Well, you do have those games from the N64 and also Circle of the Moon. That was done by a different development house within Konami, if I recall correctly.
I felt like nocturne was missing that feeling of Castlevania completely, the atmosphere was off, the world didn't make sense and was confusing (french revolution started 3 years prior and these nobels just keep living like nothing happened?) It just comes of as not fully realised and thought thru
The woke label probably wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if they didn’t go race swap characters again (making said characters unlikable to boot probably didn’t help either). It’s happened so many times by disingenuous studios that I don’t blame fans for being upset, or apathetic. Still context matters and you made a good case for that. I wasn’t terribly harsh on Prey aka Predator 5 for similar reasons because there was enough stuff in there for me to be nice to it (most of my issues frankly stemmed from misused lore).
The only thing that bothers me about the review. Is a pointing of how hard the animated version took a dump on Hector. He's the cover character of Curse of Darkness. An you couldn't even remember his name, but you could remember Issac with no problem at all. This really makes Annett getting race swapped more annoying. Because now Maria doesn't have her older sister, and Richter doesn't have his wife getting kidnapped that starts the story. Most appreciated and very good review.
For real. Hector is supposed to be on oar with Death, and they made him an idiot man child who gets slapped into submission by girlboss carmilla. This series fell on the floor after the first season.
While you make several valid points, and I appreciate that you pointed out that this was an impromptu video, I'd add the word, "historical," to your word, "context" when describing the political history of the time in which "Castlevania: Nocturne," is placed. However, I disagree with you about Annette. The answer is, "no," people are not angry or upset with a black character. It's that she's race swapped, and I don't blame you, or any other North American who doesn't know about European or French history. First, Annette is supposed to be from Saint-Domingue, modern day Haiti, and the slave uprising started there around 1789 and didn't cease until 1803. Her relationship with Edouard, within the context of the show, is contrived and historically, unlikely. Edouard is mulatto and children born of one white parent, often a slave owner or of merchant class, and a slave were often free, well-educated, plantation owners themselves, and wealthier than their slave counterparts. Truthfully, Annette, given the historical context and the fact that during the time that "Castlevania: Nocturne," takes place, the race war on Saint-Domingue would've been in full swing. She would've viewed Eduard to be no different than the white plantation owners or merchant class and would've hated him just as much as the whites. Which also makes her alliance with Richter et al, even more unlikely. She would've hated the French, British, Spanish, and even probably, the Polish because ALL those countries had interests in the sugar/coffee rich country which was, Saint-Domingue. Second, black people were free in France for many decades before Annette got there. Black people were allowed into France for 2 reasons ONLY: 1. That they learn a trade, and 2. For religious study. In fact, when Annette arrived in France, she would've had to have Edouard vouch for her upon entry because, even at this time in France (1792) the attitudes toward black slaves had not changed at all. They were still a means of holding-up the French economy, especially considering that the National Convention pretty much reduced the country to what we now know as, communism. Therefore, the creators exhibit their own historical ignorance when they get all bent out of shape about people calling out their race swapping. There were tens of thousands of blacks in France by the time of the Revolution. Many of them took up arms and joined the cause; however, this would provide an opportunity for the creators to create a new black character who might have been an interesting contrast to Maria. Perhaps this character was born a slave and then brought to France for Ecclesiastical study? Perhaps this person was trained in sword making? What a wonderful twist it would've been to have a character, born a slave, and conflicted over the circumstances of their birth and then have to reconcile that with the kindness they were shown in France? Just a couple of notes to give whoever reads this some historical insight, but I agree with you, mostly, as of 10:51.
What I've always enjoyed about the Castlevania games is being Belmont the vampire hunter and constantly cheat boss fights by running away from stage. Press "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start" to anxiety attack, level skip and fill a lake with tears. But If it wasn't for the level skip cheating ability of Belmont, I'd much rather play as the main character Annette who's got the Haitian God powers of being more powerful than Magneto from X-men. I also always loved the epic music in all of the levels, the high pitch castrato singing sets the game playing mood just right. This Netflix series captures the game perfectly.
You know crazy idea might not work. But what if Dracula still alive has become so much of a pacifist bit then comes to help his son during a world wide threat( nothing in particular I can think of) the good guys lose and big bad threats to kill Alucard unless Dracula offers his body as a host to big bad( not sure how this would work but their could be a way) now big bad merges into Draculas body and becomes new Dracula with all his powers but none of his humanity. Now we have Dracula as big bad again we create drama as Alucard will want to save his father not kill him and we can shift into the games story from there. Crazy but what da ya think?
