Topic: Leon killing Sara

[Scarlet starlet]

It was such a disappointing moment in my opinion. Because Sara still was an innocent person when Leon striked her, which makes the latter a murderer. With Rinaldo clearly manipulating him into doing it to unlock the alchemy whip true power ("you are dishonoring youself!", he says).
It makes the entire Belmont dynasty founded on killing an innocent person who wasn't even a vampire yet which isn't something I really like.
But the real problem is that other games like Portrait of Ruin and Legacy of Darkness showed us that vampires CAN be saved (via a spell, like Stella/Loretta/the monk, or via divine grace like Rosa).
Also nowhere it is stated that a turned vampire in Castlevania is always 100% evil. Rosa was fighting against it all the time, and I'm sure the whole Sara situation could have been handled differently by the writers.

Sara should have simply became a vampire, then turn against Leon. Then in-battle at some point she would have struggled against her newfound evil nature and let herself be struck. Then Rinaldo cutscene with the blood pact. Sara dies and the whip is made. There are 100 other ways to write this plot point without forcing Leon to become a murderer.

[whipsmemory]

For the Vampire Killer to be made, a WILLING vampire soul with a connection strong enough to enter a blood pact with the other party is required "You need a tainted soul, one that trusts you and one that you can trust". That's what makes the chances of creating the Vampire Killer at that precise moment so extremely unique. Sara is already tainted, and she's willing to give up her own tainted life to save others. The old Christian tale of the innocent soul sacrificing willingly to save humanity, kinda. Had Leon waited for the vampirism to take over, the blood covenant couldn't be made anymore. Afterall, even tho Rinaldo slain his own daughter turned vampire, that didn't make the Vampire Killer. About Sanctuary, it surely isn't a thing by the era Lament of Innocence is set, if we are to take Awakening Under the Moonlight as canon (which I like to do), the medicine won't be made by Lisa until the age she was sentenced to death kicking off the events of Dracula's Curse. If we don't want to consider this bit of lore from the Takarazuka Act, we can't really tell who and when made Sanctuary.

The 64 games on the other hand are their own thing, so idk. The whip isn't even the same one, probably, nor there's been a Sara or Leon in the first place

[K.G. Morder]

A vampire being 100% evil is a very common trope. And pretty sure castlevania follows it and has always. With Alucard always being the exception.

At the very least, she would become enthralled to Walter.

As for *liking* it, that's a different story. It's no better or sillier proposition than the castlevania 3 origin for the whip

[Scarlet starlet]

For the Vampire Killer to be made, a WILLING vampire soul with a connection strong enough to enter a blood pact with the other party is required "You need a tainted soul, one that trusts you and one that you can trust". That's what makes the chances of creating the Vampire Killer at that precise moment so extremely unique. Sara is already tainted, and she's willing to give up her own tainted life to save others. The old Christian tale of the innocent soul sacrificing willingly to save humanity, kinda. Had Leon waited for the vampirism to take over, the blood covenant couldn't be made anymore. Afterall, even tho Rinaldo slain his own daughter turned vampire, that didn't make the Vampire Killer. About Sanctuary, it surely isn't a thing by the era Lament of Innocence is set, if we are to take Awakening Under the Moonlight as canon (which I like to do), the medicine won't be made by Lisa until the age she was sentenced to death kicking off the events of Dracula's Curse. If we don't want to consider this bit of lore from the Takarazuka Act, we can't really tell who and when made Sanctuary.

The 64 games on the other hand are their own thing, so idk. The whip isn't even the same one, probably, nor there's been a Sara or Leon in the first place

My suggestion was that Leon could have acted in self-defense with Sara finding clarity just before her death, which would make the blood pact still possible.

[Scarlet starlet]

A vampire being 100% evil is a very common trope. And pretty sure castlevania follows it and has always. With Alucard always being the exception.

At the very least, she would become enthralled to Walter.

As for *liking* it, that's a different story. It's no better or sillier proposition than the castlevania 3 origin for the whip

But at the end of the day Castlevania is a bread and butter Good Always Wins story.
Grant and Alucard were turned into evil abominations, but they found salvation anyway.
Sara dying of course is a plot device and necessary, but still feels off due to the awful execution. The way it was done it's an assisted suicide done for science and for "the greater good". Such a relativist take doesn't fit with Castlevania at all.

[whipsmemory]

My suggestion was that Leon could have acted in self-defense with Sara finding clarity just before her death, which would make the blood pact still possible.

I get it, but I think that would have been too "fragile" of a moment to make it work, not to mention Rinaldo would need to be present at that time because the covenant was possible because of his skills of as an alchemist, he made the Vampire Killer possible. But beside that, I think the way they made it happen makes it much more dramatic overall, making it a "oh, i'm myself again, strike me now!" wouldn't have had as much narrative power

[Scarlet starlet]

making it a "oh, i'm myself again, strike me now!" wouldn't have had as much narrative power

I think it would have had much more pathos than Rinaldo's "c'mon bro get that juicy power-up", but to each his own.
I totally not cried when Reinhardt gave the last rites to Rosa

[Lumi Kløvstad]

For the Vampire Killer to be made, a WILLING vampire soul with a connection strong enough to enter a blood pact with the other party is required "You need a tainted soul, one that trusts you and one that you can trust". That's what makes the chances of creating the Vampire Killer at that precise moment so extremely unique. Sara is already tainted, and she's willing to give up her own tainted life to save others. The old Christian tale of the innocent soul sacrificing willingly to save humanity, kinda. Had Leon waited for the vampirism to take over, the blood covenant couldn't be made anymore. Afterall, even tho Rinaldo slain his own daughter turned vampire, that didn't make the Vampire Killer. About Sanctuary, it surely isn't a thing by the era Lament of Innocence is set, if we are to take Awakening Under the Moonlight as canon (which I like to do), the medicine won't be made by Lisa until the age she was sentenced to death kicking off the events of Dracula's Curse. If we don't want to consider this bit of lore from the Takarazuka Act, we can't really tell who and when made Sanctuary.

The 64 games on the other hand are their own thing, so idk. The whip isn't even the same one, probably, nor there's been a Sara or Leon in the first place

Reinhardt Schneider DOES wield the Vampire Killer, but as you noted, the N64 Games were never intended or supposed to fit into any kind of "organized canon". So other than Dracula being vulnerable to it, we don't really know how similar Reinhardt's VK is to Simon's.