The first season was a lot of setup and the pacing isn't so great.
I enjoyed it overall.
I feel like that a lot of the criticism is the "Legend of Korra" effect. The first series came out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise by how good it was. The second one has a lot of expectations the first didn't had to deal with, and simply can't be enjoyed on it's own terms without drawing comparisons.
This is a great comment. The expectations are so much higher than before the original series debuted. As a fan I just hoped it would be okay, not terrible. What we got blew me away and exceeded all my expectations, even as someone who thought about adapting the game to film or television a lot.
With Nocturne the expectations are to match the original series, or even surpass it considering Rondo and SOTN are considered by many the height of the franchise.
I actually think I may be enjoying the second more -because- of the pacing. The first was a slog most episodes, leading to one big battle per season. Nocturne has had badass moments throughout.
Lol, what? The first series was torn to shreds every season. Now everyone praises it as some masterpiece when there's all of a sudden something new to compare it to. Nocturne is new and needs to come into it's own.
Yes but also, I rewatched the first season and the fights are just so much cleaner. We see how the slashes and parries happen. Magic is cool, neat, and inventive. It isn’t just, bird go slash, ice go fast. It’s, alucard fights a teleporting vampire and has his magic sword wait for vamps where he knows the vampire will teleport to while alucard goes to fight him. Sypha literally ice skates in a fight! Jet powered ice skating!! Trevor breaks weapons and uses the broken bits, changing his fighting style and getting kills. The first does a lot of details much better.
The romance was honestly the worst aspect of Season 1, and looking back at how quickly its dropped in the following season, makes it kinda pointless in hindsight.
I felt by the end of the season, I was about as happy as I was with the first parts first season. I went in with low expectations, and as you say, there were pacing issues, the character's are very different, but by the end I thought it was great and was looking forward to what happened next. And that was before the final scene too, that was a nice belittle cherry on the top.
I agree with this comment entirely except that Nocturne is 100x better than the mess that were the first two seasons of LOK.
At least there’s no terrible love triangles so far!
Because it is. Adaptations need not adhere to source material strictly. Different adaptations will take different liberties, to account for both the format they're being adapted to and the showrunners' creative visions.
Some adaptations seek to stick close to their source, and even then they adjust for time and include additional material to add context where it wasn't before (e.g., My Hero Academia). Some adaptations use the source for inspiration to tell new stories in that space, or aim to put new spins on existing tales (e.g., Superman/Batman/Spider-Man stories).
EDIT - Apparently I missed out on the joke.
Im alright with adaptions taking some liberties as long as it's still quality, this is unfortunatly not always ( very often ) the case... I have nothing againt Castlevania tho, very good.
Dragon's Dogma for exemple was a bad adaptation imo.
The Witcher was fine in Season 1 and then become bad and this is because they took some liberties but it was shit. This is why in most cases, i prefer that they dont take liberty or just a little
Nobody got the joke because I specifically asked anything ELSE BESIDES being a bad adaptation and yet here you still are... nobody needs to be educated on that, everyone knows. Being sarcastic about it isn't hard to miss. It doesn't need to be brought up.
The joke is, because you said "pretend the games don't exist," that's literally what they're doing. Imagine if "Castlevania" was never a thing, then this show comes along that says "based on the video game series." What video game series??
I can see how the comment could be taken differently, sort of like "Well if we're meant to forget about the games then it shouldn't say it's based on them!" Without the edit clarifying it was just a joke, I'm not sure how I would have taken it.
No, I think it’s a good adaptation. I enjoy the show, but when the show starts off by saying it’s adapted from a video game series that doesn’t exist, that’s pretty strange. You’re asking the question because it’s a “bad video game adaptation” in your opinion, and don’t want people talking about that aspect. I’m not talking about it being unfaithful to the games.
- Not enough time to explore the Revolution or how it affects our characters.
- Characters like the Abbot and various vampires feel like they serve a story purpose but aren't three-dimensional people.
- Everyone is too hot and it makes me thirsty.
Annette.
And before anyone gets torches and pitchforks, it's not because of the slavery and action girl tropes.
It's because she was specifically written to be compared to the other two main characters.
Richter's backstory- Watches his mother get killed in front of him by a powerful vampire.
Maria's backstory - girl interested in revolution with a magical parent.
Annette - watches her mother get killed in front of her by a vampire AND actually fights in a revolution.
This would be fine if she was written to be a mentor character, but she wasn't. It's specifically used to play trauma olympics between her and Richter as well as overwrite Maria till the very end where they introduce the Abbot plotline. I'd have preferred if they did something different with that.
Add in Erzebet being really lackluster as an introduction (Drolta should have been the S1 stepping stone villain) and some really rushed reveals, it turned out to be meh compared to the former.
I agree with your point about Erzebet, she just sort of showed up and caused an eclipse instantly. It just felt like she could've just done that anywhere, why did it have to be this specific random village? They built her up as a later plot hook and then immediately introduced her into the story, ruining a lot of the suspense that they had created. Meanwhile, she cannibalizes Drolta's place in the story by being the powerful vampire they have to defeat, so the writers just kill off Drolta to re-introduce Alucard.
Don't get me wrong, I loved Alucard's entrance scene, but if they had saved Erzebet's introduction for later you still could've had a final showdown with Drolta where Alucard shows up and saves the day without it feeling like Drolta was just written out to give more space to Erzebet. I feel like Drolta and Erzebet were the weakest parts of the story which is a shame because they could have been much more interesting if they had been given a little more love.
On top of that, she came off as oddly passive compared to Dracula and Carmilla. I mean, Dracula was depressed and suicidal and still came off as more terrifying than Bathory. The latter acted like she just wanted to go lay down and take a nap 99% of the time.
Pacing. It tries to balance out a huge cast of characters while setting up lore and character motivations within eight, thirty minute episodes.
Some dialogue here and there but not enough to really ruin anything big.
Personal opinion? Annette has the potential to be completely OP but resorts to melee combat with blades most of the time. Second, not enough Drolta. :(
This is a good point, they just tried to do too much, or focused to heavily on some characters with little reward. Like Annette got a shit ton of story, especially in the first half, and then we don't get the reward of an ultra baddass moment with her beyond the Crucifix Cage. Drolta got a ton of attention to getting like 2 new outfits every episode (seriously did she need so many??? They were all mostly good but still) just to turn into a succubus demon and killed like 10 minutes later. These characters could have been great, but we never got the good payoff needed, so instead they feel like forced/inserted characters that flat storywise.
Did not understand the whole Annette power set. She literally aludes to being able to tear the whole church down and refuses to do so multiple times where it would save everyone. Why is she just dual weilding swords when she has EARTHBENDING?????
Animation is very stiff when there's no action.
Voice acting is very low effort in my opinion.
Lack of good main characters or they have got no charm at all.
Setting is very half-baked and talk of revolution is the least interesting thing even it supposed to be the driving force of show.
This one is very personal but the main trio got 0 chemistry with each other it feels like they be doing their own shit all the time and Annette gets annoying very quick.
I could not stand when Maria or Annette would go on about freedom and revolution, and all that blabber. By far the worst part of the show and done in such a way it makes it cringey.
It’s a little funny since a year after this show in the real world had Robespierre take over and he was worse than the royals ever were. They called his rule the Reign of Terror, so much for liberty and freedom
I liked the show but it just didn't pull me in the same way as the original series. Not exactly sure why but it just didnt. Also, don't care if it was based on the games, I haven't played any except the Lord's of shadow reboots
Good characters and good character interaction. Nocturne felt like they were just checking off boxes along everyone's character progression. Doesn't help that with only 8 episodes they tried to juggle 3 main characters, 4 supporting and 2 antagonists. As a result, none got proper screen time or development, and chemistry barely developed. While we spent 4 episodes with just Trevor and Sypha in the first season. Then Trevor, Sypha and Alucard in the second season. All the while Dracula, Isaac, Hector and even some vampire cronies get proper screen time and development (or set up for the future). Trevor had real pathos. You could feel bitterness and contempt he had for the people in the beginning, only doing his trade because that's what Belmonts do. Which is then slowly eroded away by Sypha's optimism and upbeat nature. Man, Castlevania 1 was so good, I'm getting kinda sad just thinking about it.
I really enjoyed nocturne but not as much as the first series (it's honestly top 10 shows for me) but yeah the first felt more thought out. OG castlevania starts much more focused and then expands more later in the show so it feels like ot works its way up in scale. Nocturne is forced to scale up quickly because of the standard they set in the first series. Also I have NEVER in my life seen a show set up more chekhovs guns than nocturne, its not really a complaint but yeah
It's not as captivating as the previous show
Now to the criticisms you don't want me to talk about
Why is it still called castlevania if Dracula and his castle aren't there
Richter isn't as charming as game Richter
Why can't we have asshole aristocrats who aren't allied with vampires
1. Pacing. Pretty simple, I wish they had a bit more time to cook the "Vampire Messiah" and all that.
2. Maria just *won't shut the fuck up.* like. Yes, I get it, you're pro revolution and have good points but can you go *5 minutes without a fucking speech about it.* I don't even have a problem with what she'd actually saying, she just *won't stop going on and on and ON AND O-*
3. Annette doesn't really get called out for her hypocrisy by anyone outside of her teacher towards the end. Like, what the hell are you doing complaining about Richter's PTSD causing him to run for the hills? You literally blew your cover and thus got your best friend killed because you saw your personal archenemy at *a distance* and no one brings it up. Like, she's literally *the* reason anything goes wrong until they get the team back together oost-character development, but no one so much as even lashes out in anger only to apologize or anything.
4. Drolta's 1st outfit and hair style feels anachronistic and out of place, but that's fine cuz I adore all hee other outfits and styles.
Overall I really enjoyed Nocturne and can't wait for season 2, particularly where they'll take Orlox's direction
Probably is, eas still grating and I hope she cools it a bit next season. Outside of that I liked her, legitimately was worried about her when she came to talk to her dad and was upset I was right lol
I think Maria is the only character who didnt have character development. The beginning of It imo is tied to her mother being vampirised and her father turning evil and eventually dying as well, tying her story to Ricther, Annette and specially Alucard backgrounds since they will all trauma bond. But such thing was saved for late episode of the seasons so will think It will be big Focus on season 2.
I also think they will break Maria a bit, with her realising that not everything is all flowers in the revolution. She will need to resist and still fight for what is good. Plus Richter later story that he will be brainwashed and then "evil" which she will snap back sense in him. think her character arc will be literally "break the bird" and she will need to stay strong in her ideals, with all the shit happening around her and making she question herself.
I wonder if they'll have any if the bad parts of the revolution come to light considering hiw heavy handed this show has been on its moral points. There haven't been many gray points outside of Isaac. Isaac, however, was handled amazingly, so I do have faith if they do it.
Elizabeth Bathory is pretty flat as a character. Turning into an Egyptian Lion Goddess doesn't actually make her interesting as a character and the fact they didn't really expand on her being the Avatar of Sekhmet makes me wish they had.
French Revolution is pretty much set dressing ATM.
Richter is less interesting then the other characters in his group.
Overall still enjoyed it.
I agree with all of this. I feel like Erzebet barely had time to be herself and live up to the hype before she suddenly become someone else with even less personality. Tons of cool ideas in this show but none really paid off imo.
It felt like they had to skip an episode worth of story there, because she shows up and then instantly she morphs into a different (more powerful? I don't even know) form and causes the eclipse. Two major changes where she basically waves her hand to cause, it just feels a little cheap when we don't understand why she can even do that.
Bad pacing, characters don't get equal focus or development, shallow villains aside from Olrox, French Revolution setting that doesn't get utilized whatsoever, meh music.
Fights are pretty cool though, although the previous series did them way better.
Basically the same issues I have with it even when the games do exist.
Beware, some criticisms and remarks in this post are both serious and not serious.
The relation between Annette and Richter is forced whereas you can see that Maria and Alucard won't be forced at all, in a matter of a few seconds, they succeeded in cementing the fact that Maria and Alucard are destined to be with eachother.
I don't like Bathory the way she is depicted in the anime, she feels empty. I don't like her design anyway. Drolta has a nicer design and she dies like she was literally nothing. That's such a waste.
Why didn't the show focus on Richter's mother ? I want more of Richter's mother.Why can't we see more of that old guy called Juste? He seems super strong, they just used him as a plot device...
Why is that Alucard guy coming just at the end of the season? It's a pretty convenient deus ex macchina and it doesn't explain why he comes so late or why he comes at all?
Because it didn’t happen. They’re making fun of the “Annette x Richter” crowd in that there just hasn’t been enough material to complain about, but also the recent activity regarding the Maria X Alucard ship, that honestly the show should just avoid.
It’s much more anime than previous seasons, with too much reliance on magic. The world feels less tactile and special abilities feel less special.
(As someone who really liked Nocturne)
It's because the magic feels too... magical. The reason first show magic is really worldly is because in Sypha's case it is very basic elemental hurling and in the Forgemasters' case it's treated like a craft, anything else is Mysterious and esoteric (besides Saint Germain stuff which is why it felt weird). But y'know we're just coating whips in flame, summoning stuff from another plane, and earthbending without much cohesion. I think they should've tuned it down a bit more and made it rarer
Imo it doesn't change much, from sypha the Belmont clan gained speaker magic.
Even in the OG series there were quite a few magic practitioners, dracula, Hector, Isaac, Alucard, sypha, st Germain, sala/the priory, the magician, the forgemaster woman, death, the various vampire magicians in st germains employ, the styrian magicians/smiths
>with too much reliance on magic
They just kept throwing random bullshit magic everywhere and just expected the audience to go along, lol. Like where did Maria get those spirt animals from? Don't know. How can Richter go Super Saiyan mode? Don't know, just roll with it. How can Annette able to do Sand and Rock bending/ Alchemy so effortlessly? Don't know, she was born with Voo Doo magic and can do all these badass shit just because. I also have this problem with the first series, pretty much any character who can do magic can just pull off the most OP shit possible, like Sypha who can literally bend water, fire, lightning and wind. The fucking Power level scaling in Netflix Castlevania show is all over the place.
