnecessary fur coat that looks fluffy. Carmilla's pointy chin, bold make up and icy eyes vs. Lenore's babyface, gentle blush and warm brownish red eyes. Carmilla's long claws vs. Lenore's human fingernails. Carmilla being overly sexual, occasionally exposing her cleveage, back and legs vs. Lenore being pretty modest and even covering herself (ironically as she is the one using sex as a weapon). In S4, they even have a more obvious red oni/blue oni color scheme lol. Carmilla screams "I am more than you can handle, get out of my way", while Lenore screams "I'm harmless :) trust me :)"

So, with all of this being said, why does Lenore act pretty much like Carmilla does, especially in S3? She's smug, in control, sadistic, condescending, a dominating femme fatale, and uses similar manipulation tactics as Carmilla did. It not only cheapens the story, since it's not fun watching the same plot unfolding twice and only working because the protagonist is written to have the intelligence of a lobotomized sponge, but it ruins the character I'm supposed to be intrigued by. In the post I linked before about Lenore's supposed "childish" façade, I said that it's how she should have acted with Hector, like a cute girl who is trying her best to take care of the stray dog while subtly snipering at his love-starved heart, more about that emotional trickery than facts and logic. By S4 she mellows out, but the main difference between the two is only that Carmilla wants power while Lenore wants stability. Besides, by now it's too late and it comes off as disingenuous woobiefying of the sadistic rapist slave owner, so.

Well, I suppose this leaves Carmilla. In her case, her design is not really dishonest, far from it, and what you see is what you get: a bold, aggressive woman who feels entitled to have power because she doesn't think anyone else deserves it, let alone stupid men. There are some "tell don't show" traits with her, like this thing that Morana says:

I love when my friends talk to each other about my PTSD because it's more convenient to tell us rather than showing us! God forbid we see one instance of vulnerability from the #girlboss!

But the problems with her writing are slightly different: for example, how horribly her friends treat her after one (1) slight breakdown, despite the group allegedly being tight-knit and remaining stable for centuries. Or how the story has more pity for "wife died, imma commit genocide" Dracula than "i've been mistreated by men for most of my life, now i'm compelled to madly grab everything within my reach to never feel as powerless again" Carmilla. I'm not even a fan of her, but this is simply baffling.

More importantly, I have mentioned that Carmilla in S2 is portrayed as someone who doesn't trust others and is more than willing to get her own hands dirty to seize control of a sinking ship, as exemplified by her radfem rant in S2E5; but in order to justify the existence of the council in S3, Carmilla is suddenly reduced to a visionary, "the dream" to the others' "body", as if she's only good to have outlandish ideas and the others are the ones actually scrambling to make them work (and by others I mean Striga, the only one actually putting in the effort). And then by S4 she's suddenly portrayed as being batshit insane and such a terrible queen for the country that an ex-slave whose only developed skill is killing people could do a better job than her. peak.

Then there's also the fact that Carmilla swears that "there are perhaps four other women in this castle and they all glare from the edges, either disempowered by posturing man-children or too paralysed by sheer fucking rage to do anything", but the story, somehow, fails to even show us any singular instance of misogyny - in fact, Dracula is way more tolerant of her than of the male Godbrand! - because the other two women in the council (you know, the WOCs) do nothing but stand there and look pretty without once displaying any resentment or displeasure at being oppressed by the men around them, making accidentally Carmilla look like a massive liar who victimizes herself out of nowhere... speaking of feminism, you know.

anyway tl;dr writing bad and the only way you can enjoy these characters is to write fanfic in your head

[birdhouseblog25]

Because I'm on the Castlevania brainrot after finishing Nocturne seasons 1 & 2 I want to discuss a few things I want to see in season 3:

• Richter's going back home to America, so I wouldn't be too surprised if the writers decide to go the same route Richter and Annette went on similar to Trevor and Sypha when they went to the small town to uncover a dark conspiracy unfurling. Is it going to leave me mentally scarred like last time? Absolutely. Do I live for the angst? Absolutely yes.

