Topic: Death is the architect of Castlevania?

[TheouAegis]

 

So random thought just came to me the other day. I was watching Angry Video Game Nerd's episode where he plays through Dracula's Curse. One of his complaints was about the stages where the level auto-scrolls. I bug him that Trevor couldn't go below the bottom of the screen even though there was obviously ground underneath him. I was kind of boggled by this complaint, because these stages always made perfect sense to me - they are always in a tower and the tower is collapsing. In a sense we see this in other Castlevania games, where by the time you get to Dracula's keep the path to the keep is in ruins.

That wasn't a revelation for me.

The revelation came when I remember that all of the automatically scrolling vertical stages scroll up - except one; the last tower toward Dracula's keep after you defeat Death. All of the other towers collapse from the bottom, as if the foundation of the structure was being pulled down into Hell. So the bottom of the screen resulted in your death because you were being pulled into Hell as well. However the very last tower immediately after you defeat Death crumbles from the top down. It isn't getting sucked into Hell, nor is the foundation giving out; the whole tower is in essence dematerializing in the opposite way it was built. This suggested to me that Dracula's castle was actually created and controlled by the Grim Reaper himself. When you defeat Death, he is unable to further maintain the integrity of the castle, and so the part of the castle immediately after Death's chamber collapses from the top down. shortly after you defeat track of that, the rest of the castle collapses or falls into Hell or whatever. It didn't collapse because you defeated Dracula, it was already collapsing while you were fighting Dracula. Also, the game isn't called Dracula's castle, it is called Demon Castle.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Good point.

I think plottwist will have more to add on that.

[X]

It's an interesting theory, but I personally can't see it. The sections described that sink into the ground don't just happen within the castle itself. The outer tower where Frankenstein's monster dwells also has a segment that sinks, however the tower is still on the map as well as the tower that sinks in Dracula's castle. Nothing about those elements change. The only spots that change on the map are the ghost ship, the bridge connecting the clock tower to the castle itself, and the Greek ruins. Also I feel Death isn't the architect of the castle as his purpose is very straight-forward; a reaper of souls. That's his only purpose in existence. Especially since (according to LoI) Dracula was building up his power and had not yet faced his first death/defeat at the hands of a Belmont. Therefore Dracula brought fourth Castlevania as a testament of his dark power prior to CVIII.

If anything the segments are just a game mechanic and nothing to be looked into too deeply (Yeah I know, I'm guilty of that too  ).