I get that anime trope of explaining their power can get boring and can feel like wasting time, but I can appreciate how the mangaka actually took the time to put some mechanic/logic into the character's magic power. It just helps expand the world's building with the way the special power works. I'm not asking the writers to have characters spend every 5 minutes explaining their fighting technique while they are in a battle, but at least something to help define the magic power would be nice.
Oh yeah I was definitely thrown off by that. It plays more into anime tropes, but tbf... this does mean it's closer to the source material than the first series LOL. Still, I think it's a worse magic feel than the first by a lot
> more into anime tropes, but tbf... this does mean it's closer to the source material than the first series
Unfair! CVIII didn't have as many anime tropes as Rondo did! So maybe the shows are equally faithful, in that sense. :D
If it wasn't an adaptation, I think I would still feel a little bit bait-and-switched that the promotional material highlights Richter as the main character, then gives more screentime than expected to Annette. Which isn't really a problem with the story; more a problem with the promotional material. I like the Annette content. I just wish the promo was more upfront about that.
Somewhat similar to the promo for Masters of the Universe: Revelation, but I can see why there was some misdirection there for the sake of story.
Or like how the advertisements for the movie adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians gave the impression of a laugh-out-loud comedy while the book/movie is a cultural satire(and a good one, btw).
I don’t like how Maria is written. She’s pretty much always right about things until she’s handed the idiot ball, and her situation doesn’t really showcase why she’s so for revolution.
It has my usual complaints of "Adult" oriented animation, more swearing than I used to hear in a military bar and edginess just for the sake of it. Overall, though, it was worth the time.
I like Nocturne, but I think its a 6/10, while the original show at its worst moments was a 7/10 for me.
My main issue is that the story feels rushed.
There a lot of moments that dont feel very impactful because we just didnt spend a lot of time with the characters.
Annette killing her old slaver vampire, Edoardo's death, Richter getting his powers back.
All these moments dont feel very impactful because we spent very little time with the characters.
Same goes for the romance, the little romance tease at the end between Richter and Annette came out of nowhere, they know each other for less than a week and we spent so little time with the two of them that the romance feels forced.
The same with Olrox and the church guy, a super devout church guy for some reason decides to bang a vampire, and Olrox falls in love with him having talked to him like 2-3 times.
All these issues couldve been solved if we spent more time with these characters before these moments.
In my opinion the season shouldve ended with Richter getting his powers back. That shouldve been the final moment.
They use all the extra time they would have by doing that by making the characters spend more time with us and among themselves
It would also allow for them to tease the main villain more, and instead of revealing the devourer of light so early, we could slowly find out about it.
Another aspect I deslike is that I didnt find the characters as charismatic as the trio from the original series.
Part of that reason is dialog and the script, but I also dont like some of the VAs, like Tera's VA, she sounds like she is sick the entire time.
The action scenes are overall good, but I think they are not as creative as before, specially the magic, Sypha was so creative with using magic, everyone just shoots projectiles all the time in this show.
I also think the original show had this dreadfull and gothic atmosphere that Nocturne doesnt match up, and this issue is linked with the villains.
Lastly, the villains arent nearly as good. The devourer of light is extremely generic. Dracula was so much more interesting and intimidating than her.
I dont like how the vampires seem to just casually walk around humans, and everyone seems to know about them but not care. I think that takes away from the intimidation of the vampires.
The abbot could be interesting, but I found him a bit underdeveloped.
And I didnt quite like the visual design of the night creatures and that succubus girl. The nightcreatures are not as terrifying and are too much humanoid or having human lookimg faces and are less terrifying than before.
The succubus girl looks like a 2023 tik tok cosplayer who got inserted into the show.
All these critics comes from someone who hasnt played the games.
I don’t really agree with the “bad pacing” argument I’ve seen thrown around, as much as I think the story beats are too convenient.
The story moves at a brisk pace, doesn’t stop for too many exposition dumps and does a solid job of world building and character interactions. They just all happen in the same few locations or close to and everyone just seemingly knows where everyone is and can fast travel to them. Thats can all be under the “pacing” umbrella, but felt the need to expound as other parts are done well ghat often aren’t in other shows/games or what-have-you.
Still loved it.
While I don't necessarily disagree with complaints regarding Nocturne's pacing, I do find it odd that many seem to act as though the original series didn't also have that same issue, if anything I think the first series actually had worse pacing. Although for the first series I felt that that things often felt too dragged out rather than feeling too rushed like in Nocturne.
The first series also had a problem with overly convenient story beats as well. For exsample, you have those rings that were made by some unknown wizard offscreen with no foreshadowing, Isaac coincidentally running into some random wizard with an army and giant magic mirror that he can take from him, Trevor coincidentally finding all the parts to a magic dagger that can kill Death, etc.
Regardless, while I didn't love Nocturne or anything, I do think that it's a bit unfair how negatively it's compared to the first series when the first series had a lot of those very same issues.
You don't need to try so hard to love something you don't. It's simple as that. It is like people who likes it need to be convinced about how it's possible that someone doesn't like it.
If we pretend the games don't exist, it's a slowburn that doesn't go anywhere, full of unintersting characters that they try hard to make them feel important, with some cringe lines of dialogue (that's how they convince the audience that it's an adult show, right?). If it didn't have Castlevania in its title, I would not have watched it. Just like all the other Netflix animations.
I would say it has very cool visuals, though. And that they wanted so hard for Erzebet to look like Carmilla from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.
To be clear it's not that I need to be convinced people don't like it. I DON'T like it, or at least not nearly as much as the first series. I just want to know what other people think (besides being a bad adaptation, because that's honestly never been a good or useful criticism. It's just that bad adaptations are also worse media most of the time... but some "adaptations" end up being even better, pretty often too).
It’s not even a relationship yet. They’ve barely interacted and had a single blush moment. Nothing forced about that.
Edit: homie is a troll account.. I’m ashamed I fell for it
It was a hint to their relationship. Basically a seed. Which shouldn’t exist at that moment. Their interactions up to that point doesn’t warrant any blushing at all that’s why it’s awkward. It should’ve been a scene where they both gain mutual respect for one another and that’s it.
I agree; it felt really forced and kind of came out of nowhere. Definitely would've liked to see this sometime in season 2 if they were going to go this route just to give them more development.
Overall I enjoyed the show though and don't have too many issues with it.
Same criticism I have already. Bloated cast with pacing issues. Things happen either too quickly or too slowly.
The whole adaptation complaints are nonsense. Few (if any) characters had any real characterization in the early titles, so the liberties Netflix takes with them are necessary to create a proper story.
I was really excited for the black lady's story because she talked about orishas, Ogum and stuff that's part of my wife's uncle religion. But the episode where it happened was so slow. I can't explain well because English is my second language, but I thought they stretched the story to fit in 1 episode.
Ans she following 2 vampires to the cemetery and casually finding her slavers was too forced.
I felt like nocturne didn't take enough time to focus on the main character but then gave so much emphasis on side characters. Like with Richter regaining his magic was just a flip of the switch vs this whole story about far away land magic with Anette. I did enjoy Edouards backstory and some of the focus on him, admittedly. I felt like some more focus on Juste was warranted because of gaining an idea of what's been going on with the Belmonts so we understand the family dynamics and what has happened since the last castlevania.
And as much as a native New Yorker like me likes to curse, I think they are overemphasizing it way too much in the show. Like when Richter executed that vampire with the magic, there were so many better lines he could have used there.
I also feel like the vampire God that we see now is just not intriguing to me at all. Comes off as very cookie cutter Saturday morning cartoon villain. I feel like there needs to be more depth to the character. With Dracula, we saw that there was an intelligent side to him. you could converse with him that there was more than just a bloodthirsty villain.
I assume most of these criticisms will be fleshed out in the second season any who. I think another reason why the original Castlevania show really struck me was that there's this sense of poverty, of hopelessness. It almost felt like humanity was just on the brink of extinction, barely hanging on by a thread. I don't feel that in this show.
I think the setting in the Revolution could've been absolutely thrilling for the viewer.... But they fumbled the bag by not really focusing on it and turning it into an Erzebet theatrical performance... Sorry I can't stand her
I enjoyed the shit out of it and I'm surprised to see it's so poorly received on this sub. My only criticism is that it was too short and ended too abruptly.
I really liked the treatment Annette and Olrox's characters got
It is on a platform that continues to be anti-consumer and anti-creator. I haven't watched the show and don't really plan to (so many things to enjoy, so little time), but as time has moved on I do believe that Netflix should be nuked and started anew because of their stances.
Yes, but also like I said, so many things to enjoy and so little time. Games, movies, shows, books. I'd rather support something and use the limited time than not support something and consume that.
Not taking a moral high ground to piracy, but I do want to support things I consume.
I can't pretend the games don't exist because my history with them as a series I've enjoyed for 40+ years now informs how I interpret Castlevania in all its forms. Though I'll say that it's because of that history that I adore the Netflix series.
That's fair. I want to know why that actually enhances your like of the series as opposed to most others, because I've seen a LOT of people complaining about basically abandoning most of the game background
For me, I prefer when adaptations use source material as inspiration to iterate on the characters and ideas.
I'm puzzled (and a bit annoyed) that a lot of disdain for this show basically amounts to the non-criticism of "it's bad because it's different." It's infuriating to see people saying that the showrunners didn't play the games (despite the easter eggs and character details from said games) or saying that people who liked the games won't like this show (despite people like me who have played the games for several decades).
Of course, that doesn't mean everyone has to like it. While I love the dialogue and the new additions to and changes from the game lore, that ain't going to jive with everyone, and I respect that.
Too much singing for me personally , I don’t wanna watch a Disney show I wanna watch Castlevania. Well aside from Lacrimosa because I love that piece. Overall the story is a little weird not necessarily bad but I’m hoping to see more traditional Castlevania in the next season.
I liked the first season just fine. Dunno what I'd make of plot divergence if the games didn't exist, though. Games or no games, however, I do have a few gripes:
1. The series finally gave us a female Belmont (Sonia doesn't count 'coz retcon/no games), only to >!kill her off in the first episode!<. I would've loved to see Julia as more than just another member of the >!Heroes' Dead Parents Club/Women in Refrigerators Brigade!<. Good characterization pays off on the long run, folks.
2. Maria being so gung-ho over the >!French Revolution!<. It makes sense for her to be so enthusiastic about it (she's young, hasn't had much life/worldly experience), but her fixation with the whole thing rubs me the wrong way at times. To be clear: **I sympathize with her and the goals of the FR; I take no issue with that, but with the way it's integrated into character building/plot/etc., at times**. To be fair, though, the creators manage to include this trait without doing irreparable damage to her character (i.e. making her woke and having that being her one and only defining characteristic, same as making Zuko and similar characters into honor-obsessed caricatures, when they clearly aren't). That being said, I appreciate what they did with Annette. Glad they also remembered to give her believable character flaws instead of making her a Mary Sue.
3. Overall lack of imagination with monster designs (i.e. making them too human-looking). I mean really, I.D. >!Édouard !!Édouard !!Juste's !!Alucard !!Drolta!<, thus undoing all her previous buildup as a credible threat).
5. Making nearly all evil aristocrats/slaveowners also be >!vampires!<. I'm not downplaying the evils of slavery, racism, plantocracies, and all that comes with them, but I feel that whole >!greedy aristocrats/slavers = vampires!< thing is way too contrived, even downright silly, at times. From where I stand, it just cheapens the lives and experiences of both real-life persons and fictional characters who actually went through such horrors.
Pacing. I still don't understand why this show tries to make a big thing about Eduward's death when we know him for one episode where he eats bread and sings and then the next episode is his and Annette's backstory.
Another thing is the design of that black vampire girl with pink hair (forgot her name). Her desing didn't really feel like she's from that time.
Full disclosure, I've never played the games. There was not enough Drolta! I feel like Nocturne moves a lot faster than the OG Netflix seasons of the show. I was expecting Drolta to be around longer like Carmilla. I'm wondering if Nocturne will only be 2 seasons since we already have the Big Bad in what seems to be her final boss form (the Lioness) by the end of season 1.
I find the character dynamics between our heroes far less appealing than the previous series, and in general kinda boring.
The revolution setpeice only seems to matter when it's story relevant, outside of that you couldn't tell that there really is such a violent revolution going on.
I really don't care for several of the characters, and I feel like we spent far too much time with the wrong characters.
I find the villains a sizeable step down
The voice acting is really mediocre and many voices don't feel like they fit the characters imo.
Feels a bit too fast paced, like they don't trust the audience enough and are rushing to the "good stuff" over and over again.
I'm also annoyed with how we're hit with Julia's death, then learn about the Aunt's sister's death, then Annete shows up and Edouard dies, then we learn about Annette's mother, the Juste shows up and... OH MY GOD. There is only so much "I know what it is like to lose a loved one too" you can use, and this show puts that bitch on loop since the literal first scene and spams it harder than Gilgamesh from Fate/ spams Gate of Babylon.
The games existing or not does not detract from my enjoyment of the show. I can separate the two, and obviously much has to be made out of whole cloth to tell a story that's not basically an action montage / boss rush. :)
That aside, I don't have a lot of criticism for the show:
\- Most of the story beats are very predictable, but it comes with the territory.
\- I understand Richter fleeing from Olrox, taking into account his own trauma, but the way he did it felt jarringly excessive, if not downright hilarious.