• Old Man Coyote AKA Mephistopheles is most definitely the big bad of season 3. He first appeared in the finale of Nocturne season 1 trying to stop Annette from pushing the machine into the gates of hell, not to mention he looked very interested in Maria's summoning abilities summoning dark creatures from another world. My best guess is that Mephistopheles is going to use Tera to have Maria slowly be influenced with dark intentions to bring forth monsters far worse than the demons created by the forgemasters.

• Speaking of Maria, Maria well obviously struggle between her controlling the light and the dark in her heart from everything she went through. Her crash out was reasonable understandable even, but unfortunately it'll lead her down to a much darker path if she doesn't control the dark summonings. So I can see her bonding with Alucard, as it's a way for him to not let her go down the path he almost went through in season 3.

•Juste is trying his best as I can see it to be a start of his own narrative journey reconciling with his past issues and moving forward to be a better father and grandfather for Maria. I would literally bow my head to the writers to have two episodes or at least one episode focusing on Juste past displaying how powerful he was as a sorcerer back then to where he is now.

•Olrox and Mizraks situationship turn relationship is gonna be a beautiful mess. Especially since we still don't know much about Olrox past involvement with Old Man Coyote. Could Old Man Coyote be responsible for what happened to his past lover? Because we know Julia, Richter's mom, killed Olrox lover but we never understood why? Maybe it might have something to do with old man coyote but that's a huge stretch.

• Speaking of Richter's mom, I don't know if this is just me overthinking things or if the brainrot conspiracy theories are getting to my head, but from what we learned in the first episode is that Julia wanted to take Richter away from America to France. We never know why Richter was sent to France for his safety, but it probably might have stumbled upon a conspiracy she wasn't supposed to see.

• and finally Alucard. I need to know during his journey around the world did he at least meet with his mom and dad. Castlevania season 4 left us off with Dracula and Lisa being brought back to the living world, their whereabouts unknown and left to interpretation. And now we are in nocturne's timeline where it takes place 300 years later so I want to know, did Alucard at least meet with his parents to get closure, or during the events of season 3 we can have Alucard meet with Dracula to speak about the issues going on with Maria and the demon making machine now in the hands of Mephistopheles.

• and speaking of Lisa there is a 8 out of 10 chance Lisa probably passed away after 300 years. Or who knows maybe after escaping hell some sort of magic residue probably spread all over her body to make her somewhat immortal. And I doubt Dracula turn lisa into the vampire because that would defeat the purpose for both Lisa and Dracula narrative of finding love in humanity.

• and finally, Alucard and Olrax met a long time ago so what I need to know is how did they met, where did they met, and what's their connection?

I have so much to think about that my brain hurts and I'm super tired.

[astationwagononmars]

Things I wrote down immediately after watching s3p1 of Dreamzzz, but haven't posted until now.

Just a quick disclaimer since I don't know how my tone is going to come across; None of this is criticism! Just my own thoughts, theories, and questions!

Huh. I was sort of right on my Lunia splitting theory- she did get split, but I was wrong about how. I thought she was separated into different creatures, but she was actually separated across different… frequencies? Which we hadn't known about before. That does mean I'm back to square one on who and/or what the masked hero is, though.

So, Mrs. Castillo is Lunia, and I LOVE her. Ironically, I thought the "strange old lady who gives oddly-fitting advice is actually this missing magic person" was TOO obvious a twist, and so I wasn't expecting it to actually be true. Maybe I've just read too many fantasy stories.

How on Earth are the Night Bureau going to cover up this one? Happy App is an international company with tons of employees and popular products. It isn't something they can just disappear overnight without anyone noticing.

Was I the only one who found Andromeda a little sketch? Something makes me think there's more to her whole situation than she was letting on. Especially with the way Phil and the Forgemaster were reacting to her choice of apprentice- specifically, the fact that she was a child, when Andromeda states that she too was a child during her training. This is strange to me because it would imply that either Phil and the Forgemaster disapproved of Andromeda's training as well, or they were somehow unaware of it.

