Tried my hand on the @powerhouseanimation ’s Castlevania art style by Making a Lament of Innocence anime poster because I love this show so much and this game as well :’)
Ahhh this is lovely, it’s perfect. The shading, the expressions, Walter’s cape, Mathias’ grip on the rosary, the FIRE–
hhhhh ahhhh I really like this, it’s lovely, people look at thissss
So, when I was still drawing Vampire Leon, I had the thought that I just love that nearly all the Belmonts have a belt where there shouldn’t be a belt and not many of them wear real belts around the waist.
I’m not gonna cover every design of the characters, that would kill me, but like… look at all these Belmonts.
Leon:
belt around coat and belt around thigh, the starter of the trend. the belt around the coat is not doing anything that metal girdle isn’t already
Sonia:
belt around coat and white choker around neck, I’m counting this as a belt. I guess her belt is keeping her coat closed this time at the very least?
Trevor:
belt across chest and belt around?? elbow?? also,,, could count those lil knife sheaths on his boot belts,,, also if you just glance closer and look at the chain connected to his belt that circles around his thigh,,, hot,,, but also really weird
Christopher:
belt around waist and something around his bicep, probably a fucking belt or bandages- does the thing around his head count as a belt? I dunno??
Soleil:
okay, i gotta give it to him, he’s wearing a belt where you’re supposed to, but it’s around his tunic for that aesthetic (and maybe to hold weapons)
Simon:
GIANT belt around waist but also belt around bicep and belt around neck??kinky
(what the fuck even are those things hanging from his leather corset?? they look like they’d whip around and hurt his legs?? masochist??)
Juste:
belt around waist and BELT AROUND LEG- WHY DO YOU GUYS NEED LEG BELTS?? FOR WHAT PURPOSE??
side note: I’m just now realizing how similar Leon and Juste’s designs are… they have a lot of similar design elements
Richter:
TWO BELTS!! TWO BELTS AROUND WAIST!!! THEY AREn’T EVEN HOLDING YOUR PANTS UP, DEAR
(don’t even mention what the fuck is happening with the belt situation in RoB/DXC I don’t wanna think about it)
now the question is do I talk about LoS Victor or concept Victor… eh, different timeline
Victor:
wow that’s just a regular ol’ belt around the waist. it seems that vampire hunting is not the only thing he rejected about his family legacy. technically the sheath around the leg could be considered a leg belt
Reinhardt:
studded belts around waist and wrists??? and BELT HANGING OFF WAIST, he looked at his Grandpa Richter’s clothes and said “but how do I give it more rebellious teen energy?” Ya know, at twenty-five
Julius:
no belt?? nobelt??SACRiLEGE??but it’s okay, stylish neckerchief instead
Maybe Julius has a secret belt hidden from prying eyes. Maybe he’s just wearing high-waisted pants, and if he took off his waistcoat you’d see belt.
Why am I thirsting over the possibility of a belt I’ll never get to see?
My uncle works at nintendo and he told me this is how Lament of Innocence REALLY ended and everyone was happy forever and it doesn’t break future canon at all.
Buckle up boys and girls, we’re about to dive head first into some theories around Castlevania Nocturne and Dracula X. Now I know that the series will not be a one to one of the game, but for those who have never seen or played this game before, a short summary of events of Dracula X Chronicles, or Castlevania: Dracula X, or Rondo of Blood as it was known before the Remake.
Richter Belmont, the latest in the Belmont family line, is a vampire hunter who is being taunted by Death as he hurries to the town of Aljiba where his fiancée Anette resides. Turns out the town is being attacked and a number of the citizens are as good as dead. Prior to this point in time, the dark priest Shaft gathered followers who wanted to see Dracula rise again and brought him back though the power of the sacrifice of a human maiden. When he gets there all hell has broken loose and he sees Annette being kidnapped by Shaft, who then takes Annette to Dracula’s castle aka Castlevania. Richter gives chase learning that there are three other young women captured. After going through the castle the vampire hunter discovers Maria Renard, a young girl who manifests amazing powers of Magic and can summon things, including a dragon. Her family were also hunters, and used birds as protectors. With Maria as his ally Richter hurries off to find and save Annette and the missing nun Tera, and the doctor’s daughter Iris and stop Dracula once and for all.
I’m holding off talking about the ending because it became a huge plot point in Symphony of the Night. But I would not be surprised if the ending bleeds into two more seasons making Nocturne probably 4 seasons in total.