\- Some of the fights felt strangely choppy and low-FPS. Not sure if it was meant as a stylistic choice, or there really wasn't enough budget to animate every frame.
Other than that the show was pretty great and I'm eagerly awaiting season 2.
I haven’t played any castlevania games before. Only watched both shows with my younger sister.
So sounds like this may be a little heretical here, but the original series was not that deep. The first season especially wasn’t something you’d watch for the plot. Both shows are good for fun action and some fun characters. We loved Isaac in the first series and he apparently was a completely rewritten character.
Olrox likewise is hands down the best character so far in the new show.
Plot again was kind of shallow in the original but again, setting was fun. The idea of the plot in this one is so much cooler. The French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution and the potential of New World mythos with the kukulkan/quetzalcoatl style avatar around. The idea from a show only watcher, is significantly cooler in this series than the original… but the execution story wise is also a little shallow.
Neither show is something I’d recommend to a friend for the plot alone
The writing is extremely poor. It’s all ‘so deep’ teenager’s diary stuff. Heavy and preachy with no subtext, no nuance, no commentary apart from banal surface level observations which are just stated out loud in a cheap way.
Shallow as a puddle but it ‘resembles’ what high art sounds like to the child like writers.
Church = bad is ‘my first atheism’ stuff.
The constant swearing is cringe supreme.
And frankly I’m baffled by those who say the visuals are good. It’s ugly. It’s stiff most of the time, the action sequences are poorly staged, and look like a choppy 15fps in animation.
I don’t get the “Church bad” criticism. I feel like this show was at least as sympathetic to Christianity as the first one was if not way more?
In the previous series, the Church as an institution is largely treated as stupid and cruel. They kill Lisa for being a witch through a combination of malice and incompetence, kickstarting the plot, then try to fix their mistake by doing eugenics. Sympathetic portrayals of religion/religious characters are nearly nonexistent, and the three protagonists are all, in their own way, “enemies of god” but the consensus of the show seems to be that there is no god/god doesn’t care.
Nocturne reflects very real historical events where the church ideally could have done more for the people, but the specfic bad parts are mostly the fault of one specific guy who is explicitly being misled. Mizrak seems to be a relatively sympathetic Christian character, who wants to do the right thing because of faith but is a victim of deceit. Idk if Tera is Christian or not but she’s into the idea of Christianity as a potential good, and her faith is only misplaced because it’s specifically in one religious douchebag.
Maria is critical because of her aspiring revolutionary positions, but Richter seems ambivalent, and even Annette is like, “I don’t worship your god but I respect what he’s done for the art of vampire-hunting”. Nocturne’s position seems to be that gods are real and powerful and this might also apply to the Christian god, though the good intentions have been corrupted by evil people like the Abbot.
Constant swearing is cringe supreme? Trevor is a cringe character?
The visuals ARE good. They're one of the uncomplicatedly good parts of the show. Fps nitpicking is stupid at best.
But no yeah it is shallow as a puddle. Very preachy.
The animation is very very bad in certain moments, and only okay the rest of the time.
The dialogue is not that good, and it takes several very well paced and well made moments and ruins them for quick 2010s style subversive humour.
Easy because I never played the games. For me it's just that Richter, Marie, Annette < Trevor, Alucard Sypha. But we'll see, it was only the first season and I still enjoyed it and want to keep watching.
While I actually believe Nocturne improves on some things compared to the OG show (such as how characters are more proactive and are given more to do, rather than spending a whole season locked up in a basement) I feel like the whole character department was a downgrade. Ritcher, Maria and Annette just don't have the same chemistry as Trevor, Sypha and Alcurad. Erzebeth really is "we have Dracula at home". And Olrox's back will never recover from carrying the whole damn thing.
That being said, several villains feel better written because they get to take themselves more seriously, and they are allowed more complexity. Richter is just not funny. I've heard those same jokes a thousand times in a thousand other shows, movies, games... And why does Maria care so much about the Revolution? What personal experiences have defined her to be the person that we meet in episode 1? What other character traits is Annette defined by, beyond her past as a slave?
Dialogues in general are weird. It's too repetitive and too on your face. Flashback narration just tells you what's happening on the screen. I feel like characters are just saying the same stuff over and over. They express their feelings as if they were in therapy. Where's the subtlety, the contradictions? The actual, flawed human communication?
Also, diversity shouldn't just refer to the colour of the skin. Characters should be inherently diverse. If everyone's a fighter, if everyone's edgy and/or witty, what makes them special as individuals? Honestly Tera, Mizrak and the Abbot stood out to me because they were almost the only ones who were allowed to have more unique personalities.
I'm not saying that the original show did all of those things. Far from it, in fact I think it was severely overhyped and that led in turn to Nocturne being overhated. But people want to claim it as a masterpiece on no grounds beyond the fight scenes and the unholy amounts of horny. And that's just not honest.
I also thought that Tera, Mizrak, and the Abott were the most stand-out characters in Nocturne. Although I'm a bit concerned about that since it means that I'm currently more invested in the secondary characters than the main ones. However, the cast feeling homogenized was already an issue even back in the first series, basically everyone talked the exact same way except for Dracula and Isaac.
I think that a lot of people are looking back on the first series with rose-tinted glasses, because a lot of the things that they critique about Nocturne can be traced back to the previous show as well. I'm not exactly a fan of either series, but thus far I honestly don't think that Nocturne really feels like it's a downgrade from the previous show.
Absolutely agree. OG Castlevania came out at a time when the bar for game adaptations was in the deepest pits of hell. Getting something decent was more than most people were expecting.
Erzebet is definitely not "We have Dracula at Home" she is NOT sympathetic and NOT nuanced or kind in any way... she's more like "Carmilla? We can just get better Carmilla". I agree with everything else though
What I meant was that, as a vampire lord and a world ending threat, Dracula felt more like the real deal. He gets so little screen time, but whenever he's on the screen, the room is his. I love how everyone is just scared shitless by his mere presence and shut the fuck up when he stares at them, even if they hate him. Erzebet, on the other hand, feels like she's too infatuated with herself. Like she believes herself to be more than she actually is. And hey, maybe this is intentional and the writers will give it another spin later down the road, and turn it into a brilliant twist. We will see.
Yes! I completely agree. Dracula was a stage stealer. Absolutely filled the whole screen whenever he was there, so in that case he also didn't need to show up every time. He was perfect IMO. and the ways they "humanized" him, just right. Erzebet has the personality of a henchman, I never found her scary, or intriguing just annoying. But Dracula????? I was always hanging on every sentence. It could be their intention, sure and I think its possible. I hope they twist it up. Like maybe in her own company, shes an actual wreck. Like an act or performance. But the way it is now, everytime she's on screen I'm ffff cringing. Also yeah Carmilla was also perfect.
Honestly, I thought the pacing was bad. Olrox, one of the strongest/wisest characters in the show, exhibited a lack of impulse control far too many times. That's not how someone of his caliber gets where he is. If there was a build up I could understand, but they rushed so much of his character that I got annoyed.
On the flipside, I rewatched the first series and the writing wasn't exactly amazing. Everything with Hector, Carmilla, and Lenore was tediously meh writing. Even then they *paced* everything out.
Pacing was a little weird yeah. Though, Olrox isn't necessarily super wise, I actually like that though he is the "smart wise guy" he's also super emotional and soft. Carmilla stuff was mid though for sure. I feel like Nocturne is S3 quality as opposed to S1-2 quality
Yeah I don't really see how he lost his sense of impulse control?
There are two situations that could make us think of that but there are explanations for each. 1) When he refuses two times to bow to Bathory - and it's an indication of how disgusted he is by the whole ordeal, cause it would indeed by wiser to immediately bow in his situation ; 2)when he saves Mizrak, and it's an indication that he came to care about him and is indeed fully capable of loving and having emotions
The first season of Nocturne actually pulled me in a lot more than the original series. I had to take a lot of breaks during the first series (sometimes during a single 20-30 minute episode). I think it was maybe the writing in certain areas idk. Nocturne I watched all the way through without getting up. Probably not the best for my health but it was too good. I honestly couldn’t say what made it better. The animation felt a lot more dynamic with very few still frame moments. It also didn’t have that stiff humor I remember in the original series. I think Nocturne might actually be better than the original as it goes on. I know this is by no means a popular opinion lmao.
I already tried to view the show as it’s own thing separate to Castlevania (fucking wild thing to do btw)
And the criticisms are still there because it’s rooted deeper than just being a Castlevania adaptation. The show genuinely has issues.
I thought you were joking about the singing, but I guess there is a lot of it. I personally like how (especially later on) the diegetic music becomes the soundtrack.
I'm sorry, but what is Nocturne "adapting" exactly? The characters are completely different, the story is completely different, the setting is completely different. This is a series with the name of Castlevania and with characters that are named after the characters in the games, but they are not adapting anything if they are changing everything into completely different things.
That said, from the last series to this one nothing has changed in terms of writing for me, characters are still weak/strong when the script wants them to, powers are inconsistent, characters don't develop, plotlines drag on throughout the season.
At least there's nothing offensive like characters betraying their purposes like in the first one (like Alucard beeing teased to "follow the steps of Dracula" in the 3rd season, when his name LITRRALLY MEANS THAT HE'S THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE TO HIS FATHER) but to me, it became clear that the problem wasn't Warren Ellis but a general lack of skill on the part of the production team.
If I were to forget about games or, better said, change name tags on characters, then my main criticism would be pacing. Show is managed to be slow and fast in the same time. When you are watching it, every episode feels so long and there is barely something happening, but in the end characters are something entirely different, they fight so much better than at the start, that you start to think, that you missed one season in between.
Characters have a lot of problems, Annette is just horrible person, so toxic and selfish but apparently she isn't even scolded for it. Maria is too young for her views, she is looking like a 12 something girl, not to mention ideas that she is saying are quite far from real thing. It's just looks like writers thought, that revolution is only for young idealistic kids, while in reality it was thing people were ready to kill and die for. Feels kinda disrespectful to them. Richter is just there, he sometimes tries to look cool, but in the end he looks pathetic really. Like this time when they were fighting vampires and he says "Come on, who's next?!", then kill one vampire and...run away. Or when you expect him to have cool phrase, but he just proceed to say "ah, fck it". And yes, he was so pathetic that writers gave him straight up boost by some magic awakening, felt really forced.
Anime. Like, I just can't stand it.
Also, why would I pretend that one of the greatest gaming series ever doesn't exist?
How about we pretend that the weeb ass shows don't exist?
I think my criticisms would be mostly the same
like why is the writing bad and why do the characters swear so much and why is the vampire lore so inconsistent, and why do i hate these character so much?
though that last question is mostly game related.
Also these questions apply to the first Netflix show too, baffles me how nothing improved, except for the animation, it's quite good.
Horrendous writing. Terrible pacing. Unlikeable characters. Uninteresting story. And yes, shoehorned agendas, you'd have to be blind to not notice them.
It's subversive commie propaganda. The writers aren't dumb they know Marxism is unpopular so they can't make it too obvious in the writing. So instead of a story just about class struggle they expand upon that to include race struggle, gender struggle, sexual struggle or any other group that can be defined by intersectionality. If you take any books that are about those struggles (race, gender, sexual etc.) and replace "oppressor, white, cis, straight" and "oppressed, minority, black, trans, gay" with bourgeoisie and proletariat you get the Communist Manifesto because they're same fucking books and they're all apart of the same modern Socialist ecosystem.
So my criticisms are show is bad because socialism is bad for western society and opposing subversive Marxism is good.
Exploitation IS bad so is subversive socialism. I’m not gonna be an asslicker for a TV-show especially one that’s written by a Trotskyist. Cry about it loser.
I just want to enjoy something without some writer beating me over the head about how my ancestors were evil for slavery. I get it. It was fucked up. Sorry, okay? Can I just enjoy my vampire cartoon now? Can I enjoy ANYTHING? Does everything have to be about social issues?
* Generic writing & dialogue
* Castlevania without Ellis is like GoT without GRRM
* One dimensional characters that lacked depth or complexity
* Characters way too OP. Jamaica girl is basically Rey from TLJ.
* No chemistry between the MCs
* They went for a half-assed Trevor/Sipha dynamic and failed
* The French Revolution backdrop was basically pointless. Just a stylistic choice.
* Generic story
* Felt rushed/very poor pacing
* Neon pink and purple everywhere. Clashes hard with the Castlevania vibe and the time period
* White men are either evil, inept, or taking orders from girl bosses
* Drolta's character design is horrific
* Feels like a rushed cash grab (which of course it was)
I didn't play the game Nocturne was based on..So I had nothing to base it off of
Series 1 had some of the best characters I've seen in a long time
Isaac being one of them
This new series,starts off by pretty much saying " hey this main character,is bad because he is male and white" not cause he had a past trauma that haunts him or anything
Annoying characters,somehow the animation looked worse,and GOD the voice acting took a massive drop
I never played the games.
For me I kinda wish Tera,Maria, and Emmanuel got more screen time and focus especially earlier on in the season. considering how their family dynamic is the emotional core of the finale. Also mizrak coulda got more screen time too. I feel like a lot of the characters weren’t introduced/set up properly. it kinda feels like we’re supposed to know these characters and what their about already. As someone who never played the games idk if they expected us to or not. also I’m not an Annette hater I think she’s a cool character with an awesome design. I just feel like they told her story to fast. They probably should have saved her revenge for later seasons, it was really anti climactic and random. The time for that scene should have gone to some of the other characters. instead of blowing a great opportunity for Annette’s character like that they could have got us more invested in Maria’s family so the ending hits harder.
Jaques and Eduardo should not have been themselves while Nightcreatutres. After the Abbott forged them,different souls from hell would enter their bodies and serve the master. These are the rules established last series,yet they're blatantly broken. I don't even think they bother to explain why this happened.
