Castlevania: Nocturne season 1 recap guide: All 8 episodes reviewed

Episode 3 – “Freedom Was Sweeter”

Drolta

my vampire wife

starts us off in this episode by branding vampires as they pledge themselves to the Devourer of Light, their Messiah Erzsebet. Not creepy at all, totally normal. Right?

We get a flashback into Annette’s really sad past. As a slave to a vampire – the vampire she spotted at the chateau, Comte de Vaublanc – in Sant-Domingue, she and her mother lived in fear. When Vaublanc finds out her mother is a witch, he destroys all their belongings and proceeds to break Annette’s mother’s neck right in front of her young eyes. Absolutely heartbreaking – which is something this show knows how to do very well. Nocturne as a whole is a much more emotional, darker tale than the original Castlevania series. It makes the protagonists a lot more relatable and human.

We then see how Annette figured out she had the power of Ogun – a powerful spirit connected to metal and stone – which allows her to conjure up swords and make things from any and all metal and stone nearby. It’s a pretty cool power that comes in handy very well. She runs away from her plantation and meets Edouard, who takes her in and makes her a part of his acquired family.

The slaves and runaways of Saint-Domingue decided to rebel against and attack their vampire masters, burning down the island. Annette tries to confront Vaublanc, but he turns into a bat and flies away like the coward he is. Everything changes when high priestess Cecile has a vision of this Messiah, claiming she will conquer Europe first and that she must be stopped. This is where Annette and Edouard decide to head to France and fight her.

Olrox and Mizrak meet and exchange spicy words. I love Olrox and his attitude. He asks Mizrak about the Abbot making night creatures and gets a small lecture about faith as well. Sparks definitely flew there as we saw these two beautiful men stare into each other’s eyes during their intense exchange. The fact a vampire so old and powerful as Olrox still fears or wants to stop Erzsebet is a testament to just how strong and scary she is, and we still don’t know much about her other than she likes to slowly feed on and kill her victims and that she wants to take over the world. Nocturne does a slightly better job at keeping the suspense going than its predecessor – and she’s a big part of this suspense.

The scene where the Abbot speaking to his followers intertwines with Annette encouraging the rebels in Machecoul was beautifully done and highlights the contrast between the vampires and rich folk’s fantasy world and the reality that the underprivileged and rebels had to face. The Abbot definitely gives me Claude Frollo vibes and I absolutely hate it, but they did a wonderful job pulling it off. An epic battle follows where we get to see disturbing night creatures attacking the town, with the Abbot telling his followers they’d be safe if they stayed in his church.

A sadly familiar face makes Annette freeze as she comes face to face with the night creature Edouard. He still has those beautiful glowing blue eyes, and he protects her from another night creature’s sneak attack before being carried away by his fellow monsters. With the night creatures taking him back to the abbey and Annette witnessing the fact he was turned into a monster, the dots are slowly being connected for our band of badass misfits and rebels.

Three episodes in, and there’s this observation: some viewers may think the show starts out without giving much information or background info on the whole vampire situation, but with three episodes in you get the clear picture that there was a period after Dracula died that created a vampire emergence and takeover. Dracula has not even been mentioned by anyone at this point. There’s nothing talking about him and his legacy or legends. Nothing familiar to viewers – though gamers may remember some premises from the plot in 1997’s Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. That’s the game Nocturne is a spinoff of. This fresh vampire story with literally no ties to Dracula is pretty neat, and it makes you wonder just how many more brutal vampires existed to make Dracula not even the most intimidating legend in this vampire world.