Successful screen adaptations of video games are still unique, which is one of the reasons Netflix’s version of Castlevania is so popular. The animation is beautiful, the storyline is exciting, and the characters are compelling and smart. Between the extensive Castlevania video game franchise and the Netflix series, a lot of changes have taken place in the way that characters are introduced and depicted.
Some changes are merely cosmetic ones that include names or clothing, while others have left the basic roles of the characters intact but made dramatic changes to their backstories. Here are ten changes that we’ve observed that the Netflix series made to the characters from the video games.
10 Sypha
When this character was first introduced in the video game, there was some confusion about who they were. Pronoun confusion led some to believe that Sypha was a male character and this is alluded to when she’s first introduced in the Netflix series. Trevor makes a comment about the Speaker’s androgynous clothing when he frees her from the cyclops. In Castlevania III, her name is spelled with an f, “Syfa.” In the Netflix series, she’s Sypha with a “ph” instead. Another change is her long blond hair, cropped short and red in the series. These are mostly cosmetic changes, and the basics of her character as a powerful mage and ally to the Belmont family stays the same.
9 Trevor
There are several Belmonts in the games, starting with Leon, who has a quick mention in the second season, and including other heroes like Juste and Simon, who haven’t appeared in the Netflix series. At least not yet. Trevor is actually the same for the most part, aligning with Alucard and Sypha to fight Dracula with the lethal Morning Star as his weapon, but there isn’t any mention of a sarcastic drunk who wandered as a homeless vagabond for decades. While it makes the character much more interesting in the Netflix series, Trevor wouldn’t need that sort of backstory in a video game unless it has something to do with the pursuit and defeat of Dracula, which it doesn’t.
8 Carmilla
Her exquisite appearance and fierce character are the same, but Carmilla’s role in the Netflix series takes a wide deviation from what she does in the games. She’s always loyal in the video games, acting as one of Count Dracula’s unwavering generals as he fights the valiant heroes. In the Netflix series, Carmilla is still set up as one of the main antagonists and is every bit as scheming and vicious as her video game counterpart. However, instead of standing by Dracula, she takes advantage of his despair and the dissent and attempts to take his throne. Another interesting difference is her relationship with Hector. He’s her prisoner in the series, while in the games he acts with his own agency.
7 Saint Germain
So far, the only similarity we can pin down is the name. What he refers to as “The Infinite Corridor” might include time travel, which would be a parallel to his character in the games. In the games, he’s a late-comer, and he looks more like an 18th-century British dandy than the other characters who dress in medieval garb.
His clothes in the series, although medieval, are still unique from others and denote a higher social status or foreign origin. We had more problems finding differences than similarities when it came to this character partly because there’s still so much that we don’t know about him. His last message to Trevor was that they would meet again, so maybe we can find out in season four.
6 Alucard
In the Castlevania video games, Alucard is one of the main characters and makes a profound sacrifice after Dracula is killed. He interns himself in his crypt as a way of stifling the power of his lineage. In the Netflix series, Alucard stays awake after killing Dracula to curate and preserve the remains of the Belmont Hold and his father’s own impressive store of scientific knowledge. He did inter himself in the series in a similar way, in the crypt where Sypha and Trevor expected to find the legendary “Sleeping Soldier” but this was to heal after being badly defeated by his father in a brutal fight after her mother was killed.
5 Dracula
Dracula is one of the most famous villains in literary history, and his role in the games and the Netflix series are the same in this regard, but not to the same extent. Dracula shares the stage with several powerful antagonists in the series, such as Carmilla, the Bishop, and Isaac. He dies at the end of season one, so it’s essential that there be others to take on the role.
The backstory of Dracula in the games and series is the same, but the latter includes a lot more exposition and therefore a lot more sympathy. The viewer gets a much closer look at Dracula’s despair and heartbreak, making us reluctant to condemn him when his feelings transform into a murderous rage. This is essential to make the video-game adaptation more interesting on-screen. Ironically, this connects him with Trevor, who is given more exposition in the series for the same reason.
4 Hector
There are quite a few obvious differences between Hector in the game and the series to serve the completely different storylines. In the games, Hector leaves Dracula of his own volition after growing tired of killing humans, and his betrayal has nothing to do with Carmilla. In fact, in the games, he’s placed in opposition to Isaac, the loyal Forgemaster. He even has a wife, who Isaac murders to lure him into a fight. This might be a better story than the one in the series, where a rather ineffective Hector is a mere puppet of Carmilla, still bitter about Dracula lying to him about the destruction of humanity.
3 Lisa
This is a story about symbols. In the video games, Lisa was depicted as Mary, the Mother of Jesus from Biblical stories. No other woman could be the bride of Dracula and remain pure. The series goes a step further and compares her sacrifice to that of Jesus himself. Like Christ, she was an innocent who was condemned to death by an ignorant population, and although the methods of execution are different depending on the media, ranging from crucifixion to beating to burning, the symbolism is the same. Her cries as she burns, “…they don’t know what they’re doing” are similar to what Jesus said on the cross, “they know not what they do.” She takes a more central role in the series, being one of the very first characters we see in season one, but barely appears at all in the games.
2 Isaac
Unlike his fellow Forgemaster Hector, Isaac’s role as an antagonist that’s loyal to Dracula and set in opposition to Hector is generally the same. Other features, like a penchant for self-flagellation, are also similar. Like Sypha, it’s the appearance that’s different. In the games, Isaac is a lanky redhead who has also recruited his sister Julia, a talented witch, to help him achieve his goals. The Isaac from the Netflix series doesn’t have a sister, or at least not yet, and he looks completely different. Given some scant information about his background, the Isaac from the series seems to be from Northern Africa or the Middle East. Like Dracula, both of the characters are tragic, driven to their own destruction by unwavering belief.
1 The Council Of Sisters
In season three, we expected the story to expand in a unique direction. In the video games, she’s the undisputed Queen of the Vampires, and rules alone. In the series, she gets by with a little help from her friends. The Council of Sisters is rich with references to Vampire lore but none of them are connected with the original games. That refers not only to the council itself but all of the characters that are a part of the council. Lenore, Striga, and Morana don’t appear in the video games in any way, shape or form but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t interesting characters.