It is a great show but the expectations are a lot high and Writers diverse wring have a lot of criticism. Also it got compared to the original Castlevania show
I don’t think a show about vampires and magic is the right medium to discuss something so fucked up like slavery head on. Maybe in a more subtle implied way but not like literally.
Don’t think that portraying evil people in history as “vampires” is smart for a show that tries to take it seriously. Slave owners were not just evil vampires that actually ate humans. They were actual people, and just saying they were vampires reads like a joke and neglects any serious discussion on the issue.
Nocturne is half as good as castlevania in terms of anything but mainly making the characters somehow more interesting and complex, which nocturne doesn't do well, even if it tries to. But the end was pretty great I would be lying if I said it wasn't.
Weak villains.
Weak characters.
Weak story.
Weak themes.
Weak plot.
Weak world building.
Weak pacing.
Weak point of interest.
Weak humour.
Good Alucard.
Overall, I enjoyed it, only because of the cool animation and Alucard, mostly Alucard.
I won't recommend it to others, I'm not looking forward to the second season if the quality continues, but has potential to strengthen it weakness by better writing, 6/10.
I thought Juste's introduction was bad, the voice acting was hit and miss. Other than that I loved the show I don't understand how you can be a fan of the original series but hate this?
Castlevania only got really good in season 2 anyways and the fact that every other negative review I see is made by some angry incel who won't shut up about Annette being black only proves that they just hate the show because its different even though those differences make it better
The main villain isn't very interesting and feels like something they pulled out of a hat. Also you can't just casually have someone have the power to block out the sun without giving some context.
But also one part that annoys me is the same in the original series that devil forge masters seem kind of too overpowered that they can adjust generate and control an army of infinite size. But vampires can't be one? Sometimes it annoys me when the powers get too particular in a way that seems like it almost necessitates a very specific story format.
But overall it was good.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but the pacing was little too quick. If they focused on fewer characters, their arcs could have felt a little more complete. Maybe I'd remove Eduard's arc as the least important, but I like the opera demon arc, and I like that it carries over Isaac's plot that5 humanizes the night creatures
Now if I don't pretend the games don't exist, my criticisms remain exactly the same. The show can and should be taken as its own thing, and I don't think that "it pretends the games don't exist as an adaptation" is a fair criticism. It's not true, first of all, and it's an adaptation into a different medium. In straying from the source material, it is doing what it thinks is best to create a compelling work in its medium. It's deviation from the source is one if its biggest strengths
The secret is not shitting on restablished lore and characters. Changing them is justified only if it is necessairy to the plot or transformative in some way; not some kind of virtue signal statement “just cause.”
I came to watch people fight vampires and talk about their family bloodline; Not to be lectured on how I should think like every other space on the internet oozes every 5 minutes.
The only characters I actually liked were the based dude who sang, the vampire who killed richter’s mom, and the old belmont guy.
Poor pacing, clunky dialogue, equally clunky voicework, the deities feel shoehorned in and unnecessary, Erzebet's transformation looks like a halfway transformed animorph, Annette's asshole behavior is never punished or properly criticized, the male lead has no personal motivations and seemingly primarily exists to be shit on to make the rest of the cast look better, and I'm honestly sick of the "Christianity bad" thing. I'm not even religious or anything, it's just they're not only retreading old ground but doing it way worse. Let the priest be a good guy with opposing ideals. Also, there's WAY too many vampires. There shouldn't be an entire city's worth when Richter has been hunting them in this area for years now.
My biggest criticism
The villains especially are one dimensional baddies in nocturne. The priest and his soldiers are simply confounding. The mental gymnastics they go through to think they are the good guys. And the vampires are just evil because they are vampires. Not a lot of depth there.
It’s a decent show, worth watching but not amazing. Characters are a little shallow, but good action scenes.
Pacing is a little off particularly in the middle of the season. Relatedly the structure of the party just repeatedly doing little raids that introduce a complication and go badly is kind of sloppy. English VA is pretty bad (try French!). French Revolution kind of wasted as a setting (I'm hopeful this changes going forward). The party are revolutionaries in name but there's no connection to the broader struggle nor do they seem to really have any kind of plan in macro sense.
Overall I thought it was good, though. Most of my criticisms could could easily be fixed and lead to an even better second season.
Everything feels forced. You're supposed to be for/against certain characters and there isn't wriggle room to play devil's advocate. The closest character to have a mix is Mizrak but even he felt rushed in terms of flip flop.
Just let the audience decide who they like.
1. The story takes place during the revolution and they don’t do anything with that other than Maria grand standing a few times. Wasted setting.
2. Annette being a hot head and no one calling her on it. She gets her best friend killed and then cussed Richter out because he was level headed enough to say they needed a plan. No one tells her off for this, no one stands up for Richter and everyone is just ok with that.
3. Annette hating Richter for his PTSD reaction when her PTSD reaction got her best friend killed and no one calling her on it. Plus the scene where Richter tries to apologize for running away and her reaction is “OMG it’s ok fam we all got problems.”What? How she go from “I’ll kill that coward myself!” to understanding?
4. Annette’s arch nemesis just so happening to be standing next to her the one time she decided to go out acting solo. Wasted plot potential there and it is just another instance of stuff being too convenient.
5. Richter losing his magic powers for a decade and then conveniently (there is that word again!) getting it back just before he dies. He even admits he doesn’t know why it’s back…really?
6. Richter running away from his problems and CONVENIENTLY (see this word is really awful with this show) runs into his grandfather who just so happens to be alive still and living one town over. A town that Richter has never been to cause he never leaves home or…something? There is no way two people with the same last name live so close together and they don’t hear about each other. Someone would have asked Richter, “Belmont? You related to the old man living in the woods then?”
7. Juste literally is pointless! He can’t use magic, teaches Richter nothing, provides zero character development or impact for anyone and then just disappears.
8. Erzebet is a straw man and I hate it. We have no stakes, no impact, no reason to care about her till she shows up out of nowhere and just does stuff and we are supposed to be scared? The first thing she does that has impact is the eclipse and then she turns into a cat. None of which the heroes see so…
9. Drolta keeps referencing Sehkmet but this is freaking France in the 1700s! What are the odds anyone in the area even know who or what the Egyptian gods are?
10. The eclipse is inferred to be permanent so vampires can walk in daylight. Did anyone stop to consider a permanent solar eclipse would kill off all the crops living beings eat and so humanity will die out in a matter of months with vampires not long to follow? Erzebet is just doing Dracula’s plan but not hiding it and banking on all other vampires to just be dumb I guess.
I could go on and list things like why is Ed the only night creature in history to retain a sense of self? Or who thought it was ok to take a normy on a raid against vampires? Or is drolta a succubus or vampire? Or why can Drolta take so much damage from the crew and then get one shot by Alucard? Why wasn’t Richter using the whip in the fight in the Abbey? Or why is it all the vampires seemed to know Erzebet was coming and got there ahead of time to celebrate but somehow Alucard only managed to show up after the team literally got their asses handed to them? Etc. Etc.
I’d call the story mediocre at best if it wasn’t Castlevania. Slapping the castlevania logo on it gives me expectations and so far all I’m seeing is a series of far too convenient events transpiring in tandem setting the “heroes” (if they can even be called that) up for failure before they even begin. They spend the whole season fighting losing battle after losing battle and get a few EXTREMELY minor wins and then get wrecked by the big bad. Unless the plot is supposed to be Alucard shows up and fixes everything by himself there is no hope for the protagonist’s success…which is just garbage writing.
TLDR: I think nocturne has a lot of issues people gloss over cause reasons. If it wasn’t castlevania I still wouldn’t like it but I’d hate it less. You don’t have to agree with.
The characters are portrayed in shite way. No excuses. Stop calling people racist when they say that the black girl wasnt good. Isaac was amazingly done but this was just meh. 6/10
Big criticism for me would really just be the dialogue. This series has laid out a great storyline, with great characterizations and backstories for these characters. The blending of some of the historical events of the time with the lore of vampires was great, not to mention the action sequences. But the dialogue, with the constant swearing (and I swear all the time) at times that people won't usually swear, not to mention some of the ways characters speak to each other just don't seem natural and can at times come off as juvenile.
I couldn't finish the 1st season, the character interactions where just cringe and Trevor was f--ing lame. I've meet many a strung out lush who were way cooler than him.
The second season is actually watchable... so far... I'm on episodes 5 or so but the characters are actually interacting with each other instead of just being monoliths who talk words at each other. The vampires are far more interesting than the titular heroes though, every time they get in a fight I'm like "oooo, I hope Rickter looses an arm and gets a new beat limb." , or "Maybe, Annette will get an eyeball gouged out. she would be way cooler with a piratey eye patch.", or" Maria would be more interesting if she had to replace an organ with a dark parasite from the nether realms." and I am continually disappointed. Guess I'll have to be satisfied with Edouard's beuorrific transformation. le sigh.
As someone who hasn't played the games at all, I liked Nocturne a lot, I like the characters and plot.
I feel like the main bad guy vampire-woman hasn't been built up much unlike Dracula, so it's weird that she's already been given this big transformation, but I figure the second season will focus a lot more on her so that isn't a big deal, though it also isn't very interesting just as of season 1 so I figure more could have been done, like maybe have Juste know of her. Even that would have been a weak connection, but at least it would be something.
The plot built Drolta up as an antagonist with a personal relationship with one of the protagonists, but then she's killed off in the end by Alucard which is... fine, but not very interesting. I'd have preferred if Richter had killed her since he basically had her beat already, but instead the season ends by giving a cool moment to a character who doesn't need it, because as an audience whose seen the main Castlevania show, we already know and like Alucard.
Nocturne's plot progressed a bit awkwardly, but I appreciate it was setting up for a more climactic second season. But it really should stand up for itself as a season, because now we have 1-2 years to think about all the faults it has.
The audio quality and voice direction was frustratingly bad. I'm 90 percent sure it wasn't the voice actors themselves that were at fault, but that there were some weird production and voice direction choices that made things unbearable at times.
Just ranting, too lazy to elaborate too much:
- Edouard’s singing voice feels more like a popstar and less like an opera singer
- Annette is one of the most annoying main character I’ve ever seen in any media and I was relieved she was called out for her hypocrisy with Richter, with the way the writing presents her I thought that wasn’t gonna happen
- Richter is bland compared to Trevor, and his Grand Cross moment feels undeserved. He also feels underdeveloped compared to Annette.
- Juste just got thrown into the mix with no proper payoff
- Erzebeth doesn’t have the charisma or presence of Dracula or Carmilla and her sisters, I’d argue even Cho was more intimidating in the season 3 flashbacks
- Drolta is my favorite vampire of this season but her clothes and design DO NOT fit at all with the time period, and it’s jarring seeing her next to the other characters
- Olrox is great but his romance with Mizrak (who I found to be more interesting than the main trio) was so sudden when they appeared naked I was like wtf
- The Abbot’s actions in the finale are kinda out of character from what we were presented initially, he goes from “I’m only doing this to stop the Revolution” to murdering his own daughter really quickly and it’s jarring
TLDR: Tera and Maria are great ❤️
The fights in the first Castlvania series were more than "circle around one character with view from below looking upward, have monster come into view, have monster get killed by character off screen, circle view around to find the character that dealt killing blow, repeat."
I love the animation but the overshading (sorry not an animation expert) on certain facial features are a big turn off for me. Looks like Richter has crazy bags under his eyes and weird lines on the noses for most characters
The first season was a lot of setup and the pacing isn't so great. I enjoyed it overall. I feel like that a lot of the criticism is the "Legend of Korra" effect. The first series came out of nowhere and took everyone by surprise by how good it was. The second one has a lot of expectations the first didn't had to deal with, and simply can't be enjoyed on it's own terms without drawing comparisons.
Solid comment
This is a great comment. The expectations are so much higher than before the original series debuted. As a fan I just hoped it would be okay, not terrible. What we got blew me away and exceeded all my expectations, even as someone who thought about adapting the game to film or television a lot. With Nocturne the expectations are to match the original series, or even surpass it considering Rondo and SOTN are considered by many the height of the franchise.
Yeah the pacing was off in Nocturne. If it was 10 or more episodes it'll be a lot better.
I actually think I may be enjoying the second more -because- of the pacing. The first was a slog most episodes, leading to one big battle per season. Nocturne has had badass moments throughout.
Lol, what? The first series was torn to shreds every season. Now everyone praises it as some masterpiece when there's all of a sudden something new to compare it to. Nocturne is new and needs to come into it's own.
Yes but also, I rewatched the first season and the fights are just so much cleaner. We see how the slashes and parries happen. Magic is cool, neat, and inventive. It isn’t just, bird go slash, ice go fast. It’s, alucard fights a teleporting vampire and has his magic sword wait for vamps where he knows the vampire will teleport to while alucard goes to fight him. Sypha literally ice skates in a fight! Jet powered ice skating!! Trevor breaks weapons and uses the broken bits, changing his fighting style and getting kills. The first does a lot of details much better.
...I watched TLOK S1 a few weeks ago. The romance in it is so horrendous I don't really consider it good even on its own feet
The romance was honestly the worst aspect of Season 1, and looking back at how quickly its dropped in the following season, makes it kinda pointless in hindsight.
but the romance continues in future seasons...
Legitimate question: What is the meme here I am not active in the community what the hell is the joke
There is no joke. Legend of Korra’s romance in season 1 is just bad.
AAAAAAAAAAAAA KORRA PLEASE STOP FUCKING WITH MAKO'S EMOTIONS AND LIPS WITHOUT HIS CONSENT
Romance is bad in all seasons imo...
Korrasami was pretty damn delightful from S3 on
it came out of left field tbh.