If Dream Keeper is a power passed down from person to person, then how was there a Dream Keeper after Shin? He couldn't have passed down his powers before he stabbed himself, because then he would've forgotten about the Dream World and not stabbed himself. But he couldn't have passed down his powers after he stabbed himself either, because then he was very much dead.

The Undreamt flashes in the colors of dream sand! (Yellow, purple, and blue.) No idea what this means, but it is cool as heck!! very much looking forward to more Undreamt lore.

Overall, I am on the edge of my seat for s3p2! Very excited to see what comes next.

[serialsunset]

Okay so there’s theories and headcanons about the Laforezes and them being a sort of nobility, and I think I accept that. A long standing line of powerful sorcerers who’ve accumulated wealth and status being driven away/murdered by the witch hunting mob, and having only two (well, two at the beginning) surviving children to carry it on.

So if they were nobility they probably had some sort of sigil or crest to represent them. And may I propose

Isaac’s chest tattoo! (Modified ofc).

I think it would make sense for Isaac to be proud of his lineage like this, and it would match well with the forgemaster crest on his back; representing the power of his family on one side and his own individual power on the other.

It also helps my little Isaac drawings where his shirt has the sun on it, it makes a little more sense this way lmao

[avrorean]

What's Nanna's theory for why the darkspawn have coin on them?

There's two answers to this: her actual theory and what she likes to think.

Nanna won't ever commit to knowing the motives of anything the Darkspawn do, but her actual theory is that the Darkspawn have something of a magpie tendancy that are utelized by the smarter Darkspawn that live deep in the Deep Roads. That they collect things from the places they raid or the people they kill(or drag underground) and bring some of it back for their forgemasters to make armor or materials—she learned quickly in the Deep Roads that some Darkspawn are older and smarter than most people are aware. If anyone is guiding them outside of a Blight, she imagines it would be them,

What she likes to think is the ancient darkspawn down in the horrible dark and dank of the deep roads gives the ones who go up to the surface a little treat before they go raiding. It's silly and not based in reality or what she knows, but Nanna's already seen the reality of their horrors. In her opinion, she's allowed to be a little silly about it.

[sepublic]

God I'm gonna miss Drolta in S2. She was clearly someone in production's favorite character and it shows. Hell, she's one of MY favorites too!!! S2 is just gonna feel empty without Drolta's presence... I hope in S2, we get flashbacks of her so Drolta's character can live on in spirit, so to speak.

After all, she was an Egyptian priestess; So compared to other vampires for whom we have canonical age ranges for (either from the show or as implied by the source material), that makes Drolta our oldest vampire by a long shot. In terms of age, she makes Dracula himself, and even the Varney persona, look like babies.

I'm really hoping we get flashbacks that explore Erzsebet's backstory, and tie it with Drolta's; I don't think it's a coincidence that Erzsebet is impersonating the stolen power of an Egyptian goddess, and meanwhile her lieutenant and most loyal follower was an Egyptian priest. What happened, what came first; Did Erzsebet drink Sekhmet's blood, and Drolta worshipped her because of that, seeing Bathory as a god incarnate?

Or was it the other way around; Drolta helped Erzsebet drink Sekhmet's blood by using her knowledge and connections as a priest. What are her motives, because let's be real, Drolta is gleefully helping this white woman appropriate her own religion. I think that's an angle worth exploring, especially since Olrox is much more aware, and motivated, by this angle regarding Bathory. They're both vampires of color, yet Olrox is compelled to fight Erzsebet for this, while Drolta serves Erzsebet in spite of the fact. Did Drolta betray her own beliefs for some Erzsebussy???

I've also seen theories that Drolta is more of a Varney/Death here, pretending to be a supporter, a follower, when in reality she's the one pulling the strings for her own benefit. Which makes it a shame that she's dead; You can't account for everything in your plans! Or maybe Drolta isn't dead. I'd love it if Bloodlines got adapted, and they brought back Drolta as the evil crone she was in the games (hags are fun characters), maybe explaining her appearance as a disguise, or poor aging after she shriveled up from Alucard's stab.

