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Season 1:

On the eve of the French Revolution, Maria RenardA young heroine, and cousin to Richter Belmont, with the blood of the Belmont clan in her veins, Maria teams with Richter to fight back Dracula and the forces of darkness in the late 1700s. works to raise up the masses in her town, hoping to have them rise against the nobles, led by the local Marquis and MarchionessIn the time of Revolutionary France, the nobility is under siege by the pesantry. It just so happens that the nobility, led by the Marquis and Marchionesse, are vampires, and they fear the loss of power. So they join with the coming vampire Messiah to ensure their own rule., who control their fates. Maria talks of how they take their taxes, wasting them on spoils and lavish parties, while the poor suffer. The Marquis and Marchioness though, as we see, are vampires and they’re not just against the villagers because they’re poor; they’re against them before the Revolution could unseat the vampires in power, an institutional era of control that they are loath to let die.

Vampires from the nobles go after Maria and her friend (and cousin), Richter BelmontRevealed first in Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood in Japan, and then Castlevania: Dracula X in the West, Richter is the Belmont hero of the late 1700s who worked with Maria Renard to bring down Dracula., at the clearing where Maria is conducting a meeting for the Revolution. They attack, but Maria and Richter fend them off, killing all three. Before one of them dies, he threatens that a vampire Messiah is coming, and that they will kill everyone. Maria sends the people home, under the watchful eye of her friend, and fellow revolutionary, JacquesA friend, and fellow revolutionary, of Maria Renard and Richter Belmont. He aids them as they try to rouse the locals to fight the nobility, but is sadly killed by the vampire elite before he can see the Revolution through., while she and Richter head to talk to the local AbbotHead of the Paris church in the time of the French Revolution. He's initially presented as a helpful ally, but secretly he's working with the vampires to ensure the rise of their coming Messiah. in hopes that he might lend them the strength to confront the Marquis.

Abbot Emmanuel, hearing of the vampires and a possible coming Messiah, dismisses their worries. He only promises to contact his spies and see if the Marquis is in league with vampires, and then sends the two vampire hunters away. They return home to Maria’s mother, TeraOne of four girls that can be rescued in Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. Tera was a young nun who lived in the village in the original game, although her role was greatly expanded in Castlevania: Nocturne, turning her into Maria's mother., but are soon attacked by night creatures and overpowered. They are only saved by two vampire hunters from the Caribbean, the warrior sorceress AnnetteThe sister (well, "sister") of Maria Renard. Her exact familial connection to other characters is confused by bad translations across the Western games. She was then reinvented completely for the Netflix series. and EdouardA former opera singer, who also aided in sneaking slaves out of the Carribean plantations, Edouard joined with Annette on a mission to stop the coming vampire Messiah. Unfortunately he was captured by the vampires and turned into a night creature soon after arriving in Paris. the opera singer, who are there to also battle against the Messiah, knowing only that their mission was to find the one called “Belmont” and aid in his battle.

Meanwhile Jacques, enjoying the night at a local tavern, is attacked as he leaves, killed by the Marchioness, who then drags him back to the noble estate for her and her husband to feed upon him. His body is thrown onto a pile of other corpses for a fate unbearable to comprehend.

The emissary of the vampire Messiah, Drolta TzuentesA minor character in Castlevania: Nocturne. The captain and his men stop Drolta Tzuentes and her entourage from entering the city. For this "mistake", he and his men are quickly dispatched., arrives in Paris. She’s stopped by soldiers of the French army who question her business in town. She kills them, showing her disdain for the Revolution, and then sets about gathering her vampires and preparing for the arrival of the Messiah.

Annette and Edouard reveal to Richter, Maria, and Tera that the vampire Messiah is Erzsébet Báthory (see: Elizabeth BartleyBased on Erzsabet Bathory, Elizabeth is the secondary antagonist in Castlevania: Bloodlines. Bartley is the niece of Dracula and, by sowing discord around Europe, she aids in his eventual resurrection.), a vampiress from Eastern Europe with a penchant for torturing her victims. This is a vampiress that Tera, who used to live out east, has encountered before, and this causes Tera much distress as she knows, first hand, what the evil vampire is capable of. Fearing what she might be plotting, Richter, Maria, and their new friends head out to scout the Marquis’s grounds and see just what he and he people have been up to.

There they see so many vampires. The fiends are killing the townspeople and collecting their corpses for what, Annette assumes, will be turning these bodies into night creatures. They’re spotted during their mission by VaublancA evil master vampire and follower of the coming vampire Messiah. Vaublanc spent years controlling the slave population of the Carribean before having his power overthrown. He hopes to regain his true power under the leadership of the Messiah., a vampire that Annette knows. He was the lord that oversaw the sugar plantation back in the Caribbean where Annette was enslaved. Upon them being spotted, the heroes have to flee while being pursued by vampires and night creatures. Edouard is captured and killed while the others make their escape, his body thrown onto the pile with all the rest.