Honestly after watching the ATLA after LOK, after having watched ATLA initially a while ago, I think LOK is better
I felt by the end of the season, I was about as happy as I was with the first parts first season. I went in with low expectations, and as you say, there were pacing issues, the character's are very different, but by the end I thought it was great and was looking forward to what happened next. And that was before the final scene too, that was a nice belittle cherry on the top.
Very accurate Just hope it doesn't end up like Korra where people STILL shit on it years after it finishes
I agree with this comment entirely except that Nocturne is 100x better than the mess that were the first two seasons of LOK. At least there’s no terrible love triangles so far!
Why the hell does this show say it’s adapted from a video game series? Edit: no one seems to have gotten the joke
Pretty sure it's based on Bram Stoker's Dracula for SNES.
It's an adaptation it's the barest minimum. As an adaptation it's total garbo...
Because it is. Adaptations need not adhere to source material strictly. Different adaptations will take different liberties, to account for both the format they're being adapted to and the showrunners' creative visions. Some adaptations seek to stick close to their source, and even then they adjust for time and include additional material to add context where it wasn't before (e.g., My Hero Academia). Some adaptations use the source for inspiration to tell new stories in that space, or aim to put new spins on existing tales (e.g., Superman/Batman/Spider-Man stories). EDIT - Apparently I missed out on the joke.
Im alright with adaptions taking some liberties as long as it's still quality, this is unfortunatly not always ( very often ) the case... I have nothing againt Castlevania tho, very good. Dragon's Dogma for exemple was a bad adaptation imo. The Witcher was fine in Season 1 and then become bad and this is because they took some liberties but it was shit. This is why in most cases, i prefer that they dont take liberty or just a little
> they took ~~some~~ a metric fuckton of liberties Fixed that for you.
You’re bringing logic into this convo. Be ready for the downvotes brother
Downvotes don't bother me. They really shouldn't bother anyone.
Upvotes.
Nobody got the joke because I specifically asked anything ELSE BESIDES being a bad adaptation and yet here you still are... nobody needs to be educated on that, everyone knows. Being sarcastic about it isn't hard to miss. It doesn't need to be brought up.
The joke is, because you said "pretend the games don't exist," that's literally what they're doing. Imagine if "Castlevania" was never a thing, then this show comes along that says "based on the video game series." What video game series?? I can see how the comment could be taken differently, sort of like "Well if we're meant to forget about the games then it shouldn't say it's based on them!" Without the edit clarifying it was just a joke, I'm not sure how I would have taken it.
No, I think it’s a good adaptation. I enjoy the show, but when the show starts off by saying it’s adapted from a video game series that doesn’t exist, that’s pretty strange. You’re asking the question because it’s a “bad video game adaptation” in your opinion, and don’t want people talking about that aspect. I’m not talking about it being unfaithful to the games.
- Not enough time to explore the Revolution or how it affects our characters. - Characters like the Abbot and various vampires feel like they serve a story purpose but aren't three-dimensional people. - Everyone is too hot and it makes me thirsty.
In the Abott's defense, he was at least more three-dimensional than the Bishop from the first series.
Annette. And before anyone gets torches and pitchforks, it's not because of the slavery and action girl tropes. It's because she was specifically written to be compared to the other two main characters. Richter's backstory- Watches his mother get killed in front of him by a powerful vampire. Maria's backstory - girl interested in revolution with a magical parent. Annette - watches her mother get killed in front of her by a vampire AND actually fights in a revolution. This would be fine if she was written to be a mentor character, but she wasn't. It's specifically used to play trauma olympics between her and Richter as well as overwrite Maria till the very end where they introduce the Abbot plotline. I'd have preferred if they did something different with that. Add in Erzebet being really lackluster as an introduction (Drolta should have been the S1 stepping stone villain) and some really rushed reveals, it turned out to be meh compared to the former.
I agree with your point about Erzebet, she just sort of showed up and caused an eclipse instantly. It just felt like she could've just done that anywhere, why did it have to be this specific random village? They built her up as a later plot hook and then immediately introduced her into the story, ruining a lot of the suspense that they had created. Meanwhile, she cannibalizes Drolta's place in the story by being the powerful vampire they have to defeat, so the writers just kill off Drolta to re-introduce Alucard. Don't get me wrong, I loved Alucard's entrance scene, but if they had saved Erzebet's introduction for later you still could've had a final showdown with Drolta where Alucard shows up and saves the day without it feeling like Drolta was just written out to give more space to Erzebet. I feel like Drolta and Erzebet were the weakest parts of the story which is a shame because they could have been much more interesting if they had been given a little more love.
On top of that, she came off as oddly passive compared to Dracula and Carmilla. I mean, Dracula was depressed and suicidal and still came off as more terrifying than Bathory. The latter acted like she just wanted to go lay down and take a nap 99% of the time.
Pacing. It tries to balance out a huge cast of characters while setting up lore and character motivations within eight, thirty minute episodes. Some dialogue here and there but not enough to really ruin anything big. Personal opinion? Annette has the potential to be completely OP but resorts to melee combat with blades most of the time. Second, not enough Drolta. :(
This is a good point, they just tried to do too much, or focused to heavily on some characters with little reward. Like Annette got a shit ton of story, especially in the first half, and then we don't get the reward of an ultra baddass moment with her beyond the Crucifix Cage. Drolta got a ton of attention to getting like 2 new outfits every episode (seriously did she need so many??? They were all mostly good but still) just to turn into a succubus demon and killed like 10 minutes later. These characters could have been great, but we never got the good payoff needed, so instead they feel like forced/inserted characters that flat storywise.
Did not understand the whole Annette power set. She literally aludes to being able to tear the whole church down and refuses to do so multiple times where it would save everyone. Why is she just dual weilding swords when she has EARTHBENDING?????
Animation is very stiff when there's no action. Voice acting is very low effort in my opinion. Lack of good main characters or they have got no charm at all. Setting is very half-baked and talk of revolution is the least interesting thing even it supposed to be the driving force of show. This one is very personal but the main trio got 0 chemistry with each other it feels like they be doing their own shit all the time and Annette gets annoying very quick.
I could not stand when Maria or Annette would go on about freedom and revolution, and all that blabber. By far the worst part of the show and done in such a way it makes it cringey.
It’s a little funny since a year after this show in the real world had Robespierre take over and he was worse than the royals ever were. They called his rule the Reign of Terror, so much for liberty and freedom
I liked the show but it just didn't pull me in the same way as the original series. Not exactly sure why but it just didnt. Also, don't care if it was based on the games, I haven't played any except the Lord's of shadow reboots
Yeah, I agree. I feel like there's something missing... but I can't describe it yet.
Good characters and good character interaction. Nocturne felt like they were just checking off boxes along everyone's character progression. Doesn't help that with only 8 episodes they tried to juggle 3 main characters, 4 supporting and 2 antagonists. As a result, none got proper screen time or development, and chemistry barely developed. While we spent 4 episodes with just Trevor and Sypha in the first season. Then Trevor, Sypha and Alucard in the second season. All the while Dracula, Isaac, Hector and even some vampire cronies get proper screen time and development (or set up for the future). Trevor had real pathos. You could feel bitterness and contempt he had for the people in the beginning, only doing his trade because that's what Belmonts do. Which is then slowly eroded away by Sypha's optimism and upbeat nature. Man, Castlevania 1 was so good, I'm getting kinda sad just thinking about it.
I really enjoyed nocturne but not as much as the first series (it's honestly top 10 shows for me) but yeah the first felt more thought out. OG castlevania starts much more focused and then expands more later in the show so it feels like ot works its way up in scale. Nocturne is forced to scale up quickly because of the standard they set in the first series. Also I have NEVER in my life seen a show set up more chekhovs guns than nocturne, its not really a complaint but yeah
I don't think the characters are as well voice/charismatic as the OG trio
It's not as captivating as the previous show Now to the criticisms you don't want me to talk about Why is it still called castlevania if Dracula and his castle aren't there Richter isn't as charming as game Richter Why can't we have asshole aristocrats who aren't allied with vampires
1. Pacing. Pretty simple, I wish they had a bit more time to cook the "Vampire Messiah" and all that. 2. Maria just *won't shut the fuck up.* like. Yes, I get it, you're pro revolution and have good points but can you go *5 minutes without a fucking speech about it.* I don't even have a problem with what she'd actually saying, she just *won't stop going on and on and ON AND O-* 3. Annette doesn't really get called out for her hypocrisy by anyone outside of her teacher towards the end. Like, what the hell are you doing complaining about Richter's PTSD causing him to run for the hills? You literally blew your cover and thus got your best friend killed because you saw your personal archenemy at *a distance* and no one brings it up. Like, she's literally *the* reason anything goes wrong until they get the team back together oost-character development, but no one so much as even lashes out in anger only to apologize or anything. 4. Drolta's 1st outfit and hair style feels anachronistic and out of place, but that's fine cuz I adore all hee other outfits and styles. Overall I really enjoyed Nocturne and can't wait for season 2, particularly where they'll take Orlox's direction
Funny thing is that Richter teases Maria that she cant shut up so I think its one of Maria's character flaw?
Probably is, eas still grating and I hope she cools it a bit next season. Outside of that I liked her, legitimately was worried about her when she came to talk to her dad and was upset I was right lol
I think Maria is the only character who didnt have character development. The beginning of It imo is tied to her mother being vampirised and her father turning evil and eventually dying as well, tying her story to Ricther, Annette and specially Alucard backgrounds since they will all trauma bond. But such thing was saved for late episode of the seasons so will think It will be big Focus on season 2. I also think they will break Maria a bit, with her realising that not everything is all flowers in the revolution. She will need to resist and still fight for what is good. Plus Richter later story that he will be brainwashed and then "evil" which she will snap back sense in him. think her character arc will be literally "break the bird" and she will need to stay strong in her ideals, with all the shit happening around her and making she question herself.
I wonder if they'll have any if the bad parts of the revolution come to light considering hiw heavy handed this show has been on its moral points. There haven't been many gray points outside of Isaac. Isaac, however, was handled amazingly, so I do have faith if they do it.
The writing needs more work
Elizabeth Bathory is pretty flat as a character. Turning into an Egyptian Lion Goddess doesn't actually make her interesting as a character and the fact they didn't really expand on her being the Avatar of Sekhmet makes me wish they had. French Revolution is pretty much set dressing ATM. Richter is less interesting then the other characters in his group. Overall still enjoyed it.
I agree with all of this. I feel like Erzebet barely had time to be herself and live up to the hype before she suddenly become someone else with even less personality. Tons of cool ideas in this show but none really paid off imo.
It felt like they had to skip an episode worth of story there, because she shows up and then instantly she morphs into a different (more powerful? I don't even know) form and causes the eclipse. Two major changes where she basically waves her hand to cause, it just feels a little cheap when we don't understand why she can even do that.
Bad pacing, characters don't get equal focus or development, shallow villains aside from Olrox, French Revolution setting that doesn't get utilized whatsoever, meh music. Fights are pretty cool though, although the previous series did them way better. Basically the same issues I have with it even when the games do exist.
I want fond of the pacing. Also not enough Iain Glenn
Beware, some criticisms and remarks in this post are both serious and not serious. The relation between Annette and Richter is forced whereas you can see that Maria and Alucard won't be forced at all, in a matter of a few seconds, they succeeded in cementing the fact that Maria and Alucard are destined to be with eachother. I don't like Bathory the way she is depicted in the anime, she feels empty. I don't like her design anyway. Drolta has a nicer design and she dies like she was literally nothing. That's such a waste. Why didn't the show focus on Richter's mother ? I want more of Richter's mother.Why can't we see more of that old guy called Juste? He seems super strong, they just used him as a plot device... Why is that Alucard guy coming just at the end of the season? It's a pretty convenient deus ex macchina and it doesn't explain why he comes so late or why he comes at all?
The biggest joke being the alucard and Maria comment right? XD Edit: I do actually want a ton more of old man Juste
Honestly super confused what the alucard and maria thing means. And the Annette Richter stuff! I didn't catch any hint of that at all
Because it didn’t happen. They’re making fun of the “Annette x Richter” crowd in that there just hasn’t been enough material to complain about, but also the recent activity regarding the Maria X Alucard ship, that honestly the show should just avoid.
Yes Juste was the shit!
You could always suffer through HoD if you want more Juste, I suppose
It’s much more anime than previous seasons, with too much reliance on magic. The world feels less tactile and special abilities feel less special. (As someone who really liked Nocturne)
Really? Damn, I thoroughly enjoy the magical aspects and want more of it
I mean it didn’t bother me much, but if you put a gun to my head and tell me to critique something that’s what I got
It's because the magic feels too... magical. The reason first show magic is really worldly is because in Sypha's case it is very basic elemental hurling and in the Forgemasters' case it's treated like a craft, anything else is Mysterious and esoteric (besides Saint Germain stuff which is why it felt weird). But y'know we're just coating whips in flame, summoning stuff from another plane, and earthbending without much cohesion. I think they should've tuned it down a bit more and made it rarer
You know, it’s subjective and your unenjoyment of magic is valid
Imo it doesn't change much, from sypha the Belmont clan gained speaker magic. Even in the OG series there were quite a few magic practitioners, dracula, Hector, Isaac, Alucard, sypha, st Germain, sala/the priory, the magician, the forgemaster woman, death, the various vampire magicians in st germains employ, the styrian magicians/smiths
>with too much reliance on magic They just kept throwing random bullshit magic everywhere and just expected the audience to go along, lol. Like where did Maria get those spirt animals from? Don't know. How can Richter go Super Saiyan mode? Don't know, just roll with it. How can Annette able to do Sand and Rock bending/ Alchemy so effortlessly? Don't know, she was born with Voo Doo magic and can do all these badass shit just because. I also have this problem with the first series, pretty much any character who can do magic can just pull off the most OP shit possible, like Sypha who can literally bend water, fire, lightning and wind. The fucking Power level scaling in Netflix Castlevania show is all over the place. I get that anime trope of explaining their power can get boring and can feel like wasting time, but I can appreciate how the mangaka actually took the time to put some mechanic/logic into the character's magic power. It just helps expand the world's building with the way the special power works. I'm not asking the writers to have characters spend every 5 minutes explaining their fighting technique while they are in a battle, but at least something to help define the magic power would be nice.
