What is a recap? A miserable little pile of spoilers!
In 2017, Netflix started an animated adaptation of the famous vampire-hunting video game franchise, Castlevania, primarily focused around its third installment, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Now, after the third season’s release, we will be going into the episodes thus far, and possibly even future ones as they arise.
Seeing as this series is based off of a video game, there may be some references to how one element or another is being carried over, but of course primary focus will be on the series itself.
Now then, let us present to you the first episode of season one, “Witchbottle.”
1. Villain-Based Premiere
This first episode focuses heavily on Dracula and his reasons for being an antagonist. Focusing both on his attempts at benevolence and his horrific turn down the road to villainy once more.
While Vlad “Dracula” Ţepeş does appear to have been as brutal as history proclaims, his time with Lisa of Lupu Village apparently softened him, at least to the point of marrying her, having a child, and walking the world as a man rather than traversing it as a monster. He also appears to be well versed in both magic and science, with his immortality allowing him time to study both to an extent far exceeding that of the general populace in the 1400s of the common era and even utilize electricity and other seemingly anachronistic inventions in the process.
With Lisa’s death two decades after meeting her husband, he sheds bloody tears (a reference to a famous Castlevania song of the same name) and decides to annihilate all human life in Wallachia with an army of nocturnal demons. Rather than just being the rise of a monster, this turn is seen as a horrible event borne of grief that could have been avoided, one that both his son and his wife acknowledge.
While Dracula himself does not show up again for the remainder of the season, this episode clearly shows his place in the narrative, his tragedy and madness both.
2. Ahead of Her Time
As noted above, Lisa Ţepeş is killed, burnt at the stake as a witch. On account of superstition and the extreme power of religion in that era, her indulgence in the “chemical sciences” is seen as a form of witchcraft provided to her by Satan, especially in how she has apparent abilities beyond the range of most people.
On top of all of that, she is also a fiercely independent woman in the era, a stance that likely would not have been seen in a positive light at all by the general populace. In fact, some sexist attitudes remain even amongst the relatively moral characters in this season. While she did marry Dracula, it was after coming to him alone to learn medicine. Everything else about her shown in her brief time on screen emphasizes her determination to help people on her own terms.
During the 1400s, as well as for several centuries both before and after, witch trials did occur in real life across Europe, with the efforts still ramping up by the time of Lisa’s death. Her various non-conformist attitudes clearly would not be tolerated by the very conservative nature of the Church, and so while the nameless Bishop’s actions are heinous, and the population of Targoviste’s near-total lack of sympathy does not help either, both reactions are hardly unexpected.
3. Corrupt and Ignorant Church
While the reaction to Lisa’s unconventional views was hardly unexpected given the era in which it occurred, “Witchbottle” paints the Church in a decidedly unflattering light, showing them to be responsible, whether through malice, willful ignorance, or both, for Dracula’s rampage across the country of Wallachia.
While burning Lisa at the stake can be seen as a case of ignorance of more advanced science before it became more widely known, the reactions to Dracula himself throw any justification right out the window, a fact that Dracula himself seems to acknowledge and become all the more incensed by. When the Bishop claims Dracula not to be real to his gigantic, flaming astral projection of a head, the apparent thought process leaps over the range of “not understanding other ways of thinking” and straight into “refusing to acknowledge basic facts in front of him.” The fact that a year later, the Archbishop of Targoviste claimed it to be a kind of mass hallucination of Satan instead of acknowledging it for what it truly is, on top of outright celebrating the near-exact anniversary of his prior appearance, which was also the anniversary of Lisa’s death, clearly did not help matters.
Continued belowIn general, as is a recurring theme across the season, Dracula and his hordes are not the only evil that plagues Wallachia. The Church, leading ignorant masses who often know no better, are as much a threat to their fellow mortal human as the monsters of the night, their unwillingness to accept responsibility or acknowledge others’ point of view at times a more direct danger to the people than the actual creatures killing them en masse.
4. Matters of Blood
Another character appears for a single scene in the episode: a young man with white hair who tries to stop Dracula from his mad quest after the first interaction the latter had with the people of Taroviste. He appears to be close, living within the castle with the vampire, and also to know Lisa well enough to grieve with the emergent villain, but in this episode, his name goes unmentioned.
What is known is that whatever his means, this person (who would be known to fans of the franchise) attempts, seemingly unsuccessfully, to stop the massacres to come before they threaten the country.
Who is he, or perhaps who was he? That is quite a question, isn’t it?
5. Our Hero Arises… Sort of?
Finishing up the pilot, we have a look in on people some time later. Aside from a conversation about… interesting acts involving goats, the peasantry of the area do not appear to have a high opinion of the “Great Houses” of Wallachia, apparently noble families. One name in particular that rings out is that of the Belmonts, which catches the ear of an exasperated drunk man at a table in somewhat fancier clothes than the others.
Now that the threats to the country are known, it is time to learn more about the most prominent protagonist of the season, which we will get to in the next episode.
