ariawen

[ariawen]

HOW did I not know about this woman?! Working it into my Belmont Lore immediately!

Sometimes I see the way media handles female characters and I'm just like, "Oh my god, that's so cool. I don't even want you to change that. I just want you to notice how cool that is. Why aren't you doing something with this amazing thing you wrote? It's so fucking cool."

When I seize control of the Castlevania franchise in a bloody coup, the first thing I'm doing is giving this woman her due.

So. Like. The plot of Castlevania is that the Belmont clan is a long family bloodline of vampire hunters who slay a variety of monsters and routinely kill Dracula every time he shows up. The key to their success is the powerful weapon Vampire Killer, an ultra-sanctified super-weapon that cuts the undead to ribbons so hard the crucifix gets jealous.

(Actually, no, crucifix is OP in Castlevania if used well, but I digress.)

Point is, Castlevania once went into detail about the origins of the Vampire Killer. And its origin was this woman. Sara Trantoul, a young woman afflicted with vampirism who decided that, instead of becoming a vampire, she was going to do some alchemy shit to transmute her very soul into the holiest goddamn weapon in the history of sacred artifacts that lethally fucks up every vampire it comes into contact with.

This woman is to the Belmont bloodline what Raava is to the Avatar. What Fi is to the Master Sword. The key to their ability to slay monsters and fight Dracula comes from a teenage alchemist's undying, eternal determination to get his ass. (Well, to get the ass of the vampire whose powers he stole but same deal really.)

In the games, she basically stops being a factor after the one that introduced her. She's a footnote in the canon of Castlevania, far less important than the whip.

But. Like. Her soul is literally in the whip. I've always imagined Sara as, like, the spirit guide and mentor figure and advisor and shit to every Belmont. Like when the whip is officially passed down, your first challenge is to take it and commune with Sara for the first time, the way the Avatar communes with their past lives.

And then she's with the Belmont in spirit. She knows everything. Can name all of the various creatures they might fight. Encyclopedic understanding of the lore. Trades barbs with Death, who (along with Dracula) is one of the few creatures that can see her. Friendly banters with Alucard about her latest Belmont.

Even if your parents were slaughtered as a child and it was all they could do to get you to safety and there's nobody to teach you how to be a Belmont, as long as you have The Whip, there's still Sara.

This character has so much potential to be such a cool piece of the narrative puzzle. It's already there. All she needs is presence.

#i have a belmont oc that basically started out as #“what if Belmont but also Bard” #then i moved her into the 21st century #killed her parents #had her be raised by Alucard #and get a blood transfusion from him so she's basically quarter-vamp now?? #i just wanted her to have super strength n speed n stuff and that's how i justified it #anyway #yeah #this is going into her lore #also she crosses over with Devil May Cry because why not #her name is Lyra Belmont #might post more about her sometime idk #oh also she had a punk aesthetic in her teen years #was in a rock band and everything!

[ariawen]

Genya, NO-

Alucard after SoTN: forgiving richter with ease

Arikado after soma walks home without a babysitter:

#why do i feel like he might actually do this...

[ariawen]

#ow #just ow #op i want you to know i nearly bit through my thumb watching this #its very good #castlevania #alucard #castlevania netflix

[ariawen]

Well, it was supposed to be fanart of Arikado from Castlevania, but ehhhh….

I dunno, it still is, but I don’t think it really looks enough like him. It’s probably the hair. I made it too long.

#slowly getting to be a genya fan #guess alucard is just pretty no matter what #anyway #castlevaina fanart #castlevania #genya arikado

[ariawen]

Hello! We exist! Lovely art!

I need castlevania fans cause it’s literally so good bro

#castlevania #castlevania nocturne #trevor belmont #drolta tzuentes

[ariawen]

"Kill them with kindness" wrong. Baja Blast to the face

#GET BAJA'D BITCH

[ariawen]

Mind if I throw a take of my own in here?

I've been really bothered by Bathory using Sekhmet, of all goddesses, to further her plans. Do I think Bathory actually is Sekhmet? No, of course not. Bathory is a powerful sorceress, sure, but there's no way she's an actual goddess. I might be proven otherwise later, I don't know.

Anyway, my point is: just like how Bathory is using the image and terminology of dragons to further her ends, she's also using the image of Sekhmet to help her achieve her goals. Does anyone really think this pasty-ass French (I assume she's French, at least) vampiress with red hair is in any way related to the Egyptian goddess of war, pestilence, and famine? I highly doubt it. And I could go on a whole other rant about how if Bathory really wanted to "eat" the sun, she should've picked Apophis to claim her descendance from.

Bathory isn't just claiming dragons to reinforce herself. Everything she claims about herself is fake and made-up by a woman who feels entitled to rule the world.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

"A god should know, where all her dragons are."

I've seen plenty of discussion about how it's shitty of Erzsebet and Drolta to refer to Olrox as a dragon, because Quetzalcoatl isn't really a dragon, but it's like... Extra shitty on other levels?

I mean, this quote is already somethin' because dragon or not, she's referring to him as hers and just making it clear that she does not intend to afford him any agency in this """partnership""".

But I keep Having Thoughts ™ about the role and symbolism of dragons in European folklore.

In the most general sense, they represent power. In a lot of these stories, the dragon is an obstacle between the heroic protagonist and some kind of secret treasure or knowledge (Wealth! Land!). Or the dragon is terrorizing a nearby village (Never mind if the 'dragon' was there first!!). Or the dragon is unfairly hoarding riches it has no use for (don't worry, the colonizers will show the 'primitive savages' how to make the most of their land!! Isn't that nice of them??)

