Topic: Stop Watch Theory

[Sindra]

The Stop Watch - in terms of being a logical weapon to be used against vampires and the forces of darkness, it is the odd-man out. Axe and knife? Cutting and melee weaponry. Holy Water, Bible and Cross? Staple holy relics against vampires. (the Cross having the duel effect of being a holy symbol *and* a boomerang) Garlic is a well-known potent ward against vampires, and even the laurel has history in the bible for being associated with peace and the resurrection of Christ.

So where the heck does the stop watch come into play? Surely when grouped together with the aforementioned weapons in a vampire hunter's arsenal, it would cause anyone else to think it a useless and insane addition. How is a common stop watch going to defeat the demonic hordes of Dracula? It has no holy connotations and certainly no use as a weapon.

In the Castlevania Universe, the Stop Watch has been used as a tool to slow down or even stop the flow of time temporarily in a specific area without affecting the user. This, obviously, increases its use as an effective part of a hunter's arsenal dramatically - making it possible to slow down or stop enemies and traps altogether, therefore allowing the user to bypass obstacles or inflict increased damage without having to worry about constant attack.

However, only the Belmonts and their allies had the ability to influence time and use it as an effective weapon against enemies. (with the exception of time-manipulative demons - something I'll get to in a moment) The stop watch relic was simply a tool they almost always had. Right? But how were they able to use a stop watch in such a fashion, and nobody else was? Did they have something others didn't?

In Curse of Darkness, we are introduced to Saint Germaine - a time traveler who has been keeping tabs on the events of the Belmont clan's fight against Dracula. In his appearances through the game, he talks in an ambiguous way of destiny and how events are to unfold for the proper future to come about. He is later referenced by Aeon in Judgment as being a member of a group of time-travelers. Both characters directly interfere with the events in history with the implied intent of keeping the timestream as it should be. With that being said, it can be theorized that this group have marked interest in the Belmonts and those associated with them, more than likely because of the heavy influence they have in history.

That being said, my theory is that these same time-travelers (maybe even Germaine or Aeon themselves) were directly or indirectly the ones that gifted the Belmonts with a Stop Watch (or perhaps more than one) that had the ability to influence timeflow.

But why? Dracula doesn't have the ability to influence time, nor do any vampires we have encountered yet. In the Vampire Hunter D novels (something I hold so close to the Castlevania universe that they could practically be the same if different events occurred), it is said that vampires never had the ability to master time. They could manipulate space through science and magic, but mastery over time was something they could never achieve. (perhaps due to it being the domain of the time-travelers) Thus far, this same thing could hold true to the Castlevania side of things. However, Dracula and his sorcerers could summon other creatures and demons who DID have time-manipulating abilities, and that would be something the Belmont's couldn't counter against by themselves.

Therefore, we have the subtle interference of the time-travelers, and the appearance of the stop watch as we know it in the games. Is it coincidence that Trevor was the first Belmont chronologically to have the stop watch as a part of his arsenal in Dracula's Curse, then 3 years later we have Saint Germaine pop up? Maybe, but considering that's the first and only time we've seen him in hundreds of years and the two events happen with 3 years of each other, it's certainly not out of the question.

So, in the interest of not overloading anyone with text-poisoning, I'll end it with that. I encourage (intelligent) discussion on the matter. Chances are, this won't be my only over-reaching theory on matters of the Castlevania-verse.

[Vampire Killer]

I think it's just a videogame thing, but your theory is certainly well thought out and highly likely if something like an explanation of the stop watch were ever needed.

[crisis]

You forgot to mention Galamoth, a creature with the potential ability to control time itself. In Aria, Soma gains the Galamoth soul which allows him to "view past areas blocked by time." He also has a grudge against Dracula, but for what purpose? Is it because prior to CVIII, a young Dracula encountered Galamoth & defeated him? Maybe the Stop Watch was originally a relic from one of Galamoth's minions.

If Judgment 2 is ever made, this may shed more light on the matter, since Galamoth still exists 10,000 years in the future despite being defeated in 1797.

[Ahasverus]

All I see is plot holes and inconsistences brought by random addition of concepts in the CV lore. Nothing to make a drama about

[Dominus]

All I see is plot holes and inconsistences brought by random addition of concepts in the CV lore. Nothing to make a drama about

I wonder if that would be your answer if LoS had the watch as a subweapon. Anyway excelent theory  Sindra, very plausible

[Sindra]

I wasn't "making drama" at all. These are theories with the idea of trying to piece together several of those inconsistencies you mentioned.

Crisis - The Galamoth aspect of things could tie into the time-traveler's interests in Dracula, which in turn is reflected in their interests in the Belmonts. Both have huge impacts on history. It would be interesting if a game came into being that explained how Dracula rose to the powet he had amassed by Dracula's Curse, which could be used to explain ties to Galamoth. Yet another reason the Belmont's needed the help with the use of the stop watch - going up against Galamoth would require their own use of time-manipulation, and going up against Dracula would mean Dracula had equal-or-greater power than Galamoth (able to defeat him), in which the Belmont's would more than likely still require time-manipulating abilities to have an even keel.