I have to say I did not care for the original Castlevania netflix series and wokeness doesn't even need to be brought up. If you like it, hey more power to you. I couldn't get over the weird way it is some sort of modern day in olden times. Alucard's kitchen is a modern day kitchen. They way the character talk and behave is modern. To me in a way that is very distracting. The writing I found god awful with a highlight being Dracula saying "he doesn't care anymore" not 30 seconds after telling the whole vampire entourage that he picked 2 humans to carry out his revenge because they had the ability to hate humanity while vampires only see them as food. So he goes from "im going out of my way to ensure my vengeance is carried out in the worse way for the humans as possible" to "meh i don't care anymore do as you will" It was really terrible for me and i didn't really couldn0't bring myself to enjoy the show and stopped shortly after dracula's dramatic death in alucard's room.
I'd say it's a step in the right direction. The two main Christian characters are lot more sympathetic than the witch burning archbishop in the first season.
@@tommyfishhouse8050 The Priest enlisting creatures that are, in nature, against the foundation of Christianity, is baffling. Never mind that he intended to betray them, he should have never considered entertaining the idea. Is it suppose to show his corruptedness? Okay, just like....nearly almost all portrayals men of faith in church authority?. Its just typical modern writing taking whacks at the lowest hanging fruit while propping up other religions. Its not comparable to the OG when the Church tolerated magic users like Sypha to combat evil. The bossiness of Maria gets muddied in the revolution of France BS.. Comes off more of a brainlet 'down with authority, revolution good' type. In fact, both her and the priest are bad examples of their perspectives. This time period is a prime period for vamps to feed and thrive with how much death and chaos was during the time. But we're shown the streets are clean, there's plenty of food to go around by what the cast eat (There was a lack of food during the period). This is big missed opportunity in my eyes. The first season of the last show at least displayed how brutal things were with Dracula. They did Ritcher bad. Turned the chad of Rondo of Blood into a wimp that runs from his adaptive family in the face of his mother's killer. I'm not faulting him for having a panic attack and choking, I am faulting him for running a coward and leaving his friends/family to die. If he had a fourth of his OG's guts, he would have recollected himself and helped the others. I won't touch on Annette as others have better articulated that point. And before anyone says 'its a different timeline/thing from the series' I do not have a problem with that. My problem is the lack of 'keeping' the spirit to it. If you wanted to do your own thing, you could have picked any point of time, make an Original Belmont and with your cast of original characters in any flavor you want and do whatever. But they aren't confident enough to do that, hence why they vehicle known characters for their own ends. With Castlevania: I want to, chiefly, see a Belmont curp stomp Dracula with the power of righteousness by his side. That's the whole point of the series. If you wanna dilute the focus with more characters then they better be likable and well written. And man...That's not the case here. If you like it, that's your perspective and good for you. But I can't, nor can I pretend that anything Nocturne has is 'good'.
Of course, Netflix had to kill their one remaining Golden Goose! Though I should have realized that it would suck without Warren Ellis! Also I’m sick of “Catholicism and Christianity are evil” bullshit, Netflix deserves to lose money for this!
To play devil's advocate to this point in particular. In the last Castlevania shows the church as evil to further the plot of Draculas character growth and it works.
To be fair, the church was corrupt in those times, but Dracula isn't any better, no, he's worse considering some of the people he attracts, such as Isaac, an evil redhead who kills Hector's family just because he realized Dracula was insane and deserted him, I already didn't like the first season for the liberties they took with the lore, including nerfing Hector and making him a slave (oh, the irony) to a vampire that wouldn't even be a mid boss compared to him, heck, Hector would solo Carmilla and her cronies with only Carmilla giving him a real fight, and even then, he would win, and the there is Alucard and Death...
I would personally love to see some sort of Paladin in the show. A man or woman strong in their faith who seems blessed with some divine powers (maybe a sort of magic but they believe it to be a divine blessing) and tries to do good. A character doing good where much of their organization may be shown as bad (such as cavorting with demons or killing an innocent woman despite the warnings of a truly powerful entity). Would be an interesting counterbalance to those characters that only saw the church as villainous. After all, we did see a priest consecrate water in episode 4 of season 1's Castlevania, and it shocked Trevor.
@@Starcraftgamer97 Richter is already supposed to be that person he can use very strong attacks with his sub weapons which include a cross and holy water, he can make his cross make a pilar of light in the games if i remember correctly. But, like always, the lore has to be altered to fit "modern audiences" turning all the heroes into pathetic self inserts, making them fail, and have their personalities be either basic bitch or failure hero. Richter and co are very nerfed here, only Erzebet would be difficult to them, and even then, with the heroes united, she would die. If they wanted them to not be so OP, they could have them get better at fighting after each battle. No, they nerfed the heroes like they did with Hector, it would be better if, while Richter did kill Erzebet, he would then fall into a trap and be captured, but that would be letting the woke rot infect Symphony of The Night, and that is even more sacred than Rondo of Blood.
@@TheSpawnfanExcept the way they portrayed the church is total bullshit. They were in full support of science and medicine, and they were extremely skeptical of all witchcraft accusations, so the entire thing with Dracula’s wife was a crock of shit.