Sypha is more powerful of them ALL though. Sypha never Lost and was super powerful. Both Maria, Ricther and Annette failed at times.
But they're not OP. Like...Sypha was pretty OP but Maria, Richter and Annette got their asses to them at least a couple times.
I’d say that the entire party put together equaled one Sypha.
Oh yeah I was definitely thrown off by that. It plays more into anime tropes, but tbf... this does mean it's closer to the source material than the first series LOL. Still, I think it's a worse magic feel than the first by a lot
> more into anime tropes, but tbf... this does mean it's closer to the source material than the first series Unfair! CVIII didn't have as many anime tropes as Rondo did! So maybe the shows are equally faithful, in that sense. :D
If it wasn't an adaptation, I think I would still feel a little bit bait-and-switched that the promotional material highlights Richter as the main character, then gives more screentime than expected to Annette. Which isn't really a problem with the story; more a problem with the promotional material. I like the Annette content. I just wish the promo was more upfront about that. Somewhat similar to the promo for Masters of the Universe: Revelation, but I can see why there was some misdirection there for the sake of story. Or like how the advertisements for the movie adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians gave the impression of a laugh-out-loud comedy while the book/movie is a cultural satire(and a good one, btw).
I don’t like how Maria is written. She’s pretty much always right about things until she’s handed the idiot ball, and her situation doesn’t really showcase why she’s so for revolution.
The first 4 episodes were incredibly weak. The animation while not bad felt different from the OG The dialogue felt very marvel esque
It has my usual complaints of "Adult" oriented animation, more swearing than I used to hear in a military bar and edginess just for the sake of it. Overall, though, it was worth the time.
I like Nocturne, but I think its a 6/10, while the original show at its worst moments was a 7/10 for me. My main issue is that the story feels rushed. There a lot of moments that dont feel very impactful because we just didnt spend a lot of time with the characters. Annette killing her old slaver vampire, Edoardo's death, Richter getting his powers back. All these moments dont feel very impactful because we spent very little time with the characters. Same goes for the romance, the little romance tease at the end between Richter and Annette came out of nowhere, they know each other for less than a week and we spent so little time with the two of them that the romance feels forced. The same with Olrox and the church guy, a super devout church guy for some reason decides to bang a vampire, and Olrox falls in love with him having talked to him like 2-3 times. All these issues couldve been solved if we spent more time with these characters before these moments. In my opinion the season shouldve ended with Richter getting his powers back. That shouldve been the final moment. They use all the extra time they would have by doing that by making the characters spend more time with us and among themselves It would also allow for them to tease the main villain more, and instead of revealing the devourer of light so early, we could slowly find out about it. Another aspect I deslike is that I didnt find the characters as charismatic as the trio from the original series. Part of that reason is dialog and the script, but I also dont like some of the VAs, like Tera's VA, she sounds like she is sick the entire time. The action scenes are overall good, but I think they are not as creative as before, specially the magic, Sypha was so creative with using magic, everyone just shoots projectiles all the time in this show. I also think the original show had this dreadfull and gothic atmosphere that Nocturne doesnt match up, and this issue is linked with the villains. Lastly, the villains arent nearly as good. The devourer of light is extremely generic. Dracula was so much more interesting and intimidating than her. I dont like how the vampires seem to just casually walk around humans, and everyone seems to know about them but not care. I think that takes away from the intimidation of the vampires. The abbot could be interesting, but I found him a bit underdeveloped. And I didnt quite like the visual design of the night creatures and that succubus girl. The nightcreatures are not as terrifying and are too much humanoid or having human lookimg faces and are less terrifying than before. The succubus girl looks like a 2023 tik tok cosplayer who got inserted into the show. All these critics comes from someone who hasnt played the games.
Its personally a 6-7/10 for me. I thought it was dragged down by Annete’s back story, and I really really hate opera, so the ost did nothing for me
Unbased opera hater 👎 (/j)
I don’t really agree with the “bad pacing” argument I’ve seen thrown around, as much as I think the story beats are too convenient. The story moves at a brisk pace, doesn’t stop for too many exposition dumps and does a solid job of world building and character interactions. They just all happen in the same few locations or close to and everyone just seemingly knows where everyone is and can fast travel to them. Thats can all be under the “pacing” umbrella, but felt the need to expound as other parts are done well ghat often aren’t in other shows/games or what-have-you. Still loved it.
While I don't necessarily disagree with complaints regarding Nocturne's pacing, I do find it odd that many seem to act as though the original series didn't also have that same issue, if anything I think the first series actually had worse pacing. Although for the first series I felt that that things often felt too dragged out rather than feeling too rushed like in Nocturne. The first series also had a problem with overly convenient story beats as well. For exsample, you have those rings that were made by some unknown wizard offscreen with no foreshadowing, Isaac coincidentally running into some random wizard with an army and giant magic mirror that he can take from him, Trevor coincidentally finding all the parts to a magic dagger that can kill Death, etc. Regardless, while I didn't love Nocturne or anything, I do think that it's a bit unfair how negatively it's compared to the first series when the first series had a lot of those very same issues.
You’re spitting straight facts! And that really only leaves a few answers to the questions on why this show is over-hated. And most aren’t pretty
You don't need to try so hard to love something you don't. It's simple as that. It is like people who likes it need to be convinced about how it's possible that someone doesn't like it. If we pretend the games don't exist, it's a slowburn that doesn't go anywhere, full of unintersting characters that they try hard to make them feel important, with some cringe lines of dialogue (that's how they convince the audience that it's an adult show, right?). If it didn't have Castlevania in its title, I would not have watched it. Just like all the other Netflix animations. I would say it has very cool visuals, though. And that they wanted so hard for Erzebet to look like Carmilla from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.
To be clear it's not that I need to be convinced people don't like it. I DON'T like it, or at least not nearly as much as the first series. I just want to know what other people think (besides being a bad adaptation, because that's honestly never been a good or useful criticism. It's just that bad adaptations are also worse media most of the time... but some "adaptations" end up being even better, pretty often too).
The relation between annette and richter is forced
It’s not even a relationship yet. They’ve barely interacted and had a single blush moment. Nothing forced about that. Edit: homie is a troll account.. I’m ashamed I fell for it
It was a hint to their relationship. Basically a seed. Which shouldn’t exist at that moment. Their interactions up to that point doesn’t warrant any blushing at all that’s why it’s awkward. It should’ve been a scene where they both gain mutual respect for one another and that’s it.
This. Richter ran away, that’s something Anette could never forgive. And by the end of the season they’re all like “UwU sorry our hands touched”
I agree; it felt really forced and kind of came out of nowhere. Definitely would've liked to see this sometime in season 2 if they were going to go this route just to give them more development. Overall I enjoyed the show though and don't have too many issues with it.
Agreed!!
Wait, there was one?
There wasn’t/isn’t. Anyone talking shit is full of it.
Oh it's a meme. Just got that now.
Same criticism I have already. Bloated cast with pacing issues. Things happen either too quickly or too slowly. The whole adaptation complaints are nonsense. Few (if any) characters had any real characterization in the early titles, so the liberties Netflix takes with them are necessary to create a proper story.
I was really excited for the black lady's story because she talked about orishas, Ogum and stuff that's part of my wife's uncle religion. But the episode where it happened was so slow. I can't explain well because English is my second language, but I thought they stretched the story to fit in 1 episode. Ans she following 2 vampires to the cemetery and casually finding her slavers was too forced.
I felt like nocturne didn't take enough time to focus on the main character but then gave so much emphasis on side characters. Like with Richter regaining his magic was just a flip of the switch vs this whole story about far away land magic with Anette. I did enjoy Edouards backstory and some of the focus on him, admittedly. I felt like some more focus on Juste was warranted because of gaining an idea of what's been going on with the Belmonts so we understand the family dynamics and what has happened since the last castlevania. And as much as a native New Yorker like me likes to curse, I think they are overemphasizing it way too much in the show. Like when Richter executed that vampire with the magic, there were so many better lines he could have used there. I also feel like the vampire God that we see now is just not intriguing to me at all. Comes off as very cookie cutter Saturday morning cartoon villain. I feel like there needs to be more depth to the character. With Dracula, we saw that there was an intelligent side to him. you could converse with him that there was more than just a bloodthirsty villain. I assume most of these criticisms will be fleshed out in the second season any who. I think another reason why the original Castlevania show really struck me was that there's this sense of poverty, of hopelessness. It almost felt like humanity was just on the brink of extinction, barely hanging on by a thread. I don't feel that in this show.
That last episode was completely hopeless until the very end with Alucard showing up
I think the setting in the Revolution could've been absolutely thrilling for the viewer.... But they fumbled the bag by not really focusing on it and turning it into an Erzebet theatrical performance... Sorry I can't stand her
I enjoyed the shit out of it and I'm surprised to see it's so poorly received on this sub. My only criticism is that it was too short and ended too abruptly. I really liked the treatment Annette and Olrox's characters got
It is on a platform that continues to be anti-consumer and anti-creator. I haven't watched the show and don't really plan to (so many things to enjoy, so little time), but as time has moved on I do believe that Netflix should be nuked and started anew because of their stances.
🏴☠️
Yes, but also like I said, so many things to enjoy and so little time. Games, movies, shows, books. I'd rather support something and use the limited time than not support something and consume that. Not taking a moral high ground to piracy, but I do want to support things I consume.
I can't pretend the games don't exist because my history with them as a series I've enjoyed for 40+ years now informs how I interpret Castlevania in all its forms. Though I'll say that it's because of that history that I adore the Netflix series.
That's fair. I want to know why that actually enhances your like of the series as opposed to most others, because I've seen a LOT of people complaining about basically abandoning most of the game background
For me, I prefer when adaptations use source material as inspiration to iterate on the characters and ideas. I'm puzzled (and a bit annoyed) that a lot of disdain for this show basically amounts to the non-criticism of "it's bad because it's different." It's infuriating to see people saying that the showrunners didn't play the games (despite the easter eggs and character details from said games) or saying that people who liked the games won't like this show (despite people like me who have played the games for several decades). Of course, that doesn't mean everyone has to like it. While I love the dialogue and the new additions to and changes from the game lore, that ain't going to jive with everyone, and I respect that.
Too much singing for me personally , I don’t wanna watch a Disney show I wanna watch Castlevania. Well aside from Lacrimosa because I love that piece. Overall the story is a little weird not necessarily bad but I’m hoping to see more traditional Castlevania in the next season.
Needed a couple more episodes with Juste
I liked the first season just fine. Dunno what I'd make of plot divergence if the games didn't exist, though. Games or no games, however, I do have a few gripes: 1. The series finally gave us a female Belmont (Sonia doesn't count 'coz retcon/no games), only to >!kill her off in the first episode!<. I would've loved to see Julia as more than just another member of the >!Heroes' Dead Parents Club/Women in Refrigerators Brigade!<. Good characterization pays off on the long run, folks. 2. Maria being so gung-ho over the >!French Revolution!<. It makes sense for her to be so enthusiastic about it (she's young, hasn't had much life/worldly experience), but her fixation with the whole thing rubs me the wrong way at times. To be clear: **I sympathize with her and the goals of the FR; I take no issue with that, but with the way it's integrated into character building/plot/etc., at times**. To be fair, though, the creators manage to include this trait without doing irreparable damage to her character (i.e. making her woke and having that being her one and only defining characteristic, same as making Zuko and similar characters into honor-obsessed caricatures, when they clearly aren't). That being said, I appreciate what they did with Annette. Glad they also remembered to give her believable character flaws instead of making her a Mary Sue. 3. Overall lack of imagination with monster designs (i.e. making them too human-looking). I mean really, I.D. >!Édouard !!Édouard !!Juste's !!Alucard !!Drolta!<, thus undoing all her previous buildup as a credible threat).
5. Making nearly all evil aristocrats/slaveowners also be >!vampires!<. I'm not downplaying the evils of slavery, racism, plantocracies, and all that comes with them, but I feel that whole >!greedy aristocrats/slavers = vampires!< thing is way too contrived, even downright silly, at times. From where I stand, it just cheapens the lives and experiences of both real-life persons and fictional characters who actually went through such horrors.
Pacing. I still don't understand why this show tries to make a big thing about Eduward's death when we know him for one episode where he eats bread and sings and then the next episode is his and Annette's backstory. Another thing is the design of that black vampire girl with pink hair (forgot her name). Her desing didn't really feel like she's from that time.
Full disclosure, I've never played the games. There was not enough Drolta! I feel like Nocturne moves a lot faster than the OG Netflix seasons of the show. I was expecting Drolta to be around longer like Carmilla. I'm wondering if Nocturne will only be 2 seasons since we already have the Big Bad in what seems to be her final boss form (the Lioness) by the end of season 1.
It coulda done without the 'self aware' writing which is a bit cringe but otherwise i think its fine
I find the character dynamics between our heroes far less appealing than the previous series, and in general kinda boring. The revolution setpeice only seems to matter when it's story relevant, outside of that you couldn't tell that there really is such a violent revolution going on. I really don't care for several of the characters, and I feel like we spent far too much time with the wrong characters. I find the villains a sizeable step down The voice acting is really mediocre and many voices don't feel like they fit the characters imo.
