i havent seen any discusion on this seasson here on lemmy so what the hell, im gonna start my own.
I had some very mixed feelings on it, for one the action and animation was very cool, and the second season seems that its gonna be a break it or make it kinda deal in terms of the plot because the writting was mediocre and worse compared even to the 3rd season of the first series, which is the weakest season by far of the first castlevania.
This is specially the case with the main 3 characters, first Maria is very passionate about the revolution and thats cool but the way they portrait it is very annoying, she just spouts the same revplutionary speeches over and over, and its never explained why she is so pasionate about it, you could say because freedoom is a universal motivation but it really isnt, speciallybfor her since she as well as her mom live away from the town, they arent really shown interacting with the townspeople so that to make a connection to understeand why they want freedom for them, or at the very least they could have shown her that she whent to college and learned about it on her philosophy class, or anything, luckilly they tone it down at the end by giving her more character and a conflict that goes into spoiler territory that seems that its gonna be cool how they expand upon it in the next season, but the first parts are very annoying and unexplained.
Second is Richter, which is this seassons flagship belmont, he kind of makes no sense, it wasnt shown or mentioned that he was trained in vampire killing yet he is super good at it, you could say that thats because he is a belmonth, but due to his “spoiler” being “spoiled” its not possible he could have been trained as well as say trevor with the wip, not even by the people that he is living wirt now since they are magic users, not vampire hunters, yet he is impossibly good with it, and he really doesnt have a good explanation as to why he is a vampire hunter in profession, and to pretend he has a character arc they gave him a barely justified shonen protagonist anime power up scene where he kills a bunch of powerfull vampires with magic and this was specially made to justify having him running of crying in one scene where his “spoiler” shows up, this imo really shows the intentions of the writers, wich takes us to the last character i want to complain about: Annete.
Annete was kinda like the writers darling, the first parts of the show focus on her and one whole episode its entirelly dedicated to her backstory, while the other characters barelly have foundation, and this wouldnt be as bad if she wasnt so annoying, since she causes some problems and one of them being a characters death due to her not being able to control herself at a very bad moment and isnt even at the very least made responsible for it, the whole contrary btw, and its not because she is clumsy or made a mistake, she has some very OP magic and its very good at using it, which while it shouldnt it kinda gets aded as a negative, not that she shouldnt be powerfull but you kinda understeand what the writers are trying to do and i dont like it, and when richters runs away they made her snap, throw a temper tantrum and shit talk him, making her come across at the very least as very unconcidarate, and granted, they have someone tell her that she shouldnt do that and she accepts it but still, but aggain, its very obvius why the writers added this, they whant to piss pepople of for controversy and about that, thats the characters purpose at its core, to be controversial, you could think it is not but it is. Not that a character shouldnt be diverse, but when they are made diverse nor even for diversitys sake, just for controversys sake, it brings the ehole character and discussion down. And it makes me sad that they are using a culture that has some cool potential for very nice stories and characters be used for just to piss people off and as a twitter argument, but well what can you do.
It may not seem like it but i do recomend it if you liked the first castlevania series, its more of it at the end, but if you like the games you will probably be more perplexed about it, but if thats the case then you probably seen the first series and again, its more casltevania. And if you like diversity in you media then you will like this series, i know it sounds condecending, but i heard is a genuine thing people take into concideration to rate something, so yeah, its very diverse, you will like it. Other than that, the second seasson its already confirmed so, like i said, they could redeem themseles or make it worse, so we will have to see…
I liked the series so far, and as someone who played Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, I think they did a good job in portraying Richter and Maria. I did not find Maria annoying, but I do agree that more could have been done with her. I also agree that a little more time could have been dedicated to showing how Richter and Maria grew up. One complaint I do have is how Season 1 appears slightly rushed, and as Richter and Maria are two of my favorite characters from the game, seeing how their relationship and skills developed would’ve been awesome. The games don’t go into much about their relationship, other than stating that they are distantly related and have special skills for fighting night creatures and vampires.
However, as this is only Season 1, I am going to wait and see how the story pans out.
Another thing I like about Nocturne is that they went in their own direction with the story, rather than taking the story that was presented in Rondo of Blood. I doubt they would get very far with the whole “hero & heroine team up to rescue damsels in distress” story that was in Rondo of Blood. That might also explain how they took characters like Annette and Tera in a whole new direction. Annette and Tera were two women you had to rescue in Rondo of Blood, with Annette being Richter’s girlfriend. Their roles were so minor in the game that you really didn’t care much about them except as an objective to complete in the game. In Nocturne, they were given pretty important roles, with new backstories and personalities that made you care for them.
Despite my issues with the new show I enjoyed it and am glad you brought up Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night! One of the big pros for me was seeing Maria’s powers in action. I’ve got so many memories of these little pixelated birds and creatures from the games that finally seeing Maria summon these beings in detailed, fully-realized animated form years later was super satisfying. It was like “ohhh that’s what her attacks actually look like!”
