With the launch of Season 3 of Netflix's Castlevania animated series, we here at TheGamer though it might be useful to help both new and existing fans get caught up on the plot. If you need a refresher so you can binge season 3 right away, here's a quick recap of Castlevania's story so far.
Dracula Begins
The series begins in the country of Wallachia in the 15th century. A woman named Lisa ventures out to the castle of a mysterious man named Vlad Dracula Tepes. She wishes to help people and has heard that he knows much about science and medicine. Despite her humanity and his being a scary vampire man, he's charmed by her and agrees to teach her his ways. They quickly hit it off and become married.
Unfortunately, this is the 15th century, and her knowledge is confused for witchcraft by high-ranking members of the church. She's soon arrested and burnt at the stake as a heretic. Understandably, this doesn't go over too well with Dracula. Without Lisa, he sees no reason for humans to exist and he declares war. He raises an army of the dead, enlists vampire generals to lead them, and proceeds to slaughter entire towns across Wallachia.
Among his army are two human generals, Hector and Isaac, who have the ability to forge demonic soldiers out of corpses. Coming from traumatic childhoods, they have no love for their own species and are loyal to Dracula. A vampire general named Carmella is less enthralled with him, believing this war to be a waste of time. She plans to take over Dracula's castle and manages to turn several people to her side, including Hector. Isaac, however, swears complete fealty to Dracula, even killing members of his court that side against him.
This all culminates in Carmella luring Dracula into an attempted coup where her forces attack the castle and Dracula's army. She seems to be getting the better of his army until the castle is teleported away by the heroes of this story.
The Soldier, The Hunter, And The Scholar
Trevor Belmont, the last remaining member of the Belmont family, is a hopeless, destitute drunk. After his family was excommunicated from the church and their home was destroyed, he has given up on the Belmont tradition of fighting evil.
He stumbles into the town of Gresit, which is being constantly besieged by Dracula's demon hordes. He comes across The Speakers, a nomadic tribe of monks who orally pass down their history refusing to write anything down. He rescues their leader's granddaughter, Sypha. Soon after, Dracula's army attacks the town. Trevor reluctantly helps defend the townsfolk, along with Sypha who turns out to be a top-notch magic-user. They manage to stop the demons, but the battle causes the ground to crumble beneath them.
Trevor and Sypha fall deep into the catacombs and wind up in the tomb of the legendary Sleeping Soldier. The soldier turns out to be a man named Alucard, the son of Dracula. He had been sleeping to recover from mortal wounds given to him by his father when he tried to stop his mad crusade against humanity. The trio agree to join forces to stop Dracula once and for all.
They venture to the ruins of the Belmont estate to search through its library of arcane knowledge. Sypha learns and performs a spell that teleports Dracula's castle directly to them. They grab their weapons - including Trevor's vampire-killing Morning Star - and take the fight directly to him.
End Times
Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard dispatch with Dracula's remaining forces and head to his chambers to confront him. When Isaac announces his intention to sacrifice himself for his master, Dracula opens a portal and sends him through it so he can finish this battle alone. The trio attack Dracula, and after an extended, brutal, and pretty awesome fight scene, they defeat him and burn his body.
We're then left with the events that will likely take up the bulk of the narrative for Season 3. Isaac begins to build his own army of demons so he can continue Dracula's work. Carmella enslaves Hector to become her forger to help rebuild the tattered remains of her militia. Trevor and Sypha have become very close during this life-threatening ordeal and agree to travel the countryside to go on many demon-slaying adventures together. Meanwhile, Alucard takes possession of Dracula's castle and weeps as he remembers his mother and his formerly happy childhood.
Season 3 of Netflix's Castlevania is currently available to stream right now. It's quite possibly one of the greatest video game adaptations ever made (yes, even better than Sonic.) If the idea of a gory, violent animated series where people are flayed alive and f-bombs are dropped casually sounds good to you, then you definitely need to check this out.