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That reaction was…underwhelming.

I just finished up the second season of the Castlevania animated series on Netflix, and I love it. All the main characters get a lot of great moments. I’m not super thrilled about the protagonists spending, like, four episodes in a library, but the backstabbing politics of the vampire court are easily engaging enough on their own. The significant use of game lore is smartly incorporated into the show’s world so it never feels like unnecessary fan service. The fight scenes are beautifully animated, the voice acting is great, the music is suitably moody and gothic, and although I would’ve dug some rockin’ tunes from the games, outside of the epic orchestral version of Bloody Tears in episode 7, it probably wouldn’t have suited the macabre, nihilistic tone the show was going for.

I’m glad Castlevania already has a third season ordered by Netflix. I’d recommend it to pretty much anyone who likes cool, schlocky, violent stuff but also wants a solid story. There have been some game franchises that have gotten decent animation adaptations, but this is still probably one of, if not the, best.

Published on November 5, 2018 by Alex Kolesar

Tim “Azur3flame” Eldred

Those three dots aren’t contemplative/frustrated silence. They’re a creatively censored “What in the actual fuck is WRONG with you?”
foducool

bitch, you knew?!
clogboy

No, no, no. You don’t drop the truth bomb until the most strategic opportunity. Now you have nothing more to bargain with.
But I was right, Hirotomo truly is beyond redemption. He’ll need to be put down eventually.
Sunwu

Hirotomo: Follow me Yori, you may have come a long way for nothing but you’re not going to leave empty handed….

Yori: What do you mean???

Hirotomo: I mean, we’re gonna cut off your hands. GAURDS!
Hfar

“Son, do you know how long it’s been since I had a dramatic, all or nothing, life or death battle with someone? And now you come all this way back just to tell me you *don’t* want to fight? ‘Disappointed’ does not EVEN begin to describe what I’m feeling!”
- Turul
  
  Poor Hirotomo, both his sons turned out to be disappointments.
  - Da’Zlein
    
    “We are gathered here to see to the will of Lord Wataro, which reads as follows: In the event that I’m killed by Yorikiro, he shall inherit the throne. If I died otherwise while still at war with the Senshin, Eijiro shall take over to continue our glorious conquest. If neither is true… I dunno, put that Senshin girl in charge, she seems like the only one with any balls around here.”
cu

“Finally you are ready to understand, Yorikiro: the elephant has always been you.”

Close shot of Yori, a tear sliding down his manly cheek.

High angle shot: they embrace.

Panoramic view: the landscape of Japan as a desolate place, all vegetation has been devastated.

Fade to credits and bloopers.
https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1488388 TNinja

Wow. It’s been literal a decade since I saw this comic, and I managed to catch up to it, and what improvement.

You’ve been doing good.
Kid Chaos

Did I call it or what? 😜
- Nos Rin aka CTCO
  
  call what?
  - Kid Chaos
    
    A few pages ago, I predicted that Hirotomo would shrug off what Yorikiro had to say, basically saying “So what?” 👿
    - Nos Rin aka CTCO
      
      ah.
Yasmin Mazur

if it turns out that he ordered the murder of his own wife, it will be really anti-climatic…
Crestlinger

As long as this doesn’t end up going down the road that ended with pacman vs a blue ghost there will be character progression. If it does….*readies popcorn.
endplanets

Angry Asian Dad strikes yet AGAIN!
“Why you come home? You kill Demons of Sorrow. That supposed to impress me?”
“Natako betrayed you.”
“Thanks for information that would have been useful yesterday. And you bring woman here? No! Even useless brother bring home woman. Both sons failures. Mow lawn then go to room.”
Archangel

If he knew, and didn’t gut that monster like a fish, then there are no words for my level of loathing.
Jeremy Cliff Armstrong

I bet his wife’s not dead.
- Turul
  
  Now that would be a twist! Maybe she’s waiting right behind that door and is like, “hi Yori, missed you <3"
  - Jeremy Cliff Armstrong
    
    Imprisoned to keep up the fiction that she was murdered to provide a justification for the war maybe?
Xinef

