Castlevania (2018) Season 2 Review

As much as I wanted to cram this out after marathoning through the show the day after it came out, I unfortunately didn’t get around to it until I went out to California. Hopefully this will be published sometime in the near future but as a backlog article this could very well be a Throwback Thursday article when it releases. First off, I’d like to agree with Karandi’s article and assessment that this was effectively season 1 part 2, but I also felt it was different enough that it could be justified as a second season. Filling out at 8 episodes vs season 1’s 4 episodes, I was all too glad to see both an increase in content and characters.

The first few episodes actually revolved more around Dracula and his generals, as well as their many machinations and sub plots. Most interesting of all is his choice to select the two humans of his forces to be the leads of his generals, much to the chagrin of the vampire generals. These two humans are his devil forgemasters, Isaac and Hector, humans who can necromance bodies into the undead hell hordes that Dracula commands. Of the vampires generals, the two of note are the hilarious Viking vampire Godbrand, voiced amazingly by Peter Stormare, and Carmilla, voiced equally amazingly by Jaime Murray. While Godbrand is a vicious borderline animal, Carmilla is an unabashed feminist and clinical psychopath, who despises the male dominated world and seeks to manipulate the current scenario to her advantage.

Eventually things come to a head, with Isaac secretly killing Godbrand for his plotting against Dracula, and Hector siding with Carmilla to convince Dracula to send his war effort to the port town of Braila. After convincing Isaac, they form a united front and Dracula agrees, so long as his will is done. In the meantime, we have Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard travel off to the Belmont Estate in search of a way to trap Dracula’s Castle so that he cannot escape when they strike. While en route, they begin to develop a greater respect and friendship, as well as battle acumen as they fight off a raiding party of Dracula’s forces. When they finally reach the Belmont estate, Sypha and Alucard begin to research how to trap Dracula’s Castle, while Trevor finds his family’s long sword, and the great and powerful Morning Star (which looks a lot cooler in the anime than the games).

As this goes on, Carmilla has two fires cooking, with one being an ambush against Dracula’s forces in Braila, and the other being a force sent to scour the Belmont estate, under the theory Alucard is working together with a Belmont. While they are under siege under the Belmont Estate, we see Alucard searching for the castle through a scrying mirror, and Sypha trying to finish the trapping spell when it is found. Trevor being of minimal help in either of those regards, heads topside to combat the demons and give his companions the time they need to get the job done. Some badass fights later, we have Dracula’s castle teleport to Braila as he sends forth his hordes, with a number of his generals. As this goes on and they march across the bridge into the town, we have the resurrected Bishop of Gresit blessing the river and turning it to holy water as Carmilla’s forces are posed to strike. With one swift motion, Dracula’s forces are dropped into the holy river and decimated, and Carmilla’s vampiric vanguard sets off as a horrified Hector is sent forward with Carmilla, now her implicated co-conspirator.

It is at this point Alucard has caught sight of the castle and Sypha begins the ritual to summon it and lock it down. During this spellcasting, the castle begins to fight against her spell and teleports around Braila over and over again, causing massive tidal waves of holy water that equally destroys the many forces of Carmilla that are not in Dracula’s forces fighting Dracula’s loyal generals and vampire foot soldiers. When finally locked down next to the ruins of the Belmont estate, Carmilla’s and Dracula’s forces take a break from killing each other to face off against Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard. One amazing fight scene later and we jump up to see Isaac fighting off Carmilla’s soldiers as our protagonist trio storms up the castle. In one rather humanity filled scene, Dracula sends off Isaac, not wanting to see the loyal man die needlessly. The ensuing fight is really quite glorious and through the power of teamwork and Dracula finding his conscience, the evil lord is struck down and peace is brought to the land.

Until episode 8 rolls out and we see the outcome of the past two seasons unfold. Carmilla is right proper pissed that her forces are dead, and proceeds to enslave Hector to forge for her an army of the damned to rival the horde Dracula commanded. Isaac found himself amidst more examples of terrible humans and proceeds to dispatch them quickly, then forging them and realizing having his own army would be rather kick ass. Trevor and Sypha decide to set off and tell Sypha’s people of the tale of Belnades and Belmont, while convincing Alucard to instead of dying in his father’s castle, to serve as a custodian and steward of the knowledge of both the Tepes and Belmont estates. All in all, I’ve really enjoyed the show from top to bottom and with the exception of the season 2 vampire slaughter spree, felt that it struck a great balance between the violence and humor. Many of Godbrand’s lines had me in stiches (WE’RE SUPPOSED TO MAKE BOATS) and the dynamic between Trevor and Alucard really had me enjoying their bromance with a hilarious surprise farewell gesture. If you saw season 1, I can tell you wholeheartedly you should watch season 2 since it completes it and enhances it so very well. At the end of the day, I rate this at a near perfect 9.5 GODBRAND!s out of 10.