Exactly what is says on the tin.
After heated arguments over here at the Dungeon and with a friend, I decided to call for a collective use of our grey-matter to list EVERY contradiction Castlevania has against reality, and plot-holes inside the game world itself -- retcons NOT withstanding, such as Alucard's soul having been sold to the devil by Dracula, resulting on him turning into a vampire. Lisa being human and Dracula being a vampire long before CVIII are the reason why Alucard is half-vampire, nowadays. Welcome contradictions are those who went by unresolved by any writer.
I'll start with the obvious one, and add up to this list as people post. My objective is to create an easy to access compendium of these so we can MAYBE create a Castlevania-wiki page for quick review. Here I go:
Real-world contradictions:
-Lament of Innocence says Leon was fighting for the Church in the Crusades before 1094. Yet, the involvement of the Church on those battles starting with the First Crusade didn't happen until 1096. Important to point out is that a Crusade is not any skirmish or holy war against turks or muslims or anyone else, but battles specifically sanctioned by the Pope where the warriors are mostly christians. As the pope would claim, "a battle on behalf of Christ." Battles not sanctioned by a Pope are not Crusades. So, while there were battles leading to the Crusades before 1096, they were not Crusades since there was no official sanction of the Church (something Leon was after, as the intro of Lament clarifies, but was denied).
-In Castlevania 64/Legacy of Darkness which takes place in 1844, there are skeletons riding motorcycles and a portable gardening chainsaw wielded by a creature called "Gardener". Motorcycles weren't invented until 1885, and according to Wikipedia, gardening chainsaws were not invented until 1918.
-Several food items in SotN are not historically accurate, being inexistent in the forms they appear in the game for many years, such as Pizza and Hamburger.
-In Aria of Sorrow, the Positron Rifle says it fires "Positive electrons", something impossible as protons are always positive and electrons are always negative. A positron is not a "positive electron" but an antimatter counterpart of the electron.
In-game contradictions:
-Dracula's revival cycle is stated to take 100 years. Yet Dracula has been revived numerous times in much less time than that.
-In SotN, Death is able to steal Alucard's equipment once, as a way to discourage him from pressing on. When Alucard finally fights Death, no explanation is given to why Death can't steal from Alucard again.
-Dracula wants to destroy humans, yet the enemies inside the castle are positioned from weaker to stronger, and the castle being a creature of chaos, takes on a shape that allows the hero to find his way up to Dracula instead of locking all the doors and placing the keys somewhere the hero can't reach it.
Also, "Dracula was a vampire while real Vlad III wasn't" isn't the type of contradiction I'm looking for. I'm looking more for historical issues that don't relate to the fantasy-elements invented for the Castlevania stories.
C'mon Scholar. I know you're DYING to post here.
Okay these are retcons but Power of Sire and the Portrait in RoB clearly being Vlad III despite Iga's timeline stating Mathias changing his name to Vlad Tepes (which doesn't contradict SOTN or its manual) and hence my reasoning for him either assuming the figure of Vlad/ taking his throne eventually. (Shapeshifty bastard he was)
Nostradamus not predicting a solar eclipse in 2035 to my knowledge.
Positron Rifle firing positive electrons? Is that even possible?
I added the LoD one, and the in-game contradiction of the 100 years rule (though I remember reading somewhere that Igarashi interpreted this rule differently. If I find the source, I'll bring it here.)
About Nostradamus: It's not mentioned that he made the 2035 prophecy. In fact, going by the ending of Judgment, it's implied that the prophecy was made AFTER Dracula's downfall:
"Then prophecy became reality. Using a solar eclipse, Alucard succeeded in breaking Dracula's endless cycle of resurrection.
But then came a new prophecy... "In 2035, during a solar eclipse, a castle will arise in Japan..."
So Alucard infiltrated a top-secret Japanese government agency, and resumed his vigil..."
So, while this could only mean that the prophecy was interpreted and not made at this date, it still doesn't attribute it to Nostradamus.
Positron Rifle I don't know the answer. If someone could provide the science we need, please? EDIT: OK identified the issue with this one.
The painting of Dracula is indeed retcon, but you reminded me of the food items present in Castlevania SotN that weren't even real at the time.
With Nostradamus though I meant that he didn't make that prophecy in real life. Or did he?
Uh oh, yes, he didn't. Unless IGA had something up his sleeve, I don't believe so. I mean, I don't know of any Nostradamus prophecy mentioning 2035 in an eclipse, power inheriting or Dracula context. There are some interpreted to take place in 2035, but they don't speak of any of these things, not even in interpretations.
There is a VERY interesting one saying that a third antichrist will be born to poor parents in western Europe in 2035:
From deep in the Western part of Europe
A child will be born, to poor parents
He will seduce the multitude with his Tongue
The noise of his reputation will grow in the Eastern kingdom.
But we know very well that neither Soma nor Graham were born in 2035. But I'll say this one would fit Graham's "cult building" skills.
To be honest, his 2036 prophecy sounds ONE HELL OF A LOT like what takes place in Dawn of Sorrow:
A great King falls into the hands of a youngster
There is confusion around Easter time,
and a knife-blow
Long-captives, and St Elmo’s Fire
When three brothers wound and kill each other.
I mean, I could interpret "three brothers wounding and killing each other" as the Dark Lord Candidates ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. Knife blow? Dmitrii. King falling in the hands of a youngster? Soma in the hands of Celia (she's not even that old).
The wiki says he predicted the 2035 event, but there is not a single source for that, the prophecy is never atributed to Nostradamus, and Judgment seems to actually contradict it.