Yes! Maria was also the character I wanted to see the most. I don’t recall the Castlevania games ever explaining how she controls her animal familiars, but Nocturne gave a pretty good explanation of it. The animal familiars are mystical beings summoned from a magical dimension, and Maria has the ability to conjure portals that lead from the magical dimension into her dimension. But, how she actually formed the relationship with those animal familiars in the first place would be an interesting story. Plus, there’s one animal familiar that did not show up in Season 1. I think you know which one it is, given your experience with Rondo and Symphony, and I think the reason why it didn’t show up is quite obvious. Perhaps this is the growth that we will see with Maria in Season 2.
It didn’t occur to me until you mentioned it but now I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ll bring in that familiar. I think you’re right that it’ll have to be something she works toward summoning. I’m curious if Olrox might assist in that journey with his vast experience in animal shapeshifting and ancient knowledge, but that’s just a thought at this point and not really a theory I’m committed to.
Indeed. Olrox may have his reasons for aligning with the Vampire Hunters against Erzebet, but I doubt he will do something, even indirectly, that will give them more power. He needs their help, but only to fulfill his purpose…whatever that is.
And speaking of what Maria and Richter have to go through to even stand a chance against Erzebet, I can think of one thing that might give them a chance: Item Crush.
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True with Tera, and with the diferent direction they are taking it, the whole french revolution thing is very wasted imo, like i said, they dont interact with any of the villagers, in fact they seem very hermit like if we go about what we see in the series, they just go to the town to rally people like politicians in a political campaign… which now that i think about it its kind of hilarious, it kinda mirrors the stablishment that they are trying to fight aggainst.
And personally i didnt like annete ( i think i made that a bit to clear, lol), besides of the reasons i already whrote, its because it feels the writers are trying to force her to like… happen, while taking away from the main characters and into her, not belmonth, i mean both maria and belmonth and even tera, shes litterally thrown out of another story into this one, and the reason being that the writers whant to piss people off so that it becomes controversial and people incluiding them can complain about it and defend it online (i.e. american culture war bs).
Im hopeing that the character of both maria and richter will be expanded upon in the next season, thats if they give them enough time, i dont whant to say that i doubt it, but the intentions of the writers are not subtle at all in the first season, thats why everything else was so rushed. So if they whant to make a comeback the writers should go in with a different mentality, (i.e. hire diferent writers), otherwise we are gonna get more of the same.
Overall I enjoyed it. I really liked the setting of the French Revolution and the way that the Church allied itself with darkness in the face of an existential threat. Very relevant I think to many religious institutions today.
I REALLY liked Olrox. An Aztec vampire that can transform into a serpent god? Yes please. And they made him a three dimensional character, neither totally good or bad.
I agree that more time could have been spent on Rictor and Marie’s upbringing, but that wasn’t critical. I assume Rictor just comes by his skills naturally by way of being a Belmont and doesn’t need formal training. Marie was obviously trained by her mom. I really liked her power of conjuring creatures from another dimension, especially that one particular moment on the last battle with her foot.
Anne was a cool character but I agree she took too much responsibility for Eduoard’s death. But she’s also young and he was one of her only friends, so I can also kind of understand. She has a lot of growing to do.
I thought the idea of reformed Night Creatures was intriguing. Elizabeth Bartlett was underdeveloped as a villain, and Drolta wasn’t much better. Grandpa Belmont coming out of left field was weird and didn’t add much to the story since he didn’t do much.
Whatever it’s flaws, they weren’t enough for me to not enjoy it.
The whole church thing was weird to me because they do portrait them like a bunch of blind dogmatic weirdoes, with the priest gaslighting himself into thinking that him spoilling himself with the spoilers its gods plan but at the same time it seems that they are gonna whant to reddem the priest in the future, because it seems he genuenly thought that god was gonna help him and send him a sacrificial lamb to sacrifice instead of spoiler and he does seem genuenly horrorized from what happened next. And not to mention the bara knight that i dont remember his name, being paired as olroxs love interest and not even aknowledging that the church does not aprove of that at all, like, hell, its impossible for him to not have an internall conflict at least for having sex outside of marriage, let allone homosexual relationships and with a vampire/demon! That sounds like a freaking awesome character conflict, specially with the priests bullshit going on, but like the french revolution setting, it was wasted (hopefully just for now) .
Olrox was cool, him being wathever anything doesnt face me one way or the other, i think vampires being homo or bi or wathever is kinda naturall because they usually live for a long time and thend to become hedonistic and with the mentality of nothing is sacred, so i think thats kinda natural, but whe deffinetly needed more time with him on screen thought. Personally i think he is working for dracula one way or the other but who knows.
With belmont it was more believable with trevor because he was constantly reminicing of when he was trained during his youth, him having extensive knowledge about night creatures and how to kill them, and the whole belmonth state made him even more believeable as a fallen hunter, like he wouldnt even be alive if it wasnt for his training and knowledge, but with richter its just feels convenient, like where did he even learned how to use the wip? They could have had this explained with Juste maybe teaching him but they made him a divorsed grandpa, or maybe if they showed richter not being as super skilled with the wip like he is, like if he was just a hunter in training and have juste suplement his training some time in the future, but no, he is already a profesional vampire hunter. Maybe im nitpickng on him but it does make me uncomfortable that fact.