I 100% agree with you with Annette and Maria being just shitty and bratty characters and I think that is the reason why a lot of people who are watching this show are thinking that it's woke because as history has told us that only the left-leaning virtue signalers would be the only kind of people who would write the main protagonist as these types of characters and expect them to be morally just. There have been plenty of woke shows that have very very unlikable main characters and yet we're supposed to see them as the good guys because according to the show writers and ultimately the the left-leaning journalist. But I also believe that the reason why people believe it is walk ultimately is because as you said they pointed out the fact that Maria and Annette are just bratty characters that are poorly written and making no sense. I started watching the show before the whole controversy was out and throughout the entire series I was hoping that Annette or Maria will get their shit kicked in so much that they're humbled and enough to realize that they're not all that and there's are bigger issues at play than whatever kind of me problems that they have. Then the left-leaning journalist love the idea of stroking the egos of the writers instead of agreeing with the critics who actually watched the show and then try to basically start the flames of the culture war and then people start believing that OK if the left-leaning journalists are attacking the the fans as the woke tends to do then it has to be woke. I stated it before but I still think that castlevania nocturne is still a good show to watch and I'm pretty hyped for the second season for as long as they actually look upon the first season and improve upon it by Learning from their mistakes.
@@Riseofziggy If we're talking quality I'm afraid it's a little too early to make a full comparison however I do think that season one of castlevania versus nocturne at least is better so far. Sure the first season had four episodes and I thought that what's the little lame as they basically build up tension and suspense in just four episodes. But I still think that nocturne did good on pacing on introducing the villain and how much of force the villain is in nocturne. However, as it stands I still think castlevania has better characters than nocturne because unfortunately Maria and Annette just ruin everything for nocturne so far whereas the original castlevania had a good chemistry with Trevor, sypha, and alucard. And that is gonna remain the case if they don't improve on this in the next season.
@@theirishfalcon2668 Cool. Yeah I also felt like season 1 was slow but needed for the set up which is something we didn’t get this season where all the characters were introduced super fast and not flushed out which kinda ruined the season for me at least just cause a lot the characterization and plot felt forced. Also how did you feel about seasons 3 and 4 I know a lot people don’t like them I personally did but that’s just me?
@@Riseofziggy I also don't think season three and four were any bad. Creatively, I think what sort of had them fell short was that this took place after Dracula was defeated. But we did sort of needed the new seasons as in season 2 there was still a lot of questions left unanswered with other characters and it would be a shame to leave it at a cliffhanger with all those stories. The story is now Dracula is defeated So what now. My only negative of season three and four was that there were too many stories to follow. Let's break them down. There were: Trevor and Sypha Alurcard Isaac Hector (kinda of) Carmilla and her sisters My favorite part of season three was seeing Isaac someone who was more of a follower his entire life become a leader of his own volition and grow as a character. He saw the goodness in humanity that he never got to see. This is why Isaac was a better black character in castlevania and why there wasn't much criticism about him because he was a flawed character who developed into something much better and more compared to Annette who then tire first season had no reason whatsoever to be a snarky bitch. That's why I'm hoping season 2 humbles her and Maria to where they actually become competent and likeable otherwise nocturne is going to fail. Season four wasn't so bad unfortunately I do feel it was sort of rushed as unbeknownst to me it was the final season. And just like season three there were too many stories to follow at the beginning but they all sort of came together in the end and had a conclusion. I still don't understand the whole ending of season four where Dracula and his wife actually did return from the dead are now exploring the world. That part made no sense. I wanna love to see OK so when you series that starts Simon instead of Richter but you take what you can get and truth be told Rondo of blood and Symphony of the night we're still great games.
I do agree that the time period does justify alot of the back stories of the characters but I have one question, are we doomed for every Netflix Castlevania series to have a colored character with a slavery background due to most the franchise happening in past times? “Issac” had the same fate but wasn’t as emphasized as this season. It’s getting pretty old at this point.
As a Castlevania fan Netflix is one of the worst videogame adaptations I have ever seen it was a series that has more sympathy for the villains who reject God than any level of respect for the heroes unless they're nonchristian degenerate nonwhite or female.Trevor/Ralph was made into a drunkard Juste is another Puke Skywalker mentor figure the series is about Good vs Evil not apathetic a-holes vs Vampires.
The show is still woke as it race/sexuality swapped a bunch of established characters, and we’ve yet to see positive representation of Christianity in the show. Personally I found it to be inferior to its predecessor and have no intention of watching season 2.
I think the plot could've been better overall. A 6/10 show to be sure. But I don't think the show is bad. I think the core concepts are solid. It just could've been presented in a more effective way.
How timely is it that a major event like the P I Conflict is taking place. This illustrated your point about Maria being too headstrong. Both sides are culpable but one so because it holds more power and abuses it. And who suffers. The innocents on both sides who want nothing to do with the conflict. Timely In the last series Carmella wanted to keep humans in pens and Hector wanted humans to be controlled livestock rather than outright slaughtered.