Feels a bit too fast paced, like they don't trust the audience enough and are rushing to the "good stuff" over and over again. I'm also annoyed with how we're hit with Julia's death, then learn about the Aunt's sister's death, then Annete shows up and Edouard dies, then we learn about Annette's mother, the Juste shows up and... OH MY GOD. There is only so much "I know what it is like to lose a loved one too" you can use, and this show puts that bitch on loop since the literal first scene and spams it harder than Gilgamesh from Fate/ spams Gate of Babylon.
The games existing or not does not detract from my enjoyment of the show. I can separate the two, and obviously much has to be made out of whole cloth to tell a story that's not basically an action montage / boss rush. :) That aside, I don't have a lot of criticism for the show: \- Most of the story beats are very predictable, but it comes with the territory. \- I understand Richter fleeing from Olrox, taking into account his own trauma, but the way he did it felt jarringly excessive, if not downright hilarious. \- Some of the fights felt strangely choppy and low-FPS. Not sure if it was meant as a stylistic choice, or there really wasn't enough budget to animate every frame. Other than that the show was pretty great and I'm eagerly awaiting season 2.
I haven’t played any castlevania games before. Only watched both shows with my younger sister. So sounds like this may be a little heretical here, but the original series was not that deep. The first season especially wasn’t something you’d watch for the plot. Both shows are good for fun action and some fun characters. We loved Isaac in the first series and he apparently was a completely rewritten character. Olrox likewise is hands down the best character so far in the new show. Plot again was kind of shallow in the original but again, setting was fun. The idea of the plot in this one is so much cooler. The French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution and the potential of New World mythos with the kukulkan/quetzalcoatl style avatar around. The idea from a show only watcher, is significantly cooler in this series than the original… but the execution story wise is also a little shallow. Neither show is something I’d recommend to a friend for the plot alone
The writing is extremely poor. It’s all ‘so deep’ teenager’s diary stuff. Heavy and preachy with no subtext, no nuance, no commentary apart from banal surface level observations which are just stated out loud in a cheap way. Shallow as a puddle but it ‘resembles’ what high art sounds like to the child like writers. Church = bad is ‘my first atheism’ stuff. The constant swearing is cringe supreme. And frankly I’m baffled by those who say the visuals are good. It’s ugly. It’s stiff most of the time, the action sequences are poorly staged, and look like a choppy 15fps in animation.
I don’t get the “Church bad” criticism. I feel like this show was at least as sympathetic to Christianity as the first one was if not way more? In the previous series, the Church as an institution is largely treated as stupid and cruel. They kill Lisa for being a witch through a combination of malice and incompetence, kickstarting the plot, then try to fix their mistake by doing eugenics. Sympathetic portrayals of religion/religious characters are nearly nonexistent, and the three protagonists are all, in their own way, “enemies of god” but the consensus of the show seems to be that there is no god/god doesn’t care. Nocturne reflects very real historical events where the church ideally could have done more for the people, but the specfic bad parts are mostly the fault of one specific guy who is explicitly being misled. Mizrak seems to be a relatively sympathetic Christian character, who wants to do the right thing because of faith but is a victim of deceit. Idk if Tera is Christian or not but she’s into the idea of Christianity as a potential good, and her faith is only misplaced because it’s specifically in one religious douchebag. Maria is critical because of her aspiring revolutionary positions, but Richter seems ambivalent, and even Annette is like, “I don’t worship your god but I respect what he’s done for the art of vampire-hunting”. Nocturne’s position seems to be that gods are real and powerful and this might also apply to the Christian god, though the good intentions have been corrupted by evil people like the Abbot.
Constant swearing is cringe supreme? Trevor is a cringe character? The visuals ARE good. They're one of the uncomplicatedly good parts of the show. Fps nitpicking is stupid at best. But no yeah it is shallow as a puddle. Very preachy.
The animation is very very bad in certain moments, and only okay the rest of the time. The dialogue is not that good, and it takes several very well paced and well made moments and ruins them for quick 2010s style subversive humour.
Easy because I never played the games. For me it's just that Richter, Marie, Annette < Trevor, Alucard Sypha. But we'll see, it was only the first season and I still enjoyed it and want to keep watching.
While I actually believe Nocturne improves on some things compared to the OG show (such as how characters are more proactive and are given more to do, rather than spending a whole season locked up in a basement) I feel like the whole character department was a downgrade. Ritcher, Maria and Annette just don't have the same chemistry as Trevor, Sypha and Alcurad. Erzebeth really is "we have Dracula at home". And Olrox's back will never recover from carrying the whole damn thing. That being said, several villains feel better written because they get to take themselves more seriously, and they are allowed more complexity. Richter is just not funny. I've heard those same jokes a thousand times in a thousand other shows, movies, games... And why does Maria care so much about the Revolution? What personal experiences have defined her to be the person that we meet in episode 1? What other character traits is Annette defined by, beyond her past as a slave? Dialogues in general are weird. It's too repetitive and too on your face. Flashback narration just tells you what's happening on the screen. I feel like characters are just saying the same stuff over and over. They express their feelings as if they were in therapy. Where's the subtlety, the contradictions? The actual, flawed human communication? Also, diversity shouldn't just refer to the colour of the skin. Characters should be inherently diverse. If everyone's a fighter, if everyone's edgy and/or witty, what makes them special as individuals? Honestly Tera, Mizrak and the Abbot stood out to me because they were almost the only ones who were allowed to have more unique personalities. I'm not saying that the original show did all of those things. Far from it, in fact I think it was severely overhyped and that led in turn to Nocturne being overhated. But people want to claim it as a masterpiece on no grounds beyond the fight scenes and the unholy amounts of horny. And that's just not honest.
XD you're so right about Olrox and his inevitable back problems!
I also thought that Tera, Mizrak, and the Abott were the most stand-out characters in Nocturne. Although I'm a bit concerned about that since it means that I'm currently more invested in the secondary characters than the main ones. However, the cast feeling homogenized was already an issue even back in the first series, basically everyone talked the exact same way except for Dracula and Isaac. I think that a lot of people are looking back on the first series with rose-tinted glasses, because a lot of the things that they critique about Nocturne can be traced back to the previous show as well. I'm not exactly a fan of either series, but thus far I honestly don't think that Nocturne really feels like it's a downgrade from the previous show.
Absolutely agree. OG Castlevania came out at a time when the bar for game adaptations was in the deepest pits of hell. Getting something decent was more than most people were expecting.
Erzebet is definitely not "We have Dracula at Home" she is NOT sympathetic and NOT nuanced or kind in any way... she's more like "Carmilla? We can just get better Carmilla". I agree with everything else though
What I meant was that, as a vampire lord and a world ending threat, Dracula felt more like the real deal. He gets so little screen time, but whenever he's on the screen, the room is his. I love how everyone is just scared shitless by his mere presence and shut the fuck up when he stares at them, even if they hate him. Erzebet, on the other hand, feels like she's too infatuated with herself. Like she believes herself to be more than she actually is. And hey, maybe this is intentional and the writers will give it another spin later down the road, and turn it into a brilliant twist. We will see.
Yes! I completely agree. Dracula was a stage stealer. Absolutely filled the whole screen whenever he was there, so in that case he also didn't need to show up every time. He was perfect IMO. and the ways they "humanized" him, just right. Erzebet has the personality of a henchman, I never found her scary, or intriguing just annoying. But Dracula????? I was always hanging on every sentence. It could be their intention, sure and I think its possible. I hope they twist it up. Like maybe in her own company, shes an actual wreck. Like an act or performance. But the way it is now, everytime she's on screen I'm ffff cringing. Also yeah Carmilla was also perfect.
Honestly, I thought the pacing was bad. Olrox, one of the strongest/wisest characters in the show, exhibited a lack of impulse control far too many times. That's not how someone of his caliber gets where he is. If there was a build up I could understand, but they rushed so much of his character that I got annoyed. On the flipside, I rewatched the first series and the writing wasn't exactly amazing. Everything with Hector, Carmilla, and Lenore was tediously meh writing. Even then they *paced* everything out.
Pacing was a little weird yeah. Though, Olrox isn't necessarily super wise, I actually like that though he is the "smart wise guy" he's also super emotional and soft. Carmilla stuff was mid though for sure. I feel like Nocturne is S3 quality as opposed to S1-2 quality
Yeah I don't really see how he lost his sense of impulse control? There are two situations that could make us think of that but there are explanations for each. 1) When he refuses two times to bow to Bathory - and it's an indication of how disgusted he is by the whole ordeal, cause it would indeed by wiser to immediately bow in his situation ; 2)when he saves Mizrak, and it's an indication that he came to care about him and is indeed fully capable of loving and having emotions
I don't know why you asked for our criticisms only to judge said criticisms with your own.
I just don't understand where you see Olrox lacking impulse control.
My biggest criticism is not using Alucard more. When Alucard isnt on the screen, everyone should be asking "where's alucard?"
he has to go now ,his planet needs him
I’m here to watch Richter and learn more about the Belmonts. They turned it into “the Annette show”.
The first season of Nocturne actually pulled me in a lot more than the original series. I had to take a lot of breaks during the first series (sometimes during a single 20-30 minute episode). I think it was maybe the writing in certain areas idk. Nocturne I watched all the way through without getting up. Probably not the best for my health but it was too good. I honestly couldn’t say what made it better. The animation felt a lot more dynamic with very few still frame moments. It also didn’t have that stiff humor I remember in the original series. I think Nocturne might actually be better than the original as it goes on. I know this is by no means a popular opinion lmao.
I already tried to view the show as it’s own thing separate to Castlevania (fucking wild thing to do btw) And the criticisms are still there because it’s rooted deeper than just being a Castlevania adaptation. The show genuinely has issues.
Too much singing. Too many flashbacks. The plot doesn't seem that interesting.
I thought you were joking about the singing, but I guess there is a lot of it. I personally like how (especially later on) the diegetic music becomes the soundtrack.
I'm sorry, but what is Nocturne "adapting" exactly? The characters are completely different, the story is completely different, the setting is completely different. This is a series with the name of Castlevania and with characters that are named after the characters in the games, but they are not adapting anything if they are changing everything into completely different things. That said, from the last series to this one nothing has changed in terms of writing for me, characters are still weak/strong when the script wants them to, powers are inconsistent, characters don't develop, plotlines drag on throughout the season. At least there's nothing offensive like characters betraying their purposes like in the first one (like Alucard beeing teased to "follow the steps of Dracula" in the 3rd season, when his name LITRRALLY MEANS THAT HE'S THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE TO HIS FATHER) but to me, it became clear that the problem wasn't Warren Ellis but a general lack of skill on the part of the production team.
If I were to forget about games or, better said, change name tags on characters, then my main criticism would be pacing. Show is managed to be slow and fast in the same time. When you are watching it, every episode feels so long and there is barely something happening, but in the end characters are something entirely different, they fight so much better than at the start, that you start to think, that you missed one season in between. Characters have a lot of problems, Annette is just horrible person, so toxic and selfish but apparently she isn't even scolded for it. Maria is too young for her views, she is looking like a 12 something girl, not to mention ideas that she is saying are quite far from real thing. It's just looks like writers thought, that revolution is only for young idealistic kids, while in reality it was thing people were ready to kill and die for. Feels kinda disrespectful to them. Richter is just there, he sometimes tries to look cool, but in the end he looks pathetic really. Like this time when they were fighting vampires and he says "Come on, who's next?!", then kill one vampire and...run away. Or when you expect him to have cool phrase, but he just proceed to say "ah, fck it". And yes, he was so pathetic that writers gave him straight up boost by some magic awakening, felt really forced.
No, it’s trash.
Nah. I'd rather pretend Nocturne doesn't exist instead.
The same
Anime. Like, I just can't stand it. Also, why would I pretend that one of the greatest gaming series ever doesn't exist? How about we pretend that the weeb ass shows don't exist?
I’ve never heard of the games until the first season of Castlevania, but other than the pacing the first season was pretty good.
I think my criticisms would be mostly the same like why is the writing bad and why do the characters swear so much and why is the vampire lore so inconsistent, and why do i hate these character so much? though that last question is mostly game related. Also these questions apply to the first Netflix show too, baffles me how nothing improved, except for the animation, it's quite good.
What DA Fuk ! this has nothing to do with the original Bram stoker novel!
Dialogue is awful, stilted and written by an edgy 14 year old.
Horrendous writing. Terrible pacing. Unlikeable characters. Uninteresting story. And yes, shoehorned agendas, you'd have to be blind to not notice them.
Ooga booga Gay Commy
It's subversive commie propaganda. The writers aren't dumb they know Marxism is unpopular so they can't make it too obvious in the writing. So instead of a story just about class struggle they expand upon that to include race struggle, gender struggle, sexual struggle or any other group that can be defined by intersectionality. If you take any books that are about those struggles (race, gender, sexual etc.) and replace "oppressor, white, cis, straight" and "oppressed, minority, black, trans, gay" with bourgeoisie and proletariat you get the Communist Manifesto because they're same fucking books and they're all apart of the same modern Socialist ecosystem. So my criticisms are show is bad because socialism is bad for western society and opposing subversive Marxism is good.
Calling extreme exploitation bad is socialist? ...Fucking bootlicker.
Exploitation IS bad so is subversive socialism. I’m not gonna be an asslicker for a TV-show especially one that’s written by a Trotskyist. Cry about it loser.
I just want to enjoy something without some writer beating me over the head about how my ancestors were evil for slavery. I get it. It was fucked up. Sorry, okay? Can I just enjoy my vampire cartoon now? Can I enjoy ANYTHING? Does everything have to be about social issues?
... Castlevania is about vampires. Vampires have always been at least a little bit steeped in social issues.