Maria is fine, ilke where they are going with her at the end, but her pasion for the revolution feels kinda random, they should hav gave her a motive like a friend of hers was killed by the aristocraths, or that she is friends wit some townspeople but they are bullied by the stablishment with impossible taxes, or that she and her mom are afected some way by the government which doesnt seem to be the case, since it seems they live kinda of grid? I dont know but they are definetly not villagers, hell it isnt even show that they work, like are they merchants? Does Tera makes potions and sells them? Are they maintained by the priest an dont work at all? I might be wrong and it might have been hinted at in the show but if that it the feel free to tell me otherwise. Like i just dont find the beliebable, they just exist and maria has no real reason as to why shes so pationate for revolution, at least show something lame like she whent to college and learned in a philosophy or ethics class about freedoom and now became an activist due to that.
Bartlett does suck right now, shes just evil for the sake of it. Drolta was very nothing but her character design was annoying, not all of it, just her pink hair and some outfits they gave her, looks more like she came out from marvel or dc rather than castlevania but shes spoiler at the end, so i guess it doesnt really mather annymore i guess.
Juste sucks now, i hope they use him in the future.
The night creture thing is cool, but the singing was annoying and with how long it was it felt cringe unfortunately, like if they cut some time of it it wouldnt be as annoying.
Annete sucks to me, im sorry, i made it very clear already and the writers intentions are very clear and not well meaning, they wanted to make a controversial character for twitter rants and they did.
Other than that im glad you enyoyed it.
I jus hope season 2 does better since its already confirmed.
Edit:
added the maria part.
The first Castlevania series definitely felt far more concerned with building a story that had the spirit of the games but completely could stand on its own merit. Nocturne seems more like it was written with the idea of crafting a story to simply serve the action sequences. As such I think the original had action that felt like more was at stake (a pun I know), whereas Nocturne felt like the action was more just to look really cool even when it had the heroes losing during fights.
I think focusing on the brutality of vampires and night creatures during the first season of the original show along with the depth of the characters really helped the fight sequences feel more dire. Here I felt like I was just watching really cool fight choreography without a lot of weight.
That said, I still enjoyed it. I may not have been clamoring to find out what happens next like I did binging through each season of the original. But, even watching Nocturne at a slower pace without a lot of interest to see the events unfold or the characters continue was still enjoyable. For me, the original stands as a really good show, whereas Nocturne is just fun entertainment. That said, I am definitely intrigued by the conscious night creatures turning against their intended purpose in Nocturne, am really liking Zahn McClarnon’s performance and character, and think that having a certain son of a certain vampire throughout season 2 might ramp things up a bit.
I had fun watching it, want more :)
Nice (:
Where is Issac? Is he alright? Is he safe?
Oh I thought he was long gone since Nocturne takes place about 300 years after the original series ended. I think he stayed human until the very end and returned to his home to lead and create a life for himself, but did he end up doing some eternal life enchantment stuff that I don’t remember? He was definitely a top tier character for me so I’d love to at least hear about him even if he’s gone and we don’t get to see him.
@icepuncher69 I haven’t watched it yet, I have just started rewatching the original series for spooky season. Let’s be real though, even though he is a grade A creep, Warren Ellis is one of the best writers of our generation for comics and animation, and he exercised a lot of control as prroducer and writer of Castlevania. It will be very difficult for another writer to step into his shoes and not disappoint in some way.
Very true. But it feels here like they where trying to activelly piss people off, or like be controversial with certain characterizations just so they can brag about it on social media. And besides while warren elis did a good job on the first two seasons, he got kinda like a meltdown on the third season by making its own version of game of thrones, shit on the favorite characters of people he didnt like, and make a lot of fetish shit, he became very childish in that one, making some unpopular conments about shit. luckily he was fiered due to people coming out about him being a predator, and the 4th seasson was kinda rescued from his madness, who knows what type of weird sexual bullshit he could have had at the end of the series.
And i think something good could have been made in nocturne, it just symply feels like the only ones interested are the ones that wanted to piss people off and managed to take the leadership of the project, while everyone else was just making more castlevania.
I got through episode 5 and decided to turn it off, downvote it and remove it from my queue.
Understeandable, but it does get better at the end, not by much, but the maria and the priest thing does become interesting.
Yup yup yup, would not recommend. I still binged it though, which is something I’ve got trouble with when it comes to ZeroCalcare’s latest series; which I love. I guess I’m in a ‘braindead entertainment’ kinda mood these weeks
I binged it in a day too. I hoped we would get more characer in the last episodes, and we almost got them with maria, but not really.
I hope thr next season takes its time so that it makes me care more, or goes full annoying so that i can let it go.
