Castlevania Nocturne Season 2 - The importance of Healing

The first season of Castlevania Nocturne ended up becoming one of my favourite seasons in the history of Netflix Castlevania. Great atmosphere, themes in the forefront that were handled very well and strong depiction for all the characters involved. It was very dreary and clearly a lot of setup for the second season, but still very good, and now that the second season is finally out, it’s time to ask ourselves one question. Is this a good payoff for the story?

Castlevania Nocturne Season 2

About the Plot

It might sound rather obvious, but if you haven’t watched the first season stop reading at this point because I’m gonna spoil a lot of what happened, you’ve been warned.

The story begins immediately after the ending of the first season: Machecoul has fallen under Erzsebet thanks to the power she inherited from the goddess Sekhmet, Tera has been turned into a vampire and Alucard came in the time of need to save our heroes from Drolta, killing her off in the process.

Alucard explains to the group that he was investigating Erzsebet activities for a long time but he was unable to put a stop to her plans for the conquest of France. He has found out a lead to the source of Sekhmet’s powers, and while Erzsebet might’ve drank her blood, to reach her full potential she must feed off Sekhmet’s heart which is stored in her mummy. That mummy has been stolen from Sekhmet’s tomb and it’s now kept at Louvre museum in Paris, but Alucard can’t go there on his own, he needs the help of a Belmont, so of course, he needs Richter.

This help request couldn’t come at a worst possible time for Maria: she just lost her mother, she feels responsible for her death, she hates her father for his own cowardice and now the person who the person who was the closest thing to a brother she ever had is about to leave her alone to go on a quest with his potential girlfriend and another vampire. This makes her isolate herself, pushing away everyone. 

Richter knows how she must be feeling but stopping Erzsebet is his top priority at the moment, but he doesn’t want to leave Maria alone though, so he begs his grandfather Juste to help her, as he considers him the best person to help her cope through her grief. And thus, even if with some reluctance, Juste Belmont decides to dust off his red coat and move to Machecoul to help his own nephew Maria.

During all this Erzsebet has also keeping herself busy, most of her Night Creatures army got destroyed but she’s mostly distraught about losing Drolta, though her loss is short lived because once she founds out that some Night Creatures are able to maintain their conscience, hence she tries to revive Drolta with the demon forging machine and the result is a very fierce foe which has the power of both a vampire and a night creature making her even immune to sunlight. The two quickly devise a plan to follow Alucard in secret, recover Sekhmet’s heart and then take Paris by storm.

The narrative is divided between the two groups with Richter, Annette and Alucard in their quest in Paris, while Maria, Juste and Mizrak are left in Machecoul to keep an eye on Erzsebet and try to help Maria pull herself back together. The two stories will converge for an epic climax by the end with our heroes having the last stand against Erzsebet.

Compared to the first season this feels overall a lot faster and action-pact, particularly in the section with Richter. The themes of oppression and trauma are still present more than ever, especially when it comes to characters like Maria and Drolta, which I think both encapsulate the importance of healing and moving forward.

As always the show looks damn incredible and this season they went all out with some breathtaking sequences and fast paced fights that sometimes can look straight up like something from Dragon Ball. Episode 7 in particular was my favourite for this reason, a massive brawl in the middle of Paris out heroes doing everything in their power to stop an enemy that feels nigh unstoppable and with unlimited power and tolerance to pain.

About the Characters

Having had the most of their development in the first season, Richter and Annette take a bit of a step back this time, with the story focusing more on their blooming relationship and their call to action as they’ll become the heroes that they’re meant to be. Richter has to learn to grow up and stop being so arrogant during a fight, while Annette has to embrace her full power and attachment to the spirit world, which scares her for most of the season.

Alucard and Juste end up filling up the same role in both paths, they are the old experienced mentors who are there to show the ropes to the new generation. I feel Alucard was the weaker in terms of characterization, while it’s still fun to see him and some of his quips with Richter were downright hilarious, there were many times when he felt like a grumpy old dad who just took the wrong foot out the coffin and that rubbed me in the wrong way a bit. 

I loved Juste a hell of a lot more, it was great to see this traumatized old man stepping up to get back into business once again, having the patience of a saint to help Maria get through her grief and showing that despite his age he was still able to kick ass. He was still about as grumpy as Alucard was but he had the opportunity to show more how lovable he can be when he wants.

I was happy to see Mizrak and Olrox finally getting some time to do something. Last season they were quickly established as a couple but they kinda felt a bit wasted in the whole scheme of things. In this season they are two sides of the same coin, they represent how people react to the call of action. 

Mizrak is just a normal man, he’s a very good fighter but he doesn’t have the power the other members of the cast have, he feels out of his league most of the times but despite everything he never gives up, he’s always there trying to make things better for everyone.

Olrox on the contrary he’s a powerful aztec vampire who can channel the power of Quetzalcoatl and has enough power to take down a Belmont. If he wanted he could take the risk and help destroy Erzsebet, but after seeing what she’s capable of, he decides against it because to him there’s no ideal worth fighting for if that road might lead to your death.

I was really frustrated with Olrox and his refuse to act but after reflecting on it a bit I think it complements Mizrak perfectly, and it’s also a perfect representation of real life where many who could have the power to change things mostly stay on their laurels because of what they might lose, while those who can do very little or maybe even nothing, still put themselves in the line and do what they can to instill a change.

