Dracula: Forgotten Roots

Alec · Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:59 pm Post subject: Dracula: Forgotten Roots

It seems to me that Dracula has lost his path in life. Granted, he had motives, but Lament of Innocence and Symphony of the Night were the only games where his motives were actually referenced, really (I can't remember if Dracula's Curse referenced them or not, but I don't think it went into much detail with it if it did. Correct me if I'm wrong on this.). Even so, that makes maybe... 3 games where Drac's motives are discussed and used as a story element.

So, let's have a quick history lesson.

In the 11th century, his wife, Elizabetha, dies. Drac (then Mathias) feels awful. He's so depressed that his mind conjures a disease that leaves him bedridden. Then, he gets an idea (albeit a foolish and quite stupid one, but it's rather interesting regardless). If he fought as a warrior for God only to have "God" take his wife away (although in all honesty, it was probably Death's fault. Probably), he would defy God in an (*cough*IDIOTIC*cough*) attempt to get revenge So, just to show God how much he hates Him and the fact that nature works the way it's supposed to, he gets Walter to kidnap Sara, leading to Leon killing Walter, and Mathias inheriting Walter's power and becoming Dracula.

Okay. So, his motive has now been established. It's revenge against something he never had any control over to begin with (I personally call it a tantrum).

Then, he lives and broods for centuries, and then he meets Lisa, who reminds Dracula of Elizabetha, causing him to fall in love with her, marry her, and have a child with her. He lives happily for a time, but then Lisa is accused of witchcraft, and burned at teh stake, while her son, Adrian, watches. Lisa utters her famous last words, but Dracula was not present, and did not hear them. He vows revenge on the humans, and starts killing them. Cue Adrian becoming Alucard and Trevor Belmont opening a can of whoop-ass on Dracula.

But still, Dracula had a good motive for what he was doing. His wife was MURDERED. I think that would make anyone want revenge, and Dracula had the power and the ability to get his revenge. So he did.

That was in 1476.

Three years later, he revives. He's almost a totally generic villain, except for these words:

"The Powerful ALWAYS judge the weak! The humans made their judgment of me as well. Thus, I sentenced them to extinction."

Okay. He's a madman. We get it. But, madmen have feelings too, and Dracula had been hurt so much by Lisa's murder that his rage carried over into his new reincarnation. In that shred of dialogue, we can see the hurt in his soul, the pain and emptiness that drives him further into his madness.

Then, in 1576, he revives again. He's almost totally different now. He has no motive, other than the fact that he's evil, mad, and powerful. It wouldn't be until 1797 that we begin to see the old Dracula again, and when he hears his wife's last words, he says, "Lisa... forgive me...", which gave most people the impression that he saw the error of his ways, and had started to repent.

Then, he revives in 1830 (with a reference that he had revived before that), and he's back to his "Bleeah! I'm a evil Vampire! I'm going to suck your blood!" routine.

....what happened? He has no motive anymore. Again. Any shred of humanity he displayed in 1797 is completely gone now. From that point on, Dracula is the same, generic evil villain he is so often portrayed as. It seems as if from 1576 to 1797 he forgot why he was fighting against mankind in the first place (revenge), and then from the pre-1830/ post-1797 period, he forgot again, and apparently never remembered.

If he did forget, then I weep for him.

However, there is the possibility that, while he started with vengeance, that's not why he fights anymore; he could be killing mankind for the fun of it. But, that still doesn't jibe with his last words in Symphony, which carried a sense of regret and penitence.

I think he's forgotten, and that makes him all the more tragic. Nothing is more tragic than a warrior who fights without a cause.
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Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it..Friends are like balloons: once you let them go, you can't get them back.

Dimitri Chenov · Awesome Contributer Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 32

Yeah. I think he forgot. It's sad, because when he remembers, you get a sense of nobility in the man, and it often seems like there is "Dracula" and there is "Mathias" living as seperate personalities within him, vying for dominance.

Lady Corrington · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 6:42 am Post subject:

Warrior of the Dark Moon · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:26 pm Post subject:

I think it's just because he's immortal and has nothing better to do with his time.
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I am a warrior. I fight for the Mother Moon, whose dark light shines a pale beauty upon our eternal land. Shine on Moon, and show your children the way...

Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival... a survival of a hugely remote period when... consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity... forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds...

- Algernon Blackwood

Creeping shadow · Lair Staff/ Lookout Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 542

All I can say is, old grudges die hard. Perhaps he still hates humans for all the suffering they put him through, and feels he can "purify the human race".

Esperenza Grace · Chieftain Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 166

Warrior of the Dark Moon · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:43 am Post subject:

When was Dracula anything BUT a generic plot device?
_________________
I am a warrior. I fight for the Mother Moon, whose dark light shines a pale beauty upon our eternal land. Shine on Moon, and show your children the way...

Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival... a survival of a hugely remote period when... consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity... forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds...

- Algernon Blackwood

Alec · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:46 am Post subject:

Master Hero · Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:41 am Post subject:

Esperenza Grace · Chieftain Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 166

Previous posts in this thread aside, I think the writers can do much more with Dracula as a character, something that was done successfully in Lament and Symphony.

I don't know... maybe if we were to see some flashbacks to when he was married to Lisa and raising Alucard...
_________________
"I am a blooming Lilac in the dread valley; beauty in an ugly life, and when the rain comes to bring life to a dead land, my purpose is served, and I fade away, to return when death takes the valley once more."

~Family Saying