I kind of think it's sad that, in my opinion, a four episode season based solely on setting up the fight for Season 2 did better than an Eight Episode 1st Season of Nocturne. Better characterization, better pacing, fights felt like there was a point (despite how rough some were in Season 1), voice acting, and chemistry of the cast. I am solely interested in seeing Julia Belmont fighting monsters during the American Revolution (a setting ripe with potential) rather than seeing more of her son, Maria's cringey revolutionary gimmick, and "Not-Annette" (she should have just been given a cool Hatian name or something to solidify her as a new and original character for the series) stumbling around like a bunch of idiots. I kind of lost interest in Nocturne when Maria and Annette gaslit Richter in episode 3 or 4 as he just wanted a plan and didn't want people to die. Maybe it gets better in the next number of episodes, I don't know. There's such a mix bag of opinions around whether it gets better or worse that I would rather drop it and wait for a new attempt at Castlevania.
I forgot just how much I came to love the dynamics between Trevor, Sypha and Alucard in Castlevania. Especially as they learned to work together and watching them demonstrate that beautifully in the fights.
Listening to this, I just have no idea what you mean by 'woke'. You ask the question repeatedly, "So is Castlevania 'woke'?" and then answer in the negative by pointing out the contextual feasibility of certain setting details, lines of dialogue and events. This seems like a really strange way to answer the question, since it completely ignores the motivations that drove the choice of context, which is where I think most people are getting the impression that it's 'woke' from (which makes it feel like you're talking past the point?) I have no problem with reboots, but the choice to cram a history lesson involving the Haitian revolution into this series feels like an obvious play for social credit, and the way it was woven into the narrative feels very Deus Ex Machina to me (her mentor's precognition which sends her across the Atlantic in search of the Belmont, and how they arrive just in the nick of time to save Richter who got thrashed by a single night creature(?) - which Annette is mysteriously able to explain for them(?)) Not to mention how recasting the majority of French planation owners as vampires seems like lazy revisionism. Since they were obviously taking full advantage of their creative license in terms of character reboots, they had more-or-less unlimited choices before them. My understanding is that it's the choice of what to portray, rather than how they portrayed it, that gives people the impression of 'wokeness'.
I don't like excusing cultural vandalism by saying as long as we have the original works, nothing has been lost. Maybe you can fire up Empire Strikes back and enjoy the OT, and maybe it's my problem that I can't. Doesn't change the fact that the joy is gone and the fun is over.
If I have a dollar for every time someone talented in the comic or movie industry that gets pushed out of a project due to sexual assault claims, THEN gets replaced by some woke talentless hack, I'd be rich. The priest alliance with the vampires made NO sense even if he lost faith in god. Holy power HURTS vampires, clearly the priest should know that they would NEVER let the church regain dominance and will kill him when the opportunity presents itself!!
@BigMicahC so the priest would rather fight angry *civilians* than rally the people to fight the *vampires* in the name of god? People are getting killed in plain sight (vampires not even trying to hide the bodies, too). It wouldn't be hard to say that all of the country's problems are caused by the bloodsuckers. Empowering vampires rarely work well for humans unless he is looking to become a vampire himself. Also, how the hell did ONE priest get to have a say in making such an alliance? Where are all of the other people of the faith? You can't tell me HE is the only one left! Plus, the reason for the French Revolution in the show was intentionally inaccurate to push the priest into making this dumb ass decision. In the French Revolution, riots were happening almost DAILY, but in the show, we see streets with hardly anything showing said "revolution" happening anywhere. Also, where ARE the human nobles? The ones that caused said revolution? We get to see an alarming amount of VAMPIRE nobles, tho. Almost like THEY were the reason revolution happened in the first place, and if that's the case, it would make the priest look like a BIGGER idiot than he already is in my eyes.
It is woke. They would not have changed a character from white to black and at the same time made. Mr. Belmont, a psychiator in his on show that needed saving time and time again.
They wrote themselves into a corner with Dracula getting a happy ending. Removing the foundation of the series lore gave them nowhere to go.
They could easily retcon that as Alucard having a dream during his 300 year long sleep.
Well, you do have those games from the N64 and also Circle of the Moon. That was done by a different development house within Konami, if I recall correctly.
@@christopherthibeault7502 those still had Dracula
@@JIreland1992some could work without him just fine, the problem here is they didn't make the villains in general interesting
I felt like nocturne was missing that feeling of Castlevania completely, the atmosphere was off, the world didn't make sense and was confusing (french revolution started 3 years prior and these nobels just keep living like nothing happened?) It just comes of as not fully realised and thought thru
When I saw the trailer for the first time, the only quote that came to mind was:
“APATHY IS DEATH!”
I think its biggest problem is not respecting the source material at all.
The woke label probably wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if they didn’t go race swap characters again (making said characters unlikable to boot probably didn’t help either). It’s happened so many times by disingenuous studios that I don’t blame fans for being upset, or apathetic. Still context matters and you made a good case for that. I wasn’t terribly harsh on Prey aka Predator 5 for similar reasons because there was enough stuff in there for me to be nice to it (most of my issues frankly stemmed from misused lore).