In these stories, it's up to the hero to eliminate this obstacle that's separating them from some resource they feel entitled to, or to 'tame' it and exploit its power for their own purposes. As such, they're pretty on-the-nose colonialist propaganda when viewed under the right lens.

So I wanna talk about The Golden Legend of Saint George and The Dragon, which is one of the most famous of these stories.

Story goes: There's a dragon who's been terrorizing a nearby village. The people start offering the dragon livestock to appease it, and when they run out of livestock, they start holding a regular lotteries to sacrifice one unlucky person to the dragon.

St George shows up before the next person (king's daughter) is about to be eaten, and he doesn't kill the dragon, no. He dominates it:

S. George was upon his horse, and drew out his sword and garnished him with the sign of the cross, and rode hardily against the dragon which came towards him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore and threw him to the ground. And after said to the maid: Deliver to me your girdle, and bind it about the neck of the dragon and be not afeard. When she had done so the dragon followed her as it had been a meek beast and debonair.

*(debonair in the archaic sense = gentle)

Erzsebet makes it clear that if she can't be worshipped, being feared is the next best thing. She can't get Olrox to ally with her willingly, so she resorts to force. In the end, she's getting what she really wants: obedience and subservience. For him to follow her like a meek beast.

The Golden Legend doesn't stop there though:

Then she led [the dragon] into the city, and the people fled by mountains and valleys, and said: Alas! alas! we shall be all dead. Then S. George said to them: Ne doubt ye no thing, without more, believe ye in God, Jesu Christ, and do ye to be baptized and I shall slay the dragon. Then the king was baptized and all his people, and S. George slew the dragon and smote off his head, and commanded that he should be thrown in the fields, and they took four carts with oxen that drew him out of the city.

A couple things here that slot right into the themes of colonialism in the show:

The dragon is used used as a way to coerce people into converting to Christianity. Just as Olrox would have watched the Spanish settlers do to his people: under threat of force.

The dragon is feared by the villagers despite no longer being an actual threat, but St George does nothing to dispel those fears—he exploits them. Just as prejudices of all kinds are used to justify settler colonialism as necessary or inevitable.

The dragon is slain and discarded once St George is done with it. Just as Olrox would have watched the Americans betray and displace the Mohican people who allied with them during the revolution.

Erzsebet and Drolta calling Olrox a "Dragon" isn't just ignorant or disrespectful because he's not a dragon. It's downright degrading. They're not just refusing to address him properly—they're telling a man who has survived settler colonization twice over that they intend to use him as a tool with which to do it again.

Olrox spends the season carefully stepping around every appeal Drolta makes for him to pledge loyalty to Erzsebet. And he's damned good at it: never giving up his true intentions by saying no outright, but wiggling out of ever having to say yes by instead asking pointed questions and making cutting observations that always land the ball back in their side of the court.

But then this scene happens, and he can't wiggle out of it this time. They've got their dragon where they want him. He's pinned and 'meek'—and I can think of nothing more infuriating and degrading for a character like Olrox than to be paraded about in his own land to help Erzsebet build her empire across it.

Olrox isn't a dragon, but she's going to make him one.

#sorry for hijacking your post op #ive had this locked and loaded for a while #castlevania #castlevania nocturne

[ariawen]

The most important detail about Alucard 🦇

#eyes or hair? #either way it works #me personally #i like his eyes a LOT #an unhealthy amount #just something about them #they have this sort of intensity to them #like twin suns #idk

[ariawen]

I've come to realise that I believe Alucard from Castlevania is peak male character design. Like everything about this guy is so unbelievably hot. Like I call myself lesbian because I'm very rarely attracted to men, and I honestly think it's just because not enough of them look like this.

So let this be a message to all men out there: Strive to look more like Alucard. And if you're someone who designs characters for games/comics/shows/etc, make more characters that look like Alucard, please I will love you forever for it.

#YES #PREACH #never enough pretty men in this world #need more #he's become the white noise in my brain

[ariawen]

alucard

#with cherry blossoms!! #awesome!! #alucard #castlevania

[ariawen]

Me too! I wanna see this!

I need Alucard and Olrox to bicker with each other in s2 because the tension would be insane??

Alucard takes witty little pot shots at people because he's too well behaved to do anything more than that. Like he's never going to rise to the bait and make the first move, but he will let you know he thinks you're an idiot. He has class, thank you very much, and is just waiting for you to strike first so he can call it self defense.

Olrox would absolutely not hesitate to cut a bitch—but he just likes to play with his food too much. He has mastered the art of respectability and will play the long game with passive aggression and backhanded compliments. Act all coy about it and be infuriatingly polite while your eye is twitching with barely contained rage.

Unstoppable force meets immovable object

[ariawen]

Had a vision about Alucard in a rockstar AU so i decided to make it everyone's problem <3

#oh #OH #this is doing THINGS to me #fuuuuuck #i love this #would by a ticket in a heartbeat to see his concert #alucard #alucard castlevania

[ariawen]

Photo where she's a little more proud of it:

So... my pupper got groomed and is HIGHLY embarrassed about her new haircut.

[ariawen]

So... my pupper got groomed and is HIGHLY embarrassed about her new haircut.

#puppy #poodle #pets #adorable #funny

[ariawen]

Is a Litwick dangerous to little Alucard because he is a vampire? However is it more dangerous to the people around him?

I don't know.

[ariawen]

maid alucard

#why can i see this as a dare from Trevor #LMAO

[ariawen]

I did Olrox already so here's Alucard~ I was going for a screenshot redraw but using his Nocturne color pallette + the delicate linework of the new show. I'm very, very excited for season two <3

#😍😍😍😍😍 #this made my heart stop #OP YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT THE ARTING #alucard #adrian fahrenheit tepes #adrian tepes #castlevania