Mathias to Dracula: Interlude of the Night
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- The Castlevania lore has evolved over the series. One of the ways it's come together is the story of how Dracula came to be, and the intertwined destiny between Mathias Cronqvist and the Belmonts family. But the question remains - how did Mathias become Count Dracula? I have some theories that could shed some light on things.
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Music:
"Prologue" & "Fog-Enshrouded Nightscape" (Castlevania: Lament of Innocence) by Michiru Yamane
"Requiem of the Gods" (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) by Michiru Yamane
Sources Referenced:
Wikipedia
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania (Netflix)
Voice-Over Mastering - vikingguitar.com/
The real life Vlad Tepes was prisoner of a king of Hungary named Mathias Cornivus for a while. My personal theory is that Cornivus could have been an alias for Cronqvist, and that Vlad never actually returned. Mathias assumed his name and identity due to his fearsome reputation.
That's not a bad theory! My only thought is why bother assuming the identity of a Voivode of a smaller country if he'd already assumed that of the King of a much larger and more influential country? It's certainly something to think about though.
@@SindraVaniaProjects Wanting to hold power but wanting to be more on the side rather than in the main political stage.
Maybe Mathias and Vlad fought and he proved to be such a worthy opponent that Mathias assumed his identity.
If you're a vamp, lying about being scary guys b4 or after you does make sense to add some cred. Who's gonna know anyway?
I really like your theory fits well. One thing I would change is him taking over the persona of Vlad Dracula Tepes. Feel it more fitting when he went into hiding he became Vlad i to start with but when people started noticing him not aging he would claim to be Vlad ii and eventually Vlad Dracula Tepes.
Personally I always liked the idea that perhaps Mathias was slain or gave up his body in a ritual to put his beloved into this cycle of reincarnation. This would lead him to be reborn as Vlad Tepes, similar to how Vlad too would later die and become Soma Cruz
this is great, I remember years ago, trying to reconcile how Mathias became Dracula, and my head cannon was something like this video describes.
I think that Mathias became enemies with the catholic church, because the church sent him away on a mission, while his wife was ill. So he blamed the church for the death of his wife, as he could not care for her.
Mathias blamed God specifically for allowing Elizabetha to become so ill she died while he was away fighting a Crusade in his name. He felt it was a betrayal of the Lord he'd dedicated years of his life serving. He wanted to become a vampire in order to curse God.
I think the Castlevania chronicals design of Dracula is one of my favourites because it fits Mathias looks so well and he dresses in medival attire and looks like a Medevial warlock then the Universal horror look. And he has a staff too which would make him look like this when Trevor Belmont first encounter him
Totally agreed! His Dracula X Chronicles look looks similar to the Chronicles look too, so there's repeating appearance incarnations too.
Mathias was already a polymath genius with extensive knowledge about alchemy. With immortality, he had all the time in the world to graduate to sorcery. My headcanon is that even with all his loss and misery, he still had a spark of gaining more knowledge.
For whatever reason, he came across Vlad Tepes and the two had some sort of a clash for some reason. Mathias was impressed by Vlad's skills which were similar to his own and to honor his fallen enemy, he assumed his identity after defeating him. Kind of like how the Lich King in WarCraft assimilated the Ziggurats as part of the Scourge architecture to honor the Nerubians.
I gotta say, this theory makes alot of sense. Would be a smart move to pose as an existing nobleman if he wanted Leon and his children off his back while amassing tons of power and wealth. Only thing I would add to that is that maybe instead of people under his rule simply fleeing his lands, I think Dracula just ended up killing/experimenting on them all until no one was left while Death provided their souls as well for research purposes. Judging by all the dungeons that appear in Dracula's castle in just about every castlevania game ever made, I think it's safe to assume that whatever dark/satanic research Drac was doing while hiding from the Belmonts, it required ALOT of live human test subjects aside from the huge body count he gained waging wars as Vlad. Maybe that's the sole reason for Mathias wanting power in the first place. Not to re-enter society and live amongst people once again, but as a means for furthering his research until he gains enough evil power to ultimately pick a fight with God.
But yeah, not sure if you have other theories involving the Castlevania series but it would be pretty fun to hear them. A good one would be trying to piece together how the world went from burning witches during Castlevania 3/Curse of Darkness to having the Church working together with witches and even training them as stated in Portrait of Ruin and Aria/Dawn of Sorrow.
That's the beauty of having the wiggle room to speculate between the gaps in the series lore; you can kind of take a crack at figuring out some stuff that might make sense and fill those gaps in with existing data. Mathias was a scholar so his experimenting on prisoners would be a fun slant to his backstory, though experimenting for what purpose would be the question there. He does have all the torture chambers and science labs, so perhaps he was trying to find ways to resurrect Elizabetha by experimenting on humans? And when that fails, experimenting on them just to further piss off god?