I just think Drolta has a lot of character potential, either from a posthumous perspective, or by resurrecting her, since Castlevania has well-established that as a possibility with Forgemasters and the like. Maybe we'll see her get brought back as a night creature. I'd love it if Drolta got fleshed out more in flashbacks, and we got to see just how much of a spanner in the works she ended up being, and the pivotal role she plays; Give her actions huge ramifications post-mortem!!! Give Drolta a massive legacy! Make her like Enya from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure or something; Incredibly important lore-wise, despite being taken out relatively early within the main story.

[monochromatictoad]

I'm happy that Isaac is growing on you <3 I don't know what you've learned about him by far, but I think he's too underrated (no thanks to a certain show that completely changed him and convinced the fandom that he needed to be "fixed")

I gush about Hector a lot nowadays, but Isaac was the first Devil Forgemaster that grew on me. I think he strikes the right balance between being tragic and being a bastard :P and he's just full of personality! He's charming in his own over-the-top way

and yeah he's kind of cringefail. but that's the appeal <3

Everything I know about Isaac is from you! I'm sad we don't have an equivalent of Isaac or Hector in LoS, (though I have some theories about the Acolytes.) I think they would've been so fun for MercurySteam to interpret and put in LoS!

[talesfromtheasterism]

Fear in the Realm of Fire

Entrance to Bloodstar is just the challenging feat as one would imagine. I readily admit that my first smuggling run there was mostly chance, having slipped in during a small commotion at the blast walls caused by some particularly audacious scavengers. I've since learned to shadow a certain type of crowd to the borders, ones who will occupy the soldiers without provoking them into a full sweep. If no such groups are available, I simply conduct business in the Outer Wastes until an opportunity arises.

Step inside Praedis with clandestine intent, and the mindset of occupation falls into place. A city built above itself, with metal roads held between skyscraper pincers, and verdant boulevards with three stacked layers under false sunlight. All of it joined as though one great scaffold, with a thousand corners to hide in and six directions to reach them by. The solution: no inch out of sight from the Republic's military. Ramped accessways for civilian traffic, and cargo lift priority for the APCs. Gently followed wherever you walk by the curious eye of a gun nest's IMG barrel. Hardfire walls that shutter entire districts, and flash orders to lie on the ground in searing neon letters. Once, a nervous driver noticed the projectors fizzle and made to outrun them. A moment slower, and they too would've been cut in half along with their car.

You hear countless tales up and down there. Patriotic boasts, rebellious rallies, disillusioned longing for the lifestyle of the stateless wanderers. The latest atrocities of the Old Order and the Sulphurous. Occasionally, a forbidden love story between the warring factions. Very rarely, an eccentric theory on the fate of the Forgemasters. And then, there's a story you never hear. The one you can feel in everyone's mind when the topic drifts too close to state experiments, or the astonishing leap in inferno technology. People's words lurch mid-sentence, like an arm pulled away from a flame. Instinctive fear. To the Ashen, technology is almost religion, and this queer faith has its demon, its antagonist. My curiosity was too powerful. I made a transaction. For knowledge.

What is it about the human mind that gives it such capacity for violence? An indecipherable network of feelings and impulses, so they spun the tale. The animal instinct to destroy dangers and opponents, suppressed and funnelled by a tangled web of personhood. What if, through diligent study, you could remove the person from its path? What if that mental shutter to hatred could be replaced with a synthetic, ever-open gateway? Conjoin the power of mortal rage with the surgical precision of a computer… where would the equilibrium fall, between the incensed and the unfeeling? I paid to know. And I almost regret it.

They called it Project Amalgam. They told me it was out there, in any of a thousand corners in six directions. And they told me a machine can hate.

I quickly took my leave.

⁂

[ask-hector-and-isaac]

Sir Isaac, with your amazing Devil Forgemaster stamina, how long can you two last ;) Hours, days, weeks?

My, aren't you eager to know! And what flattery! Ah, if only I had the time to test out your theory...

In Lord Dracula's realm, the night is ours... and it never ends. That is all I am willing to say.

