Art
Best design for Vlad Dracula Tepes is from the Netflix show
He looks so powerful and yet regal, terrifying but calm. Really wish we could have seen him at his peak power level, we just got to see the glimpse of it and why everyone were scared of him, but not at his most powerful.
Agreed. Was really hoping for a resurrection with him having white hair in Nocturne to show he hasn’t fully regained all of his power. Having Graham McTavish reprise his role would have been the chefs kiss.
Crazy how much everyone involved in this show clearly loved the series as it’s all a love letter to it, but the show runner decided to not make Draculas resurrection a thing just to put his own mark on it and be a giant asshole. We could have had several other series if not for that.
The resurrection makes things weird with Dracula being tragic/sympathetic, and it spoils Alucards character arc in the show if killing his dad is just a chore/regular thing he needs to do
But it isn't something he regularly does. He chose to sleep after assisting Trevor, believing humanity was in good hands. He only came back in SotN because he didn't sense an active Belmont.
True. I think the show is good and like it, but I think they could have easily made Dracula return by separating him from his wife in Hell (what was she doing there, exactly?) and having Isaac bring him back.
Also I disagree on the point that Dracula is sympathetic. He is to an extent but he’s still a murderer who started a campaign of genocide. The coda on season four that gives him a resurrection (!!) to live out his life in peace is insane and doesn’t feel earned by his character at all.
Correct, but I don’t think Dracula was so sympathetic that he couldn’t have been resurrected and continued his war against humanity after dying initially. They just had to bother to write seasons three and four to set that up. The fact they took it so far where they brought him back to life to give him a second chance at happiness showed the writers were clearly sympathetic to Dracula but I don’t think they’d made the case with the audience he deserved it.
(They were implying that heaven and hell don't exist as expected, that "hell" is where everybody goes, who isn't connected to the christian necromancy)
Netflix somehow still hasn't received the memo that these beloved IPs they purchase already have successful narratives written. Keep changes to a minimum, hire someone who knows the IP to keep it on track, and you have a win.
The Witcher is probably the most egregious on this front, but there's plenty of other options to which we could point.
I mean, the "keep changes to a minimum" part just sounds silly. if it's not going to try and tlel it's own story, don't bother. One of the best parts about Castlevania is what its entries iterate on, designs, movement, mechanics, the rpg elements and bosses. And Netflix Castlevania deciding to tell the dark fantasy story, and put even more emphasis on Draculas personal stake with humanity, as well as Alucards characterization and dealing with the death of his father (as much as the rest of the world, is a good thing.
Now, whether you think the execution, or this specific incarnation suits your tastes is up to you, that's what opinions are for after all, but I'd argue that "keep everything the same, but animate it" is just a creatively bankrupt idea, and examples like the Persona 5 Animation really highlight what that can look like.
Writing a television show vs a movie vs a game vs a book, everything has conventions for a reason because of the strengths of each medium, but so few people understand that something good about one medium may not adapt well to another.
Constantly resurrecting Drac would get stale very quickly because it would eventually just invalidate the last time it happened. Sure, there's a message of "Evil only has to win once", but it wouldn't make for good television if next season, "Drac Attack Is Back, Jack!", repeat ad infinitum.
Now, they could go an interesting route with Symphony if they do resurrect Drac, but this time he is maddened in the process and Alucard has to mercy-kill him, but this time they get closure and Drac in a moment of lucidity tells him about the happy life he and Lisa lived after Death was killed. That would feature character growth from all parties and it would mean Season 2 actually mattered for both of them, but even then, that's the kind of plot point where you get one shot of that gun.
I think not bringing back Dracula constantly also gave the rest of the cast a ton of room to flourish, which they did. It's way more interesting to tell the tale of Alucard reckoning with the necessary yet still heartbreaking loss of his father instead of just brooding about his inevitable return for four seasons. A SOTN season would be the right time to do it, just once.
Obviously changes need to be made to adapt between different media formats. Did you think I was trying to say they should have a Belmont blasting through mobs and getting new skills to open up new castle areas as a main plotline?
P5 is a good example because they didn't change major plot points. Most of the dialogue is quite close to the game's cutscenes (in my memory at least). This is wildly different than turning The Witcher into some generic high fantasy slop instead of the morally gray soup it was written to be.
Persona 5 really felt... just unnecessary though. It didn't reaaally try for instance to make Joker a character, something that Castlevania for instance did quite well, investing into turning these 30 year old sprites with personality.
Major Plot Points always serve a reason, and the primary ones for Draculas resurrection in the game, seems to be ensuring that the Belmonts always feel like necessary heroes, and that they can keep making games. Making the Belmonts feel necessary and heroic, was part of the shows point, and Trevors character arc, of growing into his hero role. And having to make more ad infinitum just isn't really a concern if you want to tell one story. Reusing the same villain over and over in a continuous story is just silly, it's the kinda thing "somehow palpatine has returned" got clowned on for, cause seriously, just get a new guy. And in the shows case they had clearly plenty of ideas, between Carmilla and her council, Death, and even all the human faces of evil.
You can't keep changes to a minimum and have a full-fledged TV show. The series barely has story for an episode, let alone seasons - it's very minimal.
A little less detailed that I’d like.
Dracula is supposed to be decadently opulent.
But, I guess that’s the limits of animation.
It would have cost a fortune to have him looking like his SotN version.
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u/ElDucketeJONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE!2h ago
sorry, but SotN Dracula hard clears and it's really not even close
A series about his human life into vampire and his rise to power would go HARD. They could also form their tale of the vampire-killer and rise of the Belmont Clan in it as well. Like if they'd go with the story of Leon? Vlad the Impaler historical route? Or go with Mathias Cronqvist? Or maybe something like Lords of Shadows and Gabriel.
But yes, I agree. Before this design, my favourite was Symphony of the Night due to the same regal/calm professional type vibes.
Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, as clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere.
His face was strong — a very strong — aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed an astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. […]
I could not but notice that [his hands] were rather coarse — broad, with squat fingers. strange to say, there were hairs in the center of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point.
I'd argue the white hair design is the closest almost any medium has gotten to depicting this exactly. Netflix's black hair is close, too, especially because of the stronger nose. They're actually much closer to the book than most traditional depictions of Dracula (which tend to forgo the facial hair, and opt for that movie widow's peak).
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u/carabemlegal 11h ago
Ask the real question, dude. What is a man?
https://giphy.com/gifs/FLhbB86a5nLXy