Hirotomo: “Then you came a long way for nothing.”
Yori: “No, I came to distract you while Cho, Ken and Genchu surround your castle and besiege it, so in case you break Ina-Eijiro peace treaty, we’ll force you to surrender.”
Hirotomo: “… you mean the Senshin army is here?”
Yori: “NO! We don’t want the law of inverse ninjitsu to kick in! And since the Wataro army can’t get out of the castle without running into Ken & co. there’s nothing you can do about it, your army will outnumber us, and thus must lose!”
Hirotomo: “… ok, I surrender”

(secretly plots to murder all Wataro soldiers to shift chances in his favor)
Kid Chaos

Can we skip to the part where Yorikiro challenges his father for the right to lead the clan? And I’m not talking about a nice game of chess, if you catch my drift.💀
- Turul
  
  No no, of course not.
  
  It’ll be a nice game of go. Ina will fight as his champion. She’ll make uncle Yuki proud.
Nos Rin aka CTCO

He knew! Shit he knew!
clogboy

OK. Collected my thoughts. It does not surprise me if he knew.
This goes to show what an uncompromising leader Hirotomo really is. Tadashii taught Yori the importance of a leader to sacrifice. A leader has to keep the greater good in mind, always, and to a clan leader the greater good is the survival and prosperity of his clan, at all cost. If a rival stands in the way or could one day threaten the clan, remove that threat, at any expense. If you can’t find a justification, then create one. A prosperous clan has no friends, only enemies. Friends are a weakness that cannot be afforded.
He laid the groundworks for a clan that can’t be challenged, built on the blood of others and political narrative riddled with falsehoods.

Yori might well reject that truth, and I doubt Eji will be ready to hear it now. Hiro is hoping to leave this legacy to someone, and after sacrificing his wife he’s not going to accept no for an answer. The most dangerous enemy is not someone with nothing left to lose, but someone who’s prepared to sacrifice anything and everything.
- Xinef
  
  Although the reputation of being most dangerous typically is attributed to those who are ready to sacrifice ‘everything’ to protect ‘something’. Like the female animals ferociously defending their young. If you arrive at a point where you sacrifice the thing you are defending… that I suppose classifies as madness which can also be dangerous, but typically less so, as it tends to lead to self-destruction sooner rather than later.
  
  Now the question is, will Hirotomo’s decisions result in actually strengthening the Wataro clan, or at least survival… or will they result in the clan’s demise? When you sacrifice too much, there will be nothing left. When you sacrifice allies, you get enemies, when you sacrifice peace you get war… when you sacrifice family and loyal subjects, you are left alone. Is that really benefiting the clan?
  
  Although, that brings another topic – suppose some Wataro nobles survive the war (say Yori and Eijiro, while Hirotomo gets killed), but the clan is weakened enough that it is absorbed by other clans. Samurai become ronin or are recruited by other lords. Peasants just work for whoever is collecting the taxes, but who cares about them anyway. Will that count as ‘survival’? Or will that count as failure? What about if all Wataro die in a glorious last stand? They will be forever remembered by history, making the clan immortal in a way… but also dead. Would that also count?
  
  Of course the Wataro clan is still strong right now. But so far it lost most of their ‘named’ characters (generals, DoS), whereas the Senshin side lost only a few, and other than getting guns and killing some Senshin, the Wataro didn’t gain much from the war so far. On the other hand, the Senshin are now fairly well prepared to fight back (they won’t be surprised by guns or a sudden attack, they have ninja on their side, and politically they are more likely to find allies against the Wataro than the other way around). So the war isn’t looking good for the Wataro I think? Although I assume the Senshin suffered heavier losses in terms of unnamed characters? Hard to tell for sure. Last battle did seem to be mostly going in Wataro favor despite the heavy losses on both sides. Dunno.
- Jeremy Cliff Armstrong
  
  Ultimately a short sighted view. Once you become unchallengable you will start to rot from the inside out, as has always happened. As is, in fact, happening now to the US.The smarter play is always be friends with those who are unchallenged… but also be acquaintances of their enemies.
Debbie Wright

I love how he treats this all like he was just on a gap year to find himself. Like this was all just a phase and not an actual protest to everything Hirotomo has done.
- animalia555
  
  All this time I was finding myself and I didn’t know that I was lost
Frank Royce Harr

Greeeeeat. Nothing like having your punchline fall flat.

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