[mangopy]

Hector cutting his finger, Lenore's death, and King Isaac

The silver-haired forgemaster had cut his hand because he doesn't want to say that he isn't loyal anymore to her (yeah you know who I'm talking about) just because the tables have turned. No, Hector cut off his finger because no matter how easy it is to unsay his loyalty he won't because he still wanted her somehow, that's why she wanted her to be saved and to have, let's assume, have a life with him, even after all that's happened. Losing his finger was just a necessary sacrifice because he was still loyal to her. But everything had come to a shock to Lenore, the sudden attack to the castle, and the schemes of Hector, maybe that's why she thought she doesn't have a choice but to get the easy way out. She was distraught and left with no purpose (at least that's what she feels). I've read some thoughts by other people that maybe she could have helped Isaac build a better world, if only Isaac wasn't so busy with other matters and tried to convinced her otherwise. In the end, she somewhat failed to realize is what she had left behind was permanent in Hector and for her, but like all suicides it was only a temporary solution. Still, that scene gave my heart so many pains I didn't even know I could have. This ship sailed so hard like the TITANIC then it went down just as much. RIP FEELS.

[akumajoaurora]

WAIT WAIT I JUST REALIZED WHAT I CAN POST HERE THAT’S TOO LONG FOR TWITTER BUT THAT I’VE BEEN TOO LAZY TO MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT

Everyone get ready for

🪑🔥 DARK MAGIC CHAIR THEORY 🔥🪑

To put it simply, it is my hypothesis that sitting in chairs is a form of dark magic. Why do I say this? Well, chairs are a motif that repeats throughout the Castlevania franchise. We see them in Dracula’s throne, the confession booths, those haunted lil side tables I forget what they’re called, the chairs Juste collects... However, there are only a few characters who are shown to actually be capable of sitting in chairs. Those are:

Dracula - Is Dracula.

Alucard - Dracula’s son, a dhampir who uses dark magic frequently.

Soma Cruz - Dracula’s reincarnation, explicitly stated to have the same dark magic powers as Alucard.

Hector - A devil forgemaster, aka basically an alchemist with special demon summoning powers.

Richter Belmont - Only shown to have this ability while possessed by the evil priest Shaft.

So clearly we can see here that all of these characters who sit in chairs possess dark magic abilities, while characters who aren’t shown to be capable of magic are not seen sitting in chairs. HOWEVER, I do not believe the correlation between chairs and dark magic is exclusive to Castlevania. For who else is deeply, inseparably associated with chairs? That’s right, none other than Vergil, the half-demon king of hell.

Notably, when Vergil separates himself into his human and demon halves (Urizen and V), Urizen spends most of his time seated in an extremely large chair, while V is rarely seen sitting in a chair despite being physically weak and probably in need of a good sit. Conversely, there is Vergil’s twin Dante- Also shown to be capable of sitting in chairs, and frequently found lounging in one in his home, however Dante is more in touch with his human side compared to Vergil. Fittingly, he is not as closely associated with the chair as Vergil is, and doesn’t let it define him or his goals.

Of course, these are not the only examples of chairs being associated with dark magic either. Examples can be found throughout media and pop culture, and may have some deeper roots in human history. For example, one well-known chair sitter is Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek fame, who is shown to be capable of dark magic in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7 episode 30 “Data’s Inferno”. 

I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on Dark Magic Chair Theory and its possible roots!

[atomicpen]

Okay, so I have a lot of Season 3 Castlevania thoughts that I’ve been percolating on for a while. As I start my... fifth? sixth? watchthrough, it seems fitting to throw these thoughts out into the void:

Below the cut for spoilers and length

So, Isaac has a conversation with one of his night creatures in episode 6 who turns out of be a former Greek philosopher from Athens who believed philosophy to be the study of the systems of the world and humans' purpose in it, to which Isaac rightly questions why he ended up in hell to begin with, and this night creature said that he lived in Athens at a time when the empire that ruled it changed religions and laws... and that because Christianity deemed his philosophy a sin, that's why he ended up in hell, which basically means that Castlevania's universe/theory says that prevailing human belief is what determines hell/no hell/type of hell (who goes there for what reason) which is really fucking interesting