Watching the trailer I noticed a number of things. As noted by @ruiniel, in their post Feral, Richter has the same pose as the prologue manga Symphony of the night indicating, at least, that we’re going to get maybe more connections to the game this time around since Rondo of Blood is an important part to the follow up game Symphony of the Night, and Richter is, after Simon, one of the most popular and might I add powerful members of the Belmont Clan. I won’t get into the Pose too much as that could be a spoiler for late in the season, but it’s definitely worth noting.
So what can we glean from just the visual parts of this trailer. Well a lot, which is really great if you’re a fan of the game and know a bit or a lot of the layout and storyline of Rondo. On the other hand it’s keeping it mysterious for new fans. So just a warning and a heads up, if you want to go in blind to Nocturne in this case, and want no info about it, jump out now because I’m going to be dropping some spoilers in here. At least one big one that could happen, but it’s part of an alternative ending, so I don’t know if it would happen or not.
So you have been warned.
Right then. Let’s get into the thick of it. The very first shot we see is that of Richter on a paved street near what looks like a dock. There’s a ship in the background, meaning he’s near the waterfront. There’s also street lamps, and we have a given date and location. France 1792. Now this is important because this is the setting of the French Revolution, and also a key time in that it borders on the end of the American Revolution and the start of the Victorian era which will be coming up and is the setting for the Novel Dracula, which also is part of the Castlevania timeline. Yup Dracula is part of the story of the Belmonts, and is connected via the character Quincy Morris, whose family is one of the lines of the Belmont Clan.
So why is the ship in the background important? Well it can indicate a few things. First in the PSP game, which the designs of Ayami Kojima from Dracula X Chronicles are clearly being the influence for this season(s?), Richter during a part of the game enters a ghost ship as part of his path to find his fiancée Annette. It should be indicated that the ship is an alternative path to getting to Annette, so you have to beat a version of Carmilla (the vampire from the games not the show) to unlock this ship. If this is a nod to that. I have to wonder if it’s an indication that we’re going to see all the levels, thus making the game longer or maybe splitting them between Maria and Richter.
The other option in this case is the fact that in the animated series the castle seems to move but might not move too far. So it could be that instead of a Ferryman as we have in the game who shuffles along Richter in the castle, he may be the owner of a ship that brings Richter to Castlevania. It’s an option to keep things simple. Though we might get the Ferryman anyway as the number of men in the story is very limited.
It could also be a nod to the ship that Dracula used in the original Stoker novel to travel from his home in Transylvania to England. You can see the wheel of the ship and it matches its description minus one dead captain. The indication here is to feel gothic horror in this case and I think the image does that well. Richter is living in a world where modern tech of the period, gas lights for example, is a thing and it’s clear from the image that either the boat is either in dock or it’s been left to the current and is moving it. There’s no sails up, meaning it’s not moving by wind. In the animation it’s not moving at all, so likely it’s docked for some reason. Also there’s a building ahead, indicating that this is a more fully developed town then what Trevor was dealing with in the original.
The town in the game was Aljiba, Annette’s home town and one that has a deeper connection to Richter. So a small warning for the games Castlevania: Belmont’s Revenge, Simon’s Quest and the original Castlevania game.
So Simon is the descendant of Christopher and Soleil Belmont, who dealt with the count one hundred years after Trevor and Simon fights Dracula twice one hundred years after Christopher. Soleil Belmont and Simon both have a direct connection to Richter in that both had issues with Dracula and a curse. Again I can’t spoil too much in regard to Richter as some might want a surprise for Symphony, but in the case of both Soleil and Simon the curse was lifted. Now for Simon he had to travel to this very town to find answers that he was seeking, so the Belmont clan has direct ties to the town of Aljiba, which is where Rondo of Blood’s story starts and where Annette, Maria and the other two ladies are from originally.
So with that in mind if we are going into the town of Aljiba, we need to note that there’s a lot of history there for Richtor to deal with, amongst that history is Simon’s tale. And it certainly will draw parallels to not only Simon, Soleil and Richter, but also the changing history of the world at the time that this is taking place.
Additionally@demigoddessqueens points out in the comparison post on Trevor’s back and Richter’s back as seen here the fact that Richter is still wearing the family Templar cross as Leon once did. Aka in this version, the family crest. This to me indicates that the family line of vampire hunting under the same symbol as Leon (Knights for the crusades) fought under shows there’s still connection to the whole past issues with Dracula and that hasn’t changed as of yet.