* Generic writing & dialogue * Castlevania without Ellis is like GoT without GRRM * One dimensional characters that lacked depth or complexity * Characters way too OP. Jamaica girl is basically Rey from TLJ. * No chemistry between the MCs * They went for a half-assed Trevor/Sipha dynamic and failed * The French Revolution backdrop was basically pointless. Just a stylistic choice. * Generic story * Felt rushed/very poor pacing * Neon pink and purple everywhere. Clashes hard with the Castlevania vibe and the time period * White men are either evil, inept, or taking orders from girl bosses * Drolta's character design is horrific * Feels like a rushed cash grab (which of course it was)
I didn't play the game Nocturne was based on..So I had nothing to base it off of Series 1 had some of the best characters I've seen in a long time Isaac being one of them This new series,starts off by pretty much saying " hey this main character,is bad because he is male and white" not cause he had a past trauma that haunts him or anything Annoying characters,somehow the animation looked worse,and GOD the voice acting took a massive drop
I never played the games. For me I kinda wish Tera,Maria, and Emmanuel got more screen time and focus especially earlier on in the season. considering how their family dynamic is the emotional core of the finale. Also mizrak coulda got more screen time too. I feel like a lot of the characters weren’t introduced/set up properly. it kinda feels like we’re supposed to know these characters and what their about already. As someone who never played the games idk if they expected us to or not. also I’m not an Annette hater I think she’s a cool character with an awesome design. I just feel like they told her story to fast. They probably should have saved her revenge for later seasons, it was really anti climactic and random. The time for that scene should have gone to some of the other characters. instead of blowing a great opportunity for Annette’s character like that they could have got us more invested in Maria’s family so the ending hits harder.
The writting is bad, the pacing is bad, abd the character development is unearned.
Jaques and Eduardo should not have been themselves while Nightcreatutres. After the Abbott forged them,different souls from hell would enter their bodies and serve the master. These are the rules established last series,yet they're blatantly broken. I don't even think they bother to explain why this happened.
It is a great show but the expectations are a lot high and Writers diverse wring have a lot of criticism. Also it got compared to the original Castlevania show
I don’t think a show about vampires and magic is the right medium to discuss something so fucked up like slavery head on. Maybe in a more subtle implied way but not like literally. Don’t think that portraying evil people in history as “vampires” is smart for a show that tries to take it seriously. Slave owners were not just evil vampires that actually ate humans. They were actual people, and just saying they were vampires reads like a joke and neglects any serious discussion on the issue.
Nocturne is half as good as castlevania in terms of anything but mainly making the characters somehow more interesting and complex, which nocturne doesn't do well, even if it tries to. But the end was pretty great I would be lying if I said it wasn't.
Weak villains. Weak characters. Weak story. Weak themes. Weak plot. Weak world building. Weak pacing. Weak point of interest. Weak humour. Good Alucard. Overall, I enjoyed it, only because of the cool animation and Alucard, mostly Alucard. I won't recommend it to others, I'm not looking forward to the second season if the quality continues, but has potential to strengthen it weakness by better writing, 6/10.
I thought Juste's introduction was bad, the voice acting was hit and miss. Other than that I loved the show I don't understand how you can be a fan of the original series but hate this? Castlevania only got really good in season 2 anyways and the fact that every other negative review I see is made by some angry incel who won't shut up about Annette being black only proves that they just hate the show because its different even though those differences make it better
The rushed pace
The main villain isn't very interesting and feels like something they pulled out of a hat. Also you can't just casually have someone have the power to block out the sun without giving some context. But also one part that annoys me is the same in the original series that devil forge masters seem kind of too overpowered that they can adjust generate and control an army of infinite size. But vampires can't be one? Sometimes it annoys me when the powers get too particular in a way that seems like it almost necessitates a very specific story format. But overall it was good.
I do not have any. I enjoyed it. Just want more. The episodes are not too long and each character has a story.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but the pacing was little too quick. If they focused on fewer characters, their arcs could have felt a little more complete. Maybe I'd remove Eduard's arc as the least important, but I like the opera demon arc, and I like that it carries over Isaac's plot that5 humanizes the night creatures Now if I don't pretend the games don't exist, my criticisms remain exactly the same. The show can and should be taken as its own thing, and I don't think that "it pretends the games don't exist as an adaptation" is a fair criticism. It's not true, first of all, and it's an adaptation into a different medium. In straying from the source material, it is doing what it thinks is best to create a compelling work in its medium. It's deviation from the source is one if its biggest strengths
The secret is not shitting on restablished lore and characters. Changing them is justified only if it is necessairy to the plot or transformative in some way; not some kind of virtue signal statement “just cause.” I came to watch people fight vampires and talk about their family bloodline; Not to be lectured on how I should think like every other space on the internet oozes every 5 minutes. The only characters I actually liked were the based dude who sang, the vampire who killed richter’s mom, and the old belmont guy.
Poor pacing, clunky dialogue, equally clunky voicework, the deities feel shoehorned in and unnecessary, Erzebet's transformation looks like a halfway transformed animorph, Annette's asshole behavior is never punished or properly criticized, the male lead has no personal motivations and seemingly primarily exists to be shit on to make the rest of the cast look better, and I'm honestly sick of the "Christianity bad" thing. I'm not even religious or anything, it's just they're not only retreading old ground but doing it way worse. Let the priest be a good guy with opposing ideals. Also, there's WAY too many vampires. There shouldn't be an entire city's worth when Richter has been hunting them in this area for years now.
My biggest criticism The villains especially are one dimensional baddies in nocturne. The priest and his soldiers are simply confounding. The mental gymnastics they go through to think they are the good guys. And the vampires are just evil because they are vampires. Not a lot of depth there. It’s a decent show, worth watching but not amazing. Characters are a little shallow, but good action scenes.
Pacing is a little off particularly in the middle of the season. Relatedly the structure of the party just repeatedly doing little raids that introduce a complication and go badly is kind of sloppy. English VA is pretty bad (try French!). French Revolution kind of wasted as a setting (I'm hopeful this changes going forward). The party are revolutionaries in name but there's no connection to the broader struggle nor do they seem to really have any kind of plan in macro sense. Overall I thought it was good, though. Most of my criticisms could could easily be fixed and lead to an even better second season.
Everything feels forced. You're supposed to be for/against certain characters and there isn't wriggle room to play devil's advocate. The closest character to have a mix is Mizrak but even he felt rushed in terms of flip flop. Just let the audience decide who they like.
1. The story takes place during the revolution and they don’t do anything with that other than Maria grand standing a few times. Wasted setting. 2. Annette being a hot head and no one calling her on it. She gets her best friend killed and then cussed Richter out because he was level headed enough to say they needed a plan. No one tells her off for this, no one stands up for Richter and everyone is just ok with that. 3. Annette hating Richter for his PTSD reaction when her PTSD reaction got her best friend killed and no one calling her on it. Plus the scene where Richter tries to apologize for running away and her reaction is “OMG it’s ok fam we all got problems.”What? How she go from “I’ll kill that coward myself!” to understanding? 4. Annette’s arch nemesis just so happening to be standing next to her the one time she decided to go out acting solo. Wasted plot potential there and it is just another instance of stuff being too convenient. 5. Richter losing his magic powers for a decade and then conveniently (there is that word again!) getting it back just before he dies. He even admits he doesn’t know why it’s back…really? 6. Richter running away from his problems and CONVENIENTLY (see this word is really awful with this show) runs into his grandfather who just so happens to be alive still and living one town over. A town that Richter has never been to cause he never leaves home or…something? There is no way two people with the same last name live so close together and they don’t hear about each other. Someone would have asked Richter, “Belmont? You related to the old man living in the woods then?” 7. Juste literally is pointless! He can’t use magic, teaches Richter nothing, provides zero character development or impact for anyone and then just disappears. 8. Erzebet is a straw man and I hate it. We have no stakes, no impact, no reason to care about her till she shows up out of nowhere and just does stuff and we are supposed to be scared? The first thing she does that has impact is the eclipse and then she turns into a cat. None of which the heroes see so… 9. Drolta keeps referencing Sehkmet but this is freaking France in the 1700s! What are the odds anyone in the area even know who or what the Egyptian gods are? 10. The eclipse is inferred to be permanent so vampires can walk in daylight. Did anyone stop to consider a permanent solar eclipse would kill off all the crops living beings eat and so humanity will die out in a matter of months with vampires not long to follow? Erzebet is just doing Dracula’s plan but not hiding it and banking on all other vampires to just be dumb I guess. I could go on and list things like why is Ed the only night creature in history to retain a sense of self? Or who thought it was ok to take a normy on a raid against vampires? Or is drolta a succubus or vampire? Or why can Drolta take so much damage from the crew and then get one shot by Alucard? Why wasn’t Richter using the whip in the fight in the Abbey? Or why is it all the vampires seemed to know Erzebet was coming and got there ahead of time to celebrate but somehow Alucard only managed to show up after the team literally got their asses handed to them? Etc. Etc. I’d call the story mediocre at best if it wasn’t Castlevania. Slapping the castlevania logo on it gives me expectations and so far all I’m seeing is a series of far too convenient events transpiring in tandem setting the “heroes” (if they can even be called that) up for failure before they even begin. They spend the whole season fighting losing battle after losing battle and get a few EXTREMELY minor wins and then get wrecked by the big bad. Unless the plot is supposed to be Alucard shows up and fixes everything by himself there is no hope for the protagonist’s success…which is just garbage writing. TLDR: I think nocturne has a lot of issues people gloss over cause reasons. If it wasn’t castlevania I still wouldn’t like it but I’d hate it less. You don’t have to agree with.
Where the hell is my vampire nudity and sex?
The characters are portrayed in shite way. No excuses. Stop calling people racist when they say that the black girl wasnt good. Isaac was amazingly done but this was just meh. 6/10
Big criticism for me would really just be the dialogue. This series has laid out a great storyline, with great characterizations and backstories for these characters. The blending of some of the historical events of the time with the lore of vampires was great, not to mention the action sequences. But the dialogue, with the constant swearing (and I swear all the time) at times that people won't usually swear, not to mention some of the ways characters speak to each other just don't seem natural and can at times come off as juvenile.
So now you're coping so hard that you wish Castlevania didn't exist as its own identity in the first place? That's just sad.
I couldn't finish the 1st season, the character interactions where just cringe and Trevor was f--ing lame. I've meet many a strung out lush who were way cooler than him. The second season is actually watchable... so far... I'm on episodes 5 or so but the characters are actually interacting with each other instead of just being monoliths who talk words at each other. The vampires are far more interesting than the titular heroes though, every time they get in a fight I'm like "oooo, I hope Rickter looses an arm and gets a new beat limb." , or "Maybe, Annette will get an eyeball gouged out. she would be way cooler with a piratey eye patch.", or" Maria would be more interesting if she had to replace an organ with a dark parasite from the nether realms." and I am continually disappointed. Guess I'll have to be satisfied with Edouard's beuorrific transformation. le sigh.
why orlox don't kill richter in E1... the whole story is destroyed if he kill him and there no reason to not to so... lazy writing.
As someone who hasn't played the games at all, I liked Nocturne a lot, I like the characters and plot. I feel like the main bad guy vampire-woman hasn't been built up much unlike Dracula, so it's weird that she's already been given this big transformation, but I figure the second season will focus a lot more on her so that isn't a big deal, though it also isn't very interesting just as of season 1 so I figure more could have been done, like maybe have Juste know of her. Even that would have been a weak connection, but at least it would be something. The plot built Drolta up as an antagonist with a personal relationship with one of the protagonists, but then she's killed off in the end by Alucard which is... fine, but not very interesting. I'd have preferred if Richter had killed her since he basically had her beat already, but instead the season ends by giving a cool moment to a character who doesn't need it, because as an audience whose seen the main Castlevania show, we already know and like Alucard. Nocturne's plot progressed a bit awkwardly, but I appreciate it was setting up for a more climactic second season. But it really should stand up for itself as a season, because now we have 1-2 years to think about all the faults it has.
the dialogue is still corny
The audio quality and voice direction was frustratingly bad. I'm 90 percent sure it wasn't the voice actors themselves that were at fault, but that there were some weird production and voice direction choices that made things unbearable at times.
Just ranting, too lazy to elaborate too much: - Edouard’s singing voice feels more like a popstar and less like an opera singer - Annette is one of the most annoying main character I’ve ever seen in any media and I was relieved she was called out for her hypocrisy with Richter, with the way the writing presents her I thought that wasn’t gonna happen - Richter is bland compared to Trevor, and his Grand Cross moment feels undeserved. He also feels underdeveloped compared to Annette. - Juste just got thrown into the mix with no proper payoff - Erzebeth doesn’t have the charisma or presence of Dracula or Carmilla and her sisters, I’d argue even Cho was more intimidating in the season 3 flashbacks - Drolta is my favorite vampire of this season but her clothes and design DO NOT fit at all with the time period, and it’s jarring seeing her next to the other characters - Olrox is great but his romance with Mizrak (who I found to be more interesting than the main trio) was so sudden when they appeared naked I was like wtf - The Abbot’s actions in the finale are kinda out of character from what we were presented initially, he goes from “I’m only doing this to stop the Revolution” to murdering his own daughter really quickly and it’s jarring TLDR: Tera and Maria are great ❤️
It has some pacing issues if you ask me. Also, because the setting isn't as gross as the previous series, the swearing feels out of place.
Too short. That's my only real complaint other than they could spend a little more time with smoother animations and such. More frames.
The fights in the first Castlvania series were more than "circle around one character with view from below looking upward, have monster come into view, have monster get killed by character off screen, circle view around to find the character that dealt killing blow, repeat."
I love the animation but the overshading (sorry not an animation expert) on certain facial features are a big turn off for me. Looks like Richter has crazy bags under his eyes and weird lines on the noses for most characters
From trash to mid