Which means that the concepts of sin, grace, heaven, and hell are entirely subjective to the dominant religion that holds sway, and brings into question if there are multiples of these (is there more than one type of heaven and hell depending on a region's prevailing religion?) and that perhaps the forgemasters can only tap into the souls of those who've gone to the same kind of hell that they also believe in. Or it could be that all the hells of different belief systems/religions exist and all forgemasters can bring out souls from any of those hells and this one just happened to have been from the Christian hell, but I feel like by specifically showing Isaac talking to one night creature at random about his former life before he died and went to hell and having that specific night creature have a backstory of "I lived during a time when the dominant religion and laws linked to that religion changed and my profession and personal belief suddenly became a sin, thus sending me to hell upon death" implies more that forgemasters can only tap into the hell of the dominant religion either that they believe in or of the land they are in. Christianity (and it's variants) was the dominant religion of the west, but while we see vampires from various different cultures and they are all familiar with night creatures, it doesn't go into enough detail about where those night creatures came from, so I would have to logically assume that whatever the prevailing, dominant religion/religious laws of the culture a person dies in is what renders that person going to that religion's hell or not

But, then again, this night creature's story ends with the fact that he remembers lying and giving up others to save his own life (which he lost anyway), and he himself said he sinned/became a sinner, which implies to me that this is a sin to him, so now I'm wondering if the person dying has to also believe they are sinning in order to go to hell.

What these thoughts really boil down to is: does a person's personal/individual belief create heaven/hell that they go to after death, or does the prevailing religion?

What Castlevania seems to be positing is that heaven/hell is subjective no matter who/what determines it, and that those things are literally created by belief, and don't exist on their own without human belief.

Then again, I think that it must be the prevailing/dominant religious belief-made-law that creates the existence/type of hell because Lisa, Dracula's wife, is in hell with him, and she did not sin according to her own beliefs, nor do something at the end (such as the night creature) that she believed to be sinful; she sinned according to the Church.

And, what's even more complicating to that notion (which I really like; that human belief creates the very existence of hell and that it wouldn't exist otherwise) is the Infinite Corridor, which opens up a doorway to hell (among doorways to many other places) and the fact that one of the types of creatures to come out of the Infinite Corridor opened up in Lindenfield are creatures that fit the description of angels with many eyes and multiple wings, etc and those creatures don't seem to be affected by Trevor's morning star whip in the same way/as well as night creatures, which then begs the question of: why are beings that seem to be traditional non-human angels coming out of the same doorway/portal that night creatures are coming out of that are affected by the consecration of his whip... What is their connection to one another? I would think it suggests they're two sides of the same coin which raises even more interesting questions of religion/belief

Nevermind the night creature that instructs Sala and his followers seems to be infinitely more intelligent (cognizant of their previous life??) than most of the other night creatures (except maybe the one that trash-talked and then ate the bishop of Gresit) and also has fucking psychedelic mushrooms coming out of them and the rest of the night creatures that came with them initially what is that about

thanks for coming to my thesis on religion & its afterlife as a created concept in a gory anime that says "fuck" a lot

[myscalesofjustice]

Does the fact Miranda has the same hair and eye colour as Hector mean something? Is it because they are both forgemasters, because I have a theory about Hector’s hair and eye colour:

Hair changes to silver/white usually after a traumatic ordeal, and vivid blue is associated with Death aka the Grim Reaper in the games. So, what if necromancers who come face to face with Death itself, gaining a fraction of the reaper’s power in doing so, have their hair and eye colour change? It could be considered what all forgemasters strive for.

That begs the question of how Hector would be marked by an audience with Death when he was still a boy. I’m going with he died shortly after birth, but Death revived him instead (maybe God told them this kid had to live). Hector has had one foot in the living world and one in the afterlife since before he could walk, and that’s why he’s predisposed to soul magic.

One crazy offshoot of this theory is Miranda is Death, trying to trick Isaac into becoming the right kind of nutjob who will assist in a nefarious plot to resurrect Dracula. I prefer my otherworldly entities androgynous, but a female Grim Reaper is not wholly uncommon, so I could dig it.