Netflix Castlevania Show

[KillingAScarab]

How politely patronizing.


Its also very goofy with Kiche elements of self aware wink wink nudge nudgery.

Dracula talking about Piles of secrets was 20 times as funny when I just fought a Flee Man on a War Goose, and the cast from Wizard of Oz.

In my opinion Castlevania is as Gothic as the Monster Buster Squad.

Those things come after the "Die monster!" intro fight to the start of Koji Igarashi's influence on the franchise. Before that, Kid Dracula was as humorous as it got. Compare were-panther skeletons in Rondo of Blood (before IGA) to were-panther skeletons in Symphony of the Night. But even within SotN, the game which keeps throwing these unexpected humorous things at you to keep you interested in exploring, you are rewarded with Alucard's super-loner dialogue.

[Scowling Dragon]

Those things come after the "Die monster!" intro fight to the start of Koji Igarashi's influence on the franchise. Before that, Kid Dracula was as humorous as it got. Compare were-panther skeletons in Rondo of Blood (before IGA) to were-panther skeletons in Symphony of the Night. But even within SotN, the game which keeps throwing these unexpected humorous things at you to keep you interested in exploring, you are rewarded with Alucard's super-loner dialogue.

True but they aren't exactly adapting pre-SOTN character design or world design. Its like picking the grim moodiness of Igavanias, then not taking the cheese and then setting it before him.

Thats the thing, is that I feel like the moodiness without the goofyness finds itself kinda trite.

[Knaight]

Thats the thing, is that I feel like the moodiness without the goofyness finds itself kinda trite.

The goofiness is inherent in the premise - it's a ridiculous, overwrought show with a ridiculous, overwrought hero. The goofiness is there.

On top of that, compromising the mood and theme by portarying powerful human institutions as benign isn't goofy. There's nothing gained by doing that.

[Metahuman1]

I dunno not Flanderize an entire hundred years of religion based on modern conceptions?

Hindsight is easy, and I fully expect my successors in the future to look apon this hundred years with upturned noses and snears, and a undeserved sense of contextless superiority.

According to the first couple of seasons of TNG and random Voyager and Enterprise Episodes, this is in fact the preferable trajectory of human progress.





But more seriously, it does annoy me and induce a groan at this point when we get Evil Church Of Corrupt Evilness. I was sort of glad they at least implied it was a short list of people who were in effectively middle management positions and drunk on there own power, not the concept's core or anyone who follows the basic concept by proxy.

Maybe will be fortunate enough that the priests who had to do the blessing will get word of Belmont saving people form literal hellbeasts up the chain of command in season 2 and the collective church will shift gears and become a support staff for them. "Ok Warren, you've had your religion is intrinsically evil itch scratched, now knock it off and stop beating the audience over the head with it before they get frustrated with it, and the show."

[JadedDM]

Meh. My only issue with how the church is portrayed is that it shouldn't be Roman Catholic, but East Orthodox based on historical accuracy. But even then, it's not that big of a deal, I guess, since the real world doesn't have vampires and magic, either, so...

[Metahuman1]

It's not even that there doing it. It's that Scowling does have a point. EVERYONE does it to the point that not doing it is a freaking shocking plot twist all by itself.

[Knaight]

It's not even that there doing it. It's that Scowling does have a point. EVERYONE does it to the point that not doing it is a freaking shocking plot twist all by itself.

That would be relevant if it was supposed to be a plot twist. It isn't - the setting is a terrible place, the institutions of the setting are terrible, and also it's haunted by monsters. That's all fairly core to the underlying genre and identity of the show, with no shock value or plot twists to be found.

[Metahuman1]

Yes, but as pointed out, large amounts of canon to draw on were in everything you stated is true, except the 1 institution in question is a support structure. Not able to take on the problems on it's own, but also by no means the bad guys.

Naturally this 1 detail is ignored so that just like nearly every other media piece I can think of off the top of my head with 1 exception,

this same group can be badguys.






If your wondering the exception is The Dresden Files.

[Eldan]

Even the Dresden Files church isn't entirely clean, even if the members we see are mostly clean. But the church is corrupt enough that they keep losing previously secured coins. Plus, there's one short story, The Warrior, I think.

Spoiler

Show

In which a former church special-ops soldier with psychological problems threatens and kidnaps Michael's children, in order to force him and Dresden to put the two swords they have back into circulation.

[Scowling Dragon]

It isn't - the setting is a terrible place, the institutions of the setting are terrible, and also it's haunted by monsters. That's all fairly core to the underlying genre and identity of the show, with no shock value or plot twists to be found.

The show I guess but not the Games overall. They have more in common with something like Yu Yu Hakusho then Berserk.
I mean for boops sake the power of friendship is an element that happens in the games repeatedly!

Both Berserk and YYH have demons and evil, and characters talking about stuff that sucks as well as edgelords. But one show is also filled with gags, silly stuff and in general everybody walks home laughing about something, and the other isn't.

[KillingAScarab]

The show I guess but not the Games overall. They have more in common with something like Yu Yu Hakusho then Berserk.
I mean for boops sake the power of friendship is an element that happens in the games repeatedly!

