What is a recap? A miserable little pile of spoilers!
In the series premiere of Castlevania, we looked in on the workings of the antagonists plaguing Wallachia, from the Church (as most prominently showcased by the nameless Bishop) to Vlad “Dracula” Ţepeş. Now, following directly off of the last scene, we come to the action in the majority of the season’s time period, as well as introduced to the most prominent protagonist.
Today we’ll dive into the second episode of season one, “Necropolis.”
1. Hatred of House Belmont
House Belmont was apparently a noble family of monster hunters that fought the likes of Dracula or other monstrosities in Wallachia. However, for one reason or another, the Church saw fit to excommunicate them and instead of praising their good work, blamed them for all of the chaos caused by monsters in the first place, saying that they dealt with monsters and black magic rather than using their knowledge of, though possibly not use of, both to fight those who would use it for ill intent. By the time of Dracula’s assault, they were blamed for the appearance of monsters if any were found in their vicinity, and run out of many a town.
As such, it may be unsurprising to find that the sole known survivor of the family after the destruction of their home, Trevor Belmont, had become a roaming drunkard who distrusts most people and sees little use in social interaction beyond what he can do to get by.
2. Speakers
A unique group who is not from the source material, the Speakers are a group of roaming nomads who collect stories and knowledge through verbal communication, refusing to write any of it down by virtue of the fact that while a story is alive, “paper is dead.” They seem to be the only group so far who do not immediately blame Trevor and the Belmonts for everything, and also aim to provide aid to the people of the city in which they are residing, Gresit.
Due to not wanting to accept any blame, on top of taking advantage of xenophobia, the members of the Church has latched on to the idea that the Speakers are to blame for the ongoing nightly assaults on Gresit by demons. Things have gotten so bad regarding the blame that the populace are on the verge of killing every one of the Speakers in the hopes of appeasing God and ridding their city of the nightly massacres.
3. Legend of the Sleeping Soldier
Amongst the people of Gresit, Trevor hears about a local legend: the “Sleeping Soldier.” According to the populace, he was a hero from centuries past who is ill beneath the city itself, sleeping until he is needed when a great darkness is upon the land.
The Speakers also know of this story, and tell him that some of their magicians (a distinction to be explained in a later recap) are known to hear stories not from the past, but from the future, indicating it may be a prophecy of some sort.
Why is this relevant? Well, we’ll go into that later.
4. Church of Gresit
It seems that not much has changed in the attitude of the priesthood from Targoviste’s destruction to what is going on in Gesit. If anything, the Church’s attitude has gotten even worse since the death of the Archbishop. Priests, known as “the Bishop’s men” (the same as the one in the premiere?), carry knives and stalk those they deem heretics into alleys, hurting those they want during the day just as the demons slaughter during the night. However, these same priests are no match for Trevor when he is sober.
Notably, the Speakers are aware that the Church is to blame for Dracula’s actions, and what was done to his wife. As such, if not for willful ignorance, the Church may have been trying to wipe out the Speakers to prevent word from getting out.
5. A Broken Hero
As noted above, Trevor Belmont makes a point about how he doesn’t really care about anybody else other than himself anymore. Due to the traumas in his life, he has become rather antisocial and ambivalent to the problems of others. Much like Lisa and the Speakers, he is hounded by the Church, and the common people by extension, for who he is, so he tends to place both in similar categories.
In a sense, he is not entirely dissimilar from Dracula himself. While Dracula is actively attempting genocide as contrasted against Trevor’s passive lack of care for what happens to most people hurt by the hordes of the night, the reasons have much in common. Both of them are prone to blame bystanders for not standing up against oppression. Both are victims of ignorance and superstition, as well as angry when those falsehoods are brought up to them. Trevor even espouses a similar reaction to the mob mentality of the people of Wallachia in his words to the Elder Speaker: “For evil bastards to win power, all ordinary people have to do is stand aside and keep quiet. There’s always a choice.”
Where the difference lies is in how they deal with these problems once push comes to shove. Dracula attempts to kill everyone he deems guilty, both passive bystanders and active assailants, but Trevor instead focuses on helping those who are being victimized to prevent more people from ending up like him. In the case of the Speakers, Trevor actually says as much. He doesn’t actually care about helping the majority of the population of the city, but the similarities between the threatened pogrom against the Speakers and that which took his own family and home from him are too much to bare without doing something to help. As such, while he does not want to stay any longer than he has to, he elects to save the Elder Speaker from the brutality of some members of the Church in an alley, as well as to go out on a mission to save the Elder’s grandchild in the catacombs of the Gresit itself, if only to speed along their exit from the city itself before they all die.