The bodies are then dragged off to the church where the Abbot, of all people, collects them, having his men take the corpses into the crypts of the building. There we find the magical anvil the forge that creates the night creatures, meaning that the Abbot is the forgemaster. Edouard’s body is put into the forge, dark magic flowing into the structure, and he comes back out one of the damned. And while this goes on, Count OlroxA master vampire who, we assume, was from Germany, with powers and abilities comparable to that of Dracula himself. Olrox is likely based on the fictional character of Count Orlock from Nosferatu, with his name accidentally (or maybe purposefully) changed during translation. stands high above, watching, curious and amused at just what the Church is up to.

The next evening, Richter, Maria, and Annette go to another meeting of the Revolution, with Maria working to stoke up the small crowd before having Annette talk about freedom and liberation. Unfortunately, once more, the night creatures come again, seeking to stamp out any spark of the Revolution. The heroes are able to fight off the creatures, saving the townsfolk nearby, but Annette is confronted by something dreadful, the reanimated body of Edouard, now a night creature. She recognizes him by his eyes, which remain blue and true in his new face. The demonic version of her friend has a memory of her as well and fights back another demon that was about to attack her. The other night creatures remaining gather around, capturing him and taking him back to the church because he fought back.

Olrox, meanwhile, has a confrontation on the grounds of the church with MizrakThe right hand man of Abbot Emmanuel, he later turns against the Abbot when he sees the results of the deal the Abbot struck with the vampires. He wants to be on the side of good, even when it's hard to see where that line lies., the Abbot’s right hand man. Mizrak, the faithful servant, believes in what the Abbot is doing. He fears that the people are turning away from the church, that they’re picking reason over God. The confrontation reveals some chemistry between the man of God and the vampire, and soon they meet again at an inn, finding comfort in each other. Olrox warns that the alliance between the Abbot and the vampires cannot last. Once the Messiah is reborn, the vampires will turn against the Church. But Mizrak is steadfast. He believes this is the right path, that this is what God wants.

Confronted by the realization that Edouard is still alive, Annette convinces the rest of the group – Richter, Maria, and Tera – that they have to get into the Church somehow and find her friend. If he’s still Edouard in his new body, they need to decide what to do with him. And if he’s no longer really there, then Annette knows she has to kill him. Tera knows of a secret passage into the Church, a pathway through the crypts. Following the passage leads them right to the holding cells of the night creatures and in among them is the imprisoned Edouard creature. The Abbot didn’t understand why Edouard turned against him, the Abbot being his maker, so locked up he remained until the Abbot could determine what went wrong.

Unfortunately for the heroes, while they were sneaking into the Church, the Abbot and Drolta had a meeting above, firming up their alliance while they ensured everything, on both sides, was in order. After, they head down to the crypt to inspect the night creatures and that’s when they find the heroes down there as well. This leads to a stirring fight between heroes and villains. Tera is confronted by the fact that the Abbot, the man she trusted, is the demon forgemaster and in league with the vampires. Annette tries, and fails, to kill Edouard. Richter kills the Marquis, who was in attendance as well, but is then confronted by Olrox, ever the curious vampire who had been searching among the crypts to see all that the Abbot was up to. It sends the heroes reeling, and they flee, unsure what the next steps would be to defeat the coming threat.

While Annette fights her own internal battle – angry at Richter for fleeing the battle, angry at herself for leaving Edouard in the crypts – Richter has a more external threat to deal with. Having fled Paris, running for his life on pure adrenaline, he ends up in a small village he’s never been to before. There he ends up meeting his grandfather, Juste BelmontGrandson of Simon Belont, and grandfather to Richter, Juste wields both the power of the Belmont clan and the magic of the Belnades family. Juste has to put his considerable power to the test when Dracula’s castle reappears, all on a quest to help his friend Maxim find their missing companion, Lydie., a man the younger Belmont thought was dead. After a brief confrontation with a random vampire at a tavern, the two vampire hunters go to Juste’s shack where the older man explains that he stayed out of Richter’s life for the good of the boy. They yell at each other, but eventually bury the hatchet and bond, just a little.