I do have a ton of other theories from the games for stuff, so check back in the future for more! I have stuff in my backlog I'll eventually get to!
Interesting theory, this may be some what off topic maybe: When I look at that picture from 6:19 of Dracula/Mathias and it’s accompanying picture of definitely a Belmont, not only are they both extremely beautiful and interesting to see, they both mimic the art of the Byzantine Empire which all fans should definitely Google both Byzantine art as well as these two pictures, both were drawn by Ayami Kojima for the Akumajou Dracula Tribute albums Volumes 1 & 2. When looking at both pictures I like to think that officially: 1. From the Dracula picture: Mathias definitely terrorized Humanity before Castlevania 3 and did so in a manner that made him known, not as Dracula or Mathias but enough for the locals to fear the Vampire attacking them and enough to sustain his life force as a vampire. And probably did so without the Church being terrorized enough that they would need to send soldiers to kill him and later find a Belmont to slay him, which is what happens before Castlevania 3.
2. From the Belmont picture: This Belmont could definitely be a Grandson of Leon’s from around roughly the years 1145 to 1230 and probably fought against monsters sent by Mathias, without somehow actually meeting the vampiric Mathias. The Belmonts after Leon could’ve probably chased after Mathias for hundreds of years without ever finding him and somehow it wasn’t until Ralph/Trevor Belmont that a Belmont and Mathias would finally meet face to face.
As a kid/teenager, i would always try to come up with ideas on how Mathias became Dracula. I more or less settled on him taking over Vlad Tepes Dracul's life.
Glad to see your video in my feed. That's one awesome theory.
Glad you liked it!
Mathias: I REJECT MY HUMANITY, BELMONT!!!!!
Alucard: Korega Berseker’s Fury Da.
It was a typo in the original Japanese manual for Symphony of the Night (that was carried over to the US version) that resulted in the events of Lament of Innocence.
Dracula was originally supposed to be 80 years old (or younger), but a typo caused him to be listed as 800 years old. I think IGA intended Vlad III the Impaler to be Dracula (like the original novel).
Nice to see a new video from you👍
Thanks! Took a while to get this one done just due to pandemic fatigue.
One thing a lot of people have pointed out about Dracula in the Castlevania series is that his role as a demon king/king of the underworld seems a lot closer to satan than Dracula, which is why I kinda liked the idea of there being a game where you play AS Dracula in the intermediary period between LoI and DC in his quest to conquer satan. (Lords of Shadow KINDA had this idea, but then they screwed the pooch with the whole, "DRACULA IS A BELMONT" thing. Granted Ive never played LoS, so I'll reserve judgement on it until I do.)
As far as the Vlad Tepes connection, I've heard that Stoker may not have even known the guy existed, as some of his notes indicated that he thought "Dracula" meant "Satan" or something in Romanian, and that the vlad III connection came in an unauthorized Turkish translation. (I can not currently find a source for that, so take it with a grain of salt.) So really you wouldn't HAVE to connect it with Vlad Tepes at all. (Although I would like to point out there were other members of the order of the dragon with sons, so "son of the dragon" was actually quite a common nick-name back then.)
So yeah, I find the excuse of "I was missing for so long because I was busy conquering hell" to be a valid one. But yeah, my head-cannon has been known to have plot holes in it before, so take all this with a grain of salt. (BUT, if Konami ever decides to use the original Castlevania Canon again, a game where you play as dracula and conquor hell would be cool, especially if the last battle is with one of the pre-trevor Belmonts. Castle defense simulator anyone?)
I would LOVE for there to be a pre-CV3 Castlevania game where you play as Dracula, amass your power as king of vampire/demon lord and grow/conquer the chaos of the castle itself. (yes, separate of Lords of Shadow, please)
@@SindraVaniaProjects Maybe part of the game could be a politics simulator where you have to learn about the various boss-demons from around the world, find their weaknesses, and the best way to recruit them? (Hollow promises? Bribery? Just flat-out kicking their ass in a 1-on-1 fight?) Then using their armies in to conquer the rest of hell. (maybe I should fire up RPG maker again...)
@@Joshtika18 That's an interesting concept that I could get behind. Could also incorporate how he learned the secrets of Devil Forging as well, or even previous Devil Forgemasters before Hector/Isaac.
@@SindraVaniaProjects Yeah, I'm guessing he would have to get more of those. I could never tell though, were hector and Isaac making MOST of the minion army, or were they just two stronger-than-average minions? (The way Curse of Darkness played out it seemed like it could be either.)