Dominus - Thank you.

[whitedragon_nall]

Nice theory! You make a lot of interesting points.

Legends had a time stopping ability too....Sonia's wind soul weapon, if I remember correctly. The game isn't cannon anymore and it doesn't seem to fit in with your theory either, but I thought I should mention it.

[Ahasverus]

I wonder if that would be your answer if LoS had the watch as a subweapon. Anyway excelent theory  Sindra, very plausible

They would explain it so we wouldn't make theories, the developers are the ones to give us answers in the first place.

Your theory is good and it makes sense, but it just adds to my theory that it's ourselves with these kind of thoughts who make the story interesting and compelling, the developers just DON'T CARE  

Hope they somehow read this though

[X]

Very good theory there Sindra! A good read in my book as the stopwatch does seem to be the 'odd man out' in the sub-weapons category. But personally I will never consider CoD to be CV cannon due to its many useless IGA elements (St. Germaine being one of them) and Dracula being defeated by a non-Belmont  Overall a good read.

-X

[Sindra]

Very good theory there Sindra! A good read in my book as the stopwatch does seem to be the 'odd man out' in the sub-weapons category. But personally I will never consider CoD to be CV cannon due to its many useless IGA elements (St. Germaine being one of them) and Dracula being defeated by a non-Belmont  Overall a good read.

-X

By that logic then, you don't consider Symphony of the Night, Legacy of Darkness, Circle of the Moon, or Order of Ecclesia to be canon either?

I'll admit, there's some things thrown into the "history' of Castlevania lore that just seems inane or illogical. I try to wrap my head around alot of it or make sense of it all, but sometimes it just simply won't work. At least for this topic, some of those things I originally thought were useless additions could actually serve as loose ties to other points in other games. How the hell else do you explain how a magic Stop Watch just happens to be a part of the Belmont arsenal without the time-travelers being involved? Just because? (though I'll admit, that seems to be the only reason alot of shyte was put *into* the series in the first place by developers)

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I always thought it was interesting that in CV3, the Pocket Watch was the only subweapon that every hero could use (even Alucard, and he was mostly a SubWeapon-less hero).
It seems to transcend 'holy' powers, to the point in which it is powerful even though it doesn't have any 'magical' abilities.

Perhaps that subweapon is being retroactively placed from a time in the future, and going all the way back to their first installations.  Aeon's TimeBlade seems to have this power, and it seems like a large version of the watch.

[TheouAegis]

Was the Stopwatch effective against any of the bosses? I don't remember ever using it against a boss. I know Holy Water was effin' overpowered in CV3. Skeleton Soldier: 2 hits. Cyclops: 2 hits. Grant: 2 hits. Mummy: 2 hits each. Medusa: 2 hits. Franken: 2 hits. Doppelganger: 2 hits. Only that big demon and Dracula took multiple hits of Holy Water to defeat. But i don't think the Pocket Watch ever worked on bosses.

[X]

By that logic then, you don't consider Symphony of the Night, Legacy of Darkness, Circle of the Moon, or Order of Ecclesia to be canon either?

All of the above were better then CoD. St. Germaine didn't add any real substance to the story and Hector was just another wannabe who was able to kill Dracula  I would've preferred it if all the original CV3 cast were in the game rather then a bunch newbies who know body knows. Even though OoE doesn't have a Belmont as the lead role, at least they gave the lead to a woman rather then sticking to the stereotype.

But back to the topic at hand. TheouAegis. To answer your question: The stopwatch was effective against the first two bosses of the original Castlevania (NES). In other words the Phantom Bat and Medusa. It made killing them a lot easier. But after that it was useless except on the minor enemies and Death's sickles.

-X

[Koutei]

Poltergeist King's Magical Power
But It's Not IGA's Canon

lol

[Chernabogue]

Very good idea, Sindra!

In Judgment, Aeon says to Dracula: 'You may be the immortal Lord of Darkness, but you can't manipulate time.' (or something like that) It does confirm that Dracula, and as a consequence, Vampires in general can't manipulate time. (but it had been already said, whatever)

It could be a gift from Time Travellers, since they may/do help people (cf. St. Germain in CoD, wou tries to help Hector). It might even be Aeon or St. Germain that put Stop Watches in Castlevania, since they don't like Death (like Zead - cf. CoD again).

Then Galamoth. We don't know enough things about it/him to affirm things, but he is certainely a foe of Time Travellers (cf. Judgment, in which Aeon wants to fight him with the elp of the best character).

The Timemaster Rabbit in AoS has a watch too, and manipulates time. It is said he's friend with Zephir from DoS too, a creature that can control time. Maybe Zephir is a former member of Aeon's and St Germain's Brotherhood of Time (lolol) that went bad but could still use time.