The only thing that bothers me about the review. Is a pointing of how hard the animated version took a dump on Hector. He's the cover character of Curse of Darkness. An you couldn't even remember his name, but you could remember Issac with no problem at all. This really makes Annett getting race swapped more annoying. Because now Maria doesn't have her older sister, and Richter doesn't have his wife getting kidnapped that starts the story. Most appreciated and very good review.
In the original Rondo, Maria and Annette weren't sisters, that change was made when they reworked Rondo as Dracula X for the West.
For real. Hector is supposed to be on oar with Death, and they made him an idiot man child who gets slapped into submission by girlboss carmilla. This series fell on the floor after the first season.
Didn't they Race change a character just to give her a slavery background?
Yes.
While you make several valid points, and I appreciate that you pointed out that this was an impromptu video, I'd add the word, "historical," to your word, "context" when describing the political history of the time in which "Castlevania: Nocturne," is placed.
However, I disagree with you about Annette.
The answer is, "no," people are not angry or upset with a black character. It's that she's race swapped, and I don't blame you, or any other North American who doesn't know about European or French history.
First, Annette is supposed to be from Saint-Domingue, modern day Haiti, and the slave uprising started there around 1789 and didn't cease until 1803. Her relationship with Edouard, within the context of the show, is contrived and historically, unlikely. Edouard is mulatto and children born of one white parent, often a slave owner or of merchant class, and a slave were often free, well-educated, plantation owners themselves, and wealthier than their slave counterparts. Truthfully, Annette, given the historical context and the fact that during the time that "Castlevania: Nocturne," takes place, the race war on Saint-Domingue would've been in full swing. She would've viewed Eduard to be no different than the white plantation owners or merchant class and would've hated him just as much as the whites. Which also makes her alliance with Richter et al, even more unlikely. She would've hated the French, British, Spanish, and even probably, the Polish because ALL those countries had interests in the sugar/coffee rich country which was, Saint-Domingue.
Second, black people were free in France for many decades before Annette got there. Black people were allowed into France for 2 reasons ONLY: 1. That they learn a trade, and 2. For religious study. In fact, when Annette arrived in France, she would've had to have Edouard vouch for her upon entry because, even at this time in France (1792) the attitudes toward black slaves had not changed at all. They were still a means of holding-up the French economy, especially considering that the National Convention pretty much reduced the country to what we now know as, communism. Therefore, the creators exhibit their own historical ignorance when they get all bent out of shape about people calling out their race swapping. There were tens of thousands of blacks in France by the time of the Revolution. Many of them took up arms and joined the cause; however, this would provide an opportunity for the creators to create a new black character who might have been an interesting contrast to Maria. Perhaps this character was born a slave and then brought to France for Ecclesiastical study? Perhaps this person was trained in sword making? What a wonderful twist it would've been to have a character, born a slave, and conflicted over the circumstances of their birth and then have to reconcile that with the kindness they were shown in France?
Just a couple of notes to give whoever reads this some historical insight, but I agree with you, mostly, as of 10:51.
What I've always enjoyed about the Castlevania games is being Belmont the vampire hunter and constantly cheat boss fights by running away from stage. Press "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start" to anxiety attack, level skip and fill a lake with tears. But If it wasn't for the level skip cheating ability of Belmont, I'd much rather play as the main character Annette who's got the Haitian God powers of being more powerful than Magneto from X-men. I also always loved the epic music in all of the levels, the high pitch castrato singing sets the game playing mood just right. This Netflix series captures the game perfectly.
@BigMicahC Any plans to talk about SEED FREEDOM, or even a mini rate your mecha?
I think they turned Dracula good to soon because to me it hurts a lot of the video games storys because now they have no major villain
When you think about it he wasn't really ever "evil", just depressed, angry and misunderstood
@@the_mask1I know but I'm just saying he was the best villain so they shouldn't have done that this soon
@@the_mask1I just subscribed to you
You know crazy idea might not work. But what if Dracula still alive has become so much of a pacifist bit then comes to help his son during a world wide threat( nothing in particular I can think of) the good guys lose and big bad threats to kill Alucard unless Dracula offers his body as a host to big bad( not sure how this would work but their could be a way) now big bad merges into Draculas body and becomes new Dracula with all his powers but none of his humanity. Now we have Dracula as big bad again we create drama as Alucard will want to save his father not kill him and we can shift into the games story from there. Crazy but what da ya think?