The happy reunion is ruined, though, when vampires arrive. Led by NikolaiA vampire in the service of Drolta Tzuentes. He is assigned the task of capturing and killing Richter to end the Belmont line, a task he fails to deliver on., one of Drolta’s warriors, the vampires swarm and capture both Juste and Richter. They prepare to kill Richter, to finish off the Belmont line, but then Nikolai taunts the boy, telling him that once he’s dead the vampires will kill everyone he knows and loves. This lights a fire in Richter, which ignites his long-dormant Belnades magic. Suddenly Richter surges forth, killing all the vampires before setting Nikolai ablaze.

Afterwards, Richter returns to Tera’s cabin. He mentions what happened when he left, meeting his grandfather and awakening his power. He then makes up with Annette, and the two find peace, and even the first stirrings of love for each other. Meanwhile, Maria goes off to talk to the Abbot. She’d learned earlier that he was her father and, desperately, she tries to convince him to stop helping the vampires and to turn to the light of reason. He refuses. He then has her captured by his men so she can be sacrificed, a demand the vampires made of him that he feels he’s unable to deny.

Around this time, Erzsébet finishes the great ceremony, using her power to create an eclipse to blot out the sun. This, in the process, brings out her true power, making her the avatar for Sekhmet, a living goddess in human (well, vampiric) form. Power reborn, Erzsébet is then ready to take her throne as the ruler of Earth, with her army of vampires and night creatures ready to fight for their queen.

The heroes get warning of the sacrifice from Mizrak, the Abbot’s right hand man, who could bear to watch the girl get killed. He turns his back on the Abbot and joins with the heroes, who head to the abbey to stop the ceremony. There they’re confronted not just by the Abbot’s men, and his night creatures, but by Drolta as well. She battles Richter while the other heroes free Maria, and then they set about trying to stop the Abbot’s evil plans. Tera, with the help of the Abbot’s evil book of magic, works a spell, opening a portal to Hell, while Annette, down in the crypts, tries to use her magic to push the Abbot’s demon forge through the portal.

Unfortunately the arrival of Erzsébet Báthory at the abbey ruins so many plans. Full of unholy power, Erzsébet is easily able to fend off the heroes. Richter, even with his reawakened magic, can’t take on the vampiric goddess, and this forces all the heroes to regroup. Unfortunately Tera is unable to go with. Erzsébet and Drolta still demand their sacrifice, and if it can’t be Maria then they require someone else. Tera gives up her life, letting Erzsébet bite her, turning her into a vampire. This gives the other heroes a chance to flee, and then do, running just ahead of a flock of vampires that want to kill them, Drolta in the lead.

But, surprisingly, Drolta doesn’t get a chance to finish off our heroes. Just as she swoops in to lay a blow against Richter, she suddenly stops short, a sword through her heart. As she crumbles to dust, the figure of AlucardOne of three heroes recruited by Trevor Belmont on his quest to defeat Dracula, Alucard was the son of Dracula who turned from his fathers evil, battling against his cursed family line again and again. is revealed. He’d sensed the evil spreading across the land and he came back to join the fight against it. Now is the time to fight, and the heroes just had to find the time, and the power within, to take on a goddess and save the world…

Episodes Referenced

• Castlevania: Nocturne: Season 1:
  • "A Common Enemy in Evil"
  • "Horror Beyond Nightmares"
  • "Freedom was Sweeter"
  • "Horrors Rising from the Earth"
  • "The Natural Order"
  • "Guilty Men to be Judged"
  • "Blood is the Only Way"
  • "Devourer of Light"

Important Information

Considering the game that Castlevania: NocturneA loose adaptation of Rondo of Blood, this sequel anime series follows on from Netflix's hit anime adaptation of the game series. adapts, Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of BloodThe first adventure for Richter Belmont, this game didn't originally make it to the West (instead seeing a SNES remake to replace it) as was considered something of a prized collector's item by fans., its plot massively diverts from the originating game, some could argue even more so than the seasons of CastlevaniaFor years Hollywood attempted to make a Castlevania movie, but it was only with the intervention of Netflix, and the creativity of Frederator Studios, that an anime adaptation (in any form) finally took shape. from Castlevania III: Dracula's CurseThe third, and final, NES entry for the series, Dracula's Curse returned the series to its roots with a more traditional adventure. But it also added in branching paths, multiple characters, and new hero Trevor Belmont.. It does include heroes Richter and Maria, allies Annette and Tera, but everything else about the series is quite different. It's set in France instead of Romania, it features villains Drolta Tzuentes and Erzsébet Báthory, and it completely alters the main plot. Honestly, without the inclusion of similarly named characters, you could say it doesn't adapt Rondo of Blood at all.

Because of that, anyone going into the series has to essentially throw out everything they know and go with new characters, setting, and content altogether. It's quite a change, all things considered.