Topic: Maria's role in SotN

[Super Waffle]

It has recently occurred to me that, rather than going about the overcomplicated task of trying to seduce his son to the Dark Side while hanging out in an upside-down hidden castle in another dimension and relying a dead sorcerer who had already failed him twice, Count Dracula should have just ordered one of his pals to capture Maria and use her as a virgin sacrifice to bring himself back to living immediately after she stumbled into the castle looking for Richter.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "oh noez, Hulkster! You can't kill her off so quickly! That would ruin a perfectly good Belmont off-shoot storyline and a boss battle in the Saturn and PSP ports of SOTN!" But hear me out.

Think about it. The adult Maria Renard, lying helpless and unconscious atop Dracula's coffin. The only thing covering her nude form is a thin pale blanket pulled up to her collarbone. The Succubus watches nearby holding Maria's folded green dress, after being the one left to prepare her body for the sacrifice. Shaft's ghost leads the ceremony and, in the ultimate act of irony, Bad Richter is the one to plunge the knife into her. Her final blood-curdling scream as her blood empties onto the coffin echo through the castle, and the new form of Dracula is born into the living world. Hearing this, Alucard spends the remainder of the game in a near-invincible hotblooded rage as he takes brutal revenge on all of his father's minions and finally the Dark King himself for the poor girl's murder.

It would be epic.


For those of you who still disagree with me, I only have this to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8rplgBISk

That is all.

[crisis]

Interesting.

Are you aware of the removed 5th ending dialogue where Maria transforms into a demon?

[Long John Silver]

you're forgetting the timing. that trick only works during drac's every-100-years periods, and sotn happens after that period and dracula's yet another death.

[erimocard]

Wow. An entire topic for Maria and CVfan still hasn't shown up.

[Super Waffle]

Are you aware of the removed 5th ending dialogue where Maria transforms into a demon?

Yeah, but that was (presumably) supposed to end with a regular boss battle and Alucard just angsting about Richter and Maria instead of raging.

[Sonic_Reaper]

You seem to be forgetting that Maria is canonically (to an extent) near God-tier in strength.  She commands animal spirits and generally kicks ass all around.  She didn't fall prey to mind control like Richter did, either.  I would say that placing her in such a role pretty much trivializes her strength and reinforces the damsel in distress stereotype.  Why not just have random girl A be the sacrifice instead?

[Long John Silver]

well technically since she's such god tier and related by blood to the belmonts her blood is probably of better quality than that of a random peasant girl.

[Super Waffle]

A few things to consider here.

1.

[Kale]

A few things to consider here.

1.

[Super Waffle]

Random Girl A, doens'thave to, I bet those other 4 girls captured with Maria didn't walk into the Castle of Doom either.

I meant at the beginning of SotN.

[Sonic_Reaper]

Personally I wouldn't want to see this.

[CVfan13]

Wow. An entire topic for Maria and CVfan still hasn't shown up.

[Super Waffle]

As for Richter saving Maria--well if you lose to Drac in SotN, she storms in and grants him infinite invincible strength--even as a child.

[Sonic_Reaper]

Except Alucard canonically defeated her.  By himself.

Uhm ... what does that have to do with anything?  Alucard's not the one being sacrificed here.  Besides, since Iga crapified Maria in the PSP SotN, I would definitely say Alucard's the strongest one of the two regardless.

Y'know, if you want to use gameplay mechanics to debate

So what the hale are you using to debate?  We know next to nothing about Maria besides her incredibly mysterious powers anyway.

we could just be arguing over why Dracula has never built a moat around his castle when the Achilles Heel of almost every single Belmont is seemingly their inability to swim.

Yeah--no.

A.  I'm using gameplay discussion that actually HAPPENED.
B.  Storyline-wise, what you're imagining would work better in Rondo.  Rondo Maria =/= SotN Maria.

[Super Waffle]

Uhm ... what does that have to do with anything?

Proves she isn't invincible.

So what the hale are you using to debate?

The fact that she isn't invincible in SotN and was already captured once in the past.  Those aren't gameplay mechanics, as they're script-based.

Yeah--no.

Yeah yeah.

If anything, SotN's canon events lean towards her powers actually weakening during her four years off.  The hero and villains alike don't constantly make mention of her superhuman powers like in Rondo any more.  Even the placement of some of the cutscenes seem to imply that her amazing abilities lie in craftfully avoiding the bosses instead of plowing through them, as Alucard is left to fight everything moments before/after meeting her again.

You're really overplaying the "making Richter invincible" part of the flashback, as well.  You seem to have forgotten that immediately after summoning the four spirits, she was completely exhausted and spent the remainder of the battle as dead weight.  Such a strategy isn't really going to be helpful for her in a direct confrontation.