...is this a Soma thing? The closest I can think of is Harmony of Dissonance, and that's just wearing the right rings during the final boss fight. In Portrait of Ruin teamwork is magic, not friendship.

Spoiler

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Teamwork is so magic, Death & Dracula try it.

[Scowling Dragon]

...is this a Soma thing?

Yes. I'm pretty sure when the biggest bad of the entire series (The Root of All Evil) is defeated by Telepathic Friendship its a thing.
"I Fight because my friends believe in me" is as Shonen power of friendship as you can get unless its a literal superpower.
Overall the world setting just isn't all that grim in tone.

[Callos_DeTerran]

I never got the impression the entire church was evil in Castlevania (the series)..I got the impression that the bishop/cardinal that oversaw the burning of Dracula's wife was a corrupt zealot but I do remember lines that he wasn't well thought of by the higher ups in the church.

And when he got promoted he basically dragged Wallachia down with him while the...clergy man in the throne that got impaled by glass, despite looking like the archtypical evil wizard, was trying to give the people reassurance on the anniversary of the proclamation.

...I'mma re watch Castlevania and get excited about the next season.

[Knaight]

The show I guess but not the Games overall. They have more in common with something like Yu Yu Hakusho then Berserk.
I mean for boops sake the power of friendship is an element that happens in the games repeatedly!

The show is still far more hopeful than the likes of berserk - and as for it not resembling the games particularly well, good. Videogame adaptations tend to be terrible, and the decision to use them as minimally as possible as source materials while instead using gothic horror as an inspiration was the single best decision involved in making the show.

[Olinser]

I never got the impression the entire church was evil in Castlevania (the series)..I got the impression that the bishop/cardinal that oversaw the burning of Dracula's wife was a corrupt zealot but I do remember lines that he wasn't well thought of by the higher ups in the church.

And when he got promoted he basically dragged Wallachia down with him while the...clergy man in the throne that got impaled by glass, despite looking like the archtypical evil wizard, was trying to give the people reassurance on the anniversary of the proclamation.

...I'mma re watch Castlevania and get excited about the next season.

Yes - if I recall Dracula's curse explicitly ONLY affects Wallachia, which is just not that big a country. Certainly the church in Wallachia is corrupt, but we have no real way to tell if the whole Church is corrupt or if its just local.

[Metahuman1]

Even the Dresden Files church isn't entirely clean, even if the members we see are mostly clean. But the church is corrupt enough that they keep losing previously secured coins. Plus, there's one short story, The Warrior, I think.

Spoiler

Show

In which a former church special-ops soldier with psychological problems threatens and kidnaps Michael's children, in order to force him and Dresden to put the two swords they have back into circulation.

Yes but in fairness we've not only see how stupidly easy it is for those coins to snare an individual, we've seen that even one instant of contact with them can at times lead to 100% domination of the host by the coin's entity. (There are at least 2 examples of this that come to mind in book canon.)

Spoiler: Short Story Spoilers.

Show

Yes, and he's called out by everyone in the church from start to finish as being dead to rights in the wrong every step of the way he's gone about wanting to get the swords back into circulation.

And then at the end the rest of the church straight up hang him out to dry for his actions, and tell Dresden and Michal good job for stopping him. The audience are told the only thing that might have gone wrong on there end in so far as how they were handling it, was that had Michal killed him after Disarming him and incapacitating him already, an action he would have been taking out of letting his emotions override his normal better judgment, he'd have been wrong at that point.

And that was for an action that Harry pulled him up short from doing.




The only time we see anyone affiliated with the church fly right in the Castlevaina, it's when he personally is at immediate risk of being horribly murdered by Dracula's Horde and he has someone barking orders at him who's outside the church, but also has shown he's got the best chance of saving him. And even then all he does is draw water form a well and bless it so that it can be used as a simple part of the plan to kill demons that also relies on Heretical magics, salt as something else that's just as good as holy water and coats weapons better, and formation fighting tactics.




Literally the entirety of the Church as a whole are called out as being singularly responsible for every bad thing that's happened and will happen in the show repeatedly. Which falls in with what I was saying before.

[t209]

Meh. My only issue with how the church is portrayed is that it shouldn't be Roman Catholic, but East Orthodox based on historical regional accuracy. But even then, it's not that big of a deal, I guess, since the real world doesn't have vampires and magic, either, so...

I think I found a better term.
Well, I am starting to imagine a menacing looking priest with giant beard and a nun hat, it might not be intimidating or cruel-looking except for Rasputin the Mad Monk.
Not just the series, but everything about Eastern Europe in general (like an undercover Catholic monastery in heavily-Orthodox islands of Greece in James Bond?)

[OracleofWuffing]

Well, my primary exposure to Castlevania comes from the Captain N cartoon, so... No matter how goofy Trevor or anyone else in the series is, they're still downright serious by comparison.

I was kind of expecting some sort of "monster of the week" Power Rangers-type format, but what I saw in the first season was mostly establishing characters. With the world foundation there now, I'm curious to see if they go to develop characters or start focusing more on action elements. Or both, I guess they could do both, but I guess my expectations are low for this and it's already cleared them as-is.