uggghhhhhh covid finally got my stupid ass and its not so bad so far except that i cant seem to fall asleep at all and i got my first anxiety attack yesterday. so that was super cool and fun :^)

ive been binge-watching and finished the netflix castlevania show so i'm just gonna ramble about that for a bit to keep my mind off things.

first off i gotta say i LOVE what they did with the characterization since. yknow. the castlevania game protags are usually very very boring and one-note (at least the ones i've played. yes, my standards are that low). eng voices are good too, delivery can feel a little ehhh with some of the characters but as far as casting choice goes they hit it outta the park imo.

but woof they rly did my man hector dirty!!! which is a shame because he's one of the very few non-belmont protags and i get it they're mashing 2 different, direct prequel-sequel game timelines into a single continuity WHILE introducing original plot threads they cant ALSO make the dude beat on dracs ass after the trio does it the first time. i want to say i wish we at least got to see a duel between him and trevor like in Curse of Darkness, when he gets his ass handed to him the first time, but with everything that goes down in s3 dude would feel like even more of a punching bag. just feels a little unfair that as a protag character maining his own game he pretty much got reduced to fanservice AFTER they set him up with a bacsktory and motivation that goes past the canon-typical revenge story, while isaac got a whole character overhaul and well-thought out, complete story arc. like i wish they at least let him properly betray drac on his own terms rather than be goaded into it, i get they were trying show him as being easy to manipulate (but why tho....) or carmilla being especially manipulative. and then s3 happened and that was just a....weirdly porny mess tbh.

i know the general consensus is that the show would've been just fine if they capped it at s2, and i tend to agree but it leaves so much unsaid. idk if it would've been any better to make s3-s4 a straight adaptation of Curse of Darkness and shift the focus entirely to isaac and hector since s1-s2 was almost a straight adaptation of the prior game. i think this was definitely a case in a show where they couldve benefitted from a timeskip to make it work, while still accommodating isaacs story arc. like it wouldve also helped s4 feeling rushed af wrt the resurrection of dracula thread if it had a whole nother season to build up to it, and since that thread was straight lifted from CoD anyway.

like. i really did love the mystery-horror vibes of the lindenfeld arc but having it wedged in between the frankly unnecessary styria arc and whatever the fuck was going on with alucard was hard to get through ngl

also folks say the dialogue is cringy but i thought it was fine...? like yeah sure they started getting a little too liberal with the f-bombs towards the end but i think the dialogue that actually mattered was interesting and had alot of personality behind it, and it was fun seeing the characters play off each other.

and im saying all this perfectly aware of all the shit that went down with the show creator, which is why i waited a good whole 3 years after the fact to watch it so please dont come at me for that