@@Riseofziggythat was awesome to bad your not the Boss of Netflix
I have to say I did not care for the original Castlevania netflix series and wokeness doesn't even need to be brought up. If you like it, hey more power to you. I couldn't get over the weird way it is some sort of modern day in olden times. Alucard's kitchen is a modern day kitchen. They way the character talk and behave is modern. To me in a way that is very distracting. The writing I found god awful with a highlight being Dracula saying "he doesn't care anymore" not 30 seconds after telling the whole vampire entourage that he picked 2 humans to carry out his revenge because they had the ability to hate humanity while vampires only see them as food. So he goes from "im going out of my way to ensure my vengeance is carried out in the worse way for the humans as possible" to "meh i don't care anymore do as you will"
It was really terrible for me and i didn't really couldn0't bring myself to enjoy the show and stopped shortly after dracula's dramatic death in alucard's room.
Honestly I would like it much better if Warren Ellis was involve because I wanted him to tackle other Belmonts like Simon but hey what can you do.
I miss your weekly podcast with Hat man
I've heard less than stellar things about Nocturne, especially its portrayal of Christianity.
I'd say it's a step in the right direction. The two main Christian characters are lot more sympathetic than the witch burning archbishop in the first season.
@@tommyfishhouse8050 The Priest enlisting creatures that are, in nature, against the foundation of Christianity, is baffling. Never mind that he intended to betray them, he should have never considered entertaining the idea. Is it suppose to show his corruptedness? Okay, just like....nearly almost all portrayals men of faith in church authority?. Its just typical modern writing taking whacks at the lowest hanging fruit while propping up other religions. Its not comparable to the OG when the Church tolerated magic users like Sypha to combat evil.
The bossiness of Maria gets muddied in the revolution of France BS.. Comes off more of a brainlet 'down with authority, revolution good' type. In fact, both her and the priest are bad examples of their perspectives. This time period is a prime period for vamps to feed and thrive with how much death and chaos was during the time. But we're shown the streets are clean, there's plenty of food to go around by what the cast eat (There was a lack of food during the period). This is big missed opportunity in my eyes. The first season of the last show at least displayed how brutal things were with Dracula.
They did Ritcher bad. Turned the chad of Rondo of Blood into a wimp that runs from his adaptive family in the face of his mother's killer. I'm not faulting him for having a panic attack and choking, I am faulting him for running a coward and leaving his friends/family to die. If he had a fourth of his OG's guts, he would have recollected himself and helped the others.
I won't touch on Annette as others have better articulated that point. And before anyone says 'its a different timeline/thing from the series' I do not have a problem with that. My problem is the lack of 'keeping' the spirit to it. If you wanted to do your own thing, you could have picked any point of time, make an Original Belmont and with your cast of original characters in any flavor you want and do whatever. But they aren't confident enough to do that, hence why they vehicle known characters for their own ends.
With Castlevania: I want to, chiefly, see a Belmont curp stomp Dracula with the power of righteousness by his side. That's the whole point of the series. If you wanna dilute the focus with more characters then they better be likable and well written. And man...That's not the case here.
If you like it, that's your perspective and good for you. But I can't, nor can I pretend that anything Nocturne has is 'good'.
I'm still hoping you'll review Arcane. Especially before the 2nd season comes out.
Of course, Netflix had to kill their one remaining Golden Goose! Though I should have realized that it would suck without Warren Ellis! Also I’m sick of “Catholicism and Christianity are evil” bullshit, Netflix deserves to lose money for this!
To play devil's advocate to this point in particular.
In the last Castlevania shows the church as evil to further the plot of Draculas character growth and it works.
To be fair, the church was corrupt in those times, but Dracula isn't any better, no, he's worse considering some of the people he attracts, such as Isaac, an evil redhead who kills Hector's family just because he realized Dracula was insane and deserted him, I already didn't like the first season for the liberties they took with the lore, including nerfing Hector and making him a slave (oh, the irony) to a vampire that wouldn't even be a mid boss compared to him, heck, Hector would solo Carmilla and her cronies with only Carmilla giving him a real fight, and even then, he would win, and the there is Alucard and Death...
I would personally love to see some sort of Paladin in the show. A man or woman strong in their faith who seems blessed with some divine powers (maybe a sort of magic but they believe it to be a divine blessing) and tries to do good. A character doing good where much of their organization may be shown as bad (such as cavorting with demons or killing an innocent woman despite the warnings of a truly powerful entity).
Would be an interesting counterbalance to those characters that only saw the church as villainous. After all, we did see a priest consecrate water in episode 4 of season 1's Castlevania, and it shocked Trevor.
@@Starcraftgamer97 Richter is already supposed to be that person he can use very strong attacks with his sub weapons which include a cross and holy water, he can make his cross make a pilar of light in the games if i remember correctly. But, like always, the lore has to be altered to fit "modern audiences" turning all the heroes into pathetic self inserts, making them fail, and have their personalities be either basic bitch or failure hero. Richter and co are very nerfed here, only Erzebet would be difficult to them, and even then, with the heroes united, she would die. If they wanted them to not be so OP, they could have them get better at fighting after each battle. No, they nerfed the heroes like they did with Hector, it would be better if, while Richter did kill Erzebet, he would then fall into a trap and be captured, but that would be letting the woke rot infect Symphony of The Night, and that is even more sacred than Rondo of Blood.
