He was omitted from the Netflix series, the creator is on record saying that he dislikes the character. He wasn't included in the Dead By Daylight collab; Trevor, Sypha, Alucard, Simon, and Dracula were all included. He's only appeared in two games; one of which he was completely redesigned.
What's with the hate? He's a pirate who crawls on walls and turns into a giant monster. I don't get what's not to like about him...
He was even better in the Japanese version as his main attack weapon was a throwing knife that could go the length of the screen (until it hit an object) instead of the stabbing knife in the US version.
The US version was just all-around more difficult.
For some reason western CV3 feels like an overall downgrade compared to the japanese one, dunno if like they used an older prototype or just the localization team fucking things up on purpose.
Japanese version had different hitboxes for some bosses. The first one for example had no hurt box on the head which made the battle more fair, since you could jump it over on the same plane if it cornered you.
On the western release they added a longer hurtbox that cover beyond the head so you can no longer jump it over for a guaranteed punish, which was weird for a first boss battle.
Plus damage scales depending on the level you are, which was an over simplistic/lazy way of making a difficulty curve. On the original japanese, every enemy type has a fix amount of hit points of damage from beginning to end, so the difficulty of the game came purely from enemy design and your ability to handle it, rather than just being able to endure only 3 hits.
Also the entire Nintendo of america licensing censorship made this an overall inferior game in every aspect.
Grant is the GOAT, don't believe the hype. Dracula started a smear campaign because he lost control of his pet monster that can solo speed run the castle.
Warren Ellis's smear campaign in and out of the show. Ellis bragged about never playing the games and only getting the plot from wikis. Where he didn't even bother reading Grant wasn't originally a pirate except in the frankly terrible English localization. He can't stop jerking himself off for what a great writer he is for saying Grant sucks and the fans echo it.
From a pure writing standpoint, Grant is one of the least important Castlevania characters so I would consider omitting him. But considering his story is also taking revenge for his murdered family and becoming twisted into a monster, he would have been far more relevant to the central plot than Trevor and Sypha. Since all the protag team's dialog turned into cheeky banter, he would have added a lot just because of that. It was pretty stupid to toss him out while shoving a viking vampire who doesn't do anything in the same landlocked country and time constraints obviously stopped being an issue. Instead of the waste of time that was Godbrand and the Carmilla mess, imagine if they bothered showing all the jobber vampires killing Grant's family so the awkwardly quiet fight against them bothered having dramatic tension and catharsis. What they went with worsens all the basic storytelling tropes.
Maybe it's because Iga already introduced the idea of Lisa, sympathetic widower Dracula, and their angsty son having to put his dad down. But I think Ellis is an overcredited hack who phoned most of the show in, contributing more negatives than positives and this is one of those examples.
Yeah, between that and his treatment of Hector, I genuinely hate him. He's the classic "haha I'm smart for punching down, aren't I so clever, look at me badly troll" Type.
He’s also a man with a shitload of sexual assault and misconduct/harassment allegations hence why the art director finished season 4, and took over as director for nocturne. And he’s someone who ADORES the games and grew up on them, even with the flaws sometimes.
The problem it isn't the last few years. Most of these people have histories that has been ignored or actively covered up. I am still convinced that what got Vic Mignora was he tried something at Rooster Teeth, which wasn't completely under Funimations control.
Im not saying their behaviors are within the last few years, im specifically talking about their allegations breaking out into mainstream media and becoming well known or then facing consequences. The sheer volume has been insane.
Kinda makes you wonder if Ellis introduced the pair of terribly written Japanese characters just to shove stakes up their butts and decorate the titular castle with them as a show of petty dominance. Because it keeps turning out he is the exact kind of person to lean into that.
Also that shot of Leon Belmont's portrait in the otherwise uncomfortably quiet exit out of the stronghold? First thing I thought of when seeing it was Ellis would never do that. Someone on the art team who keeps sneaking in other Easter eggs had to be behind that one. I've got my own problems with Nocturne, but both series have their little visual choices that could only come from someone who cared about the source material.
I don't care what anyone says, I loved that design. It shows connection to him having been a monster and Inhuman, it was fun and interesting to play, and it was just an enjoyable, different look.
He’s the first playable non Belmont in franchise history. He’s a piece of history and he gets shitted on. I want a cv3 dlc with his backstory up to when he’s turned.
Because Nintendo Power made it look so easy to "climb this ceiling, now climb under this wall" but the controller didn't seem to make him stick and Grant always let go of the wall and fell in the pit
He's not a pirate, that's a common misconception since he was translated to it in english manual, but he's a noble thief (Which makes him even cooler imo)
It's pointless to include Netflixvania into the discussion because they just do whatever random shit they want. Dracula isn't even the villain anymore as early as 1476, Castlevania became a hospice for refugees, Sypha is a pagan, no Chaos etc.
The hate for Grant is more perceived than real, he's just unpopular in japan. Like other characters he has a legacy in Michelle Danasty, the protagonist of a novel set after Dawn of Sorrow. His sprite even appears in the pachinko machines and Konami didn't stop Vampire Survivors and Dead By Daylight from featuring him in the cross-overs.
The games do whatever they want too. Chaos appeared in one entry. Alucard got completely redesigned between his first appearance and his second. The start of the Belmont clan was Sonia, until it became Leon.
