I also think that Richter and Olrox’s arc reflects the theme of freedom in terms of their psychology. The two of them are imprisoned by their trauma, and are left unable to pursue self actualization without facing that trauma head on. I think this is why Annette is so important, as she subscribed to the method of pushing through the pain and growing from it. I’d also argue that olrox faces his trauma and grows through his relationship with Mizrak, facing the fear of loving someone who’s life is in danger. These characters don’t just have to free themselves from others, they have to learn to be free from their pasts.

The French Revolutionaries started fighting for the ideals of freedom and equal rights but by the end it became about greed and a lust for power.

really enjoyed your take on the first series and this one came much sooner than expected!

Something i look forward to next season is Maria's arc. Not only does she suffer the loss of a parent, she will suffer the need of revenge the way Annette, Alucard and Richter did. Difference being that Annette managed to let go, letting Vaublanc die without malice in her heart. Even as Rash and cock as Richter is, after he manages to regain magic, his bad blood with Olrox didn't entirely unbalance him. But Maria? She is young. She is idealistic, and she sees every one who opposes the revolution as bad. Her arc may lead her to a dark path, a path our previous heroes avoided. This show continues many themes from the first show. 1 ) Not letting the world corrupt you. Trevor regains faith in humanity, while Sypha and Alucard struggles to see the desire to continue fighting. Juste sees no point to be a hero no more, while Richter is still young and has a family to go back to. 2 ) Not letting revenge lead your path. Trevor's was less about commiting vengeance on the people more so indifference. Afterall, they pushed his family out. Dracula hated himself and the people who caused Lisa's death and and decided to put it on every human being, thanks to his already lack of faith in them. Olrox killed Julia because she killed his lover. Richter was too traumatized at first, but obviously he still has bad blood with Olrox. The cycle began with Olrox. A fun nod to this theme is that by killing the Marquis, Richter set his wife to hunt after his family, had he been too late, Tera would have gone. And now Maria, the girl who is on the side of the revolution, but hasn't seen the brutality of it, was betrayed by someone who is not only on the side of Vampires, but is also on opposition with the revolution. Next season we will see her having to learn the same message we had seen previously in the series. But unlike previously seen, Maria might delve deeper

Olrox is an opposite to Dracula, I like that. Dracula didn't turn Lisa and when she died, he took it out on the whole world. Olrox turned his partner against his will, and when Julia killed them, he took it personally. Sad part is, his partner was probably a good person who was fighting for freedom, but was killed simply for being a Vampire. There are probably some good vampire's out there, like Alucard. Yeah they need blood to survive, but they are just like any other creature who need to survive somehow.

This is an extremely practiced, measured, detailed commentary as to what would likely be an interesting show, but unfortunately piggybacks onto an unrelated franchise in order to deliver the messaging that the creators wished as opposed to the source material.

The problem is the internet never existed back then. Information is actually hard to get, of course the abbot wouldn't find out about the superpowered slayers are real.

Teras fate hurt me on an emotional level and I don’t know why

Finally, a review that doesn't refer to Annette as "Black Annette," or call Richter a "crybaby."

Thanks for your PoV, the setting and plot confused me a bit on the overall theme of the show. Knowing the central theme is freedom and how it can be important on a personal level helps make sense of the show. Might have needed to watch the show a couple more times like the first show, which had the central theme of faith.

Wowzer….you really broke down the meaning/metaphor of this series. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👊🏽👊🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

One thing I hope they do build on next season is Maria’s outlook. She’s got good intentions but her words are indeed careless and don’t account for all on both sides and it doesn’t sit well with me she’s being naive to the repercussions and pain her ideals bring. I’m not saying she shouldn’t fight for the betterment of the revolutionaries. Annnette and Edouard have a better ideology of freedom than her. Just to be aware of the harm it also does for the everyone. To the extreme, look at the Abbot. It’s Maria’s ideals(to the extreme) that influenced members of the church, good and bad, driving him to resort to Devil Forging. At least in part. Maria is going to be hit hard with the loss of her mother so I think it could catalyze her growth into a more mature character.