Maria is the one that gets put through the wringer the most as I was predicting, she was deeply traumatized at the end of the first season, family for her was so important and now she feels like she has lost everyone. Her power has also changed to some dark portal making her summon creature more aggressive and corrupted by darkness. Her trauma is slowly corrupting her into a worse version of herself, angry, bloodthirsty, isolated, losing the focus of her life. 

We also find out more about Drolta’s past: she was a priestess of Sekhmet whose temple had been ravaged by explorers who stole everything precious inside, including the mummy of Sekhmet, whilst also murdering all of the other inhabitants of the temple. Drolta was the sole survivor managing to fight back and it’s at that point who makes a decision to devote her life to bring back the goddess of war and restore her empire to glory so that her people will not have to suffer the same fate again.

Drolta however, forgot one key part about Sekhmet’s creed, she’s not only the goddess of war she’s also the goddess of healing. 

Healing is the key factor to move forward in life, we all end up wounded either physically or mentally, you can try to avoid it, but that will only lead to an empty life, if you try to suppress your wounds and pretend they’ve never happened you’ll just end facing them doubled in the future, while also turning everyone away to avoid showing your weakness. Eventually you’ll turn into the worst version of yourself.

This show makes it an important point about the importance of proper healing from your traumas by watching these two characters in real time following a dark path, but while Maria will be finally able to see the light and heal herself, Drolta will be constantly pushed more and more down the deep end.

As perplexed as I was for the inclusion of a goddess like Sekhmet in the narrative at first, it makes a lot more sense when you see the duality of her representation and how both sides of herself are extremely important and you really can’t have them separated.

In Conclusion

This season was excellent. A perfect way to handle a finale for a show like this. All of the characters got their payoff for their own arc, they tied up most of the loose end while still keeping a small gap for a continuation in the future and the great final battle was incredibly satisfying to watch. 

There’s still the problem of having way too many characters in this show which at times it really gives the impression that they were struggling to give everyone the right amount of time, but that is really the only low point I can think about here. I hope that if there’s ever gonna be another season they trim away the cast a bit so we can have a more focused show that can also go a lot deeper with their character growth.

This is a must watch, not only if you’re a fan of Castlevania, but just in general if you enjoy an action-pact show about vampire killers. Give it a watch if you haven’t and let me know what you think about it. For everyone else follow me to the…

SPOILER SECTION - Proceed at your own risk

I talked a lot about the characters because I feel they’re the most important part of this season in particular but I left out some moments that I really didn’t wanna spoil.

Edouard is the only one I feel a bit conflicted about his handling, I had high hopes for him since his development in season one, and in season two he still keeps up his role about being the one instigating a riot between the ranks of the night creatures in particular within the new recruits from the revolution. A point of focus for his character is convincing the captain of the revolution’s army to rise against Erzsebet and at the end of the series he does succeed in this role. Unfortunately the entire scene is handled a bit like an afterthought.

The night creatures have their own fight separated from Erzsebet’s army; it never really feels like their loss was a major setback to her plan. I really think there could’ve been a better way to handle this moment and give it a lot more importance. I’m not disappointed but I think it was a slight missed opportunity.

What they did handle well though was Maria’s descent into madness, and all thanks to the presence of her mother Tera. 

Despite being turned into a vampire she still was defiant to Erzsebet and once Drolta came back to life she was really quick to just let Tera go without a second thought like her help was not needed, and thus with Tera left to their own devices she had to face her own change in nature alone. The thirst, the violent urges, the beast from within constantly rising, there are many times when Tera is just downright creepy!

You feel for her because she’s clearly suffering and wants to go back to being a family with Maria but she’s clearly become a bad influence on the girl.  She makes her indulge in their own worst feelings, dabble in her new magic powers which have now turned dark, feeding on the anger of losing her family and all that eventually leads to Maria commiting her worst sin… Killing off her father Emmanuel in cold blood. 

This moment wasn’t just the turning point for Maria who finally realized how much of a monster she was becoming, but also for Tera who finally decided to step away from her daughter and give her time to heal. But the consequences of that sin had brought up something dark from within the church.

A dark shadowy figure who fed itself on the soul of Emmanuel and has been following everyone in the dark, and he has his sights set on Maria and some kind of weird influence over Tera. Olrox calls this figure the Old Coyote, a reference to Huehuecoyotl aztec god of music and deception, but he also calls him a name that we’re all more familiar with… Mephistopheles.

When I saw that scene at the end of episode 4 my mind was racing through all sorts of conclusions to what that thing could possibly be and what could mean for the future of the series. That figure still appears in the end of the series watching Maria from far away so it’s clearly a hook for a possible third season. 

I really think this could lead to Powerhouse Animation doing their own adaptation of Symphony of the Night. We have a dark shadowy figure just like Shaft was at the end of Rondo of Blood, we have a Belmont in Juste who can be corrupted by that energy, we have Maria and her Mother who clearly have a lot of issues to set, and Alucard who has decided to stick around in France for the time being.

Of course it won’t be the same as the video games, but this series has already taken a big detour and they’ve proved time and time again that they can be trusted with some bold new directions. So I’m crossing my fingers that if a Season 3 of Nocturne happens, it will be after a big time skip so we can have an adult Maria Renard against Mephistopheles.