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“ | Ha! Mankind. A cesspit of hatred and lies. Fight for them, then, and die for their sins! | „ |
~ Dracula to Richter Belmont. |
“ | What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk... have at you! | „ |
~ Dracula's most iconic quote, taken from the French writer André Malraux. |
Count Vlad Tepes Dracula is the main antagonist of the Castlevania franchise. He is the master of Death, Shaft, and various other villains, and the arch-nemesis of every Belmont Clan member and his son, Alucard.
Formerly a human crusader named Mathias Cronqvist, he would abjure God after the death of his wife Elisabetha, becoming a vampire and the emissary of God's antithesis, Chaos. As the "King of the Night", he commands vast armies of monsters from his castle, the titular Castlevania, intent on conquering the world and destroying humanity. However, his plans are continuously opposed and foiled by the Belmont Clan, the descendants of his former best friend and ally, Leon Belmont.
Appearance[]
Dracula looks like a typical vampire, with chalk-white skin and bright red eyes, clad in luxurious medieval attire and a long, high-collared, red-linen black cape. However, depictions vary from game to game.
In the early games, he resembles Bela Lugosi's portrayal in the famous 1931 Dracula film; clad in the "classical" tuxedo, clean-shaven, with short, sleeked black hair in a widow's peak.
However, Symphony of the Night set his aspect as an old aristocrat twice as tall as an adult, with long grey hair, a thin moustache and a goatee (making him heavily resemblant of his original book counterpart), wearing an ornate coat, a sash belt, and an ascot tie. He sometimes appears in ornate robes, or younger-looking.
Dracula almost always becomes a gigantic demon, most often resembling a humanoid monster with horns and red bat-like wings. His most common transformation resembles a dark blue (or greenish) draconic gargoyle, with wings attached to his arms, which was also seen looking like a black, bat-like demon. But he has also appeared as a Mesopotamian-looking idol, an insectoid dragon, or an immense purple devil.
Throughout the series, he has turned into a giant bat, an immense vampiric face, a gigantic and devilish goat head, or turned his cape into a repellent mash of demonic figures with skull-like heads and gigantic arms and wings.
Personality[]
“ | Freedom is always sacrificed to faith good hunter. Or are you truly here by choice? | „ |
~ Dracula to Richter Belmont. |
Dracula is scornful, hateful, cruel and ruthless, driven to cover the world in darkness and swarm it with demons. Yet he is refined, erudite and poised, with perfect manners and imposing presence. He is very polite, discussing motives with foes, though he often laces it with sarcasm and dark humour. In games however, he only displays scathing spite and arrogant taunts.
He is very cordial to his vassals and generous to those who resurrect him, valuing their loyalty and granting their wishes if they pledge obedience. Yet, he is harsh, unforgiving to traitors, fully willing to use or to sacrifice his followers as he sees fit or kill anyone he dislikes on the spot, and to abduct and vampirize women who stroke his fancy at the drop of a hat.
Finally, he is highly intelligent and cunning: acting through unwitting pawns and proxies, predicting people's actions, devising smoke-screens or false tracks to confuse his foes, or back-ups to plague them even if they win.
Losing his first wife made Dracula reject God as a cruel, ungrateful tyrant. He vowed to curse him forever and steal the world away from him. Losing his second wife made him loathe humanity, dismissing them as greedy, petty, false and unworthy (while he is worse) and yearning to crush them.
He states that everyone, heroes included, bears darkness in their hearts and should stop denying their own selfish desires. He states that there is no freedom, people being willing slaves to their religions which he likens to his harvest of souls. Finally, he blames humanity's wickedness for all of his returns, stating that they desire and deserve the darkness he spreads.
Dracula often taunts his foes, telling them that they struggle in vain and that he will always return despite their best effort. He is quite rightfully confident in his might, but he keeps underestimating the Belmont and Belnades clan when they always prevail. However, his softer side resurfaces when facing his son or remembering his wives. Despite their feud, he bears no ill will towards Alucard, and he has once expressed regret over his evil ways after being reminded of Lisa's last wish. Later games hint that even he is tired of the endless cycle and longs for respite.
Powers and Abilities[]
“ | You should bear that in mind. God is unable to help the souls of those terminated by my hand! | „ |
~ Dracula |
As expected from the adversary of God, Dracula is frighteningly powerful. It has been speculated that the longer he is around, the younger and mightier he becomes. When he unleashes his full might, he becomes a huge demon and his power skyrockets.
His main abilities are the power of Dominance (absorbing the souls and powers of his victims), Mimicry (copying other peoples' power), and Hellfire (conjuring and controlling fire from Hell itself).
Dracula wields his vampiric powers to an unmatched extent. He has tremendous strength, speed, agility and fighting skills, although he seldom uses them. He can turn into a wolf, a bat, a cloud of mist, a gigantic swarm of bats or a poisonous cloud, and turn his cape into bat-like wings. He drains blood on contact, manipulates blood, compels hordes of beasts, and fully controls the weather and elements.
He mastered alchemy as a human, and he is now the source of all Dark Magic. He can sense people's presence and bonds to others, perceive thoughts all around the world, project himself everywhere, possess things and people, bestow abilities, and much more.
Dracula holds complete control over Evil and Hell. He draws power from the Chaotic Realm where human malice gathers. Every wicked being will naturally obey him, and his mere presence drives normal people mad and corrupts his surroundings. He is able to surround himself with evil energies or pure Darkness, to increase people’s malevolence, to twist landscapes and people into monstrosities, to steal and compel souls, and to control ghastly or spiritual energy.
He spreads all manners of plagues and disasters, from natural to magical, for instance being able to cause a downpour of blood. He can curse entire countries, withering the land and corrupting its denizens, even after his death. He can warp reality, bend space and causality; cast endless night over his domain; drag foes into hellish planes; create and transform entire places, such as his sentient, demonic castle over which he fully controls, once having summoned four huge magical castles out of nowhere.
Not only does Dracula "live" forever, but only striking his head or his chest with special sacred weapons can harm him. Not counting people reviving him through Dark Rituals, he will always be resurrected after a century has passed, when human malice reaches its peak.
Other Media[]
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow[]
- Main article: Dracula (Lords of Shadow)
Netflix Series[]
- Main article: Dracula (Netflix's Castlevania)
Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy[]
- Main article: Dracula (Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy)
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- He is based on Bram Stoker's character, based in turn on the infamous Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia.
- His tragic downfall was inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula.
- In Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Dracula's appearance resembles that of a grim reaper instead of a vampire.
- According to his bio in Castlevania Judgment, Dracula is approximately 220 centimeters (7 feet 3 inches) tall. Unfortunately, his height has constantly fluctuated in nearly every game, so this is mostly inconsistent. Regardless, he's always appeared at least twice as tall as his opponents.
- In Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Dracula casts a shadow in his castle stage, which is weird because vampires are traditionally unable to cast a shadow or a refection in a mirror, as they lack a soul.
- It is possible that this is a reference to the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula, where Count Dracula had a living shadow.
- However though hacking and changing the stage into Wii Fit Studio, Dracula does cast a refection in the stage's background mirror; this is due to the fact that developers never thought people would hack the game.
- Dracula once fought Ganondorf in the popular internet show DEATH BATTLE and won.
External Links[]
- Dracula on the Castlevania Wiki
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Villains | ||
Blaster Master |