As mentioned earlier the pose of Richter can have some significance to his future. While I’m going to try to not spoil too much for new fans of Symphony, one aspect of the pose that’s important is the way he is looking ahead and holding himself. Which also plays a part in how he’s going to appear later on in the series, if they do alter his looks. We can tell Richter is watching something or looking at the ship ahead of him. He’s gripping the whip showing that he’s upset about something. This isn’t a man that is happy, as we see in his face moments later. He’s more stoic than Trevor, more serious. So to me this at least indicates either this is at the start of the story, before the town that he goes to falls to ruin, or this is before the Black Mass happens, which is a good indicator of things to come. We’ll get more into that later and more in the dialogue post I plan on making.
What caught my is the differences in the Vampire Killer Whip, and yes for now I’m calling it that as the other one is the Morning Star and not the Vampire Killer. Trevor’s Vampire Killer and Richter’s Vampire Killer has the same marking on the base of the whip, the cross with the embellishments or crest on it. However whereas Trevor’s is simple and is just the crest,
Richter’s now has a gold overlay around the base with either Flowers or two daggers crossing at the top part of the base handle above the crest. Further is the fact that Trevor only has a simple gold band at the top of the handle before the whip starts, Richter on the other hand has another band that curves around a pearl set in the middle of it, with possible flowers at the base of the band.
Additional to all of this there are, on my count: two seen pearls near the base (possibly a third hidden by Richter’s fingers) then one in the center of the handle, and again three at the top, one in the center of the band at the top of the handle and two on the sides below it. This tells me that at this point the Belmont’s have some form of money, Richter isn’t just a poor traveler like Trevor was, he’s a well off noble, and, given his clothing, and it shows that the Belmont’s apparently connected back to their more well off historical roots.
Another important thing about the trailer that we have, is that Richter is being approached from behind, meaning that someone is coming up to him and we’re zooming in as the person gets near. It’s when we get close that he turns and we see his face. There’s a few important things about him. Let’s start with the face. A number of people have noticed that Richter has “Sypha’s eyes”, however I contest that Richter has Sypha’s face, and jaw line more, and has Trevor’s blue eyes. (Of note, All Belmonts have been retconned to have blue eyes to match with Leon Belmont.) Richter clearly has the Belmont Blue, and it’s intense, showing that he’s not a man to be treated lightly.
So what can this trailer tell us about what’s going on, what could be happening and where the story is going?
I honestly think this sequence we’re getting can be two scenes, possibly a third if they want to expand the past to explain Annette and Richter a bit more.
Option one: The Prologue to Rondo of Blood or Dracula X or Dracula X Chronicles. In the start of the story we are treated to a long summary of how peaceful things are and then serious shit happens:
A long time ago, people lived in peace and harmony. No one noticed the looming shadow among them.
Their senses clouded in darkness, evil ate away at their souls. Driven by madness they made a pack with the devil..
In the late hour they came together to call the powers of darkness with their sinful blood - to save them from their mortal existance, expecting the dawning of a new world!
After one hundred years evil was once again made flesh. An immortal creature of the night, it can assume the shape of a wolf, a bat or fog. Feasting on the blood of humans.
Dracula, lord of darkness, master of the devil’s castle, walks among us.
This sequence leads into the Black Mass lead by Shaft. In the game we watch as a girl is laid on a table in a church and killed by a group led by Shaft to resurrect Dracula. Given we’re going to need to expand on things. I imagine we might get this opening with a change, where in Richter has come to town to try to help save a missing girl, and ultimately fails in this case. Given that, in the Dracula X Chronicles, Maria mentions her dead parents, it could easily be changed that Maria’s father is helping Richter and is killed during this Black Mass to protect his younger mentor. So this could be the meeting of the two in the town where this is taking place in.
Another option that fits the early part of the story is that this is the first meeting of Annette to Richter who happens to be waiting for someone and he protects her from being harmed. This could be used as a means of expanding on Richter and Annette’s relationship and introducing him to the town of Aljiba. One could have her being in town, might not be Aljiba and looking for perhaps Maria, or because her father is Richter’s mentor, or some other reason, and thus the two meet when they lock eyes and she rushes to him to get away from someone. This would not indicate someone weak, but rather that she might be in over her head and may have made a mistake leading to her getting away from others.
