Topic: All power pales next to the forces of Nature...

[EisaKrieger]

Sypha is right about some things.

...except for being so hardline against darkness and Cornell.  If a dark power destroys evil, is that not good?  If the supposed power of light destroys the good, is that not evil?

Anyway, the elements have many figurative and metaphorical qualities and meanings, though I've been working with them in some quite literal ways here

[X]

...except for being so hardline against darkness and Cornell.  If a dark power destroys evil, is that not good?  If the supposed power of light destroys the good, is that not evil?

That's pretty much how it goes when it comes to us. It's up to the user of said power to decide if it is good or evil. Soma used his dark powers for the good of humanity so there is one example of that kind of decision. Although I'd think Sypha would be lot smarter then how the Judgement story had portrayed her character. But why should I expect any different from a game that skewed our favorite CV characters?

[EisaKrieger]

We have a quite a dilemma that Judgment gives a voice and some dialog to characters we haven't heard that much from before, but at the same time it lacks depth and goes in some annoying directions.  It seems Sypha resents the creatures of darkness for her fellow witches being persecuted by the church so she wants to distinguish her kind from them but to the point of being unreasonable.  We don't have to accept Judgment's stories as the Castlevania's main storyline anyway of course.

[X]

Pretty much since the game is it's own separate continuity and has almost nothing to do with the old cannon or the LoS cannon.

[Claimh Solais]

The only real ones I accept as accurate representations of the characters (well, to me anyway) are Simon, Death, and Dracula. The latter two pretty much because it's accurate to how they appear in other games in the series. And Simon, well... That's pretty much how I always pictured Simon. Not the whole "omg am i really more than just this whip" crap, the more... well, brash and reckless "kick ass, ask questions later" type of guy.

Oh yeah, and Alucard and Shanoa. Because they're pretty much the same as the other games portrayed them.

Trevor just annoyed me in the game, Sypha was unreasonable, and Grant was ALMOST perfect, except for the fact that he's being driven by love is... well, TOO damn cliche. The whole love triangle between these three was pretty... Well, awful, to say the least.

Something about Cornell just wasn't right, Carmilla was more Elizabeth Bathory than Carmilla. Eric Lecarde, well... okay, maybe I can buy that, what with him being young and everything.

Maria.

...We don't talk about Maria.

[K.K. Drunkinski]

Carmilla was more Elizabeth Bathory than Carmilla.

I found nothing wrong with how Carmilla was portrayed, especially in regards to making her like Countess Bathory. After all, when Sheridan LeFanu created the character of Carmilla in the 1800s, the character was clearly influenced by Bathory. She was a "Countess," well before Bram Stoker made Dracula a "Count," and she sleeps in a coffin that is literally full of blood. She sleeps floating in it pretty much, as a nod to Bathory's bathing in blood.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Actually, THAT Sypha is a very young, brash, and heavily idealistic one.
As Trevor points out, this is waaaaaaay before they had even met.

Remember, the Sypha from Judgment is from the past, from before the Church sends her in her covert mission to the Wallachian countryside.
You know, that mission in which she failed and got Petrified for an undisclosed period of time.
It is possible that, while standing there in the Cyclops's collection for who-knows-how-long, she has had time to think about many things.

It is also possible that in the time between the events of Judgment and the events leading up to Castlevania III, she matured her stance on many aspects of her life.

The way Sypha speaks to Trevor, whether you choose to accept or reject her offer to help, is very polite, and even kind-hearted.  Her words don't have the edge they had when she was a young annoying Knight Templar.

In her CVIII ending, the game states that she 'has had a bad life but is beginning to feel more comfortable with herself'.  It's possible that this has the added effect of taking that edge off of her old ideals and she's become less black-and-white about things, including other supernatural forces which may or may not be evil.

It's possible that, if the CVIII canon is meant to be believed, and they ALL saved the countryside together, that her brief time spent with Alucard, a creature of Darkness, helped to change her stance.

[EisaKrieger]

Good points.

I haven't seen her true ending for beating the Time Reaper yet, so I wonder if that ties it better to her character development in CvIII that's later in her timeline.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Here's the ending for Sypha's TrueStory Mode, with Spoilers for those who don't wanna read it:

(click to show/hide)

Thus, the rift in time was mended,
and all were returned to their
respective eras.

Sypha Belnades returned to battle
as a hunter for the Church.

Years later, a powerful vampire
appeared calling himseld Dracula.
The Church wasted no time in
arranging a hunting party.

Sypha would travel to a land
well known for its fear of witches.
Only a few months earlier, a young
woman had been killed there on
suspicion of witchcraft.

To protect herself, Sypha decided
she would enter the battle
in disguise, as a man...

[EisaKrieger]

I think that might be pretty close to the initial ending with just a couple beginning paragraphs added.