@@TheSpawnfanExcept the way they portrayed the church is total bullshit. They were in full support of science and medicine, and they were extremely skeptical of all witchcraft accusations, so the entire thing with Dracula’s wife was a crock of shit.
I 100% agree with you with Annette and Maria being just shitty and bratty characters and I think that is the reason why a lot of people who are watching this show are thinking that it's woke because as history has told us that only the left-leaning virtue signalers would be the only kind of people who would write the main protagonist as these types of characters and expect them to be morally just. There have been plenty of woke shows that have very very unlikable main characters and yet we're supposed to see them as the good guys because according to the show writers and ultimately the the left-leaning journalist. But I also believe that the reason why people believe it is walk ultimately is because as you said they pointed out the fact that Maria and Annette are just bratty characters that are poorly written and making no sense. I started watching the show before the whole controversy was out and throughout the entire series I was hoping that Annette or Maria will get their shit kicked in so much that they're humbled and enough to realize that they're not all that and there's are bigger issues at play than whatever kind of me problems that they have. Then the left-leaning journalist love the idea of stroking the egos of the writers instead of agreeing with the critics who actually watched the show and then try to basically start the flames of the culture war and then people start believing that OK if the left-leaning journalists are attacking the the fans as the woke tends to do then it has to be woke.
I stated it before but I still think that castlevania nocturne is still a good show to watch and I'm pretty hyped for the second season for as long as they actually look upon the first season and improve upon it by Learning from their mistakes.
How would you rank the original series compared to nocturne nor maybe season by season.
@@Riseofziggy If we're talking quality I'm afraid it's a little too early to make a full comparison however I do think that season one of castlevania versus nocturne at least is better so far. Sure the first season had four episodes and I thought that what's the little lame as they basically build up tension and suspense in just four episodes. But I still think that nocturne did good on pacing on introducing the villain and how much of force the villain is in nocturne.
However, as it stands I still think castlevania has better characters than nocturne because unfortunately Maria and Annette just ruin everything for nocturne so far whereas the original castlevania had a good chemistry with Trevor, sypha, and alucard. And that is gonna remain the case if they don't improve on this in the next season.
@@theirishfalcon2668 Cool. Yeah I also felt like season 1 was slow but needed for the set up which is something we didn’t get this season where all the characters were introduced super fast and not flushed out which kinda ruined the season for me at least just cause a lot the characterization and plot felt forced. Also how did you feel about seasons 3 and 4 I know a lot people don’t like them I personally did but that’s just me?
@@Riseofziggy I also don't think season three and four were any bad. Creatively, I think what sort of had them fell short was that this took place after Dracula was defeated. But we did sort of needed the new seasons as in season 2 there was still a lot of questions left unanswered with other characters and it would be a shame to leave it at a cliffhanger with all those stories. The story is now Dracula is defeated So what now. My only negative of season three and four was that there were too many stories to follow. Let's break them down. There were:
Trevor and Sypha
Alurcard
Isaac
Hector (kinda of)
Carmilla and her sisters
My favorite part of season three was seeing Isaac someone who was more of a follower his entire life become a leader of his own volition and grow as a character. He saw the goodness in humanity that he never got to see. This is why Isaac was a better black character in castlevania and why there wasn't much criticism about him because he was a flawed character who developed into something much better and more compared to Annette who then tire first season had no reason whatsoever to be a snarky bitch. That's why I'm hoping season 2 humbles her and Maria to where they actually become competent and likeable otherwise nocturne is going to fail.
Season four wasn't so bad unfortunately I do feel it was sort of rushed as unbeknownst to me it was the final season. And just like season three there were too many stories to follow at the beginning but they all sort of came together in the end and had a conclusion. I still don't understand the whole ending of season four where Dracula and his wife actually did return from the dead are now exploring the world. That part made no sense. I wanna love to see OK so when you series that starts Simon instead of Richter but you take what you can get and truth be told Rondo of blood and Symphony of the night we're still great games.
I do agree that the time period does justify alot of the back stories of the characters but I have one question, are we doomed for every Netflix Castlevania series to have a colored character with a slavery background due to most the franchise happening in past times? “Issac” had the same fate but wasn’t as emphasized as this season. It’s getting pretty old at this point.
As a Castlevania fan Netflix is one of the worst videogame adaptations I have ever seen it was a series that has more sympathy for the villains who reject God than any level of respect for the heroes unless they're nonchristian degenerate nonwhite or female.Trevor/Ralph was made into a drunkard Juste is another Puke Skywalker mentor figure the series is about Good vs Evil not apathetic a-holes vs Vampires.
The games give Dracula a sad backstory to
The show is still woke as it race/sexuality swapped a bunch of established characters, and we’ve yet to see positive representation of Christianity in the show. Personally I found it to be inferior to its predecessor and have no intention of watching season 2.
I think the plot could've been better overall. A 6/10 show to be sure. But I don't think the show is bad. I think the core concepts are solid. It just could've been presented in a more effective way.
