Sometimes I see the way media handles female characters and I'm just like, "Oh my god, that's so cool. I don't even want you to change that. I just want you to notice how cool that is. Why aren't you doing something with this amazing thing you wrote? It's so fucking cool."
When I seize control of the Castlevania franchise in a bloody coup, the first thing I'm doing is giving this woman her due.
So. Like. The plot of Castlevania is that the Belmont clan is a long family bloodline of vampire hunters who slay a variety of monsters and routinely kill Dracula every time he shows up. The key to their success is the powerful weapon Vampire Killer, an ultra-sanctified super-weapon that cuts the undead to ribbons so hard the crucifix gets jealous.
(Actually, no, crucifix is OP in Castlevania if used well, but I digress.)
Point is, Castlevania once went into detail about the origins of the Vampire Killer. And its origin was this woman. Sara Trantoul, a young woman afflicted with vampirism who decided that, instead of becoming a vampire, she was going to do some alchemy shit to transmute her very soul into the holiest goddamn weapon in the history of sacred artifacts that lethally fucks up every vampire it comes into contact with.
This woman is to the Belmont bloodline what Raava is to the Avatar. What Fi is to the Master Sword. The key to their ability to slay monsters and fight Dracula comes from a teenage alchemist's undying, eternal determination to get his ass. (Well, to get the ass of the vampire whose powers he stole but same deal really.)
In the games, she basically stops being a factor after the one that introduced her. She's a footnote in the canon of Castlevania, far less important than the whip.
But. Like. Her soul is literally in the whip. I've always imagined Sara as, like, the spirit guide and mentor figure and advisor and shit to every Belmont. Like when the whip is officially passed down, your first challenge is to take it and commune with Sara for the first time, the way the Avatar communes with their past lives.
And then she's with the Belmont in spirit. She knows everything. Can name all of the various creatures they might fight. Encyclopedic understanding of the lore. Trades barbs with Death, who (along with Dracula) is one of the few creatures that can see her. Friendly banters with Alucard about her latest Belmont.
Even if your parents were slaughtered as a child and it was all they could do to get you to safety and there's nobody to teach you how to be a Belmont, as long as you have The Whip, there's still Sara.
This character has so much potential to be such a cool piece of the narrative puzzle. It's already there. All she needs is presence.
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Wanted to try my hand at drawing @chibishortdeath's lovely design for Selena. :) I hope you like it!
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So. While searching for an old drawing I found this Gabriel Belmont flipping the bird I made on Miku Miku Dance in like, 2013
Reblog to flip the bird in solidarity with Gabriel
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Dracula's children and how I see them.
Alucard/Adrian: the biological son and the reason that he takes care of him because is also his wife's child (mostly Lisa takes care of Alu)
Hector: the favorite child
Isaac: the neglected child
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@hypermascbishounen
Interesting how the concept of the gifted child and the consequences of being favored is at the core of all the major rivalries in CV.
Hugh seethed when his father gave the Hunter Whip to Nathan and not to him, which lead him to feel worthless, and Camilla used that jealousy to corrupt him.
Maxim wanted to become better than Juste, but for the sake of relieving him of his "cursed" fate, so he took it into his own hands... which lead to nothing but disaster. Of course, Evil Maxim implies that he was born also from Maxim's own resentment against Juste and the "wall" that had been erected between them once he got the Vampire Killer. I also find fascinating that the worst ending has Juste technically accomplishing his fate as a hunter, but utterly failing as a friend, cursed by Evil Maxim to hunt for the rest of his life because that's clearly the only thing he's good for.
Isaac was jealous of Hector being Dracula's favorite, but Hector himself hated being Dracula's favorite because it came at the price of his self. This jealousy is what makes him obsessed with Hector and wanting to defeat him, but there is also the irony of the favorite one being the one who threw everything away because being appreciated simply wasn't worth the turmoil, the guilt and the dehumanization.
And at first Albus is framed as being jealous that Shanoa got to be picked for the Dominus ritual over him, but in reality, he wanted to protect her from it - being Barlowe's chosen one meant that she was to be sacrificed. (I see the parallels with Dracula and the Forgemasters so clearly but I can't word...)
HoD as a prequel to RoB/SoTN shows well the cracks that were starting to form in the family. Juste's own theme is not called "Successor of Fate" for nothing. However, Maxim seems to be more concerned than Juste is: and while on the surface it might seem that the latter is not very fleshed out, to me he seems to be rather... hyperfocused at best, and in denial at worst. He wants to get the job done. He has no time for Maxim's doubts: they have to save Lydie. And after Lydie is saved, well, you don't want to trouble her, do you, Maxim? Let's leave all of this behind us :) it's all fine :) we won and now we're happy together :)
(which is why I find the worst ending fascinating, on top of it being utterly depressing. It's the only ending where Juste can't hide his own feelings: not only in the best ending he outright prevents Maxim from telling Lydie what happened, but in the "mid" ending, she convinces him that blaming himself is the same as blaming Maxim, so Juste can put on a mask for her sake. In the worst ending, it's only him, his guilt, and the rest of his life)
I'm not sure if Juste was deliberately meant to evoke Alucard as a character (Juste may look like Alucard 2.0 because that's Kojima's type lol, same with Hector being Masc Alucard), but Alucard himself was meant to echo the Belmont legacy and its issues, with Richter being the symbol of them - as I said, Alucard himself feels pressured to honor Lisa's wish, even if it causes him great pain. But while Richter eventually could not deny that his sense of self-worth is tied to his destiny to fight... Juste still has the chance to hide from what his name entails, and be nothing but the perfect Belmont successor.
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