Huh, but wasn't Christopher meant to BE Trevor?
Right. I'll address this in my overview. This confusing naming situation seems to be the result of developers from both games making odd decisions in that regard.
We know Christopher was a pre-existing character in the Castlevania universe even before the games he starred in were released, as he is mentioned in the Japanese manual for the first Famicom Akumajou Dracula. For that reason, let's begin by examining the contents of this manual.
Transylvania, a small, peaceful country in Europe’s Middle Ages. In this country, there is a legend about Dracula.
“Once every hundred years, when powers of Christ weaken, the prayers of those with evil hearts revive the Demon King Dracula. Then, upon his return, his dark powers grow more powerful.”
Once, long ago, Dracula returned to this world. However, Dracula’s ambitions to enshroud the whole world with clouds of evil and rule over a world of darkness were crushed thanks to the hero Christopher Belmont.
Dracula was defeated by Christopher Belmont in a battle to the death, and once again entered a hundred year slumber in the Transylvanian countryside. One Easter night, a town held a grand carnival commemorating the resurrection of Christ. However, in a ruined cathedral on the outskirts of town, heretics poured human blood over the remains of Count Dracula in a Black Mass ceremony, hoping to resurrect the Undying.
Then, at the moment when evil clouds covered the town, and a bolt of lightning tore through the cathedral, the Demon King Dracula, with evil ambition, once again returned to this world.
To solve this crisis, Simon, a young man inheriting the blood of the Belmont line, took up the whip imbued with strange powers, which he inherited from his father, and set off alone towards Castle Dracula."
Let's break the backstory down:
- Dracula revived at some point in the past.
- He was defeated by a person named Christopher Belmont.
- A 100 years passed since then.
- Because there's a legend that says "Dracula revives every 100 years" this implies Dracula has been around for quite a while, at least a couple of centuries.
Moving on to Castlevania: The Adventure/Dracula Densetsu for GB which was the first of the two games to come out in 1989. Let's once again look at the manual.
In Transylvania, a small country in Europe, there still exists a legend about a Warlock. There exists a legend about the Demon King Dracula who possesses strong magical powers and terrifies people.
However, even though Dracula revived many times, without turning the world into darkness, he completely perished. Due to Simon who inherited the blood of the Belmont family...
There were repeated confrontations between Simon and Dracula. However, the Demon King already existed in Transylvania before his first confrontation with Simon. Not as the Demon King Dracula, but as an evil sorcerer.
Count Dracula, who was a fanatic devil worshipper, built a dark castle at the outskirts of Transylvania and performed devil rites every night. Furthermore, he called forth many demons from another world as servants and was trying to become a Demon King with eternal life and magical powers. The people of the town were frightned and scared of Count Dracula whose powers that he obtained became more hideous day by day.
Then a man stood up. Christopher, the progenitor of the Belmont family. Christopher rushed to the dark castle with haste. There are many traps and monsters in the castle. Will he be able to beat Count Dracula who has become Demon King?
We learn the following:
- This is Dracula's origin story.
- Christopher is the first Belmont.
By the way, the tagline of the game is as follows: "すべての戦いはここから始まる。" (All of the fighting will begin from this point on).
If we compare this information with the details that are given about the Christopher backstory in manual of the first game, we can see only one of the neccessary criteria has been met: the fact that the person we are controlling in the game is named Christopher. The rest of the information we have obtained conflicts with the other criteria. Conclusion: The Adventure/Dracula Densetsu is a distant prequel to the first game but not the
direct prequel that was set up in the manual. For whatever reason, the name "Christopher" was given to the progenitor Belmont.
Two months later Castlevania III/Akumajou Densetsu comes out for the Famicom. This time let's take a look at the game's intro:
Europe, 15th century. In this dark age there lived a terrifying man. Vlad Ţepeş of Transylvania, also known as Dracula
He, for who enjoying slaughter and causing destruction in every conceivable way was not enough, restored a magic that had been lost in the far distant past and brought back a dark heretic god into this world.
The mad lord asked the heretic god for help, send out abominable demons into the world one after the other, and changed the whole land of Wallachia into a land of darkness and slaughter.
The lord who was blinded by ambition, at last, plotted to extend his demonic hands all over Europe. He was about to defile this land and dye it with blood...
The Orthodox Church who viewed the situation with great concern, immediately took action and sent troops. Furthermore, even this in land there were those who tried to challange Dracula to a fight. However, therer were none who returned with their lives while fully intact...
The Orthodox Church at their wits' end, at last decided to leave the subjugation of Dracula to the Belmont family, who were called true vampire hunters.
The Belmont family was an old lineage dating back to ancient times who survived battles against abominable beings.
However, because their powers were too distant from that of humans, they were feared and shunned by people. For this reason, without notice, they disappeared from the public eye and no-one saw them in a long time...
The Pope used all possible means and finally, he managed to come across a human who inherited the Belmont bloodline. The name of this man was Ralph Belmont.
Some hundred years before the time of Simon Belmont, here and now, the battle between Dracula and humans is about to begin...
Reading this intro, the story doesn't seem to meet the criteria either save for one: the game takes place "some hundred years" before the time of Simon Belmont. Well, that's confusing, isn't?
However, when looking further, we come across the advertisement I mentioned earlier. It contains the sentence: "ドラキュラがまた眠りから覚めるという。" Translation: "It's said Dracula has once again awoken from his slumber". Great! Now we know Dracula has revived. A second criterion has been met!
That leaves us with one more criterion: the name of the protagonist should be "Christopher". When we look at the character profiles in the game's manual, we discover that the main character's full name is "Ralph C. Belmont". What does the initial "C" stand for then? For the answer we have to turn to an interview with the person responsible for the story of this game.
Q: The C of Ralph C. Belmont was Christopher?
A: The C of Ralph C. Belmont is Christopher. I don't know if it's written in the documentation.
Now we know the protagonist's full name is Ralph Christopher Belmont. That leaves us with something to work with. Did Ralph eventually came to be known under the name Christopher in the legends about his exploits? That's just speculation but considering this information I consider that be another criterion that has been met.
Conclusion: Castlevania III/Akumajou Densetsu meets all the criteria of the backstory told in the manual of the first game while The Adventure/Dracula Densetsu doesn't. It's actually an origin story. From the information that's available it's possible to deduct that Ralph is actually the Christopher mentioned in the manual backstory. The Christopher from the GB games is an unrelated character from the distant past. I don't know what caused this confusing naming situation, but one possible theory is that the GB game started out as a direct prequel but was later changed into a distant prequel. For some reason they kept the name Christopher for the main character. I don't know what the reasons are for the Ralph Christopher Belmont situation. It could be because the name Ralph sounded cooler and they decided to retcon Christopher's name into Ralph Christopher Belmont.
Lastly, to further drive home the point that the GB games took place at the very beginning of the timeline, let's take a look at an excerpt from the ending of Belmont's Revenge/Dracula Densetsu II.
At this moment it came to pass that the legend of the Belmont lineage as vampire hunters started to be told.
When Christopher passed on his duty as a vampire hunter on to his son Soleiyu, the Belmont family turned into a vampire hunter lineage. When we get to the era of Ralph, the Belmonts had already built up quite a reputation as vampire hunters.