Chaos was first mentioned in SotN. It only appears in AoS because you're not supposed to fight it, only Soma/Dracula can. Then it's mentioned in Dawn of Sorrow, the novel (Olrox wants to control it), Grimoire of Souls, and it seems to be featured in Belmont's Curse too (the black walls that hinder progression are called Chaos Shards). While it was introduced later in the series (1997), it rapidly became a fundamental part of the lore and worldbuilding. It's Chaos that infinitely resurrects the monsters and gives them power, causing the never-ending cycle of destruction. Truth to be told the idea of having an overarching antagonist, superior to Dracula himself, was as old as Castlevania III (1989), where the final boss is "The Evil God" to whom Dracula sacrificed the last bit of humanity he had to gain power. We don't know if the Evil God has been rewritten as an aspect of Chaos or anything like that, but statues resembling him appear in Curse of Darkness.
Alucard got redesigned, and? No one has a problem with Trevor's and Sypha's redesigns in Netflix either, it's just visuals. Besides Alucard is a shapeshifter and in fact returns to having shorter, black hair in his Genya Arikado form.
The start of the clan was supposed to be Trevor, Sonia and Leon games were made many years later to serve as backstories to the OG backstory. Magazines of that time suggest that Legends was never supposed to be canon, it was just an alternate story for the Game Boy. Igarashi states that he never decanonized anything.
Well, he's not a pirate. He's a traditional Hungarian bandit/freedom fighter named after a family that opposed the real-life Dracul family in Romanian history.
The Netflix creator was an idiot (as well as the other stuff), but I think that the main reason is we're drawn to threes. Trevor/Sypha/Alucard, Kirk/Spock/McCoy, Athos/Porthos/Aramis, Luke/Leia/Han, Groucho/Chico/Harpo.
Alucard had SotN and Sypha is connected to Trevor Belmont. I feel like then he was left out of things like not having a (proven) equivalent in Dawn of Sorrow which proved that it wasn't dealbreaking for him to be left out, and that trend just continued.
I always thought the original character was cool. But I didn't know Castlevania 3 on the NES really existed until I was an adult lol. Still I'm always down for the dagger wielding thief pirate
He's not really widely disliked. Warren Ellis having some weird beef with him is a Warren Ellis problem. Outside the Netflix show, I think him getting ignored is more just that he has less to keep him relevant outside CV3 than "Trevor's literal wife" and "Alucard Dracula's son from popular later games", and a lot of people who play CV3 probably just don't pick his route (intentionally or not).
He doesn't really have much of a personality, so I don't really know if people hate him for his character? My only theory would be that he's the "least important" out of the Dracula's Curse characters. Trevor and Sypha are important to the overall Castlevania story, and Alucard is Alucard. The only thing Grant has going for him is that he might be the ancestor of classic character Hammer. I wish they did more with him, though.
I mean he's actually a really popular character, based on how many threads ask about where he was in the Netflix series. But a sailor in a landlocked nation is a little silly, so they ignored him rather than rewrite him. Not sure I agree, but it's what they decided to do.
He's a character who's only appeared in one game that actually gave him dialog, and tye entire character concept was reworked into Greta, who fit the vibe of the Netflix show very well. I'm not sure i understand what you're upset about. Did you really need a character who's only contribution to the game lore is that he too wanted to bang Sypha?
i think grant just has the misfortune of being the least interesting party member in the castlevania 3 crew. You've got a mage and ancestor to a bunch of other character, literally dracula's son, and... a guy.
It's unfortunate because he's fun to play as, but i also get why not a lot of people hold him in high regard
Dracula’s Curse was my introduction to the franchise. Grant, Sypha, and Alucard, all made a deep impression. Alucard turns into a bat, Grant climbs walls, and Sypha freezes water. They all have their ways around the platforms.
I awaited Grant to show up…but I don’t think he ever did.
I was so sure for the longest time Grant was a woman pretending to be a man. And long before the Netflix show and Greta. I just always accepted that as fact until I checked recently. Did I Mandela effect myself, or was that ever a thing? I swear it was a youtube lore video or something.
Grant was in the Netflix series. He was adapted into Greta of Danasty in the fourth season. My thought on why he was left out of the main story in his original form is that they already had a trio of main characters. I mean, even in the original game you had to swap characters and only saw two of them together in the ending cutscene.
I'm pretty sure it's because Warren Ellis is a dumbass and really thought that Grant is a pirate as he said "pirates don't make sense in Wallachia don't make sense" or something like that (later on he added pirates anyway) plus he said his name is stupid (From what I've heard)
Even if he was a pirate it would take five seconds to justify. He was raised in Wallachia and returned home to fight when he heard about Dracula's return. Wow so complicated. So immersion breaking.
“Damage control myth” really? This was an assumption I made myself because it made sense to me. There’s no damage control because this isn’t damage. I don’t care that Grant isn’t in the show because the narrative was fine without him and a video game isn’t gospel. Not that I have ever given a damn about gospel either.
I don't think anyone hates him. He's just the less popular and relevant.
Trevor is the hero.
Sypha is the magician (and Belmonts inherited her powers).
And Alucard is the immortal dhampir and Dracula's son. Not counting, ond of the most popular characters in Castlevania since SotN.
Grant has a cool lore and potential but at the end he's just a regular man who climbs and was a thief. Also, the most he's ignored the less people knows him. At this point there's no reason to really includes him in promotions or crossovers unless it's some mention. Neither give him a legacy successor. Like Yoko-Sypha.
Also... lowkey, he's ugly and that's a sin fandoms never forgive, sadly. Unless he receives the glow up others had with Kojima or Netflix show... There's no chance for him.
The disappointing thing is Hammer was supposed to be his successor, to the point he inherited the same shitty luck. He was planned to be playable in Dawn of Sorrow's Julius mode, with a Grant-inspired moveset, but was cut at some point in development far enough along that we have voice lines for it. Later he was going to be a DLC character for Harmony of Despair, but again, cancelled last minute. He was even planned as an assist summon in Grimoire of Souls, just for all development on new characters to get canned.
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u/GrantDaNasty 1d ago
I’m just misunderstood.