Option two could be a later sequence of Richter deciding to go travel to Aljiba after being found by the woman who mentions looking for a Belmont in the dialogue. We know from the trailer that someone is looking for a Belmont, which could indicate that the town of Aljiba is in danger at this point and that Richter has decided to head out to stop Shaft and rescue the four women that have been captured by Shaft as gifts for Dracula. The ship being in the background indicates travels to happen, so this could be him meeting others who are going to be going with him. This also could be a disguised Alucard coming to meet him and travel with him, but I don’t think he’d meet Alucard till later, more on that in the dialogue post I’m working on. .
It’s hard to tell but the image reminds me a lot of events in the book Dracula and the arrival of Dracula to the town of London, and both Morris, Stewart and Harker realizing they need to confront the count. Whatever this moment is, I feel like there’s enough clues here that indicate that this story is going to have some very gothic feels to it verse the more medieval setting in the first series. What’s going to be interesting is if there’s any call back to the history of France, namely the start of the revolution of France, the death of some of those in Louis’s court, and more importantly, the start of the French assembly. Connecting these two the situation in the castle, namely the fall of the church which would be connected to Tera who is a nun, and Iris being the daughter of a doctor, thus the raising of science, and how it was being used during this time, along with Shaft’s choice to re raise Dracula and his comment in Rondo of blood to Annette that he could lead the world into their desires, this could all be a very interesting deeper look into the world of Nocturne.
Adding into that, the name Nocturne comes from a future story that happens after Symphony of the night, Nocturne of Recollections. This could be connected to the CD drama which introduces several elements into Alucard’s history and could, potentially, play a part in this season and the sequel, which I have no doubt will be either called Symphony of the Night, or Recollections, or just keep the Nocturne title.
All in all I’m excited to see how our next trailer pans out. And yes I was screaming when I saw it show up.
A list of Castlevania AUs but it’s only Lament of Innocence
AU where Mathias can see and communicate with Walter even after his soul got absorbed. Bonus: Walter learn how to interact with Mathias in his dreams and take advantage of that to ruin his mental health. Like, killing him in the dream, wich seems too real to Mathias.
AU where Walter abduct Mathias when he’s a baby and raise him without ever turning him into a vampire, just to see how it would turn out. Anyway the bitch ends up making an alliance with Death and Joachim to kill him.
AU where Walter discovers Mathias is hella good with alchemy and kidnaps Elisabetha to force him to come and create the Crimson Stone for him. It works well, until Elisabetha dies from sickness and Walter tries to hide it. Also Leon eventually comes to their rescue. Or. Tries to at least.
AU where Mathias and Leon have a great life, giving up on the church to hunt the night together, until they die in their 40s (Mathias) and 30s (Leon). Elisabetha and Sara are still living and tell their story.
AU that starts like the previous one, with Mathias and Leon abandoning the church to hunt the night, except this time Elisabetha and Sara fights alongside them. And they all decided to live in the forest of Eternal Night to provoke the night creatures like “haha lol look at us living on your territory and not only surviving but KICKING Y'ALL ASSES TOO”. Optional Bonus: Elisabetha, who knows she’s about to die due to sickness, drink a vampire’s blood to turn herself. And now they have a badass vampire wife as their ally. Another Optional Bonus: Not only do they live in the forest of Eternal Night, but they start building a castle too. To spite Walter. And it will continue on as the generations pass. Spiting monsters becomes a Belmont and Cronqvist tradition.
I live for Mathias little gasp after Leon told him that defeating Walter and preventing others from suffering the same cursed fate was Sara’s dying wish.
Leon, arriving at the throne room: Where are you, Walter ?! Walter, appearing out of nowhere: Hi, sorry I’m late. I was doing a couple of things and got distracted. Death, following: I’m “a couple of things”. Mathias from behind Death: And I’m “got distracted”.
Leon, laying a map down: We need a plan to beat them. Mathias: Okay, listen up. First, we fill their shoes with wet cat food. Leon: Mathias: Judge me all you want, I get results.
I am crying imagining a mini emotional support dracula living with the Belmonts, and everytime one of them would have self doubt and feel unworthy of their heritage, he would just take their face in his tiny little hands and scream “SHUT THE FUCK UP LEON WOULD BE SO DAMN PROUD OF YOU RIGHT NOW. I KNOW IT BECAUSE I KNEW HIM” at them.