For what I was expecting it could have been a lot worse.
Castlevania nocturne is not a bad show, but it's a show with so many problems.
How timely is it that a major event like the P I Conflict is taking place. This illustrated your point about Maria being too headstrong. Both sides are culpable but one so because it holds more power and abuses it. And who suffers. The innocents on both sides who want nothing to do with the conflict. Timely
In the last series Carmella wanted to keep humans in pens and Hector wanted humans to be controlled livestock rather than outright slaughtered.
I kind of think it's sad that, in my opinion, a four episode season based solely on setting up the fight for Season 2 did better than an Eight Episode 1st Season of Nocturne. Better characterization, better pacing, fights felt like there was a point (despite how rough some were in Season 1), voice acting, and chemistry of the cast.
I am solely interested in seeing Julia Belmont fighting monsters during the American Revolution (a setting ripe with potential) rather than seeing more of her son, Maria's cringey revolutionary gimmick, and "Not-Annette" (she should have just been given a cool Hatian name or something to solidify her as a new and original character for the series) stumbling around like a bunch of idiots. I kind of lost interest in Nocturne when Maria and Annette gaslit Richter in episode 3 or 4 as he just wanted a plan and didn't want people to die.
Maybe it gets better in the next number of episodes, I don't know. There's such a mix bag of opinions around whether it gets better or worse that I would rather drop it and wait for a new attempt at Castlevania.
I forgot just how much I came to love the dynamics between Trevor, Sypha and Alucard in Castlevania. Especially as they learned to work together and watching them demonstrate that beautifully in the fights.
Listening to this, I just have no idea what you mean by 'woke'. You ask the question repeatedly, "So is Castlevania 'woke'?" and then answer in the negative by pointing out the contextual feasibility of certain setting details, lines of dialogue and events. This seems like a really strange way to answer the question, since it completely ignores the motivations that drove the choice of context, which is where I think most people are getting the impression that it's 'woke' from (which makes it feel like you're talking past the point?)
I have no problem with reboots, but the choice to cram a history lesson involving the Haitian revolution into this series feels like an obvious play for social credit, and the way it was woven into the narrative feels very Deus Ex Machina to me (her mentor's precognition which sends her across the Atlantic in search of the Belmont, and how they arrive just in the nick of time to save Richter who got thrashed by a single night creature(?) - which Annette is mysteriously able to explain for them(?)) Not to mention how recasting the majority of French planation owners as vampires seems like lazy revisionism.
Since they were obviously taking full advantage of their creative license in terms of character reboots, they had more-or-less unlimited choices before them. My understanding is that it's the choice of what to portray, rather than how they portrayed it, that gives people the impression of 'wokeness'.
I don't like excusing cultural vandalism by saying as long as we have the original works, nothing has been lost. Maybe you can fire up Empire Strikes back and enjoy the OT, and maybe it's my problem that I can't. Doesn't change the fact that the joy is gone and the fun is over.
That's a personal problem.
@@BigMicahC Only if you don't care about the IP in question.
It's been awful since season 3.
Nah. 3 was better than 2.
@@SethAurelius94 Season 2 was mid, but had it's moments, the best season is still 1.
If I have a dollar for every time someone talented in the comic or movie industry that gets pushed out of a project due to sexual assault claims, THEN gets replaced by some woke talentless hack, I'd be rich.
The priest alliance with the vampires made NO sense even if he lost faith in god.
Holy power HURTS vampires, clearly the priest should know that they would NEVER let the church regain dominance and will kill him when the opportunity presents itself!!
What part of "the French revolutionaries will kill us if we swear fealty to the government" did I not explain properly?
@BigMicahC so the priest would rather fight angry *civilians* than rally the people to fight the *vampires* in the name of god?
People are getting killed in plain sight (vampires not even trying to hide the bodies, too). It wouldn't be hard to say that all of the country's problems are caused by the bloodsuckers.
Empowering vampires rarely work well for humans unless he is looking to become a vampire himself.
Also, how the hell did ONE priest get to have a say in making such an alliance? Where are all of the other people of the faith? You can't tell me HE is the only one left!
Plus, the reason for the French Revolution in the show was intentionally inaccurate to push the priest into making this dumb ass decision. In the French Revolution, riots were happening almost DAILY, but in the show, we see streets with hardly anything showing said "revolution" happening anywhere.
Also, where ARE the human nobles? The ones that caused said revolution? We get to see an alarming amount of VAMPIRE nobles, tho.
Almost like THEY were the reason revolution happened in the first place, and if that's the case, it would make the priest look like a BIGGER idiot than he already is in my eyes.
It is woke. They would not have changed a character from white to black and at the same time made. Mr. Belmont, a psychiator in his on show that needed saving time and time again.
Culture war brainrot: the comment
@@BigMicahC believe what you want. the show is doing bad in the ratings compared to the rest of the previous seasons.