Really good vid. Very clear and concise presentation which I enjoyed. That said. Drolta was the Priestess of Sekhmet. I could be misremembering but I don’t think Erzabet was and this is the second time I’ve seen that talked about in a video. I’ll definitely have to rewatch the series just in case tho, as I could be wrong.

Wait a minute... are you telling me that the hidden meaning of this show was actually a meta commentary on the eternal battle of good vs evil?? 😯 What a wholly original concept I would have never figured this out without this video dude. Thank you so much.

I like how castlevania offers philosophical ideas about good and evil. This makes it far more than a just styleful actionpacked animation. I think a lot of evil people think of themselves as strong more so than evil and have to show power because they believe that is what life is all about. Their vision is limited because its shrouded in darkness.

For as much as I love this and I appreciate that you have brought front the best aspects of what I belive the series is about, I still find that the series both rushes and has phasing troubles about the whole situation that prives us from enjoying its nuance. Great video doe.

Good take but I do feel the need to point out Bathory was never a priestess of Sekhmet Drolta Tzuentes was, explaining her status as fanatic hype woman

Thank you so much for this interesting deep dive into the show. I'm so sick of all the "Castlevania is ruined because of Annette" videos, that fail to pick up on or misinterpret the message of Nocturne. Love it!

I loved Nocturne and I'm so happy Netflix has already confirmed season 2! Julia was holding her own against Olrox, she may have still died, but I think Olrox would have been hurt if Richter wasn't there. Erzebet is freeing the vampires from the rising sun but she wants to be worshiped. Forced worship is another form of slavery, the vampires are trading one cage for another - Olrox knows. Amazing analysis! I did think we needed to spend some more downtime with the characters, I didn't feel as connected to everyone as I would have liked. I have a weighty complaint, but, I will not talk about it because the video left me with such a positive feeling that it almost feels rude to mention it!

This pretty much sums up my perception twords nocturne, I'm eager to see what other stuff of Rondo of Blood/Symphony of the Night will be precented in Season Two, hell I will be on board with episodes taking narrative from Harmony of Disonace to show Juste in his youth and how he end up as a solitary old man.

I think you're right. Superb commentary.

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Wonderful analysis.

0:10 You sure about that one bud?

From a video explaining everything wrong with the show, to one claiming how is great. The duality of man

Great video and analysis!

Excited 4 next season

The phrase "the meek shall inherent the earth..." is the best way way to describe this video.

Thank you my friend.

Helluva lot under the hood of a show that’s setting up Dracula vs the Mummy.

Really really really good take on the Nocturne show. I agree with your analysis all the way. However, i continue to think that despite the deepness of the thoughts the show his carrying, it was badly delivered. Some highlights you bring needed more time to be convey properly or in a more satisfying dramatic way. That's where the comparison with the first show is infuriating. Of course in 4 seasons Castlevania have touch a lot of subject and philosophical at that, but like all great gifts, it was unpack carefully and thoughtfully. Nocture was busy with too much for eight episodes and, in my opinion, had done a much better service to their ideas if they take their time with it. Ps: Just a thing on the french revolution. It was true that Robespierre give up on his initial thoughts on death penalty and bring much people to the guillotine. But in the context of the rage and murdering spree of the people bring to crazyness by the monarchy's opression, it was a quite political decision by Robespierre to calm the civil war.

Great video!

🎉🎉🎉

Really happy to finally start seeing actual analysis of the show rather than inane winging about superficial changes that don’t materially affect the quality, themes or story. I also find it interesting that morality and ideals-wise, Richter and Maria kinda begin the series right where Trevor and Sypha had left off in the original. With Trevor growing from cynical loner drunkard into monster Hunter happy to follow the lead of the more idealistic Sypha. Richter starts off exactly like that, happy to just kills monsters and follow Maria and Terra’s ideals, but we are already starting to see glimpses of his morality growing further, beyond simply caring and following those he loves, into crafting his own personal idea of justice, which goes beyond what Trevor had attained at the end of the original series. Similarly, i think Maria starts full of this strong, but rather simplistic black and white idealism that Sypha developed, but as the revolution she supports inevitably becomes more brutal and violent, I expect her idealism will become more tempered and well rounded. Needless to say, I’m really interested to see where the series takes these characters in future seasons.

