Topic: Is Castlevania and Vampire Hunter D linked?

[Zydalc]

Could it be possible that Vampire Hunter D exactly takes place in the same universe as Castlevania in a far future setting or rather maybe as a alternative timeline?

Now the point being that we all know that in Castlevania's timeline, Dracula was killed off for real in 1999 but you know else what happened in 1999 in Vampire Hunter D's timeline? Nuclear War that wiped out human civilization (assuming that Dracula was behind it or started it) prompting Vampires to take over to create the Nobility as seen in the films.

Now is it possible that Vampire Hunter D is actually a timeline where they failed to kill Dracula therefore allowing him to conquer the world whilst the official timeline where he was finally killed off for real is the ones with the Aria and Dawn of Sorrow?

This is something worth thinking about especially 1999 is suspiciously placed in the same timelines which makes you wonder....

As for D and Alucard, it's safe to assume that they might be the same person but it could be possible that Alucard died long ago and D is Dracula's new son (probably based on his previous son Alucard) sired from Mina the Fair or maybe it might be possible that Alucard might be still alive but in Torpor though which it would be fascinating if D and Alucard met face to face.

[X]

Could it be possible that Vampire Hunter D exactly takes place in the same universe as Castlevania in a far future setting or rather maybe as a alternative timeline?

Possibly in an alternate timeline, but then it begs the question; Where are the Belmonts, and what happened for them not to appear? Maybe the war wiped them out although that is a slim possibility as they had relatives all over the world at that point. Some could suggest that the vampire hunter Deloris could be a descendant as she wields a whip (though it is not the vampirekiller and it resembles Tigra's whip from Thundercats), but I would argue against such claims as she failed to take down Count Lee whom is nowhere near as powerful or as mighty as Dracula was, whereas a Belmont would have no real trouble.

[Dracula9]

seconding the alt timeline notion, because the first novel explicitly states that vampires had an entire underground society in place for when humanity nuked itself to rebuild society and rule

also dracula is explicitly stated to still be alive, and has reached literal cosmic deity levels of power

neither of those are really fitting in the standard timeline, since lesser vampires don't really get any mention and what mentions we do see don't give the impression that they're all unified (carmilla is devoted strictly to dracula, bartley as well, olrox wants to usurp dracula, and brauner was the starving artist in the corner by himself trying to rez who he thought were his dead kids)

not to mention CV dracula absolutely loathes humanity and has a whopping total of one human woman he got it on with after he became undead--VHD dracula seems much less hateful towards humans and made it a point of impregnating as many human women as possible (meaning countless given his status as a cosmic force) to try and darwin his way to a species hybrid that lacked vampiric shortcomings

not to mention the whole "transient guests" thing

VHD dracula has far greater ambitions given the things he prioritizes and tries to accomplish, and is seeing farther ahead into the future with his plans than the "fuck humans, i'm gonna rule shit and kill everything" mentality CV drac has

now, you write an alt timeline and it can kinda fit--but you'd have to do such a drastic rewrite of CV dracula's character to get him to the point of mindset that sacred ancestor dracula has, global vampire society and their unification and dispersal, human-monster relations, and the inclusion/exclusion of religious elements, that it wouldn't really even BE a castlevania universe anymore

[TatteredSeraph]

There definitely are links, with VHD it seems being an inspiration point for Alucard.  However, like D9 has said, you'd have to rewrite so much of the CV universe to fit that it would barely resemble CV any more.  I've seen a few interesting crossover fics which have D and Alucard as half brothers, with Al having been caught in torpor in most.  One series, by Kitt Chaos, has it that they're half brothers from different dimensions, with the 'cosmic deity' figure that is Dracula hopping between dimensions.

[Inccubus]

"Inspired by" is the only real link there.
An alt timeline could work, but I disagree that a huge rewrite is needed.
Dracula's attitudes can change and they do at times throughout the CV games.
CV Drac is definitely a bit of a slave to his own powers. Maybe seeing the world turned to ash at the hands of humanity itself could have sparked a deep change in his outlook. Meeting Lisa certainly did for a while.

[zangetsu468]

I don't think the universes connect, necessarily. 1999 was a popular year to base things I being the turn of the century and millenium, as well as the occult significance of the 9's turned upside down.

D is similar to Alucard but there are inherent differences, his hand for one thing.

Dolo res' father is said to be a "Werewolf hunter" which doesn't exactly fit the profile. However, if it was part of someone's headcanon, I suppose they could argue Doris' line was an offshoot of the Belmonts who would've somehow survived the nuclear war.

It's too much of a stretch imo.

[Dracula9]

imo it would really only work best if it was just a little nod to the other, kinda like how rosario vampire has a little nod to CV with a magic whip, called "belmont", that was used by a legendary monster hunter (exposition complete with redraw of CV1 cover art)--and that's it

no "the belmont family still exists", no "it was used to kill dracula a bunch" (which is appropriate since he's a major antagonist in the final arcs of the series and, well, it just wouldn't do to canonize the events of CV when he has his own in-universe backstory that needs to be in place), nothing saying the universes are linked beyond "yeah here's this legendary whip that came from a hunter dude"--as if to suggest that maybe in their universe the events of CV are merely embellishments of the original tales of the monster hunter that got blown out of proportion over time



and this is more or less the best way to have little nods and references without stretching them so thin they become nonsense

[X]

I remember reading that chapter, lol.

[gallandryal]

It could work just if they retconed A LOT of things, in a world that Dracula extinguished the Belmonts but for whatever reason gave up killing humanity, and Alucard is dead. 

Alucard characterization took inspiration from D, but they are very different in a lot of aspects. Also how the world fuction in both worlds is not the same.