My headcanon is that Vlad is not Mathias himself, but rather his reincarnation, like Soma.
Headcanon 2: Maybe the battle in which Mathias perished ended up causing so much collateral damage, which is why the Belmonts are feared before the events of CV3.
This was the whole point of my 2 year + D&D Castlevania Ravenloft game.
I find it better how Gabriel Turn to Dracula (i know it is a reboot but stil).
It is more detailed abaout the whole process and Not Just he hate the church, because he see them as reason why his wife died.
Even in LoS2 the Alucard dlc you are later in a Part of the Castle where Gabriel locket himself after he defeat the Forgotten One,you See writings on the Walls,someone are even writet in blood,how he lost more and more His mind.
Even in LoS2 when you read the weapon Details from Draculas weapons they Tell you how he Turn to him.
My name is Mathias. Kinda cool to have some name in Castlevania.
My last name is Cronqvist haha, we made it dude
Bernhard's castle became Dracula's? I had no idea :OOO
It didn't. That castle turned to rubble when Leon beat Death and Mathias was long gone from the scene, off to different countries. Dracula's Castle is a different thing. It's not even really a building, but a "Creature of Chaos".
Not exactly a theory but a quick question, is the Mathias Cronqvist the same as the Dracula from the Netflix anime?
We have no idea. The assumption is that the Dracula of the Netflix show *should* have the same background/history as the Dracula in the games, especially since the show does feature Leon Belmont. However there's nothing proving it.
@@SindraVaniaProjects just a little something that's been bugging me is all
The writer didn’t even know that Mathias and Dracula were the same person. According to an interview he wanted to name Godbrand Mathias Cronqvist but Konami wouldn’t allow it.
@@donkeykongisytpooping3002 Honestly that's a Konami W for not letting Netflix do that mistake .
They should make a live action anime about mathias on how he became dracula
I think that the Netflix series had a very good depiction of it. Vampire-ruled territories seem to be a not so rare sight in the Castlevania world. While I doubt that dracula ever raised an army of humans and basically stealing the identity of Vlad Tepes, I believe he had Vampire vessels with their own armies, somewhat like in the Netflix series. I even believe that for sometime, dracula had contact with humans, interacted and traded with them given that Hector and Isaac were in his ranks (with hector not being like his netflix counterpart).
This is where the NX series and games differ. We don't know what vampire society is like in the games beyond Dracula and Walter before him. We also don't know for 100% certain if they're going with the Mathias=Dracula lore from the games in the NX series either, so it's really all just speculation until we're given more backstory from either source.
How do you view Soma Cruz? Personally if you get the real good ending of Aria and what not I almost see it as Dracula getting his happy ending. He is in love (wish they would've made Mina a reincarnation of Lisa or something). He is in love, and he is on good terms with Alucard etc.
What's the difference between blad and mathias? Who's the real dracula?
We don't know the whole story. We're told Mathias becomes Dracula. We don't know if it's that he just changes his name or if he kills the human Vlad Tepes and just takes his name. This video is my speculation on the lore.
What do you think, at the end of a timeline, the dracula become a Japanese High School you see the good story or cheap way to attract interest in a Japanese market
The unique thing is Soma has 2 backstory ; one being him as an actual Japanese and another which we were more familiar with , as an exchange student from another country , possibly Spain or Romania.
The story that he as a exchange student in Western versions for fear responded to players in the West Castlevania is a very popular chain in America and Europe
western fun They will say what a Japanese student is doing in Castlevania and let Dracula become a Japanese student
Unfortunately, however, Castlevania does not make it sell better in the Japanese market
Well, Soma is the complete opposite of Mathias, from his minimalistic design in comparison to Mathias’s extravagant fur coat and noble attire, to his color scheme nearly in reverse, his face bearing resemblance to him yet softer, his personality, his upbringing and even to his race now, both as because Genya Arikado was hidden as a Japanese government officials (something something connection) and as opposites to living in a region suffering lesser than _whatever the fuck happens over at Europe and America_
It’s weird isn’t it? The game that supposedly ends the story of the demon castle war completely is released _a couple of months_ before the story that begins the journey of the Belmont against Dracula and they bear so much resemblances and story beat, it feels like it was… _planned out…_ probably planned out
why the AI voice
Not convoluted tho
My version would be like LoS but Mathias is still Mathias, not Gabriel and he will be a victim of the lies and deception of God and the Religious followers.
Oh! You so edgy!
A victim of society's fear and paranoia like how he is more intelligent than his era. Along with scapegoating him by using the prophecy as he just embrace his darkness just like what the prophecy state. Also he develops great disdain towards humans.