Is Olrox a reluctant feeder like Alucard?

Thank you very muck for the video.

👌

Adi has made some bangers over the years, not just Netflix but, mostly on youtube. His Judge Dredd animation was so good.

What do you think about all this negativity the series is getting?

Wow you explained the french revolution and the setting of the story way much better than the show did . The show really did not go deep dive and develop these things that your saying at all , not enough . Either way you can actually enjoy without spotting a lot of plot holes of the story .

This show was great.

1. Olrox mostly explains his backstory in dialog. We don’t get a flashback like Annette’s 1-2 episodes. He spends most of his time watching and trying to look worldly. Only slightly better than Ratko but no rivalry. 2. The shows Universe treats Christian faith as entirely fake compared to Haitian Faith and Egyptian Gods. It kind means the Belmonts beliefs are secondary or partly fake compared to Annette’s proven Godhood and true faith connection to the afterlife. 3. The shows treats the French Revolution like a fancy backdrop not showing much detail about the divide between the Aristocracy and the poor. Annette’s flashbacks dilutes Colonial Slavery with Magic and the Supernatural, treating that like a superhero origin story and hero’s call to action. Basically, Annette gets both Show & Tell and everyone including Edouard are supporting characters.

I seriously don’t understand why so many people are saying this show is bad. Some have even said the animation itself is bad.

Shitting on the cannon id say

this was nothing like the previous iterations

First KZfaq creator that talked about how the race swap in handed the experience. I understand white people want to keep all media for themselves, but we also existed and thrived during these times. How could they depict the French Revolution without the hatian rebellion because it was that very rebellion that inspired the French, and ultimately made things worse for black ppl in America

Nah. Just binged watch the whole first season of Nocturne and just…nah. Wish I could get that time back. Truthfully, my knowledge of Castlevania is fairly limited, I didn’t even know any characters were race swapped until I started looking at reviews to see if I was just crazy about this show being terrible. Maybe I’m a cynic, but I absolutely hated everyone in the show, the plot, the plot holes, the logic holes, the personalities, the goals, the motivations. The only saving grace were some of the character designs and the fight scenes, that’s it. I don’t hate anyone for enjoying it, but I think I’ll just stick to the first series and be grateful they got it right at least once.

Can we treat Anette as just a name? Your precious damsel Anette may still be pure and white and Anette from Haiti merely a namesake, albeit one that’s actually interesting….

My thoughts about nocturne is that it was crap, full on poop actually. The first castlevania series was really good whit well written characters that had good character development. In nocturne people just show up and have the most over powers abilities not going trough anything they just are there. They show us some what happend before scenes but that dont build a character and therefore almost everyone in nocturne becomes so hard to like. I even say you dislike them for beeing stupid and obnoxious. The most intresting character becomes Olrox cause he is being built up. You dont really know what his motives are or what he is up to, just that he dont side whit Elsebeth. Thats my take, like if you agree!

is about shittting on a legendary videogame franchise

The only two black characters are stereotypes... One has bright color gaudy attire placing emphasis on hairstyles and the other is portrayed as an oppressed victim... As a black person, I find that to be insulting af.

This feels like a defence of their crap writing

This show was a giant FU to old fans. Not to mention it was an inconsistent piece of crap.

Nice try but this whole season is pure waste of time and bastardization of Castlevania for the sake of dumb and insufferable woke propaganda.

It's an ok animated show, even with the pandering agenda and poor writing. But it's a really shit Castlevania series. I'd have rathered them have called it Vampires of the Gay and done their own thing, than tarnish the Castlevania name even further.

Wokeness garbage The original series is incredible.

Wokevania